Month: May 2019

Categories
Chicago Economist Market Economists Harvard Radical

Harvard/Chicago. Gottfried Haberler and Milton Friedman on Samuel Bowles, 1970

 

The following exchange between Gottfried Haberler and Milton Friedman is really quite remarkable. It is the second observation by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror of Gottfried Haberler trashing a liberal/radical economist on the q.t. The first instance involved John Kenneth Galbraith in 1948 (though I cannot say that I would personally fault Haberler for his having ranked Paul Samuelson above John Kenneth Galbraith as an economist). It will come as a surprise to some people that Milton Friedman defended the scholarly honor of one of the leading, if not the leading, radical economists in 1970. As we see below Friedman in no uncertain terms let Haberler know that he still considered his earlier support of Samuel Bowles for an untenured appointment at the University of Chicago to have been based solely on the analytical merits displayed by Bowles. 

You do not want to miss the Harvard anecdote relayed by Roy Weintraub that is posted below as a comment!

__________________

PERSONAL

May 14, 1970

Professor Milton Friedman
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60637

Dear Milton:

I was told that Chicago has made an offer to Sam Bowles and that you supported it warmly. Frankly, I am somewhat surprised. He has certainly some analytic abilities but in general he is very radical, almost as wild as Arthur MacEwan, and thoroughly demagogic in his interventions in faculty meetings and talks to students. I would really like to know whether it is true that Chicago offered him a job.

Sincerely yours,

Gottfried Haberler

H:w

__________________

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
1126 EAST 59THSTREET
CHICAGO—ILLINOIS 60637

May 19, 1970

Professor Gottfried Haberler
Department of Economics
Harvard University
326 Littauer Center
Cambridge, Masachusetts 02138

Dear Gottfried:

Some years back I had occasion to read some of the work which Bowles had done in connection with our consideration of him at that time. I was very favorably impressed indeed by the intellectual quality of the work and the command that it displayed of analytical economics. At that time I was very much in accord with our decision to make him an offer of a position. He turned us down to stay at Harvard.

I have very vague recollections about what has happened this year. I do not know for certain whether or not we did make an offer to him this year. We may have done so; and if so, I would not have objected since the only consideration I would have considered relevant would have been his intellectual qualities.

I will try to find out more definitely and let you know.

Sincerely yours,
[signed, “Milton”]
Milton Friedman

ah

[Handwritten addition: P.S. I have checked. No offer was made to him this year. We made an offer some years ago at the Ass’t Prof level when he first went to Harvard. We made a later offer a couple of years ago again on a term basis. There is no offer outstanding now.]

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Gottfried Haberler Papers. Box 12, Folder “GH—Milton Friedman”.

Image Source: University of Massachusetts Amherst . Police Department, “Board of Trustees fee increase demonstration: Economics professor Samuel Bowles speaking to protesters, April 15, 1976“, University Photograph Collection (RG 110-176). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Categories
Economists Gender Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, later collector of Soviet nonconformist art. Norton T. Dodge, 1960

 

That John Maynard Keynes was an art collector/investor is well-known. Economics in the Rear-view mirror has earlier posted about the Columbia economic historian Vladimir Simkhovich, one of Milton Friedman’s professors, who turned out to be quite the collector himself. My old professor of comparative economic systems, John Michael Montias of Yale, later became a well-renowned authority on Vermeer as well as the art market in Amsterdam in the 17th century.

This post is another in the series “Get to know a Ph.D. economist”. Norton Dodge was one of the legion of young scholars who launched their research careers at the Harvard Russian Research Center. Somehow Dodge went from being a mild-mannered economist who wrote a doctoral dissertation on labor productivity in the Soviet tractor industry (don’t try that at home unless you are a professional) to the passionate collector of Soviet nonconformist art. Apparently Dodge was able to fly under the radar long enough to establish a network to help satisfy his urge to collect, often discretely sometimes openly, and to assemble an enormous collection. According to John McPhee’s 1994 book (see below), Norton Dodge spent $3 million dollars of his personal fortune buying Soviet underground art. Dodge inherited a bundle from his father, Homer Levi Dodge, physicist who also became dean of the graduate school at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Homer Dodge was an early Warren Buffett investor.

In 1995 the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Soviet Nonconformist Art was donated to Rutgers University.

________________

Norton Townshend Dodge

1927 June 15. Born in Oklahoma City.

Began his studies at Deep Springs College.

1948. Graduated from Cornell University.

1951. A.M. in Russian studies at Harvard

1955. First trip to USSR. Dissertation research.

1960. Harvard economics Ph.D. Thesis: Trends in Labor Productivity in the Soviet Tractor Industry; a Case Study in Industrial Development.

1962. Second visit to Soviet Union. Meets dissident artists.

1966. Women in the Soviet Economy: Their Role in Economic, Scientific, and Technical Development(Johns Hopkins University Press).

1976. Following death of artist Evgeny Rukhin under suspicious circumstances, Dodge ceased his travel to the Soviet Union, relying on his personal network

1980. Retired from University of Maryland, College Park, begins teaching at St. Mary’s College, Maryland.

1989. Retired from St. Mary’s College, Maryland.

1995. Opening of the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Soviet Nonconformist Art to Rutgers University [17,000 items donated valued at $34 Million] (permanent display at Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum)

From Gulag to Glasnost: Nonconformist Art in the Soviet Union, edited with Alla Rosenfield.

2011 November 5. Died in Washington, D.C.

________________

For more, especially about Dodge’s art collecting

John McPhee. The Ransom of Russian Art (1994).

Andrew Solomon. “Produced in the Soviet Dark, Collected by a Secret Admirer”. New York Time, October 15, 1995.

Emily Langer, Norton T. Dodge, U-Md. Economics professor and Soviet art collector, dies at 84. Washington Post, November 10, 2011.

Margalit Fox, “Norton Dodge Dies at 84; Stored Soviet Dissident Art. New York Times, November 11, 2011.

Image Source: US Post News, Deaths November 2011.

Categories
Indiana Undergraduate

Indiana. Undergraduate coursework in economics and commerce, C.F. Zierer (A.B.), 1922

 

 

Scrounging through the economics department archival records at the University of Chicago, I came across the 1925 case of a geography graduate student who petitioned to waive the economics examination required for his degree based upon his extensive undergraduate coursework in economics and commerce at Indiana University. The file includes a hand-written list of the courses and titles of the texts/readings used at Indiana University (1919-22). The student, Clifford M. Zierer went on to teach in the UCLA Department of Geography for forty years (see In Memoriam, below).

I find this list to be an interesting artifact for a variety of reasons: it helps to document what the key texts were in teaching economics at a public university right after WWI; Zierer enrolled as an undergraduate at Indiana University just as the School of Commerce and Finance was established; journalism and advertising can be seen to have been born-together-at-the-hip. I was also struck at just how much business and economics course work Zierer brought with him before entering graduate school in geography.

___________________

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

March 14, 1925

Mr. C. W. Wright
Faculty Exchange

I failed to get the accompanying material from Mr. C. M. Zierer before the departmental meeting on Thursday. Will you raise it next Thursday? The essential facts are these:

  1. The Department of Geography now requests every candidate for the doctorate to meet certain qualifications in the field of Economics. The accompanying carbon of a letter to Mr. J. W. Coulter shows what these qualifications are and also shows a special suggestion for meeting them in the case of Mr. Coulter.
  2. Sometime since, a Mr. Appleton presented himself to me, showing credentials covering a wide range of work in Economics at the London School of Economics. At that particular time there was a good deal of work ahead of the Department on various matters and I conducted a little quiz of my own orally. It was such a clear case that I did not hesitate to certify to Mr. Barrows that Mr. Appleton was qualified in the field of Economics.
  3. This may or may not have set a bad precedent. Certainly Mr. Zierer now points out that he took his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Indiana, graduated with distinction, and received the Phi Beta Kappa. He majored in Economics. His dissertation was the “Industrial Study of Scranton, Pennsylvania.”
    Zierer would be glad to be excused from a written examination, but I think I made it clear to him that there is no precedent in the matter and that it rested entirely with the Department.
  4. In view of the rather wide range of work that he has had in Economics (for which he showed sufficient credentials from the University of Indiana) I think it would be reasonable to excuse him, maybe with an oral quiz added to protect us.

Yours very sincerely,
[signed]
L C Marshall

Handwritten note: Voted to excuse him from exam if agreeable to Barrows. Barrows had no objections. Notified he was excused Apr.3, 1925.   C.W.W.

___________________

Handwritten List of Economics/Commerce Courses
Taken by Clifford M. Zierer at Indiana University
[corrections/additions in square brackets]

Economics 1

 

 [E1. Political Economy]

Principles of Economics by F. W. Taussig.
Outlines of Economics by Richard T. Ely
Selected Readings in Economics, [Charles Jesse] Bullock
American Economic Review; Journal of Pol Economy; Quarterly Jour of Economics
J.B. Clark
Journalism 2 Advertising.

