Richard T. Gill directed the Harvard economics department’s Juggernaut course Economics 1 (Principles of Economics) for eight years (1958/59-1966/67). He was followed in turn by Otto Eckstein, a.k.a. “Otto Ec-10” (1967/68-1983/84), Martin Feldstein (1984/85-2004/05), and Gregory Mankiw (2005/06-2018/19).
I suspect that the reason for Richard T. Gill’s giving the first six lectures in the Economics 1 (which was taught for the most part in smaller sections) was that an overview of economic history and the history of economics was better provided as a series of briefings than as socratic dialogues. Also few graduate students and junior faculty would have had even minimal exposure and/or interest in those subjects.
In this post we provide some background to Economics 1 à la Gill and a sketch of the stations of his eclectic career which are followed by the semester readings and exams for the Principles of Economics as taught in the Harvard economics department in 1965-66.
Bonus material: Joseph Shore & Richard T. Gill, Rigoletto — Quel vecchio maledivami & Pari Siamo (1979 recording). Joseph Shore wrote “Richard T Gill was the greatest Sparafucile I ever sang with and this is the best duet I sang in all my Rigoletto shows.”
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Ec 1: A Monster Becomes an Institution Everything About Ec 1 Pleases Gill Now Except Gen Ed Status
By Richard R. Edmonds
April 12, 1967
Economics 1 has never been unknockable. Students always moan a little about the ultra-general final exam questions and the obscurities of Dorfman’s price theory text. And all but the most even-tempered freshmen at times grow resentful of the inevitable calculus wonk who loudly corrects mistakes in his section man’s graphs. These are minor irritants though. The vast majority of students (95 per cent according to a 1962 Economics Department survey) end up satisfied with Ec 1 and the course hardly seemed a target for radical discontent.
So the prospect of a critique of Economics 1 by the Harvard-Radcliffe Young People’s Socialist League was a bit startling both to those who run the course and those who take it. The eight-page document, released last month, was an anti-climax. Though well-researched and well-written, it blunted the edge of its militancy with too much scholarly prose, and too little focus on how the course should change.
The critique drew mixed reviews. Arthur Smithies, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy, thought it raised economic issues that deserved to be considered seriously. Several Ec 1 sectionmen and former sectionmen said they agreed completely with its criticisms of the course. But Richard T. Gill ’48, lecturer in Economics and administrative head of Ec 1 since 1959, didn’t like the critique at all, and his opinion was crucial.
Unruffled
Gill wasn’t ruffled by the sight of a pair of students telling him in print how the course should be run. And though he found the eight pages full of faulty economics, he wasn’t worried about the effect of these errors. What bothered him was what he considered the narrowness of the critique’s “new left” view of economics. The public “dialogue” its authors insistently demanded was just what Gill wanted to avoid. This is Gill’s final year as head of the course and he understandably does not want to leave it in a blaze of artificial controversy over issues he considers trivial.
A month after the critique was issued, it appears to have failed as an instrument of radical reform. At a March 6 Ec 1 staff meeting Gill asked if there was any sentiment for revising the course substantially; only a couple of hands went up. Several of the section men who liked the critique best didn’t even bother to attend. Whether the critique succeeded in exposing serious deficiencies in Economics 1 is still an open question.
Curiously the critique is more a reactionary than a radical document. Though the critique’s author Stephen Kelman ’70 and his confederates would deplore the suggestion that they wanted a return to the good old days, it is ironic that instituting all the practical changes their criticisms implied would make the course much as it was in the late 50’s.
Before Gill took over the course in the spring of 1959, he and three others in the Department submitted a massive plan for revising Ec 1 (their outline for the revised course was more than 20 pages long). Gill acted, he says, because “Economics 1 had settled into a rut; the focus was too much on the system in the United States here and now parts of the course got bogged down in diagramatics so that students were learning tools and not much else.”
During the late ’50’s both the number of students taking Ec 1 and the number concentrating in Economics were declining. Since Gill took over course enrollment has soared from 550 to this year’s all-time high of 829.
Gill made three big changes in Ec 1’s content. He added the section on British industrialism and the classical economists that now fills the first month of the course, as well as the chunk on the Soviet economy (being taught this week and next) and the exhaustive treatment of underdeveloped countries that occupies the rest of the spring.
