Before he began to be known as the (Western) Dean of Soviet Economic Studies, Abram Bergson’s greatest hit “A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics” (QJE, 1938) earned him an honored place in the pantheon of welfare economics theorists. Thus it is not surprising that besides courses on socialist economics and the economics of the Soviet Union, he also taught the following course involving the application of welfare economics to policy.
The reading list and final exam questions for the same course offered in the Spring term of 1960 has been posted later. The reading list didn’t change at all between the two years, but I have provided links to most of the readings in the later post as well as the new exam questions.
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Course Enrollment
[Economics] 111a. Normative Aspects of Economic Policy. Professor Bergson. Half course. (Spring)
Total, 21: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe, 3 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1958-59, p. 70.
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 111a
Normative Aspects of Economic Policy
Spring Term: 1958-59
- The concept of economic efficiency.
T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chicago, 1951, Chapter I.
- Consumers’ goods distribution and labor recruitment: the efficiency of perfect competition: other forms of market organization.
Scitovsky, Chapters II-V, XVI (pp. 338-41), XVIII, XX (pp. 423-427).
A. P. Lerner, Economics of Control, New York, 1946, Chapter 2.
- Conditions for efficiency in production.
Scitovsky, Chapters VI-VIII.
Lerner, Chapter 5.
- Production efficiency under perfect competition; monopolistic markets
See the readings under topic 3.
Scitovsky, Chapters X, XI, XII, XV, XVI (pp. 341-363), XVII, XX (pp. 428-439).
Lerner, Chapters 6, 7.
- The optimum rate of investment.
Scitovsky, Chapter IX (pp. 216-228).
A. C. Pigou, Economics of Welfare, fourth ed., London, 1948, pp. 23-30.
- Price policy for a public enterprise.
Lerner, Chapter 15.
I. M. D. Little, A Critique of Welfare Economics, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1957, Chapter XI.
O. Eckstein, Water Resource Development, Cambridge, 1958, pp. 47-70, pp. 81-109.
- Socialist economic calculation.
O. Lange, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minn., 1938, pp. 55-141.
F. Hayek, “Socialist Calculation,” Economica, May 1940.
A. Bergson, “Socialist Economics,” in H. Ellis, ed., A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, 1948.
M. Dobb, Economic Theory and Socialism, New York, 1955, pp. 41-92.
- Economic calculation in underdeveloped countries.
A. Datta, “Welfare versus Growth Economics,” Indian Economic Journal, October 1956.
T. Scitovsky, “Two Concepts of External Economics,” Journal of Political Economy, April 1954.
J. Tinbergen, The Design of Development, Balto., Md., 1958.
- The concept of social welfare.
The writings of Bergson and Dobb under topic 7.
Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Chapters I, VIII.
Lerner, Chapter 3.
J. R. Hicks, “Foundations of Welfare Economics,”Economic Journal, December 1939.
Arthur Smithies, “Economic Welfare and Policy,” in A. Smithies et al., Economics and Public Policy, Washington, 1955.
Other References
on the Concept of Social Welfare and Optimum Conditions
M. W. Reder, Studies in the Theory of Welfare Economics, New York, 1947.
P. A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Cambridge, 1947, Chapter VIII.
K. Boulding, Welfare Economics, in B. Haley, A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Homewood, Illinois, 1952.
H. Myint, Theories of Welfare Economics, Cambridge, Mass., 1948.
J. A. Hobson, Work and Wealth, London, 1933.
J. M. Clark, Guideposts in Time of Change, New York, 1949.
J. de V. Graaf, Theoretical Welfare Economics, Cambridge, 1957.
F. M. Bator, The Simple Analytics of Welfare Maximization,” American Economic Review, March 1957.
A. Bergson, “A Reformulation of Welfare Economics,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1938.
P. A. Samuelson, “Evaluation of Real National Income,” Oxford Economic Papers, January 1950.
A. C. Pigou, “Some Aspects of Welfare Economics,” American Economic Review, June 1951.
T. Scitovsky, “The State of Welfare Economics,” American Economic Review,” June 1951.
J. E. Meade, Trade and Welfare, New York, 1955, Part I.
[Note: no additional assignment for the reading period]
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1958-1959 (1 of 2)”.
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Harvard University
Department of Economics
Economics 111a
Final Examination
June 1, 1959
Answer four and only four of the following six questions.
- Explain the “contract curve” that is employed in the analysis of the optimum allocation of different consumers’ goods between households. In what sense does the curve define an economic optimum?
- Under perfect competition how is the efficiency of resource allocation affected by:
- The levying of a sales tax on the output of a single industry;
- A government policy of making capital available to one industry at an interest charge that is less than the market rate.
- “As distinct from perfect competition, free competition tends in the long-run to cause the individual firm to make insufficient use of its fixed resources and to operate with excess capacity.” Discuss.
- How are the volume of investment and the rate of interest determined in the Competitive Solution of Socialist Planning? What arguments might be advanced for and against the policies and procedures involved?
- Explain briefly each of the following:
- Variation Cost
- Price-offer curve for labor
- Lerner’s Rule
- “When all is said and done, if there are very heavy overhead costs, public ownership may often make possible rational determination of the scale of output in an industry where this could not be achieved under any of the usual alternatives, such as competition, monopoly or even public rate regulation, if unaccompanied by ownership.” Discuss.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Box 37. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,.., Economics,…, Naval Science, Air Science (June, 1959).
Portrait of Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).