Category: Suggested Reading

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Gender Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Seminar readings for the economics of technological change. Anne P. Carter, 1967

Anne Pitts Carter is 99 years old at the time of this post. Amanar Akhabbar’s “Anne P. Carter: A Biographical Presentation” (2011) [also available as “Anne P. Carter: A Biographical Note” in Oeconomia (March 2011)] provides full details of the first 85 or so years of her life.

Anne Pitts Carter was awarded a Ph.D. from Radcliffe [Note: her first married-name was “Grosse”] in March 1949. She became an assistant professor of economics at Harvard in 1966-69, was director of the Harvard Economic Research Project 1966-72, and from 1971 on professor of economics at Brandeis.

Today’s post adds the reference list for her seminar on the economics of technological change to the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror collection of course syllabi.

___________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 262.
Seminar: The Economics of Technological Change

Half course (spring term) Th., 2-4. Assistant Professor A. P. Carter

Study of the development and diffusion of new techniques and products in the United States and abroad and their impacts on industrial specialization, competitive structure, industrial interdependence, prices and employment, in a general equilibrium framework.

Source: Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. Course of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe 1966-67, p. 122.

___________________________

SUGGESTED REFERENCES
Economics 262
Seminar: THE ECONOMICS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

Assistant Professor Anne P. Carter
Spring 1967

Abramovitz et. al. Allocation of Economic Resources.

Almon, Clopper, The American Economy to 1975.

Arrow, Karlin, Suppes, Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences.

Bain, Joe, International Differences in Industrial Structure.

Boon, Gerald K., Economic Choice of Human and Physical Factors in Production. North Holland Publishing Company, 1964.

Bowen, H.R. and Magnum, Automation and Economic Progress.

Bright, F., Automation and Management, Boston, Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, 1958.

Bright, F., Automation and Technological Change, Columbus, Ohio: Battelle-American Assembly, 1963.

Dunlop, J. T., Automation and Technological Change. (American Assembly)

Dunlop, J.T. and Diatckenko, Labor Productivity.

Jerome, Harry, Mechanization in Industry.

Landsberg, Fishman and Fisher, Resources in America’s Future.

Leontief, et al., Studies in the Structure of the American Economy.

Manne, Alan, Studies in Process Analysis – Cowles Commission Monograph #18.

Melman, Seymour, Dynamic Factors in Industrial Productivity. (John Wiley and Sons, 1956)

National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress

Report: Technology and American Economy

Six Appendices:
The Outlook For Technological Change and Employment
The Employment Impact of Technological Change
Adjusting to Change
Educational Implications of Technological Change
Applying Technology to Unmet Needs
Statements Relating to the Impact of Technological Change

National Bureau of Economic Research, Problems of Capital Formation, Studies in Income and Wealth.

National Bureau of Economic Research, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity.

National Resources Committee, Technological Trends and National Policy.

Salter, W.E.G., Productivity and Technical Change.

Samuelson, Solow, and Dorman, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis.

Schurr, Netschart, et. al., Energy in the American Economy, 1850-1975.

Sen, A.K., Choice of Techniques.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 9. Folder “Economics, 1966-67”.

Image Source: Peter A. Petri’s webpage “Lemberg Program, 1986-1994”. The image was enhanced using the program Pixelup on my cellphone. To my eye, this AI-smoothed image is very faithful to the original web image.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. American Economic and Financial History. Gay, 1907-08.

Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. Painted by N.C. Wyeth

The materials for this post come from the second time Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history at Harvard. Other than having its bibliographic furniture rearranged, the course content is virtually identical to that of the 1906-07 version of the course.

__________________________

Previously…

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06. Gay taught this course alone in 1906-07.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 143: 14 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 33 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

__________________________

[Except for a minor rearrangement in the sequence of topics, the course reading list for 1907-08 is, with only one exception, identical to that for 1906-07.]

Course Reading List
Economic and Financial History
of the United States

ECONOMICS 6b (1908)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

1. Colonial Period.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.

1776-1860.
2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

3. Internal Improvements.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Polities in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

4. Agriculture and Land Policy. – Westward Movement.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257 printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.
[Replaces “Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181” from the 1906-07 reading list.]

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

5. The South and Slavery.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

6. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.

Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

1860-1900.
7. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254, (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

8. Transportation.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

9. Agriculture and Opening of the West.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.

10. Industrial Expansion.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-clxxviii.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

11. The Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-229.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, p. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-487.

12. Commerce and Shipping.

*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.
[This reading has been switched to required status in 1907-08.]

Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

13. Industrial Concentration.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

14. The Labor Problem.

*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.

Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

15. Population, Immigration and the Race Question.

* United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economies and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1907-1908”.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Briefly:—
    1. The Bland-Allison and Sherman Acts.
    2. The National Banking Act.
    3. The Homestead Law.
    4. Reciprocity since 1890.
  2. Compare the condition of manufactures in the United States in 1791 (Hamilton’s report) with that in 1900.
  3. Why has the cotton industry developed more satisfactorily than the woolen industry?
  4. Compare in its chief features the state of Southern agriculture before and after the Civil War.
  5. [Farm indebtedness and tenancy]
    1. Farm indebtedness in the United States 1885-1900; its relation to agricultural prices and the demand for monetary reform.
    2. Farm tenancy in the United States.
  6. Is railroad “pooling” permitted in the United States? Should it be permitted? What do you think of Anti-Trust Legislation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: Website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Webpage: History. Lincoln and the Founding of the National Banking System.

“Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. N.C. Wyeth painted this mural in the lobby of what was then the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The former bank building is today the Langham Hotel.”

Categories
Harvard Libertarianism Principles Suggested Reading Syllabus

Antioch College. Syllabus for principles of economics. Watts, 1935-1936

Vervon Orval Watts (1898-1993)  was a Thomas Nixon Carver  inspired libertarian economist from pre-Keynesian Harvard times. Before going on to become the first head economist for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce (1939-46) and later an economic adviser to the Foundation for Economic Education starting in 1946, Watts taught economics at Antioch College (1930-36) and Carleton College (1936-39). His full biographical timeline can be found at the link above. For this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has transcribed the syllabus with the assigned and optional readings for the principles course Watts taught at Antioch College in 1935-36.

In the mid-1960s Watts was the Dean of the short-lived Freedom School Phrontistery in Colorado, the brainchild of Robert LeFevre that was to become a libertarian version of a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics program of study.

_____________________________

Harvard Ph.D. awarded in 1932

Vervon Orval Watts, A.B. (Univ. of Manitoba) 1918, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1923.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Development of the Technological Concept of Production in Anglo-American Thought.”
Associate Professor of Economics, Antioch College.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1931-1932, p.124.

_____________________________

A Syllabus of Instruction
for
Economics 101-102

A Survey of Modern
Economic Life

V. O. Watts
Antioch College
1935-1936

PURPOSES OF THE COURSE

  1. To obtain information concerning American economic institutions.
  2. To develop the habit in the ordinary experiences of daily life of observing, analyzing and appraising the economic results of the conduct of individuals and of groups of individuals as wage-earners, employers, farmers, manufacturers, merchants, financiers, and legislators.
  3. To develop skill in tracing out and explaining the ramifications of the economic effects of an event.

CONDUCT OF THE COURSE

Required Readings

Study of the required readings, those starred and underlined in the list of references in this syllabus, constitutes the larger part of the work of this course. The following methods of study are therefore suggested:

  1. Note the relation of each chapter or section in the text or syllabus to the sections preceding and following it.
  2. Read or scan quickly the material in one or two chapters at a time before underlining or taking notes, so that you may gain perspective and distinguish the more significant principles from the accompanying illustrations and qualifications.
  3. Think out answers to the questions and problems given at the end of each section or chapter in the text or question book, referring back to the appropriate section of the text, when necessary, to clarify your understanding of the principles involved.
  4. Re-read the text, making written note of essential points in definitions of technical terns, statements of important principles, list of arguments pro and con on controversial issues, advantages and disadvantages of proposed policies, and qualifications of principles.
    This note-taking should provide opportunity for practice in expressing yourself in economics, therefore do not copy the author’s words, but put his ideas into your own words. It should also provide an aid to quick and effective review and help you to organize your thinking in this field, therefore keep your notes brief, well-organized, and neatly arranged.
  5. Before class discussions and examinations review those notes, practicing recall, illustrating the points noted, questioning and criticizing the author’s ideas, and formulating your own conclusions.

Periodicals

Each student in this course is expected to keep posted on current economic and political events and opinions through the regular reading of a newspaper or news weekly.

