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Harvard. Job placements of economics PhDs. Jewish candidates, 1928-29

 

In this post I provide transcriptions of four letters concerning Harvard Ph.D.s on the job market. Two of candidates (Mandell Morton Bober and Richard Vincent Gilbert) were Jewish and this was considered an important characteristic to signal to prospective employers. Nothing from the Harvard side indicates anything other than a willingness to provide information that would be revealed in the process of recruitment anyway. In an earlier post we could read a similar letter by Allyn Young’s on behalf of his protégé Arthur William Marget for a position at the University of Chicago in 1927. In the cases below we again see anti-Jewish prejudice on the demand side of the market for academic economists.

Before getting to the letters (that are also interesting for providing a glimpse into job placement at the time), I provide a bit of information about each of the Harvard alumni discussed.

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Harvard Ph.Ds discussed

Beach, Walter Edwards

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1929.
Thesis title: International gold movements in relation to business cycles.
A.B. Stanford University, 1922; A.M. Harvard University.
1929. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Bober, Mandell Morton

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1925.
Thesis title: Karl Marx’s interpretation of history.
S.B. University of Montana, 1918; A.M. Harvard University, 1920.
1925. Instructor in Economics, Boston University.
1926. Instructor in Economics. and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass.

Gilbert, Richard Vincent

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.
Thesis title: Theory of International Payments.
S.B. Harvard University, 1923; A.M. Harvard University, 1925.

Hohman, Elmo Paul

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1925.
Thesis title: The American whaleman: a study of the conditions of labor in the whaling industry, 1785-1885.
A.B. University of Illinois, 1916; A.M. University of Illinois, 1917; A.M. Harvard University, 1920.
1925. Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University.
1926. Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University. Evanston, Ill.

Patton, Harald Smith

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1926.
Thesis Title: Grain growers’ cooperation in Western Canada.
A.B. University of Toronto, 1912; A.M. Harvard University, 1921.
1926. Associate Professor of Economics, University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, O.

Remer, Charles Frederick

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1923.
Thesis title: The foreign trade of China.
A.B. University of Minnesota, 1908; A.M. Harvard University, 1917.
1923. Instructor in Economics, and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.
1926. Orrin Sage Professor of Economics, Williams College. Williamstown, Mass.

Roberts, Christopher

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1927.
Thesis title: The History of the Middlesex Canal.
S.B. Haverford College, 1921; A.M. Harvard University 1922.
1927. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Smith, Walter Buckingham

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1928.
Thesis title: Money and prices in the United States from 1802 to 1820.
A.B. Oberlin College, 1917; A. M. Harvard University, 1924.
1928. Assistant Professor Economics, Wellesley College.

Taylor, Overton Hume

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1928.
Thesis title: The idea of a Natural Order in Early Modern Economic Thought.
A.B. University of Colorado 1921.
1928. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

 

Source: Harvard University. Doctors of Philosophy and Doctors of Science Who have received their Degree in Course from Harvard University, 1873-1926, with the Titles of their Theses. Cambridge: 1926. Also Annual Reports of the President of Harvard College.

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Carbon copy
Possible candidates for Charles Frederick Remer successor at Williams College

June 19, 1928.

Dear Professor Taussig:

Professor Burbank has asked me to write to you in answer to your letter of the 13th regarding possibilities for Remer’s position at Williams.

He believes that Bober can be recommended in the highest terms, but that the matter of his race should be mentioned. Gilbert, now at Rochester, is very able and in spite of the fact that he still has to complete his work for the Ph.D., might well be considered. He does not think so very highly of Patton; Hohman at Northwestern is fully as good.

He wonders what you would say regarding Walter Smith. He has some personal qualities that might cause trouble at Williamstown, but he is fully as capable as Remer.

If Professor Bullock has not left for Europe he suggests that he should be consulted since he knows the Williamstown situation very well.

Sincerely yours,

[unsigned, departmental secretary?]

______________

 

Carbon copy
Possible candidates for position at St. Lawrence University

January 28, 1929.

My dear Mr. Cram:

I have your note regarding the position at St. Lawrence University.

Beach probably will not go out next year. He wishes to stay here another year, and if we can make adequate provision for him we will do so.

If St. Lawrence is insistent upon the Ph.D you might recommend in very strong terms Christopher Roberts. If they will take a Jew you can recommend in superlative terms Professor M. M. Bober, now at Lawrence College; and also you might recommend under the above conditions, but perhaps less strongly R. V. Gilbert whom we expect to take the Ph.D this June.

However, before making any recommendations you should have the salary terms, the amount of teaching required, and the subjects to be taught.

Very sincerely,

H.H. Burbank.

HHB:BR

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Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce

May 16, 1929.

Professor H. H. Burbank
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Burbank:

Thanks for your letter of May 8, informing me that Mr. Gilbert is of Jewish extraction. Professor Taussig had already told me that such was the case.

However, this will make no difference to us so long as his personality and bearing are attractive.

I am giving serious consideration to Mr. Gilbert, along with two other men who have been suggested to me from other sources. If Gilbert receives his Ph.D. this year, we may make him an offer, but we cannot consider him if he has not completed his work for the doctorate.

Sincerely yours,

[signed|
Raymond T. Bye
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics

RTB:T

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Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (cont.)

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce

June 17, 1929.

Professor H. H. Burbank
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Burbank:

I hope that I did not cause you and your colleagues any inconvenience in pressing you and Dr. [O. H.] Taylor for an immediate decision on our offer to him. Things had dragged along here so long that I felt something must be done quickly and I know that I had prepared both Dr. Taylor and you for the possibility of our making him an offer, so that I felt it would not be difficult for you to make arrangements on short notice.

When I met you in Boston I was so well impressed with what you and Professor Vanderblue told me about Dr. Bober that I arranged for him to come here to meet us. We were all favorably impressed and I made every effort to secure his appointment to the position, but the Provost of the University was not willing to recommend a person of the Jewish race, so I had to give him up. It was then that I made the offer to Taylor. I think Dr. Taylor will fit into our problem for next year very nicely, for we need someone primarily to teach graduate courses. I question, however, whether we shall want to keep him permanently because, as I understand it, he is less effective as an undergraduate teacher. That is why I asked you to let him go on a year’s leave of absence. However, it is possible that the men here may like him so much that they will want to keep him permanently if he will stay. That will be for Professor E. M. Patterson to decide. He will be back as chairman of the department next year.

I want to thank you most cordially for your very material assistance in helping me to find a man to fill the vacancy here.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Raymond T. Bye
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics

RTB:T

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Econoics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950.Box 14, Folder “Positions for 1929-30”.

Image Source: Left, Senior year picture of R.V. Gilbert and, right, tutor picture of M.M. Bober (1926) in Harvard Class Album, 1923 and 1926, respectively.

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Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate general examination in economics, 1953

 

In a recent series of posts Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has provided transcriptions of undergraduate comprehensive examinations in economic for Harvard (1931), Wesleyan (1931), Princeton (1929 and 1932), and Swarthmore (1931).  The general examination for Harvard (1939) was posted even earlier.

Found in John Kenneth Galbraith’s papers with his Harvard tutorial materials is the following A.B. general examination from April 29, 1953. Students had to answer five questions, having considerable room for maneuver among and within fields.

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
GENERAL EXAMINATION

(Three hours)

Please note on the front cover of your bluebook the number of each question upon which you write, in the order followed in your book, and HONORS or NON-HONORS.

PART I
(One hour)
Economic Analysis

HONORS candidates answer ONE question taken from questions 1-4.

  1. “Depressions are caused by the exhaustion of investment opportunities and the rigidity of saving.” Discuss.
  2. “Keynes’ theory may have undermined the neo-classical theory of the price level but it has left intact the neo-classical theory of relative prices.” Discuss.
  3. “The basic criteria of anti-trust policy with respect to product markets are the same whatever the competitive structure of labor markets may be.” Discuss.
  4. “Despite all the changes that have taken place in economic theory the profit motive continues to occupy the central role which it had in Ricardo’s theory.” Discuss the role of profit in (a) Ricardo, (b) neo-classical theory, (c) Schumpeter’s theory.

NON-HONORS candidates answer ONE question taken from questions 5-8.

  1. “Future historians may well write the epitaph of our civilization as follows:

From freedom and science came rapid growth and change.
From rapid growth and change came economic instability.
From instability came demands which ended growth and change.
Ending growth and change ended science and freedom.”

Discuss this alleged conflict between economic growth and measures to secure economic stability. In your answer refer to the views of some of the great economists for examples, Schumpeter and Keynes, on this problem.

