Tag: Houthakker

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Economists Harvard

Harvard. Annual report on the department of economics. Dunlop, 1961-1962

John T. Dunlop

An overview of the annual comings and goings of a department are typically chronicled in a report prepared by the department chair. Such low circulation documents are sometimes targeted to a specific readership, e.g. a visiting committee, a dean, the alumni, but the report transcribed in this post for the Harvard economics department in 1961-62 does not appear to have had a particular audience in mind.

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About  Chairman John T. Dunlop
(Harvard Album, 1960)

Sallying forth from an office in the farther reaches of Littauer to Washington, D.C., JOHN THOMAS DUNLOP, Professor of Economics and faculty member in the Graduate School of Public Administration, is certainly one of the university’s most travelled professors. Dunlop, a labor expert, teaches an undergraduate course on unionism and public policy applying to labor relations and problems; in the grad school he conducts two seminars, in one of which he had worked closely with the late Professor Slichter. But in addition to his teaching, Professor Dunlop is one of the country’s leading strike arbitrators, and he figures that he travels in the vicinity of 150,000 miles a year on this outside work. The occasion for a weekly trip to the nation’s capital is his post as the impartial chairman of a joint committee in the construction industry, comprising representatives of the eighteen major unions and contracting firms. In this position Professor Dunlop must mediate disputes between the union and management. He is also a permanent umpire for the women’s garment industry and in the past has served in similar capacities for the brass companies of Connecticut and the bituminous coal producers. The dispute in 1955 involving the complexities of the ratio of required conductors to the length of a freight train called him back to the role of mediator, following a long term with the Atomic Energy Labor panel. At present he edits the Wertheim series on the histories of various big corporations and unions, and he also administers a Ford Foundation grant to study the functionings of labor and management in the underdeveloped countries of Asia.

Professor Dunlop was born in the Forty-Niner gold region and graduated from the University of California in 1935. He has been with Harvard since 1938, when he joined the faculty as an instructor. He gets back to California at least once a year, and the last time he returned he did so by travelling eastward via Indonesia. Professor Dunlop lives in Belmont, and, when not compiling mileage, he devotes his time to his wife and three children, and concentrates on his tennis game.

Source: The Harvard Album, 1960, p. 29.

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Previously posted departmental reports

Department Reports to the Dean (1932-41)
Department Reports to the Dean (1942-1946)
Department Reports to the Dean (1947-1950)
Department Report to the Dean (1955-56)
Department Newsletter (June 1960)

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June 26, 1962

Report
Department of Economics, 1961-1962

1. Staff

Professor Gerschenkron was Taussig Research Professor for the year, and Professor Albert J. Meyer, lecturer in the Department, was also on leave. Professor Galbraith and Kaysen continued on leave in government appointments. During the spring term Professor Harris was on sabbatical leave; Professor Bergson held a Ford Faculty Research Fellowship, and Professor Leontief was Visiting Professor at the College du France, Paris. Assistant Professors Gill and Vanek were also on leave throughout the year.

As a consequence of the number of senior members on leave, the Department included this year a relatively large number of visiting professors and lecturers. Professor Jesse Markham of Princeton University taught the courses in industrial organization; Dr. Frank Spooner was in charge of economic history; Professor William H. Nicholls of Vanderbilt instructed in agriculture and economic development. Professor Jacob Viner was Taussig Research Professor, and while he taught no courses, we were delighted to have him with us for the year. Professor Schmookler of Minnesota was associated with the science and public policy seminar of the Littauer School, and was a visiting lecturer in the Department. In addition, Professor Domar of M.I.T. taught a course in the Soviet economy in the spring term. Mr. Langley gave courses ordinarily taught by Professor A.J. Meyer, and Professor Caleb Smith of Brown University continued to teach the accounting course.

2. New Appointments

       The Executive Committee unanimously recommended the appointment of Professor Richard Caves as a permanent addition to the Department. Following the established procedures, the governing boards on May 14, 1962 voted his appointment as Professor of Economics effective July 1, 1962. Professor Caves completed his Ph.D. degree in the Department in 1958 and has been on the staff at the University of California (Berkeley) since 1957. He has been vice-chairman of the Berkeley Department. The appointment of Professor Caves will materially strengthen the Harvard Department, particularly in the fields of international trade and industrial organization. Moreover, he is regarded as an excellent undergraduate teacher.

       The Department unanimously recommended and the President and governing boards approved the appointment of four new assistant professors starting July 1, 1962: Clopper Almon, Jr., Elliot Berg, Phoebus Dhrymes, and Thomas Wilson. It is planned that these assistant professors in the Department will devote part time to research and be paid in part from research budgets. Such arrangements, combined with the higher salary scales starting July 1, 1962, should facilitate the recruitment of first rate assistant professors; it has often been difficult in the past to fill this rank in this Department.

       In approving these four appointments on March 5, 1962, President Pusey stated:

“It is my understanding that these four new Assistant Professors will devote part of their five-year tenure to special research projects and that an appropriate fraction of their salaries during these periods will be charged against the project budgets. I approve in principle the idea of experimenting in this way with charging portions of the salaries of assistant professors to grants or contracts, provided these grants or contracts are of sufficient duration to avoid the danger of funds running out when there are still large salary commitments in excess of our normal academic salary budget. Thus I feel that we should move with caution in this direction, treating the above appointments as experimental, and waiting for the results to become apparent before venturing further along this road.”

3. Chair in Modern China Studies and Economics

       The primary responsibility for filling this chair has now been placed in the Department of Economics. After a series of conferences with the East Asia Research Center of Harvard University, President Pusey approved the arrangements under which the Department will seek a permanent appointment competent in Economics and with a command of the Chinese language. In the meanwhile, the Department is to be responsible for providing some instruction on term appointments in the field and is to have the use of the income of the endowment for such instruction and to develop promising scholars in this field.

       Professor Kuznets is to be Chairman of the Committee of the Department to seek appropriate appointments. It is expected that Mr. Dwight Perkins, a graduate student in the Department, will provide a half course of instruction on the Economy of China in the spring term, 1963.

4. Undergraduate Program

       The enrollment in the undergraduate courses in the Department has grown in the last several years. The aggregate enrollment in undergraduate courses was 926 in the fall of 1959 and 1375 in the fall of 1961; the aggregate enrollment was 1080 in the spring term of 1960 and 1281 in the spring of 1962. These figures include the enrollment in Economics 1 which averaged 540 in 1959 and 628 in 1962. It is thought that these increases in part reflect the reorganization of the undergraduate program placed into effect in the fall of 1960 following several years of work on the part of the committee on undergraduate instruction. The division of full year courses into half year courses, the arrangement of courses into four groups according to prerequisites and level of difficulty, the lectures in Economics 1 and the addition to the curriculum of a few new courses is thought to have stimulated enrollment.

