Category: Agricultural Economics

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Agricultural Economics Biography Chicago Economists Illinois Wisconsin

Wisconsin. Economics PhD alumnus, John Giffin Thompson, 1907

1907 University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

While there is an understandably greater interest in the lives of the academic celebrities of yore, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror will continue from time to time to add biographical information for the less prominent economists in the history of the academic pursuit of fame and distinction. In an important sense all but a handful of our sisters and brothers will have their names and contributions remembered two generations after their deaths anyway. The lives and careers of Ph.D. economists are varied, and our series of “Meet an Economics Ph.D. Alumnus/a” is intended to provide a sample to illustrate that variation.

In this post you will meet John Giffin Thompson, a Wisconsin Ph.D. (1907).

Note: Not to be confused with John Gilbert Thompson (1895-1940) who was a normal school (i.e. two year college to train teachers) principal who went on to work as an economist in industry.

______________________________

Remembered by a friend

Rauchenstein, Emil. “John Giffin Thompson 1873-1959.” Journal of Farm Economics 41, no. 4 (1959): 871–871.
JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1234868

______________________________

John Giffin Thompson

1873. Born on a farm July 17 near Cambridge in Guernsey County, Ohio.

1900. A.B. College of Wooster (Ohio).

1902-04. Scholarship and a fellowship for graduate work in economics and history at the University of Chicago. A.M. in 1904.

1905-07. Assistant in Political Economy at the University of Wisconsin. Officers and Graduates of the University of Wisconsin, 1849-1907, p. 49.

1907. Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.
Thesis. The Rise and Decline of the Wheat-Growing Industry in Wisconsin (1907). Published in the Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 292. Economics and Political Science Series, Vol. 5, No. 3, (May 1909), pp. 295-544.
In the preface he thanks Professor Henry C. Taylor (Political Economy) and Professor Frederick J. Turner (American History) “for reading the manuscript and for scholarly and pertinent criticism of the same.”

1907-1917. Instructor.  University of Illinois. Vergil V. Phelps (ed.), University of Illinois Register, Listing the 35,000 persons who have ever been connected with the Urbana-Champaign Departments including officers of instruction and administration and 1397 deceased (1916). P. 662.

1908. Aug 5. Married Dora Lena Robb (b. 1875, d. 1960). According to her obituary in The Times Recorder, Zanesville, Ohio of Aug. 3, 1960, she lived last 40 years in Washington D.C. Active member of the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church there. John and Dora had no children.

1912. Thompson, John G. [Review of Principles of Rural Economics, by T. N. Carver], Journal of Political Economy, vol. 20, no. 3, 1912, pp. 289–94.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1820280

1913. Thompson, John G. [Review of English Farming, Past and Present, by R. E. Prothero]. Journal of Political Economy, vol. 21, no. 5, 1913, pp. 469–74.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1820027 .

1914. Thompson, John G. [Review of The Granger Movement: A Study of Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic, and Social Manifestations, 1870-1880, by S. J. Buck].  Journal of Political Economy, vol. 22, no. 5, 1914, pp. 495–98.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1819167

1915. Thompson, John G. [Review of The Ownership, Tenure and Taxation of Land, by T. Whittaker]. Journal of Political Economy, vol. 23, no. 2, 1915, pp. 191–94.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1819132

1916. Thompson, John G. “The Nature of Demand for Agricultural Products and Some Important Consequences.” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 24, no. 2, 1916, pp. 158–82.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1822553

1918-21. Taught Sunday-school class to about 25 young adults (obit), many U. of Illinois staff.
From Rauchenstein’s obit for Thompson (1959).
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1234868

1918. Draft Registration card (Sept. 12th 1918) reports present occupation “Economic research”, employer “none”.

1920. U.S. Census. John G. Thompson age 46 “Investigator, Economic Research”, wife Dora R. Thompson, age 44.

1921. Thompson, John G. “Mobility of the Factors of Production as Affecting Variation in Their Proportional Relation to Each Other in Farm Organization.” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 29, no. 2, 1921, pp. 108–37. [Author identification: “John G. Thompson, Van Nuys, Cal.”]
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1822700

1921. “Private Research. 503 W. High, Urbana, Ill.”  The University of Wisconsin. Alumni Directory, 1849-1919. P. 338.

1921. Moved with wife to Washington to continue his research at the Library of Congress according to Rauchenstein (1959).

1922. “The Cityward Movement” Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. IV No. 2 (April, 1922), pp. 65-79. [Author identification “John G. Thompson, Washington, D.C.”, Professor Carver identified in the discussion of the paper on page 79.]
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1229697

1925. “Urbanization and Rural Depopulation in France,” Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan., 1925, pp. 145-151.  [Comment on paper by Asher Hobson, “Some Economic and Social Phases of French Agriculture,” JFE (July 1924), 233-244.]
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1230080

1927. Urbanization. Its Effects on Government and Society. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company.  [Note: middle name is misspelled on the title page “Giffen” instead of “Giffin”.] https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015014331105

https://archive.org/details/urbanizationitse00thom

1930. U.S. Census. Living in Washington DC. “Research. Social Science”.

1940. U.S. Census. Living with John’s sister Bessie in Washington DC. at 1319 E. Capitol.  John “Private Research, Library”.

1950. U.S. Census. Living just with wife Dora R. at 1319 E. Capitol.

1959. Died. Obituary in Evening Star, Washington, D.C.  January 3, 1959, p. 26.

Thompson, John G. of 1319 East Capitol St., on January 1, 1959, husband of Dora Roob Thompson, brother of Ralph E. Thompson of Cambridge, Ohio, and uncle of Mrs. Hiram T. Dale, Mrs. William P. Simmonds, Robert E., Dr. James M. and the Rev. David M. Thompson. Services at Chambers’ Funeral Home 517 11th St., s.e. on Saturday, January 3, at 7 p.m. Services and interment Cambridge, Ohio on Monday, January 5, at 1:30 p.m.

Image Source:  University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Website. “View, UW-Madison, 1907” by Harley DeWitt Nichols.

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Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam questions for agricultural economics. Carver, 1905-1906

In 1911 Harvard economics professor Thomas Nixon Carver published a textbook Principles of Rural Economics  that undoubtedly encompassed the content of his course on agricutural economics first taught in 1903-04. Somewhat unusually the book is prefaced with an eight page bibliography. The eight question final exam for this semester course from 1905-06 is found below.

___________________________

From a previous year

ca. 1904 Problem set

1903-04 Final exam

___________________________

Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 23 2hf. Professor Carver. — Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American Conditions.

Total 42: 4 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 73.

___________________________

ECONOMICS 23
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Describe the two principal stages in the development of commercial agriculture.
  2. Describe the methods by which a citizen could acquire a title to government land at the following dates: 1850, 1870, 1890.
  3. What are the chief advantages of large-scale farming and of small-scale farming? Which system has the United States government favored, and by what means?
  4. What are the advantages of diversified farming, and under what conditions is it practicable?
  5. What experiments are being carried on under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture in the breeding of animals?
  6. Describe three types of farm management as practiced in the United States.
  7. Name, in the order of their value, the five leading crops of the United States, and if any of them are grown in special regions or belts, state approximately their limits.
  8. What are the principal factors tending, at the present time, to affect the character of the rural population of the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 46.

Image Source: “The American farmer – where he has to sell, and where he has to buy,” print by Louis Dalrymple in Puck, v. 35, no. 910 (August 15, 1894). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Print shows Uncle Sam as an American farmer trying to sell his products labeled “Pork, Wheat, Butter, Beef, Oats”, and corn overseas where there is stiff “Open Competition” at the “Market of the World” represented by John Bull labeled “England” and “Germany, Russia, South America, [and] Australia”. In a vignette, Uncle Sam is shown at “The McKinley Home Market and High Prices” looking at the merchandise for sale, where all the items that he needs have been “Marked Up” 35% to 45%; McKinley offers him a new coat that has been “Marked Up 35%”.

 

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Agricultural Economics Chicago Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Assigned Readings for Price and Income Instability. T. W. Schultz, 1956

Beginning in 1957 Zvi Griliches took over the course at Chicago on Price and Income Instability with special reference to agriculture. The course was previously taught by T. W. Schultz. In his files for the course Griliches kept a copy of the course outline and readings for the Spring 1956 quarter taught by his predecessor.

There were 86 numbered items on Schultz’s reading list that he referenced by the item number with chapter/page selections for some of the items. You will have to jump down from the course outline to the list of course readings and back, which I find a very peculiar way to present a course outline, but it didn’t keep him from getting a Nobel prize in economics in 1979.

_________________________

T. W. Schultz
University of Chicago

Economics 355 B
Price and Income Instability

(as problems in economic organization with special reference to agriculture)

Economics 355 B will cover the following classes of problems:

      1. general characteristics of policies and programs which are related to agriculture.
      2. analysis of the price and income instability that confronts agriculture.
      3. alternative measures for reducing or accommodating price and income instability.
      4. some research proposals directed to this set of problems.
  1. General characteristics of policies and programs for agriculture by types of countries and during different periods.

(to be developed in class)

  1. Analysis of price and income instability that confronts agriculture.

38, chs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 10;
55, chs, 11 and 20.

    1. Instability of the economy as a whole.

19;
5;
23;
50;
67;
44.

    1. Particular instabilities of farm product prices during the stock period.

45: pp. 14-15, 65-66, 76-77;
31, Ch. 2;
10: pp. 42-44;
51.

      1. Producer supply schedule for stock period.

(1) Farm household activities.

55, ch. 14;
49, ch. 6.

(2) Farm-firm activities.

55, ch. 14;
68, ch. 2.

      1. Demand schedule confronting producers restricted to stock period.

55, ch. 11;
68, ch. 2.

      1. Spot and forward markets.

38, ch. 10;
27;
42;
43;
32;
37;
28;
29;
6;
14;
54;
58;
69;
70.

    1. Particular instabilities of farm product prices for time intervals longer than stock period (up to and including two production periods).
      1. Planned and unplanned variations in production (supply).

55, chs. 11, 12, 13;
40;
68, ch. 2.4;
12;
11;
1;
2b;
65;
13;
16;
61;
66.

      1. Shifts in demand schedule during relatively short periods.

55, ch. 11;
12;
68, ch. 2;
71;
8;
9;
17;
18;
22;
46;
56;
57;
59;
62;
63;
64.

  1. Measures for reducing or accommodating farm product prices and income instability.

7;
44;
67;
26, pp. 247-252.

    1. Particular abrupt and large shifts in the demand schedule.

55, pp. 344-346.

    1. Large year to year changes in production.

55, ch. 19;
38, ch. 13;
2b;
3;
4;
15;
24;
25;
30;
34;
35;
36;
41;
48;
52;
53;
60.

    1. Increasing the price elasticity of the relevant schedules.

55, pp. 349-358.

    1. By way of accommodation.

55, pp. 358-366.

      1. Farms with more capacity to cope with price and income instability.
      2. Possibilities by storage.
      3. Safeguarding income during depressions.
  1. Some research proposals

(to be based on III and the research interest of the student)