                  Some acquaintance with a number of leading journals in the fields of business and political economy is also required. To that end some of the journals listed below should be consulted with the following questions in mind concerning each: (1) How often is it published? (2) Who are the publishers or editors? (3) What is the professional status or occupation of its contributors? (4) What is the general character or point of view of most of its articles? (5) What special place does it fill in the field and to what type of reader is it likely to have most appeal?

Examine the table of contents for several recent issues of some of these magazines to see if there may be articles which especially interest you. In some journals you may find few or none, but in others you should find many such articles. Try to read at least one article during the semester in each of several of the journals listed.

Recommended Readings

The optional, or recommended, readings listed below present additional information or develop points of view differing more or less from that dominant in the required text. In some cases they may present clearer explanations of the points covered in the required readings.

Class Meetings

There are customarily three class meetings per week.

Conferences

Each student should meet the instructor for a conference at least once in each five-week period. To these conferences the student should bring his economics notebook and recent test papers.

Tests and Examinations

Approximately once a week there will be a ten-minute written test on the subject matter of the required readings. At the end of the first and third divisions there will be a one-hour examination on the readings and lectures. At the end of each semester there will be a three-hour examination covering the entire work of the course to date.

Answers to examination questions should be well planned and neatly written. Each distinct point or argument should be treated in a separate paragraph, and points correlative in meaning and importance should be numbered. All papers should be written in ink.

Oral Report

In the second division of the second semester each student will be expected to present to the class in a ten or fifteen minute report the results of his study outside the required readings of a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. The time allotted for preparation of this report should be approximately one-tenth of the time devoted to the entire course. The report itself should not take the form of reading an essay, but should be a short talk from a brief outline.

Textbooks

L. A. Rufener, Principles of Economics

R. M. Rutledge, Everyday Economics

SCHEDULE OF READINGS, LECTURES, AND EXAMINATIONS

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

FIRST SEMESTER

First Week

*Rufener, ch.1. Wants, Goods, and Welfare

*Rutledge, ch. 1.

Stuart Chase, Your Money’s Worth

C. E. Carpenter, Dollars and Sense

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, Elementary Economics, chs. 1, 7.

S. H. Slichter, Modern Economic Society, ch. 22.

Lecture: The Significance of Scarcity.

Second Week

*Rufener:

ch. 2. Improving Methods of Production
ch. 3. Exchange, Value, and Price
ch. 4. Business Organization and Profits

*Rutledge, ch. 4.

V. O. Watts, The Myth of the Industrial Revolution

Third Week

*Rufener:

ch. 5. Demand and Supply and Market Price
ch. 6. Demand and Supply and Market Price (continued)
ch. 7. Demand Schedules for Producers’ Goods

*Rutledge, ch. 6

W. H. Hamilton, Current Economic Problems, selections 63-66

Slichter, chs. 12, 13, 14

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 11-15.

Fourth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 8. Costs of Production, Market Price, and Profit
ch. 9. Cost and Price in Agriculture: Wheat-Growing
ch. 10. The Rent and Price of Agricultural Land

*Rutledge, ch. 10.

J. B. Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 180-207

Slichter, chs. 17, 19. “Public Authority as a Determinant of Price”.

Fifth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 11. Indirect Costs in Agriculture
ch. 12. Economic Rent and the Unearned Increment
ch. 13. Cost of Production in Manufacturing: Decreasing Cost

*Rutledge ch. 12.

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 31, 32.

Hour Examination

Sixth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 14. Decreasing Costs, Indirect Costs, and Price
ch. 15. Monopoly and Monopoly Price
ch. 16. Industrial Monopolies and Government Control

*Rutledge:

ch. 15.
ch. 16.

F. A. Fetter, The Masquerade of Monopoly

M. W. Watkins, Industrial Combinations and Public Policy

Lecture:
The Economies and Limitations of Large-Scale Methods

Seventh Week

*Rufener:

ch. 17. Public Utilities and Government Control
ch. 18. Railroads and Government Control
ch. 19. Demand Schedules for Labor

Slichter, ch. 18.

Eighth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 20. Differences in Wages
ch. 21. Labor Organization

*Rutledge:

ch. 20
ch. 21

Paul Douglas, Real Wages in the United States

Slichter, ch. 24. “The Labor Bargain—The Determination of Wages”

Fairchild, Furniss and Buck ch. 35. “The General Law of Wages.”

Rufener, ch. 22. “Labor Legislation”

Lectures:

Principles of Justice in Distribution
Wage Theories
The Malthusian Principle of Population

Ninth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 23. The Price of Loans.
ch. 24. Producers’ Loans and the Rate of Interest.

*Rutledge, ch. 23.

*R. Epstein, Supplementary Readings in Economics, ch. 18. “The Nature of Capital and Interest”

Lecture:
The Nature and Importance of Saving and Investment.

Tenth Week

Semester Examination

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SECOND SEMESTER

First Week

*Rufener:

ch. 25. The Qualities and Quantity of Money
ch. 27. Government Paper Money

*Rutledge:

ch. 25
ch. 27

*Rufener, ch. 28. Bank Deposits and Bank Notes

D. H. Robertson, Money

Rufener, ch. 26

Second Week

*Rufener:

ch. 29. Bank Credit and Business Cycles.
ch. 30. Government Regulation of Banking in the U.S.

*Rutledge, ch. 29.

Slichter, ch. 11, ch. 20 (pp. 471-491).

L. Robbins, The Great Depression.

H. Clay, J. Stamp, J. M. Keynes, The World’s Economic Crisis and the Way of Escape.

L. Ayres, The Economics of Recovery.

W. C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, ch. 1, sections 3, 4.

Lecture:
The Causes of the 1930-1935 Depression.

Third Week

*Rufener:

ch. 31. Risk, Insurance and Speculation.
ch. 32. Clearings, Collections, and Exchange.

*Rutledge, ch. 31.

Slichter, ch. 30. “International Economic Policies—Monetary and Financial Problems.”

H. G. Moulton:

Germany’s Capacity to Pay.
The World War Debt Settlements.

Rufener, ch. 33.

Fourth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 34. International Trade
ch. 35. Protection and Free Trade.

*F. W. Taussig, Free Trade, the Tariff, and Reciprocity, pp. 44-57 and chs. 3,4,7, and pp. 168-179.

S. Crowther, America Self-Contained.

W. Redfield, Dependent America.

J. M. Jones, Tariff Retaliation.

F. Bastiat, Economic Sophisms.

H. F. Fraser, Foreign Trade and World Politics.

Rutledge, ch. 35.

Fifth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 37. Theories of Taxation.
ch. 38. The Tax System of the United States.

Hour Examination

Sixth to Ninth Weeks

*Rufener:

ch.39. Problems of Agriculture.
ch.36. The Functions of Government
ch.40. Evils of the Price and Profit System, and Remedies Proposed.

*Rutledge ch. 40.

*Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 3-21.

Stuart Chase:

The Tragedy of Waste.
The Economy of Abundance.

T. N. Carver:

Essays in Social Justice, chs. 4-7, 9-16.
The Economy of Human Energy, chs. 2, 3, 6—9.

P. Sorokin, Social Mobility.

A. T. Hadley, Standards of Public Morality, chs. 1-3.

H. M. Robinson, Relativity in Business Morals.

See also the following references to current periodicals.

Lectures:

Economic Inequality
The Social Nature of Property
The Economy of Abundance
Planned Production
A Program of Economic Reorganization.

Tenth Week

Final Examination.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

PERIODICALS

                  The following publications are devoted partly or wholly to economic and business subjects.

Academy of Political Science, Proceedings

*American Economic Review

*American Labor Legislation Review

American Statistical Association Journal

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

*Annalist

*Business Week

Chase Economic Bulletin

*Commercial and Financial Chronicle

Commonweal

Congressional Digest

*Economic Forum

Economic Geography

*Economic Journal

Factory Management and Maintenance

Foreign Affairs

Fortune

Harvard Business Review

International Labor Review

*Journal of Political Economy

*Magazine of Wall Street

Monthly Labor Review

Nation (New York)

National City Bank of New York Bulletin

Nation’s Business

New Republic

Personnel Journal

*Political Science Quarterly

*Printer’s Ink

*Quarterly Journal of Economics

Review of Economic Statistics

Yale Review

*Current issues in the Economics Reading Room, Main Bldg., Room 37.

The following articles in issues of the past year are especially recommended:

First Semester

“The Coal Resources of China,” W. Belden, M. Salter, Economic Geography, July 1935.

“The Public Utility Issue,” L. Olds, The Yale Review, Summer, 1935.

“Economic Effects of Wages and Hour Provisions in Codes,” T. O. Yntema, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.

