Category: Exam Questions

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Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Examinations for introductory economics. Taussig, Ashley, both Cummings, 1895-96.

 

This post follows up on the previous one that focused on the economic history module taught in Harvard’s introductory economics sequence by W. J. Ashley during the spring term of 1896. For the sake of convenience I have put together transcriptions of all the exams I was able to find for the jointly taught course “Outlines of Economics” (1895-96). The first exam below, the mid-year examination (final exam for the fall term of 1895), is most likely to be the work of Frank Taussig, with questions for the special topic modules covered in the second semester coming from Ashley, Edward Cummings and John Cummings (Chicago economics Ph.D., 1894).

_______________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors Taussig and Ashley, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, and Dr. John Cummings. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation.

Total 338: 3 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 91 Juniors, 161 Sophomores, 8 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1895-96, p. 63.

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

  1. Is all wealth produced by labor?
  2. Compare the distinction between fixed and circulating capital with the distinction between auxiliary and remuneratory capital; and state why one or the other distinction is the more satisfactory.
  3. Are differences in profits from employment to employment similar in kind to differences in wages from occupation to occupation?
  4. In what way are differences of wages affected by the absence of effective competition between laborers? By its presence?
  5. What are the grounds for saying that rent is a return differing in kind from interest?
  6. Trace the effects of an issue of inconvertible paper money, less in quantity than the specie previously in use, on (1) the circulation of specie, (2) the foreign exchanges, (3) the relations of debtor to creditor.
  7. State Mill’s reasoning as to the mode in which, under a double standard, one metal is driven from circulation; and explain how the actual process differs from that analyzed by Mill.
  8. What are the grounds for saying that the gain of international trade does not come from the sale of surplus produce beyond the domestic demand?
  9. In what manner is the price of landed property affected by an increased quantity of money? by a rise in the rate of interest?
  10. Wherein does monopoly value present a case different from that of the usual operation of the laws of value?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations,  1852-1943(HUC 7000.55). Box 3, Examination Papers Mid-years, 1895-96.

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[W.J.A., Hour Examination. March 13, 1896]

Please write on three questions only.

  1. Mill remarks in his Autobiography that the distinction between the laws of the production and those of the distribution of wealth was the most important contribution he made to Political Economy. Explain this.
  2. What does Jones mean by the division of Rents into Peasant and Farmer’s Rents?
  3. Give a brief account of the stages of industrial development.
  4. Draw a parallel between the town policy of the 15thcentury and the national policy of the 18th.
  5. Was Frederick the Great justified in his attempt to introduce the silk manufacture into Prussia?

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Final Examination]

[Answer ten questions. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Group I.
[At least one.]

  1. Explain the meaning of two of the following terms, — margin of cultivation; wages of superintendence; rapidity of circulation (as to money).
  2. Do profits constitute a return different from interest?
  3. Explain what is meant by the law, or equation, of demand and supply; and in what manner it applies to commodities susceptible of indefinite multiplication without increase of cost.
  4. In what manner does a country gain from the division of labor in its domestic trade? In what manner from international trade?

Group II.
[At least one.]

  1. Does it fall within the province of the economist to discuss the institution of private property?
  2. Show the connection between the industrial development of the present century, and the discussion among economists as to the functions of the entrepreneur.
  3. Consider in what manner prices, or rents, [choose one] are differently determined according as they are under the influence of custom or of competition.
  4. “The idea that economic life has ever been a progress mainly dependent on individual action is mistaken with regard to all stages of civilization, and in some respects it is more mistaken the farther we go back.” Explain and criticize.

Group III.
[At least one.]

  1. If cooperation were universally adopted, what would be left of the wages system?
  2. Is there anything in what you learned as to the laws governing wages, which the action of the English trade-unions in regard to wages has disregarded?
  3. Has the course of events justified Mill’s expectations in regard to the development of profit-sharing and of cooperation? Explain why, or why not.
  4. Describe the trade and benefit features of the English trade-unions.

Group IV.
[At least three.]

  1. Is the present position of the Treasury of the United States in any respect essentially similar to that of the Issue Department of the Bank of England? In any respect essentially dissimilar?
  2. What is the test of over-issue, as to inconvertible paper money? What light does the experience of the United States and of France throw on the probability of over-issue?
  3. Arrange in their proper order the following items in a bank account:—

Capital

100,000

 Bonds and Stocks 75,000
Specie

150,000

 Surplus 50,000

Notes

 100,000 Other Assets 50,000
Loans 400,000 Other Liabilities 60,000

Expenses

 25,000 Undivided Profits 40,000

Deposits

 350,000

Could this bank be a national bank of the United States? If such a bank, how would the account stand?

    1. Compare the policy of the Bank of England in times of financial crisis with the policy of the Associated Banks of New York; and give an opinion as to which is the more effective in allaying panic.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935 [of] Prof F.W. Taussig (HUC 7882), p. 53.

Image Source:  Gore Hall (Library). Souvenir Guide Book of Harvard College and its Historical Vicinity, Cambridge, Massachusetts: F. A. Olsson, 1895.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Syllabus for Economic History Module in Principles Course. Ashley, 1896.

 

For several years at the end of the 19th century Harvard’s introductory course in economics consisted of a two semester sequence. The fall semester was dedicated to theoretical Principles of Economics à la John Stuart Mill followed by the spring semester that covered specific topics, e.g. economic history, social policy, monetary arrangements.

The economic history module was taught by Professor William J. Ashley and ran for five weeks. The material was tested once in a one-hour mid-term exam and then again in the course final examination (students were to answer at least one of four questions in Group II below).

I have only found a complete set of syllabus, reading assignments, and exam questions for Ashley’s module. In the next post, you will find all the course exams for 1895-96 that were pasted into Frank Taussig’s personal scrapbook of exams for all the courses he taught during his long Harvard career.

_________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors Taussig and Ashley, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, and Dr. John Cummings. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation.

Total 338: 3 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 91 Juniors, 161 Sophomores, 8 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1895-96, p. 63.

_________________

Economic History Module
William J. Ashley

ECONOMICS 1.
LECTURES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Weekly Syllabus 1.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 2-5. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapters 1 and 2, and Appendix pp. 169-182. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 1-13.

N.B. 1. The prescribed reading for the whole period covered by this set of lectures will deal with same general topics as will be considered in the lectures. But it will not be possible to make the reading of each week exactly parallel, in every case, with the lectures of that week.
2. There will be a question set every Friday, and 15 minutes allowed for answering it, on some subject suggested by the reading and lectures of that week.

  1. The Historical Movement of the 19th Century.
    Its causes:

    1. The “Romantic” Reaction against the 18th century “Enlightenment.”
    2. Evolutionary Philosophy—Hegel, Comte, Spencer.
    3. Evolutionary Biology—Darwin.
    4. Anthropology—Tylor.

Its intellectual effects:

    1. Interest in the Middle Ages.
    2. Sense of Continuity—“Uniformitarianism.”
    3. Sense of Relativity.
    4. Changed conception of the relation of the Present to the Past and the Future.
  1. Influence of the Historical Movement on other studies:
    1. On Law—Savigny, Maine.
    2. On Theology—“The Higher Criticism.”
    3. On Economics.
      The older and newer Historical Schools of Economists—Roscher, Schmoller.
  1. Value of Economic History:
    1. For its own sake.
    2. For a right estimate of modern economic theory.
    3. For insight into modern economic facts.

Provisional use of the conceptions of “Stages.”

Preliminary consideration of certain attempts to group all the phenonomena of economic history under a single formula:

    1. Friedrich List. The Five Stages in the development of the peoples of the temperate zone.
    2. Bruno Hildebrand. Naturalwirthschaft, Geldwirthschaft, Creditwirthschaft.

Weekly Syllabus 2.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 6-7. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapter 3, and Appendix pp. 183-190. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 13-43.

Preliminary consideration of current generalisations concerning the development of particular sides of economic life:

Agriculture—

Extensive:

    1. Shifting Tillage (Wildfeldgraswirtschaft)

Intensive:

    1. Open Field System (Three field system, Dreifelderwirthschaft).
    2. Convertible Husbandry (Feldgraswirthschaft).
    3. Rotation of Crops (Fruchtwechselwirtschaft).

Industry  (Manufacture)—

    1. The Family System (Familienindustrie, Hausfleiss).
    2. The Gild System (Handwerk).
      1. Wage-work.
      2. Work for sale.
    3. The Domestic System (Hausindustrie, Verlags-system.)
      1. Domestic system proper.
      2. Wage-work.
    4. The Factory System
      With and without machinery.

Weekly Syllabus 3.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 8-10. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapter 4, and Appendix pp. 190-207. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 43-57.

Preliminary consideration of current generalisations of the anthropologists concerning prehistoric development:

Property—

Tribal Ownership and Family Ownership.
Individual Ownership of Movables.
Individual Ownership of Land.

Theories of Early Agrarian Communism.—Recent Discussions.

Progress of the Arts of Subsistence(Morgan) —

Savagery —

Older period—Fruits and Roots.
Middle period—Fish and Fire.
Later period—Game and the Bow.

