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Cambridge Exam Questions

Cambridge. Examinations in political economy, 1872-1873.

 

Another set of political economy exams from almost 150 years ago. Cf. the 1868-1872 examination questions from Harvard.

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19th Century Cambridge examinations in political economy
posted at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror

Cambridge University examination papers, Michaelmas term, 1871 to Easter term, 1872.

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY EXAMINATION PAPERS
MICHAELMAS TERM, 1872 TO EASTER TERM, 1873.

From the MORAL SCIENCES TRIPOS.

TUESDAY, Nov. 26, 1872. 1 to 4.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

  1. If a person saves and hoards ten thousand sovereigns, or a thousand ten pound notes, does his action in either case tend to increase the wealth of the country? Give reasons for your answer.
    A person receives an annuity of £1000, but uses for his personal expenses only £500, saving the rest; shew either by a mathematical formula, or by a general explanation, that after a certain number of years the country will begin to be enriched by his means, but not earlier.
  2. Why does skilled labour command a higher price than unskilled? Shew that there are two causes, one necessary and permanent, the other depending on the circumstances of the society; and find the condition for the existence of the latter.
  3. Assuming that in a system of large farming, labour is more productive than in a system of small farming; shew that a country of small farms may nevertheless support both a larger total population, and also a larger manufacturing and commercial population, than the same country would support under the other system; and find the condition of either result.
    Are there any causes which might render the labourer more productive where labour in the abstract is less so? Shew however that the truth of the above proposition does not depend on this distinction.
  4. Enunciate the principle of free trade; and examine whether there are any exceptions to the generally beneficial effects of free trade on both the countries concerned, either from economical or from political causes.
  5. Shew that a landlord cannot indemnify himself for a tax upon rent by raising its amount. Can you suggest reasons why this proposition would be much less true in a rudimentary than in a highly developed state of society, even supposing the two states to be absolutely alike in respect of the security of property?
    How far is the above proposition true of the landlord of a house?
  6. Shew that every commodity permanently offered for sale has a minimum average price; and examine in what case the price will exceed this minimum, and by what it is then determined.
    Two cloth manufacturers, A and B, start each with a capital of £10,000. A, who invests £2500 of his capital in permanent machinery, sells his cloth at 8s. 6d. a yard. B‘s machinery is similar to A‘s, but turns out inferior work, and costs only £1000. If profits are 10 per cent, shew that B‘s cloth will sell for 8s. 4d. a yard.
    If the machinery, instead of being permanent, wears out in a year, shew that B‘s cloth will sell for 7s. 1d. a yard.
  7. In what case is an inconvertible paper currency detrimental to a country? what is the sign of its being detrimental? and to whom is the detriment done?
  8. Quote instances to shew, that the rate of wages has very much less influence on the cost of production than might at first sight appear.
  9. Ricardo observes that a country may import commodities which it has the means of making much cheaper at home. Shew how this is theoretically possible, without assuming ignorance or negligence on the part of the importing nation: and at the same time give reasons for the extreme rarity of the occurrence as a matter of fact.
  10. Describe the means by which the transactions of international commerce are carried on with the least possible waste in the carrying power. E. g. England produces cotton, woollen and iron goods: France, silks and wines: Russia, corn and other agricultural productions: Australia, sheep, gold, &c. How is the distribution of these several commodities over the world, and the payment for each of them brought about?

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 80.

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From the MORAL SCIENCES TRIPOS.

THURSDAY, Nov. 28, 1872. 9 to 12 a.m.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

  1. Investigate the principles that should regulate the price of a postage stamp (for internal circulation).
  2. How far is the price of a newspaper determined by the cost of its production? how far by supply and demand?
  3. “So far from the 6 per cent, rate (of discount) having caused any inconvenient pressure, it has hitherto totally failed in bringing back any of the redundant means held by the community, and which, such is the general prosperity, they prefer keeping in their desks to putting them to productive use through banking channels.”
    Point out the economical errors contained in this passage.
  4. A government taxes the manufacture of beer. People do not leave off drinking beer, the demand for it remains the same, and the manufacturers can raise the price to the full amount of the tax. The consumers save the extra price by economizing in use of provisions, but the demand for these does not fall off, as the government spends the tax in buying provisions.
    What will be the effect on prices? and what inference may be drawn as to general laws of rise and fall of price?
  5. Australia exports wool largely to England.
    Examine briefly the manner and extent in which the price of Australian wool in England would be affected by the following occurrences:

(1) Large consumption of Australian mutton in England.
(2) Cessation of the returning stream of enriched English emigrants, from Australia to England.
(3) Extensive gold-discoveries in Australia.

  1. What will be the effect, if any, on the rents of a country of either of the following occurrences?

(1) A large migration of the agricultural population to the manufacturing districts:
(2) The abolition of Protection.

  1. How soon after the first colonisation of a new and fertile country will any part of its land be rented? What will determine the amount of the highest rent paid, and how will this be affected by the progress of civilisation?
  2. Between two countries, chiefly agricultural, the exchange is at par: how will it be affected by the discovery in one of the two countries of large mines of coal and iron? Examine the reason and the limits of the effect produced.
  3. Mill says that a tax on the raw material of a manufacture “limits unnecessarily the industry of the country: a portion of the fund destined by its owners for production being diverted from its purpose.”
    In order to test the truth of this statement compare in detail the effects produced by taxing wool and cloth respectively, considering both the temporary effects produced at the time of imposition of such taxes and also their permanent effects.

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 83.

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From the MORAL SCIENCES TRIPOS.

FRIDAY, Nov. 29, 1872. 1 to 4.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

[Not more than four questions are to be attempted.]

  1. Give a history of the development of the Economic view of agricultural production from Quesnay to Ricardo. Examine especially Adam Smith’s view. Notice and explain the difference between his account of rent of land, and of mines. What does he mean by saying that “the most fertile mine determines the price;” and is there any sense in which the statement is defensible?
  2. Give briefly the different views that have been taken of the Foundation of Value. What is meant by the “amount of value” in the country? Is the phrase justifiable? Give Bastiat’s Theory of Value, examining

(1) How far it is possible to make it include all cases:
(2) How far it is useful in determining the precise value of anything.

How far is Bastiat’s criticism of Adam Smith for “attaching value to material things” well founded?

  1. Give a history of the changes which have taken place in the economic relation of the colonies to the mother-country, in so far as this is determined by law: and examine how far in any stage of a colony’s development Protection may be advantageous to (1) the mother-country, (2) the colony.
  2. Examine and compare the different theories upon which the Relief of the poor has been administered in England from the time of Elizabeth to the present. Upon what assumptions, psychological or sociological, does the mode of administration prevailing at present appear to proceed? and how far do these assumptions correspond to actual fact?
  3. Give the principal means by which the commercial system proposed to increase the quantity of gold and silver in any country. How far are any of these employed at present in European countries? How far are the grounds on which they are retained the same as those criticized by Adam Smith?
  4. State carefully how far you consider the method of Political Economy to be inductive, and how far deductive. Illustrate by considering the evidence on which Ricardo’s Theory of Rent is maintained: distinguishing between different propositions which may appear to be combined in the theory, either as it was stated by Ricardo, or as it has since been modified by others.
  5. Give an account of the restrictions upon Free-Trade in Money at present existing in England: examining how far they can be justified on the ground of

(1) Their real effects.
(2) Their supposed effects.

  1. Bastiat argues that in a state of society based on Free Contract, there is naturally a perfect harmony of economic interests among its members. Examine carefully how far this is true, independently of any monopolizing of the natural agents of production: and discuss the answers which Bastiat (and others) have made to the objections that may be drawn from the fact of such a monopoly.

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 85.

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SPECIAL EXAMINATION IN MORAL SCIENCE FOR THE ORDINARY B.A. DEGREE.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
FRIDAY, Nov. 29, 1872. 9 to 12.

  1. Distinguish between Productive and Unproductive Labour, between Simple and Complex Co-operation, and between Fixed and Circulating Capital.
  2. Point out the fallacy of the argument in favour of extravagant expenditure grounded upon the supposition that it is good for trade.
  3. ‘As the population of the country increases, agricultural produce has a tendency to become more expensive.’
    Why? Shew the importance of the words printed in Italics.
  4. What is Communism? What were the distinguishing features of the scheme proposed by Fourier? Discuss its practicability.
  5. Analyse the ‘cost of labour.’
  6. Describe the systems of tenancy known as Metayer and Cottier.
  7. Determine the causes which regulate the prices of
    1. old china vases,
    2. potatoes in the London markets,
    3. cotton dresses.

Has gold a price? Has it value?

  1. A draper buys up all the manufactured silk of a pattern that happens to be fashionable in the hope that he will be able to dispose of his stock at the high price occasioned by this manoeuvre. Is this a safe investment of capital?
  2. Investigate the social and economic effects of ‘Out-door relief’.

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 115.

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SPECIAL EXAMINATION IN MORAL SCIENCE FOR THE ORDINARY B.A. DEGREE.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
FRIDAY, Nov. 29, 1872. 1 to 4.

  1. What exactly is Credit?
    Compare the economic effects of the ‘credit’ which a tradesman gives to his unproductive customers, and that which he obtains from a banker.
  2. Criticize upon Adam Smith’s principles the propriety of the following taxes under our present circumstances:

(1) A fixed duty levied upon the farmer for every acre sown with wheat.
(2) A tax upon every article sold by auction, levied upon the seller.
(3) A tax upon maidservants.

  1. In what various ways has the scale of prices in different countries been affected by the operations of Governments upon money or the precious metals?
  2. Under what circumstances is international trade between any two countries profitable? Is it advantageous to the whole population of each country?
  3. State the principal provisions of the Bank Charter Act. Upon what grounds is it generally attacked?
  4. What exactly is meant by the Exchanges being unfavourable to a given country? Is such a state of things advantageous to any persons in that country?
  5. Under what circumstances does Adam Smith consider that protective import duties are advisable? Apply his arguments to the present trade of England.
  6. What has Adam Smith to say upon “the discouragement of agriculture in Ancient Europe”?

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 115.

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SPECIAL EXAMINATION IN MORAL SCIENCE FOR THE ORDINARY B.A. DEGREE.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
SATURDAY, Nov. 30, 1872. 9 to 12.

  1. How do you define a tax? Are gas and water rates, and tolls on bridges, taxes?
  2. Give some account of the principal causes which make the Rate of Discount in any country fluctuate from year to year. Why do Consols fall at the mere anticipation of a war between two foreign countries?
  3. Describe some of the principal ways in which Governments have interfered with the natural price of food.
  4. Bastiat maintains that the ‘domain of what is gratuitous is continually enlarging’: explain this statement, and shew what use he makes of it.
  5. How does Bastiat define Value? According to his use of the word, would it be accurate to say that the value of meat has trebled during the last fifty years?
  6. In discussions upon Communism we frequently meet with the terms Natural and Artificial Organization of Society: what is the distinction between them?
  7. On what grounds is property in land singled out for special attack? How does Bastiat meet such attacks?
  8. Give some account of the functions of Banks in earlier times, and compare them with their present functions.
  9. What does Adam Smith understand by the Natural Progress of Opulence? How has it been interfered with?

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 116.

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SPECIAL EXAMINATION IN MORAL SCIENCE FOR THE ORDINARY B.A. DEGREE.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
MONDAY, June 2, 1873. 9 to 12.

