Author: Irwin Collier

Harvard. American Economic and Financial History. Gay, 1907-08.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-22

Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. Painted by N.C. Wyeth

The materials for this post come from the second time Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history at Harvard. Other than having its bibliographic furniture rearranged, the course content is virtually identical to that of the 1906-07 version of the course.

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Previously…

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06. Gay taught this course alone in 1906-07.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6b ²hf. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 143: 14 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 33 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.

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

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[Except for a minor rearrangement in the sequence of topics, the course reading list for 1907-08 is, with only one exception, identical to that for 1906-07.]

Course Reading List
Economic and Financial History
of the United States

ECONOMICS 6b (1908)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

1. Colonial Period.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.

1776-1860.
2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

3. Internal Improvements.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Polities in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

4. Agriculture and Land Policy. – Westward Movement.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257 printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.
[Replaces “Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181” from the 1906-07 reading list.]

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

5. The South and Slavery.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

6. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.

Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

1860-1900.
7. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254, (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

8. Transportation.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

9. Agriculture and Opening of the West.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.

10. Industrial Expansion.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-clxxviii.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

11. The Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-229.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, p. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-487.

12. Commerce and Shipping.

*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.
[This reading has been switched to required status in 1907-08.]

Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

13. Industrial Concentration.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

14. The Labor Problem.

*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.

Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

15. Population, Immigration and the Race Question.

* United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economies and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1907-1908”.

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ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

Briefly:—
1. The Bland-Allison and Sherman Acts.
2. The National Banking Act.
3. The Homestead Law.
4. Reciprocity since 1890.
Compare the condition of manufactures in the United States in 1791 (Hamilton’s report) with that in 1900.
Why has the cotton industry developed more satisfactorily than the woolen industry?
Compare in its chief features the state of Southern agriculture before and after the Civil War.
[Farm indebtedness and tenancy]
1. Farm indebtedness in the United States 1885-1900; its relation to agricultural prices and the demand for monetary reform.
2. Farm tenancy in the United States.
Is railroad “pooling” permitted in the United States? Should it be permitted? What do you think of Anti-Trust Legislation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: Website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Webpage: History. Lincoln and the Founding of the National Banking System.

“Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. N.C. Wyeth painted this mural in the lobby of what was then the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The former bank building is today the Langham Hotel.”

Tags Gay

History of Economics Policy Popular Economics

New York City. Centennial Celebration for Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. 1876

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-21

For the 1776^thartifact to be posted in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, I decided to search for something related to Adam Smith. I figured the Centennial, Sesquicentennial and Bicentennial of the publication of Wealth of Nations would be good places to start, so I turned to the newspapers.com archive to begin my search. The very first item I came upon was the Centennial Celebration that took place in New York City on December 12, 1876. After reading the New York Times account of the affair, I thought that more might be found in Glory M. Liu’s book Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism (2022) and sure enough she uses that event as her anecdotal springboard into Chapter 3, “The Apostle of Free Trade”.

Cringe Moment: John Bigelow found himself as an understudied understudy for no-show Williams College professor Arthur Latham Perry. The role demanded that he comment on the toast to the French liberal economists, predecessors to Adam Smith. Bigelow proceeded to riff on Jean-Baptiste Colbert, poster-child of French mercantilism. I am guessing that few if any of the guests noticed the faux pas.

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The Evening Post
(New York City, December 13, 1876), p. 1.

ADAM SMITH.

Centennial Celebration of the Publication
of “The Wealth of Nations”—
Speeches by William Cullen Bryant, Parke Godwin, David A. Wells, Professor Sumner, Mr. Atkinson and Others

The dinner given at Delmonico’s last evening, to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” was attended by about a hundred gentlemen, including many widely known as advocates of free trade. Among the persons present were Parke Godwin, Abraham L. Earle, Arthur G. Sedgwick, Professor W. G. Sumner, Horace White, Cyrus W. Field, William Cullen Bryant, David A. Wells, Edward Atkinson, of Boston, Professor Frank A. Walker [(sic) Gen. Francis Amasa Walker], President Anderson, of Rochester University; Isaac Sherman, Anson Phelps Stokes, William E. Dodge, Jr.; George Walker, Ex Surgeon-General [N.S.] Hammond, J. Crosby Brown, Secretary of State [John E.] Bigelow, Professor Atwater, of Princeton; Mr. Sidney Biddle, Mr. Balch and Mr. Brinton Coxe, of Pennsylvania; M. Henri Cernuschi, of Paris; Professor [Vincent] Botta, Robert B. Minturn, E. L. Godkin, Charles H. Marshall, F. B. Sanborn of Boston, O. C. Marsh, Howard Potter, Fred. Mason of Chicago, and Joseph S. Moore. [Also listed as having attended according to the New York Times (December 13, 1876, p 5): Charles Moran, Dr. M. K. Leverson of Colorado and Henry Arnott Brown]

                  After prayer by the Rev. Dr. Atwater the chair was taken by Parke Godwin, before whom lay an original edition of the “Wealth of Nations.” During the dinner, which was long and elaborate, music was furnished by an orchestra placed in the gallery.

SPEECH OF PARKE GODWIN.

The cloth having been removed, Mr. Godwin spoke as follows:

                  “Gentlemen, it is my duty to speak the prologue to your future performances, and I know no better way than to follow the epilogue in ‘Henry IV.,’ which says: ‘First my fears, then my courtesy and last my speech.’ I am here less because of my ambition, but because of the headlong obstinacy of my friends of the committee.” He then spoke of the large assemblage present in these times of great political excitement and said: “It is not often that men meet to do honor to a book. But we come together to commemorate not a work drawn out of the mysterious wells of the imagination, but a work treating of our every day affairs which has taken its place among the masterpieces of genius. It is just a hundred years since the work on ‘The Wealth of Nations,’ the work of an humble Scotch professor, first appeared. I take it that the only conception of the wealth of nations was that of the resources of a prince who could keep armies and fleets, subsidized allies, and pension a few very poor poets. But that labor was the real wealth, the real source of national power, they hardly conceived. Yet this work, which taught these truths, penetrated the minds of men, and now at this remote day and in this far land we are met to celebrate it as one of the greatest features of our Centennial. What was the secret of the success of this book? It can hardly be said that the author of this work was the originator of any great and important truth. Many of his conclusions had been anticipated in Italy and in England. But the earlier writers had only discovered the germs of the truth. They had not seen it to its efflorescence. The merit of Smith was that he saw the truth in its intrinsic force, he grasped it in its bearings and relations, and he developed it with such completeness and simplicity that he made it plain to the common apprehension, that he made it the property of men in the common walks of life, and not alone of the student in his closet or the speculator in his school. What a grand truth it was that such men as Smith have bequeathed to us! Kant was accustomed to say that true things filled him with awe; first, the view of the starry heavens, and second, the sense of duty in the soul of man. He might have added a third, that of the mysterious means by which the struggles of the soul in the social man is brought to an harmonious end. But what is society at large? Is there not for its stupendous ramifications of interest, for the vast enterprises which span the globe, a power which holds them in its large love and boundless thought? Aye, there is such a power; it is the power of Providence, the power of freedom, freedom of labor, freedom of interchange, which, demanding nothing of governments save the maintenance of justice and peace, is like the principle of attraction which reduces the far-flaming orbs of space into musical chimes, and will reduce our various conflicting arms into perfect order. The signal service of Adam Smith and his coadjutors was to demonstrate that the gospel was right and that human traditions were wrong. By an exposition of the productive efficacy of the co-operation of industrial groups — by a demonstration that all exchanges of products are not a one-sided spoliation, but a two sided benefit, they showed that human interests were reciprocally helpful and not mutually destructive. Attraction, not repulsion, was shown to be the true law of economic relations. When it was once seen that human interests are convergent and not divergent, the practices of individuals and of nations were made to conform to that view. Giant monopolies began to open their shut doors, and an era of emancipated industry and emancipated commerce broke over the world. Political economy, like other sciences, is still immature and imperfect: it has many deficiencies to fill out, many obscurities to clear, many problems to solve. But we who are here tonight know this — that the great beams of the edifice have been raised; that many downtrodden have found solace within the portals of this, the goodliest temple, I think, ever made — a temple in which the worship is the worship of free human uses, full of the profoundest human affections.”

                  The names of invited guest who were prevented from attending, and had sent letters of regret were then read. Among these were Governor Tilden, Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer, President Woolsey, President McCosh, Senator Bayard, William R. Morrison, L. Q. C. Lamar, Professor A. L. [Arthur Latham] Perry; the English Minister, Sir Edward Thornton; the Belgian Minister, M. Maurice Delfosse; Charles Francis Adams, Professor H. W. Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, W. Lloyd Garrison, R. H. Dana, Jr., H. W. Olcott and others [Also listed as having sent letters of regret according to the New York Times (December 13, 1876, p 5): President Elliott, President Champin, Charles Elliott Norton, Professor Dunbar, Estis Howe, James Brown].

SPEECH OF JOHN BIGELOW.

The first regular toast was read as follows:

“The Early French Economists” – Lights that preceded and announced the dawn. They were the first to discover and to proclaim that natural laws are a better basis for legislation than arbitrary authority.

In the absence of Professor [Arthur Latham] Perry [Williams College], who was expected to respond, Mr. John Bigelow spoke as follows:

                  “I am very sorry that Professor Perry was not able to attend. He was prevented from coming by his modesty, and he has asked me to come here to-night and represent him. I shall do so as well as I may. It is a source of regret to me that I am here in a representative capacity, and shall be unable to do full justice to the early French economists as either Professor Perry or the imaginary Mr. Bigelow you have described would have done. I will only say that they were a very noble set of people. That is all I shall say. I am sure your imaginary Mr. Bigelow could not have described them in fewer words. All the politico-economical teachers have been indebted, more than to any one else, to the man who first classified the industries of France, and by whose work the science of political economy became possible — I refer to Colbert. The work of Colbert in estimating and tabulating the work of every man in France had never been done before. Yet this was essential to the success of politico-economical science. I do not know but Bacon may have anticipated me in this remark, but if he has, so much the worse for Lord Bacon. It is a matter of regret that the Bureau of Statistics in this country has been less useful because of the inexcusable obstinacy of a gentleman present here to-night (Mr. David A. Wells) in resigning its charge. I wish to call attention to one fact in noticing upon this table the original edition of the work of Adam Smith. I don’t know why this work, the natural twin of republican institutions, has never been published complete in this country. My friend on my right says it has been. I can only ask, then, why I have never happened to meet a single copy of an American edition in this country. (A voice — that of Mr. Coxe, of Philadelphia — “An edition was edition was printed in Philadelphia in 1789.”) Then I will modify my remark and ask why we have not had an edition in the current century.” (A voice, “Give it up”) Mr. Bigelow went on to speak of the importance of a proper study of Adam Smith’s method, and said that the great drawback in this country is the waste of power in all the paths of work and business and investigation. He advocated as a great centennial work the publication of a new and complete edition of Adam Smith’s works.

SPEECH OF DAVID A. WELLS.

The second toast was:

“The Wealth of Nations”, — An imperishable monument of human genius, which laid the foundation of a science destined to revolutionize the legislation and practice of nations. At the end of a hundred years it is as instructive in its teachings and as beautiful in style as when it first attracted the attention of the world. Its author, Adam Smith, will be held in honor by his fellow men forever.

David A. Wells made the following response:

                  “Considering the condition of Europe from the time when it first attained a high degree of civilization, there is no question of more interest than that of the relations of nations and men. The prejudices and antagonisms, due to the belief that advantage to one community was necessarily a loss to another, naturally interfered with progress and advancement, and led to the belief, as expressed by Hobbes, that war is the natural condition of man. The restrictions that, until recently, hedged round all trades in Europe, and reduced men to practical slavery, were the outgrowths of this false idea. The right to practice a trade or profession was looked upon as an heirloom, transferred from one to another member of a family.” The results of this system in France and in the country were sketched, and Mr. Wells continued: “In this country, it even happened in 1865, under our absurd revenue law, that it became a question whether a man who mended a carriage had not really manufactured it and made himself liable to a payment of the duties on new carriages. War was often undertaken by European nations as a means of successfully monopolizing trades. It was for this cause that nearly all the battles of the eighteenth century were fought. Our own Revolution is directly traceable to the imposition of duties upon the colonies due to the economic ideas of the times. If Great Britain forbade the colonists to export wool, it made its own subjects liable to capital punishment for exporting wool. John Hancock was the prince of smugglers and was set down for trial at the time of our Revolution. Alexander Hamilton was cognizant of contraband trade by the firm which he formed during his minority. Men like these resisted the government, because they felt that every blow that they struck was a blow for liberty. Mr. Wells then sketched the work of Turgot in France in connection with economic matters. Voltaire and other of Turgot’s contemporaries, he said, supported Turgot in his schemes of economic reforms and foresaw the revolution and the reign of terror which followed after Turgot’s downfall. But afterward there came a compensation in the appearance of Smith’s great work. He then quoted the high praise awarded it by Buckle, Mackintosh and others and said: “The work then done was the greatest ever attempted since the days of Christ and his apostles. Under the light of the teachings of Adam Smith, the golden rule of ‘Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you’ was embodied in the practical affairs of life. People are benefited and never injured by the prosperity of their neighbors; this was the great truth expounded by Adam Smith. There is no class of men that submit quicker to the spirit of the times than the mercantile class, and the spirit of the times always is the aggregation of knowledge. From this point of view and in the light of the work done by Adam Smith, though the world has not recognized the source from which it came, it will be seen that the great Scotchman has fully merited the eulogiums passed upon him. He has done more than all the sleeping[?] statesmen[?] combined have ever attempted[?] to do.” [Three words unclearly printed marked with [?]]

SPEECH OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

The third toast was:

“The Illustrious Teachers of Political Economy” — Say, Ricardo, Malthus, Senior, the Mills, Bastiat, Cairnes, Rossi, Chevalier and Walker, who form a galaxy of bright and shining stars whose places in the heavens will grow brighter with the lapse of time.

In reply William Cullen Bryant spoke as follows:

                  “Mr. President and Gentlemen: Allow me to congratulate you on the occasion which has brought you together. I am glad to see such men assembled for such a purpose — that of commemorating the publication of the great work which first clearly demonstrated to mankind the benefits of a free exchange of commodities between the nations of the world, and the mischiefs of that tyranny which seeks to check this free exchange by the strong arm of the law. The doctrine of free trade, placed on the impregnable basis of fact and reasoning, was twin born with this republic of ours, and I can only wish the republic a like perpetuity with the doctrines.

                  “It is now four years since a concurrence of circumstances, to which I will do no more than allude, had the effect of causing a movement in favor of free trade, which was then in considerable activity and apparently not without effect on the public mind to stagnate and almost to sleep. And what years, my friends, were these: Years of languishing enterprise, years of despairing industry, years of strikes, years of contention between the employers and the employed, years which showed the spectacle of laborers by hundreds looking in vain for occupation, and hunger-pinched families shivering in their unwarmed garrets. All this while the protective system, as it is called, has been in full force. Everything is protected — that is to say, everything imported into the country is taxed as it never was taxed before. If the protective system be the ground of commercial prosperity the country should now be prosperous beyond all its previous experience; our mills, now silent, should be in their fullest activity; our laborers should be in constant employment; not a willing arm should be idle, not a spindle should cease to hum.

                  “Is It not time for a reaction? Are we to go on in this manner indefinitely? We have tried the protective system as fully as is possible; we have tasted its fruits, and they are bitter. Let us now have a season of free exchange I have no doubt, for my own part, that a liberal system of revenue laws, especially combined with a return to specie payments, would make an instantaneous and most fortunate change in the condition of the country. Hundreds of commodities, the raw material of as many forms of industry, would be released from the taxation which now puts them beyond the reach of as many classes of artisans, and new life would be at once communicated to the arts both useful and ornamental. The old handicraft of shipbuilding, which made our barks the wonder of the world for speed and economy of management, would be revived. The very day that such a change in our present unhappy policy received the sanction of the Executive would see the gloom of the times dispelled as suddenly as a bright morning follows a storm, and there is no power able under these circumstances to hold back our people from plunging into enterprises which they now shrink from in despair.

                  “Yes, my friends, the time for a reaction has arrived, and we are determined that it shall have a fair field. Free trade has slept while its enemies have been performing their unhappy experiments upon the public welfare, and now we look to see it rise invigorated by its long slumber. Let me say here that I am in favor of protection, but protection of a kind very different from that which for many years past has dealt so cruelly with the interests of the country. I am for protecting the consumers — the class whose numbers are counted by millions — I am for protecting this class in its natural and proper right to exchange what it produces in whatever market it can exchange them to most advantage. I am for rescuing it from the hands into which it has fallen, and which plunder it with as little remorse as the rovers of the Barbary States in the early part of this century pillaged the merchant ships that entered into their seas.