  1. In explaining business cycles most economists place crucial emphasis on fluctuations in investment or capital goods.
    Discuss the determinants of investment and the manner by which these factors operate upon investment to produce fluctuations in National Income.
  2. The basic economic questions any society must somehow answer are: (1) What consumer and capital commodities shall be produced and in what quantities? (2) How shall the goods be produced, i.e., by whom and with what resources? (3) For whom are goods to be produced, i.e., how is the national product to be distributed among individuals? Outline the way in which these questions are answered in a perfectly competitive, free enterprise economy.
  3. In addition to wages, interest, and rent, economists often talk about a fourth category of income: profit. What do economists mean by this return? What are the causes of profit and its function in a capitalist system?

PART II
(Two hours)

All students are required to choose TWO of the four fields in Part II of this examination and to answer TWO questions in each selected field. Thus a total of four questions are to be answered in Part II with an allowance of a half hour per question.

A. Economic History

  1. “The very increases in the possibilities of unrestrained competition of the past seventy-five years, through developments in transport, technology, the size and organization of firms, etc.—may in themselves partly explain some of the restraints on price competition that have appeared in this century.” Discuss both the developments and their alleged effects.
  2. “In the past 150 years the United States economy has radically altered its relationship to the world economy and at intervals has been a seriously disturbing factor.” Discuss, including references to periods in the 19th as well as the 20th.century.
  3. “In spite of the waste, apparent exploitation, and graft, the railroads more than paid for themselves in terms of American economic growth.” Discuss.
  4. Why did Hamilton favor a central banking system? What was the subsequent history in the 19th century of the issue that he poses? How satisfactory, in terms of the needs of an expanding economy, were the alternatives to a centralized banking system that existed prior to 1912.

B. Money and Finance

  1. What are the relations between a country’s balance of payments and its internal monetary and fiscal policies?
  2. From a fiscal policy standpoint, what do you consider would be the best budgetary policy for the federal government to adopt in order to combat a growing deflationary trend?
    Indicate the relative advantages and disadvantages involved in the policy you propose.
    Indicate practical as well as theoretical considerations.
  3. “Classical economists tended to view the amount of taxes paid by the private sector of the economy as measuring the amount of ‘burden’ which the government imposed on the private sector.” Do you agree with this view? If you do, what is the justification for your position? If you do not, what are some possible alternative ways of measuring the “burden” of the government on the economy, and for what purposes can they be used?
  4. “Older business cycle theories emphasized fluctuation in prices while modern ones emphasize fluctuations in income.” What is the theoretical and empirical justification for this change in emphasis?
  5. What role did the Federal Reserve System play in financing the Second World War?
    Discuss the impact of this experience upon money and banking in the United States.

C. Market Organization

  1. The spread between prices paid farmers for products used as food and prices paid for these foods at retail was 55% of the consumer’s dollar spent for food in 1910-14. It was 54% in 1952. Account for the failure of this spread to increase in spite of the great increase in processing, services, and transportation sold with the food.
  2. Although price discrimination generally is regarded as being contrary to the public interest, it is expressly sanctioned in railroad rate-setting under another name: the “value-of-service” principle. What cost and market characteristic of railroads might lead you to justify the use of discriminatory pricing in their case?
  3. Bituminous coal is a “sick” industry. What are the causes of this “sickness”? What attempts have been made to impose “healthier” conditions on the industry?
  4. Various techniques are used by oligopolistic industries in attaining stable and desirable price and production conditions. Explain at least three (3) of these techniques and discuss the possible reasons for using any one over another.

D. Labor Economics

  1. What role did the courts play in labor-management relations in the latter part of the nineteenth century? How far was this situation changed subsequent to 1930?
  2. What is collective bargaining? Is it a process of communication and education leading to agreement based upon mutually accepted and recognized goals and standards, or is it a temporary truce based upon balance of power with conflicting basic objectives?
  3. Has organized labor “distorted” the wage structure and wage level of the country at the expense of the unorganized or the weakly organized and at the expense of the recipients of other functional shares?
  4. How would you handle the problem of national emergency disputes?

April 29, 1953.

 

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:  Harvard Album 1946.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate economic analysis and public policy. Hansen and Slichter, 1946-47

 

While the paired Harvard graduate economic courses Economics 106a and 106b shared a common title “Economic Analysis and Public Policy”, it appears as though Alvin Hansen taught a course in macroeconomic analysis and his colleague Sumner Slichter taught a topics in public policy course (parallel play). Hansen’s course attracted 59 students while Slichter’s course had 25 enrolled students, so the two courses were hardly connected at the hip. For the first term course (Hansen) we have a detailed outline, reading list and exam questions, I could only find a rough outline (more of a course description), a very incomplete set of reading assignments, and the final exam for the second term course (Slichter).

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Course Enrollment
Fall term

[Economics] 106a. (fall term) Professor Hansen.—Economic Analysis and Public Policy

Total 59:  22 Graduates, 25 Public Administration, 3 Radcliffe, 9 Others.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1946-1947, p. 70.

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ECONOMICS 106a
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND PUBLIC POLICY
1946-1947

General Outline of Course

  1. Concepts and Statistical Measures of Aggregate Income and Its Component Parts:

    1. Gross National Product.
    2. Net National Product.
    3. National Income.
    4. Income Payments.
    5. Factor Costs.
    6. Component Parts of National Income.

  2. Over-all Determinants of National Income:

    1. Consumption and Savings Functions: Investment and its Determinants; Acceleration and Multiplier Principles; Consumption and Income Distribution.
    2. The Interest Rate and the National Income.
      1. Classical vs. Monetary Interest Rate Theories: Loanable Fund Theory vs. Liquidity Preference.
      2. The Role of the Interest Rate: In Investment, Consumption, Income Distribution, etc.
      3. The Interest Rate and Economic Stability; The Case for
        1. Fluctuating Rates;
        2. Stable Rate;
        3. Declining Rate.
      4. The Interest Rate and Income Velocity of Money.
      5. The Role of Central Bank Credit in Income Formation.
    3. Costs and Profits.
      1. Wage Policy: Wages as Costs, and Wages as Purchasing Power; Wage Rates and Degrees of Utilization of Plant Capacity; Wages and Value of Output at Different Employment Levels.
      2. Price Policy: Profits and the Over-all Economy; Profits and Monopoly; Profits and Income Distribution; Profits and the Inducement to Invest; Profits and the Savings Function.
    4. The Role of the Government in Income Formation.
      1. Monetary Policy: Neutral vs. Positive Program.
      2. Tax Policy.
      3. Borrowing; Public Debt.
      4. Expenditure Policy; Standard Services; Developmental Outlays; Compensatory Spending.

  3. Income, Output, and Prices:

    1. Income Flows and the General Level of Prices.
    2. Income Elasticity and Price Elasticity in Different Industries.
    3. The Effect of Over-all Shifts in Income on Demand in Different Industries; Demand Schedules; Indifference Maps.
    4. The Effect of Over-all Shifts in Income on Supply.
      1. The Economics of the Firm: Marginal, Average, and Total Unit Cost Curves.
      2. The Economics of an Industry: Differential Cost; Increasing, Decreasing, and Constant Cost.
    1. Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition: Marginal Revenue and Marginal Cost; Monopoly and Efficiency; Administrative Prices.
    2. Income Flows, Distributive Shares, and Income Distribution.
    3. Full Employment and the Problems of Wage Inflation.
    4. Planning vs. Automatic Adjustments in a Free Market.

 

Economic 106b: Public Policy Decisions: Analysis of the Effect of Public Policy Decisions Upon the Over-all Economy, Upon Various Producing Groups, and Upon Other Sectors of the Population.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics. 1895-2003.(HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-1947 (2 of 2)”.

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ECONOMICS 106[a]
READING ASSIGNMENT

  1. Concepts and Statistical Measures of Aggregate Income and Its Component Parts:

    1. Required Reading:
      1. Hicks and Hart—The Social Framework of the American Economy, chapters 13-17.
      2. Livingston, S. Morris—Markets After the War, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.
      3. Hansen, Alvin H.—Economic Policy and Full Employment, Chapters III-IV, (McGraw-Hill, 1946).
      4. Hansen and Perloff—State and Local Finance in the National Economy, (Norton, 1944), pp. 223-227.
      5. Basic Facts on Employment and Production, U.S. Senate Committee on Money and Banking, Print No. 4, 79th Congress, First Session.
      6. Survey of Current Business:
        1. May, 1942; pp. 9-13 (Gross National Product, 1929-1941).
        2. February, 1946; pp. 1-32 (The Economy of War and Transition).
      7. British White Paper on War Finance, British Government White Paper (Cmd. 6520) presented to Parliament on April 1944 (Reprinted in Federal Reserve Bulletin, July 1944, pp. 655-669).
      8. Federal Reserve Bulletin, August 1946 (Current Price Developments), pp. 833-843.
    2. Suggestions for Additional Reading:
      1. Clark Colin—The Conditions of Economic Progress, 1940.
      2. Kuznets, Simon—National Income and its Composition, 1919-1938, 1941.
      3. Martin, Robert F.—National Income in the U.S., 1799-1938, National Industrial Conference Board, 1939.
      4. The National Income of Principal Foreign Countries. The Conference Board Economic Record, August 3, 1939, Volume I, No. 4.
      5. Bowley, A. D.—Studies in the National Income, 1924-1938, 1942.
      6. Lindahl, Dahlgren, and Koch—National Income of Sweden, 1861-1930, 1937.
      7. Articles:
        1. Stone, Richard—“National Income in the United Kingdom and the United States”, Review of Economic Studies, Winter 1942-43, Volume X, No. 1.
        2. Kalecki, M.—“The White Paper on the National Income and Expenditure in the Years 1938-43”, Oxford Institute of Statistics Bulletin, July 1, 1944, Volume 6, No. 9.
        3. Dacey, W.M.—“The 1944 White Paper on National Income and Expenditure”, Economic Journal, June-September, 1944.
        4. Gilbert and Jaszi—“The 1945 White Paper on National Income and Expenditure”, Economic Journal, December 1945.

