Category: Socialism

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Exam Questions Harvard Social Work Socialism

Harvard. Readings and final exam for social ethics. Peabody, 1906-07

The field of social ethics was taught by the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and then Dean of the Harvard Divinity School, Francis Greenwood Peabody. It was a rather popular secondary field chosen for the graduate general examination by economics graduate students in the early 20th century.  In the spectrum of individualism through socialism, applied social ethics (poor-relief, family, temperance, and “the labor question”) were imported from philosophical/theological studies.

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Building blocks for Peabody’s course

Peabody’s short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions published in 1910.

Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 175: 6 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 54 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 23 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 72

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Thick Course Description
1906-07

  1. Social Ethics . — The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Muirhead’s Elements of Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3)]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People (links below)]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from J. A. Hobson’s The Social Problem, Schäffle’s The Quintessence of Socialism, Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

            Rooms are expressly assigned for the convenience of students of Social Ethics, on the second floor of Emerson Hall, including a large lecture room, a seminary-room, a conference-room, a library, and two rooms occupied by the Social Museum. The Library of 1500 volumes is a special collection for the use of students of Social Ethics, with conveniences for study and research. The Social Museum is a collection of graphical material, illustrating by photographs, models, diagrams, and charts, many movements of social welfare and industrial progress.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1906-07, p. 22.

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Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People:

(Original) Volume I, East London;
(Original) Volume II, London;
(Original) Appendix to Volume II;
Note: the previous three original volumes were re-printed as four volumes that then were followed by
Volume V, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VI, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume VII, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VIII, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume IX, Comparisons, Survey and Conclusions.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Note: Besides the changes in course number, a few minor changes in the course description from (Philosophy 5) 1902-03  Also in the course description Philosophy 5 (1904-05).

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SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1906-07

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

  1. Explain the significance of the titles:— “Past and Present” [by Thomas Carlyle]; “Unto this Last” [by John Ruskin]; and comment on the teachings involved.
  2. Statistics of wage-loss, employer’s loss, and assistance to employees, in the United States (1881-1900); and their lessons.
  3. The tendencies in contemporary life which appear to the scientific socialist to encourage his faith; with comments.
  4. “The normal relation of the antithesis of which I spoke,” [Socialism and Individualism, Economic and Moral] “is that of cross-correspondence”? (Bosanquet, Civilization of Christendom, p. 316). Comment on this suggestion.
  5. The effect of the growth of trade-unionism on the economic theory of wages. ( A. [Robert Archey] Woods.) [Probably Chapter 1 “The Labor Movement” in Woods’ English Social Movements (2nd ed., 1895), pp. 1-37.]
  6. Distinguish Arbitration, Conciliation, and Coöperation, and indicate the place of each in the Ethics of the Labor Question.
  7. Welfare work at Anzin, and the limitations of its usefulness.
  8. Employer’s Liability, Workmen’s Compensation Acts, and the social philosophy involved. (Adams and Sumner, pp. 478-488.)
  9. Distinguish “Profit-sharing,” “Gain-sharing,” and “Industrial Partnership,” and describe the method undertaken by the United States Steel Corporation.
  10. Compare the operation of the South Carolina liquor-law with that of the Scandinavian System. (The Liquor Problem, pp. 151-156.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1907), p. 59.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Final exam for Methods of Social Reform. Socialism etc. Fetter, 1906-1907

As mentioned in the previous post Thomas Nixon Carver was in Europe for a sabbatical year in 1906-07,  the Harvard economics department had to fill the instructional gap left by Carver and so Frank A. Fetter was brought in from Cornell to cover two of Carver’s standard courses: one on the economic theory of income distribution and the other that surveyed methods of social reform. The artifact for today is Fetter’s final exam for the fall semester course on “Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.”

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Course Reading List
1906-07
(previously posted)

https://www.irwincollier.com/methods-of-social-reform-fetter-covers-carver-course/

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 14b 1hf. Professor Fetter (Cornell University). — Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

Total 32: 4 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 3 Sophomore, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 71.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

  1. Discuss the various classes into which the communistic experiments in America may be divided, and indicate the periods of their greatest success.
    Why are there fewer experiments of that kind now?
  2. Compare Christian socialism with Marxism in its philosophy of progress and in the methods it favors.
  3. In what countries is radical socialism making most headway, and what methods are followed by it?
  4. Define and criticize the surplus-value theory of Marx. Indicate its relation to the labor-value theory of Ricardo, and to Malthusianism.
  5. Discuss historical materialism, and the application made of it by Mars to the revolutionary propaganda.
  6. What is meant by the class conflict, and class consciousness? Give illustrations supporting and opposing these ideas.
  7. Discuss the personality, training, and social experiences of the founders of social-democracy.
  8. In what countries has the socialization of industry made greatest progress? What are present tendencies?
  9. What would be the effect, upon present holders, of a single tax absorbing the whole net rental of city land-sites? What would be the effect upon future purchasers of the land?
  10. In the light of the experience in other countries, what experiments in social reform do you expect to see soon tried in America?
    Give reasons.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07.

Image Source: Faculty portrait of Frank A. Fetter in the 1902 Classbook, Cornell University, p. 21.

Categories
Bibliography Harvard Philosophy Socialism

Harvard. Short Bibliography of Social Ethics for “Serious-minded Students”, Peabody, 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, economic sociology, and social ethics. The project was coordinated by Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Francis G. Peabody who compiled three of the short bibliographies. 

Peabody regularly taught a course on the Ethics of Social Questions [e.g., 1902-03; 1904-05] so we may presume that most of the items listed below would have been in whole or in part assigned reading.

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About Francis G. Peabody

Links to biographical information previously posted

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Previously posted  Harvard short bibliographies
(1910)

I.2. Economic Theory by Taussig

I.3. Economic History by Gay

I.7. Social Statistics by Ripley

II.3. Taxation by Bullock

IV.5 Economics of Socialism by Carver

IV.6 Socialism and Family/Christian Ethics by McConnell

IV.7. Trade Unionism by Ripley

IV.8. Strikes and Boycotts by Ripley

IV.12 Thrift Institutions by Oliver M. W. Sprague

IV.13. Social Insurance by Foerster

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SOCIAL ETHICS
FRANCIS G. PEABODY

            The sources of instruction in Social Ethics must be sought in the philosophical masterpieces which study the individual in his relation to social order: Maurice, Social Morality, 1869; Plato, The Republic, tr. Jowett, 1871; Grote, A Treatise on the Moral Ideals, 1876; Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 1883; Aristotle, Politics, tr. Jowett, 1885; Fichte, Vocation of Man, tr. Smith, 1889; Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, tr. Abbott, 5th ed., 1898; Royce, The World and the Individual, 1901.

            Of contemporary and less academic titles, the following, out of a great number, may be named:

Addams, Jane. Democracy and social ethics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. 281.

A forcible exposition of the new duties created by a new social world. “The essential idea of democracy becomes the source and expression of social ethics” (p. 11).

Bosanquet, Helen. The strength of the people, a study in social economics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. xi, 345.

The correlation of circumstance and character traced in the problems of poverty, the family and industrialism. “‘Difficulties to overcome and freedom to overcome them’ is an essential condition of progress” (p. 339).

*Dewey, John, and Tufts, James H. Ethics. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908, pp. xiv, 618.

Ethical theory interpreted in its relation to “the world of action.” The ethics of social organization, economic life, politics and the family effectively described.

Dole, Charles F. The ethics of progress. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1909, pp. vii, 308.

A popular and lucid exposition of “the new morality.”

Henderson, Charles R. Practical sociology in the service of social ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1902, pp. 25.

“Social technology” as the guide of social philosophy.

Hobson, J. A. The social problem; life and work. London: James Pott, 1902, pp. x, 295.

Socialism applied to the “economy of national life.” “The Social Question will find its essential unity in the problem how to deal with human waste” (p. 7). “An organized democracy standing on a sound basis of property” (p. 130).

Jones, Henry. Idealism as a practical creed. Glasgow: J. Maclehose & Sons, 1909, pp. ix, 299.

A lucid and serene exposition of the practical efficiency of ethical idealism. “The call of modern age” is a call to the “earnest questioning of our ideals of life” (p. 220).

Jones, Henry. The working faith of a social reformer. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910, pp. xii, 308.

Lectures to students for the ministry, and collected essays, expounding the interdependence of individualism and socialism, or the concurrent evolution of social and individual rights, duties and powers” (p. 111).

*Mackenzie, John S. An introduction to social philosophy. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1890, pp. xi, 390.

An academic, somewhat elusive, but judicial and suggestive outline, which has not yet been superseded.

Muirhead, J. H. Philosophy and life and other essays. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1902, pp. 274.

Admirable essays on various aspects of the ethics of modern life.

