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Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Junior Honors Reading Lists. Conrad and Henderson, 1958-1959

 

Before the 1958-59 academic year began, tragedy struck the Harvard economics department. Assistant professor of economics Stefan Valavanis (31 years old) was found shot in his tent near Mt. Olympus. He was to be the lead instructor for the Junior year honors course in economics during the up-coming year. With his loss the course was left to his assistant professor colleagues, Alfred Haskell Conrad and James Mitchell Henderson.

Alfred Haskell Conrad, Ph.D. 1954. The Redistribution of Incomes and the Matrix Multiplier: The Impact of Fiscal Policy on the Distribution of Income in 1950. Advisors: W.W. Leontief and John S. Chipman. (Mathematics Genealogy Project)

James Mitchell Henderson, Ph.D. 1955. The Efficiency of the Coal Industry: An Application of Linear Programming. Advisors: W.W. Leontief and Elizabeth Waterman Gilboy. (Mathematics Genealogy Project)

James M. Henderson was co-author with Richard Quandt of Microeconomic Theory: A Mathematical Approach, the leading graduate microeconomics text in its day and (fun fact) married Anne O. Krueger in July 1981 when they both were professors at the University of Minnesota. The two of them moved on to become professors at Duke University. Henderson died in 1992.

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Course Announcement

Economics 100. Junior Honors Course

Full course. M., 4-6. Assistant Professors [Stefan] Valavanis (in charge), [Alfred Haskell] Conrad and (spring term) [James Mitchell] Henderson.

Permission required of Assistant Professor Valavanis.

Required course for Economics concentrators who are candidates for honors. This course will deal with the theory of wages and prices; problems of public policy in the fields of Industrial Organization and Labor; the relation between descriptive material and theoretical analysis; methods of testing hypotheses. One two-hour group meeting each week organized as a seminar with papers by students. Additional papers and individual conferences with staff members.

Source: Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1958-1959. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. LV, No. 20 (September 3, 1958), p. 89.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 100. Junior Honors Course. Assistant Professors Conrad and (S) Henderson. Full course.

(F) Total 49: 3 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe
(S) Total 46: 4 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe

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

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Final Reading List and Course Outline
Economies 100
Fall, 1958

I. Introduction: Some background and material on the nature and setting of American industrial enterprise. The market mechanism.

W. Adams (ed.), The Structure of American Industry, Chs. 5, 6, 7, 11, 13.

A.B. Jack, “The Channels of Distribution for an Innovation,” Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, IX, p. 113.

K.E. Boulding, Economic Analysis, Part I (any edition).

II. The Empirical Measurement of Economic Functions.

M.J. Moroney, Facts from Figures, Ch. 2, 4; (probability and central tendency).

R.E. Freund, Modern Elementary Statistics, Ch. 12, 13.

Jan Tinbergen, Econometrics, Chs. 1, 2, 5.

R. G. D. Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists, Ch. 2; Ch. 6 (recommended) (functions and derivatives).

III. Factors Determining Industry Structure.

A. Production Theory

E. A. G. Robinson, The Structure of Competitive Industry, Chs. 1-5.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chs. 6,7.

V. E. Smith, “The Statistical Production Function,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1944-45, pp. 543-62.

R. G. Bressler, Jr. “Research Determination of Economies of Scale,” Journal of Farm Economics, 1945, p. 526.

B. Cost Curves

Committee on Price Determination for the Conference on Price Research, Cost Behavior and Price Policy, pp. 80-115, 291-301, 219-263, 321-329.

J. Viner, “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” Readings in Price Theory. Ch. 10, p. 198.

M. Colberg, et al, Business Economics, Ch. 4, 5.

C. Barriers to entry other than economies of scale

J. Bain, Barriers to New Competition, Ch. 6.

IV. Markets and Pricing:

A. Indifference Curves and Consumer Theory

George J. Stigler, The Theory of Price (any edition) Ch. 5.

Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chs. 2, 3, 4.

Boulding, Economic Analysis, Ch. 34 (revised edition).

B. Pure Competition and Pure Monopoly

E. H. Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Chs. 1, 2.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chs. 8, 16.

C. Oligopoly

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chs. 3, 4, 5.

Readings in Price Theory, Chs. 20, 21.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Ch. 20.

R. M. Alt, “Statistical Measurement of Price Flexibility,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1949, p. 92.

J. Bain, Barriers, Ch. 7.

J. Vanek, “The Nature of Equilibrium in Monopolistic Competition,” Mimeographed.

V. Investment Theory

A. An outline of formal theory

Samuelson, Economics, Ch. 29.

Boulding, Chs. 35-37 (revised edition).

Joel Dean, Capital Budgeting, Chs. 1-3.

J. M. Clark, “Business Acceleration and the Law of Demand,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory.

J. Meyer and E. Kuh, The Investment Decision, Ch. 11 (2).

B. Uncertainty

R. Weckstein, “On the Use of the Theory of Probability in Economics,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1953, pp. 191-198.

Ward Edwards, “The Theory of Decision Making,” Psychological Bulletin, 1954.

A. G. Hart, Anticipation, Uncertainty, and Dynamic Planning.

C. Financial Considerations

J. Meyer and E. Kuh, The Investment Decision, Chs. 9, 12.

R. Mack, The Flow of Business Funds and Consumer Purchasing Power, Ch. VIII.

W. Heller, “The Anatomy of Investment Decisions,” Harvard Business Review, March 1951.

Fortune, “The Fine Art of Raising Capital,” u, July 1956 and ”How Much Can Business Borrow?” June 1956.

D. The Influence of Market Structure on the Investment Decision and Innovation.

W. Fellner,” The Influence of Market Structure on Technological Progress,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1951, pp. 556-577.

C. Kaysen, “A Dynamic Aspect of the Monopoly Problem,” Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1949, pp. 109-113.

Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Ch. VIIl, pp. 87-106.

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Economics 100
Reading List
Spring, 1959

I. General Equilibrium.

E. Phelps Brown, The Framework of the Pricing System, Chaps. II-IV.

F. Zeuthen, Economic Theory and Method, Chaps. 10-12 and pp. 194-197.

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, Part II.

W. W. Leontief, “Input-Output Economics,” Scientific American, October, 1951.

W. W. Leontief, “Input-Output Analysis and the General Equilibrium Theory,” in T. Barna, ed., The Structural Interdependence of the Economy, pp. 42-49.

Selected Applications

(The material listed under this heading may be used as the basis for tutorial papers and discussion. Specific assignments will be made by the instructor.)

W. W. Leontief, “Factor Proportions and the Structure of American Trade,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Nov., 1956.

R. S. Eckaus, “The Factor Proportions Problem in Underdeveloped Areas,” American Economic Review, September, 1955.

II. Welfare Economics.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chaps. 4, 8, 16. (for review).

J. de V. Graaff, Theoretical Welfare Economics. Chaps. I-V, X, XI. (omit the appendices)

K. Boulding, “Welfare Economics,” in Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. II, B. F. Haley, ed.

A. P. Lerner, The Economics of Control, Chaps. 3, 4.

Selected Applications

M. Friedman, in R. Solo, ed., Economics and the Public Interest, Chap. 9.

W. S. Vickey, The Revision of the Rapid Transit Fare Structure of the City of New York, (hectographed; in Littauer Library).

J. V. Krutilla and O. Eckstein, Multi-Purpose River Development, 1958.

N. Kaldor, The Expenditure Tax.

III. Macro Models — Cycles, Growth, Money.

G. Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Chaps. 2, 3, 5.

A. Hansen, Business Cycles and National Income, Part Il.

A. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chaps. 3-6.

J. S. Duesenberry, Business Cycles and Economic Growth, Chaps. 2-5, 9-12.

C. Christ, “Aggregate Econometric Models,” American Economic Review, June, 1956

H. Makower and J. Marschak, “Assets, Prices and Monetary Theory,” in G. Stigler and K. Boulding, eds., Readings in Price Theory. Chap. 14.

J. Gurley and E. Shaw, “Financial Aspects of Economic Development,” American Economic Review, September, 1955.

Selected applications from the fields of wage and price policy, inflation, international trade and development will be assigned by the instructors.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University: Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1958-59 (1 of 2).”

Image Sources:

Left. 1959 Alfred Haksell Conrad, John Simon Guggeheim Memorial Foundation.
Right:  1959, James M. Henderson, University of Minnesota Archives.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

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

 

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

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

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Obituary in The Daily Pennsylvanian

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

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

By Alissa Eisenberg and Alissa Eisenber 06/14/07

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

Levine was 78.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Harvard Course Announcement Fall Term, 1963

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

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

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

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

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

Course Outline and Reading List.

Books to be Purchased:

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

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

Part One

I. Historical Overview

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

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

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

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

4. Supplementary Readings:

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

b) Robinson, Chapters 5, 12.

