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Distribution Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Distribution of Wealth. Course description, enrollment, final exam. Carver, 1909-1910

"Shall I be wise and great, or rich and powerful" wonders a schoolboy standing outside a "Public School"; on the left is Charles M. Schwab sitting atop a large money bag labeled "Manager of Steel Trust $1,000,000 yearly salary," resting on a steel factory, and on the right is a Supreme Court justice holding a balance scale in one hand and a tiny money bag with the label "Chief Justice of U.S. $10,500 yearly salary," sitting on a large book labeled "Law and Constitution."

Thomas Nixon Carver’s Cornell Ph.D. dissertation “The theory of wages adjusted to recent theories of value” was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (July 1894). This followed the publication of his paper “The place of abstinence in the theory of interest” that appeared in the October 1893 issue. It was this theoretical work on the functional distribution of income that caught the eye of the Harvard economics department. Thus it was natural for the topic of distribution to have been included in Carver’s portfolio of courses.

Carver later wrote about the importance of these two articles for his professional advancement:

Considering the time 1900, the place Harvard, and the subjects which I was to teach, the position to which I was appointed was undoubtedly the most important teaching position in the country, or the world. How a green country boy from an Iowa prairie moved through various stages, each one a surprise to himself, to such a position has been and still is a source of wonderment to me. It must surprise, even if it does
not interest, some other people.

I was deeply curious to know how President Eliot had heard of me and what had led him to write to me about coming to Harvard, but I restrained myself. Years afterward I asked him how he came to look me up, and he replied that Professor Dunbar had been impressed by two articles which I had sub- mitted to him as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which he had published, and which he, President Eliot, had read. “Besides,” said he, with a smile, “I know a great many people from Ohio.” I learned from other sources that he had talked with some of my former students who had come from Oberlin to Harvard for graduate work. I was fortunate in having some warm friends among the Oberlin men then at Harvard.

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. Recollections of an Unplanned Life. Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1949. Page 3.

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From earlier semesters

1904-05
1905-06
1907-08
1908-09

’The course content is undoubtedly captured in Carver’s 1904 book The Distribution of Wealth which was reprinted several times during his lifetime.

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Course Announcement and Description
1909-10

14a 1hf. The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Carver.

This course begins with a survey of the most noteworthy attempts to formulate a general theory of value. The economic systems of Ricardo, Mill, Böhm-Bawerk, and Clark are specially reviewed. The attempt is then made, in the light of these criticisms, and of industrial conditions, to formulate a positive theory of distribution helpful in explaining the actual incomes of the various classes of producers. Finally the question of justice in distribution is considered.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VI, No. 29 (23 July 1909). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1909-10, p. 53.

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Course Enrollment
1909-10

Economics 14a 1hf. Professor Carver. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 67: 15 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 44.

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ECONOMICS 14a1
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10

  1. What is the relation of cost of production to value?
  2. Would you include wages, rent, interest and profits all under cost of production? State your reasons for your answer in each case.
  3. What is the relation of the law of diminishing returns to the law of rent?
  4. How would you distinguish between the rate of interest and the income from capital? How is each determined?
  5. -6. How would you answer the following questions? Is land productive?
    Is capital productive?
    State briefly your reasons for each answer.
  1. -8. How would you answer the following questions?
    Is rent earned? Is interest earned?
    State briefly your reasons for each answer.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910), p. 48.

Image Source: Young America’s Dilemma by Louis Dalrymple. Puck (12 June 1901). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.