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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Core Economic Theory. Bullock and Carver, 1917/18 and 1918/19

 

While Frank Taussig was off serving the country as the chairman of the United States Tariff Commission, his advanced economic theory course (Economics 11) was jointly taught by his colleagues Charles Bullock and Thomas Nixon Carver. The Harvard Archives collection of final examinations only has the June final examinations that are transcribed below, i.e., the first semester examinations from January have not been included (at least for now). It is also not clear whether the course was jointly taught both semesters or whether each colleague took a semester.  The semester by semester exams for this course up to these years can be found in a series of earlier posts. Here is the most recent of the posts for Economics 11 à la Taussig up to the first term of 1916.

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COURSE DESCRIPTION
(Identical for 1917/18 and 1918/19)

Primarily for Graduates
I
ECONOMIC THEORY AND METHODS

[Economics] 11. Economic Theory. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professors Carver and Bullock

Course 11 is intended to acquaint the student with the development of economic thought since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles. The exercises are conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the leading writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. Special attention will be given to the writings of Ricardo, J.S. Mill, Cairnes, and among modern economists to F.A. Walker, Clark, Marshall, and Böhm-Bawerk.

 

Source: Official Register of Harvard University (Vol. XV, No. 23), May 10, 1918. Division of History, Government, and Economics 1918-19, p. 63.

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Course Enrollment
1917-18

[Economics] 11. Professors Carver and Bullock.—Economic Theory

Total 11: 8 Graduates, 2 Graduate Business, 1 Radcliffe

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1917-1918, p. 54.

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Final examination
(Second semester 1917-18)
ECONOMICS 11

 

  1. What elements in the economic system of Adam Smith were derived from previous systems of economic thought?
  2. What were the principal new contributions which were made by the Wealth of Nations?
  3. Trace the history of theories of business profits in the writings of Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Walker, and Marshall.
  4. Compare the theories of value presented by Smith, Ricardo, and Mill.
  5. What ideas concerning the probably future of the laboring classes were entertained by Smith, Ricardo, and Mill?
  6. Compare Smith’s views concerning rent with those of Ricardo, and then compare Mill’s statement of the theory of rent with Ricardo’s statement.
  7. What old and what new elements are found in the economic theories of Mill?
  8. From your own point of view, criticize Mill’s theory of value.

 

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1918 (HU 7000.28, 60). Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, History of Science, Government, Economics,…, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College, June, 1918, pp. 49-50.

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Course Enrollment
1918-19

[Economics] 11. Professors Carver and Bullock.—Economic Theory

Total 7: 6 Civ., 1 Mil.

II, III. Total 11: 9 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Other.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1918-1919, p. 52.

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Final examination
(Second semester 1918-19)
ECONOMICS 11

Omit any one question

  1. Compare Smith’s views concerning the importance of different industries with those of the Mercantilists.
  2. What elements in the economic thought of Adam Smith were derived from earlier writers?
  3. What were Smith’s distinctive contributions to economic thought?
  4. Compare Smith’s theory of value with that of Ricardo.
  5. Compare Smith’s theory of distribution with that of Ricardo.
  6. Compare Mill’s theories of production and distribution with those of Ricardo and Smith.
  7. Give an account of the historical development of the law of diminishing returns.
  8. Compare Smith’s and Ricardo’s theories of international trade.

 

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1919 (HU 7000.28, 61). Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics,…, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College, June, 1919, pp. 29-30.

 

 

 

 

 

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Core economic theory. Enrollments and final exams. Taussig, 1904-1909

 

 

Examination questions spanning just over a half-century can be found in Frank Taussig’s personal scrapbook of cut-and-pasted semester examinations for his entire Harvard career. Until Schumpeter took over the core economic theory course from Taussig in 1935, Taussig’s course covering economic theory and its history was a part of almost every properly educated Harvard economist’s basic training. Taussig’s exam questions were posted for the academic years 1886/87 through 1889/90 along with enrollment data for the course;  material from 1890/91 through 1893/94  and also for 1897-1900 have been posted as well.  

For the academic years 1900/01 through 1902/03 the course was taught by Thomas Nixon Carver. Taussig was on a leave of absence for the academic year 1902-03 [Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1902/1903, p. 297.] Taussig himself wrote that he was “compelled by ill health to withdraw from teaching” (1901-03). [Chapter IX Economics (1871-1929) by The Development of Harvard University since the Inauguration of President Eliot, 1869-1929 Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930. p. 191].  Schumpeter wrote “We speak of nervous breakdown in such cases, which indeed are more frequent in the academic profession than one would infer from the general conditions of a professor’s life. He took leave and went abroad for two years, relaxing completely and spending one winter at Meran in the Austrian Alps, another on the Italian Riviera, and the summer between (1902) in Switzerland. Catastrophe was thus avoided, and in the fall of 1903 he was able to resume his teaching and the editorship of the Quarterly Journal.” [ Joseph A. Schumpeter, Chapter 7 Frank William Taussig (1859-1940) in Ten Great Economists from Marx to Keynes. p. 206.]

During the first term of 1903/04 Taussig taught the core economic theory course and Carver taught the second term.  Beginning 1904/05 Taussig taught the course by himself again.

 

 

 

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Enrollment Economics 2
1900-01

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Asst. Professor Carver.— Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 45: 6 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

Link to reading list for the course:

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-economics-economics-2-carver-1900-01/

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 Enrollment Economics 2
1901-02

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Asst. Professor Carver.— Economic Theory.

Total 32: 5 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 2 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1901-02, p. 77.

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Course Description Economics 2
1902-03
[Carver and Taussig actually first shared the course during the following year]

For Undergraduates and Graduates

[Economics] 2. Economic Theory. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professors Taussig and Carver.

Course 2 is intended to acquaint the student with some of the later developments of economic thought, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles and the analysis of economic conditions. The exercises are accordingly conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the leading writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. Lectures are given at intervals outlining the present condition of economic theory and some of the problems which call for theoretical solution. Theories of value, diminishing returns, rent, wages, interest, profits, the incidence of taxation, the value of money, international trade, and monopoly price, will be discussed. Marshall’s Principles of Economics, Böhm-Bawerk’s Positive Theory of Capital, Taussig’s Wages and Capital, and Clark’s Distribution of Wealth will be read and criticised.

Course 2 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

Source:   Harvard University. The University Publications, New Series, No. 55. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1902-03. Cambridge, Mass. (June 14, 1902), pp. 40-41.

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Enrollment Economics 2
1902-03

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Asst. Professor Carver.— Economic Theory.

Total 25: 5 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 2 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 67.

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 Enrollment Economics 2
1903-04

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Professors Taussig and Carver.— Economic Theory.

Total 23: 9 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 2 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1903-04, p. 66.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-Year. 1904]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
One question may be omitted.

  1. Do you conceive wages to be determined in amount by capital, or to be paid from capital, in these cases:—
    1. a railway which collects its receipts before pay-day comes around;
    2. a farmer who pays his laborers after the crop has been harvested and sold;
    3. a workingmen’s society for coöperative production which makes advances to members from week to week, and adds a final payment when the season’s or year’s operations have been concluded?
  2. State carefully how you conceive Walker to define the “no-profits” line; how he distinguishes between business profits and wages; and whether there is a vicious circle in his reasoning as to the residual element in distribution.
  3. Suppose a tax to be levied on a commodity subject to the law of diminishing returns, and the proceeds to be used for a bounty on a commodity produced under conditions of increasing return, — how would the welfare of the community presumably be affected?
    Assume now that the first commodity is an article of comfort, the second an article of luxury, — would your conclusion be different?
    Reverse the assumption, and suppose the first commodity to be one of luxury, the second one of comfort, — would your conclusion be still different?
  4. “We might as reasonably dispute whether it is the upper blade of a pair of scissors or the lower that cuts a piece of paper, as whether value is governed by utility or cost of production. It is true that when one blade is held still, and the cutting is effected by moving the other, we may say with careless brevity that the cutting is done by the second; but the statement is not strictly accurate, and is to be excused only so long as it claims to be merely a popular and not a strictly scientific account of what actually happens.”
    Explain, with reference to commodities produced under the conditions of

monopoly;
constant returns;
increasing returns.

  1. Explain prime cost, total cost, supplementary cost; and consider their relation to quasi-rent.
  2. Would Marshall say that there was true rent in the case of, —

a very profitable silver mine;
a valuable site in a town like Pullman;
a successful business man.

Why or why not in each case?

  1. Suppose it were provided by law that the rent of premises used for wholesale or retail trading should not exceed interest on the cost of the buildings (with due allowance for depreciation and the like), what would be the effects on landlords and tenants, and on the prices of the articles sold?
  2. “A rich man abstains from the consumption of his superfluous wealth, and is scarcely conscious, perhaps quite unconscious, of having suffered any deprivation whatever. On the other hand, the same or a much smaller amount of wealth reserved from personal consumption by an artisan or a small tradesman will frequently demand the most rigorous self-denial….And it is similar with labor. The laborious effort fitted to produce a given result does not represent the same sacrifice for different people: it is one thing for the strong, another for the weak; one for the trained workman, another for the raw beginner. This being so, the questions arises — How are such differences to be dealt with in computing cost of production? The answer must be that the sacrifices to be taken account of, and which govern exchange value, are not those undergone by A, B, or C, but the average sacrifices undergone by the class of laborers or capitalists to which the producers of the commodity belong.”— Cairnes. Would you accede to this conclusion as to capitalists? as to laborers?

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 Enrollment Economics 2
1904-05

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Professor Taussig.— Economic Theory.

Total 22: 6 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 2 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1904-05, p. 74. 

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Course Description Economics 2
1904-05

[Economics] 2. Economic Theory. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professor Taussig.

Course 2 is intended to acquaint the student with some of the later developments of economic thought, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles and the analysis of economic conditions. The exercises are accordingly conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the leading writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. Lectures are given at intervals outlining the present condition of economic theory and some of the problems which call for theoretical solution. Theories of value, diminishing returns, rent, wages, interest, profits, the incidence of taxation, and monopoly price, will be discussed. Marshall’s Principles of Economics, Clark’s Distribution of Wealth, and selections from the writings of Walker, Cairnes, and others, will be read and discussed.
Course 2 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 38-39.

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ECONOMICS 2.
[Mid-Year 1905]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “The United States government collects its postal revenues day by day, yet postpones the payment of its clerks and carriers to the end of the month. To descend to the other end of the scale of dignity, hotel keepers and, in a less degree, boarding-house keepers, collect their bills before they pay their cooks, chambermaids, and scullions. Nearly all the receipts of theatre, opera, and concert companies are obtained day by day, although their staffs and troupes are borne on monthly or weekly pay-rolls.”
    “I have before me a considerable collection of accounts from the books of farmers as late as 1851. These show the hands charged with advances of the most miscellaneous character. . . . In general, the amount of such advances does not exceed one-third, and it rarely reaches one-half of the stipulated wages of the year. It is idle to speak of wages thus paid as coming out of capital.”
    In your view, is there a payment of wages out of capital, partial or whole, in these cases?
  2. “On the relation between the money funds or proceeds held by the immediate employer, and the food, clothes and enjoyments, constituting the community’s real circulating capital, he [J. S. Mill] gave ambiguous and unsatisfactory statements, from which only a sympathetic interpreter could patch up a consistent and tenable doctrine.”
    Explain the grounds on which this judgment of Mill rests; and consider whether your judgment on F. A. Walker, on the same point, would be more favorable or less.
    “Under the conditions which prevail so preponderantly in the modern industrial world, the true residual sharer, certainly in the first instance, is the active capitalist, the business man. . . . The hired laborer gets his fixed wages, the investor his stipulated income; the managing business man takes the rest.”
    Does this view seem to you sound? and, whether sound or not, does it seem to you necessarily inconsistent with Walker’s view as to the place of business profits in the theory of distribution?
  3. Consider in what manner the doctrine of consumer’s rent is affected by (1) differences in the incomes of individuals and of classes; (2) the satisfactions derived from articles of necessity; (3) those derived from articles of luxury and display.
  4. Mill’s statement of the equation of supply and demand, and Marshall’s analysis of the temporary equilibrium of supply and demand, — wherein different, how reconcilable?
  5. Explain briefly: producer’s surplus, rent, monopoly rent, quasi rent, prime cost, supplementary cost.
  6. “The so-called rent of buildings, exclusive of ground-rent, is not governed at all by the economic law of rent, but by the principles which regulate the interest of capital.” F. A. Walker.
    Would Marshall accede to this view? If so, why? If not, why not? Your own view?
  7. “Independently of any change in the suitability of the prevailing crops and methods of cultivation for special soils, there is a constant tendency towards equality in the value of different soils. In the absence of any special cause to the contrary, the growth of population and the wealth will make the poorer soils gain on the richer.”
    Explain (1) why there is this tendency towards equality; (2) whether it is inconsistent with the doctrine of difference in the “original and indestructible powers” of the soil; (3) what is its bearing on the proposal to appropriate through taxation the rent of agricultural land.
  8. Suppose that in a given industry, with an increase of output, there was continuing gain in the way of internal economics; what result would ensue in the organization and scale of production? Suppose there was continuing gain, but solely in external economies, what result would ensue? Suppose that a gradual increase in demand [and output] were to “increase gradually the size and efficiency of the representative firm; and to increase the economies, both internal and external, which are at its disposal,” — what then?
    Consider (1) the short-period and the long-period effects of an increase of demand for a commodity subject to the law of diminishing returns; (2) the short-period and the long-period effects of a decrease in demand for a commodity subject to the law of increasing returns.

