Tag: Crum

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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.

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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.

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[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

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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 Gender Harvard NBER Radcliffe Smith Vassar

Radcliffe.Economics Ph.D. Alumna, Dorothy Carolin Bacon, 1928

 

This post began after I noticed that it has been some time since I posted biographical and career information for a economics Ph.D. alumna. I figured it would be good to search for a candidate that Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has already caught in an earlier archival trawling expedition but for whom the details of post-doc life had not been added. Dorothy Carolin Bacon was awarded her Radcliffe economics Ph.D. in 1928 and the following item was what I had to start with.

Dorothy Carolin Bacon.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 26, 1927.
Committee: Professors Persons (chairman), Carver, Crum, Gay and Holcombe.
Academic History: Simmons College, 1918-19; Radcliffe College, 1919-22, 1923-24, 1926-. A.B., Radcliffe, 1922; A.M., ibid., 1924. Assistant in Economics, Vassar College, 1924-25. Instructor in Economics, ibid., 1925-26.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory. 2. Sociology. 3. History of Political Theory. 4. Statistics. 5. Economic History. 6., Money, Banking and Crises.
Special Subject: Money, Banking and Crises.
Thesis Subject: A Study of the Dispersion of Wholesale Commodity Prices, 1890-1896.  (With Professor Persons.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1926-1927”.

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One of the items that came up after searching for a Google search was an advertisement for her handwritten Radcliffe student journal notes from her Physics course in 1922. Besides being surprised to see a list price of $750.00 for this notebook, I was intrigued by the relatively detailed information provided about Dorothy Bacon. While everything about the text struck me as fully plausible, I thought it worth some due diligence to confirm what I could from the bookseller’s bio-blurb. I have added links wherever possible to sources that confirm the details below. It would appear that information from the above item in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror as well as from the Dzuback chapters in Madden and Dimand (eds.)  and Margaret A. Nash (ed.) have provided some (or even much) of what was included in the D. Anthem advertisement that follows.

The section on Smith College in Mary Ann Dzuback’s chapter “Women economists in the academy: struggles and strategies, 1900-1940” in the Routledge Handbook of the History of Women’s Economic Thought, Kirsten Madden and Robert W. Dimand (eds.) provides information on Dorothy Bacon from the faculty files of the Smith College Archives [Office of President William Allan Neilson Files, Box 364, Folder 34]:

Bacon came to Smith a year before finishing her Ph.D. at Radcliffe in 1928. She took research and service sabbatical leaves to work for the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the 1930s. She focused her research on money flows during the 1930s, cost price problems, and the development of federal level credit institutions. By the 1940s, she was working with the federal Office of Price Administration. By the 1950s, she was consulting with the Brookings Institution, had been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and received grants from the SSRC. She published a monograph on the recent economic history of five towns around Northampton, Massachusetts, in the late 1930s, and was completing a book on the development of Philippine credit institutions by 1970.

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Another paragraph by Mary Ann Dzuback

From: Mary Ann Dzuback. Chapter 7. Research at Women’s Colleges, 1890-1940. Women’s Higher Education in the United States (Historical Studies in Education), edited by Margaret A. Nash. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Dorothy Bacon (1927–54) arrived in 1928, eventually taking an endowed chair. She investigated the flows of currency during the Depression, cost price problems, and the growth of credit institutions, and was in great demand by private research agencies and the federal government. A sometime consultant with the National Bureau of Economic Research, in the 1920s and 1930s she worked with a range of government and research agencies. She was awarded grants by the Social Science Research Council and published regularly. Bacon’s record of research and service, and her sabbaticals, suggest that women social science scholars at Smith were encouraged to use their research to inform policy at the federal and international levels.

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From: Advertisement for “Economist Dorothy Bacon’s 1922 Physics 2 Journal from Radcliffe College (1922)

Dorothy Carolin Bacon was born in 1902 to George Preston Bacon, a professor of Physics and Dean of both the Tufts Engineering School and the Bromfield-Pearson School, and Hannah Churchill Bacon, a trained nurse. Her sister, Ruth Bacon, also attended Radcliffe College and later became the first female officer of a State Department geographical bureau (Bureau of Eastern Affairs). Bacon attended Simmons College from 1918-19 before transferring to Radcliffe, the former women’s liberal arts college that fully merged with Harvard in 1999. She earned her B.A. (1922), M.A. (1924) and Ph.D (1927) [sic, 1928] there with her dissertation concerning A Study of the Dispersion of Wholesale Commodity Prices, 1890-1896. While at Radcliffe she also worked for the Federal Reserve Board’s Division of Research and Analysis [as a Statistical Clerk starting 1 July 1922] earning an annual salary of $1600 before resigning [May 10] in 1923.

She was hired as an assistant professor [sic, “Assistant” is a lower rank than “Assistant Professor”] in economics at Vassar in 1924 [cf. AER, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Dec. 1924), p. 829 “Miss Dorothy C. Bacon is assistant in economics at Vassar College.”], but was recruited by Esther Lowenthal, Dean of the Faculty and chair of the economics department at Smith, to join Smith’s faculty in 1927. At Smith she focused her research on money flows during the 1930s, cost price problems, and the development of credit institutions at the federal level. In 1930, she was one of three research associates selected for the National Bureau of Economic Research where she studied the relation of current stock prices to earnings per share from the twenty corporations comprising the Index of Industrial Stock Prices of the Harvard Economic Service. Her monograph, Recent Economic History of the Five Towns (1937) was published by the Works Progress Administration. In 1942, Bacon left her post at Smith [sic, only temporary leave] to work under Leon Henderson at the Office of Price Administration. It was there that she wrote a study of the scrap metal market in Syracuse, NY. By the 1950s, she was consulting with the Brookings Institution and was publishing her research in the Review of Economic Statistics, the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the National Encyclopedia. She appears to have never married [she wasn’t]  and when she died in 1998 she was buried at Shawsheen Cemetery in Bedford, MA, alongside her parents and sister.

Source: D. Anthem, Bookseller advertisement for “Economist Dorothy Bacon’s 1922 Physics 2 Journal from Radcliffe College (1922) [posted price: $750.00!]

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A.E.A. Biographical Listing, 1969

BACON, Dorothy Carolin, academic; b. Beloit, Wis., 1902; student Simmons Coll., 1918-19; A.B., Radcliffe Coll., 1922, A.M., 1924, Ph.D., 1928. FIELDS 2c, 5e, 4a. Research asso., Nat. Bur. Econ. Research, 1930-31; formerly sr. research asso., Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp.; fed. Dir. Research project, Work Progress Adm., 1935-36; asst. div. economist, food price div., OPA [Office of Price Administration], 1943-47, OPS [Office of Price Stabilization], 1951; Fulbright prof., U. Philippines, 1956-57; mem. Faculty, Smith Coll. Since 1927, prof. since 1938, Robert A. Woods prof. since 1956. ADDRESS Smith Coll., 115 Elm St., Northampton, MA 01060.

Note. Fields: 2c (Economic Development Studies); 5e (General International Economics); 4a (Monetary and Financial Theory and Institutions).

Source: The American Economic Review, Vol. 59, No. 6, 1969. Handbook of the American Economic Association (January 1970), p. 17.

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Bachelor of Arts, Radcliffe (1922)

With Distinction in Special Subjects
Cum Laude

Dorothy Carolin Bacon [of] Medford. In Mathematics.

Source: Report of the Dean in Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1920-1923, p. 43.

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Master of Arts, Radcliffe (1924)

Dorothy Carolin Bacon, A.B.

Source: Report of the Dean in Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1923-1924, p. 31.

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Doctor of Philosophy, Radcliffe (1928)

Dorothy Carolin Bacon A.M.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Money and Banking. Dissertation, “Maladjustment of Prices with Special Reference to the Wholesale Prices of Commodities in the United States; 1890-1896”

Source:  Report of the Dean in Annual Reports of Radcliffe College for 1927-1928, p. 23.

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Publications of Dorothy C. Bacon

A Monthly Index of Commodity Prices, 1890-1900. Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 8, No. 4 (October 1926), pp. 177-83.

The Significance of Fixed-base and Link Relatives in Studies of Price Stability: A Comment on the Behavior of Prices. Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 23 (September 1928), pp. 274-81.

