Month: May 2017

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam for transportation economics. Chamberlin, 1932

 

 

Every year from 1927/28 through 1931/32, Edward Chamberlin taught a semester-long course on the economics of transportation. The course outline with reading assignments was posted earlier. This posting provides us with a short course description published in the annual announcements of the Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1929-30, followed by the final examination questions for the last time Chamberlin taught economics of transportation.

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Course Description [1929-30]

[Economics] 4a 1hf. Economics of Transportation

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Asst. Professor Chamberlin

An historical outline will be followed in turn by discussion of the problems in rates, finance, and legislation, domestic and foreign.

 

Source: Harvard University. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXVI, No. 36 (June 27, 1929). Division of History, Government, and Economics 1929-30, p. 67.

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Final Examination
Economics of Transportation
Assistant Professor Edward H. Chamberlin

1931-32
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 4a

I

(One hour)

Choose the question relating to the reading period assignment which you have read.

  1. (Waterways.) Write on the St. Lawrence Navigation and Power Project as an agency for: (a) agricultural relief; (b) the relief of traffic congestion; and (c) railway rate control. Do you think the project is economically justified?
  2. (Rates.) Explain, illustrate, and contrast the equalization and the distance principles in rate making. What new light is thrown on the problem of rates by Clark’s analysis of railway costs?
  3. (Valuation.) The “final value” of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad has been announced by the Interstate Commerce Commission since the Supreme Court decision in the St. Louis and O’Fallon case, and the Commission has begun recapture proceedings against the road. The case may soon be appealed to the Supreme Court. On purely economic grounds, what basis of valuation do you think the Commission should have adopted? How, if at all, would your answer be different, taking into account legal reasons, especially in light of the O’Fallon decision?

 

II

The Act of 1920 provided that the Interstate Commerce Commission should have the power (a) to fix minimum rates; (b) to establish just divisions of joint rates; and (c) to permit pooling. Explain briefly the importance of each of these provisions.

 

III

Is there a need for regulation of motor transport (a) to protect the public from unfair rates? (b) to protect the railroads from unfair competition? Why or why not in each case?

 

IV

Hearings are now being held in Washington on the consolidation of all the railroads in trunk line territory into four large systems. What advantages and disadvantages may accrue (a) to the individual railroads concerned, and (b) to the public, if the project is approved by the Commission and carried through?

 

V

Write briefly on TWO of the following

  1. The significance of the back haul in railroad rate making.
  2. The importance of the ratio of stocks to bonds in railroad finance.
  3. Railway consolidation policy in England.

 

Final, 1932.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, 74 of 284). Examination Papers, Finals , 1932.

Image Source: Edward H. Chamberlin from Harvard Class Album 1932.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Taussig/Schumpeter/A.Sweezy’s final examination in value and distribution theory, 1935

 

 

In an earlier posting the course readings for the topics “Urban Rent” and “Broader Aspects of Rent” were transcribed for the team-taught course at Harvard of Taussig and Schumpeter, assisted by Alan Sweezy, on theories of value and distribution (first term, 1934-35). From the final examination questions below, we can see that the reading lists from the Harvard Archives collection of course outlines is indeed incomplete for this course. It is entirely likely that other assignments were simply written on the board as needed.

When Taussig taught the course himself in 1932-33 the course description notes “Course 7b undertakes a critical examination of current theories of wages, interest, rent, and profits, particular attention being given to Marshall’s treatment. The course is carried on mainly by discussion. It is meant primarily, though not solely, for candidates for the degree with honors. Students who have attained a grade of A or B in Economics A are admitted without further inquiry. Others must secure the consent of the instructor.”

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Final Examination
Theories of Value and Distribution
Professors Taussig and Schumpeter, Dr. A. Sweezy

1934-35
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 7b1

  1. Are the earnings (rental) of an urban site used for retail trade a cause or an effect of prices of goods there sold? Are the earnings of a skilled craftsman cause or effect of the prices of the goods made (or services rendered) by him? Are the earnings of a business man?
  2. Does Marshall’s distinction between “situation value” and “site value” bear upon the problems of monopolistic competition? If so, why and how? If not, why not?
  3. “In estimating the utility of an entire supply of apples, we must distinguish between the total utility and the marginal utility of the stock. The total utility of a stock is obtained by adding the utility of each additional apple to that of its predecessor. It will accordingly grow until the point of satiety has been reached. Ten apples possess more total utility than five. The marginal utility of the stock, however, is always equal to the marginal utility of the final unit multiplied by the number of units. The marginal utility of two apples will be twice that of the second, of four apples four times that of the fourth.”
    Do you agree?
  4. “Real costs,” “money costs,” “expenses of production,” “supply price.” The same? If different, wherein?
  5. Are “profits,” as defined by

(1) Marshall
(2) Clark
(3) Schumpeter

to be reckoned among the expenses of production?