Principles of Adv., D. Starch
P. T. Cherington, Advertising as a Business Force;
W. D. Scott, [The Theory of] Advertising;
A. P. Johnson, Library of Advertising
Economics 3 Public Finance [3a] & Taxation [3b. Special Tax Problems]:

[Introduction to] Public Finance by Carl Plehn
[Selected] Readings in Public Finance by [Charles Jesse] Bullock
[The Elements of] Public Finance by W. M. Daniels
Economics 16 Statistics & Graphics [Introduction to Statistics]:

[Horace] Secrist: [An Introduction to] Statistical Methods.
[Willard C.] Brinton: Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts.
Bowley, A. L.,
[D. B.] Copland,
Fields
Economics 7a Principles of Sociology [(a) Social forces] ([Instructor] Weatherly)

[William Graham] Sumner;
[Franklin H.] Giddings
American Journal of Sociology
Economics 6a Money [(6a)]] & Banking [(6b)]]

Horace White; Moulton;
Jevons, W.S., Money [and the] Mechanism of Exchange;
Irving Fisher, Purchasing Power of Money;
J. L. Laughlin, [The] Principles of Money;
Moulton, H.G., [Principles of] Money and Banking;
C. A. Phillips, Readings in Money and Banking;
Kemmerer, F. W., Money & Prices [Money and Credit Instruments in their Relation to General Prices]
Commercial and Financial Chronicle
Economics 5 Advanced Political Economy. [Advanced Economics]

Marshall
[The] Trust Problem, [Jeremiah Whipple] Jenks;
Commerce 11 Business Finance

W. H. Lough [Business Finance, A Practical Study of Financial Management in Private Business Concerns (1917)].
Monopolies & Trusts; Ely, Laughlin, Seligman
Commerce 14 [Principles of] Salesmanship

Norval [A.] Hawkins [The Selling Process, A Handbook of Salesmanship Principles]
J. W. Fisk, Retail Selling;
C. S. Duncan, Marketing [: Its Problems and Methods];
Nystrom, P. H. [The] Economics of Retailing:
Printers Ink
Commerce 22 [sic, “23” is correct] Foreign Trade

[Howard Carson] Kidd [Kidd on Foreign Trade];
B. O. Hough;
C. F. Bastable [The Theory of Foreign Trade];
Ford;
Pepper
Economics 8 Seminar [Seminary in Economics and Sociology]
Commerce 13 Business Organization and Management

D. S. Kimball [Exter S. Kimball, Principles of Industrial Organization (1913)];
[Norris A.] Brisco, Economics of Business;
J. R. Smith, [The] Elements of Industrial Management;
Demer [sic, Hugo Diemer], Factory Organization and Management [sic, Factory Organization and Administration (1910)];
[Frank B.] Gilbreth, [Primer of] Scientific Management;
T. Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise.
Industrial Management; Administration Magazine
Commerce 15 Railroad [sic, “Railway”] Transportation

Johnson and Van Metre, Principles of Railroad Transportation;
W.Z. Ripley, Railroad Problems;
H. G. Moulton, Railroads vs. Waterways [sic, title is “Waterways versus Railways”];
Dunn, S. O. American Railroad Question;
C. F. Adams, History of Railroads [Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Railroads: Their Origin and Problems (1878)];
McPherson, L. G. Rates and Regulation;
Sprague;
Kemmerer.
Economics 11 History of the Growth of Economic Thought [sic, only “Growth of Economic Thought”]:

Haney [Lewis H. Haney. History of Economic Thought].
Ricardo: Principles of Ec [Principles of Political Economy and Taxation];
Malthus: Population Studies
[John Kells] Ingram: [A] History of Political Economy
Smith: Wealth of Nations
Commerce 23 [sic, 22 is the correct course number] Marketing:

C. S. [Carson Samuel] Duncan [Marketing, its problems and methods]
[The] Elements of Marketing, Paul T. Cherington;
Methods of Marketing [Paul D. Converse, Marketing Methods and Policies (1921)] P. D. Converse;
[Melvin Thomas] Copeland, Marketing Problems;
[Fred E.] Clark, Principles of Marketing
Commerce 12 [Principles of] Investments 

Hough.
R. W. Babson: Business Barometers [used in the Accumulation of Money. A Text Book on Fundamental Statistics for Investors and Merchants (1909)].

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics Records. Box 38, Folder 5.
Bracketed additions/corrections by Irwin Collier.

______________________

Clifford M. Zierer
1898-1976
Professor Emeritus

Clifford M. Zierer was born in Batesville, Indiana on July 4, 1898, and attended local schools through high school. For three years, following graduation, he taught in Indiana public schools and spent his summers attending different colleges to improve his teaching background. In 1919 he enrolled at Indiana University and completed an A.B. in economics in 1922. Transferring to geology, he earned an M.A. at Indiana in 1923 and, transferring again, he earned a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Chicago in 1925. Work in three disciplines provided a broad base for his later teaching and research in mineral industries, agricultural land use, and urban geography. Clifford Zierer and Milla Martin, a student at Indiana University, married in June 1925 and in the fall of 1925 the couple came to Los Angeles, where Clifford entered upon his lifetime career of teaching in the UCLA Department of Geography, a career that spanned forty years until his retirement in 1965.

Recent generations of faculty and students cannot appreciate the labors of the developmental building of a university, work that occupied those faculty members whose service began on the Vermont Avenue campus. Years were spent on committees dealing with budgets, buildings, programs, curricula, courses, and course structures. Beyond such service, Zierer not only taught a wide range of courses but he also initiated many of the courses that became standard elements in the departmental program. He spent years with the Library Committee to enlarge the facilities and holdings of the University Library. Clifford and Milla Zierer were both quiet, modest, and soft-spoken members of a small university community that laid the groundwork for the growth of the University, and both participated in their own quiet ways toward that growth. Clifford Zierer was instrumental in developing the departmental program as graduate work was added and, as chairman from 1942 to 1949, he largely structured the expansion of the doctoral program rounding out the departmental offering. A Phi Beta Kappa upon earning his A.B. at Indiana, Clifford also became a member of Sigma Xi at Indiana in 1923, and at UCLA he spent years working with both groups, including a term as president of each.

Zierer’s early years in southern California were spent studying aspects of changing land use and urban expansion. A wide range of research papers broadened into a book, California and the Southwest, of which he was the organizer, editor, and contributor of several chapters. During the middle 1930s he also undertook field studies on several themes in Australia, which resulted in professional papers and in the first course on the geography of Australia to be taught in any American university. In his own quiet way, he was something of an innovator and a pioneer.

Clifford never aspired to immense popularity as an undergraduate lecturer, and his insistence upon quality scholarship often caused the casual enrollee to shun his classes; but there were rewards of insight for those who persevered. For years his seminar students, meeting in the attic library-study-recreation room of his Brentwood home, were treated to provocative intellectual experiences. Students and associates were often surprised at the breadth of his knowledge, the keenness of his mind, and the private enthusiasm for his subject.

Milla Zierer passed away in 1951; thereafter Clifford slowly withdrew from his former active participation in broad University affairs and handed over to newcomers the concerns that had so long engaged him. The large Brentwood home was given up for a smaller house not far away, and Zierer’s last years were spent quietly. He died on October 6, 1976, survived by two sons, Robert and Paul.

Henry J. Bruman J.E. Spencer

 

Source: In Memoriam, September 1978, posted in University of California, Calisphere

Image Source: Clifford M. Zierer’s Indiana University Yearbook picture, The Arbutus 1922, p. 105.

Categories
M.I.T. Teaching

M.I.T. Student survey regarding Domar’s core macro theory course, 1960

 

The previous post provided the course syllabus and reading list for the core graduate macroeconomics course taught at M.I.T. by Evsey Domar during the first term of the 1960-61 academic year. He took the job seriously enough to try surveying his students to gauge his pedagogic success. I post a transcription of the mimeographed survey questions that were distributed to the students and have inserted totals from a handwritten summary of results. The strongest signals to come out of this exercise were (i) that mixing graduate economics with graduate business students is probably unwise and (ii) that a heavy dose of national income and product accounting is bitter medicine to new graduate students.

An earlier post  presents the results of a survey of Domar’s course for several later cohorts (1967-69).

______________________

QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE THEORY OF NATIONAL INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT (14.451)
E. D. Domar
Fall term 1960-61

Because the course is given to students of widely different backgrounds I am not sure whether it is taught on the proper level and in the proper manner. The size of the class precludes personal interviews on the subject. You can do a great service to future students and to myself by filling out this questionnaire in the most thoughtful and honest manner.

  1. Do not write your name, but give the following information:
    1. Your major (such as Course XIV, XV, etc.)
    2. Concentration within your major, if you know it.
    3. Year of graduate work
    4. Was your undergraduate training in the U.S. or Canada? (Yes or No)
  2. The general level of the course was (check one):
too elementary about right too advanced
The course XIV: 1
XV: 0		 XIV: 17
XV: 7		 XIV: 0
XV: 1
I. National Income and Related Items XIV: 4
XV: 1		 XIV: 19
XV: 12		 XIV: 1
XV: 1
II. General Aggregative System XIV: 4
XV: 0		 XIV: 17
XV: 9		 XIV: 1
XV: 5
III. Theory of Interest XIV: 4
XV: 0		 XIV: 17
XV: 9		 XIV: 1
XV: 4
IV. Consumption Function XIV: 2
XV: 0		 XIV: 20
XV: 10		 XIV: 0
XV: 4
V. Multiplier and Accelerator XIV: 3
XV: 0		 XIV: 16
XV: 8		 XIV: 3
XV: 6
VI. Investment Decisions XIV: 3
XV: 0		 XIV: 17
XV: 12		 XIV: 2
XV: 2
VII. Price Flexibility XIV: 1
XV: 0		 XIV: 16
XV: 8		 XIV: 0
XV: 2
[column totals] XIV: 22
XV: 1		 XIV: 139
XV: 75		 XIV: 8
XV: 25
  1. Mathematics was used in the course (encircle one) not enough [XIV, 6; XV, 3], about right [XIV, 15; XV, 8], too much [XIV, 3; XV, 3].Specific examples, if any.[For course XIV the course is a bit too elementary (totals, 22:8). For course XV the course is too advanced (totals, 1:25). For all students, it is about right.
    Math should be used somewhat more.
    The scope is a bit too broad.
    So, the course should be made tighter, more advanced, and a bit more mathematical, particularly without course XV students.]
  2. The scope of the course was (encircle one) too narrow [XIV, 0; XV, 0], about right [XIV, 13; XV, 10], too broad [XIV, 3; XV, 3].Topics to be added are:
    Topics to be given greater attention are:
    Topics to be condensed are:
    Topics to be eliminated are:
    Other suggestions regarding the scope of the course
Expand Condense Eliminate
I. National Income and Related Items XIV: 1
XV: 1		 XIV: 13
XV: 3		 XIV: 1
XV: 0
II. General Aggregative System XIV: 8
XV: 5		 XIV: 0
XV: 0		 XIV: 0
XV: 0
III. Theory of Interest XIV: 10
XV: 1		 XIV: 3
XV: 0		 XIV: 0
XV: 0
IV. Consumption Function XIV: 2
XV: 0		 XIV: 1
XV: 1		 XIV: 0
XV: 0
V. Multiplier and Accelerator XIV: 2
XV: 1		 XIV: 4
XV: 2		 XIV: 0
XV: 0
VI. Investment Decisions XIV: 5
XV:2		 XIV: 2
XV: 1		 XIV: 0
XV: 0
VII. Price Flexibility XIV: 6
XV: 3		 XIV: 2
XV: 0		 XIV: 0
XV: 0
  1. Required reading material was (encircle one) too broad [XIV, 9; XV, 9], about right [XIV, 12; XV, 2], too concentrated [XIV, 0; XV, 1].
    Would you prefer a smaller number of required readings but with a more intensive study of each? [Yes: XIV, 13; XV, 10], [No: XIV, 5; XV, 1] Comment.Should the readings be discussed in class more thoroughly and often?
    [Yes: XIV, 7; XV, 6], [No: XIV, 7; XV, 5]How adequately did the Reserve shelf serve your needs? [Enough: XIV, 1; XV, 0], [Not enough: XIV, 3; XV, 2] Did you have difficulties in obtaining the readings?Suggestions for improvement[Course XIV would keep the breadth of the reading as now, possibly somewhat narrower. But XV definitely wants more narrow.
    Both would prefer a smaller number of readings, particularly XV
    Evenly divided on discussing readings in class.]
  2. Because of the size of the class, lectures usually took the place of discussions. Would you prefer more discussions? [Yes: XIV, 5; XV, 5], [No: XIV, 13; XV, 7]Would a smaller class materially improve the course? [Yes: XIV, 11; XV, 9], [No: XIV, 5; XV, 3]Any other suggestions?[No great demand for more discussion in the large class, but a clear demand for a smaller class.]
  3. Grade the instruction in the course (A, B, C and F) for the following qualities (as compared with other courses at M.I.T. and elsewhere).Clarity of exposition
    Intellectual stimulation
    Usefulness of information
    Enjoyment of the course
    General performance
Grades A+ A A/B B B/C C Below
C
Clarity XIV: 18
XV: 8		 XIV: 0
XV: 1		 XIV: 4
XV: 3		 XIV: 0
XV: 1		 XIV: 0
XV: 1
Stimulation XIV: 15
XV: 7		 XIV: 0
XV: 2		 XIV: 4
XV: 4		 XIV: 2
XV: 0		 XIV: 0
XV: 1
Usefulness XIV: 9
XV: 4		 XIV: 1
XV: 1		 XIV: 7
XV: 6		 XIV: 1
XV: 2		 XIV: 0
XV: 1
Enjoyment XIV: 1
XV: 0		 XIV: 16
XV: 5		 XIV: 0
XV: 1		 XIV: 3
XV: 6		 XIV: 2
XV: 1		 XIV: 0
XV: 1
General XIV: 12
XV: 7		 XIV: 3
XV: 2		 XIV: 5
XV: 2		 XIV: 0
XV: 2		 XIV: 0
XV: 1

