Month: May 2022

M.I.T. Reading list for Problems in Russian Economic History. Domar, 1975

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-28

Evsey Domar’s 1970 article, “The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom” (The Journal of Economic History. Vol. XXX, March, 1970) made him a one-hit wonder in the field of economic history. But what a hit!

He shared some of his life-long passion for Russian economic history with M.I.T. graduate students back when M.I.T. could boast having three professors teaching economic history — Charles Kindleberger covered modern European history, Evsey Domar focussed on his Russian peasants, and Peter Temin was there for U.S. economic history of the new cliometric fashion. Just about ten years ago Peter Temin wrote a memoir on “the rise and fall of economic history at MIT“.

One salient memory I took from Domar’s Russian economic history class is associated with the very first meeting when Domar, not a very tall man, lugged into the classroom a huge rolled-up map of Russia to hang on the blackboard. He hardly referred to the map so I presumed he once ordered it in a fit of enthusiasm that far exceeded its pedagogical usefulness. Or maybe Domar was a kindred spirit of The Dude (see “Lebowski, Big”) and thought his Russia map really tied the classroom together.

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PROBLEMS IN RUSSIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY
14.732

E.D. Domar
Spring Term 1974-75

The purpose of this list is to indicate to the student the sources in which the more important topics of the course are discussed from several points of view. He will be held responsible for the topics rather than for “who said what.”

Since it is difficult to understand the economic and social developments in a country without a good general background in the country’s history, it is suggested that students who have not had a course in Russian history familiarize themselves with some standard textbook, such as A History of Russia by Nicholas V. Riasanovsky (New York: Oxford University Press, 1963), to which some references will be made here.

The book which will be used from cover to cover is Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961). It would be best to buy a copy. (Paperbacks are available).

Each student is expected to write a term paper of about 30 double-spaced pages on a subject agreed upon with the instructor.

There will be a 80 minute final examination on the last day of class in May.

PART I – KIEVAN RUSSIA
PART II – APPANAGE RUSSIA

REQUIRED

Riasanovsky, Parts I, Il, and III.

Blum, Introduction, Chapters 1-7.

RECOMMENDED

Karl Bosl, Alexander Gieysztor, Frantisek Graus, M. M. Postan, and Ferdinand Seibt, Eastern and Western Europe in the Middle Ages (Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, Inc., 1971).

Francis Dvornik, The Slavs in European History and Civilization (Rutgers University Press).

James Gregory, Russian Land, Soviet People: A Geographical Approach to the U.S.S.R. (London, 1968).

V. O. Kliuchevsky, A History of Russia, translation by C. J. Hogarth.

Peter Liashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia to the 1917 Revolution, translated by L. M. Herman (New York: 1949, 1970).

Frank Nowak, Medieval Slavdom and the Rise of Russia (Greenwood Press, Inc.)

W. H. Parker, An Historical Geography of Russia (London: 1968).

Henry Paszkiewicz, The Origin of Russia (New York: 1969).

M. N. Pokrovaky, History of Russia from the Earliest Times to the Rise of Commercial Capitalism(Bloomington, Indiana: 1966).

B. H. Slicher (van Bath), The Agrarian History of Western Europe, A.D. 500-1850.

Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol. III, pp. 391-454.

George Vernadsky, Kievan Russia (New Haven: 1948).

George Vernadsky, The Mongols and Russia (New Haven: 1953).

Warren B. Walsh, Readings in Russian History from Ancient Times to the Post-Stalin Era, Vol. I, (Syracuse University Press, 1963).

PART III — THE DEVELOPMENT OF SERFDOM BEFORE PETER I
XVI and XVII CENTURIES

REQUIRED

Riasanovsky, Part IV (as a background)

Blum, Chapters 8-14.

Evsey D. Domar, “The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom,” The Journal of Economic History. Vol. XXX, March, 1970, pp. 18-32.

Richard Hellie, Enserfment and Military Change in Muscovy (Chicago: 1970). Introduction, Parts I, II (omit the details and get the man ideas).

Joseph T. Fuhrmann, The Origins of Capitalism in Russia: Industry and Progress in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Chicago: 1972), Chapters 1, 2, 10-13 (omit the details).

RECOMMENDED

Paul Avrich, Russian Rebels, 1600-1800 (Schocken Booke, 1972).

Lloyd E. Berry and Robert O. Crummey, editors, Rude & Barbarous Kingdom (The University of Washington Press, 1968).

V. O. Kliuchevsky, A Course in Russian History: The 17th Century (Quadrangle Books, Inc.)

James Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (New York: 1965), two volumes.

R. E. F. Smith, The Enserfment of the Russian Peasantry (Cambridge: 1968).

George Vernadsky, The Tsardom of Moscow, 1547-1682, in two volumes, (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969).

Jerome Blum, “The Rise of Serfdom in Eastern Europe,” American Historical Review, Vol. LXII, 1957, pp. 807-836.

T. S. Wellan, The Early History of the Russia Company (New York: 1969).

See also Part I and II of the Reading List.

PART IV – FROM PETER I TO THE EMANCIPATION OF THE PEASANTS
1700 — 1861

REQUIRED

Blum, Chapters 15-27.

James Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (New York: 1925, 1965), pp. 100-141 (omit the details).

A. Kahan, “Continuity in Economic Activity and Policy During the Post-Petrine Period in Russia,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. XXV, March, 1965, pp. 61-85.

A. Kahan, “The Costs of ‘Westernization’ in Russia: The Gentry and the Economy in the Eighteenth Century,” The Slavic Review, Vol. XXV, March, 1966, pp. 40-66.

R. Portal, “The Industrialization of Russia,” The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. VI, Part II, (Cambridge: 1965), pp. 801-810.

W. Blackwell, The Beginnings of Russian Industrialization, 1800-1860 (Princeton: 1968), (Get the main ideas and omit all details).

RECOMMENDED

Clifford M. Foust, Muscovite and Mandarin: Russia’s Trade with China and its Setting, 1727-1805 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1969).

Baron August Von Haxthausen, Studies on the Interior of Russia (University of Chicago Press, 1972).

Baron August Von Haxthausen, The Russian Empire, Volume 1 and 2.

James Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (New York: Russell and Russell, Inc., 1925, 1965), pp. 142-374, Volume I.

Anatole G. Mazour, The First Russian Revolution, 1825: The Decembrist Movement — Its Origins, Development, and Significance (Stanford: 1937).

Walter McKenzie Pintner, Russian Economic Policy Under Nicholas I (Cornell University Press, 1967).

Charles H. Pearson, Russia by a Recent Traveller (Frank Cass and Co. Limited, 1970).

S. P. Turin, From Peter the Great to Lenin: A History of the Russian Labour Movement with Special Reference to Trade Unionism (W. Heffer and Sons)

PART V — FROM THE EMANCIPATION OF THE PEASANTS TO
THE SOVIET REGIME 1861-1917

REQUIRED

A. Gerschenkron, “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization: Russia 1861-1917,” The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. VI, Part II, (Cambridge: 1965) , pp. 706-800 (Get the main ideas and skip the details).

G. T. Robinson, Rural Russia Under the Old Regime (New York: 1962).

A. Gerschenkeron, “Russia: Patterns and Problems of Economic Development, 1861-1958,” Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, Mass.: 1962), pp. 119-151.

A. Gerschenkron, “The Rate of Industrial Growth in Russia Since 1885,” The Tasks of Economic History, Supplement VII, 1947, to The Journal of Economic History, pp. 144-174.

R. W. Goldsmith, “The Economic Growth of Tsarist Russia, 1860-1913,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. IX, April, 1961, pp. 441-475 (only pp. 441-443 are required).

Paul Gregory, “Economic Growth and Structural Change in Tsarist Russia: A Case of Modern Economic Growth?” Soviet Studies, Vol. XXIII, January, 1972, pp. 418-434.

T. H. Von Laue, Sergei Witte and the Industrialization of Russia (New York: 1963), (not in detail), pp. 1-35, 262-308.

RECOMMENDED

Dorothy Atkinson, “The Statistics on the Russian Land Commune, 1905-1917,” Slavic Review, Vol. 32, Number 4, December, 1973, pp. 773-787.

Alexis N. Antsyferov, Russian Agriculture during the War: Rural Economy (New Haven: 1930).

Haim Barkai, “The Macro-Economics of Tsarist Russia in the Industrialization Era: Monetary Developments, the Balance of Payments and the Gold Standard, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. XXXIII, June, 1973, pp. 339-371.

A.V. Chayanov, The Theory of Peasant Economy (Homewood, Illinois: 1966).

T. Emmons, The Russian Gentry and the Peasant Emancipation to 1861 (Cambridge: 1968).

A. Gerschenkron, Continuity in History and Other Essays (Cambridge, Mass.: 1968).

A. Gerschenkron, Europe in the Russian Mirror: Four Lectures in Economic History (Cambridge University Press, 1970).

Geoffrey A. Hosking, The Russian Constitutional Experiment: Government and Duma, 1907-1914 (New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1973).

Isaac A. Hourwich, The Economics of the Russian Village (New York: Columbia University, 1892).

Stefan Kieniewicz, The Emancipation of the Polish Peasantry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969).

V. I. Lenin, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, (second Russian edition, Moscow: 1907; English translation, Moscow: 1956).

James Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (New York: Russell & Russell, 1925, 1965).

John P. Mckay, Pioneers for Profit: Foreign Entrepreneurship and Russian Industrialization, 1885-1913(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970).

Margaret Miller, The Economic Development of Russia, 1905-1914, second edition, (New York: 1967).

W. H. Parker, A Historical Geography of Russia (London: 1968).

Alfred J. Rieber, editor, Politics of Autocracy: Letters of Alexander II to Prince Bariatinskii, 1857-1865 (New York: 1966).

Amende Roosa, “Russian Industrialists and ‘State Socialism’, 1906-1917,” Soviet Studies, Vol. XXIII, January, 1972, pp. 395-417.

Teodor Shanin, The Awkward Class: Political Sociology of Peasantry in a Developing Society: Russia 1910-1925 (Oxford: 1972).

Mikhail I. Tugan-Baranovsky, The Russian Factory in the 19th Century, Richard D. Irwin, 1970.

Wayne S. Vucinich, editor, The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968; London: 1970).

Reginald E. Zelnik, Labor and Society in Tsarist Russia: The Factory Workers of St. Petersburg, 1855-1870(Stanford: April, 1971).

Male, D. J., Russian Peasant Organisation Before Collectivisation. A Study of Commune and Gathering 1925-1930. (Cambridge University Press, 1971).

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Image Source: MIT Economics Facebook post (Evsey Domar, In Memoriam) of October 10, 2014.

Tags Domar

Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list for Economics of Socialism. Bergson, 1977

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-27

The list of readings and final exam for Abram Bergson’s Harvard course “Normative Aspects of Economic Policy” (1960) were posted earlier. In this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provides the course outline and assigned readings for his “Economics of Socialism”. I encountered his 1961 book The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928 in four of my courses (taught by Raymond Powell and John Michael Montias at Yale; Evsey Domar at M.I.T.; and from Bergson himself at Harvard).

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 1200:
Economics of Socialism
Spring Term, 1976-77
Professor Bergson

Note
The following will be the principal texts for the course:

Abram Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Yale, New Haven, Conn., 1964.

Nai-Ruenn Chen and Walter Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Aldine, Chicago, 1969

Joel B. Dirlam and James L. Plummer, An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy, Merrill, Columbus, Ohio, 1973.

Paul R. Gregory and Robert C. Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Harper and Row, New York, 1974.

Note that the Bergson, Gregory and Stuart, and Dirlam and Plummer books are available in paperback.

Items Marked with an asterisk are optional.

I. Introduction

What is Socialism?

“Socialism” (by Daniel Bell), in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, 1968, pp. 506-516.

Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, International Publishers, 1938, pp. 3-23.

V. I. Lenin, State and Revolution, Ch. 5, “The Economic Base of the Withering Away of the State.”

Paul M. Sweezy, “Alternative Conceptions of Socialist Development” (Processed).

Alec Nove, “Market Socialism and Its Critics,” Soviet Studies, July 1972.

II. Comparative Development Strategy

The Soviet Model

Gregory and Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Chs. 1-3, 12 (pp. 417-428 only).

A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, London, 1969, Chs. 6-8.

A. Erlich, “Preobrazhenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1950.

I.V. Stalin, “On the Grain Front,” “Right Danger,” “Right Deviation,” in Selected Writings, New York, 1942.

Variants

Oleg Hoeffding, “Soviet State Planning and Forced Industrialization as a Model for Asia,” Problems of Communism, Nov.-Dec., 1959; reprinted in F. Holzman, Readings on the Soviet Economy, Chicago, 1962.

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy under Communism, Chs. 1, 2.

A. Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1975, pp. 9-22, 47-51.

See Sweezy under Topic 1.

III. Economic Organization and Planning

Socialist Planning: Contents and Issues

O. Lange “On the Economic Theory of Socialism” including Appendix, in B. Lippincott ed., On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis, 1938; New York, 1964.

A. Bergson “Market Socialism Revisited,” Journal of Political Economy, October 1967 (Section on “Cooperative Variant” optional).

W. N. Loucks, Comparative Economic Systems, 7th ed., New York, 1965, pp. 108-120 (5th ed., pp. 98-110; 6th ed., pp. 93-105).

Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics, 2nd ed., New York, 1966, pp. 10-28.

Note: As a preliminary to the foregoing readings, you may wish review relevant theoretic foundations in, say, Robert Dorfman, Prices and Markets, New Jersey, 1967, Chs. 7-8.

Centralist Planning in the USSR: The Industrial Enterprise and Collective Farm

Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 5 and pp. 287-297; Chs 9 and 10.

J. Berliner The Innovation Decision in Soviet Industry, Cambridge, Mass., 1976, Chs. 14-16.

Gregory and Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Chs. 7 (pp. 232-253), 10.

D. Granick*, “Managerial Incentives in the USSR and in Western Firms,” Journal of Comparative Administration, August 1973.

Emily C. Brown, Soviet Trade Unions and Labor Relations, Cambridge, Mass., 1966, Chs. 7, 9.

E. G. Liberman*, Economic Methods and the Effectiveness of Production, New York, 1973, pp. 21-47.

Centralist Planning in the USSR: Coordination

Bergson, Economics of Soviet Planning, Chs. 1, 3,4, 7, 8,(*) 11.

Liberman*, Economic Methods and the Effectiveness of Production, pp. 75-116.

H. S. Levine, “Pressure and Planning in the Soviet Economy,” in H. Rosovsky, ed., Industrialization in Two Systems, New York 1966; reprinted in M. Bornstein and D.R. Fusfeld, eds., The Soviet Economy, 3^rd ed., Homewood, Ill., 1970.

G. Grossman*, “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1953, reprinted in Holzman, Readings.

A. Nove, The Soviet Economy, New York, 1961, Rev. ed., Ch. 3, Ch. 7 (pp. 231-240).

R. W. Campbell, “Marx, Kantorovich, and Novozhilov,” in Slavic Review, October 1961; reprinted in H. Schaffer, The Soviet Economy, New York, 1963; and in George Feiwel, New Currents Soviet-Type Economies: A Reader, Scranton, PA, 1968.

G. Schroeder, “The 1966-67 Soviet Industrial Price Reform,” Soviet Studies, April 1969.

H. Kohler, Welfare and Planning, New York, 1966, pp. 82-95, 102-105.

M. Goldman, “Externalities and the Race for Economic Growth in the USSR: Will the Environment ever Win?” Journal of Political Economy, March/April 1972.

Market Socialism in Hungary and Yugoslavia

Bela Balassa. “The Firm in the New Economic Mechanism in Hungary,” in M. Bornstein, ed. Plan and Market, New Haven, Conn., 1973.

D. Granick, “The Hungarian Economic Reform,” World Politics, April 1973, reprinted in M. Bornstein, ed., Comparative Economic Systems, 3^rd ed., Homewood, Ill., 1974.

J. Vanek, The Participatory Economy, Ithaca, New York, 1971, Chs. 2-3.

Dirlam and Plummer, An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy Chs. 2, 3, 4 (pp. 88-99), 5 (pp. 122-141), 7 (pp. 165-177).

D. D. Milenkovich, Plan and Market in Yugoslav Economic Thought,New Haven, Conn., 1971, pp. 187-211.

D. D. Milenkovich*, “Plan and Market: The Case of Yugoslavia” (Processed).

Planning in China: How Different?

