Category: Exam Questions

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Exams for Statistics. Ripley, 1909-1910

William Zebina Ripley

William Zebina Ripley’s teaching portfolio at Harvard included the methods of (descriptive statistics) which was still not yet a mandatory part of the training of graduate students of economics in 1910. Also worth noting is that there was not a deep bench at Harvard to cover the field of statistics in the first decade of the twentieth century—the course was not offered by anyone in 1905-06.

Ripley lists ten treatises on statistics in his chapter on social statistics in A guide to reading in social ethics and allied subjects (1910), by Francis G. Peabody et al. There is certainly overlap with his course readings there.

________________________

Statistics (Econ 4) Exams
from previous years

1901-02.
1902-03.
1903-04.
1904-05.
1905-06 [not offered]
1906-07. [offered but no printed exam found]
1907-08. [only mid-year exam found]
1908-09.

________________________

Course Description
1909-10

[Economics] 4. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. Tu., Th., at 11. First half-year: Professor Ripley. Second half-year: Mr. —.

This course is intended rather as an analysis of methods of research and sources of information than as embodying mere results. A brief history of statistics will be followed by an account of census and other statistical methods in the United States and abroad, with the scientific use and interpretation of results. The main divisions of vital statistics, relating to birth, marriage, morbidity, and mortality, life tables, etc.; the statistics of trade and commerce, such as price indexes, etc.; industrial statistics relating to labor, wages, and employment; statistics of agriculture, manufactures, and transportation, will be then considered in order. Laboratory work, amounting to not less than two hours per week, in the preparation of charts, maps, and diagrams from original material, will be required.

Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economics 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economics 1.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29
(23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, p. 53.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1909-10

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

Total 26: 8 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 4 Freshmen, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

  1. Suppose that an investigation as to unemployment in 1909 among 5,000,000 men, showed the following result:—
45 per cent. were idle 1 month,
20 per cent. were idle 4 months,
15 per cent. were idle 7 months,
10 per cent. were idle 9 months,
5 per cent. were idle 11 months.

What would be the average unemployment? Could you state the result in any better way?

  1. Fisher estimates a possible average prolongation of life of 15 years; and cites three factors which may still further extend it beyond this limit. What are these?
  2. The median age of the population of the United States in 1900 was 22.85; in 1880 it was 20.86. The average age in 1900 was 26.2; in 1880 it was 24.6. (a) Why is the average age so much higher than the median age? (b) Explain how each is obtained. (c) Which is the better mode of expressing the statistical facts?
  3. The population of Marseilles in 1828 was 133,000, of which 33,000 were vaccinated. There were 3,330 cases of smallpox of which 2,289 were of persons not vaccinated. Of these latter 420 died; while among 1,041 vaccinated persons stricken, only 17 died. Was vaccination a success or not? Is there a showing unfavorable to vaccination deducible from these figures? Prove in each case by ratios.
  4. —
Standard Birth rate. Correction Factor. Crude Birth rate. Corrected Birth rate.
Boston 39.04 0.8942 29.15 _____
Providence, R. I. 43.86 0.7959 26.46 _____
Native born 30.88 1.1305 15.09 _____
Foreign born 55.67 0.6271 49.37 _____

Explain (a) how this table was constructed in principle; (b) complete it by filling in the blank spaces; and (c) explain exactly what it means.

  1. From the age of 10 forward, the probability of death increases progressively. Will a mortality table show more or fewer deaths in consequence between the ages of 60-65 or of 10-15 years?
  2. Is registration of births or of deaths making the more rapid progress in the United States? How widely extended is each?
  3. How is the birth rate for the United States computed from the census data? What is the principal element of uncertainty in such an estimate?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1909-10.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4
Year-end Examination, 1909-10

  1. What is usually conceded to be the best statistical measure of the well-being of a community or a family? Name some authorities who have worked in this field.
  2. About how much unemployment is there normally in civilized countries? Criticise the evidence available.
  3. Where would you find statistical data as to —
    1. Membership in trade unions?
    2. The amount of gold and silver in circulation in the United States?
    3. Traffic on rivers and canals in the United States?
    4. The prevalence of crime in the different states of the Union?
  4. What does the following table show?

Cost of a product valued at $100.

Materials Wages Misc. Exp. Total
U.S. all industries, 1890 $55.08 $24.36 $6.73 $86.17
  1. What is shown by the following table?

Labor cost in three industries.