  2. Over-all Determinants of the National Income:

    1. Required Reading:
      1. Keynes, J.M.—General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, (1936), Chapter 3, pp. 96-106; Chapters 9, 10, 13, 15, 18, 24.
      2. Meade and Hitch—Economic Analysis and Policy, (1938) Part I, Chapters 1-2; 5-9.
      3. Lerner, A. P.—The Economics of Control, (1944), Chapters 22, 23, 24.
      4. Robertson, D. H.—Essays in Monetary Theory, (1940), Chapter 1.
      5. British Government White Paper on Employment Policy, (Reprinted by MacMillan Co. as pamphlet entitled “Employment Policy”), 1944.
      6. Slichter, S. H.—“The Conditions of Expansion”, American Economic Review, March 1942.
      7. Hansen, Alvin H.—Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, (Norton, 1941), Part III, Chapters 11-15.
    2. Suggestions for Additional Reading
      1. Beveridge, Sir William—Full Employment in a Free Society, (1944).
      2. Haberler, G.—Prosperity and Depression, (1941), Chapters 8, 13.
      3. Cassel, Gustav—On Quantitative Thinking in Economics, (1935), Chapter 4.
      4. Robinson, Joan—Introduction to the Theory of Employment.
      5. Hicks, J. R.—Value and Capital, (1938), Chapters 20, 21, 22.
      6. Hansen and Perloff—State and Local Finance in the National Economy, (1944), Chapters 9, 11.
      7. Hansen, Alvin H.:
        1. Full Recovery or Stagnation, (Norton, 1938), Chapters 1, 2, and Appendix.
        2. Economic Policy and Full Employment, (McGraw-Hill, 1946).
      8. Harris, S. E. (Editor):
        1. Economic Reconstruction, (McGraw-Hill, 1945), Chapters 10-16.
        2. Postwar Economic Problems, (McGraw-Hill, 1943).
      9. Jobs and Markets, de Chazeau, Hart, and Others, Committee on Economic Development, (McGraw-Hill, 1946).
      10. Financing American Prosperity; A Symposium of Economists, Twentieth Century Fund, 1945.

  3. Income, Output and Prices; Economics of the Firm; Economics of an Industry; Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition, etc.

    1. Required Reading:
      1. Meade and Hitch—Economic Analysis and Policy, Part II, Competition and Monopoly, Chapters 1-8; Part III, The Distribution of Income, Chapters 1-5; Part IV, The Supply of the Primary Factors of Production, Chapters 1-4; Appendix on Graphs, pp. 411-424; Charts I, II (end of book).
      2. Boulding, K. E.—Economic Analysis, pp. 421-470; 485-509; 596-634; 658-663; (1941).
      3. Chamberlin, E. H.—The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, 1942, Chapters 4, 5, 8.
      4. Hicks, J.R.—Value and Capital, Chapters 1, 2, 3.
      5. Wicksell, K.—Lectures, Volume I, Part III.
    2. Suggestions for Additional Reading:
      1. Stigler—The Theory of Competitive Price.
      2. Robinson, E.A.G.—Monopoly, (Cambridge Series), Chapters 1-3; 6; 8-9;12.
      3. Burns, Arthur—Decline of Competition.
      4. Walker, E.R.—From Economic Theory to Policy, (University of Chicago Press), Chapters 1, 3, 4, 10, 12.
      5. Purdy, Lindahl, and Carter—Market Organization and Price Policy, Prentice-Hall.
      6. Hitch and Hall—Oxford Economics Papers, Volume I, Business Pricing Policy.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics. 1895-2003.(HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-1947 (2 of 2)”.

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1946-47
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 106a

Final. January, 1947

(Write on any THREE questions)

    1. Explain what is meant by Gross National Product including in your discussion the following:
      1. Distinguish and compare Gross National Product, Net National Product, National Income, Income Payments, Disposable Income.
      2. Outline and discuss the component parts of the Gross National Product from two viewpoints: (a) Income-generation or outlays; (b) Disposal of income.
    2. State the savings-investment problem and show clearly the role of the consumption function (propensity to consume schedule) with respect to this problem. With respect to savings and investment discuss the ideas of Robertson and Keynes.
    3. Give an explanation of cost curves (marginal, variable and total unit costs) and show how this type of cost analysis throws light on the problem of inflation under conditions of full employment.
    4. Write an essay (about one hour) on any one (or two if you prefer) of the following:
      1. Keynes: General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.
      2. Beveridge: Full Employment in a Free Society.
      3. Lerner: Economics of Control.
      4. Chamberlin: The Theory of Monopolistic Competition.
      5. Hansen: Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, or Economic Policy and Full Employment.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001.Box 13, Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. January, 1947.

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Course Enrollment
Spring term

[Economics] 106b. (spring term) Professor Slichter.—Economic Analysis and Public Policy

Total 25:  10 Graduates, 11 Public Administration, 1 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1946-1947, p. 70.

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READING ASSIGNMENT FOR ECONOMICS 106b
February 18, 1947

Pigou—Economics of Welfare

(Second Edition) Part III

Ch. XIV, pp. 520-542
Ch. XVI, pp. 553-566
Ch. XVIII, pp. 572-578

(Third Edition) Part III

Ch. XIV, pp. 548-571
Ch. XVII, pp. 592-604
Ch. XIX, pp. 611-617

(please post on bulletin board)

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics. 1895-2003.(HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-1947 (2 of 2)”.

________________

March 19, 1947

Please put on reserve for Economics 106

Review of Economic Statistics, May 1938
American Economic Review Proceedings, May 1945
American Economic Review, September 1940
American Economic Review, December 1946

Sumner H. Slichter

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics. 1895-2003.(HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-1947 (2 of 2)”.

________________

[Final] May 19, 1947
Economics 106[b]
Economic Analysis and Public Policy

(Three Hours)

I

(a) Discuss the effect of increase in employment upon the size of the workforce.

(b) So long as there are substantial amounts of additional resources, increases in expenditures may be counted upon primarily to produce increases in employment rather than increases in prices. Discuss the validity of this statement.

II

“A wage structure based upon ability to pay would prevent the best distribution of men and resources among enterprises and would thus limit the output of industry.” Do you agree? Explain.

III

History shows that the price level has been subject to great fluctuations. The cost of living, for example, has risen 50 percent since 1940. Wholesale prices have risen even farther. Within several years after the First World War there was a substantial drop in the price level. In view of the history of prices, do you regard original cost as a fair guide for determining the rate base for public utilities?

IV

“A progressive income tax tends to reduce the attractiveness of risky ventures to investors more than the attractiveness of less risky ventures.” Do you agree? Can this effect be prevented? How? If two ventures offer an even chance of a return above 5 percent and below 5 percent, how would you determine which is the more risky?

V

It is asserted that import duties fall in part upon the foreigners who consume the goods exported by the country levying the duty. Analyze this proposition and point out its limitations.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 13, Folder “Final examinations, May 1947 ( 3 of 9)”.

Image Source:  Hansen and Slichter from Harvard Class Album, 1947.

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Economics Graduate Programs Ranked in 1925

 

Filed away in the archived records of the University of Chicago’s Office of the President is a copy of a report from January 1925 from Miami University (Ohio) that was based on a survey of college and university professors to obtain a rank ordering of graduate programs in different fields. The following ordering for economics graduate programs 1924-25 is based on two dozen responses. I have added institutional affiliations from the AEA membership list of the time and a few internet searches. The study was designed to have a rough balance between college and university professors and a broad geographic representation. What the study lacks in sophistication will amuse you in its presumption.