Barbarism —

Older period—Pottery.
Middle period—Pastoral Life.
Later period—Iron and Agriculture.

Civilisation —

Sketch of the Economic Development of the European Peoples since the Early Middle Ages.

Reasons for this limitation.

  1. Period of Village or Manorial Economy.
    1. Sketch of Manorial System:

Lord and Serfs.
Demesne and Land in Villenage.
Open Fields.
Week-work and Boon-Days.

  1. Economic Characteristics:

“Natural-economy.”
Self-sufficiency.
Stability.

Relative absence of conditions usually assumed by modern economists.

Weekly Syllabus 4.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Preliminary Remarks. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapters 5 and 6. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 57-91.

Interacting phenomena: (1) Commutation of Services, (2) The Rise of Markets.
Appearance of town life in the midst of conditions still predominantly agricultural.

  1. Period of Town Dominance.
    1. The Town Economy:

The Town Market: The Gild Merchant.
The Town Industry: The Craft Gilds.
Subordination of the Country Districts.

    1. The Beginnings of Modern Economic Conditions:

Wage-labor.
Capital.
Profit.

[Then followed in Germany a Period of Territorial Economy.
Its characteristics.
Question whether such a period is distinctly marked in France or England.]

 

  1. Period of National Economy.

Strong central governments.
The spirit of Nationality.
Mercantilism, its Origin, Purpose and Methods.

A. National Economy and Domestic Industries

    1. The new influence of Capital:

On Industry.
On Agriculture.

    1. The action of the State:

Control of Commerce.
Encouragement of Manufactures.
Industrial Legislation.

Weekly Syllabus 5.

Prescribed Reading for the previous month, to be revised: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Preliminary Remarks and Bk. II, chs. 1-10. R. Jones, Peasant Rents. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System.

  1. Period of National Economy.

B. National Economy and the Factory System.

    1. Necessary Characteristics of the Factory System.
    2. The World-Market, and Fluctuations of Trade.
    3. Break-up of the Old Industrial Organisation; due to (a) changed conditions, (b) the influence of ideas of natural liberty.
    4. The Age of Individualism, and Industrial Freedom.

Question whether the beginnings may be discerned of a Period of International or World Economy.

Note: The various recent movements towards the reconstruction of a stable industrial organization, and the solution thereby of the “Labor Question,” will be the subjects of the lectures during the following weeks by Professor Cummings.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 1, Folder “1895-1896”.

_________________

1895-96.

ECONOMICS 1.
[W.J.A., Hour Examination. March 13, 1896]

Please write on three questions only.

  1. Mill remarks in his Autobiographythat the distinction between the laws of the production and those of the distribution of wealth was the most important contribution he made to Political Economy. Explain this.
  2. What does Jones mean by the division of Rents into Peasant and Farmer’s Rents?
  3. Give a brief account of the stages of industrial
  4. Draw a parallel between the town policy of the 15thcentury and the national policy of the 18th.
  5. Was Frederick the Great justified in his attempt to introduce the silk manufacture into Prussia?

    _________________

1895-96.

ECONOMICS 1.
[Final Examination]

[Answer ten questions. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Group I.
[At least one.]

  1. Explain the meaning of two of the following terms, — margin of cultivation; wages of superintendence; rapidity of circulation (as to money).
  2. Do profits constitute a return different from interest?
  3. Explain what is meant by the law, or equation, of demand and supply; and in what manner it applies to commodities susceptible of indefinite multiplication without increase of cost.
  4. In what manner does a country gain from the division of labor in its domestic trade? In what manner from international trade?

Group II.
[At least one.]

  1. Does it fall within the province of the economist to discuss the institution of private property?
  2. Show the connection between the industrial development of the present century, and the discussion among economists as to the functions of the entrepreneur.
  3. Consider in what manner prices, or rents, [choose one] are differently determined according as they are under the influence of custom or of competition.
  4. “The idea that economic life has ever been a progress mainly dependent on individual action is mistaken with regard to all stages of civilization, and in some respects it is more mistaken the farther we go back.” Explain and criticize.

Group III.
[At least one.]

  1. If cooperation were universally adopted, what would be left of the wages system?
  2. Is there anything in what you learned as to the laws governing wages, which the action of the English trade-unions in regard to wages has disregarded?
  3. Has the course of events justified Mill’s expectations in regard to the development of profit-sharing and of cooperation? Explain why, or why not.
  4. Describe the trade and benefit features of the English trade-unions.

Group IV.
[At least three.]

  1. Is the present position of the Treasury of the United States in any respect essentially similar to that of the Issue Department of the Bank of England? In any respect essentially dissimilar?
  2. What is the test of over-issue, as to inconvertible paper money? What light does the experience of the United States and of France throw on the probability of over-issue?
  3. Arrange in their proper order the following items in a bank account:—
Capital 100,000 Bonds and Stocks 75,000
Specie 150,000 Surplus 50,000
Notes 100,000 Other Assets 50,000
Loans 400,000 Other Liabilities 60,000
Expenses 25,000 Undivided Profits 40,000
Deposits 350,000

Could this bank be a national bank of the United States? If such a bank, how would the account stand?

  1. Compare the policy of the Bank of England in times of financial crisis with the policy of the Associated Banks of New York; and give an opinion as to which is the more effective in allaying panic.

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935 [of] Prof F.W. Taussig (HUC 7882), p. 53.

 

Image Source: Entry for William James Ashley in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), p. 595.

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Exam Questions Harvard Sociology Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Sociology. Syllabus, reading assignments, final exam. Carver and Joslyn, 1927-28

 

This post has two functions: it adds to the syllabi for sociology taught at Harvard previously transcribed:  

Economics 3. Thomas Nixon Carver and William Z. Ripley, 1902
Economics 8. Thomas Nixon Carver, 1917-18.

It also serves as a meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus from Harvard post. The 1927-28 offering of Economics 8 was co-taught by Professor Carver and his sociology graduate student, Carl Smith Joslyn.

Carl Smith Joslyn (b. 20 Aug 1899 in Springfield, MA.; d. 23 Dec 1986 in Worthington, MA) went to Central High School in Springfield. At Harvard he received the Class of 1844 Scholarship (1919-1920). He went on to chair the sociology department at the University of Maryland, during which time he hired young C. Wright Mills.

________________

Carl Smith Joslyn
Harvard Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.

Carl Smith Joslyn, A.B. 1920
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Social Origins of American Business Leaders.” Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, and Tutor in Sociology and Social Ethics, Harvard University.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1929-30. Page 120.

________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8a1hf. Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver and Mr. [Carl Smith] Joslyn.— Principles of Sociology

Total 79: 7 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 36 Juniors, 2 Sophomores 11 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1927-28. Page 74.

________________

8. Principles of Sociology

[This is for 1928-29, virtually identical to 1924-25 description]

Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12.
Professor Carver and Mr. Joslyn

A study of human adaptation. Progress defined as adaptation. In what does progress consist, how may it be verified, what are the factors that promote or hinder it? The biological as well as the psychological, moral, economic, and political factors are studied. Attention is given to problems of moral adjustment and readjustment, of active control of the environmental factors, of economizing human energy and of social control.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1928-29.  Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 68.

________________

Economics 8

I.
Introduction

  1. The Nature, Scope, and Method of Sociology

A study of purposeful human association.
Relation to Linguistics, Psychology, Jurisprudence, Ethics, Politics, Economics.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 1-14; 65-79.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, ch. 1.

  1. The Evolutionary Concept in Sociology:
    (1) Continuity; (2) Change; (3) Differentiation; (4) Fixation.

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Pt. I, ch. 1. Pt. II, chs. 1-4.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 29-40; 123-149.

  1. The Mechanism of Organic and Super-organic (Social) Evolution Compared.
    (1) Variation. (a) spontaneous or artificially produced; (b) minute or extreme.
    (2) Selection. (a) Natural. (b) social.

Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 55-79.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 276-299.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 42-56.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 1-27.

  1. The Origin and Development of Human Society.
    Survival value of (a) associated effort; (b) social inclination.

Giddings, Principles of Sociology, pp. 199-229; 256-323.
Dealey and Ward, Textbook of Sociology, Ch. I.

  1. The Nature and Conditions of Social Progress. Progress considered as the adaptation of the organism, man, to his environment: the method of adaptation being (a) Passive, or (b) active; the character of the environment being (a) physical, or (b) social.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 19-41; 73-103.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 88-120.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, Preface and Introduction.

  1. The Limits of Social Progress: A mutual fitting together or balancebetween the passive and the active forms of adaptation.
    (1) on the physical side, (a) such modifications as will enable it to live healthfully in the modified physical environment, (b) such improvements of the physical environment as will so fit the modified human organism as to enable it to live healthfully.
    (2) on the moral side; (a) such modifications of the intellectual and moral nature of man as will cause individuals to react favorably to such stimuli as can be brought to bear upon them by an improved system of social control: (b) such improvements in the system of social control as will secure favorable responses from the improved intellectual and moral nature of man.

Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 221-304.

II.
A. Passive physical adaptation.

  1. Race and Environment as Factors in Social Progress.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 174-243; 498-500; 631-636.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 105-120.

