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Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Exam questions for theory and methods of taxation. Taussig, 1903-1904

 

Before Charles Jesse Bullock took over the field of public finance in the Harvard economics department as a permanent faculty member in 1904-05, Frank Taussig taught the taxation course three times. The previously posted reading list from 1897-1898 has been updated for this post with the addition of links to all the assigned references [link provided below].

Taussig’s exam questions from the 1903-04 academic year have been transcribed and are included here.

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Reading list and exam questions
from the previous time Frank Taussig taught Economics 7b (1897-1898)

Harvard. Taxation Theory and Methods. Taussig, 1897-98

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for Taxation Course. Taussig, 1898

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ECONOMICS 7b
Enrollment, 1903-04

Economics 7b 2hf. Professor Taussig. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation, in the United States.

Total 13: 3 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 7b
Year-End Examination, 1903-04

  1. Discuss the proposition that income is the normal source of taxation.
  2. Discuss the justice and practicability of progressive taxation.
  3. Discuss the incidence of taxes—
    1. on the rent of land,
    2. on buildings,
    3. on monopolies.
  4. Describe in outline the development of excise taxation in the United States since 1862.
  5. Compare the French and English systems of excise taxation.
  6. What French taxes might be regarded as the equivalent of the English income tax? In point of justice and efficiency would you prefer the French or the English taxes?
  7. Compare the French and the Prussian business taxes.
  8. To what extent and in what manner do the States of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania tax the holders of (1) shares of corporation stock, (2) bonds issued by corporations?
  9. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of taxing corporations on the basis of (1) net earnings, and (2) market value of outstanding securities. Should corporations carrying on interstate business be taxed by the federal government or by the individual States?
  10. Compare English local rates with the local taxes employed in the United States, with reference to (1) the mode of levying, (2) incidence, (3) general advantageousness.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, pp. 29-30.

Image Source:  Frank W. Taussig (Original black and white image from of Frank William Taussig from a cabinet card photograph, 1895, at the Harvard University Archives HUP.