Category: Berkeley

U.S. Economics Graduate Programs Ranked, 1957, 1964 and 1969

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-29

Recalling my active days in the rat race of academia, a cold shiver runs down my spine at the thought of departmental rankings in the hands of a Dean contemplating budgeting and merit raise pools or second-guessing departmental hiring decisions.

But let a half-century go by and now, reborn as a historian of economics, I appreciate having the aggregated opinions of yore to constrain our interpretive structures of what mattered when to whomever.

Research tip: sign up for a free account at archive.org to be able to borrow items still subject to copyright protection for an hour at a time. Sort of like being in the old reserve book room of your brick-and-mortar college library. This is needed if you wish to use the links for the Keniston, Carter, and Roose/Andersen publications linked in this post.

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1925 Rankings

R. M. Hughes. A Study of the Graduate Schools of America (Presented before the Association of American Colleges, January, 1925). Published by Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. (See earlier post that provides the economics ranking from the Hughes’ study)

1957 Rankings

Hayward Keniston. Graduate Study and Research in the Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania (January 1959), pp. 115-119,129.

Tables from Keniston transcribed here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror:
https://www.irwincollier.com/economics-departments-and-university-rankings-by-chairmen-hughes-1925-and-keniston-1957/

1964 Rankings

Allan M. Cartter, An Assessment of Quality in Graduate Education Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1966.

1969 Rankings

Kenneth D. Roose and Charles J. Andersen, A Rating of Graduate Programs. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1970.

Tables transcribed below.

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Graduate Programs in Economics
(1957, 1964, 1969)

				Percentage of Raters Who Indicate:
Rankings				“Quality of Graduate Faculty” Is:
1957	1964	1969	Institution	Distiguish- ed and strong	Good and adequate	All other	Insufficient Information
Nineteen institutions with scores in the 3.0 to 5.0 range, in rank order
1	1*	1*	Harvard	97	–	–	3
not ranked	1*	1*	M.I.T.	91	–	–	9
2	3*	3	Chicago	95	–	–	5
3	3*	4	Yale	90	3	–	7
5*	5	5	Berkeley	86	9	–	5
7	7	6	Princeton	82	9	–	10
9	8*	7*	Michigan	66	22	–	11
10	11	7*	Minnesota	65	19	–	15
14	14*	7*	Pennsylvania	62	22	–	15
5*	6	7*	Stanford	64	25	–	11
13	8*	11	Wisconsin	63	26	–	11
4	8*	12*	Columbia	50	37	–	13
11	12*	12*	Northwestern	52	32	–	16
16	16	14*	UCLA	41	38	–	21
not ranked	12*	14*	Carnegie-Mellon Carnegie-Tech (1964)	39	35	–	26
not ranked	not ranked	16	Rochester**	31	39	1	29
8	14*	17	Johns Hopkins	31	56	–	13
not ranked	not ranked	18*	Brown**	20	52	1	27
15	17	18*	Cornell**	21	56	2	21
		*Score and rank are shared with another institution.
		**Institution’s 1969 score is in a higher range than ist 1964 score.

Ten institutions with scores in the 2.5 to 2.9 range, in alphabetical order (1969)
	Duke
	Illinois
	Iowa State (Ames)
	Michigan State
	North Carolina
	Purdue
	Vanderbilt
	Virginia
	Washington (St. Louis)
	Washington (Seattle)

Sixteen institutions with scores in the 2.0 to 2.4 range, in alphabetical order (1969)
	Buffalo*
	Claremont
	Indiana
	Iowa (Iowa City)
	Kansas
	Maryland
	N.Y.U.
	North Carolina State*
	Ohio State
	Oregon
	Penn State
	Pittsburgh
	Rice*
	Texas
	Texas A&M
	Virginia Polytech.*
* Not included in the 1964 survey of economics

Berkeley Economists Education Labor

Berkeley. UC President, former economics professor, Clark Kerr dismissed in 1971.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-06-18

Perhaps it is because I am an economist that I have been particularly sensitive regarding those of our discipline who have gone on to head colleges and universities. Or perhaps economists have indeed constituted a disproportionate share of such presidents/chancellors/deans. In either case, I feel sufficiently motivated to begin a new series “Economists gone university leaders” with this post dedicated to Clark Kerr, a Berkeley economics Ph.D. (1939). The title of his thesis was “Productive enterprises of the unemployed, 1931-1938”. He was the founding director of the UC Berkeley Institute of Industrial Relations and later became the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley and the twelfth president of the University of California.

Fun fact: Not only did then Governor Ronald Reagan vote to dismiss Clark Kerr but so too did the chairman of the UCLA Alumni Association and member of the University of California Board of Regents, Harry R. (Bob) Haldeman of Watergate infamy.

There are two morsels of Clark Kerr’s wit to be enjoyed near the end of the post as a reward for reading two newspaper reports from 1967.

But first we begin with an inspirational thought from Clark Kerr’s early presidential years and an insight by the columnist James Reston as to how it was even conceivable that Clark Kerr could be fired. “As usual, the articulate and activist extremes have prevailed over the moderate and indifferent middle.” A lesson for our political times?

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The duties of a great university

“A great university has a duty to the future as great as its duty to the present. It must do more than serve the immediate society which provides its support: it must preserve the heritage of the past; it must try to open new doors. Intellectually it must be both more conservative of established values and more bold in trying innovations than may be fashionable at any given moment. It must maintain scholars in studies which a layman might consider archaic. It must support novel explorations which most people consider speculative. In the interests of future generations it must take the long view and may often have to defend the unpopular.”

Source: Office of the President, University of California. Unity and Diversity. The Academic Plan of the University of California, 1965-1975, p. 2.

When the Center could not hold

“The feeling against Governor Reagan and the Regents for their clumsiness, insensitivity, and even brutality in dismissing Kerr like an incompetent janitor is very strong here [in Berkeley]. Faculty and students, who were remarkably silent when he really needed them, are now all rallying to his support, but it is too late. As usual, the articulate and activist extremes have prevailed over the moderate and indifferent middle.”

Source: James Reston, “Berkeley: The Dismissal of Clark Kerr,” The New York Times, January 27, 1967, p. 44.

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Hail the New Chancellor!

CHANCELLOR AT BERKELEY

A civic dinner in honor of Clark Kerr, new Chancellor at Berkeley, has been planned the evening of Dec. 10 in the Peacock Court of San Francisco’s Mark Hopkins Hotel by a special Committee of the Regents in co-operation with President Robert G. Sproul.

Chancellor Kerr will be the principal speaker on the program, which will also include remarks by Governor Earl Warren and President Sproul, and music by the Glee Club, under the direction of Robert Commanday.

Approximately 450 civic, faculty, student, and alumni leaders are being invited to the affair which will introduce Chancellor Kerr to the Bay Area in his new capacity.

Chancellor Kerr was born in Pennsylvania and holds the bachelor degree from Swarthmore College, the M.A. degree from Stanford University, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of California. He completed his studies in 1939 and has since been an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Washington, from which post he came to the Berkeley campus in 1945.

That was the year in which the Institute of Industrial Relations was established by the State Legislature, at the Governor’s request, and in recognition of the fact that labor-management relations had come to be a crucial problem in the life of California and the nation. Chancellor Kerr organized the Institute, recruited a well-qualified staff, and directed a program of teaching, research, and public service, the success of which is attested by the co-operation of both management and labor.

In addition to his academic achievements Chancellor Kerr has a record of public service both local and national, including service as a member of the Federal Advisory Council on Employment Security, U. S. Department of Labor; public member and vice-chairman of the National Wage Stabilization Board; consultant on industrial relations,

Atomic Energy Commission; chairman of the Labor-Management Advisory Committee, United States Conciliation Service; vice-chairman of the Twelfth Regional War Labor Board; and member of Federal Fact Finding Boards in important labor-management disputes.

Upon assuming the chancellorship at Berkeley Kerr relinquished his position as Director of the Institute of Industrial Relations, a position which was assumed by E. T. Grether, Flood Professor of Economics and Dean, School of Business Administration. Chancellor Kerr retained his title as Professor of Industrial Relations, School of Business Administration, and in addition is serving as Research Associate, Institute of Industrial Relations.

Source: University Bulletin, A Weekly Bulletin for the Staff of the University of California. Vol. 1, No. 17 (December 8, 1952), p. 89.

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The Backstory to Clark Kerr’s Dismissal as President of the University of California

1964 Turmoil Caught Kerr in Ironic Web
UC President, Skillful Negotiator, Unable to Settle Campus Strife Leading to Ouster

By William Trombley, Times Education Writer
The Los Angeles Times, (January 21, 1967), p. 15

Clark Kerr earned an international reputation as a negotiator of labor disputes.

But ironically it was his failure to settle campus conflict which set off the train of events leading to his being fired as president of the University of California Friday.

When Kerr returned to Berkeley from an Asian trip in September, 1964, he found the campus in an uproar.

Edward W. Strong, then chancellor, had ordered a halt to student political activity in an area outside Sather Gate where it always had been allowed.

Kerr thought the Strong order a mistake but also thought it would be awkward to reverse the decision.

Instead, he proposed that students be permitted use of Sproul Hall steps, instead of the banned Sather Gate area. He also recommended certain other concessions.

Sought Discussion

He did so, he said in later interview, because “I thought we could get things back into channels of discussion if we showed reasonableness. But it didn’t work.”

Instead, the Free Speech Movement exploded across the campus and onto the nation’s front pages and television screens.

From that time Kerr has led a troubled life.

Conservative members of the Board of Regents, who had never been happy about Kerr’s selection as president in 1958, solidified their opposition.

They were especially angry because Kerr opposed then Gov. Edmund G. Brown’s decision to call in police to arrest demonstrators during the Sproul Hall sit-in at the height of the FSM protest.

Strategy Has Worked

Kerr thought the demonstrators would leave the building eventually if the police were not called, a strategy that has been followed successfully in dealing with demonstrations on other campuses since then.

When a few students and nonstudents displayed four-letter words on signs and shouted four-letter words on the campus in the spring of 1965, some regents demanded that Kerr and Martin Meyerson, who had replaced Strong as Berkeley chancellor, dismiss the offenders.

However, Kerr and Meyerson thought that to punish the students without due process would revive all the bitterness of the fall and destroy the tenuous peace which prevailed on the campus.

The two officials announced their intention to resign, but later agreed to stay when the regents decided to permit them to settle the “filthy speech” incidents themselves.

Ouster Move

Regental opposition to Kerr reached a high point at the June, 1965, meeting of the board in San Francisco, when regents Edwin W. Pauley and John E. Canaday led a move to oust the president.

However, a coalition of “liberal” and “moderate” regents formed behind Gov. Brown to prevent the ouster.

The newly formed coalition of regents insisted, however, that Kerr carry out recommendations for decentralization of university administration which had been included in the Byrne Report.

This report, prepared for a regents’ committee by a staff headed by Beverly Hills attorney Jerome C. Byrne, found that the mammoth university was too highly centralized. It recommended that substantial administrative authority be delegated from the regents to Kerr and from him to the chancellors of the nine campuses.

More Power

Kerr moved immediately to grant more power to the chancellors. The regents also agreed to pass on some of their powers, and for about a year talk of Kerr leaving his post faded away.

The Berkeley campus was troubled by demonstrations against U.S. policy in Vietnam during 1965-66, but Kerr remained in the background, permitting Roger W. Heyns, the third Berkeley chancellor in three years, to work out the problems.

However, speculation that Kerr might quit or be fired was revived during the Brown-Reagan race for the governorship. Kerr made strenuous efforts to avoid involvement in the campaign, but there was little question that his administration in Berkeley was linked with Brown’s administration in Sacramento.

Doubt Remained

Even after Reagan’s overwhelming victory, however, there was doubt that Kerr would go.

The addition of Reagan, Lt. Gov. Robert H. Finch and Allan Grant, newly named president of the State Board of Agriculture, clearly gave the anti-Kerr forces a majority on the Board of Regents. But many observers thought the new governor might be reluctant to be identified with an educational purge.

When a new student protest led to further disorder, including a strike, at Berkeley in December, most regents supported Kerr in his determination to permit Chancellor Heyns to handle the trouble without regental interference.

However, the current controversy over the university’s budget evidently solidified the anti-Kerr votes on the board and persuaded them that this was the time to move against the president.

Kerr probably saw the end coming, however. A few weeks ago he concluded an interview with this reporter with the observation:

“I had six good years in which to plan for the future of the university . . . then things went wrong in the fall of ’64, and I haven’t had that kind of support (among the regents) since.”

[…]

________________________

Clark Kerr’s Dismissal

Reagan Sides With Majority in 14 to 8 Decision

By Daryl E. Lembke, Times Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Times (January 21, 1967), p. 1.

BERKELEY – President Clark Kerr of the University of California was fired Friday in a surprise move by the Board of Regents. The vote was 14-8.

Gov. Reagan was present at the two-hour, closed-door discussion of Kerr’s fate and voted with the majority to dismiss the president from his $45,000-a-year post.

The dismissal was effective immediately. University Vice President Harry R. Wellman, 67, was named acting president pending selection of Kerr’s successor.

Theodore R. Meyer, chairman of the Board of Regents, said at a news conference that the subject of a successor was not discussed during the session at which Kerr was dismissed.

Reports of Dissatisfaction

Although there have been frequent reports for two years or more that the regents were about to fire Kerr, the move came as a surprise. The two-day meeting ostensibly had been called to discuss Reagan’s proposals for slashing the university budget and charging tuition for the first time.

Asked the reason for the dismissal, Meyer commented:

“We felt the state of uncertainty prevailing for many months should be resolved without further delay.”

He added:

“President Kerr, being human, has strengths and weaknesses even as you and I. His strengths are obvious to all. His weaknesses I don’t intend to discuss for obvious reasons.”

Talked with Governor

Asked if Reagan requested the regents to fire Kerr, Meyer replied:

“The governor discussed the subject with me and others. I regard that conversation as confidential.” In response to another question, Meyer said: “Mr. Reagan didn’t fire Dr. Kerr and he won’t pick his successor.”

Voting with the governor for dismissal were these regents: Lt. Gov. Robert H. Finch, Meyer, Allan Grant, H. R. Haldeman, Edwin W. Pauley, Edward W. Carter, Mrs. Dorothy B. Chandler, Mrs. Randolph A. Hearst, John E. Canaday, Philip L. Boyd, William E. Forbes, Laurence J. Kennedy. Jr, and DeWitt A. Higgs.

Opposing the action were Assembly Speaker Jesse M. Unruh (D-Inglewood), Samuel B. Mosher, Norton Simon, William M. Roth, Mrs. Edward H. Heller, Frederick G. Dutton, William K. Coblentz and Einar Mohn.

At another news conference, Unruh describe Kerr’s dismissal as most

“unfortunate coming on the heels of an attempt (by the new Reagan administration) to depart from a 76-year tradition of no tuition for higher education in California and coming in a year of an attempted cut in the university budget.”
“Regardless of whether this was a partisan move, that will be its effect,” Unruh said. “It will be interpreted as a political move.”

Unruh Comment

Unruh maintained that although he and Kerr had their differences, Kerr was “no more culpable for the things for which the university was brought to task than the entire board of regents.”

“It is a bad precedent to fire a university president concomitant with a change of political party in the state administration.”

Kerr, 55, has been president of the university eight-and-a-half years.

[…]

Factor in Election

Reagan’s criticism of the university administration was credited as one of the principal factors in his defeat of Democrat Brown in November.

Kerr took the dismissal philosophically.

He said he was asked by chairman Meyer to leave during the regents’ discussion of a “personnel matter.” As the university president, Kerr also served as a regent.

Kerr and Dr. Max Rafferty, who as state superintendent of public instruction is also a regent, were the only members of the board absent during discussion and the vote on dismissal.

“Rumors have been around,” Kerr said at his own press conference following his removal. “I have felt like being in the ‘Perils of Pauline.’ Pauline always got saved, until to-day.”

He said it is not his nature to be “bitter or vindictive” and that he has no rancor over the regents’ action.

Reviews Policies

Kerr reviewed at his press conference policies under his administration which he said he hoped would be continued.

They include:

The “open-door” policy for qualified students who apply for admission; no tuition; dispersal of campuses rather than concentration of students in two or three mammoth institutions; decentralization of administration and striving to “make size acceptable to the individual student; achieving balance among teaching, research and service functions; stressing quality in choosing the faculty, and providing adequate facilities such as student unions and places for cultural attractions for students when they are out of classes.

Kerr also said he has fought hard for freedom on the campus.

He suggested that efforts be continued in seeking ways to give students a greater voice in governing the university or at least in advising the administration.

“Along with freedom goes respect for law,” he said. “I regret the occasions when there hasn’t been respect for law but in the totality of the university, those occasions have been minor.
A university can’t be run as a police state.”

Criticizes Regents

He criticized the regents for what he termed “yielding to the political winds in the state,” contending that the board members are appointed for 16-year terms to guard against political influence in the university administration.