[Course XIV feels much better about the course than does XV. Clarity, stimulation and enjoyment get high marks. Usefulness—much less.]

  1. As you know, a third of the final examination is devoted to a substitute for a term paper. Would you prefer a usual term paper instead? [Yes: XIV, 11; XV, 2], [No: XIV, 10; XV, 7] Neither?
    [Existing exam—Yes: XIV, 5; XV, 7], [No: XIV, 4; XV, 2]
    [More exams—Yes: XIV, 5; XV, 1], [No: XIV, 0; XV, 0]

Comment on this.

[Course XIV prefer (slightly) a term paper and a midterm exam. Course XV don’t want a term paper.]

  1. Any other comments, suggestions, complaints, wishes, etc.[Useful comments
    Require Patinkin. Course XV find it too hard.
    Suggest the more important readings.
    People in the back couldn’t hear well.
    No seating assignment
    A midterm exam is frequently asked, otherwise, they don’t work on this course hard enough.
    A time schedule of the course.
    Better reading list.]

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey D. Domar, Box 17, Folder “Macroeconomics. Questionnaire on the Theory of national Income & Employment (14.451)”.

Image Source: The M.I.T. mascot beaver on the cover of its yearbook, Technique 1949.

Categories
Exam Questions M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. National Income and Employment Theory. Readings and Final Exam. Domar, 1960-61

 

 

For this post I have transcribed Evsey Domar’s graduate core macroeconomics course outline/reading list along with the questions for the final examination from the first term of the 1960-61 academic year at M.I.T. Students from both course XIV (economics) and XV (management) took this course.

Note: Evsey Domar distributed a questionnaire to the students to obtain feedback on his course.  The next post provides the results from that survey. It is fairly apparent that Domar did not cover the last topic on the course reading list (economic growth).

Final exam grade distribution (50 exams)

A 16%
A- 12%
B+ 10%
B 20%
B- 14%
C 18%
D 8%
F 2%

Fun Fact. Among the students enrolled in the course and who took the final examination: Michael D. Intriligator, Peter A. Diamond, Ann Fetter Friedlaender, and Stephen Goldfeld.

The much expanded course reading list/bibliography and  both the midterm and final examinations from the 1965-66 academic year have been posted earlier.

_________________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

THEORY OF NATIONAL INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT
14.451 Reading List
E. D. Domar Fall Term 1960-61

The purpose of this list is to suggest to the student the sources in which the more important topics of the course are discussed from several points of view. His objectives should be the understanding of these topics and not the memorization of opinions and details.

Items marked with an * are strongly recommended. (I don’t like to use the expression “required” in a graduate reading list.)

No term paper will be required, but each student is expected, in addition to his general reading, to choose one of the eight major divisions of the course (except that Part VIII should not be taken without prior consultation with the instructor) as a field of concentration. A part of the final examination will be designed to test his broader knowledge of the chosen field.

 

I. NATIONAL INCOME AND RELATED ITEMS

*Kuznets, S., National Income and Its Composition, (New York, 1941), particularly Vol. 1, Chapter 1

*Jaszi, G., “The Statistical Foundations of the GNP,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 38, 1956)
Ruggles, R. and N., National Income Accounts and Income Analysis (New York, 1956)

*U.S. Department of Commerce, U. S. Income and Output, A Supplement to the Survey of Current Business, 1958

*National Bureau of Economic Research, The National Economic Accounts of the United States, Review, Appraisal and Recommendations, General Series 64, Washington, 1958

Ruggles, “The U.S. National Accounts,” American Economic Review, March, 1959
Organization for European Economic Co-operation, A Standardised System of National Accounts, Paris, 1952

Gilbert, M. and I. B. Kravis, An International Comparison of National Products and the Purchasing Power of Currencies, A Study of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, Organization for European Economic Cooperation, Paris, 1954

Nove, A., “The United States National Income A La Russe,” Economica, Vol. 23, 1956

Gilbert, M., Comparative National Products and Price Levels, A Study of Western Europe and the United States, Organization of European Economic Cooperation, Paris, 1958

*Leontief, W. W., “Output, Employment, Consumption and Investment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1944

Leontief, W. W. The Structure of American Economy (New York, 1951)

*Dorfman, R., “The Nature and Significance of Input-Output,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 36, 1954

Stewart, I. G., “The Practical Uses of Input-Output Analysis,” Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 5, (Feb. 1958)

Dosser, D. and A. T. Peacock, “Input-Output Analysis in an Under-Developed Country: A Case Study,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 25, Oct. 1957

*Sigel, S. J., “A Comparison of the Structures of Three Social Accounting Systems,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Input-Output Analysis: An Appraisal, The Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 18, pp. 253-89

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Flow of Funds in the United States 1939-53 (Washington, D. C., 1955)

 

II. GENERAL AGGREGATIVE SYSTEM

Students without prior training in this field are advised to study D. Dillard, The Economics of John Maynard Keynes (New York, 1948), A. H. Hansen, A Guide to Keynes (New York, 1953), or K. Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian Dynamics (New York, 1956).

*Keynes, J. M., The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (New York, 1936)

*American Economic Association, Readings in Business Cycle Theory (Philadelphia, 1944), Essays 5, 7

Harris, S. E., The New Economics (New York, 1947), essays 8-19, 31-33, 38-46.

*Lerner, A. P., Economics of Control (New York, 1944), chapters 21-23, 25

*Kurihara, K. K., Post Keynesian Economics (New Brunswick, N. J., 1954), essays 1, 11*

*American Economic Association, Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution (Philadelphia, 1946), essay 24

Klein, L. R., The Keynesian Revolution, (New York, 1947), chapters 3-5.

Ellis, H. S., A Survey of Contemporary Economics (Philadelphia, 1948), Vol. 1, chapter 2

*Income, Employment and Public Policy, Essays in Honor of Alvin H. Hansen (New York, 1948), essay I

*Burns, A. F., “Economic Research and the Keynesian Thinking of Our Times,” in his The Frontiers of Economic Knowledge, (Princeton, 1954), or in the Twenty-Sixth Annual Report of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. (New York, 1946). See also the discussion by Hansen and Burns in the Review of Economic Statistics, November, 1947

Dillard, D., “The Influence of Keynesian Economics on Contemporary Thought,” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 1957

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest, and Prices (Evanston, Ill., 1956).

 

III. THEORY OF INTEREST

Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, essays 22, 23, 26

*Hicks, J. R., Value and Capital (Oxford, 1957), Chapters 11-12

Readings in Monetary Theory, essays 6, 11, 15

*Gurley, J. G., and E. S. Shaw, “Financial Aspects of Economic Development,” American Economic Review, September, 1955)

Hart, A. G., Money, Debt and Economic Activity, Second Ed., (New York, 1953)

Patinkin, D., “Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds: Stock and Flow Analysis,” Economica, Vol. 25, November, 1958

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest, and Prices (Evanston, Ill., 1956).