United States, 1900 Per cent of wages
and value of product		 Average wages
Iron and steel 15.0 $543
Cotton goods 25.6 $286
Flour and grist mills 3.2 $478
  1. Could any change in conditions between 1890 and 1900 be proved by such data?
  2. Describe the statistical system as to price movements of Soetbeer in detail.
  3. Criticise the Aldrich Committee Report on the movement of wages since 1890.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11 (HUC 7000.25) Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), p. 40.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910). Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Sociology

Harvard. Enrollment and exams for Principles of Sociology. Carver, 1909-1910

Thomas Nixon Carver taught or co-taught sociology in the Harvard economics department eight times in the first decade of the twentieth century. Carver lists sixteen items in his chapter on sociology in A guide to reading in social ethics and allied subjects (1910), by Francis G. Peabody et al.

__________________________

Carver’s teaching assistant was J. S. Davis [Ph.D., 1913] whose obituary, “Joseph Stancliffe Davis, (1885-1975)” , was written by Joseph H. Willits. It was published in The American Statistician 30, no. 4 (1976), p. 199.

__________________________

Sociology exams from earlier years

1901-02 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1902-03 (taught by T. N. Carver and W. Z. Ripley)

1903-04 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1904-05 (taught by T. N. Carver and J. A. Field) Includes the reading list for the course and additional biographical information.

1905-06 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1906-07 (taught by J. A. Field)

1907-08 (taught by T. N. Carver)

1908-09 (taught by T. N. Carver and C. W. Thompson)

________________________

Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

  1. Principles of Sociology. — Theories of Social Progress. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Professor Carver, and an assistant.

The purpose of this course will be to make an analytical study of social life in order to discover the elementary factors and forces which hold society together and give it an orderly development. The development of social institutions, such as the family, the state, religion, property, and contract, will also be studied with a view to finding out their true relation to social well-being and progress.

Reading in connection with the lectures will be assigned in such works as Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, Bagehot’s Physics and Politics, Kidd’s Social Evolution, and in Carver’s Sociology and Social Progress. Students are expected to take part in the discussion of the books read and of the lectures delivered.

Course 3 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1909-10. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VI, No. 29 (July 23, 1909).

________________________

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 3. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr. [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis [Ph.D., 1913]. — Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.

Total 70: 12 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 26 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 9 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

________________________

ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

Do not try to write too much. Think out your answers and express yourself clearly.

  1. How would you define Sociology, and into what departments would you divide it?
  2. How does the problem of the transmissibility of acquired characters affect the problem of race improvement?
  3. Do geographical conditions exercise as powerful an influence upon mental and social life in advanced stages of civilization as in the lower stages? Explain your position.
  4. How is the form of social organization affected when the social group is compelled to wage its chief struggle against other social groups? How is it affected when the group must wage its chief struggle against the forces of nature?
  5. Compare the views of Buckle and Kidd as to the relative importance of intellectual and moral development.
  6. What is meant by the standard of living, how is it maintained, and how does its maintenance affect the general problem of adaptation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1909-10.

________________________

ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1909-10

  1. What, according to Spencer, are the original external and the original internal factors of sociology?
  2. What professions have developed from the priesthood, and how has the development taken place?
  3. What are the points of resemblance between the mediaeval prince and the modern political boss?
  4. What is Spencer’s opinion as to the development of European society in the near future?
  5. How, according to Buckle, is civilization affected by the “aspects of nature”?
  6. What is meant by the “zone of the founders of religion”?
  7. What is meant by “The Productive Life”?
  8. What is the relation of morality to adaptation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11 (HUC 7000.25) Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), pp. 39-40.

Image Source: Portraits of Thomas Nixon Carver and Joseph Stancliffe Davis from the Harvard Class Album 1916.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollment and semester examinations for principles of economics. Carver and Bullock, 1909-1910

After a long break to finish the draft of a paper and a couple of weeks of vacation, your Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s curator is back in action. We resume with the transcription of the 1909-10 Harvard economics course examinations. Economics 1, Principles of Economics is the subject of this post. Professors Carver and Bullock covered the course for Frank Taussig in 1909-10 due to a last-minute leave of absence taken by Taussig (undoubtedly related to the ill-health of his wife [Tuberculosis?]).

