Category: Johns Hopkins

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Doctoral exams taken by Helen Potter, 1942

 

The previous post introduced us to the life and professional career of Helen Potter, Vassar (AB, 1933) and Johns Hopkins (PhD, 1942). One is hard-pressed to explain the purpose of such (rather easy) exit exams administered six weeks before commencement. Perhaps as a crude way to document that the submitted dissertation was not merely bought and paid by someone with abolutely no knowledge of economics. Anyone have a clue?

_____________________

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
(Economic Theory)

Miss Helen Potter
April 21, 1942

  1. Explain Keynes’ theory concerning the factors that determine the volume of employment.
  2. Discuss the origin and development of four concepts that are basic in modern economic thinking.
  3. What are some of the more important forms of an equation of exchange showing the relationship between money and prices? Explain the meaning of the various forms and discuss critically.
  4. Discuss briefly: backward sloping supply curves; kinked demand curves; pure competition; indifference curves; monopsony; the coefficient of acceleration; the widening and deepening of capital; Hayek’s concept of the lengthening of the period of production.
  5. Explain the fundamental economic theories involved in the working of an international gold standard, and show their application to the problem of reestablishing such a standard.
  6. Discuss equilibrium.
  7. Explain the main features of Schumpeter’s theory of business cycles.
  8. Discuss price under monopolistic competition.

_____________________

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
(Applied Economics)

Miss Helen Potter
April 22, 1942

  1. Is there any justification for price increases in a war economy? Explain the more important problems involved in any attempt to put into effect a program of price-fixing.
  2. From an economic point of view wherein is the corporation superior to other forms of business organization?
  3. Explain the problem of war financing. What factors need to be taken into consideration? Suggest a program that you think meets the requirements.
  4. How does trading on the equity by a bank differ from trading on the equity by a public utility? How is a bank to protect itself when trading on the equity?
  5. Explain the nature of the control over credit exercised by the Federal Reserve System. Contrast the relative importance of Federal Reserve policy and fiscal policy under the New Deal. Consider only the situation prior to the inauguration of the defense program.
  6. What is the role of probability in the formulation of scientific laws?
  7. Analyze the probable effect of a general increase in wages upon business activity during a period of depression.
  8. Define: an average; an index number; frequency distribution; a trend; seasonal variation; random sampling:
  9. Discuss the most important problems that would arise in connection with national planning.

 

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives, Department of Political Economy. Series 6. Box 3/1, Folder “Graduate Exams, 1933-1965”.

Image Source: Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University from the 1924 yearbook Hullabaloo.

Categories
Economists Gender Home Economics Johns Hopkins Vassar

Johns Hopkins University. Economics Ph.D. Alumna, social economist/home economist, Helen Potter, 1942

 

Looking for examination artifacts to transcribe, I went through my files for the Johns Hopkins University Department of Political Economy and decided (arbitrarily) to sample from the 1941-42 academic year’s graduate examinations. The exams in the folder were tailored as exit exams for those candidates for the PhD  who had completed dissertations. The name of the PhD candidate for two of the exams (transcribed in the next post) was Helen Potter. I figured this was serendipity begging for an addition to the Meet-an-economics-PhD-alumna/us gallery. And so the hunt was on to find out what ever became of Helen Potter.

While I have not been able to double-check every academic claim listed in the materials included below, in particular confirmation of degrees from New York University and Purdue (perhaps honorary), the main stations of Helen Potter’s professional career can indeed be verified. One may presume her 1969 AEA biographical listing would have included an assistant professorship at Johns Hopkins, if she ever had one (It doesn’t! But her Lafayette obituary does.).

Helen Potter, a 1933 Vassar graduate, almost immediately became active in the newly founded Catholic Economists’ Association (later re-named Association for Social Economics) upon receiving her PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1942. Her service included decades of editorial work for the Association’s journal as well as the establishment of the Helen Potter award in 1975 which turns out to harvest most of the Google-hits found when conducting a search on her name. The Association for Social Economics can be fairly characterised as one of the older heterodox bins of economics. Ultimately Helen Potter was able to return home to Lafayette, Indiana for a professorship in Home Management and Family Economics at Purdue University.

Helen Potter’s papers at Purdue: included in the collection of her father’s (Andrey A. Potter) papers:   Personal Papers of Dr. Helen C. Potter, ca. 1920’s-1986

Fun-fact: Helen Potter’s parents were personal friends of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth of Cheaper by the Dozen fame. Frank Gilbreth, a scientific management guru, was a colleague of Helen’s father on the faculty at Purdue University.

___________________________

AEA Biographical Listing 1969

POTTER, Helen Catherine, academic; b. Manhattan, Kan., 1911; A.B., Vassar Coll., 1933; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins U., 1942. DOC. DIS. Federal Protection for the Consumer, an Economic Analysis, 1942; History of Life Insurance Companies in the U.S., 1934 [published in volume 8 of the Vassar Journal of Undergraduate Studies].  FIELDS 10b, 4a, 6b. PUB. “Consumption,” Chapt. 27, Modern Econs., 1952; Money Management and Mental Health, Jour. of Psychiatric Therapy, 1969; Guidelines for Consumer Education-one of authors of this curriculum guide line for high schools of Illinois, 1969. RES. Evaluation of Consumer Education Today—Purdue Grant from U.S. Office of Ed.; Family Financial Management—Grant Purdue Experiment Station. Asso. prof. econs., Seton Hill Coll., 1943-51; asso. specialist family econs., U. Calif., Davis, 1951-53; asso. prof. fin., Loyola U., 1953-68; prof. family econs., Purdue U. since 1968. ADDRESS 517 Russell St., W. Lafayette, IN 47906.

Source: Biographical Listings of Members, The American Economic Review, Vol. 59, No. 6, 1969 Handbook of the American Economic Association (Jan., 1970), p. 349.

___________________________

PURDUE STUDENT KILLED IN WRECK NEAR LAFAYETTE
(September 1933)

Raymond H. Hilb, 21, of Chicago, a Senior in the mechanical engineering school at Purdue, was instantly killed, and Miss Helen Potter, 18, student at the Lafayette Business College was severely injured last Friday night on the new Delphi-Lafayette paved road, 25, when an automobile in which they were riding with two other persons, was struck by another car driven by George Weckerly, of Delphi, and occupied by Glen Clark, 16-year-old high school student, and Misses Dorothy Gerbens and Mildred Bowman, Delphi high school students. According to Clark’s version of the accident the car in which Hilb was riding drove onto the highway from the Black and White filling station and barbecue, where the car had been filled with gasoline. It was hit in the rear by the car driven by Weckerly. The collision came with terrific force and Hilb was thrown to the pavement, suffering a fractured skull. In the car with Hilb and Miss Potter were Bernard Amber of Gary, and Miss Mary Mitchell, of Lafayette. Hilb was manager of the Purdue University base ball team and was very popular on the college campus.

Source: Flora Hoosier Democrat of Flora, Indiana (September 23, 1933).