       Despite the increases in enrollment in undergraduate courses, the Department faces a serious continuing problem to maintain and to increase the number of concentrators in the field. The percentage of all concentrators who elect the field of Economics has declined from 7.7 percent in 1956-57 to 6.0 percent in 1960-61. The low concentration in Economics at Radcliffe is of particular concern to the Department, and conferences seeking to increase interest among the students have been held with President Bunting and other members of the Radcliffe staff.

       In order to improve the quality of our instruction, Economics 98 (junior tutorial) is to be reorganized. The adoption of the Gill plan by the Faculty materially increased the number of students in Economics 98 from 40 or 50 to more than 80. The instruction in economic theory by lectures has proven to be inappropriate with the larger group. Next year, 1962-63, it is planned to divide the group into three or four seminars, each of approximately 20 students; each seminar is to be under the direction of a senior member of the Department or an assistant professor. In addition, tutorial groups of four or five students will meet with individual tutors. Professor Caves has been given overall responsibility for this important part of the undergraduate program.

5. Graduate Instruction

       There was a total of 48 first year graduate students in the Department this year including 5 women and 3 enrolled through Littauer. There were 88 continuing graduate students including 6 women, 6 from Littauer, and 2 in joint degrees, for a total of 136 graduate students; in addition, the Department had 10 special students and 10 special auditors. A total of 21 Ph.D. degrees were awarded to students in the Department of Economics.

       The competition for places in the graduate schools for work in the Department of Economics has grown more severe in recent years. From the more than 260 applications for admission to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences received in the spring of 1962, there will only be about 45 new graduate students in the fall of 1962. Almost half of these students will be from outside the United States and Canada. For the fall of 1962 we have been able to obtain the admission of 8 out of the first 10 on our list, a considerably higher fraction than in recent years.

       The Department faces strong conflicting pressures in making decisions on the number of new graduate students to be admitted. On the one hand, the Department is anxious to provide individual instruction particularly after the first year of graduate study for the highest quality students. A greater enrollment would also complicate materially the teaching of the required graduate courses in economic history, statistics and theory, and after a point would require further manpower so that two senior members of the Department might give parallel courses or sections. On the other hand, the Department is anxious to make its contribution to the increased demands for economists particularly for developing countries. Moreover the quality of a number of the students rejected for admission (perhaps as many as 15 to 20) appears to be very good. In the selection of students from abroad it is particularly difficult to know whether one has made the best selections. When students are admitted whose records turn out to be poor, there are often many complications for both the student and the University. The Department has spent considerable energy in reviewing the records of students admitted during the past decade; a careful statistical study was made under the direction of Professor Houthakker. The Department is continuing to seek to improve admission procedures.

         Financial resources available to the Department for its own use for scholarships and fellowships is a serious problem since the money made available by the generous gift of Mr. Roger Kyes has now been exhausted.

6. Organization of the Department

The Department now performs much of its routine business through committees. The two major committees are on Undergraduate Instruction under Professor Eckstein and on Graduate Instruction under Professor Dorfman.

7. Research

         A very large amount of research activity is carried out by members of the Department of Economics. In addition to individual research by senior members, an increasing number of research projects which employ a number of graduate students and junior staff are being conducted under the direction of senior members. These research projects often provide opportunities for training of graduate students in research methods and afford topics and financing for Ph.D. dissertations.

         Among these research projects with financial support are the following:

Professor Leontief Harvard Economic Research Project which has recently been refinanced for a period of years.
Professor Mason The relations of government and business in economic development.
Professor Mason and Dr. Papanek Overseas operations and training
(Center for International Affairs)
Professor Kuznets Economic growth
Professor Eckstein Economics of public expenditures
Professor Houthakker Forecasting consumers’ expenditures
Professor Harris Education and Public Policy
Professor Schelling Defense studies and Experimental Study of Bargaining
Professor Dunlop Labor-Management History and Economics of Medical Care
Professor Duesenberry Capital Markets
Professor Meyer Business Decisions
Professor Bergson Soviet Economics
Professor Gerschenkron Economic History Workshop

8. Public and Professional Activities

         A number of members of the Department were engaged in a wide variety of professional activities and public service during the year. A few instances may be of interest; no attempt is made for a complete listing.

         The president of the American Economic Association comes from this Department two years in a row. Professor Mason is president for 1962, and Professor Haberler is president-elect.

         Professor Leontief was chairman of the International Conference on Input-Output Techniques held in Geneva, Switzerland in September 1961 and sponsored by the Harvard Economic Research Project in association with the U.S.[sic] Secretariat. He was also a member of the Commission of Experts for the United Nations which reported on the Social and Economic Consequences of Disarmament.

         Professor Dorfman served as a member of the President’s Scientific Advisory Committee team on Waterlogging and Salinity in West Pakistan. He is also a member of the President’s Committee to Appraise Employment and Unemployment Statistics.

         Professor Harris is serving as Economic Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury and is a member of the Public Advisory Board of the Area Redevelopment Program.

         Professor John R. Meyer served as a consultant in connection with the President’s message on Transportation Policy.

         Professor Kuznets is Chairman of the Committee on the Economy of China of the Social Science Research Council.

         Professor Bergson is a member of this same Committee and chairman of the Joint Committee of Slavic Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. His study, The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928, was published in 1961 by the Harvard University Press.

         Professor Mason is Chairman, Advisory Committee, A.I.D.

         Professors Duesenberry, Eckstein and Smithies have been consultants to the Council of Economic Advisors. Professor Duesenberry was on the staff of the Commission on Money and Credit and was chairman of the Joint Economic Committee’s Inventory Study Committee.

         Professor Schelling has been a consultant to the Department of Defense and to the Scientific Advisory Board of the Air Force. His study Strategy of Arms Control (with Morton J. Halperin), was published by the Twentieth Century Fund in 1961.

         Professor Houthakker has worked on revenue forecasting problems for the Department of the Treasury.

         Professor Dunlop was a member of the Presidential Railroad Commission (1960-1962), and is a member of the President’s Missile Sites Labor Commission. He was Chairman of the International Conference on Labor Productivity under the auspices of the International Economic Association held August-September 1961.

