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Harvard. Mid-year and Final Exams for all three courses in Political Economy. Laughlin and Dunbar, 1879-80

 

All you could learn in political economy at Harvard in 1880 was packed into four semesters (two full courses). The core textbook was John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Economics. This post provides enrollment data together with the mid-year and course final examinations for Political Economy 1, 2, and 3. What makes this post particularly interesting is that the relevant sections or pages of Mill’s Principles are cited along with the examination questions. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has added links to those items below.

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Actually only two distinct political economy courses offered in 1879-80

From the following note in the annual Harvard course catalogue we see that Political Economy 1 only offered a “lite” version of Political Economy 2. “Courses 1 and 2 cannot be taken together, nor can either be taken by any student who has taken the other”; “Course 3 is open to those only who have passed satisfactorily in Course 2.” The Harvard University Catalogue (1879-1880), p. 84.

An important guest lecturer at Harvard in 1879-80:

Besides prescribed and elective courses for credit, Harvard offered opportunities for “voluntary instruction”:  In 1879-80 Professor Simon Newcomb gave three public lectures on Political Economy.

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue (1879-1880), p. 90.

The John Stuart Mill textbook of Harvard choice

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

“From the fifth London edition” 2v. New York: D. Appleton, 1868.

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Political Economy 1

Enrollments and Text
Political Economy 1
1879-80

Political Economy 1. Dr. Laughlin and Prof. Dunbar. (partial Course.) — Selections from Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — 1 Section; 2 Exercises per week for Students; 2 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 21: 7 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Law.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

  1. Comment on the following: “The cry was constantly — I know it myself from my intimate acquaintance with the large manufacturers and the small manufacturers too — that every one of them needed more currency than they had. They had capital, but could not get that which enabled them to pay off their hands…The manufacturers need a currency which will enable them to pay their weekly and daily debts.” — Cong. Record, April 7, 1874.
  2. State some of the objections made to Malthus’ Law of Population. (I. 439-40)
  3. Give the law of value regulating manufactured products. (I. 560) How far are such products affected by the Law of Diminishing Returns? (I. 238)
  4. State the argument for or against the common saying “wages are high when trade is good.” (I. 421)
  5. In what way can an increase of Population affect the Cost of Labor to the Capitalist?
  6. Define clearly Value, Price, Real Wages, and Cost of Production.
  7. Describe the offices which are performed by Money. (B. III., ch. vii.)
  8. What is to be said to the following: “Some political economists have objected altogether to the statement that the value of money depends on its quantity combined with the rapidity of circulation; which, they think, is assuming a law for money that does not exist for any other commodity.” (II. p. 43)
  9. What effect had the discovery of gold in this century upon the coinage of the United States?
  10. What circumstances led to the establishment of the Bank of Amsterdam and of the Bank of England respectively?
  11. What changes would be made in the subjoined accounts by,
    1. the deposit of £1,200,000;
    2. the sale of £2,000,000 of government security;
    3. new loans amounting to £3,000,000;
    4. repayment of £750,000 of loans.
  12. If the Bank of England announces an increase of its rate of discount, what is to be inferred as to the cause of this step and its probable effect?

November 12, 1857.

Issue Department.
Notes Issued £21.1 Government 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 Notes
Coins		 £1.4
Other £12.9
7-day Bills £0.8
£36.9 £36.9

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Mid-Year Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 11-12.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-End Examination
1879-80

[Let the answers be given in their proper order]

  1. “If there are human beings capable of work, and food to feed them, they may always be employed in producing something.” (Book I., ch. v., §3.)
  2. When the growth of population outstrips the progress of improvements, what are the means of relief for the laborer? (Book I., ch. xiii., §3.)
  3. What is the reason why land-owners can demand rent? (Book II., ch. xvi., §1.)
  4. State the law of the value of money which governs general prices. What change is to be made in the statement, if credit is to be taken into consideration? (Book III., ch. vii., §§3, 4.)
  5. On what does the desire to use credit depend? What connection exists between the amount of notes and coin in circulation and the use of credit? (Book III., ch. xii., §8.)
  6. In what consists the benefit of international exchange? (Book III., ch. xvii., §3.) State the Law of International values. (Book III., ch. xviii., §4.)
  7. What is the effect of a depreciated currency on (1) foreign trade, and (2) the exchanges? (Book III., ch. xxii., §3.)
  8. Why should a tax on profits, if no improvements follow, fall on the laborer and capitalist? (Book V., ch. iii., §3.)
  9. What effect is produced on prices, profit, and rent by the removal of a tithe? (Book V., ch. iv., §4.)
  10. On whom does a tax on imports generally fall? (Book V., ch. iv., §6.)
  11. Give a history of the circumstances under which the first Legal Tender Act was passed. When were the other acts passed?
  12. Describe the following: (1) national bank-note; (2) five-twenty; (3) seven-thirty; (4) compound interest note; (5) certificate of indebtedness; (6) subsidiary silver coinage; (7) national bank reserve; (8) Resumption Act (briefly).

 

Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Annual Examinations, 1879-80, p. 12.

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Political Economy 2
1879-80

Enrollments and Text
Political Economy 2
1879-80

Political Economy 2. Prof. Dunbar. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Financial Legislation of the United States. — Lectures. — 2 Sections; 3 Exercises per week for Students; 6 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 108: 10 Seniors, 83 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Unmatriculated.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

  1. State once more and with care the reason for the following proposition: —
    “There is a distinction, more important to the wealth of a community than even that between productive and unproductive labor; — the distinction, namely, between labor for the supply of productive, and for the supply of unproductive, consumption.”
  2. What is the argument for Dr. Chalmers’s opinion that funds required for public unproductive expenditures should be raised by taxes and not by loans, and what cases are to be excepted from his reasoning?
  3. What conclusion as to the limit to the increase of production, does Mr. Mill deduce from his investigation of the laws of the increase of labor, capital and land?
  4. Why are the wages of women generally lower than those of men?
  5. Show carefully the distinction between wages, cost of labor and cost of production.
  6. Define natural value and market value and show what determines them respectively, distinguishing between the three classes into which Mr. Mill divides commodities.
  7. What effect may the great durability of gold and silver have upon the value of money at any given time?
  8. What effect has a general rise of wages upon the values of commodities?
  9. How is it shown that rent forms no part of the cost of production?
  10. The silver dollar contains 412 ½ grains of standard silver, but a dollar of silver change contains only 384 grains. On what theory is this difference of weight made?
  11. What difference has the Act of 1844, known as Peel’s act, made as to the convertibility of the notes of the Bank of England?
  12. If a serious drain of money from England, e.g., to this country, takes place, what steps will the Bank of England take, and what effect is likely to be produced on its account?
    If more convenient, this may be illustrated by using the following account: —
Issue Department.
Notes Issued £36.5 Government Securities £15.0
Coin and Bullion £21.5
£36.5 £36.5

 

Banking Department
Capital £14.5 Government Securities £16.0
Rest £3.2 Other Securities £22.0
Public Deposits £7.6 Notes
Coins

£8.0

£1.1
Other £21.5
7-day Bills £0.3
£47.1 £47.1

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Mid-Year Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 12-13.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end Examination
1879-80

[Let the answers stand in your book in their proper order
Take TEN QUESTIONS, including 6, 8, 11, 12 and 13.]

  1. Why is it that “ceteris paribus, those trades are generally the worst paid, in which the wife and children of the artisan aid in the work?” (Book II., ch. xiv., §4.)
  2. If the general rate of profit falls, how will the value of commodities made by hand be affected in comparison with those made by machinery? (Book III., ch. iv., §5.)
  3. “Another of the fallacies from which the advocates of an inconvertible currency derive support, is the notion that an increase of the currency quickens industry.” (Book III., ch. xiii., §4.)
  4. Why is it that in international trade “a thing may sometimes be sold cheapest, by being produced in some other place than that at which it can be produced with the smallest amount of labor and abstinence?” (Book III., ch. xvii. §1.)
  5. What determines the values at which a country exchanges its produce with foreign countries? (Book III., ch. xviii., §8.)
  6. Suppose that a country whose exports have hitherto balanced her imports, makes an improvement which cheapens one of her articles of export, e.g. cloth. Will money flow into or out of the country? Will foreign or domestic consumers of cloth obtain the greater advantage of its cheapness? Give the reasoning on which your answers depend. (Book III., Chap. xxi., §2.)
  7. What effect does an annual payment of interest to foreign creditors have upon the imports and exports of a country? Will interest “payable in gold” necessarily cause gold to be sent out of the country? Why, or why not? (Book III., Chap. xxi., §4.)
  8. How do taxes on agricultural produce, e.g. tithes, affect landlords, farmers, and consumers, respectively, —
    1. when first laid on?
    2. when of long standing? (Book V., ch. iv. §5.)
  9. What are the arguments for and against an income tax? (Book V., ch. iii., §5.)
  10. Discuss the reasons for and against maintaining a surplus revenue for the extinction of national debt. (Book V., ch. vii. §2.)
  11. Explain the changes in the amount of greenbacks outstanding, beginning with February, 1868.
  12. State briefly the history of our gold and silver coinage, as found in the coinage acts of 1792, 1834, 1853, 1873, and 1878.
    The silver dollar contains 371 ¼ grains of silver.
  13. To what extent is the national banknote a legal tender? in what is it payable? what provision is made for its redemption? and what security is there for its ultimate payment?

 

Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Annual Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 13-14.

