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Harvard. Economic Theory II, Econ 202. Leontief, 1948-49

In a previous posting I provided the reading lists for the two term graduate course “Economic Theory I” , Economics 201, taught by Edward Chamberlin in 1947-48. “Economic Theory II”, Economics 202a and 202b, was taught by Wassily Leontief. Presuming a student who took both courses would have done this in consecutive years, I provide the course outlines, reading lists and the exam questions (only for Economics 202a) for the year 1948-49.

Leontief apparently did not get around to covering Part IV of Economics 202a in the Fall Term, since the entire section can be seen repeated for the first topic of the Spring term.

Besides Chamberlin’s course Economics 201 just mentioned. It is interesting to compare Leontief’s course with  that of Lloyd Metzler  and that of Milton Friedman at Chicago also in the same year.

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Economics 202a
Fall Term 1948-49

Economics 202a will cover the Theory of a Firm, the Theory of Individual Demand, Theory of Market Relationships, and introduce the basic concepts of the General Equilibrium Theory. 202b, as given in the Spring Term, will cover the Theory of Distribution (wages, capital and interest), profits), the Theory of General Equilibrium (Keynes), and introduce the basic concept of Welfare Economics and Economic Dynamics.

I.     Theory of a Firm

Costs; total, average, marginal.
Theory of the multiple plant firm.
Revenue; total, average, marginal.
Long and short run analysis
Supply under competitive and monopolistic conditions.
Production function, marginal productivity, increasing and decreasing returns.
Joint products.
Demand for factors of production.
Discontinuous relationships and non-marginal analysis.
Internal and external economies.
New invention and technological change.

Reading assignments:

Oscar Lange, “The Scope and Method of Economics,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XIII, (i), 1945-46, pp. 19-32.

E. A. G. Robinson, Structure of Competitive Industry, Chs. II, VII, VIII, pp. 14-35, 107-133.

Boulding, Economic Analysis, Part II, Chs. 18-26, pp. 375-595 (New edition: Chs. 20-26, pp. 419-552; Chs. 31, 32, pp. 669-733).

I. Fisher, “A Three-Dimensional Representation of the Factors of Production and Their Remuneration Marginally and Residually,” Econometrica, October, 1939.

George Stigler, “Production and Distribution in the Short Run,” Journal of Political Economy, 1939, pp. 305-327. Reprinted in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, pp. 119-142.

Joe S. Bain, The Economics of the Pacific Coast Petroleum Industry, Part I, Ch. V, pp. 84-114.

Lerner, Economics of Control, Chs. 15, 16, 17, pp. 174-211.

Chamberlin, “Proportionality, Divisibility, and Economies of Scale,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1948, pp. 229-262.

National Bureau of Economic Research, Cost Behavior and Price Policy, Ch. VII, pp. 142-169; Appendix C, pp. 321-329.

 

II.    Theory of the Household:

Theory of utility and indifference lines analysis.
Individual demand, prices and income.
Dependent and independent, competing and complementary, superior and inferior goods.
Measurability of utility.
“Marginal utility of money.”
Consumer surplus.
Interpersonal interdependence in consumers’ behavior.
Economic theory of index numbers.

Reading assignments:

Hicks, Value and Capital, Part I, Chs. I-III, pp. 1-54.

Boulding, Economic Analysis, Chs. 29, 30; pp. 636-685. (New edition, Chs. 33, 34; pp. 734-759).

 

III. Theory of Market Relationships:

Pure competition; individual and market supply and demand curves.
Stability of market equilibrium, statics and dynamics.
Monopoly and price discrimination.
Monopolistic competition.
Duopoly, oligopoly, bilateral monopoly, etc.
“Theory of games.”

Reading assignments:

Marshall, Principles of Political Economy [sic], Book V, Chs. III, V.

Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Chs. II, III, IV, and V.

Joan Robinson, The Economics of Imperfect Competition, Chs. 15 and 16.

Robert Triffin, Monopolistic Competition and the General Equilibrium Theory, Chs. I and II.

W. H. Nicholls, Imperfect Competition within Agricultural Industries, Ch. 18.

One of the following three articles:

Leonid Hurwicz, “The Theory of Economic Behavior,” American Economic Review, December, 1945, pp. 909-925.

Carl Kaysen, “A Revolution in Economic Theory?” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XIV (I), 1946-47, p. 1-15.

Jakob Marschak, “Theory of Games,” Journal of Political Economy, April, 1946, pp. 97-115.

 

IV.  Basic concepts of a general equilibrium theory:

Data and variables.
Price system and general interdependence.
Linear model of a general equilibrium system.

Reading assignments:

Lange, The Economic Theory of Socialism, pp. 65-72.

Cassel, The Theory of Social Economy, Vol. I, Ch. IV, pp. 134-155.

E. H. Phelps Brown, Framework of the Pricing System, in particular chapters dealing with general equilibrium theory.

___________________________

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Reading Period Assignments
January 3—January 19, 1949

[…]

Economics 202: Howard S. Ellis, Editor, A Survey of Contemporary Economics, 1948, Ch. 1, Value and Distribution, by Bernard F. Haley; and Frank H. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Ch. III to X, incl.

[…]

___________________________

 

1948-49

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 202a
[Final Exam, first term]

Please write legibly

Answer four questions:

  1. Taking into account considerations suggested by Stigler in his article on “Production and Distribution in the Short Run,” describe the determination of the optimum investment in fixed equipment for a plant faced with a regular seasonal variation in output.
    Give an illustrative example.
  2. Given information about (a) changing factor prices, and (b) changing factor combinations used by an individual enterprise (operating under competitive conditions) over a certain period of time—
    explain under what conditions this information might definitely indicate the presence of genuine technological change as contrasted with passive adjustment to variable market conditions.
  3. Under what conditions could one measure the utility of alternative combinations of commodities consumed by an individual household?
    Describe in detail the process of measurement in the case where these conditions are satisfied.
  4. “A market characterized by duopolistic indeterminism can be stabilized through establishment of an official price ceiling enforced by some outside authority.” Comment.
  5. State what significant difference do you see between the theory of an individual firm as presented in Knight’s “Risk, Uncertainty and Profits” and the treatment of the same subject in the most recent literature as presented in Haley’s article on value and distribution in the “Survey of Contemporary Economics.”

Final. January, 1949.

___________________________

Economics 202b
Spring Term, 1949

Part I: General Equilibrium Theory and the Economics of Welfare

a.   Basic Concepts of a General Equilibrium Theory:

Data and variables. Price System and general interdependence. Linear model of a general equilibrium system.

Reading:

Lange, The Economic Theory of Socialism, pp. 65-72.

Cassel, The Theory of Social Economy, Vol. I, Ch. IV, pp. 134-155.

E. H. Phelps Brown, Framework of the Pricing System, in particular chapters dealing with general equilibrium theory.

Schultz, T. W.: Agriculture in an Unstable Economy, Ch. I, pp. 24-43, Ch. IV, pp. 134-153.

 

b. Economics of Welfare

Individual maximum and social welfare. Efficiency and distributive justice. Efficiency of the purely competitive system. Monopoly and economic welfare. External economies. Pricing and allocation for public enterprise.

Reading:

Hicks, J. R. : “The Foundation of Welfare Economics,” Economic Journal, December 1939, pp. 696-712.

Meade and Hitch: An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy, Part II, Chs. VI-VII, pp. 159-220.

Meade, J. E., and Fleming, J. M.: Price and Output Policy of State Enterprise,” Economic Journal, Vol. LIV, December 1944, pp. 321-339.

Coase, R. H.: “Note on Price and Output Policy,” Economic Journal, Vol. LV, April 1945, pp. 112-113.

 

Part II: The Theory of Distribution

 

[a. The Theory of Wages. Omitted this year.]

Demands for labor and methods of remuneration. Short run supply of labor, money and real wages. Theory of noncompetitive labor markets. Technological unemployment. Long run supply of labor and the theory of optimum population.

Reading:

Douglas, P. M.: The Theory of Wages, Ch. I, pp. 3-17; Ch. III, pp. 68-96.

Robinson, G. B. H.: Economic Fragments, “Wage Grumbles,” pp. 42-57, also reprinted in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution.

Marx, Karl: Capital, Vol. I, Part IV, Ch. XV, pp. 405-422, 466-488.

Robbins, L.: “On the Elasticity of Demand for Income in Terms of Effort,” Economica, Vol. X, 1930, pp. 123-129.

 

b. Theory of Interest

Productivity of Capital. Expectations, risk, and uncertainty. Inventory speculation. Interest as cost and the demand for capital. Saving and the supply of capital. Monetary theory of interest. Theory of assets.

Reading:

Irving Fisher: The Theory of Interest, Chs. VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XVI, XVII, and XVIII. 1930.

Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution (Blakiston, 1946)

F. Knight: “Capital and Interest,” pp. 384-417.

Keynes: “The Theory of the Rate of Interest,” pp. 418-424.

D. H. Robertson: “Mr. Keynes and the Rate of Interest,” pp. 425-460.

 

[c. Theory of Profits and of Rent. Omitted this year.]

Theory of residual income. Entrepreneurial function. “Normal Profits.”

Reading:

Beddy, James: Profits, Ch. X, “An Explanation of Profits,” pp. 216-266.

Crum, W. L: “Corporate Earnings on Invested Capital,” Harvard Business Review, XVI, 1938, pp. 336-350.

Kaldor, N.: “The Equilibrium of the Firm,” The Economic Journal, March 1934, pp. 60-76.

Robinson, Joan: Economics of Imperfect Competition, Ch. 8.

 

Part III: Capital and Economic Development

a. Capital and Income

National wealth: Stock and flow concepts. Dollar measures and physical measures. Capital and income. Capital in production. Depreciation and obsolescence. Period of production and the speed of turnover. The time shape of production and consumption process.

Reading:

Kuznets: “On Measurement of National Wealth,” Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 2, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1936, pp. 3-61.

Rae, John: New Principles of Political Economy, 1834, Chs. I-V.

Irving Fisher: Nature of Capital and Income, Chs. I, IV, V, XIV, XVII, Macmillan, 1906.

Kaldor: “Annual Survey of Economic Theory: The Recent Controversy on The Theory of Capital,” Econometrica, July 1937, pp. 201-233.

 

b. Economic Development and Accumulation of Capital

Statics and Dynamics. The general problem of economic growth. Saving, Investment and the growth of income. Acceleration principle. Technical change. Accumulation and employment.

Reading:

Bresciani-Turoni: “The Theory of Saving,” Economica; Part I, February 1936, pp. 1-23; Part II, May 1936, pp. 162-181.

Domar: Expansion and Employment,” American Economic Review, March 1947, pp. 34-55.

