Tag: Chamberlin

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Computing Economics Programs Faculty Regulations Fields Harvard

Harvard. Discussed at Faculty Meeting. Computer Access and “Mathematical Economics and Econometrics” as Optional Field, 1959

 

Notes from a faculty meeting in my experience are more often a list of items, resolutions, motions, and votes than a narrative of the actual discussion. The transcribed notes in this post come from a 1959 Harvard economics faculty meeting that had two items on the agenda. The first was John R. Meyer’s report on how to manage graduate student computing needs if the department were to lose access to IBM-650 services. The second discussion was a continuation of a debate in the department whether a new Ph.D. oral examination field “Mathematical Economics and Econometrics” should be introduced (plot spoiler: the resolution was tabled, at least for the time being).

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Economics Faculty Meeting Minutes
December 8, 1959

The Department of Economics met on Tuesday evening, December 8 [1959] at the Faculty Club. Those present: Messrs. Bergson, Chamberlin, Dorfman, Dunlop, Gerschenkron, Leontief, Mason, J. R. Meyer, Smithies (Chairman), Taylor, Black, McKie, Artle, Erbe, Daniere, Gill, Lefeber, Anderson, Baer, Gustafson, Hughes, Jones, Kauffman, Wilkinson, Mrs. Gilboy, and Miss Berman.

Abandonment of IBM-650

Professor John Meyer explained that with cheaper time available on newer computers within and outside the University the market for IBM-650 services is waning. A deficit on operations can be expected within a few months, and it will, therefore, be impossible to retain the machine. The problem the Department now faces is that of making available to students a computer training device comparable to the 650. The Harvard Univac can serve this purpose well although it is likely to disappear in the near future through the competition of better machines.

Professor Smithies called the attention of the meeting to two further effects of withdrawing the IBM-650:

(a) Students without outside financing will not, as in the past, be able to solve their problems by making use of free 650 time.

(b) It will no longer be possible to handle problems requiring a succession for short programs with some elements of trial and error; every program will have to be handed to an operator and the results, good or bad, will not be available until days later.

Both Professor Dorfman and Meyer vouched that, even under these impediments, the cost of most computations would be far lower through such a machine as the 704 than with the 650.

With respect to student training and student problem financing, Professor Leontief expressed the opinion that if scientific departments at Harvard can receive funds for the purchase of materials and equipment needed in the training of their students the Administration should certainly be ready to offer similar help in the social sciences. After hearing from Professor Meyer that the Dean’s offices had not been particularly responsive to this suggestion, Professor Leontief suggested than an arrangement could be entered with IBM by which we could contract at a discount for a large block of 705 time at their Cambridge Street laboratory with the understanding that we would sell some of the time to financially able Harvard users and utilize the remainder for training and computing students’ problems.

Professor Meyer agreed that this might become feasible in the near future when, with the appearance of an IBM-709 at the Smithsonian Institute and other 704’s in the neighborhood, IBM may face a buyers’ market. His proposal for the time being was to turn to Univac while it is still on our premises and to divert some of the departmental contributions now going to the support of the Littauer Laboratory to subsidize student training and to some extent student problems on the 704.

 

Introduction of a field labeled “Mathematical Economics and Econometrics” as an optional field for the oral Ph.D. examination

Professor Dorfman reintroduced his motion that “a field called ‘Mathematical Economics and Econometrics’ be one of the optional fields for the Ph.D. examination.” He recalled his previous arguments, i.e., that both Mathematical Economics and Econometrics become legitimate specialties in the general field of economics with a literature sufficiently abundant and specialized that a student well versed in economic theory and statistics will not generally know the former fields and that no student can become thoroughly familiar with them in his two years of graduate work unless his load is otherwise reduced. The substance of the proposed examination would be the literature in which relatively advanced methods of mathematical analysis are applied to economic theory and advanced methods of statistical analysis are applied to the processing of data relevant to economic problems.

The discussion centered around two objections: (1) to the extent that proficiency in economic theory is a prerequisite to mathematical economics and that an advance knowledge of statistics is required in econometrics, students who are examined in both the new field and one or both of the older fields of theory and statistics will obtain double credit for what is a single specialization and (2) an essential requirement of our Ph.D. is breadth of preparation in economics. As it is, nothing under the motion would prevent a student from presenting the following five fields: theory, statistics, mathematical economics and econometrics, mathematics and history. This clearly represents a narrow preparation and cannot be acceptable under our standards. The second objection, voiced most effectively by Professor Dunlop, was immediately recognized as valid, and Professor Dorfman amended his motion to include the condition that mathematics could not be presented jointly with the new field. He insisted, however, that students offering mathematical economics and econometrics are of such a type that, even without the amendment, they would not have taken advantage of the mathematics loophole. Their insistence on a mathematics examination is based entirely on the recognition that they cannot become proficient in their specialty while carrying in addition the same load as their colleagues.

Three different suggestions were offered as alternatives to the proposed motion.

(1) Professor Dunlop accepted the introduction of the new field as long as examinations in any or all of the three fields of theory, statistics, and mathematical economics and econometrics would not count toward more than two of the five fields required.

(2) Professor Chamberlin did not change the present field listing but proposed that a student could by previous arrangement ask to be examined in theory with emphasis on mathematical analysis, the requirements be correspondingly milder with respect to traditional theory and history of thought.

(3) Professor Bergson offered a variation of Professor Chamberlin’s proposal pointing out that, even without the introduction of mathematical analysis, economic theory is now a broad and somewhat ill-defined field so that, in order to better test the students’ analytical scale, fields of concentration should perhaps be agreed upon before the Ph.D. examination. He also emphasized that students do not after all stop learning after their oral examination and that since a student proficient in mathematics can be expected to make use of mathematical techniques in his thesis work the special examination might be the best time to test him on his ability in this field.

Professor Leontief injected a fatalistic note indicating that the problem will solve itself in the future as more and more students join the graduate school with a mathematical preparation such that the theory courses can make use of mathematical tools. For the present it would be unfortunate to have students neglect economic theory for the purpose of acquiring mathematical proficiency. We should, however, provide adequate training facilities for those who because of superior ability or previous preparation can benefit from courses in mathematical economics and, to the extent that recognition may be helpful, include a mention of their special skill in their records.

In view of the lack of agreement evidenced by the meeting, Professor Dunlop asked that the motion be tabled. All were in favor.

Andre Daniere
Secretary

Dictated 12/14/59

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics Correspondence and Papers, 1930-1961 and some earlier. (UAV349.11), Box 13.

Image Source: Harvard Faculty Club from JDeQ’s August 2, 2013  blog entry “Dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club“.

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings and Exams. Public Utilities and Transportation. 1935-37.

This post has been assembled around a list of books used in courses on transportation that were taught at Harvard in the mid-1930s. While the courses covered public utility regulation for the most part, I have not yet found complete course outlines or syllabi for the two courses considered. So paired with the final examinations for the course, the partial reading lists are all we can go on for now regarding the course content.

In the following post we meet the economics Ph.D. alumnus (Harvard, 1931), Donald Holmes Wallace who assisted Edward H. Chamberlin in teaching these courses at the time. Wallace put the lists together in response to an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (see below).

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Related Harvard Course Posts

1931. Economics of Transportation

1934. The Corporation and its Regulation Syllabus

1939-40. Regulation of Public Utilities and Transportation

1940-41.  

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Course Announcements

1935-36

Economics 4c 2hf. Public Utilities (including Transportation)

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.

Economics 4a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.

[Economics 48. Economics of Public Utilities]

Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.

Omitted in 1935-36.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1935-36, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 32, No. 7 (March 4, 1935), pp. 135, 139.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1936-37

Economics 63b 2hf. (formerly 4c). Public Utilities (including Transportation)

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.

Economics 61a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.

Economics 163. (formerly 48). Economics of Public Utilities

Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1936-37, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 33, No. 5 (March 2, 1936), pp. 141,145.

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Course Enrollments

[Economics] 4c 2hf. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace, Abbott and Baker. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 74: 2 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1935-36, p. 82.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

[Economics] 63b 2hf. (formerly 4c) Associate Professor Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 43: 1 Graduate, 25 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Other.

[Economics] 163. (formerly 48). Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace.—Economics of Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 10: 4 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1936-37, pp. 92, 94.

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Harvard University
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department of Government

Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 19, 1936

Miss C. C. Tatnall
Department of Economics
41 Holyoke House
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Miss Tatnall:

Professor [William Y.] Elliott has had an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission about the books which are being used in the courses on transportation in the University. Have you a bibliography, or could a bibliography be prepared, of the material in use in the courses Economics 63b and 163? We shall appreciate any material you are able to collect.

Do you know if there are any other courses in the College which deal with transportation?

Thanks so much for your trouble.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
[first name?] Dolan

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

List of Books used in Economics of Transportation
October, 1936
D. H. Wallace

Undergraduate course entitled Public Utilities including Transportation:

Locklin: Economics of Transportation

Mosher and Crawford: Public Utility Regulation

Daggett: Principles of Inland Transportation

Owen: Highway Economics

Bauer and Gold: Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control

Bonbright and Means: The Holding Company

Reports of the Federal Coordinator.

Graduate course students make use of the following

Cunningham: American Railroads

Grodinsky: Railroad Consolidation

Jones: Principles of Railway Transportation

Miller: Inland Transportation

Ripley: Railroads 

Ripley: Report on Consolidation for I.C.C.

Sharfman: American Railway Problem

Sharfman: Interstate Commerce Commission

Simnett: Railway Amalgamation in Great Britain

Vanderblue and Burgess: Railroads

I.C.C.: Annual Reports

I.C.C.: Decisions

Clark: Economics of Overhead Costs

Chamberlin: Theory of Monopolistic Competition (Duopoly and oligopoly)

Pigou: Economics of Welfare (Discrimination)

Robinson: Economics of Imperfect Competition (Discrimination)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 25. Folder “Suggested Readings”.

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Reading Period Assignment
May 4-26, 1936

Economics 4c: Read one of the following:

  1. First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37.
    Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
  2. Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
    and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
  3. Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1935-36”.

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1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4c2
[Final Examination]

Answer questions 1 and 5 and TWO others. All questions are of equal weight.

  1. Answer the question appropriate to your Reading Period choice.
    1. Discuss the alternatives for a national policy toward the transportation problem in this country and explain which measures should in your opinion be included in such a program.
    2. Compare the chief developments in railway regulation in France and the United States during the past fifteen years.
    3. “The concept of ‘present value’ represents an unreal combination of judicial prejudice and economic abstraction.” Discuss.
  2. The economic surgery required by the provisions of the Public Utility Holding Company Act compelling realignment of companies into integrated regional systems is no less deplorable than an appendicitis operation upon a boy who has eaten too many green apples. A much more sensible policy was adopted in the consolidation provisions of the Transportation Act of 1920 which enabled a judicious mixture of private and public planning of combination.” Discuss.
  3. “The original cost method of valuation cannot provide a satisfactory way of determining rate bases in the case of competing railroads built at different times over different terrains. Under such circumstances the use of original cost will result either in robbing the stockholders of one road of the advantages of perspicacious management, or in forcing shippers to reward the stockholders of the other for building an expensive road.” Discuss.
  4. You are asked by one of the political parties to prepare a memorandum to serve as a basis for a plank concerning public utilities. It is requested that you explain specifically: (1) the economic criteria which seem to be the most useful for distinguishing industries which should be subjected to public ownership and operation or public regulation of investment, prices, and earnings; and (2) the legal principles used by the courts in recent cases involving the rights of Federal or state governments to regulate investment, prices, or earnings.
  5. Discuss two of the following quotations.
    1. “The ordinary consumer of utility services is interested only in price and quality of service. His disposition to leave to investors all concern over security structures, holding companies, and service charges finds a sound basis in the fact that these things affect only the division of the profits.”
    2. “Whatever may be urged to the contrary, regulation of transportation agencies in the United States has been imposed as a result of unfair treatment of the shipping public.”
    3. “Personal discrimination is bad enough in that it confers an unwarranted favor upon one of two producers located in the same place; long and short haul discrimination is worse because it gives an undue advantage to the producer who is located farther away from raw materials or markets.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1936. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 78).

