Month: April 2017

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for Taxation Course. Taussig, 1898

 

 

Economics in the Rear-View Mirror already has a posting of the list of readings by topic for Frank W. Taussig’s course at Harvard on taxation from the first term of 1897-98. He had taken over the course from Professor Charles Dunbar in the previous academic year. The examination questions for the final examination in the course were transcribed from a printed  copy of the exam that was pasted in Taussig’s scrap book that includes, it would appear, the old examinations for all of his Harvard courses.

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Final Examination
The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with Special Reference to Local Taxation in the United States
Professor Frank W. Taussig

1897-98
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 71

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Give and answer, however brief, to each question]

  1. Consider which of the following combinations, if any, bring about “double taxation”: (1) the impôt sur la propriété batie and the personelle-mobilière, in France; (2) local rates and schedule A of the income tax, in Great Britain; (3) the taxation of mortgaged property and of mortgages, as commonly provided for in American States.
  2. It has been said that the taxation of merchants’ stock in trade in Massachusetts, by assessors’ estimate, if effect proceeds in a somewhat similar fashion to that of the French impôt des patentes and of the Prussian business tax. Why? or why not?
  3. Are there good reasons for taxing funded incomes at a higher rate than unfunded?
  4. It has recently been proposed in Great Britain to impose a general tax on property, based on the income tax returns, and levied at the rate of (say) five per cent. on the income derived from the property; reducing at the same time the income tax to one-half its present rate. Point out what important changes in the British tax system would result; consider what examples in other countries may have suggested the proposal: and give an opinion as to its expediency.
  5. What do you conceive to be the “compensatory theory” in regard to progressive taxation?
  6. What reasoning pertinent in regard to the principle of progression in taxation is also pertinent in regard to taxes on successions? in regard to the single tax?
  7. As between owner and occupier of real estate who is responsible for local rates in England? for local taxes in the United States? Do you believe that the differences have important consequences in the incidence of these taxes?
  8. Consider points of resemblance, points of difference, in the modes in which the States of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania tax (1) domestic corporations (2) the securities issued by foreign corporations.
  9. What grounds are there in favor, what against, the imposition of income taxes by the several States?

 

Mid-Year. 1898.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers in economics 1882-1935, Prof. F. W. Taussig. Scrapbook. (HUC 7882), p. 61.

Image Source: Frank W. Taussig in Harvard Class Album 1900.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Recent Economic History, Final Exam. 1935

 

 

The course outline and readings for the two-semester graduate course on recent economic history taught at Harvard by Edwin Francis Gay were posted earlier. We can now add the questions from the final examination given at the end of the Spring term.

This is thus far the most recent examination I’ve seen that has matter-of-factly given a quotation in a foreign language.  Exams for Young’s course on modern economic theories taught at Harvard in the mid-1920s sometimes had quotations in French and German.

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Final Examination
Recent Economic History
Professor Edwin Francis Gay

1934-35
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 23

Write an essay (not more than half your time) discussing one of the quotations or topics in this paper, and comment concisely on three others.

