Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Chicago Regulations

Chicago Economics. General Regulations for Ph.D., 1903

University of Chicago
The Regulations of the University of Chicago
(Chicago, 1903)

[p. 24]

ARTICLE VIII. INSTRUCTION.

Section 1.—Courses of instruction provided by the University are organized under the following Departments:

[p. 25]

The Schools and Colleges of Arts, Literature, and Science.

I.           Philosophy.
II.         Political Economy.
III.       Political Science.
IV.       History.
V.         The History of Art.
VI.       Sociology and Anthropology.
VII.      Comparative Religion.
VIII.     Semitic Languages and Literatures-
IX.        Biblical and Patristic Greek.
X.         Sanskrit and Indo-European Comparative Philology.
XI.       The Greek Language and Literature.
XII.      The Latin Language and Literature.
XIII.     The Romance Languages and Literatures.
XIV.     The Germanic Languages and Literatures.
XV.       The English Language and Literature, and Rhetoric.
XVI.     Literature (in English).
XVII.    Mathematics.
XVIIl.   Astronomy and Astrophysics.
XIX.     Physics.
XX.      Chemistry.
XXI.     Geology.
XXIA.  Geography.
XXII.   Zoology.
XXIII.  Anatomy.
XXIV.  Physiology (including Physiological Chemistry and Pharmacology).
XXV.   Neurology.
XXVI.  Palæontology.
XXVII. Botany.
XXVIll. Pathology and Bacteriology.
XXXI.  Public Speaking.
XXXIl. Physical Culture and Athletics.
XXXIII.Military Science and Tactics.

[…]

Section 2. — Courses of instruction are classified as Majors and Minors, and call for a specific number of hours per week, or the equivalent of the same, as follows: The Major course occupies four or five hours weekly for a Quarter (twelve weeks). The Minor course occupies four or five hours weekly for a Term (six weeks). The Double Major or Double Minor occupies double the [p. 26] weekly time for the Quarter or Term respectively.

  1. Major and Minor courses in the Junior Colleges uniformly occupy five hours weekly.
  2. In the Summer Quarter courses in all the Schools and Colleges occupy five hours weekly.
  3. Seminar work is estimated in Majors or Minors not according to the number of hours occupied weekly, but according to the character of the work required. Determination of the credit value of the Seminar lies within the province of the instructor, subject to the approval of the Head of the Department.

 

Section 3. — The normal work of the student is three courses for each Quarter.

  1. The student is permitted to take two Majors or their equivalent, or one Major, provided that he furnishes satisfactory evidence to his Dean that he is making the proper use of his time.
  2. A student may take four Majors of work during a Quarter. In the case of an under- graduate student this is permitted only on approval of his recent instructors and the payment of an additional fee (see Art. XIII, sec. 7, no. 8).

[…]

[p. 30]

Section 13. — The courses of instruction in the Graduate Schools are elective, except as the election is modified by the previous choice involved in candidacy for a particular degree. (See Art. XI, sees. 4, 6, 8.)

  1. Graduate work done in another institution is accepted as resident work in the University, provided that:
    1. The institution in which the work is done is of high standing; and
    2. Sufficient evidence is furnished that the particular work is satisfactorily performed.
    3. No work done in another institution is accepted in lieu of the minimum of one year of residence required for any degree.
  2. Non-resident work may be substituted for resident work for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the following conditions:
    1. The non-resident student is expected to matriculate at the University and spend the first year of the time required for the degree in residence, unless he satisfies the Head of the Department concerned that he can do the introductory work in a satisfactory manner though not in attendance.
    2. The non-resident work is performed under the general direction of the Head of the Department concerned.
    3. The final examination in all work leading to a degree is passed at the University.
  3. No non-resident work is accepted in lieu of the minimum residence of one year required for the Master’s degree.

[…]

[p. 32]

Section 17. — At the close of each course of study an examination is held by the instructor, the particular time being officially announced in the Weekly Calendar.

  1. Quarterly examinations are given in graduate courses at the discretion of the instructor. *

*(l) This does not entitle individual graduate students to exemption from the examination in courses in which the quarterly examination is held. (2) In case no examination is held in a graduate course it is understood that some paper, problem, or exercise is substituted for the examination in question.

  1. If quarterly examinations are not given in graduate courses, instruction continues to be given until the last day of the Quarter.

[…]

Section 19. — For regulations governing examinations for higher degrees, see Art. XI, sec. 6, no. 4, and sec. 9.

 

Section 20. — The following terminology is employed in recording the work of students:

 

A = 100 to 91.

B= 90 to 76.

C= 75 to 61.

D= 60 to 51.

E= 50 to 0.

  1. “C” is the passing mark.
  2. “D” requires a second examination…

[p. 33]

[…]

  1. In the Graduate Schools all grades below “C” are equivalent to “not passed.”

[…]

[p. 38]

[…]

ARTICLE XI. GRADUATION, INCLUDING CANDIDACY AND REQUIREMENTS FOR DEGREES.

Section 1. — A diploma or certificate conferring a degree or a title, or testifying to the completion of a course of study, is awarded to each student completing the requirements in a School, College, or Academy as follows:

[…]

  1. The degree of Master of Arts, Philosophy, or Science and of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Schools.

[…]

Section 3. — A student is admitted to candidacy for a higher degree in any School on the following general conditions:

  1. If his undergraduate course is equivalent to that in the Colleges of the University (see sees. 4-6).
  2. If he has been in residence one Quarter or more in the School.
  3. On recommendation of the Department or Departments in which he wishes to work he is accepted by the Faculty of the School.
  4. Graduates of approved institutions who become candidates for a higher degree are, as a general rule, allowed to depart from the regulations of the University for the Bachelor’s degree to the extent of three Majors, but no deficiency in quantity is allowed (see sees. 5 and 6).
  5. Substitutes for the specified work required for the Bachelor’s degree of this University, to the amount of eight Majors reckoned by College standards, are granted to candidates for a higher degree:
    1. In the case of a student appointed to a Fellowship or Scholarship, when the substitution is recommended by the Department in which the principal work is done.
    2. In other cases, by a majority vote of the University Senate.

[…]

[p.39]

[…]

Section 4. — The following special regulations condition admission to candidacy for the degrees in question :

[…]

  1. In the case of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in any School, the student has a reading knowledge of French and German certified to by the Departments of Romance and Germanic Languages in the University, and the subject for his dissertation is accepted by the Head of his principal Department.
  2. A graduate student holding any Bachelor’s degree and devoting himself to any Department of study is admitted to candidacy for any Master’s degree, provided that, also, he has done the work required for a corresponding Bachelor’s degree in the University.

[…]

Section 6. — Students admitted to candidacy for higher degrees obtain them on the following general conditions :

  1. Resident graduate work as follows : for the Master’s degree, three Quarters ; for the Doctor’s degree, three years, or, in the Graduate Divinity School, four years. (See special provision in sec. 7, nos. 6-8.)
  2. Registration during the Quarter in which the examination for the degree takes place.
  3. The successful completion of a course of study acceptable to the Department in which the work is done. For special curriculum requirements, see sec. 8.
  4. The passing of a final examination, written [p. 40] or oral or both, at the discretion of the examining committee. For special examination requirements see sec. 9.
  5. The preparation and presentation of a satisfactory dissertation, except in the case of the non-specialist Master’s degree (see sec. 8, no. 3). For special dissertation requirements, see sec. 10.
  6. The favorable report of the examining committee, the recommendation of Ruling Bodies concerned, and the conferring of the degree by the Board of Trustees through the President.
  7. Presence in person at the Convocation at which the degree is given.

 

Section 7. — Special regulations governing the term of residence necessary for graduation are as follows :

  1. No degree is given without at least one year (three Quarters) of full resident work.
  2. Students who have taken a degree for two years’ work in schools under the supervision of the University may take the title of Associate after a Quarter of residence at the University.

[…]

  1. Students presenting advanced credit shorten the time required for residence for certain degrees. (See Art. VI, sec. 13 ; Art. VIII, sec. 13, no. I, and sec. 14, no. 7.)
  2. Non-resident work accepted in lieu of work in residence shortens the time required for residence. (See Art. VIII, sec. 13, no. 2, sec. 14, no. 4.) Non-resident work cannot be accepted as affording any time credit in the course for the medical degree.
  3. In exceptional cases the degree of Doctor of Philosophy may be granted after one year of residence at the University of Chicago, work having been done in other institutions.

 

Section 8. — Special regulations governing the curriculum are as follows :

  1. Each Department of instruction decides what courses of instruction are accepted in its Department for higher degrees.
  2. Work done in other universities may be substituted for work in the University according to the regulations found in Art. VI, sec. 13; Art. VIII, sec. 13, no. 1, sec. 14, no. 7.
  3. If the degree of Master in the Graduate Schools be taken as a specialist degree, at least seven Majors of resident graduate work, all falling in one Department, and a dissertation, are required. If it be taken as a non-specialist degree, there are required nine Majors of resident graduate work distributed among three Departments (not more than six Majors falling in any one group of Departments), without a dissertation; but the respective Departments must approve in writing, in advance, at the time of the student’s admission to candidacy, the specific courses to be offered for the degree, and any Department is at liberty to require other courses to be taken as preliminary to those thus approved. In any case Seminar courses are counted toward the Master’s degree only by special consent of the Department concerned.

[…]

[p. 41]

[…]

  1. For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Schools the requirements are :
    1. One principal and either one or two secondary subjects are chosen, each acceptable to the head of the Department concerned.
    2. Not more than two-thirds of the work may be done in one Department, and work counting toward the degree in not more than three Departments, except when such work is accepted as equivalent to work done in the Department itself.
    3. The minimum requirement in a secondary subject taken by a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is one year (three Quarters) of full work (that is to say, work corresponding, in the judgment of the Department, to nine Majors).
    4. The candidate who has already done in another university the whole or a part of the work which would be accepted by the proposed secondary Department in this University as sufficient, takes, nevertheless, an amount of work in that Department corresponding to at least three Majors; and this work is of a strictly advanced character.
    5. If a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy takes two secondary subjects, the minimum requirement is two-thirds of a full year’s work in one of them (that is to say, work corresponding, in the judgment of the Department concerned, to six Majors), and one-third of a full year’s work in the other (that is to say, work corresponding, in the judgment of the Department concerned, to three Majors); and of these amounts at least three Majors in each subject are of a strictly advanced character.
    6. A good command of literary expression and such knowledge of subjects considered fundamental as may be prescribed by the several Departments is required.

[…]

Section 9. — Special regulations governing the examination preliminary to obtaining degrees are as follows :

  1. The public oral examination for the degree of Master or of Doctor of Philosophy is conducted by an examining committee (see no. 2), and does not exceed two hours in length in the case of the Master’s degree and three hours in the case of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Notice of the same is published in the Weekly Calendar at least one week in advance.
  2. The Examining Committee consists of all the instructors of the Departments concerned, ex officio, and one or more members appointed by the President. The President also names the chairman of the Committee. In all examinations for the Doctor’s degree in Greek and Latin the members of all Departments represented in the Classical Group are understood to be included in this regulation as “Departments concerned.”
  3. The oral examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is taken within four months after the approval of the dissertation, unless the time be extended by the Senate upon the recommendation of the Heads of the Departments concerned. (See no. 6 below.)

[p. 42]

  1. The candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is admitted to final examination only when the thesis is complete and ready for the printer (see also sec. 10). By “complete ” is meant that every chapter or considerable subdivision of the document is worked out with such fulness that it is practicable to make all the necessary corrections and additions on the proof.
  2. No examination for a higher degree is held within the last week before the Convocation at which the degree is to be conferred.
  3. The candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy may present himself for examination in his secondary subject as soon as he has fulfilled the requirements of the Department concerned. The examination is conducted by a committee consisting of the members of the Department, a representative of the principal Department, and a representative of another Department, and the grade attained is reported to the Recorder.
  4. In case a candidate has already taken the examination in his secondary Department, the examination in his principal subject is conducted by an Examining Committee consisting of the members of the Department concerned, an appointed representative of the secondary Department, or each of them, by any other members of the said Department that may choose to attend, and by a member of some other Department appointed by the President.
  5. The candidate for any final examination for the higher degree prepares a typewritten or printed brief of his work, including an analysis of the dissertation, and files with the Recorder copies of the same, sufficient in number for the Examining Committee, one week before the time set for the examination. In case of an examination in the secondary Department, the brief includes the work in this Department. The brief for the final examination includes the work of both Departments.

 

Section 10. — Special regulations governing the dissertation in the case of the higher degrees are as follows:

  1. Students who have reached their third year of graduate study and are, in the judgment of the instructors concerned, prepared to enter upon the direct work of the thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy may, within the judgment of the Department in which the thesis is to be presented, be free for that work. In this case the usual fees are paid.
  2. The subject of the dissertation in the case of the Doctor’s degree in the Graduate Schools is submitted for approval to the Head of the Department at least twelve months before the date of the final examination.
  3. The dissertation itself is submitted in written form four months before the date of the final examination (unless postponement is authorized by the Senate upon recommendation of the Head of the Department concerned).
  4. Dissertation work may be done in collaboration with the instructor on the following conditions:
    1. The student should be given the choice of selecting a second subject on which he is allowed to publish alone.
    2. The student submits a written dissertation on such part of the joint work as was allotted to him for original investigation, on the basis of which he desires to receive the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
    3. This dissertation should be printed separately.
    4. Should the joint paper appear before the dissertation is printed, or should it be unavoidably delayed, the time allowed for the printing of the dissertation may be suitably extended at the request of the instructor.
  5. Dissertations for the degree of Master and of Doctor of Philosophy, after receiving the approval of the Departments concerned, are [p. 43] deposited in the Library at least three weeks before the date of the Convocation at which the degrees are to be conferred, and notices of the dissertations thus deposited are given to the Faculties concerned.
  6. In the title-page required for all dissertations the official name of the University is placed at the head of the title-page, and the name of the Department to which the dissertation is offered is designated in marks of parenthesis at the end of the statement that the dissertation is offered in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The proper form is as follows :

__________________

The University of Chicago
FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
_____

(Title) ______________________________________

___________________________________________

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY
OF THE

(GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE)
(OGDEN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE)
(GRADUATE DIVINITY SCHOOL)

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

(Department of___________________)

_____

BY

(Name of Author) ______________________________________

_____

_____

_____

19—

__________________

 

  1. A brief of the dissertation accompanies the brief of work required. (See sec. 9, no. 8.)
  2. A dissertation is required for the Master’s degree in the Graduate Schools when it is taken as a specialist degree. (See sec. 8, no. 3.) In this case the subject is submitted for approval to the Head of the Department in which the principal work is done, at least six months before graduation, and the completed dissertation at least two months before graduation. The title page of the Master’s dissertation must, in form, agree with that of the Doctor’s dissertation. The paper on which the dissertation is written is of uniform size (8½ × 11 inches), and of a quality approved by the Librarian of the University, from whom samples are obtained. Five printed or typewritten copies are deposited in the University Library. A copy for preservation in the Library is bound in dark cloth and shows the title of the thesis, either stamped on the cover in gilt lettering or written out on a slip and pasted on the outside covering.

[…]

[p. 44]

[…]

  1. For the relation of the dissertation to admission to the examination and to recommendation for the degree, see sees. 9, no. 4, and 11, nos. 3 and 4.
  2. After acceptance, one hundred printed copies of the dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy are deposited in the Library within six months after the date of the final examinations. These copies become the property of the University. (See Art. II, sec. 14, no. 15, and Art. XV, sec. 9, no. 2.) Two copies of each thesis are offered bound in boards in a style approved by the Librarian of the University, from whom samples may be secured upon application.

[…]

[p. 45]

[…]

Section 12. — Special regulations governing recommendation for higher degrees are as follows:

  1. The Departments concerned recommend to the proper Faculties, the Faculties to the University Senate, and the Senate to the Board of Trustees.
  2. In no case is a candidate recommended for a higher degree without the consent of all the Departments concerned.
  3. The degree of Master (specialist, and in the Divinity School) is recommended only after the proper number of copies of the dissertation have been deposited with the Librarian. (See sec. 10, no. 8.)
  4. The degree of Doctor of Philosophy is recommended only on a written certificate of the principal Department concerned that the thesis is ready for the printer, and on the written evidence of some responsible journal or publisher that the required number of printed copies will be furnished the University within a reasonable time.

[…]

Section 14. — Four grades of excellence are distinguished for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, namely : (1) rite; (2) cum laude; (3) magna cum laude; (4) summa cum laude. The grading is based both upon the examination and the dissertation.

 

Categories
Chicago Courses

Chicago Economics. Courses of Instruction. 1900-01.

General
Junior College Courses
Senior College and Graduate Courses
Seminars

Source: University of Chicago. Annual Register: July, 1899-July, 1900 with Announcements for 1900-1901. 1900.

[p. 165]

The Department of Political Economy
[University of Chicago]

COURSES OF INSTRUCTION.
Summer Quarter, 1900—Spring Quarter, 1901.
M=Minor course=a single course for six weeks. Mj=Major course=a single course for twelve weeks.

 

GENERAL.

The courses may be roughly classified into

Group I, Introductory: Courses 1,2,3,4.
Group II, Theoretical: Courses 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.
Group III, Practical: Courses 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 47, 39, 40, 41.
Group IV, Seminars: Courses 50, 51, 42, 53, 54, 55.

Students are advised to begin the study of economics not later than the first year of their entrance into the Senior Colleges; and students of high standing, showing special aptitude for economic study, may properly take Course 1 in the last year of the Junior Colleges.

For admission to the courses of Groups II and III, a prerequisite is the satisfactory completion of Courses 1 and 2 or an equivalent. Those desiring only a general acquaintance with the subject are expected to take Course 2 during the second quarter. Course 1 is not open to students who do not intend to continue the work of 2.

After passing satisfactorily in Courses 1 and 2 the student will find a division of the courses into three general groups : Group II will be concerned chiefly with a study of economic principles, their historical development, and the various systems of economic thought; Group III, while making use of principles and economic reasoning, will be devoted mainly to the collection of facts, the weighing of evidence, and an examination of questions bearing on the immediate welfare of our people. For a proper grasp of the subject Courses 10, 11, and 13 are indispensable; and in the second year of his study of economics the student should supplement a course in Group II by a course in Group III. Group IV provides for the oversight of special investigations, particularly those undertaken by candidates for the higher degrees.

