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Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Enrollment and Demand for Theory and Methods of Taxation. Durand, 1902-1903

Edward Dana Durand

 

Edward Dana Durand taught at Harvard for only two semesters, he also taught at Stanford for three semesters and later at the University of Minnesota for four years. The rest of his long career was in government service. This post adds the final exam questions from his taxation course taught at Harvard..

Bonus material regarding Durand’s biographical record has been added. He was not a big name in the history of economics, but definitely someone who added significantly to historical government economic statistics. His long years as a U.S. Tariff Commissioner also make him of interest to historians of economic policy.

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Papers of Edward Dana Durand

Given his long professional association with Herbert Hoover, it is appropriate that Durand’s papers are kept at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa.

Archival Tip: Microfilm MF-65/3. Memoirs of Edward Dana Durand, 1954 (438 pages).

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Edward Dana Durand
Timeline

1871. Born October 18 in Romeo, Michigan. Lived there about eleven years.

Ca. 1882. Family moved to Huron, South Dakota where he graduated from high-school.

Freshman year at Yankton College (South Dakota).

1893. A.B., Oberlin College.

1893. Summer. Stenographer to the Secretary of the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago.

1896. Political and municipal legislation in 1895. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 7  (May 1896), p. 411-425.

1896. June, awarded  Ph.D. (assistant to J. W. Jenks. Other instructors of Durand: C. H. Hull,  Walter F. Willcox) from Cornell University. Thesis: “Finances of New York City.”

1896. Political and municipal legislation in 1896. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 9 (March, 1897), pp. 231-245.

1896-97. Legislative librarian, New York State Library at Albany.

1897. Student, University of Berlin. Quit his studies there to take the job at Stanford.

1898-1899. Assistant Professor of Political Economy and Finance at Stanford University. [added to faculty in spring 1897, “began duty” spring term 1898] Courses taught: elementary economics, practical economic questions (e.g. labor movement, labor legislation, corporations, trusts), economic history, socialism and social control, money and banking, public finance, politics and administration, municipal government.

1898. Political and municipal legislation in 1897. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,  Vol. 11 (March, 1898), pp. 174-190.

1899. E. Dana Durand. “Council Government versus Mayor Government,” Political Science Quarterly. Vol. 15, Nos. 3 and 4.

1899-1902. On leave from Stanford to work in Washington, D.C.

1899-1902. Editor for the federal Industrial Commission that produced a report of nineteen volumes. [ Links to all 19 volumes can be found in the following two catalog pages at hathitrust.org: all but vols. 1 and 10 here; vols. 1 and 10 (and 12 other volumes) found here.]

1900. Durand prepared “Topical digest of evidence” in the Industrial Commission’s Preliminary report on trusts and industrial combinations. (In Vol. I of the Commission’s Reports). One of authors of the “Report on labor legislation” (Vol. 5). Washington: 1900.

1902-03. Taught courses on the labor question, problems of industrial organization and theories and methods of taxation at Harvard in the second term of the 1901-02 academic year (see link immediately following)  and in the first term of 1902-03.

Harvard. Exams for labor economics and industrial organization. Durand, 1902

1903. Married Mary Elizabeth Bennett (1871-1943) in New York City on July 15. Three sons and a daughter. (They compiled a Bennett Family History, 1941)

1903. Special Examiner for about four months before being called to the newly created Bureau of Corporations [forerunner of Federal Trade Commission] as Special Examiner.

Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. Street and Electric Railways 1902. Washington, 1905. Text prepared by T. Commerford and E. Dana Durand.

Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Beef Industry. Washington, March 3, 1905.
“As Deputy Commissioner of Corporations he gained experience with the report on the Beef Trust, for which report he was chiefly responsible.” [Garfield report]

1904. Recent tendencies in economic legislation. Yale Review, Vol. 12 (Feb., 1904), pp. 409-428.

1905. The beef industry and the government investigation. American Monthly Review of Reviews, Vol. 31 (Apr., 1905), pp. 464-471.

1907-09. Deputy Commissioner of Corporations.

1907. Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Petroleum Industry. Part I, Position of the Standard Oil Company in the Petroleum Industry (May 20, 1907); Part II, Prices and Profits (Aug. 5, 1907).

1909-1913. Director of the Census Bureau (appointed June 16, 1909; resigned June 30, 1913).

1910. Thirteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1910.

1913-1917. Professor of Statistics, taught ‘descriptive’ economics, agricultural economics, and statistics at the University of Minnesota. On leave October 1917-1921.

1915. Published The Trust Problem. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

1915. President of the American Statistical Association.

1915. Assessments of Railroads in North Dakota, Report to the North Dakota Tax Commission.

1916. Bulletins from the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Minnesota.

Coöperative Livestock Shipping Associations in Minnesota. Bulletin 156, February 1916.
Farmers’ Elevators in Minnesota, 1914-1915 (with J. P. Jensen). Bulletin 164, October 1916.

1917. Bulletins from the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Minnesota.

Coöperative Creameries and Cheese Factories in Minnesota, 1914 (with Frank Robotic). Bulletin 166, March 1917.
Coöperative Buying by Farmers’ Clubs in Minnesota (with H. B. Price). Bulletin 167, June 1917.
Coöperative Stores in Minnesota, 1914. Bulletin 171, October 1917.

1917-18. Assistant head of the meat division, Food Administration. Charged by a commission merchant of Chicago with settting prices on the behalf of meat packers. Statement  before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry,  March 21, 1918. (Hearings on Government Control of Meat-Packing Industry) pp. 1661-1676.  The agricultural committee refused to press charges after the investigation.

1918-1919. From May 1 through February 15 in England. From February 15 to July 20 in France.

1919. Resigned professorship at Minnesota and leaves the Food Administration position to represent the Hoover relief Commission in Warsaw and advise the Polish Ministry of Food (leaving France July 20).

1921. Arrived in New York on July 21, returning from Poland.

1921. August. Appointed chief of the newly created eastern European division of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce by Secretary Hoover.

1922. Public finance of Poland. Trade Information Bulletin, No. 32 (June 19 1922). Supplement to Commerce Reports published by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, U. S. Department of Commerce.

1924-30. Chief of the Division of Statistics and Research in the Department of Commerce.