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Harvard University

ECONOMICS 2
[Final 1905]

  1. Suppose ordinary manual laborers to become very few, other workers and other factors in production remaining the same; what consequences would ensue as to the production of wealth, and as to the earnings of such laborers and of other workers?
  2. Suppose persons having in high degree the qualities needed for business management to become very numerous, other things still remaining the same; what consequences would ensue as to the production of wealth, and as to the earnings of such managers and of other workers?
  3. Suppose the quantity of capital to be very greatly increased, the other factors of production remaining the same; what consequences would ensue as to the production of wealth, as to the returns to capital, and as to the earnings of the other factors?
  4. (a) “Let us suppose that every one owns whatever capital he uses . . . and is not only of equal capacity, but of equal willingness to work, and does in fact work equally hard; also that all work is unskilled, — or rather, unspecialized in this sense, that if any two people were to change occupations, each would do as much and as good work as the other had done.”
    (b) “Let us suppose that labor is not of one industrial grade, but of several; that parents always bring up their children to an occupation of their own grade; that they have a free choice within that grade, but not outside it. Let us suppose, further, that the increase of population in each grade is governed by other than economic causes; it may be fixed, or may be influenced by changes in custom, in moral opinion, etc.”
    State what causes would govern relative wages under each of these suppositions.
  5. State which of the suppositions just described is believed to be in accord with the actual conditions of modern societies by Cairnes, by Marshall, by Seager; and give your own view.
  6. Compare Marshall’s conclusions as to the causes which govern earnings of management with Walker’s and with Seager’s; and give your own conclusion.
  7. The advantages and disadvantages of the English system of land tenure; and the qualifications which must be remembered when applying to it the Ricardian analysis.
  8. Set forth briefly what questions of principle should receive most attention in an exposition for elementary students of (a) foreign trade; (b) money; (c) labor problems; (d) railway problems.
    [Discuss two only of these topics]

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 Enrollment Economics 2
1905-06

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Professor Taussig.— Principles of Economics (second course).

Total 34: 13 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1905-06, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 2
[Midyear 1906]

Answer nine questions.
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “(a) The draughtsman, who, shut up in some dingy office on the banks of the Thames, is drawing the plans for a great marine engine, is in reality devoting his labor to the production of bread and meat as truly as though he were garnering the grain in California or swinging a lariat on a La Plata pampa; (b) he is as truly making his own clothing as though he were shearing sheep in Australia or weaving cloth in Paisley, and just as effectually producing the claret he drinks at dinner as though he gathered the grapes on the banks of the Garonne.” Consider whether there is any difference between the two statements here quoted, and to which, if to either, you could accede.
  2. “(a) The ordinary bargain between labor and capital is that the wage-receiver gets command over commodities in a form ready for immediate consumption, and in exchange carries his employer’s goods a stage further toward being ready for immediate consumption. (b) But while this is true of most employees, it is not true of those who finish the processes of production. For instance, those who put together and finish watches, give to their employers far more commodities in a form ready for immediate consumption, than they obtain as wages. (c) And if we take one season with another, so as to allow for seed and harvest time, we find that workmen as a whole hand over to their employers more finished commodities than they receive as wages.”
    What do you say of the several statements in this passage?
  3. Walker’s reasoning as to the relation of wages to profits, and of profits to wages: is there a vicious circle?
  4. Are high wages in a particular employment (or group of employments) to be regarded as effects or causes of the value of the commodities made by the laborers who receive the high wages? What is Cairnes’s view? Your own?
  5. “Mill allows that when land capable of yielding rent in agriculture is applied to some other purpose, the rent which would have been yielded in agriculture is an element in the cost of production of other commodities. But wherefore this distinction between agriculture and other branches of industry? Why does not the same principle apply between two different modes of agricultural employment?” What would be your answer?
  6. Consider in what way, if at all, the principle of quasi-rent is applicable to the operations of (1) a bank; (2) a railway; (3) a building erected for business purposes on an urban site.
  7. Suppose it were provided by law that the rental paid by tenants in buildings erected on urban sites should not exceed interest at current rates on the capital invested in the buildings (allowance being made depreciation, insurance, taxes, and the like); what would be the result for the owners of land and buildings, for tenants, and for the purchasers of things made or sold in the buildings?
  8. Explain (briefly) total utility; marginal utility; consumer’s surplus; the application of the principle of consumer’s surplus to the utilities derived from commodities produced with increasing and with diminishing returns.
  9. A recent writer discussing the principle of marginal utility with reference to a wayfarer supposed to possess a stock of apples, remarks that, — “if in the case of five apples, the marginal utility of each is five units of satisfaction, that of the stock will be five times five, or twenty-five; but if in the case of eight apples, the marginal utility of each falls to three, that of the stock will be eight times three, or twenty-four. Yet the total utility of eight apples is certainly more than that of five.” What do you say?
  10. How serviceable do you consider Marshall’s device of a “representative firm” for the study of the effect of changes in supply and demand?

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ECONOMICS 2
[Final 1906]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

I
Answer three questions.

  1. “There is a constant tendency towards a position of normal equilibrium, in which the supply of each of the agents of production shall stand in such a relation to the demand for its services, as to give to those who have provided the supply a sufficient reward for their efforts and sacrifices. If the economic conditions of the country remained stationary sufficiently long, this tendency would realize itself in such an adjustment of supply to demand, that both machines and human beings would earn generally an amount that corresponded fairly with their cost of rearing and training, conventional necessaries as well as those things which are strictly necessary being reckoned for.”
    Whom do you believe to be the writer of this passage? and what do you think his conclusion as to non-competing groups?
  2. “A rich man abstains from the consumption of his superfluous wealth, and is scarcely conscious, perhaps quite unconscious, of having suffered any deprivation whatever. On the other hand, the same or a much smaller amount of wealth reserved from personal consumption by an artisan or a small tradesman will frequently demand the most rigorous self-denial. . . . And it is similar with labor. The laborious effort fitted to produce a given result does not represent the same sacrifice for different people: it is one thing for the strong, another for the weak; one for the trained workman, another for the raw beginner. This being so, the question arises: How are such differences to be dealt with in computing cost of production? The answer must be that the sacrifices to be taken account of, and which govern exchange value, are not those undergone by A, B, or C, but the average sacrifices undergone by the class of laborers or capitalists to which the producers of the commodity belong.” — Cairnes.
    Would you accede to this conclusion as to capitalists? as to laborers?
  3. It is true that “the rent of rare natural ability may be regarded as a specially important element in the incomes of business men . . . and of exceptionally successful barristers, and writers, and painters, and singers, and jockeys”?
    What is Walker’s view? Marshall’s? your own?
  4. “The sudden appropriation by the State of any incomes from property, the private ownership of which had once been recognized by would destroy security and shock the foundations of society. But if from the first the State had retained these rents in its hands, the vigour of industry and accumulation need not have been impaired; and nothing at all like this can be said of the incomes derived from property made by man (quasi-rents).”
    Explain and consider how far, if at all, the principles stated are applicable to the rent or royalty of mines.

 

II
Answer two questions.

  1. “Abstinence is confined to the genesis of true capital; none of it is involved in maintaining an endless series of capital goods, and there is no abstinence in a static state.”
    What are the grounds on which this doctrine rests? and what is your own view?
  2. “The whole question whether goods are advanced by one class of persons to another, in order to tide over an interval of waiting, clearly has reference, not to the relations of capitalists in general to laborers in general, but to the relations of certain sub-groups to other sub-groups in the producing series.”
    Explain; and give your own opinion.
  3. “In the same sense in which the interest on artificial capital and the rent of land are not elements in price, wages have no effect on price. If good workers were to relinquish their claims against employers and work for nothing, the price of goods would still conform to their marginal utility. . . . In the same inaccurate sense in which it may be said that the rent of land is not an element in price, the rents of tools, etc., and those of men themselves, or interest and wages, are not elements in price. It makes no difference who gets them.”
    Explain what is the doctrine here summarily stated, and the grounds on which you accept it or reject it.

 

III
Answer both questions.

  1. (a) Is a high rate of money wages and advantage to a country? If so, wherein? if not, why not?
    (b) Is a high rate of money wages an obstacle to the successful conduct of industry in competition with countries where money wages are low?
  2. What do say to the plan of so adjusting duties on imports as to equalize the “labor cost” of imported and domestic commodities, through the levy of duties which will just offset the higher wages paid by the American employer?

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 Enrollment Economics 2
1906-07

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Professor Taussig.— Principles of Economics (second course).

Total 33: 12 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1906-07, p. 70.

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ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-Year 1907]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “On the ranches of Montana cattle are breeding, among the forests of Pennsylvania hides are tanning, in the mills of Brockton shoes are finishing; and, if the series of goods in all stages of advancement is only kept intact, the cow-boy may have to-day the shoes that he virtually creates by his efforts . . . With sheep in the pastures, wool in the mills, cloth in the tailoring shops, and ready-made garments on the retailers’ counters, the labor of the people can, as it were, instantaneously clothe the people.”
    What would be said as to this by Walker? by Marshall? by the instructor in the course? What is your own view?
  2. Explain what Cairnes means by “cost of production,” and what his conclusion is as to the relation between cost of production and value.
  3. Explain what Marshall means by (1) prime cost, (2) supplementary cost, (3) total cost; what his general conclusion is as to the relation between cost and value; and wherein, if at all, his conclusion differs from Cairnes’s.
  4. Is there quasi-rent, in Marshall’s view, in times of activity, when profits are above the normal range? If so, how would he measure it?
    Is there quasi-rent, in Marshall’s view, in times of depression? If so, how would he measure it?
  5. “It may be conceded that if a certain class of people were marked out from their birth as having special gifts for some particular occupation, and for no other, so that they would be sure to seek that occupation in any case, then the earnings which such men would get might be left out of account as exceptional, when we were considering the chances of success or failure for ordinary persons.”
    Does Marshall concede this much? and what is the bearing of his conclusion (affirmative or negative) on his reasoning as to business profits?
  6. Suppose it were provided by law that the rental paid by tenants in buildings used for business on urban sites should not exceed interest on the amount invested in the buildings alone (allowance being made for repairs, depreciation, insurance, taxes, and the like); what would be the result for the owners of land and buildings, for tenants, and for the purchasers of things made and sold in the buildings?
  7. “A rich man abstains from the consumption of his superfluous wealth, and is scarcely conscious, perhaps quite unconscious, of having suffered any deprivation whatever. On the other hand, the same or a much smaller amount of wealth reserved from personal consumption by an artisan or a small tradesman will frequently demand the most rigorous self-denial. . . . And it is similar with labor. The laborious effort fitted to produce a given result does not represent the same sacrifice for different people: it is one thing for the strong, another for the weak; one for the trained workman, another for the raw beginner. This being so, the question arises: How are such differences to be dealt with in computing cost of production? The answer must be that the sacrifices to be taken account of, and which govern exchange value, are not those undergone by A, B, or C, but the average sacrifices undergone by the class of laborers or capitalists to which the producers of the commodity belong.” — Cairnes.
    Would you accede to this conclusion as to capitalists? as to laborers?
  8. There is prima facie reason for believing that the aggregate satisfaction, so far from being already a maximum, could be much increased by collective action in promoting the production and consumption of things in regard to which the law of increasing return acts with especial force.”
    Why and how?