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Reading Period Assignment
May 10-June 2, 1937

Economics 63b: Read one of the following:

  1. First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37,
    and
    Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
  2. Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
    and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
  3. Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

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1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 63b2
[Final Examination]

Write on four questions, including the first and the last. Divide your time about equally between them.

  1. Choose either (a) or (b):
    1. “The fact that ‘charging what the traffic will bear’ develops under unregulated competition is no excuse for permitting the practice when rates are regulated by public authority. It is simply another form of discrimination which it is the duty of the I.C.C. to put down.” Discuss.
    2. Comment on the following figures for the electrical industry for 1935:

 Customers
Per cent		 Consumption
Per cent		 Revenue
Per cent
Domestic: 82.6 18.0

36.6
Commercial:
   Retail

14.9

 18.3

28.0
   Wholesale

2.0

 53.1

27.5
Municipal, Street railways and miscellaneous

0.5

 10.6

7.0

100.0

 100.0

100.0
  1. “With the Act of 1920 the policy of regulation of railroads reached its highest development. If that policy fails, the only alternative is public ownership.” Discuss.
  2. Discuss the merits and defects of the policies adopted in in this country for public planning of operating systems either in electricity supply or in railroad transportation.
  3. “In the last analysis, it has been the presence or absence of monopoly which determined whether or not an industry was held to be a public utility. Actually, there are several other elements which ought to be given important consideration.” Discuss.
  4. Answer the question appropriate to your reading period choice:
    1. (Eastman report.) Do you think that all agencies of transport should be subjected to the same or to different sorts of regulation? Explain.
    2. (Bauer and Gold.) Explain briefly what you understand by “fair value” according to the law of the land and discuss its significance for the regulation of earnings of public utilities.
    3. (Foreign railways.) What significant comparisons may be made between the post-war railroad problems of France, Germany and England? What light has your reading here thrown upon the problems of this country?

Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).

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Reading Period Assignment
January 4-20, 1937

Economics 163: Read the following:

Bonbright and Means, The Holding Company.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

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1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Mid-Year Examination]

All six questions are of equal weight. Answer the first question, the last question, and any two among questions 2 to 5.

  1. The Public Utility Act of 1935 authorizes an examination of holding company systems with a view to determining “the extent to which such holding company systems and the companies therein may be simplified, unnecessary complexities therein eliminated, voting power fairly and equitably distributed among the holders of securities thereof, and the properties and business thereof confined to those necessary or appropriate to the operations of integrated public utility systems.” What facts with respect to these questions would you expect such an examination to disclose?
  2. Discuss either of the following statements by Burns:
    (a) “Vertical integration thus dictated by the opportunity to secure technical economies of production is not directly caused by the decline of price competition although it may contribute to that decline.”
    (b) “In common with all forms of integration, however, this type (of the production of commodities requiring similar selling organizations) hinders the comparison of costs and prices for each separate branch of production.”
  3. Discuss either of the following statements:
    (a) “Closely related and also a chief point of controversy, was the effect of limitation of liability upon the position of the creditor.” Hunt (commenting upon the Royal Commission Report of 1854).
    (b) “It is to be noted that hardly anywhere in these reports (those of 1837, 1850, 1851, and 1854) was a pure measure of limited liability discussed. What was discussed at great length was this mixed form (of the en commandite type) with unlimited and limited partners.” Shannon.
  4. (a) Discuss the significance and usefulness of either ratio analysis, with illustrative comment upon important types of ratios, or analysis by use of so-called statements of source and disposition of funds.
    (b) Outline the major arguments against enforced publicity of corporate accounts.
  5. (a) Discuss the effect of each of the following devices in bringing about separation of control from ownership in corporations: (i) the stockholder’s proxy, (ii) classification of stock.
    (b) Outline the main considerations determining a corporation’s dividend policy.
  6. Write on either (a) or (b):
    (a) What difficulties, if any, are created by the corporate form of organization for the theory of profits?
    (b) What effect do you think a sizeable tax on the transfer of securities (say 1 or 2 per cent of the market price) would have on the behavior of security prices?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13, Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1936-1937”.

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Reading Period Assignment
May 10—June 2, 1937

Economics 163: No additional assignment.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

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1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Final Examination]

Write on four questions, including number 6. Divide your time about equally between them.

  1. “To justify the principle of discrimination is not to justify either particular instances or particular types of discrimination.” Discuss.
  2. Discuss the possibilities for regulating the earnings of public utilities either (a) with, or (b) without, valuation.
  3. Discuss the possible effects of regulation upon efficiency. What suggestions as to public policy can you make for strengthening the incentives towards efficient operation?
  4. “The arguments for and against public ownership are the same as the arguments for and against regulation.” Discuss.
  5. Discuss the problems of public planning for the size and structure of operating units and the relations between them, with reference to either (a) railroad transport, or (b) electricity supply.
  6. Write on transport coordination: its meaning, significance and possibilities.

Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).

Image Source: Cover of the 1946 Harvard Album.

 

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Economists Harvard

Harvard. Circumstances surrounding William Z. Ripley’s nervous breakdowns, 1927 and 1932

 

Harvard economics professor William Zebina Ripley suffered at least two serious “nervous breakdowns” during his career that are documented by contemporary acounts. To those accounts I have added the 1964 obituary of his companion in the 1927 taxicab accident that led to Ripley’s hospitalization. Grace Sharp Harper appears to have been a very well-known mover-and-shaker in the greater social philanthropic communities of her time. I remain agnostic about whether a romantic liaison was involved and I simply find her biography (as that of Ripley for that matter) quite remarkable and worth keeping in this post. Perhaps someone familiar with journalists’ code-words from the Roaring ‘Twenties can let us know whether there is more to the ill-fated taxicab ride than a pair of VIPs sharing a taxi to an event to network with yet other VIPs.

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Ripley’s First Nervous Breakdown
(1927)

Professor William Z. Ripley of Harvard injured in New York automobile accident. Cuts around the face, slight concussion. His taxicab with Miss Grace Harper of N.Y., “Professor Ripley’s companion”. [see obituary below for Grace Harper]

Source:  The Boston Globe, January 20, 1927, p. 1.

 

“Thrown from a taxicab struck by another automobile, William Z. Ripley, 60, professor of economics at Harvard university, late last night suffered a fractured skull. His companion, Miss Grace Harper, 50, of 109 Waverly pl., suffered from shock. Both were taken to New York hospital. The collision occurred at 5th ave. and 24th st.”

Source:  Daily News (New York City), January 20, 1927, p. 3.

 

“Prof. William Z. Ripley of the Harvard School of Business Administration, is in New York Hospital today with lacerations of the skull sustained in an automobile accident last night. The injuries were not so severe as was at first believed, and his condition was not considered serious, it was said at the hospital. The Harvard professor…was riding in a taxi down Fifth avenue when a rented automobile coming from the opposite direction struck the taxi. Prof. Ripley was thrown against one of the cab’s folding seats with great force. Miss Grace Harper, who was in the taxi with the professor, was cut and bruised, but refused to go to the hospital.”

Source:  The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York) January 20, 1927, p. 2.

 

“Miss Grace Harper, of 109 Waverly pl., Manhattan, who was accompanying him to a social function at the Waldorf-Astoria, Manhattan, was treated for shock.”

Source:  Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), January 20, 1927, p. 33.

 

“Professor Ripley, accompanied by Miss Grace Harper, secretary to the State Commission for the Blind, was on his way to Hotel Waldorf to attend a social function…”

Source:  Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY) January 20, 1927, p. 7.

 

“Professor William Z. Ripley will be unable to resume active teaching of economics at Harvard until next year, it is learned from members of his family. He was injured in an automobile accident more than a year ago and suffered a nervous breakdown. He has been recuperating at a sanitarium in Connecticut. It is expected that Professor Ripley will leave the sanitarium within two months, and will probably take an extended trip through the South and West.”

Source:  New York Times. September 25, 1927, p. 76.

 

“Three years ago he spoke plain words about Wall Street. An automobile crash and a nervous breakdown followed…Now Professor Ripley is preparing to return to his Harvard classes next February.”

Source:  S.T. Williamson, “William Z. Ripley — And Some Others” New York Times (December 29, 1929), p. 134.

 

“The New England Joint Board for Sanitary Control, when it meets today will have as chairman George W. Coleman, who was named for this position after the retirement of Prof William Z. Ripley, who it is said, was forced to give up the position because of illness.”

Source:  The Boston Globe, May 3, 1928, p. 17.

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Ripley’s Second Nervous Breakdown
(1932)

PROF W. Z. RIPLEY OF HARVARD ILL
Noted Expert on Railroads, Now In Holland, Believed Victim of Overwork—Wife Sails

William Z. Ripley, Nathaniel Ropes professor of political economy at Harvard and famous throughout the country as an outstanding authority on railroads and railway problems, is seriously Ill In Holland. Latest information at Harvard is to the effect that he is confined to his bed, on physician’s orders, for an indefinite period. His wife left Boston only a week or so ago to join her husband in Holland.

The fact that Prof Ripley was ill has been guarded carefully by Harvard authorities, the first hint being contained in an announcement from the lecture platform at the first meeting of the course known as Economics 4, that he would be unable to give any lectures in the course.

Others to Give Course

This course, given for many years as a half course by Prof Ripley, is on the subject of corporations, a field in which he has done much of his work. This year the course has been united with a half course on railroads to form a full course under the title „Monopolistic Industries and Their Control.“ When the course was mapped out at the end of last year, it had been planned for Prof Ripley to devote considerable time to lecturing, but now the work will be performed entirely by Profs Edward S. Mason and Edward H. Chamberlin.

Prof Ripley went abroad at the end of the academic year last Summer. He was to have returned this Fall, but during his travels, he became gravely ill. Some years ago, he suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of an accident in a New York taxicab. His present condition is attributed largely to overwork.

During the last half of the academic year, 1931-32, Prof Ripley left Cambridge almost every week and sometimes twice a week to make trips to New York, Washington, and Chicago to confer with business leaders and Governmental authorities. Much of his attention was devoted to pending plans for trunk line consolidations. He acted special examiner on proposed railroad consolidations for the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1921.

Work Hailed by Coolidge

Always a practical economist, and conspicuous among the faculty in economics at Harvard for his disdain of economic theorizing. Prof Ripley’s most celebrated work of recent years was “Main Street and Wall Street,” published in 1929, during the height if the speculative boom. This work, exposing the methods of corporations, created a sensation throughout the country. Before the work was published in book form, parts of it appeared in magazines, and at that time Calvin Coolidge urged every American to read them.

One of the most interesting comments on Prof Ripley’s career is the fact that he began his studies as an anthropologist. His degrees include those of SB, PhD, LittD and LLD. As an undergraduate he was a student of science, and later published a book, “The Races and Cultures of Europe,” which is still recognized as a leading textbook in anthropology. Later he became interested in railroads and turned his efforts from anthropology to economics. He is one the “old guard” in the Harvard Department of Economics, ranking with the men who made Harvard famous for economic studies, such as Prof F. W. Taussig, Thomas N. Carver and Edwin F. Gay.

Prof Ripley’s home is in Newton.

Source: The Boston Globe, October 4, 1932, pp. 1,3.

 

PROF RIPLEY RESIGNS CHAIR AT HARVARD
Noted Authority on Finance, Railroads

William Zebina Ripley, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy at Harvard, known as well for his scourging of Wall Street stock jobbers as for his work as a Government expert in labor and railroads, has resigned his professorship at Harvard to become professor emeritus. The resignation of Prof Ripley, who has been seriously ill in Holland since last Summer, will take effect on March 1, 1933. He is beyond the retiring age at Harvard, being more than 65 years old.

Prof Ripley’s best-known book is “Main Street and Wall Street,” an expose of corporation finance as practiced in the United States, published in 1927. While various chapters of the book were appearing in current magazines the then President Coolidge advised every American to read them. Other volumes by Prof Ripley include “The Financial History of Virginia,” 1890; “The Races of Europe,” 1900 [Supplement: A Selected Bibliography of the Anthropology and Ethnology of Europe, 1899]; “Trusts, Pools and Corporations,” 1905; “Railway Problems,” 1907; “Railroads—Rates and Regulation,” 1912; “Railroads—Finance and Organization,” 1914. The book, “Races of Europe,” is still a standard text in anthropology, a field in which Prof Ripley spent his early study before turning to economics.