1926. Economic and political effects of governmental interference with the free international movement of raw materials. Paper in International Conciliation, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Number 226 (January 1927), pp. 25-34. (Reprinted from Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol. 12, No. 1 (July, 1926), pp. 135-144).

1928. November. Headed the American delegation at the 1928 International Conference on Economic Statistics.

1929. Free and dutiable imports of the United States in the calendar year 1927. Trade Information Bulletin, no. 626 (1929).

1930. American Industry and Commerce. Boston: Ginn and Company. Durand identified as “Statistical Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce” on the title page.

1930-35. Chief economist for the Tariff Commission. In October 1930, it was announced that he was to take charge of the commission’s statistical work.

1935 to June 1952. Appointment annouced in December 1935 by FDR to fill the Republican vacancy on the Tariff Commission. Durand replaced John Lee Coulter of North Dakota.

1960. Died January 6 in Washington, D.C.

Sources: K. Pribram, “Edward Dana Durand, 1871-1960,” Revue de l’Institut International de Statistique / Review of the International Statistical Institute, Vol. 28, No. 1/2 (1960), pp. 118-120.
The Outing Magazine, Vol. 54, August 1909, pp. 563-564.
Miscellaneous newspaper reports have been useful in filling a few gaps.

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Course Description

7b2 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (second half-year).

[NOTE:  Listed as omitted in 1902-03 in the announcement of course offerings. However it was indeed offered during the first semester by Durand in 1902-03.]

In this course both the theory and practice of taxation will be studied.

Attention will be given at the outset to the tax systems of England, France, and Germany; and the so-called direct taxes employed in those countries will receive special consideration. After this, the principles of taxation will be examined. This will lead to a study of the position of taxation in the system of economic science, and of such subjects as the classification, the just distribution, and the incidence of taxes. Finally, the existing methods of taxation in the United States will be studied, each tax being treated with reference to its proper place in a rational system of federal, state, and local revenues.

Written work will be required of all students, as well as a systematic course of prescribed reading. Candidates for Honors in Political Science and for the higher degrees will be given the opportunity of preparing theses in substitution for the required written work.

Course 7b is open to students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 7b. 1hf. Dr. Durand. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation, in the United States.

Total 21: 3 Gr., 13 Se., 4 Ju., 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68. 

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Over five years ago Economics in the Rear-View Mirror posted some course materials for Durand’s Economics 7b course.

Harvard. Local taxation. Suggested topics and readings. Durand, 1902

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Final Examination
ECONOMICS 7b
1902-1903

  1. Compare England and France as regards:
    1. purpose of customs duties and character of articles taxed;
    2. character and weight of excise taxation;
    3. main forms of direct taxation;
    4. methods of local taxation.
  2. Discuss the correctness and wisdom of the recent Income Tax decision of the Supreme Court.
  3. To what extent would the general property tax, if evasion could be prevented, meet the demand that every citizen be taxed according to his ability?
  4. Mention three ways of adjusting the taxation of mortgages and mortgaged real estate. Which do you think preferable, and why?
  5. A man living in Massachusetts, with no property there of a tangible character, owns land in New York and stock of a corporation whose property is in New York. (a) To what extent is he and his property now legally taxable by each State? (b) To what extent ought he justly to pay taxes to each State, and what would be a feasible method of adjustment?
  6. Compare Pennsylvania and Ohio as regards (a) sources of State, as distinguished from local, revenue; (b) method of taxing intangible personal property.
  7. What would you consider the best method of taxing railroad corporations? Compare this with other methods.
  8. Discuss the justice of taxing the pure economic rent of land to practically its full amount.
  9. State and discuss briefly four rules or principles for the selection of commodities for indirect taxation.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).
Also included in: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: E. Dana Durand. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Washington, D.C. 20540. Image colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

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Exam Questions France Public Finance

France. Public finance exam question. Leroy-Beaulieu, 1878

1878 Written Exam Question
Paul Leroy-Beaulieu

While tracking down an exact reference for the French professor Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, I came across a collection of examination questions for 1873-1884 from the École libre des sciences politiques at archive.com. [Trick: sometimes you need to click the + sign in the archive.com viewer to see an image in that collection]

I offer this post for the 1878 examination as a bookmark for myself and others. Maybe later a few more of the economics questions will get fished out and posted in translation.

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Question de Finances
Cours de M. Leroy Beaulieu

Exposer brièvement les avantages et les inconvénients respectifs des impôts directs et des impôts indirects. Le placer, pour l’étude de cette question, au point de vue d’un pays qui a de très grandes charges, c’est a dire qui est grevé d’une lourde dette et qui entretient un grand état militaire.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Question: [Public] Finance
for the course
taught by Mr Leroy Beaulieu

Briefly describe the respective advantages and disadvantages of direct and indirect taxes. Take, in your answer to this question, the point of view of a country which is very heavily burdened, that is to say, having both a heavy [national] debt and a very large military budget.

Source: Ecole libre des sciences politiques (Paris). Examens de 1878: questions envoyées par les professeurs pour les épreuves écrites, questions tirées et questions non tirées…

Image Source:  Paris. Collège de France, M. le Professeur Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Membre de l’Institut. Wikicommons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.,

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Business Cycles Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam and enrollment for History and Theory of Commercial Crises. Andrew, 1902-1903

Abram Piatt Andrew

Before there were courses on business cycles, courses at Harvard dealt with “commercial crises”. Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. was the young man for the job in 1902-03. His Harvard Ph.D. dissertation’s title was “The ways and means of making payments” (1900) and together with Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague he was an essential member of the post-Dunbar staff to cover the field of money and banking (and monetary macroeconomics).

Oops I did it ago. Almost all of this post had been shared in a collection of all of Andrew’s exams for commercial crises (1903-1908). The colorized and retouched photo from 1909 is new to this post.