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Political Economy 3
1879-80

Enrollments and Texts
Political Economy 3
1879-80

Political Economy 3. Prof. Dunbar. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — MacLeod’s Elements of Banking. — Bastiat’s Harmonies Économiques. — 1 Section; 3 Exercises per week for Students; 3 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 24: 24 Seniors.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

  1. Give a careful and logical summary of the laws determining the values of all commodities, monopolized or free, domestic or foreign, using the corrected definition of Cost of Production. [Forty minutes.]
  2. In the case of accessory products, as, e.g. wool and mutton, what determines their normal values respectively, and what determines the course of their respective values as time goes on?
  3. In his enumeration of the causes which determine the Wages Fund, Mr. Cairnes finds himself obliged to include the rate of wages. How does he avoid the charge of reasoning in a circle?
  4. Comment on the following: —
    “The advocates of the wages-fund theory assume, first, that the capital of a country is a fixed quantity, and that the capital employed in industry is a fixed proportion of this quantity; and, secondly, that wages are paid out of that proportion of capital which is set apart for industry. Both of these propositions, in my opinion, are erroneous.
    “With regard to the first…there is no fact in Economic Science so well established as this, that capital follows profits….Capital is always forthcoming wherever there are prospects of large profits….The capital of a country, therefore, is not a fixed quantity, for if its credit is good, and sufficient inducements are offered in the shape of interest, it can readily borrow whatever it wants. For the same reason the capital employed in industry Is not a fixed quantity, and varies, not in proportion to the gross amount in the country, but in proportion to the profitableness of the industry of that country.
    “With regard to the second proposition…This is true to a limited extent only. No doubt a certain amount of capital is required for the payment of wages, just as a certain amount of capital is necessary for the purchase of raw material. There is this essential difference between the two cases, however, that while raw material is paid for (in cash or bills) before being used, wages are not paid till they have been earned….The employé, in fact, stands to his employer in the relation of a capitalist who advances him the use of his services, which services are ultimately paid for, not out of a wages-fund, but out of the produce of the services themselves.” (Outlines of an Industrial Science: by David Syme. p. 138.)
  5. Give a careful but briefly stated outline (as if written for a rather elaborate Table of Contents) of Mr. Cairnes’s reasoning as to the relations existing between the demand for commodities and the wages fund, and between prices and money-wages.
  6. What is meant by the “comparative costs of production,” on which international values are said to depend; and how is that dependence to be reconciled with the fact that any given sale of goods is found to be an independent transaction, determined by the price of the commodity.
  7. What reasoning led Mr. Cairnes in 1873 to look for a fall of prices in this country, and for possible commercial crises?
  8. What is Mr. Cairnes’s reason for believing that, in the United States, protection is not needed to secure diversity of industries?
  9. If the common saying that “the value of gold is the same all the world over” has no foundation, how does a supply of new gold distribute itself over all countries and over all commodities in each country.
  10. Stafford; Colbert; Sir J. Stewart; Quesnay.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Mid-Year Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 13-14.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Year-End Examination
1879-80

  1. Professor Cairnes says that “the notion which prevails both here and in the United States, that the high rate of general wages obtaining in each country is a hindrance to the extension of its foreign trade, must be pronounced to be absolutely without foundation.”
    By what reasoning this this conclusion supported?
  2. How much truth is there in the maxim that “the value of gold is and must be the same all the world over”?
  3. A few years ago an American writer said, —
    “We will be able to resume specie payments when we cease to rank among the debtor nations, when our national debt is owed to our own people, and when our industry is adequate to the supply of the nation’s need of manufactured goods.”
    With what degree of justice can this be treated as a prediction verified by the events?
  4. Sherman says, —
    “During the last four years the value of our exports of merchandise has exceeded the value of our imports of merchandise $753,271,475. The excess of exports has heretofore been mainly met by the remittance to this country of American securities, but the time appears to have come when the balance of trade in our favor is to be adjusted by means of the precious metals.” — (Finance Report for 1879, p. xxxi.)
  5. It is becoming a serious problem what (English) agriculturists are to do. They will not get rents much lowered in a hurry, for land still commands a high value in the market, and is difficult to be got at all except under special circumstances. Large proprietors would rather cultivate their own land at a loss than submit to a reduction of rent telling on its value.” — (London Times, May, 1880.)
  6. Criticising Professor Cairnes’s reply to M. Alby, Sir Anthony Musgrave remarks,—
    “It is precisely because in no country are all industries equally favored by nature that Mr. Cairnes’s objection fails…. It is exactly because the favored industry in any nation requires no assistance, that it can assist the industries not so fortunate….Suppose that the high price secured by protection is rendered necessary by the onerous conditions under which native industry is tempted to work; suppose that Frenchmen, as Mr. Cairnes says are encouraged to produce iron from ores of inferior quality by the high price secured to them — what has happened? Useful iron has been extracted from ores which would have otherwise have been wasted; employment has been afforded to many who might otherwise have been idle for want of occupation; people have been fed who would otherwise have starved and as a set-off to this, some others have been obliged to smoke fewer cigars and drink less wine than they would have had money to purchase, if they had not been compelled to spend it in iron. In the absence of protection “they,” we are told,” would obtain their iron on more favorable terms at a smaller sacrifice of labor and abstinence by exchanging for it their wines and silks with England.”…Whose labor? and abstinence from what? Unfortunately the persons who have the wine and silk are not those who want the iron. The truth is, we do not want to save labor — we want to find wholesome and remunerative employment for paupers. And if the sacrifice of “abstinence” only means, as I believe it does, that riches will not accumulate so fast in the hands of capitalists — that the employers of labor will have to forego some luxuries that they may give higher wages to the laborers, and that the comforts of life may be thus more equally distributed — I cannot see much objection to this.” — (Contemporary Review, January, 1877.)
  7. “Ever half year we see summaries in the newspapers shewing that the Joint Stock Banks have in the aggregate perhaps $200,000,000 of deposits, and it is supposed that they have that quantity of money to trade with. But it is a complete and entire delusion.”
  8. How does discounting differ from the cash credit system, long practiced by the Scotch banks?
  9. State and explain Bastiat’s law of value.
  10. What is the reasoning in support of the following? —
    “A mesure que les capitaux s’accroissent, la part absolue des capitalistes dans les produits totaux augmente et leur part relative Au contraire, les travailleurs voient augmenter leur part dans les deux sens.”
  11. What is Bastiat’s theory of the value of land, and how is it reconciled with the value attaching to natural fertility?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Annual Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 14-15.

Image Source: Charles F. Dunbar photographed by William Notman. Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library.

Categories
Economists Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Economic Theory and Monetary Economics. R.G. Hawtrey, 1928-29

 

 

Sir Ralph Hawtrey (Fun fact: according to J.M. Keynes,  Alfred Marshall was his third cousin once removed) was given leave by the British Treasury to lecture at Harvard during the 1928-29 academic year. Full course outlines with assigned readings are not found in the Harvard University Archives collection of course syllabi and reading lists. Only the titles of the items for the end of semester reading periods for his graduate course “Principles of Money and Banking” could be found and are transcribed below. The first semester exam for “Problems in Economic Theory” and both semester exams for “Principles of Money and Banking” are included in this post.

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Problems in Economic Theory

Course Announcement.

[Economics] 15. Problems in Economic Theory

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 4. Mr. R. G. Hawtrey.

In this course less attention will be given to specific economic doctrines than to questions of the scope, methods, premises, and goal of economic science, and of its relations to logic and psychology and to the other social sciences.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1928-29. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 71.

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Enrollment.

[Economics] 15. Mr. Hawtrey.— Problems in Economic Theory.

Total 6: 3 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1928-29, p. 72.

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1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 15
Mid-year examination

Five questions and ONLY FIVE should be answered

  1. How does the functioning of a market depend on dealers holding stocks of the goods dealt in?
  2. By what process does the investment market maintain equilibrium between the supply of savings and the supply of fresh capital?
  3. Jevons wrote: “By free capital I mean the wages of labour either in its transitory form of money or in its real form of food and other necessaries of life.”
    Is this an improvement on the Wages fund theory? Can you improve the statement further?
  4. Explain the relation of profit to (1) compensation for risk, (2) rent of ability, (3) quasi-rent.
  5. Why is the explanation of profit as the remuneration of management and organization incomplete?
  6. What are the chief objections to the doctrine that the end of economic activity is the maximum of total utility?
  7. Can justice in distribution be regarded as a part of the subject-matter of economics?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 11, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1929. Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations in History, New Testament,…Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science, January-February, 1929.

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
SPRING READING PERIOD—1928/29

Economics 15

No additional assignments.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics 1928-29”.

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Principles of Money and Banking

Course Announcement.

[Economics] 38. The Principles of Money and Banking

Tu., Th., at 10, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Mr. R. G. Hawtrey.

The course is intended to afford training in analysis and research in the field of money and banking. The subject as a whole will be systematically reviewed. Selections from important writings dealing with monetary principles will be read and critically discussed.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1928-29. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 73.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 38. Mr. Hawtrey. — Principles of Money and Banking.

Total 50: 32 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 1 Junior, 5 Radcliffe, 2 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1928-29, p. 73.

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
MID-YEAR READING PERIOD—1928/29

Economics 38

Select two from the following list and read about 300 pages.

  1. Keynes, J.M.: Indian Currency and Finance.
  2. Burgess, W. R.: The Federal Reserve System and the Money Market.
  3. Hargreaves, E. L. : Restoring Currency Standards.
  4. Knapp: State Theory of Money.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics 1928-29”.

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1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 38
Mid-year examination.

Six questions and ONLY SIX should be answered.

  1. What different meanings can be given to “velocity” in monetary theory?
  2. On what conditions can the use of gold coin be made to maintain a gold standard effectively?
  3. What are the essential functions of a bank? To what extent do they depend on the assignability of debts from one creditor to another?
  4. Why does a contraction of credit tend to cause unemployment?
  5. What circumstances determine the degree of sensitiveness of borrowers to the rate of discount or short-term interest?
  6. Upon what conditions does the power of a Central Bank to control credit depend? Is the issue of notes by the Central Bank essential?
  7. Describe the effect of external investment on the foreign exchange market.
  8. In what circumstances and to what extent will relatively high rates of discount and short-term interest attract balances from abroad for temporary investment.
  9. What is meant when London is called an international clearing centre?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 11, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1929. Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations in History, New Testament,…, Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science, January-February, 1929.

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
SPRING READING PERIOD—1929

Economics 38

Select two from the following list and read about 300 pages.

  1. Keynes, J.M.: Indian Currency and Finance.
  2. Burgess, W. R.: The Federal Reserve System and the Money Market.
  3. Hargreaves, E. L. : Restoring Currency Standards.
  4. Knapp: State Theory of Money.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics 1928-29”.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 38

Final examination.

Five questions and only five to be answered.

