Author: Irwin Collier

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1907-1908

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-01-13

Social Ethics inhabited an academic borderland between the disciplines of economics and philosophy at Harvard in the early 20th century. Professor Francis Greenwood Peabody, himself a Unitarian minister and professor of theology, governed that territory which attracted many graduate students of economics interested in social policy.

This post adds to the collection of examinations given in his courses over the course of nearly two decades.

________________________

Exams from past years

Exam questions this course from the late 19^th century have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

__________________________

Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

Another post provides the history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics up through 1920.

__________________________

Course Description
1907-08

Social Ethics. — The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Seth’s Study of Ethical Principles]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3)]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People (links below), and Devine’s Practice of Charity]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Carlyle’s“Past and Present”, Ruskin’s “Unto this Last”, Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Rooms are expressly assigned for the convenience of students of Social Ethics, on the second floor of Emerson Hall, including a large lecture room, a seminary-room, a conference-room, a library, and two rooms occupied by the Social Museum. The Library of 1800 volumes is a special collection for the use of students of Social Ethics, with conveniences for study and research. The Social Museum is a collection of graphical material, illustrating by photographs, models, diagrams, and charts, many movements of social welfare and industrial progress.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1907-08, p. 22.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People:

(Original) Volume I, East London;
(Original) Volume II, London;
(Original) Appendix to Volume II;
Note: the previous three original volumes were re-printed as four volumes that then were followed by
Volume V, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VI, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume VII, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VIII, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume IX, Comparisons, Survey and Conclusions.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 108: 3 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 38 Sophomores, 2 Freshman, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 69.

__________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1907-08

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

The economic doctrines of Carlyle and Ruskin compared and criticized.
[cf: “Past and Present” by Thomas Carlyle; “Unto this Last” by John Ruskin]
The philosophies of the anarchist and the communist compared.
The political origins of the Labor Question in Great Britain.
The German school of Socialism; its philosophy of history, its principles and its demands.
French and English precedents in Arbitration and Conciliation, applied to the circumstances of the United States. (Lectures, and Adams & Sumner, pp. 289-305.)
The progress of Labor Legislation in the United States, and its relation to the doctrines of free contract and class legislation. (Adams & Sumner, p. 466 ff.)
The “third party” to industrial disputes; and the American method of safeguarding its interests.
The Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act; its intention, limitations, and results.
The German system of Workingmen’s Insurance, its principles, methods, and applicability to the United States.
Four types of Industrial Partnership; their historical sequence, and relative importance.
The relation of the Drink Problem to poverty, crime and nationality, in the United States. (Summary of the Liquor Problem, ch. 4.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 58-59.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Peabody

Economists Harvard M.I.T. Transcript Undergraduate

Harvard. Economics PhD alumnus, Douglass Vincent Brown, 1932

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-01-11

The lifespan of the sub-field of labor economics, industrial relations (collective bargaining and arbitration), very neatly coincided with the career of Douglass Vincent Brown (1904-1986). He was educated at Harvard College (A.B., 1925) and trained in the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (A.M., 1926; Ph.D., 1932). After a few years of teaching at the Harvard Medical School, Brown was hired by M.I.T. in 1938 as an assistant professor of industrial relations and there rose through the ranks to become its first Sloan Professor of Management in 1946. He became professor emeritus in 1969.

What makes this post relatively unique is that it provides a complete picture of Brown’s educational progress from his college preparation through Harvard undergraduate years and graduate school as seen in his transcripts. Names of courses and professors have been added. A timeline of Douglass Vincent Brown’s life has also been appended to the post.

_______________________________

On Industrial Relations

Issues in Labor Policy. Essays in Honor of Douglass Vincent Brown. Edited by Stanley M. Jacks, M.I.T. Press, 1971. Publications and papers listed pp. xii-xiii.

Chapter 7. John G. Turnbull, “Reflections on a Generation of Work in the Field of Labor Economics”, pp. 165-177.

Chapter 1. Douglas Vincent Brown and Charles Myers, “Historical Evolution”, in Public Policy and Collective Bargaining, ed. by Joseph Shister, Benjamin Aaron, and Clyde W. Summers, Industrial Relations Research Association, Publication No. 27, 1962, pp. 1-27.

Fun fact: Douglas Vincent Brown was George Shultz’s thesis advisor.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

[Note: Boldface used to indicate printed text of the application; italics used to indicate the handwritten entries]

I. Full Name, with date and place of birth.

Douglass Vincent Brown, Wilkes-Barre, Penn. May 16, 1904.

II. Academic Career: (Mention, with dates inclusive, colleges or other higher institutions of learning attended; and teaching positions held.)

Harvard University, 1921-27

III. Degrees already attained. (Mention institutions and dates.)

A.B., Harvard 1925
A.M., Harvard 1926

IV. General Preparation. (Indicate briefly the range and character of your under-graduate studies in History, Economics, Government, and in such other fields as Ancient and Modern Languages, Philosophy, etc. In case you are a candidate for the degree in History, state the number of years you have studied preparatory and college Latin.)

Economics A, Economics B, Economics C, Ec. 6a, Economics 2a, Economics 3, Economics 5, Economics 6b, Economics 8.
History 1, History 32b, Gov’t 1.
English A, English 31, English 41.
Social Ethics 4, German A, Philosophy 1a, Anthropology 1.

V. Department of Study. (Do you propose to offer yourself for the Ph.D., “History,” in “Economics,” or in “Political Science”?)

Economics.

VI. Choice of Subjects for the General Examination. (State briefly the nature of your preparation in each subject, as by Harvard courses, courses taken elsewhere, private reading, teaching the subject, etc., etc.)

Economic Theory & Its History. Ec. 11, Ec. 14, Ec. 15. Private Reading.
Statistics. Ecc. 1a, Ec. 41. Private Reading.
Sociology. Ec. 8, Ec. 12a. Private Reading.
Money and Banking. Ec. 3, Ec. 38. Private Reading.
American History, since 1789. History 32b, History 55. Private Reading.
(Labor Problems.) Ec. 6a, Ec. 6b, Ec. 34

VII. Special Subject for the special examination.

Labor Problems

VIII. Thesis Subject. (State the subject and mention the instructor who knows most about your work upon it.)

~~Restriction of Output.~~ Family Allowances. Professors Taussig and Ripley.

IX. Examinations. (Indicate any preferences as to the time of the general and special examinations.)

Early in the second half-year, ~~1926-7~~. [Added later:] Wednesday, March 2, 1927. Thurs. April. 28/32.

X. Remarks

[Added later:]

Professors
Taussig, chairman
Bullock
Ford (James)
Schlesinger
Persons.

Signature of a member of the Division certifying approval of the above outline of subjects.

[signed] F. W. Taussig

* * * [Last page of application] * * *

[Not to be filled out by the applicant]

Name: Douglass Vincent Brown.

Approved: January 21, 1927.

Ability to use French certified by Professor A. E. Monroe. February 7, 1927.

Ability to use German certified by Professor A. E. Monroe. February 7, 1927.

Date of general examination March 2, 1927, Passed – F.W.T.

Thesis received April 1, 1932

Read by Professors Taussig and Ripley

Approved April 25, 1932

Date of special examination Thursday, April 28. Passed – F.W.T.

Recommended for the Doctorate June 9, 1932

Degree conferred June 23, 1932

Remarks. [left blank]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Feb. 7, 1927

Mr. D. V. Brown has this day passed a satisfactory examination in the reading of French and German as required of candidates for the doctor’s degree.

[signed]
A. E. Monroe

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Passed General Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 4, 1927

To the Chairman of the
Division of History, Government, and Economics,

As chairman of the committee for the general examination in economics of Mr. Douglass V. Brown, I have to report that the committee unanimously voted to accept the examination as satisfactory. Mr. Brown’s showing was in every respect creditable.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Passed Special Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
April 30, 1932

Dear Professor Carver,

As chairman of the committee appointed for the examination in the special field of Douglass V. Brown, candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, I have to report that Mr. Brown passed the examination to the entire satisfaction of the committee. His showing was excellent. The committee also agreed that his thesis was of high quality.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

Professor T. N. Carver
772 Widener Library
Cambridge, Massachusetts

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Undergraduate Transcript
of Douglass V. Brown

HARVARD COLLEGE

Record of Douglas V. Brown
for the years 1921-25

(Date) February 28, 1927

ADMISSION RECORD
SUBJECT	Elementary		Advanced
SUBJECT	Grade	Units	Grade	Units
English. Part A, II	90 85	3
Greek
Latin (1.2.4)	90	3
German
French	80	2	74	1
History (anc.)	68	1
Algebra	100	2	92	½
Plane Geometry	93	1
Solid Geometry Plane Trig.			72 98	½ ½
Physics	A 97	1
Chemistry
Geography	70	½
Admission Conditions:— [left blank]

YEAR 1921-22
Freshman	Grade
Subject	Course	Half-course
English A	B
Chemistry A	B
German A	B
History 1	B
Mathematics C	A
YEAR 1922-23
Sophomore	Grade
Subject	Course	Half-course
Anthropology 1	B
Economics A	B
English 31	B
Government 1	B
Mathematics 2	A
YEAR 1923-24
Junior		Grade
Subject	Course	Half-course
Economics 3	B
Economics 8	A
Economics 6a¹		B
Economics 6b²		A
English 41	A
Philosophy 1a²		A
Social Ethics 4a¹		A
YEAR 1924-25
Senior		Grade
Subject	Course	Half-course
Economics B¹		A
Economics C hf		B
Economics 2a¹		B
Economics 5²		Exc(C)
Economics 12a¹		A
History 32b²		Exc(B)

Concentration Subject:— Economics

Passed General Examinations in:— History, Government, and Economics

[…]

Received A.B. Degree:— magna cum laude at Commencement 1925

[…]

The standing of every student in each of his courses is expressed, on the completion of the course, by one of five grades, designated respectively by the letters A,B,C,D, and E; A and B are honor grades; C is passing; D passing but unsatisfactory; E failure. “Abs” indicates failure to obtain credit for the course, owing to absence from the final examination.

[…]

( ) indicates the quality of the work in the course up to the time of the final examination, from which the student was excused.

Sixteen full courses, in addition to the prescribed English Composition, are required for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, or Bachelor of Science. From four to six full courses (or their equivalent in half-courses) constitute a full year’s work. An average of nine hours each week (normally three hours of classroom work and six hours of preparation) for thirty-six weeks is the approved amount of work for the ordinary student in a single full course.

