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Chicago. Jacob Marschak seeks job application advice, his c.v. and list of publications, 1939

 

The economic historian Earl J. Hamilton met Jacob Marschak in Santander, Spain in 1933  and the two remained in touch. In Earl J. Hamilton’s papers at Duke University’s Economists’ Papers Archives I found the following 1939 letter from Marschak that is immediately followed by a copy of his c.v. and publications list. Since Marschak was asking for advice for applying for a job at the University of Chicago, it is not unlikely that his letter included the c.v. and publication list, though perhaps those copies were given to Hamilton earlier at the meeting at a drugstore in Detroit that is mentioned in the letter. Maybe all the stations of Marschak’s career listed in his 1938-39 c.v. and the publications from his list are all long known to Marschak scholars. But it is faster for me to include the artifacts here than to double check what is already known from other sources. It is interesting to see that his self-advertisement includes the fact that he studied economics and statistics under Eugen Slutsky in Kiev.

___________________

Jacob Marschak’s New Year’s Greeting for 1939 to Earl J. Hamilton

422 Fredonia Avenue
Peoria, Illinois

January 4, 1939

My dear Hamilton,

It was good to see you and have a chat with you—although it was much too short. I hope we shall continue, either in Durham or in Colorado Springs—I am looking forward very much to either.

You have somewhat embarrassed me by making your suggestion about the Chicago post. On thinking it over, I become more and more positive although I don’t know whether there is the slightest chance. If you would now repeat your question “Would you like to be considered by the Faculty” I should reply less hesitatingly than I did in that Drug Store in Detroit. If you still think I shall not make myself ridiculous by following up this suggestion, what steps (active or passive) would you advise me to take? I feel rather lost, and should be grateful for any advice. My present position is Reader in Statistics, and Director of the Institute of Statistics, University of Oxford. My actual interests are centered in Economic Statistics, and in Economics.

I have been staying here with my sister and her family who arrived from Vienna in Summer and have settled here—my brother-in-law specializes in the smelting[?] industry and owned a big factory in Europe. He has to do quite heavy work here, but both he and my sister are very happy. As it is the first time I have been living in a private home in America, and as (according to psychoanalysts and other clever people) it is the childhood associations which count most and are the true pivot of our inner life, I begin to feel myself less of a stranger and am enjoying a good rest. This is a beautifully situated and tastefully built prosperous town (140,000 inhabitants) it looks as if it contains large reserves of happiness and peace.

I am going to Chicago to-morrow—to collect my sister’s children shipped by train from New York, and then to remain in Chicago for the rest of January, c/o International House, University of Chicago. The Rockefeller Foundation will also forward all my letters.

I hope you arrived home happily and made a good start in 1939, studying the Mississippi bubble, the Dutch language and hundred other things and teaching your men real economics. Please remember me to Oliver, and Caltwright[?] I don’t yet know her, to Mrs. Hamilton. Good health for 1939 even in spite of French, or Swiss, cuisine!

Yours J. Marschak

___________________

Curriculum Vitae
[Jacob Marschak]

Born in Kiev (Russia) on July 23, 1898. High school graduation (gold medal), 1915[?]. Studied mathematics and engineering at the Department of Mechanics, Polytechnical Institute Alexander II, from 1915 to December, 1918; also belonged to the School of Military Engineeering Crown Prince Alexis in summer 1917, and attended courses in economics and statistics (E. Slutsky) at the School of Economics in 1918).

Emigrated to Germany in January, 1919. Studied economics and statistics (L. von Bortkievicz) and philosophy in Berlin later in Heidelberg. Deprived of Russian nationality, 1920. Graduated for Doctor of Philosophy (summa cum laude) with a dissertation on the Equation of Exchange (Publication No. 1.) in Heidelberg, 1922. In Italy, January-June, 1924 (Publication No. 40). On the economic staff of the Frankfurter Zeitung, 1924-26. In England on a research fellowship of the Heidelberg University, 1926. At the Forschungsstelle fuer Wirtschaft, Berlin, 1926-28. At the Institut fuer Weltwirtschaft, University of Kiel, supervising a staff of fifteen research workers on behalf of the Economic Enquiry Committee of the Reichstag (Enquête-Ausschuss) and teaching (Repetent); also attached as a “permanent expert” (Staendiger Sachverstaendiger) to the Committee at its meetings in Berlin, 1928-30.

Acquired German nationality, 1928. Appointed assistant professor (Privatdozent mit Staatlichem Lehrauftrag) of the University of Heidelberg, 1930, teaching economic theory and economic statistics, and conducting research (until 1933). Delegated by the German branch of the International Association for Social Progress to the Liège Conference in 1930 (Theory of Wages). Lectured on the invitation of the Spanish branch in 1931. Lectured again in Spain at Santander in 1933.

Elected Chichele lecturer in Economics, All Souls College, University of Oxford, 1933. Deprived of German nationality, 1935. Elected Fellow of the Econometric Society, 1935. Elected Reader in Statistics and Director of the Institute of Statistics, University of Oxford, 1935. Attended the Research Conference on Economics and Statistics at Colorado Springs, 1937, on the invitation of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics. Lectured at the University of Amsterdam, Holland, 1938. Joint editor of the Oxford Studies in Economics and of the Oxford Economic Papers.

 

Publications

I. Economic Theory and Econometrics

  1. Verkehrsgleichung. Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft. Bd. 52. 1924.
  2. Wirtschaftsrechnung und Gemeinwirtschaft. Archiv f. Sozialw. Bd. 51. 1924.
  3. Die rebellische Konjunkturkurve (zu Karstens Hypothese). Magazin d. Wirtschaft. 1927.
  4. Consumption (Measurement). in: Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences.
  5. Elastizität der Nachfrage. Tübingen 1931 (Beiträge zur ökonomischen Theorie, herausgeg. von E. Lederer u. J. Schumpeter, Bd. 2).
  6. Thesen zur Krisenpolitik. Wirtschaftsdienst 1931.
  7. Der deutsche Volkswirt 1931.
  8. “Substanzverluste” (und: Berichtigte Schätzungen dazu) Archiv f. Sozialw. Bd. 67. 1932.
  9. Zur Rundfrage über “Substanzverluste”. Archiv f. Sozialw. Bd. 67. 1932.
  10. (with Walter Lederer) Grössenordnungen des deutschen Geldsystems. Archiv f. Sozialw. Bd. 67. 1932.
  11. Volksvermögen und Kassenbedarf. Archiv f. Sozialw. Bd. 68. 1933.
  12. Economic Parameters in a Closed Stationary Society with Monetary Circulation, Econometrica, 1934, Vol. II.
  13. Vom Grössensystem der Geldwirtschaft. Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft, 1933.
  14. Wages (Theory) in: Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences.
  15. On the Length of the Period of Production. Economic Journal, 1934.
  16. “Pitfalls in the Determinations of Demand Curves” (with Frisch and Leontief). Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1934.
  17. Kapitalbildung (with W. Lederer). Published by W. Hodge & Co., London, 1936.
  18. On Investment (mimeographed). 1935.
  19. Empirical Analysis of the Laws of Distribution. Economica, 1935.
  20. Measurements in the Capital Market. Proceedings of the Manchester Statistical Society, 1936.
  21. Limitations of Frisch’s “Consumption Surface” (reported in), Econometrica, 1937, p. 96.
  22. Influence of Interest and Income on Savings. Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, Third Annual Conference, 1937.
  23. Probabilities and Utilities in Human Choice (Published with No. 22).
  24. Assets, Prices and Monetary Theory (with H. Makower) Economica 1938.
  25. Money and the Theory of Assets. Econometrica 1938.
  26. Studies in Mobility of Labour: A tentative statistical measure (with H. Makower and H. W. Robinson). Oxford Economic Papers, No. 1, October, 1938.
  27. Studies in Mobility of Labour: Analysis for Great Britain (same author). In print for Oxford Economic Papers, No. 2.

 

II. Industrial Policy

  1. Die deutsche und die englische Elektrizitätswirtschaft. Der deutsche Volkswirt. 1926.
  2. Hohe Löhne und die Volkswirtschaft. Die Arbeit. 1927.
  3. Die Ferngas-Denkschrift. Der deutsche Volkswirt. 1927.
  4. Supervision of the Reports of the Investigations of the Economic Inquiry Commission of the Reichstag, 1928-1930, concerning the following industries: vegetable oils, margarine, gold and silver ware, watches, glass, china, other pottery, cosmetics, toys, leather, shoes, gloves. (Published Berlin 1930-1).
  5. Die Lohndiskussion. Tübingen 1930.
  6. Löhne und Ersparnisse. Die Arbeit. 1930.
  7. Das Kaufkraftsargument. Magazin der Wirtschaft. 1930.