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ECONOMICS 2
[Final 1907]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
One question may be omitted.

  1. “The rate of interest is limited and determined by the productiveness of the last extension of process economically permissible, and of the further extension not permissible. . . . Assuming that these two marginal limits are very near each other, one of them may be left out of account without any serious inaccuracy, and the law may be simply formulated thus: the rate of interest is determined by the surplus return of the last permissible extension of production.” — Böhm-Bawerk.
    “The addition to the product caused by the last unit of capital fixes the rate of interest. Every unit of capital can secure for its owner what the last unit produces, and it can secure no more.” — Clark.
    In what essential do these two doctrines differ?
  2. The conclusions of (1) Clark (2) Böhm-Bawerk (3) Marshall, as to the relation between “abstinence” and the accumulation of capital.
  3. “In pure theory one might even measure wages in the concrete way in which we are measuring the product of instruments; for he might apply the rent formula to men of different personal qualities…. The existence of any no-rent labor enables us to make the rent formula general and to apply it to every concrete agent of production.” Explain what Clark here means; and wherein his doctrine differs from or resembles Walker’s doctrine as to the no-profits business man, and Marshall’s “quasi-rent of labor.”
  4. “Is there any capital that is simply ‘a fund for the maintenance of labor’? Is it true, as Adam Smith said, and as a hundred others have repeated, that the natural way to originate capital is to heap up food enough to live on for a long period, and then, during that period, to make something useful, like a boat, a hut, or a tool? Is stored food the original capital?” How would this question be answered by Böhm-Bawerk? By Clark? What is your own view?
  5. Explain the three grounds on which Böhm-Bawerk bases the superiority of present goods over future, and give your opinion as to their relative importance.
  6. “In the present condition of industry, most sales are made by men who are producers and merchants by profession. . . . For them, the subjective use-values of their own wares, is for the most part nearly nil. . . . In sales by them, the limiting effect which, according to our theoretical formula, would be exerted by the valuation of the last seller, practically does not come into play.” — Böhm-Bawerk. Explain; and consider the consequences as to the formula that price is determined by the valuations of marginal pairs.
  7. “In every case the difference between the price at which the similar foreign article might have been previously purchased and that at which the domestic manufacture can be sold with a reasonable profit, is to the whole extent of that manufacture a loss to the community. That difference is equal, or nearly equal, on each yard of cloth, to the duty laid on a yard of the similar foreign article, whenever that duty is not too high to prevent partial foreign importations: it is less per yard than the duty, when this is higher than is necessary for the encouragement of the domestic manufacture, and becomes prohibitory; but in this case, the whole amount consumed being of domestic manufacture, the aggregate public loss is greater than when the duty admitted is of foreign competition.” Explain; and give your grounds for accepting or rejecting these conclusions.
  8. State concisely what you consider to be the strongest argument which can now be advanced in favor of restrictive duties in (1) Great Britain, (2) Germany, (3) the United States.

___________________________

Enrollment Economics 2
1907-08

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Professor Taussig.— Principles of Economics (advanced course).

Total 32: 12 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1907-08, p. 66.

___________________________

ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-Year 1908]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “It is not necessary to the production of things that cannot be used as subsistence, or cannot be immediately utilized, that there should have been a previous production of the wealth required for the maintenance of the laborers while the production is going on. It is only necessary that there should be, somewhere within the circle of exchange, a contemporaneous production of sufficient subsistence for the laborers and a willingness to exchange this subsistence for the thing on which the labor is being bestowed. The subsistence of the laborers engaged in production which does not directly yield subsistence, comes from the production of subsistence in which others are simultaneously engaged.”
    Whom do you believe to be the author of this passage? and what is your opinion of the doctrine stated in it?
  2. Walker’s reasoning as to the relation of wages to business profits and of business profits to wages; is there a vicious circle?
  3. “If we are accurately to express what takes place in simple types of industry, we shall say, not that ‘the whole produce of industry goes to the laborer,’ but that the whole produce of industry goes to the independent man who is both laborer and capitalist.”
    “The absurdity of making the occasional squatter dictate the amount of every laborer’s pay is patent on the face of the illustration.”
    What doctrines are here alluded to? and what is their relation to Clark’s doctrine of the “Zone of indifference.”
  4. In what way, if at all, does Marshall modify the theory of rent as to (a) agricultural land in a new country; (b) agricultural land which has been long used in an old country; (c) urban sites in towns like Pullman; (d) buildings of permanent character in old towns? (Answer concisely.)
  5. Suppose a tax at the rate of 4% on the capital value to be imposed on all urban real property (both land and buildings used for business purposes); what would be the effect on the prices of goods made or sold on the premises? On the rentals of the premises when leased? Would your answers be different if the tax were imposed on the sites alone?
  6. “The middle and especially the professional classes have always denied themselves much in order to invest capital in the education of their children; while a great part of the wages of the working classes is invested in the physical health and strength of their children. The older economists took too little account of the fact that human faculties are as important a means of production as any other kind of capital; and we may conclude, in opposition to them, that any change in the distribution of wealth which gives more to the wage receivers and less to the capitalists is likely, other things being equal, to hasten the increase of material production, and that it will not perceptibly retard the storing-up of material wealth.”
    “There are many kinds of work which can be done as efficiently by an uneducated as by an educated workman: and the higher branches of education are of little direct use except to employers and foremen and a comparatively small number of artisans. . . . . We must look in another direction for a part, perhaps the greater part, of the immediate economic gain which the nation may derive from an improvement in the general and technical education of the mass of the people.”
    Explain what is meant; and consider whether there is any inconsistency between the two passages.
  7. “A ratio between demand and supply is only intelligible if by demand we mean the quantity demanded, and if the ratio intended is that between the quantity demanded and the quantity supplied. But again, the quantity demanded is not a fixed quantity, even at the same time and place; it varies according to the value; if the thing is cheap, there is usually a demand for more of it than when it is dear. The demand, therefore, partly depends on the value. But it was before laid down that the value depends on the demand. From this contradiction how shall we extricate ourselves? How solve the paradox, of two things, each depending upon the other?”
    Who is the writer of this passage? What is the solution of the paradox (a) in your own opinion, (b) in Marshall’s treatment of the subject?
  8. What do you understand Marshall’s conclusion to be as to the doctrine of non-competing groups?

___________________________

ECONOMICS 2
[Final 1908]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “Economists have learned to recognize diversity of nature in those composite things to which the names of rent, profits, wages, etc., are given in popular language; they have learnt that there is an element of true rent in the composite product that is commonly called wages, an element of true earnings in what is commonly called rent, and so on.” Is this true, in your opinion, as to wages? as to rent? What would be Marshall’s opinion?
  2. What reasoning does Clark apply on the suppositions (1) that landlords forego rent, (2) that capitalists forego interest, (3) that laborers forego wages? How far do you accept the reasoning, how far not?
  3. “Most commodities render several different kinds of service at the same time. A thing of this kind is to be regarded as a bundle of distinct utilities. . . . If the principle of final utility be applied to entire articles [i.e. that is, to such bundles of utilities], it will give values that are, in most cases, many fold greater than are the actual values that the dealings of the market establish.”
    What do you say as to these propositions?
  4. Explain the grounds in which Böhm-Bawerk arranges tabulations like the following, and indicate the conclusions which he draws from them.

A Month’s labor Available in 1888 Yields:

For the Period. Units of Product. True Mar-ginal Utility of Unit. MarginalUtility Reduced in Perspective. Value of Entire Product.
1888 100 5. 5. 500
1889 200 4. 3.8 760
1890 280 3.3 3. 840
1891 350 2.5 2.2 770
  1. “The doctrine of the invariable gain from using present goods as a means of spreading labor advantageously over time, has a clear resemblance to the doctrine of a ‘productivity’ of capital.” What two doctrines are here referred to? Is there such resemblance between them, or substantial difference?
  2. “Workmen and capital goods not only coöperate, but compete. Lifting may be done by capital goods in the form of elevators, cranes, etc., requiring only human guidance, or by workmen laboriously climbing ladders with loads on their backs.”
    “The increased competition of capital in general for employment is of a different character from the competition of machinery for employment in a given trade. The latter may push a particular kind of labor out of employment altogether; the former cannot displace labor in general, for it must cause an increased employment of the makers of those things which are used as capital. And in fact, the substitution of capital for labor is really the substitution of labor combined with much waiting, in the place of labor combined with little waiting.”
    Are the statements in these passages consistent? Whom do you guess to be their authors? Which, if either, would Böhm-Bawerk accept?
  3. What grounds are there for saying that duties on imports are borne in part or in whole by the producers in the foreign country? Would you distinguish in this regard between revenue duties and protective duties?
    What grounds are there for saying that duties on imports are borne in part or in whole by consumers in the foreign country? Would you distinguish in this regard between revenue duties and protective duties?
  4. Suppose Country A (say Japan) to be able to bring all commodities to market at lower expenses of production than Country B (say the United States); what consequences would ensue from unfettered trade between the two?

___________________________

Enrollment Economics 2
1908-09

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Professor Taussig.— Economic Theory

Total 34: 5 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 2 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1908-09, p. 67.

___________________________

ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-Year 1909]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions

 

  1. “Given machinery, raw materials, and a year’s subsistence for 1000 laborers, does it make no difference with the annual product whether those laborers are Englishmen or East Indians? Certainly if one quarter of what has been adduced under the head of the efficiency of labor be valid, the differences in the product of industry arising out of differences in the industrial qualities of distinct communities of laborers are so great as to prohibit us from making use of capital to determine the amount that can be expended in any year or series of years in the purchase of labor.” Explain the conclusions which Walker draws from this illustrative case; and give your own.
  2. “No business man would admit that his capital was consumed by the wear and tear of machinery, and was periodically replaced by saving. The wearing away of particular material embodiments of capital is automatically repaired by a process which is not saving, in the industrial or economic sense.” Do you agree? and whom do you believe to be the author of the passage?
  3. “We must distinguish between the total utility and the marginal utility of the stock. the total utility of a stock is obtained by adding the utility of each additional apple to that of its predecessor. It will accordingly grow until the point of satiety has been reached. Ten apples possess more total utility than five. The marginal utility of the stock, however, is always equal to the marginal utility of the final unit multiplied by the number of units. . . . If in the case of five apples the marginal utility of each is five units of satisfaction, that of the stock will be five times five, or twenty-five; but if in the case of eight apples the marginal utility of each falls to three, that of the stock will be eight times three, or twenty-four. Yet the total utility of eight apples is certainly more than that of five.” What do you say to this way of dealing with marginal utility and total utility?
  4. “Though there are few commodities which are at all times and for ever unsusceptible of increase of supply, any commodity whatever may be temporarily so; and with some commodities this is habitually the case. Agricultural produce, for example, cannot be increased in quantity before the next harvest; the quantity of corn already existing in the world is all that can be had for sometimes a year to come. During the interval, corn is practically assimilated to things of which the quantity cannot be increased. In the case of most commodities, it requires a certain time to increase their quantity; and if the demand increases, then until a corresponding supply can be brought forward, that is, until the supply can accommodate itself to the demand, the value will so rise as to accommodate the demand to the supply.” What would Marshall say to this reasoning? Mill? What is your own view?
  5. “If the principle of final utility be applied to certain articles, it will give values that are, in most cases, many fold greater than are the actual values that the dealings of the market establish. . . . Goods of fine quality would then be, as a rule, many times dearer than they are.” What doctrine is here referred to? and do you think that the conclusion as to goods of fine quality follows?
  6. Do you believe that there is, —

No-rent land used for agricultural purposes;
No-rent land used as an urban site;
A zone of indifference as to “capital goods”;
A no-profits zone as to business management?