C. N. GREENOUGH, Dean
By [signed] G. G. Benedict

Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics, Ph.D. Degrees Conferred 1929-30. (UA V 453.270), Box 12.

_______________________________

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Record of Douglass Vincent Brown

First Registration: 25 September 1925

1925-26	Grades
First Year	Course	Half-Course
Economics 1a		A
Economics 11	A
Economics 38	A
Economics 41²		A
History 55	A minus

1926-27	Grades
Second Year	Course	Half-Course
Economics 14	cr.
Economics 15¹		A
Economics 20 (F.W.T.)(2 co.)	AA
Economics 34 (1st half)		A

Henry Lee Memorial Fellowship

1927-28	Grades
Third Year	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20 (F.W.T.)	A

Inst. in Economics and Tutor in the Div. of H., G & E.
$1500

1928-29. Sheldon Fellow.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Record Cards of Students 1895-1930. (UA V 161.272.5), Box 2, Belding-Burton.

__________________________

Harvard Course Names and Instructors

1921-22

English A. Rhetoric and English Composition, Oral and Written. Professor Murray, general direction of Course A.

Chemistry A. Elementary Chemistry. Professor Lamb and others.

German A.Elementary Course. Professor Bierwirth and others.

History 1. European History from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Present Time. Professor Haskins and others.

Mathematics C. Analytic Geometry; Introduction to the Calculus. Section I: Associate Professor Bouton and Mr. LaPaz; Section II: Associate Professor Kellogg and Dr. Walsh.

1922-23

Economics A. Principles of Economics. Asst. Professor Burbank, and Messrs. Masson, Blackett, Fagg, Heath, and Chamberlin, with lectures on selected subjects by Professor Taussig.

Anthropology 1. General Anthropology. Professors Dixon and Tozzer, and Asst. Professor Hooton, assisted by Mr. Ghua.

English 31. English Composition. Professor Hurlbut.

Government 1. Constitutional Government. Professors Munro and Holcombe, assisted by Messrs. Wells, McClintock, McKaughan, and Pollock.

Mathematics 2. Differential and Integral Calculus; Analytic Geometry. Professors Huntington, Birkhoff, and Asst. Professor Graustein..

1923-24

Economics 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Professor Young.

Economics 8. Principles of Sociology. Professor Carver.

Economics 6a¹. Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems. Professor Ripley.

Economics 6b². The Labor Movement in Europe. Dr. Meriam.

English 41. English Literature from the Elizabethan times to the present. Professor Bliss Perry, assisted by Mr. Bacon and Taeusch.

Philosophy 1a². Introduction to Philosophy. Asst. Professor Lewis.

Social Ethics 4a¹. Problems of Race and Immigration in America: Americanisation. Dr. Carpenter.

1924-25

Economics B¹. Economic Thought and Institutions. Asst. Professor A. E. Monroe.

Economics C hf. Theses for Distinction. Members of the Department.

Economics 2a¹. European Industry and Commerce since 1750. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Gilbert.

Economics 5². Public Finance. Associate Professor Bullock.

Economics 12a¹. Problems in Sociology and Social Reform. Professor Carver.

History 32b². American History: The Development of the Nation, 1840 to the Present Time. Professor Schlesinger (University of Iowa).

1925-26

Economics 1a. Statistics. Asst. Professor Crum.

Economics 11. Economic Theory. Professor Taussig.

Economics 38. Principles of Money and Banking. Professor Young.

Economics 41². Statistical Theory and Analysis. Asst. Professor Crum.

History 55. Social and Intellectual History of the United States. Professor Schlesinger.

1926-27

Economics 14. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Professor Bullock.

Economics 15¹. Modern Schools of Economic Thought. Professor Young.

Economics 20. Two Research Seminars with Frank William Taussig.

Economics 34. (First half) Problems of Labor. Professor Ripley.

1927-28

Economics 20. Research Seminar with Frank William Taussig.

Source: Harvard University. Courses of Instruction of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1921-22 and Report of the President of Harvard College for 1922-23 through 1926-27.

__________________________

Douglass Vincent Brown
Timeline of his education and career

1904. Born May 16 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

1918-21. Wyoming Seminary college preparatory school, Kingston, Pennsylvania.

1925. A.B. magna cum laude, Harvard.

1926. A.M. in economics, Harvard.

1926-27. Henry Lee Memorial Fellow, Harvard.

1927-33. Instructor and tutor of economics, Harvard University.

1932. Ph.D. in economics, Harvard University. Thesis: “Family Allowances.”

1933-38. Assistant professor of medical economics, Harvard Medical School.

1938-40. Assistant professor of industrial relations, M.I.T.

1940-43. Associate professor of industrial relations, M.I.T.

1941. Member of presidential mission sent to Moscow under W. Averell Harriman to organise Lend-Lease deliveries.

1942-45. Consultant to Departments of Labor and War. Advisory posts for the Council of National Defence and Office of Production Management.

1943-46. Professor of industrial relations, M.I.T.

1944-45. Public member of the New England Regional War Board.

1944. Named as Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

1946-. Named first Albert P. Sloan Professor of Management at M.I.T. Switched from “Economics and Social Science” to “Business and Engineering Administration.”

1947. Member of the Slichter Commission that issued a report leading to the 1948 “Slichter Law” which had the goal of reducing industrial disputes. It would have allowed the governor of Massachusetts to seize an industry if after 15 days there was “a menace to public health or safety” due to a strike.

1947. Charter member of National Academy of Arbitrators.

1948. Appointed by the governor of Massachusetts as a moderator to resolve a major trucking strike in New England. Application of the “Slichter Law” was avoided when the truckers agreed to continue moving food and fuel.

1959-60. Ford Foundation visiting professorship of industrial relations at the University of Chicago School of Business.

1969-. Professor emeritus, M.I.T.

1970. President of the Industrial Relations Research Association.

1986. Died March 21 in Brookline, Massachusetts. Obituary in The Boston Globe, 23 March 1986, p. 87.

Image Source: MIT Museum. Portrait photo of Douglass Vincent Brown from 1946.

Tags BrownDV, Taussig

Exam Questions History of Economics Princeton

Princeton. History of Economic Thought General Exams for Ph.D. 1981, 1986

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-01-09

I believe the history of economics is too important to be left exclusively in the hands of either historians or economists, but I also believe that not a whole lot would get done if we had to wait for scholars with the right blend of talents and skills, given the constraints of time and the institutional realities of modern universities. Nonetheless there has been the one or other colleague who actually contributed to the development of economics in a scientific sense and has thought long and hard about the ideas of those upon whose shoulders we all stand. William J. Baumol was one such economist. The history of economic thought was one polished arrow in his teaching quiver.

This post provides a transcript of the two Ph.D. field exams in the history of economic thought at Princeton that I found in Baumol’s papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive in Duke University’s Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The 1981 exam appears to have only run one page and just might be missing a few questions on a second page not seen, though I find that possibility less likely than it only was one page long.

In an earlier post you can find the field exam from January 1987 and a reading list for his course from the fall semester of 1988.

________________________

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

General Examination
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
History of Economic Thought

October 1981

3 hours

Discuss Ricardo’s “93 percent Labor Theory of Value.”
1. In what sense was the Labor Theory taken to approximate the true determination of equilibrium price relationships?
2. How does this relate to Ricardo’s views about the relationship between wages and profits?
Describe Marx’s use of the Tableau Économique.
1. Briefly describe the working of the tableau.
2. Describe the working of the Marxian model that emerged from the tableau.
3. Indicate at least one use that has been made of the Marxian model.
In one sentence for each, give some information about the work of the following writers:
1. Nassau Senior
2. Jules Dupuit
3. John Bates Clark
4. Enrico Barone
5. Knut Wicksell
Classical and neoclassical economists considered free trade to be superior to protectionism from the viewpoint of the general welfare.
1. How did Pigou measure the general welfare in this sort of analysis?
2. When the free trade issue was discussed by earlier writers did they usually discuss this measurement problem to any substantial degree?
3. On what grounds was the Pigouvian approach criticized?
4. What alternative was offered in the “new welfare economies2 of Hicks and Kaldor?

________________________

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

General Examination
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
History of Economic Thought

Time: 3 hours

January 1986

(for Peter Rathjens) Earlier writings on rent focussed on rent payments as a reward to units of superior quality that was attributable to the heterogeniety of the resource. Thus, land was alone among inputs in the focus upon its heterogeniety. Discuss the role of this issue in later writings and the degree to which they did or did not treat land as essentially different from all other inputs which of them, if any, concluded that there is such a thing as an “absolute” rent (in contradistinction to differential rent)?
(for Jai-June Kim) Validity of the infant industry argument for tariffs as a benefit to the general public required that when the industry grows up it not merely yield net benefits, but that they be more than sufficient to offset the welfare lost during the period of protection. Was this point recognized by those who wrote on the subject? If so, by whom? Discuss what other qualifications some of the writers raised in relation to the argument and how they treated the way in which the issue had been analyzed by others.
Discuss the role of alienation in Marx. In which of his writings was it discussed? Does the term always refer to the same phenomenon? How might it relate to accumulation and, consequently, to the “Laws of motion of capitalism?”
Ricardo’s test of the labor theory of value was whether a rise in wages will change the relative prices of commodities. Explain the logic of this test. What does Ricardo conclude from the test about the validity of the labor theory in reality? Why was this way of looking at the matter of importance to Ricardo?
Describe the tasks that Adam Smith considers to constitute the proper roles of government. Was he an extreme or a moderate advocate of laissez-faire? What is the logic of his arguments for governmental economic activity? How do they compare with modern analysis of the subject?
In one sentence each characterize some of the work of the following:

a) Cantillon
b) Quesnay
c) Menger
d) Wesley Mitchell
e) Kondratieff

(Jeehwan Rhee) Summarize some of Malthus’ arguments on the issue of general overproduction. Indicate (giving specific examples) to what extent Malthus’ arguments anticipate those of Keynes.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. William J. Baumol Papers, Box 20, Folder “Exams 1980-89”.

Image Source: Cropped from portrait of William J. Baumol in 1981 published in his obituary published in The New York Times, May 10, 2017.