To make room for the new material, three weeks on distribution (which the critique says is now inadequately treated by a few sentences in Dorfman) were trimmed and the material reinserted in other parts of the course. The other major casualty was a three week section on “alternatives to capitalism” that used to come during reading period, right after the course had developed micro-economic theory and applied it to American capitalism. (It was the critique’s final and most specific charge that socialism receives only “confusing attention” now in Ec 1.)
The history of economic theory is Gill’s special interest, but he says that “personal predilections” only partly explain how Ricardo and Arkwright found their way into an introductory economics course. The first month of Ec 1 is designed, says Gill, “to convey the relativity of present economic conditions to institutions and ideas of the past, to relate economics to the rest of the social sciences.”
The value may be here, but it escapes many students. A survey the Economics Department took in 1962 asked those who took the course whether there should be more or less on each of the 14 topics covered. The pollees voted for more of everything but economic history and Gill accordingly chopped out a third of the material. Some feel he should have gone farther.
“The course has to be introduced with a problem,” says one section man, “but the story of how England got to be the kind of economy it is, is not as germaine as it might be for the majority of students.” Another, who is in his third year teaching the course, says, “At first I couldn’t see any point to it, but now I’m starting to agree with Gill that it’s a good way to get people started.”
Behind the criticisms of Ec 1’s historical material and behind last month’s critique as well is the conviction that the course would be better if it were more political. “This is the only course most people take in economics,” says a section man, “so there ought to be more time on present problems and less on economic tools.” Kelman’s call for more “controversy” in Economics I was based on a similar idea — the course should be constantly examining both sides of economic questions instead of trying to develop an objective economic theory first.
The critique’s vision of an issues-oriented introductory course is not a new idea. In the late ’50’s and early ’60’s Harvard had a Gen Ed course called “Economics of the Citizen” which tried this approach. It never became as popular as the more rigorous Ec 1. Eventually it gained the reputation of being a gut of little substance that the self-respecting avoided. Gill argues that talking explicitly about controversy isn’t always the best way to equip students to talk about political problems — “you can’t just describe economics — you’ve got to get down to working those damn curves to understand the problems.”
Gill’s 1959 plan changed the structure of Ec 1 as well as the material it covers. In the old days Ec 1 lectures were strictly a star show-each of the Department’s great men mounted the podium once and talked for an hour to the crowds below. Though continuity may still be lacking, the lectures under Gill’s regime have a function. They come in blocks instead of being scattered sporadically throughout the term and the blocks give the course more structure than it once had by forcing section men to keep pace with upcoming lectures.
Lectures are scheduled on the kind of material that probably wouldn’t otherwise get covered — background to policy and development questions where vast amounts of knowledge have to be condensed and jammed into a single meeting. The section men are left with huge chunks of the course material — notably microeconomic theory for which they have to develop a teaching approach of their own. This ingenious division of labor, Gill’s biggest improvement, has made the monster course smooth and flexible.
Gill has been the influential figure in giving Ec 1 its present shape, but he doesn’t run the course by himself. Actually Economics 1 is governed like a Harvard in miniature — responsibility is scattered and different kinds of decisions are made at different levels. In the course catalogue, the Department chairman’s name always is listed first — even before Gill’s. Most years the chairman gets no closer to the mechanics of the course than providing section men and giving a couple lectures, but the listing indicates that… [article truncated here]
Source: The Harvard Crimson, 12 April 1967.
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Touching Basses: The Extraordinary Lives of Richard T. Gill
CLASS OF 1948
By Andrew K. Mandel, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
June 1, 1998
What happens when you put a prizewinning pugilist, an economist, a world-renowned opera singer, a Harvard House master and a television personality in the same room?
Richard T. Gill ’48 stands alone.
A former Economics 1 professor who led Leverett for 16 years as senior tutor and then master, Gill has written books with Professors Nathan Glazer and Stephan Thernstrom, has sung with all Three Tenors and Beverly Sills, earned The Atlantic Monthly’s short story prize and won a few boxing matches along the way. This all began not long after he entered Harvard College–at age 16.
Gill’s sister says her brother has always been “phenomenal.”
And his wife cannot help but chuckle when she looks back on her “very fascinating, if at times hair-raising” life alongside her husband of 48 years.
Longtime Harvard administrator Fred L. Glimp ’50 says Gill is “as close to a Renaissance man as I’ve ever met,” calling his former colleague “the kind of a guy that–if he weren’t so nice and so kind and impressive in a human way–everybody would hate him because he’s so dog-gone good at almost anything he puts his hand to.”
