Month: May 2016

Categories
Harvard

Harvard. James Ackley Maxwell, Ph.D., 1926

Earlier in Economics in the Rear-View Mirror I posted the Ph.D. examination announcements  for Lauchlin Currie and Harry Dexter White that took place in April 1927 at Harvard. The information in these printed announcements includes the academic history of the Ph.D. examinees as well as the listing of their subjects of examination, the members of their examination and thesis committees as well as the Ph.D. thesis title and principal advisor. This posting includes a transcription of the Ph.D. examination announcement for James A. Maxwell.

Tracking down the subsequent careers of alumni is sometimes surprisingly easy as it was for the following case of this public finance economist, a Clark University professor, who also turns out to have been a Canadian war hero and the father of a Hollywood actor according to a short article published in a New Glasgow (Nova Scotia) newspaper in 2014.

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James Ackley Maxwell.

Special Examination in Economics, Monday, October 25, 1926.

General Examination passed October 30, 1923.

Academic History: Dalhousie University, 1919-21; Harvard College, 1921-23; Harvard Graduate School, 1923-27. B.A., Dalhousie, 1921; A.M., Harvard, 1923. Assistant Professor of Economics, Clark University, 1925-.

General Subjects: 1. Money and Banking. 2. Economic Theory and its History. 3. Economic History to 1750. 4 Statistics. 5. History of Political Theory. 6. Public Finance.

Special Subject: Public Finance.

Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Burbank, A. H. Cole and Usher.

Thesis Subject: A Financial History of Nova Scotia, 1848-99. (With Professor Bullock.)

Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Burbank, and Usher.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives, Harvard University Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1926-1927”. Division of History, Government and Economics. Examinations for the Degree of Ph.D. 1926-1927, pp. 1-2.

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James Ackley Maxwell was born to parents William and Anna (Marshall) Maxwell on March 7, 1897. James’s early life began on Drummond Road in Westville [Nova Scotia], a stone’s throw from the Intercolonial Coal Mine, where his father worked as the general manager….

… In 1915, the 18-year-old Westville bank clerk signed up for the Great War. He was assigned to the 85th Infantry Battalion, Nova Scotia Highlanders. …James A. Maxwell …moved up the ranks very quickly and became a Lieutenant at the age of 21. Officer Maxwell would also earn the Distinguished Conduct Medal for an “extremely high act of bravery” at the Battle of Amiens. …

…After World War One he enrolled at Dalhousie University and graduated with honours in history, philosophy and economics. In 1921, James was accepted at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where he excelled at economics and graduated with a Ph.D. in 1927. James Maxwell was hired immediately by Clark University of Worcester, Mass., where he would spend the next 43 years teaching economics. He held several posts at this prestigious campus and in 1964, Dr. Maxwell was chosen “Clark Man of the Year” and awarded an honorary “doctorate of humane letters,” and also titled “Emeritus Professor of Economics at Clarke University.”

…He specialized in “Public Finance and Fiscal Policy.” In 1935 he served as adviser to the Royal Commission on Provincial Financial Relations in Ottawa. He was appointed to serve on the United States Office of Price Administration and the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. Dr. Maxwell was also asked to prepare a study of “Federal Grants and Business Cycles” for the National Bureau of Economic Research and the President of United States Council of Economic Advisers. He was also involved with the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. Advisory Committee on International Relations and the U.S. Bureau of Management and Budget. In 1962, Dr. Maxwell was invited to participate in the International Institute of Public Finance in Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr. Maxwell was also a visiting lecturer at Melbourne University and the National University, both in Australia and the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C. He was also a Fulbright professor and was awarded a “Social Science Research Fellowship and a Guggenheim Research Fellowship.

Dr. Maxwell’s publications and books  [include] … Tax Credits and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, … Financing State and Local Governments, Tax Credits and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, The Fiscal Impact on Federalism in the United States and Commonwealth State Financial Relations in Australia….

…[His son] James Ackley Maxwell Jr. became a famous American actor, theater director and writer. James Jr. acted and directed many live theatre plays well as in television and big screen movies such as; Dr. Who, The Avengers, The Saint, Far From the Madding Crowd and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich….

