Author: Irwin Collier

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Courses Johns Hopkins Syllabus

Johns Hopkins. Courses. 1881-82

Ely’s course History of Political Economy, met twice weekly Tuesday and Friday 4 P.M. and had 26 students enrolled during the first half-year. According to the class roll (Johns Hopkins University Circulars, No. 12, December 1881, p. 157), Thorstein B. Veblen attended the class.

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COURSES IN HISTORY, INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY, 1881-82.

[…]

SIMON NEWCOMB, LL.D., of Washington, will give a short course of lectures upon Political Economy, with special reference to the subject of Taxation.

HON. JOHN J. KNOX, of Washington, Comptroller of the Currency, will give three lectures upon Finance, with especial consideration of the National System of Banking, November 10–17.

RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D. [Heidelberg, 1879], will give a course of twenty class lectures on the History of Political Economy, beginning Friday, October 14, at 4 P. M., and continuing on successive Tuesdays and Fridays at the same hour.

The lectures will be given in Room 1, 193 North Eutaw Street. It is designed in this course of lectures to describe the teachings of leading political economists from the time of the mercantilists up to the present. The origin of the various economic schools and their relations will be explained. The sources of economic knowledge and the methods of work will be pointed out, and topics for original investigation suggested. The writing of essays on assigned topics will be expected from the advanced students in the class.

ORDER OF TOPICS.

Introductory. Utility of the Historical Method. Discussion of the Questions: What is Political Economy? What has it accomplished?

Mercantilists. Commerce. Balance of Trade.

Physiocrats. Agriculture the Sole Source of Wealth.

Adam Smith. Recognition of Manufacturing Industry as also a Source of Wealth; hence the name Industrial System.

Adam Smith’s Followers: A. The Development of Pessimistic Tendencies, (a) Malthus, (b) Ricardo, (c) Mill; B. The Optimists, (a) Bastiat, (b) Carey.

The Opponents of Adam Smith. National Economy. Ad. Muller, Fr. List, Carey and others.

Communism.

Socialism. A. Social Democracy. B. Professorial Socialism

The Present Condition of Political Economy; (a) in France, (b) in Germany, (c) in England, (d) in America and elsewhere.

Review of the Field and Conclusion.

P. B. MARCOU, A. M., will conduct a special historical course, two hours weekly during the first half-year, in the Modern French Socialists. A knowledge of French is requisite for those pursuing this course.

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Source:  Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. No.12, December, 1881, p. 162.

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Curriculum Economists Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Annual Report. 1881-82

Henry Carter Adams is now in Michigan with Richard T. Ely taking over for instruction in Political Economy at Johns Hopkins. Note the graduate student in Philosophy and Political Science from Minnesota, Thorstein B. Veblen.

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HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE.
WORK OF THE PAST YEAR.
I881-82.

History and Political Science have been studied during the year by forty-one students of whom twenty-two followed advanced or graduate courses and nineteen pursued undergraduate courses.

The roll for the year has included:

H. B. ADAMS, Ph.D., Associate in History.
A. SCOTT, Ph. D., Associate in History.
R. T. ELY, Ph.D., Instructor in Political Economy.

J. BRYCE, D. C. L., Lecturer.
E. A. FREEMAN, D. C. L., Lecturer.
J. J. KNOX, A. M., Lecturer.
R. M. VENABLE, Lecturer.

J. F. Jameson, A. B., Fellow.
M. I. Swift, A. B., Fellow.

[Advanced/Graduate Students]

W. H. Adkins, A. B. O. A. Johnson, S. B.
E. W. Bemis, A. B. S. B. Linthicum, A. B.
H. J. Bowdoin, A. B. J. H. Lowe, A. B.
D. L. Brinton. D. M. Murray.
H. L. Ebeling, A. B. B. J. Ramage, A. B.
E. Goodman, A. B. A. Shaw, A. B.
E. R. L. Gould, A. B. H. E. Shepherd.
J. G. Hamner, A. B. B. Sollers.
E. Ingle, A. B. T. B. Veblen, A. B.
J. Johnson, A. B. L. W. Wilhelm, A. B.

[Undergraduate students]

T. A. Berry. J. Hinkley.
W. B. Canfield. R. F. Kimball.
G. G. Carey, Jr. J. D. Lord.
W. B. Crisp. J. MacClintock.
W. K. Cromwell. G. D. Penniman.
D. B. Dorsey. R. M. Reese.
H. Duffy. C. D. Stickney.
M. Fels. H. T. Tiffany.
B. B. Gordon. H. W. Williams.
M. Gregg.

I. Historical Seminary.

The advanced and graduate students have met weekly during the first half-year, and twice weekly during the second half year, under the guidance of Dr. Adams, as an Historical Seminary, for the discussion of original studies in American Institutional History.

The meetings of the Seminary were first held in the small lecture room of the Peabody Institute, and later in rooms specially provided by the university for Seminary use, and furnished with books, maps and other historical apparatus. The Statutes of England, Parliamentary Reports, Colonial Archives (in published form), the Statutory Law of the older States, and other collections have afforded opportunities for fresh investigations. Among the papers presented here or at the monthly meetings of the Historical and Political Science Association, have been the following: parallel between the economic beginnings of Maryland and Massachusetts; town and parish institutions in Maryland; free schools in Maryland and South Carolina; old English militia institutions; militia, patrol, and parish system of South Carolina; fairs, markets, and the Atlanta exposition; local government in Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey; Montauk and the common lands of Easthampton, Long Island.

 

II. Public Lectures.

Courses of public lectures have been given during the year by:

James Bryce, D. C. L., Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Oxford, five lectures in November upon Recent Political Discussions in England.

The special subjects considered were: the crown and the house of lords; the church and the universities; the suffrage and distribution of seats; the land and the poor; foreign and colonial policy; the relation of law to history was also considered in a special lecture before the Historical and Political Science Association.

Edward A. Freeman, D. C. L., six lectures in November upon Southeastern Europe.

The special topics discussed were: the Roman Power in the East; the Saracens and the Slavs; the final division of the East and West; the Turks, Franks, and Venetians; the Ottomans, and the beginning of deliverance.

Hon. John J. Knox, Comptroller of the Currency, U. S. Treasury Department, three lectures in November upon the Banking Systems of the United States.

Austin Scott, Ph. D., ten lectures in January upon the Development of the Constitution of the United States.

The special topics discussed were: nationalism and local self-government; the federative principle; acceptance of the same; self-assertion of the national idea; reaction; transition period; power of the masses; economic questions; socialism; revolution.

Professor R. M. Venable, of the Law Department of the University of Maryland, twelve lectures, beginning in January, upon the Constitutional Law of the United States.

This course embraced such topics as commerce, taxation, war powers, civil and political rights; election of president; presidential powers; federal court; theory of the partition of powers; ultimate sovereignty; comparison of the English constitution with that of the United States.

Herbert B. Adams, Ph. D., five public lectures upon the Historical Development of Internationalism.

The subjects treated were: intertribal and intermunicipal relations of the Orient; intermunicipal life of the Greeks; Rome, the civitas mundi; international position of the mediaeval church; origin and tendencies of modern international law ; Lieber and Bluntschli.

R. T. Ely, Ph.D., four lectures in April upon Civil Service Reform, with special consideration of the Civil Service of Prussia.

 

III. Advanced Courses.

Courses, of twelve lectures each, upon the Sources of Early European History, and upon Italian History, were given by Dr. Adams.

These classes, composed of seven graduate students, met in a lecture room of the Peabody Institute, by special permission of the Provost, so that the works mentioned in the lectures might be at once consulted by the students.

