Tag: Metzler

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Economists Harvard Kansas

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, John Christopher Ise, 1914

 

The Ph.D. alumni of a department typically provide their alma mater with talent-spotting services for future graduate students. The University of Kansas professor (and Harvard economics Ph.D., 1914) John C. Ise spotted Edward S. Mason, Lloyd A. Metzler (cf. the ERVM post of the Metzler memorial service) and  John Lintner and sent them to Harvard for graduate school in economics. Quite the rate of return!

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John Christopher Ise
1996 Inductee of the Osborne County Hall of Fame

One of the foremost Kansas educators of the twentieth century was born June 5, 1885, in western Ross Township of Osborne County. Named after his maternal grandfather, John Christopher Ise was the seventh of twelve children born to Henry and Rosena (Haag) Ise on the homestead Henry had claimed in June 1871. As an infant John was stricken with polio, which caused his right leg to become withered and nearly useless. His parents decided early that his best chance at success in life was for him to become a scholar.

John attended the nearby one-room Ise School and learned to play the guitar and the violin. With the latter he occasionally gave recitals in the area. In 1902 he taught a term at the Prairie Bell School in Bethany Township, receiving thirty dollars a month in pay. Later he also taught at the Rose Valley School in Ross Township. In 1903 his damaged leg was amputated and he was fitted with an artificial one, after which he could walk almost normally.

Ise entered the University of Kansas (KU) and graduated with a degree in music in 1908. He followed this with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law degrees. In 1911 he was admitted to the Kansas bar. The next year he received his master’s degree from Harvard University, where in 1914 John also became a Doctor of Philosophy. He was an assistant professor of economics at Harvard and Iowa State College before joining the faculty at the University of Kansas in 1916. He became a full professor there in 1920.

Dr. Ise’s interest in natural resources economics made him internationally known and internationally debated. “As crusty as the Kansas sod, Ise had the self-imposed mission of shocking both students and the public from their intellectual lethargy,” wrote Clifford Griffin in his The University of Kansas: A History (1983). Then-radical ideas such as conserving national oil reserves against future shortages and restricting drilling and mining in national parks and other federal lands caused Ise to be branded a Communist by some. But as time went on his ideas and writings earned him lasting respect both as a resource conservationist and a prophet of the energy crisis of the 1970s.

On August 4, 1921, John married Lillie Bernhard in Lawrence, Kansas. They had two sons, John Jr. and Charles. John was an independent in politics and a charter member of the League for Independent Political Action. He also served as president of the American Economics Association, the Mid-West Economic Association and on the editorial board of the American Economic Review. He was given life membership in the Kansas Illustriana Society in 1933 and later was named to Who’s Who in America.

John was a member of several local organizations in the Lawrence area. He and his wife gave $25,000 in 1955 to the Lawrence Humane Society for an animal shelter in memory of their son Charles, who had died in a plane crash, and spent much more time with this cause. Dr. Ise’s efforts in this area were recognized in 1968 by the American Humane Association.

John’s eight books ranged in subject matter from a comprehensive test on economics to a collection of humorous comments on current condition, interspersed with the classic story of his pioneer family in Osborne County. The United States Forest Policy (1920), The United States Oil Policy (1926), and Our National Park Policy: A Critical History (1961) all reflected his economic views on the nation’s natural resources. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known as OPEC, was formed in 1961 based on Ise’s conclusions in his Oil Policy book. Economics (1940) was a classroom textbook by Ise that was used at KU and several other colleges and universities from 1940 to 1965. Sod and Stubble (1936), a look at his parents’ life on the Kansas prairie in nineteenth century Osborne County, is still in print over 75 years after its initial publication. Ise also edited Howard Ruede’s critically-acclaimed Sod-House Days: Letters from a Kansas Homesteader (1937). These latter two books are considered to be the finest literature ever written about homesteading life on the Great Plains of North America, and have made Osborne County a focal point for scholarly study of the region. Ise’s final book, The American Way, was actually a present to him by his colleagues at KU upon his retirement in 1955 and is a collection of his finest speeches and letters.

Ise kept in touch with his boyhood home in Downs, whether giving the commencement address at the high school graduation or just visiting old friends. It was also customary for him to hold in Lawrence a yearly dinner for all Osborne County students attending KU.

John retired in 1955 with more earned degrees than any other KU faculty member. Up to fifteen thousand students had passed through his classes in thirty-nine years of teaching. He retired a world-renowned economist and is considered one of the three greatest professors in University of Kansas history. Currently the John Ise Award is given annually to recognize the student with the most outstanding achievement by the University of Kansas Department of Economics. John continued in the post of professor emeritus and also taught as a visiting professor of economics at Amherst College in Massachusetts, Groucher University in Baltimore, Maryland, Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and at Harvard University.

John Ise passed away March 26, 1969, at Lawrence and was buried there in the Oak Hill Cemetery. His legacy of teaching and his writings will continue to shape and inspire the world we live in for many years to come.

JOHN ISE
MEMORIES OF MY FATHER

“I was asked to write a brief summary of my father’s life as it pertained to Osborne County. Of his early life I know little beyond his own story of his parents’ life as set forth in his book Sod and Stubble. This book, which I understand is being reissued in 1996, delineates the hardships, sorrows, and joys experienced by Rosa and Henry Ise (nee Eisenmanger) as early settlers near Downs. It ends with the selling of the Ise farm and the move of the family to Lawrence following Henry’s death.

It became abundantly clear to me how much my father’s early farm life had affected him, since for as far back as I can remember (I was born in 1923, in Lawrence, Kansas) he always owned a couple of farms. These were both quarter-sections, one near Richland and the other near Doniphan. He let neighbors farm these in exchange for half the wheat crop, which I remember as yielding (at least during the 1930s) a modest negative return. And just after my brother was born, in March 1926, he moved our family from the rented house on Louisiana Street to a farmhouse a few miles west of Lawrence on Highway 40. His nostalgia for the farm had apparently overweighed my mother’s misgivings, but after about a year she prevailed and they moved back to 1208 Mississippi Street, where he spent the rest of his life.

He had extremely broad interests in life. Thus at KU he earned bachelor’s degrees from three schools – the School of Fine Arts in 1908 (in music), the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1910, and the School of Law in 1911. He subsequently earned Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard in economics, which became his consuming interest from then on, particularly the study of conservation and farm economics. He wrote several books on these subjects, U.S. Oil Policy, U.S. Forest Policy, and U.S. National Park Policy, in addition to Sod and Stubble.

His early life on a Kansas farm had imbued him with several traits that I always found very admirable. He was scrupulously honest – I can remember once when he found that a sales clerk at the old Woolworth’s store on Massachusetts had given him a nickel too much change, whereupon he walked a block and a half in a light snowfall to return the nickel. This was not an easy task for a man who had to drag along a heavy artificial leg (prosthetics have come a long way since he had his withered leg cut off in 1903).

He loved animals with an unqualified love. He had worked his way through college by serving as a mounted officer for the Lawrence SPCA. His stories of how he had rescued dogs and horses from what seemed to my brother and me as incredible brutality and cruelty made a deep impression on both of us. After losing the use of his leg at the age of two to polio he had to get to school (half a mile) in a little wagon pulled by his faithful dog, Coalie. When my brother was killed in a light plane crash in 1955 my father donated money for the Charles Ise Animal Shelter in Lawrence.

And he seemed to have an uncanny way with animals. During the months that we spent on the farm west of Lawrence a neighboring farmer gave him a large and savage Airedale that had so badly bitten several of the farmer’s hired hands that he had to get rid of the dog. I can still remember Dad taking me and the dog by the scruff of the neck and saying, ‘Pal, this is Johnboy – you two are going to be friends.’ Not a growl from the fierce-looking dog, who did indeed become my fast friend, twice saving my life (as I still believe), once from a huge sow who had broken down her pen – this pig had actually eaten two of her own piglets – and once when I got stuck in quicksand in a wash near the farmhouse. These incidents may have hastened our move back to Lawrence!