*Lydall, H., “Income, Assets, and the Demand for Money,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 40, Feb. 1958

Lutz, F. A., “The Interest Rate and Investment in a Dynamic Economy,” American Economic Review, Dec. 1945

See also Section VI — INVESTMENT DECISIONS

 

IV. CONSUMPTION FUNCTION

*Duesenberry, J. S., Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1949)

Haley, B. F., A Survey of Contemporary Economics (Homewood, Illinois, 1952), Vol. II, essay 2

Davis, T. E., “The Consumption Function as a Tool of Prediction,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1952

Heller, W. W., Boddy, F. M., and C. L. Nelson, Savings in the Modern Economy, a Symposium (Minneapolis, 1953)

*Friend, I., and S. Schor, “Who Saves?,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 41, May, 1959, Part 2

*Friend, I., and I. B. Kravis, “Entrepreneurial Income, Saving and Investment,”American Economic Review, June, 1957, pp. 269-301

Zellner, Arnold, “The Short-Run Consumption Function,” Econometrica, (Oct. 1957

*Ferber, R., “The Accuracy of Aggregate Savings Functions in the Post-War Years,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 37, May, 1955

*Tobin, J., “On the Predictive Value of Consumer Intentions and Attitudes,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 41, Feb., 1959

Dennison, E. F., “A Note on Private Saving,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1958
Post-Keynesian Economics, essay 15

Friedman, M., A Theory of the Consumption Function (Princeton, N. J., 1957)

Friedman, M., and G. Becker, “A Statistical Illusion in Judging Keynesian Models,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 65, Feb., 1957

Klein, L. R., “The Friedman-Becker Illusion,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 66, Dec., 1958

Morgan, J. N., Consumer Economics (New York, 1955)

Katona, G., and E. Mueller, Consumer Expectations 1953-56 (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1956)

Klein, L. R., ed., Contributions of Survey Methods to Economics (New York, 1954)

 

V. MULTIPLIER AND ACCELERATOR

*Kahn, R. F., “The Relation of Home Investment to Unemployment,” Economic Journal, 1931. Republished in Hansen and Clemence, Readings in Business Cycles and National Income (New York, 1953), essay 15

*Readings in Business Cycle Theory, essays 11-12

*Haavelmo, T., “Multiplier Effects of a Balanced Budget,” Econometrica, 1945; reprinted in Readings in Fiscal Policy, pp. 335-343

*Salant, William A., “Taxes, Income Determination, and the Balanced Budget Theorem,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1957

Peston, M. H., “Generalizing the Balanced Budget Multiplier,” and “Comment” by W. A. Salant, The Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1958

Bowen, W. G., “The Balanced-Budget Multiplier: A Suggestion for a More General Formulation,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1957

*Kuznets, S., “Relation Between Capital Goods and Finished Products in the Business Cycle,” in Economic Essays in Honor of Wesley Clair Mitchell, (New York, 1935)

*Knox, A. D. “The Acceleration Principle and the Theory of Investment: A Survey,” Economica, Vol. 19, 1952

*Tsiang, S. C., “Accelerator, Theory of the Firm, and the Business Cycle,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 65, 1951

*Tinbergen, “Statistical Evidence on the Acceleration Principle,” Economica, Vol. 5, 1938

Harrod, R. F., Towards a Dynamic Economics (London, 1948)

Hicks, J. R., A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle (Oxford, 1950)

Goodwin, R. M., “Problems of Trend and Cycle,” Yorkshire Bulletin, Vol. 5, August, 1953

Ott, A. E., “The Relation Between the Accelerator and the Capital Output Ratio,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 25, June, 1958

Minsky, H., “Monetary Systems and Accelerator Models,” American Economic Review, Vol. 47, 1957

See also VI — INVESTMENT DECISIONS.

 

VI. INVESTMENT DECISIONS

Lutz, F. A., and V., The Theory of Investment of the Firm (Princeton, 1951)

*Heller, W. W., “The Anatomy of Investment Decisions,” Harvard Business Review, March, 1951, pp. 95-103

*Pitchford, J. D. and A. J. Hagger, “A Note on the Marginal Efficiency of Capital,” The Economic Journal, Vol. 48, 1958

*Meade, J. E., and P. W. S. Andrews, “Summary of Replies to Questions on Effects of Interest Rates,” and “Further Inquiry into the Effects of Rates of Interest,” Oxford Economic Papers, No. 1, 1938 and No. 3, 1940

*Ebersole, J. F., “The Influence of Interest Rates,” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 17, 1938, pp. 35-39

*Henderson, H. D., “The Significance of the Rate of Interest,” Oxford Economic Papers, October, 1938, pp. 1-13

Andrews, P. W. S., “Further Inquiry into the Effects of Rates of Interest,” Oxford Economic Papers, Feb., 1940, pp. 32-73

Sayers, R. S., “Business Men and the Terms of Borrowing,” Oxford Economic Papers, Feb., 1940, pp. 23-31

*White, W. H., “Interest Inelasticity of Investment Demand—The Case from Business Attitude Surveys Re-examined,” American Economic Review, Sept. 1956, pp. 565-587

Brockie, M. D., and A. L. Gray, “The Marginal Efficiency of Capital and Investment Programming,” Economic Journal, Vol. 46, December, 1956

White, W. H., “The Rate of Interest, the Marginal Efficiency of Capital, and Investment Programming,” Economic Journal, Vol. 48, March, 1958

Grey, A. L., and M. D. Brockie, “The Rate of Interest, Marginal Efficiency of Capital and Net Investment Programming: A Rejoinder,” Economic Journal, June, 1959

Spiro, A., “Empirical Research and the Rate of Interest,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 40 (February, 1958).

*Duesenberry, J., Business Cycles and Economic Growth (New York, 1958), Chapters 1-8

Meyer, John R., and Edwin Kuh, The Investment Decision (Cambridge, Mass., 1957)

Cunningham, N. J., “Business Investment and the Marginal Cost of Funds,” Metroeconomica, Vol. 10, August, 1958

Cunningham, N. J., “Business Investment and the Marginal Cost of Funds,” Part II, Metroeconomica, Dec., 1958

Wilson, T., “Cyclical and Autonomous Inducements to Invest,” Oxford Economic Papers, Vol. 5, 1953

Hirschleifer, J., “On the Theory of Optimal Investment Decision,” The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 66, Aug., 1958

Lydall, H. F., “The Impact of the Credit Squeeze on Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Firms,” Economic Journal, Vol. 47, Sept., 1957

*Penrose, E., “Limits to the Growth and Size of Firms,” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 1955, pp. 531-43

Friend, I., and J. Bronfenbrenner, “Business Investment Programs and Their Realization,” Survey of Current Business, December, 1950

*Foss, M. F., and V. Natrella, “Ten Years’ Experience with Business Investment Anticipations,” Survey of Current Business, January, 1957

*Foss, M. F., and V. Natrella, “Investment Plans and Realizations—Reasons for Differences in Individual Cases,” Survey of Current Business, June, 1957

See also III—THEORY OF INTEREST and V—MULTIPLIER AND ACCELERATOR

 

VII. PRICE FLEXIBILITY AND EMPLOYMENT

*Pigou, A. C., “The Classical Stationary State,” Economic Journal, Dec., 1943

*Lange, O., Price Flexibility and Employment (Bloomington, Indiana, 1944)

*Friedman, M., “Lange on Price Flexibility and Employment,” American Economic Review, Sept., 1946

Readings in Monetary Theory, Essay 13

Schelling, T. C., “The Dynamics of Price Flexibility,” American Economic Review, Sept. 1949

Patinkin, D., Money, Interest, and Prices (Evanston, Illinois, 1956)

Hicks, J. R., “A Rehabilitation of ‘Classical Economics’,” Economic Journal, Vol. 47, June, 1957

*Power, J. H., “Price Expectations, Money Illusion and the Real Balance Effect,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 67, April, 1959

*Mayer, T., “The Empirical Significance of the Real Balance Effect,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 73, May, 1959

 

VIII. THEORY OF GROWTH

*Domar, E. D., Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth (New York, 1957), Foreword, Essays I, III-V

Fellner, W., Trends and Cycles I Economic Activity, (New York,1956)

Hansen, A. H., Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles (New York, 1941)

*Harrod, R. F., Towards a Dynamic Economics (London, 1948), Part III

Leontief, W. W., Studies in the Structure of the American Economy, (New York, 1953)

Robinson, J., The Accumulation of Capital, (London, 1956)

*Kuznets, Simon, “Towards a Theory of Economic Growth,” R. Leckachman, ed., National Policy for Economic Welfare at Home and Abroad, (New York, 1955)

*Solow, R. M., “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 1956, pp. 65-94

*Solow, R. M., “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1957, pp. 312-320

 

Source:  Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Papers of Evsey D. Domar, Box 15, Folder “Macroeconomics, Old Reading Lists”.

 

_________________________

Economics 14-451
E. D. Domar

FINAL EXAMINATION—Three Hours
January 24, 1961

Please use a separate book for each question.

 

Part I—One Hour

Write an essay in the field of your concentration as instructed in class. Please be specific.

 

Part II—Two Hours

Answer the THREE questions which are furthest removed from the topic discussed in Part I. They carry equal weights.

  1. “Thus the rate of interest is what it is because it is expected to become other than it is: if it is not expected to become other than it is, there is nothing left to tell us what it is…”
    1. Can you identify the author of this famous statement?
    2. Can you recognize whose interest theory he referred to?
    3. Explain and evaluate that theory critically.
    4. Present your own (original or otherwise) theory of interest.
  2. Write an essay on the subject of “The treatment of intermediate products in:
    1. National Income and Product Accounting
    2. Input-output method
    3. Flow-of Funds system
    4. Federal reserve Index of Industrial Production.” (Don’t panic if you can’t do (d), but if you can you’ll get a premium.
      Hint: there is more in this question, and particularly in part (a) than meets the eye. Consider the whole rationale of the methods.
  3. Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “The Rationale of Investment Decisions.” Consider as many cases as you can, but in each case specify clearly the assumptions made. (Don’t forget to include an undeveloped country case.) Can you generalize?
  4. Write a comprehensive and critical essay on the subject of “Price Flexibility and Employment.” Survey the relevant literature beginning with Keynes’ General Theory, and indicate clearly the nature of the assumptions, the definition of the concepts (hint: money), and the essence of the conclusions. What practical recommendations follow from your discussion?

 

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Papers of Evsey D. Domar, Box 16, Folder “Macroeconomics, Final Exams”.

Image Source: Evsey D. Domar photo at the M.I.T. Museum website.