Expert in Many Fields

Prof Ripley is known as an expert in many fields, ranging from anthropology to transportation. Besides his books in these fields he has served on several national boards and commissions. In 1918 he was administrator of labor standards for the War Department, and the following two years he was chairman of the National Adjustment Commission Of the United States Shipping Board. In 1916 he was the expert appointed to President Wilson’s Eight-Hour Commission, spending months under actual working conditions gathering material for his report.

From 1920 to 1923 he served with the Interstate Commerce Commission, acting in 1921 as special examiner on the consolidation of railroads in the United States. In 1917 he became a director of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad and served on that board for a number of years.

His illness was caused by an accident in a taxicab in New York some three years ago, after which he suffered a nervous breakdown. He became ill again this Summer and has been recuperating in Holland since. A tall man, with white hair and a distinguished white beard, he was a well-known figure in the Harvard Yard during his teaching days there.

At Harvard Since 1901

Prof Ripley was born in Medford in 1890 he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He obtained his master’s degree at Columbia University in 1892, and his doctor’s degree at the same institution in the following year. In 1895, he returned to M.I.T., serving as professor of economics of six years and, during the same period, he was also lecturer on sociology at Columbia. Since 1901, he has been a member of the teaching staff at Harvard University. In 1902 he was appointed professor political economy. Since 1911, he has been Nathaniel Ropes professor political economy. In 1898, and again in 1900 and 1901, Prof Ripley served as vice president of the American Economics Association and in December of 1932 he was elected president of the association.

Source: The Boston Globe, February 10, 1933, p. 5.

Image Source: William Z. Ripley, Harvard Class Album, 1934.

_______________________

Grace Sharp Harper, 82, Dead: Led State Commission for Blind
NY Times obituary, September 27, 1964

Miss Grace Sharp Harper of 220 East 73d Street, who retired in 1951 as director of the Commission for the Blind of the State Department of Social Work, died yesterday at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Her age was 82.

Since her retirement Miss Harper had continued with the commission as a member of its medical advisory committee. A much-decorated heroine of World War I, in which she served in France with the American Red Cross, she also held several civilian awards for her work for the blind.

Miss Harper began her career as a staff assistant of the Boston Children’s Aid Society. Later she was executive secretary of the Massachusetts Infant Asylum and of the Kings Chapel Committee for the Handicapped of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Appointed director of the hospital’s medical special service department, she lectured on case work education at Harvard University and then came to this city to conduct a course in social case work at Teachers College, Columbia University.

She volunteered for overseas duty in the war, and was named chief of American Red Cross rehabilitation for French, Belgian and other disable soldiers. Later Miss Harper was chief of the Red Cross bureau for the re-education of mutilated soldiers. She returned home as a member of the Inter-Allied Commission on War Cripples, wearing three gold stars awarded to her by various foreign governments.

Miss Harper became executive secretary of the Commission for the Blind in 1919, and was made an assistant commissioner of the division during the 1930’s. She was named director not long thereafter.

Miss Harper held the Migel Award of the American Foundation for the Bind and the Leslie Dana Award of the St. Louis Society for the Blind.

Source: New York Times, Feb. 27, 1964, p. 31.

 

From Grace Sharp Harper’s Passport Application
July 5, 1918

From Grace Sharp Harper’s Passport Application
November 16, 1922

Born at Chicago, Illinois on May 12, 1881.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles Suggested Reading Syllabus Teaching Undergraduate

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Reading assignments, Exams, 1928

 

Partial course outlines from Harvard’s principles of economics course from 1927-28 and 1928-29 were found filed with the economics course outlines for 1938-39 in the Harvard Archives. The principal instructors for the courses in both years were Harold Hitchings Burbank and Edward Hastings Chamberlin, so combining the first semester outline from 1928-29 with the second semester outline from 1927-28 as transcribed below gives us a synthetic syllabus for the 1927-29 years. This post also includes enrollment figures for the two academic years as well as the corresponding semester final exams for the course. Links to the assigned textbooks have been added to complete the package.

____________________________

Course Announcement and Description

ECONOMICS
GENERAL STATEMENT

Course A is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor. Students concentrating in Economics should elect Course A in their Sophomore year, except in unusual cases. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics A…

INTRODUCTORY COURSES
Primarily for Undergraduates

A. Principles of Economics

Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank, Dr. [Edward Hastings] Chamberlin, Dr. [Charles Holt] Taylor, and Messrs. [John Bever] Crane, [Melvin Gardner] de Chazeau, [Edgar Jerome] Johnson, [Delmar] Leighton, [Talcott] Parsons, [Carl Johann] Ratzlaff, [James Harold] Shoemaker, [Samuel Sommerville] Stratton, [John Phillip] Wernette, [Harry Dexter] White and [Earle Micajah] Winslow; with lectures on selected subjects by Professor [Frank William] Taussig and other Members of the Department.

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 an analysis of the present organization of industry, the mechanism of exchange, the determination of value, and the distribution of wealth.

The course is conducted entirely by oral discussion in sections. Taussig’s Principles of Economics is used as the basis of discussion.

Course A may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

Source:  Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928). Division of History, Government, and Economics 1928-29, pp. 63-64.

____________________________

Enrollment in Economics A, 1928-29

[Economics] A. Professor Burbank and Dr. Chamberlin, Dr. Taylor and Messrs. Leighton, Stratton, Winslow, O.H. Taylor, E.J. Johnson, de Chazeau, Parsons, Wernette, H.D. White, and Ratzlaff, Crane and Shoemaker. — Principles of Economics.

Total 477: 55 Seniors, 127 Juniors, 242 Sophomores, 26 Freshmen, 27 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1928-29, p. 71.

 

____________________________

EXHIBIT D
First Half

OUTLINE OF STUDY FOR ECONOMICS A
1928-29

Hubert D. Henderson. Supply and Demand. (New York: 1922).

D. H. Robertson. The Control of Industry (London: 1923).

Frank W. Taussig. Principles of Economics, Vol. I, 3rd edition, (New York: 1921).

Sept. 27
Sept. 29		 Lecture.
Lecture.
Oct. 1 – 6 Taussig, Principles 1. Wealth and Labor.
2. Labor in Production.
3. Division of Labor and Development of Modern Industry.
Oct. 8 – 13 ”
”
”
Robertson		 4. Large Scale Production.
5. Capital.
6. Corporate Organization of Industry.
1 – 3. Control of Industry.
Oct. 15 – 20 Taussig
”
“		 8. Exchange, Value, Price.
9. Value and Utility.
10. Market Value. Demand and Supply.
Oct. 22 – 27 ”
”
“		 17. Coinage.
18. Quantity.
19. Secs. 2, 3, 4: History of Prices.
Oct. 29 – Nov. 3 ”
”
“		 20. Bimetallism.
22. Changes in Prices.
23. Government Paper Money
Nov. 5 – 10 ”
“		 24. Banking and Medium of Exchange.
25. Banking Operations.
Nov. 12 – 17 ”
”
“		 27. Banking System of United States
28. Crises.
29. Panics.
Nov. 19 – 24 ”
”
Hour Exam		 30. Prices.
31. Reform.
Nov. 26 – Dec. 1 ”
”
”
Henderson		 Review 8, 9, 10.
12. Constant Cost.
13. Diminishing Returns.
Demand and Supply (Nov. 26 to Dec. 15).
Dec. 3 – 8 Taussig
“		 14. Varying Cost.
15. Monopoly.
Dec. 10 – 15 ”
Henderson:		 16. Joint Cost and Joint Demand.
Ch. 5. Demand and Supply.
Dec. 17 – 22 Taussig 32. The Foreign Exchanges
RECESS Dec. 23 to Jan. 2
Reading Period Jan. 2 to 16  [No additional reading requirements]
Jan. 2 – 7 Taussig
“		 33. International Payments.
34. International Trade.
Jan. 9 – 14 ”
“		 36. Protection.
37. Free Trade.
MIDYEARS:

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2; Folder “Economics, 1938-1939 [sic].”

____________________________

1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
[Mid-Year Examination, 1929]

  1. Many business men are hoping for a period of rising prices; some financial writers are prophesying that it is inevitable. Assuming no change in our existing monetary and banking laws, what causes might lead to an increase in prices? How would such rising prices tend to affect the holders of various types of securities?
  2. “Some people argue that price is determined by cost of production; and yet they admit that producers with too high costs have to drop out. Thus it is clear that in reality a producer’s cost is determined by the price he can get, consequently price cannot be determined by cost of production.” Comment on this statement.
  3. What influence has the existence of joint cost upon the development of large scale production?
  4. It has been stated that with the Federal Reserve System in operation there will never be a recurrence in the United States of such (a) crises and (b) panics as occurred in 1893 and 1907. Do you agree?
  5. What attitude toward the tariff would you expect to be taken by a banker who has made large loans abroad, by a manufacturer of woolen cloth, by a professor of economics, by a Louisiana politician?
  6. Explain briefly:
    1. The principles of subsidiary coinage.
    2. The relation between markets and the division of labor.
    3. The distinction between consumers’ goods and producers’ goods.
    4. The significance of the following: “The plentifulness of money is in itself a matter of indifference.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-Year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 11, Bound volume: Examination Papers: Mid-Years 1929, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, New Testament, Government, Economics….Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1929.

____________________________

Enrollment in Economics A, 1927-28

[Economics] A. Professor Burbank and Dr. Chamberlin and Messrs. K.W. Bigelow, [Theodore John] Kreps, Stratton, Winslow, O.H. Taylor, E.J. Johnson, de Chazeau, Parsons, Wernette, H.D. White, and D.V. Brown, with lectures on selected subjects by Professor Taussig and other Members of the Department. — Principles of Economics.

Total 532: 61 Seniors, 165 Juniors, 258 Sophomores, 20 Freshmen, 28 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1927-28, p. 74.

____________________________

OUTLINE OF ASSIGNMENTS FOR ECONOMICS A
1927-28, 2nd. Half year.

Thomas Nixon Carver. The Distribution of Wealth (New York: 1921).

Hubert D. Henderson. Supply and Demand. (New York: 1922).

D. H. Robertson. The Control of Industry (London: 1923).

Frank W. Taussig. Principles of Economics, 3rd edition, (New York: 1921). Volume I, Volume II.

Feb. 6

Feb. 11

 Review
Value
Diminishing Returns		 Carver:
”
“		 Distribution of Wealth
Ch. I. Value
Ch. II. Diminishing Returns
Feb. 13

Feb. 18

 Rent Carver:
Taussig:
“		 V. Rent
Ch. 44. Rent (esp. Capitalization)
Ch. 43. Urban Site Rent
Feb. 20

Feb. 25

 Interest Carver:
Taussig:		 Ch. VI. Interest
Ch. 40. Interest
Feb. 27

Mar. 3

 Wages Carver:
Taussig:		 Ch. IV. Wages
Ch. 47. Social Stratification
Mar. 5

Mar. 10

 Profits, Population Carver:
Taussig:
“		 Ch. VII. Profits
Ch. 53. Population
Ch. 54. Population, continued
Mar. 12

Mar. 17

 Inequality Taussig:
”
”
“		 Ch. 7. Productiveness
Ch. 45. Monopoly
Ch. 51. Great Fortunes
Ch. 55. Inequality
Mar. 19

Mar. 24

 Land, Risk, Labor, etc. Henderson:
”
”
”
“		 Ch. VI. Land
Ch. VII. Risk Bearing Enterprise
Ch. VIII. Capital
Ch. IX. Labor
Ch. X. Real Costs of Production
Mar. 26

Mar. 31

 Labor Taussig:
”
“		 Ch. 56. Wages system
Ch. 57. Labor Unions
Ch. 58. Labor Legislation
Apr. 2

Apr. 7

 Labor ”
”
“		 Ch. 59. Industrial Peace
Ch. 60. Workmen’s Insurance
Ch. 61. Coöperation
RECESS April 8-14
Apr. 16

Apr. 21

 Railways ”
“		 Ch. 62. Railways
Ch. 63. Railway Problems, continued.
Apr. 23

Apr. 28

 Public Ownership & Combinations ”
“		 Ch. 64. Public Ownership & Control
Ch. 65 Combinations & Trusts
Apr. 30

May 5

 Industry and Capitalism Robertson:
”
”
Review		 Ch. V. Capitalism of Industry
Ch. VI. Finance and Industry
Ch. VII. Survey of CapitalismCh. X. Workers’ Control
May 7
READING PERIOD BEGINS
May 12		 Socialism Taussig:
“		 Ch. 66. Socialism
Ch. 67. Socialism, continued.
May 14

May 19

 Social Reform Robertson:
”
“		 Ch. IX. Collectivism
Ch. X. Workers Control
Ch. XI. Joint Control
May 21

May 26

 Taxation

Taussig:

“

 Ch. 68. Principles Underlying Taxation
Ch. 69 Income and Inheritance Taxes
REVIEW
EXAMINATIONS

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2; Folder “Economics, 1938-1939 [sic].”

