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Chicago Regulations

Chicago. Committee on Ph.D. Outlines & Requirements, 1949 (1)

The University of Chicago Department of Economics was dissatisfied with its procedures for appraising and approving dissertation projects in late 1948 and a committe was formed to make recommendations with Milton Friedman as its chairperson. Here I post T.W. Schultz’s official memo naming the members of the committee and Milton Friedman’s initial memo to the committee clearly signalling his intention of having a major rethink about what a Ph.D. thesis is supposed to be about. 

___________________________

[Memo #1, 10 Dec 1948]

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Date   December 10, 1948

 

To      Mr. Friedman, Mr. Blough, Mr. Marschak,                        Department Economics
Mr. Johnson

 

From T. W. Schultz                                                                             Department Economics

 

The faculty of the Department of economics authorized a committee to prepare a memorandum setting forth the problem of students’ Ph.D. outlines and the procedure to be followed by the Department in appraising and approving Ph.D. thesis projects, including the type of outlines and supporting materials that a student should submit to the Department for its use when it passes upon the petition to admission to candidacy.

May I ask you to serve as members of this committee with Professor Friedman acting as chairman?

The report should be directed to the Department to be circulated well in advance of the departmental meeting in which it is to be considered.

___________________________

[Memo #2, early 1949]

[Undated, written sometime after the Schultz memo of December 10, 1948 and the Friedman memo of May 23, 1949 that followed two meetings of this Committee which had taken place.]

TO:                  R. Blough, J. Marschak, G. Johnson

FROM:            Milton Friedman

SUBJECT:       Committee on Ph.D. Thesis Outlines and Requirements

 

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide a basis for discussion by our committee, of which I am chairman. I have been derelict in my duty in not having prepared it much earlier, or not having called a meeting earlier.

 

  1. Our Assignment

To refresh our memories, I quote from Mr. Schultz’s note establishing the committee: “To prepare a memorandum setting forth the problem of students’ Ph.D. outlines and the procedure to be followed by the Department in appraising and approving Ph.D. thesis projects, including the type of outlines and supporting materials that a student should submit to the Department for its use when it passes upon the petition to admission to candidacy.”

Interpreted literally, this assignment would limit us to the steps up to and including admission to candidacy, and would exclude consideration of the characteristics of the thesis itself and the criteria used in its acceptance. Since it seems to me the earlier stages cannot properly be judged except in terms of the desired end product, I suggest that, at least in our own discussions, we interpret the assignment more broadly to include all problems associated with the thesis requirement.

 

  1. Present Procedure

a. Admission to candidacy. As I understand it, we have no very formalized procedure or requirements. Students typically discuss possible thesis topics with one or more faculty members, construct outlines of the projected thesis, ordinarily get the reaction of one or more faculty members to it, revise it accordingly, and then formally submit the thesis topic and outline to the Department for approval and admission to candidacy. The submitted outline is occasionally extremely detailed, occasionally very general, and is sometimes accompanied by a general statement of objective and purpose, sources of material for the thesis, etc.

b. Thesis requirements. Aside from the general and vague requirement that the thesis be an “original contribution to knowledge”, we have, so far as I know, no concrete standards for theses. Among ourselves, we have frequently expressed the view that short theses of high quality were desirable and to be promoted, and have bemoaned the tendency on the part of students to prepare lengthy, pedestrian, theses. It is my feeling, however, that the students themselves think of the thesis in terms of a full-length book, and feel that quantity is an important requirement.

The procedure for guidance of theses is informal and vague. The student ordinarily consults separately with the members of his committee as he feels the need to do so.

 

  1. The Immediate Reason for a Committee

The immediate occasion for the appointment of a committee to consider the problem is primarily the feeling of frustration and incompetence we all feel when we are required to consider thesis topics and outlines and to approve admission to candidacy. The topics are often, if not typically, vague and broad, the outlines have the appearance of being “dreamed up” along rather formal lines in order to get approval rather than of being really working outlines providing a pattern for work or a real prediction of the final organization of the thesis. We are typically reduced to approving or disapproving the tesis larely on the basis of our knowledge of the ability of the student submitting the outline rather than on the merits of the project itself.

 

  1. The More Fundamental Problem

It seems to me that the dissatisfaction with the procedure of approving admission to candidacy reflects a more basic problem—the function of the thesis in the education of the students and the best means of accomplishing that function. I feel that we will make more progress on our particular assignment by considering afresh the general problem.

It is my own feeling that nothing has done so much in the United States to degrade standards of research in economics as the Ph. D. dissertation in its existing form. (These comments do not apply in any special sense to Chicago—indeed, it seems to me that our record in this respect is outstandingly good). The standard which has, in principle, been set for the dissertation is that it be a major piece of work making an original contribution to the field, the model being a book of substantial magnitude. The usual graduate student, expected to begin his dissertation after two years of graduate work and supposed to be able to complete I in another year, is not at all prepared to do a piece of work of this character or quality in the time allotted. He does not have enough background in the field, or broad enough experience, and even if he had, he could hardly complete the dissertation in one year. Equally important, even if the student could do it, faculty advisers would find it impossible to supervise properly more than one or two studies of this magnitude and scope. Proper supervision would mean applying to the work the standards they would apply to their own work; it would mean repeated and detailed consultations with the student, word-by-word and sentence-by-sentence criticism of drafts of pieces of the thesis and of the entire thesis, some independent checking on the student’s work, etc.

The result is naturally a compromise. Faculty advisers do not provide the supervision and critical guidance required, they do not and cannot be expected to go over manuscripts in great detail and require that it be rewritten repeatedly until it meets a high standard. Even aside from the time and effort required, competition prevents such a course of action. The Ph.D. is something of a trade-union card, competition from other schools and the fair treatment of our own graduates requires that they be able to get one on terms that are not intolerably stiffer than those at other institutions. The result is that the theses all of us accept are typically pretty poor products, poorly organized, and full of poor grammar and writing, to say nothing of bad economics and analysis. The student who has a dissertation of this type accepted not only fails to get the training in economic research the thesis should provide, he also goes away, at least to some extent, with the idea that this is the kind of work that is done in economics and that is acceptable and respectable. In latter years, he is not unlikely to produce a flood of additional work no higher in quality than his original effort and even more useless since it does not even provide a trade-union card.

 

  1. The Role of the Thesis in the Education of the Student

There are a number of different functions that can be assigned to the thesis in the educational process:

 (a) To give the student training in research by “doing” and some feeling for standards of quality in research.

 (b) To sharpen the student’s knowledge of the techniques and subject matter he has acquired in course work by requiring him to apply what he has learned to a particular problem in the belief that in the process he will be forced to think through the material he has been subjected to and make it his own.

(c) To establish habits of work and some feeling for research, in the hope thereby of stimulating him to do work on his own in latter years.

(d) To give him the unquestionably important experience of carrying through to completion a major piece of work.

            The thesis might also be viewed, not solely as a part of the educational process, but also as a means of advancing knowledge in economics. I am myself inclined to give this little or no weight. At the stage at which students are not now expected to write their theses, not one student in a hundred is capable of making a “real” contribution to knowledge. Any contribution to knowledge ought in my view to be considered a welcome by-product, not a major objective.

Of the objectives listed, only the first two seem to me capable of accomplishment, with the present general standards about the stage in his career at which the student is expected to write his thesis and the time he is expected to devote to it. The last two, and particularly (d) would require something of a revolution of these standards.

 

  1. Possible Solutions of the Fundamental Problem

There seem to me only two directions in which one can proceed to solve the fundamental problem if one takes as given roughly the present student-faculty ratio.

(a) One approach would be to restrict the Ph.D. degree to many fewer persons and to make it mean something very different from what it now means. As I understand it, this is more or less the approach followed in the Scandinavian countries where the Ph.D. is ordinarily no granted except for a major piece of work done by a man ten, fifteen, or more years after he has begun his professional career. This approach, while promising and desirable if it could be followed, does not seem to me feasible. It consists essentially in saying that one ought to establish a more advanced degree than the present Ph.D. It still leaves the problem of an intermediate degree like our present Ph.D., which would be a mark of certification that an individual is ready to begin his scientific career. It seems hardly possible for one school to do so or to overturn our established custom that a thesis is part of the attainments certified to by such a degree.

(b) The other alternative that seems to me to be open is to make the professed standard of the Ph.D. more modest while raising the attained standard. Instead of a book, the standard would be a journal article. In a way, this does not involve any change, since I do not believe there is anything in our present rules which would prevent us from accepting the equivalent of a journal article as a thesis. However, unless we explicitly make an effort to change our standard and to set a different standard for our students, I doubt very much that they, or we ourselves, will depart from the standard of a book.

What I have in mind is that we should emphasize that the requirement for the Ph.D. would be satisfied by a piece of work not to exceed a specified number of pages in length and of a quality suitable for publication in a professional journal—whether actually published or not is immaterial. The emphasis should be on quality of performance, not on quantity. The expectation would be that the faculty advisers could really go over a piece of moderate length in great detail, that they could if necessary require it to be rewritten any number of times without imposing too great a hardship on the student. It could further be expected that a larger number of members of the faculty would be led to read the thesis before final acceptance, and that in this way higher standards of quality would both be imposed and actually effected. I should be inclined myself to set something like fifty double-spaced typewritten pages as the absolute maximum limit on the size of any dissertation.

 

  1. The Problem of the Thesis Outline

If we were to follow the line just suggested, it seems to me we could appropriately require higher standards in the thesis outline itself. Instead of the present brief and formal statement, we could require something of the order of a brief term-paper. This paper could be expected to contain three items as a minimum: (1) A brief statement of the problem; (2) a succinct but reasonably comprehensive summary of existing literature on the problem; (3) a fairly precise statement of the particular respects in which the student expects to extend or supplement the existing literature. Whether it contained an outline of the present form seems to me immaterial. In addition there ought to be a flat prohibition on any attempts to “justify” the topic in terms of its path-breaking importance for economic science. If we set the training of students as the primary objective, topics should be judged primarily in terms of the training the student will get, only secondarily in terms of their importance to economics.

It should be expected that the student will in general have gone over this statement with some faculty member and have gotten tentative clearance from him.