Peabody, Francis G. The approach to the social question. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1909, pp. vii, 210.

The ways of social science, sociology and economics traced, and the ethical approach approved and explored.

Perry, R. B. The moral economy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909, pp. xvi, 267.

A searching and convincing analysis of the moral life in its relation to science, art and religion.

Ritchie, David G. Studies in political and social ethics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905, pp. ix, 238.

Occasional papers on the fundamental problems of social evolution, equality, liberty and responsibility.

*Stein, Ludwig. Die soziale Frage im Lichte der Philosophie. 2te verb. Aufl. Stuttgart: F. Enke, 1903, xvi, 598 S.

A brilliant survey of the history of social philosophy, with the outline of a system. Anti-socialist, but describing the “socializing” of property, law, politics and religion.

Wells, H. G. Mankind in the making. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904, pp. viii, 400.

Social organization in the “New Republic,” with regulation of births, language, education and politics.

Ziegler, Theobald. Die soziale Frage eine sittliche Frage. 6te Aufl. Leipzig: G. J. Göschen‘sche Verlagshandlung, 1899, 183 S.

An early, but permanently important study of the social problem by an ethical philosopher. The moral note in socialism, industrialism and politics detected and reaffirmed.

Source: A guide to reading in social ethics and allied subjects; lists of books and articles selected and described for the use of general readers by teachers in Harvard University  (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, 1910) pp. 22-24.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Exam questions for Social Reform, Socialism, Communism. Carver, 1905-1906

Courses on utopias, schemes of social reform, shades of socialism and communism were offered by the Harvard economics department from its early years through the twentieth  century. Thomas Nixon Carver taught such a course for several decades as an exercise of know-thy-enemies. His autobiographical Recollections of an Unplanned Life (1949) makes it clear that there was not a collectivist bone in his body. 

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Previously posted

Pre-Carver:
Carver’s courses
Post-Carver:

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Methods of Social Reform,
Socialism, Communism…
Economics 14b
1905-06 

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 14b 2hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

Total 29: 10 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 73.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Describe one Eutopian scheme, covering the following points:
    (a) supposed location, (b) time, (c) form of government, (d) organization of industry, (e) system of exchange, (f) family life, (g) distribution of the products of industry.
  2. What periods in American history have been most prolific in non-religious communistic experiments? Describe a characteristic experiment of each period.
  3. Do communistic experiments, so far as you have studied them, throw any light upon the question of the probable success or failure of communism or socialism on a national scale? Explain.
  4. Characterize the social philosophy of one writer who is not an economist, covering the following points: (a) Is his philosophy religious or non-religious? (b) Does the writer discriminate between the obligation of the individual and that of the state? (c) Is his philosophy constructive or merely critical? (d) Has he a clearly defined principle of justice? If so, what is it?
  5. Is there a clearly defined principle of justice embodied in the competitive system? Explain.
  6. How does Marx account for the interest of capital?
  7. Does every government enterprise necessarily narrow the field for private enterprise and diminish the amount of competition? Explain.
  8. Would socialism entirely eliminate competition? If so, under what conditions?
  9. What is meant by the proposition that a single tax on land values is paid for all times by the one who owns the land at the time the tax is first imposed?
  10. Is an inheritance tax a socialistic measure? Explain.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 40.

Image Source: “The trouble, my friends, with socialism is that it would destroy initiative” by Udo J. Keppler. Centerfold in Puck, v. 66, no. 1715 (January 12, 1910). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Illustration shows a large gorilla-like monster with human head, clutching clusters of buildings labeled “Public Utilities, Competition, [and] Small Business” with his right arm and left leg, as he crushes a building labeled “Untainted Success, Initiative, Individualism, Independence, [and] Ambition” with his left hand, causing some citizens to flee while others plead for mercy. He casts a shadow over the U.S. Capitol, tilting in the background.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Course description and exam for Ethics of the Social Questions. Peabody, 1904-05

With the growth of the Harvard economics and economics-related course offerings exploding at the start of the 20th century, it’s taking more time for Economics in the Rear-View Mirror to work through all the courses, year by year as we move forwards. Of course the collection of artifacts becomes more valuable as the sample size increases, but I am aware that other content is wanted by visitors too. Or at least a nice mixture across time and space.

Anyhow, this post completes the Harvard exam transcriptions for 1904-05. It was not technically an economics course, but enough economics graduate students took the course for this to be considered a serious elective or even field of specialization at the time. And any present day economist not interested in the socio-normative side of economic life is unlikely to follow Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

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The Instructors

Francis Greenwood Peabody, A.M., D.D., Dean of the Divinity School, and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. The field “Social Ethics” was his responsibility in the teaching programs of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Philosophy) and the Divinity School (Ethics). It was a fairly popular elective field for graduate students in economics. Exam questions for 1889-90 and most intermediate years have been posted earlier.

David Camp Rogers (1878-1959). A.B. Princeton 1899. A.M. Harvard 1902 Ph.D. Harvard 1903 (Thesis: Coördinations in Space Perceptions). First Professor of Psychology at Smith College, appointed 1914. If this seems like an odd pairing of teaching assistant to professor, it would not have seemed particularly odd at that time. Both the study of ethics and human psychology were covered by the philosophy department. To get a Ph.D. in philosophy would have required examination in several fields of philosophy, so I suppose that ethics, or social ethics, was one of Rogers’ examination fields. He probably did well in the exam and was offered a teaching assistantship in social ethics on that basis.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05
[also listed as Ethics 1]

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

[Philosophy] 5 1hf. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers. — Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 122: 7 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 47 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 1 Freshmen, 20 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 76.

The Divinity School

[Ethics] 1 1hf. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers. — Introductory Course. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The modern social questions: Charity, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. — Lectures, special researches, and required reading. Half-course.

Total 122: 7 Graduates, 99 College, 5 Sc., 11 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 173.

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Course Description
1904-05

Ethics
  1. Introductory Course. The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The modern social questions: Charity, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and required reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with the same subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the social situation and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature of the Moral Ideal [required reading from (John Stuart) Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from (Herbert) Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (3rd edition: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3)];the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Devine, The Practice of Charity, and from Charles Booth’s Life and Labour of the People in London (1903 edition) [First Series, Poverty: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4. Second Series, Industry: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4; Vol. 5. Third Series: Religious Influences: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4; Vol. 5; Vol. 6; Vol. 7; Concluding Volume]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading: J.A. Hobson, The Social Problem; Schäffle’s The Quintessence of Socialism] and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from Rowntree and Sherwell, The Temperance Problem and Social Reform]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigations, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

A special library of 700 carefully selected volumes is provided for the use of students in this course.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University 1904-05, pp. 21-22.

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PHILOSOPHY 51
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

  1. The chief historical steps in the evolution of the family.
  2. The relation of the Family to the State:—
    (a) As urged by Mr. Spencer (Spencer, Sociology, I, 707).
    (b) As proposed by “Scientific Socialism.”
  3. Certain economic movements which affect the integrity of the Family.
  4. The causes of poverty, classified and compared.
  5. The evolution of the “Double-Decker,” and the provisions of the New York “New Law” for tenements.
  6. Charles Booth’s Class E in East London; its dimensions, special risk of degradation, and the way of security proposed.
  7. Some elementary principles of organized charity (Devine, The Practice of Charity, ch. IX).
  8. Compare the “Case System” with the “Space System.”
  9. Compare the Church Districting System with the Liverpool system of collection.
  10. Germany and Belgium compared in their provision for the “out-of-works.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 45.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Computing Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Columbia. Structure of the Soviet Economy, Reading assignments. Bergson, 1954-1955

Abram Bergson was forty-years old and well on the way to becoming the “Dean of Soviet Economics” in the United States when he taught the following course on the structure of the Soviet Economy at Columbia University.

Bergson, along with my Yale professors Mike Montias and Ray Powell together with my M.I.T. dissertation supervisor Evsey Domar, got me hooked on the economic theory of index numbers. For my fellow index number nerds I link to a draft of my homage à Bergson “The ‘Welfare Standard’ and Soviet Consumers” that I presented at the Abram Bergson memorial conference (published in Comparative Economic Studies, 2005, vol. 47, issue 2, pp. 333-345).

The reading list for Bergson’s Economics of Socialism (Harvard, 1977) has been posted earlier at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Course Announcement

Economics 145 (Russian Institute)—Structure of the Soviet Economy. 2 pts. Professor Bergson
Tu. Th. 11. 403 Schermerhorn.

Analytical and statistical survey of the growth, operating principles, and organization of the economy of the Soviet Union under the Five-Year Plans, with attention to resources, population and labor, agriculture, industry, and domestic and foreign trade.

Source: Announcement of the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions, 1954-1955. Printed as Columbia University, Bulletin of Information. Vol. 54, No. 123 (June 19, 1954), p. 36.