[Fawcett’s Manual of Political Economy]

  1. Distinguish between Wealth, Capital, and Money.
  2. Illustrate the two following statements:
    1. The labour of productive labourers is not unfrequently unproductive.
    2. Labour which is unproductive may yet be very useful.

How does Fawcett propose to extend Mill’s definition of Productive Labour?

  1. Investigate the advantages and disadvantages of farming on a large and small scale.
    How far would it be possible to secure the advantages of both large and small farming by the application of the joint-stock principle?
  2. “In the absence of agricultural improvements, more land is not brought into cultivation, unless the value of agricultural produce is increased.”
    Shew the connexion of this proposition with Ricardo’s theory of Rent, and examine any objections which have been brought against that theory.
  3. “The increase of national prosperity has as yet made but little impression upon the condition of the labouring classes.” Do you think that this statement is true? If you do, how do you account for the fact, and what remedies do you consider the most likely to be effectual? If you do not, state the reasons for your opinion.
  4. What are the principal causes of the different rates of wages in different employments, and in different localities either of the same or of different countries?
  5. What are the elements of which profits are composed? In what sense is it true that “the profits of different trades have a constant tendency to become equalized”?
  6. Give a short account of the tenure known as Métayer, pointing out under what conditions it is likely to work well.
  7. What are the principal points in which the laws regulating the price of iron ore, and those regulating the price of cotton fabrics, differ? How is the price of an ancient statue determined?
  8. Give some account of the laws which regulate the value of gold.

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 355.

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SPECIAL EXAMINATION IN MORAL SCIENCE FOR THE ORDINARY B.A. DEGREE.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
MONDAY, June 2, 1873. 1 to 4.

(Half the total marks for this paper will be assigned to the Essay.)

  1. State as strongly as you can the arguments for and against the appropriation of landed property by the State.
  2. What is meant by the Solidarity of Society?
    Discuss the relation between the Solidarity of Society and the social effects of the principle of Competition.
  3. Compare the views of Smith and Bastiat upon the nature of Value.
  4. “Where Malthus saw Discordance, attention to this element enables us to discover Harmony.”
    What was the nature of this ‘Discordance’?
    How is Bastiat enabled ‘to discover Harmony’?
    Compare the views of other Economists.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Write an essay on one of the following subjects:—

(a) The Mercantile System.
(b) The Navigation Laws.
(c) The Poor-law Question.
(d) The Custom of Primogeniture.

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 356.

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SPECIAL EXAMINATION IN MORAL SCIENCE FOR THE ORDINARY B.A. DEGREE.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
TUESDAY, June 3, 1873. 9 to 12.

  1. State and criticise Smith’s account of the elements that form the natural price of commodities.
  2. How does Smith divide land considered in its relation to rent? Is the division a sound one?
  3. Trace the effect of the progress of improvement upon the price of (a) silver, (b) cattle, (c) wool.
  4. Explain the nature of a promissory note, a bill of exchange, an exchequer bill.
    What circumstances make the rate of exchange unfavourable to a country?
  5. Examine Smith’s views with regard to the comparative benefit to society of the employment of capital in farming and in manufactures.
  6. Shew how credit facilitates production.
  7. Discuss the economic effects of bounties on production, and on exportation of corn.
  8. Give some account of the Methuen treaty; the motives which led to it; and its effects upon the trade of the countries concerned in it.
  9. Discuss the comparative advantages and disadvantages of direct and indirect taxation.
  10. Investigate the causes of the prosperity of new colonies.

Source:  Cambridge University Examination Papers. Michaelmas Term, 1872 to Easter Term, 1873 (Cambridge, 1873), p. 357.

Image Source: Mathematical Bridge at Queen’s College, Cambridge University (1865).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Elementary, Full, and Advanced Political Economy. 1880-81

 

This post reaches back to the early years of Harvard’s (then) department of political economy. A grand total of three courses were offered in 1880-81. The textbooks of choice were Mill’s Principles of Political Economy and Cairnes’ Leading Principles of Political Economy. Some links to the chapters/sections cited are included below.

1879-80 Harvard Exams in Political Economy

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Harvard College Courses
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

  1. The Elements of Political Economy.—Financial Legislation of the United States.—Lectures. Twice a week. Professor Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin.
    Course 1 is intended for students who desire to pursue the study for only one year.
  2. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. —Financial Legislation of the United States. —Lectures. Three times a week. Professor Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin.
    Courses 1 and 2 cannot be taken together, nor can either be taken by any student who has taken the other.
  3. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. —McLeod’s Elements of Banking. —Bastiat’s Harmonies Economiques. —Lectures. Three times a week. Professor Dunbar.
    Students proposing to take course 3 must first consult the Instructor.

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1880-81, pp. 82-83.

Harvard Graduate Department
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

  1. Public Finance. —Leroy-Beaulieu’s Science des Finances. Once a week. Professor Dunbar.

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1880-81, pp. 192. [apparently not taught in 1880-81 according to the Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1880-81, p. 62.]

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Political Economy Course Enrollments
1880-1881

No. of Sec-tions Hours per week for stu-dents Hours per week for instruct-tors
Prof. Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin Political Econ. 1 Elementary Course.—Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures 22 Total:
7 Seniors,
4 Juniors,
9 Sophomores,
2 Others.		 1 2 2
Prof. Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin Political Econ. 2 Full Course.—Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Currency and the Financial Legislation of the United States 100 Total:
13 Seniors,
73 Juniors,
13 Sophomores,
1 Other.		 2 3 6
Prof. Dunbar Political Econ. 3 Advanced Course.—Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy.—Giffen’s Essays in Finance.—Lectures 12 Total:
1 Graduate,
8 Seniors,
2 Juniors,
1 Law.		 1 3 3

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1880-1881, p. 49.

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The John Stuart Mill’s Principles:
textbook of Harvard choice

Most likely edition of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy used at Harvard was a New York reprint of the London 5th edition. It corresponds to the pages given for the mid-year exam in Political Economy 1 from 1879-80.

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Final Examinations
Mid-Year and End-Year, 1880-1881

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81 with references to J. S. Mill]

  1. Explain the following terms: Real Wages, Fixed Capital, Allowance System, Margin of Cultivation, Price, Demand, Medium of Exchange, Seignorage, Value of Money, and Bill of Exchange.
  2. In what way would a general demand for luxuries effect productive laborers, and the wealth of the community? ( I., ch. v, §5)
  3. State the laws which regulate the permanent and temporary values of agricultural products.
  4. How far does the law of Demand and Supply govern the value of money? ( III., ch. ii., §5.)
  5. Explain the following statement: “It is true, the absolute wages paid have no effect upon values; but neither has the absolute quantity of labor.” ( III., ch. iv., §3.)
  6. Show how Gresham’s Law is illustrated by the history of the currency in the United States between 1834-1873.
  7. What are the different forms assumed by credit? What are their relative effects on prices? ( III., chs. xi. and xii.)
  8. State the doctrine of Comparative Cost. What is the advantage of international trade to the production of a country?
  9. What determines the value of imported commodities?
  10. Describe the issue of assignats, and point out the mistakes committed.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Papers Set for Mid-year Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (February, 1881) included in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1880-81, pp. 14-15.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with references to J. S. Mill]

  1. Define Supply, Value of Money, Productive Consumption, Cost of Production, Cost of Labor, Exchange Value, Law of Production from Land, Rate of Profit, Capital, and Gresham’s Law.
  2. Explain fully whether you consider that United States bonds are capital or not. (Book I., ch. 4, §3.)
  3. (1) What is the lowest rate of profit which can permanently exist?
    (2) Why is this minimum variable? (Book II., ch. xv., §2.)
  4. (1) What connection exists between the Price of agricultural products and the amount of Rent paid?
    (2) Can rent affect the Price?
  5. Explain carefully the following:—
    “The average value of gold is made to conform to its natural value in the same manner as the values of other things are made to conform to their natural value.” (Book III., [ch. ix] §2.)
  6. State the conditions under which International Trade can permanently exist. (Book III., ch xvii.) What will be the ultimate effect of a large movement of foreign gold upon Prices, Imports, and Exports in the receiving country?
  7. How does the general rate of interest determine the selling price of stocks and land? (Book III., ch. xxiii., §5.)
  8. Point out carefully the connection of money wages with the productive power of the land cultivated by a community. (Book III., ch. xxvi. §1.)
  9. What is the general effect of the progress of society on the land-owner, the capitalist, and the laborer? (Book IV., chs. ii., iii., iv.)
  10. On whom does a tax of a fixed proportion of agricultural produce fall? (Book V., ch. iv., §3.)
  11. Describe the leading provisions of the national bank system, as they now exist, in regard to (1) the security for notes; (2) reserves; redemption of notes; (3) aggregate limit of circulation; (4) gold banks; (5) and state the important changes made since the passage of the original act. (6) Compare our system with that of the Bank of England.
  12. State the provisions of the Resumption Act, and the circumstances which made it easy to resume specie payment at the date fixed upon

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Papers Set for Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1881) included in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1880-81, pp. 10-11.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81, with references to J. S. Mill]

In answering the Questions, do not change their order.
In all cases give the reasons for your answer.

  1. Is an actor to be classed as a productive laborer? The inventor of a machine? A confectioner?
  2. If in a country like this a large amount of capital becomes fixed in the building of railroads, what effect will this change taken by itself have upon the laboring class, supposing the capital to be (1) domestic, or (2) borrowed wholly or in part from abroad?
  3. How do banks help forward the tendency of profits to equivalent rates in different employments?
  4. To what extent is it true that “wages (meaning money wages) vary with the price of food, rising when it rises, and falling when it falls.” [Book II., ch. xi. §2]
  5. What determines
    1. the general rate of wages in a country,
    2. the relative rates of wages in different employments?
  6. How is it shown that “rent does not really form any part of the expenses of production or of the advances of the capitalist?” [Book II., ch. xvi. §6]
  7. How are we to reconcile these two passages from Book III., ch. IV.:—
    1. “High general profits cannot any more than high general wages, be a cause of high values.” (§4.)
    2. “Every rise or fall of general profits will have an effect on values.” (§5.)
  8. What is the system upon which the small silver currency of the United States is coined and issued?
  9. What will be the effect if the circulating medium of a country is increased beyond its natural amount,
    1. when the medium is coin?
    2. when it is coin and convertible paper?
    3. when it is inconvertible paper?
  10. Why does the increase or diminution of the reserve of a bank affect its ability to lend?
  11. What is the plan of the National Banks of the United States and of the Bank of England respectively, as regards (1) the ultimate redemption, and (2) the convertibility, of their notes?
  12. Arrange the following resources and liabilities of the Bank of England in the proper form, separating the Issue and the Banking Departments:—
Notes Issued £41.5 Government Securities £14.2
Other Deposits 27.9 Reserve 9.4
Other Securities (Loans) 27.9 Public Deposits 5.6
Coin and Bullion 26.5 Rest 3.2
Government Debt, &c. 15.0 Seven-day Bills 0.3
Capital 14.5
  1. Having arranged the account, show what changes would be made in it, if the Bank increased its loans by 3 millions, and sold 1 million of government securities, and if depositors at the same time withdrew 2 millions to be sent abroad.

**If you have time, state any difficulty which you find in Ricardo’s doctrine of rent.**

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Papers Set for Mid-year Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (February, 1881) included in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1880-81, pp. 15-16.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with a link to J. S. Mill]

One question may be omitted from each of the four groups.

I.

