Month: March 2020

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Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus

Johns Hopkins. Reading List for Monetary Economics, William Poole, 1964

 

Typically one encounters the work of senior scholars without having much of a clue about what they might have been like when they were young. While there is the occasional Peter Pan among us who have lived long lives as Wunderkinder (e.g. Paul Samuelson), the overwhelming majority of academic economists have developed, some even in a positive sense, so it is useful to have material from different points in their individual life cycles. This post provides a small window into the academic life of a young economist who was to go on to become a member of Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and the eleventh president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Professor William Poole. The reading list for monetary theory transcribed below comes from his second year at the Johns Hopkins University.

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William Poole’s Fed Biography

William Poole became the eleventh president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on March 23, 1998, and retired March 31, 2008.

Poole was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He received a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in 1959 and a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1963 and 1966, respectively. Before joining the St. Louis Fed, Poole was Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics at Brown University. He served on the Brown faculty from 1974 to 1998 and the faculty of Johns Hopkins University from 1963 to 1969. Between these two university positions, he was senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He was also a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the first Reagan administration from 1982 to 1985.

Poole has published numerous papers in professional journals and engaged in a wide range of professional activities. He has published two books: Money and the Economy: A Monetarist View in 1978 and Principles of Economics in 1991 (coauthored with J. Vernon Henderson). During his ten years at the St. Louis Fed, he delivered over 150 speeches on a wide variety of economic and finance topics.

In 1980 and 1981, Poole was a visiting economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia; in 1991, he was the Bank Mees and Hope Visiting Professor of Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He has served on various advisory boards of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York and the Congressional Budget Office. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Delaware, senior economic adviser to Merk Investments, and a special adviser to Market News International.

Swarthmore honored Poole with a doctor of laws degree in 1989. He was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2005 and presented with the Adam Smith Award by the National Association for Business Economics in 2006. In 2007, the Global Interdependence Center presented him its Frederick Heldring Award.

Source: William Poole page at the Federal Reserve History Website. 

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Monetary Theory—361
Fall 1964

W. Poole

READING LIST

TEXT: A.G. Hart and P.B. Kenen, Money, Debt and Economic Activity (3rd. ed.)

I The Nature of Money

Hart & Kenen, “Introduction”
D.H. Robertson, Money, Ch. 1, pp. 41-50

II The Supply of Money

Hart & Kenen, Chs. 1-7
E.S. Shaw, Money, Income and Monetary Policy, Chs. 2, 3, 6, 10
A. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Ch. 2
B. Kragh, ”Two Liquidity Functions and the Rate of Interest,” R.E. Stud. 17 (2) (1949-50) pp. 98-106
M. Friedman, “Commodity-Reserve Currency,” JPE 59 (June, 1951) pp. 203-32; reprinted in M. Friedman, Essays in Positive Economics, pp. 204-50

III Classical Quantity Theory

Hart & Kenen, Ch. 11
I. Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money, Chs. 1-5, 8
A.C. Pigou, “The Value of Money,” QJE 32 (1917-18) pp. 38-65; reprinted in RMT, pp. 162-83
A. Hansen, Ch. 3

IV The Demand for Money and the Rate of Interest

Hart & Kenen, Ch. 14
J.M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Chs. 13-15, 17
A. Hansen, Ch. 4
W.J. Baumol, ”The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach,” QJE 66 (Nov. 1952), pp. 545-56
J. Tobin, “The Interest-Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash,” R.E.Stat. 38 (Aug. 1956), pp. 241-47
_________, “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Towards Risk,” R.E.Stud. 25 (2) (Feb. 1958), pp. 65-86
M. Friedman, “The Quantity Theory of Money—A Restatement,” in M. Friedman (ed.) Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money

V Money and Economic Activity

Hart & Kenen, Chs. 12, 13
J.M. Keynes, Chs. 7-12, 18
M. Bailey, National Income and the Price Level, Chs. 1,2
A. Hansen, Ch. 5
J.R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the ‘Classics’: A Suggested Interpretation,” Econometrica 5 (April 1937), pp. 147-59

Source: Johns Hopkins University. The Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Series 6, Box 1, Folder “Course Outlines and Reading Lists, ca. 1950, 1963-68”.

Image Source: William Poole at the Federal Reserve Centennial, 2014.

Categories
Columbia History of Economics

Columbia. Reading List. Economic Thought Before Adam Smith. Dorfman, ca 1947

 

The following course reading list was included with other history of economics reading lists in Joseph Dorfman’s papers at Columbia University. Course catalogues from 1945-46 through 1957-58 were examined and they confirm that this course was indeed taught by Joseph Dorfman. While listed as offered during the 1947-48 and 1948-49 academic years, the course was explicitly bracketed as not offered from 1949-50 through 1957-58. The course was not offered before 1947-48.

____________________

Course Announcement 1947-1948
[also 1948-49]

Economics 111—History of economic doctrine to Adam Smith. 3 points Winter Session. Professor Dorfman.

Tu.Th. 1:10. 310 Fayerweather.

Various systems of economics with especial attention paid to the wider aspects of connection between theories and organization of industrial society at the time. Antiquity; Middle Ages; mercantilists; Physiocrats; and English precursors of Adam Smith.

Source: Columbia University. Bulletin of Information. Forty-seventh Series, No. 38 (September 13, 1947). Announcement of the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions 1947-1948, p. 46.

____________________

ECONOMICS 111

Ashley, W. J. An Introduction to English Economic history and Theory, Chapter VI

Beer, M. An Inquiry into Physiocracy

Beer, M. Early British Economics

Bonar, James Philosophy and Political Economy

Bonar, James Theories of Population

Dempsey, Bernard W. Interest and Usury, Chap. 4-7

Heckscher, Eli Mercantilism

Higgs, Henry The Physiocrats

Johnson, E. A. J. Predecessors of Adam Smith

Laistner, L. M. Greek Economics

Monroe, Arthur Eli Early Economic Thought

Monroe, Arthur Eli Monetary Theory Before Adam Smith

O’Brien, G. An Essay on Medieval Economic Thinking

Somerville, et al. “Interest and Usury,” The Economic Journal, vol. 41, pp. 646-49; vol. 42, pp. 123-37, 3112-23

Viner, Jacob Studies in the Theory of international Trade, Chapters 1 and 2.

Ware, Norman J. “The Physiocrats”, The American Economic Review, XXI, pp. 607-19

Mitchell, The Background of Greek Economics (pp. 24-37)

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries. Manuscript Collections. Joseph Dorfman Collection. Box 13, Folder “College Bound Reports. Examination questions”.

Image Source: From Joseph Dorfman’s 1973 Columbia University picture Identification Card in Joseph Dorfman Collection, Box 13, Unlabelled Folder.

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Brookings Chicago Economists Gender Social Work

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. alumna. Helen Russell Wright, 1922

 

From the days when economics still had room for policies of social work, Helen Russell Wright, economics Ph.D. alumna of the University of Chicago (1922). 

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Helen Russell Wright.

1891, February 26. Born in Glenwood, Iowa.
1912. A.B. Smith College.
Studied economics and social work in the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy (CSCP) under Sophonisba Breckenridge and Edith Abbott
1912-13. Appointed research student in the Department of Social Investigation. (CSCP)
1913. Certificate of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy.
1913-14. Senior Research Studentship (honorary). Department of Social Investigation (CSCP)
1914-15. Senior Research Studentship (honorary). Department of Social Investigation (CSCP)
1917-18.  Research assistant at Department of Social Investigation (CSCP)
1918-19. Assistant in Social Investigation (CSCP).
1919-1920. Assistant in Social Investigation (CSCP).
1920-21. Fellow in Political Economy, University of Chicago.
1922. Ph.D. University of Chicago. Thesis: The political labour movement in Great Britain, 1880-1914.
1922. Children of Wage-Earning Mothers: A Study of a Selected Group in Chicago. U.S. Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau, Publication No. 102. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922.
1922-24. Senior Staff member, Brookings Graduate Institution of Economics, Washington, D.C.
1924-28. Member of the faculty of the Brookings Graduate Institution of Economics, Washington, D.C.
1926. Co-authored with Walton Hale Hamilton, The Case of Bituminous Coal. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926.
1928. Co-authored with Walton Hale Hamilton, A Way of Order for Bituminous Coal. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928.
1928. Joins University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.
1931. Associate Professor of Social Economy, Graduate School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
1938. Professor and Assistant Dean of the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
1944. Social Service in Wartime. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1942-1956. Succeeded Edith Abbott as Dean of the Social Service Administration, University of Chicago.
1950-56. Editor of the Social Service Review.
1954. Received the University of Chicago’s alumni medal.
1955. Illinois Welfare association’s annual award for outstanding service in 1955.
1956. Retired from the University of Chicago
1957-58. Chief of a technical assistance team of the Council on Social Work Education to assist the development of the schools of social work in India.
Part-time teaching at the University of Southern California.
1969, August 14. Died in Pasadena, Los Angeles, California.