________________________

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1908/09

1871-75

 1880-81 1890-91 1900-01
1881-82 1891-92

1901-02

1882-83 1892-93 1902-03
1883-84 1893-94

1903-04

1884-85 1894-95 1904-05
1885-86 1895-96

1905-06

1876-77

 1886-87 1896-97 1906-07
1877-78 1887-88 1897-98

1907-08

1878-79

 1888-89 1898-99 1908-09
1879-80 1889-90 1899-00

________________________

Frank Taussig on Leave, 1909-1910

Owing to the absence of Professor Taussig, the following changes in the courses in Economics will be made:

Economics 1 will be conducted by Professors Bullock and Carver; Economics 2 will not be given; Economics 14a and 14b will be given as hitherto, but will be starred,–that is, may not be taken without the consent of the instructor; Economics 23 will not be given; Economics 4, which was announced to be given as a half-course only, in the first half-year, will be given as a full course, by Professor Ripley; Economics 9b, which was announced to be omitted, will be given; Economics 20d will not be given.

Source: The Harvard Crimson (29 September 1909).

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

“The work that gave final form to the Principles was done in an atmosphere of sorrow. Mrs. Taussig’s health had given cause for anxiety for some time. In 1909-1910 he took a year’s leave of absence, which they spent in Saranac [Lake], N.Y., and there she died on April 15, 1910.”

Source: J. A. Schumpeter, A. H. Cole, and E. S. Mason, “Frank William Taussig”, Quarterly Journal of Economics (May, 1941), p. 352.

________________________

Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

  1. Principles of Economies. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Taussig, assisted by Dr. Huse and Messrs. M. T. Copeland, Holcombe, Sharfman, and Usher.

Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second year of their college career. Students who plan to take it in their first year are strongly advised to consult the instructor in advance. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics 1.

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading.

Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1909-10. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VI, No. 29 (July 23, 1909).

________________________

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 1. Professors [Thomas Nixon] Carver and [Charles Jesse] Bullock, assisted by Drs. [Charles Phillips] Huse [Ph.D., 1907] and [Arthur Norman] Holcombe [Ph.D., 1909], Messrs. [Melvin Thomas] Copeland [Ph.D., 1910], [Isaiah Leo] Sharfman [LL.B., 1910], and [Abbott Payson] Usher [Ph.D., 1910] . — Principles of Economics.

Total 423: 15 Seniors, 83 Juniors, 193 Sophomores, 80 Freshmen, 52 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 43.

________________________

ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

  1. Distinguish between free goods and economic goods; between productive labor and unproductive labor; between wealth and capital.
  2. State the law of diminishing returns from land and explain its relation to the intensive and extensive margins of cultivation.
  3. If you were to find that all the land of a country had been brought under cultivation, what should you say would be the conditions which would permit a further increase of population?
  4. What are the chief advantages of a division of labor and what determines the extent to which the division of labor can be carried out?
  5. Name the great mechanical inventions since 1750 which have brought about a change in the form of industrial organization. What has been the character of this change?
  6. Can the value of a commodity depend both on demand and supply and on cost of production? If so, how? Can it ever depend on demand and supply and not on cost of production? Can it ever depend on cost of production and not on demand and supply? Explain?
  7. What will be the probable effect of the present meat boycott on the price of meat, other food products, cattle, hides, assuming the boycott to be permanent?
  8. Outline briefly the principal acts of congress relating to the coinage of money in the United States, explaining particularly those acts which produced effects illustrating Gresham’s Law.
  9. Compare the Bank of England, the Bank of Germany and the national banks of the United States as to (1) security of note issue; (2) elasticity of note issue.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1909-10.

________________________

ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1909-10

  1. —
    1. Distinguish between elastic and inelastic demand; between total and marginal utility.
    2. Can the value of any commodity depend both on marginal utility and on cost of production today it ever depend on one and not on the other? Explain carefully.
  2. What are the methods by which a bank may sell its credit? What provisions in the national banking law of the United States serve as a safeguard against the over-extension of credit?
  3. A has a piece of land which produces 100 bushels of wheat at an average cost of 60 cents a bushel. The cost of producing a bushel of wheat on the extensive margin of cultivation is 90 cents. What elements does this marginal cost of production include? Calculate the selling price of A’s land, the current rate of interest being 5%.
  4. Suppose that every person engaged in agriculture owned the land which he cultivated, and that all advantages of superior fertility were exactly offset by greater costs of transportation, would rent arise under any conditions? If so, how would it be determined? If not, would the land have any exchange value? Give reasons.
  5. —
    1. Suppose that every person made and used his own tools, would interest exist? Give reasons.
    2. Is the payment of interest at the current rate to a multi-millionaire for the use of his capital justifiable? Give reasons.
  6. What are net profits? To what are they due? Are they a factor in determining price? Give reasons.
  7. What effect upon wages would you expect as a result of:—
    1. the extension of industrial education;
    2. immigration;
    3. the limitation of the output by labor unions;
    4. an increase in the supply of capital;
    5. the introduction of socialism?
  8. Discuss briefly:—
    1. overcapitalization.
    2. Rochdale Pioneers.
    3. Knights of Labor.
    4. Single Tax.
    5. “Gold points.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11 (HUC 7000.25) Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), pp. 38-39.

