Category: Suggested Reading

Berkeley. Harsanyi Seminar Reading List, ca. 1976-1977

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-02-06

While in all likelihood there is a copy of the seminar reading list from John C. Harsanyi’s seminar “Rule Utilitarianism and Decision theory” in the Bancroft Library at Berkeley where John C. Harsanyi’s papers are to be found, I don’t know when or if I will be in Berkeley anytime soon. Furthermore I figure it is doubtful that many people interested in rule utilitarianism would happen to search Abba Lerner’s papers at the Library of Congress where I found the copy transcribed below. So duty called and the seminar reading list will now be entered here into the digital record.

For what it’s worth, I was mildly amused to see an apology for including books, books I say!, on Harsanyi’s reading list.

___________________________

Nobel Laureate John C. Harsanyi, UC Berkeley economist and game theory pioneer, dies at 80
11 August 2000

Berkeley – John C. Harsanyi, winner of the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and a longtime professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and its Department of Economics, died of a heart attack at his home in Berkeley on Wednesday, Aug. 9.

He was 80 and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.

Harsanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in game theory, a mathematical theory of human behavior in competitive situations that has become a dominant tool for analyzing real-life conflicts in business, management and international relations.

He shared the award from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with fellow game theorists Reinhard Selten of Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet in Bonn, Germany, and John Nash of Princeton University.

When Harsanyi, an immigrant from communist Hungary, won the Nobel Prize, he expressed hope that game theory would help public and private institutions make better decisions. In the long run, he said, he hoped this would lead to a higher standard of living and to more peaceful and more cooperative political systems.

“Professor Harsanyi’s life-long work probed the idea of rationality in human affairs, and he was a scholar who cared deeply about the human condition. We will miss him at Berkeley, where his years of devoted teaching and his ground-breaking research inspired us all,” said Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl.

Harsanyi began teaching at UC Berkeley in 1964 as a visiting professor in the business school. He became a full professor in 1965 and remained on the faculty of the Haas School of Business until his retirement in 1990. Harsanyi accepted a joint appointment on the economics faculty in 1966.

“John Harsanyi dedicated his life to employ the science of economics and game theory for the betterment of the human race,” said Haas School Dean Laura Tyson. “He was a brilliant thinker, a gracious man, and a gentle soul, ever concerned with the well-being of others. We will all miss him dearly.”

“The passing of John Harsanyi is a great loss to the economics profession and to his many friends and colleagues on this campus,” said John Quigley, UC Berkeley professor of economics and former chair of the department. “Harsanyi’s work was instrumental in making economic theory ‘fit’ the imperfect world in which we live. His development of game theory showed how differences in the information available to economic actors affected market outcomes and economic welfare. His seminal works form the basis for all modern analyses of industrial organization, and they have real practical implications in business and government policy.

“John was a gentle and shy man, but a bold and powerful intellectual presence. We will miss his grace and charm.”

Game theory uses mathematics to try to predict the outcome of games, such as chess or poker, and is increasingly being applied to political and economic conflict situations, including labor negotiations, price wars, international political conflicts, and even federal auctions, such as bandwidth auctions.

Harsanyi’s principal contributions to the field addressed the prediction of outcomes in games or situations in which the players lack complete information about each other or the rules of the game.

In 1964, Harsanyi was asked to be one of 10 game theorists to advise the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency on its negotiations with the Soviet Union. The team found that it could not advise the U.S. negotiators effectively because neither side knew much about the other – it was a game of incomplete information.

Harsanyi subsequently developed a systematic procedure to convert any incomplete-information game into an equivalent complete-information game containing random moves, thereby significantly expanding the applicability of game theory to political and economic conflicts. In the late 1960s, Harsanyi described this theory in a three-part article, “Games with Incomplete Information Played by Bayesian Players,” which is now the basis for all work on games with incomplete information.

Harsanyi was born on May 29, 1920, in Budapest, Hungary, as the son of a Catholic pharmacist of Jewish descent and was educated at the University of Budapest. His main interests were in mathematics and philosophy, but because of the uncertain political situation and the impending Nazi danger, Harsanyi opted to obtain a degree in pharmacology so he could work in his father’s pharmacy.

In 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary, and Harsanyi, being of Jewish descent, was drafted into a forced-labor unit near Budapest. Shortly thereafter, the Nazis started deporting these laborers to mines and concentration camps. Harsanyi narrowly escaped deportation and found refuge with three friends at a Jesuit monastery in Budapest.

After the war, Harsanyi earned a PhD in philosophy at the University in Budapest where he later taught as an assistant professor of sociology and also met his future wife, Anne. In 1948, a Stalinist regime seized power in Hungary and became increasingly intolerant of Harsanyi’s liberal views. Eventually, he had to resign from the university and return to work in his father’s pharmacy.

Pressure on Harsanyi persisted and, in 1950, the family decided it was too dangerous for him to remain in Hungary. Harsanyi and his soon-to-be wife, Anne, escaped across the border to Austria, and emigrated to Australia, as the waiting list of the Hungarian immigration-quota to the United States was full. The couple were married on January 2, 1951, three days after arriving in Sydney.

In Sydney, Harsanyi worked in factories during the day while earning an MA in economics at the University of Sydney at night. In 1954, he was appointed lecturer in economics at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.

Harsanyi soon realized he was too isolated in Australia to be effective in his field. In 1956, he enrolled in the PhD program in economics at Stanford University, writing his dissertation on game theory under the guidance of the future Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow.

Before arriving at UC Berkeley in 1964, he taught economics at the Australian National University in Canberra from 1958 to 1961 and at Wayne State University in Detroit from 1961 to 1963. At Berkeley, he continued his path-breaking work in game theory and also made important contributions to the fields of ethics, social choice and welfare economics. Harsanyi was awarded seven honorary doctorates by universities around the world. Harsanyi is survived by his wife, Anne, of Berkeley, and son, Tom, of Somerville, Mass.

When Harsanyi was interviewed in Budapest after being awarded the Nobel Prize, he said his family and his work were the most important things in his life. He took frequent trips all over the world with his family.

A memorial service for the campus community will be held at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, in the Great Hall of UC Berkeley’s Faculty Club.

Donations in John Harsanyi’s memory may be sent to the Alzheimer’s Association of the Greater Bay Area, 2065 West El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94042.

Source: University of California. Press Release 11 Aug 2000.

___________________________

Selected Publications on Rule Utilitarianism
by John C. Harsanyi

John C. Harsanyi. “Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory,” Erkenntnis, 11 (1977), 25-53.

____________. “Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory,” Decision Theory and Social Ethics, 1978, Volume 17, pp. 3-31.

____________. “Bayesian Decision Theory, Rule Utilitarianism, and Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem,” Theory and Decision, 11 (1979), 289-317.

____________. “Rule Utilitarianism, Equality, and Justice,” Social Philosophy and Policy, 2 (1985), 115-127.

___________________________

[Lerner’s Attached Label “HARSANYI WORKSHOP”]

Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory.
John C. Harsanyi

Background References.

In economics, it is customary to publish important results at first in journal articles, even if these later are expanded into books. In contrast, in philosophy, important ideas are often presented immediately in books (often in much greater detail than most economists care to read). This is why so many books had to be included with the references listed below.

Items marked by —> will have xerox copies distributed to members of the Seminar. It would be helpful if people could read as many of these as possible. But my own presentation will be largely self-contained and independent of these references.

1. Morality as the Viewpoint of an Impartial Observer.

Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759.

—> John C. Harsanyi, “Ethics in Terms of Hypothetical Imperatives”, Mind, 67 (1958), pp. 305-316.

2. Classical Utilitarianism.

Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789.

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, 1863.

Henry Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics, 1874.

3. Ideal Utilitarianism.

George E. Moore, Principia Ethica, 1903.

4. Rule Utilitarianism.

—> R. F. Harrod*, “Utilitarianism Revised”, Mind, 45 (1936), pp. 137-156. Harrod has been the first proponent of rule utilitarianism as an alternative to act utilitarianism.

Richard B. Brandt, “Towards a Credible Form of Utilitarianism”, in Morality and the Language of Conduct (H.D. Castañeda, editor), 1963.

David Lyons, Forms and Limits of Utilitarianism, 1965. Brandt and Lyons tried to show that rule utilitarianism is logically equivalent to act utilitarianism and, therefore, has no real advantage over the latter.

5. Defense of Act Utilitarianism against Rule Utilitarianism.

J. J. C. Smart, An Outline of a System of Utilitarian Ethics. First Edition, 1961. Second Edition (with a critical essay by B. Williams), 1973.

6. A Utilitarian Theory based on Bayesian Decision Theory.

W. S. Vickrey, “Measuring Marginal Utility by Reactions to Risk”, Econometrica, 13 (1945), pp. 319-333.

—> John C. Harsanyi, “Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility”, Journal of Political Economy, 63 (1955), pp. 305-316. (Omit Section II.)

7. An Ordinalist Approach to Social Welfare.

Kenneth J. Arrow, Social Choice and Individualistic Values. First Edition, 1951. Second Edition, 1963.

Kenneth J. Arrow, “Extended Sympathy and the Possibility of Social Choice”, Harvard Institute of Economic Research, Discussion Paper No. 484 (June 1976).

8. Egalitarian Critiques of Utilitarianism (Rawls, Diamond, Sen) and Utilitarian Rebuttals.

—> John Rawls, “Justice as Fairness”, Philosophical Review, 67 (1958), pp. 164-194.

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971.

—> John C. Harsanyi, “Can the Maximin Principle Serve as a Basis for Morality? A Critique of John Rawls’ Theory.” American Political Science Review, 69 (1975), pp. 594-606.

—> Peter Diamond, “Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility: A Comment”, Journal of Political Economy, 75 (1967), pp. 765-766.

—> A. K. Sen, “Welfare Economics, Utilitarianism, and Equity”, Chapter 1 of A. K. Sen, On Economic Inequality, 1973.

—> John C. Harsanyi, “Nonlinear Social Welfare Functions: Do Welfare Economists Have a Special Exemption from Bayesian rationality?” Theory and Decision, 6 (1975), pp. 311-332.

*The well-known economist.

Source: United States Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. The Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 12, Folder “5. ‘H’ miscellany 1976-1977”.

Image Source: John C. Harsanyi – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2021. Fri. 5 Feb 2021. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1994/harsanyi/facts/>

Tags Harsanyi, Lerner

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings and Exam for Business Cycles. Schumpeter 1949-50

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-02-03

Joseph Schumpeter died January 8, 1950. The final examination questions transcribed in this post come from an official printed collection of final examinations, so that it seems likely and certainly possible, given required lead times for printing, that these were among Schumpeter’s last questions for his students.

______________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 245a (formerly Economics 145a). Business Cycles and Economic Forecasting.
(F) Professor Schumpeter.

Total 31: 26 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Public Administration, 1 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1949-1950, p. 75.

______________________

Course Reading List

Economics 245a
Fall Term, 1949-50

This course will divide up into two parts: The first and smaller part will serve as a general introduction to the history, techniques, and bearings of business-cycle analysis and will be made longer or shorter according to the needs (or previous selected topics and give as much opportunity as possible for discussions and essays. Some knowledge of advanced theory and some training in statistics are necessary in order to reap full benefit from this course. Individual requirements will be taken care of in consultation.

Books:

G. v. Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, 1941.

J. M. Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles (National Bureau of Economic Research, 1934)

Readings in Business-Cycle Theory (Vol. II of the American Economic Association series of republished articles, Blakiston, 1944.

E.C. Bratt, Business-Cycle Forecasting (3^rd ed., 1948; a textbook that may help less advanced students).

A.C. Pigou, Industrial Fluctuations, 1929.

E. Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the U.S. (Harvard Economic Studies No. 73)

A.H. Hansen, Fiscal Policy and the Business Cycle, 1941.

Burns and Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles (1946) (National Bureau).

F. C. Mills, Price-Quantity Interactions in Business Cycles, 1946 (Nat’l. Bureau).

Articles:
1. (a) H.L. Beales, “The Great Depression,” Economic History Review, October, 1934.
  (b) W.W. Rostow, “Explanations of the Great Depression,” Economic History Supplement to Economic Journal, February, 1940.
2. (a) J. Tinbergen: “Suggestions on Quantitative Business-Cycle Theory,” Econometrica, 1935.
  (b) J. Tinbergen: Econometric Business-Cycle Research,” Review of Economic Studies, February, 1940.
3. R. F. Harrod, “Imperfect Competition and the Trade Cycle,” Review of Economic Statistics, May, 1936.
4. N. Kaldor, “A Model of the Trade Cycle, Economic Journal, March, 1940.
5. (a) L.A. Metzler, “Business Cycles and the Modern Theory of Employment,” American Economic Review, June, 1946.
  (b) L.A. Metzler, “Nature and Stability of Inventory Cycles,” Review of Economic Statistics, 1941.
  (c) L. A. Metzler, “Factors Governing the Length of Inventory Cycles,” Review of Economic Statistics, February, 1947.
  (d) M. Abramowitz, “The Role of Inventories in Business Cycles,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Occasional Paper No. 26, May, 1948.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reding lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1949-1950 (3 of 3)”.

______________________

1949-40
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 245a
[Final Examination. January, 1950]

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

Discuss briefly the National Bureau method of measuring business cycles.
Many authors have asserted that economic progress is “unstabilizing.” What does this mean precisely?
Discuss briefly the main “price-quantity interactions in business cycles.”
State, and give your opinion about the explanatory value of, the acceleration principle.
“In a progressive economy, the rate of interest which stabilizes the price level is below the rate which keeps the flow of money incomes constant.” Explain and criticize.
It is often asserted that agriculture is not an active element in business cycles. It is “the football of business.” Do you agree?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, February 1950 in Final Exams—Social Sciences, etc. Feb. 1940 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 81).