With Honors
The Long Branch, N.J. native was a product of the Depression, the youngest of three children.
His father Thomas G. Gill worked for a billboard advertising firm hit hard by the economic crisis of the 1930s; Richard lived what he called a “tight, but very happy childhood,” drawn to vocal performance by his mother Myrtle, a music teacher.
Gill met his future wife Elizabeth at a community concert when they were both 15. Their relationship was “stormy off and on,” Elizabeth Gill says, “but ultimately it was on.”
Placing second out of more than 100,000 students in a national American Legion Oratorical Contest in high school, Richard Gill came to Harvard in 1944 and led the Debate Council as its president, winning the College’s Coolidge debate prize and delivering the Class Oration senior year.
A congenial man to interview, Gill was apparently quite the fighter–both behind the podium and in the ring–as an undergraduate.
After Gill accidentally broke someone’s nose in boxing class, the coach of the varsity boxing team approached Gill and encouraged him to fight for Harvard.
Gill also managed to find a niche as a soloist in the Glee Club, the editor of the Student Progressive, the head of the Liberal Union and a member of Phi Beta Kappa junior year.
“I was busy,” Gill acknowledges.
Called away from Cambridge after sophomore year, Gill spent time in the army stationed in Japan, and won the regimental boxing championship, in the middleweight division.
Once back in the Square, Gill graduated summa cum laude in economics, garnering the Palfrey Exhibition (awarded to the most distinguished graduating scholarship student) and a Henry Fellowship to study philosophy and psychology at Jesus College in England.
And though he later earned a Fulbright Fellowship for further study, Gill returned to the States after only a year abroad when his father became ill.
Mastering Harvard
At age 21, Gill became an assistant dean of the College, and claims to be the youngest “baby dean” in Harvard College history.
Awarded his Ph.D. in economics in 1956, Gill directed the largest course at the College, known now as Social Analysis 10: “Principles of Economics.”
And by 1963, after an eight-year stint as senior tutor, Gill and his wife Elizabeth were moving into the master’s residence at Leverett House.
Being administrators during the days of student protests was challenging, the Gills admit.
When strangers threw rocks through the windows of the Gill home and nearly injured their children, Elizabeth Gill was not sure if the protests were directed at her advocacy of increased diversity in Cambridge’s public school teaching staff–or at her husband’s “neanderthal” ideologies.
“It turns out they were my enemies,” she sighs.
Her husband’s commitment to freedom of speech was unpopular in the late ’60s, Gill says.
“I was very much a law-and-order type,” Richard Gill notes.
Gill says one of his Leverett students had interned for President Lyndon B. Johnson, and there was a good chance LBJ would agree to speak at the House senior dinner. (“Not even [famed Eliot House Master] John [H.] Finley [’25] could’ve topped that,” Gill laughs.)
Ultimately, Johnson declined the offer–and Gill, who faced “the sharpest of criticisms” from some Faculty members for extending an invitation to the commander-in-chief during the Vietnam War, concedes that the president’s arrival “would have caused a riot.”
The Making of a Star
At the same time protesting at Harvard had begun to take center stage, Gill found his way to the spotlight.
A heavy smoker for many years, Gill decided to quit in favor of private voice lessons, where he practiced furiously.
In May of 1967, Gill appeared as the Count in the Leverett House Opera’s The Marriage of Figaro. The production–“the most charming I have ever been a part of,” Gill beams–was organized by the student-directoral team of John Lithgow ’67 and John C. Adams ’69.
The Crimson review of Figaro was quite positive.
“Master Richard Gill, who plays the Count, would be well worth hearing by himself. His voice is as majestic as his hearing; he is at once dramatic and agile,” the student reviewer wrote. “If his tone quality were only a little more variable, if he could sound sweet and smooth when necessary, he would be unassailable.”
Spending a year on sabbatical in England, Gill sang regularly–away from the “fear of failure in front of my Harvard colleagues”–and was encouraged to perform professionally.
By 1971, he could not resist auditioning for the New York City Opera–just to see how good he was.
He was deemed extremely good–and eventually accepted a trial position as a basso with the Manhattan opera company in 1971.
The contract paid $75 a night, and Gill was guaranteed a grand total of two performances.