“I don’t believe in the principle that because there is a new governor, there should be a new president of the university,” he said.
“Now this has happened. This is not done in the good universities of the nation and it is even out of fashion in the mediocre and poor ones.”

Kerr said he has received a number of job offers, including some made after his dismissal but has made no decision on his future.

He joined the Berkeley faculty in 1945 as director of the Institute of Industrial Relations and still retains the title of professor of industrial relations, a position to which he could return at a salary of more than $20,000 annually.

Recent Appointee

Unruh revealed that Allan Grant, recent Reagan appointee as president of the State Board of Agriculture and in that office automatically a regent, brought up the subject of dismissing Kerr at Friday’s meeting.

Unruh said that Grant, because he is new on the board, withdrew his motion to dismiss Kerr to allow Laurence Kennedy to initiate the action.

Unruh said the reasons given for the dismissal during debate on Kennedy’s motion were that Kerr “had lost the confidence of the regents and the people and that he was no longer useful.”

Executive Session

The regents met in executive session on Kerr’s status from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

At 3 p.m., Thomas C. Sorensen, vice president for university relations, made the announcement of the president’s removal.

Mrs. Hearst said she voted to remove Kerr “because he was inadequate as an administrator.”

William Coblentz attended Chairman Meyer’s press conference and, upon its conclusion, issued a statement charging that “the errors, mistakes and much of the blame of the majority (of the regents) have been foisted upon one man—Clark Kerr.”

Coblentz said that Kerr has been an outstanding administrator and that “the problems of unrest at Berkeley, the restlessness of students cannot be cured by the termination of employment of one man.”

The regents are expected to take up the question of a successor at their next meeting, Feb. 16 and 17 in Santa Barbara.

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Two Samples of Clark Kerr’s Wit

“The chancellor’s job had come to be defined as providing parking for the faculty, sex for the students, and athletics for the alumni.”

— 1957 remark picked up by Time & Playboy

“The university president in the United States is expected to be a friend of the students, a colleague of the faculty, a good fellow with the alumni, a sound administrator with the trustees, a good speaker with the public, an astute bargainer with the foundations and the federal agencies, a politician with the state legislature, a friend of industry, labor, and agriculture, a persuasive diplomat with the donors, a champion of education generally, a supporter of the professions (particularly law and medicine), a spokesman to the press, a scholar in his own right, a public servant at the state and national levels, a devotee of opera and football equally, a decent human being, a good husband and father, an active member of a church. Above all he must enjoy traveling in airplanes, eating his meals in public, and attending public ceremonies. No one can be all of these things. Some succeed at being none.”

— The Uses of the University, 1995

Source: UC Berkeley News: Press Release (December 2, 2003).

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IN MEMORIAM

Clark Kerr
Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, UC Berkeley
Chancellor, Emeritus, UC Berkeley
University of California President, Emeritus
1911 – 2003

Clark Kerr died on December 1, 2003, at his El Cerrito home overlooking the San Francisco Bay Area and the University of California, Berkeley campus. As Sheldon Rothblatt wrote shortly after, “He had always appeared indestructible, his intellectual powers invariably on automatic pilot. He survived nasty attacks from the political left and right, and overcame the humiliation of an abrupt dismissal from office by the Board of Regents. At his death, his renown was never greater.” (“Crosstalk” [National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education], 12(1), Winter 2004, p. 2.)

Kerr’s professional interests were mainly in three areas. His academic fields were economics and industrial relations; he had a second career as a skilled labor management negotiator and arbitrator; his worldwide reputation, however, was largely based on his work as an academic administrator whose final years were mostly devoted to research and writing on higher education in its American and worldwide contexts.

Kerr received his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in 1932, where he also joined the Society of Friends, a lifelong commitment. After receiving his master’s degree at Stanford University in 1933 and his doctorate (all in economics) in 1939 from the University of California, Berkeley, he taught at the University of Washington for five years and was heavily engaged in ensuring industrial peace during World War II as vice chairman of the 12th Regional War Labor Board.

He was one of the founders of the professional association in his chosen academic field, the Industrial Relations Research Association. He was also a major contributor, perhaps the major contributor, to two major streams of industrial relations research and theory: (a) the so-called “California School” or “neo-classical revisionist” approach, which tried to bridge the two major then-current economics camps, the neoclassical and the institutional; and (b) “Industrialism and Industrial Man,” probably the first theoretically oriented study in what is now known as comparative international industrial relations. He continued to pursue this theme throughout his life (see, e.g., The Future of Industrial Societies: Convergence or Continuing Diversity? [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983]).

In 1945, he returned to Berkeley as director of its newly-founded Institute for Industrial Relations. When the infamous loyalty oath controversy arose in 1949, Kerr was a member of a relatively unimportant Academic Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure, a committee that rapidly became central in the dispute. As a result of his efforts during that heated time, Kerr became well-known as a voice of reason, a calm negotiator and an able conciliator. When, in 1952, the Regents established the new position of chancellor at Berkeley, Kerr appeared the best choice to the Berkeley faculty, to then-President Robert Sproul, and to the Board of Regents.

During his six-year term as Berkeley’s first chancellor, Kerr set to work to repair the damage done by the oath controversy. As described in the first volume of his memoirs, Chancellor Kerr concentrated on building faculty excellence and planning for the academic and physical growth of the campus that would be needed shortly as the “tidal wave” of students—the first of the “baby boomers”—was expected to inundate higher education beginning in the early 1960s.

In 1958, Robert Gordon Sproul, UC’s president since 1930, retired and Clark Kerr was selected to replace him. As president, Kerr led the development of the California Master Plan for Higher Education (enacted in 1960) which provided for orderly growth among the state’s three public segments of higher education and also included the private sector in planning for the oncoming surge of students. He oversaw the administrative decentralization of the University of California, turning over most day-to-day decision-making to the campuses, under general university-wide policies. The staff of the Office of the President was reduced by 750 persons whose positions were returned to the campuses.

Developments during Kerr’s presidency included building, staffing, and opening three new UC university campuses, at Santa Cruz, San Diego, and Irvine. The existing units at Davis, Santa Barbara, and Riverside became “general” campuses, offering them equal opportunities with other campuses to engage in graduate work and research. Unlike many state systems, there would be no “flagship” campus within the University of California; similar faculty structures, admissions requirements, and expectations for excellence would be provided for all. In that vein, the University of California, Los Angeles, was given what Kerr referred to as “a place in the sun,” receiving equal resources with Berkeley in most areas.

Among other innovations, Kerr sponsored a university-wide library plan, increased the number of UC medical schools from two to five (and turned the University of California, San Francisco, from a local medical school into a leading medical research facility), enhanced facilities for student engagement in social and athletic life, established an Education Abroad Program, developed a Natural Reserve Program, and encouraged programs for arts and culture on the campuses.

While Kerr concentrated on improvements that would lead the American Council on Education, in its 1964 ranking of American research universities, to declare Berkeley to be both the most “distinguished” and the “best balanced” in the nation, political developments in the state and nation brought that campus the more dubious distinction of being the first to suffer major student disruptions.

Throughout his tenure as chancellor and president, Kerr had been under more or less constant attack from the political right wing in California and its legislature, led by State Senator Hugh Burns, chair of the senate’s Un-American Activities committee. Burns’s views were echoed by those of J. Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who once wrote at the bottom of a memo, “I know Kerr is no good….”

But in the fall of 1964 the attacks on Kerr and the university’s administration came from the political left in the guise of the so-called Free Speech Movement. Throughout the remainder of his service as UC’s president, Kerr would contend with forces from both the left and the right, many actively engaged in attempts to oust him from his position. After the election in fall 1966 which brought Ronald Reagan to California’s governorship, membership on the Board of Regents shifted to the right, and on January 20, 1967, Kerr was abruptly dismissed. Later he stated that he left the presidency of the university as he had entered it, “fired with enthusiasm.”

Kerr was not long unemployed, almost immediately becoming the chair and research director for the newly established Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. In 1973 that organization was transformed into the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education, again chaired by Kerr. During the 13 years of the Commission and Council, over 140 volumes of research and commentary on higher education were produced, many written or drafted by Kerr himself, comprising the most complete examination of higher education ever produced.

After the Carnegie series was completed in late 1979, Kerr continued to write both on industrial relations and higher education, including studies of university administration and governance for the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, and culminating in his two-volume memoir of his life as a UC faculty member and administrator, completed shortly before his final illness (The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California 1949-1967. Volume I: Academic Triumphs (2001); Volume II: Political Turmoil (2003); University of California Press).

Perhaps Kerr’s best known book is The Uses of the University (Harvard University Press), based on his 1963 Godkin Lectures at Harvard and updated with additional chapters and republication every decade (1963, 1972, 1982, 1995, and 2001). In it he popularized the term “the multiversity” to characterize the modern research university. Other important publications included Industrialism and Industrial Man (1960, 1973 [Pelican revised ed.]), 1975 [Industrialism and Industrial Man Reconsidered]), written with others of the team that made up the Inter-University Study of Labor Problems in Economic Development; and Marshall, Marx, and Modern Times (1969).

Kerr served not only the university but also his country, as a member of numerous committees (among others, President Eisenhower’s Commission on National Goals, President Kennedy’s Advisory Committee on Labor Management Policy) and as chair of the National Committee for a Political Settlement in Vietnam. He was a member of the board of trustees/directors of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Swarthmore College, the American Council on Education, and the Work in America Institute (again—among others).

In 1964 he received the Alexander Meiklejohn Award for Contributions to Academic Freedom, awarded by the American Association of University Professors, and in 1968 he was the first recipient of the Clark Kerr Award for extraordinary and distinguished contributions to the advancement of higher education, presented by the Berkeley Division of UC’s Academic Senate. He received numerous honorary degrees from universities in the United States and abroad.

Kerr was an avid gardener, taking special interest in cultivating an array of flowers for his wife to enjoy, and apple trees. He claimed that, as a boy on his family’s Pennsylvania farm, he could recognize 50 species of apple trees by sight—even in the winter, after they had lost their leaves. Pennsylvania State University named its antique apple orchard in his honor, a tribute he especially treasured. He is also memorialized by buildings on UC’s campuses named for him, but the living tribute pleased him more. Kerr was the quintessential “egg-head,” both physically and intellectually, but possessed a strong sense of humor that enlivened both his conversation and his writings. He claimed, for example, that during his university presidency, he would take out his frustrations on the weeds in his garden, naming a small weed after a student who was giving him trouble; a larger weed would be called by the name of an annoying faculty member; and as he yanked it out, he would name the largest weed for a recalcitrant regent.

He was devoted to his family, and when one of his sons moved to western Australia, he visited every year to help with constructing farm structures and bringing in the crops.

Clark Kerr is survived by his wife, the former Catherine Spaulding, whom he met at Stanford, and his three children and their spouses, as well as seven grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Marian L. Gade
George Strauss

Source: University of California Senate website.

Image Source: University of California, Berkeley. The Bancroft Library website. Fiat Lux Redux: Ansel Adams and Clark Kerr Exhibits. Detail from a portrait of Clark Kerr ca. 1966

Tags Kerr

Berkeley Curriculum Economics Programs

Berkeley. Expansion of economics course offerings announcement. Course offerings 1904-1905.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-03-21

In May 1903 the College of Commerce at the University of California announced a complete reorganization of the economics department’s course offerings for the coming academic year. This was reported in the Berkeley Gazette newspaper which appears to be a slight rearrangment of the University of California’s official Register for 1903-04. The newspaper article is provided in this post followed by the faculty and course announcements for the 1904-05 academic year.

So in the yin and yang of economic theory and application, practical economics received a boost at Berkeley early in the twentieth century with the introduction of “…a large number of new courses in economics of the most direct practical application to the needs of modern industrial life.”

____________________________

Enlarges Economic Courses.
University Offers New Opportunities for Students of Practical Business.
[Announced for 1903-1904]

In response to the needs of the rapidly increasing number of students enrolled in the College of Commerce of the University of California, the work of the Department of Economics has been completely reorganized. Announcement has been made of a large number of new courses in economics of the most direct practical application to the needs of modern industrial life. These courses will be of the greatest interest, however, not only to students who are fitting themselves for banking, insurance, commerce, manufacturing, and exploitation of mineral resources, but also to the theoretical student.

Professor Carl C. Plehn, Dean of the College of Commerce, will offer during the coming year a course in “American Agriculture,” in which he will discuss the development of agriculture in the United States and its present condition from an economical point of view; a new course in “Accounting and Corporation Finance,” setting forth the principles of accounting and credit as illustrated by the methods of large corporations and of the Government, the character of negotiable securities, and the methods exemplified in bank statements and railroad and other corporation and trusts accounts: and courses in “Public Finance,” “Taxation,” and in “Statistics.”

Assistant Professor Wesley C. Mitchell will offer a new course in “Banking,” intended primarily to give men who expect to engage in business such general knowledge of banking as will best prepare them for their professions; a new course in “Hondy” [sic, very likely a typographical error with “Money” the actual course name, see below] — a study of the economic problems centering around the monetary system; and courses in “Elementary Economic Ideas;” “The Problem of Labor” — a study of the position of wage earners in the economic organization of today; and in “Economic Origins.”

Mr. Lincoln Hutchinson, Instructor in Commercial Geography, will offer a new course in “The Materials of Commerce,” dealing with the principal commodities which enter into commercial affairs, production, sources and markets; a new course on the “Industrial and Commercial Development of the United States,” involving a discussion of the leading commercial problems of the day; a new course entitled the “Economic Position of the Great Powers,” a new course on “The Consular Service,” involving a brief history of the consular service, followed by a technical study of the training and duties of consuls and the practice of the leading commercial nations in consular affairs; and courses in “The History of Commerce,” “Commercial Geography,” and “The Commercial Resources of the Spanish-American Countries.”

Dr. Simon Litman, who recently came to the University as Instructor in Commercial Practice, will offer new courses in “Tariff Policies,” in “Modern Colonial Economics,” a study of the principal commercial and industrial problems which arise in connection with colonial conditions, as illustrated by the experience of the leading colonizing nations, and in “Communication and Transportation,” a study of the Post, the Telegraph, the Telephone, Trade Journals, and facilities for transportation other than railroads; and he will repeat courses already given in “Industrial Processes” and “The Technique of Trade.”

The instruction offered by the Department of Economics will be rounded out by special economic courses offered by professors in other departments. Professor Elwood Mead of the chair of Irrigation will offer a course on “The Organization of the Irrigation Industry,” Professor John C. Moore courses on “The Methods China and Japan,” Professor Ernest C. Moore courses on “The Methods of Modern Charities and Corrections,” and Albert W. Whitney of the Department of Mathematics -a new course in “Insurance,” an account of the history, principles and problems of life, fire, and other forms of insurance, with special study of the mathematical principles involved in actuarial science, and with practice in the computation and use of tables; and Mr. N. M. Hall of the Botany Department a course in “Economic Botany,” dealing with the plant families which furnish important commercial products and agricultural crops.

The work in economics will be completed by the highly important courses offered by the head of the department, Professor Adolph C. Miller of the chair of Political Economy and Commerce. Professor Miller announces a new course in “Railway Transportation,” an examination of the chief financial and economical questions which arise in railway organization and management, embracing such topics as capitalization, speculation, accounting, rate-making, competition, pooling, and consolidation; a new course in “Socialism,” a review of modern socialistic thought with some consideration of its bearing on the proper conception of the problem of social organization; a course in “Modern Industrialism,” dealing with the workings of competition and the tendency toward industrial monopolies; “The Financial History of the United States,” and a course in “Advanced Economics.”

As the culmination of the work of the department, Professor Miller announces a Seminary in Economics. Arrangements will be made for the guidance of individual students or groups of students competent, to engage in economical research. The results will be presented to the Seminary for discussion as occasion may suggest.

Source: The Berkeley Gazette (May 1, 1903), p. 2.

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Economics Course Offerings
[1904-1905]

Adolph Caspar Miller, M.A., Flood Professor of Political Economy and Commerce.

Carl Copping Plehn, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Finance and Statistics, on the Flood Foundation, and Dean of the Faculty of the College of Commerce.

Henry Rand Hatfield, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Accounting, on the Flood Foundation,

Wesley Clair Mitchell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Commerce, on the Flood Foundation

Simon Litman, Dr.jur., Instructor in Commercial Practice.

Jessica Blanche Peixotto, Ph.D., Lecturer in Sociology.

Elwood Mead, M.S., C.E., D.Eng., Professor of the Institutions and Practice of Irrigation.

Thomas Walker Page, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Mediæval History.

Ernest Carroll Moore, LL.B., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education.

Albert Wurts Whitney, A.B., Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Insurance Methods.

1. The courses prerequisite to a group (15 units) of Upper Division work in the departments of History, Political Science, Economics, or Jurisprudence are any three of the following five; History 51, 54, 64, Political Science 1 (A and B), and Economics 1. No part of the work in the group of advanced courses is to be undertaken until all the three prerequisite courses shall have been completed.