___________________________

Work for the National Catholic Community Service
(& Consumers League of NY, BLS, Wells College, Western College)

“Miss Helen Potter, West Lafayette, Ind., has recently taken up her duties as Resource Secretary for the Division.” [Women’s Division of the National Catholic Community Service]…”Miss Potter has served as field worker for the Consumers League of New York, Social Economist in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Instructor of Economics at Wells College Aurora, N.Y., and Western College, Oxford, O.”

Source: Catholic News Service, Newsfeeds, 30 June 1941.

___________________________

Ph.D. 1942, Johns Hopkins University

Helen Potter of the District of Columbia, A.B. Vassar College, 1933.

Political Economy. Thesis: “Federal protection for the consumer: an economic analysis”.

Source: Johns Hopkins University Commencement. June 2, 1942.

___________________________

Miss Potter Joins Purdue Faculty as Prof
(Feb. 21, 1968)

Miss Helen C. Potter has been appointed professor in the Department of Home Management and Family Economics at Purdue university effective Sept. 1.

Miss Potter, a native of Kansas, grew up in West Lafayette where her parents, Dean Emeritus and Mrs. A. A. Potter, still reside. She received her AB degree at Vassar College and her PhD degree from Johns Hopkins University in Political Economy.

She is professor in the Department of Finance at Loyola University in Chicago. Prior to her appointment to Loyola, Miss Potter taught at the University of California at Davis; Seton Hill College in Pennsylvania; Western College in Ohio, and Wells College in New York.

She has been an associate economist in the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She also has been associated with the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. Department of Labor.

[…]

Source:   Journal and Courier of Lafayette, Indiana (Feb. 21, 1968), p. 26.

___________________________

Prof. Helen Potter Comes Home to Teach
(Dec. 4, 1968)

[…]

Prof. Potter grew up in West Lafayette where her father — Dean Emeritus A. A. Potter — still resides. She received her AB degree at Vassar and her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in political economy.

Presently, she is a professor in the Department of Home Management and Family Economics at Purdue, but the road home for her was a long one by way of New York, California and Washington, not to mention a great portion of the Midwest where she taught or consulted in the exciting and complex world of finance.

Her professional experience includes many years as a professor of economics, at several American universities including Loyola of Chicago. In addition she has had government posts with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labor.

What’s a professor of finance doing in Purdue’s School of Home Economics? “It’s simple,” explains Miss Potter. “Consumer economics and the relations between business and customer are extremely important parts of our curricula.”

At the core of this education it is the individual who looks at himself to see what he wants out of life and how he can most effectively attain it. “It teaches the consumer how to make decisions for using limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants,” says the fragile looking professor who’s spent the last 15 years teaching male executives from some of the largest businesses about their dependence on society and their reciprocal responsibilities.

Equally important to Miss Potter is teaching the consumer how to use his time, energy and money to obtain a better life. “While showing him the relevance of economic principles to personal economic competence, it gives him the basic understanding which is a requisite for citizenship,” she added.

[…]

In addition to her teaching, Prof. Potter is involved in the research assignment of cataloging present consumer education in this country — a gigantic task. For her, it is tremendously exciting. “You might even say it’s a hobby,” she muses, “for all my life I’ve collected materials in consumer education.”

Looking thoroughly relaxed, surrounded by hundreds of volumes on property insurance, statistical methods and investments, the animated professor speaks warmly about her homecoming. “I’ve found life here very exciting both in the community and at the university. The inter-disciplinary activity among the schools is splendid, and I find my students to be the best I’ve ever had.”

Having taught men for so many years, Miss Potter had the notion that women would be less interested in the subject matter and that they would be weighted down with insurmountable family problems, since all are graduate students some returnees with growing children and much family responsibility. Instead, she finds them hardworking, studious and dedicated.

[…]

Source: Journal and Courier of Lafayette, Indiana (Dec. 4, 1968), p. 12.

___________________________

Helen C. Potter, 75, retired Purdue professor
Obituary (October 23, 1986)

Helen C. Potter, 75, a, retired professor of home management and family economics at Purdue University, died at 9:46 a.m. Tuesday in St. Elizabeth Hospital, where she had been a patient one week. Miss Potter, 814 S. 14th St., was the daughter of the late Professor A.A. and Eva Burtner Potter. He was a former dean of engineering at Purdue. The new engineering building was named in his honor.

Miss Potter was born March 18, 1911, in Manhattan, Kan. She received degrees from Vassar College, Johns Hopkins University, New York University and Purdue. She graduated from West Lafayette High School in 1928.

She taught and lectured at the University of California, Davis, was an associate professor and chairman of -the department of economics at Seton Hill College in Greensburg, Pa., was assistant professor at St. Francis College in Lafayette, was an instructor and chairman of the department of economics at Western College in Oxford, Ohio, was an assistant professor in the Department of political economy at Johns Hopkins University.

She also was an assistant at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, taught at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., and was an associate professor in the Department of Finance at Loyola University.

Besides her teaching responsibilities, Miss Potter spent one year at the Library of Congress doing research on economics, worked for the Better Business Bureau in Pittsburgh, Pa., was an associate economist of human nutrition and home economics for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., was a statistician and director of personnel for the National Catholic Community Service, and was a junior social economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.

She organized and served as chairman of the Tippecanoe Consumers Council, worked with the League of Women Voters, National Council of Catholic Women, the American Association of University Women, and was active in the National Association for Social Economics.

Miss Potter was a member of St. Boniface Catholic Church, Mary L. Mathews Home Economics Club and the Parlor Club. She also served as deanery president of the National Council of Catholic Women in the Lafayette Diocese.

Surviving is a brother, James G. Potter of Indialantic, Fla.

Source: Journal Courier of Lafayette, Indiana (October 23, 1986), p. 22.

___________________________

A Memorial Tribute from the Association for Social Economics

Member of the first (May 1948) board of editors of the journal Review of Social Economy, associate editor up to her death October 21, 1986. Also an official portrait Helen C. Potter in included with the brief note.

Source: “IN MEMORIAM.” Review of Social Economy 45, no. 3 (1987).

___________________________

Helen C. Potter Scholarship, Johns Hopkins University

This scholarship is awarded to students in the field of political economy.

________________________

Helen Potter Award of the the Association for Social Economics

The Helen Potter Award was created and endowed in 1975. It is presented each year to the author of the best article in the Review of Social Economy by a promising scholar of social economics. Award recipients receive a plaque and a $500 prize.

Recent recipients:

2019 Céline Bonnefond & Fatma Mabrouk
2018 C. W. M. Naastepad & Jesse M. Mulder
2017 Michael J. Roy & Michelle T. Hackett
2016 Caroline Shenaz Hossein
2015 Karen Evelyn Hauge
2014 Peter-Wim Zuidhof
2013 Ayman Reda
2012 Pavlina Tcherneva
2011 Adel Daoud
2010 Aurelie Charles
2009 Huascar F. Pessali
2008 Sebastian Berger
2007 Nuno Martins
2006 Mark Hayes
2005 Benedetta Giovanola
2004 Ellen Mutari
2003 Geoffrey E. Schneider
2002 Stephen T. Ziliak
2001 Wilfred Dolfsma
2000 John E. Murray

Source: The Association for Social Economics website.