34a. Problemas des salario (Sociedad para el progreso social. Grupo nacional español), Madrid 1931 (Nos. 32, 33, 34)

  1. Le problème des hauts salaires. (Additif au questionnaire de l’Association Internationale pour le Progres social. Les documents du travail, 1930 Paris).
  2. Lohntheorie und Lohnpolitik in: Internationales Gewerkschaftslexikon, herausgeg. von Professor L. Heyde. Berlin 1930.
  3. Zollpolitik und Gewerkschaften. Magazin der Wirtschaft 1930.
  4. Lohnsatz, Lohnsumme, Lohnquote und Arbeitslosigkeit, Soziale Praxis vom 14., 21., 28. April 1932.
  5. Sozialversicherung und Konsum, in: Volkswirtschaftliche Funktionen der Sozialversicherung. Berlin 1932.
  6. Der korporative und Hierarchische Gedanke im Fascismus. Archiv f. Sozialw. B. 51 u. 52 1924.
  7. (with Prof. E. Lederer) Die Klassen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt und ihre Organisationen. Arbeiterschutz. Grundriss d. Sozialökonomik IX, 2. Tübingen.
  8. (with Prof. E. Lederer) Der neue Mittelstand. Grundriss der Sozialökonomik IX, 1.
  9. Zur modernen Interessendifferenzierung. In: Soziologische Studien zur Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur der Gegenwart. (Festschrift für Prof. Alfred Weber). Potsdam 1930.
  10. Zur Politik und Theorie der Verteilung. Archiv f. Sozialw. Bd. 85, 1930.

 

Source:   Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence-Misc. 1930’s-1940’s and n.d.”.

Image Source: Carl F. Christ. History of the Cowles Commission, 1932-1952

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Pennsylvania. Ph.D. Alumnus, William H.S. Stevens, 1912

 

The following letter from E.R.A. Seligman that recommended the appointment of three young economists to junior positions in Columbia College for 1912/13 was the starting point for this post.  B. M. Anderson, Jr. and R. M. Haig were already well known to me.  The third economist, W. S. Stevens, was completely new however, even though I have become reasonably familiar with the comings and goings of people who had taught economics at Columbia during the first half of the 20thcentury. And so I went to work to figure out the future career (with respect to this April 23, 1912 letter) of Mr. W.S. Stevens.  My results are found below, following the letter and they present a teachable moment about the use of the subscription genealogical website ancestry.com in tracking down economists of yore. Incidentally many research and public libraries provide access to ancestry.com for their users. That site together with the digital archives of hathitrust.org and archive.org were used to follow this economist’s career. 

What did I learn from this exercise? Well, a reprint of a single QJE article represented a dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania in 1912. Also the life of an itinerant scholar is a real challenge to reconstruct, but especially for those cases when the absorbing state turns out to be a job outside of academia. An obituary or a tip from a death certificate pointing to the last employment is extremely useful should you be able to find one.

Incidentally, for those with more of a genealogical interest in this economist: W. S. Stevens was married three times: to Edyth Josephine Frost (1911-1922, divorce; one child, Joseph Libby Stevens b. 1913, d. 2000); to Mary E. Laird (1923-?); and to Rachel Bretherton (?-1966, died in 1966). 

_________________

Copy of Seligman letter recommending three instructional appointments to Columbia College

April 23, 1912

Mr. F. P. Keppell
Dean, Columbia College.

My dear Dean Keppel:-

I take pleasure in nominating herewith the following gentlemen for positions in the College:-

Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr., [A.B., Missouri, 1906; A.M., Illinois, 1910; Ph.D., Columbia, 1911] instructor, reappointment.

W. S. Stevens, Colby College, A.B., 1905; George Washington University, A.M., 1909; Chicago University, Summer, 1910; Cornell University, 1910-11; Chicago University, Summer, 1911; University of Pennsylvania, 1911-12; Fellow in Economics and Political Science, George Washington University, 1908-1909; Fellow in Economics, Cornell, 1910-1911; Assistant in Economics, Pennsylvania, 1911-12, lecturer in Economics.

R. M. Haig, A.B., Ohio Wesleyan University, 1908; A.M., University of Illinois, 1909; Secretary and Research Assistant to the Dean of Graduate School, University of Illinois, 1909-11; Garth Fellow, Columbia, 1911-12, lecturer in Economics. (Will receive degree of Ph.D. this autumn).

If there is any further information that I can give you about these gentlemen, pray command me.

Faithfully yours,

SE-S

Source:  Columbia University Archives.  Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman Collection, Box 36, Folder “Box 98A, Columbia (A-Z) 1911-1913”.

_________________

 

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
Publications

William Harrison Spring Stevens (University of Pennsylvania). The powder trust, 1872-1912. [cover: “Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1912. Reprint of QJE article].

William S. Stevens (William S. Stevens). The powder trust, 1872-1912. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 26, No. 3 (May, 1912), pp. 444-481.

W. S. Stevens (Columbia University). A group of trusts and combinations. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 26, No. 4 (August, 1912), pp. 593-643.

William S. Stevens (Ph.D. Columbia University), ed. Industrial combinations and trusts. New York: Macmillan, 1914.

William H. S. Stevens (Ph.D. Sometime Professor of Business Management in the Tulane University of Louisiana). Unfair Competition: A Study of Certain Practices. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1917. [Dedication: “To Professor James C. Egbert of Columbia University with pleasant recollections of my experience in administrative work as his subordinate”]

 

_________________

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
C.V.

Born April 15, 1885 [3, 4] in Eau Claire, Wisconsin [4]

Colby College, A.B., 1905 [1]

George Washington University, A.M., 1909 [1]

Chicago University, Summer, 1910 [1]

Cornell University, 1910-11 [1]

Chicago University, Summer, 1911 [1]

University of Pennsylvania, 1911-12 [1]

Fellow in Economics and Political Science, George Washington University, 1908-1909; [1]

Fellow in Economics, Cornell, 1910-1911 [1]

Assistant in Economics, Pennsylvania, 1911-12, lecturer in Economics. [1]

University of Pennsylvania. Ph.D., 1912 [2]

Instr. in econ., Columbia Univ., 1912-15 [2]

Prof. bus. management, Tulane Univ. of La., 1915-16 [2]

Special expert, Federal Trade Commission, 1917 [2]

Assistant chief economist, Federal Trade Commission [3]

Economist at Interstate Commerce Commission, 1942 [4]

Last occupation. “Dr. of Econ., Fed Government” [5]

Died September 14, 1972 in Alexandria Virginia [5]

Sources:

[1] Seligman letter (above) April 23, 1912

[2] General Alumni Catalogue, University of Pennsylvania, 1917, p. 474.

[3] World War I, Draft Registration Card. September 12, 1918.

[4] World War II, Draft Registration Card, April 27, 1942

[5] Death Certificate, State of Virginia September 20, 1972

_________________

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
Fun Fact: Son of the American Revolution

“John Boyes, my great grandfather, enlisted in April 1777 in the 6thCompany, 3d N.H. regiment; Daniel Livermore Capt., Alex Scammell Col. He served three years, participated in battles of Hubbardstown, Stillwater, first and second Monmouth and was in Gen. Sullivan’s expedition against the six Indian Nations (Iroquois). He was wounded in the arm at Stillwater and later was captured and transported to Limerick, Ireland, and thence to Mill Prison in England where he was confined for one year. He was honorably discharged after three years service, on April 6, 1790.”

Source: Application by William H. S. Stevens (September 24, 1962) for Membership in the Virginia Society of the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution. as great-grandson of John Boyes (27 September 1760 in Boston, died 2 May 1833 in Madison Maine).

Image Source:  William H. S. Stevens class portrait from the his college yearbook, Colby Oracle, 1906.

 

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Chicago Faculty Regulations

Chicago. Nominal duties of a Department Head (Chairperson), 1891-1910

 

The following letter (March 9, 1910) from the second President of the University of Chicago  (Harry Pratt Judson) to the first Head of the Department of Political Economy (James Laurence Laughlin) provided a list of the Duties of a Department Head that was apparently unchanged since the founding of the University in 1891. From the tone of the letter, it does not appear to be intended as a reminder as much as a slightly whimsical juxtaposition of historical expectations with (implicit) contemporary administrative realities. One wonders of course, which duties on that list were actually still in effect in 1910 and which new duties had become a part of the “custom of the manor” in the meantime. In an earlier post the 1892 regulations for graduate education at the University of Chicago, give almost the same list of Department Head duties, but it is not identical. In the 1892 regulations the authority to determine textbooks for courses was not listed and the duty to serve in the University Senate was added.

In any event, we see that the role of the department chairman (at least at the University of Chicago in its early years) had more of a Dean-like quality than Player-Coach quality observed in departments today. Executive Committees of senior colleagues serve as a check or balance with respect to the power of the departmental chairperson, a tenured senior colleague in the department. 

__________________

Biographical Note: James Laurence Laughlin

James Laurence Laughlin was born on April 2, 1850 in Deerfield, Ohio. In the fall of 1869 he entered Harvard College and was graduated summa cum laude in history in 1873. He continued the study of history under Henry Adams at Harvard. He also taught at Hopkinson’s Classical School in Boston. In 1876 he received his Ph. D. degree for his thesis on “The Anglo-Saxon Legal Procedure.”

