Category: Suggested Reading

Categories
Berkeley Suggested Reading Syllabus

Berkeley. Money Course, Topics and References. W.C. Mitchell, 1906

 

 

When the following syllabus for  Economics 8B was published at the University of California in 1906, Wesley Clair Mitchell was a thirty-two year old assistant professor of economics. He was listed in the Report of the President of the university as the instructor of the course though he is not identified as such in the syllabus itself. The 22-page syllabus that I found at archive.com is unfortunately missing its second page but is still worth posting in its present incomplete state.

_______________

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND COMMERCE

TOPICS AND REFERENCES FOR
ECONOMICS 8B
MONEY

PLAN OF THE COURSE.

Part I — Monetary Systems.
Part II — Development of Monetary Systems.
Part III — Money and Prices.

PART I— MONETARY SYSTEMS.

1—The United States.

(a) Money supplied by the government,

1a— Coin: —

Gold, silver dollars, subsidiary silver, minor coins.

The mint. Standard money; legal tender.

For statistics, see current reports of the Director of the Mint. (Bound in Finance Reports.)

For laws, see C. F. Dunbar, Laws of the U. S. relating to Currency, Finance and Banking from 1789 to 1891. Boston, 1891.

J. L. Laughlin, Report of the Monetary Commission of the Indianapolis Convention, Chicago, 1898, pp. 491-543.

Coinage, Currency and Banking Laws of the U. S., 1791-1900. Sound Currency, June, 1901. Vol. 8, No. 2.

2a— Paper money: —

Gold Certificates, silver certificates.

United States notes, currency certificates, treasury notes of 1890.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

For statistics, see current Reports of the Treasurer of the U. S. (Bound in Finance Reports.)

For laws, see references above.

[Note: page 2 is missing in this copy. Appears to be missing, say, 1(b) “Money supplied by Banks”? and 2(a), 2(b)?… for “2—Foreign Countries”]

[2—Foreign Countries, from page 3]

Money and Prices in Foreign Countries. (Special Consular Reports; Vol. 13, Parts 1 and 2.) Washington, 1896, 1897.

M. L. Muhleman, Monetary Systems of the World. New York, The Spectator Company. (Numerous editions.)

J. H. Norman, Complete Guide to the World’s Twenty-nine Metal Monetary Systems. New York, 1892.

R. Chalmers, History of Currency in the British Colonien. London, 1893.

R. P. Rothwell, ”The World’s Currencies.” 2d edition.

Sound Currency, 1896. A compendium, pp. 81-98.

3 — Silver-standard monetary systems.

See references under 2.

4 — Bimetallic systems.

Historical sketches in above references, and Part II, section 6, i, below.

5 — Paper-standard systems.

See references under 2 above, and Part II, section 6, k, below.

6 — Gold-exchange standards.

Stability of International Exchange. Report on the Introduction of the Gold-exchange Standard into China and other silver-using countries. (H.R. Doc, No. 144. 58th Congress, 2d Session.) Washington, 1903.

Report on the Introduction of the Gold-exchange Standard into China, the Philippine Islands, Panama, and other Silver-using countries. Washington, 1904.

A.P. Andrew, ”The End of the Mexican Dollar.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1904.

E.W. Kemmerer, “A Gold Standard for the Straits Settlements.” Political Science Quarterly, December, 1904.

“The Establishment of the Gold-exchange Standard in the Philippines.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1905.

A. P. Andrew, “Indian Currency Problems of the Last Decade.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1901.

M. Bothe, Die indische Wahrungsreform seit 1893. (Münchener volkswirtschaftliche Studien.) Stuttgart, 1904.

 

PART II — DEVELOPMENT OF MONETARY SYSTEMS.

1—Bibliographies.

W.S. Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance. London, 1884. Pp. 364-414 (Chronologically arranged. 1568-1882).

A. Soetbeer, Litteraturnachweis über Geld-und-Münzwesen. Berlin, 1892. (Chronologically arranged. 1871-1891.)

K. Helfferich, Das Geld. Leipzig, 1903. Pp. 532-590 (Continuation of Soetbeer’s bibliography, 1892-1902).

2—Origin of Money.

C. Bücher, Industrial Evolution. Tr. by S.M. Wickett, New York, 1901. Pp. 59-71.

W.W. Carlile, The Evolution of Modem Money. London and New York, 1901. Part II, chapters I-III.

Economic Methods and Economic Fallacies, London, 1904. Ch. X.

W. Ridgeway, Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards. Cambridge, 1902. Chapter II.

K. Helfferich, op. cit. Book I, ch. I.

C. Menger, ”The Origin of Money.” Economic Journal, June, 1892.

E. Babelon, Les Origines de la Monnaie. Paris, 1897.

3—Money in Antiquity.

This subject is discussed in courses History 53 and 54.

4—From the end of the Roman Empire to the Discovery of America. The barter economy. Reappearance of Money. Local coinages. Growth of the royal prerogative. Monetary policies.

W.J. Ashley, Introduction to English Economic History and Theory. Part I, 3d ed. 1894. Ch. I, sec. 6; ch. Ill, sec. 18.

W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages. 3d ed., Cambridge, 1896. Passim.

A. Del Mar, History of Monetary Systems. London, 1895. Ch. X-XV.

G. Schmoller, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre. 2d part. Leipzig, 1904. Sec. 164.

W.C. Hazlitt, The Coinage of the European Continent. London and New York, 1893.

A. Luschin von Ebengreuth, Allgemeine Münzkunde und Geldgeschichte des Mittelalters und der neueren Zeit. Munich and Berlin, 1904.

H. Engel and B. Lerrure, Traité de numismatique du moyenâge. Paris, 1905.

5—From the Discovery of America to the Close of the Eighteenth Century.

(a) General references.

Hazlitt, Luschin von Ebengreuth, and Engel and Lerrure, as above.

W.A. Shaw, History of the Currency, 1252-1894. London, 1895.

G. Schmoller, op. cit. See. 165.

(b) Increase in the supply of the precious metals and the consequences.

A. Soetbeer, Materialien zur Erläuterung und Beurtheilung der wirthschaftlichen Edelmetallverhältnisse und der Währungsfrage. Berlin, 1885. 2d ed. 1886. (Translation by F. W. Taussig in Sen. Exec. Doc. No. 34; 1st Session 50th Congress.)

R.H. Patterson, The New Golden Age and the Influences of the Precious Metals upon the World. 2 vols. Edinburgh and London, 1882. Chaps. VIII-XI.

W. Sombart, Der moderne Kapitalismus. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1902. Vol. I, ch. xiii, pp. 358-372, and following chs., passim.

G. Wiebe, Zur Geschichte der Preisrevolution im 16ten und 17ten Jahrhundert. (Staats- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Beiträge. Herausgegeben von A. von Miaskowski. Band ii. Heft 2.) Leipzig, 1895.

(c) The Rise of Banking.

See Exercises and References for Economics 8, pp. 11, 12.

(d) Monetary difficulties and reforms in England.

W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times. 2 parts. Cambridge, 1903. Passim.

Earl of Liverpool, Treatise on the Coins of the Realm. London, 1800. (Reprinted 1880.) Passim.

S.D. Horton, The Silver Pound, London, 1887. Chaps, v-viii.

(e) England’s transition to the gold standard.

See references under d, and,

W.W. Carlile, Evolution of Modern Money, Part I.

P. Kalkmann, England’s Uebergang zur Goldwahrung im 18ten Jahrhundert (Abhandlungen des staatswirtschaft- lichen Seminars zu Strassburg). Strassburg, 1895.

(f) Monetary experiences of the English colonies in North America.

This subject is discussed in History 77. For a brief sketch see,

C.J. Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the U. S. N. Y., 1900. Part I, chs. i-v.

(g) Establishment of a Monetary System under the constitution.

A. Hamilton, Report on the Establishment of a Mint. 1790. ”Works,” ed. J. C. Hamilton, Vol. 3, p. 149. N. Y., 1850.

J. L. Laughlin, History of Bimetallism in the U. S. 4th ed. N.Y., 1901. Ch. ii.

A. B. Hepburn, History of Coinage and Currency in the U.S. N. Y., 1903. Chs. i, ii.

D.K. Watson, History of American Coinage, 2d ed. N. Y., 1899. Chs. iii, iv.

6—Since 1800.

(a) Production of gold and silver, 1800-1848.

Soetbeer, Materialien, and Reports of the Director of the Mint, for statistical estimates.

R. H. Patterson, op. cit. Chs. xii-xv.

J. L. Laughlin, Bimetallism, ch. iii.

W.S. Jevons, ”The Variation of Prices and the Value of the Currency since 1782.” Investigations in Currency and Finance, iii.

(b) French monetary legislation of 1803.

H.P. Willis, History of the Latin Monetary Union. Chi- cago, 1901. Ch. i.

International Monetary Conference held in Paris, August, 1878. (Senate Executive Doc. No. 58. 45th Congress, 3d Sess.) Pp. 153-157. (Monetary Laws.)

F.A. Walker, International Bimetallism. N. T., 1897. Ch. iv.

(c) American legislation of 1834.

Laughlin, Bimetallism. Ch. iv.

Walker, op. cit., ch. iv.

Hepburn, op. cit., ch. iii.

Watson, op. cit., chs. v and vi.

(d) The gold discoveries in California and Australia.

R.H. Patterson, op. cit., chs. i-vi.

H.H. Bancroft, History of California, Vol. vi. San Francisco, 1888. (”Works,” Vol. xxiii.)

T.H. Hittell, History of California, Vol. ii. San Francisco, 1885. Chs. vii, ff.

T.O. Larkin and R. B. Mason, Correspondence with the Secretary of State with reference to the gold discoveries in California. House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 2d Session, 30th Congress. Pp. 51-69.

W. Westgarth, Victoria and the Australian Gold mines in 1857. London, 1857.

Soetbeer, Materialien; Beports of the Director of the Mint, for statistical estimates.

(e) Diffusion of the new gold and the economic consequences.

J.E. Cairnes, Essays in Political Economy. London, 1873.

Introductory and Essays i-iv.

W.S. Jevons, Investigations, ii-iv.

R.H. Patterson, op. cit., chs. xvii-xxi.

(f) Effect of the new gold on bimetallic monetary systems.

J. L. Laughlin, Bimetallism, chs. v-viii.

H. P. Willis, Latin Union, chs. iv-xi.

F. A. Walker, International Bimetallism, chs. iv and v.

Also see references under i below.

(g) Limitations on free coinage of silver.

Laughlin, Bimetallism, chs. vii-xi.

Willis, Latin Union, chs. xii-xiv.

Walker, International Bimetallism, ch. vi.

Watson, op. cit., chs. viii and ix.

Hepburn, op. cit., ch. xii.

Also see references under i below.

(h) Attempts to check the fall of silver.

Laughlin, Bimetallism, chs. xiv-xvii.

Willis, Latin Union, chs. xv-xx.

H.B. Russell, International Monetary Conferences. N. Y., 1898.

A.D. Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance. 2d impression. N. Y., 1900. Chs. iv-viii.

Hepburn, op. cit., chs. xii, xiii, xvii.

Watson, op. cit., chs. xi-xiii.

F.W. Taussig, The Silver Situation in the U. S. 2d ed. revised. N. Y., 1896.

Also see references under i below.

(i) The bimetallic controversy.

1i—Brief summaries of the discussion.

W.S. Jevons, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange. London, 1875. Ch. xii.

F. A. Walker, Money. N. Y., 1877. Ch. xiii.

Laughlin, Bimetallism, ch. i.

W. A. Scott, Money and Banking. 2d ed. N. Y., 1903. Chs. xiv, xv.

D. Kinley, Money. N. Y., 1904. Ch. xiv.

2i—Best systematic discussion.

L. Darwin, Bimetallism. A Summary and Examination of the Arguments for and against a Bimetallic System of Currency. London, 1897.

3i—Books presenting different points of view. For further references see bibliographies cited on p. 4 above.

E.B. Andrews, An Honest Dollar. (Pub. Am. Econ. Assc’n., Vol. iv.) 1889. Republished Hartford, 1894.

O. Arendt, Die vertragsmässige Doppelwährung. 2 vols. Berlin, 1880.

Die Ursache der Silberentwerthung. Berlin, 1899.

F. W. Bain, The Corner in Gold: Its History and Theory. London, 1893.

L. Bamberger, Reichsgold. Studien über Wahrung und Wechsel. Leipzig, 1876.

Ausgewahlte Reden und Aufsätze über Geld und Bankwesen. (Schriften des Vereins zum Schutz der deutschen Goldwährung, Vol. i.) Berlin, 1900.

D. Barbour, The Theory of Bimetallism. London, 1885.

W. Barker, Bimetallism; or, the Evils of Gold Monometallism. Philadelphia, 1896.

A. I. Fonda, Honest Money. N. Y., 1895.

H.H. Gibbs and H. B. Grenfell, The Bimetallic Controversy. London, 1886.

Sir Robert Giffin, The Case against Bimetallism. 5th ed. London, 1898.

E. Helm, The Joint Standard. London, 1894.

T. Hertzka, Das internationale Währungsproblem und dessen Lösung. Leipzig, 1892.

O. Heyn, Kritik des Bimetallismus. Berlin, 1897.

S.D. Horton, Silver in Europe. 2d ed. N. Y., 1892.

E. de Laveleye, La Monnaie et le bimetallisme international. Paris, 1891.

H. D. MacLeod, Bimetallism. London, 1894.

E. Nasse, “Das Geld und Münzwesen.” (Schönberg’s Handbuch der politischen Oekonomie. 3d ed. Tubingen, 1890. Vol. i.)

J.S. Nicholson, Treatise on Money and Essays on Monetary Problems. 4th ed. London, 1897.