Image Source: Harvard Classbook 1947.

Tags Schumpeter

Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. Economics Readings, Topics for 1889-1890

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-01-07

The Chautauqua Institution established a four-year cycle of reading assignments that provided a popular college liberal arts education. Beginning in 1885 an introduction to economics was introduced into the program with an economics textbook listed every fourth year among the half-dozen or so books to be read by participants in the circle.

This post begins with a brief history of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (a.k.a. the C.L.S.C.) followed by a list of the economics texts assigned during the first sixty-six years of the C.L.S.C. The economics content from the outline for 1889-90 published in the C.L.S.C. journal, The Chautauqua, is the core artifact of this post. As an added bonus, 140 questions and answers provided for study of Richard T. Ely’s textbook, An Introduction to Political Economy, have been included as well.

On October 24, 1889 the C.L.S.C. held an Adam Smith Memorial Day. Q&A’s for discussion were included in The Chautauqua.

___________________________

Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.

Excerpt from “A Brief History of the CLSC”

…Bishop [John Heyl] Vincent [cofounder with Lewis Miller of the Chautauqua Institution] conceived the idea of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC), and founded it in 1878, four years after the founding of the Chautauqua Institution.

At its inception, the CLSC was basically a four year course of required reading. The original aims of the CLSC were twofold:

To promote habits of reading and study in nature, art, science, and in secular and sacred literature

and

To encourage individual study, to open the college world to persons unable to attend higher institution of learning.

On August 10, 1878, Dr. Vincent announced the organization of the CLSC to an enthusiastic Chautauqua audience.

Over 8,400 people enrolled the first year. Of those original enrollees, 1,718 successfully completed the reading course, the required examinations and received their diplomas on the first CLSC Recognition Day in 1882.

The idea spreads and reading circles form.

As the summer session closed in 1878, Chautauquans returned to their homes and involved themselves there in the CLSC reading program. Many introduced the CLSC idea to their friends and neighbors and, in turn, additional groups were established for the purpose of studying and discussing the CLSC course of instruction. The concept of local “CLSC Reading Circles” spread and, by the turn of the century, over 10,000 “circles” had been formed.

Clearly, the rapid and widespread growth of the CLSC filled a deeply felt need for a structured program of reading and learning. As such, its importance both to the Chautauqua movement and to the spread of education was significant to the history of our country. Arthur E. Bestor, Jr., president of the Institution 1915-1944, wrote in his Chautauqua Publications: “Through the home reading courses of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, it (Chautauqua) reached into innumerable towns, especially in the Midwest, and made education a powerful force in American life.”

The CLSC becomes a role model.

With the success of its program of planned reading, book selections
and local circles, the CLSC became the prototype for book clubs, study groups and university extension courses. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, the CLSC was “an example to American universities when they developed their extension programs, and influenced adult education leaders in such countries as England, Japan and South Africa.”

Dr. Vincent’s ideal yields nationwide results.

From 1878 through the 1920s the CLSC maintained a preeminent position in the field of adult education and augmented the general support for learning. This, in turn, prompted the spread of libraries in small communities, the extension of adult education, the growth of book clubs, the availability of book review services, the increasing opportunities for enrollment in institutions of higher learning, and the involvement of people in community life and social organizations generally.

More nationwide reading opportunities result in a period of decline.

The accumulated effects of the Depression, the spread of libraries
in small communities, the extension of adult education, the growth
of book clubs, the availability of book review services, the increasing opportunities for enrollment in institutions of higher learning and
the involvement of people in community life and social organizations steadily detracted from the influence of the CLSC….

Economics from the CLSC Book List:
1878-1944

1885-1886

George McKendree Steele. Outline Study of Political Economy. New York: Chautauqua Press, 1885.

1889-1890

Richard T. Ely. An Introduction to Political Economy. New York: Chautauqua Press, 1889.

1893-1894

Richard T. Ely. Outlines of Economics. Meadville, Penn.: Flood and Vincent, 1893.

1895-1896

Carroll D. Wright. The Industrial Evolution of the United States. Meadville, Penn.: Flood and Vincent, 1895.

1899-1900

Richard T. Ely. The Strength and Weakness of Socialism. New York: Chautauqua Press, 1899.

1903-1904

Richard T. Ely. Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society. New York: Macmillan, 1903.

1907-1908

John R. Commons. Races and Immigrants in America. New York: Macmillan, 1907.

1910-1911

Edward P. Cheyney. An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England. New York: Macmillan, 1907.

1915-1916

Albert Bushell Hart, ed. Social and Economic Forces in American History. Chautauqua, New York: Chautauqua Press, 1913.

1943-1944

John W. McConnell. The Basic Teachings of Great Economists. New York: Blakiston, 1943.

Source: Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle. Book List 1878-2017.

___________________________

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
Books for 1889-90.

An Introduction to Political Economy. Ely $1.00

Bible in the Nineteenth Century. Townsend $0.40

How to Judge of a Picture. Van Dyke $0.60

Outline History of Rome. Vincent and Joy $0.70

Physics. Steele $1.00

Preparatory and College Latin Course in English. 1 vol . Wilkinson $1.30

___________________________

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR OCTOBER [1889]

First week (ending October 8).

“Political Economy.” Chapters I.-VII. inclusive.

Suggestive Programs for Local Circle Work:

The Lesson. (The uneven division of the work in Political Economy as laid out in the Outline is made that the work might be taken up by topics; first, the growth of industrial society; second, the characteristics of industrial society; third, the definition of political economy; fourth, the division, methods, and utilityof political economy.)

Second week (ending October 15).

“Political Economy.” Chapters VIII. and IX.

In the Chautauquan: Helen Campbell, Child Labor and Some of its Results (pp. 21-24)

The Lesson. (As marked out in the Outline)

Debate—Resolved: That the Government should abolish all restrictions on the rate of interest. (See Ely’s “Political Economy,” p. 79.)

Third week (ending October 23)

“Political Economy.” Chapters X. and XI.

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

Adam Smith Day.—October 24.

“The wise form right judgment of the present from what is past.”—Sophocles.

Paper—Life and Character of Adam Smith.
Questions on Adam Smith in The Question Table.
A Symposium of Letters—The best method of national taxation. Each member is to write and read a letter addressed to the president of the circle, giving his views on this subject. He is to commend or censure the American system—that of protection—and show that it is either in harmony with, or in opposition to, the four maxims regarding taxation laid down by Adam Smith:
1. The Subjects of every state ought to contribute toward the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities: that is, in proportion to the revue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.
2. The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor and to every other person.
3. Every tax ought to be levied at the time and in the manner in which it is most likely to be convenient for the contributor to pay it.
4. Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the state.

SPECIAL MEMORIAL, DAY.—ADAM SMITH.

Of what nationality was Adam Smith?
A. Scotch
What happened him when he was three years old?
A. He was carried off by Gypsies.
His introduction as an author was made by an article in the Edinburgh Review on what famous book?
A. Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary.
Under what sobriquet is Smith spoken of in the “Noctes Ambrosiae”?
A. Father Adam.
Upon what work does his fame mainly rest?
A. His book “The Wealth of Nations.”
What probably induced this “Kirkcaldy recluse” to accept the office of traveling tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch?
A. The opportunity it would afford him for collecting facts for this book.
What great event was transpiring in America at the time the “Wealth of Nations” was published?
A. The opening of the Revolutionary War.
If according to the historian Green, “books are measured by their effect on the fortunes of mankind,” what rank must be assigned to the “Wealth of Nations”?
A. It must be classed among the greatest of books.
Who said that it was “perhaps the only book which produced an immediate, general, and irrevocable change in some of the most important parts of the legislation of all civilized nations”?
A. Sir James Mackintosh.
What does Smith consider the only source of wealth?
A. Labor
What method of compulsory education did he propose?
A. That every one wishing to enter upon a trade be required to pass a test examination.
From what three classes or orders of civilized society did he contend came all the revenues which supply every other class?
A. Landlords, laborers, and capitalists.
From what great historian did the “Wealth of Nations” receive its first emphatic welcome?
A. David Hume.
What prime minister of England took the principles it taught as the ground-work of his Policy?
A. William Pitt.
What great event not long after its publication set England against the doctrines of political innovation taught in the book?
A. The French Revolution.
What change of opinion did Pitt undergo regarding Smith’s free trade notions?
A. At first warmly participating in them, he became one of their leading opponents.
What habit of Smith’s, indulged even in society, caused much amusement?
A. The absent mindedness which led him to talk to himself.
What acts showed his beneficent nature?
A. Much of his ample fortune was spent in secret charities.
What did he call himself in reference to his weakness, the collection of a fine library?
A. A “beau in his books.”
Throughout his life who was his closest friend?
A. His mother.

Questions: pp. 97-98. Answers: p. 229.

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

Fourth week (ending October 31).

“Political Economy.” Chapters IX.—XV. inclusive.

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 1 (October, 1889), pp. 87-88.

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

Questions and Answers.
On Ely’s “Political Economy.”

Q. Of what science does political economy form a branch?
A. Sociology, or social science.
Q. What is sociology?
A. The science which deals with society.
Q. Into how many departments has social science been divided?
A. Eight: language, art, science and education, family life, social life (in the narrower sense), religious life, political life, and economic life.
Q. What is meant by economic life?
A. That part of man’s life which is concerned with “getting a living.”
Q. What forms a fundamental fact of economic life?
A. The dependence of man upon his fellows.
Q. In what respect does the economic life of a nation differ from that of an individual?
A. The basis of national economy is political independence.
Q. What is a state?
A. The union of a stationary people, occupying a defined territory, under a supreme power and a definite constitution.
Q. What are the two great factors in a national economy?
A. Territory and man.
Q. Cite one example showing the tendency of a national economy to change?
A. Landed property was once largely common property; in civilized nations it came into the possession of individuals; now a reverse process is seen in the fact that forests are becoming public property.
Q. Viewed from the standpoint of production, into what five stages is the economic progress of humanity divided?
A. The hunting and fishing stage; the pastoral; the agricultural; the commercial; and the industrial.
Q. Viewed from the standpoint of transfer of goods, how many economic stages are there?
A. Three: truck economy; money economy; and credit economy.
Q. What people are a type of the hunting and fishing stage?
A. The American Indians.
Q. Where are vivid pictures of people living in the pastoral stage found?
A. In the earliest chapters of the Bible.
Q. To what manner of life did the pastoral stage give rise?
A. To the nomadic.
Q. What was probably the earliest form of settled agricultural life?
A. Village communities.
Q. What remain to-day as witnesses of the former common ownership of land?
A. The Boston “Common”’ and the “commons” of other New England towns.
Q. What radical changes mark the commercial stage?
A. Important cities arose along the sea-coast and on rivers; mines were worked; and the use of money became more general.
Q. What made possible the far-reaching changes marking the industrial stage?
A. The application of steam to industry and the improvement in the means of communication and transport.
Q. With what periods was the truck, or barter, economy coincident?
A. The hunting and fishing, the pastoral, and part of the agricultural periods.
Q. What one fact is sufficient to show the change from money economy to that of credit?
A. The fact that banks now form an essential part of the entire national economy.
Q. What are some of the main causes for the existence of the present economic problems?
A. The industrial revolution; the new importance of capital; the possibility of improvement; and the higher ethical standards.
Q. What are some of the remarkable features of the recent development of the industrial revolution?
A. Increased domestic and international commerce; corporations and trusts; problem of the working day; resistance to improvements; and sudden riches.
Q. What great change in production occurred during the industrial revolution?
A. Two of its chief factors, capital and labor, were separated.
Q. What has been the result of this division?
A. Capital has acquired a new power which has created modern socialism.
Q. What is the wide-spread belief of reformers regarding the solution of this problem?
A. That labor and capital must be again united, but they differ as to the methods.
Q. In what are three characteristic features of modern economic life to be found?
A. In the relations which it bears to freedom, to ethics, and to the state.
Q. Under what condition has economic freedom ever been absolute?
A. Under primitive anarchy.
Q. In what way may real freedom be increased by restriction laws?
A. Such laws may remove restrictions to liberty arising outside of law.
Q. In what five ways does economic freedom manifest itself?
A. Freedom of labor, of landed property, of capital with respect to loans, in the establishment of enterprises, and of the market.
Q. What restrictions have been placed up on freedom of movement?
A. Tramp laws, the anti-Chinese legislation, and a law forbidding contracts with foreign laborers to come to the United States to work.
Q. In what respect is freedom of the market restricted in the United States?
A. Heavy taxes are laid on foreign trade.
Q. What is mentioned as the leading advantage resulting from a general freedom of the market?
A. Competition would develop new forces, and reveal new resources of economy, excellence, and variety of products.
Q. What disadvantages is it claimed would follow such a freedom?
A. The moral standard of economic life would be lowered; and there would result longer hours of labor and cheaper prices.
Q. What does ethics demand for the truly civilized life of each individual?
A. That so far as possible each should be supplied with economic goods to satisfy his reasonable wants and afford the completest development of his faculties.
Q. What is the basis of the economic life of modern nations?
A. Individual responsibility.
Q. What part, then, does the state enact in this life?
A. It enters where the individual’s powers are insufficient.
Q. Give the derivation and meaning of the term political economy.
A. It comes from three Greek words and means the housekeeping of the state.
Q. Give a definition of political economy in its most general terms?
A. It is the science which treats of man as a member of economic society.
Q. What is the true business of the political economist?
A. To describe the best means for the promotion of the welfare of the people as a whole.
Q. What aims does political economy distinctly include within its province?
A. Ethical aims; it does not merely tell us how things are, but also how they ought to be, and shows that in many cases the general honesty which exists now as a mere matter of course was once a future ideal.
Q. Into what three parts is political economy commonly divided?
A. Into general eco nomics, special economics, and finance.
Q. By what three methods is all knowledge acquired?
A. The inductive, the deductive, and the statistical.
Q. What term has been selected by the author as the most fitting to describe the laws governing political economy?
A. Social laws.
Q. What assertion is often made against political economy by business men?
A. That it is not practical.
Q. In return what assertion may be made against the opinions of business men?
A. Their range of facts is too narrow, and each man is apt to be absorbed in his own affairs
Q. What is brought forward as an illustration of this point?
A. That the attempt to improve politics by putting practical business men in office has often resulted disastrously.
Q. What elements have united in forming the science of political economy?
A. Business, philosophy, jurisprudence, politics, and philanthropy.
Q. Give examples showing how different systems of religion have affected the character of nations?
A. The fatalism of the Turks led to indolence; the Jewish religion stimulated its followers to activity and accumulation; Christianity dignifies honest labor.
Q. What service does political economy perform for law?
A. It explains the reasons for a great part of the laws, their nature, and the principles which should govern them.
Q. For what is a body of international law now needed as never before?
A. To regulate international economic relations.

