Columbia. National accounting. Course outline and readings. Barger, 1963-64

 

Harold Barger was, at least up through 2003, one of the last (if not the last) economics professor to teach in the interdisciplinary core course for Columbia undergraduates, Contemporary Civilization. Similar to the University of Chicago where undergraduate and graduate teaching in economics were strictly segregated, Columbia University’s economics faculty (see Peter Kenen’s description below) was either teaching for the college or for the university. Harold Barger was one of the few exceptions to work both sides of that street. In addition to the official Columbia obituary that gives some sense of the man, I provide a transcription of his syllabus on national economic accounts in this post.

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Barger taught both undergrads and graduate students

Peter Kenen’s description of undergraduate economics education at Columbia at mid-century:

Unfortunately, the Economics Department at Columbia was different from most others there. It was divided sharply between those who taught graduate courses and those who taught undergraduates. There were exceptions. Harold Barger, who taught money and banking, also gave a graduate course on national-income accounting, and C. Lowell Harriss, who taught public finance, gave a graduate course on state and local taxation. But Columbia’s most prominent economists, Ragnar Nurkse, Carl Shoup, Arthur Burns and William Vickrey, to name only a few, did not teach undergraduate courses and did not encourage undergraduates to take their graduate courses. Furthermore, the undergraduate programme did not greatly emphasize econmic theory, because some of its members were overtly hostile to it. The senior seminar, conducted by Horace Taylor, was devoted mainly to the works of Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons and other institutionalists.

Source: Chapter 12, “Peter B. Kenen” in Exemplary Economists: North America , Vol. 1 edited by Roger Backhouse and Roger Middleton (Edward Elgar, 2000), p. 259.

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Harold Barger (1907-1989)
Columbia University Obituary

Harold Barger, former chairman of Columbia’s department of economics and the first director of the University’s Paris center, died Aug. 9 at his home in Kinderhook, N.Y., after a long illness. He was 82.

Barger taught at Columbia almost 40 years, beginning in 1937 as an instructor in economics. He became an assistant professor in 1943, associate professor in 1947 and professor in 1954. Chairman of the economics department from 1961 to 1964 and acting chairman from 1969 to 1970, he had been professor emeritus since his retirement in 1975.

Barger directed Columbia’s Paris campus, Reid Hall, for a year after it was acquired by the University in 1964. Located in the Montparnasse district of Paris, the center houses undergraduate programs of Columbia, Barnard and various other U.S. colleges and universities.

A faculty member of Columbia College from 1943 to 1975, Barger was assistant to the dean of the College from 1954 to 1959. From 1959 to 1964, he was a faculty adviser at the College.

“I remember Harold Barger most for his integrity and total devotion to the University, especially Columbia College,” said Columbia economics professor Donald Dewey. “He always looked out for the interests of students at the College.”

Albert Hart, Columbia professor emeritus of economics, said: “He had a very broad interest in the field of economics and his lectures were full of substance. He was very precise and knew how to organize material.”

Harold Barger was born Apr. 27, 1907, in London. He received the B.A. from Cambridge in 1930 and the Ph.D. from the London School of Economics in 1937. He was a lecturer at the University of London from 1931 to 1936 and from 1938 to 1939.

A specialist in monetary policy and income and employment theory, Barger served as a consultant to the U.S. Bureau of the Census and Bureau of Mines. He conducted studies for the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1940 to 1954 and served in the Office of Strategic Services of the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945. From 1945 to 1946, he was an assistant division chief for the State Department.

Barger was the author of numerous articles and books on economics, including the textbook Money, Banking and Public Policy(1962). He coauthored his last book, College on Credit (1981), with his wife, Gwyneth.

Barger was married to the former Anne Macdonald Walls, who died in 1954. In 1955, he married Gwyneth Evans Kahn, who survives him. Other survivors include two nieces and a nephew.

A memorial service was held at Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, N.Y., on Aug. 26. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center or the Chamber Music Series of Spencertown Academy.

Source: Columbia University Record. Vol. 15, No. 1 (8 September 1989), p. 6.

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ECONOMICS G4431x
Professor Barger
1963-1964

THE MEASUREMENT OF INCOME AND WEALTH

Students should possess the following books containing required readings (marked *):

Richard Ruggles, National Income Accounts and Income Analysis (2^nd ed. 1956, $6.50)

Survey of Current Business, Supplement, “US Income and Output,” 1958 (Government Printing Office, $1.50).

The following books also contain required readings (marked *):

Colin Clark, National Income and Outlay

International Association for Research in Income and Wealth,Income and Wealth, Series I, VIII.

National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vols. II, VI, VIII, XII, XLV, XX.

A.C. Pigou, Economics of Welfare, 3^rd (1929) or subsequent edition.

Richard Stone, Role of Measurement in Economics.

