It took Joseph Schumpeter a few years to establish his personal teaching niche in the Harvard economics department. This post provides material I have found (thus far) from Schumpeter’s graduate course covering monetary economics, policy, and business cycles from his second year as a permanent faculty member.
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Economics 50. (formerly Economics 38). Professor Schumpeter. — Money, Banking, and the Business Cycle.
Total 31: 10 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 1 Junior 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1933-34, p. 86.
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Reading Period Titles for Economics 50
Reading Period. Fall Term, 1933-34.
Suggested Readings:
(1) Pigou, A.C., Industrial Fluctuations.
(2) Mitchell, The Business Cycle.
(3) Hansen, Theories of the Business Cycle.
(4) Snyder, C., Business Measurements.
(5) Persons, W.M., Business Forecasting.
(6) Hawtrey, R.G., The Art of Central Banking
Reading Period. Spring Term, 1933-34.
Suggested readings:
League of Nations (B. Ohlin), The Course and Phases of the World Economic Depression, 1931.
J.M. Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles (National Bureau of Economic Research), 1934.
J.M. Rogers, The Process of Inflation in France, 1914-1927 (Columbia University Press, 1929).
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1933-34”.
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1933-34
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 50
Mid-Year Examination.
Answer any FOUR of the following questions.
- Is the equation of exchange (MV = PT) a tautology, and if so, in what sense? What do you think of Mr. Keynes’ claim that his equations are no mere identities?
- How are we to measure the amount of credit creation, and what is the distinction between it and the net increase of producers purchasing power above what it would be if there were no credit creation?
- “A fall in the prices of consumption-goods due to an excess of saving over investment does not in itself…require any opposite change in the price of new investment goods.” Explain and criticize.
- Explain the fact that the general price level and the rate of both short and long interest consistently vary together.
- “If the banking system controls the terms of credit in such a way that savings are equal to the value of new investment, then the average price-level of output as a whole is stable.” What do you think of this?
- How do you define “value of money”? Discuss the difficulties in the concept of the General Level of Prices.
- In what ways might speculation in securities affect business activity?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1933-34.
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1933-34
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 50
Final Examination.
Answer fully any FOUR of the following SIX questions.
- What were, according to your opinion, the causes of the inflow of gold into France after the stabilization of the French franc?
- If you were to recommend a policy conducive to the elimination or the smoothing down of business fluctuations, what would you try to stabilize: the sum total of incomes, incomes per capita, the price level, any particular group of prices, the rate of interest, the rate of exchange, profits?
- “Both international and national considerations called for a reversal of restrictive monetary policy early in 1929.” What do you think of this?
- What do you think were the most important “intensifying factors” which account for the unusual severity of the present world’s crisis?
- What is meant by Carl Snyder’s Trade Credit Ratio and what do you think of its significance?
- How would you define the relation between gold and prices? What consequences would you expect from the devaluation of the dollar (a) for the internal price level of this country in the short and in the long run, (b) for the external trade of the United States?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, Finals (HUC 7000.28, 76 of 284), June 1934.
Image Source: Harvard Archives. Irving Fisher and Joseph Schumpeter (May 12, 1934).