Maladjustment of Prices with Special Reference to the Wholesale Prices of Commodities in the United States, 1890-1896. Ph.D. thesis, Radcliffe College.

Encyclopedia articles in the National Encyclopedia.

Recent Economic History of Five Towns. Northampton, Mass.: Smith College, 1937.

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Vital Dates and Miscellaneous Information

Born:  25 February 1902 in Beloit, Wisconsin.

Last Residence: Niceville, Okaloosa, Florida [Socal Security death index].

Died: 8 November in Meriden, New Haven County, Connecticut. [Apparently visiting: the Connecticut Death Index notes her address 2475 Virginia, Residence Andover, District of Columbia].

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Image Source: Senior year picture of Dorothy Carolin Bacon in the  Radcliffe Year Book 1922, p. 23.

 

 

 

Categories
Curriculum Economics Programs Fields Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Report on statistics and national income courses. Crum and Frickey, 1945

Crum Frickey

 

William Leonard Crum and Edward Frickey taught Harvard’s economic statistics courses in the 1930s and 1940s.  Paul Samuelson recounted his second semester (Spring 1936) as a graduate student following his previous semester’s worth of Crum: “…I was able to learn genuine modern statistics from E. B. Wilson, bypassing Edwin Frickey (who with Leonard Crum taught at Harvard courses against modern statistics!)” [On this, Roger E. Backhouse’s Vol I: Becoming Samuelson, 1915-1948, p.101].

Reading the following intradepartmental report on economic statistics courses and how to integrate national income and product accounting into the graduate curriculum that was written by a committee of two (Crum and Frickey), one discovers that even a decade after Samuelson’s experience, the proper preparation of “ink charts” was a subject that warranted faculty discussion.  Harvard Ph.D. Robert Solow later went to Columbia to play catch-up ball with respect to statistical analysis before starting his M.I.T. contract.  Harvard economics was a full generation behind the times with respect to statistical method at mid-20th century.

A 1947 Crum/Frickey  joint memo regarding preparation for taking the comprehensive field exam in statistics has been posted earlier.

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6 March 1945

Report on the course offerings in Statistics, and in National Income

At the Department meeting of 13 February, 1945, the undersigned were named a committee to study course offerings and proposed offerings in Statistics and in National Income, discuss their findings with the Chairman, and report to the Department. Attached are the two reports: I, on Statistics; II, (page 10) on National Income.

W.L. Crum
Edwin Frickey

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I. The Offering in Statistics

At the meeting of the Harvard Economics Department on 13 February, 1945. W. L. C. and E. F. sought opinions from colleagues as to additional instruction needed in statistics and as to changes needed in existing instruction. The following is in part a report of the informal discussion, in part an indication of what W. L. C. and E. F. think can advisedly be done. The present statement is preliminary; a more definitive report will be prepared, after consultation with H. H. B., for submission to the Department at a later meeting.

  1. Opinion was expressed that many of our graduate students show conspicuous lack of ability to present statistical material in the form of chart or table, for example, in theses. Instruction in statistics here has for several years relied upon capacity of students to learn by emulation—they have abundant opportunity to acquaint themselves with good statistical presentation, both tabular and graphic, in our courses in statistics and in the source materials of other courses. In course 21a, some instruction is incidentally given in orderly tabulation of limited sorts, but we make no attempt to teach students to prepare ink charts. Apparently, something more is needed; and three suggestions, perhaps all to be followed together, are made:
    1. By compressing some other parts of the work, we can include a small amount of instruction on presentation in course 21a. This should help put those graduate students who are required to take that course here on the right track.
    2. For students not required to take 21a, because they have had the “equivalent” elsewhere, one possibly helpful device is to require in course 121b a written report involving presentation in tabular and graphic form. Such report could be graded if sufficient funds are available to cover the grading, and the instructors could make a moderate effort to advise particular students about defects in their reports. The reports would presumably be required of all students in 121b, whether or not they had had 21a.
    3. The Department’s specialists in statistics could advise any graduate student, whose thesis involved matters of statistical presentation, concerning such matters. When the Department acquires a general research laboratory, with a regular supervisor, the supervisor could give such advice. In the meantime, the instructors in statistics could stand ready to give such advice in appropriate cases. The undersigned emphasize that this advice should be understood to concern presentation of statistical materials: they do not feel but they should be called upon ordinarily to advise such as student about sources of statistics for his thesis, or about the methods of analyzing the statistics, or about their interpretation. They have often given advice on such matters in certain cases, and will continue to do so, but take the stand that they should not be regarded as under the obligation to give such advice to all comers. The point is that; if the candidate proposes to write a statistical thesis in any field of economics, a vital part of his job is to obtain, analyze, and interpret his data. We see no reason why faculty specialists in statistics should make an extraordinary contribution to a thesis which happens to have quantitative aspects.
  2. Little emphasis appeared, in any opinions expressed, on the need for laboratory instruction in statistics in our graduate offering. Some suggestion was advanced that the “homework” type of problem task could helpfully be employed. W. L. C. and E. F. have a little faith that much could be accomplished in this way – the great advantage of the supervised laboratory is that the supervisor can get students actively started on the task and can catch and clear away difficulties as they arise. (We assume, of course, any problem work of this sort, in graduate courses, should be on an advanced – not elementary – level.) To meet this suggestion, we propose only that point A2 above be put into effect, and that the following change in present operations be considered. At present, course 121a includes two home-work problems, which stretch over several weeks, but are not graded and are not used as bases for specific advice to individual students. The proposed change is that these problems be handed in, and treated like the problem described in A2. (In these cases, as in that case, grading of the reports would be feasible if funds are available for the purpose.)

An emphatic suggestion was made that graduate students have the use of laboratory equipment, and be made welcome in the laboratory. We do not believe this can be managed with the laboratory facilities of course 21a. We note, however, that a moderate chance now exists that the University will presently provide the Department with a research laboratory in statistics, adequately equipped, and under competent supervision. If and when this is done, no difficulty will arise in making ample place for work by graduate students on any statistical tasks in which they may properly be interested. We remark that the arguments in favor of a general research laboratory in statistics are much more likely to bring conviction in responsible quarters that the argument, however strongly put, in favor of facilities merely for the occasional use of graduate students.

  1. Supposing we are to give an additional half graduate course in statistics, opinions pointed toward three alternatives:
    1. A course in theory, intermediate between course 121a and Prof. Wilson’s course 122b. This does not appear a good use of our manpower, for the election in such a course would inevitably be small, especially as the mathematics prerequisites would necessarily be much more severe than those – almost nil – on which we now limp through 121a.
    2. A further course was suggested – beyond 121b and perhaps alternating with it – in topics in the application of statistics to economic fields. Economics 121b now includes a selected list of such topics, which varies moderately from year to year; but it is by no means a comprehensive coverage of all even of the major possibilities. We could readily prepare an additional half course to be called 121c of further topics in the applied fields, and many students would probably like such a course. Such a course can be described as follows:

Economics 121c will be a half-course which might be entitled Topics in Applied Economic Statistics. Economics 21a or its equivalent will be a prerequisite. Properly qualified undergraduates may, with the consent of the instructor, be admitted to economics 121c.

Economics 121c will deal with statistical problems arising in connection with the use of basic statistical data in a selected list of economic topics. (As compared with 121b this course will lay more emphasis on the basic material and less emphasis on statistical theory.)

On each topic each student will be expected to familiarize himself with the immediate and the basic sources of the main materials, through actual examination of such materials, and to present a critical appraisal of these fundamental statistics. The instructor will give a succinct historical background – an outline of the principal work which is already been done on the topic. The instructor and the class will work out together conclusions as to what are the leading issues involved, and will consider what it is that statisticians are trying to measure and what they should be trying to measure.