 

Image Source:  Portrait of Helen C. Potter, A.B., Instructor of Social Science.  Western College for Women (Oxford, Ohio) Yearbook, Multifaria 1941.

Categories
AEA Berkeley Chicago Cornell Economist Market Economists Johns Hopkins M.I.T. Princeton Stanford Yale

M.I.T. Memo regarding potential hires to interview at AEA Dec meeting, 1965

 

This artifact provides us a glimpse into the demand side of the market for assistant professors of economics in the United States as seen from one of the mid-1960’s peak departments. The chairperson of the M.I.T. economics department at the time, E. Cary Brown, apparently conducted a quick survey of fellow department heads and packed his results into a memo for his colleagues who in one capacity or the other would be attending the annual meeting of the American Economic Association held in New York City in the days following the Christmas holidays of December 1965. The absence of Harvard names in the memo probably only indicates that Brown presumed his colleagues were well aware of any potential candidates coming from farther up the Charles River.

From Brown’s memo, Duncan Foley (Yale) and Miguel Sidrauski (Chicago) ended up on the M.I.T. faculty as assistant professors for the 1966-67 academic year. John Williamson was a visiting assistant professor that year too.

_____________________________

Dating the Memo

The folder label in the M.I.T. archives incorrectly gives the date Dec. 28-30, 1969, where the 1969 has been added in pencil.

Two keys for dating the memo.  Brown’s comment to John Williamson (York): “Wants a semester here, Jan.-June 1967″.  “Solow is hearing paper at meetings” (Conlisk of Stanford) who presented in the invited doctoral dissertation session “The Analysis and Testing of the Asymptotic Behavior of Aggregate Growth Models” (affiliation given as Rice University (Ph.D., Stanford University) where Solow was listed as a discussant. AEA’s 78th Annual Meeting was held in New York City at the end of December 1965.

_____________________________

Memo from E. Cary Brown to M.I.T. faculty going to Dec. 1965 AEA meeting

[Pencil note: “Put in beginning of 1966-7”]

Memorandum Regarding Personnel Interviews in New York

To: Department Members Attending AEA Convention
From: E. C. Brown

University of Chicago

Sidrauski, Miguel (26). International Trade, Monetary Theory, Economic Growth, Mathematical Economics

Thesis—“Studies in the Theory of Growth and Inflation” under Uzawa
References: Harberger, Johnson, Lewis

[He came here a year ago to ask about a short-term appointment before he returned to Argentina. Griliches believes him to be tops. Had him in class myself and he was first rate. Called him on phone last week and he still wants to be had.]

 

Thornber, Edgar H. (24). [H. = Hodson] Econometrics, Mathematical Methods, Computers

Thesis—“A Distributed Lag Model: Bayes vs. Sampling Theory Analyses” under Telser
References: Griliches, Zellner

[Supposed to be equal of Sidrauski. Heavily computer oriented. Doesn’t sound interesting for us, but we should talk to him.]

 

Treadway, Arthur. Mathematical Economist

Thesis on the investment function

[A younger man who, according to Svi [sic], regards himself as the equal of the above. Stronger in mathematics, and very high grades. Wasn’t on market because thesis didn’t appear as completable. Now it seems that it will be and he wants consideration.]

 

Evenson, Robert E. (31). Agricultural Economics and Economic Growth, Public Finance

Thesis—“Contribution of Agricultural Experiment Station Research to Agricultural Production” under Schultz
References: Gale Johnson, Berg

[He is just slightly below the others. Mature and very solid and combines agriculture and economic growth where we need strength.]

 

Gould, John (26).

(Ph.D. in Business School)

[Bud Fackler mentioned him as their best. Uzawa and Griliches are trying to get the Econ. Dept. to hire him. Franco knows him and is after him.]

 

Princeton

Klevorick, Alvin (22). Mathematical Economics, Econometrics, Economic Theory

Thesis: “Mathematical Programming and the Problem of Capital Budgeting under Uncertainty” (Quandt)
References: Baumol, Kuhn

[Apparently the best they have had for some time. Young and very brash.]

 

Monsma, George N. (24). Labor Economics, Economics of Medical Care, Public Finance

Thesis: Supply and Demand for Medical Personnel” (Harbison)
References: Patterson, Machlup

[Dick Lester was high on him. While not a traditional labor economist, he works that field.]

Silber, William L. (23). Monetary Economics, Public Finance, Econometrics

Thesis: “Structure of Interest Rates” (Chandler)
References: Goldfeld, Musgrave, Quandt

[One of their best four. Not sure he sounds like what we want in fields, however.]

 

Grabowski, Henry G. (25). Research and Development, Econometrics, Mathematical Economics

Thesis: “Determinants and Profitability of Industrial Research and Development” (Quandt)
References: Morgenstern, Baumol

[Lester says he is good all around man. His field makes him especially interesting.]

 

Stanford

Conlisk [John]— Economic growth and development

[Arrow has written about him, recommending him highly. His field should be interesting. Solow is hearing paper at meetings.]

 

Bradford [David Frantz]— Public finance

[Has been interviewed up here, but more should see him who wish to.]

 

Yale

Foley [Duncan Karl] (Probably not at meetings. Best Tobin’s had.]

Bryant [Ralph Clement] (Now at Federal Reserve Board. Number 2 for Tobin]

 

York

Williamson, John

[Wants a semester here, Jan.-June 1967. Alan Peacock at meetings.]

 

Johns Hopkins

[Ask Bill Oakland]

 

University of California, Berkeley

[Ask Aaron Gordon or Tibor Scitovsky.]

 

Cornell

Bridge [John L.] — Econometrics, Foreign Trade

Lindert [Peter]— International Economics

[Their two best as indicated in their letter to Department Chairman.]

 

Buffalo

Mathis, E.J. [Ask Mitch Horwitz if it’s worth pursuing.]

 

Columbia U.

[Ask Bill Vickrey]

 

Pittsburgh

Miller, Norman C. (26). International Economics; Money, Macro, Micro and Math Economics

Thesis: “Capital Flows and International Trade Theory” (Whitman)
References: Marina Whitman, Jacob Cohen, Peter Kenen, Graeme Dorrance

[Letter to Evsey Domar from Mark Perlman (Chm.) recommending him to us for further training.]

 

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Archives and Special Collections. MIT Department of Economics records, Box 1, Folder “AEA Chairmen MEETING—Dec. 28-30, 1969 (sic)”.

Image Sources:  Duncan Foley (left) from his home page. Miguel Sidrauski (right) from the History of Economic Thought website.

