Tag: Schumpeter

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Economists Harvard

Harvard. Schumpeter opines on Germany’s future under Hitler, 1933

 

If memory serves me correctly, Larry Summers once commented on a paper by Bob Hall to the effect that the biggest home-run hitters also strike out the most (or did Hall say that about Summers? … whatever). In any event Joseph Schumpeter certainly went down swinging as a political pundit before setting sail to Europe in 1933 with Frank Taussig and his daughter.

 

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SAYS NAZI GERMANY TO “SETTLE DOWN”
Prof Schumpeter, Harvard, Sails With Prof Taussig

Germany, under Hitler, “looks much worse than she actually is; in a few months the Nazi Government will settle down to a more rational, conservative routine—and then Germany will become a power not only to respect but also, possibly, to fear,” asserted Prof Joseph A. Schumpeter, economics professor at Harvard and Minister of Finance in Austria in 1919, last night before he sailed for two months in Europe.
Boarding the Cunarder Scythia, in company with his superior in the Harvard economics department, Prof Frank W. Taussig, Dr Schumpeter declared that Hitler can conduct the Government on a sounder financial basis than would be possible under a parliamentary setup.
The two professors will spend the Summer visiting scholars and universities on the Continent. Prof Taussig is accompanied by his daughter, Dr Helen B. Taussig.

Source: The Boston Globe, May 27, 1933, p. 13.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives, from Schumpeter’s 1932 German passport.

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Economists Gender Harvard

Radcliffe. Economics Ph.D. alumna, Elizabeth Boody, 1934

 

Joseph Schumpeter’s third wife, Romaine Elizabeth Firuski née Boody (1898-1953), was the first Radcliffe woman to be awarded the distinction of receiving a summa cum laude A.B. in economics. This post provides a few items from her undergraduate years as well as a brief biography that the Find-A-Grave website clearly copied from somewhere else, but which for our purpose here is still a useful summary. The wedding announcement “Mrs. E.B. Firuski Wed to Educator” from the New York Times (August 17, 1937) provides a wonderful detail regarding the location of the wedding luncheon–the Viennese Roof Garden of the St. Regis in Manhattan.

For much more detail about Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter’s life, career, and her personal and professional partnership with Joseph Schumpeter, see:

Robert Loring Allen, Opening Doors: The Life and Work of Joseph Schumpeter. Volume 2: America. London and New York: Routledge, 1991.

Richard A. Lobdell, “Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter (1898-1953)” in A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists, Edited by Robert W. Dimand, Mary Ann Dimand, and Evelyn L. Forget. London: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2000, pp. 382-385.

Richard Swedberg, Joseph A. Schumpeter: His Life and Work. Polity Press, 1991.

Elizabeth Boody received her Ph.D. in economics from Radcliffe in 1934. Her doctoral dissertation had the title “Trade Statistics and Cycles in England, 1697-1825”.

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Radcliffe College Yearbook, 1920

Source: Elizabeth Boody’s senior picture from the Radcliffe Yearbook 1920, p. 36

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Brief biography from the Find-a-Grave Website

Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter was an economist and expert on East Asia.

Born Romaine Elizabeth Boody on 16 August 1898 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of Maurice and Hulda (Hokansen) Boody. She lived there with her family until she enrolled at Radcliffe College in the Fall of 1916.

At Radcliffe, Boody majored in economics, pursuing a special interest in labour problems. In the spring of 1920, she was awarded the college’s first summa cum laude AB degree in economics. After graduation, Boody worked as an assistant labour manager for a clothing firm in Rochester, New York. She returned to Radcliffe for graduate studies in economics, including coursework in statistics as well as economics, reflecting the field’s increasing interest in quantitative data and statistical techniques. Boody published her first scholarly article in 1924 in the Review of Economic Statistics, eventually becoming the first woman to serve as a contributing editor of that journal. She earned an M.A. in 1925 and joined the Harvard University Committee on Economic Research, where she was particularly interested in the statistical analysis of time series data and their use in forecasting business cycles. Resuming doctoral studies at Radcliffe, Boody spent 1926 and 1927 collecting English trade statistics for her thesis in London, where she was strongly influenced by Harold Laski and others at the London School of Economics.

Boody was appointed an Assistant Professor of Economics at Radcliffe. She also taught at Vassar (1927-1928) and at Wheaton College (1938-1939, 1948-1949). As a lecturer and author of articles on East Asian economics and politics, she advocated a “moderate isolationist” policy in the Pacific during the years preceding World War II. She was an assistant editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Boody completed her Ph.D. in 1934. From 1935 to 1940 she worked for the Bureau of International Research at Harvard University. There she directed two studies: one of English trade during the 18th century, and one on the industrialization of Japan and Manchukuo. These resulted in the publication of two books, one of them posthumous: The Industrialization of Japan and Manchukuo (1940) and English Overseas Trade Statistics, 1697-1808 (1960).

In 1937 she married fellow Harvard economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter. He died 08 January 1950 at their residence in the hamlet of Taconic, Town of Salisbury, Litchfield County, CT, where she ran a small nursery. She edited their posthumously published magnum opus, History of Economic Analysis (1954), based on his research.

Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter died of cancer 17 July 1953.

Her personal and professional papers, dating from 1938-1953, are archived at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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THE THIRD DIVISION

Sarah Wambaugh, A.B. 1902, A.M. 1917
Romaine Elizabeth Boody, A.B. 1920

Sarah Wambaugh, author of “A Monograph on Plebiscites” and temporary member of the Administration Commission and Minority Section of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, is now an instructor in Political Science at Wellesley College. Romaine Elizabeth Boody graduated summa cum laude in Economics, and became Assistant Employment Manager for the Hickey-Freeman Company of Rochester, New York.

[High likely that Elizabeth Boody is one of the Radcliffe women in the picture below.]

A VISITOR in Cambridge having supper at the Cock Horse, once the home of Longfellow’s “Village Blacksmith,” may occasionally encounter a group of girls in deep discussion. They may be eagerly arguing some point with a man, whom one instantly labels a Harvard professor. The visitor is probably privileged to gaze upon an evening meeting of the Third Division Club of Radcliffe College. The issue may be the League of Nations, the tariff, a decision of the disarmament conference, or any other topic of the day.

The Third Division from which the Club takes its name includes the Departments of History, Government, and Economics. Students concentrating in these departments formed the club some three years ago with a double purpose — to increase the pleasant social intercourse of students and professors interested in the division and to prepare members to pass their final General Examination. When this examination was uppermost in mind, the Club was often unofficially known as the “Third Degree Club.”

Both to Harvard and to Radcliffe large numbers of students have always been drawn from far and wide by the authority and record for public service of the men who give instruction in these departments. But at Radcliffe, interest in these courses has increased greatly during the last few years, until in 1920 approximately one fourth of the Senior class chose this field of concentration. This impetus is traceable in part to the war and to the larger place women are occupying in industrial and social life, but especially to the stimulus of the chance to work under the guidance of men whose names are always in the public print, whose opinions have been anxiously sought at every juncture of the Great War and of the readjustment period.