2. But students who plan to take less than twelve units of Upper Division work in the four departments above mentioned may proceed immediately with the advanced courses for which they have the particular prerequisites.

The above regulations apply to students graduating in or after May, 1907. Other students are requested to observe the rules set forth in the Register for 1903-04, page 143.

A. Lectures on Commerce. Members of the Staff.

1 hr., throughout the year, ½ unit each half-year. M, 4. Prescribed each year for all students in the College of Commerce.

1. Introduction to Economics. Professor Miller.

A study of the elementary laws of economics as illustrated in the growth of industry and commerce in England and the United States.
3 hrs., throughout the year. M W F, 9.

2. Principles of Economics. Professor Miller and Assistant Professor Mitchell.

A critical exposition of the leading principles of economics on the basis of a selected text.
3 hrs., either half-year. First half-year, M W F, 10; second half-year, M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Course 1.
N. B. — This course should be taken by all students who intend to take any considerable amount of Economics.

5. Economics of Industry. Associate Professor Plehn.

An elementary course planned to meet the needs of the students in the Engineering Colleges.
3 hrs., first half-year. MWF, 1.

N.B. — This course will not be accepted as fulfilling any prescribed work in the College of Commerce, nor in the Colleges of General Culture.

3. Introduction to Commercial Geography. Associate Professor Hatfield.

The elements of scientific geography; relation between geographical phenomena and economical development; brief survey of the resources of the leading countries of the world.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 11. Prerequisite: Course 1.

4. The Materials of Commerce. [Not given in 1904-05.]

The principal commodities which enter into commercial dealings; causes promoting their production; effects of climate, soil, and other conditions; detailed study of their sources, and of the markets in which they are sold.
3 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th S, 10. Prerequisite: Course 3.

4A. Geography of International Trade. Associate Professor Hatfield.

Demand and supply in the world markets; exports and imports of the leading countries; sea-ports; commercial and industrial centers; routes and methods of transportation; postal and telegraphic communication, etc.
2 hrs., second-half year. Tu Th, 11. Prerequisite: Course 3.

5a. American Agriculture. Associate Professor Plehn.

Leading factors in the development of agriculture in the United States and a study of its present condition from an economical point of view. This course will be based largely upon the materials furnished by the government reports and the census returns.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 1. Prerequisite: Course 1, except that advanced students in the College of Agriculture may be admitted, with the consent of the instructor, without Course 1B, but a familiarity with the fundamental ideas and terminology of economics is essential.

6. History of Commerce. [Not given in 1904-05.]

Mediaeval commerce and the “Golden Age” of the Italian Republics; Turkish conquests and the “Age of Discovery”; new routes and the shifting of trade centers; the era of colonization and commercial rivalries; mercantilism and its results; nineteenth century commerce; its development and problems.
3 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th S, 10. Prerequisite: Course 3 and one course in English History.

7. Modern Industrialism. Professor Miller. [Not given in 1904-05.]

A descriptive and interpretative account of the rise of the modern industrial system, especially as affected by the Industrial Revolution. The workings of competition in the nineteenth century and the recent tendency toward the formation of industrial monopolies will receive particular attention.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

8. Theory and History of Banking. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

A study of banking from the standpoint of its relations to the economic development of society. To show what rôle banks have played in this development and the functions they perform at present, attention will be directed to the origin of banking in Europe and America; the gradual changes in banking methods; governmental policies toward banks; the relations between banking, monetary, and fiscal systems; the effect of banking operations upon price fluctuations; the control of banks over the direction of investment; the special banking requirements of different communities; etc.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 8. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

8A. Practical Banking. Associate Professor Hatfield.

The internal organization and administration of a modern bank, the nature of bank investments, the extension of credit, the valuation of an account, methods of keeping records.
3 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th S, 10. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

8B. Money. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

A study of the economic problems centering around the monetary system.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 8. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

8C. International Exchanges. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

Foreign bills; a study of the various factors that affect their price; international trade in commodities; investments of capital in foreign countries; interest rates in important money-markets; shipments of gold; etc.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 9. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

9. Public Finance-Taxation. Associate Professor Plehn.

The theory and methods of taxation, illustrated by the experience of various nations; the expenditure and administration of public funds; public debts. Especial attention will be paid to taxation in California.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 2. Prerequisite: Course 1.

10. Statistics. Associate Professor Plehn.

The history, theory, and methods of statistics. The collection, analysis, and presentation of statistical data relating to eco nomics and kindred sciences. Practice in the use of mechanical, graphical, and other devices, and apparatus for tabulation, computation and analysis.
3 hrs., throughout the year, including one laboratory period. Tn Th, 11, and a laboratory period to be arranged.
Prerequisite: Course 1; Mathematics 20A must be taken in conjunction with this course. The special consent of the instructor is also necessary.

11. Insurance. Assistant Professor Whitney.

An account of the history, principles and problems of Insurance, particularly of Life-insurance and of Fire-insurance; a special study of the mathematical principles involved in actuarial science, with practice in the computation and use of tables.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Mathematics 20a.

(77) The Economic Factors in American History. Associate Professor Page.

This course is intended to present, in their proper historical perspective, the facts and tendencies in the growth of American commerce, industry, and finance, and to indicate their influence on the constitutional and social development of the nation.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 3. Prerequisite: Course 1 and two courses in American History.
[This course may be recorded as Economics 77 or History 77.]

12. Industrial and Commercial Development of the United States. [Not given in 1904-05.]

A study of the economic growth of the United States during the nineteenth century. The object is to give the student an understanding of causes which have brought the country to its present position among the nations of the world, and a basis for discussion of the leading commercial problems of to-day.
3 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th S, 9. Prerequisite: At least Sophomore standing, Course 3, and one course in American History.

12A. History of Economic Science. Professor Miller.

A critical review of the leading systems of economic thought since the sixteenth century.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

13A. Problems of Labor. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

The position of wage-earners in the economic organization of to-day.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

14. Principles of Accounting. Associate Professor Hatfield.

The interpretation of accounts with regard to the need of the business manager rather than those of the accountant. The formation and meaning of the balance sheet. The profit and loss statement. The various accounts appearing in the balance sheet and errors frequently found therein.
3 hrs., throughout the year. Tu Th S, 9. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

14A. The Investment Market. Associate Professor Hatfield.

Investment securities, corporation stocks and bonds, municipal and government bonds, market quotations, operations on the stock exchange, foreign and domestic exchange, the construction and use of exchange, bond and interest tables.
3 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th S, 9. Prerequisite: Course 14.

15. Financial History of the United States. Professor Miller.

A detailed study of the legislation and experience of the United States touching currency, banking, debt, taxation, expenditure, etc. The work will be based, as far as possible, on first-hand examination of sources.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 10. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

16A. Railway Transportation. Associate Professor Plehn.

An examination of the chief financial and economic questions which arise in railway organization and management, embracing such topics as capitalization, speculation, and accounting, rate making, competition, pooling, consolidation, etc.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

18. Methods of Modern Charities and Corrections; Theoretical. Assistant Professor Moore.

Studies in the administration of poor relief, the treatment of delinquents and defectives. Readings and lectures.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Course 1 and Philosophy 2. Class to be limited at the discretion of the instructor.

19. Methods of Modern Charities and Corrections; Investigation. Assistant Professor Moore.

Investigation and field work to be done in part in connection with the Associated Charities of San Francisco and Oakland.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Course 18.

23. Modern Industrial Processes. Dr. Litman.

The development and present condition of leading modern industries with particular reference to such industries as now exist or may be established on the Pacific Coast; emphasis will be laid on the technical processes.
3 hrs., first half-year. MWF, 10. Prerequisite: Course 1.

24. Mechanism and Technique of Trade. Dr. Litman.

Devices used by governments and individuals to promote commerce; exposition of the work performed by Boards of Trade, Commercial Museums, Mercantile Agencies, of transactions on Produce and Stock Exchanges, of modern wholesale and retail trade organizations. The course will include the reading by the student of mercantile publications, such as consular reports, trade and financial journals, etc.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Course 1.

24A. Business Forms and Practice. Dr. Litman.

Detailed study of methods and forms used in connection with the purchase, sale and forwarding of goods; calculations necessitated by the various systems of weights, measures and moneys in different countries; the significance of price quotations in different markets; the meaning and determination of standards and grades as to quality; the forms and functions of invoices, bills of lading, warehouse receipts, consular certificates, and other business documents relating to trade.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 9. Prerequisite: Course 1.

30. Economic Position of the Great Powers. [Not given in 1904-05.]

A comparative study of the commercial and industrial position of the leading nations, with particular reference to the countries of Europe.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 11. Prerequisite: Course 3, at least Junior standing, and ability to use French and German statistical publications; consent of instructor must be obtained before enrollment.

31. The Consular Service. [Not given in 1904-05.]

A brief history of the consular service, followed by a technical study of the training and duties of consuls and the practice of the leading commercial nations in regard to appointments, etc.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 11. Prerequisite: At least Junior standing; the consent of the instructor must be obtained before enrollment.

35. Customs Tariffs and Regulations. Dr. Litman.

Tariffs and existing reciprocity treaties and agreements of the leading commercial nations with special reference to the Tariff Law and Customs Regulations of the United States. A short tariff history and a general discussion of the aims and means of tariff policies will precede the practical part of the course, which latter will acquaint the student with the problems confronting the American importer and exporter in connection with duties, bounties, etc.
2 hrs., first-half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Course 1.

36. Modern Colonial Economics. Dr. Litman.

The principal commercial and industrial problems which arise in connection with colonial conditions, as illustrated by the experience of the leading colonizing nations. The object of this course is to acquaint the student with questions confronting a merchant and an investor in different colonies, and to show him how these have been and may be dealt with.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

37. Communication and Transportation. Dr. Litman.

Means and methods of communication and transportation other than railroads, and their utilization in the service of commerce. An exhaustive study of internal, coast, and trans-oceanic shipping, of modern harbor facilities, of the post, the express, the telegraph, the telephone, etc.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 10. Prerequisite: Course 1.

38. Commercial Resources of the Spanish-American Countries. [Not given in 1904-05.]

Detailed study of the geography, natural resources, and possibilities of development of these countries, devoting a year to each. In 1903–04 the Argentine Republic was studied. Particular attention is given to commercial relations with the United States. 1 hr., throughout the year. Hour to be arranged. Open only to graduate students who satisfy the instructor of their preparation for the work.

40. Economic Origins. Assistant Professor Mitchell.

An investigation of the origin and early development of fundamental economic customs and institutions.
2 hrs., first half-year. Tu Th, 10. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2.

42. Contemporary Socialism. Dr. Peixotto.

A study of the program and methods of the contemporary socialistic parties; a critical investigation of the theories on which these programs are based.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 3. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Junior standing.

43. History of Socialism. Dr. Peixotto.

An examination of the antecedents of contemporary socialism.
3 hrs., second half-year. M W F, 3. Prerequisite: Course 42.

45. Advanced Economics. Professor Miller.

This course is designed for students who wish to make a more thorough study of economic theory than can be undertaken in Courses 1 and 2. The aim is to work out a tenable system of economics on the basis of an examination of the theories of leading writers, past and present.
2 hrs., second half-year. Tu Th, 2. Prerequisite: Courses 1 and 2, and at least Senior standing.

20. History and Theory of Prices. Associate Professor Plehn.

The methods of scientific investigation applicable to a study of prices and the causes of their fluctuations.
The course runs throughout the year and credit will be given according to work done. For graduates only. A good training in economics and mathematics and a reading knowledge of French and German are prerequisite.

26. Seminary in Economics. Professor Miller.

Under this head are included arrangements for the guidance of the work of individual students, or groups of students, competent to engage in economic research. The results will be presented to the seminary for discussion as occasion may suggest. The course runs throughout the year, and credit will be given according to work done.

Oriental Languages 1A. Commerce of China and Japan. Professor Fryer.

A course of lectures on the historical and geographical features of the commerce of China and Japan, adapted for students in general, but particularly for those in the College of Commerce.
3 hrs., first half-year. M W F, 1.
[John Fryer, LL.D., Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages and Literatures.]

Botany 14. Economic Botany. Mr. H. M. Hall.

Laboratory work on the morphology, relationships, properties, and geographical distribution of the plant families which furnish important commercial products and agricultural crops, accompanied by lectures on the uses, origin, cultivation, collection, and commerce of plant products.
6 hrs., first half-year; 3 units. M W F, 8–10.
[Harvey M Hall, M.S., Instructor in Botany, and Assistant Botanist to the Experiment Station]

Irrigation 1. Irrigation Institutions and Economics. Professor Mead and Mr. Stover.

Present conditions of irrigation in the United States; irrigation legislation; methods of establishing rights to water; interstate problems; conditions necessary to development of the agricultural resources of the arid west; comparisons of irrigation methods and laws of other lands with those of the United States; irrigation in humid sections of the United States; operation of irrigation works, individual, coöperative and corporate enterprises; national irrigation; water right contracts; duty of water. Lectures and recitations.
3 hrs., second half-year. Prescribed, Senior year, in the course in Irrigation Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, and in some courses in the College of Agriculture. Elective to students in Economics.
[Elwood Mead, M.S., C.E., Professor of the Institutions and Practice of Irrigation.
Arthur P. Stover, B.S., Instructor in Irrigation Engineering.]

Source: University of California. Register, 1904-1905, pp. 153-162, 171, 237-238, 264.

Image Source: University of California Buildings, Berkeley California, ca. 1907. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Tags Hatfield, LitmanS, MillerAC, Mitchell, Peixotto, Plehn

Berkeley Columbia Cornell Economists Harvard Illinois Johns Hopkins Wisconsin

USA. Joseph Schumpeter’s Roadshow. 1st Quarter, 1914

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-01-02

Joseph Schumpeter spent the 1913-14 academic year as Austria’s first exchange professor at Columbia University. But before heading home, he went on a whirlwind tour of American universities as documented in the following collection of news reports. Cornell, George Washington, Johns Hopkins, the Universities of Illinois, Wisconsin, and California, and apparently culminating with lectures in Taussig’s Ec 11 course at Harvard. All this between mid-January and mid-March 1914.

I have not seen the above portrait of Schumpeter before. He looks much less like Nosferatu’s twin and one could say has even leading-man material if only his ears were pinned back a notch.

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Dr. Schumpeter Near End of Course as Austrian Exchange Professor at Columbia University

Professor Joseph A. Schumpeter, who was sent to this country by the Austrian Government as an exchange professor, will soon complete his course of lectures on economic theory and on the problem of social classes, at Columbia University, where he has been since last October, and will visit a number of other leading universities in this country.

Professor Schumpeter was born in 1883, in Triesch in the Austrian Province of Moravia, and was educated at the “Theresianum” in Vienna. Then he entered the University of Vienna where he took his degree of Doctor in Law and Political Science in 1906, and gained locally some representation within the little circle of students of economic theory called the Austrian School. After spending some years in travel, he began lecturing on economies at the same university from which he was, at the age of 26, called to the chair of Political Economy in the University of Gernowitz. In 1911 he accepted a call to the University of Graz in Styria. When the Austrian Government, following the example given by the German Government, concluded an agreement with Columbia University for the exchange of professors, Schumpeter was selected to be the first visiting professor in this country.

Source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. January 14, 1914, p. 12.

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Predicts More War in Balkan Frontier

“Conditions as they exist in the Balkans now cannot last, I am sorry to say that the sad story of crime and suffering that we have been witnessing we shall have to see over again before long,” said Prof. Joseph Schumpeter in his lecture last night on “Austria’s Balkan Policy.”

“The Balkan situation awakens in us a multitude of passions,” said Dr. Schumpeter. “We see burning and murdered villages, and conditions growing worse and worse. Austria is very little known.

“A lot of false notions have arisen concerning Austria. It is a country of 50,000,000 inhabitants composed of a combination of different races and therefore gives statesmanship tasks of a peculiar kind. It is impossible to appeal to national patriotism in Austria for it is composed of several races apathetic to each other. The majority of the people are Slavs, but there are a great many Germans, Romanians, Italians and Servians. It is very difficult to adjust their claims for national supremacy.

“To keep the Turkish frontier is still Austria’s main care.

“What Austria wanted, and wants still, is to have a group of states on national lines so arranged that they will last for some time and not be under the influence of Russia. The Albanians held their own against Turkey for some time and finally Austria made a treaty with Italy that, no matter what happened to Turkey, they should combine to save the Albanian state.”

Source: The Ithaca Journal. January 17, 1915, p. 5.

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Admires Quick Wit Found in America

Professor Joseph Schumpeter of the University of Graz, Austria, expresses himself as delighted with Cornell University and everything he has seen here. Professor Schumpeter, who gave the lecture on “The Balkan Policies of Austria,” is now Exchange Professor at Columbia University. He has gained the reputation of being one of the most promising economists of Europe.

