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Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Readings and Exam Questions for Graduate Money. Friedman, 1963

 

 

The reading list for Milton Friedman’s graduate money course, Economics 331, for the Winter Quarter of 1970 at the University of Chicago has been posted earlier. Here I have transcribed the (shorter) reading list from late 1963 along with the final exam questions and the take-home essay to be handed in on the day of the exam.

____________________

ECONOMICS 331—MONEY
Autumn Quarter, 1963

READING LIST

Milton Friedman

[NOTE: Readings marked with an asterisk (*) cover the essential substantive material.]

  1. Introductory Material

Milton Friedman*, The Quantity Theory, (forthcoming Encyclopaedia article)
D. H. Robertson, Money
David Hume, “Of Money,” “Of Interest,” in Essays and Treatises

  1. The Quantity Equation

Irving Fisher*, The Purchasing Power of Money (Macmillan, 1913), chaps. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8
A. C. Pigou*, “The Value of Money” in Readings in Monetary Theory [, Lutz, F. A., and Mints, L. W. (eds.)]
J. M. Keynes*, Tract on Monetary Reform (1924), chap. II; chap. III, Sec. I
Wesley C. Mitchell*, Business Cycles, The Problem and Its Setting (New York, 1927), pp. 128-39
Henry Thornton, An Enquiry into the Nature and Effect of the Paper Credit of Great Britain (1802), Library of Economics edition (Allen and Irwin, 1939), chaps. III and XI
Jacob Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade (Harpers, 1937), pp. 119-289
Alfred Marshall, Official Papers, “Evidence before the Indian Currency Committee (1889),” questions 11758-62 (pp. 267-69); “Evidence before the Gold and Silver Commission (1887-88).” questions 9629-86 (pp. 34-53); testimony to Royal Commission on The Depression of Trade and Industry (1886), answers to question 8(i), pp. 7-15

  1. The Demand for Money

Milton Friedman*, “The Quantity Theory of Money: A Restatement” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, ed., M. Friedman
______________ “The Demand for Money: Some Theoretical and Empirical Results,” Journal of Political Economy (August, 1959), pp. 327-51
H. G. Johnson*, “Monetary Theory and Policy,” American Economic Review (June, 1962), Part II
W. J. Baumol, “The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (November, 1952)
James Tobin, “The Interest Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash,” Review of Economics and Statistics (August, 1956)
__________, “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Toward Risk,” Review of Economic Studies (August, 1956), pp. 241-47
J. M. Keynes*, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, chaps. 13 and 15
J. R. Hicks*, “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Theory of Money,” Readings in Monetary Theory
Joan Robinson, “The Rate of Interest,” Econometrica, Vol. 19 (1951), reprinted as chap 1 of The Rate of Interest and Other Essays
Allan H. Meltzer, “The Demand for Money: The Evidence from the Time Series,” Journal of Political Economy (June, 1963)
[handwritten marginal note:
(Allan H. Meltzer, ) “The D. for M: A Cross Section Study of Bus Firms” Q.J.E., Aug. 1963]
Phillip Cagan*, “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation,” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, esp. pp. 25-35 and 86-91
H. A. Latane, “Cash Balances and the Interest Rate—A Pragmatic Approach,” Review of Economics and Statistics (November, 1954) and (November, 1960)
James Tobin, “Liquidity Preference and Monetary Policy,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 19 (May, 1947), 130-31
Clark Warburton, “Monetary Velocity and Monetary Policy,” and Tobin’s rejoinder, Review of Economic Statistics, XXX (November, 1948), 310-17
John V. Deaver, “The Chilean Inflation and the Demand for Money,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (The University of Chicago, Department of Economics, Winter, 1961)
Edgar Feige, “The Demand for Liquid Assets: A Temporal Cross-Section Analysis,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (The University of Chicago, Department of Economics, Spring, 1963)
George R. Morrison, “Liquidity Preferences of Commercial Banks,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (The University of Chicago, Department of Economics, Winter, 1963)

  1. The Supply of Money

Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz*, “Appendix B: Proximate Determinants of the Nominal Stock of Money,” from A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 [copies on reserve]
H. G. Johnson*, “Monetary Theory and Policy,” Section III
Phillip Cagan, “The Demand for Currency Relative to the Total Money Supply,” Journal of Political Economy (August, 1958)
A. J. Meigs, Free Reserves and the Money Supply (University of Chicago Press, 1962)
William Dewald, “Free Reserves, Total Reserves, and Monetary Control,” Journal of Political Economy (April, 1963)
Lloyd W. Mints, A History of Banking Theory, pp. 9-12, 29-35, 217-22, 236-40, 247-57, 265-87
Milton Friedman, A Program for Monetary Stability, chapter 2
Knut Wicksell, “The Influence of the Rate of Interest on Prices,” Economic Journal, 171 (June, 1907), 213-20
Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Function
A. G. Hart, “The ‘Chicago’ Plan of Banking Reform,” Readings in Monetary Theory
George Tolley, “Providing for Growth of the Money Supply,” Journal of Political Economy (December, 1957), pp. 465-85

  1. Liquidity and Financial Intermediaries

Edward Simmons, “The Relative Liquidity of Money and Other Things,” Readings in Monetary Theory
Roland N. McKean*, “Liquidity and a National Balance Sheet,” Readings in Monetary Theory
Phillip Cagan*, “Why Do We Use Money in Open Market Operations,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1958)
J. G. Gurley, “Liquidity and Financial Institutions in the Postwar Period,” Study Paper No. 14, Joint Economic Committee, January, 1960
H. Makower and J. Marschak, “Assets, Prices, and Monetary Theory,” Readings in Price Theory
J. G. Gurley and E. S. Shaw, Money in a Theory of Finance
Alvin Marty, “Gurley and Shaw on Money in a Theory of Finance,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1961)

  1. The Monetary Standard and International Monetary Arrangements

Lloyd Mints*, Monetary Policy for a Competitive Society, chaps. 4 and 5
Milton Friedman*, “Commodity Reserve Currency” and “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” Essays in Positive Economics
H. G. Johnson, International Trade and Economic Growth, chaps. 6 and 7
J. M. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform, chap. III, secs. 2, 3, 4; chaps. IV and V (*especially chap. III, sec. 2; chap. IV, sec. 2)
J. M. Keynes, “Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill,” in Essays in Persuasion
Egon Sohmen, Flexible Exchange Rates (University of Chicago Press, 1961)
“Conditions of International Monetary Equilibrium.”* Session at 1962 meeting of American Economic Association, with papers by H. G. Johnson, Richard E. Caves, and Peter B. Kenen, and Discussion by J. Marcus Fleming, Harry C. Eastman, and J. Herbert Furth, American Economic Review (May, 1963), pp. 112-46

  1. The Process of Adjustment: Inflation, Business Cycles

Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz*, “Money and Business Cycles,” Supplement to Review of Economics and Statistics (Feb., 1963), containing proceedings of Conference on Monetary Economics. Also, comments by H. Minsky, A. Okun, and C. Warburton
Clark Warburton, “The Misplaced Emphasis in Contemporary Business-Fluctuation Theory,” Readings in Monetary Theory
Friedman, “The Inflationary Gap,” in Essays in Positive Economics
Phillip Cagan, “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation,” Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money
Eugene M. Lerner, “Inflation in the Confederacy, 1861-65,” Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money
Arnold C. Harberger, “The Dynamics of Inflation in Chile,” in C. Christ, et al., Measurement in Economics (Stanford University Press, 1963)

[Handwritten note at the end of the section:
Reuben A. Kessel and Armen A. Alchian, “Effects of Inflation”, J.P.E., Dec. 1962]

____________________

ECONOMICS 331 – Autumn, 1963
M. Friedman

Problem for Reading Period

[Due on Final Exam 1:30 P.M., December 13, 1963.]]

In recent years, commercial banks have frequently complained about competition from other financial intermediaries, notably savings and loan associations, and have pressed the Reserve System to raise the maximum rate member banks are permitted to pay on time deposits.

At least one representative of savings and loan associations has argued that commercial banks are being extremely short-sighted, that they are not in any way harmed by the expansion of savings and loan associations, and are only hurting themselves by competing vigorously for time deposits and offering higher interest rates to get them. Indeed, the argument goes, the commercial banks would be wise to get out of the time deposit business altogether.

The fundamental constraint on the commercial banks, it is argued, is the total volume of reserves made available to them by the Federal Reserve System. True because of lower reserve requirements on time than on demand deposits, commercial banks can have larger total deposits if they expand the fraction which are in the form of time deposits. However, competition from financial intermediaries forces commercial banks to pay a rate of interest on time deposits that roughly matches earnings from them. And time deposits do absorb some reserves. Hence, with a given volume of reserves made available by the Fed, the expansion of time deposits reduces the aggregate amount of demand deposits, on which banks pay no interest and with respect to which they have no competitors. Each bank thinks it gets time deposits at the expense of financial intermediaries or other banks, but all banks together get them only at the expense of demand deposits.

Analyze this argument. Do so, first, on the assumption that the volume of reserves made available to commercial banks would be precisely the same whether the commercial banks did or did not offer time deposit facilities. Next, indicate whether this assumption is or is not plausible; if so, why; if not, why not and in what direction it is wrong.