My father was also a firm believer in the Biblical injunction ‘By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou earn thy daily bread’ and he worked harder than anyone I knew. He would teach all morning ‘up on the Hill,’ come home for lunch and then immure himself in his office, or ‘Library,’ as we called it. This was the downstairs room in our three story house, which contained many hundreds of books, mostly in his own field. All the rooms of the house, except for the kitchen, had bookcases, all full and almost all read. Dad worked, grading papers, preparing lectures, or writing some book or other, all afternoon and for three or four hours after dinner. This was a daily routine, except on Saturday afternoon when the Metropolitan Opera was playing, or when my parents either went out to dinner at friend’s homes or entertained friends themselves. My mother was an excellent cook; once being written up in Clementine Paddleford’s Sunday column for her Black Walnut Cake, but no wine or liquor was ever served in her house. Her father had been a Methodist minister and she and her nine brothers and sisters had been raised quite strictly. Dad’s parents had actually drunk beer and wine on rare occasions, to the considerable embarrassment of all their eleven children, most of whom remained strict teetotalers.

There were many things Dad could not teach me and my brother, because of his artificial leg. Thus there was no ball throwing or family bicycling trips. But he showed us things that to me were more important. As a child in Kansas he had had to be very inventive in the matter of playtime activities. He had learned to whittle with his jackknife–I still have a little box in which he carried his flute, carefully crafted from about a dozen types of wood native to Kansas. He showed Charlie and me how to crack a long bullwhip, and how to make shingle darts, launched with a stick with a knotted piece of string which fit into a notch in the body of the dart. He was incredibly precise with those things, and could hit targets at fifty yards as well as my brother and I could with our BB guns. Because of his missing leg he had had to compensate by using his arms more and had such strength in his arms and hands that he could chin himself with one hand, holding onto the exposed ceiling joists, a feat that his athletic older brothers could not duplicate. But the most important things he could and did teach us were attitudes and beliefs. We learned to love the outdoors, what is now called ‘the environment.’ Summer vacations were always spent camping in the western national parks. We picked up a love of great art, good music and great literature. His favorite author was always Mark Twain. He was fiercely loyal to Kansas and to the United States, which belies his frequently controversial views about many things. He was widely considered to be a Communist sympathizer for many years and the chancellor and even the governor received occasional letters from Kansas businessmen complaining about “that radical John Ise, infecting the young minds in our University.” This amused Dad greatly, but infuriated me and my brother. And thanks to a tolerant administration he remained at KU for thirty-nine years and I believe he taught at least a few thousand students how to think for themselves.

During my postdoctoral Fulbright fellowship to France in 1950 I was working with Jean Daudin, then a leading physicist in the field of cosmic rays. He also happened to be one of the leaders of the Communist Party in southern France and we worked together at the Pic du Midi, on the Spanish border, where he frequently entertained Spanish Loyalists hostile to Franco. Dad was teaching that summer at a seminar in Salzburg, sponsored by Harvard University, and I can remember the bitter argument he had with Daudin about communism, when the two of them met in Paris, for by 1950 the grim reality of Stalin’s dictatorship was obvious to all. I had to translate for the two of them for Dad spoke no French and Daudin no English and it was difficult for me to translate Dad’s cusswords into the kind of French I had learned from Mademoiselle Crumrine at KU!

He was a very good economist, serving as president of the American Economic Association, and an excellent teacher. His textbook on economics was for a time used by the majority of state universities, and I am glad that I was able to take his course in Economics 90, although I was too shy to ever open my mouth in class. When he retired from the KU faculty in 1955 his colleagues expressed their admiration by publishing a collection of his essays in a book, The American Way. In 1963 he was very proud to receive KU’s highest honor, the Citation for Distinguished Service, awarded at Commencement exercises. He remained a true son of Kansas all his life, which was inexorably shaped by his early upbringing in Downs. In one short essay reproduced in The American Way, entitled ‘No Time To Live’, he recalled one episode of his college days, when the family was still living in Downs, in the following manner:

‘When we went to Lawrence to college we did not expect to make the trip in four hours but rode the unhurried Central Branch, changed trains a time or two, making connections if we were lucky – if not, lounging around the depot for some hours or perhaps all night. I remember well the evening my sister and I missed connections at Beloit and sat out behind the depot most of the night, reciting poetry and talking of our plans and ambitions and theories of the good life. It was full moon, and there was a mist on the field of ripening wheat across the fence, and the frogs were croaking from the creek nearby. Sister has been gone these many years, but I can still close my eyes and see that lovely, peaceful scene as if I had been there only yesterday. An interruption of our long journey which I, no doubt, cursed with vigor, had enriched my life with an unforgettable experience. It was enforced leisure, but how rich and enduring.’

One final remark he made about the early settlers among whom he was raised is still relevant: ‘They had what it took, and it took a lot.’ That about sums it up.” – John Ise, Jr., November 1995.

 

Source: The Osborne County Hall of Fame, Presenting The Notable Past and Present Citizens of Osborne County, Kansas. 1996 Inductees.

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Excerpt from Edward S. Mason’s Autobiography

            John Ise, then an Associate Professor of Economics, was a remarkable man and he came from a remarkable family. His father, Henry Eisenmenger, had come to this country from Wurttemberg, Germany in 1857. As his son later recounted, the father “joined the Union arising at the outbreak of the Civil War, helped guard the Mississippi, fought around Chattanooga, marched with Sherman to the sea, and at the close of the war, returned to Illinois, with a new name, ‘Ise’ – because the captain could not remember his full name.”* He moved west after the war, took up a “free” claim of 160 acres in western Kansas, made it into a thriving farm and, with the help of an indomitable wife, raised 12 children, of whom 11 lived. All of them attended college and a few became significant figures in the life of their communities. John was one of the younger ones. He was stricken with infantile paralysis in his youth but, although crippled, he was a powerful man and full of energy. He was also a most engaging teacher.

John Ise had taken his, doctor’s degree at Harvard in 1914 with a dissertation on the History of the Forestry Policy of the United States which foreshadowed later interest in natural resources and land policy**. Ise was much impressed by the Harvard Economics Department – a little too much impressed I later thought when studying under some of the same teachers and – it led him to send his good students there for graduate training. Among others, Lloyd Metzler, now Professor at the University of Chicago, and John Lintner, now Professor at Harvard, passed through his hands. Although Ise could not be called an eminent economist he was an eminent teacher and I received a thorough grounding in Alfred Marshall’s Principles that later stood me in good stead. But he was much more than a teacher and economist. He was a liberal influence in the University and throughout the state. Indeed his very effective speeches in public affairs acquired for him the reputation of having somewhat of a “socialist tinge” which was unusual, to say the least, in Republican Kansas. Whether socialist or not he was the only teacher I ever had who significantly influenced the course of my development.

*John Ise, Sod and Stubble: The Story of a Kansas Homestead. New York, Barnes and Noble, Inc. 1940, p. 10

**His dissertation was later published in part by the Ames iowa Forester. Among subsequent publications were: The United States Oil Policy, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1926. Our National Park Policy, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1961. He also published a textbook, Economics, Harper, N.Y., 1946.

Source: Edward S. Mason, A Life in Development: An Autobiography (privately published by his son Edward H. L. Mason, 2004) p. 14. [Available in the Harvard University Archives Box 1 of Papers of Edward Sagendorph Mason

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Ise’s account (1922) of the undergraduate principles of economics course

…Most departments of economics, nevertheless, follow the plan of giving an all-inclusive course in Elements or Principles to freshmen or sophomores, and make this course prerequisite to most other work in economics. This arrangement can probably be explained, if not excused, by the power of academic tradition. Not many decades ago, only one or two courses in economics were given in most universities — Principles of Political Economy, and perhaps one or two other courses. New courses were gradually added to the curriculum, but the course in Principles was retained as a fundamental introductory course. As long as there were only a few other courses, there was justification for a broad course in the Principles, even if there was little reason for making it the first course; but when enough advanced courses were added to cover the entire field of economics, the course in Principles represented little but duplication. It was not changed much, in character or in scope, as the other courses were added. This is revealed by examination of some of the textbooks used in the United States during the past half century or more. Wayland, Bowen, Amasa Walker, Perry, Meservey, Newcomb, Macvane, Osborne — all cover somewhat the same general ground. Wayland’s Elements of Political Economy, published in 1837, strikingly resembles many recent texts.

John Stuart Mill’s Principles is not very different from many texts now in use, except that it is somewhat superior to most of them.…

There has been a widespread appreciation of the fact that underclassmen do not have the basis of information necessary to a thorough grasp of the course in Principles ; and at least twenty institutions have provided one or two, or even as many as three courses, to precede the Principles and lay a foundation for it. The courses most commonly prescribed are largely historical or descriptive — Economic History of England, Economic History of the United States, Commercial Geography, Commercial Industries, Economic Resources, American Economy, The Economic Order, Modern Economic Life, Industrial Society, Industries and Commerce, Descriptive Economics, etc…

Source: John Ise. The Course in Elementary Economics. American Economic Review, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Dec. 1922), pp. 614-623.