 

Image Source: Helen Russell Wright’s senior year portrait in Smith College, The 1912 Class-Book, p. 56.

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Chicago Exam Questions Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Chicago. Readings and exam for “Wage-labor and capital”, 1970

The following set of course materials from the University of Chicago was included in a folder for “Comparative Economic Systems” in Martin Bronfenbrenner’s papers at Duke University. According to his c.v. he would have still been a professor at Carnegie Tech at that time and there is no mention of a visiting professorship at Chicago. As it turns out, I was correct in presuming that this was not a course taught by Bronfenbrenner. The Head of Research and Instruction of the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago Library, Catherine Uecker, consulted the course timetable for the spring quarter 1970 and found that the instructor was Professor Gerhard Emil Otto Meyer.

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Social Sciences 273
Spring 1970

“Wage-Labor and Capital” in
Marxian and Modern Theory

GRADE REQUIREMENTS:

a) term paper
b) final examination

TENTATIVE READING LIST (subject to some changes)

Note: All readings except those labelled as “optional” (Opt.) are required. Each student is expected to read, in addition to all required readings, some agreed-upon optional readings which may, but need not, be taken from the list below. The following readings are more or less systematically listed, not in the order they will be assigned.

  1. Karl Marx

Capital, vol. I, chs. 4-9; 11-12; 15 (sec. 1-7); 16-19; 25 (sec. 1-4); 32 (chs. 10 and 24 optional).

The Communist Manifesto
Wage-Labor and Capital
Value, Price and Profit
Critique of the Gotha Programme
[These four readings are available in many editions; conveniently combined in K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (paperback, International Publishers)]

The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, trans. By M. Milligan (International Publishers), pp. 65-91, 106-131 (pp. 132-164 optional)

Marx’s “Enquête Ouvrière” (mimeographed)

  1. Interpretive Materials on Marx’ Theory (in general, and on Labor-Capital Relations in particular)

Sweezy, Paul M., The Theory of Capitalist Development, Introduction and chs. 1-5 (optional, recommended for those who need a general survey of Marxian “economics”)—or

Ernest Mandel, Marxist Economic Theory (2 vols.), ch. 1-5 (optional-alternative to Sweezy)

Sowell, Thomas, Marx’s “Increasing Misery Doctrine” (mimeographed)

Avineri, Shlomo, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx chs. 2-4 and 6 (opt.)

Lefebvre, Henri, The Sociology of Marx, ch. 4 (opt.)

Dahrendorf, Ralph, Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society, ch. I (opt.)

  1. Modern Economic Theory (especially Wage and Employment Theory):

Hicks, J.R., Theory of Wages (selections) (opt.)

Douglas, Paul H., Theory of Wages (selections) (opt.)

Robertson, D.H., Lectures on Economic-Principles, vol. II, (selections) (opt.)

  1. Modern Sociological Theory with special regard to Problems of Class, Work and Alienation)

Dahrendorf, Ralph, (see above under B), ch. 2 ff. (opt.)

Bendix, R. and S.M. Lipset, Reader on Class, Status and Power (First and Second Editions) (selections) (opt.)

Arendt, Hanna, The Human Condition (selections) (opt.)

Bell, Daniel, The End of Ideology, esp. chs. 12 and 16 (Opt.)

Ruitenbeck, H.M. (ed.), Varieties of Modern Social Theory (selections) (opt.)

Blauner, Robert, Alienation and Freedom (selections) (opt.)

Josephson, E. & M., (ed.), Man Alone. Alienation in Modern Society. (selections) (opt.)

  1. Marxian and Modern Theory Confronting Each Other

Horowitz, David. (ed.), Marx and Modern Economics, pp. 68-116 (other essays opt.)

Robinson, Joan, An Essay on Marxian Economics (opt.)

Lange, Oskar, Political Economy, vol. I (selections) (opt.)

Schumpeter, Joseph, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, part I (opt.)

Aron, Raymond, Main Currents in Sociological Thought, vol. I, pp. 107-180 (opt.)

Kerr, Clark, Marshall, Marx and Modern Times (opt.)

Wolfson, Murray, A Reappraisal of Marxian Economics, ch. 1-3 (opt.) (Penguin Bks.)

Samuelson, Paul, “Wages and Interest: Marxian Economic Models” Am. Ec. Review, Dec. 1957) (opt.)

Selected theoretic and empirical materials on technological unemployment and automation (to be announced).

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Social Sciences 273
Spring 1970

“Wage-Labor and Capital” in
Marxian and Modern Theory

Supplementary List of Optional Readings

1) to Section B:

Solow, Robert, “The Constancy of Relative Shares” in American Economic Review, September 1958.

Ossowski, S., Class Structure in the Social Consciousness

Wesolowski, W., “Marx’s Theory of Class Domination” in: Lobkowitz, H., ed., Marx and the Western World

2) to Section C:

Dobb, M, Wages

Rees, R., The Economics of Trade Unions (both these books are published in ‘Cambridge-Chicago Economic Handbooks’ series)
Hicks, J.R., Theory of Wages has been published in a second edition with important additions and commentary

3) to section D:

Bottomore, T.B., Classes in Modern Society (paperback)

4) to section E:

Robinson, Joan, Economic Philosophy, ch. II

Adelman, Irma, Theories of Economic Growth and Development, ch. 5

5) on technological unemployment and automation:

Lederer, Emil, Technical Progress and Unemployment (International Labour Office) 1938

Woytinsky, W., Three Sources of Unemployment (International Labor Office) 1935

Kaehler, Alfred, “The Problem of Verifying the Theory of Technological Unemployment” in Social Research, vol. II, 1935

Neisser, Hans P., “Permanent Technological Unemployment” in Am. Economic Review, March 1942, pp. 50-71

“The Triple Revolution” in Fromm, E., ed., Socialist Humanism, pp. 441-461

Marcuse, H., Five Lectures, esp. lecture V, “The End of Utopia”

Brunner, Karl, “The Triple Revolution and a New Metaphysics” in New Individualist Review, Spring 1966 (vol. 4, no. 3)

Silberman, Charles E., and the edition of Fortune, The Myth of Automation

Brozen, Yale, Automation: The Impact of Technological Change (1963)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Social Sciences 273
Spring 1970

“Wage-Labor and Capital” in
Marxian and Modern Theory

Take-home Examination:

Directions: Write two essays, one from group A (topics 1-5) and one from group B (topics 6-11). Devote approximately one hour on each essay. Return the examination to Gates-Blake 431 or 428 not later than Thursday, June 11, at 12:30 P.M. Indicate on your examination a) which kind of grade you expect (P., I. or letter grade) and b) topic of oral report or term paper you have completed or intend to write. If a member of the class wishes to obtain a letter grade (i.e. grade other than P or I) this quarter, the term paper should be handed in not later than Friday, June 12, at 5 P.M. (in G-B 431).

(In none of the topics listed below, will you be graded on the basis of the position taken by you, but rather with regard to the quality of your analysis or argument).

Group A (Choose one topic)

Topic 1. Explain (as far as possible in your own terms) what Marx means by the “wage-labor system” as distinguished from other types of social-economic organization.

Topic 2. In what respects did Marx modify (or retain) his views concerning increasing working class misery (as expressed in the Communist Manifesto) in his later writings?

Topic 3. How do, according to Marx, different kinds of capitalistic accumulation processes affect the position of wage-laborers and the general wage-labor system?

Topic 4. How does Marx conceive the end of the capitalistic system?

Topic 5. Explain the relationship between alienation, exploitation and class domination in Marx (i.e. the younger or more mature one; or both).

Group B (Choose one topic)

Topic 6. Characterize broadly the major differences in the general approach (or “method”) of Marxian theory and “modern” social science.

Topic 7. In what substantive respects do major Marxian theories appear to be paralleled (or confirmed) or contradicted by results of ‘modern’ social sciences?

Topic 8. Does the abandonment of Marx’ labor-theory of value (and the consequent particular theory of surplus value and exploitation) necessarily imply a stand in support of private property and private enterprise?

Topic 9. Assuming that Marxian (classical and present-day) and non-Marxian (“modern”) social analysis are both live options and both faced with new difficulties, problems, and tasks, how would you broadly assess the most fruitful directions(s) of “praxis”-oriented social enquiry?

Topic 10. (If you did not choose topic 5 in Group A): Restate Marx’s conception of “freedom” (with regard to its most relevant social-historical dimensions and stages) in brief contrast with alternative conceptions of freedom.

Topic 11. Choose one of the optional readings not used by you for term paper or oral report and use it either as basis for comment on Marx’ views (concerning the condition of wage-labor) or, vice versa, as object of comments from a “Marxian” point of view.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 23, Folder “Comparative Economic Systems a.d.”.