____________________

ECONOMICS 331
Final Examination – Autumn 1963

M. Friedman
December 12, 1963

  1. Indicate briefly but specifically the key idea you got out of each of the following readings on the reading list.
    1. W. C. Mitchell, Business Cycles
    2. J. R. Hicks, “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Theory of Money”
    3. Phillip Cagan, “Why Do We Use Money in Open Market Operations”
    4. J. M. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform.
  2. “In the early history of our country there was a dearth of currency and specie. It was difficult to have cash on hand, especially when most of the specie was used to pay for imports.” (E. R. Taus, Central Banking Functions of the United States Treasury, 1789-1941, p. 22.)
    Discuss the economic meaning of these sentences. Do they make sense as they stand? If so explain. If not, can you suggest any interpretation of them that does make sense? In your answer, emphasize analysis, not economic history.
  3. In class, it was pointed out that (a) it is widely believed that “easy” money tends to make for low interest rates and “tight” money for high interest rates yet (b) in fact interest rates generally tend to be rising or high when the stock of money is expanding rapidly and to be falling or low when the stock of money is expanding slowly or declining, whether the comparison is made among countries at one point in time [e.g., currently, Brazil or Chile vs. the U.S.; Japan vs. Switzerland], or over time for one country [e.g., 20’s vs. 1929-33 in U.S.].
    1. Give the theoretical analysis underlying (a).
    2. Give a theoretical analysis to rationalize (b). Indicate whether this analysis is consistent with that given in (1.).
  4. Suppose U.S. Federal taxes are cut next year by an amount equal to $11 billion a year. Along strictly monetary theory lines, using as your framework the equation of exchange, analyze the effect on money income, prices, and interest rates under three alternative sets of circumstances:
    1. The cut in taxes is accompanied by an equal increase in the deficit, which is financed by increasing the stock of money at a rate of $11 billion a year more than it would otherwise have been increased.
    2. The cut in taxes is accompanied by an equal increase in the deficit, which is financed by borrowing from the general public with no effect on the stock of money.
    3. The cut in taxes is accompanied by an equal cut in expenditures, so there is no change in the deficit.

You are, of course, not expected to give quantitative answers but to indicate direction of effect and the economic parameters on which the magnitude of effect depends.

  1. Indicate the effect each of the following would have on the U.S. money supply under two alternative suppositions: A. The U.S. is on a gold standard; B. The U.S. is on a fiduciary standard with freely floating exchange rates.
    1. Increase in U.S. tariffs
    2. Increase in foreign tariffs
    3. Decline in legally required reserve ratio of commercial banks
    4. Rise in yield on productive investment and hence increase in demand for loanable funds.

 

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 77, Folder 8 “University of Chicago, Econ 331”.

Image Source:  Milton Friedman (undated) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06231, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Computing M.I.T.

M.I.T. Request for funds so Samuelson can multiply, 1941

 

 

I fondly remember the experience of having a desktop Wang calculator that could calculate logarithms when I was an intern at the Council of Economic Advisers in 1972. Hard to imagine that only three decades earlier, Paul Samuelson had to hustle to find funds to pay for access to an IBM punch card calculating machine that would multiply, multiply I say! A casual search of the internet turned up the Wikipedia article on the first IBM calculating machine that could multiply, the IBM 601. I am guessing that must be the machine in question since the IBM 602 (that could do division) was only introduced in 1946. 

Source: IBM 601 multiplying punch. By Sandstein – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.

________________

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of
Economics and Social Science

Cambridge, Mass

February 20, 1941

Mr. J. R. Killian
Room 3-208
M.I.T.

Dear Mr. Killian:

As I mentioned in our conversation of yesterday, the Department is badly in need of about $150.00 to defray expenses involved in the use of punch card computing services. The Institute’s Hollerith machine can be used for part of the work, but since this machine does not multiply we need to supplement it from the equipment available at the International Business Machine Co. The money will be required to cover the rental of machines, cost of cards and to hire a trained operator. The work arises out of research problems in business cycles in which Professor Samuelson is engaged.

Since the Department funds are at a very low ebb, I should be extremely grateful if you could charge this expense to any fund that may be available and appropriate.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Ralph E. Freeman

REF:d

 

Source:  MIT Archives. MIT. Office of The President, 1930-1958. Box 93, Folder “1940-1944. Freeman, R.E.”.

Image Source: Paul A. Samuelson, fellowship awarded 1948 .  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Categories
Chicago Economists Uncategorized

Chicago. Paul H. Douglas for Alderman campaign, 1939

 

I find it interesting to note only two male colleagues in economics, Jacob Viner and Simeon Leland, and three female colleagues overlapping with the economics department, Grace Abbott (Social Work), Mary Gilson (College of UC), and Sophonisba Breckinridge (Social Work), were among the sponsors of his campaign. Incidentally, Paul Douglas won a narrow victory over the Democratic Party candidate James Cusack in a runoff election.

I regret not having the staple undone at the University of Chicago archives to get an image of Douglas’ campaign platform.

 

February 1, 1939

To Members of the Faculty and Administrative Officers of the University of Chicago

Dear Colleagues:

In response to the insistent demands of the citizens of the Fifth Ward and of civic-minded persons in other parts of Chicago, our colleague, Paul H. Douglas, has agreed to become an independent candidate for alderman at the coming primaries. Those of us who know him intimately feel that he is unusually well qualified for the office he seeks and that he is unusually well qualified for the office he seeks and that he will not only adequately represent the people of this ward but will be an important force in the improvement of government and of the conditions of life in the city at large. He has already announced a platform, which we believe will appeal to the vital interests of this community and of all Chicago, and which will especially commend itself to the members of the University community.

Since this undertaking involves considerable personal sacrifice on the part of Professor Douglas himself and is undertaken in the public interest, we feel an obligation to support him. We therefore invite the endorsement and support in the form of personal aid and financial contributions.

If you believe, as we do, that our colleague should be supported in this campaign to the limit of our ability, we urge you to sign the enclosed pledge card and return it with whatever contribution you wish to make to Harold F. Gosnell, Faculty Exchange, University of Chicago. Checks should be made out to Joseph J. Levin, Treasurer for the Douglas campaign.

 

Donald P. Bean Mary B. Gilson
George G. Bogert Harold F. Gosnell
Percy H. Boynton Earl S. Johnson
Sophonisba P. Breckinridge Jerome G. Kerwin
Anton J. Carlson Wayne McMillen
Alfred E. Emerson Charles E. Merriam
Henry G. Gale T. V. Smith
Charles W. Gilkey Louis Wirth

 

Source:    University of Chicago Library, Department of Special Collections. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 72, Folder “Economics Department, 1937-1939”.

Categories
Chicago Columbia Economists Gender Wellesley

Chicago. Mary Barnett Gilson upon retirement, 1941

 

 

A late-starter for an academic career, Wellesley College alumna (1899) Mary Barnett Gilson attained her highest academic degree (A.M.) from Columbia at the tender age of about 49 years following a career in industrial relations.  She then spent ten years teaching economics at the University of Chicago before retiring as an assistant professor emeritus in 1942. In her exchange of letters with the president of the university, Robert M. Hutchins, that have been transcribed for this post, one reads of her frustration at not having had an opportunity to teach in her field of expertise, industrial relations, either in the business school or the Downtown College. She is also quite clear in her disappointment as not having been promoted to the rank of associate professor. She believed she had hit a gender glass-ceiling. It would be of interest to compare other non-Ph.D. faculty of the period at the University of Chicago and elsewhere who had been promoted to ranks of associate professor and higher. Still there can be little doubt that we have here an account of a woman who had encountered genuine discrimination.

Also of interest is to read “I’m very busy trying to enlighten the Mid-West and dispel some of the fog created by America First” written five days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

She eventually moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she spent the rest of her long life.

_______________

Mary Barnett Gilson, A.M. (1877-1969)
University of Chicago years

1931- 33 Instructor of Economics.
1933-34  Assistant in Economics
1934-41  Assistant Professor of Economics
1940-42 Assistant Professor of Economics in the College.
1942-     Assistant Professor Emeritus of Economics in the College.

[Apparently only taught during the second semester at Wellesley College 1942. Lecturer in Economics. Resignation and expired appointment June 1942, Wellseley College, as of June, 1942.]

_______________

Mary B. Gilson published a memoir in 1940
Papers at Wellesley College Archives

From a review of Mary Barnett Gilson, What’s Past Is Prologue. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1940.

“Her ideas and feelings about industrial problems spring from varied experience as a branch librarian in a steel district, department-store salesgirl, vocational counselor, employment manager, research worker in labor problems, and university professor.”

Source:  William M. Leiserson. Review of What’s Past is Prologue by Mary Barnett Gilson in American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 47, No. 1 (July 1941), pp. 123-124.

*  * *  *  *

Mary B. Gilson Papers in Wellesley College Archives. Records of the Class of 1899, 1898-1954: a guide. 6C.1899.   Boxes 5-20, Oversize 2-4.

Apparently some of these items are on microfilm in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina. Mary Barnett Gilson Papers, 1909-1959. Does not appear to have any University of Chicago or Wellesley College related material.

_______________

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Fellowship: 1939

GILSON, MARY BARNETT

Appointed for the preparation of a book to be entitled “Industry, Management and Labor: A record of thirty years”; tenure, twelve months from October 1, 1939.

Born: September 10, 1877, at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. 

Education:  Wellesley College, B.A., 1899; Columbia University, M.A., 1926. London School of Economics, 1935–36.

Engaged in industrial work in the fields of labor relations, employment and management, and consultant and research worker in industrial relations, 1912—.

Assistant Professor of Economics, 1931—, University of Chicago.

Publications: Unemployment Benefits in the United States (with others), 1930; Unemployment Insurance in Great Britain, 1931; Unemployment Insurance, 1932. Articles in International Labour Review, Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences.

 

Source:  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Website: Fellows/Mary Barnett Gilson.

_______________

Handwritten letter by Mary B. Gilson to President Hutchins

The University of Chicago
Department of Economics

April 17, 1941

Dear President Hutchins,

Perhaps you have been notified that my resignation will take effect at the end of this quarter. I have deeply appreciated the atmosphere of freedom at the University of Chicago and your part in preserving it.