  1. “It is believed that, had it not been for the free-trade policy of Great Britain, the manufacturing system of America would at the present time have been much more extensive than it is.” (Ellison, 1858.)
    “There is some truth in the view of the cynical British exporter who thanked God for the American tariff, but for which American manufacturers would have driven him out of the world markets.” (London “Economist,” 1912.)
    “In my belief, both Free Trade of the laissez-faire type and Protection of the predatory type are policies of Empire, and both make for War.” (H. J. Mackinder, 1919.)
    Do you find any confirmation for these views in your reading of American tariff history? Illustrate from the cotton or iron industry.
  2. “On voit apparaître chaque jour davantage tout ce que l’Angleterre, depuis cent ans, devait à des circonstances que les contemporains avaient cru permanentes et qui n’étaient que passagères.
    L’hégémonie économique anglaise coïncide dans l’histoire avec le règne de la machine à vapeur; la période victorienne, apogée de prospérité et de puissance, évolue tout entière sous le signe du charbon….C’est ainsi qu’a pu s’édifier, sur la base étroite d’un territoire plus que médiocre, cette paradoxale superstructure manufacturière, e parallèlement s’épanouir cette population aujourd’hui trop dense, si dangereusement dépendante, pour sa subsistance, des produits importés….
    Dans ces conditions, le jeu parfaitement agencé de la doctrine libre-échangiste paraissait avoir été conçu tout exprès pour l’Angleterre, par les soins d’une Providence attentive et partiale.” (Siegfried, 1931.)
  3. The National Banking system is “not only a perfectly safe system of banking, but it is one that is eminently adapted to our political institutions.” (Hugh McCulloch, 1863.)
    “American banking has not yet distinguished between solvency after an interval, and readiness to meet demands at once and without question…. At present the characteristics of the American business man seem to fit him to do most things better than banking.” (Harley Withers, 1909.)
    “Everybody will agree to-day that it would be difficult to imagine a banking system more cruel and inefficient that that prevailing in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century—a system which, instead of scientifically regulating the flow of credit and money so as to secure the greatest possible stability, was designed automatically to produce instability.” (Paul Warburg, 1930.)
  4. “The technological revolution of the last hundred years furnishes the ultimate explanation of agricultural progress and of agrarian discontent both in Europe and America.” (ca. 1925)
    “Though the mechanization of industrial processes is almost universal, the great majority of farmers throughout the world are content with the simple instruments used by their forefathers.” (“World Agriculture,” 1932.)
    “The significant fact is that the periods of prosperity and the great depressions in agriculture have coincided with periods of monetary expansion and monetary contraction. Though other factors must not be ignored, the agricultural history of the last hundred years shows that favorable monetary conditions are essential to recovery.” (“World Agriculture,” 1932.)
  5. “The Merchant Marine of the United States is not a burden upon the tax-payer’s back, but an economy of the first water, keeping millions in the country, giving employment to thousands of persons, aiding in the development of foreign markets and backing up the nation’s forces in any contingency that may arise.” (Senator Royal S. Copeland, 1934.)
    “Our own vessels carry only about 40 per cent of our foreign trade. We are dependent on our competitors to carry 60 per cent of our trade to market. Of course, the result is that they help themselves and hamper us. Parity in merchant ships is only less important than parity in warships. We ought to make the necessary sacrifices to secure it.” (Calvin Coolidge, 1930.)
  6. D. H. Robertson, writing in 1923, concerning the American Railroad Act of 1920 and the increased powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, says:
    “The home of free enterprise has furnished us with experiments in positive State control on a scale which finds no parallel outside Communist Russia.”
    Louis D. Brandeis in 1912 wrote: “The success of the Interstate Commerce Commission has been invoked as an argument in favor of licensing and regulating monopoly.” This argument, he held, was not valid. Do you agree? Why or why not?
  7. In a period when traditional standards have broken down and when the legal system is supported by laissez-faire theory, the movement toward industrial combination is “a remorseless sort of profit-seeking.” (M. W. Watkins, 1928.)
    “The only argument that has been seriously advanced in favor of private monopoly is that competition involves waste, while the monopoly prevents waste and leads to efficiency. This argument is essentially unsound. The wastes of competition are negligible. The economies of monopoly are superficial and delusive. The efficiency of monopoly is at the best temporary.” (L. D. Brandeis, in Harper’s Weekly, 1913.)
    “Our evidence goes to show that most of the Trusts and Cartels have been, in their origin at any rate, defensive movements.” (D. H. MacGregor, 1912.)
    Industrial combinations must be recognized as “steps in the greater efficiency, the increased economy, and the better organization of industry.” (Minority Report of the Parliamentary Committee on Trusts, 1918.)
  8. Write on the topic which, in your reading for this course, has most interested you.

Final. [May or June] 1935.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers—Finals, 1935 (HUC 7000.28, 77 of 284).

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay in Harvard Class Album 1934.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Undergraduate Public Finance Final Exam. H. H. Burbank, 1936

 

Sixty-five Harvard undergraduates were registered in the public finance course taught by department chair, Harold Hitchings Burbank, in the Spring semester of 1935-36. Again thanks to the Harvard archives of final examinations, I am able to pair the exam below to the course outline for public finance posted earlier. The 1907 Theodore Roosevelt quote in Q. 5 regarding the economic consequences of the taxation of large vs small fortunes (no expected impact on “thrift or industry” for the large fortunes) is interesting in light of current U.S. debate.