  1. Show carefully the distinction between wages, cost of labor and cost of production.
  2. Why is it that a potential change of the supply of other commodities is enough to make their value conform to any change in their cost of production, but that in the case of gold and silver the change of supply must be actual?
  3. What is the error involved in the assumption frequently made by writers and public speakers, that the currency of a country ought to increase in like ratio with its wealth and population?
  4. What effect does the great durability of gold and silver have upon the value of money?

II.

  1. Explain the incidence of taxes laid on wages.
  2. Explain what effect, if any, will be produced on the price of corn by,
    1. a tax upon rent;
    2. a tithe;
    3. a tax of so much per acre, irrespective of value;
    4. a tax of so much per bushel.
  3. What is the meaning of the statement that “it is not a difference in the absolute cost of production, which determines the interchange [of commodities between countries], but a difference in the comparative cost.” [Book III., ch. xvii, §2.]
  4. Why does cost of production fail to determine the value of commodities brought from a foreign country? Does it also fail in the case of commodities brought from distant parts of the same country?

III.

  1. What effect is produced upon rents, profits and wages, respectively, in a country where population is stationary and capital advancing, like France?
  2. Explain the doctrine of the tendency of profits to a minimum, the cause of that tendency, and the circumstances which counteract it.

IV.

  1. Explain the changes in the amount of greenbacks outstanding, beginning at February, 1868.
  2. Describe the provisions of the national bank system, as they now exist, and compare them with those of the Bank of England, in regard to (1) the security of notes; (2) reserves; (3) redemption of notes; (4) aggregate limit of circulation; (5) gold banks.
  3. State the provisions of the Resumption Act, and the circumstances which made it easy to resume specie payment at the date fixed upon.
  4. What was the difference between the five-twenty bonds and the six per cents. of 1881 (Act of July, 1861)? Why was it good policy for the government to issue such a large proportion of the former?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Papers Set for Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1881) included in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1880-81, pp. 11-12.

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Mid-Year Examination, 1880-81, with references to Cairnes, et al.]

Do not change the order of the questions.

  1. “No article is dearer than another simply in virtue of the skill bestowed upon it.” What then is the relation of skill to value? [J. E. Cairnes. Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874), p. 76]
  2. What is the argument for the proposition that the price of corn, in the progress of society, reaches a maximum, beyond which it cannot advance?
  3. When a depreciation of currency is in progress, what will be the difference in the effect on the prices of manufactured goods, vegetable products, and animal products respectively?
  4. What is meant by saying that a nation is interested, not in having its prices high or low, but in having its gold cheap?
  5. Explain the statement that “the high scale of industrial remuneration in America, instead of being evidence of a high cost of production in that country, is distinctly evidence of a low cost of production.” [J. E. Cairnes. Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874), p. 385]
  6. This being shown, “how is the fact to be explained, that the people of the United States are unable to compete in neutral markets in the sale of certain imported wares, with England and other European countries?” [J. E. Cairnes.Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874), p. 386]
  7. “The laws of political economy express tendencies.” Examine this statement, and show the meaning of the word “law” as used in economic discussion.
  8. Examine the following statement of the doctrine of rent and of the deductions therefrom:—
    “Ricardo taught that cultivation begins, when land is first open to occupation and population is scarce, with the richest soils, and thence of necessity proceeds, with the growth of numbers, steadily to poorer and still poorer, until at last all proportion must cease, and famine and death relieve the overburdened earth; the end being only postponed, as assassination is said to temper despotism, by a graduated massacre, in the forms of war, pestilence and famine, which anticipate by performing the catastrophe in detail; that is, if people did not die prematurely in series adjusted to the overruling law they would have to perish at last in the lump.—Elder’s Memoir of Carey, p. 14.
  9. Examine the position taken in the following extract from an argument in disproof of the Malthusian Theory:—
    “The question of fact into which this issue resolves itself is not in what stage of population is most subsistence produced? But in what stage of population is there exhibited the greatest power of producing wealth? For the power of producing wealth in any form is the power of producing subsistence—and the consumption of wealth in any form, or of wealth producing power, is equivalent to the consumption of subsistence….Thus the power of any population to produce the necessaries of life is not to be measured by the necessaries of life actually produced, but by the expenditure of power in all modes.
    “There is no necessity for abstract reasoning. The question is one of simple fact. Does the relative power of producing wealth increase with the increase of population?”— Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, pp. 126-7.
  10. Also the following:—
    “Agricultural profits cannot fall unless recourse is had to poorer land, but such land will never be cultivated, since capitalists can never be willing to submit to a fall of profit: and the very meaning of the expression that some land is not worth cultivating, is, that it will not yield the ordinary profit to the farmer who should attempt to reclaim it. It appears then, that the rate of profit is stationary in agriculture, and, consequently, in all other trades; and that whatever rate be established in an early stage of society, it must remain the same throughout its subsequent development.”— Shadwell’s System of Political Economy, p. 165.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Papers Set for Mid-year Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (February, 1881) included in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1880-81, pp. 16-17.

__________________

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Final, Year-End Examination, 1880-81, with references to Cairnes and Giffen]

  1. What effect has the existence of “non-competing groups” on the exchange of commodities, each of which is the product of several classes of labor, as g. the exchange of a steam engine for cotton cloth?
  2. How far are prices determined by Reciprocal International Demand, Reciprocal Domestic Demand, and cost of Production respectively? Is any change to be made in Cairnes’s statement that “an alteration in the reciprocal demand of two trading nations will act upon the price, not of any commodity in particular, but of every commodity which enters into the trade?” [J. E. Cairnes. Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1874), p. 93]
  3. What inferences are to be drawn from a regularly recurring excess of exports? In what respect is it to be viewed with satisfaction, or the reverse?
  4. The destruction of our carrying trade is spoken of as causing us a serious economic loss. What is the nature of the loss?
  5. A public officer in a recent interview set forth that,—
    “The sorghum, tea and silk industries will before many years save the United States importations amounting to about two hundred million dollars;” and that, inter alia, “we can raise on American soil a tea that will compete successfully in the market of the world and that will save us an annual tribute to foreigners of twenty-two millions.”
    What effect, if any, would this be likely to have on the competition of foreign manufactures with our own?
  6. How was the payment of the French indemnity effected with so little immediate disturbance of the money market, and what connection had the payment with the financial crisis of 1873?
  7. Although “war, it is understood, makes money dear,” still Mr. Giffen (writing in 1872) says that “we are entitled to say that money has been cheap in Europe, notwithstanding the war.” Why did the war not produce the usual effect? [Robert Giffen. Essays in Finance (3rd 1882), p. 55.]
  8. What grounds are there for believing that, at the lowest point of the recent commercial depression, England, instead of “living on her capital,” as some maintained, was still accumulating?
  9. “If we observe that the commencement of the great crisis in the commerce and trade of the world coincides precisely with the demonetization of silver in North America and Germany, we shall easily perceive the connection of causes between that fact and these phenomena, and see that the mischievous results of the demonetization of silver must, from year to year, become more apparent.”
  10. What are Mr. Giffen’s views as to the possibility of an early reduction of the English national debt? What is the nature and advantage of the operation in terminable annuities sometimes undertaken for this purpose?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Papers Set for Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1881) included in the bound volume Examination Papers, 1880-81, pp. 12-13.

Image Source: Harvard Square in 1882 from the Brookline Photograph Collection, Public Library of Brookline.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. General Exams in Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Theory. Spring, 1992

 

The following general examinations for microeconomic and macroeconomic theory (Spring 1992) have been transcribed from a collection of general exams at Harvard from the 1990s provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Waggoner Wozniak (Harvard economics Ph.D., 2005). Abigail Wozniak was an associate professor of economics at Notre Dame before being appointed a senior research economist and the first director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is most grateful for her generosity in sharing this valuable material.

The “Wozniak collection” is over 90 pages long, so it will take some time for all the exams to get transcribed.

Transcriptions are also available for: 

Spring 1991. General Examinations in Microeconomic Theory and Macroeconomic Theory.

Fall 1992. Microeconomic Theory and Macroeconomic Theory.

___________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 2010b: FINAL EXAMINATION and
GENERAL EXAMINATION IN MICROECONOMIC THEORY

Spring Term 1992

For those taking the GENERAL EXAM in microeconomic theory:

  1. You have FOUR
  2. Answer a total of FIVE questions subject to the following constraints:
    *at least ONE from part I;
    *at least TWO from Part II;
    *EXACTLY ONE from Part III.

For those taking the FINAL EXAMINATION in Economics 2010b (not the General Examination):

  1. You have THREE HOURS
  2. Answer a total of four questions subject to the following constraint:
    *DO NOT ANSWER ANY questions from Part I;
    *at least TWO from Part II;
    *at least ONE from Part III.

 

PLEASE USE A SEPARATE BLUE BOOK FOR EACH QUESTION

PLEASE PUT YOUR NAME (OR EXAM NUMBER) ON EACH BOOK

 

PART I (Questions 1 and 2)

QUESTION 1

A consumer in a three good economy (goods denoted x1, x2 and x3; prices by p1, p2, p3) with wealth level w>0 has demand functions for commodities 1 and 2 given by:

\begin{array}{l}{{x}_{1}}=100-5\,\,\frac{{{p}_{1}}}{{{p}_{3}}}+\beta \,\,\frac{{{p}_{2}}}{{{p}_{3}}}+\delta \,\,\frac{w}{{{p}_{3}}}\\{{x}_{2}}=\alpha -\beta \,\,\frac{{{p}_{1}}}{{{p}_{3}}}+\gamma \,\,\frac{{{p}_{2}}}{{{p}_{3}}}+\delta \,\,\frac{w}{{{p}_{3}}}\end{array}

Where Greek letters are non-zero constants.

i) Indicate (but don’t actually do it!) how to calculate the demand for the third good, good 3.

ii) Are the demand functions for x1 and x2 appropriately homogeneous?

iii) Calculate the numerical values of \alpha ,  \beta , \gamma . (Hint: what are the various restrictions on the consumer’s demand function and on the relationships between various demand functions? Have you made use yet of all of them?)

iv) Given your results above, draw for a fixed level of x3, the consumer’s indifference curve in the x, y plane.

v) What does your answer to (iv) imply about the form of the consumer’s utility function u(x1, x2, x3)?

 

QUESTION 2

Consider a Cournot duopoly. The inverse demand function is

p=100 – (q1 +q2)

where qi, i= 1,2, is the production of firm i (Note: if q1+q2 ≥100 then the price is zero). Marginal cost for the two firms is constant and equal to zero.

  1. Show that given the production qi≤100 of firm i the optimal reaction of firm j (j \ne i) is qj = ½ (100-qi). Use this to compute the Cournot-Nash equilibrium. Draw also the reaction function.
  2. Argue that it can never be a best response for any firm to supply more than x1=50. Argue then that if no firm will ever supply more than 50 then no firm will ever supply less than x2=25.
  3. Continue the above recursion and determine the limit of xt. Interpret in terms of the concept of rationalizability (define terms).

 

PART II (Questions 3, 4 and 5)

QUESTIONS 3

Consider the following 2 person, 2 commodity general equilibrium model. Individual 1 is risk neutral and has a utility function

u1(x,q) = x + y

Individual 2 is risk averse and has von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function

u2(x,y) = x½ + y.

Individual 1’s endowment of good y is {\bar{Y}}, he has no x. There are three states of nature and the endowment of individual 2 depends on the state. The levels of endowment of x are x1, x2 and x3. He has no y.