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 1 (October, 1889), pp. 94-95.

___________________________

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR NOVEMBER. [1889]

First week (ending November 8).

“Political Economy.” Part II. Chapters I. and II.

Second week (ending November 15).

“Political Economy.” Part II. Chapters III. and IV.

“Questions and Answers on Political Economy,” in The Chautauquan.

Third week (ending November 22)

“Political Economy.” Part III. Chapters I. and II.

Debate—Resolved: That by granting private ownership in land the state permits a monopoly of one of the bounties of nature. (See text-book on “Political Economy,” pp. 77-78, 161, and 296-297.)

Fourth week (ending November 30).

“Political Economy.” Part III. Chapters III. and IV.

Debate—Question: Is the coinage of silver as authorized by the “Bland Bill” a source of financial danger to the United States?

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 2 (November, 1889), pp. 217-218.

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

Questions & Answers
ELY’S “POLITICAL ECONOMY.”

Q. What is the only operation man can perform upon matter?
A. He can simply move it.
Q. What can he produce by this action?
A. Quantities of utility.
Q What is the economic term applied to the creation of utilities?
A. Production.
Q. What is the term applied to the results of labor?
A. Wealth.
Q. If the quantity of cotton cloth should double between two censuses, and the price fall one half, would the wealth of the country be increased?
A. It would be doubled.
Q. What sets the limit to all production?
A. The power of consumption.
Q. What supply motives of economic activity to man?
A. His wants.
Q. Into how many classes may those things which man wants be divided?
A. Into necessaries, comforts, conveniences, and luxuries.
Q. What are luxuries?
A. Whatever contribute chiefly to enjoyment, rather than to a better training of man’s powers.
Q. What are the three factors of production?
A. Nature, labor, and capital.
Q. Considered in an economic sense, what is meant by nature?
A. Simply land.
Q. What is capital?
A. Every laid-by product which may be used for further production.
Q. What tendency marks the development of industrial civilization?
A. It becomes constantly more complex.
Q. What forms at present a characteristic feature in the organization of the productive factors?
A. The division of labor.
Q. To what part of political economy is the name exchange applied?
A. To that dealing with transfers of goods.
Q. What is value?
A. The measure of utility.
Q. What is price?
A. Value expressed in money.
Q. Upon what does price depend?
A. Immediately, upon supply and demand; secondarily, upon cost of production.
Q. What is money?
A. A universal standard of value and a medium of exchange.
Q. Under the different conceptions concerning it, what single form of money will pass as money in every sense of the word?
A. Gold money.
Q. When is paper money said to be redeemable?
A. When government pays coin for it on demand.
Q. How much paper money can be issued by a nation with safety?
A. An amount equal to one-third of the government revenues payable in this kind of money.
Q. What effects follow the arbitrary de crease or increase of the amount of money?
A. In the former case burdens are added to every debtor; in the latter, creditors are robbed.
Q. What is the established ratio between gold and silver in the United States?
A. One to sixteen.
Q. What is meant by the term demonetization of silver?
A. The withdrawing it from current use as full legal tender.
Q. What is meant by bi-metalism?
A. The use of both silver and gold at a fixed ratio of value as legalized currency.
Q. On what condition only could the introduction of bi-metalism be regarded with favor by economists?
A. That it become an international measure.
Q. What restriction does the Bland Bill lay upon the coinage of silver in the United States?
A. Not less than $2,000,000 or more than $4,000,000 worth of silver must be coined every month by the mints.
Q. What is John Stuart Mill’s definition of credit?
A. Permission to use the capital of another person.
Q. What instrument of credit is known as a check?
A. An order on a banker by a person having money on deposit to pay to the bearer a certain specified sum of money.
Q. What is a draft?
A. A check given by one banker against another.
Q. What are bankers?
A. Middle men between borrowers and lenders.
Q. What banks are allowed to issue notes which circulate as money?
A. National banks.
Q. What is a clearing-house?
A. An institution designed to save for the banks of a city, time, labor, and circulating notes.
Q. What is protection as used in political economy?
A. A regulation which lays a tax on all imported commodities when similar commodities can be produced at home.
Q. What are the two leading arguments of protectionists?
A. The diversified-natural industry argument and the protection-to-infant industry argument.
Q. What are the leading arguments of free traders?
A. That protection is not needed to accomplish either of the above mentioned ends; that it is not a benefit to the laboring man; and that it fosters monopolies.
Q. What reform is needed at the present time more than a tariff reform?
A. That of municipal government.
Q. What have been far greater forces in adding to the wealth of modern nations than the tariff policy?
A. Inventions and discoveries, especially the application of steam to industry.
Q. If it be true that American labor would be better off without it, why should the protective system not be removed suddenly?
A. It is an historical growth which has taken deep root, and sudden removal would be dangerous.

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 2 (November, 1889), pp. 225-226.

___________________________

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR DECEMBER. [1889]

First week (ending December 8).

“Political Economy.” Part IV. Chapters I-V. inclusive.

Book Review—“Looking backward.” By Edward Bellamy.

Debate—Resolved: That the formation of trusts and combinations are a development in the right direction. (See Ely’s “Political Economy,” p. 241.)

Second week (ending December 16).

“Political Economy.” Finish Part IV. Part V.

Third week (ending December 23)

“Political Economy.” Part VI.

Questions and Answers on “Political Economy,” in The Chautauquan.
Debate—Resolved: That I have a right to know how much I shall do for the state, which is impossible under the present tariff system.

Fourth week (ending December 31).

“Political Economy.” Part VII.

Roll-Call—A written question on any point in political economy.
Table Talk—Discussion of the above named questions. (If preferred, the questions may be taken from the list in the back part of the text-book, or the whole time may be devoted to any one of these questions.)

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 3 (December, 1889), p. 344.

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

Questions & Answers
ON ELY’S “POLITICAL ECONOMY.”

Q. What is private property?
A. The exclusive right of a person over economic goods.
Q. In the case of what land in the United States was it felt that the individual elements in property encroached upon the social elements?
A. That surrounding Niagara Falls.
Q. Into what four parts are the products of industry usually divided?
A. Rent, interest, profits, and wages.
Q. What is rent?
A. The annual return of land in itself.
Q. What determines the amount of rent?
A. The surplus yielded above returns on labor and capital.
Q. What is interest?
A. The sum paid for capital lent to others.
Q. What determines the rate of interest?
A. The opportunities for, and the fruitfulness of, investments.
Q. What are profits?
A. Whatever is left after paying rent, interest, and wages.
Q. Under what circumstances do profits tend to equality?
A. When the flow of capital is free—that is out of the power of monopolists.
Q. What is the difference between capital and capitalization?
A. Capital is the amount actually invested in property; capitalization is the amount at which property is valued.
Q. What familiar form is often assumed by capitalization?
A. “Stock-watering.”
Q. What determines the wages of labor?
A. The “standard of life” fixed for the laborer; called also the iron law of wages.
Q. What methods have been found better adapted to keep the industrial peace than the ordinary wages system?
A. The sliding scale of wages, and arbitration and conciliation.
Q. What one factor of production is embraced in modern labor organizations?
A. The laborers.
Q. What are mentioned as some of the advantages secured by labor organizations for their members?
A. Diminished intemperance; educational opportunities; and social culture.
Q. What is meant by profit sharing?
A. Securing to laborers a share of the profits in addition to their wages.
Q. Where voluntary co-operation is carried out successfully, what good effects on character has it produced?
A. It has made men diligent, frugal, intelligent, and considerate of the rights of others.
Q. By what name is a coercive co-operation for productive enterprises known?
A. Socialism.
Q. What good service has socialism rendered?
A. It has called general attention to social problems and to the need of social reform.
Q. Of what American laws is it claimed that they create artificial monopolies?
A. The tariff laws.
Q. What other privileges are classed under artificial monopolies?
A. Copyrights and patents.
Q. What are natural monopolies?
A. Those businesses which become monopolies on account of their own inherent properties.
Q. What plan is advocated for the prevention of private monopolies?
A. The limitation of charters for natural monopolies.
Q. What is one of the most serious social evils of the present?
A. Child labor.
Q. What should be the constant aim of public authority and private effort, regarding social troubles?
A. To anticipate and prevent their existence.
Q. What is the meaning of consumption as used in political economy?
A. The destruction of a utility.
Q. When does consumption become wasteful?
A. When nothing is left to show for it.
Q. When is there most danger of a glut in the market?
A. When least is produced, or in crises of industrial life.
Q. What is public finance?
A. That part of political economy which deals with public revenues.
Q. At what are the annual revenues of the various governments of the United States—federal, state, and local—estimated?
A. At about $800,000,000.
Q. What would be the result if these governments received a surplus of money each year and kept it from circulation?
A. A panic.
Q. In the United States how alone can the money flowing into the treasury from the revenues get out again?
A. In payment of claims on the United States.
Q. What makes the importance of finance plainly apparent?
A. A knowledge of the magnitude of the revenues and expenditures of governments in modern times.
Q. Of what in general are these increased expenditures of government a sign?
A. Of national health.
Q. What are the three permanent sources of revenue?
A. Productive domains, industries, and taxes.
Q. How is it shown that by means of taxation popular rights have been secured?
A. Monarchs were obliged to ask money of the people; the people granted them on condition of receiving their demands.
Q. Do large expenditures of public money for the public ever prove ruinous to a nation?
A. Not if the money to be collected is justly distributed among the people.
Q. What are customs duties?
A. Taxes on imported articles.
Q. What are excise taxes?
A. Taxes on articles produced in the United States.
Q. What is one of the greatest evils against the present system of taxation?
A. It is not properly proportioned, and falls more heavily on the poor than on the rich.
Q. What seems the most promising remedy against the evils of taxation?
A. An income tax.
Q. When did political economy as a distinct science come into being?
A. A little more than a hundred years ago.
Q. Why did it not arise earlier as a separate science?
A. Chiefly because finance and labor—its two most fruitful sources of inquiry—have only in modern times become questions of importance to governments.
Q. What side of economics was taught and practiced in the Orient?
A. The ethical side.
Q. How did Aristotle regard industrial life?
A. He strictly subordinated it to the higher callings of society.
Q. What does the economic life of the Romans plainly show?
A. The disastrous consequences of slave labor and of landed property.
Q. In what particular does Christianity teach the opposite of all former instruction in economy?
A. It asserts the honorableness of toil.
Q. To what standpoint have modern economists arrived?
A. That law, morality, and utility must harmonize.
Q. What is the laissez faire theory of political economy?
A. The non-interference of government in matters of trade.
Q. In what two countries is the greatest activity in economics to be found at the present time?
A. Germany and the United States.

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 3 (December, 1889), p. 352-353.

___________________________

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR JANUARY. [1890]

First week (ending January 8).

Second week (ending January 15).

Third week (ending January 23).

In the Chautauquan: The Railroads and the State [by Franklin H. Giddings, pp. 413-417]

Debate—Resolved: The state ownership of railroads is the best remedy for the evils connected with the present system.

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 4 (January, 1890), p. 472-473.

___________________________

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR FEBRUARY.

Second week (ending February 15).

In the Chautauquan: “Economic Internationalism.” [Richard T. Ely, pp. 538-542.]

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 5 (February, 1890), p. 602.

___________________________

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR MARCH.

Third week (ending March 22)

In the Chautauquan: “The Nationalization of Industry in Europe” [by Franklyn H. Giddings, pp. 668-672]

Source: The Chautauquan. Vol X. No. 6 (March, 1890), pp. 729-730.

[Other economic writings in this issue]

Charles J. Little. Karl Marx. 1818-1883, pp. 693-698

George Gunton. Trusts and How to Deal with Them, Part I, [Feb. 1890] pp. 573-575

___________. Trusts, and How to Deal with Them. Part II. pp. 699-703.

Tags Ely, Giddings

Agricultural Economics Chicago Iowa Minnesota Suggested Reading Syllabus

Minnesota. Course outline and reading for graduate macroeconomics. Brownlee, probably 1959

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-12-21

Based on a pamphlet in which he argued that “properly fortified margarine ‘compared favorably’ with butter in nutrition and palatability”, the economics Ph.D. student, Oswald Harvey Brownlee (1917-1985), brought the wrath of the Iowa Farm Bureau among others down upon himself and his economist seniors. After the President of Iowa State caved to the state’s dairy interests in the matter, Theodore W. Schultz, D. Gale Johnson, and O. H. Brownlee were all to ultimately head off to the University of Chicago.