This is not a very specific recommendation, and I am hopeful that something better will come from the other members of the committee.

Beyond admission to candidacy, there are a number of additional possibilities we should investigate. I mention them only briefly.

(a) There seems to me considerable merit in the suggestion that has been made by Koopmans that the committee as a whole should meet with the candidate shortly after admission to candidacy so that there can be a meeting of minds on the direction his work should take.

(b) I have the feeling that much could be gained by getting the students to help one another by criticism and discussion. This would be valuable training both for the critic and the criticized. Could we set up some sort of a seminar for students writing their theses? In such a seminar, a student would be expected to submit something in written form, duplicated so that the other members have copies in advance. Some students now get the benefit of such discussion through the Cowles Commission and Agricultural Economics groups. Ought we to extend it to all? Or are informal groupings really more effective?

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 79, Folder 5 “University of Chicago Minutes, Ph.D. Thesis Committee”.

Image Source: Clipping from a photograph from Hoover Institution Archives (Milton Friedman Papers Box 115) in online Wall Street Journal  (18 Oct 2012): Dalibor Rohac’s review of  The Great Persuasion by Angus Burgin.

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Chicago Courses Exam Questions

Chicago. Modern Tendencies in Economics. Viner. 1933

The following list of readings and examination questions come from the Milton Friedman papers. Only the examination questions are from a typed copy, the list of reading assignments has been transcribed from Friedman’s handwritten notes from when he took the course with Jacob Viner. Links have been added whenever found.  Anything within square brackets has been added by me, otherwise I have left the text for the most part as I found it.

____________________________

From Courses of Instruction 1932-33.

303. Modern Tendencies in Economics.–A critical study of controversial questions in the general body of orthodox theory, and of some modern departures from orthodox theory. The discussion covers questions as to the selection of problems in economic theory, methods, tools of thought, assumptions, laws and standards of validity appropriate to the central body of economic though under present conditions. Prerequisite: Economics 301 or its equivalent. Spring, Viner.

Source: Announcements,Arts, Literature and Science, vol. XXXII, February, 1932, no. 12 (for the sessions 1932-33), p. 354.

____________________________

Economics 303 [Spring Quarter 1933]
Modern Economic Tendencies
Jacob Viner

 Assignments

J. S. Mill—System of Logic

Bk III, chs 8, 10, 11
Bk VI, chs 1,3,7,8,9

Some Unsettled Questions, Essay V

W. H. Hamilton—The Place of Value Theory in Economics. J.P.E. March-May [sic], 1918

[Part I, March; Part II, April]

Lionel Robbins: Essay on the Nature etc of Economics ch 1 & 2

Wesley Michel [Mitchell] Role of Money in Ec[onomic] Theory Am Ec Rev Supplement March 1916

Fetter, Price Ecs vs Welfare Ecs. Am Ec Rev. Sept, ‘20

Marshall. Consumer’s Surplus & Max satisfaction

Bk II ch VI
Bk V ch XIII, 94-97
Math App. Cost & ¶ of note XIII

J.A. Hobson, Work & Wealth. Ch 1-5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 22.

[J. A. Hobson] Free Thought & the Social Sciences pp. 131-145

Viner. Utility Concept Aug 1925, J.P.E.

Robbins: Essay on the Nature etc of Economics ch 6

Pigou Ec’s of Welfare—3rd ed only

Part I ch 1-2
Part II ch 1-5, 9, 11
Appendix III pp. 787-815
[last two items “minimum”]

[4th edition, The principal changes made in this edition affect Chapter IV. and Chapter VI. §§ 12-13 in Part I.; Chapter XI. § 2 and Chapter XV. in Part II.; and Chapter IX. §§ 2-3 and Chapter XIV. § 1 in Part III.]

Veblen: “Why is Econ not an Econ Science? Place of Science pp. 56ff or Q. J. E. July 1898

Instinct of Workmanship. Chs 5 & 6

Theory of the Leisure Class. chs 1-5

Prof. Clark’s Ec’s [Economics]: Place of Science 180 ff.

Homan. Ch. VIII in Odum Am[erican] Masters of Soc[ial] Science or in Contemporary Ec[onomic] Thought pp. 105-192.

[Homan, Paul T. (1927) ‘Thorstein Veblen’, in Odum, Howard W. (ed.) American Masters of Social Science (New York: Holt), pp. 231-70.
Homan, Paul T. (1928). Contemporary Economic Thought, Harper & Bros.]

 

Institutionalism

W. C. Mitchell Prospects of Ec[onomic]’s in Tugwell. Trends pp. 1-34.

[The Trend of Economics, Rexford Guy Tugwell (ed.) (1930). The Prospects Of Economics, By W. C. Mitchell; On Measurement In Economics, By F. C. Mills; The Socializing Of Theoretical Economics, By J. M. Clark; Communities Of Economic Interest And The Price System, By M. A. Copeland; The Reality Of Noncommercial Incentives In Economic Life, By P. H. Douglas; Economic Theory And The Statesman, By R. L. Hale; The Limitations Of Scientific Methods In Economics, By F. H. Knight; Some Recent Developments Of Economic Theory, By R. T. Bye; The Organization And Control Of Economic Activity, By S. H. Slichter; Economics Science And Art, By G. Soule; Experimental Economics, By R. G. Tugwell; Regional Comparison And Economic Progress, By W. E. Weld; Functional Economics, By A. B. Wolfe.]

Hamilton The Institutional Approach. Amer. Ec. Rev. Suppl. IV, 309-324.

[Walton H. Hamilton. The Institutional Approach to Economic Theory
The American Economic Review. Vol. 9, No. 1, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (Mar., 1919), pp. 309-318.]

Hamilton. Control of Wages ch 10, 11, 12

[Walton Hamilton and Stacy May. The Control of Wages. New York: George H. Doran, 1923).]

A. A. Young pp. 249-260 in Ec. Problems, New & Old [sic]

[Allyn Abbott Young. Economic Problems: New and Old. Houghton Mifflin Comp, 1927]

[A. A. Young] English Pol. Ec. Economica, [illegible word(s)]

[Allyn A. Young. English Political Economy. Economica. No. 22 (Mar., 1928), pp. 1-15]

 

Suggestion:

Albion Small [1924] “Origins of Sociology” ch. 11 [The Attempt to Reconstruct Classical Economic Theory on the Basis of Comparative Economic History, 1850], 14 [Later Phases of the Conflict Between the Historical and the Austrian Schools].

[Albion W. Small, Origins of Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1924.
This book was first published serially in the American Journal of Sociology, January, 1923-November, 1924, with the title Some Contributions to the History of Sociology (Section XI and XIV). The corresponding articles are found at Vol. 29, No. 4 (Jan., 1924), pp. 443-454 and Vol. 29, No. 5 (Mar., 1924), pp. 571-598.]

Cliff. Leslie [T. E. Cliffe Leslie] “Philos. Essays” Essay 14

[cf. First edition (1879, Essay XIV “On the Philosophical Method of Political Economy”) with Second edition (1888, Essay XIV Economic Science and Statistics). Essay XVI “Political Economy and Sociology” of the second edition appears to me the reading that best fits to the sociology theme at this point in the reading list..]

Parsons “Summary of …” J. P. E. Dec. 1928, Feb. 1929

[Talcott Parsons. “Capitalism” In Recent German Literature: Sombart and Weber. Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 36, No. 6 (Dec., 1928), pp. 641-661; Vol. 37, No. 1 (Feb., 1929), pp. 31-51.]

Mitchell “On Sombart” Feb ‘29

[Wesley C. Mitchell. Sombart’s Hochkapitalismus. The Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 43, No. 2 (Feb., 1929), pp. 303-323]

Rogin “On Sombart” Apr. ‘33

[Leo Rogin. Werner Sombart and the “Natural Science Method” in Economics. Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 41, No. 2 (Apr., 1933), pp. 222-236]

Sombart “Die Drei Nationalökonomien”

[Werner Sombart. Die drei Nationalökonomien : Geschichte und System der Lehre von der Wirtschaft. München [u.a.] : Duncker & Humblot, 1930]

F. C. Mills in Tugwell, Trends “On Imp[?] Methd[?]”

[The Trend of Economics, Rexford Guy Tugwell (ed.) (1930). The Prospects Of Economics, By W. C. Mitchell; On Measurement In Economics, By F. C. Mills; The Socializing Of Theoretical Economics, By J. M. Clark; Communities Of Economic Interest And The Price System, By M. A. Copeland; The Reality Of Noncommercial Incentives In Economic Life, By P. H. Douglas; Economic Theory And The Statesman, By R. L. Hale; The Limitations Of Scientific Methods In Economics, By F. H. Knight; Some Recent Developments Of Economic Theory, By R. T. Bye; The Organization And Control Of Economic Activity, By S. H. Slichter; Economics Science And Art, By G. Soule; Experimental Economics, By R. G. Tugwell; Regional Comparison And Economic Progress, By W. E. Weld; Functional Economics, By A. B. Wolfe.]

Mitchell Nov[sic] 1925. Proceedings of Am. Ec. Assoc.

[Wesley C. Mitchell. Quantitative Analysis in Economic Theory. The American Economic Review. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Mar., 1925), pp. 1-12]

[Mitchell] Mar 1929 pp. 28… (A.E.R)

[Frederick C. Mills , Jacob H. Hollander , Jacob Viner , E. B. Wilson , Wesley C. Mitchell , F. W. Taussig , T. S. Adams , John D. Black and John Candler Cobb in “The Present Status and Future Prospects of Quantitative Economics”. The American Economic Review. Vol. 18, No. 1, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (Mar., 1928), pp. 28-45]

Viner. Q. J. E. Feb ’29—Rev. of Millis on prices.

[Jacob Viner. Review of Behavior of Prices by Frederick Mills. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Vol. 43, No. 2 (Feb., 1929), pp. 337-352]

Spann “ Types of Econ Theories[“] Preface, ch. 4, 12.

[Othmar Spann. Types of Economic Theory. 1929 English translation of the 19th edition of Die Haupttheorien der Vokswirtschaftslehre,  17th edition in German]

 

Schultz assignments

Chp 3, Manuel of Pareto

[Vilfredo Pareto. Manuel d’Économie Politique. Paris: V. Giard & E. Brière, 1909]

Pareto, Traité de Sociologie Général, look in index under Dependance Mutuel, & Equilibrium

[Cf. George C. Homans and Charles P. Curtis, Jr. An Introduction Pareto: His Sociology. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1934.]