  1. Explain briefly two of the following:

(1) Difference between selling and production costs.
(2) Determination of equilibrium of the individual firm under conditions of monopoly and competition.
(3) Effect of product differentiation on price, costs, output of the individual firm, and profits.

 

Final. 1935.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, 77 of 284). Examination Papers, June, 1935.

Image Source: Harvard Class Albums: Taussig (1923), Schumpeter (1939), A. Sweezy (1929).

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam for E.E. Lincoln’s US Economic History, 1921

 

 

Edmund E. Lincoln taught a two-term economic history course at Harvard. The first term was Economics 2a, European industry and commerce in the nineteenth century [already two postings here (1) Economics 2a course outline and bibliography; (2) Economics 2a course description and final examination questions]. Below a short course description and the final examination questions for the second term course, Economics 2b, Economic History of the United States. I still need to edit the long second term bibliography to include in a later posting. But those who can’t wait can still go to the copy of the List of References in Economics 2 at archive.org. 

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Course Announcement and Description [1919-20]

[Economics] 2b 2hf. Economic History of the United States. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9.
Dr. E. E. Lincoln.

The aim will be to trace and explain the economic progress of the United States from the late colonial period to the present. The following are some of the topics that will be discussed: the development of agriculture and of the chief manufacturing industries; the change in foreign and domestic commerce; the history of transportation, including the early canal enterprises of the states, the various phases of railway building, and the establishment of public regulation of railways; the growth and decline of the merchant marine; banking and currency experiences; the history and significance of the protective tariff policy; the movement toward industrial combination.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1919-20 (2nd edition) published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XVI, No. 45 (October 30, 1919), p. 61.

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Final Examination
Economic History of the United States
Dr. E. E. Lincoln

1920-21
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 2b

Choose any eight questions.
Answer questions in order. Plan your answers carefully before writing.

  1. Justify if possible, from the economic point of view, the following statement: “The Constitution of the United States was not based solely upon high ideals or upon abstract theories, but was a practical compromise between many conflicting interests.”
  2. Trace carefully the effect of wars upon the development of the American mercantile marine from 1789 to the present time.
  3. Show a clear knowledge of at least three state banking systems before the Civil War.
  4. Give a critical summary of the Government’s policy toward railroad labor from 1888 to the present time.
  5. Discuss in outline the chief movements in the eras outlined in the following extracts from Carver’s “Principles of Rural Economics”: “The agricultural as well as the political history of the United States is divided into two eras. The first is the Colonial era lasting from 1607 to 1776. The second is the era of national development, lasting from 1776 to our own time. This era of national development, however, is divisible into four distinct periods: first, from 1776 to 1833; second, from 1833 to 1864; third, from 1864 to 1888; and fourth from 1888 to the present time.”
  6. Explain and comment upon the statement that “the Tariff Act of 1913 manifested a great change of purpose and attitude and embodied a reversal of policy unique since the Civil War.”
  7. Write brief notes upon the following topics: The Navigation Acts, The Stamp Duties, the “Crédit Mobilier,” the Plumb Plan, the Webb Act.
  8. Explain the methods of operation and the economic significance of the “Anthracite Coal Combination.”
  9. Show a clear knowledge of the development of any one industry in the United States.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, 63 of 284). Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Papers Set for Final Examinations: History, Church History, … , Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music, June, 1921. pp. 55-56.

Image Source: Edmund E. Lincoln from Harvard Class Album 1920.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. E. E. Lincoln’s final exam in European economic history, 1921

 

The final examination questions for Edmund E. Lincoln’s course on 19th century European economic history taught during the first half-year at Harvard in 1920-21 plus the description of that course from the previous year’s announcement are transcribed below. The corresponding course syllabus and ca. 30 page (!) course bibliography have been posted earlier.

In light of the current U.S. debate about “alternative facts”, question 8 of the exam is particularly interesting!