Ability to treat economic questions properly can be acquired only if the student, being possessed of some natural aptitude for the study, devotes sufficient time to it to enable him to assimilate the principles into his thinking, and to obtain certain habits of mind which are demanded for proficiency in this, as in any other important branch of study.

 

JUNIOR COLLEGE COURSES

 

  1. and 2. Principles of Political Economy.—Exposition of the laws of Political Economy in its present state.

5 hrs. a week. MJ. Summer Quarter; 8:30.
Dr. Hatfield.

2 Mjs. Autumn and Winter Quarters; 8:30 and 9:30
Professor Laughlin and
Asssistant Professor Hill.
Repeated in Spring Quarter; 12:00.
Assistant Professor Hill

Course 1 in the Autumn Quarter is open only to students who express to their deans a bona fide intention to elect 2 in the Winter Quarter.

Students should begin the study of Political Economy by taking Courses 1 and 2. Those desirous of laying the foundation for work in the advanced courses will take these two courses; those who, while giving their attention mainly to other departments, seek simply that general knowledge of economics demanded by a liberal education, and cannot devote more time to the study, will also take Courses 1 and 2. Courses 1 and 2 together are designed to give the students an acquaintance with the working principles of Political Economy.

The general drill in the principles cannot be completed in one quarter; and the department does not wish students to elect Course 1 who do not intend to continue the work in Course 2. Descriptive and practical subjects are introduced as the principles are discussed, and the field is only half-covered in Course 1. Those who do not take both 1 and 2 are not prepared to take any advanced courses.

Courses 1 and 2 form the two Majors required of all Junior College students in the College of Commerce and Administration.

 

  1. Economic and Social History.—Leading Events in the Economic History of Europe and America since the middle of the eighteenth century. Lectures and Reading.

Mi. Winter Quarter; 2:00
Professor Miller.

[p. 166] This course endeavors to present a comprehensive survey of the social, industrial, commercial and economic development of the Western world since the middle of the eighteenth century. After a preliminary study of the industrial revolution and the rise of the factory system, attention will be called to the economic and social effects of the American and French revolutions; the development of American commerce; to the introduction of steam transportation; to the adoption of free trade by England; to the new gold discoveries and their widespread effects; to the Civil War in the United States; to the French indemnity; to the crisis of 1873; and to the economic disturbances of the past twenty years. The course is conducted mainly by lectures, but a course of collateral reading will be prescribed upon which students will be expected to report from time to time.

No previous economic study is required of students entering this course, but it will be taken to best advantage by those who already have some knowledge of economic principles.

 

  1. Descriptive Economics.—Lectures and Reports.

Mj. Summer Quarter; 12:00
Mj. Autumn Quarter; 12:00
Dr. Hatfield.

This is an elementary course requiring no previous study of Political Economy and describes the industrial structure of modern society. As it thus treats of the subject-matter with which economic theory deals, it may properly precede or supplement the course in Principles of Political Economy.

The purpose of the course is to familiarize the student with the actual forms in which economic activity of today manifests itself. The treatment will be concrete and practical rather than theoretical and will include the following subjects: Raw materials and their sources; the organization and methods of leading industries showing the effects of modern inventions; the development of markets; produce exchanges; trade routes; the distribution of commerce, etc.

In connection with this course the class will visit a number of the large industrial establishments situated in Chicago.

 

SENIOR COLLEGE AND GRADUATE COURSES.

  1. History of Political Economy.—History of the Development of Economic Theories, embracing those of the Mercantilists and the Physiocrats, followed by a critical study of Adam Smith and his English and Continental Successors.—Lectures, Reading, and Reports.

Mj. Autumn Quarter, 11:00.
Assistant Professor Veblen.

This course treats of the theoretic development of Political Economy as a systematic body of doctrine; of the formation of economic conceptions and principles, policies, and systems. The subject will be treated so as to show the continuity and systematic character of Political Economy as the intelligent and scientific explanation of economic facts. Both the internal and the external aspects of the history of Political Economy will be studied, that is, the history of topics and doctrines and that of schools and leading writers. At the same time, any body of economic doctrine will always be explained and tested as the interpretation of a certain sphere of economic fact; and the student will thus be constantly drilled in economic analysis and in the sifting of economic proof, with the aim of making his hold on economic facts and problems at once exact and comprehensive. The questions that arise as to the interpretation of great writers and their systems will also form matter of discussion and study. Attention will be given, first, to what is significant for Political Economy in the early efforts of the moderns to solve economic problems. The commercial theories of the Mercantile System, the Physiocratic School, Adam Smith and his immediate predecessors, the English writers from Adam Smith to J. S. Mill, and the European and American writers of the nineteenth century will be studied. From the multiplicity of writers, selections will be made of those who have had great influence, or who have made marked contributions to Political Economy.

The student will be expected to read prescribed portions of the great authors bearing on cardinal principles, and to trace the relationship of the teaching of one author to that of another and of all authors in a scientific whole. It is hoped that in this way he will learn to see the consistency and relations of economic theories and to use the science as a whole, and not as a mere mass of arbitrary formula: or dicta. A special feature of the work will be a thorough study of Adam Smith and of Ricardo.

 

  1. Scope and Method of Political Economy.—Origin and Development of the Historical School.—Lectures and Reports.

Mj. Winter Quarter; 11:00
Assistant Professor Veblen.

This course attempts to define the province, postulates, and character of Political Economy; to determine [p. 167] its method and to examine the nature of economic truth. The methods of proof and the processes of reasoning involved in the analysis of economic phenomena and the investigation of economic problems, and the position of Political Economy in the circle of the Moral Sciences—its relation to Ethics, Political Science. and Sociology—will be studied. In view of the controversies which have arisen on these fundamental topics, a critical estimate will be made of the views of leading writers on Methodology, such as Mill, Cairnes, Schmoller, Wagner, Menger, Sax, Keynes, and others. Seeing that the controversy about method arose in connection with the contentions of members of the Historical School of Political Economy in Germany, the opinions and writings of prominent representatives of that school will be studied.

Students will be required to prepare critical studies on books or subjects selected by the instructor.

 

  1. Economic Theory.—Critical Discussion of Theories of Value. Lectures and Reports.

Mj. Summer Quarter; 9:30.
Mj. Autumn Quarter; 2:00.
Professor Miller.

An opportunity will be given to students who, having completed Courses 1 and 2, should have a further study of theory, both as a means of general training and as a prerequisite for advanced courses in constructive work in the field of theory. Those who are especially interested in questions of value. socialism and the like, should take advantage of this course to strengthen their powers of reasoning on economic theory. Especial attention will be given to the discussion of value and such other controverted parts of economic theory as are not taken up in Course 13.

 

  1. Unsettled Problems of Economic Theory.—Questions of Exchange and Distribution. Critical examination of selections from leading writers.

Mj. Spring Quarter; 12:00.
Professor Laughlin.

Little use will be made of text-books or lectures in this course, it being intended to take up certain topics in economic theory and to follow out their treatment by various writers. The more abstruse questions of exchange and distribution will be considered. No student, therefore, can undertake the work of this course with profit who has not already become familiar with the fundamental principles. The course is open only to those who have passed satisfactorily in Courses 1 and 2, or who can clearly show that they have had an equivalent training.

The subjects to be considered in 1900-1901 will be as follows: The wages-fund and other theories of wages, the interest problem, managers’ profits and allied topics. The discussion will be based upon selected passages of important writers. The study of wages, for example, will include reading from Adam Smith, Ricardo, J. S. Mill, Longe, Thornton, Cairnes, F. A. Walker, Marshall, George, Böhm-Bawerk and others. Students will also be expected to discuss recent important contributions to these subjects in current books or journals; and they will be practiced in the exposition of special points before their fellow students.

 

  1. Social Economics. Attempts to Improve the Economic Condition of Workingmen.—Lectures and Reading, Practical Investigations and Reports.

Mj. Autumn Quarter; 8:30.
Dr. Hatfield.

The main purposes of the course are: (1) to discover the economic value of the various efforts that have been made and are being made to improve the condition of the workingmen, to learn why some succeed and others fail; and (2) to familiarize the students with the methods of such of these undertakings as have demonstrated their right to live, so that. if called upon, the students may themselves be able to take the lead in organizing similar undertakings.

In addition to the three great classes of cooperative effort in which workingmen take part, typified respectively by the trade union, the coöperative store and the profit-sharing business, and including also such enterprises as associations of producers. building and loan associations, labor exchanges, fraternal insurance, etc., the course will embrace the consideration of the various miscellaneous efforts for the improvement of the laboring classes, such as the activities of the social settlement, the penny provident bank, manual training and industrial education.

As Chicago and its vicinity afford abundant material for the kinds of study called for by this course, each student will be expected to investigate and report on some particular undertaking.

 

  1. Practical Economics. Relation of the State to Industrial Organization and Action—Detailed investigation of industrial combinations or [p. 168] trusts as a leading type in the existing industrial organization. Lectures, Reading and Reports.

Mj. Summer Quarter; 11:00.
Professor Miller.

The province of government in regard to industrial operations will be given especial attention; and there will be a treatment of such topics as immigration, factory legislation, insurance of the laboring classes by the state, and the relation of government to monopolies and corporations.

 

  1. Socialism.—History of Socialistic Theories. Recent Socialistic Developments. Critical Review of Theoretical Writers, Programmes and Criticisms.—Lectures, Reading, and Reports.

Mj. Winter Quarter; 4:00
Assistant Professor Veblen.

The course is in part historical and descriptive, in part theoretical and critical. It comprises a review of the development of socialistic theory from the early years of the nineteenth century, and of modern socialistic movements down to the present. The theoretical writings of Marx, Rodbertus, and Lassalle will be taken up in detail; as also the criticisms offered by such writers as Schaeffle, Adler, and Spencer. Some attention will also be given to living popular writers, such as Gronlund, Bellamy, Bebel, Kautsky, and others. Practical work will be done with the platforms and programmes of socialistic organizations.

Attention will then be given to the alleged socialistic trend of development, to the economic factors in operation, and to the ethical aspect of the economic questions involved.

Students will be expected to make written reports and critical studies from time to time, in addition to selected reading. Those who have not carefully examined questions of value and distribution will be at a disadvantage in this course.

 

  1. Economic Factors in Civilization. — A general study of some phases of present Industrial Conditions.—Lectures and Reports.

Mj. Spring Quarter; 11:00.
Assistant Professor Veblen.

The course is intended to present a structural account of the modern economic system by the study of its roots in the past. To this end it undertakes a survey of the cultural development as affected by economic motives and exigencies. The work will be largely one of research, in which the instructor will constantly direct the reading of the student.

Salient points in the history of mankind will be examined with the purpose of detecting the operation of economic causes and showing how these causes have acted to shape the growth of civilization and produce the existing industrial situation. With this in view, such phenomena as the Teutonic invasion of Europe, the Feudal system, the rise of commerce, the organization of trade and industry, the history of the condition of laborers, processes of production, and changes in consumption, will be treated.

 

  1. Finance.—Public Expenditures. Theories and Methods of Taxation. Public Debts. Financial Administration.

Mj. Autumn Quarter; 3:00.
Professor Miller.

In this course it is intended to make a comprehensive survey of the whole field of public finance. The course is primarily planned to meet the wants of those students who do not propose to extend their studies in finance beyond one course. It is, at the same time, intended to form an introduction to the seminary work in finance.

The treatment is both theoretical and practical, and the method of presentation historical as well as systematic. A brief review will be made of the growth and present state of the public expenditures of leading modern nations and the methods used for defraying them. Taxation, holding the place of first importance among the resources of the modern state, will be the principal subject of the course. A critical estimate of the theories of leading writers will be made with a view to discovering a tenable basis of taxation. Principles are discussed, the various kinds of taxes examined, and their complementary functions in a system of taxes determined; and the practical success which has attended the methods employed in different countries will be investigated. This part of the course will be, therefore, very largely a comparative study of the tax systems of the principal modern states. In this connection special attention will be given to the problems of state and local taxation in America. All questions will be discussed from the twofold standpoint of justice and expediency.

The remaining parts of the course treat of the organization and methods of financial administration, the formal control of public expenditures by means of the budget, the growth of public debts and their economic and social effects. The various problems involved in the management of public debts, such as methods of borrowing, conversion and reduction will [p. 169] be considered; and the methods practiced in our own and other countries will be described.

 

  1. 26. Oral Debates. — Selected Economic Topics. Briefs. Debates-Criticism.

3 hrs. a week; Mon., 3:00.
2Ms. Autumn and Winter Quarters.
Assistant Professors Hill
and Lovett.

The object of the course is to afford practice in the oral presentation of arguments. The work consists of the preparation of briefs, the delivery of fifteen-minute speeches as principal disputant, and the delivery of five-minute speeches. Each student will appear as principal three times in the quarter. Course 26 is designed to be taken in connection with English 9, but may be elected separately by permission of the instructors. 

 

  1. 28. Argumentation.—To be taken in connection with English 9.

3 hrs. a week; Wed.,3:00.
2Ms. Autumn and Winter Quarters.
Assistant Professor Lovett.

 

  1. Railway Transportation. —History and Development of Railways. Theories of Rates. Combination. Investments. Speculative Management. State Ownership or Control. —Lectures, Reports, Discussions. and Reading.

Mj. Autumn Quarter; 9:30.
Assistant Professor Hill.

The economic, financial and social influences arising from the growth of modern railway transportation, especially as concerns the United States, will be discussed. An account of the means of transportation developed in Europe and America during the early part of this century; the experiments of the states in constructing and operating canals and railways; national, state and municipal aid to private companies; the rapid and irregular extension of the United States railway system in recent years, with some attention to railway building in other countries, will form the historical part of the work. A discussion of various theories of rates; competition, combination, discrimination, investments, speculation, abuse of fiduciary powers; state legislation and commissions, and the Inter-State Commerce Act, with decisions under it; and the various relations of the state, the public, the investors, the managers and the employés, will form the most important part of the Work. This course gives a general view of the subject. Students who wish to continue the work by investigating special problems will have an opportunity to do so under Courses 31, 32, 51 and 52.

 

  1. Comparative Railway Legislation. — Lectures, Reading, and Reports.

Mj. Winter Quarter; 8:30.
Assistant Professor Hill.

It is the aim of this course to give the student, who has already passed satisfactorily in Course 30, a study of the development and present nature of the railway systems of Great Britain. France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Brazil, and Australia. From this comparative examination it will be learned what light the experience of other countries will throw upon our own railway problems.

Open only to those students who have taken Course 30.

 

  1. Technique of Trade and Commerce.—Weights and measures; customs regulations; exchange and price quotations; commercial documents; foreign and domestic exchange; arbitrage; accounts; investment securities ; insurance, etc.

Mj. Spring Quarter.
Dr. Hatfield.

An attempt to familiarize the student with the actual forms and methods used in modern exchange. Especial attention will be given to the interpretation of railway and other corporation accounts, and to the use and construction of exchange and conversion tables, cambists, bond values, annuity tables, etc.

 

 

  1. Industrial Development of the United States. Reading, Reports, and Lectures.

Mj. Winter Quarter.
Assistant Professor Hill.

A study is made of the distribution of population among the important industries at different periods of our development, and a comparison is made of the wages and profits secured by the different groups. The effects of changing from extractive industries to manufactures are traced, and an attempt is made to test by our experience the view that manufactures are introduced in a new country only as extractive industries become less profitable. The influence of legislation in shaping the industrial development of the nation is sought. The forces which determine the location and prosperity of industries are studied, with [p. 170] special attention to transportation facilities, and the effect upon our exports and imports of the changes in our industries will be dwelt upon.

 

 

  1. Problems of American Agriculture.—Movements of Prices. Foreign Competition. Changing Conditions of Agriculture. Land Tenure—Lectures, Reading, and Reports.

Mj. Spring Quarter; 4:00.
Assistant Professor Veblen.

Special attention will be given to the extension and changes of the cultivated area of the United States; the methods of farming; the influence of railways and population, and of cheapened transportation ; the fall in values of Eastern farm-lands; movements of prices of agricultural products; European markets; competition of other countries; intensive farming; diminishing returns; farm mortgages; and the comparison of American with European systems of culture. Reports will be prepared by students on topics assigned.

 

 

  1. Financial History of the United States.—Rapid Survey of the Financial Experiences of the Colonies and the Confederation. Detailed Study of the Course of American Legislation on Currency, Debts. and Banking since 1789.—Lectures and Reports.

Mj. Winter Quarter; 3:00.
Professor Miller.

Without excluding the history of taxation, this course concerns itself chiefly with the history of our national legislation on currency, loans and banking. The study will be based upon a careful examination at first hand of the leading provisions of the Acts of Congress and other materials important in our financial history. These will be reviewed from the political as well as from the financial standpoints, it being one of the objects of the course to develop the relation between finance and politics in our history. Special attention will be given to Hamilton’s system of finance and the changes introduced by Gallatin, to the financial policy of the War of 1812, to the establishment of the Second United States Bank and the struggles over its re-charter, to the crisis of 1837-1839 and the establishment of the independent Treasury, to the financial problems and management of the Civil War; to the establishment of the national banking system, the refunding and reduction of the debt and the resumption of specie payments.

 

 

  1. Money and Practical Economics. — Training in the Theoretical and Historical Investigation of Important Questions of the Day.—Lectures and Theses.

Mj. Autumn Quarter; 12:00.
Professor Laughlin.

Preliminary training for investigation is combined in this course with the acquisition of desirable statistical information on practical questions of the day. The student is instructed in the bibliography of the subject, taught how to collect his data, and expected to weigh carefully the evidence on both sides of a mooted question. The short theses form a connected series and give practice in written exposition as well as in the graphic representation of statistics. Mere compilation is objected to, and the student is urged to reach his conclusions independently and solely on the facts before him. Fresh and independent judgments are encouraged. The work of writing theses is so adjusted that it corresponds to the work of other courses counting for the same number of hours. The instructor criticises the theses before the class, and members of the class are called upon to lecture on the subjects of their theses and to answer questions from their fellow-students.