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
RUSSIAN INSTITUTE

Winter Session, 1954-55

Economics 145
Structure of the
Soviet Economy

  1. THE RATE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH UNDER THE FIVE YEAR PLANS: ALTERNATIVE MEASURES.

Assigned Reading

Clark, C.; Gerschenkron, A.: “Russian Income and Production Statistics,” Review of Economic Statistics, Nov. 1947.

Dobb, M., “A Comment on Soviet Economic Statistics,” Soviet Studies, June 1949.

Gerschenkron, A., A Dollar Index of Soviet Machinery Output, The RAND Corporation 1951, Chs. 1-4.

Jasny, N., The Soviet Economy during the Plan Era, Stanford 1951.

Kaplan, N.M., “Arithmancy, Theomancy and the Soviet Economy,” Journal of Political Economy, April 1953.

Bergson, A., “Reliability and Usability of Soviet Statistics: Summary Appraisal,” American Statistician, June-July 1953.

Chapman, J. “Real Wages in the Soviet Union, 1928-52, Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1954.

Other References:

Baykov, A., “Postwar Economic Development….”, Univ. of Birmingham Bulletins, May 1953.

Bergson, A., “Soviet National Income: and Product in 1937,” New York 1953.

Clark, C., “The Valuation of Real Income in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Progress, Feb. and Mar. 1949.

Dobb, M., “A Comment on Soviet Statistics,” Review of Economic Statistics, Feb. 1948.

Harris, S.E.; Gerschenkron, A.; Bergson, A.; Baran, P.; and Yugow, A.: “Appraisals of Russian Economic Statistics,” Nov. 1947.

Hodgman, D., “Industrial Production,”;and Galenson, W., “Industrial Labor Productivity,” in Bergson, A., ed., Soviet Economic Growth, Evanston, Ill., 1953.

Kasdan, S., “Relationship between Machinery and Steel Production in Russia and the United States,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb. 1952.

Rice, S.; Schwartz, H.; Lorimer, F.; Gerschenkron, A.; Volin, L., “Reliability and Usability of Soviet Statistics,” American Statistician, April-May, June-July 1953.

Wyler, J., “The National Income of the Soviet Union,” Social Research Dec. 1946.

  1. SOVIET ECONOMIC GROWTH: SURVEY OF CONDITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES.

Assigned Reading

Grossman, G., “National Income”; Kaplan, N.M., “Capital Formation and Allocation”;

“Industrial Resources”; and Comments on foregoing in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

“Directives on the Fifth Five Year Plan,” pp. 21-28, Malenkov Report, pp. 106-115, in L. Gruliow, ed., Current Soviet Policies, New York, 1953.

Dobb, M., “Rates of Growth under the Five Year Plans,” Soviet Studies, April 1953.

Other References

Balzak et al., Economic Geography of the USSR, New York 1949.

Blackman, J.A., „Transportation,” and comments on this essay in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

Hoeffding, O., Soviet National Income and Product in 1928, New York 1954.

Bergson, A. and Heymann, H., “Soviet National Income and Product 1940-48.”

Schwartz, H., Russia’s Soviet Economy, 2nd ed. New York 1954, Ch. XV.

Shimkin, D., Minerals—A Key to Soviet Power, Cambridge, 1953.

Wiles, Peter, “Soviet Russia Outpaces the West,” Foreign Affairs, July 1953.

  1. AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE DECISION ON COLLECTIVIZATION.

Assigned Reading

Dobb, M., Soviet Economic Development since 1917, New York 1948, Chs. VIII-IX.

Erlich, A., “Preobrajenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 1950.

Stalin, J.V., Selected Writings. “On the Grain Front,” “Right Danger,” “Right Deviation,” “Problems of Agrarian Policy,” “The Policy of Eliminating the Kulaks as a Class,” “Dizzy with Success.”

Other References

Baykov, A., Development of the Soviet Economic System, New York, 1946, Ch. XII.

Dobb, M. Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. X.

Maynard, J., Russia in Flux, New York 1948, Chs. XVI, XIX.

  1. AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: TRENDS UNDER THE FIVE YEAR PLANS: PERSPECTIVES.

Assigned Reading

Schwartz, H. Russia’s Soviet Economy, Chs. VIII, IX.

Jasny, N., The Socialized Agriculture of the USSR, Stanford 1949, pp. 1-99.

Timoshenko, V.P., “Agricultural Resources”; Kershaw, J., “Agricultural Output and Employment”; and comments on these essays in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

Volin, L., “The Malenkov-Khrushchev New Economic Policy”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1954.

Other References

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Ch. XVII.

Baykov., A., “Agricultural Development in the USSR,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, December 1951, May 1953.

in, G.; Schwarz, S.; and Yugow, A., Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, New York 1944. Ch. X – XVII.

Finegood, I.M., “A Critical Analysis of Some Concepts Concerning Soviet Agriculture,”

Soviet Studies, July 1952.

Hubbard, L.E., Economics of Soviet Agriculture, London 1939.

Maynard, Russia in Flux, Ch. XX.

Schlesinger, R.A.J., “Some Problems of Present Kolkhoz Organization, Soviet Studies, April 1951. See also the further discussion by Jasny, Nove and Schlesinger in Soviet Studies, Oct. 1951, Jan. 1952.

Volin, L., “Turn of the Screw in Soviet Agriculture,” Foreign Affairs, Jan. 1952.

  1. LABOR RECRUITMENT AND WAGE POLICY; INEQUALITY

Assigned Reading

Bergson, A., Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge, Mass., 1944 Chs. IV, X – XIV, Conclusion and Appendix F.

Inkeles, A., “Social Stratification and Mobility in the Soviet Union: 1940-1950,” American Sociological Review, August 1950.

Deutscher, I., Soviet Trade Unions, New York 1950.

Gsovski, V., Soviet Labor Law, Monthly Labor Review, March, April 1951.

Other References

Barker, G.R., “Soviet Labor,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, June 1951.

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XIII, XVIII.

Bergson, “On Inequality of Incomes in the USSR,” American Slavic and East European Review”, April 1951.

Bienstock, Schwarz and Vugow, Management in Soviet Industry and Agriculture, Ch. VIII.

Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. XVI.

Eason, W.W., “Population and Labor Force,” and comments in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

Gordon, M. Workers before and after Lenin, New York 1941.

Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Labor and Industry, London 1942.

Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy. Ch. XIII.

Schwarz, Solomon, Labor in the Soviet Union, New York 1952.

  1. FISCAL POLICY AND THE PRICE LEVEL

Assigned Reading

Berliner, J. S., “Monetary Planning in the USSR,” American Slavic and East European Review, Dec. 1950.

Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917. Ch. XIV.

Holzman, F.D, “Commodity and Income Taxation in the Soviet Union,” Journal of Political Economy, Oct. 1950.

Holzman, F.D, “The Soviet Budget, 1928-1952,” National Tax Journal, Sept. 1953.

Other References

Arnold, A.Z., Banks, Credit and Money in Soviet Russia. New York 1937.

Baran, P.A., “Currency Reform in the USSR,” Harvard Business Review, March 1948.

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System. Ch. XIX.

Baykov, A. and Barker G.R. “Financial Developments in the USSR,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, August 1950.

Bergson, A., Soviet National Income and Product in 1937. New York 1953.

Holzman, F.D., “The Burden of Soviet Taxation,” American Economic Review, Sept. 1953.

Bogolepov, M.I., The Soviet Financial System. (Pamphlet) London 1945.

Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Money and Finance, London 1936.

Reddaway, W.B., The Russian Financial System, London 1935.

Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy. Ch. XII.

Davies, R.W., “Finance,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, December 1952.

  1. THEORY OF SOCIALIST ECONOMICS

Assigned Reading

Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. I.

Lange, O., “On the Economic Theory of Socialism,” In B. Lippincott, ed., O. Lange, F. Taylor, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis 1938.

Other References

Bergson, A., “Socialist Economics,” in H. Ellis, ed. A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia 1948.

Dickinson, H.D., Economics of Socialism, Oxford 1939.

Dobb, M., Political Economy and Capitalism, New York 1940.

Hayek, F.A., ed., Collectivist Economic Planning, London 1935.

Lenin, V.I. State and Revolution.

Marx, K., Critique of the Gotha Programme, Political Economy in the Soviet Union (Pamphlet) New York, International Publishers, 1944.

Stalin, J., Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, Moscow, 1952.

  1. ECONOMICS OF THE FIRM

Assigned Reading

Bienstock, Schwarz and Yugow: Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, Chs. I — VI, IX.

Granick, D., “Initiative and Independence of Soviet Plant Management,” Plant Management, American Slavic and East European Review, Oct. 1951.

Berliner, J., “The Informal Organization of the Soviet Firm,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1952.