_____________________

This rating was prepared in the following way: The members of the Miami University faculty representing twenty fields of instruction were called together and a list of the universities which conceivably might be doing high grade work leading to a doctor’s degree in one or more subjects was prepared on their advice. Each professor was then requested to submit a list of from forty to sixty men who were teaching his subject in colleges and universities in this country, at least half of the names on the list to be those of professors in colleges rather than in universities. It was further agreed that the list should be fairly well distributed geographically over the United States. [p. 3]

 

ECONOMICS

Ratings submitted by: John H. Ashworth [Maine] , Lloyd V. Ballard [Beloit], Gilbert H. Barnes [Chicago], Clarence E. Bonnett [Tulane], John E. Brindley [Iowa State], E. J. Brown [Arizona], J. W. Crook [Amherst], Ira B. Cross [California], Edmund E. Day [Michigan], Herbert Feis [ILO], Frank A. Fetter [Princeton], Eugene Gredier, Lewis H. Haney [N.Y.U.], Wilbur O. Hedrick [Michigan State], Floyd N. House [Chicago], Walter E. Lagerquist [Northwestern], W. E. Leonard, L. C. Marshall [Chicago], W. C. Mitchell [Columbia], C. T. Murchison [North Carolina], Tipton A. Snavely [Virginia], E. T. Towne [North Dakota], J. H. Underwood [Montana], M. S. Wildman [Stanford].

 

Combined Ratings:  (24)

1 2 3 4-5
Harvard 20 4 0 0
Columbia 11 9 2 1
Chicago 9 7 3 2
Wisconsin 8 7 4 2
Yale 3 3 9 3
Johns Hopkins 2 4 8 3
Michigan 0 6 4 5
Pennsylvania 0 3 6 8
Illinois 0 5 4 4
Cornell 0 2 7 5
Princeton 2 1 4 4
California 0 3 4 5
Minnesota 0 2 4 6
Northwestern 0 2 3 6
Stanford 0 1 4 6
Ohio State 0 1 2 8
Toronto 0 2 2 3

Staffs:

HARVARD: F.W. Taussig, E.F. Gay, T.N. Carver, W.Z. Ripley, C.J. Bullock, A.A. Young, W.M. Persons, A.P. Usher, A.S. Dewing, W.J. Cunningham, T.H. Sanders, W.M. Cole, A.E. Monroe, H.H. Burbank, A.H. Cole, J. H. Williams, W.L. Crum, R.S. Meriam.

COLUMBIA: R.E. Chaddock, F.H. Giddings, S.M. Lindsay, W.C. Mitchell, H.L. Moore, W. Fogburn, H.R. Seager, E.R.A. Seligman, V.G. Sinkhovitch, E.E. Agger, Emilie J. Hutchinson, A.A. Tenney, R.G. Tugwell, W.E. Weld.

CHICAGO: L.C. Marshall, C.W. Wright, J.A. Field, H.A. Millis, J.M. Clark, Jacob Viner, L. W. Mints, W.H. Spencer, N.W. Barnes, C.C. Colby, P.H. Douglas, J.O. McKinsey, E.A. Duddy, A.C. Hodge, L.C. Sorrell.

WISCONSIN: Commons, Elwell, Ely Garner, Gilman, Hibbard, Kiekhofer, Macklin, Scott, Kolb, McMurry, McNall, Gleaser, Jamison, Jerome, Miller, S. Perlman.

YALE: Olive Day, F.R. Fairchild, R.B. Westerfield, T.S. Adams, A.L. Bishop, W.M. Daniels, Irving Fisher, E.S. Furniss, A.H. Armbruster, N.S. Buck.

JOHNS HOPKINS: W.W. Willoughby, Goodnow, W.F. Willoughby, Thach, Latane.

MICHIGAN: Rodkey, Van Sickle, Peterson, Goodrich, Sharfman, Griffin, May, Taylor, Dickinson, Paton, Caverly, Wolaver.

PENNSYLVANIA: E.R. Johnson, E.S. Mead, S.S. Heubner, T. Conway, H.W. Hess, E.M. Patterson, G.G. Huebner, H.T. Collings, R. Riegel, C.K. Knight, W.P. Raine, F. Parker, R.T. Bye, W.C. Schluter, J.H. Willits, A.H. Williams, R.S. Morris, C.P. White, F.E. Williams, H.J. Loman, C.A. Kulp, S.H. Patterson, E.L. McKenna, W.W. Hewett, F.G. Tryon, H.S. Person, L.W. Hall.

ILLINOIS: Bogart, Robinson, Thompson, Weston, Litman, Watkins, Hunter, Wright, Norton.

CORNELL: W.F. Willcox, H.J. Davenport, D. English, H.L. Reed, S.H. Slichter, M.A. Copeland, S. Kendrick.

PRINCETON: F.A. Fetter, E.W. Kemmerer, G.B. McClellan, D.A. McCabe, F.H. Dixon, S.E. Howard, F.D. Graham.

CALIFORNIA: I.B. Cross, S. Daggett, H.R. Hatfield, J.B. Peixotte, C.C. Plehm, L.W. Stebbins, S. Blum, A.H. Mowbray, N.J. Silberling, C.C. Staehling, P.F. Cadman, F. Fluegel, B.N. Grimes, P.S. Taylor, Helen Jeter, E.T. Grether.

MINNESOTA: G.W. Dorwie, J.D. Black, R.G. Blakey, F.B. Garver, N.S.B. Gras, J.S. Young, A.H. Hansen, B.D. Mudgett, J.E. Cummings, E.A. Heilman, H.B Price, J.J. Reighard, J.W. Stehman, H. Working, C.L. Rotzell, W.R. Myers.

NORTHWESTERN: Deibler, Heilman, Secrist, Bailey, Pooley, Eliot, Ray Curtis, Bell, Hohman, Fagg.

STANFORD: M.S. Wildman, W.S. Beach, E. Jones, H.L. Lutz, A.C. Whitaker, J.G. Davis, A.E. Taylor, J.B. Canning.

OHIO STATE: M.B. Hammond, H.G. Hayes, A.B. Wolf, H.F. Waldradt, C.O. Ruggles, W.C. Weidler, J.A. Fisher, H.E. Hoagland, H.H. Maynard, C.A. Dice, M.E. Pike, J.A. Fitzgerald, F.E. Held, M.N. Nelson, R.C. Davis, C.W. Reeder, T.N. Beckman.

Compiled with the assistance of J.B. Dennison, associate professor of economics.

 

Source:  Raymond Mollyneaux Hughes, A Study of the Graduate Schools of America. Oxford, OH: Miami University (January 1925), pp. 14-15.  Copy from University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records, Box 47, Folder #5 “Study of the Graduate Schools of America”, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago.

 

Image Source: Four prize winners in annual beauty show, Washington Bathing Beach, Washington, D.C. from the U. S. Library of Congress. Prints & Photographs. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b43364

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Three economics subject exams from divisional comprehensives, 1931

 

Being a scavenger for old economics exams, I just had to transcribe the following three comprehensive subject examinations from the Harvard Division of History, Government, and Economics battery of comprehensive exams from 1931.  These exams were selected and published in a supplement to the Bulletin of the Association of American Colleges dedicated to the subject of comprehensive exams. The subjects examined were History of Economic Thought, Public Finance, and Labor Problems.

For some strange reason two of the questions were omitted, with a note that the questions were presented “elsewhere”. I have identified what I think to be the likely missing questions from a list of 65 questions discussed earlier in the monograph. These two questions are placed in square brackets in the public finance and labor problems examinations.

__________________________

History of Economic Thought

Harvard University, 1931
(Three hours)

Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, including TWO from each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on one of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.

A

Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. Discuss the economic policies of one of the following in the light of theory and contemporary conditions: Colbert, Hamilton, Turgot, Bismarck, Andrew Jackson, Gladstone, Cromwell.
  2. Compare the part played by economic theories in the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution.
  3. In what ways do you think the economic thought of the Greeks reflects the social, intellectual, and political conditions of the period?
  4. Discuss the influence of economic fallacies upon public policy during the past hundred years.
  5. To what extent do you think the social and economic organization of medieval towns is reflected in the economic views of medieval thinkers?
  6. “Mercantilism is, in substance, the sum of all efforts to bring about a self-sufficient empire.” Discuss.
  7. How did contemporary writers explain the price revolution of the sixteenth century? Were these new or already accepted doctrines?
  8. Discuss the importance of economic theory for an understanding of British colonial policy during the period from 1783 to 1867.

B

Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part.

  1. What were some of the more widely held theories of wages during the nineteenth century?
  2. Discuss one of the following topics: The Medieval Doctrine of Just Price; The “Dismal Science”; Economic Stages.
  3. “Though the real problem of Distribution was sometimes approached by the Classical Economists, it was never properly presented, nor was an attempt made at its solution.” Discuss.
  4. What were the chief contributions to economic thought of one of the following writers: Senior, J. B. Clark, Walker, Cantillon?
  5. Explain the meaning of three of the following terms and tell with what writer or group they are chiefly associated: produit net, lucrum cessans, preventive check, productive forces, non-competing groups.
  6. ” There are no terms in economics which bear about them more palpable traces of the conflicts through which they have gone than ‘production’ and ‘productive.'” Discuss.
  7. What were the principal doctrines of the Austrian school of economics?
  8. Discuss the relation between the work of one of the following writers and the work of earlier thinkers: Smith, J. S. Mill, Marshall.

