Category: Agricultural Economics

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In his file at the President’s Office of the University of Chicago one finds a carbon copy of William H. Nicholls’ section 18 “Education, Employment, Publications” from what looks to be his U.S. Federal Civil Service application, perhaps required for his consultancy for the Office of Price Administration, Meats Section Washington in 1941-42. We have here a very complete accounting of his activities covering his graduate school years 1934-1940, both coursework and employment.

This post also includes a biographical sketch at his Kentucky alma mater’s Hall of Fame together with a memorial piece in his honor at the department of economics of Vanderbilt University where he was on the faculty for thirty years.

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[Carbon Copy from Federal Civil Service Application(?) ca. January 1941]

18. EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, PUBLICATIONS, ETC.

18(a). Chronological Record.

Education

Foreign Travel

Summer, 1931         Travel in 12 countries of Europe.

Employment (Part-time= *)

18(b). Graduate Courses at Harvard University and Research

Graduate Courses at Harvard University

1. Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Field Agent, June-September, 1936.

Supervisors– Ronald L. Mighell, Senior Agricultural Economist, and Dr. John D. Black, Harvard University.

Nature of Work– The project concerned Interregional Competition in Dairying, and was a cooperative endeavor of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and Harvard University. The work consisted of taking farm-survey records on dairy farms in Vermont and Connecticut. The applicant was also responsible for collecting background material on milk marketing problems, including local hauling, operation of milk plants, milk prices and price plans, rail and truck transportation, governmental programs, and cooperative organization.

2. Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Field Agent, June-October, 1937.

Supervisors– Ronald L. Mighell Dr. John D. Black, Harvard University.

Nature of Work– This was a continuation of the project outline above. The applicant was in charge of the marketing phases of the study in New England. This work consisted primarily of a study of milk distribution and milk control problems in Hartford, Worcester, and Boston, involving contacts with distributors, cooperative officials, administrators of milk control boards, and health officials in those milk markets, as well as research workers in milk marketing at the state colleges of Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. A manuscript of 189 pages was prepared, bringing together and analyzing the data gathered. Although this was to be used primarily as service material to the larger study of which it was only a part, it will later be published in some form.

3. Research Assistant to Dr. John D. Black, Harvard University, September 1934-June, 1935: September, 1935-June, 1936; September, 1936-June, 1937.

Supervisors– Dr. John D. Black, Dr. John M. Cassels, and Dr. J. K. Galbraith, all of Harvard University.

Nature of Work- The duties of these part-time assistantships required some 20-27 hours a week, while the applicant carried a ¾ time graduate study program concurrently.

During the school-year 1934-35, he was responsible for a considerable part of the statistical work on Dr. Black’s book, “The Dairy Industry and the AAA”, as well as two articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics by J. K. Galbraith and John M. Cassels, respectively.

During the school-year 1935-36 he assisted Dr. Black in the construction of index numbers and the study of farmers’ supply response to price, and made a brief study of tobacco marketing for use in Dr. Black’s course in Prices and Distribution.

During the school-year 1936-37 the applicant made an intensive study and analysis of the dairy-farm records and marketing data collected during the summer of 1936 on the Bureau of Agricultural Economics project. This work was supervised by Dr. Black.

4. Independent Research, Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 1937-Jan. 1938.

Advisors– Dr. John D. Black and Dr. John M. Cassels of Harvard University.

Nature of Work-During this period, the applicant was working independently on a proposed Ph.D. thesis tracing the historical development of the marketing of manufactured dairy products. This period was one of an extremely intensive survey of the literature on dairy marketing since 1870 in libraries at Harvard and Washington, D. C. It also included several weeks of consulting with the staff of the Dairy Section of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. This project was dropped as a thesis subject in January, 1938, in order that the applicant might accept a position at Iowa State College. This work served as the foundation for several Iowa Experiment Station research publications at a later date (see next item).

5. Member of Staff, Department of Economics, Iowa State College, Feb. 1938 to date.

In February, 1938, the applicant became a member of the staff of the Department of Economics, Iowa State College, of which Dr. T. W. Schultz is department head. His initial rank was “Research Assistant” at a salary of $2430. His duties involved full responsibility for initiating and carrying out a aresearch study of the price and production policies in the meat-packing industry. During the following year, largely outside of office hours, the applicant produced manuscripts on the butter and cheese industries, based on data collected just previous to his employment at Iowa State College, which were deemed worthy of publication as research bulletins (see “list of publications”).