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Kansapedia article
[Yes, there is a Kansapedia]

John C. Ise

Born: June 5, 1885, Ross Township, Osborne County, Kansas. Married Lillie Bernhard, 1921.
Died: March 26, 1969, Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas.

John Ise was born June 5, 1885, in June 5, 1885, in Ross Township, Osborne County, Kansas, to Henry and Rosena (Haag) Ise, where the family had homesteaded in 1871. He was the eighth of 12 children.

Ise attended the University of Kansas and earned bachelor’s degrees in 1908, 1910, and 1911. He earned a master’s degree in 1912 and doctoral degree in 1914 from Harvard University. In 1916 Ise joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in the economics department and reached full professor status in 1920. He married Lillie Bernhard in 1921. They had one child.

Ise retired from the University of Kansas in 1955. He authored eight books that include humorous anecdotes, economics textsbooks, and pioneer family stories. Ise was a philanthropist who supported the animal shelter in Lawrence. He served on numerous boards related to economics and became known around the world for his work as an economist. He was still considered among the three greatest professors in the history of the University of Kansas for many years.

Sod and Stubble is Ise’s most well-known work. The story tells of pioneer life on the Kansas plains in the late 19th century. His mother inspired the character of the pioneer woman who at the age of 17 married a young German farmer and settled in north central Kansas and raised a large family.

 

Source: “Ise, John, C.” in Kansas Historical Society, Kansapedia. Webpage created June 2014 and modified December 2015.

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From: John Ise Papers at the University of Kansas

…Over the course of his career he authored eight books, served as president of the American Economics Association and the Mid-West Economic Association, and served on the editorial board of the American Economic Review. Sod and Stubble is Ise’s best known work, recording his childhood as a child of homesteaders in Osborne County in the late 19th century. Other volumes written by Ise include Economics, Our National Park Policy: A Critical History, The American Way, The United States Forest Policy, and The United States Oil Policy.

Ise was also a generous philanthropist, notably supporting and for a time serving as president of the Lawrence Humane Society in Lawrence, Kansas…

Research Tip: Box 19 “Clippings, letters, published materials, class notes” would almost certainly have course materials from Harvard, but perhaps also from his own student days:

Source: Excerpt from short biography in University of Kansas Libraries, Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Guide to the John Ise Collection.

 

Image Source: The Osborne County Hall of Fame, Presenting The Notable Past and Present Citizens of Osborne County, Kansas. 1996 Inductees.

 

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Chicago Economists Harvard Yale

Harvard. Mason, Domar and Samuelson at Metzler Memorial Service, 1980

 

These memorial remarks for Lloyd Metzler come from Evsey Domar’s papers. Edward S. Mason and Evsey D. Domar’s remarks have been transcribed in full. I have only provided excerpts of those by Paul Samuelson that were published later in Vol. V of his Collected Scientific Papers. The common denominator of all three remembrances is that Metzler was an outlier among economists both with respect to his analytical abilities and contributions to economics as well with respect to his uncommon utter decency. It appears even back then, nice guys in economics attracted as much attention as an albino moose today. Samuelson’s speculative remark regarding Metzler’s assignment to the “Burbank ghetto” is priceless as is his recounting of Keynes’ less than sage advice to Sidney Alexander.

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LLOYD A. METZLER
1913-1980
by Edward S. Mason

We are here to celebrate the life of Lloyd Metzler who gave comfort and pleasure not only to his family but to a host of friends. In the six short years he was at Harvard, he made a name for himself as a scholar of promise and a man to whom others turned for help and companionship.

Lloyd took his first degree at the University of Kansas and studied under a man who was my own teacher and who taught John Lintner and a number of others who later came to Harvard. I’d like to say a word about this man, John Ise, who left his imprint on Lloyd, on me, and on all those who passed through his hands. Ise was one of five children who grew up on the Kansas prairies just after the Sod House days that he later wrote about. All of these children went through the University and all made their mark in life. He was a strong man who fought for his unpopular opinions and encouraged his students to strike out for themselves. I know he impressed Lloyd as much as he did me.

After teaching two years at Kansas, Lloyd came to the Graduate School at Harvard in 1936. It was an interesting period in Cambridge and in the Department of Economics. The old guard was leaving the Department and a new crew coming in. Taussig, Carver, and Bullock retired; Ripley died; and Gay left for the Huntington library. These were the stalwarts who had dominated the Department since 1900. Early in the 1930s, Schumpeter, Leontief, and Haberler joined the Department and, later, Hansen, Schlichter, and Black. They were a vigorous crew. Lloyd early discovered his major interest in international trade and worked, in particular, with Hansen and Haberler. Harvard economics was also fortunate in attracting during that period a number of exceptional graduate students, a number of whom are here with us today. I am sure that Lloyd learned as much from them as from his teachers and, in the process, gave as much as he took.

The 1930s were also a period of upheaval in the country and in the University. In some respects it resembled the late 1960s though the protagonists and antagonists were not as strident or violent. It was a period when new ideas percolated the environment and questions of public policy were much to the fore. The influence of Keynes dominated the last few years of the decade, and Lloyd soon found himself in the middle of Keynesian controversies.

After leaving Harvard in 1942, he spent a year as a Guggenheim Fellow and then joined the Office of Strategic Services for a year. Although OSS had a good stable of economists, I am sure that he felt more at home at the Federal Reserve Board where he served from 1944 to 1946. After that a brief period at Yale, and then the University of Chicago where he was a distinguished member of the Economics Department for the rest of his life.

I leave it to others to comment on his considerable scholarly accomplishments, but want to say something about how Lloyd impressed me as a young man. He was obviously much more than an economist, with deep interests in music and literature. He was a cultivated man who in some respects reminded me of Allyn Young who also had a great interest in music and who, for a brief moment in the 1920s, shed his light on Harvard. Young looked more like a poet than an economist though I admit it is difficult for me to describe just what an economist is supposed to look like. Lloyd was a sensitive gentleman with a gift for friendship. Everyone who knew him like him and all of us join Edith in deeply mourning his departure.

 

ON LLOYD METZLER
by Evsey D. Domar

Last Sunday, The New York Times reviewed another book on President Truman. He is a gold mine for historians. A man of modest ability, yet a good president. Well, perhaps not quite so good… On the other hand, by comparison with our presidents in the recent past and, may I add, expected in the near future, a giant indeed… Many contradictions in his character and performance and so on. Could you find a better man to write about?

Lloyd Metzler does not offer such wonderful opportunities. As I look back over nearly forty years since I first met him, I don’t find contradictions either in his character nor in his actions; what stands out is a man of rare intellectual ability, remarkable modesty and much kindness.

Over my lifetime I have known a number of very bright people, including some economists; and a number of very modest and kind people, also including some economists. But I have never met one who could excel Lloyd in the combination of ability, modesty and kindness.

This was true at Harvard where he was finishing his thesis when I first met him in 194’ [sic]. If a visitor asked then, “Who is your brightest graduate student?” the answer, without any hesitation was “Lloyd Metzler, of course.” If the question was, “Who is your nicest graduate student?” the answer was once again, “Lloyd, of course.” Ant the same was true at the Federal Reserve where he spent a couple of years during the War. It was true in his office, in the cafeteria, in the afternoon math class which he gave for the staff, and outside of that marble building which has lately appeared several times on TV. (Hard to believe now that in those days the interest rate of government securities was something like 2½ per cent.)

As Solzhenitsyn said, he “was the one righteous person without whom, as the saying goes, no city can stand. Neither can the whole world.”

 

LLOYD METZLER
(April 3, 1913—October 26, 1980)
by Paul A. Samuelson

[Excerpts]

That we should hold this memorial service in the Harvard Yard is fitting. Widener Library was Lloyd’s first stamping grounds after he came to Harvard in 1937 from Kansas. Later, when the Littauer building was new, he switched his battleground to the other side of where we now meet. In my mind’s eye, I can still see Lloyd Metzler walking across the Harvard Yard, with his little dachshund in tow, engaged in animated badinage with Bob Bishop or Dan Vandermeulen. A young resident of Winthrop House, destined to be president of the United States [John F. Kennedy], used to be disturbed in his studies by our revels in Lloyd’s Winthrop House tutorial suite.