“The American Labor Movement Since the War,” D. J. Saposs, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1935.

“Economic and Political Radicalism,” M. C. Kruger, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(The effect of the depression on the economic and political policies of organized labor.)

“Workers’ Education in the United States,” A. S. Cheyney, International Labor Review, July, 1935.

“The Negro in Industry,” G.S.Mitchell, The American Scholar, Summer 1935.
(The problem of race prejudice in trade unions)

“Incidence upon the Negroes,” C.S. Johnson, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(Incidence of the burdens of the depression upon negroes)

“Compensation of Corporation Executives, 1928-1932 Record,” J.C.Baker and W. L. Crum, Harvard Business Review, Sumner 1935.

“Old Age Security,” E. E. Witte, National Municipal Review, July 1935.

“Paying for Economic and Social Security,” J. P. Harris, National Municipal Review, August 1935.

“Problems of Social Security Legislation in the United States,” several articles in the Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June 1935.

Second Semester

“The Royal Road to Inflation,” A. Wolff, Economic Forum, Spring 1935.
(Shows how continued federal budget deficits may lead to currency inflation.)

“Trade Treaty Need,” Cordell Hull, “American Trade Policy and World Recovery,” P. Molyneaux, International Conciliation, June 1935.

“Death Duties, Enterprise, and the Growth of National Capital,” B. M. Anderson, Chase Economic Bulletin, August 6, 1935.

“The Outlook for American Cotton,” J. D. Black, Review of Economic Statistics, March 1935.
(Is America losing her foreign cotton markets?)

“The New Deal and Economic Liberty,” A. A. Berle, and other articles on government control of business, Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, March 1935.

“A Planned Economy for Wall Street,” C. H. Meyer, The American Scholar Summer 1935.
(The economic consequences of the Securities Acts of 1933, 1934)

“Government Control of Investments and Speculation,” R. S. Tucker, American Economic Review, Supplement, March 1935.

“The Paths of Economic Change,” Calvin B. Hoover, American Economic Review, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.
(Fascism, Communism, and Capitalism compared.)

“The Corporate State and NRA,” G. Bottai, Foreign Affairs, July 1935.

“The Permanent New Deal,” W. Lippmann, The Yale Review, Summer 1935.
(A comparison of the policies of Herbert Hoover with those of Franklin D. Roosevelt.)

“Borrowing Machines,” H. A. Davis, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(Are the now “authorities” a blessing or menace?)

“Gyp Vendor & Co.,” G. B. Seybold, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(New York’s attempt to secure economy in municipal expenditures discloses numerous rackets and forms of graft.)

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of V. Orval Watts, Box 1, Folder “Misc. writings, etc. 1930s + 1940s”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1932.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list and Exam for U.S. Economic History. Gay, 1906-1907

Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history in 1906-07. He modified and expanded the course reading list from that used in the previous year by him and Taussig, but the structure of the course nonetheless appears to have been essentially unchanged.

__________________________

Previously…

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor [Edwin Francis] Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 112: 20 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 8 Others.

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

__________________________

Course Reading List
1906-07

[Library Stamp: “May 13, 1907”]

ECONOMICS: 6b

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

1. COLONIAL PERIOD.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp.36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86; 124-139.

1776-1860.
2. COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, AND TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

3. AGRICULTURE AND LAND POLICY. — WESTWARD MOVEMENT.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257; printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181.

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci, and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

4. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

5. FINANCE, BANKING AND CURRENCY.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 75-117, 223-237, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

*Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37. 64-76.

Kinley. History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

6. POPULATION AND SLAVERY.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

1860-1900.
7. FINANCE, BANKING AND CURRENCY.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254 (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

8. TRANSPORTATION.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

9. AGRICULTURE AND OPENING OF THE WEST.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, 193-213.

10. THE TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 156-229.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-437.

11. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-cxc (note especially the maps and comments on pp. clxx-clxxviii).

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

12. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.

*Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

13. INDUSTRIAL CONCENTRATION.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-107.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

14. THE LABOR PROBLEM.

*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept. 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept. 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.

Levasseur. American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

15. POPULATION, IMMIGRATION
AND THE RACE QUESTION.

*United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-Ivii.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 38-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder: “Economics 1906-07”.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

  1. Describe briefly (not more than five minutes each) :—
    1. Independent Treasury.
    2. Greenbacks
    3. Mills Bill.
    4. Minimum system.
    5. Homestead system.
    6. Chief Canal systems.
  2. Outline succinctly :—
    1. The history and results of the tariff on wool and woolens.
    2. The experience of the United States with reciprocity.
  3. Comment on the following (from Grant’s message of 1870):
    “Building ships and navigating them utilizes vast capital at home; it creates a home market for the farm and the shop; it diminishes the balance of trade against us precisely to the extent of freights and passage money paid to American vessels, and gives us a supremacy of the seas of inestimable value in case of foreign war.”
  4. Compare in its more important features the economic history of the decade 1870-80 with that of the decade 1890-1900.
  5. [International labor migration]
    1. Describe the administration of the alien contract labor law.
    2. What are the present tendencies in the distribution of immigrants?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 29-30.

Image Source: Edwin F. Gay, seated in office, 1908. From Wikipedia. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Education Harvard Labor Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list for economics of education and technology. Bowles, 1967-68

The following reading list comes from a Harvard course on the economics of education and technology offered by assistant professor Samuel S. Bowles in the spring semester of the 1967-68 academic year. Bowles was 28 years young then. Here is a link to his Santa Fe Institute webpage.

Only the pages of the syllabus with the reading lists were submitted to the Harvard library for the purpose of putting books on reserve. Not included were the couple of paragraphs of motivation/description for each of the seven sections of the course. I had to insert approximate titles for sections IV and VII and have put those words between square brackets.

__________________________

Most likely spot to find more course content

Samuel Bowles, Planning Educational Systems for Economic Growth. Harvard University Press, 1969.

[When you get an account with archive.org, it is like having an old fashioned library card and you will have access to this book for an hour at a time when it is not being borrowed by another user.]

__________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 151 (formerly Economics 177). Economics of Education and Technology (Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Education)
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 9. Assistant Professor S. S. Bowles

Attention will be given to the economics of the education process, the theory and implications of innovation, the effects of education and technological change on the distribution of income and the role of education and technological change in economic growth. Relevant case studies and current policy issues related to the United States and underdeveloped countries will be considered.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction, Harvard and Radcliffe, 1967-68, p. 124.

__________________________

Reading list
Ec. 151
Sam Bowles

I. THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME — RECENT U.S. EXPERIENCE

A. Batchelder, “Decline in the Relative Income of Negro Men,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1964, pp. 525-48.

*H. Miller, Rich Man, Poor Man, chapters 1, 2, 4-6, pp. 54-134.

I. Kravis, “Relative Income Shares in Fact and Theory,” American Economic Review, 1959, pp. 917-947.

R. Lampman, The Share of Top Wealth-Holders in National Wealth, chapter 1, pp. 1-26; also Table 97, p. 209.

(Supplementary)

*G. Kolko, Wealth and Power in America.

H. Miller, Distribution of Income in the United States.

II. EDUCATION AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME
  1. Education and Earnings

*H. Miller, Rich Man, Poor Man, Chapters 8 and 9, pp. 148-194.

  1. Education as Investment

I. Fisher, The Theory of Interest, Chapters 4, 7, 10, and 11, pp. 61-98, 159-177, and 231-287.

T. Ribich, Poverty and Education, Chapter I, pp. 1-17 and 23-32, mimeo.

G. Becker, Human Capital, Chapters 1-5; 7 and 8, pp. 1-123; 136-159.

  1. Equality of Educational Opportunity

J. Coleman, “Equal Schools or Equal Students,” in The Public Interest, Summer, 1966, pp. 70-75.

*P. Sexton, Education and Income, pp. 58-69.

(Supplementary)

*Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU), Youth in the Ghetto: A Study in the Consequences of Powerlessness, Chapter 7.

*J. Conant, Slums and Suburbs, Chapters 1, 2, and 3.

*P.  Sexton, “City Schools,” in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1964, reprinted in L. Ferman, et al., eds., Poverty in America.

  1. A Model of Education and the Distribution of Earnings

G. Becker, “Human Capital and the Personal Distribution of Income: An Analytical Approach,” mimeo, 59 pp.

  1. Education and the War on Poverty

B. Weisbrod, “Preventing High School Dropouts,” in R. Dorfman, (*) Measuring the Benefits of Government Investments, pp. 117-148.

J. K. Folger and C. B. Nam, Education of the American Population (U.S. Department of Commerce).

(Supplementary)

O. Lewis, “The Culture of Poverty,” Scientific American, October, 1966, pp. 19-25.

*Haryou, Youth in the Ghetto, Chapter 12.