  1. The Stability of the Racial Factor in Historic Time: the Inheritance of Acquired Characters.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 362-368.
Popenoe & Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 25-74; 99-115; 402-423.

  1. The Displacement of Natural Selection by Social Selection and its Consequences:
    (a) the Differential Birth-rate; (b) Philanthropy; (c) The Punishment of Criminals; (d) Military Selection.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 392-409; 647-653; 676-696.
Popenoe and Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 116-146.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 386-413.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 92-102.

  1. The Correlation of Ability and Social Status; Nature and Nurture in Social Stratification. Tests of Ability; (a) economic. (b) psychological.

Popenoe & Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 1-24; 75-98.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 326-361; 369-385.

  1. The Qualitative Control of Population; Eugenic and Dysgenic Factors in Modern Society.

Popenoe and Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 176-279.

  1. The Increase of Population in Modern Times:
    a) General, (b) local, (c) occupational.

East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 45-109; 146-198.

  1. The Quantitative Control of Population; the Operation of Positive and Preventive Checks in Modern Society.
    The Redistribution of population to relieve congestion. (a) local; (b) occupational.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 133-173.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 231-283.

  1. Marriage and the Family; Disintegrative Forces and their Control.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 252-273.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 318-339.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 317-375; 674-675.

B. Passive Intellectual and Moral Adaptation.

  1. The Raw Material of Mental and Moral Development; Human Nature and its Re-Making

McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 19-120.

  1. The Original Nature of Man; Instinct vs. Environment in Human Institutions.

McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 121-227.

  1. The Psychology of the Crowd; Fundamental Processes of Social Behavior; the Nature of the “Group Mind”.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 503-521.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 417-444.
McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 279-301, 322-351.

  1. Education as the Instrument of Intellectual Adaptation; a Sociological View of the Objective and the Methods in Education.

Spencer, Education, pp. 21-128.

  1. Religion as the Instrument of Moral Adaptation; an Appraisal of Current Tendencies in Religion and Ethics.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 481-497.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 529-549.
Carver, Religion Worth having, pp. 3-24; 93-140.

  1. The Problem of the Morally Unadapted; the Nature and Causes of Crime; a Program for Social Control.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 654-673.
Ferri, Criminal Sociology (to be assigned).
Parmelee, Criminology (to be assigned).

C. Active Physical Adaptation.

  1. Material Adaptation as the Productive Utilization of Human Energy; Prevalent Forms of Waste and their Elimination.

Carver, The Economy of Human Energy, pp. 140-181.
Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, pp. 35-101.

  1. The Problem of Material Mal-Adaptation; Poverty and its Causes; a Program for Social Reform.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 349-383.
Warner, American Charities, pp. 36-90.

  1. The Nature and Justification of Property; Problems of Ownership and Control in Modern Industry.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 304-323.
Tawney, The Acquisitive Society, pp. 1-83.

  1. Radical Programs of Social Reform; Socialism, Anarchism, Syndicalism, and their Variants.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 232-263.
Taussig, Inventors and Money-makers, pp. 76-135.

  1. Liberty and Equality as Practicable and Compatible Ideals; the Peculiar Destiny of the American Nation.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 264-280.
Carver, The Present Economic Revolution in the United States, pp. 15-65; 233-263.

D. Active Moral Adaptation, or Social Control in its Broader Aspects.

  1. The Place of the State in Human Adaptation. Physical Compulsion as a System of Social Control. Punishment. Voluntary Agreement. The Problem of the Reconciliation of Group Interests and Individual Interests.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 176-205.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 750-763.
Mill, Essay on Liberty, chs. 1, 2, and 4.

  1. The Essential Nature of Democracy; Sensitivity and how it is achieved (a) in a coercive state, (b) in a non-coercive business.

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Pt. V, Chs. XVII, XVIII and XIX.

  1. Problems of Modern Democracy; a Survey of the claims of Democracy as the “Ideally Best Polity”

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 764-787.
Mill, Essay on Representative Government, chs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.

  1. The Possibility of Progress; a Recapitulation of Inorganic, Organic, and Social Evolutions and a Forecast of Future Developments.

(Reading to be assigned)

 

Reading Period

Ec 8a Professor Carver.

Sumner and Keller: Science of Society, Vol. I. Chs. I-X inclusive, Chs. XVIII, XIX.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1927-1928”.

________________

1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 8a1
Final Examination

Allow about one hour to each part of the examination.

I

  1. Below are given two contrasting views regarding: (a) the effects which an increase in numbers “in any given state of civilization” might be expected to have on the productive capacity of society; (b) the cause of want and misery in society. Which of these seems to you the more reasonable in each of these respects, and why? State in each case the considerations which, in your opinion, led the writer to take the particular view of the matter which he did.
    “A greater number of people cannot, in any given state of civilization, be collectively so well provided for as a smaller. The niggardliness of nature, not the injustice of society, is the cause of the penalty attached to over-population.”
    “I assert that in any given state of civilization a greater number of people can collectively be better provided for than a smaller. I assert that the injustice of society, not the niggardliness of nature, is the cause of the want and misery which the current theory attributes to over-population.”
  2. What is the attitude of Sumner and Keller on the question of “natural” rights? What is your own attitude? Would a man whose labor is absolutely superfluous to society have any right to a subsistence, in your opinion? Explain fully the grounds on which you base your judgment.

II

  1. Discuss the relation of sensitivity to democracy and point out the principal ways by which those who govern or manage are made sensitive to the interests of those who are governed or managed.
  2. What is meant by the vertical mobility of labor and what social institutions tend to decrease and what tend to increase it?
  3. Suppose that, from the beginning of human evolution, individual effort had been more effective than associated effort, do you think that men would have developed a social nature? Give reasons for your answer.

III

  1. Sumner and Keller have traced back all of our important social institutions to four primary interests in man. What are these interests and what are the institutions arising from each of them?
  2. Explain concisely each of the following terms, showing by your answer that you have a clear understanding of their several meanings:
    1. the man-land ratio;
    2. parallel induction;
    3. intellectual egalitarianism;
    4. maintenance-mores;
    5. ghost-fear;
    6. non-sustentative lethal selection;
    7. Marx’s theory of economic stratification;
    8. assortative mating
  3. Men are not sufficiently equipped with instincts to insure automatic behavior which has survival value in the complex life of modern society, neither are they sufficiently endowed with intelligence to secure rational behavior which has survival value. Between the limited field of behavior controlled by instinct and the equally limited field of behavior controlled by reason, there is apparently a wide gap. How is this gap filled?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers Mid-years, 1927-1928(HUC 7000.55). Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations: History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1928.

________________

JOSLYN AWARDED $6000
END PRIZE FALLS TO PENN. MAN

May 22, 1920

Carl Smith Joslyn ’20 of Springfield, now working his way through college, has won the Truxton Beale prize of $6000. This award was made as a result of the Walker Blaine Beale memorial contest for a Republican Platform suitable for use in the approaching campaign. The prize was offered by Truxton Beale for the purpose of stimulating political study among young people, and was to be won by a Republican not over 25 years of age.

His Platform Decisive and Complete

Mr. Joslyn’s platform is a well-built and well-reasoned document, embracing nearly a score of the outstanding questions of the day. His Republican convictions are set forth with incisive moderation, which lends emphasis to every statement. He deals expeditiously with the various international and socialistic delusions; sets forth a peace program as clear as it is decisive; makes a quick analysis of the league of nations and puts well defined limits to its powers. The greater part of his platform is, however, devoted to domestic problems, beginning with the high cost of living and following its economic and sociological ramifications through the relations of labor and industry, production and economy, taxation, railroads, foreign trade and merchant marine. ment. He ends with the following paragraphs:

“The Republican party appeals to the people for their support on the stand which it has taken against the abuse of the executive power and for the preservation of the sovereignty and independence of the United States. Its principles and policies are all formulated by a liberal and constructive statesmanship. Its creed is one of undivided Americanism; one faith, one loyalty, one devotion–and these in the service of upbuilding and strengthening the great United States of America, the country which gave the world the ideals of liberty and justice and which has dedicated its future to their perpetuation and advancement.”

Other Prizes Also Fall to College Men

The second prize of $3000 goes to Howard B. Wilson of Philadelphia, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and the third of $1000 to W. P. Smith, a student at the University of Michigan. The judges were President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, former United States Senator Beveridge and former United States Ambassador David Jayne Hill.

Source: Archive of the Harvard Crimson, May 22, 1960.

________________

History of U. Maryland’s Sociology Department

Although classes began on this campus in October 1859, the first sociology course was not taught until fall semester 1919.  The course was “Elementary Sociology.”  From the time of this first course until 1935, when a separate Department of Sociology was established, all sociology courses were offered by the Economics Department. During the 1970s, the Sociology Department was restructured and Anthropology and Criminology became separate programs.  Today, the Sociology Department houses the Center for Innovation, Program for Society and the Environment, Maryland Time Use Laboratory, Center for Research on Military Organizations, Group Processes Lab and is affiliated with the Maryland Population Research Center.