…To be near K.U., the family finally moved to Lawrence, Kansas. There the spellbinder populist, John Ise, rescued Lloyd from the swamp of the business school. Just as Ise had done with Ed Mason, and as he was to do with John Lintner, Challis Hall, and a host of other sons of the middle border, Ise sent Metzler on to his old graduate student at Harvard.

Harold Hitchings Burbank, noting the Germanic “z” in Lloyd’s name and recognizing his egregious talent, probably mistook him for a Jew…Like other able people Burbank didn’t favor, Lloyd was put in the galleys of Frickey and Crum, to serve as assistant in the undergraduate courses in statistics and accounting. Since I never had that honor, I can with good grace report that the cream of the graduate school, those who have won the Wells Prizes and top honors of our profession, all came from this Burbank ghetto.

…What is in order is to speak of Wassily Leontief and E.B. Wilson We few mathematical economists at Harvard were blessed by these great teachers…Wilson spotted Metzler’s genius. One of President Conant’s few stupid decisions was to retire Wilson at the earliest possible age, and this in a period of teacher shortages, thereby depriving the post-Metzler generations of the consumers’ surplus that Metzler, I, Bergson, Tsuru, Alexander, and some other happy few enjoyed.

That, however , was par for the critics of mathematical economics. In the year that Metzler came to Harvard, Sidney Alexander was Keynes’s last tutee at Cambridge University. Keynes seriously advised Alexander not to waste his time with mathematical economics…

…All in all, Lloyd Metzler added enormously to economic science. And that sense of humor and sweet nature lives on in our happy memories.

Note: Samuelson’s complete remarks at the memorial service were published in The Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson, Vol. V (Kate Crowley, ed.) pp. 827-830. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1986.

 

Source: Duke University. Rubenstein Library. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 6, Folder “Correspondence: Lloyd Metzler etc.”

Image Source: “Lloyd A. Metzler/Fellow: Awarded 1942/Field of Study: Economics”John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Webpage .

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Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Final Examinations for International Economics. Metzler, 1947-48

 

The University of Chicago’s intermediate economics course “International Economic Relations”, Economics 270, dropped its international trade component to go full international macro (i.e. exchange rates and balance of payments) with Lloyd A. Metzler’s appointment. The course description for 1947-48 did not reflect the change in emphasis (the updated description is found below in the course description for 1948-49)  but it is clear from the examination questions for both the summer quarters of 1947 and 1948 transcribed for this posting that the  syllabus for the Autumn quarter of 1949 must have been essentially the same for those earlier courses.

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[Course Description, 1948-1949]

[Economics] 270. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS. The nature of international payments and receipts; foreign trade and the banking system. The gold standard in the interwar period. The breakdown of the gold standard and the period of fluctuating exchange rates. Exchange controls, clearing agreements and payments agreements. The second world war and the foreign exchange markets. The position of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the present world economy. Prereq: Econ 209, 230 [Intermediate Economic Theory, Introduction to Money and Banking, respectively], or equiv. Sum: TuThS 11; Win: MWF 9:30; Metzler.

 

Source: University of Chicago. Announcements, Volume XLVIII, Number 4: The College and the Divisions, Sessions of 1948-1949, May 25, 1948, p. 249.

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Econ. 270
Exam Summer 1947

Answer one question from each part

I

  1. Discuss the role played by either long-term or short-term capital movements in the U. S. balance of payments during the inter-war period.
  2. Discuss the origin of the Sterling area, indication [sic] what distinguished this area from other currency systems, and how the system operated before the war.
  3. Distinguish between intended and unintended neutralization of gold movements, and indicate what bearing neutralization had on the operation of the gold standard in the inter-war years.

II

  1. Show how the German exchange clearing system led to bilateral trade, and discuss the disadvantages of bilateralism.
  2. Present a program of your own for international currency reform, and show how your program would solve some of the problems of the interwar period.
  3. Evaluate a system of flexible exchange rates as a means of adjusting balance of payments.

 

Economics 270
Summer 1948

Answer two questions, including I

  1. About two weeks ago, the New Zealand government announced an appreciation of its currency, from £N.Z. 1.25 = £1.00 sterling to £N.Y. 1.00 = £1.00 sterling. Bearing in mind the following information, discuss the probable reasons for and probable consequences of this move.

1937

 1946 Dec. 1947

May 1948
Gold Holdings (millions of dollars)

23

 23 23

23
Foreign exchange Holdings (millions of dollars)

127

 365 300

348
Currency and Deposits (millions of N.Z. pounds)

47

 168 175

187
Cost of Living Index

100

 123 133

135
Wholesale Prices:

Home goods

100

 132 156

156

Import-type goods

100

 171 191

194
Index of Export Prices

100

 141 193

199
Total value of trade (millions of N.Z. [pounds]

Exports

65

 98 128*

—

Imports

56

 72 128*

—

*all of 1947

  1. “The balance of payments on current accounts determines the amount of the net change in a country’s claims against other countries. The capital accounts simply show the form in which these claims are held.” Discuss carefully, using any numerical examples you deem appropriate.
  2. Write a brief essay on the relation of currency values to the prospects for European recovery.

 

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Course Exams 270-271”.

Source Image: “From family album, taken while Lloyd Metzler was a student at Harvard.”
“Lloyd A. Metzler” by Margiemetz – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.

Categories
Chicago Courses Syllabus

Chicago. Graduate Price Theory. Economics 300A. Harberger, 1955

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Thus far Economics in the Rear-View Mirror has been able to provide syllabi for the following four professors who had taught the first core price theory course at the University of Chicago spanning nearly a quarter of a decade during the middle third of the 20th century:

Today I add the syllabus for Arnold Harberger (a.k.a.”Triangle Man”, see the photo credit below). Note: chapters from Samuelson’s Foundations are only recommended readings, not yet required.

_______________________

 

Economics 300A
Mr. Harberger
Autumn 1955

 

Texts:

  1. Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, 8th
  2. George Stigler, Theory of Price, revised ed.
  3. H. Knight, The Economic Organization

 

Supplementary material (Purchase not required):

  1. American Economic Association, Readings in Price Theory
  2. Milton Friedman, Essays in Positive Economics
  3. Milton Friedman, Notes on Lectures in Price Theory (mimeographed)

Students are expected to be familiar with the materials in Stigler’s Theory of Price before entering the course. Readings marked with an asterisk (*) are recommended, not required.

 

Reading List

 

  1. Introduction:

Knight, The Economic Organization, pp. 1-37
Stigler, Theory of Price, Chs. 1-3
Friedman, “The Methodology of Positive Economics” in Essays in Positive Economics

  1. Demand:

Stigler, Theory of Price, Chs. 4-5
Marshall, Book III, Chs. 2-4, Book V, Chs. 1-2
Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Ch. 3
Hicks, Value and Capital, pp. 11-52
Working, “What do Statistical Demand Curves Show?” Quarterly Journal of Economics
*Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Ch. 5

  1. Supply:

Stigler, Theory of Price, Chs. 6-8
Marshall, Book V, Chs. 3-5, 12, Appendix H
Robinson, Joan, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Ch. 2
Clark, J.M., Economics of Overhead Costs, Ch. 9
Viner, “Cost Curves and Supply Curves”, Zeitschrift fuer Nationaloekonomie, Book III (Sept 1931) pp. 23-46, reprinted in Readings in Price Theory, pp. 198-232
*Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Ch. 4

  1. Market Organization:

Stigler, Theory of Price, Chs. 9-13
Stigler, “Monopolistic Competition in Retrospect” in Five Lectures on Economic Problems
Harrod, “Doctrines of Imperfect Competition”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1934, pp. 442-461
Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Chs. 3, 5
*Robinson, E.A.G., The Structure of Competitive Industry
*Robinson, E.A.G., Monopoly.

  1. Utility and Welfare Economics:

Alchian, “The Meaning of Utility Measurement”, American Economic Review, March 1953, pp. 26-50
Friedman and Savage, “The Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk”, Journal of Political Economy, August 1948, pp. 279-304. Reprinted in Readings in Price Theory, pp. 57-96
Scitovsky, “The State of Welfare Economics”, American Economic Review, June 1951, pp. 303-315
Hicks, “The Four Consumers’ Surpluses”, Review of Economic Studies, XI (1943-44), pp. 31-40
*Hotelling, “The General Welfare in Relation to Problems of Taxation and of Railway and Utility Rates,” Econometrica (VI) (1938), pp. 242-269
*Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Chs. 5-7

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 77, Folder “77.1 University of Chicago Econ 300 A & B”.