  1. Suppose a tax of 50 per cent. to be imposed on the rental value of urban sites (buildings and improvements being disregarded); what would be the effect on the rentals of the sites when leased, what on the prices of goods made or sold in them?
    Suppose a tax of 50 per cent. to be imposed on the rental values of buildings placed on urban sites (the sites being disregarded); what would be the effect on the rentals of the buildings when leased, what on the prices of goods made or sold in them?
  2. “If the proprietor of superior land were to say, ‘I will take no rent for it,’ this would not make wheat cheaper. The supply would not be changed; for the same quantity would be raised, the marginal amount raised on the no-rent land would be needed and would be bought at the former price, and all other parts of the supply would command the same rate. . . . It is a striking fact — but one hitherto much neglected — that similar conclusions apply to the product of every other agent. . . . If the capitalist says, ‘I will take none of this interest,’ the earnings of the instruments simply remain in the hands of the entrepreneur. . . . The entrepreneur will now keep the rent that the capitalist makes over to him, but the value of the goods produced will not be changed. . . . Exactly this can, however, be shown to be true of wages. In the same sense in which the interest on artificial capital and the rent of land are not elements in price, wages have no effect on price. If good workers were to relinquish their claims against their employers and work for nothing, the price of the goods would still conform to their marginal utility.” Do you think the analogy between the three cases — as to land, instruments, labor — holds good? If so, why? If not, why not?

___________________________

ECONOMICS 2
[Final 1909]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “Natura non facit saltum.” How is this motto, which appears on the title-page of Marshall’s Principles of Economics, applicable to his treatment of the temporary and the normal equilibrium of demand and supply; of business profits and wages; of non-competing groups?
  2. What contribution of permanent value did Cairnes make to the theory of value?
  3. “Wages are determined by the residual product of labor.”
    “Wages are determined by the specific product of labor.” “Wages are determined by the discounted marginal product of labor.” Explain what doctrines are described by these phrases; what writers hold the doctrines; and how far, if at all, they differ in essentials.
  4. Is there “quasi-rent” in such cases as these: —

(a) The population of a town is declining; dwellings in it command a rental which is less than interest at current rates on what it would cost to replace the dwellings.
(b) The earnings of an artisan or professional man who has once obtained the skill required for his work.
(c) The profits of business men.

  1. “Net rent is, then, nothing more than interest regarded from another point of view: it is an aggregate of lump sums, each of which represents the net earnings of some instrument. It is identical in amount with interest, and it becomes interest the moment that we reduce it to a fraction of the value of the instruments that earn it.” What writer maintains this doctrine? What would Marshall say of it? What is your own opinion?
  2. Explain what is meant by the “technical superiority of present goods.”
  3. “Wasteful expenditure on a scale adequate to offset the surplus productivity of modern industry is nearly out of the question. Private initiative cannot carry the waste of goods and services so nearly to the point required by the business situation. . . . Something more to the point can be done, and indeed is being done, by the civilized governments in the way of effectual waste, through armaments, public edifices, courtly and diplomatic establishments, and the like. . . . . But however extraordinary this public waste of substance latterly has been, it is altogether inadequate to offset the surplus productivity of the machine industry.”
    “Barring accidents and untoward cultural agencies from outside of politics, business, or religion, there is nothing in the logic of the modern situation that should stop the cumulative war expenditures short of industrial collapse and universal bankruptcy.”
    Explain the doctrines referred to in these extracts, give your opinion as to whether they are sound, or consistent with each other.
  4. “Duties on importation may, then, be divided into two classes: those which have the effect of encouraging some particular branch of domestic industry and those which have not. The former are purely mischievous, both to the country imposing them, and to those with whom it trades. . . . . A protection duty can never be a source of gain, but always and necessarily of loss, to the country imposing it, just so far as it is efficacious to its end. A non-protecting duty, on the contrary, would in most cases be a source of gain to the country imposing it.”
    Would you admit that a non-protecting duty is commonly a source of gain, and that this gain is never secured by a protecting duty?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook).

Image Source:   Frank W. Taussig, Harvard Album 1906.

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Distribution Theories, Exam Questions. Carver, 1914-15

 

 

Theories of Distribution was a course open to both undergraduate and graduate students and taught by Thomas Nixon Carver at Harvard in 1914-15. The course announcement, enrollment figures, and the final examination questions come from three different sources, all of which are available on-line. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting corresponding material from the twenty economics courses offered during the 1914-15 year for which the final examination questions had been printed and subsequently published.

__________________

Course Announcement

Economics 7. Theories of Distribution. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Carver. —.

Course 7 undertakes an analysis of the laws of value, as applied to consumable goods and to agents of production, including labor, land, capital, and management; the laws determining wages, rent, interest, and profits; and an examination of the relation of the laws of value to the problem of social adjustment; the social utility of various forms of property; also a critical reading of various works on the distribution of wealth, on socialism, on the single tax, and other special schemes for attaining the ideals of economic justice. [p. 66]

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914).

__________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 7. Professor Carver.—Theories of Distribution.

Total 66: 5 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 31 Juniors, 5 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1914-15, p. 59.

__________________

Course Enrollment

ECONOMICS 7

  1. Is the landlord productive? On what grounds can the private ownership of land be justified?
  2. What is the function in production of “waiting”?
  3. How would you classify the forms of human conflict and what are the reasons for and against the possibility of eliminating the more primitive forms?
  4. What is meant by the irksomeness of risk and how is it related to profits?
  5. “At the proper time for plowing, let plowing cease. Would not the symptoms of scarcity at once manifest themselves without waiting for the time of the harvest?” How would you answer this question? Would an affirmative answer prove that labor is supported from contemporaneous production?
  6. Under which form of income would you place the following and why?

(a) Rent.
(b) The income of a successful speculator in land.
(c) The income of a successful manipulator of stocks.

  1. Are profits a part of the cost of production?
  2. What should be the attitude of the State toward inheritances? Why?
  3. Suppose the United States were to conquer and govern Mexico. Would such action be justifiable and on what grounds?

(a) According to the teaching of the Course.
(b) According to Willoughby.

  1. State and criticize Clark’s standard of distributive justice.

 

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June 1915, pp. 50-51.

 

Categories
Agricultural Economics Courses Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Agricultural economics, undergraduate/graduate. Carver, 1914-1915

 

 

This course on agricultural economics taught at Harvard during the first term of the 1914-15 academic year by Thomas Nixon Carver  was open for both undergraduate and graduate students. During the second term Carver taught a graduate course on agricultural economics focussing on American agriculture. The course announcement, enrollment figures, and the final examination questions come from three different sources, all of which are available on-line. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting corresponding material from the twenty economics courses offered during the 1914-15 year for which the final examination questions had been printed and subsequently published.

Carver’s autobiography Reflections of an Unplanned Life (1949) can be read online at the hathitrust.org website.

__________________

Course Announcement

Economics 9. Economics of Agriculture. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Professor CARVER.

A study of the relation of agriculture to the whole industrial system, the relative importance of rural and urban economics, the conditions of rural life in different parts of the United States, the forms of land tenure and methods of rent payment, the comparative merits of large and small holdings, the status and wages of farm labor, the influence of farm machinery, farmers’ organizations, the marketing and distribution of farm products, agricultural credit, the policy of the government toward agriculture, and the probable future of American agriculture. [p. 66]

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914).

__________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 9 1hf. Professor Carver.—Economics of Agriculture.

Total 43: 5 Graduates, 26 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 4 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1914-15, p. 59.

__________________

Final Examination

ECONOMICS 9

  1. In what sense is the farmer independent, and in what sense is he not?
  2. What improvements or improved products have we brought from England? from France? from Holland?
  3. What is the character of rural as compared with urban migrations?
  4. What are the comparative advantages of ownership and tenency? Of cash and share tenency?
  5. What are the advantages of organized marketing of farm products?
  6. (a) What are the leading forms of rural credit?
    (b) What are the advantages of coöperative, or mutual, credit associations?
  7. What are the leading social needs of the average American rural community?
  8. What agencies or institutions are best fitted to supply the social needs of the average American Rural Community?
  9. What are the leading causes of the drift of population from the country to the city? Is this, in your opinion, a temporary or a permanent phenomenon?
  10. On the farms of Iowa, the horse-power per acre is increasing; while the man-power per acre is decreasing. At the same time the product per acre is increasing. Is this desirable? Suppose that it takes all the increase of product to feed the extra horses; would it then be desirable? Suppose, also, that Iowa exports horses: would this justify the change?

 

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June 1915, p. 52.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver in Harvard Class Album, 1916.

 

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Graduate Economic Theory, Scope and Methods. Carver, 1914-15

 

 

Thomas Nixon Carver was originally hired by Harvard as a theorist. His teaching portfolio grew to include courses in sociology, agricultural economics, and social reform schemes as well. This posting contains the course announcement for Carver’s graduate “Scope and Methods” course from 1914-15, enrollment figures, and the final examination questions. This information comes from three different sources, all of which are available on-line. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting corresponding material from the twenty economics courses at Harvard during the 1914-15 year for which the final examination questions had been printed and subsequently published.

_______________________

Course Announcement

Economics 121. Scope and Methods of Economic Investigation. Half-course (first half-year). Hours to be arranged with the instructor. Professor Carver.

Course 12 will examine the methods by which the leading writers of modern times have approached economic questions, and the range which they have given their inquiries; and will consider the advantage of different methods, and the expediency of a wider or narrower field of investigation. Methods of reasoning, methods of investigation, and methods of exposition will be considered separately. Selected passages from the works of a considerable number of writers will be studied, with a view to analyzing the nature and scope of their reasoning. [p. 67]

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914).

_______________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12 1hf. Professor Carver.—Scope and Methods of Economic Investigation.

Total 2: 1 Graduate, 1 Radcliffe.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1914-15, p. 59.

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Final Examination

ECONOMICS 121

  1. How would you classify the problems of Economic method?
  2. Is the so-called ” Deductive Method ” a method of investigation or a method of exposition? Explain and illustrate.
  3. Discuss the possibility of prediction in Economics as compared with the possibility of prediction in such subjects as Physics and Medicine.
  4. Discuss the applicability of the Method of Difference to Economic investigation.
  5. Discuss the place of mathematical formulae in Economic investigation and in Economic exposition.
  6. Is there any logical connection between the Law of Definite Proportions and the Law of Variable Proportions? Explain.
  7. What is Cairnes’s position as to the relative merits of inductive and deductive methods? Do you agree? Give your reasons.
  8. What are the uses of statistics in Economic investigation?
  9. Does the value for investigational purposes of a business transaction vary with its size? Explain and illustrate.
  10. What are the reasons, if any, for subjective analysis in Economic investigations?

 

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June 1915, p. 55.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver in Harvard Class Album, 1915.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Courses Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Agricultural Economics Exam. Carver, 1915.

 

This course on agricultural economics taught at Harvard during the second term of the 1914-15 academic year by Thomas Nixon Carver was listed in the course catalogue under “Applied Economics”, primarily for graduate students. The course announcement, enrollment figures, and the final examination questions come from three different sources, all of which are available on-line. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting corresponding material from the twenty economics courses offered during the 1914-15 year for which the final examination questions had been printed and subsequently published.

Carver’s autobiography Reflections of an Unplanned Life (1949) can be read online at the hathitrust.org website.

__________________

Course Announcement

Economics 32. Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Professor Carver.

An intensive study of a number of special problems relating to rural economy and agricultural policy, such as land tenure, tenancy, intensive and extensive farming, the possibilities of national self-support, the economical distribution of farm products, farming for subsistence as compared with farming for profit, specialized as compared with diversified farming, selling farm products, purchasing farm supplies, agricultural credit, rural sanitation, communication, and recreation. [p. 70]

 

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914).

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 32 2hf. Professor Carver.—Economics of Agriculture.

Total 22: 5 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1914-15, p. 60.