Schelling: “Capital Growth and Equilibrium,” American Economic Review, December 1947, pp. 864-876.

Harrod: “An Essay in Dynamic Theory,” Economic Journal, March 1939, pp. 14-33.

Pigou: Economic Progress in a Stable Economy,” Economica, August 1947, pp. 180-188.

Stern: “Capital Requirements in Progressive Economies,” Economica, August 1945, pp. 163-171.

A. Sweezy: “Secular Stagnation?” in Harris, Postwar Economic Problems, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1943, pp. 67-82.

Hansen: “Economic Progress and Declining Population Growth,” American Economic Review, March 1939, pp. 1-15.

 

Part IV: Keynesian Theory and Problems

a. Over-all outlines of the General Theory. Wage and price “stickiness.” Demand for money. Saving and “oversaving.” Multiplier principle.

Reading:

Lerner, A. P.: The Economics of Control, Chs. 21, 22, and 25.

Keynes, J. M.: General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Chs. 1, 2, 8, and 18.

Haberler, G.: Prosperity and Depression, Ch. 8.

 

Reading Period:

Schumpeter: Theory of Economic Development, Harvard University Press, 1936.

OR

Harrod, R. F.: Towards a Dynamic Economics, Macmillan, 1948.

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Sources:

Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1 Box 4, Folder: “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1948-1949 (2 of 2)

Wassily Leontief Papers, Harvard University Archives. HUG 4517.45, Box 2, Folder “Fall to Winter—202a ‘48-‘49”.

Image Source:  Harvard Album, 1949.

Categories
Bibliography Courses M.I.T.

MIT. Graduate Macroeconomics 14.451. Blanchard. Spring 1997.

Because the Washington Post story, dated Oct 2 2015, by Steven Pearlstein about Olivier Blanchard (“The smartest economist you’ve never heard of” [sic]) has picked up considerable social media attention, I decided to post (way out of sample for me–Blanchard hardly deserves to be transported into the defunct class of academic scribblers) a transcription of a copy of his course outline and readings for the first half-semester course of macroeconomics in the MIT graduate program during the academic year 1996-97. The copy can be found in Robert Solow’s papers in the Economists’ Papers Project at Duke. Solow taught the same course in 1998 and undoubtedly wanted to see what material Blanchard had covered.

____________________

14.451 Macroeconomics I                            Spring 1997

Olivier Blanchard, […]
TA: Brian Sack, […]

The purpose of this first course is to introduce the workhorses of the field, and use them to analyze current issues.

I shall assume familiarity with macroeconomics at the level of undergraduate macro-textbooks (you will get much more out of the course if you are very familiar with macroeconomics at the intermediate undergraduate level.) Two such textbooks, taken completely at random, are:

Dornbusch, R. and S. Fischer, Macroeconomics, McGraw Hill, 6th edition

Blanchard, O. Macroeconomics, Prentice-Hall, 1996

You should before you graduate, and preferably sooner, read some of the classics in the field. Three essential readings are:

Keynes, J. M. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Harcourt Brace, New York, 1964 (first edition, 1936)

Hicks, J. R., Value and Capital, Oxford University Press, 1968 (first edition, 1939)

Modigliani, F., “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money”, Econometrica 12, January 1944, 45-88 (reprinted in Collected papers, Volume 1, MIT Press, 1982)

The textbook for the course is:

Blanchard, O. and Fischer, S. Lectures on Macroeconomics, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1989 (BF in what follows)

A text, which covers roughly the same set of issues at a slightly lower level, is:

David Romer, Advanced macroeconomics, McGraw Hill 1996.

 

A star denotes required reading.

 

1. Basic macroeconomic facts.

* BF, Chapter 1

Gordon, R., “Postwar Macroeconomics: The Evolution of Events and Ideas”, in The American Economy in Transition, Martin Feldstein ed., NBER and the University of Chicago, 1980, 101-182

Stock, J. and Watson, M., “Variable Trends in Economic Time Series”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1988, 147-174

Blanchard, O. and Quah, D., “The Dynamic Effects of Aggregate Demand and Supply Disturbances”, AER, September 1989, 655-673

Abraham, K. and J. Haltiwanger, “Real Wages and the Business Cycle”, JEL, September 1995, volume 33-3, 1215-1264

Christiano, L., Eichenbaum M., and C. Evans, “The Effects of Monetary Policy Shocks: Evidence from the Flow of Funds”, Working paper, 1994.

 

2. The Ramsey Model and RBC’s.

*BF, Chapter 2 (Romer, Chapters 2, Part A, and 4)

Prescott, E., “Theory Ahead of Business Cycle Measurement”, Quarterly Review, Fed of Minneapolis, Fall 1986, 9-22

*Cooley, T. and E. Prescott, “Economic Growth and Business Cycles”, in Frontiers of Business Cycle Research, T. Cooley (ed), Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1995, 1-38

Evans, C. and F. Santos, “Monetary Policy Shocks and Productivity Measures in the G-7 countries”, WP 93-12, November 1993, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

 

3. The Diamond Model, and Capital Accumulation.

*BF, Chapter 3 (or Romer, Chapter 2, Part B)

*Kotlikoff, L., “Privatization of Social Security: How it Works and Why it Matters”, mimeo, Boston University, October 1995

Barro, R., “World Real Interest Rates”, NBER Macroeconomics, 1990, 15-60

Orr, A., Edey M. and M. Kennedy, “The Determinants of Real Long-Term Interest Rates: 17 Country Pooled-Time-Series Evidence”, OECD Working Paper 155, 1995

 

4. The Cagan Model, and Hyperinflations.

*BF, chapters 4-7, and 10-2 (Romer Chapter 9-7)

Dornbusch, R., Sturzenegger, F. and H. Wolf, “Extreme Inflation: Dynamics and Stabilization”, BPEA, 1990-2, 1-84

 

5. The AS-AD Model; Money, Prices and Output

*BF, chapter 8 (Romer, Chapters 5 and 6)

*Friedman, M., “The Role of Monetary Policy”, AER, March 1968, 1-17

*Lucas, R., “Some International Evidence on Output-Inflation Trade-offs”, AER, June 1973, 326-334

*Taylor, J., “Staggered Wage Setting in a Macro Model”, AER, May 1979, 69-2, 108-113

Tobin, J., “Keynesian Models of Recession and Depression”, AER, May 1975, 195-202

Chari, V.V., Kehoe Patrick, and Ellen McGrattan, “Sticky Price Models of the Business Cycle: Can the Contract Multiplier Solve the Persistence Problem?”, Staff Report 217, Minneapolis Fed, September 1966

Blanchard, O. and L. Summers, “Hysteresis in Unemployment,” European Economic review, 31, 1987, 288-295

Ball, L., “Disinflation and the Nairu,” NBER Working Paper 5520, March 1996

OECD, The OECD Jobs Study, Part I. Labour Market Trends and Underlying Forces of Change, 1994.

 

6. The IS-LM Model; Goods and Financial Markets Revisited.

*Blanchard, O., “Output, the Stock Market, and Interest Rates”, AER, 1981, 71-1, 132-143.

*Dornbusch, R., “Expectations and Exchange Rate Dynamics”, JPE, 84-6, December 1976, 1161-1176

Kashyap, A. and J. Stein, “Monetary Policy and Bank Lending”, in Monetary Policy, G. Mankiw (ed), NBER and the University of Chicago Press, 1994, 221-262

*Giavazzi, F. and M. Pagano, “Can Severe Fiscal Contractions Be Expansionary; Tales of Two Small European Countries”, NBER Macroeconomics Annual, 1990, 75-122

Alesina, A. and R. Perotti, “Fiscal Expansions and Adjustments in OECD Countries”, Economic Policy, 1995 (mimeo, Harvard, June 1995)

Obstfeld, M., “International Currency Experience: New Lessons and Lessons Relearned,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1995-1, 119-220

King, R. and A. Wolman, “Inflation targeting in a St Louis model of the 21st Century”, NBER WP 5507, March 1996

 

7. The Bigger Machines.

Bryant, R. et al, Empirical Macroeconomics for Interdependent Economies, Brookings Institution, Washington, 1988, chapters 1 to 3.

Taylor, J., Macroeconomic Policy in a World Economy, Norton, New York, 1993, chapters 3 to 5

 

Source: Robert M. Solow papers, Duke University Rubenstein Library, Box 69, Folder “Teaching Materials (2 of 2)”.

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Courses Harvard

Harvard. Economic Theory I. Chamberlin, 1947-48

The 1947 requirements for Ph.D. students are vague with respect to the precise courses that would adequately prepare candidates for their core theory examinations. At that time Economic Theory I (course number changed from 101 to 201 in 1948) was taught by Edward Chamberlin and Economic Theory II (course number changed from 102 to 202 in 1948) by Wassily Leontief. While I suppose there would have been graduate students with sufficient preparation who could have taken both the MW(F) course by Chamberlin and the TTh(S) course offered by Leontief (both at noon) simultaneously, I could easily imagine these courses would have been taken in sequence over two years by typical students. Thus this posting gives the reading list for Economics 101 with Chamberlin for 1947-48 and the next posting will be for Economics 202 with Leontief for 1948-49.

A comparison with Chamberlin’s reading list from a decade earlier reveals a modest streamlining of his course with the only major change being the addition of Welfare Economics to the end of the second semester.

From the Harvard archives’ collection of final examination papers, I was able to transcribe the questions from the final examinations in both Economics 101a and 101b for the 1947-48 academic year.

Bibliographic note: I have added the explicit titles of readings only identified by number in Chamberlin’s reading list from a published collection of reprinted essays and papers edited by Frank E. Norton. The title Explorations in economics refers to Explorations in economics: Notes and essays contributed in honor of F. W. Taussig published by McGraw-Hill in 1936.

__________________________

Economics 101a
Fall, 1947

 

I.  Brief Survey of Markets; Demand and Supply

Boulding, Economic Analysis, Chapters 1-5; pp. 177-9.

Marshall, Principles, Book V, chapters 1, 2.

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 2.

Mill, Principles, Book III, Chapter 2.

 

II. Cost vs. Utility, and the Marshallian Synthesis

Mill, Principles, Book III, Chapters 3, 5.

Boehm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital, Books III, IV.

Marshall, Principles, Appendix I; Book V, chapters 3-5; Book IV, Chapter 13; Book V, Chapters 8, 9, Appendix H.

Boulding, Economic Analysis, Chapter 7.

Suggested:

Ricardo, Political Economy, Chapter 1.

Mill, Book III, Chapters 1, 4, 6.

Jevons, Theory of Political Economy, Chapters 3, 4.

Marshall, Book III and remainder of Book V

Keynes – “Alfred Marshall,” Economic Journal, September 1924. (Also in Keynes, Essays in Biography.)