__________________________

Public Finance

Harvard University, 1931
(Three hours)

Part I
(About one hour)

  1. White an essay on one of the following topics:

(a) The general property tax,
(b) British budget principles since 1860,
(c) The sales tax,
(d) Postal rate problems in the United States,
(e) Financial problems of highway construction and maintenance.

Part II
(About one hour)

Answer TWO questions only.

  1. Do you think it wise for a government to exempt its own bonds and notes from taxation? Why, or why not?
  2. Indicate the nature and significance of the “grant in aid” in British public finance.
  3. Discuss recent tendencies in state and municipal expenditure.
  4. Discuss the fiscal aspects of a system of protective tariff duties.
  5. [In what ways do the problems of government finance affect currency systems and the control of currency?]

Part III
(About one hour)

Discuss THREE of the following quotations.

  1. “Modern taxation or tax making in its most characteristic aspect is a group contest in which powerful interests vigorously endeavor to rid themselves of present or proposed tax burdens.”
  2. “Though differential rents of land have complete ability to bear taxation directly imposed upon them, and cannot shift such taxation, they cannot be reached by a tax imposed upon their produce.”
  3. “To tax investment income at a higher rate would seem to be trebly unjust; for ‘savings’ are first taxed as ‘earned income’; the income derived from them is then taxed as ‘investment income’; and, thirdly, a portion of the invested capital, is confiscated by the ‘death duties’—a triple penalty upon thrift.”
  4. “It must not be supposed that a government’s safe borrowing power is anything like its national wealth, for the wealth belongs to the people and can be taken from them only by law and the laws are made by the people indirectly and eventually.”
  5. “Taxes should fall proportionately to the wealth of the taxed, that is, the sacrifice should be equally felt by all. This rule is easy to keep when taxation is light; but when taxation must be heavy, the rule is difficult to keep.”

[Note: Part II, Question 6 has been identified from a list of 65 questions as likely. It was appears to be the better “fit” of  two optional, 20-minute public finance questions.]

__________________________

Labor Problems

Harvard University, 1931

Part I
(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:

(a) the legal status of trade unions in Great Britain,
(b) unemployment and the business cycle,
(c) standard wage rates,
(d) the family allowance system,
(e) the policy of organized labor towards new machinery.

Part II
(About one hour)

Answer TWO questions only.

  1. To what extent does welfare work contribute to the solution of the labor problem?
  2. What is a sweated industry? What are the best correctives for this abuse?
  3. Compare the policies of the trade unionists in any two of the following countries:

(a) United States,
(b) France,
(c) Germany,
(d) Australia.

  1. Discuss the policy and objectives of the British Labor Party.
  2. Discuss the tendencies of judicial interpretations of “liberty of contract” in labor cases in the United States.

Part III
(About one hour)

Discuss THREE of the following questions.

  1. “Only the most formal conception of the idea of equality and the most unrealistic attitude toward groups in our community could think of the ordinary forms of labor legislation as class legislation.”
  2. “If no general fund exists which can be diverted from some other form of surplus income into wages, trade unionism becomes a mere device for adding to certain well organized groups of workers a scarcity wage paid by less favorably placed workers.”
  3. “Wages are more of a question for business than they are for labor. Low wages will break business far more quickly than they will labor.”
  4. “Scientific management, properly applied, normally functioning, should it become universal, would spell the doom of effective unionism as it exists today.”
  5. [“As long as there is liberty there will be strikes, for a strike is nothing more or less than liberty to stop work and to wait for a bargain.”]

 

[Note: Part III, Question 11 has been identified from a list of 65 questions as an optional optional labor question for about 20 minutes and that fits the discuss the quotation format]

 

Source:  Edward S. Jones. Comprehensive Examinations in the Social Sciences, Supplement to the December, 1933 Bulletin of the Association of American Colleges, pp. 33-36.

 

Categories
Curriculum Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics course offerings, 1910-1915

 

Here are five more installments in the series “Economics course offerings at Radcliffe College”…

Pre-Radcliffe economics course offerings and the Radcliffe courses for 1893-94,  1894-1900 , 1900-1905 , 1905-1910 have been posted earlier.

________________

1910-1911
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. HUSE and DAY. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Labor, Railroads, Trusts, Foreign Trade, Money, and Banking.

45 Undergraduates, 6 Special students. Total 51.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology.—Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

3 Graduates, 31 Undergraduates, 1 Unclassified student.  Total 35.
(1 Graduate, 2d half only).

6a1. Professor GAY. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st  half-year.

1 Graduate, 8 Undergraduates. Total 9.

6b2. Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2d half-year.

2 Graduates, 12 Undergraduates, 2 Special students, 2 Unclassified students. Total 18.

81. Dr. HUSE. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 1st half-year.

7 Undergraduates. Total 7.

82. Dr. DAY. — Banking and Foreign Exchange. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

5 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 6.

14a1. Professor CARVER. — The Distribution of Wealth.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year.

2 Graduates, 11 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 15.

14b2.  Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 11 Undergraduates, 3 Special students, 1 Unclassified student. Total 16.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

COURSES OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — (a) The Millinery Trade in Boston. 1 Graduate. (b) The Small Loan Business in Boston. 1 Graduate.

Total 2.

**20b. Professor CARVER. — The Laws of Production and Valuation.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

[Note] The courses marked with two stars (**) are Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1910-11, pp. 49-50.

_______________

1911-1912
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. DAY and Mr. J. S. DAVIS. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Labor Problems, Trusts, Money, Banking, and Public Finance.

43 Undergraduates, 8 Special students, 1 Unclassified student.
(1 Undergraduate, 1 Special student, 1 Unclassified student 1sthalf only.)  Total 52.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. — Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

4 Graduates, 18 Undergraduates, 6 Special Students. (1 Special student, 1st half only.)  Total 28.

6a1. Professor GAY. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st  half-year.

1 Graduate, 4 Undergraduates, 3 Special students, 1 Unclassified student. Total 9.

6b2. Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2d half-year.

2 Graduates, 9 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 14.

14a1. Professor CARVER. — The Distribution of Wealth.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year.

3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

14b2.  Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 2d half-year.

3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

*18. Asst. Professor COLE. — Principles of Accounting. 3 hours a week.

6 Undergraduates. (4 Undergraduates, 1st half only; 1 Undergraduate, 2d half only.)  Total 6.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

COURSES OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — (a) The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. 1 Graduate. (b) Economic Policy of England from 1625 to 1660. 1 Graduate. (c) Women in the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts. 2 Graduates.

Total 4.

20b. Professor CARVER. — Economic Theory.

1 Undergraduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1911-12, pp. 53-54.

_______________

1912-1913
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. DAY. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Labor Problems, Trusts, Money, Banking, and Public Finance.

24 Undergraduates, 8 Special students, 4 Unclassified students.
(1 Special student, 1st half only.) Total 36.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

2a1 (formerly 6a1). Professor GAY. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st  half-year.

3 Graduates, 4 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 8.

2b2 (formerly 6b2). Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2d half-year.

3 Graduates, 5 Undergraduates. Total 8.

7 (formerly 14). Professor CARVER. — Theories of Distribution and Distributive Justice. 3 hours a week.

9 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 11.

8 (formerly 3). Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology.—Theories of social progress. 3 hours a week.

27 Undergraduates, 2 Special students, 2 Unclassified students. (1 Undergraduate, 1st half only.)  Total 31.

9 (formerly 18). Asst. Professor COLE. — Principles of Accounting. 3 hours a week.

5 Undergraduates. Total 5.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

I
ECONOMIC THEORY AND METHOD

**121 (formerly 13). Professor CARVER. — Scope and Methods of Economic Investigation. Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1sthalf-year.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

**13 (formerly 4). Professor RIPLEY. — Statistics, Theory, method and practice. 2 hours a week.

3 Graduates. Total 3.

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

**23 (formerly 11). Dr. GRAY. — Economic History of Europe to 1760. 3 hours a week.

1 Special student. Total 1.

[Note] The courses marked with two stars (**) are Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

 

COURSES OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — Selected Topics in Modern European Economic History.

2 Graduates. Total 4.

20b. Professor CARVER. — Economic Theory.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1912-14, pp. 42-43.

_______________

1913-1914
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Asst. Professor E. E. DAY and Mr. BURBANK. — Principles of Economics. 3 hours a week.

33 Undergraduates, 5 Special students, 2 Unclassified students.  Total 40.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

2a1 (formerly 6a1). Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st  half-year.