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 Final Examination

ECONOMICS 32

  1. Name the five most important crops in the United States, stating in each case the reasons why you consider them important. Name the chief areas of their production, describe the methods of cultivating them, and of combating their chief enemies.
  2. What are the chief areas of beef production in this country at the present time? What tendencies are showing themselves at the present time as to a territorial redistribution of the beef industry, and what are the reasons for these tendencies?
  3. Write a brief analysis of some important book which you have read in connection with this course or with your thesis.
  4. Give the main points in the report made by some member of this class, other than yourself, before the Class during this term.
  5. What are the essentials of coöperation, and what are the important distinctions between a coöperative society and a joint stock corporation, and the reasons for these distinctions?
  6. What is the difference between cooperative farming and coöperation among farmers? Which would you advocate and why?
  7. What would you say as to the probable source or sources of power for farm work in the United States during the next few decades? Give your reasons.
  8. It is commonly predicted that the United States will soon cease to be a wheat exporting country and become a wheat importing country. Do you think that this prediction is justified by existing tendencies? Why? Would it be a good or a bad indication if true? Why?

 

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June 1915, pp. 58-59.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver in Harvard Album, 1915.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Single Tax, Socialism, and Anarchism. Final Exam. Anderson, 1918

 

 

Perhaps some last-minute re-staffing of courses was required during the 1917-18 academic year because of colleagues joining the war effort in Washington, D.C. All I know is that the survey course on schemes of social reform that was solidly in the teaching portfolio of Thomas Nixon Carver was taught by Benjamin M. Anderson during his last year at Harvard. Carver’s own  course outline with reading assignments for 1919-20 and the corresponding final examination questions from 1920 have been posted earlier. This posting shows the deviation between the original course announcement (Carver to teach Economics 7b) and the ex post staffing and course enrollment report for the year in the annual report of the Harvard president (Anderson taught Economics 7b). 

Judging from the examination questions, it would appear that the Russian Revolution was not yet incorporated into the Harvard economics curriculum. Marxian economics did rate one of the ten questions on its own and shared another question with everyone from Henry George Single Taxers through Anarchists, Utopians up to and including the American Federation of Labor.

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Course Announcement

7b 2hf. The Single Tax, Socialism, Anarchism. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Professor Carver.

A critical study of the theories which underlie some of the more radical programmes of social reform. An examination also of the social utility of private property in its various forms; also some attention to the concept of justice in economic relations; the concept of progress; the significance of conservatism and radicalism.

Source:   Division of History, Government, and Economics 1917-18, Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), p. 62.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 7b 2hf. Asst. Professor Anderson.—The Single Tax, Socialism, Anarchism.

Total 21: of which 5 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1917-18, p. 54.

 

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1917-18
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 7b2

Answer nine questions

  1. “Society is to blame when the individual goes wrong.” Discuss critically.
  2. Indicate resemblances and differences: Single Taxers; Kropotkin; Emma Goldman; Marxists; Syndicalists; Fabians; American Federation of Labor; Fourier.
  3. Discuss the theory of price-fixing under war conditions in America today.
  4. Explain the contract theory of society. What ideas are usually associated with this theory? Criticise this body of ideas.
  5. Outline the main argument of Progress and Poverty. Indicate the points of strength and weakness in the argument.
  6. What reading have you done for this course?
  7. Outline A. S. Johnson’s plan for the public capitalization of the inheritance tax.
  8. Discuss the doctrine that the unearned increment is a stimulus to the building trade.
  9. Discuss the doctrine that all taxes except the land tax are a burden on industry and raise prices.
  10. Outline the main points in Marx’s system. How much of it can stand?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1918. (HUC 7000.28, vol. 60 of 284).

Image Source: Benjamin M. Anderson, Jr. from Harvard Class Album 1915.

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Fields Harvard

Harvard. Ph.D. candidates examined 1910-11

 

 

This posting provides information for four Harvard economics Ph.D. candidates: their respective academic backgrounds, the six subjects of their general examinations along with the names of the examiners, the subject of their special subject, thesis subject and advisor(s) (where available).

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DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.
1910-11

Notice of hour and place will be sent out three days in advance of each examination.
The hour will ordinarily be 4 p.m.

Alfred Burpee Balcom.

General Examination in Economics, Monday, May 1, 1911.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Bullock, Carver, Sprague, Young, and Perry.
Academic History: Acadia College, 1904-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1908-11. S.B., Acadia, 1907; A. M., Harvard, 1909. Austin Teaching Fellow, 1910-11.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Public Finance and Financial History. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization. 6. Philosophy.
Special Subject: Economic Theory.
Thesis Subject: “Nassau William Senior as an Economist.” (With Professor Taussig.)

Lucius Moody Bristol.

General Examination in Economics (Social Ethics), Thursday, May 4, 1911.
Committee: Professors Peabody (chairman), Taussig, Carver, Sprague, Young, and Dr. Brackett.
Academic History: University of North Carolina, 1894-95; Boston University School of Theology, 1896-99; Harvard Divinity School, 1909-10; Harvard Graduate School, 1910-11. A.B., North Carolina, 1895; S.T.B., Boston University, 1899.
General Subjects: 1. Ethical Theory. 2. Economic Theory. 3. Labor Problems. 4. Social Reforms. 5. Sociology. 6. Statistics.
Special Subject: Social Reform.
Thesis Subject: “Conservation of Vital Forces in Boston.” (With Professor Peabody.)

Johann Gottfried Ohsol.

General Examination in Economics, Friday, May 5, 1911.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Bullock, Carver, Sprague, Dr. Foerster, and Dr. Holcombe.
Academic History: Polytechnic Institute of Riga, 1899-1903; Harvard Graduate School, 1909-11. Candidate in Commerce, Riga, 1903.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Public Finance and Financial History. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Labor Problems.
Thesis Subject: (undecided).

Ralph Emerson Heilman.

General Examination in Economics (Social Ethics), Thursday, May 11, 1911.
Committee: Professors Peabody (chairman), Taussig, Bullock, Carver, Dr. Brackett and Dr. McConnell.
Academic History: Morningside College, 1903-06; Northwestern University, 1906-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1909-11. Ph.B., Morningside, 1906; A.M., Northwestern, 1907.
General Subjects: 1. Ethical Theory. 2. Economic Theory and its History. 3. Poor Relief. 4. Social Reforms. 5. Sociology. 6. Labor Problems.
Special Subject: (undecided).
Thesis Subject: “Chicago Traction.” (With Professor Ripley.)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1910-11”.

Image Source: Widener Library, 1915. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Digital ID:  cph 3c14486

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exams in Economics. 1913-14.

 

 

This posting merges information from three sources: brief course descriptions from the annual course announcement published for the Division of History, Government and Economics for the academic year 1913-14 in the Harvard Register; final examination questions published by Harvard in June 1914; and the mid-year (i.e. February) examination questions for two courses taught by Frank Taussig and pasted in a file scrapbook containing what appears to be all of his Harvard examinations.

At hathitrust.org there are online copies of the annual June publication of examination questions for 1912-13 through 1915-16. A transcription of the 1912-13 economics examinations has been posted earlier.

While sixteen courses have published  final examinations that are transcribed below, there were still some seven or so economics courses not included in the published June volume. Further the mid-year (i.e. February) final exams for year long courses were not included in the published collection.

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Principles of Economics

Course Description
Economics A

[Economics] A. (formerly 1). Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11.

Professor TAUSSIG and Asst. Professor DAY, assisted by Messrs. Burbank, J. S. Davis, R. E. Heilman, and others.

Course A gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. Course A may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

 

Mid-Year Exam
Economics A

Arrange your answers strictly in in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions.

  1. State concisely the distinctions between the following (omit one): —

(a) free goods and public goods;
(b) saving, investment, the creation of capital;
(c) subsidiary coinage and limping standard;
(d) industrial crisis and financial panic;
(e) deposits in commercial banks and deposits in savings banks.

  1. Which among these distinctions is important for the understanding of the following, and wherein? (Omit one.)

(a) the influence of credit on prices;
(b) the benefits to be expected from a centralized banking system;
(c) the rates which a municipality charges for water supplied to consumers;
(d) the effects of public borrowing (government debts);
(e) silver certificates.

  1. (a) Suppose a great and lasting increase in the demand for skates: what would you expect to be the immediate, what the ultimate effects on the value of skates?
    (b) Suppose a great and lasting increase in the demand for Indian corn: what would you expect to be the immediate, what the ultimate effects on the value of Indian corn?
    (c) Suppose a great and lasting increase in the demand for wheat straw: what would you expect to be the immediate, what the ultimate effects on the value of wheat?
  2. “Here cost is supposed to be uniform but not constant, — it becomes less per unit as the number of units increases.” Explain the terms “uniform” and “constant,” and the conditions of production described in the extract. How is value determined under these conditions (illustrate either by diagram or by example)?
  3. In which direction and by what process would the following tend to affect the price to the consumer in the United States of a bushel of wheat: (1) adoption of bimetallism by the United States at the ratio of 16 to 1; (2) development of organized speculation; (3) a successful corner in wheat?
  4. Explain: —

Central Reserve City Bank;
Federal Reserve Bank;
U.S. Treasury Gold Reserve;
Bank of England Reserve.

  1. Suppose the people of one country to lend, through a long period, large sums annually to the people of another country; trace the effects in the lending country, immediate and ultimate, on

the flow of specie;
merchandise imports and exports;
the price of foreign exchange.

Would you expect such a lending country to have a “favorable” or an “unfavorable” balance of trade?

  1. Suppose the following course of prices: —

 

Price of silver
per oz.		 Price of wheat
per bushel		 Index numbers of general prices
1873 $1.30 $1.32 130
1895 0.65 0.67 80
1912 0.61 1.10 110

Would the figures indicate that the value of silver changed between 1873 and 1895? The value of gold? of wheat?

Would they indicate that the value of silver changed from 1895 to 1912? of gold? of wheat?

 

Final Exam
Economics A

  1. Arrange the following items in the form of a bank statement showing in parallel columns the liabilities and resources: —

Real estate, $30,000; Surplus, $30,000; Deposits, $283,000; Loans, $300,000; Reserve, $65,000; Undivided profits, $12,000; Other assets, $10,000; Capital stock, $100,000; Bonds and stocks, $80,000; Notes, $75,000; Due from banks, $15,000.

Draw up a similar statement showing condition after each of the following operations: —

(a) The bank makes a new loan of $1000 for 3 months at the discount rate of 4% per annum. Proceeds are taken 1/3 in specie, 1/3 in the bank’s own notes, and the balance in a deposit account.

(b) The bank adds $5000 to its surplus, and declares a dividend of 2%. Stockholders take half of the dividend in gold, and leave half on deposit with the bank.

  1. What would be the immediate effect, what the ultimate effect, of a large increase in the supply of money on (a) money wages, (b) real wages, (c) business profits, (d) the bank rate of discount?
  2. “The principle of protection is to build up our home industries by manufacturing our own products. This gives our people employment, keeps the money in the country, and makes this country an independent and self-reliant nation.”

Wherein are these arguments valid? Wherein invalid? Give your reasons.

  1. “The outcome of the discussion of demand and supply (with reference to capital and interest) can be stated in simple form under the theory of value. The several installments of savings can be had at various rates, some for a small reward, some for a larger reward. The case is thus one of varying supply price, coming under the principle of increasing costs.”

Explain, and illustrate by diagram.

  1. “The effect of high prices for land and high rents is apparent. Industries will be slow to locate in Pittsburgh if rents or prices of land are higher than in other cities. A higher rent or interest on higher-price of land bought for building, will be a constant added charge on cost of operation. Consequently, industries will tend to shun a city where this higher cost is incurred.” Do you think this consequence will ensue?

Suppose a tax in this city (not levied in other cities) on the future increase of land values; would industries shun the city?

  1. Explain wherein the problems would be different in fixing minimum wages (a) for common unskilled labor, (b) for various grades of skilled labor, (c) for women.
  2. How great has been the development of coöperation in production? What explanation can you give?

What is the ground for saying that “maturity” makes an industry more proper for public management?

“The inevitable attitude of the hired workman is to favor arrangements that seem to make work and to oppose those that seem to lessen work.”