_________________________

T. W. Schultz
Spring, 1956

Economics 355 B
List of Readings

  1. Barber, Lloyd, “Variability of Wheat Yields by Counties in the United States,” BAE (September, 1951).
  2. (a) Barber, E. Lloyd, “Summerfallowing to Meet Weather Risks in Wheat Farming,” Agricultural Economics Research, III (October, 1951).
  1. (b) Barton, Glen T. and Cooper, Martin R., “Relation of Agricultural Production to Inputs,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXX (May, 1948).
  2. Barber, E. Lloyd and Thair, Philip J., “Institutional Methods of Meeting Weather Uncertainty in the Great Plains,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXII (August, 1950).
  3. Barber, E. Lloyd, Meeting Weather Risks in Kansas Wheat Farming, Kansas Agr. Ext. Sta. and BAE Agr. Report 44 (September, 1950).
  4. Bennett, M. K. and Associates, International Commodity Stockpiling as an Economic Stabilizer (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1949).
  5. Blau, G., “Some Aspects of the Theory of Futures Trading,” The Review of Economic Studies, XI (1943-44).
  6. Brownlee, O. H. and Johnson, D. Gale, “Reducing Price Variability Confronting Primary Producers,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXII (May, 1950).
  7. Burk, Marguerite, “Recent Relationships between Income and Food Expenditure,” Agricultural Economics Research, BAE, III (July, 1951).
  8. ___________, “Changes in the Demand for Food from 1941 to 1950,” Journal of Farm Economics,” XXXIII (August, 1951).
  9. Clark, Colin, Conditions of Economic Progress, 2nd ed, (London: Macmillan, 1951).
  10. Cochrane, Willard W., An Analysis of Farm Price Behavior, Progress Report Agricultural Experinent Station, Pennsylvania State College (May, 1951)
  11. ___________, “Farm Price Gyrations — An Aggregative Hypothesis,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXIX (May, 1947).
  12. Day, Emily L. and Barber, Lloyd, Physical Risks in Farm Production, Selected References, 1930-1948. USDA Library, List 49 (August, 1949).
  13. Dow, J. C. R., “A Theoretical Account of Futures Markets,” The Review of Economic Studies, VII (1939-40).
  14. Ellickson, John C., “Hail Insurance on Growing Crops in the United States,” Agricultural Finance Review, BAE, XIII (November, 1950).
  15. Foote, Richard J. and Bean, Louis H., “Are Yearly Variations in CropYield Random?” BAE, Agricultural Economics Research, III (January, 1951).
  16. Fox, Karl A., “Factors Affecting Farm Income, Farm Prices and FoodConsumption,” Agricultural Economics Research, III (July, 1951).
  17. ___________ and Norcross, Harry C., “Agriculture and the General Economy,” Agricultural Economics Research, IV (January, 1952).
  18. Friedman, Milton, “Commodity-Reserve Currency,” Journal of Political Economy. LIX (June, 1951).
  19. Galbraith, John K., American Capitalism—The Concept of Countervailing Power (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1952).
  20. Galbraith, John K., “Economic Preconceptions and Farm Policy,” American Economic Review, XLIV (March, 1954).
  21. Girschick, M. A. and Haavelmo, T., “Statistical Analysis of the Demand forFood,” Econometrica, XV (April, 1947).
  22. Graham, Benjamin, Storage and Stability (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1937).
  23. Halcrow, Harold G., “Actuarial Structure of Crop Insurance,”Journal of Farm Economics, XXXI (August, 1949).
  24. ___________, The Theory of Crop Insurance, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Chicago, 1948.
  25. Haley, Bernard F. (ed.), A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. I (Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, 1952).
  26. Hardy, C. O., “Recent Developments in the Theory of Speculation,” American Economic Review, XXVII (1937).
  27. ___________ and Lyon, L. S., “The Theory of Hedging,” Journal of Political Economy, XXXI (1923).
  28. Hawtrey, R. G., “Mr. Kaldor on the Forward Market,” The Review of Economic Studies, VIII (1940-41).
  29. Heisig, Carl P., “Income Instabillty in High Risk Farming Areas,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXVIII (1946).
  30. Hicks, J. R., Value and Capital (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939).
  31. Hicks, J. R., “Theory of Uncertainty and Profit,” Economica, VI (1939).
  32. Hoos, Sidney,“Relations between Agricultural Price Policy and MarketingResearch,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXIII (August, 1951).
  33. Horton, Donald C., “Adaptation of the Farm Capital Structure to Uncertainty,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXI (February, 1949).
  34. ___________, The Pattern of Farm Financial Structure, National Bureau of Economic Research, a preliminary draft (May, 1951).
  35. ___________ and Barber, E. Lloyd, “The Problem of Farm Business Survival in Areas of Highly Variable Rainfall,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXI, Proceedings (November, 1942).
  36. Houthakker, H. S., “A Proposed Inquiry into Some Markets with Forward Trading,” Cowles Commission Discussion Paper Economics 2036 and Agricultural Economics Research Paper No. 5211, March 21, 1952. Mimeo.
  37. Johnson, D. Gale, Forward Prices for Agriculture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947).
  38. ___________, Trade and Agriculture: A Study of Inconsistent Policies (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1950).
  39. ___________, “The Nature of the Supply Function for American Agriculture,” American Economic Review, XL (September, 1950).
  40. Jones, Lloyd E.,“Stabilizing Farming by Shifting Wheat Land to Grass in Northern Great Plains,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXII (August, 1950).
  41. Kaldor, N., “A Note on the Theory of the Forward Market,”The Review of Economic Studies, VII (1939-40).
  42. ___________, “Speculation and Economic Stability,” The Review of Economic Studies, VII (1939-40).
  43. Keynes, J. M., “The Policy of Government Storage of Food-Stuffs and Raw Materials,” Economic Journal, XLVIII (September, 1938).
  44. Knight, Frank H., The Economic Organization (New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1951).
  45. Mack, Ruth P., “The Direction of Change in Income and the Consumption Function,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXX (1948).
  46. Mehrens, George L., “Comparative Costs of Agricultural Price Supportsin 1949,” Proceedings, American Economic Review, XLI (May, 1951).
  47. Nebraska Agr. Exp. Sta., Toward Stability in the Great Plains Economy, Proceedings of a conference held at Custer, South Dakota in 1949. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 399 (July, 1950).
  48. Reid, M. G., Food for People (New York: Wiley, 1943).
  49. Reifler, Winfield, “A Proposal for an International Buffer-Stock Agency,” Journal of Political Economy, LIV (December, 1946).
  50. Robbins, Lionel,“Elasticity of Demand for Income in Terms of Effort,” Economica (1930).
  51. Schickele, Rainer, “Farm Business Survival under Extreme Weather Risk,”Journal of Farm Economics, XXXI (November, 1949),
  52. ___________, “Farmers Adaptation to Income Uncertainty,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXII (August, 1950).
  53. Schultz, T. W., Production and Welfare of Agriculture (New York: Macmillan, 1949).
  54. ___________, The Economic Organization of Agriculture (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953).
  55. Schultz, Henry, The Theory and Measurement of Demand (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938).
  56. ___________, “The Shifting Demand for Selected Agricultural Commodities, 1875-1929,” Journal of Farm Economics, XIV (April, 1932).
  57. Stewart, Blair, An Analysis of Speculative Trading in Grain Futures, USDA Commodity Exchange Authority, Bul. No. 1001. October, 1942.
  58. Stone, J. R. K., “Analysis of Market Demand,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, CVIII (1945).
  59. Thair, Philip J., Stabilizing Farm Income against Crop Yield Fluctuations, Agr. Exp. Sta. North Dakota and BAE Bul. 362, September, 1950).
  60. Timoshenko, P., “Variability in Wheat Yields and Outputs, Part I. Cycles or Random Fluctuations,” Wheat Studies of the Food Research Institute, XVIII (Stanford, California, 1942).
  61. Tintner, Gerhard,“Multiple Regression for System of Equations,” Econometrics, XIV (January, 1946).
  62. Tobin, James,“A Statistical Demand Function for Food in the U.S.A.,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, CXIII (1950), Part II.
  63. U.S.D.A., BAE, Consumption of Food in the United States, 1909-48, Misc. Pub. 691 (August, 1949).
  64. U.S.D.A., BAE, Farm Production Practices, Costs and Returns, Stat. Bul. 83 (October, 1949).
  65. U.S.D.A., Fluctuations in Crops and Weather, 1866-1948, Stat. Bul. 101 (June, 1951).
  66. Viner, Jacob, “International Finance in the Post-War World,”Lloyds Bank Review (October, 1946).
  67. Waugh, Frederick V., Readings in Agricultural Marketing (Ames: Iowa State College Press, 1954).
  68. Williams, J. B., “Speculation and the Carryover,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, LI (1936).
  69. Working, H. “Theory of the Inverse Carrying Charge in Futures Markets,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXX (1948).
  70. Working, E. J., “Appraising the Demand for American Agricultural Output during Rearmament,” Journal of Farm Economics XXXIV, May, 1952.
Supplementary List #1
  1. Bauer, P. T., West African Trade (Cambridge: The University Press, 1954), esp. Parts 3, 5, and 6.
  2. ___________ and Paish, F. , “The Reduction of Fluctuations in the Incomes of Primary Producers,” Economic Journal, LXII (December, 1952).
  3. ___________, “The Reduction of Fluctuations in the Incomes of Primary Producers Further Considered,” Economic Journal, LXIV, (December, 1954).
  4. Friedman, Milton, “The Reduction of Fluctuations in the Incomes of Primary Producers: A Critical Comment, Economic Journal, LXIV (December 1954).
  5. Gustafson, Robert L.,Optimal Carryover Rules for Grains, The University of Chicago RMA Study (January 31, 1954). Agricultural Economics Research Paper).
  6. Heady, Earl O., Kehrberg, Earl W., and Jebe, Emil B., Economic Instability and Choices Involving Income and Risk in Primary or Crop Production, Res. Bul. 404 (January, 1954) Agric. Exp. Iowa State College.
  7. Heady, Earl, “Diversification in Resource Allocation and Minimization of Income Variability,” Journal of Farm Economics XXXIV (November, 1952).
  8. Johnson, D. Gale, “Competition in Agriculture: Fact or Fiction?”American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings XLIV (May, 1954).
  9. Kaldor, Donald R. and Heady, Earl O., An Exploratory Study of Expectations, Uncertainty and Farm Plans in Southern Iowa Agriculture, Res. Bul. 408 April, 1954) Agric. Exp. Sta. Iowa State College.
  10. Kaplan, Marshall.On Estimating Demand Parameters With Special Reference to Food, AgriculturalEconomics Research Paper No. 5415. September 24, 1954.
  11. Lee, Ivan M., “Temperature Insurance — An Alternative to Frost Insurancein Citrus,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXV (February, 1953).
  12. Nordin, J. A., Judge, George G., and Wohby, Omar, Application of Econometric Procedures to Demands for Agricultural Products, Res. Bul 410 (July, 1954) Agri. Exp. Sta. Iowa State College.
  13. Tolley, George, “Minimizing Grain Storage Costs,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXV (November, 1953).
  14. Foreign Agricultural Service. Agricultural Market and Price Policies in Foreign Countries. Report No. 74 (September, 1953).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 130, Folder “Syllabus and exams, 1955-1959”.

Image Source:  T. W. Schultz, University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-07484, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Fields Harvard History of Economics Industrial Organization Money and Banking Public Finance Sociology Theory Undergraduate

Harvard. Division Exams for A.B., General and Economics, 1921

The Harvard Economics department was once one of three in its Division in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Departments of History and Government shared a general division exam with the Department of Economics and also contributed their own specific exams for their respective departmental fields. This post provides the questions for the common, i.e. general, divisional exam, the general economics exam, and all the specific exams at the end of the academic year 1920-21 for those fields falling within the perview of the economics department.

_______________________________

Previously posted
Division A.B. Exams

Division Exams 1916
Division Exams, January 1917
Division Exams, April 1918
Division Exams, May 1919
Division Exams, April/May 1920

Division Exams 1931

Special Exam for Money and Government Finance, 1939
Special Exam Economic History Since 1750, 1939
Special Exam for Economic Theory, 1939
Special Exam for Labor and Social Reform, 1939

_______________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS

EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF A.B.
1920-21

DIVISION GENERAL EXAMINATION

PART I

The treatment of one of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of this examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on one question only. Insert before your answer to this question a sketch of your plan of treatment.

  1. Discuss the relations of civilization to climate.
  2. Does history show that the periods of a nation’s political and literary greatness tend to coincide?
  3. Was America’s entrance into the World War a consequence or a violation of her policies and traditions?
  4. Discuss the following: “One of the great difficulties, as well as one of the great fascinations of history is the constantly changing point of view; but we should beware of interpreting the past in the light of the present.”
  5. What have been and what should be the limitations upon the application of the principle of self-determination in national relations?
  6. Contrast Roman provincial, and nineteenth-century colonial relations.
  7. What should be the limits of nationalization of essential industries?
  8. What have been the marked characteristics of three great states at the time of their greatest power?
  9. “Society has departed very widely from the strict rule of non-interference with industry by the State; indeed, the policy of non-interference was never carried out logically by any State.” Comment.
  10. Discuss: “The patriotism of nations ought to be selfish.”
  11. What are the standards of social justice?

PART II

The treatment of four of the following questions in Part II is required and will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of this examination, and should therefore occupy one hour. The four questions are to be taken from the Departments in which the student is NOT CONCENTRATING; two questions from each of the two Departments.

A. HISTORY

  1. Briefly characterize, with approximate dates, five of the following: Alexander, Aristotle, Augustus, Francis Bacon, Frederick Barbarossa, Bolivar, Calvin, Chatham, Franklin, Richelieu.
  2. Give a short account of the rise of the Christian Church down to the period of the Crusades.
  3. Estimate the importance of the Netherlands in the development of Europe.
  4. Discuss the relations of England and the United States during the past one hundred years.
  5. Write a brief historical account of slavery in the Western Hemisphere.

B. GOVERNMENT

  1. Discuss: “Not independence but interdependence is the hope of nations.”
  2. Explain the evolution and significance of trial by jury.
  3. What is the significance of the following headlines in March, 1921?
    1. “Austria in dangerous unrest.”
    2. “Briand voted confidence on reparations.”
    3. “Crown prince is plotting.”
    4. “Lenin knows his Italian friends.”
  4. What are the limits of uniform state legislation?
  5. What political unities can best control:
    1. police,
    2. water supply,
    3. roads?

C. ECONOMICS

  1. “The fundamental fact in history is the law of decreasing returns. It is the cause of the origin and development of civilization. . . . It is equally, and for the same reason, the source of poverty and war.”
    State, explain, and indicate the significance of the law of decreasing (diminishing) returns.
  2. What are the fundamental features of the organization of modern industrial society?
  3. Discuss one of the following statements:
    1. “Employees have the right to contract for their services in a collective capacity, but any contract that contains a stipulation that employment should be denied to men not parties to the contract is an invasion of the constitutional rights of the American workmen, is against public policy, and is in violation of the conspiracy laws.”
    2. “In the old days, America outsailed the world. . . . I want to acclaim the day when America is the most eminent of shipping nations. . . . A big navy and a big mercantile marine are necessary to the future of the country.”
  4. Why should there be a labor party in England and not in the United States?
  5. What are the economic essentials of socialism?

_______________________________

GENERAL EXAMINATION
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

I

The treatment of two of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of the examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on two questions only.

  1. Give the author, approximate date, and general character of five of the following works:
    1. National System of Political Economy.
    2. Essays in Political Arithmetick.
    3. England’s Treasure by Forraign Trade.
    4. Essay on the Principle of Population
    5. Principles of Political Economy.
    6. The Wealth of Nations.
    7. Das Kapital.
    8. Lombard Street.
    9. Capital and Interest.
  2. Explain four of the following terms:
    Abstinence; Manchester School; stationary state; iron law of wages; produit net; non-competing groups; Scholasticism; Utilitarianism.
  3. Locate on an outline map:
    1. The world’s principal sources of five of the following raw materials: cotton; copper; sugar; silk; wheat; tin; rice; nitrate; petroleum; gold.
    2. The more important routes of overseas transportation.
    3. The world’s chief regions of manufacture.

II

The treatment of three of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of the examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on three questions only. Be concise.

  1. Define “thrift” and discuss its social significance.
  2. Analyze the determination of normal value under competitive conditions of joint cost.
  3. What is meant by “monetary inflation”? How is it to be measured and what is its importance?
  4. What has been the course of the interest rate in modern times? What probably will be the course of the rate during the next few years? Why?
  5. What are the purposes and limits of progressive taxation?
  6. Discuss the future of public utilities in the United States.
  7. To what extent and in what respects, if at all, is labor legislation of the times a corrective of the more serious defects of the existing social order?
  8. Discuss: “Perpetual prosperity would be a national calamity.”

_______________________________

SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMIC THEORY

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is the concept of “justice” in the theory of the distribution of wealth?
  2. Comment on the validity and significance of the following contention: “Labor is the source of all wealth.”
  3. “Whether capital is productive depends simply on the question: Are tools useful? It matters not how much or how little tools add to the product — if they add something, capital is productive.” Do you agree? Explain.
  4. “The forces which make for Increasing Return are not of the same order as those that make for Diminishing Return. . . . The two ‘laws’ are in no sense coordinate. . . . The two ‘laws’ hold united, not divided, sway over industry.” Comment critically.
  5. What relations exist between the accounting and economic concepts of “cost of production”?
  6. “The differences in the productive powers of men due to their heredity or social position give to certain individuals the same kind of an advantage over others that the owner of a corner lot in the center of a city has over one in the suburbs. If the income from a corner lot is a surplus and can therefore be described as unearned, the income of a man of better heredity, education or opportunity must also be regarded as a surplus income and therefore unearned.”
    Discuss this statement with reference to your general theory of distribution.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than wto

  1. Give a brief historical account of the theory of population.
  2. Trace the development of the theory of international trade.
  3. In what ways have the following influenced the history of economic thought: Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Malthus, Ricardo, J.S. Mill, Marx?
  4. Outline the evolution of the theory of economic rent.