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Ch. 6

Barry Richman. “Capitalists and Managers in Communist China,” Harvard Business Review, January/February 1967.

D. Perkins, “Industrial Planning and Management,” in A. Eckstein, W. Galenson and T. C. Liu, eds., Economic Trends in Communist China, Chicago, 1968.

Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ch. 12.

IV Foreign Economic Relations

Foreign Economic Relations

F. D. Holzman, Foreign Trade Under Central Planning, Cambridge, Mass., 1974, Chs. 2, 6 (analysis of Fig. 6.1, p. 146 and section on foreign trade discrimination, pp. 150-152 are optional).

F. L. Pryor, The Communist Foreign Trade System, Cambridge, Mass., 1963, Chs. 1, 5 (pp. 131-139).

E. A. Hewett, Foreign Trade Prices in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Cambridge, Eng., 1974, Ch. 2.

R. F. Dernberger, “Prices, the Exchange Rate and Economic Efficiency in the Foreign Trade of Communist China,” A. A. Brown and E. Neuberger, eds., International Trade and Central Planning, Berkeley, California, 1968.

V. Performance

Comparative Productivity and Growth

S. Cohn, Economic Development in the Soviet Union, Lexington, Mass., 1970, Chs. 4, 6.

A. Bergson, Planning and Productivity Under Soviet Socialism, New York, 1968 Chs. 1-3.

R. W. Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, 2nd ed. Boston, Mass., 1966, Ch. 6.

A. Bergson “Development Under Two Systems: Comparative Productivity Growth Since 1950,” World Politics, July, 1971; reprinted in Bornstein, Comparative Economic Systems, 3^rd ed.

B. Ward, “Capitalism vs. Socialism: A Small Country Version,” in G. Grossman, ed., Essays in Socialism and Planning in Honor of Carl Landauer, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Ch. 9.

Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ch. 1.

John G. Gurley, “Capitalist and Maoist Economic Development,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, April-July 1970, pp. 42ff.

Reading Period:

Wage Determination and Inequality

Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 6.

Bergson, The Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge, Mass., 1944, Chs. 2, 13, 14.

M. Matthews*, “Top Incomes in the USSR: Towards a Definition of the Soviet Elite,” Survey, Summer, 1975.

Charles Hoffman, “Work Incentives in Chinese Industry and Agriculture,” in Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, An Economic Profile of Mainland China, Vol. 2, Washington, D.C., February 1967.

Convergence?

J. K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State, Boston, 1967, Ch. XXXV.

Bertram Wolfe, “Russia and the USA: A Challenge to the Convergence Theory” and J.K. Galbraith, “Reply,” American Humanist, September/October 1968.

Peter Wiles, “Convergence: Possibility and Probability” in Balinky et al., Planning and the Market in the USSR, Rutgers, 1967.

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Portrait of Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

Tags Bergson

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Economics semester final examinations, 1900-01.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-26

In the first full academic year of the twentieth century the Harvard economics department offered the following courses. The course links take you to the official course announcement, instructor names, enrollment figures, and the transcribed semester examinations.

Economics 1. Outlines of Economics
Economics 2. Economic Theory of the 19th Century
Economics 3. Principles of Sociology
Economics 5. Railways and Other Public Works
Economics 6. Economic History of the U.S.
Economics 8. Money
Economics 9. Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.
Economics 10. European Mediaeval Economic History
Economics 12. Banking and Leading Banking Systems
Economics 12a. International Payments and Gold/Silver Flows
Economics 13. Methods of Economic Investigation
Economics 17. Economic Organization and Resources in Europe
Economics 18. Principles of Accounting
Economics 19. General View of Insurance
Economics 20d. Adam Smith and Ricardo

__________________________________

Economics 1.
Outlines of Economics

Primarily for Undergraduates.

Course Announcement

Outlines of Economics. , Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Taussig, Dr. Sprague, Mr. Andrew, and Messrs. — and — .

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 41.

Course Enrollment

Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Drs. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague and [Abram Piatt] Andrew, and Messrs. [Charles] Beardsley and [James Horace] Patten. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 442: 23 Seniors, 70 Juniors, 257 Sophomores, 29 Freshmen, 63 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1900-1901, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 1
[Mid-year Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

In what manner do you think that (a) the individual efficiency of laborers, (b) their collective efficiency, would be affected by the general adoption of profit sharing? of socialism?
It has been said that the original formation of capital is due to abstinence or saving, but its permanent maintenance is not. What do you say to either statement?
Wherein is Walker’s presentation of the forces that make the general rate of wages better than Mill’s, wherein not so good?
“The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talents for business, or superior business arrangements, are very much of a similar kind. …All advantages, in fact, which one competitor has over another, whether natural or acquired, whether personal or the result of social arrangements, bring the commodity, so far, into the Third Class, and assimilate the advantage to a receiver of rent.”
Explain (a) what is this Third Class, and what is the law of value applicable to it; (b) what Mill would say as to the proposition here stated; (c) what Walker would say?
What qualifications of the general principle of rent can you state, in its application to (a) premises used for building purposes, (b) dwelling-houses, (c) mines?
If all men had the same start in life, would there be differences of wages? If so, of what sort? If not, why not?
“Since cost of production here fails us, we must revert to a law of value anterior to cost of production and more fundamental…” In what cases does cost of production fail us? Will “cost of reproduction” cover such cases? Is there another law more fundamental?
Under what circumstances. if ever, will a general rise in wages affect the relative values of commodities? Would your answer be the same as to a general rise in profits?
In what manner do you believe business profits, interest, and wages would be affected by the general adoption of the various forms of consumers’ coöperation? of producers’ cooperation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 1
[Year-end Examination]

I.
Answer three.

How will the value of land be affected by
1. an increase in population,
2. a reduction in the rate of interest,
3. a protective tariff on agricultural produce.
How will the price of grain be affected by
1. a tax proportioned to the economic rent of the land,
2. an equal tax upon all land.
“Profits do not form a part of the price of the products of industry, and do not cause any diminution of the wages of labor.”
Would Mill agree to this statement? Would you?
Upon what does the general level of wages depend (a) according to Mill, (b) according to Walker? What would you expect these writers to say as to the effect of a protective tariff on the general level of wages?

II.
Answer two.

If a country exports on a large scale a commodity not previously exported, will its other exports be affected? If so, how? If not, why not?
Can a country have a permanently “unfavorable” balance of trade? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
Can a country permanently export specie? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
Can the rate of foreign exchange in a country be permanently at the specie-shipping point? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
How would you expect the issue of a paper currency to effect foreign trade,—
1. While the notes were still redeemable;
2. After they had become irredeemable.

III.
Answer two.

Define the following terms

Seignorage,
Clearing house loan certificates,
Silver Certificates,
United States notes,
Inconvertible paper.

How would the adoption of bimetallism affect the stability of the value of money?
1. according to Mill,
2. according to Walker,
3. in your own opinion.
How is the value of money in a country likely to be affected by an increase in
1. the quantity of commodities produced and sold,
2. the quantity of bank notes,
3. the volume of bank deposits.

Which of these changes would you expect to exercise most influence? Which least? Give your reasons.

IV.
Answer all.

Compare and explain the operations of the Bank of England and those of the New York banks in a time of crisis,
Arrange these items…

Government Securities 40.
Surplus 3.
Notes 38.
Specie 40.
Deposits 55.
Capital 14.
Loans 30.

1. … in their proper order, as they would stand in an account of the Bank of France.
2. … as they would stand in an account of a national bank of the United States; and state (1) whether this could be an account of a national bank, and (2) whether the proportions of the different items are such as you would be likely to find in an account of such a bank.
3. … as they would stand in an account of the Bank of England, assuming the uncovered issue to be 17.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 21-23.

__________________________________

Economics 2.
Economic Theory
in the 19th Century

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course outline and readings.

Course Announcement

Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century. , Wed., Fri., at 2.30 Professor Taussig. [note: Professor Carver taught the course]

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 41.

Enrollment

Professor Carver. — Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 45: 6 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-year examination]

Define value and explain why one commodity possesses more value in proportion to its bulk than another.
Explain the various uses of the term diminishing returns, and define it as you think it ought to be defined.
In what sense does a law of diminishing returns apply to all the factors of production.
State briefly Böhm-Bawerk’s explanation of the source of interest.
What, if any, is the relation of abstinence to interest.
Would you make any distinction between the source of wages and the factors which determine rates of wages? If so, what? If not, why not?
Discuss the question: Is a demand for commodities a demand for labor?
What is the relation of the standard of living to wages.
Discuss briefly the following questions relating to speculators’ profits. (a) Do speculators as a classmake any profits? (b) Are speculators’ profits in any sense earned?
In what sense, if any, does the value of money come under the law of marginal utility?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 2
[Year-end Examination]

Discuss the following topics.

The bearing of the marginal utility theory of value upon the questions of wages and interest.
The definitions of capital as given by Taussig and Clark.
Clark’s explanation of the place of distribution within the natural divisions of economics.
Clark’s method of distinguishing between the product of labor and the product of capital.
Clark’s distinction between rent and interest.
Böhm-Bawerk’s theory of the nature of capital.
The origin of capital, according to Böhm-Bawerk and Clark.
The meaning of the word “productive” in the following proposition: “Protection is an attempt to attract labor and capital from the naturally more productive, to the naturally less productive industries.”
The incidence of tariff duties.
The theory of production and the theory of valuation as the two principal departments of economics.

__________________________________

Economics 3.
Principles of Sociology

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. , Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Mr. —.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 41.

Enrollment

Asst. Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern state, and of its Social Functions.

Total 57: 9 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 3.
[Mid-year Examination]

Answer only ten questions.

Upon what does Kidd base his argument that religion is necessary to keep men from taking such political action as would suspend economic competition, and what is the crucial point in his argument?
In the light of Kidd’s theory of social evolution, discuss the question: Can there be a permanent civilization? Or, do the conditions which promote progress also ensure decay?
Classify the sanctions for conduct which originate outside the individual and explain your classification.
Explain and illustrate the meaning of the following: “Generalizing this struggle and extending it to every form existing in the social life — linguistic, religious, political, artistic, and moral, as well as industrial — we see that the really fundamental social opposition must be sought for in the bosom of the social individual himself.” (Tarde, Social Laws. Ch. II. p. 83.)
What is meant by social stratification? How does it originate? What are some of its consequences?
Compare Herbert Spencer’s theory of progress with Lester F. Ward’s, giving special attention to the argument which each offers in support of his theory.
What, according to Patten, are the chief obstacles to a progressive evolution.
Explain the following. “The difference between that society of conscious units which we call mind, and a society of human beings on our planet, is in the completeness of the mechanism.” (Patten, Theory of Social Forces. Ch. II. p. 21.)
What, according to Patten, is the significance of the transition from a pain to a pleasure economy.
How does Bagehot account for the origin of national traits?
Discuss the question: Does charity retard the process of race improvement?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 3.
[Year-end Examination]

Discuss the following topics

The definition of progress.
Charity as a factor in human selection.
The way in which, according to Spencer, the different classes of institutions are related to one another.
The sanctions for conduct.
A moral ideal as a factor in human selection.
The natural antagonism of human interests and the problem of evil.
The storing of the surplus energy of society.
The influence of property on the relations of the sexes.
Labor and service as bases of distributive justice
The influence of militarism upon race development, or deterioration.

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Economics 5.
Railways and Other Public Works

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcements

5¹ hf. Railways and Other Public Works, under Public and Corporate Management. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th. and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Mr. Meyer.

5² hf. Railways and Other Public Works (advanced course). Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th. and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Mr. Meyer.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollments

[Economics] 5¹ hf. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.— Railways and other Public Works, under Public and Corporate Management.

Total 86: 4 Graduates, 52 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 9 Others.

[Economics] 5² hf. Mr. Meyer.— Railways and other Public Works (advanced course).

Total 9: 3 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p.64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 5¹
[Mid-year Examination]

Omit the last question if the paper seems too long

The construction put upon the long and short haul clause: by the Interstate Commerce Commission; by the Supreme Court.
The decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission on group rates.
The railway rate situation in Germany [Prussia]; does it throw any light on the railway problem in the United States?
“If pooling produces any beneficial result, it necessarily does so at the expense of competition. It is only by destroying competition that the inducement to deviate from the published rate is wholly removed….By the legalizing of pooling the public loses the only protection which it now has against the unreasonable exactions of transportation agencies.”—Give your reasons for accepting or rejecting this statement.
Alternative:—
The reasons for the instability of pools in the United States.
The Iowa Railroad Commission.
Alternative:—
To what extent was the long and short haul clause of the Interstate Commerce Act enforced; what was the effect of that enforcement: on railway revenues; on intermediate shipping or distributing points?
The body of administrative law to be found in the decisions of the Massachusetts Gas and Electric Light Commission’s decisions upon petitions for reductions in the price of gas.
(a) Is it to the public interest to insert in street railway charters provisions seeking to secure to the municipality or the state a share in any excess of profit over the normal rate?
Alternative: (b) and (c).
(b) The evidence as to the return on capital obtainable in street railway ventures.
(c) What questions of public policy were raised in the case of the Milwaukee Street Railway and Electric Light Co. vs. The City of Milwaukee?
What statistics were used in illustrating in a general way the statement that railway charges are based upon what the traffic will bear; in discussing the bearing of stock-watering upon railway rates; in discussing the return obtained by capital invested in railway enterprises in the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College. June, Pages 24-25.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 5²
[Year-end Examination]

The railways and the national finances in Prussia and Australia.
Railway rates and the export trade of the United States since 1893, or, 1896.
The economic situation in Australia since 1892, and the Australian railways.
“A fatal objection to the income or preference bond is that it is an attempt to combine two contradictory commercial principles.”
Discuss this statement fully. What does it mean? Is it true?
If you had access to all the accounts of a railroad, how should you determine the value to it of one of its branch lines?
To what accounts would you charge the following expenditures? (If you do not remember the exact Interstate Commerce Commission classification, use your best judgment.) State reasons in each case.
Engineer’s wages on a special train conveying the general manager to an extensive flood covering the line.
Fireman’s wages on an engine employed exclusively in switching to and from the repair shops.
Conductor’s wages on a worktrain engaged in taking up rails on an abandoned branch.
Brakeman’s wages on a train engaged solely in hauling company’s coal for company’s use.
Cost of taking up comparatively new sound rails judged too light for heavy rolling stock.
Cost at a competitive point of a new station to replace an old one which was large enough but old-fashioned.
State the commonest problems facing a reorganization committee for an insolvent road, and then suggest and defend one course of procedure for each problem.
Combine and arrange the following items so as to give the best information about the operation and condition of the road. (Do not rewrite the names but use the corresponding numbers where possible.)

1.	Passenger train miles	2,000,000
2.	Freight train miles	3,400,000
3.	Passenger train earnings	$2,400,000
4.	Freight train earnings	$5,500,000
5.	Income from investments	$100,000
6.	Dividends	$500,000
7.	Operating expenses	$4,700,000
8.	Av. no. pass. cars per train	4
9.	Av. no. passengers per car	11
10.	Tons freight carried	2,800,000
11.	Av. load per car (loaded and empty), tons	8.2
12.	Av. no. loaded cars per train	12.3
13.	Av. no. empty cars per train	6.7
14.	Interest charge for year	$2,200,000
15.	Due other roads	$100,000
16.	Stocks and bonds owned	$4,900,000
17.	Supplies on hand	$500,000
18.	Taxes for the year	$300,000
19.	Accounts receivable	$500,000
20.	Cash	$1,000,000
21.	Surplus for the year	$300,000
22.	Profit and loss account	$1,000,000
23.	Taxes accrued but not due	$100,000
24.	Capital stock	$50,000,000
25.	Interest due	$700,000
26.	Funded debt	$45,000,000
27.	Due from other roads	$100,000
28.	Interest accrued not due	$300,000
29.	Franchises and property	$90,400,000
30.	Bonds of the company in its treasury	$800,000
31.	Accounts payable	$1,000,000
32.	No. of passengers carried	2,300,000

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Economics 6.
Economic History of the U.S.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

The Economic History of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Mr. —.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollment

Professor Taussig. — The Economic History of the United States.