Uncategorized

Completed post for Harvard PhD (1923), Harry Edward Miller now posted

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-01-06

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus Harry Edward Miller, 1923

Uncategorized

oops mistake

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-01-02

please disregard the last post, I meant to save a working copy that contains information from a previous post for a different Harvard PhD alumnus that I am updating.

Brown Economists Harvard

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus Harry Edward Miller, 1923

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-01-02

Today we meet the economics Ph.D. alumnus Harry Edward Miller who was an Allyn A. Young dissertation student awarded a Harvard Ph.D. in 1923. Miller went on to become the Eastman professor of political economy at Brown University. He was only forty years old at the time of his death that resulted from hemorrhaging, a complication from a pancreaticoduodenectomy, probably attempted because of pancreatic cancer (cause of death information from death certificate).

This post provides the entire record for Harry Edward Miller found in the files of the Division of History, Government and Economics at Harvard. Bonus content includes the identification of all his graduate school courses and instructors plus a chronology of Miller’s life and career.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

[Note: Boldface used to indicate printed text of the application; italics used to indicate the handwritten entries]

I. Full Name, with date and place of birth.

Harry Edward Miller, born October 11, 1897 at Boston Mass.

II. Academic Career: (Mention, with dates inclusive, colleges or other higher institutions of learning attended; and teaching positions held.)

Boston University, 1915-19
Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences 1919-21

III. Degrees already attained. (Mention institutions and dates.)

A.B., Boston University, 1919
A.M., Harvard University, 1920

Full-year courses in Modern & Medieval European History, American History, Comparative Government. Full-year courses in Principles of Economics, and half-year courses in Public Finance, Economic History of the U.S., Socialism, History of Economic Theory.
4 years of high-school Latin and one of college.
3 years of high-school French and one of college.
2 years of high-school German and 3 of college.

V. Department of Study. (Do you propose to offer yourself for the Ph.D., “History,” in “Economics,” or in “Political Science”?)

Economics.

Economic Theory and Its History. (Econ. 11, 14, and 15. Half-year undergraduate course at Boston University in the history, full-year course in the theory.
Economic History since 1750 (Econ. 2 with additional reading and a half-year undergraduate course at Boston Univ.).
Statistical Method and its Application (Econ. 41).
Public finance (Econ 31 and a half-year undergraduate course at Boston University).
History of Political Theory. (Gov’t 6).
Money, Banking and Commercial Crises (Econ. 3 with additional reading, and Econ 38² hf. (to be taken during second semester of this year))

VII. Special Subject for the special examination.

Money, Banking and Commercial Crises. (Econ.3)

VIII. Thesis Subject. (State the subject and mention the instructor who knows most about your work upon it.)

To be determined.
[added by someone else] “Theories of Banking in the United States before the Civil War.” (with Professor Young)

IX. Examinations. (Indicate any preferences as to the time of the general and special examinations.)

I should prefer the general examination in the late spring of this year.

X. Remarks

[left blank]

Signature of a member of the Division certifying approval of the above outline of subjects.

[signed] Edmund E. Day

* * * [Last page of application] * * *

[Not to be filled out by the applicant]

Name: Harry E. Miller.

Approved: January 25, 1921.

Ability to use French certified by C. J. Bullock, March 28, 1921.

Ability to use German certified by C. J. Bullock, March 28, 1921.

Date of general examination Thursday, 3 November 1921, passed – A.A. Young

Thesis received April 1, 1923

Read by Professors Young, Sprague and

Approved Bullock

Date of special examination May 25, 1923. Passed – A.A. Young

Recommended for the Doctorate June 5, 1923

Degree conferred 21 June 1923

Remarks. [left blank]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
A. A. Young
W. M. Persons
E. E. Day
J. S. Davis
H. H. Burbank
A. S. Dewing
E. E. Lincoln
A. E. Monroe
A. H. Cole

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 28, 1921

My dear Haskins:

I have this morning examined Mr. Henry E. Miller, and find that he has such a knowledge of French and German as we require of candidates for the doctorate.

Very sincerely yours
[signed]
Charles J. Bullock

Dean C. H. Haskins

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Miller provides title of his dissertation

Apr. 11, 1921

Division of Hist., Govt. and Economics
Mrs. Dorothy Cogswell Sec’y.

My dear Mrs. Cogswell:

The title of my Ph.D. thesis is to be, “The History of Banking Theory in America before 1860.” I informed the secretary of the Dept. of Economics to that effect and am sorry it did not occur to me that you might not be advised through her.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Harry E. Miller

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

General Exam Postponed

COPY

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT,
AND ECONOMICS

20 May, 1921

My dear Sir:

The General Examination of Mr. Harry E. Miller, which was scheduled for Wednesday, 25 May, has been postponed until next year.

Very truly yours,
CHARLES H. HASKINS

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Request to Professors to join general examination committee

Copy

8 October 1921

My dear Sir:

Can you serve as one on the committee for the general examination of Harry Edward Miller? The committee will consist of Professor Young, Chairman, Professor Bullock, Professor McIlwain, Professor Usher and Professor Taussig. The examination will be on Tuesday, November 3.

The subjects which Mr. Miller offers are

Theory and its History
Economic History since 1750
Statistical Method and its Application on Public Finance
History of Political Theory
Money, Banking and Commercial Crises.

Very truly yours,

Professor [“Young”, “Bullock”,“Usher”, “Taussig”,“McIlwain” added here to the individual letters]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Bullock declares willingness to serve on the general exam committee

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Committee on Economic Research
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Charles J. Bullock, Chairman
W. M. Persons, Editor
A. E. Monroe, Asst. Editor
F. Y. Presley, Business Mgr.
Charles F. Adams
Nicholas Biddle
Frederic H. Curtiss
Wallace B. Donham
Ogden L. Mills
Eugene V. R. Thayer

October 10, 1921

Professor Charles H. Haskins,
24 University Hall,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

My dear Sir:

In reply to your letter of October 8th I may say that I will serve on the committee for the general examination of Henry Edward Miller on November 3rd.

Very truly yours,
[signed] Charles J. Bullock/A.H.C.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Usher declares willingness to serve on the general exam committee

THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
OF
BOSTON UNIVERSITY

525 Boylston Street
Boston

Department of Economics

Oct 11, 1921

Dear Prof. Haskins:

I shall be glad to serve on the committees for the general examinations of Mr. Miller and Mr. Bober; though on Tuesday Nov. 3 I should not be able to attend earlier than 3.30 P.M.

As no date has apparently been set for Mr. Bober’s examination, I may say that my class obligations here would make it impossible to attend either on Tuesdays or Fridays before 3.30.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Abbott Payson Usher

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Young available for the proposed dates of the general exams

6 Hilliard Street, Cambridge, Mass.,
October 11, 1921.

Dear Haskins,

I have your notes informing me of the dates set for the general examinations of Miller and Bober. I have set aside the two dates mentioned, Tuesday, [marginal note “/Thursday?”] November 3, and Thursday, October 27

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Allyn A. Young

Dean Charles H. Haskins
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
University Hall,
Cambridge, Mass.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Miller informed of date
for his general examination

Copy

13 October 1921

My dear Mr. Miller:

Your general examination will take place on Thursday, 3 November. I am very sorry that it was impossible to arrange for this earlier in the week as you desired.

Very truly yours,
[unsigned]

Mr. H. E. Miller

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Passed General Examination

6 Hilliard Street, Cambridge, Mass.,
November 5, 1921.

Dear Dean Haskins,

On behalf of the committee in charge of the general examination of Mr. Harry Edward Miller for the degree of Ph.D., I beg to report that Mr. Miller passed the examination, which was held on Thursday, November 3.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Allyn A. Young

Dean Charles H. Haskins
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
University Hall,
Cambridge, Mass.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dean Haskins asking Young about the general quality of Miller’s general exam

Copy

8 November 1921

Dear Young:

I have your letter of 5 November, notifying me that H. E. Miller passed his general examination.

Could you without inconvenience let me know about the general quality of the examination and whether he had any margin. The Division desires a record of this kind for reference when a candidate comes to the later stages of his work, particularly the special examination, when the Committee may have no personal recollection of the general examination.

Sincerely yours,
[“x” for Haskins]

Professor A. A. Young

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Supplementary Information for
General Examination of H. E. Miller

6 Hilliard Street, Cambridge, Mass.,
November 21, 1921.

Dear Haskins:

I have your note of November 8 asking for supplementary information respecting H. E. Miller’s general examination for the Ph.D. degree.

It was the unanimous opinion of the committee that Miller’s examination was unusually creditable. He showed himself well prepared in each of the subjects offered; he thought clearly; and he was always in command of himself and of his information. In several fields the examination could easily be called brilliant; in all fields it showed unusual competence.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Allyn A. Young

Professor Charles H. Haskins, Dean
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
24 University Hall,
Cambridge, Mass.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Request to Prof. Vanderblue to join special examination committee

Copy

14 May 1923

My dear Professor Vanderblue:

Will it be possible for you to serve as a member of the committee for the special examination of H. E. Miller for the Ph.D. in Economics, to be held on Friday, 25 May, at 4 p.m., to take Professor Dewing’s place? Professor Dewing is to be away on that date, and so is unable to attend. I am sending you an examination pamphlet herewith. You will find Mr. Miller’s name on page 20.

Very truly yours,
Secretary of the Division

Professor H. B. Vanderblue

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Request to Prof. Vanderblue to join special examination committee

Copy

17 May 1923

My dear Professor Young:

Mr. H. E. Miller’s examination is on Friday, the 25th, but his thesis is not in yet. I gave it to Professor Sprague to read first, and Professor Bullock’s secretary tells me that it is in her office, signed by Professor Bullock and yourself. Can you tell me when it will be ready to come back to this office?

Very truly yours,
Secretary of the Division

Professor A. A. Young

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reminder to Young: special examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Division of history, Government, and Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
22 May 1923

My dear Professor Young:

This is to remind you that you are chairman of the committee for the special examination of H. E. Miller for the Ph.D. in Economics, to be held on Friday, 25 May, at 4 p.m., in Widener U. I enclose Mr. Miller’s papers herewith, also an envelope for their return.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
Esther W. Hinckley
Secretary of the Division

P.S. Professor Vanderblue is to take Professor Dewing’s place on the committee.