9. Visiting Committee

         A series of meetings this year with the Chairman of the Visiting Committee, and others of its members, have improved the relations between the Visiting Committee and the Department of Economics. I believe these new attitudes are reflected in the annual report of the Committee. There is a genuine desire on the part of both the Department and the Committee for a constructive relationship.

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John T. Dunlop
Chairman

Source: Duke University. Economists’ Papers Archive. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Edward H. Chamberlin Papers, Box 17, Folder “Economics Department 1960-62”.

Image Source: The Harvard Class Album 1960, p. 29.

Categories
Economists Harvard Teaching Undergraduate

Harvard. Annual Economics Newsletter. 1 June 1960

This three page departmental newsletter for Harvard economics from the end of the academic year 1959-60 is found in Edward H. Chamberlin papers curated at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. Among other things we learn from this newsletter is that a year’s course “Mathematics for Economists” was able to satisfy the foreign language requirement, or expressed differently, the punishment for receiving a grade less than B in the first semester of the math course was being required to pass a rigorous foreign language examination. 

Of course, finding this I wonder where I can find the first four issues of the Harvard Economics Newsletter.

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ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER
Fifth Annual Issue, June 1, 1960

UNDERGRADUATE INSTRUCTION:

The Department has been engaged in a study of its undergraduate curriculum over the past year and has now adopted a substantial series of changes in concentration requirements and, more particularly, in the undergraduate course offerings. The basic principles underlying the revisions were set out in a report of the Committee on Undergraduate Instruction under the chairmanship of Professor John Dunlop. These principles, briefly, were that the undergraduate program is “part of a liberal education” and, except in very special cases, is “not designed as professional training in Economics”; that the undergraduate program should be “clearly differentiated” from the graduate program; that the undergraduate should have as much flexibility as possible in choosing courses of interest to him; that close attention should be given to the teaching of Economics courses and to the balance of analytic and institutional material in each.

These principles clearly indicate a concern on the part of the Department that the undergraduate program may tend to become subordinate to the graduate program unless specific attention is paid to the particular interests and objectives of the younger student. The revisions, therefore, are in the direction of making a greater number of courses (particularly half-courses) open to undergraduates; breaking the traditional parallelism between graduate and undergraduate courses; and emphasizing historical, institutional and policy questions which will be of interest not only to the Economics concentrator but to able concentrators in other fields. To make certain that this greater freedom of choice does not lead to a lack of coherence, a certain “progression” has been introduced in the course offering and Honors candidates are required to take at least one “advanced” course in the area of their choice.

The sum total of these changes gives us a field of concentration which we believe will better serve the purposes of a liberal arts college. So far as undergraduate reaction is concerned, it will not be until the changes have gone into effect next year that we will be able to judge the response effectively. It is of interest, however, that the Crimson, not an altogether silent critic in the past, has called the new program a “model” which other departments might wisely study.

MATHEMATICS- LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT:

Realizing that mathematical competence is growing more important in most branches of economic work than linguistic ability, the Department has revised the language requirement in the following manner:

A full course entitled “Mathematics for Economists” has been established. All graduate students are now required to take and pass the first half of this course or pass an equivalent mathematics examination. Those who pass with at least a B may take the second half of the course, and no language will be required.

Those students who desire fluency in a foreign language or who receive a grade less than B in the first half of the mathematics course must complete the mathematics-language requirement by passing a rigorous language examination.

THE ECONOMICS OF HIGHER EDUCATION:

Professor Seymour E. Harris has been on leave this year on a Ford Fellowship, to complete the study of the Economics of Higher Education. He has visited more than 100 colleges and universities, and has submitted the following report for inclusion in this year’s Newsletter:

There were three resultant manuscripts:

  1. More Resources for Education (John Dewey Lecture), Harpers, 1960
  2. Economics and Educational Value. Edited volume based on seminar in 1958-59 for College Administrators. (Assisted by Richard Cooper and Reginald Green). Harvard University Press, 1960.
  3. Economics of Higher Education, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1961.

A questionnaire sent to about 200 economists revealed attitudes towards higher education.  A considerable sentiment for:

    1. Higher tuition if accompanied by improved financing methods. But fear expressed of resultant excessive gains of enrollment for public institutions, increased recourse to colleges near home, a tendency to favor high income groups and endanger the position of many vulnerable private institutions.
    2. General agreement that much greater recourse to loans is practical. But some economists expressed dissatisfaction with the idea that young men and women should be encouraged to borrow. Furthermore, they are unaccustomed to seeking large credits.
    3. Economists generally envisaged the possibility of substantial economies — better use of plant, reduced number of courses, etc. But it was hoped that small discussion groups would not be eliminated.
PERSONNEL:

Professor Simon KUZNETS, now at Johns Hopkins, and Professor Hendrik HOUTHAKKER, now at Stanford, will join our staff next year.

Professor Otto ECKSTEIN has recently been promoted to Associate Professor of Economics. This fall he was in Washington, where he was Technical Director for the Douglas Committee investigating prices, wages, productivity, etc. Now he is in Europe working for the O.E.E.C. Professor GALBRAITH has been on leave in Switzerland for the spring term, working on a new book on corporation organization. Professor KAYSEN been working for Doxiadis Associates in Athens this year, making a study of Greek economy.

Professor James McKIE from Vanderbilt and Professor Henri THEIL from the Econometric Institute in the Netherlands have been visiting members of our staff this year.

Professor DUNLOP is President of the Industrial Relations Research Association for 1960. He has also been appointed to the President’s Committee investigating non-operating unions on the railroads.

Professor MASON has edited a book, Corporation and Modern Society. Professor DUESENBERRY has been working on his Capital Markets Project, supported by a grant from the Merrill Foundation to the Business School. Professor GERSCHENKRON’s Economic History Workshop, under a grant from the Ford Foundation, began operation in the fall of 1959.

Professor LEONTIEF gave three public lectures as Hitchcock Professor at the University of California in November 1959. Now he is in Argentina at the invitation of the University of Buenos Aires, where he is giving some lectures. He has been sent by ICA and will be there about two weeks. On the way back he will be stopping in Rio de Janeiro to give a lecture at the invitation of the Getulio Vergas Foundation.

Professor DORFMAN will be on leave next year, when he will be at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California.

The Department was saddened by the deaths of Professor SLICHTER in September 1959 and of Mrs. John H. WILLIAMS and Professor BLACK in April 1960.

Source: Economists’ Papers Archive, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Edward H. Chamberlin Papers, Box 17, Folder “Economics Department 1960-62”.

