Category: Harvard

Economics Faculty Salaries for 15 U.S. universities. Hart Memo, April 1961

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-05-07

Here we have a memo written by member of the Columbia University economics department executive committee, Albert G. Hart, that presents the results of what appears to be his informal polling of the chairpersons of 21 departments. Fifteen of the departments provided the salary ranges at four different ranks. No further details are provided, this one page memo was simply filed away in a folder marked “memoranda”. Maybe there is more to be found in Hart’s papers at Columbia University. Up to now I have only sampled Hart’s papers for teaching materials and perhaps next time, I’ll need to look into his papers dealing with departmental administrative affairs.

For a glance at salaries about a half-century earlier: Professors and instructors’ salaries ca. 1907.

________________

AGH [Albert Gailord Hart] 4/21/61

CONFIDENTIAL information on economic salaries, 1960-61, from chairmen of departments

Institution	Professors	Associate professors	Assistant professors	Instructors
Harvard	$12,000-22,000	$9,000-12,000	$7,500-8,700	$6,500
Princeton	$12,000-…?…	$9,000-11,500	$7,000-8,750	$6,000-6,750
California	$11,700-21,000	$8,940-10,344	$7,008-8,112	$5,916-6,360
MIT	$11,000-20,000	$8,000-11,000	$6,500-9,000	$5,500-5,750
Minnesota	$11,000-18,000	$8,500-11,000	$6,800-8,400	?
COLUMBIA	$11,000-20,000	$8,500-10,000	$6,500-7,500	$5,500-5,750
Northwestern	$11,000-…?…	$8,000-11,000	$6,800-7,500	?
Duke	$11,400-16,000	$8,200-10,000	$7,200-8,200	$5,800-6,500
Illinois	$11,000-15,000	$7,500-10,000	$6,900-8,600	$6,500-7,100
Cornell	$10,000-15,000	$8,000-10,000	$6,500-7,500	$5,500-6,500
Indiana	$10,000-14,800	$8,300-10,000	$6,500-7,500	?
Michigan	$10,000-…?…	$8,700-..9,500	$6,600-8,000	$5,000
Virginia	$..9,800-15,000	$7,800-..9,800	$6,600-7,800	?
Wisconsin	$..9,240-16,150	$8,000-..9,000	$6,550-8,460	$5,250-5,450
Iowa State (Ames)	$..8,500-13,000	$7,500-..8,500	$6,700-8,000	$4,700-6,600

[…]

Note: The following institutions for which data were not included in the source materials are believed to pay their economists at scales at or above the Columbia level:

Carnegie Tech
Chicago
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
Yale
UCLA

[…]

Source: Columbia University Archives. Columbia University, Department of Economics Collection. Carl Shoup Materials: Box 11, Folder: “Economics—Memoranda”.

Tags HartAG

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. International Trade and Finance. Final Exam. Leontief, 1933

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-29

Wassily Leontief’s first appointment at Harvard was at the rank of instructor for the academic year 1932-33. The first course he taught was Economics 18 (Price Analysis) that was taken by two graduate students for credit during the fall semester. Leontief then taught Economics 39 (International Trade and Finance) in the second semester. I have yet to locate a syllabus or reading list for that course, but at least Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is able to provide visitors with the transcript below of what would appear to be Leontief’s earliest recorded examination at Harvard.

_________________

Course Description

[Economics] 39 ²hf. International Trade and Finance

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 3. Dr. Leontief.

Starting with the classical theory of foreign trade, this course will lead to an analysis of modern problems in international economic relations. The movement of capital and labor across national boundaries will be discussed and the general trend in international economic relations and policies will be analyzed in connection with the changing structure of world economies.

Source: Division of History, Government and Economics, 1932-33. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 29, No. 32 (June 27, 1932), pp. 81-82.

_________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics 39 ²hf. Dr. Leontief.—International Trade and Finance.

Total 11: 9 Graduates, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1932-1933, p. 66.

_________________

Final Examination

1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 39²

(Three hours)

Analyze the theory of costs in its application to the theory of international trade.
“England was losing after the war its exports to other countries because its costs of production were too high.” Is this statement compatible with the theory of comparative costs? Analyze the case.
Can a tariff protect the wage-level of a country?
Under what conditions can a country gain from a protective tariff?
What is dumping? Under what conditions is it most likely to occur?
Analyze the principal items of a typical balance of payments.

Final. 1933.

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

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

Tags Leontief

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Principles of Economics, Summer School. Syllabus and Exams, 1942.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-28

Harvard Commencement, 1943. Military copy work from the Harvard ArchivesHarvard University. . Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard University was able to switch into a three semester per year mode in the very first summer after the U.S. entered World War II. There were two versions of the standard Principles of Economics course offered, one which extended over the twelve week summer term and one very intensive version that covered the material of a normal year-long course in just six weeks by having the students in class for two hours per days for five days per week. There was also a Principles “Lite” version that ran for only six weeks and covered just half the material apparently.

The syllabus for the full twelve week version of Economics A lists 2,600 pages of assigned reading for the course. Nominally there would be five one-hour sessions per week, so on average for the sixty sessions students were expected to read 40-45 pages per day. Call me cynical, but I would be surprised if the average of the distribution were even half that pensum.

____________________

Summer enrollment in Principles of Economics, 1942

“The large number of course enrolments meant that individual classes were very much larger than in preceding years. The largest classes were Mathematics SAa, with 436 students, English SAa, with 347, English SAb, with 329, Mathematics SAb, with 299, and Economics SAa, with 222 students. Enrolment in 22 courses was 100 or more.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1941-1942, p. 356.

___________________

Course Announcements for Summer School 1942

Economics SAa ¹hf. Principles of Economics.
Half-course (first session). Mon. through Fri., at 11. Professor Burbank, and other members of the Department.

Economics SAa may be taken by properly qualified Freshmen with the consent of the instructor.
SAa and SAb provide an introductory study of the present organization of industry, money and the mechanism of exchange, the theory of value, foreign trade and tariff policy, the distribution of wealth; i.e., the forces governing the incomes of the laboring, land-owning, capitalist and business classes, and the relation of government to industry. The course is conducted entirely by oral discussion.

Economics SAb ²hf.Principles of Economics
Half-course (second session). Mon. through Fri., at 11. Professor Chamberlin, and other members of the Department.

Economics SAb may be taken by properly qualified Freshmen with the consent of the instructor.
Economics SAa is a prerequisite for the course.
For description see SAa.

Economics SA¹(to count as a whole course in the first session). Principles of Economics
Whole course (first session). Mon. through Fri., 9 to 11. Professor Burbank, and other members of the Department.

Economics SA¹is identical with SAa and Sab, the two, however, combined and completed in one session. Freshmen will not be admitted to this course. For description see SAa.

Economics SB ¹hf. Principles of Economics
Half-course (first session). Mon. through Fri., at 11. Dr. Monroe.

If a Harvard student counts Economics SB for a degree, Economics A may be counted as a half-course only. Ordinarily students concentrating in History, Government, and Economics must take Economics A, SA, or SAa and SAb.
Course SB gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject.

Source: Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered in the Summer Term 1942 published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 39, No. 16 (April 20, 1942), pp. 21-22.

____________________

ECONOMICS A
Summer Term, 1942

Sources:	Arnold, Thurman	The Bottlenecks of Business (1940)
*	Benham and Lutz	Economics, American Edition (1941)
	Bidwell, P.	Economic Defense of Latin America (1941)
**	Federal Reserve System	Federal Reserve Charts on Bank Credit, Money Rates and Business (1941)
	Garver and Hansen	Principles of Economics, Revised Edition (1937)
	Golden and Ruttenberg	The Dynamics of Industrial Democracy (1942)
	Johnson, E.A.J.	Some Origins of the Modern Economic World (1936)
**	Luthringer, Chandler and Cline	Money, Credit and Finance (1938)
	Meyers, A.L.	Elements of Modern Economics (1937)
**	Neal, A.C., Editor	Introduction to War Economics (1942)
	Slichter, S.E.	Modern Economic Society (1928)
	-ditto-	The Economics of Collective Bargaining (reprint)
	-ditto-	The Period 1919-1936 in the United States, Its Significance for Business Cycle Theory, in Review of Economic Statistics, Vol. XIX, Feb. 1937, No. 1, Part I
**	Staff members	Syllabus: Economics A
	Taussig, F.W.	Principles of Economics, Vol. I Third Edition Revised (1921)
**	Taylor, H.	Main Currents in Modern Economic Life (1941)
	T.N.E.C.	Price Behavior and Business Policy, Monograph No. 1 (1941)
	T.N.E.C.	Competition and Monopoly in American Industry, Monograph No. 21 (1940)

** To be purchased by students
* Suggested for purchase

Note: Essay due at end of eight week.

ECONOMICS A
Outline and Reading Assignments
Summer Term, 1942

Weeks			Pages
1^st	Part I.	EMERGENCE OF MODERN ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS The economic problem; historical development of social and legal institutions; their effect on the economic problem.
		Johnson, Ch. 1, Economic Activity and Economic Development	7
		_______, Ch. 2, The Late-Medieval Background	21
		_______, Ch. 3, The Emergence of Capitalism	34
		_______, Ch. 4, The Beginnings of Scientific Technology	32
		_______, Ch. 5, The Formulation of Capitalist Theory	23
		_______, Ch. 6, Protection and the Transplantation of Industrialism	24
		_______, Ch. 7, The Export of Capital and the Genesis of Economic Imperialism	15 156

Part II.		MODERN ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS
		A—The economic problem again; how it is solved today; the concept of useful production.
		Benham, Ch. 1, General Survey	17
		Taussig, Ch. 2, Of Labor in Production	13 30

		B—Description of money flows and goods flows in a capitalist society; the relation of the division of labor to these flows; the forms of business organization and their relation to the division of labor.
		Taylor, Ch. 6, Vol. I, The National Income and its Distribution	18
2^nd		_______, Ch. 12, Vol. I, Industrial Techniques	16
		Taussig, Ch. 3, Division of Labor	18
		_______, Ch. 4, Large Scale Production	15
		Slichter, Ch. 8, (M.E.S.) Modern Business Organization	26 93