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Biography

ABRAM PIATT ANDREW, Jr., was born in La Porte, La Porte County, Ind., February 12, 1873; attended the public schools and the Lawrenceville (N. J.) School; was graduated from Princeton College in 1893; member of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1893-98; pursued postgraduate studies in the Universities of Halle, Berlin, and Paris; moved to Gloucester, Mass,, and was instructor and assistant professor of economics in Harvard University 1900-1909; expert assistant and editor of publications of the National Monetary Commission 1908-11; Director of the Mint 1909 and 1910; Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 1910-12; served in France continuously for 4-1/2 years, during the World War, first with the French and later with the United States Army; commissioned major, United States National Army, in September 1917 and promoted to lieutenant colonel September 1918; awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor medal by the Republic of France in 1917 and the distinguished service medal by the United States Government in 1918; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Willfred W. Lufkin; reelected to the Sixty-eighth and to the six succeeding Congresses, and served from September 27, 1921, until his death; delegate to the Republican National Conventions at Cleveland in 1924 and at Kansas City in 1928; member of the board of trustees of Princeton University 1932-36; died in Gloucester, Mass., June 3, 1936; remains were cremated and the ashes scattered from an airplane flying over his estate at Eastern Point, Gloucester, Mass.

Source: Memorial Service Held in the House of Representatives of the United States, Together with Remarks Presented in Eulogy of Abram Piatt Andrew, Late a Representative from Massachusetts. Seventy-fifth Congress, First Session. Washington, D.C. GPO, 1938. Archived transcription at the American Field Service website.

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Course Description

  1. b2 hf. History and Theory of Commercial Crises. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 9. Dr. Andrew.

Course 12b will be devoted to the study of the more important crises of the past two hundred years. The phenomena of these crises will be described, and the record of events before and after will be examined with the object of disentangling their contributory causes and their consequences. The influence upon commercial fluctuations of the present organization of industry, of government finance, of foreign trade, of the money supply, of speculation, of banking methods, and of other credit institutions will be considered, as well as questions with regard to periodicity, over-production and over-investment. In connection with these subjects attention will be given to the methods actually employed in dealing with crises, and to proposed reforms designed to prevent or relieve them.

Subjects will be assigned for special reports, and these reports will be presented for discussion in class.

Course 12b is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment, 1902-1903

Economics 12b. 2hf. Dr. Andrew. — History and Theory of Commercial Crises.

Total 37: 2 Gr., 9 Se., 19 Ju., 5 So.,2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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ECONOMICS 12b
Final Examination, 1903

Omit one question.

  1. “The crisis is practically of nineteenth century origin, and it is an acute malady to which business appears to be increasing subject.”
    Give your opinion of these statements.
  2. In what respects was the English crisis of 1866 peculiar?
  3. “Commercial crises of the earlier type now belong only to history in England.”
    Discuss this statement and explain the situation to which it refers.
  4. Compare the American crises of 1884 and 1893 as regards antecedent conditions, course of events and consequences.
  5. Describe in their mutual connections the fluctuations in exports and imports of commodities, in gold shipments, and in prices which occur in a normal trade cycle.
    Discuss DeLaveleye’s theory of crises.
  6. (a) How far did Jevons succeed in proving a relation between crises and agricultural conditions?
    (b) To what extent can a connection be traced in the United States between trade cycles and crop conditions?
    (c) In the case of which crop is the connection closest?
  7. Explain and discuss Professor Laughlin’s theory as to the relations between “normal” and “abnormal”credit and price movements.
  8. Explain and discuss Rodbertus’ theory of crises.
  9. Explain and discuss Professor Carver’s theory of industrial depressions.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: Picture of Abram Piatt Andrew from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article on his appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51. Retouched and colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

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Exam Questions Money and Banking Princeton

Princeton. Money and Banking exams. Wallich, 1950

Henry C. Wallich

Final examination questions for two courses are followed by the Ph.D. general examination  in money and banking at Princeton from the 1949-50 academic year have been transcribed below. They were found in Martin Shubick’s papers in the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. Note that I have yet to determine who taught Economics 305. The other two exams indicate that Henry Wallich was responsible for the exam questions and they are identically structured, somewhat differently from the Economics 305 exam.

An earlier post in Economics of the Rear-View Mirror provided a reading list for a course in money taught by Henry C. Wallich in 1950.

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[Handwritten note: “Wallich”]

Time: 3 hours

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics and Social Institutions
Economics 505
Course examination

Spend about half of your time on Parts 1 and 2, the other half on Part 3.

Part 1 — One of the following two topics:

  1. The desirability of returning to an international gold standard system, such as existed before 1914 and between approximately 1925 and 1931. Discuss.
  2. The monetary powers of the United States Treasury and their impact effect on postwar monetary management. Discuss.

Part 2 — Two of the following four topics:

  1. What are the reasons, if any, for regarding investment as more nearly “independently determined” than consumption?
  2. What effects do you believe to be exerted by consumption upon the rate of investment?
  3. How is the plausibility of Hawtrey’s view of the cycle affected by changes in the economy during the last twenty years?
  4. Do you regard the cash balance version of the quantity theory of money or the transactions version as more closely related to the income theory of the value of money? State your reasons.

Part 3 — One of the following two topics:

  1. “The volume of money is more nearly an effect of the level of prices and incomes than a cause.” Discuss.
  2. What views were expressed during the 1920’a by leading economists about the ways in which interest rates affect investment. and how have these views stood up in the light of the experience of the ‘twenties and ‘thirties?

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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Economics 302 — Money and Banking
Final Examination
January 21, 1950
Time: 2½ hours

The questions can be answered in two hours actual working time, consideration will, therefore, be given organization and relevance of the material.

I

Explain briefly the following:

    1. quantity theory of money.
    2. cash balance equation.
    3. hoarding of bank deposits.
    4. clearing agreements.

II

  1. What are the major factors that can bring about an increase in the velocity of circulation of money?
  2. Is there a limit to a “velocity inflation”, i.e., could prices go on rising due to an increase in V if the volume of money remains constant? Give your reasons.

III

Suppose a country has to pay reparations. The citizens of the country are taxed and the money is turned over in form of a banking deposit to the country which receives the reparations.

  1. Assuming a gold standard, what will be the effect of the transfer of those funds from the paying country to the recipient country on:
    1. the balance between exports and imports of the paying country,
    2. on the foreign exchange rate,
    3. on gold movements.
  2. Can you think of a case where the reparation payments would have no effect on (b) and (c)?

IV

  1. What are the characteristics of the gold standard that account for its decline? Give reasons.
  2. Explain some of the alternativos that have replaced the gold standard (excluding the monetary fund).

“I pledge my honor as a gentleman that, during this examination, I have neither given nor received assistance.”

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Henry C. Wallich

Ph.D. Examination

Spend about half of your time on Parts 1 and 2, the other half on Part 3.