Image Source: “[Arnold] Harberger strips down to reveal himself as “Triangleman” at the University of Chicago Economics Christmas Party, probably December 1970”. Robert J. Gordon’s website.

Categories
Chicago Economists

Chicago. James Buchanan’s Dissertation Outline, 1947

James McGill Buchanan, Jr.’s Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago was awarded in the summer quarter of 1948. The title of his dissertation was “Fiscal Equity in a Federal State”. From the Milton Friedman papers at the Hoover Institution we have the following transcription of the mimeographed dissertation outline submitted by Buchanan that was discussed in the economics department faculty meeting of October 24, 1947. The agenda of that faculty meeting along with Milton Friedman’s handwritten additions (in square brackets) are included at the end of this posting. The procedure for admission to Ph.D, candidacy is described in a 1949 memo written by Milton Friedman to members of the Department’s Ph.D. Thesis Committee.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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2. Present Procedure
[1949, University of Chicago, Economics]

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.

[…]

Source: Undated memo (early 1949) written by Milton Friedman to members of the Committee on Ph.D. Thesis Outlines and Requirements from Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 79, Folder 5 “University of Chicago Minutes, Ph.D. Thesis Committee”.

_____________________________________

Dissertation Outline, James M. Buchanan, October 1947

J. M. Buchanan

EQUITY CONSIDERATIONS IN INTERGOVERNMENTAL FISCAL ADJUSTMENT

I. The Problem —

A. The federal political structure

1. Federalism in political theory. Varying degrees of dual sovereignty. The question of the finality of a federal structure. Is it a final point in political organization or merely a stage in an evolutionary process?

2. The historical development of federalism in the United States. Trends toward centralization and opposing tendencies. The expanding role of government on the whole. The expanding sphere of activity of the central as opposed to subordinate units. Projection of future trends.

3. The case for federalism as a permanent political structure in the United States. Its value as a means of a division of power, as a protection against a tyranny of the majority, etc.

4. Statement of viewpoint on federalism taken in this study.

B. The national economy —

1. The historical development of the expanding scope of the economy. The extension of the market, the trend toward economic centralization, in the sense that the nation has become the unit which defines the area of the allocation of resources.

2. The extent to which the economy is national — increasing specialization, increased resource mobility, etc.

C. Conflicts which arise in the financing of government due to the superimposition of a federated political structure on a national economy.

1. The heterogeneity of the subordinate units of government. Resource heterogeneity. Cultural, social differences. Income disparities leading to differentials in tax burdens and service standards. The basic fiscal inequity inherent in such a structure.

II.            A Theoretical Solution –

A. What is fiscal equity in such a structure?

1. Definition and limitation. For present purposes concept narrowed to that of “equal treatment for equals and unequal treatment for unequals”. Abstraction from any attempt to determine equity as between unequals since such a concept not needed for problems considered.

B. Application of the concept —

1. Necessity of benefit calculation for any determination of equity among individuals in separate subordinate governmental units. Difficulties in benefit calculation, aside from special cases. Assumption of per capita general expenditure as best measure of benefit.

2. Definition of the “fiscal residuum” or “net tax” – Net value of services available less net value of taxes paid. Considerations of “government” as the total of all layers in structure, federal, state, and local.

C. Arithmetical Examples –

Examples illustrating possible application of the equity criteria in hypothetical cases. Illustration that “equal treatment for equals and unequal treatment for unequals” will impose geographical financial neutrality upon the individual.

III.           A study of Comparative Fiscal Treatment of Similarly Situated Individuals in High Income and Low Income States –

A. Selection of states considered – one with high per capita income, one with low. (Tentatively have selected New York and Mississippi.)

B. Assumptions and abstractions –

1. Assumption of the State-Local fiscal problem as solved or non-existent. Application of criterion to 2-level structure only. State-local considered as one unit. Seek only interstate differentials, not intrastate here.

2. Assumption of money income as measure of economic position. Abstraction from non-pecuniary advantages of geographical location. Individuals considered in similar economic circumstances if money income, pproperty value, same. Physical property same. Family obligations same.

C. Selection of hypothetical individuals to be compared. Determination of income ranges to be covered.

D.            Expenditure pattern of individuals considered.

1. Proportion of income saved, spent at various income levels.

2. Distribution of expenditure at various income levels.

3. Property holdings at different income levels.

E. Determination of tax burdens of individuals considered.

1. Examination of tax structures of states in question.

2. Assumptions as to final incidence of state taxes. More than one set of assumptions can be made and results collocated.

3. Tax burden of hypothetical individuals in each income group in each state can be determined by application of assumptions as to incidence to expenditure patterns.

4. Indication that validity of the study does not depend upon validity of the assumptions as to incidence since no attempt is made to compare dissimilarly situated individuals. (Such a comparison will necessarily show in the computation, however, and for this reason the assumptions should be as realistic as possible.)

F. Determination of value of benefits of government service provided —

1. Necessity to use per capita general expenditure as best benefit measure.

2. Use of value input only not value output. Value output will differ as administrative efficiency of state varies.

G. Calculation of fiscal residua of similarly situated individuals considered —

1. Possibility of abstracting from federal taxes and expenditures since similarly situated individuals supposedly treated similarly by federal government.

H.            Calculation of the interstate differential in fiscal residua of the hypothetical similarly situated individuals considered.

IV.           Existing and proposed attempts at solution.

A. Vertical Integration

1. Examination of the various proposals made to integrate and unify the whole financial structure; plans for realignment of functions, central collection, local administration, complete centralization, etc.

B. Horizontal Integration and Coordination –

1. Readjustment of geographical boundaries, consolidation of non-efficient units. The “regionalism” approach.

C. The grant-in-aid as the adjusting device.

1. The existing structure of grants-in-aid in the United States – a short summary of the more prominent characteristics of the system.

2. Proposals for extension of the system –

a.            Further use of the conditional grant

(1)  Merits of the conditional grant

(2)  Drawbacks

(a)  Effects on budgetary independence of subordinate units.

(b) Central direction and interference.

b.            The concept of a “minimum standard”

(1)  Idea of the “national interest”

(2)  Attempts at defining “minimum standards”

(3)  Violation of equity criteria

(4)  Federal assumption of a function.

D.            Realistic Appraisal of Various Proposals from Standpoint of Political and Administrative Feasibility.

V.            Policy Implications of the Criterion of Equity Proposed in this study.

A. The practicability of direct application.

1. Difficulty of measurement

2. Political and administrative barriers.

B. Effect of the Acceptance of the Theoretical Validity of the Criterion upon Practical Policy.

1. Early elimination of matching requirements in grant-in-aid distribution.

2. Early abandonment of the concept of “minimum standards”.

3. Broadening of purpose for which grants are made.

4. Further extension of so-called “equalization” grants.

5. Elimination of the idea of “charity” in intergovernmental fiscal adjustment.

6. Greater federal reliance on the income tax as a source of revenue.

C. The proposals of the Canadian Royal Commission and Possible Application of Similar Proposals to the United States.

VI.           Possible Objections to the Equity Criterion Proposed and its Policy Implications.

A. Theoretical Objections

1. The central government as the adjusting unit.

2. The inclusion of fiscal treatment by government in the criteria for the optimum allocation of resources.

3. The nation as the economic unit.

B. Administrative Objections.

1. Violation of principle of fiscal responsibility.

VII.          Conclusion.

____________________________

 

Department of Economics
AGENDA
Friday, October 24, 1947, at 3:30 p.m. in SS424

I. Students’ Business

A. Admission to Candidacy for the Ph.D. Degree

James M. Buchanan

Subject: Equity Considerations in Intergovernmental Fiscal Adjustment.
Field: Government Finance
Committee: [Blough, chairman, Perloff, Knight]

Henry Woldon Hewetson

Subject: An Examination of the Distance Principle of Railway Freight rate making with references to Canadian Conditions.
Field: [Transportation]
Committee: [Sorrell, Koopmans, Friedman]

[Inserted:

Harriett D. Hudson.