Such topics as the following will be included:

Consumption
Commodity prices
Cost-of-living
Employment and unemployment
Wages
Money and Banking
Production and Trade (certain phases)
Balance of international payments
Public Finance

        1. The subordinate suggestion that, in this case, basic preparation for the oral exam and also the write-off field might consist of 121a and either 121b or 121c, was advanced. A strong objection to this appears in the fact that 121b, although made up largely of topics in applied statistics, now includes – and should continue to do so – certain topics which need to be covered by every general economist (we do not here have in mind the statistical specialist) who is to have “literacy” in the field of economic statistics today. Several of the “applied” topics now in 121b include in fact fundamental matters of statistical theory needed by all economists, and not elsewhere covered in our instruction. These include, for example: the theory of index numbers, statistical deflation, secular trends in business cycles, the basic theory of measuring production and income, and at least demand and cost curves not to mention more sophisticated matters of econometrics. These essentially theoretical topics in statistics should remain part of the basic graduate year course in statistics. (This goes also for our present topic of national income: even if the Department offer a course in that subject, the course will not be taken by all students, and all should have at least the brief survey now in 121b). For the foregoing reason, we emphatically urge that 121a and 121b stand as the basic year course in the field, and that the new course 121c be regarded as an additional – but not an alternative–half course.
        2. The subordinate suggestion at 121b and 121c be given in alternate years appears to fall for the same reason given in C2a.

 

    1. Instead of the course described under C2 suggestion was made that we introduce a course in administrative (we use this word provisionally, for want of a better) statistics – mainly, but not exclusively, governmental statistics. We have not outlined such a course in full, but can suggest its nature by indicating that it would emphasize the problems encountered in actually doing statistical work in government or private agencies. Such topics as the preparation and use of index numbers of prices and production; the compilation and use of data on employment and the labor force; statistics of farm production and operation; the gathering of and analysis of facts concerning trade, both foreign and domestic; financial data such as are developed by the treasury, the S. E. C, the F. R. B., and private agencies; statistics used in the analysis of particular enterprises; the rapidly developing field of quality control in industry, suggest themselves for inclusion. The nature of the course can also be indicated by somewhat loose contrast with the course described under C2 above: in that course, the point of view is of the user (economist, or other analyst) of statistics, and attention is given to the origin of the statistics only in so far as it is needed to guide and inform the user. In this course, the point of view is of the maker of statistics, and attention is given to the use of the statistics only in so far as it is needed to guide the maker in his work. This course would go far toward meeting the contention that our students, while well founded in statistical theory, are not ready to handle the kind of statistical tasks which they encounter in government or other research agencies.

At the moment we are not ready to choose between the courses described under C2 and C3, the former (and obviously the latter) being understood as in addition to, and not alternative to, 121b.

 

  1. No opinion was expressed concerning course 122b, and we think it should continue to be given in alternate years.

No opinion was offered concerning the content of course 121a. We have in mind some compression of one of the topics know given. This, plus the longer term under the peace-time schedule, will enable us to give more satisfactory attention to the topic of small samples.

We were commissioned to report also on national income. This is covered in a separate memorandum.

 

  1. We layout now, in tentative form and subject to revision by the Department, our recommendation as to the entire offering in statistics in the early post-war years.

21a. Substantially as at present, but with the change outlined in A1.

121a. Substantially as at present, but with the change outlined in B and the change noted in D.

121b. Substantially as at present, but with the change outlined in A2.

(Courses 121a and 121b to be regarded as the core of the preparation in the field of statistics, and to be recommended to the candidates for the general oral in statistics as the most helpful unit in their preparation.)

121c. A new half course, either that described under C2 or that under C3. To be open to graduate students who have had 21a or by consent of the instructor to those who have had the equivalent of 21a, and by consent of the instructor to properly qualified undergraduates who have had 21a.

122b. Substantially as at present, and to be given in alternate years as at present.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

II. Offering in National Income

The suggestion is made that a half course, at the graduate level, in National Income be offered. The main purpose of such a course would be to give our students an extensive factual basis for their use of national income concepts and data in a wide range of our theoretical and applied fields. The course by itself could provide only a beginning for specialization the subject of national income for its own sake, and we do not understand that the Department contemplates recognizing the field in that subject.

While the course should be concerned primarily with the facts of national income, we understand that some attention could properly be given to the interpretation of those facts into their economic and social implications. Moreover, even to handle properly the factual side, the course would need give much attention to matters of definition and concept, matters which actually stand at the root of most of the “problems” of measuring national income and its chief constituents.

The core of the course would consist of the presentation, discussion, and criticism of the existing statistical facts on the national income and its constituents. These materials would presumably be limited to the United States; although some of the critical portions of the course, dealing with concepts and the like, would necessarily make large drafts on studies in certain other countries. Emphasis would be on the problems of measurement, the effectiveness and validity of the methods used, and the appropriateness of the results obtained as answers to questions posed by the economist.

In addition to the over-all aggregate of national income, viewed in real and money terms and in its variations over time, the course would examine the chief constituents of national income. These would include:

  1. Contributions to national income by various types of economic activity.
  2. Contributions from various geographical regions (much less is known on this.)
  3. Allocation, so far as it is known, to the several factors of production.
  4. Distribution according to size of income (money income) received by individuals.
  5. Distribution of income according to use: consumption expenditures of individuals (perishable, semi-durable), consumption through government, savings (by individuals, by enterprises, by government).
  6. Capital formation, and its relation to savings.
  7. Relation of taxes and public expenditures to the flow of income.

Your committee makes no recommendation as to the personnel to be assigned the task of conducting such a course. It does recommend: that the course be limited to graduate students, and to those advanced concentrators who receive permission from the instructor(s); that all students who take the course be required to have completed one half year course at the graduate level in economic theory and in statistics; that the course be given each year, rather than in alternate years; that the course be considered as a pro-seminar in statistics for the purpose of excuse – under our existing rules for reducing the oral examination to three fields – from the oral examination in statistics.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers, 1902-1950. Box 23. Folder “Course Announcement 1945-46”.

Image Source: Crum and Frickey in the Harvard Class Album, 1942 and 1950.

Categories
Curriculum Fields Harvard

Harvard. Mathematical Economics Recognized as Subfield of Theory. E.B. Wilson, Crum, and Schumpeter, 1933

 

What I find particularly striking in the following report of the Committee on Instruction in Mathematical Economics at Harvard (note the  first named of the trio is E. B. Wilson) is the forecast that economics graduate students will need to acquire tools of mathematical economics and statistics already in the mid 1930s because they will need them later, 1953-63, when they will be “at the height of their activity” and by which time (implicitly) the “rapidly increasing importance of theoretical and statistical work involving higher mathematics” will have caught up with them. I have appended the course names for the statistics and mathematics courses referred to by number in the report.

Related postings: 

_____________________

Meeting of the Committee (Wilson, Crum, Schumpeter) on
Instruction in the Mathematical Economics
Tuesday, May 9 [1933]

In view of the rapidly increasing importance of theoretical and statistical work involving higher mathematics, and of the possibility that a considerable number of economists may have to be adequately familiar with both mathematical theory and statistical procedure twenty to thirty years from now, that is, when many of our present students will be at the height of their activity, the Committee (Wilson, Crum, Schumpeter) agreed on the following recommendations to be submitted to the Department which they believe to be both necessary and sufficient in order to provide facilities for events to work in mathematical theory as applied to economics:

(1) Any student who may wish to do so should be allowed to offer mathematical economics as his special field within the requirements for the Ph.D. This would involve but a slight alteration of existing practice which permits students to choose some branch of economic theory as a special field. The committee’s suggestion is merely that mathematical economics should be added to the other special subjects in economic theory which a student may select.

It seems desirable, moreover, to permit that any such student may select mathematics or rather some branch of pure or applied mathematics in place of one of the two remaining fields he has to offer.

(2) Advanced work in mathematical economics should conform to modern tendencies by stressing equally the mathematical side of economic theory and mathematical statistics. No student who elects mathematical economics as his special field should be allowed to do the one without the other. Especially courses 31a and 32b should be required also from students mainly interested in pure theory.

(3) Work in the Department of Mathematics through Math 5 should be considered as the minimum requirement as to mathematical training. Credit should be given only for Math 5, but not for any of the still more elementary course preparatory to it, which most of the students taking up mathematical economics will have had anyhow in their undergraduate period.

(4) No further steps should be taken at present. It seems best to see what the response will be before attempting to organize a special graduate course. The mathematical aspect of our subject is being dealt with in some courses already, and any Ph.D. candidates who may present themselves in case the rules be altered as recommended could easily be taken care of individually.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Copy of Letter from Harold H. Burbank to Joseph Schumpeter

October 3, 1933

Dear Joe,

I have read and approved without qualification the report of the Committee on Instruction in Mathematical Economics.

I think this report should be brought before the Department on the evening of Tuesday, October 10.