Over the years, the sociology faculty has included many nationally and internationally renowned scholars.  In the 1920s, sociology courses were taught by George Peter Murdock, who later created the Human Relations Area Files.  In 1938, Logan Wilson, who later became the President of the University of Texas, joined the faculty for a few years.  C. Wright Mills, the author of The Power Elite, White Collar, and The Sociological Imagination, was a member of the faculty from 1941-1945.  The most renowned scholar on the faculty during the last quarter-century was Morris Rosenberg, the world’s foremost student of how social forces shape the self-esteem.

Since its founding, the Department has had eleven leaders: Theodore B. Manny, Carl Joslyn, Edward Gregory, Harold Hoffsommer, Robert Ellis, Kenneth C. W. Kammeyer, Jerald Hage, William Falk, Lee Hamilton, Suzanne Bianchi, and Reeve Vanneman. The current chair is Patricio Korzeniewicz.

Among the many people who have earned a degree from this department and subsequently achieved considerable recognition are William Form, the first person to hold a Ph.D. (1944) from this department; Parren Mitchell, who became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives; Adele Stamp, for whom the Stamp Student Union is named, and Charles Wellford of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Source: University of Maryland, Department of Sociology. Webpage: “History of the Sociology Department”.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver (left) and Carl Smith Joslyn (right) from the faculty photos in the Harvard Class Album 1932.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Mid-year exam for economic theory course. Haberler, 1931-32.

Portr‰t des Haberler, Gottfried [1900-1995]

 

 

In 1931-32 thirty-one year old Gottfried Haberler taught as a visiting lecturer at Harvard. Later he was to return to Harvard where he was appointed to a professorship in 1936. He was a member of the Harvard faculty until his move to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1971.

This post provides three items from his 1931-32 course “Problems in Economic Theory”.

(1) Enrollment data. From the annual presidential report we see that only six students (half of whom were Radcliffe women) were registered for the course.
(2)  Assignments for both semesters’ reading periods. Note that Frank Knight accounts for a good half of that required reading.
(3) The final examination questions for the first semester. 

____________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 15. Dr. Haberler.—Problems in Economic Theory.

Total 6: 3 Seniors, 3 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1931-32. Page 72.

____________________

Reading Period
Jan 4-20, 1932

Economics 15

Knight, F.H.: Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit, Chs. III, IV.

Wicksteed, P.H.: Common Sense of Political Economy, Pt. I, Chs. II, VI, XI; P. II, Ch. On Rent.

Knight, F.H.: A Suggestion for Simplifying the Statement of The General Theory of Price, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 36, No. 3, June, 1928.

Suggestions for further reading:

Böhm-Bawerk, E.V.: Positive Theorie des Kapitals, 3rd or 4th edition (not translated), Exkurs VII, “Zurechnung”.

Mayer, Hans: Artikel “Bedürfnis”, “Produktion”, “Zurechnung” in Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, 4. Auflage.

Reading Period
May 9-June 1, 1932

Economics 15

Benham: “Economic Welfare”, in the Economica, June 1930.

Pigou: Economics of Welfare, Part I, Chs. 1,2,3,4,5; Part II, Ch. VIII, Secs. 1 and 2, Ch. X.

Knight: “Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost”,Quarterly Journal of Economics for August 1924.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder: “Economics, 1931-32”

____________________

1931-32
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 15
[Mid-year Examination]

Students may use any books or notes they wish.
Answer SIX of these questions.

  1. The problem of imputation and its relation to the theory of marginal productivity.
  2. Is it true that, if every factor is remunerated according to its marginal productivity, the whole product is exhausted? Under what conditions?
  3. Discuss the major differences between the (a) Marshallian, (b) Austrian, and (c) Walrasian theory of value and price.
  4. Discuss the mutual relation of utility, value and price and especially the proposition that there is a conformity of subjective value and the market price. Is it not circular reasoning to say that marginal utility determines the market prices because marginal utility itself depends partly, at last, on the price?
  5. Discuss the proposition that orthodox economics is individualistic and overlooks the fact that every individual is the product of social forces.
  6. What is the meaning of the “law of variation” of the factors of production? How or under what assumptions is it possible to derive from it a universal law of diminishing returns?
  7. What is the function of the concept of “want” or “need” in pure economic theory? State your opinion as to whether it can or should be eliminated and how it could be done.
  8. What do you think of Institutionalism and its criticism of orthodox economic theory?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943 (HUC 7000.55). Box 12. Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1931-32.

Image Source: Link to Österreichische Nationalbibliothek record.

Categories
Berkeley Exam Questions

Berkeley. Graduate Macro, final exam. Akerlof, 1992 and 1993

 

While the internet archive “The Wayback Machine” is truly a treasure chest filled with e-artifacts, without a pirate’s map to locate the buried treasure it is not for impatient, casual users. So from time to time, I dig around to share links to  economics from the recent past. For example course materials from…

Principles of Macroeconomics at M.I.T. from 1995-2006

Principles of Microeconomics at M.I.T. from 1994-2005

The following post takes us to late twentieth century Berkeley where and back when George Akerlof regularly taught a core macro course to graduate students. I have transcribed .pdf copies of his final exams from 1992 and 1993 (links to the original files provided below), trying to provide the look-and-feel of the original exams as much as possible.

For those who might not have come across George Akerlof’s autobiographical essay at the Nobel Prize website, I have just provided the Wayback Machine link to an archived copy.

_______________________

Department of Economics
University of California
Spring Semester 1992
Professor George A. Akerlof

ECONOMICS 202A
FINAL EXAMINATION

PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING.

  1. The exam is in three parts. Each part has equal weight in grading.
  2. You have three hours for the entire exam, so spend about 1 hour on each part.
  3. Answer all the questions using a separate Bluebook for each part.
  4. Be sure to write your name on the cover of all of your Bluebooks.

Grades will reflect the precision, clarity and completeness of your answers as well as their correctness.

 

PART A (Please use a Separate Blue Book)

State whether the following are True, False, or Uncertain. Explain why in each case.

  1. Suppose U.S. GNP is difference stationary. Suppose the 1992-1993 growth rate is expected to be .5 percent but in fact turns out to be 1.2 percent. Future expected growth rates should be adjusted upward by .7 percent.
  2. In long-run equilibrium in Summers’ model, with a constant rate of growth of the labor supply, q is either less than or equal to one.
  3. A country with staggered contracts commits itself to have zero growth of its money supply. It will have lower inflation and higher welfare than if it failed to make such a commitment.
  4. Real rigidities, such as efficiency wages, fail to explain deviations of unemployment from the natural rate.
  5. If Blanchard and Summers’ model is modified so that unions foresee shocks in demand, employment and wages will be constant over time.
  6. According to Bulow and Rogoff the marginal value of debt in amount D is (1-F(D)), where F(D) is the probability of default with D dollars’ worth of debt.

 

PART B (Please Use a Separate Blue Book)

State whether the following are True, False, or Uncertain. Explain why in each case.

  1. Consider a Shapiro-Stiglitz model where the production function is \varepsilon f(k), with the variation in \varepsilon due to productivity shocks. Unemployment will be invariant with changes in \varepsilon because workers never shirk in the Shapiro-Stiglitz model.
  2. Professor Charles E. Bucket found a significant correlation between the predicted component of the money supply and changes in GNP. His results are inconsistent with Taylor’s model because they imply that people do not have rational expectations.
  3. According to Murphy, Vishny and Shleifer, if the state sector has an elastic demand for lumber and the private sector has an inelastic demand for lumber, Perestroika will result in a welfare loss, even if the state sector initially is given priority for the output of the lumber industry.
  4. Summers’ model contradicts the observed correlation between investment and the rate of interest since in his model investment only depends on the value of q.
  5. Workers’ beliefs about what they should be paid will have no effect on unemployment since wages are set equal to marginal products. Unemployment develops because firms must pay wages so high that workers will not shirk.
  6. The observed variance of stock prices relative to the observed variance of the present discounted value of actual dividends is biased downwards in finite samples. Thus Shiller’s evidence is not inconsistent with efficient markets.

 

PART C (Please Use a Separate Blue Book)

Consider the following system motivated by Taylor

  1. yt= mt– pt (aggregate demand)
  2. yt= a(pt– wt) (aggregate supply)
  3. wt= pt-1 (wage determination)
  4. mt= mt-1+ \varepsilon t (money supply rule)

Find the impulse response function of a unit change in \varepsilon t on yt and pt.

Note: The impulse response function is the effect of a current unit shock on future values of the respective variables.

 

***END OF FINAL***

Source: The Wayback Machine internet archive.  PDF file of the Spring 1992 Final Exam of Economics 202A.

_______________________

Department of Economics
University of California
Spring Semester 1993
Professor George A. Akerlof

Economics 202A
FINAL EXAMINATION

PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING.

  1. The exam is in 3 parts. Each of the first 12 questions has equal weight in grading.
  2. Some questions are much more difficult than others.
  3. Answer all the questions using a separate Bluebook for each part.
  4. Be sure to write your name on the cover of all of your Bluebooks.
  5. There are 70 total points for the exam.

Grades will reflect the precision, clarity and completeness of your answers as well as their correctness.

 

PART A (Please use a Separate Blue Book)

State whether the following are True, False, or Uncertain. Explain why in each case. Each question is worth 5 points.