Categories
Economists

Roosevelt College. Five lectures about Labor. Abba Lerner, 1949

 

 

Abba P. Lerner was quite a pack rat when it came to his lecture notes (but also his correspondence!). This post offers a glimpse into the archival record of  lecture outlines and keywords preserved as found in these notes. Sometimes we have a polished outline, sometimes there is what appears to be a brief lecture synopsis, and in this case we also have both handwritten drafts of notes as well as his typed notes (on note cards…who would have thought?) for the lectures.

All the material transcribed below comes from a single folder in Abba P. Lerner’s papers:

Source: Library of Congress. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 23. Folder “Lectures and speeches: Other”.

I have added a source note to each item with a brief description of its physical form (typed, handwritten, paper v. notecards).

Abbreviations encountered in Lerner’s notes:

ap–average product (of labor)
DF–Democratic Functionalism
FE–Full Employment
FF–Functional Finance
mp–marginal product (of labor)
NG–no good
TU–Trade Union

________________________

An
Economist…
Looks
at Labor

Series of Five Lectures
by Abba P. Lerner

Tuesday Evenings, 7:30-9:30, March 1 to 29, 1949

March 1—Philosophy—Capitalism, Socialism, Laborism

March 8—Ideology—Labor and Democracy

March 15—Theory—Bourgeoisie, Marxist and Laborist Economics

March 22—Policy—Labor and Prosperity

March 29—Prophesy—Labor Under Full Employment

THE SPEAKER

Mr. Lerner is an economist of international reputation. One of the leading exponents of the Keynesian school, he contributed to the development of the concept of functional finance which underlies the Employment Act of 1946 and the British White Paper on Full Employment of 1944. He started his academic career as a lecturer at the London School of Economics, and has lectured at the Universities of California and Virginia, at Columbia University, and at the New School for Social Research in New York. His book, “The Economics of Control,” published in 1944 by Macmillan, is an outstanding exposition of the theory of planning for economic welfare. Mr. Lerner is Professor of Economics at Roosevelt College.

 

ADMISSION

Tickets for the whole series (five lectures): $4.00
Single lecture tickets, if available, may be purchased at the door at $1.00

 

CREDITS

One hour of college credit will be given for the series of five lectures if a written examination is taken at a sixth session on April 5.

Students who wish to secure credit will be charged at the regular rate of $10.00 for one semester hour. They should register in advance at the main floor information desk.

 

PREREQUISITES FOR CREDIT

Students may enroll for credit if they have complete six semester hours of introductory courses in the social sciences or introductory courses in economics, sociology, or political science. Consent of the lecturer may replace these prerequisites

Series tickets may be secured from the Business Office in Room 818.

Sponsored by
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Roosevelt College—Chicago

430 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVENUE, CHICAGO 5—Wabash 2-3580

 

Source:  Official printed event poster.

________________________

The Role of Labor
in Present-Day Society

Ever since Karl Marx, social reformers and progressives have looked upon labor organizations as the carriers of economic and social progress.

Since the inception of trade unionism, organized labor has come a long way. From revolutionary institutions outside the framework of private property and free enterprise, they have become part and parcel of our social and economic system. Labor leaders, once impotent outlaws, are now the holders of great political and economic power. The discussion of unionism used to center around the problems of the underdog; but today we are concerned with the responsibilities that should go with the increasing power of labor.

The following questions are frequently raised: “Which are the goals that organized labor tries to attain by the use of its power?” “Can the exercise of this power be harmful to society and should it be restricted?” How is “Economic Democracy” related to political and social democracy? Are the ideals of a free society compatible with the goal of “class liberation”?

Professor Lerner will endeavor in this series of lectures to analyze these and similar problems. He will pay particular attention to the problems of monopoly, both of capital and of labor, and to the role of labor in a society which has succeeded in achieving and maintaining full employment.

 

Source:  From the printed announcement flyer.

________________________

Typed draft description

There is much loose talk nowadays about the rise of labor to power and the responsibility that should go with this power. This can be interpreted positively as directing attention to ways in which labor would exercise this power toward the end of implementing the ideals that are associated with the labor movement, But it can also be interpreted negatively as suggesting that labor should be so careful to avoid using its power in ways that would harm society that it would simply not exercise its power at all. No judgment can properly be made on the meaning of Labor’s responsibility without first clarifying the nature of both the ideals and the dangers; and this cannot be done without first distinguishing between the ideals and the interests of the working people on the one hand and of the organizations that we often call “labor” on the other. It is also necessary to explore the relationships between the liberal ideals of a free society and labor’s ideals of class liberation, between democracy and “economic democracy”, and between the economic theories that are often identified with the interests or prejudiced of capitalists, and those that are more closely associated with labor and its economic and political organizations.

Professor Lerner will endeavor in this course of lectures to analyse these problems and will pay particular attention to the problem of monopoly, both of capital and of labor, to the problems connected with achieving and maintaining full employment and to the special problems that would arise in connection with labor in a society which had succeeded in achieving and maintaining full employment.

 

Source:  Carbon copy of typed single page.

________________________

Outline of the Five Lectures

Abba P. Lerner

An Economist Looks at Labor Five Lectures March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 1949 at 7:30 P.M.

(For those taking the course for credit an examination period following the lectures.

Prerequisite Soc. Sc. 102 or Ec. Pol Sci and Soc 101)

  1. Philosophy—Capitalism, Socialism and Laborism.
    What does labor want? What can Labor get? The nature of social cooperation. The means and the ends. Labor and labor organizations.
  2. Ideology—Labor and Democracy.
    The interest of Labor and the general interest. Property and privilege. [handwritten note:“T.U.’s (trade unions’) & workers’ dignity”] Welfare economics. Laborism and Liberalism. Economic Democracy. Democratic Functionalism. Output, effort and income. Labor organizations and liberty. Progress and the progressive Democracy. Dictatorship and Efficiency. Imports and wages.
  3. Theory—Bourgeoise, Marxist, and Laborist Economics.
    The share of labor. Marginalism. Bargaining power. The labor theory of value. The International Labor Office. Labor legislation. Capitalism Cooperation and Competition. Monopoly in business and in labor. The dictatorship of the proletariat. Payment and productivity. [handwritten note:“wages & efficiency”] Minimum wages. [handwritten note:“Wider meaning of exploitation”]
  4. Policy—Labor’s stake in and responsibility for prosperity.
    The determinants of employment. Labor’s freedom from some dogmas. Inflation and Deflation. Wage rates and cost of living. Full employment policy. Anti-labor objections to Full employment policy. Functional Finance.
  5. Prophesy—Labor under Full Employment.
    Inflationary pressure. Excessive bargaining power. Function of the Trade Unions. Residue of fear of unemployment. Dangers to Capitalism. Dangers to Freedom. Dangers to Progress. A substitute for collective bargaining. Effects on Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

 

Source:  Typed single page outline.

________________________

Typed draft of notes for Lecture 1 (Version A)

Lecture I Capitalism, Socialism, Laborism. Philosophy

I am feeling my way[.] Sentimental associations and loyalties[.] Humanism basic. Identification with Labor organisations. We must check. In case the organization claiming to enhance the dignity of the working man may not be lowering it instead.

means not ends—

Labor organisations as part of the organization of our whole society.

Capitalism. From the point of view of the private capitalist and th[at] from the point of view of the collectivist (anti-capitalist) socialist.

Two extreme dogmas.

Socialism from the extreme points of view. Labor org[anisation]s as means to communism.

Enlightened capitalism-enlightened capitalists who still seek profit—and enlightened socialism—meet in Democratic Functionalism.

Parallel in the price mechanism. DF [“Democratic Functionalism”]

none of these views is that of Laborism. Getting more.
as narrow as any private capitalism. Re prices until very lately and that not very clear. More on this in lecture 3. degree of monopoly and rate of markup.

combinations of narrow interests remains narrow log rolling pork barrels.

interests of the TU [trade union] bureaucrat, loyalty works the same way. (like national sovereignty)

[handwritten note:“Labor as agent for extending Democracy – Univ(ersal) Suff(rage), Univ(ersal) Education”]

Source:  Typed single page of notes.

________________________

Typed draft of notes for Lecture 1 (Version B)

Lecture 1 March 1st 1949 Philosophy. Capitalism, Socialism, Laborism.

Not Work, or even working men, but the organisations of working men. In relation to the interests of working men as a majority of all men in which I am interested.

This what is meant by “not believing in the class struggle”. Humanism is the basic philosophy that I start with and that I find all decent people do to when you get down to rock bottom. Sometimes it is difficult to get down to rock bottom.

Dogmas get in the way. The class enemy as an excuse for inhumanity, just like the National or Racial enemy. Labor organisations as means. Always check whether it really does work for the interests of working men, to raise their dignity rather than to lower it. And incidentally, we find that a wider interest in all men helps rather than hinders the well-being of working men.

Capitalist view. 1.2. The two extreme views go together. Profit, Exploitation 3: A social organization enlightened capitalism, (not enlightened capitalists—capitalists must seek profit)

Socialism: Robbery, millennium through abolition of profit. class collaboration the greatest sin.

Democratic Functionalism. Serving society, Property, private and social, as means for serving society. serving people better. providing wealth, freedom, opportunity, maximum freedom which includes wealth.

Laborism, something else. Getting more. As narrow as any business man, applies not to labor but to the particular group. like “business” Works on relative shares.

Degree of monopoly or rate of markup determine rel[ative] share of labor as a whole, not the wage bargain.

The price mechanism parallel. Cap[italism]. Soc[ialism]. DF [Democratic Functionalism].

The interests of the labor organization, its officials etc. (bureaucracy) rationalisations; higher wages lead to greater productivity assumes higher real wages, assumes greater productivity.

 

Source:  Typed page of notes.

________________________

Typed notes for Lecture 1 (one note card)

Fancy Outline

I Philosophy. Cap[italism], Soc[ialism], Laborism.

Not work. Orgn of workers,
for working men, all men. Not
Class Struggle. Humanism
Decency.vs. Dogmas & Inhumanity.
Harmony of Workers and Men.

What Lab org can get for Workers.

Extreme Cap view

Profit as right, public be damned.
Lab org as enemy.
narrow
ignorant

Extreme Soc view

Propty as theft
Millenium by abolition of Prpty
Class war. Collaboration sin.

Reasonable views meet. Serve Socty.