 

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Course Announcements and Description [1919-20]

[Economics] 2a 1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9.
Dr. E. E. Lincoln.

Course 2a undertakes to present the general outlines of the economic history of western Europe since the Industrial Revolution. Such topics as the following will be discussed: the economic aspects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic régime, the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the Zollverein, Cobden and free trade in England, nationalism and the recrudescence of protectionism, railways and waterways, the effects of trans-oceanic competition, the rise of industrial Germany.
Since attention will be directed in this course to those phases of the subject which are related to the economic history of the United States, it may be taken usefully before Economics 2b.

 

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1919-20 (2nd edition) published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XVI, No. 45 (October 30, 1919), p. 61.

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Final Examination
European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century
Dr. E. E. Lincoln

1920-21
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 2a1

  1. “The unsettled question in the matter of the Swiss Federal Railways is that of their financial standing.”
    Summarize Holcombe’s conclusions on this matter.
  2. “What is notable among British consolidations and associations is not their rarity or weakness so much as their unobrusiveness. There is not much display in the window, but there is a good selection inside.”
    Discuss in outline the achievements of combinations and associations of the different sorts in England.
  3. “Although the principle of most-favored-nation treatment has continued in force, the practical effect of favored-nation pledges has been limited very decidedly by increased specialization of tariff schedules.”
    Explain clearly, and indicate the significance of this statement as it bears upon modern European tariff history.
  4. Contrast the social and economic position of the English Agricultural laborer in recent years with the situation of “the peasant under the old system” (as discussed by Prothero).
  5. “Hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.” (Mill, “Principles of Political Economy” Book 4, Ch. V, 6th)
    Do you agree that this was true about 1860? State your arguments clearly.
  6. Indicate Russia’s relative position in the world’s economic resources, and summarize the causes of her retarded industrial development.
  7. Give the reasons for Germany’s rapid foreign trade development during the generation preceding the war.
  8. In Carlyle’s edition of Cromwell’s letters the following statement is made: “The Irish have never let the Fact tell its own harsh story to them. They have said always to the harsh Fact, ‘Thou art not that way, thou art this way.’” Do you agree or disagree with Carlyle so far as the economic aspects of Irish history are concerned? State your case with care.

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, 63 of 284). Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Papers Set for Final Examinations: History, Church History, … , Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music, June, 1921. pp. 54-5.

Image Source: Edmund E. Lincoln from Harvard Class Album 1920.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final examination for B. M. Anderson’s Money and Banking, 1918

 

 

Benjamin M. Anderson taught at Harvard for five years. A syllabus and enrollment figures for his 1917-18 course “Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises” have already been posted. The final examination questions for his course, a.k.a. Economics 3, (transcribed below) come from the second term of this two-term course. Perhaps we get lucky and I, or someone else, might locate the mid-year exam for this course eventually. 

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Course Announcement and Description

[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Tu., Th., at 1.30, with a third hour for sections on Friday morning, Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning.
Asst. Professor Anderson, assisted by Mr.—.

This course undertakes a theoretical, descriptive, and historical study of the main problems of money and banking. Historical and descriptive materials, drawn from the principal systems of the world, will be extensively used, but will be selected primarily with reference to their significance in the development of principles, and with reference to contemporary problems of public policy. Foreign exchange, speculation, and the money-market will be studied in some detail. Crises will be studied in both their industrial and their financial aspects.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1917-18 published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), p. 60.

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Final Examination
Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises
Assistant Professor Benjamin M. Anderson

1917-18
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 3

  1. Describe panics and crises. How may panics be controlled? How may the evils of crises be minimized?
  2. Give an account of the growth of private banks since the Civil War. What types of private banks are there? Where are the different types chiefly to be found?
  3. What evils in our monetary and banking system did the Federal Reserve Act seek to remedy? What amendments have there been to the Act? Why were these amendments made?
  4. Contrast “one-name” and “two-name” paper.
  5. Give an account of the Crisis of 1907.
  6. What theories have you met regarding bank reserves? What facts have you met by which to test these theories?
  7. What price changes have taken place during the War in the United States? How explain these price-changes?
  8. Must the value of money rest on a commodity basis?
  9. Contrast the London and the New York Stock Exchanges.
  10. Contrast the German and the English banking systems as they were before the War.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, 60 of 284). Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Papers Set for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music, June, 1918. p. 43.