1) According to Sargent unemployment is a random walk since the change in unemployment between t and t+1 depends only on an error term which is uncorrelated with prior information.

2) In Summers’ model if the investment equation is of the form:

\frac{I}{K}=a+bQ,

adjustment costs will be of the form:

A=\frac{1}{2a}{{\left( \frac{I}{K}-b \right)}^{2}}K.

3) In the Shapiro-Stiglitz model an increase in the labor supply will leave the unemployment rate constant because the nonshirking boundary depends only on the unemployment rate (which is the ratio of the number of unemployed to the total labor supply). In equilibrium this ratio will be unchanged if there is a shift in the labor supply.

4) In the Barro-Gordon model if the government’s desired level of unemployment is exactly the natural rate, there is no benefit from precommitment to zero increase in the money supply.

5) Every day Mr. and Mrs. Romer have higher income than expenses. They have the following strategy of money holding. When their bank account reaches $2,500 they purchase a $2,000 bond. On May 7, they received an unexpected bill for $1,063 for earthquake insurance. The expected level of their bank account will increase by exactly $1,063.

6) Consider an economy with perfect competitors and constant costs. Suppose the money supply changes by \varepsilon . Some firms keep their prices constant. These firms will suffer losses due to their individual decisions to keep their prices constant which are proportional to \varepsilon (first-order). The change in their profits due to the change in the aggregate equilibrium because many such firms kept their prices sticky, however, is proportional to \varepsilon 2 (second-order).

7) If workers retain their union membership even if unemployed, unemployment will not follow a random walk.

 

PART B (Please Use a Separate Blue Book)

Answer the following questions. Each question is worth 5 points.

8) Graph the effect of a permanent and a temporary (one-period) unexpected change in the money supply in the Taylor model. Explain your graph.

9) Two identical firms A and B have a constant certain payout x. Firm A has all equity. Firm B has debt D. The interest rate is r and the corporate profit tax rate is \tau . Derive the value of firms A and B on the assumptions of efficient markets. What is the difference, if any, between the value of firms A and B?

10) The demand for real balances, when fully adjusted in the long-run, is

{{m}^{*}}=a{{y}_{t}}-b{{r}_{t}}

The adjustment process is given by

{{m}_{t}}-{{m}_{t-1}}=\delta \left( m_{t}^{*}-{{m}_{t-1}} \right)

What are the long-run and short-run income and interest elasticities of the demand for real balances?

(Note: y, r, and m are the logarithms of income, the interest rate and real balances).

11) Given the demand for money is of the form

\frac{M}{p}=a-b\pi

What is the maximum steady-state level of seigniorage?

(Note: \pi is the rate of inflation, M is nominal money balances and p is the price level).

12) Debt-laden poor Country A has debt with New York banks of D dollars. It will pay off x dollars of this debt, where x is a random variable with uniform distribution between 0 and  \bar{X}. Industrial rich Country B kindly offers to buy (and retire) Z dollars worth of A’s debt from New York banks if Country A will leave the probability distribution of its payoffs unchanged. According to the Bulow-Rogoff model, how much must Country B pay to leave Country A with only D-Z dollars of debt? What is the “value” in terms of decreased debt payments to Country A of Country B’s kind offer?

 

PART C (Please Use a Separate Blue Book)

Answer one of the following two questions. Worth 10 points.

 

1) Derive from first principles the non-shirking boundary (in the Shapiro-Stiglitz) model.

— OR —

2) Derive from first principles the AR(1) equation for xt in the Taylor model.

 

*** END OF FINAL ***

Source: The Wayback Machine internet archive.  PDF file of the Spring 1993 Final Exam of Economics 202A.

Image Source: The Wayback Machine internet archive. “George A. Akerlof. Biographical” webpage at the Nobel Prize website.

Categories
Economists Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Topics for the Ricardo Prize Examination, 1916

 

In an earlier post, JACOB VINER BEATS PAUL DOUGLAS FOR RICARDO PRIZE SCHOLARSHIP, 1916, we learned of a head-to-head competition between two young men who were to go on to become colleagues at the University of Chicago. Rummaging through Harvard Economics Department’s Correspondence & Papers, I happened to find a copy of the Ricardo Prize Examination topics for that 1916 examination in a folder where one would not have expected it to be filed. Now the record is more complete.

____________________

Ricardo Prize Exam. Will be Held in Upper Dane Tomorrow

The Ricardo Prize Scholarship examination will be held in Upper Dane Hall tomorrow at 2 o’clock. The scholarship is valued at $350, and is open to anyone who is this year a member of the University, and who will next year be either 8 member of the Senior class or of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Each candidate will write in the examination room an essay on a topic chosen by himself from a list not previously announced, in economics and political science. In addition, statements of previous studies, and any written work, must be submitted by every candidate to the Chairman of the Department of Economics not later than the time of the examination. The man who wins the scholarship must devote the majority of his time next year to economics and political studies.

Source:  Harvard Crimson, April 4, 1916.

____________________

1915-16
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
RICARDO PRIZE EXAMINATION

  1. The Single Tax.
  2. Minimum Wage for Men, in the Light of Economic Theory.
  3. Some Phase of the Theory of Value and Price.
  4. Regulation of Railroads by the States.
  5. The War and the Rate of Interest.
  6. Agricultural Credit.
  7. The Regulation of Monopolies.
  8. Free Trade in England.
  9. The Banks and the Stock Exchange.
  10. Price Maintenance.

April 5, 1916.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950 (UAV.349.10). Box 23. Folder: “Course outlines, 1935-37-38-42”.

Image Source: Collage of details taken from photos apf1-08488 (Viner) and  apf1-05851 (Douglas) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Money, Prelim Exam for Banking and Monetary Policy, 1959

 

Preliminary examinations at the University of Chicago for Money, Banking and Monetary Policy from the Summer Quarter, 1956 and Winter Quarter, 1969 have been posted earlier.

On August 4, 1959 a three-hour “Core Examination” was taken by seventeen students and a four-hour “Money Prelim” was taken by nine students. Two additional questions were added to the “Money Prelim”.

_______________

Summer Quarter 1959 Examination Committee for Money, Banking and Monetary Policy:

Milton Friedman (chairman)
Earl J. Hamilton
Reuben A. Kessel

_______________

Reuben A. Kessel, obituary
New York Times, 21 June 1975.

Dr. Reuben A. Kessel, professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business since 1962, died yesterday at a hospital in Chicago, after having suffered a stroke a week ago. He was 52 years old and lived in Floss moor, Ill.

Dr. Kessel earlier taught at the University of Missouri and the University of California at Los Angeles. From 1952 to 1956 he was an economist with the Rand Corporation. He later served as research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research here. He joined the Chicago faculty in 1957.

He was the author of “Cyclical Behavior of the Term Structure of Interest Rates.”

He received an M.B.A. degree in 1948 and a doctorate in 1954, both from Chicago.

Surviving are his widow, a daughter and two brothers.

_______________

CORE EXAMINATION
MONEY, BANKING AND MONETARY POLICY

Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees
Summer Quarter 1959
[August 4]

WRITE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER

Your Code Number and NOT your name
Name of Examination
Date of Examination

Results of the examination will be sent to you by letter.

Answer all questions. Time 3 hours.

  1. Answer both a and b.
    1. During the calendar year 1958 the United States “lost” over $2 billion of gold.
      1. Explain precisely what this statement means.
      2. What factors might account for the loss?
      3. What monetary or other effects does the loss have?
    2. It has been urged that to stem further losses, the U.S. should raise the price of gold from its present official level of $35 an ounce to a higher level.
      Discuss the consequences of such a move if

      1. other major countries raise the price of gold in proportion or
      2. they do not.
  2. Comment on both a and b.
    1. “Banks like to lend money. It’s their bread and butter. But sometimes loans have to be turned down. Remember, bankers are not lending their own money. Bank loans are made from money entrusted to banks by depositors.” (Business in Brief, Chase Manhattan Bank, No. 13, Oct. 1956, p. 8).
    2. “Treasury financing in 1954 was carried out with short- and intermediate-term securities, many of which were bought by commercial banks and served to increase the money supply.” Economic Report of the President, 1956.
  3. Consider a closed economy which has a fiduciary currency fixed in nominal amount. In this economy, a tax on earnings is replaced by a tax of equal yield on real property. Trace the consequences to be expected for income, interest rates, and the level of prices.
  4. Suppose all wages are escalated, in the sense of being linked continuously to a price index. It would be argued by many that government could not under such circumstances acquire real resources by issuing fiat currency. Do you agree? Justify your answer.

_______________

MONEY, BANKING AND MONETARY POLICY

Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees
Summer Quarter 1959
[August 4]

WRITE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER

Your Code Number and NOT your name
Name of Examination
Date of Examination

Results of the examination will be sent to you by letter.

Answer all questions. Time: four hours.

