Category: Policy

Categories
Economists Harvard LGBTQ Money and Banking Policy

Harvard. A. Piatt Andrew at his home “Red Roof”. Gloucester, MA. 1910

Abram Piatt Andrew taught monetary economics at Harvard before becoming a key player in the National Monetary Commission, Director  of the U.S. Mint, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, founder of the American Field Service, and a Republican member of the United States Congress from 1921-36. Much more has been posted about him here at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

This post deals with his home and private life.

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This photograph features A. Piatt Andrew at his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, before World War I began. Prior to founding the American Field Service during the war, Andrew served as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard, director of the U.S. Mint, and assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. “Red Roof,” as his home was called, was designed and built under Andrew’s direction in 1902. Red Roof contained secret rooms, one of which necessitated dismantling a sofa to access and contained a Prohibition-era wet bar and a player piano. Guests in the living room could therefore hear the music but didn’t know its source. Another secret room contained a dugout that was later filled with AFS artifacts from the war, including posters, AFS recruitment slides, shell fuses (a favorite souvenir of AFS Drivers), and trench art.

Andrew created elaborate entertainment for guests at Red Roof by organizing themed dinner parties, musical performances, and skits in full costume. Guests to Red Roof included interior decorator and longtime AFS supporter Henry Sleeper, the portrait painter John Singer Sargent, art collector and philanthropist Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt [May 2-4, 1903].

Source: Nicole Milano, “A. Piatt Andrew and Red Roof, 1910.” American Field Service Website.

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But wait, there’s more

A blog dealing exclusively (no kidding) with “A. Piatt Andrew and Red Roof“.

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Research tips:

At the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now called “Historic New England“) one can find “A. Piatt Andrew Guest Books, 1902-1930” among other items. These guest book pages have, in addition to the signatures, close to 700 photographs.  You can page through the pictures online (1902-1912) and (1913-1930).

At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum you will find online 249 items (photographs, correspondence from A. Piatt Andrew).

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Henry Davis Sleeper and
A. Piatt Andrew Jr.

Plot spoiler: They were more than friendly neighbours.

Source: A. Piatt Andrew’s The Red Roof Guestbook, 1914-1930. Available at the Historic New England Website.

 Sleeper’s frail constitution prevented him from participating in the rough-and-tumble games and amusements favored by Andrew and his young male friends, mostly Harvard undergraduates. [p. 90]

Mrs. Jack

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) was a legend in her own time. Starting with the untimely death of her husband, John Lowell Gardner, in 1898, his widow, called Mrs. Jack, embarked on an ambitious program of art acquisition which culminated in the transformation of her fabulous Venetian-style palazzo, Fenway Court, into a beloved cultural institution. She accomplished this feat largely by relying on the skills, expertise and companionship of the coterie of attractive and talented homosexual men-mostly artists, collectors, and curators-that she gathered around her…. [p. 90]

Society Painter

By 1908 Mrs. Jack’s circle included the society painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Born in Italy to American parents, Sargent had first come to Boston in 1887. After a solo exhibition in 1888 at the St. Botolph Club, he was commissioned in 1890 to design murals for the new Boston Public Library in Copley Square. Along with other commissions-for the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard’s Widener Library-Sargent was almost fully occupied in Boston for the next twenty-five years. While circumspect about his private life, an album of male nudes that Sargent, a bachelor, kept for his own enjoyment offers insight into his predilections. [p. 91]

Seaside shenanigans

In the years preceding World War I, Isabella Stewart Gardner, John Singer Sargent, and others in their circle were drawn into the wealthy summer enclave at Eastern Point, Gloucester, where Harvard professor (later U.S. congressman) A. Piatt Andrew Jr. (1873-1936) and his neighbor, interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper (1878-1934), had homes. The letters from Sleeper to Andrew provide evidence of the intensity of his feelings.

Social life on Eastern Point revolved around ceaseless entertaining. One of Gardner’s biographers hints at the goings-on at Andrew’s home, Red Roof: “Gossip had it that often all the guests were men, their pastimes peculiar. Yet all the ladies on Eastern Point were fascinated by Piatt.” Portrait painter Cecilia Beaux (1863-1942) spent summers at her Gloucester home, Green Alley, where she enjoyed hosting evening gatherings of her neighbors. She never married. “Faithful in attendance were Harry Sleeper and Piatt Andrew, whose brilliancy of repartee has never been excelled” according to an observer. Concealment and ambiguity characterized the lives of many of the women and men who moved through this exclusive world of polite manners and material luxury. [p. 92]

Source: The History Project. Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and gay history from the Puritans to Playland. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. [Note: you need to register at archive.org to access (borrow) the book for an hour at a time]

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October 6, 1910. A. Piatt Andrew and Isabella Stewart Gardner at “Red Roof”. Photo by Thomas E. Marr from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Cleaned and cropped by Economics in the Rear View Mirror

From Isabella Stewart Gardner’s biography

A. Piatt Andrew lived next door to Miss Davidge under his “Red Roof” – nearer the mainland than Miss Davidge and Miss Beaux, and with one more maiden lady beyond him….

Harry Sleeper, whom Mrs. Gardner already knew fairly well, lived just beyond. … Harry was sweet, gentle, affectionate. He was devoted to his mother, who protected him from the ladies when he feared they had designs on his celibacy. Still more was he the devoted slave to Piatt….

…A. Piatt Andrew had an organ installed in the passage between the living room and a recently added study. Here, Isabella sat on the couch (with a bearskin and two leopard skins on it) to listen to his music. She was probably unaware of a hidden space above the books – too low to stand up in but equipped with mattress and covers where some of Andrew’s guests could listen in still greater comfort. She had seen the Brittany bed in the living room but that there was a small hole over it, perhaps no one had told her. The sound of organ music could be heard the better through the hole – and was it just a coincidence that a person in the hidden alcove above could look down through it? Gossip had it that often all the guests were men, their pastimes peculiar. Yet all the ladies on Eastern Point were fascinated by Piatt and one especially keen observer thought that Miss Beaux was “sweet on him”.

When the fog lifted and the sun came out, the whole atmosphere at Red Roof changed. Gloucester harbor sparkled bright and blue. Isabella’s spirits lifted, macabre impressions vanished, and Isabella went out on a stone seat to be photographed with Piatt – or “A,” as she liked to call him, referring to herself as “Y,” amused to find herself at the opposite end of the alphabet.

Isabella wore a linen suit with leg o’mutton sleeves, long coat and wide gored skirt. She had on a toque with a black dotted veil over her face. Beside her, A. Piatt sat – head turned toward her, his handsome profile toward the camera.

A. Piatt Andrew had been chosen by President Eliot to work in Senator Aldrich’s monetary commission and he planned to go to Europe during the summer of 1908 to make preliminary studies. Mrs. Gardner told him to be sure to get in touch with Matthew Stewart Prichard – late of the Boston Art Museum. This Andrew did, Prichard showing him beautiful Greek and Roman coins which gave him ideas for new designs for American currency.