  1. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the “elasticity” claimed for the fixed proportion system of gold reserve.
  2. How far is it true to say that gold reserve laws “exist to be broken”?
  3. To what extent can the phenomena of the business cycle, as experienced up to 1914, be traced to the working of the gold standard?
  4. What are the principal conditions likely to predispose a country to be the scene of a financial crisis?
  5. Compare, in respect of relative liquidity, the principal classes of assets usually held by banks. Criticise the idea of the “self-liquidating” bill.
  6. Show how speculation in the foreign exchanges may interfere with measures for the reestablishment of the gold standard in a country with an unstable currency.
  7. What grounds are there for supposing that it is practicable, through the coöperation of the central banks of gold standard countries to affect the purchasing power of gold?
  8. How, in your opinion, can the stability of the purchasing power of a currency unit best be tested statistically?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Bound volume (No. 71) Examination Papers, Finals, 1929. (Papers printed for Final Examinations in History, Church History,… , Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science, June, 1929.

Image Source: Creative Commons image of Sir Ralph George Hawtrey by Walter Stoneman (1939) at the National Portrait Gallery.

 

Categories
Costs of education Economics Programs Harvard

Harvard. Printed Graduate Economics Brochure. (First draft was by J. K. Galbraith), 1967

 

 

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provides transcriptions of material concerning both course content (as revealed in syllabi, reading lists, exam questions, lecture notes, etc.) as well as concerning the procedures followed in different undergraduate and graduate programs of economics.

What helps to distinguish the following graduate program brochure for Harvard that was still hot off the press in September 1967 is that the authorship of its first draft can be unambiguously attributed to John Kenneth Galbraith. Sentences like “Economics, especially in the fields of research, teaching, and the public service, is a profession of good but not munificent reward” and “There are few differences between human beings more profound than the capacity to conserve or spend money” are certainly consistent with recorded Galbraithian style.

I’ll note here that John Kenneth Galbraith was simply incapable of writing the most mundane of his administrative correspondence without turning a brilliant phrase or two. I have wondered how long he might have eluded arrest had he ever tried his hand at writing a ransom note.

It is striking that even at this relatively late date, so little effort was made to render the brochure gender-neutral. Clearly it was still a (Mad-) Man’s World.

An interesting comparison is Robert Solow’s brochure for the M.I.T. economics program in 1961.

____________________

Harvard University
Department of Economics

M-8 Littauer Center Center
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Office of the Chairman

September 19, 1967

Professor J. Kenneth Galbraith
207 Littauer

Dear Ken:

Sometime ago you were kind enough to do a first draft of a brochure describing our graduate program to prospective students. After a long delay, I solicited additional suggestions for this and prepared a revised manuscript. A copy of the printed version is enclosed for your perusal.

Thank you again for your help.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Richard E. Caves
Chairman

REC:eb

____________________

Graduate Study in Economics at Harvard

PUBLISHED BY THE DEPARTMENT

Introduction

This booklet is meant to tell the student who is considering graduate work in economics some of the things he will wish to know about work in this field at Harvard University. And it also tells something of the University and larger urban community in which he will find himself.

Harvard University, which was founded in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. It comprises Harvard and Radcliffe colleges, which give undergraduate degrees and the graduate schools. Graduate work in economics is offered under the auspices of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Undergraduate enrollment at Harvard and Radcliffe is about 6 thousand; in all graduate schools and departments about 9 thousand. Although by no means large by present-day standards, Harvard is part of what is, without doubt, the largest and most concentrated educational center in the United States. It shares residence in Cambridge and along the Charles River with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a long-standing arrangement between the two institutions allows the graduate students of each to register for courses in the other. Boston University, Boston College, Tufts University, Northeastern University, Brandeis University and Wellesley College are all within a few miles. And there are many smaller or more specialized institutions nearby. This large academic community, together with the strong cultural, artistic and literary tradition of the Boston area, brings a steady flow of visiting scholars, artists and public figures to this community from all parts of the world. The student at Harvard is identified not only with a university but with a major intellectual and cultural center. His problem, he will soon discover, is not to seize all of his opportunities —  lectures, seminars, discussion groups, debates, conferences, concerts, plays, museums, and exhibitions — but to discriminate among them.

 

Economics at Harvard

Graduate work in economics at Harvard is just under a hundred years old. The first successful Ph.D. candidate, Dr. Stuart Wood of Philadelphia, later a prominent civic leader and businessmen in that city, took his degree in 1875 with a thesis on the work of the pioneer and prolific American economist, Henry C. Carey. The second doctorate was awarded a few years later to Frank William Taussig, who became a dominant figure in the field and a famous Harvard teacher for the next half century. Until the beginning of the present century, faculty, students, and courses were comparatively few in number — only five men held the rank of professor before 1900, and one of these was in sociology which was then considered a branch of economics. But in the early nineteen hundreds there was a rapid expansion in faculty, students, and course offerings which, with few interruptions, has continued to this time. The Harvard Department of Economics now has 24 full professors, listed at the end of this pamphlet. The junior staff consists of about 30 instructors and assistant professors, young scholars doing teaching and research.

Throughout the years, several traits have persisted in the Department’s collective personality. It does not run to any particular ideology or methodological disposition; its members display a wide range of attitudes toward economic policy and the advancement of economic science. By long tradition, the Department sees itself not as an organization committed to a particular method, point of view or problem, but as a gathering of individuals scholars each committed to pursue the truth in accordance with his own lights. Members teach and do research as individuals and not as members of the school. The same latitude is allowed to students.

Harvard’s is a “full-line” department, concerned both with the development of economic theory and quantitative research methods, and with their use in all of the major fields of applied economics. The Department has been active in opening up teaching and research in new fields of applied economics: early in the 1950’s it began building a strong program in economic development; now work is fast expanding in such areas as urban economics and the economics of human resources.

The close association of many members of the Harvard Department of Economics with public policy has been sufficiently featured in recent history so that it requires no further comment. It is not, however, especially new. Professors Taussig and Edwin Gay held high positions in World War I in the Wilson Administration. Just before, during, and after World War II such members as Edward S. Mason, Alvin H. Hansen, John H. Williams, and Sumner Slichter likewise occupied various positions of high responsibility. In recent times, the close association between the Department of Economics and the John F. Kennedy School of Government has reinforced this interest in public service and, as a consequence, a number of Harvard Ph.D.’s continue to go into public life.

Finally, the Department prides itself on being a major research center. For many years it has published two leading professional journals, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Review of Economics and Statistics. Various members have maintained large-scale research projects, such as Professor Wassily Leontief’s Harvard Economic Research Project (input-output analysis), Professor John R. Meyer’s projects in transportation and urban economics, and Professor Hollis B. Chenery’s work on development planning.

Most Harvard professors engage actively in both undergraduate and graduate teaching. (Under ordinary circumstances each professor gives two courses, a course and a seminar or their equivalent each semester.) As in all universities worthy of the name, there is a primary concern among Harvard scholars for advancing the state of knowledge in their discipline. In recent years there has been a popular myth that research is somehow in conflict with good teaching. In actual fact, good teaching at the highest level is rarely done by men who are not also engaged in advancing knowledge. But the high ratio of faculty to students is designed to ensure that all students will receive the personal attention of accomplished scholars.

 

General Nature of the Graduate Program in Economics

Each year between 40 and 50 graduate students are admitted for advanced work (normally toward the Ph.D.) in economics. Usually about two-thirds of them are United States citizens; the balance come from countries scattered over much of the globe. About 180 graduate students are in residence each year, and between 30 and 35 complete their Ph.D.’s. What program do they undertake? Where do they go upon its completion?

Most students apply to begin graduate study immediately after completing their undergraduate degrees, in are judged for admission on the basis of the general promise shown by their undergraduate records. More store is set by a distinguished record in general than by the extent of undergraduate specialization in economics. Nonetheless, an undergraduate major or extensive coursework in economics is definitely helpful. So are undergraduate courses in mathematics, at least through calculus, since mathematics nowadays is a standard working tool for many economists. Undergraduate work in statistics is useful but less necessary.

Students are ordinarily admitted only for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. For those without previous graduate studies, this program requires two years of coursework (and residence at the University), followed by another year or two (usually two) of work on a doctoral dissertation.

The practice at Harvard is to think of graduate studies in economics as falling into three parts. First, there must be mastery of the general body of economic theory and history which are part of the common qualification of all economists. Second, there should be competence in standard statistical research tools which are useful or necessary in handling economic problems. Finally, there are the various specialized or applied fields of economics in which, aided by his economics theory and his tools of analysis, the student extends and deepens his knowledge in accordance with his particular interests. A typical graduate program at Harvard reflects this general delineation of the subject as a field of study.

Although there is no required course program, the student ordinarily spends his first year insuring his competence in economic theory, economic history, and quantitative methods. Should he carry four courses, which for most students is a normal load, he will also have the opportunity to begin work in an area which reflects his specialized interest. During his second year, in addition to further study in economic theory and quantitative methods, he goes more deeply into his field or fields of specialization. Then, and while writing his dissertation, he takes part in working seminars that bring him into close touch with the research of the faculty and other students. On all of these matters he has the guidance of a faculty member who serves as his adviser. There is no foreign language requirement for the Ph.D. degree, except as an alternative (not particularly recommended) to showing competence in mathematics. At the end of their second year students ordinarily take their “generals” which consists of a written examination in economic theory and an oral examination which includes economic history, statistics and quantitative methods, and two specialized fields. Thereafter, under the guidance of the faculty member, the student writes his thesis, which must demonstrate capacity for original research.

Upon completion of his degree, a wide choice of career opportunities awaits the student. Just as it is the prime function of the University to continue and enlarge man’s store of knowledge, so it will always be the function of its best students to teach their discipline and to enlarge and modernize it by research. In the past a large portion of Harvard Ph.D.’s in economics have gone on to be college and university teachers and to continue investigation in the field. So, unquestionably, will it be in the future. Without ever making it a formal goal, the Department has long considered the training of the next generation of scholars and teachers to be its primary function. At the present time, these serve an especially insistent demand.

Outside of college and university teaching, the range of career opportunities is now wider than ever before. Harvard’s traditional involvement in public policy leads to a ready demand for its graduates in the U.S. and other governments. There is an insistent and increasing demand for trained economists from the business community, including, but by no means confined to, those were skilled in statistical methods and in modern techniques of data processing in the application of economic and statistical analysis to managerial problems.