Regardless of the actual quality of the instruction, is it not human nature to listen the more eagerly to the well-known expert who may come to class occasionally directly from the train from Washington where he has been acting as adviser to a congressional committee? The privilege of hearing and questioning a Thomas Nixon Carver robs the name “sociology” of any impractical flavor it may have had in pre-college days. The labor situation seems to require immediate attention when a Ripley stands ready to interpret it. The newspaper-reading undergraduate who finds Radcliffe her natural habitat is pulled with equal urgency to International Law with George Grafton Wilson, and Municipal Government with William Bennett Munro.

When making up the courses of study for the year it is evident that the fare provided by the Third Division is tantalizing to say the least. How hard it is to choose. How can failure to study under Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor Holcombe, or Professor Day be explained to parents, old teachers, or the neighbors at home? Will one regret the rest of one’s days the omission of Professor Taussig’s course? Most likely. Certain alluring pages in the catalogue must be hurried over. The world seems nothing but one renunciation after another.

In addition to Harvard instruction, Radcliffe students of History, Government, and Economics have the use of the great Harvard Library. They have access to the Boston Public Library and its splendid Americana, to the Boston Athenaeum, famous for its Washingtonia, the Massachusetts State Library, strong on foreign law, and the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, rich in local history and manuscript material.

These departments were the first to adopt the tutorial system and the general final examination. Useful as the new plan has proved in other departments, it is especially suited to the study of these subjects. In a literal sense these are living subjects, changing their aspect with each day’s news — news which cannot be correctly interpreted by isolated study but only by discussion. The wide reading necessary must be judiciously assimilated in order to develop the student’s appreciation and critical faculties. This can be done only with the help of some one who had already mastered the subject.

Under the new plan tutors guide and assist the students in preparing for the final examination, meeting those in their charge individually every week. The tutor is in no sense a coach, rather a friendly counselor whose aid is an enormous encouragement to the student in learning how to learn.

It would be interesting to know what these women concentrating in Division Three do after leaving college. After discussing the problems of our present political and industrial structure in the Liberal Club, the Debating Club, and the Third Division Club, do they ever apply their conclusions in practical work? After studying under men of ripe scholarship and wisdom, are they better qualified to take upon themselves the duties of citizenship? These questions are best answered by telling of the work of a few Radcliffe women.

The courses in International Law at Radcliffe have attracted a considerable number of those holding fellowships in the subject from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Two of these graduate students, Bernice V. Brown and Eleanor W. Allen, have subsequently held the Commission for Relief in Belgium Fellowship which means a year’s study in Brussels. A third, Alice Holden, is this year a member of the Department of Government at Smith College, and is giving the course in International Law at that institution.

Many students of economics are engaged in various forms of educational and service work in factories and other industrial establishments, and in administering philanthropies. Elizabeth Brandeis, 1918, is secretary of the Minimum Wage Board of the District of Columbia. Nathalie Matthews, 1907, is the Director of the Industrial Division of the Children’s Bureau at Washington.

The strength of the Third Division lies not alone in the unrivaled quality of the instruction and the stimulus of being in touch with the tide of current history, but also in the type of student it brings to Radcliffe.

Source:  What We Found at Radcliffe. Boston, McGrath-Sherrill Press, ca. 1921, pp. 7-10.

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Wedding Announcement

Mrs. E.B. Firuski Wed to Educator

Radcliffe College Research Fellow Married here to Joseph A. Schumpeter

Mrs. Elizabeth Boody Firuski of Windy Hill, Taconic, Conn., was married yesterday at noon to Dr. Joseph A. Schumpeter of Cambridge, Mass., Professor of Economics at Harvard University, in the Community Church of New York by the associate minister, the Rev. Leon Rosser Land.

The ceremony was followed by a luncheon in the Viennese Roof Garden of the St. Regis.

The bride, formerly Assistant Professor of Economics at Vassar College is a research fellow at Radcliffe College, working under the auspices of the Bureau of international Research of Harvard University. Her marriage [1929] to Maurice Firuski was terminated by divorce in Reno in 1933.

Dr. Schumpeter, a widower, was born in Austria, where he was Finance Minister in 1919. He formerly was a professor at the University of Bonn.

Dr. and Mrs. Schumpeter will make their home at Windy Hill until the reopening of the Fall session at Harvard.

Source: The New York Times, August 17, 1937, p. 22.

 

Image Sources: Elizabeth Boody’s senior picture from the Radcliffe Yearbook 1920, p. 36; Portrait of Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter, November 18, 1941. Harvard University Archives.

 

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings and Exam for Business Cycles. Schumpeter 1949-50

Joseph Schumpeter died January 8, 1950. The final examination questions transcribed in this post come from an official printed collection of final examinations, so that it seems likely and certainly possible, given required lead times for printing, that these were among Schumpeter’s last questions for his students.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 245a (formerly Economics 145a). Business Cycles and Economic Forecasting.
(F) Professor Schumpeter.

Total 31: 26 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Public Administration, 1 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1949-1950, p. 75.

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Course Reading List

Economics 245a
Fall Term, 1949-50

This course will divide up into two parts: The first and smaller part will serve as a general introduction to the history, techniques, and bearings of business-cycle analysis and will be made longer or shorter according to the needs (or previous selected topics and give as much opportunity as possible for discussions and essays. Some knowledge of advanced theory and some training in statistics are necessary in order to reap full benefit from this course. Individual requirements will be taken care of in consultation.

  1. Books:

G. v. Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, 1941.

J. M. Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles (National Bureau of Economic Research, 1934)

Readings in Business-Cycle Theory (Vol. II of the American Economic Association series of republished articles, Blakiston, 1944.

E.C. Bratt, Business-Cycle Forecasting (3rd ed., 1948; a textbook that may help less advanced students).

A.C. Pigou, Industrial Fluctuations, 1929.

E. Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the U.S. (Harvard Economic Studies No. 73)

A.H. Hansen, Fiscal Policy and the Business Cycle, 1941.

Burns and Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles (1946) (National Bureau).

F. C. Mills, Price-Quantity Interactions in Business Cycles, 1946 (Nat’l. Bureau).

  1. Articles:
    1. (a) H.L. Beales, “The Great Depression,” Economic History Review, October, 1934.
      (b) W.W. Rostow, “Explanations of the Great Depression,” Economic History Supplement to Economic Journal, February, 1940.
    2. (a) J. Tinbergen: “Suggestions on Quantitative Business-Cycle Theory,” Econometrica, 1935.
      (b) J. Tinbergen: Econometric Business-Cycle Research,” Review of Economic Studies, February, 1940.
    3. R. F. Harrod, “Imperfect Competition and the Trade Cycle,” Review of Economic Statistics, May, 1936.
    4. N. Kaldor, “A Model of the Trade Cycle, Economic Journal, March, 1940.
    5. (a) L.A. Metzler, “Business Cycles and the Modern Theory of Employment,” American Economic Review, June, 1946.
      (b) L.A. Metzler, “Nature and Stability of Inventory Cycles,” Review of Economic Statistics, 1941.
      (c) L. A. Metzler, “Factors Governing the Length of Inventory Cycles,” Review of Economic Statistics, February, 1947.
      (d) M. Abramowitz, “The Role of Inventories in Business Cycles,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Occasional Paper No. 26, May, 1948.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reding lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1949-1950 (3 of 3)”.