Part III.		THE DIVISION OF LABOR AND MONEY Division of Labor necessitates exchange; exchange is facilitated by the use of money; digression to explain the working of the monetary system in the United States.
		Luthringer, Ch. 1, Functions and Significance of Money	24
		_______, Ch. 2, Kinds of Money	23
		_______, Ch. 3, Credit and Credit Instruments	15
		_______, Ch. 4, Investment Institutions and Commercial Banking	23
		Pamphlet, Credit Expansion, in Economics A Syllabus	14
		Luthringer, Ch. 5, Central Banking and the Federal Reserve System	20
		_______, Ch. 6, The Quantitative Control of Bank Credit	18
3^rd		_______, Ch. 7, Meaning of the Value of Money	14
		_______, Ch. 8, Equation of Exchange and the Quantity of Money	16
		_______, Ch. 9, Velocity of Money and the Volume of Trade	17 184

Part IV.		THE SOLUTION TO THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM
		A—The Markets for Commodities Analysis in this section refers only to the determination of prices and quantities of commodities produced by a business firm. No answers are given to the questions: Why are wages, rents, interest high or low?
		A.1 The Business Firm vis-à-vis Consumers in an unregulated market
		A.1.a Consumer Demand Why consumers spend their incomes as they do, the process whereby consumer demand is transmitted to the market.
		Benham, Ch. 2, Markets	25
		_______, Ch. 3, Demand	16
		_______, Ch. 4, Prices with a Fixed Demand	10
		_______, Ch. 5, Changes in Demand	10 61

		A.1.b The Business Firm The final relationship of cost to price depends on the competitive conditions in each commodity market; the profit motive the main determinant of the firm’s decisions.
		Benham, Ch. 12, The Controlling Power of Demand	8
		_______, Ch. 13, The Problems of the Firm (omit Sec. 11)	37
		_______, Ch. 14, Monopoly	18
		Monograph 21, Ch. 1, the Nature and Significance of Competition	18
		Monograph 1, Part 1, Ch. 2, Nonprice Competition	53
4^th		_______, 1, Part 2, Ch. 1, Types of Geographical Price Structures	14 148

		A.2 Effect of Government Regulation on the unregulated market
		A.2.a Introduction General analysis of regulation and impediments to free markets. Sections b, c, and d elaborate more completely some issues presented here.
		Arnold, Ch. 1, The Basic Problem of Distribution	19
		_______, Ch. 2, How Restraints of Trade Affect your Standard of Living	25
		_______, Ch. 3, How Restraints of Trade Unbalance the National Budget	13
		_______, Ch. 4, A Free market in time of National Emergency or War	30
		_______, Ch. 5, An Elastic Procedure…to Prevent…Seizure of…Power…	24
		_______, Appendix I and II	20
		_______, Ch. 6, The Test is Efficiency and Service—not size	15
		_______, Ch. 7, Procedure Under the Sherman Act…	31
5^th		_______, Ch. 8, The Clarification of Law through public enforcement	26
		_______, Ch. 9, Antitrust Enforcement for the Betterment of the Consumer	21
		_______, Ch. 10, Bottlenecks between the Farm and the Table	26
		_______, Ch. 11, Labor—Restraints of Trade among the Underdogs	19
		_______, Ch. 12, The Rise of a Consumer Movement	37 306

		A.2.b Regulation and the Consumer
		Taylor, Vol. II, Ch. 37, Consumption Standards	15
		____________, Ch. 38, Consumers and the Business System	19
		____________, Ch. 39, Consumer Cooperation	20 54

6^th		A.2.c Regulation and the Business Firm
		(1) Monopoly
		Taylor, Vol. I, Ch. 15, The Growth of Big Business	18
		___________, Ch. 16, The Trend Toward Monopoly	17
		___________, Ch. 17, Monopolies and Public Policy	16 51

		(2) Public Utilities Techniques of regulation different for firms classified as public utilities; the TVA—an example of a new regulatory device.
		Taylor, Vol. II, Sec. 13, pp. 363-364 Introduction	2
		____________, Ch. 48, The Nature and Scope of Public Regulation	15
		___________, Ch. 49, The Price of Utility Services	16
		___________, Ch. 50, Recent Expansion of Federal Control	19
		___________, Ch. 51, The State as Operator	17 69

		A.2.d Agriculture—a special problem
		Taylor, Vol. II, Sec. 8, Agriculture and the Market	3
		____________, Ch. 30, The American Farmers	18
		____________, Ch. 31, Farmers in the Market System	19
		____________, Ch. 32, Agriculture and Public Policy	24 64

7^th		B. The Markets for Productive Agents (Factors of Production) The Analysis in this section refers to the determination of the prices of the factors of production, land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship in the markets where they are bought and sold. The entrepreneur’s reward, profit, is decided for him by the success or failure of his production plan. This market is, of course, not independent of the commodity markets. The unclassified reading discusses the productive agents of the United States:
		Taylor, Vol. I, Ch. 8, How Productive Resources are Used	17
		___________, Ch. 9, Population	19
		___________, Ch. 10, Land	15
		___________, Ch. 11 Localized Natural Resources	21
		___________, Ch. 13 Capital	19 91

		B.1 The Factors vis-à-vis Firms in an Unregulated Market
		B.1.a. The Pricing Process in General
		Benham, Ch. 9, Combination of Factors (omit sec’s 5,6)	18
		Meyers, Ch. 11, The Distribution of Income	11 29

		B.1.b. The Prices of Each Factor of Production
		Benham, Ch. 15, The Mobility of Factors of Production	10
		_______, Ch. 16, Wages, pp. 258-269	20
		_______, Ch. 18, Rent	13
		Garver and Hansen, Ch. 26, Interest	23
		_______________, Ch. 27, Profits	12 78

8^th		B.2 Effects of Government Regulation and other Institutional Aspects of Distribution on the Markets for Factors.
		B.2.a The Labor Market
		Taylor, Vol. II, Ch. 33, The American Labor Market, pp. 75-89	14
		___________, Ch. 35, The Labor Movement	24
		Slichter (pamphlet). The Economics of Collective Bargaining	23
		Taylor, Vol. II, Ch. 36, Public Policy Regarding Labor	22
		Benham, Ch. 16, Wages, pp. 269-275 (section 9)	6
		Golden, entire book. Write an essay of not more than 1200 words evaluating the ideas in the book.	347 436

9^th		B.2.b The Market for Savings It is to be noted that firms and others may secure funds from credit created by commercial banks.
		Taylor, Vol. I, Ch. 23, pp. 431-434 only (self financing by corporations)	4
		__________, Ch. 24, Investment Credit Institutions	19
		__________, Ch. 25, The Security Markets	17
		__________, Ch. 26, Regulation of Securities and Exchanges	18 58

		C. Public Finance and the Economic Problem The State not only regulates markets as described above but also influences the prices of factors and commodities in the process of financing the production of public goods (roads, protection, etc.). The effects of government finance on the level of national income to be postponed to Part VI.
		Luthringer, Ch. 12, The Public Economy	13
		_________, Ch. 13, The Revenue System	20
		_________, Ch. 14, Tax Incidence	26
		_________, Ch. 15, The Income Tax	20
		_________, Ch. 16, Property and Other Taxes	18
		_________, Ch. 17, Public Credit	14
		_________, Ch. 18, Principles of Public Credit	16 127

Part V.		INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF MARKETS AND FINANCE Analysis of international trade and finance; the free market and the regulated market. Previous analysis emphasized only domestic markets although the principle of international trade is applicable to regions within a country to some extent; Latin America and the War.
10^th		Benham, Ch. 25, The Theory of International Trade	22
		_______, Ch. 26, Balances of Payments	10
		_______, Ch. 27, Free Exchange Rates	10
		_______, Ch. 28, The Gold Standard	22
		_______, Ch. 29, Exchange Control	8
		_______, Ch. 30, Import Duties and Quotas	9
		Bidwell, Ch. 1, War and the Monroe Doctrine	16
		______, Ch. 2, Propaganda and Politics	13
		______, Ch. 3, German Economic Penetration	12
		______, Ch. 4, The Weapons of Economic Defense	33
		______, Ch. 5, The Fallacy of Hemisphere Self-Sufficiency	14 169

Part VI.		PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION Analysis of the reasons why all prices move together; why all factors tend to become unemployed—hence the emphasis on the movements of national income. Previously, the analysis of prices was chiefly concerned (with the exception of the value of money) with relative prices. Existence of international markets tends to spread the cyclical pattern.
		A. Explanation and Verification of Business Cycle Theories
		Benham, Ch. 7, The Volume of Production, pp. 113-125	13
		Garver and Hansen, Ch. 21, Business Cycles	18
11^th		Benham, Ch. 20, Economic Progress and the Trade Cycle, pp. 347-356	9
		Slichter, R.E.S., The Period 1919-1936 in the U.S. Its Significance for Business Cycle Theory	19 59

		B. Governmental Policy and Business Cycles
		Taylor, Vol. II, Ch. 44, Deficit Spending	16
		____________, Ch. 12, The State as Provider (Introduction)	2
		____________, Ch. 45, Providing Minimum Needs	17
		____________, Ch. 46, Social Security	19
		____________, Ch. 47, Public Housing	17 71

Part VII.		TOTALITARIAN ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALISM Analysis of the solution to the economic problem in totalitarian economic systems.
		Taylor, Vol. II, Sec. 14, Totalitarian Alternatives to Free Markets (Introduction)	2
		____________, Ch. 52, Economic Basis of Totalitarianism	16
		____________, Ch. 53, The Soviet Economy	23
		____________, Ch. 54, The Fascist Economy in Italy	19
		____________, Ch. 55, The National Socialist Economy in Germany	20 80

12^th	Part VIII.	THE ECONOMICS OF WAR
		Neal, Ch. 1, Basic Economic Problems of War	15
		____, Ch. 2, Economic War Potential	23
		____, Ch. 3, Problems of War Production	21
		____, Ch. 4, War Labor Problems	25
		____, Ch. 5, Financing the War Effort	19
		____, Ch. 6, Financing the War Effort, Business Finance	27
		____, Ch. 7, Wartime Management of the Monetary and Banking System	28
		____, Ch. 8, The Control of Individual Prices	31
		____, Ch. 9, Economic Warfare	20
		____, Ch.10, Post-War International Economics	19 228

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Randall Hinshaw Papers, Box 1, Folder “Schoolwork, 1940s”.

____________________

Final examination first half of course

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SAa

Part I

(One hour)

Write on BOTH of the following in this section:

Analyze carefully the effects of the following on average cost, marginal cost, marginal revenue and price for the individual firm in the short run:
1. A tax of ten cents per unit of output on a monopolist.
2. A subsidy of ten cents per unit of output to firms in a purely competitive industry.
Trace the repercussions on member bank reserve balances, Treasury deposits with the Federal Reserve System and reserves of the Federal Reserve System caused by:
1. The purchase and sterilization of gold by the Treasury.
2. The purchase of U.S. government bonds by the Federal Reserve System.
3. A transference of Treasury deposits from the Federal Reserve System to member banks.