Categories
Bibliography Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus

Johns Hopkins. Trade and Economic Development, Course Reading List. Balassa, 1968

 

Perhaps the story is apocryphal and/or I have confounded my European economists but I believe I remember having heard once upon a time during the Cold War that when Janos Kornai was asked how he could explain the relative abundance of successful Hungarian émigré economists, he replied “Oh we don’t export our best economists”. If the story is true, then certainly one of the Hungarian émigrés implicit in the question was likely to have been Bela Belassa. He attained textbook immortality as a co-parent of the Balassa-Samuelson Effect.

____________________________

The Johns Hopkins University
Department of Political Economy
Spring, 1968
Mr. Balassa

Trade and Economic Development
Bibliography and Reading List

Abbreviations of Books

Books are referred to by author unless otherwise noted.

Balassa, Bela, Trade Prospects for Developing Countries

Ellis, H.S., ed. Economic Development in Latin America

Hicks, J.R., Essays in World Economics

Harrod, Roy, ed., International Trade Theory in a Developing World

Johnson, H.G. I International Trade and Economic Growth

Johnson, H.G. II Money, Trade and Economic Growth

Johnson, H. G. III Economic Policies towards less Developed Countries

Meier, G.M., International Trade and Development

Mikesell, R.F., U.S. Private and Government Investment Abroad

Nurkse, R., Equilibrium and Growth in the World Economy

Pincus, J., Trade, Aid, and Development

Wionczek, M.S., ed. Latin American Integration

Abbreviations of Periodicals

AER      American Economic Review
Econ    Economica
EDCC   Economic Development and Cultural Change
EJ         Economic Journal
ER        Economic Record
JPE       Journal of Political Economy
Ky        Kyklos
LBR      Lloyds Bank Review
MS       Manchester School
Met     Metroeconomica
OEP     Oxford Economic Papers
QJE      Quarterly Journal of Economics
RES      Review of Economics and Statistics
RESt     Review of Economic Studies

I Foreign Trade and Economic Growth

Meier, ch. 2

Hicks, ch. 4 and Note B

Johnson, II, ch. 4

Johnson, I, ch. 4

Bhagwati, J., “International Trade and Economic Expansion” AER, December 1958

*Mishan, E.J. “The Long-Run Dollar Problem: A Comment” OEP June 1955

*Corden, W.M., “Economic Expansion and International Trade: A Geometric Approach,” OEP June 1956

*Findlay, R. and Grabert, H. “Factor Intensity, Technological Progress and the Terms of Trade,” OEP, February 1959

*Bhagwati, J., “Immiserizing Growth: A Geometrical Note,” RESt, June 1958

*Srinivasan, T.N., “Foreign Trade and Economic Development,” Met, January-August, 1965

II Trade Relations between Developed and Developing Countries: The Controversy

Nurkse, R., ch. 10 I, 11

Prebisch, Raul, “Commercial Policy in the Underdeveloped Countries” AER, May 1959

Pincus, Part II

Seers, Dudley, “A Model of Comparative Growth Rates in the World Economy,” EJ, March 1962

Meier, ch. 7

*Haberler, G., International Trade and Economic Development National Bank of Egypt, Cairo Lectures

*Viner, J., International Trade and Economic Development

*Cairncross, A.K., “International Trade and Economic Development,” Ky 1960 (4)

*Mynt, H., “The Gains from International Trade and to Backward Countries,” RESt, 1954-55

*Flanders, M.J., “Prebisch on Protectionism: An Evaluation,” EJ, June 1964

 

III Trade Relations between Developed and Developing Countries: The Facts

Balassa, ch. 1, 3, 4

Balassa, “Economic Growth, Trade, and Balance of Payments into Developing Countries”, mimeo, ch. 1, 2

Baer, W., “The Economics of Prebisch and ECLA” EDCC, January 1962, Comment by Flanders and Reply by Baer, ibid April 1964

Massell, B.F., “Export Concentration and Fluctuations in Export Earnings,” AER, March 1964

Morgan, T., “Trends in Terms of Trade, and their Repercussions on Primary Producers,” Harrod, ed. ch. 3

Meier, ch. 3

*Haberler, G., “Terms of Trade and Economic Development,” in Ellis, ch. 10.

*United Nations, International Compensation for Fluctuation in Commodity Trade, New York 1961

*United Nations, World Economic Survey, 1962, part I ch. 2

*Kindleberger, C.P., The Terms of Trade: A European Case Study

 

IV Trade Relations between Developed and Developing Countries: The Policies

Balassa, B., The Impact of the Industrial Countries’ Tariff Structure on their Imports of Manufactures from less-Developed Areas, Econ. November 1967

Johnson III, ch. 5, 6

Pincus, ch. 6, 7, 9

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Preferences and other Policy Measures to Stimulate Exports of the Developing Countries, Trade Intelligence Paper No. 7, 1966

Swerling, B. Current issues in Commodity Policy, Princeton Essays in International Finance No. 7

*Patterson, G., “Would Tariff Preferences Help Economic Development?” LBR, April 1965

*Johnson, H.G., “Trade Preferences for Developing Countries,” LBR, April 1966

*UNCTAD, The Question of the Granting and Extension of Preferences in Favour of Developing Countries, May 31, 1967

*Wallich, H.C., “Stabilization of Proceeds from Raw Material Exports” in Ellis ed.

*International Monetary Fund, Compensatory Financing of Export Fluctuations

*New Directions for World Trade, Proceedings of a Chatham House Conference, 1964

V Trade Policies in Developing Countries

Chenery, H.B., “Comparative Advantage and Development Policy,” AER May 1961

Hagen, E.E., “An Economic Justification of Protectionism,” QJE November 1958

Mynt, H., “Infant Industry Arguments for Assistance of Industries in the Setting of Dynamic Trade Theory,” Harrod, ch. 7

Balassa, B. and Schydlowsky, D., “Effective Tariffs, the Domestic Cost of Foreign Exchange, and the Equilibrium Exchange Rate,” JPE, April 1958

Corden, W.M., “The Vernon Report,” ER, March 1966

Meier, ch. 6

*Black, J., “Arguments for Tariffs,” OEP June 1959

*Bruno, M., “The Optimal Selection of Export-Promoting and Import-Substituting Projects, Planning the External Sector: Techniques, Problems and Policies United Nations, 1967

*Kemp, M.C., “The Mill-Bastable Infant-Industry Dogma,” JPE, February 1960

*Lewis, W.A., “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labor,” MS May 1954

*Chenery, H.B. and Bruno, M., “Development Alternatives in an Open Economy: The Case of Israel, EJ, March 1962

*Sheahan, J., “International Specialization and the Concept of Balanced Growth,” QJE, May 1958

 

VI Economic Integration among Less Developed Countries

Balassa, B., Economic Development and Integration

Balassa, B., “Integration and Resource Allocation in Latin America” mimeo

Mikesell, R.T., “The Theory of Common Markets as Applied to Regional Arrangements among Developing Countries,” Harrod, ch. 9

Massel, B.F. and Cooper, C.A., “Toward a General Theory of Customs Unions for Developing Countries,” JPEOctober 1965