Cordially yours,

Mary B. Gilson

*  * *  *  *

Attached slip of paper with handwritten notes:

[Secretary?:] She doesn’t say so but I know she wants very badly to see you.

[Hutchins?:] How do you know?

[Secretary?:] She told me so. She wants to tell you what is wrong with this institution. I think you should give her an opportunity for a parting shot.

[Hutchins?:] Will do some time. no hurry about it.–RMH

_______________

Handwritten letter by Mary B. Gilson to President Hutchins

Mary Barnett Gilson—1154 East 56thStreet—Chicago, Illinois

Nov. 24, ‘41

Dear Mr. Hutchins,

I am confident Ben Selekman would not object to my sending you his letter to me. Please destroy it when you have read it.

It is too bad that on a recent barn-storming trip of one night stands in Western Pennsylvania I left, somewhere en route, the two pamphlets Mr. Selekman sent me. You would enjoy the Atlantic Monthly reprint, I know you would! Will you have your secretary ask him for a copy or shall I?

If I had not promised that Pittsburgh men’s forum I would speak on “Strikes and Production” I can assure you I would not have chosen November 17th, 1941 A.M.[?] to speak on that subject. A lot of steel and coal and coke magnates from their Triangle offices were in my audience and when some of them as well as some labor leaders told me after my 45 minute broadcast and a subsequent 30 minute question period that I had been “fair” I breathed normally once more.

It seems queer to know I shall soon be “emeritus”. I wish I had had some opportunity to use my industrial experience more effectively here during the past ten years but either the Mid-West is no place for a woman in that field or [Carl F.] Huth and [William Homer] Spencer and Raleigh Stone et al don’t think it is! I’d like to have demonstrated I could retire from here as an emeritus associated instead of an emeritus assistant. I try to think titles don’t mean anything but people in academic circles seem to think they do!

Cordially yours,

Mary Gilson

*  * *  *  *

[handwritten note: “Please destroy”]

B. M. Selekman
24 Province Street
Boston, Mass.

November 3, 1941.

Miss Mary Gilson
Faculty Exchange #169
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

Dear Mary:

It is very kind of you to write me about the little screed in the Survey Graphic. I feel the whole thing very keenly and I am glad that you agree. I developed the same thought at somewhat greater length in the Atlantic Monthly. Apparently you missed it so I am sending you a copy as well as a reprint of another article in the Harvard Business Review which I think you will find interesting from the point of view of your own experience in labor relations.

Your piece in the current Survey Graphic touches also on the same theme that I tried to develop in the Business Review article.

Let me now tell you that I should have written you a long time ago how much I enjoyed your book. It just breathed your kindliness, human understanding and impatience with cant and stupidity.

We are both, naturally, disappointed in Hutchins. How can a person with his sensitiveness to the classic tradition fail to see the issue of humanism in the current world crisis as projected by the Nazis! I wish you could get him to read my Atlantic Monthly article, although one despairs of changing a point of view in a person as intelligent as he is. Sometimes I find the intelligent person the most closed mind. They live within a framework of thought which is so consistent to them that they do not see the complexities and subtleties in actual life about them.

I am happy to hear that you are out barnstorming in the interest of getting our mid-western neighbors to see the issues clearly in Hitler’s threat to us.

I am sorry to hear that you are to retire in another year. I should think that your first-hand-experience could have been put forth to students for a great many more years with profit to them.

It is good news, however, that you are thinking of settling in Boston or Wellesley. One is not quite so much in the hurly-burly of things as in New York. On the other hand one does get a better opportunity living in New England to think and reflect.

With affectionate greetings from both of us,

Ever yours,
[signed]
Ben

_______________

Carbon Copy of President Hutchin’s response to Gilson

November 27, 1941

Dear Miss Gilson:

Thank you for your kind note. As for Selekman, tell him that I am disappointed in him and that if he will read my speeches I will read his article.

I share your views on the anti-feminine leanings of this University and on the issue of academic rank. There is a sub-committee of the Senate Committee on University Policy now at work on a proposal to abolish academic rank in the University. If the suggestion ever gets out of the sub-committee it will be buried with a unanimous whoop in the Senate.

Come and see me some time.

Sincerely yours,

ROBERT M. HUTCHINS

Miss Mary B. Gilson
Assistant Professor of Economics
The University of Chicago

_______________

Handwritten letter by Mary B. Gilson to President Hutchins

[Handwritten note: “no ans.”]

Mary Barnett Gilson—1154 East 56thStreet—Chicago, Illinois

Dec. 2 [1941]

Dear Mr. Hutchins,

You see I always get promoted in print, and when I lecture I spend the first five minutes telling my audience that I am not “Professor” and that I haven’t even a doctorate. That’s the chief reason I’d be in favor of doing away with titles! Program chairmen just can’t bear the ignominy of bringing an assistant professor to their groups. So I always get a promotion, which lasts until I get on my feet.

I surely shall accept your invitation to drop in to see you some day. Thanks ever  so much. I’m very busy trying to enlighten the Mid-West and dispel some of the fog created by America First. I’m sure you are busy, too.

I am playing with the idea of going to Becea[?] for Christmas vacation. I have always wanted to see it and this seems a possible time.

Please give my kindest regards to your beloved father. It was a joy to have a chance to become acquainted with him the summer of 1940.

Cordially yours,

Mary Gilson

_______________

Handwritten letter by Mary B. Gilson to President Hutchins

WELLESLEY COLLEGE
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Department of Economics

Friday, February 27 [1942]

Dear Mr. Hutchins,

I was sorry indeed to come away from Chicago without saying good-bye to you. As my beloved old [Wellesley College] teacher Vida Scudder said the other day, “Even if we don’t see eye to eye on present solutions of present problems, we agree down deep on fundamental issues.” Well, whether you and I agree on fundamental and also on less fundamental issues or not, I have a lot of respect for you and I regret deeply not having had a chance to say good-bye.

President McAfee’s s.o.s. to come here and take over a group of seniors in a course in industrial relations came so precipitately that I had little time for anything but packing and storing my household goods and attending to all those chores that must be done when one moves from one town to another. It all had to be done in a week.

I am having a grand time with twenty-five of the finest girls I’ve met for a long time. We meet around a big round table, which is an answer to the prayer I sent up every little while during the past ten years when those gloomy, repelling rooms in Cobb put a long face on this school arm. I always wanted a whack at an industrial relations course “on the side” at the U. of C., in the School of Business or Downtown College) but Deans [William Homer] Spencer and [Carl F.] Huth evidently thought a woman didn’t and shouldn’t know about the mysterious field of business and industry.

Please throw away the enclosures after you have read them. They are between you and me and the gate-post.

As you said, the last time I saw you, “God bless you!”

Faithfully yours,

Mary B. Gilson

*  * *  *  * *  *

Attachment 1
Typed Letter from Mary Anderson to Mary Gilson

[Anderson, Mary. Woman at work: The autobiography of Mary Anderson as told to Mary N. Winslow. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1951. Obituary: Mary Anderson, Ex-U.S. aide, dies; Directed Women’s Bureau in Labor Department, New York Times, January 30, 1964.]

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Washington

January 30, 1942

Dear Mary,

I am very much interested in your letter and it seems to me that instead of going to Wellesley you ought to be staying at Chicago University and teaching in this new class. [Gilson added “*” in the margin with a handwritten note at the bottom of this letter]

I am going to Chicago next week to speak at the American Management Association conference at the Stevens Hotel and I have been asked by Mr. Mitchell to stop off at Chicago University and give a talk on Thursday morning the 5th. I shall do so because I want to know what they are doing, what they are teaching and what they are preparing the people for. He says they have 150 men and 50 women in the class. The training classes are now being opened up to women all over because they realize that they will have to use them and that means of course that they will have to have training for women supervisors as well as production workers. [Gilson added comment to this sentence in margin: “But Chicago is training women for white collar jobs.”]

I hope you will find your place in Wellesley more to your liking. I suppose you won’t be coming to Washington now, since the Wage and Hour Division is moving to New York. We in the Department of Labor regret that moving very much. Of course we may find it will strike us.

With much love to you,

[signed]
Mary

Miss Mary Gilson
1154 East 56thStreet
Chicago, Illinois

[Handwritten note: *I told her I had never, in the ten years at U. of C., been called into the Business School or Downtown College for any sort of a contribution I might have made toward training women for anything. I think Raleigh Stone may think I’m a “red” M.B.G.]

*  * *  *  * *  *

Attachment 2
Mary Anderson typed letter to Mary Gilson

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
WOMEN’S BUREAU
Washington

February 18, 1942

Dear Mary,

I was very glad to have your analysis of that class at Chicago University. There were 150 men and 50 women. The men were training mainly for supervisors in industry and the women were training for supervisors in offices. The attitude towards the women was the same as usual. [underlining by Gilson with marginal note “Usual white collar stuff for ladies!”] They asked me questions – if women ought to have the same wages as men, and would women get out of the factories after the men come back from the war. I told them that there was much more to it than just coming back from the war and getting the jobs back, that it was a question of converting the industries back to consumer goods and there was also the question of some of the industries that would not be working at all after the war as we would not need their material; then there is of course the cutting down on war material quite considerably, and then I said to the men, “Have you any idea how many of the men will come back from the war and how many of the men that come back will be able to take any jobs?” I said that was a very hard way of putting it but at the same time we were in a different war than we have been in and it is very difficult to tell what would happen, that after all if we are to win this war it will take men and women together, all of us, and that I think we would do well not to quibble over who is going to have the jobs after the war is over. [underlining by Gilson].