Image Source: “Overhead of empty Harvard Sq.” (1961) Cambridge Historical Commission, Cambridge Photo Morgue Collection. Digital Commonwealth, Massachusetts Collections Online.

Categories
Economist Market Economists Harvard

Harvard. Haberler pushes hiring Caves rather than Chenery or Arrow in 1961

 

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has already posted two artifacts revealing Gottfried Haberler’s unfiltered opinions of other economists that he put into writing.

re: John Kenneth Galbraith vs. Paul Samuelson
re: Samuel Bowles

In my reading of the memo transcribed below I get the sense that Haberler was not shy of overstating his case for the  appointment of Richard Caves by diminishing Arrow’s virtues: “I cannot help feeling that some of his [Arrow’s] work is fanciful and esoteric in the extreme and its chance of survival is very low.”

Personal note: I once paid my Yale mentor William Fellner a courtesy call when he was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. in the 1970s. Fellner was a lunch-buddy of Gottfried Haberler and he invited me to join the two of them for lunch at the Mayflower Hotel. I confess (with a combination of understanding for myself and shame) that I hadn’t a clue who the frail old man wolfing down his lunch across the table from me was and he displayed no interest in conversation with me either. And now here I sit, posting a 63 year old Haberler memo for the historical record.

____________________

All three were eventually given
Harvard professorships anyway

Kenneth Arrow (1951 Ph.D. Columbia, Harvard appointment 1968)

Richard Caves (1958 Ph.D. Harvard, Harvard appointment 1962)

Hollis Chenery (1950 Ph.D. Harvard, Harvard appointment 1965)

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Haberler’s Protest:
Preface to his Colleagues

To the Senior Members of the Department:

I am going to send the attached letter to the President unless anybody strongly objects. For the members of the Department I should like to add that I somewhat resent the surprise tactic used in bringing up the name of Arrow in yesterday’s discussion. Let me confess that this was not immediately clear to me — which on reflection causes me to deplore it all the more. I have reason to believe that others too were taken by surprise.

December 13, 1961

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Haberler’s Protest in Full

CONFIDENTIAL.

MEMO TO: The President, the Senior members of the Department of Economics, the Dean of the Graduate School of Public Administration

FROM: Gottfried Haberler

In my opinion, the Department of Economics is making a serious mistake in filling up the Department too much with mathematical and econometric economists through the proposal to appoint Arrow and Chenery. May I say by way of introduction that, although I am not myself a mathematical economist, I have a high appreciation of the mathematical and econometric method and have consistently shown that by my votes in the Department.

I do believe, however, that at the present time the Department is well supplied with talent in this field. Five members of the permanent staff belong to that category — Dorfman, Houthakker, Leontief, Meyer, Schelling. True, all of them have developed strong interests in policy problems and have worked on applied problems. None of them is a “pure” theorist in the sense that he works exclusively in the theoretic-mathematical-econometric field, but all of them (with the exception of Schelling) have been appointed for their theoretical, mathematical, econometric skills.

In addition to the permanent members, there are always non-permanent members in that category, at present especially Clopper Almon [Obituary].

No two of these five men are quite alike and Arrow is different from all of them. As far as I know, Arrow has not yet developed an active interest in policy questions. I do not criticise him for that — it may well be an asset. All I want to say is that we are well supplied in his general field of competence. He certainly is a most competent man and he, rightly, has a high reputation in the profession. But I cannot help feeling that some of his work is fanciful and esoteric in the extreme and its chance of survival is very low. On earlier occasions when he was discussed in the Department, Professor Leontief expressed precisely the same doubts and reservations. Now he thinks that a large department, such as ours, should have men of that type even if — as he still readily concedes — the permanent value of his ideas is problematic. My point is that we are well supplied with this sort of talent and that we are tilting the balance of the Department too strongly in one particular direction.

The fact that we propose to the School of Public Administration the appointment of Chenery fortifies in my opinion the above criticism.

Chenery too is a mathematical-econometric economist of high quality and great energy. His special field is input-output analysis in its application to less developed countries. He is not, of course, a “pure” theorist. On the contrary, application of the theoretical-statistical tools is his strength, especially of input-output analysis. He has also developed administrative talents. At this time, he holds an important position in Washington which makes him look especially attractive to Littauer, I am not in a position to evaluate his suitability for his government assignment. But I should like to say this: I feel strongly that input-output is of no use for the less developed countries, because their basic statistics are woefully inadequate. This does not mean that Chenery will be a poor administrator. It is possible that for him, in his present position, input-output will be a mere ritual. I assume, however, that Littauer does not appoint him for his administrative capabilities, but rather for his scholarly talents, and these latter belong to the same general field — mathematical-econometric analysis — as Arrow’s and the five members of the Department whom I mentioned.

I feel all the more strongly that the Department is making a grave mistake, because we are passing up a rare opportunity to appoint another man who fits into our Department better than either of the two men mentioned and who has other talents which we urgently need, namely, Richard Caves.

The Department has unanimously voted to recommend the appointment of Caves if Arrow is not available. I therefore need not argue his high competence and standing in this profession. Let me only say this: Caves has shown that he not only understands and appreciates the modern mathematical, statistical and econometric methods of analysis, but also — which is a different thing — that he knows how to use them. He has shown himself at the same time to be a master of traditional economic theory and of modern quantitative analysis, a very rare combination indeed. In addition to that he has become a very effective and stimulating undergraduate teacher, which neither one of the other two men is. We are often criticised for neglecting undergraduate teaching. We have tried to remedy this situation, but the difficulty has always been to find a man who measures up to our standards of scholarship and is at the same time an effective undergraduate teacher. Here we have the very rare opportunity, the opportunity of a lifetime, to appoint a man who is both at the same time — an accomplished scholar who is thoroughly familiar with the history of his science and wields modern quantitative methods of analysis effectively, and is also an inspiring undergraduate teacher. It would be inexcusable to let that opportunity pass.

It should be added that Caves is younger than the other two and is being considered by two leading universities for a permanent position. If we do not get him now we will in all probability have lost him forever.

I should also like to say that I disagree with the view that Chenery is better suited for Littauer than Caves. True, being older he has more administrative experience. But this should not be decisive, in my opinion, except that from a superficial public relations standpoint it may look appropriate to appoint someone to Littauer who has held a high position in Washington. Both men are intensely interested in policy problems, but both will always feel that they are primarily economists and neither will want to lecture only on policy problems or only to Littauer students.