Oswald Harvey Brownlee. Putting dairying on a war footing, 64 page pamphlet published by Iowa State College Press, 1944.

See: Seim, David L. “The Butter-Margarine Controversy and “Two Cultures” at Iowa State
College.” The Annals of Iowa 67 (2008), 1-50.

Also mentioned in: Milton and Rose Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs, p. 193.

Brownlee went on to teach at the University of Minnesota, where we found him teaching a graduate macroeconomics course. Clearly that was still time that the hatches separating microeconomics and macroeconomics were not so securely battened as today. “Public finance” was Brownlee’s major field so his broad fiscal policy interests make sense.

The course outline transcribed in this post comes from Martin Bronfenbrenner’s papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. Bronfenbrenner taught at the University of Minnesota from 1959-1962 and we can presume that the copy of Brownlee’s macroeconomics course outline with readings was for either 1958-59 or 1959-60. A second, apparently later, version of the course outline for “Economics 176A” with “Brownlee” handwritten in the upper right corner is also found in the same folder. Three new readings from the second copy have been added and placed within square brackets below. The readings in Parts I and II, IX and X were not included in the second outline for “Economics 176A”.

_______________________

Handwritten note at top:
“Martin, Here is the outline for the Macro theory. Which part do you want to teach? [signed] Oz”

Economics 176A-B
Course Outline and Suggested Readings

This brief outline and reading list is intended to serve as a general summary of the materials to be considered during the course and as a guide to class discussion and to outside reading. The detail in the outline does not necessarily correspond to the detail in class discussion. The most significant readings are starred (*). The literature in this field has grown so rapidly during the past decade that this reading list cannot be considered as a complete bibliography of relevant writings.

It is hoped that during the quarter the student will gain an adequate understanding of how the equilibrium values of the relevant variables (gross national product, employment, the general level of prices and the rate of interest, for example) might be determined, and how changes in certain exogeneous variables (including various economic policy variables) might affect these equilibrium values. Although the primary emphasis of the course is on equilibrium levels of certain variables, an introduction to dynamic analysis (a description of the path of a variable over time) will be offered. This will provide the basis for subsequent discussion of business cycle theory and growth models.

General Orientation of the Course
1. Relationship of macro-static theories to other classes of economic theories
2. Limitations of macro-static analysis as a basis for policy statements
The firm’s Demand for Labor
1. Importance for labor hired by business firms in the labor market as a whole
2. Static theory of production with emphasis on the demand for labor.
  1. Nature of the firm’s production function
  2. Determinants of equilibrium level of employment within the firm
  3. Comparisons of equilibrium levels of employment under various resource market, product market and technological conditions
3. Effects of Changes in Quantities of Other Resources Upon Demand for Labor

Readings:

1—K. E. Boulding, Economic Analysis, Chapter 31 (revised edition)

2—George Stigler, The Theory of Price, Chapters 6-11.

3—Paul A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Chapter 3, pp. 21-33.

4—Joan Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Books VII and VIII.

Equilibrium in the Labor Market for the Economy as a whole
1. Aggregation of outputs, labor inputs, wage rates and prices
2. Determination of various combinations of general level of prices and “real” output which will maintain equilibrium in the labor market—an “aggregate supply” function.
  1. With money wage rate autonomously determined: a wage “floor”, a wage “ceiling”, both a “floor” and a “ceiling”.
  2. With supply of labor dependent upon “real” wages.
  3. With supply of labor dependent upon “real” and money wages: the effects of asset holdings.
3. Degree of Determinateness of relevant variables given only equilibrium in the labor market.
  1. Price level, real output and employment not uniquely determined
    1. Various combinations of price level and real output will maintain equilibrium in labor market, given the autonomously specified money wage or given fixed monetary debts and credits and flexible money wages.
    2. Employment is determined only upon the real wage, real output and employment are uniquely determined, but price level is not.

Readings:

1.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lectures 19 and 20.

2.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Chapters 11 and 13.

3.—Francis M. Boddy, et al., Applied Economic Analysis, pp. 229-248.

4.—O. H. Brownlee, Economics of Public Finance, pp. 47-51.

5.—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, IX-XII.

6.—Louis Hough, “An Asset Influence in the Labor Market”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1955.

7.—Robert Solow, “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function”, Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1957.

[8.*—Gershon Cooper, “Taxation and Incentive in Mobilization” in Readings in Taxation edited by Musgrave and Shoup.]

Aggregate Demand for Goods and Services: The “Crude Classical Theory”
1. The Quantity Identity
  1. The Demand for Money—a linear function of money income (expenditure)
  2. Assuming the supply of money (M) and the fraction of income which people with to hold as cash balances are independently determined, the equilibrium level of total money expenditure is determined.
  3. Effects of changes in money demand and money supply upon equilibrium level of money income or expenditure.
  4. Incorporation of assets as a variable influencing the demand for money
  5. Information obscured by the simple quantity identity (that omitting assets as a variable)
    (Note: further analysis of the quantity identity in terms of the kind of aggregate demand function for goods and services which it might imply will be made in subsequent sections).
2. Equilibrium in the Labor, Money, and Commodity Markets under the assumption of the quantity identity.
  1. Quantity of labor supplied a function only of money wages
  2. Quantity of labor supplied a function only of “real” wages
  3. Division of “real” output between consumption and investment.

Readings:

1.*—J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Chapters 2 and 19

2.—L. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution, Chapter 1 and the technical appendix, pp. 199-205

3.—Albert G. Hart, Money, Debt and Economic Activity, Chapters IV-VI and VIII

4.—Alvin Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chapters 1-3

5.—Franco Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money”, Econometrica, 12: 45-88 (January, 1944)

6.—Seymour Harris, (editor) The New Economics, Part IX, Chapter XLI

7.—Francis M. Boddy, et al., Applied Economic Analysis, Chapter 12, 13 (pp. 222-229)

8.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lecture 2.

9.—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, I-VIII

10.—Archibald and Lipsey, “Monetary and Value Theory,” Review of Economic Studies, October, 1958

11.*—Milton Friedman, Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, Chapter I

12.—James Tobin, “The Interest-Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash”, Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1956

13.—H. Rose, “Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds,” Review of Economic Studies, XXIV (1956-57)

14.—Don Patinkin, Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds, Economica, November, 1958

15.—Vera Lutz, “Multiplier and Velocity Analysis: A Marriage”, Economica, February, 1955

16.—G. C. Archibald, “Multiplier and Velocity Analysis: An Amendment”, Economica, August 1956

[17.—Ira O. Scott, “The Availability Doctrine: Theoretical Underpinnings”, Review of Economic Studies, XXV No. 1, 41-48]

Aggregate Demand for Goods and Services: The “Keynesian Theory”
1. Equilibrium in the “Commodity Market”
  1. Consumption (and Saving)
    1. Relationship to income
    2. Relationship to rate of interest
  2. Investment
    1. Relationship to the rate of interest
      1. The marginal efficiency of capital
      2. Uncertainty and the level of investment
    2. Relationship to current income
  3. The Equating of Savings and Investment (Aggregate Demand for Commodities = Aggregate Supply of Commodities)
  4. Determination of various combinations of the rate of interest and real income which will fulfill the condition for equilibrium in the commodity market (will make savings = investment)
2. Equilibrium in the Money Market
  1. The Liquidity Preference Schedule (The Demand for Money)
  2. With money supply (M) autonomously determined, there will be various combinations of the rate of interest, real output and the price level which will provide for equilibrium in the money market.
    1. The general case
    2. The special “Keynesian” case
3. Simultaneous Equilibrium in the Money and Commodity Markets: An Aggregate Demand Function
  1. Equilibrium rates of real output and price level which fulfill the conditions for equilibrium in both the money and commodity markets.

Readings:

1.*—Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

2.—The Keynesian Revolution (*particularly Chapter 3)

3.*—J.R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the Classics”, Econometrica, 4: 147-159 (April, 1937); also included in Readings in Income Distribution, The Blakiston Co.

4.*—Franco Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money”, Econometrica, 12; 45-88 (January, 1944)

5.—Alvin Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chapters 4-6

6.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Part II

7.—K.E. Boulding, The Economics of Peace, Chapters 7-9

8.—Wassily Leontief, “Postulates; Keynes” General Theory and the Classicists”, included in The New Economics, Part 4, Chapter XIX

9.—The New Economics, Parts 3 and 9

10.—Abba P. Lerner, The Economics of Employment, Part II

11.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lectures 3-18

12.—O.H. Brownlee, “The Theory of Employment and Stabilization Policy” Journal of Political Economy, Oct. 1950, pp. 412-24.

13.—Ira O. Scott, Jr., “An Exposition of the Keynesian System”, The Review of Economic Studies, XIX, (1), pp. 12-18

14.—Joan Robinson, “The Generalization of the General Theory”, included in The Rate of Interest and Other Essays.

15.—Louis Hough, “The Price Level in Macroeconomic Models”, The American Economic Review, June, 1954, pp. 269-86.

16.—Milton Friedman and Gary S. Becker, “A Statistical illusion in Judging Keynesian Models”, Journal of Political Economy, February, 1957

17.—L. R. Klein, “The Friedman-Becker Illusion,” Journal of Political Economy, December, 1958; and Friedman & Becker, “Reply”, same issue.

18.—Martin J. Bailey, “Saving and the Rate of Interest”, Journal of Political Economy, August, 1957.

[19.—Hans Brems, Output, Employment, Capital and Growth, Part I.]

The Equilibrium Levels of Output, Employment, Prices and the Rate of Interest in the Keynesian System.
1. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand with Flexible Money Wages
2. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand with Labor Supply Perfectly Elastic at a Given Money Wage
3. Effects of Changes in Autonomous Variables and Parameters
  1. The autonomous component of investment
    1. The multiplier
  2. Government expenditure for goods and services
  3. The export surplus
  4. Money wage rates
  5. Technology
  6. The degree of monopoly and employers’ market expectations
  7. Population and the labor supply
  8. The money supply
  9. Marginal propensities to consumer and invest
An alternative Macro-Static System
1. Some weaknesses in the Keynesian theory
  1. A change in the structure of the system required to explain U.S. postwar experience
  2. Increased savings: income ratio as income increases not empirically verified.
2. Assets consumption as a variable affecting
  1. Real Assets
  2. Monetary assets (cash and government debt)
  3. Aggregate demand for goods and services when assets are included as a variable in the consumption function
    1. Comparison with quantity theory
    2. Comparison with Keynesian theory
3. The Duesenberry-Modigliani Hypothesis
4. Including assets in other Functions: Labor Supply and Demand for Money

Readings:

1.*—Don Patinkin, “Price Flexibility and Full Employment”, American Economic Review, 38: 543-64 (September, 1948).

1a.*—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, XIII-XV and appropriate appendices.

2.—__________, “The Indeterminancy of Absolute Prices in Classical Economic Theory”, Econometrica, 17: 1-27

3.—__________, “Involuntary Unemployment and the Keynesian Labor Supply Function”, Economic Journal, LIX: 360-83

4.—Haavelmo, Hickman, Leontief and Phipps on Patinkin, Econometrica 18: 1-26 (January, 1950)

5.—James Tobin, “Money Wage Rates and Employment”, included in The New Economics, Part 8, Chapter XL.

6.—Arthur Smithies, “Effective Demand and Employment”, included in The New Economics, Part I, Chapter XXXIX.

7.—A. P. Lerner, “Mr. Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money”, Reprinted in The New Economics, Part 3, Chapter XI

8.*—Milton Friedman, “A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability”, American Economic Review, 38: 245-64 (June, 1948)

9.—A. C. Pigou, “Economic Progress in a Stable Environment”, Economica, 1947, pp. 180-90

10.—A. C. Pigou, “The Classical Stationary State”, Economic Journal, 53: 343-51 (1943)

11.*—James Duesenberry, “Income-Consumption Relations and Their Implications”, included in Income, Employment and Public Policy, Essay III in Part One, and as Chapter I in Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior.

[11a.—John H. Power, “Price Expectations, Money Illusion, and the Real-Balance Effect”, Journal of Political Economy, April, 1959, 1331-43.]

12.*—Franco Modigliani, “Fluctuations in the Saving-Income Ratio: A Problem in Economic Forecasting”, included in National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Wealth, Volume XI, pages 371-443.

13.—Paul A. Samuelson, “The Simple Mathematics of Income Determination”, included in Income Employment and Public Policy,” Essay VI in Part One.

14.—Oscar Lange, Price Flexibility and Employment, particularly Chapters I-V and IX-XI.

15.—Donald M. Fort, “A Theory of General Short-Run Equilibrium,” Econometrica, 13: 293-310 (October, 1945)

16.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Part III

17.—G. L. Bach, “Monetary-Fiscal Policy Reconsidered”, Journal of Political Economy, LVII: 383-94 (October 1949)

18.—George Terborgh, The Bogey of Economic Maturity.

19.—A. P. Lerner, Economics of Employment, parts IV and V.

20.*—William Hamburger, “The Determinants of Aggregate Consumption”, Review of Economic Studies, XXII (1), pp. 23-34

21.*—Franco Modigliani and Richard Brumberg, “Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function”, included in Kenneth Kurihara, The Post Keynesian System—Essays in Honor of John Maynard Keynes.

22.—O. H. Brownlee, Economics of Public Finance, Chapters 3-6

23.—__________, “The Theory of Employment and Stabilization Policy”, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1950, pp. 412-24.

24.*—Milton Friedman, A Theory of the Consumption Function (particularly chapters 1-4.)

Monetary-Fiscal Policy
1. Effects of changes in government expenditures for goods and services, net tax collections, the tax structure and the supply of money on the demand for and supply of goods and services.
  1. In the Keynesian System
  2. In the Alternative System
2. Built-In Flexibility vs. Ad. hominum [sic, “ad hoc”] changes.