I didn’t see Mr. Mitchell, so I have no opinion of him. I thought the two women that were steering the class were very good, and earnest. One of the professors was giving a psychology lesson just before I spoke so I heard some of it, and it was a regular college psychology lesson. I don’t know what good it would do a class that will take positions in industry as supervisors. One of the women, however, (and I don’t remember their names) had a very bad attitude towards labor. She could not understand why labor wanted more money when the men that enlisted got only $21 a month. I told her that after all they got a great deal more than that, they got their clothes and their keep, which amounts to a great deal more; I didn’t think, however, they got enough fro what they were risking by any means, but that was no reason that the workers should not have a decent wage. They, too, were risking their all, and the employers in bidding on the contracts took the labor costs as well as the costs of material into consideration.

I had a grand time at the American Management Association and the training of women is now beginning. They were very much interested and they have written in for all kinds of information.

I think our work from now on will be that of seeing that women are not exploited and that labor standards are maintained.

With love to you,

[signed, “Mary”]
Mary Anderson, Director

Miss Mary Gilson
Claflin Hall
Wellesley College,
Wellesley, Mass.

_______________

Handwritten note by E.F. [Vice-President, Emery T. Filbey] attached to previous Gilson letter

Personally I would not pick either of the Marys for instruction in industrial relations unless I wanted to start a private war.

E.F.

[underneath: in a different handwriting “Nice long letter. How etc[?] we [??]  & so on.”

_______________

Carbon copy of typed letter from Hutchins to Gilson.

March 4, 1942

Dear Miss Gilson:

I could not hope for a more generous statement of good faith overlooking difference of opinion than that expressed in your letter of February 27. I cannot do better than return the sentiments with my regret that we had no opportunity to exchange them in person.

I hope that Wellesley will treat you as you would like, or in other words, that Wellesley will treat you as well as you deserve.

The enclosures you sent me lead me to believe that you and I do not disagree on fundamental issues. You and your friends are concerned about exploitation of our women and disintegration of our labor standards. I am concerned, as you are too, about exploitation of our citizens and disintegration of our democracy.

Sincerely yours,

ROBERT M. HUTCHINS

Miss Mary B. Gilson
Department of Economics
Wellesley College
Wellesley, Massachusetts

 

Source:    University of Chicago Library, Department of Special Collections. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 72, Folder “Economics Department, 1939-1943.”

Image Source:  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Website: Fellows/Mary Barnett Gilson.

 

Categories
Chicago Economics Programs

Chicago. Memo to President Hutchins from Economics Chair Millis, 1937

 

The following brief “State of the Department of Economics” memorandum written by the Harry A. Millis, the chairman of the University of Chicago’s economics department (1928-1938), was found in the files of the President Robert M. Hutchins for whose eyes the memo was clearly intended. I wonder who was the “understudy” of Henry Schultz that needed to be replaced (Theodore Otte Yntema? Argument for hiring Oskar Lange?).

______________

A MEMORANDUM ON THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

[Summer?, 1937]

Since I became chairman in 1928, the department has had a twenty-year program which it has held in mind all the while and which, with minor revisions, is, we believe, a sound one.

This program called, first of all, for a solution of the problem presented by classes in elementary economics. This work has been taken over by the College and is being done well. No problem is presented there at this time except that of appropriate rank and remuneration in the cases of a very few persons attached to the Department of Economics.

The program next called for (a) protecting ourselves where relatively strong, and (b) for filling in three important gaps – in course offerings and research – in public utilities, agricultural economics and money and banking.

The long depression has made it impossible to fill in any of these gaps. They should be filled in as soon as the finances of the University permit. From the point of view of training graduate students, work in public utilities should perhaps be provided first. One man is needed and it would be very desirable to have him trained in Law as well as in Economics and to have him divide his time between the Department and the Law School. This matter has been discussed with Dean Bigelow who appears to be favorable to the position herein stated. The need for a good man is agricultural economics is great. When it is possible to meet that specific need, a corresponding need in Sociology should be kept in mind. The need in money and banking is for an outstanding man who can play a role in Chicago, attract to the University promising students whose first interest is money and banking, and do important research work and publish the results. The need is not particularly for more or better courses. The formal courses in money and banking are fairly adequate and are unusually well taught.

For maintaining our position where we have been or are relatively strong, three things are needed. (a) Schultz must have his understudy replaced. This is imperative. (b) With the retirement of the Chairman, and excellent man must be found in Labor Economics to share the work with Douglas. The man should be a very promising young man with excellent training in and with full appreciation of Economics. (c) It is important at or before the beginning of next autumn quarter to disconnect Leland from the Tax Commission and get him back at the University on a full-time basis. This will require a salary readjustment.

With the changes noted in the immediately preceding paragraph, the Department can for several years maintain the position it has held, provided those who now constitute the staff remain at the University. However, the time is at hand when we should secure one, two, or three most promising young men, who, in a favorable environment, will ripen into the strong men needed to replace the best of the present members of the staff as they get old or sever connections with the University. These young men could share in the teaching of the “200” courses and gradually be inducted into graduate instruction. The fact is that the staff is so short that it is difficult to man the junior and senior classes on the Quadrangles. For some years, it has been impossible for the Department to assume much responsibility for offerings at University College.

Nothing has been said concerning the employment of a man who might become Chairman of the Department. I think I worry less than any one else about the chairmanship. I am confident the matter can be adequately taken care of by the present staff, at least for the time being. With replacements or additions, however, it would be appropriate to keep that matter in mind. As it is handled from year to year, it should always be understood that the appointments are annual and that an incumbent chairman has no vested interest.

Save for one case, I have said nothing concerning needed salary adjustments. The fact is that five adjustments are needed as soon as they can be made. These, however, are discussed more appropriately in connection with a budget.

H. A. Millis

 

Source:    University of Chicago Library, Department of Special Collections. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 72, Folder “Economics Department, 1937-1939”.

Image Source: Undated picture of Harry A. Millis.  University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-00875, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Columbia Regulations

Columbia. Economics Graduate Student’s Guide, 1957-58

 

The process of awarding a Ph.D. in economics is governed by rules, so every so often I add a program’s rule-book here. The following excerpt from the Graduate Student’s Guide even provides a bit of motivation and interpretation of the rules for economics graduate students at Columbia University in the mid 1950s.

Recently an exam for Gary Becker’s 1965 micro-theory course (already one of the most visited pages in the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror collection) revealed that either the rule for making no-allowance in exams for non-native English speakers  was suspended by 1965 or Gary Becker disregarded the rule, allowing non-native speakers extra time for their written examinations.

________________

Excerpt from Columbia University’s The Graduate Student’s Guide

ECONOMICS

EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Carl S. Shoup, 503 Fayerweather

Office hours:Monday and Wednesday, 10 to 10:30 and 11 to 12. Thursday, 2 to 4
Telephone Extension:2171

DEPARTMENT SECRETARY: Carolyn M. Stedman, 502 Fayerweather

Office hours:Monday through Friday, 9 to 5
Telephone Extension:849

DEPARTMENT BULLETIN BOARD: outside 502 Fayerweather

 

The following remarks supplement or amplify the description of degree requirements found in two places in the Graduate Faculties Bulletin: on pages 14-18 for the Faculty Requirements and on page 37 for the Departmental Requirements. Have these pages of theBulletin at hand when reading the statement below.

GENERAL

The Department takes the view that each graduate student having his particular intellectual interests and methods of satisfying them, flexibility in the departmental procedures intended to assist him is necessary. Hence, no system of departmental advisers has been set up. During his first registration, the student will find all members of the Department available, at hours posted on the bulletin board, for consultation on his course program. Any member of the Department may sign approval of the student’s program card. If a study of the course offerings in the Bulletindoes not give the entering student a clear enough idea of the particular member of the Department by whom he would prefer to be advised on his program, he may obtain suggestions on this score from the Academic Assistant or Professor Shoup.

In succeeding semesters the student’s developing interests and his growing acquaintance with the members of the Department should enable him to select some one or two faculty members as his chief adviser or advisers.

Although no specified courses are required for either degree, all students in the Department are advised to attend Economics 101-102, the basic course in economic theory, unless they enter the Department with an exceptional background in that subject.

 

THE MASTER’S DEGREE

Candidates are expected to study the requirements listed in the Graduate Faculties Bulletinand to plan their work in the light of both A. M. and Ph.D. requirements in case they should later decide to work toward the higher degree.

Not less than six months before he desires to receive the degree, the candidate must select his Essay subject, submit it to the appropriate member of the Department, and, after approval, list the subject with the Academic Assistant of the Department. The Essay need not be completed until after the candidate has satisfied the course requirements for the degree.

The selection of a subject of importance within the field of his interests must be made by the student, and the ability to make a proper choice will be regarded as an essential qualification for the degree.

The completed Essay must be submitted for approval not later than four weeks before the date on which copies are to be filed with the Essay and Dissertation Secretary. The candidate should not proceed beyond the preparation of his detailed program of investigation and the completion of a preliminary chapter or section without submitting his work to his supervisor. An Essay is judged by the manner of its presentation and style as well as by its contents and the employment of original material.

Another foreign language may be substituted for French or for German, with the approval of the Executive Officer, if it is particularly useful for the student’s projected research; but another Romance language may not be offered with French. Failure to pass one of the language examinations or the mathematics examination, as the case may be, before registering for more than 30 points, or failure to pass the other examination before registering for more than 45 points, will result in denial of permission to register until the deficiency is removed.

In 1957-1958 the examinations in languages and mathematics will be held on the following days: Thursday, September 19, 1957, from 10 to 12; Friday, January 17, 1958, from 2 to 4; Friday, May 2, 1958, from 2 to 4 (room numbers will be posted outside Room 502 Fayerweather). At least one week before the examination the student must notify the Academic Assistant of the Department of his intention to take it.

Two years of intensive language work in one of Columbia University’s Institutes, with a grade of B or better throughout, are accepted in lieu of passing the regular language examination. Language examinations taken at other universities are not accepted for this requirement.