Progressive Mine Workers of America
Committee: Douglas, ch; Nef; (illegible name) Lewis]

Norman Maurice Kaplan

Subject: Models for Socialist Economic Planning
Field:
Committee: [Marschak, ch.; ch. Harris; A. P. Lerner; Friedman

Raymond H. McEvoy

Subject: Effects of Federal Reserve Policies, 1929-36
Field: Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy
Committee: [Mints, Hamilton, Metzler]

Wallace E. Ogg

Subject: A Study of Maladjustment of Resources in Southern Iowa
Field: Agricultural Economics
Committee: [Johnson, Hardin (pol sci), Lewis]

B. Admission to candidacy for the Alternative Master’s Degree (without thesis.)

Raymond H. McEvoy

C. Admission to candidacy for the Regular Master’s Degree

Peter Senn

Subject: Federal subsidization of the Banks
Field:
Committee:

D. Petitions

Guy Black—for permission to substitute work in Mathematics for the regular requirement of a second foreign language.

Keith O. Campbell—for approval to take Political Science as one of the fields for the Ph.D. Degree.

Gershon Cooper—to substitute the following courses in math. for the German language requirement for the Ph.D. Degree: Mathematics 216, 220, and 228.

Bernard Gordon—to substitute a mathematical sequence of Calculus I and Calculus II in place of one of the language requirements for the Ph.D. Degree.

Dale A. Knight—to use Political science as one field for the Ph.D. Degree.

Chih-wei Lee—to take English as the second language.

[John K. Lewis]

II. Encyclopedia Britannica Economic Articles

III. Language requirements for Foreign students.

IV. Report of Master’s Degree Committee, Spring and Summer, 1947

V. New Business

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 79, Folder “79.1 University of Chicago Minutes Economics Department 1946-1949”.

Image Source: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Biography of James M. Buchanan.

 

Categories
Chicago Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. International Trade and Policy. Advanced Graduate. Metzler, 1948 and 1950

Today we have the reading list for an early iteration of Lloyd A. Metzler’s second advanced course in international economics: the theory of foreign trade and commercial policy. The course was held in the Winter quarter of 1948 at the University of Chicago. I have used squared brackets and bold-blue text to indicate additions and  other changes or deletions for his Spring Quarter 1950 reading list.

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[Course Description]

[Economics] 371. INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND COMMERCIAL POLICY. Price theory and international trade; the gains from international specialization. International trade and the distribution of income. Historical and theoretical discussion of the theory of tariffs. Commercial policies of particular countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Commodity agreements and cartels. The growth of state trading. The new mercantilism. Prereq: Econ 330 or equiv. Spr: TuThS 9:30; Metzler.

Source: University of Chicago Announcements Division of the Social Sciences, 1949-1950. p.28.

______________________________________

[Handwritten] Winter 1948
[Date noted with course title in 1950]

 

ECONOMICS 371
[Spring Quarter – 1950]

Major Topics and Selected Reading

I. Mercantilism and the Classical Theory of the Gains from Trade.

J. Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade, Chapters 1, 2.
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book IV.
David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter 7.
J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book III, Chapters 17, 18.
J. M. Keynes, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Chapter 23.

II. Modern Price Theory and the Gains from Trade.

Alfred Marshall, Money, Credit and Commerce, Appendix J.
Gottfried Haberler, The Theory of International Trade, Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12.
J. Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade, Chapters 8, 9.
W. W. Leontief, “The Use of Indifference Curves in the Analysis of Foreign Trade,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1933. [reprinted in Readings in the Theory of International Trade]
P. A. Samuelson, “Welfare Economics and International Trade,” American Economic Review, 1938.
[F. D. Graham, “The Theory of International Values Reexamined,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1923, reprinted in Readings in the Theory of International Trade.
F. D. Graham, The Theory of International Values, Princeton, N. J., 1948.
E. F. Heckscher, “The Effect of Foreign Trade on the Distribution of Income,” Ekonmish Tidshrift, 1919, reprinted in Readings in the Theory of International Trade.
P. A. Samuelson, “International Trade and the Equalization of Factor Prices,” Economic Journal, June, 1948.
P. A. Samuelson, “International Factor Price Equalization Once Again,” Economic Journal, June, 1949.]

III. The Theory of Tariffs

Gottfried Haberler, The Theory of International Trade, Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
Alfred Marshall, Money, Credit and Commerce, Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
Tibor de Scitovsky, “A Reconsideration of the Theory of Tariffs,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 9, 1941-42.[reprinted in Readings in the Theory of International Trade.]
F. W. Taussig, International Trade, Chapter 13.
W. F. Stolper and Paul A. Samuelson, “Protection and Real Wages,” Review of Economic Studies, 1941. [reprinted in Readings in the Theory of International Trade.]
F. D. Graham, “Some Aspects of Protection Further Considered,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1923. [Item replaced by: F. D. Graham, Protective Tariffs, Princeton, N. J., 1942.]

 

IV. Some Aspects of Commercial Policy

F. W. Taussig, Some Aspects of the Tariff Question.
F. W. Taussig, Tariff History of the United States.
F. Benham, Great Britain Under Protection.
E. B. McGuire, The British Tariff System.
F. A. Haight, French Import Quotas.

 

V. The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Program of the United States [Section title changed: Recent Developments in Commercial Policy]

H. J. Tasca, The Reciprocal Trade Policy of the United States, 1938.
G. Beckett, “The Effect of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements upon the Foreign Trade of the U. S.,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1940.
[J. M. Letiche, Reciprocal Trade Agreements in the World Economy, 1948.
U. S. Department of State, Analysis of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Washington, D. C., 1947.
U. S. Department of State, Havana Charter for an International Trade Organization, 1948.]

 

VI. Cartels and Commodity Agreements.

C. Edwards, International Cartels, 1945.
E. S. Mason, Controlling World Trade, 1946.
J. S. Davis, International Commodity Agreements: Hope, Illusion, or Menace?, 1947.
[G. W. Stocking and M. W. Watkins, Cartels or Competition?, 1948.]

 

VII. The International Trade Organization [This section dropped in 1950]

Draft Charter of Proposed International Trade Organization, Geneva, 1947.

 

VIII. International Relations and the Structure of World Trade.

A. O. Hirschmann [sic], National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade, 1945.
J. Viner, “International Relations Between State Controlled National Economies,” American Economic Review, 1944 Supplement.
H. S. Ellis, Bilateralism and the Future of International Trade, Princeton University Essays in International Finance.
J. M. Keynes, “National Self Sufficiency,” Yale Review, 1933. [Keynes dropped in 1950]
D. H. Robertson, “The Future of International Trade,” Economic Journal, 1938.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder: “Econ. 371”.

 

 

 

Categories
Chicago Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Advanced International Monetary Economics. Metzler, 1950

At the University of Chicago graduate courses numbered in the 200’s were called “Intermediate Courses” and those in the 300’s were “Survey and problem courses in special fields…The main purpose…is to prepare students for research.” The 400’s courses were for “Research, reading, and seminars”.

The Departmental course requirements for an M.A. in economics at the University of Chicago in 1950: “Normally fifteen courses (or their equivalent) in economics, eight of which ordinarily will be at the 300 level.”

The Departmental course requirements for a Doctor’s degree at the University of Chicago in 1950: “Completion of a program of work in economics at the 300-400 level ordinarily embracing at least six quarters of formal training”. Presumably this means in addition to the eight quarters at the 300 level for the M.A.

A few obvious misprints have been corrected and I have attempted to impose a consistent formatting (e.g. book titles underlined, etc.).

 _______________________________

[Course Description]

[Economics] 370. MONETARY ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE. Foreign payments and receipts. Classical and modern theories of adjustment of the balance of payments. Theories of exchange rates. Capital movements in the balance of payments. Postwar monetary plans. Prereq: Econ 330, 335, or equiv. Win: MTuWF 8:30 Metzler.

Source: University of Chicago.Announcements: The Division of the Social Sciences, Sessions of 1950-1951, p. 31.

_______________________________

ECONOMICS 370
Major Topics and Selected Reading
Winter, 1950

Lloyd A. Metzler

I. Elementary Principles of Foreign Payments and Receipts.

G. Haberler, The Theory of International Trade, Introduction.
P. T. Ellsworth, International Economics, Part I, Chaps. VII and VIII.

 

II. The Balance of Payments and the Measurement of Income.

J. R. Hicks and A. G. Hart, The Social Framework of the American Economy, Chapter 12.
R. F. Bennett, “Significance of International Transactions in National Income,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. VI, 1943.
Dept. of Commerce, National Income Supplement to Survey of Current Business, 1947.