____________________________

1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
[Final End-year Examination]

Allow one hour and one-half for the first question.

  1. Explain how the distribution of wealth is affected by the following:
    1. Large and rapid changes in the supply of money.
    2. Labor saving inventions.
    3. A rise in the standard of living of the wage earning classes.
    4. The opening for settlement of new areas of good agricultural land.
    5. The government regulation of public utilities.
  2. Discuss the accuracy of the following statements:
    “Three generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves.”
    “The rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer.”
    “To abolish wage slavery we must abolish the wages system; only through socialism can the wages system be forced to disappear.”
    “The one way a union can help its members is by limitation of the supply of hands.”
  3. What does each of the following propose: collectivism, single tax, producers’ coöperation, syndicalism?
  4. Explain briefly the case for and against minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, progressive taxation of incomes, the restriction of immigration.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, Finals (HUC 7000.28). Bound Volume 70 (1928). Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, Church History,…Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science, June 1928.

Image Source: Harold Hitchings Burbank from Harvard Class Album 1934.

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Junior tutorials in economics. Smithies and Chamberlin, 1960-61

 

The previous post is a Harvard Crimson article that reported on a major re-evaluation of the undergraduate economics program in 1959. The place of the junior tutorial was described as follows:

“The analytic material ejected from Ec. 1 has found refuge in Sophomore tutorial, while Ec. 98 (Junior tutorial) although heavily biased towards the empirical is the only course in the Department offering an overall view of the field.”

_____________________________

Course Enrollments

[Economics] 98a Tutorial for Credit—Junior Year. Professor Smithies. Half course, Fall.

Total 65: 11 Seniors, 48 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Radcliffe.

[Economics] 98b Tutorial for Credit—Junior Year. Professor Chamberlin. Half course, Spring.

Total 61: 13 Seniors, 46 Juniors, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1960-61. Page 75.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Fall 1960

Economics 98a
MACROECONOMICS
Professor Smithies

Reading List

  1. The English Classical System

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, chs. 1, 2, 3; Book II; Book IV, chs. 1, 3, 8.

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy, chs. 2-6, 21.

W. J. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, ch. 2.

Malthus, T. R., An Essay on the Principle of Population (1st & 2nd editions), Macmillan, London, 1914.

Malthus, T. R., Principles of Political Economy, Book II, ch. I, “On the Process of Wealth.”

  1. Marxian Dynamics

M.M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History, chs. 1-3 and 9-13.

P. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, chs. 4-6, 8, 9.

Suggested:

Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics.

J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part I.

  1. The Neo-Classical School and the Schumpeterian System

J. A. Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development.

____________, Business Cycles, Vol. I, chs. 3, 4.

____________, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part II.

A. Marshall, Principles of Economics, Book VI, chs. 12, 13, Appendixes A, C, D.

Suggested:

A. A. Young, “Increasing Returns and Economic Progress,” Economic Journal, December 1928, reprinted in R. V. Clemence (ed.) Readings in Economic Analysis, Vol. 1.

R. Solow, “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth,” QJE, Feb. 1956.

A. Smithies, “Productivity, Real Wages, and Economic Growth,” QJE, May 1960.

  1. Keynesian Economics.

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, chs. 3, 19, 22-24.

A. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, chs. 3-6.

L. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution, ch. 3.

Suggested:

Income, Employment and Public Policy, “Essays in Honor of Alvin H. Hansen”, chs. 1, 5, 6.

S. E. Harris (ed.), The New Economics, chs. 39, 40.

  1. Business Cycles.

A.H. Hansen, Business Cycles and National Income, chs. 11-24.

Tinbergen and Polak, The Dynamics of Business Cycles, ch. 13.

  1. Business Cycles and Economic Growth.

E. Domar, “Expansion and Employment,” American Economic Review, March 1947, also reprinted in Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth, ch. IV.

A. Smithies, “Economic Fluctuations and Growth,” Econometrica, January 1957.

Wm. Fellner, “The Capital-Output Ratio in Dynamic Economics,” in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth (Essays in Honor of J. H. Williams).

  1. Inflation.

Bernstein and Patel, “Inflation in Relation to Economic Development,” International Monetary Fund, Staff Papers, Nov. 1952.

Kenneth K. Kurihara, Post-Keynesian Economics, ch. 2.

Staff Report on Employment, Growth, and Price Levels, Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the U.S., December 24, 1959, ch. 5.

  1. Economic Analysis and Economic Policy.

J. Tinbergen, Economic Policy: Principles and Design, chs. 1, 2, 3.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1960-1961 (1 of 2)”.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 98b
MICROECONOMICS
Spring 1961

Professor Chamberlin

Week of Tuesday

Feb. 7

Markets, Perfect and Imperfect
Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chapter II, including note on Deviation from Equilibrium.

Feb. 14, 21

General Relations of Demand, Supply, Cost and Value
Marshall, Principles, Book V, Chapters 1-11, Appendix H.

Robinson, Joan, “Rising Supply Price,” Economica, New Series VIII, (1941). (Also in AEA Readings in Price Theory, Vol. VI, and in Robinson, Joan, Collected Economic papers).

Feb. 28

The Production Function and the Cost Curve of the Firm
(No lecture)

Boulding, Economic Analysis, Third Edition, chapters 28, 34, or revised edition, Chapters 24, 31 to p. 698.

Monopolistic Competition, 6th or 7th edition, Appendix B. (Also in Towards a More General Theory of Value, Essay 9.)

Mar. 7, 14

General Analysis of Monopolistic Competition. Product Differentiation. The Group
Monopolistic Competition, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 9.

Chamberlin, “Monopolistic Competition Revisited,” Towards a More General Theory of Value, Essay 3.

Robinson, Joan, Imperfect Competition, Foreword, Introduction, Chapters 1, 2.

Triffin, Monopolistic Competition and General Equilibrium Theory, pp. 78-89.

Mar. 21

Oligopoly
Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 3, Appendix A.

Fellner, Competition Among the Few, Chapter 1.

Arant, Willard, “Competition of the Few Among the Many,” QJE, 70:327 (1956).

Clark, J.M., “Toward a Concept of Workable Competition,” AER, 1940. (Also in AEA Readings in Price Theory)

Suggested: Fellner, further chapters.

Mar. 28

Nonprice Competition
“The Product as an Economic Variable,” Towards a More General Theory of Value, Essay 6.

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix C, Chapters 6, 7.

Apr. 2-9

SPRING VACATION

Apr. 11, 18, 25,
May 2

 Microincome Theory, Wages, Exploitation, Collective Bargaining
Hicks, The Theory of Wages, Chapters 1, 2, 4.

Robertson, “Wage Grumbles,” Readings in Income Distribution, No. 12.

Robinson, Imperfect Competition, Chapter 25.

Monopolistic Competition, (5th or later edition), Chapter 8; pp. 215-18.

Chamberlin, “Monopoly Power of Labor,” Towards a More General Theory of Value, Essay 12.

Dunlop, “Wage Policies of Trade Unions,” Readings, No. 19.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1960-1961 (2 of 2)”.

 _____________________________

ECONOMICS 98b—PAPER
[Spring 1961]
Due any time, but not later than May 9.

The purpose of this paper is to give an opportunity for a bit of “theorizing” of your own. The paper may be either constructive or critical, but the emphasis should be on your own contribution, rather than on developing the subject more generally, or expounding it mainly in terms of the ideas and views of others.

The ideal subject would be chosen by yourself—either an adverse reaction to, or further development of: something said in lectures, in the assigned or related reading, or in tutorial discussions. A rounded treatment or essay on the subject is not desired—rather something in the nature of a “Note” (say for the Quarterly Journal), which would either present an idea of its own or criticize one which has been presented by someone else. (A good illustration of this latter is Essay 13 in Towards a More General Theory of Value.) Brevity is therefore desirable. Papers should normally be from six to twelve pages (typed, double spaced), with fifteen as an absolute limit. Extensive reading is not indicated; (in an extreme case there might even be none at all), but a great deal of time should be given to thinking through carefully what you want to say.

The accompanying list of topics is suggestive only; as stated above, one chosen by yourself might be better. In any case your subject should be approved; and the question of reading should be taken up with your tutor.

SUGGESTED TOPICS

Some further analysis of the classroom market problem, or of a variation on it. (Material between page 236 to the end in the article as printed would illustrate further developments from the original problem.)

Marginal cost pricing as against Marshall’s short run normal analysis.

The Representative Firm Revisited.

Comment on Modigliani’s article: “New Developments on the Oligopoly Front,” JPE 66:215 (1958).

Mr. Kaldor’s concept of advertising cost. (“The Economic Aspects of Advertising,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XVIII (1) No. 45.)

Some aspect of spatial equilibrium.

A review of Machlup, “Marginal Analysis and Empirical Research,” AER, Sept. 1946.

Review of Gottlieb, “Price and Value in Industrial Markets,”Economic Journal, March 1959.

Is equilibrium with external economies possible under perfect competition? Under monopolistic competition?

Temporal Differentiation.

Some aspect of empirical cost curves.

“Bilateral Oligopoly”—Big Business and Big Labor.

Measures which might be taken to reduce “excess capacity.”

A critique of Stigler’s “Monopolistic Competition in Retrospect,” in his Five Lectures on Economic Problems.

“‘Entry’ is often not the literal appearance of a new firm, but the decision of an old one to add the new product to its line.” What effect would this have on the conventional analysis?

“Conjectural Variation” as a solution to oligopoly.

How would more attention to sales maximization and less to profit maximization affect the analysis?

Deliberate product obsolescence: Implications for public policy.

The Lester-Machlup controversy over the wage elasticity of the demand for labor.

Comment on “Some Basic Problems in the Theory of the Firm” by Papandreou in A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. II.

If the concept of a “group” were to be abandoned, following Triffin, what would happen to the analysis in Chapter 5?

Review of Alchian, “Uncertainty, Evolution and Economic Theory,” JPE 1950; also in AEA Readings in Industrial Organization and Public Policy.

The Economic Analysis of Industry-Wide Advertising.

My Own Grumbles on Wages. (Suggested by the title of Roberson’s article assigned later in the course.)

The case for assuming imperfect, instead of perfect, knowledge in economic theory.

Stigler on the Kinked Demand Curve. (“The Kinky Oligopoly Demand Curve and Rigid Prices,” AEA Readings in Price Theory, and criticism by Efroymson in QJE 69:119 (1955).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003.Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1960-1961 (1 of 2)”.

Image Source:  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website. Arthur Smithies (1955 Fellow), Edward H. Chamberlin (1958 Fellow).

 

 

 

Categories
Economics Programs Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate economics concentrators dropped over 50% in 1950s.

 

This post provides some backstory to the next post that features the reading lists for Harvard’s junior year tutorial in macroeconomics (Arthur Smithies) and microeconomics (Edward Chamberlin) used in 1960-61. The following Harvard Crimson article describes the undergraduate program in crisis (as seen in the massive drop in economics concentrators). The fall in numbers was attributed to the observation that economics “instruction gyrates widely from verbal triviality to mathematical incomprehensibility”.  Now one might say that much economics instruction gyrates from verbal incomprehensibility to mathematical triviality.

Alfred Marshall tried to design his own Cambridge Curriculum to address two classes of students, those needing general economics training for leadership careers in business and government and those needing advanced training for research careers in economics. Integrated training of the two classes within a single program at Harvard appears to have reached its limits by the second half of the twentieth century. 

Marshall, Alfred. The New Cambridge Curriculum in Economics. London: Macmillan, 1903.