The subjects taken up will be chosen from the following: money, prices, bimetallism, note-issues, shipping, and commercial crises.

 

 

  1. Banking.—Comparison of Modern Systems. Study of Principles—Lectures, Reports, and Discussion.

Mj. Spring Quarter; 9:30.
Assistant Professor Hill.

A comparison of the banking systems of the United States, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, and other countries will be made, with special attention to the manner in which each meets the problems of currency (coin, note, and deposit), reserves, discount, and exchange. The relations of the banks to the public, their influence on speculation, their management in financial crises, special dangers, and most efficient safe-guards will be discussed. Relative advantages and different fields of action for national banks, state banks, deposit and trust companies, and savings banks will be noted. A few lectures will be given on the history of banking.

Each student will present a thesis upon some subject connected with the course.

 

 

  1. Statistics

M. Winter Quarter.
Mr. Worthington C. Ford.

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the use of statistics as an instrument of investi-[p. 171] gation and exposition in social, political, and economic science; to qualify them to judge of the value of results obtained by statistical methods ; and to enable them to use such methods themselves intelligently and with some degree of skill.

Together with the necessity for uniformity of method in systematic statistics and comparability of data, graphical methods and cartography, attention will be drawn to the technique of statistics. Demonstrations with actual statistical material being the most satisfactory method of statistical instruction, particular stress will be laid on this feature of the course. The course, therefore, will be practical and not historical or descriptive.

 

  1. Commercial Statistics.

M. Winter Quarter.
Mr. Worthington C. Ford.

A statistical treatment of modern commercial questions. Contributions of a more advanced character than in Course 40 will be made to recent problems arising from the commercial development of the United States.

 

THE SEMINARS.

 

Under this head are placed the arrangements for Fellows, graduates, and suitably prepared persons, who wish to carry on special researches under the guidance of the instructors. Candidates for the higher degrees will find in the seminar 8. means of regularly obtaining criticism and suggestion. It is hoped that each member of the seminar will steadily produce from time to time finished work suitable for publication. Emphasis will be placed on accurate and detailed work upon obscure or untouched points.

Students may carry on an independent study upon some special subject, making regular reports to the instructor; or several students may be grouped for the study of a series of connected subjects. But, in general, the work of the student engaged in investigations will receive direct personal supervision from the instructor, appointments being made with individual students.

 

 

  1. Seminar in Finance.

Mj. Winter Quarter.
Professor Miller.

The Seminar is organized for such students as wish to undertake work of the investigative order in finance. Each student will be expected to present to the seminar a carefully prepared thesis embodying the results of independent research on some topic relating to the particular subject chosen by the members of the seminar‘ for joint investigation. Stated meetings will be held, at which questions will be proposed for discussion and lectures given by the instructor on the common work of the seminar. Separate meetings will also be arranged for with the individual members of the seminar, and the work of each student personally supervised.

Two seminars will be organized, each extending over two quarters, students being grouped according to the subject selected. For the year 1900-1901 the two following subjects are proposed :

  1. Special Problems in Taxation: Comparative study of systems of local taxation.
  2. Financial Administration: Comparative study of the budgetary systems of different countries.

 

  1. and 52. Seminar in Railways.

2Mjs. Winter and Spring Quarters.
Assistant Professor Hill.

 

  1. 54. and 55. Economic Seminar

3Mjs. Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters.
Professor Laughlin.

Provision is here made for special investigation, either by groups of students or by individuals, on selected topics. Constructive work on theory, or studies on practical questions, will be guided by the instructor. Candidates for the higher degrees will receive personal attention.

Categories
Columbia Courses Curriculum

Columbia Economics. Course Offerings. 1905-07

 

 

An improved version of the following artfact has been posted here.

 

Courses Offered by the
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
and the several undergraduate faculties

Announcement
1905-07

Fifth Series, No. 10               March 25, 1905

Columbia University
Bulletin of Information

History, Economics and Public Law

Hathitrust copy

________________________

[p.3]
OFFICERS OF INSTRUCTION
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, Ph.D., LL.D., President

JOHN W. BURGESS, Ph.D., LL.D., Ruggles Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law, and Dean

MUNROE SMITH, J.U.D., LL.D., Professor of Roman Law and Comparative Jurisprudence

FRANK J. GOODNOW, LL.D., Eaton Professor of Administrative Law and Municipal Science

EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN [Absent on leave in 1905-06], Ph.D., LL.D., McVickar Professor of Political Economy

HERBERT L. OSGOOD, Ph.D., Professor of History

WILLIAM A. DUNNING, Ph.D., LL.D., Lieber Professor of History and Political Philosophy

JOHN BASSETT MOORE, LL.D., Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy

FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Sociology

JOHN B. CLARK, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy

JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON, Ph.D., Professor of History

WILLIAM M. SLOANE, Ph.D., L. H.D., LL.D., Seth Low Professor of History

HENRY R. SEAGER, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy, and Secretary

HENRY L. MOORE, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Political Economy

WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of History

JAMES T. SHOTWELL [Absent on leave in 1905-06.], Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of History

GEORGE W. BOTSFORD, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of History

VLADIMIR G. SIMKHOVITCH, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Economic History

EDWARD THOMAS DEVINE, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Social Economy

 

OTHER OFFICERS

RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL, Ph.D., Professor of the Semitic Languages

A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON, L.H.D., Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages

EDWARD H. CASTLE, A.M., Professor of History in Teachers College

JOHN D. PRINCE, Ph.D., Professor of the Semitic Languages

FRIEDRICH HIRTH, Ph.D., Dean Lung Professor of Chinese

ARTHUR C. MCGIPFERT, Ph.D., D.D., Washburn Professor of Church History in Union Theological Seminary

FREDERICK JOSEPH KINSMAN, Professor of History in the General Theological Seminary

ALVIN S. JOHNSON, Ph.D., Instructor in Economics

GEORGE J. BAYLES, Ph.D., Lecturer in Ecclesiology

ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS, Ph.D., Lecturer in Sociology in Barnard College

LOUISE R. LOOMIS, A.M., Lecturer in History in Barnard College

CHARLES A. BEARD, Ph.D., Lecturer in History

PAUL L. HAWORTH, Ph.D., Tutor in History in Teachers College

[p.4]

GENERAL STATEMENT

Students are received as candidates for the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy under the Faculty of Political Science; for the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science either in Columbia College or in Barnard College, and for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Teachers College. They are also permitted to pursue special or partial courses subject to the regulations of the Faculty in which they may register.

Certain courses which may be counted toward the several degrees are also offered in the Summer Session of the University.

Students enrolled in the General, the Union, the Drew, or the Jewish, Theological Seminary, or in the School of Philanthropy in the City of New York, who may have been designated for the privilege by the authorities of these institutions, and accepted by the President of Columbia University, are admitted to the courses offered by the Faculty of Political Science free of all charge for tuition. These institutions offer reciprocal privileges to the students of Columbia University.

Teachers College, founded in 1888, and Barnard College, founded in 1889, have now become parts of the educational system of Columbia University.

Admission

There are no examinations for admission to the graduate courses under the Faculty of Political Science. Students are admitted at any time during the year. They must, however, present themselves for registration at the opening of the first or second half-year in order to obtain full credit for residence. They may present themselves for examination for a degree whenever the requirements as to residence, and as to an essay or dissertation, have been complied with. For details see the announcement of the Faculties of Political Science, Philosophy, and Pure Science, which may be had on application to the Secretary of the University.

For conditions of admission to Columbia College, Barnard College, or Teachers College, see the circular upon entrance examinations, which may be had upon application to the Secretary of the University.

Those graduate courses which are open to undergraduates, are closed to women students unless given separately at Barnard College; but all purely graduate courses in History and Economics are open to women graduate students who have the first degree.

Students who register for graduate courses are supposed to be familiar with the outlines of European history, ancient and modern, as well as of American history. Students who are not thus prepared are strongly recommended to take the undergraduate courses.

[p.5]

Courses numbered from 1 to 99 are intended primarily for under- graduates and may not be counted towards the advanced degrees. Courses numbered from 100 to 199 are intended for both graduates and undergraduates. Courses numbered 200 and above are intended primarily for graduates. Odd numbers prefixed to courses indicate that they are given in the first half-year; even numbers that they are given in the second half-year. Courses which run through the year are given a double number.

For information with regard to degrees, fees, fellowships, scholarships, and expense of living, see the appropriate announcement either of the Faculties of Political Science, Philosophy and Pure Science, or of Columbia, Barnard, or Teachers College.

ABRIDGED ACADEMIC CALENDAR

The Academic year begins thirty-seven weeks prior to Commencement, which occurs on the Wednesday nearest the 11th of June. For 1905-06 these dates will be, respectively, September 27, 1905, and June 13, 1906. It is divided into two half-years of fifteen weeks of instruction each. In 1905-06 the second half-year begins on February 5, 1906.

The exercises of the University are suspended on Election Day, Thanksgiving Day and the following two days, for two weeks at Christmas, from the Thursday before Good Friday through the following Monday, and on Memorial Day.

The complete Academic Calendar will be found in the University catalogue and so far as it refers to the students studying under any Faculty, in the announcement of that Faculty.

[…]

[p. 24]

GROUP III—ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

GRADUATE COURSES

It is presumed that students who take economics, sociology or social economy as their major subject are familiar with the general principles of economics and sociology as set forth in the ordinary manuals. Students who are not thus prepared are recommended to take the courses in Columbia College or Barnard College designated as Economics I and 2 (or A and 4) and Sociology 151-152.

The graduate courses fall under three subjects: A—Political Economy and Finance ; B—Sociology and Statistics; C—Social Economy.

Courses numbered 100 to 199 are open to Seniors in Columbia College.

Courses numbered 200 and above are open to graduate women students upon the same terms as to men.

All the courses are open to male auditors. Women holding the first degree may register as auditors in Courses numbered 200 and above.

Subject A—Political Economy and Finance

ECONOMICS 101-102—Taxation and Finance. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 1.30. 422 L.

This course is historical, as well as comparative and critical. After giving a general introduction and tracing the history of the science of finance, it treats of the various rules of the public expenditures and the methods of meeting the same among civilized nations. It describes the different kinds of public revenues, including the public domain and public property, public works and industrial undertakings, special assessments, fees, and taxes. It is in great part a course on the history, theories, and methods of taxation in all civilized countries. It considers also public debt, methods of borrowing, redemption, refunding, repudiation, etc. Finally, it describes the fiscal organization of the state by which the revenue is collected and expended, and discusses the budget, national, state, and local. Although the course is comparative, the point of view is American. Students are furnished with the current public documents of the United States Treasury and the chief financial reports of the leading commonwealths, and are expected to understand all the facts in regard to public debt, revenue, and expenditure contained therein.

Given in 1906-07 and in each year thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 103—Money and Banking. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 10.30, first half-year. 415 L.

The aim of this course is (i) to describe the mechanism of exchange and to trace the history of the metallic money, the paper money, and

[p. 25]

the banking system of the United States; to discuss such questions as bi-metallism, foreign exchanges, credit cycles, elasticity of the currency, present currency problems, and corresponding schemes of reform; (2) to illustrate the quantitative treatment of such questions as variations in the value of the money unit, and the effects of appreciation and depreciation.

 

ECONOMICS 104—Commerce and Commercial Policy. Dr. JOHNSON.
Tu. and Th. at 10.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course the economic bases of modern commerce, and the significance of commerce, domestic and foreign, in its relation to American industry, will be studied. An analysis will be made of the extent and character of the foreign trade of the United States, and the nature and effect of the commercial policies of the principal commercial nations will be examined.

 

ECONOMICS 105—The Labor Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year. 415 L.

The topics considered in this course are: The rise of the factory system, factory legislation, the growth of trade unions and changes in the law in respect to them, the policies of trade unions, strikes, lockouts, arbitration and conciliation, proposed solutions of the labor problem, and the future of labor in the United States.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 106—The Trust Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course special attention is given to the trust problem as it presents itself in the United States. Among the topics considered are the rise and progress of industrial combinations, the forms of organization and policies of typical combinations, the common law and the trusts, anti-trust acts and their results, and other proposed solutions of the problem.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

[ECONOMICS 107—Fiscal and Industrial History of the United States. Professor SELIGMAN
M. and W. at 3.30, first half-year. 415 L.

This course endeavors to present a survey of national legislation on currency, finance, and taxation, including the tariff, together with its relations to the state of industry and commerce. The chief topics discussed are: The fiscal and industrial conditions of the colonies; the financial methods of the Revolution and the Confederation; the genesis of the protective idea; the fiscal policies of the Federalists and of the Republicans; the financial management of the War of 1812; the industrial effects of the restrictive and war periods; the crises of 1819, 1825, and 1837; the tariffs of 1816, 1824, and 1828; the distribution of the surplus and the Bank war; the currency problems before 1863; the era of

[p. 26]

“free trade,” and the tariffs of 1846 and 1857; the fiscal problems of the Civil War; the methods of resumption, conversion and payment of the debt; the disappearance of the war taxes; the continuance of the war tariffs; the money question and the acts of 1878, 1890, and 1900; the loans of 1894-96; the tariffs of 1890, 1894, and 1897; the fiscal aspects of the Spanish War. The course closes with a discussion of the current problems of currency and trade, and with a general consideration of the arguments for and against protection as illustrated by the practical operations of the various tariffs. Not given in 1905-07.]

 

[ECONOMICS 108— Railroad Problems; Economic, Social, and Legal. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 3.30, second half-year. 415 L.

These lectures treat of railroads in the fourfold aspect of their relation to the investors, the employees, the public, and the state respectively. A history of railways and railway policy in America and Europe forms the preliminary part of the course. The chief problems of railway management, so far as they are of economic importance, come up for discussion.

Among the subjects treated are: Financial methods, railway constructions, speculation, profits, failures, accounts and reports, expenses, tariffs, principles of rates, classification and discrimination, competition and pooling, accidents, and employers’ liability. Especial attention is paid to the methods of regulation and legislation in the United States as compared with European methods, and the course closes with a general discussion of state versus private management.

Not given in 1905-07.]

 

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

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

 

ECONOMICS 110 — Theories of Social Reform. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30, second half-year. 406 L.

This course treats of certain plans for the partial reconstruction of industrial society that have been advocated in the United States, and endeavors to determine what reforms are in harmony with economic principles. It treats of the proposed single tax, of the measures advocated by the Farmers’ Alliance, and of those proposed by labor organizations, and the general relation of the state to industry.

[p. 27]

ECONOMICS 201—Economic Readings I: Classical English Economists. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year. 415 L.

In this course the principal theories of the English economists from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill are studied by means of lectures, assigned readings and reports, and discussions. Special attention is given to the Wealth of Nations, Malthus’s Essay on Population, the bullion controversy of 1810, the corn law controversy of 1815, and the treatises on Political Economy of Ricardo, Senior, and John Stuart Mill.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 202—Economic Readings II: Contemporary Economists. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course the theories of contemporary economists are compared and studied by the same methods employed in Economics 201. Special attention is given to Böhm-Bawerk’s Positive Theory of Capital and Marshall’s Principles of Economics.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 203-204—History of Economics. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 3.30. 415 L.

In this course the various systems of political economy are discussed in their historical development. The chief exponents of the different schools are taken up in their order, and especial attention is directed to the wider aspects of the connection between the theories and the organization of the existing industrial society. The chief writers discussed are:

I.     Antiquity: The Oriental Codes; Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Cato, Seneca, Cicero, the Agrarians, the Jurists.

II.   Middle Ages: The Church Fathers, Aquinas, the Glossators, the writers on money, trade, and usury.

III. Mercantilists: Hales, Mun, Petty, Barbon, North, Locke; Bodin, Vauban, Boisguillebert, Forbonnais; Serra, Galiani; Justi, Sonnenfels.

IV.  Physiocrats: Quesnay, Gournay, Turgot, Mirabeau.

V.   Adam Smith and precursors: Tucker, Hume, Cantillon, Stewart.

VI.  English school: Malthus, Ricardo, Senior, McCulloch, Chalmers, Jones, Mill.

VII. The Continent: Say, Sismondi, Cournot, Bastiat; Herrmann, List, von Thünen.

VIII. German historical school: Roscher, Knies, Hildebrandt.

IX.   Recent Development—England: Rogers, Jevons, Cairnes, Bagehot, Leslie, Toynbee, Marshall; Germany: Wagner, Schmoller, Held, Brentano, Cohn, Schäffle; Austria: Menger, Sax, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser; France: Leroy Beaulieu, Laveleye, Gide, Walras; Italy: Cossa, Loria, Pantaleoni; America: Carey, George, Walker, Clark, Patten, Adams.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

[p. 28]

ECONOMICS 205—Economic Theory I. Professor CLARK.
M. and W. at 2.30, first half-year. 406 L.

This course discusses, first, the static laws of distribution. If the processes of industry were not changing, wages and industry would tend to adjust themselves according to certain standards. A study of the mechanism of production would then show that one part of the product is specifically attributable to labor, and that another part is imputable to capital. It is the object of the course to show that the tendency of free competition, under such conditions, is to give to labor, in the form of wages, the amount that it specifically creates, and also to give to capital, in the form of interest, what it specifically produces. The theory undertakes to prove that the earnings of labor and of capital are governed by a principle of final productivity, and that this principle must be studied on a social scale, rather than in any one department of production. The latter part of this course enters the field of Economic Dynamics, defines an economic society and describes the forces which so act upon it as to change its structure and its mode of producing and distributing wealth.

 

ECONOMICS 206—Economic Theory II. Professor CLARK.
M. and W. at 2.30, second half-year. 406 L.

This course continues the discussion of the dynamic laws of distribution. The processes of industry are actually progressing. Mechanical invention, emigration and other influences cause capital and labor to be applied in new ways and with enlarging results. These influences do not even repress the action of the static forces of distribution, but they bring a new set of forces into action. They create, first, employers’ profits, and, later, additions to wages and interest. It is the object of the course to show how industrial progress affects the several shares in distribution under a system of competition, and also to determine whether the consolidations of labor and capital, which are a distinctive feature of modern industry, have the effect of repressing competition.