  1. Answer both a and b.
    1. During the calendar year 1958 the United States “lost” over $2 billion of gold.
      1. Explain precisely what this statement means.
      2. What factors might account for the loss?
      3. What monetary or other effects does the loss have?
    2. It has been urged that to stem further losses, the U.S. should raise the price of gold from its present official level of $35 an ounce to a higher level.
      Discuss the consequences of such a move if

      1. other major countries raise the price of gold in proportion or
      2. they do not.
  2. Answer either a or b.
      1. Sir John Clapham has asserted (The Bank of England, Vol. II, p. 421) that it was in the Bank of England that “the practice of central banking had originally been worked out.” To what extent do you agree?
      2. Explain and criticize what you consider the most important contribution to monetary thought before 1900.
  3. Analyze, in terms of the income-expenditure approach, the effect of a reduction in the stock of money via (a) an open market sale by the Federal Reserve, (b) a surplus in the budget used to reduce the stock of money. Indicate the empirical magnitudes that must be known to predict the quantitative effect in each case.
  4. Comment on both a and b.
    1. “Banks like to lend money. It’s their bread and butter. But sometimes loans have to be turned down. Remember, bankers are not lending their own money. Bank loans are made from money entrusted to banks by depositors.” (Business in Brief, Chase Manhattan Bank, No. 13, Oct. 1956, p. 8).
    2. “Treasury financing in 1954 was carried out with short- and intermediate-term securities, many of which were bought by commercial banks and served to increase the money supply.” Economic Report of the President, 1956.
  5. Consider a closed economy which has a fiduciary currency fixed in nominal amount. In this economy, a tax on earnings is replaced by a tax of equal yield on real property. Trace the consequences to be expected for income, interest rates, and the level of prices.
  6. Suppose all wages are escalated, in the sense of being linked continuously to a price index. It would be argued by many that government could not under such circumstances acquire real resources by issuing fiat currency. Do you agree? Justify your answer.

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 77, Folder 8 “University of Chicago, Econ 331”.

Image Source: Irwin Collier taking a break from archival work at the Hoover Institution.

Categories
Exam Questions Toronto

Toronto. Examination papers in political economy, 1876

Knox College Building

 

The previous post provided transcriptions of the 1875 examinations at the University of Toronto in political economy. The 1876 examinations transcribed below include two additional examinations dedicated to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.

______________________

Other Toronto examinations in political economy

University of Toronto, Annual Examinations for 1858.

University of Toronto, Annual Examinations for 1875.

University of Toronto, Annual Examinations for 1891.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Second Year.

ROGERS’S POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. What is the true definition of rent? Does this definition apply equally to land in country and city? State generally the causes which will increase and diminish rent.
  2. What is the measure of the price in England of any kind of foreign produce? Give an illustration of this.
  3. When the imports of a country exceeds its exports, what advantage or disadvantage to the country is thereby indicated? Illustrate your answer by one or two imaginary commercial transactions between merchants in two countries.
  4. Mention some of the causes giving rise to an efflux of specie. Can you suggest a case in which such an efflux would not be checked by a rise in the rate of discount?
  5. Explain the constituent parts of wages, and state the causes which determine their amount.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Second Year.

ROGERS’S POLITICAL ECONOMY
Honors

Examiner: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. What are the economical grounds upon which a government is justified in insisting upon the education of the young, and in levying a tax for educational purposes?
  2. Illustrate, by reference to the past history of England, the alteration that has taken place during the last five centuries in the theory of the functions of government.
  3. When a tax is imposed on an export, in what cases may it be paid by the consuming country? What is the effect upon the trade in the article taxed in the exporting country where the tax is not paid by the consuming country?
  4. A certain article of commerce, of which there are several grades having different values, becomes suddenly scarce: are all the grades affected equally as to price? Explain your answer fully.
  5. Shew the fallacy of the statement that inferior lands have been occupied and cultivated as population has increased.
  6. Explain the meaning of the assertion that values are relative to each other. What circumstances are necessary to give value to any object of commerce?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Third Year.

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Pass

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

ROGERS.

  1. (a) Investigate the relation between labor and wages, so as to discover the causes of high and low wages.
    (b) Explain and criticize the Malthusian theory of population.
  2. (a) Give an account of the principal restrictions on occupations as exhibited in the commercial history of England.
    (b) Examine various methods adopted to regulate the rate of wages, and shew their economic effects.
  3. “There is not a shadow of evidence in support of the statement that inferior lands have been occupied and cultivated as population increases.” What theory is here referred to? What is Rogers’ theory of rent?
  4. In the long run the price of commodities depends, as we have several times seen, on the cost of production.” Fully explain this statement. What modification does it admit of?
  5. (a) “The fact is, as demand, to be effectual, must be accompanied by the power of exchange; so supply, to be effectual must be accompanied by the power to produce.” Develop a line of argument in support of this statement.
    (b) Shew the effect of increasing the price of manufactured or imported articles, the price of the productions of the earth given in exchange remaining fixed.
  6. Assign limits to governmental interference with the free course of trade.
  7. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of indirect taxation.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Third Year.

SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. Shew how the accumulation of stock leads to the improvement in the productive powers of labour.
  2. Expain the two different ways in which a capital may be employed so as to yield a revenue or profit to its employer.
  3. Does the money of any Society form a portion of its gross, or its neat revenue, or of either, or both? Explain fully.
  4. Explain shortly the advantages gained by the substitution of paper for gold or silver money.
  5. What is meant by the “balance of trade”? Explain the fallacy upon which was founded the supposition, that a favourable balance of trade was necessary to the prosperity of a country.
  6. What are drawbacks? What was their object under the mercantile system, and in what cases, if any, does the author think them reasonable, and in what cases unreasonable?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Third Year.

SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS
Honors.

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. Distinguish the gross, from the neat, revenue of all the inhabitants of a country; and describe what each is composed of.
  2. “What is annually saved, is as regularly consumed as what is annually spent, and nearly in the same time too, but it is consumed by a different set of people”.
    How does the author proceed to shew this?
  3. Explain the different ways in which a nation may purchase the pay and provisions of an army in a distant country.
  4. How does the author expose the fallacy of the theory entertained by Mr. Locke, Mr. Law, and others, that the increase of the quantity of gold and silver, after the discovery of the Spanish West Indies, was the real cause of the lowering of the rate of interest in Europe?
  5. Shew how it is, that the study of his own advantage necessarily leads each individual member of a Society, to prefer that employment of his capital which is most advantageous to the Society.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Third Year.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Honors

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

MILL I.

  1. Explain what is meant by the mercantile system. Assign causes for the errors involved therein.
  2. (a) Mention and illustrate by examples, the different kinds of indirect labor employed in production.
    (b) Distinguish between materials and implements.
  3. (a) “Yet in disregard of a fact so evident, it long continued to be believed that laws and governments without creating capital, could create industry.” Fully explain. What exception does Mill admit to the general rule he lays down?
    (b) Examine whether the unproductive expenditure of the rich is necessary to the employment of the poor.
  4. Distinguish between circulating and fixed capital. Show the effect of increasing the latter at the expense of the former.
  5. Give the substance of Mill’s remarks on the degree of productiveness of productive agents.
  6. Compare the advantages of production on a large and on a small scale, including in your discussion the relative advantages of large and small farming.
  7. Give and illustrate the law of increase of production from land.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Candidates for B.A.

CIVIL POLITY.

Examiner: Rev. George Paxton Young, M.A.

COX’S BRITISH COMMONWEALTH.
SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS.

  1. Define the duties of Government.
  2. Where does the right of taxation lie? Give historical illustrations.
  3. Discuss the question, whether a representative in Parliament ought to be the chosen advocate of particular classes or interests.
  4. “The law does not allow any man, however great his property, to give more than one vote to one candidate.” —Is this law based on correct principles?
  5. What distinctions are there between the pleadings in equity and at common law?
  6. What are the principles on which International Executive Government is established?
  7. Point out the reciprocal obligations of a Supreme State and its Colonies.
  8. What principle give occasion to the division of labour? To what limitation is the division of labour subject? Illustrate.
  9. Discuss the subject of the wages of labour.
  10. Inquire into the policy of restraints upon the importation from foreign countries of such goods as can be produced at home.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1876
Candidates for B.A.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Honors

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

MILL

  1. (a) Discuss the nature of wealth, giving different views. What conclusion does Mill come to? Give his reasoning.
    (b) Discuss after Mill the nature of productive labour.
  2. How does Mill answer the question, “What is Capital?” State the fundamental propositions respecting capital; and examine the effect of government loans for unproductive expenditure.
  3. Inquire into the effect of increasing the cost of the raw material of manufactures; and show whether the increased cost of food affects prices or not.
  4. Give, with illustrations, the equation of International Demand.
  5. Give the substance of the chapter “Of Excess of Supply.”
  6. Trade the influence of credit on prices, and inquire into its effects on the general prosperity of a community.
  7. Give different theories of the cause of rent. Criticise Mill’s statement of it, showing how he differs from American economists.
  8. What are the principles of the Theory of Value?
    (a) Give Mill’s summary.
    (b) Some political economists assign as the cause of value, desire for an object—values being regulated by the strength of the desire. Carefully examine this view.
  9. What different remedies have been offered and tried for low wages? State your own views on the principal cause of low wages; also, state the most effectual remedies.
  10. (a) Examine how far paternal government would be economically beneficial.
    (b) Give illustrations of how governments may undertake commercial enterprises for the benefit of the nation, which otherwise could be carried out by private companies.
  11. Discuss, from an independent stand point, the advantages and disadvantages of incidental protection.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1876.