________________________

Economics: Undergraduate Program Undergoes Extensive Re-Evaluation
By Michael Churchill

The Harvard Crimson, November 14, 1959

C. P. Snow, British scientist and author, recently called attention to what he termed the problem of two cultures in our society–the gap in understanding between the traditional humanities and social sciences on the one hand and modern science and technology on the other. Both exist side by side, yet remain intellectually divorced in our modern society. This dichotomy serves well in considering the difficulties surrounding the discipline of economics, for its midway position in such a scheme is indicative of its problems.

The subject matter of economics is the productive system, with all its relations to the world of technology. The concern of economics, however, is this system’s role in society and its effect on men, their livelihood, and their institutions. Not an integrator of the two cultures, nevertheless it must span the separation.

The Economics Department is currently undergoing a crisis. It has failed up to now to accommodate both elements in a coherent program. The result is strikingly demonstrated by the flight of undergraduate concentrators from the field. In less than a decade the number has declined by over half; from 709 in 1949 to 340 in 1958. Although the decline may partially reflect a nationwide tendency, it also is the result of the confusion and frustration attending the undergraduate program here, as the instruction gyrates widely from verbal triviality to mathematical incomprehensibility.

Though economics stands mid-way between two cultures, it is its similarity to the natural sciences that causes the greatest problems. Professional economics shares with the sciences an analytic technique “remote from the common experience of the layman and a language that is principally mathematical,” to use the words the Bruner Committee applied to the natural sciences. And to judge from the current trend this will become increasingly so.

Another similarity with science is that the study of economics is often cumulative, thereby necessitating an extensive introduction to provide the requisite basic knowledge. These are the same problems with which the Bruner Report was concerned in the teaching of natural sciences in a liberal arts program. That report dealt primarily with the problem of the non-concentrator in science–the General Education courses in natural sciences. The Economics Department, however, because of the interest of its concentrators, encounters the same problems throughout its program.

Some of the concentrators are presumably economists, and the Department little wishes to discourage their interests. The vast majority, however, will be lawyers, doctors, and even, despite the Department’s hostility, businessmen.

A final similarity with the sciences lies in the difficulty both areas have in getting the proper senior faculty to teach undergraduate courses. Because of the vast gap between the level of professional work and the elementary nature of undergraduate work–a gap so great that the difference is not only of degree of sophistication but of content–many professors are either reluctant to teach undergraduates or incapable of making the transition.

The combination of the inherent difficulties in teaching economics in a liberal arts college plus the almost total neglect of the undergraduate program in past years has resulted in the precipitous decline in concentrators. The hope of halting that decline lies at the bottom of the Department’s plans to re-design the undergraduate program, which are now under way.

Arthur Smithies, Chairman of the Department, met frequently this summer and again this fall with a Department Committee on Undergraduate Education appointed last spring. Headed by Professor Dunlop, members of the group are Professors Chamberlin, Duesenberry, and Meyer, Assistant Professors Gill and Lefeber, and instructors Baer and Berman.

The results of this increased attention are already apparent in changes made this year in Economics 1 and Junior tutorial, Ec. 98. Historical and topical subjects have gained emphasis at the expense of some of the more theoretical and analytical material, which is now consigned to Sophomore tutorial. In former years economic theory was presented in a historical vaccum without any consideration of the evolution of the economic system from a local medieval subsistence economy to the modern international productive system. The first month of Economics 1 is now devoted to filling this gap. Other changes include an increased emphasis upon the problem of underdeveloped countries and the substitution of a three-week study of the economy of the Soviet Union for the former week’s survey of comparative economic systems.

Along with these changes in content have come those of organization. Gone is the “parade of stars” which formerly masqueraded as lectures. Instead there are now blocs of integrated lectures covering single aspects of the course, for example the series of lectures the first month that Professor Gill gave on economic history. Another long-standing distinguishing trait of the course, its extensive use of teaching fellows, is also on the way out.

The changes are clearly tending to make the course less an introduction into the Department and more a General Education course in the social sciences. The stress, in the attempt to interest the non-concentrator through presentation of historical and topical issues, is now upon political economy rather than upon economics. In a liberal arts college such a solution to the problems affecting the discipline seems to be the most logical and rewarding for an introductory course.

Faced, however, with the task of teaching its concentrators some of the methods and techniques of the economist, the department has moved towards increasing utilization of Sophomore and Junior tutorial for this purpose. The analytic material ejected from Ec. 1 has found refuge in Sophomore tutorial, while Ec. 98 (Junior tutorial) although heavily biased towards the empirical is the only course in the Department offering an overall view of the field.

But there is this year, in addition, an increased amount of attention towards policy questions and topical economic issues in both courses, a reflection of the prevalent belief that meaningful economics on the undergraduate level should relate, as Smithies said, “to the great public issues of the day.” In practice these two elements–the analytical tools and the social framework in which they must fit–still remain divorced in these courses, but at least the attempt is being made to integrate them.

The most perplexing problems facing the Department occur in the area of the middle group courses. To some extent they are aggravated by the Department’s quantative approach to the number of concentrators, with its concern to retain the marginally interested student within the Department. And again the nature of the field, with its disparity between advanced professional techniques and an undergraduate approach, intensifies the problem that confronts many other departments in the College–that of withstanding the polar attractions of pre-professional orientation or of superficiality. Concerning the middle course group area, Dunlop’s committee has only just begun its discussions, but the major alternatives are well known.

There is general agreement, according to Dunlop, that the undergraduate program as part of a liberal arts program should not be a pre-professional training. Disagreement, however, becomes manifest quickly after that statement. Many members of the department, for instance, feel that the best concentrators, the potential future economists, should be allowed to take courses on the graduate level, and indeed should be encouraged to do so. In effect these students would be obtaining a pre-professional training, but the supporters of this proposal feel that this is the only way whereby the interest of the economics-oriented student can be prevented from obstruction by the triviality of normal undergraduate economics courses. At present many undergraduates already take graduate level courses, but the new plan would make a sharper distinction between those who do and do not.

Another group in Department, however, voices the opinion that the College student should not clutter his schedule with pre-professional courses, but rather use his time to study such fields as music, literature, and mathematics. If a student does do graduate work later in economics he will have no trouble picking up whatever advanced analytic tools he needs at that time, while if he does not intend to do so there is no sense in wasting his time with a lot of specialized technique, this bloc maintains.

One proposal, approved by nearly all and sorely needed, is to introduce a greater flexibility into the program through increased use of half-year courses. Presently over half of the seventeen courses offered run from September to June. Many of these, it is admitted, could be pared down to a half-year.

This leads to the proposal for a new type course to replace the far-flung surveys. They would probe smaller areas, but penetrate deeper. Based on the combined desire to attract more students, and the premise that the goal is a more intelligent understanding of the public issues of the past and present, the courses would be designed around the topical approach. Examples would be courses on the corporation, on the economic impact of government activity, the present course on the Soviet Union, a half-year course on underdeveloped countries. In discussing this approach, Dunlop stressed that these would not be “watered down versions of the analytic approach but a new crosscut.” It should be noted that, while not analytical, these courses would still include some quantitative analysis or even simple economic models, but these methods would not become ends or major concerns of the courses.

Another proposal is to set up a core program in the Department. There is, in fact, almost one already. Ec. 141–Money and Banking, Ec. 161–Industrial Organization, and Ec. 181–Industrial Relations, cover the major areas of the field and at least two of them are necessary to handle Generals well. A real core program where all concentrators would progress from one level of the next has many advantages; it provides a common background which the lecturer can assume, gives a common training, and insures that a student will not neglect a vital aspect of the field. But it also has disadvantages, the primary one being the difficulty of handling non-concentrators who have not had this core. Separate sections in a course might be a simple answer here. A more difficult problem is that of time. Ec. 1, 98, and 99 already constitute three-fifths of the required courses. A central core program of another three semesters would aggravate the present lack of flexibility.

For the Economics Department this is a time of discussion, but it must soon reach the hour of decision. Certainly the present situation is not tolerable. By its over-concern with theoretical models and tools, the Department has separated itself from the true materials of a liberal arts education in economics. It should not, however, allow itself to reach the other extreme, in its quest for concentrators, of reducing the content of the courses to a point where an economics student is no more qualified to discuss and solve an issue of political economy than an intelligent government concentrator.

There is little question of the importance of economics today, with its strategic position between the technological productive system and the literary tradition of the social sciences, and with its unique combination of the empirical and theoretical. It remains only to be taught well.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate core economic theory, Syllabus and Exams. Chamberlin, 1941-42.

 

Reading assignments in the first year core economic theory course taught by Edward Chamberlin at Harvard University in 1941-42 included some of the golden ‘oldies of David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, John Elliott Cairnes, John Bates Clark, and Alfred Marshall. Works by Joan Robinson, John Hicks and, of course, Chamberlin himself provided modern accents to the economic theory taught in the course.

Edward Chamberlin’s syllabus and final year-end exam for his 1938-39 version of core economic theory were posted earlier as have been the syllabus and both semester final exams for 1946-47.

___________________________

Economic Theory.
Edward Hastings Chamberlin

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 101. Professor Chamberlin. – Economic Theory.

Total 53: 9 Graduates, 7 Radcliffe, 8 School of Public Administration.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1941-42, p. 63.

___________________________

Course Description

[Economics] 101. – Economic Theory.

This course aims to provide a general background in economic theory. Leading problems in value and distribution will be discussed with some reference to particular writers and schools of thought, but with the main objective of training the student in economic analysis. Active participation in the class discussions is expected.

Source: Identical descriptions in the Division of History, Government, and Economics announcements for 1940-41 and 1942-43.

___________________________

Economics 101

1941-42

First Semester

I.     Mill – Principles, Book II, chapter 4; Book III, chapters 1, 2.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapters 1, 2.

Mill – Principles, Book III, chapters 3, 5, 6.

Marshall – Principles, pp. 348-50; p. 806 note.

Mill – Principles, Book III, chapter 4.

Suggested Reading:

Introduction to the Ashley ed. of Mill, or

Mill’s Autobiography

Ricardo – Political Economy (Gonner edition), chapter 1.

II.   Boehm-Bawerk – Positive Theory of Capital, Books III, IV.

Marshall – Principles, Appendix I.

Wicksell – Lectures on Political Economy, chapter 1.

Suggested Reading:

Jevons – Theory of Political Economy, chapters 3, 4.

Phelps-Brown– The Framework of the Pricing System, chapter 2.

III.  Hicks – Value and Capital, chapters 1, 2.

IV. Marshall – Principles, Book V, chapters 1-5; Book IV, chapter 13; Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 12; Appendix H.

Knight, F. H. – “Cost of Production and Price over Long and Short Periods”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 29, p. 304 (1921). (Reprinted in Knight, The Ethics of Competition and Other Essays, Chapter 8).

Viner – “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, 1931.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, Appendix B.

Suggested Reading:

Additional reading in Marshall.

Keynes – “Alfred Marshall” – Economic Journal, September 1924. (Also in Keynes, Essays in Biography.)

Sraffa – “The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions,” Economic Journal, Vol. 36, p. 535 (1926).

Taussig, F. W. –  “Price Fixing as Seen by a Price Fixer,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 33, p. 205.

V.  Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapter 3.

Abramovitz – “Monopolistic Selling in a Changing Economy”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 52, p. 191 (1938).

Suggested Reading:

Zeuthen – Problems of Monopoly, chapter 2.

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix A.Problems of Monopoly and Economic Warfare

VI.   Robinson – Imperfect Competition, Introduction, and chapters 1,2,3.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapters 4, 5; Appendices D, E.

Chamberlin – “Monopolistic or Imperfect Competition?”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1937.

Sweezy, P. M. – “On the Definition of Monopoly”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 51, p. 362 (1937)

Cassels, J. M. – “Excess Capacity and Monopolistic Competition”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 51, p. 426. (1937)

Suggested Reading:

Kaldor – “Professor Chamberlin on Monopolistic and Imperfect Competition”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1938: and Reply.

Robinson – Imperfect Competition, chapters 4, 5, 6, 7.

VII. Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, Appendix C.

Alsberg, C. L. – “Economic Aspects of Adulteration and Imitation”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 46, p. 1 (1931).