The objective of the study of the eat-packing industry was to make a comprehensive survey of the industry, with intensive study of those phases which would shed light on the nature of competition and monopoly elements in the industry.

The procedure was divided into four parts:

(1) Conditions in the livestock and meat markets.

The purpose of this phase of the work was to compile background descriptive material such as was necessary as a foundation for the later, more important phases of the project. This general survey was completed, covering such things as the nature of supply of livestock, demand for meats, the marketing mechanism for livestock and for meats, the composition and degree of concentration in the industry, accounting methods in the industry, and the economics of large-scale plant and firm in the industry.

            (2) Price and production policies followed in the meat-packing industry.

The procedure here was to survey past attempts at control of monopoly in the industry, covering a period of some 50 years. The status of individual packers was examined, as well as the effects on competition of such policies as market sharing, price leadership, price discrimination, advertising and branding, handling of by-products and produce, storage, and trade associations. This program necessitated two important steps: (a) the examination of leading agricultural processing-distributing industries better to determine the true nature of competition in such industries, and the applicability to problems faced by the worker in agricultural marketing research of recent developments in the economic theory of monopolistic competition. The studies of the butter and cheese industries contributed a great deal in this direction, in addition to a full year’s empirical work on the packing industry. (b) the adaptation and extension of the existing theory of monopolistic competition to the somewhat peculiar requirements of the agricultural processing-distributing industries as opposed to the strictly “manufacturing” industries, which have been the main interest of the general economist. It should be realized that the applicant is working in an entirely new field—imperfect competition in agricultural processing and distribution and has, therefore, constantly had to develop or adapt new research techniques and tools.

As a result, under the encouragement of Dr. T. W. Schultz and Dr. John D. Black, the applicant devoted the year 1939-40 primarily to developing the pure theory of imperfect competition, with special application to the agricultural processing-distributing industries. In order to make this theory of as general application as possible, not only were problems of immediate concern in the meat-packing project covered, but the theoretical considerations were broadened to include the theoretical aspects of competition in fluid milk among local country-buying units, and under short-run dynamic conditions as well. Particular emphasis was given to the theory of market-sharing, price leadership, and price discrimination, with major attention to the markets between the farm and the processing-distributing “bottleneck”.

A 460-page manuscript, “A Theoretical Analysis of Imperfect Competition, with Special Application to the Agricultural Industries” resulted. This manuscript represented four times redrafting after critical reading by Professors Black and Mason of Harvard; Professor Stigler of Minnesota; Professors Schultz, Hart, Shepherd, Reid, Lynch and Tintner of Iowa State College; Dr. Frederick V. Waugh and Dr. A. C. Hoffman of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics; and Dr. Harold B. Howe, of the Brookings Institution. All of these critics are highly qualified general or agricultural economists, and their reactions have been generally favorable.

In September, 1940, the manuscript was submitted as a Ph.D. thesis at Harvard University, and has since been accepted by Professors Black and Chamberlin. Professor Chamberlin, the leader in this phase of economic theory, states in a letter of December 23, 1940, that it is “a very fine piece of analysis and a very much worthwhile one…….an chievement of first order ……I can honestly say that I have spent more time in going over and working through some of the complex arguments that I have ever spent on any preceding doctor’s theses. This was partly because I was naturally interested in the subject and also because the thesis itself merited. it.” The plan is to push the manuscript toward publication during the next few months. The applicant expects formally to receive his Ph.D. degree before February 15, 1941.

Beginning July 1, 1939, the applicant’s salary was advanced to $3000 per annum. During the school-year 1939-40, he taught elementary Principles of Economics one-quarter time. On July 1, 1940, he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor at a salary of $3300, continuing to teach one-quarter time and pursue research three-quarters time. In the spring of 1941, he is scheduled to initiate a course for graduate students on Imperfect Competition in Agricultural Processing and Distribution.