*Wionczek, M.S., “Latin American Free Trade Association,” International Conciliation, January 1965

*Hansen, R.D., Central America: Regional Integration and Economic Development, National Planning Association, 1967

*United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, The Latin American Common Market, 1959

*Urquidi, V., Free Trade and Economic Integrity in Latin America

VII Capital Needs of Developing Countries and Foreign Aid

Johnson III, ch. 4

Pincus, ch. 8

Chenery, H.B. and Strout, A.M., “Foreign Assistance and Economic Development,” AER September 1966

McKinnon, R., “Foreign Exchange Constraints in Economic Development and Efficient Aid Allocation, EJ June 1954

Pincus, J., “The Cost of Foreign Aid,” RES November 1963

*Little, I.M.D. and Clifford, J.M., International Aid

*Fei, J.C.H. and Paauw, D.S., “Foreign Assistance and Self-Help: A Reappraisal of Development Finance,” RESAugust 1965

*Rosenstein-Rodan, P., “International Aid for Underdeveloped Countries,” RES May 1961

*Vanek, J., Estimating Foreign Resource needs for Economic Development: Theory, Method, and a Case Study of Colombia

 

VIII Foreign Investment and Economic Development

Nurkse, ch. 7, 10 II

MacDougall, D., “The Benefits and Costs of Private Investment Abroad: A Theoretical Approach, ER March 1960

Singer, M., “the Distribution of Gains between Investing and Borrowing Countries,” AER, May 1950

Alter, G.M., “The Servicing of Foreign Capital Inflows by Underdeveloped Countries,” Ellis, ch. 6

Meier, ch. 5

*Mikesell, Part II

*Avramovic and Gulhati, Debt Servicing Problems of Low Income Countries

*Mikesell, R.F., Public International Lending for Development

*Bernstein, M.D. Foreign Investment in Latin America

 

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives, Department of Political Economy. Series 5/6. Box 6/1, Folder “Course Outlines and Reading Lists c. 1900, c. 1950, 1963-68”.

Image Source: Portrait of Bela Balassa in the Johns Hopkins University Yearbook, Hullabaloo 1976. Note that the image posted on the Béla Belassa page at the website Alchetron mistakenly uses a photo of Balassa Sándor Erkel Ferenc.

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Graduate economics exams, M.A. and Ph.D., 1933

 

 

This post began innocently enough as simple transcriptions of the single A.M. and the two Ph.D. examinations in political economy for 1933 from the Johns Hopkins Archives. Because the names of the examinees are included on the typed carbon copies of the examination questions, I dug a little bit deeper to find out more about these degree candidates. From the official commencement programs, we are able to determine that these written examinations were in almost all cases administered as “exit examinations” a month before the degrees were actually awarded, so the exams were not “prelim” exams to establish degree candidacy and also not part of a dissertation defense. This seems late in the game for a final hurdle of this nature.

The commencement programs provide the titles of the theses/dissertations submitted for the degrees. Digging further, I was even able to find pictures of all the examinees.

________________________

The Graduate Degree Examinees
Johns Hopkins University, May 1933

Lawrence Nelson Bloomberg, of Virginia, A.B. University of Richmond 1930. Political Economy.
A.M. Johns Hopkins University, Thesis.“Goodwill: Its Nature and Valuation.” [p. 8 of 1933 Commencement program]
PhD Dissertation. “The Investment Value of Goodwill.” [p. 11 of 1934 Commencement program]

Born September 27, 1909 in Richmond, Virginia; died August 13, 1989.
1940 worked in Washington, DC at the American Bankers Association.

Image Source:  Senior year photo of Lawrence Nelson Bloomberg in the University of Richmond yearbook, The Web–1930.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Roy Johnson Bullock, of Maryland, A.B. Doane College 1925; M.B.A. Harvard University 1927. Political Economy. Ph.D. dissertation “A History of the Chain Grocery Store in the United States.” [p. 11 of 1933 Commencement program]

Born October 5, 1903 in Crete, Nebraska; died in Marco Island, Collier County, Florida Feb. 14, 1980.
1940 Census: teacher at Johns Hopkins University.
1942: worked in the Office of Price Administration, Washington, DC.
1961: senior staff consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. Also, the commencement speaker at Doane College’s 1961 commencement. Awarded honorary doctor of laws degree.

Image Source: Portrait of Roy Johnson Bullock (approximately 30 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Abner Komaroff, of Palestine, B.V.A. American University of Beirut 1930.
Ph.D. Dissertation, “The Foreign Trade of the United States in Citrus Fruits.” [p. 12 of Commencement program 1933]

Image Source: Portrait of Abner Komaroff (approximately 20 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Harold Edwin Peters, of Maryland, A.B. Johns Hopkins University 1930.
Ph.D. Dissertation, “The Foreign Debt of the Argentine Republic”. [p. 13 of Commencement program 1934]

Born October 15, 1908 in Baltimore,   died February 22, 1978 in Baltimore.
Apartment developer since the mid-1930’s, after teaching economics for a year at the College of Charleston. (Graduate of Calvert Hall College, then Johns Hopkins where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1930).

Image Source: Portrait of Harold Edwin Peters (approximately 25 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Evelyn Ellen Singleton, of Maryland, A.B. Goucher College 1930. Political Economy.
PhD dissertation, “Workmen’s Compensation in Maryland”. [p. 13 of Commencement program 1933]

Born October 9, 1909 in Lancaster, PA; died May 29, 2002.
Married Robert William Thon, Jr. (see next graduate) April 1, 1936 in Elkton, MD.

Image Source: Portrait of Evelyn Ellen Singleton (approximately 20 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Robert William Thon, Jr., of Maryland. Political Economy. PhD Dissertation “Mutual Savings Banks in Baltimore.” [p. 14 of 1933 Commencement program]

Born Dec. 23, 1908 in Richmond, VA; died September 1983 in Baltimore MD.
Occupation: banker

Image Source: Portrait of Robert William Thon, Jr. (approximately 50 years old).  Johns Hopkins University. Sheridan Libraries. Special Collections. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

________________________

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
for Master of Arts Degree
May 18, 1933

Mr. Bloomberg

  1. Discuss Adam Smith’s canons of taxation.
  2. Describe Malthus’ principle of population and the changes which it underwent.
  3. What arguments are used to justify the sale of a manufactured article at a lower price abroad than at home?
  4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the general Property Tax?
  5. Explain and criticize the quantity theory of money.
  6. How are freight rates determined?

 

 

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
(Economic Theory)
May 18, 1933

Miss Singleton
Messrs. Thon, Bullock, Peters, Komaroff

  1. What is the relation of Political Economy to economic history in scope and in method of investigation?
  2. What important economic doctrines had been clearly formulated prior to the year 1800?
  3. Discuss the personal contacts and doctrinal contrasts of Quesnay and Adam Smith.
  4. Contrast the theories of distribution formulated by (a) Adam Smith, (b) David Ricardo, (c) Alfred Marshall.
  5. What has been the development of the principle of population since the time of Malthus?
  6. Discuss the origin and development of the wage fund theory.
  7. What have been the most important contributions of the Austrian economists?
  8. Discuss the law of increasing returns and its application to modern business.
  9. Criticize the various theories of entrepreneur profits that have been proposed.
  10. What are the present conspicuous gaps in economic theory and by what means are they to be repaired?