It is a further purpose of the course to present the natural laws by which the increase of capital and that of labor are governed and to discuss the manner in which the earnings of these agents are affected by the action of the state, and to present at some length the character and the effects of those obstructions which pure economic law encounters in the practical world.

 

ECONOMICS 207—Theory of Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year. 418 L.

The aim of this course is to present the elementary principles of statistics and to illustrate their application by concrete studies in the chief sources of statistical material. The theoretical part of the course

[p. 29]

includes the study of averages, index numbers, interpolation, principles of the graphic method, elements of demography, and statistical principles of insurance. The laboratory work consists of a graded series of problems designed to develop accuracy and facility in the application of principles. (Identical with Sociology 255.)

 

ECONOMICS 208—Quantitative Economics I: Advanced Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
W. and F. at 11.30, second half-year. 418 L.

Quantitative Economics I and II (see Economics 210) investigate economics as an exact science. This course treats economics from the inductive, statistical side. It aims to show how the methods of quantitative biology and anthropology are utilized in economics and sociology. Special attention is given to recent contributions to statistical theory by Gallon, Edgeworth, and Pearson. Economics 207, or an equivalent, is a prerequisite.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 210—Quantitative Economics II: Mathematical Economics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
W. and F. at 11.30, second half-year. 418 L.

This course treats economics from the deductive side. It aims to show the utility of an analytical treatment of economic laws expressed in symbolic form. The work of Cournot is presented and used as a basis for the discussion of the contributions to the mathematical method by Walras, Marshall, and Pareto. Economics 207, or an equivalent, is a prerequisite.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 241—The Economic and Social Evolution of Russia since 1800. Professor SIMKHOVITCH.
M. and F. at 9.30, first half-year. 418 L.

This course describes the economic development of the country, the growth of slavophil, liberal and revolutionary doctrines and parties, and the disintegration of the autocratic regime. (Identical with History 281.)

 

ECONOMICS 242—Radicalism and Social Reform as Reflected in the Literature of the Nineteenth Century. Professor SIMKHOVITCH.
M. at 9.30 and 10.30, second half-year. 418 L.

An interpretation of the various types of modern radicalism, such as socialism, nihilism, and anarchism, and of the social and economic conditions on which they are based.

 

ECONOMICS 291-292—Seminar in Political Economy and Finance. Professors SELIGMAN and CLARK.
For advanced students. Tu., 8.15-10.15 P.M. 301 L.

[p. 30]

Subject B—Sociology and Statistics

SOCIOLOGY 151-152—Principles of Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 3.30. 415 L.

This is a fundamental course, intended to lay a foundation for advanced work. In the first half-year, in connection with a text-book study of theory, lectures are given on the social traits, organization, and welfare of the American people at various stages of their history and students are required to analyze and classify sociological material of live interest, obtained from newspapers, reviews, and official reports. In the second half-year lectures are given on the sociological systems of important writers, including Montesquieu, Comte, Spencer, Schäffle, De Greef, Gumplowicz, Ward, and Tarde. This course is the proper preparation for statistical sociology (Sociology 255 and 256) or for historical sociology (Sociology 251 and 252).

 

SOCIOLOGY 251—Social Evolution—Ethnic and Civil Origins. Professor GIDDINGS
F. at 2.30 and 3.30, first half-year. 415 L.

This course on historical sociology deals with such topics as (i) the distribution and ethnic composition of primitive populations ; (2) the types of mind and of character, the capacity for cooperation, the cultural beliefs, and the economic, legal, and political habits of early peoples ; (3) early forms of the family, the origins, structure, and functions of the clan, the organization of the tribe, the rise of the tribal federations, tribal feudalism, and the conversion of a gentile into a civil plan of social organization. Early literature, legal codes, and chronicles, descriptive of the Celtic and Teutonic groups which combined to form the English people before the Norman Conquest, are the chief sources made use of in this course.

 

SOCIOLOGY 252—Social Evolution—Civilization, Progress, and Democracy. Professor GIDDINGS.
F. at 2.30 and 3.30, second half-year. 415 L.

This course, which is a continuation of Sociology 251, comprises three parts, namely: (i) The nature of those secondary civilizations which are created by conquest, and of the policies by which they seek to maintain and to extend themselves; (2) an examination of the nature of progress and of its causes, including the rise of discussion and the growth of public opinion ; also a consideration of the policies by which continuing progress is ensured,—including measures for the expansion of intellectual freedom, for the control of arbitrary authority by legality, for the repression of collective violence, and for the control of collective impulse by deliberation ; (3) a study of the nature, the genesis, and the social organization of modern democracies, including an examination of the extent to which non-political associations for culture and pleasure, churches, business corporations, and labor unions, are more or less democratic; and of the democratic ideals of equality and fraternity in their relations

[p. 31]

to social order and to liberty. The documents of English history since the Norman Conquest are the chief sources made use of in this course.

 

SOCIOLOGY 255—Theory of Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year. 418 L.
This course is identical with Economics 207 (see pages 28-29).

 

SOCIOLOGY 256—Social Statistics. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, second half-year. 418 L.

Actual statistical materials, descriptive and explanatory of contemporaneous societies, are the subject-matter of this course, which presupposes a knowledge of statistical operations (Sociology 255) and applies it to the analysis of concrete problems. The lectures cover such topics as (i) the statistics of population, including densities and migrations, composition by age, sex, and nationality, amalgamation by intermarriage; (2) statistics of mental traits and products, including languages, religious preferences, economic preferences (occupations), and political preferences; (3) statistics of social organization, including families, households, municipalities, churches, business corporations, labor unions, courts of law, army, navy, and civil service; (4) statistics of social welfare, including peace and war, prosperity, education or illiteracy, vitality, and morality, including pauperism and crime.

 

SOCIOLOGY 259—Ecclesiology. Dr. BAYLES.
Tu. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 405 L.

The purpose of this course is to define the present relations of the ecclesiastical institutions to the other institutions of American society: the state, the government, marriage, family, education, and public wealth. An analysis is made of the guarantees of religious liberty contained in the federal and commonwealth constitutions; of the civil status of churches in terms of constitutional and statute law; of the methods of incorporation, of the functions of trustees, of legislative and judicial control ; of denominational polity according to its type ; of the functional activity of churches in their departments of legislation, administration, adjudication, discipline, and mission ; of the influence of churches on ethical standards ; of the distribution of nationalities among the denominations, of the territorial distribution of denominational strength, of the relation of polity to density of population, and of the current movements in and between various organizations tending toward changes of functions and structure.

 

SOCIOLOGY 279-280—Seminar in Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
W. at 3.30 and 4.30, bi-weekly. 301 L.

The Statistical Laboratory, conducted by Professors GIDDINGS and H. L. MOORE, is equipped with the Hollerith tabulating machines, comptometers, and other modern facilities.

[p. 32]

Subject C—Social Economy

SOCIAL ECONOMY 281—Poverty and Dependence. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

The purpose of this course and of Social Economy 282, which follows, is to study dependence and measures of relief, and to analyze the more important movements which aim to improve social conditions. An at- tempt is made to measure the extent of dependence, both in its definite forms, as in charitable and penal institutions, and in its less recognized and definite forms, as when it results in the lowering of the standard of living or the placing of unreasonably heavy burdens upon children or widows. Among the special classes of social debtors which are studied, besides the paupers, the vagrants, the dissipated, and the criminals, who require discipline or segregation as well as relief, are: Orphans and other dependent children; the sick and disabled; the aged and infirm; the widow and the deserted family; the immigrant and the displaced laborer; the underfed and consequently short-lived worker.

Given in 1905—06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 282—Principles of Relief. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, second half-year. 418 L.

In this course the normal standard of living is considered concretely to secure a basis from which deficiencies may be estimated. A large number of individual typical relief problems are presented, and from these, by a “case system,” analogous to that of the modern law school, the principles of relief are deduced. Among the larger movements to be considered are: Charity organization; social settlements; housing re- form; the elimination of disease; the restriction of child labor; and the prevention of overcrowding, and especially the congestion of population in the tenement-house districts of the great cities.

Given in 1903-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 283—Pauperism and Poor Laws. Professor SEAGER.
M. at 3.30 and 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

This is an historical and comparative course intended to supplement Social Economy 281 and 282. Lectures on the history of the English poor law are followed by discussions of farm colonies, the boarding-out system for children, old-age pensions, and other plans of relief currently advocated in England. On this basis the public relief problems of New York State and City and the institutions attempting their solution are studied by means of excursions, lectures, and discussions.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 285—The Standard of Living. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

A concrete study of the standard of living in New York City in the classes which are above the line of actual dependence, but below or near the line of full nutrition and economic independence. While this course

[p. 33]

will not be given in the year 1905-06, assignments will be made in the School of Philanthropy for research in such portions of this field as suit- ably prepared students may elect to undertake.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 286—The Prevention and Diminution of Crime. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, second half-year. 418 L.

This course will deal with the social function of the penal and police systems. Special attention will be given to such subjects as juvenile courts; the probation system; indeterminate sentence; treatment of discharged prisoners; the system of local jails; segregation of incorrigibles, and prison labor.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 290—Crime and Criminal Anthropology. Professor GlDDINGS.

Students desiring to make a special study of crime, criminal anthropology, and the theory of criminal responsibility may take the lectures of Sociology 256 or of Social Economy 286 and follow prescribed readings under the direction of Professor GIDDINGS.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 299-300—Seminar in Social Economy. Professor DEVINE.
Two hours a week. Hours to be arranged.

The work of the Seminar for 1905-07 will be a study of recent develop- ments in the social and philanthropic activities of New York City; e. g., the social settlements; parks and playgrounds ; outside activities of pub- lic schools; children’s institutions ; relief societies ; agencies for the aid of immigrants, and the preventive work of organized charities.

 

COURSES IN THE SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY

The School of Philanthropy, conducted by the Charity Organization Society, under the direction of Professor Devine, offers courses [These courses are given in the United Charities Building, corner Fourth Avenue and 22d Street] aggregating not less than ten hours a week throughout the academic year, and also a Summer School course of six weeks in June and July. These courses are open to regular students of Columbia University who satisfy the director that they are qualified to pursue them with profit, and are accepted as a minor for candidates for an advanced degree.

The program of studies for 1905-06 is as follows:

A—General survey (forty lectures) ; B—Dependent families (fifty lectures); C—Racial traits and social conditions (thirty-five lectures); D—Constructive social work (fifty lectures) ; £—Child-helping agencies (forty lectures); F—Treatment of the criminal (thirty lectures); G—Administration of charitable and educational institutions (thirty lectures); H—The State in its relation to charities and correction (forty lectures).

[p. 34]

COURSES IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE

ECONOMICS 1-2—Introduction to Economics—Practical Economic Problems. Professors SELIGMAN and SEAGER, and Dr. JOHNSON.
Section 1, M. and W. at 9.30, and F. at 11.30. Section 2, M., W., and F. at 11.30. M. and W. recitations in 415 L. F. lecture in 422 L.

 

COURSES IN BARNARD COLLEGE

ECONOMICS A—Outlines of Economics. Professor MOORE and Dr. JOHNSON.
Three hours, first half-year. Section 1, Tu., Th., and S. at 9.30. Section 2, Tu. and Th. at 11.30, and S. at 9.30.

 

ECONOMICS 4—Economic History of England and the United States. Professor MOORE and Dr. JOHNSON.
M., W., and F. at 10.30, second half-year.

 

ECONOMICS 105—The Labor Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year. The topics treated in this course are the rise of the factory system, factory legislation, the growth of trade unions and changes in the law in respect to them, the policies of trade unions, strikes, lockouts, arbitration and conciliation, proposed solutions of the labor problem, and the future of labor in the United States.

 

ECONOMICS 120—Practical Economic Problems. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, second half-year.

The topics treated in this course are the defects in the monetary and banking systems of the United States, government expenditures and government revenues, protection vs. free trade, the relation of the government towards natural monopolies, and federal control of trusts.

 

ECONOMICS 121—English Social Reformers. Professor MOORE.
W. and F. at 1.30, first half-year.

A critical study of the social teachings of Carlyle, Ruskin, John Stuart Mill, Kingsley, and Thomas H. Green.
Open to students that have taken Course A or an equivalent.

 

ECONOMICS 122—Economic Theory. Professor MOORE.
W. and F. at 1.30, second half-year.

A critical study of Marshall’s Principles of Economics. The principal aim of this course is to present the methods and results of recent economic theory.
Open to students that have taken Course A or an equivalent.

[p. 35]

ECONOMICS 109—Communistic and Socialistic Theories. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year.

In this course a brief study is made of the works of St. Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Owen, and Lassalle, and a more extended study is made of Marx’s treatise on capital. Recent economic changes, such as the formation of trusts and strong trade unions, are examined with a view to ascertaining what effect they have had on the modern socialistic movement.

 

ECONOMICS 110—Theories of Social Reform. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year.

In this course a study is made of modern semi-socialistic movements and of such reforms as have for their object the improvement of the condition of the working class. Municipal activities, factory legislation, the single tax, recent agrarian movements and measures for the regulation of monopolies are studied.

 

SOCIOLOGY 151-152—Principles of Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30.

This is a fundamental course, intended to lay a foundation for advanced work. In the first half-year, in connection with a text-book study of theory, lectures are given on the social traits, organization, and welfare of the American people at various stages of their history, and students are required to analyze and classify sociological material of live interest, obtained from newspapers, reviews, and official reports. In the second half-year, lectures are given on the sociological systems of important writers, including Montesquieu, Comte, Spencer, Schäffle, De Greef, Gumplowicz, Ward, and Tarde.

 

SOCIOLOGY 153-154 —Family Organization. Dr. ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS.
Tu. at 3.30, bi-weekly.

Field work in the study of family groups. Consultations.
Open to Seniors.

In connection with the lectures and field work of this course opportunities are given to students to become acquainted with the more important private institutions for social betterment in New York City, and to study the organization and activity of the various public agencies charged with the welfare of the community.

 

COURSES IN THE SUMMER SESSION

sA—Economic History of England and America. Lectures, recitations, and essays. Dr. JOHNSON.
Five hours a week at 1.30. 501 F. Credit I
(Equivalent, when supplemented by prescribed reading, to Economics 4.)

[p. 36]

 

sB—Principles of Economics. Lectures and class discussions. Dr. JOHNSON.
Five hours a week at 2.30. 501 F. Credit I.
(Equivalent, when supplemented by prescribed reading, to Economics I.)

 

sA1—Principles of Sociology. Descriptive and theoretical. Professor GIDDINGS.
Five hours a week at 10.30. 415 L. Credit I, II.
(Equivalent to Sociology 151)

 

sA2—Principles of Sociology. History of sociological theory. Professor GIDDINGS.
Five hours a week at 9.30. 415 L. Credit I, II.
(Equivalent to Sociology 152.)

[…]

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard Economics. Readings for Taussig’s Economics 11, Theory. 1923-24.

 

 

From assignments and suggested readings as found in the notes taken by Frank W. Fetter (obituary), son of the economist Frank Albert Fetter. Frank W. Fetter received an A.M. in economics from Harvard. Most of the items below are written at the start of his notes for the class-days Fetter attended. Approximately 110 pages of class/reading notes are in this folder. I have merely extracted the course readings and specific bibliographic references made by Taussig for this posting.

New addition: Mid-year and final examination questions for this course.

________________________

Readings for Economic Theory (Taussig)

Economics 11
MWF 2pm
1923-24
from notes taken by Frank Whitson Fetter

Fall Term

Sept. 26

Sept. 28

Oct. 1

Oct. 3

Oct. 5

Oct. 8

Oct. 10

Oct. 15

Oct. 17

Oct. 19

Oct. 22

Oct. 24

Oct. 26

Oct. 29

Oct. 31

Nov. 2

Nov. 5

Nov. 7

Nov. 9

Nov. 12

Nov. 14 Discusses Ricardo’s biography

Nov. 16 (no class)

Nov. 19

Nov. 26

Nov. 28

Nov. 30 Lecture by Taussig on Mill

Dec. 3. No class

Dec. 5. Class in charge of Prof. Crum.

Dec. 7

Dec. 10

Dec. 12

  • Marshall 8th p. 335, (abbreviation unclear, looks like: V:12; paragraph 3…need to check)

Dec. 14

Dec. 17

Dec. 19

Dec. 21

Jan 4

Jan 7

Jan 9

Jan 11.

Jan 14 “increasing returns” (internal and external economies)

Jan 16

Jan 18

Jan 21

Jan 23 Discussion of cases given by Marshall in diagrams on pp. 464-469.

 

 

 

Spring Term

Feb. 11

  • Ultimate analysis of cost of production chapter.
  • Marshall Book VI, ch 4,5, also p. 339
  • Mill, p. 440
  • Marshall, Fortnightly Review, vol 25, p. 598

Feb. 13

Feb. 15

Feb. 18

Feb 20

Feb 25

  • Discussion of main idea of Book II, chapter 7 (probably Marshall)

Feb 27

Feb 29

March 3

March 5

March 7

March 10

March 12

March 14

March 17 no class

March 19

March 21

March 24

March 26 pp. 325-327

March 28

March 31

April 2

April 4

April 7

April 9

April 11 Absent.

April 21

April 23

April 25 absent

April 28

April 30

May 2

May 5

May 7

May 9

May 12    Class in charge of Crum

May 14

May 16

May 19

No class May 21 or May 26.

May 23

May 28

 

Source:  Duke University. Rubenstein Library.
Frank Whitson Fetter Papers, 1902-1992.  Box 49.
Folder: Student Papers, Graduate Course (Harvard University) Transportation Exams, readings, notes, 1923-1924.

Categories
Columbia Courses Curriculum Regulations

Columbia. School of Political Science. Information 1882-83.

Economics at Columbia University emerged from the School of Political Science that spanned the fields of history, public law and political economy. One entered the degree program in the senior year (the fourth) of undergraduate studies. One year of coursework led to the award of the Ph.B. and a Ph.D. required the full three year course program and a dissertation. Cf. the statement published in 1882 by the founder of the School of Political Science, John W. Burgess.