Total 164: 9 Graduates, 63 Seniors, 68 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 6
[Mid-year Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions,

The nature and object of the scales of depreciation established by Congress and by the States at the close of the war of the Revolution; and how far these objects were accomplished.
“The year 1789 marks no such epoch in economies as it does in political history.” — Taussig. How far is this true as to (1) financial legislation; (2) tariff legislation; (3) the course of foreign trade; (4) the growth of manufactures?
Explain how you would distinguish Treasury Notes designed to circulate as currency from those designed simply to meet financial needs; and state when and under what circumstances, between 1789 and 1860, the United States resorted to issues of the first kind.
Suppose the charter of the first Bank of the United States had been renewed: would the effect have been favorable or unfavorable for the finances of the government, for the bank, for the community, in 1812-1815?
Suppose the charter of the second Bank of the United States had been renewed: would the effect have been favorable or unfavorable for the finances of the government, for the bank, for the community, in 1835-40?
Describe the Independent Treasury system, as first established and as finally settled (give dates). Do you believe it better than the alternative system proposed by its opponents? Why?
The causes of the crises of 1837 and 1857: wherein similar, wherein different.
State what were the duties on cotton goods in 1809, 1819, 1839, 1859; and give your opinion whether the duties at these several dates were designed to give protection, and whether protection was then expedient.
Why the early railway enterprises of the States were undertaken as public enterprises; and how far their history may be fairly cited for or against the policy of public management.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 6
[Year-end Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions

Explain summarily at what dates and to what extent land-grants and bond-subsidies were extended to railways by the United States; and state whether you believe these measures brought advantage to the country.
Was the management of the finances during the Civil War fraught with more or less evil consequences than that during the War of 1812, as regards (1) the currency, (2) the banks?
State what main sources of revenue were expected to be used, what were used in fact, by the United States in each of the years 1862, 1863, 1864; and explain how the resort to the sources actually used came about.
For the decade 1870-80, explain the connection between the course of prices, foreign trade, railway operations, and currency legislation.
For the decade 1880-90, connect the history of the public debt, the national revenues, the banking system, the silver currency.
Does the argument for protection to young industries find support in the history of (1) the cotton manufacture before 1830, (2) the silk manufacture since 1870, (3) the tin plate industry since 1890.
Explain how the theory of comparative costs may be applicable to the present situation as regards carpet wool, beet sugar, glassware, woollen cloths (take three).
What changes were made in the duties on raw and refined sugar in 1890, 1894, 1897? Which mode of treatment do you regard the most advisable, and why?
State what causes you believe to have chiefly promoted the growth and maintenance of the sugar and oil combinations; and consider which of these two you regard as typical, and as instructive for forecasting the future of combinations.

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Economics 8¹
Money

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

8¹ hf. Money. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Mr. Andrew.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollment

8¹ hf. Dr. [Abram Piatt] Andrew. Money.

Total 122: 3 Graduates, 56 Seniors, 41 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 13 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 8
[Mid-year Examination]

Answer only three questions from each group, but consider the questions strictly in the order of their arrangement

What is meant by

(1) a “double” standard;
(2) a “parallel” standard;
(3) a “limping” standard;
(4) a “single” standard;

Cite at least two historic examples of each, giving approximate dates.

The following are estimates which have been made of the average production of silver, and its annual average export to the Orient in millions of ounces:

	Production	Export to East
1851-55	28 mill.	20 mill.
1855-60	29 ”	52 ”
1861-65	35 ”	53 ”
1865-70	43 ”	25 ”

State the causes of the singular situation revealed in these figures, and explain its actual effect upon the relative values of gold and silver in Europe.

Suppose that the British government in 1870 had used the right conferred by the act of 1816, and had proclaimed the free coinage of silver at the ratio then current. What differences do you think would have occurred in the subsequent currency history of the world?
Describe the effect of the suspension of the coinage of silver upon the value of the currency in each of the following cases:—
(1) in Holland; (2) in Austria; (3) in Russia; (4) in India.

“Before 1873 we had coined in the United States only about eight million silver dollars ($8,031,238) while since the date fixed as the beginning of demonetization we have coined nearly five hundred millions ($485,427,703).”
How do you explain (1) the small amount of dollars coined before 1873? (2) the large amount coined since then?
What in your opinion was the real significance of (1) the act of 1803? (2) the act of 1873?
“With the exception of the brief period of fifteen years (1544-60) the English coins have never been debased.”
In what sense and to what extent is this statement correct?
In writing of the currency history of England during the years, immediately succeeding the great recoinage (1696) Mr. Dana Horton says:—
“And so the full weight standard coin of the Realm, to create a stock of which the State had spent a sum greater than its regular annual revenue, and equal to perhaps a fourth of the country’s total stock of cash, — was allowed to find its way back to the melting-pot in exchange for cheaper gold.”
Explain the situation to which he refers, and the reasons for this disappearance of the “standard coin.”

III

(a) What were the main arguments which Lord Liverpool advanced in favor of a single gold standard?
(b) What were the legislative acts in which his influence is to be traced?
(a) Do falling prices necessarily mean an increase in the burden of debts?
(b) Do they in the long run inevitably diminish the productiveness of industry?
(c) To what extent are they prejudicial to the interests of the working classes?
“It is generally agreed that every fall in the value of silver acted at the time as a stimulus to Indian exports and as a check on imports into India.”
(1) Explain this statement, (2) state how far it is confirmed by commercial statistics, and (3) show whether such a condition is ever likely to be of prolonged duration.
It is alleged that the Russian government, by stimulating exports, and hindering imports, has endeavored to secure a favorable balance of trade, with the idea of increasing the quantity of gold in the country? What do you think would be the ultimate effect of such a policy if continuously pursued?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

Also: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 28-30.

__________________________________

Economics 9.
The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Taught by W. F. Willoughby (Edward Cummings’ successor).

Course Announcement

The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Mr. —.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollment

9² hf. Mr. W. F. Willoughby. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen.

Total 146: 3 Graduates, 53 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 35 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 9
[Year-end examination]

Show how the change in the organization of industry from the handicraft system and production on a small scale to the factory system and production on a large scale has led to; (a) efforts to supplant the wages system by socialism[,] coöperation, etc., (b) the trade union movement, and (c) compulsory compensation acts.
Give the arguments for and against profit-sharing as regards (a) it being a more just system of enumeration than the wages system, and (b) its practical advantages.
What are the two systems of coöperative production now practice in Great Britain, and why are they meeting with more success than earlier efforts?
Describe the trade agreement between the National Metal Trades Association and the International Association of Machinists in such a way as to show its essential character and significance, and particularly its relation to the trade union movement and the question of the prevention and adjustment of industrial disputes.
What was the nature of the “new unionism” movement in Great Britain, and its success?
What is the general character of the Massachusetts State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration; what its duties and its powers?
Describe the essential features of the French Workmen’s Compensation Act.
Give a brief sketch of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, with the names of its early leaders and important events in its history.
In what ways can the municipality take action for the improvement of the housing condition of the poorer classes without itself building tenements? What are some of the objections to the municipalities themselves undertaking building operations?
Show why employment bureaus can do but little for the solution of the general problem of the unemployed.

Enrollment (Economics 9a)

9a² hf. Mr. W. F. Willoughby. — Provident Institutions. Workingmen’s Insurance, Friendly Societies, Savings Banks.

Total 22: 1 Graduate, 13 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-1901
ECONOMICS 9a
[Year-end Examination]

What is the general situation in France at the present time in respect to insurance against old age and invalidity? Describe briefly the organization and workings of important institutions, and show particularly how the government is attempting to further this kind of insurance.
What has been the general policy of the British government in respect to the regulation of Friendly Societies? Give the main features of law now regulating them.
Describe the Fraternal Beneficial Orders of the United States as regards (a) their general scheme of organization, and (b) system of insurance.
Show wherein this insurance system is defective by contrasting it with that of ordinary life insurance companies: indicate reforms that are necessary and how they can best be brought about.
Contrast the systems of savings banks in Great Britain and the United States.
In what respects are coöperative banks of the Schulze-Delitzsch and Raiffeisen type more valuable social institutions than the ordinary savings banks?
Describe the principles upon which all coöperative building and loan associations in this country are organized, and indicate ways in which they might profitably be subjected to more rigid state control.
Why is it impracticable to insure against unemployment?
Outline briefly the system of sick insurance in Germany.

__________________________________

Economics 10.
Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Ashley.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 41.

Enrollment

Professor Ashley. The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

Total 11: 6 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 10
[Mid-year Examination]

Not more than six questions should be attempted, of which the first should be one.

Translate, and briefly comment upon
1. Toto regis Willelmi primi tempore perseveravit haec institutio, usque tempora regis Henrici filii ejus; adeo ut viderim ego ipse quosdam qui victualia statutis temporibus de fundis regiis ad curiam deferri viderint.
2. In Kateringes sunt X hidae ad geldum Regis. Et de istis X hidis tenent XL villani XL virgas terrae.
3. Compotus Roberti Oldeman praepositi de Cuxham, ab in crastino Sancti Jacobi anno regni Regis Edwardi filii Regis Edwardi decimo usque ad in crastinum Sancti Jacobi proxime sequentis anno regni Regis Edwardi praedicti undecimo intrante.
4. Rogamus . . . ademptum sit jus etiam procuratoribus nedum conductori adversus colons ampliandi partes agrarias aut operarum praebitionem jugorumve.
5. Orgeterix ad judicium omnem suam familiam, ad hominum milia decem, undeque coëgit et omnes clientes obaeratoque suos quorum magnum numerum habebat eodem conduxit.
What materials have we for forming a judgment as to the position of the rural population of England in the period from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries? Classify them, and indicate the value of each class for the purposes of this enquiry.
Wherein did the status of the coloni of the later Roman Empire resemble or differ from that of the medieval villein?
Describe the constitution and working of manorial courts. What light does their history throw on the evolution of social classes?
“Wie das Wort Dorf … dem Sinne nach einen Haufen bezeichnet, so ist auch haufenförmig oder Haufendorf der geeignetste Ausdruck für diese Art der Dorfenlage.” Explain and comment.
“M. Fustel took for his point of departure the Provincial villa; Dr. Hildebrand takes the Kirghises of modern Asia.” Explain, and then show the peculiar dangers of each method.
“We may safely follow Palgrave in taking the Anglo-Saxon townships as the integral molecules out of which the Anglo-Saxon State was formed.” Why? or why not?
What was the gwely? What bearing has it on the general problem of “tribal” organization?
What are the assumptions or postulates of modern Political Economy? To what extent were they true of the Middle Ages?
Which book read in connection with this course has interested you most? Describe its method and estimate the value of its contribution to economic history.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 10
[Year-end Examination]

Not more than six questions should be attempted, of which the first should be one

Briefly comment upon the following passages, and translate such of them as are not in English:—
1. Colunt discreti ac diversi, ut fons, ut campus, ut nemus placuit. Vicos locant non in nostrum morem connexis et cohaerentibus aedificiis: suam quisque domum spatio circumdat.
2. If a man agree for a yard of land or more, at a fixed rent, and plough it; if the lord desire to raise the land to him to service and to rent, he need not take it upon him, if the lord do not give him a dwelling.
3. Ego S. … et ego P. … aliquantulam agri partem pro remedio animarum nostrorum W. episcopo in dominio donare decrevimus; id est xxx cassatorum in loco qui dicitur T.
4. Si quis super alterum in villa migrare voluerit, et unus vel aliqui de ipsis qui in villa consistunt eum suscipere voluerit, si vel unus extiterit qui contradicat, migrandi ibidem licentiam non habebit.
5. Qui habebant de tenentibus per diaetas totius anni, ut assolet de nativis, oportebat eos relaxare et remittere talia opera.
6. If any one does an injury who is not of the gild and is of the franchise … he shall lose his franchise.
Explain the position of Maitland’s Domesday Book and Beyond in the discussion concerning the origin of the manor.
Distinguish between the several characteristics of mediaeval towns, and indicate the part played by each, in your opinion, in the formation of specifically urban conditions.
Examine the relations between questions of personal status and questions of economic condition in relation to the ‘peasants’ of the Middle Ages.
What is the nature of our evidence as to the Peasants’ Rising of 1381? Is there any reason for ascribing anything like an economic programme to the leaders of the movement?
Indicate briefly (a), the several influences tending towards a corporate organization of industry in the later Middle Ages and (b) the advantages or disadvantages of such an organization.
Distinguish between the several immigrations of foreign work people to England before the accession of James I, and explain the nature of their contributions to the development of English manufactures.
The relation of John Major and Juan Vives to the development of the English ‘Poor Law.’
What changes, if any, did the Reformation bring about in social life?

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Economics 12².
Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

12²hf. Banking and the history of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Dr. Sprague.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

12² hf. Dr. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague. — Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

Total 128: 4 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 14 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 12²[Year-end Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions under A and two of those under B

Explain in detail and under different circumstances the effect of an advance of the rate of discount by the Bank of England upon the money market of London and upon the foreign exchanges.
Taking the separate items of a bank account point out how those of the Bank of Amsterdam differed from those of a modern bank.
Define and explain:—
1. Bill broker.
2. Banking Principle.
3. The State Bank of Indiana.
4. The banking law of Louisiana.
5. Clearing House Certificates.
The extent and banking consequences of government control of the Bank of France and the Reichsbank.
How do government receipts and expenditures affect the money market (a) of London, (b) of New York?
Explain with illustrations from the crises of 1857 and 1893 the nature of the demand for cash in time of crisis, and consider how far that demand may be met under a flexible system of note issue.

(a) How far and with what qualifications may banking experience in the United States before 1860 be appealed to in the discussion of changes in our banking system? (b) How far, similarly, may Canadian experience be applied?
“Why compel banks to send home for redemption a multitude of notes which can as well be used in payments and are sure to be reissued at once? Why impede the free use of its power of circulation by any enterprising bank by requiring the early redemption of notes which the holder does not in fact care or need to have redeemed?”
Explain from past experience what regulations may be expected to bring about these results, and give the reasons for demanding them.
Discuss the question of branch banking with reference to the United States, including in your discussion considerations of safety and economy. Would branch banking be more desirable than at present if notes were issued against general banking assets.

__________________________________

Economics 12a¹.
International Payments and the Flow of Precious Metals.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

12a²hf. International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals. Half-course (second half-year). Three times a week. Mr—.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

[Economics] 12a¹ . Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.—International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals.

Total 16: 2 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 12a¹.
[Mid-Year Examination]

Observe strictly the order in which the questions are arranged.

Sidgwick’s criticisms on Mill’s doctrine of international trade and their validity.
What temporary changes in the general level of prices in this country should you expect to see, as the result of a large permanent withdrawal of foreign capital? What ultimate change of prices should you expect?
Suppose the exportation of specie from the United States to be prohibited (or, as has sometimes been suggested, to be slightly hindered), what would be the effect on rates of exchange, and on prices of goods, either domestic or foreign? Would the country be a loser or not? [See Ricardo (McCulloch’s ed.), page 139.]
The conditions which led to the flow of gold to the United States in the fiscal years 1880 and 1881?
What economic conditions or events tended to make the year 1890 a turning point both in domestic and in international finance?

Alternative:

The reasons for the return flow from Europe of American securities in the years 1890-1900?

What sort of wealth did France actually sacrifice in paying the indemnity? What was the process?
Is Mr. Clare justified in making the general statement that “the gold-points mark the highest level to which an exchange may rise, and the lowest to which it may fall”?
Why is it that certain trades bills are drawn chiefly, or even exclusively, in one direction, e.g. by New York on London and not vice versa; and how is this practice made to answer the purpose of settling payments which have to be made in one direction?

Alternative:

Why has England become the natural clearing-house for the world?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

__________________________________

Economics 13.
Methods of Economic Investigation.

Primarily for Graduates.

Course Announcement

Methods of Economic Investigation.—English Writers. German Writers. Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Taussig.
Courses 15 and 13 are usually given in alternate years.

[15. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Ashley.
Omitted in 1900-01.]

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment
1900-01

Economics 13² hf. Asst. Professor Carver. — Methods of Economic Investigation.

Total 10: 4 Graduates, 6 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 13
[Year-end Examination]

Discuss ten of the following topics.

The subdivision of economics into departments.
The fields for the observation of economic phenomena.
The place of historical and statistical research in economic investigation.

4, 5, 6. The methods of investigating:

1. The causes of poverty.
2. The effect of immigration on the total population of the United States.
3. The effect of protection on the production of flax fibre, on the iron industry, or on any other industry which you may select.