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1949-40
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 245a
[Final Examination. January, 1950]

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Discuss briefly the National Bureau method of measuring business cycles.
  2. Many authors have asserted that economic progress is “unstabilizing.” What does this mean precisely?
  3. Discuss briefly the main “price-quantity interactions in business cycles.”
  4. State, and give your opinion about the explanatory value of, the acceleration principle.
  5. “In a progressive economy, the rate of interest which stabilizes the price level is below the rate which keeps the flow of money incomes constant.” Explain and criticize.
  6. It is often asserted that agriculture is not an active element in business cycles. It is “the football of business.” Do you agree?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, February 1950 in Final Exams—Social Sciences, etc. Feb. 1940 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 81).

Image Source:  Harvard Classbook 1947.

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of Socialism. Outline, Readings, Final Exam. Schumpeter, 1949

 

This post provides the course outline, reading assignments and final exam for Joseph Schumpeter’s Economics of Socialism from the last time he taught the course (he died January 8, 1950).

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Transcriptions of socialism course materials à la Harvard

Socialism. (Ec 111) taught by O.H. Taylor in 1954-55.

Economics of Socialism (Ec 111) taught by Taylor in 1952-53

Economics of Socialism (Ec 111) taught by Schumpeter, Taylor with lectures by Gerschenkron and Galenson in 1949-50.

Economics of Socialism (Ec 11b) taught by Schumpeter in 1945-46

Economics of Socialism (Ec 11b) taught by Schumpeter in 1943-44

Economics of Socialism (Ec11b) taught by Sweezy in 1939-40

Economics of Socialism (Ec11b) taught by Mason and Sweezy in 1937-38

Programs of Social Reconstruction  (Ec 7c) taught by Mason  in 1933

Economics of Socialism, Anarchism and the Single Tax  (Ec 7b) taught by Carver  in 1920

Socialism and Communism (Ec 14) taught by Carver and Bushnee in 1901-02

Socialism and Communism (Ec 14) taught by Edward Cummings. Exams from 1893-1900.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 111b (formerly Economics 11b). Economics of Socialism (Sp). Professor Schumpeter.

Total 72: 16 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 8 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1948-49, p. 76.

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Economics 111b
Spring 1949
Outline and Assignments

After an introduction that is to cover briefly the development of pre-Marxist socialist thought (one week), Marxist and neo-Marxist sociology and economics will be discussed (five weeks). Then the modern theory of centralist socialism will be developed (four weeks). Finally, the problems of imperialism, revolution, and transition and the actual situation and prospect of socialist groups will be touched upon (two weeks).

  1. Pre-Marxist Socialist Thought

Assignment: H. W. Laidler, Social-Economic Movements, Parts I and II.

  1. Marxist Sociology and Economics

M. M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History, 2nd edition 1948, Part I, Chapter 6; Part IV.
Karl Marx, Capital (Modern Library Edition), Volume I, Chs. 1, 4, 5, and 6.
P. M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chs. II-XII.
M. Dobb, Political Economy and Capitalism, Chs. I and IV.

  1. The Modern Theory of Centralist Socialism.

A. P. Lerner, Economics of Control, 1944, Chs. V-XIV.
Meade and Fleming, “Price and Output Policy of State Enterprise,” Economic Journal, 1944.
Abram Bergson, Structure of Soviet Wages, Ch. II:
M. Dobb (as above) Ch. VIII (with Appendix).

  1. Imperialism; the State and the Revolution; Problems of Transition.

M. Dobb (as above) Ch. VII.
Lenin, State and Revolution, 1926.

Suggestions:
Lenin, What is to be Done?
P. M. Sweezy, (as above) Chs. XIII-XIX.

Reading Period: Evolutionary Socialism, 1909.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics 1948-49 (1 of 2)”

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1948 –49
Harvard University
Economics 111b
[Final Examination]

Answer five out of seven questions. At least two must be chosen from group I.

I

  1. Discuss Marx’s theory of cycles, organizing your answer around the following foci:
    1. falling tendency of the rate of profit
    2. the reserve army of unemployed
    3. capital accumulation and replacement cycles.
  2. What was Bernstein’s point of view about the breakdown of capitalism? What was the significance of the controversy for Marxist economics?
  3. Discuss the economic aspects of the proportions in which factors are combined in a centrally directed economy with reference to marginal substitution, indivisibilities, and pricing.

II

  1. What was the tactical significance of three of the following issues that arose within the 2nd International:
    1. Millerandism
    2. Revisionism
    3. participation in the World War
    4. timing and leadership of revolution (Lenin)
  2. Discuss the dependence, if any, of Marxian economics on Marxian sociology.
  3. Describe the role of the rate of interest in the allocation of resources between present consumption and investment for future production in a socialist economy.
  4. Discuss the rule that prices should equal marginal cost with special reference to intervals of increasing and decreasing costs.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001. Box 16. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1949.

Image Source: Harvard Classbook 1947.

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Harvard. Final exam and possible reading list for mathematical business cycle theory. Goodwin, 1944.

 

The following reading list for what certainly appears to have been a course on business cycles was found in Joseph Schumpeter’s papers. The original typed copy (it is not a carbon copy) is four pages long and lacks a heading with a course name or number, date, or instructor’s name so we cannot even be 100% confident that it can be associated with any Harvard course. It is simply included in a folder with miscellaneous Schumpeter notes (above my pay-grade to extract any more than a random word or two per page from Schumpeter’s scribble cum shorthand).

One important fact is that the latest item on the reading list is an August 1942 Q.J.E. article by Samuelson. So my theory of the case leads me to assume that this artifact comes from a business cycle course taught at Harvard during the 1942-43 or perhaps 1943-44 academic year. I note that Schumpeter taught the courses “Economic of Socialism”, “History and Literature of Economics since 1776”, and “Advanced Economic Theory” in both those years. Neither of the first two titles is anywhere close to a dedicated course on business cycles. A look at the reading lists and exams for the 1941-42 version of “Advanced Economic Theory” finds that economic dynamics (both micro- and macrodynamics)  was one of several topics covered in the second semester, but nothing like the exclusive focus on the theory of business cycle as seen in the reading list below.

Alvin Hansen taught an undergraduate course “Business Cycles” (Economics 45a) and a graduate course “Business Cycles and Economic Forecasting” (Economics 145a), but a reading list with the title “Specific Reading Assignments in Economics 45a” for 1943 and the exams for both Economics 45a and 145a do not give multiplier-accelerator topics as much emphasis as seen in the reading list transcribed in this post.