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Final Examination
Public Finance
Professor Harold Hitchings Burbank

1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 52

  1. (One hour.) “Public Services require a provision both of goods and human services, and the mechanism by which these are transferred from private enterprise to the public service must in its essence be by a form of taxation…there are two methods by which this transfer of goods and services from private to public use can be obtained, the direct and indirect method, and it is curious that we have such a tendency to insist on the direct method, with its crudities, complications and inequities. It would be both simple and practical to abolish every tax in Great Britain, substituting therefor a simple sales tax on every description of article…such a policy would result in an economy of administration far in excess of anything conceivable within the limits of the existing financial system.” C. M. Grieve in Warning Democracy.
    Consider the merits and defects of the proposal as applied to either England or the United States or both. In what respects does it agree with, in what respects does it differ from your own conception of a sound tax system? Consider either central or local finances or both.
  2. (One-half hour.) Discuss the merits and defects of the general property tax. If defects exist, what remedies would you recommend?
  3. (One-half hour.) Consider the incidence of one or two of the following:
    1. the property tax as applied to rented houses,
    2. the property tax as applied to land,
    3. the tariff,
    4. a state tax on personal incomes,
    5. a retail sales tax such as that enacted in the City of New York,
    6. the corporate income tax.
  4. (One-half hour.) “The essential function of the public finance is to operate as a governor, a stabilizing agent, in the business cycle. This means specifically the application of an adequate program of public works during a period of acute industrial distress.”
    Do you agree? What criteria can you suggest for the management of those governmental expenditures which are in the nature of capital outlays?
  5. (One-half hour.) On one of the following:
    1. “A heavy progressive tax upon a very large fortune is in no way such a tax upon thrift or industry as a like tax would be on a small fortune…And as an incident to its function of revenue raising, such a tax would help to preserve a measurable equality of opportunity for the people of the generations growing to manhood.” Theodore Roosevelt in a Presidential Message in 1907.
      Consider this quotation in the light of your reading of the Colwyn Report.
    2. Discuss the effect of the World War upon the finances of our federal government.
    3. Write a critical review of an approved reading period assignment. (Other than Dewey’s Financial History, or the Colwyn Report.)

Final. [May or June] 1936.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers—Finals, 1936 (HUC 7000.28, 78 of 284).

Image Source: Harold Hitchings Burbank in Harvard Class Album 1934.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for “The Corporation and its Regulation”, 1935

 

 

While the Harvard archives collection of printed final examinations has a few serious gaps and is sometimes incomplete (especially with respect to the mid-year exams for year-long courses), it is truly a great resource, especially when the exams get paired to the corresponding syllabus/reading-list found elsewhere in the archives. I’m am now roughly a third of the way in matching exams to course syllabi/reading-lists that I have already posted. Once I catch up, I’ll be posting the combinations regularly from thereon out.

Today takes us back to the extremely popular (in the mid-1930s) Harvard course co-taught by Messrs. Crum, Mason, and Chamberlin on the corporation and its regulation. It is interesting to note that Henry Simons’ pamphlet “A Positive Program for Laissez-Faire” (1934) while not be included in the reading list was important enough to account for 50% of the examination (Q. 1) below. 

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Final Examination
The Corporation and its Regulation

Professors William Leonard Crum, Edward Sagendorph Mason, and Edward Hastings Chamberlin

1934-35
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 4a1

1. Note: Allow about an hour and a half for this question. Discuss any two of the following proposals:

A recently published programme for a liberal economic policy proposes in part:

  1. That no corporation which engages in the manufacture or merchandising of commodities or services shall own any securities of any other such corporation.
  2. That corporations may issue securities only in a small number of simple forms prescribed by law, and that no single corporation may employ more than two (or three) of the different forms.
  3. That investment corporations (including holding companies) shall hold stock in operating companies without voting rights, and shall be prohibited from exercising influence over such companies with respect to management.