C. A. Anderson, “A Skeptical Note on Education and Mobility,” in H. Halsey, J. Floud, C. Anderson, (*) Education Economy and Society.

III. TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME
  1. The Theory of Production and Distribution

M. Brown, On the Theory and Measurement of Technological Change, chapter 2, pp. 9-28.

*J. Meade, Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property, Chapter 1, pp. 11-26.

J. Hicks, Theory of Wages, Chapter VI, pp. 112-135.

  1. Commentaries, Past and Present

A. Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter 1.

D. Ricardo, The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter 31, “On Machinery.”

K. Marx, Capital, Volume I, Chapter XV, sections 3, 5 and 6, pp. 430-456; 466-488. (Pages refer to Modern Library edition.)

P. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chapter 5, pp. 75-95.

R. Solow, “Technology and Unemployment,” The Public Interest, Fall, 1965, pp. 17-26.

(Supplementary)

R. Eckaus, “The Factor Proportions Problem in Underdeveloped Areas.” American Economic Review, September, 1955, reprinted in A. Agarwala and S. P. Singh; (*) The Economics of Underdevelopment, pp. 348-78.

  1. Making the Most Out of Technological Change

*J. Meade, Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property, Chapters 2-7, pp. 27-77.

*National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress, Technology and the American Economy, Vol. 1, chapters 1-4, pp. 1-58.

IV. [ECONOMIC GROWTH: MEASUREMENT, THEORY, PRODUCTIVITY]
  1. The Measurement and Characteristics of Economic Growth

S. Kuznets, Postwar Economic Growth, Lecture II, “Characteristics of Modern Economic Growth,” pp. 36-68.

*C. Cipolla, The Economic History of World Population, Chapters 1 and 2, pp. 15-58.

*E. Denison, The Sources of Economic Growth in the United States, Chapters 1, 2, and 3, pp. 3-22.

(Supplementary)

M. Abramovitz, “The Welfare Interpretation of Secular Trends in National Income and Product,” Abramovitz, et al. (*) The Allocation of Economic Resources, pp. 1-22.

*S. Kuznets, Modern Economic Growth.

*O. Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, Chapters 1 and 2.

  1. Theories of Economic Growth

G. Winston, “The Power Growth Model,” mimeo, 18 pp.

*J. Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development, Chapters 1 to 4, pp. 3-156.

*J. Meade, A Neoclassical Theory of Economic Growth, Chapters 1 and 2, pp. 1-18.

  1. The Advance of Productivity in the U.S. Economy

J. Kendrick, Productivity Trends in the United States, pp. 3-12, 59-77.

(Supplementary)

M. Abramovitz, “Resource and Output Trends in the U.S. Since 1870,” American Economic Review, 1956.

R. Solow, “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1957.

V. EDUCATION AND GROWTH

T. Schultz, The Economic Value of Education, pp. 1-70.

S. Strumilin, “The Economic Significance of National Education,” in J. Vaizey and E. A. G. Robinson, The Economics of Education, pp. 276-323.

B. Weisbrod, “Education and Investment in Human Capital,” Journal of Political Economy Supplement, October, 1962, pp. 106-123.

W. Bowen, Economic Aspects of Education, Essay I, “Assessing the Economic Contribution of Education,” pp. 3-38.

*E. Denison, The Sources of Economic Growth in the U.S. and the Alternatives Before Us, pp. 23-46; 66-80; 84-87.

T. Schultz, “Investing in Farm People,” in T. Schultz, (*) Transforming Traditional Agriculture, pp. 175-206.

(Supplementary)

T. Schultz, “Investment in Human Capital,” American Economic Review, December, 1961.

W. Bowman, “The Human Investment Revolution in Economic Thought,” Sociology of Education, Vol. 39, No. 2, Spring, 1966, pp. 112-137.

*B. Weisbrod, The External Benefits of Public Education.

A. Harberger, “Investment in Men vs. Investment in Machines: The Case of India,” in M. Bowman and C. A. Anderson, Education and Economic Development, pp. 11-33.

Carl Shoup, et al., The Fiscal System of Venezuela, pp. 406-409.

M. Bowman and C. Anderson, “Concerning the Role of Education in Development,” in C. Geertz, Old Societies and New States, pp. 247-279.

S. Bowles, “Sources of Growth in the Greek Economy,” mimeo.

VI. TECHNOLOGY AND GROWTH
  1. The Production of New Technologies

J. Enos, “Invention and Innovation in the Petroleum Industry,” in National Bureau of Economic Research, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity, pp. 299-322.

H. Dickenson, “The Steam-Engine to 1830,” in Charles Singer et al. A History of Technology, Volume IV, pp. 168-198.

(Supplementary)

Articles by Peck, Mueller and Nelson, in National Bureau of Economic Research, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity.

R. Nelson, “The Economics of Invention: A Survey of the Literature,” in Journal of Business, April, 1959, pp. 101-127.

J. Schmookler, Invention and Economic Growth, Chapters 6 and 7.

  1. The Spread of New Technologies

W. E. G. Salter, Productivity and Technical Change, Chapters 4, 5, 6 and appendix to Chapter 7, pp. 48-82, 95-99.

Z. Griliches, “Hybrid Corn and the Economics of Innovation,” Science, July 29, 1960, Vol. 132, pp. 275-280.

(Supplementary)

J. Habakkuk, American and British Technology.

  1. Technology and Growth

E. Denison, The Sources of Economic Growth in the United States, pp. 154-255.

Z. Griliches, “Research Costs and Social Returns: Hybrid Corn and Related Innovations,” Journal of Political Economy, October, 1958, pp. 419-431.

  1. Efficiency of Resource Allocation in Research and Development

R. Nelson, “The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research,” in Journal of Political Economy, June, 1959, pp. 297-306.

(Supplementary)

K. Arrow, “Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention,” in National Bureau of Economic Research, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity, pp. 609-625.

VII. [ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION]
  1. The Concept of Efficiency in Education

H. Johnson, “Economics and Education,” in School Review, Autumn, 1957, pp. 260-269.

(Supplementary)

Project Talent, Studies of the American High School, Cooperative Research Project 226, U.S. Office of Education. Chapters 6, 9, and 10.

J. Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education.

  1. The Market for Educated Labor

H. Leibenstein, “Shortages and Surpluses in Education in Underdeveloped Countries,” in M. J. Bowman and C A. Anderson, Education and Economic Development, pp. 51-62.

K. Arrow and W. Capron, “Dynamic Shortages and Price Rises, The Engineer-Scientist Case,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1959, pp. 292-308.

  1. Market Solutions to the Problem of Efficient Resource Allocation in Education

M. Friedman, “The Role of Government in Education,” in R. Solo, Economics and the Public Interest, pp. 123-144.

A. Daniere, Higher Education in the American Economy, chapters 2 and 4-5 pp. 13-19, 33-55.

(Supplementary)

C. Jencks, “Is the Public School Obsolete?” in The Public Interest.

  1. Educational Planning

M. Blaug, “Conflicting Approaches to Educational Planning,” mimeo, 34 pp.

H. Johnson, “The Economics of the Brain Drain,” Minerva, 1965.

A. Daniere, “Rate of Return and Manpower Approach in Educational Planning” in Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration, Public Policy, 1965, pp. 162-200.

(Supplementary)

F. Harbison and C. Myers, Education, Manpower and Economic Growth.

J. Tinbergen, et al., Econometric Models of Education, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 1965; An Experiment in Planning by Six Countries, 1966.

H. Parnés, Forecasting Education Needs for Economic and Social Development, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 1962.

R. Hollister, A Technical Evaluation of the First Stage of the Mediterranean Regional Project, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1966.

R. Eckaus, “Economic Criteria for Education and Training,” Review of Economics and Statistics, (May, 1964), pp. 181-190.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1967-1968, Box 9. Folder “Economics, 1967-68”.

Image Source: The Boston Globe (December 5, 1969), p. 15.

Categories
Econometrics Harvard Statistics Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus and partial reading list for graduate time-series econometrics. Sims, 1968-1969

Christopher A. Sims, portrait from his senior year

 

Future economics Nobel laureate (2011) Christopher A. Sims was a 26 year old assistant professor at Harvard tasked in the fall term of 1968 to teach a graduate level introduction to time-series econometrics. He had been awarded a Harvard economics Ph.D. earlier that year. His dissertation supervisor was Hendrik Houthakker.