Part II

(Two hours)

Write on any FOUR of the following in this section:

“Regulation of public utility rates may be effected by limiting charges to yield a fair return on a fair value of the property. This will result in prices comparable to competitive conditions. An alternative type of rate regulation may be accomplished by using as a ‘yardstick’ the rates which a government-owned plant could economically charge.”
1. Does the use of the fair return formula approximate the price which would evolve in a competitive market for the same commodity?
2. May the rates fixed by the Tennessee Valley Authority be used as a “yardstick” for privately-owned power companies?
“There seems to be a common belief that banks, by some process of sleight of hand, contrive to create a multiple of the amount of money they receive. The truth is that they can lend not more, but less than the amount of money that comes into their hands.”
Do you agree? Explain fully.
“It is not size in itself that we want to destroy….What ought to be emphasized is…the evil of industries which are not efficient or do not pass (the gains from) efficiency on to consumers.” Arnold.
Examine the consistency of this statement.
Contrast carefully the industrial economic world of nineteenth century England with the industrial economic world of fourteenth century England.
Write a letter to your congressman briefly explaining what you believe to be the basic American farm problems and critically evaluating the New Deal attempts to alleviate them.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992 (UA V 349.295.6), Box 1, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.

____________________

Final examination second half of course

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[Second Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SAb

Part I

(One hour)

Write on BOTH of the questions in this section:

“The main fiscal problem of the war is the diversion of a large share of the national income from the private economy to the public fisc for war purposes.” Outline and defend a plan of taxation and borrowing which in your opinion effectively will solve this problem.
Analyze the effects of an increase in the supply of labor on (a) the remuneration of the various productive factors and (b) the changes in output of those industries whose costs are mainly labor and those whose costs are mainly capital.

Part II

(Two hours)

Write on any FOUR of the questions in this section:

Write an essay on the topic of cyclical unemployment emphasizing (a) the processes by which full employment is supposed to be effected in a free enterprise economy and (b) the reasons why these processes have failed to operate.
What controls are necessary for the orderly and equitable distribution of goods during war time in the markets for factors of production and the markets for consumers’ commodities? Indicate the results likely to follow from partial rather than complete controls in these two major groups of markets.
“Labor unions cannot raise the wages of labor within an occupation without reducing the number employed in that occupation since the entrepreneur cannot afford to pay labor more than the value of its marginal product.” Do you agree? Explain fully.
Discuss carefully three methods of correcting an adverse balance of payments. Indicate the effects of each method on the level of domestic money incomes, the foreign exchange rate, merchandise exports and imports and short-term capital movements.
Explain the chief methods of regulating securities markets in the United States. State concisely the functions of securities markets and evaluate the success of regulation in aiding the orderly functioning of these markets.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992 (UA V 349.295.6), Box 1, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.

____________________

Final Exam Intensive Course, First Session 1942

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SA¹

I

(One hour)

Reply fully to the following questions:
1. Which are the main problems confronting the economy of this country during the present war?
2. What measures of economic policy would you propose to cope with them?

II

(About one half hour each)

What are the effects of the practice of self-financing by corporations upon
1. the rate of interest;
2. the allocation of the nation’s resources;
3. the prevalence of competition, or of monopoly, in the economy as a whole?
Let a tax be imposed upon a monopolist and the amount due be determined by either of the following methods:
1. a fixed percentage of his profits;
2. a fixed money amount per unit of output;
3. a fixed percentage of the total money value of his sales;
4. a global fixed sum, independent of either output or sales.

In which of these cases will he be able to shift the tax forward? Prove your conclusions by a graphical analysis.

Criticize the following statement carefully:
“The average citizen is inclined to think that there is nothing at all which he himself can do to check inflation. He considers the anti-inflationary fight a task for Uncle Sam only and therefore urges control of prices and labor and the draining off of excessive purchasing power. Actually, the citizen himself can do a great deal, and the efforts of the government will be far less effective unless he does.
“He can co-operate with the government by putting money in the bank and making it work for him, instead of drawing it out, letting it lie idle and exposing it to the danger of theft, fire and forgetfulness, He can pay his debts. He can discharge his mortgage more rapidly. He can make larger down payments on installment purchases than he has to. He can be more generous to poor relatives. He can see his oculist, dentist or family doctor more often, and pay cash. He can contribute more liberally to local and national charities. He can refuse to hoard goods. He can refrain from rushing to buy the very articles of which there is a shortage….” (The Boston Herald, July 28, 1942, p. 14)
Trace the main effects that the abolition of the tariff on beef (one of the major export articles of Argentina) would, in peacetime, have upon the economies of the United States and of Argentina. Distinguish the short-run and the long-run consequences.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28) Box 6, Papers Printed for Summer Examinations First Session, August, 1942.

____________________

Final Examination for Principles of Economics “Lite”

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SB

I

(About one hour)

Write an essay on one of the following topics:
1. Long-run value under competition,
2. The rate of wages,
3. Investment and interest,
4. Profits

II

(Answer TWO questions from this group.)

How should you expect the following to affect the selling price of a farm: an increase in population; a fall in the rate of interest; the opening of a new market for its products; a bad crop failure?
Explain the meaning of the following terms and show how one of them enters into the explanation of economic phenomena: comparative advantage; bank reserves; the gold points; marginal revenue.
What are the principal factors responsible for cyclical fluctuations in business activity?

III

(Answer TWO questions from this group.)

Explain the nature and operation of the forces which cause variations in the purchasing power of the dollar.
Outline the principal forms of unemployment and discuss one of them in some detail.
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods available for financing a war.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28) Box 6, Papers Printed for Summer Examinations First Session, August, 1942.

Image Source: Harvard’s Commencement in 1943. From The Harvard Gazette, November 10, 2011.

Tags Burbank, Chamberlin, Monroe

Chicago Duke Economic History Economists Harvard Northwestern

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus (1929), later Chicago professor, E.J. Hamilton.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-28

In an earlier post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provided the undergraduate and graduate academic transcripts of Earl J. Hamilton, who besides having gone on to a distinguished career as a leading economic historian also served as the editor of the Journal of Political Economy for seven years. For this post I have transcribed c.v.’s from ca. 1948 and from Hamilton’s emeritus years, presumably from the 1970s, but he did live for nearly another two decades.

The previous post was dedicated to a long-time professional colleague and friend, Jacob Marschak, with whom Hamilton had overlapped at the Universidad Internacional (Santander, Spain) during the summer of 1933, and to whom Marschak had written for some advice regarding an application for a possible University of Chicago job.

Earl Hamilton died May 7, 1989. [Find-a-Grave link]

____________________

On Hamilton’s research on economic history

John H. Munro. “Money, Prices, Wages, and ‘Profit Inflation’ in Spain, the Southern Netherlands, and England during the Price Revolution era: ca. 1520-ca. 1650”. História e Economia—Revista Interdisciplinar. Vol. 4, No. 1 (1° semester 2008), pp. 13-71.

John H. Munro’s eh.net review of Hamilton’s American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501-1650 (1934).

See: Earl J. Hamilton Papers on the Economic History of Spain 1351-1830.

____________________

Hamilton’s unfinished John Law Project

“John Law has attracted the interest of many writers. In the twentieth century two of the most active scholars researching on John Law were Paul Harsin and Earl Hamilton…Hamilton, who devoted some fifty years of his life to Law, never produced his promised biography and left only a couple of short articles on the man he so passionately studied…

Unfortunately, there is little order in the Hamilton papers. It will take the librarians of Duke University, assisted by experts on Law and his System, many years to classify them…As such, Earl and Gladys Hamilton will have left a very rich legacy for future generations of scholars.”

Source: Antoin E. Murphy, John Law: Economic Theorist and Policy-maker. Clarendon Press, (1997), especially Chapter 2 “Law’s Writings and his Critics”, pp. 8-13.

____________________

Earl J. Hamilton c.v., ca. 1948

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Chicago 37, Illinois
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

EARL. J. HAMILTON, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago

Previous and Present Positions: Assistant professor of economics, 1927-29, professor, 1929-44, director of graduate study in economics, 1938-44, Duke University; professor of economics, 1944-47, Northwestern University; professor of economics, 1947—, University of Chicago. Delegate for Spain, International Scientific Committee on Price History, 1930-36; lecturer, Universidad Internacional (Santander, Spain), summer, 1933, Colegio de Mexico, summer, 1943; rapporteur, Committee on World Regions, Social Science Research Council, spring, 1943; director of civilian instruction, Army Finance School, 1943-44. Editor of the Journal of Political Economy, August, 1948—.

Degrees: B.S., with Honors, 1920, Mississippi State College; M.A., 1924, University of Texas; Ph.D., 1929, Harvard University.

Affiliations: Economic History Association (Vice-President, 1941-42, Bd. Editors, 1941—); American Association of University Professors; American Historical Association; Economic History Society (Engl.); Corresponding Member, Hispanic Society of America; Fellow, Royal Economic Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Publications: American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501-1650 (1934); Money, Prices, and Wages in Valencia, Aragon, and Navarre, 1351-1500 (1936); War and Prices in Spain, 1651-1800 (1947); El Origen del Capitalismo y Otros Ensayos de Historia Económica (1948). Articles on history of economic thought, economic history, money, and prices.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence-Misc. 1930’s-1940’s and n.d.”.

____________________

Earl J. Hamilton c.v.
early 1970s[?]

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

1126 East 59^thStreet
Chicago, Illinois 60637

Earl J. Hamilton

Born at Houlka, Mississippi on May 17, 1899

B.S. with Honors, Mississippi State University 1920
M.A. University of Texas 1924
Ph.D. Harvard University 1929

Docteur Honoris Causa, University of Paris 1952; LL.D. Duke University 1966; Doctor Honoris Causa University of Madrid 1967.

Have held Thayer Fellowship and Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, Harvard University; Social Science Research Council Fellowship; Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship; and Faculty Research Fellowship from the Ford Foundation.

Have spent a total of more than twelve years gathering research data in the archives and manuscripts divisions of libraries in France, Italy, Holland, Spain, Belgium, England, Scotland and Latin America.

Speak, read, and write French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch.

Assistant Professor of Economics, Duke University, 1927-1929
Professor of Economics, Duke University, 1929-1944
Professor of Economics, Northwestern University, 1944-1947
Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, 1947-1968
Distinguished Professor of Economic History, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1967-1969
Now Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Chicago and Distinguished Professor of Economic History Emeritus, State University of New York Binghamton.