  1. Suppose the subjective beliefs are that each state is equally likely. Find a complete-market Arrow-Debreu equilibrium.
  2. Suppose there is a market for the delivery of x and y only uncontingently. Find the equilibrium. Is it efficient?
  3. Suppose that before any trade takes place, all individuals will be told whether or not state 1 will arise. They are not able to distinguish between states 2 and 3 at this stage. Find the equilibrium as it depends on the information disseminated.
  4. Calculate the expected utility attained in the equilibrium of part c), ex ante (i.e. before any announcement is known), using the fact that the probability that the individuals will be told that the state is 1 is 1/3, and that it is not 1 is 2/3. Under what conditions (on x1, x2 and x3) is the information socially valuable. Comment.

 

QUESTION 4

[This problem concerns a firm which is not explicitly optimizing anything. We just want to study the stability of its profitability and debt-equity structure.]

At each instant of time, the firm employs only a single factor, capital, in an amount K. Gross profits are f(K), concave and increasing in K. It has a certain level of borrowing B on which it owes rB in interest costs; r is fixed. Net profits therefore are

\pi = f(K) – rB

Some of the profit is distributed in the form of dividends, D. The rest of it is held as retained earnings R. Suppose the firm follows the “dividend policy”

\begin{array}{l}R=\alpha \pi \,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,0\le \alpha \le 1\\D=\left( 1-\alpha  \right)\pi \end{array}

The change in firm’s stock capital is equal to the sum of its level of retained earnings R and new borrowing B minus depreciation \delta K (\delta > 0)

\dot{K}=R+\dot{B}-\delta K

Its level of new borrowing responds positively to the excess of current net profits above a target level \pi *, according to

\dot{B}=\beta \left( \pi -\pi * \right)

\beta \ge 0.

In an equilibrium, K, B, \pi , R and D are all constant.

1) Assume we have an equilibrium for fixed parameters \alpha and \beta . For what values is it locally stable?

2) Equity in the firm is, by definition, K – B. Find the steady-state debt-equity ratio, in terms of the parameters and the production function.

Assuming that the equilibrium is stable,

3) What is the effect of a small increase in \pi * on the equilibrium debt-equity ratio?

 

QUESTION 5

There are n men and n women. Each man has an ordering over the set of women, and each woman has an ordering over the set of men. (indifference is not allowed)

  1. Show that in any Pareto optimal system of pairing men and (i.e. a pairing that cannot be dominated by another system), someone must get his/her first choice.
  2. Consider the following system: Each man proposes to the woman whom he most prefers. Women receiving more than one proposal accept the one they like the best. (Women receiving exactly one proposal accept it.)
    Next, all men whose proposals were rejected, propose to the woman they most prefer from among those who have not yet accepted proposals. The rules for acceptance are as above. This continues until all pairings have been completed.
    Is the result a Pareto optimum?
    Is it in the core of this game, suitably defined? (supply your own definition here).
  3. Show by example how the system could be manipulated by a man who knew the preferences of all other men and who could profess false preferences.

 

PART III (ANSWER EXACTLY 1 QUESTION) (Questions 6 and 7)

QUESTION 6

What does “competition” mean in the context of neoclassical theory? To what extent are neo-Marxian and neo-Keynesian theories compatible with the neoclassical idea of competitive markets? What alternatives to neoclassical adjustment processes characterize Marxian and Keynesian theories?

 

QUESTION 7

Paul Samuelson once urged us “(r)emember that in a perfectly competitive market it really doesn’t matter who hires whom; so have labor hire ‘capital’”. (“Wages and Interest: a Modern Dissection of Marxian Economic Models.” American Economic Review, 1957) Does it really not matter who hires whom in neoclassical theory? Is the same true in a Marxian framework? A Keynesian framework?

 

Source: Department of Economics, Harvard University. Past General Exams Spring 1991-Spring 1999, pp. 60-66. Copy provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Wozniak.

___________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 2010d: FINAL EXAMINATION
and
GENERAL EXAMINATION IN MACRO ECONOMIC THEORY

Spring Term 1992

FINAL EXAMINATION

Instructions for all Economics Department graduate students:

The examination will last four hours.

Answer all three parts of the examination (Parts I, II and III). Within each part, be sure to answer two questions (so that, in all, you will answer six questions).

Use a separate bluebook for each question. Clearly indicate the question number and your identification number on the front of each bluebook.

Do not indicate your name on any bluebook you submit.

Instructions for all other students:

The examination will last three hours.

Answer Parts II and III only. Within each part, be sure to answer two questions (so that, in all, you will answer four questions).

Use a separate bluebook for each question. Clearly indicate the question number and your name on the front of each bluebook.

 

PART I:

  1.  Consider the following q-theory of investment:

(1) I=I\left( q \right)\,\,\,\,\,\,I\acute{\ }>0

(2) \dot{K}=I-\delta K

(3) r={\left( \dot{q}+\pi  \right)}/{q}\;

(4) \pi =\pi \left( K \right)\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\pi \acute{\ }

Where I is investment, q is Tobin’s q, K is the capital stock, \delta is the depreciation rate, r is the required rate of return, and \pi is the profit from owning one unit of capital.

  1. What is Tobin’s q?
  2. Interpret each equation.
  3. Write the model in terms of two variables and two laws of motion.
  4. What is the state (non-jumping) variable, and what is the costate (jumping) variable?
  5. Draw the phase diagram for this model, including arrows showing the dynamics, the steady state, and the stable path.
  6. Because of an increase in acid rain, the depreciation of capital (\delta ) suddenly increases. Assume the change is permanent. Compare the old and new steady states.
  7. Describe the transition between the old and the new steady states.
  8. Suppose now that (because of strong environmental policies) the increase in \delta is only temporary. Describe the effects.

 

Question 2 (Answer both Parts)

  1. (20 minutes)
    The Solow model assumes a constant gross saving rate, whereas the neoclassical growth model determines the saving rate through household optimization.

    1. Explain the forces in the neoclassical growth model that make the saving rate rise or fall as an economy develops.
    2. How does this behavior of the saving rate influence the convergence rate—that is, the per capita growth rate of a poor country relative to a rich country? (Assume here that all countries are closed and have the same underlying parameters of technology and preferences.)
  2. (20 minutes)
    “The imperfection of private credit markets implies that a cut in lump-sum taxes, financed by a budget deficit, affects the economy. In particular, in a full-employment setting,

    1. a larger deficit crowds out private investment, and
    2. a budget deficit is a “bad idea.”
      Discuss and comment.

 

PART II

Answer any two of the following three questions. Be sure to use a separate bluebook for each answer.

  1. A familiar suggestion to central banks is to conduct monetary policy by “targeting” nominal income. Distinguish (a) the argument for targeting nominal income on the ground that this is the measure of economic activity the central bank should ultimately care about affecting, from (b) the argument for targeting nominal income on the ground that doing so will best enable the central bank to affect some other aspect(s) of economic activity in an optimal way. In your analysis of argument (a), be specific about the preference that this notion of nominal income targeting implies with respect to real income and prices separately, and say whether you think these preferences are sensible (and why). In your analysis of (b), this way would lead to a better outcome than focusing monetary policy directly on those aspects of economic activity that the central bank ultimately seeks to affect.
  2. “When money, interest-bearing government debt and productive capital are imperfect substitutes in investors’ portfolios, the economy can achieve a stable growth equilibrium only if the part of the government’s primary deficit (that is, its deficit exclusive of interest payments) that it finances by issuing new debt is equal to some particular value in relation to the economy’s size, where the deficit/income ratio is uniquely determined by specific parameters describing economic behavior. If the government attempts to run a larger debt-financed primary deficit, its growing debt will crowd out private capital, which in turn will raise the real interest rate, which will cause the government’s interest payments to rise, which will make its outstanding debt grow even faster—all in an explosive way—and vice versa if the deficit/income ratio is too small.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? Be specific about the assumptions underlying your answer.
  3. Under what conditions would the government’s choice among alternative forms of interest-bearing debt, to finance a given non-monetized deficit, affect (a) the aggregate level of real economic activity, and/or (b) the composition of real economic activity, and/or (c) the price level? Why? Under what conditions would this choice affect none of (a), (b) or (c)? Be explicit about the assumptions you make in describing both sets of conditions.

 

PART III

QUESTION 6

Consider an economy with overlapping generations of identical two-period lived consumers who work in the first period of their life and consume in the second period. The utility function of a consumer representative of the generation born at time t is

{{U}_{t}}={{c}_{t+1}}-\frac{1}{2}a_{t}^{2},

Where ct+1 denotes the consumption taking place at t +1, of a consumer born at t and a her labor supply at time t. Output is produced with labor using a linear production function: one unit of labor yields one unit of output. Output is non-storable. Population is constant.

  1. Show that the competitive equilibrium of this economy is Pareto sub-optimal. Explain why.
  2. Propose two schemes to eliminate this inefficiency. Show precisely how to implement them and compare the resulting welfare levels to the welfare level achieved by the economy described in the previous question. [Restrict yourself, for simplicity, to schemes yielding constant consumption and employment over time.]
  3. What is the channel through which your two proposed schemes affect employment? How does this channel compare with the transmission mechanism of i) real business cycle models, and ii) Keynesian models?

QUESTION 7

You are asked to testify in the Senate about the advisability of phasing out the current U.S. social security scheme. Sketch the argument that you would make in favor of or against this phasing out, knowing that the Senators whom you are addressing have no tolerance for mathematics.

QUESTION 8

In a large open economy, what is the equilibrium effect on national saving and investment of a shift in desired domestic saving (originating, say, from a change in how patient domestic consumers are) or in desired domestic investment (coming, for instance, from a permanent productivity shock)? Does your answer shed any light on the debate about how well international capital markets operate?

 

Source: Department of Economics, Harvard University. Past General Exams Spring 1991-Spring 1999, pp. 67-71. Copy provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Wozniak.

 

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Final exam for graduate international economics (Economics 370). Metzler, Fall 1953.

 

Lloyd Metzler’s Chicago graduate course Economics 370 covered monetary aspects of foreign trade. [ Economics 370 Reading List, 1950]. Today’s post adds the course examination of the fall quarter of 1953.

_______________________

Biographical Note

From the guide to the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at the University of Chicago archives.

Lloyd Appleton Metzler was born on April 3, 1913 in Lost Springs, Kansas. He attended the University of Kansas, where he studied economics under John Ise and earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1935 and an MBA in 1938. Metzler then entered Harvard University. He served as an instructor and tutor at Harvard and completed a Ph.D. in economics in 1942. His dissertation, “Interregional Income Generation,” earned him the Wells Prize. That same year, Metzler was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.

From Harvard, Metzler went on to Washington, D.C., where worked for the Office of Strategic Services and several economic policy and planning commissions between 1943 and 1946. Metzler joined the research staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1944. In 1946 he returned to academia when he accepted a teaching position at Yale University. He soon left Yale for the University of Chicago in 1947, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Dr. Metzler survived surgery for a brain tumor in 1952, and with the help of his wife Edith, managed to continue teaching and writing for the next twenty years. He served as Editor of the Journal of Political Economy from 1966 until his retirement in 1971. Metzler made numerous contributions to business cycle literature, macro-monetary theory, tariff theory, mathematical economics, and the field of international trade. The Metzler paradox, Laursen-Metzler effect, and Metzler matrix, all bear his name. He died on October 26, 1980.

_______________________

ECONOMICS 370
Fall 1953
Examination, Dec. 18, 1953

Answer all questions.