Image Source: From the 65th birthday dinner honoring Gerhard Meyer at Hutchinson Commons. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-04472, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Princeton Suggested Reading Syllabus

Princeton. Reading assignments. Graduate International Trade. F.D. Graham and C.R. Whittelsey, 1930-34

 

For this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has transcribed the reading assignments for Princeton’s graduate course “International Trade Theory” for the academic years 1930-31 (F. D. Graham), 1931-32 (C. R. Whittlesey), and 1933-34 (F. D. Graham). The typed lists come from Frank W. Fetter’s papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive of Duke University and are found in a folder along with Fetter’s handwritten notes for the course in 1932-33 that was taught by Graham.

Frank W. Fetter and C. R. Whittlesey co-taught the companion course, Economics 526 “International Economic Policies” during the second semester of 1933-34.

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Graduate Course in International Trade.
Assignments, 1930-31
F. D. Graham

Bastable: Theory of Foreign Trade.

Mun: Englands Treasure by Forraign Trade.
A. Smith: Book II, Ch. 5; Bk. IV, Chs. 1, 2, 3.

Ricardo: Chs. 17, 19, 22.
Mill: Chs. 17, 18, 19, 21.

Cairnes: Part III, 1, 2, 3, 5.
Graham: QJE 1924, Theory of International Values Reexamined

Marshall: Money, Credit and Commerce, Bk III.
Taussig: International Trade.

Graham: QJE, Some Aspects of Protection.
Knight: Criticism of Graham and reply, QJE.

Marshall: Appendix.
Pigou: Protective and Pref. Import Duties.
Dietzel: Retaliatory Duties, Omit Ch. III.

Angell: Theory of International Prices, to p. 199.

Patten: Economic Basis of Protection.
Angell: Theory of International Values, Continental Th. Hist.

Taussig: Readings in International Trade—Wagner, Schuller International Trade, chs. 11, 12, 13.
Viner: Dumping, first (theoret.) part
Graham: Review of Dumping.

Viner: Canada’s Balance of International Indebtedness (omit techni. Part)
Taussig: Int. Trade Under Deprec. Paper, QJE 1917
Graham: Do QJE 1922

Goschen: Foreign Exchange
Cassel: Money & Foreign Exchange. P.P.P. notion
Graham: Self-limiting and Self-inflammatory movements QJE 1929
Germany’s Capacity to Pay. AER June 1925

Pigou: Some Problems of Foreign Exchange, Econ. J. 1920.
League of Nations Papers: Brussels Fin. Conf., entitled “Exchange Control”

Graham: The Young Plan, Alumni Weekly
_______: Exchange, Prices, and Production (omit Part III)

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Frank Whitson Fetter Papers, Box 55, Folder “Teaching. Ec-International Trade Theory (Princeton University) Assignments, Syllabi, notes, 1930-1934”.

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Graduate Course in International Trade.
Assignments, 1931-32
C. R. Whittlesey

Mun: England’s Treasure by Forraign Trade.
A. Smith: Wealth of Nations, Book II-5; Bk. IV-1, 2, 3.

Ricardo: Chs. 17, 19, 22.
Mill: Bk. III, chs. 17, 18, 19, 21.
Cairnes: Part III, chs. 1, 2, 3.

Nassau Senior: On the Cost of Obtaining Gold, 35 pp.
Bastable: Theory of Foreign Trade.

Taussig: International Trade.
Marshall: Money, Credit and Commerce, Bk III.

Graham: Theory of International Values Reexamined, Q.J.E., Nov. 1923.
C.R.W.: Foreign Investment & Terms of Interchange.
Williams, J.H.: The Theory of International Trade Reconsidered. Economic Journal, June 1929, pp. 195-209.

Whittlesey: Article on Stevenson Plan.
Patten: Economic Basis of Protection.
Graham: Some Aspects of Protection Further Considered. Q.J.E. Feb. 1923
Knight: Criticism. Q.J.E. August 1924.
Graham: Reply and Rejoinder. Feb. 1925
Broster, E.J. Proposal for a Scientific Tariff. Econ. Journ. June 1931, 313-16.

Wagner: Agrarian vs. Mfg. State in Taussig: Readings (ch. 13)
Brentano: Terrors of Industrial State in Taussig: Readings (ch. 15)
Dietzel: Retaliatory Duties (whole book)
Pigou: Protective and Preferential Duties.

Viner: Dumping. (Theoretical part) pp.
Graham: Review. June 1924, A.E.R., pp. 321-4

Keynes: Treatise on Money, last ch. Of Vol I
Taussig: Trade Under Depreciated Paper, Q.J.E., May 1917, pp. 380
Graham: Trade Under Depreciated Paper, Q.J.E., Feb. 1922, pp. 220-73
Zapoleon: International & Domestic Commodities and the Theory of Prices, Q.J.E. May 1931, pp. 409-59.
Viner: Canada’s Balance of International Indebtedness. Introduction and Part II.
Graham: Classical Economists and Theory of International Trade.

Viner: Canada’s Balance of International Indebtedness. Introduction and Part II.
Goschen: Foreign Exchange.
Graham: Hyper-Inflation, pp. 97-99; 113-49.
Cassel: Money and Foreign Exchange After 1914. pp. 137-202.
Graham: Germany’s Capacity to Pay and the Reparation Plan. A.E.R. June 1925.

N. Senior: On the Transmission of the Precious Metals.
Pigou: Some Problems of Foreign Exchange, Econ. Jour., Dec. 1920, pp. 460-72.
Thomas: Government Control of Foreign Exchange Abroad. Annalist, 11-27-31, pp. 869-71.
League of Nations: Exchange Control (Brussels Finance Conf.)
Baster, A.S., Jr.: A note on Australian Exchange. Econ. Jour., Sept. 1930, pp. 466-71.

Graham: Hyper-Inflation (all the rest)

Angell: Theory of International Prices.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Frank Whitson Fetter Papers, Box 55, Folder “Teaching. Ec-International Trade Theory (Princeton University) Assignments, Syllabi, notes, 1930-1934”.

____________________

List of Readings in International Trade Theory.
1933-34
[F. D. Graham’s Course, Princeton]

Comparative Costs and International Values.

Mun: England’s Treasure by Foreign Trade.
Cantillon: Essai sur la nature In commerce in general
Smith: Wealth of Nations, Book II, ch. 5; Bk. IV, ch. 1, 2, 3.
Ricardo: Principles, chs. 17, 19, 22.
Mill: Principles, Bk. III, chs. 17-22.
Senior: Cost of Obtaining Money
Cairnes: P.E. Part III.
Bastable: International Trade.
Graham: Theory of Int. Values Reex., Q.J.E., 1923.
______: Theory of Int. Values, Q.J.E., 1932.
Ohlin, Interregional and Int. Trade.
Angell, J.W. Theory of Int. Values: Selections
Taussig, F.W. International Trade.
Viner, J. Doctrine of Comparative Costs, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Oct. 1932
Marshall: Money, Credit and Commerce, Bk III and Appendices, F, G, N, J.
Edgeworth: Pure Theory of Int. Values in Papers.

Monetary Mechanism

Senior: Distribution of Precious Metals.
Cairnes: The Australian Episode
Taussig: Int. Trade under Deprec. Paper, Q.J.E. 1917
Graham: Int. Trade under Deprec. Paper—the U.S., Q.J.E. 1922
______: Exchange, Prices and Prod. Selections
______: The Fall in the Value of Silver, etc. J.P.E. 1931
Viner, J. Canada’s Balance of Payments.
Goschen: Foreign Exchange.
Angell, J.W. Theory of Int. Prices.

Protection

Patten: Economic Basis of Protection
Taussig: Readings in Int. Trade: Schüller, etc.
Dietzel: Retaliatory Duties
Pigou: Protective and Preferential Import Duties.
Copland & others:
Graham: Protective Tariffs
______: Some Aspects of Protection Further Consid. Q.J.E. 1922

Special Problems

Viner: Dumping
Wallace & Edminster: Int. Control of Raw Materials

Foreign Investment

Whittlesey: Foreign Investment and Terms of Trade.
Wilson: Capital Exports and the Terms of Trade.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Frank Whitson Fetter Papers, Box 55, Folder “Teaching. Ec-International Trade Theory (Princeton University) Assignments, Syllabi, notes, 1930-1934”.

Image Sources: Princeton University yearbook Bric-A-Brac. Frank D. Graham (1942) and C. R. Whittlesey (1938).

Categories
Chicago Economists Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Semester exams for Statistics. John Cummings, 1896-1900

 

 

 

John Cummings was awarded the first Ph.D. in political economy at the University of Chicago in 1894. His doctoral thesis was “The Poor Law system of the United States”, later published as “The Poor Laws of Massachusetts and New York.” Publications of the American Economic Association, vol. X, no. 4 (July, 1895). His first real academic job was at Harvard, after which he went to have a successful career as a statistician in government service. He was apparently quite a big name in vocational education policy by the end of his career.

This post provides the questions to all of the semester exams from the times he taught the statistics course for when he taught at his undergraduate alma mater during the last five years of the 19th century.