 

Programs with Other Schools and Departments

The Ph.D. in Business Economics, administered jointly with the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, enables a student to divide his fields equally between the Department and the Business School. The Ph.D. degree in Political Economy and Government permits a student to take a substantial share of his work in fields of government and law. Separate leaflets are available specifying the requirements for these degrees.

Graduate work in economics at Harvard is enriched by the opportunities for association with scholars and students in a variety of centers and programs including the area of programs in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, the Harvard Development Advisory Service, the Center for International Affairs, the International Tax Program, the Joint Center for Urban Studies, the Program in Technology and Society, the Population Center, the Programs in Decision and Control, and others.

 

Physical Facilities

Universities, scholars have often warned, do not consist of bricks and mortar, although, is less frequently observed, they do not usually exist without them. Pending completion in the early 1970s’s of the John F. Kennedy complex, which will house several departments, institutes, and research centers, the Department of Economics is housed principally in the Littauer Center of Public Administration, which also contains the Department of Government, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a library serving these departments. This library contains all the books and journals assigned in graduate courses, as well as general reading, reference and research materials in the fields of economics, government, and public affairs. Littauer Center also provides the seminar rooms where many of the graduate courses meet and a coffee bar for student use.

Nearby are excellent computer facilities, and the Department makes arrangements to provide training in computer use to its graduate students and computer time for research on dissertations and major term papers. Computation facilities will be expanded considerably in the next few years as remote console stations come into use.

Littauer Center is located just outside of Harvard Yard, which contains many other facilities of interest to graduate students. The Yard is dominated by Widener Library, the main unit of the Harvard University Library, the total holdings of which run to eight million volumes. The Baker Library at the Harvard Business School, across the Charles River from the Yard, contains extensive materials of interest to economics students, including special collections in transportation and the history of economic thought. Other important libraries are the Lamont Library, in the Yard, which is used extensively for undergraduates for course reading; and the Langdell Library of the Harvard Law School, close to Littauer Center.

Harvard undergraduate upperclassmen live in residential units called Houses, each House having a staff, dining hall, a small library, and recreational facilities. A number of more advanced graduate students who have acquired teaching responsibilities are appointed to the house staffs as tutors. Unmarried tutors frequently live in the house of which they are a member.

 

Graduate student finances

Economics, especially in the fields of research, teaching, and the public service, is a profession of good but not munificent reward. And many graduate students have passed the stage in life when they can continue to call heavily on their families for financial assistance. Finally, the Cambridge community is not inexpensive and Harvard, a private foundation, still draws a large share of its revenues from tuition. For all of these reasons it is recognized that many students will require financial help. The Department of Economics believes that, in recent years, no student of energy and ability has had to withdraw for purely financial reasons.

A large number of students come to the University with National Science Foundation, Danforth, and other fellowships from outside sources. The Department naturally expects all students offered such awards to except and use them.

Harvard fellowships, including “Graduate Prize Fellowships,” are the main reliance for support of graduate studies. They are designed to allow the highly qualified students to work uninterruptedly up to his degree with knowledge that his basic financial needs are assured. Up to seventeen of the “Graduate Prize Fellowships” are awarded each year, and assuming satisfactory progress, are held by the student for four years. During the first year these Fellowships pay $4,000 of which $2,000 is for tuition and $2,000 for stipend. In the second year the stipend rises to the $2,200. In the third and fourth years, while working on the dissertation, the student holds a teaching Fellowship: he gives two fifths of his time to teaching and receives a stipend of $2,400 together with tuition. Graduate students in the latter years of their training play an important and valued role in Harvard’s undergraduate instruction, and nearly 60 of them hold Teaching Fellowships each year. This enables them, in turn, to show substantial experience in seeking teaching positions after completion of their degrees.

In the award of Teaching Fellowships, as in all other aspects of its work, the Department of Economics accords equal opportunity, depending only on qualification, to women students. It does not encourage the student to assume a teaching burden that interferes with steady and substantial progress toward the completion of his coursework and dissertation; Teaching Fellowships are therefore not available to first-year students, and not usually in the second year.

There are few differences between human beings more profound than the capacity to conserve or spend money. These differences are enlarged by wives, children, travel, and other requirements. Hence, it is nearly impossible to answer the question: how much does a student in Cambridge need? In general, it is the experience of unmarried graduate students that the funds provided by a Graduate Prize Fellowship adequately cover minimum needs. Loan funds are, of course, available in case of emergency. For married students some auxiliary income, such as a wife’s earnings, is unquestionably important. (Like most universities Harvard is willing to finance students but reluctant to support a student household.) Accordingly the problem of employment opportunity, with which that of housing is closely associated, is important. To these we now turn.

 

Housing and Employment

For the unmarried student, housing presents few problems. There are dormitories for both men and women — old ones with large rooms and thick walls and new ones with less space and better design. Current rates for dormitory rooms and for meals — these are not excessive — are given in a special supplement to the General Catalogue which may be obtained, along with an application blank, from the Registrar, Harvard University.

In earlier times graduate students at Harvard, as at other universities, lifter rather bleak boarding house existence and saw a little of each other as a community. Harkness Commons and the Radcliffe Graduate Center, both built since World War II, provide a congenial social atmosphere for all students who are so disposed. Both have good cafeterias. The student who wants solitude for his own work can still find it at Harvard, but it is a matter of choice and not of necessity or conformity.

The problems of the married student, especially the student with a young family, are more complex. Cambridge is a comparatively old city surrounded by the numerous other cities and towns which comprise the Greater Boston area. Housing in the area as a whole can best be described as ample, expensive, and generally unsatisfactory. One exception is provided by Harvard itself, which has over nine hundred apartments available for married students in buildings which it owns. These are closely convenient to the university and residence thus have ready access to the functions and activities of the University community. They obviate the need for a car. But, like privately owned dwellings in Cambridge, this convenience has a cost — but not an out-of-line one. Dwellings at a greater distance from the University generally provide more space at a lower price period

The University Housing Office, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, provides listings and guidance to housing. It also receives applications for university-owned housing. Married student should get in touch with this office as soon as they are admitted and use its services on arrival in Cambridge. The Housing Office strongly urges married students who have not previously obtained Harvard or other housing to come early — if possible in August — to look for accommodations. “Usually the only way of obtaining an apartment,” it advises in its bulletin, “is by persistent personal search.”

The University community, in its varied activities, is a substantial employer, and the Boston area offers the manifold job opportunities of the large metropolitan area. The wife who has teaching, secretarial, stenographic, nursing, statistical, library, or other skills can be fairly certain of finding employment. And even the wife who is limited in her opportunities by pregnancy or young children can usually arrange some additional income by caring for the children of working parents. The chances of finding and the convenience of holding a job increase with proximity to the University and may help offset some of the higher costs of such close-in living. As in all imperfect markets time must be allowed to find employment, so, as with those must find housing, an early arrival in Cambridge is urged. A special office at Harvard, that of The Adviser for Harvard Wives, counsels on job opportunities as well as on doctors, dentists, shopping information and other practical questions facing the newly-arrived at family.

Students who are in need of assistance on any matter, academic, financial or personal, should not hesitate to appeal to the Dean of the Graduate School, the Chairman of the Department or to a senior professor for help and counsel.

 

Graduate Student Life

Although the Harvard community is large and urban, it seeks not to be distant and impersonal. It is certainly not dull.

Economics graduate students come into contact with each other through their courses, informal meetings in library and coffee room, in social affairs organized by the Department and the Graduate Economics Club (which undertakes to represent student interests before the Department, invites outside speakers, and otherwise looks after graduate-student well-being).

Although the rigors of graduate course work leave most people with only limited time for recreation, the cultural advantages of Harvard in the Cambridge and Boston areas generally are unmatched. The Old New England character of Harvard Square and its immediate environs is increasingly spiced by a lively “Village” atmosphere. Cambridge and Boston cater to cultural taste running from low-brow to high-brow. At the latter end of the spectrum come much local theater (both pre-Broadway and off-Broadway), the strikingly original Boston Opera Group, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (especially its bargain series of open rehearsals, populated mostly by students), and many individual concerts, art exhibitions, and the like. The years spent earning a Ph.D. at Harvard will be filled with new experiences, contacts, and horizons, as well as solid and satisfying work.

 

Sources of Additional Information

Courses are listed in Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe common commonly called the Course Catalogue; it is issued in September for each academic year. Formal requirements for the Ph.D. in economics are outlined in the leaflet “Higher Degrees under the Department of Economics,” Supplement to the General Announcement. A similar leaflet describes “The Ph.D. in Business Economics.” One issued by the Committee on Higher Degrees in Political Economy and Government outlines “Requirements for the Degrees in Political Economy and Government.” A few graduate students find it useful to attend the Harvard Summer School, in which a very limited range of graduate economics courses is offered each year; a Preliminary Announcement listing all courses is available shortly after the beginning of the calendar year.

 

Professors and Associate Professors
Department of Economics, 1967

Abram Bergson
Richard E. Caves
Hollis B. Chenery
Robert Dorfman
James S. Duesenberry
John T. Dunlop
Otto Eckstein
J. Kenneth Galbraith
Alexander Gerschenkron
Gottfried Haberler
Albert O. Hirschman
Hendrik S. Houthakker
Simon Kuznets
Harvey Leibenstein
Wassily Leontief
John Lintner
Edward S. Mason
John R. Meyer
Richard A. Musgrave
Dwight H. Perkins
Howard Raiffa
Henry Rosovsky
Thomas C. Schelling
Arthur Smithies

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers.  Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526, Folder “Harvard Department of Economics: Graduate Student Brochure (JKG wrote 1st draft), September 1967”.

Image Source: Littauer Center (July 1970). Harvard University Archives.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Undergraduate and Graduate Money and Banking. Williams, 1932-33.

John Henry Williams taught the money and banking/monetary policy courses at Harvard over several decades. Material for more years will be transcribed soon! This post takes us to the trough of the Great Depression. Joseph Schumpeter and Lauchlin Currie joined in teaching the undergraduate course this one time.

 

Principles of Money and Banking (graduate course, 1946-47)

Economics 141a, Reading Assignments and Exam (co-taught with Alvin Hansen) 1946-47

Economics 141b, Reading Assignments and Exam (co-taught with Richard Goodwin) 1946-47

Economics 141, thirteen pages of general course bibliography, 1946-47

________________________

Brief Undergraduate Course Description

[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2. Professor Williams.