Very sincerely yours,

Prof. J. A. Schumpeter
2 Scott Street

HHB:VS

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Graduate Instruction in the Mathematical Economics
Department Vote, October 10, 1933

In view of the rapidly increasing importance of theoretical and statistical work involving higher mathematics, and of the possibility that a considerable number of economists may have to be adequately familiar with both mathematical theory and statistical procedure twenty to thirty years from now, that is, when many of our present students will be at the height of their activity, the Committee (Wilson, Crum, Schumpeter) agreed on the following recommendations to be submitted to the Department which they believe to be both necessary and sufficient in order to provide facilities for events to work in mathematical theory as applied to economics.

The Department voted to accept the recommendations stated as follows:

(1) Any student who may wish to do so should be allowed to offer mathematical economics as his special field within the requirements for the Ph.D. This would involve no alteration of existing practice, which permits students to choose some branch of economic theory as a special field. The committee’s suggestion is that mathematical economics should be admissible.

(2) Any students using mathematical economics as his special field should be allowed to offer some branch of pure or applied mathematics as an allied field.

Work in the Department of Mathematics through Math 5, or the equivalent, should be considered as the minimum requirement as to mathematical training. Credit should be given only for Math 5, but not for any more elementary course preparatory to it.

(3) Advanced work in mathematical economics should conform to modern tendencies by stressing equally the mathematical side of economic theory and mathematical statistics. Therefore courses 31a and 32b should be required of anyone in electing mathematical theory as his special field.

(4) No further steps need be taken at present. It seems best to see what the response will be before attempting to organize a special graduate course. Any individual cases calling for special attention can be dealt with, under the proposed regulation, as our courses now stand.

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

_____________________

Statistics Courses offered in the Department of Economics
at Harvard, 1934-35

Economics 31a 1hf (formerly Economics 41a). Theory of Economic Statistics, I

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Crum and Asst. Professor Frickey.
Economics 1a, or its equivalent, is a prerequisite for this course.

Economics 31b 2hf (formerly Economics 41b). Theory of Economic Statistics, II

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Crum and Asst. Professor Frickey.
Economics 1a, or its equivalent, is a prerequisite for this course.

Economics 32b 2hf (formerly Economics 42). Foundations of Statistical Theory

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., 3 to 4.30. Professor E. B. Wilson.
Economics 31a and one year of Calculus are prerequisites for this course.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1933-34(second edition), Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXX, No. 39 (September 20, 1933), p. 128.

_____________________

Undergraduate Mathematics Courses
at Harvard, 1934-35

Mostly Freshmen

[Mathematics] A. Professors J. L Coolidge et al. — Analytic Geometry; Introduction to the Calculus.

Mostly Sophomores

[Mathematics] 2. Professors Graustein et al. — Differential and Integral Calculus; Analytic Geometry.

Mostly Juniors

[Mathematics] 5a1hf. Professor Morse. — Differential and Integral Calculus (advanced course), Part I

[Mathematics] 5a2hf. Professor Morse. — Differential and Integral Calculus (advanced course), Part II

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1934-35, p. 86.

 

Images:  Left to right: William Leonard Crum, Joseph A. Schumpeter, Edwin Bidwell Wilson. From the 1934 (Crum) and 1939 (Schumpeter and Wilson) Harvard Class Albums.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics Suggested Reading

Harvard. Final exam for course on national income accounting. Crum, 1938

 

William Leonard Crum (1894-1967) taught economic statistics at Harvard from 1923-1948 before finishing his career at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught an undergraduate one-semester course, “The National Income”, only twice. In the extensive but incomplete Harvard archival collection of course final examinations I have only been able to find the final for the second term of the 1937-38 academic year. Full course reading lists were not in the course syllabi and outlines collection, but the reading period assignments for both years could be found.

_________________

Course Enrollments,

1937-38

[Economics] 21b2 hf. Professor Crum — The National Income.

Total 7: 1 Graduate, 4 Seniors, 2 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1937-38, p. 85.

 

1938-39

[Economics] 21b2 hf. Professor Crum — The National Income.

Total 3: 2 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-39, p. 98.

_________________

Reading Period

May 9- June 1, 1938

Economics 21b: Read either of the following:

Colin Clark, National Income and Outlay, Chs. I-V, and VII.
R. F. Martin, National Income and Its Elements (entire).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1937-1938”.

 

May 8- May 31, 1939

Economics 21b: Choose one of the following:

National Industrial Conference Board, National Income in the United States, 1799-1938 (entire book).
Simon Kuznets, Commodity Flow and Capital Formation, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1938 (Part II and Part III).

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

_________________

Final exam, 1938

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 21b2

(Omit two of the first six questions, and omit one of the last two)

  1. (a) Outline the main items, listing as plus and minus, which must be covered in estimating national income by the net value product method.
    (b) Discuss the chief theoretical and practical points relating to the estimated allowance for depreciation.
  2. (a) Comment upon the main problems encountered in determining the net value product of “government”, considered as an “industry”.
    (b) Name two chief “transfer” items, and indicate – for each – how it should be treated in national income estimates, and why.
  3. (a) Discuss with care the way in which the accounting practice relative to inventory valuation affects estimates of national income.
    (b) Comment upon the place of “additions to business surplus” in the simple concepts of national income. Indicate whether this surplus-additional item can be estimated directly, or only indirectly.
  4. (a) What is meant by “entrepreneurial withdrawals”, and on what basis are they in general estimated? Give your view of the validity of such estimates, with reasons.
    (b) To what extent do the methods customarily employed in estimating the distribution of national income according to particular categories give a satisfactory appraisal of any oneof the four main types discussed in economic theory – wages, interest, rent, profits?
  5. (a) Discuss the place of capital gains in national income estimates.
    (b) What is meant by capital formation? What are the leading obstacles to a satisfactory measurement thereof?
  6. (a) Given an online account of the relation between size of income (of individuals) and the main sources from which income is derived. How, in general, does the business cycle affect these relationships?
    (b) What is meant by real income? Name and discuss two chief obstacles to the measurement thereof.
  7. (Clark) Name, and common briefly upon, the chief differences in method of estimating national income, as between Great Britain and the United States.
  8. (Martin) Four main types of entrepreneurs are distinguished – farmers, retail-store proprietors, service establishment owners, professional practitioners. Comment upon the data available for estimating incomes of these groups, and give your views as to the validity of such estimates.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 3, Folder “Final examinations, 1937-1938”.

Image source: Portrait of William Leonard Crum from the Harvard Class Album, 1946.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of Transportation and Public Utilities. Exams, Readings for Public Utilities. Crum, Cunningham, C.O. Ruggles, 1940-41

 

 

 

The following course on public utilities and transporation regulation was co-taught by William Leonard Crum, professor of statistics in the department of economics, William J. Cunningham, professor of railroad operations and transportation at the Graduate School of Business, and  Clyde Orval Ruggles, professor of public utility management at the Graduate School of Business.

Cunningham was a member of the original faculty of the Harvard Business School, having gone from working in railroad management and administration to teaching railroad operations. He had an honorary A.M. degree from Harvard in 1921 but apparently never possessed another formal academic credential (other than an honorary D.Sc. awarded him upon his 1946 retirement by the Clarkson College of Technology).

The only part of the course syllabus in the Harvard Archives’ course folder was for the portion taught by Professor Ruggles, transcribed below.

Looking for other biographical information about William J. Cunningham, I just discovered that there is a folder with course material at Harvard Business School’s Baker Library: Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School, Harvard University William J. Cunningham papers Series II. Teaching Records, 1920-1941 Economics 163, 1940-1941.

_____________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 163. Economics of Public Utilities (including Transportation). Mon., Wed., at 4, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructors. Professors Crum, Cunningham, and Ruggles.

This course deals with the economic problems of the Public Utility industries including railways. Attention is given to rates and rate structures, valuation, the issue and regulation of securities, utility managements, the relation of the commissions to the courts, and public ownership of utility enterprises.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics containing an Announcement for 1940-41. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII No. 51 (August 15, 1940), p. 62.

_____________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 163. Professors Crum, Cunningham and Ruggles. — Economics of Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 18: 9 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1940-41, p. 60.

 

_____________________________

READINGS FOR ECONOMICS 163

[Note: only for the Ruggles’ portion of the course]

Unless otherwise indicated, all references marked with the asterisk are required.