Zawadzki, W. Les mathématiques appliqués à l’économie politique. [Paris, Rivière, 1914].

 

On In[stitutional] Ec’s [Economics]

Mitchell’s essays[sic] in Trends[sic] in Ec’s[Economics] by Tugwell & paper by Mills and Mitchell’s Pres. Address to Am. St. Ass. in 1927 volume. [?]

[The Trend of Economics, Rexford Guy Tugwell (ed.) (1930). The Prospects Of Economics, By W. C. Mitchell; On Measurement In Economics, By F. C. Mills; The Socializing Of Theoretical Economics, By J. M. Clark; Communities Of Economic Interest And The Price System, By M. A. Copeland; The Reality Of Noncommercial Incentives In Economic Life, By P. H. Douglas; Economic Theory And The Statesman, By R. L. Hale; The Limitations Of Scientific Methods In Economics, By F. H. Knight; Some Recent Developments Of Economic Theory, By R. T. Bye; The Organization And Control Of Economic Activity, By S. H. Slichter; Economics Science And Art, By G. Soule; Experimental Economics, By R. G. Tugwell; Regional Comparison And Economic Progress, By W. E. Weld; Functional Economics, By A. B. Wolfe.
Wesley C. Mitchell. Statistics and Government. Publications of the American Statistical Association. Vol. 16, No. 125 (Mar., 1919), pp. 223-235]

Source: Hoover Institution. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 120. Handwritten notes for Economics 303,Modern Economic Tendencies, Jacob Viner.

­­­­­­­­­­____________________________

 

[signature: Milton Friedman]

Economics 303
1st Examination—1 hour

  1. What was J. S. Mill’s position with respect to:

(a) the scope for induction in the social sciences;

(b) the use of the “geometric method” in political economy; in the social sciences;

(c) the “economic man.”

 

  1. Explain and appraise Marshall’s technique of “maximum satisfaction” analysis.

(a) What were Veblen’s principal contributions to economic methodology?

(b) What are the differences and what the resemblances between the content of what Hobson calls “human values” and what ordinary utility theorists call “utility” or “satisfaction” or “economic welfare”?

(c) In what manner and degree does Pigou’s technique of welfare analysis overcome the difficulties in the way of accepting price as the measure of welfare.

Source: Hoover Institution. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 115, Folder 13. “Biographical: Class Exams circa 1932-1938”.

­­­­­­­­­­____________________________

[signature: Milton Friedman]

Economics 303
2nd Examination—1 hour

  1. Explain, with reference to exponents of these types of economics, any five of the following:

(a) institutional economics; [✓]

(b) genetic economics; [✓]

(c) historical economics; [✓]

(d)“verstehende” economics; [✓]

(e) functional economics; [✓]

(f) experimental economics; [✓]

(g) social economics;

(h) romantic economics[✓]

2.    (a) List all of the empirical (historical) laws of economics which have been allegedly discovered by quantitative methods, and indicate for each very briefly whether you are inclined to accept it as a law, and if so on what grounds.

(b) State as briefly as possible the nature of the difficulties in the way of the discovery of genuine empirical laws of a quantitative nature in the field of economic phenomena.

  1. Write on either:

(a) Give the equations of the general equilibrium of exchange and production indicating the underlying assumptions, and the economic meaning of each equation. Compare the general equilibrium approach with that of Marshall.

or

(b) Explain the way in which pure theory has been used to determine one of the following:

(1) the concrete, statistical curve of the marginal utility of money.

(2) statistical demand curves, with special reference to the demand for related (completing or competing) goods.

(3) theoretical “cycles” of production and prices.

Point out the underlying assumptions and critically appraise the results obtained.

 

Source: Hoover Institution. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 115, Folder 13. “Biographical: Class Exams circa 1932-1938”.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-08488, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. The photograph is dated 14 June 1944.

Categories
Columbia Courses Syllabus

Columbia. Readings International Economics. Angell, 1933

This course title is a bit misleading from today’s perspective. The emphasis is on international finance and commercial policy with maybe one-third of the second semester devoted to trade theory. This course reading list comes from Milton Friedman’s Papers at the Hoover Institution though this particular course was apparently not ever taken for credit by Milton Friedman. I have not yet found a more recent picture of Angell than this passport photo taken when he was 23-24 years of age.

__________________________

Economics 125-126—International trade. 3 points each session. Professor J. W. Angell.
M. and W. at 11. 301 Fayerweather.

World trade currents today; the foreign trade of the United States. The foreign exchanges and the world money markets. The classical theory of international trade; the maintenance of equilibrium in trade; international capital movements. Tariffs and the protective controversy. The effects of currency depreciation. Reparations and inter-ally debts.

Students who have not completed Economics 125 are admitted to Economics 126 only by permission of the instructor.

Source: Columbia University. Bulletin of Information 32 Series, No. 33 (May 14, 1932). History, Economics, Public Law, and Social Science. Courses Offered by the Faculty of Political Science for Winter and Spring Sessions 1932-33, pp. 28-29.

__________________________

READING LIST IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Economics 125-126
Revised: 1933

#          Required reading

##       Required reading, to be prepared for class-room discussion

 

FIRST SEMESTER

  1. The Balance of International Payments: World Trade Currents

# U.S. Dept. of Commerce, The Balance of International Payments of the U. S. in 19__ (Trade Information Bulletin). This study is made annually; read study for current year.

Boggs, T. F., The International Trade Balance (1922).

Bullock, C. J., Williams and Tucker, The Balance of Trade of the U.S. (Review of Economic Statistics, 1919; reprinted separately).

German Statistical Office, Wirtschaft und Statistik (this journal contains semi-annual studies of the German balance of payments).

Great Britain, Board of Trade, Journal (contains annual survey of the British balance of payments).

League of Nations, Memorandum on Balance of Payments (appears about every two years).

Lewis, Cleona, The International Accounts (1927).

Meynial, P., La Balance des Comptes (articles appearing about once a year on the French balance of payments, in La Vie Économique Française or in the Revue d’Éonomie Politique).

_____________________

Bishop, A. L., Outlines of American Foreign Commerce (1923).

Cowden, D., Measures of Exports of the U. S. (1931).

Day, C., History of Commerce (1917; new ed. 1931).

Johnson, E. R., History of the Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the U. S. (1915).

League of Nations, World Economic Survey: 1931-32; 1932-33 (successive volumes).

U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Commerce Yearbook (annual).

 

  1. Foreign Exchange; Money Markets

##Furniss, E. S., Foreign Exchange (1922). [✓]

# Keynes, J. M., Monetary Reform (1924), pp. 125-151. [✓]

#Angell, J. W., Foreign Exchange (Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1931). [✓]

Cross, I. B., Domestic and Foreign Exchange (1923).

Edwards, G. W., International Trade Finance (1924).

Escher, F., Elements of Foreign Exchange (1910).

Whitaker, A. C., Foreign Exchange (1921).

_____________________

Bagehot, W., Lombard Street (1873; 14 ed. 1915).

Beckhart, B. H., ed., The New York Money Market (4 vols.: 1931-32).

Burgess, W. R., The Reserve Banks and the Money Market (1927).

Goschen, Viscount G. J., Foreign Exchange (1861; reprinted 1926).

Spalding, F., The London Money Market (1924).

Withers, H., International Finance (1916).

———–, The Meaning of Money (1909, reprinted).

 

  1. Tariffs: International Commercial Policies

##Taussig, F. W., Selected Readings in International Trade (1921): pp. 62-69; Parts II, III.

#Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History (1920).

#Delle Donne, O., European Tariff Policies (1928).

#Taussig, F. W., Necessary Changes in Our Commercial Policy (Foreign Affairs, April, 1933).

#————, Some Aspects of the Tariff Question ( 3 ed. 1931).

#————, Tariff History of the U. S. (7 [(corrected by MF) 8] ed., 1931).

American Tariff League, Statistical Bulletin.

Allix, E., Les Droits de Douanes (2 vols.; Paris, 1932).

Berglund, A., and Wright, P. G., The Tariff on Iron and Steel (1929). Also see other studies in this series (Institute of Economics) for other commodities.

Beveridge, Sir W. H., ed., Tariffs: The Case Examined (1931).

Bidwell, P., Tariff Policy of the U. S. (Council on Foreign Relations, 1933).

Cairnes, J. E., Leading Principles of Political Economy (1874): Part III, ch. 4.

Crompton, G., The Tariff (1927): esp. chs. 13, 14.

Eiteman, W. J., The Rise and Decline of Orthodox Tariff Propaganda (Quar. Jour. Econ., Nov. 1930).

Foreign Policy Association, Reports, passim.

Graham, F. D., Some Aspects of Protection Further Considered (Quar. Jour. Econ., 1923).

Gregory, T. E., Tariffs (1921).

Grunzel, J., Economic Protectionism (translated 1916).

Hewins, A. S., Trade in the Balance (1924).

Marshall, A., The Fiscal Policy of International Trade (British Parliamentary Papers, 1908; Cd. 321).

McClure, W., Commercial Policy of the U. S. (1924).

Page, T. W., Making the Tariff in the U. S. (1929).

Schüller, R., Schutzzoll und Freihandel (1905).

Stanwood, E., American Tariff Controversies in the 19th Century (1903).

Stewart, M. S., Tariff Issues Confronting the New Administration (Foreign Policy Association, Reports, March 29, 1933).

Taussig, F. W., Free Trade, The Tariff and Reciprocity (1920).

—————–, State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff (1893).

—————–, The Tariff Act of 1930 (Quar. Jour. Econ., Nov. 1930).

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Trade Information Bulletins, passim.

U. S. Tariff Commission, Reports, etc. (so far as published).

Wright, P. G., Sugar in Relation to the Tariff (1924).

_____________________

#Angell, J. W., Financial Foreign Policy of the U. S. (Council on Foreign Relations), 1933). [✓]

[One (of Culbertson, Donaldson or Fisk/Peirce)]

#Culbertson, W. S., International Economic Policies (1925).