                  “Depend upon it, my friends, this is a righteous contest on our part, and a blessing will rest upon it. I have been long a soldier in this war, and have never grown weary of it. I may I not see the day of triumph, but many of you will. The torch which I have borne for more than fifty years I shall pass to abler, doubtless, though not more faithful hands, assured that it will yet shed it rays on a glorious victory.”

SPEECH OF EDWARD ATKINSON.

The following was the fourth toast:

“Commercial freedom, or the unfettered intercourse of nations” — A glorious principle that has taken its place by the side of the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech and the freedom of assemblage, and which, like them, has demonstrated its claims to our regard by the blessings which have everywhere accompanied and followed its practical applications.

Edward Atkinson replied to this and said the charter of the Pennsylvania Railroad forbade it to build locomotives, although it allowed it to repair them, for fear of interfering with the interests of the factories. This prohibition is, however, got over by the company considering the brass label on the locomotives to be the locomotives themselves. He then said:

                  “The nation was now struggling against evils within which once it struggled against from without. The two great questions of the hour were evils of bad money and bad taxation. This nation might soon hope for freedom from the first, and ere long from the second. The advocates of protection now admitted that free trade was something to be desired, but claimed It was impracticable and artificial. Freetraders believed it natural. Differences now between the two parties were only regarding time and method. The question now arose, could the freetraders unite with protectionists in some compromise that would not demand a sacrifice of principle. He thought they could. The protectionists no longer based their legislation and claims upon the principles of protection, but upon principles of general utility. No one now demanded on principle more than a moderate taxation for the expenses of government, and he thought that very soon the statesmen might take the place of economists. The nation was stronger than its leaders, and order would soon come out of chaos. The admirable advantages of England should be considered; and if the advocates of free trade would only act with moderation and caution, they could soon obtain their end, practically at least.”

                  Remarks were also made by Brinton Coxe, of Philadelphia, who spoke of the progress which the principles of Adam Smith were making in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, that Middle Age castle of Protection.

SPEECH OF PROFESSOR SUMNER.

The next toast was:

“International freedom” — The liberty of trade and intercourse which, within the domain of the United States, prevails over so many thousand square leagues of territory, which has been so fruitful a source of prosperity, union peace and rapid development needs but to be applied to our foreign relations to establish our rightful position among the nations in wealth, in power, in influence and in the happiness of the people.

                  Professor W. G. Summer responded, saying that old dogmas were disappearing, utopian hopes are vanishing and positive methods are replacing them. Political economy is capable of positive and beneficial resalts. Among us economic problems are practical questions, and we are forced to turn our attention from science to the practical benefits of its old and familiar consequences to our country. This ought to be the work of politicians and statesmen, that the largest amount of human happiness may be directly produced therefrom.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The last toast given was:

“The Science of Political Economy” — It demonstrates morals. It proves that diligence, economy, prudence, truth and justice are not only among the canons of the moral law, but are also the means of a sound and stable public prosperity.

This was ably responded to by Professor Anderson. [see following item]

______________________________

Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY: December 15, 1876), p. 4.

Dr. [Martin Brewer] Anderson
on Free Trade

Our report of the free-trade dinner at Demonico’s last evening requires to be supplemented by an outline of the interesting and effective remarks of President Anderson, of Rochester (N.Y.) university. He considered free trade in its moral aspects, and said that he regarded free exchange as one of the fundamental principles underlying human society, the same as the freedom of opinion and of labor. Free trade is as worthy and important an object of human endeavor as the doctrines of the declaration of independence. No bargain is either good or safe which does not confer a benefit upon both the seller and buyer, and the moral element in trade must be taken into account to secure permanent prosperity. He eulogized the abstract thinkers of the world and eloquently set forth the benefits conferred upon mankind by Adam Smith in the field of trade, Jeremy Bentham in the field of criminal law, and also cited other examples. He spoke of his own labors as a teacher of political economy, and said that during the last fifteen years he had permitted no young man to leave the institution of which he had charge who did not possess a clear notion of the fundamental doctrines of free trade. He then made the practical suggestion that an efficient free-trade club ought to be organized in this city for the purpose of free discussion. He said that economic truth propagates itself under proper conditions, and he would have the free-trade work of the colleges supplemented by systematic organization, so that young men may be preserved in economic faith and so that the influence of free-traders of all classes may be made effective.

Image Source: Adam Smith, 1723-1790. Political economist by James Tassie (1787). National Galleries of Scotland, Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Tags Adam Smith, Dunbar, PerryAL, Sumner, WalkerFA, Wells

Economics Programs Faculty Regulations Graduate Student Support Regulations Yale

Yale. Graduate economics graduate degree requirements and curriculum brochure. 1950

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-19

For the most part today’s artefact speaks for itself. It is another historical economics program brochure added to the growing Economics in the Rear-view Mirror collection.

I entered Yale College as a freshman in the academic year 1969-70 so the Yale brochure digitized below was printed just about two decades before I became an apprentice economist. Now in my senior years two decades does not seem to be all that long but it would appear that the development of the Yale economics department from 1950 to 1970 was about as dramatic as my own from infant to college student over the same time period.

Preparing this post, I was struck by the genuinely small scale of the graduate economics program at Yale in 1950, that “microeconomics”/“macroeconomics”/“econometrics” were not yet words to be found in the course descriptions, further that the history of economic theories was a visible part of the curriculum, and finally that institutional nuts-and-bolts (as well as economic history) did receive relatively greater emphasis in 1950. I was delighted at the “sight” of four of my professors (Healy, Tobin, Lindblom, and Dahl) found in the list of the graduate economics faculty of 1950, an indication that two decades is really not all that long after all within the context of a healthy human life span.

_____________________________

A Few Other Programs,
Other Times

Harvard 1967
M.I.T. 1961
M.I.T. 1974
Chicago 1956
Wisconsin 1904
Chicago 1892
Chicago 1904

_____________________________

GRADUATE CURRICULUM AND DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
IN ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
1950

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Graduate Faculty

CHAIRMAN: Professor Kent T. Healy.

DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES: Professor Lloyd G. Reynolds.

PROFESSORS: E. Wight Bakke, Edgar S. Furniss, John P. Miller, Eugene V. Rostow (Law), Ray B. Westerfield.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS: Neil W. Chamberlain, Klaus E. Knorr (International Relations), Charles E. Lindblom, Richard Ruggles, James A. Tobin.

ASSISTANT PROFESSORS: Robert A. Dahl (Political Science), Challis A. Hall, Jr.

INSTRUCTOR: Robert G. Link.

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ECONOMICS

The objective of the graduate program is to equip students with the theoretical and statistical tools of economic analysis, to broaden their historical and institutional knowledge, and to develop judgment in applying economic analysis to issues of public policy. The wide variety of research institutes and activities at the University, in addition to strengthening the teaching program, enables interested students to gain research experience at an early stage of their careers. Students are also encouraged to acquaint themselves with the techniques of other social sciences through course work in the relevant departments.

The number of graduate students admitted each year is limited, which makes possible an unusual degree of individual instruction and guidance. The fact that the number of students is small relative to the research and teaching activities of the University also enables a large proportion of the student body to be self-supporting after the first year of graduate study.

Preference in admission is given to students who plan to proceed toward the Ph.D. degree. The M.A. degree is awarded on successful completion of one year of course work (no thesis requirement), and most Ph.D. candidates take this degree as a matter of course at the end of their first year.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

BEGINNING GRADUATE STUDENTS. There are available each year several graduate fellowships, varying in amount from $450. to $1,000. It is possible also for a considerable number of students to earn between $200. and $300. per year by grading examinations in undergraduate courses.

ADVANCED GRADUATE STUDENTS. Students who do work of high quality during their first year have numerous additional opportunities during their second and subsequent years of study.

(1) The Sterling Fellowships of $1,500. each, competition for which is open to graduate students in all departments of the University.

(2) Appointment to a teaching position in Economics 10 (Principles of Economics). Advanced graduate students may be permitted to teach a maximum of six hours per week while continuing work toward their degree. Appointments are also sometimes given to students who transfer to Yale after completing one year or more of graduate study at another University and who have had satisfactory teaching experience.

(3) Appointment as a research assistant. There are several research institutes in the University, including the Conservation Center, the Committee on National Policy, the Committee on Transportation, the Institute of Human Relations, the Institute of International Studies, and the Labor and Management Center. In addition, members of the Department have individual research programs in progress on a variety of subjects, including decision-making in the business firm, market structure and price determination in the non-ferrous metal industries, wage differentials under collective bargaining, population growth in the United States, the cyclical behavior of cost-price relations in manufacturing, economic planning in selected countries of Western Europe and the determinants of personal savings and consumption decisions. A considerable number of graduate students are employed each year as part-time research assistants while continuing their graduate study. Compensation for this work is in line with that for members of the teaching staff.

(4) There are occasional opportunities for part-time teaching in other colleges in and near New Haven, and for research assistantships in other departments of the University.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

In addition to the general requirements of the Graduate School, students in Economics are expected to meet the following requirements.

PRELIMINARY QUALIFICATIONS: An undergraduate major in economics is normally required. A student whose major was in another field will be admitted in exceptional cases, but may be required to take more than the usual two years of course work. Students preparing for graduate work in economics are strongly advised to take undergraduate courses in economic theory, mathematics (at the level of differential calculus), statistics, French and German. Courses in psychology, history, and the other social sciences will also be of material benefit to the student in his graduate work.

BASIC TRAINING: Before admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree the student must have completed at least sixteen semester courses of a graduate character, of which eight must have been taken at Yale. Some of these courses may be taken in other departments or schools of the University.

GENERAL EXAMINATIONS: A certification of competence is required in the use of quantitative methods, including the statement of hypotheses and theorems in quantitative form, the use of symbolic methods in economic reasoning, and the principal statistical tools used in modern economic research. This requirement will normally be met by the satisfactory completion of the courses, Economics 103a and b, during the first year of graduate study, and must be met by the end of the second year.

At least one year before the student expects to take his degree, his general competence in economics will be tested by a written and by an oral examination. The written examination will test (a) knowledge of all aspects of economic theory, its current status and historical development, (b) knowledge of European and American history with special emphasis on the development of economic institutions in modern times, (c) ability to use theoretical tools, together with historical materials and current factual information, in analyzing issues of economic policy. Preparation for the examination will be provided not only by course work but by study of readings suggested by the department.

The oral examination, to be held within a few days of the written examination, will test for intensive grasp of two specialized fields of economics, one of which will normally be the dissertation field. The fields will be determined in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.

Before May 1 or October 1 (as the student elects) in the calendar year prior to that in which he expects to get his degree, the student shall provide the Director of Graduate Studies with six copies of a prospectus, setting forth the subject of his proposed dissertation, the questions it proposes to answer, its potential contribution to economic science, and the research techniques and sources to be used.

COURSE OFFERINGS

Each student is expected to plan his work in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies in Economics, Mr. Reynolds.

Economics 100, General Economic Theory. Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Ruggles.

Economics 101, Development of Economic Thought. Mr. Miller.

Economics 102, Modern Economic History.

Economics 103a, Economic Statistics. Mr. Tobin.

Economics 103b, Introduction to Mathematical Economics. Mr. Tobin.

Economics 110, Aggregate Economics and Cycle Theory. Mr. Tobin.

Economics 112b, Distribution of Wealth and Income. Mr. Reynolds.

Economics 113a, Price Systems and Resource Allocation. Mr. Ruggles.

Economics 114a, National Income Theory and Measurement. Mr. Ruggles.

Economics 114b, Types of Quantitative Research in Economics. Mr. Ruggles. Economics 120, Money, Credit, and Banking. Mr. Westerfield.

Economics 122, Public Finance. Mr. Hall.

Economics 123b, Public Control of Industrial Organization. Mr. Rostow.

Economics 124, Business Firm and Market Behavior. Mr. Miller.

Economics 125, The Labor Movement and Collective Bargaining. Mr. Chamberlain.

Economics 126, Critique of Industrial Relations Theory. Mr. Bakke.

Economics 127a, Regulatory Labor Legislation. Mr. Lindblom.

Economics 127b, Protective Labor Legislation. Mr. Lindblom.

Economics 128, Critique of Economic Planning. Mr. Lindblom, Mr. Dahl.

Economics 129, International Trade and Finance. Mr. Link.

Economics 135, The Structure of the American Economy. Mr. Ruggles.

Economics 200, Individual Research and Consultation. Department Faculty. International Relations 140, International Economic Problems. Mr. Knorr.

Transportation 102, Transportation Economics. Mr. Healy.

Related Courses:

American Studies 151, American Thought & Civilization, 1620 to the present. Mr. Gabriel.

Anthropology 109a, Culture and Personality. Mr. Linton.

Anthropology 114b, Primitive Economics. Mr. Linton.

Conservation 101b, Seminar in Conservation. Mr. Sears.

Forestry 180b, Forest Economics and Policy. Mr. Zumwalt.

Forestry 128a, Economics of the Forest Products Industries. Mr. Garrett.

Geology 150, Economic Geology. Mr. Bateman.

Geology 153, Seminar in Economic Geology. Mr. Bateman.

Government 134, Constitutional Law and Public Policy. Mr. Cahill.

Government 135, National Government and the Problems of Federalism. Mr. Key.

Government 136, American Political Parties – An Introduction to the Study of Political Behavior. Mr. Key.

History 125, Mediaeval Commerce and Capitalism. Mr. Lopez.

History 154, Liberal & National Movements in Modern Europe. Mr. Kent.

History 191, American Intellectual History in the Early Twentieth Century, Mr. Gabriel.

Mathematics 42, Statistics. Mr. Ore.

Source for text and image: This 1950 graduate economics curriculum brochure was found at the hathitrust.org archive.

Tags Bakke, ChamberlainNW, DahlRA, e, Furniss, HallCA, Healy, Lindblom, LinkRG, MillerJP, Reynolds, RostowEV, RugglesR, Tobin, Westerfield

Harvard Libertarianism Principles Suggested Reading Syllabus

Antioch College. Syllabus for principles of economics. Watts, 1935-1936

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-18

Vervon Orval Watts (1898-1993) was a Thomas Nixon Carver inspired libertarian economist from pre-Keynesian Harvard times. Before going on to become the first head economist for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce (1939-46) and later an economic adviser to the Foundation for Economic Education starting in 1946, Watts taught economics at Antioch College (1930-36) and Carleton College (1936-39). His full biographical timeline can be found at the link above. For this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has transcribed the syllabus with the assigned and optional readings for the principles course Watts taught at Antioch College in 1935-36.

In the mid-1960s Watts was the Dean of the short-lived Freedom School Phrontistery in Colorado, the brainchild of Robert LeFevre that was to become a libertarian version of a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics program of study.

_____________________________

Harvard Ph.D. awarded in 1932

Vervon Orval Watts, A.B. (Univ. of Manitoba) 1918, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1923.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Development of the Technological Concept of Production in Anglo-American Thought.”
Associate Professor of Economics, Antioch College.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1931-1932, p.124.

_____________________________

A Syllabus of Instruction
for
Economics 101-102

A Survey of Modern
Economic Life

V. O. Watts
Antioch College
1935-1936

PURPOSES OF THE COURSE

To obtain information concerning American economic institutions.
To develop the habit in the ordinary experiences of daily life of observing, analyzing and appraising the economic results of the conduct of individuals and of groups of individuals as wage-earners, employers, farmers, manufacturers, merchants, financiers, and legislators.
To develop skill in tracing out and explaining the ramifications of the economic effects of an event.

CONDUCT OF THE COURSE

Required Readings

Study of the required readings, those starred and underlined in the list of references in this syllabus, constitutes the larger part of the work of this course. The following methods of study are therefore suggested:

Note the relation of each chapter or section in the text or syllabus to the sections preceding and following it.
Read or scan quickly the material in one or two chapters at a time before underlining or taking notes, so that you may gain perspective and distinguish the more significant principles from the accompanying illustrations and qualifications.
Think out answers to the questions and problems given at the end of each section or chapter in the text or question book, referring back to the appropriate section of the text, when necessary, to clarify your understanding of the principles involved.
Re-read the text, making written note of essential points in definitions of technical terns, statements of important principles, list of arguments pro and con on controversial issues, advantages and disadvantages of proposed policies, and qualifications of principles.
This note-taking should provide opportunity for practice in expressing yourself in economics, therefore do not copy the author’s words, but put his ideas into your own words. It should also provide an aid to quick and effective review and help you to organize your thinking in this field, therefore keep your notes brief, well-organized, and neatly arranged.
Before class discussions and examinations review those notes, practicing recall, illustrating the points noted, questioning and criticizing the author’s ideas, and formulating your own conclusions.