The course will be conducted by means of lectures and discussions and (in the second half-year) a thesis based on work in the library. Certain subjects, such as the monetary and banking history of the United States, will be covered almost wholly by assigned reading.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, containing an Announcement for 1932-33. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol XXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), pp. 72, 81.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 3. Professor Williams and Schumpeter and Dr. Currie — Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.

Total 151: 32 Seniors, 103 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1932-33, p. 65.

 

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1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 3

Money, Banking and Commercial Crises
Mid-year Examination, 1933

  1. Combined Statement of the Federal Reserve Banks

($000,000 omitted)

Sept. 1931

 Feb. 1933

June 1932
Total Reserves

3371

 3211

2844
Bills Discounted

328

 828

440
Bills bought

469

 109

67
U.S. Securities

742

 740

1784
Other Federal Reserve Securities

39

 31

19
Federal Reserve Notes

2098

 2651

2795
Member Bank Deposits

2364

 1849

1982
Government Deposits etc.

143

 76

34

Discuss the significance of the changes in each of the above items between September, 1931, and February, 1932, and between February, 1932, and June, 1932. How do you account for the changes in member bank deposits with the reserve banks? What conclusions do you draw regarding Federal Reserve policy in the two periods covered by the above statement?

  1. In how far do the Federal Reserve Act and Federal Reserve policy reveal an acceptance of the commercial loan theory of banking?
  2. Trace the evolution of the bank note in (a) the United States, (b) England, (c) Germany or What are the merits and defects of our present system and how could it be improved?
  3. Discuss one of the following:
    1. Burgess’ “Gold Paradox.”
    2. American Experience with bimetallism.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 10. Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1932-1933.”

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1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 3

Money, Banking and Commercial Crises
Final Examination, 1933

  1. Explain the equation P=\frac{E}{O}+\frac{{I}'-S}{R}. Can the course of business during the past five years be interpreted in terms of this equation?
  2. “A managed standard is incompatible with a world standard.”
    “Avoidance of monetary disturbances can be achieved only under a managed standard.”
  3. Compare the effects of
    1. Purchase of one billion dollars of securities b the Reserve Banks.
    2. Redemption of one billion dollars of government bonds by the issue of paper money.
    3. Reduction of the gold content of the dollar by one-hald.
    4. Adoption of bimetallism.
  4. Can the concepts of demand and marginal utility be applied in an explanation of the value of money?
  5. Is business stability compatible with stable prices? Compare the views of Foster and Catchings, Keynes and Hayek on this point.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard Univ. Examination Papers. Finals, 1933. (HUC 7000.28) Volume 75. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. January-June, 1933.

 

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Brief Graduate Course Description

[Economics] 38. Principles of Money and Banking

Tu., Th., at 3, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Williams.

This course is intended to afford training in analysis and research in the field of money and banking. The subject as a whole will be systematically reviewed. Selections from important writings dealing with monetary principles will be read and critically discussed. Particular attention will be given to the theory of the value of money and to the policy and operations of central banks.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, containing an Announcement for 1932-33. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol XXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), pp. 72, 81.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 38. Professor Williams and Schumpeter. — Principles of Money and Banking.

Total 61: 36 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 1 Juniors, 5 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1932-33, p. 66.

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1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 38
Principles of Money and Banking
Mid-year Examination, 1933

[copy not yet recovered]

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1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 38
Principles of Money and Banking
Final Examination, 1933

  1. Discuss “Hayek concludes…that the necessary condition of avoiding credit cycles is for the banking system to maintain the effective quantity of money…absolutely and forever unaltered.”
    Is this a correct interpretation of Hayek? Just what is involved, in the way of central bank action, in a “neutral” money policy? Would you favor such a policy?
  2. Discuss:
    1. The concept of international equilibrium.
    2. The mechanism of adjustment of departures from equilibrium under conditions of gold standard.
    3. The relation of gold standard to central banking.
  3. Discuss the effects of:
    1. A devaluation of the dollar relative to the pound sterling and the franc.
    2. An all-round devaluation of currencies.
    3. An all-round abandonment of the gold standard or of any other mechanism for providing stability of exchanges.
    4. The proposal to widen the zone between gold points to five per cent.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard Univ. Examination Papers. Finals, 1933. (HUC 7000.28) Volume 75. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. January-June, 1933.

Image Source:  John Henry Williams in the Harvard Album, 1932.

 

Categories
Amherst Barnard Berkeley Brown Chicago Colorado Columbia Cornell Dartmouth Duke Harvard Illinois Indiana Iowa Johns Hopkins Kansas M.I.T. Michigan Michigan State Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Carolina Northwestern NYU Ohio State Pennsylvania Princeton Radcliffe Rochester Stanford Swarthmore Texas Tufts UCLA Vassar Virginia Washington University Wellesley Williams Wisconsin Yale

U.S. Bureau of Education. Contributions to American Educational History, Herbert B. Adams (ed.), 1887-1903

 

I stumbled across this series while I was preparing the previous post on the political economy questions for the Harvard Examination for Women (1874). I figured it would be handy for me to keep a list of links to the monographs on the history of higher education in 35 of the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Maybe this collection will help you too.

Contributions to American Educational History, edited by Herbert B. Adams

  1. The College of William and Mary. Herbert B. Adams (1887)
  2. Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. Herbert B. Adams (1888)
  3. History of Education in North Carolina. Charles L. Smith (1888)
  4. History of Higher Education in South Carolina. C. Meriwether (1889)
  5. Education in Georgia. Charles Edgeworth Jones (1889)
  6. Education in Florida. George Gary Bush (1889)
  7. Higher Education in Wisconsin. William F. Allen and David E. Spencer (1889)
  8. History of Education in Alabama. Willis G. Clark (1890).
  9. History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education. Frank W. Blackmar (1890)
  10. Higher Education in Indiana. James Albert Woodburn (1891).
  11. Higher Education in Michigan. Andrew C. McLaughlin. (1891)
  12. History of Higher Education in Ohio. George W. Knight and John R. Commons (1891)
  13. History of Higher Education in Massachusetts. George Gary Bush (1891)
  14. The History of Education in Connecticut. Bernard C. Steiner (1893)
  15. The History of Education in Delaware. Lyman P. Powell (1893)
  16. Higher Education in Tennessee. Lucius Salisbury Merriam (1893)
  17. Higher Education in Iowa. Leonard F. Parker (1893)
  18. History of Higher Education in Rhode Island. William Howe Tolman (1894)
  19. History of Education in Maryland. Bernard C. Steiner (1894).
  20. History of Education in Lousiana. Edwin Whitfield Fay (1898).
  21. Higher Education in Missouri. Marshall S. Snow (1898)
  22. History of Education in New Hampshire. George Gary Bush (1898)
  23. History of Education in New Jersey. David Murray (1899).
  24. History of Education in Mississippi. Edward Mayes (1899)
  25. History of Higher Education in Kentucky. Alvin Fayette Lewis (1899)
  26. History of Education in Arkansas. Josiah H. Shinn (1900)
  27. Higher Education in Kansas. Frank W. Blackmar (1900)
  28. The University of the State of New York. History of Higher Education in the State of New York. Sidney Sherwood (1900)
  29. History of Education in Vermont. George Gary Bush (1900)
  30. History of Education in West Virginia. A. R. Whitehill (1902)
  31. The History of Education in Minnesota. John N. Greer (1902)
  32. Education in Nebraska. Howard W. Caldwell (1902)
  33. A History of Higher Education in Pennsylvania. Charles H. Haskins and William I. Hull (1902)
  34. History of Higher Education in Colorado. James Edward Le Rossignol (1903)
  35. History of Higher Education in Texas. J. J. Lane (1903)
  36. History of Higher Education in Maine. Edward W. Hall (1903)

Image Source: Cropped from portrait of Herbert Baxter Adams ca. 1890s. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

Categories
Exam Questions Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Harvard. Examination for Women. Political Economy (Optional Advanced Exam), 1874

 

During a recent visit to the Harvard archives I was frustrated when I found that in a volume with the title “Examinations for Women” that pages for advanced examinations, of which political economy would have been one according to an overview of the examinations, had been ripped out. Perhaps an advantage of our age of easy photocopying is that such acquisatory vandalism in libraries has been significantly reduced. Today I thought I would trawl the net and see if I could find any Harvard political economy exams for women in the days before there was even a Radcliffe.  Following an excerpt from a U.S. Bureau of Education report and a New York Times account (the examination questions are “far too hard”), Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is happy to provide a transcription of the questions for the advanced examination in political economy for 1874.

Political Economy exams for the Harvard men of this period have been posted earlier.

_________________________

HARVARD’S EXAMINATION FOR WOMEN

This was originally intended as a careful test of proficiency in a course of elementary study of a liberal order, arranged for persons who might, or might not, afterwards pursue an advanced curriculum of studies. It differed, therefore, both in its purpose and in its selection of subjects from any college examination, whether for admission or for subsequent standing. But it applied the highest standard of judgment in determining the excellence of the work offered. It furnished a test of special culture in one or more of five departments. It was not intended to be taken as a whole, and did not, therefore, represent the studies of a college course, but was adapted to persons of limited leisure for study, such as girls who had left school and were occupied with home cares, or teachers engaged in their professional labors.

In Scribner’s Monthly for September, 1876, the purposes of the new movement are set forth, and an idea given of the reception which has been accorded it. The writer says:

Harvard has undertaken to do for this country what Oxford and Cambridge are doing for England;

and he might have added, “and Edinburgh for Scotland.” Its faculty held examinations for women at Cambridge first in June, 1874, 1875, and 1876. In 1874 Harvard gave only four certificates; in 1875 only ten candidates entered, and in 1870 only six. In the latter year it was decided that examinations should be held also in New York. A local committee was formed there, with Miss E. T. Minturn as secretary. This committee went to work at once to procure candidates for examination after the manner pursued in England, on the establishment of a new center, and met with much encouragement.