Source: Louise Hall Tharp, Mrs. Jack: A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Little, Brown and Company, 1965, pp. 276-278.

Categories
Chicago Policy Suggested Reading

Chicago. Governmental Price Fixing Reading List. Friedman, 1972

President Richard Nixon’s peacetime wage and price controls were less than a year old when Milton Friedman used the teachable moment to discuss “governmental price fixing” in a course of his at the University of Chicago.

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Spring, 1972

Economics 496
Selected Topics in Contemporary Economic Problems
Dr. M. Friedman

Reading List

General Note: The special topic that will be considered this semester is governmental price fixing. We shall examine three general categories of price fixing: fixing of prices of specific commodities or services; general price and wage controls; fixing of exchange rates. The basic theoretical tools required to analyze these problems have presumably been studied in courses in price theory, monetary theory, and income and employment theory but will be reviewed in class lectures. This reading list therefore covers mostly applied material.

I. Fixing of Specific Prices

HD1761
H6

 Houthakker, Hendrik, Economics Policy for the Farm Sector, American Enterprise Institute, 1967

HD1761
P13

 Paarlberg, Don, American Farm Policy, Wiley, 1964

HB171.5
A34
1967

 Alchian, A. & Allen, W., University Economics, pp. 92-99, 402-404

HD4918
P47

 Peterson, J. M. & Stewart, C T. Employment Effects of Minimum Wage Rate, American Enterprise Institute, 1969

HD4918
F74

 Friedman, M. & Brozen, Y. The Minimum Wage Rate, Who Really Pays?

HC106.5
B83

 Burns Arthur F., The Management of Prosperity, pp. 45-48

 

II. General Wage and Price Controls

Campbell, Colin (ed.), Wage Price Controls in World War Il, U.S. and Germany, American Enterprise Institute

HB
B24
H1

 Ullman, I. & Flanagan, R. J. Wage-Restraints: Study of Incomes Policies in Western Europe, University of California Press, 1971

HC106.5
S435

 Shultz, G. P. & Aliber, R. Z. (eds.), Guidelines, Informal Controls, and the Market Place, University of Chicago Press

HB236
A3
G3

 Galbraith, J. K., A Theory of Price Control. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1952

HB236
U5H35

 Hardy, C. O., Wartime Control of Prices, Washington, Brookings Institute, 1940
Wallis, W. A., How to Ration Consumers’ Goods and Control Their Prices, American Economic Review, Sept. 1942, pp. 501-512
Gorter, W. & Hildebrand, G. H., “Is Price Control Really Necessary?”  American Economic Review, March 1951, pp. 77-81

III. Control of Exchange Rates

HG3883
U7 F7

 Friedman, M. & Roosa, R. L., The Balance of Payments: Free vs. Fixed Exchange Rates

HB33
F7

 Friedman, M., “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” Essays in Positive Economics, University of Chicago Press

HG538
F856

 Friedman, M., Dollars and Deficits

HG3821
A66

 Halm, G. (ed.), Approaches to Greater Flexibility of Exchange Rates, Princeton University Press, 1970

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 78, Folder 5 “University of Chicago, Econ. 496”.

Image Source:  Milton Friedman (undated) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06231, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Bibliography Harvard Policy Suggested Reading

Harvard. Short Bibliography of Social Insurance for “Serious-minded Students”, Foerster, 1910

 

In 1910 Harvard published 43 short bibliographies covering “Social Ethics and Allied Subjects”, about half of which were dedicated to particular topics in economics and economic sociology. The project was coordinated by Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Francis G. Peabody.

Social Insurance  is one such “allied subject” covered in the bibliography provided by Dr. Robert Franz Foerster, instructor in social ethics who had recently been awarded his Harvard economics Ph.D., and transcribed below along with links to digital copies of the items found at archive.org, hathitrust.org, as well as at other on-line archives.

Previously posted bibliographies from “Social Ethics and Allied Subjects”:

Economic Theory by Professor Frank Taussig

Taxation by Professor Charles J. Bullock

Trade Unionism by Professor William Z. Ripley

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From the Prefatory Note:

The present list represents an attempt to make this connection between the teaching of the University and a need of the modern world. Each compiler has had in mind, not a superficial reader, nor yet a learned scholar, but an intelligent and serious-minded student, who is willing to read substantial literature if it be commended to him as worth his while and is neither too voluminous nor too inaccessible. To such an inquirer each editor makes suggestions concerning the contents, spirit or doctrine of a book, not attempting a complete description or a final judgment, but as though answering the preliminary question of a student, “What kind of book is this?” The plan thus depends for its usefulness on the competency of the editors concerned, and each editor assumes responsibility for the section to which his name is prefixed.

Source: Prefatory Note by Francis G. Peabody. A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, p. vi.

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IV.13. SOCIAL INSURANCE
ROBERT F. FOERSTER

[Note: items in square brackets have been added
by the curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror]

In this section are comprised works upon those measures, usually public but not always technically insurance, which aim to protect the working classes from the economic consequences of sickness, accident, invalidity and old age. Ways of meeting the problem of unemployment, though in part logically finding a place here, are for special reasons treated in a separate section. The importance, in this connection, of such titles described under Thrift Institutions as Henderson’s “Industrial insurance in the United States” and the report by the United States Commissioner of Labor on “Workmen’s insurance and benefit funds in the United States” is obvious.

 

I. GENERAL

United States Library of Congress. Select list of references on workingmen’s insurance. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908, pp. 28.

A helpful compilation.

 

Zacher, Georg, editor. Die Arbeiterversicherung im Auslande. Berlin: A. Troschel, 1898 –.

This, the most valuable work of reference on social insurance, is a collection of historical and descriptive monographs for all important countries, except Germany, published at intervals since 1898. Each volume discusses the results of laws, contains a special bibliography, and prints the texts of laws both in the original language and in German. As significant changes have occurred, supplementary volumes have been added.

[Erster Band (1900). Heft 1-12: Dänemark, Schweden, Norwegen, Frankreich, England, Italien, Oesterreich, Ungarn, Russland, Finland, Schweiz, Belgien.]

[Heft XVII. Charles Richmond Henderson, Die Arbeiterversicherung in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika (1907)]

 

Bellom, Maurice. Les lois d’assurance ouvrière à l’étranger. 10 vols. Paris: Arthur Rousseau, 1892-1909.

A compilation second in importance only to Zacher, but different in procedure and omitting France. Like Zacher, it supplies historical and descriptive matter and texts, but instead of treating each country independently, it discusses, in one volume, sickness insurance; in six, accident insurance; in two, invalidity and old-age insurance; and in a supplementary volume, published four years after its predecessor, describes recent changes and additions.

[I. Assurance contre maladie (1892)]

[II. Assurance contre les accidents: 1ème parti (1895); 2ème partie (1896); 3ème partie (1900); 4ème partie (1901); 5ème partie (1903)]

[III. Assurance contre l’invalidité, 1ère partie (1905)]

 

Congrès Internationaux [des Accidents du Travail et] des Assurances Sociales. Publications. Paris: 1890.