In the fall of 1878 Laughlin was appointed instructor of political economy at Harvard. After receiving graduate training in economics, he was appointed an assistant professor at Harvard (1883-1888); during this period, Laughlin organized and sponsored the Political Economy Club. He also completed his History of Bimetallism in the United States in 1885. In 1888 Laughlin left Harvard and became president of the Manufacturer’s Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia. He accepted a professorship in Political Economy at Cornell University in 1890.

Two years later President Harper appointed Laughlin Head Professor of Political Economy at the new University of Chicago. At Chicago, Laughlin introduced the seminar as a method of instruction and founded the Journal of Political Economy. In 1894, Laughlin proposed that the University establish a School of Commerce and Industry. The new professional school, which began undergraduate instruction in 1898, evolved into the Graduate School of Business.

In 1916 Laughlin became Professor Emeritus. He moved to East Jaffery, New Hampshire, where he completed his Credit of Nations, published in 1918. He also wrote numerous magazine articles, largely on labor questions, including “Monopoly of Labor.” He died on November 28, 1933.

Source:University of Chicago Library. Guide to the James Laurence Laughlin Papers 1885-1914.

__________________

The University of Chicago
Founded by John D. Rockefeller
Office of the President

March 9, 1910

Dear Mr. Laughlin:-

I enclose copy of the original statute of the University, which has never been repealed, relating to the duties of Heads of Departments. This was printed in Bulletin #1, which we all read with so much interest at the opening of the University, and in accordance with which the original arrangements were all made. I thought you would be interested.

Very truly yours,
[signed] H. P. Judson

Mr. J. Laurence Laughlin,
The University of Chicago

 

Source:  The Library of Congress, Manuscript Division.Papers of James Laurence Laughlin. Box 1, Folder “1910: Miscellaneous Correspondence”.

__________________

From THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITY.

[…]

Heads of Departments, who shall in each case

(1) Supervise, in general, the entire work of the department.

(2) Prepare all entrance and prize examination papers, and approve all course examination papers prepared by other instructors.

(3) Arrange, in consultation with the Dean and with other instructors in the department, the particular courses of instruction to be offered from quarter to quarter.

(4) Examine all theses offered in the department.

(5) Determine, in consultation with the instructors, the text-books to be used in the department.

(6) Edit any papers or journals which may be published by the University on subjects in the department.

(7) Conduct the Club or Seminar of the department.

(8) Consult with the librarian as to books and periodicals in the department needed in the University and Departmental Libraries.

(9) Consult with the President as to the appointment of instructors in the department.

(10) Countersign the course-certificates in the department.

[…]

 

Source: Ibid. and University of Chicago. Official Bulletin, No. 1 (January 1891), p. 11.

Image Source:  J. Laurence Laughlin (standing left) and President William Rainey Harper (standing right) and John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (sitting, with top-hat) at the cornerstone laying for the University Press Building in 1901. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-05937, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

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Chicago. Friedman memo regarding Karl Bode and Moses Abramovitz, 1947

 

In the following 1947 memo from Milton Friedman to T.W. Schultz we can read two talent-scouting reports on potential appointments for the University of Chicago economics department. One candidate, Karl Bode had been vouched for by Allen Wallis, a trusted friend and colleague of Milton Friedman, but we can easily read Friedman’s own less than enthusiastic report on the meager published work examined, certainly compared to Friedman’s glowing report for his friend from Columbia student days, Moses Abramovitz. But comparing the publications listed in the memo, I certainly wouldn’t fault Friedman’s revealed preference for Abramovitz.

Abramovitz went on to have a long and distinguished career at Stanford and Bode left Stanford for government service with his last occupation according to his death certificate “Planning Director, Agency for International Development (A.I.D.)”

Since Karl Bode turned out to have cast a relatively short academic shadow, I have appended some biographical information about him at the end of this post. But for now just the vital dates: Karl Ernst Franz Bode was born November 24, 1912 in Boennien, Germany and he died March 18, 1981 in Arlington, VA.

__________________

Milton Friedman on Bode and Abramovitz

January 10, 1947

[To:] Mr. Schultz, Economics
[From:] Mr. Friedman, Economics
[Re:] Staff appointments

In connection with staff appointments, I thought it might be helpful if I put down on paper for you the information I have on two persons whose names I have casually mentioned: Karl Bode and Moses Abramovitz.

  1. Karl Bode (Assoc. Prof. of Economics, Stanford)

I know about Bode primarily from Allen Wallis. Allen considers him absolutely first-rate in all respects and recommends him very highly.

Bode, who is now in his early thirties, was born in Germany and, though Catholic of Aryan descent, and the holder of a highly-prized governmental fellowship, left Germany almost immediately after Hitler’s accession. He went first to Austria, then to Switzerland, where he took his Ph.D., in 1935, then to England, where he studied at Cambridge and at the London School. Bernard Haley met him while at Cambridge, was highly impressed with him, and induced him to come to Stanford, where he has been since 1937. He has been on leave of absence since early 1945, first with the Tactical Bombing Survey, then with the Allied Military Government in Berlin. He is expected back sometime this summer.

At Stanford, Bode is responsible for American and European Economic History, and, in addition, has taught advanced courses in Economic Theory. His original interest was in International Trade. He has a contract to write a text on Economic History, but I do not know whether on American or European Economic History.

I have obtained a list of his publications, most of which are fragments or reviews. Three of more general interest are:

(a) A. W. Stonier: “A New Approach to the Methodology of the Social Sciences”, Economica, Vol. 4, p. 406-424, Nov., 1937.

(b) “Plan Analysis and process analysis: AER, 33-348-54, June 1943.

(c) “A Note on the Mathematical Coincidence of the instantaneous and the serial multiplier”, Review of Economic Statistics, 26: 221-222, Nov. 1944.

I have read these. They are too slight to permit a reliable and comprehensive judgment about his capacities; but they are sufficient to demonstrate a clear, logical mind.

Allen tells me that Schumpeter, Haberler, Howard Ellis, and of course, the Stanford people all know him and could provide evidence about his abilities.

 

  1. Moses Abramovitz (member of research staff in charge of business cycle unit, National Bureau of Economic Research.)

Abramovitz got his bachelor’s at Harvard, his Ph.D. at Columbia. He has done some part-time teaching of Theory at Columbia. During the war he was with the Office of Strategic Services, where he worked on foreign economic conditions. He was a member of the reparations commission staff at both the Moscow and Paris Conferences.

Abramovitz and I were fellow graduate students at Columbia, and I have known him rather well ever since. I think him extremely capable, with an excellent mind, broad interests, and an extraordinary capacity for forming a sound judgment from conflicting evidence.

His academic and private research background is mostly in Economic Theory and Business Cycles; but the war years gave him a considerable background, and generated a real interest, in foreign economic relations.

Some of his writings are:

Selected Publications:

An Approach to a Price Theory for a Changing Economy, Columbia University Press, 1939.

Monopolistic Selling in a Changing Economy, Q.J.E., Feb., 1938.

Saving vs Investment: Profits vs Prosperity?Supplement on papers relating to the TNEC, Am. Econ. Rev., June, 1942.

Book on Cyclical behavior of inventories completed and scheduled to be published shortly by Nat’l Bureau of Economic Research.

M.F.

ab

* * * * *

PUBLICATIONS OF KARL BODE

A new approach to the methodology of the social sciences. (With A.W. Stonier): Economica, vol. 4, pp. 406-424, November, 1937.

Prosperität und Depression: Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, vol. 8, pp. 597-614, December, 1937.

Review of: Plotnik, M.J. Werner Sombart and his type of economics. 1937. American Economic Review, 28: 522-523, September, 1938.

Review of: Sombart, Werner. Weltanschauung, Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft. 1938. Ibid., 28: 766, December, 1938.

The acceptance of defeat in Germany: Journal of abnormal and social psychology, 38: 193-198, April, 1943.

Plan analysis and process analysis: American Economic Review, 33: 348-354, June, 1943.

Review of: Day, C. Economic Development in Europe. 1942:Journal of economic History, 2: 225-227, November, 1942.

Catholics in the postwar world: America, 71: 347-348, July, 1944

Economic aspects of morale in Nazi Germany: Pacific Coast Economic Association: Papers, 1942. pp. 29-34, 1943.

Reflections on a reasonable peace: Thought, 19: 41-48, March, 1944

Review of: Dempsey, B.W. Interest and usury. 1943: Ibid., 18: 756-758, December, 1943.

German reparations and a democratic peace: Thought, 19: 594-606, December, 1944

A note on the mathematical coincidence of the instantaneous and the serial multiplier: Review of Economic Statistics, 26: 221-222, November, 1944.

 

Source:Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 79, Folder 1 “University of Chicago, Minutes. Economics Department 1946-1949”.

__________________

Karl F. Bode
AEA 1969 Directory of Members, p. 41.