# Donaldson, J., International Economic Relations (1926).

#Fisk, G. M., and Peirce, P. S., International Commercial Policies (1923), esp., chs. 8, 11, 12.

# Williams, B. H., Economic Foreign Policy of the U. S. (1929). [✓]

Delaisi, F., Political Myths and Economic Realities (1927); also other works.

Donham, W. B., National Ideals and Internationalist Idols (Harvard Business Review, April, 1933).

Eulenberg, F. Aussenhandel und Aussenhandelspolitik (1929).

Fontana-Russo, L. Traité de politique commerciale (1908).

Knight, M. M., Water and the Course of Empire in North Africa (Quar. Jour. Econ., Nov. 1928).

Moon, P. T., Imperialism and World Politics (1927).

Somary, F., Changes in the Structure of World Economics since the War (1931).

Viner, J., Dumping (1923).

———-, Memorandum on Dumping (League of Nations, 1927).

Wallace, B. B., and Edminster, L. R., International Control of Raw Materials (1930).

Whittlesey, C. R., Governmental Control of Crude Rubber (1931).

 

SECOND SEMESTER

  1. The General Theory of International Trade

## Ricardo, D., Principles of Political Economy (1817): ch. 7.

## Mill, J. S., Principles of Political Economy (1848): Bk. III, chs. 17-22, 25.

## Cairnes, J. E., Leading Principles of Political Economy, (1874): Part III, chs. 1, 2, 3, 5.

#   —————-, Essays in Political Economy (1873): chs. I, II.

## Bastable, C. F., Theory of International Trade (4 ed., 1903): chs. 1-4.

## Taussig, F. W., International Trade (1927): chs. 1-18.

# Angell, J. W., Theory of International Prices (1926): chs. 14, 16, 18.

# —————, Equilibrium in International Trade (Quar. Jour. Econ., May, 1928).

#Viner, J., International Trade: Theory (Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1932).

Burns, A. F., A Note on Comparative Costs (Quar. Jour. Econ., 1928).

Carr, R. M., The Role of Prices in the International Trade Mechanism (Quar. Jour. Econ., 1931).

Cournot, A. A., Principes de la théorie des richesses (1863).

Graham, F. D., The Theory of International Values Re-Examined (Quar. Jour. Econ., 1923).

——————, The Theory of International Values (Quar. Jour. Econ., Sept. 1932).

Haberler, G., The Theory of Comparative Costs Once More (Quar. Jour. Econ., 1929).

Keynes, J. M., Treatise on Money (2 vols.; 1930): esp. ch. 21.

Mangoldt, J., Grundriss der Volkswirtschaftslehre (1863; 2 ed., 1871).

Marshall, A., Pure Theory of Foreign Trade (1879; reprinted in Royal Economic Society, Reprints of Scarce Tracts, vol. i: 1930).

Ohlin, B., Equilibrium in International Trade (Quar. Jour. Econ., 1928).

———–, Interregional and International Trade (1933).

Pareto, V., Cours d’économie politique (2 vols.; 1896-97).

Williams, J. H., The Theory of International Trade Reconsidered (Econ. Jour., 1929).

Yntema, T. O., A Mathematical Reformulation of the Theory of International Trade (1932).

Young, A. A., Marshall on Consumer’s Surplus in International Trade (Quar. Jour. Econ., 1924).

Zapoleon, L. B., International And Domestic Commodities and the Theory of Prices (Quar. Jour. Econ., May, 1931).

 

  1. International Capital Movements; Reparations and Inter-Ally Debts

## Taussig, F. W., International Trade (1927): chs. 19-25.

# Angell, J. W., Theory of International Prices (1926): Appendix I.

# Gregory, T. E., The Gold Standard and Its Future (1932): chs. 1, 2.

Bullock, C. J., Williams and Tucker, The Balance of Trade of the U. S. (Review of Economic Statistics, 1919: reprinted separately).

Einzig, P. Some New Features of Gold Movements (Econ. Jour., 1930).

———–, International Gold Movements (1930).

Feis, H., Europe: The World’s Banker, 1870-1914 (1930).

Graham, F. D., International Trade of the U. S., 1862-1879 (unpublished thesis in Harvard University Library: 1922).

Hobson, C. K., The Export of Capital (1912).

Jenks, L. H., The Migration of British Capital to 1875 (1927).

McGuire, C., Italy’s International Economic Position (1926). Also see other Institute of Economics studies of post-war European finance.

National Industrial Conference Board, The International Financial Position of the U. S. (1929).

Rogers, J. H., America Weighs Her Gold (1931).

Viner, J., Canada’s Balance of International Indebtedness, 1900-1913 (1924).

Williams, J. H., Argentine International Trade, 1880-1900 (1920).

_____________________

Agent General for Reparation Payments, Reports (Berlin, 1924-1930).

Angell, J. W., The Recovery of Germany (1929).

#————–, Reparation (Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1934).

————–, Reparations and the Inter-Ally Debts in 1930 (Foreign Policy Association, Reports, April 29, 1931, 2 ed., August, 1931).

International Conciliation (series; see especially no’s. 262, 282).

Keynes, J. M., The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919).

Long, R. C., The Mythology of Reparations (1928).

McFadyean, Sir Andrew, Reparation Reviewed (1930).

Moulton, H. G., and Pasvolsky, L., War Debts and World Prosperity (1932).

—————————————–, World War Debt Settlements (1926).

National Industrial Conference Board, The Inter-Ally Debts and the United States (1925).

Reparation Commission, Reports, etc. (1922 ff.).

Royal Institute of International Affairs (London), Survey of International Affairs (annual, on intergovernment debts see especially volumes for 1920-23 and for 1926).

Schacht, H., The End of Reparations (translated, 1931).

Wheeler-Bennett, J. W., and Latimer, H., Information on the Reparation Settlement (1930).

World Peace Foundation (reprints of many documents on intergovernment debts, with explanatory comments).

 

  1. Depreciated Currencies and Foreign Exchanges

#Angell, J. W., Theory of International Prices (1926): chs. 7, 17.

#—————–, Exchange Depreciation, Foreign Trade and National Welfare (Proceedings, Academy of Political Science, June, 1933).

# Keynes, J. M., Monetary Reform (1924): chs. 2, 3.

# Taussig, F. W., International Trade (1927): chs. 26-30.

Angell, J. W., Monetary Theory and Monetary Policy (Quar. Jour. Econ.., 1925).

Brown, W. A., England and the Gold Standard (1928).

Cassel, G., Money and Foreign Exchange After 1914 (1922).

————, Post-War Monetary Stabilization (1928).

Dulles, E. L., The French Franc, 1914-1928 (1929).

Fetter, F. W., Monetary Inflation in Chile (1931).

Graham, F. D., Exchange, Prices and Production in Hyper-Inflation: Germany, 1920-1923 (1930).

Keynes, J. M., Treatise on Money (1930): see index for relevant sections.

Nogaro, B., La monnaie (1924). English translation: Modern Monetary Systems (1927).

Rist, C. La déflation en pratique (1924).

Rogers, J. H., The Process of Inflation in France, 1914-1927 (1929).

U. S. Senate, Commission of Gold and Silver Inquiry: Foreign Currency and Exchange Investigation (by J. P. Young. 2 vols.; 1925).

U. S. Tariff Commission, Depreciated Exchange and International Trade (2 ed., 1922).

__________________________

Source: Hoover Institution Archives, Milton Friedman Papers, Box 5, Folder 5.12 (Student years)

Image Source:  James Waterhouse Angell’s July 18, 1922 U.S. passport application. National Archives.

Categories
Chicago Courses Exam Questions Uncategorized

Chicago. Money and Banking. Economics 330 Exam. Autumn 1932

Here we have the exam questions and Milton Friedman’s choices together with his notes for one of the answers to Lloyd Mints’ graduate course (first in a sequence of the two quarter courses.) on Money and Banking in 1932.

_____________________________

[Univ. of Chicago]

[Milton Friedman (MF signature)]

 

ECONOMICS 330
Autumn, 1932

Write on any four questions.

  1. [✓] “The banks could either keep the demand for real capital within the limits set by the supply of savings or keep the price level steady; but they cannot perform both functions at once.” (Hayek) Discuss this statement critically.
  2. “Only the purely static quantity theory needs no index number, for its comparisons assume relative prices to be unchanged inter se. The objections to Professor Fisher’s Equation of Exchange arise mainly from the faults of the price index implied in it.” (Hawtrey) Explain and evaluate this statement.
  3. [✓] The criticism is sometimes made of the quantity theory that it assumes other things to be equal, whereas in fact they are not. Discuss this criticism. What “other things” are referred to?
  4. Discuss the relation between the k of Keynes’ earlier equation and the velocity of circulation.
    b. Discuss the statement that changes in the velocity of circulation of goods cannot bring about changes in the price level because of the fact that they necessarily bring about compensating changes in the velocity of circulation of money.
  5. [✓] According to Keynes’ analysis what would it be necessary to do in order to eliminate the business cycle? State and support your opinion of Keynes’ conclusion.

_____________________________

[Milton Friedman’s right margin notes for Question 4:]

n=pk
p=\frac{n}{k}
\frac{n}{k}=\frac{MV}{T}\text{ (MF then cancels }n\text{ with }M\text{)}
\frac{1}{k}=\frac{V}{T}
k=\frac{T}{V}=\frac{1}{V}

Source: Hoover Institution Archives, Milton Friedman Papers, Box 115, Folder  13 (Biographical. Class exams, ca 1932-38).

_____________________________

Cf. Keynes: Tract on Monetary Reform (1923), p. 76-77

“We can measure this definite amount of purchasing power in terms of a unit made up of a collection of specified quantities of their standard articles of consumption or other objects of expenditure….Let us call such a unit a ‘consumption unit’ and assume that the public require to hold an amount of money having a purchasing power over k consumption units. Let there be n currency notes or other forms of cash in circulation with the public, and let p be the prices of each consumption unit (i.e., p is the index number of the cost of living), then it follows from the above that n = pk. This is the famous Quantity Theory of Money.”