…Dr. James A. Maxwell retired in 1966 and lived out his life at Worcester, Mass., where he passed away in 1975.

Source: John Ashton, Past Times: Westville’s war hero economist in The News (New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada), August 24, 2014.

Image Source:  Cropped selection from ibid.

 

Categories
Bibliography

Rössig’s 18th century history of Political Economy. 1781-82

I am constantly on the lookout for additions to my Rare-Book Reading Room. Figured the bibliographic preface to Schumpeter’s Economic Doctrine and Method might be a good place to check. Sure enough, the very first item mentioned there turned out to be pure gold.  The good people at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz have put into the creative commons an absolutely wonderful scanned copy of the early two volume work on the history of political economy by Carl Gottlob Rössig. The Text-Bild-Ansicht option even gives us a Roman-font text side-by-side with the Gothic-font original for ease of reading (presuming of course that you can read German). The tender loving care shown in this digitalization represents a gold-standard in such matters. Granted, the touch of paper and the must smell that arouse a bibliophile are still missing. But the eye and mind will delight!  Links provided below.

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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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“Serious interest in the history of Political Economy did not develop until the classical system decayed. Although some bibliographies had been compiled in the eighteenth century only relatively little historical work had been done. Rossig’s Versuch einer Geschichte der Oekonomie und Kameralwissenschaft [sic], 1781 should be mentioned in this connection.”

Source: From the Bibliographical Preface to Joseph Schumpeter’s Economic Doctrine and Method: An Historical Sketch (trans. R. Aris). New York: Oxford University Press, 1967, page 5.

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Rössig, Carl Gottlob. Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Ökonomie- Polizei- und Cameralwissenschaften. Deutschland. Bd.I. Leipzig, 1781.

_______________. Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Ökonomie- Polizei- und Cameralwissenschaften. Deutschland. Bd.II. Leipzig, 1782.

 

Repository: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

 

Image Source: Rössig, Carl Gottlob, Gemälde von Medardus Thoenert.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Market Organization and Control. Special Examination, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in market organization and control given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

_____________________________________

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….

 

________________________

 

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Market Organization and Control

(Three hours)

PART I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. public control of stock markets,
    2. significance of NRA for future public policy,
    3. the Federal Trade Commission—an appraisal,
    4. two-price plans for farm products,
    5. farm tenancy,
    6. cooperative marketing in agriculture,
    7. public planning for electricity in Great Britain and in the United States,
    8. the question of relief for the railroads,
    9. the concept of “natural monopoly”,
    10. the holding company in industry and in public utilities,
    11. rural electrification,
    12. legislative and administrative standards for government price control.

 

PART II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions. Candidates for honors must answer one starred question

  1. (*) What problems do you think especially need study in a “monopoly investigation”?
  2. (*) “With a basing point system competition in such crude matters as price and quality has been put aside, and all that seems to remain is a gentlemanly emulation in the art of making friends and influencing people.”
  3. Discuss the relations of vertical combination to efficiency and to monopoly.
  4. “Pure competition is not the path to economic progress in an industrial age.”
  5. (*) “Selection of a short-run agricultural program should depend on long-run objectives. If the eventual aim is to reduce farm capacity some type of domestic allotment scheme is appropriate for short-run policy; if the purpose is to maintain present capacity unchanged for two or three decades, then export subsidy is indicated for the short run.”
  6. (*) In the case where farm products are purchased by a few large buyers can the prices paid be kept permanently below the level that they would approximate if there were many small buyers? Explain.
  7. Would you agree with the view that the important public problems concerning agriculture are those of land use and conservation rather than those of prices, costs, and incomes?
  8. “the fact that during the twenties the farmers did not move on into some non-agricultural pursuit shows that the incomes that they received were sufficient to keep them on the farms. Hence there was no real overcapacity in agriculture.”
  9. (*) The elimination of excessive profits from utility operations is, in itself, no proof of successful rate regulation.”
  10. (*) What do you think should be the objectives of regulation of securities and financial practices of operating utility companies? What principles of financial regulation seem best fitted to achieve these aims?
  11. Discuss some of the important economic problems in the field of communications.
  12. “If the utility has a thousand transactions a day and its charge on each is but a reasonable compensation for the benefit received by the party dealing with it, such charges do not become unreasonable because the aggregate of the profits is large.”