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

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

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

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

1. Dobb, Chapters 3-7.

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

1. Dobb, Chapters 8 and 9

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

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

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

5. Supplementary Reading:

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

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

1. Dobb, Chapter 10

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

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

4 Jasny, Soviet Industrialization, pp. 177-187

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

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

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

3. Supplementary Readings:

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

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

II. Soviet Economic Growth

A. Problems of Measuring Growth

1. The Soviet Statistical System

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

2. Reliability of Soviet Statistics

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

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

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

3. Interpretation of Data

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

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

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

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

e) Supplementary Readings

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

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

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

B. What Has Been Accomplished?

1. National Income

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

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

c) Supplementary Reading

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

2. Industry

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

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

c) Supplementary Reading

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

3. Agriculture

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

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

4.  Consumption

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

b) Supplementary Reading

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

C. Analysis of Growth

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

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

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

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

5. Supplementary Readings

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

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

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

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

Ill. The Operation of the Soviet Economy

A. General Operating Framework and Principles

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

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

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

4. Supplementary Reading

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

B. Planning

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

2. Schwartz, Chapter V

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

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

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

6. Supplementary Readings

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

b) Dobb, Chapter 1

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

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

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

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

C. The Firm and Problems of Industrial Administration

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

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

3. “The Liberman Proposals”

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

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

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

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

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

7. Supplementary Readings

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

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

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

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

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

D. Prices

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

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

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

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

5. Supplementary Readings

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

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

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

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

E. Finance

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

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

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

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

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

F. Labor

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

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

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

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

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

6. Supplementary Readings

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

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

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

G. Agriculture

1. Schwarz, Chapter VIII

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

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

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

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

6. Supplementary Readings

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

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

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

H. Domestic Trade, Foreign Trade and Foreign Aid

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

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

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

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

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

6. Supplementary Readings

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

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

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

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

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

I. Future Prospects and Their Implications

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

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

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

4. Supplementary Reading

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

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

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

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 133

Final Examination
January 27, 1964

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

1. (20 minutes)

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

2. (20 minutes)

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

3. (20 minutes)

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

4. (20 minutes)

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

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

5. (30 minutes)

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

6. (30 minutes)

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

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

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

7. (30 minutes)

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

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

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

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

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

e. Bonus (If you have time)

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

Part III (One hour)
Answer the following question.

8. (60 minutes)

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

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

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

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

Categories
Exam Questions History of Economics Princeton Suggested Reading Syllabus

Princeton. History of Economic Thought. Reading List, General Exam. Baumol, 1987-1988

What I find useful about the syllabus on classical economics from William Baumol’s Princeton course transcribed below is that it provides a lean and precise list of original text reading assignments to work through. Full-blown bibliographies have their use for students when writing term papers, but this butcher’s choice of filet cuts provides a wholesome main course that will last a semester and provide pleasant memories for a lifetime.

Here you will find other postings at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror that offer material from courses in the history of economics.

_______________________

Alan B. Krueger’s Interview with William J. Baumol in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Summer 2001), pp. 211-231.

_______________________

Princeton University
Department of Economics

Economics 506
History of Economic Thought

Fall Term 1988

Professor W.J. Baumol

Smith, Adam, Wealth of Nations, 1776, Book I, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 (first 20 pages), 10 (first 17 pages); Book II, Chapter 3; Book IV, Chapters 1, 2, 8.

Malthus, T.R., An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798, Pelican Edition, 1970, Introduction by Anthony Flew, Chapters 1-5, 18, 19.

Ricardo, David, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, London, 1817, Chapters I-X, XIX-XXI, XXX-XXXI.

*Ricardo David, Notes on Malthus, Piero Sraffa, editor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951, Editor’s Introduction and pp. 300-382.

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party.

Marx, Karl, Capital (3 volumes), New York: International Publishing Company.

Volume I: Author’s Prefaces; Chapter 1; Chapter 3, Sections II a, b; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7, Section 2; Chapter 8; Chapter 9, Sections 1, 3, 4; skim Chapter 10; Chapter 15, Section 6; Chapter 16; Chapter 24, Sections 2, 3, 5; Chapter 25.

Volume II:Preface; Chapter 9; Chapter 16, Part 3; pp. 390-396 (Chapter 17, last 6 pages on Simple Reproduction); Chapter 20; pp. 576-9 (Chapter 21, I, Accumulation in Department 1 (1) formation of a hoard).

Volume III: Preface; Chapters 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 22, 27, 37, 38, 48.

*Marx, Karl,  A Critique of the Gotha Program, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1937.

*On reserve at Firestone Library.

Source: Edward Tower (compiler). Economics Reading Lists, Course Outlines, Exams, Puzzles & Problems, Vol. 24. History of Economic Thought. Durham, NC: Eno River Press, August 1990, page 38.

_______________________

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

General Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

History of Economic Thought
January 1987

Time: 3 hours

  1. Distinguish the roles of the labor command and the labor content discussions of value in Adam Smith. What was Smith’s general model of the determination of long run exchange value under competition?
  2. In terms of the formal Ricardian model, explain the consequences of elimination of a tariff on grain (corn) (a) in the short run; (b) in the long run.
  3. (a) Explain why, in Marx’s view, profits under capitalism can be expected to decline with the passage of time. (b) Why did he reject Ricardo’s model leading to the same conclusion? (c) On what grounds has Marx’s model of the declining profit rate been criticized?
  4. In one sentence each, characterize some of the main work of the following:
    1. Jeremy Bentham
    2. Frederick Bastiat
    3. J.B. Clark
    4. J. R. McCulloch
    5. Enrico Barone
  5. (for Arthur Moretti) Describe the logic of the Hayek business cycle model. What role is played by technological elements? by monetary elements? What is the pertinence of the “Ricardo effect?”
  6. (for Kin Yip Louie) Explain the source of Marshall’s error in using consumers’ surplus to argue that increasing returns industries should be subsidized. Would the Hicksian analysis of the four consumers surpluses have helped ra avoid the error? Why or why not?
  7. (for Susan Skeath [“Susan Skeath van Mulbregt”, Princeton Ph.D., 1989; Professor of Economics at Wellesley College]) Explain the role played by utility in J. S. Mill’s value theory. Does his utility concept lead him to particular policy conclusions? How do Mill’s views on the appropriate role of government differ from those of his classical predecessors?
  8. (for Teow-Hock Koh [“Winston Teow-Hock Koh”, Princeton Ph.D., 1988; Professor at Singapore Management University; died 2013]) (To what extent does Malthus’ contradistinction to his analysis conclusions) structure anticipate the of the Keynesian model? In provide a answering this, summary of the workings of the pertinent parts the Keynesian analysis. What features of Marxian Theory overlap with the Keynesian model?
  9. (for Vicente Morales) a) Describe any of the mathematical solutions to the transformation problem showing how prices and the rate of profit are related to values and the rate of surplus value. b) Explain Samuelson’s criticism of the entire analysis and Morishima’s reply.

Source: Edward Tower (compiler). Economics Reading Lists, Course Outlines, Exams, Puzzles & Problems, Vol. 24. History of Economic Thought. Durham, NC: Eno River Press, August 1990, pp. 266-267.

Image Source:  Cropped from portrait of William J. Baumol in 1981 published in his obituary published in The New York Times, May 10, 2017.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Syllabus and Final Exam, International Monetary Economics. Metzler, 1971

The two items below (syllabus and final exam) were incorrectly filed in Lloyd A. Metzler’s papers at Duke. I accidentally stumbled upon both today and thought that rather than trusting my memory of the locations of the syllabus and final exam for Economics 370 in 1971, I’d just transcribe and post the two artifacts today. According to the biographical note below, Lloyd Metzler retired from the University of Chicago in 1971 so this must have indeed been the last time that he taught international monetary economics at Chicago.

__________________________

Biographical Note

Lloyd Appleton Metzler was born on April 3, 1913 in Lost Springs, Kansas. He attended the University of Kansas, where he studied economics under John Ise and earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1935 and an MBA in 1938. Metzler then entered Harvard University. He served as an instructor and tutor at Harvard and completed a Ph.D. in economics in 1942. His dissertation, “Interregional Income Generation,” earned him the Wells Prize. That same year, Metzler was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.

From Harvard, Metzler went on to Washington, D.C., where worked for the Office of Strategic Services and several economic policy and planning commissions between 1943 and 1946. Metzler joined the research staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1944. In 1946 he returned to academia when he accepted a teaching position at Yale University. He soon left Yale for the University of Chicago in 1947, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Dr. Metzler survived surgery for a brain tumor in 1952, and with the help of his wife Edith, managed to continue teaching and writing for the next twenty years. He served as Editor of the Journal of Political Economy from 1966 until his retirement in 1971. Metzler made numerous contributions to business cycle literature, macro-monetary theory, tariff theory, mathematical economics, and the field of international trade. The Metzler paradox, Laursen-Metzler effect, and Metzler matrix, all bear his name. He died on October 26, 1980.

Source: University of Chicago Library. Guide to the Lloyd A. Metzler Papers 1941-1948.

__________________________

For Intertemporal Comparison

Syllabus and readings for Economics 370 in 1950.

Exam for Economics 370 in 1953.