Image Source: Knox College. University of Toronto Libraries / Heritage U of T / U of T Chronology. (archived copy at the Wayback Machine)

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Toronto

Toronto. Examination papers in political economy, 1875

From the six exams covering economics at the University of Toronto from 1875 we see that Rogers’ Manual of Political Economy was used as an introductory text with J. S. Mill’s Principles being principal text for the more advanced courses. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations also explicitly examined.

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About the 1875 Examiners

Thomas Hodgins, M.A. Q.C., Toronto

The Canadian Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men: Ontario Volume. Chicago and Toronto: American Biographical Pub. Co., 1880. pp. 386-388.

George Paxton Young

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. XI (1881-1890).

William John Robertson (Toronto, B.A.1873)

A Brief Historical Sketch of Canadian Banking and Currency  by W. J. Robertson (Examiner in Political Economy, Toronto University). Paper read before the historical and political science association of the University of Toronto, Feb. 4th, 1888.

William P. R. Street (b. 10 May 1868; d. 27 August 1946)

According to Toronto City Directory:  Judge (1890)

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University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875
Second Year.

ROGERS’S POLITICAL ECONOMY

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. What was Mr. Price’s scheme for extinguishing the National Debt?
  2. What are the objects of Trades Unions, and what are the means taken to carry them out?
  3. Explain the peculiar disadvantages of taxes on raw materials.
  4. What is the measure of value? Explain the statement that there can be no universal rise in values.
  5. How does the author discuss the question as to the propriety of government interference to check the too rapid exhaustion of coal in Great Britain?
  6. State briefly the causes which increase and diminish rent, and explain their operation in doings so.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875
Second Year.

ROGERS’S POLITICAL ECONOMY
Honors

Examiners: Thomas Hodgins, M.A., LL.B. [and] W. P. R. Street, LL.B.

  1. Mention some of the causes of an efflux of specie.
  2. “If a government interferes with the liberty of its subjects it is bound to shew cause for the interference.” What are the two causes which the author mentions as justifying such interference?
  3. How is Rent defined? Upon whom does the loss arising from an increase in the wages of agricultural laborers fall? Explain?
  4. Mention some of the difficulties in the way of an equitable tax upon incomes.
  5. Explain the operation of a rise in the rate of discount in checking a drain of specie. Under what circumstances is it likely to be ineffectual for that purpose?
  6. What is the real pledge given by a government as the security for the National debt? How is this shewn by the author?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875

Third Year.
POLITICAL ECONOMY
Pass

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

ROGERS.

  1. If the contract be voluntary, and the service be mutual, is one man’s gain another’s loss? Discuss.
  2. (a) What is the cause of value? Distinguish between value in exchange, and value in use.
    (b) What expedients are adopted to lessen labor, and increase production?
    (c) Give examples of the beneficial effect of division of labor.
  3. (a) What, according to Rogers, is the measure of value? Illustrate.
    (b) Can there be a general rise in value? If not, why not?
    (c) Can there be a general rise in price? Illustrate.
  4. (a) What functions does money perform? Account for the error that money alone is wealth.
    (b) Enumerate various substitutes for money.
  5. Investigate the true relation between Capital and Labor, referring to popular theories and remedies, which you deem erroneous.
  6. Give an account of the causes which depress the rate of wages.
  7. Give Rogers’s views regarding the subject of Protection, stating the limits he prescribes, and shewing wherein he disagrees with Mill.
  8. (a) Give the general rules of taxation?
    (b) What are the relative advantages of direct and indirect taxation?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

 

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875

Third Year.
CIVIL POLITY.
Honors

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

MILL I.

  1. (a) What are the requisites of production?
    (b) Does nature contribute more to the efficacy of labor in some occupations than in others? Explain.
  2. State the different ways in which labor is employed. Criticise the division of labor into agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial.
  3. Discuss, after Mill, the questions of productive and unproductive labor, also of productive and unproductive consumption.
  4. Enumerate and illustrate (where necessary) the fundamental propositions respecting capital.
  5. Institute a comparison between the benefits of large and small farming respectively.
  6. Give the substance of Mill’s chapter “Of the Law of the Increase of Labor.”

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875

Candidates for B.A.
CIVIL POLITY.

Examiner: Rev. George Paxton Young, M.A.

COX’S BRITISH COMMONWEALTH—SMITH’S WEALTH OF NATIONS.

  1. From what source is the right of government derived? Examine the question fully.
  2. Give an account of the origin and rise of the British Cabinet. On what conditions does the permanence of any particular Cabinet usually depend?
  3. Describe the practice of Parliament with respect to private bills; and state what different courses may be adopted when a public bill is returned from either House to the other with amendments.
  4. What is an impeachment, and how is it conducted?
  5. Examine the doctrine of the balance of power.
  6. Under what restrictions are criteria of truth afforded by public opinion? And to what extent do justice and policy require that governments should be directed by its dictates?
  7. Give an account of the origin and use of money.
  8. Show, that, in the price of commodities, the profits of stock constitute a component part altogether different from the wages of labour, and regulated by different principles.
  9. Explain the order in which manufactures, agriculture, and foreign commerce naturally arise; and state the relation of these branches to the increase of opulence, whether in town or country.
  10. “The attention of governments never was so unnecessarily employed as when directed to watch over the preservation of the increase of the quantity of money in any country.” How does Smith establish this position?

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

 

______________________

University of Toronto
Annual Examinations: 1875

Candidates for B.A.
CIVIL POLITY.
Honors

Examiner: W. J. Robertson, B.A.

MILL

  1. Show what would be the effect of increasing fixed Capital, at the expense of circulating.
  2. Explain and illustrate the diversity in the effective strength of the desire of accumulation.
  3. Give the substance of the chapter “Of the Law of the Increase of Production from Land.”
  4. Distinguish between Communism, St. Simonism, and Fourierism. Criticise these systems.
  5. Examine Mill’s views on the right of bequest and inheritance.
  6. Give examples of the influence of custom on rents, tenure of land, and prices.
  7. Discuss the question of peasant proprietorship.
  8. Enumerate various popular remedies for low wages. Criticise.
  9. State Mill’s theory of rent, with your own views thereon.
  10. Can there be an over-supply of commodities generally? Explain.
  11. (a) What regulates international values? Illustrate.
    (b) Briefly show the indirect benefits of Commerce.
  12. Give examples of exceptions to the rule of Laisser-faire.
  13. Discuss briefly the influence of credit on prices.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1875.

Image Source:  BlogTO / Toronto of the 1880s (January 11, 2011)

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Examinations for Junior and Senior Political Economy. Dunbar, 1876-77

 

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s scribe-curator is now back in action to provide four examinations (two mid-year and two final exams) from the two political economy courses taught at Harvard by Charles F. Dunbar during the 1876-77 academic year.

It is really great to be back transcribing and curating!

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Political Economy Courses
Elective Studies, 1876-77.

Prof. Dunbar. Philosophy 5. Political Economy.

— J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. — Lectures on the Financial Legislation of the United States.

Number of students: 1 Graduate, 30 Seniors, 64 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 2 Unmatriculated.
Number of sections: 2
Exercises per week for students: 3
Exercises per week for instructors: 6

Prof. Dunbar. Philosophy 6. Advanced Political Economy.

— Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. — Lectures.

Number of students: 2 Graduates, 22 Seniors
Number of sections: 1
Exercises per week for students: 3
Exercises per week for instructors: 3

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1876-77, p. 49.

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PHILOSOPHY 5.
Mid-Year Examination
February, 1877

[In answering the questions do not change their order.]

  1. Why is the distinction between labor for the supply of productive and for the supply of unproductive consumption, more important than that between productive and unproductive labor?
  2. What is the ground for saying that “every increase of capital is capable of giving additional employment to industry, and this without assignable limit”?
  3. How does the existence of the banking system facilitate the equalization of profits in different employments?
  4. How far is the doctrine of rent, or of the value of land, affected, if it be shown that in the actual occupation of the earth the best lands are the last to be cultivated?
  5. What is the ground for saying that rent is not a part of the cost of production, the fact being that the farmer is obliged to take account of it as one of his expenses?
  6. On what does the cost of labor depend?
  7. Is there any commodity of which the change of supply must be actual as well as possible, in order that its value may be made to conform to its cost of production?
  8. Why does the durability of the precious metals give steadiness to their value?
  9. Criticise Mr. Mill’s statement that when there are successive emissions of inconvertible paper it will drive out the metallic money previously in circulation, “that is, if paper be issued of as low a denomination as the lowest coin; if not, as much will remain as convenience requires for the smallest payments.”
  10. How would a currency of convertible paper compare in steadiness of value with one of inconvertible paper which was of fixed amount?
  11. Explain the statement that it is “not general taxation but differential taxation,” that affects values and prices.
  12. Explain the disproportionate pressure on the Bank of England as compared with other banks, during a financial panic.
  13. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the “many-reserve” system, and how does American experience affect Mr. Bagehot’s reasoning on the matter?
  14. The following is the account of the Bank of England (given in millions and tenths of millions) for May 9, 1866: –

Issue Department.