Reports of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Recent Changes in the Relative Values of the Precious Metals. London, 1st Report, 1887 ; 2d Report, Final Report, Appendix, 1888.

A.E. Schaeffle, Für internationale Doppelwährung. Tübingen, 1881.

A.P. Stokes, Joint Metallism. N. Y., 1894.

E. Suess, Die Zukunft des Silbers, Vienna, 1892.

W.L. Trenholm, The People’s Money. N. Y., 1893.

Verhandlungen der Kommission behufs Erörterung von Massregeln zur Hebung und Befestigung des Silberwerthes. 2 vols. Berlin, 1894.

F.A. Walker, International Bimetallism. N. Y., 1897.

M.L. Wolowski, L’or et l’argent. Paris, 1870.

(j) General adoption of the Gold Standard.

K. Helfferich, Das Geld. Leipzig, 1903. Book i, ch. vi. (General.)

Die Reform des deutschen Geldwesens nach der Gründung des Reichs. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1898.

Hepburn, op. cit., ch. xviii.

F.W. Taussig, ”The Currency Act of 1900.” Quart. Jour. of Econ. May, 1900.

J.L. Laughlin, ”Recent Monetary Legislation.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., June, 1900.

Matsukata Masayoshi, Report on the Adoption of the Gold Standard in Japan. Tokio, 1899.

Also references under Part I, secs. 2 and 6, above.

(k) Paper money episodes of the Nineteenth Century.

W. Lexis, “Das Papiergeld im 19ten Jahrhundert.” Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften. Vol. vi; Jena, 1901. Pp. 28-38.

 

Cunningham, op, cit. Vol. iii. (See “Bank restriction” in index.)

Report, together with minutes of evidence and accounts, from the Select Committee on the High Price of Gold Bullion (ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, June 8, 1810). Reprinted in W. Sumner’s History of American Currency. N. Y., 1878.

D. Ricardo, Works, ed. McCulloch. Pp. 261-301.

T. Tooke, Thoughts and Details on the High and Low Prices of the Thirty Years from 1793 to 1822. 2d ed. London, 1824.

W.S. Jevons, Investigations, iii.

 

W.C. Mitchell, A History of the Greenbacks, 1862-1865. Chicago, 1903.

H. White, Money and Banking. N. Y., 1895. Part II, Bk. I, chs. iv, vi, vii.

Hepburn, op. cit., chs. viii-xi.

Noyes, op. cit., chs. i-iii.

W.A. Berkey, The Money Question. 4th ed. Grand Rapids, 1878.

 

J.C. Schwab, The Confederate States of America, 1861-1865. New York, 1901.

 

A. Courtois, Historic des banques en France. 2d ed. Paris, 1881. Pp. 256-269.

Bulletin de statistique et de legislation comparée, Vol. vii, pp. 247-254 and 310-337.

 

A. Wagner, Die russische Papierwährung. Riga, 1868.

H.P. Willis, “Monetary Reform in Russia.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., June, 1897.

R. Ledos de Beaufort, L’achevement et l’application de la reforme monetaire en Russie. Paris, 1899.

 

C. Ferraris, Moneta e corso forzoso. Milan, 1879.

M. Grundwald, “Geschichte des italienischen Zwangkurses und der Wiederherstellung der Valuta.” Finanz Archiv, Vol. xi, No. 1, 1894.

 

K. Kramár, Das Papiergeld in Oesterreich seit 1848. Leipzig, 1886.

G. Crivellari, “I precedenti della riforma monetaria in Austria-Ungheria” and ”La riforma monetaria in Austria-Ungheria”; Giornale degli Economisti, September, 1900, and February, 1901.

A. de Foville, “Spanish Currency.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., December, 1898.

J.P. Wileman, Brazilian Exchange: The study of an Inconvertible Currency. London, 1897.

O. Schmitz. Die Finanzen Argentiniens. Leipzig, 1895.

A. Raffalovich, ”La cours forcé et la reprise des paiements au Chili.” Journal des Economistes, November, 1897.

 

PART III— MONEY AND PRICES.

1—The Rôle of Prices in Modern Economic Life.

(a) The price system.

(b) The price system and production.

(c) The price system and distribution.

(d) Influence of the price system on the kind of goods produced.

(e) The price system and the selection of captains of industry.

(f) The price of business enterprises.

(g) Money-making as an economic motive.

(h) Influence of the price system on wants.

(i) The price system and the pecuniary point of view.

(j) Technical exigencies of the price system.

(k) Development of the price system.

(l) Summary.

(m) Neglect of the influence of the price system in economic theory.

2—The Problem of Changes in the Price Level.

(a) Statement of the problem.

(b) Meaning of ”price level.”

(c) How changes in the price level are measured.

Index numbers. Methods of averaging. Weights.

D. Kinley, Money. N. Y., 1904. Ch. xii.

J. L. Laughlin, Principles of Money. N. Y., 1903. Ch. vi.

R. Mayo-Smith, Statistics and Economics. N. Y., 1899. Ch. vi.

A.L. Bowley, Elements of Statistics. 2d ed. London, Ch. ix.

L. L. Price, Money and its Relations to Prices. London, Pp. 9-36.

J. S. Nicholson, Treatise on Money and Essays on Monetary Problems. 4th ed. London, 1897. Essay vii.

T. S. Adams, ” Index Numbers and the Standard of Value.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., December, 1901, and March, 1902.

C.M. Walsh, The Measurement of General Exchange-value. N. Y., 1901.

For further references see bibliographies in Walsh, pp. 553-574, and Laughlin, pp. 221-224.

(d) Specimen index numbers.

1d—Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, March, 1902.

Course of prices at wholesale, 1890 to date. Continued in March issues of following years.

2d—Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, July, 1904, pp. 703-712.

Prices of food at retail, 1890 to date. Continued in July issue of 1905.

Fuller publication in 18th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor.

3d—Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, July, 1904, pp. 713-932.

Relative rates of wages, 1890 to date. Continued in July issue, 1905.

Fuller publication in 19th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor.

4d—R. P. Falkner, “Wholesale Prices: 1890 to 1899.” Bulletin of the Department of Labor, March, 1900.

5d—Dun’s index number of the cost of living, 1860 to date. Dun’s Review, passim; also Dun’s Review: International Edition, passim. Partial republication in recent issues of the Statistical Abstract of the U. S. and in Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance.

6d— John R. Common’s index number, 1878 to 1901. Quarterly Bulletin of the Bureau of Economic Research, 1900 and 1901. Partial republication in Final Report of the Industrial Commission, pp. 29-30 and 1101-1113. For methods see Bulletin of the Department of Labor, March, 1902, pp. 210, 211.

7d—R. P. Falkner’s index number of wholesale prices, 1860 to 1891. “Aldrich Report” (Senate Report No. 1394, 52d Congress, 2d Session), Part I, pp. 27-110.

8d—Falkner’s index number of wages, 1860-1891. Ibid., pp. 110-180.

9d—A. Sauerbeck’s index number for England, 1846 to date.

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1886 and following years. See, also, “Aldrich Report,” Part I, pp. 229-256; and Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, June, 1904.

10d—Economist index number for England.

London Economist, passim. See, also, ”Aldrich Report,” Part I, pp. 220-228.

11d—Soetbeer’s Hamburg prices, 1851-1884, Materialien, etc., pp. 98-104.

Soetbeer’s prices with Heinze’s continuation, 1847-1891. ”Aldrich Report,” Part I, pp. 257-296.

12d—O. Schmitz, Die Bewegung der Warenpreise in Deutschland von 1851 bis 1902. Berlin, 1903.

(e) Characteristics of price variations shown by these tables.

Divergencies between price variations of individual goods; of raw materials and manufactured goods; of the same goods at wholesale and retail; of labor and commodities.

Similarity in movements of the price level in different countries.

Long period and short period fluctuations.

Effect of weighing on results.

(f) Reliability of tables of index numbers as measures of change in the price level.

N. G. Pierson, “Index Numbers and the Appreciation of Gold.” Economic Journal, September, 1895. “Further Considerations on Index Numbers.” Ibid., March, 1896.

F. Y. Edgeworth, “A Defense of Index Numbers.” Ibid., March, 1896.

3—Methods of Investigating Causes of Changes in the Price Level.

(a) Study of conditions of supply and demand of single articles.

Tooke and Newmarch, History of Prices, 6 vols. London, 1838-1857. Passim.

(b) Study of tables of index numbers.

(c) Application of the general theory of value to the problem of the price level. The quantity theory.

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy. Book iii, chs. viii and ix.

J. S. Nicholson, Treatise on Money. 4th ed. London, 1897. Part I, ch. v; part II, ch. v.

F. A. Walker, Money. N. Y., 1877. Ch. iii.

S. M. Hardy, “Quantity of Money and Prices, 1861-92.” Jour. of Pol Econ., March, 1895.

H. P. Willis, ”History and Present Application of the Quantity Theory.” Ibid., September, 1896.

W. A. Scott, ”The Quantity Theory.” Annals of the American Academy, March, 1897.

R. Mayo-Smith, “Money and Prices.” Pol, Sci, Quart., June, 1900.

J. L. Laughlin, Principles of Money. N. Y., 1903. Ch. viii.

W. A. Scott, Money and Banking. N. Y., 1903. Ch iv.

F. A. Walker, “The Value of Money.” Quart. Jour. of Econ., October, 1893.

“The Quantity-theory of Money.” Ibid., July, 1895.

W.W. Carlisle, ”The Quantitative Theory of Money.” Economic Review, January, 1898.

J. F. Johnson, ”The New Theory of Prices.” Pol. Sci. Quart., October, 1903.

J. L. Laughlin, “The Quantity Theory and its Critics, — a Rejoinder.” Jour. Pol. Econ., September, 1903.

H. P. Willis, “The Controversy over Price Theories.” Sound Currency, March, 1904.

C. A. Conant, “What Determines the Value of Money?” Quart. Jour. of Econ., August, 1904.

W. C. Mitchell, “The Real Issues in the Quantity-theory Controversy.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., June, 1904.

(d) Analysis of the process of price making.

S. and B. Webb. Industrial Democracy. 2d ed. London, 1902. Part III, ch. ii.

4—The Process of Price Making in Modern Business.

(a) Consumers.

Their disadvantages in bargaining. Their freedom to buy, what, when and where they like. Variations in the volume of their purchases.

(b) Retail dealers.

Their business position. Efforts to attract custom. Policy in fixing prices. Cost of retailing.

(c) Wholesale dealers.

Pressure upon them for low prices from retailers. Danger of direct dealings between manufacturers and retailers. Effect of variations in consumers’ demands. Credit relations.

(d) Manufacturers.

Technical problems. Business risks. Pressure for low prices and methods of meeting it. Effect of variations of demand in short and long periods.

(e) Dealers in raw materials.

Commission merchants. Firms buying and selling on their own account. Dealings upon the produce exchanges—speculation.

(f) Farmers.

Business and technical aspects of farming. Competition and the possibility of avoiding it. Variations in supply of agricultural products in short and long periods. Steadiness of demand. Farmers as consumers.

(g) Other producers of raw materials.

Important classes. Business organization of extractive industries. Peculiar conditions affecting supply. Variability of demand. Relation between prices of finished products and raw materials.

(h). Production goods other than raw materials.

Character. Sources of demand. Variability of demand. Organization of trade.

(i) Transportation companies.

Technical improvements. Business organization. Competition. Effect of reduction in rates on the price level. Effect of discrimination in railway freight rates. Variability of rates.

(j) Wage earners.

Pressure for low wages. Methods of withstanding. Why wage rates vary little as compared with prices of raw materials. Effect of efficiency of labor on price of products. Wage earners as consumers.

(k) Investors.

Variations in investor’s demand. Influence on business over short and long periods. Investors as consumers.

(l) Promoters.

Their work. Influence on the price of securities and on the price of commodities produced by their companies. Underwriting.

(m) Corporation securities.

“Outside” speculators. Management of corporations for stock-market profits. Financial influences. Connections between stock-market quotations and the general price level.

(n) Banks.

Why business men borrow of banks,—to pay debts, to extend operations, to start new enterprises.

Effect of bank loans for these purposes on the price level. Dependence on consumer’s and business demands.

The banker’s point of view, — security; adequacy of reserves; problems of business crises. Effect of banks on the circulating medium.

(o) Insurance.

Varieties. Influence on banking and investment market. Connection with the price level.

(p) Domestic and professional services.

Changes in rates of remuneration. Changes in incomes. Slight direct effect on the price level. Indirect effect as consumers.

(q) Government.

Stability in price of services rendered by government. Direct influence of taxation on the price level. Monetary policy and the price level. General indirect influence on the price level.

(r) Foreign influences on the price level.

Correspondence between changes in the prices of commodities at wholesale in different countries. Retail prices. Rates of wages; of interest.

Commercial relations. Financial relations. International movements of gold.

(s) Summary.

1s—The endless chain of price relations.

From consumers’ demand round the circle to consumers’ incomes.

2s—Why the price level changes.

Non-monetary causes of variations.

3s—Interrelations of price variations.

4s—Short-period cycles of business prosperity, crisis, and depression.

Their connection with the price system.

5s—The next problem.

Where monetary factors come into the process of price making in modern business.

5—Money and changes in the Price Level.

(a) Plan of the discussion.

(b) The Production of Gold.

Two types of gold mining,—placer and quartz mines.

Factors affecting supply. Relative production from placers and quartz mines at different periods. Statistics of gold production.

Soetbeer, Materialien. (See p. 5 above.)

E. Biedermann, Die Statistik der Edelmetalle. 2d ed. Berlin, 1904.

Annual Reports of the Director of the Mint upon the Production of the Precious Metals.