December 13, 1961

Source: Economists’ Papers Archive, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Edward H. Chamberlin Papers, Box 17, Folder “Economics Department 1960-62”.

Image: Radcliffe Archives. Portrait of Gottfried Haberler. (1965).

Categories
Harvard Teaching

Harvard. Graduate econometrics, first semester. Houthakker and Vanek, 1962

The transcription of the following partial (?) course syllabus was shared with Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Vincent Carret, a doctoral candidate at Université Lumiere Lyon 2, Faculté des Sciences Économiques et de Gestion (FSEG). 

Perhaps there are others who would like to contribute to this project with the contribution of a transcription? If so, leave a comment below for me to get in touch with you.

_____________________

Course Announcement
1962-63

Economics 224a. Econometric Methods, I

Half course (fall term). W., F., 2-3:30. Professor [Hendrik] Houthakker and Assistant Professor [Jaroslav] Vanek.

An introduction to the use of multivariate statistical analyses in the study of economic behavior, with special emphasis on budgetary and other individual decision unit data.

Prerequisite: Economics 221b [Quantitative Methods, II] or equivalent.

Source: Harvard University.  Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1962-1963, p. 105.

_____________________

Econometric Methods I
Economics 224a

Professors Houthakker and Vanek

Reading List #1                                                               Fall 1962

I. General References

Klein L., Introduction to Econometrics, (elementary)

Klein, L., A Textbook of Econometrics (advanced)

II. Household Consumption

Allen, R. G. D. and Bowley, A. L., Family Expenditures; a Study of its Variation, 1935

Prais, S. J. and Houthakker, H. S., The Analysis of Family Budgets, 1955

Houthakker, H. S., “An International Comparison of Household Expenditure Patterns….,” Econometrica, October 1957

Friedman, M., A Theory of the Consumption Function, 1957

Kuh, E. and Meyer, J., “How Extraneous are Extraneous Estimates?” Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1957

Kuh, E. and Meyer, J., “Correlation and Regression Estimates When the Data are Ratios,” Econometrica, April 1959

Kuh, E., “The Validity of Cross-Sectionally Estimating Behavior Equations in True Series Applications,” Econometrica, April 1959

Friend, I. and Jones, R., Study of Consumer Expenditures, Income and Saving, 1960

Volume 1

Houthakker, H., and Haldi, J. (p. 175)
Peters, W. S. (p. 247)

Volume 2

Modigliani, F. and Ando, As. (p. 49)
Watts, H. W. and Tobin, J., (p. 1)
Bodkin, R., (p. 175)
Miner, J., (p. 400)

Rosett, R., “Working Wives” Studies in Household Economic Behavior (by T. Dernburg and others — Yale U. P. 1958

Aitcheson, J. and Prais, S. J., “The Treatment of Grouped Observations” Review International Statistic Institute, 1954

IV.  (sic) Investment

Meyer, J. and Kuh, E., The Investment Decision, 1957

Eisner, R., Determinants of Capital Expenditure, 1956

V. Cost Functions

Johnston, J., Statistical Cost Analysis

VI. Survey Methods

Survey Research Center (University of Michigan) 1960 Survey of Consumer Finances

Tobin, J., “On the Predictive Value of Consumer Intentions & Attitudes,” Rev. Econ. & Stat. February 1959

National Bureau of Economic Research, Quality and Economic Significance of Anticipations Data

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1962-1963 (2 of 2)”.

Image Sources:

Hendrik Samuel Houthakker from website Find-A-Grave.

Jaroslav Vanek (1961 Fellow) from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website.

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list for Mathematical Approaches to Economic Theory. Houthakker, 1960-1961

 

Hendrik Houthakker joined the Harvard economics faculty in 1960. One of the courses he taught in his first academic year at Harvard was “Mathematical Approaches to Economic Theory”. Following the Faculty Memorial Minute, this post provides the course enrollment numbers along with the two-semester syllabus. Exams for the course were not found in the bound, printed collection of final examinations for 1960-61 at the Harvard University Archives.

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Hendrik Samuel Houthakker
Faculty of Arts and Sciences — Memorial Minute

At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences March 10, 2009, the following Minute was placed upon the records.

Hendrik Samuel Houthakker, the late Henry Lee Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Harvard University, lived a very rich and full life that brought him into contact with some of the great events of our time. He was born in Amsterdam in 1924 and lived through the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. He received his doctorandus degree in economics at the University of Amsterdam in 1949 and immediately joined the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Cambridge.

In 1950 Houthakker published a paper that assured him a permanent place in the history of economic thought, presenting his famous Strong Axiom of Revealed Preference. The force of this stunning contribution is well captured by Robert Pollak in the following words: “Economics, unlike mathematics, has relatively few classic well-posed problems whose solutions can make professional reputations. The original revealed preference problem was one of them.” Houthakker’s paper was cited in 1963 when he received the John Bates Clark Medal of the American Economic Association, awarded every other year to that economist under 40 who has made the most significant contribution to economics. The paper was one of two major themes in Pollak’s essay, “Houthakker’s Contributions to Economics,” written on the occasion of his election as Distinguished Fellow of the Association in 1988.

From Cambridge Houthakker went to the Cowles Commission on Economics at the University of Chicago. His contributions to economics continued at a breathtaking pace and included the first of his important empirical studies of consumer demand, The Analysis of Family Budgets, with S. J. Prais. Houthakker’s empirical findings, like his theoretical work, have become an enduring part of economics. He moved to Stanford in 1954, where he met his wife, Anna-Teresa, and then to Harvard in 1960.

It would be difficult to exaggerate Houthakker’s contributions to the Department of Economics at Harvard. He was a mentor to generations of junior faculty. He taught a wide variety of courses, beginning with econometrics and mathematical economics and later including international economics and financial economics. He served for twenty-one years as the sole editor of the Review of Economics and Statistics, then as now one of Harvard’s two leading journals of economics. Houthakker read many of the manuscripts himself, assigned the best to referees, and made the final editorial decisions. When he stepped down he was replaced by a committee. He was also acting chairman of the Department of Economics in 1987–88.

A short description of Houthakker, written on the occasion of his passing by his friend and former colleague Andreu Mas-Colell, now professor of economics at the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, captures him well:

“I was privileged to be his colleague at Harvard, where he received me with much kindness and I discovered a gentle man with very broad intellectual and social interests. My own proclivities led to many exchanges on revealed preference and aggregation theory. I distinctly recall them as most enlightening.”