2. Write on any three of the following:

  1. “The Securities Act is merely an attempt to make the corporation lawyer and financier the scapegoats of the depression.” Discuss.
  2. “It is not possible in a modern corporation to discover who performs the entrepreneurial function, nor to apply to a modern corporation any theory of profits based on the assumption that individual proprietorships and partnerships are the typical forms of business enterprise.” Discuss.
  3. Distinguish between earned and capital surplus. What is the importance of the distinction? In what various ways may a capital surplus arise? Discuss the declaration of dividends out of surplus.
  4. “One of the largest textile mills in the United States found itself in 1932 with $2,000,000 cash, no bonds, and hardly any current obligations. Its stock was quoted at $30 a share, though the corporation had nearly $35 in net quick assets. Accordingly, it purchased some of its own shares. Obviously, by whatever course of reasoning we proceed, this was of advantage not only to the corporation, because it reduced the number of shares upon which it must pay dividends in order to maintain its investment credit, but also to the great body of stockholders, because it increased the available equity of each share. We may add that it was of advantage to the individual shareholder who was forced to sell his shares, in that it increased the number of purchasers.” Discuss.

 

Final. [February] 1935.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers—Finals, 1935 (HUC 7000.28, 77 of 284).

Image Source: Crum, Mason and Chamberlin from Harvard Album 1934.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Examinations for Graduate Economic Theory. Chamberlin, 1948

 

From the Harvard archives I have transcribed the final examinations for the both semesters of a two-semester course in graduate economic theory taught in 1947-48 by Edward H. Chamberlin. The syllabus/reading-list for that course was transcribed in an earlier posting.

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Enrollments

[Economics] 101a. Professor Chamberlin—Economic Theory, I (F).

Total 84: of which 32 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 4 Junior, 17 Public Administration, 12 Radcliffe, 8 Others.

[Economics] 101b. Professor Chamberlin—Economic Theory, I (S).

Total 88: of which 37 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 1 Junior, 21 Public Administration, 8 Radcliffe, 11 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1947-48, p. 90.

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Final Examination
Economic Theory I
Professor Edward H. Chamberlin

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 101a

Write on the first question (one hour) and any four of the others (1/2 hour each). (The first question will receive double weight).

  1. (one hour) The Marshallian analysis of monopoly required only the demand curve for the monopolist’s product, and the cost curve for the monopolist’s production, in order to determine the price-output combination which would make profits a maximum for the firm. In what respects does monopolistic competition theory replace or supplement the earlier analysis? Was the earlier analysis logically wrong, incomplete, or both?
  2. (1/2 hour) Mill gave great importance to the category of constant cost in his theory of value. More recently, as a result of the Marshallian analysis, some have concluded that constant cost is of no importance whatever, whereas others would retain it as a major category. Discuss the issues involved and give your own conclusion.
  3. (1/2 hour) Suppose a firm already to possess a certain plant, and to contemplate its expansion. Using a diagram, distinguish between, and relate to each other, the following six curves:
    1. The average and marginal cost curves for the original plant.
    2. The average and marginal cost curves which would be relevant to deciding on the expansion policy.
    3. The average and marginal cost curves after the expansion has taken place.

Explain the most significant principles involved in this analysis.

  1. (1/2 hour) Explain Marshall’s concept of “quasi-rent,” distinguishing it from the concept of “rent.” Explain the analytic use to which Marshall puts the concept, and give an illustration (preferably one of your own).
  2. (1/2 hour) A production surface may be regarded as a hill which may be “sliced” in various directions. Draw a diagram, or “indifference map,” which shows the following “slices,” all passing through the same point:
    1. Constant product
    2. Constant outlay
    3. Constant proportions of factors
    4. One of the two factors constant.

Show also (5) a “scale line” passing through this same point.
Explain in each case the meaning of the curve you have drawn.
What is the relation of this diagram to the cost curve analysis?

  1. (1/2 hour) “There is no use discussing whether or not we measure utility. The alternative to measurement is chaos, and since markets are not chaotic, there must be measurement.” Discuss the issues involved in this quotation and in measuring utility generally. To what extent are they solved by the use of indifference curves instead of demand curves?
  2. (1/2 hour) What is the essential feature of oligopoly which makes the behavior of an oligopolistic firm so intractable to ordinary analysis? Indicate at least one technique whereby the problem of price determination under oligopoly (or, in the special case of two: duopoly) has been reduced to manageable proportions and some conclusion reached. Criticize this technique and the conclusion.

Final. January, 1948.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. HUC 7000.28, Box 15 of 284. Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. January, 1948.

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Final Examination
Economic Theory I
Professor Edward H. Chamberlin

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 101b

Please write on the cover of your bluebook the numbers of the questions you have answered, in the order in which they appear in the book.