Notes issued,

£27.3

 Gov’t debt and securities,

£15.0

____

 Coin and bullion,

£12.3

£27.3

£27.3

Banking Department.

Capital,

£14.5

 Government securities,

£10.9

Rest,

£  3.2

 Other securities,

£20.8
Public deposits,

£  5.8

 Reserve,

£  5.8
Private deposits,

£13.5
Seven-day bills,

£  0.5

____

£37.5

£37.5

The panic reached its height and the Act of 1844 was suspended on the 12th; in the next three weeks the Bank increased its loans by thirteen millions, and five millions were drawn out by depositors. What changes must therefore be made in the above account? What changes would have been necessary if depositors had drawn seven millions instead of five?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 1, Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1876-1877”.

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PHILOSOPHY 5.
Final Examination
May, 1877

[Do not change the order of the questions.
A number marked with an asterisk may be substituted for the same number not so marked.]

  1. To what extent is it true that “wages (meaning of course money wages) vary with the price of food, rising when it rises, and falling when it falls”?
  2. “Even a general rise of wages, when it involves a real increase in the cost of labor, does in some degree influence values.” How?
  3. What is the meaning of the statement that “it is not a difference in the absolute cost of production, which determines the interchanges [of commodities between countries], but a difference in the comparative cost.”
  4. How was the exchange of commodities with other countries be affected by an improvement which lowers the cost of production of some article which the country already exports?

4. *Explain both branches of the statement that “they are in the right to maintain that taxes on imports are partly paid by foreigners; but they are mistaken when they say, that it is by the foreign producer.”

  1. If a country has a large regular product of gold, what will be the natural effect on the rate charged for bills of exchange upon foreign countries, and why?
  2. If both the capital and population of the country are increasing, what will be the effect on wages, profits, and rent, respectively? Give the reasons.

6. *Why do improvements which cheapen the production of luxuries have less effect than those which cheaper the necessaries of life, in retarding the decline of profits towards the minimum?

  1. What is the ground for saying that a tax on what is properly called rent falls wholly on the landlord in the long run?
  2. Is a tax on the value of unimproved property (as e.g. vacant land) consistent with Adam Smith’s first canon of taxation? Give your reasons.
  3. The following is the account of the Bank of England for November 11, 1857:—

Issue Department.

Notes issued, £21.1 Gov’t debt and securities, £14.5
____ Coin and bullion, £  6.6
£21.1 £21.1

Banking Department.

Capital, £14.5 Government securities, £   9.4
Rest, £  3.4 Other securities, £26.1
Public deposits, £  5.3 Reserve, £  1.5
Private deposits, £12.9
Seven-day bills, £  0.9 ____
£37.0 £37.0

In the next two weeks five millions were lent to individuals and three millions of deposits were drawn out. Show the changes in the account and the effect on the limit fixed by the act of 1844.

    1. What was the date of the last suspension of specie payments in the United States? Explain the circumstances which led to it.
    2. Show what influences besides improving credit made the sale of 5-20’s easy in 1863, although it had been nearly impossible in 1862.
    3. Explain the plan on which the national banks are established; show its points of resemblance, if any, to the plan of the Bank of England; and state the purposes for which the deposits of bonds and the reserves are required.
    4. Describe the action which Congress has taken on the subject of currency since the financial crisis of 1873.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 2, Folder “Final examinations, 1876-1877”.

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PHILOSOPHY 6.
Mid-year Examination
February, 1877

[In answering the questions do not change their order.]

    1. 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?”
    2. What is Cairnes’s reply to Mill’s statement that the portion of supply which is reserved for future sale forms no part of the supply which determines market price? How does Cairnes define supply and demand as affecting market price?
    3. In the general cheapening of manufacturers, resulting from modern improvements, which is cheapened most, the consumption of the masses or the consumption of the rich?
    4. How does the following statement of the wages-fund doctrine compare with Cairnes’s statement of it?
      “The wages-fund, therefore, may be greater or less at another time, but at the time taken it is definite. The amount of it cannot be increased by force of law or of public opinion, or through sympathy and compassion on the part of employers, or as the result of appeals or efforts on the part of the working classes.” (Walker, “The Wages Question,” p. 138.)
    5. It is said in answer to Cairnes’s argument for coöperation, that laborers can now bring profits to reinforce wages, by means of the savings banks. What answer is to be made to this?
    6. What is the connection between general wages and foreign trade, as illustrated by the case of the Australian colony, Victoria?
    7. What were Cairnes’s reasons for expecting in 1873 that before many years the balance of trade would become permanently “favorable” to the United States?
    8. “If the high rates of industrial remuneration in America be only evidence of a low cost of production, 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 important wares, with England and other European countries?”
    9. What is the inconsistency between the common definition of the cost of production and the doctrine of international values? How is the inconsistency to be remedied?
    10. Compare Carey’s doctrine of Value with Mill’s.
    11. “Diminution in the value of capital,” says Carey, “is attended by diminution in the proportion of labor given for its use by those who, unable to purchase, desire to hire it. Had the first axe been exclusive property of one of our colonists, he would have demanded more than half the wood that could be cut, in return for its use… His neighbor would find it to his advantage to give three-fourths of the product for use of the axe… The arrival of the ship having given them better axes at a smaller cost, would not give, nor could the other demand so large a proportion as before … In the fourteenth century, when a week’s labor would command only 7½d. in silver, the owner of a pound of that metal could demand as compensation for its use a much larger proportion than now, when the laborer can obtain that quantity in a little more than a fortnight.”
      What is the fallacy in this reasoning?
    12. Criticize the following statements : –
      “Ricardo’s system is based upon the assumed fact, that in the beginning of cultivation, when population is small and land abundant, the richest soils alone are cultivated… If it can be shown that, in every country and at every age, the order of events has been direct opposition to what it is supposed by Mr. Ricardo to have been, then must his theory be abandoned as wholly destitute of foundation.”
    13. It is also assumed that if our paper currency is brought to equality of value with gold, no further withdrawal of paper will be necessary. Can this be taken for granted? Can the gold now in the Treasury or in the Pacific States, or any of it, be regarded as a provision for specie resumption?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 1, Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1876-1877”.

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PHILOSOPHY 6.
Final Examination
May, 1877

    1. What is the reason “that’s so little impression has been made on the rate of wages and profits” by the immense industrial progress of recent times?
    2. Criticise the following extract from Walker’s “Wages Question,” p. 198: –

“Instead of asserting, as Prof. Cairnes has done, the practical isolation of certain great groups, with the entire freedom of movement within these groups, I believe that a fuller study of industrial society will establish the conviction that nowhere is mobility perfect, theoretically or even practically, and nowhere is there entire immobility of labor; that all classes and conditions of men are appreciably affected by the force of competition; but that, on the other hand, the force of competition, which nowhere becomes nil, even for practical purposes, ranges from a very high to very low degree of efficiency, according to national temperament, according to peculiarities of personal character and circumstance, according to the laws and institutions of the community, and according to natural or geographical influences.”

    1. It is laid down that high general wages do not hinder a country from exchanging with others. Trace the course of a trade, opened between two countries one of which has higher general wages and higher prices for all commodities adapted to foreign commerce than the other, and show the application of the principle first stated.
    2. What is meant by saying that a nation is interested, not in having its prices high or low, but in having its gold cheap?
    3. Examine the question whether a nation which has an unfavorable balance of trade can maintain specie payments?
    4. What is Mr. Carey’s doctrine as to the prices of raw materials and finished goods respectively, and the reason for it? How does he answer the question, “must not improved cultivation tend to cheapen corn, as improvements in the mode of conversion tend to cheapen cloth?”
    5. Compare Mr. Carey’s doctrine as to the distribution between capital and labor with the proposition laid down by Ricardo and Mill, that profits tend to decline in consequence of an increasing cost of labor.
    6. Discuss the following:—
      “The use of bank-notes tends, we are told, to promote the expulsion of gold. Were this so, it would be in opposition to the great general law in virtue of which all commodities tend to, and not from, the places where their utility is greatest…The check and the bank-note stimulate the import [of the precious metals], as is proved by the fact, that for a century past, they have flowed towards Britain, where such notes were most in use.”
    7. What is likely to be the effect of the attempt of Ohio and Illinois to make the subsidiary silver a legal tender without limit, supposing their constitutional power to do so to be granted?
    8. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the land-reforms undertaken in the last century in France, Prussia, and Russia, respectively?
    9. Of these six, — Adam Smith, Sir James Stewart, Quesnay, J.-B. Say, Ricardo, Sismondi, — take three, giving dates, relations to each other, and doctrines or discussions for which they are best known.
    10. Show the contributions of Ricardo, Mill, and Cairnes, respectively, to the full development of the doctrine of international values.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 2, Folder “Final examinations, 1876-1877”.

Image Source: Charles F. Dunbar in E. H. Jackson and R. W. Hunter (eds.), Portraits of the Harvard Faculty (Boston, 1892).