Simon Kuznets, Economic Change.

United Nations, National Income and its Distribution in Underdeveloped Countries (1951).

Milton Gilbert and I.B. Kravis, International Comparison of National Products (1954; reissued 1957 as Comparative National Products and Price Levels).

Alexander Eckstein, The National Income of Communist China.

Abram Bergson, The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928.

U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, “Comparisons of the U.S. and Soviet Economies,” Papers submitted by Panelists, Parts I and II, 1959 (Government Printing Office, $1.45).

The following books contain recommended readings:

John P. Powelson, Economic Accounting.

Harold Barger, Outlay and Income in the United States (NBER Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol IV).

James C. Bonbright, Valuation of Property, Vol. I.

Simon Kuznets, National Income and its Composition; National Income Since 1869.

Wassily Leontief, Structure of the American Economy.

National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vols. III, X, XVIII.

International Association for Research in Income and Wealth,Income and Wealth, Series II, III, IV.

Survey of Current Business, 1954 National Income Supplement.

 

1. INCOME
   1. ELEMENTARY IDEAS: HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT: RELATION OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTING TO WELFARE
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 3-15
      2. *Clark, Chap. X
      3. *Pigou, Part I, Chaps. I, II
      4. Phyllis Deane in Economic Development and Cultural Change 1955, pp. 3-38
      5. Phyllis Deane, Economic History Rev. 1956, pp. 339-354; Apr. 1957, pp. 451-461
   2. FUNDAMENTALS OF ACCOUNTING
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 16-44
      2. Powelson, Ch. 1-8
   3. THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 45-106
      2. *Stone, “Functions and Criteria” in International Association Series I, or Stone, Role of Measurement, pp. 38-60
      3. Powelson, Chaps. 9, 10, 15, 16
   4. GNP AND NATIONAL INCOME AS ACCOUNTING CONCEPTS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 107-131
      2. *“U.S. Income and Output,” pp. 50-69; 114-116
      3. Powelson, Chs. 17-20
      4. Copeland in Studies, Vol. XX, pp. 19-111
   5. RELATION OF NATIONAL INCOME ACCOUNTING TO INPUT-OUTPUT AND MONEY FLOW ANALYSIS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 187-210
      2. Studies, Vol. XVIII, especially pp. 137-182, 253-320
      3. Leontief, Structure of the American Economy
   6. THE PROBLEM OF DEFINING INCOME
      1. *Pigou, Part I, Chs. III, IV
      2. *Haberler and Hagen in Studies, Vol. VIII, pp. 3-31
      3. *Hance, in Studies, Vol. VI, pp. 238-270
      4. Kuznets, “Government Product and National Income” in International Association, Series I
      5. Kuznets, National Income and its Composition, Ch. I
      6. 1954 National Income Supplement, pp. 40-60
   7. STATISTICAL MEASUREMENTS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 158-186
      2. *“U.S. Income and Output,” pp. 70-105
      3. Goldsmith in Studies, Vol. III, pp. 220-244
      4. Kuznets, National Product since 1869, Parts I and II
         ______, National Income and its Composition, Chs. 3, 12
      5. 1954 National Income Supplement, pp. 61-152
      6. Barger, Ch. III and pp. 302-04
   8. THE DEFLATION PROBLEM AND INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
      1. *Ruggles, pp. 131-143
      2. *Pigou, Part I, Chs. V-VII
      3. *Gilbert and Kravis, pp. 13-33, 61-95
   9. NATIONAL INCOME MEASUREMENTS IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES
      1. *Kuznets, Economic Change, pp. 145-191, 216-252
      2. *United Nations, Chs. I and II
      3. *Kravis in Studies, Vol. XX, pp. 349-400
      4. *Eckstein, pp. 1-90
      5. Rao in International Association, Series III
   10. NATIONAL INCOME IN SOVIET RUSSIA
       1. *Bergson, pp. 1-298
       2. *Joint Economic Committee, Part I (Campbell, Nutter, Turgeon) and Part II (Bornstein, Boddy)

2. WEALTH
   11. THE ESTIMATION OF NATIONAL WEALTH
       1. *Kuznets in Studies, Vol. II, pp. 3-82
       2. *Goldsmith and Hart in Studies, Vol. XII, pp. 23-186
       3. *Goldsmith in Studies, Vol. XIV, pp. 5-73
       4. Goldsmith in International Association, Series II and IV
       5. International Association, Series VIII, pp. 1-59
       6. Bonbright, Vol. I, Chs. I-XII
       7. Kuznets, National Income since 1869, pp. 185-234

Source: Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library. William Vickrey Papers, Box 35, Folder “Columbia Correspondence, 1947-1969”.

Image Source: Harold Barger from J. W. Smit “Wisdom, Training and Contemporary Civilization”, Columbia College Today (November 2003).