Image Source: Benjamin M. Anderson in Harvard Album, 1915.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam for Persons’ Commercial Crises Course, 1924

 

 

Here we add to the previously posted course outline with links to nearly the entire reading list (!) of Professor Warren M. Persons’ course at Harvard on Commercial Crises from first semester of 1923-24. The final examination questions for that course are transcribed below along with a description for the same course a year later. 

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Course Description (1924-25)

37 1hf. Commercial Crises. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9, or by arrangement. Professor Persons.

The history, literature, and theories of economic prosperity, crises, and depression, with special reference to the problem of forecasting.
An analysis from the point of view of business cycles of the statistics of speculation, prices, production, trade, interest rates, money and banking.

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXI, No. 22 (April 30, 1924), p. 74.

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Final Examination
Commercial Crises
Professor Warren Milton Persons

1923-24
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 371

Write on three or more questions

1.     (a) What classes of fluctuations are to be found in series of economic statistics?

(b) How may the sequence in cyclical movements of economic series be established?

(c) What is the sequence of movements of stock prices, New York bank debits, pig-iron production, general commodity prices, outside bank debits, bank loans and discounts, and rates on commercial paper?

(d) Give an economic interpretation of the sequence.

2.     (a) What are the levels and directions of movement of commodity prices, manufacturing output, stock prices, and money rates:

During the months immediately preceding an economic crisis?
After the culmination of commodity prices?
During business revival and prosperity?

(b) Discuss the ways, means, and limitations of forecasting general business conditions.

3. State the fact and discuss the significance with reference to business cycles of the following:

(a) The correlation between the output and prices of manufactured goods;

(b) The correlation between the production and prices of agricultural goods;

(c) Differences in the violence of fluctuation of the output of producers’ and consumers’ goods, transportation of goods, merchandising, and consumption of goods;

(d) Differences in the violence of fluctuations of various classes of commodity prices.

4. Discuss the following:

(a) The periodicity of business cycles.

(b) Are crises and depressions international?

(c) Are business cycles “self-generating”?

(d) Is there a “typical” cycle?

5.    (a) Classify according to any scheme you please the theories of Veblen, Hobson, Aftalion, Bouniatian, Hawtrey, Robertson, Mitchell, Moore, and others.

(b) Discuss your classification.

(c) Outline and criticize the theory of any one of these writers.

6.     Give and discuss in full a program for the stabilization of industry and prices.

 

Final. 1922.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, 66 of 284). Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Psychology, Social Ethics, June, 1924.

Image Source: Harvard Album, 1924.

 

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Economists Harvard

Harvard. Appointment of Leontief as Economics Instructor in 1932

 

 

Wassily Leontief was appointed in April, 1932 at Harvard for a three year appointment as instructor, beginning September 1, 1932. In light of current Rube Goldberg procedures and a Noah’s ark of bureaucratic species required to sign off at each stage of the hiring process in universities today, one wonders at this ease of instructor appointment in 1932 as reflected in the following two letters. Of course, in all fairness I should try to fish out similar appointments that were made for lesser lights endowed with stronger personal relations to the departmental and university movers-and-shakers, but visitors to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror might excuse me for oversampling at the top of the scientific significance distribution. Certainly in this case, merit mattered.

___________________________________

To President Lowell from Dean Murdock, February 23, 1932

Harvard University
Cambridge

Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Office of the Dean
20 University Hall

February 23, 1932.

Dear Mr. Lowell:

The Department of Economics is very eager to have appointed as Instructor for three years, beginning September 1 next, Mr. Wassily Leontieff. They would like to have his salary for the first year $3600, for the second, $4000, and for the third, $4400. At present they are budgeted for a member of their staff with a salary of $5,000, who would be replaced by Leontieff, so that there would be a decrease rather than an increase in the salary budget. In talking to Mr. Burbank, I have been very hesitant about encouraging him in regard to the appointment of Leontieff, since it seems to me that ordinarily, and particularly in these times, a new and untried man should come on a one-year appointment. Leontieff, however, will not consider a one-year appointment. The more I hear about him, the more I think that he is, as the Department feels, a young man of unusual brilliance and promise, and that we should miss a real opportunity if we did not appoint him now. Professor Burbank has not only got testimony about him from various people who know him, and examined his publications, but he has also had him here in Cambridge and has interviewed him. Professor Schumpeter, who is probably coming next year and who did not know that we were considering Leontieff, wrote to Professor Taussig the other day, and in his letter included a passage about Leontieff which I send you with this letter.