“You have a wonderful University here, splendidly equipped,” he declared. “The situation is ideal. I have been very much interested in my work at Columbia and feel that we Europeans can learn a lot from you. My work at Columbia has been mostly with the graduate students and I have not been able to get into as close touch with the undergraduates as I would have liked to. I have been especially struck by the quick-wittedness and energy of the American undergraduates. They also have an aptitude for intelligent discussion which is lacking in Europe. The whole spirit of fellowship is so splendid.

“The social life in America is remarkably pleasant. In other countries you take much longer to make friends. In my short stay here I have already made scores of excellent friends. American audiences are also so pleasant to talk to. I feel less intellectual sympathy while talking before a German audience than I do here. Unlike Europe all classes of society seem equally interested, the workingmen as much so as the richest families.”

Source: The Ithaca Journal, Jan 19, 1914, p. 9.

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Talk on the Balkans by Prof. Schumpeter
University of Gratz Educator Entertains Audience at National Museum

Prof. Joseph Schumpeter delivered a lecture on the present and prospective situation in the Balkans at the New National Museum last night, to which the general public was invited, the audience including students of the eastern question and a number of diplomats. Dr. Schumpeter is exchange professor between the University of Gratz, where he is professor of political science and economics, and Columbia University, New York, where he has just completed his series of lectures.

Last night’s address was delivered under the auspices of George Washington University, and Dr. Schumpeter was introduced by Rear Admiral Charles Herbert Stockton, U. S.N., retired, president of George Washington.

Dr. Schumpeter gave an historical account of the development of the Ottoman empire from the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 up to the present time. He declared that outside of Greece, where the situation has been practically clarified, the Balkan troubles have not been set at rest, and that further trouble may be expected in the Balkan countries at any time.

Real Root of Troubles.

He pointed out that the real root of many of the troubles of those countries has been differences because of race, the clash between Mohammedan and Christian, which he said is likely to continue to the end of the world. He offered, for example, the experiences of Great Britain, in charge of the largest number of Mohammedans in the world, in India.

Dr. Schumpeter devoted considerable attention to the part that Austria-Hungary is playing in the Balkan situation. Since 1908 the Balkan provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been recognized as a part of Austria, and it is around the possession of these provinces that considerable interest lies. Austria-Hungary was permitted by the congress of Berlin in 1878 to occupy and administer these two Balkan provinces, but it was not until 1908 that they were formally annexed.

Source: Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), February 5, 1914, p. 9.

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Balkan War Policy of Austria Defended
Prof. Schumpeter Says Nation Must Control of Principalities Along the Danube.
Great Britain is Criticised.

John Bull was said to have in his charge the greatest Mohammedan power in the world by Prof. Joseph Schumpeter, professor of political science and economics at the University of Gratz, Austria, in an Interesting lecture last night at the National Museum.

“No less than 90,000,000 Mohammedans are under British rule, yet England has seen fit to attack the right of Austria to establish a mere legal pact by taking over Herzegovina and Boris and assuring to these two countries safety and security,” said Prof. Schumpeter.

Rear Admiral Stockton, president of Georgetown University, under the auspices of which institution the lecture was given, presided.

Prof. Schumpeter gave a comprehensive historical account of the development of the Ottoman empire since the conquest of Constantinople, in 1453, up to the present day.

In closing, Prof. Schumpeter asserted that in his opinion, outside of Greece, where he said the situation has been pretty well clarified, the Balkan troubles have not been definitely put at rest. He made it clear that he looked for further trouble.

Source: The Washington Herald, February 5, 1914, p. 3.

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Predicts Third Balkan War.
Prof. Schumpeter of Austria, Is Pessimistic in Lecture.

Under the auspices of George Washington University, Prof. Joseph Schumpeter, dean of political science and economics at the University of Gratz, Austria, and exchange professor between his university and Columbia, spoke Wednesday in the auditorium of the new National Museum on “The Balkan Situation from the Austrian Viewpoint.” Among those present were Konstantin von Masirevich, first secretary, and the Baron Freudenthal, attache of the Austrian embassy; Rear Admiral C. H. Stockton, president of George Washington, Prof. Richard Cobb, secretary of the university; Dean Charles E. Munroe, Dean Charles Noble Gregory and L. Cleveland McNemar, assistant professor of international law.

Prof. Schumpeter claimed that the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzogovina in 1910 was warranted by circumstances. He said that Balkan peace is merely transitory; that another war is sure to come.

Source: The Washington Post, February 8, 1914, p. 2.

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Johns Hopkins University.

Two foreign educators lectured at the Johns Hopkins university last week. Dr. Joseph Schumpeter, of the University of Gratz, and first Austrian exchange professor at Columbia, delivered five lectures before the department of political economy….

Source: The Oregon Daily Journal. February 15, 1914, p. 48.

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Vienna Man at Madison.
Exchange Professor Studies Wisconsin Industrial Laws.

(Special to The Northwestern.) Madison, Wis., Feb. 10. — Dr. J. A. Schumpeter, exchange professor from Vienna to Columbia university, spent today here investigating the work of the state industrial commission. He will leave tonight for St. Paul, where he intends to make a similar investigation. Dr. Schumpeter is a recognized expert on labor legislation, and in addition to investigating the work of the commission held a conference with Prof. John R. Commons.

Source: The Oshkosh Northwestern, February 10, 1914, p. 9.

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Professor Schumpeter has very busy two days here.
Austrian makes four addresses and attends several affairs.

Four addresses were given by Prof. Josef Schumpeter during his stay here from last Saturday morning until Sunday night, when he left for the University of California via Chicago. All of his addresses were along the line of the social sciences in which he enjoys wide fame for his great ability.

Professor Schumpeter’s first talk was given Saturday noon to the University Club where he took lunch. There he gave a talk on smoke. His second, and most important address, was to the combined seminars of the social science departments. It was given in room 304 of Lincoln Hall to an audience which contained almost every faculty and student member of the two seminars. His discussion was upon the theory of economic development. The lecturer paid especial attention to the place of interest and economic crises in static and dynamic states. Although he is an Austrian. and from the University of Graz, his lecture was delivered in perfect English, and was of profound interest to those who were privileged to attend.

With some eighteen University people, Professor Schumpeter took dinner at the Beardsley Saturday evening. Here again he spoke, this time giving an address on “The Austrian Attitude to the Balkan Situation.” He was followed by Professors E. B. Greene, A. H. Lybyer, L. M. Larson and W. F. Dodd, each of whom spoke on some aspect of world politics.

A reception was given the Professor at the home of Dean Kinley on Sunday afternoon. Here he addressed those present on “The Aspects of Austrian Social and Political Life in University Government.” Sunday night, Professor Schumpeter took the train for Chicago.

Source: The Daily Illi (Urbana, Illinois). February 17, 1914. Page 4.

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Talks of Marx’ Economy

University of California, Feb. 25. — Dr. J. A. Schumpeter, eminent Austrian economist, addressed an audience at California hall yesterday on “The Economy of Karl Marx.” Among the points he made were that one could believe in Marx’ doctrines without being a Socialist; his theories of value and exploitation of the working class were receiving more and more general acceptance; he was a “flaming propagandist whose followers regarded him as little less than inspired.”

He addressed also during the day classes in economics on interest rates and classical and modern economic theories.

Source: Oakland Tribune. February 25, 1914, p. 4.

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Brings Austria’s Message to Both Columbia and Harvard

The first Austrian exchange professor at Columbia will deliver a series of lectures on economic theory at Harvard in March. His lectures will be in connection with some of the courses given by Professor Taussig on economic theory.

Professor Schumpeter was born in Triesch, Moravia, in 1883, and received his early education in Vienna, where he also attended the University. He was awarded the degree of doctor of law and political science in 1906 and after spending several years in travel, established himself as a docent at the University of Vienna in 1909. A few months later, he was appointed professor of political economy in the University of Czernowitz, and in 1911 he was appointed professor of political economy in the University of Graz.

Professor Schumpeter’s own system of economic theory is developed in two books, “Wesen und Hauptinhalt der Theoretischen Nationalökonomie” and “Theorie der Wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.” In addition, he has published a number of important papers. He has also contributed a history of economic theory to Schönberg’s “Handbuch der Politischen Oekonomie,” which is to appear shortly, and has furthermore prepared a treatise on banking law for a manual of mercantile law to be published in the near future.

In recent years Professor Schumpeter’s interest has been largely in the field of sociology, but he has not yet published anything in this department. As an economist, Professor Schumpeter is a member of the Austrian school — the brilliant group of writers headed by Böhm-Bawerk and Wieser of the University of Vienna, who have rescued economic theory from the eclipse with which it was for a time threatened by the able but exaggerated criticisms of the leaders of the German historical school. Though agreeing with his Viennese colleagues in many of their theories, he has shown great independence and originality in his treatment of the phases of economics, such as the interest problem, to which he has given particular attention. Thus, in spite of his comparative youth, he has won a place in the very front rank of contemporary European economists. His fluent command of spoken English and his intimate knowledge of American economic literature make him a most attractive lecturer.

Source: Boston Evening Transcript. February 4, 1914.

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“The Theory of Crises”at 4.30
March 16, 1914

Professor Josef Schumpeter, an Austrian economist of the University of Vienna, will lecture upon “The Theory of Crises” before the Seminary of Economics in Upper Dane this afternoon at 4.30 o’clock. Professor Schumpeter has written two books upon Economic. Theory which are of high quality, and have attracted a great deal of attention.

Source: The Harvard Crimson. March 16, 1914.

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Noted Economist’s Last Lecture

All members of the University interested in economics are invited to hear Professor Josef Schumpeter, of the University of Vienna, lecture upon “Economic Theory” in Professor Taussig’s course, Economics 11, this afternoon at 2.30 o’clock. This will be the last of a series of lectures given by Professor Schumpeter, who is this year conducting courses at Columbia University. The lecture will take place in Emerson H.

Source: The Harvard Crimson. March 18, 1914.

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Prof. Schumpeter Sails.
Says That America Made a Deep Impression on Him.

Professor Joseph Schumpeter, the first Austrian exchange professor in America, who is returning to his home University of Graz, Austria, sailed on the Martha Washington yesterday. The professor has lectured on social problems, money systems, democracy and other branches of science, has been with Columbia University until the end of January, when he left for a tour through all of the leading universities of this country, the tour extending to San Francisco. Mr. Schumpeter said that he was sorry to leave America, which had made a deep impression upon him.

“The big American universities,” the professor stated, “are far better than the average Austrian and even European university. America has a bigger and better body of scientists at each university, and the student’s material is of a much higher type than that of European schools. The American student wants to learn. He has the earnest desire to go to the bottom of science. He wants to make headway in the world, whereas the Austrian student visits a university for reasons of tradition, social standing and title.”

Asked what he thought the greatest American achievement, the professor answered that the “one-man management” was most appealing to him. It was far better, he claimed to have one man run a business, a university, and even a political party, than to have the European system of sharing power and responsibilities.

Four pretty young sisters, all of whom are ardent suffragists, left on board the big Austrian liner for Italy, France and Germany. The fair travelers are Misses Catherine, Ella S., Grace and Margaret Switzer of Manhattan. Their purpose is to show their European sisters how superfluous man really is, for never during their trip will they tolerate or accept the services of any man nor will they speak to any man or stand for being addressed by a man.

Source: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 22, 1914, p.74

Image Source: Boston Evening Transcript. February 4, 1914. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Schumpeter, Taussig

Berkeley Economists Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate Public Finance. Syllabus and Exams. Berkeley professor George Break. 1964-1965

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-07-12

The Harvard archives of course syllabi and final examinations include materials for courses taught by visiting professors from other universities. Graduate public finance was a course normally taught by Otto Eckstein, who was appointed to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in September 1964. To cover that important field course, the Harvard economics department brought in the Berkeley professor of public finance, George Farrington Break for 1964-65. Below you will find Break’s obituary from a University of California (Berkeley) press release, followed by the syllabus and readings for his graduate public finance course at Harvard. Both the mid-year and year-end examinations have been transcribed and can be found at the end of the post. Break’s c.v. can be downloaded at the Wayback Machine internet archive.

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Public finance scholar George F. Break dead at 88

By Kathleen Maclay
30 March 2009

BERKELEY — George F. Break, an emeritus professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and an authority on public finance, died of heart failure at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley on March 13. He was 88.

George Break conducted influential empirical research on the effects of income taxation on work incentives, intergovernmental relations and tax reform in the United States and Canada.
He chaired UC Berkeley’s Department of Economics from 1969 to 1973. Break also served on numerous campus advisory committees and in 1990 was honored with the Berkeley Citation, one of the campus’s highest honors.

He was born June 10, 1920, in the city of London in Southwest Ontario, Canada. From 1942-1945, Break served in a meteorological office attached to the Royal Canadian Air Force and was a flying officer with its Meteorological Division in 1945. He married Helen Dean Schnacke on July 31, 1948.

Break went on to earn his Ph.D. in economics at UC Berkeley in 1951, and joined the economics department as an assistant professor the same year. Among his many students at UC Berkeley was Michael Boskin, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President George H.W. Bush. Break retired from the faculty in 1990.

Of the 11 books authored by Break, the best known are “Public Finance” (1961), which he wrote with Earl Rolph, and “Federal Tax Reform: The Impossible Dream?” (1975), authored with Joseph Pechman, which served as a foundation for the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986. Break also wrote “Financing Government in a Federal System” (1980), edited two books and wrote 74 articles or book chapters.

He was president of the National Tax Association from 1982 to 1984, and was honored in 1996 with the association’s Daniel M. Holland Medal for outstanding contributions to the study and practice of public finance. Break was a member of the American Economics Association, National Tax Association and Canadian Economics Association.

He was appointed by California Gov. George Deukmejian to the Tax Reform Advisory Commission, whose 1985 report suggested reducing corporate and individual income taxes and broadening the sales tax by including food, medical care and household utilities.

Break also assisted the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis, testified before congressional committees, consulted for various tax agencies within the United States and Canadian governments, and evaluated the tax systems of Greece and Jamaica.

Break was preceded in death by his wife, Helen, who died in 2007. He is survived by several nephews and nieces.

[…]

Source: UCBerkeleyNews. Press Release, 30 March 2009.
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Course Announcement

Economics 251. Public Finance
Full course. M., W., (F.), at 10. Professor George Break (University of California).

Public finance in the context of the theory of economic policy; fiscal policy and the theory of output and prices; economics of public expenditure; theory of multi-level finance.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, 1964-65, p. 117.

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Syllabus and Course Readings

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251
Public Finance

Professor George F. Break

Fall Term 1964

Recommended for purchase: R. A. Musgrave, The Theory of Public Finance (McGraw Hill, 1959)
Henry C. Simons, Personal Income Taxation (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1938)
General Texts and Treatises: Due, John F., Government Finance (Irwin, 1959)
Groves, H. M., Financing Government (5th ed. Holt, 1958)
Schultz, W. J. and Harriss, C. L., American Public Finance (7th ed., Prentice-Hall, 1961)
Buchanan, J. M., The Public Finances (Irwin, 1960)
Rolph, E. R. and Break, G. F., Public Finance (Ronald, 1961)
Hicks, U. K., Public Finance (2nd ed., Cambridge, 1955)
Prest, A. R., Public Finance (Quadrangle, 1960)
Dalton, Hugh, Principles of Public Finance (4th ed., Routledge, 1954)
Pigou, A. C., A Study in Public Finance (3rd ed., Macmillan, 1947)
Colm, Gerhard, Essays in Public Finance and Fiscal Policy (Oxford, 1955)
Rolph, E. R., The Theory of Fiscal Economics (California, 1954)
Blough, Roy, The Federal Taxing Process (Prentice-Hall, 1952)
Universities–National Bureau Conference, The Public Finances (Princeton, 1961)
Musgrave, R. A. and Peacock, A. T. (eds.): Classics in the Theory of Public Finance (Macmillan, 1958)
Musgrave, R. A. and Shoup, C. S., (eds.), Readings in the Economics of Taxation (AEA series, Irwin, 1959)
Hall, Challis A. Jr., Fiscal Policy for Stable Growth (Holt, 1960)
Smithies, A. and Butters, J. K. (eds.), Readings in Fiscal Policy (AEA series, Irwin, 1955)
Smith, D. T., Federal Tax Reform (McGraw-Hill, 1961)
Smithies, A., The Budgetary System in the United States (McGraw-Hill, 1955)
Burkhead, Jesse, Government Budgeting (Wiley, 1936)
Harvard Law School International Program in Taxation, World Tax Series (volumes on Australia, Brazil, Mexico, India, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, published)
Joint Economic Committee, The Federal Revenue System: Facts and Problems, 1964
Joint Economic Committee, Federal Tax Policy for Economic Growth and Stability, 1955
Joint Economic Committee, Federal Expenditure Policy for Economic Growth and Stability, 1957
Committee on Ways and Means, Tax Revision Compendium (3 vols., 1960)

Serial Publications and Periodicals

U. S. Treasury Department, Treasury Bulletin (monthly)
U. S. Treasury Department, Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury
Budget Message of the President
Economic Report of the President
National Tax Association, Annual Proceedings
National Tax Journal
Taxes, The Tax Magazine
Public Finance (Finances Publiques)
Commerce Clearing House, Inc., and Prentice-Hall publish looseleaf tax services (in Law and Business School Libraries)

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

1. The Fiscal Setting

7: Chs. 1, 2, 4, 5.