C

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. “The profits of speculation on the Stock Exchange are just as unearned as the increment in the value of urban building sites; unlike the profits of speculation in produce, they represent no service to society.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  2. “There is a point beyond which advertising outlay is extravagant.” Explain.
  3. “I do not see how we can retain our home markets, upon which American good fortune must be founded, and at the same time maintain American standards of production and American standards of living unless we make other peoples with lower standards pay for the privilege of trading in the American markets.” Discuss.
  4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the closed shop?

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Answer six questions 

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. “The opening of the Erie Canal affected both intensive and extensive agriculture in the United States.” Explain. Have there been analogous changes in later periods?
  2. Discuss the following statement: “The enactment of corporation laws by the various states is the most important step made during the past century in the development of American manufactures.”
  3. Analyze the important economic after-effects of the World War.
  4. Briefly explain the most satisfactory methods for separating the different types of variation in time series.

B

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Write a brief account of one of the early English trading companies.
  2. Sketch the rise of the modern factory system.
  3. Compare changes in farm ownership and tenancy during the nineteenth century in England and the United States.
  4. Outline the history of banking in the United States from 1830 to 1860.
  5. Write a brief narrative of the early development of the railroad.
  6. Give the history of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
  7. Trace the evolution of the middle class and forecast its future.

C

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Give a critical account of the policy of the Federal Government in its regulation of industrial combinations.
  2. Discuss the history and consequences of immigration into the United States since 1840.
  3. Review the development of German foreign trade before the War with special reference to the methods of trade promotion.
  4. Analyze the causes, extent, and consequences of changes in the price level in the United States since 1914.

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
PUBLIC FINANCE

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. A law of 1691 authorizes the municipal corporations of New York “to impose any reasonable tax upon all houses within said city, in proportion to the benefit they shall receive thereby.” How far is this a correct principle of taxation and how far has it continued to be applied?
  2. Present a classification of Federal expenditures for a national budget system.
  3. Give a brief account of the financial statistics issued currently by the Federal Government.
  4. Discuss the proposal for the cancellation of all inter-allied debts.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. How has the Federal Constitution influenced national and state tax systems in the United States?
  2. Trace the history of an important fiscal monopoly.
  3. Give a brief account of the financial history of one of the American states.
  4. What connections have existed between currency systems and government finance? Illustrate fully.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Compare the total expenditures in the United States in normal times for (a) national, (b) state, and (c) municipal purposes. What changes, if any, in the proportions are to be expected?
  2. To what extent is it desirable to separate state and local revenues in the United States?
  3. Indicate the nature and significance of the “grant in aid” in British public finance.
  4. What arguments have been used in European countries for and against a capital levy?
  5. Should the poll tax be abolished? Why, or why not?
  6. Discuss critically the present condition of the public debt of the United States.

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
MONEY AND BANKING

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. What part, if any, do commercial banks play in (a) the process of investment; (b) the increase of capital; (c) the course of industrial development; (d) leadership in the business world? In what respects, if at all, may the influence of commercial banks be economically inexpedient?
  2. Discuss the desirability of uniform bank accounting in the United States.
  3. Describe critically the more important sources of statistics of currency and credit in the United States.
  4. Analyze the successive phases of the business cycle. What are the causes of financial panics; industrial crises?

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Give a brief account of the life and work of John Law.
  2. Trace the history of usury laws.
  3. Outline the political background of American monetary history from 1870 to 1900.
  4. Give a brief history of the Reichsbank.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. “It is quite clear that the money question no longer survives as a political issue.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  2. To what extent has the status of the gold standard been affected by the World War?
  3. “This little neutral country [Switzerland], surrounded by four great continental belligerents, and bordering on the two principal battle-fronts of Europe, possesses at present, curiously enough, an exceptional purchasing power. This is the consequence of the high level of Swiss currency, which is 250 per cent above the usual parity with the currency of the neighbor in the east, Austria-Hungary; 100 per cent higher than that of the neighbor in the north, Germany; 90 per cent higher than that of the neighbor in the south, Italy; and 20 per cent higher than that of the western neighbor, France. Even in overseas countries, Swiss currency has a higher buying power than the English sovereign or the American dollar.” Explain fully.
  4. What changes have been made in the original Federal Reserve System? What have been the purposes and effects of the changes? What further changes, if any, seem desirable?
  5. Compare the provisions for agricultural credit in two important countries.
  6. Comment upon the following statement: “Prosperity continued through the war, and gave the nation such a tremendous start in business activity that we would still be rejoicing in a period of great prosperity had it not been for the death-dealing blow of deflation of credit given by Mr. Wilson’s Federal Reserve Board.”

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
CORPORATE ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING RAILROADS

Answer six questions

 A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. State the theory of value under conditions of monopoly. In what ways, if at all, is monopoly price affected by (a) cost of production per unit; (b) potential competition; (c) an elastic demand for the product; (d) the existence of satisfactory substitutes for the product; (e) hostile public opinion?
  2. Formulate a statistical classification of business organizations in the United States.
  3. Discuss the apportionment of railway operating expenses between freight and passenger service.
  4. Analyze the valuation of corporate assets from the standpoint of the principles of accounting.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Compare the history of business corporations in England and the United States.
  2. Trace connections between railroad construction in the United States and related political and economic events.
  3. Give a brief narrative of the trust dissolutions of the Federal Government.
  4. What provisions of the Federal Constitution have been most important in determining policies of government regulation of public utilities?

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Discuss the following statement: “The enactment of corporation laws by the various states is the most important step made during the past century in the development of American manufactures.”
  2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of non-par stock?
  3. Discuss the probable consequences of the Supreme Court decision that stock dividends are not income under the income tax law.
  4. What is the nature and importance of good-will in corporation finance?
  5. To what extent may there be differences in the fair valuation of public utilities for the purposes of rate-making, condemnation, taxation, and capitalization?
  6. Did the Government act wisely in returning the railroads March 1, 1920 to their corporate owners for operation? Why, or why not?

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE

Answer six questions 

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Analyze the doctrine of economic rent from agricultural land.
  2. What are the functions of organized speculation in staple agricultural products?
  3. Describe the methods to be employed in making an annual farm inventory.
  4. What subjects are covered by the decennial Federal census of agriculture? What is the statistical value of the results of the several inquiries?

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Trace the history of the relations between landlords and tenants in England.
  2. What have been the most important changes in American agriculture since 1890?
  3. Give a critical account of the land policies of the Federal Government.
  4. Outline the development of the beet sugar industry in Europe.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What factors determine the most efficient size of farms?
  2. What are the advantages of diversification of crops?
  3. Discuss the future of the meat supply of the United States.
  4. Describe and estimate the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods of marketing farm produce.
  5. State and defend a forest conservation policy for the United States.
  6. Compare the provisions for agricultural credit in two important countries.
  7. What are the principal problems of rural community life in the United States?

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
LABOR PROBLEMS

Answer six questions

 A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Discuss the proposal to restrict immigration into the United States by limiting the number of each nationality admitted each year to 3 per cent of the foreign-born of that nationality resident in this country in 1910.
  2. Describe the technique of statistical measurement of the high cost of living.
  3. What are the principal difficulties encountered in the collection of wage statistics?
  4. Analyze the relations between high money wages and high commodity prices.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Describe the early development of the factory system.
  2. Trace the origins of trade-unionism in the United States.
  3. Write a brief narrative of the movement for a shorter working day.
  4. Review the relations between organized labor and the steel industry in the United States.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is “the labor problem”?
  2. Compare American and British labor leadership. How do you account for the differences?
  3. “Employers must be free to employ their work people at wages mutually satisfactory, without interference or dictation on the part of individuals or organizations not directly parties to such contracts.” Comment.
  4. Discuss a proposed law providing that “in the establishment of salaries for school teachers in the city of—, there shall be no discrimination based on sex or otherwise, but teachers and principals rendering the same service shall receive equal pay.”
  5. “The principle that each industry shall support its own unemployed is one that must be established if a real solution of unemployment is to be made.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  6. Discuss the relation of shop committees to trade-unionism.

_______________________________

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Discuss the following contention: “The landlord is a parasite since he consumes without producing.”
  2. What is the meaning of “over-population”?
  3. “Hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.” Comment critically.
  4. What are the interactions of human instincts and modern factory labor?
  5. Discuss the nature and bases of economic prosperity.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Describe the evolution of language.
  2. Trace the history of the middle class and forecast its future.
  3. Give a brief historical account of the status of women.
  4. What have been the chief cultural consequences of the machine process?

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is the province of sociology?
  2. Discuss the family as a necessary social unit.
  3. Describe the leading forms of conflict and their effect upon group life. Why are some forms to be preferred to others? What are the factors which determine the forms actually prevailing at any time?
  4. Analyze the sources of prestige and influence in modern society.
  5. “From the standpoint of progress, the value of the individual depends on the excess of his production over his consumption.” Discuss.
  6. What are the criteria and causes of racial superiority?

_______________________________

Examinations not transcribed for this post

History:

General Examination
Special Examinations: Mediaeval History; English History; Modern European History to 1789; Modern History since 1789; American History

Government:

General Examination
Special Examinations: American Government; Municipal Government; Political Theory; International Law

_______________________________

Source: Harvard University Archives. Divisional and general examinations, 1915-1975 (HUC 7000.18). Box 6, Bound Volume (stamped “Private Library Arthur H. Cole”) “Divisional Examinations 1916-1927”.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus, readings, exams for agricultural economics. Galbraith, 1938-39

John Kenneth Galbraith, not quite 25 years of age

The first association made in one’s mind upon hearing the name John Kenneth Galbraith is certainly not “agricultural economics”, but that was the field in which his academic career began and indeed it was what got his foot into the door at Harvard. In his papers at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library one can find some material for his courses that is not to be found in the Harvard archives, such as the course outline and reading assignments for his year-long course taught in 1938-39 to undergraduates and graduate students, “Economics of Agriculture”. 

Economics in the Rear-View Mirror tops off Galbraith’s syllabus and reading list with enrollment figures and semester exams transcribed from material in the Harvard Archives.

_____________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 72. Dr. Galbraith—Economics of Agriculture.

Total 41: 2 Graduates, 33 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1938-1939, p. 98.

_____________________________

Outline of the Course.
Three objectives.

  1. Some idea of the agriculture of the United States and Western Europe—that which one is likely to encounter. Two aspects:
    1. Type of production
    2. Kind of agricultural organization. Meaning.
  2. An understanding of the economics of the agricultural industry.
    Previous experience with economic theory
    Parts of a course such as this to see if it can be clothed with factual material and made useful.
    Peculiar advantages of agriculture.
  3. Building on the previous two stages, we turn to agricultural policy. What is agricultural policy? The farm problem.
    —we examine the factors underlying economic difficulties of agriculture in recent years, the causes of distress. The way the United States has attempted to meet is farm problem and the various policies which may be contemplated in the future.
    —we will attempt to compare this with the policy of other countries.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Economics 71
(First half year)
Reading List

Persia Campbell, American Agricultural Policy, pp. 1-55.

President’s Report on Farm Tenancy in the U.S., pp. 35-49, 3-20. [cf. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924074241344 ]

C.O. Brannen. Relation of Land Tenure to Plantation Organization. U.S.D.A. Bulletin 1269, 1924-25, p. 3, 8-38, 60-67.

The Future of the Great Plains. Report of the Great Plains Committee, pp. 1-89.

Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition. Pp. 1-116.

Dennison and Galbraith. Modern Competition and Business Policy, pp. 1 to 109.

Garver and Hanson. Principles of Economics, Chapter V.

Black and Black. Production Organization, pp. 109-145, 255-260 inc.

Cassels, J. M. On the Law of Variable Proportions in Explorations in Economics, p. 223.

Galbraith and Black, Maintenance of Agricultural Production, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1938.

ECONOMICS 71
Syllabus – 1938-39

Chapter I.
A General Survey of Agricultural Production

    1. The agriculture of the United States. The livestock and crop production of the different regions of the United States. The classification of American agriculture by “type-of-farming”. A review of the type-of-farming map of the United States.
    2. The agricultural systems of the United States. The family farm. Ownership und tenancy. Part-time agriculture in the East. Large-scale and corporation forms in the Great Plains and West. Plantation and cropper agriculture in the South. Retrograde and decayed agricultural production in in the southern Appalachians.[Hand-written marks on the carbon copy indicate that (c) and (d) were not covered.]
    3. English agriculture. Character of agricultural production in England. The large land-owners and tenant farming. Independent ownership in England.
    4. Western Europe and the Danube Basin. (i) a survey of the agricultural map and agricultural production of Western Europe. (ii) The agricultural systems of the Continent. Peasant agriculture and types of peasant culture and organization. The distinction between peasant and farmer. Estate or Junker agriculture.

Chapter II
The Competitive Structure of Agricultural Enterprise as a Whole

    1. Monopoly, monopolistic — and pure competition. Review of the theoretical categories of competitive organization. Comparison of competitive organization in agriculture with that in industry. Comparisons of competitive structure in agricultural production with that in the supply of agricultural production goods.
    2. the significance of “pure” competition in agriculture

— in relation to agricultural price behavior
— in relation to behavior of agricultural production
— in relation to the variability of agricultural income.

Chapter III
The Organization of the Individual Farm Enterprise

    1. Theoretical differences between the adjustment of industry and agriculture to economic change. the significance of the coincidence of marginal with average revenue in agriculture.
    2. The combination of the factors of production. Diminishing returns. The highest profit combination in agriculture.
    3. Practical considerations in achieving optimum returns. The combination of enterprises. Budgeting technique. the effect of the period of production and the problem of price forecasting.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Economics 71
Outline and Reading List
Second Half-Year, 1938-39

Chapter IV.
The Financing of Agriculture

    1. the nature of the financial requirements of the farmer. Land purchase credit; credit for durable capital; production credit.
    2. Recent trends in the development of agricultural credit institutions. The transition from private to public institutions.
    3. The riddle of public credit policy.