Syllabus, readings and final exam for Economics 370 from Winter Quarter 1967.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 370

Monetary Aspects of International Trade
Major Topics and Reading List
Winter, 1971

  1. Mechanism of the Foreign Exchange Market
    1. Alan R. Holmes and Francis Schott, The New York Foreign Exchange Market. New York: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 1965, Chapters 1-6.
    2. Frank A. Southard, Jr., Foreign Exchange Practice and Policy. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1940.
    3. Norman Crump, The ABC of the Foreign Exchange. London: MacMillan and Company, Ltd., 1951.
    4. James E. Meade, The Theory of International Economic Policy: Vol. I. The Balance of Payments. London: Oxford University Press, 1951, Chapter 1.
  2. The Quantity of Money, the Rate of Interest, and the Price Level
    1. James Tobin, “The Monetary Policy and the Management of the Public Debt: The Patman Inquiry,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. XXXV, No. 2, May 1953, pp. 118-27.
    2. Subcommittee on General Credit Control and Debt Management of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Hearings on the Question, What Should our Monetary and Debt Management Policy Be? 82nd Congress of the United States 1952, pp. 688-711, 691-98. (These pages include the testimony of Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson).
    3. Robert V. Roosa, “Interest Rates and the Central Bank,” In Money, Trade, and Economic Growth, in honor of John Henry Williams, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951.
    4. Lloyd A. Metzler, “Wealth, Saving, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LIX, No. 2, April 1951, pp. 93-116.
    5. Robert A. Mundell, “The Public Debt, Corporate Income Taxes, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXVIII, No. 6, December 1960, pp. 622-26.
    6. George Horwich, “Real Assets and the Theory of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXX, No.2, April 1962, pp. 158-69.
    7. Don Patinkin, Money, Interest, and Prices, 1st edition, Evanston: Row, Peterson and Company, 1956, Part II.
  3. The Role of Money in International Adjustment: Full Employment and Under-Employment
    1. J. M. Keynes, Treatise on Money: Vol. 1. The Pure Theory of Money. London: Macmillan and Company, 1935, Chapter 21.
    2. Lloyd A. Metzler, “The Theory of International Trade,” from A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Howard S. Ellis, Editor, Homewood, Ill.: R.D. Irwin, Inc., 1948.
    3. Lloyd A. Metzler, “The Process of International Adjustment Under Conditions of Full Employment: A Keynesian View,” first delivered before the Econometric Society, 1960, republished in AEA, Readings in International Economics, Vol. XI, Richard Caves and Harry Johnson, editors, Homewood, Ill.: R. D. Irwin, Inc., 1968, Chapter 28.
  4. Free-Market Exchange Rates
    1. A. J. Brown, “The Foreign Exchanges,” in Oxford Studies in the Price Mechanism, T. Wilson and P.W.S. Andrews, editors, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1951, Part II.
    2. Sidney Alexander, “Effects of a Devaluation on a Trade Balance,” International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, Vol. Il, No. 2, April 1952.
    3. Milton Friedman, “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” in Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1953, pp. 157-203.
    4. Joan Robinson, “The Foreign Exchanges,” in Essays in the Theory of Employment. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1947, Part III.
    5. Lloyd A. Metzler, “Exchange Rates and the International Monetary Fund,” in International Monetary Policies, Postwar Economic Studies, No. 7, Washington, D.C.: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, September 1947.
    6. Rudolph R. Rhomberg. “A Model of the Canadian Economy under Fixed and Fluctuating Exchange Rates,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXXII, No. 1, February 1964, pp. 1-31.
  5. Forward Exchange Rates
    1. Paul Einzig, The Theory of Forward Exchange. London: Macmillan and Company, Ltd., 1937.
    2. Paul Einzig, A Dynamic Theory of Forward Exchang. London: Macmillan and Company, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1961.
    3. Alan R. Holmes and Francis Schott, The New York Foreign Exchange Market. New York: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 1965, Chapters 7-8.
    4. Paul Einzig, “Some Recent Development in Official Forward Exchange Operations,” Economic Journal, Vol. LXXIII, No. 290, June 1963, pp. 241-53.
    5. Paul Einzig, “Some Recent Changes in Forward Exchange Practices,” Economic Journal, Vol. LXX, No. 279, September 1960, pp. 485-95.
  6. The Balance of Payments and the Concepts of Income
    1. R. F. Bennett, “Significance of International Transactions in National Income,” in Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. VI. New York: The National Bureau of Economic Research, 1943.
    2. U. S. Department of Commerce, Income and Output, 1958 Supplement to the Survey of Current Business.
  7. The Theory of Income Transfers
    1. J. M. Keynes, “The Transfer Problem,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 153, March 1929, pp. 1-7.
    2. B. Ohlin, “The Reparation Problem: A Discussion. I. Transfer Difficulties, Real and Imagined,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 154, June 1929, pp. 172-78.
    3. J. M. Keynes. “The Reparation Problem: A Discussion. II. A Rejoinder,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 154, June 1929, 179-82.
    4. J. Rueff, “Mr. Keynes’ Views on the Transfer Problem,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 388-99.
    5. B. Ohlin, “Rejoinder to J. Rueff,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 400-04.
    6. J. M. Keynes, “Reply to J. Rueff,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 404-08.
    7. L. A. Metzler, “The Transfer Problem Reconsidered,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. L, No. 3, June 1942, pp. 397-414.
    8. H. G. Johnson, “The Transfer Problem and Exchange Stability,” Journal of Political Economy, LXIV, No. 3, June 1956, pp. 212-25, Republished in International Trade and Economic Growth. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1958, Chapter VII.
    9. L. A. Metzler, “Flexible Exchange Rates, The Transfer Problem, and the Balanced-Budget Theorem,” Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciale, Anno XIII, No. 4, April 1966, pp. 301-18. Republished in Essays in Honor of Marco Fanno, Vol. II, Tullio Bagiotti, editor, edizioni cedam, Padova, 1966, pp. 449-76.
  8. Evolution of the International Monetary System
    1. Randall Hinshaw. Toward Currency Convertibility. Princeton University, Essays in International Finance, No. 31, 1958.
    2. Robert Triffin, Europe and the Money Muddle, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.
    3. Charles P. Kindleberger. The Dollar Shortage, Cambridge, Mass.: The Technology Press, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1950.
    4. Robert Triffin, “The International Monetary Position of the United States,” in The Dollar in Crisis, Seymour E. Harris, editor, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1961.
    5. Hal B. Lary, Problems of the United States as World Trader and Banker, Princeton: Princeton University Press for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 1963.
    6. Robert Triffin, The Evolution of the International Monetary System: Historical Reappraisal and Future Perspectives. Princeton Studies in International Finance Section. Princeton University, 1964.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “The Dust Proof File”.

__________________________

L. A. Metzler

ECONOMICS 370
FINAL EXAMINATION
WINTER, 1971

Answer all questions

  1. It is frequently said that forward purchases and sales have a two-fold effect upon the assets and liabilities of the bank making the forward transactions. When a bank makes a forward purchase, for example, it is entitled to receive a given amount of foreign currency some time in the future and this right to receive foreign currency constitutes an asset. On the other hand, when the bank receives the foreign currency, it is obligated to pay a given amount of its own currency, and exchange, and this obligation constitutes a liability. Conversely, when the bank makes a forward sale, it is obligated to deliver a given amount of foreign currency some time in the future and such an obligation constitutes a liability. But when the bank delivers the foreign currency, it is entitled to receive a given quantity of domestic currency to complete the transaction, and this receipt constitutes an asset.
    1. In view of the two-fold effect of both forward sales and purchases, how can you justify the inclusion of forward sales as liabilities and the inclusion of forward purchases as assets in an account of the bank’s foreign currency position?
    2. If it is actually true that both sales and purchases increase assets and liabilities by the same amount, what does this imply with respect to the bank’s ability to put itself in a closed position by means of operations on the forward exchange market?
  2. The table, below, presents the yield on 90-day Canadian treasury bills (rc), the yield on 90-day U.S. treasury bills (rus), the 90-day forward exchange rate (FR), and the spot exchange rate (SR) for Canadian currency. The yields for both Canadian and United States bills are stated on an annual basis and the exchange rates represent the price, in United States dollars, of one unit of Canadian dollars. The table covers various periods of time, from A to I.
Period of time Yield on
90-day Canadian treasury bills (rc)		 Yield on
90-day
U.S.
treasury bills (rus)		 90-day forward exchange rate (FR) Spot exchange rate (SR)
A .05 .06 1.0100 1.000
B .06 .05 1.0050 1.000
C .06 .04 1.0025 1.000
D .07 .03 0.9975 1.000
E .05 .04 0.9900 1.000
F .04 .05 0.9950 1.000
G .02 .04 0.9975 1.000
H .02 .06 1.0025 1.000
I .01 .05 2.0050 2.000

On the basis of the information given in the table above, you are asked to:

    1. Indicate which periods are periods of short-term potential capital outflow (O), and which periods are periods of short-term capital inflow (I) from the point of view of U.S. banks.
    2. Prepare a table showing the profits or losses on security transactions, the profits or losses on currency transactions, and the net outflow or inflow margin for all time intervals from A to I.
    3. Show what transactions a U.S. bank would make in carrying out a short term covered capital outflow and what transactions the bank would make in carrying out a short term capital inflow. From this information, show that arbitrage activities of the U.S. bank always influence rc, rus, FR, and SR in such a way as to put the market values back on the interest parity line.
    4. Comment on the stabilizing effects of interest arbitrage.
  1. Professor Alexander maintains that devaluation will be ineffective unless fiscal measures are taken to control spending.
    1. Discuss Alexander’s argument.
    2. Is it also applicable against a system of flexible exchange rates? Explain.
  2. Country A and Country B are trading with each other under a system of flexible exchange rates. Country A makes a unilateral transfer of t currency units, payable in the currency of B. On the assumption that both countries balance their budgets, prove that factor income remains unchanged in both countries while net output rises in A and falls in B. Give both an algebraic and a commonsense explanation of these results. What bearing do these results have on the controversy between Keynes and Ohlin concerning German reparations?
  3. The success of the Canadian experiment with flexible exchange rates is frequently given as an argument for the introduction of flexible exchange rates as a means of eliminating the deficit in the U.S. Balance of Payments.
    1. Would Alexander’s absorption principle apply to this situation?
    2. Can you see any reason why the comparison between Canada and the United States might be inappropriate?