Professor A.A. Young

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reminder to Miller: special examination

Copy

Cambridge, Massachusetts
22 May 1923

My dear Mr. Miller:

This is to remind you that your special examination for the Ph.D. in Economics, to be held on Friday, 25 May, at 4 p.m., in Widener U. Professor Vanderblue is to take Professor Dewing’s place on the committee.

Very truly yours,
Secretary of the Division

Mr. H. E. Miller

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Passed Special Examination

6 Hilliard Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 26, 1923.

My dear Haskins,

On behalf of the committee appointed to conduct the special examination of Mr. Harry E. Miller for the degree of Ph.D., I beg to report that Mr. Miller passed the examination. He made a very creditable showing, – distinctly above the average.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Allyn A. Young

Professor Charles H. Haskins, Dean
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
University Hall.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Record of Harry Edward Miller

	Grades
1919-20	Course	Half-Course
Economics 2a¹		B plus
Economics 2b²		A minus
Economics 11	A
Economics 31	B plus
Economics 41	A


1920-21	Course	Half-Course
Economics 14	A minus
Economics 15	A
Economics 38²		A
Government 6	A


1921-22	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20 (2 co.)	AA


1922-23	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20	[left blank]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics, Ph.D. Degrees Conferred 1929-30. (UA V 453.270), Box 09.

__________________________

Course Names and Instructors

1919-20

Economics 2a ¹hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Dr. E. E. Lincoln.

Economics 2b ²hf. Economic History of the United States. Dr. E. E. Lincoln.

Economics 11. Economic Theory. Professor Taussig.

Economics 31. Public Finance. Professor Bullock.

Economics 41. Statistical Theory and Analysis. Asst. Professor Day

1920-21

Economics 14. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Professor Bullock.

Economics 15. Modern Schools of Economic Thought. Professor Young.

Economics 38². Selected Monetary Problems. Professor Young.

Government 6. History of Political Theory. Professor McIlwain.

1921-23

Economics 20. Research Seminars.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1919-20, 1920-21.

__________________________

Harry Edward Miller
Timeline of his life and career

1897. Born [Aaron Miller] on October 10 in Boston.

1918. Military service.

1919. A.B. Boston University.

1920. A.M. in economics Harvard University.

1923. Ph.D. in economics, Harvard. (Report of the President of Harvard College, 1922-23, p. 52)

1923-24. Assistant Professor, Clark University. Cf. Holyoke Daily Transcript (18 Aug 1923). [Note: Unable to find mention of Harry Edward Miller in the relevant Clark University catalogues.]

1924. Joins the Brown economics department at the rank of assistant professor.

1927. Banking Theories in the United States before 1860. Harvard University Press. Revision of Ph.D. thesis.

1928. Appointed associate professor on the Eastman Foundation, Brown University.

1930. Appointed Eastman Professor of Political Economy, Brown University.

1931. Chairman of the Rhode Island special commission for liquor legislation.

1935. Married Rosabelle Winer of New York.

1937. Died November 14 at Beth Israel Hospital in Brookline, Mass.

Sources: Obituary published in The New York Times (November 15, 1937) and the article “Harry Edward Miller” at online Encyclopedia Brunoniana.

Image Source: The Third Seal of Brown University (1834). The seal is still in use today.

Tags Bullock, MillerHarry, Taussig, Vanderblue, Young

Economist Market Economists Harvard

Harvard. University Overseer objects to hiring Alvin Hansen. 1937

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-12-29

Harvard’s hiring of Alvin Hansen, the future “American Keynes”, met with disapproval from high up in the U. S. Department of State. The reservations were easily overcome as can be seen in Harvard President Conant’s polite yet firm response to the telegram sent him urging him to block Hansen’s appointment to a tenured professorship.

William Richards Castle Jr. (1878-1963) graduated from Harvard in 1900, was an instructor of English and later Freshman Dean from 1904 to 1913. These Harvard connections helped him later to climb to the top of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. Politically he was fiercely anti-New Deal. From 1935 to 1941 he served as a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers which is why he must have felt it to be both his right and his duty to shoot this late torpedo at Dean John William’s candidate.

The quoted source with a negative opinion of Alvin Hansen’s qualifications was Herbert Feis (1893-1972), who likewise was a Harvard man, A.B. (1916) and Ph.D. (1921). Feis was serving as adviser on economic affairs to the Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson. Herbert Feis is an interesting enough economics Ph.D. alumnus to warrant a dedicated post here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. An unanswered question is what might have accounted for Feis’ low professional esteem regarding Hansen.

________________________________

WESTERN UNION

1937 MAY 12 PM 12:34
WASHINGTON DC

PRESIDENT CONANT
HARVARD COLLEGE CA

FEIS KNOWS HANSON WELL SAYS HE IS A THOROUGH WORKER WHO TRIES TO BE INDEPENDENT GOOD IN HIS SPECIAL FIELD BUT BY NO MEANS GREAT HE CHOOSES SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS BUT TREATS THEM SOMEWHAT NARROWLY AS HE HAS LITTLE BACKGROUND IN HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT POLICIES HE GIVES SENSE OF INTELLECTUAL DOGMATISM HAS ABRUPT UNPREPOSSESSING MANNER ANTAGONIZING MANY FEIS THINKS HIM GOOD BET FOR TEMPORARY APPOINTMENT BUT WOULD GREATLY REGRET PERMANENT APPOINTMENT

W R CASTLE.

________________________________

Copy of Conant’s Reply to Castle

June 9, 1937

Mr. W. R. Castle
2200 S Street, N.W.
Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. Castle:

After receiving your information about Professor Hansen, I proceeded to investigate the whole question very thoroughly, as I was, of course, very much disturbed by what Dr. Feiss [sic] stated to you in confidence. After making this investigation, I was convinced, in spite of Dr. Feiss’ [sic] negative conclusions, that the appointment was one we should make. In this decision Dean Williams and other members of the Department of Economics agree (of course, no one except Dean Williams knows of your inquiry). I have heard excellent reports on Professor Hansen from other people in the State Department and from economists in other institutions. On the basis of all this evidence, therefore, we have proceeded with the appointment.

I am asking Dean Williams to drop in on you in Washington and discuss certain matters connected with the School and, incidentally, tell you a little more about the matter of Professor Hansen, as I am sure you would be interested in the reasons which led us both to go contrary to the advice which we received through your kindness.

I am deeply appreciative of your having taken the trouble to look into this matter and I am sure you will understand that in all such matters it is a question of weighing the pros and cons which one receives fron different sources.

Very sincerely yours,

[stamp] JAMES B. CONANT

Source: Harvard University Archives. Records of President James B. Conant, Box 81, Folder “Economics 1936-37”.

Image Source: Alvin Hansen from the Harvard Class Album 1945. Book in the foreground is The Seven Myths of Housing by Nathan Straus that was published in January 1944. The bits of newspaper one can read /…Tribune…/…by big R.A.F…./…-Day Breathing…/…Novgorod…” so my guess is that the newspaper is from late January 1944. A large-scale R.A.F. attack on Magdeburg and the Soviets recapture of Novgorod both occurred on January 21, 1922.

Tags FeisH, Hansen

Economics Programs Graduate Student Support Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Department of Economics Newsletter. Dunlop, Sept 1964

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-12-26

Just as families produce holiday newsletters to chronicle the comings and goings during the calendar year, economics departments over time have gotten into the habit of documenting the work of the department for each of their academic years. This post provides the report written by John Dunlop for the Harvard Economics Department and published in September 1964. By itself the report represents a single slice of history, but Economics in the Rear-view Mirror makes a special effort to transcribe such reports wherever and whenever they are found to assemble a complete loaf of departmental history.

___________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER

Prepared by
Professor John T. Dunlop
Chairman

Published by
THE HARVARD FOUNDATION FOR ADVANCED STUDY & RESEARCH
77 Dunster Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER
SEPTEMBER 1964

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

The undergraduate concentration in Economics in the year 1963-64 increased appreciably as indicated by the following tabulation:

	1961-62	1962-63	1963-64
Sophomore Concentrators	90	78 (7)	135 (11)
Junior Concentrators	97	91 (3)	91 (10)
Senior Concentrators	85	100 (3)	94 (3)

(Numbers in parentheses indicate Radcliffe students and are included in the totals).

Enrollment in undergraduate courses in the Department continued at a high level. There were, for instance, 700 students in Economics I in the fall and 678 in the spring term.

After three years as head tutor, Dr. H. Francois Wilkinson, who helped appreciably to improve our undergraduate teaching, accepted a position at Dartmouth. Dr. Lars Sandberg, who was awarded his Ph.D. degree during the year, has been appointed Instructor and head tutor starting July 1, 1964. Dr. Sandberg was an undergraduate concentrator in the Department and was graduated summa cum laude in the class of 1961.

The Allyn Young Prize for 1963-64 was awarded to Mr. Lawrence J. White as the undergraduate concentrating in Economics who submitted the best honors thesis of “summa quality.” His thesis was entitled “Devaluation, Debacle, and Aftermath: The Canadian Dollar, 1960-63.”

Mr. Duncan M. Kennedy was the winner of the John H. Williams Book Prize, which is awarded each year to the outstanding Harvard senior graduating summa cum laude majoring in Economics.

GRADUATE INSTRUCTION

The Department announced a new Graduate Prize fellowship program designed to improve the competitive position in the recruitment of the best graduate students. The program provides for up to 15 prize fellowships to be awarded each year. The students are to be assured four years of financial support; in the typical case the first two years are to be on scholarships at the rate of $3,500 a year and the following two years on part-time teaching assignment. The program was worked out with the initiative and support of Dean Ford and Dean Elder. The Department believes that the program will be particularly helpful to meet the very difficult present problem of financial support in the second year of graduate school. Although it is too early to appraise the results even for the first year, the preliminary indications are that the new program was helpful in improving the quality of our acceptances for the year 1964-65.

The Department announced that it had received a gift to honor Mrs. Selma Goldsmith and had decided to use the funds to provide a prize for the best paper prepared in a graduate seminar. The Goldsmith Prize of $100 will be awarded in October 1964 for the first time for papers completed in the current academic year. The prize paper will also be considered for publication in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

The Department has been greatly concerned to increase the extent to which graduate students, particularly in their second year, take working seminars in which they write substantial papers and present them for discussion. The Department intends to press students in this direction, making at least one working seminar the normal pattern in the second year. The Department is increasing the number of such seminars to provide more opportunity for students to elect such seminars.