(1) A given country has the following balance of payments:

Payments Receipts
Imports 100 Exports 500
Income Transfers (net)
…(1) Interest, Dividends, Profits 50
…(2) Unilateral Transfers 150
Capital Outflow 200 .    .
500 500

Assuming that consumption and net investment amount to $5,000, indicate three ways in which national income may be defined. What is the significance of each definition?
(Note: if the numerical example troubles you, a definition of income in terms of broad categories, without numbers, will be quite satisfactory.)

(2) Discuss graphically the relations between the balance of trade and the flow of capital. Show, in particular, the circumstances under which the capital flow would adjust itself to a rather rigid balance of trade and the circumstances in which the balance of trade would adjust itself to a rigid capital movement. (In discussing these questions, you may make any assumptions you please as to the cause of the initial disturbance.)

(3) Suppose that two countries are on a flexible-exchange standard and that the exchange standard is so efficient that the supply of foreign exchange is for practical purposes equal to demand. Suppose, further, that the state of balance is temporarily disturbed by an outflow of capital from Country I to Country II—i.e., the capital flow schedule of Country I shifts to the right. Assuming that the banks do not destroy or create any new money, show, in the new equilibrium, what happens to prices, the exchange rate, and the rate of interest in each country. (You may assume, for this purpose that with the given supply and demand schedules, the capital outflow requires a level of prices and income in Country I just half as high, relative to prices and income in Country II as before.)
Contrast the conditions of equilibrium with those in a fixed-exchange system.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Econ 371 Exams”.

Source Image: Posting by Margie Metzler on the Metzler Family Tree at the genealogical website, ancestry.com.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for consolidated undergrad and graduate public finance. Butters and Soloway, 1955

The public finance syllabus for 1954-55 as taught by J. Keith Butters and Arnold M. Soloway has been transcribed and posted earlier. With this post we now have the January (mid-year) and May (end-year) exams for this course.

________________________

1954-1955
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 151 AND 251
Mid-Year Examination. January, 1955

Answer Question 1: recommended time one hour and fifteen minutes.

  1. Assume that within the next year or so the current business expansion continues to the point where unemployment is reduced to a very low level and inflationary price rises are beginning to be evident. Assume that this expansion is caused by an intensification of factors now present in the economy such as: (a) a high level of consumer spending; (b) large business expenditures on plant and equipment and in the construction market generally; (c) a resumption of fairly rapid inventory accumulations. Assume that the international situation remains approximately unchanged and that for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1956 the administrative budget of the federal government is expected to be approximately in balance at a level of about $65 billion.
    1. Query: Under these circumstances compare the relative effectiveness and merits as anti-inflationary fiscal measures of (a) a government surplus produced by a reduction in the level of government expenditures on real goods and services; (b) an equivalent surplus caused by an increase in tax rates; and (c) a balanced reduction in expenditures and receipts. In answering this question specify any assumptions which you care to make or need to make.
    2. Query: Under these circumstances indicate the extent to which you would prefer to rely (a) on fiscal policy techniques (such as any of the above) as compared with (b) measures of monetary policy and debt management. What are the reasons for your preferences? To the extent that you prefer to rely partly or wholly on measures of monetary policy and debt management, indicate the specific techniques which you would recommend and their presumed effects.

Answer Question 2: recommended time forty-five minutes.

  1. “The procedures by which the federal budget of the United States government is formulated and enacted tend to produce undesirable distortions in the amount and distribution of federal expenditures and receipts.” Discuss this statement. In your discussion indicate the specific features of the budgetary process which produce such distortions and the theoretical principles in terms of which the proper distribution and amount of federal expenditures and receipts should be appraised.

Answer either Question 3 or 4: recommended time one-half hour.

  1. Describe the federal old-age and survivors’ insurance program now in effect in the United States. Indicate the main trends in the historical evolution of this program since its original enactment in 1935. What gaps or defects from either an economic or an equity standpoint do you see in the program as it now exists?
  2. Discuss the main historical shifts which have taken place in the revenue and expenditure patterns of state and local units of government as compared with those of the federal government of the United States during the period 1925-1950. What problems have been created by these shifts and what courses of action are indicated as a means of overcoming these problems?

Answer Question 5: recommended time one-half hour.

  1. Under the present federal taxing process, how is the general public interest protected from overextensions of favors to special interest groups? Is the present protection sufficient? What modifications, if any, would you suggest in the present procedures? (Answer this question specifically in terms of the reading period assignment.)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Bound Volume 107, Final Exams—Social Sciences—Jan. 1955, Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Naval Science, Air Science. January, 1955.

________________________

1954-1955
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 151 AND 251
Final Examination. May, 1955

Answer Question 1: recommended time one and one-half hours.

  1. “Justice in taxation and a high rate of economic growth are two frequently stated aims of government policy.” Discuss the present personal and corporate income taxes in the light of these goals. In your discussion be specific as to the relevant issues such as (for example): concepts of justice; definitions of taxable income; the problem of capital gains; etc.

Answer three of Questions 2 through 5: recommended time one-half hour for each question answered.

  1. Sales and excise taxes should not be used in our federal tax structure because they are regressive, deflationary, and price-distorting. Discuss.
  2. When economists study a particular tax they use such terms as “shifting,” “incidence,” and “effects.” Define these terms and discuss them in connection with
    1. a tax on net profits
    2. a tax on the rent of land.
  3. Describe the present method of taxing transfers, either by gift or at death. Discuss the weaknesses of the present law and possible methods of correcting them.
  4. Discuss critically the major differences between Tucker and Musgrave in their analyses of the tax burden.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Bound Volume 110, Final Exams—Social Sciences—June. 1955, Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Naval Science, Air Science. June, 1955.

Image Source:  Harvard Business School, The Annual Report 1954.

Categories
Exam Questions M.I.T.

M.I.T. General Examinations in International Economics. Feb/May 1966

 

The following general exams for the field of international economics in 1966 at M.I.T. cover mainly topics related to international payments and finance as opposed to pure trade theory and commercial policy. 

The general exams in international economics from 1959 have been posted earlier.

_________________________

General Examination in International Economics
February 9, 1966

  1. Make the case for or against economic integration, as you define it, in Europe, in a particular corner of the world, or more widely.
  2. Working Party 3 of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been assigned the topic of balance-of-payments adjustment policy. Write a sketch of the line it should take, in your estimation, regarding speed of adjustment, approved mechanisms, responsibilities of surplus countries, etc.
  3. In the wide ranging controversy about the adequacy of international monetary reserves, where do you inscribe yourself, and why?
  4. Discuss the theory of international trade in terms of the empirical support which various theories have been able to muster. Does one theory survive this testing better than others?
  5. Explain why, if it be true, that foreign trade was an effective engine of economic growth in the 19th century, but is not in the 20th.

_________________________

International Economics General Exam
May 1966

Write three essays, of one hour each, on Topic 1, and one each out of Groups 2 and 3 (but excluding the combination of #3 (United States) and #5).

Group 1

  1. The Relevance of the Theory of Comparative Advantage to Problems of Development in Less Developed Countries Today

Group 2

  1. The Role of Technological Change in Balance-of-Payments Disequilibrium
  2. Specific Policy Recommendations (with appropriate analysis) for the Balance-of-Payments Problem of the United Kingdom, the United States, or a developing country such as India

Group 3

  1. The Costs and Benefits of Well-Functioning International Capital Markets
  2. International Monetary Arrangements Today

 

Source: Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT Libraries. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examinations International Economics 1959-75”.

Image Source: Boston Public Library, Tichnor Brothers Postcard Collection. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. Tichnor Bros. Inc., Boston, Mass., 1930.

Categories
Chicago Economists Exam Questions

Chicago. Preliminary Examinations in Economic Theory. Friedman, chair. 1952

 

Today’s post includes not only the questions for the economic theory preliminary examinations (Part I and Part II) from the summer quarter of 1952 at the University of Chicago, but also some interesting background material. From Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution archives I have transcribed copies of the entire schedule of preliminary examinations for summer 1952 along with the correspondence between Friedman, Frank Knight and the departmental secretary. We can compare Friedman’s suggested questions with the questions that were actually used for the exam along with Friedman’s rankings of the anonymous examinations. Two sentences in Frank Knight’s letter to Friedman (after the grades had been compared among the graders and the veil of ignorance regarding the identities of the examinees was lifted) is definitely worth considering in light of current discussions about systemic elements of racism in the discipline of economics.

“I feel that these Negroes are in the same position as the Chinese students only more so in that they compete in a completely different market, and they are never really compared with our “full fledged” Ph.D. graduates. (Besides, between you and me, I have attended 4 or 5 Ph.D. exams this summer and thought very few of them ought to pass but they all did).”

I have gone on to track down the top eight examinees as ranked by Milton Friedman. Fun facts: Gary Becker won the bronze medal and Abba Lerner’s son, Lionel Lerner, placed fourth.

The summer 1951 theory preliminary exams were posted earlier.

_________________________

Schedule for the Preliminary Examinations
Summer 1952

July 15, 1952

To: Committee members of Preliminary examinations
From: J. Barker, Departmental Secretary
Re: Schedule and committees for Preliminary Examinations, Summer Quarter, 1952.

Date Examination Committee Registration
Tues., July 29 Economic Theory I M. Friedman, Chr.,
F. H. Knight
G. Tolley		 26
Thurs., July 31 Economic Theory II (as above) 4
Tues., July 29 Government Finance P. Thomson, Chr.
H. Lewis		 1
Thurs., July 31 Industrial Relations F. Harbison, Chr.
A. Rees
M. Reid		 1
Tues., Aug. 5 Money, Banking & Monetary Policy L. Mints, Chr.
E. Hamilton
J. Marschak		 21
Tues., Aug. 5 Statistics T. Koopmans, Chr.
W. Wallis		 4
Thurs., Aug. 7 Agricultural Economics D. Johnson, Chr.
T. Schultz
P. Thomson		 8
Thurs., Aug. 7 International Econoics L. Metzler, Chr.
C. Hildreth
H. Lewis		 9

_________________________

Friedman to Knight and Tolley
Carbon copy

Orford, N.H.
July [19 or 20], 1952

F. H. Knight
G. Tolley

Dear Knight and Tolley:

I have just received word from Miss Barker that I am chairman of the Theory prelim committee for this summer, that you are the other members, and that the exams are to be in her hands by July 22.

I wish you could join me here for a session to get out the exams—and I am sure you do too if what we have been hearing about the weather in Chicago bears any resemblance to the truth.

Since you cannot, I enclose some suggested questions for both Part I and Part II. I wonder if the two of you could get together and combine these or such of them as you think worthy of retention with your own questions. Time does not permit of rechecking with me and I assure you I shall be more than satisfied with whatever decisions the two of you make.

As to the papers, have them sent to me at any stage that suits your own plans best, since mine are very flexible. I shall try to read them promptly and return them promptly. If I send you in my grades, perhaps the two of you can combine them with your own. I realize this puts more of the work on you, but I know not what else to do. I do hope we can get the grades in reasonably promptly, and certainly before the end of the quarter, which also means before I return.

Many thanks, and apologies. Best regards too.