 

III.  Further Analysis of the Production and Consumption Functions; Indifference Curves

Boulding, Chapters 22, 23, 29, 30 (omit pp. 669-676).

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix B.

Suggested:

Hicks, Value and Capital, Chapters 1-3.

 

IV.  Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition

Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Chapter 2.

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chapters 1-7 (to page 149); Appendix C.

Alsberg, C. L., “Economic Aspects of Adulteration and Imitation,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1931.

Robinson, Imperfect Competition, Chapter 15, Sections 1-4.

Suggested:

Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 9.

Burns, A.R., The Decline of Competition, Chapter 8, “Non-Price Competition”.

Robinson, Imperfect Competition, balance of chapters 15, 16.

Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Chapters on “Price Discrimination” and “The Special Problem of Railway Rates.”

__________________________

Economics 101b
Spring Term, 1947-48
Economic Theory — Professor Chamberlin

I.   Selling Costs; Discrimination:

Monopolistic Competition, Chs. 6, 7 (to page 149)

Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Chapters 15, Sections 1-4.

Suggested:

1.  Monopolistic Competition, balance of Ch. 7.

2.  Robinson, Imperfect Competition, balance of 15, 16.

3.  Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Chs. on “Discriminating Monopoly,” and “The Special Problem of Railway Rates.”

 

II.  Distribution — General; Wages

Boulding, Economic Analysis, Ch. 11; Review 22, 23.

Marshall, Principles, Book VI, Chapters 1-2.

Hicks, Theory of Wages, Chs. 1-4.

Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, 8, 12.

[Norton, Frank E. (ed.). Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution. Philadelphia and Toronto: Blakiston Company, 1946.   8. Machlup, Fritz (1936). “On the meaning of the marginal product” in Explorations in Economics. 9. Robertson, Dennis H. (1931). “Wage-grumbles” in Economic Fragments.]

Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 8; pp. 215-18 (5th ed.).

Hicks, Chs. 6, 5.

Marshall, Book VI, Chs. 3-5.

Taussig, Principles, 4th ed., Ch. 52 (or 3rd revised ed., Ch. 47).

Mill, Principles, Book V, Ch. 10, Section 5.

Taussig, 4th ed., Vol. II, Ch. 59, Sections 1, 2, 7.

Hicks, Ch. 7, pp. 179-185.

Readings, 19

[19. Dunlop, John T. (1942). “Wage policies of trade unions,” American Economic Review.

Suggested:

1. Readings, 1-5.

[1. Kuznets, Simon S. (1933), “National income,” in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences.
2. Gilbert, Milton and Jaszi, George (1944). “National product and income statistics as an aid in economic problems,” Dun’s Review.
3. Clark, John Maurice (1931). “Distribution” in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences.
4. Bowman, Mary Jean (1945). “A graphical analysis of personal income distribution in the United States,” American Economic Review.
5. Cassels, John M. (1936). “On the law of variable proportions” in Explorations in Economics.]

2. Douglas, Theory of Wages, Chs. 1-3.

3. J. B. Clark, Distribution of Wealth, Chs. 7, 8.

4. Simonds, “Some Reflections on Syndicalism,” J.P.E., 1944.]

 

III. Interest:

Böhm–Bawerk, Positive Theory, Book I, Ch. 2; Book II, Book V.

Marshall, Principles, Book IV, Ch. 7; Book VI, Ch. 6.

Wicksell, Lectures, Vol. I, pp. 144-171,185-195, 207-218.

Clark, J. B., Distribution of Wealth, Chs. 9, 20.

Recommended: Fisher, I., Theory of Interest, Chs. 5, 6.
Readings, 20, 21

[20. Hayek, Friedrich A. von (1935-36). “The mythology of capital,” Quarterly Journal of Economics.
21. Knight, Frank H. (1946). “Capital and interest” in Encyclopaedia Brittanica.]

 

IV. Rent:

Ricardo, Ch. 2.

Marshall, Book V, Chs. 8-11.

Robinson, J., Economics of Imperfect Competition, Ch. 8.

 

V. Profits:

Marshall, Book VI, Ch. 5, Section 7; Chs. 7, 8.

Taussig, Principles, (4th ed.), Vol. II, chapter 49, section 1 (3rd revised ed., Ch. 50, Section 1)

Henderson, Supply & Demand, Ch. 7.

Readings, 29.

[29. Gordon, Robert A. (1936). “Enterprise, profits and the modern corporation” in Explorations in Economics.]

Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 5, Sec. 6; Ch. 7, Sec. 6; Appendices D, E.

Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development, Chs. 1-4.

Suggested:

Readings, 27.

[27. Knight, Frank H. (1934). “Profit” in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences.]

 

VI. Welfare Economics:

Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Part I, Ch. 1.

Lerner, Economics of Control, Chs. 1-7, 9.

Meade and Hitch (or Meade), Economic Analysis and Policy, Part II, Ch. 6.

Robbins, L., “Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility: A Comment,” Economic Journal, December, 1938.

Hicks, “The Foundations of Welfare Economics,” Economic Journal, December, 1939.

Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Chs. 16, 17.

Suggested:

1. Lerner, Economics of Control, further chapters.

2. Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Part I; Part II, Chs. 1-11.

3. Lange, O., “The Scope and Method of Economics,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XIII (1).

4. de Scitovsky, T. “A Note on Welfare Propositions in Economics,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. IX (1).

 5. Baumol, W. J., “Community Indifference,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XIV (1).

6. Schelling, T. C., “On the Formulation of Welfare Propositions,” (Manuscript at desk in Littauer Library).

__________________________

Source: Harvard University Archives, Syllabi, course outlines and Reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder: Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1947-48.

Image Source: Harvard Album, 1946.

 

Categories
Economists Pennsylvania

Philadelphia. Summer Meeting of Economists. University Extension, 1894

We have here I think the first major extracurricular Summer Workshop in Economics for university graduates, post-docs and teachers of social studies and college instructors. Perhaps a dream-team of 1894 American economists (note the absence of Ely of Wisconsin, Taussig of Harvard and Laughlin of Chicago, though I don’t know if they might have been approached). The overview of Economic Science in America is really very interesting, both for ringing the exceptionalism bell and the light it casts on German graduate training in economics. The (approximate) ages of the lecturers in the Summer Meeting of Economists: Andrews (50), Clark (47), Giddings (39), Hadley (38), Jenks (38), Mayo-Smith (40), Patten(42), and Seligman (33).

Here the Announcement of the Summer Meeting of Economists by section:

Corps of Lecturers
Economic Science in America
To Graduates of Colleges
A Word to Students and Teachers of History
Statement of Courses
Program of Lectures
Preparatory Reading
More about University Extension

 

_________________________

Summer Meeting of Economists

IN CONNECTION WITH
The Second Session of the University Extension Summer Meeting,
JULY 2-28, 1894.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA.

 

CORPS OF LECTURERS:

E. B. ANDREWS, Brown University; J. B. CLARK, Amherst College; F. H. GIDDINGS, Bryn Mawr College; A. T. HADLEY, Yale University; J. W. JENKS, Cornell University; R. MAYO-SMITH, Columbia College; S. N. PATTEN, University of Pennsylvania; E. R. A. SELIGMAN, Columbia College.

The Summer Meeting of Economists is held for the purpose of giving expression to present American Economic thought. The instructors are all identified with the recent remarkable expansion of Economic science and they have made important additions to its literature. The lectures which they will deliver in the Summer Meeting are intended primarily for students and teachers of economics, rather than for the diffusion of elementary knowledge.

The lectures will occupy about three hours daily for the four weeks. After each lecture an opportunity will be given for general discussion of the subject presented in the lecture. Besides the lectures and discussions, arrangement has been made for informal talks from several of the regular lecturers of the corps on methods of teaching. The program will be of interest to teachers of History, Political Science and similar subjects and to University students looking forward to any profession in which will be found useful a knowledge of economic science, and of the relations between economics and sociology on the one hand and economics and politics on the other.

Statement of the courses offered in the Economics Department of the Summer Meeting, program of lectures, and other information relating to the meeting, are contained in this number of the Bulletin. We present our readers also with a supplement with portraits of the lecturers in the Economics Department. An early number of the Bulletin, containing full announcement of other Summer Meeting Departments, will be sent on application.

Inaugural Lecture of Summer Meeting, Saturday evening, June 30, by Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the Century Magazine. Admission free by ticket.

Registration for Department of Economics, Ten Dollars.

Inclusive Ticket admitting to all Departments of Summer Meeting, Fifteen Dollars.

Instruction in other departments in Literature, Science, Architecture, Music, History, Mathematics, and Pedagogy.

For information concerning the Department of Economics or other Departments, address:
EDWARD T. DEVINE, Director, Fifteenth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia.

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Economic Science in America.

The eight economists who constitute the corps of instructors in the Summer Meeting are representative of various phases of the new economics which, since the seventies, has swept like a wave over Europe and America. Until the appearance of General Walker’s “The Wages Question,” in 1876, there had been in the economic thought of the United States, two distinct and antagonistic schools. The orthodox English system had its chief interpretation in a translation of the Political Economy of J. B. Say, though there were American editions of the “Wealth of Nations” in its author’s lifetime, and the works of Ricardo, Malthus and McCulloch were familiar to students. After 1848, Mill’s Political Economy to some extent supplanted that of Say as the standard textbook. The native American economics dates not from Rae, who is properly of the English school, though he was a protectionist, and though by accident his book was published in Boston instead of in Scotland, nor from List, whose National System although contained in brief outline in a series of letters written in 1827 at Reading, Pa., had little or no influence on any American writers until it came through the medium of a French translation from the German work, but from Henry C. Carey, the Philadelphia economist, whose first book appeared in 1835.

The orthodox Political Economy, strongest in the New England colleges and in the South, stood for hard money and free trade. The Economics of Carey stood for protection and expansion of the currency. The former was in harmony with the naturally conservative temper of the English race, embodied, perhaps, more fully in Americans than in the English themselves, the latter was an expression of the spirit of enterprise which was called forth in the American people, or better, perhaps, forced upon them by their economic conditions. This first school of American thinkers was fortunate in thus being identified with what came to be known as the characteristic American spirit; it was unfortunate in its lack of conservatism on the question of money, and the resumption of specie payments in 1879, must be looked upon as a final victory for its opponents on the subject in which, if there is to be prosperity and progress, conservatism is essential.