In 1963-64 the Department used a total of $8,000 in subsidized computer funds. This figure represents participation in subsidized computer time by 44 graduate students, 9 undergraduates and 9 members of the junior staff.

For the period July 1, 1963 to June 30, 1964, 34 Ph.D. degrees were awarded in the Department of Economics. The list is attached.

The Wells Prize for 1963-64 was awarded to Dr. Albert Fishlow of the Department of Economics of the University of California (Berkeley) for his manuscript entitled “Railroads and the Transformation of the Anti-Bellum Economy.”

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: IBM GRANT

A development of considerable potential significance to the Department was the announcement that IBM had agreed to provide Harvard University with $500,000 a year for ten years for a University-wide program in the general field of Science and Technology. Many members of the Department, and members of the junior staff and Ph.D. candidates, do research in areas relevant to this general field. Professors Kaysen and Dunlop of the Department are members of the University-wide committee which prepared the application and which has been appointed by President Pusey to administer the grant.

NEW PERMANENT POSITIONS AND CHANGES IN APPOINTMENTS

Three new professors were added to the senior staff of the Department of Economics from three newly created professorships. Two senior members retired during the year.

On April 4, 1963 Dean Ford authorized the establishment of a new permanent position in the Department. Professor Hollis Chenery of Stanford University and currently with A.I.D., has been appointed to the Department, and he is to be in residence starting with the Spring term 1965. Professor Chenery is a specialist in the fields of economic development and input-output analysis.

On January 20, 1964 the George Gund Professorship of Economics and Business Administration was established jointly in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (in the Department of Economics) and in the Graduate School of Business Administration. The funds for this new professorship were raised under the leadership of Mr. Dwight Robinson, who had been Chairman of the Visiting Committee for a term expiring June 30, 1963, and Mr. David Rockefeller, who is the current Chairman. Professor John Lintner of the Harvard School of Business Administration was appointed to this new joint professorship and joins the Department with the new academic year. On the average he will devote half of his time to the Department and half to the Business School. Professor Lintner is a specialist in the fields of business decision making and the economic outlook. He will be particularly responsible for an undergraduate course in the Economics of Managerial Decisions.

The Littauer School of Public Administration established during the year a new professorship in the field of economic development and international economic relations. Professor Albert O. Hirschman of Columbia University was appointed to this new professorship and will begin his work in Cambridge in the fall of 1965. Professor Hirschman is to be a member of the Department of Economics and its executive committee.

Two senior members of the Department were retired during the year. Professor Seymour Harris was a Harvard undergraduate, class of 1920, and took his Ph.D. degree here in 1926. Professor Harris had been on the teaching staff of the Department for 40 years, serving as Chairman of the Department in the period 1955 to 1959. Professor Harris joined the staff of the University of California, La Jolla campus, in February 1964.

Professor Overton H. Taylor joined the teaching staff of the Department in 1924, and on his retirement at the end of this academic year has accepted an appointment at Vanderbilt University.

STAFF: VISITING PROFESSORS AND LEAVES

During the academic year the Department’s instructional staff was supplemented from other insitutions by the following: Professor Herbert S. Levine of the the University of Pennsylvania in the field of the Soviet Economy; Professor Edwin Mansfield, who came to us from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, in the field of Quantitative Methods and Econometrics; Professor Zenon S. Zannetos from M.I.T. continued to teach a one-term undergraduate course, the Economics of Managerial Decisions, for a second year; Dr. John Arena from the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston assisted Professor Duesenberry in a course; and Mr. John J. Mauriel from the Harvard School of Business Administration was in charge of the undergraduate course in accounting in the Spring term.

The following members of the Department were on leave during the year: Professor Bergson was on sabbatical leave at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford; Professor E. H. Chamberlin was on leave in Cambridge with the Frank W. Taussig Research Professorship; Professor Hendrik S. Houthakker was on leave in Western Europe on a Ford Faculty Fellowship as nominated by the Department; Professor Gottfried Haberler was on sabbatical leave in Western Europe during the Spring term. A larger number of permanent members of the Department were in residence than in recent years.

Among the Assistant Professors, Thomas Wilson was on leave throughout the year working with the Royal Commission on Taxation in Ottawa; Elliot Berg was on leave in Cambridge in the Spring term.

During the year 1964-65 Professor George Break of the University of California will be visiting professor teaching in the tax and fiscal policy area; Professor Barry Supple from the University of Sussex in England will teach Economic History in the fall term; and Professor Pieter de Wolff from the Hague and the University of Amsterdam will be Frank W. Taussig Research Professor. Dr. John Arena of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston will give an undergraduate course on financial institutions from the resources made available by the Political Economy Lectures Fund (1889). Dr. Maureen Brunt from Australia is to be a Visting Lecturer for a two year period working particularly in the field of Comparative Industrial Organization.

PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT STAFF

Professor Abram Bergson spent the year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, and has written a monograph now in the press, entitled The Economics of Soviet Planning. He continues as Director-at-large of the Social Science Research Council, and as a member of its Committee on Economy of Communist China.

Professor Richard Caves published during the year American Industry: Structure, Conduct, Performance, in Foundations of the Modern Economic Series, Prentice Hall. He completed research and writing of Northern California’s Water Industry: Public Enterprise and Scarce Natural Resources (jointly with J. S. Bain, J. Margolis, V. Ostrom) under a grant from Resources for the Future and scheduled for publication in 1965. He served on the Review Committee for Balance of Payments Statistics of the U. S. Bureau of the Budget, and consulted with the Council of Economic Advisers and the Council for Economic Development.

Professor Edward Chamberlin was elected to the Real Academia de Ciencias Economicas y Financieras, Barcelona, and a Communication on “Excess Capacity” was read before the Academy in March 1964 and printed in Italian translation in the Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciale, Milan, Spring 1964. He was also re-elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. During the year the eighth edition of his book Theory of Monopolistic Competition was issued by the Harvard University Press, and the second edition of Economic Analysis of Labor Union Power also appeared.

Professor Robert Dorfman was elected President of the Institute of Management Science; he also participated in a Study Week on Econometrics at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican in October 1963.

Professor James Duesenberry’s article on monetary economics, “The Portfolio Approach to the Demand for Money and Other Assets,” appeared in the February 1963 National Bureau of Economic Research Supplement to the Review of Economics and Statistics. He was consultant to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve; he continued as consultant to the Treasury and the Council of Economic Advisers; he also continued as Acting Co-Chairman of the Econometrical Model Project of the Social Science Research Council and Co-Director of the Merrill Capital Markets Project at the Harvard Business School.

Professor John T. Dunlop’s article “Job Creation: Private and Public Manpower Policies” appeared in Proceedings of A Symposium on Employment, sponsored by the American Bankers Association. A revised edition of Industrialism and Industrial Man (with three other authors) was published by Oxford University Press, Galaxy Book Edition. Five volumes were published in the year in the Wertheim Series from research projects under Professor Dunlop’s direction: three in the history of labor-management organization and two treating international labor questions. He continued as a member of the President’s Missile Sites Labor Commission and was appointed to the President’s Committee on Equal Opportunity.

Professor Otto Eckstein published Economic Policy in Our Time, with eight European scholars (3 vols.), North Holland Publishing Company; and Public Finance, in Foundations of Modern Economic Series, Prentice-Hall. Professor Eckstein is editor of the Series. He also edited and has written an introduction to Studies in the Economics of Transfer Payments to be published by the Brookings Institution. Professor Eckstein becomes a member of the Council of Economic Advisers on September 1, 1964.

Professor J. Kenneth Galbraith published during the year Economic Development, Harvard University Press and Houghton Mifflin Company. He gave the American Association for the Advancement of Science Distinguished Lecture in December 1963, and gave the Charter Day Address, University of California at Davis, May 1964. He received LL. D. degrees from four universities: University of Massachusetts, Brandeis University, University of California and Loyola College (Baltimore).

Professor Alexander Gerschenkron published during the year a number of articles and chapters in books, including the following: “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization: Russia 1861-1914” in The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. VI; “Reflections on Economic Aspects of Revolutions,” in Internal War, Harry Eckstein, ed., Glencoe, 1964; “City Economies, Then and Now,” in The Historian and the City, Harvard University Press, 1963. He gave a lecture entitled The Stability of Dictatorships under the auspieces of the Harvard Foundation at Yale, 1963.

Professor Gottfried Haberler completed his term as President of the American Economic Association in December, 1963. He has been on sabbatical leave in the Spring term. He spent a month teaching in the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, and has been lecturing at various universities in Western Europe.

Professor Hendrik Houthakker was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal by the American Economic Association at its annual meetings in December 1963. This medal is awarded every other year “to that economist under the age of 40 who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.” Professor Houthakker was on leave throughout the year and spent most of the time in Switzerland working on the Theory of Consumer Choice, which is to be published by Holden, Day late in 1964. With Dr. Lester Taylor of the Department he presented a paper “Projecting Personal Consumption Expenditures in 1970” at the Cleveland Meetings of the Econometric Society, and a second paper “Recent Empirical Experience with Dynamic Demand Function” at the Boston meetings of the Econometric Society. These papers will be published in a volume entitled United States Consumption 1929-1970.

Professor Carl Kaysen returned this academic year from two years’ leave for government service in Washington, but has continued to serve as a Special Consultant to the President. His publications this year include two book reviews: Alfred Sloane, My Years with General Motors, New Republic, February 29, 1964; and Gunnar Myrdal, Challenge to Affluence, Harvard Law Review, June, 1964. In addition, he presented a paper entitled “The New Competition and the Old Regulation” to a Conference in Modern Competitive Theory held by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in May. The proceedings of that conference will be published shortly.

Professor Simon Kuznets published a number of articles and chapters in various books during the year including: “Notes on Take-Off,” in The Economics of Take-Off Into Sustained Growth, edited by W. W. Rostow, proceedings of a conference held by the International Economic Association, St. Martin’s Press, 1963; “Economic Growth and the Contribution of Agriculture: Note on Measurement,” in The Role of Agriculture in Economic Development, Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference of Agricultural Economists, London, Oxford University Press, 1963; “Applicacion des las Estimaciones de Renta Nacional en el Analisis y Politica del Crecimiento Economico,” in El Ingreso y La Riqueza, Seccion de Obras de Economia, Fondo de Cultura Economica, Mexico-Buenos Aires, 1963.