I. A. Hourwich, ”Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., September, 1902. Pp. 577-682.

(c) Miners and the disposition of their gold.

What placer miners and mining companies do with the metal. Initial influence of changes in production on prices. Gold in the hands of refiners.

(d) The stock of gold and the supply.

Distinction between stock and supply. Elements of the current supply. Their relative importance. (For statistics, see citations under b above.)

(e) The demand for gold.

Industrial and monetary demands. Peculiarity of the latter. Circumstances under which gold is purchased for monetary uses.

(f) How the supply is divided between the two demands.

Statistics of relative importance. Distribution of money in-comes between the purchase of gold goods, and other uses. Distribution of monetary demand between gold and other forms of currency.

Conclusion.

(g) Influence of changes in the volume of gold money on the price level.

How additions to the volume of gold money are made. From the mints to the banks. Diffusion of new supplies from the banks of first deposit. Possible increase in general circulation.

How this process affects the price level. Increase in miners’ demands. Increase of gold in ”the pockets of the people.” Increase of gold in bank reserves. Effect in short-period cycles of business prosperity. Cumulative effect in the long run.

(h) International movements of gold.

International business relations. How payments are made. Reciprocal relations of price changes, interest rates and gold movement. Peculiarities of gold movements between the Occident and the Orient.

(This subject is more fully treated in Economics 8c.)

(i) Summary of the inter-relations between gold and prices.

Short periods; influence of monetary factors in the price-making process; the extension of loan-credit; business crises; the importance of bank reserves; foreign influences.

Long periods; the price level and the supply of gold; gold discoveries and improvements in methods of mining; the industrial demand; the general adoption of the gold standard; paper money episodes; development of banking methods and the increased use of banking facilities; advance of industrial technique; widening territorial area of markets; changes in the business organization of industry; international business relations; the supply of gold and the price level.

Relations between long period and short period price fluctuations.

(j) Money and prices under the silver standard.

Production of silver. Market ratio between silver and gold.

For statistics see, —

References under (b) above.

I. A. Hourwich, “Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals ii. Silver.” Jour. of Pol. Econ., September, 1903.

Industrial and monetary demand for silver. The oriental demand.

Domestic prices and wages in silver-standard countries. International business relations.

(k) Money and prices under the bimetallic standard.

Effect of increased production of either metal on the monetary circulation and on the price level. Reaction on relative prices of the metals. Reason of the breakdown of bimetallic monetary systems. Speculations regarding the influence of international bimetallism.

(l) Money and prices in countries with undeveloped banking systems.

The business world at the time of the discovery of the Mexican and Peruvian mines. Diffusion of the new supplies over Europe. Effect on the price level.

The case of backward countries in the nineteenth century.

(m) Money and prices in countries with paper standards.

How the paper money gets into circulation. Why depreciation occurs. Withdrawal of specie from circulation and its effect on prices in specie-standard countries. Factors affecting the specie value of irredeemable paper money. Effect on the price level. Methods of resuming specie payments. Effect of resumption on the price level at home and abroad.

6—Effects of Changes in the Price Level on the Distribution, Production and Consumption of Wealth.

(a) Wages.

Immediate effect on purchasing power of money wages. Attempts to readjust rates of wages. Compensating effects on regularity of employment. The ease of professional men.

(b) Interest and relations between debtors and creditors.

Immediate effect. Difference between cases of loans on long and short time. Readjustments in rates of interest. The purchasing power of the principal.

(c) Rents.

Immediate effects. Long and short leases. Renting “on shares.” Attempts to readjust rates.

(d) Profits.

Gain or loss of residual claimants resulting from loss or gain of other classes. Effect of difference in complexity of business organization. Gain or loss resulting from inequality in the price fluctuations of different commodities.

(e) Production and consumption.

Effect of above noted changes in distribution on production and consumption. How far is the world’s economic progress dependent on variations in the production of gold?

7—Conclusion.

Purpose of preceding discussion is to account for changes in the price level and their economic consequences. Difficulties attending application of the analysis; the difficulty of obtaining adequate statistical material, and the difficulty of quantitative evaluation of the various price factors. A study of the changes in the price level of the United States since 1890 is made in Economics 25.

Source: University of California, Department of Economics and Commerce. Topics and references for economics 8B. Money. Berkeley: The University Press, 1906.

Image Source: 1922 Blue and Gold. Published by the Junior Class of The University of California.

 

 

Categories
Columbia Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Columbia. Syllabus and reading assignments from economic affairs course, 1931-36

New York City Public Library reading room, ca 1911

 

 

One fine research day when I was working in the splendid reading room of the New York Public Library, I came across a ninety page syllabus for a junior year course at Columbia College “The Organization of Economic Affairs” published in 1930. From two articles in the student newspaper “The Columbia Daily Spectator” it looks like this course had a five-year run from 1931-32 through 1935-36 (see below). I was struck by the deliberate sidestepping of “economic principles”, i.e. theory, and was less than impressed by the preface to the syllabus that I have nonetheless transcribed for the digital record. In addition I have transcribed the 73 reading assignments along with the list of required reading for the course (with links to the books that I could find).  For those interested in more, there are indeed 54 pages of detailed questions and commentary for the reading assignments in the published syllabus.

Of some interest for a modern instructor is that this syllabus includes absolutely no discussion of course requirements, grading or policies. The Columbia Daily Spectator description of the course has introduced me to the concept of “Wallop Courses” which in my day at Yale (early 1970s) were referred to as “Gut Courses” and at Harvard (ca. 1910) such courses attracted “snappers”.

___________________

Reform of Columbia College Economics Course Offerings for 1931-32.

“Contemporary Civilization 3-4 has been dropped from the schedule. The entire Economics and Social Science department’s presentation has been reorganized with many sweeping changes indicated.”

Source: Columbia Daily Spectator, Vol. LIII, No. 122 (15 April 1930), p. 1.

 ___________________

Wallop Courses

         This series outlines courses in the University generally considered by students as easy, either because of the nature of the material or—the chief point—the absence of rigid study and assignment requirements. The purpose of the series is to determine, after investigation how such courses function; the attitude and methods of the instructors; the attitude of students toward course and instructor.

Merely because a course is a “wallop,” does not prevent students from deriving much benefit from it, or from doing unassigned readings if the spirit of the course can move them to it. The question is, What happens in “easy” courses? If a course is invaluable no one is to be blamed because it can be considered a “wallop.”

         Economic 3-4—The organization of economic affairs. Two points each session, and two maturity credits each session. Drs. [Addison T.] Cutler, [George S.] Mitchell and [Robert] Valeur.

This course is not a “wallop” in the strict sense of this rather vague word. It is rumored about the place that if the course is easy, (which it is not, according to some statements,) that it is due more to the ability of the instructors to get the material across than to facility of the material. There is a considerable list of assigned readings, but by paying attention in class it is deemed possible to make a fair grade with a minimum of reading.

The material studied consists of surveys of various important U. S. industries, and of studies of governmental policies toward industry and labor under the New Deal. The material is said to be about 25 per cent repetition of Contemporary Civilization B. Two term papers are required during the year, and grading of these papers is generally considered to be fairly liberal.

Fortunately, or otherwise, the course will be dropped at the conclusion of this year. The material will be included in a new course, to be known as Economics 7-8, which will combine the material of Eco. 3-4 and 5-6, a course in economic theory.

This change is expected to meet general approval of students, as, at present there is some overlapping of material between the two Courses, and both are usually taken by students specializing in Economics.

Source: Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume LIX, No. 81 (21 Feb. 1936), p. 2.

___________________

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

THE ORGANIZATION OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
ECONOMICS 3-4

A SYLLABUS PREPARED AND EDITED BY THE STAFF OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE

PREFACE

ASSIGNMENT NO. 1

To the Students of Economics 3-4:

You have completed the two-year course called “An Introduction to Contemporary Civilization.” It is assumed that you wish to explore in more detail than was possible there the problems of “Economics”. You are not unacquainted with economic affairs, for, in addition to your daily observations, you have examined to a certain extent the development of man’s ways of making a living, his ways of living with his fellow men and his ways of interpreting the world. You have also considered some of the difficult problems centering around modern industry as it expands and affects more and more all phases of life.

What then, will be the content of this course? Shall it consist of the “principles” of economics, or a study of many economic problems, or a perusal of the theoretical contribution of some authoritative economist, or something else? For better or for worse “something else” has been chosen, and that choice is roughly indicated by the title of the course, “The Organization of Economic Affairs.” The reasons for this choice and the manner of executing the task have been dictated by a number of considerations, which have to do broadly with three sorts of things: the nature of your previous experience; other curricular offerings both in and out of the field of economics; and modern descriptive and analytical trends in the study and teaching of economics. In no genuine sense will you be “specializing” even here. You will be given other opportunities for particular study: the curriculum offers courses in money and banking, labor problems, public finance, business cycles and the like.

This course will center about economic organization today. But “economic organization” is huge, sprawling and complex. The term itself is subject to considerable ambiguity. Unfortunately it is not possible to picture economic organization with the same degree of precision as might be attained in describing the layout of a given steel mill, or the organization of the United States Steel Corporation, or the organization of the steel industry. The latter type of task is puzzling enough, as you will observe in the first section of the course. But economic organization in the large is infinitely more complex and bothersome. In a hundred courses dealing with economic organization which might be offered in as many universities, it is probable that one hundred different plans of procedure would be invented. This is true of the approach to most bodies of subject matter. It is abundantly and poignantly true in the present case.

Economic affairs are in process of change. Even though this course is intended to be concerned strictly with the contemporary, rather than with the historical, it will in no sense be addressed to fixed or static conditions. It would be strange indeed, after spending a good part of two years in studying developing institutions, to assume that institutions have ceased changing. They must be caught on the wing. Changes are immediately behind us, around us, and before us. We shall probably not have frequent occasion to go back of 1920. And the impossibility of isolating a static “present” may force us into some slight projection of the future.

Another characteristic of the course is its use of quantitative data. Many, although not necessarily all, economic phenomena are matters of “more” or “less”. Quantitative tools are an increasingly important part of the equipment for the study of social phenomena. We can hardly fail to recognize this fact, whatever our private convictions as to the ultimate value of “statistics” in general, or whatever our like or dislike for playing with figures. Our quantitative data will not be used for exercises in statistical technique (there are other opportunities for that), but rather for the direct purpose of coming face to face with economic institutions in operation and discovering their meaning, or at least suggested interpretations of meaning. In this, there are two apparent dangers: (1) the student may not be able to interpret the data; (2) he may over-estimate its significance. The latter may be a real danger if a reader accepts too readily a conclusion drawn from statistical data or accepts even the elements of a statistical series, when ignorant of the methods that have been used by the statistician. We shall make our way with at least a forewarning of these dangers. Some comfort may be had from the avoidance of highly specialized and refined statistical procedures. It will be found that in many cases the authors of the materials used have shown a commendable candor in describing the limitations of their own methods.

A word as to the materials used. An emphasis on change, and the use of quantitative data, will be found to characterize the book which will provide about half the reading material: Recent Economic Changes. This is a two-volume work prepared by the National Bureau of Economic Research. It is the product of many minds. It is admittedly not perfect for our purposes; but it does present the most comprehensive and incisive picture available concerning American economic organization on the move. We present it as the best raw material for the purpose at hand. Supplementing this book various other materials appear in the outline of the course.

The outline does not follow the order of topics in Recent Economic Changes. A three-fold division of another sort is employed. First comes an analysis of a small number of important industries, in each case dealing with the industry’s technology, its business organization, and its leading problems and trends. This is for the purpose of providing specific materials for a concrete and realistic background. The classification by “industries”, rather than by topics which are common to all industries, is followed especially because the economic activities of everyday life are usually centered about some particular industry. Recent Economic Changesis not used in this section.

The second section deals with “industrial relationships”. Here we take leave of the boundaries between the specific industries such as steel and textiles, and begin to consider the institutions and practices which industries have in common, and which, taken together, provide consumers with goods and services. Included here are recent trends in industrial technology, transportation, marketing, labor, finance and especially the price system. Each of these topics is studies in its own terms and usually without confinement to any one industry. In this section the use of Recent Economic Changesas text prevails.

The third section deals with the income, the standards of living, and the consumption levels of the various groups of the population; and a consideration of desirable public policy toward the organization and conduct of industry. This study of policy will include not only some familiar current issues such as farm relief, tariff-making and trust policy, but also some larger questions of planned as against unplanned production. Here Recent Economic Changesassumes a somewhat subordinate place in the reading list.

The course centers about economic life as it is found in the United States today; but this does not imply a narrowly nationalistic viewpoint, or a total exclusion of international features of industrialism. These appear inevitably at various points and especially toward the latter part of the third section where planned and unplanned production are discussed with reference to the Russian five-year economic plan and the long-range economic program devised by the British Liberal Party, with reference as well to our own planning and control of industry during the emergency of the World War.

The fact that many or most of the topics listed are already familiar to college Juniors may cause the course to appear repetitive. Any annoyance on this score should be short-lived. The similarities in names of topics often conceal real differences. Since the course is built upon the foundations of the two-years’ study of “Contemporary Civilization”, a more concentrated and intense piece of study may be expected than would be if the extended survey had not already been made.

 

LIST OF REQUIRED READINGS

Recent Economic Changes in the United States.McGraw-Hill, 1929 (text).

Berglund, A. and Wright, P. G.: The Tariff on Iron and Steel. The Brookings Institution, Washington, 1929.

Black, J. D.: Agricultural Reform in the United States. McGraw-Hill, 1929.

Britain’s Industrial Future. Benn, 1928.

Chase, S., Dunn, R., and Tugwell, R.G.: Soviet Russia in the Second Decade. John Day, 1928.