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Econ 371 [sic] Reading List.”

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

Categories
Harvard Statistics Suggested Reading

Harvard. Short Bibliography on Social Statistics for “Serious-minded Students”, Ripley, 1910

William Zebina Ripley

 

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

Part I, Chapter 7 “Social Statistics” was the first of economics professor William Z. Ripley’s three contributions to the collection. Most items have been conveniently linked to internet archival copies for this post.

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

Economic Theory by Professor Frank Taussig

Taxation by Professor Charles J. Bullock

Trade Unionism by Professor William Z. Ripley

Social Insurance by Dr. Robert Franz Foerster

Economics of Socialism by Professor Thomas Nixon Carver

Strikes and Boycotts by Professor William Z. Ripley

Socialism, Family and Religion by Dr. Ray Madding McConnell

______________________

7. SOCIAL STATISTICS

William Z. Ripley

The principal source for the United States is the “Federal Census,” taken decennially since 1790. The later ones are summarized in special volumes, that for 1900 being known as the “Supplementary Analysis.” A still briefer “Abstract” is also published. The “Supplementary Analysis” is, however, more serviceable, inasmuch as it offers in the text a critical examination of the figures, setting forth the limitations upon their use. A “Statistical Atlas” also accompanies each census since 1870, offering the results in graphic form. “Special reports” on a variety of topics are also issued. Among these since 1900 may be mentioned, “A Century of Population Growth,” Washington, 1909; “Marriage and Divorce,” 1867–1906, two parts [Part One Summary, Laws, Foreign Statistics; Part Two, General Tables], Washington,1909, and “Statistics of Cities.” “Mortality Statistics” for all states having registration laws are also compiled and published annually. This is the standard reference for all states and minor subdivisions.

Several of the Commonwealths, notably Massachusetts, take censuses on the intervening quinquennial years, some of them containing more detailed information than is afforded by the federal census. The “United States Statistical Abstract,” published annually [1878-2018], is often serviceable.

For foreign countries, the “Statistical Abstract for Great Britain” and also “The Statistical Abstract for the Principal and other Foreign Countries,” will serve as convenient and accurate handbooks. Some of the leading newspapers, notably the New York Tribune [1856-1914] and the World, [1868-1925], publish “Almanacs,” containing a wide range of material gathered from official publications. The “Statesman’s Year Book” [1876-1923] is a valuable source. The most elaborate scientific collection, issued annually and covering a very wide range of social data, is, G. Sundbärg: “Aperçus statistiques internationaux.” Stockholm: Imprimerie Royale. Since 1906 this has been published in French.

Among scientific serials which are invaluable to students of social statistics, not only for their separate articles, but for their reviews of current literature, should be included: Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association [1888-1921] and Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.

The following standard treatises are of fundamental importance, containing not only positive statistical data, but critical examination as to their value:

Mayo-Smith, Richmond. Statistics and sociology. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1895, pp. xvi, 399.

Mayo-Smith, Richmond. Statistics and economics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1899, pp. 467.

These volumes of material up to the date of their publication are most valuable. They are, however, less ample in American material than for foreign countries.

Bailey, William B. Modern social conditions. New York: The Century Company, 1906, pp. 377.

This treatise is confined principally to the field of vital statistics and problems of population.

Bowley, Arthur Lyon. Elements of statistics. London: P. S. King & Son, 1901, pp. 328.

The most scientific treatise extant as to statistical method, but less serviceable as a collection of positive data. [First edition (1901); Second edition (1902); Third edition (1907); Fourth edition (1920); Fifth edition (1926); Sixth edition (1937)]

Wright, Carroll D. Outline of practical sociology. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899, pp. XXV, 431.

This obviously does not include data from the census of 1900.

Newsholme, A. Elements of vital statistics. Third edition. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1899, pp. xxiv, 326.

The standard authority for this special field.

Walker, Francis A. Discussions in economics and statistics. 2 vols. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899, pp. iv, 454, 481. [Volume 1, Finance and Taxation, Money and Bimetallism, Economic Theory; Volume 2, Statistics, National Growth, Social Economics]

Weber, Adna F. The growth of cities in the nineteenth century. New York: Columbia University Studies, 1899, pp. xiv, 497.

This work is a convenient source book for all statistics of cities.

Schnapper-Arndt, Gottlieb. Sozial-Statistik. Leipzig: W. Klinkhardt, 1908, xxii, 642 S.

This book offers a readable account of statistical data, mainly for European countries.

Mayr, Georg von. Statistik und Gesellschaftslehre. 3 Bde. Freiburg i. B.: J. C. B. Mohr, 1895-1909, 202, 486, 260 S.  [Volume 1, Theoretische Statistik; Volume 2, Bevölkerungsstatistik; Volume 3, Sozialstatistik]

The most elaborate treatise, serviceable mainly to specialists. It contains a wonderfully complete bibliography in all languages, arranged under separate headings, which may be of use in looking up special topics.

Source: A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects. Lists of books and articles selected and described for the use of general readers by teachers in Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts (1910), pp. 32-34.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910).

Categories
Columbia Suggested Reading

Columbia. Topics and readings to prepare for oral exam in economic theory, 1961

 

The only surprises in the following list of relevant readings for the Columbia University oral examinees in economic theory are (i) the number of introductory or intermediate level items and (ii) the overwhelming identification of economic theory with microeconomics, indeed, only 1/5 of the topics have to do with income theory (i.e. macroeconomics). Monetary economics is found under distribution theory.

________________________________

[Handwritten note at top of page:] 1961

Preparation for the Oral Examination in Economic Theory:
A Communication from the Faculty to the Candidates

The following list of topics and relevant readings are recommended to the attention of students preparing for the oral examination in economic theory. The readings are in no sense “required” since, in most cases, they are merely a small sampling of a voluminous literature that contains many other works of comparable or superior merit. The readings listed below, however, are a good place to begin; and when the student has no previous acquaintance with the literature relevant to a topic, he is advised to begin with a book or article marked [.

TOPICS AND RELEVANT READINGS

Preface: Methodology in Economics

Boulding, The Skills of the Economist (1958)

Friedman, Essays in Positive Economics (1953)

[Knight, “The Limitations of Scientific Method in Economics,” in The Ethics of Competition (1935)

Papandreou, Economics as a Science (1958)

[Robbins, The Nature and Significance of Economic Science (2d ed., 1946)

Schoeffler, The Failures of Economics (1955)

Part I: The Theory of Demand

  1. Consumer Behavior

Hicks, Value and Capital (2d ed. 1946) Part I

[Little, A Critique of Welfare Economics (2d ed., 1957)

Robertson, Utility and All That (1952)

Vickery, “Measuring Marginal Utility by Reactions to Risk,” in 13 Econometrica 3/9 (1945)

  1. The Industry Demand Curve

Bailey, “The Marshallian Demand Curve,” in 62 J. Pol. Econ. 255 (1954)

[Friedman, “The Marshallian Demand Curve,” in 57 J. Pol. Econ. 463 (1949)

Schultz, Henry, Statistical Studies in the Theory of Demand (1938)

Working, “What Do Statistical ‘Demand Curves’ Show,” in 41 Q. J. Econ. 212 (1927); reprinted in A.E.A. Readings in Price Theory

Yeager, “Methodenstreit over Demand Curves,” in 68 J. Pol. Econ. (1960)

  1. The Firm Demand Curve

Stigler, “The Kinked Demand Curve and Rigid Prices,” in 55 J. Pol. Econ. 432 (1947)

Sweezy, Paul, “Demand Under Conditions of Oligopoly,” in 47 J. Pol. Econ. 568 (1939); reprinted in A.E.A. Readings in Price Theory

Part II: The Theory of Production

  1. Industry Cost Curves

Ellis and Fellner, “External Economies and Diseconomies,” 33 Am. Econ. Rev. 493 (1943); reprinted in A.E.A. Readings in PriceTheory

[Knight, ”Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost,” in The Ethics of Competition (1935); also in A.E.A. Readings in Price Theory

Scitovsky, “Two Concepts of External Economies,” 62 J. Pol. Econ. 143 (1954)

Schwartzman, “The Methodology of the Theory of Returns to Scale,” 10 Oxford Economic Papers 98 (1958)

  1. Cost Curves in the Firm

Clark, J.M., Studies in the Economics of Overhead Costs (1923)

Dean, Joel, Statistical Determination of Costs (1936)

Eiteman and Guthrie, “The Shape of the Average Cost Curve,” 42 Am. Econ. Rev. 832 (1952)

Staehle, “The Measurement of Statistical Cost Functions,” 32 Am. Econ. Rev. 321 (1942); reprinted in A.E.A. Readings in Price Theory