It was “risky” to say the least, but Gill says he and his wife agreed that they “had to just go for it.”
Armed with a sizable advance on a large economics textbook Gill was commissioned to complete, the couple announced their departure to nonplussed Dean of the Faculty John T. Dunlop in the spring.
Their three sons were supportive of the career change, and their youngest transferred high schools when the Gills moved to Allendale, N.J.
“We were sort of oblivious to the real risks he took,” says son Peter S. Gill ’78, who was unfazed upon noticing that his sixth-grade anthology of short stories contained works by James Thurber, Ogden Nash and Richard Gill. “We always thought this was typical for him.”
“If I failed, there was no way to return to Harvard,” says Richard Gill, noting he would have opted to teach in “somewhere like Honolulu or Wyoming” if he bombed in New York. “Harvard is no place to come after you stub your toe violently.”
Gill’s toe did just fine.
Earning the rare distinction of moving from the New York City Opera to the Metropolitan Opera by virtue of the Met’s invitation, Gill performed as a principal artist from day one.
The former Harvard House master became a world-class opera singer overnight, travelling from Pittsburgh to Amsterdam to Carcacas in a 14-year career spanning dozens of operas. His performance stirred Variety magazine to use the words “Richard T. Gill” and “tour de theatre” in the same sentence.
In the mid ’80s, Gill added another section to his resume. Combining the scholarship of his Harvard days with the glamour of the opera, Gill found a home in the television studio, helping to create ECONOMICS U$A, a 28-program public broadcasting television series for which he served as an on-air analyst.
The Encore Academic
By 1992, Gill had written several economic textbooks, as well as a sociological work entitled Our Changing Population with Professor of Education and Social Structure Emeritus Nathan Glazer and Winthrop Professor of History Stephan Thernstrom. His latest work, Posterity Lost: Progress, Ideology and the Decline of the American Family, was published last year.
Gill will discuss his book in one of the symposia planned for the class of 1948 on Wednesday.
But first, Gill will perform with the Boston Pops as their featured vocalist tomorrow evening.
“He’s Mr. Eclectic,” son Peter says.
When asked to explain his wild versatility, Richard Gill jokes that one must have “a certain limited intelligence to try so many things.”
Originally considering life as a lawyer, after serving a year in the Army as a teenager, “I had a reconsideration of my lifelong goals,” Gill says. “I can only applaud this decision in retrospect.”
Source: The Harvard Crimson, 1 June 1998.
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Course Announcement
Economics 1. Principles of Economics
Full course. Indivisible. M., W., F., at 12. The major part of the course is conducted in sections. Throughout the year, however, there will be lectures, generally on W., at 12. M., W., and F., at 12 will be the normal hour for section meetings, but sections will be scheduled at other hours. Professor Dunlop, Drs. R. T. Gill, Sanberg and other Members of the Department.
The Department encourages students considering concentration to take this course in their freshman year.
Designed to introduce students to the methods of economic analysis that bear on the issues which confront this country and the world. Will thus serve the needs both of those students who plan no further work in Economics and those who desire to obtain the groundwork for more advanced courses in the field.
Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, 1965-1966, p. 102.
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ECONOMICS I
1965-66
Readings for the Fall Term
*To be purchased by students
Adams, W. (ed.), The Structure of the American Economy (Third Edition)
*Caves, R., American Industry: Structure, Conduct, Performance
Committee for Economic Development, An Adaptive Program for Agriculture
Council of Economic Advisers, Report to the President on Steel Prices
*Dorfman, R. The Price System
*Gill, R., Economic Development: Past and Present
Hanson, A., Business Cycles and National Income
Heilbroner, R., The Making of Economic Society (paperback)
Heilbroner, R., The Worldly Philosophers (paperback; revised edition)
Joseph, M.L., et.al., Economic Analysis and Policy
Koivisto, W.A., Principles and Problems of Modern Economics
Mantoux, P., The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century
Meier & Baldwin, Economic Development
Phelps, E.S., Private Wants and Public Needs
Rees, A., The Economics of Trade Unions
*Schultze, C.L., National Income Analysis
Smith, A., Wealth of Nations
* * * * * * * * * * *
ECONOMICS 1
All lectures will be given at 12 noon in Lowell Lecture Hall. Section assignments will be posted outside University Hall 9 at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 30. If any conflicts develop, resectioning will be held in University Hall 9 on Monday, October 4, and Tuesday, October 5, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
| Lectures: Dr. Gill |
Sections |
| Mon., Sept. 27 |
Fri. or Sat., Oct. 1 or 2 |
| Wed., Sept. 29 |
Mon. or Tues., Oct. 4 or 5
Wed. or Thurs., Oct. 6 or 7 |
| Fri., Oct. 8 |
Mon. or Tues., Oct. 18 or 19 |
| Mon., Oct. 11 |
|
| Wed., Oct. 13 |
|
| Fri., Oct. 16 |
|
Hour Exam, Wed. Oct. 20 at 12 noon
Sections meeting at 12 noon will take the hour exam in their regular classrooms; sections meeting at other hours will take the exam in Lowell Lecture Hall at 12.