The nature of an economic law.
The relation of the theory of probabilities to economic reasoning.
The use of hypotheses in economic reasoning.
The use of the terms “static” and dynamic in economic discussion.
The use of diagrams and mathematical formulae in economic discussion.

__________________________________

Economics 17.
Economic Organization and Resources of European Countries.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

The Economic Organization and Resources of European countries. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Ashley.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 42.

Enrollment

Professor Ashley. The Economic Organization and Resources of European countries.

Total 34: 5 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 17
[Mid-year Examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted

“It is less important for a particular community than ever it was to be in possession of cheap food and raw materials produced within its own domain.” Discuss this proposition.
Describe very briefly the main features of the physical geography of England (illustrating your answer, if possible, with a map) and indicate in general terms their economic consequences.
Set forth some of the general considerations which should be taken into account in answering the question whether the industrial development of Ireland has been injuriously affected by English legislation.
Compare the number and character of the several classes maintained by agriculture in England, with those of the agricultural classes in the U.S. and on the continent of Europe.
Explain the powers of dealing with his estate enjoyed at present by an English tenant for life under a settlement.
What districts of England are now suffering most severely from agricultural depression, and why?
Can any lessons be drawn for the U.S. from the recent history of productive coöperation in England? Give your reasons.
Give a rapid survey of the apparent coal resources of the world.
What points of especial interest are there to the economist in the history, situation, character, etc. of the South Wales Coal Field?
What is meant by Collective Bargaining? What are its prerequisites? What examples of it are you acquainted with in America?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 17
[Year-end Examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted

The British Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes to levy a duty of one shilling per ton upon the export of coal from the United Kingdom: He argues that the tax will not be borne by the producer, but mainly, if not wholly, by the foreign consumer. Consider (a) what are the conditions under which this is likely to be the case, (b) how far these conditions are at present realized in the case of England.
Distinguish the successive stages in the technological history of iron and steel, and connect them with the industrial development of the several countries concerned.
What were the questions at issue in England in the Engineering dispute of 1897? What, with your present knowledge, do you think ought to have been your attitude, had you then been (a) an English engineering employer, (b) a leading official of the employees’ union.
Give a brief account of the organization of the English cotton manufacture (as distinguished from the securing either of the material or of a market for the product). Contrast it with American conditions; and consider how England and New England are likely to be affected by the growth of the manufacture in the Southern States.
Distinguish between the several forms of capitalist combination at present to be observed in England. What general causes have led to the movement? What, if any, advantages does it promise, and what, if any, dangers does it threaten?
Compare Bradford and Roubaix in any aspects which seem to you worthy of attention.
“Lorsque il n’y a point d’hommes riches qui aient de gros capitaux à mettre dans les entreprises d’agriculture, lorsque les récoltes ne suffisent pas pour assurer aut entrepreneurs des profits égaux à ceux qu’ils tireraient de leur argent en l’employant de toute autre manière, on ne trouve point de fermiers qui veuilient louer les terres. Les propriétaires sont forcées de les faire cultiver par les métayers hors d’état de faire aucunes avances et de bien cultiver. Le propriétaire fait lui-même des avances médiocres qui lui produisent un très médiocre revenu.”
Translate the passage from Turgot; and then consider how far his description applies to existing conditions in France and Italy.
Show the relation of the great manufacturing industries of France to the distribution of coal in that country.
Would the construction of the Rhine-Elbe canal be a benefit to Germany? Give your reasons.
“Wir müssen uns Rechenschaft ablegen, ob ohne eine grössere Macht zur See, ohne eine solche die unsere Küsten vor Blockaden schützt, unseren Kolonialbesitz und unseren Welthandel absolut sicher stellt, unsere wirtschaftliche Zukunft gesichert sei.”
Are there sufficient reasons in the contemporary situation of Germany for this anxiety on the part of Professor Schmoller?
(a) Give a brief account of the contents, and then (b) compare the method and general attitude toward the subject, of von Schulze-Gaevernitz’s Social Peace and de Rousers’ Labour Question in Britain.
What in the light of the experience in the English coal, iron, and cotton industries, would seem to you the most satisfactory form to be taken by joint wage agreements in the great industries of America?

__________________________________

Economics 18.
Principles of Accounting.

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Course Announcement

18¹ hf. The Principles of Accounting. — Lectures, discussions, and reports. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

18¹ hf. Mr. W. M. Cole. — The Principles of Accounting.

Total 56: 43 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 18
[Mid-year Examination]

Problems 1 to 5 inclusive form a connected whole;
but 6 and 7 may be substituted for 4 and 5

Construct a rough ledger (omitting rulings and index-memoranda) to correspond with the following trial-balance:

Real estate	$150,000	Proprietor	$244,275
Plant	$60,000	Merchandise	$401,000
Patents	$40,000	Rent	$6,000
Supplies	$228,000	Bills payable	$14,000
Wages	$127,000	Accounts payable	$43,000
Coal	$9,000	Reserve fund	$12,000
Insurance	$4,500
Trade discounts	$8,000
Interest	$1,500
Bills receivable	$10,000
Accounts receivable	$68,000
Cash	$14,275
	$720,275		$720,275

The above trial-balance is supposed to be taken from manufacturing books that are kept on the ordinary commercial plan, i.e., without distinctive accounts for stores, manufacturing, stock, or trading; and to construct such accounts now is supposed to be either impossible or undesirable.
If you were required to determine profit and loss for the year which these figures cover, what questions about the business should you wish to ask before reaching your conclusions? [Give your answer in the form of questions consecutively numbered.]
State what would be fairly reasonable answers to your own questions above numbering the answers to correspond with the questions; and then, assuming your answers to be the real answers show a complete statement of resources and liabilities and of profit and loss.
Close for the year the ledger that you constructed indicating all balances that you have transferred to other accounts and all balances that you have carried down for the new year.
From the ledger as it now stands draw off a balance sheet showing the condition of the business at the beginning of the new year, assuming that the loss or gain is carried directly to the proprietor’s account.
Journalize the following:

A gives you his note for $100, bearing interest, dated a month ago.
You discount at a bank a note for $100 payable in a month
B gives you A’s note for $100 payable in one month, and buy goods for $100 on one month’s time.
Your book-keeper charged bills receivable and credited B when B paid his bill by your own note returned to you. A counter entry is to be made, so that the original wrong entry need not be erased

What is the distinguishing feature of double entry? Are two postings made for every entry? If not, what devices are employed for reducing the number of postings?

II
Omit one

The balance sheet of a corporation on January 1, 1899, stood as follows:

Real estate	$50,000	Capital stock	$200,000
Plant	$95,000	Accounts payable	$20,000
Horses, etc.	$15,000	Bills payable	$25,000
Patents	$20,000	Profit and loss	$15,000
Merchandise	$30,000
Accounts receivable	$30,000
Cash	$20,000
	$260,000		$260,000

On January 1, 1900, the books showed the following facts:

Real estate	$55,000	Capital stock	$200,000
Plant	$88,000	Accounts payable	$12,000
Horses, etc.	$12,000	Bills payable	$17,000
Patents	$19,000	Profit and loss	$33,000
Merchandise	$42,000
Accounts receivable	$28,000
Cash	$18,000
	$262,000		$262,000

What has become of the profits earned?

Should you recommend that a dividend be declared? State your reasons.

How should you treat interest received on a bond bought above par?
Describe the following, and state the distinguishing feature of each: a real account; a nominal account; a suspense account; reserve fund: a sinking fund
If payments are received on account of goods in process of manufacture, should such payments appear on the balance sheet? If so, where?
Describe three different methods of treating depreciation, and show how each would appear upon the books. To what circumstances on a railroad is each adapted?
A corporation is formed to unite and continue the business of three concerns, A, B, and C, engaged in the same industry. The books of the concerns show the following:

	A	B	C
Assets (valuation)	$80,000	$160,000	$120,000
Liabilities (external)	$20,000	$80,000	$90,000
Average profit, last three years	10%	14%	30%
Average profit, preceding three years	9	17	25
Average profit, prior three years	10	20	20

On what basis should you determine the total amount of capital stock to be issued by the new corporation, and on what basis should you apportion it to these three concerns?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

__________________________________

Economics 19.
General View of Insurance.

Primarily for Graduates.

Course Announcement

19² hf. A General View of Insurance. — Lectures and reports. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Professor Wambaugh.
Course 19 cannot be counted towards the degree of A.B.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

19² hf. Professor Wambaugh. — A General View of Insurance.

Total 9: 6 Seniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 19²
[Year-end Examination]

One of the paragraphs may be omitted.

From the point of view of the person procuring the policy, what is the purpose of insurance?
From the point of view of the community, what are the advantages and the disadvantages of insurance?
Give some account of three insurance books, pamphlets, or periodicals.
Tell what you know of the history of insurance.
Give a classification of the provision of the New York standard form of fire insurance policy,
If either party to the fire insurance contract wishes to terminate the insurance, what are his rights?
What are the benefits and the dangers of fire insurance by government?
Describe ordinary life policies, single payment life policies, twenty payment life policies, endowment policies, tontine policies, assessment insurance.
If a person thirty years of age wishes to obtain a life insurance policy for a single premium, how is the premium calculated?
What are the chief differences between fire insurance and marine insurance?
Discuss any insurance topic of which you have made a special study.

__________________________________

Economics 20d.
Adam Smith and Ricardo.

Primarily for Graduates.

Course Announcement

20d. Adam Smith and Ricardo. Half-course. Professor Taussig.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1900-1901, p. 43.

Enrollment

20d¹ hf. Professor Taussig. — Adam Smith and Ricardo.

Total 12: 7 Graduates, 5 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 20d
[Final examination]

Compare Ricardo’s conclusions with Adam Smith’s on the course of wages, profits, and rent, as society advances: discussing not only the conclusions themselves, but the reasoning by which the two writers arrive at them.
Under what circumstances are real wages high, according to Adam Smith? according to Ricardo?
Adam Smith’s doctrine on labor as a measure of value; Ricardo’s strictures thereon; and Ricardo’s own doctrine.
S. Mill in his Autobiography says that “it was one of my father’s main objects to make me apply to Smith’s more superficial view of political economy the superior lights of Ricardo, and to detect what was fallacious in Smith’s arguments or erroneous in his conclusions.” Set forth how you believe the two Mills (father and son) set about this task as to Adam Smith’s reasoning on the following topics:—
1. the mode in which the payment of heavy foreign obligations is brought about by the exportation of goods, not by the outflow of specie;
2. the distinction between that land which always affords rent, and that which sometimes does and sometimes does not;
3. the effect of foreign trade in raising the general rate of profits in a country.
“That able but wrong-headed man, David Ricardo; shunted the car of Economic science on to a wrong line, a line, however, on which it was further urged by his equally able and wrong-headed admirer, John Stuart Mill.” — W. S. Jevons.
What grounds are there for assenting to this judgment? What grounds for dissenting from it?

Image Source: Detail from cover of the Harvard Class Album 1946.

Tags AndrewAP, Ashley, Beardsley, Carver, ColeWM, MeyerHR, Patten, Sprague, Taussig, Wambaugh, Willoughby

Bryn Mawr Columbia Economists Gender Stanford

Columbia. Economics M.A. alumna, Guggenheim Fellow. Katharine Snodgrass, 1918

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-23

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has sought from time to time (more accurately, from post to post) to contribute to the cause of documenting the careers of women economists who have historically been kept far from the academic and professional limelight. Scrolling through the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellows in economics, I stumbled across Katharine Snodgrass and I figured that she fit the bill. Good enough to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship yet a name unknown to me (and I am hardly sticking my neck out when I hazard a guess that very few economists today would have heard of her). So what became of Katharine Snodgrass, born May 8 or 9, 1893 in Marion, Indiana?

It is a sad story, but instead let us begin with what I have been able to learn about her life and career.

Her story in the history of economics met a tragic end. Two local newspaper accounts of her suicide on September 25, 1930 (only nine days after her early return from England) complete this post.

_________________________________

From: Bryn Mawr College Calendar, Register of Alumnae and Former Students (1920), p. 154.

Snodgrass, Katharine. 26 Grove Street, New York City

Prepared by the Shortridge High School, Indianapolis.

Bryn Mawr College

Maria Hopper Sophomore Scholar, 1912-13
Anna Hallowell Memorial Scholar, 1913-14.
A.B. 1915, group, English and French.

A.M., Columbia University in Economics, 1918.

Statistical Work, State Charities Aid Association, New York City, 1915-17

Statistician, War Industries Board, Washington, 1918-19

Research Assistant, Federal Reserve Board, New York City, 1919

_________________________________

From: Membership listing from the American Statistical Association, 1922, p. 27.

Miss Katharine Snodgrass. Research Department, Chemical National Bank, 270 Broadway, New York City.

From: Membership listing from the American Statistical Association, 1922, pp. 56, 60.

Note: International etc. International Price Indexes. Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. XVII. No. 131 (1920-1921).

A New Price Index for Great Britain. Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. XVIII. No. 138 (1922-1922).

_________________________________

From: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Katharine Snodgrass, Fellow 1930.

Katharine Snodgrass

Fellow: Awarded 1930

Field of Study: Economics

Competition: US & Canada

As published in the Foundation’s Report for 1929–30:

Snodgrass, Katharine: Appointed to make a study of the dietary fats of Northern Europe, with particular reference to the displacement of dairy fats by vegetable fats, being a study in the economics of food substitution; tenure, nine months from June 15, 1930.

Education:

Bryn Mawr College, A.B., 1915;
Columbia University, A.M., 1918;
Stanford University, 1928-29.

Employment:

Research Assistant, 1918–19, War Industries Board;
Research Assistant, 1919–22, Federal Reserve Board;
Associate Editor, 1923, New York Journal of Commerce;
Research Associate, 1924–29, Food Research Institute, Stanford University.

Publications:

“Price of Wool and Wool Products,” 1919;
“Copra and Coconut Oil,” 1928;
“Margarine as a Butter Substitute” (in collaboration), 1930.
Articles in Wheat Studies, Stanford University, Food Research Institute.

Source: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Katharine Snodgrass, Fellow 1930.

_________________________________

Guggenheim Grant Financed European Research Trip Cut Short

Katharine Snodgrass was listed as outward passenger from Southampton (New York via Cherbourg) on the United States Lines “Leviathan” August 28, 1930 departure. [Not clear was the voyage cancelled, or was she unable to embark.]

Katharine Snodgrass arrived 16 September 1930 in New York from London on the S.S. Minnekahda. Her ship departed London on Sept. 6, 1930.

California “U” Teacher Found Dead in Her Home (sic)

Minneapolis, Sept. 25. (UP)—Katherine Snodgrass, 35, University of California instructor (sic), was found dead today below her open fourth floor window at the university hospital here.
Miss Snodgrass was visiting her sister, Mrs. Margaret Harding, member of the University of Minnesota teaching staff on a leave of absence from the California school [Stanford!].
Miss Snodgrass was suffering from an acute nervous ailment and had been placed in the university hospital for treatment. The coroner’s verdict was suicide.

St. Cloud Times. (25, September 1930), p. 17.

Woman Dies in Four-Story Leap

Despondent because of her illness, Miss Katherine Snodgrass, 35-year-old patient at University hospital, leaped to her death from a fourth floor window of the institution early today. The woman, formerly an instructor at the University of California [sic], came here for treatment two weeks ago because a sister is a member of the faculty at the university here. Miss Snodgrass suffered a breakdown while touring Europe.

Attendants saw Miss Snodgrass at 2 a.m. and two hours later, when a nurse again entered her room, she was missing. Search disclosed the body in a court below the window. She had died of a skull fracture.

The Minneapolis Star (25 September 1930), p. 12.

Tags Snodgrass

Economic History Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania. Rejected proposal to the Committee on Research in Economic History. Kuznets, ca. 1941

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-23

The economic historian Earl J. Hamilton’s papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University are, we shall say, rather disheveled, though not quite in the archival dusty way that John Maurice Clark’s papers at Columbia University are found by the rummaging historian. There are numbers of folders that might as easily be labelled “Everything plus the kitchen sink, 1930-1970” and it was in one such folder that the following undated memorandum of Simon Kuznets was found.