The international congress has usually been held triennially, since 1889, and its proceedings, including many important papers, have been published in French and German.

[Paris (1889) Volume I; Volume II; Berne (1891); Milan (1894) Volume I, Volume II; Bruxelles (1897); Paris (1900), Volume I; Düsseldorf (1902); Vienne (1905), Volume I, Volume II; Rome (1908); Washington (1915)]

The quarterly Bulletin of the Congress, published by the Comité Permanent (Paris: Arthur Rousseau), is the best current source of information on all branches of social insurance. It includes texts of bills and laws, and able discussions.

 

Willoughby, William Franklin. Workingmen’s insurance. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1898, pp. xii, 386.

This volume, dealing mainly with European plans, can still, despite the great extension of insurance since its appearance, reliably be used for an understanding of the earlier developments.

 

United States. Fourth Special Report of the Commissioner of Labor. Compulsory insurance in Germany. Prepared by John Graham Brooks. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1893, pp. 370. [Revised Edition, 1895]

Although important amendments have been enacted and fresh experience gained since this volume was written, it is still one of the most useful accounts in English of the origin, nature and problems of social insurance in Germany.

 

Lass, Ludwig, and Zahn, Friedrich. Einrichtung und Wirkung der deutschen Arbeiterversicherung. Dritte Ausgabe. Berlin: A. Asher, 1904, ix, 274 S.

Probably the best non-technical exposition of the nature, operation and effects of the German insurance plan. Though the work is semi-official, and its tone laudatory and defensive, the arguments are skillfully chosen, well put and persuasive.

 

Pinkus, N. Workmen’s insurance in Germany. Yale Review, February, 1904, pp. 372-389; May, 1904, pp. 72-97; November, 1904, pp. 296-323; February, 1905, pp. 418-434.

Discusses the principles and effects of German insurance.

 

Farnam, Henry W. The psychology of German workmen’s insurance. Yale Review, May, 1904, pp. 98-113; February, 1905, pp. 435-438.

Argues that insurance has not made the workman better disposed to state or employer and has reduced his self-reliance.

 

Taussig, F. W. Workmen’s insurance in Germany: some illustrative figures. Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1909, pp. 191-194.

Measures the employers’ burden.

 

Seager, Henry Rogers. Social insurance: A program of social reform. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910, pp. v, 175.

An attractive statement, in simple terms, of the principles of social insurance, with special reference to American needs.

 

Lewis, Frank. State insurance. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1909, pp. 233.

An argument for compulsory insurance; good in its exposition of the German plan, questionable in its economic logic.

 

Kennedy, James B. Beneficiary features of American trade unions. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1908, pp. 128.

A concise study, based on original sources. Only national and international unions are considered.

 

Weyl, Walter E. Benefit features of British trade unions. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 64, May, 1906, pp. 699-848.

A history and description, with statistical results.

 

II. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS AND DISEASE

Hoffman, Frederick L. Industrial accidents. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 78, September, 1908, pp. 417-465.

Discusses the frequency of accidents in the more dangerous occupations.

 

Oliver, Thomas, editor. Dangerous trades. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1902, pp. xxiii, 891.

Probably the best available volume in its field. The sixty chapters deal more generally with disease than accidents. Of a more popular character is the author’s later volume on “Diseases of occupations” (London: Methuen & Co., 1908, pp. vi, 427).

 

Andrews, John B. Phosphorus poisoning in the match industry of the United States. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 86, January, 1910, pp. 31-146.

 

Sommerfeld, Th., and others. List of industrial poisons. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 86, January, 1910, pp. 147-168.

Two good additions to the literature on industrial disease.

 

Foreign Workmen’s Compensation Acts, Summary of. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 74, January, 1908, pp. 121-143.

A compendious, classified statement of the enactments of twenty-two countries, convenient at once for a rapid view of the legislation of one country and for international comparison.

 

McKitrick, Reuben. Accident insurance for workingmen (Comparative Legislation Bulletin No. 20). Madison: Wisconsin Library Commission, 1909, pp. 70.

The legal and financial principles of various forms of accident insurance clearly explained.

 

Aronson, V. R. The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1906. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1909, pp. 559.

“The object of this book is to present a complete view of the law of workmen’s compensation as contained in the Act of 1906, and in the decisions of the English and Scotch courts both prior and subsequent to that act” (preface, page 5). In this aim the book admirably succeeds; it is thorough, clear and, in its comparisons with the older acts, highly instructive.

 

Parker, Launcelot. The British Workmen’s Compensation Acts. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 70, May, 1907, pp. 579-638.

A history of previous acts and an exposition, with the text, of the Act of 1906.

 

Clark, Lindley D. The legal liability of employers for injuries to their employees in the United States. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 74, January, 1908, pp. 1-120.

An excellent statement of the American law.

 

Eastman, Crystal. Work-accidents and the law. (The Pittsburgh Survey.) New York: Charities Publication Committee, pp. xvi, 345.

An important study, by the secretary of the New York State Employers’ Liability Commission, of the causes of industrial accident in the Pittsburgh district, the operation of present liability laws, and the best method of reform. There are interesting appendices.

 

New York. Commission on employers’ liability. First report, March 19, 1910. Albany, 1910, pp. v, 271.

An able preliminary discussion of present difficulties and of remedies.

 

Wisconsin. Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics. Thirteenth biennial report. Part I: Industrial accidents and employer’s liability in Wisconsin. Madison, 1909, pp. 1-143. Fourteenth biennial report. Part II: Industrial accidents in Wisconsin. Madison, 1909, pp. 69-142.

These reports discuss conditions in Wisconsin, and foreign and American remedies, tried and proposed.

 

The State Coöperative Accident Insurance Fund of Maryland. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 57, March, 1905, pp. 645-648.

History of an ill-conceived and ephemeral, but not uninstructive, American plan of state insurance. The text of the law appeared in Bulletin No. 45, pp. 406-408; the grounds of its unconstitutionality are set forth in Bulletin No. 57, pp. 689, 690.

 

III. INVALIDITY AND OLD AGE

Massachusetts. Report of the Commission on Old Age Pensions, Annuities and Insurance. Boston, 1910, pp. 409.

A comprehensive survey of existing systems, public and private, national and local. Issues are discussed with special reference to an American community; and a conclusion adverse to the institution of a state scheme for Massachusetts is reached.

 

Brandeis, Louis D. Massachusetts savings-bank insurance and pension system. Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association, March, 1909, pp. 409-416.

A brief exposition of an interesting voluntary scheme.

 

Sutherland, William. Old age pensions. London: Methuen & Co., 1907, pp. x, 227.

A concise critical description of the various plans proposed in England before the act of 1908, and a thoughtful discussion of the factors of the pension problem. In an appendix are reviewed the chief foreign systems. The book serves incidentally as a guide to the important Parliamentary papers on the subject.