___________________________

GENERAL STATEMENT.

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Columbia College, held June 7, 1880, the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That there be established, to go into operation at the opening of the academic year next ensuing, a school designed to prepare young men for the duties of public life, to be entitled a School of Political Science, having a definitely prescribed curriculum of study extending over a period of three years, and embracing the History of Philosophy; the History of the Literature of the Political Sciences; the General Constitutional History of Europe; the Special Constitutional History of England and the United States; the Roman Law, and the jurisprudence of existing codes derived therefrom; the Comparative Constitutional Law of European States and of the United States; the Comparative Constitutional Law of the different States of the American Union; the History of Diplomacy; International Law; Systems of Administration, State and National, of the United States; Comparison of American and European Systems of Administration; Political Economy and Statistics.

Resolved, That the qualification required of the candidate for admission to this school shall be that he shall have successfully pursued a course of undergraduate study in this college, or in some other maintaining an equivalent curriculum, to the close of the Junior year.

Resolved, That students of the school who shall satisfactorily complete the studies of the first year shall be entitled, on examination and the recommendation of the Faculty, to receive the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy; and those who complete the entire course of three years shall, on similar examination and recommendation, be entitled to receive the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

In accordance with the foregoing resolutions the School of Political Science of Columbia College was opened on Monday, the fourth day of October, 1880.

The purpose of the school is to give a complete general view of all the subjects both of internal and external public polity, from the threefold standpoint of History, Law, and Philosophy. Its prime aim is, therefore, the development of all the branches of the political sciences. Its secondary aim is the preparation of young men for all the political branches of the public service.

To these ends the school offers a course of study of sufficient duration to enable the student not only to attend the lectures and recitations with the professors, but also to study the sources of these sciences in the most approved works of reference upon the same.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.

FIRST YEAR.

FIRST TERM.

Physical and Political Geography [4 hours per week]
Ethnography [4 hours per week]
History of the Literature of the Political Sciences [4 hours per week]
General Political and Constitutional History of Europe [4 hours per week]
Political and Constitutional History of England, to 1688 [2 hours per week]
Political Economy: History of Politico-Economic Institutions [2 hours per week]
History of Philosophy [3 hours per week]

SECOND TERM.

Political and Constitutional History of the United States [4 hours per week]
Political and Constitutional History of England, since 1688 [2 hours per week]
Political Economy: Taxation and Finance [2 hours per week]
History of Philosophy [3 hours per week]

SECOND YEAR.

FIRST TERM.

History of Roman Law, to the present day [6 hours per week]
Comparative Constitutional Law of the principal European States and of the United States [3 hours per week]

SECOND TERM.

Comparative Jurisprudence of the principal European Systems of Civil Law [6 hours per week]
Comparative Constitutional Law of the several Commonwealths of the American Union [3 hours per week]

THIRD YEAR.

FIRST TERM.

History of Diplomacy [2 hours per week]
Private International Law [2 hours per week]
Comparative Administrative Law of the principal States of Europe and of the United States [5 hours per week]
Social Science: Statistical Science, Methods, and Results [2 hours per week]

SECOND TERM.

Public International Law [2 hours per week]
Private International Law [2 hours per week]
Comparative Administrative Law of the several Commonwealths of the American Union [5 hours per week]
Social Science: Communistic and Socialistic Theories [2 hours per week]

OF ADMISSION.

For admission to the School of Political Science it will be required of the applicant that he shall have satisfactorily completed the regular course of undergraduate study in this college or in some other maintaining an equivalent curriculum of study, to the end of the Junior year. Students from other colleges must present certificates of proficiency, and of discharge in good standing.

TIME OF MATRICULATION.

Students proposing to enter the school are desired to present themselves for matriculation on the Friday next before the first Monday in October. The object of this regulation is to prevent matters of business, such as the payment of fees and the formation of class lists, from interfering with the punctual commencement of the lectures of the course on the first day of the term.

The names of students intending to become members of the school may be entered at the room of the President on the Monday immediately preceding Commencement day in June, or on the day appointed as above for matriculation.

OF TUITION FEES AND PAYMENTS.

The annual tuition fee of each student of the school is one hundred and fifty dollars, payable in two equal instalments of seventy-five dollars each, the first at matriculation, and the second on the first Monday of February in each year.

But any member of the School of Law, while he continues to be such, may attend any or all the courses of instruction in the School of Political Science, with the payment of a further fee of fifty dollars in addition to the fee of one hundred dollars due to the School of Law.

OF ADMISSION TO THE CLASSES OF THE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND THE SCHOOL OF LAW.

Any student of the School of Political Science may attend any or all of the courses of the School of Arts with the permission of the instructors concerned, and any or all of the courses of the School of Law, without the payment of any further fee than that due to the School of Political
Science.

OF ADMISSION TO THE GRADUATE CLASSES.

The Trustees have provided that, hereafter, courses of instruction shall be given in the college to graduates of this and other colleges, in a large variety of subjects. Students of the School of Political Science, who may be Bachelors of Arts, of Letters, or of Science at entrance, or who, after having completed their first year in the School of Political Science, shall have received their first degree, may be admitted to the graduate classes, in such subjects as they may desire to pursue, and which will not interfere with their regular studies in the school, without additional fee. A list of the subjects embraced in the scheme of graduate instruction for the ensuing year will be furnished on application to the Registrar of Columbia College, Madison avenue and 49th street, New York City.

OF SPECIAL STUDENTS.

Any person, not a candidate for a degree, may attend any or all of the courses of the School of Political Science by entering his name with the Registrar as a special student in the School of Political Science. The fee for such person, if he desire to attend all the courses of any single year, is one hundred and fifty dollars, payable at the same times as the fee of regular students in the school. For single courses the fee regulates itself according to the number of lectures per week: during the first year the annual fee for a two-hour course being thirty dollars; for a three-hour course, forty-five dollars; for a four-hour course, sixty dollars; and during the second and third years, the annual fee for a two-hour course being forty; for a three-hour course, sixty; for a six-hour course, one hundred and twenty dollars. In every case the fee covers the specified number of hours throughout the year— no student being received for a less period than one year. Such fees are payable in advance.

LIBRARIES.

The library of Political Science contains about three thousand volumes, recently selected by the Faculty of this school, and embracing the latest and most valuable European and American works in this department.

Students of the School of Political Science will also be allowed the use of the library of the School of Arts, the library of the School of Mines, and the library of the School of Law.

The Law library numbers about seven thousand volumes, and contains. a complete series of the reports and statutes of the United States and of the reports and statutes of the State of New York, with the most valuable of those of other States; a full series of the English reports from the Year Books to the present time, with several editions of the English statutes, and many treatises on English and American law.

The libraries of Law and of Political Science contain also a number of works upon Roman Law, ancient and modern, as well as historic and systematic treatises upon the principal European systems of Civil Law.

OF EXAMINATIONS AND COMMENCEMENT.

The annual examination of the students of the school will begin on Monday of the third week preceding Commencement, and will be continued from day to day until completed.

The Commencement exercises of the college take place annually on the second Wednesday of June.

DEGREES.

The degree of Bachelor of Philosophy will be conferred at the close of the first year upon all such students of the school as shall have successfully completed the studies of the year, and shall have been recommended to the Trustees for such degree by the Faculty of the school.

Upon all who shall have successfully completed the studies of the entire course of three years, and shall have been similarly recommended, will be conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

To obtain recommendation for the latter degree, the candidate will be required:

1. To prepare an original dissertation upon a subject assigned him by the Faculty or chosen by him with the approval of the Faculty.

2. To defend such dissertation against the criticisms of the entire Faculty.

3. To pass an oral examination upon all the studies of the three years.

4. To pass collateral examinations (reading at sight) upon Latin and either French or German.

These degrees will be publicly conferred on Commencement day.

Source:
Columbia College. School of Political Science. Circular of Information for the Year 1882-83.

Categories
Courses Economists Harvard

Harvard Economics. Hansen and Williams Fiscal Seminar 1937-1944

Motivation
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1937-38
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1938-39
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1939-40
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1940-41
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1941-42
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1942-43
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1943-44
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1944-45

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From the first annual report of the Graduate School of Public Administration by Dean John H. Williams for 1937-1938

[p. 298] Concerning the seminars which constitute our program of work little further comment seems necessary. A statement of last year’s program and that being followed this year is given in the appendix, where we have sought to describe in detail the content of the seminars and our methods of conducting them. Since properly qualified students carrying on graduate study in other schools and departments of the University may also participate in our seminars the program of the School embraces a student body many times larger than the number of fellows formally registered in the School. Thus at the present time there is a total enrollment of one hundred and eighty-eight students in the various seminars of the School. We began last year with five seminars and have expanded the program this year to eleven, of which five are full-year and six half-year seminars. In selecting the subjects we have been guided in large measure by our own interests and competence, but within these limits we have sought for subjects presenting problems of large public importance, problems both of policy and of procedure, requiring the combined efforts of different disciplines within the social sciences and permitting of effective cooperation between the University and the public service. Especially we have sought to find subjects that are at the research stage, and to put the emphasis upon investigation rather than upon formal instruction. Our interest is quite as much in learning for ourselves as in attempting to teach others…

[p. 314]

Fiscal Policy.
Professors WILLIAMS and HANSEN.

This seminar is concerned with public finance in relation to economic, political, and social institutions and systems. It deals with the monetary aspects of expenditures and revenues, with public finance as a compensatory mechanism in the business cycle, and with the social and political implications of government spending.

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FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1937-1938

Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVI February 28, 1939, No. 4.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1937-38, pp. 307-310.

The Fiscal Policy Seminar in 1937-1938 was conducted on two planes: (1) a general meeting which included active members of the seminar as well as others in the University, both graduate students and faculty members, who had a special interest in one or more of the fields covered at these meetings; (2) a meeting restricted to the working members of the seminar.

The general seminar session met each week on Friday from four to six and was addressed by a visiting consultant of the School. The afternoon session was followed by dinner with the visiting guest attended mainly by selected members from the working seminar who were especially interested in the particular topic under discussion, the dinner in turn being followed by an extended discussion, lasting frequently until 10 or 10:30 o’clock. The visiting speakers were for the most part government officials, but there were also included various officials in the Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Federal Reserve Board in Washington, Social Security Board, Works Progress Administration and the Federal Housing Administration….

The general seminar session with visiting consultants proved extremely valuable from various standpoints. It proved a means by which government officials on their part came into closer contact with the Faculty and students of the Graduate School of Public Administration and accordingly acquired a personal interest in its problems, and on the other side a means of presenting to the School in a more vital way the problems confronting the government. This type of close contact, moreover, is believed to be a useful means of developing placement openings for the graduates of the School in Washington. The discussions with the visiting consultants in the Friday sessions, moreover, proved extremely stimulating as a background for the research work done by the working members of the restricted seminar group.

The working seminar met each week on Monday from four to six. At these sessions papers were presented by various members of the seminar. Out of these papers a number of articles were prepared for submission for publication in various economic journals. It appears that out of the year’s work perhaps some four or five articles in leading journals are likely to materialize. Some have already been accepted.

The combined work of these two seminar meetings forms the background of a research project in Fiscal Policy, which it is planned will eventuate in a volume exploring the problem in a general way and raising important problems for further research.

Program of Friday Meetings

October 15. F. J. BAILEY — “The Work of the Federal Bureau of the Budget.”

October 22. CARL SHOUP — “General Over-All View of the American Tax System.”

October 29. EUSTACE SELIGMAN — “The Effect of the Capital Gains Tax on the Investment Market.”

November 12. GEORGE C. HAAS, JOSEPH S. ZUCKER, L. H. SELTZER and A. F. O’DONNELL — “The Federal Tax Structure.”

November 26. LAWRENCE SELTZER — “The Undistributed Profits Tax.”

December 3. GERHARD COLM — “Economic Consequences of Recent American Tax-Policy.”

December 10. GEORGE O. MAY — “The 1936 Federal Tax Legislation.”

December 17. JACOB VINER — “The General Relations between Fiscal Policy and the Business Cycle.”

February 11. DANIEL W. BELL — “Treasury Financing”; W. R. BURGESS – “Relations of the Reserve Banks and the Treasury.”

February 18. E. A. GOLDENWEISER — “Relations of Deficit Financing to the Banking System.”

February 25. WOODLIEF THOMAS — “Fiscal Policy and the Money Market.”

March 4. LAUCHLIN CURRIE — “Federal Income -Creating Expenditures.”

March 18. A. J. ALTMEYER and WILBUR J. COHEN — “Old Age Insurance and Old Age Assistance: Current and Future Prospects.”

March 25. MERRILL G. MURRAY and JOHN J. CORSON — “The Social Security Taxes.”

April 1. ERNEST M. FISHER — “The Federal Housing Administration.”

April 15. ARTHUR R. GAYER — “Compensatory Spending.”

April 22. CORRINGTON GILL — “Administrative and Fiscal Problems of the Relief Administration.”

April 29. LEWIS DOUGLAS — “Government Fiscal Policy.”

May 6. GUNNAR MYRDAL — “Fiscal Policy in Sweden.”

Program of Monday Meetings

October 18. R. A. MUSGRAVE — “The Twentieth Century Fund Report on Facing the Tax Problem.”

October 25. G. G. JOHNSON — “The Capital Gains Tax.”

November 1. R. V. GILBERT — “The Price of Common Stock as an Element in the Interest Price Structure.”

November 8. EMILE DESPRES — “The Effect of the Capital Gains Tax upon Capital Formation.”

November 15. Dr. HEINRICH BRUENING — “Monetary and Fiscal Policies in Germany during the Depression.”

November 22. WALTER SALANT — “The Effect of Securities Market Regulations upon Capital Formation.”

November 29. K. E. POOLE — “Tax Remission as a Compensatory Device.”

December 6. E. P. HERRING — “Administrative Problems in the Formulation and Execution of Fiscal Policy.”

December 13. E. N. GRISWOLD — “Legal Aspects of the Undistributed Profits Tax.”

February 14. ROBERT FRASE — “Economic Effects of Social Insurance Reserves, with particular reference to Unemployment Insurance Reserves.”

February 21. D. W. LUSHER — “The Relation of the Structure of Interest Rates to Investment.”

February 28. R. A. MUSGRAVE — “Limits in Public Debt and Taxation.”

March 7. WALTER SALANT — “Effects of Fiscal Policy on Business Stability.”

March 14. HERMAN M. SOMERS — “Future Fiscal Burdens Arising from the Social Security Program.”

March 21. MARTIN KROST — “Tax Variability as a Compensatory Stabilizing Device.”

March 28. NORTON LONG — “Some Aspects of Fiscal Planning under Democratic Government.”

April 11. S. J. DENNIS — “The Relation of the Undistributed Profits Tax and the Soldiers’ Bonus to the 1937 Depression.”

April 25. EMILE DESPRES — “Ezekiel’s Proposal to Secure Full Employment.”

May 2. G. G. JOHNSON — “The Trend Toward Treasury Control of Credit in the United States.”

May 9. GUNNAR MYRDAL — “Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Sweden.”

 

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FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1938-1939.
Professors Williams and Hansen

Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII March 30, 1940, No. 12.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1938-39, pp. 342-345.

The Fiscal Policy Seminar was conducted in 1938-1939 on substantially the same plan as in 1937-1938; that is, the general seminar sessions, which met on Fridays from four to six, were addressed by a visiting consultant and were attended by the active members of the seminar, as well as by faculty members and graduate students who were especially interested in the topics under discussion. Smaller meetings were held on Monday afternoons from four to six and were attended only by students engaged in research in the field of fiscal policy.

The general sessions were held less frequently than last year – usually twice a month – and on two occasions were conducted jointly with the Administrative Process Seminar. These joint meetings were on the subjects of the capital budget and federal grants to states, in which both seminars had an interest.

At the three December meetings, “previews” were held of round table discussions which were conducted later in the month at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. The round tables covered the topics “The Role of Public Investment and Consumer Capital Formation,” “Divergencies in the Development of Recovery in Various Countries,” and “The Workability of Compensatory Devices.” In each case three guest speakers presented papers covering different aspects of the problem and providing the basis for general discussion….

As last year, dinners attended by the visiting guest and a small group of students followed the Friday afternoon session, and in the evening informal meetings were held for further discussion.

At each Monday session, a paper was presented by a member of the group doing active research in fiscal policy. The paper was discussed by the other members of the seminar. These papers and discussions formed the basis for theses which were submitted at the close of the year by students who were taking the seminar for academic credit.

The research project begun last year has resulted in a preliminary manuscript on “Fiscal Policy in Relation to the Business Cycle and Chronic Unemployment.” During the coming year, it will be revised and expanded with a view to publication.

The following is a list of the Monday meetings of the seminar:

October 3.            An Over-all View of the Current United States Tax System: Federal, State and Local.

October 10.          An Over-all View of Governmental Expenditures, 1913-1938: Federal, State and Local.

        An Over-all View of the Rise of Public Debt, 1913-1938: Federal, State and Local.

October 17.          The 1938 Revenue Act.

October 24.          Issues Raised by the Colm-Lehmann Pamphlets.

October 31.          The Economic Consequences of Retirement of the Public Debt.

November 14.      The Theoretical and Practical Implications of Separating the Investment Budget from the Current Budget.

November 21.      New York City’s Experience.

November 28.     A Re-examination of the Stabilization of Consumer Income.

December 5.        A Program for the Cyclical Stabilization of Investment and Current Expenditures.

December 12.      Public Investment: History and Program for Future.

December 19.      An Analysis of Governmental Expenditures with a View to Showing the Effects of the Volume and Types of Different Expenditures on Consumption, Saving and Investment.

February 6.          Canadian Fiscal Relations.

February 13.        Japanese Monetary and Fiscal Recovery Policies.

February 20.       The Development of Budgetary Organization.

February 27.        Balkan Credit and Fiscal Policy.

March 6.               The Economic Implications of a Rising Public Debt.

March 13.             Consumption, Saving and Investment and Relief and Social Security.

March 20.            A Re-examination of the Stabilization of Consumer Income.

March 27.            Deficit Financing and the Banking System.