The backstory to this memo is that sometime around 1941 Simon Kuznets (then a forty-year old professor at the University of Pennsylvania) self-nominated his quantitative approach to economic history to become one of the pillars of a major project in economic history to be supported by the Rockefeller Foundation through the Social Science Research Council. His project was rejected which just might have had something to do with his later resignation from the Committee. The larger context is described in Arthur H. Cole. The Committee on Research in Economic History: An Historical Sketch. The Journal of Economic History, vol. XXX, No. 4 (December 1970), pp. 723-741.

In the debate pertinent to the fields most worthwhile for the Committee, considering the whole situation of public needs, quantum of research funds, paucity of existing talent, and the like, two proposals were elaborated for Committee consideration, both of which caused much debate and a postponement of decision on the selection of suitable subjects. One was submitted by [Edwin] Gay. He had apparently been much impressed by the summaries of changes in national foreign policies which Arnold Toynbee was then preparing for publication in England. (One of Gay’s personal connections was that of treasurer and active member of the Council on Foreign Relations.) He suggested a continuing group to record the significant alterations of conditions in the principal segments of the American economy. After lengthy debate, it was decided that this project would entail too great a commitment of our limited funds, and the proposition was tabled-and never called back into debate. The second scheme was that which Kuznets has prosecuted over the past two or three decades. At the period of our debate, he seemed unable to outline his program and define his objectives in a manner that satisfied his fellow members of the group. In the end this proposal also was shelved-permanently. Happily Kuznets did secure other financial backing within a few years and has been busy with the investigation ever since: the measurement of economic change and a determination of its cause. [p. 728]

In an earlier article, the (losing) Kuznets and Gay proposals were not mentioned however the winning topics were named in Arthur H. Cole, Committee on Research in Economic History: A Description of Its Purposes, Activities, and Organization. The Journal of Economic History. Vol. 13, No. 1 (Winter, 1953), pp. 79-87.

The Committee on Research in Economic History owes its start to the scholarly interests of Dr. Joseph H. Willits and Dr. Anne Bezanson, at that time both associated with the Rockefeller Foundation. A committee of inquiry was nominated by them; a report of the needs of economic history was drafted by the committee; and, at the instance of Dr. Willits, a grant was made by the Foundation. In all these latter proceedings, Dr. Edwin F. Gay, director of research at the Huntington Library and the dean of American economic historians, was the energizing element. The grant was made in 1940.
During the following ten years, the committee operated as an organ of the Social Science Research Council. Subsequently it withdrew from the Council, secured incorporation as a nonprofit institution under the laws of the District of Columbia, and is now an independent body.
The objective specified for the committee in the grant of the Rockefeller Foundation was broad but simple: merely to develop the field of economic History….
…The specific areas in economic history which the committee found to be especially worthy of research attention and to which it decided initially to devote effort were (i) the relation of the state to American economic development; (2) the evolution of the corporation in the United States and Canada; (3) the history of banking in these same areas; and (4 ) the role of entrepreneurship in our economic progress. [pp. 79-80]

_________________________

Memorandum on General Bases of the Research Program

To: Members of Committee on Research in Economic History
From: Simon Kuznets

The concern of economic history is to describe and analyse changes over time in the structure and performance of an economic system. This should comprise not only qualitative changes in character of economic organization or faults in its structure (associated with such events as wars or revolutions), but also (b) quantitative measures of the economic factors and of their performance. Whatever may be said of the adequacy with which the discipline of economic history carried through task (a), it has, for various reasons, neglected (b). Yet it is in the combination of study of qualitative changes and structural faults with a quantitative analysis of factors, their interrelations and their performance, that lies the way to significant results.
The aims of economic history may be viewed as (a) providing economic changes, raw materials so as to reveal the lines of causal relation among them, and the patterns of quantitative change — all in application to the concrete historical unfolding of economic events, but with a view to results that can serve as tests and cornerstones for analysis of the present and prognosis of the future. The two aims are interdependent. Whatever may be said of the past efficiency of the discipline of economic history in satisfying aim (a), there appears to be a pressing need for strengthening its performance in attaining aim (b). Also, there is an obvious relation between the neglect by economic history in the past of quantitative analysis of the substantive performance of the economic system and its failure to interpret economic change in analytical categories (i.e., between 1b and 2b)
The adequacy or inadequacy of any specific study of qualitative changes in economic structure, or of any collection of raw materials, is to be judged in terms of the analytical uses to which the results can be put. The need for new data, whether qualitative or quantitative, can be seen clearly only in the light of a study guided by some significant problem which one intends to analyse in terms of historical experience. There is no way, barring the extreme and unimportant cases of complete absence of any empirical data, to determine the adequacy of raw materials and the character of the lacunae, except by coming to the data with a broad and well articulated question to which one seeks an answer.
Hence, the Committee should, in planning its research program, consider the advisability of selecting at least one broad problem, one comprehensive study that could serve as a focus of whatever narrower undertakings may be launched. In view of the need of emphasizing a combination of historical-qualitative, statistical and analytical methods of inquiry, the broad central study should force the investigators to use fully each and all of these types of research tools. This, of course, does not mean that similar combination of research tools should not be employed in any of the narrower studies the Committee may wish to launch.
As stated in my earlier communication, it seems to me that such a central comprehensive study could be formulated on, the broad topic of economic change in this country, to comprise: (a) a study of long term changes; (b) a study of shorter term recurrent fluctuations; and supplemented by (c) a chronological record of specific changes of the type provided by economic annals. (a) The study of long term or secular changes would deal with the quantitative aspects of the growth of population, production, size and organization of enterprise, various facets of the trade, transportation and credit systems, relation of domestic and foreign trade, relation of government etc. to the economic system, and so on. It would attempt to show how fast or slow such changes were in the past; what were the quantitatively measurable or qualitatively recordable factors that appeared to determine these rates or their changes; and what elements of persistence and variation in these long term trends can be discerned. (b) The study of shorter term fluctuations would attempt to present a record of business cycles in this country in their historical succession their peculiarities, in the light of qualitative and quantitative data available as well as of the hypotheses offered by economic theory. (c) Economic annals will seek to record the succession of specific events, which are of bearing upon both long and short term changes in the economy, events that do not appear clearly in continuous quantitative records. They will thus provide largely the qualitative materials needed for studies (a) and (b), and indeed will follow the principles of selection imposed by these broader studies.
Objections may be raised to the effect that such studies are impossibly wide; that we don’t have the materials for a complete story of secular changes of business cycles in the economy of this country; that the compilation of economic annals, if taken seriously, would alone absorb the efforts of a score of investigators for years to come. To all these objections I would reply that to wait with initiation of such broad, synthetic studies until materials are relatively complete would be to wait until the Greek Kalends; that if such studies are essentially impossible, we had better give up economic history; and that we shall contribute much more to the enrichment of society’s knowledge and understanding through a glorious allure in such broad undertakings than through inglorious successes in more specific, pedestrian studies. I would also point to a complete absence of even a single broad history of business fluctuations in this country: to the relative inadequacy of the synthesis of secular changes offered in the available literature; and to the reasonable assumption that a tentative synthesis now is not the less valuable because it is necessarily tentative and will give room to a more thoroughly grounded one in the decades to come.
The need for such a broad comprehensive study is suggested also by the following two considerations. First, a large literature already exists on the long term changes in various special fields, such as population various industries, some segments of the banking system, foreign trade, tariffs, business organization, etc.; and yet there are few thoroughgoing attempts, if any, to pull the threads together and weave the secular tendencies in these various, essentially related aspects of the economic system into a coherent study that would use adequately quantitative and qualitative data as well as theoretical hypotheses. On cyclical fluctuations too there are a number of special published studies, inadequate as they may be in toto. Even if the proposed inquiries of secular change and of business cycles accomplish nothing more than to bring the results of already published studies together, evaluate them critically, and point to the questions still unanswered, a valuable service will be performed. But naturally, the inquiries proposed may and will in addition utilize primary data that have not yet been analysed and published.
The second important consideration is that at present, in times of rapid change in structure and performance of our economic and social system, it is particularly necessary to think through our past in terms that will shed some light on the present and on the future. I do not suggest that the broad studies proposed will provide a definitive answer as to where we go from here, or enable us to establish immutable trends and laws. But they should help us to distinguish durable from transient phenomena; guard us and others against interpreting the past and present in terms of emotionally determined patters of group or class thinking; and thus bring the results of dispassionate social study to bear most efficiently and directly to the understanding and solution of present problems. I fail to see how studies of narrower scope can be expected to perform this important function.
It will be noted that the broad studies proposed involve no confining scheme except the distinction among various types of economic change by the temporal span of their persistence. This distinction is so fundamental that it cannot and should not be neglected in any historical study. Within the framework of each type of change, all the related processes of economic life should be considered — in proportion to their relative importance in determining the character and significance of the changes under study. The other topics suggested in our discussions and correspondence so far, such as the increasing control by the state, or influence of free land, or studies of firms in a given industry, or studies of a region, all appear to be too narrow to serve as the focusing point and central study of the Committee’s research program. They can be justified only within a broader framework that should explain why this and not another facet of economic life is to be studied; and how the studies so circumscribed can be expected to yield results of analytical validity without consideration of related factors presumably excluded.
The carrying out of the central, basic group of studies would provide the justification for narrower undertakings, since they will supply the framework for the latter. It is the broad picture of secular changes and recurrent fluctuations in the economy of this country that will provide the needed background against which, e.g., a tendency towards increasing control by the state can be understood and studied. This does not mean that in actual practice we should wait with beginning the more specific studies until the synthetic studies are completed. But it does mean that the latter are an indispensable core of the program; should be envisaged, planned, and initiated among the first; and serve throughout the Committee’s activity as the focusing point of the whole range of undertakings.
The narrower studies should be launched only in so far as they are seen to contribute to the broader picture of trends and fluctuations in this country’s economy: either directly and immediately through their results or because they suggest new types of data, new types of approach, new methods which we wish to encourage because, if multiplied and followed, they will add significantly to the understanding of changes in the past and present. Some such criterion is indispensable if we are to guard against lowering the potential value of our efforts by devoting them to following beaten tracks, and adding to a large body of already existing data another batch, of low marginal utility.
This memorandum is intended as an amplification of the proposals submitted before; and to serve, if the Committee so wishes, as a basis for discussion at its forthcoming meeting. It need not be added that, strongly as I am inclined to the views presented here, I realize that they may be unduly influenced by past personal experience in economic and statistical research, by ignorance of the literature of economic history, and by a predilection towards broad canvas and general results; and I am therefore looking forward with interest to whatever critical comments the members of the Committee may wish to offer.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence—Misc. 1930’s-1960s and n.d.”.

Tags Gay, Kuznets

Harvard M.I.T. Math Pedagogy Princeton Teaching Wisconsin

Harvard. Draft memo on “Basic Mathematics for Economics”. Rothschild, ca. 1970

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-20

“These bewildering cook-books [Allen, Lancaster, Samuelson, Henderson & Quandt] are as helpful to those without mathematical training as Escoffier is to weekend barbecue chefs.”

The 1969 M.I.T. economics Ph.D. Michael Rothschild served briefly as assistant professor of economics at Harvard, a professional milestone that went somehow unmentioned in his official Princeton biography included below. He co-taught the core graduate microeconomic theory course with Zvi Griliches in the spring term of 1971 which is probably why a draft copy of his memo proposing “a course which truly covers ‘Basic Mathematics for Economists'” is found in Griliches’ papers at the Harvard Archives.

Tip: Here is a link to an interview with Michael Rothschild posted in YouTube (Dec. 4, 2012). A wonderful conversation revealing his academic humility and wit as well as an above-average capacity for self-reflection.

_________________________________

Courses Referred to in Rothschild’s Memo

Economics 199. Basic Mathematics for Economists

Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 10. Professor G. Hanoch (Hebrew University).

Covers some of the basic mathematical and statistical tools used in economic analysis, including maximization and minimization of functions with and without constraint. Applications to economic theory such as in utility maximization, cost minimization, and shadow prices will be given. Probability and random variables will be treated especially as these topics apply to economic analysis.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction, Harvard and Radcliffe 1969-1970. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. LXVI, No. 12 (15 August 1969), p. 142.

* * * * * * * *

Economics 201a. Advanced Economic Theory

Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Tu., Th., (S.), at 12. Professor D. Jorgenson (fall term); Professor W. Leontief (spring term).

This course will be concerned with production theory, consumption theory, and the theories of firms and markets.
Prerequisite: Economics 199 or equivalent.

Source: Ibid., p. 143.

* * * * * * * *

Economics 221a. Quantitative Methods, I

Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Tu., Th., S., at 11. Assistant Professor A. Blackburn (fall term); Assistant Professor M. Rothschild (spring term).

Probability theory, statistical inference, and elementary matrix algebra.

Prerequisite: Economics 199 or equivalent

Source: Ibid., p. 146.

_________________________________

DRAFT
[Summer or Fall 1970?]

M. Rothschild

Economics 201a, as Professor Jorgenson now teaches it¹, presumes much specialized mathematical knowledge. (See attachment 1) There is no single course which covers all these topics, (chiefly the implicit function theorem, constrained maximization and Euler’s theorem), in either the economics or mathematics departments at Harvard. We are in effect demanding that our students arrive knowing these things or that they learn them on their own. The former is unlikely, the latter more so. Imagine trying to learn the mathematics necessary to follow the standard derivation of the Slutsky equation by studying the standard sources such as Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists, Lancaster’s Mathematical Economics or the appendices to Samuelson’s Foundations or Henderson and Quandt. These bewildering cook-books are as helpful to those without mathematical training as Escoffier is to weekend barbecue chefs. Those with some knowledge of mathematics will not find the standard sources much more helpful for they are written in a spirit alien to that of modern mathematics; they give almost no motivation or intuition for their results.

There are other bits of mathematics necessary for a thorough understanding of basic economic theory. For instance, the stability theory of difference and differential equations, the theory of positive matrices and rudiments of duality and convexity theory are required for the stability analysis of simple macro models, input output economics, and linear programming respectively. These are hardly new fangled and abstruse parts of economic theory. Indeed they are topics which should be part of every economist’s competence.

There are courses at Harvard where one can learn these things; the difficulty is that there are so many. Advanced courses in mathematical economics treat of positive matrices, duality and much more. Few students take these courses and almost no first year students do. I have no doubt that somewhere in the mathematics or applied math department, there is a course where one may learn all one would want to know and more of difference and differential equations. But all economists really need to know can be taught in three weeks or less.²

There is an obvious solution to these problems, namely for the department to offer a course which truly covers “Basic Mathematics for Economists.”³ A proposed course outline is attached. The course begins with linear algebra because most of the specialized topics needed for mathematical economics are applications of the principles of linear algebra. I know of no one semester course at Harvard which teaches linear algebra in a manner useful to economists. Another advantage to including linear algebra in this course is that it would make it possible to drop the topic from Economics 221a which is presently supposed to teach linear algebra, probability theory, and statistics in a single semester.⁴ I doubt this can be done. If linear algebra were excluded from the syllabus of 221a, there would be less reason for offering the course in the economics department. We could reasonably expect that our students learn statistics and probability theory from the statistics department (in Statistics 122, 123 or 190).

* * * * * *

¹…and, I hasten to say, as it should be taught

²A word must be said here about Mathematics 21. This excellent full year course in linear algebra and the calculus of several variables contains all the insights, and almost none of the material, which economists should know. With a slight rearrangement of topics, principally the addition of the implicit function theorem, constrained maximization, and the spectral theory of matrices this would be a great course for economists. As it is now it is a good, but rather time consuming, way to develop mathematical maturity which should make it easy to learn the mathematical facts economists need to know.

³The present title of Economics 199 which is a remedial calculus course taken only by those students with almost no mathematical training.

⁴I became aware of the need for such a course while teaching 221a. After spending three very rushed weeks developing some of the basic notions of linear algebra I had to drop the subject just when it would have been easy to go on and explain the mathematics behind basic economic theory. The desire of the students that I do so is indicated by the fact that most of them were enticed to sit through a second (optional) hour of lecture on a Saturday by the promise that I would unravel the mysteries of the determinental second order conditions for maximization of a function of several variables.

* * * * * *

Proposed course outline:

Linear Algebra, vector spaces, linear independence, bases, linear mappings, matrices, linear equations, determinants.
Cursory review of the calculus of several variable from the vector space point of view, the implicit function theorem, Taylor’s theorem.
Quadratic forms and maximization with and without constraints; diagonalization, orthogonality and metric concepts, projections.
The Theory of Positive matrices; matrix power series.
Linear Difference Equations, stability.
Linear Differential Equations, stability.
Convex sets and Duality. (If time permits.)