D.F. max freedom. Equality, free
sectors, inequality if functional.
Freedom and Welfare the same.

U.S Soc?

Laborism 1. Group, narrow just like Bus.

2. Org. means & ends.

Dogma –worse—

If widened
Social cooperation: Max Freedom.

force can increase freedom. Place for State. Law—avoid arbitrariness.

Money wages to illustrate all.
(stands for all bargaining)

 

Source:  Typed note card.

________________________

Typed notes for Lecture 2 (one note card)

Lecture II March 8th 1949

Ideology—Labor and Democracy

Repeat

Humanism vs. Class view.
narrowness of interest
narrowness of ignorance. Social [point of] view.
organization as means.
DF functional inequality only.
vs. revolutionary demands.
Capitalism, Socialism, Laborism

 

Capitalism & Democracy—

Identification of Labor with Democracy

suffrage, education
Economic Democracy? meaningless?
Dignity of the worker in collective
bargaining. If not lost in the
bargaining organisation. Rackets.

The real job is real wages. scale of living.

derived from this are hours and conditions
paradox of lower pay for meaner work.
marginalism. Dtermination of real wge.

Raising money wges does not help. Illusion
from the particular. Capitalist form in
objecting, in blaming for unemployment.

Laborist form in demanding and blaming for
unemployment. Communists more consistent.

ILO            Ideal layout for rev. demands.

preventing hyperdeflation. sparking infl.

I.e. useful in depression.

Offsetting monopsony. Making a market

But the real protection is the dignity of
full employment.

Full employment brings us to the political
field.

 

Source:  Typed note card.

________________________

Typed notes for Lecture 3 (one note card)

III Theory—Bourgeoise, Marxist, Laborist

Last week:

Particularist Illusions, Cap & Lab.
TU cant raise gen real wage
Can prevent hyperdeflation.
reove [sic , “remove”?] monopsony

Real Wage determination

mp. Monopoly a factor. Exaggerated.

Bargaining, indeterminacy
irrelevant for general.

As long as private enterprise
significant. (rationality)
(Bourgeoise Theory OK)

Exploitation theory
Sentimentality (of Laborism) exploited by Marxism.
demagoguery of nationalization Profits.

Vulgar Marxism.

Marx and Pigou ap & mp
Justice and efficiency
Both (comp. a means)

Equality. Functional inequality
Non-functional inequality
is the test of expltn.

Source:  Typed note card

________________________

Typed synopsis of Lecture 3

Abba P. Lerner

Lecture III. An Economist Looks at Labor March 15th 1949

Trade Unions are comparable to Governments rather than to free associations. The pressure on workers to belong and pay for the benefits they get whether they belong or not is just like the pressure on citizens to pay taxes to the State or Municipality toward the cost of services from which they would benefit whether they paid their taxes or not.

The parallel extends to the way in which governments use their sovereignty for the benefit of their nationals as against the nationals under other governments. In the same way the benefits provided by trade unions are largely at the expense of the members of other unions, and there is the same kind of resistance to unification as there is to world government. We even have in this country two labor organizations although their rivalry is not anything like as dangerous as the counterpart in world power organization.

The opposition to the only explanation of the level of real wages, the explanation in terms of marginal analysis, springs from a sentimental attachment to the labor theory of value which is being exploited by the servants of present-day totalitarianism. Modern marxists in particular are doing just what Marx excoriated in what he called “Vulgar Political Economists” so that the proper name for them would be “Vulgar Marxists”. They extol the elimination of a particular kind of “exploitation” as the end of all “exploitation” closing their eyes to the fact that it may be replaced by New forms of exploitation that from any human point of view is much worse than what is abolished.

Source:  Typed page of notes.

________________________

PRESS RELEASE
for Lecture 3

FOR RELEASE TUESDAY, MARCH 22 [1949]

“Labor and Prosperity” will be discussed by Abba P. Lerner, noted economist, in a Roosevelt College public lecture March 22, 7;30 p.m., in Altgeld Hall at the college.

Dr. Lerner will make the parallel between the practices of unions which place pressure on workers to belong and pay for the benefits they get and the pressures exerted by governments on their citizens to pay taxes toward the cost of services from which they would benefit whether they paid taxes or not.

The lecture is part of an institute titled “An Economist Looks at Labor.”

Dr. Lerner, professor of economics at Roosevelt College, has been a member of the faculty of the London School of Economics and has lectured at leading American universities. He is the author of “The Economics of Control,” an outstanding exposition of the theory of planning for economic welfare.

Sent to: 4 Met. Papers, Journal of Commerce, Christian Science Monitor

cc: Dr. Sparling, Dean Hart, Dean Leys, Mr. Dibble, Mr. Lerner, E. Morrison, Information Desk, Torch, Community News Service, Al Morey—WBBM, Consolidated Clipping Serv., FILE

 

Source:  Lerner’s copy of Press Release.

________________________

Draft notes for Lecture 3 (typed with hand corrections)

Lecture III March 15th 1949

  1. Last week:

Illusion of the particular, capitalist and laborist.

TU’s unable to raise general real wage level.
prevent hyperdeflation. Responsible neither for employment or unemployment.

except monopsony—providing a given rate to the employer.

 

  1. Real wage determination—marginal productivity—degree of monopoly a factor.

difficulty of figuring marginal really irrelevant.

bargaining and indeterminacy misses the point, passed on anayway.

except for measures that reduce degree of monopoly.

 

  1. Exploitation. Marx a.p., Pigou m.p. Justice and Efficiency. Both by different methods.

Equality (basic to socialism) and functional inequality.

National dividend equal (according to need) and wage equal to vmp. is the ideal. –competition (a means)

Vulgar Political Economy and Vulgar Marxism. Sentimentality exploited by Marxists. Demagoguery.

Exploitation need not be by private property any more than by slavery or serfdom. The test is non-functional inequality.

 

  1. How then can wages (real) be raised (in general)
    1. productivity. (TU’s are often tempted to hinder this. Lester and Shister)
      Insights into Labor Issues
      Unionism and Marginal Productivity Theory. Belfer and Bloom
      TU Policy under Full Employment. Forsey

[handwritten addition: “Werth, Nation.”]

    1. Decrease monopoly, increase competition,
      Limits to this. Rents not eliminated.
    2. By redistributive taxation.
    3. By Full employment which helps all three of these.

 

  1. TU as sovereign bodieswith governmental functions

Political Power, narrow, like Nationalism.

Resistance to unification may be [two words illegible].

Monopoly on way to socialism.

Imperialism on way to World government.

Full employment prior to all of these.

 

Source:  Lerner’s single typed page and handwritten additions for Lecture III.

________________________

Typed notes for Lecture 4 (three note cards)

IV Policy—Lab & Prosperity

Last week—

No function for TU
Real wages by prod x monply
Exploitation—Justice, Efficiency
Vulgar Marxism

Test—Nonfunctional inequality.

Eff & Justice. (cf Welfare & Freedom)

TU do not help. Sentiments. exploited.

TUs explicable rather in political terms.

Sovereignty.

Dues like taxes—for benefit
Power of Govts—before benefits to workers (dem helps)
Narro—like Nations.
Resist Unification—cf World Government.
Nothing more obvious.
Loyalty.

Monopoly of partial combn.
–cf Imperialism on way to World Gvt.

Economic representation difficulty of fitting in
with Geographical constituencies. Syndicalism.

How then raise Real Wages?

  1. Productivity
    TU’s often hinder
  2. Increase competition
    [leaves rents (ap-mp)]
  3. Redistribute Income & Wealth

FE prior to all these.

FE prior to these

Cf England labor restriction
increases competition
mobility useful, possible

How FE?.

Low wage and high wage fallacies.
particularism.
FE automatic, impossible Doctrinaire
Labor freer from Sound Finance dogma.

Governmental responsibility.

both Bus and Lab suspicious.

Unemployment in nobody’s interest.

Functional Finance.

Next Week: Problems in FE

 

Source:  Three typed note cards

________________________

Loose typed notes for Lecture 4 [?]

The responsibility of labor for maintaining the value of money and thus of the price system and the free society.

Technique for maintaining a wage structure compatible with a constant cost of living. See older writings like The State Theory of Money (?)

one percent rise every four months with adjustments for deviations from the national average percentage of unemployment.

I shall have to develop the machinery for establishing wage rates, relative, without harming the interests of the working people. Avoid the word class though explain why before the analysis.

Why the free market will not do the trick—it depends on the use of mass unemployment as an instrument of adjustment.

Why control wages and not prices. See article on Inflation. In forthcoming RESt.

[handwritten note:“What are the prospect for CIO & AFL & Labor Party. Labor’s past contribution to dignity and democracy.”]

 

Source:  Typed single page of notes

________________________

Lecture notes for Lecture V

 

V Prophesy—Labor Under Full Employment

Last week—

TU’s [Trade unions] not economic but political, narrow, jealous
sovereignty,
loyalty
imperialism
protectionism (e.g. seniority)

raise real wages by

efficiency
competition
redistribution

Chief instrument full employment.

TU’s  [Trade unions] freer from prejudices which prevent full employment policies. (business prejudices)

Fe via FF [Full employment via Functional Finance]

 

With Full Employment

Depression and inflation. cumulative movements. TU  [Trade unions] prevent hyperdeflation.

inflationary pressure. Excessive bargaining power.

Preaching no use. price stability via unemployment,

price control no use, it also works only via unemployment.

Formula for wage determination (tentative) has to be fair.

One big union—Union responsibility, no obvious solution.

The formula 1%, 2% every 4 months.

no restrictions on entry, maximise mobility, full employment basic.

fair to those in, fair to those out. Fair to workers, fair to employers. Prevents exploitation, demands for more are demands for preferential treatment, demand to pay less is demand for maintaining substandards.

the functions of Trade Unions, negotiations, understanding, belonging

sliding scales no good.

 

Source:  Typed, single page.

________________________

 Typed notes for lecture 5 (two note cards)

V Prophesy Lab under FE

Last week: TU’s Political

Sovereignty
loyalty
imperialism
protectionism
World govt.

Efficiency, Comptn, Redistn
Via FE—Lab can help, freer from Prej.