 

Categories
Chicago Columbia Courses Syllabus

Columbia. Friedman Course. Structure Neoclassical Economics 1939-40

In 1939-40 Milton Friedman taught the course Structure of Neo-classical Economics,  Columbia University Extension ub-171/172. The outline and reading assignments from this course were later used as a foundation for the earliest version of Friedman’s Price Theory, Economics 300A, taught in the Autumn Quarter of 1946 at the University of Chicago. In a later posting  and most recently we will see the obvious similarities but for now the following note found among the early Friedman papers for Economics 300A is sufficient to document that link.

Columbia University Extension
Course Outline
Course Reading Assignments

______________________________

­­­­­­­­­­

Tuesday

Dear Nerlove:

The only thing I have on the theory course is the attached outline of a course I gave at Columbia. I shall depart from this at numerous points but, for the moment at least, plan to follow its broad outlines.

I should appreciate it if you would return this when you’re through with it, since I have only one other copy.

[signed]

Milton Friedman

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 76, Folder 9 (Ec 300a)

Note: From the location of this note in the folder and the fact that the outline to which is being referred was indeed returned, the note is most likely from 1946. The econometrician Marc Nerlove (b. 1933) would have been too young to be the addressee. Perhaps this was addressed to his father Chicago Business School professor, Samuel Nerlove, or a much older sibling.

______________________________

Columbia University Extension Courses

“With the beginning of the academic year 1910-1911 the financial responsibility for the work of Extension Teaching, as the movement was then known, was assumed by the Trustees of Columbia University…the development of Extension Teaching may be said to be an outgrowth of the striking success of the Summer Session of the University. After ten years’ experience, the Summer Session had more than justified itself, and it was proposed to extend the operation of the principles which had been successful in the Summer Session so as to provide classes and laboratory work at the University, both in the evening and during the day, in other parts of the city, and in neighboring parts of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, for the benefit of those who were not able to avail themselves of the regular courses of instruction. In 1921, by act of the trustees, the title of Extension Teaching was changed to University Extension.”

______________________________

Outline of Course Given at Columbia by M. Friedman
Entitled “Structure of Neo-classical Economics”

A. Pricing of Final Goods [“Pricing of Final Goods Sold on Market” in original]

  1. The nature of economics; the concept of a free enterprise system; general outline of how free enterprise system solves economic problem.
  2. Momentary price
    1. Market demand for a product: demand curve, composite demand, joint demand, dealers’ [apostrophe placement as in original] demand, consumer’s [apostrophe placement as in original] demand
    2. [Momentary] Supply of a product: supply curve, effect of time
    3. Price as set by supply and demand
  3. The demand curve
    1. General
      1. Elasticity of demand
      2. Assumptions underlying demand schedule
      3. Generalization of mathematical school
      4. Statistical demand curves: from time series; from spatial data; [“Engel curves” crossed out in original] cobweb theorem
    2. Demand curve of an individual consumer
      1. Utility analysis
      2. Difficulties with utility analysis
      3. Indifference curve analysis
      4. Difficulties with indifference curve analysis
    3. Demand curve for the product of an individual firm [“Demand curve for the product of an individual producer” in original]
      1. Competitive vs. monopolistic
      2. Relevance of anticipations
      3. Marginal revenue
    4. Short run supply
      1. Economics of individual firm
        1. [Crossed out in original “a. Production function. Law of diminishing returns”] Perfect competition: producer must decide what to produce, how to produce it, how much to produce
        2. Monopolistic conditions: producer must decide what to produce, how to produce it, price or how much to produce [In original last item reversed: “how much to produce or price”]
        3. Cost curves for individual firm
      2. Widespread importance of marginal concepts
      3. Relation of cost curves of individual firm to supply curve of industry under competition
      4. Different kinds of monopolistic conditions: monopolistic competition, oligopoly, duopoly
      5. Supply under monopolistic competition: impossibility of defining industry, or supply curve for industry; [following not in original] implications for practical usefulness of theory of monopolistic competition
      6. Law of diminishing returns
      7. Translation of physical law of diminishing returns into economic cost curves
      8. Statistical cost curves: how reconcile declining marginal cost curves with theoretical expectations? [Original: “Statistical cost curves: how can declining marginal cost curves be reconciled with theory?”]
    5. Long run supply
      1. Implications of linear homogeneous production function: constant costs
      2. Effect of indivisibilities and discontinuities
      3. Pecuniary factors making for decreasing or increasing cost[s]
      4. Internal and external economies of scale
      5. Social and private economies and diseconomies of scale

[Crossed out “6. Joint Demand and Supply (Transition to Distribution)

1. Joint demand and supply; derived demand
2. Distribution theory if factors must be used in fixed proportions”]

B. Distribution Theory

  1. General: pricing of factors special case of theory of market price [“market” added]
  2. Demand for factors of production
    1. Marginal productivity determines demand by individual firm
    2. Relation between demand by individual firm and demand for factor
    3. Determinants of marginal productivity
    4. Ethical implications of marginal productivity theory: does it justify existing distribution of income? Meaning of exploitation
    5. Relation of marginal productivity analysis to cost curve analysis
      1. Alternative ways of explaining equilibrium of individual firm
      2. Translation of marginal productivity curves into cost curves [Original: “Relation of cost curves to marginal productivity curves”]
      3. Influence of [“changing” in original] number of firms
    6. Monopsony: impossibility of defining demand curve for factor
  3. Supply of labor
    1. Short run
    2. Long run
  4. Wages in different occupations
    1. Equalizing differences
    2. Non-competing groups
    3. Frictional differences [“3. Frictional differences” was added.]
  5. Capital theory
    1. Why marginal productivity analysis not applicable to determination of interest rate [“to determination of interest rate” was added]
    2. Alternative approaches adopted to explain demand curve
      1. Time preference
      2. Time period of production
      3. Knight’s simultaneous equation
      4. Keynes’ marginal efficiency of capital [“of capital” was added]
      5. Comparison of Keynes and Knight [Ordering in original: “Knight and Keynes”]
    3. Supply of capital
      1. Sources of capital
      2. Difficulties in defining capital, in measuring and defining savings [“in defining capital,” not in original]
      3. Relation of savings to rate of interest
    4. Relation between functional distribution of income and personal distribution.

C. General Equilibrium

  1. Concept of interdependence: direct and indirect effects [“direct and indirect effects” not in original]
  2. Walrasian equations of general equilibrium

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 75, Folder 1 “Columbia University” for carbon copies of the typed outline. “Original” refers to Friedman’s handwritten draft found in Box 75, Folder 12.

_________________________________

The following list of assignments for Friedman’s course Structure of Neo-classical Economics was taken from a poor carbon copy with Friedman’s handwritten revisions, e.g. the new title would read “Assignments in course given at Columbia by M. Friedman entitled ‘Structure of Neo-classical Economics’”. Also the sections of suggested readings for mathematicians and in mathematics in the Columbia version were apparently intended to be omitted in the later version. We have Friedman’s handwritten notes for the dates of assignments. Lectures (for which typed student notes are available) are designated below with an asterisk (*). These incomplete student notes are misfiled in Hoover Institution Archives,Milton Friedman Papers, Box 75, Folder 12 “University of Minnesota, B.A. 102”. There is a later typed alternate version of this assignment list with a few handwritten additions that I have included below in curved brackets {}.

_________________________________

{Wallis and Friedman—Indifference Curves
Knight—Functions}

Assignments in Economics ub-171-2 [1939-40]
“Structure of Neo-classical Economics”

Instructor: Milton Friedman

(listed in order in which assigned)

First Semester

[Sept 28*:] Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, Book III, ch. 2, 3, 4; Book V, ch. 1, 2

[Oct 5*:] Henry Schultz, The Meaning of Statistical Demand Curves, pp. 1-10

{§§5,6,7,8,III, ch 4. Add Marshall Bk III, ch 5 }

E.J. Working, “What do Statistical ‘Demand Curves’ Show?”, Q. J. E. Vol. XLI (1927), pp. 212-27

Frank H. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, ch. 3.

Frederic Benham, Economics, pp. 89-100

Suggested

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, pp. 11-37

Suggested readings for mathematicians

O. Lange, “On the Determinateness of the Utility Function”, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. I (1933-34), p. 218ff.

R. G. D. Allen, “The Nature of Indifference Curves”, Ibid., p. 110ff

Suggested reading in mathematics

R. G. D. Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists, ch. 2, §§ 2.1, 2.2 (pp. 28-36), §2.9 (pp. 54-56); ch. 4, ch. 5, pp. 107-14; ch. 6, Sec. 6.1-6.3 (pp. 134-40), 6.5-6.6 (pp. 143-9), Balance of Chapter 5 also pertinent.

[October 12*: “Assignment: Think over paragraph below. What does it mean? Is it true. Write paragraph or two discussing it.

“Since elasticity measures variations in quantity (demanded or offered) divided by variations in price, the elasticity of demand for anything will be seven times as large for seven similar demanders as it is for one.” A. C. Pigou, A Study in Public Finance, p. 207.”

October 19*. Elasticity of Demand.
October 26*. Usefulness of Elasticity of Demand. Implicit assumptions underlying the demand curve.]

Marshall, Book V, ch. 3, 4, 5, 12, Appendix H

[November 2*. Estimating demand curves. Data difficulties.
November 9*. Problem of the Demand Curve of the Individual Consumer.
November 16*: rest of list for first semester is distributed]

A. L. Meyers, Elements of Modern Economics, ch. 5 (pp. 46-62); 7,8,9 (pp. 83-124)

Joan Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, ch. 2 (pp. 26-43)

J. M. Clark, The Economics of Overhead Cost, ch. 9 (pp. 175-203)

Jacob Viner, “Cost Curves and Supply Curves”, Zeitschrift fuer National oekonomie, Bd. III (Sept., 1931), pp. 23-46

Edward Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 3, sec. 1 (pp. 30-32); 4,5,6 (46-55); ch. 5 (71-116)

M. Abramovitz, “Monopolistic Selling in a Changing Economy”, Q. J. E. , Feb., 1938, pp. 191-214

R. F. Harrod, “Doctrines of Imperfect Competition”, Q. J. E., May, 1934, sec. I, pp. 442-61

[November 23 (Thanksgiving)
November 30
December 7
December 14
December 21 (probably not held)
January 5. Lecture No. 12.
January 12
January 19
Exam Jan 26]

Second Semester

Marshall, {handwritten addition: Book IV, ch. 1, 2, 3} Book V, ch. 6

J.B. Clark, The Distribution of Wealth, Preface, ch. 1, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 23

John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, ch. 14

J. R. Hicks, The Theory of Wages, ch. 1-6

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, ch. 10

Marshall, Book VI, ch. 1-5

Simon Kuznets and Milton Friedman, “Incomes from Independent Professional Practice”, Bulletin 72-3, National Bureau of Economic Research, section 5, appendix
{handwritten addition: Preface V to X; ch. 3, Sec 3 (pp. 81-95; ch. 4, Sec 2, pp. 118-137; Appendix Sec 1, 3, pp. 142-151 and 155-161}

F. H. Knight, “Interest”, in Encyclopoedia of the Social Sciences, also in Ethics of Competition

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, ch. 11-14

Gustav Cassell, Fundamental Thoughts in Economics, ch. 1, 2, 3

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 76, Folder 1 “Columbia University” for carbon copies of the typed outline. “Original” refers to Friedman’s handwritten draft and reading assignments (both carbon copy and hand-written) found in Box 75, Folder 12.