I realize that this sort of case creates a possibly dangerous precedent; but, on the other hand, since it involves no increase in our expenses for the next few years, and since Leontieff seems to be a thoroughly unusual person I am inclined to think that we might well take whatever risk there is involved. If you approve, perhaps you will be willing to consider this letter as my formal recommendation. If you wish to discuss the matter with me, or, if you disapprove, I hope you will let me know, since I must give Mr. Burbank some report at once, as Leontieff is considering offers elsewhere.

The following information about Mr. Leontieff has been sent to me by Professor Burbank:

“Wassily Leontieff was born in St. Petersburg in 1906, the son of a professor of Political Economy in the University of St. Petersburg. He began his university training in 1921 in the Faculty of Social Sciences in the University of Leningrad, and in 1925 received the degree of Learned Economist. For one year he remained at the University as an Instructor in Economic Theory. He then went to Berlin to continue his studies, and received the degree of Ph.D. from that university in 1928. While at Berlin he worked particularly with Professor L. von Bortkiewicz and with Professor Werner Sombart. In the fall of 1928 he was appointed a member of the research staff at the University of Kiel. After spending two years at Kiel he went to China as an adviser in the economic planning of the prospective railway system of that country. Since 1931 he has been a research associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York.”

Very truly yours,

(signed)

Kenneth B. Murdock
[Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences]

 

President A. Larence Lowell,
5 University Hall.

________________________

To Professor Taussig from Professor Schumpeter, February 6, 1932.

“Leontief has been to Harvard (i.e. on a visit here). He will, under present circumstances, hardly be reappointed at the National Bureau of Econ. Research; and I despair of getting anything for him in Germany. What about Harvard? The great argument in favor of appointing him to some teaching or research position, seems to me to be, that, whatever we think of his two papers on statistical demand and supply curves (and I not only accept some of the criticisms leveled against his method, but I also have a few of my own), yet they are so striking proofs of brilliant gifts and they have made so much impression, that his is one of those cases in which it is to the interest of a great University to have a given man on her staff and under her wings. If a man makes himself internationally known by one paper at 23 as L. did, he almost certainly will go a considerable way, and I should think it good policy for Harvard to use the present opportunity, quite apart from the fact, that I should be glad to have him near me. I am sure he would do good work, the results of which would then be associated with Harvard’s name.”

Source: Harvard Archive, President Lowell’s Papers Oct 1930—Sept. 1933. UAI.5.160. Box 301, Folder 676.

Image Source: Wassily Leontief in Harvard Class Album, 1934.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Carver’s Principles of Sociology Final Examination, 1923

The mid-year exam (February 1923) for Thomas Nixon Carver’s course “Principles of Sociology” was transcribed from the Vernon Orval Watts papers at the Hoover Institution and posted earlier in Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. Today we can add a transcription of the final examination from June 1923 that comes from the Harvard archives. The syllabus for the course as given in 1917-18 has also been transcribed. 

His autobiography, Recollections of an Unplanned Life (1949), is available on-line. Thank you hathitrust.org! Warning: Carver’s transitory importance for the Harvard economics department is all out of proportion to the utter dullness of his prose. I guess I have to read his early QJE articles that must have really tickled Taussig’s theoretical fancy. As far as the evolution of sociology goes, this creature crawling out of the swamp pool bears no visible similarity to what many of us have come to see as the sociology of the past generation.

 

_____________________________

 

Enrollment

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

Total 41: of which 12 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 7 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1922-23, p. 92.

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Final Examination
Principles of Sociology
Professor Thomas Nixon Carver

 

1922-23
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 8

  1. Do you believe that there has been any progress in the last three hundred years? Give your reasons.
  2. Discuss the relation to eugenics of crime and punishment on the one hand, and of philanthropy on the other.
  3. What economic results would you expect to follow the adoption of a sound moral code?
  4. Discuss the topic: Religion as a factor in national prosperity.
  5. Is the individual becoming more free or less free from group control (a) in religious belief, (b) in education, (c) in expressions of opinion, (d) in business contracts?
  6. Discuss Ross’s statement that “The existence of an instinct is no reason for giving it free course.”
  7. What social importance do you attach to the prolongation of infancy in the human species?
  8. Would industry be more democratic or less democratic if workmen had a vote in the management of the establishments in which they are employed Explain.
  9. What are the principal contrasts between the militant and the industrial types of society?
  10. Compare the republican and the democratic theories of representation.