Bode, Karl F., government; b. Germany, 1912; student, U. Bonn-Germany, 1931-33, U. Vienna-Austria, 1933-34; Ph.D., U. Bern-Switzerland, 1935; Cambridge-England, 1935-37. DOC.DIS. The Concept of Neutral Money, 1935. FIELDS 2abc, 1c, 4a. Chief, Regional Organization & Program Staff, Intl. Cooperation Adm., 1955-60, asst. dep. dir. for planning, 1960-62; chief, Planning Assistance & Research Div., Agy. for Intl. Dev., 1962-67; dir., Research, Evaluation & Information Retrieval, Agy. for Internat. Dev. since 1967. ADDRESS Vietnam Bur., Agy. for Internat. Dev., Dept. State, Washington, DC 20523.

__________________

 Haberler Report of Mises’s Private Seminar

Regular participants of the seminar were several members of the Mont Pelerin Society – notably Hayek, Machlup, the late Alfred Schutz and in the very early days, John V. Van Sickle. Visiting scholars regarded it a great honor to be invited to the seminar – among them Howard S. Ellis (University of California), Ragnar Nurkse (late Professor of Economics in Columbia University, New York) whose untimely death occurred three years ago, Karl Bode (later in Stanford University and now in Washington), Alfred Stonier (now University College in London), and many others. There was Oskar Morgenstern (now Princeton University), the late Karl Schlesinger and Richard Strigl, two of the most brilliant economists of their time…the unforgettable Felix Kaufmann, philosopher of the Social Sciences in the broadest sense including the law and economics – he also wrote a much debated book on the logical foundation of mathematics – who after his emigration in 1938 joined the Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York where he taught with great success until his premature death twelve years ago.

Source: Mises’s Private Seminar: Reminiscences by Gottfried Haberler. Reprint from The Mont Pelerin Quarterly, Volume III, October 1961, No. 3, page 20f. Posted at the Mises Institute website.

__________________

 From the Preface of Felix Kaufman’s 1936 book

For the critical editing of the manuscript and of the galleys, I wish to thank most heartily a number of friends in various countries, expecially Dr. Karl Bode, presently of St. John’s College, Cambridge and Dr. Alfred Schütz of Vienna. Dr. Bode has also taken upon himself the great labor of preparing both indexes.

Source: Felix Kaufmann. Theory and Method in the Social Sciences. [English translation of Methodenlehre der Sozialwissenschaften. Wien: Julius Springer, 1936.] from Felix Kaufmann’s Theory and Method in the Social Sciences, Robert S. Cohen and Ingeborg K. Helling (eds.). Boston Studies in the Philosophy and  History of Science, 303. Springer: 2014.

__________________

 Reports from The Stanford Daily

The Stanford Daily, Volume 93, Issue 47, 29 April 1938

Several distinguished scholars from other universities will join the Stanford faculty next year…Dr. Karl Franz Bode, formerly on the faculty of St. John’s College, Cambridge University, England, was appointed assistant professor of economics to succeed Dr. Donald M. Erb who was appointed president of the University of Oregon….

 

The Stanford Daily, Volume 100, Issue 02, 23 September 1941, p. 1.

Econ Department Changes Classes… History of Currency Problems, 118, will he given in fall quarter rather than in the spring quarter. It is a five-unit course, taught MTWThF at 11 a.m. in Room 200Q by Karl F. Bode. Economics 1 and 2 are prerequisites….

 

The Stanford Daily, Volume 103, Issue 86, 28 May 1943, p. 1.

Wilbur Names New Faculty Promotions. Promotions and appointments of faculty members for the academic year 1943-1944 were announced yesterday by Chancellor Ray Lyman Wilbur. … Those promoted from assistant professor to associate professor are … Dr. Karl F. Bode, economics….

 

The Stanford Daily, Volume 111, Issue 20, 7 March 1947, p. 3

President Donald B. Tresidder yesterday announced 37 faculty promotions. The promotions include 11 faculty members to full professorships, six to associate professorships, and two to assistant professorships, together with promotion of 18 members of the clinical faculty at the Stanford School of Medicine in San Francisco….

To professorships … Karl F. Bode, in economics…

 

The Stanford Daily, Vol 119, Issue 7, 13 February 1951, p. 1.

Dr. Karl F. Bode, Stanford economics professor on leave for government duty in Germany, has been appointed deputy economic adviser, Office of Economic Affairs, it has been announced by the office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. Dr. Bode will be stationed in Bonn, Germany. He has been acting chief of the program division in the Office of Economic Affairs.

 

Image Source: Karl Bode from the 1939 Standford Quad.

Categories
Amherst Chicago Economists Harvard M.I.T. Placement

Chicago. Zvi Griliches asking Frank Fisher for junior appointment leads, 1961

 

In a 1961 memo Zvi Griliches reported to his Chicago colleagues some scouting results regarding a possible junior appointment in economics. He spoke econometrician-to-econometrician with his colleague Frank Fisher at M.I.T. about the most interesting graduate students in the Cambridge area on the job market that year. Four names were mentioned, two unsurprising enough were the names of economists “unable” to be drawn from the gravitational pull of Cambridge. 

Griliches ended his memo with the remark “This year Domar happens to be MIT’s ‘placement officer’ and this is likely to put us at some competitive disadvantage.” Does this mean that Griliches thought the monopsonist Evsey Domar would deliberately discriminate against the University of Chicago?

_______________

Four graduate students discussed by Zvi Griliches and Frank Fisher

Beals, Ralph E. Dept. of Econs. Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002. Birth Yr: 1936.  Degrees: B.S., U. of Kentucky, 1958; M.A., Northwestern U., 1959; Ph.D., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1970. Prin. Cur. Position: Clarence Francis Prof. of Econs., Amherst Coll., 1966.  Concurrent/Past Positions: Assoc., Harvard Institute for Int’l. Develop., 1973.  Research: Int’l. trade, commercial policy & industrialization in Indonesia.

[According to the Prabook website: Ralph E. Beals was Assistant professor economics, Amherst (Massachusetts) College, 1962-1963; associate professor, Amherst (Massachusetts) College, 1966-1971. ]

Hohenberg, Paul M. RPI, Dept of Econ, Troy, NY 12180. Birth Yr: 1933.  Degrees: B.Ch.E., Cornell U., 1956; M.A., Tufts U., 1959; Ph.D., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1963. Prin. Cur. Position: Prof. of Econs., Rensselaer Poly. Institute, 1977.  Concurrent/Past Positions: Vis. Assoc. Prof., Sir George Williams U., Montreal, 1972-74; Assoc. Prof., Cornell U., 1968-73.  Research: Urbanization & econ. change in Europe and U.S.

Marglin, Stephen A.  Birth Yr: 1938.  Degrees: A.B., Harvard U., 1959; Ph.D., Harvard U., 1965. Prin. Cur. Position: Prof. of Econs., Harvard U.

Temin, Peter. Mass Inst of Tech, Dept of Econ, Cambridge, MA 02139. Birth Yr: 1937.  Degrees: B.A., Swarthmore Coll., 1959; Ph.D., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1964. Prin. Cur. Position: Prof. of Econs., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1970.  Concurrent/Past Positions: Assoc. Prof., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1967-70; Asst. Prof., Mass. Institute of Technol., 1965-67. Research: Econ. history; telecommunications policy.

 

Source:  Biographical Listing of Members. The American Economic Review, Vol. 83, No. 6 (Dec., 1993).

_______________

Memo on possible appointments written by Zvi Griliches

November 8, 1961

[To:] A. Rees
[From:] Z. Griliches
[Re:] The possible appointments.

I had a long telephone conversation with Frank Fisher last week about “whom we should look at.” It is his opinion that the single best young man coming up now in the Cambridge area is:

Stephen A. Marglin—He is a mathematical theorist, with several papers to his credit. He has spent a year at Cambridge, England and is currently in his second year of a three year Junior Fellowship at Harvard. I had already invited him to give a talk to the workshop and he will be here on January 16 to talk on “The Social Rate of Discount and the Opportunity Costs of Public Investment.” Frank thinks that we would have a very hard time getting him, in particular for next year, but that he is clearly the best.

The best current MIT student that will be coming to the market is, in Fisher’s opinion:

Ralph Beals—who is a third year graduate student specializing in the fields of monetary policy and econometrics. He has been working with Solow and Albert Ando and his interests in the monetary area have appartently been stimulated by Solow’s and Ando’s involvement in the Monetary Commission stuff.

In addition, Fisher mentioned that there are also two ver good “economic historian types” finishing there this year:

Peter Pemin[sic, “Temin”]—who is working with Gerschenkron at Harvard, and
Paul Hohenberg—who is working withKindelberger on the sources of the econonmic development of France in the 19thcentury.

This year Domar happens to be MIT’s “placement officer” and this is likely to put us at some competitive disadvantage.

cc:       H. Johnson, M. Friedman, T. Schultz✓, G. Stigler, W. Wallis.

Source:  University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics Records, Box 42, Folder 3.