The examination took place in June of 1877. The examinations (held in a private house, or in some room hired by the committee) were almost entirely in writing. No one was permitted to be present but ladies of the local committee, and a representative officer from the university, who brought the question papers, took the answers as soon as the time allowed for each paper had expired, and carried the answers at the close of the examinations back to the university, when they were inspected by the examiners and reported upon to the candidates through the local committee. This is the English mode of proceeding.

The examination, as in the preceding years, was of two grades. The first was a preliminary examination for young women who were not less than 17 years old; the second an advanced examination for those who had passed the preliminary examination and who were not less than 18 years old. The preliminary examination embraced English literature, French, physical geography, with elementary botany, or elementary physics, arithmetic, algebra through quadratic- equations, plane geometry, history, and any one of three languages — German, Latin, or Greek. The advanced examination was divided into five sections, in one or more of which the candidate could present herself:

(1) Languages. In any of the following: English, French, German. Italian, Latin, or Greek.

(2) Natural science. In any of the following: Chemistry, physics, botany, mineralogy, and geology.

(3) Mathematics. Solid geometry, algebra, logarithms and plane trigonometry, and any one of the three following : Analytic geometry, mechanics, spherical trigonometry, and astronomy.

(4) History. For the first year, 1876, candidates could offer either of the two following: The history of Continental Europe during the period of the Reformation, 1517-1648; or English and American history from 1688 to the end of the eighteenth century.

(5) Philosophy. Candidates might offer any three of the following: Mental philosophy, moral philosophy, logic, rhetoric, political economy.

Notice of intention to be candidates must be sent to the secretaries on or before April 1 preceding the examination. The fee for the preliminary examination was $15, for the advanced examination $10.

At the New York examination, referred to above, 18 candidates presented themselves, and the examination lasted a week, and was under the conduct of Professor Child. With the exception of a short oral exercise to test pronunciation of the modern languages, the examination was wholly in writing.

The committee were careful to lay stress upon the fact that they did not consider the preparation for these examinations equivalent to a course in Harvard, or other first-class colleges, and that they did not place the same value on a Harvard diploma and a Harvard certificate.

These examinations have now become a part of the regular work of the university, and are held every year simultaneously in New York and Cambridge (or Boston), in Philadelphia, and in Cincinnati, beginning on the last Wednesday in May. Since 1879 instruction as well as examination has been provided for by a new organization incorporated under the name of the “Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College.”

The first intimation of this movement for the private instruction of women by professors of Harvard University was made in a circular signed by the seven ladies who became the first managers of the annex, and was dated Washington’s Birthday, 1879.

The terms of the circular were somewhat vague, but they were taken as evidence that privileges which had before been the right of men only were to be offered to women. The intention of the promoters of the scheme was, in fact, to provide for women, outside of the college, instruction of the same grade that men receive in it, united to tests of progress as rigid as those which are applied in the college.

The next step was the publication of a circular, giving the terms of admission to the courses of instruction to be offered the first year. This was done in April. The Harvard examinations for women being in successful operation, they were made the basis upon which fitness for ad mission was to be determined.

Upon the eighth examination held in Cambridge, New York, and Cincinnati, June 30, 1881, in accordance with the wishes of the Woman’s Educational Association, the candidates who presented themselves for examination were examined upon the subjects required for admission to Harvard College, with the exception, that the candidate could, if she chose, substitute French and German in place of Greek. The time and method of examinations and the papers used were the same as for the examination for admission to Harvard College, and the same privilege of passing a preliminary examination on a part of the subjects and of completing the course in a subsequent year was allowed.

Certificates were given, bearing the signature of the president, and specifying the subjects in which the candidate had passed.

The old order of examinations was then abolished except for such candidates as had passed on a part of the work required. The Woman’s Educational Association took charge of the examination in Cambridge, and local committees had charge of the examinations in New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The certificate given to a candidate who passes upon all the subjects required for admission to the college entitles her to admission to the courses of instruction given in Cambridge by instructors in Harvard University, under the direction of the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women. It is also accepted, if presented within a year of its date, by Vassar, Wellesley, and Bryn Mawr Colleges as the equivalent for examinations in such subjects, whether preparatory or collegiate, as are covered by it.

Source: United States Bureau of Education. Circular of Information No. 6, 1891. George Gary Bush, History of Higher Education in Massachusetts, pp. 176-178. [No. 13 in Contributions to American Educational History, edited by Herbert B. Adams]

 

HARVARD EXAMINATIONS FOR WOMEN
from a New York Times report in 1877

…The objects specially held in view by the ladies who have promoted this movement were to afford persons desirous of becoming teachers in schools such a diploma of competency for their task as would be received on all hands with respect, and, further, to promote a higher standard of attainments in the private schools attended by the wealthier classes, by thus securing them thoroughly qualified teachers. The radical defect in women’s education generally, more especially in the case of women educated at a fashionable school, is, that while they have a smattering of many subjects, they do not know one thoroughly….

…At present it appears to us that the questions are far too hard…

…[the illustrative questions cited from physical geography and history] are merely in the “preliminary” examination, and surely are well calculated to convey a lively apprehension as to the stiffness of the queries to follow; and we are not, therefore, surprised to read in the report that only three of the eighteen New-York candidates took up the whole number of subjects required for a certificate, and that of these, but two were successful.”

Source: The New York Times, December 30, 1877, p. 6.

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
EXAMINATIONS FOR WOMEN, 1874.

ADVANCED EXAMINATION. POLITICAL ECONOMY.

The examination will be based on Fawcett’s “Manual of Political Economy” [1874] and Blanqui’s “Histoire de l’Économie Politique en Europe.” [4e èd. Rev. et annot. (1860). Tome Premier; Tome Second]

SPECIMEN EXAMINATION-PAPER.

I. Fawcett’s Manual.

  1. Define, with illustrations, Wealth, Capital, and Money; and state the distinctions between them.
  2. How is the rapid recovery of a country from a devastating war explained?
  3. Define and distinguish Value and Price.
  4. What causes regulate the price of articles of vertu, of agricultural produce, and of manufactured articles respectively?
  5. Explain Ricardo’s theory of rent, the law of production from land on which it rests, and how the conclusion is drawn that agricultural rent is not a component of price.
  6. What causes the tendency of profits to fall as a nation advances?
  7. What principles determine the rate of wages, and what remedies are suggested for low wages?
  8. State the distinction between industrial partnership, complete coöperation, and the coöperative store; and explain the system of the Rochdale Pioneers and its advantages.
  9. What arguments can you give for or against peasant proprietorship?
  10. What effect have the discoveries of gold in California and Australia had on the value of gold, and what has tended to counteract that effect in England and the United States?
  11. What will determine the amount of money which a country will keep in circulation?
  12. “What will happen if the circulating medium is increased beyond its natural amount, by the introduction (1) of more gold or silver? or, (2) of bank notes which are redeemed in gold on presentation? or, (3) of inconvertible notes?
  13. Do the United States gain or lose by the constant exportation of the gold mined in California; and why?
  14. Can two countries trade with each other profitably, when every commodity exchanged might be produced by one cheaper than by the other?
  15. In the example given of an exchange of iron and wheat by England and France, what will be the effects of an improvement which cheapens the production of iron in England?

II. Blanqui’s Histoire de l’Économie Politique en Europe.

  1. Give the names and geographical positions of some of the chief of the Hanseatic cities, and briefly explain their rise and the organization of their trade.
  2. What important changes took place in the economical condition of Europe in the reign of Charles the Fifth? Give the leading dates of his reign, and name some of his contemporaries.
  3. What social changes, good or bad, were produced in Europe in the fifteenth century, by the discovery of gold and silver in the New World?
  4. When was the Bank of Amsterdam established, and on what plan was it conducted?
  5. When did the school of the French economists flourish, who were some of its leading writers, and what were its characteristic doctrines?
  6. Who was Adam Smith, when did he live and publish his chief work, and what service did he render in the development of political economy?
  7. What economical effects had the establishment of American independence?
  8. When and for how long a time did the Bank of England suspend specie payments?
  9. What were the characteristic views of Sismondi, and by what circumstances of his time was he led to them?
  10. Give some account of Robert Owen and of his system of social reform.
  11. How have the peculiar situation and industrial conditions of England probably influenced the views of her writers on political economy?

Source: Harvard University. Examinations for Women, 1874, p. 70-71.  Also, a copy at the Radcliffe Archives.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam questions for Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Ashley, 1895-96

 

William James Ashley (1899 biography) taught a course on the mediaeval economic history of Europe that required reading knowledge of Latin that was indeed tested as can be seen in his examination questions transcribed below.

Earlier posts with material from Ashley’s economic history courses:

University of Toronto Economic History Exams (1891)

Economic History Module in Introductory Economics Course (1896)

Modern Economic History (1899-1900)

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 10. Professor Ashley. — The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. 2 hours.

Total 14: 7 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 2 Juniors.

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

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Course Description

[10. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Tu., Th., (and at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Ashley.]

Omitted in 1897-98.

The object of this course is to give a general view of the economic development of society during the Middle Ages. It will deal, among others, with the following topics:— the manorial system in its relation to mediaeval agriculture and serfdom; the merchant gilds and the beginnings of town life and of trade; the craft gild and the gild-system of industry, compared with earlier and later forms; the commercial supremacy of the Hanseatic and Italian merchants; the trade routes of the Middle Ages and of the sixteenth century; the merchant adventurers and the great trading companies; the agrarian changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the break-up of the mediaeval organization of social classes; the appearance of new manufactures and of the domestic industry.

Special attention will be devoted to England, but that country will be treated as illustrating the broader features of the economic evolution of the whole of western Europe; and attention will be called to the chief peculiarities of the economic history of France, Germany and Italy.

Students will be introduced in this course to the use of the original sources, and they will need to be able to translate easy Latin.

It is desirable that they should already possess some general acquaintance with mediaeval history, and those who are deficient in this respect will be expected to read one or two supplementary books, to be suggested by the instructor. The course is conveniently taken after, before, or in conjunction with History 9; and it will be of especial use to those who intend to study the law of Real Property.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (1897-98), pp. 31-32.

______________________

1895-96
ECONOMICS 10.
Mid-year examination

I.

To be first attempted by all.

