Category: Carnegie Mellon

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Carnegie Mellon Northwestern Suggested Reading Syllabus Theory

Northwestern. Reading list for advanced price theory. Mortensen, 1966

One of the 2010 Nobel prize laureates in economics, Dale T. Mortensen, was still a year short of his Ph.D. degree from Carnegie-Mellon University when he taught advanced price theory at Northwestern University. I recently found a copy of his course reading list in the Robert Clower papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers archive.

_________________________

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Department of Economies

Economics D-10
Advanced Price Theory
Mr. Mortensen

Fall, 1966
MW 3-5 P. M.

TEXTS:

Cohen and Cyert: Theory of the Firm
Hicks: Value and Capital
Samuelson: Foundations of Economic Analysis
Henderson and Quandt: Microeconomic Theory

  1. Introduction: The Role of Economic Theory

Lipsey and Steiner: Economics, Chaps. 2-4

*Cohen and Cyert: Chaps. 1-4

*Henderson and Quandt: Chap. 1 and Appendix

Samuelson: Chaps. 1-3 and Mathematical App. A

Allen: Mathematical Analysis for Economists, Chaps. 8, 10, 14

Yamane: Mathematics for Economists, Chaps. 3 and 5.

  1. Theory of Consumer Behavior

Stigler: The Theory of Price, Chap. 5

*Cohen and Cyert: Chap 5

*Hicks: Chaps. 1-3 [and/or] Samuelson: Chap. 5 [and/or] Henderson and Quandt: Chap. 2, pp. 6-32

Houthakker: “The Present State of Consumption Theory,” Ec. (Oct., 1961)

Becker: “Irrational Behavior and Economic Theory,” JPE (Feb., 1962)

  1. Theory of the Firm

Leftwich, The Price System and Resource Allocation, Chaps. 7-9

*Cohen and Cyert: Chaps. 6-8

*Hicks: Chaps. 6-7 [and/or] Henderson and Quandt: Chap. 3 [and/or] Samuelson: Chap. 4

Kurz and Manne: “Capital-Labor Substitution in Metal Machinery,” AER (September, 1963)

Dhrymes and Kurz: “Technology and Scale in Electrical Generation,” Ec. (Aug., 1964)

Walters: “Production and Cost Functions: An Econometric Survey,” Ec., (1963)

  1. Market Structure

*Cohen and Cyert: Chaps. 10-13

Henderson and Quandt: Chap. 6

Joan Robinson: The Economics of Imperfect Competition

E. H. Chamberlain: The Theory of Monopolistic Competition

William Fellner: Competition Among the Few

Martin Shubik: Strategy and Market Structure

Smith: “Effect of Market Structure on Competitive Equilibrium,” QJE (1964)

  1. Economic Efficiency

*Cohen and Cyert: Chap. 14 [and/or]  Henderson and Quandt: Chap. 7

*Samuelson: Chap. 8

Bator: “The Simple Analytics of Welfare Maximization,” AER (March, 1957)

Lipsey and Lancaster: “The General Theory of Second Best,” RES (1956)

  1. Special Topics

Cohen and Cyert: Chaps. 15-17

Henderson and Quandt: Chap. 8

Baumol: Business Behavior, Value and Growth, Chaps. 6-8

Simon: “Theories of Decision Making in Economics and Behavior Sciences,” AER (June, 1956)

Modigliani: “New Developments on the Oligopoly Front,” JPE (June, 1958)

Simon: “New Developments in the Theory of the Firm,” AER (May, 1962)

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Robert W. Clower papers, Box 4, Folder “Econ D-10, Exams, Outline”.

Image Source: Dale Mortensen’s senior year portrait from the 1961 Willamette University yearbook.

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

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.

___________________________

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.

___________________________

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

 

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Carnegie-Mellon. Economics of the Firm reading list. Richard W. Roll, 1967

 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that economists who were pack rats with respect to their professional and personal papers often provide a significant source of material from their colleagues. Martin Bronfenbrenner was one such paper hoarder. Whenever I stumble across an economist’s materials in someone else’s archival papers, I feel a disproportionate obligation to transcribe the stuff, since it is somewhat unlikely that a fellow historian of economics seeking material on economist X would search the papers of economist Y without having good cause. And so, stumbling upon the reading list for one of Richard Roll’s first Carnegie-Mellon courses in a folder of Martin Bronfenbrenner’s papers, I now add that course reading list below. 

Note: “GI” before the course number matches the course numbering for Carnegie Mellon seen in Bronfenbrenner’s papers, but 1968 is given in Roll’s own c.v. for the start of his assistant professorship there. This probably means he was initially hired as an ABD [“all-but-dissertation”] instructor and promoted upon the completion of the requirements for his Chicago Ph.D.