 

III. Classical and Modern Theories of Adjustment of the Balance of Payments.

R. F. Harrod, International Economics, Chapters VI and VII.
F. Machlup, International Trade and the National Income Multiplier. Chaps. I-V.
F. W. Taussig, International Trade, Chaps. XVII-XXI.
J. Viner, Canada’s Balance of International Indebtedness.
League of Nations, International Currency Experience, Chapters I and IV.
G. Haberler, The Theory of International Trade, Chaps. II and III.
J. Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade, Chaps. VI and VII.
R. Nurkse, “Conditions of International Monetary Equilibrium”, Princeton University, Essays in International Finance, reprinted in Readings in the Theory of International Trade.
F. W. Paish, “Banking Policy and the Balance of International Payments”, Economica, 1936, reprinted in Readings.
W. A. Salant, “Foreign Trade Policy in the Business Cycle,” Public Policy, reprinted in Readings.

 

IV. Theory of Income Transfers.

J. M. Keynes, “The German Transfer Problem,” Economic Journal, 1929, reprinted in Readings.
B. Ohlin, “Transfer Difficulties, Real and Imagined,” Economic Journal, 1929, also rejoinder by Keynes and reply by Ohlin in subsequent issues, reprinted in Readings.
L. A. Metzler, “The Transfer Problem Reconsidered,” Journal of Political Economy, 1942, reprinted in Readings.
C. Iversen, International Capital Movements, Part II A.

 

V. Fluctuating Exchange Rates

League of Nations, International Currency Experience, Chapter V.
J. Robinson, Essays in the Theory of Employment, Part III, reprinted in Readings.
F. W. Taussig, International Trade, Part III.
G. Cassel, Money and Foreign Exchange after 1914.
S. E. Harris, Exchange Depreciation.
International Monetary Policies, Postwar Economic Studies, No. 7, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
J. E. Meade, “Financial Policy and the Balance of Payments,” Economica, May, 1948.
“Notes on Foreign Currency Adjustments”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, November, 1949.
T. Balogh, “Exchange Depreciation and Economic Readjustment,” Review of Economics and Statistics, November, 1948.
F. Machlup, “The Theory of Foreign Exchange,” reprinted in Readings.
“Readjustment of Foreign Currency Values”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, October, 1949.

 

VI. Multilateral and Bilateral Monetary Policies.

H.S. Ellis, “Bilateralism and the Future of International Trade,” Essays in International Finance, No. 7, Princeton, N. J. reprinted in Readings.
R. Frisch, “Forecasting a Multilateral Balance of Payments,” American Economic Review, XXXVII (September 1947) 535-551.
R. Frisch, “Outline of a System of Multi-Compensatory Trade,” Review of Economics and Statistics, November, 1948.
R. Hinshaw, Professor Frisch on Discrimination and Multilateral Trade, “Review of Economics and Statistics, November, 1948.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder: “Reading Lists 370”.

Source Image: Posting by Margie Metzler on the Metzler Family Tree at the genealogical website, ancestry.com.

Categories
Chicago Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Intermediate International Monetary Economics. Lloyd A. Metzler, 1949

 

 

The Departmental course requirements for an M.A. in economics at the University of Chicago in 1949: “Normally fifteen courses (or their equivalent) in economics, eight of which ordinarily will be at the 300 level.” The courses numbered in the 200’s were called “Intermediate Courses” and those in the 300’s were “Survey and problem courses in special fields…The main purpose…is to prepare students for research.” The 400’s courses were for “Research, reading, and seminars”.

The final examination questions for the summer quarters of 1947 and 1948 for this course have been posted as well.

_______________________________

[Course Description]

[Economics] 270. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS. The nature of international payments and receipts; foreign trade and the banking system. The gold standard in the interwar period. The breakdown of the gold standard and the period of fluctuating exchange rates. Exchange controls, clearing agreements and payments agreements. The second world war and the foreign exchange markets. The position of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the present world economy. Prereq: Econ 209, 230 [Intermediate Economic Theory, Introduction to Money and Banking, respectively], or equiv. Aut: MWF 8:30; Metzler.

 

Source: University of Chicago. Announcements, Volume XLIX, Number 9: The Division of the Social Sciences, Sessions of 1949-1950, July 1, 1949, p. 24.

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Economics 270
Major Topics and Selected Reading
Autumn Quarter 1949

I. Foreign Exchange Markets and Equilibrium of the Balance of Payments

Enke and Salera, Chapters 4, 6.
Southard, Chapters 2, 3.
International Monetary Fund, pp. 1-24.
U. S. Department of Commerce, The United States in the World Economy, pp. 1-25, 137-200.
U. S. Department of Commerce, International Transactions of the U. S. During the War.

II. The Pre-War Gold and Gold-Exchange Standards

Enke and Salera, Chapters 8, 9, 12, 28.
League of Nations, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4.
U. S. Department of Commerce, The United States in the World Economy, Chapters 2-4.

 

III. The Breakdown of the Gold Standard: Fluctuating Exchange Rates

League of Nations, Chapters 5,6
Enke and Salera, Chapter 30.

 

IV. The Development of Exchange Controls

Ellis, Chapters 1, 2, 4.
League of Nations, Chapter 7.
Triffin, “National Central Banking and the International Economy,” International Monetary Policies. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Rejoinder by Haberler.

 

V. The International Monetary Fund

Articles of agreement of the International Monetary Fund.
Third Annual Report of the International Monetary Fund.
Enke and Salera, Chapter 32.
Harris, The New Economics, Chapters 24, 25, 26, 27.
L. A. Metzler, “Exchange Rates ad the International Monetary Fund,” International Monetary Policies, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1947.
R. F. Mikesell, “The Role of the International Monetary Agreements in a World of Planned Economies,” Journal of Political Economy, December, 1947.
Camille Gutt, “Exchange Rates and the International Monetary Fund,” Chapter 10 of Foreign Economic Policy for the United States.

 

VI. The International Bank For Reconstruction and Development

Articles of agreement of the International Bank.
Enke and Salera, Chapter 33, 34.
Third Annual Report of the International Bank.

 

VII. Post-war Trade and the World Shortage of Dollars

Harris, editor, Foreign Economic Policy for the United States, Chapters 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25.
United Nations, A Survey of the Economic Situation and Prospects of Europe.
United Nations, Economic Survey of Europe in 1948.

 

Books Referred to in this Bibliography

Enke and Salera, International Economics, New York, 1947.
H. S. Ellis, Exchange Control in Central Europe, Cambridge, Mass., 1941.
League of Nations, International Currency Experience, 1944.
F. A. Southard, Foreign Exchange Practice and Policy, New York, 1941.
International Monetary Fund, Balance-of-Payments Yearbook, Wash., D.C., 1949.
U. S. Department of Commerce, The United States in the World Economy.
U. S. Department of Commerce, International Transactions of the U. S. During the War.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, International Monetary Policies,
Wash., D.C., 1947.
S. E. Harris, editor, The New Economics, New York, 1947.
S. E. Harris, editor, Foreign Economic Policy for the United States, Cambridge, Mass., 1948.
United Nations, A Survey of the Economic Situation and Prospects of Europe.
United Nations, Economic Survey of Europe in 1948.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder: “Econ. 270 International Econ. (Chicago)”.

 

Source Image: “From family album, taken while Lloyd Metzler was a student at Harvard.”
“Lloyd A. Metzler” by Margiemetz – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.

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Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Economic Theory Exams, A.M. and Ph.D. Summer 1949

The economic theory examination committee at the University of Chicago in the Summer Quarter of 1949  for the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees was made up of F. H. Knight (chair), O. H. Brownlee, M. Friedman, and  L. A. Metzler.  49 students took Part I of the exam (33 were Ph.D. students, 16 were A.M. students, equally divided between economics majors and minors). Part II of the examination was taken by 14 Ph.D. students (no A.M. students).  It does not appear that Knight participated in the grading of Part II however.

Two minor notes: Students were assigned numbers, presumably to assure anonymity with respect to their examiners, but the “unlucky” number 13 was not assigned to anyone. The “grade sheet” for the exams is labelled the “Report on Written Examination” which is similar to the use of the word “report” by the registrar’s office on official University of Chicago transcripts (for this usage, see the Patinkin transcripts).