Image Source: Charles Jesse Bullock and Thomas Nixon Carver portraits in the Harvard Class Album 1915.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Social Work

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1908-1909

At the turn of the 20th century social policy at Harvard was a subject for the department of social ethics located at the intersection of economics and philosophy. It was taught as a subfield of philosophy (Social Ethics) by divinity professor Francis Peabody together with a changing cast of junior instructors to assist him.

__________________________

Exams from past years

Exam questions  this course from the late 19th century have been transcribed and posted: 1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

__________________________

Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

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

________________________

DR. RAY MADDING McCONNELL

Harvard Instructor in Social Ethics Had Made Long Study of Important Problems

Dr. Ray Madding McConnell, long active in educational work, died early this morning at a private hospital in Cambridge. Dr. McConnell, who was a graduate of Harvard, class of 1902, was born in Tennessee in 1875, and had been since his college days a great student of sociological problems and recently instructor in social ethics at Harvard.

Dr. McConnell received numerous honorary degrees, including his A.B. from Southern University in Alabama, in 1899, his S.T.B. from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee in 1901, his A.M. from Harvard in 1902, and from that university his Ph.D. in 1908. He was a writer on the subject to which he had given so many years of earnest study and research, and last year his book on “The Duty of Altruism” was brought out and he had at this time another book in preparation, “Philosophy of Crime.” He had contributed frequently to the International Journal of Ethics, and at Harvard he had given courses of lectures on “Moral Obligations of the Modern State.”

Dr. McConnell was married, in 1907, to Miss Phoebe Estes Bedlow of Ithaca, N.Y., by whom he is survived, as well as by a young son, Frank McConnell.

Source: Boston Evening Transcript (June 24, 1911), p. 14.

________________________

Course Description
1908-09

  1. Social Ethics. — The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody assisted by Messrs. [Ray Madding] McConnell [d. 1911 of thematic fever and pneumonia], [James] Ford, and [Robert Franz] Foerster.

            This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Seth’s Study of Ethical Principles]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Bosanquet’s The Family]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Devine’s Principles of Relief]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

            Rooms are expressly assigned for the convenience of students of Social Ethics, on the second floor of Emerson Hall, including a large lecture room, a seminary-room, a conference-room, a library, and two rooms occupied by the Social Museum. The Library of 1800 volumes is a special collection for the use of students of Social Ethics, with conveniences for study and research. The Social Museum is a collection of graphical material, illustrating by photographs, models, diagrams, and charts, many movements of social welfare and industrial progress.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1908-09, p. 24.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1908-09

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. McConnell and Messrs. Ford and Foerster. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 136: 3 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 65 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1908-09

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

  1. The place in the modern labor question of:—

Leclaire.
Lassalle.
Conseils des Prud’hommes.

  1. Discuss the following:—

“Labor is the original source of all value.”
“Property is robbery.”
“Surplus-value.”

  1. What is:—

“Economic determinism”;
“A class-conscious conflict”;
“Collective bargaining”?

  1. Ruskin’s criticism of the economists, and his own theory of value. [“Unto this Last” by John Ruskin]
  2. The evidences of progress on the part of the working-classes since the introduction of the factory-system. (Adams and Sumner, pp. 502-526.)
  3. The legal aspects of strikes. (Adams and Sumner, p. 187 ff.)
  4. The development in England of the principle of Employer’s Liability.
  5. The prospects of Industrial Co-operation in Great Britain and in the United States. The relative advantage of Federalism and of Individualism applied to Coöperation.
  6. The Pennsylvania Railroad Relief-Department; its organization, operation, and the criticisms which it encounters.
  7. The physiological action of alcohol and its relation to intellectual work. (Lectures, and The Liquor Problem, pp. 19-42.)
  8. The Scandinavian Liquor-System. (The Liquor Problem, p. 153ff.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 69.