Both these tendencies, that toward conservatism and that toward industrial enterprise, were characteristically American, but the one found its most natural expression in the English economics, the other in Carey’s system. Both schools influenced political thought. Daniel Webster in the Senate, would not have delivered his phillipic against “Political Economy” if that which he attacked had not had an active influence. Carey would not have found his German, French and Italian disciples if his system had been without scientific basis, and had been calculated like the essays of Mathew Carey, merely to exercise a temporary political influence. No doubt Carey cared much more about converting voters to his own views than he did about accomplishing a revolution in the science, yet he professed and, perhaps, came nearer than his critics have cared to admit in realizing both aims.

Such was the general condition of economic science in America when, in 1876, General Walker published his “Wages Question.” This book and the “Political Economy” of 1883, mark a new epoch. General Walker would doubtless prefer to be classed, if a classification is necessary, with the orthodox school of economists. He does not break with its earlier representatives on what they would have regarded as fundamental questions. His book naturally displaced Mill as the ordinary text at Oxford and Cambridge. Even in the discussion of distribution where Walker proposes his most radical departures, he starts with the Ricardian doctrine of rent, and declares, explicitly, that on this question he is a “Ricardian of Ricardians.” Nevertheless the appearance of these books in America mark the close of a long and, with the exceptions that have been noted, an almost barren epoch. Several textbooks, a few of them excellent for their purpose, had been prepared by American writers, but whatever originality they contained appeared chiefly in the omission, from the reproduction of the orthodox system, of particular dogmas which were felt to be inconsistent with the industrial conditions with which the writers were familiar.* Unlike his predecessors General Walker did not merely omit, he examined and analyzed those conditions, and when he was compelled to form new conclusions he neither attacked the old system entire, because of its errors, nor made the mistake of regarding his discoveries as slight modifications of detail. It has become clear that the changes were important though they were not revolutionary.

[footnote: *One exception to this statement must be made in favor of the clear and vigorous writings of Professor A. L. Perry, who did much to keep alive an interest in Political Economy in its languishing days and whose text-books have perhaps had more readers than those of any other American writer.]

In view of the introduction of a marked German influence almost immediately after Walker’s views became known, it is fair to regard the Political Economy of 1883 as the culmination of the influence of the “English economics” as it was also the most important contribution to economic science by the writers of that school since the appearance of the Political Economy of John Stuart Mill. If Walker belongs to the English school it must not be forgotten that his system is that of the English school remoulded by a man who understood and felt the full significance of American industrial conditions, and who was entirely free from any notion that Political Economy is a science comprising only a few ready-made principles and laws which are capable of statement in formal propositions.

Soon after the close of the Civil War, there was noticed a new interest in the scientific study of monetary and industrial, financial and economic problems. The pen of David A. Wells is to be credited in very large part with the creation of this new interest and with the diversion of public attention from the purely political to the economic aspects of the issues then in the public mind. His treatment of the probable issue of the war itself is typical of the character of his discussions. Far in advance of general public opinion, Mr. Wells discerned that the North would win because of its greater economic resources. This insistence on a controlling economic element in questions of public policy is always needed, but never more than in this period when political passions had dominated the country so completely and when a depreciated currency, a large national debt, and when a devastated South called for careful attention to sound policy in recuperative measures and in the new industrial activity which peace was to inaugurate. The reputation of the author of “Recent Economic Changes,” does not rest entirely upon the pamphlets which he issued at this time; but if we are to estimate rightly the causes of the intense interest in economics during the past twenty years we must not ignore their influence both on public opinion in general and particularly upon the young men who were interested in the great problems of the day, but were dissatisfied with the conventional political arguments.

And now began a new influence in American economics. The universities were unable to meet the demand for competent guidance in these studies and students began to seek such instruction abroad. The greater hospitality of the German universities, the unrivaled reputation of the founders of the German historical school of economics, and a feeling that more would be gained by foreign residence in a country whose institutions differ radically from our own were among the causes that combined to attract the American students almost exclusively to the German universities. Within a few years the American colleges began to give evidence of the new movement in the expansion of the curricula, the founding of new chairs, and the increase of students.

The English influence had been communicated by the importation and the republication of books. The German influence came through personal channels. This difference in the method of communication accounts in part for the astonishing differences in results. In the case of the English economics there were at hand standards of orthodoxy, a “system” in crystallized form. In the college classes there was produced a ready conviction of the correctness of certain principles and dogmas. In the case of the German influence such standards were lacking. Each new doctor of philosophy brought back the ideas of his instructors and associates in the foreign universities not in a formulated exact system, but in the form in which they had been impressed upon himself. He brought not so much a system of economics as an enthusiasm for independent research. The result is that no “system” has been transplanted by the newer economics, but only tendencies and a quickening impulse to activity in every branch of economic investigation, and already the impulse is seen to be of more importance than the particular tendencies.

When the American Economic Association was formed in 1885, as a tangible evidence of the new birth, a platform was adopted committing the association though not the individual members to favor increased industrial activity in the State, increased emphasis on the ethical element in economics, and increased attention to the historical method as distinguished from the deductive method which some of the leaders of the new organization believed to have been responsible for the decay of interest in economic science. But this platform was found to be too narrow, and in a few years it was discarded for a simple statement that any one might be chosen a member who is interested in the study of economics. General Walker was elected the first president of the association and continued in that office until 1892. Dr. Richard T. Ely, who served as secretary until the same year, labored indefatigablv in the interests of the association, building up its membership and also for a time editing its publications. In 1893 Professor Charles F. Dunbar, of Harvard, became president, and Professor Edward A. Ross, then of Cornell, secretary, and for the present year Professor John B. Clark, of Amherst, is president, and Professor J. W. Jenks, of CornelI, the secretary of the association. Professor F. H. Giddings succeeded Dr. Ely as chairman of the publication committee, a position which is held at present by Professor H. H. Powers, of Smith College.

The seven annual meetings of the American Economic Association have served as milestones of a rapid development of the science. Its position in the universities as a regular discipline of the university curriculum has become every year more secure. Thirty or forty professors and assistants are engaged in teaching its principles. Schools of finance and economy, departments of political and social science, lectureships on special economic topics abound. Every college has either an independent chair of Political Economy or a combined chair of economics and history, or some other subject. The larger universities have now organized, and in some instances liberally endowed these departments until they rival the best equipped corresponding departments of German, French and Italian universities. The movement which began in the seventies by sending dozens of students across the Atlantic, already bears fruit in courses of study sufficiently attractive to hold at home scores of students quite as ambitious and as discriminating.

There must be noticed finally, a new movement coming in part from the Austrian economists, in part from the English economist, Jevons, and in part originating with native-American writers, a movement which has been pronounced by some critics reactionary, but by its friends the most promising of all the various phases of our economic thought, the movement in the direction of deductive theory. Professor Patten’s “Premises of Political Economy” and Professor Clark’s “Philosophy of Wealth,” published respectively in 1885 and 1886, were its first fruits; and abundant evidences of its subsequent fruitfulness are to be found in the monographs of the Economic Association, in articles published in the economic journals and in the later literature generally. The translation of Böhm-Bawerk’s works by Professor William Smart, and the appearance of Professor Marshall’s “Principles of Economics,” both of which have had great influence in America, are landmarks in the progress of this movement. The “newer economics” has much to say of the relation between value and utility, the economic basis of prosperity and progress, the effects of dynamic forces. It seeks a new correlation of the social sciences, and in its scheme of human progress does not omit to take account of costs, and to distinguish sharply individual costs or “expenses” from social costs, which latter item it measures subjectively and ventures to compare directly with utilities or “satisfactions” as a means of determining the, social surplus.

One group of writers belonging with the newer movement, but devoting its energies directly to sociological studies, gives promise of rescuing that much misconceived branch of study from the hands of its injudicious representatives and putting it upon a high scientific plane. Professor F. H. Giddings who will become Professor of Sociology in Columbia College on July 1 of the present year, is the foremost scholar of this group, and the first man in any American university to occupy a chair with this designation. The future of economic science in American universities is bright with promise of scholarly and useful work. The attitude of the university world and of the public toward what is after all a new science, is all that could be desired. One indication of the present healthy and vigorous condition of this branch of science in American universities, is the quality and quantity of its scientific literature. The “younger economists” are already mature in years and in scholarship, and the publications of the American Economic Association, of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, of the separate universities in their series of Political Economy, Public Law, of studies in Historical and Political Science, etc., add to the stock of valuable economic literature no less than the regular issues of such quarterly journals as the Yale Review, the Journal of Political Economy the Political Science Quarterly and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, or the bi-monthly journal, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

The Summer Meeting of economists, of which announcement is made in full in this number of the Bulletin, may well become a great landmark, an emphatic sign of the golden opportunities awaiting students who turn their attention seriously to these problems.

Edward T. Devine.
The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching

 

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To Graduates of Colleges.

The increasing tendency toward specialization in the upper college classes makes it difficult for the college student to secure an acquaintance with as many different subjects properly falling within the college curriculum as every cultured man or woman considers desirable. College students who have specialized on economics and finance, may have left serious gaps in their knowledge of the physical sciences and vice versa, while both may have neglected the humanities, belles lettres and philosophy. University Extension courses in the local centres have already been eagerly utilized by many college graduates to supply such deficiencies and even if the purpose of the movement be chiefly, as some contend, to carry university privileges to those that have them not, it is attaining that purpose in meeting just such demands. The University Extension Summer Meeting offers similar opportunities. It takes place in a vacation month. It calls to the lecture room eminent specialists in many departments of university study. The student who is proficient in literature may hear brief courses in science or philosophy. The teacher who is thoroughly familiar with his special subject may make a careful study of a pedagogical system, or may refresh his intellectual powers by attacking vigorously a new line of study. It is true that every teacher should at some time or other have “specialized” to such an extent as to understand and to share somewhat the modern university spirit, but it is also true that modern culture demands of persons trained in a special subject a sufficient knowledge of other and entirely distinct fields of knowledge to awaken an intelligent interesting the achievements of the specialists of those fields.

In two ways therefore the Summer Meeting may be of use to college graduates. It will give to the student of a particular subject a favorable opportunity to supplement his specialized knowledge by a general—not necessarily a superficial—knowledge of other subjects. It will enable the student who wishes to broaden his knowledge of his own subject to do so by acquainting himself at first hand with a knowledge of the systems held and the methods employed by teachers of that subject in other institutions. It will be of great advantage for instance for the young man who has studied Political Economy in the University of Pennsylvania, or Johns Hopkins, or Cornell, to hear lecturers from Yale and Columbia discuss the same subject; and to become acquainted with the men who have studied that subject in those institutions, and vice versa. No student of history in an Eastern institution could fail to profit by the course of lectures on the Place of the West in our history by the professor of History in the University of Wisconsin. Graduates of normal schools, or of departments of pedagogy will derive more benefit than any others from the course on the Herbartian pedagogy by one who vigorously champions the system and has studied it at its fountain head in the University of Jena, and from the lectures on child study and its pedagogical value by the specialist who has been prosecuting an investigation of that subject in the State Normal School of Massachusetts, and under the direction of Dr. G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University.