Periodicals

Each student in this course is expected to keep posted on current economic and political events and opinions through the regular reading of a newspaper or news weekly.

Some acquaintance with a number of leading journals in the fields of business and political economy is also required. To that end some of the journals listed below should be consulted with the following questions in mind concerning each: (1) How often is it published? (2) Who are the publishers or editors? (3) What is the professional status or occupation of its contributors? (4) What is the general character or point of view of most of its articles? (5) What special place does it fill in the field and to what type of reader is it likely to have most appeal?

Examine the table of contents for several recent issues of some of these magazines to see if there may be articles which especially interest you. In some journals you may find few or none, but in others you should find many such articles. Try to read at least one article during the semester in each of several of the journals listed.

Recommended Readings

The optional, or recommended, readings listed below present additional information or develop points of view differing more or less from that dominant in the required text. In some cases they may present clearer explanations of the points covered in the required readings.

Class Meetings

There are customarily three class meetings per week.

Conferences

Each student should meet the instructor for a conference at least once in each five-week period. To these conferences the student should bring his economics notebook and recent test papers.

Tests and Examinations

Approximately once a week there will be a ten-minute written test on the subject matter of the required readings. At the end of the first and third divisions there will be a one-hour examination on the readings and lectures. At the end of each semester there will be a three-hour examination covering the entire work of the course to date.

Answers to examination questions should be well planned and neatly written. Each distinct point or argument should be treated in a separate paragraph, and points correlative in meaning and importance should be numbered. All papers should be written in ink.

Oral Report

In the second division of the second semester each student will be expected to present to the class in a ten or fifteen minute report the results of his study outside the required readings of a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. The time allotted for preparation of this report should be approximately one-tenth of the time devoted to the entire course. The report itself should not take the form of reading an essay, but should be a short talk from a brief outline.

Textbooks

L. A. Rufener, Principles of Economics

R. M. Rutledge, Everyday Economics

SCHEDULE OF READINGS, LECTURES, AND EXAMINATIONS

* * * * * * * * * *

FIRST SEMESTER

First Week

*Rufener, ch.1. Wants, Goods, and Welfare

*Rutledge, ch. 1.

Stuart Chase, Your Money’s Worth

C. E. Carpenter, Dollars and Sense

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, Elementary Economics, chs. 1, 7.

S. H. Slichter, Modern Economic Society, ch. 22.

Lecture: The Significance of Scarcity.

Second Week

*Rufener:

ch. 2. Improving Methods of Production
ch. 3. Exchange, Value, and Price
ch. 4. Business Organization and Profits

*Rutledge, ch. 4.

V. O. Watts, The Myth of the Industrial Revolution

Third Week

*Rufener:

ch. 5. Demand and Supply and Market Price
ch. 6. Demand and Supply and Market Price (continued)
ch. 7. Demand Schedules for Producers’ Goods

*Rutledge, ch. 6

W. H. Hamilton, Current Economic Problems, selections 63-66

Slichter, chs. 12, 13, 14

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 11-15.

Fourth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 8. Costs of Production, Market Price, and Profit
ch. 9. Cost and Price in Agriculture: Wheat-Growing
ch. 10. The Rent and Price of Agricultural Land

*Rutledge, ch. 10.

J. B. Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 180-207

Slichter, chs. 17, 19. “Public Authority as a Determinant of Price”.

Fifth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 11. Indirect Costs in Agriculture
ch. 12. Economic Rent and the Unearned Increment
ch. 13. Cost of Production in Manufacturing: Decreasing Cost

*Rutledge ch. 12.

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 31, 32.

Hour Examination

Sixth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 14. Decreasing Costs, Indirect Costs, and Price
ch. 15. Monopoly and Monopoly Price
ch. 16. Industrial Monopolies and Government Control

*Rutledge:

ch. 15.
ch. 16.

F. A. Fetter, The Masquerade of Monopoly

M. W. Watkins, Industrial Combinations and Public Policy

Lecture:
The Economies and Limitations of Large-Scale Methods

Seventh Week

*Rufener:

ch. 17. Public Utilities and Government Control
ch. 18. Railroads and Government Control
ch. 19. Demand Schedules for Labor

Slichter, ch. 18.

Eighth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 20. Differences in Wages
ch. 21. Labor Organization

*Rutledge:

ch. 20
ch. 21

Paul Douglas, Real Wages in the United States

Slichter, ch. 24. “The Labor Bargain—The Determination of Wages”

Fairchild, Furniss and Buck ch. 35. “The General Law of Wages.”

Rufener, ch. 22. “Labor Legislation”

Lectures:

Principles of Justice in Distribution
Wage Theories
The Malthusian Principle of Population

Ninth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 23. The Price of Loans.
ch. 24. Producers’ Loans and the Rate of Interest.

*Rutledge, ch. 23.

*R. Epstein, Supplementary Readings in Economics, ch. 18. “The Nature of Capital and Interest”

Lecture:
The Nature and Importance of Saving and Investment.

Tenth Week

Semester Examination

* * * * * * * * * *

SECOND SEMESTER

First Week

*Rufener:

ch. 25. The Qualities and Quantity of Money
ch. 27. Government Paper Money

*Rutledge:

ch. 25
ch. 27

*Rufener, ch. 28. Bank Deposits and Bank Notes

D. H. Robertson, Money

Rufener, ch. 26

Second Week

*Rufener:

ch. 29. Bank Credit and Business Cycles.
ch. 30. Government Regulation of Banking in the U.S.

*Rutledge, ch. 29.

Slichter, ch. 11, ch. 20 (pp. 471-491).

L. Robbins, The Great Depression.

H. Clay, J. Stamp, J. M. Keynes, The World’s Economic Crisis and the Way of Escape.

L. Ayres, The Economics of Recovery.

W. C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, ch. 1, sections 3, 4.

Lecture:
The Causes of the 1930-1935 Depression.

Third Week

*Rufener:

ch. 31. Risk, Insurance and Speculation.
ch. 32. Clearings, Collections, and Exchange.

*Rutledge, ch. 31.

Slichter, ch. 30. “International Economic Policies—Monetary and Financial Problems.”

H. G. Moulton:

Germany’s Capacity to Pay.
The World War Debt Settlements.

Rufener, ch. 33.

Fourth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 34. International Trade
ch. 35. Protection and Free Trade.

*F. W. Taussig, Free Trade, the Tariff, and Reciprocity, pp. 44-57 and chs. 3,4,7, and pp. 168-179.

S. Crowther, America Self-Contained.

W. Redfield, Dependent America.

J. M. Jones, Tariff Retaliation.

F. Bastiat, Economic Sophisms.

H. F. Fraser, Foreign Trade and World Politics.

Rutledge, ch. 35.

Fifth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 37. Theories of Taxation.
ch. 38. The Tax System of the United States.

Hour Examination

Sixth to Ninth Weeks

*Rufener:

ch.39. Problems of Agriculture.
ch.36. The Functions of Government
ch.40. Evils of the Price and Profit System, and Remedies Proposed.

*Rutledge ch. 40.

*Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 3-21.

Stuart Chase:

The Tragedy of Waste.
The Economy of Abundance.

T. N. Carver:

Essays in Social Justice, chs. 4-7, 9-16.
The Economy of Human Energy, chs. 2, 3, 6—9.

P. Sorokin, Social Mobility.

A. T. Hadley, Standards of Public Morality, chs. 1-3.

H. M. Robinson, Relativity in Business Morals.

See also the following references to current periodicals.

Lectures:

Economic Inequality
The Social Nature of Property
The Economy of Abundance
Planned Production
A Program of Economic Reorganization.

Tenth Week

Final Examination.

* * * * * * * * * *

PERIODICALS

The following publications are devoted partly or wholly to economic and business subjects.

Academy of Political Science, Proceedings

*American Economic Review

*American Labor Legislation Review

American Statistical Association Journal

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

*Annalist

*Business Week

Chase Economic Bulletin

*Commercial and Financial Chronicle

Commonweal

Congressional Digest

*Economic Forum

Economic Geography

*Economic Journal

Factory Management and Maintenance

Foreign Affairs

Fortune

Harvard Business Review

International Labor Review

*Journal of Political Economy

*Magazine of Wall Street

Monthly Labor Review

Nation (New York)

National City Bank of New York Bulletin

Nation’s Business

New Republic

Personnel Journal

*Political Science Quarterly

*Printer’s Ink

*Quarterly Journal of Economics

Review of Economic Statistics

Yale Review

*Current issues in the Economics Reading Room, Main Bldg., Room 37.

The following articles in issues of the past year are especially recommended:

First Semester

“The Coal Resources of China,” W. Belden, M. Salter, Economic Geography, July 1935.

“The Public Utility Issue,” L. Olds, The Yale Review, Summer, 1935.

“Economic Effects of Wages and Hour Provisions in Codes,” T. O. Yntema, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.

“The American Labor Movement Since the War,” D. J. Saposs, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1935.

“Economic and Political Radicalism,” M. C. Kruger, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(The effect of the depression on the economic and political policies of organized labor.)

“Workers’ Education in the United States,” A. S. Cheyney, International Labor Review, July, 1935.

“The Negro in Industry,” G.S.Mitchell, The American Scholar, Summer 1935.
(The problem of race prejudice in trade unions)

“Incidence upon the Negroes,” C.S. Johnson, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(Incidence of the burdens of the depression upon negroes)

“Compensation of Corporation Executives, 1928-1932 Record,” J.C.Baker and W. L. Crum, Harvard Business Review, Sumner 1935.

“Old Age Security,” E. E. Witte, National Municipal Review, July 1935.

“Paying for Economic and Social Security,” J. P. Harris, National Municipal Review, August 1935.

“Problems of Social Security Legislation in the United States,” several articles in the Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June 1935.

Second Semester

“The Royal Road to Inflation,” A. Wolff, Economic Forum, Spring 1935.
(Shows how continued federal budget deficits may lead to currency inflation.)

“Trade Treaty Need,” Cordell Hull, “American Trade Policy and World Recovery,” P. Molyneaux, International Conciliation, June 1935.

“Death Duties, Enterprise, and the Growth of National Capital,” B. M. Anderson, Chase Economic Bulletin, August 6, 1935.

“The Outlook for American Cotton,” J. D. Black, Review of Economic Statistics, March 1935.
(Is America losing her foreign cotton markets?)

“The New Deal and Economic Liberty,” A. A. Berle, and other articles on government control of business, Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, March 1935.

“A Planned Economy for Wall Street,” C. H. Meyer, The American Scholar Summer 1935.
(The economic consequences of the Securities Acts of 1933, 1934)

“Government Control of Investments and Speculation,” R. S. Tucker, American Economic Review, Supplement, March 1935.

“The Paths of Economic Change,” Calvin B. Hoover, American Economic Review, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.
(Fascism, Communism, and Capitalism compared.)

“The Corporate State and NRA,” G. Bottai, Foreign Affairs, July 1935.

“The Permanent New Deal,” W. Lippmann, The Yale Review, Summer 1935.
(A comparison of the policies of Herbert Hoover with those of Franklin D. Roosevelt.)

“Borrowing Machines,” H. A. Davis, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(Are the now “authorities” a blessing or menace?)

“Gyp Vendor & Co.,” G. B. Seybold, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(New York’s attempt to secure economy in municipal expenditures discloses numerous rackets and forms of graft.)

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of V. Orval Watts, Box 1, Folder “Misc. writings, etc. 1930s + 1940s”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1932.

Tags Watts

Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam for 19th century European Industry and Commerce. Gay, 1907-1908

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-11

Edwin F. Gay was promoted to the rank of professor in 1906 and served as the acting chairman of the Harvard economics department during Thomas Nixon Carver’s leave of absence. He then became the chair of the department in 1907. In the following year he was appointed the first dean of the newly established Graduate School of Business Administration which is likely the reason that European economic history was reduced to a single semester course.

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Earlier, related posts

A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from 1902-03.

A short bibliography for “serious students” of economic history assembled by Gay and published in 1910 has also been posted.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6a ¹hf. Professor Gay. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 90: 16 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 34 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 6a
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

What was the “Movement of Liberation” in the economic history of the nineteenth century? Do you consider this movement completed?
Gladstone wrote in 1846: “Mr. Cobden has throughout argued the corn question on the principle of holding up the landlords of England to the people as plunderers and knaves for maintaining the corn law to save their rents, and as fools because it was not necessary for that purpose.”
1. Do you regard this as a fair characterization of Cobden’s Anti-Corn Law agitation? Give reasons for your opinion.
2. What converted Peel to Free Trade?
[Tariffs]
1. What was the Cobden treaty and in what lay its chief importance?
2. Describe the protectionist reaction in France and state its causes.
[France and Germany]
1. Compare the railway policy of France with that of Germany, giving briefly history and results.
2. Make a similar comparison of the policies of France and Germany in regard to shipping subsidies.
3. May any conclusions of value for other countries be drawn from the experience of France and Germany? State the grounds for your view.
Comment on the following (from a speech by Mr. Chamberlain, 1903): “In thirty years the total imports of manufactures which could just as well be made in this country have increased £86,000,000, and the total exports have decreased £6,000,000. £92,000,000 of trade that we might have done here has gone to the foreigner, and what has been the result for our own people? The Board of Trade tells you that you may take one-half of the export as representing wages. We therefore have lost £46,000,000 a year in wages during the thirty years. That would give employment to nearly 600,000 men at 30s. per week of continuous employment. That would give a fair subsistence for these men and their families, amounting to 3,000,000 persons.”
What has been the attitude of European governments toward the so-called Trust Problem?

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

Image Source: “The Corn Laws Part 2–Real”at the website “British Food: A History”.

Tags Gay

Exam Questions Harvard Transportation

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for economics of transportation. Ripley and Daggett, 1907-1908

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-10

Judging from the final examination questions, it would appear that this “the economics of transportation” was dedicated to “railway economics”. But what’s in a name?

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Earlier exams etc. for Economics 5

1900-01 (Hugo Richard Meyer alone)
1901-02 (Ripley with Hugo Richard Meyer)
1903-04 (Ripley alone)
1904-05 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1905-06 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1906-07 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett and Walter Wallace McLaren)

___________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 5 ¹hf. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley and Dr. [Stuart] Daggett. — Economics of Transportation.

Total 126: 15 Graduates, 21 Seniors, 67 Juniors, 18 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 5
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

Define: Financial Reorganization; Floating Debt; Collateral Trust Bond; Debenture; Commodity Rate.
On two roads, the figures for certain operating statistics were:
3,855,000 ton miles per mile, and 428,000 ton miles per mile respectively. What is this called? What is its full financial significance?
In comparing the operating results of two roads, in what way, if any, may the balance sheets be used? How did you analyze them in your report?
What has been the course of developments concerning the attitude of the United States Supreme Court toward the legislative branches of the government in respect of rate regulation?
What states have attempted specific valuations of railway property: and what has been the leading motive in each case?
Name three peculiar features of German States railway practice, as contrasted with American conditions.
How far has actual railroad consolidation progressed in the Southern States, and why?
Discuss the proposition that railroad capitalization and the rates for service charged are entirely independent of one another.

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

Image Source: Built in 1907, the Union Pacific 618 at Heber Valley Historic Railroad. Photo by Evan Jennings, Oct, 2004. Wikimedia Commons.

Tags Daggett, Ripley

Economics Programs M.I.T.

M.I.T. Economics Department’s Chair exposition of his department’s philosophy and methods. Freeman, 1952

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-09

Paul Samuelson’s Economics triggered a conservative cancel-culture backlash unlike any economics textbook before or after. In the previous post we saw how William F. Buckley, Jr.’s attack on the use by Yale professors of Samuelson’s Keynesian textbook forced the chairman of the Yale economics department to defend the honor of his department before the Old Blues (alumni).

M.I.T., home of the heretic Paul Samuelson, proved to be ground zero of this anti-Keynes reaction. This story is well-known now thanks to Yann Girard. The artifact transcribed for this post is a short essay published by Ralph Freeman who was head of the M.I.T. economics department from 1933 to 1958. In it Freeman defended the honor of his department much as Lloyd Reynolds’ essay did for Yale economics.