Editor of the Journal of Political Economy for seven years.

President of the Economic History Association, 1951-1952.

Have determined from original manuscript sources the volume of precious metals imported into Europe from Mexico and Peru in the first hundred and seventy years after the discovery of America and have written a history of price in Spain from 1350 to 1800 based on contemporaneous account books, published in three volumes by the Harvard University Press. I have published a book of essays in Spanish entitled El Florecimiento del Capitalismo y Otros Ensayos de Histoira Económica [1948].

Am now writing from manuscript sources in the archives of France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, England and Scotland, to be published in four or five volumes a definitive history of John Law’s System, one of the greatest inflationary and deflationary episodes in history, popularly known as the Mississippi Bubble, and a biography of John Law of Lauriston.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Various Financial Correspondence (Personal) (1930s-1960s)”.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-02446, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Hamilton, Marschak

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Principles of Money and Banking. Reading lists and semester exams. Williams and Hansen, 1949-50

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-23

Money and Banking was a graduate field that John H. Williams and Alvin Hansen dominated for over a decade at mid-20th century Harvard. Reading lists and exams for other years (e.g. 1946-47) have been posted, allowing us gradually to get a real time sense of the evolution of that field. This post was updated March 27, 2020 to include the final exam from the second semester.

Most recently course materials for 1941-42 have been posted as well.

_____________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 241 (formerly Economics 141a and 141b). Principles of Money and Banking.

(F) Professor J. H. Williams; (Sp) Professor Hansen.

(F) Total 61: 33 Graduates, 1 Senior, 21 Public Administration, 5 Radcliffe, 1 Other.
(S) Total 54: 31 Graduates, 18 Public Administration, 2 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1949-50, p. 75.

_____________________

PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING
Economics 241
Fall Term—1949-1950

I. International Monetary Theory and Policy

Books

American Economic Association (H. S. Ellis and L. A. Metzler, eds.): Readings in the Theory of International Trade.Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1948.
Graham, Frank D.: The Theory of International Values. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1948.
Harris, S. E. (ed.): Foreign Economic Policy for the United States. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1948.
Harris, S. E. (ed.): The New Economics. New York, Knopf, 1947.
1. Bloomfield, A. I., “Foreign Exchange Rate Theory and Policy,” Chapter XXII; and
2. Nurkse, Ragnar, “Domestic and International Equilibrium,” Chapter XXI.
Harrod, Roy F.: Are These Hardships Necessary?London, Rupert Hart-Davis, 2^nd, 1947.
Keynes, J. M.: A Treatise on Money. New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1930, Vol. I, Chapter 21; Vol. II, Chapters 34-38.
Nurkse, Ragnar: International Currency Experience. Geneva, League of Nations, 1944.
Organisation for European Economic Co-operation:Interim Report on the European Recovery Programme.Paris, December 1948.
United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe:
1. Survey of Economic Situation and Prospects in Europe. Geneva, March 1948.
2. Economic Survey of Europe in 1948. Geneva, 1949.
Williams, John H.: Post-War Monetary Plans and Other Essays.English edition. Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 4^th, 1949 (American edition. New York, Knopf, 3^rded., 1947).

Articles

Balogh, T.: “The Concept of a Dollar Shortage,” The Manchester School, XVII, May 1949, pp. 186-201.
_______________ “Britain’s Economic Problem,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, LXIII, Feb. 1949, pp. 32-67.
_______________ “Britain, O.E.E.C., and the Restoration of a World Economy,” Bulletinof the Oxford Institute of Statistics, XI, Feb.-March 1949.
_______________ “Exchange Depreciation and Economic Readjustment,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXX, Nov. 1948, pp. 276-285.
_______________ “The United States and the World Economy,” Bulletinof the Oxford Institute of Statistics, VIII, Oct. 1946.
Ellis, H. S.: “The Dollar Shortage in Theory and Fact,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, XIV, Aug. 1948, pp. 358-372.
Graham, F. D.: “The Cause and Cure of ‘Dollar Shortages’,” (Essays in International Finance, No. 10). Princeton, Princeton University Press, Jan. 1949.
Haberler, G.: “Some Economic Problems of the European Recovery Program,” American Economic Review, XXXVIII, Sept. 1948, pp. 495-525.
Hawtrey, R. G.: “The Function of Exchange Rates,” Oxford Economic Papers, I, June 1949, pp. 145-56, and “A Comment” by Sir H. D. Henderson, Ibid., pp. 157-158.
Henderson, Sir Hubert D.: “The International Problem,” (Stamp Memorial Lecture). London, Oxford University Press, 1946.
_______________ “The Function of Exchange Rates,” Oxford Economic Papers, I, January 1949.
_______________ “A Criticism of the Havana Charter,” American Economic Review, XXXIX, June 1949, pp. 605-17.
Keynes, J. M.:“The Balance of Payments of the United States,” Economic Journal, LVI, June 1946, pp. 172-87.
_______________ “National Self-sufficiency,” The Yale Review, XXII, Summer 1933.
MacDougall, D. A.: “Further Notes on Britain’s Bargaining Power,” Oxford Economic Papers, I, Jan. 1949.
_______________ “Britain’s Foreign Trade Problem,” Economic Journal, LVII, March 1947, pp. 69-113; and “A Reply (to T. Balogh), Ibid., LVIII, March 1948, pp. 96-98.
_______________“Britain’s Bargaining Power,” Economic Journal, LVI, March 1946.
_______________ “Notes on Non-discrimination,” Bulletinof the Oxford Institute of Statistics, IX, Nov. 1947.
Meade, J. E.: “National Income, National Expenditure and the Balance of Payments,” Parts I-II, Economic Journal, LVII, Dec. 1948, and LVIII, March 1949.
Metzler, L. A.:“The Theory of International Trade,” Chap. 6 in A Survey of Contemporary Economics(ed. by H. S. Ellis) Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1948.
Mikesell, R. F.: “International Disequilibrium,” ,” American Economic Review, XXXIX, June 1949, ppp. 618-45
Nurkse, Ragnar: “International Monetary Policy and the Search for economic Stability,” American Economic Review, XXXVII, May 1947, pp. 560-80.
Polak, J. J.: “Exchange Depreciation and International Monetary Stability,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXIX, Aug. 1947, pp. 173-83.
Robertson, D. H.: “Britain and European Recovery,” Lloyds Bank Review, July 1949, pp. 1-13.
Triffin, Robert: “National Central Banking and the International Economy,”; see also comments by G. Haberler and L. A. Metzler, Postwar Economic Studies, No. 7. Washington, D. C. 1947; and further comments by H. D. Henderson, T. Balogh, R. Harrod, and Joan Robinson, Review of Economic Studies, XIV, 1946-47, pp. 53-97.
Williams, J. H.: “The Task of Economic Recovery,” Foreign Affairs, July 1948.
_______________ “Europe After 1952: The Long-term Problem,” Foreign Affairs, April 1949.
_______________ “The British Crisis. A Problem in Economic Statesmanship,” Foreign Affairs, October 1949.

II. Monetary and Fiscal Theory and Policy

Books

American Economic Association (H. S. Ellis, ed.): A Survey of Contemporary Economics. Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1948.
_______________ (W. Fellner and B. F. Haley, eds.): Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution.Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1946.
_______________ (G. Haberler, ed.): Readings in Business Cycle Theory. Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1944.
Fellner, William: Monetary Policies and Full Employment. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2^nd, 1947.
Haberler, G.: Prosperity and Depression. Geneva, United Nations, rev. ed., 1946.
Hansen, A. H.: Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles. New York, Norton, 1941.
_______________ Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, New York, McGraw Hill, 1949.
Harris, S. E. (ed.): The New Economics, New York, Knopf, 1947.
Harrod, R. F.: Towards a Dynamic Econmics, London, Macmillan, 1948.
Hawtrey, R. O.: Currency and Credit, London, Longmans, 3^rd, 1928.
_______________ Capital and Employment, London, Longmans, 2^nd
_______________ The Art of Central Banking, London, Longmans, 1932.
Hayek, F. A. von: Prices and Production. London, Routledge, 1935.
Keynes, J. M.: A Tract on Monetary Reform, New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1924.
_______________ A Treatise on Money(2 vols.). New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1930.
_______________ The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1936.
Klein, L. R.: The Keynesian Revolution. New York, Macmillan, 1946.
Robertson, D. H.: Essays in Monetary Theroy.London, King, 1940.
_______________ Money. London, Nisbet, rev. ed., 1948.
Simons, H. C.: Economic Policy for a Free Society, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Terborgh, George: The Bogey of Economic Maturity. Chicago, Machinery and Allied Products Institute, 1945.
Wicksell, Knut: Interest and Prices. London, Macmillan, 1936.
Wright, D. M. The Economics of Disturbance. New York, Macmillan, 1946.

Articles

Burns, Arthur F.: “Economic Research and the Keynesian Thinking of Our Times,” (26^thAnnual Report). New York, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1947.
_______________ “Keynesian Economics Once Again,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXIX, Nov. 1947, pp. 252-265.
Clark, Colin: “Public Finance and Changes in the Value of Money,” Economic Journal, LV, Dec. 1945, pp. 371-89.
Hayek, F. A. von: “The ‘Paradox’ of Saving,” Economica, XI, March 1931, pp. 125-69. (Reprinted as an Appendix in Profits, Interest and Investment, London, Routledge, 1939).
Hicks, J. R.: “Mr. Keynes and the Classics: A Suggested Interpretation,” Econometrica, V, 1937 (Reprinted in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution. Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1946).
Kuznets, Simon: Book Review: “Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles” by A. H. Hansen, Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb. 1942, pp. 31-36.
_______________ “Capital Formation, 1879-1938,” in Studies in Economics and Industrial Relations. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1941.
Mints, L. W. and others: “A Symposium on Fiscal and Monetary Policy,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXVIII, May 1946, pp. 60-84.
Modigliani, F.: “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest,” Econometrica, XII, Jan. 1944, pp. 45-88.
_______________ “Fluctuations in the Saving-income Ratio: A Problem in Economic Forecasting,” Studies in Income and Wealth, XI. New York, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1949.
Tobin, James: “Liquidity Preference and Monetary Policy,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXIX, May 1947, pp. 124-31.
Wallich, H. C.: “Public Debt and Income Flow,” in Postwar Economic Studies, No. 3. Washington, D.C., Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Dec. 1945, pp. 84-100.
_______________ “The Changing Significance of the Interest Rate,” American Economic Review, XXXVI, Dec. 1946, pp. 761-87.
Williams, John H.: “An Appraisal of Keynesian Economics,” American Economic Review, Supplement, XXXVIII, May 1948.
Wright, D. M.: “The Future of Keynesian Economics,” American Economic Review, XXXV, June 1945, pp. 284-307.