April 10.              Government Loans and Subsidies as a Stimulus to Private Investment.

April 17.               The Economic Effects of the Income Tax.

April 24.              Federal Aid to the States.

May 1.                   Some Attempts at the Statistical Determination of the Multiplier and the Propensity to Consume.

The non-resident consultants and the meetings which they attended were as follows:

October 7.            J. ROY BLOUGH, Director of Tax Research, Division of Tax Research, United States Treasury Department. Tax Policy in the United States Today.

October 28.         LAWRENCE H. SELTZER, Assistant Director, Division of Research and Statistics, United States Treasury Department. Tax Policy with Reference to Capital Accumulation.

November 7.       FRITZ LEHMANN, New School for Social Research. The German Situation.

November 18.     CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2nd., Executive Officer, National Resources Committee. Current and Capital Budgets.
GUNNAR MYRDAL, University of Stockholm. Swedish Budgetary Procedure.
This was a joint meeting with the Administrative Process Seminar.

November 25.     ROSWELL MAGILL, former Under Secretary of the Treasury. The Formulation of a Revenue Bill.

December 2.        Preview of American Economic Association Round Table on The Role of Public Investment and Consumer Capital Formation.

GERHARD COLM, New School for Social Research. The Government as Investor.

BENJAMIN W. LEWIS, Oberlin College. The Government as Competitor.

GRIFFITH JOHNSON, United States Treasury Department. The Effect of the Social Security Taxes on Consumption and Investment.

December 9.        Preview of American Economic Association Round Table on Divergencies in the Development of Recovery in Various Countries.

GOTTFRIED HABERLER, Harvard University. Recovery Policies in Democratic Countries.

GEORGE N. HALM, Tufts College. Recovery Policies in Totalitarian States.

EMIL LEDERER, New School for Social Research. Is There a World-wide Drift Toward Regimented Control of Industry?

December 16.      Preview of American Economic Association Round Table on the Workability of Compensatory Devices.

PAUL T. ELLSWORTH, University of Cincinnati. The Efficacy of Central Bank Policy.

PAUL A. SAMUELSON, Junior Fellow, Harvard University. The Theory of Pump-Priming Re-examined.

EMILE DESPRES, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D. C. The Proposal to Tax Hoarding.

February 17.        LAUCHLIN CURRIE, Assistant Director, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Problem of the Multiplier and the Propensities to Save and Consume and the Outlook for Capital Expenditures.

March 10.             GARDINER MEANS, Director, Industrial Section, National ResourcesCommittee. Discussion of preliminary edition of “Patterns of Resource Use” by the National Resources Committee.

March 17.             E. A. GOLDENWEISER, Director, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Problems of the Quantity and Quality of Money from the Point of View of Monetary Regulation.

April 14.               EWAN CLAGUE, Director, Bureau of Research and Statistics, Social Security Board. Federal Grants to States.

April 21.                J. DOUGLAS BROWN, Princeton University. A Survey of the Social Security Program in the United States.

April 28.               MARRINER ECCLES, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Financial and Fiscal Problems Faced by Capitalistic Democracies Today.

 

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THE FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1939-1940
Professors Williams and Hansen

Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVIII April 10, 1941, No. 20.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1939-40, pp. 324-326.

 

The Fiscal Policy Seminar continued its plan of holding meetings on Mondays from four to six, at which students actively engaged in research in the field of fiscal policy presented papers for discussion, and on occasional Fridays, when visiting consultants addressed the group. The Friday meetings, held usually twice a month, were attended by interested faculty members and graduate students as well as by the active members of the seminar. …Following the more formal afternoon presentation on Fridays, a part of the seminar usually met with the speaker in the evening for further informal discussion of the topic.

On October 20, the seminar met with the Administrative Process Seminar to hear Mr. Robert H. Rawson, a former Littauer Fellow, speak on the work of the Federal Bureau of the Budget. Two meetings were held jointly with the Price Policies Seminar – one in November at which Mr. Leon Henderson discussed price rigidities in our economy, and one in February at which Mr. Richard V. Gilbert, Chief of the Industrial Economics Division of the Department of Commerce, spoke on “War Inventories and the Current Economic Outlook.”

Discussion at the first five Monday meetings was based on the manuscript Fiscal Policy in Relation to the Business Cycle, a research project which has grown out of the meetings during the past two years. The subsequent Monday sessions were devoted to the presentation of papers by members of the group. These papers were discussed by the seminar and presented as theses at the end of the year by those receiving academic credit for the course.

The program of Monday meetings was as follows:

Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN

The Consumption Function.

Current Trends in Economic Theory with Special Reference to the Business Cycle.

Secular Trends in Investment and Saving.

Professor JOHN H. WILLIAMS.

Shifts in Control of Depressions.

Theories of Compensatory Spending.

Budgeting and Fiscal Policy.

The Marginal Propensity to Import.

The Australian Multiplier.

Investment in the American Economy, 1850-1940.

Fiscal Aspects of Ireland’s Economic Nationalism.

The Power of the Federal Reserve System to Restrict Expansion.

Wartime Corporation Finance.

Wartime Finance in Great Britain.

Unemployment Insurance Funds.

The Effect of Deficit Financing on the Banking System.

Public Health.

The Capital Budget.

The Implications of the Growth of Life Insurance for Full Employment.

Taxation in the Business Cycle.

Public Investment.

Redistribution of Income as a Result of Federal Expenditures.

The following is a list of the non-resident consultants and the topics which they discussed:

October 6.     ISADOR LUBIN, Commissioner of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor.

Subject: The Position of Labor Relations and Labor Costs in the Current Situation.

October 20.  HARRY D. WHITE, Director, Division of Monetary Research, United States Treasury Department.

Subject: Gold and Foreign Exchange.

October 30.  ROBERT H. RAWSON, Junior Administrative Analyst, Bureau of the Budget.

Subject: Organization and Methods of the Federal Bureau of the Budget.
(Joint meeting with the Administrative Process Seminar.)

November 13.LEON HENDERSON, Commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission, and member of the Temporary National Economic Committee.

Subject: Price Rigidities in the American Economy.
(Joint meeting with the Price Policies Seminar.)

December 8. RAYMOND W. GOLDSMITH, Assistant Director, Research and Statistical Section, Securities and Exchange Commission.

Subject: The Volume and Components of Saving in the United States.

February 26. RICHARD V. GILBERT, Chief, Industrial Economics Division, United States Department of Commerce.

Subject: War Inventories and the Current Economic Outlook.

March 1.        WARD SHEPARD, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture.

Subject: A Proposed Forest Policy for the United States.

March 8.       EMILE DESPRES, Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Subject: Internal Expansion and the International Position of the United States.

March 29.     GARDINER MEANS, Economic Adviser, National Resources Planning Board.

Subject: The Structure of the American Economy.

April 12.        M. A. HEILPERIN, Institute for Higher International Studies, Geneva.

Subject: The International Monetary System and the Business Cycle.

May 3.           GERHARD COLM, Economist, Division of Industrial Economics, United States Department of Commerce.

Subject: Some Problems of Long-Run Tax Policy.

 

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THE FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1940-1941.
Professors Williams and Hansen 

Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXIX February 25, 1942, No. 5.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of Departments for 1940-41, pp. 323-326.

The Fiscal Policy Seminar continued its established practice of including in its program meetings at which visiting consultants discussed various topics of interest to the group, and sessions devoted to the presentation of student reports. The reports were presented in the second semester and were discussed at length by the other members of the seminar….

Seven of the meetings were held jointly with other seminars – four with the International Economic Relations Seminar and three with the Agricultural, Forestry, and Land Policy Seminar.

 

The program of meetings was as follows:

September 30. Professor HANSEN.

October 7.      Professor WILLIAMS.

October 11.   SVEND LAURSEN, Student, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University.

Subject: International Trade and the Multiplier.
(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations Seminar.)

October 21. Professor HANSEN and Professor WILLIAMS.

October 25. MARTIN KROST, Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Subject: The Excess Profits Tax.

October 28. RICHARD A. MUSGRAVE, Instructor, Department of Economics, Harvard University.

Subject: Report of the Canadian Royal Commission on Dominion Provincial Fiscal Relations.

November 4. Professor HANSEN.

November 8. GEORGE TERBORGH, Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Subject: Prospective Accumulated Backlog in Capital Goods and Durable Consumers’ Goods Industries in the Post-Defense Period.

November 18. ELIZABETH B. SCHUMPETER.

Subject: Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Japan.

November 25. BENJAMIN H. HIGGINS and RICHARD A. MUSGRAVE, Instructors, Department of Economics, Harvard University.

Subject: The Savings-Investment Problem Re-examined.

December 2. Professor HANSEN.

December 9. DAN T. SMITH, Associate Professor of Finance and Taxation, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University.

Subject: The Role of Borrowing in the Defense Program.

December 16. Professor HANSEN.

December 20. GUY GREER, Federal Housing Administration.

Subject: The Organization of the Federal Housing Program.

February 3.   Student Report.

Subject: National Income and Military Effort.

February 10. Student Report.

Subject: United States Housing Program During and After the Defense Program.

February 17. ERIC ENGLUND, Assistant Chief, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture.

Subject: Alternatives in Financing of the Agricultural Programs.

(Joint meeting with Agricultural, Forestry and Land Seminar.)

February 21. HARRY D. WHITE, Director, Division of Monetary Research, United States Treasury Department.

Subject: Blocked Balances.

(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations Seminar.)

February 24. J. KEITH BUTTERS, Instructor, Department of Economics, Harvard University.

Subject: Discriminatory Features in Federal Corporation Income Taxes.

March 3. J. KENNETH GALBRAITH, National Defense Advisory Commission.

Subject: The Farm Credit Administration and Related Farm Credit Problems.

(Joint meeting with Agricultural, Forestry, and Land Policy Seminar.)

March 10. Student report.

Subject: Trends in the Fiscal Incapacity of State and Local Governments and Their Impact on Defense and Post-Defense Policy.

March 17. Student Report.

Subject: The Effect of the Tax Structures on Economic Activity in the United States and Great Britain, 1929-1937.

March 21. RICHARD V. GILBERT, National Defense Advisory Commission.

Subject: The American Defense Program.

(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations Seminar.)

March 24. Student Report.

Subject: Essays on Fiscal Policy and the Building Cycle.

I.  Transport Development and Building Cycles.
II. Monetary Control of the Building Cycle.

April 7. Student Report.

Subject: The Monetary Powers of Some Federal Agencies outside the Federal Reserve System.

April 14. Student Report.

Subject: Incentive Taxation.

April 18. Student Reports.

Subjects: The Use of Credit as an Instrument of Social Amelioration in Agriculture. Credit for a Solvent Agriculture.

(Joint meeting with Agricultural, Forestry, and Land Policy Seminar.)

April 25. CARL SHOUP, Professor of Economics, Columbia University.

Subject: Defense Financing.

April 28. Student Report.

Subject: The Economic Development of a War Economy.

May 2. GUSTAV STOLPER, Financial Adviser.

Subject: Financing the American Defense Program.

(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations Seminar.)

 

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FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1941-1942
Professors Williams and Hansen

Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLI, September 26, 1944, No. 23.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of the departments for 1941-42, pp. 340-343.

 

Fiscal problems arising out of the war and plans for the post-war period were of dominant interest in the Fiscal Policy Seminar program during 1941-42. With regard to post-war problems particular attention was paid to the question of federal-state-local fiscal relations, and a special section of the seminar library was devoted to books and pamphlets on this topic.

Meetings were held on Mondays and Fridays, the latter being given over mainly to visiting consultants, with reports and discussions by student and faculty members of the seminar concentrated on Mondays. As in previous years, several meetings were held jointly with other Seminars, eight with the International Economic Relations Seminar, and two with the Agricultural, Forestry, and Land Use Policy Seminar….

The program of meetings was as follows:

September 29. The Development of Fiscal Policy.

October 6.     Defense Financing.

October 17.   The Relation Between Fiscal Policy and Inflation.

October 20.  The Problem of Federal, State and Local Relationships.

HARVEY S. PERLOFF, Associate Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

October 24.  The United States Housing Authority.

NATHAN STRAUS, Administration, United States Housing Authority.

October 27.  Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles.

October 31.   Urban Redevelopment.

GUY GREER, Senior Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

November 3. Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles.

November 10. The Present State of Fiscal Policy.

November 17. The Multiplier.

November 21. The Federal Advisory Council.

WALTER LICHTENSTEIN, Vice-President, First National Bank of Chicago.

November 24. The Multiplier.

PAUL SAMUELSON, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Professor HABERLER.

November 28. Economic Warfare.

NOEL HALL, British Embassy.

December 1. The Multiplier.

PAUL SAMUELSON, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

December 5. International Economic Relations with Special Reference to the Post-War Situation.

ROBERT BRYCE, Department of Finance, Canada.

December 8. Post-War Problems.

Professors HABERLER and HARRIS as well as Professors WILLIAMS and HANSEN.

December 12. The Revenue Act of 1941.

J. KEITH BUTTERS, Department of Economics, Harvard University.

December 15. The Theory of Public Investment.

Professor HARRIS.

December 19. The 1942 Revenue Act.

ROY BLOUGH, Director of Tax Research, Treasury Department.

January 26. The Problem of Post-War Reconstruction.

PER JACOBSSEN, Economist, Bank for International Settlements.

February 2.  Economic Philosophy and Post-War Fiscal Policy.

ALEJANDRO SHAW, Argentina.

February 9.   Equalization Grants and Their Role in Fiscal Policy (student report).

February 13. Monopolistic Trading and International Relations.

JACOB VINER, Chicago University.

February 16. War Finance and Inflation (student report).

February 20. The Effect of Federalism on Fiscal Policy.

LUTHER GULICK, National Resources Planning Board.

March 2.       Agriculture in the Post-War Period.

LEONARD ELMHIRST, Elmhirst Foundation.

March 9.       War Finance and Direct Taxation (student report).

March 13.     Post-War Domestic and International Investments.

RICHARD M. BISSELL, Department of Commerce.

March 16.     Monetary Implications of Fiscal Policy.

March 20.     The Present Fiscal Situation.

ALBERT GAYLORD HART, Iowa State College.

March 23.     Problems of Monetary Control.

ROBERT V. ROSA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and

PETER L. BERNSTEIN, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

March 27.     The Public Work Reserve.

BENJAMIN H. HIGGINS, Economic Consultant, Public Work Reserve.

April 6.          A High-Consumption vs. a High-Savings Economy (student report).

April 10.        Post-War Surpluses and Shortages in Plant and Equipment.

GEORGE TERBORGH, Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

April 13.        Private Industry Post-War Planning.

DAVID C. PRINCE, Vice-President, General Electric Company.

April 17.        Commodity Taxation in a Progressive Tax System (student report).

April 24.       Government Lending Agencies.

ROBERT V. ROSA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and

PETER L. BERNSTEIN, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

April 27.        The Impact of War Expenditures on State and Local Government (student report).

May 1.            The Inflationary Gap.

WALTER SALANT, Chief, Price and Economic Policy Section, Division of Research, Office of Price Administration.

May 21.         The Problem of Britain’s Food Supply.

E. M. H. LLOYD, Chairman, British Food Mission.

 

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FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1942-43
Professors Williams and Hansen

Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLI, September 28, 1944, No. 25.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of the departments for 1942-43, pp. 243-245.

 

War and post-war fiscal problems were the main consideration in the Fiscal Policy Seminar in 1942-43. This included national aspects of inflationary and tax problems and post-war tax adjustments, as well as federal-state-local fiscal relations.

Meetings were held on Mondays and Fridays, the latter being given over mainly to visiting consultants, with reports and discussions by student and faculty members of the seminar concentrated on Mondays. As formerly, several meetings Were held jointly with other seminars….

The program of meetings was as follows:

October 5.     Professor HANSEN.

Subject: A Survey of the Fiscal.War Picture.

October 9.    MILTON GILBERT, Director of National Income Division, Department of Commerce.

Subject: Concepts of National Income and Its Statistical Measurement.

October 19.   Professor WILLIAMS.

Subject: The Present Status of Fiscal Policy.

October 23.  Professor PAUL SAMUELSON, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Subject: Consumption Function.

October 26. Professor WILLIAMS.

Subject: Changes in the Banking System.

October 30.  Professor LAWRENCE H. SELTZER, Wayne University.

Subject: Possible Techniques for the Working of the PostWar Economic System.

November 2. Professor A. P. LERNER, Amherst College.

Subject: Rate of Interest.

November 9. Professor HANSEN.

Subject: War Financing in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

November 13. Professor FRITZ MACHLUP, Buffalo University. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)

Subject: National Income, Employment and International Relations.

November 16. Professor HANSEN.

Subject: Federal, State, Local Fiscal Relations.

November 20. DAVID E. LILIENTHAL, Director, Tennessee Valley Authority.

Subject: The Tennessee Valley Authority.

November 23. Dr. JOHN KEITH BUTTERS, Harvard University.

Subject: Revenue Act of 1942.

November 27. Hon. GRAHAM F. TOWERS, Governor, Bank of Canada. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)

Subject: Canadian War Economic Measures.

November 30. Professor WILLIAMS.

Subject: Basic Issues of Fiscal Policy.

December 4. LYNN R. EDMINSTER, Vice-Chairman, U. S. Tariff Commission.

(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)

Subject: The Reconstruction of World Trade After War.

December 7. Professor WILLIAMS.

Subject: Basic Issues of Fiscal Policy.

December 1. Professor SEYMOUR E. HARRIS. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)

Subject: War Problems of International Trade.

December 14. Professor HANSEN.

Subject: The Beveridge Report.

February 1.  Honorable HAROLD STASSEN, Governor of Minnesota.

Subject: Decentralized Government.

February 8.  HARVEY S. PERLOFF, Federal Reserve Board, Washington.

Subject: State-Local Fiscal Relations.

February 12. THOMAS MC KITTRICK, President of the Bank for International Settlements.

Subject: The Bank for International Settlements.

February 15. Professor HANSEN.

Subject: The Beveridge Plan and a Post-War Minimum Budget.

February 24. Dr. LEO PASVOLSKY, State Department. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)

Subject: Post-War Problems in International Trade.