_________________________________

Michael Rothschild

Mike Rothschild first came to Princeton in 1972 as a lecturer in economics and quickly rose to the rank of professor three years later. Mike is an economist with broad interests in social science. His 1963 B.A. from Reed College was in anthropology, his 1965 M.A. from Yale University was in international relations, and his 1969 Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was in economics.

In the early 1970s, Mike published a string of ground- breaking papers studying decision making under uncertainty and showing the effects of imperfect and asymmetric information on economic outcomes. With Joseph Stiglitz, Mike proposed now- standard definitions of what it means for one random variable to be “riskier” than another random variable. He studied consumer behavior when the same good is offered at different prices and when the consumer does not know the distribution of prices. He studied the pricing behavior of fi when they are uncertain about demand and showed that a fi may end up setting the wrong price even when it optimally experiments to learn about the demand for its product. Arguably, Mike’s most important early work was a 1976 paper with Stiglitz on insurance markets in which insurance companies did not know the heterogeneous risk situations of their customers. Mike and Stiglitz showed that under certain circumstances a market equilibrium exists in which companies offer a menu of policies with different premiums and deductibles that separate customers into appropriate risk groups. This research is one of the landmarks in the field of information economics.

Mike left Princeton in 1976 for the University of Wisconsin and moved to the University of California–San Diego (UCSD) seven years later. His research over this period included papers on taxation, investment, jury-decision processes, and several important papers in finance. Mike’s research contributions led to recognition and awards: he became a fellow of the Econometric Society in 1974, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978, became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994, and in 2005 was chosen as a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association.

In 1985, Mike decided to branch out from teaching and research, and he spent the next 17 years in university administration. Shortly after arriving at UCSD he became that university’s first dean of social sciences. Under his watch, the division grew dramatically in the number of students, faculty, departments, and programs. He presided over the launching of cognitive science, ethnic studies, and human development. During his deanship, the UCSD social sciences soared in the national rankings, reaching 10th nationally in the last National Research Council tally for 1996.

Mike was lured back to Princeton in 1995 to become the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. During his seven-year tenure as dean, Mike started the one-year Master in Public Policy program for mid-career professionals; the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy; the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics; and the Center for Health and Wellbeing. Under his leadership, the Wilson School added graduate policy workshops to the curriculum, expanded course offerings, added multi-year appointments of practitioners to the faculty, and enhanced professional development. Mike shared his dean duties with his trusted and loyal dog, Rosie, who became an important part of the school’s community and accompanied Mike throughout campus.

Finally, Mike likes to wear a hardhat. At UCSD he oversaw the planning and construction of the Social Sciences Building, and at Princeton he built Wallace Hall and renovated Robertson Hall. The Princeton community may remember Mike most for turning Scudder Plaza from the home of a formal reflecting pool where guards kept people out of the fountain into a community wading pool that welcomes and attracts students, families, and children (many under the age of three) each summer evening.

Source: Princeton University Honors Faculty Members Receiving Emeritus Status (May 2009), pp. 18-20.

Image Source: Screenshot from the interview (Posted Dec. 4, 2012 in YouTube).

Tags Hanoch, Jorgenson, Rothschild

Economics Programs M.I.T. Undergraduate

M.I.T. Economics department committee (re-)organization. 1976-78

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-19

During my second year in graduate school at M.I.T. (1975-76), the economics department professors were engaged in a discussion about reforming the administration of their department. At the time I was completely unaware of this discussion that had been provoked by the following memorandum written by then Department Head, Professor E. Cary Brown, based on his experience with the growing overload of administrative chores and responsibilities in a department with the scale of that attained by M.I.T.’s economics department.

Brown’s memo to the faculty is followed by a transcription of a copy of the letter Brown wrote to Robert Solow, who as an administrative reorganization committee member, must have been asked for some further testimony. The entire committee’s (Peter A. Diamond, Stanley Fischer, Jerry Hausman, Paul Joskow, Robert M. Solow) report was completed two months after Brown’s memo. In the same departmental file from the M.I.T. archives, one finds a copy of the actual assignment of administrative responsibilities for the academic year 1977/78.

Many, if not most, of the administrative tasks had been allocated and faithfully executed before this “reorganization”. I know that Evsey Domar had long been covering the placement of new Ph.D.’s and also proudly serving as the departmental representative for library-related affairs. I sense reading these documents that the truly neglected child all along was the undergraduate program for which some arm-twisting was required to achieve equitable burden-sharing among the faculty. But perhaps there were other specific items that had been sore points too. Maybe Brown simply wanted an explicit organization chart to forestall “whataboutism” from the mouths of relatively uncooperative colleagues. But like I wrote above, this was a discussion that was invisible to me (appropriately so) at the time.

Cf. The committee assignments in the Harvard economics department during the 1972-73 academic year.

__________________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139

March 12, 1976

Economics Department Faculty

Dear [blank]

For some time I have become increasingly dismayed at the increase in the administrative burden in the Department, and now find the present job as Head to be a nearly impossible one. If the job is to be made tolerable, it must have substantial additional faculty support in some form to cut it down to a scope manageable either by me or a successor.

There are two basic ways that this can be achieved: (1) by spreading the administrative activities and responsibilities more widely among the faculty; or (2) placing these tasks on essentially an associate departmental head, whose precise title could take various forms Executive Officer, Academic Officer (e.g., Tony French in Physics), or Associate Head. I personally would favor the Associate Head route, but regard it as an open question subject to further discussion and consideration, and to Administration approval. This new structure should be treated as an experiment, to last no longer than until the next Head is chosen, and to be reconsidered at that time.

My own thinking about the administrative tasks of the Department separates them into four major areas: undergraduate programs, graduate programs, research programs, and personnel and budgeting. While these can be headed by an administrator or by faculty, it seems to me that the first two programs should have formal faculty control regardless of the form the administrative reorganization takes. The graduate program nearly has that form now and largely runs itself, with the exception of a few odds and ends that now lie outside the responsibility of the graduate registration officers. The undergraduate program is a long way from this structure and will require a good deal of imagination, initiative and effort to resuscitate the Undergraduate Economics Association and provide more guidance and support for majors. The research programs (student and faculty) focus more or less clearly under the Committee on Economic Research. Personnel and budgeting are an administrative responsibility. They have involved increasing amounts of time as budgets have tightened, space has tightened, and the search for new faculty has expanded.

The administrative structure is an important matter to the Department. Because it involves departmental administration and the role of the Department Head, it concerns the Administration through Dean Hanham. He has asked me to appoint the following committee to consider these questions of reorganization and to make recommendations: Bob Solow, Peter Diamond, Stan Fischer, Paul Joskow, and Jerry Hausman. Please give your views to members of the committee as soon as you can.

Sincerely,
[signed “Cary”]
E. Cary Brown, Head

ECB/sc

__________________________

Brown to Solow

March 16, 1976

Professor Robert Solow
E52-383

Dear Bob:

I shrink from making organization charts, but the following diagram is intended to give some idea of the orders of magnitude of faculty involvement in departmental chores.

Chairman, Committee on Undergraduate Studies

Faculty counselors (we have agreed with the UEA to keep members to 10 or less, and let faculty build up expertise by staying adviser for freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior year).

—10 faculty: 2 for each class. 4 for seniors

Faculty adviser for humanities concentration in economics (advises and signs up students); also considers the eligibility of economics subjects, what we consider concentration, etc.
Closely related to (2) is possible membership on the so-called Humanities Committee that approves and reviews the whole Humanities, Arts, and Social Science requirement and program. (We have no one on this year but as the largest concentration will surely need to have a presence.)
Approval of transfer of credits from other schools to M.I.T.
Advising with Undergraduate Economic Association in matters academic, professional, social.
Undergraduate placement, while an Institute responsibility, could be supervised and assisted by a faculty member who would keep up to date on summer placement, interning possibilities, salaries. The experience our students have applying to graduate schools, actual jobs offered and taken.
Design of curriculum, cooperative program, etc.
Various activities, such as providing information to undergraduates in their choice of major (Midway in fall, seminar in spring), Open House activities, Alumni activities, etc.
Relations with other Departments at undergraduate level, such as subject offerings, subject content, etc.
Supervision and staffing of undergraduate subjects with multiple sections — 14.001, 14.002, 14.03, 14.04, 14.06, 14.30, 14.31.
Catalog copy.

Chairman, Committee on Graduate Studies

Graduate Registration Officers, so far one each for first two years, and one for thesis writers. Has been suggested that we have an additional adviser for foreign students and minority and women?
Admissions Committee has, in the past, had three members.
Placement, both summer and permanent.
Supervision of core subjects.
Ph.D. and M.S. requirements, program, size.
Financial aid — coordinating various GRO; Admissions Committee, and Budget limitations.
Graduate School Policy Committee meetings.
Annual revision of brochure.
Graduate Economics Association, Black Graduate Economics Association.
Catalog copy.
Various activities — professional and social that are not contained within a particular class.

Chairman, Committee on Economic Research (I faculty)

Organized list of faculty projects requiring research assistants and the supply of them (both graduate and undergraduate). Assignment of R.A.’s.
Assistance in research proposals.
Inventory of internships and off-campus research.
Supervision of unscheduled subjects, such as UROP, Undergraduate Seminar, and thesis.
Supervision of M.I.T. Working Paper Series.
Allocation of computer funds, developing rules, developing alternative sources.

Personnel and Budgeting (Administrative Officer and a large chunk of my time)

Personnel
1. Nonfaculty is supervised by the Administrative Officer.
2. Faculty Personnel

(1) Employment — new Ph.D.’s and senior faculty
(2) Review and promotion
(3) Assignments, leaves, research

1. Postdoctoral personnel
Space allocations, revisions.
Budget Proposals
a. Proposals
b. Implementation

Telephone
Xerox & Ditto
Supplies
Equipment

There may be other matters that I am leaving out – routine meetings average probably a day a week, and things like that. Consultations with faculty, students, and other Departments, would probably add a couple more days.

If there are questions, I’ll oblige, of course.

Sincerely,
E. Cary Brown, Head

ECB/sc

__________________________

MEMORANDUM

May 10, 1976

TO: Department Faculty
FROM: Committee on Reorganization (PAD, SF, JH, PJ, RMS) [Peter A. Diamond, Stanley Fischer, Jerry Hausman, Paul Joskow, Robert M. Solow]

SUBJECT: Reorganization

ECB’s [E. Cary Brown] letter of March 12, which created this committee, starts from the premise that the administrative burden on the Department Head has become essentially impossible. This seems clearly to be the case. It has happened because the department has increased in size and complexity without any corresponding adaptation of its administrative arrangements. Every new function has fallen into the Head’s lap. (Top that, anyone.) Apart from the sheer burden of work thus created, another problem is the difficulty of communications, because that is also time-consuming.

After some palaver and negotiation, we have a reorganizational package to suggest. It rests on two conditions; since it is something of an interconnected web, it will probably unravel if the two conditions can not be met. (1) Since the only way to correct an excessively centralized structure is to decentralize it, we propose to diffuse administrative responsibility more widely through the department; there will be at least one serious administrative post for everyone, or perhaps two minor posts instead, but everyone will have to participate. (2) The administrative load attached to the undergraduate program has increased with the size of the enrollment and the improvement of the curriculum; no one wants to manage an inadequately staffed program. We propose, therefore, that the normal teaching load for everyone in the department be agreed to be half graduate and half undergraduate teaching. This definition should be extended to everyone on the departmental budget: joint appointees, visiting professors, etc. As soon as there are a couple of exceptions to this understanding, there will be more. Then the management of the undergraduate program will break down, and it will revert or default to the Department Head, and that is what we are trying to stave off.

The particular organization we have in mind is as follows.

The central functions (budgeting, space, leaves, relations with the MIT hierarchy, etc.) will be in the hands of the Department Head and an Associate Head namely PAD [Peter A. Diamond]). In addition, one of them (probably ECB [E. Cary Brown]) will be an ex officio member of the Committee on Undergraduate Studies to be proposed below, and the other will be an ex officio member of the Committee on Graduate Studies. The precise division of labor is obviously a matter of taste; for the moment, ECB [E. Cary Brown] will probably do most of the relations with the MIT structure and PAD [Peter A. Diamond] will concentrate on intra-departmental matters.
There will be a Director of Undergraduate Studies (PT [Peter Temin]), who will be chairman of a Committee on Undergraduate Studies (with 2 or 3 additional members, possibly RD [Rudiger Dornbusch], PJ [Paul Joskow] and one other). This committee will be responsible for revisions of the undergraduate curriculum adding and subtracting subjects, staffing them, degree requirements, etc. In recent discussions with the Undergraduate Economics Association, the proposal has merged that there should be a larger number of Undergraduate Advisors (i.e., registration officers) than there is now, with each taking care of at most 10 students. That suggests we would need about 8 such advisors. The members of the Committee might serve as advisors, plus others. Merely serving as registration officer for 10 undergraduates is by itself not an onerous job.
There seems to be no need for change in the organization of graduate studies in the department. We suggest that there be a Director of Graduate Studies (RSE [Richard S. Eckaus]) and a Committee on Graduate Studies which would, as now, consist of the other two Graduate Registration Officers. Things are going very well now with REH [Robert E. Hall] handling the first-year students. MJP [Michael J. Piore] the second-year students and RSE [Richard S. Eckaus] the thesis-writers. REH [Robert E. Hall] is prepared to take on the task or devising a scheme to keep track of post-generals students, and see that they find themselves a reasonable thesis topic in a reasonable amount of time. The scheme may need another person to look after it.
We suggest the creation of Committee on Staffing whose functions would include looking after the hiring of assistant professors, the dovetailing of visiting professors with faculty leaves, and the rationing of visiting scholars. The picture we have is that the members of committee would do the interviewing and preliminary screening of new Ph.D.’s at the annual meetings, and decide which of them to invite to come and give seminars. At that stage and thereafter, the whole department faculty would be in on the act, and final decisions would be made, as they are now, in a department meeting. The main time-consumer for this committee would be the correspondence in connection with hiring. Since that would fall on the Chairman, that post would be a major one. For the other members of the committee, the burden would be relatively light. We suggest REH [Robert E. Hall] as chairman, plus perhaps 3 others.
There seems to be no reason to change the way the Admissions Committee now functions.
We see no need for major change in the Placement process. Our only suggestion are (a) perhaps to provide EDD [Evsey D. Domar] with another person to share the load, and (b) to have a pre-season department meeting, analogous to the post-generals meeting, at which each graduate student entering the market could be discussed by the full facuIty, and information and ideas collected.
There are other details. RLB [Robert L. Bishop] is functioning as advisor to MIT undergraduates thinking about economics as part of their Humanities requirement, and we are happy to preserve that human capital. MAA [Morris A. Adelman] who has been our representative to CGSP is to begin a term on the CEP, which should count as a major administrative burden. We need his successor on CGSP.

One last point: we hope that each committee chairman will promptly send a written notice of each substantive decision to the Head and Associate Head for distribution to the department faculty, so that communications are well looked after. That plus rational expectations should do the trick.

Source: MIT Archives. MIT Department of Economics Records. Box 2, Folder “Department Organization”.