 

EXAMINATION IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
(Applied Economics)
May 19, 1933

Miss Singleton
Messrs. Thon, Komaroff , Bullock, Peters

  1. Discuss the history, theory, incidence and the defects of the General Property Tax.
  2. Discuss modern industrial combinations in the light of: (1) An assignable limit to the growth in the size of the modern industrial unit; and (2) the imminence of Socialism.
  3. Discuss the policy of selling protected manufactures in foreign markets at less than domestic prices.
  4. Is a compulsory Board of Arbitration practicable, and what principles should govern its decisions?
  5. Criticize the principle of fixing railway rates according to “What the traffic will bear”, in the light of the recent tendency towards cost of service rate.
  6. Outline the history of (a) metallic and (b) paper money in the United States since the adoption of the Federal constitution.
  7. Discuss the use of the chief forms of averages; for example, the mean, the median and the simple average.
  8. Outline the history of English legislation relating to joint stock companies.
  9. State the chief points in controversy between the Banking School and the Currency School.
  10. Discuss the economic justification for the chief forms of labor legislation.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy. Series 6/Series /, Subseries 1, Box 3/1, Folder “Department of Political Economy, Graduate Exams 1933-1965”.

Image Source: Johns Hopkins University yearbook, Hullabaloo 1951.

Categories
Economics Programs Johns Hopkins

John Hopkins. Economics Ph.D. completion rate, years to completion. 1956-1970

 

 

I have a sneaking suspicion that the numbers in this table (that come from archived departmental statistics) need to be transformed to adjust for  incomplete “spells” of graduate work reported for the most recent cohorts (e.g. 1967/8 through 1969/70) that are apparently included with the completed “spells” and program drop-outs in order to get a proper estimate of the completion rate and the distribution of times to completion for the Ph.D. It has been years since I made this sort of calculation for the distribution of unemployment spells by duration, so I’ll just leave this as an exercise for readers.

____________________

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Political Economy Department
Fall 1970

DISTRIBUTION OF GRADUATE STUDENTS ENTERING SINCE JULY 1956, SHOWING IN COLUMN (3) THE PERCENTAGE OF ALL ENTERING STUDENTS WHO TAKE THE Ph.D. WITHIN 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 and more YEARS AFTER STARTING GRADUATE WORK AT HOPKINS

 

Year since
starting
graduate
work at
Hopkins a		 Percentage of all entering students who took the Ph.D. during that yearb
Col. (6) – Col. (5)		 Cumulative percentage from
Col. (2)c		 Academic years during which the represented students entered Hopkins Number of students who entered during the years in Col. (4) Number of those in
Col. (5) who took the Ph.D. during the year given in
Col. (1)

(1)

 (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
1st — — 56/7 thru 69/70 198

0

2nd

 1.7% 1.7% 56/7 thru 68/9 176 3
3rd 6.8% 8.5% 56/7 thru 67/8 162

11

4th

 14.0% 22.5% 56/7 thru 66/7 145 20
5th 4.5% 27% 56/7 thru 65/6 132

6

6th

 8.0% 35% 56/7 thru 64/5 118 8
7th & more 6.0% 41% 56/7 thru 63/4 108

6

a Not counting any previous graduate work elsewhere

b Including those who completed requirements by October at the end of the year given in Col. (1).

c About 59% (i.e. 100% — the total of 41%) of entering students do not take the Ph.D.

 

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Papers. Series 5, Box 6, Folder “Statistical Information (Dept, University National, 1927, 1956-1972”.

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus

Johns Hopkins. Reading List and Exam for Aggregate Income Theory. Machlup, 1951

 

Materials (reading list and exams) for Fritz Machlup’s course on income distribution, 18-603, have been transcribed and posted earlier. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror also has a transcription of the final exam for his 1956 course on methodology.

________________________

 

Course Announcement

Theory of Aggregate Income 604. Professor Machlup.
Two hours weekly, second term.

A study of the theory of income formation, linking an analysis of the supply and circulation of money with a dynamic process analysis of autonomous and induced disbursements for consumption and investment; an attempt to explain the level and fluctuations of national income.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. School of Higher Studies of the Faculty of Philosophy, Announcements of Courses 1950-51 (The Johns Hopkins Circular, April 1950), p. 99.

________________________

 

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
THE THEORY OF AGGREGATE INCOME
18-604

Prof. Fritz Machlup

READING LIST
Spring Term 1951

Books:

Required:

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. (London: Macmillan, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1936) pp. 1-384.

Recommended:

Richard Ruggles, An Introduction to National Income and Income Analysis. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1949)

Thomas C. Schelling, National Income Behavior. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1951)

A.E.A., Readings in Business Cycle Theory. (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1944)

Seymour E. Harris (ed.), The New Economics. New York: Knopf, 1947)

 

I. Static and Dynamic Analysis

Paul A. Samuelson, “Dynamic Process Analysis,” A Survey of Contemporary Economics, ed. Howard S. Ellis. (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1948) pp. 352-387.

 

II. Savings, Investment, and National Income

Bertil Ohlin, “Some Notes on the Stockholm Theory of Saving and Investment,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 87-131.

Friedrich A. Lutz, “The Outcome of the Saving-Investment Discussion,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 131-157.

Abba P. Lerner, “Saving and Investment: Definitions, Assumptions, Objectives,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 158-168.

Oscar Lange, “The Rate of Interest and the Optimum Propensity to Consume,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 169-192.

Fritz Machlup, “Forced or Induced Saving,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 25 (1943), pp. 26-39.

Dennis H. Robertson, “A Survey of Modern Monetary Controversy,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 311-329.

 

III. The Multiplier

Fritz Machlup, International Trade and the National Income Multiplier (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1943) Chapters 1-7, 10.

Gottfried Haberler, “Mr. Keynes’ Theory of the ‘Multiplier’: A Methodological Criticism,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 193-202.

Fritz Machlup, “Period Analysis and Multiplier Theory,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 203-234.

Robert Eisner, “The Invariant Multiplier,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 17 (1949-50), pp. 198-202.

 

IV. Velocity and Time Lags

James W. Angell, “The Components of Circular Velocity of Money,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 51 (1937), pp. 224-272.

Lloyd Metzler, “Three Lags in the Circular Flow of Income,” Income, Employment, and Public Policy. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1948), pp. 11-32.

Alvin H. Hansen, “The Robersonian and Swedish Systems of Period Analysis,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 32 (1959), pp. 24-29.

Harold M. Somers, “A Theory of Income Determination,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 58 (1950), pp. 523-541.