Cf. “Negotiating the ‘Middle-of-the-Road’ Position: Paul Samuelson, MIT, and the Politics of Textbook Writing, 1945-55,” by Yann Girard in MIT and the Transformation of American Economics (Annual Supplement to Volume 46, History of Political Economy, ed. by E. Roy Weintraub). Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.

______________________________

President to Department Chair
“Incoming!”

November 6, 1951

Professor Ralph E. Freeman
Economics Department

Dear Ralph:

Thank you for the Atlantic Monthly with McGeorge Bundy’s article which I have. I wish that his defense could have a wider circulation than it received in the Atlantic.

The Buckley book concerns me mainly because of its attack on Samuelson’s text and because of the wide distribution the Buckley book is receiving it is going to stir up a lot more people.

I venture to send you some of the things that come to my desk simply by way of keeping, you informed of the steady bombardment on Paul Samuelson’s text. This bombardment has been increasing in intensity. Yesterday a member of the Corporation came to see me about it. He had not previously had contact with the book, but he had been approached by various business people who were bitterly critical of the book and who brought to him a publication issued down south which raked over the old Namm comments [Benjamin Namm, “Would You Enter a Door Marked ‘Socialism’?” in Collier’s Weekly (April 29, 1950), pp. 34-49] upon the book.

I have just received a copy of the Brooking Institution study, “A Survey of Economic Education” by McKee and Moulton. I am afraid that the comments made in this study on page 17 in regard to economics textbooks will still further stir people up despite the qualifications which the authors carefully include in their statement.

I hasten to reassure you that despite the mounting criticism I stand no less steadfastly behind Samuelson’s right to take the point of view that seems right and proper to him. I think our best defense against criticism is the one that I repeatedly make, and which I assume to be wholly true, and that is that in our own teaching of economics at the Institute we do not follow any line, that we seek to present a balanced point of view and to give the student the tools so that he can reach his own conclusions. I was interested in Bundy’s statement in his Atlantic article that in attacking Mr. Buckley’s book, he did not wish to maintain that Yale was perfect and that “it is possible that Yale…..would benefit from the appointment of a strongly right-wing economist.

I am sure that so long as we can show that our own teaching of economics is not distorted in any direction and that we are not subtly indoctrinating students with any biased point of view, that we have an unimpregnable and sound position.

Yours cordially,
J. R. Killian, Jr.

JRK: mh

* * * * * * * * * *

Department Chair to President
“We’re cool kids, really”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of
Economics and Social Sciences

Cambridge, Mass.
November 19, 1951

President James R. Killian
Room 3-208

Dear Jim:

As I indicated to you in a recent conversation, a group of the Department staff is preparing a new book of readings to supplement the textbook which we use in Economic Principles (14.01 and 14.02). I have been delaying writing you about this until final decision has been made as to the contents of this new book. However, a tentative table of contents is now available and I enclose it herewith.

As you will observe, the projected book of readings aims to present a variety of points of view ranging from radical to conservative, from Marx and Engels to Pope Leo XIII. There are also readings from classical economists such as Adam Smith, Ricardo and Bastiat. Articles criticizing recent government policies are included as well as various opinions on the economics of the defense program. The use of this book will enable us to do on a large scale what we are already doing with a limited number of collateral readings.

I should like to emphasize once more that the members of the Department as a group range around the center in their economic thinking. There are no extreme radicals or extreme conservatives among us. We try to take a view toward economic problems which is balanced and objective, and in class we try to present both sides of the controversial problems that come up for discussion.

From some of the attacks aimed at Samuelson’s book, I get the impression that economists are to be condemned if they do not unequivocally approve of everything now being done in the name of private enterprise. This attitude, of course, is absurd. If the economic system is to be kept in working order it must be subjected to a critical analysis. In fact it is the job of the economist to do just this.

Some of the more extreme conservatives who are today attacking the teaching of economics are inclined to adopt an ostrich-like attitude. After all we do live in a mixed economy — one that is partly private enterprise and partly government control. This is a fact. Should this fact be hidden from students? The answer is clear. But some of our critics talk as though any discussion of what they regard as undesirable trends should be eliminated or reduced to a minimum.

I can assure you that no member of this Department is trying to undermine the system of freedom. In fact, it is quite the reverse. We are all trying to understand it with a view to making it work better and last longer. Though there is disagreement amongst us on particular issues, we are in agreement on that basic issue.

I am not sure there is much more that I can say. We would be glad to meet any of our critics face to face in a friendly discussion of any points on which they think we are in error. We do not claim to have all the answers. Our analysis might well be improved as the result of more exchange of ideas with intelligent business men.

Yours sincerely,
[signed] Ralph
Ralph E. Freeman

REF:rw

[in pencil]

Copies of this letter sent to:

Mr Gray [Daniel M. Gray?] of Stoner Mudge [Stoner-Mudge Co., Inc. of Pittsburgh]
Bradley Dewey [Life Member of MIT Corporation, 1932-74]
Dr. Warner, Pres. Carnegie Tech [John Christian Warner (1897-1989), President 1950-65]
Donald Carpenter [Life Member of MIT Corporation, 1943-95]
John Hancock [Member of MIT Corporation, 1949-55]
Walter Beadle [Life Member of MIT Corporation, 1943-88]

* * * * * * * * * *

President to Department Chair
“Be like Yale.”

November 28, 1951

Professor Ralph E. Freeman
Economics Department

Dear Ralph:

Professor Shultz sent me a copy of an article by Lloyd G. Reynolds entitled “The State of Economics at Yale.” This article seemed to me to be a first-rate exposition of the philosophy and methods of the department at Yale. The material is set forth not in a defensive manner at all, and to me was fairly convincing.

This is the kind of statement that I have been hoping that someone might prepare on our own department program here. I think it would be of great help to the Visiting Committee and to the department and the administration in supporting the interests of the department.

I have returned the Reynolds article to Professor Shultz. If you haven’t seen it, you may be interested in borrowing it from him.

Yours cordially,

J. R. Killian, Jr.

JRK: mh

* * * * * * * * * *

Department Chairman to President
“You asked for it.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of
Economics and Social Sciences

January 17, 1952

Dr. James R. Killian
Room 3-208
M.I.T.

Dear Jim:

I have had sent to you a little article entitled

“Economies at M.I.T.” You may recall that you suggested I try my hand at an article of this sort.

I hope it will be of some help in dealing with correspondence regarding the operations of the Department. Several others of the staff have read and expressed general approval of the contents. It has been suggested that it might be submitted to The Technology Review which might be willing to supply us with some reprints.

I welcome any criticisms or suggestions for additions or omissions.

Yours sincerely,
[signed:] Ralph
Ralph E. Freeman

REF: TW
cc: Dean Burchard

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Office of the President, Records, 1930-1959, Box 93, Folder “8. Freeman, R.E., 1945-54”

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Note: the following is a transcription of the printed article found in the archive with Freeman’s letter. The typed draft sent to M.I.T. President Killian is identical, only minor editorial changes were made for publication.

Economics at M.I.T.
[1952]

The Economics Staff, with Diverse Backgrounds and Views, Aims to Impart a Technique of Logic for Solving Economic Problems in a Complex Society

By Ralph E. Freeman

One of the most difficult problems confronting the professional teacher of economics is the competition he meets from other and more effective teaching agencies. The writer refers to the educational impact of the home, the press, and the radio, as well as the propaganda coming from special-interest groups of one kind or another. These agencies have a competitive advantage. The teacher may be in contact with his class for only two or three hours a week for a part of a year, while his nonacademic competitors have been working on these students since their early childhood.

This disadvantage may seem to raise the question as to whether the economist can really teach the subject at all. Doubts on this score are further increased by the unsettled condition of the world during the last decade — a state of affairs that has created many uncertainties for the individual. A student worried about his future can hardly be blamed for indifference toward a subject which often seems dull and remote from his immediate interests. Another disadvantage is the youth and inexperience of the average college student. Favorable experience with the veterans who came to the Institute after World War II indicates that maturity is a great advantage in the study of economics. All these difficulties in the way of the teacher tend to make him humble when appraising the impression he leaves on the minds of the younger generation.

These obstacles, however, are also a challenge to the economist to improve his teaching techniques. The Economics staff at the Institute has been continually experimenting with new materials and methods and, though it is not fully satisfied with the results, progress has been achieved. We have tried to keep up with the increasing mass of quantitative data becoming available and to keep abreast of improvements in analytical techniques and of shifts in emphasis resulting from changing economic conditions.

An interesting example of such a shift is to be found in the treatment of unemployment and price levels. Prior to the 1930’s, these problems were of secondary interest to most economists. A great deal of what they wrote and taught was based on the assumption of full employment and relatively stable prices. The attention of economists was directed mainly to the way in which productive agencies were allocated among various industries and enterprises. The leading problem was to discover that distribution of human and material resources which would best promote the material well being of the people.

In recent years the economist’s inquiry has focused on economic fluctuations. Unemployment of resources has thus become a major problem for investigation along with a study of changes in the level of prices. Because ups and downs in employment and periods of inflation and deflation are associated with changes in income available to purchase goods and services, the spotlight has been turned on income analysis. The study of national income has been stimulated by the publication of improved statistics emanating chiefly from the Federal Government and by the development of new and better techniques of analysis.

These statements are not meant to imply that the traditional subjects have been abandoned. The economist is still trying to explain what the economic system is and how it operates. He is still concerned with the role of prices and profits in organizing economic activity and with the functions of money and markets in assigning labor and capital to their more productive uses. What has happened is a reorientation of these traditional inquiries around the problems of income, employment, and price levels. This new approach seems to have brought the study of economics nearer to the daily lives of people and closer to the problems with which businessmen are most vitally concerned.

The fact that the beginner in economics is normally young and inexperienced makes it necessary for the teacher to spend a good deal of time describing the facts of economic life. National income, for example, only becomes meaningful as it is broken down into components and expressed in quantitative terms. It is usually desirable, therefore, to start with a discussion of the income of individuals, corporations, and governments. How is the total income of the nation divided among families and groups? How are corporations organized? How do they compute their earnings? What is the role of government and what changes are taking place in the relation of the government to the individual and to business? These are among the questions with which the student of economics is confronted in the early stages of his study. In addition, in most of the subjects offered, time is devoted to describing various institutions such as banks, labor unions, and farmers’ organizations which help determine the nature and direction of economic activity.

The main objective of economic education, however, is not to fill the minds of students with facts and statistics, but to impart to them a technique of thinking by means of which they can analyze and solve economic problems for themselves. General principles must be developed that are applicable to a broad range of situations. Among these principles are those that can be applied in understanding changes in the price of goods, changes in wages, interest, and profits, in the general price level and in the national income.

The economist is concerned, for example, not so much with what the price of wheat is or has been, as he is with the forces that interact to determine the price of wheat or any other commodity. Though he may study past changes in national income, he is primarily interested in the reason why the national income shifts from one level to another. In other words, he tries to develop an integrated theoretical framework which can be used in the analysis of economic problems.

At M.I.T., the economist is regarded as a teacher, not a preacher. His function is not to radiate his own political views nor to propagandize for his own particular social philosophy. His job is to encourage students to form their own opinions. He is not too concerned with what these opinions are. His main job is to ensure that the opinions, whatever they may be, are reached through a logical process of thought, rather than as a result of prejudice or hearsay.

The Economics staff of about 30 full-time members has been recruited with this objective in view. When a new man is taken on, we ask two main questions. Is he equipped by training, experience, and intelligence to carry on creative, scholarly work in his chosen field? Is his personality such as to hold out the promise that he will be a competent teacher and a congenial and co-operative colleague? As the result of this method of selection, the group we now have includes no freaks or extremists. Though there is a broad diversity of view on many of the controversial issues of our times, all of the members of the Department share a desire to preserve and improve the free institutions of America. These men rank high in the profession and compare very favorably with economists in other leading institutions.

Some people may find it hard to accept the idea that divergence of opinion should be regarded as a healthy condition. Why, it may be asked, should I tolerate a colleague who disagrees with me on government controls, the merits of labor unions, taxation, monetary policy and other questions? My answer would be that differences of opinion give rise to a lively interchange of ideas which is an important element in the educational process. Progress in economics, or in any other scientific discipline, would be stifled if an effort were made to enforce conformance to a single pattern of thought.

No matter how firmly we may believe that a given policy is the correct one, there is always a good chance that the man with a different opinion may have something meritorious to propose on his side. A story is told of Al [Alfred E.] Smith who was traveling in upper New York State with two companions, a Protestant and a Catholic. It was early on a bitterly cold Sunday morning when the two Catholics arose to attend mass. Looking at the Protestant sleeping peacefully in his warm bed, Al Smith said to his friend: “Wouldn’t it be awful if he were right and we were wrong!”

The chance that the other fellow may be right, or partly right, makes it inadvisable to strive for unanimity of thought and opinion. Tolerance of diversity is necessary for the preservation of the spirit of free inquiry which is the breath of life of an institution devoted to education and research. Such tolerance is one of the main features distinguishing a democratic from a totalitarian society.

As indicated above, this concept is applied in the Institute’s educational practices. In all courses, whether they are offered to undergraduates or graduates, the Department of Economics and Social Science tries to present contrasting views and opinions. In the beginning course in Economic Principles, which has been required of all students at the Institute, this procedure is subjected to severe time limitation. But even here this practice is followed. For several years we have been using supplementary readings presenting divers points of view and a new collection of such readings to accompany the textbook has just been prepared — a compilation that includes extracts from economic writings of all sorts, ranging from Karl Marx to the National Association of Manufacturers.

Besides this course in Economic Principles, there are many others, both on the undergraduate and the graduate level. These include several in the fields of labor relations, statistics, finance, theory, and international economics. There are courses in business cycles, technological innovation, and in the economics of particular industries. The Department also offers courses in psychology and international relations. As the name implies, the Department of Economics and Social Science is one that covers a wide field. It is a part of the School of Humanities and Social Studies and has close ties with the activities of historians and others who come under the same administrative direction. The bringing together of a number of different social studies exerts a broadening influence on both staff and students. It tends to make us look at human beings as members of an ever-changing, complex society subject to many influences in addition to those of an economic nature.

Virtually every student at the Institute takes economics at some point in his program. In addition to those subjects included in the Humanities Program, designed for the Institute as a whole, other subjects are tailored to fit the needs of professional courses such as those offered by the Department of Business and Engineering Administration. The Department also offers a four-year curriculum for undergraduates — Course XIV — leading to a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Engineering. Through emphasis on relationships among engineering, economics, and human relations problems, this Course aims to provide students with an understanding of both technical and non-technical aspects of our industrial society.

There is also a graduate division. There are about 50 students in this group, most of whom are candidates for the Ph.D. degree. Many of these men have come to M.I.T. from liberal arts colleges. They go into government, business, labor unions, and teaching as professional economists.

Because the training of the professional economist, normally requiring about seven years, is spent mainly in the classroom and the library, his knowledge of actual business practices is more limited than if he were actively employed in industry. This limitation of experience is a handicap of which the men on the Department’s staff are acutely conscious. We do not have as much direct contact, as might be desired, with what goes on in the factories, banks, railroads, public utilities, and other business enterprises whose activities we study.

Efforts are being made to bridge the gap between economic theory and business practice. Graduate students are encouraged to find summer employment in industry. Some of the staff members have had temporary jobs in business or government. Others have had an opportunity to get into close touch with industry through research projects. In recent years they have undertaken investigations in textiles, shoes, coal, housing, electronics equipment, and a variety of other industries. Several of our instructors act as consultants to business firms and have had ample opportunity to rub shoulders with businessmen and get a better idea of their operations and problems.

The Department also brings in businessmen to meet with classes and join in round-table discussions. The system of Visiting Committees is also helpful in getting the staff into touch with leaders in industry, finance, and the professions. But more of these contacts are needed. If we are to keep our feet on the ground, we must have the counsel and criticism of men of practical affairs.

The development of the new School of Industrial Management should be of material assistance in strengthening our contacts with leaders in the business world. Though the Department of Economics and Social Science will not be administratively a part of this School, it will be housed in the same building and will co-operate in carrying out its educational and research program. E. P. Brooks, ’17, Dean of the School, who is now in charge, is consulting with business leaders and hopes to enlist their aid not only in planning the project but also in executing the plans. The Department of Economics and Social Science should benefit, at least indirectly, from these extensive outside relationships.