March 17

Legal and Economic Criteria Regarding the Public Utility Concept.

Read three of the following marked with the asterisk:

*Clay, C. M. Regulation of Public Utilities (1932). Part I, pp. 3-130.

*Jones & Bigham. Principles of Public Utilities (1931). Chapter II, “Characteristics of Public Utilities,” pp. 62-101.

*Wilson, Herring and Eutsler. Public Utility Industries. Chapter I, “The Characteristics of Public Utilities,” pp. 1-25.

Glaeser, Outlines of Public Utility Economics (1927).  Chapter I, “Nature and Scope of Public Utility Economics,” pp. 1-22.

*Thompson and Smith, Public Utility Economics (1941). Chapter IV, “What Is a Public Utility?” pp. 56-74;  Chapter V, “Economic Characteristics of Public Utilities,” pp. 75-98.

March 19

Competition, Load Factor, Output, and Economic Conditions as Affecting Rate Making.

*Behling, B.N. Competition and Monopoly in Public Utility Industries (University of Illinois Press, 1938). A Ph.D. thesis, p. 175.

*Bernstein, E.M. Public Utility Rate Making and the Price Level (1937). Chapter IX, “Rate Making in Prosperity and Depression,” pp. 105-119.

*Clark, J.M. Studies in the Economics of Overhead Costs (1923). Chapter XVI, “Public Utilities,” pp. 318-334.

Eisenmenger, H.E. Central Station Rates in Theory and Practice (1921). Appendix II, Explanation of the Terms “Load Curve” and “Load Factor” (For the Non-technical Reader), pp. 260-266.

Hardy, C. O. Recent Growth of the Electric Light and Power Industry. The Brookings Institution, Pamphlet Series Vol. I, No. 1, April, 1929, p. 60.

March 24

Rate Structures; Reasonableness of Rates; Theory of Rate Making in the TVA Act.

*Nash, L.R. Rate Structures (1933). Chapter II, “Rate Classifications and Forms,” pp. 11-29; Chapter IX, “Promotional Rates,” pp. 152-197; and Chapter XIII, “Economic Factors in Rate Making,” pp. 296-330.

*Jones and Bigham. Op. Cit. Chapters VII and VIII, “Rate Structures,” pp. 288-386.

*Bauer. Effective Regulation of Public Utilities (1925). Chapter XI, “Rate Schedules,” pp. 275-301.

Barker, H. Public Utility Rates (1917). Chapter III, “Various Bases for Rates,” pp. 10-17.

Bryant and Hermann. Elements of Utility Rate Determination (1940).

Eisenmenger, H.E. Op. Cit. Section II, “The Price of Electric Service,“ pp. 62-102.

March 26

Discrimination in Rate Making; Service and Minimum Charges.

*Havilik, H.F. Service Charges in Gas and Electric Rates (1938). A Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, p. 234.

*Kennedy, W.F. The Objective Rate Plan (1937, Columbia University Press), p. 83.

Nichols, E. Public Utility Service and Discrimination (1928). Chapter XXVII, “Discrimination in Rates Generally,” pp. 856-901; Chapter XXVIII, “Rate Discrimination in Favor of Particular Classes,” pp. 902-934; Chapter XIX, “Rate Discrimination in Favor of Public Welfare, Educational, and Social Organizations,” pp. 935-949; Chapter XXX, “Rate Discrimination in Favor of Contract Holders of Equipment,” pp. 950-966; Chapter XXXI, “Rate Discrimination in Favor of Large Consumers and Industrial and Commercial Enterprises,” pp. 967-975.

Batson. The Price Policies of German Public Utility Undertakings (1933). Chapter IX, “Electricity-Supply Charges,” pp. 143-182; Chapter XII, “Conclusion,” pp. 213-216.

April 7

The Geographical Unit for Rate Making; Municipal, Statewide, and Regional Uniformity in Rates.

*Decision of Wisconsin Supreme Court in Eau Claire v. Railroad Commission. Public Utility Reports (P.U.R.) 1922 D666.

*Georgia and Alabama Commissions Install Uniform Electric Rates. Public Utility Fortnightly, Vol. IV, pp. 773-774 (1929).

*Decision of the Pennsylvania Superior Court in Borough of Ambridge v. Pennsylvania Commission, 31 P.U.R. (N.S.) 50. (1939).

*Annual Report, Secretary of the Interior, 1938, p. 84 (Bonneville Rates).

*Commissioner Maltbie’s (New York) Criticism of Implications in Federal Power Commission’s Data on Public Utility Rates. Electrical World, January 14, 1939, p. 112.

*Statement of Chairman of Tennessee Rural Electrification Authority. Public Utility Fortnightly, Vol. XXV, p. 631 (May 9, 1940).

*Bonbright, J.C. Price Policy and Price Behavior. Papers and Proceedings of American Economic Association, Vol. XXX, No. 5, February, 1941, pp. 379-389.

April 9

The Rate Base; Theories in (a) Federal Water Power Act, 1920; (b) Transportation Act of 1920.

*Bonbright, J. C. Valuation of Property (1937). Vol. II, Chapter XXX, “Valuation for Rate Making Purposes: Economic Theory versus Legal Doctrine,” pp. 1078-1110; Chapter XXXI, “Valuation for Rate Making Purposes: Methods of Appraisal; Non-utility Price Fixing,” pp. 1111-1165.

*Bauer, John. Op. Cit. Chapter IV, “Valuation Primarily a Legislative Responsibility,” pp. 47-60; Chapter V, “Court Decisions on Valuation” pp. 61-103; Chapter IX, “Systematic Maintenance of the Rate Base,” pp. 228-252.

Hartman, H.H. Fair Value (1920). Chapter IV, “The Theory of Valuation,” pp. 77-93.

*Glaeser. Op. Cit. Chapter XIV, “The Movement for Physical Valuation,” pp. 311-338.

*Clark. Social Control of Business (2d ed., 1939). Chapter XX, “Fair Value and Fair Return — The Legal Doctrine,” pp. 303-319; Chapter XXI, “Fair Earnings and Fair Value from the Economic Standpoint — Two Phases of One Fact,” pp. 320-336.

Tendency of Supreme Court decisions to favor reproduction cost less depreciation. Indicated in Q.J.E. XVII (1912-1913), pp. 27 and 616.

Graham, W.J. Public Utility Valuation; Reproduction Cost as a Basis for Depreciation and Rate-Base Determination. Studies in Business Administration, University of Chicago (1934), Vol. IV, No. 3, p. 95.

Barnes, I.R. “Shall Going Value Be Included in the Rate Base?” Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, November, 1940, pp. 430-437.

April 14

Rate of Return; Capital Structure; Control of Investment and Issue of Securities.

*Bernstein. Op. Cit. Chapter VIII, “The Fair Rate of Return,” pp. 91-104.

*Smith, N.L. The Fair Rate of Return in Public Utility Regulation (1932). Chapter I, “Regulation, Valuation and the Rate of Return,” pp. 1-48; Chapter II, “Elements of the Fair Return,” pp. 49-79.

*Thompson and Smith. Op. Cit. Chapter XVII, “Fair Rate of Return,” pp. 349-361.

*Waterman, M.H. Financial Policies of Public Utility Holding Companies, Michigan Business Studies, Vol. V (1932), Chapter 4, “Trading on the Equity,” pp. 78-99.

*Jones and Bigham. Op. Cit. Chapter XI, “Regulation of Securities,” pp. 495-547.

Report of the Public Utilities Division, Securities and Exchange Commission, on “The Problem of Maintaining Arm’s Length Bargaining and Competitive Conditions in the Sale and Distribution of Securities of Registered Public Utility Holding Companies and Their Subsidiaries” (December, 1940), p. 46. (Comprehensive Appendices A to F inclusive.)

April 16

Sliding Scale and other “Automatic” Devices for Controlling Rates and Rate of Return; Rate of Return and Efficiency in Management.

*Bussing, Irwin. Public Utility Regulation and the So-Called Sliding Scale. Columbia University Press, 1936, p. 174. (A Ph.D. thesis)

*Clark. Social Control of Business (2d ed., 1939). Chapter XXII, “Regulation, Service, and Efficiency,” pp. 337-349.