Courses of lectures on Political Economy have been given by Dr. R. T. Ely.

Two courses have been given, one of twenty lectures in the first half- year, addressed to a class of both graduates and under-graduates, and one of twenty-five lectures, in the second half-year, to graduate students only.

Papers upon investigations undertaken by the graduate students in connection with these courses, have been read before the Historical and Political Science Association upon: Mill’s theory of the taxation of land; the alleged indebtedness of Adam Smith to the French economists; what England owes to protection, etc.

 

IV. Undergraduate Courses.

The less advanced course was also conducted by Dr. H. B. Adams, and consisted of class exercises, (lectures, examinations, oral reports, essays, etc.,) five hours weekly through the year.

The first half-year was devoted to Mediaeval History, and the second half-year to Diplomatic History, with the principles of International Law, as embodied in Bluntschli’s Voelkerrecht, of which the German text was expounded by teacher and class. Oral reports were made by students upon topics of contemporary international politics and the status of leading countries; exercises which accustomed the class to the use of maps, consular reports, government documents, texts of treaties, diplomatic correspondence, etc.

 

The Historical and Political Science Association has met monthly, as heretofore, for the presentation and discussion of papers, the titles of most of which have been given above.

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PROGRAMME FOR THE YEAR BEGINNING
SEPTEMBER 19, 1882.

I. Graduate and Advanced Courses:

DR. H. B. ADAMS.

  1. Sources of English Constitutional History.
    This class will meet in the small lecture-room at the Peabody Institute, by permission of the Provost, for facility of reference to the library collections. A knowledge of Latin and German is requisite for admission to this course.—Once weekly, first half-year.
  2. American Institutional History.
    This will be an advanced course for the report and discussion of original studies, special facilities for which are afforded by the collections of the Maryland Historical Society, the Maryland Episcopal Library of the late Bishop Whittingham, and by a newly instituted working collection in the Seminary of Historical and Political Science.—Two hours weekly.
  3. Comparative Constitutional History, with special reference to the existing Constitutions of European States. Once weekly, second half-year.

DR. R. T. ELY.

  1. This course will deal at length with such practical topics as banking, paper money, monometalism, bi-metalism, and taxation.—Thrice weekly, first half-year.
  2. Theory and Practice of Administration, with special reference to Civil Service Problems and Municipal Reform. Thrice weekly, second half-year.
  3. History of French and German Socialism. Six lectures.

NOTE.—In addition to the regular work offered by the university instructors, various brief courses of class lectures upon special topics in Historical and Political Science may be given by lecturers, hereafter to be announced. A short course of public lectures on the Local Institutions of the United States will also be given by Dr. H. B. Adams at the Peabody Institute during the winter. Historical readings in Anglo-Saxon, German, and French, will be in progress through the year.

Graduates and advanced students are expected to have sufficient command of French and German to enable them to read historical and political works in those languages; persons deficient in this regard are advised to begin the study of those languages at once.

Graduates who so desire may take any portion of the following minor courses, but undergraduates will not be admitted to any of the advanced courses, except [History of French and German Socialism].

 

II. Minor Courses :

DR. H. B. ADAMS, with assistance from DR. J. F. JAMESON,

  1. Introductory Historical Course.
    At matriculation, all students pass an examination in the general history of England and the United States. After this, (without taking up a full minor course), they may continue their historical studies by attending the following exercises:
    Oriental History, Dr. Adams. Weekly, first half-year.
    Classical History, Dr. Jameson. Twice weekly, first half-year.
    Early European History, Dr. Jameson. Twice weekly, second half yea

This work may be counted, if desired, as part of the composite minor course (elsewhere described); and it will be required of all who follow the minor course in History as candidates for the Bachelor’s degree.
Undergraduate students in classics, unless excused by the classical instructors, are expected to follow the exercises in Classical History above mentioned.

  1. Minor Course in History.
    (a) The Italian Renaissance and the German Reformation.
    Five hours weekly, first half-year.
    (b) Modern Absolutism and Revolution.
    Five hours weekly, second half-year.

DR. R. T. ELY.

  1. Minor Course in Political Economy.
    (a) Principles of Political Economy.
    Five hours weekly, first half-year.
    It is desirable that students who propose to follow this course should previously read one of the following manuals: Cossa’s Guide to the Study of Political Economy; Rogers’ Manual of Political Economy; or Mrs. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners.
    (b) Historical Systems of Political Economy.
    Five hours weekly, second half-year.

NOTE.—A Minor course in Historical and Political Science may be formed by combining a half-year’s work in History with a half-year in Political Economy, together with the production of three essays, which shall be subject to the criticism and approval of the instructor in English. A Major course in Historical and Political Science comprises a full year in History and a full year in Political Economy, together with the production of six acceptable essays, and successful examination upon such courses of outside reading as may be prescribed in individual cases.

 

III. Historical and Political Science Association.

This will be a monthly meeting of advanced students of Historical and Political Science. Lawyers, resident graduates, and others who are interested in liberal studies, may become members of this Association. Papers of more general interest than those discussed at length in the seminary or class-room are here read, together with abstracts of the more important results of original investigation. Reviews are given of monographs, journals, and other recent literature of Historical and Political Science. Brief reports of the proceedings of the Association are printed in the University Circulars.

 

IV. Publication of Studies in Historical and Political Science.

With the opening of the next academic year will begin the publication of a series of University Studies in American Institutional History, with special reference to the Local Government and Economics of individual States of the Atlantic seaboard and of the Northwest. The publication will be at convenient intervals, in the form of separate reprints of studies contributed by members of the Association to the proceedings of learned societies in various parts of the country, together with such papers as may be printed from time to time by the University.

[…]

 

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Source:  Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. No.16, July, 1882.

Image Source: Richard Ely in  Review of Reviews and World’s Work, Vol. 5 (1890), p. 163.

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Cornell Economists Johns Hopkins Michigan Research Tip

Johns Hopkins. Education of Henry Carter Adams 1870’s

With John Cummings we saw the story of a professor who left Harvard to become a Unitarian minister. Here we see an American version of the reverse story of a young person who forsakes being/becoming a man of the cloth to ultimately become an economist (cf. Thomas Robert Malthus, Alfred Marshall…). Henry Carter Adams was awarded the first Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.

Excerpt from a memorial presented to the Senate of the University of Michigan by S. L. Bigelow, I. L. Sharfman and R. M. Wenley, published in 1922 in The Journal of Political Economy, Vol 30. pp. 201-205.

Research Tip: Henry Carter Adams Papers at the University of Michigan.

Portrait of Henry Carter Adams: Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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“[…] Henry Carter Adams was born at Davenport, Iowa, December 31, 1851. He came of old New England stock; his forebears had made the great adventure over sea in 1623. His mother, Elizabeth Douglass, and his father, Ephraim Adams, were a likeminded pair, representative of the soundest traditions of New England character and nurture. Ephraim Adams, one of a small band of missionaries from Andover Theological Seminary who forsook everything for Christ’s sake, arrived on the open prairies of Iowa in 1842—the goal of three weeks’ hard journey from Albany, New York. Their mission it was to kindle and tend the torch, not merely of religion, but also of education, among the far-flung pioneers. Consequently, it is impossible to understand why Henry Adams was what he was, became what he became, unless one can evoke sympathetic appreciation of the temper which determined his upbringing. For example, it may well astonish us to learn that his nineteenth birthday was but a few months off ere he received his first formal instruction. The reasons thereof may astonish us even more. The child had been sickly always, physicians informing the parents that he could not survive the age of fourteen. The “open prairies” proved his physical salvation. Given a cayuse [pony] and a gun, the boy roamed free, passing from missionary home to missionary home, sometimes bearing parental messages to the scattered preachers. In this way he outgrew debility and, better still, acquired a love for nature, and an intimacy with our average citizenry, never lost. Meanwhile, the elder Adams taught him Greek, Latin, and Hebrew as occasion permitted. At length, in 1869, he entered Denmark Academy whence, after a single year, he was able to proceed to Iowa College, Grinnell, where he graduated in 1874. During these five years, the man whom we knew started to shape himself.