Readings:

Farm Credit Administration. Annual Report 1937. Pp. 15-83.

Galbraith. The Farmer’s Banking System; Four Years of F.C.A. Operations. Harvard Business Review. Spring 1937.

Galbraith. The Federal Land Banks and Agricultural Stability. Journal of Farm Economics, February, 1937.

Chapter V.
Agricultural Land

    1. The development of American land policy; the transition from free land to private ownership and full utilization.
    2. The problem of optimum utilization. The margin of desirable use. The reasons for sub-marginal utilization. The alternative uses of sub-marginal farm lands and the techniques for controlling land use.
    3. The economic aspects of the erosion problem.

Readings:

Hibbard, B. H. A History of the Public Land Policy, Chapters I, XIII, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XXVII, XXVIII.

National Resources Board. Part II. Report of the Land Planning Committee. Pp. 108-134, 154-202. A general rather than a detailed examination of this report is expected. Attention is called to other sections of the report.

U.S. Department of Agriculture. To Hold This Soil. Misc. Publication 321. 1938. Copies may be obtained from U.S.D.A, or Congressman.

Chapter VI
Agricultural Labor.

    1. General character of agricultural labor force. Family labor, the individual worker, seasonal and spring labor. Trade union organization in agriculture. Ownership aspirations of the agricultural laborer and the so-called agricultural ladder.

Readings:

Social Problems in Agriculture. I.L.O., 1938. Pp. 23-38, 40-54, 57-71, 72-97.

[International Labour Office. Studies and Reports, Series K (Agriculture) Social Problems in Agriculture. Record of the Permanent Agricultural Committee of the I.L.O. (7-15 February 1938). Geneva]

Chapter VII
The Agricultural Policy of the United States

    1. Proposal and legislation for farm relief during the 1920’s.
    2. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the farm program of the New Deal.

Readings:

Nourse, Davise, Black. Three Years of the Agricultural Adjustment, pp. 1-245.

Report of the Secretary of Agriculture 1938. pp. 1-68. This may be obtained from Office of Information, U.S.D.A. or a Congressman.

[There is a bracket for Chapter VIII hand-marked on Galbraith’s personal copy, from this and the final exam it appears that these topics were likely not covered in the course.]

Chapter VIII.
Comparative Aspects of Foreign Agricultural Policy

    1. The agricultural policy of Great Britain.
    2. The agricultural policies of Sweden and Denmark.
    3. Autarchial agricultural policy in Germany and Italy.
    4. The determinants of agricultural policy in review.

Readings:

Bonow, M. Agricultural Policy: Lessons from Sweden.

Denmark. Agriculture. The Agricultural Council. Look over and cf. particularly pp. 9-26, 287-316.

Marquis Child. Farmer-Labor Relations in Scandinavia. Yale Review, Autumn, 1938.

Karl T. Schmidt. The Plough and the Sword, pp. 1-175.

R. A. Brady. Spirit and Structure of German Fascism. Pp. 213-291.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 71
Mid-year Examination
1938-39.

  1. (Reading period material.) Write for about three-quarters of an hour on one of the following topics:
    How the United States government has disposed of its land.
    Proposed measures for farm relief in the 1920’s.
    The objectives and methods of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration 1933-36.
  2. What do you understand by the phrase “a system of agriculture”? With reference to your statement, outline the major systems of agriculture in the United States.
  3. Discuss the competitive organization of the agricultural industry and indicate the economic possibilities and limitations upon collective action by farmers for increasing their income.
    Cite relevant examples where possible.
  4. What difficulties would you expect to encounter in endeavoring to determine the cost of producing milk in New England assuming that farmers are ready to furnish you all available data?
  5. How does agricultural output behavior differ from that of industry during depression and why? Enter fully upon the theoretical aspects of this question and discuss critically.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Bound volume Mid-Year Examinations—1939 in Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 13.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 71
Final Examination
1938-39.

  1. (Reading period material.) Write for about three-quarters of an hour on the application of the ideas of either Henry George or Thorstein Veblen to the problems of present day agriculture.
  2. “The agricultural laborer is truly the forgotten man. Unorganized, isolated, ill-paid and over-worked his plight is not even sufficiently well-known so that it bothers the nation’s conscience.”
    Discuss fully and critically
  3. Discuss and contrast the effects of (a) a too generous and (b) a too niggardly supply of farm mortgage credit under various conditions of agricultural prosperity and depression. Do not present an historical material that is not relevant to your answer.
  4. Explain as you see it, the relationship between private ownership of land and the problems of conservation and soil erosion.
  5. Is production control by the Federal government necessary to the well-being of American agriculture? Justify your answer fully.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science (June, 1939) in Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4.

Image Source: Photo of John Kenneth Galbraith attached to his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States submitted on June 16, 1933 in Oakland California.
Fun fact: JKG weighed in at 180 pounds (81.65 kg) with a height of 6 ft 8 inches (2 m, 3 cm).  BMI = 19.8.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for economics of agriculture. Carver, 1903-1904

 

In the second term of the 1903-04 academic year at Harvard, Professor Thomas Nixon Carver added a course in agricultural economics to his teaching portfolio. He was raised on a farm so this applied field must have been close to his heart. Details of his rural upbringing can be found in his autobiography, Recollections of an Unplanned Life (Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1949).

A problem set for this course has been transcribed and posted previously.

___________________________

Course Enrollment

Economics 23 2hf. Professor Carver. — The Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions.

Total 99: 5 Graduates, 32 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 17 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 15 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

___________________________

ECONOMICS 23
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

  1. How does the agricultural group of industries in the United States compare in importance with the manufacturing group?
  2. Describe the principal classes of soils found in the United States, and state, in a general way, in what regions each class pre-dominates.
  3. What are the chief advantages of the rotation and diversification of crops?
  4. What, according to the evidence collected by the United States Industrial Commission, are the chief obstacles to successful agriculture?
  5. What are the chief factors which tend to build up the cities more rapidly than the rural districts?
  6. Why does wheat growing tend to move more rapidly than corn growing toward newer countries?
  7. What are the chief factors affecting international competition in corn, wheat, and cotton?
  8. How do the price of land and the cost of labor affect the intensity of cultivation in any community? Explain fully.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, p. 41.

Image Source: Figure 15, “A pioneer mode of breaking the land.” from T.N. Carver’s “Historical Sketch of American Agriculture,” in the Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. IV, edited by Liberty Hyde Bailey. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909, pp. 39-70.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Chicago Economists

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Edwin Ferdinand Dummeier, 1926

 

From the University of Chicago economics department records we can assemble a fairly complete account of the process of earning a doctorate in economics for the agricultural economist Edwin F. Dummeier who entered the Chicago program with a year’s worth of graduate credit. Dummeier’s five quarters in Chicago (from Summer 1925 through Summer 1926) in residence seems to be a lower bound at a time when the official regulations had been changed to state that as a general rule three years residence in graduate studies were expected of Ph.D. degree candidates. 

It appears to me that Dummeier’s undergraduate degree at L.S.U. was the result of regular summer school attendance while teaching/administering during the regular school year. His collection of graduate credits from the Universities of California, Wisconsin, and Colorado also show a considerable portion of summer school credit. It is interesting to see that he could apparently be appointed the principal of a Louisiana high school without having a completed college education. 

________________________

Brief c.v. of Edwin Ferdinand Dummeier

1887, April 4. Born in Metropolis, Illinois.

1910-1917. Principal of Leesville, Louisiana High School

1917-1918. Principal of Minden High School, Webster Parish, Louisiana.

1918. A.B. Louisiana State University

1921. M.A. University of Colorado.

1921-23. Instructor in economics, Washington State College (Pullman, WA).

1923-1925. Assistant Professor, Washington State College (Pullman, WA).

1926. Ph.D. University of Chicago. Thesis: The marketing of Pacific coast fruits in Chicago.

1926-46. Professor of Economics, State College of Washington, Pullman, Wash.

1944, June 19. Married Binna Mason, school teacher

1946, June 17. Died in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Biggest publication:

Edwin F Dummeier and Richard Brooks Heflebower. Economics: with applications to agriculture. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1940.

________________________

Dummeier’s application for graduate credit towards an economics Ph.D. from Chicago

The University of Chicago
The Graduate School of Arts and Literature
Office of the Dean

August 19, 1925

Mr. J. A. Field
Faculty Exchange:

I enclose application for graduate credit from Mr. Edwin F. Dummeier who is a graduate student in residence this quarter. While he is doing most of his work in Commerce and Administration at present, he wishes to go into Political Economy, and so I am asking you to estimate the amount of credit in Pol. Econ. that ought to be given in majors and in quarters for the work he lists. Please return the certificates from the University of California and the University of Wisconsin.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
G. J. Laing
Dean

GJL:M

________________________

Department will recognize three quarters of graduate work

August 29, 1925

Dean G. J. Laing
University of Chicago
Faculty Exchange

My dear Mr. Laing:

I enclose herewith application for graduate credit for Edwin F. Dummeier which I have certified as representing in my judgment the substantial equivalent of three quarters of graduate work in Political Economy.

Sincerely yours,

[unsigned copy, J.A. Field]

JAF:MLH
Enclosure

________________________

Dummeier proposing his examination fields and requesting departmental review of all his coursework to identify any further course requirements

5757 University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois,
January 21, 1926

Professor L.C. Marshall, Chairman,
Department of Political Economy
The University of Chicago.

Dear Sir:

Announcements from the Department of Political Economy to persons intending to become candidates for the Ph.D. degree state that “the candidate, subject to the advice and approval of the Department,” may choose his fields for specialization and written examination from designated lists. Other announcements of the University state that in the Graduate Schools of Arts, Literature and Science the courses to be offered must be “approved by the Deans of the Graduate Schools at least six months before the degree is conferred. The individual courses must receive the approval of the heads of the departments concerned.” It is also stated that the Department of Political Economy will ordinarily approve as an essential part of a student’s preparation for the degree a considerable amount of work in allied departments.”

In consideration of these announcements I am herby submitting the following statement of fields which, with the approval of the Department, I propose to designate as fields of specialization and examination: (1) General Economic Theory; (2) Market Structures and Functions, this being the thesis field; (3) The Pecuniary and Financial System; (4) Transportation and Communication.

Furthermore, I am submitting a list of courses in the past pursued and a statement of courses which I have taught, in order that the Department may take definite action of a character which will enable me to plan my work in the future with an assurance that all course requirements are being met.

My undergraduate work included courses in the principles of economics and accounting. It also included courses in history and political science.

Graduate work thus far completed and courses for which I am registered for this quarter are as follows:

Political Economy

At the University of Colorado, six quarters, 1919-1921
Money and Banking 24 weeks 2 hours per week
Taxation 36 weeks 2 hours per week
Socialism 24 weeks 2 hours per week
Immigration 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Business Organization 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Seminar in Economics 12 weeks 2 hours per week
Thesis, “Financing Public Education in Colorado,” 6 quarter hours credit.

 

At the University of California, summer 1923
Transportation, principles [& Hist. (Dixon)] 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Transportation, current problems 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Pacific Coast Rate Problems 6 weeks 5 hours per week

 

At the University of Wisconsin, summer 1924
The Classical Economists [Physiocrats thru J. S. Mill] 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Farmer Movements 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Statistics 6 weeks 7½ hours per week

 

At the University of Chicago, summer, spring, and winter Qtrs. 1925-26
Course No.
334 Money and Prices 1 major
388A Cooperative Marketing 1 major
388B Marketing Farm Products 1 major
301 Neoclassical Economics 1 major
345 Personnel Administration 1 major
386 Terminal Marketing Research 1 major
C & A. 375 Business Forecasting 1 major
335 Bus.Finance and Investment 1 major
499 Terminal Marketing Research 1 major

 

Sociology

At the University of Colorado, 1919-1921
Social Problems (poverty) 12 weeks 2 hours per week
Rural Sociology 12 weeks 2 hours per week
Psychological Sociology 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Social Viewpoints and Attitudes 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Criminology 12 weeks 2 hours per week

 

History

At the University of Colorado, 1919-1921
Colonization of North America 24 weeks 2 hours per week
The Westward Movement 6 weeks 5 hours per week

 

Education

At the University of Colorado, 1919-1921
History and Philosophy of Education 24 weeks 3 hours per week
Seminar in Education 24 weeks 2 hours per week

 

Political Science

At the University of Colorado, 1919-1921
Municipal Functions and Problems 12 weeks 3 hours per week
International Law 12 weeks 3 hours per week
World Govt. and Politics 6 weeks 5 hours per week
Political Parties and Party Problems 24 weeks 2 hours per week

 

Summary

Majors
Work in Political Economy at other institutions, certified by the Department of Political Economy of the University of Chicago as equivalent to… 8½
Work in Political Economy at the University of Chicago… 9
Work in Sociology at other institutions, certified by the Dept. of Sociology of the Univ. of Chicago as equiv. to … 2½
Work in History at other institutions, certified by the Dept. of History of the Univ. of Chicago as equiv. to… 1½
Work in Education at other institutions, certified by the School of Education of the Univ. of Chicago as equiv. to… 2
Work in Pol. Science at other institutions, certified by the Dept. of Pol. Science of the Univ. of Chicago as equiv. to… 3
Total majors in Political Economy… 17½
Total majors in other subjects… 9
Grand Total… 26½

 

For the past four years I have been a member of the faculty of the Department of Economics of the State College of Washington, for the past three years with the rank of assistant professor of economics. During this time I have taught the following subjects, having given courses in all of these subjects several times: (1) Economic Geography; (2) Foreign Trade; (3) Railway Transportation; (4) Agricultural Economics; (5) Marketing Farm Products; (6) Co-operative Marketing of Farm Products; (7) Money and Banking; (8) Principles of Economics, elementary and intermediate courses.

For the spring quarter I am planning to register for Political Economy 303, Modern Tendencies in Economics, to continue the research work on my thesis subject, and if advised to do so to register for one additional course. I do not expect to be able to complete the thesis by the close of the spring quarter, but am trusting that I may be able to meet all course requirements and to complete the thesis and take the thesis examination before the close of the summer quarter.