Commons, J.R. and Andrews, J.B.: Principles of Labor Legislation(second edition). Harper, 1927. [First edition, 1920]

Ellingwood, A.R. and Coombs, W.: The Government and Labor. McGraw-Hill, 1926.

Foster, W.Z.: The Great Steel Strike and Its Lessons. Viking Press, 1920.

Garrett, P.W.: Government Control over Prices. (Price Bulletin No. 3, War Industries Board.) Government Printing Office, Washington, 1920.

Keezer, D.M. and May, S.: Public Control of Business. Harper, 1930.

Lewisohn, S.A., Draper, C.S., Commons, J.R., and Lescohier, D.D.: Can Business Prevent Unemployment?Knopf, 1925.

Page, T.W.: Making the Tariff in the United States. McGraw-Hill, 1924.

Seager, H.R. and Gulick, C.A., Jr.: Trust and Corporation Problems. Harper, 1929.

Stocking, G.W.: The Oil Industry and the Competitive System. Houghton Mifflin, 1925.

Tugwell, R.G.: Industry’s Coming of Age. Harcourt, Brace, 1927.

Tugwell, R.G., Munro, T., and Stryker, R.E.: American Economic Lifeand the Means of Its Improvement(third edition). Harcourt, Brace, 1930.

Warshow, H.T., Representative Industries in the United States. Holt, 1928.

ARTICLES

Hartl, E.M., and Ernst, E.G.: “The Steel Mills Today,” The New Republic, February 19, 1930

“Steel’s Empire is Restless.” The Business Week, February 12, 1930.

Tugwell, R.G.: “Farm Relief and a Permanent Agriculture,” Reprinted from The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1929.

Tugwell, R.G.: “Experimental Control in Russian Industry,” Reprinted from the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XLIII, No. 2, June 1929.

SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS

I. SOME IMPORTANT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES

    1. Preface to the course.
      Introduction to Section I.
    2. Berglund and Wright: The Tariff on Iron and Steel, 10-40, 75-103.
    3. Seager and Gulick: Trust and Corporation Problems, 216-242.
    4. Seager and Gulick, 243-262.
      “Steel’s Empire is Restless,” The Business Week, Feb. 12, 1930.
    5. W. Z. Foster: The Great Steel Strike, Introduction, 1-7, 16-27, 50-67, 162-175.
      Hartl and Ernst: “The Steel Mills Today,” The New Republic, Feb. 19, 1930.
    6. Reading to be assigned.
    7. Reading to be assigned.
    8. Reading to be assigned.
    9. G. W. Stocking: The Oil Industry and the Competitive System, 1-35.
    10. Stocking, 83-114.
    11. Stocking, 115-164.
    12. Stocking, 165-210.
    13. Stocking, 238-265, 303-314.
    14. H. T. Warshow: Representative Industries, 3-44.
    15. Warshow, 44-71.
    16. Meat Packing. Warshow, 440-469.

II. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONSHIPS

    1. Introduction to Section II.
      Changes in new and old industries. Recent Economic Changes, 79-95.
    2. Technical changes in manufacturing industries. Recent Economic Changes, 94-146.
    3. Technical Changes in manufacturing industries. Recent Economic Changes, 147-166.
    4. Suggested theories to account for increased productivity. R.G. Tugwell: Industry’s Coming of Age, 29-64.
    5. The changing structure of industry. Recent Economic Changes, 167-194.
    6. The changing structure of industry. Recent Economic Changes, 194-218.
    7. Recent Economic Changes, 425-462.
    8. Recent Economic Changes, 462-490.
    9. Proceedings, 1928 Convention of the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers.
    10. Excerpts from the Proceedings of the 1929 Special Convention of the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers (see Appendix).
    11. Transportation: railways. Recent Economic Changes, 255-279.
    12. Transportation: railways. Recent Economic Changes, 279-308.
    13. Transportation: shipping. Recent Economic Changes, 309-319.
    14. Recent Economic Changes, 321-343.
    15. Recent Economic Changes, 343-374.
    16. Recent Economic Changes, 374-402.
    17. Recent Economic Changes, 402-421.
    18. Money and credit and their effect on business. Recent Economic Changes, 657-679.
    19. Money and credit and their effect on business. Recent Economic Changes, 680-707.
    20. Foreign markets and foreign credits. Recent Economic Changes, 709-725.
    21. Foreign markets and foreign credits. Recent Economic Changes, 725-756.
    22. The system of prices. Tugwell, Munro, and Stryker: American Economic Life (third edition), 368-378.
      Excerpt from W. C. Mitchell: Business Cycles, the Problem and its Setting (see Appendix).
    23. Price movements and related industrial changes. Recent Economic Changes, 602-623.
    24. Price movements and related industrial changes. Recent Economic Changes, 623-655.

III. THE FRUITS OF INDUSTRY AND SOCIAL POLICY

    1. Introduction to Section III.
      Consumption and the standard of living. Recent Economic Changes, 13-51.
    2. Consumption and the standard of living. Recent Economic Changes, 51-78.
    3. The national income and its distribution. Recent Economic Changes, 757-774.
    4. The national income and its distribution. Recent Economic Changes, 774-813.
    5. The national income and its distribution. Recent Economic Changes, 813-839.
    6. Farm relief policy. J.D. Black: Agricultural Reform in the United States, 232-270.
    7. Farm relief policy. Black, 321-366.
    8. Farm relief policy. Black, 368-405.
    9. Farm relief policy. R.G. Tugwell: “Farm Relief and a Permanent Agriculture,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1929.
    10. Tariff policy. T. W. Page: Making the Tariff in the United States, 41-99.
    11. Tariff policy. Page, 100-170.
    12. Tariff policy. Page, 171-239.
    13. Social legislation. Commons and Andrews: Principles of Labor Legislation, 1-34.
      Ellingwood and Coombs: The Government and Labor, 20-26.
    14. Social legislation. Ellingwood and Coombs, 443-450, 461-467.
      Reprint of Lochner vs. New York (see Appendix).
    15. Social legislation. Ellingwood and Coombs, 559-579, 516-537.
    16. Social legislation. Lewisohn, Draper, Commons, and Lescohier: Can Business Prevent Unemployment? 152-210.
    17. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May: Public Control of Business, 40-84.
    18. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May, 85-120.
    19. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May, 121-148.
    20. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May, 149-183.
    21. Public policy toward large businesses. Keezer and May, 184-229.
    22. Planned production in Russia. Chase, Dunn, and Tugwell: Soviet Russia in the Second Decade, 14-54.
    23. Planned production in Russia. Chase, Dunn, and Tugwell, 189-215, 55-66.
    24. Planned production in Russia. R.G. Tugwell: “Experimental Control in Russian Industry,” Political Science Quarterly, June 1929.
    25. Planned production in Great Britain. Britain’s Industrial Future, the report of the Liberal Industrial Inquiry, v-vii, xvii-xxiv, 3, 14-20, 61-92, 116-120.
    26. Planned production in Great Britain. Britain’s Industrial Future, 139-141, 205-225, 265-279, 341-366.
    27. War-time planning and control in the United States. Excerpt from American Industry in the War (see Appendix).
      W. Garrett: Government Control Over Prices, 23-39.
    28. War-time planning and control. Garrett, 40-87.
    29. War-time planning and control. Garrett, 151-194.
    30. War-time planning and control. Garrett, 195-244.
    31. War-time planning and control. Garrett, 350-360, 380-414.
    32. A review of recent economic changes. Recent Economic Changes, 841-874.
    33. A review of recent economic changes. Recent Economic Changes, 874-910.

Source: Copy of The Organization of Economic Affairs–A Syllabus (1930) at the New York Public Library.

Image Source: The New York City Public Library Reading Room. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Theory of Distribution. Readings and exam questions. Metzler, 1961-64

 

In the early 1960s Lloyd A. Metzler taught a course at the University of Chicago that offered a mélange of production, capital, fiscal, growth and international trade theories as a/the “theory of distribution”. It is fascinating to see these very different theoretical streams converging on the topic of distribution. 

_________________________

ECONOMICS 302
Reading List—Spring, 1961

THEORY OF DISTRIBUTION
L. A. Metzler

Principal Topics and Suggested Reading

I. Production Functions and Income Distribution

Paul H. Douglas, “Are There Laws of Production?” American Economic Review, XXXVIII, No. 1, March 1948.

D. Gale Johnson, “The Functional Distribution of Income in the United States, 1850-1952,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, XXXVI, No. 2, May 1954.

Solomon Fabricant, Basic Facts on Productivity Change, Occasional Paper No. 63, National Bureau of Economic Research.

II. Capital and the Concept of Income

Knut Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. I, Part II.

Frank H. Knight, “The Quantity of Capital and the Rate of Interest,” Part 1, Journal of Political Economy, August, 1936, Part 2, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1936.

T. W. Schultz, “Investment in Human Beings Capital,” American Economic Review, March 1961.

Irving Fisher, The Theory of Interest (1906), reprinted by Kelley and Millman, New York, 1954.

III. Investment and Economic Growth

Evsey Domar, Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth, New York, Oxford University Press, 1957, Chapter 1.

Walter W. Rostow, The Process of Economic Growth, New York, 1952.

Trygve Haavelmo, A Study in the Theory of Investment, University of Chicago Press.

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Chapters 11-14.

A. P. Lerner, “On the Marginal Product of Capital and the Marginal Efficiency of Investment,” Journal of Political Economy, February, 1953.

James Tobin, “A Dynamic Aggregative Model,” Journal of Political Economy, April, 1955.

IV. The Economic Consequences of Public Debt

James Buchanan, Public Principles of Public Debt, Irwin, 1958.

Lloyd A. Metzler, “Wealth, Saving and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, April, 1951.

Robert A. Mundell, “The Public Debt, Corporate Income Taxes, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, December, 1960.

J. R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the ‘Classics’: A Suggested Interpretation,” Econometrica, Vol. V, April 1937.

IV. International Trade and the Distribution of Income

Bertil Ohlin, Interregional and International Trade, Harvard University.

Wolfgang Stolper and Paul Samuelson, “Protection and Real Wages,” Review of Economic Studies, IX (1941), 58-73.

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter 7.

_________________________

ECONOMICS 302
Reading List—Spring, 1963
[same for Spring, 1964]

THEORY OF DISTRIBUTION
L. A. Metzler

I. Production Functions and Income Distribution

Paul H. Douglas, “Are There Laws of Production?” American Economic Review, XXXVIII, No. 1 (March, 1948).

D. Gale Johnson, “The Functional Distribution of Income in the United States, 1850-1952,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, XXXVI, No. 2 (May, 1954).

Solomon Fabricant, Basic Facts on Productivity Change, Occasional Paper No. 63, National Bureau of Economic Research.

Marvin Frankel, “The Production Function: Allocation and Growth,” American Economic Review, LII, No. 5 (December, 1962).

Kenneth Arrow, Hollis B. Chenery, Nigicha Minhas, and Robert M. Solow, “Capital-Labor Substitution and Economic Efficiency,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XLII, No 3 (August, 1961).

R. M. Solow, “A Skeptical Note on the Constancy of Relative Shares,” American Economic Review, XLVIII (1958).

II. Income, Interest, and the Concept of Capital

Knut Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. I, Part II.

Frank H. Knight, “The Quantity of Capital and the Rate of Interest,” Part I, Journal of Political Economy (August, 1936), Part II, Journal of Political Economy (Oct., 1936).

T. W. Schultz, “Investment in Human Capital,” American Economic Review (March, 1961).

Irving Fisher, The Theory of Interest (1906), reprinted by Kelley and Millman, New York, 1954.

David Meiselman, The Term Structure of Interest Rates, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962.

[Handwritten addition:] J. A. G. Grant, “Meiselman on the Structure of Interest Rates: A British Test,” Economica, New Series, Vol. XXXI, No. 121, Feb. 1964.

Friedrich A. Lutz, “The Structure of Interest Rates,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1940-41. Reprinted in American Economic Association, Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution (eds.) William Fellner and Bernard Haley.

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, Oxford at the Clarendon Press (2d ed.), Parts III and IV.

Lloyd A. Metzler, “Wealth, Saving and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, LIX, No. 2 (April, 1951).

Robert A. Mundell, “The Public Debt, Corporate Income Taxes, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, LXVIII (December, 1960).

III. Production Functions, Innovations and Economic Growth

Evsey Domar, Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth, New York: Oxford University Press, 1957, Chapter 1.

Walter W. Rostow, The Process of Economic Growth, New York, 1952.

Trygve Haavelmo, A Study in the Theory of Investment, University of Chicago Press.

Hirofumi Uzawa, “On a Two-Sector Model of Economic Growth,” Review of Economic Studies, XXIX, No. 1 (1962).

T. W. Swan, “Economic Growth and Capital Accumulation,” Economic Record, XXXII (1956).

James Tobin, “A Dynamic Aggregative Model,” Journal of Political Economy (April, 1955).

IV. International Trade and the Distribution of Income

Wolfgang Stolper and Paul Samuelson, “Protection and Real Wages,” Review of Economic Studies, IX (1941).

Paul Samuelson, “International Trade and the Equalization of Factor Prices,” Economic Journal, LVIII (1948).

Paul Samuelson, “International Factor Price Equalization Once Again,” Economic Journal, LIX (1949).

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Lloyd A. Metzler, Box 9, Folder “Reading Lists 300A+B—302”.