We are grateful to the Alumni and other friends of the Institute who have taken an interest in our work. The Department is indebted to the companies which have supported our Industrial Relations Section, and have helped finance graduate fellowships and research activities; it hopes for a continuation of this interest and support. Such support will be needed if the Department is to maintain its position and to improve and expand its operations.

The number of students being graduated from Course XIV is now relatively small. and the demand for their services is high; but in the future we hope to increase the enrollment, and employment conditions are not likely to continue as favorable as they are today. This Course is new and therefore not yet widely known. Because it combines basic education in engineering and science, as well as in economics, and other social studies, its graduates have a broad background that should make them useful in a wide variety of jobs.

This spring the Department of Economics and Social Science expects to move into the recently acquired Sloan Building along with the School of Industrial Management. Readers of this article are invited to come and visit us in our new quarters. We will show you our Industrial Relations Library and our Psychological Laboratory. We will tell you about the Scanlon Plan that is making a valuable contribution to the betterment of employer-employee relations. We will describe research projects under way and point with pride to a growing list of publications by members of the Department. We would like to discuss with you the plans we have for future development in psychology and political science. The reader may be interested in meeting some of the staff or in talking to groups of students and if he can bear it, we will also tell him about some of our trials and tribulations. And perhaps he may have something on his mind he would like to tell us. If so, we will gladly listen. Our new address will be 50 Memorial Drive.

Source: The Technology Review (April 1952), pp. 304-6, 320.

Image Source: This portrait of Ralph Freeman can be found in the 1950 yearbook. The copy used here comes from the MIT Museum website where it no date has been provided. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags FreemanRE, Samuelson, ShultzG

Economics Programs Undergraduate Yale

Yale. The State of Economics at Yale. Reynolds, 1951

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-08

The chairman of Yale’s economics department in 1951, Lloyd G. Reynolds, found his department in the crosshairs of alumni enraged by the charge of collectivist indoctrination leveled by young William F. Buckley, Jr. (Yale ’1950) in his book that was a call-to-action for religious and individualist alumni of Yale to voice their opposition to the influence of atheism and collectivism on campus. Paul Samuelson’s textbook Economics was offered as Exhibit No. 1 of the collectivist rot found in the Yale economics department. Buckley’s bottom-line was explicit though not specific.

Image Source: PBS, American Masters. S38 EP3: The incomparable Mr. Buckley.

“I shall not say, then, what specific professors should be discharged, but I will say some ought to be discharged. I shall not indicate what I consider to be the dividing line that separates the collectivist from the individualist, but I will say that such a dividing line ought, thoughtfully and flexibly, to be drawn. I will not suggest the manner in which the alumni ought to be consulted and polled on this issue, but I will say that they ought to be, and soon, and that the whole structure of Yale’s relationship to her alumni, as has been previously indicated, ought to be reexamined.
Far wiser and more experienced men can train their minds to such problems. I should be satisfied if they feel impelled to do so, and I should be confident that the job would be well done.”

Source: God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of “Academic Freedom”. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1951 (pp. 197-8).

And so, in the interest of damage control, Reynolds found himself out on the stump speaking to alumni and other potential donors. This post gives us Reynold’s response to youthful calumny from the future darling of the extreme conservative fringe in the U.S.

____________________

An earlier post on Yale economics

1999 musings about Economics at Yale by a few Yale economics professors.

____________________

In Memoriam: Lloyd Reynolds
[2005]

Shaped fields of labor relations and economics

Lloyd G. Reynolds, a scholar who shaped the fields of labor and economic development and transformed Yale’s Department of Economics, died April 9 at his home in Washington, D.C., after a series of strokes.

He was 94 years old.

Born and raised on a frontier settlement in the Canadian province of Alberta, Reynolds earned a B.A. at the University of Alberta, an M.A. at McGill University and a Ph.D. at Harvard University. He held an instructorship at the latter institution before becoming a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

During World War II, as federal spending increased at a furious pace, Reynolds took leave from Johns Hopkins to serve in 1942-1943 as chief economist of the War Manpower Commission, and in 1943-1945 as a public member of the Appeals Committee for the National Labor Relations Board. At these institutions, he successfully labored to prevent wartime budget deficits from turning into price and wage inflation.

During and after the war, Reynolds served widely in governmental and private agencies as labor mediator, consultant, officer and committee member, lending his analytic, organizational and administrative skills to the Bureau of the Budget, the Agency for International Development, the Industrial Relations Research Association, the Ford Foundation, the National Bureau of Economic Research and the American Economic Association.

In 1945, Reynolds joined the Yale faculty, where he remained for 35 years until his retirement in 1980. In 1951, he became chair of Yale’s Department of Economics. In the next eight years, he increased the number of faculty in economics from 31 to 65, including such notable scholars as William Fellner, Tjalling Koopmans, John Montias, Hugh Patrick, Gustav Ranis, James R. Tobin, Robert Triffin and Henry Wallich. Two later won Nobel Prizes. A third Nobel Laureate, Simon Kuznets, was soon wooed back to Harvard.

In later years, Yale President Kingman Brewster liked to tell the story of meeting Reynolds on Martha’s Vineyard. Brewster remembered asking Reynolds, “Would you take me out behind the barn some day and tell me how it is you turned one of the worst departments in the country into one of the best?”

“I don’t have to take you out behind the barn,” replied Reynolds. “It’s very simple — just be willing to hire people who are brighter than you are.”

Early in his term as chair, Reynolds confronted the firestorm caused by the publication of “God and Man at Yale,” in which William Buckley criticized “the hot collectivist turn taken by the [economics] faculty after the war” and argued that such faculty should be fired. “Whit Griswold [Brewster’s predecessor as Yale president] sent me out on the road,” he liked to recall, “with the football coach, to talk to the alumni. Usually the coach spoke first, and after that … the alumni didn’t much want to hear about the economics department.”

Twice during the 1950s, Reynolds took brief leaves from Yale to direct the Ford Foundation’s new program of support for developing countries. At the end of that decade, he convinced Ford to donate $15 million to establish the Yale Economic Growth Center, where he served as founding director until 1967. The center annually brings together about 30 faculty and visiting economists studying the growth process.

When Reynolds retired from Yale, the Graduate School minutes recorded a tribute which reads in part: “[I]n the early 1950s, he was able to convert a spirited defense of the department against right wing critics into an occasion for the substantial infusion of outside resources. It was his great capacity to recognize talent in others which helped attract a first-rate faculty, including the move of the Cowles Commission to Yale.”

In 1949, Reynolds published “Labor Economics and Labor Relations” (Prentice Hall). Now in its 11th edition, this textbook is widely credited with creating the field of labor economics. Over the course of a half century, Reynolds published 10 scholarly books and dozens of articles in the fields of labor economics, economic development and comparative economic systems. He published five introductory economics texts, trying his ideas out first on Yale’s undergraduates. Reynolds was an institution at Yale graduations, where for more than 30 years, as senior fellow of the college, he carried the Berkeley mace as he led the seniors into the Old Campus.

Reynolds had a lifelong fascination with mountaineering, a passion that took him to the summit of Mt. Blanc at age 23, and to the top of Kilimanjaro at age 41. In his 50s, on three Nepal treks with his wife, he reached the Mt. Everest Base Camp and the Annapurna glacier.

Reynolds was married for 63 years to Mary Trackett Reynolds, who died August 28, 2000. He is survived by three children, Anne Skinner of Williamstown, Massachusetts, Priscilla Roosevelt of Washington, D.C., and Bruce Reynolds of Charlottesville, Virgina; as well as seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. He was a member of the Century Club of New York, the Cosmos Club in Washington and the West Bend (Wisconsin) Country Club.

A memorial service in Reynolds’ honor will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, in Battell Chapel, corner of Elm and College streets.

Source: Yale Bulletin & Calendar, Vol.33, No. 27 (April 22, 2005). Links added by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

____________________

The State of Economics at Yale
[1951]

By Lloyd G. Reynolds,
Chairman of the Department of Economics.

The following paper was delivered by Mr. Reynolds at the meeting of the Alumni Board on October 20th. During the meeting the Board passed a unanimous resolution that it should be published in the November issue of Y.A.M.

AMERICAN economists in 1951 are doing about the same things they have been trying to do for the past hundred and fifty years. First, we aim to present a clear picture of what the economic system looks like and how it operates. How many business concerns, big and little, are there in the United States? How are they organized and managed? How much money do they take in and pay out, and for what purposes? How many people work for a living in the United States? What work do they do and how much are they paid for doing it? A great deal of economics is concerned simply with providing an accurate description of our economic institutions and how they have changed over the course of time.

Economic Analysis

BUT economists are not content to operate only at the level of description. We are interested always in the question of why things happen as they do in the economy. Why does one kind of work pay 80 cents an hour and another $1.50? Why does wheat sell for $2.50 a bushel and cotton for 33 cents a pound? Why has the retail price level risen by 10 per cent since June 1950? In order to answer this sort of question one needs not only a knowledge of facts but methods of arranging and thinking about the facts — in short, what we call economic theory or economic analysis. Theory is not just day — dreaming or idle opinion. It plays much the same role in economics as in physical science. It is a way of organizing and focussing facts to explain and predict economic events.

Economics aims to be, and is steadily becoming, a factual, quantitative science. It aims to get behind mere opinion to a solid basis of truth. The tests of an economist are these: is he thoroughly grounded in the facts and the history of our economic system? Has he mastered the methods of analysis which economists have gradually been developing over the past century and more? Can he use these methods with skill and good judgment to explain and predict actual developments in the economy? If he cannot pass these tests, it does him no good to come around claiming that he is a warmhearted fellow who wants to improve the lot of the workingman, or that he is a sound conservative and a hundred per cent American. If he cannot pass the tests, we would not trust his judgment, we would not give him an advanced degree in economics, we would not employ him for the Yale faculty.

I want to make it clear that economics and politics are quite different things. The study of economics can of course be applied to political issues — it would not be of much use otherwise. Our courses involve discussion of taxation systems, tariffs, the federal budget, labor laws, social security, foreign economic aid, agricultural price supports, and a host of other issues. But the job of an economist with respect to these issues is not to say what policies should be followed. His task is to discover and point out the consequences of different possible policies. Ideally, economics should be able to say what will happen if the tariff on pottery is reduced by ten per cent or the federal minimum wage is raised ten cents an hour. Whether the public, or our students, like and approve what will happen is up to them. Economics is not politics, and it is not up to us to sway people in one political direction rather than another.

Ground Rules

ECONOMISTS are also human being of course, and I see nothing wrong with an economist occasionally expressing his personal opinion on a political issue. But he should be careful to point out when he is stepping out of his shoes as a scientist and speaking as a plain citizen. He should also be mindful of contrary opinions, and should not strive just to convert his hearers to his own point view. I believe that these ground rules are well observed in the teaching of economics at Yale. I don’t think there is much political preaching in our courses and if there is some it is certainly not all on the same side. The department includes everything from Roosevelt Democrats to Hoover Republicans, and our students have ample opportunity for exposure to different points of view.

This brings me to my main point — the state of the Yale Department of Economics and its prospects for the future. I note first a substantial strengthening of our senior staff since the end of the war. In the first year after the war, we had nine teaching members of the department in the rank of assistant professor and above. Today we have sixteen men in the professorial ranks. The newcomers to the department have been most carefully chosen from among dozens of a candidates whom we have considered in the last five years. They are men of whom Yale can well be proud, not only scholars but as individuals. They are highly regarded by their colleagues in New Haven and by their fellow-economists throughout the United States — so much so that we are constantly fending off raids from other institutions which want to hire them away from us.

Our two most recent appointments are Professor Henry Wallich, who comes to us from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he has been chief of research and has also acted as consultant to several of the Latin American countries in the revision of their banking systems; and Professor Robert Triffin, who has had a distinguished career with the Federal Reserve Board, the International Monetary Fund, and as American representative on the governing board of the European Payments Union. These men, both excellent economists with a wealth of practical background, have at one stroke put us ahead of any university in the country in the area of international finance and international trade.

Research and Teaching

NOW a word about the job which we are trying to do here. As scholars, we are all concerned with trying to push back the frontiers of knowledge in our chosen field. During the last two years alone, members of the department have published ten books on subjects as diverse as the pricing of military supplies, the effect of federal taxation on executive compensation and retirement systems, the history and structure of the American cigarette industry, and the human relations problems of a large public utility company. We have other studies currently in process, some of which I will mention in a moment. I do not think that any department of economics in the country excels the Yale department in terms of the quality and significance of its research work.

Our main responsibility in the University, however, is for teaching. How are we doing on this front? Judging from the comments of the students who come though my office, and from other reliable sources of student opinion, I would say that about half of our undergraduate courses are excellently taught. The other half are good solid courses but not outstanding, and we may even have one or two which are a bit on the dull side. The department has currently under way a thorough study of our course offering and degree requirements in the College, and we are of course seeking continuously to strengthen the teaching staff in areas of weakness. We expect that these efforts will bear fruit in a steady increase in the quality of our teaching work.

Our most difficult teaching problem has been the course in elementary economics, Economics 10. It is enormously difficult to cover all aspects of the economic system in a year’s time and to arrange the material in the best possible way. No one textbook or combination of textbooks is ever fully satisfactory. I can assure you that the Department has given much prayerful thought to this matter over the past five years. We have changed both the structure of the course and the reading assignments almost every year. The course is still not ideal — it never will be — but it is a good deal better than the course we were giving four or five years ago.

An even more serious problem in this course has been to find enough fully qualified instructors. We were faced just after the war with the largest enrollment in the history of the University. In the peak year we had almost fifty divisions of Economics 10, requiring a staff of 20 to 25 instructors. There are just not that many good economists, even at Yale. We were forced to take on a considerable number of partially-trained men from the graduate school as teaching assistants, often on very short notice. Some of these men turned in an excellent teaching job but we also drew a few lemons who had to be dropped after a short time.

This phase is now happily behind us. Enrollments have declined to a more normal level, and we are much better staffed to handle them. Of the nine men teaching in Economics 10 this year, only one is without previous teaching experience; and this man is a mature individual who in fact owned and operated a profitable business for several years before coming here for graduate study.

The central purpose of our teaching work is to give students an understanding of the history and present operation of American economic institutions, and to train them to think systematically about the economic issues of the day. We hope to develop habits of reflection and careful analysis which will stand our students in good stead as they emerge to take their place as citizens and as leaders of public opinion.

We are not trying to sell the American economic system to our students as one might sell a package of breakfast food. We believe that such an approach is both futile and unnecessary. We have found from experience that, if our economic institutions are carefully explained and thoroughly understood, the great majority of students will support them of their own accord. They will support them, not in a spirit of blind adherence to a fixed creed, but with an understanding of why they prefer our system to any sort of totalitarian regime. They will seek to perpetuate American institutions, not by freezing them into a fixed mold, but by striving constantly to improve them over the years to come. This outlook, which I would term intelligent conservatism, is characteristic of most of our faculty members and most of our student body.

How do our students come out from this sort of training? If you could read the departmental examinations which our economics majors write at the end of the senior year, I believe you would find that most of them show a good grounding in economic facts and economic analysis. They also show a healthy diversity of political viewpoint. We do not and should not turn out students whose minds are tailored to a particular pattern. If a student is intellectually honest, accurate in his use of facts, willing to state his basic premises, capable of reasoning logically from those premises — then I respect him. Let him come out where he will, politically speaking. I believe this is good American doctrine and sound educational policy.

I realize that some people hold a contrary point of view. They believe that the function of an economics department should be to propagandize students for a particular political and economic creed, that only professors willing to swear allegiance to this creed should be allowed to teach, and that students should be carefully protected against contrary opinions. This totalitarian outlook, though it has had much success in Europe, seems to me completely at variance with American traditions. The members of the economics department at Yale would, I am sure, be unalterably opposed to the establishment of any official party line on economic questions. I do not see how a free university in a democratic country can take any other view.

Now before closing I want to admit in all humility that there are many things wrong with our understanding of economics and our teaching of it. A great deal of the economics currently taught in universities is undoubtedly unrealistic, ivory-tower, out of touch with the facts of economic life. Too many of the books which we read and teach were written strictly in the library. Too many of our teachers of economics have had no contact with practical affairs.