It appears evident that my course requirements are dependent upon the amount of work in allied departments, consisting of courses already completed in other institutions, which will be approved by the Department as a part of the preparation for the degree. I am submitting this statement in the hope that I may have from the Department at an early date definite notification of the courses which I shall have yet to complete in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree.

Certified transcripts of records of courses completed at other institutions and of the valuations placed upon this work by the various departments of the University of Chicago, as enumerated in this communication, are on file in the office of the Deans of the Graduate Schools.

Respectfully yours,
[signed]
Edwin F. Dummeier

________________________

Dummeier proposing his doctoral thesis subject

5757 University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois,
January 21, 1926

Professor L.C. Marshall, Chairman,
Department of Political Economy
The University of Chicago.

Dear Sir:

I am hereby presenting for your approval the subject and a brief prospectus of the thesis which I propose later to submit in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Economy. The subject of the proposed thesis is “The Marketing of Pacific Coast Fruits in Chicago”.

While the prospectus is designed to give some idea of the general nature of the proposed study, it does not indicate the degrees of relative intensity with which it is proposed to treat the various phases of the general subject. All phases will be treated to the extent of critically surveying the existing literature pertaining to them and making some supplementary field study. But the study as a whole will be based not on existing literature, but on original field observations and a study of commercial records. As an exhaustive study of all phases of proposed subject by these methods is beyond the capacity of any one individual it is proposed to investigate with much more detail some phases than others. The degree with which this specialization will be devoted to particular ones of the subheads listed in the outline will depend in part upon the degree of cooperation received from the trade and, therefore cannot be definitely stated in advance. Representative, however, as a phase of the general subject in regard to which there is at the present time only the most meager published information and which may be studied is the fruit and vegetable auction as a marketing institution. As the auction is mostly used in connection with the marketing of Pacific Coast products this would be a natural subdivision of the main subject.

The whole study has as its primary object the evaluation of existing methods in regard to these products as to their social efficiency and social significance.

Yours respectfully,
[signed]
E. F. Dummeier

Thesis
THE MARKETING OF PACIFIC COAST FRUITS IN CHICAGO

Chapter

  1. Introduction
    1. The importance of the study
    2. Method of treatment
      1. Emphasis on a few commodities, especially apples
      2. Emphasis on change and development in marketing methods
    3. Specific objectives
      1. Primary objective: To evaluate comparative merits of different methods of performing marketing services.
      2. Secondary objectives: To show the relation of Chicago to the producing areas; to describe physical facilities of the market and the physical movements of these products thru the market; to determine costs of marketing these products and reasons for these costs; to examine factors influencing demand and to examine trends of change and their causes.
  2. Chicago and the Regions of Supply
    1. Data on production, arrivals, and unloads at Chicago. Data on storage movements and reshipments from Chicago.
    2. The historical development of the industry, its present status, and its current trends.
  3. The Physical Facilities of the Market and Physical Commodity Movements
    1. Transportation services and facilities
    2. Wholesale receiving
    3. Auctions
    4. Peddlers
    5. Retailers
  4. Carload Distributors, Brokers, and Carload Receivers
    1. Numbers and classes of dealers
    2. Marketing services performed and trade practices
    3. Charges for services
  5.  Auctions
    1. Extent of movement thru auctions
    2. Auction methods
    3. Auction charges
  6. Jobbers and Shippers
    1. Numbers and classes of dealers
    2. Methods of buying and selling
    3. Margins and costs
  7.  Retailers
    1. Numbers and classes of dealers
    2. Methods of buying and selling
    3. Margins and costs
  8. Marketing Costs
    1. Critical consideration of marketing costs, especially of oranges and apples, on the basis of differences in marketing methods employed until time of sale to jobbers.
    2. Particular consideration of the desirability of selling at auction.
  9. Marketing Costs (Continued)
    1. Critical consideration of marketing costs subsequent to time of sale to jobbers
  10. Factors Influencing Demand
  11. Summary and General Conclusions

________________________

Department approves Dummeier’s thesis subject

January 27, 1926

Mr. E. F. Dummeier
5757 University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

My dear Mr. Dummeier:

The Department of Political Economy accepts as your thesis subject “The Marketing of Pacific Coast Fruits in Chicago.”

It is our understanding that you will carry on work in connection with this thesis under Mr. Duddy.

Yours very sincerely,
[Unsigned copy, L.C. Marshall]

LCM:MLH

________________________

Department Head Marshall asks his colleague to double-check the Dummeier transcripts for possible feedback

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy
February 1, 1926

Mr. C. W. Wright
University of Chicago
Faculty Exchange

My dear Mr. Wright:

I enclose a letter from Mr. Dummeier. I have written him concerning the field “Transportation and Communication.” Perhaps you will wish to look over his statement of courses and credits to see if any action needs to be taken concerning them.

Yours very sincerely,
[signed]
L.C. Marshall

LCM:MLH
Enclosure

________________________

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

Edwin F. Dummeier

A. B. University of Louisiana, 1918
A. M. University of Colorado, 1921

Summer Quarter, 1925

Pol Econ. 334 A
C & A 388 A
C & A 388B A

French and German Exams. Passed. Sept. 1, 1925

Grad. Work in other insti. September 1, 1925

University of Colorado
Soc. (Faris) 2½ majors
Residence credit 1 Quarter

Grad. work in other insti. September 3, 1925

University of Colorado
Pol. Econ. (Field) 5½ majors
Residence credit 2 Quarters

 

University of California and Wisconsin
Pol. Econ. (Field) 3 majors
Residence credit 1 Quarter

 

Autumn Quarter, 1925

Pol Econ. 301 A
C & A 313 [blank]
C & A 345 A
C & A 385 A
C & A 386 A

 

Grad. work in other insti. Jan 4, 1925

University of Colorado
Educ. (C.H. Judd) 2
Pol. Sci. (C.E. Merriam) 3
Residence Credit 1 Quarter
History (C.F. Huth) 1 ½
Residence Credit ½ Quarter

________________________

Department requests clarification regarding the proposed field “Transportation and Communication”

February 1, 1926

Mr. E. F. Dummeier
5757 University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

My dear Mr. Dummeier:

It seems entirely probable that the Department will approve the four fields suggested in your letter of January 21st.

The Department has, however, asked me to secure from you a more detailed statement of your understanding of the territory that would be covered by the field “Transportation and Communication.”

Yours very sincerely,

[Unsigned: L. C. Marshall]

LCM:MLH

________________________

Schedule of written field examinations

February 2, 1926

Mr. E. F. Dummeier
5757 University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

My dear Mr. Dummeier:

This is just to let you know that I have you scheduled to take the following examinations on the dates mentioned.

February 13, Economic Theory. 8:30 A.M.

February 20th, Pecuniary and Financial Systems, 8:30 A.M.

February 27th, Transportation and Communication 8:30 A.M.

The questions will be given out at Harper E 57. Please let me know at once if the above schedule is incorrect.

Yours very sincerely,
[Unsigned copy: Margaret McKugo]

MM:MLH

________________________

Dummeier clarifies his understanding of the field “Transportation and Communication”

5757 University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois,
February 4, 1926

Professor L.C. Marshall, Chairman,
Department of Political Economy
The University of Chicago.

Dear Sir:

In reply to your letter of February 1st I am hereby submitting the following as my understanding of the territory that would be covered by the field “Transportation and Communication”, which was proposed by me as one of my fields of specialization in my candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.

As to agencies, I understand the field to include all the agencies of land and water transportation. Major emphasis should, however, be placed upon railway transportation in the United States. Agencies supplying communication other than physical transportation would include the telephone and telegraph. As compared with railway transportation these are of less importance, and as they present relatively few distinctive problems they may be said to be somewhat incidental to the main field.

With regard to the above mentioned agencies consideration should be given to phenomena and problems of the character of those with which Political Economy in general concerns itself. These should include the following:

  1. The historical development of the various transportation agencies,
  2. The services performed and economic significance of the various agencies,
  3. Theories of rate making, particularly railway rates,
  4. Rate making practices and rate systems,
  5. Railroad finance,
  6. Sufficient knowledge of the technic of operation to be able to consider intelligently questions of public policy with regard to railroads and other transportation agencies,
  7. The economic and legal bases of the regulation of public carriers and the history of their public promotion and regulation,
  8. Various present day transportation problems in which the general public has an interest, such as valuation, consolidation, and government ownership or operation.

The above indicates the general scope and to some extent the relative emphasis of the constituent parts of the field of Transportation and Communication as a field of Political Economy as I understand it.

Most respectfully yours,
[signed]
Edwin F. Dummeier

________________________

Wright’s Response to Marshall’s Feb. 1, 1926 Inquiry

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
The School of Commerce and Administration

Memorandum to Marshall from Wright
[no date, but probably early Feb. 1926]

After surveying Mr. Dummeier’s record of courses taken, it seems to me that in the four fields chosen he has not covered the following.

Theory: History of Theory. Only partly covered.

Unsettled Problems. He plans to take this in the Spring.

Marketing: Advertising. I am not certain as to this.

Transportation: Public Control of Railroads.

Of the specific general requirement he has covered Statistics and Accounting but not Economic History of the U.S. I gathered from the discussion at the Dept. meeting that the members of the Department would refuse to tell him specific courses that were required, though personally I do not consider this a reasonable attitude.

C.W.W.

________________________

Response of Department to Dummeier’s follow-up regarding his examination field “Transportation and Communication”

March 2, 1926

Mr. E. F. Dummeier
5737 University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

My dear Mr. Dummeier:

I spoke to Mr. Wright and he told me that your recommendation had come before the Department, but he could not at this time give you a written statement concerning it. He is turning your letter over to Mr. Marshall who will write you as soon as he returns to the office.

Yours very sincerely,
[Unsigned copy: Margaret McKugo]

MM:MLH

________________________

Economics Department Record of Dummeier’s Written Ph.D. Examination Grades
(First attempt)

Winter Qr. 1926

E. F. Dummeier

Economic Theory

Viner — Pass Fair
Clark — B

Pec. And Fin. Sys.

Mints — Failed
Wright — C
Meech — Failed

Trans. & Com.

Clark — Passed
Sorrell — [Blank]
Duddy — Passed

________________________

Department’s decisions
regarding credits recognized
plus advice on “possible gaps”

March 16, 1926

Mr. E. F. Dummeier
5757 University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

My dear Mr. Dummeier:

After examining your credits as officially certified by various departmental representatives it seems clear that you have met the general requirements as far as the total number of majors is concerned.

The only issues outstanding are these:

  1. There is a requirement that a candidate for the doctor’s degree shall have covered work in the Economic History of the United States. I am uncertain whether you have taken care of this requirement.
  2. You will, of course, need to be prepared to pass the examinations in four fields. As you know no specific courses are required in connection with these examinations. The candidate is expected to work up each field in a rather comprehensive way.

Certain questions arise in my mind with respect to these examinations. Have you prepared yourself in the field of Public Control of Railroads? Have you done so in the general field of Advertising? Have you done so in the History of Economic Thought? You will, I am sure, realize that these inquiries do not indicate the necessity of your taking specific courses in these territories. I mention them merely as possible gaps in your thinking in these fields.

Yours very sincerely,
[Unsigned copy: L. C. Marshall]

LCM:MLH

________________________

Dummeier informed that he passed two of his three written examinations
[Carbon copy]

March 24, 1926

Mr. E. F. Dummeier
5757 University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

My dear Mr. Dummeier:

The final reports for the written examinations taken by you during the Winter Quarter, 1926 in partial satisfaction for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy are as follows:

Economic Theory — Passed

Pecuniary and Financial System — Failed

Transportation and Communication — Passed

Yours very sincerely,
[Unsigned copy: L. C. Marshall]

LCM:MLH

________________________

Economics Department Record of Dummeier’s Written Examination Grades
(Second attempt: Pecuniary and Financial Systems Field)

Pecuniary and Financial Systems

Mints — Pass
Cox — Pass

________________________

Dummeier told he successfully passes his third written examinations
[Carbon copy]

June 8, 1926

Mr. E. F. Dummeier
5757 University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

My dear Mr. Dummeier:

I am pleased to report that you have passed the Pecuniary and Financial System examination, taken in the Spring Quarter, 1926, in partial satisfaction for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Yours very sincerely,
[Unsigned copy: L. C. Marshall]

LCM:MLH

________________________

Dummeier’s Principal Advisor not in Chicago during the summer quarter (when the thesis is expected to be completed and submitted)

The University of Chicago
Local Community Research Committee
Address: Faculty Exchange. The University of Chicago

June 7, 1926

Mr. L.C. Marshall, Dean
Department of Political Economy
University of Chicago

Dear Mr. Marshall:

My absence during the Summer Quarter means that some one must supervise the students who have been working under me in community research. Mr. Dummeier, who plans to get his degree in Political Economy, is quite well along with his work and I should like to recommend that either Mr. Wright or Mr. Viner look after him. He is going to develop a section on price study and Viner would be a help there.

The other men, Davidson, Journey and Weaver, are planning to come up in Commerce and Administration, and I am making recommendations to Mr. Spencer to take care of them. In the case of all of these men, I shall want to read copies of their theses as they come in. Both Mr. Dummeier and Mr. Journey have their outlines fully developed and have begun to write.

Yours very truly,

[signed]
E.A. Duddy

EAD:JS

________________________

Department Head Marshall turns to Jacob Viner
for last-minute thesis advice

June 8, 1926

[Memorandum to:] Jacob Viner

[From:] L. C. Marshall

Mr. Dummeier has been working with Mr. Duddy, but Mr. Duddy is to be away this coming summer. I wonder if you would be willing to look after Mr. Dummeier’s work on the thesis since he is planning to develop a section on price study.

The matter is one upon which the Department needs to take action in view of the fact that Mr. Dummeier plans to take his degree in Political Economy.

LCM:MLH

_______________________

Viner “gratefully” accepts the “chore”

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

June 10, 1926

Mr. L. C. Marshall
Faculty Exchange

My dear Mr. Marshall:

You may send on Mr. Dummeier to me. I will take over the job of supervision of his research during Mr. Duddy’s absence, inasmuch as I have been unable to think up a good excuse for evading the chore.

Gratefully yours,
[signed]
Jacob Viner

_______________________

Notification that Viner Will Serve as Substitute Research Supervisor

June 17, 1926

Mr. E. F. Dummeier
5757 University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois

My dear Mr. Dummeier:

I have had a note from Mr. Viner indicating his willingness to supervise your research in Mr. Duddy’s absence.