Life and Career of John Cummings

1868. Born May 18 in Colebrook, New Hampshire.

1887. Entered Harvard College.

1891. A.B., magna cum laude, Harvard College

1892. A.M., Harvard College

1893-94. Senior Fellow, Department of Political Economy, University of Chicago.

1894. Ph.D. in Political Economy; Reader in Political Economy, University of Chicago.

1894-1900. Instructor in Economics, Harvard University.

1900-02. Editorial staff New York Evening Post.

1902. Married Carrie R. Howe in Marion, Indiana, December 3, 1902)

1902-10. Assistant Professor in Political Economy. University of Chicago.

1910-16. Expert special agent, Census Bureau.

1917-23. Statistician, Federal Board for Vocational Education, Washington, D.C.

1924-30. Statistician and economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Federal Reserve Board.

1930-1933. Chief of Research and Statistics, Federal Board for Vocational Education, Washington, D.C.

1933-. Chief of research and statistical service, vocation education, United States Office of Education.

1936. Died , June 26.  in Washington, D.C.

Buried at the Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Sources: Obituary in Washington Post, June 27, 1936, p. 8. Also “A Tribute to Dr. Cummings” in School Life (September 1936), p. 12.

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Tribute to Memory of John Cummings

At the annual meeting of the National Committee on Research in Secondary Education, of which organization Dr. Cummings was a member, the following resolution was adopted honoring his memory:

In the passing of Dr. John Cummings, of the United States Office of Education, research lost one of its most careful and effective workers. For a period of more than 20 years, Dr. Cummings was in the forefront of development in vocational education throughout the Nation. As research expert for the Joint Congressional Committee on National Grants for Education during President Wilson’s administration, he was instrumental in providing the bases upon which the legislation known as the Smith-Hughes Act was developed. Subsequently, as Chief of the Research and Statistical Service of the Vocational Educational Division in the Federal Office of Education, he was identified closely with the expansion and improvement of services in his field of work.

Dr. Cummings had the confidence and respect of his associates. By disposition he was kindly, tolerant, and friendly. He was never too busy to help those who came to him for counsel and advice. Gentle and reserved, he was at the same time an aggressive champion of objectives and principles in which he believed. His was a brilliant mind and an indomitable spirit. The National Committee on Research in Secondary Education can pay him no better or more deserved tribute than that voiced by his chief, Dr. J. C. Wright. Assistant Commissioner for Vocational Education, when he said: “As an economist, statistician, and editor, Dr. Cummings rendered invaluable service to the cause of vocational education in the United States. He was a man of outstanding ability, brilliant mentality, and quiet, unassuming personality. The Office of Education, and more particularly the cause of vocational education, has suffered a distinct loss in his death.”

Source:  School Life, vol. 22 (April, 1937), p. 236.

_____________________

Harvard Course: Statistics

Course Description
(1897-98)

[Economics] 4. Statistics. — Applications to Social and Economic Problems. — Studies in the Movements of Population. — Theory and Method. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. John Cummings.

This course deals with statistical methods used in the observation and analysis of social conditions, with the purpose of showing the relation of statistical studies to Economics and Sociology, and the scope of statistical inductions. It undertakes an examination of the views entertained by various writers regarding the theory and use of statistics, and an historical and descriptive examination of the practical methods of carrying out statistical investigations. The application of statistical methods is illustrated by studies in political, fiscal, and vital statistics, in the increase and migration of population, the growth of cities, the care of criminals and paupers, the accumulation of capital, and the production and distribution of wealth.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1897-98, p. 37.

_____________________

Course Enrollment 1895-96
(Half-course)

[Economics] 42. Dr. John Cummings. — Theory of Statistics. — Applications to Social and Economic Problems. — Studies in movements of population. Hf. 3 hours. 2d half-year

Total 19: 2 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1895-1896, p. 64.

 

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 4.
Year-End Final Examination.

[Divide your time equally between A. and B.]

A.
I and II may be treated as one question.

  1. What do you understand by “movement of population”? What light do Statistics throw upon the law of population as stated by Malthus?
  2. What are some of the “more striking facts and more pregnant results of the vast growth of population in Europe, America, and the British Colonies within the last half century”?

 

B.
Take five.

  1. In constructing a life table what correction must be made for abnormal age and sex distributions of the population?
  2. Define the following terms: “Mortality,” “Expectation of Life,” “Mean Duration of Life.” How should you calculate the mean duration of life from the census returns for any community?
  3. How should you calculate the economic value of a population?
  4. What are some of the inaccuracies to which censes enumerations are liable?
  5. What is the nature of a statistical law? Of what categories of social phenomena may statistical laws be formulated? In what sense are they laws? How do they bear upon freedom of the will in human conduct?
  6. How do the conditions of observation in social sciences differ from conditions of observation in the natural sciences?
  7. What do you understand by the law of criminal saturation?
  8. By what considerations should the Statistician be guided in making selection of social phenomena for investigation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1896-97. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College. June 1896, pp.38-39.

_____________________

Course Enrollment 1896-97
(Year-course)

[Economics] 4. Dr. John Cummings. — Theory and Methods of Statistics. — Applications to Economic and Social Questions. — Studies in the Movement of Population. 3 hours.

Total 15: 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1896-1897, p. 65.

 

1896-97.
ECONOMICS 4.
Mid-Year Examination.

[Divide your time equally between A. and B.]

A.

  1. The development of scientific statistics and the statistical method as employed in the social sciences.
  2. Social and economic causes of the migratory movements which have taken place in the populations of Europe and America during this century, and the laws in accordance with which those migrations have taken place where you can formulate any.

B.
(Take five.)

  1. Rural depopulation and the growth of cities in the United States.
  2. Define: “mean after life,” “expectation of life,” “mean duration of life,” “mean age at death.” What relation does the mean age of those living bear to the mean age at death? To the mean duration of life?
  3. Anthropological tests of race vitality as applied to the American negro?
  4. Explain how the economic value of a population is effected by its age and sex distribution.
  5. The United States census: either (1) an historical account of it, or (2) an account of the work now undertaken by the Census Bureau.
  6. Explain the various methods of calculating the birth rate of a population.
  7. How far are social conditions in a community revealed in the birth rate, the death rate, the marriage rate? Of what are fluctuations in these rates evidence in each case?
  8. What do you understand by the “index of mortality”?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1896-97.

 

1896-97.
ECONOMICS 4.
Year-End Final Examination.

I.

  1. Give an historical account of the United States census, and a general statement of the ground covered in the census of 1890; also show how the census taking is supplemented by work done in the Department of Labor and in the statistical bureaus established in connection with the several administrative departments.
  2. Define Körösi’s “rate of natality,” and state any statistical evidence you know that the rate is affected by the standard of living.
  3. “It must, at all times, be a matter of great interest and utility to ascertain the means by which any community has attained to eminence among nations. To inquire into the progress of circumstances which have given pre-eminence to one’s own country would almost seem to be a duty….The task here pointed out has usually been left to be executed by the historian.” Porter: “The Progress of the Nation.”
    What contribution has statistics to make in the execution of this task? What do you understand to be the nature of the statistical method, and what are the legitimate objects of statistical inquiry?

II.
[Take two.]

  1. What light does statistics throw upon the “natural history of the criminal man”?
    Give Ferri’s classification of the “natural causes” of crime, and comment upon that classification. Of criminals.
    What do you understand by “rate of criminality”? By “criminal saturation”?
  2. To what extent in your opinion is suicide an evidence of degeneration in the family stock?
    Discuss the influence upon the rate of suicide of education, religious creed, race, climate and other facts of physical, political and social environment.
  3. Comment critically upon the tables relating to crime in the last five federal censuses taken in the United States.
  4. What difficulties beset a comparative study of criminality in different countries?
  5. How far is it possible to give a quantitative statement to moral and social facts?

III.
[Take one.]

  1. What are some of the more salient facts concerning the movement of population and wealth in the United States, England, and France during the present century, so far as those facts are evidenced in the production, consumption and distribution of wealth?
  2. Discuss the movement of wages and prices in the United States since 1890.
  3. What do you understand by “index figures,” “average wages,” “average prices,” and “weighted averages”?

IV.
[Take one.]

  1. How do you account for the increase in the proportion of urban to rural population during this century? What statistical evidence is there that the increased density of a population affects the mean duration of life? What importance to you attach to this evidence?
    Explain the effect of migratory movements upon the distribution of a population according to age, sex and conjugal condition, and upon the birth rate, death rate and marriage rate.
  2. Define and distinguish: “mean age at death”; “mean duration of life”; mean age of those living”; expectation of life.”
  3. The “law of population” as formulated by Malthus and by subsequent writers.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1896-97. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College. June 1897, pp. 39-41.

_____________________

Course Enrollment 1897-98
(Year-course)

[Economics] 4. Dr. J. Cummings. — Statistics. — Applications to Economic and Social Questions. — Studies in the Movement of Population. — Theory and Method. 3 hours.

Total 18: 7 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1897-1898, p. 78.

 

1897-98.
ECONOMICS 4.
Mid-Year Examination.