This is the great advantage of the Summer Meeting over a summer session of corresponding length in any single university. We plan not a summer school, but a meeting, a mingling of students and lecturers, a gathering with all the definiteness of aim and of program which characterizes a school or the summer term of a university, but with the added advantages of a University Extension spirit as an esprit de corps and a union of progressive elements from many universities in an elective system of lectures and classes.

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A Word to Students and Teachers of History.

The now famous report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies contains the following resolutions from the “Conference on History, Civil Government and Political Economy:”

Resolved: That formal instruction in Political Economy be omitted from the school program; but that economic subjects be treated in connection with other pertinent subjects. (Resolution 9.)

Resolved: That no formal instruction in Political Economy be given in the secondary schools, but that in connection particularly with United States History, Civil Government and Commercial Geography, instruction be given in those economic topics, a knowledge of which is essential to the understanding of our economic life and development. (Resolution 30.)

Accompanying the resolutions is a memorandum in which it is stated that “in making these recommendations the Conference does not intend to suggest that less time than is customary be given to Political Economy or that less emphasis be given to its importance as a study in the high schools;” and the report of the Conference elsewhere contains the following significant statements: “The methods of teaching the economic principles thus indicated must be left to the discretion of the teacher. It is a subject in which textbook work is particularly inefficient, and no teacher ought to undertake the work who has not had some training in economic reasoning.”

The unavoidable inference from these resolutions and recommendations is that every teacher of history, civil government, or commercial geography in the schools of secondary grade should have some opportunity for training in economic reasoning. Since, in the opinion of the committee, there are no “proper text-books for high school use” it becomes of importance that teachers should become familiar at first hand with the vital principles as taught by the best economic authorities. A few years ago it was thought necessary to visit the German or other foreign universities for such contact with leaders of economic thought. At present the men who are teaching these subjects in Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Pennsylvania, are scholars of international reputation and are original contributors to economic science.

The program of the Department of Economics in the Summer Meeting is framed with the express end of giving a rapid view of such principles as are by the economists deemed essential, and illustrating the methods of instruction in vogue in the leading universities. Those who expect to teach Political Economy in university, college or secondary school, those who are expecting to give instruction in history, civil government or commercial geography, and those who are regularly engaged in teaching these branches are cordially invited to examine carefully the courses announced for the Summer Meeting of Economists, and to avail themselves of the opportunities offered by the meeting.

The president, first vice-president and secretary of the American Economic Association are included in the corps of instructors. Among higher institutions Amherst, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania and Yale are represented. One of the instructors is a university president, the others are university or college professors. All have written important books or monographs on economic subjects. All have national and even international scientific reputation. All are associated with the recent notable development of economic science, and the corresponding expansion of economic departments in the higher educational institutions. They do not however, all represent the same or similar tendencies. The corps includes the two or three economists who have done most among American writers to emphasize the importance of deductive work, and the necessity of reforming economic theory, but it also contains the two or three men who would be first thought of in connection with such practical topics as public finance, railways and trusts.

It is difficult to imagine a more profitable method of spending a vacation month for a person who has a professional interest in acquainting himself with the methods used and the conclusions held by the men whose scientific reputation and academic standing entitle them to speak with a certain degree of authority. If the Committee of Ten and the Conference on History, Civil Government and Political Economy are correct in their view, this includes not merely the teacher of Political Economy and Political Science, but also teaches of such allied subjects as commercial geography, civil government and history.

The above considerations are strengthened by the fact that parallel with these economic course there will be instruction in European and American history by such distinguished and competent lecturers as Professor John Bach McMaster and Mr. W. H. Munro, of the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Frederick J. Turner, of the University of Wisconsin, Professor W. H. Mace, of Syracuse University and Dr. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston. A fuller announcement of these courses will be sent on application. Round-Table Conferences on the teaching of history in secondary schools will be conducted by Professor Ray Greene Huling, of Boston, and Professor Edward G. Bourne, of Adelbert College, both of whom were members of the conference from whose report extracts have been made.

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Statement of Courses in the
Summer Meeting of Economists,

July 2-28, 1894.

 

Course I—Money. By E. Benjamin Andrews, LL. D., President of Brown University.

Five Lectures—July 16-20. (1) Money and the Times; (2) England’s Monetary Experiment in India; (3) “Counter” and Quality in Monetary Theory; (4) What Fixes Prices; (5) Labor as a Standard of Value.

Course II—Distribution. By J. B. Clark, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy in Amherst College, and Lecturer in Johns Hopkins University.

Ten Lectures—July 2-18. (1) Normal Distribution equivalent to Proportionate Production; (2) The Relation of the Law of Value to the Law of Wages and Interest; (3) The Social Law of Value; (4) Groups and Sub-groups in Industrial Society; (5) The Nature of Capital and the Source of Wages and Interest; (6) The Static Law of Distribution ; (7) Dynamic Forces and their Effects; (8) The Origin and the Distribution of Normal Profits; (9) Trusts and Public Policy; (10) Labor Unions and Public Policy.

Course III—Scientific Subdivision of Political Economy. By F. H. Giddings, M. A., Professor of Political Science in Bryn Mawr College and Professor elect of Sociology in Columbia College.

Five Lecture»—July 2-7. (1) The Conception and Definition of Political Economy; (2) The Concepts of Utility, Cost and Value; (3) The Theory of Consumption; (4) The Theory of Production; (5) The Theory of Relative Values.

Course IV—Theories of Population. By Arthur T. Hadley, M. A., Professor of Political Economy in Yale University.

Two Lectures—July 5, 6.

Course V—Relations of Economics and Politics. By J. W. Jenks, Ph. D, Professor of Political Economy and Civil and Social Institutions in Cornell University.

Five Lectures—July 16-20. (1) The Nature and Scope of Economics and of Politics Compared; (2) Influence of Economic Conditions upon Political Constitutions; (3) The Influence of Economic Conditions and Theories upon Certain Social and Legal Institutions not Primarily Political; (4) The Influence of Present Economic Conditions and Beliefs upon Present Political Methods and Doctrine; (5) The Political Reforms that would be of most Economic Advantage.

Course VI—Ethnical Basis for Social Progress in the United States. By Richmond Mayo-Smith, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy and Social Science in Columbia College.

Three Lectures— July 24-26. (1) Theories of Mixture of Races and Nationalities and Application to the United States; (2) Assimilating Influence of Climate and Intermarriages; (3) Assimilating Influence of Social Environment.

Course VII—Introduction to the Ricardian Economics. By Simon N. Patten, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy in the University of Pennsylvania.

Five Lectures—July 9-13.

Course VIII—Premises of Political Economy. By Simon N. Patten, Ph. D.

Five Lectures—July 16-20.

Course IX—Theory of Dynamic Economics. By Simon X. Patten, Ph. D.

Five Lectures—July 23-27.

Course X—Public Finance. By Edwin R. A. Seligman, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy and Finance in Columbia College.

Five Lectures—July 23-27. (1) The Development of Taxation; (2) The Effects of Taxation; (3) The Basis of Taxation; (4) The Principles of Taxation; (5) The Single Tax.

Course XI—Various Phases of the Money Question. By Professor Clark, Professor Giddings, Professor Patten and Professor Seligman.

Address “The Monetary Conference of 1 892.” By President Andrews. July 19.

Address on Methods of Teaching Political Economy. By members of the corps of lecturers.

Discussion of the subjects presented in each of the various courses by those in attendance. The lecture will usually last for sixty minutes, and the discussion for thirty minutes. An hour and a half is allowed for each exercise.

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Program of Lectures.
Summer Meeting of Economists.

[For program of other departments apply to the Director.]

July 2.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Conception and Definition of Political Economy.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Normal Distribution Equivalent to Proportionate Production.

July 3.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Concepts of Utilitv, Cost and Value.

10 A. M— Professor Clark.

The Relation of the Law of Value to the Law of Wages and Interest.

July 4.

10 A. M.—Address by Edward Everett Hale, D. D., in the University Library.

July 5.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Theory of Consumption.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

The Social Law of Value.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Hadley.

Theories of Population.

July 6.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Theory of Production.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Groups and Sub-Groups in Industrial Society.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Hadley.

Theories of Population.

5 P. M.—Professor Clark.

An Ideal Standard of Value.

July 7.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Theory of Relative Values.

10 A. M—Professor Clark.

The Nature of Capital and the Sources of Wages and Interest.

July 9.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Ricardian System of Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

The Static Law of Distribution.

5 P. M.—Address on Methods.

July 10

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Ricardo’s Theory of Distribution.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Dynamic Forces and their Effects.

5 P. M.—Address on Methods.

July 11.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Ricardo’s Theory of Money.

10 A. M— Professor Clark.

The Origin and Distribution of Normal Profits.

5 P. M.—Address on Methods.

July 12.

8.30 A. M— Professor Patten.

The Confusion of Industrial and Monetary Problems.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Trusts and Public Policy.

July 13.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Ricardian System of Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Labor Unions and Public Policy.

July 16.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Premises of Political Economy.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

Money and the Times.

July 17.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Premises of Political Economy.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

England’s Monetary Experiment in India.

July 18.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

The Stability of Prices.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

“Counter” and Quality in Monetary Theory.

July 19.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

The Law of Diminishing Returns.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

What Fixes Prices?

8 P. M.—President Andrews.

Monetary Conference.

July 20.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

The Consumption of Wealth.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

Labor as a Standard of Value.

July 23.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

5 P. M.—Professor Seligman.

Development of Taxation.

8 P. M.—Professor Jenks.

Nature and Scope of Economics and Politics Compared.

July 24.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Seligman.

The Effects of Taxation.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Mayo-Smith.

Theories of Mixture of Races, and Nationalities.

8 P. M.—Professor Jenks. Influence of Economic Conditions upon Political Constitutions.

July 25.

8.30 A. M — Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Seligman.

Basis of Taxation.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Mayo-Smith.

Assimilating Influences of Climate and Intermarriages.

8 P. M.—Professor Jenks.

Influence of Economic Conditions and Theories upon Certain Social and Legal Institutions not Primarily Political.

July 26.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Seligman.

The Principles of Taxation.

11.30 A. M.— Professor Mayo-Smith.

Assimilating Influences of Social Environment.

8 P. M.—Professor Jenks.

Influence of Present Economic Conditions and Beliefs upon Present Political Methods and Doctrine.

July 27.

8.30 A. M — Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Seligman.

The Single Tax.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Jenks.

The Political Reforms that would be of Most Economic Advantage.

 

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Preparatory Reading.