Concurrently with other work previously outlined, the applicant prepared and presented a paper (unpublished) before a round-table of the American Farm Economic Association on December 28, 1938, entitled “A Suggested Approach to a Research Study in Price and Production Policies of an Agricultural Processing Industry”. Through the combination of theoretical hypotheses and empirical support, as based on the previously described work, he presented a second paper before the American Farm Economic Association in December, 1939. This paper, “Market-Sharing in the Packing industry”, presents statistical data for 1931-37 showing that the four dominant packers still buy relatively fixed proportions of hogs and cattle on the terminal markets as they did in 1913-17. It indicates how this may be evidence of oligopsonistic behavior in buying, the possible limitations of “market-sharing” as a monopolistic device, and how it may affect producer and consumer. This paper, the first published results of the meat-packing project, represents that balanced combination of empirical and theoretical analysis which the applicant considers the ideal research method.

In the December, 1940, issue of the Journal of Political Economy, another article (“Price Flexibility and Concentration in the Agricultural Processing Industries”, pp. 883-88) was published, growing out of previous empirical and theoretical work. This paper discusses the terminology concerning price “Flexibility” and alleged relationships between price flexibility and concentration of control in a given industry. It is argues that, in the agricultural processing industries (where short-run control of the supply of the food product is impossible), unlike the manufacturing industries, flexibility of margins is the important consideration, not flexibility of prices. Previous work of Means, Backman, and others in this field have failed to recognize the necessity for making this important distinction.

The great bulk of the descriptive phases of the price and production policies in the meat-packing industry has been completed. The basis no exists, in the applicant’s opinion, for a much clearer understanding of the nature of competition in the industry. Two important steps yet remain, however:

            (3) The RESULTS of these policies.

This will involve the financial analysis of the leading firms (partially completed), the examination of the relationship of such monopolistic practices as do exist to market price differentials, costs and margins, the method of buying of livestock, and the results in terms of the effects on farmer and consumer. In other words, how far do actual results as to prices, profits, employment, and investment—depart from “ideal” results under more nearly perfect competitive conditions?

(4) Practicable solutions to eliminate any ill-effects on farmer and consumer which are found to exist.

This will involve the consideration as to whether or not reform is necessary. If it is, such alternatives as government regulation, distribution as a public utility, dissolution of large firms, cooperation, government competition, etc., will have to be considered.

18(c). List of Publications

“Marketing Phases of Interregional Competition in Dairying”, 189-page manuscript, 1937, to be published.

*Post-War Developments in the Marketing of Butter, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta., Res. Bul. 250, Feb. 1939, 64 pages.

*”Some Economic Aspects of University Patents”, Journal of Farm Economics, May, 1939, pp. 494-98.

“Short-Circuiting the Butter Middlemen”, Iowa Farm Economist, Jan., 1939, pp. 13-14.

*Post-War Developments in the Marketing of Cheese, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta., Res. Bul. 261, July, 1939, 100 pages.

“Concentration in Cheese Marketing”, Iowa Farm Econmist, April, 1939, pp. 5[?]-6.

*”Post-War Concentration in the Cheese Industry”, Journal of Political Economy, Dec. 1939, pp. 823-45.

“Suggested Approach to a Research Study in the Price and Production Policies of an Agricultural Processing Industry”, paper read at Round-table on Marketing Research, American Farm Economic Association, Detroit, Dec., 1938, 14 pages, to be published.

*”Market-Sharing in the Packing Industry”, paper read at Annual Meeting, American Farm Economic Association, Philadelphia, Dec., 1939. Published in Proceedings, Journal of Farm Economics, Feb., 1940, pp. 225-40.

Review of Malott and Martin, “The Agricultural Industries”, in American Economic Review, March 1940, pp. 147-48.

*”Price Flexibility and Concentration in the Agricultural Processing Industries2, Journal of Political Economy, Dec., 1940, pp. 883-88.

** A Theoretical Analysis of Imperfect Competition, with Special Application to the Agricultural Industries, Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University, accepted in December, 1940; 460 pages. To be published on Iowa State College Press by summer of 1941.

* Copy available for submission upon request.
**Topical table of contents or summary available upon request.

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 284. Folder “Economics 1943-47”.

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Hall of Distinguished Alumni
[University of Kentucky]

William Hord Nicholls

Born in Lexington, Ky., on July 19, 1914. Died, August 3, 1978. University Professor and Administrator. University of Kentucky, A.B., magna cum laude, 1934.

Serving as President of the Southern Economic Association (1958-59) and the American Farm Economic Association (1960-61), his expertise in the area of farm economics has been recognized also by governmental agencies and by a number of professional journals and societies.