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

 

Categories
Chicago Problem Sets

Chicago. Henry Simons’ classic problem set, 1933.

Simons

 

According to Martin Bronfenbrenner, the following problem set devised by Henry Simons for Chicago undergraduates in 1933 was a pedagogical Meisterstück (ok, he just said “one of the most famous problems in economic pedagogy”). It is likely that Paul Samuelson, who considered Simons his best teacher at Chicago, cut his teeth on this problem set as well.

________________

Economics 65-165

M. Bronfenbrenner

A General Problem in Competitive Price

This problem was originally devised by the late Professor Henry C. Simons for Chicago undergraduate classes in 1933. It has lived on to become one of the most famous problems in economic pedagogy. Give yourself plenty of time to work with it. It is not only long but abounds in pitfalls.

There are 1000 firms in a highly competitive industry which produces a standardized product. Each firm owns and operates one plant, which is of the most efficient size. All firms have identical costs, as follows:

Output per week

Total Cost

Output per week

Total Cost

Fixed

Variable

Fixed

Variable

1

 $100 $10 13 $100 $101
2 100 19 14 100

113

3

 100 27 15 100 126
4 100 34 16 100

140

5

 100 40 17 100 155
6 100 45 18 100

171

7

 100 50 19 100 188
8 100 56 20 100

206

9

 100 63 21 100 225
10 100 71 22 100

245

11

 100 80 23 100 266
12 100 90 24 100

288

The demand curve for the industry is given by: pq = $255,000. Your first task is to make out a demand schedule, and incorporate it in your solution as Appendix 1.

Part i

Draw the supply curve (the sum of the marginal cost curves) and the demand curve of the industry on the same graph (Fig. 1). Read off the equilibrium price and quantity. Prove that your answer is correct by comparing quantities supplied and demanded at prices $1.00 higher and $1.00 lower.

Draw the cost and demand curves of the individual firm on the same graph (Fig. 2). Accompany both graphs (Fig. 1-2) with textual explanation of their construction and of any differences between them.

 

Part ii

Congress unexpectedly imposes a tax of $4.00 per unit on the manufacture of this commodity. The tax becomes effective immediately and remains in effect indefinitely. Assume:

a. No changes in the economic system other than those attributable to the tax.
b. No change due to the tax has any effect on the prices of productive services used by the industry. (This assumption will be dropped later.)

  1. Draw the new supply curve and the demand curve of the industry (Fig. 3). Read off the new equilibrium price.
  2. Draw the new cost curves and the demand curve of the individual firm (Fig. 4). Explain the construction of these graphs (Fig. 3-4).
  3. Why can the price not remain as low as $15?
  4. Why can the price not rise to and remain at $19?
  5. Precisely what would happen if the price remained for a time at $16?
  6. At precisely what level would the price become temporarily stable? What does it mean to say that this is an equilibrium level?
  7. Suppose the short-run equilibrium price to be $17. How would you answer the query:

“I don’t see why every firm should produce 15 units per day when the price is $17. It would make just as much if it produced only 14, for the 15thunit adds just as much to expenses as it adds to revenues.” Precisely what would happen if some firms produced 14 units per day and others 15 units?

  1. Would short-run equilibrium be reached at a higher or lower price (and with larger or smaller output) if the elasticity of demand were lower (less than unity? If it were higher (greater than unity)?
  2. What would happen if demand had an elasticity of zero? An elasticity of infinity?

 

Part iii

As Figure 4 will reveal, the new minimum average cost is $19. The short-run equilibrium price was $17; hence this industry becomes unattractive as an investment, relative to other industries. As plants are worn out, therefore, they will not be replaced; plants will be junked sooner; and even maintenance will be reduced. To simplify the problem, we assume:

  1. Each plant has a life of 1,000 weeks.
  2. The plants in the industry are staggered so that, at the time the tax was imposed, there is one plant 1 week old, one plant 2 weeks old, etc.
  3. At the time the tax was imposed, 20 plants were so near completion that it is impossible to divert them to other uses. These are completed at one-week intervals.

Hence for 20 weeks the price will stay at $17, and then rise gradually as entrepreneurs fail to replace worn-out plants.

  1. What will the situation be at the end of the 25thweek? (Answer in terms of “greater than” or “less than.”)
  2. When 120 weeks have passed (900 plants left), will the price be above or below $18? Explain carefully.
  3. How many weeks must pass (how many plants must be scrapped) before the price rises to $18? Explain precisely.
  4. Will the output per plant increase or decrease as the number of plants declines?
  5. When 220 weeks have passed (800 plants left), will the price be above or below $19?
  6. How many plants must be scrapped before the price rises precisely to $19?
  7. What would the price be if the number of plants declined to 750? What would be the output per plant? What would happen to the number of plants?
  8. What happens to the short-run supply curve of the industry as the number of plants diminishes? Draw, on the same graph (Figure 5), the supply curve when there are 1,000 firms and 800 firms. Compute elasticities of supply for these two curves at a given price.
  9. How could the process of adjustment, and the final equilibrium, be different.
    1. If the elasticity of demand were greater than unity?
    2. If the elasticity of demand were less than unity?
      (The significant points are: (1) price, (2) output per plant immediately after the tax is imposed, and (3) number of plants and total output at the new long-run equilibrium).

 

Part iv (Optional)

Finally, the prices of the productive services will be affected by the purchases of the industry. Some of the services will be specialized: Larger quantities can be secured only at higher prices, and smaller quantities can be secured at lower prices. Assume that all of these services are “fixed”, and that all variable services are unspecialized (i.e., any quantity can be secured by the industry at a constant price).

  1. Will the short-run effects of the tax be any different than they were in Part 2? Explain in detail.
  2. How will the long-run adjustment differ? Will the final price be more or less than $19, and the daily output more or less than 13,421? Again explain in detail.
  3. Suppose that a special and scarce kind of land is required for production of the taxed commodity, and that this land is not used (or within practicable limits usable at all) in the production of any other commodity, and that all other resources are completely unspecialized. What is likely to be the effect of the tax on the price of the use of such land (on its rent)?
  4. Suppose that this special and scarce land is also used in one other industry. Will the rent of this land fall more or less, if the demand for the product of this second industry is elastic or inelastic?

 

Source:   Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Papers of Martin Bronfenbrenner, Box 26, Folder “Micro-econ & Distribution, 1958-67, n.d. 2 of 2”.

Image Source:  Henry Calvert Simons portrait at the University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-07613, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

 

Categories
Chicago Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Graduate money reading list. Friedman, 1970

 

The following course outline with its readings is pretty much self-explanatory, though I cannot help but notice that there is quite a bit of Milton Friedman to read in Milton Friedman’s money course. It reminds me of the remark by Samuelson:

One must not make the mistake attributed to Edward Gibbon when he wrote his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon, it was said, sometimes confused himself and the Roman Empire.

_____________________

Milton Friedman

ECONOMICS 331—MONEY
Reading List—Winter Quarter, 1970

(Note: Readings marked with an asterisk (*) cover the essential substantive material.)

I. Introductory Material

*Milton Friedman, The Optimum Quantity of Money and Other Essays, (Aldine, 1968), Chap. 1.

*Milton Friedman, The Quantity Theory, International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (reprints on reserve).

David Hume, “Of Money,” “Of Interest,” in Essays and Treatises.

H. G. Johnson, “Monetary Theory and Keynesian Economics,” reprinted in W. Smith and R. Teiger (eds.) Readings in Money, National Income, and Stabilization Policy.

D. H. Robertson, Money.

II. The Quantity Equation

*Irving Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money (Macmillan, 1913), chaps. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8.

*J. M. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform (1924), chap. 2; chap. iii, sec. 1.

*Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, The Problem and Its Setting (New York, 1927), pp. 128-39.

*A. C. Pigou, “The Value of Money” in Lutz, F. A., and Mints, L. W. (eds.) Readings in Monetary Theory.

Alfred Marshall, Official Papers, “Evidence before the Indian Currency Committee (1889),” questions 11758-62 (pp. 267-69); “Evidence before the Gold and Silver Commission (1887-88).” questions 9629-86 (pp. 34-53); testimony to Royal Commission on The Depression of Trade and Industry (1886), answers to question 8(i), pp. 7-15.

Henry Thornton, An Enquiry into the Nature and Effect of the Paper Credit of Great Britain (1802), Library of Economics edition (Allen and Irwin, 1939), chaps. iii and xi.

Jacob Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade (Harpers, 1937), pp. 119-289.

III. The Demand for Money

*Phillip Cagan, “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation,” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, esp. 11, 25-35 and 86-91.

*Milton Friedman, “The Quantity Theory of Money: A Restatement” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, ed., M. Friedman.

*J. R. Hicks, “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Theory of Money,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

*H. G. Johnson, “Monetary Theory and Policy,” American Economic Review (June, 1962), Part II.

*J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, chaps. 13 and 15.

Maurice Allais, “A Restatement of the Quantity Theory of Money,” American Economic Review (December, 1966), pp. 1123-57.