Those who expect to attend the sessions of the Summer Meeting of Economists will find it of advantage to possess a knowledge of the elements of the science such as may be obtained by the study of Walker’s Political Economy, Marshall’s Principles of Economics or Mill’s Political Economy.

In special preparation for the meeting, Giddings’ The Theory of Sociology (in press) will be found useful. In special preparation for Course I, students may read Andrews’ An Honest Dollar, and Nicholson’s Money and Monetary Problems; for Courses II and III, Clark’s Philosophy of Wealth, and Modern Distributive Process, by Clark and Giddings; for Course VII, Patten’s The Interpretation of Ricardo in Quarterly Journal of Economics for April, 1893; for Course VIII, Patten’s Premises of Political Economy; for Course IX, The Theory of Dynamic Economics.

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Source: American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. The University Extension Bulletin. Vol. I, No. 8. Philadelphia: May 10, 1894.

Image Source: American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. Supplement to the The University Extension Bulletin. Vol. I, No. 8. Philadelphia: May 10, 1894. Copy found in Box 2 of Franklin Henry Giddings Papers, Columbia Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Folder “Photographs”.

 

More on what University Extension was all about.

 

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Categories
Economists Funny Business M.I.T.

From the 200th Anniversary of Wealth of Nations Roast of Adam Smith at MIT. 1976

The Graduate Economics Association of MIT held a celebration in honor of Adam Smith and the 200th anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations.  The event took place April 12, 1976 at the Sheraton Commander Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I chaired the organizing committee for the event that was run like a Friar’s Club Roast. It featured a star-studded cast that included Alan Blinder (Princeton), William Parker (Yale), Paul Samuelson (MIT), Robert Solow (MIT), and James Tobin (Yale) and special surprise guest-of-honor to receive the Invisible Hand Award, Adam Smith a.k.a. Jerry Goodman. Before Mr. Goodman entered dressed in Adam Smith attire, the MIT economics children’s choir (i.e. a sample of graduate students who could carry a tune, sort-of) sang the following hymn set to the tune of “Rock of Ages” with a new text written by my old professor of American economic history at Yale, William Parker.

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WEALTH OF NATIONS!

Text by William N. Parker

Wealth of Nations! Writ for me!
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Not the Profits, nor the Rent,
But the Labour Time that’s spent,
Be of Value the true source.
Make me better; no one worse.

Every man looks to his need,
Counting on the butcher’s greed.
Public goods are little prized,
Model that is dynamized.
Half the world is cold and bare,
Still we cling to Laissez-faire.

Hand invisible whose love
We believe that we can prove!
With thy panapoly of saints,
Mill, Ricardo, Marshall, Keynes,
Save us all from Marxist sins.
Keep us gaily making pins!

When our earthly race is run,
Will we soar to Samuelson?
Will we sink to realms below,
There to meet with our So-low?
Was it neo-classic myth?
Tell us, tell us, Adam Smith!
Wealth of Nations, write for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee!

Source: From the back of the program to the celebration.

Below, my autographed copy of the program:

Jerry Goodman’s journalistic attempt at making sense of the economists at play when he was observer-participant.

Image Sources: Portrait of William Parker from the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 151, No. 2, June 2007; Adam Smith program, personal copy; Jerry Goodman’s account from New York (May 3, 1976).

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard

Harvard. Public Finance. Economics 5, Bullock. 1915

This list of suggested readings in Public Finance come from two of seven pages carbon copy, (stapled together, ordered by course number from Economics 1b through Economics 6. The pages are undated and no instructor is given. Nonetheless, based on the course catalogues and indications from several of the courses that the following annotated list was prepared for the use of the Tutors in Harvard College.

We can be reasonably certain of the date since the only year Dr. J. S. Davis taught an accounting course with the number 1b was 1915-16. Charles Jesse Bullock refers to his own book of readings in public finance so it is certain that he composed the list.

Later addition to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror include:  the final examination questions for Economics 5 (June 1916). 

—————————–

Books Used in Economics 5.
Selected Readings in Public Finance.

[Charles Jesse Bullock, 1915-1916]

Bastable, Public Finance. (In these books the assignments cover everything relating to revenue and expenditures. They also have included all that Bastable has to say on public debts and financial administration, but have usually in recent years not included the material in the Selected Readings upon those subjects)

Adams, Public Finance. (In this book they have usually read the chapters dealing with public expenditures and revenue from domain. They used to read what he says about the United States budget, but in recent years I have been going light upon this subject, leaving out not only what Adams says but also the passages in my Selected Readings.)

Seligman, Essays in Taxation. (They have always read the chapters on classification, special assessment, the general property tax, and on the single tax; some times also the first chapter on the historical development of taxation and the chapters on the taxation of corporations and double taxation. Occasionally they have read the chapter on the inheritance tax.)

Daniels, Public Finance. (I have sometimes assigned Daniels’s chapters on revenues from industries and his chapters on customs and excise taxes, but not often in recent years.) [here a Course Syllabus of Daniels]

 

Ely, Evolution of Industrial Society. (I usually assign the chapter on the evolution of public expenditures, frequently the chapter on municipal ownership, and occasionally the chapter on inheritances and bequests.)

Ely, Taxation in American States and Cities. (Sometimes I assign the chapters upon the political and industrial effects of taxation,–I don’t remember the exact title at the moment,–and the chapter upon license taxes, but in recent years I have seldom assigned anything but the latter chapter.)

Shearman, Natural Taxation. (I almost always assign Chapter 9 and another chapter, I think No. 13 or 14, in which Sherman considers objections to the single tax, and in particular replies to Seligman’s Essay.

Bullock, Pamphlets on the Property Tax. (I have had bound together a number of my pamphlets relating to state and local taxation and taxation in Switzerland, and keep duplicate copies in Harvard Hall. The men are expected to read all of these pamphlets.)

The reading in the course is not exactly the same from year to year, and I am thinking of dropping Bastable because the book is getting too old. It was never very satisfactory in its discussion of difficult questions of principle, and its account of European legislation, etc., is now considerably out of date. I believe that next year I shall provide duplicate copies in Harvard Hall and not require the men to buy it unless a new edition is to come out.

I have sometimes thought of using David McG. Means’s book entitled Methods of Taxation, and think that if the tutors want to get the men to do supplementary reading, this might be a good book for them to use, unless meanwhile I decide to use it in the class. If any men read German, it would be very well to refer them to Eheberg, or if they read French, to get them to read chapters in the first volume of Leroy-Beaulieu. [2nd vol of Leroy-Beaulieu]

 

Source. Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers, 1902-1950. UAV 349.10, Box 25, Folder “Suggested Readings.”

Image Source. Harvard Album 1915.

Categories
Economists Suggested Reading

Suggested reading: European emigrés and American Economics. Hagemann. 2011

Harald Hagemann (2011): European émigrés and the ‘Americanization’ of economics, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 18:5, 643-671

Abstract

The development of economics since 1945 was marked by an increasing internationalization that was simultaneously in large part a process of Americanization. This article focuses on the role refugee economists from Continental Europe played in the rise of American economics. It focuses on the emigration of German-speaking economists after 1933; and then deals with the special case of Jacob Marschak who emigrated twice, first from the Soviet Union in 1919 and then from Nazi Germany, and exerted a greater influence in Britain and in the USA. Finally important contributions by émigré economists to game theory, public finance and development economics are reflected.

Categories
Bibliography Courses M.I.T.

MIT, Business Cycles Reading List. Samuelson, 1943

 

 

This reading list comes from Paul Samuelson’s second year at M.I.T. While not designated on the reading list itself, from its location in his papers (filed with other Business Cycle course materials) and according to the courses he taught that in the second term of 1943 (according to the MIT Course Catalogue), this is almost certainly for the course Ec26: Business Cycles.

___________________________

Course Description from 1942-43 Catalogue.

Ec26. Business Cycles (A). A statistical, historical, and theoretical examination of the determinants of income, production and employment. Modern methods are brought to bear on problems of analyses, forecasting, and control.

Prerequisite: Ec40 (Money & Banking). Primarily for graduate students, 2nd term

___________________________

February, 1943     READING LIST     P. A. Samuelson

Asterisks indicate required reading, other items suggested reading

 

I    NATIONAL INCOME, EMPLOYMENT & PRODUCTION

M. Gilbert, “War Expenditures & National Production,” Survey of Current Business, March, 1942.

S. S. Kuznets, National Income & Its Composition, 1919-1938, Vol. I.

W. L. Crum, J. F. Fennelly, L. J. Seltzer, Fiscal Planning for Total War.

S. Fabricant, Productivity of American Manufacturing Industries, [sic, probable or at least related publication: Solomon Fabricant, Employment in Manufacturing, 1899-1939: An Analysis of Its Relation to the Volume of Production, NBER, New York, 1942.]

Federal Reserve Board Bulletin, August & September, 1940.  [New index of industrial production]

R. A. Nixon & P. A. Samuelson, “Estimates of Unemployment in the U. S.,” Review of Economic Statistics, August, 1940.

 

II        NATURE OF BUSINESS CYCLE

*A. H. Hansen, Fiscal Policy & Business Cycle, Ch. 1-4

*Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1941 Reprint of 1913 edition, Ch. V, part I.

*J. P. Wernette, The Control of Business Cycles, pp. 3-23 and Conclusion.

*J. R. Meade & H. Hitch, Economic Analysis & Policy, Ch. I.

*G. Haberler, Prosperity & Depression, Ch. 9, 1 & 2.

*S. H. Slichter, Towards Stability, Ch. I.

A. H. Hansen, Business Cycle Theory, Chs. I, II, IV, & VI.

S. H. Slichter, Towards Stability, Chs. II & IV.

G. Haberler, Prosperity & Depression, any part.

 

III      SAVING AND INVESTMENT

*Joan Robinson, Introduction to the Theory of Employment.

*T.N.E.C. testimony of Hansen & Currie.
[Hearings Before the Temporary National Economic Committee, Seventy-Sixth Congress, First Session. Part 9. Savings and Investment. May 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26, 1939]

*A. H. Hansen, Fiscal Policy, Chs. 11, 12, 15, & 24.

*L. V. Chandler, Introduction to Monetary Theory, Chs. VI & VIII.

O. Altman, T.N.E.C. monograph #37, Saving & Investment.

 

IV THE PROPENSITY TO IMPORT & THE FOREIGN TRADE MULTIPLIER

*R. F. Harrod, International Economics, (Rev.Ed.) 6, 7. (8 & 9, optional)

*W.A. Salant, “Foreign Trade Policy in the Business Cycle,” in Public Policy II (editor E. S. Mason)

*J. M. Keynes, General Theory, Preface, Chs. 23 & 24

I. DeVegh, Review of Economic Statistics, 1940 [De Vegh, Imre. “Imports and Income in the United States and Canada.The Review of Economics and Statistics 23, no. 3 (1941): 130-46. ]

C. Clark & J. Crawford, National Income of Australia
[Colin Clark and John G. Crawford,National Income of Australia.Sydney and London: Angus & Robertson limited, 1938.]