I want to assure you that this ignorance of the real world is not deliberate on the part of the professors. It comes about mainly because of the way in which young economists are trained and employed. On finishing college, a prospective economist is usually advised to go directly into graduate school to work toward the hallowed Ph.D. without which his future career is hopeless. If he is a really good student he may receive a fellowship to support him in his studies. This phase lasts at least three or four years, during which time he spends his life mainly in the classroom and the library. As he hears the end of his graduate training, he begins to cast about for a job and, if he is capable and lucky, he lands an instructorship somewhere. But he is now being paid to educate students, and only incidentally to educate himself. He is not especially encouraged to wander outside the academic walls. If he does so on his own initiative and tries to learn something about business operations, he may quite possibly be rebuffed by executives who are busy with their own affairs or worried at the idea of stray professors wandering around the plant.

I am very conscious, and I believe any economist who has had much contact with industry is conscious, of how much economists have to learn about the facts of life and how wide a gap still exists between economic theories and business practice. I have given much thought to the question of how young teachers in their formative years can gain more experience of practical affairs, and have a few ideas on the subject. The difficulty, is that all of my ideas would cost money and money is not the most plentiful thing on the University scene.

We are not taking a defeatist view of this problem. We have already made some beginnings toward building bridges between industry and the University community. Professor Healy’s work in transportation has brought him into close contact with the largest railroad systems in the country. Professor Bakke’s studies of human relations in industry have included a thorough analysis of the management structure of a large New England Company, and he is going on from this to similar studies in other companies. I am currently working, along with my colleague Professor Miller, on a study of top management organization and policy which will involve discussions with the top officers of a dozen or so companies. Professor Westerfield, who has been in charge of our teaching of money and banking for many years, is president of a highly successful savings and loan association. Professor Wallich, I am sure, will not neglect his banking contacts in New York because of his move to New Haven.

We believe in this sort of thing and hope to develop it increasingly in the future. We consider that the factories, stores and offices of the country are the laboratories in which a real science of economics can be developed. There are difficulties, of course, in using these laboratories without upsetting normal business operations, but we are confident that these difficulties can be overcome. We believe that in this way the practical experience of men of affairs can be gradually translated into economics textbooks and economics teaching. If some of you can take a little time from your businesses to educate us, we shall stand a better chance of educating our students. Until both you and we have done more in this direction, economics will continue to be too largely an ivory tower subject.

I have tried to give a realistic picture of our present situation, not simply a rosy one. We are certainly doing a better job than we were doing five years ago, and five years ahead we expect to be doing still better. But we are not complacent about our progress. We realize that we have still a long way to go and will never do the job perfectly. We welcome advice and suggestions on what we are doing. We hope for sympathetic interest and support.

Source: Yale Alumni Magazine (November 1951), pp. 18-20. A copy of this article was provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror directly by the Yale Alumni Magazine. On behalf of the history of economics community I thank the executive editor, Mr. Mark Branch for his help.

Image Source: 1954 Fellow, Lloyd G. Reynolds. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Tags Bakke, Healy, Reynolds, Samuelson, Triffin, Wallich, Westerfield

Economics Programs M.I.T.

M.I.T. Graduate Program in Economics Brochure, 1974-1975

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-06

It was fifty years ago this September that I entered the graduate program in economics at M.I.T. This is why the brochure outlining the graduate program as of the academic year 1974-75 is something I am particularly delighted to add as the newest digitized artifact to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

In other news, I just realized that I am now older than everyone seen on the faculty portrait taken in 1976.

_______________________

Most of the faculty members of the MIT department of economics on the steps of the Sloan Building (E52) in 1976.

Names of the assembled have been provided in an earlier post.

_______________________

MIT’s 1961 graduate economics brochure has been transcribed and posted earlier.

_______________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Graduate Program in Economics
1974 – 1975

General Information
The Ph.D. Program in Detail

Schematic Schedule of Typical Entering Student

1. Dissertation
Graduate Subjects in Economics
The Faculty in Economics

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Graduate Program in Economics
1974–75

1. General Information
  [Table of Contents]

Graduate study in economics began at M.I.T. in 1941 and has since developed to its present size of some 110 full-time students and 33 faculty members. Its major emphasis is on the training of doctoral candidates in a broad program of advanced study and research for professional careers in universities or colleges, in governmental and private research organizations, or in business or financial concerns. At the present time the demands on a professional economist are such that the depth and breadth of the doctoral program have become indispensable training for a successful career. The Department, therefore, ordinarily admits to full-time graduate study only candidates for the Ph.D. In order to maintain a close and continuing contact between students and faculty, the entering class is normally held to 30.

1. Program of Studies
  [Table of Contents]
  1. Ph.D. in Economics
    [Table of Contents]

The doctorate normally requires the full-time concentration of the student for three or four years. Formal requirements are limited in number. The candidate must (1) demonstrate a mastery in five fields of study in economics, one of which is economic theory, both micro and macro; (2) achieve a specified level of competence in economic history, econometrics, and statistics; (3) submit and defend a dissertation that represents a contribution to knowledge; and (4) be in residence for a minimum of two years.

These requirements are met not merely by passing some appropriate set of subjects, but through an over-all preparation of subject matter and techniques that goes beyond course work. Candidates may differ in their rate of progress toward the satisfaction of these requirements, depending on their background, preparation, and interests. Normally, however, the satisfaction of requirements, other than the dissertation, is completed by the end of the second year.

The dissertation is a test of the candidate’s ability to conduct independent research — to formulate a significant topic and to bring to bear on it the analytic and quantitative tools of economics. The dissertation is prepared under the direction of departmental committee. Upon submission of the completed thesis, the candidate is examined orally by the thesis committee.

The Department has no general foreign language requirements. When a foreign language is essential for full access to the literature in the field of the student’s major interest (for example, European Economic History, Communist Economies) or to his thesis research, a language requirement will be imposed by the Department upon the recommendation of the Thesis Supervisor or the Graduate Registration Officer. Such a requirement will be administered by the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics, and can be met by satisfactory course work at other schools, at M.I.T., or by examination.

1. 1. Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program
    [Table of Contents]

Occasionally students may desire a program that overlaps more than one department, but which in content and depth meets doctoral standards. At the initiative of the student, and with the approval of faculty members of each department, arrangements can be made to have the Dean of the Graduate School appoint a committee to guide the entire Ph.D. program. For details see the Graduate Student Manual. One such program, for instance, has been worked out with the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

1. 1. Master’s Program
    [Table of Contents]

In very special and rare cases, students are admitted for study programs leading to the M.S. in Economics. This is awarded upon the satisfactory completion of a program, approved by the Graduate Registration Officer, of a year’s full-time study, including the presentation of a satisfactory thesis. The master’s program usually involves completion of the Department’s core requirements (see below), a semester of econometrics, and two semesters of a special field, in addition to the thesis.

1. Admission to the Graduate School
  [Table of Contents]

To be admitted into the program, a student must hold a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from an accredited college or university. It is not essential that the undergraduate degree be in economics. Graduate students entering the Department have had a wide variety of major background preparation varying from literature to physics. Some preparation in undergraduate economics, especially in economic analysis, is almost a necessity. Candidates who, upon admission, are deficient in mathematics are strongly urged to take mathematics in the summer before entering the program or work on a recommended self-study program in calculus to prepare for 14.102 Mathematics for Economists.

Completed application forms for admission must be submitted to the Admissions Office at M.I.T. by January 15 of the calendar year in which the applicant wishes to enter. In addition to the Institute application forms, the Department expects each applicant to submit a statement (one or two pages) explaining his interest in economics. An informal questionnaire is provided for his general guidance. Entrance is normally in September. February entrance is granted only under exceptional circumstances, since many subjects given in the spring are continuations of work given in the fall.

All applicants are urged to take the Graduate Record Examinations no later than the January preceding the September in which they wish to enter. They should take the quantitative and verbal aptitude tests as well as the test in economics. (Information can be obtained by writing to Graduate Record Examinations, Educational Testing Service, Box 955, Princeton, New Jersey 08540. Students in western states or in eastern Asia or the Pacific should write to 1947 Center Street, Berkeley, California 94704.)

Decisions regarding admission are the responsibility of the Departmental Graduate Admissions Committee, which bases its judgment on the undergraduate academic record of the applicant, both in general and with respect to particular subjects, on the letters of recommendation, and on the Graduate Record Examinations. Further information may be secured by writing to the chairman of the committee. Notices of acceptance are sent out by April 1, and candidates have until April 15 to notify the Department of their choice.

1. Fellowships, Scholarships, and Financial Assistance
  [Table of Contents]

While in the past virtually all graduate students received financial aid through scholarships, fellowships, or assistantships, the financial situation has changed to such an extent that complete support can no longer be assured. Moreover, the outlook is so uncertain that no definite statement is possible, even about minimum aid. Every effort will be made within the limits of our financial resources to support students who perform effectively. In view of this uncertainty, the Department is making efforts to expand the number of research assistantships, but students should expect to earn or borrow a larger proportion of their support than has been true in the past.

The sources of financial support are varied. (1) Many students are assisted by fellowships for which there is a national competition, such as those given by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Ford Foundation, the Danforth Foundation, the Canada Council, and by foreign governmental agencies. Applications for such fellowships must be made directly to the appropriate foundation or agency, and an application for admission must also be made to M.I.T. (2) Awards of scholarships or fellowships are also made from M.I.T. funds or endowments. These include the Hicks Fellowship in Industrial Relations, the Graduate Economics Alumni Fellowships, endowed Institute fellowships, and a limited number of departmental awards. (3) A third group of students is supported by part time teaching and research assistantships and instructorships. In the past, research and teaching assistantships have been limited to candidates who have passed their general examination and are engaged in thesis research. However, in the light of the present financial stringency, these rules may be relaxed somewhat with respect to limited research assistantships for second year students. (4) Finally, students in good standing can avail themselves of loans through the Office of Financial Aid. U.S. citizens who are planning to be teachers may avail themselves of an NDEA loan, a substantial portion of which is forgiven upon entry into and continuance in teaching. They are also eligible for government-insured loans that are partially subsidized. Foreign students. however, may borrow only through the Graduate Loan Fund at the prime interest rate.

Entering students should apply for financial aid not later than January 15 of the calendar year in which they plan to enter. First-year awards are made on April 1, and applicants are given until April 15 to accept. Departmental awards for second and subsequent years are made in June. It is entirely appropriate for students to apply both for national awards and to M.I.T., since the outcome of national competitions is known before our awards are announced. Fellowships normally will include some cash payment toward living expenses, up to $2,000 for a single or married person without dependents, made in two equal installments at the beginning of each term. In offering scholarships and fellowships, the Department takes into account need as well as professional promise.

Remuneration for research assistantships varies, but in 1974-75 is normally at the rate of $6,585 per academic year for half-time work, out of which tuition of $3,350 must be paid. A half-time teaching assistantship in 1974-75 covers the tuition and pays $3,510 for the academic year — a total of $6,860. A very few half-time instructorships, for students who have demonstrated conspicuously effective teaching as an assistant, cover tuition plus $4,345 for living expenses — a total of $7,695 for the academic year.

As a supplement to academic-year appointments, both interdepartmental and departmental research groups are possible sources of full-time summer employment.

The academic performance of the student body is periodically reviewed to determine whether or not normal academic progress is being made. Failure to maintain normal progress may result in reduction or withdrawal of financial support. Students are invited at all times to discuss academic problems with their graduate registration officer, and the Department makes every effort to accommodate the needs of individual students.

1. Foreign Students
  [Table of Contents]

The Department has always welcomed foreign graduate students. They have typically constituted a significant portion of the student body. Some M.I.T. fellowships are available to entering foreign students, though the number is limited and the competition severe. Foreign students have an additional burden of transportation expense to cover and for this reason it is highly desirable to try to obtain at least partial support from other sources as well.

General information on scholarships, grants and travel can be obtained from the Institute of International Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, New York, New York, 10017, or from the Cultural Affairs Officer or the United States Information Service Office nearest the student’s place of residence.

Foreign applicants are required to submit evidence of their ability to carry on studies in English. Applicants whose native language is not English are required to take the test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Students whose schooling has been in English may request a waiver from the Advisor to Foreign Students at M.I.T. TOEFL is administered by the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, 08540; registration material and information about the test may be obtained by writing to the above address.

1. Living Arrangements
  [Table of Contents]

The Department is located in the Sloan Building, which, along with the adjoining Hermann Building, contains contiguous faculty offices, classrooms and seminar rooms, and student and faculty lounges. This complex also houses the Sloan School of Management, the Department of Political Science, and the Center for International Studies. The Dewey Library occupies two floors of the Hermann Building and contains the social science collection at M.I.T., reading rooms, and carrels to which thesis writers are assigned individually.

On-campus housing for graduate students is limited. Applications should be sent to the On Campus Housing Office, Room E18-307, M.I.T. Help in securing off-campus housing is given by the Community Housing Service, E18-306, M.I.T. Students should be alerted to the fact that Cambridge rental units are limited and in heavy demand. Transportation is convenient; the Sloan Building is located one block from the Kendall Square subway station.

1. Graduate Economics Associations
  [Table of Contents]

The Graduate Economics Association, composed of all graduate students, is a lively organization that sponsors monthly seminars and social events, and is one of the channels through which mutual student-faculty problems are discussed. The seminars permit discussions of current research by distinguished economists and occasional dialogues between faculty members. They are often followed by small dinners to which graduate students and faculty are invited, permitting more discussion among visitors, students and faculty. The Association annually elects nine student representatives to participate as voting members in Department meetings and other Department committees. Student representatives are full participants in all matters except those involving specific, identifiable individuals, or undergraduate matters. This policy at present excludes the discussion of details, but not the general policy, of tenure decisions, review of non-tenure faculty, new appointments, review of student performance, admissions and financial support.

The Black Graduate Economics Association provides a forum for the development and utilization of economic tools for solving the problems faced by Black people, encourages policies and programs which help increase the supply of highly qualified Black economists, opens lines of communication with other Black graduate students, Black economists, and the Black community, stimulates academic excellence, and provides outlets for various social activities. The BGEA has helped develop audio-visual aids now in use in many Black colleges’ economics departments, engaged in Institute recruiting projects, and participated in conferences of Black economists and administrators of Black colleges and universities. An econometric model of income and expenditures in Black communities is in its initial stage of development as a research project.

The Ph.D. Program in Detail
[Table of Contents]
1. General Plan of the Program
  [Table of Contents]

Students who complete the Ph.D. program should have a thorough understanding of the existing principles of economic theory and of the economic structure; an ability to think systematically about, and apply quantitative methods to, economic problems. The program gives roughly equal emphasis to these two goals, with formal courses and examinations to meet the first, and seminars, workshops, papers and the dissertation to meet the second. The student spends most of his first two years attempting to understand the existing ideas of economics. A basic principle of the program is that these ideas are sufficiently worthwhile so that their study is a necessary prelude to their use or criticism.

Throughout the program, there are formal provisions for students to engage in original work. During the first two years, term papers are often required. During the second year each student prepares a research paper as part of the requirement in econometrics. Second-year students are also encouraged to take part in workshops in their fields of primary interest. After passing the general examination, at the end of the second year or earlier, students spend full time in their own independent, original work. Their only formal obligation is to participate actively in the weekly meetings of the workshops in their fields of research.

1. The Core of the Graduate Curriculum
  [Table of Contents]

The Department offers an integrated set of subjects in economic theory, mathematics, econometrics and economic history.

1. 1. Economic Theory
    [Table of Contents]

The core in economic theory consists of two subject-years equally divided between microeconomics (14.121-14.124) and macroeconomics (14.451-14.454). These subjects are described in Section III of this report. The material is divided into half-semester subjects. The microtheory sequence starts in the fall term and runs through the first year, while the macrotheory sequence starts in the spring term and continues through the fall term of the second year. A qualifying examination on these subjects is offered three times a year — in September, December-January, and May — that must be passed in order to satisfy this part of the core requirement. The examination will cover each of the eight portions of the theory core, and a syllabus is available for each.

When a student feels sufficiently well qualified in the subject matter of any of the theory core subjects, he may take the qualifying examination, either before or after a particular set of lectures is offered. Only a passing grade is recorded when the examination is taken in advance of the lectures. If he fails to pass, he can then enroll for that particular section of theory and take the examination again at the end of that term. Should he pass some portion of theory by the preliminary examination, he could substitute a subject in advanced economic theory in the half-term in which he would have taken the basic theory subject. In principle, it is possible to pass all eight units of the theory core in this way and to proceed directly to more advanced work.

The Schedule for the Qualifying Examination in Theory is as follows:

Subject matter covered in:	Preliminary	Regular	Make-up
14.121-122	Sept.-Year I	Dec.-Year I	Sept.-Year II
14.123-124, 14.451-452	Jan.-Year I	May-Year I	Jan. Year II
14.453-454	Sept.-Year II	Dec.-Year II	Sept.-Year III

1. 1. Mathematics
    [Table of Contents]

The minimal core requirement in mathematics is calculus and linear algebra. Calculus is required for Statistics (14.381). While not stated as a formal prerequisite for the core theory subjects, it is virtually a necessity for mastering them.