After graduating magna cum laude (A.B., 1934) from the University, he then earned an M.A. degree at Harvard University (1938), the Ph.D., (1941) also at Harvard, and did post-doctoral work as a Fellow at University of Chicago (1941-42).

He was instructor, assistant professor and associate professor of economics, Iowa State College, 1938-44; assistant professor of economics, University of Chicago, 1945-48, and went to Vanderbilt University as a professor of economics in 1948. He became Chairman of the Department of Economics and Business Administration there in 1958, serving until 1961, serving the following year as visiting professor of economics at Harvard University. From 1965-77, he was Director of the Graduate Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt, and was Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt, 1973-74.

He served briefly in 1934 as a statistical clerk for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Tobacco Section, Washington, D.C. During the summers of 1936 and 1937, he was field agent for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, New England. He was research fellow and research assistant to Prof. John D. Black at Harvard, 1934-37, and a consultant, Office of Price Administration, Meats Section Washington, 1941-42. He was managing editor of “Journal of Political Economy,” 1946-48, and a visiting lecturer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, summer of 1947.

He also was a member of the faculty, Salsburg (Austria) Seminar in American Studies, summer of 1949; economist and co-editor of “Mission Report,” “Turkish Mission,” “International Bank of Reconstruction and Development,” Turkey and Washington, in 1950; economist, Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic Advisers, Washington, 1953-54; technical director, Seventh American Assembly on U.S. Agriculture, Columbia University, 1954-56; consultant on Latin America,, Ford Foundation, Brazil and New York, 1960-64; agricultural economist, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro, during the summers of 1965, 1968 and 1970, and for a period in 1963 and early 1964, and guest consultant, Instituto de Planejamento Economics e Social, Ministry of Planning, Rio de Janeiro, 1972-73.

He has served on the board of editors of three professional journals, on a number of national committees and advisory boards, and has won a number of additional honors given by agencies he served in various ways.

His book, “Imperfect Competition Within Agricultural Industries,” (1941) went into a second printing in 1947. He also wrote numerous articles for professional publications, as chapters to books, as papers to be delivered at various professional meetings and as policy reports to various agencies.

William Hord Nicholls was named to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni in February 1965.

Source: Hall of Distinguished Alumni, University of Kentucky website.

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Vanderbilt University Memorial

William H. Nicholls was born in Lexington, Kentucky on July 19, 1914, and died in Nashville on August 4, 1978. Professor Nicholls did his undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky and his graduate work at Harvard University, where he received the Ph.D. in 1941. His doctoral dissertation, published that same year, on Imperfect Competition Within Agricultural Industries, established his reputation as one of the country’s leading agricultural economists. He began his teaching career at Iowa State University in 1938 and moved to the University of Chicago in 1945. While serving as assistant professor at the University of Chicago, he edited one of the major professional journals in economics, the Journal of Political Economy. Nicholls came to Vanderbilt as a full professor in 1948, where he continued his prodigious output of books and articles. He was president of the Southern Economic Association in 1958-59 and presidentof the American Farm Economic Association in 1960-61. He received the Centennial Distinguished Alumnus Award of the University of Kentucky in 1966 and was Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt in 1973. He chaired the Department of Economics and Business Administration from 1958 to 1961 and directed the Graduate Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt from 1965 to 1977.

Distinguished Professor Nicholas Gerogescu-Roegen, writing in support of Professor Nicholls’ nomination for the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professorship, said of him, “He is the originator of the field of regional development. One would be justified in speaking of a Nicholls’ school, which has attracted numerous doctoral students to our Economics Department, and has enhanced the prestige of the University. His works in the area of agricultural economics have no equal. They reflect a unique combination of theoretical power with a keen insight of the relevant aspects of actuality. The best example is supplied by his (now a classic) volume Imperfect Competition Within Agricultural Industries, in which Bill has created some new and efficient tools for the analysis of monopolistic structure.

“His scholarly interest in agricultural economics and its relation to economic development brought him in contact with the problems of Latin America, with Brazil in particular. Here, again, Bill showed his imaginative approach and his scholarly grip of difficult problems. The excellent name our own department (and implicitly the University) has in Latin America and among the specialists on Latin American Economics, is due in the greatest part to Bill’s contributions”.

Source: Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University, full biography link from the In Memorium webpage.

Image Source: Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University, in Memorium webpage.