III. Current Problems and Policies—Federal Reserve Policy and Debt Management

Book

Homan, P. T. and F. Machlup (eds.): Financing American Prosperity. New York, Twentieth Century Fund, 1945.

Articles

Carr, Hobart C.: “The Problem of Bank-held Government Debt,” American Economic Review, XXXVI, Dec. 1946, pp. 833-42.
Chandler, L. V.: “Federal Reserve Policy and the Federal Debt,” American Economic Review, XXXIX, March 1949.
Federal Reserve Board:
1. Annual Reports for the years 1945-48.
2. Postwar Economic Studies, No. 8, Nov. 1947.
Ratchford, B. U. “The Economic and Monetary Effects of Public Debts,” Public Finance, [sic, “The Monetary Effects of Public Debts,” Openbare Financiën] No. 4, 1948 and No. 1, 1949.
Seltzer, L. H.: “The Changed Environment of Monetary-banking Policy,” American Economic Review, XXXVI, May 1946.
_______________ “Is a Rise in Interest Rates Desirable or Inevitable?” American Economic Review, XXXV, Dec. 1945, pp. 831-50.
Sproul, Allan: “Monetary Management and Credit Control,” American Economic Review, XXXVII, June 1947, pp. 339-50.
Symposium: “How to Manage the National Debt,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXXI, Feb. 1949.
Whittlesey, C. R.: “Federal Reserve Policy in Transition,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, LX, May 1946, pp. 340-50.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003, Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1949-50 (3 of 3)”.

_____________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 241
PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING

Mid-Year Examination. January, 1950.

(Three Hours)

Discuss ONE question in EACH group.

I

(1) “Hawtrey was never a Keynesian, but Keynes was formerly a Hawtreyan.”
(2) The relation of Keynes’ income theory to the quantity theory of money.
(3) The propensity to consume.

II

(1) Fixed versus flexible exchange rates.
(2) Classical international trade theory and the problems of the postwar world.

III

(1) The sterling problem since the war.
(2) “Chronic dollar shortage.”
(3) Western European “integration.”
(4) Devaluation and European recovery.
(5) The Intra-European Payments Plan.
(6) Europe after 1952: the long-term recovery problem.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Exams—Social Sciences, etc. Feb. 1950. (HUC 7000.38, 81 of 284).

_____________________

[PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING]
Reading List
[Economics 241, Spring 1949-50]
[Professor Hansen]

The Role of Money in Current World Developments
1. Books
  1. Balogh, T., Dollar Crisis: Causes and Cure, (Blackwell), 1949.
  2. Busschau, W. J., The Measure of Gold, (Central New Agency, Ltd.) South Africa, 1949.
  3. Goldenweiser, E. A., Monetary Management, (McGraw-Hill), N.Y., 1949. Chapters IV and VIII.
  4. Harris, S. E., The New Economics, (Knopf), N.Y. 1947. Chapters 20-29.
  5. Harris, S. E., Foreign Economics Policy of the United States, (Harvard University Press), 1948, Chapters 18-25.
  6. Williams, John H., Postwar Monetary Plans, (Knopf), 1947 or English edition (Blackwell), 1949.
2. Pamphlets
  1. Inflationary and Deflationary Tendencies, 1946-48(United Nations), Department of Economic Affairs, 1949.
  2. International Capital Movements during the Inter-war Period, (United Nations), Department of Economic Affairs, 1949.
3. Articles
  1. Burns, A. R., Lutz, F. A., and Clough, S. B., “The European Program in Operation,” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, January 1950.
  2. Robbins, Lionel, “The Sterling Problem,” Lloyds Bank Review, October, 1949.
  3. Robertson, D. H., “Britain and European Recovery,” Lloydds Bank Review, July, 1949.
  4. Sayers, R. S. “Central Banking in the Light of Recent British and American Experience,”Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1949.
Theory of Money, Liquidity Preference, Interest, Wages and Prices
1. Books
  1. Clark, Kaldor, Smithies, et al., National and International Measures for Full Employment, (United Nations), Department of Economic Affairs, December 1949.
  2. Ellis, H. S., (ed.), Survey of Contemporary Economics, (Blakiston), Philadelphia, 1948, Chapter 2 “Employment Theory”, by Fellner.
  3. Fellner, William, Monetary Policies and Full Employment, Berkeley, 1946. Chapter 6, (pp. 174-209).
  4. Hansen, Alvin H.
    1. Economic Policy and Full Employment, (McGraw-Hill), 1947. Chapters 18, 19, and 22, (pp. 202-232, 261-287).
    2. Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, (Norton), 1941. Chapters 1-5; 11-15; (pp. 13-105; 225-338).
    3. Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, (McGraw-Hill), 1949.
  5. Harris, S. E., (ed.), The New Economics, (Knopf), 1947. Part III (The General Theory: Five Views; Chapters XI-XV).
  6. Keynes, J. M., Monetary Reform, (Harcourt), 1924, pp. 81-95; pp. 152-191.
  7. Keynes, J. M., A Treatise on Money, (Harcourt), 1930, Chapters 9-13 and 30 (Volume I, pp. 123-220; Volume II, pp. 148-208).
  8. Keynes, J. M., General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, (Harcourt), 1936, pp. 3-45; 61-65; 74-221; 245-271; 292-332; 372-384.
  9. Klein, Lawrence, The Keynesian Revolution, Chapters 1-3, (pp. 1-90) Macmillan, 1947.
  10. Marshall, Alfred, Money, Credit and Commerce, (Macmillan), 1923. Book I, Chapter IX, pp. 38-50.
  11. Robertson, D. H. Essays in Monetary Theory(King), 1940. Chapters 1, 6, 11; (pp. 1-38; 92-97; 113-153).
  12. Wicksell, K., Interest and Prices(Macmillan), 1936; Introduction by Bertil Ohlin; also Author’s Preface; Chapters 5, 7-8, 11; (pp. 38-50; 81-121; 165-177).
  13. Wicksell, K., Money: Lectures on Political Economy, Volume II, (Macmillan), 1935, Chapter IV (pp. 127-222).
  14. Income, Employment and Public Policy, (Norton), 1948, Chapter VI, “The Simple Mathematics of Income Determination,” by Paul Samuelson.
  15. Macmillan Report, Royal Commission on Finance and Industry, Cmd., 3897 (1931), Part I, Chapter 11, (pp. 92-105).
  16. The Economic Report of the President, January 1950.
2. Articles
  1. Hansen, A. H., and Burns, Arthur F., “Keynesian Economics Once Again,” Review of Economics Statistics, Nov. 1947.
  2. Hansen, A. H., “The Robertsonian and Swedish Systems of Period Analysis,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb. 1950.
  3. Hicks, J. R., “Mr. Keynes and the Classics: A Suggested Interpretation,” Econometrica, April 1937.
  4. Lerner, A. P., “Interest and Theory: Supply and Demand for Loans or Supply and Demand for Cash,” Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1944.
  5. Modigliani, F., “Liquidity Preferences and the Theory of Interest and Money,” Econometrica, January 1944.
  6. Mints, Hansen, Ellis, Lerner, Kalecki, “A Symposium on Fiscal and Monetary Policy,” Review of Economic Statistics, May 1946.
  7. Scott, Ira O. Jr., “Professor Leontief on Lord Keynes,” and “Comments” by Professors Leontief and Haberler, Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1949.
  8. Simons, H. C., “Debt Policy and Banking Policy,” Review of Economic Statistics, May 1946.
  9. Tobin, James, “Liquidity Preference and Monetary Policy,” The Review of Economic Statistics, May 1947.
  10. Williams, John H., “An Appraisal of Keynesian Economics,” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, May 1948, pp. 273-290.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003, Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1949-50 (3 of 3)”.

_____________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 241

Principles of Money and Banking
Final Examination (June, 1950)

(Three Hours)

Answer any FOUR questions.

I.

Discuss:

(a) the causes of the increase in the quantity of money (currency and deposits) in:

(1) the Thirties,
(2) the Second World War; and

(b) appraise the role of this increase:

(1) in the rise in income from 1933 to 1937; and
(2) in war-time financing.

II.

Compare the monetary theories of Wicksell and Marshall (or more broadly the Cambridge cash-balance approach).

III.

“An increase in the quantity of money is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the expansion of income and employment.” Show carefully why you agree, partially agree, or disagree in whole or in part with this statement. Give a technical discussion in terms of modern monetary theory.

IV.

Discuss and evaluate Treasury and Federal Reserve policies after 1945 with respect to

(a) inflation,
(b) interest rates,
(c) debt management,
(d) full employment.

V.

Discuss the changing role of Central Banking:

(a) in the 19^th century,
(b) in the nineteen-twenties, and
(c) following the Second World War.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001, Bound Volume Final Exams—Social Sciences June 1940 (HUC 7000.28, 84 of 284), Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …,Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1950.

Image Source: Alvin H. Hansen and John H. Williams in Harvard Class Album 1942.

Tags Hansen, WilliamsJH

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Business cycle theory. Reading list and exam. Hansen and Haberler, 1938

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-19

This is one of those instances where I really would like to try to dig deeper to see what the actual course content was. From the 1940-41 Division announcements we have the following description of the Business Cycle course at Harvard:

The broad facts about the business cycle will be discussed first. The distinction between trend movements, seasonal fluctuations, long waves and the business cycle in various time series will be analyzed. Then various theories of the cycle will be reviewed and the principles of cycle policy and possibilities of mitigating or avoiding depressions considered.

For now we at least have a bibliographic list for the subject and the exam questions from the first time that Alvin Hansen and Gottfried Haberler co-taught the course together.

________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 45a ²hf. Professor Hansen and Associate professor Haberler.— Business Cycles.

Total 37: 2 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1937-1938, p. 85.

________________

[Penciled Note: 1937-38]

[Penciled Note: Ec. 45a]

BUSINESS CYCLE THEORY

I.

Haberler, Gottfried:	Prosperity and Depression, League of Nations, Geneva, 1937
Hansen, Alvin H.:	Business Cycle Theory, Ginn and Co., 1927
Röpke, Wilhelm:	Crises and Cycles, William Hodge and Co., London, 1936.

II.