Part 1 — One of the following two topics:

  1. What are the relative merits of open market operations and changes in reserve requirements as instruments of central bank policy?
  2. Evaluate the contribution of income determination theories to the analysis of balance of payments adjustment.

Part 2 — Two of the following four topics:

  1. “Most theories of the price level can be reinterpreted as theories of income determination”. Discuss.
  2. “Without the stickiness of money wages, the price level would be exposed to almost unlimited fluctuations.” Discuss.
  3. Do you believe that the theory of the long-term interest rate as presented in the “General Theory” leaves that rate “hanging by its own bootstrap”? State your reasons.
  4. How far would you rely upon the acceleration principle in explaining the upper turning points of the cycle?

Part 3 — One of the following two topics:

  1. Discuss the effect upon monetary policy of the rise in our public debt.
  2. Discuss the impact of the depression of the ‘thirties upon monetary theory.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Shubik Papers, Box 2. Folder “Exams, University of Toronto and Princeton 1947-50”.

Image Source: Portrait of Henry Christopher Wallich, 1962 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Final examination and enrollment for international trade and payments. Sprague, 1902-1903

Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague

Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague were the instructor team that picked up and ran with the baton for the field of money and banking at Harvard after Charles Dunbar had died in 1900. Their division of labor was for Andrew to cover money and for Sprague to teach banking.

Both semester courses continued to be offered in 1902-03. The examination questions with enrollment data for Sprague’s course have been transcribed for this post.

A timeline for his life has been added to “really tie the room together.”

For a recent view of Sprague, see Hugh Rockoff’s NBER Working Paper (October 2021) “O.M.W. Sprague (the man who ‘wrote the book’ on financial crises) meets the Great Depression”.

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O.M.W. Sprague

1873,
Apr. 22		 Born in Somerville, Massachusetts
1894 A.B., summa cum laude, Harvard
1894-95 University Scholar, Harvard
1895 A.M., Harvard
1895-96 Henry Lee Memorial Fellow, Harvard
1896-97 Thayer Scholar, Harvard
1897 Ph.D. (Political Science), Harvard. Thesis: The English woolen industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
1897-98 Study of economic history in London, England as Rogers Fellow
1898-99 Assistant in Economics, Harvard
1899-1900 Austin Teaching Fellow in Political Economy, Harvard
1900-04 Instructor in Political Economy, Harvard
1904-05 Assistant professor of economics (five year appointment), Harvard
1905,
June 12		 Married Fanny Knights Ide (2 children)
1905-08 Professor of Economics, Imperial Univ. of Tokyo
1908-13 Asst. Professor, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard
1913-41 Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard
1929 Member of the Gold Delegation of the League of Nations in a final effort to maintain the gold standard
1930-33 Economic adviser to Bank of England
1933 Financial and executive adviser to Secretary of Treasury
1937 39th President of the American Economic Association
1938 Litt.D., Columbia University
1941-1953 Professor emeritus, Harvard
1953,
May 24		 Died in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sources:

Cole, Arthur H., Robert L. Masson, and John H. Williams. Memorial [for] O.M.W. Sprague, 1873-1953. American Economic Review, Vol. 44 (1), March 1954, pp. 131-132.

Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System, Register of Papers: Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (1873-1953), 1 November, 1955, p. 2.

Reports of the President of Harvard College.

Obituary in The Boston Globe May 25, 1953.

Books:

Economic Essays by Charles Dunbar, edited by O.M.W. Sprague. New York: Macmillan, 1904.

History of Crises Under the National Banking System. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910. (Prepared for National Monetary Commission)

Banking Reform in the United States: A Series of Proposals including a Central Bank of Limited Scope. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1911.

Theory and History of Banking by Charles F. Dunbar, Fifth edition, with supplementary chapter presenting the record of the Federal Reserve System by Henry Parker Willis. Revised and in part rewritten with additional material by Oliver M. W. Sprague. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1929.
[Original 1st edition by Charles F. Dunbar, 1891; 2nd edition, 1901; 3rd edition, 1917; 4th edition, 1921]

Recovery and Common Sense. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934.

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Course Description.

International Trade and Payments
1902-03, first semester

  1. a 1hf. *International Trade and International Payments. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Dr. Sprague.

Course 12a begins with a careful study of the theory of international trade, and of the use and significance of bills of exchange. The greater portion of the time will be devoted to an analysis of the foreign trade of the United States in order to distinguish the various factors, permanent and temporary, which determine the growth and direction of international commerce. With this purpose, also, a number of commodities important in foreign trade and produced in more than one country will be studied in detail. Each student will be given special topics for investigation which will familiarize him with sources of current information upon trade matters, such as trade journals, consular, and other government publications. In conclusion certain topics of a general nature will be considered, among which may be mentioned, foreign investments, the effects of an unfavorable balance of payments under different circumstances, and colonial trade.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment.

International Trade and Payments
1902-03, first semester

Economics 12a. 1hf. Dr. Sprague. — International Trade and International Payments.

Total 10: 1 Gr., 3 Se., 5 Ju., 1 So.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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Course Final Examination

International Trade and Payments
1902-03, first semester

ECONOMICS 12a
  1. Compare the English Consular Reports with those of the United States.
  2. Explain carefully the reasons which render possible permanent differences in the general level of prices between countries, assuming (1) free trade, (2) a high general tariff in one country and free trade in the other. How would the removal of tariff barriers probably affect prices in the United States?
  3. The temporary effects of an unfavorable balance of foreign payments.
  4. Characteristics and advantages of trade with the tropics.
  5. Exports of manufactures from the United States.
  6. Analyze the effects to each country of complete reciprocity between Cuba and the United States. Would there be any advantage which the United States does not gain from unrestricted trade with Porto Rico?
  7. The effect of the growth of the foreign trade of other countries upon the absolute amount of British exports.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).
Also included in Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: O.M.W. Sprague in the Harvard Class Album, 1915, colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Enrollment and exams on Adam Smith, Ricardo and followers. Mixter, 1902-1903.

 

Charles Whitney Mixter (b. Sept. 23, 1869 in Chelsea, MA; d. Oct. 21, 1936 in Washington, D.C.) taught a year-long course at Harvard on Adams Smith, Ricardo, and their dissenting followers in 1902-03.