 

Final. 1923.

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Social Ethics, Anthropology. June, 1923. (HUC 7000.28, 65 of 284).

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver in Harvard Class Album 1920 p. 18.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for Usher’s European Economic History, 1922

 

Returning to the curatorial work of matching final exams to postings of course syllabi/reading lists for economics at Harvard, I have transcribed the final examination questions below that correspond to the course taught by A. P. Usher “European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century” during the first semester of 1921-22.

 

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Final Examination
European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century
Professor Abbott Payson Usher

1921-22
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 2a1

  1. What problems were created by the Industrial Revolution? To what extent have they been solved?
  2. Compare and give a critical estimate of the ways in which England and Denmark attempted to deal with the problems of the reform of land tenures, field systems, and rural organization?
  3. What were the contributions of Sir Robert Peel and Richard Cobden: (a) to the repeal of the Corn Laws? (b) to the general establishment of the Free Trade policy?
  4. What was meant about 1836 by the phrase “the railway is by nature a monopoly”?
    What was the general policy of the English government on the issue of monopoly of railway facilities? How did this policy affect the development of the railway network in England?
    Discuss the condition of the fundamental industries in England between 1870 and 1914. What are the prospects for the future!
  5. What was the role played by the German banks in industrial combinations?
  6. Comment or explain: chartism; the Newcastle coal vend; the Bradford Conditioning House; multiple tariff schedule; the basic process.

Final. 1922.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, Box 64 of 284). Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Papers Set for Final Examinations: History, Church History, … , Economics, … , Social Ethics, Education, June, 1922.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1923.

 

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Economists

Abba Lerner’s Roadtrip to Meet Trotsky, 1938

 

 

In August 1938 at age 34 Abba Lerner took his legendary road-trip from Colorado Springs to Mexico City and then back to Chicago where he wrote a slightly more than three page travel letter that includes a description of his two “lengthy interviews” with Leon Trotsky.

The typescript I found in Lerner’s papers at the Library of Congress was formatted as presumably a round-robin letter with a temporary return address. I limit myself to the economic content–the impressions and adventures on the road must wait. 

It turns out that a woman graduate student from Chicago who was a co-driver on the road-trip was later to receive an acknowledgment in a footnote to a famous paper written by my dissertation adviser, Evsey Domar. (I score that three degrees of separation between Leon Trotsky and the curator of Economics in the Rear-View Mirror!)

A tip of the hat to Olav Bjerkholt for his helpful comment to this posting:  at the 4th Annual Research Conference on Economics and Statistics of the Cowles Commission at Colorado Springs, July 20, 1938 there is a wonderful group picture where Abba Lerner (wearing his legendary sandals) is to be seen less than two weeks before heading out on his road-trip to Mexico City.

In August 1944 the sociologist Daniel Bell and Abba Lerner exchanged two letters in which Lerner, while considering himself a marxist, defends the elements of human psychology introduced by Keynes into his macroeconomic model. Interestingly, Daniel Bell saw where the “confidence fairy” fits into the Keynesian model.

_______________________

Excerpts from Lerner’s letter

c/o Oskar Lange
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

August 31, 1938

I left Colorado Springs with Alice on August 2nd or 3rd for Mexico…

…We spent ten days in and around Mexico City. Had two lengthy interviews with Trotsky in which we discussed Dialectics, the Syllogism, the French Turn and the possible significance of work on the economics of socialism and the use of the price mechanism. Trotsky is very good-looking, appeared to be in very good health, and is a most charming and tolerant person in discussion. He uses the word Dialectical of any argument as I would use the word sensible, or adequate or legitimate. He is not guilty of any of the false or superstitious uses of the concept on which I tested him. He appears to be ignorant of modern symbolic logic and regard [sic] my interpretation of the syllogism as a sophistication which the Aristotelian concept could not bear. He was extremely witty. My insistence on the universal validity of the Syllogism reminded him of the first sentence of the Gospel of St. John, “In the beginning was Logos”, and my explanation that the law of contradiction was merely an agreement among sensible people not to use the same symbol for contradictory propositions reminded him of the fiction of the historical social contract. He immediately recognized my interest in price mechanisms in a socialist society as a symptom of my undialectical thinking, but was sufficiently impressed with some arguments I put forward on this and other subjects to grant that they were quite dialectical. Finally he declared that although skeptical he would read some of my articles on socialist policy since there might be something to them. He seemed to be particularly moved when I said that the chief value of a price system is to provide some principles in place of the elaboration of arbitrary precedents and thereby to lessen the importance of the bureaucracy and the danger of their development into a beaurocratic [sic] caste. I am not very hopeful of converting him on this subject but I shall continue to try – using Lange’s book. I enjoyed the discussions immensely. Alice [Lerner’s first wife, Alice Sendak (divorced May 1958)] says I was in good form and Mary [Mary Wise (Smelker), a research student from Northwestern University met by Abba Lerner at the Cowles Commission meetings at Colorado Springs to help with the driving since Alice did not know how to drive] considered my argument to be less witty than Trotsky’s but more cogent. However she agreed with me on the matters in the first place – except for the matter of the French Turn of which, as she says, she is a living example won from the S. P. in Chicago.