A copy of Sims’ initial list of reading assignments and topics can be found in the papers of Zvi Griliches in the Harvard Archives. Sims does appear to have offered a rather heavy dose of time-series econometrics for that time. Perhaps it was too much of a good thing, at least too much to swallow for most of the department’s graduate students. In any event Econometric Methods I was transferred to / taken over by Zvi Griliches in the following years when the topic of time series was reduced to an amuse-bouche of serial correlation.

In the previous year the course had been taught by Marc Nerlove (Yale University) with the following brief description provided in the course catalogue:  “An introduction to the construction and testing of econometric models with special emphasis on the analysis of economic time series.” 

_______________________

Course Announcement
Fall Term, 1968

Economics 224a. Econometric Methods

Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., S., at 9. Assistant Professor C. A. Sims

The theory of stochastic processes with applications to the construction and testing of dynamic economic models. Analysis in the time domain and in the frequency domain, in discrete time and in continuous time.

Prerequisite: Economics 221b [Multiple regression and the analysis of variance with economic applications] or equivalent preparation in statistics.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction, 1968-69, p. 133.

_______________________

Fall 1968
Economics 224a
Asst. Prof. C. Sims

Course Description

            The accompanying Course Outline gives a detailed description of topics 0 through III which will (hopefully) occupy the first third of the semester. These topics include most of the mathematical tools which will be given econometric application in the later sections. The list of topics in the outline, even under the main headings 0 through III, is not exhaustive; and the topics listed are not all of equivalent importance.

            Many of the references listed overlap substantially. In the first, theoretical, section of the course (except for Section 0) the references are chosen to duplicate as nearly as possible what will be covered in lectures. They should provide alternative explanations when you find the lectures obscure or, in some cases, provide more elegant and rigorous discussion when you find the lectures too pedestrian.

            The primary emphasis of this course will be on the stationarity, or linear process, approach to dynamic models. The Markov process, control theory, or state space approach which is currently prominent in the engineering literature will be discussed briefly under topics V and VII.

            The latter parts of the course will apply the theory developed in the first parts to formulating and testing dynamic economic models or hypotheses. Some background in economics is therefore essential to participation in the course. The mathematical prerequisites are a solid grasp of calculus, a course in statistics, and an ability to absorb new mathematical notions fairly quickly.

            The course text is Spectral Methods in Econometrics by Gilbert Fishman. Spectral Analysis by Gwilyn M. Jenkins and Donald G. Watts is more complete in some respects, but it is less thorough in its treatment of some points important in econometrics and it costs three times what Fishman costs. A list of other texts which may be referred to in the accompanying course outline or in future outlines and reading assignments follows. Some of these texts are at a higher mathematical level than is required for this course or cover topics we will not cover in detail. Those texts which should be on library reserve are marked with a “*”, and those which are priced below the usual high prices for technical texts are marked with a “$”.

List of Text References

* Ahlfors, Lars, Complex Analysis, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1953.

Acki, Max., Optimization of Stochastic Systems, Academic Press, 1967.

* Deutsch, Ralph, Estimation Theory, Prentice Hall, 1965.

* Fellner, et.al., Ten Economic Studies in the Tradition of Irving Fisher, Wiley, 1967.

* Freeman, H., Introduction to Statistical Inference, Addison-Wesley, 1963.

Granger, C.W.J., and M. Hatanaka, Spectral Analysis of Economic Time Series, Princeton University Press, 1964.

Grenander, U., and M. Rosenblatt, Statistical Analysis of Stationary Time Series, Wiley, 1957.

Grenander, U., and G. Szego, Toeplitz Forms and Their Applications, University of California Press, 1958.

*$ Hannan, E.J., Time Series Analysis, Methuen, London, 1960.

$ Lighthill, Introduction to Fourier Analysis and Generalized Functions, Cambridge University Press.

Rozanov, Yu. A., Stationary Random Processes, Holden-Day, 1967.

*$ Whittle, P., Prediction and Regulation by Linear Least-Square Methods, English Universities Press, 1963.

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

Preliminary Course Outline
Fall 1968
Economics 224a
Asst. Prof. C. Sims

0. Elementary Preliminaries.

Complex numbers and analytic functions, definitions and elementary facts. Manipulation of multi-dimensional probability distributions.

The material in this section will not be covered in lectures. A set of exercises aimed at testing your facility in these areas (for your information and mine) will be handed out at the first meeting.

References: Ahlfors, I.1, I.2.1-2.4, II.1; Jenkins and Watts, Chapters 3 and 4 or the sections on probability in a mathematical statistics text, e.g. Freeman, part I.

I. Stochastic Processes: Fundamental definitions and properties.
  1. Definitions:

stochastic process;
normal (stochastic) process;
stationary process;
linear process; — autoregressive and moving average processes;
covariance stationary process.
autocovariance and autocorrelation functions
stochastic convergence — in probability, almost sure, and in the (quadratic) mean or mean square;
ergodic process — n’th order ergodicity, sufficient conditions for first and second order ergodicity.
process with stationary n’th difference
Markov process

  1. Extensions to multivariate case.

References: Fishman, 2.1-2.5; Jenkins and Watts, 5.1-5.2.

II. Background from Mathematical Analysis
  1. Function spaces.
  2. Linear operator on function spaces; their interpretation as limits of sequences of ordinary weighted averages.
  3. Convolution of functions with functions, of operators with functions; discrete versus continuous time.
  4. Measure functions; Lebesgue-Stieltjes measures on the real line.
  5. Integration; the Lebesgue integral, the Cauchy-Riemann integral, and the Cauchy principal value; inverting the order of integration.
  6. Fourier transforms; of functions; of operators; continuous, discrete, and finite-discrete time parameters; the inverse transform and Parseval’s theorem.
  7. Applications to some simple deterministic models.

References: Jenkins and Watts, Chapter 2. For more rigor, see Lighthill. No reference I know of covers topics 4 and 5 in as brief and heuristic a way as we shall.

III. The spectral representation of covariance-stationary processes and its theoretical applications.
  1. Random measures; the random spectral measure of a covariance stationary process; characteristics of the random spectral measure in the normal and non-normal cases.
  2. The spectral density; relation to autocovariance function; positive definiteness.
  3. Wold’s decomposition; regular, mixed, and linearly deterministic processes; discrete and continuous component in the spectral measure; example of non-linearly deterministic process; the criterion for regularity with continuous spectral density.
  4. The moving average representation; criteria for existence of autoregressive representation.
  5. Optimal least squares forecasting and filtering.
  6. Generalized random processes.
  7. The multivariate case; cross spectra.
  8. Applications to econometric models.

References: Fishman, 2.6-2.30; Jenkins and Watts, 6.2 and 8.3: For a much more abstract approach, see Rozanov, chapters I – III.

IV. Statistical analysis using spectral and cross-spectral techniques.

V. Regression in time series.

VI. Seasonality.

VII. Estimation in distributed lag models.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 123. Folder “Econometric Methods 1968-1982.”

Image Source: Christopher A. Sims ’63 in Harvard Class Album 1963. From the Harvard Crimson article “Harvard and the Atomic Bomb,” by Matt B. Hoisch and Luke W. Xu (March 22, 2018). Sims was a member of the Harvard/Radcliffe group “Tocsin” that advocated nuclear disarmament.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Chicago Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Assigned Readings for Price and Income Instability. T. W. Schultz, 1956

Beginning in 1957 Zvi Griliches took over the course at Chicago on Price and Income Instability with special reference to agriculture. The course was previously taught by T. W. Schultz. In his files for the course Griliches kept a copy of the course outline and readings for the Spring 1956 quarter taught by his predecessor.

There were 86 numbered items on Schultz’s reading list that he referenced by the item number with chapter/page selections for some of the items. You will have to jump down from the course outline to the list of course readings and back, which I find a very peculiar way to present a course outline, but it didn’t keep him from getting a Nobel prize in economics in 1979.

_________________________

T. W. Schultz
University of Chicago

Economics 355 B
Price and Income Instability

(as problems in economic organization with special reference to agriculture)

Economics 355 B will cover the following classes of problems:

      1. general characteristics of policies and programs which are related to agriculture.
      2. analysis of the price and income instability that confronts agriculture.
      3. alternative measures for reducing or accommodating price and income instability.
      4. some research proposals directed to this set of problems.
  1. General characteristics of policies and programs for agriculture by types of countries and during different periods.

(to be developed in class)

  1. Analysis of price and income instability that confronts agriculture.

38, chs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 10;
55, chs, 11 and 20.

    1. Instability of the economy as a whole.

19;
5;
23;
50;
67;
44.

    1. Particular instabilities of farm product prices during the stock period.

45: pp. 14-15, 65-66, 76-77;
31, Ch. 2;
10: pp. 42-44;
51.