Foreign students are asked to bear in mind that a command of the English language is assumed, and that English consequently cannot be accepted as a foreign language satisfying the requirement. Nor can allowance be made in any examination, oral or written, for unfamiliarity with English.

 

THE DOCTORATE

The student must satisfy the Department that he has gained a thorough knowledge of several fields of economics (and, at his option, one field outside economics), to the point where he can demonstrate command of the material in a comprehensive oral examination and can utilize his knowledge in the writing of a doctoral Dissertation. To this end, the Department does not require course examinations of the Ph.D. candidate, nor are particular courses required. Instead, the student must, in addition to meeting the language and proficiency requirements stated in the Bulletin, (a) compete a seminar paper in one of the research courses offered in the Department, and (b) prepare an outline of his dissertation topic.

In practice, the typical Ph.D. candidate does take examinations in a limited number of courses, both to test himself and to build a record on which recommendations for fellowships or employment can be based. Moreover, those doctoral candidates who wish to obtain an A.M. degree en route necessarily take examination in 21 points (seven courses). The student’s decision to earn this degree should be guided by his interests and aims, after consultation with the Executive Officer or other members of the Department. Although the Department approves of a limited amount of examination taking, it asks the doctoral candidate to keep in mind the possible disadvantages of devoting too much time to the preparation for such tests.

Before he registers for more than 45 points, and as soon as possible, the candidate should submit for the Executive Officer’s approval his tentative choice of the three subjects, from the list given in the Graduate Faculties Bulletin, to add to the three required subjects. To ascertain the requirements for obtaining the certifications of proficiency in two of the six subjects, the candidate should, during his first semester, consult those members of the staff in charge of the respective fields. Certification of proficiency is not given for economic theory or for any subject under No. 19 in the Bulletinlist. These subjects may be, and economic theory mustbe, offered only at the oral examination.

The prospective candidate may find it advisable to take Statistics 191-192 and either Economics 153-154 (Economic history of the United States), or Economics 155-156 (Economic history of Europe, 1740-1914), or Economics 151-152 (Economic history of Russia to 1917) during his first year of residence, if he wishes to obtain a certificate of proficiency in statistics, or in one of these three divisions of economic history. No more than one of the three divisions may be offered among the six subjects. The professors in charge of certifying in these divisions are: United States, Professor Goodrich; Europe, Professor Landes (in 1957-1958, Professor Hughes); Russia, Professor Florinsky.

The 6-point research-course requirement cannot be fulfilled by research courses taken in other universities or in other Departments. Students are advised to take a research course in the Department as soon as they have completed 30 points, if not before. The required paper may be written in either of the two semesters of the research course.

Some time before he plans to take the oral examination, the student should select the field in which he intends to write his Dissertation. This field should normally be one of the six chosen for proficiency and oral examination. With the assistance of a member of the Department interested in this field, the candidate should formulate a topic for his Dissertation. As soon as the topic has been approved by the staff member (henceforth the student’s sponsor), the candidate must report to the Academic Assistant the name of the sponsor and the subject of the proposed Dissertation. No change of sponsorship will be recognized unless the candidate notifies the Academic Assistant. Although the Executive Officer may authorize a joint sponsorship, the Dissertation is generally written under a single sponsor.

The candidate is expected to draft a three- or four-page memorandum outlining the proposed Dissertation, indicating also the chief sources to be used, and defending the feasibility of the project. No oral examination will be scheduled until the candidate has deposited with the Academic Assistant his project memorandum, bearing the approval of the sponsor.

Well before the time he expects to apply for the oral examination, the candidate should obtain advice on preparing for this examination from members of the Faculty in charge of the fields he is offering. The oral examination is not an examination on courses, but on subjects (fields).

The formal application for a date for the examination must be made to the Academic Assistant for approval by the Executive Officer. The application will not be received until the requirements discussed above have been met. No exceptions can be made to the rules governing the dates of scheduling the various departmental and faculty examinations.

The reference under No. 19 in the Graduate Faculties Bulletin (page 37) to “any other one subject…approved by the Executive Officer of the Department” may include a subject falling in one of the Departments under the Faculty of Political Science, or in philosophy, or psychology, or in some other discipline dealing with matters relevant to the student’s scholarly interests. A candidate proposing to offer a subject outside the Department of Economics must obtain the approval of the Executive Officer of that other Department in advance. In general, the Department encourages doctoral candidates to devote a part of their efforts to a subject outside the Department.

Candidates for the Ph.D. degree in other Departments who propose to offer a minor in economics at the oral examination must be examined on economic theory and any one other of the subjects listed under Nos. 1-19 in the Bulletin. Such candidates should consult the Executive Officer of the Department of Economics as early as possible.

Candidates in other departments offering a minor in economic history aat the oral examination will be required to show either (a) a knowledge of the economic history of two major regions, or (b) a knowledge of the economic history of one major region and of the field or fields of economics particularly relevant to the subject of the proposed Dissertation.

A few private studies are available in Butler Library for students who are writing their Dissertations in residence; application should be made to the Academic Assistant.

The doctoral candidate may find it advisable to start on a first draft of his Dissertation well before the oral examination, perhaps in one of the research courses. During the writing of his Dissertation, the candidate should not fail to keep in lose touch with his sponsor. Much time will be saved, more assistance will be obtained, and more of the intellectual stimulus that should develop from the writing of a Dissertation will be felt if the candidate remains on or close to the Columbia campus. The candidate is particularly warned against writing a Dissertation in absentia, out of touch with his sponsor, and usually in the unfounded expectation that what he considers his finished draft, suddenly deposited on the desk of the sponsor, will lead speedily to a defense examination and the award of a degree.

If the candidate leaves the campus and makes no progress on his Dissertation, he should in December of each year send an explanatory statement to his sponsor; or, alternatively, notify his sponsor that he has abandoned the project. If the candidate does not apply for an examination in defense of his Dissertation within five years from the time he passed his oral examinations, he will be regarded as having abandoned his Dissertation topic, unless he requests in writing an extension of time and receives written approval of such an extension from his sponsor and the Executive Officer.

The candidate will not be recommended by the Executive Officer for an examination in defense of the Dissertation until the candidate’s sponsor has notified the Academic Assistant that the Dissertation is in acceptable form for final typing.

 

GRADUATE ECONOMICS SOCIETY

Graduate students will enhance their efficiency in learning and their professional interests by frequent discussion among themselves. For this purpose, the Graduate Economics Society, which meets regularly in Fayerweather Lounge, will be found useful. The officers for 1957-1958 are as follows:

President:  Edwin Dean, 419 West 115thStreet, Apt. 52, New York 25.

Vice President: Paul Graeser, 517 Furnald Hall

Secretary-Treasurer: Louise Freeman, 45 East 80thStreet, New York 21.

Telephone: LEhigh 5-6375.

 

Source:  The Graduate Student’s Guide. Columbia University, Bulletin of Information. Series 57, Number 39 (September 28, 1957), pp. 114-119.

Image Source:  Butler Library, 1939. Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library blog. April 19, 2018.

Categories
Exam Questions M.I.T.

M.I.T. General exams in money and banking, 1952 and 1956

 

 

In this post we find transcriptions of three exams from the M.I.T. economics department for 1952 and 1956. The date of the second of the three is somewhat uncertain, with only a handwritten note “Spring 1956 (?)” at the top indicating the likely date. Since the question involving changes in bank balance sheets is identical with that in the September 1956 exam, it seems plausible that the dates of the second and third exams were close.

_____________________

GENERAL EXAMINATION IN MONEY AND BANKING

Monday, May 12, 1952
9:00-12:00 m.

  1. “We have arrived at a fairly deflation proof monetary framework.” What does this statement mean?
  2. Explain the gold standard as it functioned prior to World War I and discuss this standard as a practical policy for our times.
  3. Explain briefly the credit control instruments available to the federal reserve authorities and indicate how their control may be modified by political and other institutional conditions.
  4. “There must be some quantity of cash assets which would just suit each household and business firm in the economic system.” What determines this quantity? What happens when the actual cost [sic, should read “cash”] held does not match this quantity?
  5. Explain the proposal for 100 per cent money. What is the purpose of the plan and its shortcomings?
  6. Write a short exposition of what you consider to be the proper goal of monetary policy.

_____________________

General Examination in Money
[handwritten note:  “Spring 1956(?)”]

Total Time:  3 hours.

I

60 minutes

Compare the essential features, similarities and differences in so far as they relate to the setting of Central Banking policy of

(1) The Bank of England, as set up under the Bank Act of 1844;
(2) the National Banking system prior to the Federal Reserve Act;
(3) the Federal Reserve system as initially enacted, and
(4) The Federal Reserve system as amended in its present form.

Show how the essential changes in the structure of the Central Bank reflected the development of and changes in the underlying theories of Central Bank policy and of the role of money in the economy.

II

30 minutes. Answer both questions.

  1. Define what is meant by the “expansion coefficient” of the banking system. Using your definition, estimate this coefficient for the U.S. banking system. Note: In defining your coefficient, you will also have to define what you mean by “banking system”.
  2. Suppose that over a given period, the following changes are noted:
Increase in Federal Reserve Credit 1000
Decrease in Float 50
Increase in Money in Circulation 200
Increase in Commercial Bank Capital 150
Decrease in Treasury Currency outstanding 100
Increase in Currency holdings of Commercial Banks 80

What is the resulting change in member bank reserves? Assuming commercial banks to be loaned up, with a reserve ratio of 20%, what is the resulting change in money supply held by the public? Show how each of the itemized changes enters into the picture.

III

30 minutes. Write briefly on two out of the following three questions.

  1. Consider the main issues involved in U.S. experience with legislation against concentration in the field of commercial banking.
  2. Consider the main issues involved in bank examinations.
  3. What are the main fields of Federal credit policy now conducted outside the Federal Reserve system? Should they be placed under the Federal Reserve? Why or why not?