Professor Kuznets was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences, Sweden; he was Chairman of the Committee on Economic Growth, Social Science Research Council and its Committee on the Economy of China. He was also Chairman of the Executive Committee, Board of Trustees, Maurice Falk Institute for Economic Research in Israel; he gave the Haynes Foundation Lectures at the University of California at Riverside, which are to be published by the Harvard University Press.

Professor Wassily Leontief’s publications included “The Structure of Development” in Scientific American, September, 1963; and “Alternatives to Armament Expenditures,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June, 1964. He participated in a Study Week on Econometrics at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican in October, 1963, was Guest Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna in January, 1964, and lectured in Japan in May as guest of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Professor Edward S. Mason published Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy, which represents the reworking of his Elihu Root Lectures given at the Council on Foreign Relations in May 1963. He was a member of a two-man Steering Committee on a large study called the Coal Transport Study undertaken by the International Bank for the Government of India. Professor Mason was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree by Yale University in June 1964.

Professor John Meyer published the following: Investment Decisions, Economic Forecasting and Public Policy (with Robert Glauber), Division of Research, Harvard Graduate School of Business, 1964; “Investment, Liquidity and Monetary Policy,” (with Edwin Kuh), Impacts of Monetary Policy, Prentice-Hall, 1964; “Competition, Market Structure and Regulatory Institutions in Transportation,” Virginia Law Review, 1964. Professor Meyer is Director of a new formal program of studies in transportation, location and land use problems which has been inaugurated within the Graduate School of Public Administration. This program has put particular emphasis upon the transportation planning problems of the newly industrializing countries. A substantial part of the research program has been financed by a grant from The Brookings Institution with A.I.D. funds.

Professor Thomas Schelling continued to divide his time between the Department of Economics and the Center for International Affairs, his main research interest being conflict theory and military policy. He “unofficially estimates that he may have set a record for war college visits, having lectured at six within the year, to wit: The National War College, Army War College, Air War College, Navy War College, NATO, and the Israeli Defense College.” He also lectured at the Air Command Staff College.

Professor Arthur Smithies published “Inflation in Latin America” in Public Policy. He recently completed a research paper on Program Budgeting for the Rand Corporation, which will be published. He continued as consultant to the Treasury and as Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Abstracts. Professor Smithies was Visiting Lecturer in Brazil under the auspices of A.ID., and was also Advisor in Argentina under the sponsorship of the Harvard Development Advisory Service.

Ph.D. Degrees in Economics Awarded in 1963-64

Aaron, Henry Jacob	“Social Security in an Expanding Economy”
Ahmad, Ziauddin	“Deficit-Financing, Supply Response and Inflation in Underdeveloped Countries”
Ahtiala, Kaarlo Pekka	“The Short-Term Adjustment Mechanism on the Bond Market”
Almon, Shirley Montag	“The Distributed Lag Between Capital Appropriations and Expenditures”
Bateman, Cleveland Worthington	“Investment Behavior and the Acceleration Principle”
Bolton, Roger Edwin	“Defense Purchases and Regional Growth in the United States”
Bonnen, James Thomas	“United States Agricultural Capacity: A General Equilibrium Model for 1965”
Brunt, Maureen Doris	“Concentration in the Australian Economy”
Cohen, Benjamin Ira	“A Study of the Export Policies of the Indian Government, 1951-52 to 1965-66”
Comanor, William Stephen	“The Economics of Research and Development in the Pharmaceutical Industry”
Davie, Bruce Fenwick	“State & Local Government Bond Issues Before 1913 – A Study of Increasing Market Perfection”
Dorsey, John Wesley	“The Mack Case: A Study in Unemployment”
Eckstein, Salomon	“Collective Farming in Mexico”
Edwards, Franklin Richard	“Concentration and Competition in Commercial Banking: A Statistical Study”
Eisenmenger, Robert Waltz	“The Dynamics of Economic Growth in New England 1870-1960”
Enzer, Hermann	“Learning on-the-job: A Process Analysis”
Gandhi, Ved Parkash	“Tax Burden on Indian Agriculture”
Glimp, Fred Lee	“The Entrepreneureal Concept and the Notion of Creative Leadership”
Hagelin, Edith Hilma	“The Swedish Full Employment Policy and Economic Development, 1945-52”
Hartman, Robert William	“Demand for the Stock of Non-Farm Housing”
Jack, Andrew Barrie	“The Marketing Function of the Innovating Entrepreneur: the Sewing Machine and Garment Industry in the United States”
Johnson, William Arthur	“India’s Iron & Steel Industry: A Study of Planned Industrial Growth”
Lithwick, Norman Harvey	“Economic Growth in Canada – a Quantitative Analysis”
McGuire, Martin Cyril	“Information and Arms Races”
Madjid, Abdul Hadi	“A Dynamic Input-Output Model Incorporating Technical Change”
Mallon, Richard Dicks	“Economic Development and Foreign Trade of Pakistan”
Perkins, Dwight Heald	“Price Formation in Communist China”
Pincus, John Alexis	“Economic Aid and International Cost Sharing”
Prescott, James Russell	“The Economics of Public Housing: A Normative Analysis”
Ryan, William Francis	“Economic Development and the Church in French Canada 1896-1914”
Sakr, Mohamed Ahmed H.	“Economic Integration and the Growth of Less-Developed Countries”
Sandberg, Lars Gunnarsson	“Swedish Economic Policy in Theory and Practice, 1950-1961”
Shaw, Lawrence Hugh	“A Measure of the Effects of Weather on Agricultural Output”
Warden, Charles Browne	“Unemployment Insurance: A Statistical Study of Massachusetts Experience”

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Edward H. Chamberlin Papers, Box 17, Folder “Economics Department 1964”.

Image Source: Portrait of John T. Dunlop in Harvard Classbook 1952.

Exam Questions Harvard Law and Economics

Harvard. Exams for law of industrial relations and commerce. Wyman, 1907-1908

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-12-14

Assistant Professor Bruce Wyman’s course on industrial relations and commercial law was offered as a vocational sop to Harvard economics majors that along with William Morse Cole’s principles of accounting course was intended to help prepare a young Harvard graduate planning to enter a career in business. This could help account for the popularity of the course as seen in its relatively high enrollment — that and its reputation of being something of a “snap course”.

________________________

From earlier years

1901-02. Autobiographical note, enrollment, course description, syllabus, exams.
1902-03. Obituary, enrollment, course description, exams.
1903-04. Enrollment and exams.
1904-05. Enrollment, course description, exams.
1905-06. Enrollment, paper assignments, exams.
1906-07. Enrollment, paper topics, exams.

________________________

Course Enrollment

Economics 21. Asst. Professor Wyman, assisted by Messrs. Field and Otis. — Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations and Commercial Law.

Total 93: 3 Graduates, 56 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

________________________

ECONOMICS 21
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

(First give your answers clearly, then give your reasons briefly.)

(a) White buys 10 gross of Mellin’s Food from the proprietors and pastes over the label on each bottle a large label reading “White’s Food—Better than Mellin’s—Higher in Price—But Double in Nutriment—White Mfgr.” Can Mellin stop White from doing this? (b) Could Mellin stop White from doing this if he could prove that White’s statements were false?
(a) Ely buys prints of the Passaic works and with the undisclosed intention of offering them for sale later at 1 cent per yard less than the usual retail price, 8 cents. Can this be stopped; (b) Could it be if Ely had agreed not to sell them at less than the usual price, 8 cents, when he bought them?
(a) The foreman of a street railway threatens to discharge employees who trade at a certain grocery. Can the grocer sue him? (b) Suppose the foreman were a partner in a rival grocery, would he have been liable?
(a) A suburban street railway agrees with a city street railway that the first shall not extend its lines into the city and the second shall not extend its lines into the country. Can the city line be stopped by it from building into the country? (b) After it has done so, can it stop the country line from building into the city?
(a) A combination of oil refiners agree to lower prices wherever competition appears, the one that loses money thereby to be made whole by the others pro rata. An outsider who is ruined by this policy sues a member of the association — what result? (b) The member of the association who lost money in the process sues the other members for contribution — what result?
(a) A labor union in a building trade strikes in sympathy with a teamster’s union. Can it boycott butchers who sell to nonunion men who remain at work on the building? (b) Can it put a single man on the street corner nearest the work to persuade men from taking the places of the union men?
(a) A & Co. is a partnership composed of A, B, and C; the fact that C is a partner being unknown to the public. The firm buys goods of X, who later learns of the position of C and sues him to the whole price — what result? (b) Suppose C was not a partner but had told Y that he was and X had learned of this later, could X sue C now?
(a) A ownes 99% of the stock the B railroad company. X claims that he shipped some goods by this railroad which were lost in transit; the only evidence X has is an admission by A that the company is liable. What chance has X against the corporation? (b) Suppose A had promised to pay X $1000 in settlement, what chance would X then have against the corporation?
(a) A corporation is formed by X, Y, and Z with a capital stock of $30,000, each taking $10,000, X paying $10,000 cash for his, Y $7,500, and Z $2,500. The corporation later sells $30,000 debenture bonds to L, who pledges them to M for a loan of $20,000. Later the corporation fails after a disasterous season having left goods worth $14,000. How does M come out? (b) How does Z come out?
A is employing X as his salesman by the calendar year. In the middle of the year, B induces X by offer of a higher salary to quit and enter his employ at once. Can A sue B for damages? (b) Can X sue B for his salary when it comes due?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

________________________

ECONOMICS 21
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

First give your answers briefly; then give your reasons concisely.