*1: Ch. 9.

21: Chs. 3-4; (5-7); 8-10.

22: Chs. *6-9; (Part III).

Symposium on Budgetary Concept. RES (May 1963):

Bator
Eckstein
*Musgrave
Taylor, Wendell and Brill

Andrew E. Gantt, II., “Central Governments: Cash Deficits and Surpluses, RES (Feb. 1963).

Survey of Current Business (July, 1964), pp. 1823.

Office of Business Economics, Dept. of Commerce, U.S. Income and Output (1958), pp. 55-7 and 164-79.

Joint Economic Committee (Roy Moor), The Federal Budget as an Economic Document (1962), pp. 524; *109-128; 138-148.

Alan T. Peacock and Jack Wiseman, The Growth of Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom (NBER, 1961).

Anthony Downs, “Why the Government Budget is Too Small in a Democracy,” World Politics (July, 1960).

2. Principles of Taxation

*1: Chs. 4, 5.

*2: Ch. 1.

16: Knut Wicksell, pp. 72-118.

17: Elmer D. Fagan No. 3, (JPE, 1938).

11: Part II, Chs. 1, 4-7.

20: Ch. 1.

W. J. Blum and H. Kalven, Jr., The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation (Chicago, 1953). Phoenix Paperback Edition, 1963.

Robert J, Lampman, “Recent Thought on Egalitarianism,” QJE (May, 1957).

3. Income, Spending and Net Wealth

*1: pp. 160-64.

2: Ch; pp. 89-100.

17: Robert Murray Haig, No. 4, (The Federal Income Tax, 1921).

*William Vickrey, Agenda for Progressive Taxation (Ronald, 1947), Ch. 1.

Irving Fisher, The Nature of Capital and Income (1906) Chs. 1, 2, 4, 7, 10.

__________, “Income in Theory and Income Taxation in Practice,” Econometrica (January, 1937).

Break, George F., “Capital Maintenance and the Concept of Income,” JPE (February, 1954).

Nicholas Kaldor, An Expenditure Tax (Allen and Unwin, 1955), pp. 21-53.

4. The Scope of Income Taxation

*2: Chs. 5, 7, 8.

*20: Chs. 3, 5.

*Vickrey: Chs. 2, 3, 5-I.

David J. Ott and Allen H. Meltzer, Federal Tax Treatment of State and Local Securities (Brooking, 1963) Chs. 1, 2, 8.

Richard Goode, “Policyholders’ Interest Income from Life Insurance under the Income Tax, Vanderbilt Law Review (Dec. 1962).

C. Harry Kahn, Business and Professional Income Under the Personal Income Tax, NBER, 1964.

5. The Definition of Net Income

*20: Ch. 4.

*Vickrey: Ch. 4.

E. Cary Brown, “The New Depreciation Policy under the Income Tax: an Economic Analysis,” NTJ (March 1955).

Norman B. Ture, “Tax Reform: Depreciation Problems,” AER (May, 1963), pp. 334-53.

Murray Brown, “Depreciation and Corporate Profits,” SCB (Oct. 1963).

Evsey Domar, The Case for Accelerated Depreciation,” QJE (Nov. 1953) and his Essays in The Theory of Economic Growth.

Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, Depreciation Guidelines and Rules, Publication No. 456 (7/62).

C. Harry Kahn, Personal Deductions in the Federal Income Tax (NBER, 1960).

*Richard Goode, “Educational Expenditures and the Income Tax,” in Selma Mushkin, ed., Economics of Higher Education (Washington, 1962).

6. The Taxpaying Unit

*Vickrey, Ch. 10-I, III.

*Harold M. Croves, Federal Tax Treatment of the Family (Brookings, 1963).

Reed R. Hansen, “The Diminishing Exemption — a New Look at Equity,” Canadian Tax Journal (July-August, 1963).

Yung-Ping Chen, “Income Tax Exemptions for the Aged as a Policy Instrument,” NTJ (Dec. 1963).

7. Integration of the Personal and Corporate Income Taxes

*2: Ch. 9.

*20: Ch. 7.

*Vickrey, Ch. 5-II.

*Daniel M. Holland, Dividends Under the Income Tax (NBER, 1962), Ch. 4.

Holland, The Income-Tax Burden on Stockholders (NBER, 1958) Chs. 1, 2, 7.

Goode, The Corporation Income Tax (Wiley, 1951) Chs. 2, 3, 10.

Carl S. Shoup, “The Dividend Exclusion and Credit in the Revenue Code of 1954,” NTJ (March, 1955).

8. Income Tax Administration

*M. Farioletti, “Some Results of the First Year’s Audit Control Program of the Bureau of Internal Revenue,” NTJ (March, 1952).

Harold M. Groves, “Empirical Studies of Income-Tax Compliance,” NTJ (Dec. 1958).

W. H. Smith, “Electronic Date Processing in the Internal Revenue Service, NTJ (September, 1961).

Holland, Dividends Under the Income Tax, Ch. 2.

H. H. Hinrichs, “Underreporting of Capital Gains on Tax Returns…,” NTJ (June, 1964).

9. Income Taxation and Work Incentives

1: Ch. 11.

13: Ch. 10.

17: Goode, No. 29 (JPE, 1949).

*Gershon Cooper, No. 30 (QJE, 1952).

7: pp. 153-58.

*Break, “Income Taxes and Incentives to Work,” AER (September, 1957).

Kaldor, Ch. 4.

Break, “Income Taxes, Wage Rates, and the Incentive to Supply Labor Services,” NTJ (Dec. 1953).

10. Income Taxation and Investment Incentives

*1: Ch. 14.

7: pp. 159-64.

13: Chs. 11, 12.

17: Domar and Musgrave, No. 31 (OJE, 1944).

E. Cary Brown, No. 32 (Income and Employment and Public Policy: Essays in Honor of Alvin B. Hansen (Norton, 1948).

Brown, “Mr. Kaldor on Taxation and Risk Bearing,” Rev. of Ec. Studies Vol. XXV:1.

Kaldor, Ch. III.

*Brown, “Tax Incentives for Investment,” AER (May, 1962).

*Goode, “Accelerated Depreciation Allowances as a Stimulus to Investment, QJE (May, 1955).

Goode, “Special Tax Measures to Restrain Investment,” IMF: Staff Papers (February, 1957).

*Sam B. Chase, Jr., “Tax Credits for Investment Spending,” NTJ (March, 1962), and comment by Brown in NTJ (June, 1962).

11. Income Taxation and Corporate Financial Policies

7: pp. 221-2; 229-30; and studies there cited by Lintner, Smith and Darling.

John A. Brittain,”The Tax Structure and Corporate Dividend Policy,” AER (May, 1964).

Miller and Shelton, “Effects of a Shifted Corporate Income Tax on Capital Structure,” NTJ (1955).

12. The Incidence of Sales and Excise Taxes

1: Chs. 15, 16, especially pp. 379-82.

*13: Chs. 6, 7. or JPE (April 1952) and AER (Sept. 1952) for Ch. 6.

17: Harry Gunnison Brown, No. 21 (JPE 1939)

John F. Due, No. 22 (The Theory of Incidence of Sales Taxation, 1942)

Rolph and Break, No. 7 (JPE, 1949)

*Due, “Toward a General Theory of Sales Tax Incidence,” QJE (May, 1953).

*Due, “Sales Taxation and the Consumer,” AER (December, 1963).

*J. M. Buchanan, Fiscal Theory and Political Economy (Chapel Hill, 1960).

Break, “Excise Tax Burdens and Benefits,” AER (September, 1954).

Break, “Allocation and Excess Burden Effects of Excise and Sales Taxes,” in Committee on Ways and Means, Excise Tax Compendium (Washington, 1964).

*J. A. Stockfisch, “The Capitalization and Investment Aspects of Excise Taxes under Competition,” AER (June, 1954).

Paul Davidson, “Rolph on the Aggregate Effects of a General Excise Tax,” SEJ (July, 1960).

13. Incidence of a Corporation Income Tax

17: Shoup, No. 20 (NTJ 1948).

7: pp. 210-20.

27: Harberger, Volume I, pp. 231-50.

*Arnold C. Harberger, “The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax,” JPE (June 1962)

*Kerzyzaniak and Musgrave, The Shifting of the Corporation Income Tax (Johns Hopkins, 1963).

Diran Bodenhorn, “The Shifting of the Corporation Income Tax in a Growing Economy,” QJE (November, 1956).

*Challis A. Hall, Jr., “Direct Shifting of the Corporation Income Tax in Manufacturing.” AER (May: 1964).

14. Taxation of the Oil and Gas Industry

7: pp. 230-34.

Douglas M. Eldridge, “Tax Incentives for Mineral Enterprises,” JPE (June, 1950).

Stephen L. McDonald, Federal Tax Treatment of Income from Oil and Gas (Brookings, 1963).

McDonald, “Percentage Depletion and the Allocation of Resources: The Case of Oil and Gas,” NTJ (December, 1961); comments by Musgrave and Eldridge in NTJ (June, 1962), and McDonald’s reply in NTJ (September 1962).

Peter O. Steiner, “The Non-Neutrality of Corporate Income Taxation: with and Without Depletion,” NTJ (Sept. 1963), and comments by McDonald and Steiner in NTJ (March, 1964).

Paul Davidson, “Policy Problems of the Crude Oil Industry,” AER (March 1963) and discussion in AER (March, 1964).

A. E. Kahn, “The Depletion Allowance and Cartelization,” AER (June 1964).

15. Taxation of Capital Gains and Losses

25: Walter Heller, pp. 381-94.

2: Ch. 7.

7: pp. 123-29.

Lawrence H. Seltzer, The Nature and Tax Treatment of Capital Gains and Losses (NBER, 1951) Chs. 1, 4-6, 9.

Harold M. Somers, “Reconsideration of the Capital Gains Tax,” NTJ (Dec. 1960).

Martin David, “Economic Effects of the Capital Gains Tax,” AER (May, 1964).

Holt and Shelton, “The Implications of the Capital Gains Tax for Investment Decisions,” JF (Dec. 1961).

Alice J. Vandermeulen, “Capital Gains: Two Tests for the Taxpayer and Proposal for the President,” NTJ (Dec. 1963).

H. H. Hinrichs, “An Empirical Measure of Investors’ Responsiveness to Differentials in Capital Gains Tax Rates Among Income Groups, NTJ (Sept. 1963).

Holt and Shelton, “The Lock-in Effect of the Capital Gains Tax,” NTJ (Dec. 1962).

Lent and Menge, “The Importance of Restricted Stock Options in Executive Compensation, ” Management Record (June, 1962)

Holland and Lewellen, “Probing the Record of Stock Options,” HBR April, 1962).

16. The Redistributive Effects of U. S. Taxation

27: Pechman, pp. 251-82. (Volume 1)

Hellmuth, pp. 283-316. (Volume 1)

*Musgrave, pp. 2223-2234. (Volume 3)

*Lampman, pp. 2235-2246. (Volume 3)

*Joseph A. Pechman, “Erosion of the Individual Income Tax,” NTJ (March, 1957).

Musgrave and others, “Distribution of Tax Payments by Income Groups: a Case Study for 1948,” NTJ (March, 1951), and discussion in NTJ (Sept.1951) and March, 1952).
Also later computations by Musgrave in No. 25, pp. 96-113.

James R. Beaton, “Family Tax Burdens by Income Levels,” NTJ (March, 1962).

George A. Bishop, “The Tax Burden by Income Class, 1958,” NTJ (March, 1961).

*A. R. Prest, “Statistical Calculations of Tax Burdens,” Economica (Aug. 1955).

Annual articles on the size distribution of income in SCB, e.g. (April, 1964).

17. The Structure of U. S. Taxation

27: Volume 1, pp. 1-250.

*NBER and Brookings, The Role of Direct and Indirect Taxes in the Federal Revenue System (Princeton, 1964), especially papers by Due, Eldridge, Eckstein and Chase.

*Committee on Way and Mean, Excise Tax Compendium (Washington, 1964), especially papers by Due, Eldridge, Shoup, and Stockfisch.

18. The Income Sensitivity of U. S. Taxes

*Pechman, “Yield of the Individual Income Tax During a Recession,” NTJ (March, 1954).

Leo Cohen, “An Empirical Measurement of the Built-in Flexibility of the Individual Income Tax,” AER (May, 1959). See also NTJ (June, 1960).

Paul E. Smith, “Built in Flexibility of the Individual Income Tax: Quarterly Estimates,” NTJ (June, 1962).

Smith, “A Note on the Built-in Flexibility of the Individual Income Tax,” Econometrica (Oct. 1963).

Wilfred Lewis, Jr., Federal Fiscal Policy in the Postwar Recessions (Brookings, 1962) Chs. 2 and 3.

*Groves and Kahn, “The Stability of State and Local Tax Yields,” AER (March, 1952).

*Dick Netzer, “Income Elasticity of the Property Tax: a Post-Mortem Note,” NTJ (June, 1964); also No. 15, pp. 23-40.

D. G. Davies, “The Sensitivity of Consumption Taxes to Fluctuations in Income,” NTJ (Sept. 1962).

Brown and Kruizenga, “Income Sensitivity of a Simple Personal Income Tax, RES (Aug. 1959).

M. O. Clement, “The Quantitative Impact of Automatic Stabilizers,” RES (Feb. 1960).

19. Value Added Taxation

*Shoup, “Theory and Background of the Value-Added Tax,” National Tax Association Proceedings (1955) pp. 6-19.

*Excise Tax Compendium, Papers by Smith and Rolph.

The Role of Direct and Indirect Taxes in the Federal Revenue System. Paper by Musgrave and Richman.

20. Spendings and Net Worth Taxes

7: Chs. 8, 9.

Kaldor, An Expenditure Tax.

Vickrey, Ch. 12.

Katona and Lansing, “The Wealth of the Wealthy,” RES (Feb. 1964).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 9, Folder “Economics, 1964-1965 (2 of 2)”.

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Mid-year Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251

Fall 1964

Answer any three questions

There has been much discussion concerning, the role that the principle of taxation according to benefits received should play in modern fiscal systems. Contrast the views on this subject of Henry Simons and the voluntary exchange theorists. Set forth your own views and justify them.
Discuss the incidence of a property tax levied by a single State (assume, if you like, that one State raises its tax rates while others hold them constant) on the land, buildings, and equipment of businesses operating within its borders. The tax applies both to local retail enterprises and to manufacturing corporations selling in national markets.
“In a rational system of income taxation according to ability to pay there is no place for a separate tax on corporate income.” Discuss.
Each of the following is a controversial aspect of the federal individual income tax:
1. Employer contributions to the cost of employee life, accident, hospital and medical insurance.
2. Social security retirement benefits.
3. Income splitting.
4. Deductions for state and local taxes and for interest on consumer indebtedness.
5. Expenditures for higher education.
6. Travelling and entertainment expenditures by businessmen.
7. Personal exemptions.
8. Interest on state and local debt.

Select any four of the above and discuss the problems to which they give rise. Include in your answer your own recommendations as to their treatment for tax purposes.

Many critics of the U.S. tax system feel that it unduly impairs incentives to invest. Discuss this question both in general and with respect to the following specific characteristics of the tax system:
1. depreciation allowances,
2. loss carryovers,
3. progressive individual income tax rates, and
4. capital gains and losses.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Naval Science, Air Science (January, 1965) in the bound volume Social Sciences: Final Examinations, January 1965 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 157).

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Year-end Examination

Economics 251
Final Examination
Spring Term, 1965

Part I

Answer both questions.

(25%)
(a) Compute the built-in flexibility and the yield elasticity of the federal individual income tax from the following data:

Y = 0.6 + 0.38X,

where Y = taxable individual income
and X = gross national product,
both in billions of dollars

The equation was fitted to the period 1955-1963 during which income tax liabilities were 23 percent of taxable individual incomes in each year, and, on the average over the period, individual income tax liabilities were 7.9 percent of GNP

(b) Are there any reasons to expect the built-in flexibility of the individual income tax to be different in the upswing of the business cycle from what it is in the downswing? In the long run compared to what it is in the short run? Discuss.

(c) What effects, if any, would you expect a reduction in the corporate income tax to have on the built-in flexibility of the individual income tax?

(25%)
Evaluate each of the following as countercyclical fiscal policies:

1. changes in excise tax rates
2. variations in public works spending
3. public debt operations

Part II

Answer any two questions.