Other References

Arakelian, A., Industrial Management in the USSR, Washington, D.C. 1950.

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XI, XVI.

Granick, D., Management of the Industrial Firm in the USSR, New York 1954.

Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Labor and Industry.

  1. GENERAL PLANNING

Assigned Reading

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XIV, XV, XX.

Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. I, XIII.

Hunter, H., “Planning of Investments in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1949.

Grossman, G., “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug. 1953.

Jasny, N., The Soviet Price System, Stanford 1951, Chs. I-IV.

Other References

Bettleheim, C., “On the Problem of Choice between Alternative Investment Projects,” Soviet Studies, July 1950.

Brutzkus, B., Economic Planning in Soviet Russia, London 1935.

Dobb, M., “The Problem of Choice between Alternative Investment Projects,” Soviet Studies, January 1951.

Eason, W., “On Strumilin’s Model,” Soviet Studies, April 1950.

Jasny, N., Soviet Prices of Producers’ Goods, Stanford 1952.

Kaplan, N., “Investment Alternatives…,” Jour. of Polit. Econ., April 1952.

Kursky, A., The Planning of the National Economy of the USSR, Moscow 1949.

Lange, O., The Working Principles of the Soviet Economy, New York 1943. (Pamphlet)

Miller, J., “Some Recent Developments in Soviet Economic Thought,” Soviet Studies, September 1949.

Miller J., ed., “Three Articles on the Effectiveness of Investments,” Soviet Studies, April 1950.

“Problems of Planning Capital Investment,” The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. II, No. 1, Feb. 18, 1950. “Planning Capital Investment II,” The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. II, No. 3, March 4, 1950.

Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy, Ch. V.

Zauberman, “Economic Thought in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Studies, 1949-1950, Nos. 39-40.

Zauberman, A., “Prospects for Soviet Investigations into Capital Efficiency,” Soviet Studies, April, 1950.

  1. FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS

Assigned Reading

Gerschenkron, A., Economic Relations with the USSR (The Committee on International Economic Policy in Cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), New York 1943.

Hoeffding, O., “Soviet Economic Relations with the Orbit”; Schwartz, H., “East-West Trade”; and comments on these essays in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

Other References

Baykov, A., Soviet Foreign Trade, Princeton 1946, Chs. II – VI.

Condoide, M.V., Russian-American Trade, Columbus, Ohio 1946.

Dewar, M., Soviet Trade with Eastern Europe, New York 1951.

Gerschenkron, A., “Russia’s Trade in the Postwar Years,” The Annals, May 1949.

Kerblay, B.H., “Economic Relations of the USSR…,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, March 1951.

Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy, Ch. XIV.

Yugow, A., Russia’s Economic Front for War and Peace, Ch. V.

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Joseph Dorfman Collection, Box 13, Unlabeled Folder containing miscellaneous course reading lists.

Image Source: Tourist Card for Citizens of American Countries for a Thirty-Day Stay in Brazil (20 Aug. 1962) of Abram Bergson.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Methods of Social Reform. Enrollment, description, linked reading list, final exam. Carver, 1904-1905

Economics professor Thomas Nixon Carver was the second in a long line of Harvard professors who exposed their students to the doctrines of anarchism, socialism, and communism (among other -isms). Carver came to bury the well-intentioned but ill-conceived doctrines, not to praise them. 

Strange Political Bedfellow: An earlier post provides Thomas Nixon Carver’s link to the U.S. publicist of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 1921.

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Material from earlier years:

Exams and enrollment figures for economics of socialism and communism taught by Edward Cummings (1893-1900),
Socialism and Communism (with Bushée), 1901-92,
Methods of Social Reform, (Carver), 1902-03.

Material from later years:

Short Bibliography of Socialism for “Serious-minded students” by Carver (1910),
Thomas Nixon Carver (1920),
Edward S. Mason (1929),
Paul Sweezy (1940),
Wassily Leontief  (1942-43),
Joseph Schumpeter (1943-44),
Overton Hume Taylor (1955).

________________________

Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 14b 2hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

Total 79: 10 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 26 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

14b 2hf. Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Carver.

Open only to students who have had Course 14a.
The purpose of this course is to make a careful study of those plans of social amelioration which involve either a reorganization of society, or a considerable extension of the functions of the state. The course begins with an historical study of early communistic theories and experiments. This is followed by a critical examination of the theories of the leading socialistic writers, with a view to getting a clear understanding of the reasoning which lies back of socialistic movements, and of the economic conditions which tend to make this reasoning acceptable. A similar study will be made of Anarchism and Nihilism, of the Single Tax Movement, of State Socialism and the public ownership of monopolistic enterprises, and of Christian Socialism, so called.
Morley’s Ideal Commonwealths, Ely’s French and German Socialism, Marx’s Capital, Marx and Engels’s The Communist Manifesto, and George’s Progress and Poverty will be read, besides other special references.
The course will be conducted by means of lectures, reports, and class-room discussions.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 46.

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[Library stamp: Mar 7, 1905]

Economics 14

Topics and References
Starred references are prescribed

[Note: Identical to reading list of 1902-03]

COMMUNISM

A
Utopias
1. Plato’s Republic
2. *Sir Thomas More.   Utopia.
3. *Francis Bacon.   New Atlantis.
4. *Tommaso Campanella.   The City of the Sun. (Numbers 2, 3, and 4 may be found in convenient form in Morley’s Ideal Commonwealths.)
5. Etienne Cabet.   Voyage en Icarie.
6. Wm. Morris.   News from Nowhere.
7. Edward Bellamy.   Looking Backward.

 

B
Communistic Experiments
1. *Charles Nordhoff.   The Communistic Societies of the United States.
2. Karl Kautsky.   Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation.
3. W. A. Hinds.   American Communities.
4. J.H. Noyes.   History of American Socialisms.
5. J. T. Codman.   Brook Farm Memoirs.
6. Albert Shaw.   Icaria.
7. G.B. Landis.   The Separatists of Zoar.
8. E.O. Randall.   History of the Zoar Society.

 

SOCIALISM

A
Historical
1. *R. T. Ely. French and German Socialism.
2. Bertrand Russell. German Social Democracy.
3. John Rae. Contemporary Socialism.
4. Thomas Kirkup. A History of Socialism.
5. W. D. P. Bliss. A Handbook of Socialism.
6. Wm. Graham. Socialism, New and Old.
7. [Jessica Blanche] Peixotto. The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism.

 

B
Expository and Critical
1. *Albert Schaeffle. The Quintessence of Socialism.
2. Albert Schaeffle. The Impossibility of Social Democracy.
3. *Karl Marx. Capital.
4. *Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels. The Manifesto of the Communist Party.
5. Frederick Engels. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
6. E. C. K. Gonner. The Socialist Philosophy of Rodbertus.
7. E. C. K. Gonner. The Socialist State.
8. Bernard Shaw and others. The Fabian Essays in Socialism.
9. The Fabian Tracts.
10. R. T. Ely. Socialism: An Examination of its Nature, Strength, and Weakness.
11. Edward Bernstein. Ferdinand Lassalle.
12. Henry M. Hyndman. The Economics of Socialism.
13. Sydney and Beatrice Webb. Problems of Modern Industry.
14. Gustave Simonson. A Plain Examination of Socialism.
15. Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement in the Nineteenth Century.
16. Vandervelde. Collectivism [and Industrial Evolution].

 

ANARCHISM

1. *Leo Tolstoi. The Slavery of Our Times.
2. William Godwin. Political Justice.
3. Kropotkin. The Scientific Basis of Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 21: 238.
4. Kropotkin. The Coming Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 22:149.
5. Elisée Reclus. Anarchy. Contemporary Review, 45: 627. [May 1884]

 

RELIGIOUS AND ALTRUISTIC SOCIALISM

1. Lamennais. Les Paroles d’un Croyant.
2. Charles Kingsley. Alton Locke.
3. *Kaufman. Lamennais and Kingsley. Contemporary Review, April, 1882.
4. Washington Gladden. Tools and the Man.
5. Josiah Strong. Our Country.
6. Josiah Strong. The New Era.
7. William Morris, Poet, Artist, Socialist. Edited by Francis Watts Lee. A collection of the socialistic writings of William Morris.
8. Ruskin. The Communism of John Ruskin. Edited by W. D. P. Bliss. Selected chapters from Unto this Last, The Crown of Wild Olive, and Fors Clavigera.
9. Carlyle. The Socialism and Unsocialism of Thomas Carlyle. Edited by W. D. P. Bliss. Selected chapters from Carlyle’s various works. [Volume 1; Volume 2]

 

AGRARIAN SOCIALISM

1. *Henry George. Progress and Poverty.
2. Henry George. Our Land and Land Policy.
3. Alfred Russell Wallace. Land Nationalization.