_________________________

Economics 302
FINAL EXAMINATION
Spring Quarter, 1963

Lloyd A. Metzler
June 4, 1963

Answer all questions:

  1. Give the formula for the Cobb-Douglas production function and prove its implications with respect to the following:
    1. The effects of a uniform increase in capital and labor upon relative and absolute wages and interest rates on the assumption that competitive conditions exist in both the factor markets and the commodities markets.
    2. The effect of a rise in the ratio of capital to labor upon relative and absolute wages, and interest rates again on the assumption of competitive conditions.
  2. Answer the same questions for the C.E.S. production function.
    1. State what is meant by a production function which is homogeneous of the first degree.
    2. Show that if a production function possesses this type of homogeneity, the output per worker depends entirely upon the ratio of capital to labor, and not at all upon the scale of production.
    3. Prove that the Cobb-Douglas production function and the C.E.S. function are both homogeneous of the first degree.
  4. The U. S. Treasury wants to reduce the long-term interest rate so as to encourage investment and at the same time increase the short-term rate so as to prevent short-term capital outflows. For this purpose it has been shortening the term structures of the federal debt. That is, the treasury has been purchasing its long-term bonds and issuing short-term bonds as a substitute.
    1. Show how such an operation might be expected to achieve the desired results.
    2. In view of the expectations hypothesis investigated by David Meiselman, would you expect such an operation to achieve its purpose? Explain carefully.
    1. Distinguish between the expectations hypothesis concerning the term structure of interest rates and the liquidity preference hypothesis and show what each implies with respect to the term structure of interest rates.
    2. Which hypothesis does the historical evidence seem to support?
    3. Is there any way of reconciling the two views?
    1. Given the yield on long-term bonds, R1, R2,…, Rn, show how a series of expected forward rates for one-year bonds r1, r2, r3,…, beginning in years 1, 2, 3, can be derived from the yield table on long term bonds. What operations would a bond holder need to undertake in order to be sure that he would receive these expected forward rates in spite of changes in bond prices?
    2. Derive the formula for the yield of a three-year forward bond, with interest rates applicable at the end of the third year, and show again, how a bondholder can realize this yield through operations in the bond market, regardless of fluctuations in bond prices.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Lloyd A. Metzler, Box 9, Folder “Exams 302”.

_________________________

ECONOMICS 302
COURSE EXAMINATION — SPRING, 1964

Lloyd A. Metzler
June 9, 1964
1:30—3:30

ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS

  1. In the theory of distribution, it is usual to assume that the production function for output as a whole is homogeneous of the first degree.
    1. What is the meaning of a homogeneous production function?
    2. Show that homogeneity implies that commodities are produced at constant cost.
    3. Show that if the production function is homogeneous of the first degree and all factors of production are paid according to the value of their marginal products, the total amount paid will be exactly equal to the total return.
    4. Is it necessary to have homogeneous production functions to prove this proposition? Why, or why not?
    1. Define “elasticity of substitution” and show what bearing it has on the distribution of income.
    2. The following is a table indicating indexes of units of capital k and the price of capital, pk, as well as the units of workers, w, and the price of workers, pw.
P Price of workers
(pw)		 Units of workers
(w)		 Price of capital
(pk)		 Units of capital
(k)
Period I 1.00 200 2.00 100
Period II 2.00 250 1.00 500

Does this table give any indication as to the elasticity of substitution? Why, or why not?

    1. Define the Cobb-Douglas production function and the C.E.S. production function and show that: Cobb-Douglas production function is homogeneous of the first degree with an elasticity of substitution equal to unity.
    2. Show that the C.E.S. production function is homogeneous of the first degree.
    3. Show that, when \rho approaches zero the C.E.S. production function has an elasticity of substitution equal to unity.
    1. Define and evaluate the capital theories of the following economists:
      (1) T. W. Schultz
      (2) Irving Fisher
      (3) Knut Wicksell
      (4) F. H. Knight
    2. What are Knight’s objections to the notion of a period of production? Why does he believe there are no diminishing returns to the accumulation of capital?
    1. Derive the Harrod-Domar concept of a balanced state of growth, and show why it is inherently unstable.
    2. How is the concept of balanced growth related to Keynes’ theory of employment?
    1. Discuss the following theories of interest, and show how they are related to the term structure of interest rates.
      (1) Liquidity preference.
      (2) Expectations.
      (3) Constitutional weakness in the futures market.
    2. Does a downward-sloping term-to-maturity structure of interest rates conflict with the liquidity-preference theory? Why, or why not?
    3. Assuming that the interest rates for bonds of various maturities are as follows:
      year bonds R1
      2. year bonds R2
      3. year bonds R3
      4. year bonds R4
      5. year bonds R5
      6. year bonds R6
      7. year bonds R7
      8. year bonds R8
      Show how the implicit forward rates for short-term one year bonds r1, r2, r3, r4, r5, r6, r7, r8can be computed from the actual market yields, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8.
    4. Assuming that the market rates are R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, you are asked to derive the rate for a 3 year bond beginning in year 6 and show what market transactions the typical bondholder would have to make to insure that he actually received the interest rate implicit in this formula.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Lloyd A. Metzler, Box 9, Folder “Exams 302”.

Source Image: Posting by Margie Metzler on the Metzler Family Tree at the genealogical website, ancestry.com.

Categories
Economists M.I.T. Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. Reading list on theory of central planning. Weitzman, 1977

 

 

This morning I learned from Twitter that two days ago (August 27, 2019) my second thesis adviser, Marty Weitzman had died. While I was never personally close to him, he played an enormous role in my development as an economist and I am saddened by this news. What I particularly admired in Weitzman was the fact that his formal mathematical modelling was never far from his profound economic intuition with respect to the problems he addressed. He was not a great teacher in the way Bob Solow and Stan Fischer were great. But he was able to transmit a sense of the importance of what he was teaching as well as bringing a contagious enthusiasm into the classroom. Marty Weitzman was economic theory à la M.I.T. made flesh. Today, in his memory, I have transcribed an old mimeographed list of suggested readings for his course on the economic theory of central planning.

Course materials from Martin Weitzman’s half-semester core course in microeconomic theory from 1973 and 1974 at M.I.T. have been posted earlier:

Course outline from 1974.
Final exam from 1974.
Final exam from 1973.

____________________

Martin Weitzman’s Werke

Martin L. Weitzman’s c.v. (from October 2018)

Links to most (all?) of Weitzman’s papers at the Wayback Machine archived webpage.

____________________

14.783 THEORY OF CENTRAL PLANNING
Spring 1977
M. L. Weitzman

Reading List of Suggested References

  1. Theoretical Background (Convexity, Programming, Efficiency Prices)

Koopmans, T. C., Essay I in Three Essays on the State of Economic Science.

Baumol, W. J., Economic Theory and Operations Analysis, 3rd ed., chapters 5-8, 12, 20, 21.

Manne, A. S., Economic Analysis for Business Decisions, chapters 2, 3.

Bator, F., “The Simple Analytics of Welfare Economics”, AER, March 1957.

Intriligator, M. D., Mathematical Optimization and Economic Theory.

Dorfman, R., Samuelson, P.A., and Solow, R. M., Linear Programming and Economic Analysis, chapters 6-8.

Kantorovich, L. V., The Best Use of Economic Resources, Harvard, 1965.

Kornai, J., Mathematical Planning of Structural Decisions, Part 1, chapters 1-4.

Dantzig, G. B., Linear Programming and Extensions, chapters 3, 12.

Gale, D., The Theory of Linear Economic Models.

Malinvaud, E., Lectures on Microeconomic Theory, chapters 1, 3,4,5.

  1. General Discussion of Planning Problems

Hayek, F. A., “The Price System as a Mechanism for Using Knowledge”, in Bornstein (ed.), Comparative Economic Systems: Models and Cases.

Lange, O., “On the Economic Theory of Socialism”, in Bornstein (ed.), Comparative Economic Systems: Models and Cases.

Hurwicz, L., “The Design of Mechanisms for Resource Allocation”, AER, May 1973.

Heal, G. M., The Theory of Economic Planning, chapters 1, 2.

Kornai, J., Anti-Equilibrium, chapters 23, 24.

Hurwicz, L., “Conditions for Economic Efficiency of Centralized and Decentralized Structures”, in G. Grossman (ed.), Value and Plan.

Krouse, C., “Complex Objectives, Decentralization, and the Decision Process of Organizations”, ASQ (vol. 17).

Arrow, K. J., “Control in Large Organizations”, Management Science, April 1964.

Masse, P., “The French Plan and Economic Theory”, Econometrica, April 1965.

Kornai, J., Mathematical Planning of Structural Decisions, chapters 22-27.

Kornai, J., “Thoughts on Multi-Level Planning Systems”, in Goreux and Manne (eds.), Multi-Level Planning: Case Studies in Mexico.

  1. Multi-Level Planning Algorithms

Malinvaud, E., “Decentralized Procedures for Planning”, in Malinvaud (ed.), Activity Analysis in the Theory of Growth and Planning.

Arrow, K. J. and Hurwicz, L., “Decentralization and Computation in Resource Allocation”, in Pfouts (ed.), Essays in Economics and Econometrics.

Malinvaud, E., Lectures in Microeconomic Theory, chapter 8.

Heal, G., “Planning Without Prices”, REStud, 36, 1969, pp. 347-362.

Weitzman, M. L., Toward a Theory of Iterative Economic Planning, Part I, MIT Ph.D. Thesis, June 1967.

Dantzig, G. B., Linear Programming and Extensions, chapters 23, 25. (Decomposition and Uncertainty).

Baumol, W. J., and Fabian, T., “Decomposition Pricing for Decentralization and External Economies”, Management Science, September 1964.

Kornai, J., “Mathematical Programming and Long Term Plans in Hungary”, in Malinvaud (ed.), Activity Analysis in the Theory of Growth and Planning.

Weitzman, M. L., “Iterative Multilevel Planning with Production Targets”, Econometrica, January 1970.

Kornai, J., “Multi-Level Programming: A First Report on the Model and on the Experimental Calculations”, European Economic Review, Fall 1969.

Heal, G. M., The Theory of Economic Planning, chapters 3-9.

  1. Prices vs. Quantities

Koopmans, T. C., “Uses of Prices”, pp. 243-257 in Scientific Papers of Tjalling C. Koopmans.

Kornai, J., Anti-Equilibrium, chapter 3 (“The Basic Concepts of General Equilibrium Theory”).

Marglin, S., “Information in Price and Command Systems of Planning”, in Margolis (ed.), Conference on the Analysis of the Public Sector, Biarritz, Switzerland [sic], 1966.

Whinston, A., “Price Guides in Decentralized Organizations,”, in Cooper et. al. (eds.), New Perspectives in Organization Research.

Solow, R. M., “The Economist’s Approach to Pollution and its Control”, Science, August, 1971.

Ruff, L. E., “The Economic Common Sense of Pollution”, The Public Interest, Spring 1970.

Weitzman, M. L., “Prices vs. Quantities”, REStud, 1974 (copies on reserve).

  1. Organization, Revelation, and Control

Arrow, K. J., The Limits of Organization.

Marschak, J. and Radner, R., Economic Theory of Teams. (Just scan to get basic ideas.)

Weitzman, M. L., “Optimal Revenue Functions for Economic Regulation”, copies on reserve. [published in AER, September 1973]

Kwerel, E. R., “To Tell the Truth: Imperfect Information and Optimal Pollution Control”, copies on reserve. [published in REStud, 1977]

Groves, T., “On the Possibility of Effective Collective Choice with Compensation”, on reserve.

Weitzman, M., “The New Soviet Incentive Model”, Bell Journal, Spring 1976.

  1. Input-Output Theory and the Non-Substitution Theorem

Gale, D., The Theory of Linear Economic Models, chapter 9, sections 1-3.

Dorfman, R., P. A. Samuelson, and R. M. Solow, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis, chapters 9, 10.

Chenery, H. B. and P. G. Clark, Interindustry Economics.

Kornai, J., Mathematical Planning of Structural Decisions, chapter 3.

Brody, A., Proportions, Prices and Planning, section 3.2. (Thoughts on Planning).

Weitzman, M. L., “On Choosing an Optimal Technology”, Management Science, January 1967.

Manove, M., “Soviet Pricing, Profits, and Technological Change”, Review of Economic Studies (copies on reserve).

  1. Materials Balancing

Montias, J. M., Planning with Material Balances in Soviet-Type Economies”, AER, December 1959.

Levine, H. S., “The Centralized Planning of Supply in Soviet Industry”, reprinted in Holtzman (ed.), Readings in the Soviet Economy, or Bornstein and Fusfeld (eds.), The Soviet Economy: A Book of Readings.

Montias, J. M., “On the Consistency and Efficiency of Central Plans”, REStud, October 1962.

Sherman, H. J., The Soviet Economy, chapter 6 and pp. 247-256.

Manove, M., “A Model of Soviet-Type Planning”, AER, June 1971.

  1. Pressure, Rationing, and Inventories

Levine, H. S., “Pressure and Planning in the Soviet Economy”, in Rosovsky (ed.), Industrialization in Two Systems.

Hunter, H., “Optimum Tautness in Developmental Planning”, Economic Development and Cultural Change, July 1961.

Dolan, E. G., “The Teleological Period in Soviet Economic Planning”, Yale Economic Essays, Spring 1970.

Weitzman, M. L., “Materials Balances Under Uncertainty”, QJE, May 1971.

Manove, M., “A Theory of Non-Price Rationing of Intermediate Goods with Reference to Soviet-Type Economies”, Econometrica, September 1973.

Powell, R. P., “Plan Execution and the Workability of Soviet Planning”, Journal of Comparative Economics, vol. 1, no. 1, 1977.

Keren, M., “On the Tautness of Plans”, REStud, October 1972.

  1. Economic Planning with Non-Convexities

Dantzig, G. B., “On the Significance of Solving Linear Programming Problems with some Integer Variables”, sections 26-33 in Linear Programming and Extensions.

Baumol, W. J., Economic Theory and Operations Research, 3rd ed., chapter 8.