L. Metzler, Journal of Political Economy, 1942
[Metzler, Lloyd A. “The Transfer Problem Reconsidered.” Journal of Political Economy 50, no. 3 (1942): 397-414.]

 

V        INTERNATIONAL PROPAGATION OF BUSINESS CYCLES

*G. Haberler, Prosperity & Depression, Ch. XII, pp. 455-473

*J. Viner, Studies, pp. 432-436
[Studies in the Theory of International Trade.]

*League of Nations, Annual Survey, 1939-40

*Sir A. Salter, Recovery, pp. 27-66, (101-195 optional)
[Recovery. The Second Effort. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1932]

R. Bennett, National Bureau, manuscript [Rollin F. Bennett, Columbia University: might be a paper presented at the 1940 or 1941 meeting of the NBER Conference of Income and Wealth which were not published (insufficient general interest to warrant publication) ]

P. Einzig, Bankers, Statesmen & Economists

League of Nations, B. Ohlin, Course & Phases of the World Economic Depression, especially pp. 116-215

___________________________

Source: Paul A. Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.451 Business Cycles, 1943-1955”. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Categories
Chicago Michigan

Interdisciplinary Moment. Max Sylvius Handman, Chicago Sociology Ph.D. 1917

This interdisciplinary moment comes as the result of my shallow acquaintance with American institutional economics. In the previous posting I ran across the name of M. S. Handman who was listed #2 in Frank Knight’s list of American Institutional Economists after Veblen but with the sarcastic addition “Perhaps the one true example [i.e. Veblen], except Handman, who has written little.” Knight then goes on to put Handman’s name in the #2 position without any bibliographic reference. The name rang no bells with me to be honest.

In the meantime I have consulted JSTOR to obtain a very convenient history of American Institutional Economics, Malcolm Rutherford’s Presidential Address before the Association for Evolutionary Economics: “Towards a History of American Institutional Economics”, Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Jun., 2009), pp. 308-318. This provides us with more context.

Max Handman received his Ph.D. in Sociology and Anthropology rather than in Political Economy. The title of his thesis was “The Beginnings of the Social Philosophy of Karl Marx.”

_________________________

[from the University of Michigan]

Memorial
Max Sylvius Handman
LSA Minutes

On December 26, 1939, while the University was in recess, Professor Max S. Handman, one of its outstanding personalities, died of coronary thrombosis; a scant two weeks after he had passed his fifty-fourth birthday. The first of the heart attacks to which he finally succumbed occurred in the spring of 1938, while he was devoting his sabbatical leave to a research project in South America. He returned to Ann Arbor early that summer and carefully nursed his ailment, both at the University Hospital and at home, to the end of the first semester of the academic year 1938-39. During the second semester of that year he was able to resume his teaching, and during the summer of 1939, though not a member of the teaching staff, he participated actively in the Institute of Latin-American Studies which was being conducted by the Summer Session. He then prepared and delivered his last paper, soon to be published, on the historical function of foreign investments in Latin-America. He was planning, of course, to continue his regular work during the present academic year, but a further severe attack shortly before the opening of the University in the fall confined him to bed till his untimely death. While the course of this illness afforded some preparation for the fatal outcome to his associates and friends, the actual loss of our widely known and beloved colleague came as a profound and lamented shock to all who knew him.

Max Sylvius Handman, son of Melchior and Rosa (Sayman) Handman, was born in Roman, Rumania, December 13, 1885. He remained in his native land into his eighteenth year. His father was engaged in commercial pursuits, but was dominated by a deep love of learning. In this environment the seeds were sown for a lifetime of scholarly interest and devotion. Young Handman received instruction at home as well as all available public schooling, through the Gymnasium at Roman. Upon his arrival in this country in 1903 he proceeded immediately to the far west, where he devoted himself for a period of two years to working at miscellaneous tasks and learning the English language. Two years later, in 1907, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oregon. Then followed ten years of graduate study, both at American and foreign institutions, including the University of Chicago, the University of Missouri, Columbia University, the College de France, and the University of Berlin. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1917, and during the same year he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Some three years earlier, on September 3, 1914, he had married Della Dopplemayer of Marshall, Texas, after he had established himself as a young instructor.

His teaching experience, like his academic training, embraced a number of institutions. In 1913 he served as Docent in Sociology at the University of Chicago; from 1913 to 1916 he was Instructor in Sociology at the University of Missouri; from 1917 to 1926 he was Professor of Sociology, and from 1926 to 1931 Professor of Economics, at the University of Texas; and during the academic year 1930-31, just before he left Texas, he was Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. From 1931 till his death he was Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. During this relatively brief period he devoted himself on the instructional side to economic theory, labor economics, the history of economic thought, economic history, European economic problems, and Latin-American economic problems. While in recent years his independent studies were largely in the latter two fields, he adjusted himself in a fine spirit of cooperation to the curricular needs of the Department of Economics, and his qualifications were so diverse and his personality so stimulating that these varied tasks were entrusted to him with unquestioning confidence and were performed by him with high competence.

The breadth of Professor Handman’s interests is further evidenced by his outside contacts and activities of an academic and public character. In 1918 he served as a special investigator for the Library of Congress and as a member of the Committee on Public Information; and he was also attached, during the same year, to the staff of the United States Inquiry on Terms of Peace. In 1919 he was Director of the Red Cross Social Service Institute for Texas; in 1924 he was President of the Texas Conference for Social Welfare, holding at the same time, and for a number of years, the position of Trustee of the Texas Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor; and for a period of some six or seven years, from 1926 to 1932, he served in various capacities as a member of the National Conference of Social Work. In 1929-30 he was a special investigator for the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (the so-called Wickersham Commission); and for a period of three years, from 1931 to 1934, he represented the American Economic Association on the Social Science Research Council. In the summer of 1932 he was sent to Rumania by the Council to study race and culture contacts in that territory, the results being published as a chapter on conflict and equilibrium in a border area; and in connection with this visit he was decorated by the Rumanian Government as Knight, First Class, of the Order of Cultural Merit.

For the most part Professor Handman’s publications are more noted for the range of their subject matter and the suggestiveness of their approach than for the detailed factual or analytical treatment accorded by thorn to the varied matters with which they deal. His only book-length manuscript, a socio-economic study dealing with standards of living and pecuniary valuation, he did not deem ripe for publication, although he labored upon it for many years. His score or more of journal contributions deal in part with concrete social and economic conditions in Texas and Mexico, particularly in their reciprocal impacts; but his more generalized writings, reflecting a broad philosophical attack upon the questions at issue, are the papers of primary significance. He has written illuminatingly, for example, on the sociological methods of Pareto, on scientific trends in economics, on economic history and the economist, on conflicting ideologies in the American labor movement, on the sentiment of nationalism, on the bureaucratic culture pattern and political revolution, on war, economic motives, and economic symbols. These writings cannot be cramped into the traditional molds of the established disciplines. They embrace, with varying degrees of emphasis, the fields of sociology, economics, psychology, political science, and history. His approach was that of the so-called social sciences as a group, rather than of more or less artificially delimited segments of the field; and while he chiefly charted channels of thought through this means, rather than cultivated intensively the areas of his special interest, he performed his chosen tasks with much knowledge and deep insight.

For such results his long training and experience in both sociology and economics were not alone responsible; of equal importance was the broadening effect of his enormously wide reading and extensive travel. His great library was in no sense the reflection of a collector’s hobby. Visitors to his home, earlier in Austin and later in Ann Arbor, were frequently amazed at his ability to locate without the slightest difficulty any book he wanted from among his many thousands of uncatalogued volumes; and what is much more significant, as those who ever had the privilege of conversing with him at any length repeatedly learned, he knew what was in his books. He wrote and spoke from a full mind, which was also enriched by personal contacts and observations in much travel in Europe and the Americas. His great linguistic facility–embracing the spoken tongue as well as the written word in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rumanian–rendered these travels a source of genuine enlightenment in the various fields of his interest. These factors, and not merely his actual publication record, contributed to Professor Handman’s wide recognition as a scholar. His professional colleagues in all parts of the country–particularly among the sociologists, economic historians, and students of Latin-America–entertained the highest respect and admiration for his knowledge and understanding. His counsel was sought often and in numerous quarters, and the meetings of the learned societies were very few in which he was not invited to participate as critic of the contributions of his older as well as younger colleagues.

In the last analysis, however, Professor Handman’s most significant service was rendered as a stimulating teacher and associate, who exerted a large influence upon the human beings with whom he came into contact. He was a highly cultivated gentleman, of broad sympathies and incisive understanding, who labored always in furtherance of human welfare. His great store of knowledge was not confined to the social sciences. He was steeped in general history, literature, philosophy, music, and the arts. The spirit molded by these humanistic influences was directed to the improvement of social living, in the narrower range of personal contacts as well as in the more complicated relationships of the great society. Toward this end he gave of himself unstintingly to his students, his associates, and the general community. Because of his lofty ideals, intellectual integrity, and endearing personality, he evoked satisfying and even gratifying responses throughout his career. That he was affectionately known to so many, both old and young, as Uncle Max was no mere accident. He built well and fruitfully. His memory will long endure.

D. H. Parker,
P. E. James,
I. L. Sharfman, Chairman

Source (also of image): University of Michigan Faculty History Project.

_________________

[from the University of Texas]

IN MEMORIAM
MAX SYLVIUS HANDMAN

Max Sylvius Handman, professor of sociology and economics, died in December of 1939.

Professor Handman was born on December 13, 1885, in Roman, Romania. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon in 1907 and a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1917.

Dr. Handman taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Missouri. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 1917 and resigned in 1931, when he accepted a position at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Professor Handman served on the Committee on Public Information in 1918. He was a special investigator for the Library of Congress and for the Wickersham Commission on Law Enforcement. He was also president of the Texas Conference on Social Work in 1924.

During the early 1930s Professor Handman was recalled to Romania by King Carol to carry out a study on the problems of minority populations. He was later decorated by King Carol with the Order of Cultural Merit, Knight, first class, for his service.

<signed>

John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty

Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Teresa Palomo Acosta and posted on the Faculty Council web site on January 18, 2001.

Categories
Chicago Courses Syllabus

Chicago. Economics From an Institutional Standpoint. Knight c.1934

Frank Knight’s teaching at Chicago covered four bases: core economic theory, the history of economics, social control of the economy and institutional economics. 