 

Old Age Pensions: A collection of short papers. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903, pp. 247.

Many of the articles are of general significance and are written by eminent students.

 

Source: Teachers in Harvard University, A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, pp. 203-209.

Image Source: Assistant Professor of Social Ethics, Robert Franz Foerster in Harvard Album 1920.

Categories
Economists Harvard Policy

Harvard. Paul Volcker’s A.M. Transcript for Graduate School of Public Administration, 1949-1951

 

Paul Volcker’s entry into Economics in the Rear-view Mirror was celebrated as the 45th member of the tongue-in-cheek page “Economists Wearing Bowties”.  

But seriously now, Paul Volcker’s biographer, William L. Silver (Volcker The Triumph of Persistence, New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012), included an image of a hand-written copy of Paul Volcker’s Harvard University A.M. course transcript that I  have transcribed into a digital artifact for this post. Two Volcker quotes from the book have been added to show the power of academic scribblers from a few years back (and not necessarily in a good way) to provoke frenzy in the minds of those in authority. 

Incidentally, for a couple of the courses Economics in the Rear-view Mirror already provides copies of the course outlines, reading lists, and final exams (see below for links).

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Too late for a tuition refund
(from Princeton)

“I don’t think I heard the name of John Maynard Keynes until I got to Harvard. At Princeton they taught the famous quantity theory of money as though they heard it directly from David Hume in 1750….Friedrich Lutz was about forty at the time, but from the perspective of an eighteen-year-old, he might as well have been two hundred and forty. He taught us that too much money created inflation.”

Source: William L. Silber, Volcker The Triumph of Persistence, New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012, pp. 33-34.

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But what if your detector is defective?

“Every man should have a built-in automatic crap detector operating inside him. It also should have a manual drill and a crank handle in case the machine breaks down.”

Ernest Hemingway 1954

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Volcker recalling Roosa’s arranging a presidential appointment for him as deputy undersecretary of the treasury for monetary affairs so that he could serve as Treasury’s point man in confronting the [Kennedy Administration’s] CEA:

“It all sounded too easy. Push this button twice and out pops full employment. Equations do not work as well on people as they do on rocket. I remember sitting in class at Harvard listening to [the fiscal policy expert] Arthur Smithies say, ‘A little inflation is good for the economy.’ And all I can remember after that was a word flashing in my brain like a yellow caution sign: ‘Bullshit.’ I’m not sure exactly where that came from…but it’s a thought that never left me.”

Source: “William L. Silber, Volcker The Triumph of Persistence, New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012, pp. 33-34.

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Handwritten copy of Volcker’s
Harvard transcript:

Harvard University. Graduate School of Public Administration
Littauer Center, Cambridge, Mass.

July 26, 1951.

Transcript of Harvard Record of Paul Adolph Volcker

Course

 Grade
½ Course

Full Course
1949-50

Ec. 201

 Economic Theory A
Ec. 241 Principles of Money and Banking

A-

Ec. 243a

 International Trade A

Gov. 250a

Govt. Admin. & Public Policy

A

Ec. 243b

 International Trade A

Gov. 250b

 Govt. Admin. & Public Policy A-
1950-51

Gov. 106b

 History of Political Thought A
Ec 202 Advanced Economic Theory

Excused

Ec. 251

 Public Finance A
Ec. 350 Reading & Research/half
Prof. Hansen

Satisfactory

Gov. 300

 Reading & Research/half
Prof. Fainsod		 Satisfactory

 
Gov. 300 Reading & Research/half
Prof. Neumanns

Satisfactory

Degree awarded: A.M., Harvard Univ., June 1951

The established grades are A, B, C, D, and E.

A grade of A, B, Credit, Satisfactory or Excused indicates that the course was passed with distinction. Only courses passed with distinction may be credited toward a higher degree.

Robert G. McCloskey
Secretary

Source: Image from William L. Silber, Volcker — The Triumph of Persistence, New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012, p. 308.

________________________

Volcker’s Harvard Course Instructors

1949-50

Ec 201. Economic Theory. Professor Chamberlin.

Ec 241. Principles of Money and Banking. Professor J. H. Williams (Fall); Professor Hansen (Spring).

Ec 243a. International Trade. Professor Haberler.

Ec 243b. International Economic Policy. Professors Haberler and Smithies.

Gov 250a. Government Administration and Policy. Professor Fainsod.

Gov 250b. Government Administration and Policy.  Professor Gaus.

1950-51

Ec 251. Public Finance. Professor Burbank.

Gov 106b. History of Political Thought II. Probably Prof. Friedrichs.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1949-1950. [Note: course enrollment information was not provided in the President’s Report for 1950-51.]

 

Image Source: 2020 Princeton Reunions Virtual Talk: Honoring the Remarkable Legacy of Paul Volcker ’49.

Categories
Bryn Mawr Columbia Economists Gender Policy Social Work Yale

Yale. Economics Ph.D. Alumna, Kate Holladay Claghorn, 1896

 

Today’s post adds another woman to the series “Get to Know an Economics Ph.D. alumna”. Kate Holladay Claghorn studied political economy under Franklin H. Giddings at Bryn Mawr followed by coursework with William G. Sumner and Arthur T. Hadley at Yale in industrial history, advanced economics, political science, and anthropology. I have not been able to find a digital link to her 1896 Yale Ph.D. thesis “Law, Nature, and Convention: A Study in Political Theory”, but much of her published work is easily accessible now on line.

Fun Fact: Kate Holladay Claghorn was a boarder in the John R. Commons home while she worked for him on the immigration sections of the Final Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX (1902). (Source: John R. Commons, Myself, pp. 68, 76.)

___________________

Kate Holladay Claghorn
Life and Career

1863. Born Dec. 12 in Aurora, Illinois

Brooklyn Heights Seminary

1892. A.B., Bryn Mawr

1892-93. Graduate work at Bryn Mawr with Professor Franklin H. Giddings, professor of political economy

1896. Ph.D. Yale University. Professors Sumner and Hadley. Studied industrial history, advanced economics, political science, and anthropology

1898 to 1900 she acted as Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae.

1900-01. Assisted John Rogers Commons in his study of immigration for the United States Census Bureau 1902. Expert in the United States Industrial Commission.

1901-1902 was research worker for the Economic Year Book.

1902. Division of Methods and Results, United States Census.

1902-1905. Assistant registrar. New York City Tenement House Department.

1905. Acting Registrar. New York City Tenement House Department.

1906-1912. Registrar. New York City Tenement House Department.

1909. Claghorn was one of 60 signers, 19 of whom were women, of the “Call for the Lincoln Emancipation Conference to Discuss Means for Securing Political and Civil Equality for the Negro” written by Oswald Garrison Villard, which became the founding document of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

1912-1932. Instructor and head of the Department of Social Research, New York School of Social Work.

1918. First woman to be elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

1932. Retired.

1938. Died of a cerebral hemorrhage May 22 in Greenwich where she was living.
Buried with her parents in Maple Grove Cemetery, Kew Gardens, N.Y.