Suggested Reading:

Hotelling, H. “Stability in Competition”, Economic Journal, Vol. 39, p. 41 (1929)

Lerner, A. P. and Singer, H.W. – “Some Notes on Duopoly and Spatial Competition”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 45, p. 145 (1937)

Burns, A.R. – The Decline of Competition, chapter VIII, “Non-Price Competition”.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and ReadingLists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder, “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1941-42.”

___________________________

1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 101
Mid-year examination, 1942.

Answer question 2 and any five of the others (six in all).

  1. What parts of Mill’s theory of value would be acceptable and what parts not acceptable to economic theory today?
  2. Answer either (a) or (b).
    1. What does utility theory contribute to our understanding of the economic process, and how useful do you think it is to the economist of 1942? Answer the same question for the indifference curve analysis.
    2. Discuss the following proposition: “An individual will maximize his total satisfaction or utility, if the marginal utilities of all commodities are equalized.”
  3. Distinguish between a supply curve and a cost curve. Under what conditions is it possible for either or both to fall from left to right? What are the consequences of such a phenomenon?
  4. Write a critical appraisal of Professor Viner’s article “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” confining yourself to the subjects which seem to you most important. Compare his views where possible with those of other writers and with your own.
  5. What types of industries, if any, would you expect to find operating under conditions of increasing cost? Constant cost? Decreasing cost? Compare your own views with those of other writers with whom you are familiar.
  6. Discuss the difficulties involved in constructing a demand curve for the product of an individual firm where oligopolistic influences are important.
  7. What has monopolistic competition in common with pure competition? With monopoly? Discuss fully.
  8. Answer either (a) or (b).
    1. Discuss any aspect of the experimental market problem worked out in class which you think interesting or important.
    2. “With respect to quality there appears to be a sort of ‘Gresham’s Law’ for commodities: the inferior products tend to drive the better ones from the market.” Discuss.

Source:  Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 15, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations: History, History of Religions,…, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1942.

___________________________

Economics 101

1941-42

Second Semester

I.    Selling Costs:

Monopolistic Competition, Chapters 6, 7.

Braithwaite, Dorothea, “The Economic Effects of Advertisement,” Economic Journal, Vol. 38, p. 16 (1928). Reprinted as Chapter VII in Braithwaite and Dobbs, the Distribution of Consumable Goods.

II.   Distribution – General:

Marshall, Principles, Book VI, Chapters 1-5.

Clark, J. B., Distribution of Wealth, Chapter 8.

Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Chapter 4.

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 8.

Suggested Reading:

Garver & Hansen, Principles, Chapter 5.

Kahn, “Some Notes on Ideal Output” (last half) Economic Journal.

III. Wages:

Hicks, Theory of Wages, Chapters 1-7; 9; 10, section 1; 11, section 5.

Taussig, Principles, 3rd revised edition Chapter 47.

Robertson, Economic Fragments, Chapter on “Wage Grumbles.”

Suggested Reading:

Machlup,  “The Common Sense of Elasticity of Substitution,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. II, Page 202.

Cairnes, Leading Principles, Chapter 3.

IV.  Interest:

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory, Book I, chapter 2; Book II; Book V; Book VI, chapters 5, 6, 7; Book VII, chapters 1, 2, 3.

Fisher, Theory of Interest, pp. 473-85.

Marshall, Principles, Book IV, chapter 7; Book VI, chapter 1, sections 8, 9, 10, chapter 2, section 4, chapter 6.

Wicksell, Lectures, Vol. I, pages 144-171, 185-195, 207-218.

Clark, J. B., Distribution of Wealth, chapters 9, 20.

Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development, chapters 1-5.

V.    Rent:

Ricardo, Chapter 2.

Marshall, Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 11.

Robinson, Imperfect Competition, chapters 8, 9.

VI.   Profits:

Marshall, Book VI, chapter 5, section 7; chapters 7, 8.

Taussig, Principles, 3rd revised edition, Vol. II, chapter 50, section 1.

Henderson, Supply & Demand, chapter 7.

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, chapter 5, section 6; chapter 7, section 6; Appendices D, E.

Schumpeter, (see under Interest)

Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation, Book IV.

Gordon, R.A., “Enterprise, Profits and the Modern Corporation,” in “Explorations in Economics,” p. 306.

Suggested Reading:

Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit.

VII. General:

Knight, The Ethics of Competition, Essay No. 11: “Economic Theory and Nationalism.”

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and Reading Lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder, “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1941-42.”

___________________________

1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 101
Final examination, 1942.

Write on FIVE questions altogether, four from Part A and one from Part B. Be careful to divide your time about evenly between the questions.

A
Write on FOUR questions from this group.

  1. What conflicts and harmonies of interest do you find between labor and the rest of society in the matter of wages, technical progress and efficiency? Discuss the issues involved with some reference to the economic theory of the subject.
  2. Describe and contrast the several most important types of interest theory which you have found in your reading, identifying them where possible with particular writers. State and defend your own theory of interest.
  3. The rent of land has been variously described as a scarcity return, a differential return, a surplus and a monopoly income. Discuss the issues presented by each of these terms and give your own conclusions.
  4. To what extent, if at all, do you believe it possible to explain profits in terms of the marginal productivity of the entrepreneurial factor? Discuss with some reference to issues raised in your reading on the subject of profits.
  5. What various meanings have been or may be given to the concept of “marginal productivity,” and under what conditions would each meaning be relevant? Discuss the circumstances under which all factors may be remunerated according to their marginal products without deficit or surplus.

B
Write on FOUR questions from this group.

  1. “Both prices and monopoly profits are necessarily increased by the presence of advertising.” Do you agree? Discuss critically.
  2. “From this it will appear that the law of increasing or decreasing economy of large-scale production, while sufficiently distinct from that of increasing or diminishing returns to warrant a difference of name, is yet very much like it.” (From Carver’s Distribution of Wealth) Discuss, giving your own conclusions on this set of issues.
  3. Discuss critically Knight’s essay on “Economic Theory and Nationalism” or any part or phase of it which interested you in particular.

Source:  Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001. Box 6, Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions,…, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1942.

Image Source: Edward Chamberlin in Harvard Class Album, 1939.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Principles of Economics, Summer School. Syllabus and Exams, 1942.

Harvard Commencement, 1943. Military copy work from the Harvard ArchivesHarvard University. . Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

 

 

Harvard University was able to switch into a three semester per year mode in the very first summer after the U.S. entered World War II. There were two versions of the standard Principles of Economics course offered, one which extended over the twelve week summer term and one very intensive version that covered the material of a normal year-long course in just six weeks by having the students in class for two hours per days for five days per week. There was also a Principles “Lite” version that ran for only six weeks and covered just half the material apparently.

The syllabus for the full twelve week version of Economics A lists 2,600 pages of assigned reading for the  course. Nominally there would be five one-hour sessions per week, so on average for the sixty sessions students were expected to read 40-45 pages per day. Call me cynical, but I would be surprised if the average of the distribution were even half that pensum.

____________________

Summer enrollment in Principles of Economics, 1942

“The large number of course enrolments meant that individual classes were very much larger than in preceding years. The largest classes were Mathematics SAa, with 436 students, English SAa, with 347, English SAb, with 329, Mathematics SAb, with 299, and Economics SAa, with 222 students. Enrolment in 22 courses was 100 or more.”

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1941-1942, p. 356.

___________________

Course Announcements for Summer School 1942 

Economics SAa 1hf. Principles of Economics.
Half-course (first session). Mon. through Fri., at 11. Professor Burbank, and other members of the Department.

Economics SAa may be taken by properly qualified Freshmen with the consent of the instructor.
SAa and SAb provide an introductory study of the present organization of industry, money and the mechanism of exchange, the theory of value, foreign trade and tariff policy, the distribution of wealth; i.e., the forces governing the incomes of the laboring, land-owning, capitalist and business classes, and the relation of government to industry. The course is conducted entirely by oral discussion.

 

Economics SAb 2hf.Principles of Economics
Half-course (second session). Mon. through Fri., at 11. Professor Chamberlin, and other members of the Department.

Economics SAb may be taken by properly qualified Freshmen with the consent of the instructor.
Economics SAa is a prerequisite for the course.
For description see SAa.

 

Economics SA1(to count as a whole course in the first session). Principles of Economics
Whole course (first session). Mon. through Fri., 9 to 11.  Professor Burbank, and other members of the Department.

Economics SA1 is identical with SAa and Sab, the two, however, combined and completed in one session. Freshmen will not be admitted to this course. For description see SAa.

 

Economics SB 1hf. Principles of Economics
Half-course (first session). Mon. through Fri., at 11. Dr. Monroe.

If a Harvard student counts Economics SB for a degree, Economics A may be counted as a half-course only. Ordinarily students concentrating in History, Government, and Economics must take Economics A, SA, or SAa and SAb.
Course SB 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.

 

Source:   Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered in the Summer Term 1942 published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 39, No. 16 (April 20, 1942), pp. 21-22.

____________________

ECONOMICS A
Summer Term, 1942

Sources: Arnold, Thurman The Bottlenecks of Business (1940)

*

 Benham and Lutz Economics, American Edition (1941)
Bidwell, P. Economic Defense of Latin America (1941)

**

 Federal Reserve System Federal Reserve Charts on Bank Credit, Money Rates and Business (1941)
Garver and Hansen Principles of Economics, Revised Edition (1937)
Golden and Ruttenberg The Dynamics of Industrial Democracy (1942)
Johnson, E.A.J. Some Origins of the Modern Economic World (1936)

**

 Luthringer, Chandler and Cline Money, Credit and Finance (1938)
Meyers, A.L. Elements of Modern Economics (1937)

**

 Neal, A.C., Editor Introduction to War Economics (1942)
Slichter, S.E. Modern Economic Society (1928)

-ditto-

 The Economics of Collective Bargaining (reprint)

-ditto-

 The Period 1919-1936 in the United States, Its Significance for Business Cycle Theory, in Review of Economic Statistics, Vol. XIX, Feb. 1937, No. 1, Part I

**

 Staff members Syllabus: Economics A
Taussig, F.W. Principles of Economics, Vol. I Third Edition Revised (1921)

**

 Taylor, H. Main Currents in Modern Economic Life (1941)
T.N.E.C. Price Behavior and Business Policy, Monograph No. 1 (1941)
T.N.E.C. Competition and Monopoly in American Industry, Monograph No. 21 (1940)

** To be purchased by students
* Suggested for purchase

Note:  Essay due at end of eight week.

 

ECONOMICS A
Outline and Reading Assignments
Summer Term, 1942

 