 

“In the home and the wider circle of friends, the impressionable days of childhood had been molded by Puritanism. God’s providence, the responsibility of man, the absolute distinction between right and wrong, with all resultant duties and prohibitions, set the perspective. Fortunately, the characteristic Yankee interest in education—in intelligence rather than learning-—contributed a vital element. An active mind enlarged the atmosphere of the soul. Despite its straight limitations as some reckon them, here was a real culture, giving men inner harmony with self secure from disturbance from the baser passions. As we are aware now, disturbance came otherwise. To quote Adams’ own words, he was “plagued by doctrines” from the time he went to the Academy. The spiritual impress of the New England home never left him; it had been etched upon his very being. But, thus early, Calvinistic dogma aroused misgiving, because its sheer profundity bred high doubt. As a matter of course, Ephraim Adams expected his son to follow the Christian ministry, and Henry himself foresaw no other calling meantime. Hence, when skepticism assailed him, he was destined to a terrible, heart-searching experience, the worse that domestic affection drew him one way, mental integrity another. His first years at Grinnell were bootless; the prescribed studies held no attraction and, likely enough, sickness had left a certain lethargy. But, when he came to history, philosophy, and social questions, he felt a new appeal. His Junior and Senior years, eager interest stimulating, profited him much. Still dubious, he taught for a year after graduation at Nashua, Iowa. Then, bowing to paternal prayer and maternal hope, he entered Andover Theological Seminary, not to prepare for the ministry, however, but “to try himself out”—to discover whether preaching were possible for him. In the spring of 1876, he had decided irrevocably that it was not. Adams’ “first” education—education by the natal group—ended here. It had guaranteed him the grace which is the issue of moral habit, had wedded him to the conviction that justice is truth in action. For, although he abandoned certain theological formulas, the footfall of spiritual things ever echoed through his character. The union of winsome gentleness with stern devotion to humanitarian ideals, so distinctive of Professor Adams, rooted in the persistent influence of the New England conscience.

 

“Turning to the “second” education, destined to enrol our colleague among economic leaders, it is necessary to recall once again conditions almost forgotten now. When, forty-five years ago, an academy- and college-bred lad, destined for the ministry, found it necessary to desist, he was indeed “all at sea.” For facilities, offered on every hand today by the graduate schools of the great universities, did not exist. The youth might drift— into journalism, teaching, or what not. But drifting was not on Adams’ program. He wrote to his parents who, tragically enough, could not understand him, “I must obtain another cultural training.” His mind had dwelt already upon social, political, and economic problems; therefore, the “second” education must be non-theological. Whither could he look? At this crisis his course was set by one of those small accidents which, strange to tell, play a decisive part in many lives. By mere chance, he came upon a catalogue of Johns Hopkins University, so late in the day, moreover, that his application for a fellowship, with an essay inclosed as evidence of fitness, arrived just within time-limits. Adams was chosen one of ten Fellows from a list of more than three hundred candidates, and to Baltimore he went in the fall of 1876. His letters attest that the new, ampler opportunities attracted him strongly. He availed himself of concerts, for music always moved him. Here he heard the classics for the first time. Hitherto he had known only sacred music. Sometimes he played in church and, as records show, he sang in our choral union while a young professor. We find, too, that he served as assistant in the Johns Hopkins library, not for the extravagant salary, as he remarks humorously, but on account of access to books—”I am reading myself full.” His summers were spent in his native state, working in the fields. In 1878 he received the doctorate, the first conferred by the young and unique university.

 

“The day after graduation President Gilman sent for him, and told him, “You must go to Europe.” The reply was typical —”I can’t, I haven’t a cent.” Gilman continued, “I shall see what can be done,” with the result that the benefactor to whom Adams dedicated his first book found the requisite funds. Brief stays at Oxford and Paris, lengthier at Berlin and Heidelberg, filled the next fourteen months. The journalistic bee still buzzing in his head, Adams had visited Godkin before leaving for Europe to discuss the constructive political journalism he had in mind. Godkin received him kindly, but, as Adams dryly remarks, had a long way to travel ere he could understand. In the summer of 1878, President Andrew D. White, of Cornell, traveling in Germany, summoned Adams to discuss a vacancy in this university. To Adams’ huge disappointment, as the interview developed, it became apparent that White, with a nonchalance some of us remember well, had mistaken H. C. Adams, the budding economist, for H. B. Adams, the budding historian. The vacancy was in history, not in political science or economics. Expectation vanished in thin air. But Adams was not done with. Returning to his pension, he sat up all night to draft the outline of a course of lectures which, as he bluntly put it, “Cornell needed.” Next day he sought President White again who, being half-persuaded by Adams’ verbal exposition, kept the document, saying he would communicate with Cornell, requesting that a place be made for the course if possible. Writing from Saratoga, in September, 1879, Adams tells his mother that all is off at Cornell, that he must abandon his career and buckle down to earning a livelihood. A lapse of ten days transformed the scene. The Cornell appointment had been arranged, and he went to Ithaca forthwith. So meager were the facilities then offered in the general field of the social sciences that Adams gave one semester, at Cornell and Johns Hopkins respectively, to these subjects in the year 1879-80. The same arrangement continued till 1886, Michigan being substituted for Johns Hopkins in 1881. As older men recall, Dr. Angell taught economics, in addition to international law, till the time of his transfer to Pekin as Minister to China. At this juncture, Adams joined us, forming a life-long association. He himself says that he “gave up three careers—preaching, journalism, and reform—to devote himself to teaching” where he believed his mission lay. […]”

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Image source: Henry Carter Adams Page at the NNDB website.

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Economists Harvard Research Tip

Harvard. Research Tip. Edward Cummings Papers

Edward Cummings papers, ca. 1875-1926

The papers of Edward Cummings (1861-1926) contain his personal and professional correspondence, including correspondence with his longtime friend J. Estlin Carpenter and with his mentor, Edward Everett Hale. This series also contains Edward’s personal and professional papers, including records from the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Penal Aspects of Drunkenness, the Theodore Parker Memorial, and the Russian Famine Relief Committee of Boston. Edward’s writings include essays, reports, and lecture notes. The largest portion of his papers consist of dated and undated sermons, addresses, and notes that span the period of his ministry at South Congregational Church in Boston (1900-1926). Also included are diaries, datebooks, notebooks, and scrapbooks that particularly emphasize his European study and travel from 1888 to 1891.See also Printed material, especially Harvard-related material, newspaper clippings about Edward Cummings, and the printed works of Edward Cummings.

Source: Cummings-Clarke Family Papers, 1793-1949

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Economists Harvard

Harvard Economics. Edward Cummings Resignation, 1900

As social scientific life evolved, economics and sociology were still swimming in the same tidal pool at the end of the 19th century, and they weren’t even the only marine life there. History and political science were an integral part of the ecosystem too. Edward Cummings of Harvard is not only interesting as a pioneer of U.S. academic sociology when it was regarded a sub-field of political economy/economics, he and his wife, Rebecca Haswell Clarke, spawned the poet Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962), a.k.a. “E.E. Cummings“.