Readings:

1.—Robert L. Bishop, “Alternative Expansionist Fiscal Policies: A Diagrammatic Analysis”, Lloyd A. Metzler, ed. Income, Employment and Public Policy.

2.—O. H. Brownlee, “Taxation and the Price Level in the Short Run”, The Journal of Political Economy, February, 1954, pp. 26-33.

3.—__________, The Economics of Public Finance, Chapter 6.

4.—Paul A. Samuelson, “Principles and Rules in Modern Fiscal Policy: A Neo-Classical Reformulation”, included in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth.

5.*—Milton Friedman, “the Effects of a Full-Employment Policy on Economic Stability: A Formal Analysis”, included in Essays in Positive Economics.

6.—E. Cary Brown, “The Static Theory of Automatic Fiscal Stabilization”, Journal of Political Economy, October 1955.

7.—Alfred Conrad, “The Multiplier Effects of Redistributive Public Budgets”, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1955.

8.—William A. Salant, “Taxes, Income Determination and the Balanced Budget Theorem”, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1957.

[9. Bent Hansen, The Economic Theory of Fiscal Policy.]

Some Applications of Static Macroeconomic Analysis to Other Problems
1. Disaggregated Systems
2. Effects of Shifts in Expenditure and Income in One Sector upon Income in Other Sectors.

Readings:

1.—John S. Chipman, The Theory of Inter-Sectoral Money Flows and Income Formation.

2.—D. Gale Johnson and O. H. Brownlee, “Reducing Price Variability Confronting Primary Producers”, Journal of Farm Economics, May, 1950, 176-193.

Macrodynamic Analysis
1. The Nature of “Business Cycle” Theories.
2. First-Order Difference Equations
  1. The Cobweb Theorem
  2. Lagging of Consumption or Investment by One Period
  3. Introduction of Disturbances
  4. A Dynamic “Keynesian” Model
3. Models Involving Higher Order Difference Equations
  1. “Interactions between the ‘Multiplier’ and the ‘Acceleration Principle’”.
  2. Inventory decisions as related to changes in consumption or investment in Plant and Equipment.
4. Problems of Prediction

Readings:

1.*—Paul A. Samuelson, “Interactions Between the Multiplier and the Principle of Acceleration”, included in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, 261-69.

2.—Mordecai Ezekiel, “The Cobweb Theorem”, included in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, 422-42.

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

4.—R. F. Harrod, The Trade Cycle, Chapter 2.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 25, Folder “Macroeconomics, Problems & exercises. 1 of 2. 1961-70, n.d.”.

Image Source: Douglas Clement, “A Golden History” in Minnesota Economics (Fall 2006), p. 2.

Tags Bronfenbrenner, Brownlee, Friedman, JohnsonDG, Schultz

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate Mathematical Economics. Syllabus and Final Exam. Chipman, 1952

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-12-17

John S. Chipman was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1926. He received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1951, and taught at the University of Minnesota from 1955 to his retirement as Regents’ Professor in 2007.

Before going to Minnesota Chipman was assistant professor of economics at Harvard from 1951-55. This post provides a transcription of the course syllabus and final examination for Chipman’s “General Interdependence Systems”, a name he chose for the course he inherited bearing the nominal title of “mathematical economics”.

____________________

Course Announcement

Economics 214b (formerly Economics 204b). Mathematical Economics

Half-course (spring term). Tu., Th., 2:30-4. Assistant Professor Chipman.

General interdependence systems; in particular, Leontief linear systems. Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted to the course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1951-52 published in Official Register of Harvard University Vol. XLVIII, No. 21 (September 10, 1951), pp. 80-81 .

____________________

Economics 214b
General Interdependence Systems

Second Semester, 1951-52
Syllabus

*Texts

I STATIC LEONTIEF MODEL

*Wassily W. Leontief: The Structure of American Economy, 1919-1939, New York, Oxford University Press, 1951.

II DYNAMIC MODELS

*John S. Chipman: The Theory of Inter-Sectoral Money Flows and Income Formation, Baltimore, The John Hopkins Press, 1951

Richard M. Goodwin: “The Multiplier as Matrix,” Economic Journal, December 1949

________________: “Does the Matrix Multiplier Oscillate?” December 1950

________________: “Static and Dynamic Linear General Equilibrium Models,” (mimeographed, Littauer Library)

David Hawkins and Herbert A. Simon, “Note: Some Conditions of Macroeconomic Stability,” Econometrica, July-October 1949

Oscar Lange, Price Flexibility and Employment, Bloomington, Indiana, Principia Press, 1944, Appendix.

Lloyd A. Metzler: “Stability of Multiple Markets: The Hicks Conditions,” Econometrica, October 1945

________________: “A Multiple Region Theory of Income and Trade,” Econometrica, October 1950

________________: “A Multiple-Country Theory of Income Transfers,” Journal of Political Economy, February 1951.

Paul A. Samuelson: Foundations of Economic Analysis, Ch. IX and Appendix B

________________: “A Fundamental Multiplier Identity,” Econometrica, July-October 1943

Arthur Smithies: “The Stability of Competitive Equilibrium,” Econometrica, July-October 1942

Robert Solow: “On the Structure of Linear Models,” Econometrica, January 1952

Frederick V. Waugh: “Inversion of the Leontief Matrix by Power Series,” Econometrica, April 1950

III ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES (“LINEAR PROGRAMMING”)

*Tjalling C. Koopmans (ed.): Activity Analysis of Production and Allocation, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1951.

________________: “Efficient Allocation of Resources,” Econometrica, October 1951.

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen: “Leontief’s System in the Light of Recent Result,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1950

John von Neumann: “A Model of General Economic Equilibrium,” Review of Economic Studies, October 1945.

MATHEMATICAL REFERENCES

(1) Matrices

R. A. Frazer, W. J. Duncan and A. R. Collar, Elementary Matrices, New York, Macmillan, 1947

C. C. MacDuffee, Vectors and Matrices, Menasha, Wisconsin, 1943

A. C. Aitken, Determinants and Matrices, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1948

(2) Difference and Differential Equations

P. A. Samuelson, “Dynamic Process Analysis,” in A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1948

R. G. D. Allen, “Mathematical Foundations of Economic Theory,” Q.J.E. February 1949

F. R. Moulton, Differential Equations, New York, Macmillan, 1930, Ch. XV

W. J. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, New York, Macmillan, 1951.

(3) Set Theory and Abstract Algebra

F. P. Northrup and Associates, Fundamental Mathematics, Vol. I, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1948

Richard Courant and Herbert Robbins, What is Mathematics?, New York, Oxford University Press, 1941

Garrett Birkhoff and Saunders MacLane, A Survey of Modern Algebra, New York, Macmillan, 1950

Paul Halmos, Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1948

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 5. Folder: “Economics, 1951-1952 (2 of 2)”.

____________________

1951-52
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 214b
[Final examination]

Answer both questions

Consider an economy composed of n sectors (say industries and households) and described by the model

where y_i(t) is the output of sector i at time t, of which b_i is the exogenous component, and where the input-output coefficients a_ij are all taken to be non-negative. Assuming the economy to be initially in a state of equilibrium, show under what conditions an autonomous rise in all the b_i
1. implies an increase in the equilibrium values of all the sector outputs;
2. causes all sector outputs to approach, with time, new equilibrium values.
  Compare and interpret these conditions.
“A possible activity is efficient if and only if there exists a set of positive prices for all commodities, which give rise to zero profits on this activity and non-positive profits on all other possible activities.”
1. Prove this theorem, keeping in mind the following two properties of convex polyhedral cones:
  1. The negative polar of the intersection of two cones is equal to the sum of their negative polars;
  2. The sum of two cones is equal to the sum of their dimensionality spaces if and only if the relative interior of the one cone intersects the negative of the relative interior of the other.
2. Indicate a modification of the theorem, with the appropriate modification of the definition of efficiency, when availability limitations are specified on certain primary commodities, which are no longer regarded as “undesirable.”
3. Outline the properties of the efficient set in (b) when there is only one primary commodity and there is no joint production.
4. Discuss the usefulness, significance, and validity of the notion of an efficient set of activities as employed in (a), (b), and (c).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…Economics,…, Air Sciences, Naval Science, June 1952.

Image Source: September 1961 entry card for John Somerset Chipman (b. 28 June 1926 in Montreal). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, immigration Cards, 1900-1965 at ancestry.com.

Tags Chipman

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings and Exams. Public Utilities and Transportation. 1935-37.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-12-09

This post has been assembled around a list of books used in courses on transportation that were taught at Harvard in the mid-1930s. While the courses covered public utility regulation for the most part, I have not yet found complete course outlines or syllabi for the two courses considered. So paired with the final examinations for the course, the partial reading lists are all we can go on for now regarding the course content.

In the following post we meet the economics Ph.D. alumnus (Harvard, 1931), Donald Holmes Wallace who assisted Edward H. Chamberlin in teaching these courses at the time. Wallace put the lists together in response to an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (see below).

_____________________________

Course Announcements

1935-36

Economics 4c ²hf. Public Utilities (including Transportation)

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.

Economics 4a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.

[Economics 48. Economics of Public Utilities]

Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.

Omitted in 1935-36.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1935-36, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 32, No. 7 (March 4, 1935), pp. 135, 139.

* * * * * * * * * * *

1936-37

Economics 63b ²hf. (formerly 4c). Public Utilities (including Transportation)

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.

Economics 61a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.

Economics 163. (formerly 48). Economics of Public Utilities

Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1936-37, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 33, No. 5 (March 2, 1936), pp. 141,145.

_____________________________

Course Enrollments

[Economics] 4c ²hf. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace, Abbott and Baker. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 74: 2 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1935-36, p. 82.

* * * * * * * * * * *

[Economics] 63b ²hf. (formerly 4c) Associate Professor Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 43: 1 Graduate, 25 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Other.

[Economics] 163. (formerly 48). Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace.—Economics of Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 10: 4 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1936-37, pp. 92, 94.

_____________________________

Harvard University
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department of Government

Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 19, 1936

Miss C. C. Tatnall
Department of Economics
41 Holyoke House
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Miss Tatnall:

Professor [William Y.] Elliott has had an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission about the books which are being used in the courses on transportation in the University. Have you a bibliography, or could a bibliography be prepared, of the material in use in the courses Economics 63b and 163? We shall appreciate any material you are able to collect.

Do you know if there are any other courses in the College which deal with transportation?

Thanks so much for your trouble.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
[first name?] Dolan

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

List of Books used in Economics of Transportation
October, 1936
D. H. Wallace

Undergraduate course entitled Public Utilities including Transportation:

Locklin: Economics of Transportation

Mosher and Crawford: Public Utility Regulation

Daggett: Principles of Inland Transportation

Owen: Highway Economics

Bauer and Gold: Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control

Bonbright and Means: The Holding Company

Reports of the Federal Coordinator.

Graduate course students make use of the following

Cunningham: American Railroads

Grodinsky: Railroad Consolidation

Jones: Principles of Railway Transportation

Miller: Inland Transportation

Ripley: Railroads

Ripley: Report on Consolidation for I.C.C.

Sharfman: American Railway Problem

Sharfman: Interstate Commerce Commission

Simnett: Railway Amalgamation in Great Britain

Vanderblue and Burgess: Railroads

I.C.C.: Annual Reports

I.C.C.: Decisions

Clark: Economics of Overhead Costs

Chamberlin: Theory of Monopolistic Competition (Duopoly and oligopoly)

Pigou: Economics of Welfare (Discrimination)

Robinson: Economics of Imperfect Competition (Discrimination)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 25. Folder “Suggested Readings”.

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
May 4-26, 1936

Economics 4c: Read one of the following:

First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37.
Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1935-36”.

_____________________________

1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4c²
[Final Examination]

Answer questions 1 and 5 and TWO others. All questions are of equal weight.

Answer the question appropriate to your Reading Period choice.
1. Discuss the alternatives for a national policy toward the transportation problem in this country and explain which measures should in your opinion be included in such a program.
2. Compare the chief developments in railway regulation in France and the United States during the past fifteen years.
3. “The concept of ‘present value’ represents an unreal combination of judicial prejudice and economic abstraction.” Discuss.
The economic surgery required by the provisions of the Public Utility Holding Company Act compelling realignment of companies into integrated regional systems is no less deplorable than an appendicitis operation upon a boy who has eaten too many green apples. A much more sensible policy was adopted in the consolidation provisions of the Transportation Act of 1920 which enabled a judicious mixture of private and public planning of combination.” Discuss.
“The original cost method of valuation cannot provide a satisfactory way of determining rate bases in the case of competing railroads built at different times over different terrains. Under such circumstances the use of original cost will result either in robbing the stockholders of one road of the advantages of perspicacious management, or in forcing shippers to reward the stockholders of the other for building an expensive road.” Discuss.
You are asked by one of the political parties to prepare a memorandum to serve as a basis for a plank concerning public utilities. It is requested that you explain specifically: (1) the economic criteria which seem to be the most useful for distinguishing industries which should be subjected to public ownership and operation or public regulation of investment, prices, and earnings; and (2) the legal principles used by the courts in recent cases involving the rights of Federal or state governments to regulate investment, prices, or earnings.
Discuss two of the following quotations.
1. “The ordinary consumer of utility services is interested only in price and quality of service. His disposition to leave to investors all concern over security structures, holding companies, and service charges finds a sound basis in the fact that these things affect only the division of the profits.”
2. “Whatever may be urged to the contrary, regulation of transportation agencies in the United States has been imposed as a result of unfair treatment of the shipping public.”
3. “Personal discrimination is bad enough in that it confers an unwarranted favor upon one of two producers located in the same place; long and short haul discrimination is worse because it gives an undue advantage to the producer who is located farther away from raw materials or markets.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1936. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 78).