 

STATE SOCIALISM

An indefinite term, usually made to include all movements for the extension of government control and ownership, especially over means of communication and transportation, also street lighting, etc.

1. R. T. Ely. Problems of To-day. Chs. 17-23.
2. J. A. Hobson. The Social Problem.

 

WORKS DISCUSSING THE SPHERE OF THE STATE IN SOCIAL REFORM

1. Henry C. Adams. The Relation of the State to Industrial Action.
2. *D. G. Ritchie. Principles of State Interference.
3. D. G. Ritchie. Darwinism and Politics.
4. *Herbert Spencer. The Coming Slavery.
5. W. W. Willoughby. Social Justice.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1904-1905”.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

  1. So far as you have studied them, were the failures of communistic experiments due to the fact that they were carried out on too small a scale, to unfavorable outside conditions, or to inherent weaknesses in their internal organization? Give at least three illustrations.
  2. Give an outline of one Utopian scheme or ideal commonwealth which you have studied, and point out its strong and its weak features.
  3. Give an account of the origin of the German Social Democratic Party.
  4. Is there any essential difference between the income of the capitalist and that of the landlord? Explain your answer.
  5. Discuss the question, Is labor the sole creator of wealth?
  6. Discuss the question, Is there any relation between the inequality in the distribution of talent and the inequality in the distribution of wealth under the competitive system.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 33.

Image Source: “The trouble, my friends, with socialism is that it would destroy initiative” by Udo J. Keppler. Centerfold in Puck, v. 66, no. 1715 (January 12, 1910). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Illustration shows a large gorilla-like monster with human head, clutching clusters of buildings labeled “Public Utilities, Competition, [and] Small Business” with his right arm and left leg, as he crushes a building labeled “Untainted Success, Initiative, Individualism, Independence, [and] Ambition” with his left hand, causing some citizens to flee while others plead for mercy. He casts a shadow over the U.S. Capitol, tilting in the background.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Final exam questions for Socialism and Communism. Carver and Bushée, 1901-1902

Thomas Nixon Carver was originally hired to beef up the economic theory side of the Harvard curriculum but soon found himself holding an instructional portfolio that included sociology, schemes of social reform (i.e. socialism and communism), and agricultural economics. The fields of sociology and socialism were briefly left fallow when Edward Cummings resigned to become the minister at Boston’s South Congregational Church before Carver joined the faculty in 1900.

Artifacts included below are a thick course description, enrollment figures, and the final exam questions for the half-year course “Socialism and Communism” that was co-taught by assistant professor Thomas Nixon Carver and Frederick Bushée during the Fall term of 1901-02.

______________________________

Material from earlier years: Exams and enrollment figures for economics of socialism and communism taught by Edward Cummings, 1893-1900.

Material from later years: Thomas Nixon Carver (1920), Edward S. Mason (1929), Paul Sweezy (1940), Wassily Leontief  (1942-43), Joseph Schumpeter (1943-44), and Overton Hume Taylor (1955).

______________________________

Socialism and Communism
1901-02

ECONOMICS 141
For Undergraduates and Graduates

Socialism and Communism. Half course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Asst. Professor Carver.

Course 14 begins with an historical study of socialistic and communistic writing and agitation. This is followed by a critical examination of socialistic theories as presented in the works of representative socialists. The purpose is to get a clear understanding of the economic reasoning that lies at the base of socialistic contentions and of the economic and social conditions which make such reasoning acceptable to socialists. Attention will be given largely to the reading of Marx’s Capital, but parts of the writings of other expounders of socialism will also be read.

Course 14 is open to those who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1; but it is to the advantage of students to take or to have taken either Course 2 or Course 3.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science (June 21, 1901), University Publications, New Series, No. 16, p. 37.

______________________________

Economics 14
(Carver and Bushée)
1901-1902 Syllabus

Previously posted: https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-socialism-communism-carver-bushee-1901/

______________________________

Enrollment 1901-02
Economics 141

Economics 141 hf. Asst. Professor Carver and Mr. Bushée. — Socialism and Communism.

Total 27: 5 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

______________________________

Semester Final Examination
1901-02

ECONOMICS 14

Write on the following topics.

  1. The definition of Socialism and its relation to competition
  2. Fourier’s plan of social organization.
  3. Lassalle’s place in the socialistic movement.
  4. Marx’s theory of the evolution of society.
  5. Marx’s theory of value.
  6. Marx’s theory of interest.
  7. How does Bernstein’s theory differ from that of Marx?
  8. The problem which George set out to solve and his solution of it.
  9. George’s theory of interest.
  10. The origin and early development of the German Social Democratic Labor Party.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examination Papers, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume, Mid-year Examination Papers, 1901-02. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (January 1902). Also included in Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1902-03. Sub-volume Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College (June 1902).

Image Sources:

Thomas Nixon Carver (left). The World’s Work. Vol. XXVI (May-October 1913) p. 127.

Frederick Alexander Bushée (right). Detail from portrait in the University of Colorado Archives. Charles Snow photograph of Professor Bushee (March 30 1921). Detail reproduced in the 1924 University of Colorado Yearbook.

Both portraits colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list for Economics of Socialism. Bergson, 1977

The list of readings and final exam for Abram Bergson’s Harvard course “Normative Aspects of Economic Policy” (1960) were posted earlier. In this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provides the course outline and assigned readings for his “Economics of Socialism”. I encountered his 1961 book The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928 in four of my courses (taught by Raymond Powell and John Michael Montias at Yale; Evsey Domar at M.I.T.; and from Bergson himself at Harvard).

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 1200:
Economics of Socialism
Spring Term, 1976-77
Professor Bergson

Note
The following will be the principal texts for the course:

Abram Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Yale, New Haven, Conn., 1964.

Nai-Ruenn Chen and Walter Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Aldine, Chicago, 1969

Joel B. Dirlam and James L. Plummer, An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy, Merrill, Columbus, Ohio, 1973.

Paul R. Gregory and Robert C. Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Harper and Row, New York, 1974.

Note that the Bergson, Gregory and Stuart, and Dirlam and Plummer books are available in paperback.

Items Marked with an asterisk are optional.

I. Introduction
  1. What is Socialism?

“Socialism” (by Daniel Bell), in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, 1968, pp. 506-516.

Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, International Publishers, 1938, pp. 3-23.

V. I. Lenin, State and Revolution, Ch. 5, “The Economic Base of the Withering Away of the State.”

Paul M. Sweezy, “Alternative Conceptions of Socialist Development” (Processed).

Alec Nove, “Market Socialism and Its Critics,” Soviet Studies, July 1972.

II. Comparative Development Strategy
  1. The Soviet Model

Gregory and Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Chs. 1-3, 12 (pp. 417-428 only).

A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, London, 1969, Chs. 6-8.

A. Erlich, “Preobrazhenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1950.

I.V. Stalin, “On the Grain Front,” “Right Danger,” “Right Deviation,” in Selected Writings, New York, 1942.

  1. Variants

Oleg Hoeffding, “Soviet State Planning and Forced Industrialization as a Model for Asia,” Problems of Communism, Nov.-Dec., 1959; reprinted in F. Holzman, Readings on the Soviet Economy, Chicago, 1962.

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy under Communism, Chs. 1, 2.

A. Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1975, pp. 9-22, 47-51.

See Sweezy under Topic 1.

III. Economic Organization and Planning
  1. Socialist Planning: Contents and Issues

O. Lange “On the Economic Theory of Socialism” including Appendix, in B. Lippincott ed., On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis, 1938; New York, 1964.

A. Bergson “Market Socialism Revisited,” Journal of Political Economy, October 1967 (Section on “Cooperative Variant” optional).

W. N. Loucks, Comparative Economic Systems, 7th ed., New York, 1965, pp. 108-120 (5th ed., pp. 98-110; 6th ed., pp. 93-105).

Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics, 2nd ed., New York, 1966, pp. 10-28.

Note: As a preliminary to the foregoing readings, you may wish review relevant theoretic foundations in, say, Robert Dorfman, Prices and Markets, New Jersey, 1967, Chs. 7-8.

  1. Centralist Planning in the USSR: The Industrial Enterprise and Collective Farm

Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 5 and pp. 287-297; Chs 9 and 10.

J. Berliner The Innovation Decision in Soviet Industry, Cambridge, Mass., 1976, Chs. 14-16.

Gregory and Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Chs. 7 (pp. 232-253), 10.

D. Granick*, “Managerial Incentives in the USSR and in Western Firms,” Journal of Comparative Administration, August 1973.

Emily C. Brown, Soviet Trade Unions and Labor Relations, Cambridge, Mass., 1966, Chs. 7, 9.

E. G. Liberman*, Economic Methods and the Effectiveness of Production, New York, 1973, pp. 21-47.

  1. Centralist Planning in the USSR: Coordination

Bergson, Economics of Soviet Planning, Chs. 1, 3,4, 7, 8,(*) 11.