[Divide your time equally between A. and B.]

A.
[Take two.]

  1. In what sense do you understand Quetelet’s assertion that “the budget of crime is an annual taxation paid with more preciseness than any other”?
    Comment upon the “element of fixity in criminal sociology.”
    What are the “three factors of crime”?
    Can you account for the “steadiness of the graver forms of crime”? for the increase or decrease of other crimes?
    Define “penal substitutes.”
    What determines the rate of criminality?
    Comment upon the tables relating to crime in the last federal census, and explain how far they enable one to estimate the amount of crime committed and the increase or decrease in that amount.
  2. Comment upon the movement of population in the U.S. as indicated in the census rates of mortality and immigration. Upon the movement of population in France and in other European countries during this century. Can you account for the decline in the rates of mortality which characterize these populations?
    Give an account of the growth of some of the large European cities and of the migratory movements of their populations. Can you account for the depopulation of rural districts which has taken place during this century?
  3. Give some account of the Descriptive School of Statisticians and of the School of Political Arithmetic.
    Of the organization and work of statistical bureaus in European countries during this century.
    Of the census bureau in the United States.

 

B.
[Take four.]

  1. What are some of the “positive” statistical evidences of vitality in a population? “negative”?
  2. Define “index of mortality.”
  3. Comment upon the density and distribution of population in the United States.
  4. What do you understand by “normal distribution of a population according to sex and age”? Define “movement of population.”
  5. Explain the various methods of estimating a population during intercensal years.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1897-98.

 

1897-98.
ECONOMICS 4.
End-year Examination.

Divide your time equally between A. and B.

A.

I.

“The wealth of a nation is a matter of estimate only. Certain of its elements are susceptible of being approximated more closely than others; but few of them can be given with greater certainty or accuracy than is expressed in the word ‘estimated.’” Why? State the several methods used for determining the wealth of a nation. Give some account of the increase and of the present distribution of wealth in the United States.

II.

What statistical data indicate the movement of real wages during this century? What facts have to be taken into account in determining statistically the condition of wage earners? State the several methods of calculating index numbers of wages and prices, and explain the merits of each method. Explain the use of weighted averages as indexes, and the considerations determining the weights. What has been the movement of wages and prices in the United States since 1860?

III.

Statistical data establishing a hierarchy of European races, the fundamental “laws of anthropo-sociology,” and the selective influences of migratory movements and the growth of cities.

 

B.
Take six.

  1. “I have striven with the help of biology, statistics and political economy to formulate what I consider to be the true law of population.” (Nitti.) What is this law? Is it the true law? Why?
  2. Upon what facts rests the assertion that “the fulcrum of the world’s balance of power has shifted from the West to the East, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific”?
  3. What factors determine the rate of suicide? Consider the effect upon the rate of suicide of the sex and age distribution of the population, of the social and physical environment, and of heredity.
  4. Statistical determination of labor efficiency, and the increase of such efficiency during this century.
  5. How far are statistics concerning the number of criminal offenders indicative of the amount of criminality? Statistics of prison populations? Of crimes? What variables enter in to determine the “rate of criminality”? What significance do you attach to such rates?
  6. The statistical method.
  7. Graphics as means of presenting statistical data.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1898-99. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College. June 1898, pp.43-44.

_____________________

Course Enrollment 1898-99
(Year-course)

[Economics] 4. Dr. John Cummings. — Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. — Studies in Demography. Lectures (3 hours) and conferences; 2 reports; theses.

Total 19: 10 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1898-1899, p. 73.

 

1898-99.
ECONOMICS 4.
Mid-Year Examination.

Devote one hour to A and the remainder of your time to B.

A.
Take two.

  1. The growth of modern cities and the laws governing the migrations of population as illustrated in the growth and constitution of the populations of London, Berlin, and other large cities.
  2. Define fully a “normal or life-table population,” considering its age and sex constitution and its movement.
  3. Discuss the development and predominance of the statistical method, and the gradual limitation of the field of statistical science.

B.
Take six.

  1. What do you understand by the “law of large numbers”?
    Discuss some of the principles which should govern the formation of statistical judgments.
  2. The “new law of population.”
  3. The value of criminal statistics and the nature of the statistical proofs that the value of punishments is over-estimated.
  4. “Several tests are employed to measure the duration of human life, and we are at present concerned to determine their precise value, and the relationship existing between them.” What are some of these tests, their precise value and inter-relationship?
  5. What is the nature of the statistical evidence that the “influx of the population from the country into London is in the main an economic movement”?
  6. The rate of mortality in urban an in rural populations.
  7. Decline in the rates of natality in the populations of Europe and the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examination papers, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers. Mid-years, 1898-99.

 

 

1898-99.
ECONOMICS 4.
End-year Examination.

Devote at least one hour, but not more than one hour and a half, to A, and the remainder of your time to B.

A.

  1. Statistics of wages, manufactures, and capital in the eleventh census of the United States.
  2. Movement of population and the standard of living. Consider in connection with the growth of population and the movement of wages, prices, efficiency of labor and capital, the exploitation of new natural sources of power and wealth, and the relative movements of industrial groups.

B.
Take six.

  1. Average wages as an index of social condition.
  2. Statistical indexes of pauperism.
  3. What is the statistical basis for calculating the doubling period of a population and of what is that period an index?
  4. Define normal distribution of population (a) by sex, (b) by age.
  5. Show how the economic value of a population is affected by its age and sex distribution.
  6. To what extent may the prison population of the United States as given in the eleventh census be accepted as an index of criminality for the population of the United States?
  7. The growth of cities and the movement of population. Consider the effect of “urbanization” upon rates of criminality, natality, and mortality.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1898-99. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College. June 1899, p.30.

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Course Enrollment 1899-1900
(Year-course)

[Economics] 4. Dr. John Cummings. — Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. — Studies in Demography. Lectures (3 hours) and conferences; 2 reports; theses.

Total 10: 1 Graduate, 2 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

 

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 4.
Mid-Year Examination.

Devote one hour to A and the remainder of your time to B.

A.

  1. Urban growth and migration. Consider the sex and age distribution of migrants, the natural increase of urban and rural populations, and the causes of migration into urban centres. Illustrate by considering the actual conditions and movement in some one country or important urban centre.
  2. The data of criminal statistics as an index of amount of criminality. Consider the tables relating to crime in the United States census; the several statistical methods of dealing with crime and with the criminal classes; age, sex, and civil status as a factor in criminality; and the law of criminal saturation.

B.
Elect ten, and answer concisely.

  1. and 2. [counts as two questions]. Statistical measurements of agglomeration. Consider statistical methods of determining degree of concentration, also definition of the urban unit.

3. and 4. [counts as two questions]. Causes tending to make the rate of mortality lower for urban than for rural populations? causes tending to make it higher? the rate of natality?

  1. Methods of estimating population for intercensal years.
  2. Statistical laws and freedom of the will
  3. Define “life-table population.”
  4. Define carefully the following terms: “birth rate,” “rate of natality”; “rate of mortality”; death rate”; “rate of nuptialité”; “marriage rate”; index of mortality.”
  5. What do you understand by normal distribution of population by sex? by age? by civil status?
  6. Economic value of a population as effected by its age and sex distribution? by movement? by immigration?
  7. Of what statistical significance is the doubling period for any population?
  8. Can you account for the retardation in the rate of movement of population during this century?
  9. Tell when, if ever, the following terms are identical:—
    1. mean age at death.
    2. mean age of living.
    3. mean duration of life.
    4. expectation of life.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examination papers, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers. Mid-years, 1899-1900.

 

1899-1900.
ECONOMICS 4.
End-year Examination.

Divide your time equally between A and B.

A.

  1. Statistical methods of estimating wealth accumulated.
    Comment critically upon the census statistics of wealth accumulated in the United States.
  2. Statistical evidences of the progress of the working classes in the last half-century. Discuss the movement of wages and prices.
    What do you understand by “index figures,” “average wages,” “average prices,” “weighted averages”? Explain methods of weighting.
  3. The growth of cities and social election.

 

B.
Two questions may be omitted.

  1. How far are social conditions in a community revealed in the birth rate? the death rate? by the “index of mortality”? What do you understand by “movement of population”?
  2. In constructing a life table what correction must be made for abnormal age and sex distribution? Define “mortality,” “natality,” “expectation of life.” How should you calculate the “mean duration of life” from the census returns?
  3. The limit to the increase of population in the food supply? in other forms of wealth?
  4. Can you formulate any laws which will be true in general of the migrations of population?
  5. Methods of estimating population for intercensal years.
  6. Statistics of manufacturers in the United States census.
  7. How should you calculate the economic value of a population?
  8. Take one:—
    The rate of suicide as evidence of degeneration.
    The tables relating to crime in the Federal census of the United States.
  9. How far is it possible to give to moral and social facts a quantitative statement?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. June 1900, p. 32.

Image Source: “A Tribute to Dr. Cummings” in School Life, Volume 22 (September 1936), p. 12.