Source for most items above: Yale University Obituary Record, p. 231.

___________________

Obituary

New York, March 24.—Miss Kate Holladay Claghorn, author and sociologist, who was a member of the faculty of the New York School of Social Work from 1912 to 1932, died Tuesday night at her home in Greenwich, Conn.

Source: The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), Thursday, May 24, 1938, p. 2.

___________________

Graduate School Alumnae Directory,
Yale University
[1920]

Kate Holladay Claghorn, B.A. Bryn Mawr College 1892.

Miss Claghorn received her Doctor’s degree in 1896. From 1898 to 1900 she acted as Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. From 1900 to 1901 she was Expert in the United States Industrial Commission, and in 1901-1902 was research worker for the Economic Year Book. In 1902 she worked in the Division of Methods and Results, United States Census; in 1902-1906 she was Assistant Registrar, and in 1906-1912, Registrar, of the Tenement House Department of New York City. Since 1912 she has been head of the Research Department of the New York School of Social Work.

Her dissertation is entitled “Law, Nature, and Convention: A Study in Political Theory.” She has also written “Juvenile Delinquency in Rural New York,” issued as Children’s Bureau Publication, No. 32.

Source: Alumnae Graduate School, Yale University, 1894-1920. New Haven: Yale University, 1920, p. 46.

___________________

Writers of the Day
[1897]

Kate Holladay Claghorn, whose scholarly paper, “Burke: a Centenary Perspective,” in the July Atlantic [Volume 80, No. 477 (July, 1897), pp. 84-95], shows both breadth of knowledge and maturity of thought, has only recently begun to write for publication, having but lately completed a college course. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1892, spent a year in graduate study at that institution, and then went to Yale, where she entered the graduate school, taking the degree of Ph.D. in 1896. There is an interesting fact connected with this graduation at Yale. Although Yale had granted degrees to women in 1894 and 1895, in 1896 women took part for the first time in the public commencement exercises, walking in the procession about the campus, sitting in Battell Chapel with the other candidates, and going upon the platform to receive diplomas. As Miss Claghorn happened by chance to head the line of women as they passed up to the platform, she was, it turned out, the first woman to receive as a reward for regular academic work done in the university an academic degree publicly from the hand of the president. Miss Claghorn’s particular interests are in the general field of the social sciences. At Bryn Mawr she was under the especial direction of Professor Franklin H. Giddings, then professor of political economy there, now professor of sociology at Columbia University. At Yale she studied under Professors Sumner and Hadley, following courses that they gave in industrial history, advanced economics, political science, and anthropology. Her thesis for the doctorate was a study in political theory, entitled “Law, Nature, and Convention.” While at Yale Miss Claghorn contributed to the Outlook a short article on Bryn Mawr. In the Yale Review for February, 1896 [Vol. IV. No. 4, pp. 426-440], she had an article entitled “The Ethics of Copyright.” Last winter she contributed to the Outlook five articles on “College Training for Women,” and in May she published, through Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., a book under the same title, “College Training for Women,” in which the matter printed in the Outlook is incorporated, in revised form, but which contains so much additional matter as to be practically quite a new production.

Source: The Writer, Vol. 10, No. 7 (July, 1897), pp. 102-103.

___________________

A Card Index That Santa Claus Might Follow
[1912]

Miss Kate Claghorn is holding down a man’s job in the tenement house department because there was no man smart enough to fill it. Twice she stood the test of an examination framed in Columbia University, which was designed, if anything, to eliminate women from the competition, but which in the end eliminated the men. The position of registrar of records is one of the “fat” jobs. It has the handsome little salary of $3,000 attached to it, and it takes the statistical mind of a thinking machine to do the work that goes along with it.

An inkling of the intricacy of Miss Claghorn’s work can be got from the fact that recently she finished, in six months, a complete survey of all the five boroughs of New York City, recording on cards for instant reference the condition of every dwelling and tenement house in the city. Not a roof was passed by. Santa Claus himself might follow Miss Claghorn’s card index and no one would be overlooked at Christmas time.

Source: From Frank Parker Stockbridge. “A Woman Who Spends Over Forty Million Dollars Each Year and Some Others Who Hold Positions of Financial Power and Moral Responsibility in the Government of New York City.” The American City, vol. 6. No. 6 (June, 1912), p.816.

___________________

Woman’s Who’s Who of America
[1914]

Claghorn, Kate Holladay, 81 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Lecturer, teacher: b. Aurora, Ill. (came to N.Y. City in infancy); dau. Charles and Martha Holladay; ed. Bryn Mawr, A.B. ’92; Yale, Ph.D. ’96. Engaged in research work for U.S. Industrial Comm’n, 1890-1901; in U.S. Census Office, 1902; ass’t registrar of records, 1902-06; registrar Tenement House Dep’t, City of N.Y., 1906-12; lecturer on permanent staff N.Y. School of Philanthropy, 1912—. Author: College Training for Women, 1897; also contributor to magazines. Mem. Women’s Political Union, N.Y. Mem. Am. Economic Ass’n, Am. Statistical Ass’n, Soc. For Italian Immigrants, Little Italy Ass’n, Women’s Univ. Club. Recreation: Music.

Source: Woman’s Who’s Who of America, 1914-1915, John William Leonard, ed. New York: American Commonwealth Company (1914), p. 178.

___________________

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
[1923-1924]

Miss Claghorn

The task of social research is to collect and arrange the facts needed as a basis for dealing with social problems either of the individual or the group.

Opportunities for Employment

  1. Field investigators and research workers in the Federal Service, as for example in the Bureau of Labor Statistics or in the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Labor, in State or Municipal Service, in organizations interested in housing or Americanization, or in some one of the various investigations or surveys undertaken under the direction of private individuals or committees, or foundations.
  2. Statisticians, in the Federal, State or Municipal Service, or in private organizations engaged in social work.
  3. Teachers of social statistics.

The demand for trained workers in this field is not yet so strong or so steady as in some others, but there are indications that the demand is growing and that students with special qualifications for this kind of work and special interest in it may be encouraged to prepare for it.

Requirements for the Diploma in this Field

Methods of Social Research (Soc. Res. 1, 2 and 3), The Method of Social Case Work (S.C.W. 1), field work in the Department of Social Case Work (S.C.W. 301) 2 days a week for one Quarter. Social Work and Social Progress (S.C.W. 3), Vocational Course in Social Research for 3 Quarters (S.C.W. 201), and additional course to total 84 points.

Soc. Res. 1. Methods of Social Research, 2 points, Fall Quarter. Miss Claghorn.

The planning of an investigation, the framing of schedules or questionnaires, the construction of statistical tables and simple diagrams.

Soc. Res. 2. Methods of Social Research, 2 points, Winter and Spring Quarters. Miss Claghorn.

Simple forms of analysis of statistical material, graphs, ratios, averages, measures of dispersion.

Soc. Res. 3. Methods of Social Research, 2 points, Spring Quarter. Miss Claghorn.