 

PART III

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. “The manufacturers who reduce output to maintain high prices nevertheless understand that the soundest principles of economics have been violated when farmers are assisted by government to plough under cotton and slaughter little pigs. These same farmers, however, will in the same breath denounce the railroads and utilities for not expanding production by reducing rates.”
  2. “Sizes of firms have nothing to do with the degree of price flexibility in a market. That depends fundamentally on conditions of demand and of costs.”
  3. How may prices of farm products and location of agricultural production be affected by freight rates?
  4. “Where a large proportion of the costs are fixed, competition is likely to be a poor regulator of industry. It seems highly probable that some industries escaped a situation somewhat analogous to that of farming because of monopolistic elements in competition.”
  5. Do you agree with the view that price discrimination is desirable in public utilities but undesirable in other industries? Explain.
  6. “A reduction in corporate taxes would be the most effective antitrust measure to get lower prices.”
  7. Do you think that total employment and total consumption of goods and services in the country as a whole can be influenced appreciably by (a) the policies of public utility managements and of regulatory commissions, or (b) the policies of farmers and of the Secretary of Agriculture?
  8. “The organization and mechanism of the socialist economy is almost identical with that of monopolistic corporate capitalism. It is the results which would differ.”
  9. “In the future the policies of labor unions will have more influence on industrial prices than the policies of business executives.”

 

May 10, 1939.

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Money and Government Finance. Division Exam, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in money and finance given at Harvard in May 1939. Note that by finance, government finance/fiscal policy was understood.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

_____________________________________

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….

 

________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Money and Finance

(Three hours)

PART I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. the depression of 1937-1938,
    2. the Federal Reserve System since the War,
    3. currency depreciation,
    4. price levels and foreign exchange under inflation,
    5. the recent and current policies of Germany with respect to foreign exchange and foreign trade, and their effects on the world economy,
    6. international short-term balances,
    7. the ability-to-pay theory of taxation,
    8. the burden of the public debt,
    9. taxes and subsidies as means to increase the national income,
    10. financing social security,
    11. taxation and the business cycle,
    12. the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury.

 

PART II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions. Candidates for honors must answer one starred question

  1. (*) According to a recent proposal, new money (supplementary to our present currency) would be freely issued at a fixed price against the delivery of a stated composite of storable raw materials and redeemable at any time in the same commodity composite. Discuss the possibilities of this scheme as a means of mitigating the business cycle.
  2. (*) Explain (a) the factors that determine the current level of total consumption and investment in a community in a given period, and (b) the possible effects of the current on the future level of consumption and investment.
  3. “Inflation means that artificial purchasing power, which represents no goods and services available for exchange, is enabled to bid for goods and services.”
  4. Discuss the importance and the principles of proper control of the quality of bank credit.
  5. (*) “When a country is off the gold standard, its government and central bank have the power to control the exchange rate and prevent external events from causing domestic deflation and unemployment. And in this case even if the government and the bank are not conscious of this power and have no conscious policy, their actual behavior will precisely determine the exchange rate, and the output and income of the country.” Discuss.
  6. (*) Can the general conclusions of the classical theory of international trade be supported if the theory of comparative labor costs is replaced by a type of analysis consistent with the ideas about costs and values now accepted in general economic theory? Explain.
  7. “In practical world politics, the difference between the South Manchurian Railway Company and the Japanese Government, or between the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the British Government, is the difference between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.”
  8. Outline and explain the principal changes that have occurred in the balance of payments of the United States in the last two decades.
  9. (*) Are there any satisfactory criteria to distinguish between “productive” and “unproductive” government expenditure?
  10. (*) How may expenditure by government of funds obtained through taxes affect the incidence of the taxes?
  11. “All taxes tend to depress wages or increase prices and to lower the standard of living.”
  12. “Equity in taxation is an elusive mistress, whom perhaps it is only worth the while of philosophers to pursue ardently and of politicians to watch warily.”