March 1.        Dr. HANS STAEHLE, Harvard University.

Subject: Consumption and National Income in Post-War.

March 12.     Dr. RICHARD MUSGRAVE, Federal Reserve Board, Washington.

Subject: Revenue Bill-1943.

March 26.     Dr. PAUL STUDENSKI, Professor of Economics, New York University.

Subject: State-Local Fiscal Policies in New York in War-Time.

April 12.        EMILE DESPRES, Office of Strategic Services, Washington. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)

Subject: The Transfer Problem and the Over-Saving Problem in the Pre-War and Post-War Worlds.

April 16.        Dr. ALBERT HAHN. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)

Subject: Planned or Adjusted Post-War Economy.

May 8.           GUY GREER, Editor of Fortune Magazine.

Subject: Urban Redevelopment.

 

___________________________

 

FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1943-44
Professors Williams and Hansen

Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLIV, July 7, 1947, No. 20.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1943-4, pp. 269-270.

 

Fiscal problems of the war and in the postwar period were the general topics under discussion in the Fiscal Policy Seminar in I943-44. More specifically this included national aspects of consumption and saving, taxation, budgeting, and the public debt. Emphasis was also placed on the international financial and monetary problems. Several of the meetings were devoted to discussion of the special fiscal and monetary problems in a number of Latin American countries.

Meetings were held on Mondays and Fridays and consisted of reports by student and faculty members of the seminar and of discussions led by outside consultants and by Dean Williams and Professor Hansen. As in other years, a number of meetings were held jointly with other seminars….

The program of meetings was as follows:

November 8. Professor WILLIAMS.

Subject: General Survey of Fiscal Policy.

November 15. Professor WILLIAMS.

Subject: General Survey of Fiscal Policy (cont.).

November 19. Dr. J. ROY BLOUGH, Director of Tax Research, Treasury Department.

Subject: Some Administrative Aspects of Taxation.

November 22. G. NEIL PERRY, Director, Bureau of Economics and Statistics, British Columbia.

Subject: Fiscal Policy and the Canadian Economy.

November 29. Professor WILLIAMS.

Subject: Problems of International Monetary Stabilization.

December 6. HANS ADLER.

Subject: Population Growth and Fiscal Policy.

December 13. Professor WILLIAMS.

Subject: Problems of International Monetary Stabilization.

December 17. Dr. HARRY WHITE, Director of Monetary Research, Treasury Department.

Subject: Problems of International Stabilization.

December 20. Professor HANSEN.

Subject: Consumption and Saving during the War.

January 3.    Professor HANSEN.

Subject: Consumption and Saving in the Postwar.

January 10.  Professor GOTTFRIED HABERLER.

Subject: Reparations.

January 14.  Dr. N. NESS, Member of Mexican-U. S. Economic Committee.

Subject: Mexico.

January 17.  Dr. BEARDSLEY RUML, Federal Reserve Bank, New York.

Subject: Economic Budget and Fiscal Budget.

January 21.  Dr. P. T. ELLSWORTH, Economic Studies Division, Department of State.

Subject: Chile.

January 24.  Dr. DON HUMPHREY, Special Adviser on Price Control to Haitian Government.

Subject: Haiti.

January 31.  Dr. ROBERT TRIFFIN, Member of U. S. Economic Commission to Paraguay.

Subject: Money, Banking, and Foreign Exchanges in Latin America.

February 4.  Dr. MIRON BURGIN, Office of Coördinator of Inter-American Affairs.

Subject: Argentina.

March 31.     Mr. HENRY WALLICH.

Subject: Fiscal Policy and International Equilibrium.

April 14.        Mr. EVSEY DOMAR, Federal Reserve Board.

Subject: Limitation of Public Debt in Relation to National Income.

May 5.           Dr. J. KEITH BUTTERS and Dr. CHARLES ABBOTT, Harvard Business School.

Subject: Business Taxes.

May 19.         Mr. GUY GREER, Board of Editors, Fortune.

Subject: Urban Redevelopment.

 

___________________________

 

FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1944-45
Professors Williams and Hansen

Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLV, December 1, 1948, No. 30.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1944-45, pp. 282-284.

 

Fiscal problems of the war and in the postwar period were the general topics under discussion in the Fiscal Policy Seminar in 1944-1945. More specifically this included national aspects of consumption and saving, taxation, budgeting, and the public debt. Emphasis was also placed on the international financial and monetary problems. Several of the meetings were devoted to discussion of the special fiscal and monetary problems in a number of Latin American countries.

Meetings were held on Mondays and Fridays and consisted of reports by student and faculty members of the seminar and of discussions led by outside consultants and by Dean Williams and Professor Hansen. As in other years, a number of meetings were held jointly with other seminars….

Three of the papers presented at these meetings were subsequently published in economic journals. The program of meetings was as follows:

*Sept. 11.       J. W. BEYEN, former president of the International Bank at Basle, Chairman of Netherlands Delegation at Bretton Woods.

Subject: Bretton Woods Conference.

*Sept. 18.      RAGNAR NURKSE of Economic and Financial Section of League of Nations.

Subject: Bretton Woods Conference.

*October 30. Professor DOUGLAS COPLAND, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Subject: Australian Problems in the Transition from War to Peace.

*The dates in September and October, while part of the Summer Term, were integrated in the year’s program.

November 6. Professor JOHN H. WILLIAMS.

Subject: Estimates of Postwar National Income and Employment.

November 13. Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN.

Subject: Wartime Fiscal Problems.

November 15. RANDOLPH PAUL, formerly with the U.S. Treasury.

Subject: Postwar Federal Taxation.

November 20. Dr. FREDERICK LUTZ, Princeton University.

Subject: Corporate Cash Balances, I914-1943.

December 4. Professor JOHN H. WILLIAMS.

Subject: The Bretton Woods Agreements.

December 11. EDWARD M. BERNSTEIN, Assistant Director, Division of Monetary Research, Treasury Department.

Subject: The Scarcity of Dollars. (Published in The Journal of Political Economy, March I945.)

December 15. Dr. FRANCIS MC INTYRE, Representative of the Foreign Economic Exchange on Requirements Board of the War Production Board.

Subject: International Distribution of Supplies in Wartime.

January 8.    DAVID E. LILIENTHAL, Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Subject: Tennessee Valley Authority.

January 15. Dr. OLIVER M. W. SPRAGUE (Professor Emeritus).

Subject: Postwar Corporate Taxation.

January 22. Dr. WALTER GARDNER, Federal Reserve Board.

Subject: Some Aspects of the Bretton Woods Program.

January 26. Dr. WILLIAM FELLNER, University of California.

Subject: Types of Expansionary Policies and the Rate of Interest.

January 29. Professor WALTER F. BOGNER, Dr. CHARLES R. CHERINGTON, Professors CARL J FRIEDRICH, SEYMOUR E HARRIS, TALCOTT PARSONS, ALFRED D. SIMPSON, AND Mr. GEORGE B. WALKER.

Subject: The Boston Urban Development Plan.

March 5.       Dr. ROBERT TRIFFIN, Federal Reserve Board.

Subject: International Economic Problems of South America.

March 9.       Dr. PAUL J. RAVER, Bonneville Power Administration.

Subject: Bonneville Power Administration.

March 12.     Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN.

Subject: Murray Employment Bill.

March 16.     H. L. SELIGMAN.

Subject: Bank Earnings and Taxation of Bank Profits.

March 19.     Dr. LOUIS RASMINSKY, Foreign Exchange Control Board, Ottawa, Canada.

Subject: British-American Trade Problems from the Canadian Point of View. (Published in the British Economic Journal, September 1945.)

March 26.    Dr. HERBERT FURTH, Federal Reserve Board.

Subject: Monetary and Financial Problems of the Liberated Countries.

April 2.         Dr. LLOYD METZLER, Federal Reserve Board.

Subject: Postwar Economic Policies of the United Kingdom. (An article based on this paper and written in collaboration with Dr. RANDALL HINSHAW was published in The Review of Economic Statistics, November 1945.)

April 13.        s. s. PU [sic]

Subject: Fiscal Policies and Income Generation.

April 16.        Professor EDWARD S. MASON, State Department, Washington.

Subject: Commodity Agreements.

April 20.       HECTOR TASSARA.

Subject: The Role of the Central Bank in the Argentine Economy.

April 23.       Dr. ABBA P. LERNER, New School for Social Research, N. Y.

Subject: Postwar Policies.

April 27.       Professor JOHN VAN SICKLE, Vanderbilt University.

Subject: Wages and Employment: A Regional Approach.

April 30.       Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN.

Subject: Postwar Wage Policy.

May 14.         Dr. E. M. H. LLOYD, United Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, British Treasury.

Subject: Inflation in Europe.

May 21.         AXEL IVEROTH, Swedish Legation, Washington.

Subject: Postwar Plans in Sweden.

May 28.         Professor LEON DUPRIEZ, University of Louvain, Belgium.

Subject: Problem of Full Employment in View of Recent European Experience.

May 29.        Professor SEYMOUR E. HARRIS, Professor WASSILY W. LEONTIEF, Professor GOTTFRIED HABERLER, Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN.

Subject: The Shorter Work Week and Full Employment.

Categories
Harvard

Harvard Economics. Harry Rudolph Tosdal. Ph.D. 1915

  1. Tosdal, Harry Rudolph. The cartell movement in the German iron and potash industries. Pub. in part as ” The Kartell movement in the German potash industry,” in Quart. Journ. Econ., 1913, 28: 140-190; “The German steel syndicate,” ibid., 1917, 31: 259-306.

Source: Harvard University. Doctors of Philosophy and Doctors of Science who have received their Degree in Course From Harvard University, 1873-1926.

________________________

Biographical Note:

Harry R. Tosdal was born in Estherville, Iowa in August 1889. He received his BA from St. Olaf’s College in 1909. He then studied abroad at universities in Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. He eventually earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1915. He received an L.L.D.from St. Olaf’s in 1940.
Before joining Harvard Business School, Tosdal taught at MIT, Harvard University and Boston University. In 1920, he came to Harvard Business School as Director of Student Research and Assistant Professor of Marketing. He became Professor of Marketing in 1922 and Professor of Business Administration after 1942. Tosdal was also the first editor of the Harvard Business Review. He retired from the Business School in 1956. After retiring, he taught in the Advanced Management Program at the University of Hawaii and the Institut pour de Etude des Methodes de Direction de l’Enterprise (IMEDE) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
He was the author of many articles and books, including Selling in Our Economy (1957) and Introduction to Sales Management (1933).
Tosdal served as a consultant to numerous corporations and organizations, such as General Electric, Gulf Oil, McGraw-Hill, Boston (MA) Chamber of Commerce, Cambridge (MA) Chamber of Commerce, and the U.S. Salary Stabilization Board. He also belonged to several professional societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Association of Marketing Teachers.
He died on April 4, 1978 in Belmont, MA.

Source: Harvard Business School, Harry R. Tosdal Papers, 1921-1945: A Finding Aid

________________________

Categories
Courses Economists Harvard Syllabus

Harvard Economics. Economics 101. Econ Theory. Chamberlin, 1938-9

Since first posting this course syllabus I have found a copy of the examination questions for the final exam given at the end of the second term in June 1939.

______________________

Welcome to my blog, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have already assembled for you to sample or click on the search icon in the upper right to explore by name, university, or category. You can subscribe to my blog below.  There is also an opportunity to comment below….

______________________

[Economic Theory. Instructor: Edward Hastings Chamberlin]

Economics 101

1938-9

First Semester

I.     Mill – Principles, Book II, chapter 4; Book III, chapters 1, 2.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapters 1, 2.

Mill – Principles, Book III, chapters 3, 5, 6.

Marshall – Principles, pp. 348-50; p. 806 note.

Mill – Principles, Book III, chapter 4.

Suggested Reading:

Introduction to the Ashley ed. of Mill, or

Mill’s Autobiography

Ricardo – Political Economy (Gonner edition), chapter 1.

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

Marshall – Principles, Appendix I.

Davenport – Economics of Enterprise, chapter 6.

Suggested Reading:

Jevons – Theory of Political Economy, chapters 3, 4.

III.  Marshall – Principles, Book V, chapters 1-5; Book IV, chapter 13; Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 12; Appendix H.

Taussig, F. W., “Price Fixing as Seen by a Price Fixer”, Q.J.E., Vol. 33, p. 205.

Knight, F. H. – “Cost of Production and Price over Long and Short Periods”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 29, p. 304 (1921). (Reprinted in Knight, The Ethics of Competition and Other Essays, Chapter 8).

Suggested Reading: Additional reading in Marshall.

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

IV.  Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapter 3.

Abramovitz – “Monopolistic Selling in a Changing Economy”, Q.J.E., Vol. 52, p. 191 (1938).

Suggested Reading:

Zeuthen – Problems of Monopoly, chapter 2.

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix A.

V.    Robinson – Imperfect Competition, Introduction, and chapters 1,2,3.

Monopolistic Competition, chapters 4, 5; Appendices D, E.

Chamberlin – “Monopolistic or Imperfect Competition?”, Q.J.E., August, 1937.

Sweezy, P.M. – “On the Definition of Monopoly”, Q.J.E., Vol. 51, p. 362 (1937)

Cassels, J.M. – “Excess Capacity and Monopolistic Competition”, Q.J.E., Vol. 51, p. 426. (1937)

Suggested Reading:

Kaldor – “Professor Chamberlin on Monopolistic and Imperfect Competition”, Q.J.E., May, 1938: and Reply.

Robinson – Imperfect Competition, chapters 4,5,6, 7.

VI.  Viner – “Cost Curves and Supply Curves”, Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, 1931.

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix B.

Suggested Reading:

Sraffa, P., “The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions”, Economic Journal, Vol. 36, p. 535 (1926).

VII. Monopolistic Competition, chapters 6,7.

Braithwaite, Dorothea – “The Economic Effects of Advertisement”, Economic Journal, Vol. 38, p. 16 (1928). (Reprinted as Chapter VII in Braithwaite and Dobbs, The Distribution of Consumable Goods).

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix C.

Alsberg, C.L. – “Economic Aspects of Adulteration and Imitation”, Q.J.E., Vol. 46, p. 1 (1931).

Suggested Reading:

Hotelling, H. “Stability in Competition”, Economic Journal, Vol. 39, p. 41 (1929)

Lerner, A. P. and Singer, H.W. – “Some Notes on Duopoly and Spatial Competition”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 45, p. 145 (1937)

Burns, A.R. – The Decline of Competition, chapter VIII, “Non-Price Competition”.

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Economics 101

1938-9

Second Semester

I.    Discrimination:

Pigou – Economics of Welfare, Part II. Chapter on Discriminating Monopoly.

Robinson, J. – Imperfect Competition, Chapters 15, 16.

Suggested: Pigou – Chapter on the Special Problem of Railway Rates

Clark, J.M. – Overhead Costs, Chapter 20.

II.   Distribution – General:

Marshall – Principles, Book VI, Chapters 1-5.

Knight – Risk, Uncertainty and Profits, Chapter 4.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 8.

Suggested Reading: Garver & Hansen – Principles, Chapter 5.

Kahn – “Some Notes on Ideal Output” (last half) Economic Journal.

III. Wages:

Hicks – Theory of Wages, Chapters 1-7; 9; 10, section 1; 11, section 5.

Taussig – Principles, Chapter 47.

Suggested Reading: Robertson –Economic Fragments, Chapter on “Wage Grumbles.”

Machlup – “The Common Sense of Elasticity of Substitution,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. II, Page 202.

Cairnes – Leading Principles, Chapter 3.

IV.  Interest:

Böhm – Bawerk – Positive Theory, Book I, chapter 2; Book II; Book V; Book VI, chapters 5,6,7; Book VII, chapters 1,2,3.

Marshall – Principles, Book IV, chapter 7; Book VI, chapter 1, sections 8, 9, 10, chapter 2, section 4, chapter 6.

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

Clark, J. B. – Distribution of Wealth, chapters 9, 20.

Schumpeter – Theory of Economic Development, chapters 1 – 5.

V.    Rent:

Ricardo – Chapter 2.

Marshall – Book V, chapters 8, 9,10,11.

Robinson – Imperfect Competition, chapters 8, 9.

VI.   Profits:

Marshall – Book VI, chapter 5, section 7; chapters 7, 8.

Taussig – Principles, Vol. II, chapter 50, section 1.

Henderson –Supply & Demand, chapter 7.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapter 5, section 6; chapter 7, section 6; Appendices D, E.

Schumpeter – (see under Interest)

Berle & Means – The Modern Corporation, Book IV.

Gordon, R.A. – “Enterprise, Profits and the Modern Corporation,” in “Explorations in Economics,” p. 306.

Knight – The Ethics of Competition, Essay No. 11: “Economic Theory and Nationalism.”

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Source:  Harvard University Archives

HUC 8522.2.1

Box 2 of 10

Syllabi, course outlines and

Reading lists in Economics,

1895-2003

Folder: Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1938-39

Categories
Harvard

E.B. Wilson Lecture USDA Graduate School 1930

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
GRADUATE SCHOOL
SPECIAL LECTURES ON ECONOMICS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
FEBRUARY – MARCH 1930
WASHINGTON, D. C.
1930

 

Contents: The following lectures were delivered before the students of the Graduate School in February and March 1930, and are issued in this form for present and former students of the school.

 

Scientific Method in Economic Research                                                                1

by Dr. E. B. Wilson, President, Social Science Research Council.

o[p. 1]

SCIENTIFIC -METHOD IN ECONOMIC RESEARCH

By Dr. E. B. Wilson, President, Social Science Research Council.