FE via FF

With FE

Depn and Infln. Cumulatn.
Hyper defl, infl.

Excessive bargaining power
Preaching no use.

One Big Union, ?

Responsibility?

The Formula (with FE)
1%. 2%. Max mobility.
Fair to all.

Why control wages without controlling prices?
works via unemployment.

prevents all exploitation
functional inequality

Sliding scales NG [no good]

Other problems other means

redistribution
public utilities
compensation

Fairness, privilege, or under privilege

TU’s have other functions

feeling of belonging
human dignity
handling grievances
negotiation, clrifiction [sic]
Most important, work for FE.

Source:  Two typed note cards

________________________

Draft of handout[?] for Lecture V 

Abba P. Lerner 5th Lecture (also the last) March 29th 1949
An Economist Looks at Labor
V. — Prophesy[:] Labor Under Full Employment.

The objectives of Labor organizations, as far as labor as a whole is concerned, can be reached most effectively by a full employment policy. This would not only give workers security of livelihood, that would enhance their human dignity more than it could be enhanced even by the most successful of labor organizations and labor legislation, and would also increase the share of the national product enjoyed by labor by leading to an increase in the degree of competition or in other words to the diminution of the degree of exploitation of labor by monopoly. Full employment would also increase the efficiency of the economy as a whole and so actually enlarge the cake of which labor would also get a larger share.

But in full employment conditions, the bargaining power of workers’ organizations would be too strong.

From the point of view of each workers’ organization it seems essential that their strength be maintained. This is because any group of workers whose bargaining power is relatively weaker would be left behind in the struggle between wages and prices that ensues. But from the general or even from the workers’ point of view taking all the workers together, the bargaining power of the workers is too strong for their own good. The pressure on wages would result in continually rising wages and consequently in continually rising cost of production and of prices of products. The workers as a whole would not gain from this because they would lose in higher prices what they gain from higher wages, and would lose further from the disturbances and dislocations of the economy from the inflation. It would therefore be advisable for some other method to be adopted for the determining of wages which would maintain stability while still giving fair wages, as high as is permitted by the productivity of the country. Professor Lerner will suggest some lines on which such a method of determining wages could be developed that would not be an excuse for hiding or perpetuating any kind of exploitation, either of workers by employers, or of some group of workers in the interests of other groups.

 

Source:  Typed single page of notes

Image Source:  Publicity photo of Abba Lerner as Guest Speaker February 25, 1958 in the Beth Emet 1958 Forum. Library of Congress. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 6, Folder 8.

Categories
Economic History Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate Yale

Yale. Undergraduate Economic History of Europe. Cohen, 1972

 

Today’s post is the course outline with readings for the undergraduate course on the economic history of Europe since the Industrial Revolution that I took at Yale during the Spring semester of my junior year (1972). The course was taught by assistant professor Jon S. Cohen. 

From the perspective of today it is hard to imagine the sheer abundance of courses in economic history offered at that time. I have already posted the course outlines for Harry Miskimin’s course on the Economic History of Europe through the Industrial Revolution and William Parker’s course on U.S. Economic History, as well as Ray Powell’s course on History of the Soviet Economy.

While I must confess that I cannot summon any particular memory from the class itself beyond what I have managed to internalize from the readings below, a mere bibliographic residual, there was a later paper written by Cohen along with another one of my M.I.T. professors that possessed the needed  salience to survive in my memory to this day:

Jon S. Cohen and Martin Weitzman. A Marxian model of enclosures. Journal of Development Economics, 1975, vol. 1, issue 4, 287-336.

____________________

American Economic Association Membership Listing (1981)

Cohen, Jon S. Div. of Soc. Sci., Scarborough Coll., U. of Toronto, West Hill, ON M1C 1A4, Canada. Birth Year: 1939. Degrees: B.A. Columbia Coll., 1960; M.A., U. of Calif. at Berkeley, 1964; Ph.D., U. of Calif. at Berkeley, 1966. Prin. Cur. Position: Associate Prof., U. of Toronto, 1972-. Concurrent/Past Positions:  Asst. Prof., Yale U., 1966-72. Research: European economic history and th eeocnomics of education.

Source: Biographical Listing of Members. American Economic Review, Vol. 71, No. 6. (Dec., 1981), p. 101.

List of Publications: 1996-2019.

____________________

 

Economic History of Europe
Since the Industrial Revolution
Economics 81b (History 60b)
Spring 1972

Mr. J. Cohen
501 SSS
Ex. 63246

You are expected to read all (or large parts) of the following books:

David Landes, The Unbound Prometheus

Paul Mantoux, The Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century

E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class

T.S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830

J. H. Clapham, The Economic Development of France and Germany, 1815-1914

An attempt will be made to devote at least one class meeting each week to discussion of these books and other assigned readings. Topics which will be covered and suggested reading are listed below.

I. Preliminaries to Industrialization:

A) Trade and Political Change

W. E. Minchinton (ed.), The Growth of English Overseas Trade, Introduction.

B. Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Chapter I.

P. Mantoux, Part I, Chapter 2.

B) Population Change

Michael Drake (ed.), Population in Industrialization, Introduction, Chapters 3, 6, 7.

C) Agricultural Change

E. L. Jones (ed.), Agriculture and Economic Growth, Introduction, Chapter 44.

[addition, handwritten] Marx Vol. I, Part 8—Accumulation of Capital. Chapters 27-30.

P. Mantoux, Part I, Chapter 3.

II. Industrial Revolution in Great Britain

A) Industrial Change

D. Landes, Chapters 2-3.

T. Ashton, Chapter 3.

P. Mantoux, Part I, Chapter 1; Part II.

[addition, handwritten] Karl Polanyi, Great Transformation

B) Finance and Capital

P. Deane, The First Industrial Revolution, Chapters 10, 11, 13.

T. Ashton, Chapters 4-5.

C) Social and Economic Conditions

P. Mantoux, Part III.

E. P. Thompson, Part II.

T. Ashton, Chapters V-VI.

D) The Course of Economic Change After 1830

E. J. Hobsbawm, Chapters VI-IX. [Industry & Empire]

M. Dobb, Studies in the Development of Capitalism, Chapter 9.

III. Industrialization on the Continent

D. Landes, Chapters III-V.

A. Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Chapter 1.

J. H. Clapham, selected chapters on France and Germany [1848-1915 Germany]

B. Supple (ed.), The Experience of Economic Growth, selected chapters. [Landes, Cameron,

[addition, handwritten] Cameron (ed.), Essays in French Economic History. Claude Fohlen, Ind. Rev. in France.

IV. The International Economy to 1914

R. Triffin, Our International Monetary System, Part I, Chapter I.

R. Winks (ed.), British Imperialism, 11-51, 82-96.

V. The Interwar Period and After

W.A. Lewis, Economic Survey, 1919-1939, selected chapters.

[handwritten addition to bottom of page]

Gallagher and Robinson, The Imperialism of Free Trade. E.H.R., 1953

Eckstein (ed.), Comparison of Economic Systems: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches

Rosovsky (ed.), Industrialization in Two Systems

[handwritten addition, back of the second page of syllabus]

Possible paper topics.

  1. Enclosures and population movements in Great Britain in the 17th century
  2. Patters of enclosure in France
  3. Land markets in 18th century Britain
  4. Colonial policy in Britain—Sources of policy. Interest groups.
  5. Eric Williams—impact of slavery on Industrialization
  6. Labor movement and progress of England. Awareness, Consciousness
  7. Rise of protection and aggressive foreign policy.

Source:  Personal Copy, Irwin Collier.

Image Source: Jon S. Cohen webpage at the University of Toronto.

 

 

Categories
Economics Programs Harvard

Harvard. Completion rates for economics graduate students, 1947-57

 

 

Here is an interesting summary of the spectrum of completion from drop-out through award of the Ph.D. in economics for Harvard University 1947-1957.  Note the labels  “desperate, doubtful, better, safe” for the forecasted prospects of students who had left the gravitational pull of residency.

____________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
1947-57

Comment:

The attached survey shows the history of graduate students in the Department of Economics from 1947-57. The details by years are available in Littauer M-8, but we are not duplicating that part of the report.

You will note that of 525 students (378 Arts and Sciences, 50 Radcliffe and 97 Graduate School of Public Administrations) in these ten years, there were a total of 113 withdrawals, about 55% because of poor grades and 45% despite good grades. Of the remaining 412 students, 40 have had but one year’s residence and have not yet taken the General Examination, while 372 have taken and passed the General Examination for an advanced degree. Of these, 69, or about 16%, were awarded a terminal A.M. largely because they passed for the A.M. only. This leaves 303 who have passed the General Examination for the Ph.D., but so far only 152, or roughly 50% have received their Ph.D. There are 50 students still in residence working on their thesis. Of 101 students no longer in residence, 69 have thesis overdue and 39 have not yet written their thesis but are still within the five year limit.

Further details may be had by glancing at the attached sheet.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
1947-57
SUMMARY

1.

 Enrollment 1947-57:
(Arts and Sciences 378, Radcliffe 50, Graduate School of Public Administration 97)

525

2.

 Withdrawn

a)

 with poor grades, in discontent or upon request:

after one term

20

after two terms

36

after four terms

_6_

62

b)

 despite good grades:

after two terms

48

after four terms

3

after more than four terms

_0_

51
Total Withdrawals

113

3.

 Now in residence before General Examination

40
Forecast:

Prospects for withdrawal

6

Prospects for terminal A.M.

14

Prospects for Ph.D.

20

4.

 Passed General Examination for advanced degree

372

5.

 A.M. Awarded as terminal degree 69

6.

 A.M. expected as terminal degree

5

7.

 A.M. awarded in course toward Ph.D. degree

188

8.

 Candidates for the Ph.D. degree

343

9.

 Ph.D. degree awarded

152

10.

 Students still in residence working on thesis
(29 of these, 3 yrs residence; 2, less than 3 yrs)

50
Forecasts:

Prospects for completion safe

40

Prospects for completion doubtful

10

11.

 No longer in residence, thesis overdue

62
Forecasts:

Prospects for completion desperate
(Poor record: thesis overdue 2-5 yrs.)

26

Prospects for completion doubtful
(Fair record; thesis overdue 1-4 yrs.)

