Category: Chicago

Marxian economics. Letter exchange of Konüs and Bronfenbrenner, 1966

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-03-06

Today’s post is a touching reunion after some thirty years of the minds of the American economist, Martin Bronfenbrenner (Chicago Ph.D., 1939) and the Russian mathematical economist Alexander A. Konüs. As far as I know these two scholars never actually met. The first time Bronfenbrenner encountered work of Konüs was in helping to prepare a translation of a 1924 paper by Konüs written in Russian that Henry Schultz was interested in. That paper, but especially its translation that was published in Econometrica in 1939 after Schultz’s death, has become one of the classics in the theory of cost of living indexes. The winding path of the paper from the Moscow Economic Bulletin of the Institute of Economic Conjuncture to Econometrica is described in Schultz’s introduction:

Konüs paper was published in Russian in 1924, and thus far our only knowledge of it has been the incidental, though appreciative, observations regarding it in Bortkiewicz‘s review of Haberler‘s book on index numbers published in 1928. It is this inadequate summary of Bortkiewicz which Staehle used in 1934 in his important work on international comparisons of cost of living and which constitute a point of departure for his own researches.

From my first reading of Dr. Staehle’s manuscript I got the feeling that there was more to the Konüs condition than was evident from the Staehle-Bortkiewicz statement of it, but could not afford the time to look into the matter. In 1934-35, however, I was called upon to prepare a few lectures on the bearing of the modern theory of utility and exchange on the problem of index numbers, and I decided to look into the original paper by Konüs. Not being able to read Russian, I had a translation prepared of it which has been used in my classes since then.*

*I am grateful to the following graduate students for their reports on various aspects of index-number theory: Miss Fredlyn Ramsey, Mr. Orvis Schmidt, Mr. Martin Bronfenbrenner, Mr. Jacob L. Mosak, and Mr. H. Gregg Lewis.

Source: Henry Schultz, A Misunderstanding in Index-Number Theory: The True Konüs Condition on Cost-of-Living Index Numbers and Its Limitations, Econometrica, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan., 1939), pp. 1-9.

Some three decades later, Bronfenbrenner and Konüs exchanged letters on the subject of modern adaptations of Marxian economic theory and Martin Bronfenbrenner reveals some of his family history.

_____________

Letter from Alexander Konüs to Martin Bronfenbrenner
7 July 1966

Dear Professor Bronfenbrenner,

It was a pleasure for me to know that the author of the pro-marxist article in the “American economic review” with the significant subtitle “Cuius regio eius religio” (translation: the religion of the ruler of the realm is the religion of the realm) [“Notes on Marxian Economics in the United States” AER Dec. 1964 ] is the praticipator [sic] of the excellent translation into English of my paper of 1924. I am greatly indebted for this translation to you and to Dr. Jacques Bronfenbrenner.

Your article “A macroeconomic translation of capital”, the reprint of which I received with gratitude, and the article “The Marxian macroeconomic model” in “KYKLOS”, vol. XIX-1966-Fasc. 2, are very interesting and important. I have delayed to communicate you my comments because I thought that my attitude to some points of your paper is obvious from the “Notes to articles by L. Johansen “Labour theory of value and marginal utilities” the reprint of which I sent you (“Economic of planning”, vol. 4, N 3, 1964).

As you could see in my “Notes” the problem is not the “translation” of the “Capital” but rather the “revision” of the 3-d volume to some degree from the point of view of modern economics.

The first key stone of this “revision” was laid by L.v.-Bortkiewicz in his “Zur Berichtigung der grundlegenden theoretischen Konstruction von Marx im dritten Band des “Kapital” (“Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik”, III Folge, B. 34, H. 3, 1907). [English Translation] The main assertion of Marxist labour theory of value is: “the sum of the profits in all spheres of production must equal the sum of the surplus values and the sum of the social product equals the sum of its value” (“Capital”, vol. 3, ch. X). So Bortkiewicz has proved that this assertion is valid only in the case when organic composition of advanced capital is the same in all departments and when consequently the prices coincide with values.

Bortkiewicz’s conclusion is considered, for example by Hans Peter (“grundprobleme der theoretischen Nationalökonomie”, 1933), as the failure of the labour theory of value. As to me I should like to attract the attention to the fact that Marx himself did not publish the theory of prices of production (although he assumed it more than twenty years) because he did not think this theory sufficiently perfect.

The new approach developed in my “Notes to the article by L. Johansen “ is cleared up if we will take into consideration the supposition in one of the models of professor Michio Morishima: “…capital goods are not subject to purchase and sale, only their services being traded on the market” (Equilibrium Stability and Growth”, 1964, p. vii).

Then instead of “depreciation of fixed capital instruments involved in producing W´´ the constant part of advanced capital C in your equations must include the rents paid for the use of durable capital goods as the prices of these goods compared with their values.

Consequently the source of the profit of the owners of buildings and machinery is in the surplus labour spent during their production (the conditions of reproduction are implied).