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

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Microeconomics

Chicago. Price Theory Core Examination. Summer 1961

 

Another gap just filled in a quarter century of University of Chicago graduate qualifying exams in price theory.

___________________

Chicago Price Theory
Preliminary/Core Exams
Previously Posted

Summer 1949
Summer 1951
Summer 1952
Winter 1955
Summer 1955
Winter 1957
Winter 1958
Summer 1960
Winter 1961
Summer 1962
Winter 1963
Winter 1964
Winter 1965
Winter 1969
Summer 1975

___________________

ECONOMIC THEORY (Old Rules)
Summer 1961

Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees

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: 4 hours.

  1. Indicate whether statement is true, false, or uncertain, and briefly give your reason.
    1. A firm has a monopoly in its home market and also sells in a perfectly competitive world market; if its home-market price is 50% above the world market price, the elasticity of demand in the home market must be 3.
    2. If a multiplant firm has to produce a given quantity of output, it will never pay it to produce in more than one of its plants if that plant has decreasing marginal costs.
    3. The development of more rapid urban transport will inevitably raise the aggregate rental value of urban residential property.
    4. If the number of acceptable applicants for admission to medical schools is less than the number that could be accepted, the medical profession cannot be raising its earnings by artificially restricting entry.
    5. The rate of interest is determined by the marginal productivity of capital.
    6. If a particular commodity is subject to a special tax not imposed on other commodities, removal of that tax will always increase economic welfare.
    7. If the supply curve of a competitive industry has a positive slope, it means that the industry is subject to decreasing returns to scale.
    8. If wage rates, on the average, increase at the same rate as average product per worker, this means that the marginal return on investment declines over time.
    9. Entrepreneurs in a competitive industry may realize short term gains or profit as a result of an increase in the price of an input (due to a shift in the supply function for the input), even if the demand curve for the industry remains unchanged.
  1. A. A drug manufacturer stated that the prices of drugs sold in England were priced at about one half the price of similar drugs in the United States. The reason given for the price difference was that per capita incomes were much lower in England than in the United States and the English could not afford to pay as much for the drugs.
    Accept the factual statements as valid. Discuss the statement in terms of:

    1. Demand functions for drugs in the two countries (income and price elasticities).
    2. Whether the manufacturer could be maximizing his profits.
    3. International trade restrictions on drugs in the two countries.
  1. B. In a given competitive industry, both price and output increase between two time periods. Indicate why each of the following statements is consistent or inconsistent with the observed changes in price and output or is simply irrelevant:
    1. The industry has a perfectly elastic supply curve.
    2. The demand curve has shifted to the right.
    3. The factor supply curves are upward sloping.
    4. The industry is subject to diminishing returns.
    5. Total revenue has increased because the price elasticity of demand is greater than unity.
    6. Rents and quasi-rents have increased.
  2. A. In the effect of union-produced wage increases on prices, one economist says,

“A competitive industry (with a horizontal long run supply curve] will eventually pass all of a wage increase on to consumers in higher product prices” but “a monopolized industry, if it maximizes profits both before and after the wage increase, will not pass on the full amount of the wage increase in prices.”

Assume that the monopolized industry, like the competitive, operates under long-run constant costs.

    1. Explain precisely what “pass all of a wage increase on to consumers in higher prices” means.
    2. Is the statement for the monopolized industry correct? If so, prove it. If not, state why not and indicate any additional conditions required to make it true.
  1. B. This economist also says that the competitive industry “will regain its normal rate of profit”, whereas, in the monopolized industry, “the wage increase will lower monopoly profits”
    1. What does the word “profit” mean in these statements? in the phrase “maximizes profits” of the preceding question?
    2. Do the two statements imply a difference in results in the sense that the monopolized industry will not regain “its normal rate of profit”?
    3. Indicate briefly what other meaning or meanings, if any, does the term “profit” have in economic theory.
  2. Discuss the relation between forward (and/or futures) prices and spot prices on commodity markets and foreign exchange markets and the role of “speculators” and “hedgers” in these markets. State some of the leading theories about this relationship and discuss the kinds of evidence used in testing them.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches. Box 129. Folder “Preliminary Examinations, 1957-1965”.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Theory

Harvard. Graduate Economic Theory Exam. April 1960

 