      1. Producer supply schedule for stock period.

(1) Farm household activities.

55, ch. 14;
49, ch. 6.

(2) Farm-firm activities.

55, ch. 14;
68, ch. 2.

      1. Demand schedule confronting producers restricted to stock period.

55, ch. 11;
68, ch. 2.

      1. Spot and forward markets.

38, ch. 10;
27;
42;
43;
32;
37;
28;
29;
6;
14;
54;
58;
69;
70.

    1. Particular instabilities of farm product prices for time intervals longer than stock period (up to and including two production periods).
      1. Planned and unplanned variations in production (supply).

55, chs. 11, 12, 13;
40;
68, ch. 2.4;
12;
11;
1;
2b;
65;
13;
16;
61;
66.

      1. Shifts in demand schedule during relatively short periods.

55, ch. 11;
12;
68, ch. 2;
71;
8;
9;
17;
18;
22;
46;
56;
57;
59;
62;
63;
64.

  1. Measures for reducing or accommodating farm product prices and income instability.

7;
44;
67;
26, pp. 247-252.

    1. Particular abrupt and large shifts in the demand schedule.

55, pp. 344-346.

    1. Large year to year changes in production.

55, ch. 19;
38, ch. 13;
2b;
3;
4;
15;
24;
25;
30;
34;
35;
36;
41;
48;
52;
53;
60.

    1. Increasing the price elasticity of the relevant schedules.

55, pp. 349-358.

    1. By way of accommodation.

55, pp. 358-366.

      1. Farms with more capacity to cope with price and income instability.
      2. Possibilities by storage.
      3. Safeguarding income during depressions.
  1. Some research proposals

(to be based on III and the research interest of the student)

_________________________

T. W. Schultz
Spring, 1956

Economics 355 B
List of Readings

  1. Barber, Lloyd, “Variability of Wheat Yields by Counties in the United States,” BAE (September, 1951).
  2. (a) Barber, E. Lloyd, “Summerfallowing to Meet Weather Risks in Wheat Farming,” Agricultural Economics Research, III (October, 1951).
  1. (b) Barton, Glen T. and Cooper, Martin R., “Relation of Agricultural Production to Inputs,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXX (May, 1948).
  2. Barber, E. Lloyd and Thair, Philip J., “Institutional Methods of Meeting Weather Uncertainty in the Great Plains,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXII (August, 1950).
  3. Barber, E. Lloyd, Meeting Weather Risks in Kansas Wheat Farming, Kansas Agr. Ext. Sta. and BAE Agr. Report 44 (September, 1950).
  4. Bennett, M. K. and Associates, International Commodity Stockpiling as an Economic Stabilizer (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1949).
  5. Blau, G., “Some Aspects of the Theory of Futures Trading,” The Review of Economic Studies, XI (1943-44).
  6. Brownlee, O. H. and Johnson, D. Gale, “Reducing Price Variability Confronting Primary Producers,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXII (May, 1950).
  7. Burk, Marguerite, “Recent Relationships between Income and Food Expenditure,” Agricultural Economics Research, BAE, III (July, 1951).
  8. ___________, “Changes in the Demand for Food from 1941 to 1950,” Journal of Farm Economics,” XXXIII (August, 1951).
  9. Clark, Colin, Conditions of Economic Progress, 2nd ed, (London: Macmillan, 1951).
  10. Cochrane, Willard W., An Analysis of Farm Price Behavior, Progress Report Agricultural Experinent Station, Pennsylvania State College (May, 1951)
  11. ___________, “Farm Price Gyrations — An Aggregative Hypothesis,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXIX (May, 1947).
  12. Day, Emily L. and Barber, Lloyd, Physical Risks in Farm Production, Selected References, 1930-1948. USDA Library, List 49 (August, 1949).
  13. Dow, J. C. R., “A Theoretical Account of Futures Markets,” The Review of Economic Studies, VII (1939-40).
  14. Ellickson, John C., “Hail Insurance on Growing Crops in the United States,” Agricultural Finance Review, BAE, XIII (November, 1950).
  15. Foote, Richard J. and Bean, Louis H., “Are Yearly Variations in CropYield Random?” BAE, Agricultural Economics Research, III (January, 1951).
  16. Fox, Karl A., “Factors Affecting Farm Income, Farm Prices and FoodConsumption,” Agricultural Economics Research, III (July, 1951).
  17. ___________ and Norcross, Harry C., “Agriculture and the General Economy,” Agricultural Economics Research, IV (January, 1952).
  18. Friedman, Milton, “Commodity-Reserve Currency,” Journal of Political Economy. LIX (June, 1951).
  19. Galbraith, John K., American Capitalism—The Concept of Countervailing Power (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1952).
  20. Galbraith, John K., “Economic Preconceptions and Farm Policy,” American Economic Review, XLIV (March, 1954).
  21. Girschick, M. A. and Haavelmo, T., “Statistical Analysis of the Demand forFood,” Econometrica, XV (April, 1947).
  22. Graham, Benjamin, Storage and Stability (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1937).
  23. Halcrow, Harold G., “Actuarial Structure of Crop Insurance,”Journal of Farm Economics, XXXI (August, 1949).
  24. ___________, The Theory of Crop Insurance, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Chicago, 1948.
  25. Haley, Bernard F. (ed.), A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. I (Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, 1952).
  26. Hardy, C. O., “Recent Developments in the Theory of Speculation,” American Economic Review, XXVII (1937).
  27. ___________ and Lyon, L. S., “The Theory of Hedging,” Journal of Political Economy, XXXI (1923).
  28. Hawtrey, R. G., “Mr. Kaldor on the Forward Market,” The Review of Economic Studies, VIII (1940-41).
  29. Heisig, Carl P., “Income Instabillty in High Risk Farming Areas,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXVIII (1946).
  30. Hicks, J. R., Value and Capital (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939).
  31. Hicks, J. R., “Theory of Uncertainty and Profit,” Economica, VI (1939).
  32. Hoos, Sidney,“Relations between Agricultural Price Policy and MarketingResearch,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXIII (August, 1951).
  33. Horton, Donald C., “Adaptation of the Farm Capital Structure to Uncertainty,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXI (February, 1949).
  34. ___________, The Pattern of Farm Financial Structure, National Bureau of Economic Research, a preliminary draft (May, 1951).
  35. ___________ and Barber, E. Lloyd, “The Problem of Farm Business Survival in Areas of Highly Variable Rainfall,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXI, Proceedings (November, 1942).
  36. Houthakker, H. S., “A Proposed Inquiry into Some Markets with Forward Trading,” Cowles Commission Discussion Paper Economics 2036 and Agricultural Economics Research Paper No. 5211, March 21, 1952. Mimeo.
  37. Johnson, D. Gale, Forward Prices for Agriculture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947).
  38. ___________, Trade and Agriculture: A Study of Inconsistent Policies (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1950).
  39. ___________, “The Nature of the Supply Function for American Agriculture,” American Economic Review, XL (September, 1950).
  40. Jones, Lloyd E.,“Stabilizing Farming by Shifting Wheat Land to Grass in Northern Great Plains,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXII (August, 1950).
  41. Kaldor, N., “A Note on the Theory of the Forward Market,”The Review of Economic Studies, VII (1939-40).
  42. ___________, “Speculation and Economic Stability,” The Review of Economic Studies, VII (1939-40).
  43. Keynes, J. M., “The Policy of Government Storage of Food-Stuffs and Raw Materials,” Economic Journal, XLVIII (September, 1938).
  44. Knight, Frank H., The Economic Organization (New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1951).
  45. Mack, Ruth P., “The Direction of Change in Income and the Consumption Function,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXX (1948).
  46. Mehrens, George L., “Comparative Costs of Agricultural Price Supportsin 1949,” Proceedings, American Economic Review, XLI (May, 1951).
  47. Nebraska Agr. Exp. Sta., Toward Stability in the Great Plains Economy, Proceedings of a conference held at Custer, South Dakota in 1949. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 399 (July, 1950).
  48. Reid, M. G., Food for People (New York: Wiley, 1943).
  49. Reifler, Winfield, “A Proposal for an International Buffer-Stock Agency,” Journal of Political Economy, LIV (December, 1946).
  50. Robbins, Lionel,“Elasticity of Demand for Income in Terms of Effort,” Economica (1930).
  51. Schickele, Rainer, “Farm Business Survival under Extreme Weather Risk,”Journal of Farm Economics, XXXI (November, 1949),
  52. ___________, “Farmers Adaptation to Income Uncertainty,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXII (August, 1950).
  53. Schultz, T. W., Production and Welfare of Agriculture (New York: Macmillan, 1949).
  54. ___________, The Economic Organization of Agriculture (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953).
  55. Schultz, Henry, The Theory and Measurement of Demand (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938).
  56. ___________, “The Shifting Demand for Selected Agricultural Commodities, 1875-1929,” Journal of Farm Economics, XIV (April, 1932).
  57. Stewart, Blair, An Analysis of Speculative Trading in Grain Futures, USDA Commodity Exchange Authority, Bul. No. 1001. October, 1942.
  58. Stone, J. R. K., “Analysis of Market Demand,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, CVIII (1945).
  59. Thair, Philip J., Stabilizing Farm Income against Crop Yield Fluctuations, Agr. Exp. Sta. North Dakota and BAE Bul. 362, September, 1950).
  60. Timoshenko, P., “Variability in Wheat Yields and Outputs, Part I. Cycles or Random Fluctuations,” Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute, XVIII (Stanford, California, 1942).
  61. Tintner, Gerhard,“Multiple Regression for System of Equations,” Econometrics, XIV (January, 1946).
  62. Tobin, James,“A Statistical Demand Function for Food in the U.S.A.,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, CXIII (1950), Part II.
  63. U.S.D.A., BAE, Consumption of Food in the United States, 1909-48, Misc. Pub. 691 (August, 1949).
  64. U.S.D.A., BAE, Farm Production Practices, Costs and Returns, Stat. Bul. 83 (October, 1949).
  65. U.S.D.A., Fluctuations in Crops and Weather, 1866-1948, Stat. Bul. 101 (June, 1951).
  66. Viner, Jacob, “International Finance in the Post-War World,”Lloyds Bank Review (October, 1946).
  67. Waugh, Frederick V., Readings in Agricultural Marketing (Ames: Iowa State College Press, 1954).
  68. Williams, J. B., “Speculation and the Carryover,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, LI (1936).
  69. Working, H. “Theory of the Inverse Carrying Charge in Futures Markets,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXX (1948).
  70. Working, E. J., “Appraising the Demand for American Agricultural Output during Rearmament,” Journal of Farm Economics XXXIV, May, 1952.
Supplementary List #1
  1. Bauer, P. T., West African Trade (Cambridge: The University Press, 1954), esp. Parts 3, 5, and 6.
  2. ___________ and Paish, F. , “The Reduction of Fluctuations in the Incomes of Primary Producers,” Economic Journal, LXII (December, 1952).
  3. ___________, “The Reduction of Fluctuations in the Incomes of Primary Producers Further Considered,” Economic Journal, LXIV, (December, 1954).
  4. Friedman, Milton, “The Reduction of Fluctuations in the Incomes of Primary Producers: A Critical Comment, Economic Journal, LXIV (December 1954).
  5. Gustafson, Robert L.,Optimal Carryover Rules for Grains, The University of Chicago RMA Study (January 31, 1954). Agricultural Economics Research Paper).
  6. Heady, Earl O., Kehrberg, Earl W., and Jebe, Emil B., Economic Instability and Choices Involving Income and Risk in Primary or Crop Production, Res. Bul. 404 (January, 1954) Agric. Exp. Iowa State College.
  7. Heady, Earl, “Diversification in Resource Allocation and Minimization of Income Variability,” Journal of Farm Economics XXXIV (November, 1952).
  8. Johnson, D. Gale, “Competition in Agriculture: Fact or Fiction?”American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings XLIV (May, 1954).
  9. Kaldor, Donald R. and Heady, Earl O., An Exploratory Study of Expectations, Uncertainty and Farm Plans in Southern Iowa Agriculture, Res. Bul. 408 April, 1954) Agric. Exp. Sta. Iowa State College.
  10. Kaplan, Marshall.On Estimating Demand Parameters With Special Reference to Food, AgriculturalEconomics Research Paper No. 5415. September 24, 1954.
  11. Lee, Ivan M., “Temperature Insurance — An Alternative to Frost Insurancein Citrus,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXV (February, 1953).
  12. Nordin, J. A., Judge, George G., and Wohby, Omar, Application of Econometric Procedures to Demands for Agricultural Products, Res. Bul 410 (July, 1954) Agri. Exp. Sta. Iowa State College.
  13. Tolley, George, “Minimizing Grain Storage Costs,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXV (November, 1953).
  14. Foreign Agricultural Service. Agricultural Market and Price Policies in Foreign Countries. Report No. 74 (September, 1953).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 130, Folder “Syllabus and exams, 1955-1959”.