Part I

Answer both questions, allowing 45 minutes each.

  1. Discuss any three specific problems involved in defining the marginal product of a factor of production. You may discuss particular factors, as well as the general problem.
  2. Discuss the major issues in “welfare economics” with respect to any three of the following subjects:
    1. The significance of “perfect competition” in welfare economics
    2. The production and exchange conditions for maximum economic welfare
    3. Equality of incomes
    4. Interpersonal comparisons
    5. Elements of monopoly
    6. Economic vs. non-economic welfare

Part II

Answer any three questions, allowing 30 minutes each.

  1. “Interest is a payment necessary to induce people to give up part of their current income to make capital formation possible. In a static state no capital formation takes place; therefore the interest rate in a static state would be zero.” Discuss.
  2. Outline a theory of profits taking into account all the factors which in your opinion influence both total profits and the earnings of particular Define your terms.
  3. Explain and contrast either Ricardian or Marshallian rent with Robinsonian rent. What is your own view on the main issues involved?
  4. Assume that trade unions consider the demand for the labor of their members in determining their wage objectives. Suppose a number of craft unions in an industry (say, the building industry) to be amalgamated into a single union. How would you expect this amalgamation to affect their wage objectives? (Do not discuss the question of bargaining strength).
  5. Discuss the equilibrium of the firm under conditions such that selling outlays are profitable.

 

Final. May, 1948.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. HUC 7000.28, Box 15 of 284. Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. May, 1948.

Image Source: Edward H. Chamberlin in Harvard Class Album 1946.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam for Charles Bullock’s Public Finance, 1916

 

From the Harvard archive’s collection of final examinations I have transcribed the final examination for Charles J. Bullock’s Public Finance Course from June 1916. The course readings were transcribed for an earlier posting. A brief note on Bullock is found over at The History of Economic Thought website.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 8. Professor Bullock—Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

Total 60: of which 27 Graduates, 28 Seniors, 5 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1915-16, p. 60.

_____________________________

 

Final Examination
Public Finance
Professor Charles Jesse Bullock

1915-16
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 5

  1. Trace historically the position occupied by the customs revenue in the finances of the United States. What principles should be observed in establishing a system of customs duties? Discuss the incidence of these duties.
  2. To what extent and for what reasons has the working of the general property tax in Switzerland been different from the working of the same tax in the United States?
  3. Discuss briefly and concisely the characteristic features of three of the following: (a) The impôt-personnel mobilier; (b) The French business tax; (c) The Prussian business tax; (d) inheritance taxes in the United States.
  4. Explain and discuss critically the methods employed in the taxation of incomes in England and in Prussia.
  5. (a) What are the different theories regarding the best method of apportioning taxes?
    (b) Distinguish between “funded” and “unfunded” incomes. On what grounds can the heavier taxation of funded incomes be urged?
  6. What principles should govern the prices charged for the services of public commercial undertakings?
  7. Enumerate and discuss critically all the maxims, or canons, of taxation, with which you are familiar.
  8. State either the case for or the case against the single tax.

Final. 1916.

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1916. (HUC 7000.28, 58 of 284), pp. 53-54.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1915.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Examination Questions for Carver’s Sociology, 1918

 

For new visitors to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror and as a reminder to everyone else, Sociology was not a distinct department at Harvard until the 1930s but instead was one field taught within the economics department.

Today’s posting provides the examination questions for the final examination in Thomas Nixon Carver’s course  “Principles of Sociology” from June, 1918. The syllabus to the course along with links to the individual items has been posted earlier. The mid-year examination questions from February, 1923 for the later academic year and the final examination questions from June, 1923 have been also posted as well.

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Course Announcement

[Economics] 8. Principles of Sociology. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr….

A study in social adaptation, both passive and active. Problems of race improvement, moral adjustment, industrial organization, and social control are considered in detail.

Source:  Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics 1917-18 published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), p. 62.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8. Professor Carver–Principles of Sociology.

Total 17: of which 7 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 2 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1917-18, p. 54.

___________________________

Final Examination June 1918

1917-18
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 8

 

1.      (a) What is meant by adaptation in general?

(b) In what sense must the individual be “fitted into” the group?

(c) What special significance attaches to the sovereign group?

(d) In what sense must the sovereign group itself be “fitted into” something larger?