Elementary theory of probability, fitting of data to the normal curve, fitting to trend lines, correlation, linear and non-linear, reliability of measures.

Soc. Res. 4. The Immigrant, 2 points, Fall Quarter. Miss Claghorn.

Soc. Res. 5. The Immigrant, 2 points, Winter Quarter. Miss Claghorn.

To deal with people successfully, it is necessary to know something of what they are and what they think and feel. A large proportion of the persons with whom social agencies come in contact are foreigners of many different varieties, each with peculiar habits and characteristics which largely determine their reactions to the new environment. As a help toward understanding our foreign peoples, this course undertakes the study of the racial heritages, economic background, and the social institutions of the more important immigrant groups from Europe and the Near East.

Soc. Res. 201. Vocational Course, Social Investigation, Fall Winter and Spring Quarters. Miss Claghorn.

Study and practice of methods of social investigation in some special field selected according to the needs of the student or group of students electing this course. In the past, studies have been made in this Department in immigrant life, housing, and juvenile delinquency.

Soc. Res. 301. Field Work, 4 points.

Two days a week for one Quarter in some agency carrying on social research may be arranged in accordance with the special needs of the student.

Source: Charity Organization Society of the City of New York, the New York School of Social Work, General Announcement 1923-1924 (April Bulletin), pp. 30-31.

___________________

Students that have received the Degree of Bachelor of Arts from Bryn Mawr College

Kate Holladay Claghorn. Group, Greek and Latin.

Leonia, N.J. Prepared by Mr. Caskie Harrison, Brooklyn, New York City: passed examination covering the Freshman year in Columbia College, 1888-89. A.B., 1892; Ph.D., Yale University, 1896. Graduate Student in Sociology, Bryn Mawr College, 1892-93; Graduate Student in Political Science, Yale University, 1893-95, and University Scholar, 1894-95; Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, 1898-1900.

Source: Program Bryn Mawr College 1900-01, p. 89.

___________________

Partial List of publications (with links)

Kate Holladay Claghorn. College Training for Women. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1897.

___________. “Occupation for the [woman] college graduate,” (Association of Collegiate Alumnae. Publications, series 3, no. 3 (February, 1900), pp. 62-66. 1900).

___________. “The problem of occupation for college women,” Educational Review, Vol. XV (March, 1898), pp. 217-230.
Appears to be same publication as (Association of Collegiate Alumnae, Publications Series 2, no. 66).

Final Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX (1902).

___________. “Slavs, Magyars and Some Others in the New Immigration”. Charities Vol. Xiii, No. 10 (Dec. 3, 1904), pp. 199-205.

___________. “The Limitations of Statistics,” Review of William H. Allen Efficient Democracy. In Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association, New Series, No. 81 (Vol. XI) March, 1908. Pages 97-104.

___________. “The Use and Misuse of Statistics in Social Work.” In Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association, New Series, No. 82 (Vol. XI) June, 1908. Pages 150-167.

___________. “Record Keeping as an Aid to Enforcement” in Housing and Town Planning, Carol Aronovici, ed. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science (1914), pp.117-124.

___________. Juvenile Delinquency in Rural New York. U. S. Department of Labor. Children’s Bureau, no. 32, 1918.

___________. The Immigrant’s Day in Court. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1923.

___________.  Statistical Department of the Municipal Court of Philadelphia.  A Report by the Bureau of Municipal Research of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Thomas Skelton Harrison Foundation, 1931.

Further publications can be found in the longer bibliography provided in the Bibliography of Female Economic Thought, Kirsten K. Madden, Janet A. Seiz and Michèle Pujol, editors. London: Routledge, 2004, pp. 107-108.

Image Source: Frank Parker Stockbridge. “A Woman Who Spends Over Forty Million Dollars Each Year and Some Others Who Hold Positions of Financial Power and Moral Responsibility in the Government of New York City.” The American City, vol. 6. No. 6 (June, 1912), pp 814-. [photo of Kate Holladay Claghorn on page 816].

 

 

 

Categories
Economists Harvard Policy Princeton Williams

Harvard. Economics PhD Alumnus. Donald Holmes Wallace, 1931

 

The previous post included lists of books used for undergraduate and graduate courses dealing with the economics of railroad regulation taught at Harvard in the mid-1930s. The list was put together by Donald Holmes Wallace who was a recent Harvard Ph.D. graduate and soon to be appointed to an assistant professorship in economics.

His career was cut short at age 50 by a heart attack. His early promise was recognized with the award of the prestigious David A. Wells prize for his 1931 dissertation on the aluminum industry.

________________________

Ph.D. 1931

Donald Holmes Wallace, A.B. 1924, A.M. 1928.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economics of Corporate Organization. Thesis, “The Aluminum Monopoly in the United States.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1930-31, p. 120.

________________________

Donald Holmes Wallace
(1903-1953)

Born in West Chester, PA, June 29, 1903.

1924. A.B. Harvard.

1924. Taught at the Suffield school in Suffield, CT.

1925. Instructor in economics at the University of Vermont.

1926-27. Assistant in economics at Harvard

1927-36. Instructor and tutor in economics at Harvard.

1928. A.M., Harvard.

1931. Ph.D., Harvard. Thesis: The Aluminum Monopoly in the United States.
Awarded the David A. Wells dissertation prize 1933-34.

1931-32. Year in Europe funded by a Social Science Research Council grant.

1937. Revised version of dissertation published by Harvard University Press: Market Control in the Aluminum Industry.  “The present study first took partial form as a doctoral dissertation (presented in 1931) upon the aluminum monopoly in the United States. Thereafter, the scope of the inquiry was widened to include market control in Europe and international relations in this industry.”–Preface.

1937-39. Assistant professor of economics at Harvard

1939. Associate professor of economics at Williams.

1939. Part-time economist for the Department of Labor

1940. Consultant of the National Defense Advisory Commission

1941. Consultant of the Office of Price Administration

1942-43. Director of OPA industrial manufacturing price division.

1943, Summer. Acting deputy administrator for prices of OPA.

1943-1945. (He resigned from Williams in 1945) Economic adviser to the deputy price administrator.

1945-1953. American Economic Association’s representative on the National Bureau of Economic Research.

1946-47. Member of the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers.

1948. Hired by Princeton “to inaugurate the graduate study program of Woodrow Wilson School, as well as apppointment as Professor of Economics.

1951. Vice-President of the American Economic Association.

1953, September 19. Died in Princeton, NJ. [Final position: Director of the Graduate Program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs]

Source:  North Adams Transcript (MA), September 21, 1943, p. 3; Eveline M. Burns “In Memoriam, Donald Holmes Wallace”, AER, Papers and Proceedings (May, 1954), p. 696.