Why should this attitude be thought “inevitable”?

  1. Explain, and give in each case, if possible, an illustration drawn from American or British experience in the taxation of land:

Increment tax;
Stoppage at the source;
Incidence of a tax;
Progressive tax.

 

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Statistics

Course Description
Economics 1

[Economics] 1 1hf. Statistics. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Asst. Professor DAY.

This course will deal primarily with the elements of statistical method. The following subjects will be considered: methods of collecting and tabulating data; the construction and use of diagrams; the use and value of the various types and averages; index-numbers; dispersion; interpolation; correlation. Special attention will be given to the accuracy of statistical material.

In the course of this study of statistical method, examples of the best statistical information will be presented, and the best sources will be indicated. Population and vital statistics will be examined in some measure, but economic statistics will predominate.

Open only to those who, having passed satisfactorily in Economics A, secure the consent of the instructor.

 

Final Exam
Economics 1

  1. Indicate two methods of correcting death-rates for age- and sex-distribution.
  2. What are the different methods of collecting workmen’s budgets? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these methods?
  3. What are the chief difficulties encountered in the use of statistics of imports and exports?
  4. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the mode and arithmetic average as statistical types.
  5. Describe and criticise the different methods of presenting wage statistics. Cite instances of the use of each.
  6. Define correlation. What is Pearson’s coefficient of correlation? Indicate its use and interpretation.
  7. Explain briefly: ogive; lag; probable error; Galton graph; standard deviation; logarithmic curve; ratio of variation; Lorenz curve.

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European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century

Course Description
Economics 2a

[Economics] 2a 1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Professor GAY, assisted by —.

Course 2a undertakes to present the general outlines of the economic history of western Europe since the Industrial Revolution. Such topics as the following will be discussed: the economic aspects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic régime, the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the Zoll-Verein, Cobden and free trade in England, labor legislation and social reform, nationalism and the recrudescence of protectionism, railways and waterways, the effects of transoceanic competition, the rise of industrial Germany.

Since attention will be directed in this course to those phases of the subject which are related to the economic history of the United States, it may be taken usefully before Economics 2b.

 

Final Exam
Economics 2a

  1. When did the Industrial Revolution take place in Germany? Why did it come later there than in England? In how far was it brought about by analogous causes?
  2. Compare the scale of production and specialization in the cotton, shoe, and wool manufacturing industries in England and France. Give reasons for contrasts.
  3. Discuss the part which the banks have played in the promotion of industrial concentration in the electrical, chemical, and mining industries in Germany. What other factors have encouraged the development of these industries.
  4. (a) Account for the relatively high capitalization of the railways in England.
    (b) How has the “cost of service” principle been applied in the fixing of freight rates on the Prussian railways?
  5. What have been the periods of prosperity in English agriculture in the nineteenth century? And what have been the causes? How have these periods of prosperity affected the agricultural laborer?
  6. What interests have supported the recent tariff reform movement in England? Why? Do you think that from the English standpoint such a change in policy is desirable? Why or why not?

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Economic and Financial History of the United States

Course Description
Economics 2b

[Economics] 2b 2hf. Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Professor GAY, assisted by —.

The following are among the subjects considered: aspects of the Revolution and commercial relations during the Confederation and the European wars; the history of the protective tariff policy and the growth of manufacturing industries; the settlement of the West and the history of transportation, including the early canal and turnpike enterprises of the states, the various phases of railway building and the establishment of public regulation of railways; banking and currency experiences; various aspects of agrarian history, such as the public land policy, the growth of foreign demand for American produce and the subsequent competition of other sources of supply; certain social topics, such as slavery and its economic basis, and the effects of immigration.

 

Final Exam
Economics 2b

  1. Discuss the bearing of the mercantile theory upon American commercial history before 1860.
  2. Comment on the following statements by William McKinley:

(a) “A low tariff or no tariff has always increased the importation of foreign goods until our money ran out; multiplied our foreign obligations; produced a balance of trade against our country; supplanted the domestic producer and manufacturer; impaired the farmer’s home market without improving his foreign market; decreased the industries of the nation; diminished the value of nearly all our property and investments and robbed labor of its just rewards. This is the verdict of our history.”

(b) “Periods of low tariff synchronize with industrial depression ” [in American history].

  1. “In the twenty years [after 1816] institutions were arising and changing, and centers of social gravity shifting. It was essentially a time of realignment of interests.”

State your grounds of agreement or disagreement with this view, and compare these changes with those in the period since 1890.

  1. Illustrate with three examples the problem of localization of industry in the United States.
  2. “The Civil War was won by the McCormick reaper.” How far was this true, and why?
  3. Write briefly on the following topics: —

(a) The competition between anthracite and coke in the iron industry.
(b) Willoughby’s estimate of the future of integration in industry.

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Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises

Course Description
Economics 3

[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Asst. Professor DAY, assisted by —.

This course aims to analyze the principal problems of money and credit. An examination is first made of the more important existing monetary systems. This is followed by a careful review of the more instructive chapters in the monetary history of England, Germany, France, the United States, Austria, British India, Mexico, and the Philippines.

The nature, origin, and early growth of commercial banking are considered. An investigation of present banking practice in England, France, Germany, and Canada is followed by a study of banking history and present banking problems in the United States. In this connection foreign exchange and the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York are examined.

Finally attention is turned to those problems of money and credit which appear most prominently in connection with economic crises. Though emphasis is thrown upon the financial aspects of the trade cycle, the investigation covers the more fundamental factors causing commercial and industrial fluctuations.

Short papers upon assigned topics will be required of all students.

 

Final Exam
Economics3

  1. Suppose the United States were to permit the free coinage of our present silver dollar. How would this tend to affect the (1) monetary stock of the United States; (2) mint price of silver; (3) value of the dime; (4) price of gold jewelry; (5) value of gold certificates; (6) prices in England; (7) balance of international payments; (8) rates of foreign exchange? Give explanations throughout.
  2. How is the value of irredeemable paper money to be measured? What determines the value of such money? What are the most important questions in the resumption of specie payments after a period of irredeemable paper? If possible, illustrate your points from the experience of the United States.
  3. Define discount market. Describe the English discount market. How has the absence of such a market affected banking in the United States? What provisions of the Federal Reserve Act are designed to develop a discount market in this country?
  4. How and why have panics and crises in the United States tended to affect (1) aggregate bank loans; (2) reserves of the national banks; (3) amount of bank notes in circulation; (4) quotations of stocks and bonds on the New York Stock Exchange; (5) rates of foreign exchange in New York?
  5. Briefly describe the following phenomena in the panic of 1907; (1) currency premium; (2) hoarding; (3) the domestic exchanges; (4) substitutes for cash.
  6. By what means and to what extent, if at all, does the Federal Reserve Act provide for an effective centralized control of credit in the United States?

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Economics of TransportationCourse Description
Economics 4a

[Economics] 4a 1hf. Economics of Transportation. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

A brief outline of the historical development of rail and water transportation in the United States will be followed by a description of the condition of transportation systems at the present time. The four main subdivisions of rates and rate-making, finance, traffic operation, and legislation will be considered in turn. The first deals with the relation of the railroad to shippers, comprehending an analysis of the theory and practice of rate-making. An outline will be given of the nature of railroad securities, the principles of capitalization, and the interpretation of railroad accounts. Railroad operation will deal with the practical problems of the traffic department, such as the collection and interpretation of statistics of operation, pro-rating, the apportionment of cost, depreciation and maintenance, etc. Under legislation, the course of state regulation and control in the United States and Europe will be traced.

 

Final Exam
Economics 4a1

  1. Railroad A. is capitalized at $50,000 per mile, — $35,000 in five per cent bonds and the rest in stock. Railroad A. earns about $2500 net per mile. Railroad B. earns about $4000 net per mile on a capitalization of $90,000 per mile, — $50,000 in four per cent bonds, the balance in stock. Which is the stronger road financially? What about the relative ability of the two roads to give service at low rates?
  2. Describe the general plan by which competition in Trunk Line territory was eliminated within the last decade. What has since happened?
  3. What has been in general the course of prices of railway securities since 1890? Briefly state the causes.
  4. What was the final plan adopted for dissolution of the Union-Southern Pacific combination?
  5. How was the question of land valuation for railroad purposes in the Minnesota Rate Case treated?
  6. What is the gist of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States? Merely name a few of the most important cases applying it to railroads since 1870, and in a sentence in each case outline the point covered.
  7. Outline a typical case, real or hypothetical, showing how Federal and State authority may come in conflict in the matter of rate-making.
  8. When and why was the Commercial Court created? Outline the result of the experiment.
  9. It has been urged that railroad monopoly under adequate Government regulation may serve the public as well as competition. Do you agree with this view? State your reasons and cite instances.

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Economics of Corporations

Course Description
Economics 4b

[Economics] 4b 2hf. Economics of Corporations. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

This course will treat of the fiscal and industrial organization of capital, especially in the corporate form. The principal topic considered will be industrial combination and the so-called trust problem. This will be broadly discussed, with comparative study of conditions in the United States and Europe. The development of corporate enterprise, promotion, and financing, accounting, liability of directors and underwriters, will be described, not in their legal but in their economic aspects; and the effects of industrial combination upon efficiency, profits, wages, prices, the development of export trade, and international competition will be considered in turn.

 

Final Exam
Economics  4b

Answer in order — omitting any one question.

  1. What are the principal advantages of a stable rate of dividends? What influences tend to cause departure therefrom?
  2. Outline two ways at least of securing temporary relief by appeal to stock-holders in case of threatened insolvency of a corporation.
  3. What is the most important economy incident to production under monopoly of the market, as distinct from mere large-scale production?
  4. Why is the financial experience of the American Mercantile Marine Company significant?
  5. Outline the course of enforcement of the Sherman Act. How largely did underlying economic causes, as distinct from purely personal ones, play a part?
  6. Outline the device, in case of corporate promotion, for making an issue of stock full-paid in order to relieve investors against further assessments.
  7. Would price regulation — as by the American Publishers Association — fixing the retail price of books and excluding cut-rate dealers from supplies, seem to be debarred by the Standard Oil decision?
  8. Are financial abuses such as an excessive issue of securities as characteristic of German industrial combinations as of those in the United States?
  9. Contrast price fixing by law for monopolized commodities with the regulation of railroad rates. How may such an issue arise in connection with amendment of the Sherman Act?

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Public Finance

Course Description
Economics 5

[Economics] 5. Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor BULLOCK.

This course covers the entire field of public finance, but emphasizes the subject of taxation. After a brief survey of the history of finance, attention is given to public expenditures, commercial revenues, administrative revenues, and taxation, with consideration both of theory and of the practice of various countries. Public credit is then studied, and financial legislation and administration are briefly treated.

Systematic reading is prescribed, and most of the exercises are conducted by the method of informal discussion. Candidates for distinction will be given an opportunity to write theses.

Graduate students are advised to elect Economics 31.

 

Final Exam
Economics 5

  1. Discuss the different definitions of a tax.
  2. Discuss Adam Smith’s maxims of taxation.
  3. Discuss the incidence of an exclusive tax on land.
  4. Discuss the incidence of taxes upon mortgages in the United States.
  5. Compare the working of the general property tax in the United States with its working in Switzerland.
  6. Discuss the proposition that income is the normal source of taxation.
  7. Discuss the leading arguments for and against progressive taxation.
  8. Discuss the leading arguments of Shearman and Seligman for and against the single tax.

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Trade Unionism and Allied Problems

Course Description
Economics 6a

[Economics] 6a 1hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

This course will deal mainly with the economic and social relations of employer and employed. Among the topics included will be: the history of unionism; the policies of trade unions respecting wages, machinery, output, etc.; collective bargaining; strikes; employers’ liability and workmen’s compensation; efficiency management; unemployment, etc., in the relation to unionism, will be considered.

Each student will make at least one report upon a labor union or an important strike, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice.