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
May 10-June 2, 1937

Economics 63b: Read one of the following:

First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37,
and
Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 63b²
[Final Examination]

Write on four questions, including the first and the last. Divide your time about equally between them.

Choose either (a) or (b):
1. “The fact that ‘charging what the traffic will bear’ develops under unregulated competition is no excuse for permitting the practice when rates are regulated by public authority. It is simply another form of discrimination which it is the duty of the I.C.C. to put down.” Discuss.
2. Comment on the following figures for the electrical industry for 1935:

	Customers Per cent	Consumption Per cent	Revenue Per cent
Domestic:	82.6	18.0	36.6
Commercial:
Retail	14.9	18.3	28.0
Wholesale	2.0	53.1	27.5
Municipal, Street railways and miscellaneous	0.5	10.6	7.0
	100.0	100.0	100.0

“With the Act of 1920 the policy of regulation of railroads reached its highest development. If that policy fails, the only alternative is public ownership.” Discuss.
Discuss the merits and defects of the policies adopted in in this country for public planning of operating systems either in electricity supply or in railroad transportation.
“In the last analysis, it has been the presence or absence of monopoly which determined whether or not an industry was held to be a public utility. Actually, there are several other elements which ought to be given important consideration.” Discuss.
Answer the question appropriate to your reading period choice:
1. (Eastman report.) Do you think that all agencies of transport should be subjected to the same or to different sorts of regulation? Explain.
2. (Bauer and Gold.) Explain briefly what you understand by “fair value” according to the law of the land and discuss its significance for the regulation of earnings of public utilities.
3. (Foreign railways.) What significant comparisons may be made between the post-war railroad problems of France, Germany and England? What light has your reading here thrown upon the problems of this country?

Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
January 4-20, 1937

Economics 163: Read the following:

Bonbright and Means, The Holding Company.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Mid-Year Examination]

All six questions are of equal weight. Answer the first question, the last question, and any two among questions 2 to 5.

The Public Utility Act of 1935 authorizes an examination of holding company systems with a view to determining “the extent to which such holding company systems and the companies therein may be simplified, unnecessary complexities therein eliminated, voting power fairly and equitably distributed among the holders of securities thereof, and the properties and business thereof confined to those necessary or appropriate to the operations of integrated public utility systems.” What facts with respect to these questions would you expect such an examination to disclose?
Discuss either of the following statements by Burns:
(a) “Vertical integration thus dictated by the opportunity to secure technical economies of production is not directly caused by the decline of price competition although it may contribute to that decline.”
(b) “In common with all forms of integration, however, this type (of the production of commodities requiring similar selling organizations) hinders the comparison of costs and prices for each separate branch of production.”
Discuss either of the following statements:
(a) “Closely related and also a chief point of controversy, was the effect of limitation of liability upon the position of the creditor.” Hunt (commenting upon the Royal Commission Report of 1854).
(b) “It is to be noted that hardly anywhere in these reports (those of 1837, 1850, 1851, and 1854) was a pure measure of limited liability discussed. What was discussed at great length was this mixed form (of the en commandite type) with unlimited and limited partners.” Shannon.
(a) Discuss the significance and usefulness of either ratio analysis, with illustrative comment upon important types of ratios, or analysis by use of so-called statements of source and disposition of funds.
(b) Outline the major arguments against enforced publicity of corporate accounts.
(a) Discuss the effect of each of the following devices in bringing about separation of control from ownership in corporations: (i) the stockholder’s proxy, (ii) classification of stock.
(b) Outline the main considerations determining a corporation’s dividend policy.
Write on either (a) or (b):
(a) What difficulties, if any, are created by the corporate form of organization for the theory of profits?
(b) What effect do you think a sizeable tax on the transfer of securities (say 1 or 2 per cent of the market price) would have on the behavior of security prices?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13, Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1936-1937”.

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
May 10—June 2, 1937

Economics 163: No additional assignment.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Final Examination]

Write on four questions, including number 6. Divide your time about equally between them.

“To justify the principle of discrimination is not to justify either particular instances or particular types of discrimination.” Discuss.
Discuss the possibilities for regulating the earnings of public utilities either (a) with, or (b) without, valuation.
Discuss the possible effects of regulation upon efficiency. What suggestions as to public policy can you make for strengthening the incentives towards efficient operation?
“The arguments for and against public ownership are the same as the arguments for and against regulation.” Discuss.
Discuss the problems of public planning for the size and structure of operating units and the relations between them, with reference to either (a) railroad transport, or (b) electricity supply.
Write on transport coordination: its meaning, significance and possibilities.

Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).

Image Source: Cover of the 1946 Harvard Album.

Tags Abbott, Baker, Chamberlin, Crum, Mason, WallaceDH

Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Monetary International Economics, readings and exam. Metzler, 1967

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-11-27

Lloyd Metzler provided a token Keynesian voice with a Harvard accent at post-WWII Chicago. Once the Cowles Commission moved to Yale, Metzler found himself vastly outnumbered. And yet he persisted.

__________________________

Syllabus and readings for Economics 370 in 1950.

Exam for Economics 370 in 1953.

All Economics in the Rear-view Mirror blog-posts with Lloyd Metzler content.

__________________________

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 1941-48. Note: the interesting archival papers containing the following material are found in the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 370
MONETARY ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Major Topics and Reading List

Winter 1967
Lloyd A. Metzler

Mechanism of the Foreign Exchange Market
1. P. T. Ellsworth, The International Economy, third edition, New York: Macmillan Company, 1964, Chapter 17.
2. 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.
3. Frank A. Southard, Jr., Foreign Exchange Practice and Policy, New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1940.
4. N. Crump, The ABC of the Foreign Exchanges, London: Macmillan and Company, Ltd., 1951.
5. James E. Meade, Studies in the Theory of International Economic Policy, Vol. I, The Balance of Payments, London: Oxford University Press, 1951, Chapter 1.
The Quantity of Money, the Rate of Interest, and the Price Level
1. Sub-Committee 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? 82^ndCongress of the United States, 1952, pp. 688-7111, 691-698. (These pages include the testimony of Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson.)
2. James Tobin, “Monetary Policy and the Management of the Public Debt. The Patman Inquiry,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. XXXV, No. 2, May 1953, pp. 118-127.
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. 622-626.
6. George Horwich, “Real Assets and the Theory of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXX, No. 2, April 1962, pp. 158-169.
7. Don Patinkin, Money, Interest, and Prices, first edition, Evanston: Row, Peterson and Co., 1956, Part. II.
The Role of Money in International Adjustment: Full Employment and Under-Employment
1. J. M. Keynes, Treatise on Money, Vol. I, 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, Illinois: R. D. Irwin, Inc., 1948.
Free Market Exchange Rates
1. A. J. Brown, “The Foreign Exchanges” in Oxford Studies in the Price Mechanism, Edited by T. Wilson and P.W. S. Andrews, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1951, Chapters I (i) and II (ii).
2. S. Alexander, “Effects of A Devaluation on a Trade Balance,” International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, Vol. II, No. 2, April 1952.
3. Milton Friedman, “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” in Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1953, pp. 157-203.
4. Joan Robinson, Essays in the Theory of Employment, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1947, Part III, “The Foreign Exchanges.”
5. Lloyd A. Metzler, “Exchange Rates and the International Monetary Fund,” in International Monetary Policies, Postwar Economic Studies No. 7, Washington, D.C.: 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.
Forward Exchange Rates
1. Paul Einzig, The Theory of Forward Exchange, London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1937.
2. Paul Einzig, A Dynamic Theory of Forward Exchange, London, Macmillan and Co., 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.
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: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1943.
2. U. S. Department of Commerce, Income and Output, 1958 supplement to the Survey of Current Business.
The Theory of Income Transfers
1. J. M. Keynes, “The Transfer Problem,” Economic Journal, 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, pp. 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. 400-4.
6. J. M. Keynes, “Reply to J. Rueff,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 404-8.
7. L. A. Metzler, “The Transfer Problem Re-considered,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. L, No. 2, June 1942.
8. H. G. Johnson, “The Transfer Problem and Exchange Stability,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXIV, No. 3, June 1956, pp. 212-25.
Postwar Monetary Conditions and the Position of the U.S. Dollar
1. R. Hinshaw, Toward Currency Convertibility, Princeton University, Essays in International Finance, No. 31, 1958.
2. R. Triffin, Europe and the Money Muddle, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.
3. C. P. Kindleberger, The Dollar Shortage, Cambridge: Massachusetts [Institute of ] Technology Press, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1950.
4. R. Triffin, “The International Monetary Position of the United States,” in The Dollar in Crisis, S.E. Harris, editor, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1961.
5. P. T. Ellsworth, The International Economy, third edition, New York: The Macmillan Company, Part VI.
6. H. B. Lary, Problems of the United States as World Trader and Banker, Princeton University Press for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 1963.
7. Triffin, The Evolution of the International Monetary System: Historical Reappraisal and Future Perspectives, Princeton Studies in International Finance, No. 12, International Finance Section, Princeton University, 1964.
8. International Financial Arrangements: The Problem of Choice, Report on the deliberations of an international study group of 32 economists, International Finance Section, Department of Economics, Princeton University 1964.
9. New Approach to United States International Economic Policy. Hearing before the subcommittee on international exchange and payments of the joint economic committee, Eighty-ninth Congress of the United States, second session, September 9, 1966.
10. Ministerial Statement of the Group of Ten and Annex Prepared by Deputies, Statement of M. Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Chairman of the group, August 10, 1964.
11. American Enterprise Institute, International Payments Problems, a symposium sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C. 1966.

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

Lloyd A. Metzler

ECONOMICS 370
Course Examination
Winter, 1967

Answer all questions.

Define two concepts of income which arise when one country (A) makes an annual income transfer to another country (B) and indicate the significance of each concept.
Use the concepts above to show why, in a two-country economy, a presumption exists that the transfer will be more difficult if both countries require imported raw materials to produce than if both are self-sufficient in production. Without going into technical details, indicate why the theory for self-sufficient economies is correct despite this presumption.
(a) Derive the conditions of balance in a full-employment open economy for the following markets: (i) the market for goods and services; (ii) the market for newly-issued securities (iii) the market for foreign exchange.
(b) Show that if the first two markets are in balance, the country has neither a surplus nor a deficit in its balance of payments.
(c) Show that if there is an excess supply (or deflationary gap) in both new securities and goods and services the country necessarily has a deficit in its balance of payments. Discuss the market mechanism which may eliminate this deficit, assuming full employment and flexible prices.
The table below gives interest rates for 3-months U.S. treasury bills adjusted to an annual basis, as well as the spot rate and the 3-month forward rate on Canadian currency, each rate being defined as the U.S. dollar price of the Canadian dollar:

Period	3-month U.S. bills	3-month forward rate	Spot Rate
(1)	.05	$1.0025	$1.0000
(2)	.04	$0.9975	$1.0000
(3)	.03	$0.9950	$1.0000
(4)	.04	$0.9900	$1.0000
(5)	.07	$2.0050	$2.0000

On the basis of this information you are asked to compute, for all periods, the interest rate for Canadian 3-months bills on the assumption that all data lie on the Interest Rate Parity line. Show your computations.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 3, Folder “Econ 370- Course Exams”.

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

Tags Ise, Metzler

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economic Analysis and Public Policy, Readings and Exams. Smithies and Baldwin, 1956-57

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-11-27

While Harvard archive’s collection of old course syllabi and reading lists offers a treasure chest of material, there still are plenty of “missing observations” and lost pages between us and a complete record. Fortunately there is often significant inertia in the actual syllabi so that interpolation is less hazardous than one might expect in filling the gaps. As noted below, the reading list for the Spring term was not found in the corresponding folder for Harvard economics course syllabi in the Harvard archives.

* * * * * * * * * *

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

Robert Baldwin’s reading lists and exams for 1955-56 have been likewise transcribed and posted.

________________________

Course Enrollment

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

(F) Total 49: 9 Graduates, 36 Other Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Radcliffe, 2 Others.
(S) Total 51: 10 Graduates, 37 Other Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Radcliffe, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1956-57, p. 70.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
Reading List, Fall 1956

Economic Analysis and Public Policy

F. H. Knight, “Economic Objectives in a Changing World,” Economics and Public Policy, The Brookings Institution, 1955.

A. Smithies, “Economic Welfare and Policy,” Ibid.

The Ricardian System

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy, Chs. 2-6, 21.

W. J. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, Ch. 2.

Suggested:

Ricardo, Chs. 1, 31

G. J. Stigler, “The Ricardian Theory of Value and Distribution,” The Journal of Political Economy, LX, 3 (June 1952).

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Bk. 3, Ch. 6 and 14;

Mimeographed paper on Smith and Ricardo*

Marxian Dynamics

Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Preface.

M. M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History, Chs. 1-3, 9-13.

Suggested:

Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics.

P. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chs. 4-6, 8, 9,

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

Mimeographed paper on Marx*

The Neo-classical System

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

G. Cassel, The Theory of Social Economy, Ch. 4

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

Suggested:

E. Phelps Brown, Framework of the Pricing System

The Schumpeterian System

J. A. Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Vol. I, Chs. 3, 4.

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

Suggested:

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

Mimeographed paper on Schumpeter*.

Keynesian Economics

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Ch. 19.