_____________________

Richard W. Roll

Born: October 31, 1939

1961, B.A.E. (Aerospace Engineering), Auburn University, 1961
1963, M.B.A., University of Washington
1968, Ph.D., University of Chicago

Ph.D. thesis. The Behavior of Interest Rates: An Application of the Efficient Market Model to U.S. Treasury Bills awarded the Irving Fisher Prize as best American dissertation in economics (1968).

 

1961-64 The Boeing Company, Seattle and New Orleans, Aeronautical Engineer

1968-73 Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Assistant and Associate Professor

1973-75 European Institute for Advance Studies in Management, Brussels, Belgium, Professor

1975-76 Centre d’Enseignement Superiéure des Affaires, Jouy-en-Josas, France, Professeur Associé

1976-2014 University of California, Los Angeles, The Anderson School
Professor of Finance, Allstate Chair, 1982-2002, Japan Alumni Chair, 2002-2011, Joel Fried Chair in Applied Finance, 2011-2014, Professor Emeritus, 2014-

1985-87 Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York, Vice-President and Director of Mortgage Securities Research

1985-2005 Roll and Ross Asset Management Corporation, Culver City, CA, Co-Chairman of the Board

1992-95 WP Capital Management, Greenwich, CT, Managing Director

2002 Visiting professor, Université de Toulouse, France

2003- Founder and Principal, Compensation Valuation, Inc.

2009-2012 Co-Founder and Research Director, Factor Advisors

2014- Linde Institute Professor of Finance, California Institute of Technology

 

1987, President, American Finance Association

Fellow, Econometric Society

Source: C.V. (July 15, 2015)

Fun fact:

At Boeing the early 1960s, Richard Roll worked on the Minuteman missile and the Saturn moon rocket.

Source: Richard W. Roll webpage (Mar 16, 2020) Caltech, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

_____________________

ECONOMICS OF THE FIRM

R. Roll
GI-351
Fall, 1967

TEXT: Kalman J. Cohen and Richard M. Cyert, Theory of the Firm: Resource Allocation In a Market Economy, (1965)

A mid-term exam of 1½ hours will be given the week of Nov. 4. One-fourth of the final grade will be based on the mid-term and three-fourths on the final. Problem sets will be distributed periodically. These are intended to guide you in assessing your performance and will not usually be turned in.

Readings in the list below are divided into three categories:

  1. No preceding symbol indicates a required reading.
  2. A preceding * indicates an optional reading.
  3. A preceding $ indicates material that Ph.D. students should know.

Most of the material uses basic mathematics. The non-mathematician can be helped immeasurably by referring to R.G.D. Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists. Students will find that a thorough reading of J. Johnston, Econometric Methods, complements this course and will also be of aid in future courses.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS
(books)

Armen A. Alchian and William A. Allen, University Economics, (2nd edition, 1967)

R. G. D. Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists, (1964)

William J. Baumol, Economic Theory and Operations Analysis, (1965)

Gregory Chow, Demand for Automobiles in the United States, (1957)

Joel Dean, Managerial Economics, (1957)

Milton Friedman, Essays in Positive Economics, (1953)

J. R. Hicks, The Theory of Wages, (1963)

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, (1946)

H. S. Houthakker and Lester D. Taylor, Consumer Demand in the United States, 1929-1970, (1966)

J. Johnston, Econometric Methods, (1960)

J. Johnston, Statistical Cost Analysis (1960)

Richard H. Leftwich, The Price System and Resource Allocation, (1960)

Edwin Mansfield, Managerial Economics and Operations Research, (1966)

Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, Ninth (Variorum ) edition, (1961)

James Quirk and Rubin Saposnik, Introduction to General Equilibrium Theory and Welfare Economics, (1968)

Paul A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, (1963)

Ezra Solomon, The Management of Corporate Capital, (1959)

Milton H. Spencer and Louis Siegelman, Managerial Economics, (1964)

George J. Stigler, Essays in the History of Economics, (1965)

George J. Stigler, The Theory of Price, (1967)

Leon Walras, Elements of Pure Economics, (1954)

Leonard Weiss, Case Studies in American Industry, (1967)

John Kenneth Galbraith, The New Industrial State, (1967)

 

PERIODICALS

American Economic Review, (December, 1948), (June, 1964)

American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, (May, 1954) (June, 1958) (May, 1961)

Journal of Business, (October, 1955) (April, 1965)

Journal of Political Economy, (April, 1954) (Feb, 1957) (August, 1958)

Quarterly Journal of Economics, (August, 1967)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

  1. Introduction to the Economic Problem, Resource Allocation

Text, Ch. 1
*Leftwich, pp. 1-22.