Another one of the graduate theory exams from the Harvard economics department from the papers of Professor Edward H. Hastings in the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. Clearly the 1960s required less technical virtuosity at finger exercises. I would love to see what the actual bluebooks of students (and the corresponding grades awarded) look like. Perhaps some day, in some archive…

_________________________________

Harvard Written Exams
in Economic Theory
Posted Earlier

November 3, 1960
April 11, 1961
April 10, 1962
November 13, 1962
April 8, 1963

_________________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Written Examination
in Economic Theory
April 14, 1960

WRITE LEGIBLY

PART I
2 ½ Hours

Answer all the questions, spending approximately 50 minutes on each:

  1. Write an essay on the explanation and function of (a) profits or, (b) wages in economic theory from the classical period to the present time.
  2. Explain the distinction between the general equilibrium and the partial equilibrium approaches and the relation between them. Give specific examples of the application of both.
  3. Discuss the relation of the quantity of money to the level of production and employment from the Keynesian and neoclassical points of view.

PART II
1 ½ Hours

Answer 3, and only 3, of the following questions:

  1. Demonstrate that from the point of efficiency completely discriminating monopoly is superior to single price monopoly.
  2. Compare the views of Marshall, Ricardo, and Jevons or the Austrians on the relation of cost of production to value.
  3. What makes a satisfactory theoretical solution of the oligopoly problem so difficult? Illustrate by a critical analysis of one or more particular theories.
  4. Discuss the differences and similarities between the loanable funds and liquidity preference theories of interest.
  5. Compare the explanation of factor prices in terms of linear programming theory and marginal productivity theory.

PLEASE RETURN THIS EXAMINATION PAPER WITH YOUR BLUEBOOK.

Source: Duke University. Economists’ Papers Archive. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Edward H. Chamberlin Papers, Box 17, Folder “Economics Department 1960-62”.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Theory

Harvard. Graduate Economic Theory Exam. November 1960

This particular addition to the series of written economic theory exams in the Harvard graduate program reveals that in 1960 aspiring economics Ph.D. candidates were still expected to know something about what Ricardo, Malthus, and Marx thought. Somewhat amusing is the reference to the “so-called Cobb-Douglas production function”. As opposed to what might we ask … “Chuck & Paul’s neat little production function”?

_________________________________

Harvard Written Exams
in Economic Theory
Posted Earlier

April 11, 1961
April 10, 1962
November 13, 1962
April 8, 1963

_________________________________

PLEASE WRITE LEGIBLY

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Written Examination
in Economic Theory
November 3, 1960

PART I
Two hours

Answer all the questions.

  1. Discuss the arguments for or against Say’s Law advanced by Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, and Keynes. Synthesize.
  2. “The equilibrium concept is meaningful only in the context of a dynamic theory.” Discuss that proposition, illustrating your argument with specific examples.
  3. Describe the general theoretical properties of the so-called Cobb-Douglas production function. Explain its use (a) in the analysis of income distribution, and (b) in the analysis of technological change.
  4. Under what assumptions with respect to the flexibility of prices, the shape of the investment demand function, and the shape of the demand for money function will a “liquidity preference” theory of interest lead to the same result as a “neo-classical” theory of interest?
PART II
Two hours

Answer three out of five questions.

  1. “The subjective value theory of Jevons and the Austrians diverted economics from the classical tradition to which it returned only in recent years.” Discuss the validity of this statement.
  2. Describe the meaning and the significance of the so-called “duality theorem” of linear programming when it is interpreted in terms of economic analysis.
  3. Can a price ceiling imposed on the production of a monopolist induce him to produce and sell (a) a smaller or (b) a larger amount than that he would have produced and sold without such limitation? Explain your answer for either case.
  4. Give a theoretical explanation of the demand for labor (i.e., of the number of workers hired) by (a) an enterprise which pays its workers hourly wages, and (b) an enterprise which remunerates its workers on the straight piece-work basis.
  5. Economists frequently despair of the possibility of measuring the stock of capital, but do not raise similar problems with respect to measurement of the stock of labor or real output. Discuss.

PLEASE RETURN THIS EXAMINATION PAPER WITH YOUR BLUEBOOK.

Source: Duke University. Economists’ Papers Archive. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Edward H. Chamberlin Papers, Box 17, Folder “Economics Department 1960-62”.