Mixter received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1897 with the thesis “Overproduction and overaccumulation: a study in the history of economic theory.” Further biographical information about Charles Whitney Mixter (1869-1936) is found in the post about his course offered 1901-1902. Also Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has a post with a student’s description of Mixter as economics instructor at the University of Vermont.

One of the dissenting followers of Adam Smith considered in Mixter’s course below was John Rae. Mixter edited a reprint of the 1834 book by John Rae, which he retitled The Sociological Theory of Capital. A few years before, Mixter had written two Quarterly Journal of Economics articles comparing Rae with Böhm-Bawerk:

“A forerunner of Böhm-Bawerk”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, January, 1897. [“the first article by me upon Rae…had a title which was also in great measure a misnomer. Rae is not a mere ‘anticipator of the discoverer’ (to use one of Cannan’s phrases), but the discoverer himself. By reason of the lack of a theory of invention, Böhm-Bawerk’s doctrine of capital, although coming much later, is in essentials the less complete of the two.”]

“Böhm-Bawerk on Rae,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1902. [Review of Chapter XI of the second edition of the Geschichte und Critik der Capitalzins-Theorien].

In the preface to his reprint of Rae’s book, Mixter provides us with some backstory to his research revealing the support of Frank Taussig and Irving Fisher at the beginning and the end of this book project:

When I first became interested in Rae’s theory of capital, under Professor Taussig’s direction in the economic seminary at Harvard University, there existed no printed information (except in his Preface) in respect to Rae himself; and for a long time nothing could be learned through inquiry in quarters which promised well in Canada and Great Britain. The late Professor Dunbar of Harvard, who always displayed a keen interest in the undertaking, urged me to persist, and at length a letter printed in the Montreal Star drew forth two replies, one from the Canadian antiquary Mr. H. J. Morgan, the other from the late Robert S. Knight of Lancaster, Ontario, a grand-nephew of Rae. This set me upon the right road to get into communication with several people who knew Rae personally. Of these the one who could tell me most was the late Sir Roderick W. Cameron of New York, a former pupil and life-long friend, at whose summer residence on Staten Island Rae died. Better still, I was able through the interest and kindness of this gentleman to come into possession of what few papers Rae left at his death. That is, I obtained all Rae’s effects of a literary nature which seem now to be in existence. Apparently, from statements made by Sir Roderick, there was another set of papers which Rae had with him at the time, but which were destroyed or in some way lost. The papers I obtained were little more than odds and ends, mostly unfinished fragments on a great variety of subjects, unfortunately but little on economics. Their chief use has been to help me to a fair understanding of Rae’s life, which I have been able, however, only very imperfectly to set forth.

I have received much information and kind assistance in this part of my work from not a few people in Canada, the United States, Honolulu, and Great Britain. I trust they will accept this general acknowledgment of my sense of indebtedness to them.

To Mr. L. W. Zartman of Yale University my especial thanks are due for assistance in preparing the copy for the printer, and in reading the proofs. I am also much indebted to Mr. Wilmot H. Thompson of the Graduate School of Yale, for revision of the classical quotations.

Finally, I wish here to express my obligations to Professor Irving Fisher of Yale University. His interest and encouragement have been of unfailing support. The proof sheets of the whole book have passed his able scrutiny, and his direct help in many other ways has been invaluable.

C. W. M.

Burlington,
Vermont, July, 1905.

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Course Description

  1. a. Selected Topics in the History of Economic Thought since Adam Smith. , Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri, at 12. Dr. Mixter.

The chief subject to which attention will be directed in this course is the school of dissenting followers of Adam Smith — Lauderdale, Rae, and those influenced by them — who carried forward Smith’s work to very different results from those attained by the Ricardians. This study of a little known tradition gives a fresh point of view as to the general method of formulating and presenting economics. Some of the other subjects to be discussed are, — the classic doctrine of over-production, and the opposition to that doctrine; the economics of absenteeism; the history of the theory of colonization; early American economic theory.
The exercises will be conducted largely by means of discussion. Oral reports on assigned topics will be required.

  1. d 2hf. Adam Smith and Ricardo. Half-course (second half-year). Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professor Taussig.

In this course, a careful study will be made of large parts of the writings of Adam Smith and Ricardo, and comparison made with contemporary authors as well as with the later writers who accepted the teachings of the earlier English school.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 20a. Dr. Mixter. — The History of English Economic Theory from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill.

Total 5: 3 Gr., 2 Se.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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Mid-Year Examination 1902-03

ECONOMICS 20a

It is expected that questions 3 and 7 will be answered more at length than the other questions.

  1. Who was Bentham and what does he stand for in the history of economics?
  2. What is the nature of Rae’s reply to Smith’s 5th argument against protection?
  3. What would Adam Smith say to the assertion that trades unions are necessary in the United States to prevent a fall of general wages? In what various aspects did Smith examine the subject of wages?
  4. What are Adam Smith’s four canons or “maxims” of taxation?
  5. Is “capital” or “labor” the leading concept in the economics proper of the Wealth of Nations?
  6. What idea of most value have you obtained from Cannan?
  7. Discuss the Malthusian theory with respect to errors and shortcomings:—
    1. In its original form of statement and proof.
    2. In its original application.
    3. Sum up the modernized Malthusian doctrine in the form which seems to you most sound and useful.
  8. How has “the Commerce of the Towns contributed to the Improvement of the Country”?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).

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Year-End Examination 1902-03

ECONOMICS 20a

Omit two of the last five questions.