Yours,

_________________________

Friedman’s proposed theory exam questions
Summer 1952

M. Friedman

Suggested Questions for Theory Prelim, Summer, 1952

Part I

  1. Define the following terms precisely and indicate briefly the use made of each in economics:
    1. Demand
    2. Supply
    3. Equilibrium
    4. Indifference Curve
    5. Marginal
    6. Rate of Substitution
    7. Marginal value product
    8. Marginal efficiency of capital
    9. Production function
    10. Time preference
    11. Profit
    12. Rent
    13. Run
    14. Net advantages
    15. Variable Costs
  2. (a) “I wouldn’t take it if you paid me”. Draw the consumption indifference curves implied by this statement. (You may find it helpful to suppose first that there is some finite minimum price per unit at which the speaker would take “it”; then approach the limit implied by the quotation.)
    (b) “I’ve reached the point of diminishing returns, so I better quit”. Analyze, indicating under what conditions and for what definition of diminishing returns this is a valid inference from the conditions for a maximum.
  3. (a) Complaints are often heard about the “high” incomes of bootleggers in dry states, or gamblers where gambling is illegal, or smugglers, etc. Are high incomes in such cases evidence of the success or the failure of the laws? Explain your answer.
    (b) A man buys a ticket in a lottery and wins. View this as a business transaction. How much, if any, of his prize is properly regarded as “profit”? Does your answer use the concept of “profit” implicit in the common statement “entrepreneurs seek to maximize profit”? Justify your answer and indicate the difference, if any, between the two concepts.
  4. (a) Outline the theory of joint supply
    (b) What factors determine the elasticity of the derived supply curve of one of a pair of jointly supplied items? Show the direction of influences and prove your statements graphically or otherwise.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

M. Friedman

Suggested questions for theory prelim, Summer, 1952

Part II

  1. During every hyper-inflation there are always recurrent complaints of a “shortage of money.” How do you explain this phenomenon?
  2. The following quotation is from an article on the illicit gold traffic:
    “Traffic on the Asian gold-smuggling trails has doubled since Korea…Meanwhile savings which could be productively invested by banks lie idle; paper money is snubbed for gold, depreciates with every rise in the gold price, and becomes a weaker and weaker factor in national economies.” (H.R. Reinhardt, The Reporter, July 22, 1952, p.21).
    Analyze this quotation. Precisely what effect would the willingness of people to hold bank deposits instead of gold have on productivity or productive investment, and through what channels? What of sense and what of nonsense is there in the statements after the semi-colon?
  3. There has been much talk of the so-called “wage-price spiral.” What is generally meant by this term? Give a theoretical analysis of the so-called spiral, indicating under what circumstances you think it could or could not arise.

_________________________

Actual Economic Theory Preliminary Examination Questions
Summer, 1952

Summer, 1952

ECONOMIC THEORY I

Time: 4 hours

Answer all questions.

  1. Define the following terms precisely and indicate briefly the use made of each in economics:
    1. Demand
    2. Supply
    3. Indifference Curve
    4. Rate of Substitution
    5. Marginal value product
    6. Marginal efficiency of capital
    7. Production function
    8. Time preference
  2. (a) Outline the theory of joint supply
    (b) What factors determine the elasticity of the derived supply curve of one of a pair of jointly supplied items? Show the direction of influences and prove your statements graphically or otherwise.
  3. Assume that Crusoe is interested in economizing the use of his resources and that during the period in question there is no change in his knowledge of production techniques. How does capital and interest theory aid in explaining the following observations?

(a) After several years, Crusoe begins to obtain berries by planting and cultivation rather than simply by picking them as he had done previously.
(b) After an additional number of years, he reverts to picking wild berries.

  1. What theories do you offer to explain the following phenomena?

(a) During a prolonged rise in the general level of prices, the price of soft drinks remained at five cents with no change whatsoever in the physical characteristics of the product.
(b) During a prolonged rise in the general level of prices the price of candy bars remained at five cents, at the same time, however, as the size of the bars decreased.

  1. Using diagrams, briefly discuss the long-run cost curve for a competitive industry. Indicate, with diagrams, the response to be expected from (a) an expansion of demand, (b) a decrease of demand, within periods too short for a significant change in the fixed investment.
  2. Briefly state the main changes in the body of accepted price theory at the turn from “classical” to “Austrian” (the subjective-value school), i.e., at the “revolution” of the 1870’s. Similarly describe the transition from Austrian to “New-classical” (Marshallian) doctrine.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Summer, 1952

ECONOMIC THEORY II

Time: 2 ½ hours

Answer all questions.

  1. During every hyper-inflation there are recurrent complaints of a “shortage of money.” How do you explain this phenomenon? Compare the situation during acute depression.
  2. A part of the nation’s productive capacity is destroyed, say by a war. Ignoring any possible expectational and distributive effects, how will this affect: (a) the division of the national income between consumption and investment? and (b) the income-velocity of money. How, if at all, does your answer depend on whether wealth is a variable which influences behavior?
  3. There has been much talk of the so-called “wage-price spiral.” What is generally meant by this term? Give a theoretical analysis of the so-called spiral, indicating under what circumstances you think it would or would not arise.

_________________________

Theory Prelim, Summer, 1952, Part I. Grades by M. Friedman

General notes:

  1. I have classified the papers into five groups.

P—clear pass for the Ph.D. (7 papers)
P(?) Questionable pass for Ph.D. (5 papers)
A.M. Pass for a.M./questionable fail for Ph.D. (5 papers)
F(?) Questionable fail for A.M., clear fail for Ph.D. (4 papers)
F Clear fail for both (4 papers)

Should emphasize that as always this is somewhat arbitrary. In particular, difference between two fail classes is particularly small in this batch.

  1. In addition to the above class mark, Igive the ranking by my numerical grades. 1 is the best paper, 2, the next best, etc., to aid in seeing whether any differences among members of the committee reflect differences in absolute or relative grading.
# of candidate. Class grade Rank Remarks
1 AM 16
2 F 24
3 P 6
4 P(?) 8
5 P 5
6 F(?) 21
7 AM 14
8 P(?) 11
9 AM 15
10 P 4
11 P(?) 12
12 F 25
13 P 2 This and 15 distinctly the two best papers
14 F(?) 18
15 P 1 See under 13
16 AM 13
17 AM 17
18 F 23
19 F 22
20 P 7
21 P 3
23 F(?) 19
25 P(?) 10
26 F(?) 20
27 P(?) 9

 

PART II OF THEORY PRELIM

Not one of the three papers submitted on this part seems to me satisfactory. #1 is the best of the three, though not by much, and might deserve a questionable pass. Both of the others seem to me clear failures.

_________________________

 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Chicago 37, Illinois
Department of Economics

September 8, 1952

Mr. Milton Friedman
Orford
New Hampshire

Dear Milton:

Tolley and I have just gone over our three reports and find them fairly well in agreement. The most serious exception is #7—John J. Klein, whose paper you marked passable for the A.M. only, while both Tolley and I gave him a clear pass. Your rank was 14, as you probably have the record to show. What do you suggest? It will be no great hardship to us to re-read the paper, and we shall do so with the next day or so. Do you want to see it again? Or what can we report?

Another questionable case is Adolph Scott (Colored). Here I am the odd man, as I marked him passable, while you ranked him 23 out of 25, and Tolley ranked him 24. I yield as far as passing him for the Ph.D. is concerned but wondered what you would think about passing him for the A.M. He seems to have squeezed through in International Trade at the A.M. level. This would allow him to get the Master’s degree. I feel that these Negroes are in the same position as the Chinese students only more so in that they compete in a completely different market, and they are never really compared with our “full fledged” Ph.D. graduates. (Besides, between you and me, I have attended 4 or 5 Ph.D. exams this summer and thought very few of them ought to pass but they all did).

On Part II there is also some discrepancy. I had Mints read these papers, and he and I agree that #2, Mrs. Mullady, was passable. But you and Tolley both wrote failure and as she failed “flat” on Part I and has also failed a second time in another field, it looks as though that disposes of her case. This leaves S. Smidt who has your vote, a questionable pass, Tolley’s a clear pass, and Mints and I though a very very [sic] dubious pass. But Smidt passes Part I with colors flying. I am perfectly willing and in fact disposed to yield on him and pass him as I don’t feel competent to grade these Part II papers anyway.

Cordially,

(Dictated but not read)
Frank H. Knight

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 76. Folder 2 “University of Chicago ‘Economic Theory’”.

_________________________

Identities of eight examinees given passing grades
by Milton Friedman by rank

First place

Seymour Smidt. University of Chicago Ph.D. (1954). Dissertation: “Efficient Management for Government Wheat Stocks”.

Second place

Conrad Jan (Coen) Oort. University of Chicago A.M. (1954). Doctor of Economics, University of Leiden (1958).

Professor economics, U. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1960-1971; professor economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1956-1957; treasurer-general, Treasury, The Hague, The Netherlands, 1971-1977; managing director, Algemene Bank Nederland Bank (now Algemene Bank Nederland-AMRO), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1977-1989; non-executive director various companies, The Netherlands, since 1989; professor economics, Maastricht, The Netherlands, since 1986. Chairman KLM, Amstelveen, Netherlands, 1992, Robeco Group, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1989. Vice chairman Aegon Insurance, The Hague, 1990.
Source: Prabook webpage for Conrad Jan Oort.

Third place

Gary S. Becker. University of Chicago Ph.D. (1953). Dissertation: “The Economics of Racial Discrimination”.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1992.

Fourth place

Lionel John Lerner. [son of Abba P. Lerner and Alice Sendak]. University of Chicago A.B. (1950) and A.M. (1952). Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. (1955). Dissertation: “Theories of Imperialist Exploitation.”
Source: Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries, Special Collections. Commencement Program 1955, p. 19.

Fifth place

Edward J. Kilberg. Hofstra University B.A. (1949). Duke University A.M. (1952). University of Chicago A.M. (1957).
Apparently Kilberg was never awarded a Ph.D. in economics by the University of Chicago for his dissertation “Commercial bank holdings of cash and liquid items”. Most likely reason is that he died in the crash of a Northeast airliner at Nantucket Airport on August 15, 1958. Kilberg left a research job at the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1957 to go to the NBER where he worked as assistant to Arthur F. Burns for the book Prosperity Without Inflation (1958).

Sixth place

Hugh Roy Elliott. In the list of economics Ph.D. dissertations kept by the department of economics at the University of Chicago we find “Hugh R. Elliott. Dissertation: Savings Deposits as Money (Summer 1964)” which seems rather late in the game. But then we see: AER Sept. 1957, p. 838 “Hugy [sic] R. Elliott, B.A. Harvard 1950; M.A. Chicago 1952.” Thesis in preparation at Chicago “Savings deposits as money”.

Seventh place

Irwin Ira Baskind. I have found the following item “Baskind, Irwin. Postwar Monetary Policy in Belgium (Ph.D., Chicago)” from U.S. State Department, Bureau of Intelligence and Research. External Research. A List of Studies Currently in Progress, Western Europe, ER list no. 5.14 (April 1960), p. 9. Note: Baskind’s name does not appear in the list of economics Ph.D.’s kept by the Chicago department of economics.

Eighth Place

Paul Gabriel Keat. Baruch School of the City University of New York B.B.A. (1949). Washington University A.M. (1950). University of Chicago A.M. (1952, 1956). University of Chicago Ph.D. (1959). Dissertation: “Changes in Occupational Wage Structure 1900-1956”.

Keat, Paul G. PhD 88, passed away on April 2, 2014.Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia May 2, 1925. A WWII vet who served in Ardennes, Normandy and Rhineland. Decorated with the European African Middle Eastern Services Medal, Good Conduct Medal and WWII Victory Medal. Discharged 1946. Graduated 1959 from the University of Chicago with an M.A. and PhD in economics. Student of his cherished professor, Dr. Milton Friedman. Earned B.B.A. in accounting from Baruch School of the City University of New York and M.A. from Washington University. Paul’s work with IBM was extensive in both the United States and in the European headquarters based in Paris. He taught both finance and economics at the graduate level in numerous universities including Syracuse University, Washington University, the City University of New York, Iona College and the Lubin Graduate School of Business at Pace University. In 2013 he co-authored and published the seventh edition of his textbook “Managerial Economics”.
Source: Arizona Republic, Phoenix. April 13, p. F9.