[Viner, “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” 3 Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie 23 (1932); reprinted in A.E.A. Readings in Price Theory

  1. Capitalization

Fisher, Irving, The Nature of Capita1 and Income (1927)

[Samuelson, Economics (3d ed. 1955) Appendix to Ch. 29

  1. Activity Analysis

[Baumol, W. J., “Activity Analysis in One Lesson,” 68 Am. Econ. Rev. 837 (1958)

Dorfman, Samuelson and Solow, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis (1958)

Makower, Activity Analysis (1957)

Spivey, Linear Programming (1960)

  1. Input-Output Analysis

Cameron, “The Construction of the Leontief System,” 19 Rev. Econ. Stud. 19 (1951)

Dorfman, Samuelson, and Solow, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis (1958)

[Leontief, The Structure of the American Economy, 1919-1939 (2d ed. 1951)

Input-Output Analysis (National Bureau, 1955)

Part III: The Theory of Markets

  1. Competition, Pure, Perfect and Workable

Clark, J. M., “Toward a Concept of Workable Competition, Am. Econ. Rev. (1940; reprinted in A.E.A. Readings in Social Control

Fetter, “The Economic Law of Market Areas,” 38 Q. J. Econ. 520 (1924); reprinted in The Masquerade of Monopoly

Knight, Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit (1922)

[Stigler, “Perfect Competition, Historically Contemplated,” 65 J. Pol.Econ. l (1957)

  1. Monopoly

Greenhut and Pfouts, “The Pricing Policies of a Spatial Monopolist,” 9 Metroeconomics 153

[Patinkin, “Multiple-Plant Firms Cartels, and Imperfect Competition,” 61 Q. J. Econ. 173 (1947)

Robinson, Joan, Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933). Books IV, V and VI

  1. Oligopoly

Baumol, Business Behavior, Value and Growth (1959), Part I

Fellner, Competition Among the Few (1949)

Hotelling, “Stability in Competition,” 39 Econ. J. 41 (1929); reprinted in A.E.A. Readings in Price Theory

Lerner and Singer, “Some Notes on Duopoly and Spatial Competition,” 45 J. Pol. Econ. 145 (1937)

[Modigliani, “New Developments on the Oligopoly Front,” 66 J. Pol. Econ. 215 (1958)

Stigler, “A Theory of Delivered Price Systems,” 39 Am. Econ. Rev. 1143 (1949)

  1. Game Theory

[Luce and Raiffa, Games and Decisions (1957)

Shubik, Strategy and Market Structure (l959)

[Stone, J. R. N., ”The Theory of Games,” 58 Econ. J. 184 (1948)

  1. Monopolistic and/or Imperfect Competition

Chamberlin, E., The Theory of Monopolistic Competition (7th ed. 1955)

Dewey, ”Imperfect Competition No Bar to Efficient Production,” 66 J. Pol. Econ. 24 (1958)

[Robinson, Joan, The Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933)

Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (2d ed. 1947) Chapters 7 and 8

Smithies, “Equilibrium in Monopolistic Competition,” Q. J. Econ. (November, 1940)

 

Part IV: The Theory of Distribution

  1. Capital and Interest: Without Money

Böhm-Bawerk, The Positive Theory of Capital, (1888)

Fisher, Irving, The Nature of Capital and Income (1927)

[Knight, “Diminishing Returns from Investment,” 52 J. Pol. Econ. 26 (1944)

Knight, “’Capital, Time, and the Interest Rate,” Economica 257 (1934)

  1. Capital and Interest: With Money

[Hart, Money, Debt and Economic Activity (2d ed. 1953)

Htcks, Value and Capital (2d ed. 1946) Parts III and IV

Metzler, “Wealth, Saving, and the Rate of Interest,” 59 J. Pol. Econ. 93 (1951)

Patinkin, Money, Interest, and Prices (1956)

Wicksell, Interest and Prices (English ed. 1936)

  1. Land as Capital

Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933) Ch. 8

Worcester, ”A Reconsideration of Rent Theory,” 36 Am. Econ. Rev. 258 (1946)

  1. Distribution According to Marginal Productivity

[Samuelson, Principles of Economics (3d ed. 1955) Appendix to Chapter 27

Stigler, Production and Distribution Theories (1946) Ch. 12

[Stonier and Hague, A Textbook of Economic Theory (1953) Ch. 16

  1. Labor and Wages

Conrad and Meyer, “The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South,” 66 J. Pol. Econ. 95 (1958)

Douglas, Paul, The Theory of Wages (1934)

[Dunlop, John, Wage Determination Under Trade Unions (1944)

Lampman, “Recent Changes in Income Inequality Reconsidered,” 64 Am. Econ. Rev. 251 (1954)

Lester, R.A., “Marginalism and Labor Markets,” 37 Am. Econ. Rev. 135 (1947); with rejoinders by Machlup and Stigler

Mincer, J. “Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution,” 66 J. Pol. Econ. 281 (1958)

  1. Profit and Uncertainty

Davis, R. M., “The Current State of Profit Theory,” 62 Am. Econ. Rev. 245 (1952)

Hart, A.G., Anticipations Uncertainty and Dynamic Planning (1940)

[Knight, Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit (1922)

Shackle, Expectation in Economics (1949)

Weston, “The Profit Concept and Theory: A Restatement,” 62 J. Pol. Econ. 152 (1954)

  1. The Problem of Optimum Efficiency

Beckwith, B.P., Economic Theory of a Socialist Economy (1949)

Lerner, The Economics of Control (1944)

Pigou, Economics of Welfare (4th ed. 1932)

[Reder, The Theory of Welfare Economics (1947)

Vickery, “Some Objections to Marginal Cost Pricing,” 56 J. Pol. Econ. 218 (1948)

Vickery, “Utility, Strategy and Social Decision Rules,” 74 Q. J. Econ. 507 (1960)

  1. General Equilibrium

Hicks, Value and Capital (2d ed. 1946)

[Stigler, Production and Distribution Theories (1946) Ch. 9

[Stigler, Theory of Price (1952) Ch. 16

Walras, Elements of Political Economy ( 1874)

 

Part V: The Theory of National Income

  1. Income Theory Before Keynes

Bellamy, Edward, “Parable of the Water Tanks,” in Equality (1897)

Foster, W. T. and Catchings, The Road to Plenty (1928)

[Haberler, Prosperity and Depression (2d ed. 1939)

Hobson, J. A., The Problem of the Unemployed (1896)

Mitchell, W. C., Business Cycles: The Problem and Its Setting (1927)

Robinson, Joan, An Essav on Marxian Economics (1947)

  1. The General Theory and its Reception

[Keynes, The General Theory of Interest, Employment and Money (1935)

[Klein, The Keynesian Revolution (1947)

Pigou, Keynes’ General Theory (1950)

Hansen, A Guide to Keynes (1953)

Harris, ed., The New Economics (1949)

Terborgh, The Bogey of Economic Maturity (1945)

  1. Recent Developments in Income Theory

Christ, C., “Aggregative Econometric Models” 46 Am. Econ. Rev. 385 (1956)

[Friedman and Becker, “A Statistical Illusion in Judging Keynesian Models,” 65 J. Pol. Econ. 64 (1957)

Klein and Goldberger, An Econometric Model of the United States,

1929-1952 (1955)

Weintraub, A General Theory of the Price Level, Output, Income Distribution and Economic Growth (1959)

  1. Some Problems of Economic Growth

Brems, Output, Employment, Capita1, and Economic Growth (1959)

[Domar, Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth (1957)

Harrod, Toward a Dynamic Economics (1948)

Smithies, “Economic Fluctuations and Growth,” 25 Econometrica 1 (1957)

 

USEFUL TEXTBOOKS AND GENERAL COMMENTARIES ON ECONOMIC THEORY

Allen, R.G.D., Mathematical Economics

Bain, Pricing, Distribution, and Employment

Baumol, Economic Dynamics

Boulding, Economic Analysis

Chamberlain, A General Theory of Economic Process

Fellner, Modern Economic Analysis

Hansen, A Guide to Keynes

Henderson and Quandt, Microeconomic Theory

Leftwich, The Price System and Resource Allocation

Machlup, Models of Sellers’ Competition

Makower, Activity Analysis

Klein, The Keynesian Revolution

McKenna, Aggregate Economic Analysis

McKenna, Intermediate Economic Theory

Robinson, Introduction to the Theory of Employment

Samuelson, Principles of Economics

Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition

Stigler, The Theory of Price

Stonier and Hague, A Textbook of Economic Theory

Robertson, D.H., Lectures on Economic Principles

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Department of Economics Collection, Box 1, Folder “Eco. Dept.—Qualifying Examination Committee”.

Image Source: August Rodin’s Le Penseur at Columbia University. InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Bibliography Gender Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading

Harvard. Short Bibliography on Socialism and Family/Christian Ethics for “Serious-minded Students”, McConnell, 1910

 

The Ethics of Socialism is the nominal title of the brief 1910 bibliography provided by Harvard social ethics instructor Ray Madding McConnell  and transcribed below along with links to digital copies of the items found at archive.org and hathitrust.org. A more accurate title would be “Socialism and Family/Christian Ethical Doctrine”. Dr. McConnell died the year after this bibliography was published, so I have added a dash of biographical material since it is rather unlikely that Economics in the Rear-View Mirror will encounter him again.