Liberman*, Economic Methods and the Effectiveness of Production, pp. 75-116.

H. S. Levine, “Pressure and Planning in the Soviet Economy,” in H. Rosovsky, ed., Industrialization in Two Systems, New York 1966; reprinted in M. Bornstein and D.R. Fusfeld, eds., The Soviet Economy, 3rd ed., Homewood, Ill., 1970.

G. Grossman*, “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1953, reprinted in Holzman, Readings.

A. Nove, The Soviet Economy, New York, 1961, Rev. ed., Ch. 3, Ch. 7 (pp. 231-240).

R. W. Campbell, “Marx, Kantorovich, and Novozhilov,” in Slavic Review, October 1961; reprinted in H. Schaffer, The Soviet Economy, New York, 1963; and in George Feiwel, New Currents Soviet-Type Economies: A Reader, Scranton, PA, 1968.

G. Schroeder, “The 1966-67 Soviet Industrial Price Reform,” Soviet Studies, April 1969.

H. Kohler, Welfare and Planning, New York, 1966, pp. 82-95, 102-105.

M. Goldman, “Externalities and the Race for Economic Growth in the USSR: Will the Environment ever Win?” Journal of Political Economy, March/April 1972.

  1. Market Socialism in Hungary and Yugoslavia

Bela Balassa. “The Firm in the New Economic Mechanism in Hungary,” in M. Bornstein, ed. Plan and Market, New Haven, Conn., 1973.

D. Granick, “The Hungarian Economic Reform,” World Politics, April 1973, reprinted in M. Bornstein, ed., Comparative Economic Systems, 3rd ed., Homewood, Ill., 1974.

J. Vanek, The Participatory Economy, Ithaca, New York, 1971, Chs. 2-3.

Dirlam and Plummer, An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy Chs. 2, 3, 4 (pp. 88-99), 5 (pp. 122-141), 7 (pp. 165-177).

D. D. Milenkovich, Plan and Market in Yugoslav Economic Thought,New Haven, Conn., 1971, pp. 187-211.

D. D. Milenkovich*, “Plan and Market: The Case of Yugoslavia” (Processed).

  1. Planning in China: How Different?

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Ch. 6

Barry Richman. “Capitalists and Managers in Communist China,” Harvard Business Review, January/February 1967.

D. Perkins, “Industrial Planning and Management,” in A. Eckstein, W. Galenson and T. C. Liu, eds., Economic Trends in Communist China, Chicago, 1968.

Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ch. 12.

IV Foreign Economic Relations
  1. Foreign Economic Relations

F. D. Holzman, Foreign Trade Under Central Planning, Cambridge, Mass., 1974, Chs. 2, 6 (analysis of Fig. 6.1, p. 146 and section on foreign trade discrimination, pp. 150-152 are optional).

F. L. Pryor, The Communist Foreign Trade System, Cambridge, Mass., 1963, Chs. 1, 5 (pp. 131-139).

E. A. Hewett, Foreign Trade Prices in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Cambridge, Eng., 1974, Ch. 2.

R. F. Dernberger, “Prices, the Exchange Rate and Economic Efficiency in the Foreign Trade of Communist China,” A. A. Brown and E. Neuberger, eds., International Trade and Central Planning, Berkeley, California, 1968.

V. Performance
  1. Comparative Productivity and Growth

S. Cohn, Economic Development in the Soviet Union, Lexington, Mass., 1970, Chs. 4, 6.

A. Bergson, Planning and Productivity Under Soviet Socialism, New York, 1968 Chs. 1-3.

R. W. Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, 2nd ed. Boston, Mass., 1966, Ch. 6.

A. Bergson “Development Under Two Systems: Comparative Productivity Growth Since 1950,” World Politics, July, 1971; reprinted in Bornstein, Comparative Economic Systems, 3rd ed.

B. Ward, “Capitalism vs. Socialism: A Small Country Version,” in G. Grossman, ed., Essays in Socialism and Planning in Honor of Carl Landauer, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Ch. 9.

Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ch. 1.

John G. Gurley, “Capitalist and Maoist Economic Development,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, April-July 1970, pp. 42ff.

Reading Period:

Wage Determination and Inequality

Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 6.

Bergson, The Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge, Mass., 1944, Chs. 2, 13, 14.

M. Matthews*, “Top Incomes in the USSR: Towards a Definition of the Soviet Elite,” Survey, Summer, 1975.

Charles Hoffman, “Work Incentives in Chinese Industry and Agriculture,” in Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, An Economic Profile of Mainland China, Vol. 2, Washington, D.C., February 1967.

Convergence?

J. K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State, Boston, 1967, Ch. XXXV.

Bertram Wolfe, “Russia and the USA: A Challenge to the Convergence Theory” and J.K. Galbraith, “Reply,” American Humanist, September/October 1968.

Peter Wiles, “Convergence: Possibility and Probability” in Balinky et al., Planning and the Market in the USSR, Rutgers, 1967.

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Portrait of Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. The Soviet Economy, course outline and final exam. Herbert Levine, 1963

 

Herbert Levine was trained in economics and Russian studies at Harvard before going off to lifetime employment at the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Harvard in the fall term of 1963 to cover the Soviet economy class for Abram Bergson who was on leave at the Center for Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 1963-64.

 Along with a younger economist from the University of Texas, Ed Hewett, Levine championed my application to the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) for a research exchange fellowship in the German Democratic Republic back in the late 1970s. He was a mentor to many other young scholars working on the economies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. I last saw him in November 2003 at an economics workshop at Harvard where drafts of papers were presented that would later be published in a special issue edited by Paul R. Gregory and Marshall Goldman in honor of Abram Bergson (Comparative Economic Studies, 2005).

_____________________________

Obituary in The Daily Pennsylvanian

Former economics prof. leaves a legacy
47-year teacher is remembered fondly for his compassion and challenging courses

https://www.thedp.com/article/2007/06/former-economics-prof-leaves-a-legacy

By Alissa Eisenberg and Alissa Eisenber 06/14/07

Herbert Levine, Economics professor at Penn from 1960 to 2006, died Sunday, succumbing to complications from leg surgery after battling prostate cancer for the past 15 years.

Levine was 78.

Receiving his B.A. [1950], M.A. [1952] and Ph.D. [1961] degrees from Harvard University, Levine specialized in Soviet economics and his insights were “in demand during the period leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet system,” according to a written statement by fellow Economics professor Lawrence Klein.

Levine published several articles on his area of expertise, yet never failed to acknowledge the importance of the broader study of economics.

Winning several awards for excellent teaching at Penn including the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Kravis Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate teaching, Levine was highly regarded among students.

“Econ 1 is large, but [my dad] would call on people by name, he just taught that way and people cared for his courses,” said daughter and College alumna Jan Levine.

Former student and 1964 College alumnus Ted Kozloff echoed Levine’s revere for her father.

“Herb was a seminal figure in my education,” Kozloff said. “There are maybe one or two teachers in my lifetime that had an effect like Herb. . He enjoyed enormous popularity and there was enormous respect for him.”

And that respect remained prominent over his 47-year career at Penn.

Levine was Elizabeth Goldstein’s dissertation advisor in 1982, and she said he was “the most fabulous adviser anybody could ask for.”

Goldstein added, “He was rigorious but understanding and had an amazing gift for being able to guide people through very difficult and high-level economic theory.”

Many former students also noted his warmth and devotion to his personal life in addition to academics.

“Many people excel in their careers and forget their personal life, but Herb didn’t,” said former student Edward LaPuma.

Levine’s funeral was scheduled for this morning in Trevose, Pa.

He is survived by his wife Helene Levine, daughters Jan and Judith Levine, sister Myra Heller and three grandchildren. His son, Jonathon, predeceased him.

Obituary in the University of Pennsylvania Almanac,
Vol. 54, No. 1. July 17, 2007

https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/volumes/v54/n01/obit.html

Dr. Herbert S. Levine, professor emeritus of economics and expert on Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, died on June 10, after complications from surgery from a broken leg during the end of a fifteen-year battle with prostate cancer; he was 78.

Dr. Levine completed his postsecondary education at Harvard, earning an undergraduate degree in economics in 1950, followed by a master degree in Russian studies two years later. He also earned a doctorate from Harvard in 1961, writing his dissertation on the economic performance of the USSR, which earned important recognition of his research by winning the prestigious David A. Wells Prize.

Dr. Levine joined Penn’s faculty in 1960 as an assistant professor of economics. He studied the controlled economy of the USSR, in close touch with other members of a research center at Harvard University. He was promoted to professor in 1969. In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. Levine served as chairman of the graduate group in economics and as co-director of the Lauder Institute. After a 47-year career at Penn he retired in 2006.