Images: The economic theory prelim examiners, Friedman, Knight, and Tolley. From the University of Chicago Photographic Archive.

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Graduate economics exams, M.A. and Ph.D., 1933

 

 

This post began innocently enough as simple transcriptions of the single A.M. and the two Ph.D. examinations in political economy for 1933 from the Johns Hopkins Archives. Because the names of the examinees are included on the typed carbon copies of the examination questions, I dug a little bit deeper to find out more about these degree candidates. From the official commencement programs, we are able to determine that these written examinations were in almost all cases administered as “exit examinations” a month before the degrees were actually awarded, so the exams were not “prelim” exams to establish degree candidacy and also not part of a dissertation defense. This seems late in the game for a final hurdle of this nature.

The commencement programs provide the titles of the theses/dissertations submitted for the degrees. Digging further, I was even able to find pictures of all the examinees.

________________________

The Graduate Degree Examinees
Johns Hopkins University, May 1933

Lawrence Nelson Bloomberg, of Virginia, A.B. University of Richmond 1930. Political Economy.
A.M. Johns Hopkins University, Thesis.“Goodwill: Its Nature and Valuation.” [p. 8 of 1933 Commencement program]
PhD Dissertation. “The Investment Value of Goodwill.” [p. 11 of 1934 Commencement program]

Born September 27, 1909 in Richmond, Virginia; died August 13, 1989.
1940 worked in Washington, DC at the American Bankers Association.

Image Source:  Senior year photo of Lawrence Nelson Bloomberg in the University of Richmond yearbook, The Web–1930.

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

Roy Johnson Bullock, of Maryland, A.B. Doane College 1925; M.B.A. Harvard University 1927. Political Economy. Ph.D. dissertation “A History of the Chain Grocery Store in the United States.” [p. 11 of 1933 Commencement program]

Born October 5, 1903 in Crete, Nebraska; died in Marco Island, Collier County, Florida Feb. 14, 1980.
1940 Census: teacher at Johns Hopkins University.
1942: worked in the Office of Price Administration, Washington, DC.
1961: senior staff consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. Also, the commencement speaker at Doane College’s 1961 commencement. Awarded honorary doctor of laws degree.

Image Source: Portrait of Roy Johnson Bullock (approximately 30 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

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

Abner Komaroff, of Palestine, B.V.A. American University of Beirut 1930.
Ph.D. Dissertation, “The Foreign Trade of the United States in Citrus Fruits.” [p. 12 of Commencement program 1933]

Image Source: Portrait of Abner Komaroff (approximately 20 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

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

Harold Edwin Peters, of Maryland, A.B. Johns Hopkins University 1930.
Ph.D. Dissertation, “The Foreign Debt of the Argentine Republic”. [p. 13 of Commencement program 1934]

Born October 15, 1908 in Baltimore,   died February 22, 1978 in Baltimore.
Apartment developer since the mid-1930’s, after teaching economics for a year at the College of Charleston. (Graduate of Calvert Hall College, then Johns Hopkins where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1930).

Image Source: Portrait of Harold Edwin Peters (approximately 25 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

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

Evelyn Ellen Singleton, of Maryland, A.B. Goucher College 1930. Political Economy.
PhD dissertation, “Workmen’s Compensation in Maryland”. [p. 13 of Commencement program 1933]

Born October 9, 1909 in Lancaster, PA; died May 29, 2002.
Married Robert William Thon, Jr. (see next graduate) April 1, 1936 in Elkton, MD.

Image Source: Portrait of Evelyn Ellen Singleton (approximately 20 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

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

Robert William Thon, Jr., of Maryland. Political Economy. PhD Dissertation “Mutual Savings Banks in Baltimore.” [p. 14 of 1933 Commencement program]

Born Dec. 23, 1908 in Richmond, VA; died September 1983 in Baltimore MD.
Occupation: banker

Image Source: Portrait of Robert William Thon, Jr. (approximately 50 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

________________________

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
for Master of Arts Degree
May 18, 1933

Mr. Bloomberg

  1. Discuss Adam Smith’s canons of taxation.
  2. Describe Malthus’ principle of population and the changes which it underwent.
  3. What arguments are used to justify the sale of a manufactured article at a lower price abroad than at home?
  4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the general Property Tax?
  5. Explain and criticize the quantity theory of money.
  6. How are freight rates determined?

 

 

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
(Economic Theory)
May 18, 1933

Miss Singleton
Messrs. Thon, Bullock, Peters, Komaroff

  1. What is the relation of Political Economy to economic history in scope and in method of investigation?
  2. What important economic doctrines had been clearly formulated prior to the year 1800?
  3. Discuss the personal contacts and doctrinal contrasts of Quesnay and Adam Smith.
  4. Contrast the theories of distribution formulated by (a) Adam Smith, (b) David Ricardo, (c) Alfred Marshall.
  5. What has been the development of the principle of population since the time of Malthus?
  6. Discuss the origin and development of the wage fund theory.
  7. What have been the most important contributions of the Austrian economists?
  8. Discuss the law of increasing returns and its application to modern business.
  9. Criticize the various theories of entrepreneur profits that have been proposed.
  10. What are the present conspicuous gaps in economic theory and by what means are they to be repaired?

 

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
(Applied Economics)
May 19, 1933

Miss Singleton
Messrs. Thon, Komaroff , Bullock, Peters

  1. Discuss the history, theory, incidence and the defects of the General Property Tax.
  2. Discuss modern industrial combinations in the light of: (1) An assignable limit to the growth in the size of the modern industrial unit; and (2) the imminence of Socialism.
  3. Discuss the policy of selling protected manufactures in foreign markets at less than domestic prices.
  4. Is a compulsory Board of Arbitration practicable, and what principles should govern its decisions?
  5. Criticize the principle of fixing railway rates according to “What the traffic will bear”, in the light of the recent tendency towards cost of service rate.
  6. Outline the history of (a) metallic and (b) paper money in the United States since the adoption of the Federal constitution.
  7. Discuss the use of the chief forms of averages; for example, the mean, the median and the simple average.
  8. Outline the history of English legislation relating to joint stock companies.
  9. State the chief points in controversy between the Banking School and the Currency School.
  10. Discuss the economic justification for the chief forms of labor legislation.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy. Series 6/Series /, Subseries 1, Box 3/1, Folder “Department of Political Economy, Graduate Exams 1933-1965”.

Image Source: Johns Hopkins University yearbook, Hullabaloo 1951.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus and Final Exam for Economic Development of China. Paauw, 1955

 

Douglas Seymour Paauw was a Harvard economics Ph.D. (1950) who taught courses on the economies of East Asia. Like many area specialists of his generation, he acquired his foreign language skills during his military service in World War II. He lived to the age of 98 and died in February, 2020. His Seattle Times obituary is followed by the syllabus, reading list and final examination for his 1955 course at Harvard on Chinese economic development.

      ___________________________

Earlier post on the Chinese Economy

Harvard. Readings for Chinese Economic Problems, 1947

           ___________________________

Obituary

Douglas S. Paauw was born December 13, 1921 in Hancock, MN and passed away peacefully at the age of 98 at home in Bellevue, WA on February 17, 2020. He grew up in Holland, MN and graduated from Pipestone High School in 1939. He received a BA degree from Calvin College in Michigan.

In 1948 he married Kaye Horan, daughter of long-time Congressman Walt Horan of Wenatchee, WA. This union produced two sons, Scott & Doug.

During World War II he served as a Chinese interpreter after receiving training in Chinese at Harvard University. Following his WWII service, he received a Master’s degree from the University of Washington (1949) and a PhD in economics from Harvard (1950).

He taught at Harvard until 1956, after which he taught at Lake Forest College (1956-1959), Nommensen University in Indonesia (1960-1961), Yale (1961-1963), University of the Philippines (1965-1967), and Wayne State University where he served as Chairman of the Department of Economics (1970-1987). He also served as Director of Research at the National Planning Association in Washington, D.C. for seven years.

Dr. Paauw became known as one of the world’s top experts on economic development in Southeast Asia. He worked in Indonesia, spending a total of ten years there after his first visit in 1954. He is the author of several books and many articles on Southeast Asian economic development.

Since retirement in 1990, he lived in Bellevue, WA. He was devoted to family, friends, his adopted country of Indonesia, and the game of tennis, which he actively played until age 90.

He is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Doug and Kathy Paauw of Redmond, WA, three grandchildren Alan Paauw, Carly Paauw Jerome, and Cindy Paauw, and two great-grandchildren, Aurora Kilcer and Violet Jerome. He is predeceased by his wife of 65 years, Kaye Horan Paauw, and his son, Scott, who both passed away in 2014.

Source:  Seattle Times, February 23, 2020.

___________________________

From the Calvin College Archives

Douglas Seymour Paauw was born in Stevens, Minnesota on December 13, 1921. He received his B.A. degree from Calvin College and his M.A., Ph.D. from Harvard University. Paauw married Helen Kathleen Horan on September 10, 1948. He worked as a developmental economist and worked with government planning associations. Paauw’s work allowed him and his family the unique opportunity to live in interesting locations like Indonesia and the Philippines. Paauw eventually moved to the United States and settled in Detroit, Michigan where he accepted the position of Chairman of the Economics Department at Wayne State University. Douglas Seymour Paauw reached the status of Professor Emeritus of Economics.

Source:  Archival Record at Calvin College.

___________________________

Douglas Seymour Paauw
Harvard Economics Ph.D., 1950

Douglas Seymour Paauw, A.B. (Calvin Coll.) 1946, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1949.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Public Finance. Thesis, “Chinese Public Finance during the Nanking Government Period.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1949-1950, p. 198.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 113a Economic Development in the Far East: China. Dr. Paauw, Half course. (S)

Total 16: 7 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 3 Juniors 2 Sophomores, 1 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1954-55, p. 89.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 113a

Tentative Lecture Subjects, Spring Term, 1954-1955

Introduction

  1. Introductory Lecture
  2. A Birdseye View of the History of the Chinese Economy

The Supply of Factors

  1. The Supply of Factors: Land
  2. The Supply of Factors: Population
  3. The Supply of Factors: Labor
  4. The Supply of Factors: Capital
  5. The Supply of Factors: Entrepreneurship

The Utilization of Factors

  1. The Size of the Chinese Economy
  2. The Use of Factors: Agriculture
  3. The Use of Factors: Industry
  4. The Use of Factors: Industry (Manchuria)

The Institutional Setting

  1. The Development of Financial Institutions
  2. The Development of Fiscal Institutions
  3. The Development of Other Institutions (Markets, etc.)

External Relationships

  1. Foreign Trade
  2. Foreign Investment

The Development of the Chinese Economy

  1. Early “Industrialization Efforts
  2. Kuomintang Planning
  3. Inflation, Disruption and Collapse, 1939-1949
  4. Communist Rehabilitation of the Economy
  5. Communist Agricultural Policy
  6. Communist Economic Planning
  7. The Financing of Recent Economic Development
  8. Assessment of Economic Growth

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 113a

Reading List, Spring Term, 1954-1955

Wittfogel, K. A., “Foundations and Stages of Chinese Economic History”, Zeitschrift für Socialforschung, 1935 (in English).