 

Final Exam
Economics 6a

  1. Outline the principal phases of development of organized labor in the United States, with especial reference to conditions at the present time. In conclusion name five or six of the most significant events which define the present situation.
  2. What are the three most essential features of a collective bargain between workmen and employers?
  3. What is the feature in common of all minimum wage laws, as in Victoria and of compulsory arbitration statutes like those of New Zealand? Wherein does the policy differ most profoundly from ours?
  4. Name in a sentence in each of as many of the following cases as possible, the essential point at issue.

(a) The Danbury hatters.
(b) Allen v. Flood.
(c) New York Bakeshop law.
(d) Bucks Stove Co. case.
(e) Taff Vale Railway.
(f) Holden v. Hardy. (Utah.)

  1. How, other than by incorporation, is a greater measure of legal responsibility of trade unions to be attained?
  2. Discuss scientific management from the viewpoint of organized labor.
  3. What is the significant feature of the new type of state labor bureau, like the Wisconsin Industrial Commission?
  4. Compare the present legal status of the non-union man in England and the United States.

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Theories of Distribution and Distributive Justice

Course Description
Economics 7

[Economics] 7. Theories of Distribution and Distributive Justice. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor CARVER and an assistant.

Course 7 undertakes an analysis of the laws of value, as applied to consumable goods and to agents of production, including labor, land, capital, and management; the laws determining wages, rent, interest, and profits; and an examination of the relation of the laws of value to the problem of social adjustment; the social utility of various forms of property; also a critical reading of various works on the distribution of wealth, on socialism, on the single tax, and other special schemes for attaining the ideals of economic justice.

 

Final Exam
Economics 7

  1. What have you read for this course during the year? What parts of the reading interested you most? What parts interested you least? What parts gave you most difficulty?
  2. State and criticise in detail Fisher’s theory of the value of money.
  3. State and criticise Laughlin’s theory of the value of money.
  4. A well-secured note of a good corporation for $100 has four years to run. It pays 7 per cent interest. It is taxed at 1 per cent. The prevailing rate of interest on such paper is 5 per cent. What is the note worth?
  5. What is your own theory of crises?
  6. A law requiring proprietors of saw-mills to insure their workmen against accident would lead to increased cost of production, and higher prices, for lumber. Would a law requiring all employers similarly to insure lead to higher prices all around? Why or why not?
  7. What do you think of the single-tax contention that all taxes except land-taxes are burdens on industry, and restrict production?
  8. Summarize and criticise Shearman’s arguments for the single tax.
  9. State and criticise Clark’s argument to prove that ” unearned increments ” in land values off-set depreciation on buildings, and so increase the amount of building.

________________________________

 

Principles of Sociology

Course Description
Economics 8

[Economics] 8. Principles of Sociology. — Theories of Social Progress. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Professor CARVER and an assistant.

An analytical study of social life and of the factors and forces which hold society together and give it an orderly development. The leading social institutions will also be studied with a view to finding out their relation to social well-being and progress.

The reading will be selected from various writers who have treated the problems of human progress and social adjustment.

Course 8 is open only to students who have passed in Economics 1.

 

Final Exam
Economics 8

Sociology

  1. Make a two-page topical outline of the course as a whole.
  2. What topics in the course would you wish to have treated more fully? What topics seemed to you to have proportionately too much attention? What parts of the reading interested you most? What parts of the reading did you find most helpful? What parts of the reading gave you most difficulty? What parts of the reading would you prefer to see omitted?
  3. In what respects does the imitation theory fall short of an adequate social psychology?
  4. Discuss the economic interpretation of history.
  5. Discuss the “color line.”
  6. Summarize Spencer’s theory of the origin of religion. In what respects is it deficient?
  7. To what does Giddings attribute the rise of democracy? In what ways does he think that democracy changes the functions of government?
  8. State and illustrate Giddings’ “three stages of civilization.” Compare this conception with the rival views of Hegel, Comte and Spencer.
  9. Summarize John Dewey’s “Interpretation of Savage Mind.”
  10. Summarize the theory of progress developed in the lectures. What is your own view?

________________________________

 

Principles of Accounting

Course Description
Economics 9

[Economics] 9. Principles of Accounting. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Associate Professor Cole, assisted by Messrs. and —.

This course is designed to show the processes by which the earnings and values of business properties are computed. It is not intended primarily to afford practice in book-keeping; but since intelligent construction and interpretation of accounts is impossible without a knowledge of certain main types of book-keeping, practice sufficient to give the student familiarity with elementary technique will form an important part of the work of the course. The chief work, however, will be a study of the principles that underlie the determination of profit, cost, and valuation. These will be considered as they appear in several types of business enterprise. Published accounts of corporations will be examined, and practice in interpretation will be afforded. The instruction will be chiefly by assigned readings, discussions, and written work.

Course 9 is not open to students before their last year of undergraduate work. For men completing their work at the end of the first half-year, it may be counted, with the consent of the instructor, as a half-course. It is regularly open only to Seniors and to Graduates who have passed in Economics A. Students intending to enter the Graduate School of Business Administration are expected to take this course in preparation for the advanced courses in accounting.

 

Final Exam
Economics 9

PRINCIPLES OF ACCOUNTING
Associate Professor Cole

  1. Illustrate, by imaginary entries, any book from which posting may be made in lump sum not only for many items to be debited to one account, but also for many items to be credited to each of various other accounts. [Show at least three items to be posted in lump sum for each of three accounts, and show at least two items that must be posted individually.]
  2. Two successive condensed balance sheets show the following figures: —

January 1, 1913

Real Estate $50,000 Capital Stock $100,000
Merchandise 75,000 Bills Payable 25,000
Accounts Receivable 30,000 Accounts Payable 30,000
Miscellaneous Assets 7,000 Surplus 7,000
$162,000 $162,000

 

January 1, 1914

Real Estate $53,000 Capital Stock $100,000
Merchandise 77,000 Bills Payable 25,000
Accounts Receivable 12,000 Accounts Payable 20,000
Miscellaneous Assets 7,000 Surplus 7,000
Reserve for Depreciation 5,000
Dividends 7,000
$149,000 $149,000

Assuming that no dividends were paid, what were the profits for the year?
Where are they?

  1. Should you charge against revenue or to capital (giving your reason in each case) the cost of the following : —

(1) An extra wheel, carried ready for emergency, for an automobile truck.
(2) Wages of an extra watchman employed because construction work has removed a part of the wall of a store.
(3) Installation of an automatic sprinkler system required because during a strike fanatics have threatened incendiarism.
(4) Repairs of a building after a slight collapse due to the disintegration of concrete frozen during construction.
(5) Directories, handbooks, encyclopedias, etc., in the office of a professional firm that must keep informed of the latest scientific and professional news.

  1. What is the probable explanation of the following entries?
Good Will $25,000
To Andrew Jackson $25,000
Subscriptions 200,000
To Stock Subscribed 175,000
Premium Surplus 25,000
Cash 50,000
Andrew Jackson 150,000
To Subscriptions 200,000
Stock Subscribed 175,000
To Capital Stock 175,000

 

  1. How should you distribute the following general expenses over the departments of a department store, grouping the expenses as far as feasible: —
Rent,
Light,
Heat,
Insurance,
Taxes,		 General Administration,
Correspondence,
Accounting,
Advertising,
Welfare Work.
  1. The estimated wear and tear on machinery in a shop is $12,000 a year. The profits are figured monthly and $1,000 is taken into the cost accounts for wear and tear on the last day of every month. The amount spent (in cash) for repairs and renewals is as follows: February 15, $500; March 15, $1,200; June 15, $2,500; August 15, $8,000; December 15, $1,500. Show the entry or entries for wear and tear for (1) each last day of the month, (2) the five dates given above, (3) closing at the end of the year. [Show either journal or ledger, with dates.]
  2. Bonds are issued to the amount of $12,000,000, payable in twenty-five years, with interest at 5 per cent annually (in semiannual payments). The credit of the issuing company is not good enough to warrant investors in lending on a basis of less than 5½ per cent. The bonds are accordingly sold for $11,190,084.90. Where will the discount appear on the issuer’s statements — income sheet, balance sheet, both, neither? If either or both, how and where?

Bond tables give the value of such bonds six months later as $11,197,812.23. When the first interest, of $300,000, is paid, what entry or entries should be made? Write the explanation portion of such entries.

  1. Suppose that the cost accounts of a manufacturing business are carried through the general ledger, and that the accounts have been closed so far as to show on the ledger all the figures for the operating statement. This statement is as follows: —

Operating statement, May 1, 1913, to April 30, 1914

Sales $297,000
Raw materials on hand, 5/1/13 $26,000
Raw materials bought 107,000
Raw materials handled 133,000
Raw materials on hand, 4/30/14 18,000
Raw materials consumed 115,000
Wages paid $54,000
Less balance due, 5/1/13 2,000
52,000
Wages due, 4/30/14 900
Wages cost 52,900
Taxes 1,500
Interest prepaid, 5/1/13 600
Interest paid in and for year 1,000 1,600
General manufacturing expenses 30,000
Manufacturing cost 201,000
Goods in process, 5/1/13 10,000
Cost of goods for year 211,000
Goods in process, 4/30/14 7,000
Cost of goods finished in year 204,000
Stock on hand, 5/1/13 60,000
Cost of finished goods handled 264,000
Stock on hand, 4/30/14 20,000
Cost of goods sold 244,000
Selling cost 10,000 254,000
Net profits 43,000

Show the trial balance of ledger totals (not balances) for the cost accounts, supposing that the net balance of all accounts not involved in the cost accounting is $1100 on the credit side.

  1. Below are four columns of a six-column statement which were drawn up for a special purpose (sometimes waiving proper classifications) with the intention of filling out the remaining columns. Fill out the other two columns, and then present a proper form of balance sheet and income sheet (so far as the facts are known to you) for the railroad whose operations are covered by the figures, assuming that dividends of 6 per cent are declared, but not paid, at the end of the year.
Capital Stock 50.0 50.0
Bonded Debt 150.4 150.4
Accounts Receivable 12.5 12.5
Accounts Payable 2.0 2.0
Road and Equipment 101.3 101.3
Investments 102.7 102.7
Cash 14.7 14.7
Supplies 5.7 5.7
Advances 12.5 12.5
Transportation 13.9 46.7 2.5
Maintenance of Way and Structures 5.5 .4 1.2
Maintenance of Equipment 6.8 1.6
Traffic 1.1
General Expense 1.2 .4
Taxes 1.5 3.0
Other Income 6.5
Interest 6.0 1.5
Miscellaneous Expense 4.4 1.9 1.8
Surplus _______ 33.4 ______ 33.4
289.8 289.8 251.3 247.4

 

________________________________

Economic Theory

Course Description
Economics 11

[Economics] 11. Economic Theory. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professor TAUSSIG.

Course 11 is intended to acquaint the student with some of the later developments of economic thought, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles and the analysis of economic conditions. The exercises are accordingly conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the leading writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. The writings of J. S. Mill, Cairnes, F. A. Walker, Clark, Marshall, Böhm-Bawerk, and other recent authors, will be taken up. Attention will be given chiefly to the theory of exchange and distribution.

 

Mid-Year Exam
Economics 11

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. One question may be omitted.

  1. “The distinction, then, between Capital and Not-capital, does not lie in the kind of commodities, but in the mind of the capitalist — in his will to employ them for one purpose rather than other; and all property, however ill adapted in itself for the use of labourers, is a part of capital, so soon as it, or the value to be received from it, is set apart for productive reinvestment. The sum of all the values so destined by their respective possessors composes the capital of the country.”

What is to be said for this doctrine, what against it? By whom was it maintained?

  1. “Prices of commodities in great measure are fixed by supply and demand, but, except temporarily, they cannot be less than all costs, including wages and taxes, entering directly or indirectly into their production and distribution, together with some profit for the use of the capital employed. Hence an increase of the wages or cost of labor usually must be paid by consumers. A general increase of the wages of all labor would cause an equivalent increase of the price of nearly every product of labor and a general increase of the cost of living. The increased wages of the laborers then would not buy more than did their former wages and they would be no better off than before the increase. For this reason the economic welfare of the masses in the aggregate cannot be materially improved by the simple expedient of raising generally the wages of labor.”

What would Ricardo say to this? J. S. Mill? Your own view?