There will be occasional lectures later in the term which will be announced in sections and in the Crimson.
* * * * * * * * * * *
ECONOMICS I
Fall Term 1965-66
- Introduction: Problems and Concepts (Sept. 27 to Oct. 2)
Reading:
Koivisto, Principles and Problems of Modern Economics, Chaps. 1 & 3
- Historical Development and the Doctrine of Laissez-Faire (Oct. 4 & Oct. 19)
- Historical Foundations of Industrial Society
Readings:
Gill, Economic Development, Chaps. 1-4
Heilbroner, The Making of Economic Society, Chaps. 1-3
Mantoux, The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, Part II
-
- The Classical Economists and the Doctrine of Laissez-Faire
Readings:
Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers (revised ed.), Chaps. 1-4, 6
Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, Chaps. 1 & 2; Bk. IV, Chaps. 2 & 3, Part II
Meier & Baldwin, op. cit., Ch. I
October 20, Hour Exam on Parts I & II
- Markets and Industrial Organization (October 22 to December 18)
- Competitive Markets
- The Concept of the “Invisible Hand”
- Theory of the Firm
- Household Behavior
- Market Structure
Reading:
Dorfman, The Price System (last two chapters at the discretion of the instructor)
-
- Modern Industrial Organization
- Introduction
Reading:
Caves, American Industry, Ch. I
-
-
- Market Behavior
Readings:
Caves, op. cit., Chaps. 2 & 3
Adams, Structure of the American Economy, Chaps. 5 & 10
Council of Economic Advisers, Report to the President on Steel Prices
-
-
- Market Regulation
Reading:
Caves, op. cit., Chaps. 4-6
-
-
- Unions and Collective Bargaining
Readings:
Koivisto, op. cit., Ch. 21
Rees, Economics of Trade Unions, Chaps. 3 & 4
Joseph, Economic Analysis and Policy, Sections 41-46
-
-
- Agriculture
Readings:
CED, An Adaptive Program for Agriculture
Joseph, op. cit., Section 38
- The Economy in the Aggregate (Jan. 3 to Jan 28): Introduction to National Income Analysis
- Business Fluctuations and Depressions
Readings:
Hansen, Business Cycles and National Income, Chaps. 1-2
Joseph, op. cit., Sections 13-16
-
- The Determinants of National Income
Reading:
Schultze, National Income Analysis, Chaps. 2,3, & 4
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 9; Folder: “Economics, 1965-66 (1 of 2)”.
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1965-66
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Midyear Examination
January 26, 1966
ECONOMICS I
(Three hours)
Answer all questions
- (20 minutes)
The major classical economists opposed the Corn Laws. What arguments of classical economic theory could be used to defend this position? In what respects were these arguments particularly relevant to British conditions in the early 19th century?
- (20 minutes)
The government decides to pay 20 percent of the cost of all food consumed.
(Do not worry about the source of the funds.) Illustrate the effects this policy would have on the consumption patterns and the standard of living of a typical consumer.
- (30 minutes)
Suppose the government legislates a significant increase in the minimum wage for a given industry. Taking a typical profit-maximizing firm in an industry with freely competitive product and factor markets, initially in long-run equilibrium, trace the effects of this law on the use of labor, the use of other factors of production, the firm’s cost curves, and its output. What changes would one be likely to observe in the industry as a whole over a longer period of time? In what ways would such a policy affect the “efficient” allocation of resources in the economy?
- (30 minutes)
Show how the following phenomena operate as barriers to entry:
-
- scale economies
- absolute cost barriers
- product differentiation
Illustrate each of the above types of barriers to entry with references to the assigned reading.