Translate, and comment, on the following passages: —

  1. Totius terrae descriptio diligens facta est, tam in nemoribus quam in pascuis et pratis, nec non in agriculturis, et verbis communibus annotata in librum redacta est.
  2. In Tineguella…sunt iiii hidae et dimidia ad geldum Regis. Et de istis tenet xx homines xx virgas terrae. Et xiii homines tenent vi virgas et dimidiam.
  3. Sicut traditum habemus a patribus, in primitivo regni statu post conquisitionem, regibus de fundis suis non auri vel argenti pondera sed sola victualia solvebantur.
  4. Plerique, cum aut aere alieno aut magnitudine tributorum aut injuria potentiorum premuntur, sese in servitutem dicunt nobilibus, quibus in hos eadem omnia sunt jura quae dominis in servos.
  5. Ceteris servis non in nostrum morem, descriptis per familiam ministeriis, utuntur. Suam quisque sedem, suos penates regit.

II.

Write on four only of the following subjects.

  1. The importance of the yardland in the rural economy of the Middle Ages.
  2. A history of the mark theory, from its first promulgation to its general acceptance.
  3. A comparison of the life of a mediaeval English village with that of a New England village of today.
  4. The Roman colonate.
  5. An account and criticism of Mr. Seebohm’s “Tribal System in Wales.”

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3. Bound volume: Examination Papers. Mid-Years, 1895-96.

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1895-96
ECONOMICS 10.
Final Examination

I.

To be first attempted by all.

Comment on the following passages, and translate those in Latin and French: —

  1. If a man agree for a yard of land, or more, at a fixed rent, and plough it; if the lord desire to raise the land to him to service and to rent, he need not take it upon him, if the lord do not give him a dwelling.
  2. Ego Eadward…rex…dedi X manentes in illo loco qui dicitur aet Stoce be Hysseburnam, cum omnibus hominibus qui in illa terra errant qando AElfred rex viam universae carnis adiit.
  3. Magnates regni et alii minores domini qui tenentes habebant perdonarunt redditum de redditu ne tenentes abirent prae defectu servorum et caristia rerum.
  4. Whan Adam dalf and Eve span,
    Wo was thane a gentilman?
  5. Nul ne deit rien achater a revendre en la vile meyme, fors yl serra Gildeyn.
  6. Cives Londoniae debent LX marcas pro Gilda telaria delenda ita ut de cetero non suscitetur.
  7. No one of the trade of Spurriers shall work longer than from the beginning of the day until curfew rings out at the church of St. Sepulchre.

II.
Write on four only of the following subjects:

  1. The economic and constitutional questions involved in recent discussions as to the beginnings of town life in mediaeval Europe.
  2. A comparison of a mediaeval merchant gild with a modern “trust,” and of a craft gild with a modern trade union.
  3. The extent and character of the public regulation of prices and wages in the later middle ages.
  4. The cause of the Peasant Revolt in 1381.
  5. The relation of the English Reformation to the origin of the Poor Laws.
  6. A criticism of Cunningham and McArthur’s Outlines of English Industrial History.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1896-97. Section: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government, Economics, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1896), pp. 45-46.

Image Source: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.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams in money, banking and commercial crises. Guest professor, W. C. Mitchell, 1908-09

 

For the academic year 1908-09 Wesley Clair Mitchell took leave from the University of California to cover three courses previously taught by A. Piatt Andrew at Harvard on money, banking and foreign exchange, and commercial crises. This post provides enrollment figures and the examination questions for the three courses.

While I have been unable to find course outlines in the Harvard archives, here is the (almost complete) 1906 Syllabus for Mitchell’s money course taught at the University of California.

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Money. A General Survey…in recent times

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 103: 4 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 48 Juniors, 20 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Special.

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

 

ECONOMICS 8a1
Final Examination

1. and 2. Describe the monetary system of the United States, making such reference as is necessary for a clear understanding to monetary history and to the banking system.

  1. Sketch the monetary history of British India since 1873.
  2. Give a brief account of the production of gold and silver, and of the changes in the market ratio between them, for the years 1848 to 1908.
  3. State the case for bimetallism.
  4. What are the chief differences between monetary conditions in the Middle Ages and at present?
  5. Sketch some one of the paper-money episodes of the nineteenth century.
  6. What are index numbers? How are they constructed? Of what use are they?
  7. and 10. Discuss the way in which an increasing production of gold affects the price-level in gold-standard countries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), p. 39.

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Banking and Foreign Exchange

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 117: 3 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 61 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Special.

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

ECONOMICS 8b
Final Examination

  1. Exercise in Banking Accounts
    Do not spend more than sixty minutes upon this exercise.

    1. Arrange the following items in the form of a bank statement: Bonds and stocks, $90,000; Undivided profits, $10,000; Due from other banks, $50,000; Notes, $50,000; Exchanges for the clearing house, $50,000; Expenses, $1,500; Notes of other national banks, $1,000; Due to banks, $60,000; Real estate, $40,000; Surplus, $50,000; United States deposits, $30,000; 5% redemption fund, $2,500; Due from reserve agents, $50,000; Lawful money, $66,000; Capital, $200,000; Individual deposits, $600,000; Loans, $630,000; Other assets, $19,000.
    2. If the statement is that of a National Bank, not in a reserve city, how much lawful money is it required by law to hold as reserve?
    3. Assume that the statement shows the condition of the bank at the close of business Thursday. During business hours Friday the following transactions take place:—
      1. The bank pays a coal bill of $1,000 in cash;
      2. The bank remits $5,000 of United States notes to its reserve agent;
      3. The following deposits are received from individual customers:—
        $2,000 in gold certificates;
        $1,000 in the bank’s own notes;
        $5,000 in checks against the bank itself;
        $42,000 in checks against other banks belonging to the same clearing house.
      4. The bank discounts a 30-day note for $50,000 at 6%, taking United States bonds as collateral security. The borrower takes the proceeds in such form that he can pay in checks.
      5. A note of $20,000, discounted six months before at 4%, is paid by means of a check against the borrower’s account.
      6. At the clearing house, the bank finds $55,000 presented against it. Balances are paid in gold.
        How does the bank stand at the close of business Friday?
  1. Sketch the development of banking in England to 1700.
  2. Describe briefly the condition of banking in the United States in 1860.
  3. What factors affect the profit upon the issue of national bank notes?
  4. Compare the methods of treating a commercial panic followed by the banks of New York and the Bank of England.
  5. State the case for and against the incorporation into national banking law of provisions for any one of the following purposes:—
    1. To guarantee deposits;
    2. To permit branch banking;
    3. To change the bond-secured circulation for asset currency;
    4. To establish a central bank on the German model.
  6. State the leading differences between the business of commercial banking and savings banking.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), pp. 40-41.

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Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12 1hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 68: 2 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 10 Sophomores.

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

 

ECONOMICS 121
Final Examination

Describe business conditions in the United States from 1890 to 1908, inclusive, with such reference to business conditions abroad as is necessary for an understanding of American conditions. State the most important causes of the changes which have occurred.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), p.  44.

Image Source: Thumbnail image from a 1900 picture of Wesley Clair Mitchell at the University of Chicago in Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s Two Lives: The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate General Examination in Economics, 1956

 

 

Other undergraduate Harvard divisional/departmental  general exams that have been transcribed and posted earlier:

General Division Exam 1916

General Division Exam 1917

Division Exams 1939

Economics General Exam 1953

______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
GENERAL EXAMINATION — May 2, 1956
(Three hours)

Please be sure to use a separate bluebook for each Section, noting on the cover of each book the numbers of the questions discussed therein, and HONORS or NON-HONORS.

 

PART I
(One hour)
Economic Analysis

All candidates answer ONE question.

  1. It is often said that investment is one of the principal determinants of national income. On the other hand it is also claimed that national income is one of the principal determinants of investment. In what sense is each of these statements true? What are the implications of these propositions for the theory of business cycles?
  2. “Almost no one would select the industries which are distinguished by a close approach to the competitive model as a showpiece of American industrial achievement. The showpieces are, with rare exceptions, the industries which are dominated by a handful of large firms. The foreign visitor, brought to the United States by the Economic Cooperation Administration, visits the same firms as do attorneys of the Department of Justice in their search for monopoly.” Discuss.
  3. Wages and profits perform important functions in the economic system. To what extent are these functions the same and to what extent do they differ?
  4. Ricardo considered savings as the basis of economic growth. Some modern common economists on the other hand have argued that a high propensity to save reduces the rate of economic growth. Explain the reasons for each of these views.
  5. Agriculture is an excellent example of the failure of the competitive system to allocate resources efficiently. Discuss.

 

PART II
(Two hours)

Part II consists of five sections: A. Industrial Organization; B. Labor Economics; C. Economic History; D. Money, Economic Fluctuations, and International Trade; and E. Statistics. Each student must answer FOUR questions from Part II, distributed among the sections as follows:

Either

(1) TWO questions each from TWO different Sections chosen from A, B, C, D.

Or

(2) ONE question from Section E; and three other questions, TWO chosen from any ONE of A, B, C, D, and ONE from ANOTHER of these Sections.

A. Industrial Organization

  1. “The diversity of behavior revealed by a study of particular oligopolies in the United States helps explain why economists have been unable to produce a unique theory of oligopoly.” Discuss.
  2. Evaluate the evidence for and against the thesis that monopoly has increased during the last half-century in American manufacturing industries.
  3. With respect to either electric power or railroads, what do you think have been the chief achievements and shortcomings of the regulatory process in the United States?
  4. Discuss the problem of resale price maintenance laws, commenting on
    1. The historical circumstances from which resale price maintenance agreements evolved;
    2. The characteristics of goods most commonly sold under resale price maintenance agreements and why the producers of these goods prefer to operate under such agreements;
    3. The economic effects of resale price maintenance.

 

B. Labor Economics

  1. The following are recently released figures by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing production, man hours, and output per man hour in the bituminous coal industry since 1935. Selected years are shown as follows; 1947-49 is the base in each case.
Year Production Man hours Output per man hour
1935 67.0 89.0 75.3
1938 62.7 73.8 85.0
1941 92.5 100.5 92.0
1945 103.9 111.5 93.2
1948 107.8 109.0 98.9
1950 92.9 82.1 113.2
1954 70.4 47.3 148.8

(a) What factors would you advance to explain the movement in output per man hour? (b) Is the 100 percent rise in output per man hour in this twenty year period a consequence of, or a reason for, substantial wage rate increases?