Houthakker was appointed to be a Member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1969 to 1971 by President Richard Nixon. This period included the collapse of Bretton Woods, the system of fixed parities for international currencies established after World War II. Writing about the secrecy with which the policies to resolve the financial crisis were formulated and implemented, Houthakker penned the following words, which now seem prescient:

“In any democracy it is difficult to carry out policies without public awareness, public criticism, and public cooperation wherever possible. Under the U.S. Constitution, congressional involvement is even more essential, no matter how time-consuming and politically hazardous.”

One of Houthakker’s interests, known to only a few of his colleagues and friends, was the social and ethical aspects of economics. In 1992 he organized a symposium on the centennial of the papal encyclical, Rerum Novarum, translated by the Vatican as “Capital and Labor.” This was written by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 and presented the papal view of capitalism, socialism, and the role of the state. In 1991 Pope John Paul II wrote the encyclical, Centesimus Annus (“In the Hundredth Year”). This brought the papal view up to date through the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the ongoing collapse of the Soviet Union. Chapter 5 presented an emphatic and elaborate statement of approval for the transition to democracy and a market economy then under way.

Pope John Paul II had been a close friend of Anna-Teresa and Hendrik Houthakker since the 1970s, a story recounted in the biography His Holiness by Carl Bernstein of Bernstein and Woodward, and Marco Politi, the Italian journalist. The authors quote Houthakker on his conversations with John Paul II, then the Cardinal Archbishop Karol Wojtyla, “I tried to talk with him about the merits of capitalism and democracy, but I had a feeling I wasn’t getting anywhere.” The conversations between Houthakker and the Cardinal, later the Pope, eventually bore fruit. The symposium was a success and led to a book, Social and Ethical Aspects of Economics: A Colloquium in the Vatican, published in 1992.

The symposium was among the services to the church acknowledged in Houthakker’s election as Knight Commander with Star in the Papal Order of Saint Gregory in 2003. The papal knighthood was added to the long list of honors he received, including Presidency of the Econometric Society in 1967, Vice Presidency of the American Economic Association in 1972, membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, corresponding membership in the Netherlands Academy of Sciences and honorary degrees from his alma mater, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Fribourg. He was devoted to economic research from his youth in Amsterdam until the very end of his life, and he received the honors that his originality, depth, and breadth of interests merited. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Anna-Teresa, and his children Louis, Jan Nicholas, and Isabella Romana.

Respectfully submitted,

Guido Imbens
Andreu Mas-Colell
James Stock
Dale Jorgenson, Chair

Source (including portrait): Harvard Gazette website. April 30, 2009.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics 214] Mathematical Approach to Economic Theory. Professor Houthakker. Full Course.

(F) Total 13: 9 Graduates, 1 Junior, 2 Radcliffe, 1 Other.
(S) Total 10: 7 Graduates, 1 Junior, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1960-1961, p. 78.

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Note for the Fall reading list, an asterisk (*) denotes a “supplementary or alternative reading”; for the Spring semester reading list it designates a “recommended reading” (presumably as opposed to a “required reading”). So it  appeasr the “non-asterisked” items constituted the required readings for the course.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 214, First Semester

Reading List
Fall 1960
Professor Houthakker

The first semester of the course will be devoted mostly to static microeconomics. The classical approach is discussed first to be followed by lectures on linear and nonlinear programming. The mathematical knowledge assumed is equivalent to one year of calculus and some versatility in high school algebra. Titles marked * are supplementary or alternative readings.

1. Mathematical background: Matrix algebra and constrained maxima and minima of several variables.

* Henderson & Quandt, Microeconomic Theory, Appendix.

* Dorfman, Samuelson and Solow, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis, Appendix B.

* Perlis, Theory of Matrices.

* Aitken, Determinants and Matrices.

* Thrall and Tornheim, Matrices and Vector Spaces.

*Allen, Mathematical Economics, Chs. 12-14.

*Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Appendix A.

* Debreu and Herstein, “Non-negative square matrices,“ Econometrica, 1953.

* Ferrar, Algebra.

2. Classical theory of the consumer

Henderson & Quandt, Microeconomic Theory, Ch. 2.

Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Chs. 5-7.

Hicks, Value and Capital, Chs. 1-3 and Math. Appendix, Sections 3-12.

*Hicks, A Revision of Demand Theory.

Bushaw & Clower, Introduction to Math. Economics, Ch. 5.

Allen and Bowley, Family Expenditure, Ch. 3 and Math. Appendix.

*Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists, Ch. 19.

*Allen, Mathematical Economics, Ch. 19.

*Wold, Demand Analysis, Part II.

Samuelson, “The Problem of Integrability in Utility Theory,” Economica, 1950.

*Tobin and Houthakker, “The Effects of Rationing on Demand Elasticities,” Review of Economic Studies, 1950-1.

*Houthakker, “Compensated Changes in Quantities and Qualities Consumed,” Review of Economic Studies, 1951-52.

*Ichimura, “A Critical Note on the Definition of Related Goods,” (with comment by Hicks), Review of Economic Studies, 1950-51.

*Friedman, “Professor Pigou’s Method for Measuring Elasticities of Demand from Budgetary Data,” QJE, 1935-36.

Houthakker, “Additive Preferences,” Econometrica, April 1960.

*Frisch, “A Complete Scheme for Computing All Direct and Cross Demand Elasticities in a Model with Many Sectors,” Econometrica, April 1959.

3. Classical Theory of the firm

Henderson & Quandt, Microeconomic Theory, Ch. 3.

Samuelson, Foundations, Ch. 4.

Hicks, Value and Capital, Chs. 6-7 and Math. Appendix.

Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists, Ch. 19.

*Allen, Mathematical Economics, Ch. 18.

*Bushaw & Clower, Introduction to Math. Economics, Ch. 6.

4. Linear Programming and Input-Output Analysis

Dorfman, Samuelson, and Solow, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis, Ch. 1-7, 9-10.

*Koopmans, Activity Analysis of Production and Allocation, Ch. III.

Leontief, The Structure of American Economy, Part II.

Chenery & Clark, Interindustry Economics, Ch. 1-4, *11, *12.

*Manne, Scheduling of Petroleum Refinery Operations.

*Allen, Mathematical Economics, Chs. 16-17.

*Lefeber, Allocation in Space.

*Houthakker, “On the Numerical Solution of the Transportation Problem,” Journal of Operations Research Society of America, May 1955.

*Henderson, The Efficiency of the Coal Industry.