- (20 minutes)
The demand for labor is said to be derived from the demand for the products which it produces. Show in what sense this is true. How might knowledge of this demand relationship be useful to a union in determining its wage demands?
- (20 minutes)
Using supply and demand analysis, discuss the operation of:
-
-
- an acreage limitation on a given agricultural commodity
- a law which requires that the commodity cannot be sold below a given price (which is higher than the present market price)
- a subsidy paid by the government to the farmer growing the commodity of a given number of cents per bushel grown
- (40 minutes)
| GNP-GNI |
Personal Income |
Disposable Income |
Consumption |
Corporate Profits |
Indirect Taxes |
| 300 |
240 |
200 |
190 |
36 |
24 |
| 350 |
280 |
233 |
220 |
42 |
28 |
| 400 |
320 |
267 |
250 |
48 |
32 |
| 450 |
360 |
300 |
280 |
54 |
36 |
| 500 |
400 |
333 |
310 |
60 |
40 |
Government spending is initially 80.
Private investment is 70.
-
- Given the above information, determine the equilibrium level of GNP. Show how you arrived at your answer. In what sense is this an “equilibrium” level?
- Why is Gross National Product (GNP) equal to Gross National Income (GNI)?
- Must the income and expenditures of each major sector of the economy — private individuals, business, and the government — balance in equilibrium? How do they compare in the above example?
- What is the Marginal Propensity to Consume out of GNP in the above example? What is the income multiplier?
- Suppose that full-employment GNP is at a level of 450. What change in government spending is necessary to achieve it, it no other relationship in the economy changes? What would this do to the government balance (surplus or deficit) in the new equilibrium position?
Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, Government, Economics, … , Naval Science, Air Science. January, 1966.
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ECONOMICS I
1966
Readings for the Spring Term
*To be purchased by students
Agarwala & Singh, The Economics of Underdevelopment
Bergson, A., The Economics of Soviet Planning
*Campbell, R., Soviet Economic Power
Domar, E., Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth
*Duesenberry, J., Money and Credit: Impact and Control
“Eckstein, A., “On the Economic Crisis in Communist China,” Foreign Affairs, July 1964.
*Eckstein, O., Public Finance
Friedman, M., Capitalism and Freedom
*Gill, R., Economic Development
Goldman, M., “Economic Controversy in the Soviet Union,” Foreign Affairs, April 1963.
Goldwin, R., Why Foreign Aid?
Hirschman, A., The Strategy of Economic Development
*Johnson, L., The Economic Report of the President, 1966
*Kenen, P., International Economics
Krause, L., The Common Market
Kuznets, S., Postwar Economic Growth
Leeman, W., Capitalism, Market Socialism and Central Planning
Lewis, J., Quiet Crisis in India
Mason, E., Economic Planning in Underdeveloped Areas: Government and Business
Nurkse, R., Problems of Capital Formation in Underdeveloped Countries
Phelps, E., Private Wants and Public Needs
Rostow, W., The Economics of Take-off into Sustained Growth
*Schultze, C., National Income Analysis
* * * * * * * * * * *
ECONOMICS I
Spring Term 1965-66
- The Economy in the Aggregate, Part II: Analysis of the Problems of Economic Stability and Growth (February 7 – April 1)
- The Determinants of National Income – Review
Reading:
Schultze, National Income Analysis, Chs. 2-4 (review)
-
- Public Finance and Government Expenditure
Readings:
Eckstein, Public Finance, Chs. 1-2, 5-8
Phelps, Private Wants and Public Needs, Chs. by Galbraith, Bator, Hayek, and Break.