  1. How do you praise be consequences of the merger between the AFL and CIO? Indicate the consequences for organizing campaigns and union growth, internal union government, legislative and political action, collective bargaining, and the movement of wages. Consider the consequences both within the labor movement and for the economy generally.
  2. “The growing importance collective-bargaining cannot be reconciled with the view that unions may be considered as private organizations or ‘clubs’.” Discuss. What types of public policy would you advocate with respect to governmental intervention in the internal affairs of unions?
  3. Explain the meaning of “marginal productivity” to a friend who is never studied economics. Explain further whatever degree of relation you believe exists between marginal productivity and wages.

 

C. Economic History

  1. It has been said that “mercantilism” has always been the dominant economic philosophy in American politics. Discuss.
  2. How does the development of the corporation as an institutional form for organizing business activity different in United States and Great Britain? What accounts for and what have been the consequences of these developments?
  3. Contrast ante- and post-bellum Southern Agriculture.
  4. What light does [sic] the depression experiences of 1873, 1920, 1929, cast on business cycle theories and policies?

 

D. Money, Economic Fluctuations, and International Trade

  1. What actions could the Federal Reserve authorities take to check an inflationary movement? What objections might be raised against the use of any combination of these actions?
  2. Suppose the trade unions force up money wages. Discuss the effect of the change on employment and prices in terms of (a) the Quantity Theory of Prices (b) the Keynesian theory of the price level.
  3. Supposed that aggregate income were to remain constant for the next six months while unemployment slowly rose. What budgetary and monetary policies would you recommend?
  4. In a recent statement to the Associated Press, Mr. T. Coleman Andrews, Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the first three years of the present administration until his resignation last Spring, declared his complete opposition to the taxation of personal income. He advocated completely doing away with the individual income tax and substituting “less burdensome” taxes.
    1. What reforms, if any, would you advocate in the taxation of individual income? Explain.
    2. Are there any “less burdensome” taxes than the individual income tax? Explain.
      Note: throughout your discussion keep in mind the fiscal policy aspects of taxation as well as considerations of the effects on incentives, equity, etc.
  5. With few exceptions output per worker is much higher in American industries (including agriculture) than in other countries. How is it possible under these circumstances to maintain equilibrium between exports and imports?

 

E. Statistics

  1. Summarize and discuss critically two quantitative studies dealing with one or more phases of household behavior.
  2. Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages aggregative time series data, cross sectional data, and re-interview data on identical households for purposes of estimation and testing of hypotheses.
  3. Discuss various ways in which statistics may be of use in economic research. In formulating your answer give consideration to some or all of the following: formation of hypotheses, testing of hypotheses, estimation of population parameters, and design of experiments.

 

Source:  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers, Harvard University File, 1949-1965, Box 528, Folder “Tutorial 9/15/51-9/57”.

Image Source: Duster House Tower, Harvard College. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Final exams for “Modern Economic Theory and its Critics”. O.H. Taylor, 1938-39.

 

Just started a “scope and methods of economics” course this semester and after consulting my files from archival visits to Harvard, I discovered that good old Overton Hume Taylor offered a similar course there fifteen times during the 1930s and 1940s. I have already transcribed/posted numerous syllabi and exams for his other courses in the history of economics, political economy, and socialism. For some unknown reason he apparently did not keep a syllabus of assigned readings on file for his “Modern Economic Theory and its Critics” course with the Harvard library. For now we’ll be limited to the printed semester final examinations that I have located in the Harvard archives to reverse-engineer his likely reading assignments.

The stability of the course content may be presumed from the identical course descriptions (with the sole exception of “programmes” becoming “programs”) in the 1932-33 and 1940-41 Division announcements, included below.

Overton Hume Taylor received his economics Ph.D. from Harvard in 1928 with the dissertation “The Idea of a Natural Order in Early Modern Economic Thought.” 

 

Chronology of O. H. Taylor’s course Economics 105
(formerly Economics 17)

1930-31. Ec17 Half-course (second half-year). Classical Economics and Eighteenth Century Philosophy. 3 students enrolled (1 Gr., 1 Sr., 1 Jr.)

1931-32. Ec17 Half-course (second half-year). Classical Economics and Eighteenth Century Philosophy.

1932-33. Ec17 Half-course (second half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1933-34. Ec17 Full-course. Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1934-35. Ec17 Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1935-36. Ec17 Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1936-37. Ec105 (formerly 17) Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1937-38. Ec105 (formerly 17) Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1938-39. Ec105 Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.” [Note: James Tobin took the second semester of the course. His student notes are found with his papers at the Yale University archives].

1939-40. Ec105 Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1940-41. Ec105 Half-course (first half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1941-42. Ec105 Half-course (first half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1942-43. Ec105 Half-course (first half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1943-44. Ec105a. Half-course (first half-year).  Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. 12 students enrolled (9 Graduates, 3 Public Admin.)

1944-45. Ec105a. Half-course (first half-year).  Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. 3 students enrolled (1 Graduate,1 Public Admin., 1 Radcliffe)

1945-46. Ec105a Half-course (first half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. 2 students enrolled (2 Graduate)

1946-47. Ec105a. Half-course (first half-year). 3 students enrolled (1 Graduate, 2 Radcliffe)

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Course Description, 1932-33

[Economics] 17 2hf. Modern Economic Theory and its Critics

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. Taylor.

A critical study of conflicting views in regard to the proper aim and scope, method, and basic “premises” of economic theory. The views considered are those reflected, in recent English and American literature, in the work of relatively “orthodox” theorists on the one hand, and in the criticisms, programmes, and attempted innovations of various “insurgent” writers on the other hand. Reading, lectures, and discussions.

 

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1932-33. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXIX, No. 32 (June 27, 1932), p. 77.

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Course Description, 1940-41

[Economics] 105a 1hf. Modern Economic Theory and its Critics

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 12. Dr. O. H. Taylor.

A critical study of conflicting views in regard to the proper aim and scope, method, and basic “premises” of economic theory. The views considered are those reflected, in recent English and American literature, in the work of relatively “orthodox” theorists on the one hand, and in the criticisms, programs, and attempted innovations of various “insurgent” writers on the other hand. Reading, lectures, and discussions.

 

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1940-41. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), pp. 58-59.

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Course Enrollment, 1938-39

[Economics] 105. Dr. O. H. Taylor.—Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

Total 13: 6 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 2 School of Public Administration

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-1939, p. 99.

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Reading Period Assignments, 1938-39

Mid-year: January 5-18, 1939

Economics 105: Read one of the following:

  1. Jevons, W. S., Theory of Political Economy.
  2. Von Wieser, F., Natural Value.
  3. Wicksteed, P. Common Sense of Political Economy. Vol. I.

 

End-year: May 8-31, 1939

Economics 105: Read one of the following:

T. Veblen, Instinct of Workmanship.
T. Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1938-1939”.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 105
Final Examination, mid-year. 1939.

Answer one of the first three questions — four questions in all. Average time, 45 minutes per question — distribute your time at your own discretion.

  1. Write your own accounts, and critical discussions, of (a) realism and nominalism, (b) rationalism and empiricism, and (c) the ‘methods’ of the ‘classical’ and ‘historical schools’ in economics.
  2. Discuss the general ideas prevalent in the eighteenth century about (a) causal and (b) ethical “natural laws” pertaining to human activities and social life; and the contributions of these ideas to the outlook and beliefs of nineteenth century “orthodox” economists and economic liberals.”
  3. Write a summary and criticism of the main ideas or theses included in Bentham’s “utilitarianism”; and a discussion of the question whether, and how far, the same, or similar, ideas became “the basis” of economic theory, in the hands of Ricardo and of later writers.
  4. Explain the substance, and discuss the merits, of Ricardo’s arguments and “doctrines” about either(1)(a) labor and value, and (b) rent and value; or (2)(a) wages in the short run and in the long run and(b) profits.
  5. Discuss either (a) “romanticism,” and the views of Carlyle or of Ruskin about classical economics; or (b) “positivism,” and the views of Comte.
  6. Explain and discuss the main ideas and reasonings you’ve found in Jevons, von Wieser, or Wicksteed, on the topics of utility, cost, and value.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1939.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 105
Final Examination, year-end. 1939.

Write on SIX questions; omit either (3) or (4), and either (6) or (8).

  1. Describe and discuss, with reference to Marshall’s Principles, either (a) his ‘sociological’ and ‘economic’ ideas, his theory about ‘wants’ and ‘activities,’ his views about ‘free enterprise,’ his view on the direction of ‘social evolution,’ and his attitude to ‘hedonism’ and the ‘money measure’; or (b) his theories of diminishing and increasing returns, and of ‘lengths of time’ and ‘normal value.’
  2. Describe and discuss Veblen’s idea of the nature of ‘modern science’; his account and criticism of the preconceptions of classical economics; his view of what economic science should be and do; his general theory of the evolution of institutions; and his theory of the conflict of the ‘industrial’ and ‘pecuniary’ classes in modern society. Add your own appraisal of Veblen as ‘scientist,’ and your list of what seems to you his most valuable contributions to economics.
  3. Describe and discuss Mitchell’s account and criticism of the psychological basis of classical theory, and his proposals for a new approach through modern psychologies; and explain your own views on this problem.
  4. Do you think that economic theory should, in reference to social institutions, (a) only postulate various institutional set-ups as ‘given’ and study the solutions of ‘economic’ problems attainable under them, or (b) include the development of institutions in its own subject-matter, i.e. study the interactions of ‘economic’ and ‘institutional’ change? Take one position or the other, and develop your arguments for the position you take.
  5. How does Chamberlin describe and explain the main economic consequences for society of product-differentiation and oligopoly, as compared with those of pure competition? Discuss the assumptions involved in, and the significance of, this comparison. Do you think it has any implications for public policy?
  6. Describe and discuss the main features of Schumpeter’s theory of capitalist ‘development’ – his theories of the nature and rôle of entrepreneurial activity, of credit, of capital, of profits, and of the business cycle.
  7. Write anything you wish to write, on the reading you did under the May reading assignment.
  8. Write a half-hour essay on any topic of your own choice, in any way related to any of the subject-matter of the course not treated in your answers to the foregoing questions.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4, Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June 1939.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1942.