Yours very sincerely,
[Unsigned copy: L. C. Marshall]

LCM:MLH

________________________

Official Examination Notice for E. F. Dummeier
(with Prof. Meech’s scribbled note that he will be unable to attend)

________________________

COURSES PRESENTED BY EDWIN F. DUMMEIER
FOR THE DEGREE Ph.D. IN ECONOMICS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Majors
Pol. Econ. 334 Money and Prices. Hardy 1
C & A 388 B Marketing Farm Products, Weld 1
C & A 388 A Cooperative Farm Marketing. Jesness 1
Pol. Econ. 301 Neo-Classical Economics. Viner 1
C & A 345. Personnel Administration. Stone 1
C & A 386 Terminal Marketing Research. Duddy 1
C & A 355 Business Finance and Investment. Meech 1
C & A 375 Business Forecasting. Cox 1
Pol. Econ. 499 Terminal Marketing Research Duddy 3
Pol. Econ. 499 Terminal Marketing Research. Viner 3
TOTAL 14

Graduate Work at Other Institutions

Economics
Transportation. Principles Univ. of Cal. Dixon
Transportation. Current Problem[s]. Univ. of Cal. Dixon
Pacific Coast Rate Problems. Univ. of Cal. Harraman
Farmer Movements. Univ. of Wis. Hibbard
The Classical Economists. Univ. of Wis. Scott
Statistics. Univ. of Wis. Lescohier
Money and Banking. Univ. of Colo. Ingram
Taxation. Univ. of Colo. Ingram
Immigration. Univ. of Colo. Ingram
Business Organization. Univ. of Colo. Ingram
Seminar in Economics. Univ. of Colo. Bushee
Thesis “Financing Public Education in Colorado.”
Total (Field) 8½
Economics Total   22½

 

 

Education Total Judd 2
Sociology Total Faris 2½
Political Science Total Merriam 3
History Total Huth 1½
Grand Total   31½

 

________________________

Memo from Millis announcing/reminding about oral examination date
[Carbon copy]

The University of Chicago
The Department of Political Economy

August 17, 1926

Memorandum to:

N. W. Barnes [Associate Professor of Marketing]
P. A. Douglas [Associate Professor of Industrial Relations]
L. H. Grinstead [Visiting Assistant Professor from Ohio State University]
G. G. Huebner [Visiting Professor from the U. of Pennsylvania]
L. C. Sorrell [Assistant Professor of Transportation and Communication]
Jacob Viner [Professor of Political Economy]
C. W. Wright [Professor of Political Economy]

From: H. A. Millis

This is just to let you know that E. F. Dummeier will come up for his oral examination on Monday, August 23, at 3 o’clock in Harper E 57.

If it is impossible for you to be present will you please notify Miss McKugo in Harper E 57?

________________________

Memo from Millis announcing/reminding about oral examination date
[Carbon copy]

[Memorandum To:] L. S. Lyon [Visiting Professor from Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government]

[From: H. A. Millis]

August 18, 1926

This is just to let you know that E. F. Dummeier will come up for his oral examination on Monday, August 23, at 3 o’clock in Harper E 57.

If it is impossible for you to be present will you please notify Miss McKugo in Harper E 57?

________________________

A “Thank-you” to Marshall for his support
Note: Dunnmeier’s article on auctions apparently never published

 

The State College of Washington
Pullman, Washington
Department of Business Administration

December 28, 1926.

Professor Leon C. Marshall
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

Dear Professor Marshall:

I am enclosing herewith a review of Benton’s “Marketing of Farm Products” for the Journal of Political Economy. I had hoped to have gotten this review to you at an earlier date, but teaching duties have kept me so busy as to delay its completion somewhat longer than I anticipated.

Not long ago I received a letter from professor Duddy, in which he stated that you had spoken to him with regard to my writing an article for the Journal on the fruit auction as a marketing agency, the article to be based on my first hand research work in Chicago. I have started the preparation of such an article and hope to submit it within the very near future.

I have found on my return to my duties here that my year at the University of Chicago has been of very large benefit to me, and I continue to feel most grateful to you for your part in making that year possible.

Most cordially yours,
[signed]
E. F. Dummeier

EFD/EIB

Source:  University of Chicago Archives. Economics Department. Records & Addenda. Box 6, Folder 12.

Image: “Dummeier Rites Are Held Today,” Spokane Chronicle, June 18, 1946.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Chicago Iowa Minnesota Suggested Reading Syllabus

Minnesota. Course outline and reading for graduate macroeconomics. Brownlee, probably 1959

 

Based on a pamphlet in which he argued that “properly fortified margarine ‘compared favorably’ with butter in nutrition and palatability”, the economics Ph.D. student, Oswald Harvey Brownlee (1917-1985), brought the wrath of the Iowa Farm Bureau among others down upon himself and his economist seniors. After the President of Iowa State caved to the state’s dairy interests in the matter, Theodore  W. Schultz, D. Gale Johnson, and O. H. Brownlee were all to ultimately head off to the University of Chicago.

Oswald Harvey Brownlee. Putting dairying on a war footing, 64 page pamphlet published by Iowa State College Press, 1944.

See: Seim, David L. “The Butter-Margarine Controversy and “Two Cultures” at Iowa State
College.” The Annals of Iowa 67 (2008), 1-50.

Also mentioned in: Milton and Rose Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs, p. 193.

Brownlee went on to teach at the University of Minnesota, where we found him teaching a graduate macroeconomics course. Clearly that was still time that the hatches separating microeconomics and macroeconomics were not so securely battened as today. “Public finance” was Brownlee’s major field so his broad fiscal policy interests make sense.

The course outline transcribed in this post comes from Martin Bronfenbrenner’s papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. Bronfenbrenner taught at the University of Minnesota from 1959-1962 and we can presume that the copy of Brownlee’s macroeconomics course outline with readings was for either 1958-59 or 1959-60.  A second, apparently later, version of the course outline for “Economics 176A” with “Brownlee” handwritten in the upper right corner is also found in the same folder. Three new readings from the second copy have been added and placed within square brackets below. The readings in Parts I and II, IX and X were not included in the second outline for “Economics 176A”.

_______________________

Handwritten note at top:
“Martin, Here is the outline for the Macro theory. Which part do you want to teach? [signed] Oz”

 

Economics 176A-B
Course Outline and Suggested Readings

This brief outline and reading list is intended to serve as a general summary of the materials to be considered during the course and as a guide to class discussion and to outside reading. The detail in the outline does not necessarily correspond to the detail in class discussion. The most significant readings are starred (*). The literature in this field has grown so rapidly during the past decade that this reading list cannot be considered as a complete bibliography of relevant writings.

It is hoped that during the quarter the student will gain an adequate understanding of how the equilibrium values of the relevant variables (gross national product, employment, the general level of prices and the rate of interest, for example) might be determined, and how changes in certain exogeneous variables (including various economic policy variables) might affect these equilibrium values. Although the primary emphasis of the course is on equilibrium levels of certain variables, an introduction to dynamic analysis (a description of the path of a variable over time) will be offered. This will provide the basis for subsequent discussion of business cycle theory and growth models.

  1. General Orientation of the Course
    1. Relationship of macro-static theories to other classes of economic theories
    2. Limitations of macro-static analysis as a basis for policy statements
  2. The firm’s Demand for Labor
    1. Importance for labor hired by business firms in the labor market as a whole
    2. Static theory of production with emphasis on the demand for labor.
      1. Nature of the firm’s production function
      2. Determinants of equilibrium level of employment within the firm
      3. Comparisons of equilibrium levels of employment under various resource market, product market and technological conditions
    3. Effects of Changes in Quantities of Other Resources Upon Demand for Labor

Readings:

1—K. E. Boulding, Economic Analysis, Chapter 31 (revised edition)

2—George Stigler, The Theory of Price, Chapters 6-11.

3—Paul A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Chapter 3, pp. 21-33.

4—Joan Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Books VII and VIII.

  1. Equilibrium in the Labor Market for the Economy as a whole
    1. Aggregation of outputs, labor inputs, wage rates and prices
    2. Determination of various combinations of general level of prices and “real” output which will maintain equilibrium in the labor market—an “aggregate supply” function.
      1. With money wage rate autonomously determined: a wage “floor”, a wage “ceiling”, both a “floor” and a “ceiling”.
      2. With supply of labor dependent upon “real” wages.
      3. With supply of labor dependent upon “real” and money wages: the effects of asset holdings.
    3. Degree of Determinateness of relevant variables given only equilibrium in the labor market.
      1. Price level, real output and employment not uniquely determined
        1. Various combinations of price level and real output will maintain equilibrium in labor market, given the autonomously specified money wage or given fixed monetary debts and credits and flexible money wages.
        2. Employment is determined only upon the real wage, real output and employment are uniquely determined, but price level is not.

Readings:

1.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lectures 19 and 20.

2.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Chapters 11 and 13.

3.—Francis M. Boddy, et al., Applied Economic Analysis, pp. 229-248.

4.—O. H. Brownlee, Economics of Public Finance, pp. 47-51.

5.—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, IX-XII.

6.—Louis Hough, “An Asset Influence in the Labor Market”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1955.

7.—Robert Solow, “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function”, Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1957.

[8.*—Gershon Cooper, “Taxation and Incentive in Mobilization” in Readings in Taxation edited by Musgrave and Shoup.]

  1. Aggregate Demand for Goods and Services: The “Crude Classical Theory”
    1. The Quantity Identity
      1. The Demand for Money—a linear function of money income (expenditure)
      2. Assuming the supply of money (M) and the fraction of income which people with to hold as cash balances are independently determined, the equilibrium level of total money expenditure is determined.
      3. Effects of changes in money demand and money supply upon equilibrium level of money income or expenditure.
      4. Incorporation of assets as a variable influencing the demand for money
      5. Information obscured by the simple quantity identity (that omitting assets as a variable)
        (Note: further analysis of the quantity identity in terms of the kind of aggregate demand function for goods and services which it might imply will be made in subsequent sections).
    2. Equilibrium in the Labor, Money, and Commodity Markets under the assumption of the quantity identity.
      1. Quantity of labor supplied a function only of money wages
      2. Quantity of labor supplied a function only of “real” wages
      3. Division of “real” output between consumption and investment.

Readings:

1.*—J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Chapters 2 and 19

2.—L. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution, Chapter 1 and the technical appendix, pp. 199-205

3.—Albert G. Hart, Money, Debt and Economic Activity, Chapters IV-VI and VIII

4.—Alvin Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chapters 1-3

5.—Franco Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money”, Econometrica, 12: 45-88 (January, 1944)

6.—Seymour Harris, (editor) The New Economics, Part IX, Chapter XLI

7.—Francis M. Boddy, et al., Applied Economic Analysis, Chapter 12, 13 (pp. 222-229)

8.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lecture 2.

9.—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, I-VIII

10.—Archibald and Lipsey, “Monetary and Value Theory,” Review of Economic Studies, October, 1958

11.*—Milton Friedman, Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, Chapter I

12.—James Tobin, “The Interest-Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash”, Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1956

13.—H. Rose, “Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds,” Review of Economic Studies, XXIV (1956-57)

14.—Don Patinkin, Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds, Economica, November, 1958

15.—Vera Lutz, “Multiplier and Velocity Analysis: A Marriage”, Economica, February, 1955

16.—G. C. Archibald, “Multiplier and Velocity Analysis: An Amendment”, Economica, August 1956

[17.—Ira O. Scott, “The Availability Doctrine: Theoretical Underpinnings”, Review of Economic Studies, XXV No. 1, 41-48]

  1. Aggregate Demand for Goods and Services: The “Keynesian Theory”
    1. Equilibrium in the “Commodity Market”
      1. Consumption (and Saving)
        1. Relationship to income
        2. Relationship to rate of interest
      2. Investment
        1. Relationship to the rate of interest
          1. The marginal efficiency of capital
          2. Uncertainty and the level of investment
        2. Relationship to current income
      3. The Equating of Savings and Investment (Aggregate Demand for Commodities = Aggregate Supply of Commodities)
      4. Determination of various combinations of the rate of interest and real income which will fulfill the condition for equilibrium in the commodity market (will make savings = investment)
    2. Equilibrium in the Money Market
      1. The Liquidity Preference Schedule (The Demand for Money)
      2. With money supply (M) autonomously determined, there will be various combinations of the rate of interest, real output and the price level which will provide for equilibrium in the money market.
        1. The general case
        2. The special “Keynesian” case
    3. Simultaneous Equilibrium in the Money and Commodity Markets: An Aggregate Demand Function
      1. Equilibrium rates of real output and price level which fulfill the conditions for equilibrium in both the money and commodity markets.

Readings:

1.*—Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

2.—The Keynesian Revolution (*particularly Chapter 3)

3.*—J.R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the Classics”, Econometrica, 4: 147-159 (April, 1937); also included in Readings in Income Distribution, The Blakiston Co.

4.*—Franco Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money”, Econometrica, 12; 45-88 (January, 1944)

5.—Alvin Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chapters 4-6

6.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Part II

7.—K.E. Boulding, The Economics of Peace, Chapters 7-9

8.—Wassily Leontief, “Postulates; Keynes” General Theory and the Classicists”, included in The New Economics, Part 4, Chapter XIX

9.—The New Economics, Parts 3 and 9

10.—Abba P. Lerner, The Economics of Employment, Part II

11.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lectures 3-18

12.—O.H. Brownlee, “The Theory of Employment and Stabilization Policy” Journal of Political Economy, Oct. 1950, pp. 412-24.

13.—Ira O. Scott, Jr., “An Exposition of the Keynesian System”, The Review of Economic Studies, XIX, (1), pp. 12-18

14.—Joan Robinson, “The Generalization of the General Theory”, included in The Rate of Interest and Other Essays.

15.—Louis Hough, “The Price Level in Macroeconomic Models”, The American Economic Review, June, 1954, pp. 269-86.

16.—Milton Friedman and Gary S. Becker, “A Statistical illusion in Judging Keynesian Models”, Journal of Political Economy, February, 1957

17.—L. R. Klein, “The Friedman-Becker Illusion,” Journal of Political Economy, December, 1958; and Friedman & Becker, “Reply”, same issue.

18.—Martin J. Bailey, “Saving and the Rate of Interest”, Journal of Political Economy, August, 1957.