Categories
Harvard Teaching Undergraduate

Harvard. Grading system. Hard subjects: political economy and mathematics, 1886

 

There are two things I learned in preparing this post. The first (and what initially caught my eye) was the complaint that economics, like mathematics, already in the 1880’s was considered a subject that demanded relatively hard-work to get a good grade. The second was that the Harvard reform of introducing elective courses undermined the percentile precision of the old marking system and led to the adoption of the grading system. It apparently did not occur to anyone that a grade point average (G.P.A.) based on the less granular grading bands would arise from the ashes of the marking system.

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RANKS AND MARKS AT HARVARD.

AN IMPORTANT REFORM PROPOSED IN THE PERCENTAGE SYSTEM.

Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 16 [1886]. — Ever since its establishment last Fall, the conference committee, a joint organization of Faculty and students, has been steadily losing favor with the students of the university until it has at last earned the name of the “Misplaced Confidence Committee,” bestowed upon it by several of the college papers. This result, however, might easily have been anticipated. The college expected too much of the new organization and was naturally disappointed at the non-fulfillment of its expectations. It did not realize that the experiment of intrusting a certain part of the government of the college to the student members must proceed slowly and carefully. The conference committee, however, in spite of the remarks of disapproval which have been frequently bestowed upon it, has been steadily at work on the greatest evil which to-day exists in the university — the marking system. All possible information in regard to the marking systems of other colleges was obtained, and on these data the committee proceeded to work out the solution of the Harvard question of ranks and marks. Finally, after a number of meetings, the conference committee has come to a decision and has adopted the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the members of the conference committee deem the marking system, now in use at Harvard, unsuited to the elective system, and that they strongly recommend a change.

Resolved, That it is desired that by this change the inequalities of marks arising from different degrees of work required in different courses, and from different standards of marking pursued by different instructors, as far as possible, be removed.

The system which the committee recommends is what is known as the “grade system,” i.e., the students are divided up as to rank into certain classes or grades. The first grade represents those who have passed with distinction; the second those who have passed, and the third those who have failed. If necessary more grades can be easily introduced and finer distinctions made between the upper classes of marks. These changes now go before the whole faculty for final action, and although they may not be adopted in toto they will undoubtedly receive due consideration, and will at least, lead to important modifications in the present system of marking by percentage.

The question of the adoption of a grade system for a percentage system was not the only one discussed by the committee. The evil which lies at the root of the whole matter is in the inequalities of marks arising from the different amount of work required in different courses. Under the elective system there are about 200 courses from which the undergraduate is required to take four yearly. Now, it is perfectly obvious that it is impossible to make all these courses require an equal amount of work. But aside from that there are many inequalities which might be done away with. Some of the professors are notoriously hard markers, others are the very reverse. Some require extra work in their courses, others rely entirely on the examination papers to prove to them the amount of work done by the students. There are ordinarily two examinations yearly in each subject. Some of the instructors, however, hold hour examinations every month or two, and count these in as a part of the percentage for the year. Some take no account of the attendance, while others allow a constant attendance to go a long way toward making up a defective examination paper. Notwithstanding such a diversity of marking as this, the students of each class are grouped together, and comparisons are drawn as if they all stood on the same footing, as if they all took the same courses. To this the students, and to a great extent the Faculty, object. There are certain courses in college, in natural history and in the fine arts, in which an average student with very little application can easily obtain a high mark. A student of the same ability may take some of the most difficult courses, those in political economy or mathematics, and with double the application receive about half the marks obtained by this leisure-loving friend. Yet these two students are ranked together, and to the outside world the former is by far the brighter. Had the relative rank been determined by the amount of work the result would have been somewhat different.

The only distinction made by the college authorities between the courses of instruction is by dividing them into two groups — half courses and full courses — two of the former being considered equivalent to one of the latter. Of the 200 courses only a few are half courses. Thus while there is practically one grade in the courses, or at most two grades, there is no limit to the grades in the rank of the students, for the exact standing of every student to the smallest fraction can be ascertained. The names of all who obtain 70 per cent. or over in every course are printed with the per cent. attached and the list sent to every man in college. Those who receive a mark below 70 per cent. are informed privately. To lessen the evils which attend such a fine system of grading, the conference committee has recommended a substitution of broader grades. Seeing, however, that the real trouble extended beyond this, the committee has gone further, and has recommended that as the grades in marks grew broader the grades in the courses should grow finer. That both of these recommendations are in the spirit of reform seems evident. As the committee has among its members five of the Faculty, there is reason to believe that these members will be enabled to convince the rest of the Faculty of the desirability of some important changes, both in the system of marking by percentage and in the system which allows but two grades of courses.

Source: The New York Times, 17 January, 1886.

______________________

New Regulations by the Faculty.

November 24, 1886

The new “Regulations of the Faculty of Harvard College” are out and present many new and entertaining features. A hasty comparison of the last year’s “codex” with the present one may be of interest to those who have not time to make the comparison for themselves.

The first regulation on the list we find changed. Absences are no longer returned to the Dean, but to the secretary, who enters them on each student’s record. Petitions to the faculty may now be handed in up to 10 o’clock on the day of the faculty meeting. The new Rule (5) with regard to the time of changing electives, limiting such changes to Nov. 1 and March 1, are well known already. Rule 7 and 8 is new. Instructors are to report to the Dean from time to time the names of students who have failed to satisfy them in the performance of the work of the course. Any instructor, with the approval of the Dean, may exclude a student from his course for neglect of work, and the fact shall be reported to the faculty at the next meeting.

The scale of scholarship has been changed from the old percentage system to a system of five grades, A, B, C, D, E. Students who fail in a course will be assigned to E. Last year this grade was fixed at two-fifths of the maximum mark. Failure on the work of the year is changed from “failure to get one half the maximum mark,” to those who “stand below grade E.” As the regulation previously read, a student who failed on the year’s work as a whole, although he passed on all his studies, could make up the deficiency by taking one or more electives in addition to those regularly required for a degree. The marks on these courses would be substituted for the lowest marks he received in the previous year’s work. Now, a student may regain his standing “by attaining in some subsequent year such grades, that the average number of courses in which he stands below grade C is not more than three for each of the two years.”

The penalty for dishonesty in examination has been withdrawn from the rules, pending probably the invention of some more terrible scheme. Under the “Degree of Bachelor of Arts,” rule 26 reads: “above group D.” This is changed from “one half of the total maximum.” In rule 27, grade A is substituted for 90 per cent.

The magna cum is now obtained by one “who has stood in grade A in one half of his college work and has not fallen below C in any study. This is changed from the old rule of “80 per cent. for the whole college course, or 85 per cent. for the last three years.” The cum laude cannot be received by anyone who has fallen below grade C in any study.

There are some changes in the requirements for Honors in English; and the assignments of honorable mention and of Degrees with Distinction will be made through standing committees of the Faculty. Application for scholarships must be handed in before the last Monday in May. The establishment of a committee to overlook the work of special students was announced last spring, and needs no additional comment.

Source: The Harvard Crimson archive. 24 November, 1886.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Mid-year and Final Exams for all three courses in Political Economy. Laughlin and Dunbar, 1879-80

 

All you could learn in political economy at Harvard in 1880 was packed into four semesters (two full courses). The core textbook was John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Economics. This post provides enrollment data together with the mid-year and course final examinations for Political Economy 1, 2, and 3. What makes this post particularly interesting is that the relevant sections or pages of Mill’s Principles are cited along with the examination questions. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has added links to those items below.

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Actually only two distinct political economy courses offered in 1879-80

From the following note in the annual Harvard course catalogue we see that Political Economy 1 only offered a “lite” version of Political Economy 2. “Courses 1 and 2 cannot be taken together, nor can either be taken by any student who has taken the other”; “Course 3 is open to those only who have passed satisfactorily in Course 2.” The Harvard University Catalogue (1879-1880), p. 84.

An important guest lecturer at Harvard in 1879-80:

Besides prescribed and elective courses for credit, Harvard offered opportunities for “voluntary instruction”:  In 1879-80 Professor Simon Newcomb gave three public lectures on Political Economy.

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue (1879-1880), p. 90.

The John Stuart Mill textbook of Harvard choice

Most likely edition of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy used at Harvard was a New York reprint of the London 5th edition. It corresponds to the pages given for the mid-year exam in Political Economy 1.

“From the fifth London edition” 2v. New York: D. Appleton, 1868.