The only other candidate (assuming that this reading list had been prepared for a Harvard economics course) appears to be the undergraduate course “Introduction to Mathematical Business Cycle Theory” that I believe was taught once and only once at Harvard by Richard M. Goodwin. I find that the “goodness of fit” of the final examination questions to the reading list sufficiently adequate to consider the following reading list and examination questions at least a tentative match for now.

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Reading list,
tentatively matched to Economics 46,
Mathematical Business Cycle Theory

  1. Over-All Picture of the Business Cycle.

Schumpeter, J.A., “The analysis of economic change,” R.E.S., XVII (May, 1935), pp. 2-10.

Knight, F.H., “The business cycle, interest, and money: a methodological approach,” R.E.C., XXIII (1941), pp. 53-67.

  1. Types of Cycles.

Kondratieff, N.D., “The long waves in economic life,” R.E.S., XVII (Nov., 1935), pp. 105-15.

Kitchin, J., “Cycles and trends in economic factors,” R.E.S., V (Jan., 1923), pp. 10-16.

Frickey, Edwin, “The problem of secular trend,” R.E.S., XVI (1934), pp. 199-206.

  1. Econometric Approach.

Tinbergen, J., “Econometric business cycle research,” R.Ec.Stud., VII (1940), pp. 73-90.

Keynes, J.M., “The statistical testing of business-cycle theories,” E.J., XLIX (Sept., 1939), pp. 558-68; and Tinbergen-Keynes, “On a method of statistical research,” E.J., L (March, 1940), pp. 141-156.

  1. Saving and Investment.

Lutz, F.A., “Outcome of the saving-investment discussion,” Q.J.E., LII (1937-38).

Lerner, A.P., “Saving and investment: definitions, assumptions, objectives,” Q.J.E., LIII (1938-39), pp. 611-19.

Lange, O., “Saving in process analysis,” ibid., pp. 620-22.

Ohlin, Bertil, “Some notes on the Stockholm theory of saving and investment,” E.J., XLVII (1937), pp. 53-69; 221-40.

  1. Keynesian Economics.

Hicks, J.R., “Mr. Keynes’s theory of employment,” E.J., XLVI (1936), pp. 238-53.

Lange, O., “The rate of interest and the optimum propensity to consume,” Economica, V (new series, 1938), pp. 12-32.

  1. Spending Policy and Multiplier.

Kahn, R.F., “The relation of home investment to unemployment,” E.J., XLI (1931), pp. 173-98.

Clark, J.M., “An appraisal of the workability of compensatory devices,” A.E.R., (1939, Suppl.), pp. 194-209.

Williams, J.H., “Deficit spending,” A.E.R., XXX (Feb., 1941, Suppl.), pp. 52-66.

Machlup, F. “Period analysis and multiplier theory,” Q.J.E., LIV (1939-40), pp. 1-27.

Samuelson, P.A., “Fiscal policy and income determination,” Q.J.E., LVI (Aug., 1942), pp. 575-605.

  1. Acceleration Principle.

Aftalion, A., “The theory of economic cycles based on the capitalistic technique of production,” R.E.S., IX (1927), pp. 165-70.

Clark, J.M., “Business acceleration and the law of demand: a technical factor in economic cycles,” J.P.E., Vol. 25 (March, 1917), pp. 217-35. Reprinted with additional note in Preface to Social Economics.

Tinbergen, J., “Statistical evidence on the acceleration principle,” Economica, V (1938, new series), pp. 164-176.

  1. Dynamic Models Involving Multiplier and Acceleration Principle.

Samuelson, P.A., “A synthesis of the principle of acceleration and the multiplier,” J.P.E., XLVII (1939), pp. [no pages given]

Kaldor, N., “Model of the trade cycle,” E.J., March, 1940.

  1. Monetary Theory of the Business Cycle.

Hawtrey, R.G., “The trade cycle,” Dutch Economist and reprinted in Trade and Credit, London, 1928, pp. 82-104.

Hayek, F.A., “Price expectations, monetary disturbances and malinvestments,” first published in German in Nationalökonomisk Tidskrift, Vol. 73, No. 3, 1935. Reprinted in Profits, Interest and Investment, London, 1939, pp. 135-57.

  1. Overconsumption Theory and Secular Stagnation Thesis.

Robertson, D.H., “A survey of modern monetary controversy,” Manchester School, 1938.

Hansen, A.H., “Progress and declining population,” A.E.R., XXIX (1939), pp. 1-15.

Neisser, Hans, “General overproduction,” J.P.E., XLII (1934), pp. 433-65.

Kaldor, N., “Stability and full employment,” E.J., XLVIII (1938), pp. 642-57.

Ellis, H.S., “Monetary policy and investment,” A.E.R., XXX (1940), pp. [no pages given]

  1. Harvest Cycles and Other Special Cycles.

Jevons, H.S., “The causes of fluctuations of industrial activity and the price level,” J.R.S.S., XCVI (1933), pp. 545-88. Discussion, ibid., pp. 588-605.

Derksen, J.B.D., “Long cycles in residential building, an explanation,” Econometrica, VIII (1940), p. 10.

Long, C.D., “Long cycles in the building industry,” Q.J.E., LIII (1938-39), pp. 371-403.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Joseph Schumpeter Papers. Lecture Notes Box 2, Folder “Notes”.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 46. (spring term) Dr. Goodwin.—Introduction to Mathematical Business Cycle Theory.

Total 4: 3 Navy V-12, 1 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1943-44, p. 56.

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1943-44
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 46
Introduction to Mathematical Business Cycle Theory
[Final examination, June 1944]

Part I
Answer both questions.

  1. Suppose an economic system completely characterized by the multiplier and acceleration principles. Further suppose all data in annual terms and a one year lag in the expenditure of income. If the system shows oscillations with an 8.5 year period, and an amplitude increasing continuously at a .02 rate, what are the values of \alpha , the marginal propensity to consume, and of \gamma , the acceleration coefficient? Secondly, suppose, being a New Dealer with a difference, you desire to abolish economic cycles. If the values of \alpha and of \gamma were open to governmental control, state one pair of values for \alpha and \gamma , at which you might aim and why.
  2. Describe cursorily as many as possible types of ‘dynamization’ useful in business cycle theory and indicate, where you can, your evaluation of their relative importance.

 

Part II
Answer any two, or three, or four questions.