(25%) Write a critical analysis of the balanced budget theorem.
(25%) Evaluate the major ways in which the federal government could increase its financial assistance to state and local governments.
(25%) Discuss the problems involved in estimating social and private rates of return to investment in higher education.
(25%) Discuss the importance of each of the following in benefit-cost analysis as applied to governmental spending programs:
1. The rate of return on reinvested earnings
2. Intangible benefits
3. Pecuniary and technological spillovers
4. Secondary benefits

Source: Harvard University Archives. Bound volume Social Sciences: Final Examinations, June 1965 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 159).

Image Source: George F. Break’s faculty profile page at the Berkeley economics department website.

Tags Boskin, Break, Pechman, Rolph

Berkeley Economists Gender Oxford Radcliffe Smith

Radcliffe/Oxford. An economics major who got away (to history of art). 1919

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-01-19

Ruth Doggett was on the start of a promising academic career as an economist until she completely switched her focus to Italian art history, having (presumably happily) worked together with her art historian husband, Clarence Kennedy, in Florence. As the record shows, economics’ loss turned out to be art history’s gain.

Something in me hopes that I find a case of an art historian who turns to economics. What are the odds?

_____________________________

Ruth Wedgewood Doggett Kennedy
c.v.

Ruth Wedgewood Doggett was born August 19, 1896 in Greenville, Rhode Island. Her father was the President of Springfield College.

Ruth Doggett began her undergraduate studies 1915-16 at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1919 she graduated with an A.B. (Phi Beta Kappa) from Radcliffe College, receiving a magna cum laude in Economics.

Her obituaries report that she was an instructor in Economics at Smith College 1919–20, but I have not been able to confirm any economics and sociology course for her other than “Principles of Sociology” (e.g. Smith Catalogue 1921-22, p. 69).

Ruth Doggett spent a year (1921) at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford where she was awarded a Diploma in Economics with first class honors. In London she married the young art historian/photographer Clarence Kennedy in 1921. They had previously met at Smith College.

The young couple returned to Smith College, Ruth Doggett Kennedy as an instructor in Economics (1921–23) and Clarence was appointed assistant professor of art history.

In 1923 the Kennedys moved to Florence to teach in the Art Department’s Division of Graduate Study program. Ruth Kennedy served as assistant to the Director of Graduate Study in Art, 1925–26, 1927–28. She was a special lecturer in History of Italian Art, 1928–29, Smith College.

Ruth Kennedy was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship to complete a study of the Florentine painter, Alesso Baldovinetti and of his associates, in Italy; tenure, six months from March 10, 1930.

From that time on she lectured on art at Smith, Springfield College and Wellesley. Her major publications were:

Alesso Baldovinetti, a critical & historical study. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1938.
The Renaissance painter’s garden. New York: Oxford University Press, 1948.
The Italian Renaissance. New York: Art Treasures of the World, 1954.

1960-61. Ruth and Clarence Kennedy were invited to serve as Resident Art Historians at the American Academy in Rome.

1961 Ruth Kennedy officially retires as emeritus professor of art at Smith College..

Novelty and tradition in Titan’s art. Katharine Asher Engel lectures. Northampton, Mass., Smith College, 1963.

Ruth Wedgewood Kennedy died November 30, 1968 in Boston.

_____________________________

Obituaries.

Lee, R. W. (1969). Ruth Wedgwood Kennedy. Renaissance Quarterly, 22(2), 206–208.

The Boston Globe, December 1, 1968, p. 110.

_____________________________

From the Finding Aid for Kennedy Family papers, Smith College Archives.

Clarence Kennedy was born in Philadelphia in 1892. He received his bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in art history from the University of Pennsylvania, and studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, as a Charles Eliot Norton Fellow of Harvard University. While working on his Ph.D. at Harvard, he joined the Smith College Art Department faculty. Kennedy received his doctorate from Harvard in 1924. His dissertation was titled The Effect of Lighting on Greek Sculpture.

Ruth Wedgewood Doggett was born in Greenville, Rhode Island in 1896, and was raised in Springfield, MA, where her father was President of Springfield College. She attended the University of California at Berkeley for two years and completed her undergraduate education at Radcliffe College with a degree in Economics, magna cum laude. She taught at Smith College in the Economics Department for a year after her graduation and then spent a year at Lady Margaret Hall of Oxford University furthering her study of economics.

Clarence Kennedy and Ruth Wedgewood (Doggett) Kennedy were married in England in 1921. At the time Clarence was traveling in Italy and Greece, photographing classical sculpture. The next fall they returned to Northampton, where both had held positions in the Art and Economics departments, respectively. In 1923 the Kennedys moved to Florence to teach in the Art Department’s Division of Graduate Study program. By this time Ruth had begun to establish herself as a Renaissance scholar, while Clarence continued his photographic and academic work. Their collaboration was continuous and they were among the pioneers of modern techniques in the study of art history. Among their innovations was the teaching of art history in situ instead of in the classroom. During this time the Kennedys had two children, Melinda, born in 1924, and Robert, called Bobby, born in 1928.

Ruth Kennedy was a member of the Art Department from 1941 to 1961. She taught courses on Italian Renaissance artists and on the cultures and cities that informed their art. During her time at Smith she undertook research on Alesso Baldovinetti, Fra Bartolomeo, Francesco Laurana, as well as projects on flowers in Renaissance art. She also was active nationally and internationally in her field of Renaissance art; her articles and reviews appeared often in art journals and she served on the editorial board of Art in America, Renaissance Quarterly, and the Art Bulletin. During her career Ruth received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Philosophical Society. She also lectured at other institutions, including Springfield College and Wellesley College.

From 1928 to 1932, Clarence Kennedy and Smith College published Studies in the History and Criticism of Sculpture, a seven-part series of volumes, issued in editions of 100, containing over three hundred black and white gelatin photographs of Ancient and Renaissance sculpture.

After Clarence and Ruth’s return to Northampton from Italy in 1933, Clarence continued to teach art history and photography; he soon added typography to his courses when he and Ruth set up the Cantina Press in their home at 44 Pomeroy Terrace in 1936-37. Cantina Press published little under its own imprint, but the Kennedys helped to establish the tradition of typography and printing at Smith College and produced much ephemeral work, such as invitations, broadsides, and programs.

Clarence Kennedy collaborated with scientist and inventor Edwin H. Land, co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation, on a system for the projection of stereoscopic lantern slides using Land’s invention of Polaroid filters over the lenses of a double projector. Viewing the projected images through special glasses with Polaroid filters identical to those on the projectors, the audience could see the image in three dimensions. Clarence also worked with Land during World War II on development of a Vectograph system using polarized stereographic images for three-dimensional maps. He was a member of the Monuments and Fine Arts Commission, established by the United States government to minimize the destruction of works of art within enemy-held territory during World War II. Clarence was also a consultant to the Eastman Kodak Company on photographic matters.

Together, Ruth and Clarence were invited to serve as Resident Art Historians at the American Academy in Rome for 1960-61.

Ruth Kennedy became a Professor Emeritus at Smith in 1961, but continued to lecture, research, and work on potential publications until her sudden death after a short illness on November 30, 1968 in Boston.

Clarence Kennedy retired from Smith in 1960, and died on July 29, 1972 in Northampton.

Melinda Kennedy (1924-2002) was the first child and only daughter of Clarence and Ruth Kennedy. Melinda attended Smith College and graduated with the class of 1945. Melinda was married for several years to Alfred Lester Talkington, who was known as Hank. Melinda and Hank had two daughters, Sylvia and Amy. Hank also had a daughter, Jo Lynn, from a previous marriage. Melinda was a poet and translator, and taught English for many years at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, CT.

Image Source: The Radcliffe College Yearbook 1919, p. 31.

Tags DoggettKennedy

Berkeley Chicago Economics Programs Economists

Chicago. The Education of Zvi Griliches. Through Ph.D. 1957

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-01-17

The two documents transcribed for this post provide wonderful detail about the economics training received by Zvi Griliches whose academic career passed from Hebrew University, through the University of California, Berkeley, and ultimately through the University of Chicago to Harvard.

Griliches was responsible for graduate admissions in the Harvard economics department back when I was applying to graduate school (1974). When I went to Cambridge to visit the Harvard and M.I.T. departments, I pressed Griliches (the only professor at Harvard with whom I could get an appointment) for him to tell me what in his opinion the difference between Harvard and M.I.T. was. He smiled (hopefully amused by my naive presumption) and replied that M.I.T. provided more of a “bootcamp training” than Harvard would. He did make that sound like a bad thing. In any event, M.I.T. was better at recruiting, able on short notice to line up appointments to talk with Evsey Domar and Charles Kindlberger plus a handful of graduate students. Still I have to admit that Griliches did warn me what I was getting myself into.

Zvi Griliches was awarded a Social Science Research Council Research Training Fellowship in 1955-56, and from information in the supplementary statements below, it is clear that the application was written sometime in the early months of 1955 (Chicago’s Winter Quarter 1955). So while it is possible that he was applying for more than this single fellowship, there is no indication of any other fellowship at that time being considered in Griliches’ papers in the files at the Harvard Archive that I consulted.

Questions for the Price Theory prelim exam for the Winter Quarter 1955 have been posted earlier. From Milton Friedman’s papers, we know that Griliches got the top grade (by a long shot) on that particular exam.

Griliches received a two year appointment at Chicago beginning Oct 1, 1956— “to give service for the National Science Foundation Econometric Model Research Project on a ninety per cent time basis and for the Department of Economics on a ten per cent time basis with total salary of $5,000 per annum”. So it was certainly reasonable for him at the start of the second year of his contract to put his academic record on file with the University of Chicago Vocational Service and Employment Office. That is the second document transcribed below.

Economic in the Rear-view Mirror’s “Believe it or not!”

Graduates listing themselves with the University of Chicago’s Vocational Service and Employment Office were asked even as late as the Autumn Quarter of 1957:

Any racial or religious institutions in which you would prefer to teach?
Any racial or religious institutions in which you would prefer not to teach?

Easy to believe, and the documentary record indeed shows, that Zvi Griliches answered “No” to both questions.

___________________________________

Supplementary Statements from Winter Quarter 1955 in Griliches’ fellowship application for 1955-56

Zvi Griliches

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT “C”:

For attainment of the objectives outlined above I think that the following knowledge and training is desirable: 1) economic theory including mathematical economics; 2) statistics and econometrics including all the modern developments and also experience with efficient computational procedures; 3) agricultural economics; and 4) some knowledge of historical methods.

Economic theory and mathematical economics will be very important in my future work because they provide the framework for the actual quantitative work. They suggest which are the important variables in different problems and indicate something about the form of their interrelationships. They also provide a check on the internal consistency of our models and are the source of most of our hypotheses. I believe that I have a good knowledge of basic economic theory and a reasonable familiarity with mathematical economics. My major graduate courses in this field were:

R.G. Bressler Jr. — Production Economics — In this course I was introduced to the pure theory of production and to the interrelationships of cost and supply curves.

R.G. Bressler Jr. — Seminar in Agricultural Marketing Organization — This course, in spite of its name, dealt primarily with problems of cost measurement, location theory, and general equilibrium.

Robert Dorfman — Advanced Economic Theory A-B¹ — This was the major graduate course in Economic Theory at the University of California, covering Price Theory, Distribution Theory, and introducing us to Income and Employment Theory.

Robert Dorfman — Mathematical Methods in Economics — This was my introduction the Mathematical Economics proper. It dealt with general maximization problems, the pure theory of consumers’ choice, and in particular with dynamic difference equations models. The last topic will be very important in the construction of my model.

A.C. Harberger — Price Theory A — Covered more advanced topics in price theory and problems of definition and measurement of utility.

D. Gale Johnson — Price Theory B³ — This course covers distribution theory and related topics.

I have also taken in the past and intend to take in the future a series of courses in Monetary and Fiscal Theory which I shall not list here.

I also intend to participate in the Seminar in Mathematical Economics to be given in the spring quarter of 1955 by G. Debreu at the University of Chicago. In spite of all the above, I shall still lack adequate knowledge of Mathematical Economics. I need especially a better knowledge of growth models and of stochastic difference equations. I think, however, that I shall be able to acquire this necessary knowledge through individual study, as my work progresses.

I am aided in my knowledge of mathematical economics and also of statistics and econometrics by a good undergraduate training in calculus and an individually acquired knowledge of matrix and vector algebra. Nevertheless, this is not enough. As it forms a basis for most of the other fields, I should learn more mathematics. I intend to do so after I have completed the preliminary Ph.D requirements both through intensive studying on my own and also by auditing some courses at the university.

A good knowledge of statistics and econometrics is indispensable for quantitative work in agricultural economics. Though this is a field where there is always more to learn, nevertheless, I think that I have a basic knowledge of the most important techniques. My major courses in this field were:

George Kuznets — Analytical Methods A — This was my introduction to the theory and methods of multiple regression, weighted regression, testing hypotheses, and non-parametric tests. Within the framework of this course I wrote a paper “Demand for Clingstone Peaches on the Grower Level” which introduced me to modern computational procedures and the use of modern computational equipment.

Ivan Lee — Analytical Methods B — In this course I was introduced to simultaneous equations, the identification problem, maximum likelihood estimates, analysis of variance, and sampling theory. Within the framework of this course I wrote a paper “Clingstone Peaches: Demand and Supply Relationships on the Grower Level” applying both least squares and limited information techniques.

Roy Radner — Statistical Problems of Model Construction¹ — Introduced me to decision theory, covered in greater detail the Markov Theorem and maximum likelihood estimates.

Martin Beckman — Allocation of Resources in Production³ — This course is introducing me to the valuable new technique of activity analysis (linear programing).

W.H. Kruskal — Mathematical Statistics I² — The principal topics of this course are: point and set estimation; hypothesis testing; elements of multivariate analysis; elements of linear hypothesis theory; typical nonparametric procedures.

In the addition to the above I profited greatly from work with Professors Varden Fuller and Ivan Lee (Summer 1953), which made me familiar with census data, BAE publications, and other major sources of data in agriculture: and from my work with Professor Sidney Hoos (Summer 1954), which provided practical experience in the application of modern econometric techniques. I also have participated and shall continue to participate in the Seminar in Econometrics conducted by members of the Cowles Commission at the University of Chicago.

All this of course is not enough. I shall have to learn much more. Some of it I shall still get at the university, but the greater part I shall have to learn on my own as my work progresses.

A thorough knowledge of agricultural economics is important as it will provide both the framework and background of my work. I believe that I possess a reasonably good knowledge of this field. I have received both the B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural economics and have read widely in the field. Some of my courses in this field were:

George Mehren — Seminar in Agricultural Marketing — Introduced me to the practical and theoretical problems arising in the administration of agricultural marketing and adjustment programs.

Murray Benedict — Agricultural Production Economics — Dealt with the theoretical issues underlying policy problems in agriculture.

Varden Fuller — Seminar in Agricultural Policy¹— Dealt with current policy issues and their economic implications.

C.M. Hardin — Seminar in Agricultural Policy² — This course is introducing me to the consideration of current agricultural policy issues from the point of view of Political Science.

T.W. Schultz — Choice and Possibilities in Economic Organization — Dealt primarily with economic development and its impact on agriculture.

D. Gale Johnson — Incomes Welfare, and Policy³ — This course is introducing me to more advanced topics in agricultural economics and policy.

I have gained also from participation in departmental meetings and seminars, both at the University of California and at the University of Chicago. Three years of my life spent working on farms (1947-50) and a summer (1952) as a research assistant with the California Packing Corporation collecting yield data have enriched my understanding of agriculture and its problems.

As time series are used to a great extent in quantitative work, some knowledge of historical methods is quite important. I am fortunate in this respect to have had a very intensive and profitable year of undergraduate study in History at the Hebrew University, and in particular a course in “Introduction to historical literature and methods” by Professor Richard Koebner

The only way one really becomes adept in quantitative work is by doing quantitative work. In a sense, this is the purpose of my project. As a result of work on my project I should gain experience and facility in using both theory and quantitative methods.

I have a good knowledge of Russian, German and Hebrew.

—————————————–

¹ I audited this course
² I am auditing this course
³ am currently taking this course

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT “D”:

I shall have completed all the required course work by June 1955. I intend to take the Ph.D. preliminary examination in Winter 1955, and the preliminary examinations in Money and Banking, and Agricultural Economics in Summer 1955. I have already taken and passed a reading examination in German, and I shall take the examination in Russian in February of 1955. Hence, I hope to have completed all the requirements toward the Ph.D. degree, except the dissertation and final oral examination, by August 1955, and before the fellowship goes into effect.

The preliminary title of my thesis is “A study of the factors determining the development, distribution, and acceptance of new technology”.

The faculty adviser is Professor D. Gale Johnson,

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT “E” :

1950-51. A student at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

1951-54. Student at the University of California, Berkeley.

Summer 1952. Research Assistant with the California Packing Corporation. Collection of yield data. $1.10 per hour.

Fall 1952. Awarded the D. Solis Cohen Scholarship. This scholarship was awarded to me during the following two semesters.