_________________________

Political Economy 1

Enrollments and Text
Political Economy 1
1879-80

Political Economy 1. Dr. Laughlin and Prof. Dunbar. (partial Course.) — Selections from Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — 1 Section; 2 Exercises per week for Students; 2 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 21: 7 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Law.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

  1. Comment on the following: “The cry was constantly — I know it myself from my intimate acquaintance with the large manufacturers and the small manufacturers too — that every one of them needed more currency than they had. They had capital, but could not get that which enabled them to pay off their hands…The manufacturers need a currency which will enable them to pay their weekly and daily debts.” — Cong. Record, April 7, 1874.
  2. State some of the objections made to Malthus’ Law of Population. (I. 439-40)
  3. Give the law of value regulating manufactured products. (I. 560) How far are such products affected by the Law of Diminishing Returns? (I. 238)
  4. State the argument for or against the common saying “wages are high when trade is good.” (I. 421)
  5. In what way can an increase of Population affect the Cost of Labor to the Capitalist?
  6. Define clearly Value, Price, Real Wages, and Cost of Production.
  7. Describe the offices which are performed by Money. (B. III., ch. vii.)
  8. What is to be said to the following: “Some political economists have objected altogether to the statement that the value of money depends on its quantity combined with the rapidity of circulation; which, they think, is assuming a law for money that does not exist for any other commodity.” (II. p. 43)
  9. What effect had the discovery of gold in this century upon the coinage of the United States?
  10. What circumstances led to the establishment of the Bank of Amsterdam and of the Bank of England respectively?
  11. What changes would be made in the subjoined accounts by,
    1. the deposit of £1,200,000;
    2. the sale of £2,000,000 of government security;
    3. new loans amounting to £3,000,000;
    4. repayment of £750,000 of loans.
  12. If the Bank of England announces an increase of its rate of discount, what is to be inferred as to the cause of this step and its probable effect?

November 12, 1857.

Issue Department.
Notes Issued £21.1 Government Securities £14.5
Coin and Bullion £6.6
£21.1 £21.1

 

Banking Department
Capital £14.5 Government Securities £9.4
Rest £3.4 Other Securities £26.1
Public Deposits £5.3 Notes
Coins		 £1.4
Other £12.9
7-day Bills £0.8
£36.9 £36.9

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Mid-Year Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 11-12.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-End Examination
1879-80

[Let the answers be given in their proper order]

  1. “If there are human beings capable of work, and food to feed them, they may always be employed in producing something.” (Book I., ch. v., §3.)
  2. When the growth of population outstrips the progress of improvements, what are the means of relief for the laborer? (Book I., ch. xiii., §3.)
  3. What is the reason why land-owners can demand rent? (Book II., ch. xvi., §1.)
  4. State the law of the value of money which governs general prices. What change is to be made in the statement, if credit is to be taken into consideration? (Book III., ch. vii., §§3, 4.)
  5. On what does the desire to use credit depend? What connection exists between the amount of notes and coin in circulation and the use of credit? (Book III., ch. xii., §8.)
  6. In what consists the benefit of international exchange? (Book III., ch. xvii., §3.) State the Law of International values. (Book III., ch. xviii., §4.)
  7. What is the effect of a depreciated currency on (1) foreign trade, and (2) the exchanges? (Book III., ch. xxii., §3.)
  8. Why should a tax on profits, if no improvements follow, fall on the laborer and capitalist? (Book V., ch. iii., §3.)
  9. What effect is produced on prices, profit, and rent by the removal of a tithe? (Book V., ch. iv., §4.)
  10. On whom does a tax on imports generally fall? (Book V., ch. iv., §6.)
  11. Give a history of the circumstances under which the first Legal Tender Act was passed. When were the other acts passed?
  12. Describe the following: (1) national bank-note; (2) five-twenty; (3) seven-thirty; (4) compound interest note; (5) certificate of indebtedness; (6) subsidiary silver coinage; (7) national bank reserve; (8) Resumption Act (briefly).

 

Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Annual Examinations, 1879-80, p. 12.

_________________________

Political Economy 2
1879-80

Enrollments and Text
Political Economy 2
1879-80

Political Economy 2. Prof. Dunbar. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Financial Legislation of the United States. — Lectures. — 2 Sections; 3 Exercises per week for Students; 6 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 108: 10 Seniors, 83 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Unmatriculated.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

  1. State once more and with care the reason for the following proposition: —
    “There is a distinction, more important to the wealth of a community than even that between productive and unproductive labor; — the distinction, namely, between labor for the supply of productive, and for the supply of unproductive, consumption.”
  2. What is the argument for Dr. Chalmers’s opinion that funds required for public unproductive expenditures should be raised by taxes and not by loans, and what cases are to be excepted from his reasoning?
  3. What conclusion as to the limit to the increase of production, does Mr. Mill deduce from his investigation of the laws of the increase of labor, capital and land?
  4. Why are the wages of women generally lower than those of men?
  5. Show carefully the distinction between wages, cost of labor and cost of production.
  6. Define natural value and market value and show what determines them respectively, distinguishing between the three classes into which Mr. Mill divides commodities.
  7. What effect may the great durability of gold and silver have upon the value of money at any given time?
  8. What effect has a general rise of wages upon the values of commodities?
  9. How is it shown that rent forms no part of the cost of production?
  10. The silver dollar contains 412 ½ grains of standard silver, but a dollar of silver change contains only 384 grains. On what theory is this difference of weight made?
  11. What difference has the Act of 1844, known as Peel’s act, made as to the convertibility of the notes of the Bank of England?
  12. If a serious drain of money from England, e.g., to this country, takes place, what steps will the Bank of England take, and what effect is likely to be produced on its account?
    If more convenient, this may be illustrated by using the following account: —
Issue Department.
Notes Issued £36.5 Government Securities £15.0
Coin and Bullion £21.5
£36.5 £36.5

 

Banking Department
Capital £14.5 Government Securities £16.0
Rest £3.2 Other Securities £22.0
Public Deposits £7.6 Notes
Coins

£8.0

£1.1
Other £21.5
7-day Bills £0.3
£47.1 £47.1

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Mid-Year Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 12-13.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end Examination
1879-80

[Let the answers stand in your book in their proper order
Take TEN QUESTIONS, including 6, 8, 11, 12 and 13.]

  1. Why is it that “ceteris paribus, those trades are generally the worst paid, in which the wife and children of the artisan aid in the work?” (Book II., ch. xiv., §4.)
  2. If the general rate of profit falls, how will the value of commodities made by hand be affected in comparison with those made by machinery? (Book III., ch. iv., §5.)
  3. “Another of the fallacies from which the advocates of an inconvertible currency derive support, is the notion that an increase of the currency quickens industry.” (Book III., ch. xiii., §4.)
  4. Why is it that in international trade “a thing may sometimes be sold cheapest, by being produced in some other place than that at which it can be produced with the smallest amount of labor and abstinence?” (Book III., ch. xvii. §1.)
  5. What determines the values at which a country exchanges its produce with foreign countries? (Book III., ch. xviii., §8.)
  6. Suppose that a country whose exports have hitherto balanced her imports, makes an improvement which cheapens one of her articles of export, e.g. cloth. Will money flow into or out of the country? Will foreign or domestic consumers of cloth obtain the greater advantage of its cheapness? Give the reasoning on which your answers depend. (Book III., Chap. xxi., §2.)
  7. What effect does an annual payment of interest to foreign creditors have upon the imports and exports of a country? Will interest “payable in gold” necessarily cause gold to be sent out of the country? Why, or why not? (Book III., Chap. xxi., §4.)
  8. How do taxes on agricultural produce, e.g. tithes, affect landlords, farmers, and consumers, respectively, —
    1. when first laid on?
    2. when of long standing? (Book V., ch. iv. §5.)
  9. What are the arguments for and against an income tax? (Book V., ch. iii., §5.)
  10. Discuss the reasons for and against maintaining a surplus revenue for the extinction of national debt. (Book V., ch. vii. §2.)
  11. Explain the changes in the amount of greenbacks outstanding, beginning with February, 1868.
  12. State briefly the history of our gold and silver coinage, as found in the coinage acts of 1792, 1834, 1853, 1873, and 1878.
    The silver dollar contains 371 ¼ grains of silver.
  13. To what extent is the national banknote a legal tender? in what is it payable? what provision is made for its redemption? and what security is there for its ultimate payment?

 

Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Annual Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 13-14.

_________________________

Political Economy 3
1879-80

Enrollments and Texts
Political Economy 3
1879-80

Political Economy 3. Prof. Dunbar. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — MacLeod’s Elements of Banking. — Bastiat’s Harmonies Économiques. — 1 Section; 3 Exercises per week for Students; 3 Exercises per week for Instructors.