Image Source:  T. W. Schultz, University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-07484, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list and final exam for U.S. economic and financial history. Taussig and Gay, 1905-1906

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 6 2hf. Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 79: 14 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

__________________________

READING FOR ECONOMICS 6
(1905-6)

Prescribed reading is indicated by an asterisk (*).

1. COLONIAL PERIOD.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-30; printed also in Surveys, pp. 309-335.

Schmoller, Mercantile System, pp. 57-80.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 1-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Eggleston, Agriculture and Commerce in the Colonies, The Century Magazine, Jan. and June, 1884, Vol. V, pp. 431-449; Vol. VI, pp. 234-256.

2. COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES, 1776-1815.

*Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer Econ. Assn. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the United States, ed. 1835, ch. ix, pp. 368-412.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 287-324, 95-145.

Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-108.

3. REVOLUTIONARY AND NATIONAL FINANCE – WESTWARD MOVEMENT, 1776-1815.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, chs. ii-vi, pp. 33-141.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-78.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. 1, pp. 15-37, 64-67.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assn., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Semple, American History and its Geographical Conditions, chs. iv, v, pp. 52-92.

4. FINANCE AND BANKING, 1815-1860.

*Dewey, Financial History, pp. 223-237, 252-262.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson, ed. 1886, pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, chs. xvi-vviii, pp. 376-403, 430-452.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, ch. xiv, pp. 310-347.

White, Money and Banking, chs. ix-xii, pp. 324-361.

5. TARIFFS AND MANUFACTURES, 1815-1860.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 1-154.

Taussig, State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 108-385.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, 146-199, 325-383.

6. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, 1815-1860.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162.

Chevalier, Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States, chs. vii, xx, xxi, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), Vol. XII, pp. 531-581.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I.

Tanner, Railways and Canals of the United States. See, especially, the map.

7. LAND POLICY AND AGRICULTURE, 1815-1860.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, ch. iii, pp. 67-119.

Donaldson, Public Domain.

Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, 4th series, nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181.

8. POPULATION AND SLAVERY, 1815-1860.

*Cairnes, Slave Power, chs. ii, iii, v, pp. 34-93, 120-150.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, ch. ii, pp. 34-60.

Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, ch. ix, pp. 150-177.

9. FINANCE, BANKING, AND CURRENCY PROBLEMS, 1860-1900.

*Dewey, Financial History, chs. xii, xiii, xx, pp. 271-330, 463-473.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, chs. i, ii, iii, x, pp. 1-72, 234-254.

Taussig, Silver Situation, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-36.

10. TRANSPORTATION; TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-230.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Johnson, American Railway Transportation, chs. ii, ii, v, pp. 13-38, 52-68.

Taussig, Contribution to the Theory of Railway Rates, Q.J.E., Vol. V, pp. 438-465.

Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 24-56.

11. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION AND TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 230-409.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth United States Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 723-743.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 610-647.

Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

12. AGRICULTURE AND OPENING OF THE FAR WEST.

*Industrial Commission, XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-168.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, Book I, chs. iv-vii, ix, pp. 120-228, 324-356.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CLXXV, pp. 394-424.

13. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.

*Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Qr., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-209.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, chs. i-v, pp. 1-94.

14. WAGES AND THE LABOR PROBLEM.

*Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor.

Industrial Conciliation, National Civic Federation.

Wright, Industrial History of the United States, Part III, pp. 231-322.

15. IMMIGRATION AND THE RACE QUESTION.

*Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, chs. iii, iv, pp. 33-78.

Tillinghast, Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-227.

Hoffman, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 141-148, 170-176, 310-329.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 79-167, 227-283.