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

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

Economic Theory by Professor Frank Taussig

Taxation by Professor Charles J. Bullock

Trade Unionism by Professor William Z. Ripley

Social Insurance by Dr. Robert Franz Foerster

Economics of Socialism by Professor Thomas Nixon Carver

Strikes and Boycotts by Professor William Z. Ripley

_____________________________

From the Prefatory Note:

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

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

_____________________________

The Short Life of Dr. Ray Madding McConnell (1875-1911)

Born: September 14, 1875. Union City, Tennessee.

Died: June 23, 1911. Cause of Death, Pneumonia—Septic, Tonsillitis. Contributory: Acute Rheumatic Fever. Somerville, Massachusetts. He was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Ph.D. in Philosophy, 1908

Ray Madding McConnell, A.B. (Southern Univ.) 1899, S.T.B. (Vanderbilt Univ.) 1901, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1902.

Subject, Philosophy. Special Field, Ethics. Thesis, “The Ground of Moral Obligation.” Assistant in Social Ethics.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard University 1907-1908, p. 140.

 

Books

Ray Madding McConnell. The Duty of Altruism. New York: Macmillan, 1910.

________________. Criminal Responsibility and Social Constraint. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912.

 

Obituary

Dr. RAY MADDING McCONNELL
Harvard Instructor in Social Ethics Had Made Long Study of Important Problems

Dr. Ray Madding McConnell long active in educational work, died early this morning at a private hospital in Cambridge [sic, the hospital was in Somerville]. Dr. McConnell who was a graduate of Harvard, class of 1802, was born in Tennessee in 1875, and had been since his college days a great student of sociological problems and recently instructor in social ethics at Harvard.

Dr. McConnell received numerous honorary degrees, including his A.B. from Southern University In Alabama, in 1899, his S.T.B. from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee in 1901, his A.M. from Harvard in 1901, and from that university his Ph. D. in 1908. He was a writer on the subject to which he had given so many years of earnest study and research, and last year his book on “The Duty of Altruism” was brought out and he had at this time another book in preparation, “Philosophy of Crime.” He had contributed frequently to the International Journal of Ethics, and at Harvard he had given courses of lectures on “Moral Obligations of the Modern State.”

Dr. McConnell was married, in 1807, to Miss Phoebe Estes Bedlow of Ithaca, N. Y. by whom he is survived, as well as by a young son, Frank McConnell.

Source: Boston Evening Transcript, 24 June 1911, page 14.

_______________________

IV.6. THE ETHICS OF SOCIALISM
RAY M. McCONNELL

I. SOCIALISM AND THE FAMILY

A. The Socialist Attitude

Upon questions of marriage and the family, individual socialists, like other people, have diverse opinions. It would of course be folly to try to saddle all socialism with the utterances of one or even of many socialists. The following references must be understood, therefore, not as indicative of the necessary attitude of socialists, but only as indicative of the proposals of those writers who do advocate socialization of the family.

Bebel, August. Woman in the past, present and future. Translated from the German by H. B. Adams Walther. London: William Reeves, 1894, pp. 264.

Perhaps the most important book on this subject. It is an exceedingly good exposition of socialism, both in the economic order and in the family. “The gratification of the sexual impulse is as strictly the personal affair of the individual as the gratification of every other natural instinct. No one has to give an account of him or her self, and no third person has the slightest right of intervention. Intelligence, culture and independence will direct and facilitate a right choice. Should in compatibility, disappointment and dislike ensue, morality demands the dissolution of a tie that has become unnatural and therefore immoral…. The state of society will have removed the many drawbacks and disturbing elements which influence the married life of to-day and so often prevent it from reaching its full development.”

Heinzen, Karl. The rights of women and the sexual relations. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1898, pp. xi, 385.

A most radical and thoroughgoing advocacy of liberty in the sexual relations and of the independence of woman. “The free common-sense conception of marriage, and with it also of divorce, is everywhere still suppressed by the theological conception of the relationship between man and woman. According to the theological conception, marriage is in itself a hallowed relationship, and this abstract relation in itself, not the real happiness and interest of those who constitute it, is the chief object. Marriage is to be upheld even if the married persons perish in it. Adherents of the official and theological morality will feel in duty bound to grow indignant over the claim that in reality there is no such thing as adultery.”

Carpenter, Edward. Love’s coming of age. A series of papers on the relations of the sexes. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1903, pp. vi, 168.

A plea, beautiful in tone, for freedom in sex-relations. “The narrow physical passion of jealousy, the petty sense of private property in another person, social opinion, and legal enactments, have all converged to choke and suffocate wedded love in egoism, lust and meanness. The perfect union must have perfect freedom for its condition. Marriage must not be hampered by legal, conventional or economic considerations. Odious is the present law which binds people together for life, without scruple, and in the most artificial and ill-assorted unions. When mankind has solved the industrial problem so far that the products of our huge mechanical forces have become a common heritage, and no man or woman is the property slave of another, human unions will take place according to their own inner and true laws. The family will expand into the fraternity and communism of all society, losing its definition of outline, and merging with the larger social groups in which it is embedded.”

Wells, H. G. New worlds for old. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908, pp. vii, 333.

Contains a good chapter on “Would socialism destroy the home ?” Shows the thorough failure of the present order to maintain home and social purity and to rear children. Advises strict state regulation of marriage. “Children must not be casually born; their parents must be known and worthy, that is to say, there must be deliberation in begetting children, marriage under conditions.”

Wells, H. G. A modern utopia. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907, pp. xi, 392.

Contains a good chapter on “Women in a modern utopia.” “For the marriage contract the socialist state will define in the completest fashion what things a man or woman may be bound to do, and what they cannot be bound to do. Marriage is the union of a man and woman in a manner so intimate as to in volve the probability of offspring, and it is of primary importance to the state, first in order to secure good births, and secondly good home conditions, that these unions should not be free, nor promiscuous, nor practically universal throughout the adult population.”

Pearson, Karl. The ethic of freethought. A selection of essays and lectures. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1888, pp. 446. [Second edition, revised 1901]

The subject is well discussed in the two chapters, “The woman’s question” and “Socialism and sex.” “Such, then, seems to me the socialistic solution of the sex-problem: complete freedom in the sex-relationship left to the judgment and taste of an economically equal, physically trained and intellectually developed race of men and women; state interference if necessary in the matter of child-bearing, in order to preserve intersexual independence on the one hand, and the limit of efficient population on the other.”

Stetson, Charlotte Perkins. Women and economics. A study of the economic relation between men and women as a factor in social evolution. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1898, pp. vii, 340.

Finds in the economic dependence of woman the cause of most of the evils of society. Sexuo-economic specialization has made of woman a slave, and this has reacted on man for ill. With the attainment of full economic independence by woman will come her freedom from domestic servility in its various forms.

Bax, Ernest Belfort. Outlooks from the new standpoint. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1891, pp. x, 203. [Third edition, 1903]

“Many people take refuge in deliciously vague declamation on the nobility, on the loftiness, of the ideal which handcuffs one man and one woman together for life. We cannot see exactly where the nobility and the loftiness come in. The mere commonplace man, if left to himself, would probably think that it rested entirely upon circumstances, upon character, temperament, etc., whether the perpetual union of two persons was desirable. Socialism will strike at the root at once of compulsory monogamy and of prostitution by inaugurating an era of marriage based on free choice and intention, and characterized by the absence of external coercion. Monogamic marriage and prostitution are both based essentially on commercial considerations. The one is purchase, the other hire. The only really moral form of the marriage relation is based neither on sale nor hire.”

Bax, Ernest Belfort. Essays in socialism, new and old. London: E. Grant Richards, 1906, pp. x, 336.

Contains several able chapters on the woman question, very interesting on account of their strong denunciation of the common socialist espousal of the “Woman’s Rights” cause. Maintains that in nearly all matters there is a strong sex-prejudice against the man because he is man and in favor of the woman because she is woman. Woman is steeped in sex prerogative. Socialism demands relative economic and social equality between the sexes, but not female privilege and female domination, — the real demands of the clamorers for “Woman’s Rights.” After the class-struggle has passed away, the sex question will probably become more burning, and will be the first question that the socialist state will have to solve. “If social democrats allow themselves to be caught by the feminist fallacy, they are only injuring their own cause.”

B. Adverse Criticisms of the Socialist Attitude

The following books contain good chapters setting forth and criticising adversely socialists’ teachings concerning the family.

Barker, J. Ellis. British socialism. An examination of its doctrines, policy, aims and practical proposals. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908, pp. vi, 522.
London Municipal Society. The case against socialism. A handbook for speakers and candidates. Second edition. London: George Allen & Sons, 1910, pp. vii, 537.
Goldstein, David. Socialism: the nation of fatherless children. Edited by Martha Moore Avery. Boston: The Union News League, 1903, pp. x, 374.

 

II. SOCIALISM AND RELIGION

A. Books maintaining that Socialism and Religion are essentially Hostile to Each Other

Hartman, Edward Randolph. Socialism versus Christianity. New York: Cochrane Publishing Company, 1909, pp. vi, 263.