2.      (a) What is the relation of variation and selection to the process of adaptation?

(b) What is meant by passive adaptation?

(c) What is meant by active adaptation?

(d) In what respects does human adaptation differ from the adaptation of plants and animals?

3.      (a) Upon what factors must a program for the improvement of the race chiefly depend? Explain?

(b) What factors are now at work toward the improvement of the race in a modern, civilized society?

(c) What factors are tending to produce deterioration?

4.     (a) Under what circumstances might the fact that a man could prosper in an industrial society prove his fitness to survive, from the standpoint of race improvement?

(b) Under what circumstances might it prove the opposite?

(c) Is economic success a sign of fitness more frequently than of unfitness? Give reasons.

5.     (a) What is meant by moral adaptation in general?

(b) What is the ultimate test of the soundness of a moral code, from the standpoint of this course?

(c) What is the relation of religion to the problem of adaptation?

6.     (a) What is the relation of economic scarcity to the conflict of human interests?

(b) What are the chief causes of economic scarcity?

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music. June, 1918. (HUC 7000.28, 60 of 284).

 

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1915.

 

 

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for Carver’s Course on Socialism and Schemes of Reform, 1920

These examination questions from Thomas Nixon Carver’s course “The Single Tax, Socialism, Anarchism” come from June 1920. The corresponding list of course readings for that year have been posted already here at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.  

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 7b 2hf. Professor Carver—The Single Tax, Socialism, Anarchism.

Total 78: of which 10 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 14 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1919-20, p. 90.

_________________________

Final Examination

1919-20
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 7b

  1. What is socialism and what are the principal methods by which its advocates are trying to bring it into existence?
  2. Discuss Marx’s theory of value comparing it with that held by modern economists.
  3. What is meant by “the iron law of wages,” how much truth is there in it, and how does it fit into the “balancing up” program?
  4. In what sense is capital productive?
  5. What is thrift and how does its practice affect wages?
  6. Discuss the question: Is interest earned?
  7. What is meant by the single tax? What would be taxed and what exempted from taxation if it were in operation?
  8. What do you regard as the least defensible forms of ownership now permitted by law? Why?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music. June, 1920. (HUC 7000.28, 62 of 284).

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1915.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examination Questions for Taussig’s Economic Theory Course, 1924

 

A rough outline with assigned readings was posted during the early days of Economics in the Rear-View Mirror for Frank W. Taussig’s year long graduate economic theory course for 1923-24. Here we add both the enrollment figures as well as the examinations for mid-year (February 1924) and the final (June 1924).

____________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig–Economic Theory.

Total 51:  of which 37 Graduates, 5 Business School, 3 Seniors, 6 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University, Report of the President of Harvard College for 1923-24, p. 107.

____________________________

1923-24
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 11
Mid-Year. 1924.

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions

  1. What bearing has the turn-over of retail shops on the question whether the reward of labor is derived from the contemporaneous product of labor?
  1. “Suppose I employ twenty men at an expense of £1000 for a year in the production of a commodity, and at the end of the year I employ twenty men again for another year, at a further expense of £1000 in finishing or perfecting the same commodity, and that I bring it to market at the end of two years, if profits be 10 per cent, my commodity must sell for [?]. Another man employs precisely the same quantity of labour, but he employs it all in the first year; he employs forty men at an expense of £2000, and at the end of the first year he sells it with 10 per cent profit, or for [?].
    Give the figures which Ricardo put into the bracketed spaces, and explain in what way he reached his figures.
    What principle does he mean to illustrate by examples of this kind?

[David Ricardo, The Principles of Political Economy & Taxation. Everyman’s Library Edition (London, 1912), p. 23.]

  1. “Thus, in a charitable institution, where the poor are set to work with the funds of benefactors, the general prices of the commodities, which are the produce of such work, will not be governed by the peculiar facilities afforded to these workmen, but by the common, usual, and natural difficulties which every other manufacturer will have to encounter. The manufacturer enjoying none of these facilities might indeed be driven altogether from the market if the supply afforded by these favoured workmen were equal to all the wants of the community; but if he continued the trade, it would be only on condition that he should derive from it the usual and general rate of profits on stock; and that could only happen when his commodity sold for a price proportioned to the quantity of labour bestowed on its production.”
    What principle was Ricardo trying to elucidate in this passage? Is his reasoning sound?