 

PART III

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. “The budget should be balanced by issue of gold certificates. The government owns the gold and it has every right to use it to pay its debts.”
  2. “Keynes’s economic system is a reversion to the economic doctrines of mercantilism.”
  3. Compare the probably effectiveness of banking reform and tax reform as methods of preventing harmful inequalities of income.
  4. “The ‘abstinence’ for which investors are presumed to be rewarded under our system of private capitalism has too often become total and permanent abstinence, because our commercial bankers have departed from their proper functions and become mortgage bankers or bond salesmen, or even croupiers for the gambling games carried on in stock exchanges.”
  5. Do you think that the financing of a large governmental deficit by the banking system makes it difficult for private investment to expand enough to provide full employment?
  6. “The true meaning of laissez-faire, as the Classical economists well understood, is positive action by government in the spheres of money, public finance, and foreign trade to provide a framework within which free enterprise can function to bring desirable results.”
  7. “Free competition is essential to the proper functioning of capitalism and the necessity for competition in the banking business is perhaps the primary requisite in this respect.”
  8. Do you think that the foreign markets for this country’s surplus farm products are being seriously jeopardized by the present administration’s agricultural policies? Explain.
  9. “Public finance, above all, must ‘change with the times’, for the failure to adapt public finance to changing social pressures has always been a potent cause of revolution.”

 

May 10, 1939.

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Economic History since 1750. Division Examination, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in economic history since 1750 given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

_____________________________________

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….

________________________

 

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Economic History since 1750

(Three hours)

PART I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. the effects of technological change upon economic and political change in the period 1750-1850 or 1850-1940,
    2. Ricardo’s influence on the policies and economic development of England,
    3. labor and politics during the last fifty years in France, or Great Britain,
    4. Bismarck’s policies and their effects on Germany’s economic development,
    5. causes and effects of the growth of restrictions on international trade in the last half-century,
    6. the corporation in America prior to 1850,
    7. prosperity-depression cycles in agriculture and in industry—comparative chronology and characteristics in any fifty-year period,
    8. the development of banking during the nineteenth century in the United States, France, or Germany,
    9. the influence of the railroads on the American economy, 1840-1900.

 

PART II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. How do you explain the world-wide fall of the price level in the latter part of the nineteenth century?
  2. To what extent have the causes of “economic imperialism” in modern history been economic causes?
  3. Sketch the principal favorable and unfavorable effects of the rise and spread of the factory system on the welfare of “the toiling masses.”
  4. Explain the principal economic consequences for Germany of the last world war and the Versailles Treaty.
  5. Outline the systems of land tenure in England and France in the nineteenth century and their effects on the development of agriculture in those countries.
  6. Has the Industrial Revolution ended? If so, when did it end?
  7. Explain the monetary events and theories of England’s “restriction period,” and their effects on later English legislation and monetary policy.
  8. Discuss the development of one of the following industries in Europe between 1870 and 1914 and its effects on European economic history: electricity, oil, chemicals.
  9. Discuss the economic causes and effects of the high rate of population growth that characterized the nineteenth century.
  10. “In the farm problem of the twentieth century the United States government is reaping both what it sowed and what it did not sow in its land policy of the preceding century.”
  11. What were the principal economic activities in the different sections of this country at that time and the changes in it during the next half-century.
  12. What part did economic factors play in causing the Civil War in the United States?
  13. Is there any good evidence that monopoly elements in the American economy increased between 1850 and 1910?

PART III

(About one hour)

Discuss two of the following questions.

  1. “The failure of the royal government of France to balance its budget brought on the French Revolution. In the light of that experience, it is folly to think that American democracy in our time can save itself by deficit financing to provide employment.”
  2. “The great errors of economic policy in the nineteenth century were excessive political interference with relative prices and disastrous neglect of the positive responsibilities of government under a free enterprise system.”
  3. “Economic history demonstrates that tariff policy exercised no significant effect on the economic development of leading European countries in the nineteenth century.”
  4. “Liberty of contract has provided both a great stimulus to economic progress and a great deterrent to social progress.”
  5. “A casual acquaintance with the history of the nineteenth century is sufficient to dismiss the claims of those who would substitute a ‘managed’ currency for sound money.”
  6. “Those who seek to ensure a market uncontrolled either by the state or by powerful interests in the state must be theoreticians rather than historians.”
  7. “The most potent influence on industrial organization in the United States has been American inventive genius.”

 

May 10, 1939.

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.