Morgan, C.S. Regulation and Management of Public Utilities (1923). Chapter V, “Methods at Present Used to Promote Efficiency in the Management of Public Utilities,” pp. 144-233.

April 21

The Holding Company; Corporate Simplification and Physical Integration under the Public Utility Holding Company Act.

*Bonbright and Means. The Holding Company (1932). Chapter V, “The Public Utility Holding Company — Organization of the Major Systems,” pp. 90-148; Supplement to Chapter VI, “Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Types of Utility Integration,” pp. 188-199.

*Lillienthal, D.E. “The Regulation of the Holding Company.” 29 Columbia Law Review 404-440 (April, 1929).

*Wright, Warren. “Tests of Reasonableness for Charges of Services from Holding Company to Subsidiary.” Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, Vol. 6 (November 1930), pp. 417-423.

Waterman, M.H. Op. Cit. Chapter 3, “Parent Company versus Subsidiary Company Financing,” pp. 45-77.

National Association of Railroad and Utilities Commissioners. Proceedings of Fortieth Annual Convention, 1928. “Report of the Committee on Capitalization and Intercorporate Relations,” pp. 504-511.

April 23

Regulatory Policies and Efficiency and Inefficiency in Management.

*Morgan, C.S. Op. Cit. Chapters I-III, pp. 1-117, and Chapter VII, pp. 307-346.

*Lyon, Abramson, and Associates. Government and Economic Life (1940). Chapter XXI, Sec. I, “The Rationale of Regulation,” pp. 618-625; Sec. II, “The Structure and Process of Regulation,” pp. 626-671; Sec. III, “The Substantive Problems of Regulation,” pp. 672-728.

Bauer, John. Op. Cit. Chapter XIII, “Effect upon Service and Efficiency of Operation,” pp. 328-349.

Fainsod, Merle. “Regulation and Efficiency in Management.” Yale Law Review, May, 1940, pp. 1190-1211.

April 28

National Power Policy; Public Ownership and the Government Corporation.

Voskuil, W.H. The Economics of Water Power Development (1928). Chapters I-III, pp. 1-43.

*Bird, F.L. The Management of Small Municipal Lighting Plants (1932). Chapters II-III, pp. 9-53, and Chapters VIII-IX, pp. 106-139.

Hodge, C.L. The Tennessee Valley Authority (1938). Chapter II, pp. 29-49; Chapter VIII, 201-248.

Mason, E.S. The Street Railway in Massachusetts (1932). Chapters 8 and 9, pp. 163-192.

Dimock, M.E. British Public Utilities and National Development (1933). Chapter I, “The Setting,” pp. 19-62; Chapter VI, “National Electricity Planning,” pp. 195-227; Chapter VII, “Electrical Progress and the National Economy,” pp. 228-262.

McDiarmid, John. Government Corporations and Federal Funds (1936). Chapters I and II, pp. 1-50; Chapter IX, “Conclusions,” pp. 209-232.

*Taussig. Principles of Economics. Vol. II, Chapter 66, pp. 472-489.

*Lyon, Abramson, and Associates. Op. Cit. Vol. II, Chapter XXI, Sec. IV, “Public Ownership and Operation,” pp. 369-377.

*Clark, J.M. Social Control of Business. Chapter XXIV, “Public Control versus Public Operation,” pp. 369-377.

Abrams, E.R. Power in Transition (1940). Chapter II, “National Power Policies and Activities,” pp. 20-41; Chapter IX, “Threats of Public Power Projects and National Power Policies,” pp. 297-306.

*Bonbright, J.C. Public Utilities and the National Power Policies. (Public lectures at Columbia University, 1940), p. 82.

April 30

Legislative, Judicial, and Administrative Regulation.

*Jones and Bigham. Op. Cit. Chapter III, pp. 102-156, and Chapter IV, pp. 157-190.

*Glaeser. Op. Cit. Chapter VII, “The Common Law Basis of Public Utility Regulation,” pp. 156-180; Chapter VII, “The Constitutional Basis of Public Utility Regulation,” pp. 181-194; and Chapter XXXIII, “General Summary and Forecast of the Development of Regulation,” pp. 733-754.

*Mosher and Crawford. Public Utility Regulation (1933). Chapter IV, “Judicial Review of Commission Determination,” pp. 41-53.

*Clay. Op. Cit. Part III, “Conclusion,” pp. 273-297.

*Fainsod, Merle. “Some Reflections on the Nature of the Regulatory Process.” Chapter X, pp. 297-323, in Public Policy, a Yearbook of the Graduate School of Public Administration, Harvard University (1940), edited by Friedrich, C.J. and Mason, E.S.

Landis, James M. “Crucial Issues in Administrative Law: The Walter-Logan Bill.” Harvard Law Review, May, 1940, pp. 1077-1103.

*National Association of Railroad and Utilities Commissioners, Report of the Committee on Progress in Public Utility Regulation. Utility Regulation and National Defense, December, 1940. Section IV, “Critical Utility Regulatory Problems,” pp. 125-147.

Herring, E.P. Federal Commissioners, A Study of Their Careers and Qualifications. Harvard University Press, 1936, pp. 1-104.

Parsons, R.H. Early Days of the Power Industry (English), 1940. Chapter XI, “Legislation Affecting the Electrical Industry,” pp. 184-200.

Pegrum, D.F. “The Public Corporation as a Regulatory Device.” Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, August, 1940, pp. 335-343.

Smith, N.L. “The Outlook in Regulation,” Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, November, 1940, pp. 386-392, and February, 1941, pp. 48-53.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1940-41”.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
FINAL EXAMINATION
June 1941.

(Answer 6 questions, selecting 3 from Part 1 and 3 from Part 2. Use a separate blue book for each part.)

PART I—TRANSPORTATION

I

In his discussion of the cost of transportation Healy draws a distinction between “joint costs” and “common costs.” Give illustrations which for each of the two groups will make the distinction clear and discuss the bearing of such costs (whether designated as joint or common) on the determination of commodity rates.

II

The commodities clause of the Interstate Commerce Act has since 1908 prohibited a railroad from transporting commodities which it produced or in which it had any direct or indirect interest. That prohibition was continued in the 1940 revision of the Act but it has not been made applicable to common or contract carriers by highway, water or pipe line.

(a) What was the purpose of the prohibition when first applied to railroads in 1908?

(b) Does public interest now require the continuation of the prohibition?

(c) If continued for railroads should it be made applicable also to other carriers, especially common carrier pipe lines?

III

The Transportation Act of 1940 provides for the establishment of a transportation board which, among other things, would investigate and report on “the relative economy and fitness” of the several carriers for transportation service “or any particular classes or descriptions thereof.” Discuss this section of the Act from the following viewpoints:

(a) The need for the creation of such a board

(b) The criteria for the determination of relative fitness

(c) The problems of greatest difficulty in reaching conclusions as to how “there may be provided a national transportation system adequate to meet the needs of the commerce of the United States, of the postal service and of the national defense.”

IV

The present rule of rate making (Section 15a of the 1940 Transportation Act) applying to common carriers by rail, highway, water and pipe line is:

“In the exercise of its power to prescribe just and reasonable rates the Commission shall give due consideration, among other factors, to the effect of rates on the movement of traffic by the carrier or carriers for which the rates are prescribed;to the need, in the public interest, of adequate and efficient railway transportation service at the lowest cost consistent with the furnishing of such service; and to the need of revenues sufficient to enable the carriers, under honest, economical, and efficient management, to provide such service.”

(a) What was the main reason for departing from the principle of the 1920 Act requiring the Commission to set rates so as to yield, for the railroads collectively, a fair return on value?

(b) Why did the railroads object to the inclusion, in first place, of the factor of “effect of rates on the movement of traffic”?

(c) The present law differs from the 1933 law only by the addition of the words “by the carrier or carriers for which the rates are prescribed” (italicized above). What is the significance of the added words?

V

From the viewpoint of a sound financial structure of a railroad discuss the significance of:

(a) The ratio of funded debt to total capitalization

(b) Provision for sinking funds on mortgage bonds

(c) Provision for a stated sum annually, or a percentage of operating revenues, for routine capital improvements, such provision to take precedence in claim on net income over interest charges on income bonds and dividends on stock.