*Farrell, “An Application of Activity Analysis to the Theory of the Firm,” Econometrica, 1954.

Houthakker, “The Pareto Distribution and the Cobb-Douglas Production Function in Activity Analysis,” Review of Economic Studies, 1955-56.

Klein, “On the Interpretation of Professor Leontief’s System,” Review of Economic Studies, 1952-53 (also discussion by Morishima and Klein in 1956-7 volume).

*Koopmans, Three Essays on the State of Economic Science, Ch. 1.

5. Nonlinear programming

Dorfman, Samuelson, and Solow, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis, Ch. 8.

*Kuhn and Tucker, “Nonlinear Programming,” Proceedings of the Second Berkeley Symposium on Math. Stat. and Prob.

Houthakker, “The Capacity Method of Quadratic Programming,” Econometrica, Jan. 1960.

*Markowitz, Portfolio Selection. Ch. [no number given]

*Wolfe, “The Simplex Method for Quadratic Programming,” Econometrica, July 1959.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 214, Math. Approach to Economic Theory

Reading List
Spring 1961
Professor Houthakker

Items marked * are recommended

General Equilibrium

Arrow & Debreu, “Existence of Equilibrium for a Competitive Economy,” Econometrica, July, 1954.

Wald, “On some systems of equations of mathematical economics” (transl.), Econometrica, Oct. 1951.

Von Neumann, “A model of general economic equilibrium (transl.), Review of Economic Studies, No. 33, 1945-46, (also note by Champernowne following this paper).

*Debreu, Theory of Value, Ch. 1-5.

Gale, Theory of Linear Economic Models, Ch. 6-9.

Dorfman, Samuelson, Solow, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis, Ch. 13.

*Malinvaud, “Programmes d’Expansion et Taux d’Intérêt,” Econometrica, April ’59.

Stability of Equilibrium

Arrow & Hurwicz, “On the Stability of the Competitive Equilibrium, Econometrica, October 1958 (see also Econometrica, July 1960).

*Arrow, Block & Hurwicz, “On the Stability of the Competitive Equilibrium,” Econometrica, Jan. 1959.

*McKenzie, “Stability of Equilibrium and the Value of Positive Excess Demand,” Econometrica, July 1960.

Henderson & Quandt, Microeconomic Theory, Ch. 4-5.

Bushaw & Clower, Introduction to Mathematical Economics, Ch. 3-4.

*Arrow & Nerlove, “A Note on Expectations and Stability,” Econometrica, April 1958.

Dynamic Micro-theory

Tintner, “Maximization of Utility over Time,” Econometrica, 1938.

Strotz, “Myopia and Inconsistency in Dynamic Utility Maximization,” Review of Economic Studies, No. 62, 1955-56.

*Cramer, “A Dynamic Approach to the Theory of Consumer Demand,” Review of Economic Studies, No. 64, Feb. 1957.

Neisser, “The Pricing of Consumers’ Durables,” Econometrica, Oct. 1959.

Bushaw & Clower, Ch. 5, Section 7-8; Ch. 6 Section 8-9.

Growth Models; Dynamic Input-Output Analysis

Leontief, “Dynamic Analysis,” Studies in the Structure of the American Economy.

Hawkins & Simon, “Some Conditions of Macro-economic Stability,” Econometrica, July-Oct. 1949.

Dorfman, Samuelson & Solow, Ch. 11-12.

Solow, “Competitive Valuation in a Dynamic Input-Output System,” Econometrica, Jan. 1959.

*Wurtele, “Note on some stability properties of Leontief’s dynamic models,” Econometrica, Oct. 1959.

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

Jorgensen, “Growth and Fluctuation: a causal interpretation,” QJE, Aug. 1960.

Jorgensen, “A dual stability theorem,” Econometrica, Oct. 1960.

Malinvaud, “Capital Accumulation and Efficient Allocation of Resources,” Econometrica, April 1953.

Business Cycles

Baumol, Economic Dynamics, Ch. 7-11, 13-16.

Goodwin, “The Nonlinear Accelerator & the Persistence of Business Cycles,” Econometrica, Jan. 1951.

Allen, Mathematical Economics, Ch. 7-9.

Source: Harvard University Archives.  Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1960-1961 (2 of 2).”

Categories
Cowles Economists Seminar Speakers

Cowles and IMF seminars on social welfare functions. Abba Lerner, 1952

 

In this post we have material related to a seminar on social welfare functions that Abba Lerner gave on at least two occasions in the fall of 1952–once at the I.M.F. and once at the Cowles Commission. The three items transcribed below come from a single folder in the “Abba P. Lerner Papers” at the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. The first two items are typed notes Lerner kept for himself followed by a page of handwritten notes that presumably were his presentation notes (his class lecture notes are seldom, if ever, more than a page per lesson and often no more than a list of key words). Where I have been forced to guess a word, I use boldface. Simple typos and spelling mistakes have been corrected without fanfare, Lerner was a pretty lousy typist.

Transcribed notes for Abba Lerner’s five lectures about labor (1949) can be found in an earlier post.

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SOME ASPECTS OF WELFARE ECONOMICS
IMF 9-19-52
[Lerner’s own typed notes, followed by handwritten notes]

Western Humanism—Efficient use of resources for satisfying human wants.

adding utilities, measuring utility, complementarity, weighting

For analysis avoid by indifference curves, more generally, by ordering

For Welfare Economics avoid by social welfare function also an ordering.

Democracy means deriving social decision from individual preferences.

Bergson and Samuelson seem to suggest possibility of getting social ordering from individual ordering

Arrow on the derivation. The Paradox.

More generally. Five conditions. Free choice, positive, irrelevance non-dictatorial, non-imposed.

Serious for Democracy how much consensus is needed? (Single peaked pref[erences]s.)

Much Math. Reviewers gingerly defer and repeat the paradox.

Too loose. Too severe. at the same time.

Voting is weighting. cf. “unweighted index numbers” voting excluded.

If voting should be consistent. 1+1 =1. (single peaked prefs avoid the triangle)

The third postulate. Men, not preferences, born free and equal.

Majority rule not = democracy. (tho not minority rule)

must be checked for significance of the preference to the individual.

PR [preference revelation?] as concentrating of voting.

Scale of ordering.-1-100 (voting by differences between votes)

Republican Editorial after Democratic Conference.

Must weigh individuals. Must allow individuals to weigh their preferences.

voting and pricing

[Bottom half of paper has the following handwritten notes:]

Social Welfare Function vs. process for social division.