__________________________

DEPARTMENTAL ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES:
ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT 1977-78

UNDERGRADUATE COMMITTEE

Chairman:	Peter Temin
Members:	Cary Brown	Senior Faculty Counsellor, Ex Officio
	Jerry Rothenberg	Senior Faculty Counsellor
	Peter Temin	Senior Faculty Counsellor
	Rudiger Dornbusch	Junior Faculty Counsellor
	Jeffrey Harris	Junior Faculty Counsellor
	Jagdish Bhagwati	Sophomore Faculty Counsellor (Fall)
	Henry Farber	Sophomore Faculty Counsellor (Spring)

Summer Jobs: Jeffrey Harris
Humanities Adviser: Robert Bishop
Transfer of Credits: Cary Brown

GRADUATE COMMITTEE

Chairman:	Richard Eckaus	Thesis, Graduate Registration Officer
Members:	Paul Joskow/Mike Piore	Second Year Graduate Registration Officer
	Marty Weitzman	First Year Graduate Registration Officer
	Jerome Rothenberg	CGSP Representative
	Stan Fischer, Ex Officio

Admissions Committee:

Chairman: Robert Bishop
Members: Frank Fisher and Lance Taylor

Placement: Evsey Domar
Harvard-MIT Theory Seminar: Eric Maskin
Theory Workshop: Kevin Roberts

OTHER DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES

Staffing Committee: Chairman: Rudiger Dornbusch

(For New Ass’t Profs.) Members:

Paul Joskow
Jerry Hausman
Stan Fischer, Ex Officio
(Added for Temporary Visitors: Robert Solow)

Independent Activity Period: Jeffrey Harris/Marilyn Simon
Unstructured Subjects Committee: Peter Temin, Undergraduate; Richard Eckaus, Graduate
Computer Allocation: Richard Eckaus

ADDENDUM: INSTITUTE COMMITTEES

CEP: Morris Adelman
Associate Chairman of the Faculty: Michael Piore
Visual Arts: Jerry Rothenberg
Library System, Chairman: Evsey Domar

Image Source: For this portrait of members of the M.I.T. economics department in 1975 see the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror post that provides identifications.

Tags Adelman, Bhagwati, Bishop, BrownEC, Diamond, Domar, Dornbusch, Eckaus, Farber, Fischer, FisherFM, HallR, HarrisJE, Hausman, Joskow, Maskin, Piore, RobertsK, Rothenberg, Solow, TaylorLD, Temin, Weitzman

Chicago Economics Programs Economists Harvard UCLA War and Defense Economics

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Jack Hirshleifer, 1950

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-17

This UCLA economics department obituary of Jack Hirshleifer is so good that Economics in the Rear-view Mirror keeps a copy for its “Meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus/a” series. Hirschleifer was Brooklyn born and Harvard bred, but his scientific fruit definitely ripened in the California sun.

__________________________

Harvard Ph.D. 1950

Jack Hirshleifer, S.B. [Harvard] 1946 (1945), A.M. [Harvard] 1948.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Labor Problems. Thesis, “Price Flexibility and General Interdependence.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1949-50, p. 197.

__________________________

UCLA
Department of Economics
Obituary of Jack Hirshleifer

Education:

Ph.D. Harvard University

Research Areas:

Economic analysis of conflict; bioeconomics with particular reference to sources of cooperative behavior and the nature of evolutionary equilibrium; voluntary provision of public goods.

Biography:

Jack Hirshleifer, professor emeritus of economics, died July 26, 2005, bringing to a close a career marked by wide- ranging interests and brilliant contributions to the subfields of information economics, investment and capital theory, bioeconomics, and the economic theory of conflict.

After active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II, Hirshleifer completed his A.B. degree at Harvard, magna cum laude. Five years later he had earned his doctorate in economics, also at Harvard. From 1949 to 1955 he worked as an economist at the Rand Corporation. Before coming to UCLA in 1958, he took a postdoctoral fellowship in statistics and economics at the University of Chicago where he also taught for five years.

His extensive publications included seven books and close to a 100 scholarly articles. From his first study, Water Supply: Economics, Technology, and Policy [Chicago, 1960] to The Dark Side of the Force: Economic Foundations of Conflict Theory [Cambridge, 2001], Professor Hirshleifer in his scholarship has demonstrated a clarity of analysis and probing for fundamental assumptions which set him apart as one of the most distinguished economists of his generation.

Elected a fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society, Professor Hirshleifer also served on the editorial boards of the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and the Journal for Bioeconomics. In 2000 he was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. He also served as president of the Western Economic Association and as vice- president of the American Economic Association.

Professor Hirshleifer was deeply respected by all his fellow faculty members during his 33 years as a member of the UCLA economics department. His door was always open for any colleague, graduate student or undergraduate who might feel like “popping- in.” While a giant among researchers, Professor Hirshleifer was also deeply committed to the teaching of economics. As a teacher he always strove to give his students a sense of his own deep fascination with the role of competitive markets. This led him to write a revolutionary and best- selling textbook in intermediate microeconomics, Price Theory and Applications. While prior books focused on modeling and theory, the new text added dozens of intriguing real world illustrations of economics forces at work. Through his own text- book and through the many texts that have copied his approach, Professor Hirshleifer continues to influence tens of thousands of undergraduates each year.

Tribute by David Levine

Jack Hirshleifer was an economic theorist with broad-ranging interests. Two areas in economics have especially felt the impact of his work. Early in his career, he was instrumental in the information economics revolution; late in his career, he expanded the domain of economic discourse with his work on evolutionary economics and conflict resolution.

Hirshleifer spanned a broad range of issues in his early work as one of the founding fathers of information economics. He made the abstract ideas of contingent claims concrete through his examples and applications. In the process, he helped develop fundamental tools, such as the covariance of risks, the analysis of gambling and insurance, the Modigliani-Miller Theorem, and the analysis of public investment. He also expanded the range of information economics with two fundamental contributions. His work on the private and social value of information clearly shows that competitive markets need not reflect the social value of information. His example of an inventor who can invest based on the knowledge of the impact of his invention shows that there can be an oversupply of inventive activity. This “race to be first” has its reflection in the current literature on patent races, and represents a fundamental problem in intellectual property law that the profession is only now coming to grips with. His second fundamental contribution showed that differences in taste are not enough to explain speculation. He was the first to analyze speculation in a full general-equilibrium model, with different structures of market completeness carefully considered. Although not generally recognized as such, this is also the first paper to point out the indeterminacy of equilibrium when markets are incomplete.

In addition to his founding contributions in information economics, Hirshleifer had a lifelong interest in conflict, beginning with his earliest work on war damages. Late in his career this area became the focus of his contributions, and he was a leader in extending economic methods to problems more traditionally studied in political science. He wrote broadly on expanding the domain of economic discourse to include the “rational” evolutionary analysis of altruism and spite. His work on conflict showed how “Peace is more likely to the extent that the decisiveness of conflict is low, or … if the stakes are small or the technology favors the defense. More surprisingly, perhaps, increased productive complementarity between the parties does not systematically favor peace…the poorer side is generally motivated to invest more heavily in fighting effort. So conflict can become an income-equalizing process.” Finally, his weakest link/best shot experiment (with Glenn Harrison) demonstrates that economic incentives play a key role in determining how much people will contribute to a public good.

Tribute by Roger Farmer

I was approached last month by Junyao Ying, a UCLA alum who is now working in China. Junyao and his wife Weiyi Qiu have recently translated Jack’s book, Investment Interest and Capital into Chinese. Junyao asked me to write a few words about Jack for the translation. This is what I wrote.

The economics department at UCLA was a very exciting place in the 1980s, not least because of Jack Hirshleifer. Many of us ate lunch every day in the Faculty Center, and being in Southern California, most days we ate outdoors in the sunshine. Jack would arrive at 12.00 sharp with an economic question for the day that he would pose to the table. Jack’s questions would be from the news of the day and the analysis he expected would be in the UCLA style.

The department had a unique approach to economics and Jack, along with Harold Demsetz, Armen Alchian, Ben Klein and later, Al Harberger, were a huge part of that. Their economics was intuitive, often verbal, but always incisive. One story, relayed to me by another UCLA giant of the era, Axel Leijonhufvud, expresses well the Socratic teaching style that permeated the UCLA curriculum. As Axel relays it, he was sitting in on Armen’s first graduate micro class when the master appeared, paced back and forth for a few minutes, and then boomed loudly: “So why don’t we sell babies anyway?”

Jack had the same approach. Many of our discussions would end up around one of his favorite topics: the economics of disasters. Earthquakes were never far from our minds and Jack was an expert on what today we might call black swan events. LA earthquakes are relatively frequent but they typically register less than 5.0 on the Richter Scale, enough to shake the floor, but usually not to do much damage. Sometimes we see larger quakes and every century or so, an 8.0 magnitude quake brings significant loss of life. Jack pointed out that, if you go far enough back in the fossil record, there have been earthquakes large enough to cause a slippage in the earth’s crust large enough to move two points that were previously next to each other five miles apart!

Jack was an economic imperialist. He believed passionately that the economic method can and should be applied to all of the social sciences. While we may not all share that opinion, in this time of crisis, we can nevertheless benefit from Jack’s insights. He may not be here in person to opine on how to deal with black swan events, but we can still learn from Jack by reading his written words.

Publications

“War Damage Insurance,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 35, No. 2. (May 1953), pp. 144-153. Argues that vulnerability rated war damage insurance would create private incentives to make property less vulnerable to enemy bombing, and that this would be superior to administrative fiat.

“On the Theory of Optimal Investment Decision,” The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 66, No. 4. (Aug 1958), pp. 329-352. Examines different internal rate of return and present value rules when there is a divergence between borrowing and lending rates, and shows that while the problem can be solved by careful consideration of the budget constraint, neither of these rules gives the correct answer all the time.

“Risk, The Discount Rate, and Investment Decisions,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 51, No. 2(May 1961), pp. 112-120. Discusses how covariance of new risks with the existing portfolio makes it desirable to diversify by adding new risks.

“Investment Decision Under Uncertainty: Choice-Theoretic Approaches,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 79, No. 4. (Nov 1965), pp. 509-536; and “Investment Decision under Uncertainty: Applications of the State-Preference Approach,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 80, No. 2. (May 1966), pp. 252-277. These two paper develop the time-state-preference approach (what we now call the state-contingent model) applied to traditional problems in economics: gambling and insurance; Modigliani-Miller Theorem and evaluation of public projects.

“Urban Water Supply: A Second Look,” (with J. W. Milliman) The American Economic Review, Vol. 57, No. 2 (May 1967), pp. 169-178. In a famous earlier work with J.C. DeHaven Water Supply: Economics, Technology and Policy(University of Chicago Press, 1960) alternative methods of supplying water to Southern California were subject to cost-benefit analysis. This paper review what actually happened: policy makers ignored the advice, and chose what both prospectively and retrospectively was the worst economic choice. They conclude: “It appears that the agenda for economists, at this point, should place lower priority upon the further refinement of advice for those efficient and selfless administrators who may exist in never-never land. Rather, it should focus on devising institutions whereby fallible and imperfect administrators may be forced to learn from error.”

“The Private and Social Value of Information and the Reward to Inventive Activity,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 61, No. 4. (Sep 1971), pp. 561-574. Makes the simple yet crucial point that the benefit of receiving information first bears no necessary relationship to the social value of the information. For example, inventive activity may be oversupplied because the inventor can make investments based upon knowledge of the invention. This paper also makes careful use of an infinitesimal deviant individual in a representative individual world.

“Speculation and Equilibrium: Information, Risk, and Markets,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 89, No. 4. (Nov 1975), pp. 519-542. This paper shows that differences in taste are not enough to explain speculation – differences in beliefs are required. Unlike earlier work on speculation that ignores the endogeneity of prices, the setup here is a full general equilibrium model, with different structures of market completeness carefully considered. In particular, market incompleteness alone cannot explain speculation. Although not generally recognized as such, this is the first paper to point out the indeterminacy of equilibrium in an incomplete market setting.

“Competition, Cooperation, and Conflict in Economics and Biology,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 68, No. 2 (May 1978), pp. 238-243. This paper draws connections between the economics and sociobiology literature, and marks the beginning of Hirshleifer’s interest in sociobiology and conflict.

“The Expanding Domain of Economics,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 75, No. 6. (Dec 1985), pp. 53-68. This paper is a broad overview of the application of economic logic to a variety of “non-economic” problems. Hirshleifer begins by examining endogeneity of preferences. He identifies the different between altruistic preferences, and what would now be called the “warm-glow” effect of participation. He reviews Becker’s “rotten kid” theorem, which says that an altruistic parent can actually gain from altruism. As an alternative theory of preferences, models of status, such as the rat-race are examined. The underlying point of view is that of “as-if” rationality – altruism must provide some benefit to the altruist. From this perspective, Hirshleifer examines models such as the psychological model of “anger, gratitude, response” and argues that seemingly irrational behavior does indeed benefit the individual. The final topic is once again that of conflict. A narrow range of possible settlements it is argued increases the potential for conflict. Increasing returns followed by diminishing returns explains the monopoly on military force within the state, while also explaining the multiplicity of states.

“An Experimental Evaluation of Weakest Link/Best Shot Models of Public Goods,” (with Glenn W. Harrison) The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 97, No. 1. (Feb 1989), pp. 201-225. This experimental contribution to the public goods literature explores how the increasing incentives to free ride lead to greater free riding. This paper also introduces the “best-shot” game, a public goods contribution game in which only the largest contribution to the public good matters. In this type of game it is socially and individually optimal for only one player to contribute, and unlike many other types of public goods games, this theoretical prediction is exactly what happens in the laboratory.

“The Technology of Conflict as an Economic Activity,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 81, No. 2 (May 1991), pp. 130-134. “Peace is more likely to the extent that the decisiveness of conflict is low, or … if the stakes are small or the technology favors the defense. More surprisingly, perhaps, increased productive complementarity between the parties does not systematically favor peace…the poorer side is generally motivated to invest more heavily in fighting effort. So conflict can become an income-equalizing process.”

Source: Jack Hirshleifer UCLA page archived by the Wayback Machine.

Image Source: The 1946 Harvard Class Album, p. 153.

Tags Hirshleifer

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examinations for graduate public finance. Otto Eckstein, 1961-1962

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-16

While unable to find the syllabus for Otto Eckstein’s public finance course, I was able to transcribe the mid-year and year-end exams for this year long graduate course taught at Harvard in 1961-1962. Generally the Harvard collection of course outlines and syllabi is fairly complete by that point in time. Perhaps the library copy was misfiled or taken home. In the end there are always missing observations.

_____________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 251. Public Finance.

Full course. M., W., (F.), at 10. Associate Professor [Otto] Eckstein

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Courses of Instruction 1961-1962 in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. LVIII, No. 19 (August 28, 1961), p. 107.

_____________________________

Mid-year Examination
January 1962

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251

Answer All Questions.

(45 minutes each)

What are the postulates of the “pure theory of public expenditures” of Samuelson? How does the theory differ from the voluntary exchange theory?
Suppose you are asked to evaluate the scheme to build a tunnel from England to France for the British government, to aid the government in its decision. How would you do it? What data would you want? What criteria would you apply? What would be the limitations your analysis?
How would you choose between consumption and income as the proper base for personal taxation? Contrast the actual Federal income tax base with your ideal.
Suppose the U. S. Treasury were in a position to reduce tax revenues by, say, two billion dollars, either by reducing the personal income tax rates or the corporation income tax rates. If growth is the main objective, which tax change would you propose? How would you defend your proposal with economic knowledge and logic?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science (January 1962) in Social Sciences, Final Examinations January 1962 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 137).

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Year-End Final Examination
May 1962

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251

Answer 4 out 5 questions

(45 minutes each)

Suppose the government had to choose between a general reduction in the personal income tax and an increase in expenditures to counteract a recession. What economic considerations would enter into the choice? What conclusions would you as an individual reach under the conditions of the early 1960’s?
Neutrality is a criterion frequently applied in tax policy.
1. What is the theoretical rationale of this criterion?
2. Does the criterion apply to choices between excise and income taxes?
3. How does it apply to the taxation of business income from foreign subsidiaries?
4. How does it apply to the taxation of property?
American grant-in-aid programs from the federal to state and local governments have followed few theoretical principles. Why have these programs grown in recent decades? Is there a case for instituting a system of unconditional grants in the U.S.? What are the arguments against it?
What are the pros and cons of establishing unified governments for metropolitan areas?
Variable depreciation allowances have frequently been advocated as an instrument of short-run policy. For example, the fraction of investment that is permitted to be written off in the first year could be varied by the Treasury. How would you evaluate such a proposal?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science (June 1962) in Social Sciences, Final Examinations June 1962 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 140).

Image Source: Otto Eckstein, 1959 Fellow. John Simon Guggenehim Memorial Foundation.

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading List and Final Exam for Games and Strategy. Schelling, 1963

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-13
2 Comments on Harvard. Reading List and Final Exam for Games and Strategy. Schelling, 1963

Thomas Schelling was hired by the Harvard economics department as a professor in 1958. According to the Harvard course catalogues, he taught the undergraduate course “Games and Strategy” nine times during the 1960’s. This post provides the syllabus/reading list and final exam for that course from the first term of the 1963-64 academic year.