A careful comparison of the principles and promises of socialism with the teachings of Scripture and the principles of Christianity. The author always sticks closely to his subject and accomplishes the thorough contrast which he set out to make. He maintains that in many essential matters socialism is diametrically opposed to the principles of Christianity.

Barker, J. Ellis. British socialism. An examination of its doctrines, policy, aims and practical proposals. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908, pp. vi, 522.

Contains a chapter showing the hostility of socialism towards Christianity.

London Municipal Society. The case against socialism. A handbook for speakers and candidates. Second edition. London: George Allen & Sons, 1910, pp. vii, 537.

Contains a chapter giving quotations from many socialists to show their opposition to, and contempt for, religion and the church.

Flint, Robert. Socialism. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1895, pp. vii, 512.

Devotes a long and very able chapter to a consideration of socialism and religion. Gives a thorough exposition of the attitude of the socialist leaders towards religion, and maintains that socialism and Christianity are natural opponents.

Stang, William. Socialism and Christianity. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1905, pp. 207.

An able attack on socialism by a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Discusses the character and aims of socialism, advocates social reform but not socialism, and portrays the Catholic movement in behalf of social reform.

Ashton, John. Socialism and religion. (Tract No. 9 in Vol. LXVIII of the “Publications of the Catholic Truth Society”). London: Catholic Truth Society, 1908, pp. 32.

“The Catholic Church sees that socialism strikes at the roots of man’s moral freedom; that it dechristianizes the working man; that it would confiscate her churches and secularize her schools; that it would destroy the Christian family and substitute a materialistic philosophy for her doctrine of the supernatural.”

Goldstein, David. Socialism: the nation of fatherless children. Edited by Martha Moore Avery. Boston: The Union News League, 1903, pp. x, 374.

Maintains that atheism is not a mere personal opinion of some socialists, but the bed rock of socialist philosophy. The author has made a thorough canvass of socialist literature, and has brought together the socialist utterances that bear on religion. He maintains that atheistic forces take political form in socialism, and necessitate a closer association of those organizations which stand for the propagation and enforcement of religious law.

Hall, Thomas C. Socialism as a rival of organized Christianity. In The North American Review, Vol. CLXXVIII, June, 1904, pp. 915-926.

“Modern Protestantism is woefully ignorant of its most formidable rival. The Catholic Church has been painfully awakened in France, Belgium and Italy. Protestantism awaits its awakening.”

B. Christian Socialism

Kaufmann, Moritz. Christian socialism. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1888, pp. xviii, 232.

A splendid discussion of Christian socialism in France, England and Germany. It desires to show that an intimate connection exists between socialism in the best sense of the word and Christian philanthropy. While maintaining that there is genuine kinship between Christianity and socialism, the author acknowledges certain lines of demarcation and devotes an interesting chapter to a consideration of “Unchristian Socialism.”

Stubbs, Charles William. Charles Kingsley and the Christian social movement. London: Blackie & Son, 1904, pp. viii, 199.

Gives a very interesting sketch of the early Christian socialist movement, in especial connection with the life of Kingsley, and shows the great influence of that theologian upon later developments of church life and thought.

Woodworth, Arthur V. Christian socialism in England. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903, pp. viii, 208.

Traces the historical development of Christian socialism from its origin under Maurice and Kingsley to its present form in the Christian Social Union and shows the connection between the two. Contains a good bibliography of Christian socialism from earliest times to 1900.

Nitti, Francesco S. Catholic socialism. Translated from the second Italian edition by Mary Mackintosh. With an introduction by David G. Ritchie. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908, pp. xx, 432.

A very learned statement of the theories of the Catholic socialists of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, England, Spain, Italy and America. It shows how “Catholic socialism, while unlike the other systems of socialism it seeks to reform society in the name of God, does not on that account seek to modify it any the less profoundly.” The discussion is sympathetic yet impartial.

Campbell, R. J. Christianity and the social order. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1907, pp. xiii, 284.

The author believes that the socialist movement represents a return to the primitive Christian evangel, freed from its limitations and illusions, and is destined to rescue the true Christianity from ecclesiasticism in its various forms. The main purpose of the book is to show that the practical aims which primitive Christianity set out to realize are nearly identical with those of modern socialism.

Gladden, Washington. Christianity and socialism. New York: Eaton & Mains, 1905, pp. 244.

Aims to bring Christianity and socialism “into more intelligible and more friendly relations.”

Ward, William. Religion and labour. London: Edwin Dalton, 1907, pp. 188.

An able and interesting argument, based on Christianity, for nearly all the ends desired by the socialist.

Sprague, Philo W. Christian socialism. What and why. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1891, pp. vi, 204.

Sets out to answer (1) what is socialism, (2) what are the causes of socialism, (3) what is the relation of Christianity to socialism, and (4) how can the great social and economic changes involved in socialism be gradually brought about by just and orderly methods.

Davidson, J. Morrison. The gospel of the poor. London: William Reeves, 1894, pp. viii, 162.

A powerful combination of scriptural quotations and economic statistics.

Publications of the Christian Social Union (formerly the Church Social Union). Boston: Office of the Secretary, The Diocesan House, 1 Joy Street.

Upwards of sixty pamphlets have been published. A good many of these are very valuable from the standpoint of Christian socialism. As among the best may be mentioned the following: [No. 26] “Christian Socialism,” by Frederick Denison Maurice; “The Church and Scientific Socialism,” by James T. Van Rensselaer; “The Christian Law,” by Brooke Foss Westcott; and [No. 30] “Christian Socialism and the Social Union,” by George Hodges.

 

Source: Teachers in Harvard University, A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, pp. 174-182.

Categories
Bibliography Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading

Harvard. Short Bibliography of the Economics of Socialism for “Serious-minded Students”, Carver, 1910

 

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

The Economics of Socialism  is one such “allied subject” covered in the bibliography provided by Professor Thomas Nixon Carver, and transcribed below along with links to digital copies of the items found at archive.org, hathitrust.org, as well as at other on-line archives.

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

Economic Theory by Professor Frank Taussig

Taxation by Professor Charles J. Bullock

Trade Unionism by Professor William Z. Ripley

Social Insurance by Dr. Robert Franz Foerster

_____________________________

From the Prefatory Note:

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

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

_____________________________

IV.5. THE ECONOMICS OF SOCIALISM
THOMAS NIXON CARVER

I. UTOPIAS

Plato. The republic.

A dialogue on justice, in which the philosopher pictures an ideal state.

 

More, Sir Thomas. Utopia, 1516.

A description of an ideal commonwealth, supposed to have been discovered on the coast of South America by one of the followers of Americus Vespucius.

 

Bacon, Sir Francis. New Atlantis, 1629.

A fragment.

 

Campanella, Tommaso. The city of the sun, 1637.

A highly idealistic picture, sufficiently divorced from all appearances of reality to render it harmless.

 

Cabet, Étienne. Voyage en Icarie, 1840.

Of special interest to Americans because the author led a group of colonists to the United States and established there a communistic society, first at Nauvoo, Ill., and later at Icaria, near Corning, Ia.

 

Gronlund, Laurence. A coöperative commonwealth; an exposition of modern socialism. Fourth edition, London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1892, pp. 265. [First edition, 1884.]

The first of a large crop of recent utopian works.

 

Bellamy, Edward. Looking backward, 2000-1887. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1888, pp. 470.

The most widely read in America of all the utopian works.

 

Morris, William. News from nowhere, or an epoch of rest; being some chapters from a utopian romance. London: Reeves & Turner, 1890, pp. 238.

Probably the most hopelessly idealistic of all such works.

 

Wells, Herbert George. A modern utopia. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907, pp. xi, 393.

Probably the only utopian work since Plato’s “Republic” which frankly recognizes the population problem and tries to deal with it.

 

II. COMMUNISTIC EXPERIMENTS

Noyes, John H. History of American socialisms. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1870, pp. vi, 678.

The author was the founder of the Oneida community. He had put into his hands for editing and publication the manuscript of A. J. MacDonald, who had made a personal investigation of every communistic society then known to exist on American soil.

 

Nordhoff, Charles. The communistic societies of the United States from personal visit and observation; including detailed accounts of the Economists, Zoarites, Shakers, the Amana, Oneida, Bethel Aurora, Icarian and other existing societies, their religious creeds, social practices, numbers, industries and present conditions. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1875, pp. 439.

 

Hinds, William A. American communities. Revised edition. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1908, pp. 562.

The latest and most authentic account of all the known communistic societies in America.

 

Codman, John T. History of the Brook Farm; historic and personal memoirs. Boston: Arena Publishing Company, 1894, pp. viii, 335.

 

Shaw, Albert. Icaria. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1884, pp. ix, 219.

Written before the break-up of the Icarian community, from personal investigation and inspection.

 

Landis, George B. The society of the Separatist of Zoar, annual report of the American Historical Association, 1898. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899, pp. 163-221.

Written just before the disintegration of the Zoar society, from personal investigation and observation.

 

III. HISTORY OF SOCIALISTIC DOCTRINES

Ely, Richard T. French and German socialism. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1883, pp. 274.

The most readable account in English of the development of socialistic thought in continental Europe since the French revolution.

 

Rae, John. Contemporary socialism. Third enlarged edition. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901, pp. 568.

This work brings the subject down to a later period than does Ely’s account. It is also a more voluminous treatment.