W. J. Baumol, “The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (November, 1952).

Karl Brunner and Allan H. Meltzer, “Predicting Velocity: Implications for Theory and Policy,” Journal of Finance (May, 1963), pp. 319-54.

Karl Brunner and Allan H. Meltzer, “Some Further Investigations of Demand and Supply Functions for Money,” Journal of Finance (May, 1964).

Gregory C. Chow, “On the Long-run and Short-run Demand for Money,” Journal of Political Economy (April, 1966), pp. 111-31.

John V. Deaver, “The Chilean Inflation and the Demand for Money,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (The University of Chicago, Department of Economics, Winter, 1961).

Edgar Feige, The Demand for Liquid Assets: A Temporal Cross-Section Analysis (Prentice-Hall, 1964).

Milton Friedman, “The Demand for Money: Some Theoretical and Empirical Results,” Journal of Political Economy (August, 1959), pp. 327-51.

H. G. Johnson, “Recent Developments in Monetary Theory,” Essays in Monetary Economics.

David Laidler, “Some Evidence on the Demand for Money,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1966), pp. 55-68.

H. A. Latane, “Cash Balances and the Interest Rate—A Pragmatic Approach,” Review of Economics and Statistics (November, 1954) and (November, 1960).

Allan H. Meltzer, “The Demand for Money: The Evidence from the Time Series,” Journal of Political Economy (June, 1963).

Merton H. Miller and Daniel Orr, “A Model of the Demand for Money by Firms,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, LXXX (August, 1966), 413-35.

George R. Morrison, Liquidity Preferences of Commercial Banks (University of Chicago Press, 1966).

Joan Robinson, “The Rate of Interest,” Econometrica, Vol. 19 (1951), reprinted as chap 1 of The Rate of Interest and Other Essays.

James Tobin, “Liquidity Preference and Monetary Policy,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 19 (May, 1947), 130-31.

James Tobin, “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Toward Risk,” Review of Economic Studies (August, 1956), pp. 241-47.

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

Clark Warburton, “Monetary Velocity and Monetary Policy,” and Tobin’s rejoinder, Review of Economic Statistics, XXX (November, 1948), 310-17.

IV. The Supply of Money (covered mostly in Econ. 330)

*Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, “Appendix B: Proximate Determinants of the Nominal Stock of Money,” from A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960.

*H. G. Johnson, “Monetary Theory and Policy,” sec. 3.

Phillip Cagan, Determinants and Effects of Changes in the Stock of Money, 1875-1960 (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1968).

Phillip Cagan, “The Demand for Currency Relative to the Total Money Supply,” Journal of Political Economy (August, 1958).

William Dewald, “Free Reserves, Total Reserves, and Monetary Control,” Journal of Political Economy (April, 1963).

Milton Friedman, A Program for Monetary Stability, chap. ii.

A. G. Hart, “The ‘Chicago’ Plan of Banking Reform,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

A. J. Meigs, Free Reserves and the Money Supply (University of Chicago Press, 1962).

Lloyd W. Mints, A History of Banking Theory, pp. 9-12, 29-35, 217-22, 247-57, 265-87.

George Tolley, “Providing for Growth of the Money Supply,” Journal of Political Economy (Dec., 1957), pp. 465-85.

U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Systems Purposes and Function.

Knut Wicksell, “The Influence of the Rate of Interest on Prices,” Economic Journal, 171 (June, 1907), 213-20

V. Liquidity and Financial Intermediaries

*Phillip Cagan, “Why Do We Use Money in Open Market Operations,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1958).

*Roland N. McKean, “Liquidity and a National Balance Sheet,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

J. G. Gurley, “Liquidity and Financial Institutions in the Postwar Period,” Study Paper No. 14, Joint Economic Committee, January, 1960.

J. G. Gurley and E. S. Shaw, Money in a Theory of Finance.

H. Makower and J. Marschak, “Assets, Prices and Monetary Theory,” Readings in Price Theory.

Alvin Marty, “Gurley and Shaw on Money in a Theory of Finance,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1961).

Edward Simmons, “The Relative Liquidity of Money and Other Things,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

VI. The Monetary Standard and International Monetary Arrangements

*”Conditions of International Monetary Equilibrium,” Session at 1962 meeting of American Economic Association, with papers by H. G. Johnson, Richard E. Caves, and Peter B. Kenen, and Discussion by J. Marcus Fleming, Harry C. Eastman, and J. Herbert Furth, American Economic Review (May, 1963), pp. 112-46.

*Milton Friedman, “Commodity Reserve Currency” and “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” Essays in Positive Economics.

*Lloyd Mints, Monetary Policy for a Competitive Society, chaps. 4 and 5.

Frank W. Fetter, Development of British Monetary Orthodoxy, 1797-1875 (Harvard University Press, 1965).

Milton Friedman and Robert V. Roosa, The Balance of Payments: Free versus Fixed Exchange Rates, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1967.

H. G. Johnson, International Trade and Economic Growth, chaps. 6, 7.

H. G. Johnson, “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates, 1969,” Review of Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (June, 1969).

J. M. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform, chap. iii, secs. 2, 3, 4; chaps. iv and v (*especially chap. iii, sec. 2; chap. iv, sec. 2).

Egon Sohmen, Flexible Exchange Rates (University of Chicago Press, 1961).

VII. The Process of Adjustment: Inflation, Business Cycles

*Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, “Money and Business Cycles,” Supplement to Review of Economics and Statistics (February, 1963), containing proceedings of Conference on Monetary Economics. Also, comments by H. Minsky, A. Okun, and C. Warburton.

Phillip Cagan, “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation,” Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money.

Milton Friedman, Dollars and Deficits (Prentice-Hall, 1968), chaps. 1, 4, and 5.

Milton Friedman, “The Inflationary Gap,” in Essays in Positive Economics.

Milton Friedman, “The Monetary Studies of the National Bureau,” in The National Bureau Enters Its Forty-fifth Year, 44th Annual Report, National Bureau of Economic Research, June, 1964, pp. 7-25.

Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, esp. chapter 7.

Arnold C. Harberger, “The Dynamics of Inflation in Chile,” in C. Christ, et al., Measurement in Economics (Stanford University Press, 1964).

Eugene M. Lerner, “Inflation in the Confederacy, 1861-65,” Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money.

Clark Warburton, “The Misplaced Emphasis in Contemporary Business-Fluctuation Theory,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 55, Folder 7.

Image Source:  Milton Friedman (undated) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06231, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Chicago Faculty Regulations Texas

Chicago. Policies on faculty paid leave, trips to conferences, 1917

 

 

Regular paid sabbatical leave was not the policy of the University of Chicago at least up through World War I. Also faculty costs to attend professional meetings were not covered unless the faculty member was representing the University in some official capacity.

_____________________

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
AUSTIN

OFFICE OF
THE DEAN OF THE FACULTY

February 10, 1917

My dear Sir:

It would be of real assistance to us here in defending ourselves against attack if you would give me the practice of your institution on the following points:

  1. Leaves of absence with pay to members of the faculty.
  2. Appropriations to enable members of the faculty to attend meetings of learned societies.
  3. Appropriations for rousing the interest of the alumni.

I should greatly appreciate a prompt reply.

Very truly yours,

[signed, W. J. Battle]
Dean of the Faculty

President Harry P. Judson,
University of Chicago,
Chicago, Ill.

_____________________

Carbon Copy of President Judson’s response to Dean Battle

Chicago, February 15, 1917

Dear Dr. Battle:

Your favor of the 10th inst. is received. In answer to your questions:

  1. Leave of absence with pay to members of the faculty is given rarely, and only for a particular reason. These reasons are in some cases those relating to the health of the individual in question; in other cases relating to a special piece of scientific work to be undertaken.
  2. We make no specific appropriation to enable members of the faculty to attend the meetings of learned societies. Rarely a specific allowance is made in cases of meetings in which members of the faculty are sent to represent the University.
  3. We have some appropriations for the development of close relations between the alumni and the University. Money so spent is, I think, very wisely spent.

You are aware that our plan of organization contemplates four quarters in the year, and that any member of the faculty is expected to give instruction during three out of those four. He is allowed to give instruction during the fourth frequently, and such work may be credited as vacation, so that later the person in question may be absent on full pay for a considerable time.

Very truly yours,

H.P.J.-L

Dean W. J. Battle
The University of Texas
Austin, Texas

 

Source:   University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Judson and Burton Administrations, Records. Box 68, Folder 18 “Procedures, 1893-1917”.

Image Source:  Cobb Lecture Hall, 1917. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-02760, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Chicago Economics Programs Fields

Chicago. Memo to Dean from Chair of Economics. Strengths & Weaknesses, 1955

 

What I found particularly striking in the following memo, written by the chairman of the Chicago department of economics in 1955, is the number of fields in which the department saw itself weak or at least in need of support: labor, international, mathematical economics and econometrics, development, and industrial organization. Perhaps this was just a matter of administrative strategy, beg for assistance for five fields and hope to actually get assistance for three. That said, Schultz does not appear to be engaging in three-dimensional chess here. Will be interested in hearing what other people think about the this memo.