IV

30 minutes. Write on one of the following two questions.

  1. Forgetting about the politics of debt management, consider some of the essential problems of a theory of debt management, conceived as part of a broader framework of liquidity and monetary theory.
  2. Much has been said and written in recent years about the “rebirth” of monetary policy. Discuss and appraise the factors behind this development, allowing for both theoretical and policy aspects.

V

30 minutes. Write on one of the following two questions.

  1. “Looking back over the development of monetary theory, the three outstanding landmarks are Wicksell’s concept of the natural rate, Fisher’s treatment of velocity and Keynes’ concept of liquidity preference. All three are necessary parts of a complete system of monetary theory and need be considered if one wishes to understand the role of money in the economy.” Explain and discuss. Do you agree with the statement?
  2. Discuss the issues involved in the controversy between the “liquidity preference” and the “loanable funds” approach to interest theory. Do you think that the two can be reconciled? If so, how?

_____________________

GENERAL EXAMINATION IN MONEY AND BANKING

September 12, 1956

Answer any five questions.

  1. Describe and contrast the “Cambridge cash balance” approach to the “quantity theory of money” with that of Fisher. What have been the historical trends of economists’ views toward the quantity theory? Interpret and evaluate the cause behind these trends, giving the present status of that theory.
  2. Evaluate the current weapons of American monetary policy in terms of their importance and effectiveness. Illustrate by concrete experiences.
  3. “Debt management is part of fiscal policy and also of monetary policy. It involves the interrelations of asset theory with income flow theory, and can only be understood in terms of various theories of liquidity and loanable bonds.” Comment on this theme.
  4. What have been the important evolutionary changes in the American banking system and related financial institutions? Contrast with the U.K. or other countries.
  5. Synthesize the “pure-theory” aspects of capital and interest with the “monetary, effective demand, uncertainty” aspects of the problems. Resolve controversies where you can.
  6. Suppose that over a given period, the following changes are noted:
Increase in Federal Reserve Credit 1000
Decrease in Float 50
Increase in Money in Circulation 200
Increase in Commercial Bank Capital 150
Decrease in Treasury Currency outstanding 100
Increase in Currency holdings of Commercial Banks 80

What is the resulting change in member bank reserves? Assuming commercial banks to be loaned up, with a reserve ratio of 20%, what is the resulting change in money supply held by the public? Show how each of the itemized changes enters into the picture.

  1. Write a half hour essay on the interrelations of fiscal and monetary policies.

 

Source:  Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “Teaching Exams 1952, 1956”.

Image Source: M.I.T. Technology Review, March 1914.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate general examination in economics, 1953

 

In a recent series of posts Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has provided transcriptions of undergraduate comprehensive examinations in economic for Harvard (1931), Wesleyan (1931), Princeton (1929 and 1932), and Swarthmore (1931).  The general examination for Harvard (1939) was posted even earlier.

Found in John Kenneth Galbraith’s papers with his Harvard tutorial materials is the following A.B. general examination from April 29, 1953. Students had to answer five questions, having considerable room for maneuver among and within fields.

____________________

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
GENERAL EXAMINATION

(Three hours)

Please note on the front cover of your bluebook the number of each question upon which you write, in the order followed in your book, and HONORS or NON-HONORS.

PART I
(One hour)
Economic Analysis

HONORS candidates answer ONE question taken from questions 1-4.

  1. “Depressions are caused by the exhaustion of investment opportunities and the rigidity of saving.” Discuss.
  2. “Keynes’ theory may have undermined the neo-classical theory of the price level but it has left intact the neo-classical theory of relative prices.” Discuss.
  3. “The basic criteria of anti-trust policy with respect to product markets are the same whatever the competitive structure of labor markets may be.” Discuss.
  4. “Despite all the changes that have taken place in economic theory the profit motive continues to occupy the central role which it had in Ricardo’s theory.” Discuss the role of profit in (a) Ricardo, (b) neo-classical theory, (c) Schumpeter’s theory.

NON-HONORS candidates answer ONE question taken from questions 5-8.

  1. “Future historians may well write the epitaph of our civilization as follows:

From freedom and science came rapid growth and change.
From rapid growth and change came economic instability.
From instability came demands which ended growth and change.
Ending growth and change ended science and freedom.”

Discuss this alleged conflict between economic growth and measures to secure economic stability. In your answer refer to the views of some of the great economists for examples, Schumpeter and Keynes, on this problem.

  1. In explaining business cycles most economists place crucial emphasis on fluctuations in investment or capital goods.
    Discuss the determinants of investment and the manner by which these factors operate upon investment to produce fluctuations in National Income.
  2. The basic economic questions any society must somehow answer are: (1) What consumer and capital commodities shall be produced and in what quantities? (2) How shall the goods be produced, i.e., by whom and with what resources? (3) For whom are goods to be produced, i.e., how is the national product to be distributed among individuals? Outline the way in which these questions are answered in a perfectly competitive, free enterprise economy.
  3. In addition to wages, interest, and rent, economists often talk about a fourth category of income: profit. What do economists mean by this return? What are the causes of profit and its function in a capitalist system?

PART II
(Two hours)

All students are required to choose TWO of the four fields in Part II of this examination and to answer TWO questions in each selected field. Thus a total of four questions are to be answered in Part II with an allowance of a half hour per question.

A. Economic History

  1. “The very increases in the possibilities of unrestrained competition of the past seventy-five years, through developments in transport, technology, the size and organization of firms, etc.—may in themselves partly explain some of the restraints on price competition that have appeared in this century.” Discuss both the developments and their alleged effects.
  2. “In the past 150 years the United States economy has radically altered its relationship to the world economy and at intervals has been a seriously disturbing factor.” Discuss, including references to periods in the 19th as well as the 20th.century.
  3. “In spite of the waste, apparent exploitation, and graft, the railroads more than paid for themselves in terms of American economic growth.” Discuss.
  4. Why did Hamilton favor a central banking system? What was the subsequent history in the 19th century of the issue that he poses? How satisfactory, in terms of the needs of an expanding economy, were the alternatives to a centralized banking system that existed prior to 1912.

B. Money and Finance

  1. What are the relations between a country’s balance of payments and its internal monetary and fiscal policies?
  2. From a fiscal policy standpoint, what do you consider would be the best budgetary policy for the federal government to adopt in order to combat a growing deflationary trend?
    Indicate the relative advantages and disadvantages involved in the policy you propose.
    Indicate practical as well as theoretical considerations.
  3. “Classical economists tended to view the amount of taxes paid by the private sector of the economy as measuring the amount of ‘burden’ which the government imposed on the private sector.” Do you agree with this view? If you do, what is the justification for your position? If you do not, what are some possible alternative ways of measuring the “burden” of the government on the economy, and for what purposes can they be used?
  4. “Older business cycle theories emphasized fluctuation in prices while modern ones emphasize fluctuations in income.” What is the theoretical and empirical justification for this change in emphasis?
  5. What role did the Federal Reserve System play in financing the Second World War?
    Discuss the impact of this experience upon money and banking in the United States.

C. Market Organization

  1. The spread between prices paid farmers for products used as food and prices paid for these foods at retail was 55% of the consumer’s dollar spent for food in 1910-14. It was 54% in 1952. Account for the failure of this spread to increase in spite of the great increase in processing, services, and transportation sold with the food.
  2. Although price discrimination generally is regarded as being contrary to the public interest, it is expressly sanctioned in railroad rate-setting under another name: the “value-of-service” principle. What cost and market characteristic of railroads might lead you to justify the use of discriminatory pricing in their case?
  3. Bituminous coal is a “sick” industry. What are the causes of this “sickness”? What attempts have been made to impose “healthier” conditions on the industry?
  4. Various techniques are used by oligopolistic industries in attaining stable and desirable price and production conditions. Explain at least three (3) of these techniques and discuss the possible reasons for using any one over another.

D. Labor Economics

  1. What role did the courts play in labor-management relations in the latter part of the nineteenth century? How far was this situation changed subsequent to 1930?
  2. What is collective bargaining? Is it a process of communication and education leading to agreement based upon mutually accepted and recognized goals and standards, or is it a temporary truce based upon balance of power with conflicting basic objectives?
  3. Has organized labor “distorted” the wage structure and wage level of the country at the expense of the unorganized or the weakly organized and at the expense of the recipients of other functional shares?
  4. How would you handle the problem of national emergency disputes?

April 29, 1953.

 

Source:  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers, Harvard University File, 1949-1965, Box 528, Folder “Tutorial 9/15/51-9/57”.

Image Source:  Harvard Album 1946.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate economic analysis and public policy. Hansen and Slichter, 1946-47

 

While the paired Harvard graduate economic courses Economics 106a and 106b shared a common title “Economic Analysis and Public Policy”, it appears as though Alvin Hansen taught a course in macroeconomic analysis and his colleague Sumner Slichter taught a topics in public policy course (parallel play). Hansen’s course attracted 59 students while Slichter’s course had 25 enrolled students, so the two courses were hardly connected at the hip. For the first term course (Hansen) we have a detailed outline, reading list and exam questions, I could only find a rough outline (more of a course description), a very incomplete set of reading assignments, and the final exam for the second term course (Slichter).

________________

Course Enrollment
Fall term

[Economics] 106a. (fall term) Professor Hansen.—Economic Analysis and Public Policy

Total 59:  22 Graduates, 25 Public Administration, 3 Radcliffe, 9 Others.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1946-1947, p. 70.

________________

ECONOMICS 106a
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND PUBLIC POLICY
1946-1947

General Outline of Course

  1. Concepts and Statistical Measures of Aggregate Income and Its Component Parts:

    1. Gross National Product.
    2. Net National Product.
    3. National Income.
    4. Income Payments.
    5. Factor Costs.
    6. Component Parts of National Income.