[David Ricardo, The Principles of Political Economy & Taxation. Everyman’s Library Edition (London, 1912), p. 37.]

  1. “The amount of produce raised, and therefore the position of the margin of cultivation (i. e., the margin of the profitable application of capital and labour to good and bad land alike) are both governed by the general conditions of demand and supply. They are governed on the one hand by demand; that is, by the numbers of the population who consume the produce, the intensity of their need for it, and their means of paying for it: and on the other hand by supply; that is, by the extent and fertility of the available land, and the numbers and resources of those ready to cultivate it. Thus cost of production, eagerness of demand, margin of production, and price of the produce mutually govern one another: and no circular reasoning is involved in speaking of any one as in part governed by the others.”
    Is this different from Ricardo’s doctrine on the relation between cost of production, value, rent? Is it inconsistent with Ricardo’s doctrine?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book V, Ch. X, §1 (London, 1920), p. 427.]

  1. “In short periods, that is, in periods short relatively to the time required to make and bring into full bearing improvements . . . no such direct influence on supply price is exercised by the necessity that such improvements should in the long run yield net incomes sufficient to give normal profits on their cost. And therefore when we are dealing with such periods, these incomes may be regarded as quasi-rents which depend on the price of the produce.”
    Would you regard “these incomes” as quasi-rents, in Marshall’s sense? Would you consider this a good definition of quasi-rents?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book V, Ch. X, §1 (London, 1920), p. 426.]

  1. Indicate summarily Mill’s doctrines regarding

 the law of the accumulation of capital;
the factors on which the rate of profits depends;
the tendency of profits to a minimum.

Are they consistent with each other? Which of them, if any, is in accord with Ricardo’s doctrine on profits?

  1. “An increase in the aggregate volume of production of anything will generally increase the size, and therefore the internal economics possessed by a representative firm; it will always increase the external economies to which the firm has access; and thus it will enable it to manufacture at a less proportionate cost of labour and sacrifice than before.”
    Why “generally” in the first case? Why “always” in the second? or why not in either case?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book IV, Ch. XIII, §2 (London, 1920), p. 318.]

  1. Explain

cost of production,
expenses of production,
supply price,
contemporaneous costs curve,
successive costs curve.

  1. “Among 1317 farms in one county in New York, 13 farms yielded labor incomes of over $2000. . . . Part of this difference was due to the soils being better than the average, and part was due to better management.” In the book from which this passage is taken, “labor income” is ascertained by deducting from the farm receipts (a) expenses incurred in operating the farm, (b) the interest which the farmer would have got if, instead of investing in the farm, he had lent his money at the current rate. Would you accept this definition of labor income?
    Does “economic rent” appear in the analysis? If so, where and how?

[George F. Warren, Farm Management (New York, 1913), p. 167.]

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1923-24
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 11
Final. 1924.

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions

  1. What is left, in the present stage of economic theory, of Ricardo’s doctrine of value? of wages? of profits?
  1. “When considering costs from the social point of view, when inquiring whether the cost of attaining a given result is increasing or diminishing with changing economic conditions, then we are concerned with the real costs of efforts of various qualities, and with the real cost of waiting. If the purchasing power of money in terms of effort has remained about constant, and if the rate of remuneration for waiting has remained about constant, then the money measure of costs corresponds to the real costs; but such a correspondence is never to be assumed lightly.” — Marshall.
    Consider separately the two propositions stated in these sentences, and give your opinion on them.

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book V, Ch. III, §7 (London, 1920), p. 350.]

  1. “Let us now drop the supposition that labour is so mobile as to ensure equal remuneration for equal efforts, throughout the whole of society, and let us approach much nearer to the actual conditions of life by supposing that labour is not all of one industrial grade, but of several. Let us suppose that parents always bring up their children to an occupation in their own grade; that they have a free choice within that grade, but not outside it. Lastly, let us suppose that the increase of numbers in each grade is governed by other than economic causes: as before it may be fixed, or it may be influenced by changes in custom, in moral opinion, etc.” — Marshall.
    On these suppositions, is value determined by “real costs.”? Wherein, if at all, do the suppositions differ from those made by Marshall in earlier editions?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book VI, Ch. I, §6 (London, 1920), pp. 513-4.]