  1. Criticise the following statement: “What he [Ricardo] really ‘endeavored to show’ was that the rate of profit depends on the productiveness of the last employed, or no-rent-paying agricultural industry, and it is not of much importance to his theory whether this dependence is brought about through rises and falls of money wages, or also by the direct influence of variations in the productiveness of industry.”
  2. What is Lauderdale’s significance in the history of economics?
  3. What are the points of similarity and of difference between Rae and Böhm-Bawerk?
  4. What portions of a complete treatise on economics are lacking in Rae’s work? Give some examples of peculiar terminology.
  5. Give an account of one of the following writers: Chalmers, Wakefield, Longfield, Senior.
  6. “His [the capitalist’s] profit consists of the excess of the produce above the advances; his rate of profit is the ratio which that excess bears to the amount advanced.” Comment on this.
  7. Criticise the phrase “the profits of stock are only another name for the wages of accumulated labour.” Who first advanced this idea?
  8. What was John Stuart Mill’s treatment of the subject of general overproduction?
  9. When it is said that a certain writer “took as his type of capital, machinery instead of wage-fund,” what do you understand by the expression? Mention several writers who have done this.
  10. Give a brief account of Cannan’s description of the discovery of the law of diminishing returns.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: Harvard scores (1905),  John Jepson (artists), Boston. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Exam for German Economic Thought. Gay, 1903

Edwin Francis Gay

This must have been a quick addition to the course offerings for 1902-03 since the course was not announced in the June 1902 brochure for the Division of History and Political Science for the coming academic year. In the following year Edwin Francis Gay (Berlin, Ph.D. in 1902 under Gustav Schmoller) expanded the course to cover both French and German economic thought.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 22. 2hf. Dr. Gay. — Outlines of the Development of Economic Thought in Germany in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 4: 3 Gr., 1 Se.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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ECONOMICS 22

  1. Translate from Conrad, pp. 69 [p. 64-65 in 1897 ed.], § 66, Die Grundrente.
    1. Describe briefly von Thünen’s concentric circles.
    2. Outline Rodbertus’s theory of rent and its relation to his explanation of crises.
  2. Translate  §69 [pp. 68-69 in 1897 ed.] , Die Regulierung des Lohnes.
    1. What features in this passage remind you of von Hermann’s treatment of wages?
      [Note: no (b) or any other parts to the question were printed]
  3. Karl Marx: a concise note concerning his life, his works, his theory of value, his influence in Germany at present.
  4. Give an account of the German historical school of economists.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: Portrait of Edwin F. Gay from the Harvard Class Album 1914 colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy

Harvard. Ethics of the Social Questions. Course description, enrollment, final exam. Peabody, 1902-1903

One fairly popular field chosen for doctoral exams by Harvard’s economics students in the early 20th century was Social Ethics that combined elements of so-called “practical economics”, sociology, philosophy, and religion. That field and later department was chaired by Professor Francis Greenwood Peabody who served in both Harvard College and the Harvard Divinity School.

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A short biography of Francis Greenwood Peabody can be found at the Harvard Divinity School History webpage.

A previous post provides the history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics up through 1920.

Peabody’s book, The Approach to the Social Question: An Introduction to the Study of Social Ethics (New York: Macmillan, 1909), presumably captures much, if not all, the spirit (Spirit?) of his ethical teachings.

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Biographical note on
Francis Greenwood Peabody

Francis Greenwood Peabody (1847–1936), Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, was associated with Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School from 1880 to 1912, serving as a lecturer, professor, and dean. He received his Harvard AB in 1869 and graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1872; while a junior, Peabody was first baseman on the first Harvard baseball team to play against Yale. In 1874, he was ordained as minister of the First Parish in Cambridge, a position he maintained until 1880, when he resigned due to poor health. Harvard Divinity School Dean Everett then asked Peabody to lecture, but President Eliot, whose first wife was Peabody’s eldest sister, opposed the appointment due to nepotism. Later that year, however, he was appointed lecturer on ethics and homiletics. His courses, “The History of Ethics,” and “Practical Ethics” were the first of their kind in American theological education. While at Harvard, he ended compulsory worship and helped transform the Divinity School from a denominational seminary into a non-denominational theological school.

Peabody was named Parkman Professor of Theology in 1882, and became Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in 1886, also taking charge of Harvard College’s Appleton Chapel. He retired in 1913. Peabody also served as Acting Dean of the Divinity School on two occasions during the absence of Dean Everett, and was Dean himself from 1901 to 1905. Throughout his career, Peabody published many works, served as an Overseer of Harvard College, and was on the Board of Trustees of the Hampton Institute. Peabody died in 1936.

Source: Harvard Archives. Guide to Papers of Francis Greenwood Peabody webpage.

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Earlier, at the end of the 19th century

Exam questions for earlier years of this course have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

A history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics has also been posted earlier.

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The Ethics of the Social Questions
Course Description, 1902-03

Philosophy 5. The Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody assisted by Mr. —.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the social situation and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses the various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [Required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy; and Muirhead’s Elements of Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [Required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3]; the ethics of poor-relief [Required reading from Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People (see links to volumes below)]; the ethics of the labor question [Required reading: Carlyle’s Past and Present; Ruskin’s Unto this Last; Schäffle’s Quintessence of Socialism]; and the ethics of the drink-question [Required reading from Fanshawe’s Liquor Legislation in the United States]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation. Students are advised to take both Philosophy 1 and Economics 1 before taking this course, and must have taken either the one or the other, or its equivalent. A special library of 650 carefully selected volumes is provided for the use of students in this course. Attention is also called to the Paine Fellowship, the holder of which should pursue advanced study in the same direction.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People:

(Original) Volume I, East London;
(Original) Volume II, London;
(Original) Appendix to Volume II;
Note: the previous three original volumes were re-printed as four volumes that then were followed by
Volume V, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VI, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume VII, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VIII, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume IX, Comparisons, Survey and Conclusions.

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The Ethics of the Social Questions
Course Enrollment, 1902-03

Philosophy 5. Professor Peabody, assisted by Mr. Ireland. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 134: 5 Gr., 60 Se., 37 Ju., 15 So., 17 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 69.

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Mid-Year Examination, 1902-03

[to be added]

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Philosophy 5
The Ethics of the Social Questions
Final Examination, 1902-03

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

  1. The place in the modern Labor Question of:—

Chalmers;
Proudhon;
von Ketteler;
William Morris;
Leclaire.

  1. Carlyle on:

Democracy;
Permanence;
Captains of Industry.

  1. Ruskin on:

Ad valorem;
Veins of Wealth;
Ideals of Education. (Preface to: Unto this Last, p. xi.)

  1. Anarchism and Communism compared with each other and with the present industrial order.
  2. Lasalle and Marx compared as influences on German socialism.
  3. “Social labor-time” as a standard of value; the view of Marx (Schäffle, p. 81 ff.); the criticism of Schäffle (ch. VI, VII); the ethical effect to be anticipated.
  4. The scheme of industrial conciliation proposed by the Anthracite Coal Commission and its relation to French and English methods of arbitration and conciliation.
  5. The scheme of industrial partnership proposed by the U.S. Steel Corporation — its plan, results, and relation to other types of profit-sharing.
  6. The ethical principles underlying all forms of liquor legislation. Compare the liquor legislation of Massachusetts with that of Pennsylvania. (Fanshawe, ch. XI and XII.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Enrollment and Exam for Statistics. Ripley, 1902-1903

Young William Zebina Ripley

At the turn of the 20th century the breadth of Harvard’s course offerings grew faster than the depth of its instructional bench. Thomas Nixon Carver was teaching economic theory, sociology, social reform, and agricultural economics while William Zebina Ripley covered statistics, railroads, European resources, industrial and labor organization.