-
- Money and Monetary System
Readings:
Schultze, National Income Analysis, Ch. 5
Duesenberry, Money and Credit, Chs. 1-8
Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, Chs. 3 & 5
-
- The Dynamics of Growth
Reading:
Domar, Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth, Ch. 4
(also in American Economic Review, March 1947, pp. 34-55)
-
- Economic Growth in Advanced Countries
Readings:
Schultze, National Income Analysis, Ch. 6
Kuznets, Postwar Economic Growth, Lecture II
-
- International Trade
Readings:
Kenen, International Economics, Chs. 1-5
Krause, The Common Market, Introduction
-
- Problems of Government and Economic Policy
Reading:
The Economic Report of the President, 1966
(Spring Recess April 3 – April 10)
- Economic Growth and Organization in Other Countries (April 11 – May 19)
- The Soviet Economy
- Introduction: The Theory of Planning
Readings:
Mason, Economic Planning, Ch. 3
Leeman, Capitalism, Market Socialism…, Ch. by Leontief
Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 14
-
-
- Growth and Organization of the Soviet System
Reading:
Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, Chs. 1-8
-
-
- Outlook for the Future
Readings:
Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, Ch. 9
Goldman, “Economic Controversy in the Soviet Union,” Foreign Affairs, April 1963
Kuznets, Postwar Economic Growth, Lecture IV
-
- Economic Growth of Underdeveloped Areas
- The Underdeveloped Economy
Readings:
Gill, Economic Development, Ch. 5
Kuznets, “Underdeveloped Countries and the Pre-industrial Phase in the Advanced Countries,” in Agarwala & Singh
-
-
- The Process of Economic Growth
Readings:
Rostow, “The Take-off into Self-sustained Growth,” in Agarwala & Singh
Kuznets, “Notes on the Take-off,” in Rostow, Ch. 2
-
-
- Issues in How to Induce Economic Growth
Readings:
Nurkse, Problems of Capital Formation, Ch. 1
Hirschman, The Strategy of Economic Development, Chs. 2 & 4
-
-
- Case Studies — India and China
Readings:
Lewis, Quiet Crisis in India, Chs. 2, 3, & 6
Eckstein, A., “On the Economic Crisis in Communist China,” Foreign Affairs, July 1964
Gill, Economic Development, Ch. 6
-
-
- Foreign Aid and International Trade
Readings:
Goldwin, Why Foreign Aid?, pp. 10-32, 90-108, & 131-140
Kenen, International Economics, Ch. 6
- Conclusion: Problems and Prospects (May 20 – May 23)
No Readings
NOTE: Resectioning to remove class conflicts will be held in University Hall 9 on Monday, February 7 and Tuesday, February 8 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 9; Folder: “Economics, 1965-66 (1 of 2)”.
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1965-66
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Final Examination
June, 1966
ECONOMICS I
(Three hours)
- (60 minutes)
Suppose inflationary pressures lead to price increases in several sectors of the economy. What steps should the Federal Government take to restrain these inflationary pressures? How might other economic objectives be jeopardized by efforts to control the inflation? How might your views on the question of “social balance” of the public versus the private sector affect your policy proposals for dealing with the inflationary problem? If the country in question were the United States in 1966, would you have to take into account the balance of payments situation in making your policy decisions?
- (30 minutes)
Define and relate four of the following five pairs of terms:
-
- Full employment surplus – balanced budget multiplier
- Preconditions – take-off
- Allocational efficiency of taxation – equity of taxation
- G.A.T.T. – E.E.C.
- A budget deficit financed by Treasury sales of bonds in the open market – a Federal Reserve open market sale of bonds
- (30 minutes)
In The Good Society (1936) Walter Lippmann wrote:
“It may be predicted confidently that if ever the time comes when Russia no longer feels the need of mobilization military build-up and forced industrialization), it will become necessary to liquidate the planning authority and to return somehow to a market economy.”
Do recent economic reforms in the Soviet Union support this statement? What advantages might an increased role of markets in the U.S.S.R. have for that economy?
- (30 minutes)
“If one thing is certain it is that the path to development of the modern poor country will be very different from that of the earlier developers of the West. The problems are different and so also are the mechanisms for solving these problems.”
Discuss this question, giving specific examples to illustrate your points.
- (30 minutes)
Choose one of the following questions:
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- Country X has three nationalized industries: railways, steel production, lighthouses.
What should be the price and output policies of each industry if efficient allocation of resources were the national goal? How would each industry be financed? How would the results compare with a free market organization in these industries?
- In Australia, with no foreign trade, wool costs $5.00 per unit and cloth costs $12.00 per unit. In India, with no foreign trade, wool costs 10 rupees per unit and cloth costs 12 rupees per unit.
If the cost of shipping a unit of either wool or cloth from one country to the other is $2.00, would trade take place? Explain.
If it costs $2.00 to ship a wool unit, what is the cost of shipping cloth at which there will no longer be any gain from trading?
Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, Government, Economics, … , Naval Science, Air Science. June, 1966.
Image Source: Master of Leverett House, Richard T. Gill in The Harvard Class Album 1966.