  1. Marx’s doctrine, that value is embodied labor, has been said to be essentially the same as Ricardo’s doctrine that value rests on the labor given to producing an article. Why or why not?
  2. Suppose an increase in the demand for a commodity, in the schedule sense: —

(a) For short periods, under what conditions, if under any, would you expect supply price to rise? to fall?
(b) For long periods, under what conditions, if under any, would you expect supply price to rise? to fall?

Note whether your answer differs in any particular from that to be expected from Marshall.“The part played by the net product at the margin of production in the modern doctrine of distribution is apt to be misunderstood. In particular many able writers have supposed that it represents the marginal use of a thing as governing the value of the whole. It is not so; the doctrine says we must go to the margin to study the action of those forces which govern the value of the whole; and that is a very different affair.”

Explain.

  1. “It has sometimes been argued that if all land were equally advantageous and all were occupied, the income derived from it would not be a true rent, but a monopoly rent.”

Under what conditions, if under any, would there be true rent in such a case? Under what conditions, if under any, would there be a monopoly rent?

  1. “The derived supply price [of one of a group of things having a joint supply price] is found by a rule that it must equal the excess of the supply price for the whole process of production over the sum of the demand prices of all the other joint products.”

Explain, illustrating by diagram.

State the corresponding rule for the derived demand price of one of a group of commodities for which there is a joint demand.

  1. (a) “In hundreds and thousands of suburban homes the question is asked every day, “How much milk shall we take in today, ma’am?” or “How much bread?” and the housewife knows without consideration that if she ordered one loaf of bread and one pint of milk, the marginal significance of bread and milk would be higher than their price, and if she said six loaves and five quarts of milk, the marginal loaf and pint would not be worth their price. Such orders, therefore, never enter into her head. But she deliberates, perhaps, whether she will want three loaves of bread or four, or three loaves and a twist, or three white loaves and a half-loaf of brown, and whether she shall take three quarts of milk or a pint more or less. Thus, whatever the terms on which alternatives are offered to us may be, we detect in conscious action at the margin of consideration the principles which are unconsciously at work in the whole distribution of our resources.”

Do you find anything to criticize in this?

(b) “When the supply (of a given commodity) is limited, the diminishing utility of each increment will be arrested at a point below which the consumer will prefer to abandon the use of an increment for something else. The margin here is a margin of indifference between an increment of one commodity and an increment of another commodity. Since these increments are not necessarily the same, the margin of indifference may be reached at a point where the tenth increment of one commodity balances the twentieth of another, where, in other words, the marginal utility of the first commodity is twice that of the second.”

Explain what you think is meant; and give your opinion on the conclusion stated in the last clause of the final sentence.

  1. “An English ruler who looks upon himself as the minister of the race he rules (say in India) is bound to take care that he impresses their energies in no work that is not worth the labor that is spent on it; or, to translate the sentiment into plainer language, that he engages in nothing that will not produce an income sufficient to defray the interest on its cost.”

Would Marshall question this principle? On what grounds, if at all? Would you?

 

Final Exam
Economics 11

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.
Answer all the questions.

  1. “What about the ‘supply curve’ that usually figures as a determinant of price, coördinate with the demand curve? I say it boldly and baldly: there is no such thing. When we are speaking of a marketable commodity, what is usually called the supply curve is in reality the demand curve of those who possess the commodity; for it shows the exact place which every successive unit of the commodity holds in their relative scale of estimate.”

Is this criticism just if directed to (1) the temporary equilibrium of supply and demand, as analyzed by Marshall for a grain market; (2) the “price zone determined by marginal pairs,” as analyzed by Böhm-Bawerk; (3) the long period equilibrium of supply and demand, as analyzed by Marshall.

  1. “The rent of land is no unique fact, but simply the chief species of a large genus of economic phenomena; and the theory of rent is no isolated economic doctrine, but merely one of the chief applications of a particular corollary from the general theory of demand and supply.”

Explain this statement of Marshall’s; mention other species which he assigns to the large genus; and consider wherein, if at all, the general doctrine differs from that of Clark, and from that of Böhm-Bawerk.

  1. “As is true of good will and credit extensions generally, so with respect to the good will and credit strength of these greater business men: it affords a differential advantage and gives a differential gain. In the traffic of corporation finance this differential gain is thrown immediately into the form of capital and so added to the nominal capitalized wealth of the community. . . .This capitalization of the gains arising from a differential advantage results in a large ‘saving’ and increase of capital.”

Does this resemble in essentials Walker’s doctrine? If so, wherein? If not, why not?
In what sense, if in any, is it true that the differential gains lead to an increase of capital?

  1. “It may be conceded that if a certain class of people were marked out from their birth as having special gifts for some particular occupation, and for no other, so that they would be sure to seek out that occupation in any case, then the earnings which such men would get might be left out of account as exceptional, when we are considering the chances of success or failure for ordinary persons.”

Consider whether, given the premise, the conclusion here stated would follow; what the bearing of the reasoning is on Walker’s theory of business profit; what Marshall would say of premise and conclusion.

  1. In what sense, if in any, is a “productivity” theory of wages put forth by Walker? by Clark? by your instructor?
  2. “All capital goods — tools, machines, and the like — were explained [by the economists of the British School] as merely so much stored-up labor, or as the stored-up wages paid for it; the capitalist, as a laborer gone to seed; and thereby the product of capital as indirectly the product of the earlier wage-paid labor; interest being thus mere indirect wages. It was implied in this that the interest payments are for mere wear-out of the principal invested, and that the sum of all the interest payments upon a given investment can normally or regularly equal only the original capital sum invested in wages; and that sometime a given capital investment must cease its career of earning interest.”

Consider whether this was the doctrine of the British economists; whether it is the doctrine of Böhm-Bawerk; of your instructor; and give your own opinion.

  1. “In the main, the way in which the increase of savings can find escape from its difficulties is through the parallel advance in the arts, calling for more and more elaborate forms of capital. . . . Given continued improvements calling for more and more elaborate plant, —more of time-consuming and roundabout applications of labor, — than savings can heap up, and a return will be secured by the owner of capital.”

What are the ” difficulties ” here referred to? What would be said of this way of escape by Böhm-Bawerk? by your instructor? by Veblen?

________________________________

History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848

Course Description
Economics 14

[Economics] 14. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Mon.,

Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Professor BULLOCK.

The purpose of this course is to trace the development of economic thought from classical antiquity to the middle of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon the relation of economics to philosophical and political theories, as well as to political and industrial conditions.

A considerable amount of reading of prominent writers will be assigned, and opportunity given for the preparation of theses. Much of the instruction is necessarily given by means of lectures.

 

Final Exam
Economics 14

  1. What significant analyses of economic structure were made by Aristotle, the Schoolmen, John Hales, Cantillon, and Smith?
  2. What do you consider the most significant analyses of economic functions made by Aristotle, the Schoolmen, Mun, Cantillon and the Physiocrats?
  3. Trace the development, in economic theory, of the idea of a beneficent natural order.
  4. What elements contributed to the economic system of Adam Smith, and what was Smith’s own contribution?
  5. Compare Ricardo’s economic theories with those of Smith.
  6. Trace the development of theories of money in the writings of Aristotle, the Schoolmen, the Mercantilists, and Ricardo.

________________________________

 

Topics in the Economic History of the Nineteenth Century

Course Description
Economics 24

[Economics] 24. Topics in the Economic History of the Nineteenth Century.

Two consecutive evening hours per week, to be arranged with the instructor. Professor GAY.

This course is designed to offer an opportunity for further study to graduate students who have taken or are taking Economics 2a and 2b. Reading will be assigned and reports presented for discussion on such topics as the spread of the Industrial Revolution to the Continent and the United States, the agrarian changes in England in the first half of the century, and in the second half-century the effects of American agricultural competition on the chief European countries, the history of transportation, with especial reference to problems of government ownership in Europe. Emphasis will be given to the comparative development of typical industries both in Europe and the United States, and changes in wholesale and retail organization.

Students who are taking at the same time this course and the lectures in Economics 2a and 2b may receive credit for one and a half courses.

 

Final Exam
Economics 24

  1. “Such has been the rage for Western immigration for the last twenty years that the soil of New England has, in the estimation of good judges, been greatly undervalued.” (From address before the Essex Agricultural Society, 1833.)

Is this statement true, and, if true, what were the chief causes?

  1. Outline the chief topics you would discuss in writing a monograph on agriculture in the United States during the period 1825 to 1845. Characterize the chief available sources of evidence.
  2. Describe briefly the canal systems of Massachusetts and New York. Compare the reasons for their construction and for their decline.
  3. Explain the Suffolk Banking System and discuss its effectiveness from 1830 to 1843.
  4. What statistical material would you use in studying the crisis of 1837-39? How does it compare in extent and value with that available for the crisis of 1907?

________________________________

 

Public Finance

Course Description
Economics 31

[Economics] 31. Public Finance. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Professor BULLOCK.

The course is devoted 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.

 

Final Exam
Economics 31

  1. How far, in your opinion, does the general income tax conform to Smith’s canons of taxation?
  2. Compare local taxation in Great Britain with local taxation in either France or Germany.
  3. Discuss the incidence of taxes upon real estate.
  4. What, in your opinion, are the leading principles that should govern the distribution of taxation?
  5. What opinions concerning indirect taxation are held by the following writers: Smith, Bastable, and either Leroy-Beaulieu or Eheberg?
  6. Outline what you would consider a practicable plan for the reform of state and local taxation in the United States.
  7. Discuss the theory and practical operation of sinking funds.
  8. Describe the German system of product taxes. What does Eheberg think of the system?
  9. What is Leroy-Beaulieu’s opinion of the changes effected in French taxation during the last twenty years, and what changes does he advocate?

Answer the questions in order. Omit either the eighth or ninth question.

 

 

Sources:

Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College (June, 1914), pp. 38-54.

Mid-year exams for Economics A and Economics 11 from Harvard University Archives: Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935, Scrapbook of Prof. F. W. Taussig. (HUC 7882).

Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1913-14. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. X, No. 1, Part X (May 19, 1913).

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Carver’s Principles of Sociology Final Examination, 1923

The mid-year exam (February 1923) for Thomas Nixon Carver’s course “Principles of Sociology” was transcribed from the Vernon Orval Watts papers at the Hoover Institution and posted earlier in Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. Today we can add a transcription of the final examination from June 1923 that comes from the Harvard archives. The syllabus for the course as given in 1917-18 has also been transcribed. 

His autobiography, Recollections of an Unplanned Life (1949), is available on-line. Thank you hathitrust.org! Warning: Carver’s transitory importance for the Harvard economics department is all out of proportion to the utter dullness of his prose. I guess I have to read his early QJE articles that must have really tickled Taussig’s theoretical fancy. As far as the evolution of sociology goes, this creature crawling out of the swamp pool bears no visible similarity to what many of us have come to see as the sociology of the past generation.

 

_____________________________

 

Enrollment

[Economics] 8. Professor Carver—Principles of Sociology.

Total 41: of which 12 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 7 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1922-23, p. 92.

_____________________________

 

Final Examination
Principles of Sociology
Professor Thomas Nixon Carver

 

1922-23
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 8

  1. Do you believe that there has been any progress in the last three hundred years? Give your reasons.
  2. Discuss the relation to eugenics of crime and punishment on the one hand, and of philanthropy on the other.
  3. What economic results would you expect to follow the adoption of a sound moral code?
  4. Discuss the topic: Religion as a factor in national prosperity.
  5. Is the individual becoming more free or less free from group control (a) in religious belief, (b) in education, (c) in expressions of opinion, (d) in business contracts?
  6. Discuss Ross’s statement that “The existence of an instinct is no reason for giving it free course.”
  7. What social importance do you attach to the prolongation of infancy in the human species?
  8. Would industry be more democratic or less democratic if workmen had a vote in the management of the establishments in which they are employed Explain.
  9. What are the principal contrasts between the militant and the industrial types of society?
  10. Compare the republican and the democratic theories of representation.

 

Final. 1923.

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Social Ethics, Anthropology. June, 1923. (HUC 7000.28, 65 of 284).

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver in Harvard Class Album 1920 p. 18.