 

PART 2—PUBLIC UTILITY ECONOMICS

VI

Explain the economic significance of a peak demand upon (a) an electric power utility, (b) a gas utility, (c) a local transit utility, and (d) a telephone utility.

VII

Explain the basis upon which utility service should or should not be extended that may not initially cover (a) the utility’s increment costs and (b) in addition to increment costs, some return upon an approved base.

VIII

Distinguish between (a) minimum and (b) service charges for public utility service and explain which type of rate you prefer.

IX

Discuss the economic significance of such modes of rate making as employ (a) such “escalator” devices as fuel clauses and (b) the so-called “sliding scale,” which relates rates to the utility’s rate of return.

X

What is the purpose of a depreciation charge? Of the following methods of determining annual depreciation, explain which you prefer and why: (a) a percentage of gross revenue, and (b) a percentage of depreciable property.

XI

Explain the difference in the theory of valuation of public utility property in (a) the Transportation Act of 1920 and (b) the Federal Water Power Act of 1920. Indicate which of the theories you approve and why.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations 1853-2001.Box 5. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations—History, History of Religions,…, Government, Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. June 1941.

Image Sources:  Crum from the  Harvard Class Album 1941, Cunningham and Ruggles from the Harvard Business School Yearbook, 1946-47 and 1937-38, respectively.

 

Categories
Economists Harvard Tufts

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Richard Vincent Gilbert, 1930

 

Richard Vincent Gilbert was encountered in an earlier post as one of two Jewish job market candidates being recommended for academic appointments by Harvard’s economics department in 1929. This post provides futher biographical and career information for R. V. Gilbert, a 1930 Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus. His parents were Meyer Goldberg and Feigel (Fanny) Gaylburd. I presume he chose to change his name to Gilbert from Goldberg to blend in better with his U.S. academic environs. [Cf., The Harvard economist Abram Bergson was born to Isaac and Sophie Burkowsky whose last name morphed to Burk and only after the publication of his famous welfare economics article in the QJE, did Abram Burk become Abram Bergson.]

Richard Vincent Gilbert and his wife, Emma Cohen Gilbert, were the parents of one of the three winners of the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1980, Walter Myron Gilbert.

__________________

PhD Exams of Richard Vincent Gilbert, 1927

General Examination: in Economics, Wednesday, February 9, 1927.

Committee: Professors Young (chairman), Crum, Monroe, Usher, and Woods.

Academic History: University of Pennsylvania, 1919-20; Harvard College, 1920-23; Harvard Graduate School, 1923-. B.S., Harvard, 1923; M.A., Harvard, 1925. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1923-.

General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Money and Banking. 3. Statistics. 4. Economic History since 1776. 5. History of Ancient Philosophy. 6. Theory of International Trade.

Special Subject: Theory of International Trade.

Thesis Subject: Theory of International Trade. (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1926-1927”.

__________________

PhD Dissertation of Richard Vincent Gilbert

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.

Thesis title: Theory of International Payments.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1929-1930, p. 119.

__________________

Obituary for R.V. Gilbert
F.D.R. Economics Adviser (d. 6 Oct 1985)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Richard V. Gilbert, an economics adviser in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Administration, has died at home at age 83.

He had been ill with cancer and suffered a heart attack 10 days before his death last Sunday.

Gilbert served as a speechwriter for Roosevelt on economic issues during World War II. Economist Walter Salant of the Brookings Institution in Washington once called Gilbert “the outstanding, unsung hero of American wartime economic policy.”

He is credited, along with economist Robert Nathan, with persuading Roosevelt to boost aircraft and tank production and to accelerate merchant shipping.

Gilbert left teaching posts at Harvard University, Radcliffe and the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University to become economic adviser in 1939 to Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins. He went on to become economic adviser to the price administrator and director of research in the Office of Price Administration.

Source: Associated Press, from the Los Angeles Times (October 13, 1985).

__________________

Biographical Note for the Richard V. Gilbert Papers at the FDR Presidential Library

Richard Vincent Gilbert was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 6, 1902 and educated at Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1931 [sic, 1930].

As a member of the Harvard faculty from 1924 to 1939, Gilbert taught courses in economic history and money and banking and participated in the Fiscal Policy Seminar at Littauer School of Public Administration, 1937- 39. He also taught courses in money and banking at Radcliffe College and international trade and finance at the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy from 1934 to 1939.

In 1939 and 1940, Gilbert was the Director of the Division of Industrial Economics and Economic Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce. He then became Director of the Defense Economics Section of the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (formerly the Price Stabilization Division of the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense), Economic Advisor to the Administration, and, from 1941 to 1946, Director of Research for the Office of Price Administration. He was a consulting economist from 1946 to 1949 and then joined Schenley Industries, Inc. as an Assistant to the Chairman of the Board. He later became a Vice President of the company.

Dr. Gilbert is the author of numerous articles and, with others [George H. Hildebrand Jr., Arthur W. Stuart, Maxine Yaple Sweezy, Paul M. Sweezy, Lorie Tarshis, and John D. Wilson], wrote a book entitled An Economic Program for American Democracy, which was published in 1938.

The papers of Richard V. Gilbert cover the period 1939 to 1948, during most of which he was a Federal Government employee. With few exceptions, the papers consist of official correspondence, memoranda, speech drafts, reports, and printed matter. Since Gilbert and his associates collaborated on the numerous reports and speech drafts written for the use of their agency and others, the authorship of certain items is unclear. For this reason, reports and speech drafts are generally filed with the records of the agency for which Gilbert was working at the time. The papers have been arranged in a single alphabetical series.

Died 6 October 1985 in Cambridge, Mass.

Source:  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum. Richard V. Gilbert Papers, 1939-1948. Collection Historical Note

Image Source: Gilbert’s senior year picture in the Harvard Class Album, 1923.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for “The Corporation and its Regulation”, 1935

 

 

While the Harvard archives collection of printed final examinations has a few serious gaps and is sometimes incomplete (especially with respect to the mid-year exams for year-long courses), it is truly a great resource, especially when the exams get paired to the corresponding syllabus/reading-list found elsewhere in the archives. I’m am now roughly a third of the way in matching exams to course syllabi/reading-lists that I have already posted. Once I catch up, I’ll be posting the combinations regularly from thereon out.

Today takes us back to the extremely popular (in the mid-1930s) Harvard course co-taught by Messrs. Crum, Mason, and Chamberlin on the corporation and its regulation. It is interesting to note that Henry Simons’ pamphlet “A Positive Program for Laissez-Faire” (1934) while not be included in the reading list was important enough to account for 50% of the examination (Q. 1) below. 

_____________________________

 

Final Examination
The Corporation and its Regulation

Professors William Leonard Crum, Edward Sagendorph Mason, and Edward Hastings Chamberlin

1934-35
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 4a1

1. Note: Allow about an hour and a half for this question. Discuss any two of the following proposals:

A recently published programme for a liberal economic policy proposes in part:

  1. That no corporation which engages in the manufacture or merchandising of commodities or services shall own any securities of any other such corporation.
  2. That corporations may issue securities only in a small number of simple forms prescribed by law, and that no single corporation may employ more than two (or three) of the different forms.
  3. That investment corporations (including holding companies) shall hold stock in operating companies without voting rights, and shall be prohibited from exercising influence over such companies with respect to management.

2. Write on any three of the following:

  1. “The Securities Act is merely an attempt to make the corporation lawyer and financier the scapegoats of the depression.” Discuss.
  2. “It is not possible in a modern corporation to discover who performs the entrepreneurial function, nor to apply to a modern corporation any theory of profits based on the assumption that individual proprietorships and partnerships are the typical forms of business enterprise.” Discuss.
  3. Distinguish between earned and capital surplus. What is the importance of the distinction? In what various ways may a capital surplus arise? Discuss the declaration of dividends out of surplus.
  4. “One of the largest textile mills in the United States found itself in 1932 with $2,000,000 cash, no bonds, and hardly any current obligations. Its stock was quoted at $30 a share, though the corporation had nearly $35 in net quick assets. Accordingly, it purchased some of its own shares. Obviously, by whatever course of reasoning we proceed, this was of advantage not only to the corporation, because it reduced the number of shares upon which it must pay dividends in order to maintain its investment credit, but also to the great body of stockholders, because it increased the available equity of each share. We may add that it was of advantage to the individual shareholder who was forced to sell his shares, in that it increased the number of purchasers.” Discuss.