 

V. Wage Rate Reductions and Employment

A. C. Pigou, “Real and Money Wage Rates in Relation to Unemployment,” Economic Journal, Vol. 47 (1937), pp. 405-422.

N. Kaldor, “Professor Pigou on Money Wages in Relation to Unemployment,” Economic Journal, Vol. 47 (1937), pp. 745-762.

A. C. Pigou, “Money Wages in Relation to Unemployment,” Economic Journal, Vol. 48, (1938), pp. 134-137.

James Tobin, “Money Wage Rates and Employment”, in The New Economics, pp. 572-587.

 

VI. Tax-Financed Government Expenditures

Trygve Haavelmo, “Multiplier Effects of a Balanced Budget,” Econometrica, Vol. 13 (1945), pp. 311-318.

Gottfried Haberler, “Multiplier Effects of a Balanced Budget: Some Monetary Implications of Mr. Haavelmo’s Paper,” Econometrica, Vol. 14 (1946), pp. 148-149.

R. M. Goodwin, “Multiplier Effects of a Balanced Budget: The Implications of a Lag for M. Haavelmo’s Analysis,” Econometrica, Vol. 14 (1946), pp. 150-151.

Everett E. Hagen, “Multiplier Effects of a Balanced Budget: Further Analysis,” Econometrica, Vol. 14 (1946), pp. 152-55.

T. Haavelmo, “Multiplier Effects of a Balanced Budget: Reply,” Econometrica, Vol. 14 (1946), pp. 156-58.

 

VII. The Accelerator

John M. Clark, “Business Acceleration and the Law of Demand: A Technical Factor,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 235-260.

Paul A. Samuelson, “Interactions Between the Multiplier Analysis and the Principle of Acceleration,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 261-269.

F. A. Hayek, Profits, Interest, and Investment. (London: Routledge and Sons, 91939) Chapter I, pp. 3-72.

F. A. Hayek, “The Ricardo Effect,” Economica (1942), pp. 126-152.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Evsey D. Domar Papers, Box 15, Folder “Macroeconomics: Old Reading Lists”.

 

________________________

 

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Theory of Aggregate Income
(18-604)
Final Exam, May 29, 1951

Professor Fritz Machlup

Answer three questions, one of each group, as concisely as possible without omitting significant steps in your reasoning. Write in English rather than in algebra or geometry.

I.

  1. Explain the possibilities of a general cut in money wage rates bringing about an increase in aggregate employment.
  2. Explain the increase in employment that can be brought about by an increase in tax-financed government expenditures, emphasizing alternatively the significance in the causal sequence of changes in (a) the quantity of money or velocity of circulation, (b) liquidity preference, (c) the propensity to consume, (d) the difference between investment and saving.

 

II.

  1. Explain the meaning of the distinctions between the “consumption lag”, the “output lag”, and the “earnings lag”, and their importance, or lack of importance, in the determination of income.
  2. Explain the meaning of the distinctions between “intended” and “unintended” saving, and “intended” and “unintended” investment, and their importance, or lack of importance, in the determination of income.

 

III.

  1. Explain the interactions between multiplier and accelerator.
  2. Explain the meaning of the “Ricardo Effect” and its importance, or lack of importance, in the determination of the accelerator and of the turning points of the business cycle.

 

Source: The Johns Hopkins University. The Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy, Series 6, Box 3/1, Folder “Graduate Exams, 1933-1965”.

Image Source: Fritz Machlup is seen presenting in a seminar (note: Evsey Domar is leaning forward on the right side of the table, third from the left). From the Johns Hopkins Yearbook Hullabaloo 1956, p. 15.

Categories
Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus

Johns Hopkins. Reading List for Monetary Economics, William Poole, 1964

 

Typically one encounters the work of senior scholars without having much of a clue about what they might have been like when they were young. While there is the occasional Peter Pan among us who have lived long lives as Wunderkinder (e.g. Paul Samuelson), the overwhelming majority of academic economists have developed, some even in a positive sense, so it is useful to have material from different points in their individual life cycles. This post provides a small window into the academic life of a young economist who was to go on to become a member of Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and the eleventh president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Professor William Poole. The reading list for monetary theory transcribed below comes from his second year at the Johns Hopkins University.

______________________

William Poole’s Fed Biography

William Poole became the eleventh president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on March 23, 1998, and retired March 31, 2008.

Poole was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He received a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in 1959 and a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1963 and 1966, respectively. Before joining the St. Louis Fed, Poole was Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics at Brown University. He served on the Brown faculty from 1974 to 1998 and the faculty of Johns Hopkins University from 1963 to 1969. Between these two university positions, he was senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He was also a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the first Reagan administration from 1982 to 1985.

Poole has published numerous papers in professional journals and engaged in a wide range of professional activities. He has published two books: Money and the Economy: A Monetarist View in 1978 and Principles of Economics in 1991 (coauthored with J. Vernon Henderson). During his ten years at the St. Louis Fed, he delivered over 150 speeches on a wide variety of economic and finance topics.

In 1980 and 1981, Poole was a visiting economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia; in 1991, he was the Bank Mees and Hope Visiting Professor of Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He has served on various advisory boards of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York and the Congressional Budget Office. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Delaware, senior economic adviser to Merk Investments, and a special adviser to Market News International.

Swarthmore honored Poole with a doctor of laws degree in 1989. He was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2005 and presented with the Adam Smith Award by the National Association for Business Economics in 2006. In 2007, the Global Interdependence Center presented him its Frederick Heldring Award.

Source: William Poole page at the Federal Reserve History Website. 

______________________

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Monetary Theory—361
Fall 1964

W. Poole

READING LIST

TEXT: A.G. Hart and P.B. Kenen, Money, Debt and Economic Activity (3rd. ed.)

I The Nature of Money

Hart & Kenen, “Introduction”
D.H. Robertson, Money, Ch. 1, pp. 41-50

II The Supply of Money

Hart & Kenen, Chs. 1-7
E.S. Shaw, Money, Income and Monetary Policy, Chs. 2, 3, 6, 10
A. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Ch. 2
B. Kragh, ”Two Liquidity Functions and the Rate of Interest,” R.E. Stud. 17 (2) (1949-50) pp. 98-106
M. Friedman, “Commodity-Reserve Currency,” JPE 59 (June, 1951) pp. 203-32; reprinted in M. Friedman, Essays in Positive Economics, pp. 204-50

III Classical Quantity Theory

Hart & Kenen, Ch. 11
I. Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money, Chs. 1-5, 8
A.C. Pigou, “The Value of Money,” QJE 32 (1917-18) pp. 38-65; reprinted in RMT, pp. 162-83
A. Hansen, Ch. 3

IV The Demand for Money and the Rate of Interest

Hart & Kenen, Ch. 14
J.M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Chs. 13-15, 17
A. Hansen, Ch. 4
W.J. Baumol, ”The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach,” QJE 66 (Nov. 1952), pp. 545-56
J. Tobin, “The Interest-Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash,” R.E.Stat. 38 (Aug. 1956), pp. 241-47
_________, “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Towards Risk,” R.E.Stud. 25 (2) (Feb. 1958), pp. 65-86
M. Friedman, “The Quantity Theory of Money—A Restatement,” in M. Friedman (ed.) Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money

V Money and Economic Activity

Hart & Kenen, Chs. 12, 13
J.M. Keynes, Chs. 7-12, 18
M. Bailey, National Income and the Price Level, Chs. 1,2
A. Hansen, Ch. 5
J.R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the ‘Classics’: A Suggested Interpretation,” Econometrica 5 (April 1937), pp. 147-59

Source: Johns Hopkins University. The Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Series 6, Box 1, Folder “Course Outlines and Reading Lists, ca. 1950, 1963-68”.