Image Source: Original black and white images from Amherst College, Digital Collections. Amherst College Yearbook, Olio1926: Charles W. Cobb on p. 34; Paul H. Douglas on p. 36. Colorized at Economics by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Microeconomics

Chicago. Price Theory Core Examination. Summer 1962

What would your reaction be to the remark in your exam “Remember that you are writing an examination in economic theory”? But, hey, Chicago, you do you.

___________________

Chicago Price Theory
Preliminary/Core Exams
Previously Posted

Summer 1949
Summer 1951
Summer 1952
Winter 1955
Summer 1955
Winter 1957
Winter 1958
Summer 1960
Winter 1961
Winter 1963
Winter 1964
Winter 1965
Winter 1969
Summer 1975

___________________

CORE EXAMINATION
Theory
Summer 1962

Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A. M. Degrees

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. The suggested times for the various questions are guides to their weights in the grading.

  1. (60 minutes) True-False. State very briefly the reason for your answer to each question.
    1. The cross-elasticity of demand of left shoes with respect to the price of right shoes is zero.
    2. A competitive firm buying electrical equipment was not injured by the collusion of the producers (General Electric case) even if the collusion raised prices above the competitive level.
    3. If a consumer’s income rises in the same proportion as a Laspeyres index of his cost of living, his real income is rising.
    4. Duopolists with different costs cannot achieve a monopoly price without transfer payments between the firms.
    5. The marginal utility of income is not constant for a worker who increases his hours of work when the wage rate rises.
    6. If two goods are substitutes in consumption, a 10 cent fall in the price of either good will lead to the same increase in the consumption of the other good.
    7. A minimum wage law may increase the demand for labor by some firms.
    8. A competitive firm will have a more elastic demand function for a factor of production than a monopsonist.
    9. If a firm is operating in the region of falling marginal costs it must be making losses, since marginal cost is then less than average cost.
    10. A multiplant firm will schedule its output so that marginal costs are equal in all plants.
  2. (30 minutes) The stock market break of May 28 elicited many explanations. Comment upon the relevance of each of the following explanations.
    1. Stock prices had previously been too high.
    2. There was a holding back by big buyers.
    3. Inflation was no longer feared.
    4. Sellers became panic-stricken.
    5. The gold outflow, it was feared, would lead to exchange controls.

Remember that you are writing an examination in economic theory.

  1. (30 minutes) Capital formation may be defined as the use of current resources in such a way as to increase future income, and on this definition capital formation includes investments in equipment, human beings, and discovery of new knowledge. Discuss the problem of the meaning of the marginal product of capital, and whether capital as defined is subject to diminishing returns.
  2. (20 minutes) Each firm in an industry is given a license to operate, and no new firms are allowed to enter. The value of a license rises over time — does this prove that firms operate subject to diseconomies of scale?
  3. (40 minutes) It appears that the Federal Communications Commission will be given the power to compel manufacturers of television sets to build them in such a way that they will receive ultra-high frequency broadcasts (at an additional cost of about $25 per set). Then every community can have (say) a dozen channels. Will consumers be benefitted?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches. Box 129. Folder “Preliminary Examinations, 1957-1965”.

Image Source: The School of Chicago (1972) as drawn by Roger Vaughan.

Categories
Exam Questions Money and Banking UCLA

UCLA. PhD Qualifying Exam, Money. May 1980

This post adds a fourth Ph.D. qualifying exam for the field of monetary economics at UCLA found in the papers of Robert W. Clower at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. 

_______________________

UCLA Qualifying Exams, Money
Previously posted

May 1971
May 1973
May 1974

_______________________

Ph.D. Qualifying Examination
Four Hours

MONEY

Spring Quarter 1980
May 19, 1980

INSTRUCTIONS: Answer all of the following eight questions. Be as specific and concise as possible. There is plenty of writing time to answer all of the questions satisfactorily, so try to spend some time thinking about each question before beginning to write an answer to it. Irrelevant material presented, however correct it may be, will be penalized.