1 Graduate, 10 Undergraduates, 2 Special students, 1 Unclassified student. Total 14.

2b2 (formerly 6b2). Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2d half-year.

2 Graduates, 9 Undergraduates, 1 Special student, 1 Unclassified student. Total 13.

7 (formerly 14). Asst. Professor ANDERSON. — Economic Theory: Value and Related Problems. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 5 Undergraduates.  Total 6.

9 (formerly 18). Associate Professor COLE. — Principles of Accounting. 3 hours a week.

5 Undergraduates. Total 5.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

I
ECONOMIC THEORY AND METHOD

**11. Professor TAUSSIG. — Economic Theory. Half-course. 3 hours a week.

1 Undergraduate. Total 1.

**14. Professor BULLOCK. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

**24. Professor GAY. — Topics in the Economic History of the Nineteenth Century. Two consecutive evenings a week.

1 Undergraduate. Total 1.

 

[Note] The courses marked with two stars (**) are Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

 

COURSES OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — Economic History.

2 Graduates (1 Graduate, 1st half only). Total 2.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1912-14, pp. 99-100.

_______________

1914-1915
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:

1. Asst. Professor E. E. DAY. — Principles of Economics.

5 Seniors, 14 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 3 Unclassified students, 4 Special students.  Total 42.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:

2a1 hf.  Professor GAY. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

3 Graduates, 3 Seniors. Total 6.

2b2 hf.   Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States

3 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior.  Total 6.

7. Professor CARVER. — Economic Theory.

1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.  Total 9.

8. Asst. Professor ANDERSON. — Principles of Sociology.

6 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Special student. Total 10.

Accounting

Associate Professor COLE. — Principles of Accounting.

5 Seniors, 1 Junior.  Total 6.

 

Economic Theory and Method

Primarily for Graduates:

**121hf. Professor CARVER. — Scope and Methods of Economic Investigation.

1 Graduate.  Total 1.

**13. Asst. Professor DAY. — Statistics: Theory, method, and practice.

1 Graduate.  Total 1.

Applied Economics

**33 hf. Professor TAUSSIG. — International Trade, with special reference to Tariff Problems in the United States.

1 Graduate.  Total 1.

**34. Professor RIPLEY. — Problems of Labor.

1 Graduate.  Total 1.

Course of Research

20a2 hf. Professor GAY. — Economic History.

2 Graduates.  Total 2.

 

[Note] The courses marked with two stars (**) are Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1914-15, pp. 41-42.

Image Source: From front matter of the bound version of  The Radcliffe Bulletin, 1912-13 in the Harvard University Library.

 

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. History of Commerce to 1750. Usher, 1929-30

 

This post provides the course description, enrollment figures, reading assignments, and final examination questions for Abbott Payson Usher’s course “History of Commerce: 1450-1750” that he taught at Harvard in 1929-30.

The economic historian, Abbott Payson Usher (1883-1965), received his A.B. (1904), A.M. (1905), and Ph.D. (1910) all from Harvard. He taught ten years at Cornell and two years at Boston University before returning to his alma mater in 1922 where he remained on the faculty for the rest of his career. Usher was a visiting professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin in 1949-51 and 1955-57.

A bibliography of Usher’s writings is included in the Festschrift for him, Architects and Craftsmen in History (1956).

A memorial essay written by Thomas M. Smith was published in Technology and Culture, vol. 6, no. 4 (Autumn, 1965), pp. 630-632 [gated].

A few other Abbott Payson Usher artifacts from courses at Harvard already transcribed at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror:

Economic History to 1450 [1934]
Modern Economic History [1937-41]
European Economic History [1921]

 ___________________

From Usher’s report to the Harvard Class of 1904
(15th anniversary, 1919)

ABBOT PAYSON USHER

Born: Lynn, Mass., Jan. 13, 1883. [Died: June 18, 1965]
Parents:  Edward Preston Usher, Adela Louise Payson.
School: High School, Grafton, Mass.
Years in College: 1900-1904.
Degrees:  A.B. 1904; A.M. 1905; Ph.D. 1910.
Married: Miriam Shoe, Grafton, Mass., Sept. 3, 1914.
Children: Eunice, Sept. 8, 1915.
Business: Teacher.
Address:  (home) 108 Linden Ave, Ithaca, N.Y. (business) 260 Goldwin Smith Hall, Ithaca, N.Y.

My contribution for the war was the preparation of a special report for Colonel House’s committee.

Publications: “The Technique of Medieval and Modern Produce Markets.” Journal of Political Economy, xxiii, p. 365, 1915. “Germanic Statecraft and Democracy.” Unpopular Review, vol. iv, p. 27, 1915. “Generalizations in Economic History.” Journal of Sociology, vol. xxii, p. 474, 1916. “Influence of Speculative Marketing on Prices.” Economic Review, vol. vi, p. 49, 1916. “England’s Place in the Sun.” Unpopular Review, vol. vi, p. 311, 1916. “The Parisian Bill Market in the Seventeenth Century.” Journal of Political Economy, vol. xxiv, p. 985, 1916. “The Government, the Speculators and the Food Supply.” Cornell Countryman, vol. xiv, p. 726, 1917. “The Content of the Value Concept.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. xxxi, p. 711, 1917. “The Unions and the Labor Problem.” Unpopular Review, vol. viii, p. 168, 1917. “Science and Learning in France.” Chicago: Society for American Fellowships in French Universities, 1917, p. 287-290.

[Reviews of] “Customary Acres and Their Historical Importance,” by F. Seebohm. American Acad. of Polit. and Social Science, lvii, p. 342, 1915. “Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History”; edited by P. Vinogeradoff. Vol. iv. Same, lvii, p. 343, 1915. “History of Commerce and Industry,” by C.A. Herrick. American Economic Review, vol. viii, p. 101, 1918.

Member: Ithaca Country Club.

Source:  Harvard College Class of 1904. Fifteenth Anniversary Report (1919), pp. 408-9.

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Announcement of Usher joining Harvard Faculty in 1922 as Assistant Professor in economics

Abbott Payson Usher ’04, Professor of Economics at Boston University, has accepted an appointment at the University as Assistant professor of Economics and tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics.

Professor Usher took the degree of A.M. at the University in 1905, served as assistant and instructor in Economics until 1910, and in the latter year took the higher degree of Ph.D. For the next ten years he taught at Cornell, first as instructor in Economics and later as Assistant Professor. In 1920 he has called to Boston University as a full Professor and this year he is serving also as lecturer in Economics at Harvard.

Source: The Harvard Crimson, June 10, 1922 .

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Course Description
1929-30

[Economics] 10a 1hf. The History of Commerce, 1450-1750

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Associate Professor Usher.

A study of the expansion of Europe approached as a consequence of the great discoveries. The age of discovery is studied with special regard to the influence of improvements in the technique of ship-building and navigation. Changes in the physical volume of commerce and consumption will be studied by quantitative methods. The commercial policies and colonial systems of the leading countries will be studied.

Source:  Division of History, Government and Economics, 1929-30. Official Register of Harvard University, vol. 26, No. 36 (June 27, 1929), p. 70.

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Course Enrollment
1929-30

[Economics] 10a1hf. Associate Professor Usher.—History of Commerce, 1450-1750.

Total 5:  4 Graduates, 1 Junior, 2 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1929-30, p. 78.

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Course Readings

Economics 10a.
1929-30
History of commerce: 1450-1750.

  1. The great discoveries. To be completed, Oct. 21.

Beazley, C.R. Prince Henry the Navigator, pp. 1-123, 138-46, 160-78.
Olivera Martins, J.P. The golden age of Prince Henry the Navigator, pp. 61-84, 169-231.
Nunn, G.E. The geographical conceptions of Columbus, pp. 31-53.
Vignaud, H. Toscanelli and Columbus, pp. 52-74, 243-73.

  1. Portugal, Spain, and Holland. To be completed, Nov. 15.

Whiteway, R.S. The rise of Portugese power in India, pp. 1-57, 128-79.
Haring, C.H. Trade and navigation between Spain and the Indies, pp. 3-45, 96-200.
Day, C. The policy and administration of the Dutch in Java, pp. 39-82.
Moreland, W.H. From Akbar to Arungzeb. pp. 1-188.

  1. England and France. To be completed, Dec. 23

Thomas, P.J. Mercantilism and the East India Company. pp. 1-47, 67-166.
Scott, W.R. The history of the Joint Stock companies, vol. I, pp. 1-15, 105-28, 326-52, 439-73.
Unwin, George. Studies in economic history, pp. 133-220.
Weber, Max. General economic history, pp. 275-301, 315-51. pp. 275-301, 315-51.

  1. Reading period.

Lyall, A. History of British India, chapters 2-11.
or
Dodwell, Henry Dupleix and Clive. pp. 3-269.