This post adds another year’s worth of Harvard statistics exams to the Economics in the Rear-View Mirror collection of transcribed artifacts. 

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Course Description

  1. hf. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. Half-course. Tu., at 11. Professor Ripley.

This course is intended to serve rather as an analysis of methods of research and sources of information than as a description of mere results. A brief history of statistics will be followed by an account of modes of collecting and tabulating census and other statistical material in the United States and abroad, the scientific use and interpretation of results by the mean, the average, seriation, the theory of probability, etc. The main divisions of vital statistics, relating to birth, marriage, morbidity, and mortality, life tables, etc.; the statistics of trade and commerce, such as price indexes, etc.; industrial statistics relating to labor, wages, and employment; statistics of agriculture, manufactures, and transportation, will be them considered in order. The principal methods of graphic representation will be comprehended, and laboratory work, amounting to not less than two hours per week, in the preparation of charts, maps, and diagrams from original material, will be required.

Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economies 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economics 1. It is especially recommended, in connection with Economies 2, for all candidates for advanced degrees.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 4. hf. Professor Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 15: 10 Gr., 2 Se., 2 Ju., 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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Economics 4
Mid-Year Examination
1902-03

  1. The population of Massachusetts in 1870 was 1,457,351, in 1875 was 1,651,912, in 1880 was 1,783,085. The births in 1878 were 41,238. The Massachusetts Registration Report gives the birth rate in that year as 24.73. How was this obtained?
  2. The birth rates for 1885 in Massachusetts by counties were as follows: Barnstable, 17.4; Berkshire, 25.7; Dukes and Nantucket, 14; Suffolk, 28.7; Middlesex, 24.7; Worcester city, 27.1; Fall River city, 31.07; Cambridge, 27.04; Newburyport, 17.79, etc.
    How would you determine the real significance of these differences?
  3. Padding of the enumerator’s returns in Delaware counties in 1900, being known, how could you estimate the probable amount, assuming no considerable migration of population to have occurred?
  4. What are the main tests for determining the amount of migration in a given population between census periods?
  5. What single merit has the card system of tabulation used by the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, over the use of electric machines as in the Federal Census?
  6. Compare the rate of increase of the population of the United States with that of principal European countries. What probable future movement is indicated?
  7. What are the principal demographic results of an inequality in the distribution of the sexes? Illustrate by the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).

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Economics 4
Year-End Examination
1902-03

  1. What is meant by the “duration of life”? What figures are apt to be confused with it in mortality statistics?
  2. What are the main objections to the use of index numbers, illustrating by examples?
  3. What is the “modulus” as applied to wage statistics? In what different ways may it be ascertained?
  4. Where would you seek for examples of the best practice in interpretation of (a) price statistics; (b) wage statistics?
  5. May the “cost of production” in manufactures be determined with precision? Where has the attempt has been made and with what results?
  6. Where are the best statistics of imports and exports compiled? How does the system differ from those of the United States?
  7. How is a logarithmic curve constructed; and for what purpose?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: MIT Museum website. William Zebina Ripley. Image colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

John Hopkins. Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy. Course outline, reading list, exams. Domar, 1956

Evsey D. Domar

Evsey Domar turned 42 years old towards the end of the Spring term of 1955-56 when he taught his intermediate fiscal policy course to Johns Hopkins’ undergraduates. From his papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Archive we can bring together the tightly focussed reading list, two midterm exams, and the final exam for Political Economy 4. 

One notes that the actual dates of the mid-term exams were lagged one week relative to the announced dates in the syllabus. Happens to the best of us. I wonder if students still (ever?) read the syllabus back in the middle of the 20th century. 

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Course Announcement

Political Economy
Specialized intermediate work

Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy 4. Professor Domar. Three hours weekly, second term.

The nature and causes of economic fluctuations. The economic role of government. Principal policy measures designed to achieve economic stability.

Prerequisite: Political Economy 3, or its equivalent.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Undergraduate Programs, Announcements of Courses 1955-1956 in Circular 1955-1956. New Series 1955, Number 8, p. 102.

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Course Outline and Readings

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY
(Political Economy 4)

E. D. Domar
Spring Term 1955-56

Course Schedule

SOURCES:

On College Reserve:

Colm, Gerhard, Essays in Public Finance and Fiscal Policy, Oxford University Press, New York 1955.

Due, John F., Government Finance—an Economic Analysis, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Homewood, Ill., 1954.

Gordon, Robert A., Business Fluctuations, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1952.

Lindholm, Richard W., J. J. Balles, J. M. Hunter, Principles of Money and Banking Related to National Income and Fiscal Policy,W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1954.

Public Finance and Full Employment, published by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, 1945.

Ritter, Lawrence S., Money and Economic Activity, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1952.

To Be Acquired by the Students:

Maxwell, James A., Fiscal Policy, Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1955.

Economic Report of the President, January 1956.

SCHEDULE:

Week of February 13th:

Maxwell, Ch. 1,
Ritter, pp. 20-36
Lindholm, pp. 17-31.

Week of February 20th:

Ritter, pp. 99-113,
Maxwell, Ch. 2.

Week of February 27th:

Ritter, pp. 120-130,
Lindholm, pp. 330-348

Week of March 5th:

Lindholm, pp. 370-408.

HOUR EXAMINATION: March 12th

Week of March 12th:

Maxwell, Ch. 3, 4 & 5.

Week of March 19th:

Maxwell, Ch. 6, 7, & 8,
Federal Reserve, pp. 1-21,
Colm, pp. 188-219.

Week of March 26th:

Maxwell, Ch. 9, 10, & 11,
Colm, pp. 258-286.

Week of April 2nd:

Maxwell, Ch. 12 & 13,
Federal Reserve, pp. 22-52,
Review – Due, pp. 29-61, 427-39.