Image Source: William Poole at the Federal Reserve Centennial, 2014.

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. General exam questions for economics Ph.D., 1954

 

It is pretty interesting to compare the Harvard micro and macro general exams 1992 with what was asked economics graduate students at Johns Hopkins in 1954, transcribed and posted below. I note that the index number question (the first question in Part IV) was more-or-less covered in my second lecture of undergraduate principles of macroeconomics a few days ago (OK, I grant it was somewhat heavy-going, but somebody’s gotta do it…and better earlier than never). 

Ten comprehensive Ph.D. exams from Johns Hopkins in 1965 were transcribed and posted earlier.

_______________________

GENERAL WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS FOR THE PH.D.
Department of Political Economy
May 25-26, 1954

Part I — Three hours
May 25, 1954 — 9 a.m.

Answer the following questions: I and II; III or IV; they carry equal weights.

I.

In four out of five given cases, explain exactly — with or without the aid of graphs — how you can derive

  1. a demand curve for a commodity (as a function of price) from a family of indifference curves between that commodity and money;
  2. a supply curve for a foreign currency (as a function of its exchange rate in terms of domestic currency) from a demand curve for domestic currency (as a function of its exchange rate in terms of the foreign currency);
  3. a savings curve (as a function of income) from a consumption curve (as a function of income);
  4. a demand (liquidity preference) curve for cash balances (as a function of the interest rate) from a supply curve of interest-bearing securities (as a function of security prices);
  5. a family of interest-income curves (functions giving the equilibrium combinations of interest rate and income level) with various fixed money stocks as parameters, from a family of liquidity preference curves (as functions of the interest rate) with various fixed income levels as parameters.

II.

In three out of the five given cases, demonstrate as convincingly as you can

  1. that an increase in wage rates
    1. will result in an increase in total profits,
    2. will result in a decrease in total profits;
  2. that an increase in interest rates
    1. will result in an increase in total consumption
    2. will result in a decrease in total consumption;
  3. that an increase in government expenditures for domestic public works
    1. will result in an increase in total employment,
    2. will result in a decrease in total employment;
  4. that an increase in income taxes with an equal and simultaneous decrease in excise taxes
    1. will result in an increase in general prices,
    2. will result in a decrease in general prices;
  5. that an increase in private foreign investment
    1. will result in an increase in domestic total income,
    2. will result in a decrease in domestic total income;

[Note: In order to be convincing on both sides of each issue, you will have to change your evaluations of the probabilities with which the essential conditions responsible for the particular result may be expected actually to prevail.]

III.

“The elasticity of supply of foreign exchange will be higher, the higher is the elasticity of supply of exportable articles.” What is wrong with this statement? Why? How would you formulate the correct relationship between the variables in question?

IV.

“The question of whether capital movements lead the trade balances, or trade balances direct the capital movements has been answered differently by classical and Keynesian theory.”

Present the two views and then explain how the contradictions can be resolved, and both views found to be correct, if the terms are appropriately defined.

 

Part II — Three hours
May 25, 1954 — 2 p.m.

Answer three questions of the following five, provided you don’t select more than two from the first three. They all carry equal weights.

I.

Discuss the Neo-Classical School of Economists.

II.

In Schumpeter’s Book on the History of Economic Analysis, there is a section on “The Men Who Wrote above Their Time”. What would you write for such a section?

III.

Discuss the development of American economic thought.

IV.

Select a “period” of American economic history other than the most recent one and discuss it. Link it with the preceding and succeeding periods.

V.

Discuss England’s chief economic problems of 1793-1815.

 

Part III — Three hours
May 26, 1954 — 9 a.m.

Answer the following questions: I; any two out of the remaining three. They all carry equal weights.

I.

Write a coherent essay on statistical inference, in which you discuss (not necessarily in this order):

  1. tests of hypotheses
  2. confidence intervals
  3. errors of the first and second kind [Penciled here as change or alternative “Efficiency/Max Likelihood”]
  4. correlation and regression
  5. the identification problem
  6. the “t” distribution and an example of its use
  7. one other distribution (other than the normal) and an example of its use.

II.

It has been maintained by some that an increase in wages leads to an increase in labor supply out of a given population, and a decrease in wages to a decrease in supply; but it has also been maintained, by others, that an increase in wages brings a decrease in supply, and a decrease in wages an increase in supply.

Select one of the two views and summarize the points which have offered in defense of it. Do you think an equally strong case should be made for the other view? If you do, then are we left without a theory?

III.

Considerable attention has been devoted to the question of the effect of union activity on the wage level. One conclusion reached by several writers on the basis of statistical data is that union wage activity has resulted in no appreciable differential in favor of union income, compared to non-union income and to non-labor income.

What could be the theoretical foundations for such a result?

IV.

“Of all the single statements that can be made about wages, the statement that ‘wages tend to measure the marginal productivity of labor’ is at once the most illuminating analytically and the most important practically for the consideration of wage policy.”

This proposition has come in for considerable criticism over the years. What are the most telling points of this criticism?

 

Part IV — Three hours
May 26, 1954 — 2 p.m.

I.

Write an essay on index numbers in economics, in which you discuss (not necessarily in this order)

  1. price indexes
  2. quantity indexes
  3. value indexes
  4. constant-weight (Laspeyres) indexes
  5. changing-weight (Paasche) indexes
  6. the relationships among price, quantity, and value indexes
  7. the use and limitations of economic index numbers

II.

Evaluate critically the contribution which Keynes’ General Theory has made to:

  1. Theoretical economic thinking
  2. Economic policy

III.

Present and analyze some (reasonably respectable) business cycle theory.

IV.

Compare and contrast monetary and fiscal policies as methods of achieving economic stabilization (reasonably full employment without inflation). Include (but don’t limit yourself to) the following points:

  1. The theoretical foundation of each
  2. Methods used
  3. Effects on distribution of income and wealth
  4. Social and political repercussions
  5. Their effectiveness and limitations.

Do they overlap? Can you work out a synthesis of both?

 

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Series 5/6.  Box No. 6/1. Folder: “Comprehensive Exams for Ph.D. in Political Economy, 1947-1965”.

Image Source: from the cover of the 1954 Johns Hopkins yearbook, Hullabaloo.