His unusual abilities in presenting modern political economy to undergraduates resulted in him being awarded faculty prizes for his teaching including the Irving B. Kravis Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Teaching (1988 and 1991) and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Dr. Levine is survived by his wife, Helene; two daughters, Jan Levine, and Judith Levine and their husbands Michael Zuckerman and Edward Sobel; their grandchildren, Rachel Zuckerman, Joshua Zuckerman and Julia Sobel; and his sister, Myra Heller and brother-in-law Jack Heller.

_____________________________

Harvard Course Announcement Fall Term, 1963

Economics 133. The Economy of Soviet Russia (Offered jointly with the Committee on Regional Studies).

Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.) at 9. Professor Levine (University of Pennsylvania).

Economic development under the five-year plans: the rate of economic growth: structural changes; conditioning factors. Planning principles and procedures.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, 1963-1964, p. 103.

_____________________________

ECONOMICS 133, Fall Term, 1963-1964
The Economy of Soviet Russia
H. S. Levine

Course Outline and Reading List.

Books to be Purchased:

Dobb: M. Dobb, Soviet, Economic Development Since 1917, International Publishers, 1948.

Readings: Readings on the Soviet Economy, F. Holzman (ed.), Rand McNally, 1961.

Part One

I. Historical Overview

A. Pre-Revolution
(General Historical Background: D. Treadgold, Twentieth Century Russia, Rand McNally, 1959, Chapters 1-5, 8.

1. Bowden, Karpovich and Usher, An Economic History of Europe Since 1250, Chapters 14 and 29.

2. G. T. Robinson, Rural Russia Under the Old Regime, Chapters 6, 7, 11.

3. A. Gerschenkron, “The Rate of Industrial Growth In Russia Since 1885,” Part 1, The Journal of Economic History, Supplement VII, 1947, pp. 144-157 (only).

4. Supplementary Readings:

a) J. Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia, Chapters 24, 26, 27.

b) Robinson, Chapters 5, 12.

c) P. I. Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia; on agriculture: Chapters 21, 23, 36; on industry: Chapters 25, 26, 32-34.

d) T. Von Laue, Sergei Witte and the Industrialization of Russia

e) A. Gerschenkron, “Russia: Patterns and Problems of Economic Development, 1861-1958, » in his Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (postpone Part Ill). This essay also appears in C. Black (ed.), The Transformation of Russian Society.

B. The Revolution, War Communism, and the New Economic Policy (1917-1927)
(General Historical Background: Treadgold, Chapters 9-14.

1. Dobb, Chapters 3-7.

C. The Industrialization Debates, Collectivization and the Beginning of the Plan Era
(General Historical Background: Treadgold, Chapter 17.

1. Dobb, Chapters 8 and 9

2. A. Erlich, “Preobrazhenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 1950, pp. 57-88

3. Readings: N. Jasny, “Early Kolkhozy and the Big Drive”

4. M. Fainsod, Smolensk Under Soviet Rule, pp. 242-258

5. Supplementary Reading:

a) Readings: A. Erlich, “Stalin’s Views on Soviet Economic Development”.

D. From the First Five Year Plan to the End of the War (1928-1945)
(General Historical Background: Treadgold, Chapter 18

1. Dobb, Chapter 10

2. N. Jasny, Soviet Industrialization 1928-1952, pp. 109-114

3. Dobb, Chapters 11, 12 and pp. 453-454

4 Jasny, Soviet Industrialization, pp. 177-187

E. Post-War to the Present
(General Historical Background: Treadgold, Chapter 25

1. Jasny, Soviet Industrialization, pp. 235-256

2. G. Grossman, “The Soviet Economy,” Problems of Communism, XIl:2, (Mar-Apr. 1963) pp. 32-40

3. Supplementary Readings:

a) O. Hoeffding, “Substance and Shadow in the Soviet Seven Year Plan,” Foreign Affairs, April, 1959

b) H. Levine, “The New Seven Year Plan,” The New Leader, May 25 and June 1, 1959,

II. Soviet Economic Growth

A. Problems of Measuring Growth

1. The Soviet Statistical System

a) G. Grossman, Soviet Statistics of Physical Output of Industrial Commodities, pp. 1-10, 22-46

2. Reliability of Soviet Statistics

a) Readings: A. Bergson, “Reliability and Usability of Soviet Statistics: A Summary Appraisal”

b) L. Turgeon, “On the Reliability of Soviet Statistics,” Review of Economics and Statistics, February 1952, pp. 75-6.

c) Grossman, Soviet Statistics, pp. 123-134.

3. Interpretation of Data

a) Readings: A. Bergson, “The Adjusted Factor Cost Standard of National Income Valuation.”

b) Readings: A. Nove, “1926/27 and All That.”

c) A. Gerschenkron, A Dollar Index of Soviet Machinery Output, pp. 47-58

d) R. Moorsteen, “On Measuring Productive Potential and Relative Efficiency,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1961, pp. 451-467

e) Supplementary Readings

1) J. R. Hicks, “The Valuation of the Social Income,” Economica, May 1940, pp. 105-124

2) P. Samuelson, “Evaluation of Real National Income,” Oxford Economic Papers, January 1950, pp. 1-29.

3) A. Becker, “Comparisons of US and USSR National Output: Some Rules of the Game,”World Politics, October 1960, pp. 99-111.

B. What Has Been Accomplished?

1. National Income

a) A. Bergson, “National Income,” in A. Bergson and S. Kuznets (eds.), Economic Trends in the Soviet Union, pp. 1-16 (only).

b) S. Cohn, “The Gross National Product in the Soviet Union,” in Joint Economic Committee, Dimensions of Soviet Economic Power, pp. 69-77.

c) Supplementary Reading

1) A. Bergson, The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928, Chapters 13 and 14.

2. Industry

a) Readings: N. Kaplan and R. Moorsteen, “An Index of Soviet Industrial Growth”

b) R. Greenslade and P. Wallace, “Industrial Production in the USSR,” in Dimensions, pp. 119-130

c) Supplementary Reading

1) R. Powell, “Industrial Production,” in Trends, pp. 150-176

3. Agriculture

a) D. G. Johnson, “Agricultural Production”, in Trends, pp. 203-214

b) J. Willet, “The Recent Record in Agricultural Production,” in Dimensions, pp. 95-100.

4.  Consumption

a) J. Chapman, “Consumption,” in Trends, pp. 235-270

b) Supplementary Reading

1) R. Golden, “Recent Trends in Soviet Personal Income and Consumption,” in Dimensions, pp. 347-366.

C. Analysis of Growth

1. H. Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy (2nd and Revised Editions), pp. 1-26

2. W. Eason, “Labor Force,” in Trends, pp. 38-93

3. N. Kaplan, “Capital Formation and Allocation,” in A. Bergson (ed.), Soviet Economic Growth, pp. 37-80

4. A. Bergson, “National Income,” in Trends, pp. 17-35.

5. Supplementary Readings

a) F. Seton, “Production Functions in Soviet Industry,” American Economic Review, May 1959, pp. 1-14

b) R. Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, Chapter 4

c) N. DeWitte, “Education and the Development of Human Resources,” in Dimensions, pp. 233-268

d) Readings: “Forced Labor in the Soviet Union”.

Ill. The Operation of the Soviet Economy

A. General Operating Framework and Principles

1. P. Cook, “The Administration and Distribution of Soviet Industry,” in Dimensions, pp. 183-210.

2. A. Nove, The Soviet Economy, Chapter 1.

3. W. Loucks, Comparative Economic Systems (6th Edition), pp. 444-453.

4. Supplementary Reading

a) G. Grossman, “The Structure and Organization of the Soviet Economy,” Slavic Review, June 1962, pp. 203-222.

B. Planning

1. O. Lange, “On the Economic Theory of Socialism” in B. Lippincott (ed.), O. Lange and F. Taylor, On the Economic Theory of Socialism.

2. Schwartz, Chapter V

3. Readings: H. Levine, “The Centralized Planning of Supply in Soviet Industry.”

4. Readings: G. Grossman, “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine”

5. Readings: “On the Problem of Determining the Economic Effectiveness of Capital Investments.”

6. Supplementary Readings

a) J. Drewnowski, “The Economic Theory of Socialism: A Suggestion for Reconsideration,” Journal of Political Economy, August 1961, pp. 341-354

b) Dobb, Chapter 1

c) H. Hunter, “Optimum Tautness in Developmental Planning,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, July 1961, Part l, pp. 561-572.

d) R. Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, Chapter 5

e) I. Yevenko, Planning in the USSR, (Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow), esp. Chapter III.

f) Readings: D. Granick, “An Organizational Model of Soviet Industrial Planning.”