Materials from Schelling’s course “Economics and National Security” that he taught in 1960 and from his 1970 course “Conflict, Coalition and Strategy” have been transcribed and posted earlier here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Course Announcement

Economics 135. Games and Strategy

Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 10. Professor Schelling

Theories and experimental studies of rational decision in conflict, collusion, coalition, bargaining, collective decision, arbitration, and uncertainty.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. LX, No. 21 (September 4, 1963): Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe 1963-1964, p. 103.

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Economics 135
Games and Strategy
Fall, 1963

Reading Assignments

PART I. COPING WITH AN INTELLIGENT ADVERSARY

Rapoport, Anatol: Fights, Games and Debates, Chapters 7, 8, 9; pages 130-165. (35 pages)
Williams, John D.: The Compleat Strategyst, Chapters 1, 2; pages 1-85, and Chapter 3, pages 86-91 then scan rest of chapter. (91 pages)
Hitch, Charles J. and McKean, Roland: The Economics Defense in the Nuclear Age, Chapter 10, “Incommensurables, Uncertainty, and the Enemy,” pages 182-205. (23 pages)
Read, Thornton: “Strategy for Active Defense,” Papers and Proceedings of the AEA, American Economic Review, Vol. 51, No. 2, May 1961, pp. 465-471.
Alchian, Armen A.: “The Meaning of Utility Measurement,” American Economic Review, Vol. 43 (March 1953) pages 26-50. (25 pages)

(OPTIONAL: R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa, Games and Decisions, Chapters 1-4, pp. 1-87.)

PART II. COERCION AND DETERRENCE

Schelling, Strategy of Conflict, Chapters 1, 2, 5, 7, 8; pages 3-52, 117-161, 175-203. (121 pages)
Ellsberg, Daniel: “The Theory and Practice of Blackmail,” (38 pages) mimeograph
Schelling: “The Threat of Violence in International Affairs,” Proceedings, 57th Annual Meeting, American Society International Law. (INT. 16.8)
Stevens, Carl M.: Strategy and Collective Bargaining Negotiation, chapters 3 and 5, pages 27-56 and 77-96. New York: McGraw Hill, 1963.

PART III. MUTUAL RESTRAINT

Kenneth: Conflict and Defense, Chapters 1, 2, 6, pp. 1-40, 105-122. (58 pages)
Schelling: Chapters 3, 4, 9, 10; Appendix A; pages 53-118, 207-254, 257-266. (121 pages)
Cassady, Ralph, Jr.: “Taxicab Rate War,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 1, pages 364-8 (December, 1957). (5 pages)
Valvanis, Stephan: “The Resolution of Conflict When Utilities Interact,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 2 (June 1958) pages 156-69. (13 pages)
Rapoport, Chapter 10, pp. 166-79 (14 pages)
Boulding, Chapters 12, 13, pp. 227-73.
Schelling: “War Without Pain and Other Models,” World Politics, XV, (April, 1963) pp. 465-487.

PART IV. COLLECTIVE DECISION AND ARBITRATION

Farguharson, Robin: “Sincerity and Strategy in Voting,” mimeograph (February 5, 1955) (7 pages)
Black, Duncan: “On the Rationale of Group Decision Making,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 56 (February, 1948), pages 23-34 (12 pages)
Steinhaus, Hugo: “The Problem of Fair Division,” Econometrica, Vol. 16 (January, 1948), pages 101-109. (9 pages)
Dahl, Robert A.: A Preface to Democratic Theory, Chapter 2, pages 34-60, with special attention to notes 9 and 12, pages 42-43 and 43-44. (26 pages)
Rapoport, Chapter 11, pp. 180-194. (15 pages)
Rapoport, Chapter 12, pages 195-212. (17 pages)

PART V. EXPERIMENTAL GAMES

Flood, Merrill M.: “Some Experimental Games,” Management Science, Vol. 5 (October, 1958) pages 5-26. (22 pages)
Kaplan, Burns, and Quandt: “Theoretical Analysis of the Balance of Power,” Behavioral Science, Vol. 5 (July, 1960), pages 240-52. (12 pages)
Schelling: Chapter 6, pages 162-72. (11 pages)
Rapoport: Chapter 13, pages 213-25. (12 pages)

READING PERIOD

Burns, Arthur L.: “A Graphical Approach to some Problems of the Arms Race,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 3, pages 326-42. (16 pages)
Thibaut, John W. and Kelley, Harold H.: The Social Psychology of Groups, Chapter 7, pages 100-125. (26 pages)
Goffman, Irving: “On Face-Work,” Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, Vol. 18 (August 1955), pp. 213-31.
Twain, Mark, “The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg,” in The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1963-64”.

________________________

FINAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS 135
January 29, 1964

ANSWER ALL FIVE QUESTIONS: The first two questions should take no more than ten or twenty minutes each, allowing at least forty-five minutes each for the last three.

The following entry was submitted to the PUNCH “Toby competition” calling for an “unpleasing codicil to a will,” and received a runner-up award in the issue of July 6, 1960:

To my daughter, Judith Georgina Margaret, I leave my house, land and all my worldly possessions therein on the condition that it should be run as either an hotel, a college for gardeners or a rest-house for disappointed Beatniks.

My cash and capital are to be put into a trust. My widow, three daughters and nine grandchildren will each have an equal share in the trust. No income or capital can be drawn from the trust until the will is contested by a legatee. If this happens, the contesting legatee will lose his share to the others. If the others pay compensation for this loss, all capital will go untied to a charity.

Describe and discuss in game-theoretical terms the arrangement described in the second paragraph. Draw a matrix to represent it. (For purposes of the matrix, you may reduce the number of legatees to two.) Include, with respect to the two-person matrix, any pertinent references to a “solution,” “equilibrium point,” dominant or dominated strategies, or “efficiency” of outcome.

It has been observed that for many people an important criterion in sending or not sending a Christmas card to someone is whether or not they expect to receive one from the person. They would be embarrassed if they received one and had not sent one, but would rather not bother sending one unless they were going to receive one. They might also not wish to embarrass the recipient by sending a card he did not expect and implying he had been negligent. It may not be going too far to suppose that some people, in deciding whether or not to send a card, recognize that the other person, in deciding whether or not to send his card, is wondering whether or not he will get a card.
Draw a matrix corresponding to this situation, explaining your choice of numerical payoffs, and analyze the situation in familiar fashion.
Two companies, Vitamins, Inc. and Hormones, Inc., sell to groups of potential customers that partially overlap. Some potential consumers of vitamins can meet their needs with hormones, but not all of them; and some potential consumers of hormones can meet their needs with vitamins, but not all of them. Prices are such that the two commodities are pertinent[sic, “perfect”?] substitutes for each other within the overlapping market. Advertizing is the principle form of competition between the two companies. Advertizing also increases, for Vitamins, Inc., sales to those who have no interest in hormones, and similarly for Hormones, Inc.
The total advertizing budgets for the two companies are fixed by long-term contracts. In the short run they can vary the content of their advertizing. Specifically, the vitamin company can emphasize those uses of vitamins that compete with hormones or those uses that do not. If it emphasizes the uses that do compete, it tends to increase its share of the common market; if it emphasizes the virtues peculiar to vitamins it will increase consumption of vitamins by those who have no interest in hormones but will tend to lose in the market common to both. And similarly for the hormone company. A good deal of research has been done by both companies, leading to advertizing policies that take the rival’s advertizing campaign into account.

V has settled on the following policy:

1. 1. If H puts less than 20% of its budget into competitive advertizing, V will put none into that form;
  2. If H puts 20% or more into the competitive form, V will put the same percentage into competitive advertizing as H does.

H has arrived at the following policy:

1. 1. If V puts less than 25% into competitive advertizing, H will put twice that percentage into competitive advertizing;
  2. If V puts 25% or more into competitive advertizing, H will put exactly 50% into that form.

The Problem:

1. Sketch the “partial equilibrium curves,” and analyze what may happen if each of the two firms simply reacts to what it sees the other doing.
2. If H gets sophisticated and understands V’s behavior (but V goes on just reacting to what Hdoes), what policy do you expect H to follow, with what result?
3. If both get sophisticated and realize the nature of their interacting policies, how does your analysis change?
4. Reinterpret this problem in terms of two countries with fixed defense budgets, allocating their military resources into “offensive” and “defensive” components.

A three-man board composed of A, B, and C, has held hearings on a personnel case involving an officer of the company. This officer was scheduled for promotion but, prior to final action on his promotion, he took a decision that cost the company a good deal of money. The question is whether he should be (1) promoted anyway, (2) denied the promotion, or (3) fired.
The board has discussed the matter at length and is unable to reach unanimous agreement. In the course of discussion it has become clear to all three of them that their separate opinions are as follows:

A considers the officer to have been a victim of bad luck, not bad judgment, and wants to go ahead and promote him but, failing that, would keep him rather than fire him.
B considers the mistake serious enough to bar promotion altogether; he’d prefer to keep the officer, denying promotion, but would rather fire than promote him
C thinks the man ought to be fired but, in terms of personnel policy and morale, believes the man ought not to be kept unless he is promoted, i.e. that keeping on an officer who has been declared unfit for promotion is even worse than promoting him.

To recapitulate, their preferences among the 3 outcomes are:

	Promote	Keep	Fire
A	1^st	2^nd	3^rd
B	3^rd	1^st	2^nd
C	2^nd	3^rd	1^st

They must proceed to a vote. Voting is by majority. These are the two alternative procedures for voting, and they must first vote on which procedure to use. These alternative procedures are:

1. Decide first, by majority vote, whether or not he is guilty of a mistake. If (I) he is not found guilty, promote him; if (II) he is found guilty, decide by another majority vote whether to (i) fire him or (ii) to keep him.
2. By majority vote decide first, as a matter of principle, on the proper course of action if he is guilty — (I) to fire him or (II) to keep him without promotion. Then, once the appropriate penalty has been decided, decide by another majority vote whether he is guilty or not,

(i) promoting him if not guilty, otherwise
(ii) proceeding in accordance with the penalty decided on (I or II) in the first vote.

They must first elect one of the two procedures. They do this, too, by majority vote. They first hold a majority vote to choose procedure 1 or 2; they then vote in accordance with the procedure so selected.

Assume that (a) everyone’s preferences among the three outcomes are fully evident as a result of discussion, (b) everyone is shrewd enough and willing to vote in whatever fashion will attain his own preferences, and assumes everyone else will do the same, (c) voting is silent, by simultaneous ballot, and (d) no “deals” can he made among the three voters as to how they will vote.

The question:

1. 1. What happens to the officer? Promoted, just kept, or fired?
  2. Which of the two voting procedures, 1 or 2, did they elect to use?
  3. What would have happened to the officer if board-member A had preferred not to promote him?
  4. What might have happened if A and B could make a deal and vote accordingly?
  5. Describe some third majority-vote procedure which if it were used, would lead to the officer’s being kept (pursuant to the board’s preferences in the above table).

Goffman says, “To study face-saving is to study the traffic rules of social interaction. …By face-work I mean to designate the actions taken by a person to make whatever he is doing consistent with face. …Thus poise in one important type of face-work, for through poise the person controls his embarrassment and hence the embarrassment that he and others might have over his embarrassment.”

See how far you can go in treating “poise” and “embarrassment” by a Richardson-process interaction model along the lines of Boulding or Valavanis.

Source: Papers Printed for Midyear Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science (January, 196) in the bound volume Social Sciences, Final Examinations January 1964 (HUC 7000.28, no. 150).

Image Source: Harvard Kennedy School Magazine, Summer 2012.

Tags Schelling

PROBLEMS IN RUSSIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY 14.732

E.D. Domar Spring Term 1974-75

PART I – KIEVAN RUSSIA PART II – APPANAGE RUSSIA

PART III — THE DEVELOPMENT OF SERFDOM BEFORE PETER I XVI and XVII CENTURIES

PART IV – FROM PETER I TO THE EMANCIPATION OF THE PEASANTS 1700 — 1861

PART V — FROM THE EMANCIPATION OF THE PEASANTS TO THE SOVIET REGIME 1861-1917

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics Economics 1200: Economics of Socialism Spring Term, 1976-77 Professor Bergson

I. Introduction

II. Comparative Development Strategy

III. Economic Organization and Planning

IV Foreign Economic Relations

V. Performance

Reading Period:

Economics 1. Outlines of Economics

Course Announcement

Course Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 1 [Mid-year Examination]

1900-01 ECONOMICS 1 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 2. Economic Theory in the 19th Century

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 2 [Mid-year examination]

1900-01 ECONOMICS 2 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 3. Principles of Sociology

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 3. [Mid-year Examination]

1900-01 ECONOMICS 3. [Year-end Examination]

Economics 5. Railways and Other Public Works

Course Announcements

Enrollments

1900-01 ECONOMICS 51 [Mid-year Examination]

1900-01 ECONOMICS 52 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 6. Economic History of the U.S.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 6 [Mid-year Examination]

1900-01 ECONOMICS 6 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 81 Money

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 8 [Mid-year Examination]

Economics 9. The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 9 [Year-end examination]

1900-1901 ECONOMICS 9a [Year-end Examination]

Economics 10. Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 10 [Mid-year Examination]

1900-01 ECONOMICS 10 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 122. Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 122 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 12a1. International Payments and the Flow of Precious Metals.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 12a1. [Mid-Year Examination]

Economics 13. Methods of Economic Investigation.

Course Announcement

Enrollment 1900-01

1900-01 ECONOMICS 13 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 17. Economic Organization and Resources of European Countries.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 17 [Mid-year Examination]

1900-01 ECONOMICS 17 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 18. Principles of Accounting.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 18 [Mid-year Examination]

Economics 19. General View of Insurance.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

1900-01 ECONOMICS 192 [Year-end Examination]

Economics 20d. Adam Smith and Ricardo.

Course Announcement

Enrollment

PROBLEMS IN RUSSIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY
14.732

E.D. Domar
Spring Term 1974-75

PART I – KIEVAN RUSSIA
PART II – APPANAGE RUSSIA

PART III — THE DEVELOPMENT OF SERFDOM BEFORE PETER I
XVI and XVII CENTURIES

PART IV – FROM PETER I TO THE EMANCIPATION OF THE PEASANTS
1700 — 1861

PART V — FROM THE EMANCIPATION OF THE PEASANTS TO
THE SOVIET REGIME 1861-1917

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 1200:
Economics of Socialism
Spring Term, 1976-77
Professor Bergson

Economics 1.
Outlines of Economics

1900-01
ECONOMICS 1
[Mid-year Examination]

1900-01
ECONOMICS 1
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 2.
Economic Theory
in the 19th Century

1900-01
ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-year examination]

1900-01
ECONOMICS 2
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 3.
Principles of Sociology

1900-01
ECONOMICS 3.
[Mid-year Examination]

1900-01
ECONOMICS 3.
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 5.
Railways and Other Public Works

1900-01
ECONOMICS 5¹
[Mid-year Examination]

1900-01
ECONOMICS 5²
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 6.
Economic History of the U.S.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 6
[Mid-year Examination]

1900-01
ECONOMICS 6
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 8¹
Money

1900-01
ECONOMICS 8
[Mid-year Examination]

Economics 9.
The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 9
[Year-end examination]

1900-1901
ECONOMICS 9a
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 10.
Mediaeval Economic History of Europe.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 10
[Mid-year Examination]

1900-01
ECONOMICS 10
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 12².
Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 12²[Year-end Examination]

Economics 12a¹.
International Payments and the Flow of Precious Metals.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 12a¹.
[Mid-Year Examination]

Economics 13.
Methods of Economic Investigation.

Enrollment
1900-01

1900-01
ECONOMICS 13
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 17.
Economic Organization and Resources of European Countries.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 17
[Mid-year Examination]

1900-01
ECONOMICS 17
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 18.
Principles of Accounting.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 18
[Mid-year Examination]

Economics 19.
General View of Insurance.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 19²
[Year-end Examination]

Economics 20d.
Adam Smith and Ricardo.

1900-01
ECONOMICS 20d
[Final examination]

DRAFT
[Summer or Fall 1970?]

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139

DEPARTMENTAL ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES:
ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT 1977-78

UCLA
Department of Economics
Obituary of Jack Hirshleifer

Mid-year Examination
January 1962

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251

Year-End Final Examination
May 1962

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251

Economics 135
Games and Strategy
Fall, 1963

FINAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS 135
January 29, 1964