May 1953. Election to Phi Beta Kappa.

June 1953. Awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science with highest honors in Agriculture.

Summer 1953. Research Assistant with the John Haynes Foundation, working under the direction of Prof. Varden Fuller, at the University of California. Salary: $325/month

1953-54. Jesse D. Carr Fellow in Agriculture at the University of California.

Summer 1954. Research Assistant at the Gianini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California; working under the direction of Professor Sidney Hoos. Salary —$290 a month.

September 1954. Awarded a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics by the University of California.

1954-55. A University Fellow and full time student at the University of Chicago.

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT “F”:

“Demand for Clingstone Peaches on the Grower Level”, Berkeley, January 1954, Typewritten manuscript,
“Clingstone Peaches for Canning: Demand and Supply Interrelationships on the Grower Level”, Berkeley, June 1954,
“The Differential Spread of Hybrid Corn: A Research Proposal”, Chicago, December 1954, pp. 1-20.

All three papers are available on loan from me. All are unpublished typewritten manuscripts.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 129, Folder: “Correspondence, 1954-1959.”

_______________________________

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND PLACEMENT

EDUCATIONAL REGISTRATION FORM

Date: September 30, 1957
Name in Full: Hirsch Zvi Griliches
Current Address: 6011 Kimbark, Chicago 37, Ill.
Telephone: Bu 8-1975
Permanent Address: ditto

PERSONAL DATA

Date of birth: 9/12/1930. Place: Kaunas, Lithuania
Are you a U.S. citizen? No
If through naturalization give date. If not, explain status: Permanent resident (immigrant), expect. naturalizt. in 2 yrs.
Height: 5’11
Weight: 160
Marital status: Married
Number and ages of children: 1 daughter, 9 months.
Are you a veteran? Of the Israeli Army.
Physical handicaps: None
Church (if you wish to indicate): Jewish
Scholastic honors: S.B. with Highest Honors in Agriculture (U of Calif., 1953), Phi Beta Kappa
Scholarships (give dates and schools): Solis D. Cohen Scholarship, Univ. of Calif., 1952-53
Fellowships (give dates and schools): Jesse D. Carr (Univ of Calif., 1953-54), University (U of Chicago, 1954-55), Social Science Res. Council Research Training Fell. 55-56
Certificates held: None

EDUCATIONAL AND RELATED EXPERIENCE

List chronologically all work experience (including teaching, government, business, practice teaching, and experience in armed services)

June 1953 to Sept 1953. John Hanes Foundation, Berkeley, Calif., Research Assistant

June 1954 to Sept. 1954. Univ. of Calif., Berkeley, Research Assistant, Price Analysis.

Oct. 1954 to Sept 1955. Office of Agricult. Economic Research, Chicago, Research Assistant.

Oct. 1956 to date, U of Chicago, Assistant. Prof., Ag. Economics, Gen. Econ. Theory.

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

(If this space is insufficient, attach another sheet)

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES: (List title, not catalogue number, and follow with the number of semester hours; e.g. Shakespeare, 3. One full course in the College of the University of Chicago equals 3 semester hours.)

First Year	Second Year	Third Year	Fourth Year
Hebrew 10	Geology 6	Botany 3
English 8	Introd. Econ 6	Calculus 6
Latin 8	Intern. Trade 3	Ag Econ Theory 6
Russian 4	Statistics 3	Ag. Marketing 3
Westr. Civil. 6	Agric Policy 3	Ag Policy 3
Polit. Theories 8	Range Mangmnt 3	Hist. of Ec. Thght 3
Medieval History 8	Zoology 3	Irrigation Econ. 3
Sociology 8		Agronomy 3
		Intnat.Econ. 3

GRADUATE COURSES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (List Course Title.) (One full course in the Divisions of the University of Chicago equals 3½ semester hours)

Instructor	Title of Course	Instructor	Title of Course
Harberger	Price Theory A	Hamilton	Banking and Monetary Policy
	Monetary and Fiscal Policy	Metzler	Monetary Asp. of Inter’l Trade
	Recent Dev. in Economics	Beckman	Alloc’n of Res. in Prod.

Schultz	Choice & Possib. in Econ. Org.		Audited:
	Econ. Org. for Stability	Savage	Introd. To Probability Theo.
			Regression & Anal. of Varian.
Johnson	Price Theory B	Theil	Math. Economics
	Income, Welfare, & Policy	Radner	Econometrics
		Friedman	Price Theory A & B
Tolley	Money

GRADUATE COURSES TAKEN ELSEWHERE (University of California, Berkeley)

Instructor	Title of Course	Instructor	Title of Course
Clark	Agric Marketing 3	Kuznets	Analytical Methods A 3
Mehren	Agric Marketing. Sem. 3	Lee	Analytical Methods B 3
Bressler	Ag Market Organ. Sem. 3	Dorfman	Math Methods of Econ 3.
Bressler	Ag Production Theory A 3		Audited:
Benedict	Ag Production Theory B 3	Dorfman	Econ Theory A & B 6

SUMMARY OF ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AS OF Oct. 1, 1957

	MAJORS	SEMESTER HOURS	MINORS (OR RELATED FIELDS)	SEMESTER HOURS
Undergraduate	Agric Econ	15	History	22
	Economics	15	Math and Statistics	9

Graduate	Agric Econ	24	Econometrics & Stat	6 + 9 aud.
	Econ Theory & Math Econ	15 +15 aud	Money	12
Thesis field and preliminary fields: Agricultural Economics, Economic Theory, Monetary Theory.
Education Courses: None

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

List all schools attended. Begin with high school from which you graduated. Include work in progress at the University of Chicago and Foreign [Universities]

Dates of Attendance	Institutions—Location	Major Subject	Minor Subject	Degree and Date Awarded
6/50	Dept. of Education, State of Israel	External Matriculation exams passed		1950
9/50 to 6/51	Hebrew University, Jerusalem	History	Sociology	—
10/51 to 6/54	University of California, Berkeley	Agric. Econ	Agric. Market.	S.B. 1953
				S.M. 1954
10/54 to 8/57	University of Chicago, Chicago	Economics	Agric. Econ.	A.M. 1955
				Ph.D. 1957

Title of Master’s thesis: no thesis

Title of Doctor’s thesis: Hybrid Corn: An Exploration in Economics of Technological Change.
Thesis adviser: T.W. Schultz

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Single check activities in which you have participated. Double check those which you can direct [coach/play].

Assemblies, Athletics, Audio-Visual, Band, Camping, Chorus, Civic Organizations, Crafts, Curriculum Planning, Debate, Dramatics, Gymnasium Activities, Orchestra, Parent-Teachers activities, Piano, Playground, Public Addresses, Pupil Participation in Government, Reading, Rhythms-Dances, School Clubs, School Publications, School Publicity, Speech, Vocational Guidance.

[Note: Only School Clubs was checked (single checked) from the list. It was the Political Economy Club in college]

What foreign languages do you speak? Hebrew, Russian, German, Lithuanian, Yiddish.

Can you type? Poorly. Take dictation? No. Bookkeeping knowledge? No.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

(For our use only—not included in credentials mailed to employers.)

PUBLICATIONS:

“Specification bias in estimates of production functions,” Journal of Farm Economics, February 1957.

“Hybrid Corn: An Exploration in the Economics of Technological Change,”Econometrica, October 1957.

Book reviews in the Journal of Political Economy

MEMBERSHIPS:

American Economic Association
American Farm Economics Association
Econometric Society
Fellow of Royal Economic Society

REFERENCES
Instructors at the University of Chicago

List at least two University of Chicago instructors who are able to evaluate your course work.

T.W. Shultz
A.C. Harberger
D.G. Johnson
Carl Christ

INSTRUCTORS AT OTHER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTIONS

List instructors at other schools from whom you would like to have letters of recommendation.

R.G. Bressler. Dept. of Agric. Economics, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley.
Sidney Hoos. Ditto.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS

If you have had teaching or administrative experience, list administrative officers who can report on your work (one for each position you have held).

D.G. Johnson, Univ. of Chicago. Act. Chairman
H.G. Lewis, Univ. of Chicago. Director of Research Center.

At what other university or college placement office are your letters of recommendation on file? None.

OCCUPATIONAL CHOICES

List three position choices. Be very specific as to (1) courses you can teach within your own department (e.g., if Sociology-Social Psychology, Marriage and Family, Theory); (2) kinds of institutions (University, Liberal Arts College, State Teachers College, Junior College, High School, Junior High School, or grades); (3) other types of positions (Registrar Dean, Superintendent, Business Manager, Critic, Supervisor, etc.).

University, Land Grant or Liberal Arts College, teaching position with opportunities for research. Economic Theory, Agricultural Econ., Econometrics, Money.

Date available (month and year) September 1, 1958
Locality preferred East or West Coast.
Are you limited to that area? No.
Would you apply for positions in foreign countries? Yes
Any racial or religious institutions in which you would prefer to teach? No
Any racial or religious institutions in which you would prefer not to teach? No
Present or last salary $6500 (Confidential) for 11 months.
Minimum salary you would consider $7000 (Confidential) for 11 months.

Your registration is incomplete without six photographs (not larger than 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches).
Pictures are important.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 129, Folder: “Correspondence, 1954-1959.”

Image Source: Zvi Griliches from the University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06565, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Beckman, BenedictM, Bressler, Debreu, DorfmanR, FullerV, Griliches, Harberger, HardinCM, Hoos, JohnsonDG, Kruskal, KuznetsG, LeeIvan, Mehren, RadnerR, SchultzTW, Tolley

Berkeley Economists Harvard Princeton

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, Merton Kirk Cameron, 1921

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-05-01

After graduating from Princeton, Merton K. Cameron taught high-school Latin, Greek and History before going on for graduate work in economic history at Harvard University where he co-taught courses in the economics of transportation and the economics corporations with Professor William Z. Ripley in 1915-16.

From his obituary in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (23 May 1952, p. 5) we learn that he retired from the University of Hawaii in August, 1949 because of ill health and then moved with his family to California. It was reported that Cameron was “a member of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce, Phi Gamma Delta, American Association of University Professors, Phi Kappa Phi, Pi Gamma Mu, National Association of Cost Accountanats and the American Economics Association.”

Merton Kirk Cameron was born 7 January 1886 in Cecil County, Maryland and died 22 May 1952 in San Gabriel, California.

_________________

Harvard Economics Ph.D., 1921

Merton Kirk Cameron, A.B. (Princeton Univ.) 1908, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1914.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic History. Thesis, “The History of Tobacco-Growing in the Ohio Valley.”
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Oregon.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1920-21, p. 60.

_________________

Summer School, Berkeley 1932

Merton Kirk Cameron, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Head of the Department of Economics and Business, University of Hawaii.

A.B., Princeton University, 1908; M.A., 1914, Ph.D., 1921, Harvard University. Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Oregon, 1920-23, Associate Professor, 1923-28; Professor of Economics, University of Hawaii, since 1928.
Author: Experience of Oregon with Popular Election and Recall of Public Service Commissioners; Some Neglected Aspects of the Problem of Poverty; The Political Pressure on the State Commissioners; Some Economic Causes of the Backward Condition in the Ante-Bellum Ohio Valley Tobacco District.

Source: University of California, Intersession and Summer Session, 1932 at Berkeley. (Officers of Administration and Instruction, Visiting Instructors), p. 4.

_________________

From the Princeton Alumni Weekly (1952)
Memorial

Merton Cameron, Ph.D., educator and author of many scientific books and articles on sociological and economic studies, died on May 22, 1952 at his home in San Gabriel, Calif. For the past 30 years prior to his retirement in 1950 he was professor of Economics and chairman of the Dept. of Economics and Business at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu. During World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor he was active in defense work in Honolulu, both in directing the construction of bomb shelters and as an expert on finger prints. At that time his wife, Margaret, served in the Honolulu Office of Censorship.

Froggy, as he was affectionately known in college, elected teaching as a career, having served on the faculties of several U.S. schools including the Lanier High School in Maryland, the Donald Fraser School of Decatur, Ga. [ca. 1908], and the Riverside Military Academy at Gainesville, Ga. [ca. 1911], before accepting an offer from the University of Hawaii. He was one of those rare teachers who was not only a master of his subject but able to arouse enthusiastic response and admiration from his pupils.

Surviving in addition to his wife, Mrs. Margaret Elizabeth Sullivan Cameron, are a son, Merton K. Jr.; a daughter Edith, wife of Col. Kenneth R. Kenerick and two grandchildren, Karen J. Kenerick and Kaye Elizabeth Kenerick.

To the members of his family who survive the Class extends its sincere sympathy.

For the Class of 1908
Robert C. Clothier, President
Courtland N. Smith, Secretary

Source: Princeton Alumni Weekly, July 4, 1952, p. 34.

Image Source: University of Hawaii Yearbook, 1936.

Tags Cameron, Ripley

Berkeley Chicago Economists Michigan

Chicago. Oscar Lange appointment as assistant professor, 1938

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-04-14

Oscar Lange’s first appointment at the University of Chicago began July 1, 1938 at the rank of assistant professor for a term of three years. This post provides a transcription of the official form submitted to the University of Chicago administration by the economics department. The brevity of the form is rather striking to those of us 21st century academics for whom a paper trail is more like an infrastructure investment.

I have also appended some information from Lange’s declaration of intention and his petition for naturalization that he filed while on the Chicago faculty. The limp indicated for his right leg is no doubt related to the differing lengths of his two legs that was noted in his selective service registration (Feb. 16, 1942), “right leg is shorter than other one.”

__________________________________

The University of Chicago

(FOR POSITIONS ABOVE THAT OF ASSISTANT)
TO BE TRANSMITTED TO THE DEAN OF FACULTIES

Date: January 31, 1938

To the Dean of Faculties:

Division of the Social Sciences. Department Economics.

The promotion/appointment of Oskar Lange to the position of

Assistant Professor is recommended, at a salary of
Four Thousand dollars ($4,000.00) beginning
July 1, 1938 for a period of Three years.

Mr. Lange has the following academic record:

A.B. (or B.S. or Ph.B.) (college) [left blank]; (year) [left blank]
Ph.D. or other higher degree (institution) LL.D., Cracow; (year) [left blank]

Previous experience in teaching:

Lecturer and Privatdozent at Cracow and Polish Free University;
one semester at Michigan; one year at California

Publications:

Partial list attached

Qualities as investigator:

Excellent

Qualities as a teacher:

Excellent. At California and Michigan said to be very successful.

Qualities as an administrator:

No knowledge.

Personality:

Good

Provision for salary:

General budget.

[signed] H. A. Millis, Chairman or head of department

The above recommendation has also been considered by Dean [signed] Robert Redfield

Further comments by Dean of Faculties: [left blank]

[signed] Emery T. Filbey, Dean of Faculties

PARTIAL LIST OF LANGE’S PUBLICATIONS

“Die Preisdispersion als Mittel zur statistischen Messung wirtschaftlicher Gleichgewichtsstörungen,” Veröffentlichungen der Frankfurter Gesellschaft für Konjunkturforschung (Herausgegeben von Dr. Eugen Altschul, 1932, Neue Folge Heft 4), pp. 7-56.

“Die allgemeine Interdependenz der Wirtschaftsgrössen und die Isolierungsmethode,” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, Band IV, Heft 1, 1932, pp. 52-78.

“The Determinateness of the Utility Function,” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 1 (1933-1934), pp. 218-225.

“A Note on the Determinateness of the Utility Function,” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. II (1934-1935), pp. 75-78.

“Formen der Angebotsanpassung und wirtschaftliches Gleichgewicht,” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, Band VI, Heft 3, 1935, pp. 358-65.

“Marxian Economics and Modern Economic Theory,” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. II, No. 3, June, 1935, pp. 189-201.

“The Place of Interest in the Theory of Production,” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. III, June, 1936, No. 3, pp. 159-192.

“On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Part I,” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. IV, No. 1, October, 1936, pp. 53-71.

“On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Part II,” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. IV, No. 2, February, 1937, pp. 123-42.

“Mr. Lerner’s Note on Socialist Economics,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. IV, No. 2, February, 1937, pp. 143-44.

“Professor Knight’s Note on Interest Theory,” The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. IV, No. 3, June, 1937, pp. 231-35.

Source: University of Chicago Library. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 283. Folder 10 “Economics”.

__________________________________

From Oscar Lange’s Declaration of Intention

I, OSCAR RICHARD LANGE, now residing at 5617 Dorchester Ave. [Chicago, Illinois], occupation University Professor, aged 35 years, do declare on oath that my personal description is: Sex Male, color White, complexion Fair, color of eyes Blue, color of hair Blond, height 5 feet 6 inches; weight 176 pounds; visible distinctive marks none, race Polish; nationality Polish.
I was born in Tomaszow-Mazowiecki, Poland, on July 27, 1904. I am married. The name of my wife is Irena, we were married on January 3, 1932, at Cracow, Poland; she was born at Czestochowa, Poland, on October 1, 1906, entered the United States at New York, N.Y., on Aug. 20, 1937, for permanent residence therein, and now resides with me. I have no children…

I have not heretofore made a declaration of intention….
my last foreign residence was Czestochowa, Poland.
I emigrated to the United States of America from Havre, France,
my lawful entry for permanent residence in the United States was at New York, N.Y.
under the name of Oskar-Ryszard Lange, on August 20, 1937
on the vessel [SS] Paris…

[Signed]
Oscar Richard Lange

…at Chicago, Illinois this 18th day of November, anno Domini, 1939.