Weeks Pages
1st Part I. EMERGENCE OF MODERN ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS
The economic problem; historical development of social and legal institutions; their effect on the economic problem.
Johnson,  Ch. 1, Economic Activity and Economic Development 7
_______, Ch. 2, The Late-Medieval Background 21
_______, Ch. 3, The Emergence of Capitalism 34
_______, Ch. 4, The Beginnings of Scientific Technology 32
_______, Ch. 5, The Formulation of Capitalist Theory 23
_______, Ch. 6, Protection and the Transplantation of Industrialism 24
_______, Ch. 7, The Export of Capital and the Genesis of Economic Imperialism 15
156
Part II. MODERN ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS
A—The economic problem again; how it is solved today; the concept of useful production.
Benham, Ch. 1, General Survey 17
Taussig, Ch. 2, Of Labor in Production 13
30
B—Description of money flows and goods flows in a capitalist society; the relation of the division of labor to these flows; the forms of business organization and their relation to the division of labor.
Taylor, Ch. 6, Vol. I, The National Income and its Distribution 18
2nd _______, Ch. 12, Vol. I, Industrial Techniques 16
Taussig, Ch. 3, Division of Labor 18
_______, Ch. 4, Large Scale Production 15
Slichter, Ch. 8, (M.E.S.) Modern Business Organization 26
93
Part III. THE DIVISION OF LABOR AND MONEY
Division of Labor necessitates exchange; exchange is facilitated by the use of money; digression to explain the working of the monetary system in the United States.
Luthringer, Ch. 1, Functions and Significance of Money 24
_______, Ch. 2, Kinds of Money 23
_______, Ch. 3, Credit and Credit Instruments 15
_______, Ch. 4, Investment Institutions and Commercial Banking 23
Pamphlet, Credit Expansion, in Economics A Syllabus 14
Luthringer, Ch. 5, Central Banking and the Federal Reserve System 20
_______, Ch. 6, The Quantitative Control of Bank Credit 18
3rd _______, Ch. 7, Meaning of the Value of Money 14
_______, Ch. 8, Equation of Exchange and the Quantity of Money 16
_______, Ch. 9, Velocity of Money and the Volume of Trade 17
184
Part IV. THE SOLUTION TO THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A—The Markets for Commodities
Analysis in this section refers only to the determination of prices and quantities of commodities produced by a business firm. No answers are given to the questions: Why are wages, rents, interest high or low?
A.1 The Business Firm vis-à-vis Consumers in an unregulated market
A.1.a Consumer Demand
Why consumers spend their incomes as they do, the process whereby consumer demand is transmitted to the market.
Benham, Ch. 2, Markets 25
_______, Ch. 3, Demand 16
_______, Ch. 4, Prices with a Fixed Demand 10
_______, Ch. 5, Changes in Demand 10
61
A.1.b The Business Firm
The final relationship of cost to price depends on the competitive conditions in each commodity market; the profit motive the main determinant of the firm’s decisions.
Benham, Ch. 12, The Controlling Power of Demand 8
_______, Ch. 13, The Problems of the Firm (omit Sec. 11) 37
_______, Ch. 14, Monopoly 18
Monograph 21, Ch. 1, the Nature and Significance of Competition 18
Monograph 1, Part 1, Ch. 2, Nonprice Competition 53
4th _______, 1, Part 2, Ch. 1, Types of Geographical Price Structures 14
148
A.2 Effect of Government Regulation on the unregulated market
A.2.a Introduction
General analysis of regulation and impediments to free markets. Sections b, c, and d elaborate more completely some issues presented here.
Arnold, Ch. 1, The Basic Problem of Distribution 19
_______, Ch. 2, How Restraints of Trade Affect your Standard of Living 25
_______, Ch. 3, How Restraints of Trade Unbalance the National Budget 13
_______, Ch. 4, A Free market in time of National Emergency or War 30
_______, Ch. 5, An Elastic Procedure…to Prevent…Seizure of…Power… 24
_______, Appendix I and II 20
_______, Ch. 6, The Test is Efficiency and Service—not size 15
_______, Ch. 7, Procedure Under the Sherman Act… 31
5th _______, Ch. 8, The Clarification of Law through public enforcement 26
_______, Ch. 9, Antitrust Enforcement for the Betterment of the Consumer 21
_______, Ch. 10, Bottlenecks between the Farm and the Table 26
_______, Ch. 11, Labor—Restraints of Trade among the Underdogs 19
_______, Ch. 12, The Rise of a Consumer Movement 37
306
A.2.b Regulation and the Consumer
Taylor, Vol. II, Ch. 37, Consumption Standards 15
____________, Ch. 38, Consumers and the Business System 19
____________, Ch. 39, Consumer Cooperation 20
54
6th A.2.c Regulation and the Business Firm
(1) Monopoly
Taylor, Vol. I, Ch. 15, The Growth of Big Business 18
___________, Ch. 16, The Trend Toward Monopoly 17
___________, Ch. 17, Monopolies and Public Policy 16
51
(2) Public Utilities
Techniques of regulation different for firms classified as public utilities; the TVA—an example of a new regulatory device.
Taylor, Vol. II, Sec. 13, pp. 363-364 Introduction 2
____________, Ch. 48, The Nature and Scope of Public Regulation 15
___________, Ch. 49, The Price of Utility Services 16
___________, Ch. 50, Recent Expansion of Federal Control 19
___________, Ch. 51, The State as Operator 17
69
A.2.d Agriculture—a special problem
Taylor, Vol. II, Sec. 8, Agriculture and the Market 3
____________, Ch. 30, The American Farmers 18
____________, Ch. 31, Farmers in the Market System 19
____________, Ch. 32, Agriculture and Public Policy 24
64
7th B. The Markets for Productive Agents (Factors of Production)
The Analysis in this section refers to the determination of the prices of the factors of production, land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship in the markets where they are bought and sold. The entrepreneur’s reward, profit, is decided for him by the success or failure of his production plan. This market is, of course, not independent of the commodity markets. The unclassified reading discusses the productive agents of the United States:
Taylor, Vol. I, Ch. 8, How Productive Resources are Used 17
___________, Ch. 9, Population 19
___________, Ch. 10, Land 15
___________, Ch. 11 Localized Natural Resources 21
___________, Ch. 13 Capital 19
91
B.1 The Factors vis-à-vis Firms in an Unregulated Market
B.1.a. The Pricing Process in General
Benham, Ch. 9, Combination of Factors (omit sec’s 5,6) 18
Meyers, Ch. 11, The Distribution of Income 11
29
B.1.b. The Prices of Each Factor of Production
Benham, Ch. 15, The Mobility of Factors of Production 10
_______, Ch. 16, Wages, pp. 258-269 20
_______, Ch. 18, Rent 13
Garver and Hansen, Ch. 26, Interest 23
_______________, Ch. 27, Profits 12
78
8th B.2 Effects of Government Regulation and other Institutional Aspects of Distribution on the Markets for Factors.
B.2.a The Labor Market
Taylor, Vol. II, Ch. 33, The American Labor Market, pp. 75-89 14
___________, Ch. 35, The Labor Movement 24
Slichter (pamphlet). The Economics of Collective Bargaining 23
Taylor, Vol. II, Ch. 36, Public Policy Regarding Labor 22
Benham, Ch. 16, Wages, pp. 269-275 (section 9) 6
Golden, entire book. Write an essay of not more than 1200 words evaluating the ideas in the book. 347
436
9th B.2.b The Market for Savings
It is to be noted that firms and others may secure funds from credit created by commercial banks.
Taylor, Vol. I, Ch. 23, pp. 431-434 only (self financing by corporations) 4
__________, Ch. 24, Investment Credit Institutions 19
__________, Ch. 25, The Security Markets 17
__________, Ch. 26, Regulation of Securities and Exchanges 18
58
C. Public Finance and the Economic Problem
The State not only regulates markets as described above but also influences the prices of factors and commodities in the process of financing the production of public goods (roads, protection, etc.). The effects of government finance on the level of national income to be postponed to Part VI.
Luthringer,  Ch. 12, The Public Economy 13
_________, Ch. 13, The Revenue System 20
_________, Ch. 14, Tax Incidence 26
_________, Ch. 15, The Income Tax 20
_________, Ch. 16, Property and Other Taxes 18
_________, Ch. 17, Public Credit 14
_________, Ch. 18, Principles of Public Credit 16
127
Part V. INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF MARKETS AND FINANCE
Analysis of international trade and finance; the free market and the regulated market. Previous analysis emphasized only domestic markets although the principle of international trade is applicable to regions within a country to some extent; Latin America and the War.
10th Benham,  Ch. 25, The Theory of International Trade 22
_______, Ch. 26, Balances of Payments 10
_______, Ch. 27, Free Exchange Rates 10
_______, Ch. 28, The Gold Standard 22
_______, Ch. 29, Exchange Control 8
_______, Ch. 30, Import Duties and Quotas 9
Bidwell, Ch. 1, War and the Monroe Doctrine 16
______, Ch. 2, Propaganda and Politics 13
______, Ch. 3, German Economic Penetration 12
______, Ch. 4, The Weapons of Economic Defense 33
______, Ch. 5, The Fallacy of Hemisphere Self-Sufficiency 14
169
Part VI. PROSPERITY AND DEPRESSION
Analysis of the reasons why all prices move together; why all factors tend to become unemployed—hence the emphasis on the movements of national income. Previously, the analysis of prices was chiefly concerned (with the exception of the value of money) with relative prices. Existence of international markets tends to spread the cyclical pattern.
A. Explanation and Verification of Business Cycle Theories
Benham, Ch. 7, The Volume of Production, pp. 113-125 13
Garver and Hansen, Ch. 21, Business Cycles 18
11th Benham, Ch. 20, Economic Progress and the Trade Cycle, pp. 347-356 9
Slichter, R.E.S., The Period 1919-1936 in the U.S. Its Significance for Business Cycle Theory 19
59
B. Governmental Policy and Business Cycles
Taylor, Vol. II,  Ch. 44, Deficit Spending 16
____________, Ch. 12, The State as Provider (Introduction) 2
____________, Ch. 45, Providing Minimum Needs 17
____________, Ch. 46, Social Security 19
____________, Ch. 47, Public Housing 17

71
Part VII. TOTALITARIAN ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALISM
Analysis of the solution to the economic problem in totalitarian economic systems.
Taylor, Vol. II, Sec. 14, Totalitarian Alternatives to Free Markets (Introduction) 2
____________, Ch. 52, Economic Basis of Totalitarianism 16
____________, Ch. 53, The Soviet Economy 23
____________, Ch. 54, The Fascist Economy in Italy 19
____________, Ch. 55, The National Socialist Economy in Germany 20
80
12th Part VIII. THE ECONOMICS OF WAR
Neal,  Ch. 1, Basic Economic Problems of War 15
____, Ch. 2, Economic War Potential 23
____, Ch. 3, Problems of War Production 21
____, Ch. 4, War Labor Problems 25
____, Ch. 5, Financing the War Effort 19
____, Ch. 6, Financing the War Effort, Business Finance 27
____, Ch. 7, Wartime Management of the Monetary and Banking System 28
____, Ch. 8, The Control of Individual Prices 31
____, Ch. 9, Economic Warfare 20
____, Ch.10, Post-War International Economics 19
228

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Randall Hinshaw Papers, Box 1, Folder “Schoolwork, 1940s”.

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Final examination first half of course

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SAa

Part I

(One hour)

Write on BOTH of the following in this section:

  1. Analyze carefully the effects of the following on average cost, marginal cost, marginal revenue and price for the individual firm in the short run:
    1. A tax of ten cents per unit of output on a monopolist.
    2. A subsidy of ten cents per unit of output to firms in a purely competitive industry.
  2. Trace the repercussions on member bank reserve balances, Treasury deposits with the Federal Reserve System and reserves of the Federal Reserve System caused by:
    1. The purchase and sterilization of gold by the Treasury.
    2. The purchase of U.S. government bonds by the Federal Reserve System.
    3. A transference of Treasury deposits from the Federal Reserve System to member banks.

Part II

(Two hours)

Write on any FOUR of the following in this section:

  1. “Regulation of public utility rates may be effected by limiting charges to yield a fair return on a fair value of the property. This will result in prices comparable to competitive conditions. An alternative type of rate regulation may be accomplished by using as a ‘yardstick’ the rates which a government-owned plant could economically charge.”
    1. Does the use of the fair return formula approximate the price which would evolve in a competitive market for the same commodity?
    2. May the rates fixed by the Tennessee Valley Authority be used as a “yardstick” for privately-owned power companies?
  2. “There seems to be a common belief that banks, by some process of sleight of hand, contrive to create a multiple of the amount of money they receive. The truth is that they can lend not more, but less than the amount of money that comes into their hands.”
    Do you agree? Explain fully.
  3. “It is not size in itself that we want to destroy….What ought to be emphasized is…the evil of industries which are not efficient or do not pass (the gains from) efficiency on to consumers.” Arnold.
    Examine the consistency of this statement.
  4. Contrast carefully the industrial economic world of nineteenth century England with the industrial economic world of fourteenth century England.
  5. Write a letter to your congressman briefly explaining what you believe to be the basic American farm problems and critically evaluating the New Deal attempts to alleviate them.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992 (UA V 349.295.6), Box 1, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.

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Final examination second half of course

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[Second Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SAb

Part I

(One hour)

Write on BOTH of the questions in this section:

  1. “The main fiscal problem of the war is the diversion of a large share of the national income from the private economy to the public fisc for war purposes.” Outline and defend a plan of taxation and borrowing which in your opinion effectively will solve this problem.
  2. Analyze the effects of an increase in the supply of labor on (a) the remuneration of the various productive factors and (b) the changes in output of those industries whose costs are mainly labor and those whose costs are mainly capital.