Chenery, H. B., “The Interdependence of Investment Decisions”, in Abramovitz (ed.), The Allocation of Economic Resources.

Vietorisz, T., “Decentralization and Project Evaluation under Economies of Scale and Indivisibilities”, United Nations, Industrialization and Productivity Bulletin No. 12 [1968].

Davis, R. E., D. A. Kendrick, and M. Weitzman, “A Branch and Bound Algorithm for Zero-One Mixed Integer Programming Problems”, Operations Research, July-August 1971.

Manne, A., Investments for Capacity Expansion, MIT Press, 1967.

Weitzman, M. L., “The Optimal Development of Resource Pools”, JET, June 1976.

Chenery, H. B. and Westphal, L., “Economies of Scale and Investment Over Time”, in Margolis and Guitton (eds.), Public Economics.

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Image Source: Martin Weitzman’s Harvard webpage (archived May 29, 2014).

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Syllabus for Economic History Module in Principles Course. Ashley, 1896.

 

For several years at the end of the 19th century Harvard’s introductory course in economics consisted of a two semester sequence. The fall semester was dedicated to theoretical Principles of Economics à la John Stuart Mill followed by the spring semester that covered specific topics, e.g. economic history, social policy, monetary arrangements.

The economic history module was taught by Professor William J. Ashley and ran for five weeks. The material was tested once in a one-hour mid-term exam and then again in the course final examination (students were to answer at least one of four questions in Group II below).

I have only found a complete set of syllabus, reading assignments, and exam questions for Ashley’s module. In the next post, you will find all the course exams for 1895-96 that were pasted into Frank Taussig’s personal scrapbook of exams for all the courses he taught during his long Harvard career.

_________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors Taussig and Ashley, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, and Dr. John Cummings. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation.

Total 338: 3 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 91 Juniors, 161 Sophomores, 8 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1895-96, p. 63.

_________________

Economic History Module
William J. Ashley

ECONOMICS 1.
LECTURES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Weekly Syllabus 1.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 2-5. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapters 1 and 2, and Appendix pp. 169-182. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 1-13.

N.B. 1. The prescribed reading for the whole period covered by this set of lectures will deal with same general topics as will be considered in the lectures. But it will not be possible to make the reading of each week exactly parallel, in every case, with the lectures of that week.
2. There will be a question set every Friday, and 15 minutes allowed for answering it, on some subject suggested by the reading and lectures of that week.

  1. The Historical Movement of the 19th Century.
    Its causes:

    1. The “Romantic” Reaction against the 18th century “Enlightenment.”
    2. Evolutionary Philosophy—Hegel, Comte, Spencer.
    3. Evolutionary Biology—Darwin.
    4. Anthropology—Tylor.

Its intellectual effects:

    1. Interest in the Middle Ages.
    2. Sense of Continuity—“Uniformitarianism.”
    3. Sense of Relativity.
    4. Changed conception of the relation of the Present to the Past and the Future.
  1. Influence of the Historical Movement on other studies:
    1. On Law—Savigny, Maine.
    2. On Theology—“The Higher Criticism.”
    3. On Economics.
      The older and newer Historical Schools of Economists—Roscher, Schmoller.
  1. Value of Economic History:
    1. For its own sake.
    2. For a right estimate of modern economic theory.
    3. For insight into modern economic facts.

Provisional use of the conceptions of “Stages.”

Preliminary consideration of certain attempts to group all the phenonomena of economic history under a single formula:

    1. Friedrich List. The Five Stages in the development of the peoples of the temperate zone.
    2. Bruno Hildebrand. Naturalwirthschaft, Geldwirthschaft, Creditwirthschaft.

Weekly Syllabus 2.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 6-7. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapter 3, and Appendix pp. 183-190. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 13-43.

Preliminary consideration of current generalisations concerning the development of particular sides of economic life:

Agriculture—

Extensive:

    1. Shifting Tillage (Wildfeldgraswirtschaft)

Intensive:

    1. Open Field System (Three field system, Dreifelderwirthschaft).
    2. Convertible Husbandry (Feldgraswirthschaft).
    3. Rotation of Crops (Fruchtwechselwirtschaft).

Industry  (Manufacture)—

    1. The Family System (Familienindustrie, Hausfleiss).
    2. The Gild System (Handwerk).
      1. Wage-work.
      2. Work for sale.
    3. The Domestic System (Hausindustrie, Verlags-system.)
      1. Domestic system proper.
      2. Wage-work.
    4. The Factory System
      With and without machinery.

Weekly Syllabus 3.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 8-10. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapter 4, and Appendix pp. 190-207. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 43-57.

Preliminary consideration of current generalisations of the anthropologists concerning prehistoric development:

Property—

Tribal Ownership and Family Ownership.
Individual Ownership of Movables.
Individual Ownership of Land.

Theories of Early Agrarian Communism.—Recent Discussions.

Progress of the Arts of Subsistence(Morgan) —

Savagery —

Older period—Fruits and Roots.
Middle period—Fish and Fire.
Later period—Game and the Bow.

Barbarism —

Older period—Pottery.
Middle period—Pastoral Life.
Later period—Iron and Agriculture.

Civilisation —

Sketch of the Economic Development of the European Peoples since the Early Middle Ages.

Reasons for this limitation.

  1. Period of Village or Manorial Economy.
    1. Sketch of Manorial System:

Lord and Serfs.
Demesne and Land in Villenage.
Open Fields.
Week-work and Boon-Days.

  1. Economic Characteristics:

“Natural-economy.”
Self-sufficiency.
Stability.

Relative absence of conditions usually assumed by modern economists.

Weekly Syllabus 4.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Preliminary Remarks. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapters 5 and 6. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 57-91.

Interacting phenomena: (1) Commutation of Services, (2) The Rise of Markets.
Appearance of town life in the midst of conditions still predominantly agricultural.

  1. Period of Town Dominance.
    1. The Town Economy:

The Town Market: The Gild Merchant.
The Town Industry: The Craft Gilds.
Subordination of the Country Districts.

    1. The Beginnings of Modern Economic Conditions:

Wage-labor.
Capital.
Profit.

[Then followed in Germany a Period of Territorial Economy.
Its characteristics.
Question whether such a period is distinctly marked in France or England.]

 

  1. Period of National Economy.

Strong central governments.
The spirit of Nationality.
Mercantilism, its Origin, Purpose and Methods.

A. National Economy and Domestic Industries

    1. The new influence of Capital:

On Industry.
On Agriculture.

    1. The action of the State:

Control of Commerce.
Encouragement of Manufactures.
Industrial Legislation.

Weekly Syllabus 5.

Prescribed Reading for the previous month, to be revised: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Preliminary Remarks and Bk. II, chs. 1-10. R. Jones, Peasant Rents. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System.

  1. Period of National Economy.

B. National Economy and the Factory System.

    1. Necessary Characteristics of the Factory System.
    2. The World-Market, and Fluctuations of Trade.
    3. Break-up of the Old Industrial Organisation; due to (a) changed conditions, (b) the influence of ideas of natural liberty.
    4. The Age of Individualism, and Industrial Freedom.

Question whether the beginnings may be discerned of a Period of International or World Economy.

Note: The various recent movements towards the reconstruction of a stable industrial organization, and the solution thereby of the “Labor Question,” will be the subjects of the lectures during the following weeks by Professor Cummings.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 1, Folder “1895-1896”.

_________________

1895-96.

ECONOMICS 1.
[W.J.A., Hour Examination. March 13, 1896]

Please write on three questions only.

  1. Mill remarks in his Autobiographythat the distinction between the laws of the production and those of the distribution of wealth was the most important contribution he made to Political Economy. Explain this.
  2. What does Jones mean by the division of Rents into Peasant and Farmer’s Rents?
  3. Give a brief account of the stages of industrial
  4. Draw a parallel between the town policy of the 15thcentury and the national policy of the 18th.
  5. Was Frederick the Great justified in his attempt to introduce the silk manufacture into Prussia?

    _________________

1895-96.

ECONOMICS 1.
[Final Examination]

[Answer ten questions. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Group I.
[At least one.]

  1. Explain the meaning of two of the following terms, — margin of cultivation; wages of superintendence; rapidity of circulation (as to money).
  2. Do profits constitute a return different from interest?
  3. Explain what is meant by the law, or equation, of demand and supply; and in what manner it applies to commodities susceptible of indefinite multiplication without increase of cost.
  4. In what manner does a country gain from the division of labor in its domestic trade? In what manner from international trade?

Group II.
[At least one.]

  1. Does it fall within the province of the economist to discuss the institution of private property?
  2. Show the connection between the industrial development of the present century, and the discussion among economists as to the functions of the entrepreneur.
  3. Consider in what manner prices, or rents, [choose one] are differently determined according as they are under the influence of custom or of competition.
  4. “The idea that economic life has ever been a progress mainly dependent on individual action is mistaken with regard to all stages of civilization, and in some respects it is more mistaken the farther we go back.” Explain and criticize.

Group III.
[At least one.]

  1. If cooperation were universally adopted, what would be left of the wages system?
  2. Is there anything in what you learned as to the laws governing wages, which the action of the English trade-unions in regard to wages has disregarded?
  3. Has the course of events justified Mill’s expectations in regard to the development of profit-sharing and of cooperation? Explain why, or why not.
  4. Describe the trade and benefit features of the English trade-unions.

Group IV.
[At least three.]

  1. Is the present position of the Treasury of the United States in any respect essentially similar to that of the Issue Department of the Bank of England? In any respect essentially dissimilar?
  2. What is the test of over-issue, as to inconvertible paper money? What light does the experience of the United States and of France throw on the probability of over-issue?
  3. Arrange in their proper order the following items in a bank account:—
Capital 100,000 Bonds and Stocks 75,000
Specie 150,000 Surplus 50,000
Notes 100,000 Other Assets 50,000
Loans 400,000 Other Liabilities 60,000
Expenses 25,000 Undivided Profits 40,000
Deposits 350,000

Could this bank be a national bank of the United States? If such a bank, how would the account stand?

  1. Compare the policy of the Bank of England in times of financial crisis with the policy of the Associated Banks of New York; and give an opinion as to which is the more effective in allaying panic.

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935 [of] Prof F.W. Taussig (HUC 7882), p. 53.

 

Image Source: Entry for William James Ashley in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), p. 595.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Sociology Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Sociology. Syllabus, reading assignments, final exam. Carver and Joslyn, 1927-28

 

This post has two functions: it adds to the syllabi for sociology taught at Harvard previously transcribed:  

Economics 3. Thomas Nixon Carver and William Z. Ripley, 1902
Economics 8. Thomas Nixon Carver, 1917-18.

It also serves as a meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus from Harvard post. The 1927-28 offering of Economics 8 was co-taught by Professor Carver and his sociology graduate student, Carl Smith Joslyn.

Carl Smith Joslyn (b. 20 Aug 1899 in Springfield, MA.; d. 23 Dec 1986 in Worthington, MA) went to Central High School in Springfield. At Harvard he received the Class of 1844 Scholarship (1919-1920). He went on to chair the sociology department at the University of Maryland, during which time he hired young C. Wright Mills.

________________

Carl Smith Joslyn
Harvard Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.

Carl Smith Joslyn, A.B. 1920
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Social Origins of American Business Leaders.” Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, and Tutor in Sociology and Social Ethics, Harvard University.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1929-30. Page 120.

________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8a1hf. Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver and Mr. [Carl Smith] Joslyn.— Principles of Sociology

Total 79: 7 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 36 Juniors, 2 Sophomores 11 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1927-28. Page 74.

________________

8. Principles of Sociology

[This is for 1928-29, virtually identical to 1924-25 description]

Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12.
Professor Carver and Mr. Joslyn

A study of human adaptation. Progress defined as adaptation. In what does progress consist, how may it be verified, what are the factors that promote or hinder it? The biological as well as the psychological, moral, economic, and political factors are studied. Attention is given to problems of moral adjustment and readjustment, of active control of the environmental factors, of economizing human energy and of social control.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1928-29.  Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 68.

________________

Economics 8

I.
Introduction

  1. The Nature, Scope, and Method of Sociology

A study of purposeful human association.
Relation to Linguistics, Psychology, Jurisprudence, Ethics, Politics, Economics.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 1-14; 65-79.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, ch. 1.

  1. The Evolutionary Concept in Sociology:
    (1) Continuity; (2) Change; (3) Differentiation; (4) Fixation.

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Pt. I, ch. 1. Pt. II, chs. 1-4.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 29-40; 123-149.

  1. The Mechanism of Organic and Super-organic (Social) Evolution Compared.
    (1) Variation. (a) spontaneous or artificially produced; (b) minute or extreme.
    (2) Selection. (a) Natural. (b) social.

Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 55-79.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 276-299.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 42-56.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 1-27.

  1. The Origin and Development of Human Society.
    Survival value of (a) associated effort; (b) social inclination.

Giddings, Principles of Sociology, pp. 199-229; 256-323.
Dealey and Ward, Textbook of Sociology, Ch. I.

  1. The Nature and Conditions of Social Progress. Progress considered as the adaptation of the organism, man, to his environment: the method of adaptation being (a) Passive, or (b) active; the character of the environment being (a) physical, or (b) social.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 19-41; 73-103.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 88-120.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, Preface and Introduction.

  1. The Limits of Social Progress: A mutual fitting together or balancebetween the passive and the active forms of adaptation.
    (1) on the physical side, (a) such modifications as will enable it to live healthfully in the modified physical environment, (b) such improvements of the physical environment as will so fit the modified human organism as to enable it to live healthfully.
    (2) on the moral side; (a) such modifications of the intellectual and moral nature of man as will cause individuals to react favorably to such stimuli as can be brought to bear upon them by an improved system of social control: (b) such improvements in the system of social control as will secure favorable responses from the improved intellectual and moral nature of man.

Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 221-304.

II.
A. Passive physical adaptation.

  1. Race and Environment as Factors in Social Progress.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 174-243; 498-500; 631-636.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 105-120.

  1. The Stability of the Racial Factor in Historic Time: the Inheritance of Acquired Characters.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 362-368.
Popenoe & Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 25-74; 99-115; 402-423.

  1. The Displacement of Natural Selection by Social Selection and its Consequences:
    (a) the Differential Birth-rate; (b) Philanthropy; (c) The Punishment of Criminals; (d) Military Selection.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 392-409; 647-653; 676-696.
Popenoe and Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 116-146.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 386-413.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 92-102.

  1. The Correlation of Ability and Social Status; Nature and Nurture in Social Stratification. Tests of Ability; (a) economic. (b) psychological.

Popenoe & Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 1-24; 75-98.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 326-361; 369-385.

  1. The Qualitative Control of Population; Eugenic and Dysgenic Factors in Modern Society.

Popenoe and Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 176-279.

  1. The Increase of Population in Modern Times:
    a) General, (b) local, (c) occupational.

East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 45-109; 146-198.

  1. The Quantitative Control of Population; the Operation of Positive and Preventive Checks in Modern Society.
    The Redistribution of population to relieve congestion. (a) local; (b) occupational.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 133-173.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 231-283.

  1. Marriage and the Family; Disintegrative Forces and their Control.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 252-273.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 318-339.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 317-375; 674-675.

B. Passive Intellectual and Moral Adaptation.

  1. The Raw Material of Mental and Moral Development; Human Nature and its Re-Making

McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 19-120.

  1. The Original Nature of Man; Instinct vs. Environment in Human Institutions.

McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 121-227.

  1. The Psychology of the Crowd; Fundamental Processes of Social Behavior; the Nature of the “Group Mind”.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 503-521.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 417-444.
McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 279-301, 322-351.

  1. Education as the Instrument of Intellectual Adaptation; a Sociological View of the Objective and the Methods in Education.

Spencer, Education, pp. 21-128.

  1. Religion as the Instrument of Moral Adaptation; an Appraisal of Current Tendencies in Religion and Ethics.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 481-497.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 529-549.
Carver, Religion Worth having, pp. 3-24; 93-140.

  1. The Problem of the Morally Unadapted; the Nature and Causes of Crime; a Program for Social Control.

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 654-673.
Ferri, Criminal Sociology (to be assigned).
Parmelee, Criminology (to be assigned).

C. Active Physical Adaptation.

  1. Material Adaptation as the Productive Utilization of Human Energy; Prevalent Forms of Waste and their Elimination.

Carver, The Economy of Human Energy, pp. 140-181.
Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, pp. 35-101.

  1. The Problem of Material Mal-Adaptation; Poverty and its Causes; a Program for Social Reform.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 349-383.
Warner, American Charities, pp. 36-90.

  1. The Nature and Justification of Property; Problems of Ownership and Control in Modern Industry.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 304-323.
Tawney, The Acquisitive Society, pp. 1-83.

  1. Radical Programs of Social Reform; Socialism, Anarchism, Syndicalism, and their Variants.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 232-263.
Taussig, Inventors and Money-makers, pp. 76-135.

  1. Liberty and Equality as Practicable and Compatible Ideals; the Peculiar Destiny of the American Nation.

Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 264-280.
Carver, The Present Economic Revolution in the United States, pp. 15-65; 233-263.

D. Active Moral Adaptation, or Social Control in its Broader Aspects.

  1. The Place of the State in Human Adaptation. Physical Compulsion as a System of Social Control. Punishment. Voluntary Agreement. The Problem of the Reconciliation of Group Interests and Individual Interests.

Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 176-205.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 750-763.
Mill, Essay on Liberty, chs. 1, 2, and 4.

  1. The Essential Nature of Democracy; Sensitivity and how it is achieved (a) in a coercive state, (b) in a non-coercive business.

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Pt. V, Chs. XVII, XVIII and XIX.

  1. Problems of Modern Democracy; a Survey of the claims of Democracy as the “Ideally Best Polity”

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 764-787.
Mill, Essay on Representative Government, chs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.

  1. The Possibility of Progress; a Recapitulation of Inorganic, Organic, and Social Evolutions and a Forecast of Future Developments.

(Reading to be assigned)

 

Reading Period

Ec 8a Professor Carver.

Sumner and Keller: Science of Society, Vol. I. Chs. I-X inclusive, Chs. XVIII, XIX.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1927-1928”.

________________

1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 8a1
Final Examination

Allow about one hour to each part of the examination.

I

  1. Below are given two contrasting views regarding: (a) the effects which an increase in numbers “in any given state of civilization” might be expected to have on the productive capacity of society; (b) the cause of want and misery in society. Which of these seems to you the more reasonable in each of these respects, and why? State in each case the considerations which, in your opinion, led the writer to take the particular view of the matter which he did.
    “A greater number of people cannot, in any given state of civilization, be collectively so well provided for as a smaller. The niggardliness of nature, not the injustice of society, is the cause of the penalty attached to over-population.”
    “I assert that in any given state of civilization a greater number of people can collectively be better provided for than a smaller. I assert that the injustice of society, not the niggardliness of nature, is the cause of the want and misery which the current theory attributes to over-population.”
  2. What is the attitude of Sumner and Keller on the question of “natural” rights? What is your own attitude? Would a man whose labor is absolutely superfluous to society have any right to a subsistence, in your opinion? Explain fully the grounds on which you base your judgment.

II

  1. Discuss the relation of sensitivity to democracy and point out the principal ways by which those who govern or manage are made sensitive to the interests of those who are governed or managed.
  2. What is meant by the vertical mobility of labor and what social institutions tend to decrease and what tend to increase it?
  3. Suppose that, from the beginning of human evolution, individual effort had been more effective than associated effort, do you think that men would have developed a social nature? Give reasons for your answer.

III

  1. Sumner and Keller have traced back all of our important social institutions to four primary interests in man. What are these interests and what are the institutions arising from each of them?
  2. Explain concisely each of the following terms, showing by your answer that you have a clear understanding of their several meanings:
    1. the man-land ratio;
    2. parallel induction;
    3. intellectual egalitarianism;
    4. maintenance-mores;
    5. ghost-fear;
    6. non-sustentative lethal selection;
    7. Marx’s theory of economic stratification;
    8. assortative mating
  3. Men are not sufficiently equipped with instincts to insure automatic behavior which has survival value in the complex life of modern society, neither are they sufficiently endowed with intelligence to secure rational behavior which has survival value. Between the limited field of behavior controlled by instinct and the equally limited field of behavior controlled by reason, there is apparently a wide gap. How is this gap filled?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers Mid-years, 1927-1928(HUC 7000.55). Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations: History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1928.

________________

JOSLYN AWARDED $6000
END PRIZE FALLS TO PENN. MAN

May 22, 1920

Carl Smith Joslyn ’20 of Springfield, now working his way through college, has won the Truxton Beale prize of $6000. This award was made as a result of the Walker Blaine Beale memorial contest for a Republican Platform suitable for use in the approaching campaign. The prize was offered by Truxton Beale for the purpose of stimulating political study among young people, and was to be won by a Republican not over 25 years of age.

His Platform Decisive and Complete

Mr. Joslyn’s platform is a well-built and well-reasoned document, embracing nearly a score of the outstanding questions of the day. His Republican convictions are set forth with incisive moderation, which lends emphasis to every statement. He deals expeditiously with the various international and socialistic delusions; sets forth a peace program as clear as it is decisive; makes a quick analysis of the league of nations and puts well defined limits to its powers. The greater part of his platform is, however, devoted to domestic problems, beginning with the high cost of living and following its economic and sociological ramifications through the relations of labor and industry, production and economy, taxation, railroads, foreign trade and merchant marine. ment. He ends with the following paragraphs:

“The Republican party appeals to the people for their support on the stand which it has taken against the abuse of the executive power and for the preservation of the sovereignty and independence of the United States. Its principles and policies are all formulated by a liberal and constructive statesmanship. Its creed is one of undivided Americanism; one faith, one loyalty, one devotion–and these in the service of upbuilding and strengthening the great United States of America, the country which gave the world the ideals of liberty and justice and which has dedicated its future to their perpetuation and advancement.”

Other Prizes Also Fall to College Men

The second prize of $3000 goes to Howard B. Wilson of Philadelphia, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and the third of $1000 to W. P. Smith, a student at the University of Michigan. The judges were President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, former United States Senator Beveridge and former United States Ambassador David Jayne Hill.

Source: Archive of the Harvard Crimson, May 22, 1960.

________________

History of U. Maryland’s Sociology Department

Although classes began on this campus in October 1859, the first sociology course was not taught until fall semester 1919.  The course was “Elementary Sociology.”  From the time of this first course until 1935, when a separate Department of Sociology was established, all sociology courses were offered by the Economics Department. During the 1970s, the Sociology Department was restructured and Anthropology and Criminology became separate programs.  Today, the Sociology Department houses the Center for Innovation, Program for Society and the Environment, Maryland Time Use Laboratory, Center for Research on Military Organizations, Group Processes Lab and is affiliated with the Maryland Population Research Center.

Over the years, the sociology faculty has included many nationally and internationally renowned scholars.  In the 1920s, sociology courses were taught by George Peter Murdock, who later created the Human Relations Area Files.  In 1938, Logan Wilson, who later became the President of the University of Texas, joined the faculty for a few years.  C. Wright Mills, the author of The Power Elite, White Collar, and The Sociological Imagination, was a member of the faculty from 1941-1945.  The most renowned scholar on the faculty during the last quarter-century was Morris Rosenberg, the world’s foremost student of how social forces shape the self-esteem.

Since its founding, the Department has had eleven leaders: Theodore B. Manny, Carl Joslyn, Edward Gregory, Harold Hoffsommer, Robert Ellis, Kenneth C. W. Kammeyer, Jerald Hage, William Falk, Lee Hamilton, Suzanne Bianchi, and Reeve Vanneman. The current chair is Patricio Korzeniewicz.

Among the many people who have earned a degree from this department and subsequently achieved considerable recognition are William Form, the first person to hold a Ph.D. (1944) from this department; Parren Mitchell, who became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives; Adele Stamp, for whom the Stamp Student Union is named, and Charles Wellford of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Source: University of Maryland, Department of Sociology. Webpage: “History of the Sociology Department”.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver (left) and Carl Smith Joslyn (right) from the faculty photos in the Harvard Class Album 1932.

Categories
M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. Capital theory. Course outline, suggested readings. Solow, 1975

 

Capital theory à la Solow. Posted earlier: material from Robert Solow’s 1965 capital theory course; material from Paul Samuelson’s 1975 core economic theory course.

________________________

14.459 THEORY OF CAPITAL
Spring 1975
Robert M. Solow

OUTLINE

  1. One-commodity models
    1. No labor, stationary equilibrium, differentiable technology. A complete model
    2. Add labor, steady growth equilibrium
    3. More complicated demand conditions, e.g., class structure
    4. Linear model: one good, one activity and labor
    5. Many activities; continuum of activities
  2. Many capital goods
    1. Simple Leontief Model (i.e., constant returns to scale, no joint production, one primary factor, no possibility of substitution in production)
    2. Generalized Leontief Model (substitute activities)
    3. Non-substitution theorem
    4. Extension to model with production lag
    5. Dynamic non-substitution theorem, factor-price frontier
    6. Examples of a complete equilibrium model in this set-up
  3. Reswitching and “perversity”
  4. What “the Controversy” is all about, if anything

 

SUGGESTED READING

C.C. von Weizsäcker: Steady State Capital Theory, pp. 4-22

E. Burmeister & R. Dobell: Mathematical Models of Economic Growth, Ch. 8

P. A. Samuelson: “The Rate of Interest under Ideal Conditions” QJE, Feb 1939, 286-97; also in Collected Papers, Vol. I, 189-200

P. Garengnani: “Heterogeneous Capital, the Production Function and the Theory of Distribution,” Review of Economic Studies, July 1970

L. Spaventa: “Rate of Profit, Rate of Growth and Capital Intensity in a Simple Production Model,” Oxford Economic Papers, July 1970

B. Rowthorn: “Neo-Classicism, Neo-Ricardianism and Marxism,” New Left Review, No. 86, July/August 1974, 63-87

J. Stiglitz: “The Cambridge-Cambridge Controversy in the Theory of Capital, A View from New Haven,” JPE, July/August 1974, 893-903

K. Sato: “The Neoclassical Postulate and the Technology Frontier in Capital Theory,” QJE, August, 353-384.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Robert M. Solow, Box 68, Folder without a label.

Image Source: Robert Solow pictures at the MIT Museum website.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Mid-year exam for economic theory course. Haberler, 1931-32.

Portr‰t des Haberler, Gottfried [1900-1995]

 

 

In 1931-32 thirty-one year old Gottfried Haberler taught as a visiting lecturer at Harvard. Later he was to return to Harvard where he was appointed to a professorship in 1936. He was a member of the Harvard faculty until his move to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1971.

This post provides three items from his 1931-32 course “Problems in Economic Theory”.

(1) Enrollment data. From the annual presidential report we see that only six students (half of whom were Radcliffe women) were registered for the course.
(2)  Assignments for both semesters’ reading periods. Note that Frank Knight accounts for a good half of that required reading.
(3) The final examination questions for the first semester. 

____________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 15. Dr. Haberler.—Problems in Economic Theory.

Total 6: 3 Seniors, 3 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1931-32. Page 72.

____________________

Reading Period
Jan 4-20, 1932

Economics 15

Knight, F.H.: Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit, Chs. III, IV.