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Cambridge Tribune, August 25, 1900

Prof. Cummings Called

Is Asked to Take the Associate Pastorship
of South Congregational Church—He Will
Accept, It is Said

At a special meeting of the South Congregational society of Boston in Channing hall, Unitarian building, last Monday afternoon, it was unanimously decided to extend a call to Professor Edward Cummings of the economics department of the university, to the associate pastorship of the South Congregational church. Dr. Edward Everett Hale will remain pastor emeritus of the church and society. It is certain that Professor Cummings will accept the charge and the members of the society regard his coming as a considerable victory for the church as against sociological work, to which Professor Cummings has been so devoted.

Professor Cummings has never been ordained in any church, and his change from the Harvard professorship to the pulpit of Dr. Hale’s church is an interesting one. It is expected that he will be ordained at the South-Congregational church about October 1.

The following interview with Professor Cummings, who is at Madison, N. H., for the summer, was printed in a Boston paper Wednesday morning:

“I shall accept the call; in fact, provided the corporation took favorable action, this was practically an understood thing long ago. It will be, in a sense, a sacrifice for me, as it comes in; my sabbatical year, and I had intended to publish a volume, perhaps two volumes, during this year. My sabbatical year came last year, and I had several offers of churches, but then came a postponement for a year. I had planned to go abroad and to work with a friend, an Oxford man. Now I see no leisure in prospect sufficient to admit of doing this work.”

Professor Cummings graduated at Harvard in the class of 1883. As an undergraduate he was an enthusiastic student of philosophy, history and economics, and already keenly interested in the practical as well as the theoretical aspects of those social, industrial and philanthropic problems which were destined within the next few years to gain academic standing with marvellous and unexpected rapidity under the comprehensive title of sociology.

Convinced then, as now, that the liberal ministry offered the most hopeful and inspiring opportunity for social service, he entered the divinity school of Harvard University in 1883. He was a member of the divinity school for two years. In 1885 he received from the university the degree of A.M.

Two years of divinity school training persuaded him of the absolute necessity of giving greater attention to the study of sociological problems as a preparation for the actual work of the liberal ministry. He therefore withdrew from the divinity school in 1885, and continued his preparation in the graduate department of the university, giving a portion of his time as instructor in the department of English to teaching rhetoric and argumentative composition.

A significant step in advancing the academic status of sociological study; was the foundation at Harvard in 1887 of the Robert Treat Paine Fellowship in Social Science. Mr. Cummings was the first incumbent of this foundation. As Paine Fellow In Social Science, he continued his sociological studies in Europe for three years, travelling extensively in England. Scotland. France, Italy and Germany. He made a comparative study of the social and economic condition of wage earners in different countries; examined the methods, and effectiveness of diverse philanthropic agencies; investigated with special care such self-help movements as trade unionism, co-operation, and friendly societies, no less than the meliorative institutions created by employers and by the state.

In the winter of 1888-89 he was an active resident of Toynbee hall, Whitechapel, London. At the Paris exposition of 1889 he was delegate to several international congresses.

The sudden and almost world-wide interest in both the theoretical and the practical aspects of sociology a decade ago, and the equally sudden efforts of the universities to meet the popular demand for instruction in this newly recognized department of science, brought with it an embarrassment of opportunities for those who had any claim to be regarded as specialists in this direction, and eventually divested Mr. Cummings from his original plan of practical work. He continued his investigations, however, in France. Italy and Germany till the spring of 1891 —including studies at the Sorbonne, the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, and the University of Berlin.

In 1891, having declined a tempting invitation to take charge of a sociological experiment in London, he accepted an appointment as instructor in sociology at Harvard University. Two years later an assistant professorship of sociology was established, and Mr. Cummings has since filled this chair, taking some part in the introductory teaching in economics, but devoting himself especially to courses dealing with theoretical sociology, labor questions and socialism.

Professor Cummings had been granted the customary Sabbatical leave of absence on half pay for the year 1900-01. It was his original intention—if the present unexpected and exceptional opportunity for carrying out a cherished plan of practical work had not presented itself —to devote the coming year to the elaboration of a couple of volumes, embodying some of the results of his sociological work.

During his professorship at Harvard he has been one of the editors of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and many of his contributions to the literature of trade unionism, co-operation, arbitration, university settlements and socialism have appeared in that periodical, and some have been reprinted for the use of university students.

Outside the university, Professor Cummings is known both as a lecturer and as a practical worker. He has served on the board of directors of the Boston Associated Charities for several years: is secretary of the mayor’s advisory committee on the penal aspects of drunkenness, which by means of printed reports, public discussions and legislative hearings has recently convinced the public and the Massachusetts legislature of the necessity of extending the probation system and making other reforms in the penal system. During the past winter and spring he gave a course of lectures on the Adin Ballou foundation at the Meadville Theological Seminary, and a series of five lectures in the South course, on the industrial revolution of the 19th century, not to mention addresses delivered before the Free Religious Congress, and numerous other bodies.

With all his interest in non-academic affairs, Professor Cummings is an enthusiastic teacher, who feels the work of teacher and preacher closely allied, and he has eagerly welcomed his opportunities to influence the student parish of young men and women who have come under his instruction in Harvard University and Radcliffe College. He has given much attention to the deeper and much neglected problems of life and education which beset a great and loosely organized student community: and not a little of his interest and energy has, from the first, avowedly been given to the cultivation of those personal, friendly relationships which extend beyond the formal intercourse of the classroom to the hospitality of the home.

He turns again to the work of the ministry after these years of academic experience, more than ever convinced of the inspiring opportunities which it presents for social service, and confident that the teachings of science, whether of political economy, biology or sociology, serve only to reinforce the fundamental teachings of ethics and religion.

Professor Cummings has for many years been an affectionate and enthusiastic admirer of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, and the present arrangement by which he takes up his work as Dr. Hale’s associate is a source of great personal satisfaction.

Source:  Cambridge Tribune, Volume XXIII, Number 25, 25 August 1900, p. 2.

Categories
Courses Curriculum Economists Johns Hopkins Regulations

Johns Hopkins Economics. Ph.D. Regulations, Courses 1880

Johns Hopkins University began instruction October 3, 1876. The class schedule for the entire university could be printed as a single page matrix of hours by days in 1879.

By the academic year 1880-81 Johns Hopkins University had awarded a single Ph.D. in political science, which is where political economy still was classified.

In this posting  we approach the beginning of the Big Bang of graduate education in economics in the U.S.

General Statements for 1880-81
Information for Graduate Students
Enumeration of Classes

 

________________________

[p. 54]

GENERAL STATEMENTS FOR 1880-81.

Instruction is provided for both Collegiate and University students….

Admission of Students.

Arrangements are made for the reception of the following classes of students:

I.
Graduates.

Young men who have already graduated in this or other institutions of acknowledged standing are received on the presentation of their diplomas, after satisfying the chief instructors in the departments of study which they propose to follow that they are qualified to pursue the courses here given. They may be enrolled as candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy or not, at their option. Those whose years and attainments correspond with those of graduates may also be received as special students.

II.
Matriculates.

Students who wish a collegiate training are expected, unless excused for some special reason, to offer themselves for matriculation at the time of their admission. If they can pass satisfactorily in a considerable part of the required studies, but not in all, they may be admitted as candidates for matriculation, but their names will not be printed as enrolled students until the examination is completed. They will not be considered as candidates for more than one academic year.

Students who present themselves with higher attainments than are requisite for matriculation may, upon examination, receive credit for the same, be admitted to advanced classes, and so graduate in less time than would otherwise be requisite.