It is a real embarrassment to me to come here announced to speak upon a topic, Economic Research, of which I have never known much, and today know less than I have at times in the past. The awkwardness is not alleviated by my appreciation of the fact that there are several in the audience who could talk about the subject better than I, and with that increased assurance and authority which comes of a wider experience and greater personal accomplishment in the field. Furthermore, the title of my lecture contains the cryptic words “Scientific Method” which slide smoothly from the tongues of many persons dealing with relatively inchoate research fields, but are apt to stick in the crop of those whose major experience is in well developed branches of science. I could, for instance, hardly imagine a group at the Bureau of Standards asking me or any other for a lecture on scientific method in physical research. Indeed, I should not be astonished to hear physicists say there was no such thing as scientific method, that there was an infinite variety of techniques, theoretical and experimental, available to the physicist from which each individual must select for a particular problem those which may be applicable to that problem, but that as to scientific method in general there was little which could be stated other than something very general with respect to the scientific attitude of mind, patient and unbiassed searching for facts, earnestness in seeking for corroboration by others wherever personal bias may have influenced the array of facts or the conclusions drawn from them, and a persistent effort to improve techniques so that facts may become more objective and precise. There would probably be some who boldly would affirm that method was for the other fellow and not for. themselves, meaning by this that each individual investigator, and especially those of any real genius, pursued his own studies without conscious dominance by any notion of scientific method until he came to the somewhat unwelcome task of writing up his work for communication to others, when perforce he must consider what method of presentation would most effectively convey his findings and their justification or validity to that particular group of fellow scientists whose good opinion he would most value.

I might state as a generalization that the interest in scientific method on the part of investigators in any scientific field varies inversely as their interest in that field of science. But this statement is much too striking to be scientific; in the first place there are always exceptions and it would have to be understood as applying on the average, and in the second place there is no way known to me to evaluate quantitatively either the interest in method or the interest in the field which would justify so precise a statement as that the one interest varied inversely as the other.

I do not, however, propose entirely to cheat you of all discussion of the topic of my lecture. I will enumerate some methods.

[p. 2]

(l) The method of definition. The choice of a suitable definition if often the touchstone of scientific advance. Scientifically definitions need not be explicit, they may be implicit; they need not be quantitative, they may be first qualitative. There are numerous illustrations which could be given from the economic field, but we may all get forward faster if we take an example from physics. Let us define force. And let us go back to Newton. In his first law of motion he stated that a body at rest remained at rest and a body in notion remained in motion in a straight line at uniform velocity unless acted on by some force. Now this cleared the way. It eliminated once for all the notion that bodies stopped of themselves – they had to be stopped or started, accelerated or decelerated by applied force. There is here a qualitative and implicit notion of force which can furnish a sound basis for the quantitative definition of force as equal (or proportional) to the rate of change of motion. As a matter of fact a single definition cannot well exist by itself, it can only be part of a system of definitions – force, mass and acceleration are tied together. At any particular time in the advance of a science some new term may seem to be defined absolutely alone and the complex of definitions to which it belongs may not be perceived because this complex lies in the general background of our accepted thinking whereas the newly defined element emerges.

From such experience as I have in teaching and in research, particularly in emergent fields, I should say that most pupils and colleagues were so thoroughly oblivious to the necessity for and significance of definitions in science as to be almost impatient of them. In this they are far from scientific. Science is a congeries of definitions. We are seeking agreement in science and one of the most effective ways of seeking it is by agreement on the meaning of our words. Take such words as “wealth”, “income”, and others which are basic in economic research. How can one expect agreement between two persons who are tacitly using different though perhaps unformulated definitions for these or similar words? Of course, I do not wish to over-emphasize the necessity for precision in definitions – there is no such thing as absolute precision apart from the construction of complete logical systems such as mathematicians have constructed for arithmetic, geometry and algebra of several types. We have at any stage of science to deal with a relative precision of definition. And it may not be amiss for me to point out that the absolute precision of the completely defined mathematical discipline exists only for that intellectual discipline and breaks down immediately when that system of thought is applied to nature, by virtue of the fact that there do not exist in nature any objects precisely corresponding to the exact intellectual concepts precisely defined.

Let us consider the question of “level”, “rolling”, or “hilly” agricultural land. It would doubtless be possible to construct mathematical definitions of level, rolling, and hilly in such form that a surveyor equipped with the proper instruments could classify land under these three categories with great scientific precision, by which we mean that specifications for the classification could be so drawn as to make certain that different surveyors equipped with similar instruments would make the same classifications with only the fewest disagreements in certain very doubtful intermediate cases. Such a precise definition with its accompanying exact classification would be costly in time and in money and thus of

[p. 3]

limited practical utility. Very little land could be so classified. On the other hand, it would be possible to set up rough and ready descriptive definitions of level, rolling, and hilly intended to be used for classifications by mere inspection which would be utilizable at comparatively slight expense in money and time. Now different observers would undoubtedly differ considerably in their allotments of parcels of an intermediate character to one or the other of the adjacent categories, and in this allotment there might be bias, so that even on the average the classifications by different observers would have different percentages of the three sorts. The reliability of the method would certainly be less, its utility, even its scientific utility, might be far greater because of its greater feasibility.

The essential element in precision is not so much absolute precision as a sound estimate of what degree of precision has been attained. It is really reliability in the sense of reproducibility or agreement which is the scientific item and if the reliability is sufficient for the purposes in hand and if the conclusions drawn from the work limit themselves to what is justified by the reliability attained, that is all we can really ask. Thus two treatises on economics neither of which explicitly defines wealth or some other term but both of which develop their analysis upon tolerably similar implicit definitions may well not come into actual conflict even though if each pushed its analysis far enough they could hardly fail to come into some conflict resoluble only through rendering the definitions more precise. Much medical work, particularly of the clinical variety, could not proceed at all if a high degree of precision were required. So to define broncho-pneumonia or dementia precox as to result in a high degree of reliability in diagnosis may actually be impossible in the present state of our technique. I do not mean that definitions could not be given but that such definitions would not be those of what should be called broncho-pneumonia or dementia precox – they would be artificial and illusory definitions. What we need at the moment is not such definitions so much as a recognition by scientific clinicians of their need for the concept of reliability, their need to have a feeling for what the true precision is; because it is only upon the basis of such recognition that one is likely fruitfully to improve the definitions. The situation may well be the same in respect to a large number of economic concepts.

(2) The method of mathematical analysis. Beginning rather clearly with Cournot, there has been a great development of mathematical analysis in economics. I do not refer to arithmetically quantitative analysis but to the type of mathematics which is logical and qualitative in the sense in which J. C. Cobb has discriminated between qualitative and quantitative (Econ. Jour. England, March 1928, p. 72). Now, as we were speaking of definitions, it may be well for me to point out that the adjective quantitative is perhaps used in a different sense by some economists from that implied here. Some might consider Pareto’s work almost wholly quantitative because of his insistence on sharply defined concepts and his use of mathematical equations and transformations, including differential equations and integrals, etc. The notion of marginal utility is in a sense quantitative, and so is the concept of the curve of indifference which Pareto was inclined to make basic. Yet this must be said: That his whole treatise goes very little way, and the whole spirit of it is not conceived in the manner to go far toward the determination of the numerical values which should be inserted in the place of the variables in his equations to arrive at a check on the analysis. Indeed, as I conceive it, he was not interested greatly in that sort of check: his interest lay in the logical analysis of the sorts of situations which could arise. In a sense that is qualitative rather than quantitative, and at any rate I want to make it clear that I used qualitative to cover what others might prefer to call quantitative.

Mathematical analysis depends on conventions. If the convention is adopted that the price of a commodity depends on the amount of that commodity one has the system of Walras, and the mathematics is relatively simple. If one allows that the price of each commodity may depend on the amounts of all commodities one has a more complicated convention leading to more complicated analysis. This latter form of analysis is surely so highly involved that one could scarcely carry it on without the mathematical method. If then commodities are really so interlocked that many important economic events can only be understood by taking into consideration the possibilities that arise through the interlocking and would not arise if there were no interlocking, there is no escape from a consideration of the complex situation and no escape from the use of a good deal of mathematical thinking with no small amount of mathematical symbolism. It is perhaps true that many serious students of economics are today being developed without any considerably training in mathematics. Maybe they can so choose their work throughout their life as to avoid problems which require a knowledge of mathematics, and maybe they will learn their mathematics in later life as W. G. Sumner did, according to his personal testimony to me.

I may say that it has been maintained that man’s essential characteristic lies in his effort to cover not space alone but duration of time (Korzybski). It may be that prices do not depend merely on quantities of commodities in existence but on those and quantities that may come into existence. In recent months we have been told that what was important in the price of a stock was what it was going to sell for. Very likely. There is certainly speculative adjustment of prices. If that complex of phenomena which arise from man’s time-binding propensities is of relatively little economic significance, it may be neglected, but if it be of considerable significance, economists will arise to treat it and they will probably be forced to use much more complicated mathematical thinking than Pareto used – there may be integral equations and integro-differential equations. It is not impossible that they cannot even state adequately the essential logical interconnections of the conceptual situation which arises in time-binding economics and cannot formulate the proper conceptual complex without appeal to a type of mathematics so advanced as to make it necessary for some mathematicians themselves to become economists. Indeed, Pareto started as an engineer, I believe a railroad engineer; Irving Fisher as a mathematician, and so more recently Roos. The mathematical method is not yet through in economics; indeed, it may be just beginning, but it is likely largely to remain the work of a small fraction of students of economics.

(3) The statistical method. Although the statistical method is highly valuable in dealing with classifications of data not yet reduced to quantitative form, presumably the chief interest of the economist in

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statistics is quantitative. There is of course no such thing as the statistical method. Statistics is a complex of techniques. Take, for example, the sampling technique, the sampling error, and the question of the fairness of a sample – this whole group of ideas which is of great importance in social studies and in experimental biology may be of little interest to the economist working in some such line as the theory of the business cycle. If we allow an average duration of 40 months, we have in 40 years some twelve cycles. Of what can those twelve be regarded as a sample? Of course they may be regarded as a sample of the universe defined by themselves, which does not get us ahead very far. Indeed 40 years takes us back to 1890, before Bryan, before the U. S. Steel Corporation, before the war, and before the “New Era” of 1929. In many ways the economic situation has so changed that there may be no sense in asking the question as to what universe the sample comes from. Yet how talk of sampling errors without samples or of samples without their appropriate universe? I do not wish to imply that there are not opportunities to use sampling methods in economics; there are many such, but. on the other hand we have many problems where the opportunity is lacking.

Then there is the regression technique. What a regression equation does is to give us the mean value of the dependent variable in terms of assumed values of the independent variables. A regression equation may not be solved for one of the independent variables to get the new regression equation. This is a limitation on the use of regression equations for mathematical analysis. Indeed the mathematical theory of economics assumes that the variables occurring in the equations are like those occurring in thermodynamics or other fields to which analysis is applied in that they have values, not that all the independent variables have values and the dependent variables only a mean value. This is a real difficulty in coordinating the mathematical and the statistical methods so that the latter furnishes concrete and practical illustrations of the theoretical developments of the former. It is a difficulty which must persist so long as inherent variability due to lack of complete control is present. Thus one of the chief techniques of the mathematical economics is that of counting the number of variables and the number of equations to verify that these numbers are equal and that the problem is therefore determinate, whereas statistical procedures are applied in just those cases in which there still remains indetermination, that is, where the number of equations is fewer than the number of variables and it becomes necessary to treat the dependent variable as an assemblage of values and take the mean or median or some other special value as representing the group of undetermined values.

The analysis of time series is a technique which has remained rather specially that of economic statistics. It is employed very slightly in other applications of the statistical method. Time series are treacherous, but I do not see how their treatment can be ignored. Also it is not easy to see how the treatment can be made scientifically satisfactory; in the nature of the case we may have to be content with exploratory methods. Of course we can apply the method of the periodogram and the resolution into trignometric series. Such analyses work well on observations of the magnitudes of some classes of variable stars for which there are presumptively true periodicities in the background of the observed time series. When however the method is applied to meteorological or economic phenomena somewhat bizarre results are often obtained, results which do not always,

[p. 6]

perhaps do not usually, serve as a satisfactory basis either for forecasting the future or for representing the past except for the limited portion of it which has been used in the analysis. Indeed at the present time I should say that the evidence that there are cycles does not justify one in assuming that there are periods in the sense required for sound
periodogram analysis.
One of the chief aids to the advance of scientific knowledge is the existence of artificial or natural repetition in the sequence of phenomena. The extreme regularity of the real motion of the planets and the moon enabled the ancients very considerably to unsnarl the obvious irregularities of the apparent motions and to construct calendars of a high degree of prevision, to forecast eclipses with considerable success, and in general to develop the science of astronomy. The periods involved were not all short compared with human life, but the basic regularity allowed observations to accumulate. In the laboratory we may repeat experiments as often as we please without serious danger that conditions have seriously changed, – indeed the first and basic type of control is repetition. In the economic field the situation is quite different; so far as is yet known we do not have highly regular basic periods nor do we have conditions that may be repeated without serious changes, and we are very much handicapped thereby in scientific advance. It is true that the rapidity of change in conditions varies greatly at different times. The younger generation of economists have seen tremendous apparent changes within their own relatively short lives. It may be that a prolonged period of relative stagnation might help toward the discovery of some economic laws by making it easier to ignore the trees and concentrate on the forest; such a period would however have compensating disadvantages through the temptation to a feeling of security with its inevitable resulting dogmatism.

After all, it is perhaps remarkable not that so little but that so much has been accomplished in selecting from the mixed, complex, and variable economic field some items which have been reduced to method, by definition, by mathematics and by statistics sufficiently to merit the application of the term economic science. Whether the proportion of economic instruction in our universities which can be rated as scientific is today larger than it was a generation ago may be difficult to determine – there is much more economics taught, much more that is descriptive, illusory and unscientific, also much more that is sound and scientific. In the governmental, banking and business activities of our country there is also an increase in the amount of economics in use and very likely an increase in the proportion of scientific economics. The scientific economist may look at the future with caution as to what economic events may occur, but he may look at it also with confidence that the scientific method will continue to conquer new worlds for him as for his scientific confreres in other scientific fields.

Source: United States Department of Agriculture Graduate School. Special Lectures on Economics, Delivered Before the Graduate School February-March 1930, pp. 1-6.

 

Categories
Courses Economists Harvard Syllabus

Harvard Economics 2. Carver, 1900-01

Note: Economics 2, “Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century,” was taught by Assistant Professor Thomas Nixon Carver in 1900-01, his first year at Harvard

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Enrollment Economics 2
1900-01

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Asst. Professor Carver.— Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century.

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

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

 

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ECONOMICS 2.

Topics and references for first half-year. Starred references are prescribed.

I. VALUE.

1.    Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Chs. 5, 6, and 7.

2.    Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Chs. 1 and 4.

3.    Mill.          “        “     Book III. Chs. 1-6.

4.    Cairnes     “        “     Part I.

5.     Jevons. Theory of Pol. Econ. Chs. 2-4.

6.     Sidgwick. Pol. Econ. Book II. Ch. 2.

7*.   Wieser. Natural Value.

8.     Böhm-Bawerk. Positive Theory of Capital. Book III.

9.     Clark. Philosophy of Wealth. Ch. 5

10*. Marshall. Principles of Economics. Books III and V.

 

II. DIMINISHING RETURNS.

1.     Senior. Pol. Econ. Pp. 81-86.

2.    Marshall. Principles of Economics. Book III. Ch. 3

3*.  Commons. The Distribution of Wealth. Ch. 3.

 

III. RENT.

1.     Adam Smith. Wealth of Nation. Book I. Ch. 2. Pts. 1-3.

2.    Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Chs. 2 and 3.

3.    Sidgwick. “     “       Book II. Ch. 7.

4.    Walker.     “     “       Pt. IV. Ch. 2.

5.    Walker. Land and its Rent.

6*.  Marshall. Principles of Economics Book VI. Ch. 9.

7*.   Hyde. The Concept of Price Determining Rent. Jour. Pol. Econ. V.6. p. 368.

 

IV. CAPITAL

1.     Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book II.

2.    Senior. Pol. Econ. P. 58-81.

3.    Mill.        “       “       Book I. Ch. 4-6.

4.    Roscher. “      “       Book I. Ch. 1. Secs. 42-45.

5*.  Böhm-Bawerk. Positive Theory of Capital. Books I and II.

6.    Cannan. Production and Distribution. Ch. 4.

7.    Jevons. Theory of Political Economy Ch. 7.

8*.  Fisher. What is Capital? Economic Journal. Vol. VI. P. 509.

9*.  Taussig. Wages and Capital. Ch. 2.

10.  Clark. The Distribution of Wealth.

 

V. INTEREST.

1.     Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Ch. 9.

2.    Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Ch. 6.

3.    Sidgwick.  “     “        Book II. Ch. 6.

4*.  Böhm-Bawerk. Positive Theory of Capital. Books V, VI, and VII.

5.    Marshall. Principles of Economics. Book VI. Ch. 6.

6.    Clark. Distribution of Wealth.

7*.   Abstinence and the Theory of Interest. Quarterly Journal Ec., Vol. VIII. P. 40.

8.    The Theory of Saver’s Rent. Quarterly Journal Ec. Vol. XIII. P. 345.

 

VI. WAGES.

1.     Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Ch. 8.

2.    Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Ch. 5.

3.    Senior.       “       “      Pp. 141-180 and 200-216.

4.    Senior. Lectures. Pp. 1-62.

5.    Mill. Pol. Econ. Book II. Chs. 11, 12, 13, and 14.

6.    Cairnes. Pol. Econ. Part II. Chs. 1 and 2.

7.    Sidgwick.  “       “      Book II. Ch. 8.

8*.  Walker.     “       “      Part IV. Ch. 5.

9*.  Hadley. Economics. Ch. 10.

10*. Taussig. Wages and Capital. (Entire.)

11*.  Wages and the Theory of Value. Quart. Jour. Econ. Vol. VIII, P. 377.

 

VII. PROFITS.

1*.    Walker. Pol. Econ. Part IV. Ch. 4.

2*.    Hobson. The Law of the Three Rents. Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. V. P. 263.

3.      Clark. Insurance and Business Profits. Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. VII. P. 40.

4*.    Hawley, F. B. in Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. VII. P. 459.

5.      MacVane, in           “         “       “,  Vol. II. P. 1.

6.      Haynes, in               “     “       “     Vol. IX, P. 409.

 

 

Clark’s Distribution of Wealth and parts of Böhm-Bawerk’s Positive Theory of Capital will be read during the second half-year.

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Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1, Box 1 of 10 (Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003). Folder: 1900-1901.