Image Source: Columbia University, Columbia 250 Celebrates Columbians Ahead of Their Time.

Categories
Columbia Courses Economists Harvard Transcript

Columbia. Search Committee Report. 1950

This report is fascinating for a couple of reasons. The search committee understood its task to identify “the names of the most promising young economists, wherever trained and wherever located” from which a short list of three names for the replacement of Louis M. Hacker in Columbia College was selected. Organizationally, Columbia College is where undergraduate economics has been taught so that teaching excellence, including participation in Columbia College’s legendary Contemporary Civilization course sequence, was being sought as well as was potential for significant scholarship. Appendix C provides important information on James Tobin’s graduate economics education. In a later posting, I’ll provide information on others in the long-list of seventeen economists identified by the search committee.

___________________

January 9, 1950

 

Professor James W. Angell, Chairman
Department of Economics
Columbia University

Dear Mr. Chairman:

The Committee appointed by you to canvass possible candidates for the post in Columbia College that is made available by the designation of Professor Louis M. Hacker as Director of the School of General Studies submits herewith its report.

As originally constituted, this committee was made up of Professors Taylor, Barger, Hart and Haig (chairman). At an early stage the membership was expanded to include Professor Stigler and from the beginning the committee had the advantage of the constant assistance of the chairman of the department.

In accordance with the suggestions made at the budget meeting in November, the committee has conducted a broad inquiry, designed to raise for consideration the names of the most promising young economists, wherever trained and wherever located. In addition to the men known personally to the members of the committee, suggestions were solicited from the authorities at other institutions, including Harvard, Chicago, California and Leland Stanford. By mid December, scrutiny of the records and publications by the committee to the following seventeen:

 

Name Suggested by
Alchian, Armen A. Haley
Bronfenbrenner, Martin Friedman
Brownlee, O. H. Friedman
Christ, Carl L. Angell
Dewey, D. J. Friedman
Du[e]senberry, [James] Stigler
Goodwin, Richard M. Burbank
Harberger, J. H. Friedman
Ho[s]elitz, Bert Friedman
Lewis, H. Gregg Hart
Machlup, Fritz Stigler
Nicholls, William H. Stigler
Nutter, J. W. Friedman
Pancoast, Omar Taylor
Schelling, Thomas Burbank
Tobin, James Burbank
Vandermeulen, D. C. Ellis

[p. 2]

The meeting of the American Economic Association in New York during the Christmas holidays offered an opportunity to meet many of the men on the above list and to make inquiries regarding them. As a consequence, it has been possible for your committee to make rapid progress with its appraisals. Although the committee is continuing to gather information and data, it is prepared at this time to make a series of definite recommendations, with a high degree of confidence that these recommendations are not likely to be greatly disturbed by its further inquiries.

It is the unanimous opinion of the members of your committee that the most eligible and promising candidate on our list is Martin Bronfenbrenner, associate professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin, at present on leave for special service in Tokyo.

Should Bronfenbrenner prove to be unavailable the committee urges consideration of D. J. Dewey, at present holding a special fellowship at the University of Chicago, on leave from his teaching post at Iowa. As a third name, the committee suggests James Tobin, at present studying at Cambridge, England, on a special fellowship from Harvard.

Detailed information regarding the records of these three men will be found in appendices to this report.

Bronfenbrenner, the first choice of the committee, is 35 years old. He received his undergraduate degree from Washington University at the age of 20 and his Ph.D. from Chicago at 25. During his war service, he acquired a good command of the Japanese language. He taught at Roosevelt College, Chicago, before going to Wisconsin and undergraduate reports of his teaching are as enthusiastic as those of the authorities at Chicago. He happens to be personally well known to two of the members of your committee (Hart and Stigler) and to at last two other member of the department (Shoup and Vickrey), all four of whom commend him in high terms.

The following statement from Hart, dated December 6, 1929, was prepared after a conference with Friedman of Chicago:

“Bronfenbrenner is undoubtedly one of the really powerful original thinkers in the age group between thirty and thirty-five. He has always very much enjoyed teaching; my impression is that his effectiveness has been with the upper half of the student body at Roosevelt College and at Wisconsin. He is primarily a theorist but has a wide range of interest and a great deal of adaptability so it would not be much of a problem to fit him in somewhere [p. 3] in terms of specialization. He would do a good deal to keep professional discussion stirring in the University. My impression is that he tends to be underrated by the market, and that a chance at Columbia College might well be his best opportunity for some time ahead. The difficulty is, of course, that there is no chance of arranging an interview; though Shoup and Vickrey, of course, both saw him last summer.”

In a letter dated December 15, Shoup wrote as follows:

“I have a high regard for Martin Bronfenbrenner’s intellectual capacities, and I think he would fit in well in the Columbia scene. He has an excellent mind and a great intellectual independence. In his writings he sometimes tends to sharp, almost extreme statements, but in my opinion, they almost always have a solid foundation, and in conversation he is always ready to explore all sides of the question. When we had to select someone to take over the tax program in Japan, after the report had been formulated, and oversee the implementation of the program by the Japanese government, it was upon my recommendation that Bronfenbrenner was selected. He arrived in Japan in the middle of August and his work there since that time has confirmed me in my expectations that he would be an excellent selection for the job, even though he did not have very much technical background in taxation. I rank him as one of the most promising economists in his age group in this country, and I should not be surprised if he made one or more major contributions of permanent value in the coming years.

“He has gone to Japan on a two year appointment, after having obtained a two year leave of absence from the University of Wisconsin. My understanding is that on such an appointment he could come back to the United States at the end of one year, provided he paid his own passage back. It might be possible that even this requirement would be waived, but I have no specific grounds for thinking so. I believe the major part of his work with respect to implementing the tax program will have been completed by next September. If the committee finds itself definitely interested in the possibility of Bronfenbrenner’s coming to Columbia, I should not let the two year appointment stand in the way of making inquiries.”

The breadth and rang of his interests recommend Bronfenbrenner as a person who would probably be highly [p.4] valuable in the general course in contemporary civilization and the quality of his written work suggests high promise as a productive scholar in one or more specialized fields.

Your committee considers that the appropriate rank would be that of associate professor.

Respectfully submitted,

[signed]

Robert M. Haig

 

______________________________

Appendix A – Martin Bronfenbrenner

The following data regarding Bronfenbrenner are taken chiefly from the 1948 Directory of the American Economic Assoication:

Born: 1914

Education and Degrees:

A.B. Washington University, 1934
Ph.D. University of Chicago 1939
1940-42, George Washington School of Law

Fields: Theory, mathematical economics, statistical methods, econometrics

Doctoral dissertation: Monetary theory and general equilibrium

Publications:

“Consumption function controversy”, Southern Economic Journal, January, 1948
“Price control under imperfect competition”, American Economic Review, March, 1947
“Dilemma of Liberal Economics,” Journal of Political Economy, August, 1946

Additional publications:

“Post-War Political Economy: The President’s Reports”, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1948
Various book reviews including one on W. I. King’s The Keys to Prosperity, Journal of Political Economy, December, 1948, and A. H. Hansen’s Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Annals

Additions to list of publications circulated, January 9, 1950

“The Economics of Collective Bargaining”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1939.
(with Paul Douglas) “Cross-Section Studies in the Cobb-Douglas Function”, Journal of Political Economy, 1939.
“Applications of the Discontinuous Oligopoly Demand Curve”, Journal of Political Economy, 1940.
“Diminishing Returns in Federal Taxation” Journal of Political Economy, 1942.
“The Role of Money in Equilibrium Capital Theory”, Econometrica (1943).

______________________________

Appendix B – D. J. Dewey

On leave from Iowa.

In 1948 studied at Cambridge, England.
1949-50, at Chicago on special fellowship.

Bibliography:

Notes on the Analysis of Socialism as a Vocational Problem, Manchester School, September, 1948.
Occupational Choice in a Collectivist Economy, Journal of Political Economy, December, 1948.

Friedman and Schultz are highly enthusiastic.

Statement by Hart, dated December 6, 1949:

“Friedman regards Dewey as first rate and points to an article on ‘Proposal for Allocating the Labor Force in a Planned Economy’ (Journal of Political Economy, as far as I remember in July 1949) for which the J.P.E. gave a prize as the best article of the year. I read the article, rather too quickly, a few weeks ago and it is definitely an imaginative and powerful piece of work. How the conclusions would look after a thorough-going seminar discussion, I am not clear; but the layout of questions is fascinating.”

______________________________

Appendix [C] – James Tobin

Statement by Burbank of Harvard, dated December 14, 1949:

“We have known Tobin a good many years. He came to us as a National Scholar, completed his work for the A.B. before the war and had advanced his graduate work very well before he went into the service. He received his Ph.D. in 1947. Since 1947 he has been a Junior Fellow. He was a teaching fellow from 1945 to 1947. He is now in Cambridge, England, and will, I believe, begin his professional work by next fall. Since Tobin has been exposed to Harvard for a very long time I believe that he feels that for his own intellectual good he should go elsewhere. I doubt if we could make a stronger recommendation than Tobin nor one in which there will be greater unanimity of opinion. Certainly he is one of the top men we have had here in the last dozen years. He is now intellectually mature. He should become one of the handful of really outstanding scholars of his generation. His interests are mainly in the area of money but he is also interested in theory and is competent to teach at any level.”