Allen, G. C., and Donnithorne, A. G., Western Enterprise in Far Eastern Economic Development, Chapter 15.

Rostow, W. W., et al., The Prospects for Communist China, Chapter 12.

Abramovitz, M., “Economics of Growth”, A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. II (B. F. Haley, editor), pp. 132-182.

Bergsmarck, D. R., Economic Geography of Asia, Chapters 23, 24, 25 (to p. 523), 26.

Usher, A. P., “The Resource Requirements of an Industrial Economy”, Journal of Economic History, Supplement, VII, 1947, pp. 35-46.

Jaffe, A. J., “A Review of Censuses and Demographic Statistics of China”, Population Studies, Vol. I, No. 3, December 1947, pp. 308-337.

Ta Chen, Population in Modern China, Chapters 1 and 5.

Spengler, J. J., “The Population Obstacle to Economic Betterment”, Proceedings, American Economic Review, Vol. 41, No. 2, May 1951, pp. 343-358.

Levy, M. J., and Shih, K. H., The Rise of the Modern Chinese Business Class.

Allen, G. C., and Donnithorne, A. G., op. cit., Chapters 1 and 2.

Liu Ta-Chung, China’s National Income (emphasize Chapters 1, 2, and 5).

Ou Pao-San, “A New Estimate of China’s National Income”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 54, No. 6, December 1946, pp. 547-554.

Chang Pei-Kang, Agriculture and Industrialization, Chapters 2, 4, and 5.

Buck, J. L., Land Utilization in China, Chapter 1.

Chiu, A. K., “Agriculture”, Chapter in China (H. F. McNair, editor).

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 113a

Reading List, Spring Term, 1954-1955
Part II

Ou Pao-san and Wang Fo-shen, “Industrial Production and Employment in Pre-war China,” Economic Journal, Vol. 56, September 1946, pp. 426-434.

Hubbard, G. E., Eastern Industrialization and its Effect on the West, pp. 181-205, 222-228.

Schumpeter, E. B., The Industrialization of Japan and Manchukuo, pp. 376-418.

Chang, Kia-ngau, “China’s Need for Transport,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 23, No. 3, April 1945, pp. 465-475.

Tamagna, F. M., Banking and Finance in China, Chapters 6 and 7, pp. 121-223.

Ting, L. G., “Chinese Modern Banks and the Finance of the Government and Industry,” Nankai Social and Economic Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 578-616.

Paauw, D. S., “Chinese National Expenditures in the Nanking Period,” Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 1, Nov. 1952, pp. 3-26.

Li Cho-ming, “International trade” in H. F. McNair, China, pp. 492-506.

Remer, C. F., Foreign Investments in China, Chapters 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Wu Yuan-li, “Communist China and Trade with the West,” Pacific Spectator, Vol. 7, No. 4 Autumn, 1953, pp. 404-418.

Fong, H.D., “Toward Economic Control in China,” Nankai Social and Economic Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 296-397.

Li Choh-ming, “Wartime Inflation in China,” Review of Economic Statistics, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 23-33.

Rostow, W. W. et al., The Prospects for Communist China, Ch. 13, pp. 237-255.

Paauw, D. S., “Economic Principles and State Organization,” Annals of the American Academy, Vol. 227, Sept. 1951, pp. 101-112.

Hsia, Ronald, Price Control in Communist China, Introduction, Chapters 1 through 8.

Chao, K. C., “Current Agrarian Reform Policies in Communist China,” Annals of the American Academy, Vol. 227, Sept. 1951, pp. 113-123.

Schwartz, B. I. and Paaw, D. S., “David Mitrany’s Marx Against the Peasant: Two Comments on its Implications for the Far East,” Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 1, Nov. 1952, pp. 47-50.

Barnett, A. D., “China’s Road to Collectivization,” Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. 35, No. 2, May, 1953, pp. 188-202.

Rostow, W. W., et al., The Prospects for Communist China, Ch. 14 and 15, pp. 256-295.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1954-1955”.

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1954-55
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 113A
[Final examination. June, 1955]

  1. (2 hours) Answer two of the following:
    1. Prior to the Communist Period Chinese industrialization efforts were characterized by a series of stops and starts, backing and filling, advance and retrogression. Give the history of these efforts and the reasons for their failure to achieve the objectives of economic development.
    2. Given an analysis of the prospects for Chinese economic growth under the Communist growth model, including all relevant factors which you can draw from your study of the Chinese economy. The strengths or weaknesses of the models discussed in the course should be presented to support your conclusions.
    3. Outline the important changes which have taken place in the Chinese economy during the past 100 years, giving your analysis of the factors which precipitated these changes, their impact on general economic welfare and the structure of the economy and their implications for the rate and costs of economic progress.
  2. (1 hour) Discuss one of the following basing your discussion mainly on required course reading on the subject. You are expected to refer to the major sources supporting your discussion.
    1. Problems of developing “Westernized” business entrepreneurship in China.
    2. The growth and development of fiscal, monetary and banking institutions.
    3. Transition in the agricultural sector during the Communist period.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Naval Science, Air Science, June, 1955. Included in bound volume Final Exams, Social Sciences, June, 1955 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 110).

Image Source: Harvard Square from the Tichnor Brothers Collection of postcards. Boston Public Library, Print Department.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of Socialism, Syllabus and Final Exam. O.H. Taylor, 1953

Joseph Schumpeter’s shadow was still cast over “his” Economics of Socialism course that was taken over by Harvard’s historian of political-economy, O. H. Taylor. This post provides the syllabus and final exam for Taylor’s course as taught in the  second term of the 1952-53 academic year. The syllabus from the spring term of 1955 was posted earlier. 

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Course Announcement, 1952-53

Economics 111. Economics of Socialism.

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Dr. O. H. Taylor.

A brief survey of the development of socialist groups and parties; pure theory of centralist socialism; the economics of Marxism; applied problems.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year, 1952-53, p. 99.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 111—Economics of Socialism
Spring Term, 1952-53

OUTLINE

  1. January 28-February 13: Socialist Thought Before Marx, and the Doctrines of Marx.

Reading:
1. H. Laidler, Social-Economic Movements, Chapters 8-16.
2. Burns, Handbook of Marxism, Chapter 1.
3. G. H. Sabine, History of Political Theory, Chapters on Hegel and Marx.
4. J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part I.
5. P. M. Sweezy, Theory of Capitalist Development, Parts I and II.

Lectures:
Introduction. Pre-history of the socialist vision. Some “utopian” socialists. Hegel and Marx, philosophies of history. Marx’s economic interpretation of history. Ricardo and Marx, economic theories of production, class roles and incomes, value, and economic development.

Discussion: February 13.

  1. February 16-27: Marx, continued; and History of German and Other Continental European Socialism (Parties, Movements, and Ideas) to the First World War.

Reading:
1. P. M. Sweezy, Theory of Capitalist Development, Part II (continued).
2. Joan Robinson, Essay on Marxian Economics.
3. O. H. Taylor, “Schumpeter and Marx”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1951.
4. H. Laidler, Social Movements, Chapters 19-23.

Lectures:
Marx’s economics (continued)—theory of capitalism’s (the economy’s) working, evolution, dilemmas, and degeneration, or life-cycle. Marx’s program—strategy and tactics—for the social movement, and ideas of the revolution and its sequel—stages of creation of the socialist society. Lasalle and Marx, and the German Social Democratic Party in the Age of Bismarck. Later history of the German party—Bernstein’s revisionism vs. Marxist orthodoxy. Other Continental European movements, parties, and ideas.

Discussion: February 27.

  1. March 2-13: Varieties of Socialist Thought and Effort, and the Labor Movement in England from 1815 to 1914.

Reading:
1. Max Beer, History of British Socialism, [Volume I] Part 2; [Volume II] 3, 4.
2. G. D. H. Cole, A Short History of the British Working Class Movement, Part I, Chapters 5-9; Parts II and III.
3. The Fabian Essays.

Lectures:

Early Nineteenth Century English radicalism and its varieties—Benthamism, Ricardian socialism (before Marx), Owenism, Chartism. The Christian socialists. Evolution of the trade unions. The Fabians and their philosophy and program. Other socialist societies and creeds. Formation and early history of the Labor Party and its program.

Discussion: March 13.

  1. March 16-27: The Internationals, the First World War, the Russian Revolution, Lenin, and Communism.

Reading:
1. H. Laidler, Social-Economic Movements, Chapters 24-27.
2. G. H. Sabine, History of Political Theory, Chapter “Communism”.
3. Burns, Handbook of Marxism, Chapters 22, 26, 29, 30.
4. P. M. Sweezy, Theory of Capitalist Development, Part IV.

Lectures:
The old socialist internationals; socialist internationalism and pacificism, the German and other parties, and the first World War. Czarist Russia, its radical parties, Lenin and the Bolsheviki, and the Russian Revolutions of 1917-18. Lenin’s policies and the early evolution of the Soviet regime; and Lenin’s theories, or “development” of Marxism. Theory of capitalism and imperialism. Modern Communist Marxism vs. democratic socialism.

Discussion: March 27.

Spring Recess

  1. April 6-17: Economic Theory and the Problems of Planning and Policy in a Socialist Economy.

Reading:
1. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part IV.
2. Lange-Taylor, Economic Theory of Socialism.
3. M. Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Chapters 1, 13.

Lectures:
“Rational economic decisions” in competitive capitalism and in a socialist society; historic, intellectual background and development of the study of this problem. The Lange model of a liberal, competitive-market socialism. Dobbs and others on problems neglected in the Lange model. Critical remarks on the whole discussion—doubts of relevance for socialism of the bourgeois aim at “rational economy.”

Discussion: April 17.

  1. April 20-29: Economic Policies in Soviet Russia, and in England Under the Last Labor Government.

Reading: [blank]

Lectures: [blank]

Discussion: April 29.

 

Source: Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 5. Folder “Economics, 1952-53 (1 of 2)”.

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1952-53
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 111

[Final examination. May, 1953]

  1. Discuss the implications, and degrees of validity if any, of Marx’s description of the “socialisms”” of Fourier, Owen, etc. as “Utopian,” and of his own system as “scientific socialism.”
  2. Give a general account and discussion of one of the following “parts” of Marx’s system of thought:
    1. His general theory of the dynamics of all history: “materialism,” the dialectic, the economic interpretation of history, the class struggle theory.
    2. His theory of value and surplus value—or value, wages, and capitalist incomes—in the capitalist economy.
    3. His theory of the capital-accumulation process—its causes, motives, and results—and the dynamics, and predicted course, of the evolution of the capitalist economy.
  3. Describe and discuss the character, and some of the main elements or tenets, of Fabian socialist thought. (The reference is only to the original Fabian group, the Webbs, Shaw, etc.)
  4. “Throughout the histories of the German and English socialist movements, the German socialists have been hampered by their excessive burden of dogmatic theory, and the English, by their lack of theory.”
    Comment, in the light of what you know of the actual histories; giving brief accounts of particular episodes or developments—at least one in the history of the German and one in that of the English movement—which might be held to illustrate the statements, and discussing the question, whether and how far they do so.
  5. Choose and discuss one or more of the important theoretical problems to be “solved” in developing any sound, useful structure of economic theory, for use in socialist economic planning and the construction and operation of a socialist economy.
  6. On any one of the important, general topics considered in New Fabian Essays, describe (summarize) the views or opinions expressed therein, and discuss them critically.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Final Exams—Social Sciences, June 1953 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 99).

Image Source: O.H. Taylor in Harvard College, Class Album 1952.