III.
Non-Matriculates.

  1. Students in subjects preliminary to a medical course…
  2. Young men of collegiate age…sufficiently advanced in character and attainments to be allowed the privilege, and that there is some good reason why they should not offer themselves for matriculation…
  3. Attendants upon lectures. –The University has extended certain privileges to teachers…, to medical students…, and to other persons…[they] are not enumerated as enrolled students.

Fees for Tuition, Etc.

The charges are as follows, payable in advance, unless, for specific reasons satisfactory to the Treasurer, he permits the payment to be deferred:

For Tuition, $80 per annum.

[…]

Board and lodging in private houses near the University, including care of room, fuel and light, may be obtained at five dollars, an upwards, per week. Some students pay even less.

[p. 55]

 

INFORMATION FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS.

Graduate Courses.

Advanced and graduate students are received with or without reference to their being candidates for a degree, and they are permitted to attend such lectures and exercises as they may individually select…

…The University professors are not absorbed in the details of college routine, but are free to give personal counsel and instruction to those who seek it; books and instruments adapted to investigation and advanced work have been liberally provided; the system of Fellowships secures the presence of twenty special students, imbued with the University spirit, most of them looking forward to academic careers; seminaries limited to a few advanced students, under the guidance of a director, have been organized in Greek, Mathematics, Physics, and History; societies devoted to Philology, to Mathematical, Physical, and Natural Science, and to History and Political Science, afford opportunities for the presentation of memoirs and original communications….

The instruction is carried on by such methods (varying of course with individual scholars, and with the different departments of work) as will encourage the student to become an independent and original investigator, while he is growing more and more familiar with the work now in progress elsewhere, and with the results which have been obtained by other scholars in the same field, and while he is adding to his general intellectual culture…

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

The Degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy will be conferred in conformity with the following regulations:

Every candidate for the degree of A.M: and Ph.D. will be required:

  1. To have obtained the Baccalaureate degree of this University (or to present the diploma of some other college which the Faculty shall accept as equivalent), and to have subsequently devoted not less than two years to University study in the special department of learning which he may have chosen. The appointment to a Fellowship will be regarded by the faculty as equivalent to the attainment of a Bachelor’s Degree, so far as this is a necessary condition of obtaining a higher degree.
  2. To produce a thesis which shall be approved by the Faculty. This thesis must be the result of original investigation in the main subject for examination, and the subject of the thesis must be submitted for approval to the head of the department, or the chief examiner in it, not less than six months before the degree is conferred.
  3. To pass an examination in one main and one or more subsidiary subjects; the choice of which is to be referred by the candidate to the chief examiner, and through him to the Faculty for final approval. The method of examination will vary according to the subject, and will be written, oral, practical, or all three, as may be deemed best.
  4. To enroll himself as a candidate for the degree, at least one year in advance of the time when he proposes to apply for examination.

Degrees will be conferred by the Trustees on the recommendation of the Faculty, probably twice a year, in the middle of the winter and at the end of the academic term.

The Diploma will indicate the department of study to which the candidate has directed his attention.

Degrees Conferred.—The degree of Doctor of Philosophy has been conferred on the following named persons, who have passed the required examinations:

 

1878 [4 Ph.D. degrees awarded, one in economics  (no other in economics through 1880)]

Henry C. Adams, A.B., Iowa College, 1874; now Lecturer on Political Economy at Cornell University and at the Johns Hopkins University.

 

[…]

 

ENUMERATION OF CLASSES

Which have been instructed during the Academic Year 1879-80.

[pp. 61]

History and Political Science. (33 Students.)

Seminary of American History (15).

Once weekly, two months: Dr. [Austin] Scott.

Comparative Constitutional History (5).

Once weekly, four months: Dr. H. B. Adams.

History of the Renaissance and Reformation (17).

Daily, first half-year, also ten public lectures: Dr. H. B. Adams.

English Constitutional History, Stubbs’ Select Charters (15).

Once weekly, six months: Dr. H. B. Adams.

Political Economy (13).

Four times weekly, two months : Dr. H. B. Adams.

Money and Banking (12).

Four times weekly, two months: Dr. H. C. Adams.

National Debts.

Nine public lectures: Dr. H. C. Adams.

________________________

Source: Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. No. 5, May, 1880, pp. 54-55, 61.

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard Economics. Daniel Ellsberg profiles Richard Goodwin

A member of the CRIMSON, [Goodwin] left to become one of the founders of a competing newspaper. As a senior, he started a rival to the Advocate, an “intellectual magazine” called the Harvard Critic. “We were far in advance of our time, I will say that for us,” he recalls, speaking of the group’s major project, a Kinsey-type poll of undergraduate sex-life. Aided the a professor of clinical psychology, the staff composed a carefully-worded questionnaire and had 2000 conscientious replies. The date was recorded on IBM cards, and the professor prepared to tabulate it on the University’s IBM machines. At this point the Dean’s Office made the students a sporting offer, one alternative being to publish the results and be expelled. Goodwin shipped the cards back home to Newcastle, Indiana.

Note: this Faculty Profile was written by Daniel Ellsberg who later brought us The Pentagon Papers. The on-line version of the article misspelled Ellsberg’s name.

WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PUNCH CARDS….

Source: May 24, 1951: The Harvard Crimson

Categories
Economists Harvard Transcript

Harvard Economics. Richard M. Goodwin, 1949

The economics department of Columbia University set up a search committee  to identify “the names of the most promising young economists, wherever trained and wherever located” from which a short list of three names for the replacement of Louis M. Hacker in Columbia College was selected. The Chairman of the Harvard Economics Department, Harold H. Burbank, suggested a few names to the committee. In this posting I have assembled Burbank’s letter, another by Schumpeter and a data-sheet apparently provided by the Harvard economics department (including a list of graduate courses taken at Harvard) plus a list of Goodwin’s publications as of the end of 1949.

_____________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Office of the Chairman
M-8 Littauer Center
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

November 28, 1949

Dear Jimmy

I had thought that I might be able to make one or two definite recommendations by this time, but I find that I cannot be at all definite.

The young man whom I had expected to recommend most strongly is Richard M. Goodwin. Goodwin was graduated from Harvard College in 1934, summa cum laude. After three years at Oxford I had him return to the Department and he has been with us since that time. During the war years he worked with the group in mathematics and physics, improving and consolidating his knowledge of mathematics to a point where it is highly useful in his econonmics. Goodwin is now in the fourth year of his appointment as an assistant professor. Undoubtedly he will be considered for a permanent place here which is probably the best recommendation I can give you. With us he has worked mainly in theory and money and banking and in cycles. I am enclosing a copy of his publications It is true enough that his main interest for the moment is in monetary economics but his interests are so definitely broad that I feel that it would be no great difficulty for him to meet your needs.

[…]

Very sincerely

[signed]

H. H. Burbank

Professor James W. Angell
Department of Economics
Columbia University
New York 27, New York

Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”

_____________________

 

Richard Murphey Goodwin

Address:                  7 Revere Street, Cambridge; E1 4-2981

Born:                        1913 in U.S.