From Petition for Naturalization
September 17, 1942

The address for the Lange family changed to 6044 Stony Island Ave., Chicago, Illinois.

Added to “Visible distinctive marks limp on rt. leg”

New member of the Lange family noted: son, Christopher, born Feb. 11, 1940, Chicago, Illinois.

The affidavit of witnesses was signed by

Professor Chester W. Wright (5747 Blackstone Ave., Chicago) and
Professor Jacob Viner (5554 Kenwood Ave., Chicago).

Source: National Archives and Record Administration. U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Oscar Richard Lange’s Declaration of Intention, November 18, 1939 and Petition for Naturalization, September 17, 1942.

Image Source: National Archives and Record Administration. U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration and Naturalization Service. Oscar Richard Lange’s Declaration of Intention, November 18, 1939.

Tags Lange, Millis, Viner, Wright

Berkeley Suggested Reading

Berkeley. Harsanyi Seminar Reading List, ca. 1976-1977

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-02-06

While in all likelihood there is a copy of the seminar reading list from John C. Harsanyi’s seminar “Rule Utilitarianism and Decision theory” in the Bancroft Library at Berkeley where John C. Harsanyi’s papers are to be found, I don’t know when or if I will be in Berkeley anytime soon. Furthermore I figure it is doubtful that many people interested in rule utilitarianism would happen to search Abba Lerner’s papers at the Library of Congress where I found the copy transcribed below. So duty called and the seminar reading list will now be entered here into the digital record.

For what it’s worth, I was mildly amused to see an apology for including books, books I say!, on Harsanyi’s reading list.

___________________________

Nobel Laureate John C. Harsanyi, UC Berkeley economist and game theory pioneer, dies at 80
11 August 2000

Berkeley – John C. Harsanyi, winner of the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and a longtime professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and its Department of Economics, died of a heart attack at his home in Berkeley on Wednesday, Aug. 9.

He was 80 and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.

Harsanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in game theory, a mathematical theory of human behavior in competitive situations that has become a dominant tool for analyzing real-life conflicts in business, management and international relations.

He shared the award from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with fellow game theorists Reinhard Selten of Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet in Bonn, Germany, and John Nash of Princeton University.

When Harsanyi, an immigrant from communist Hungary, won the Nobel Prize, he expressed hope that game theory would help public and private institutions make better decisions. In the long run, he said, he hoped this would lead to a higher standard of living and to more peaceful and more cooperative political systems.

“Professor Harsanyi’s life-long work probed the idea of rationality in human affairs, and he was a scholar who cared deeply about the human condition. We will miss him at Berkeley, where his years of devoted teaching and his ground-breaking research inspired us all,” said Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl.

Harsanyi began teaching at UC Berkeley in 1964 as a visiting professor in the business school. He became a full professor in 1965 and remained on the faculty of the Haas School of Business until his retirement in 1990. Harsanyi accepted a joint appointment on the economics faculty in 1966.

“John Harsanyi dedicated his life to employ the science of economics and game theory for the betterment of the human race,” said Haas School Dean Laura Tyson. “He was a brilliant thinker, a gracious man, and a gentle soul, ever concerned with the well-being of others. We will all miss him dearly.”

“The passing of John Harsanyi is a great loss to the economics profession and to his many friends and colleagues on this campus,” said John Quigley, UC Berkeley professor of economics and former chair of the department. “Harsanyi’s work was instrumental in making economic theory ‘fit’ the imperfect world in which we live. His development of game theory showed how differences in the information available to economic actors affected market outcomes and economic welfare. His seminal works form the basis for all modern analyses of industrial organization, and they have real practical implications in business and government policy.

“John was a gentle and shy man, but a bold and powerful intellectual presence. We will miss his grace and charm.”

Game theory uses mathematics to try to predict the outcome of games, such as chess or poker, and is increasingly being applied to political and economic conflict situations, including labor negotiations, price wars, international political conflicts, and even federal auctions, such as bandwidth auctions.

Harsanyi’s principal contributions to the field addressed the prediction of outcomes in games or situations in which the players lack complete information about each other or the rules of the game.

In 1964, Harsanyi was asked to be one of 10 game theorists to advise the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency on its negotiations with the Soviet Union. The team found that it could not advise the U.S. negotiators effectively because neither side knew much about the other – it was a game of incomplete information.

Harsanyi subsequently developed a systematic procedure to convert any incomplete-information game into an equivalent complete-information game containing random moves, thereby significantly expanding the applicability of game theory to political and economic conflicts. In the late 1960s, Harsanyi described this theory in a three-part article, “Games with Incomplete Information Played by Bayesian Players,” which is now the basis for all work on games with incomplete information.

Harsanyi was born on May 29, 1920, in Budapest, Hungary, as the son of a Catholic pharmacist of Jewish descent and was educated at the University of Budapest. His main interests were in mathematics and philosophy, but because of the uncertain political situation and the impending Nazi danger, Harsanyi opted to obtain a degree in pharmacology so he could work in his father’s pharmacy.

In 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary, and Harsanyi, being of Jewish descent, was drafted into a forced-labor unit near Budapest. Shortly thereafter, the Nazis started deporting these laborers to mines and concentration camps. Harsanyi narrowly escaped deportation and found refuge with three friends at a Jesuit monastery in Budapest.

After the war, Harsanyi earned a PhD in philosophy at the University in Budapest where he later taught as an assistant professor of sociology and also met his future wife, Anne. In 1948, a Stalinist regime seized power in Hungary and became increasingly intolerant of Harsanyi’s liberal views. Eventually, he had to resign from the university and return to work in his father’s pharmacy.

Pressure on Harsanyi persisted and, in 1950, the family decided it was too dangerous for him to remain in Hungary. Harsanyi and his soon-to-be wife, Anne, escaped across the border to Austria, and emigrated to Australia, as the waiting list of the Hungarian immigration-quota to the United States was full. The couple were married on January 2, 1951, three days after arriving in Sydney.

In Sydney, Harsanyi worked in factories during the day while earning an MA in economics at the University of Sydney at night. In 1954, he was appointed lecturer in economics at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.

Harsanyi soon realized he was too isolated in Australia to be effective in his field. In 1956, he enrolled in the PhD program in economics at Stanford University, writing his dissertation on game theory under the guidance of the future Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow.

Before arriving at UC Berkeley in 1964, he taught economics at the Australian National University in Canberra from 1958 to 1961 and at Wayne State University in Detroit from 1961 to 1963. At Berkeley, he continued his path-breaking work in game theory and also made important contributions to the fields of ethics, social choice and welfare economics. Harsanyi was awarded seven honorary doctorates by universities around the world. Harsanyi is survived by his wife, Anne, of Berkeley, and son, Tom, of Somerville, Mass.

When Harsanyi was interviewed in Budapest after being awarded the Nobel Prize, he said his family and his work were the most important things in his life. He took frequent trips all over the world with his family.

A memorial service for the campus community will be held at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, in the Great Hall of UC Berkeley’s Faculty Club.

Donations in John Harsanyi’s memory may be sent to the Alzheimer’s Association of the Greater Bay Area, 2065 West El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94042.

Source: University of California. Press Release 11 Aug 2000.

___________________________

Selected Publications on Rule Utilitarianism
by John C. Harsanyi

John C. Harsanyi. “Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory,” Erkenntnis, 11 (1977), 25-53.

____________. “Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory,” Decision Theory and Social Ethics, 1978, Volume 17, pp. 3-31.

____________. “Bayesian Decision Theory, Rule Utilitarianism, and Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem,” Theory and Decision, 11 (1979), 289-317.

____________. “Rule Utilitarianism, Equality, and Justice,” Social Philosophy and Policy, 2 (1985), 115-127.

___________________________

[Lerner’s Attached Label “HARSANYI WORKSHOP”]

Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory.
John C. Harsanyi

Background References.

In economics, it is customary to publish important results at first in journal articles, even if these later are expanded into books. In contrast, in philosophy, important ideas are often presented immediately in books (often in much greater detail than most economists care to read). This is why so many books had to be included with the references listed below.

Items marked by —> will have xerox copies distributed to members of the Seminar. It would be helpful if people could read as many of these as possible. But my own presentation will be largely self-contained and independent of these references.

1. Morality as the Viewpoint of an Impartial Observer.

Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759.

—> John C. Harsanyi, “Ethics in Terms of Hypothetical Imperatives”, Mind, 67 (1958), pp. 305-316.

2. Classical Utilitarianism.

Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789.

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, 1863.

Henry Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics, 1874.

3. Ideal Utilitarianism.

George E. Moore, Principia Ethica, 1903.

4. Rule Utilitarianism.

—> R. F. Harrod*, “Utilitarianism Revised”, Mind, 45 (1936), pp. 137-156. Harrod has been the first proponent of rule utilitarianism as an alternative to act utilitarianism.

Richard B. Brandt, “Towards a Credible Form of Utilitarianism”, in Morality and the Language of Conduct (H.D. Castañeda, editor), 1963.

David Lyons, Forms and Limits of Utilitarianism, 1965. Brandt and Lyons tried to show that rule utilitarianism is logically equivalent to act utilitarianism and, therefore, has no real advantage over the latter.

5. Defense of Act Utilitarianism against Rule Utilitarianism.

J. J. C. Smart, An Outline of a System of Utilitarian Ethics. First Edition, 1961. Second Edition (with a critical essay by B. Williams), 1973.

6. A Utilitarian Theory based on Bayesian Decision Theory.

W. S. Vickrey, “Measuring Marginal Utility by Reactions to Risk”, Econometrica, 13 (1945), pp. 319-333.

—> John C. Harsanyi, “Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility”, Journal of Political Economy, 63 (1955), pp. 305-316. (Omit Section II.)

7. An Ordinalist Approach to Social Welfare.

Kenneth J. Arrow, Social Choice and Individualistic Values. First Edition, 1951. Second Edition, 1963.

Kenneth J. Arrow, “Extended Sympathy and the Possibility of Social Choice”, Harvard Institute of Economic Research, Discussion Paper No. 484 (June 1976).

8. Egalitarian Critiques of Utilitarianism (Rawls, Diamond, Sen) and Utilitarian Rebuttals.

—> John Rawls, “Justice as Fairness”, Philosophical Review, 67 (1958), pp. 164-194.

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971.

—> John C. Harsanyi, “Can the Maximin Principle Serve as a Basis for Morality? A Critique of John Rawls’ Theory.” American Political Science Review, 69 (1975), pp. 594-606.

—> Peter Diamond, “Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility: A Comment”, Journal of Political Economy, 75 (1967), pp. 765-766.

—> A. K. Sen, “Welfare Economics, Utilitarianism, and Equity”, Chapter 1 of A. K. Sen, On Economic Inequality, 1973.

—> John C. Harsanyi, “Nonlinear Social Welfare Functions: Do Welfare Economists Have a Special Exemption from Bayesian rationality?” Theory and Decision, 6 (1975), pp. 311-332.

*The well-known economist.

Source: United States Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. The Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 12, Folder “5. ‘H’ miscellany 1976-1977”.

Image Source: John C. Harsanyi – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2021. Fri. 5 Feb 2021. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1994/harsanyi/facts/>

Tags Harsanyi, Lerner

1925 Rankings

1957 Rankings

1964 Rankings

1969 Rankings

Graduate Programs in Economics (1957, 1964, 1969)

The duties of a great university

When the Center could not hold

Hail the New Chancellor!

The Backstory to Clark Kerr’s Dismissal as President of the University of California

1964 Turmoil Caught Kerr in Ironic Web UC President, Skillful Negotiator, Unable to Settle Campus Strife Leading to Ouster

Clark Kerr’s Dismissal

Reagan Sides With Majority in 14 to 8 Decision

Two Samples of Clark Kerr’s Wit

IN MEMORIAM

Enlarges Economic Courses. University Offers New Opportunities for Students of Practical Business. [Announced for 1903-1904]

Economics Course Offerings [1904-1905]

Dr. Schumpeter Near End of Course as Austrian Exchange Professor at Columbia University

Predicts More War in Balkan Frontier

Admires Quick Wit Found in America

Talk on the Balkans by Prof. Schumpeter University of Gratz Educator Entertains Audience at National Museum

Balkan War Policy of Austria Defended Prof. Schumpeter Says Nation Must Control of Principalities Along the Danube. Great Britain is Criticised.

Predicts Third Balkan War. Prof. Schumpeter of Austria, Is Pessimistic in Lecture.

Johns Hopkins University.

Vienna Man at Madison. Exchange Professor Studies Wisconsin Industrial Laws.

Professor Schumpeter has very busy two days here. Austrian makes four addresses and attends several affairs.

Talks of Marx’ Economy

Brings Austria’s Message to Both Columbia and Harvard

“The Theory of Crises”at 4.30 March 16, 1914

Noted Economist’s Last Lecture

Prof. Schumpeter Sails. Says That America Made a Deep Impression on Him.

Public finance scholar George F. Break dead at 88

By Kathleen Maclay 30 March 2009

Course Announcement

Syllabus and Course Readings

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics Economics 251 Public Finance

1. The Fiscal Setting

2. Principles of Taxation

3. Income, Spending and Net Wealth

4. The Scope of Income Taxation

5. The Definition of Net Income

6. The Taxpaying Unit

7. Integration of the Personal and Corporate Income Taxes

8. Income Tax Administration

9. Income Taxation and Work Incentives

10. Income Taxation and Investment Incentives

11. Income Taxation and Corporate Financial Policies

12. The Incidence of Sales and Excise Taxes

13. Incidence of a Corporation Income Tax

14. Taxation of the Oil and Gas Industry

15. Taxation of Capital Gains and Losses

16. The Redistributive Effects of U. S. Taxation

17. The Structure of U. S. Taxation

18. The Income Sensitivity of U. S. Taxes

19. Value Added Taxation

20. Spendings and Net Worth Taxes

Mid-year Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY Department of Economics Economics 251

Fall 1964

Year-end Examination

Economics 251 Final Examination Spring Term, 1965

Ruth Wedgewood Doggett Kennedy c.v.

Obituaries.

From the Finding Aid for Kennedy Family papers, Smith College Archives.

Economic in the Rear-view Mirror’s “Believe it or not!”

Supplementary Statements from Winter Quarter 1955 in Griliches’ fellowship application for 1955-56

Zvi Griliches

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT “C”:

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT “D”:

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT “E” :

SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT “F”:

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND PLACEMENT

EDUCATIONAL REGISTRATION FORM

PERSONAL DATA

EDUCATIONAL AND RELATED EXPERIENCE

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

REFERENCES Instructors at the University of Chicago

INSTRUCTORS AT OTHER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTIONS

Graduate Programs in Economics
(1957, 1964, 1969)

1964 Turmoil Caught Kerr in Ironic Web
UC President, Skillful Negotiator, Unable to Settle Campus Strife Leading to Ouster

Enlarges Economic Courses.
University Offers New Opportunities for Students of Practical Business.
[Announced for 1903-1904]

Economics Course Offerings
[1904-1905]

Talk on the Balkans by Prof. Schumpeter
University of Gratz Educator Entertains Audience at National Museum

Balkan War Policy of Austria Defended
Prof. Schumpeter Says Nation Must Control of Principalities Along the Danube.
Great Britain is Criticised.

Predicts Third Balkan War.
Prof. Schumpeter of Austria, Is Pessimistic in Lecture.

Vienna Man at Madison.
Exchange Professor Studies Wisconsin Industrial Laws.

Professor Schumpeter has very busy two days here.
Austrian makes four addresses and attends several affairs.

“The Theory of Crises”at 4.30
March 16, 1914

Prof. Schumpeter Sails.
Says That America Made a Deep Impression on Him.

By Kathleen Maclay
30 March 2009

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251
Public Finance

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251

Economics 251
Final Examination
Spring Term, 1965

Ruth Wedgewood Doggett Kennedy
c.v.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND PLACEMENT

REFERENCES
Instructors at the University of Chicago

From the Princeton Alumni Weekly (1952)
Memorial

(FOR POSITIONS ABOVE THAT OF ASSISTANT)
TO BE TRANSMITTED TO THE DEAN OF FACULTIES

From Petition for Naturalization
September 17, 1942

Nobel Laureate John C. Harsanyi, UC Berkeley economist and game theory pioneer, dies at 80
11 August 2000

Selected Publications on Rule Utilitarianism
by John C. Harsanyi

Rule Utilitarianism and Decision Theory.
John C. Harsanyi