Selected List of Books, Articles and Forecasting Services

A. Books

Adams, A. B.	1. Economics of Business Cycles 2. Profits, Progress and Prosperity
Ayres, L. P.	Economics of Recovery
Bellerly	Control of Credit
Brookings Institution	The Recovery Problem in the United States
Cassel, G.	The Theory of Social Economy, Book IV.
Clark, J. M.	1. Strategic Factors in Business Cycles 2. Economics of Planning Public Works, (Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.)
Copeland, Douglas	Australia in the World Crises
Dickinson, F. G.	Public Construction and Cyclical Unemployment
Douglas, Paul H.	Controlling Depressions
Durbin, E. M. F.	1. Purchasing Power and Trade Depressions 2. The Problem of Credit Policy
	Economic Reconstruction (Report of Columbia University Commission)
	Economic Essays in Honour of Gustav Cassel
Fisher, Irving	1. Booms and Depressions 2. 100% Money
Foster and Catchings	1. Profits, Part V. 2. Business Without a Buyer 3. Road to Plenty
Gayer, Arthur D.	1. Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization 2. Public Works in Prosperity and Depression
Haney, L. H.	Business Forecasting
Hansen, A. H.	1. Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World 2. The Problem of Unemployment Insurance and Relief in the U.S., Part IV.
Hardy, C. O. and Cox, G. V.	Forecasting Business Conditions
Harrod	The Trade Cycle
Hawtrey	1. Good and Bad Taste [sic, “Trade”] 2. Trade Depression and the Way Out 3. Capital and Employment
Hayek, F. A.	Prices and Production
Hobson, J. A.	Economics of Unemployment
Hull	Industrial Depressions
Keynes, J. M.	1. A Treatise on Money 2. The Means to Prosperity 3. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money 4. Unemployment as a World Problem, pp. 1-42
Kuznets, S. S.	Cyclical Fluctuations
Lavington	Trade Cycle
Lundberg	Economic Expansion
McCracken, H. L.	Value Theory and Business Cycles
Meade	Economic Analysis and Policy
Mitchell, Wesley	Business Cycles, the Problem and its Setting
Moore, Henry L.	1. Economic Cycles 2. Generating Economic Cycles
Moulton, H. G.	1. The Formation of Capital 2. Income and Economic Progress
Newman, William H.	The Building Industry and Business Cycles
Ohlin, Bertil	Course and Phases of the Depression (League of Nations)
Persons, Warren	Forecasting Business Cycles
Persons, Foster and Hettinger	The Problem of Business Forecasting
Pigou, A. C.	Industrial Fluctuations
Robbins, Lionel	The Great Depression
Robertson, D. H.	1. Money 2. Industrial Fluctuations 3. Banking Policy and the Price Level
Schmidt, C. T.	German Business Cycles, 1924-1933
Schumpeter, Joseph A.	The Theory of Economic Development
Slichter, S. H.	Towards Stability
Smith, W. B. and Cole, A.H.	Fluctuations in American Business, 1790-1860
Snyder, Carl	Business Cycles and Business Measurements
Timoshenko, V.	1. World Agriculture and the Depression 2. The Role of Agriculture Fluctuations
Tintner, Gerhard	Prices in the Trade Cycle
Warren and Pearson	Gold and Prices
	World Prices and the Building Industry
Veblen, T.	[1.] Theory of Business Enterprise [2.] The Engineers and the Price System
Wagemann	Economic Rhythm
Wicksell	Interest and Prices

B. Articles

Aftalion, Albert in Review of Economic Statistics, October 1927

Haberler, Gottfried, “Some Reflections on the Present Situation of Business Cycle Theory,” Review of Economic Statistics, February, 1936

Hansen, Boddy and Langum, “Recent Trends in Business Cycle Literature,” Review of Economic Studies, May, 1936

Hansen and Tout, “Investment and Saving in the Business Cycle,” Econometrica, April 1933

Hansen, A. H., “Mr. Keynes in Under-employment Equilibrium,” Journal of Political Economy, October, 1936

Hansen, A. H., Harrod on the Trade Cycle,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1937

Hansen, A. H., “The Consequences of Reducing Expenditures,” Proceedings, Academy of Political Science, January, 1938

Kondratieff, M. D., “The Long Waves in Economic Life,” Review of Economic Statistics, November, 1935

Robertson, D. H., “The Trade Cycle—An Academic View,” Lloyds Bank Review, September, 1937

Schumpeter, Joseph, “An Analysis of Economic Change,” Review of Economic Statistics, May, 1935

C. Forecasting Services

Annalist (Weekly)
Brookmire Economic Service (Weekly and Special)
Councillor; Annalist; Investor; Technician; Forecaster; Purchaser (outlook for commodity prices); Executive; Income Map; Special Reports on Industries.
London and Cambridge Economic Service (Quarterly)
Moody’s Investors Service (Weekly and Bi-weekly)
Review of Economic Statistics; Harvard (Quarterly)
Standard Statistics (Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly and Special)
Business Prospects; Outlook for Security Market; Industry Reports A, B, C, etc.; Basic Statistics.
United Business Service (Weekly)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1937-38”.

________________

1937-38
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 45a²BUSINESS CYCLES

[Final Exam]

(Write on THREE questions)

Write briefly on each of the following:
1. Summarize and evaluate the analyses of “the long waves” made by (1) Schumpeter, and (2) Kondratieff.
2. Compare Robertson and Aftalion with respect to the role of fixed capital in the business cycle.
Show the significance and implications of (a) the “principle of accelerations” and (b) the “multiplier” with respect to the “pump-priming” theory.
“The turning point from prosperity to depression is caused not by a shortage of capital but by inadequate consumption expenditures.”
(In answering this question discuss, among other items, the following: (1) Is saving deflationary? (2) What is the effect of an increase in savings (a) upon the value of real investment? (b) upon consumption? (3) Is over-investment a cause of recession?
Discuss the part played by monetary factors in the trade cycle, drawing particularly upon the analyses of Hawtrey and Hayek.

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, 1938.

Image Source: Alvin Hansen (left) and Gottfried Haberler (right) from Harvard Class Album 1942.

Tags Haberler, Hansen

Courses Curriculum Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics Course Offerings, 1900-1905

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-17

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

____________________________________

1900-1901
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. SPRAGUE and Dr. ANDREW. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange. — Lectures on Social Questions, Banking and Monetary Legislation. 3 hours a week.

19 Undergraduates, 5 Special students. Total 24.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. —Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 5 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 9.

10. Professor ASHLEY. — The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. 2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 4 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 9.

9². Mr. WILLOUGHBY. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 8 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 11.

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

1 Graduate, 4 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 6.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1900-01, p.44.

____________________________________

1901-1902
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. ANDREW. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange. — Industrial Organization, Labor Questions, Banking and Monetary Legislation. 3 hours a week.

28 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 32.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Asst. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. —Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week.

6 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 8.

9². Mr. DURAND. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 6 Undergraduates. Total 7.

6. Dr. SPRAGUE. — The Economic History of the United States. 2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 4 Undergraduates. Total 6.

Primarily for Graduates:—

20. Asst. Professor CARVER. — Seminary in Economics. Thesis-subject: Motives in Politics.

1 Special student. Total 1.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1901-02, pp. 37-38.

____________________________________

1902-1903
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Drs. ANDREW and MIXTER. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Industrial Organization, Foreign Trade, Banking, Socialism, and Labor Questions. 3 hours a week.

18 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 21.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3². Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. —Theories of social progress. Half-course. 2 hours a week. 2d half-year.

10 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 11.

14. Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform. — 2 hours a week.

4 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 6.

11². Dr. GAY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe and America. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 1 Undergraduate. Total 2.

5¹. Mr. MEYER. — Railways and Other Public Works under Corporate and Private Management. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate, 4 Undergraduates. Total 5.

8a¹. Dr. ANDREW. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate, 7 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 11.

8b². Dr. SPRAGUE. — Banking and the history of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

3 Undergraduates. Total 3.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1902-03, p. 43.

____________________________________

1903-1904
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Asst. Professor ANDREW. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Industrial Organization, Foreign Trade, Banking, Socialism, and Labor Questions. 3 hours a week.

36 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 38.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

2. Professor CARVER. — Economic Theory. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 1 Undergraduate, 2 Special students. Total 4.

11. Asst. Professor GAY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe and America. 2 hours a week (and occasionally a third hour).

2 Undergraduates. Total 2.

6. Dr. SPRAGUE. — The Economic History of the United States. 2 hours a week.

7 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 9.

9a². Professor RIPLEY. — Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

2 Graduates, 5 Undergraduates. Total 7.

Primarily for Graduates:—

13¹. Professor CARVER. — Methods of Economic Investigation. Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year. [Graduate course in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty]

1 Graduate, 2 Undergraduates. Total 3.

20. Professors CARVER and RIPLEY. — Seminary in Economics. Thesis-subjects: “Labor Organizations among Women” and “The Defective Child in its own home.”

1 Graduate, 1 Special student. Total 2.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1903-04, pp. 50-51.

____________________________________

1904-1905
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Asst. Professors ANDREW and SPRAGUE. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Industrial Organization, Foreign Trade, Banking, Socialism, and Labor Questions. 3 hours a week.

14 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 18.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

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

1 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 6.

6. Asst. Professor SPRAGUE. — The Economic History of the United States. 3 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 1 Undergraduate, 1 Special student. Total 4.

COURSE OF RESEARCH

20a. Asst. Professor GAY. — The Expansion of English Trade in the Mediterranean, and the Levant Company. 1 hour a week. [Graduate course in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty]

1 Graduate. Total 1.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1904-05, p. 56.

Image Source: Gymnasium and Fay House, Radcliffe College ca. 1904. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540. REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-D4-10778 R (b&w glass neg.) Copy from Wikimedia Commons.

Tags Andrew, Ashley, Carver, Durand, Gay, MeyerHR, Mixter, Ripley, Sprague, Willoughby

Cambridge Chicago Columbia Economic History Economists Germany Harvard NBER Stanford

Chicago. Friedman memo regarding Karl Bode and Moses Abramovitz, 1947

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-16

In the following 1947 memo from Milton Friedman to T.W. Schultz we can read two talent-scouting reports on potential appointments for the University of Chicago economics department. One candidate, Karl Bode had been vouched for by Allen Wallis, a trusted friend and colleague of Milton Friedman, but we can easily read Friedman’s own less than enthusiastic report on the meager published work examined, certainly compared to Friedman’s glowing report for his friend from Columbia student days, Moses Abramovitz. But comparing the publications listed in the memo, I certainly wouldn’t fault Friedman’s revealed preference for Abramovitz.