Image Source: Dr. Donald H. Wallace. Head Economic Analyst, Office of Price Administration (OPA) and Civilian Supply. From the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Photograph Collection. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Policy Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economic Analysis and Public Policy, Readings and Exams. Baldwin, 1955-56

 

While Harvard archive’s collection of old course syllabi and reading lists offers a treasure chest of material, there still are plenty of “missing observations” and lost pages between us and a complete record. Fortunately there is often significant inertia in the actual syllabi so that interpolation is less hazardous than one might expect in filling the gaps. The next several posts will be dedicated to the graduate course taught for graduate students of economics and of public administration “Economic Analysis and Public Policy”. Robert Baldwin’s spring term syllabus for 1955-56 gives us a valuable clue as to the likely content of a missing page in the syllabus for the course as taught in 1956-57.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Arthur Smithies’ syllabus for this course as taught in 1949-50 has been transcribed and posted.

Biographical information along with the reading list for Robert Baldwin’s course “Theories and Problems of Economic Development” taught in 1955 have been posted earlier.

_______________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 206 Economic Analysis and Public Policy. Assistant Professor Baldwin. Full course.

(F) Total 36: 10 Graduates, 22 Other Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

(S) Total 34: 10 Graduates, 21 Other Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1955-56, p. 78.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
[Baldwin, Fall Term, 1955-56]

Baumol, W. J., Economic Dynamics, Chapters 2, 3, and 4.

Bober, M. M., Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History.

Cassel, Gustav, The Theory of Social Economy, Chapter 4.

Domar, E., “Expansion and Employment,” American Economic Review, March 1947.

Dillard, Dudley, The Economics of J. M. Keynes.

Gray, Alexander, The Development of Economic Doctrine, Chapters 5, 6, 11.

Hansen, A. H., Business Cycles and National Income, Parts II and III.

Hansen, A. H., A Guide to Keynes.

Harris, S. E. The New Economics, Chapters 12, 13, 14, 16, 39.

Harris, S. E., Schumpeter, Social Scientist.

Harrod, Roy, The Life of J. M. Keynes.

Heilbroner, R. L., The Worldly Philosophers.

Jevons, W. Stanley, The Theory of Political Economy, Introduction.

Keynes, J. M., The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

Klein, L. R., The Keynesian Revolution, Chapters 3 and 4.

Malthus, T. R., Essay on Population.

Marshall, A., Principles of Economics, Book V.

Marx, Karl, Communist Manifesto.

Mill, J. S., Principles of Political Economy, Book 4, Chapters 1-4.

Ricardo, David, Principles of Political Economy, Chapters 1-6, 21.

Ricardo, David, Notes on Malthus, Chapter 7.

Robinson, Joan, Essay on Marxian Economics.

Schumpeter, J. A., The Theory of Economic Development.

Schumpeter, J.A., Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy.

Schumpeter, J. A., Ten Great Economists, Chapters 1, 4, 10.

Schumpeter, J. A., History of Economic Analysis.

Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, Chs. 1-9; bk. II, Ch. 3; Bk. IV, Ch. 2.

Smithies, Arthur, “Reflections on the Work and Influence of J.M. Keynes,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1951.

Smithies, Arthur, “Joseph Alois Schumpeter,” American Economic Review, Sept. 1950.

Stephen, Leslie, The English Utilitarians, Volume 2, Chapter 5.

Sweezy, Paul, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chapters 4, 5, 6, 8, 9.

Walras, L.,  Elements of Pure Economics, Part I.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1955-1956 (2 of 2).

Reading Period Assignment:

No additional assignment

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1955-1956 (1 of 2).

_______________________

1955-56
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 206
Mid-year Examination
January, 1956

(Three Hours)

Answer four (4) of the following six questions.

  1. Some economists have advocated a flexible money wage rate policy to ensure full employment. Discuss and contrast the effects of a cut in money wage rates on aggregate employment in the Keynesian and in the Classical (or neo-Classical) systems.
  2. Both Marx and Schumpeter believe that capitalism is doomed, but their reasons for this conclusion are quite different. Explain and criticize the analysis of each in regard to this point.
  3. According to Keynes, the habit of thrift may be a vice instead of a virtue. In Classical and neo-Classical thought, however, thrift is invariably regarded as a virtue. Explain the reasons for this difference in viewpoint.
  4. Discuss and appraise the analyses of Smith, Ricardo, and Marx concerning their view that the long-run rate of profit will decline.
  5. What is wrong with the labor theory of value as an explanation of how relative prices are determined? How did the neo-Classical theorists solve the problem of how relative prices are determined?
  6. In the Ricardian and Marxian theories of growth, labor fails to share in the fruits of long-run progress (in the sense of receiving a higher per capita income). However, according to Schumpeter and the neo-Classsical writers, this is not a necessary (and, indeed, is an unlikely) result. Why do these writers disagree on this matter?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 23, Volume: Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science, January 1956.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
[Baldwin, Spring Term, 1955-56]

Part I (cont.) The Post-Keynesian Growth Theorists

Readings:

Domar, “Expansion and Employment,” A.E.R., March 1947.

Baumol, Economic Dynamics, Ch. 4

Part II. The Changing Structure of the U.S. Economy

  1. “Real” Factors
  2. Institutional Conditions

Readings:

Dewhurst and Associates, America’s Needs and Resources, A New Survey, Chs. 4, 18, 28.

Galbraith, American Capitalism, Chs. 1, 4-10.

Kaysen, “Looking Around—Books About Competition,” Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1954.

Lilienthal, Big Business: A New Era

Slichter, The American Economy, Ch. 2.

Part III. Public Policy and Economic Goals

  1. Full Employment
  2. Price Stability
  3. Equitable Income Distribution
  4. Efficient Resource Allocation
  5. Economic Growth
  6. International Equilibrium

Readings:

A.E.A. Committee, “The Problem of Economic Instability,” American Economic Review, Sept., 1950.

Economic Report of the President, January 1956.

Elliot, The Political Economy of American Foreign Policy, Part II.

Galbraith, “Farm Policy: The Current Position,” Journal of Farm Economics, May, 1955.

Hansen, Business Cycles and National Income, Part III.

Hearings before the Joint Committee, January 1955 Economic Report of the President, Statements by Professors Hansen (p. 491) and Harris (p. 291).

Knight, “Economic Objectives in a Changing World,” in Economics and Public Policy, Brookings Institution

McDonald, “The Sherman Act and ‘Workable Competition’,” No. 28 in Readings in Economics, Samuelson, Bishop, and Coleman.

Mason, “Prices, Costs, and Profits,” in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of J.H. Williams.

Maxwell, Fiscal Policy

Report of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Foreign Economic Policy, January, 1956.

Smithies, “Economic Welfare and Economic Policy,” in Economics and Public Policy.

Smithies, “Full Employment at Whatever Cost: A Comment,” Q.J.E., November, 1950.

Subcommittee on Monetary, Credit, and Fiscal Policies of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Money, Credit, and Fiscal Policies, No. 2 in Gramp and Weiler, Readings in Political Economy.

United Nations, National and International Measures for Full Employment.

Viner, “Full Employment at Whatever Cost,” Q.J.E., August, 1950.

Wright, The Impact of the Union, Ch. 8, 10.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1955-1956 (2 of 2).