One truly can’t fault 1930’s Chicago economics for failing to be aware of the surrounding disciplines. On the other side of the political spectrum we witness the same breadth in Paul Douglas’ 1938 course, Types of Economic Organization.

The following course outline is out of place in the folder for Econ 304 in the Homer Jones Papers. Note that the “general alphabetical bibliography” mentioned in the outline was not in this folder.   The copy of the outline transcribed below apparently came from Homer Jones’ classmate, A.H. = “Alice Hanson”,  later his wife.

Milton Friedman’s 1976 remembrance of Homer Jones was reprinted in the St. Louis Fed’s Review November/December 2013, 95(6), pp. 451-54.

__________________

 Course Description

305. Economics from an Institutional Standpoint.—The relations between the classical-mathematical and institutional-historical views of economic phenomena; institutional factors as the framework and much of the content of the price economy; late nineteen century economic society as a complex of structural forms. Prerequisite: Economics 301 and some European economic history. C. 10:00, Knight.

Source:   Course description from the University of Chicago’s Announcement of courses for Summer Quarter 1934

_____________________________

[ penciled addition:] A. H. (n.d.)

Economics 305
Economics from Institutional Standpoint

Main Topics and Notes on Literature
(To be used with general, alphabetical bibliography)

I. American Institutional Economics

1. Veblen, Th. (Perhaps the one true example, except Handman, who has written little.)

a. The Place of Science in Civilization. (1919) Collected Essays. “Why is Economics not an Evolutionary Science,” 3rd paper, contains most of Veblen’s position. For his criticism of classical economics, especially “Professor Clark’s Economics” and “Limitations of Marginal Utility”; also three papers on “Presuppositions of Economic Science.” For V’s positive contribution, the title essay and second, on “Evolution of the Scientific Point of View” most important, to be followed with “Industrial and Pecuniary Employments,” “Gustav Schmoller’s Economics” and papers on Capital, Marx, and Socialism.

b. Economics in the Visible Future. A.E.R., 1925 (Cf. Discussion of J. M. Clark).

c. Other works: Instinct of Workmanship, Theory of the Leisure Class, and Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution most important. Theory of Business Enterprise social-critical, on line of Industrial and Pecuniary Employments. Later books (Nature of Peace, Higher Culture in America, Vested Interests, Engineers and Price System, Absentee Ownership, etc.) More satirical, and literary or controversial in appeal.

2. Handman, M. S.

3. Commons, J. R., Legal Economist. (Laws are not institutional in origin, but become institutions if long kept in force).

a. Legal Foundations of Capitalism. (Cf. Reviews, Mitchell, A.E.R., June, 1924 and Scharfman, Q.J.E., 1924-5.

b. “Institutional Economics,” A.E.R., Dec. 1931. (Corres. Regarding same, ibid., June, 1932.)

4. Mitchell, W. C. (Quantitative or statisticial economist, properly at opposite pole from institutionalism, but usually included in the movement. Has, like most economists, written some things of a really institutionalist character

a. “Quantitative Method in Economics” (Presidential Address) A.E.R., 1925. (His main position: not institutionalistic).

b. “Prospects of Economics.” (Leading Essay) in Tugwell, The Trend of Economics. (Institutional only in sense of being more or less critical of the older classical economists).

c. “The Role of Money in Economic Theory” (Institutional) A.E.R. 1916 Sup.; “The Backward Art of Spending Money.” A.E.R., 1912. “Human Behavior in Economics.”….Rev. of Sombart, Q.J.E. 1928-9; Bentham’s Felecific Calculus, P.S.Q., June, 1918.

d. On Mitchell’s main work on Business Cycles, see review by J. M. Clark, in Rice’s Case-Book, with Mitchell’s comment.

5. Copeland, Clark, Hale, Mills, Tugwell, Wolfe, etc., see Tugwell, (Editor) The Trend of Economics. Sometimes treated as an institutionalist manifesto, but with several “black sheep.” Cf. Review of the volume by A. A. Young, Q.J.E.

6. Other authors more or less sympathetic with the “movement,” see Boucke[sp?], Clark, Edie (uses the word for all recent economics he approves of) Hamilton.

 

II. Criticism of Institutional Economics.

1. Eva Flügge, in Jahrb. f. Nationalökon. u. Statistik, LXII, 1927. Important; on relations to German Historical School Position.

2. Homan, P. T. Essays on Veblen and Mitchell in Contemporary Economic Thought. Also Paper, A.E.R., Sup., Mar., 1932, and Discussion following, by various members. Cf. J.P.E., 1927 (Impasse, etc.) Q.J.E., 1928 (Issues, etc.)

3. Morgenstern, Schumpeter, Suranyi-Unger.

 

III. Earlier Historical Economics

1. Leslie, T.E.C. “The Philosophical Method in Political Economy” and “History of German Political Economy” in Essays in Moral and Political Philosophy.

2. Schmoller, The Mercantile System. (Example of an argument for the method. Cf. Veblen’s essay on Schmoller, under Veblen, above.

3. Ashley, W. J. Trans. of Roscher Program; also “The Study of Economic History” and “The Study of Economic History after Seven Years,” first two in Q.J.E., all in Surveys Historical and Economic.

4. Cohn, G., A.A.A., 1894 and Ec. Jour., 1905; Dunbar, Q.J.E. Vol. I (and in vol. Econ. Essays); Keynes, J.M., in Scope and Method of Pol. Econ.; Ingram, in History of Pol. Econ.; Nasse, Q.J.E., 1886; Rae, in Contemporary Socialism, pp. 193-221; Seager, J.P.E., 1892; Wagner, Q.J.E., 1886.

 

IV. The Neo-Historical School in Germany, and Related Work.

1. Parsons, T., Capitalism in Recent German Literature (Somart and M. Weber; best thing in English. For orientation see also Parsons, “Economics and Sociology” in Q.J.E., February, 1932).

2. Sombart, W., “Economic History and Economic Theory”, Ec. Hist. Rev.; Nationalökonomie u. Soziologie, Kieler Vorträge; also in G.D.S., Vol. III.

3. Diehl, Carl, Life and Work of Max Weber, Q.J.E. Vol.33.

4. Abel, Th., Chap. on Max Weber in vol., Systematic Sociology in German.

5. Weber, M., Protestant Ethic; and General Economic History.

6. Sombart, W., Die drei Nationalökonomien. Der modern Kapitalismus.

7. Weber, M., Essays in Ges. Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre, esp. on Roscher und Knies, and Objektivität; finally, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (2 vols., in Grudriss d. Sozialökonomie).

8. Brinkmann, C., in Überbau etc., Schmollers Jahrb., 1930.; von Schelting, Zum Streit um die Wissenssoziologie, in Archiv. f. Sozialwiss. u. Sozialpol., v. 62, 1930. And references in both.

9. Related work in other countries. Tawney. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, and other work; Simiand[sp?], La method positive dans l’économie politique (and French Neo-Positivism generally).

10. Another German movement closely related to neo-historism is the Universalistic economics of Spann. See in English his History of Economics. Also, C. Schmitt, Politische Romantik.

11. On the problem of Objectivity (Wertfreiheit) an essential issue throughout this movment, but especially under the influence of communism and fascism, see E. Spranger, Der Sinn d. Voraussetzungslosigkeit d. Wissenschaft (1930 and references.

 

V. ISSUES INVOLVED IN INSTITUTIONALISM

1. General Problems of Behavior (above bio-mechanics and chemistry and histology). Surveys, chiefly on level of physiology and animal behavior in Parmelee, Problem of Human Behavior; Allport, Social Psychology. Cf. Metchnikoff, Nature of Man; Wheeler, Ants; Emerson, Termites. Psychology Symposia, Clark University, Psychologies of 1925, also 1930; also, The Unconscious, sponsored Mrs. E. Dummer. Cf. Cooley, Dewey, Ellwood, McDougall, Sumner, Wallas. Survey of General Sociology, Park & Burgess, Introduction. Sociology from standpoint of society as a unit, Spann, Gesellschaftslehre; from that of personalities in relation, Hornell Hart.

2. History and Economic History. Müller-Lyer; Hobhouse, also Hobhouse, Wheeler & Ginsburg; Gras; E. Gross. On Economic Interpretation of History; Communist Manifesto: Engels; Labriola; See; Seligman. (Hanson; Knight; Matthews). History and Historical Method: Adams, G. B. [sp.?]; Adams, Brooks; Barth; Bernheim; Cheyney; Flint; Fueter; Teggart; Rickert; Windelband. (For Rickert-Windelband view of history, Chap. I of Park & Burgess Sociology with Bibliography. Cf. Small, Origins of Sociology.

3. Institutions. Besides Sociology, see Anthropology, works of (esp.) Lowie, Goldenweiser; also, Boas, Kroeber, Wallis, Wissler, etc.

4. Particular Institutions, (all more or less economic in basis and function). Language: Sapir; The Family; Westermarck, Calhoun; Law: Commons, Pound, Jenks, Holdsworth, Maine, Maitland, Vinogradoff. Religion: Barton, Carpenter, Carus, Cumont, Harnak, Simkhovitch, Sohm, Lagarde, Walker.

5. Economic Institutions, Specifically. Bibliographies in Sombart, Der modern Kapitalismus; use table of contents and index. Surveys of Economic History; Knight, Barnes & Fluegel, Economic History of Europe; H. See, Modern Capitalism (both with chapter bibliographies).

6. Methodology. See M. R. Cohen, “Social Science and Natural Science,” in Ogburn & Goldenweiser (Ed.) The Social Sciences in their Interrelations; also most of the 33 papers in the volume, all with bibliographies. Rice, S. A., (Ed.) Methods in Social Science, a Case-Book; 52 papers, mostly analyses of particular works or groups of works from methodological standpoint. Keynes, J. N., Scope and Method of Political Economy.

7. Idea of Style and Culture-Pattern. Compare Wöfflin, Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe; Sapir in Ogburn and Goldenweiser.

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Source: Homer Jones Papers, Duke University, Rubenstein Library. Box 2, Folder “Frank H. Knight, Economics 304, lecture, notes, 1933, Oct.-1934.”

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03516, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Other sources for this course:

  • F. T. Ostrander’s “Notes on Frank H. Knight’s Course, Economics from an Institutional Standpoint, Economics 305, University of Chicago, 1933-34,” Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, 23(B), 2005.
  • Earl Hamilton’s  Economics 305 notes in Summer Quarter 1935, (Frank Knight Papers, Box 38, Folder 8) are cited among other places in Malcolm Rutherford’s “Chicago economics and institutionalism” in The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics (Ross B. Emmett, ed.).
  • In the Hyman Minsky Archive at Bard College are notes Minsky took in Economics 305 during the Spring Quarter 1942.