 

Final. [February] 1935.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers—Finals, 1935 (HUC 7000.28, 77 of 284).

Image Source: Crum, Mason and Chamberlin from Harvard Album 1934.

Categories
Courses Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Edward Chamberlin Lobbies to Teach a Graduate Theory Course. 1935

 

 

With the retirements of Charles J. Bullock and Frank W. Taussig in 1935 Edward H. Chamberlin saw his opportunity to start to break out of his designated field box “government and industry” and into “theory”. We have here a letter that Chamberlin wrote to the head of the economics department, Harold H. Burbank. The letter is of the putting-this-conversation-into-the-written-record variety. His deference to Burbank and recognition of the established claims of other colleagues to the theory field are complemented with a dash of false-modesty—“Perhaps I may, however,…put in my own ‘claim’ (if such it may be called) for whatever consideration it deserves.”

In any event, from the subsequent shuffle in instructional assignments for the 1935-36 academic year, we see that Chamberlin succeeded in joining Schumpeter and Leontief at the Harvard theory table.

________________________

Letter from Associate Professor Chamberlin to Chairman Burbank
Requesting to teach a graduate course in theory

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

14 Ash Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 26, 1935

Professor H. H. Burbank, Chairman
Department of Economics,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass.

 

Dear Burby:

This is to confirm our conversation of the other day. I should like to ask if arrangements could possibly be made at this late date for me to give a graduate half course next year on “Contemporary Value Theory.”

I have been asked by several people recently why it was that, although the theoretical problems which Mrs. Robinson and myself have raised are the subject of lively controversies in numerous other universities, one finds them very much in the background at Harvard. There does seem to be a general interest in the subject, and, since I have a strong continuing interest in it myself, the occasion seems to present itself of offering to graduate students at Harvard a better opportunity than they now have to study and discuss this set of problems and others related to it.

I realize that others than myself have claims to theory courses and that the problems of fitting the members of the Department to courses are not easy. Perhaps I may, however, even for this very reason, put in my own “claim” (if such it may be called) for whatever consideration it deserves. My work in Public Utilities and Industrial Organization could be reduced without difficulty. Donald Wallace could take my part in Economics 49 with Professors Crum and Mason, and, I am sure, would do an excellent job of it. This arrangement, together with a slight reduction in my tutorial load, would give me the time for another half course and I should continue in the undergraduate 4a and 4c. I should have, even then, only one-fifth of my time in theory, the other four fifths in the practical field of government and industry.

You have recently intimated in conversation that I might soon be given a share of the work in theory. I hope it may be next year, and also that a way can be found to arrange for it without interfering with the work which others are now doing or plan to do in the field.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Edward H. Chamberlin

________________________

Copy of letter from Chairman Burbank to Dean Murdock
with changes to 1935-36 course announcements

April 17, 1935

Dear Dean Murdock,

Owing to the retirement of Professor Taussig, several changes in the Course Announcement for the coming year will have to be made. The Department recommends the following:

*Economics 7b1. Theories of Value and Distribution. [listed as “Modern Economic Thought” in Report of the President of Harvard College 1935-36, p. 82; ]

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin.
[Replacing Taussig, Schumpeter and Sweezy who taught in 1934-35]

Economics 8a2. Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economics.

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., 4-5. Asst. Professor Leontief.
[Replacing Schumpeter who taught in 1934-35]

Economics 11. Economic Theory.

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2. Professor Schumpeter.
[Replacing Taussig and Schumpeter who taught in 1934-35]

Economics 14b2. History of Economic Thought since 1776.

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Monroe.
[Replacing “History and Literature of Economics from the Physiocrats through Ricardo” taught by Professor Bullock in 1934-35. Bullock retired from Harvard September 1, 1935.]

Sincerely yours,

H. H. Burbank

Dean Kenneth B. Murdock
20 University Hall

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives, Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 23, Folder “Course offerings 1926-1937”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1939.

Categories
Curriculum Economists Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate Economics and WWII, 1942

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

 

 

In an earlier post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provided the syllabus and readings for the Harvard course Economics 18b “Economic Aspects of War” offered in the Spring term of 1940. Today’s post provides information about course changes and faculty leaves that were early parts of “broad plans to orient its [i.e., the Department of Economics] program to the nation’s wartime needs” two years later.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Harvard Gazette (Nov 10, 2011) posted a bullet point list “to recount Harvard’s role in World War II“.

_____________________

Harvard Crimson
March 18, 1942

Training for War Work Offered by Economics
By J. ROBERT MOSKIN

This is the sixth in a series of articles to appear during the coming weeks discussing the effects of the present war on the departments of concentration, their courses, enrollment, and Faculties.

Pointing directly at the preparation of undergraduates for war work in Washington and in the quartermaster corps of the armed services, the Economics Department has developed broad plans to orient its program to the nation’s wartime needs. Although in the blueprint stage now, concrete advancements will be made this summer and next fall.

Economics, of all the non-scientific fields, has organized most fully to adapt its students to the emergency. Upon receiving their bachelor degree, students will be ready to take Civil Service examinations for such positions as junior economist, which pays $2,000 annually, or to complete further graduate work and then enter the supply division of the armed services. There is a large demand for college trained men in both these fields.

Prepared for Peace

Students in the war preparation course for government jobs, the department insists, will not be unfit for peacetime work. They will receive the usual foundation in economics but on a more concentrated and demanding scale with added emphasis on techniques. All students studying for government work, for example, will probably be required to take Math A and courses in Statistics and Accounting. At the present time, these courses are entirely voluntary.

Under the proposed plan, concentrators who wish to prepare along pre-war lines will find the field little altered and a full opportunity to study as in the past. The demands of the current crisis, however, have thrown business as usual into the background and opened the way for the development of an objective service branch in Economics.

Students in this latter portion of the field will also be required to take more economics courses. Now they must have History I, Government I, and four Economics courses including Ec A. While retention of the History and Government requisites is being debated, this minimum will surely be raised.

Two New Courses Planned

Two new courses, bearing directly on war problems, are already scheduled for next fall under the direction of Professor Abbott P. Usher. Bracketing Economic History 1750-1914, 36, Professor Usher will offer two half courses in successive semesters: Location of Economic Activity, General Principles and Current Problems, 65a, and Economic Imperialism and Allied Problems, 44b. Moreover, the contents of current courses will be supplemented to answer questions arising from the war.

The 12-week summer program presents the department with a more complicated situation. Under serious consideration both here and in Washington is a plan to extend instruction in Economics to government workers during the summer term. Courses for these men will be open to undergraduates and in fact will be very often the usual department subjects. The program will probably feature such courses as Money and Banking, Economics of War, and a new course in Commodity Consumption, Distribution and Prices.

Changes Few So Far

But all the planning is still “on order.” While the Economics Department has developed a more revolutionary and extensive war program than many others, its adjustments already in effect are much less extensive.

In the past three years there has been a violent reduction in the number of concentrators in Economics with the 372 of November 1939 down to 267 last November. The department attributes the drop, in the main, to the parallel decline of long terms for younger staff members. This rapid turnover has made for a less experienced Faculty and a slackening of student interest.

This year the department has suffered the loss of two important professors to the war effort. Professor William L. Crum is now working for the Navy and the Treasury and Professor Edward S. Mason is in the Office of the Coordinator of Information in Washington. To replace Mason, who has been absent the entire year, Corwin D. Edwards of the Department of Justice and now visiting lecturer on Economics is giving graduate Instruction in Industrial Organization and Price Policies.

Neither graduate nor undergraduate Instruction has as yet been radically affected by the war, but drastic reductions in graduate enrollment are predicted by the department. Among undergraduate courses, Economics of Agriculture, 71, has been dropped from the roster because Visiting Instructor Albert A. Thornbrough was called to Washington last September. Instructor Lloyd A. Metzler is replacing Professor Mason in Industrial Organization and Control, 62b, while Economic Aspects of War and Defense, 18b, offered in the first half year, has been extended to this semester as 18c and made available to men whether or not they have completed the previous half year’s work.

Image Source.“Harvard goes to war, University’s key role in World War II helped the Allies to triumph” Harvard University Archives, Harvard’s 1943 Commencement. Included in: Corydon Ireland,  Harvard Gazette, November 10, 2011.