D. Dillard, The Economics of J. M. Keynes, Chs. 2, 3.

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

Suggested:

A. Hansen, A Guide to Keynes

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

Post-Keynesian Growth Theorists

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

W. Baumol, op. cit., Ch. 4

Suggested:

R. Harrod, Towards a Dynamic Economics, Ch. 3.

D. Hamberg, Economic Growth and Instability, Ch. 2, 3

*Available in Lamont and Littauer Libraries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1956-1957 (1 of 2).

________________________

1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 206
Fall 1956
Final Examination

Answer FIVE of the following seven questions.

What conclusions can be drawn concerning the optimization of resource allocation in a competitive versus a monopolistic economy? Consider the problem under both static and dynamic conditions.
Analyze the possible employment effects of an increase in the money supply in the Keynesian and the neo-classical aggregate models.
Both Ricardo and Marx assert that real wages tend to be driven to a subsistence level in the long-run. Contrast the reasoning of these two writers in reaching this conclusion.
Contrast the reasons why the classical writers were pessimistic about development prospects under capitalism whereas the neo-classical economists were quite optimistic about growth possibilities.
Neo-classical writers claim that long-run equilibrium at a less than full employment level is impossible. Keynesians, on the other hand, assert that less than full employment equilibrium is possible. Carefully explain the reasons why these two groups differ on this point.
What were the major policy recommendations of Ricardo? Analyze how, according to Ricardo, the adoption of these measures would postpone the arrival of the stationary state.
Contrast the role of the interest rate as a determinant of investment in the Schumpeterian, neo-classical, and Keynesian models.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 25, Volume: Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science, January 1957.

________________________

Note: The reading list for Economics 206, Spring Term 1957 was not found in the Harvard archives with the other filed course syllabi from 1956-57.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 206

Spring Examination, 1957

Answer FOUR of SEVEN.

a) Under what conditions could the U.S. economy achieve uninterrupted growth? Do you think these conditions are likely to prevail?
b) What sort of obstacles to steady growth would you expect to find in the U.S. economy? Are they self-correcting or would you recommend specific policies to overcome them?
Is an equal or unequal distribution of income more compatible with the achievement of steady growth? What are the chief determinants of income distribution in the United States? Would you expect a shift in distribution as the economy grows?
Analyze the causes of inflationary pressure. With our present institutional arrangements, what policy measures would you advocate to alleviate an inflation? Discuss any changes in present institutions that you feel would be desirable for combating inflation. Would your policy measures change if you were operating under changed legal or institutional arrangements? (i.e. Would you use the same instruments in a different way?)
What is the meaning of balance of payments disequilibrium? How would you deal with such a disequilibrium in a country that had a goal of maximizing economic growth?
Do you think there was a fundamental change in the U.S. economy between the prosperous ‘20’s and the depressed ‘30’s or between the ‘30’s and the post World War II era? If so, what were these changes and how do they contribute to an explanation of the behavior of the economy in these periods? If not, how would you explain the mixed performance of the economy?
How can the traditional theory of the firm be used to explain the distribution of income? Would the theory lead you to expect a different distribution in an imperfectly competitive economy than in a purely competitive one?
Are large budgets consistent with equilibrium growth? What effect on growth would an increase in government expenditure have if (a) it is deficit financed, (b) it is tax financed?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Volume 113 (HUC 7000.28) Final Exams—Social Sciences—June 1957: Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science, June 1957.

Image Sources: (Left) John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website. Arthur Smithies (1955 Fellow); (Right) Robert Baldwin from Selection from photograph (ca. 1975) of Robert E. Baldwin from the University of Wisconsin Archives/The University of Wisconsin Collection/The UW-Madison Collection/UW-Madison Archives Images.

Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Applied Economic Analysis, Readings and Exams. Smithies and Baldwin, 1956-57

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-11-18

For a course that promises applied economic analysis, the content for the 1956-57 course taught by Arthur Smithies and Robert Baldwin appears to have been about 2/3 analysis and 1/3 “application”.

The course materials from the previous year (taught by James Duesenberry) have been posted earlier at:

Applied Economic Analysis, 1955-56.

________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 106. Applied Economic Analysis. Professor Smithies and Assistant Professor Baldwin. Full course.

(F) Total 45: 2 Other Graduates, 36 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 1 Other.
(S) Total 43: 1 Other Graduate, 36 Seniors, 6 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1956-57, p. 68.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 106
Reading List, Fall 1956

Economic Analysis and Public Policy

F. H. Knight, “Economic Objectives in a Changing World,” Economics and Public Policy, The Brookings Institution, 1955.

A. Smithies, “Economic Welfare and Policy,” Ibid.

The Ricardian System

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy, Chs. 2-6, 21.

W. J. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, Ch. 2.

Suggested:

Ricardo, Chs. 1, 31

G. J. Stigler, “The Ricardian Theory of Value and Distribution,” The Journal of Political Economy, LX, 3 (June 1952).

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Bk. 3, Ch. 6 and 14;

Mimeographed paper on Smith and Ricardo*

Marxian Dynamics

Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Preface.

M. M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History, Chs. 1-3, 9-13.

Suggested:

Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics.

P. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chs. 4-6, 8, 9,

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

Mimeographed paper on Marx*

The Neo-classical System

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

G. Cassel, The Theory of Social Economy, Ch. 4

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

Suggested:

E. Phelps Brown, Framework of the Pricing System

The Schumpeterian System

J. A. Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Vol. I, Chs. 3, 4.

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

Suggested:

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

Mimeographed paper on Schumpeter*.

Keynesian Economics

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Ch. 19.

D. Dillard, The Economics of J. M. Keynes, Chs. 2, 3.

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

Suggested:

A. Hansen, A Guide to Keynes

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

Post-Keynesian Growth Theorists

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

W. Baumol, op. cit., Ch. 4

Suggested:

R. Harrod, Towards a Dynamic Economics, Ch. 3.

D. Hamberg, Economic Growth and Instability, Ch. 2, 3

*Available in Lamont and Littauer Libraries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1956-1957 (2 of 2).

________________________

1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 106
Fall 1956
Final Examination

Part I
(30 Minutes)
Answer the following question.

Discuss the concept of steady growth in the Post-Keynesian models. Do you consider that steady growth is attainable or desirable?

Part II
(One Hour)
Answer the following question.

Ricardo, Marx, Schumpeter and Keynes all predicted that the capitalist system would either break down or arrive at a stationary state. Compare and contrast these theories. What light does your answer to Question 1 throw on their validity?

Part III
(One Hour and A Half)
Answer TWO questions.

Is there an economic basis for the notion of an optimum distribution of income in (a) a stationary and (b) a developing economy. What economic factors would you consider in defining such a concept?
Keynes produced a theory of involuntary unemployment. How does involuntary unemployment occur in his system and to what extent does his theory constitute a revolution in economic thinking?
Discuss the concepts of profits in the various theories you have studied. In the light of these theories do you consider profits to be pure surpluses or rewards to factors of production?

________________________

Harvard University
Department of Economics

Economics 106
[Spring term, 1956-57]

Part I Aggregative Theories (continued from 1^st term)

Post-Keynesian Growth Theorists

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

W. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, Ch. 4

Suggested:

R. Harrod, Towards a Dynamic Economics, Ch. 3.

D. Hamberg, Economic Growth and Instability, Ch. 2, 3

Smithies, A., “Economic Fluctuations and Growth,” Econometrica, January 1957.

Part II Public Policy and Economic Goals

Full Employment and Price Level Stability
1. General

Maxwell, Fiscal Policy

1. Policy Approaches

Simons, Economic Policy for a Free Society, Ch. 7.

Committee for Economic Development, “Taxes and the Budget: A Program for Prosperity in a Free Economy,” Readings in Fiscal Policy, Number 23, American Economic Association.

United Nations, National and International Measures for Full Employment, 73-87.

Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society, Part IV.

Lerner, Economics of Control, Ch. 24.

Clark, “Criteria of Sound Wage Adjustment, with Emphasis on the Question of Inflationary Effects,” Impact of the Union, Ch. 1, Wright (ed.)

[Note: page 2 of the syllabus is missing, cf. Baldwin’s Spring Term 1956, Economics 206. Missing part B almost certainly included “Equitable Income Distribution” and “Efficient Resource Allocation”]

Continued Growth

Fellner, Trends and Cycles in Economic Activity, Chapters 8 and 9.

Davis, “Economic Potentials of the United States,” Lekachman (ed.), National Policy for Economic Welfare at Home and Abroad.

Wright, Democracy and Progress, Chapters 5-7 and 12.

Hansen, “Growth or Stagnation in the American Economy,” Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1954.

Slichter, “How Big in 1980?” Atlantic Monthly, November 1949.

Hennipman, “Monopoly: Impediment or Stimulus to Economic Progress,” Monopoly and Competition and Their Regulation, Chamberlin (ed.).

Lange, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, 98-120.

International Equilibrium

Snider, Introduction to International Economics, Ch. 11.

Thorp, Trade, Aid, or What?, Chapters 1 and 2.

Humphrey, American Imports, Chapter 24.

General

Tinbergen, J., Economic Policy: Principles and Design.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1956-1957 (2 of 2).

________________________

1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 106
Applied Economic Analysis
Final Examination

ANSWER FIVE (5) OF THE FOLLOWING SIX QUESTIONS.

Contrast the Domar-Harrod and neo-classical analyses of the problem of maintaining full-employment growth.
What policy tools are available to control the level of aggregate demand in the American economy? Outline the policy program you would recommend in a depression.
“There has recently been a tendency, I believe, to exaggerate the effectiveness of monetary policy and to gloss over its weaknesses.” Discuss.
Discuss the policy proposals of the “dynamic competition” group (Schumpeterians) and the “guided capitalism” group (Keynesians) with regard to the problem of maintaining satisfactory growth.
What were the major causes of the post-war balance of payments difficulties for Europe? What measures were taken in an effort to cure the problem?
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the “structure” versus the “performance” criteria of anti-trust policy.

Tags Baldwin, Smithies

Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Socialism and Planning. Syllabus and final exam. Tinbergen and Tsuru, 1957

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-11-13

During the spring term of 1957 at Harvard, two visiting professors jointly taught an undergraduate course on “Socialism and Planning”. The instructors were future (inaugural!) Nobel laureate, Professor Jan Tinbergen coming from the Netherlands School of Economics and Dutch Central Planning Bureau, and Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus (1940), Professor Tsuru Shigeto of Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo).

The American-Japan Intellectual Interchange Committee invited Tsuru Shigeto to be a visiting lecturer for one year at Harvard University in 1956-57. In his March 26, 1957 testimony before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate (his testimony will be included in the next post), Tsuru was asked “And what do you do, do you teach at Harvard?” and he answered “Under the terms of this invitation, my main job at Harvard is research. But I assist occasionally in a number of courses, to give sort of guest lectures.” This explains why both Tinbergen and Tsuru are listed on the course syllabus and final exam but only Tinbergen’s name appears in the annual report of the President of Harvard College.

__________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 111a. Socialism. Professor Tinbergen (Netherlands School of Economics). Half course.

(S) Total 30: 14 Other Graduates, 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 4 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1956-1957, p. 68.

__________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Professors Tinbergen and Tsuru, Spring 1957

Socialism and Planning
Outline

I. Socialism
Feb. 4	(Tinbergen)	Introductory and remarks on treatment of the subject
4	(Tinbergen)	History of socialism: “utopian” and “scientific”
6	(Tsuru)	History of socialism: “utopian” and “scientific” (cont.)
8,11	(Tinbergen)	Types of socialist doctrines in the post-Marxian period (revisionism, Fabianism, etc.)
13, 15, 18	(Tsuru)	Economic characteristics of socialism
20	(Tinbergen)	Recent socialist policies: (1) Wage policy
25	(Tinbergen)	(2) Social insurance
27 Mar. 1	(Tinbergen)	(3) Socialization
4	(Tinbergen)	(4) Anti-depression policy
6	(Tinbergen)	(5) War-time regulations
8	(Tinbergen)	(6) Regulations of agricultural markets
11	(Tinbergen)	(7) Income distribution
13, 15	(Tsuru)	(8) Recent socialist policies in the Soviet Union
18, 20	(Tsuru)	(9) Recent socialist policies in mainland China
II. Planning
Mar. 22,25	(Tinbergen)	Use made of planning since 1940 (also critique of free-pricing society)
27, 29 Apr. 8	(Tinbergen)	“Free” planning illustrated by The Netherlands
10, 12	(Tinbergen)	Some points of planning for detailed control
15	(Tinbergen)	Development planning: (1) Italy
17, 22	(Tsuru)	Development planning: (2) India
24, 26	(Tsuru)	“Planning vs. the law of value”

READINGS
*Obligatory reading.

Books

Cole, G. D. H., Socialist Economics, London, B. Gollancz Ltd., 1950.

Central Planning Bureau of the Netherlands: Scope and Methods of the Central Planning Bureau, The Hague, 1956.

Government of India: Second Five Year Plan, New Delhi, 1956.

Gray, A., The Socialist Tradition, Moses to Lenin, Longmans, Green & Co., 1947.

Harris, S. E., Economic Planning; The plans of fourteen countries with analyses of the plans, New York, Knopf, 1949.

J. Jewkes, Ordeal by Planning, London, Macmillan, 1948.

W. Keilhau, Principles of Private and Public Planning, London, Unwin Bros., 1951.

Lewis*, W. A., The Principles of Economic Planning, Washington, Public Affairs Press, 1951.

K. Mannheim, Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London.

J. E. Meade, Planning and the Price Mechanism, London, Allen & Unwin, 1948.

H. Mendershausen, The Economics of War, New York, Prentice-Hall, 1941.

J. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, New York, Harper and Bros., 1947.

Socialist Union*, Twentieth Century Socialism, New York, Penguin Books, 1956.