One Commodity World

 A B C Total
x 3 1 2

6

y

 2 3 1 6
z 1 2 3

6

the middle one cannot be the worst

“indifference” [not the same as] “cannot say”

consensus about rules, not content
values vs. prefs?

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Social Welfare Functions
Discussion at Cowles Commission 10-9-52
[Lerner’s own typed summary of comments he received]

The essence of Democracy is not giving everybody equal influence or voting power but the recognition of uncertainty so that policies can be corrected. Not the determination of policy but the election of official to whom authority can be delegated. Houthakker.

How can the greater needs of some be protected? One cannot rely on those majorities who care little about anything being prevented from oppressing minorities by devoting only a little of their voting power to the oppression—what if there are not many decisions but only one which matters very little to the majority but is very important to the minority? Koopmans

The conditions for a successful democracy do include some restrictions on the preference of the members of society. If conflicts are so strong that they mean more than the preservation of the unity of the society or the keeping of the rules then the democracy cannot persist. Koopmans

Arrow’s third postulate is unnecessarily strong. His purpose would be served by having a social welfare function derived from some set of “complete” private orderings which would then continue to be used even when some of the alternatives have disappeared.  Chairman

Economics is where division between the satisfaction of the desired of different individuals is possible. Each can then get (buy) what he wants without this affecting others. Where there is an indivisibility or a non-separability of the effects on different individuals we have political rather than economic problems. Discussion after the meeting with Colin Clark.

Where there is indivisibility we have to have government and must sacrifice freedom. Colin Clark

 

Source:  Library of Congress. Manuscript Division. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 21, Folder 5 “Welfare Economics, Undated”.

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The following handwritten sheet was not stapled to the previous two which were stapled together, but it does have what appear to be matching staple holes, as if the notes had been taken and used for another lecture at some other time.

Welfare Economics—Social Welfare Functions
[Lerner’s handwritten notes
(boldface indicates uncertain transcription)]

Present concerns—Sustaining Forces—Psych[ological] Warfare

deeper to Basic Ec[onomic] Analysis, Basic Political Philosophy.

                        Keynes, Adam Smith              Wilson, Jefferson, Socrates

Democratic Society. Voting. Arrow Paradox. Social ordering from individual orderings.

Is democracy possible? (Single peaked pref[erence]s, single commodity)

Political Ec[onom]y—Welfare Economics—preferred in to “Economics”.

conforming

Summation & Measurement of U[tility]. Social Welfare Function. Social States

Behaviorism + ordering OK.

If no comparison unanimity reasoning. voting means comparing – weighting.

Analyze paradox — inconsistent w[eigh]ting 1 + 1 = 1. (all preferences born equal)

(unweighted)

1 + 1 = 2 give rank ordering (not reasonable—adjust pref[erence]s equal)

\left( \text{another case  }xyz\text{  or  }zxy\,\,\to \,\,\bar{x}\bar{z}\,,\,\bar{z}\bar{y}\text{  but  }xy \right)

diff[erent] low votes is the influencing power not [number] of votes (cf P.R. [preference revelation?] etc) or majority rule

add cardinal utilities (which must also be comparable) to get social ordering

How much for each individual? How democratic

S.W. Function really impor[tant]. But do we need one?

All we need is a democratic decision

Equal influence — given a democratic result

Principle of relevance—different use of voting power. Not a S.W. Function

Inconsistency ceases to be irrational—diff[erent] circumstances

 (games, influence, voting, force, smudged-word)

Over-ambition—cf compensation issue “can’t tell” or “indifference”

output and distribution.

Democracy depends on multiplicity of items.

Consensus + Possibility of Democracy.

 

Source:  Library of Congress. Manuscript Division. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 21, Folder 5 “Welfare Economics, Undated”.

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From the Cowles’ record of Commission Seminars

Oct. 9 [1952] Abba P. Lerner, Roosevelt College, “Social Welfare Functions”

Source: Yale University. Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics. Webpage: Commission Seminars, 1943-1955.

Image Source: Publicity photo of Abba Lerner as Guest Speaker February 25, 1958 in the Beth Emet 1958 Forum. Library of Congress. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 6, Folder 8.

 

Categories
Economists Harvard Seminar Speakers

Harvard. Galbraith’s Special Tuesday Evening Seminar, 1973

 

One of the delights of working with the papers of John Kenneth Galbraith is that the man was simply incapable of writing a straight memo. Some flash of wit or felicitous use of the English language always breaks in. The following announcement gives us some insight into the sort of university service that Galbraith most gladly provided. Soft power was his instrument of choice for departmental politics.

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SPECIAL TUESDAY EVENING SEMINAR

As in earlier years, Professor Galbraith will conduct a series of evening discussions for first year graduate students and others who are interested. Meetings will be in the Littauer Lounge at 7 o’clock, and participants are urged to arrive reasonably on time. They may leave when they wish. Following very brief introductory comments by Professor Galbraith and guests, the subject will be open for discussion. No competently presented argument, however inconvenient, will be denied a hearing. Discussion will continue as long as the audience or the supply of useful ideas endures. This year’s subject and dates are listed below. The guest list is still tentative.

 

October 2, 1973—THE ECONOMICS OF THE PRESENT INFLATION

Guests:
Hendrik S. Houthakker
James S. Duesenberry
John Dunlop

October 16, 1973—THE CORPORATION: IS IT RESPONSIBLE: HAS IT BOUGHT THE COUNTRY

Guests:
Theodore Levitt
Marc Roberts
Abram Chayes
Richard Caves

October 30, 1973—WHAT AND HOW SHOULD ECONOMICS BE TAUGHT AND A Ph.D. EARNED OR ACQUIRED

Guests:
Dale Jorgenson
Robert Dorfman
Sam Bowles
Art McEwan

November 13, 1973—WHAT ARE THE ECONOMICS OF SEX DISCRIMINATION, ARE WOMEN ECONOMIC ARTIFACTS

Guests:
Carolyn Bell
Betsy Munzer
Hazel Denton
Arthur Smithies
Lester Thurow

December 4, 1973—ECONOMICS AND THE PUBLIC PURPOSE

An evening for or against the book. (On this evening, a reasonable quantity of champagne of indifferent quality will be supplied from the accrued royalties, if any)

Guests:
John Kenneth Galbraith
Steve Marglin
Zvi Griliches

 

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Papers. Box 78. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Folder: “Courses, Non-credit seminar1973”.

Image Source: John Kenneth Galbraith in academic regalia from the Harvard Class Album, 1968.