  1. Explain the economic meaning of the following terms: endogenous, initial conditions, phase constant (epoch), stationary, static, amplitude, dynamic, and over-damped.
  2. Discuss thoroughly the role of damping in quantitative cycle theories.
  3. Do you consider it a correct appraisal of Tinbergen’s statistical work to say: “The method is one neither of discovery nor of criticism”?
  4. What economic assumptions are involved in the use of second order, homogeneous, linear differential and difference equations with constant coefficients?
  5. “Is it possible that there could be a cyclical fluctuation in a system, all the ultimate independent determinants of which had fixed regression coefficients and were in linear correlation with their consequences, except in the case where one of the ultimate determinants is itself a periodic function of time (e.g. sun spots)? Where and how does the element of reversal come in?….I should like to know the answer?” How would you answer Lord Keynes? Be concrete.
  6. Give one example of how inventories may be introduced into cycle analysis and show the more important consequences.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 9. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions,…, Economic,…, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1944.

Image Source: Richard M. Goodwin, in the Harvard Album, 1946.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Graduate course on money, banking and the business cycle. Schumpeter, 1933-34

 

It took Joseph Schumpeter a few years to establish his personal teaching niche in the Harvard economics department. This post provides material I have found (thus far) from Schumpeter’s graduate course covering monetary economics, policy, and business cycles from his second year as a permanent faculty member.

_____________________

Economics 50. (formerly Economics 38). Professor Schumpeter. — Money, Banking, and the Business Cycle.

Total 31: 10 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 1 Junior 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1933-34, p. 86.

_____________________

Reading Period Titles for Economics 50

Reading Period. Fall Term, 1933-34.

Suggested Readings:

(1) Pigou, A.C., Industrial Fluctuations.
(2) Mitchell, The Business Cycle.
(3) Hansen, Theories of the Business Cycle.
(4) Snyder, C., Business Measurements.
(5) Persons, W.M., Business Forecasting.
(6) Hawtrey, R.G., The Art of Central Banking

Reading Period. Spring Term, 1933-34.

Suggested readings:

League of Nations (B. Ohlin), The Course and Phases of the World Economic Depression, 1931.
J.M. Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles (National Bureau of Economic Research), 1934.
J.M. Rogers, The Process of Inflation in France, 1914-1927 (Columbia University Press, 1929).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1933-34”.

_____________________

1933-34
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 50
Mid-Year Examination.

Answer any FOUR of the following questions.

  1. Is the equation of exchange (MV = PT) a tautology, and if so, in what sense? What do you think of Mr. Keynes’ claim that his equations are no mere identities?
  2. How are we to measure the amount of credit creation, and what is the distinction between it and the net increase of producers purchasing power above what it would be if there were no credit creation?
  3. “A fall in the prices of consumption-goods due to an excess of saving over investment does not in itself…require any opposite change in the price of new investment goods.” Explain and criticize.
  4. Explain the fact that the general price level and the rate of both short and long interest consistently vary together.
  5. “If the banking system controls the terms of credit in such a way that savings are equal to the value of new investment, then the average price-level of output as a whole is stable.” What do you think of this?
  6. How do you define “value of money”? Discuss the difficulties in the concept of the General Level of Prices.
  7. In what ways might speculation in securities affect business activity?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1933-34.

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1933-34
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 50
Final Examination.

Answer fully any FOUR of the following SIX questions.

  1. What were, according to your opinion, the causes of the inflow of gold into France after the stabilization of the French franc?
  2. If you were to recommend a policy conducive to the elimination or the smoothing down of business fluctuations, what would you try to stabilize: the sum total of incomes, incomes per capita, the price level, any particular group of prices, the rate of interest, the rate of exchange, profits?
  3. “Both international and national considerations called for a reversal of restrictive monetary policy early in 1929.” What do you think of this?
  4. What do you think were the most important “intensifying factors” which account for the unusual severity of the present world’s crisis?
  5. What is meant by Carl Snyder’s Trade Credit Ratio and what do you think of its significance?
  6. How would you define the relation between gold and prices? What consequences would you expect from the devaluation of the dollar (a) for the internal price level of this country in the short and in the long run, (b) for the external trade of the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, Finals (HUC 7000.28, 76 of 284), June 1934.

Image Source: Harvard Archives. Irving Fisher and Joseph Schumpeter (May 12, 1934).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Undergraduate and Graduate Money and Banking. Williams, 1932-33.

John Henry Williams taught the money and banking/monetary policy courses at Harvard over several decades. Material for more years will be transcribed soon! This post takes us to the trough of the Great Depression. Joseph Schumpeter and Lauchlin Currie joined in teaching the undergraduate course this one time.

 

Principles of Money and Banking (graduate course, 1946-47)

Economics 141a, Reading Assignments and Exam (co-taught with Alvin Hansen) 1946-47

Economics 141b, Reading Assignments and Exam (co-taught with Richard Goodwin) 1946-47

Economics 141, thirteen pages of general course bibliography, 1946-47

________________________

Brief Undergraduate Course Description

[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2. Professor Williams.

The course will be conducted by means of lectures and discussions and (in the second half-year) a thesis based on work in the library. Certain subjects, such as the monetary and banking history of the United States, will be covered almost wholly by assigned reading.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, containing an Announcement for 1932-33. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol XXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), pp. 72, 81.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Enrollment

[Economics] 3. Professor Williams and Schumpeter and Dr. Currie — Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.

Total 151: 32 Seniors, 103 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1932-33, p. 65.

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 3

Money, Banking and Commercial Crises
Mid-year Examination, 1933

  1. Combined Statement of the Federal Reserve Banks

($000,000 omitted)

Sept. 1931

 Feb. 1933

June 1932
Total Reserves

3371

 3211

2844
Bills Discounted

328

 828

440
Bills bought

469

 109

67
U.S. Securities

742

 740

1784
Other Federal Reserve Securities

39

 31

19
Federal Reserve Notes

2098

 2651

2795
Member Bank Deposits

2364

 1849

1982
Government Deposits etc.

143

 76

34

Discuss the significance of the changes in each of the above items between September, 1931, and February, 1932, and between February, 1932, and June, 1932. How do you account for the changes in member bank deposits with the reserve banks? What conclusions do you draw regarding Federal Reserve policy in the two periods covered by the above statement?

  1. In how far do the Federal Reserve Act and Federal Reserve policy reveal an acceptance of the commercial loan theory of banking?
  2. Trace the evolution of the bank note in (a) the United States, (b) England, (c) Germany or What are the merits and defects of our present system and how could it be improved?
  3. Discuss one of the following:
    1. Burgess’ “Gold Paradox.”
    2. American Experience with bimetallism.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 10. Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1932-1933.”

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 3

Money, Banking and Commercial Crises
Final Examination, 1933

  1. Explain the equation P=\frac{E}{O}+\frac{{I}'-S}{R}. Can the course of business during the past five years be interpreted in terms of this equation?
  2. “A managed standard is incompatible with a world standard.”
    “Avoidance of monetary disturbances can be achieved only under a managed standard.”
  3. Compare the effects of
    1. Purchase of one billion dollars of securities b the Reserve Banks.
    2. Redemption of one billion dollars of government bonds by the issue of paper money.
    3. Reduction of the gold content of the dollar by one-hald.
    4. Adoption of bimetallism.
  4. Can the concepts of demand and marginal utility be applied in an explanation of the value of money?
  5. Is business stability compatible with stable prices? Compare the views of Foster and Catchings, Keynes and Hayek on this point.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard Univ. Examination Papers. Finals, 1933. (HUC 7000.28) Volume 75. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. January-June, 1933.