Married:                  Yes

Degrees:

A. B. Harvard, 1934
B.A. Oxford, 1936
B. Litt. Oxford, 1937
A.M., Harvard, 1939
Ph.D. Harvard, 1941

Experience:         Annual Instructor, Harvard, 1939-46

Assistant Professor, Harvard, 1946-

Courses:               1937-38

Ec. 116 (Price Theory)           B+
Ec. 103a (Adv. Theory)         A
Ec. 121 (Statistics)                 A+, Exc.
Ec. 145 (Cycles)                      A, A
Ec. 4a (Math. Ec.)                  B+

1938-39

Ec.171 (Com. Dist)                 A

 

Fields of Study:   Theory, Ec. History, Statistics, Cycles; write-off, Commodity Distribution and Prices

Special Field:           Money and Banking

Thesis Topic:           Studies in Money; England and Wales, 1919 to 1938

Generals:                 Passed May 24, 1938 with grade of Good Plus

Specials:                  Passed May 22, 1941 with grade of Excellent Minus

Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”

 _____________________

Richard M. Goodwin – Bibliography

“The Supply of Bank Money in England and Wales, 1920-38”, Oxford Economic Papers, no. 5, 1941.

“Keynesian and Other Interest Theories,” Review of [Economic] Statistics, Vol. XXV, No. 1, February, 1943.

“Keynesian Economics,” a review of a book of Mabel Timlin, Review of Economic Statistics, Aug. 1944. Vol. XXVI.

“Innovations and the Irregularity of Economic Cycles,” Review of Economic Statistics, May 1946.

“Dynamical Coupling with Special Reference to Markets Having Production Lags,” Econometrica, July 1947.

“The Multiplier”, an article in the New Economics, edited by S. E. Harris, 1947.

“Secular and Cyclical Aspects of the Multiplier and the Accelerator,” a chapter in Income, Employment and Public Policy – Essays in Honor of Alvin Hansen, 1948.

“The Business Cycle as a Self Sustaining Mechanism,” a paper delivered befoe the Econmetric Society, December, 1948. Abstract published in Econometrica for April 1949.

“Liquidity and Uncertainty”, a discussion paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association in Cleveland, December 1948. Published in the Proceedings of the convention.

“The Multiplier as Matrix” accepted for publication but not yet published by the Economic Journal of the Royal Economic Society.

A book, “Dynamic Economics”, now in preparation.

Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”

 _____________________

JOSEPH A. SCHUMPETER
7 Acacia Street
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts
December 3, 1949

Professor James W. Angell
Executive Officer
Department of Economics
Columbia University
New York 27, N.Y.

Private and confidential:

Dear Angell:

I greatly regret my inability to thank you, before leaving New York, for your hospitality and to have a chat with you. Now there is nothing confidential in this. What is strictly confidential however is a topic which I wished to bring up in that chat. The next year will terminate the five-year appointment of one of our best young men, Assistant Professor Richard Goodwin. According to our practice, the question of his promotion to permanent office is going to be discussed presently and I have no hope of securing a majority for him that the administration will consider adequate. This is not because any one has any fault to find with him personally but simply because other people have other candidates. You know how that is. Myself, I believe that Goodwin’s work in the field of dynamic models (and in particular four of his ten published articles) is of striking force and originality and also promises well for the future. In addition, I know that he is an excellent teacher. On the undergraduate level he runs personally and independently our biggest course, namely, the course on Money and Banking (But I do not count the general introductory course because it is run by sections). On the graduate level I have much admired his ability to express convey difficult material to an audience not really in command of the requisite technique. Therefore I am, myself, strongly in favor of promoting him but since I do not anticipate success I am anxious to sound you confidentially as regards possibilities at Columbia. An appointment might be combined with work at the National Bureau and would not therefore burden your budget very much immediately. Of course you will realize that the matter is strictly confidential but I would very much like to have your opinion.

Cordially yours,

[signed]
Joseph A. Schumpeter

JAS/jcs

[handwritten note by Schumpeter at bottom of page] I have talked to Burns

Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”

 _____________________

Image Source: Harvard Class of 1951 Yearbook.

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard Economics. Course. Graduate Theory. Schumpeter. 1935-36

 

 

The graduate economic theory course, Economics 11, was taught by Schumpeter for both semesters of the academic year 1935-36. According to Schumpeter’s own handwritten list of students and grades for that course, Paul Samuelson received a grade of A+ and represented the local maximum of the “Ec 11 boys, graduates”.

1935_6_Ec11_SchumpeterGrades

____________________

Because the “cost controversy” was discussed during the first term of the academic year 1935-36 (one can gleam a glimpse of content from Schumpeter’s course notes from random names and words not written in his shorthand) I append here the corresponding readings assigned for the second term of the the academic year 1934-35.  Note that Pigovian welfare economics appears to have been covered some time during the second term of the academic year 1935-36, see the exam below.

____________________

The Laws of Cost and Returns. Probably three or four weeks. It is proposed to deal fully with the so-called “cost controversy”, a series of more or less closely connected articles which appeared in the Economic Journal from 1922 to 1932. The following is a list of the articles in the order of their appearance. Students will not be held responsible for those included in brackets, some of which are connected only remotely with the main controversy. 1) “On Empty Economic Boxes”, J. H. Clapham, Sept. 1922; “Empty Economic Boxes: a Reply”, A.C. Pigou, Dec. 1922; “Those Empty Boxes”, D. H. Robertson, March, 1924; “The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions”, P. Sraffa, Dec. 1926; [“The Laws of Diminishing and Increasing Costs”, A.C. Pigou, June 1927]; [“An Analysis of Supply”, A. C. Pigou; June 1928]; “Varying Costs and Marginal Net Products”, G. F. Shove, June 1928; [“The Instability of Capitalism”, J.A. Schumpeter, Sept. 1928;] [“The Representative Firm”, L.C. Robbins, Sept. 1928]; “Increasing Returns and Economic Progress”, A.A. Young, Dec. 1928; “Increasing Returns and the Representative Firm: a Symposium”, D.H. Robertson, G.F. Shove, and P. Sraffa, March 1930. The following two articles by R.F. Harrod are in effect a continuation of the “cost controversy”, but they will be considered later in connection with the discussion of imperfect competition: “Notes on Supply”, June 1930; and “The Law of Decreasing Cost”, Dec. 1931.

Source: Harvard University Archives,  HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: Ec11 Fall 1935.

____________________

Economics 11 [First term]

            Following is a list of some of the most important works in English dealing with problems outside the range of perfect competition. They are not all assigned, but assigned reading is taken altogether from this list.

Pigou, A. C., Economics of Welfare, 3rd Edition.
Chamberlin, E. H., The Theory of Monopolistic Competition.
Chamberlin, E. H., On Imperfect Competition, in the March, 1934 Supplement of The American Economic Review, pp. 23-27.
Robinson, Joan, Economics of Imperfect Competition.
Robinson, Joan, What is Perfect Competition, Q. J. E., Nov. 1934.
Zeuthen, F., Problems of Monopoly and Economic Warfare.
Cournot, A. A., Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth.
Edgeworth, F. Y., The Pure Theory of Monopoly (Papers, Vol. I)
Hotelling, Harold, Stability in Competition, E. J., March 1929.
Shove, G. F., The Imperfection of the Market, E. J., March 1933.
Harrod, R. F., Doctrines of Imperfect Competition, Q. J. E., May 1934.
Hicks, J. R., The Theory of Monopoly, Econometrica, Jan. 1935.

The subjects, in the order in which they will be taken up, together with the assigned reading, are given below.

I. The Technique and the Background.
Pigou, Part II, Ch. XIV.
Robinson, Chs. 1, 2.
Chamberlin, Chs. 1, 2.		 V. Monopolistic Competition
Chamberlin, Chs. 4, 5, 6, 7.
Robinson, Ch. 7. Q.J.E., Nov. ‘34
Shove, E.J., March ’33.
Harrod, Q.J.E., May ’34.
II. Simple Monopoly.
Pigou, Part II, Ch. XVI.
Robinson, Chs. 3, 4, 5.		 VI. Discrimination.
Pigou, Chs. XVII, XVIII (Part II).
Robinson, Chs. 15, 16.
III. Duopoly and Oligopoly
Pigou, Part II, Ch. XV.
Chamberlin, Ch. 3.		 VII. Imperfect Competition and the Theory of Distribution.
Chamberlin, in March ’34 A.E.R. Supplement.
IV. Bilateral Monopoly.(To be discussed in class)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives,  HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: Ec11 Fall 1935.