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-434.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in conomics, 1895-2003, Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1905-1906”.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 6
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Describe the history of the agitation for “cheap money” in the United States; the forms assumed both before and after 1860, its causes and the probability of its recurrence.
  2. Compare critically the financing of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Spanish War.
  3. (a) Summarize the principal features of our tariff legislation from the close of the Civil War to the Dingley Tariff.
    (b) What has been the effect of the tariffs on the iron and steel industry?
  4. Give the history of the Union Pacific Railroad and its relations to the government.
  5. Account for the changes in the character of the foreign trade of the United States in respect to the excess of imports or of exports.
    Take one of the following questions:
  6. Discuss the significance and causes of the increase of farm tenancy and the rural exodus.
  7. What can you say as to agricultural conditions in the South before and since the Civil War? What about the negro problem?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: Portraits of Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay from the Harvard Class Album 1906.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard International Economics Suggested Reading

Harvard. Undergraduate International Economics. Book list and final exam. Caves, 1963-1964

Harvard Square in February 1964

While the memo to the libraries promises a full reading list for the course on international trade and finance to come as soon as possible, there was no copy of Richard Caves’ full reading list for the first semester of 1963-64 to be found with other economics course syllabi in the Harvard archives. Still the twenty items arranged in approximate order of use together with the final exam questions for the course give us a good idea of the course content.

________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 148. International Trade: Basic Facts and Policies

Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., (S.), at 12. Professor Caves

Treats such problems as the balance of payments, the dollar market, capital movements, exchange rates, exchange control, European integration and the relation of domestic and international policies.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Science. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. LX, No. 21 (September 4, 1963) p. 104.

________________________

Book list for Economics 148

September 11, 1963

To: Lamont, Radcliffe, Littauer Libraries
From: Richard E. Caves
Subject: book list for Economics 148, Fall Semester, 1963-64

The following books and other special materials which I plan to assign for Economics 148 (“International Trade: Basic Facts and Policies”) are arranged in the approximate order of use during the term. Heavy assignments will be made in those titles preceded by an asterisk; in general, only relatively short passages will be assigned from other titles.

Students will be urged to purchase as a basic text Charles P. Kindleberger, International Economics, 3rd ed. (Homewood, Ill.: Richard 3 D. Irwin, 1963). I expect an enrollment in the course about the same as last year, 90 to 100.

A full reading list will follow as soon as possible.

Lary, Hal B. Problems of the United States as World Trader and Banker. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1963.

Allen, W. R., and Allen, C. L., eds. Foreign Trade and Finance: Essays in International Economic Equilibrium and Adjustment. New York: Macmillan, 1959.

Meier, Gerald M. International Trade and Development. New York: Harper and Row, 1963.

Kenen, Peter B. Giant Among Nations: Problems in United States Foreign Economic Policy. Chicago: Rand, McNally, 1963.

Daedalus, Summer and Fall numbers, 1962.

Vaccara, Beatrice N. Employment and Output in Protected Manufacturing Industries. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1960.

Myrdal, Gunnar. An International Economy: Problems and Prospects. New York: Harper & Bros., 1956.

Triffin, Robert. Europe and the Money Muddle. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.

*Salant, Walter S. et al. The United States Balance of Payments in 1968, Washington, D.C. Brookings Institution, 1963.
[Note: Chapters 2-9 were the Reading Period assignments]

Harris, Seymour E., ed. The Dollar in Crisis. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961.

*Factors Affecting the United States Balance of Payments, Compilation of Studies, U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Subcommittee on International Exchange and Payments, 87th Congress, 2nd session. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1962.

Tew, Brian. International Monetary Cooperation, 1945-1956. London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1956.

Tew, Brian, The International Monetary Fund: Its Present Role and Future Prospects. Essays in International Finance, No. 36. Princeton, N.J.: International Finance Section, Princeton University, 1961.

Machlup, Fritz. Plans for Reform of the International Monetary System, Special Papers in International Economics, No. 3. Princeton, N.J.: International Finance Section, Princeton University, 1962.

Tinbergen, Jan. Shaping the World Economy: Suggestions for an International Economic Policy. New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1962.

Asher, Robert E. Grants, Loans, and Local Currencies: Their Role In Foreign Aid. Washington, D. C.: Brookings Institution, 1961.

Millikan, M. F., and W. W. Rostow. A Proposal: Key To An Effective Foreign Policy. New York: Harper & Bros., 1957.

Mikesell, R. F. Promoting United States Private Investment Abroad. Washington, D.C. National Planning Association, 1957.

*Balassa, Bela. The Theory of Economic Integration. Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, 1961.

Sannwald, Rolf F., and Jacques Stohler. Economic Integration: Theoretical Assumptions and Consequences of European Integration. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1959.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1963-1964”.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 148
Final Examination
January 21, 1964

Answer question No. 1 and three of the remaining five. The answers to all questions will be weighted equally.

  1. Describe the basic model used in the Brookings report (The United States Balance of Payments in 1968) to forecast the balance of payments and evaluate its completeness and correctness in terms of international trade theory.
    (Note: Make sure that you distinguish between the structure of the model and the assumptions made about independent variables used in the model.)
  2. Do underdeveloped countries face a conflict between the “gains from trade” and the “gains from growth”?
    Discuss critically the arguments which have been advanced for the restriction of imports by developing countries, distinguishing between arguments for across-the-board restrictions and those for restricting the inflow of particular types of commodities.
  3. A country devalues its currency. Show how the price and income adjustment mechanisms respond to affect the balance of payments. Would you normally expect the balance to improve? Is it possible for no net improvement to occur, although the price effect is favorable?
  4. Discuss the elements of the “international liquidity problem.” Would the problem disappear if the United States balance of payments (miraculously) returned to equilibrium? Appraise the extent to which at least two of the proposals for dealing with the liquidity problem would solve the essential elements of that problem, as you see them.
  5. A country forms a customs union with another. Illustrate the following effects for any one traded commodity, using diagrams, and assuming that the world’s and the partner country’s supply functions are perfectly elastic, while the domestic supply and demand functions are neither perfectly elastic nor perfectly inelastic:
    1. Tariff revenue foregone
    2. Transfer from the government to the consumers
    3. Transfer from domestic producers to consumers
    4. Change in consumers’ surplus
    5. Trade creation
    6. Trade diversion
      Briefly, how might the net effect (gain or loss) of the union on the country’s welfare be measured?
  6. Can industrialized countries increase their rates of economic growth by forming customs unions? Appraise the possible gains from faster growth in the setting of Western European economies. Could some of the effects of a customs union hamper growth, either among members or in excluded countries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Social Sciences. Final Examinations January 1964 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 150).

Image Source: Harvard Square Snowstorm, February 1964. Boston Public Library, Boston Herald-Traveler Photo Morgue Collection. Copy downloaded from the Digital Commonwealth website.

Categories
Federal Government Statistics Suggested Reading

Government Statistics. Centenary History of the U.S. Survey of Current Business. Reamer, 2020

While trawling the internet for a ca. 1920 photo of Edwin Francis Gay for another post (coming attraction), I found the following history of the Department of Commerce’s publication “Survey of Current Business” commissioned for the occasion of the centenary celebration of its founding. We encounter Herbert Hoover, Wesley Clair Mitchell, Edwin Francis Gay, and Simon Kuznets on page one of the history…

_______________________

The Origins of
the Survey of Current Business:
A Window on the Evolution of Economic Policy, Research, and Statistics

By Andrew D. Reamer

For decades, the Survey of Current Business, the flagship monthly publication of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), has provided macro-, industry, international, and regional economists with data, analysis, and methodological research concerning the national economic accounts. This was not always so.

The Survey was founded in July 1921 as Department of Commerce (DOC) Secretary Herbert Hoover’s primary tool to promote macroeconomic stabilization. Specifically, the Survey published current, detailed industry-specific data from hundreds of public and private secondary sources so businesses might make better operational and investment decisions. One decade and a Great Depression later, the extensive statistical clearinghouse feeding the Survey became the foundation for Simon Kuznets’ famed study of national income and the subsequent development of national economic accounting.

The Survey’s creation and its later repurposing were the results of efforts by economists Edwin Gay and Wesley Mitchell, largely through a series of collaborations with Hoover between 1921 and 1933. As members of Hoover’s Joint Census Advisory Committee, Gay and Mitchell recommended the Survey’s development, modeled on the statistical clearinghouse they created to guide federal economic planning in the First World War. As founding leaders of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), they guided path-setting studies of national income and business cycles, several commissioned by Hoover; trained and hired Kuznets, who contributed to several NBER studies, including one for Hoover; and detailed Kuznets to the DOC to prepare the groundbreaking national income report.

This article begins by describing the Survey’s role in economic stabilization policy in the 1920s and the development of national economic accounting in the 1930s. The succeeding sections unpack this story by delving into how the Survey came to play these successive roles, particularly through Gay, Mitchell, and Hoover’s efforts. …

Source: From “Chronicling 100 Years of the U.S. Economy,” Survey of Current Business Vol. 100, No. 10 (October 2020)

Links to archived versions of the full article: htm; pdf.

Image Source: Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, ca.1921. From the blog of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.