 

Source:Harvard University Archives.Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1929-1930”.

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Final Examination, 1930

1929-30
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 10a1

Answer SIX questions.

  1. Sketch the history of geographical science from the death of Prince Henry the Navigator to the death of Mercator.
  2. Describe the place of the “Mesta” in the economic life of Spain in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
  3. What were the distinctive features of Dutch colonial policy in Java?
  4. Describe and discuss the status and obligations of the natives to the government and to the Spanish settlers in the Spanish possessions in the New World in the sixteenth century.
  5. Sketch the development of the free trade policy in England in the seventeenth century, with special reference to the relation of the arguments of the Free Traders to analysis of international trade.
  6. What were the characteristic differences between the Regulated Company and the Corporation?
  7. What influence was exerted upon economic policy by Machiavelli’s treatise “The Prince”?
  8. Sketch the career of Dupleix or Clive.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers—Finals, 1930(vol. 72). Papers Printed for Final Examinations, History, New Testament,…Economics, …,Military Science, Naval Science (January-June, 1930).

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1934.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam for international trade and finance. Leontief, 1934

 

International Trade and Finance was a course taught by Wassily Leontief during the second semester of his second year on the Harvard economics faculty (1933-34).    

Course description, final exam, and enrollment for Economics 39,  International Trade and Finance, taught by Leontief in 1932-33 have been posted earlier.

The exam questions from both years provide some light on the actual course content.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 55 2hf. (formerly Economics 39). Asst. Professor Leontief.—International Trade and Finance.

Total: 6 of which 5 Graduates, 1 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1933-34, p. 86.

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1933-34
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 552

Answer three out of the four questions

  1. What are the terms of trade? Indicate the factors which effect their change; describe the methods of their statistical measurement.
  2. Give a critical discussion of the purchasing power parity theory.
  3. Under which conditions can an import duty be beneficial?
  4. Discuss what is in your opinion the fundamental difference between Taussig’s and Ohlin’s approach to the problems of international trade.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers. Finals 1934 (HUC 7000.38, vol. 76).

Image Source: Wassily Leontief in Harvard Class Album, 1934.

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Undergraduate economics course outline and exam for business cycles. Hansen, 1948-49

 

This post provides enrollment data, course outline, reading assignments and final examination questions for Alvin H. Hansen‘s undergraduate economics course on business cycles  for the first semester of the Harvard 1948-49 academic year.

The 1950-51 course outline only differs with respect to a few items. Beginning 1951-52 the material for this course was swept into the second semester of Economics 141. Money, Banking and Economic Fluctuations offered jointly by Alvin Hansen and John H. Williams.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 145a (formerly Economics 45a). Business Cycles (F). Professor Hansen.

Total: 83 of which 48 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 1 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1948-49, p. 77.

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Economics 145a
Business Cycles                 1948-49                    Professor Hansen

Part I. Descriptive Survey

Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Ch. 1,9.
Hansen, Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Ch. I, II.
Schumpeter, “The Analysis of Economic Change,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. I.
Federal Reserve Chart Book (available at the Coop.)

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Suggested Reading:

Mitchell, “Business Cycles,” in Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 3, pp. 92-106.
Kondratieff, “The Long Waves in Economic Life,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 3.
Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the United States.
Burns and Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles.
Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society, Part II, Sec. 1 and Appendix A.
Schumpeter, Business Cycles, pp. 161-174; 212-219.
Dewey and Dakin, Cycles, Ch. 1-9.

Part II. The Meaning and Genesis of National Product

Hansen, Economic Policy and Full Employment, Ch. 3, 4.
Gilbert and Jaszi, “National Product and Income as an Aid in Economic Problems,” in Readings in the Theory of Income and Distribution, Ch. 2.
Machlup, “Period Analysis and Multiplier Theory,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 10, only pp. 210-234.
Morgan, Income and Employment, Ch. I.
Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Ch. 8, Section 4, pp. 222-232; Ch. 13, Section 1, pp. 455-461.
Hansen, Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Ch. XI, XII, XIII, XIV.

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Suggested Reading:

National Income, Supplement to Survey of Current Business, July, 1947.
Kuznets, (a) The National Income and its Composition, Ch. 1; (b) National Income, A Summary of Findings.
M. Hoffenberg, “Estimates of National Output, Distributed Income, Consumer Spending, Saving, and Capital Formation,” Review of Economic Statistics, May, 1943.
Polanyi, Full Employment and Free Trade, Ch. I.
Kaldor, “The Quantitative Aspects of the Full Employment Problem in Britain,” Appendix C in Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society.
Smithies, “Forecasting Post-War Demand,” Econometrica, January, 1945.
National Planning Association, National Budgets for Full Employment.

Part III. Theory of Cycles and Investment

Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Ch. 10, 11, and 3; Ch. 13, Section 3, pp. 473-479.
Hansen, (a) Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Ch. XVI and XVII; (b) Economic Policy and Full Employment, Ch. 14-16.
Keynes, General Theory, ch. 22.
Lerner, Economics of Control, Ch. 21, 22.
Harris, The New Economics, Ch. 33.
Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Ch. IV, Sections A, B, and C, pp. 130-161; Ch. VII, Section C., pp. 325-351.
Morgan, Income and Employment, Ch. 7-9.

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Suggested Reading:

Klein, The Keynesian Revolution, Macmillan, 1947. Ch. 1-4.
Long, Building Cycles and the Theory of Investment, Ch. I, II, VII, VIII, XII.
Haberler, Remainder of Prosperity and Depression, especially Chapter VIII.
Harris, The New Economics, Ch. 8-15; 18-19; 39-40.
Schumpeter, Further reading in Business Cycles, especially Chapters 6 and 7.
Tinbergen, Robertson, Hayek, Hawtrey in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 4, 15, 16, 17.
Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles.
Wilson, The Fluctuations in Income and EmploymentCh. 1-10.
Estey, Business Cycles, Ch. 1-16.
Hansen (a) Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 4, 8; (b) Full Recovery or Stagnation, Ch. 3 (Hayek); and Appendix Keynes’ Treatise, pp. 331-343.
Metzler, (a) “The Nature and Stability of Inventory Cycles,” in Review of Economic Statistics, August, 1941; (b) “Business Cycle Theory and the Theory of Employment,” in Am. Econ. Review, June, 1946.
Samuelson, Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 12.
Samuelson, Chapter II in Harris’ Postwar Economic Problems: Income, Employment and Public Policy (Essays in Honor of Alvin H. Hansen), W.W. Norton, 1948.
E. V. Morgan, Conquest of Unemployment, Samson-Low Co. London, 1948.

Part IV. Policy

Bd. of Gov. of Fed. Res. System, Postwar Studies No. 3, Comar, Public Debt and National Income, pp. 53-68.
Harris, The New Economics, Ch. 16-17; 34-35.
Hansen, (a) Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Ch. 9. (b) Economic Policy and Full Employment, Ch. 5-13; 22.
C. E. D., Research Staff, Jobs and Markets, Ch. 8.
Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society, Parts IV and V.
C. E. D., Taxes and the Budget, 1947.

**********

Suggested Reading:

Hicks, Ch. 24, in Readings in Income Distribution (Keynes and the Classics; also in Econometrica, Vol. 5, 1937).
Pigou, Lapses from Full Employment.
Kaldor, “Stability and Full Employment,” in the Economic Journal, Dec.1938.
Bd. of Gov. of Fed. Res. System, Postwar Studies, No. 3, Musgrave, “Federal Tax Reform,” pp. 22-52.
Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Ch. XV, XVI, XVII.
Harold Smith, Testimony in Hearings of Senate Committee Banking and Currency on Full Employment Act of 1945, S. 380, pp. 676-696.
Twentieth Century Fund, American Housing, Ch. 12, pp. 311-341.
Financing American Prosperity, Ch. 3, 5, 6, 7 (Clark, Hansen, Slichter and Williams).

 

READING PERIOD ASSIGNMENT

Read one of the following four assignments:

  1. Morgan, Income and Employment, Ch. 10-18.
  2. Kaldor, Appendix C. (pp. 344-400) in Beveridge, Full Emploment in a Free Society.
  3. Polanyi, Free Trade and Full Employment, Ch. 3, 4, 6, 7; and H. Williams, “Free Enterprise and Full Employment,” Chapter 7 in Financing American Prosperity.
  4. Terborgh, George, The Bogey of Economic Maturity (entire book, disregarding appendices) and A. H. Hansen’s review of Terborgh’s book in Appendix B in Economic Policy and Full EmploymentandWright’s review in Review of Economic Statistics, February, 1946, pp. 13-22.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 4. Folder: “Economics, 1949-1950 [sic] (2 of 3)”.

