As has been noted in other posts for the 1911-12 academic year at Harvard, the archival collection of final exams is incomplete with respect to the first semester of two semester courses such as Economics 16 “Public Finance (advanced course)” taught by Charles J. Bullock. The 1910-11 year post (linked below) gives the mid-year and year-end final exams for the course. Other than warning to “Mind the gap”, there is little to be done other that to hope that a copy of the mid-year exam pops up in some other archival location.
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Earlier Advanced Public Finance
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Course Description
1911-12
[Economics] *16. Public Finance (advanced course). Mon., Wed., (and at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Professor Bullock.
The course is deroted to the examination of the financial institutions of the principal modern countries, in the light of both theory and history. One or more reports calling for independent investigation will ordinarily be required. Special emphasis will be placed upon questions of American finance. Ability to read French or German is presupposed. Undergraduates are admitted only by consent of the instructor.
Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 66.
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Course Enrollment
1911-12
Economics 16. Professor Bullock. — Public Finance (advanced course).
Total 13: 11 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.
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ECONOMICS 16
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12
- Discuss the present status of the benefit theory of taxation.
- Discuss the present status of the theory of progressive taxation.
- Discuss the various reasons advanced to explain the failure of the general property tax in the United States. What light does Swiss experience throw on this problem?
- Discuss the principal methods proposed for remedying the defects of the general property tax in the United States.
- Discuss the incidence of taxes on wages and interest, also of taxes on regulated public service corporations.
- Discuss the present status of excise taxation in France, Great Britain, and the United States.
- Compare the views of Adam Smith and Bastable concerning the economic effects of public debts.
- Compare the history of the British debt with that of the French debt during the nineteenth century.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], p. 59.
Earlier Advanced Public Finance Courses
1905-06. Public Finance (advanced course).
1908-09. Public Finance (advanced course).
1910-11. Public Finance (advanced course).
Image Source: Charles Jesse Bullock in the Harvard Class Album 1915. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.