Data supplied by Harvard:

Address:    Department of Applied Economics, Cambridge University, England

Married:   Yes, one child

Born:          1918, U.S.

Degrees:

A. B. Harvard, 1939 (Summa cum laude)
A.M. Harvard, 1940
Ph.D. Harvard, 1947

Fields of Study: Theory, Ec. History, Money and Banking, Political Theory: write-off, Statistics

Special Field: Business Cycles

Thesis Topic: A Theoretical and Statistical Analysis of Consumer Saving

Experience:

1942-45 U.S. Navy
1945-47 Teaching Fellow, Harvard University
1947- Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows

[p. 2 of Appendix C]

Courses:           1939-40

Ec. 21a (Stat.)                  A
Ec. 121b (Adv. St.)          A
Ec. 133 (Ec. Hist)            A
Ec. 147a (M&B Sem)      A
Ec. 145b (Cycles)             A
Ec. 113b (Hist. Ec.)       Exc.
Gov. 121a (Pol.Th.)         A

1940-1941

Ec. 121a (Stat.)                A
Ec. 164 (Ind. Org.)          A
Ec. 20 (Thesis)                A
Ec. 118b (App. St.)          A
Math 21                             A
Ec. 104b (Math Ec.)       A

1946-47 Library and Guidance

Generals:       Passed May 22, 1940 with grade of Good Plus
Specials:         Passed May 9, 1947 with grade of Excellent.

 

Data from 1948 Directory of American Economic Association:

Harvard University, Junior Fellow

Born:                1918

Degrees:           A. B., Harvard, 1939; Ph.D., Harvard, 1947j

Fields: Business fluctuations, econometrics, economic theory, and mathematical economics

Dissertation: A theoretical and statistical analysis of consumer saving.

Publications:

“Note on Money Wage Problem”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1941.
“Money Wage Rates and Employment”, in New Economics (Knopf, 1947).
“Liquidity Preference and monetary Policy”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 1947.
[pencil addition] Article in Harris (ed.), The New Economics, 1947.

______________________________

Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”

Image Source: The beyondbrics blog of the Financial Times.

Categories
Columbia Economists

Columbia Economics. Mathematical Economics. Hotelling. Class Rolls 1931-1944

Hotelling’s students included the communist and later Soviet agent Victor Perlo (1932-33) and three Nobel prize winners in economics, Milton Friedman (1933-34), William Vickrey (Winter session 1935-36) and Kenneth Arrow (Winter session 1940-41).  Friedman’s and Arrow’s student notes for this course with Hotelling can be found at the Hoover Archives and the Duke Economist Papers Project, respectively. 

Course outlines and a final examination for Hotelling’s course as taught at the University of North Carolina in 1946 and 1950 has been posted. Here is a link to the posting of a list of statistics and economics courses taught at Columbia by Harold Hotelling.

____________________________

Econ 312. Mathematical Economics

 Winter Session, 1931-32
Benitz, Paul A.
Kelly, Thomas H.
Metzger, Henry W.
Pabst, William R., Jr.
Wu, Kan
Columbia College Madow, William
School of Business Otto, Erich A.
School of Business Stein, Arthur
Econ 314. Mathematical Economics Spring Session, 1931-32
Benitz, Paul A.
Duncan, Acheson Johnston
Kelly, Thomas H.
Pabst, William R. (Jr)
Metzger, Henry W.
Econ 313. Mathematical Economics Winter session, 1932-33
Lawson, Alfred
Perlo, Victor
Preinreich, Gabriel A.D.
Weyl, Nathaniel
Econ 314. Mathematical Economics  Spring Session, 1932-33
Perlo, Victor
Preinreich, Gabriel A. D.
Weyl, Nathaniel
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter session, 1933-34
Dodwell, David W.
Edmondson, Susanna P.
Friedman, Milton
Goldberg, Henry
Madow, William G.
Vass, Laurence C.
School of Business Osborne, Ernest L.
Econ 118. Mathematical Economics Spring Session, 1933-34
Edmondson, Susanne P.
Friedman, Milton
Goldberg, Henry
Vass, Laurence C.
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter Session, 1934-35
Bonis, Austin J.
Frankel, Lester R.
Wright, Charles A.
Econ 118. Mathematical Economics Spring Session, 1934-35
  Bonis, Austin J.
Frankel, Lester R.
Machol, Richard M.
Richards, Margaret H.
Romig, Harry G.
Solomons, Leonard M.
Wright, Charles A.
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter Session, 1935-36
Bennett, Rollin F.
Fabricant, Solomon
Hilfer, Irma
Jacobson, Katharine
Norton, John D.
Vickrey, William
Wallis, W. Allen
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Class rolls not found for 1936-37
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Not offered 1937-38
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter Session, 1938-39
Dejongh, Theunis W
Durand, David
Friedman, Irma D.
Geisler, Murray A.
Gould, Jacob M.
King, Frederick G.
Schwartz, Seymour
Shulman, Harry
Columbia College Klarman, Herbert
Teachers College Recht, Leon Samuel
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter Session, 1939-40
Bennett, Blair M.
Nassimbene, Raymond
Pascale, Henry
Columbia College Schwartz, Harry
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter Session, 1940-41
Arrow, Kenneth J.
Berger, Richard
Cohen, Leo
Divatia, Makarand V.
Fischer, Harry S.
Haines, Harold
Konijn, Hendrik S.
Peiser, Donald E.
School of Business Ballentine, George A.
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter Session, 1941-42
Diamond, Harold S.
Peach, Paul
Ravitsky, Inda
Reder, Melvin W.
Sievers, Allen M.
School of Business Cooper, William W.
School of Business Morrison, Lachlan
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter Session, 1942-43
Boyd, Elizabeth N.
D’Errico, John E.
Simpson, Elizabeth T.
Simpson, William B.
Columbia College Tenenbaum, Warren S.
School of Business Lopata, Simon
Econ 117. Mathematical Economics Winter Session, 1943-44
Hsieh, Kia
Lindsey, Fred D.
Owlett, Ann M.
Straus, Everett M.
Ullman, Joseph L.
School of Business

Varon, Frank R.

Source: Assembled from the student registration cards. Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Hotelling Papers, Box 48, Folder Mathematical Economics (1).

Categories
Chicago Courses

Chicago Economics. Reading Assignments, Economic Theory (Econ 301). Viner, Fall 1932

In Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives there is a one page handwritten list of reading assignments for Jacob Viner’s Economics 301 (Economic Theory) in Box 5, Folder 12 and a one page typed list of reading assignments for the course, Box 5 Folder 13, that is nearly identical (with only two discrepancies) to the reading list “reproduced exactly from the document that the editors have in their possession” in the appendix to Jacob Viner: Lectures in Economics 301. Douglas A. Irwin and Steven G. Medema, editors. Transaction Publishers, 2013. The lecture notes taken by Marshall D. Ketchum that have been published by Irwin and Medema were taken in the Summer Quarter 1930, two years before Milton Friedman took the course in the Fall Quarter 1932. Everything below in brackets are my additions/annotations.

______________________

[Handwritten notes by Milton Friedman]

Assignments given by Viner in 301, 1932

Marshall        Bk III  ch 3 + 4; Bk V ch 1 + 2

[Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics (London: Macmillan and Co. 8th ed. 1920).
Book III: On wants and their satisfaction.
Chapter 3: Gradations of consumers’ demand;
Chapter 4: The elasticity of wants.
Book V: General relations of demand, supply and value.
Chapter 1: Introductory. On markets;
Chapter 2: Temporary equilibrium of demand and supply.]

Schultz           Meaning of st[atistical] de[mand] cur[ves] pp 1-10; 25-41.

[Henry Schultz. Statistical Laws of Demand and Supply with Special Application to Sugar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1928. 118 pages]

Mars[hall]      Bk V ch 3, 4, 5, 12; App H

[Book V: General relations of demand, supply and value.
Chapter 3: Equilibrium of normal demand and supply;
Chapter 4: The investment and distribution of resources;
Chapter 5: Equilibrium of normal demand and supply, cont., with reference to long and short periods;
Chapter 12: Equilibrium of normal demand and supply, cont., with reference to the law of increasing returns.
Appendix H: Limitations of the use of statical assumptions in regard to increasing return.]

Viner             Cost Curves […]

[…and Supply Curves, Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie. Bd. 3, H. 1 (1931), pp. 23-46]

Cunynghame “Geometrical Political Economy”, ch. 3

[Henry H. Cunynghame. A Geometrical Political Economy: Being an Elementary Treatise on the Method of Explaining Some of the Theories of Pure Economic Science by Means of Diagrams, Oxford at the Clarendon Press. 1904.
Chapter 3: Demand curve.]

Smart, Introduction to theory of value     pp. 64-83

[Smart, William (1891). An Introduction to the Theory of Value on the Lines of Menger, Wieser, and Böhm-Bawerk. London and New York, Macmillan and Co. 1891.
Chapter 12: Cost of production;
Chapter 13: From marginal products to cost of production;
Chapter 14: From cost of production to product;
Conclusion.]

Böhm-Bawerk:

“Ultimate standard of value”, Annals of Am[erican] Academy Sept. [sic] 1894

[Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. The ultimate standard of value. American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia. Publications, no. 128. June, 1894, 60 p.]

“One word more on ult. st. of v. [ultimate standard of value]   E.J. Dec. 1894

[Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. One word more on the ultimate standard of value. Economic Journal, Vol. 4, No. 16 (Dec., 1894), pp. 719-725.]

Marshall        Bk V, ch 6;  Bk V, ch 14

[Book V, ch 6: Joint and composite demand. Joint and composite supply.
Book V, ch 14: The theory of monopolies.]

Viner              JPE. 1925 pp 107-111 (objective test of comp.[etitive] price appl[ied] to cem[ent] ind[ustry])

[Jacob Viner, Objective tests of competitive price applied to the cement industry. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Feb., 1925), pp. 107-111.]