If a student’s preparation in calculus were inadequate to satisfy the prerequisite for 14.102 Mathematics for Economists, the completion of the statistics and economics core requirements would be postponed a year. Econometrics (14.382 and 14.383 and most advanced theory subjects (14.141-14.149) require linear algebra. Students who have had a year of calculus and who want more mathematical training normally would take Mathematics for Economists (14.102) in the first term.

1. 1. Econometrics
    [Table of Contents]

The econometrics and statistics core requirement can be satisfied by (1) Statistics (14.381); (2) either Econometrics (14.382 and 14.383) or Applied Econometrics (14.388); and the completion of a piece of empirical research the equivalent of a term paper. This paper is due by the end of the fall term of the second year.

Entering students who lack calculus, and cannot take 14.102 in the first term, have two choices: either to postpone the three-term sequence: 14.381, 14.382, and 14.383 — to their third through fifth terms, or to take the two-term sequence, 14.381 and 14.388, in their third and fifth terms.

1. 1. Economic History
    [Table of Contents]

The core requirement in economic history is the satisfactory completion of one subject in American Economic History (14.731), European Economic History (14.733), or Russian Economic History (14.781).

1. Special Fields
  [Table of Contents]

In addition to the satisfactory completion of the core requirements, competence in four special fields must be demonstrated, two by passing a general examination and two by either satisfactory course work or a general examination. Preparation for a field examination normally consists of a year’s course work. Satisfaction of a field by course work alone requires the achievement of a grade of B or better in each of the two terms of subject matter. (The econometrics and history requirements can be satisfied with a grade of B-.) The areas in which the Department offers specialization are: advanced economic theory, international economics, labor economics, economic development, urban economics, monetary economics, fiscal economics, statistics and econometrics, economic history, industrial organization, comparative economic systems, Russian economics, human resources and income distribution, and, outside the Department, finance, production, transportation, and operations research. It is possible to use econometrics as a field without preparation beyond the core requirements. Economic history can be offered as a field by adding a second subject to the one satisfying the core requirement.

Students normally demonstrate competence in all four fields by the end of their second year. That is, they normally finish their required course work and general examinations by that time. In the event that scheduling or other difficulties interfere with this timing, one field other than theory or econometrics (including the paper — see II.B.3 above), or one subject in a field and in history, may be postponed until the third year. Before making such a deferment, students should consult with their Graduate Registration Officer.

Students planning to take the general examination before the end of the second year — the usual time — should consult in advance with their Graduate Registration Officer. In any case, such students would still be held to the above schedule.

Schematic Schedule of Typical Entering Student
[Table of Contents]

	[First year]		[Second year]
	1^st [term]	2^nd [term]	3^rd [term]	4^th [term]
Theory: Micro	14.121-2	14:123-4
Theory: Macro		14.451-2	14-453-4
Statistics and Econometrics	14.381 or 14.381	14.382	14.383 14.388
Mathematics	14.102
Special Fields and History	1 subject	1-2 subjects	2 subjects	4 subjects
Total Number of Subjects	4	4	4	4

*The minimal number of subjects to satisfy the special field and history requirements depends on whether history or econometrics is offered as a special field. If neither are offered, 9 subjects are required; if history, 8 subjects; if econometrics, 7 subjects; if both, 6 subjects.

1. Dissertation
  [Table of Contents]

Upon satisfaction of the core and field requirements, the Ph.D. candidate embarks on original research culminating in a completed dissertation that is defended orally. Thesis writers are required to participate in the workshop most germane to the subject of their thesis over the period of time they are working on it. Upon agreement on a topic with a primary thesis supervisor, a secondary thesis supervisor will be chosen by the student, subject to the approval of the Graduate Committee. A third faculty reader will be appointed by the Graduate Committee in consultation with the candidate when a final draft of the thesis will reasonably be expected to be completed within six months. The third faculty reader will have as his main function the unitary reading of the complete final draft of the thesis. These three faculty members will be the candidate’s thesis committee and are responsible for its acceptance and final defense.

In order to give adequate time for the final thesis review and revision, the completed draft must be submitted for final review a month before the Institute dates for submission of the dissertation. In 1975 the formal Institute dates are January 5, May 2, and August 11.

Graduate Subject in Economics
[Table of Contents]
1. General Economics and Theory
  [Table of Contents]

14.101	Mathematics for Economists Prereq.:—————	Units
14.101	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Elementary calculus. Applications in economics. (Not offered 1974-75)

14.102	Mathematics for Economists Prereq.: 14.101	Units
14.102	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Vector spaces and matrices; multivariate calculus and maximization with equality constraints; elementary differential equations.		H. A. Freeman

14.121	Microeconomic Theory I (A) Prereq.: 14.04	Units
14.121	Year: G(1) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Monopoly, oligopoly, product differentiation, monopsony. Comparison with pure competition. Comparative statics. Partial equilibrium welfare analysis.		R. L. Bishop

14.122	Microeconomic Theory II (A) Prereq.: 14.121	Units
14.122	Year: G(1) (2nd half of term)	2-0-4
Introduction to the theory of resource allocation and the price system. Emphasis on the use of efficiency prices as a guide to decentralized decision making.		M. L. Weitzman

14.123	Microeconomic Theory III (A) Prereq.: 14.122	Units
14.123	Year: G(2) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Theory of the producer and consumer. Cost functions, expenditure functions. Theory of distribution. Introduction to general equilibrium.		H. R. Varian

14.124	Microeconomic Theory IV (A) Prereq.: 14.123	Units
14.124	Year: G(2) (2nd half of term)	2-0-4
Capital theory and welfare economics.		P. A. Samuelson

14.132	Schools of Economic Thought (A) Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.132	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Economic ideas developed by different groups of economists in recent times.		R. L. Bishop, P. A. Samuelson

14.141	General Equilibrium Theory Prereq.:14.124	Units
14.141	Year: G(1) (2^nd half of term)	2-0-4
General equilibrium. Existence and stability of competitive equilibrium. The core of an economy. (Not offered in 1974-75)		F. M. Fisher

14.142	Mathematical Programming and Economic Theory (A) Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.142	Year: G(2) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
A rigorous treatment of linear and non-linear programming with applications to economic model building, including activity analysis and input-output.		M. L. Weitzman

14.143	Advanced Theory of the Market III (A) Prereq.: 14.122	Units
14.143	Year: G(2) (2^nd half of term)	2-0-4
Oligopoly and product differentiation, advertising, equilibria with seasonal or cyclical demand shifts.		R. L. Bishop

14.144	Applied Price Theory Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.144	Year: G(1) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Applications of price theory treated topically. Selected topics in price theory, with focus changing from year to year. Current emphasis is on the economics of exhaustible and renewable natural resources.		R. M. Solow

14.145	Economics of Uncertainty Prereq.:14.124	Units
14.145	Year: G(2)	3-0-9
Individual behavior under uncertainty. Equilibrium and welfare under uncertainty. Search and information.		J. A. Hausman, P. A. Diamond

14.148	Advanced Topics in Microeconomic Theory (A) Prereq.:14.124	Units
14.148	Year: G(2)	Arr.
14.149	Advanced Topics in Microeconomic Theory (A) Prereq.:14.124
14.149	Year: G(2)	Arr.
Advanced topics in microeconomic theory of current interest.		Staff

14.151	Mathematical Approach to Economics (A) Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.151	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
The use of mathematical methods in all the fields of economics.		P. A. Samuelson

14.191	Economics Seminar (A) Prereq.:14.121, 14.122	Units
14.191	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.192	Economics Seminar (A) Prereq.:14.121, 14.122
14.192	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Special economic problems. In 1974-75, 14.192 — Economics of Public Sector.		J. Rothenberg

14.193	Seminar: Topics in Economics (A) Prereq.:14.121, 14.451	Units
14.193	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.194	Seminar: Topics in Economics (A) Prereq.:14.122, 14.452
14.194	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Topics in economics of current interest.		Staff

14.195	Reading Seminar in Economics (A) Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.195	Year: G(1)	Arr.
14.196	Reading Seminar in Economics (A) Prereq.:14.122
14.196	Year: G(2)	Arr.
Reading and discussion of special topics in economics. (Open to advanced graduate students by arrangement with individual numbers of the staff.)		Staff

14.197	First-Year Graduate Seminar (A) Prereq.: 14.04	Units
14.197	Year: G(1)	2-0-6
Seminar limited to first-year graduate students. Discussion of projects of students, professional literature, methodology, economic policy, extending beyond regular curriculum.		J. N. Bhagwati

1. Industrial Economics
  [Table of Contents]

14.271	Problems in Industrial Economics (A) Prereq.: 14.04	Units
14.271	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Small and large enterprises in the American economy; market structures; degrees of monopoly and competition; requisites of public policy.		M. A. Adelman

14.272	Government Regulation of Industry (A) Prereq.: 14.271	Units
14.272	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Follows 14.271. Development of anti-trust policy, generally and in specific cases. “Public utility” price fixing, government ownership as alternative.		P. L. Joskow

14.291	Industrial Economics Seminar (A) Prereq.:14.271	Units
14.291	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.292	Industrial Economics Seminar (A) Prereq.:14.271
14.292	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Readings, discussions, reports on such topics as industrial price policies, government regulation of industry, competitive practices, and similar problems in industrial economics.		Staff

1. Statistics and Econometrics
  [Table of Contents]

14.371

Statistical Inference (A)
Prereq.: 18.02

Units

Year: G(1)

3-0-9

A compact one-term course in elementary probability and statistical Inference. Axiomatic probability, random variables, distribution functions, mathematical expectation, generating functions, transformations of random variables, simple correlation and regression models, the normal distribution, sampling theory, point and interval estimation, maximum likelihood, least squares, testing statistical hypotheses. The exposition is somewhat more mathematical than

14.381.

H. A. Freeman

14.373	Time-Dependent Probability (A) Prereq.: 14.371 or 18.303	Units
14.373	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Markov chains and Markov processes, the relevant ergodic theorem, Kolmogorov equations, time series theory; spectral density functions, harmonic representation, autoregressive models.		H. A. Freeman

14.374	Design and Analysis of Scientific Experiments (A) Prereq.: 14.381	Units
14.374	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Application of statistical theory to the design and analysis of scientific experiments. Factorial and fractional factorial designs. Applications to experimentation in the physical, chemical, biological, medical, and social sciences.		H. A. Freeman

14.381	Statistical Method in Economics (A) Prereq.: 14.101 or 18.02	Units
14.381	Year: G(1)	4-0-8
Self-contained introduction to probability and statistics which serves as a background for advanced econometrics. Elements of probability theory, sampling theory, asymptotic approximations, decision theory approach to statistical estimation focusing on regression, hypothesis testing and maximum likelihood methods. Illustrations from economics and application of these concepts to economic problems.		J. A. Hausman

14.382	Econometrics I (A) Prereq.:14.102, 14.381	Units
14.382	Year: G(2)	4-0-8
14.383	Econometrics II (A) Prereq.:14.382
14.383	Year: G(1)	4-0-8
Theory and economic application of the linear multiple regression model. Identification and structural estimation in simultaneous models. Analysis of economic policy and forecasting in macroeconomic models. A term paper involving substantive original empirical research is required in 14.383.		R. F. Engle, R. E. Hall, J. A. Hausman

14.386	Advanced Topics in Econometrics (A) Prereq.: 14.383	Units
14.386	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Selected topics including specification error, non-linear estimation, simulation, aggregation, and the derivation of economic policy models. (Not offered in 1974-5)		R. F. Engle, R. E. Hall, J. A. Hausman

14.388	Applied Econometrics (A) Prereq.: 14.102, 14.381	Units
14.388	Year: G(1)	3-0-9
Theory and practice of econometrics. The linear regression model, tests of hypotheses, generalized least squares, distributed lags, and simultaneous equations. Emphasis on applications. A term paper required.		R. F. Engle

14.391	Workshop in Economic Research (A) Prereq.:14.124, 14.454	Units
14.391	Year: G(1)	2-0-10
14.392	Workshop in Economic Research (A) Prereq.:14.124, 14.454
14.392	Year: G(2)	2-0-10
Designed to develop research ability of students through intensive discussion of dissertation research as it proceeds, carrying out of individual or group. research projects, and critical appraisal of current reported research. Workshops divided into various fields, depending on interest and size.		Staff

1. National Income and Finance
  [Table of Contents]

14.451	Macroeconomic Theory I (A) Prereq.: 14.06	Units
14.451	Year: G(1) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Macroeconomic analysis of general equilibrium. Financial markets and investment. Intertemporal equilibrium and growth models.		S. Fischer

14.452	Macroeconomic Theory II (A) Prereq.: 14.451	Units
14.452	Year: G(2) (2^nd half of term)	2-0-4
Determination of aggregate output, employment, and prices under static conditions. Keynes and alternate theories. The Phillips Curve. Inflation in the short and long run.		R. E. Hall

14.453	Macroeconomic Theory III (A) Prereq.: 14.452	Units
14.453	Year: G(1) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Quantitative macroeconomics. Consumption, investment, and other components of aggregate demand. Structure of complete econometric models of the U.S. economy		R. E. Hall

14.454	Macroeconomic Theory IV (A) Prereq.: 14.453	Units
14.454	Year: G(1) (2^nd half of term)	2-0-4
Growth models. Capital theory.		R. M. Solow

14.458	Advanced Topics in Macroeconomic Theory (A) Prereq.: 14.454	Units
14.458	Year: G(1)	Arr.
14.459	Advanced Topics in Macroeconomic Theory (A) Prereq.: 14.454
14.459	Year: G(2)	Arr.
Advanced topics in macroeconomic theory of current interest.		Staff

14.462	Monetary Economics I (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.462	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Examination of sources and determinants of supply of money with special attention to roles of commercial banks, Federal Reserve System, and Treasury. Discussion of nature of demand for money. Role of monetary policy in determination of level of economic activity. (Not offered in 1974-5; substitute 15.432 Capital Markets and Financial Institutions)		F. Modigliani

14.463	Monetary Economics II (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.463	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
General equilibrium theory of money, interest, prices, and output; portfolio problems, cost of capital, and the effects of monetary phenomena on investment and accumulation of wealth with special reference to problems arising from uncertainty.		S. Fischer

14.471	Fiscal Economics I (A) Prereq.:14.122, 14.452	Units
14.471	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.472	Fiscal Economics II (A) Prereq.:14.122, 14.452
14.472	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Examination, both theoretic and quantitative, of governmental fiscal institutions and behavior: the budget process, taxation, expenditure, pricing, and debt activities.		P. A. Diamond, A. F. Friedlaender

14.482	Income Distribution Economics (A) Prereq.: 14.124	Units
14.482	Year: G(1)	3-0-9
Modern theories and empirical studies of the determinants of the distribution of income and wealth.		L. C. Thurow

1. International, Interregional, and Urban Economics
  [Table of Contents]

14.572J	Regional Economic Analysis (A) Prereq.: 14.03 or 14.05	Units
14.572J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Analysis of regional economies with emphasis on the sources, characteristics, and implications of spatial concentrations of economic activities. Urban development in its regional setting is examined and the special problems of lagging areas in both developing and developed countries. Methods of integrating national and regional planning.		J. R. Harris

14.573J	Urban Economic Analysis I (A) Prereq.: 14.03 or 14.05	Units
14.573J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Patterns and processes of growth and structural change within metropolitan areas. The land use market and the spatial structure of the metropolitan community. The housing market: demand and supply, growth, aging, and renewal. The urban transportation system and its problems. Models of the metropolis. In each of these topics, emphasis on the resource allocation process, its efficiency and implications for income distribution.		W. C. Wheaton

14.574J	Urban Economic Analysis II (A) Prereq.: 14.573J	Units
14.574J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Continuation of 14.573J. The nature and problems of government decision-making in metropolitan areas. The economies of segregation, congestion, and pollution in the metropolitan area. Urban-suburban relations; market and government. Welfare economics and the normative theory of local public policy. Applied normative analysis: criteria for public expenditures; cost benefit analysis. Examination of public policy issues in current urban problems; poverty, race, the spatial form of the city, optimal land use patterns, growth and renewal, development and new communities.		J. Rothenberg