_________________________

1948-49
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 145a
[Final examination, January 1949]

Part I
(Answer any THREE questions)

  1. Certain theorists believe there is not one “business cycle,” but rather several of different duration and nature. Outline and discuss four types of cycle with particular reference to their interrelationships, if any.
  2. Discuss the factors that bring about a termination of the boom (the upper turning point). Introduce the views of different cycle theorists and critically examine their explanations.
  3. Gross National Product statistics provide an important tool in analyzing the cyclical nature of economic activity. Present the main components on (a) the expenditure side (b) the income (distributive shares) side of Gross National Product.
    Analyze the factors chiefly responsible for determining the level of: (a) investment, (b) consumption, (c) saving, in any period.
  4. (a) Using the Keynesian “instantaneous” analysis and assuming hypothetical values for the consumption function and the level of income, show how an increase of $10 billion in investment would affect income and consumption. Illustrate your answer graphically.
    (b) Show how the above analysis would be changed if the Robertsonian time period approach were used. What is the essential difference between the two forms of analysis, especially with regard to the multiplier.
  5. (a) Discuss the relative merits of fiscal and monetary policies as means of reducing business cycle fluctuations.
    (b) Discuss the proposals for stability and full employment contained in two CED publications: (1) Jobs and Marketsand (2) Taxes and the Budget.

Part II (Required of everyone)

Summarize the salient points in any oneof the following, and critically evaluate the conclusions reached by the author:

(a) Morgan: Income and Employment
(b) Kaldor: (Appendix C) in Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society.
(c) Polanyi: Free Trade and Full Employmentand Williams in Financing American Prosperity.
(d) Terborgh: The Bogey of Economic Maturity.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, Box 16 of 284). Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, February, 1949.

Image Source:  Harvard Album 1952.

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Agricultural Economics Chicago Economists Harvard

Chicago. Economics Professor William Hill. Events leading to his leave of absence, 1894

 

 

The “peculiarly sad circumstances”, apparently a manic break in a bi-polar disorder, were reported for University of Chicago economics professor William Hill in 1894. I was able to trace much of the c.v. of this Harvard economics A.M. for today’s post. Apparently his last professional station was at Bethany College in West Virginia where his wife was able to get an appointment teaching history. I’ll keep my eyes open for more biographical information about William Hill (not an uncommon name). There were probably also episodes of depression in his life.

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HE GOES TO KANSAS.
PROF. HILL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO GIVEN A VACATION. [1894]

Peculiarly Sad Circumstances Said to Surround the Action of the Faculty in Giving Mr. Hill Chance to Rest and Recuperate – He Is Deeply Interested in Irrigation Affairs, and a Lecture Before the Political Economy Club is Stopped by Physicians.

Prof. William Hill of the University of Chicago has been granted vacation under peculiar and sad circumstances.

Mr. Hill, who is instructor in tariff history and railway transportation, lives in Graduate Hall, occupying Suite No. 16. In addition to his duties in the university, Prof. Hill has been greatly interested in a scheme for the irrigation of arid land in the western part of Kansas. He has always been noted for his studious habits, and, having perfected his plans for reclaiming the Kansas property, he has recently been trying to form a company to give them practical application. At 4 o’clock Thursday morning of last week Night Watchmen Wilson was making his last rounds through Graduate Hall. He had just put out the lights on the third floor and was just about to descend when he heard stealthy footsteps on the floor below.

“Who is there?” He called. “Hill,” was the answer.

Going down Wilson was met by Prof. Hill, who was partially undressed.

“Do you want to make some money?” He asked.

The watchmen expressed his willingness to get rich.

“I’ll show you how you can make thousands,” said the professor, leading the astonished man into his room. There he proceeded to outline his plan for irrigating the dry lands of Kansas and to talk glibly of the vast sums of money to be made in the work.

Wilson was impressed with the peculiar manner of the professor and reported it to his superior officer. The same evening in Cobb Hall Prof. Hill was scheduled to deliver an address before the Political Economy club. He kept his appointment and began his lecture, but before going far the rambling manner of his talk so alarmed his listeners that a physician was summoned, who forbade him to finish. Later the same night Pres. Harper of the university and Prof. Laughlin were driven to the rooms of Prof. Hill and had a conference over his condition. In view of the fact that Prof. Hill’s condition is not considered serious it was decided not to remove him from his rooms, his brother coming on to attend him. Wednesday Prof. Hill was granted a vacation by the faculty and started for his old home in Kansas where he will remain until he has entirely recovered his health.

One of the launchers in graduate Hall was awakened before daylight Tuesday by hearing the professor talking in a loud and disconnected way. He was laboring under the delusion, apparently, that the faculty did not properly understand his case. “The facts must be laid before the members in a proper way,” said Prof. Hill, “so that they will know all about it. I know I am ill. Of course I am ill, but if the thing is not done right who is to know it?”

“What the professor was saying,” said the one who overheard him last night, “and his manner of saying it was like that of a man in a delirium. He has been overworked and overexcited over something. Once I went into his room and found a stranger there with him. The stranger had some sort of a machine, which he was showing Prof. Hill. I understood it was something to be used for irrigating purposes. The interest the professor showed in it was intense.”

When a call was made on Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlin last night the following conversation took place:

“It is said Prof. Hill, one of the instructors in your Department of Political Economy, is ill. Will you tell me how he is?”

“The report is utterly untrue, utterly untrue; Prof. Hill is away on his vacation.”

“Is there nothing the matter with him?”

“Nothing at all; the story is utterly untrue.”

[William Hill graduated from the University of Kansas in 1891 and spent the next year at Harvard where he took his masters degree under Dr. Taussig. At Harvard he also won the Lee Memorial Fellowship. He is the author of the American Economical Association monograph on “Colonial Tariffs.” He came to Chicago University in October, 1892 and has since then become popular with both students and faculty he is Acting President of the Political Economy club of the University and his known as a bicycle rider and tennis expert.]

Source:  Chicago Daily Tribune, 15 December 1894, p.1.

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Chicago Years

William Hill. Associate in Political Economy, 1893-94; Instructor, 1894-97; Assistant Professor, 1897-1908; Associate Professor, 1908-12.

Source: James Laurence Laughlin, Twenty-Five Years of the Department of Political Economy, University of Chicago. Chicago: Privately printed, 1916.

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Harvard Years

Resident Fellow

Henry Lee Memorial Fellowship, William Hill, A.B. (Univ. of Kansas) 1890, A.B. (Harvard Univ.) 1891, a student of Political Science.

Source:Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1890-91, p. 90. and  Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 96.

Henry Lee Memorial Fellowship

For 1892-93: WILLIAM HILL, A.B. (Kansas State Univ.) 1890, A.B. (Harvard Univ.) 1891, A.M, (Ibid.) 1892. Res. Gr. Stud., 1891-93. II. year of incumbency and as a student in the School. Studied at this University. Withdrew at the close of the year, and is now Instructor in Political Economy at the University of Chicago.

Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1892-93, p. 125.

Harvard Publications

William Hill, Colonial Tariffs, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 7, Issue 1, October 1892, Pages 78–100.

William Hill, “The First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States,”  Proceedings of the American Economic Association, 8 (1893), 452-614.

List of publications by William Hill at jstor.org.

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Bethany College, West Virginia

William Hill, A.B., A.M., Dean of Agriculture and Land Director.

Graduate of Friends’ Bloomingdale Academy,’ 87; Student in Earlham College [Richmond, Indiana], ’87-’88; Student in Kansas State University, ’88-’90; A.M., Harvard University, ’90-’93; Henry Lee Memorial Fellow in Harvard University, ’92-’93; Instructor in Economics in The University of Chicago, ’93-’95; Assistant Professor, ’95-’08; Associate Professor, ’08; Organizer and Director of the Agricultural Guild, ’08; Dean of Agriculture, Bethany, 1911 –

Wife:  Caroline Miles Hill, A.M., PhD., Professor of History.

A.B., Earlham College, 1887; Teacher in Friends Bloomingdale Academy, 1887-1889; A.M., Michigan State University, 1890; Fellow in History, Bryn Mawr College, 1890-1891; Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1892; Professor of History and Philosophy, Mount Holyoke College, 1892-1893; Professor of History, Wellesley College, 1893-1895; Studied in Europe, 1895-1896; Engaged in Educational and Social Work in Chicago, 1896-1910; Principal of Friends  Bloomingdale Academy, 1910-1912; Professor, Bethany, 1912 —

Source: Bethany College Bulletin, 1912 and 1913, p.8.

Source for marriage

Hill, William: s. 87-88; m. Caroline Miles, A 1887; l. add. Chicago, Ill.

Source: Who’s Who Among Earlhamites 1916, p. 82.

________________

Caroline Miles Hill, Instructor in History, ’93-’95, has recently published a valuable anthology, “The World’s Greatest Religious Poetry” [Macmillan, 1923].

Source:  The Michigan Alumnus. Vol 33 (1926-27), p. 127.