Week of April 9th:

Maxwell, Ch. 14 & 15.

HOUR EXAMINATION: April 16th

Week of April 16th:

Federal Reserve, pp. 53-68, 101-130.

Week of April 23rd:

Review – Gordon, Ch. 13 & 14, and pp. 559-74.

Week of April 30th:

Gordon, Ch. 16, 17 & 18.

Week of May 7th:

Economic Report of the President

Week of May 14th:

Economic Report of the President

Week of 21st:

General Review of the Course

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar. Box 15, Folder “MacroEconomics, Old Reading Lists”.

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First Hour Test

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy
(Political Economy 4)
Spring Term 1955-56

March 19, 1956

E.D. Domar

Answer all questions in any order you wish. Indicate carefully every step in your reasoning.

  1. (40%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “Central Bank Monetary Policy” with special reference to our Federal Reserve System. Your essay should include the following points:
    1. The structure of the Federal Reserve System.
    2. The relation between commercial and Federal Reserve Banks.
    3. Objectives of Federal Reserve Policy.
    4. Powers given to the Federal Reserve System and methods used by it to achieve the objectives indicated in (3) under different economic conditions.
      1. General measures
      2. Selective measures
    5. Evaluate the performance of the Federal Reserve System since its inception.
      How successful has it been in achieving the objectives stated in (3)?
    6. Conclusion: the virtues and defects of Monetary Policy.
  2. (25%) Indicate clearly how DEMAND DEPOSITS, REQUIRED RESERVES, EXISTING RESERVES and EXCESS RESERVES of the commercial member banks taken as a whole are affected by the following transactions.
    Assume that all payments are made by check, that the member banks add all receipts to, and subtract all amounts paid out from, their reserves with the Federal Reserve Banks, and that the U.S. Treasury keeps all its funds with the Federal Reserve Banks:
  3. 25% Legal requirements are 15 per cent.
  4. When a transaction consists of several parts, indicate each part separately and then show the total effect.
    AFTER EACH TRANSACTION GIVE A BRIEF VERBAL ANALYSIS OF ITS ECONOMIC EFFECTS.

    1. The U.S. Treasury collects $15 million of corporate income taxes from the U.S. Steel Corporation and uses the proceeds to redeem a bond held by Mr. Smith who deposits the check with his bank.
    2. Same as (1), but the bond is held by the First National Bank.
    3. Jones borrows $1000 from the First National Bank. After a while he uses the proceeds to meet his payroll. His employees invest their earnings in Federal bonds.
    4. The U.S. Treasury sells bonds for $100 million to the public, and uses the proceeds to buy land for highway construction. The owners of the land deposit their checks at their banks. The Federal Reserve Banks buy $100 million worth of Federal bonds from (a) the public, and (b) commercial banks.
    5. The Federal Reserve Board changes reserve requirements from 20 to 18 per cent. (Assume that the amount of deposits outstanding equals to $100 billion.) Thereupon banks extend loans to their customers of $1 billion.
  5. (35%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “The Identity and Divergence between Private and Social Cost.” Illustrate your discussion with examples. Why is this question important to the subject matter of our course and to economic policy in general. (No credit will be given for vague generalities.)

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

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Second Hour Exam

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY
(Political Economy 4)
Spring Term 1955-56

Hour Examination
April 23, 1956

E.D. Domar

Answer all questions in any order you wish. Indicate carefully every step in your reasoning. No credit will be given for vague generalities.

  1. (15%) Define and describe the following terms or expressions and indicate their use in economic discussions:
    1. The Multiplier;
    2. Parity;
    3. Balanced budget theorem;
    4. Cash vs. conventional budget;
    5. Carryovers and carrybacks;
    6. Income elasticity of taxation;
    7. Regressive taxation;
    8. Payroll taxes;
    9. Grants-in-aid;
    10. Accelerated depreciation.
  1. (20%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “Built-in Flexibility as an Instrument of Fiscal Policy.” Explain what is meant by this expression, how this instrument works, how effective it is likely to be, and what can be done to increase its effectiveness. Give a critical evaluation. Be as comprehensive and specific as you can.
  2. (20%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “The Agricultural Problem in the United States since the Second World War.” Explain the origin and causes of the problem, government policies which have been adopted, and their effectiveness in dealing with the problem. Indicate and justify your own recommendations.
  3. (30%) Analyze with great care all important economic effects of agricultural price support program on the assumption of (1) that the funds for this purpose are raised by borrowing, and (2) that they are raised by taxation, in both cases under conditions of (a) unemployment, and (b) full employment. Indicate in all cases what kind of borrowing and what kind of taxation you have in mind. Give examples. When would you recommend one or the other method?
  4. (15%) “The main objective of the Federal policy should be not the balancing of the Federal budget, but of the national economic budget.” Comment.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

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Final Exam

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY
(Political Economy 4)

FINAL EXAMINATION – Three hours
June 1, 1956

E. D. Domar

Answer all questions. Be specific.

  1. (25%) Compare and contrast monetary and fiscal policies as methods of achieving economic stabilization (reasonably full employment without inflation) in a growing society. Include (but don’t limit yourself to) the following points:
    1. The theoretical foundation of each;
    2. Methods used by each;
    3. Effects on distribution of income and wealth;
    4. Social and political effects;
    5. Their effectiveness and limitations.

Do they overlap? Can you work out a synthesis of both?

  1. (10%) Describe how business fluctuations spread internationally and discuss critically the various measures for insuring international stability that have been suggested.
  2. (15%) Suppose that sizable gold deposits were discovered in this country (a) in 1933 and (b) in 1955. Trace the economic effects of the mining of this gold as completely as you can, both on the American economy and on that of other countries.
  3. (20%) Describe the origin, functions and performance of the Council of Economic Advisers from its beginning.
    State and evaluate the basic economic philosophy and the major recommendations of the 1956 Economic Report of the President.
  4. (15%) “One of the first objectives of this Administration should be at least a partial repayment of the Federal Debt. To do otherwise is to undermine the integrity on which this Administration is founded, and to adopt a course which inevitably loads to higher taxes, inflation, the destruction of our national wealth and economic insolvency.” Comment fully.
  5. (15%) Discuss SAVING as an economic problem.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

Image source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 18, Folder “Photographs Domar”. Copy also available at the MIT Museum website. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.