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
Final Examination
June, 1956

Answer four (4) of the following seven questions:

  1. What are the major problems facing American agriculture? Analyze the economic forces behind these problems, and suggest the kind of policies you would favor in order to mitigate the difficulties.
  2. “The strained relations between the Federal Reserve and Treasury since the end of World War II clearly indicate the undesirability of the existence of a semi-autonomous monetary authority in this country.” Discuss.
  3. Domar’s condition for the maintenance of continuous full employment is not unlike the Queen’s observation in Through the Looking Glass; “A slow sort of country. Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”
    Explain and evaluate the requirements for full employment in Domar’s model.
  4. “The traditional view of anti-trust policy is based on a static conception of economic activity. What is needed is a revision of anti-trust policy which recognizes the dynamic nature of the American economy.” Discuss.
  5. Carefully explain and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of monetary policy versus fiscal policy as counter-cyclical weapons.
  6. Discuss the causes and attempted cures of the post-war dollar shortage.
  7. “The economist must attempt to formulate a compromise among various, and possibly conflicting, economic objectives. He must attempt to discuss the economic objectives of society, to remove contradictions among them, and to harmonize economic objectives with those that lie outside the economic field.” Do you agree? What are some of the possible conflicts among various economic objectives? Are there any policy changes which you would recommend “to remove contradictions” among various economic objectives?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 24, Volume: Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science, June 1956.

Image Source: Selection from photograph (ca. 1975) of Robert E. Baldwin from the University of Wisconsin Archives/The University of Wisconsin Collection/The UW-Madison Collection/UW-Madison Archives Images.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Policy

Harvard. Exams for Economic Analysis and Public Policy. Smithies, 1949-1950

Arthur Smithies’ 1949-50 graduate course “Economic Analysis and Public Policy” was the subject of an earlier post. There I transcribed the course syllabus, provided enrollment figures, and added the Harvard Crimson’s 1981 obituary for him.

Several years after that post, I was able to copy the course examinations during a research visit to the Harvard University archives. Transcriptions of those exams are included below.

_________________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 206
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND PUBLIC POLICY
[Mid-year Examination, January 1950]

(Three Hours)

Answer all questions.

  1. Characterize various types of economic organization according to the degree of central planning and control and the methods by which control is exercised.
  2. Discuss the wage-price question that seems to confront most private enterprise economies. Is a wage-price spiral inherent in a full employment economy? Could it be eliminated by allowing a sufficiently large pool of unemployment? Are compulsory and widespread wage and price controls consistent with democratic government?
  3. Compare the relative merits of a free price system and a controlled price system from the point of view of optimum allocation of resources and optimum rate of economic progress. What, if anything, is meant by these terms?
  4. Define the multiplier with numerical illustrations.
  5. From your reading of the Reports of the Council of Economic Advisers, what do you conclude about the type of stabilization policy they favor?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science, February 1950.

_________________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 206
[Final Examination, June 1950]

  1. Discuss Schumpeter’s concept of the entrepreneur and innovation from the point of view of its value (a) in explaining capitalistic development in the past, (b) in explaining the present in the U.S.
  2. Discuss “functional finance” from the point of view of its feasibility and desirability as a guide to policy in the U.S. How do you think Marshall, Schumpeter, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Anti-Trust Division would react to Lerner’s ideas?
  3. Is there a monopoly problem in the U.S.? If so, what ought to be done about it?
  4. The statement was made in class that the more we know about the operation of the economy the more difficult it becomes to operate it. How much nonsense and how much truth is there to this statement?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science, June 1950.

Image Source: Arthur Smithies, Harvard Album 1952.

Categories
Funny Business Gender M.I.T. Policy Popular Economics

M.I.T. Washington Post op-ed by Samuelson on Sound Debt Policy, 1963

 

Source: Paul A. Samuelson, “We can have sound debt policy” from the Washington Post, included with Extention of remarks of Hon. Jeffery Cohelan of California in the House of Representatives, Friday, May 31, 1963 in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates. Volume 109, part 25—Appendix, May 31, 1963, p. A3510

Also found as a mimeographed copy in Harvard University Archives. Papers of Alvin Harvey Hansen, Box 1, Folder “Business Cycles.”

Image Source:  Samuelson Memorial Information Page/Photos from Memorial Service.  Accessed via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Categories
Chicago Economists Policy Race Socialism

Chicago. Laughlin’s anti-bank-deposit-insurance talk, 1908

 

There are two things that I have not been able to figure out about the following report of a talk given by the founding head of the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Economy, J. Laurence Laughlin, against the bank-deposit guarantees promised in the 1908 Democratic Party Platform: (1) what was the point of his joke about the black man and the razor and (2) does “Shivers” refer to a person’s name or does it refer to the physical “shivers” of nervous bank depositors? William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate in the Presidential election of 1908, is clearly Laughlin’s target.

Image Source: From the election of 1908.  Davenport, Homer, 1867-1912, “William Jennings Bryan, bank deposits, political cartoon,” Nebraska U, accessed December 16, 2019.

__________________

Shivers Bryan Bank Plank
Chicago University Financial Expert Declares It Chimerical.
Points Out Its Injustice

Guaranty of Deposits Is Described as a Socialistic Scheme.

Prof. J. Laurence Laughlin, head of the department of political economy of the University of Chicago, who is a national authority on monetary matters, took another hard rap yesterday at the democratic plank for the guaranty of bank deposits.

In concluding his statements, which were made in Cobb hall at the university, the economist declared his opinion about the democratic plank was epitomized by the story of a negro who went into a shop to buy a razor.

“The negro,” said Prof. Laughlin, “was asked if he wished a common razor or a safety razor. “

‘No, sah,’ returned the negro, ‘I just want one for social purposes.’ There you have the bank deposits guaranty idea.

“No one,” continued the speaker, “is so senseless to promote an immediate fund to secure all deposits. It is purely chimerical. Immediate redemption in cash is impossible, especially in any serious crisis since there is no ready money.

Would Work in Insane Asylum.

“The 1907 panic would have spread far and wide if this guaranty of deposits had been in effect then. This guaranty would have been a mere bagatelle. The proposal shows mere ignorance in asking absolute security—just as if any one in this world could give absolute security.

“It is just as well to ask a clergyman on becoming a pastor of a church to guarantee that every member of his flock will not tell a lie, be guilty of any misconduct or go to everlasting damnation,

“It is like A robbing B and going up on the hill to rob C so that B could be reimbursed. In this way C would have to pay for all the deviltry in town. Yes; the bank deposits guaranty would work perfectly-in an insane asylum.

Safety in Bank’s Integrity.

“Do these advocates really know what they are talking about? Good banks can’t prevent bad banks from making poor loans. They can’t stop the initial loans. Why, it would be worse than a disease.”

 

Source: Chicago Tribune, 7 October 1908, p. 5.

Image Source:  Caricature of J. Laurence Laughlin in the University of Chicago yearbook, Cap and Gown, 1907.

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