Total 24: 24 Seniors.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1879-80, page 56.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-Year Examination
1879-80

  1. Give a careful and logical summary of the laws determining the values of all commodities, monopolized or free, domestic or foreign, using the corrected definition of Cost of Production. [Forty minutes.]
  2. In the case of accessory products, as, e.g. wool and mutton, what determines their normal values respectively, and what determines the course of their respective values as time goes on?
  3. In his enumeration of the causes which determine the Wages Fund, Mr. Cairnes finds himself obliged to include the rate of wages. How does he avoid the charge of reasoning in a circle?
  4. Comment on the following: —
    “The advocates of the wages-fund theory assume, first, that the capital of a country is a fixed quantity, and that the capital employed in industry is a fixed proportion of this quantity; and, secondly, that wages are paid out of that proportion of capital which is set apart for industry. Both of these propositions, in my opinion, are erroneous.
    “With regard to the first…there is no fact in Economic Science so well established as this, that capital follows profits….Capital is always forthcoming wherever there are prospects of large profits….The capital of a country, therefore, is not a fixed quantity, for if its credit is good, and sufficient inducements are offered in the shape of interest, it can readily borrow whatever it wants. For the same reason the capital employed in industry Is not a fixed quantity, and varies, not in proportion to the gross amount in the country, but in proportion to the profitableness of the industry of that country.
    “With regard to the second proposition…This is true to a limited extent only. No doubt a certain amount of capital is required for the payment of wages, just as a certain amount of capital is necessary for the purchase of raw material. There is this essential difference between the two cases, however, that while raw material is paid for (in cash or bills) before being used, wages are not paid till they have been earned….The employé, in fact, stands to his employer in the relation of a capitalist who advances him the use of his services, which services are ultimately paid for, not out of a wages-fund, but out of the produce of the services themselves.” (Outlines of an Industrial Science: by David Syme. p. 138.)
  5. Give a careful but briefly stated outline (as if written for a rather elaborate Table of Contents) of Mr. Cairnes’s reasoning as to the relations existing between the demand for commodities and the wages fund, and between prices and money-wages.
  6. What is meant by the “comparative costs of production,” on which international values are said to depend; and how is that dependence to be reconciled with the fact that any given sale of goods is found to be an independent transaction, determined by the price of the commodity.
  7. What reasoning led Mr. Cairnes in 1873 to look for a fall of prices in this country, and for possible commercial crises?
  8. What is Mr. Cairnes’s reason for believing that, in the United States, protection is not needed to secure diversity of industries?
  9. If the common saying that “the value of gold is the same all the world over” has no foundation, how does a supply of new gold distribute itself over all countries and over all commodities in each country.
  10. Stafford; Colbert; Sir J. Stewart; Quesnay.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Mid-Year Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 13-14.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Year-End Examination
1879-80

  1. Professor Cairnes says that “the notion which prevails both here and in the United States, that the high rate of general wages obtaining in each country is a hindrance to the extension of its foreign trade, must be pronounced to be absolutely without foundation.”
    By what reasoning this this conclusion supported?
  2. How much truth is there in the maxim that “the value of gold is and must be the same all the world over”?
  3. A few years ago an American writer said, —
    “We will be able to resume specie payments when we cease to rank among the debtor nations, when our national debt is owed to our own people, and when our industry is adequate to the supply of the nation’s need of manufactured goods.”
    With what degree of justice can this be treated as a prediction verified by the events?
  4. Sherman says, —
    “During the last four years the value of our exports of merchandise has exceeded the value of our imports of merchandise $753,271,475. The excess of exports has heretofore been mainly met by the remittance to this country of American securities, but the time appears to have come when the balance of trade in our favor is to be adjusted by means of the precious metals.” — (Finance Report for 1879, p. xxxi.)
  5. It is becoming a serious problem what (English) agriculturists are to do. They will not get rents much lowered in a hurry, for land still commands a high value in the market, and is difficult to be got at all except under special circumstances. Large proprietors would rather cultivate their own land at a loss than submit to a reduction of rent telling on its value.” — (London Times, May, 1880.)
  6. Criticising Professor Cairnes’s reply to M. Alby, Sir Anthony Musgrave remarks,—
    “It is precisely because in no country are all industries equally favored by nature that Mr. Cairnes’s objection fails…. It is exactly because the favored industry in any nation requires no assistance, that it can assist the industries not so fortunate….Suppose that the high price secured by protection is rendered necessary by the onerous conditions under which native industry is tempted to work; suppose that Frenchmen, as Mr. Cairnes says are encouraged to produce iron from ores of inferior quality by the high price secured to them — what has happened? Useful iron has been extracted from ores which would have otherwise have been wasted; employment has been afforded to many who might otherwise have been idle for want of occupation; people have been fed who would otherwise have starved and as a set-off to this, some others have been obliged to smoke fewer cigars and drink less wine than they would have had money to purchase, if they had not been compelled to spend it in iron. In the absence of protection “they,” we are told,” would obtain their iron on more favorable terms at a smaller sacrifice of labor and abstinence by exchanging for it their wines and silks with England.”…Whose labor? and abstinence from what? Unfortunately the persons who have the wine and silk are not those who want the iron. The truth is, we do not want to save labor — we want to find wholesome and remunerative employment for paupers. And if the sacrifice of “abstinence” only means, as I believe it does, that riches will not accumulate so fast in the hands of capitalists — that the employers of labor will have to forego some luxuries that they may give higher wages to the laborers, and that the comforts of life may be thus more equally distributed — I cannot see much objection to this.” — (Contemporary Review, January, 1877.)
  7. “Ever half year we see summaries in the newspapers shewing that the Joint Stock Banks have in the aggregate perhaps $200,000,000 of deposits, and it is supposed that they have that quantity of money to trade with. But it is a complete and entire delusion.”
  8. How does discounting differ from the cash credit system, long practiced by the Scotch banks?
  9. State and explain Bastiat’s law of value.
  10. What is the reasoning in support of the following? —
    “A mesure que les capitaux s’accroissent, la part absolue des capitalistes dans les produits totaux augmente et leur part relative Au contraire, les travailleurs voient augmenter leur part dans les deux sens.”
  11. What is Bastiat’s theory of the value of land, and how is it reconciled with the value attaching to natural fertility?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1880-81. Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Fine Arts, and Music. Annual Examinations, 1879-80, pp. 14-15.

Image Source: Charles F. Dunbar photographed by William Notman. Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard College Library.

Categories
Courses Minnesota

Minnesota. Proposal for Seminar on Business Cycles. Friedman, 1945-46

The format of the following seminar proposal matches exactly the template also used for the National Income and Product Accounting course taught by Milton Friedman at the University of Minnesota, 1946. The folder the proposal is found in was incorrectly labelled “University of Chicago. Seminar on Business Cycles” in Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives. I still need to check whether this seminar was approved and actually taught.

One can hear in this proposal the rumblings of the future debate to be initiated by Tjalling Koopmans in his 1947 paper, “Measurement without Theory”  One can speculate where Friedman stood with respect to the opposite extremes in empirical business cycle research at this time.

Also of interest is his paragraph on the importance of lags in the implementation of stabilisation policy.

___________________

Description of Proposed Course: “Seminar on Business Cycles”

  1. Purpose: To supplement the existing one-quarter course in business cycles, thereby enabling graduate students to get a fuller training in current work on cyclical fluctuations.
  2. Content: The course would deal primarily with empirical work on cyclical fluctuations and with proposals for the control of cycles. A cursory acquaintance with the leading theories of cyclical fluctuations would be assumed. Analysis of the bearing of empirical findings on the validity of the various theories, and consideration of the theoretical assumptions implicit in proposed measures for mitigating cyclical fluctuations would provide an opportunity for more intensive discussion of the various theories. The following three paragraphs indicate in somewhat more detail the range of topics to be covered:
    1. Description of cyclical fluctuations

The students would study actual time series covering a variety of economic activities; they would attempt to isolate and to date cyclical fluctuations in these series. The aim would be to give a realistic picture of the temporal behavior of economic activity; to bring home the diversity of movement; to exorcise the naïve notion that cyclical movements consist of clearly delineated synchronous, and uninterrupted upward and downward movements in practically all sectors of economic activity; and to leave with the student a knowledge of the character and timing of the business cycles in this country during the past few decades.

    1. Empirical studies of cyclical fluctuations

The emphasis under this topic would be on both techniques of studying cyclical fluctuations and the substantive findings of various investigators. At least two techniques would be considered: (1) the National Bureau technique; (2) the technique of constructing a system of simultaneous difference equations from statistical data (e.g. Tinbergen’s work). The reason for choosing these is that they represent techniques at opposite extremes; the guiding principle of the Bureau technique is to describe the facts compactly and exactly without departing from them, at least in the initial stages of the work; the guiding principle of the simultaneous equations technique is to replace the facts by a mathematical model as early in the analysis as possible.

  1. Measures for controlling cyclical fluctuations

A variety of proposals would be considered. The discussion of each would include analysis of the theoretical assumptions underlying it, the practical problems involved, and the empirical evidence, if any, on its possible success. The success of most of the measures depends critically on (1) the lag between the need for action and the recognition of the need (2) the lag between the action and its results. Some attention will therefore be given to the possibility of forecasting and to possible lags between action and effect.

  1. Title: “Seminar on Business Cycles”
  2. Prerequisites: B.A. 112, Econ. 149, B.A. 101-102.
  3. Duration: Two quarters

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 76, Folder  3 “University of Chicago [sic]. ‘Seminar on Business Cycles’”.

Image Source: Milton Friedman in 1947 at the founding meeting of the Mt. Pelerin Society. Collected Works of Milton Friedman website at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.