[19.—Hans Brems, Output, Employment, Capital and Growth, Part I.]

  1. The Equilibrium Levels of Output, Employment, Prices and the Rate of Interest in the Keynesian System.
    1. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand with Flexible Money Wages
    2. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand with Labor Supply Perfectly Elastic at a Given Money Wage
    3. Effects of Changes in Autonomous Variables and Parameters
      1. The autonomous component of investment
        1. The multiplier
      2. Government expenditure for goods and services
      3. The export surplus
      4. Money wage rates
      5. Technology
      6. The degree of monopoly and employers’ market expectations
      7. Population and the labor supply
      8. The money supply
      9. Marginal propensities to consumer and invest
  2. An alternative Macro-Static System
    1. Some weaknesses in the Keynesian theory
      1. A change in the structure of the system required to explain U.S. postwar experience
      2. Increased savings: income ratio as income increases not empirically verified.
    2. Assets consumption as a variable affecting
      1. Real Assets
      2. Monetary assets (cash and government debt)
      3. Aggregate demand for goods and services when assets are included as a variable in the consumption function
        1. Comparison with quantity theory
        2. Comparison with Keynesian theory
    3. The Duesenberry-Modigliani Hypothesis
    4. Including assets in other Functions: Labor Supply and Demand for Money

Readings:

1.*—Don Patinkin, “Price Flexibility and Full Employment”, American Economic Review, 38: 543-64 (September, 1948).

1a.*—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, XIII-XV and appropriate appendices.

2.—__________, “The Indeterminancy of Absolute Prices in Classical Economic Theory”, Econometrica, 17: 1-27

3.—__________, “Involuntary Unemployment and the Keynesian Labor Supply Function”, Economic Journal, LIX: 360-83

4.—Haavelmo, Hickman, Leontief and Phipps on Patinkin, Econometrica 18: 1-26 (January, 1950)

5.—James Tobin, “Money Wage Rates and Employment”, included in The New Economics, Part 8, Chapter XL.

6.—Arthur Smithies, “Effective Demand and Employment”, included in The New Economics, Part I, Chapter XXXIX.

7.—A. P. Lerner, “Mr. Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money”, Reprinted in The New Economics, Part 3, Chapter XI

8.*—Milton Friedman, “A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability”, American Economic Review, 38: 245-64 (June, 1948)

9.—A. C. Pigou, “Economic Progress in a Stable Environment”, Economica, 1947, pp. 180-90

10.—A. C. Pigou, “The Classical Stationary State”, Economic Journal, 53: 343-51 (1943)

11.*—James Duesenberry, “Income-Consumption Relations and Their Implications”, included in Income, Employment and Public Policy, Essay III in Part One, and as Chapter I in Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior.

[11a.—John H. Power, “Price Expectations, Money Illusion, and the Real-Balance Effect”, Journal of Political Economy, April, 1959, 1331-43.]

12.*—Franco Modigliani, “Fluctuations in the Saving-Income Ratio: A Problem in Economic Forecasting”, included in National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Wealth, Volume XI, pages 371-443.

13.—Paul A. Samuelson, “The Simple Mathematics of Income Determination”, included in Income Employment and Public Policy,” Essay VI in Part One.

14.—Oscar Lange, Price Flexibility and Employment, particularly Chapters I-V and IX-XI.

15.—Donald M. Fort, “A Theory of General Short-Run Equilibrium,” Econometrica, 13: 293-310 (October, 1945)

16.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Part III

17.—G. L. Bach, “Monetary-Fiscal Policy Reconsidered”, Journal of Political Economy, LVII: 383-94 (October 1949)

18.—George Terborgh, The Bogey of Economic Maturity.

19.—A. P. Lerner, Economics of Employment, parts IV and V.

20.*—William Hamburger, “The Determinants of Aggregate Consumption”, Review of Economic Studies, XXII (1), pp. 23-34

21.*—Franco Modigliani and Richard Brumberg, “Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function”, included in Kenneth Kurihara, The Post Keynesian System—Essays in Honor of John Maynard Keynes.

22.—O. H. Brownlee, Economics of Public Finance, Chapters 3-6

23.—__________, “The Theory of Employment and Stabilization Policy”, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1950, pp. 412-24.

24.*—Milton Friedman, A Theory of the Consumption Function (particularly chapters 1-4.)

  1. Monetary-Fiscal Policy
    1. Effects of changes in government expenditures for goods and services, net tax collections, the tax structure and the supply of money on the demand for and supply of goods and services.
      1. In the Keynesian System
      2. In the Alternative System
    2. Built-In Flexibility vs. Ad. hominum [sic, “ad hoc”] changes.

Readings:

1.—Robert L. Bishop, “Alternative Expansionist Fiscal Policies: A Diagrammatic Analysis”, Lloyd A. Metzler, ed. Income, Employment and Public Policy.

2.—O. H. Brownlee, “Taxation and the Price Level in the Short Run”, The Journal of Political Economy, February, 1954, pp. 26-33.

3.—__________, The Economics of Public Finance, Chapter 6.

4.—Paul A. Samuelson, “Principles and Rules in Modern Fiscal Policy: A Neo-Classical Reformulation”, included in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth.

5.*—Milton Friedman, “the Effects of a Full-Employment Policy on Economic Stability: A Formal Analysis”, included in Essays in Positive Economics.

6.—E. Cary Brown, “The Static Theory of Automatic Fiscal Stabilization”, Journal of Political Economy, October 1955.

7.—Alfred Conrad, “The Multiplier Effects of Redistributive Public Budgets”, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1955.

8.—William A. Salant, “Taxes, Income Determination and the Balanced Budget Theorem”, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1957.

[9. Bent Hansen, The Economic Theory of Fiscal Policy.]

  1. Some Applications of Static Macroeconomic Analysis to Other Problems
    1. Disaggregated Systems
    2. Effects of Shifts in Expenditure and Income in One Sector upon Income in Other Sectors.

Readings:

1.—John S. Chipman, The Theory of Inter-Sectoral Money Flows and Income Formation.

2.—D. Gale Johnson and O. H. Brownlee, “Reducing Price Variability Confronting Primary Producers”, Journal of Farm Economics, May, 1950, 176-193.

  1. Macrodynamic Analysis
    1. The Nature of “Business Cycle” Theories.
    2. First-Order Difference Equations
      1. The Cobweb Theorem
      2. Lagging of Consumption or Investment by One Period
      3. Introduction of Disturbances
      4. A Dynamic “Keynesian” Model
    3. Models Involving Higher Order Difference Equations
      1. “Interactions between the ‘Multiplier’ and the ‘Acceleration Principle’”.
      2. Inventory decisions as related to changes in consumption or investment in Plant and Equipment.
    4. Problems of Prediction

Readings:

1.*—Paul A. Samuelson, “Interactions Between the Multiplier and the Principle of Acceleration”, included in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, 261-69.

2.—Mordecai Ezekiel, “The Cobweb Theorem”, included in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, 422-42.

3.—J. M. Clark, “Business Acceleration and the Law of Demand”, included in Readings in Business Cycle Theory.

4.—R. F. Harrod, The Trade Cycle, Chapter 2.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 25, Folder “Macroeconomics, Problems & exercises. 1 of 2. 1961-70, n.d.”.

Image Source: Douglas Clement, “A Golden History” in Minnesota Economics (Fall 2006), p. 2.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Harvard Problem Sets

Harvard. Problem set from agricultural economics. Carver, ca. 1904

 

The problem set transcribed below was found in the Harvard University archives collection of syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003; box 1. It was (mis-)filed in the folder “Economics, 1904-05”.  The problem set is clearly identified as belonging to Economics 23. This semester course, “The Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions”, was taught by Professor Thomas Nixon Carver, but according to the annual report of the president of Harvard College, the course was not offered in 1904-05 though it was indeed offered during the immediately preceding academic year. I have assumed that the problem set was printed for the second term of the academic year 1903-1904. This is consistent with the library time stamp on the problem set (March 7, 1905), i.e. it cannot have come from later years.

From Carver’s autobiography, Recollections of an Unplanned Life, we know that his textbook, Principles of Rural Economics (1911) was based upon this course. For a long-form course reading list, one can consult the bibliography, pp. xi-xviii, in the textbook.

Previously transcribed and posted artifacts from Carver’s agricultural economics course:

Course enrollment and final exam for 1914-15.

Course syllabus for 1917.

Course examination from 1918.

________________________

Trace of the 1904 problem set found in Carver’s 1911 textbook

Note:  Column (Field A) is Table A p. 180; Column (Field C) is Table B p. 181

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver, Principles of Rural Economics, (1911).

________________________

From Thomas Nixon Carver’s Autobiography.

I have mentioned the three strenuous years 1900 to 1903, and that I served the three following years, 1903-1906, as chairman of the Division of History, Government, and Economics. Before leaving for my sabbatical year abroad in 1906, I had resigned as chairman of the Division. In the fall of 1907 I was back in Cambridge with no administrative responsibilities and ready to settle down to teaching and writing. By this time I had come to be recognized as one of the pioneers in this country in the field of agricultural economics. One of the difficulties in the teaching of that subject was the lack of written material. Textbooks were needed and I began to plan one of my own. Before I got well started Professor Liberty Hyde Bailey of Cornell asked me to write a brief historical sketch of American agriculture for his Cyclopedia of American Agriculture which he was preparing. I under took this, not realizing how much work it would require. The material, such as there was, was widely scattered and there was no guide to indicate where to look for it. However, with much toil and sweat I finished the chapter.

Then came a request for an account of the introduction of various crops and farm animals into this country. That was a still harder job but I finished it in time. I was able, later, to use a part of the material in my book, “Principles of Rural Economics,” which Ginn & Company published in 1911.

This book did a great deal to popularize agricultural economics in this country. Henry C. Taylor’s “Introduction to the Study of Agricultural Economics” had preceded it, but, while an excellent introduction, had not made much of an appeal outside the agricultural colleges. My “Principles” sold well. As I remember it, 40,000 copies were sold the first year, and it was favorably reviewed in a number of journals…

…The course on rural economics appealed to a limited number of students, but continued to be elected by enough to make a fair-sized class…

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. Recollections of an Unplanned Life, p. 171.

________________________

Course description

[Economics] 23 2hf. The Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 1.30. Professor Carver.

Omitted in 1904-05.

            A study of the relation of agriculture to the whole industrial system, the relative importance of rural and urban economics, the conditions of rural life in different parts of the United States, the forms of land tenure and methods of rent payment, the comparative merits of large and small holdings, the status and wages of farm labor, the influence of farm machinery, farmers’ organizations, the marketing and distribution of farm products, agricultural credit, the economic aspects of public roads, irrigation, forestry, etc., the policy of the government toward agriculture, and the probable future of American agriculture.

The course will be conducted by means of lectures, discussions and reports, with some special investigations of local conditions.

 

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05. University Publications, New Series, No. 129 (May 16, 1904), p. 47.

________________________

Course enrollment, 1903-04

[Economics] 23 2hf. Professor Carver.—The Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions.

Total 99: 5 Graduates, 32 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 17 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 15 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-04, p. 67.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Note:  The course was indeed not offered in 1904-05, though course enrollments were reported for Carver’s courses Economic 3 “Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress”; Economics 13 “Methods of Economic Investigation”; Economics 14a “The Distribution of Wealth”; Economics 14b “Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-05, pp. 74 ff.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Course enrollment, 1905-06

[Economics] 23 2hf. Professor Carver.—The Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions.

Total 42: 4 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-06, p. 73.

________________________

Time stamp: “Harvard College Library, MAR 7, 1905”

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 23

Amount of corn grown with varying amounts of labor on a given amount of land.

Number of days’ labor of a man and team with the appropriate tools.

 Product, in bushels, on each of four fields of ten acres each.
Field A. Field B. Field C.

Field D.

5

 50 45 40 35
10 150 140 130

120

15

 270 255 240 255 [sic]
20 380 360 300

280

25

 450 425 350 325
30 510 480 390

360

35

 560 520 420 385
40 600 550 440

400

45

 630 570 450 410
50 650 575 455

415

 

The following problems are based on the above table:—

Problem 1. Assuming that the labor of a man and team, with the appropriate tools, costs a farmer five dollars a day, and that corn is worth forty cents a bushel, how many days of such labor could he most profitably devote to the cultivation of each of the four fields?

Problem 2. Assuming that corn is worth only 33 1/3 cents a bushel, how much labor, etc., could he most profitably apply to the cultivation of each field,—the cost of labor, etc., remaining the same?

Problem 3. Assuming that a farmer has only 200 days’ labor to use, but that he can have rent free an indefinite amount of land of the grade of Field A, how much land could he most profitably use? How much land of the grade of Field C could he most profitably use?

Problem 4. How much land of each grade could he most profitably use if he had to pay five dollars an acre rent, corn being worth fifty cents a bushel, other conditions the same as in Problem 3?

Problem 5. Assuming that the two fields A and C are owned by the same farmer, and that he has but 20 days’ labor which he can devote to their cultivation, how could these 20 days be most profitably distributed among them? How could 25 days be most profitably distributed? 35 days? 50 days? 60 days? 70 days? 90 days?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 1. Folder “Economics, 1904-05”.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver in Harvard Class Album 1906.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Economists Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Syllabus for “Consumption, Distribution and Prices” taught by PhD (1952) alumnus, Richard H. Holton, 1954-55

 

 

The Harvard course “Consumption, Distribution and Prices” was an odd amalgam. The first semester was a course in marketing and the second semester was a course in the theory of micro- and macroeconomic consumption and saving functions with an added dash of advertising economics and agricultural economic policy thrown in. The instructor for 1954-55 was an assistant professor of economics, Richard Henry Holton who had completed his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1952.  Holton went on to a successful economic policy and academic administrative career culminating in the Deanship of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. His biography is sketched in the memorial piece reproduced below.

The syllabus for Economics 107 “Consumption, Distribution and Prices” completes this post.

_________________________

Ph.D. in Economics awarded by Harvard University in 1952

Richard Henry Holton, S.B. in Bus. (Miami Univ.) 1947, A.M. (Ohio State Univ.) 1948.

Special Field, Consumption, Distribution, and Prices. Thesis, “The Supply and Demand Structure of Food Retailing Service: a Case Study.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1951-1952, p. 176.