13

Prospects for completion better
(Good record; thesis overdue 1-4 yrs.)

23

12.

 No longer in residence, thesis within 5 yr. limit

39
Forecasts:

Prospects for completion doubtful

5

Prospects for completion safe

34

___

525

Summary:

Ph.D. prospects safe

117

Ph.D. awarded

152

Ph.D. awarded or safely expected

269

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence and Papers, 1930-1961. General-Exams-Haberler.(UAV.349.11), Box 13.

Image Source: Harvard Album, 1946.

 

 

Categories
Curriculum Fields Harvard

Harvard. Mathematical Economics Recognized as Subfield of Theory. E.B. Wilson, Crum, and Schumpeter, 1933

 

What I find particularly striking in the following report of the Committee on Instruction in Mathematical Economics at Harvard (note the  first named of the trio is E. B. Wilson) is the forecast that economics graduate students will need to acquire tools of mathematical economics and statistics already in the mid 1930s because they will need them later, 1953-63, when they will be “at the height of their activity” and by which time (implicitly) the “rapidly increasing importance of theoretical and statistical work involving higher mathematics” will have caught up with them. I have appended the course names for the statistics and mathematics courses referred to by number in the report.

Related postings: 

_____________________

Meeting of the Committee (Wilson, Crum, Schumpeter) on
Instruction in the Mathematical Economics
Tuesday, May 9 [1933]

In view of the rapidly increasing importance of theoretical and statistical work involving higher mathematics, and of the possibility that a considerable number of economists may have to be adequately familiar with both mathematical theory and statistical procedure twenty to thirty years from now, that is, when many of our present students will be at the height of their activity, the Committee (Wilson, Crum, Schumpeter) agreed on the following recommendations to be submitted to the Department which they believe to be both necessary and sufficient in order to provide facilities for events to work in mathematical theory as applied to economics:

(1) Any student who may wish to do so should be allowed to offer mathematical economics as his special field within the requirements for the Ph.D. This would involve but a slight alteration of existing practice which permits students to choose some branch of economic theory as a special field. The committee’s suggestion is merely that mathematical economics should be added to the other special subjects in economic theory which a student may select.

It seems desirable, moreover, to permit that any such student may select mathematics or rather some branch of pure or applied mathematics in place of one of the two remaining fields he has to offer.

(2) Advanced work in mathematical economics should conform to modern tendencies by stressing equally the mathematical side of economic theory and mathematical statistics. No student who elects mathematical economics as his special field should be allowed to do the one without the other. Especially courses 31a and 32b should be required also from students mainly interested in pure theory.

(3) Work in the Department of Mathematics through Math 5 should be considered as the minimum requirement as to mathematical training. Credit should be given only for Math 5, but not for any of the still more elementary course preparatory to it, which most of the students taking up mathematical economics will have had anyhow in their undergraduate period.

(4) No further steps should be taken at present. It seems best to see what the response will be before attempting to organize a special graduate course. The mathematical aspect of our subject is being dealt with in some courses already, and any Ph.D. candidates who may present themselves in case the rules be altered as recommended could easily be taken care of individually.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Copy of Letter from Harold H. Burbank to Joseph Schumpeter

October 3, 1933

Dear Joe,

I have read and approved without qualification the report of the Committee on Instruction in Mathematical Economics.

I think this report should be brought before the Department on the evening of Tuesday, October 10.

Very sincerely yours,

Prof. J. A. Schumpeter
2 Scott Street

HHB:VS

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Graduate Instruction in the Mathematical Economics
Department Vote, October 10, 1933

In view of the rapidly increasing importance of theoretical and statistical work involving higher mathematics, and of the possibility that a considerable number of economists may have to be adequately familiar with both mathematical theory and statistical procedure twenty to thirty years from now, that is, when many of our present students will be at the height of their activity, the Committee (Wilson, Crum, Schumpeter) agreed on the following recommendations to be submitted to the Department which they believe to be both necessary and sufficient in order to provide facilities for events to work in mathematical theory as applied to economics.

The Department voted to accept the recommendations stated as follows:

(1) Any student who may wish to do so should be allowed to offer mathematical economics as his special field within the requirements for the Ph.D. This would involve no alteration of existing practice, which permits students to choose some branch of economic theory as a special field. The committee’s suggestion is that mathematical economics should be admissible.

(2) Any students using mathematical economics as his special field should be allowed to offer some branch of pure or applied mathematics as an allied field.

Work in the Department of Mathematics through Math 5, or the equivalent, should be considered as the minimum requirement as to mathematical training. Credit should be given only for Math 5, but not for any more elementary course preparatory to it.

(3) Advanced work in mathematical economics should conform to modern tendencies by stressing equally the mathematical side of economic theory and mathematical statistics. Therefore courses 31a and 32b should be required of anyone in electing mathematical theory as his special field.

(4) No further steps need be taken at present. It seems best to see what the response will be before attempting to organize a special graduate course. Any individual cases calling for special attention can be dealt with, under the proposed regulation, as our courses now stand.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and papers 1930-1961. (UAV349.11), Box 13.

_____________________

Statistics Courses offered in the Department of Economics
at Harvard, 1934-35

Economics 31a 1hf (formerly Economics 41a). Theory of Economic Statistics, I

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Crum and Asst. Professor Frickey.
Economics 1a, or its equivalent, is a prerequisite for this course.

Economics 31b 2hf (formerly Economics 41b). Theory of Economic Statistics, II

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Crum and Asst. Professor Frickey.
Economics 1a, or its equivalent, is a prerequisite for this course.

Economics 32b 2hf (formerly Economics 42). Foundations of Statistical Theory

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., 3 to 4.30. Professor E. B. Wilson.
Economics 31a and one year of Calculus are prerequisites for this course.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1933-34(second edition), Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXX, No. 39 (September 20, 1933), p. 128.

_____________________

Undergraduate Mathematics Courses
at Harvard, 1934-35

Mostly Freshmen

[Mathematics] A. Professors J. L Coolidge et al. — Analytic Geometry; Introduction to the Calculus.

Mostly Sophomores

[Mathematics] 2. Professors Graustein et al. — Differential and Integral Calculus; Analytic Geometry.

Mostly Juniors

[Mathematics] 5a1hf. Professor Morse. — Differential and Integral Calculus (advanced course), Part I

[Mathematics] 5a2hf. Professor Morse. — Differential and Integral Calculus (advanced course), Part II

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1934-35, p. 86.

 

Images:  Left to right: William Leonard Crum, Joseph A. Schumpeter, Edwin Bidwell Wilson. From the 1934 (Crum) and 1939 (Schumpeter and Wilson) Harvard Class Albums.

 

 

Categories
Columbia Socialism Syllabus

Columbia. Communistic and Socialistic Theories. Course Outline. J. B. Clark, 1908

 

 

The artifact transcribed for this posting consists of two pages of handwritten notes for a course that was regularly offered by John Bates Clark on socialist and communist economic theories. An earlier post included an essay written by Clark in 1879 on meanings of socialism. 

This is the 1000th artifact transcribed for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. 

_______________________

ECONOMICS 109 — Communistic and Socialistic Theories. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30, first half-year. 406 L.

This course studies the theories of St. Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Rodbertus, Marx, Lassalle, and others. It aims to utilize recent discoveries in economic science in making a critical test of these theories themselves and of certain counter-arguments. It examines the socialistic ideals of distribution, and the effects that, by reason of natural laws, would follow an attempt to realize them through the action of the state.

Source:  Columbia University. Bulletin of Information. Courses Offered by the Faculty of Political Science and the Several Undergraduate Faculties. Announcement 1905-07. p. 26.

_______________________

Econ. 109—Jan. 1908

                                                                        Practical relations

1          Definitions of Socialism.

2          Distinction bet[ween] Soc[ialism] and Communism

3          [Distinction between Socialism and] Anarchism

4          Possibility of Socialism without Communism & vice versa

5          Ancient labor movements

6          Agrarianism.ancient and mediaeval in Rome.

7          Mediaeval and early modern labor movements

8          Economic causes of the French Revolution

9          Socialism during the Rev. and the 1st Empire.

(1) theoretical           (2) practical

10        Life and teachings of Saint-Simon

11        [Life and teachings of] Fourier

12        [Life and teachings of] Proudhon

13        France under Louis XVIII and Charles X

14        The revolution of 1830

15        France under Louis Philippe

16        The revolution of 1848

17        Socialism of 1848

18        Life and teachings of Louis Blanc

19        Life and teachings of Rodbertus

(1) Relation to Ricardo’s system
(2) Theory of Crises

20        Life of Karl Marx

21        Relation of Marx’ system to that of Rodbertus

22        Marx theory of U[se] Value. Ex[change] Val[ue] & Val[ue].

Dif[ference] in
application to
goods[?] made by
same[?] L[abor]
& dif[ferent] C[apital]

23        Basis in Ric[ardo of] the Function of Money

24        [Basis in Ricardo of] Surplus Value  (later)

25        [Basis in Ricardo of] the Effect of Machinery

26        Criticism of the Surplus Value theory

27        Merits and demerits of the general Marxian System

28       Change in the character of the socialistic movement due to the growth of monopolies

29       Trade unions and their purposes

30       Socialism and the trade union movement

31       The practicability of a partially socialistic society, of a completely [socialistic society]

 

Marx Biog[raphy] Publications.

Theory—Val[ue], [unclear word] Basis of dif[ference] Exchange V[alue]–Use V[alue]

Include  App[lication?] to L

[Include] Basis of the criticism of cost of [abor]

[Include] Marx app[lied?] to goods made by dif[ferent] proportions of l[abor] and c[apital]. His solution of difficulty.

[Include] Criticism

[Include] Modern theory of imputation as app[lication?] to prod[uct?] of l[abor] and of c[apital].

[Include] Surplus val[ue] theory–Full statement. Criticism.

[Include] Effect as above of app[lication?] of th[eory] of imputation. Marx th[eory] of  effects of machinery.

 

Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. John Bates Clark Papers, Box 3, Folder 23, Series II.1 “Economics 109”, 1908.

Image Source: John Bates Clark portrait from the webpage “Famous Carleton Economists“.