N. Thomas, Democratic Socialism: A New Appraisal, New York, 1953.

United Nations, Measures for the Economic Development of Underdeveloped Countries, New York, 1951.

Articles

P. Baran, “National Economic Planning,” in: A Survey of Contemporary Economics II.

A. Bergson, “Socialist Economics,” in: A Survey of Contemporary Economics, I.

R. L. Marris, “The position of economics and economists in the government machine, a comparative critique of the United Kingdom and The Netherlands,” Economic Journal 1954.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1956-1957 (2 of 2)”.

__________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Final Examination
ECONOMICS 111a
Spring 1957

(Tinbergen & Tsuru)

Comment on the book or articles which you read during the reading period.
Give an answer to three of the following questions in no more than 15 lines for each:
1. Which industries are publicly owned in most Western European countries?
2. What does the term “revisionists” mean?
3. Why do countries in war usually impose regulations on their economies?
4. Why do agricultural markets tend to be unstable?
5. What is the essence of social insurance schemes?
6. What taxes are favored by socialists and why?
Answer one of the following two questions in about two pages:
1. Give the main arguments in favor of and those against socialization.
2. What is meant by the economic surplus and what is its characteristic for a socialist economy?
Answer three of the following questions in at most one page each:
1. What is the difference between a forecast and a plan for the economy as a whole?
2. Which are the main instruments used by:
  1. A country applying overall year-to-year planning;
  2. A country applying overall development planning; and
  3. A country applying detailed planning?
3. What are the assumptions underlying input-output analysis and why are they first approximations only?
4. What were the difficulties facing the Netherlands economy in 1951 and how were they solved?
5. What is the issue involved in the controversy of “planning versus the law of value”?
6. What are the salient features of development planning in the present-day India?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Vol. 113: Final Exams—Social Sciences—June 1957. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science, June 1957.

__________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Socialism and Planning
Outline and Extended Bibliography

(Professor Tsuru)

An Appraisal of Marx’s Contribution to Socialism

Vision [1] [2] [3]
Analysis [4]
1. Historical materialism [5]
  1. Positing of objective laws of the development of society in which an economic process is the prime mover. [3] p. 162, [6] p. 8, [7] Ch. 12
  2. Productive relations and productive forces
2. The nature of capitalism
  1. Its historical mission and achievements [1]
  2. The labor theory of value [8]
  3. Long-run trends [9] ch. 14, 15, 5, 6, 8, 9
    1. Concentration and monopoly
    2. Increasing misery and unemployment
    3. The falling tendency of the rate of profit
    4. Recurrent crises
  4. Explanatory concepts and ideas
    1. The repudiation of Say’s Law
    2. Reproduction scheme [9] Appendix, [10]
Practical politics
1. Class struggle [1]
2. Blueprint—“socialism to communism” [11]
3. Road to socialism [12] [13]

[1] K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto

[2] F. Engels, Socialism, from Utopian to Scientific

[3] J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 3^rd ed., 1950

[4] W. Leontief, “The Significance of Marxian Economics for the Present-Day Economic Theory,” American Economic Review, Supplement, March 1938

[5] M. M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History

[6] P. M. Sweezy, The Present as History, 1953

[7] M. Dobb, On Economic Theory and Socialism, 1955

[8] R. L. Meek, Studies in the Labor Theory of Value, 1956

[9] P. M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, 1942

[10] S. Tsuru, Essays on Marxian Economics, 1956

[11] K. Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme

[12] K. Marx, Civil War in France

[13] N. Lenin, State and Revolution

* * * *

Economic Characteristics of Socialism

Can we speak of economic characteristics of socialism?
1. In popular usage of the term [1] [2]
2. In doctrinal discussion
  1. A few representative definitions
    1. W. G. Sumner [3]
    2. James Bonar [4]
    3. Indian Planning Commission [5]
  2. Earlier orthodox Marxist discussion [6] Ch. 1, [7], [8] Vol. 2, p. 52
    1. Public ownership of the means of production
    2. Centralized planning
    3. Corollaries
      1. conscious spelling out of social goals of production
      2. no class antagonism
  3. Official Soviet discussion
    1. “Basic economic characteristics” of Soviet socialism [9] Ch. 24
    2. Characteristics of people’s democracy [9] Chs. 41, 42
  4. More recent re-appraisal
    1. Background in both capitalist and socialist economies
    2. A standpoint which is increasingly supported by many…that economically socialism and capitalism shade into each other.
Economic characteristics of socialism reconsidered
1. Pivotal significance of the disposal of the surplus
  1. technical aspect of the surplus
  2. significant questions to be asked
2. The form of the surplus
3. The size of the surplus
  1. the incentive aspect
  2. Does the form affect the size? [10] [11]
4. The manner of disposal of the surplus
  1. the interrelation between the form and the manner of disposal [12]
  2. the interrelation between the size and the manner of disposal
5. Concluding remarks
  1. John Strachey’s position [13] Ch. 9
  2. What still remains of the economic distinction between socialism and capitalism
  3. Possibility under capitalism of ameliorating undesirable aspects through the action of the state [14] [15] Ch. 13, 19
Secondary distinctions
1. Insulation of wage-as-cost from wage-as-demand
  1. their unity under capitalism and its consequences
  2. the degree of freedom which exists under socialism and its consequences
  3. modifications which are now feasible under capitalism
2. Full employment and the problem of cycles
  1. Cycles as characteristics of capitalism [16] Ch. 2
  2. Full employment under socialism
  3. Modifications which are now feasible under capitalism
3. The role of money and the rate of interest
  1. Early discussions of the subject [8] Vol. 1, Ch. 3; [17]
  2. Different significance of money under capitalism and socialism
  3. The place of interest rate under socialism [18]
4. The question of incentives
  1. Incentives geared to money return under capitalism vs. incentives geared to targets of limited specifications under socialism
  2. Attempt under socialism to substitute impersonal criteria in the case of firms
  3. Attempt under socialism to introduce more of monetary incentives in the case of individuals [19]
5. Technological development and the price level
  1. Introduction of technological innovations [20] Ch. 7
  2. Possibility of lowering price level [21]

[1] Fortune, Feb. 1957, “The Crisis of Soviet Capitalism”, pp. 102ff.

[2] Sutton and others, The American Business Creed, 1956

[3] C. H. Page, Class and American Sociology: From Ward to Roos, p. 103

[4] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 13^th ed. “Socialism”

[5] A. K. Dasgupta, “Socialistic Patterns of Society and the Second Five Year Plan,” The Economic Weekly (Bombay), January 1957, pp. 91-2

[6] P. M. Sweezy, Socialism, 1949

[7] P. M. Sweezy, “Marxian Socialism,” Monthly Review, November 1956

[8] K. Marx, Das Kapital

[9] Political Economy: Textbook (in Russian), Rev. ed., 1955

[10] Joan Robinson, Marx, Marshall & Keynes, (Tokyo) 1956

[11] P. M. Sweezy, The Present as History, Ch. 32, “A crucial difference between capitalism and socialism”

[12] S. Tsuru, “On the Soviet Concept of National Income,” The Annals of Hitotsubashi Academy, October 1954

[13] John Strachey, Contemporary Capitalism, 1956

[14] S. W. Moore, The Critique of Capitalist Democracy, 1957

[15] P. M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, 1942

[16] S. Tsuru, Essays on Marxian Economics, 1956

[17] N. Lenin, Collected Works (Russian ed.), Vol. 29, pp. 329-38

[18] G. Grossman, “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1953

[19] O. Lange, “Sans du nouveau programme économique,” Cahiers Internationaux, Sept.-Oct. 1956, pp. 72-81

[20] John K. Galbraith, American Capitalism, revised ed., 1956

[21] N. M. Kaplan and E. S. Wainstein, “A comparison of Soviet and American Retail Prices in 1950,” Journal of Political Economy, December 1956

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1956-1957 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source: Jan Tinbergen from Dutch National Archives (February 25, 1966 photograph by Joost Evers). Tsuru Shigeto from Eumed.net website, webpage: “Economistas”. Shigeto Tsuru (1912-2006).

Tags Tinbergen, Tsuru

Nobel Laureate John C. Harsanyi, UC Berkeley economist and game theory pioneer, dies at 80 11 August 2000

Selected Publications on Rule Utilitarianism by John C. Harsanyi

Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory. John C. Harsanyi

Background References.

1. Morality as the Viewpoint of an Impartial Observer.

2. Classical Utilitarianism.

3. Ideal Utilitarianism.

4. Rule Utilitarianism.

5. Defense of Act Utilitarianism against Rule Utilitarianism.

6. A Utilitarian Theory based on Bayesian Decision Theory.

7. An Ordinalist Approach to Social Welfare.

8. Egalitarian Critiques of Utilitarianism (Rawls, Diamond, Sen) and Utilitarian Rebuttals.

Course Enrollment

Course Reading List

Economics 245a Fall Term, 1949-50

1949-40 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 245a [Final Examination. January, 1950]

Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.

Excerpt from “A Brief History of the CLSC”

Economics from the CLSC Book List: 1878-1944

1885-1886

1889-1890

1893-1894

1895-1896

1899-1900

1903-1904

1907-1908

1910-1911

1915-1916

1943-1944

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. Books for 1889-90.

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS. FOR OCTOBER [1889]

Adam Smith Day.—October 24.

SPECIAL MEMORIAL, DAY.—ADAM SMITH.

Questions and Answers. On Ely’s “Political Economy.”

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS. FOR NOVEMBER. [1889]

Questions & Answers ELY’S “POLITICAL ECONOMY.”

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS. FOR DECEMBER. [1889]

Questions & Answers ON ELY’S “POLITICAL ECONOMY.”

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS. FOR JANUARY. [1890]

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS. FOR FEBRUARY.

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS. FOR MARCH.

Handwritten note at top: “Martin, Here is the outline for the Macro theory. Which part do you want to teach? [signed] Oz”

Economics 176A-B Course Outline and Suggested Readings

Course Announcement

Economics 214b General Interdependence Systems

Second Semester, 1951-52 Syllabus

I STATIC LEONTIEF MODEL

II DYNAMIC MODELS

III ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES (“LINEAR PROGRAMMING”)

MATHEMATICAL REFERENCES

(1) Matrices

(2) Difference and Differential Equations

(3) Set Theory and Abstract Algebra

1951-52 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 214b [Final examination]

Related Harvard Course Posts

Course Announcements

1935-36

1936-37

Course Enrollments

Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Department of Government

List of Books used in Economics of Transportation October, 1936 D. H. Wallace

Reading Period Assignment May 4-26, 1936

1935-36 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 4c2 [Final Examination]

Reading Period Assignment May 10-June 2, 1937

1936-37 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 63b2 [Final Examination]

Reading Period Assignment January 4-20, 1937

1936-37 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 163 [Mid-Year Examination]

Reading Period Assignment May 10—June 2, 1937

1936-37 HARVARD UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS 163 [Final Examination]

Biographical Note

ECONOMICS 370 MONETARY ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE Major Topics and Reading List

Winter 1967 Lloyd A. Metzler

Lloyd A. Metzler

ECONOMICS 370 Course Examination Winter, 1967

Course Enrollment

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

Economics 206 Reading List, Fall 1956

Economic Analysis and Public Policy

The Ricardian System

Marxian Dynamics

Nobel Laureate John C. Harsanyi, UC Berkeley economist and game theory pioneer, dies at 80
11 August 2000

Selected Publications on Rule Utilitarianism
by John C. Harsanyi

Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory.
John C. Harsanyi

Economics 245a
Fall Term, 1949-50

1949-40
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 245a
[Final Examination. January, 1950]

Economics from the CLSC Book List:
1878-1944

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
Books for 1889-90.

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR OCTOBER [1889]

Questions and Answers.
On Ely’s “Political Economy.”

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR NOVEMBER. [1889]

Questions & Answers
ELY’S “POLITICAL ECONOMY.”

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR DECEMBER. [1889]

Questions & Answers
ON ELY’S “POLITICAL ECONOMY.”

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR JANUARY. [1890]

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR FEBRUARY.

C. L. S. C. OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
FOR MARCH.

Handwritten note at top:
“Martin, Here is the outline for the Macro theory. Which part do you want to teach? [signed] Oz”

Economics 176A-B
Course Outline and Suggested Readings

Economics 214b
General Interdependence Systems

Second Semester, 1951-52
Syllabus

1951-52
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 214b
[Final examination]

Harvard University
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department of Government

List of Books used in Economics of Transportation
October, 1936
D. H. Wallace

Reading Period Assignment
May 4-26, 1936

1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4c²
[Final Examination]

Reading Period Assignment
May 10-June 2, 1937

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 63b²
[Final Examination]

Reading Period Assignment
January 4-20, 1937

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Mid-Year Examination]

Reading Period Assignment
May 10—June 2, 1937

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Final Examination]

ECONOMICS 370
MONETARY ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Major Topics and Reading List

Winter 1967
Lloyd A. Metzler

ECONOMICS 370
Course Examination
Winter, 1967

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
Reading List, Fall 1956

1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 206
Fall 1956
Final Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 206

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 106
Reading List, Fall 1956

1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 106
Fall 1956
Final Examination

Part I
(30 Minutes)
Answer the following question.

Part II
(One Hour)
Answer the following question.

Part III
(One Hour and A Half)
Answer TWO questions.

Harvard University
Department of Economics

Economics 106
[Spring term, 1956-57]

Part I Aggregative Theories (continued from 1^st term)

1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 106
Applied Economic Analysis
Final Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Professors Tinbergen and Tsuru, Spring 1957

Socialism and Planning
Outline

READINGS
*Obligatory reading.

Final Examination
ECONOMICS 111a
Spring 1957

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Socialism and Planning
Outline and Extended Bibliography