  2. Over-all Determinants of National Income:

    1. Consumption and Savings Functions: Investment and its Determinants; Acceleration and Multiplier Principles; Consumption and Income Distribution.
    2. The Interest Rate and the National Income.
      1. Classical vs. Monetary Interest Rate Theories: Loanable Fund Theory vs. Liquidity Preference.
      2. The Role of the Interest Rate: In Investment, Consumption, Income Distribution, etc.
      3. The Interest Rate and Economic Stability; The Case for
        1. Fluctuating Rates;
        2. Stable Rate;
        3. Declining Rate.
      4. The Interest Rate and Income Velocity of Money.
      5. The Role of Central Bank Credit in Income Formation.
    3. Costs and Profits.
      1. Wage Policy: Wages as Costs, and Wages as Purchasing Power; Wage Rates and Degrees of Utilization of Plant Capacity; Wages and Value of Output at Different Employment Levels.
      2. Price Policy: Profits and the Over-all Economy; Profits and Monopoly; Profits and Income Distribution; Profits and the Inducement to Invest; Profits and the Savings Function.
    4. The Role of the Government in Income Formation.
      1. Monetary Policy: Neutral vs. Positive Program.
      2. Tax Policy.
      3. Borrowing; Public Debt.
      4. Expenditure Policy; Standard Services; Developmental Outlays; Compensatory Spending.

  3. Income, Output, and Prices:

    1. Income Flows and the General Level of Prices.
    2. Income Elasticity and Price Elasticity in Different Industries.
    3. The Effect of Over-all Shifts in Income on Demand in Different Industries; Demand Schedules; Indifference Maps.
    4. The Effect of Over-all Shifts in Income on Supply.
      1. The Economics of the Firm: Marginal, Average, and Total Unit Cost Curves.
      2. The Economics of an Industry: Differential Cost; Increasing, Decreasing, and Constant Cost.
    1. Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition: Marginal Revenue and Marginal Cost; Monopoly and Efficiency; Administrative Prices.
    2. Income Flows, Distributive Shares, and Income Distribution.
    3. Full Employment and the Problems of Wage Inflation.
    4. Planning vs. Automatic Adjustments in a Free Market.

 

Economic 106b: Public Policy Decisions: Analysis of the Effect of Public Policy Decisions Upon the Over-all Economy, Upon Various Producing Groups, and Upon Other Sectors of the Population.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics. 1895-2003.(HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-1947 (2 of 2)”.

________________

ECONOMICS 106[a]
READING ASSIGNMENT

  1. Concepts and Statistical Measures of Aggregate Income and Its Component Parts:

    1. Required Reading:
      1. Hicks and Hart—The Social Framework of the American Economy, chapters 13-17.
      2. Livingston, S. Morris—Markets After the War, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.
      3. Hansen, Alvin H.—Economic Policy and Full Employment, Chapters III-IV, (McGraw-Hill, 1946).
      4. Hansen and Perloff—State and Local Finance in the National Economy, (Norton, 1944), pp. 223-227.
      5. Basic Facts on Employment and Production, U.S. Senate Committee on Money and Banking, Print No. 4, 79th Congress, First Session.
      6. Survey of Current Business:
        1. May, 1942; pp. 9-13 (Gross National Product, 1929-1941).
        2. February, 1946; pp. 1-32 (The Economy of War and Transition).
      7. British White Paper on War Finance, British Government White Paper (Cmd. 6520) presented to Parliament on April 1944 (Reprinted in Federal Reserve Bulletin, July 1944, pp. 655-669).
      8. Federal Reserve Bulletin, August 1946 (Current Price Developments), pp. 833-843.
    2. Suggestions for Additional Reading:
      1. Clark Colin—The Conditions of Economic Progress, 1940.
      2. Kuznets, Simon—National Income and its Composition, 1919-1938, 1941.
      3. Martin, Robert F.—National Income in the U.S., 1799-1938, National Industrial Conference Board, 1939.
      4. The National Income of Principal Foreign Countries. The Conference Board Economic Record, August 3, 1939, Volume I, No. 4.
      5. Bowley, A. D.—Studies in the National Income, 1924-1938, 1942.
      6. Lindahl, Dahlgren, and Koch—National Income of Sweden, 1861-1930, 1937.
      7. Articles:
        1. Stone, Richard—“National Income in the United Kingdom and the United States”, Review of Economic Studies, Winter 1942-43, Volume X, No. 1.
        2. Kalecki, M.—“The White Paper on the National Income and Expenditure in the Years 1938-43”, Oxford Institute of Statistics Bulletin, July 1, 1944, Volume 6, No. 9.
        3. Dacey, W.M.—“The 1944 White Paper on National Income and Expenditure”, Economic Journal, June-September, 1944.
        4. Gilbert and Jaszi—“The 1945 White Paper on National Income and Expenditure”, Economic Journal, December 1945.

  2. Over-all Determinants of the National Income:

    1. Required Reading:
      1. Keynes, J.M.—General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, (1936), Chapter 3, pp. 96-106; Chapters 9, 10, 13, 15, 18, 24.
      2. Meade and Hitch—Economic Analysis and Policy, (1938) Part I, Chapters 1-2; 5-9.
      3. Lerner, A. P.—The Economics of Control, (1944), Chapters 22, 23, 24.
      4. Robertson, D. H.—Essays in Monetary Theory, (1940), Chapter 1.
      5. British Government White Paper on Employment Policy, (Reprinted by MacMillan Co. as pamphlet entitled “Employment Policy”), 1944.
      6. Slichter, S. H.—“The Conditions of Expansion”, American Economic Review, March 1942.
      7. Hansen, Alvin H.—Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, (Norton, 1941), Part III, Chapters 11-15.
    2. Suggestions for Additional Reading
      1. Beveridge, Sir William—Full Employment in a Free Society, (1944).
      2. Haberler, G.—Prosperity and Depression, (1941), Chapters 8, 13.
      3. Cassel, Gustav—On Quantitative Thinking in Economics, (1935), Chapter 4.
      4. Robinson, Joan—Introduction to the Theory of Employment.
      5. Hicks, J. R.—Value and Capital, (1938), Chapters 20, 21, 22.
      6. Hansen and Perloff—State and Local Finance in the National Economy, (1944), Chapters 9, 11.
      7. Hansen, Alvin H.:
        1. Full Recovery or Stagnation, (Norton, 1938), Chapters 1, 2, and Appendix.
        2. Economic Policy and Full Employment, (McGraw-Hill, 1946).
      8. Harris, S. E. (Editor):
        1. Economic Reconstruction, (McGraw-Hill, 1945), Chapters 10-16.
        2. Postwar Economic Problems, (McGraw-Hill, 1943).
      9. Jobs and Markets, de Chazeau, Hart, and Others, Committee on Economic Development, (McGraw-Hill, 1946).
      10. Financing American Prosperity; A Symposium of Economists, Twentieth Century Fund, 1945.

  3. Income, Output and Prices; Economics of the Firm; Economics of an Industry; Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition, etc.

    1. Required Reading:
      1. Meade and Hitch—Economic Analysis and Policy, Part II, Competition and Monopoly, Chapters 1-8; Part III, The Distribution of Income, Chapters 1-5; Part IV, The Supply of the Primary Factors of Production, Chapters 1-4; Appendix on Graphs, pp. 411-424; Charts I, II (end of book).
      2. Boulding, K. E.—Economic Analysis, pp. 421-470; 485-509; 596-634; 658-663; (1941).
      3. Chamberlin, E. H.—The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, 1942, Chapters 4, 5, 8.
      4. Hicks, J.R.—Value and Capital, Chapters 1, 2, 3.
      5. Wicksell, K.—Lectures, Volume I, Part III.
    2. Suggestions for Additional Reading:
      1. Stigler—The Theory of Competitive Price.
      2. Robinson, E.A.G.—Monopoly, (Cambridge Series), Chapters 1-3; 6; 8-9;12.
      3. Burns, Arthur—Decline of Competition.
      4. Walker, E.R.—From Economic Theory to Policy, (University of Chicago Press), Chapters 1, 3, 4, 10, 12.
      5. Purdy, Lindahl, and Carter—Market Organization and Price Policy, Prentice-Hall.
      6. Hitch and Hall—Oxford Economics Papers, Volume I, Business Pricing Policy.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics. 1895-2003.(HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-1947 (2 of 2)”.

________________

1946-47
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 106a

Final. January, 1947

(Write on any THREE questions)

    1. Explain what is meant by Gross National Product including in your discussion the following:
      1. Distinguish and compare Gross National Product, Net National Product, National Income, Income Payments, Disposable Income.
      2. Outline and discuss the component parts of the Gross National Product from two viewpoints: (a) Income-generation or outlays; (b) Disposal of income.
    2. State the savings-investment problem and show clearly the role of the consumption function (propensity to consume schedule) with respect to this problem. With respect to savings and investment discuss the ideas of Robertson and Keynes.
    3. Give an explanation of cost curves (marginal, variable and total unit costs) and show how this type of cost analysis throws light on the problem of inflation under conditions of full employment.
    4. Write an essay (about one hour) on any one (or two if you prefer) of the following:
      1. Keynes: General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.
      2. Beveridge: Full Employment in a Free Society.
      3. Lerner: Economics of Control.
      4. Chamberlin: The Theory of Monopolistic Competition.
      5. Hansen: Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, or Economic Policy and Full Employment.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001.Box 13, Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. January, 1947.

________________

Course Enrollment
Spring term

[Economics] 106b. (spring term) Professor Slichter.—Economic Analysis and Public Policy

Total 25:  10 Graduates, 11 Public Administration, 1 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1946-1947, p. 70.