14.581	International Economics I (A) Prereq.: 14.04, 14.06	Units
14.581	Year: G(1)	4-0-8
Theory of international trade and applications in commercial policy.		J. N. Bhagwati

14.582	International Economics II (A) Prereq.: 14.581	Units
14.582	Year: G(2)	4-0-8
Adjustment in international economic relations with attention to foreign exchange markets, balance of payments, and the international monetary system.		C. P. Kindleberger

1. Labor Economics and Industrial Relations
  [Table of Contents]

14.671J	Labor Economics (A) Prereq.: 14.64 or 15.663	Units
14.671J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Primary emphasis on the structure of labor markets and the determinants of wage levels, unemployment, the distribution of income and employment opportunity. Special attention will also be given to the impact of unions on both wage and non-wage elements of collective bargaining in the light of the characteristics and objectives of particular unions. Other special topics growing out of recent research in labor economics.		M. J. Piore, C. A. Myers

14.672J	Public Policy on Labor Relations (A) Prereq.: 14.64, 15.663	Units
14.672J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Major trends in legislation and other government activities affecting the work place. Topics include wage and price controls, equal opportunity employment, and government regulation of union organization, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, wages and hours of work, and work-place health and safety. The broad economic and social questions raised by these trends also explored.		M. J. Piore D. Q. Mills

14.674J	Comparative Systems of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Development (A) Prereq.: 14.64, 15.663	Units
14.674J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
International and comparative analysis of industrial relations systems and systems of human resource development. Concentration on an examination of selected issues involving interest groups and the strategies of economic development, including discussion of the nature and functions of labor and management organization in different contexts; the role of the state in establishing procedures and in shaping the substance of industrial relations; the participation of interest groups in the formulation of economic and social policy: manpower and economic growth in the context of comparative systems of human resource development; worker participation in management, and other topics.		C. A. Myers E. Tarantelli

14.691J	Research Seminar in Industrial Relations (A) Prereq.:14.671J or 14.672J	Units
14.691J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.692J	Research Seminar in Industrial Relations (A) Prereq.:14.14.691J
14.692J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Discussion of important areas for research in industrial relations, frameworks for research, research techniques, and methodological problems. Centered mainly on staff research and the thesis research of advanced graduate students		C. A. Myers

14.672J	Public Policy on Labor Relations (A) Prereq.: 14.64, 15.663	Units
14.672J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Major trends in legislation and other government activities affecting the work place. Topics include wage and price controls, equal opportunity employment, and government regulation of union organization, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, wages and hours of work, and work-place health and safety. The broad economic and social questions raised by these trends also explored.		M. J. Piore D. Q. Mills

1. Economic History
  [Table of Contents]

14.731	American Economic History (A) Prereq.: 14.121	Units
14.731	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Survey of the beginnings of American industrialization, emphasizing a quantitative approach and the nineteenth century. Topics include effects of government economic policies, such as land distribution and tariffs, the importance of railroads, profitability of slavery.		P. Temin

14.732	Russian Economic History (A) Prereq.: 14.122	Units
14.732	Year: G(2)	3-0-9
A comparative study of the major problems in Russian economic history prior to 1917 both for their own sake and as a background for understanding of the events of 1917 and of the Soviet policies since. The topics covered vary yearly depending on the interests of the participants, but the land and peasant problems and industrialization methods emphasized.		E. D. Domar

14.733	European Economic History (A) Prereq.: 14.121	Units
14.733	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Development of the European economy since 1750 and, especially since 1850, with emphasis on growth and slowdown, the transition from local to national and European-wide institutions, and extra-European relations.		C. P. Kindleberger

14.734	Problems in Economic History (A) Prereq.: 14.731, 14.732, or 14.733	Units
14.734	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Analysis of problems of industrial society, concentrating on the century after 1860 and on the American experience. Topics vary yearly and include effects of wars on welfare and growth, the nature of the long deflation of the late nineteenth century, the contrast in international relations before and after 1914, the depression of the 1930’s.		P. Temin

1. Economic Development
  [Table of Contents]

14.771	Problems of Economic Development (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.771	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Analysis of problems of the rural sector in developing countries, urban-rural migration, unemployment, sectoral balance and efficiency of private resource allocation.		R. S. Eckaus

14.772	Theory of Economic Development (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.772	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Analysis of problems of international trade and development; study of structure and use of planning models for development policy and use of cost benefit analysis.		J. N. Bhagwati

14.773	Optimal Growth Theory (A) Prereq.: 14.124, 14.454	Units
14.773	Year: G(2)	3-0-9
The optimal growth problem, duality theory, development and application of the maximum principle. The behavior of optimal trajectories for a variety of situations. (Alternate years. Offered 1974-75.)		M. L. Weitzman

14.774J	Transfer and Adaptation of Technology in Developing Countries (A) Prereq.: Permission of Instructor	Units
14.774J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Consideration of the problems of transferring and adapting technologies originating and used in the richer countries of the world to the developing nations. Specific topics include: political, institutional, economic, and engineering issues involved in the transfer of technology.		R. S. Eckaus, F. Moavenzadeh, N. Choucri

14.782	Capitalism, Socialism and Growth (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.782	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
A comparative study of capitalist and socialist economies mainly from the point of view of development and growth, and with major emphasis on the economy of the Soviet Union.		E. D. Domar

14.783	Theory of Central Planning (A) Prereq.: 14.124	Units
14.783	Year: G(2)	3-0-9
Multilevel planning. Decomposition principles and their application. Planning with prices and with quantities. Materials balancing and input-output. Applications of inventory theory. The problems posed by non-convexities. (Alternate years. Not offered 1974-75.)		M. L. Weitzman

The Faculty in Economics
[Table of Contents]

Morris A. Adelman, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics.

Sidney S. Alexander, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics.

Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics.

Robert L. Bishop, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics; Chairman, Graduate Admissions Committee.

E. Cary Brown, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics; Head of Department.

Peter A. Diamond, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics; Graduate Registration Officer; Chairman, Department Graduate Committee.

Evsey D. Domar, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics; Graduate Placement Officer.

Richard S. Eckaus, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics; Graduate Registration Officer; Chairman, Committee on Economic Research.

Robert F. Engle, III, Ph.D., Cornell; Associate Professor of Economics.

Stanley Fischer, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Associate Professor of Economics.

Franklin M. Fisher, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics (on leave).

Harold A. Freeman, S.B., M.I.T.; Professor of Statistics.

Ann F. Friedlaender, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics.

Robert E. Hall, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics; Graduate Registration Officer.

John R. Harris, Ph.D., Northwestern; Associate Professor of Economics.

Jerry A. Hausman, Ph.D., Oxford; Assistant Professor of Economics.

Karl G. Jugenfeldt, Ph.D., Visiting Professor of Economics (Spring Term).

Paul L. Joskow, Ph.D., Yale; Assistant Professor of Economics.

Charles P. Kindleberger, Ph.D., Columbia; Professor of Economics.

Edwin Kuh, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics.

Franco Modigliani, D.Jur., Rome, and D.Soc.Sci., New School of Social Research; Institute Professor; Professor of Economics.

Charles A. Myers, Ph.D., Chicago; Professor of Industrial Relations.

Michael J. Piore, Ph.D., Harvard; Associate Professor of Economics (on leave, Spring Term).

Jerome Rothenberg, Ph.D., Columbia; Professor of Economics.

Paul A. Samuelson, Ph.D., Harvard; Institute Professor; Professor of Economics.

Abraham J. Siegel, Ph.D., California (Berkeley); Professor of Industrial Relations; Associate Dean of Management.

Robert M. Solow, Ph.D., Harvard; Institute Professor; Professor of Economics.

Lance J. Taylor, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Nutritional Economics.

Peter Temin, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics.

Lester C. Thurow, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics (on leave, Spring Term).

Hal R. Varian, Ph.D., California (Berkeley); Assistant Professor of Economics.

Martin L. Weitzman, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics.

William C. Wheaton, Ph.D., Penn.; Assistant Professor of Economics.

Source: M.I.T., Institute Archives. MIT Department of Economics Records, Box 2, Folder “Department Brochures”.

Tags Adelman, Alexander, Bhagwati, Bishop, BrownEC, Diamond, Domar, Eckaus, Engle, Fischer, FisherFM, FreemanHA, Friedlaender, HallR, HarrisJR, Hausman, Joskow, Kindleberger, Kuh, MillsDQ, Modigliani, Myers, Piore, Rothenberg, Samuelson, Siegel, Solow, Tarantelli, TaylorLJ, Temin, Thurow, Varian, Weitzman, Wheaton

Development Economist Market Economists Harvard Toronto

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus William Edmund Clark, 1974

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-05

Ed Clark once a 'Trudeaucrat' and then a Financial Master of the Universe

During the 1973-74 academic year Dale Jorgenson served as the placement officer for 34 Harvard economics Ph.D.s (in hand or anticipated) planning to go on the market. A fifth year student offering the field of economic development with a thesis on government investment planning in Tanzania hoped to spend his first post-doc year at Harvard. Jorgensen apparently offered him a discouraging word, leading William Edmund Clark to approach John Kenneth Galbraith for help. Galbraith’s note to the department chair, James Duesenberry, is transcribed below. Galbraith could not pass up the opportunity to lend a helping hand simultaneously with a discrete back-of-the-hand at Jorgenson.

Archival artifacts from the feud involving Jorgenson and Galbraith, inter alios, in the Harvard economics department at this time were the subject of an earlier post.

Curatorial due diligence demanded that I track down whatever happened to the Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus William Edmund Clark. It turns out that he went back to his native Canada where he entered government service. He became much more than another faceless government economist. He rose rapidly through the bureaucratic ranks and within a decade “enjoyed” sufficient notoriety to become a Trudeaucratic target of Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney’s new government in the mid-1980s to be purged from the ranks of the civil service. From there Clark went on to an enormously successful career as a financial mover-and-shaker over the following three decades. “Red Ed” Clark also went on to make his mark in philanthropy.

The details of Clark’s truly remarkable life after his Harvard Ph.D. can be found in his Wikipedia article. John Kenneth Galbraith must have seen something that Dale Jorgenson either failed to see or didn’t want to encourage.

__________________________

Galbraith Tries an End-Run
around Jorgenson

December 20, 1973

Professor James Duesenberry
Littauer M-8
Harvard University

Dear Jim:

W. E. Clark, vitae attached, was in to see me the other day. He would like to stay on at Harvard; he has been told by Jorgenson that, in effect, there isn’t much interest in him. I find it difficult to plead we lack interest in anybody with this kind of record. I continue to suspect Mr. Jorgenson of an influence on our enterprise that is both inimical and evangelical. Couldn’t there be some corrective action without some fuss.

Yours faithfully,
John Kenneth Galbraith

JKG: efd

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

William Edmund Clark
Curriculum Vitae

Born: October 10, 1947
Marriage Status: Married
Children: One Son
Education:

Honors B.A., University of Toronto 1969. Economics
A.M. Harvard University 1971. Economics
Ph.D. Expected Harvard University. 1974 (Summer) Economics

Awards, Grades:
1. Stood first in class last three years at University of Toronto
2. Received Excellent Minus on written Theory for Ph.D.
3. Received Excellent on Orals for Ph.D.
  Topics: Economic Development; Theories of Social Change
4. Woodrow Wilson Scholar
Thesis. Pattern of Government Controlled Investment in Tanzania
Thesis Advisors: A. O. Hirschman; A. MacEwan
Teaching Experience:

Summer Course, Acadia University, Nova Scotia 1970
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University 1971/72.

Other Work Experience:

Researcher, Center of Criminology, University of Toronto, 1966 (summer)
Researcher, Ford Foundation Project on Higher Education, University of Toronto, 1968 (summer)
Head, Research Project on Student Aid, Financed by Ontario Government and Ford Foundation, 1969 (summer)
Member, University of Toronto Tanzania Project, 1971-73
Team head, University of Toronto Tanzania Project, 1972-73

Publications:

“Access to Higher Education in Ontario” joint article with D. Cook and G. Fallis

Address: 11 Peabody Terrace Apt. 702 Cambridge, Mass. 02138
Telephone: 617-492-0416
References:

A.O. Hirschman, Harvard University
A. MacEwan, Harvard University
D. Nowlan, Dept. of Economics, University of Toronto
D.F. Forster, Provost, University of Toronto
A. Sinclair, Chairman, Dept. of Economics, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526. Folder “Harvard Economics Dept. of Economics: General correspondence, 1967-74 (1 of 3)”.

Image Source: “Turbulence follows former ‘Trudeaucrat”, National Post (Toronto), Aug 9, 1999.

Tags ClarkEdmund, Duesenberry, Galbraith, Jorgenson

Previously…

Course Enrollment 1907-08

Course Reading List Economic and Financial History of the United States

ECONOMICS 6b (1908)

1. Colonial Period.

1776-1860. 2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff.

3. Internal Improvements.

4. Agriculture and Land Policy. – Westward Movement.

5. The South and Slavery.

6. Finance, Banking and Currency.

1860-1900. 7. Finance, Banking and Currency.

8. Transportation.

9. Agriculture and Opening of the West.

10. Industrial Expansion.

11. The Tariff.

12. Commerce and Shipping.

13. Industrial Concentration.

14. The Labor Problem.

15. Population, Immigration and the Race Question.

ECONOMICS 6b Year-end Examination, 1907-08

ADAM SMITH.

Centennial Celebration of the Publication of “The Wealth of Nations”— Speeches by William Cullen Bryant, Parke Godwin, David A. Wells, Professor Sumner, Mr. Atkinson and Others

SPEECH OF PARKE GODWIN.

SPEECH OF JOHN BIGELOW.

SPEECH OF DAVID A. WELLS.

SPEECH OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

SPEECH OF EDWARD ATKINSON.

SPEECH OF PROFESSOR SUMNER.

Dr. [Martin Brewer] Anderson on Free Trade

A Few Other Programs, Other Times

GRADUATE CURRICULUM AND DEGREE REQUIREMENTS IN ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS YALE UNIVERSITY NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 1950

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS Graduate Faculty

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ECONOMICS

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

COURSE OFFERINGS

Harvard Ph.D. awarded in 1932

A Syllabus of Instruction for Economics 101-102

A Survey of Modern Economic Life

V. O. Watts Antioch College 1935-1936

Earlier, related posts

Course Enrollment 1907-08

ECONOMICS 6a Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

Earlier exams etc. for Economics 5

Course Enrollment 1907-08

ECONOMICS 5 Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

President to Department Chair “Incoming!”

Department Chair to President “We’re cool kids, really”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics and Social Sciences

President to Department Chair “Be like Yale.”

Department Chairman to President “You asked for it.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics and Social Sciences

Economics at M.I.T. [1952]

An earlier post on Yale economics

In Memoriam: Lloyd Reynolds [2005]

The State of Economics at Yale [1951]

By Lloyd G. Reynolds, Chairman of the Department of Economics.

Economic Analysis

Ground Rules

Research and Teaching

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The Graduate Program in Economics 1974 – 1975

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The Graduate Program in Economics 1974–75

Galbraith Tries an End-Run around Jorgenson

William Edmund Clark Curriculum Vitae

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Course Reading List
Economic and Financial History
of the United States

1776-1860.
2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff.

1860-1900.
7. Finance, Banking and Currency.

ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

Centennial Celebration of the Publication
of “The Wealth of Nations”—
Speeches by William Cullen Bryant, Parke Godwin, David A. Wells, Professor Sumner, Mr. Atkinson and Others

Dr. [Martin Brewer] Anderson
on Free Trade

A Few Other Programs,
Other Times

GRADUATE CURRICULUM AND DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
IN ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
1950

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Graduate Faculty

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

A Syllabus of Instruction
for
Economics 101-102

A Survey of Modern
Economic Life

V. O. Watts
Antioch College
1935-1936

Course Enrollment
1907-08

ECONOMICS 6a
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

Course Enrollment
1907-08

ECONOMICS 5
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

President to Department Chair
“Incoming!”

Department Chair to President
“We’re cool kids, really”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of
Economics and Social Sciences

President to Department Chair
“Be like Yale.”

Department Chairman to President
“You asked for it.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of
Economics and Social Sciences

Economics at M.I.T.
[1952]

In Memoriam: Lloyd Reynolds
[2005]

The State of Economics at Yale
[1951]

By Lloyd G. Reynolds,
Chairman of the Department of Economics.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Graduate Program in Economics
1974 – 1975

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Graduate Program in Economics
1974–75

Galbraith Tries an End-Run
around Jorgenson

William Edmund Clark
Curriculum Vitae