  1. The Methodology of Model Building

Marshall, pp. 29-37.

Text, Ch. 2
*$ “The Methodology of Positive Economics” in Friedman
*J. Johnston, Econometric Methods, pp. 3-39. (This reading requires an elementary knowledge of probability).

  1. The Fundamentals, Supply and Demand
    1. Price determination under perfect competition.

Text, ch. 4

*Weiss, “Pure Competition and Agriculture”, pp. 19-50
*Alchian and Allen, ch. 7
$George Stigler, “Perfect Competition, Historically Contemplated”, Journal of Political Economy, (Feb., 1957), reprinted in George J. Stigler, Essays…
*An example of model building and demand analysis, Gregory Chow, Demand for Automobiles in the United States

    1. Theory of Cost and Production
      1. Alternative costs

Stigler, Theory of Price, ch. 6

*W. Lee Hansen and Burton A. Weisbrod, “Economics of the Military Draft”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, (August 1967) Mimeographed copies on reserve.

      1. Theory of Production

Text, chs. 6-8

$Marshall, pp. 337-380
*Stigler, Theory of Price, chs. 7-8
$Samuelson, Foundations, ch. IV

      1. Estimating Cost Curves

Johnston, Statistical Cost Analysis, pp. 26-73

*Joel Dean, pp. 278-347
*Johnston, Statistical…pp. 136-194
$Apel, “Marginal Cost Constancy and its Implications”, American Economic Review, December, 1948

      1. Temporal cost allocation

Alchian and Allen, chs. 13-14

    1. Theory of Consumer Demand
      1. Utility Theory

Text, pp. 65-83

$J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, chs. I-III

      1. Estimating Demand Curves

Text, pp. 83-87

*Stigler, “The Early History of Empirical Studies of Consumer Behavior”, J.P.E., (April, 1954), reprinted in Essays in the History…
*Joel Dean, “Estimating the Price Elasticity of Demand”, in his Managerial Economics, pp. 180-191. Reprinted in Mansfield, pp. 55-65.
*E.S. Houthakker and Lester D. Taylor, pp. 5-29, ch.4 presents estimated demand curves for 84 categories of personal consumption expenditures.

  1. Monopoly and Oligopoly
    1. Theory
      1. Monopoly

Text, ch. 10, pp. 187-200
Alchian and Allen, ch. 17

*Stigler, Theory of Price, ch. 11
*Galbraith, pp. 166-218

      1. Oligopoly

Stigler, Theory of Price, chs. 12-13

*Text, ch. 12

    1. Cases of monopoly

Text, pp. 200-203
Weiss, ch. 4

*Arnold C. Harberger, “Monopoly and Resource Allocation”, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, (May, 1954)

    1. Pricing and Advertising
      1. *Rules of thumb — Joel Dean, pp. 427-467
      2. $Peak-Load Pricing — Jacques Dreze, “Some Postwar Contributions of French Economists”, American Economic Review, (June, 1964), pp. 8-27. This article is bound in the back of the AER, Vol. 54, part 2.
      3. Advertising

Lester G. Telser, “How Much Does It Pay Whom to Advertise”, American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 1961, pp. 194-205

*Kristian S. Palda, “The Measurement of Cumulative Advertising Effects”, Journal of Business, (April, 1965)

  1. Demand and Supply of Productive Services
    1. Theory

Stigler, Theory of Price, ch. 14
Text, Ch. 13

*Marshall, pp. 381-393

    1. Capital

Stigler, Theory of Price, ch. 17
Ezra Solomon, “Measuring a Company’s Cost of Capital”, Journal of Business, (October, 1955) reprinted in The Management of Corporate Capital, Ezra Solomon, ed.

$ Jack Hirshleifer, “On the Theory of Optimal Investment Decision,” Journal of Political Economy, (August, 1958) reprinted in Solomon
$Fraco Modigliani and Merton H. Miller, “The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment”, American Economic Review, (June, 1958) reprinted in Solomon

    1. Labor

Alchian and Allen, ch. 20

*Weiss, ch. 6
$Hicks, Theory of Wages, ch. I-III
*Alchian and Allen, ch. 21

  1. General Equilibrium, Welfare Economics and Government Participation in the Market Place

Baumol, ch. 13
Alchian and Allen, ch. 24
*Text, chs. 9, 14
$Walras, pp. 153-172
$Quirk and Saposnik, ch. 2
*Weiss, Ch. 3

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Martin Bronfenbrenner. Box 25, Folder “Micro-econ and Distribution 1 of 2, 1966-1971, n.d.”.

Image Source: Richard Roll in the Auburn University Yearbook, 1960 Glomerata, p. 134