Part II

(Two hours)

Write on any FOUR of the questions in this section:

  1. Write an essay on the topic of cyclical unemployment emphasizing (a) the processes by which full employment is supposed to be effected in a free enterprise economy and (b) the reasons why these processes have failed to operate.
  2. What controls are necessary for the orderly and equitable distribution of goods during war time in the markets for factors of production and the markets for consumers’ commodities? Indicate the results likely to follow from partial rather than complete controls in these two major groups of markets.
  3. “Labor unions cannot raise the wages of labor within an occupation without reducing the number employed in that occupation since the entrepreneur cannot afford to pay labor more than the value of its marginal product.” Do you agree? Explain fully.
  4. Discuss carefully three methods of correcting an adverse balance of payments. Indicate the effects of each method on the level of domestic money incomes, the foreign exchange rate, merchandise exports and imports and short-term capital movements.
  5. Explain the chief methods of regulating securities markets in the United States. State concisely the functions of securities markets and evaluate the success of regulation in aiding the orderly functioning of these markets.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992 (UA V 349.295.6), Box 1, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.

____________________

Final Exam Intensive Course, First Session 1942

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SA1

I

(One hour)

  1. Reply fully to the following questions:
    1. Which are the main problems confronting the economy of this country during the present war?
    2. What measures of economic policy would you propose to cope with them?

II

(About one half hour each)

  1. What are the effects of the practice of self-financing by corporations upon
    1. the rate of interest;
    2. the allocation of the nation’s resources;
    3. the prevalence of competition, or of monopoly, in the economy as a whole?
  2. Let a tax be imposed upon a monopolist and the amount due be determined by either of the following methods:
    1. a fixed percentage of his profits;
    2. a fixed money amount per unit of output;
    3. a fixed percentage of the total money value of his sales;
    4. a global fixed sum, independent of either output or sales.

In which of these cases will he be able to shift the tax forward? Prove your conclusions by a graphical analysis.

  1. Criticize the following statement carefully:
    “The average citizen is inclined to think that there is nothing at all which he himself can do to check inflation. He considers the anti-inflationary fight a task for Uncle Sam only and therefore urges control of prices and labor and the draining off of excessive purchasing power. Actually, the citizen himself can do a great deal, and the efforts of the government will be far less effective unless he does.
    “He can co-operate with the government by putting money in the bank and making it work for him, instead of drawing it out, letting it lie idle and exposing it to the danger of theft, fire and forgetfulness, He can pay his debts. He can discharge his mortgage more rapidly. He can make larger down payments on installment purchases than he has to. He can be more generous to poor relatives. He can see his oculist, dentist or family doctor more often, and pay cash. He can contribute more liberally to local and national charities. He can refuse to hoard goods. He can refrain from rushing to buy the very articles of which there is a shortage….” (The Boston Herald, July 28, 1942, p. 14)
  2. Trace the main effects that the abolition of the tariff on beef (one of the major export articles of Argentina) would, in peacetime, have upon the economies of the United States and of Argentina. Distinguish the short-run and the long-run consequences.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28) Box 6, Papers Printed for Summer Examinations First Session, August, 1942.

____________________

Final Examination for Principles of Economics “Lite”

SUMMER SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
[First Session. Summer, 1942]
ECONOMICS SB

I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. Long-run value under competition,
    2. The rate of wages,
    3. Investment and interest,
    4. Profits

II

(Answer TWO questions from this group.)

  1. How should you expect the following to affect the selling price of a farm: an increase in population; a fall in the rate of interest; the opening of a new market for its products; a bad crop failure?
  2. Explain the meaning of the following terms and show how one of them enters into the explanation of economic phenomena: comparative advantage; bank reserves; the gold points; marginal revenue.
  3. What are the principal factors responsible for cyclical fluctuations in business activity?

III

(Answer TWO questions from this group.)

  1. Explain the nature and operation of the forces which cause variations in the purchasing power of the dollar.
  2. Outline the principal forms of unemployment and discuss one of them in some detail.
  3. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods available for financing a war.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28) Box 6, Papers Printed for Summer Examinations First Session, August, 1942.

Image Source: Harvard’s Commencement in 1943. From The Harvard Gazette, November 10, 2011.

Categories
Harvard Regulations

Harvard. Report on Graduate Economics Instruction, 1945

 

One interesting take-away is that the size of the graduate economics student body is discussed, given the faculty size, rather than the reverse. Also of interest is the proposal for a distinction to be made between a terminal Ph.D. exam failure and a failure meriting a second chance.

__________________

REPORT ON GRADUATE INSTRUCTION
December 10, 1945

TO: Professor H.H. Burbank
FROM: The Ad Hoc Committee on Graduate Instruction

This committee was asked to consider the following three questions: (1) How can the increased burden of Ph.D. examinations best be met? (2) Should any limit be set to the number of graduate students in economics and, if so, what should be the limit? (3) How can inadequate graduate students be most effectively eliminated? After a consideration of these questions, the ad hoc committee wishes to make the following recommendations:

I. Ph.D. Examinations.

The committee is of the opinion that the total number of general and special examinations scheduled and to be scheduled for this academic year does not present a serious problem. The examinations already scheduled number thirty-nine and the total number, to the end of the year, may reach sixty. If equally distributed this would mean ten to twelve examinations for each officer between now and June. The burden of the examinations however is unequally distributed among the officers of the Department, and certain of the recommendations which follow are designed to lessen this inequality.

If the number of graduate students doubles, or increases to anything like that figure, the examination burden will become serious, and our recommendations are chiefly directed toward this contingency. We recommend that the Department give consideration to the following possibilities:

  1. Officers of the Department who are lightly burdened with examinations may in most cases be asked to examine in certain fields outside those in which they are now giving instruction.
  2. Since the examination load is now concentrated in the months of January and May, students should be encouraged to stand for examination in less crowded periods.
  3. Instructors should be asked to share the burden of examining as soon as they receive their doctor’s degree.
  4. In exceptional cases (but only in such cases) one examiner can be made responsible for two fields; for example, the same examiner could, in certain cases, be made responsible for money and banking and business cycles. In others, the examination in theory and international trade could be given by on man. If and when this expedient is followed, the officer examining in two fields should vote on these two fields. All three examiners should be responsible for a judgment on the examination as a whole.
  5. As the examining burden becomes heavier, two fields rather than one (but not including theory) might be written off and the examination shortened to an hour and a half.
  6. The last two measures are suggested as temporary expedients only—not as permanent policies.

The committee discussed the possibility of substitution written examinations and although a definitive view was not reached, the consensus of opinion was against the written examination on these grounds:

(1) Students are required to take extensive written course examinations and as far as their capabilities to satisfy such requirements are concerned they are already adequately tested. The oral examination constitutes a different and important kind of test.

(2) If the written general examinations were adequate to their purpose, and if at least a short oral were included as for the undergraduate divisionals, the committee doubts whether any time would be saved.

II. Size of the graduate school in economics.

The committee believes that if standards of graduate instruction are to be maintained a limit must be set to the number of students admitted to the graduate school and suggests tentatively about two hundred and fifty. This would involve limiting the number of first year students to approximately one hundred. Substantial increase in the number of students will increase markedly the amount of time which will have to be given to the direction of theses and to other forms of individual instruction. It is probable that with a graduate school of two hundred and fifty, less time will in any case be available for such instruction but the committee feels that no appreciable lowering of standards need accompany an increase to the suggested size.

A second major burden will be imposed on instruction in the fields of theory, statistics and economic history. In order to lighten this burden the committee recommends that the Department take the following steps:

  1. The basic graduate course in theory should be offered anew each term. The committee is of the opinion that the staff of theory instructors is adequate for this purpose.
  2. The Department should proceed forthwith to the appointment of its full quota of faculty and annual instructors and teaching fellows. We understand that the Department is entitled to six faculty instructors and we urge that the available positions be filled as soon as possible.
  3. In making the appointments, particular attention should be given to securing an adequate number of instructors and assistants in the field of statistics. One or more of the people appointed in this area should be Ph.D.’s in order that the examining burden on present officers may be lightened.
  4. It is imperative that an able young man be appointed in the field of economic history and he must have his degree if the very heavy examining load in this field is to be shared.

III. Weeding out incompetents.

The committee is agreed that to the greatest extent possible this weeding out process should begin with the raising of standards of admission to the graduate school. It urges on the Chairman of the Department that he throw his influence in favor of rejecting the lower fringe of candidates who in ordinary times would have been admitted and that he emphasize strongly to the Dean of the Graduate School the necessity of applying higher standards. With respect to students already admitted the committee recommends:

  1. that ordinarily the failure to receive an average of two B’s and two B+’s for the first year of work in the graduate school be considered reason for refusing students permission to continue their studies;
  2. that, in addition to raising the standard required to be satisfied in the general examination, failures be divided into two categories:

(1) Failed, but permitted to apply for re-examination.
(2) Failed, and prohibited from applying for re-examination.

Respectfully submitted,

Edward S. Mason, Chairman
Edward H. Chamberlin
Alvin H. Hansen

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers Department (UAV349), Box 13.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Final Examinations. Chamberlin, 1936-37

 

Having recently published his magnum opus in 1933, Harvard economist Edward H. Chamberlin taught a one semester graduate economic theory course devoted to the theory of monopolistic competition three successive years (1935/6 through 1937/8) before going on to teach the core graduate theory course. In the Harvard archives I have been able to find copies of the final examination questions for the first two years which along with course enrollment data are transcribed below.

Chamberlin, Edward Hastings. The Theory of Monopolistic Competition–A Re-orientation of the Theory of Value. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1933.

_____________________________

Course Announcement
1935-36

Economics 12 1hf. Monopolistic Competition and Allied Problems in Value Theory

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 3, and a third hour to be arranged
Associate Professor Chamberlin

 

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Course of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1935-36 (Second Edition), p. 139.

_____________________________

Course Enrollment
1935-36

[Economics] 12 1hf. Associate Professor Chamberlin.—Monopolistic Competition and Allied Problems in Value Theory.

Total 8: 8 Graduates.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1935-1936, p. 83.

_____________________________

1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 121
[Final exam]

Answer either four or five questions.

  1. Discuss the influence of the number of producers in an industry upon the elasticity of demand for the product of the individual firm.
  2. Discuss the difficulties inherent in the concept of a “group equilibrium.” In what degree do you regard the concept as valid? useful?
  3. Discuss either (a) excess capacity, or (b) “product” variation under imperfect knowledge.
  4. Discuss alternative methods of treating selling costs, giving your preference and the reasons for it.
  5. In what respects do the theories of monopolistic and imperfect competition alter the case both for and against interfering with the “free play of competitive forces,” as developed by traditional economic theory?

Mid-Year. 1936.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers Finals, 1936 (HUC 7000.28 vol. 78 of 284)

_____________________________

Course Enrollment
1936-37

[Economics] 102a 1hf. (formery 12). Associate Professor Chamberlin.—Monopolistic Competition and Allied Problems in Value Theory.

Total 6: 4 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1936-1937, p. 93.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 102a1
[Final exam]

  1. Discuss the question of “free entry” into an industry and its significance for the theory of monopolistic competition.
  2. “The problem of the individual demand curve bears on the questions whether we can discuss the competitive position of an isolated firm at all; a demand curve of a single firm is drawn, which presupposes that the other firms do not change their supply, or change it in a distinct way…Must we not make it clear that such a curve is valid only for a short interval?” Discuss.
  3. To what extent do you regard the standardization of products as a remedy for the ignorance of buyers as to their qualities? Discuss briefly any other remedies you might wish to propose.
  4. “The production cost curve and the selling cost curve are really nothing more than alternative techniques for treating what is essentially the same problem.” Discuss.
  5. “Value productivity, and nothing but value productivity, is what matters in distribution theory.” Discuss.
  6. Discuss one of the following:
    1. Monopsony.
    2. Monopolistic competition and the theory of profits.
    3. Monopolistic competition and the business cycle.
    4. The definition of a “commodity.” 

Final. 1937. 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers Finals, 1937 (HUC 7000.28 vol. 79 of 284)

_____________________________

Course Enrollment
1937-38

[Economics] 102a 1hf. (formerly 12). Professor Chamberlin.—Monopolistic Competition and Allied Problems in Value Theory.

Total 6: 2 Graduates, 2 School of Public Administration, 1 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1937-1938, p. 86.

_____________________________

1937-38
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 102a1
[Final exam]

[Not (yet) found.]

 

Image Source: Edward H. Chamberlin from the Harvard Class Album, 1939.