Abramovitz went on to have a long and distinguished career at Stanford and Bode left Stanford for government service with his last occupation according to his death certificate “Planning Director, Agency for International Development (A.I.D.)”

Since Karl Bode turned out to have cast a relatively short academic shadow, I have appended some biographical information about him at the end of this post. But for now just the vital dates: Karl Ernst Franz Bode was born November 24, 1912 in Boennien, Germany and he died March 18, 1981 in Arlington, VA.

__________________

Milton Friedman on Bode and Abramovitz

January 10, 1947

[To:] Mr. Schultz, Economics
[From:] Mr. Friedman, Economics
[Re:] Staff appointments

In connection with staff appointments, I thought it might be helpful if I put down on paper for you the information I have on two persons whose names I have casually mentioned: Karl Bode and Moses Abramovitz.

Karl Bode (Assoc. Prof. of Economics, Stanford)

I know about Bode primarily from Allen Wallis. Allen considers him absolutely first-rate in all respects and recommends him very highly.

Bode, who is now in his early thirties, was born in Germany and, though Catholic of Aryan descent, and the holder of a highly-prized governmental fellowship, left Germany almost immediately after Hitler’s accession. He went first to Austria, then to Switzerland, where he took his Ph.D., in 1935, then to England, where he studied at Cambridge and at the London School. Bernard Haley met him while at Cambridge, was highly impressed with him, and induced him to come to Stanford, where he has been since 1937. He has been on leave of absence since early 1945, first with the Tactical Bombing Survey, then with the Allied Military Government in Berlin. He is expected back sometime this summer.

At Stanford, Bode is responsible for American and European Economic History, and, in addition, has taught advanced courses in Economic Theory. His original interest was in International Trade. He has a contract to write a text on Economic History, but I do not know whether on American or European Economic History.

I have obtained a list of his publications, most of which are fragments or reviews. Three of more general interest are:

(a) A. W. Stonier: “A New Approach to the Methodology of the Social Sciences”, Economica, Vol. 4, p. 406-424, Nov., 1937.

(b) “Plan Analysis and process analysis: AER, 33-348-54, June 1943.

(c) “A Note on the Mathematical Coincidence of the instantaneous and the serial multiplier”, Review of Economic Statistics, 26: 221-222, Nov. 1944.

I have read these. They are too slight to permit a reliable and comprehensive judgment about his capacities; but they are sufficient to demonstrate a clear, logical mind.

Allen tells me that Schumpeter, Haberler, Howard Ellis, and of course, the Stanford people all know him and could provide evidence about his abilities.

Moses Abramovitz (member of research staff in charge of business cycle unit, National Bureau of Economic Research.)

Abramovitz got his bachelor’s at Harvard, his Ph.D. at Columbia. He has done some part-time teaching of Theory at Columbia. During the war he was with the Office of Strategic Services, where he worked on foreign economic conditions. He was a member of the reparations commission staff at both the Moscow and Paris Conferences.

Abramovitz and I were fellow graduate students at Columbia, and I have known him rather well ever since. I think him extremely capable, with an excellent mind, broad interests, and an extraordinary capacity for forming a sound judgment from conflicting evidence.

His academic and private research background is mostly in Economic Theory and Business Cycles; but the war years gave him a considerable background, and generated a real interest, in foreign economic relations.

Some of his writings are:

Selected Publications:

An Approach to a Price Theory for a Changing Economy, Columbia University Press, 1939.

Monopolistic Selling in a Changing Economy, Q.J.E., Feb., 1938.

Saving vs Investment: Profits vs Prosperity?Supplement on papers relating to the TNEC, Am. Econ. Rev., June, 1942.

Book on Cyclical behavior of inventories completed and scheduled to be published shortly by Nat’l Bureau of Economic Research.

M.F.

* * * * *

PUBLICATIONS OF KARL BODE

A new approach to the methodology of the social sciences. (With A.W. Stonier): Economica, vol. 4, pp. 406-424, November, 1937.

Prosperität und Depression: Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, vol. 8, pp. 597-614, December, 1937.

Review of: Plotnik, M.J. Werner Sombart and his type of economics. 1937. American Economic Review, 28: 522-523, September, 1938.

Review of: Sombart, Werner. Weltanschauung, Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft. 1938. Ibid., 28: 766, December, 1938.

The acceptance of defeat in Germany: Journal of abnormal and social psychology, 38: 193-198, April, 1943.

Plan analysis and process analysis: American Economic Review, 33: 348-354, June, 1943.

Review of: Day, C. Economic Development in Europe. 1942:Journal of economic History, 2: 225-227, November, 1942.

Catholics in the postwar world: America, 71: 347-348, July, 1944

Economic aspects of morale in Nazi Germany: Pacific Coast Economic Association: Papers, 1942. pp. 29-34, 1943.

Reflections on a reasonable peace: Thought, 19: 41-48, March, 1944

Review of: Dempsey, B.W. Interest and usury. 1943: Ibid., 18: 756-758, December, 1943.

German reparations and a democratic peace: Thought, 19: 594-606, December, 1944

A note on the mathematical coincidence of the instantaneous and the serial multiplier: Review of Economic Statistics, 26: 221-222, November, 1944.

Source:Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 79, Folder 1 “University of Chicago, Minutes. Economics Department 1946-1949”.

__________________

Karl F. Bode
AEA 1969 Directory of Members, p. 41.

Bode, Karl F., government; b. Germany, 1912; student, U. Bonn-Germany, 1931-33, U. Vienna-Austria, 1933-34; Ph.D., U. Bern-Switzerland, 1935; Cambridge-England, 1935-37. DOC.DIS. The Concept of Neutral Money, 1935. FIELDS 2abc, 1c, 4a. Chief, Regional Organization & Program Staff, Intl. Cooperation Adm., 1955-60, asst. dep. dir. for planning, 1960-62; chief, Planning Assistance & Research Div., Agy. for Intl. Dev., 1962-67; dir., Research, Evaluation & Information Retrieval, Agy. for Internat. Dev. since 1967. ADDRESS Vietnam Bur., Agy. for Internat. Dev., Dept. State, Washington, DC 20523.

__________________

Haberler Report of Mises’s Private Seminar

Regular participants of the seminar were several members of the Mont Pelerin Society – notably Hayek, Machlup, the late Alfred Schutz and in the very early days, John V. Van Sickle. Visiting scholars regarded it a great honor to be invited to the seminar – among them Howard S. Ellis (University of California), Ragnar Nurkse (late Professor of Economics in Columbia University, New York) whose untimely death occurred three years ago, Karl Bode (later in Stanford University and now in Washington), Alfred Stonier (now University College in London), and many others. There was Oskar Morgenstern (now Princeton University), the late Karl Schlesinger and Richard Strigl, two of the most brilliant economists of their time…the unforgettable Felix Kaufmann, philosopher of the Social Sciences in the broadest sense including the law and economics – he also wrote a much debated book on the logical foundation of mathematics – who after his emigration in 1938 joined the Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York where he taught with great success until his premature death twelve years ago.

Source: Mises’s Private Seminar: Reminiscences by Gottfried Haberler. Reprint from The Mont Pelerin Quarterly, Volume III, October 1961, No. 3, page 20f. Posted at the Mises Institute website.

__________________

From the Preface of Felix Kaufman’s 1936 book

For the critical editing of the manuscript and of the galleys, I wish to thank most heartily a number of friends in various countries, expecially Dr. Karl Bode, presently of St. John’s College, Cambridge and Dr. Alfred Schütz of Vienna. Dr. Bode has also taken upon himself the great labor of preparing both indexes.

Source: Felix Kaufmann. Theory and Method in the Social Sciences. [English translation of Methodenlehre der Sozialwissenschaften. Wien: Julius Springer, 1936.] from Felix Kaufmann’s Theory and Method in the Social Sciences, Robert S. Cohen and Ingeborg K. Helling (eds.). Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 303. Springer: 2014.

__________________

Reports from The Stanford Daily

The Stanford Daily, Volume 93, Issue 47, 29 April 1938

Several distinguished scholars from other universities will join the Stanford faculty next year…Dr. Karl Franz Bode, formerly on the faculty of St. John’s College, Cambridge University, England, was appointed assistant professor of economics to succeed Dr. Donald M. Erb who was appointed president of the University of Oregon….

The Stanford Daily, Volume 100, Issue 02, 23 September 1941, p. 1.

Econ Department Changes Classes… History of Currency Problems, 118, will he given in fall quarter rather than in the spring quarter. It is a five-unit course, taught MTWThF at 11 a.m. in Room 200Q by Karl F. Bode. Economics 1 and 2 are prerequisites….

The Stanford Daily, Volume 103, Issue 86, 28 May 1943, p. 1.

Wilbur Names New Faculty Promotions. Promotions and appointments of faculty members for the academic year 1943-1944 were announced yesterday by Chancellor Ray Lyman Wilbur. … Those promoted from assistant professor to associate professor are … Dr. Karl F. Bode, economics….

The Stanford Daily, Volume 111, Issue 20, 7 March 1947, p. 3

President Donald B. Tresidder yesterday announced 37 faculty promotions. The promotions include 11 faculty members to full professorships, six to associate professorships, and two to assistant professorships, together with promotion of 18 members of the clinical faculty at the Stanford School of Medicine in San Francisco….

To professorships … Karl F. Bode, in economics…

The Stanford Daily, Vol 119, Issue 7, 13 February 1951, p. 1.

Dr. Karl F. Bode, Stanford economics professor on leave for government duty in Germany, has been appointed deputy economic adviser, Office of Economic Affairs, it has been announced by the office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. Dr. Bode will be stationed in Bonn, Germany. He has been acting chief of the program division in the Office of Economic Affairs.

Image Source: Karl Bode from the 1939 Standford Quad.

Tags Abramovitz, Bode, Ellis, Friedman, Haberler, SchultzTW, Schumpeter, Wallis

Amherst Chicago Economists Harvard M.I.T. Placement

Chicago. Zvi Griliches asking Frank Fisher for junior appointment leads, 1961

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-13

In a 1961 memo Zvi Griliches reported to his Chicago colleagues some scouting results regarding a possible junior appointment in economics. He spoke econometrician-to-econometrician with his colleague Frank Fisher at M.I.T. about the most interesting graduate students in the Cambridge area on the job market that year. Four names were mentioned, two unsurprising enough were the names of economists “unable” to be drawn from the gravitational pull of Cambridge.

Griliches ended his memo with the remark “This year Domar happens to be MIT’s ‘placement officer’ and this is likely to put us at some competitive disadvantage.” Does this mean that Griliches thought the monopsonist Evsey Domar would deliberately discriminate against the University of Chicago?