A, director in a steamship company, who owns 25% of its stock, buys two steamboats for $100,000 each. He offers them to his company for $130,000 each. The directors vote to purchase one, A’s vote not being necessary to carry it, and vote to leave the question of the purchase of the other to the stockholders’ meeting. The stockholders vote to purchase the other, A’s vote being necessary to pass it. A few years later a hostile management gets control, and asks counsel what the rights of the company against A are. What should he answer?
A & Co. join a combination of beef packers who agree not to bid against one another in the cattle market, but arrange distribution among themselves in advance. (1) A & Co. on one occasion do bid against another member contrary to a previous deal. Can they be sued? (2) The cattle raiser refuses to deliver the cattle. Can they sue him? (3) They sell dressed beef to a butcher, delivering part. Can he refuse to pay? (4) They refuse to deliver the remainder. Can the butcher sue them?
The N.Y., N.H. & H.R.R., operating in Conn., R.I., and Mass., acquires say 66 2/3% interest in the stocks of various trolley lines operating in the same states. It also acquires say 33 1/3% interest in the stock of the B. & M.R.R. operating in Mass., N.H., Vt., and Me. Is all this a violation of the Federal Anti-Trust Law? Take one side or the other of the question.
A National Steel Company (1) buys 40% of the steel plants in the United States outright, (2) buys the controlling interest in the stocks of 30% more, (3) makes agreements with 20% more for division of business, (4) refuses to deal with customers who deal with the others. What danger is it in supposing there is no anti-trust statute?
A lease for twenty years is made by one railroad corporation to another. The lease is ultra vires on the part of both corporations. What rights or remedies has either corporation against the other in case of a repudiation of the lease by either at the end of five years, rent having been paid for only four years?
Can a street railway corporation resist as unconstitutional legislation which so reduces fares as to leave it such gross receipts as, after providing for operation and repair, maintenance and re-placement, will leave only an average of 2% upon the securities representing the cost of the enterprise and nothing for depreciation or sinking fund, surplus account or amortization of franchise?
A railroad company buys coal of various operators along its route which it transports to market and sells there. An independent operator shows that at times of press of business the railroad uses part of its cars in its own coal shipments; to which the railroad company replies that it gives him his proportion of cars. This operator also shows that the railroad will buy coal at $3.00 per ton, transport it to market and sell it at $3.75, while he shipping from the same station has to pay the published rate of $1.25 per ton; to which the railroad company replies by saying that they make themselves a trainload rate of 75 cents per ton which they are willing to give him. Must he be content with these answers?
A railroad line having become blocked by an accident six trains were stopped at the city of T, in the following order: (1) a passenger train, (2) a circus train, (3) a train of coal cars, (4) a refrigerator train filled with dressed beef, (5) a trainload of peaches in closed cars, (6) a trainload of lumber on flat ears. In what order should these trains be despatched?
Can a gas company make special rates (1) to its directors, or (2) to hotelkeepers, or (3) to induce a storekeeper to give up the use of electricity, or (4) to customers who buy their fixtures of its contract department?
Can a street railway eject a passenger who (1) has been convicted for picking pockets, or (2) has refused to pay fare the day before, or (3) has a wrong transfer which was given him carelessly by a former conductor, or (4) tenders a ten dollar bill which the conductor cannot change?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 44-46.

Image Source: Harvard Law School ca. 1901 from the Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection (Library of Congress).

Tags Wyman

Economists Harvard

Harvard. Academic record of Vervon Orval Watts, Ph.D. 1932

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-12-12

Vervon Orval Watts (1898-1993) was a faithful libertarian disciple of Harvard economics professor Thomas Nixon Carver. One of his course outlines from his time at Antioch College in Ohio has been transcribed and posted earlier.

In this post you will find the paper record of Watts’ march through the Division of History, Government and Economics that was rewarded with the award of a Ph.D. by the department of economics in 1932.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

[Note: Boldface used to indicate printed text of the application; italics used to indicate the handwritten entries]

I. Full Name, with date and place of birth.

Vervon Orval Watts, March 25, 1898, Walkerton, [Ontario] Can.

II. Academic Career: (Mention, with dates inclusive, colleges or other higher institutions of learning attended; and teaching positions held.)

University of Manitoba, 1914-1918; Harvard University, 1921—
Teaching Positions: Brandon College, Jan. 1 – July 1, 1919; Gilbert Plains, high school, 1919-1921; Harvard, Assistant in Economics, 1923-24 (Asst.); 1926-27 (gr.); T + T 1927-29.

III. Degrees already attained. (Mention institutions and dates.)

A.B., University of Manitoba, 1918
A.M., Harvard University, 1923.

History:— Greek + Roman, 1 course; European, 2 1/2 courses; English History, 2 courses; Canadian History 1/2 course.
Economics:— Courses in Theory, Economic History, Public Finance, Money + Banking, Foreign Trade + Finance.
Government:— 1 course, Logic:— 1 course.
Languages:— Greek + Latin.

V. Department of Study. (Do you propose to offer yourself for the Ph.D., “History,” in “Economics,” or in “Political Science”?)

Economics.

Economic Theory and Its History.
At Harvard – Ec. 11, Ec. 14; at Manitoba – course in Theory + its History. Private Reading.
Public Finance.
At Harvard, Ec. 31; at Manitoba – 1 course. Private Reading.
International Trade + Tariff Policy.
At Harvard – Ec. 9b, Ec. 39;
At Manitoba – 1 course; Private Reading.
Economics of Agriculture.
At Harvard – Ec. 9a, Ec. 32;
– Assistant in Ec. 9a, 1923,
Private Reading.
Sociology.
At Harvard, Ec. 8,
–Assistant in Ec. 8, 1923
Private Reading.
History of England since the Reign of Henry VII.
At Harvard: Hist. 12; Auditor in Hist. S9 + Hist. 11.
At Manitoba: 1 course
Teaching of English History in high school; Private Reading.

VII. Special Subject for the special examination.

Sociology.

VIII. Thesis Subject. (State the subject and mention the instructor who knows most about your work upon it.)

The Development of the Technological Concepts of Production in Anglo-American Thought.

IX. Examinations. (Indicate any preferences as to the time of the general and special examinations.)

I should prefer the General Examination not before Feb. 1. Middle of March or few days after. [Handwritten note: “May 27/32”]

X. Remarks

Professor Carver.

Signature of a member of the Division certifying approval of the above outline of subjects.

[signed] T. N. Carver

* * * [Last page of application] * * *

[Not to be filled out by the applicant]

Name: Vervon Orval Watts

Approved: January 11, 1924

Ability to use French certified by C. J. Bullock, May 29, 1923.

Ability to use German certified by C. J. Bullock, May 29, 1923.

Date of general examination Monday, March 31, 1924. Passed. T.N.C.

Thesis received March 28, 1932

Read by Professors Carver and Taussig

Approved May 16, 1932

Date of special examination Friday, May 27, 1932

Recommended for the Doctorate June 9, 1932

Degree conferred June 23, 1932

Remarks. [left blank]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 29, 1923

Dear Haskins:

This is to certify that I have examined Mr. V. O. Watts and find that he has such a knowledge of French and German as we require of candidates for the Ph.D. degree.

Very sincerely yours
[signed]
C. J. Bullock

Dean C. H. Haskins

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

General Examination, date and
examiners
[carbon copy]

Division of History, Government, & Economics
Harvard University

21 March 1924

My dear Mr. Watts:

We are arranging your general examination for the Ph.D. in Economics for Monday, 31 March, at 4 p.m. Your committee will consist of Professors Carver (chairman), Abbott, Williams, Bullock, and Dr. Meriam.

Very truly yours,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division

Mr. V. O. Watts

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

General Examination
Information Sent to Examiners
[carbon copy]

Division of History, Government, and Economics
Harvard University

24 University Hall
25 March 1924

My dear Professor [blank]

Since the Ph.D. pamphlet is not yet out, I am sending you herewith the information which will appear in it about V. O. Watts, whose general examination is to be held on Monday, 31 March, at 4 p.m.

Very truly yours,
Secretary of the Division.

Carver
Abbott
Williams
Bullock
Meriam

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

General Examination, Watts Reminder
[carbon copy]

27 March 1924

My dear Mr. Watts:

This is to remind you that your general examination for the Ph.D. in Economics is to be held on Monday, 31 March, at 4 p.m. in Widener N.

Very truly yours,
Secretary of the Division

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

General Examination, Carver Reminder
[carbon copy]

27 March 1924

My dear Professor Carver:
This is to remind you that you are chairman of the committee for the general examination of Mr. V. O. Watts for the Ph.D. in Economics, to be held on Monday, 31 March, at 4 p.m., in Widener N. I enclose Mr. Watts’s papers herewith. The other members of the committee are Professors Abbott, Williams, Bullock, and Dr. Meriam.

Very truly yours,
Secretary of the Division.

Professor T. N. Carver

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Passed General Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
April 1, 1924

Dear Professor Haskins:

I beg to report that the general examination for the Ph.D. degree of Mr. Vernon [sic] Orval Watts was held in Widener N, Monday afternoon, March 31. The committee voted unanimously to accept Mr. Watt’s examination as satisfactory.

Signed: T.N. Carver
Chairman of the Committee

Dean C. H. Haskins

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thesis summary still needed
[carbon copy]

March 29, 1932

Dear Mr. Watts:

Your thesis has arrived in good shape. I do not find any summary with it, however. Each thesis is required to be accompanied by a summary, not over 1200 words, which is later published by the University, along with others, in a volume. I note that you have a Digest at the beginning of your thesis; perhaps you intended this to be the summary. However, it should not be bound in with the thesis, and the form should be consecutive and not in outline as you have it. It will be a simple matter for you to re-write this Digest into an appropriate summary.

I believe I wrote you as to the date for your examination, May 27. I should be glad to hear from you confirming this, as the pamphlet goes to press soon, and I cannot hold dates open after April 1st.

Sincerely yours,
Secretary

Mr. V. O. Watts

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Last-minute thesis preparation

Antioch college
Yellow Springs
Ohio

March 5, 1932

Secretary of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Sir:

I have almost completed my doctoral dissertation in the field of economics, and I wish to be informed if there are any rules concerning the nature of the binding for the volume.

I am writing the thesis in Sociology under Professor Carver. Shall I send it to you or to him when it has been completed?

Very truly yours,
[signed] V. Orval Watts

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Scheduling Special Examination

Antioch college
Yellow Springs
Ohio

March 15, 1932

Miss Helen Prescott
772 Widener Memorial Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

Dear Miss Prescott:

I should like to have my special examination placed at the end of May or the beginning of June if that will be convenient for Professor Carver.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] V. Orval Watts

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

V. O Watts: Apology for late thesis summary

Antioch college
Yellow Springs
Ohio

March 31, 1932

Dear Miss Prescott:

I regret that my delay in writing you and in sending the summary of my thesis should have caused you the trouble and annoyance of writing me age in about it. For the past two weeks I have been exceedingly busy finishing the thesis while carrying the work of four courses. We also have an economics seminar which meets every week and I am serving on two faculty committees, one of which meets every week.