We also had a series of discussions with some minor Trotskyists, devotees, secretaries and guards of the Old Man, Joe Hanson, Sarah and some others. These were were [sic] much more dogmatic and difficult to argue with than the Old Man himself.

…Another interesting man we met was Fritz Bach, an economist and sort of new dealer adviser to the Government. We had been trying to get in touch with him for a long time and finally we woke him up early in the morning after a most adventurous search into the suburbs where the pavements were all pulled up and we had to go through great mud holes, some of the mud getting onto my shirt collar. Bach then had lunch with us and with Josue Saenz and economist (research student) who is studying in London. Lunch lasted from 1 till 5 with Bach speaking most of the time about Mexican Economics and occasionally about Mexican Politics. His most wonderful story is about Manuilsky who came up to Mexico a number of years ago to instruct the C. P. on how and when to make the revolution. When he had been in the country three weeks he saw a servant maid in Rivera’s house and asked how she came to look so dark. When told she was Indian he expressed surprise that there were still any Indians in Mexico.

…Here [Chicago] I settle down to write this letter, glad to stop travelling for a bit and itching to get some work done, interrupted every few minutes by Lange who brings some new member of the department to be introduced to me, impressing on me the conviction that I am going to have a grand time here.

Source:  Library of Congress, Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 25, Folder 3 (1937-39).

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WHO’S WHO

Mary Wise Smelker born 18 March 1914 in Chicago, died 23 February 2000 in Colorado.

In his famous paper Evsey Domar “Capital Expansion, Rate of Growth, and Employment” Econometrica, Vol. 14, No. 2 (April, 1946) mentions her. In the first footnote to the paper he thanks the fellow members of the “Little Seminar” that included among others Paul Baran, James S. Duesenberry, Lloyd A. Metzler, Richard A. Musgrave, Melvin W. Reder and Tiber de Scitovszky as well as Mary Wise Smelker.

Smelker, Mary Wise, government; b. Chicago, 1914; B.S., Northwestern, 1937, M.S., 1939; stud., Chicago, 1939-40. FIELDS 2d, 4b. PUB. The Impact of Federal Direct Taxes on the Distribution of After Tax Increase, National Tax Jour., Editor, Bur. of National Affairs, 1955-59; analyst, Bur. of the Budget, 1962-63; sr. economist, Bur. of Labor Stats., 1963-67, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System since 1967. ADDRESS Bus. Conditions Section, Research Div., Bd. of Govrs. of the Federal Reserve System, Watergate Bldg., Rm. 1010, 20th and Constitution Ave., Washington, DC 20551.

Source: Handbook of the American Economic Association, Biographical Listings of Members, American Economic Review, Vol. 59, No. 6. (Jan., 1970)p. 407.

 

Fritz Bach
For Spanish readers, the book by Maneul López de la Parra, El pensamiento económico de Fritz Bach, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Economía, 2005.

 

Josué Sáenz
According to Sarah L. Babb in her Managing Mexico: Economists from Nationalism to Neoliberalism (Princeton University Press, 2001, p. 83), Josué Sáenz received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in the 1930s and became the director of the Department of Credit of the Finance Ministry in 1946.

 

Dimitri Manuilsky (1883-1959
Head of Comintern from 1929 to 1934. He was later the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco (1945) and served as the foreign minister of Ukraine (1944-1952).

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Image Source: Group photograph, dated 1938, from the Library of the London School of Economics with Abba Lerner seated right.