  1. “While we [the Austrians] say that the value of means of production, that is of cost-goods, is determined by the value of their products, the usual way of interpreting the law is to say that the value of their products, the usual way of interpreting the law is to say that the value of the products is determined by the amount of their costs, — by the value of the means of production out of which they are made.” — Böhm-Bawerk.
    What are grounds of this conclusion? What is your own view?

[Eugen v. Böhm-Bawerk,  The Positive Theory of Capital (New York, 1891), p. 184.]

  1. “The difference between land and other durable agents is mainly one of degree; and a great part of the interest of the study of the rent of land arises from the illustration it affords of a great principle that permeates every part of economics.” — Marshall.
    Why is the difference mainly one of degree? and what is the great permeating principle?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Appendix K, §2 (London, 1920), p. 832.]

  1. State the precise point on which Böhm-Bawerk rests his contention that there is no specific productivity of capital.
  1. Böhm-Bawerk remarks that the theory put forth by him bears a certain resemblance to the wage fund doctrine of the older English school, but differs from it in essentials. Explain the resemblance; point out the difference which Böhm-Bawerk believes to be essential; and give your instructor’s comment on that point of difference.
  1. Under the regulation for administering the Excess Profits Tax, while it was levied in the United States, an individual business man liable for this tax was allowed, when declaring his profits, to deduct from his receipts not only all outlays incurred but also (a) eight per cent on his invested capital, (b) a reasonable salary for his own labor of management.
    Were these two allowances in accord with the theoretic treatment of business profits by Clark? by Marshall? by your instructor?

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. (HUC 7882) Examination papers in economics 1882-1935, Prof. F.W. Taussig.

Image Source: Frank Taussig from Harvard Class Album 1925.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examination Questions for Chamberlin’s 2nd Semester Graduate Theory, 1939

My original enthusiasm for the trove of old Harvard economics examinations was slightly dampened when I noticed that mid-year examinations (i.e. in February) for full-year courses were not apparently included in the collections I saw during my recent archival visit. Today’s posting provides only the June examination questions for the second semester of Edward H. Chamberlin’s two-semester graduate economic theory course at Harvard during the 1938-39 academic year. The course syllabus for both semesters of Economics 101 with many links to the readings was transcribed and posted earlier. Maybe someone gets lucky and finds a copy of the February, 1939 exam to add here. Better yet, maybe someone finds a copy of Chamberlin’s own or some graduate student’s notes for the course.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 101

Answer SIX questions. (Please do not depart from the order in which they are listed.) Each question will receive equal weight.

  1. What minimum conditions are necessary to discrimination? What further conditions are necessary in order to make discrimination profitable? What further conditions would be necessary in order to have discrimination in the highest (“first”) degree? Describe the general conditions of equilibrium for a discriminating monopolist. Is it possible to say whether, from the point of view of society as a whole, price discrimination is desirable or not? Why or why not?
  2. Discuss the following quotations from Hicks, individually, and in relation to each other:

“In the short run, particular men may be displaced by an increase in saving; but in the long run, the accumulation of capital is always favorable to the interests of labor.”
“Now…inventions of this type…may reduce not only the relative share of labor, but also its absolute share.”

  1. “Under a régime of private property and competitive industry, doubtless all that unionism can achieve in raising wages is to aid in bringing them to the full marginal productivity of labor.” Discuss.
  2. Are production and consumption “synchronized” by capital in a static state? Discuss fully and explain what importance (if any) you think this issue has for the theory of interest.
  3. Compare and contrast the interest theory of Boehm-Bawerk with that of either Wicksell or Indicate and defend your own view on the most important points of difference.
  4. “Jevons asks: ‘If land which has been yielding £2 per acre rent, as pasture, be ploughed up and used for raising wheat, must not the £2 per acre be debited against the production of wheat?” The answer is in the negative.” Discuss.
  5. What rôle, if any, do you assign in your own theory of profits to each of the following: (a) marginal productivity, (b) risk, (c) innovation, (d) monopoly, and (e) the separation of ownership and control in the modern corporation?
  6. Discuss critically Knight’s analysis of cumulative inequality as a factor in economic and political evolution.

Final. 1939.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations, History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1939. (HUC 7000.28) Box 4 of 284.

Image Source: Professor Edward H. Chamberlin in Harvard Class Album 1939.