C. The Firm and Problems of Industrial Administration

1. Readings: J. Berliner, “The Informal Organization of the Soviet Firm.”

2. Readings: A. Nove, “The Problem of Success Indicators in Soviet Industry.”

3. “The Liberman Proposals”

a) Current Digest of the Soviet Press, XIV:36 (Oct. 3, 1962), pp. 13-15

b) Harry Schafer, “Ills and Remedies,” Problems of Communism, May-June 1963, pp. 18-26.

4. A. Nove, “The Soviet Industrial Reorganization,” Problems of Communism, Nov.-Dec. 1957, pp 19-25.

5. H. Levine, “Recent Developments in Soviet Planning,” in Dimensions, 1st Section, pp. 167-185.

6. P. Cook, “Party, State and Economic Reorganization in the USSR.” The ASTE Bulletin, V:l (Winter 1963), pp. 2-11

7. Supplementary Readings

a) Readings: J. Berliner, “Managerial Incentives and Decisionmaking.”

b) G. Grossman, “Soviet Growth: Routine, Inertia, and Pressure,” American Economic Review, May 1960, pp. 62-72.

c) Readings: O. Hoeffding, “The Soviet Industrial Reorganization of 1957.”

d) M. Goldman, “Economic Controversy in the Soviet Union,” Foreign Affairs, 1963:3, pp. 498-512.

e) A. Nove, “The Liberman Proposals,” Survey, April 1963, pp. 112-118.

D. Prices

1. M. Bornstein, “The Soviet Price System,” American Economic Review, March 1962, pp. 64-103.

2. V. Nemchinov, “Value and Price Under Socialism,” Problems of Economics, IV:3 (July 1961), pp. 3-17.

3. R. Campbell, “Marx, Kantorovich, and Novozhilov: Stolmost Versus Reality,” Slavic Review, October 1961, pp.402-418.

4. M. Bornstein, “The 1963 Soviet Industrial Price Revision,” Soviet Studies, July 1963, pp. 43-52.

5. Supplementary Readings

a) Readings: G. Grossman, “Industrial Prices In the USSR.”

b) A. Wakar and J. Zielinski, “Socialist Operational Price Systems,” American Economic Review, March 1963, pp. 109-127

c) “The Great Value-Price Controversy in the USSR….” in H. Shaffer (ed.), The Soviet Economy (A Collection of Western and Soviet Views), pp. 340-421.

d) A. Zauberman, “Soviet Planometrics,” Soviet Studies, July 1962, pp. 62-74.

E. Finance

1. A. Nove, The Soviet Economy, Chapter 3

2. Readings: F. Holzman, “Financing Soviet Development”

3. Readings: F. Holman, “Soviet Inflationary Pressures, 1928-1957”

4. Readings: D. Hodgman, “Soviet Monetary Controls Through the Banking System”

5. Supplementary Reading. F. Holzman, Soviet Taxation, Chs. 1-4, 9.

F. Labor

1. Readings: E. Brown, “The Soviet Labor Market”

2. Schwartz, pp. 554-565, 534-548

3. Readings: A. Nove, “Social Welfare in the USSR.”

4. W. Galenson, “The Soviet Wage Reform” Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting, Industrial Relations Research Association (1961), pp. 250-265.

5. A. Nove, “Toward a Communist Welfare State?” Problems of Communism, January-February 1960.

6. Supplementary Readings

a) E. Nash, “Trends in Labor Controls In the Soviet Union,” in Dimensions, pp. 393-404.

b) E. Brown, “Labor Relations in Soviet Factories,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, January 1958

c) E. Brown, “A Note on Employment and Unemployment in the Soviet Union in the Light of Technical Progress,” Soviet Studies, January 1961, pp. 231-240.

G. Agriculture

1. Schwarz, Chapter VIII

2. C. Harris, “Soviet Agricultural Resources Reappraised,” Journal of Farm Economics, May 1956, pp. 258-273

3. Readings: L. Volin, “Agricultural Policy of the Soviet Union.”

4. J. Willet, “The Recent Record in Agricultural Production,” in Dimensions, pp. 100-113.

5. H. Walters, Agriculture in the United States and the Soviet Union, U.S. Dept of Agriculture, 1963).

6. Supplementary Readings

a) J. Newth, “Soviet Agriculture: the Private Sector, 1950-59,” Soviet Studies, October 1961 and April 1962.

b) A. Nove, “Soviet Agriculture Marks Time,” Foreign Affairs, July 1962.

c) D. G. Johnson, “Agricultural Production,” in Trends, pp. 214-234

H. Domestic Trade, Foreign Trade and Foreign Aid

1. M. Goldman, Soviet Marketing, Chapters 2, 3, 8.

2. A. Nove, and D. Donnelly, Trade with Communist Countries, pp. 21-57.

3. P. Thunberg, “The Soviet Union in the World Economy,” in Dimensions, pp. 409-438.

4. G. Carnett and M. Crawford, “The Scope and Distribution of Soviet Economic Aid,” in Dimensions, pp. 457-474.

5. A. Zauberman, “Economic Integration,” Problems of Communism, July-August 1959, pp. 23-29.

6. Supplementary Readings

a) M. Goldman, “Product Differentiation and Advertising: Some Lessons from Soviet Experience,” Journal of Political Economy, August 1960, pp. 346-357.

b) Readings: J. Berliner, “Soviet Foreign Economic Competition”

c) Readings: N. Spulber and F. Gehrels, “The Operations of Trade Within the Soviet Bloc.”

d) Readings: F. Holzman, “Some Financial Aspects of Soviet Foreign Trade.”

e) “Discrimination Within the Bloc: Mendershausen vs. Holzman,” The Review of Economics and Statistics: May 1959, May 1960 and May 1962.

I. Future Prospects and Their Implications

1. A. Bergson, “The Great Economic Race: USSR vs. USA,” Challenge, March 1963.

2. A. Bergson and J. Berliner, “Economic Aspects of the Party Program,” The ASTE Bulletin, IV:2 (Winter 1962) pp. 20-36.

3. Readings: O. Hoeffding, “Soviet State Planning and Forced Industrialization as a Model for Asia.”

4. Supplementary Reading

a) J. Hardt et al, The Cold War Economic Gap. (Praeger 1961).

b) Articles by Peterson, Colm, Rostow and Schwartz in Joint Economic Committee, Comparisons of the United States and Soviet Economies, Parts Il and Ill.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1963-64”.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 133

Final Examination
January 27, 1964

Part I (One hour)
Answer three of the following four questions.

1. (20 minutes)

Compare the economic policies of Vishnegradsky and Witte with those of Stalin.

2. (20 minutes)

Discuss the problem of “success indicators” in Soviet industry.

3. (20 minutes)

Describe briefly how prices and wages are formed and the role they play in the Soviet economy,

4. (20 minutes)

Describe the operation and role of foreign trade in the Soviet economy.

Part II (One hour)
Answer two of the following three questions,

5. (30 minutes)

“In order to understand why the Russians (at least until very recently) have been so successful in achieving rapid economic growth, one need look no further than the high rate of investment they have been able to attain.”
Discuss.

6. (30 minutes)

You are a high ranking official of the Soviet Communist Party and you have just been appointed chief of agricultural affairs. You are requested to prepare a report in which you are to:

a) describe briefly the major reforms instituted in Soviet agriculture in the last 10 years;
b) discuss the extent of their success and/or failure; and
c) propose some further measures which may be taken to improve the agricultural situation.

How would you respond to this request? (“Flee the country” is not an acceptable response.)

7. (30 minutes)

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency recently claimed that the rate of growth of Soviet national income in the last two years (1962 and 1963) has been 2.5% per year.
In analyzing this claim, answer the following questions:

a. What is meant by the “index number problem” in measuring economic growth? Why does it arise?

b. To what extent may there be an index number problem in CIA’s calculation?

c. How does this CIA figure differ from the rates of growth of Soviet national income which have been calculated by Bergson and Cohn for earlier periods?

d. What in your opinion might account for the differences?

e. Bonus (If you have time)

What do you think are the prospects for Soviet economic growth in the next 10 to 20 years? Explain.

Part III (One hour)
Answer the following question.

8. (60 minutes)

Suppose the Soviet government were to decide that it were no longer necessary or desirable to maintain a policy of achieving a maximum rate of economic growth. Suppose instead, it were to decide on a policy of achieving moderate growth (say about 4% per year in national income), rising standards of living for its people and full employment (in short, a “civilized” economic policy).

Discuss the possible effects such a decision might have on the various different elements in the organization and operative of the Soviet economy.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Midyear Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…,Naval Science, Air Science (January 1964) in bound volume Social Sciences. Final Examinations. January 1964 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 150 of 284).

Image Source: Associate Professor of Economics, Herbert S. Levine. University of Pennsylvania Yearbook, The 1967 Record, p. 108.