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Brief Graduate Course Description

[Economics] 38. Principles of Money and Banking

Tu., Th., at 3, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Williams.

This course is intended to afford training in analysis and research in the field of money and banking. The subject as a whole will be systematically reviewed. Selections from important writings dealing with monetary principles will be read and critically discussed. Particular attention will be given to the theory of the value of money and to the policy and operations of central banks.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, containing an Announcement for 1932-33. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol XXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), pp. 72, 81.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Enrollment

[Economics] 38. Professor Williams and Schumpeter. — Principles of Money and Banking.

Total 61: 36 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 1 Juniors, 5 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1932-33, p. 66.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 38
Principles of Money and Banking
Mid-year Examination, 1933

[copy not yet recovered]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 38
Principles of Money and Banking
Final Examination, 1933

  1. Discuss “Hayek concludes…that the necessary condition of avoiding credit cycles is for the banking system to maintain the effective quantity of money…absolutely and forever unaltered.”
    Is this a correct interpretation of Hayek? Just what is involved, in the way of central bank action, in a “neutral” money policy? Would you favor such a policy?
  2. Discuss:
    1. The concept of international equilibrium.
    2. The mechanism of adjustment of departures from equilibrium under conditions of gold standard.
    3. The relation of gold standard to central banking.
  3. Discuss the effects of:
    1. A devaluation of the dollar relative to the pound sterling and the franc.
    2. An all-round devaluation of currencies.
    3. An all-round abandonment of the gold standard or of any other mechanism for providing stability of exchanges.
    4. The proposal to widen the zone between gold points to five per cent.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard Univ. Examination Papers. Finals, 1933. (HUC 7000.28) Volume 75. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. January-June, 1933.

Image Source:  John Henry Williams in the Harvard Album, 1932.

 

Categories
Economists Gender

Women’s Suffrage. Schumpeter in the Washington Post, 1914

Staatssekret‰r f¸r Finanzen im 2. Kabinett Renner. Bildnis (: Brust, en face).

 

 

The following article by Joseph Schumpeter was published in the Washington Post (March 22, 1914) along with four other short articles by different writers on the subject of women’s suffrage. While Schumpeter briefly indicates where he ultimately stands, “…the gallant fight for equality which our women are waging,” he displays all the passion of an early twentieth century “feminist of the chair”. Still an interesting tidbit of an artifact.

_______________________

Suffrage Coming, says Economist, Because of Changing Family Life

Institution of Marriage Modified, Declares Prof. Schumpeter, and Women Have Lost Their Old Employment—Traces History.

By Prof. Joseph Schumpeter
Austrian Exchange Professor to Columbia University,
Professor of Political Economy at the University of Gratz

If any public question is in process of being thrashed out, people soon cease to do any thinking of their own about it and have a way of settling down to repeating indefinitely sets of arguments which from the very fact of their logical weakness seem to derive an emotional force.

This we can always observe when large issues are fought out. What we think about them is only handmaid to what we feel about them. But this is specially true in the particular case of the gallant fight for equality which our women are waging, for hardly anywhere else is there so much room for vague hopes and fears, and hardly another issue has so nasty a spike for the feelings of many of us.

Now, I do not wish to argue on either side. All I want is to point out that all ideas and social institutions and habits which have anything to do with the relations and relative positions of the sexes are determined by, or have a tendency to adapt themselves to the general conditions under which a nation lives. We cannot hope—much as we may want to—to keep any social institutions—marriage, for instance—what it is at a given point of the long road of social evolution, if those conditions change. As a matter of fact, though the name may remain the same, the institution of marriage and what it really means and implies is forever changing.

Facts Change Faster Than Ideals.

There is as much difference between what it is to be married now and what it was to be married a few hundred years ago as there is between the Twentieth Century Limited and a saddle horse, although our legal definitions and our ideals of marriage have changed much less rapidly and thoroughly than the facts have. And there is some use in glancing over the historical evolution of the position of women to see how the necessities under which we have lived have sharpened, together with everything else, also this particular element of our lives.

Women in Primitive Times.

In primitive conditions the precariousness of the existence of the small clans that roamed about very much like herds of deer imposed on them the necessity of the strongest members of the group being always ready to fight an enemy or to hunt for food, specializing, as it were, in the profession of warrior and hunter and leaving everything else to the women.

This accounts for the position of women in primitive times. It is not quite exact to speak of their “subjection” or to style them “beasts of burden.” They simply had a sphere of activity cut out for them, from which men were debarred just as much as they were debarred from joining his hunting expeditions.

Family life as we know it came into existence only much later, when people settled down on the land. It owes its origin to the fact that the house had become an economic point, and that the ties of clanship lost steadily in importance. This, by the way, disposes of the argument that the family is the “cell” of the social group. The contrary is true. The family evolved out of a bigger group, it appeared comparatively late, and social groups have been able to get along without it for a very long spell of time.

No Old Maids Then.

Well, when the family, in our sense of the word, did come into existence, the place of the wife was again determined by inexorable necessities. And this meant, at that time, that the social position of women in general was so determined, for practically all of them were wives, a spinster being just as exceptional a phenomenon as a bachelor then was. They were, indeed, most unhappy exceptions, because married life was then the necessary basis of everything outside the walls of a convent. In their homes wives were supreme rulers.

They managed the whole of all those industrial functions which the rural household of the Middle Ages implied. They did what manufacturers and tradesmen do for them today.

Needless to say, those conditions have passed away or are passing away, and they will never return. What I have called their industrial function has been taken away from women and has been reduced, or is being reduced, to fussing about menus, table decorations, and similar problems. The peasant’s wife is happier in this respect, for she still lives, to some extent, under those old conditions. The laborer’s wife has never had much of a home. But all these women who have not got to go out to work now offer the most tragic case of unemployment ever witnessed, with all its effects on happiness and character.

Suffrage Bound to Come.

Whatever our works and ideals, it is absurd to call the women’s movement a whim, which will pass, provided only it is not taken seriously and provided its symptoms are sternly put down. It is a movement which it may be possible to guide, but which it is imperative to guide only toward its goal, for it will get there, anyway. Let us apply this to the particular question of suffrage, which is only one element of the much broader problem I have been speaking about and a comparatively insignificant one. Yet it is a step on a long road—a step which is absolutely unavoidable. The more men fight the suffrage the better the cause will prosper. All the resistance is good for is to show the power of the trend of things and to make the victory—which is sure to come—the more significant and dramatic.

 

Source:  The Washington Post, 22 March 1914. Copy in the on-line Schumpeter Archive.