_______________________

Carbon Copy of Strengths and Weaknesses Memo
T.W. Schultz to Dean Chancy D. Harris

September 22, 1955

[To:] Dean Chancy D. Harris
[From:] Theodore W. Schultz
[Re:] Department of Economics

 

It may be helpful to have me briefly state the major elements of strength and, also, of weaknesses which I see in economics, in the hope that these notes may serve you as you prepare your presentation for the trustees.

Elements of Strength

  1. A comparatively young faculty strongly committed to research and graduate instruction.
  2. Research and related seminars are effectively organized as small scale enterprises:
    1. Workshop on Money
    2. Workshop on Public Finance
    3. Resources Research Enterprise
    4. Technical Assistance Studies
    5. Studies of Russia Agriculture
    6. Inventory Studies
  3. Satisfactory foundation support for some of the workshops and research enterprises now underway:
    1. Rockefeller Foundation supporting the money and public finance workshops.
    2. Resources for the Future supporting the resources research.
    3. Ford Foundation supporting the technical assistance studies.
    4. Also, for individual research, the Rockefeller Foundation support of economic history of Professor Hamilton.
  4. U. S. Government contracts and grants are proving satisfactory in financing some research:
    1. The inventory studies
    2. Russian agriculture work
  5. Financial support for competent advanced graduate students doing research is available from the several small scale research enterprises and, also, from SSRC (Griliches this year); from Earhart funds (Nerlove); and from corporations (Oi)
  6. Our new Ph.D. theses procedure is proving most effective in bringing student and faculty resources to bear on productive research.
  7. The new Economic Research Center of the Department is now proving important and necessary overhead facilities and services required by faculty and students working in the several small scale research enterprises.
  8. The new arrangements with the University Press to publish our Studies in Economics represents a major advance.
  9. The Journal of Political Economy continues strong as Prof. Rees and Miss Bassett take over.
  10. While we are not satisfied with the “quality” of many of our graduate students, we appear to be holding our own in a period when many averse factors are at work in lowering the quality of students in most branches, and also in economics generally as it appears.

 

Elements of Weakness

  1. Too many of the faculty are now in junior roles and there are too few major staff members on indefinite tenure in view of the fields of specialization in economics, the range and number of advanced graduate students, and the research work that is underway.
  2. With Professor Harbisons’s leaving and the non-functioning of the Industrial Relations Center in economics, our work in labor economics needs to be reorganized and strengthened. This replanning is now underway. Research resources are required: about $20,000 a year would be optimum.
  3. We are not prepared to serve adequately most of the many (representing about 30% of our graduate students) foreign students working in economics:
    1. Many of them should be in a modified Master’s program.
    2. Relevant research should concentrate on “developmental” problems.
    3. More effort is required to guide their work.
  4. The Department is now weak in International Economics because of the illness of Professor Metzler.
  5. The work in consumption economics has not been made as effective as it should be in bringing major graduate students into play in research.
  6. The reorganization and staffing of work in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics, with the Cowles Commission leaving, is unfinished business:
    1. Professor Hans [a.k.a., “Henri”] Theil is here this year as visiting Professor.
    2. Plans beyond this year await action.
    3. No research support at present for advanced students or for complementary staff in this important area.
  7. The broad area of Economic Development requires major attention and it should be placed high on our agenda as we develop plans and staff during the next few years:
    1. This area is needed to serve especially graduate students from foreign countries.
    2. The economic problems are important to the U.S. scene also.
    3. The Research Center for Economic Development and Cultural Change and importantly the “Journal” it has established need to be drawn into this new effort.
    4. Major new research resources are required.
  8. The long neglected field of Industrial Organization.

 

Some Concrete Steps

  1. To establish the work in Mathematical Economics about $20,000 a year will be required for a “professor” to head this work, for complementary staff, and related research.
  2. To establish the new enterprise now contemplated in Economic Development about $50,000 a year appears essential.
    In this area, a professorship, a visiting professor for each of the next several years, complementary staff, student research in a workshop and support for the Journal “Economic Development and Cultural Change.”
  3. Also in Labor Economics we need to move to a professorship and research support of about $20,000 a year.
  4. How to strengthen the work in International Economics must await developments affecting Professor Metzler’s recovery.
  5. There remains then the long neglected area usually referred to as Industrial Organization. Since no major individual has emerged here or elsewhere, we are compelled to “invest” in a younger person in breaking into this area.

 

Source:   University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics Records. Box 42, Folder 8.

Image Source:  T. W. Schultz, University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-07484, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Bibliography Chicago Columbia Yale

Chicago. French/German/Italian Public Finance Bibliography. Bloch, ca. 1944

 

The backstory to the following list of French, German, and Italian works on public finance that was given to students at the University of Chicago sometime in the early to mid-1940s is illustrative of the forensic effort to prepare such posts. 

Henry Simon Bloch (1915-1988)  was born in Kehl (Germany) and emigrated to the U.S. in 1937 after having received his doctorate from the University of Nancy for a dissertation on Carl Menger.  I ran across two bibliographies he had put together in the files of Robert M. Haig at Columbia University. Both cover letters were written by Bloch on University of Chicago economics department stationary. The bibliography transcribed for this post came without a date, but the course number and senior faculty member,  Simon Leland, were easy to confirm. Still, Bloch only appears once or twice in the departmental list of faculty (at the rank of instructor), but never actually listed as an instructor for Economics 360 “Government Finance”.    

Bloch left Chicago in 1945 about the same time that Oskar Lange did. Because Bloch wrote in the cover letter to the bibliography below that it hardly seemed as though four years had passed since he had visited New York and his other bibliography had been mailed in January 1940, it seems reasonable to assume that the today’s list was sent in 1944.

Last speculation: in the New York Times obituary linked above it mentions that Bloch was honorary associate fellow of Berkeley College of Yale University. Robert Triffin  was master of that residential college at Yale from 1969 until 1977. This likely connection is perhaps related to Bloch’s honorary doctorate from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles?

__________________

 Partial timeline
of Henry Simon Bloch

1915. Born April 6 in Kehl, Germany.
1937.  Dr. en Droit (Econ) at the University of Nancy with the dissertation La théorie des besoins de Carl Menger.
1937. Emigration to the United States.

University of Chicago

1938. Research assistant.
1941-42. Lecturer, Institute for Military Studies.
1943. Instructor economics, Institute for Military Studies.
1943-45. Research supervisor, Civil Affairs Training School (CATS) for Army and Navy Officers.

1945. Consultant, Foreign Economics Administration.
1945-46. Economist, Treasury Department.
1946. Member Treasury delegate for tax treaty negotiations, Treasury Department, France, United Kingdom, Benelux.
1947-49. Section chief, United Nations.

[gap to be filled]

1955. Visiting professor economics Yale University.
1955-62. Director fiscal and financial branch, United Nations.
1958-1959. Acting director, Bureau Economics Affairs.
1959-1962. Director, Bureau Technology Assistance.
1961-1962. Deputy commissioner for technical assistance, Bureau Technology Assistance.
1962-1966. President, Zinder International Ltd.
1967-1970. Vice-president, director, Engineer of Mines Warburg & Company, Inc.
1970-1975. Senior vice president, Engineer of Mines Warburg, Pincus & Company, Inc.
1976-1981. Executive vice president, Engineer of Mines Warburg, Pincus & Company, Inc.
1982-1988. Managing director, Engineer of Mines Warburg, Pincus & Company, Inc.
1988. Died in Manhattan, February 28.

Columbia University

Lecturer, 1955-1963.
Adjunct Professor law and international relations, 1963-1985.
Professor emeritus, 1985-1988.
Member international advisory board School International and Public Affairs, 1986-1988.

Source:   From the Henry Simon Bloch page at the Prabook website of biographies of professionals.

__________________

Budget and Appointment Recommendations 1944-45
February 21, 1944
Economics Department
Item 16

It is recommended that the appointment of Henry S. Bloch as instructor [10/1/1943-9/30/44, $3,600] be renewed [10/1/44 to 9/30/45, $3,600]. Bloch at present is devoting his time exclusively to the CATS program, where his salary is charged. Should that training program be liquidated, Bloch’s services can be transferred immediately to Departmental teaching, research, and assistance in advising students. During the past year such needs have arisen, but because of the demands of the miitary program Bloch has not been able to assist the Department in its civilian program. Attention is called to the fact that Bloch’s salary is on a four-quarter basis.

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

___________________

Course Description 1944-45

[Economics] 360. Government Finance. A survey course covering the main topics dealt with in standard treatises, but emphasizing analysis of the economic effects of various fiscal practices. Prereq: Two years’ work in the Division of the Social Sciences, or equiv. But: MWF 8; Leland.

Source:  Annual Register of the University of Chicago. Announcements: The College and the Divisions, Sessions of 1944-45. Volume XLIV, No. 8 (May 15, 1944), p. 279.