_________________________

IN MEMORIAM
Richard Holton (1926-2005)
E. T. Grether Professor of Marketing, Emeritus
Dean, Haas School of Business
Berkeley

Richard H. Holton was the E. T. Grether Professor of Marketing, Emeritus and, from 1967 to 1975, dean of the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Dean Holton, who joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1957, was a leader in the fields of marketing, international business and entrepreneurship and left a lasting imprint in these areas at the Haas School. Throughout his career, Dean Holton focused on teaching, campus leadership and public service. On leave from the campus from 1963 to 1965, he served as U.S. assistant secretary of commerce. He was thoughtful, considerate, self-effacing, devoted to the greater good of the school and the University, and always alert toward the welfare of colleagues, friends, and family. He was also known for his good stories to liven an occasion, and to soften conflict in an organizational setting.

Holton grew up in the small town of London, Ohio. He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1947 with honors in economics. At Miami, he met Constance Minzey, whom he married in 1947. The couple moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he earned a master’s degree in economics at Ohio State University. He then enrolled in the doctoral program in economics at Harvard University. He was a resident tutor in Adams House at Harvard, with Constance (Connie), during several years of his graduate studies.

From 1951 to 1952, Holton was assistant director of marketing projects at the Social Science Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico. His work there led to his 1955 monograph, “Marketing Efficiency in Puerto Rico,” written with the late J. K. Galbraith and others. He also was coauthor, with Richard Caves, of another study, “The Canadian Economy: Prospect and Retrospect” (1959).

He was assistant professor of economics at Harvard from 1953 to 1957, and in 1957 he came to UC Berkeley as an associate professor in the School of Business Administration (later renamed the Haas School of Business). Holton became director of the Berkeley campus’s Institute of Business and Economics Research in 1959. He reorganized it to reflect the growing interest in business science. His own research resulted in a steady flow of publications in marketing policies and competition.

From 1962 to 1963, he served as special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. President John F. Kennedy appointed him assistant secretary of commerce in February 1963, and he served until February 1965. Holton’s continuing interest in consumer protection resulted in a year’s appointment by President Lyndon B. Johnson as chairman of the President’s Consumer Advisory Council. He also served from 1968 to 1972 as chairman of the Public Advisory Committee on Truth in Lending Regulations of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

In 1967, Holton became dean of the School of Business Administration at UC Berkeley. During his tenure, he fostered stronger relationships with business leaders, and served on numerous advisory boards of business organizations. He is widely credited with launching some of the current distinctive capabilities of the Haas School in entrepreneurship and international affairs, and its part-time M.B.A. program. As dean, he also initiated a system of student ratings of all courses at the Haas School, a practice still used today to gauge teaching effectiveness and improve courses over time.

In 1970, Holton started a course in entrepreneurship and business development, one of the first such courses at any business school, enlisting a widely-experienced entrepreneur and Haas School alumnus, Leo Helzel, to co-teach the course. This association led to new support for research and teaching in entrepreneurship, and the formation, with contributions from Williams-Sonoma Chairman Howard Lester, of the Haas School’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. His work with the program in entrepreneurship and innovation helped to generate the school’s immensely popular annual business plan competitions. He is also credited with developing the school’s first curriculum for international business studies, another key element of the school’s current academic programs.

To reach an important new group of students, in 1972 Dean Holton initiated a part-time M.B.A. Program in San Francisco to serve qualified candidates who wanted to gain the benefits of a management degree but were not able to leave their jobs for a full-time M.B.A. program. That program has since evolved into the Berkeley Evening & Weekend M.B.A. Program, which now enrolls more students than does the full-time M.B.A. program; it is now offered on the Berkeley campus and in Silicon Valley. It has accommodated the steadily growing demand by students for a top-ranked management education on a part-time schedule.

In 1981, Holton expanded on a longtime personal interest in international business when he became dean of visiting faculty of the newly established National Center for Industrial Science and Technology Management Development, which was part of the Dalian Institute of Technology in the People’s Republic of China. Holton and his wife commuted between Berkeley and Dalian for the following five years, while he continued his regular faculty duties at UC Berkeley. Between 1980 and 1992, Holton wrote a number of articles on the emergence of a modern, market-based economy in China, writing about international joint ventures and their financing, China’s state planning as compared to market-driven behavior, economic reform of the distribution sector of China, and China’s prospects as an industrialized country. He also coedited a book, United States-China Relations (University of California Press, 1989). Holton traveled extensively in China and led California Alumni Association-sponsored Bear Trek trips there.

Holton was awarded the Berkeley Citation, the campus’s highest honor, at his retirement in 1991. Even after his retirement, for three years until spring of 2005, when his health began to fail, he taught a freshman seminar, “The Economic Development of Modern China”.

Holton kept taped to his desk lamp at home a quote from Thomas Carlyle, reflecting Holton’s belief in his calling as an educator: “There is nothing more fearsome than ignorance in action.” Holton’s love for the campus community was expressed in his enthusiasm for Cal Bears football, his participation in a campus photography club, and his membership in the all-male Monks Chorus, a group of faculty, alumni and others with campus ties who, clad as Franciscan monks, perform at The Faculty Club Christmas feast. Holton joined the Monks (whose history goes back to 1902) in the early 1960s, and sang bass.

Holton loved the mountains, and took every opportunity to take backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada. He often made these trips with his friend and colleague of more than 40 years, Fred Balderston, an emeritus UC Berkeley professor at the Haas School.

A generous philanthropist and devoted member of public interest organizations, within a year of moving to Berkeley Holton joined the board of directors of the Consumers Cooperative of Berkeley. His board membership with Alta Bates Hospital spanned nearly four decades. He was to be named a 2006 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Alta Bates Summit Foundation. He also served on the board of the Berkeley Public Library Foundation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus, The World Affairs Council of Northern California, and the board of trustees at Mills College. He and his family shared a longtime commitment to the Point Reyes peninsula and the village of Inverness, California.

As his health failed, he was surrounded by his wife and children. He died peacefully at home in Berkeley on Monday, October 24, 2005, after battling cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Holton is survived by Constance, his wife of nearly 60 years; brother, David, of Washington, D.C.; daughters, Melissa Holton, of Moss Landing and Inverness, and Jane Kriss, of Inverness; son, Tim, of Berkeley; and three grandchildren.

Raymond Miles
Frederick Balderston

Source: Senate of the University of California. In Memoriam—Richard Holton (1926-2005).

_________________________

Course Enrollment
1954-55

[Economics] 107. Consumption, Distribution and Prices. Assistant Professor Holton. Full course.

(F) Total 38: 11 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 1 Other.
(S) Total 36: 11 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Freshman.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1954-55, p. 89.

_________________________

Economics 107
Consumption, Distribution and Prices
Fall Term, 1954-55

Texts:

Converse, Huegy and Mitchell, Elements of Marketing, Prentice-Hall, 5thedition
Clewett, Marketing Channels, Irwin

  1. Survey of the distributive sector. September 28-October 7.

Compass of the distributive sector; its quantitative importance in the economy; capital coefficients and value added in the distributive sector; the problem of measuring “efficiency” in distribution in contrast with manufacturing; pressures increasing and pressures decreasing distribution costs; distribution and economic growth.

Converse, Huegy and Mitchell, Chapter 1
Stewart and Dewhurst, Does Distribution Cost Too Much? Chapters 1, 2, 5, 10, 11
Black and Houston, Resource-Use Efficiency in the Marketing of Farm Products, pp. 22-47
Westing, Readings in Marketing, Readings 1, 2, 3.

  1. The nature of marketing channels. October 14-October 26.

Alternative types of marketing channels; factors affecting the nature of the channel; vertical integration and quasi-integration; recent changes in distribution channels.

Converse, Huegy and Mitchell, Chapter 4, 5, 13, 15-20, 23, 24.
Clewett, Chapters 2-17
Westing, Readings in Marketing, 19-21, 23, 25
McNair and Hansen, Problems in Marketing: General Mills, p. 199; Whalen, p. 215; National Rock Drill Co., p. 225; Atlas, p. 254.

OCTOBER 28—MID-TERM EXAMINATION

  1. Costs and products of firms in distribution. November 2-November 30.

Empirical cost studies of retail firms; a priori analysis of cost conditions in retailing and wholesaling; selling costs and the advertising budget; cost allocation and cost control in distribution; the nature of the product in distribution; the problem of selecting the product “mix”; the product mix and price discrimination.

Converse, Huegy and Mitchell, Chapter 27, 28, 29, 31, 32.
Clewett, Chapters 18 and 19
Dean, Managerial Economics, Chapters 3 and 6 (pp. 351-375)
Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 7
Cary Company case (on reserve in Lamont)
McNair and Hansen, Problems in Marketing: Richwell, p. 117

  1. Price policy of firms in distribution. December 2-December 18.

Retailers’ pricing practices; role of cost in distributors’ price policy; the determination of trade discounts; price discrimination under the Robinson Patman Act; resale price maintenance.

Converse, Huegy and Mitchell, Chapter 26
Q. F. Walker, “Some Principles of Department Store Pricing,” Journal of Marketing, January 1950
O. Knauth, “Considerations in the Setting of Retail Prices,” Journal of Marketing, July 1949
R. Alt, “The Internal Organization of the Firm and Price Formation,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1949
Dean, Managerial Economics, Chapter 9
S.D. Rose, “Your Right to Lower Your Prices,” Harvard Business Review, September 1951
E. R. Corey, “Fair Trade Pricing, A Reappraisal,” Harvard Business Review, September-October 1952
McNair and Hansen, Problems in Marketing: Dewey and Almy, p. 575; Canners’ League, p. 581; Boothby, p. 608

Reading Period: Margaret Hall, Distributive Trading, Hutchinson’s University Library

 

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Economics 107
Consumption, Distribution and Prices
Spring Term, 1954-55

It is suggested, but not required, that students buy Heller, Boddy and Nelson, Savings in the Modern Economy.

  1. The demand for consumer goods; Feb. 3-Feb. 24
    1. Consumption expenditures in the aggregate: consumption expenditures and savings in the national income data; the consumption function, long run and short run; determinants of the savings to income ratio; consumer demand, economic growth, and the business cycle.

Readings:

(Review Samuelson, Economics, Ch. 13)
Richard Ruggles, National Income and Income Analysis, Ch. 4, pp. 67-78
Heller, Boddy and Nelson, Savings in the Modern Economy, contributions by Goldsmith, Woodward and Bryce, pp. 133-155; Duesenberry, pp. 195-203; Morgan and Reid, pp. 213-220; Hansen, pp. 47-55; and Slichter, pp. 64-72.
Arthur Burns, The Instability of Consumer Spending, 32nd Annual Report of the National Bureau of Economic Research, pp. 3-20
James S. Duesenberry, Income, Saving and Consumer Behavior, Ch. 3

    1. The theory of consumer demand and the demand for classes of consumer goods: The theory of consumer demand reviewed; the utility approach and the indifference curve approach evaluated; income elasticity, budget studies and Engel’s law; psychological analysis of consumer behavior; trends in U.S. consumption.

Readings:

(Review Samuelson, Ch. 23 and Appendix)
Ruby Norris, The Theory of Consumer’s Demand, Ch. 3
Converse, Huegy and Mitchell, Ch. 2
Talcott Parsons, Essays in Sociological Theory, Ch. 3, “The Motivation of Economic Activity.”
George Katona, Psychological Analysis of Economic Behavior, Ch. 5
Lerner and Lasswell (ed), The Policy Sciences, Ch. 12, “Expectations and Decisions in Economic Behavior,” by G. Katona
“The Changing American Market,” Fortune, August, 1953

Section Meetings:

Feb. 8: National income and the consumption function reviewed
Feb. 15: Consumption function in the current literature
Mar. 1: Marginal utility; indifference curves

  1. The demand for producer goods; March 1-March 8

Investment expenditures and the theory of income determination; investment expenditures in the national income data; the determinants of investment expenditures; fluctuations in inventory investment; the firm’s demand for producers’ goods; the determinants of corporate savings.

Readings:

R.A. Gordon, Business Fluctuations, Ch. 5
Tinbergen and Polak, The Dynamics of Business Cycles, Ch. 13, pp. 163-182
Joel Dean, Managerial Economics, Ch. 10, pp. 549-600
Heller, Boddy and Nelson, Savings in the Modern Economy, contribution by John Lintner, pp. 230-255

Section Meetings:

March 8: Producer demand

  1. Identifying demand conditions for the individual firm; March 10-March 15

Survey of market research and sales forecasting methods

Readings:

Dean, Managerial Economics, Ch. 4, pp. 141-220 only

Section meetings:

March 15: Market research; read Canner’s League of California case in McNair and Hansen, Problems in Marketing, p. 581

  1. Marketing and public policy issues; March 17-March 24

Economic effects of advertising; the problem of consumer information; FTC and FDA control of labeling, standards, and truth in advertising; consumer research and consumer cooperatives as solutions; resale price maintenance and advertising.

Readings:

L. Gordon, Economics for Consumers, Ch. 24 and 26
Neil Borden, Economic Effects of Advertising, Ch. 28, pp. 837-882

Section meetings:

March 22: Review
March 29: Economic effects of advertising

MARCH 29: MID-TERM EXAMINATION

  1. Marketing of farm products; March 31-April 14

The impact of imperfect markets in agriculture; fluctuations in marketing margins over time; futures market; the functioning and control fo futures markets.

Readings:

Converse, Heugy and Mitchell, Ch. 21 and 22
G. Shepherd, Marketing Farm Products, Ch. 9 and 10
W. H. Nicholls, Imperfect Competition within Agricultural Industries, Ch. 4 to p. 81

Section meetings:

April 12: Impact of price support operations on the marketing of farm products

  1. Federal farm policy; April 21-May 3

The goals of an agricultural policy; predecessors of the present program; details of the present policy; advantages and disadvantages of the present policy; the alternatives

Readings:

T. Schultz, Production and Welfare of Agriculture, Ch. 5, 7, 8
Schickele, Agricultural Policy, Ch. 3, 9-17

Section Meetings:

April 26: Mechanics of parity and price supports
May 3: Review

Reading Period Assignment: Ruth Mack, “Economics of Consumption,” in Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. II, plus readings to be assigned; and Editors of Fortune, Why Do People Buy, Ch. 1.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1954-1955”.

Image Source:  “Happy 120th Birthday, Berkeley Haas!” Webpage from Summer 2018.