J.S.Mill “Outline of Pol. Economy” Bk II, Ch 11, sec 1; Bk I, ch VI, sec 1

[Note: Outline of Political Economy is the title of Nassau Senior’s book.
John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume II – The Principles of Political Economy with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy (Books I-II), ed. John M. Robson, introduction by V.W. Bladen (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965).
Book II, ch XI, sec. 1:  Distribution. Of wages.
Book I, ch VI, sec. 1: Production. On circulating and fixed capital.]

Henry George, “Progress + Poverty”         Bk I, ch 1,3,4

[Henry George, Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth, The Remedy (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, & Co. 1912).
Book I: Wages and Capital.
Chapter 1: The current doctrine of wages–its insufficiency;
Chapter 3: Wages not drawn from capital, but produced by labor;
Chapter 4: The maintenance of laborers not drawn from capital.]

F.W. Taussig, Principles, vol II, ch 39, 51

[Frank W. Taussig, Principles of Economics. 2nd revised edition. 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan). 1915. Note: a later 3rd revised edition from 1921 has a chapter 51 “Great fortunes” that does not appear as good a fit to this course’s content, so I conclude the reference is to the second edition.
Chapter 39: Interest, cont. The equilibrium of demand and supply;
Chapter 51: General wages.]

J.B. Clark “Dist[ribution] of Wealth”, ch 1, 7, 8, + Preface

 [John Bates Clark, The Distribution of Wealth: A Theory of Wages, Interest and Profits (New York: Macmillan). 1899.
Chapter I: Issues That depend on Distribution;
Chapter VII: Wages in a Static State, the Specific Product of Labor;
Chapter VIII: How the Specific Product of Labor may be Distinguished.]

F.A. Walker, Political Economy P[reface] + IV, ch 4,5,8 + V [sic, should be VI], sec 5

[Francis Amasa Walker, Political Economy (London: Macmillan) 3rd revised and enlarged edition. 1892.
Part IV: Distribution.
Chapter 4: Profits;
Chapter 5: Wages;
Chapter 8: The reaction of distribution upon production.
Part VI: Some applications of economic principles.
Section V: The doctrine of the wage-fund.]

A. Smith Bk I, ch 10

[Adam Smith An Inquiry into the Naature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Edwin Cannan, 3d. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd. 5th edition, 1904.
Book I, Chapter X: Of wages and profit in the different employments of labour and stock.]

J.S. Mill           Bk II, ch 14

[Book II, ch 14: Distribution. Of the differences of wages in different employments.]

Cairnes “Polit. Econ”, P[reface] + I, ch 3 [art.] 4,5

[J.E. Cairnes. Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers. 1874.
Part I: Value.
Chapter 3: Normal value]

Taussig          Principles, ch 47

[Chapter 47: Differences of wages. Social stratification.]

J. B. Clark Ch 9, 13

[Chapter IX: Capital and Capital-Goods Contrasted;
Chapter XIII: The Products of Labor and Capital, as Measured by the Formula of Rent]

Böhm Bawerk           Bk 2, ch 1-5; Bk 5, ch 1-4; Bk 6, ch 1,2,4,5,6; Bk 7, ch 1,2

[Book II: Capital as instrument of production.
Chapter 1: Introductory;
Chapter 2: Capitalist production;
Chapter 3: Historical development of the conception;
Chapter 4: The true conception of capital;
Chapter 5: The competing conceptions of capital.
Book V: Present and future.
Chapter 1: Present and future in economic life;
Chapter 2: Differences in want and provision for want;
Chapter 3: Unerestimate of the future;
Chapter 4: The technical superiority of present goods.
Book VI: The source of interest.
Chapter 1:  The loan and loan interest
Chapter 2: The profit of capitalist undertaking. Principles of explanation.
Chapter 4: The profit of capitalist undertaking. The labour market;
Chapter 5: The profit of capitalist undertaking. The general subsistence market;
Chapter 6: The profit of capitalist undertaking. The general subsistence market (continued).
Book VII: The rate of interest.
Chapter 1: The rate in isolated exchange;
Chapter 2: The rate in market transactions.]

Marshall                    Bk VI, ch IX

[Book VI: The distribution of the national income.
Chapter 9: Rent of land.]

Ogilvie                       Marshall on Rent      Econ J. 1930

[F.W. Ogilvie. Marshall on Rent. Economic Journal 40 (March) 1930: 1-24]

J.B. Clark        ch 23

[Chapter XXIII: The Relation of All Rents to Value and Thus to Group Distribution]

 Source: Hoover Institution Archives, Milton Friedman Papers Box 5, Folder 12 (Student years)

______________________

[typed list of reading assignments]

Assignments in Viner’s Economics 301
(In order of assignment)

Marshall,        Bk III, ch. 3, 4; Bk V, ch. 1, 2

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital, Bk IV, ch. 4

Schultz, Meaning of Statistical Demand Curves, pp. 1-10, 25-41.

Marshall, Bk. V, ch 3, 4, 5, 12; App. H

Viner, Cost Curves [and Supply Curves, Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie. Bd. 3, H. 1 (1931), pp. 23-46]

Cunynghame, Geometrical Political Economy, Ch. 3

Smart, Introduction to the Theory of Val., pp. 64-83

B. B. [Böhm-Bawerk], Ultim. Stand. of Val., Ann. of Am. Ac., Sept. 1894

One word More on Ult. S. of V., Econ. Jour., Dec 1894

Marshall,        Bk. V, ch. 6; Bk. V, ch. 14

Viner, Objective Tests of Comp. Pr. appl. to the Cem. Ind. JPE, ‘25

J.S. Mill, Outline of Pol Ec. [sic, Principles of Political Economy], Bk II, ch. 11, sec. 1; Bk I, ch. 6 sec. 1

Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Bk I, ch. 1, 3, 4.

F. W. Taussig, Principles, Vol II, ch 39, 51.

J. B. Clark, Distr. of Wealth, ch. 1, 7, 8, preface.

F. A. Walker, Pol. Ec., Part IV, ch. 4, 5. Part VI, Sec. 5

Adam Smith, Bk. I, ch 10

J.S. Mill, Bk II, ch. 14

Cairnes, Pol. Ec., Part I, ch. 3, arts. 4, 5.

Taussig, ch. 47

J. B. Clark, ch. 9, 13

B.B. [Böhm Bawerk], Bk II, ch 1-5; Bk V, ch 1-4; Bk. VI, ch. 1, 2,4,5,6; Bk. VII, ch. 1,2.

Marshall, Bk. VI, ch. 9

Ogilvie, Marshall on Rent, Econ. Journ., March, 1930

J. B. Clark, ch. 23

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives, Milton Friedman Papers Box 115, Folder 13 (Class Exams circa 1932-1938)

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-08490, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Chicago Columbia Economists Transcript

Milton Friedman’s Coursework in Economics, Statistics and Mathematics

Before Milton Friedman could be a teacher of economics, he was of course the student of many teachers. This list of his relevant coursework and teachers is complete. I merely add here that his transcript also shows three semesters of college French and four semesters of college German and that he entered Rutgers with advanced credits in French.

Rutgers University
University of Chicago
Columbia University
Dept. of Agriculture Graduate School

Rutgers University (1928-32)

Principles of Economics E. E. Agger 1929-30
Money and Banking E. E. Agger 1930-31
Statistical Methods Homer Jones 1930-31
Business Cycles Arthur F. Burns 1931-32
Economic Research Ivan V. Emelianoff 1931-32
Principles of Insurance Homer Jones 1931-32
College Algebra 1928-29, 1st term
Analytical Geometry 1928-29, 2nd term
Calculus 1929-30
Advanced Calculus 1930-31
Theory of Numbers 1929-30, 2nd term
Theory of Equations 1930-31, 1st term
Differential Equations 1930-31, 2nd term
Analysis 1931-32
Elliptic Integrals 1931-32, 2nd term

 

University of Chicago (1932-33, 1934-35)

Econ 301 Prices and Distribution Theory Jacob Viner Autumn Quarter 1932
Econ 302 History of Economic Thought Frank H. Knight Winter Quarter 1933
Econ 303 Modern Tendencies in Economics Jacob Viner Spring Quarter 1933
Econ 311 Correlation and Curve Fitting Henry Schultz Winter Quarter 1933
Econ 312 Statistical Graphics Henry Schultz Spring Quarter 1933
Econ 330 Graduate Study of Money and Banking Lloyd W. Mints Autumn Quarter 1932
Econ 370 International Trade and Finance Jacob Viner Winter Quarter 1933
Econ 220 Economic History of the United States, not taken for credit Chester Wright Winter Quarter 1935
Econ 220 Economic History of Europe, not taken for credit John U. Nef Autumn Quarter 1934
Labor (visited) Paul H. Douglas  1934-35
Theory of Demand (visited) Henry Schultz  1934-35
Math 306 Introduction to Higher Algebra  E. Dickson Autumn Quarter 1932
Math 341 Calculus of Variations  G. Bliss Autumn Quarter 1932
Math 324 Theory of Algebraic Numbers  A. Albert Winter Quarter 1933
Math 310 Functions of a Complex Variable (not taken for credit) L. M. Graves

 Master’s thesis: An empirical study of the relationship between railroad stock prices and railroad earnings for the period 1921-31.

 

Columbia University (1933-34)

Stat 111-12 Statistical Inference Harold Hotelling Winter/Spring semesters
Econ 117-18 Mathematical Economics Harold Hotelling Winter/Spring semesters
Econ 119 Economic History V. G. Simkhovitch Winter semester
Econ 128 Currency and Credit James W. Angell Spring semester
Econ 211-12 Business Cycles Wesley Claire Mitchell Winter/Spring semesters
Econ 315-16 Economic Theory Seminar John M. Clark, James W. Angell, and Wesley C. Mitchell Winter/Spring semesters
Social Economics (visited) J. M. Clark
Labor (visited) Leo Wolman
Theory (visited) R. W. Souter

 

Department of Agriculture Graduate School (1936-37)

Statistics 17-18 Adjustment of Observations

Source: Assembled from transcripts and course lists kept by Milton Friedman. Hoover Institution Archives, Milton Friedman Papers, Box 5, Folders 11, 13 (Student years).

Image Source: Columbia University, Columbia 250 Celebrates Columbians Ahead of Their Time.