  1. —
    1. Outline a proof of Patinkin’s proposition that real balances are indeterminate under a classical dichotomy between real and monetary sectors.
    2. Why is the proof inappropriate in a classical money economy, one with competitive banking and convertibility of paper money into a real commodity?
  2. —
    1. What special problem(s) does a limited horizon create for an inconvertible paper money system in which the money supplier is not committed to retire the issue?
    2. If we assume an unlimited horizon (a positive probability that the economy will last forever) do some problems still remain? If so, could governmental suppliers of money avoid such problems? Could a private money supplier?
  3. —
    1. What is the statically optimal rate of inflation in a competitive economy with a noninterest-bearing fiat money?
    2. Would you recommend adoption of this rate of inflation as a long-run policy guideline for the U.S. economy? Explain.
  4. In the standard Walrasian model of General Equilibrium an efficient allocation of resources is achieved without the use of any device called “money.” Yet the introduction and use of money is usually presumed to generate economic gains. How would you resolve this apparent conflict? Be specific in defining what you think “money” is and in identifying possible sources of economic gains.
  5. On the basis of arguments by Mickey Mouse and other leading economists, Congress in 1980 terminated all open-market operations by the Federal Reserve System and declared fine tuning through the use of monetary policy to be the moral equivalent of aggravated assault. Discuss the probable implications of this action for
    1. The rate of inflation
    2. Rates of interest
    3. Unemployment
    4. Government expenditure during the decade of the 1980’s.
  6. A few years ago an economist wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal complaining that much discussion of how to control inflation was based on a neo-quantity theory that emphasized “the quantity of money” but ignored “the quality of credit.” The Federal Reserve System was established, he noted, to regulate commercial bank assets, but current discussion (and policy) concentrated on the liability side of the commercial bank balance sheet and entirely ignored the asset side. The economist maintained that if, for example, commercial banks were forced to limit their lending activity to short-term, self-liquidating business loans, as initially contemplated in the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, inflation would quickly be controlled. Evaluate this argument.
  7. When bank credit cards were initially spreading through the U.S., many people argued that their use would contribute to inflation because retailers would pass on — through higher prices — the charges that they had to pay to banks for credit sales. Some people argued, however, that prices would fall because the use of credit cards would reduce overall transactions costs. Yet others argued that prices might rise or fall, depending upon the precise effects of the use of such cards upon sales volumes and upon the velocity of money. Critically assess each of these arguments.
  8. It is customary for economic theorists to distinguish in their work between “barter” and “monetary” economies, and also between “value theory” and “monetary theory.”
    1. On what basis are these distinctions made (give specific references to the literature if you can)?
    2. Do you believe the distinctions are useful? If so, explain why; if not, explain why not.

Source: Duke University. Economists’ Papers Archive. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Robert W. Clower papers, Box 4, Folder “Monetary Economics PhD exams. Reading list, exams UCLA 1971-1988”.

 

Categories
Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam for Economics of Agriculture. Carver, 1908-1909

 

In 1911 Harvard economics professor Thomas Nixon Carver published a textbook Principles of Rural Economics  that undoubtedly encompassed the content of his course on agricutural economics first taught in 1903-04. Carver’s book is prefaced with an eight page bibliography.

The eight question final exam for this semester course from 1908-09 is found below.

________________________

Earlier material

ca. 1904 Problem set
1903-04 Final exam
1905-06 Final exam

________________________

Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 23 2hf. Professor Carver. — Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions.

Total 25: 2 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

________________________

Course Description
1908-09

[Economics]23 2hf. Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Professor Carver.

A study of the relation of agriculture to the whole industrial system, the relative importance of rural and urban economics, the conditions of rural life in different parts of the United States, the forms of land tenure and methods of rent payment, the comparative merits of large and small holdings, the status and wages of farm labor, the influence of farm machinery, farmers’ organizations, the marketing and distribution of farm products, agricultural credit, the policy of the government toward agriculture, and the probable future of American agriculture.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09, p. 56.

________________________

ECONOMICS 23
Year-end Examination, 1908-09

  1. Into what periods would you divide the agricultural history of the United States, and what are the leading characteristics of each period?
  2. What are the chief reasons for the fact that the urban population of the United States is growing more rapidly than the rural population?
  3. Does the law of diminishing returns as applied to agriculture give rise to national problems different from those to which it gives rise in manufacturing? Explain.
  4. Discuss the question: Is further immigration desirable in the interests of American agriculture? State clearly the point of view from which you approach the question.
  5. What agricultural improvements do you associate with the following names: Townsend, Bakewell, Robert Colling, Benjamin Tompkins, Jethro Wood.
  6. What are the chief difficulties in the way of the organization of farmers and farming interests?
  7. What, in your opinion, are the most important things now being done for agriculture by the Federal Government of the United States?
  8. State briefly the chief advantages of large-scale farming; also of small-scale farming.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 51.

Image Source: “Picking cranberries.” Card. [ca. 1850–2001]. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/fx71c322q  (accessed June 02, 2025).