____________________

1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11

Four questions may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Discuss the concepts “internal economies” and “spreading of overhead” and explain what, if any, relations exist between the two.
  2. What do we mean by Production Function? Discuss its principal properties, and state why and for what purpose we need this instrument of analysis.
  3. “Wherever products are differentiated, the theory of monopoly seems adequately to describe their prices. Competition is not eliminated from the explanation; it is fully taken into account by the recognition that substitutes affect the elasticity of demand for each monopolist’s product.” Do you agree? Justify your answer.
  4. “Under imperfect competition, in conditions of full long period equilibrium, it is not only true that average costs for the individual firm may be falling; they must be falling.” Discuss. Does this necessarily imply falling supply price?
  5. Assume that a commodity is offered by two sellers. Disregard costs. Describe the courses of action open to the two sellers, and discuss the conditions of the case in which price and quantity sold are uniquely determined. Show that in this case price will as a rule be higher than under perfect competition and lower than under monopoly.
  6. In his 1926 article, Sraffa says, “It is necessary to abandon the path of free competition and turn in the opposite direction, namely, towards monopoly.” Discuss the considerations which led him to adopt this view.
  7. Discuss price and output under discriminating monopoly.
  8. State and discuss the principle involved in “Hotelling’s case.”
  9. “The economist has shown that, granted certain assumptions, a set of prices exists which, if established from the beginning, would produce a state of equilibrium; he has never demonstrated, however, that forces are at work which would tend to establish such a system of prices.” Discuss.

Mid-Year. 1936.

Source: Harvard University Archives,  HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: Ec11 Fall 1935.

____________________

ECONOMICS 11 [Second term]

            The first four or five weeks of the second term will be devoted to a study of distribution, with special emphasis on the theory of wages. Topics to be covered include (1) marginal productivity, (2) the elasticity of substitution, and (3) opportunity costs. The following is a list of reading.

  1. Marginal Productivity and the Theory of Wages
    1. Marshall, Bk. VI, especially Ch. I.
    2. Hicks, J. R., “The Theory of Wages”, Chs. I and VI.
    3. ——-, Marginal Productivity and the Principle of Variation,” Economica, Feb., 1932.
    4. Schultz, Henry and Hicks, J. R., “Marginal Productivity and the Lausanne School: A Reply” and “A Rejoinder”, Economica, Aug., 1932.
    5. Clark, J. B., “The Distribution of Wealth”, Ch. VIII.
    6. Robertson, D. H., “Wage Grumbles” in the volume of essays entitled Economic Fragments.
  2. Elasticity of Substitution
    1. Hicks, Ch. VI (Cf. above).
      (mathematical treatment in Appendix for those who prefer)
    2. Machlup, Fritz, “The Common Sense of the Elasticity of Substitution”, Review of Economic Studies, June, 1935.
    3. Also notes and articles on substitution in Review of Economic Studies, Vol. I, nos. 1 and 2, though not required reading, may be consulted.
  3. Opportunity Costs.
    1. Green, D.I., “Pain Cost and Opportunity Cost”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1894.
    2. Davenport, H.J. , “Economics of Enterprise”, Ch. VI.
    3. Knight, F.H., “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Statement of the General Theory of Price”, Journal of Political Economy, 1928.

Source: Harvard University Archives,  HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: Ec11 1935-36.

____________________

ECONOMICS 11  [Second term]

            The next two or three weeks will be devoted to the discussion of capital and interest. A select bibliography and the assigned reading are listed below. The readings from Wicksell and Knight will probably not be covered in class and may, therefore, at pleasure be postponed until the reading period. As usual in this course there will be no additional reading period assignment.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Böhm-Bawerk, E., Capital and Interest (a history of interest theories); The Positive Theory of Capital (the third edition, available only in German, containing the polemical Excursi, is to be preferred to the English translation)
  2. Marx, Karl, Capital (especially Vol. I, Parts III and VII; Vol. II, Part III; Vol. III, Parts II and III)
  3. Wicksell, Knut, Über Wert, Kapital und Rente;  Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. I
  4. Fisher, Irving, The Rate of Interest (1907);  The Theory of Interest (1930) (a rewriting of the earlier work)
  5. Taussig, F.W., Wages and Capital
  6. Knight, F.H., “Interest”, article in The Encyc. of Soc. Science
  7. For a rather complete list of the numerous recent articles on capital, interest and the structure of production, Cf. Machlup, Fritz, “Professor Knight and the Period of Production”, Journal of Political Economy, 1935, first footnote.
  8. For an exposition of Böhm-Bawerk, Wicksell and the later work along the same lines done in Sweden, particularly by Gustav Akerman, Cf. Kirchmann, Hans, Studien zur Grenzproduktivitätstheorie des Kapitalzinses.

 

ASSIGNED READING

  1. Fisher, The Rate of Interest, Part I, Chs. 1,2,3; Part III, Ch. 10
  2. Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory, Book I, Ch. 2; Book II, Chs. 2,4,5; Book V, Chs. 1,2,3,4,5; Book VI, Chs. 5,6,7; Book VII, Chs. 1,2,3.
  3. Wicksell, Lectures, Vol. I, pp. 144-171; 185-195.
  4. Knight, “Professor Fisher’s Theory of Interest: a Case in Point”, Journal of Political Economy, April, 1931.

Source:  Harvard University Archives, HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: “Ec11 1935-36”

____________________

[Given that Economic Welfare, the distinction between marginal social value and private net value product, and the national dividend show up in questions 5 and 6 in the final, I append here the corresponding readings assigned for the second term of the the academic year 1934-35]

Welfare and the National Dividend. Approximately two weeks. The discussion will turn around the following chapters from “The Economics of Welfare” by A.C. Pigou (3rd or 4th edition): Part I, Chapters 1,2,3,5,6,7,8; Part IV, Chapter 2; and Part II, Chapters 1,2,3,4,11. In the second edition the corresponding chapters from Part I are 1-7 inclusive and from Part II, 1,2,3,4,10. Chap. 10 Part II is completely revised in the third edition (where it appears as Chap. 11, Part II) and should if possible be read in the third.

Source:  Harvard University Archives, HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: “Ec11 Fall 1935”

____________________

1935-36
Final Examination
Economics 11

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions:

  1. What is the relation between elasticity of substitution and elasticity of demand? Interpret the following statement: “If the demand price of capital increases as a result of a fall in wages, then the elasticity of demand for labor is greater than the elasticity of substitution.”
  2. How would you expect inventions to affect the rate of interest?
  3. Marginal productivity of labor is held to determine wages. How does this work out in the cases of perfect and of imperfect competition?
  4. State and discuss Boehm-Bawerk’s theory of interest.
  5. “If in all industries the values of marginal social and marginal private net product differed to exactly the same extent, the optimum distribution of resources [between their possible uses] would always be attained, and there would be, on these lines, no case for fiscal interference”. Discuss.
  6. Define Economic Welfare and National Dividend. Do you consider these two concepts to be serviceable instruments of economic analysis? Why or why not?

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives, HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: “Ec11 Fall 1935”

____________________

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard Syllabus

Harvard Economics. Course. Graduate Theory. Schumpeter. Spring 1935

The second semester of Economics 11 for the academic year 1934-35  was taught by Joseph Schumpeter after Frank W. Taussig taught the first semester.