Wicksteed, P.H.: Common Sense of Political Economy, Pt. I, Chs. II, VI, XI; P. II, Ch. On Rent.

Knight, F.H.: A Suggestion for Simplifying the Statement of The General Theory of Price, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 36, No. 3, June, 1928.

Suggestions for further reading:

Böhm-Bawerk, E.V.: Positive Theorie des Kapitals, 3rd or 4th edition (not translated), Exkurs VII, “Zurechnung”.

Mayer, Hans: Artikel “Bedürfnis”, “Produktion”, “Zurechnung” in Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, 4. Auflage.

Reading Period
May 9-June 1, 1932

Economics 15

Benham: “Economic Welfare”, in the Economica, June 1930.

Pigou: Economics of Welfare, Part I, Chs. 1,2,3,4,5; Part II, Ch. VIII, Secs. 1 and 2, Ch. X.

Knight: “Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost”,Quarterly Journal of Economics for August 1924.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder: “Economics, 1931-32”

____________________

1931-32
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 15
[Mid-year Examination]

Students may use any books or notes they wish.
Answer SIX of these questions.

  1. The problem of imputation and its relation to the theory of marginal productivity.
  2. Is it true that, if every factor is remunerated according to its marginal productivity, the whole product is exhausted? Under what conditions?
  3. Discuss the major differences between the (a) Marshallian, (b) Austrian, and (c) Walrasian theory of value and price.
  4. Discuss the mutual relation of utility, value and price and especially the proposition that there is a conformity of subjective value and the market price. Is it not circular reasoning to say that marginal utility determines the market prices because marginal utility itself depends partly, at last, on the price?
  5. Discuss the proposition that orthodox economics is individualistic and overlooks the fact that every individual is the product of social forces.
  6. What is the meaning of the “law of variation” of the factors of production? How or under what assumptions is it possible to derive from it a universal law of diminishing returns?
  7. What is the function of the concept of “want” or “need” in pure economic theory? State your opinion as to whether it can or should be eliminated and how it could be done.
  8. What do you think of Institutionalism and its criticism of orthodox economic theory?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943 (HUC 7000.55). Box 12. Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1931-32.

Image Source: Link to Österreichische Nationalbibliothek record.

Categories
Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Welfare economics and policy. Readings and exam. Bergson, 1959

 

Before he began to be known as the (Western) Dean of Soviet Economic Studies, Abram Bergson’s greatest hit “A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics” (QJE, 1938) earned him an honored place in the pantheon of welfare economics theorists. Thus it is not surprising that besides courses on socialist economics and the economics of the Soviet Union, he also taught the following course involving the application of welfare economics to policy. 

The reading list and final exam questions for the same course offered in the Spring term of 1960 has been posted later. The reading list didn’t change at all between the two years, but I have provided links to most of the readings in the later post as well as the new exam questions.

__________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 111a. Normative Aspects of Economic Policy. Professor Bergson. Half course. (Spring)

Total, 21: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1958-59, p. 70.

__________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Normative Aspects of Economic Policy
Spring Term: 1958-59

  1. The concept of economic efficiency.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chicago, 1951, Chapter I.

  1. Consumers’ goods distribution and labor recruitment: the efficiency of perfect competition: other forms of market organization.

Scitovsky, Chapters II-V, XVI (pp. 338-41), XVIII, XX (pp. 423-427).

A. P. Lerner, Economics of Control, New York, 1946, Chapter 2.

  1. Conditions for efficiency in production.

Scitovsky, Chapters VI-VIII.

Lerner, Chapter 5.

  1. Production efficiency under perfect competition; monopolistic markets

See the readings under topic 3.

Scitovsky, Chapters X, XI, XII, XV, XVI (pp. 341-363), XVII, XX (pp. 428-439).

Lerner, Chapters 6, 7.

  1. The optimum rate of investment.

Scitovsky, Chapter IX (pp. 216-228).

A. C. Pigou, Economics of Welfare, fourth ed., London, 1948, pp. 23-30.

  1. Price policy for a public enterprise.

Lerner, Chapter 15.

I. M. D. Little, A Critique of Welfare Economics, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1957, Chapter XI.

O. Eckstein, Water Resource Development, Cambridge, 1958, pp. 47-70, pp. 81-109.

  1. Socialist economic calculation.

O. Lange, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minn., 1938, pp. 55-141.

F. Hayek, “Socialist Calculation,” Economica, May 1940.

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

M. Dobb, Economic Theory and Socialism, New York, 1955, pp. 41-92.

  1. Economic calculation in underdeveloped countries.

A. Datta, “Welfare versus Growth Economics,” Indian Economic Journal, October 1956.

T. Scitovsky, “Two Concepts of External Economics,” Journal of Political Economy, April 1954.

J. Tinbergen, The Design of Development, Balto., Md., 1958.

  1. The concept of social welfare.

The writings of Bergson and Dobb under topic 7.

Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Chapters I, VIII.

Lerner, Chapter 3.

J. R. Hicks, “Foundations of Welfare Economics,”Economic Journal, December 1939.

Arthur Smithies, “Economic Welfare and Policy,” in A. Smithies et al., Economics and Public Policy, Washington, 1955.

 

Other References
on the Concept of Social Welfare and Optimum Conditions

M. W. Reder, Studies in the Theory of Welfare Economics, New York, 1947.

P. A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Cambridge, 1947, Chapter VIII.

K. Boulding, Welfare Economics, in B. Haley, A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Homewood, Illinois, 1952.

H. Myint, Theories of Welfare Economics, Cambridge, Mass., 1948.

J. A. Hobson, Work and Wealth, London, 1933.

J. M. Clark, Guideposts in Time of Change, New York, 1949.

J. de V. Graaf, Theoretical Welfare Economics, Cambridge, 1957.

F. M. Bator, The Simple Analytics of Welfare Maximization,” American Economic Review, March 1957.

A. Bergson, “A Reformulation of Welfare Economics,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1938.

P. A. Samuelson, “Evaluation of Real National Income,” Oxford Economic Papers, January 1950.

A. C. Pigou, “Some Aspects of Welfare Economics,” American Economic Review, June 1951.

T. Scitovsky, “The State of Welfare Economics,” American Economic Review,” June 1951.

J. E. Meade, Trade and Welfare, New York, 1955, Part I.

[Note: no additional assignment for the reading period]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1958-1959 (1 of 2)”.

__________________

Harvard University
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Final Examination
June 1, 1959

Answer four and only four of the following six questions.

  1. Explain the “contract curve” that is employed in the analysis of the optimum allocation of different consumers’ goods between households. In what sense does the curve define an economic optimum?
  2. Under perfect competition how is the efficiency of resource allocation affected by:
    1. The levying of a sales tax on the output of a single industry;
    2. A government policy of making capital available to one industry at an interest charge that is less than the market rate.
  3. “As distinct from perfect competition, free competition tends in the long-run to cause the individual firm to make insufficient use of its fixed resources and to operate with excess capacity.” Discuss.
  4. How are the volume of investment and the rate of interest determined in the Competitive Solution of Socialist Planning? What arguments might be advanced for and against the policies and procedures involved?
  5. Explain briefly each of the following:
    1. Variation Cost
    2. Price-offer curve for labor
    3. Lerner’s Rule
  6. “When all is said and done, if there are very heavy overhead costs, public ownership may often make possible rational determination of the scale of output in an industry where this could not be achieved under any of the usual alternatives, such as competition, monopoly or even public rate regulation, if unaccompanied by ownership.” Discuss.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Box 37. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,.., Economics,…, Naval Science, Air Science (June, 1959).

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
Gender Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus

Johns Hopkins. Reading List for Economic Development. Irma Adelman, 1963

 

From 1962-66 Irma Adelman was associate professor in the department of political economy at Johns Hopkins University.

A nice biographic memorial was posted at the UC Berkeley Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics website. A copy of her c.v. can also be found in the internet archive Wayback Machine.

________________

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Economic Development 327
Dr. Adelman
Spring 1963

Textbooks

A. Pepelasis, L. Mears and I. Adelman, Economic Development (Harper, 1961).
I. Adelman, Theories of Economic Growth and Development (Stanford University Press, 1961).

Other General Works

W.A. Lewis, The Theory of Economic Growth (1955).

N. S. Buchanan & H. Ellis, Approaches to Economic Development (1955).

H. Leibenstein, Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth (1957).

P.T. Bauer & B.S. Yamey, The Economics of Underdeveloped Countries (1957).

A.N. Agarwala & S.P. Singh, The Economics of Underdevelopment (1958).

G. Meier & R. Baldwin, Economic Development (1957).

[C. P.] Kindleberger, Economic Development (1958).

A.O. Hirschman, The Strategy of Economic Development (1958).

B. Higgins, Economic Development (1959).

W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth (1960).

E. Hagen, On the Theory of Social Change (1961).

 

Bibliographies

A. Hazlewood, The Economics of Underdeveloped Areas (2nded.), 1959.

F.N. Trager, “A Selected and Annotated Bibliography on Economic Development 1953-1957,” Economic Development & Cultural Change, July 1958.

[G.] Meier & [R.] Baldwin, Economic Development Appendices.

 

I. Levels and Rates of Growth

[A.] Pepelasis, et al., Ch. 1.

S. Kuznets, “Quantitative Aspects of the Economic Growth of Nations,” Economic Development and Cultural Change (Oct. 1956) pp. 5-51.

Abramovitz, Moses and others, The Allocation of Economic Resources (first article by Abramovitz).

Nutter, C. Warren, “On Measuring Economic Growth,” J.P.E. V. LXV (1957) pp. 50-63 and comment by H.S. Levine ibid (Aug. 1958).

S. Kuznets, “The State as a Unit in the Study of Economic Growth,” Journal of Economic History (1951) pp. 25-41.

S.H. Frankel, The Economic Impact on Underdeveloped Countries (Oxford, 1952) pp. [page numbers not given]

Hoselitz, B.F., “Patterns of Economic Development,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, V. 21, pp. 416-431.

Rostow, W.W., “The Take-off into Self-sustained Growth, E.J. (1956) pp. 25-48.

 

II. The Production Function

Solow, R.M., “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function,” Review of Economics and Statistics XXXIX (Aug. 1957) pp. 312-320.

Abramovitz, M. “Resource and Output Trends in the United States Since 1870,” (NBER Occasional Paper 52). Also published in AER, Papers and Proceedings, XLVI (May 1956) pp. 5-23.

K.J. Arrow, H.B. Chenery, B.S. Minhas and R.M. Solow, “Capital-Labor Substitution and Economic Efficiency,” Rev. Econ. & Stat. Aug. 1961.

[M.] Abramovitz, Review of Denison’s Book—AER Jan. 1963.

 

III. Population and Labor Force

[A.] Pepelasis, et al., Ch. 3.

U.N. Department of Social Affairs (Population Division) The Determinants and Consequences of Population Trends, pp. 5-20, 47-97, 194-209.

[G.] Meier and [R.] Baldwin, pp. 281-291.

C. Long, The Labor Force under Changing Income and Employment, Ch. 1.

E. Hagen, “Population and Economic Growth,” AER, June 1959, pp. 310-327.

G. Goode, “Adding to the Stock of Physical and Human Capital” AERProceedings XLIX (May 1959) pp. 147-155 and Comment by A. Kofka, pp. 172-175.

[H.] Leibenstein, Ch. 10.

I. Adelman, “An Econometric Analysis of Population Growth,” mimeographed.

IV. Reproducible Capital

[A.] Pepelasis, et al., Ch. 4.

S. Kuznets, “International Differences in Capital Formation and Financing,” in Univ. NBER Committee for Economic Research, Capital Formation and Economic Growth, pp. 19-33, 45-51.

S. Kuznets, “Capital Formation Proportions: International Comparisons in Recent Years,” Economic Development and Cultural Change V. VIII, No. 4 Part II, July 1960.

H.S. Houthakker, “An International Comparison of Personal Savings,” Bulletin of the International Statistical Institute, 38, Part 2, (1961).

W.W. Rostow, “The Takeoff into Self-sustained Growth,” E.J. LXVI, March 1956.

A. Cairncross, “The Place of Capital in Economic Progress,” in American Economic Association (L. Dupriez, ed.) Economic Progress.

C. Wolfe and S. Sufrin, Capital Formation and Foreign Investment in Underdeveloped Areas (1955).

 

V. Natural Resources

[A.] Pepelasis, et al, Ch. 2.

Usher, A.P., “The Resource Requirements of an Industrial Economy,” JEH Supplement VII, 1947, pp. 36-46.

Mason, E.S., “The Political Economy of Resource Use,” and discussion by Hartley, Jameson, Adlin in Henry Jarrett (ed.) Perspectives on Conservation, pp. 157-201.

W.S. and E.S. Woytinsky, World Population and Production, Ch. 10.

[G.] Meier & [R.] Baldwin, pp. 521-526.

 

VI. Technology and Entrepreneurship

[A.] Pepelasis et al, Ch. 5.

A. Gerschenkron, “Social Attitudes and Economic Environment in Relation to Entrepreneurship and Technology,” Economic Progress, pp. 307-330, 557-559.

Redlich, F., “Business Leadership: Diverse Origins and Variant Forces,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, V. VI No. 3, April 1958.

Gilfillan, S.C., “Invention as a Factor in Economic History,”Journal of Economic History, V. (Dec. 1945), pp. 66-85.

Schmookler, J., “The Level of Inventive Activity,” Review of Economics & Statistics, V. 36, pp. 183-190.

A.O. Hirschman, Ch. IX.

E. Hagen, Ch. 4- Ch. 12.

 

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy, Series 6. Box No. 1, Folder: Course Outlines and Reading Lists. c. 1900, c. 1950, 1963-68”.