Image Source: Josef Schumpeter portrait.  Austrian National Library. Bildarchiv und Grafiksammlung.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Exams and enrollment for economics of socialism and communism. Edward Cummings, 1893-1900

The father of the American poet E.E. Cummings, Edward Cummings, taught courses in sociology, labor economics, and socialism at Harvard during the last decade of the 19th century before he resigned to become the minister at Boston’s South Congregational Church. In this post I have included all the exams for his course on ancient and modern  utopias (a.k.a. communism and socialism) that I have been able to find. A course description and enrollment data are readily available from internet archives and included below as well. 

Note: for only the 1893-94 academic year and the single-term version of the course offered in 1895-96 are the exams complete. For the other academic years when the course was offered I have only found the first term exams.

Analogous courses on schemes of social reconstruction were taught in one form or another later by Thomas Nixon Carver, Edward S. Mason, Paul Sweezy, Wassily Leontief,  Joseph Schumpeter, and Overton Hume Taylor.

____________________

Course Description
(1897-98)

*14. Socialism and Communism, — History and Literature. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.

[An asterisk (*) indicates that the course can be taken only with the previous consent of the instructor.]

Course 14 is primarily an historical and critical study of socialism and communism. It traces the history and significance of schemes for social reconstruction from the earliest times to the present day. It discusses the historical evidences of primitive communism, the forms assumed by private ownership at different stages of civilization, the bearing of these considerations upon the claims of modern socialism, and the outcome of experimental communities in which socialism and communism have actually been tried. Special attention, however is devoted to the recent history of socialism, – the precursors and the followers of Marx and Lassalle, the economic and political programs of socialistic parties in Germany, France, and other countries.

The primary object is in every case to trace the relation of historical evolution to these programmes; to discover how far they have modified history or found expression in the policy of parties or statesmen; how far they must be regarded simply as protests against existing phases of social evolution; and how far they may be said to embody a sane philosophy of social and political organization.

The criticism and analysis of these schemes gives opportunity for discussing from different points of view the ethical and historical value of social and political institutions, the relation of the State to the individual, the political and economic bearing of current socialistic series.

The work is especially adapted to students who have had some introductory training in Ethics as well as in Economics. A systematic course of reading covers the authors discussed; and special topics for investigation maybe assigned in connection with this reading.

 

Source: Harvard University. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1897-98, pp. 35-36.

____________________

1893-94

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 14. Asst. Professor Cummings. – Ideal Social Reconstructions, from Plato’s Republic to the present time. 1 hour.

Total 22: 7 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

 

 

ECONOMICS 14.
Mid-year examination, 1893-94.

(Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. Omit one.)

  1. What is a Utopia? and what significance do you attached to the recurrence of such literature at certain historical ethics?
  2. “For judging of the importance of any thinker in the history of Economics, no matter is more important to us than the view he takes of the laboring population.” Judge Plato, More and Bacon by this standard.
  3. “Moreover, it is hardly too much to say that Plato never got to the point of having a theory of the State at all.” In the Republic “man is treated as a micropolis, and the city is the citizen writ large.” Explain and criticize.
  4. “In More’s Utopia we have a revival of the Platonic Republic with additions which make the scheme entirely modern.… The economical element in the social body receives for the first time its proper rank as of the highest moment for public welfare.” Explain. To what extent have the ideals of Utopia been realized?
  5. “Then we may say that democracy, like oligarchy, is destroyed by its insatiable craving for the object which defines to be supremely good?” What, according to the Republic are the peculiar merits and defects of the several forms of political organization? and how are these forms related in point of origin and sequence?
  6. “Sir Thomas More has been called the father of Modern Communism.” How does he compare in this respect with Plato? How far do you trace the influence of historical conditions in each case?
  7. “But in your case, it is we that have begotten you for the State as well as for yourselves, to be like leaders and kings of the hive,– better and more perfectly trained than the rest, and more capable of playing a part in both modes of life.” Criticise the method and purpose of the educational system of the Republic. How far does Plato’s argument as to the duty of public service apply to the educated man to-day?
  8. “The religious ferment produced by the Reformation movement had begun to show signs of abatement, when another movement closely connected with it made its appearance almost at the same time in England and Italy, namely, the rise of a new philosophy.” How was this new philosophy embodied in the social ideals of Bacon and of Campanella? and what is the distinguishing characteristic of it?
  9. What essential contrast between pagan and Christian ideals have you found in schemes for social regeneration?
  10. Is there any recognition of “Social Evolution” in the Utopian philosophies thus far considered?
  11. What in a word, do you regard as the chief defect of the social reconstruction suggested in turn by Plato, Lycurgus, More, Bacon and Campanella? To what main problems suggested by them have we still to seek an answer?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers. Mid-Year, 1893-94.(HUC 7000.55).

 

ECONOMICS 14.
Final examination, 1893-94.

(Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.)

  1. [“]The essential unity and continuity of the vital process which has been in progress in our civilization from the beginning is almost lost sight of. Many of the writers on social subjects at the present day are like the old school of geologists: they seem to think that progress has consisted of a series of cataclysms.” How far is this criticism true? Is the characteristic in question more or less conspicuous in earlier writers?
  2. “At the outset underneath all socialist ideals yawns the problem of population…. Under the Utopias of Socialism, one of two things must happen. Either this increase must be restricted or not. If it be not restricted, and selection is allowed to continue, then the whole foundations of such a fabric as Mr. Bellamy has constructed are bodily removed.” State carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing. In which of the schemes for social reconstruction, ancient or modern, do you find any adequate recognition of the part which selection plays in progress?
  3. “If it is possible for the community to provide the capital for production without thereby doing injury to either the principle of perfect individual freedom or to that of justice, if interest can be dispensed with without introducing communistic control in its stead, then there no longer stands any positive obstacle in the way of the free social order.” Discuss the provisions by which Hertzka hopes to guaranteed this “perfect individual freedom.” Contrast him with Bellamy in this respect.
  4. “I perceive that capitalism stops the growth of wealth, not – as Marx has it – by stimulating ‘production for the market,’ but by preventing the consumption of the surplus produce; and that interest, though not unjust, will nevertheless in a condition of economic justice becomes superfluous and objectless.” Explain Hertzka’s reasoning and criticise the economic theory involved.”
  5. What is the gist of “News from Nowhere”?
  6. The condition which the social mind has reached may be tentatively described as one of realization, more or less unconscious, that religion has a definite function to perform in society, and that it is a factor of some kind in the social evolution which is in progress.” How far have you found a recognition of this factor in theories of social reconstruction?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28). Box 2, Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894.

____________________

1894-95

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 14. Asst. Professor Cummings.—Philosophy and Political Economy.—Utopian Literature from Plato’s Republic to the present time.  2 hours.

Total 8: 5 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-95, p. 62.

____________________

1895-96

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 141. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.—Communism and Socialism.—Utopias, ancient and modern. Hf. 2 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 15: 1 Graduate, 10 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1895-96, p. 63.