 

Peixotto, Jessica. The French revolution and modern French socialism. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1901, pp. XV, 409.

Perhaps the most discriminating comparison of the two schools of socialism in France, where the dominant school would scarcely be recognized as socialistic by American and German socialists.

 

Hillquit, Morris. History of socialism in the United States. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1903, pp. 371.

An exceedingly laudatory account, but instructive nevertheless.

 

Guthrie, William B. Socialism before the French revolution. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1907, pp. xviii, 339.

A review of socialistic thought from Thomas More to the radicals of the French revolution.

 

Stoddart, Jane T. The new socialism. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1910, pp. 271.

Rather discursive, but gives a good idea of the present tendency of socialistic thought.

 

IV. IN ADVOCACY OF SOCIALISM

Laveleye, Émile De. The socialism of to-day. Translated by Goddard H. Orpen. London: Field & Iver (1884), pp. viii, 331.

Includes under socialism a great deal which the Marxian socialist would reject.

 

Marx, Karl. Capital, a critical analysis of capitalist production. Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1889, pp. xxxi, 816.

The “bible of socialism.”

 

Marx, Karl, and Engels, Frederick. The communist manifesto. New York: Socialist Co-operative Publishing Association, 1901, pp. 46.

The beginning of the present type of socialist propaganda.

 

Shaw, G. Bernard, editor. Fabian essays in socialism. London: Walter Scott (1890), pp. 233.

A series of essays by such writers as G. Bernard Shaw, Annie Besant, Graham Wallas and others.

 

Engels, Frederick. Socialism, utopian and scientific. Translated by Edward Aveling. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892, pp. xxxix, 117.

By scientific socialism is meant the socialism of Karl Marx and his followers.

 

Bernstein, Edward. Ferdinand Lassalle. Translated by Eleanor Marx Aveling. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893, pp. xiv, 192.

The author is the leader of the “higher critics” of the socialist school in Germany, which rejects much of the Marxian theory, while adhering to the social democratic program.

 

Bliss, W. D. P. A handbook of socialism. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1895, pp. viii, 291.

A collection of information about socialism. Apparently intended as a “campaign book” for socialist propagandists.

 

Hyndman, Henry M. The economics of socialism. Second edition. London, 1896, pp. 257.

An attempt to reconstruct the economic basis of socialism. The author’s economic theories are erroneous, but they illustrate very well the kind of reasoning upon which socialists base their claims.

 

Vandervelde, Émile. Collectivism and industrial evolution. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1904, pp. 199.

An excellent presentation, by a socialist of the more rational type, of the general theory of international socialism.

 

Spargo, John. Socialism. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1906, pp. xvi, 257.

Probably the most authoritative statement, in popular form, of the immediate aims of American socialism.

 

MacKaye, James. The economy of happiness. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1906, pp. xv, 533.

Probably the only socialistic work since Marx’ “Capital” which seriously tries to lay the foundations of socialism on the recognized principles of economics. As Marx tried to build on the economics of Ricardo, Mackaye tries to build on the economics of the modern school.

 

MacDonald, J. Ramsay. Socialism and government. London: T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1907, pp. vi, 107. [1909 Socialist Library: volume VIII(1) and volume VIII(2)]

Probably the best presentation of the actual working theory of Fabian or English socialism.

 

Wells, Herbert George New worlds for old. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908, pp. vii, 333.

A daring and ingenious form of propagandism.

 

V. EXPOSITORY AND CRITICAL

Schäffle, Albert. The quintessence of socialism. Translated under supervision of Bernard Bosanquet. New: York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902, pp. viii, 127.

Perhaps the most thorough-going criticism to be found, but not easy to read.

 

Schäffle, Albert. The impossibility of social democracy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892, pp. XX, 419.

This is a supplement to the “Quintessence of socialism.”

 

Ely, Richard T. Socialism: an examination of its nature, strength and weakness. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1894, pp. xiii, 449.

An eminently fair and sympathetic statement of the pros and cons.

 

Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen von. Karl Marx and the close of his system. Translated by H. M. Macdonald. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1898, pp. 221.

Shows very clearly that Marx built on an antiquated system of economics.

 

Gonner, Edward C. The socialist philosophy of Rodbertus. London: Macmillan & Co., 1899, pp. 234.

A sympathetic study, contrasting Rodbertus with Marx, to the advantage of the former.

 

Le Rossignol, James E. Orthodox socialism: a criticism. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1907, pp. vii, 147.

By “orthodox” socialism is meant the socialism of Karl Marx. The various tenets of the socialist creed are examined critically.

 

Source: Teachers in Harvard University, A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, pp. 167-173.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver in the Harvard Class Album 1915.

Categories
Bibliography Harvard Policy Suggested Reading

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

 

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

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

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

Economic Theory by Professor Frank Taussig

Taxation by Professor Charles J. Bullock

Trade Unionism by Professor William Z. Ripley

_____________________________

From the Prefatory Note:

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

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

_____________________________

IV.13. SOCIAL INSURANCE
ROBERT F. FOERSTER

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

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

 

I. GENERAL

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

A helpful compilation.

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

[I. Assurance contre maladie (1892)]

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

Discusses the principles and effects of German insurance.

 

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

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

 

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

Measures the employers’ burden.

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

A history and description, with statistical results.

 

II. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS AND DISEASE

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

Discusses the frequency of accidents in the more dangerous occupations.

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

Two good additions to the literature on industrial disease.

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

An excellent statement of the American law.

 

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

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

 

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

An able preliminary discussion of present difficulties and of remedies.

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

III. INVALIDITY AND OLD AGE

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

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

 

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

A brief exposition of an interesting voluntary scheme.

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

Categories
Bibliography Fields Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Short Bibliography of Trade Unionism for “Serious-minded Students”, Ripley, 1910

 

 

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

Trade Unionism is the “allied subject” covered in the bibliography provided by Professor William Z. Ripley and transcribed below along with links to digital copies of the items found at archive.org, hathitrust.org, as well as at other on-line archives.

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

Economic Theory by Professor Frank Taussig.

Taxation by Professor Charles J. Bullock.

_____________________________

From the Prefatory Note:

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

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

_____________________________

IV.7. TRADE UNIONISM
WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. Industrial democracy. New edition in one volume. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1902, pp. lxii, 929.

The most elaborate and comprehensive treatise on the subject, sympathetic and yet well reasoned. Contains no descriptive matter of American conditions.

 

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. History of trade unionism. New edition. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1902, pp. xxxiv, 558.

The best account of the struggle of the working classes for industrial rights. Confined to English experience.

 

Commons, John R., editor. Trade unionism and labor problems. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1905, pp. xiv, 628.

A collection of the most authoritative articles by specialists on every phase of the matter. Liberal and progressive in point of view.

 

Adams, Thomas S., and Sumner, Helen L. Labor problems. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905, pp. xv, 579.

A convenient summary and text-book, with good bibliographical notes and references for further reading. Sympathetic and judicial in tone.

 

Ely, Richard T. The labor movement in America. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905, pp. xvi, 399.

 

Reports of the United States Industrial Commission. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900-02.

In Volumes XIV [Capital and Labor Employed in Manufactures and General Business], XV [Immigration and Education], XVII [Labor Organizations, Labor Disputes, and Arbitration and on Railroad Labor] and XIX [Final Report] will be found the largest collection of original material ever made in America. The testimony of workmen and employers is critically summarized in the “Final Report” in Volume XIX. This report in itself is a comprehensive and fair treatise on the subject. In Volume XVII the history of American unionism is fully set forth.

 

Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1906—.

A series of monographs by specialists affords the most reliable account of various phases of the movement. Among these papers especially valuable are: J. B. Kennedy’s “The beneficiary features of American trades unions” (November — December, 1908), and A. M. [Aaron Morton] Sakolski’s “The finances of American trades unions” (March — April, 1906).

______________

The legal aspects of trade unionism are discussed in the “Reports of the United States Industrial Commission” [e.g. Volume V Labor Legislation] and in the following special articles:

Seager, Henry R. The legal status of trade unionism in the United Kingdom, with conclusions applicable to the United States. Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXII, 1907, pp. 611-629.

Wyman, Bruce. The maintenance of the open shop. The Green Bag (January), 1905, pp. 21-29.

Clark, Lindley D. The present legal status of organized labor in the United States. Journal of Political Economy, Chicago (March), 1905, pp. 173-200.

Collective bargaining is best treated technically in the “Reports of the United States Industrial Commission,” and in the following monographs:

Hilbert, F. W. Trade agreements in the United States. [sic, probably Trade-Union Agreements in the Iron Molders’ Union] Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1906. [Note: Frederick William Hilbert died February 17, 1906.]

Schaffner, Margaret A. The labor contract from industrial to collective bargaining. Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 182 (December), 1907, pp. 182.

Ashley, Wm. James. The adjustment of wages. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1903, pp. 362.

 

The policy of trade unions respecting restriction of output is admirably described with a wealth of material from England and the United States in the “Eleventh special report of the United States Bureau of Labor” (Washington, 1904).

Statistics of the growth of trades unionism all over the world are currently published by the New York State Bureau of Labor. The results are summarized by W. Z. Ripley in the World’s Work for November, 1903, and brought down to date in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1910.

 

Source: Teachers in Harvard University, A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, pp. 183-185.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910). .