At the last moment, moreover, last Tuesday, I decided to have most of the thesis re-typed because the previous typing had been so faint. It may have been that the chemicals which are used on that ripple-finish paper may have caused the ink to fade on the earlier copy. At any rate, the work of supervising the typing and doing the proof-reading in addition to my regular teaching load led me to postpone everything I could as long as possible. I sent the summary off yesterday by special delivery, however, so that you should have received it by April first.

I should very much appreciate it if you could let me know soon whether or not my thesis appears to be acceptable. I am naturally anxious about it, especially since the last half of it has been written without Professor Carver’s supervision. It has certain merits, I believe, but I am very conscious of its short-comings. It would have been better if I had showed the earlier drafts of it to Professor Carver to secure his criticisms and suggestions; but every time I wrote a chapter I saw so many things I knew myself should be corrected that I disliked to show it to him, or to any one whose good opinion I valued, until I had done it as well as I could with it myself. In fact I still wanted to give it another revision before turning it in.

I trust that you and your sister are well. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that you were working with Professor Carver again. I am looking forward to seeing you and him again this spring, and I may bring my family along with me.

Very truly yours
[signed] V. Orval Watts

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Letter to Carver

Antioch college
Yellow Springs
Ohio

April 8, 1932

Professor Carver:

Professor Taussig read a short article I wrote in criticism of Stuart Chase’s Tragedy of Waste when I first considered the topic of waste as a thesis subject. At that time my ideas concerning my plan of procedure were vague, and Professor Taussig merely approved the general subject of economic waste as one worthy of further development. I did not return for further conferences with him.

Most of my conferences, other than those with yourself, were with Professor Young, whom I used to consult frequently during the last year he was at Harvard. The distinction between the economic and the engineering point of view and the historical approach which I took are largely the result of those conferences.

I had several conferences with Professor R. B. Perry of the philosophy department, and he read and discussed at some length with me the first chapter. Professor Mason also read a few of my earlier essays, and I had a few talks with him concerning the general subject. I have felt, however, that he never approved
either of me or of my ideas. Professor Black has stated the central idea of my thesis — the distinction between the economic and technological points of view — more clearly than any one else with whose work I am familiar, but I never had any conferences with him.

It seems to me that, all things considered, Professor Taussig is the most logical choice in the Economics Department for the examining board. He is very conscientious and honest in his criticisms and evaluations of students, yet I believe he is just and sympathetic towards new ideas.

I feel more keenly than ever at this time the loss of Professor Young, and I realize now that I may have made a mistake in not seeking the advice of Professor Taussig in writing my thesis after Professor Young left us. I always felt very reluctant to show my work to anyone, however, until I had done all I could with it myself. The distinction I have made in the thesis has not been clearly drawn by any other English writer, as far as I could discover, except by Professor Black, and I therefore felt it all the more necessary to state the idea as well as possible before
seeking criticism for it.

I expect to visit Cambridge and to see you and Professor Sorokin next Thursday or Friday. I am rather concerned about my ignorance of European sociology in view of Professor Sorokin’s interest in that field. I have been reading diligently in the history of sociological theory, but it is a very large field to cover, and I am hoping that Professor Sorokin may have some suggestions which will make my efforts more effective.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] V. Orval Watts

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

V. O Watts: List of Positions

Antioch college
Yellow Springs
Ohio

May 3, 1932

Dear Miss Prescott:

I have just recalled that you asked me some time ago to send you a list of the positions I have held. If you wanted the list for the pamphlet which was being printed three weeks ago when I was in Cambridge it will be too late to send it now. But in case you may have a further use for it I am giving it herewith. You have my permission, however, to mention any or all of these titles if you wish.

1918-1919. Instructor, Brandon College, Canada
1919-1921. Assist. principal, Gilbert Plains High School, Gilbert Plains Canada.
1922-1923. Thayer Scholar, Harvard University
1924-1926. Instructor in Economics and Sociology, Clark University
1926-1927. Weld Scholar, Harvard University
1917-1929. Tutor in History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University
1929-1930. Lecturer in Economics and Sociology, Wellesley College
1930–. Assoc. Professor of Economics, Antioch College

As you may guess I am very anxious concerning the progress of my thesis through the gauntlet of the readers. I should very much appreciate it if I could obtain a hint of good news from the scene of action, but I suppose that the long list of theses presented this year is delaying the progress of all of them.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
V. Orval Watts

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Passed Special Examination

The committee appointed to conduct the special examination of Mr. V. Orval Watts on Friday, May 27, 1932, voted unanimously to accept the examination. It was agreed by all three examiners that it was a brilliant examination..

Signed: T. N. Carver

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Antioch College informed
that Watts completed his Ph.D.

Antioch college
Yellow Springs
Ohio

Office of the President

June 6, 1932

Dr. T. N. Carver
Department of Economics,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dear Dr. Carver:

I thank you for your note about Mr. V. O. Watts. It is good to know that he did so well. His interest and enthusiasm in his work with us make his scholarly qualifications all the more productive.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Arthur E. Morgan,
President.

AEM:HG

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ohio State Not Hiring

the ohio state university
George W. Wrightmeyer, President
Columbus

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
M. B. Hammond	Alma Herbst
A. B. Wolfe	R. H. Rowntree
H. G. Hayes	J. D. Blanchard
H. F. Walradt	J. M. Whitsett
Grace S. M. Zorbaugh	H. J. Bittermann
F. E. Held	C. J. Botte
L. Edwin Smart	R. T. Stevens
E. L. Bowers	Louis Levine
R. L. Dewey	Maurice A. Freeman
C. L. James	R. L. Horne
R. D. Patton	Wm. H. Mautz
Louise Stitt	J. H. Sloan
Virgil Willit

June 6, 1932

Professor T. N. Carver
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Professor Carver:

I thank you for calling to my attention Mr. V. O. Watts, now teaching Economics at Antioch College. With your recommendation I do not doubt his ability to satisfy. However, the situation is about the same with us as it is at other western
institutions. We are not likely to make additions to the staff during the coming year. Those who are already employed are fighting hard to hold their jobs and there is a steady pressure on the part of graduate students to secure employment as assistants, readers, or in any other capacity, so that I do not anticipate any chance for Mr. Watts to find employment here. However, I will pass your letter to Dr. Bowers, who is acting chairman of the department, so that he can make use of it if there should be any change in the situation which calls for a new man.

I am, with best wishes,

Cordially yours,
[signed] M. B. Hammond

MBH:KU

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Record of V. O. Watts in the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

1921-22	Course	Half-Course
Economics 9a		A
Economics 9b¹		A
Economics 11	B plus
Economics 32²		A
Economics 39²		A
German A	A minus


1922-23	Course	Half-Course
Economics 8	A
Economics 14	A minus
Economics 31	A
History 12	A minus

1923-24	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics, Ph.D. Degrees Conferred 1929-30. (UA V 453.270), Box 12.

__________________________

Course Names and Instructors

1921-22

Economics 9a ¹hf. Economics of Agriculture [primarily for undergraduates]. Professor Carver.

Economics 9b ¹hf. International Trade and Tariff Policies. Professor Taussig.

Economics 11. Economic Theory. Professors Taussig and Young.

Economics 32 ²hf. Economics of Agriculture [primarily for graduates]. Professor Carver.

Economics 39 ²hf. International Finance. Asst. Professor Williams.

German A. Elementary Course. Professor Bierwirth et al.

1922-23

Economics 8. Principles of Sociology. Professor Carver.

Economics 14. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Professor Bullock.

Economics 41. Statistical Theory and Analysis. Professors Young and Day.

History 12. The History of England from 1688 to the Present Time. Professor Abbott.

1923-24

Economics 20. Course of Research in Economics.

Image Source: Portrait of Vervon Orval Watts in the Harvard Class Album, 1932.

Tags Carver, Taussig, Watts, Young

Exams from past years

Course Description 1907-08

Course Enrollment 1907-08

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Examination 1907-08

On Industrial Relations

HARVARD UNIVERSITY DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

Certification of reading knowledge of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

Passed General Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

Passed Special Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

Undergraduate Transcript of Douglass V. Brown

HARVARD COLLEGE

Record of Douglas V. Brown for the years 1921-25

ADMISSION RECORD

SUBJECT

Elementary

Advanced

Grade

Units

Grade

Units

YEAR 1921-22

Freshman

Grade

Subject

Course

Half-course

YEAR 1922-23

Sophomore

Grade

Subject

Course

Half-course

YEAR 1923-24

Junior

Grade

Subject

Course

Half-course

YEAR 1924-25

Senior

Grade

Subject

Course

Half-course

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Record of Douglass Vincent Brown

1925-26

Grades

First Year

Course

Half-Course

1926-27

Grades

Second Year

Course

Half-Course

1927-28

Grades

Third Year

Course

Half-Course

Harvard Course Names and Instructors

1921-22

1922-23

1923-24

1924-25

1925-26

1926-27

1927-28

Douglass Vincent Brown Timeline of his education and career

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

General Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History of Economic Thought

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Department of Economics

General Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History of Economic Thought

HARVARD UNIVERSITY DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

Certification of reading knowledge of French and German for Ph.D.

Course Description
1907-08

Course Enrollment
1907-08

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1907-08

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Undergraduate Transcript
of Douglass V. Brown

Record of Douglas V. Brown
for the years 1921-25

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Record of Douglass Vincent Brown

Douglass Vincent Brown
Timeline of his education and career

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

General Examination
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
History of Economic Thought

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

General Examination
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
History of Economic Thought

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Committee on Economic Research
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
OF
BOSTON UNIVERSITY

525 Boylston Street
Boston

Miller informed of date
for his general examination

Supplementary Information for
General Examination of H. E. Miller

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Division of history, Government, and Economics

Harry Edward Miller
Timeline of his life and career

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NEWSLETTER

Prepared by
Professor John T. Dunlop
Chairman

Published by
THE HARVARD FOUNDATION FOR ADVANCED STUDY & RESEARCH
77 Dunster Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER
SEPTEMBER 1964

ECONOMICS 21
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

ECONOMICS 21
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

General Examination, date and
examiners
[carbon copy]

General Examination
Information Sent to Examiners
[carbon copy]

General Examination, Watts Reminder
[carbon copy]

General Examination, Carver Reminder
[carbon copy]

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Thesis summary still needed
[carbon copy]

Antioch college
Yellow Springs
Ohio

Antioch college
Yellow Springs
Ohio