 

ECONOMICS 14.
Mid-Year Examination, 1895-96.

(Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. Omit one.)

  1. The different senses in which the word Socialism is used. Where do you intend to draw the line between Socialism proper, and familiar forms of government interference and control – such as factory legislation, municipal water works, and government postal, telegraph or railroad services? Why?
  2. “National communism has been confused with the common ownership of the family; tenure in common has been confused with ownership in common; agrarian communism with village commons.” Discuss the evidence.
  3. “Just as Plato had his Republic, Campanella his City of the Sun, and Sir Thomas More his Utopia, St. Simon his Industrial System, and Fourier his ideal Phalanstery…. But the common criticism of Socialism has not yet noted the change, and continues to deal with the obsolete Utopias of the pre-evolutionary age.” What do you conceive to be the character of the change referred to? How far did earlier Utopias anticipate the ideals of the modern social democracy?
  4. What indication of Socialistic tendencies are to be found in the discipline of the Christian church? Explain the triple contract and its bearing on the doctrine of the usury.
  5. “The Communistic scheme, instead of being peculiarly open to the objection drawn from danger of over-population, has the recommendation of tending in an especial degree to the prevention of that evil.” Explained Mill’s argument. Do you agree?
  6. To what extent are the theories of Karl Marx indebted to earlier writers in the 19th-century?
  7. How far are the economic series of (a) Lasalle, (b) Marx related to the theories of the so-called orthodox Economists? Explain critically.
  8. How far do you trace the influence of historical conditions in the social philosophies of Plato, More, Bacon, Rousseau, St. Simon, Karl Marx?
  9. What connection do you see between the teachings of Rousseau and (a) modern Socialism, (b) modern Anarchism?
  10. What, according to Hertzka, is the economic defect of the existing social and industrial system, and what is the remedy? Contrast “Freeland” with “Looking Backward.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers. Mid-Year, 1895-96.(HUC 7000.55).

____________________

1896-97

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 14. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.—Communism and Socialism.—History and Literature.2 hours.

Total 13: 10 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1896-97, p. 65.

 

ECONOMICS 14.
Mid-Year Examination, 1896-97.

(Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. Omit one.)

  1. The different senses in which the word Socialism is used. Where do you intend to draw the line between Socialism proper, and familiar forms of government interference and control – such as factory legislation, municipal water works, and government postal, telegraph or railroad services? Why?
  2. “National communism has been confused with the common ownership of the family; tenure in common has been confused with ownership in common; agrarian communism with village commons.” Discuss the evidence.
  3. “Just as Plato had his Republic, Campanella his City of the Sun, and Sir Thomas More his Utopia, St. Simon his Industrial System, and Fourier his ideal Phalanstery…. But the common criticism of Socialism has not yet noted the change, and continues to deal with the obsolete Utopias of the pre—evolutionary age.” What do you conceive to be the character of the change referred to? How far did earlier Utopias anticipate the ideals of the modern social democracy?
  4. What indication of Socialistic tendencies are to be found in the discipline of the Christian church? Explain the triple contract and its bearing on the doctrine of the usury.
  5. The contributions of Greek writers to the development of economic thought.
  6. To what extent are the theories of Karl Marx indebted to earlier writers in the 19th-century?
  7. How far are the economic series of (a) Lasalle, (b) Marx related to the theories of the so-called orthodox Economists? Explain critically.
  8. How far do you trace the influence of historical conditions in the social philosophies of Plato, More, Bacon, Rousseau, St. Simon, Karl Marx?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers. Mid-Year, 1896-97.(HUC 7000.55).

____________________

1897-98

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 14. Asst. Professor E. Cummings.—Communism and Socialism.—History and Literature.2 or 3 hours.

Total 12: 3 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1897-98, p. 78.

 

ECONOMICS 14
Mid-Year Examination, 1897-98

Outline briefly the characteristics of socialistic theory and practice in ancient, medieval and modern times, — devoting about an hour to each epoch, and showing—

(a) so far as possible the continuity of such speculations; the characteristic resemblances and differences;

(b) the influence of peculiar historical conditions;

(c) the corresponding changes in economic theory and practice.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers. Mid-Year, 1897-98.(HUC 7000.55).

 

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Not offered 1898-99

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1898-99, pp. 72-73.

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1899-1900

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 14. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings.—Communism and Socialism.—History and Literature.Lectures (3 hours); 6 reports or theses.

Total 22: 2 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

 

ECONOMICS 14
Mid-Year Examination, 1899-1900

  1. How, according to Plato, are economic organization, and the problems of production and distribution related (a) to social development; (b) to social and political degeneration?
  2. What do you conceive to be his most permanent contribution to social philosophy? What his chief defect?
  3. How far do the teachings of the Christian church and the Canon Law throw light on the gradual development of our fundamental economic ideas in regard to wealth, capital, trade, commerce?
  4. How far is there ground for the contention that the writings of Rousseau have been the chief arsenal of social and political revolutionists?
  5. “The right to the whole produce of labor—to subsistence—to labor:”
    What, according to Menger, have been the most important contributions to the successive phases of this discussion?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers. Mid-Year, 1899-1900.(HUC 7000.55).

Image Source: University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), pp. 155-156.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Principles of Money and Banking, Midyear Exam. Schumpeter, 1927-1928

 

 

I just returned from a recent trip that included 5.5 working days in the Harvard University Archives. Among the images of treasures for transcription that I have brought back are the mid-year examinations for several decades of Harvard’s year-long economics courses. My first order of business now  has been to add the corresponding mid-year examinations to material already posted for Harvard courses here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

We now add a course taught by the ever popular and ultimate click-bait, Joseph Schumpeter. The final examination questions for his 1927-28 course, Principles of Money and Banking, have been posted earlier. Now we also learn something about what was covered in the first semester of that course.

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1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 38

Mid-Year Examination

  1. Write as fully as possible on either one or the other of the following subjects:
    1. What is the monetary system set up by the English Gold Standard Act of 1925, and how does its working differ from either an unrestricted gold system or the gold exchange standard?
    2. If a bank creates new credit in order to grant a loan, then, so long as the loan remains outstanding, it acts like a tax or compulsion to save imposed on the community jointly by the borrower and the bank. (D. H. Robertson, Money. p. 90) Explain and criticize.
  2. Answer shortly two out of the four following questions:
    1. Some authors think that a system of paper circulation would work more, others that it would work less in accordance with the quantity theorem than the gold standard. Which view is the correct one?
    2. What is the difference between the ‘equation of exchange’ as constructed respectively by Irving Fisher and by Marshall-Pigou-Keynes?
    3. Why and in what sense is bimetallism unstable?
    4. What difference is there between choosing some commodity as a ‘standard of value’ and actually using it as a means of exchange, which physically changes hands?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1927-28 (HUC 7000.55), Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations. History, History of Religions,… , Economics,… , Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1928.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. “Joseph A. Schumpeter seated on bench in forested area, ca. 1931“.