_______________

Four graduate students discussed by Zvi Griliches and Frank Fisher

Beals, Ralph E. Dept. of Econs. Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002. Birth Yr: 1936. Degrees: B.S., U. of Kentucky, 1958; M.A., Northwestern U., 1959; Ph.D., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1970. Prin. Cur. Position: Clarence Francis Prof. of Econs., Amherst Coll., 1966. Concurrent/Past Positions: Assoc., Harvard Institute for Int’l. Develop., 1973. Research: Int’l. trade, commercial policy & industrialization in Indonesia.

[According to the Prabook website: Ralph E. Beals was Assistant professor economics, Amherst (Massachusetts) College, 1962-1963; associate professor, Amherst (Massachusetts) College, 1966-1971. ]

Hohenberg, Paul M. RPI, Dept of Econ, Troy, NY 12180. Birth Yr: 1933. Degrees: B.Ch.E., Cornell U., 1956; M.A., Tufts U., 1959; Ph.D., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1963. Prin. Cur. Position: Prof. of Econs., Rensselaer Poly. Institute, 1977. Concurrent/Past Positions: Vis. Assoc. Prof., Sir George Williams U., Montreal, 1972-74; Assoc. Prof., Cornell U., 1968-73. Research: Urbanization & econ. change in Europe and U.S.

Marglin, Stephen A. Birth Yr: 1938. Degrees: A.B., Harvard U., 1959; Ph.D., Harvard U., 1965. Prin. Cur. Position: Prof. of Econs., Harvard U.

Temin, Peter. Mass Inst of Tech, Dept of Econ, Cambridge, MA 02139. Birth Yr: 1937. Degrees: B.A., Swarthmore Coll., 1959; Ph.D., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1964. Prin. Cur. Position: Prof. of Econs., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1970. Concurrent/Past Positions: Assoc. Prof., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1967-70; Asst. Prof., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1965-67. Research: Econ. history; telecommunications policy.

Source: Biographical Listing of Members. The American Economic Review, Vol. 83, No. 6 (Dec., 1993).

_______________

Memo on possible appointments written by Zvi Griliches

November 8, 1961

[To:] A. Rees
[From:] Z. Griliches
[Re:] The possible appointments.

I had a long telephone conversation with Frank Fisher last week about “whom we should look at.” It is his opinion that the single best young man coming up now in the Cambridge area is:

Stephen A. Marglin—He is a mathematical theorist, with several papers to his credit. He has spent a year at Cambridge, England and is currently in his second year of a three year Junior Fellowship at Harvard. I had already invited him to give a talk to the workshop and he will be here on January 16 to talk on “The Social Rate of Discount and the Opportunity Costs of Public Investment.” Frank thinks that we would have a very hard time getting him, in particular for next year, but that he is clearly the best.

The best current MIT student that will be coming to the market is, in Fisher’s opinion:

Ralph Beals—who is a third year graduate student specializing in the fields of monetary policy and econometrics. He has been working with Solow and Albert Ando and his interests in the monetary area have appartently been stimulated by Solow’s and Ando’s involvement in the Monetary Commission stuff.

In addition, Fisher mentioned that there are also two ver good “economic historian types” finishing there this year:

Peter Pemin[sic, “Temin”]—who is working with Gerschenkron at Harvard, and
Paul Hohenberg—who is working withKindelberger on the sources of the econonmic development of France in the 19^thcentury.

This year Domar happens to be MIT’s “placement officer” and this is likely to put us at some competitive disadvantage.

cc: H. Johnson, M. Friedman, T. Schultz✓, G. Stigler, W. Wallis.

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics Records, Box 42, Folder 3.

Image Source: Zvi Griliches from the University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06565, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Beals, Domar, FisherFM, Gerschenkron, Griliches, Hohenberg, Marglin, Rees, Temin

Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Final Examination for topics in statistical theory. E.B. Wilson, 1938

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-13

Most course final examination questions at Harvard were officially printed, but for a variety of reasons some course final examinations questions were only duplicated using carbon paper or perhaps they were written on the black-board at the time of the examination. The Harvard archives collection of final examinations has boxes of the bound printed copies of final examinations and folders with the carbon or mimeographed copies of examinations for (some) of the other courses. We see from the enrollment data that there were only four graduate students enrolled in E. B. Wilson’s course on “Topics in Statistical Theory” so logistically it would have been no big deal for a secretary to type enough copies using carbon paper. It appears to be the original copy of his examination questions for 1937-38 that I have transcribed for this post.

________________

Course Announcement

Economics 122b ²hf. (formerly 32b). Topics in Statistical Theory.
Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., 3 to 4.30. Professor E. B. Wilson.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1937-38 (First Edition). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 34, No. 5 (March 1, 1937), p. 149.

________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 122b ²hf. (formerly 32b). Professor E. B. Wilson.—Topics in Statistical Theory.

Total 4: 4 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1937-38, p. 86.

________________

Final Examination in Economics 122b².
Wednesday June 8, 1938 at 2 P.M. in Amerson A

Students may individually use slide rules, logarithmic tables, books, notes, and their solutions of problems at their discretion.

Why did Macaulay feel that he must include a twelve-months moving average as one process in his summation formula for smoothing monthly interest rates? Why did this make it advisable that he include another summation over an even number of elements?
Prove that a running mean of a specified number of elements eliminates more of the random fluctuation from a time series than any other mean of the same number of elements.
What does a 13-term running mean do to a sine curve with period of 40 (using the interval between terms as a unit)?
Define a random series. Derive the relations which exist between the standard deviation of the random elements and the standard deviations of the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rddifferences of those elements?
What is the actuarial criterion of smoothness? What is the difficulty of using maximum smoothness as a criterion for smoothing a series?
Assuming the expansion of $\frac{x}{{{e}^{x}}-1}$ in a series with Bernoulli numbers as coefficients, derive formally the (asymptotic) expansion for $\log n!$ or for $\log \Gamma \left( n \right)$ .
What is the criterion of fidelity which is ordinarily imposed in graduating time series? Why is Spencer’s 21-term formula, which satisfies this criterion, used in place of that best 21-term eliminator or of that 21-term best smoother which satisfy this same criterion?
Prove the ordinary formula for the standard deviation of a median.
State R.A.Fisher’s method of finding the values of the constants (or parameters) of a frequency function of assumed type from the elements of a given sample. State also his rule for the standard deviations of the constants.
Given any analytical frequency function with close contact at the ends, derive therefrom the expansion of another frequency function of the same mean and standard deviation good to fourth moments inclusive.
Give a brief sketch of the symbolic method of treating advancing and retreating and central differences.
Give an illustration of (a) a universe with median but no mean (b) another universe in which the median is a better criterion of center than the mean, (c) a universe in which the mean is a better criterion of center than the median, (d) a universe in which the average of the least and greatest elements of a sample is a better criterion of center than either the mean or the median. What do you mean by “a better criterion of center”?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Box 3, Folder “Final examinations, 1937-1938”.

Image Source: Faculty portrait of of E. B. Wilson in Harvard Album 1939.

Tags Wilson

AGH [Albert Gailord Hart] 4/21/61

CONFIDENTIAL information on economic salaries, 1960-61, from chairmen of departments

Course Description

Course Enrollment

Final Examination

1932-33 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 392

Summer enrollment in Principles of Economics, 1942

Course Announcements for Summer School 1942

ECONOMICS A Summer Term, 1942

ECONOMICS A Outline and Reading Assignments Summer Term, 1942

Final examination first half of course

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY [First Session. Summer, 1942] ECONOMICS SAa

Part I

Part II

Final examination second half of course

HARVARD UNIVERSITY [Second Session. Summer, 1942] ECONOMICS SAb

Part I

Part II

Final Exam Intensive Course, First Session 1942

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY [First Session. Summer, 1942] ECONOMICS SA1

I

II

Final Examination for Principles of Economics “Lite”

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY [First Session. Summer, 1942] ECONOMICS SB

I

II

III

On Hamilton’s research on economic history

Hamilton’s unfinished John Law Project

Earl J. Hamilton c.v., ca. 1948

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO Chicago 37, Illinois DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Earl J. Hamilton c.v. early 1970s[?]

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Earl J. Hamilton

Course Enrollment

PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING Economics 241 Fall Term—1949-1950

I. International Monetary Theory and Policy

Books

Articles

II. Monetary and Fiscal Theory and Policy

Books

Articles

III. Current Problems and Policies—Federal Reserve Policy and Debt Management

Book

Articles

1949-50 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 241 PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING

Mid-Year Examination. January, 1950.

I

II

III

[PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING] Reading List [Economics 241, Spring 1949-50] [Professor Hansen]

1949-50 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 241

Principles of Money and Banking Final Examination (June, 1950)

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

Course Enrollment

[Penciled Note: Ec. 45a]

BUSINESS CYCLE THEORY

I.

II.

A. Books

B. Articles

C. Forecasting Services

1937-38 HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 45a2 BUSINESS CYCLES

[Final Exam]

1900-1901 ECONOMICS.

1901-1902 ECONOMICS.

1902-1903 ECONOMICS.

1903-1904 ECONOMICS.

1904-1905 ECONOMICS.

Milton Friedman on Bode and Abramovitz

Karl F. Bode AEA 1969 Directory of Members, p. 41.

Haberler Report of Mises’s Private Seminar

From the Preface of Felix Kaufman’s 1936 book

Reports from The Stanford Daily

Four graduate students discussed by Zvi Griliches and Frank Fisher

1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 39²

ECONOMICS A
Summer Term, 1942

ECONOMICS A
Outline and Reading Assignments
Summer Term, 1942

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SAa

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[Second Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SAb

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SA¹

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SB

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Chicago 37, Illinois
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Earl J. Hamilton c.v.
early 1970s[?]

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING
Economics 241
Fall Term—1949-1950

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 241
PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING

[PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING]
Reading List
[Economics 241, Spring 1949-50]
[Professor Hansen]

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 241

Principles of Money and Banking
Final Examination (June, 1950)

1937-38
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 45a²BUSINESS CYCLES

1900-1901
ECONOMICS.

1901-1902
ECONOMICS.

1902-1903
ECONOMICS.

1903-1904
ECONOMICS.

1904-1905
ECONOMICS.

Karl F. Bode
AEA 1969 Directory of Members, p. 41.

Final Examination in Economics 122b².
Wednesday June 8, 1938 at 2 P.M. in Amerson A