Wolfgang Stolper’s notes for the course (Box 19, Notebook “Taussig Ec 11 Theory. 1934-35”) taken during the Spring Semester 1935 follow the printed reading lists given below that are undated in the folder marked “Ec11 Fall 1935” in Schumpeter’s papers.

_____________________

Economics 11

The following is a brief outline of what will be covered in the first four to six weeks of the second semester.

I. Welfare and the National Dividend. Approximately two weeks. The discussion will turn around the following chapters from “The Economics of Welfare” by A.C. Pigou (3rd or 4th edition): Part I, Chapters 1,2,3,5,6,7,8; Part IV, Chapter 2; and Part II, Chapters 1,2,3,4,11. In the second edition the corresponding chapters from Part I are 1-7 inclusive and from Part II, 1,2,3,4,10. Chap. 10 Part II is completely revised in the third edition (where it appears as Chap. 11, Part II) and should if possible be read in the third. The material from Part II leads to the second main topic, namely,

II. The Laws of Cost and Returns. Probably three or four weeks. It is proposed to deal fully with the so-called “cost controversy”, a series of more or less closely connected articles which appeared in the Economic Journal from 1922 to 1932. The following is a list of the articles in the order of their appearance. Students will not be held responsible for those included in brackets, some of which are connected only remotely with the main controversy. 1) “On Empty Economic Boxes”, J. H. Clapham, Sept. 1922; “Empty Economic Boxes: a Reply”, A.C. Pigou, Dec. 1922; “Those Empty Boxes”, D. H. Robertson, March, 1924; “The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions”, P. Sraffa, Dec. 1926; [“The Laws of Diminishing and Increasing Costs”, A.C. Pigou, June 1927]; [“An Analysis of Supply”, A. C. Pigou; June 1928]; “Varying Costs and Marginal Net Products”, G. F. Shove, June 1928; [“The Instability of Capitalism”, J.A. Schumpeter, Sept. 1928;] [“The Representative Firm”, L.C. Robbins, Sept. 1928]; “Increasing Returns and Economic Progress”, A.A. Young, Dec. 1928; “Increasing Returns and the Representative Firm: a Symposium”, D.H. Robertson, G.F. Shove, and P. Sraffa, March 1930. The following two articles by R.F. Harrod are in effect a continuation of the “cost controversy”, but they will be considered later in connection with the discussion of imperfect competition: “Notes on Supply”, June 1930; and “The Law of Decreasing Cost”, Dec. 1931.

_____________________

[There is a gap in reading lists between the laws of costs and production above and the discussion of imperfect competition and monopolistic competition below. The following three topics and readings are taken from the second term of the academic year 1935-36. According to Stolper’s notes (both from class and his reading notes), the topics and material were at least touched upon in the second term of the academic year 1934-35. Cf. the final exam questions below.]

 

  1. Marginal Productivity and the Theory of Wages
    1. Marshall, Bk. VI, especially Ch. I.
    2. Hicks, J. R., “The Theory of Wages”, Chs. I and VI.
    3. ——-, Marginal Productivity and the Principle of Variation,” Economica, Feb., 1932.
    4. Schultz, Henry and Hicks, J. R., “Marginal Productivity and the Lausanne School: A Reply” and “A Rejoinder”, Economica, Aug., 1932.
    5. Clark, J. B., “The Distribution of Wealth”, Ch. VIII.
    6. Robertson, D. H., “Wage Grumbles” in the volume of essays entitled Economic Fragments.
  2. Elasticity of Substitution
    1. Hicks, Ch. VI (Cf. above).
      (mathematical treatment in Appendix for those who prefer)
    2. Machlup, Fritz, “The Common Sense of the Elasticity of Substitution”, Review of Economic Studies, June, 1935.
    3. Also notes and articles on substitution in Review of Economic Studies, Vol. I, nos. 1 and 2, though not required reading, may be consulted.
  3. Opportunity Costs.
    1. Green, D.I., “Pain Cost and Opportunity Cost”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1894.
    2. Davenport, H.J. , “Economics of Enterprise”, Ch. VI.
    3. Knight, F.H., “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Statement of the General Theory of Price”, Journal of Political Economy, 1928.

Source: Harvard University Archives, HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter Lecture Notes, Box 9, Folder “Ec11 1935-36”.

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Economics 11

Following is a list of some of the most important works in English dealing with problems outside the range of perfect competition. They are not all assigned, but assigned reading is taken altogether from this list.

Pigou, A. C., Economics of Welfare, 3rd Edition.
Chamberlin, E. H., The Theory of Monopolistic Competition.
Chamberlin, E. H., On Imperfect Competition, in the March, 1934 Supplement of The American Economic Review, pp. 23-27.
Robinson, Joan, Economics of Imperfect Competition.
Robinson, Joan, What is Perfect Competition, Q. J. E., Nov. 1934.
Zeuthen, F., Problems of Monopoly and Economic Warfare.
Cournot, A. A., Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth.
Edgeworth, F. Y., The Pure Theory of Monopoly (Papers, Vol. I)
Hotelling, Harold, Stability in Competition, E. J., March 1929.
Shove, G. F., The Imperfection of the Market, E. J., March 1933.
Harrod, R. F., Doctrines of Imperfect Competition, Q. J. E., May 1934.
Hicks, J. R., The Theory of Monopoly, Econometrica, Jan. 1935.

The subjects, in the order in which they will be taken up, together with the assigned reading, are given below.

I. The Technique and the Background.Pigou, Part II, Ch. XIV.
Robinson, Chs. 1, 2.
Chamberlin, Chs. 1, 2.		 V. Monopolistic CompetitionChamberlin, Chs. 4, 5, 6, 7.
Robinson, Ch. 7. Q.J.E., Nov. ‘34
Shove, E.J., March ’33.
Harrod, Q.J.E., May ’34.
II. Simple Monopoly.Pigou, Part II, Ch. XVI.
Robinson, Chs. 3, 4, 5.		 VI. Discrimination.Pigou, Chs. XVII, XVIII (Part II).
Robinson, Chs. 15, 16.
III. Duopoly and OligopolyPigou, Part II, Ch. XV.
Chamberlin, Ch. 3.		 VII. Imperfect Competition and the Theory of Distribution.Chamberlin, in March ’34 A.E.R. Supplement.
IV. Bilateral Monopoly.(To be discussed in class)  

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1934-35
Harvard University
ECONOMICS 11

Two questions may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. State the principle of Pigou’s method of measuring the National Dividend, and explain the relation of variations in the National Dividend, as thus measured, to “Welfare.”
  2. “What the production of any commodity costs to society or any individual, is the satisfaction which could have been derived from producing something else with the same means of production.” What do you think of this proposition?
  3. Explain briefly what is meant by
    (a) Elasticity of demand,
    (b) Elasticity of substitution,
    (c) Marginal revenue,
    (d) Bilateral monopoly,
    (e) Perfect competition.
  4. State the three theorems, which together constitute the “theory of marginal productivity” and show what, if anything, corresponds to each of them in the case of imperfect competition.
  5. “Monopolistic competition implies oligopoly and could not exist without it.” Do you agree?
  6. Define discrimination, and formulate the condition which must be fulfilled in order to maximize the discriminating monopolists profit. Do you think that the monopolists output will be greater or less than it would be without discrimination?

Final. 1935.

No. 55

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Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC (FP)–4.62. Joseph Schumpeter Lecture Notes, Box 6. Folder “Ec 11, Fall 1935”.