___________________

The University of Chicago
Department of Economics
Oct 1

Dear Professor Haig,

I thought this might be of interest to you. It is just a list for our students.

It seems as if I had seen you only yesterday and when I was out at Riverdale it seemed as if there had not been more than 4 years interval. It was so nice.

I assume that you met Oscar Lange in the meanwhile.

Regards,

Henri.

___________________

Economics 360
SELECTED LIST OF FRENCH, GERMAN AND ITALIAN WORKS ON PUBLIC FINANCE

by
S. E. Leland and H. S. Bloch

Authors of the French language group

Allix, E. Traité élémentaire de science des finances et de législation financière française, 4th ed., 1921. Paris, 1931.

Allix, E., and Lecerclé, M. L’impôt sur le revenu. Paris, 1927.

Colson, Clément. Les finances publiques et le budget de la France. Cours d’économie politique, vol. v (2d rev. ed.). Paris, 1931.

De Greeff, Guillaume. L’économie publique et la science des finances. Bruxelles, 1907.

Denis, M. H. L’Impôt sur le revenu. Brussels, 1881.

Garnier, Joseph. Traité de Finance, 3d ed. Paris, 1872.

Jèze, Gaston. Cours élémentaire de science des finances et de législation financière française. Paris, 1912.

__________. Cours de science des finances (Théorie de l’impôt). 1936/37.

__________. Cours de finances publiques. Théories générales sur les phénomènes financiers, les dépenses publiques, le crédit public, les taxes, l’impôt. Paris, 1931.

__________. Théorie générale du budget. Paris, 1922.

__________. Cours élémentaire de science des finances et de législation financière française. Paris, 1932.

__________. Cours de science de finances et de législation financière française. Technique du Crédit Public. Paris, 1923.

__________. «Le rôle du ministre des finances dans une démocratie, » Revue de Science et de Législation Financières, Vol. XXVII (1929), pp. 7-24.

__________. Le remboursement des emprunts publics d’état. Paris, 1927.

Jèze-Boucard, M. Éléments de la science des finances et de la législation financière française, 2 vols. 1902.

Leroy-Beaulieu, Paul. Traité de la science des finances. 2 vols. 1899.

Marion, Marcel. Histoire financière de la France, depuis 1715, 6 vols. Paris, 1914/1931.

Marquis de Mirabeau. Théorie de l’impôt. 1760.

Say, Jean Baptiste. Cours complet d’économie politique pratique. 1828-9.

Say, Léon. Les finances. Paris, 1892.

__________. Dictionnaire des finances, 2 vols. Paris : Nancy, 1891/1894.

__________. Les Solutions démocratiques de l’impôt. 1886.

Stourm, R. Cours des finances. 1906.

__________. Le budget. Tr. in English—The Budget. 1917.

Trotabas, L. Précis de science et législation financières. Paris, 1936.

Vauban. Dixme royale. 1707.

Walras, L. Théorie critique de l’impôt. Paris, 1861.

 

Authors of the German language group

Büsch, Johann Georg. Abhandlung vom dem Geldumlauf in anhaltender Rücksicht auf die Staatswirtschaft und Handlung. Hamburg, 1780. [2nd edition, 1800]

Cohn, Gustav. Finanzwissenschaft, 1889. The Science of Finance (tr. by T. B. Veblen). Chicago, 1895.

__________. System der Finanzwissenschaft. 1889.

Colm, G. Volkswirtschaftliche Theorie der Staatsausgaben. Tuebingen, 1927.

Eheberg, Karl. Finanzwissenschaft, 18th ed. Berlin, 1930.

Földes, B. Finanzwissenschaft. 1920.

Gerloff, W. Steuerwirtschaft und Sozialismus. Leipzig, 1922.

Gerloff, W., and Meisel, F. Handbuch der Finanzwissenschaft. Tübingen, 1926.

Goldscheid, Rudolf. Handbuch der Finanzwissenschaft. Tübingen, 1926.

Hock, Karl V. Öffentliche Abgaben und Schulden. 1862.

Jecht, Horst. Wesen und Formen der Finanzwissenschaft. Jena, 1928.

Jèze-Neumark, F. Allgemeine Theorie des Budgets. 1927.

Lindahl, E. R. Die Gerechtigkeit der Besteuerung. Lund, 1919.

Lotz, W. Finanzwissenschaft. 1917.

Mann, Fritz Karl. « Steuerpolitische ideale, » Finanzwissenschaftliche Forschungen. Jena, 1937.

__________. Deutsche Finanzwirtschaft. Jena, 1929.

Moll, Bruno. Lehrbuch der Finanzwissenschaft. Berlin, 1930.

Nebenius, Karl Friedrich. Der öffentliche Kredit. 1820.

Neumark, Fritz. Reichshaushaltplan. 1929.

Rau, Karl. Lehrbuch der politischen Oekonomie. 1826-37.

Ritschl, Hans. Theorie der Staatswirthschaft und Besteuerung. Bonn, 1925.

Sax, Emil. Grundlegung der theoretischen Staatswirtschaft. Vienna, 1887.

Schaeffle, Albert, E.F. Die Steuern. Leipzig, 1895.

Roscher, Wilhelm. System der Finanzwissenschaft. 1886.

Schanz, G. V. Der Einkommensbegriff und die Einkommensteuergesetze, Finanzarchiv. 1896.

Stein, L. V. Lehrbuch der Finanzwissenschaft, 4 vols. 5th ed. 1885/1886.

Sultan, H. Die Staatseinnahmen: Versuch einer soziologischen Finanztheorie als Teil einer Theorie der politischen Oekonomie. 1932.

Tehralle, Fritz. Finanzwissenschaft. Jena, 1930.

Teschemacher, Hans. Handbuch der Finanzwissenschaft. Tübingen, 1927.

Wagner, A. Finanzwissenschaft. 1889.

Wicksell, K. Finanztheoretische Untersuchungen. Jena, 1896.

 

Authors of Italian language group

Barone, Enrico. Principii di economia finanziaria. Rome, 1920.

Conigliani, Carlo. De diritto pubblico nei sistemi finanziari; Studi di teoria finanziaria; e’indrezzo teorico nella Scienza finanziaria. Turin, 1903.

__________. Le leggi scientiche della finanza. 1903.

Cossa, L. “Scienze delle finanze”—Translated excerpts, by H. White. Taxation: Its principles and methods. New York and London, 1893.

Del Vecchio, Gusatavo. Lezioni di scienze delle finanze, 2d ed. Padua, 1923.

De Viti de Marco. Il carattero teorico della economia finanziaria. 1890.

De Viti de Marco, Antonio. Principii di economia finanziaria. Turin, 1934. Translation: First Principles of Public Finance, by Edith Pavlo Marget. New York, 1936.

Einaudi, L. Corso di scienza della finanza, 3rd ed. Turin, 1914.

__________. Principii di scienza della finanza. Turin, 1932.

Fasolis, G. Scienza delle finanze e diritto finanziario. 1933.

Flora, F. Manuale della scienze delle finanze, 6th ed. 1921.

Graziani, A. Istituzioni di scienza delle finanze. Torino, 1897.

Griziotti, B. Considerazioni sui metodi; limiti e problemi della Scienze pure delle Finanze. 1912. Pp. 39.

__________. Principii di politica, diritto e scienza delle tinanze. 1929.

__________. Studi di diritto tributario. 1931.

Loria, Achille. The Economic Synthesis: A study of the laws of income. Tr. by Eden Paul. London, 1914.

Mazzola. Dati scientifica della finanza pubblica. 1890.

Murray, Roberto. Principi fondamentali di scienza pura delle finanze. 1914.

Nitti, F. S. Principi di scienze delle finanze, 5th ed. Rome, 1922.

Pantaleoni, Moffea. Teoria della pressione tributaria. 1887.

Pareto, Vilfredo. “I debiti pubblici dopo la guerra,” (Rivista di Scienze Bancaria—February-March, 1916), Fatti e Teorie, p. 57-62. Firenze, 1920.

Pugliese, Mario. L’imposizione delle imprese di carattere internazionale. 1930.

Ricca-Salerno, G. Scienza della finanze. 1888.

__________. Storia delle Dottrine Finanziane in Italia. Translated. Rome, 1881.

__________.History of Fiscal Doctrines in Italy. Translated. 1890.

Rignano, Eugenio. Social Significance of the Inheritance Tax. Translated by Wm. J. Shultz. New York, 1924.

Rignano, Eucenid. Una Riforma socialista del diritto successorio. Bologna. 1920.

Roncali, A. Corso elementari di scienza finanziaria. Parma, 1887.

Tangorra, V. Trattato di Scienza delle Finanza.

Vanoni, Ezio. Natura ed interpretazione delle leggi tributarie. 1932.

 

Source: Columbia University Archive. Robert M. Haig Papers. Box 16, Folder “Bibliography”.

Image Source: Social Science Research Building. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07466, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.