________________

READING ASSIGNMENT FOR ECONOMICS 106b
February 18, 1947

Pigou—Economics of Welfare

(Second Edition) Part III

Ch. XIV, pp. 520-542
Ch. XVI, pp. 553-566
Ch. XVIII, pp. 572-578

(Third Edition) Part III

Ch. XIV, pp. 548-571
Ch. XVII, pp. 592-604
Ch. XIX, pp. 611-617

(please post on bulletin board)

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics. 1895-2003.(HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-1947 (2 of 2)”.

________________

March 19, 1947

Please put on reserve for Economics 106

Review of Economic Statistics, May 1938
American Economic Review Proceedings, May 1945
American Economic Review, September 1940
American Economic Review, December 1946

Sumner H. Slichter

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics. 1895-2003.(HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-1947 (2 of 2)”.

________________

[Final] May 19, 1947
Economics 106[b]
Economic Analysis and Public Policy

(Three Hours)

I

(a) Discuss the effect of increase in employment upon the size of the workforce.

(b) So long as there are substantial amounts of additional resources, increases in expenditures may be counted upon primarily to produce increases in employment rather than increases in prices. Discuss the validity of this statement.

II

“A wage structure based upon ability to pay would prevent the best distribution of men and resources among enterprises and would thus limit the output of industry.” Do you agree? Explain.

III

History shows that the price level has been subject to great fluctuations. The cost of living, for example, has risen 50 percent since 1940. Wholesale prices have risen even farther. Within several years after the First World War there was a substantial drop in the price level. In view of the history of prices, do you regard original cost as a fair guide for determining the rate base for public utilities?

IV

“A progressive income tax tends to reduce the attractiveness of risky ventures to investors more than the attractiveness of less risky ventures.” Do you agree? Can this effect be prevented? How? If two ventures offer an even chance of a return above 5 percent and below 5 percent, how would you determine which is the more risky?

V

It is asserted that import duties fall in part upon the foreigners who consume the goods exported by the country levying the duty. Analyze this proposition and point out its limitations.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 13, Folder “Final examinations, May 1947 ( 3 of 9)”.

Image Source:  Hansen and Slichter from Harvard Class Album, 1947.

Categories
Berkeley Chicago Columbia Cornell Economics Programs Economists Harvard Illinois Johns Hopkins Michigan Minnesota Northwestern Ohio State Pennsylvania Princeton Stanford Toronto Wisconsin Yale

Economics Graduate Programs Ranked in 1925

 

Filed away in the archived records of the University of Chicago’s Office of the President is a copy of a report from January 1925 from Miami University (Ohio) that was based on a survey of college and university professors to obtain a rank ordering of graduate programs in different fields. The following ordering for economics graduate programs 1924-25 is based on two dozen responses. I have added institutional affiliations from the AEA membership list of the time and a few internet searches. The study was designed to have a rough balance between college and university professors and a broad geographic representation. What the study lacks in sophistication will amuse you in its presumption.

_____________________

This rating was prepared in the following way: The members of the Miami University faculty representing twenty fields of instruction were called together and a list of the universities which conceivably might be doing high grade work leading to a doctor’s degree in one or more subjects was prepared on their advice. Each professor was then requested to submit a list of from forty to sixty men who were teaching his subject in colleges and universities in this country, at least half of the names on the list to be those of professors in colleges rather than in universities. It was further agreed that the list should be fairly well distributed geographically over the United States. [p. 3]

 

ECONOMICS

Ratings submitted by: John H. Ashworth [Maine] , Lloyd V. Ballard [Beloit], Gilbert H. Barnes [Chicago], Clarence E. Bonnett [Tulane], John E. Brindley [Iowa State], E. J. Brown [Arizona], J. W. Crook [Amherst], Ira B. Cross [California], Edmund E. Day [Michigan], Herbert Feis [ILO], Frank A. Fetter [Princeton], Eugene Gredier, Lewis H. Haney [N.Y.U.], Wilbur O. Hedrick [Michigan State], Floyd N. House [Chicago], Walter E. Lagerquist [Northwestern], W. E. Leonard, L. C. Marshall [Chicago], W. C. Mitchell [Columbia], C. T. Murchison [North Carolina], Tipton A. Snavely [Virginia], E. T. Towne [North Dakota], J. H. Underwood [Montana], M. S. Wildman [Stanford].

 

Combined Ratings:  (24)

1 2 3 4-5
Harvard 20 4 0 0
Columbia 11 9 2 1
Chicago 9 7 3 2
Wisconsin 8 7 4 2
Yale 3 3 9 3
Johns Hopkins 2 4 8 3
Michigan 0 6 4 5
Pennsylvania 0 3 6 8
Illinois 0 5 4 4
Cornell 0 2 7 5
Princeton 2 1 4 4
California 0 3 4 5
Minnesota 0 2 4 6
Northwestern 0 2 3 6
Stanford 0 1 4 6
Ohio State 0 1 2 8
Toronto 0 2 2 3

Staffs:

HARVARD: F.W. Taussig, E.F. Gay, T.N. Carver, W.Z. Ripley, C.J. Bullock, A.A. Young, W.M. Persons, A.P. Usher, A.S. Dewing, W.J. Cunningham, T.H. Sanders, W.M. Cole, A.E. Monroe, H.H. Burbank, A.H. Cole, J. H. Williams, W.L. Crum, R.S. Meriam.

COLUMBIA: R.E. Chaddock, F.H. Giddings, S.M. Lindsay, W.C. Mitchell, H.L. Moore, W. Fogburn, H.R. Seager, E.R.A. Seligman, V.G. Sinkhovitch, E.E. Agger, Emilie J. Hutchinson, A.A. Tenney, R.G. Tugwell, W.E. Weld.

CHICAGO: L.C. Marshall, C.W. Wright, J.A. Field, H.A. Millis, J.M. Clark, Jacob Viner, L. W. Mints, W.H. Spencer, N.W. Barnes, C.C. Colby, P.H. Douglas, J.O. McKinsey, E.A. Duddy, A.C. Hodge, L.C. Sorrell.

WISCONSIN: Commons, Elwell, Ely Garner, Gilman, Hibbard, Kiekhofer, Macklin, Scott, Kolb, McMurry, McNall, Gleaser, Jamison, Jerome, Miller, S. Perlman.

YALE: Olive Day, F.R. Fairchild, R.B. Westerfield, T.S. Adams, A.L. Bishop, W.M. Daniels, Irving Fisher, E.S. Furniss, A.H. Armbruster, N.S. Buck.

JOHNS HOPKINS: W.W. Willoughby, Goodnow, W.F. Willoughby, Thach, Latane.

MICHIGAN: Rodkey, Van Sickle, Peterson, Goodrich, Sharfman, Griffin, May, Taylor, Dickinson, Paton, Caverly, Wolaver.

PENNSYLVANIA: E.R. Johnson, E.S. Mead, S.S. Heubner, T. Conway, H.W. Hess, E.M. Patterson, G.G. Huebner, H.T. Collings, R. Riegel, C.K. Knight, W.P. Raine, F. Parker, R.T. Bye, W.C. Schluter, J.H. Willits, A.H. Williams, R.S. Morris, C.P. White, F.E. Williams, H.J. Loman, C.A. Kulp, S.H. Patterson, E.L. McKenna, W.W. Hewett, F.G. Tryon, H.S. Person, L.W. Hall.

ILLINOIS: Bogart, Robinson, Thompson, Weston, Litman, Watkins, Hunter, Wright, Norton.

CORNELL: W.F. Willcox, H.J. Davenport, D. English, H.L. Reed, S.H. Slichter, M.A. Copeland, S. Kendrick.

PRINCETON: F.A. Fetter, E.W. Kemmerer, G.B. McClellan, D.A. McCabe, F.H. Dixon, S.E. Howard, F.D. Graham.

CALIFORNIA: I.B. Cross, S. Daggett, H.R. Hatfield, J.B. Peixotte, C.C. Plehm, L.W. Stebbins, S. Blum, A.H. Mowbray, N.J. Silberling, C.C. Staehling, P.F. Cadman, F. Fluegel, B.N. Grimes, P.S. Taylor, Helen Jeter, E.T. Grether.

MINNESOTA: G.W. Dorwie, J.D. Black, R.G. Blakey, F.B. Garver, N.S.B. Gras, J.S. Young, A.H. Hansen, B.D. Mudgett, J.E. Cummings, E.A. Heilman, H.B Price, J.J. Reighard, J.W. Stehman, H. Working, C.L. Rotzell, W.R. Myers.

NORTHWESTERN: Deibler, Heilman, Secrist, Bailey, Pooley, Eliot, Ray Curtis, Bell, Hohman, Fagg.

STANFORD: M.S. Wildman, W.S. Beach, E. Jones, H.L. Lutz, A.C. Whitaker, J.G. Davis, A.E. Taylor, J.B. Canning.

OHIO STATE: M.B. Hammond, H.G. Hayes, A.B. Wolf, H.F. Waldradt, C.O. Ruggles, W.C. Weidler, J.A. Fisher, H.E. Hoagland, H.H. Maynard, C.A. Dice, M.E. Pike, J.A. Fitzgerald, F.E. Held, M.N. Nelson, R.C. Davis, C.W. Reeder, T.N. Beckman.

Compiled with the assistance of J.B. Dennison, associate professor of economics.

 

Source:  Raymond Mollyneaux Hughes, A Study of the Graduate Schools of America. Oxford, OH: Miami University (January 1925), pp. 14-15.  Copy from University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records, Box 47, Folder #5 “Study of the Graduate Schools of America”, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago.

 

Image Source: Four prize winners in annual beauty show, Washington Bathing Beach, Washington, D.C. from the U. S. Library of Congress. Prints & Photographs. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b43364