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ECONOMIC THEORY, Part I
[August 2, 1949]

Written examination for the Ph.D. and A. M. Degrees, Summer Quarter, 1949

Ph.D. candidates: Time: 3½ hours. Answer all questions

A.M. Major candidates: Time: 3 hours. Answer question #2 and two others.

A.M. Minor candidates: Time: 2 hours. Answer question #2 and one other.

 

  1. (a) Discuss and evaluate alternative theories of “Profits” as a distributive share.
    (b) It is frequently said that in a private enterprise economy the producers’ motive is to maximize “profits”. Discuss the meaning of “profits” in this connection in relation to your answer to (a).
  1. Write briefly on the meaning of the capital concept and its importance in interpreting economic growth or change. Relate your discussion to the case of a Crusoe economy and state whether (and if so how) the principles are different for the competitive pecuniary social order.
  1. With reference to federal legislation assuring to every resident in the U.S.A. medical care by the physician and hospital of his choice, free and with no special taxation: Appraise the proposal as to effects upon general welfare, assuming that the alternative is the sale of medical insurance, not subsidized, but with the same distribution of personal income effected by cash “relief”.
  1. Briefly discuss the familiar diagram of a family of short-run cost curves for a firm, with an “envelope” as a long-run curve. State the main “cases” for price-equilibrium under monopoly and under “perfect competition.” Explain why the point of tangency with both curves descending may be such an equilibrium-supply, and particularly why it locates the minimum cost for the corresponding output.
  1. Briefly outline or list the main features of the Ricardian theories of value and of distribution and contrast each point with a “sound” modern view.”

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ECONOMIC THEORY, Part II
[August 4, 1949]

Written examination for the Ph.D. Degree, Summer Quarter, 1949.

Time: 2½ hours.

  1. Assume an economic system in which real expenditure upon goods and services (real consumption, investment, government expense) is a function of real income and the interest-rate; show that the set of values which satisfy the conditions for equilibrium in the commodity market (make real savings and investment equal) need not contain the “full-employment” income level; i.e., that level of real income which would be produced when the quantity of labor supplied equals the quantity demanded, both the labor supply and labor demand being functions of the real wage.
    Evaluate the assumptions of this system on terms of their realism, citing the relevant evidence; and indicate modifications which would result in the inclusion of the “full employment” level of income as one of the values satisfying the condition for equilibrium in the commodity market.
  1. Under the so-called “security-reserve proposal” member banks would be required to keep a supplementary reserve against deposits over and above the reserves they are now required to keep in the form of a deposit with a Federal Reserve Bank. This supplementary reserve could be in the form of government securities.a. What is the main purpose, or purposes, of this proposal?
    b. What effect would it have on the ability of the banks to expand credit, and how?
    c. In the light of present economic conditions, what can you say about the urgency of such a “reform”?
  1. It is a common view today that an equal reduction of both taxes and governmental expenditure would contribute to an increase of the national income or counteract a tendency to depression. State your position and discuss carefully.

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 76, Folder 10 “University of Chicago Econ. 300B”.

Categories
Chicago Courses Syllabus

Chicago. Price Theory. Economics 300 A&B. Metzler. 1948-49

Milton Friedman wasn’t the only person teaching graduate price theory at the University of Chicago in the postwar years. During the academic year 1948-49 both the Harvard-trained Lloyd A. Metzler and Milton Friedman offered parallel sessions of Economics 300 A&B during the same quarters. Both taught the course going into the early 1950s. While the overlap is significant to be sure, the differences of the two approaches, Chicago vs. Harvard, are fairly clear. 

One of the advantages of consulting multiple archives is that I was able to find this Autumn 1948 reading list for Economics 300A, not in Lloyd A. Metzler’s papers at Duke but in Milton Friedman’s papers at Hoover. This list of readings does not square with Friedman’s course organization but also has no name and the course catalogue for 1948-49 does not identify Metzler. Since it matches the later years’ reading lists found in the Metzler papers, we know the nameless Economics 300A for the Autumn Quarter at the University of Chicago was taught by Metzler too.

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Economics 300A
Autumn 1948

I. The Theory of Consumer’s Choice

A. Marshall, Principles of Economics, Book III.

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, Chapters I – V, and appendices to these chapters.

W. S. Jevons, Theory of Political Economy, Chapters I – IV.

P. A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Chapters III, V, VII.

M. Friedman [& L. J. Savage], “The Utility Analysis of Choices Involving Risk,” Journal of Political Economy, LVI (August, 1948) 279-304.

I. Fisher, “Measuring Marginal Utility,” in Economic Essays in Honor of John B. Clark (1927).

II. Production Functions and Cost Schedules

J. M. Cassels, “On the Law of Variable Proportions,” in Explorations in Economics (1936).

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, Chapter VI, VII, VIII, and appendices to those chapters.

J. Robinson, The Economics of Imperfect Competition, Chapter II.

P. A. Samuelson, Foundations, Chapter IV.

G. J. Stigler, The Theory of Price, Chapters VII, VIII.

III. Market Price under Perfect Competition.

J. Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Book III.

A. Marshall, Principles, Book V.

G. J. Stigler, The Theory of Price, Chapters IX, X.

IV. Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition.

J. Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Books II, IV, V, and X.

E. Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition, IV, V, VI, VII.

V. Duopoly, Oligopoly, Bilateral Monopoly.

J. Marschak, “Neumann’s and Morgenstern’s New Approach to Static Economics,” Journal of Political Economy, LIV, (April 1946).

E. Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Chapter III.

H. G. Lewis, “Some Observations on Duopoly Theory.” American Economic Review, XXXVIII (May 1948, supplement) 1-9.

O. Morgenstern, “Oligopoly, Monopolistic Competition, and the Theory of Games,” American Economic Review, XXXVIII (May 1948, supplement) 10-18.

VI. Modern Price Theory and Welfare Economics.

A. Burk (Bergson), “A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (1937-38).

A. C. Pigou, The Economics of Welfare (4th Edition), Part II, Chapters I – XI.

A. P. Lerner, The Economics of Control, Chapters I – XIX.

P. A. Samuelson, Foundations, Chapter VIII.

J. R. Hicks, “The Foundations of Welfare Economics,” Economic Journal XLIX (1939).

G. J. Stigler, “The New Welfare Economics,” American Economic Review, XXXIII (1943), 355-359.

Source: Hoover Institution, Milton Friedman Papers. Box 76, Folder 9 “University of Chicago Econ. 300 A”.

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Economics 300B
Major Topics and Selected Readings
Winter, 1949
Lloyd A. Metzler

The principal books to be used are as follows:

A. Marshall, Principles of Economics, eighth edition, reprinted 1947.

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, second edition, 1946.

B. Haley and W. Fellner, editors, Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, reprinted 1947.

G. J. Stigler, Production and Distribution Theories, 1941.

I. Production Functions and the Doctrine of Marginal Productivity

B. Haley and W. Fellner, Readings, Chapters 5, 6, 7, 11.

Stigler, Production and Distribution Theories.

P. H. Douglas, “Are There Laws of Production?”, American Economic Review, XXXVIII (1948) 1-41.

II. The Theory of Wages

B. Haley and W. Fellner, Readings, Chapters 13, 14, 16, 17, 19.

J. R. Hicks, The Theory of Wages, 1932.

R. A. Lester, “Shortcomings of Marginal Analysis for Wage-Employment Problems”, American Economic Review, 1946.

F. Machlup, “Marginal Analysis and Empirical Research”, American Economic Review, 1946.

G. J. Stigler, “The Economics of Minimum Wage Legislation,” American Economic Review, 1946.

III. Capital and Interest

E. Böhm-Bawerk, The Positive Theory of Capital, 1891.

I. Fisher, The Theory of Interest, 1930.

W. Fellner and B. Haley, Readings, Chapters 20, 21, 22, 23,24, 26.

J. M. Keynes, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Book IV.

A. Marshall, Principles, the relevant chapters in Books IV and VI.

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, Parts III and IV.

IV. Inter-relations of Wages, Interest, and Profits.

F. H. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profits.

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

O. Lange, Price Flexibility and Employment.

K. Wicksell, Interest and Prices.

K. Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. I, Part 2.

Source: Duke University David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder: “Reading Lists 300 A & B — 302”.

Source Image: “From family album, taken while Lloyd Metzler was a student at Harvard.”
“Lloyd A. Metzler” by Margiemetz – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.