The main thing is that the exchange value of a commodity is realized not in its sale but in the process of realization of its use value, i.e. in its consumption.

Another basic conception is that the organic composition of advanced capital is not dependent on its technical composition but it is affected by economic considerations.

The equality of values and prices follows immediately from your equations based on Marx’s transformation:

(1) ${{w}_{1}}={{c}_{1}}+{{v}_{1}}+{{s}_{1}}\text{ ;}$ (2) ${{w}_{2}}={{c}_{2}}+{{v}_{2}}+{{s}_{2}}\text{ ;}$

(3) ${S}'=\frac{{{s}_{1}}}{{{v}_{1}}}=\frac{{{s}_{2}}}{{{v}_{2}}}\text{ ;}$ (4) ${P}'=\frac{{{s}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}}{{{c}_{1}}+{{v}_{1}}}=\frac{{{s}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}}{{{c}_{2}}+{{v}_{2}}}\text{ ;}$

— if we add to them the well-known equations which tie together the rate of profit (P´) with your expressions of return of capital (s₁p₁, s₂p₂) and of the price of production (w₁p₁, w₂p₂):

${{s}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}=\frac{{{w}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}}{\left( 1+P \right)}{P}'\text{ ;}$ ${{s}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}=\frac{{{w}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}}{\left( 1+P \right)}{P}'\text{ .}$

Therefore Hans Peter and Paul Sweezy, following Bortkiewicz, reject Marx’s reasoning. For example Sweezy writes:

“The source of Marx’s error is not difficult to discover. In his price scheme the capitalist’s outlays on constant and variable capital are left exactly as they were in value scheme, in other words, the constant capital and the variable capital used in production are still expressed in value terms. Outputs, on the other hand, are expressed in price terms. Now it is obvious that in a system in which price calculation is universal both the capital used in production and the product itself must be expressed in price terms. The trouble is that Marx went only half way in transforming values into prices”. (The theory of capitalist development, 1942, p. 115).

The right transformation of values into prices according to Bortkiewicz will be as follows.

The equations (1), (2), (3) and, instead of (4),

(4´) $1+{P}'=\frac{{{w}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}}{{{c}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}+{{v}_{1}}{{p}_{2}}}=\frac{{{w}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}}{{{c}_{2}}{{p}_{1}}+{{v}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}}\text{ ;}$

besides that:

(5) ${{w}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}+{{w}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}={{w}_{1}}+{{w}_{2}}\text{ ,}$ and

(6) ${{w}_{1}}={{c}_{1}}+{{c}_{2}},\text{ }\left( {{w}_{2}}={{v}_{1}}+{{v}_{2}}+{{s}_{1}}+{{s}_{2}} \right)\text{ .}$

But in this case also the prices will be equal to values if we add the above mentioned fundamental equality of Marx’s labour theory of value :

(7) $\left( {{c}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}+{{v}_{1}}{{p}_{2}} \right)\cdot {P}'+\left( {{c}_{2}}{{p}_{1}}+{{v}_{2}}{{p}_{2}} \right)\cdot {P}'={{s}_{1}}+{{s}_{2}}\text{ .}$

Indeed, it follows from (4´), (7) and (3):

$\frac{{{w}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}}{{{c}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}+{{v}_{1}}{{p}_{2}}}=\frac{{{w}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}}{{{c}_{2}}{{p}_{1}}+{{v}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}}=\frac{{{v}_{1}}{s}'+{{v}_{2}}{s}'}{{{c}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}+{{v}_{1}}{{p}_{2}}+{{c}_{2}}{{p}_{1}}+{{v}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}}+1\text{ ,}$

${{w}_{1}}{{p}_{1}}+{{w}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}=\left( {{v}_{1}}+{{v}_{2}} \right){s}'+\left( {{c}_{1}}+{{c}_{2}} \right){{p}_{1}}+\left( {{v}_{1}}+{{v}_{2}} \right){{p}_{2}}\text{ ,}$

taking into account (6) and (3) we get

${{w}_{2}}{{p}_{2}}=\frac{{{w}_{2}}}{{s}'+1}\left( {s}'+{{P}_{2}} \right)\text{.}$

Hence p₂ = 1, and from (5) we get p₁ = 1.

The observed variation in organic composition of the advanced capital (c/v; c + v + s = w) is engendered by the various periods of its circulation and by the presence of the differential rent, in accordance with the labour theory of value.

In the econometric literature there are many assertions that an optimal state of economy requires the proportionality of prices of consumer goods to their values, i.e. to the amounts of labour necessary to produce them. The first author to state this idea was the Russian mathematician N. Stolarof. He published in 1902 the pamphlet: “Démonstration analytique de la formule économique: Les degrés finals de l’utilité (des products librément crées) son proportionnel à la valeur du travail” (Kiev, in Russian). Other references are in Eberkard Fells’s article “Some Soviet statistical books of 1957” (Journal of the American statistical association, v. 54, N 285, March, 1959”).

It is to be noted that there are two limitations arising from the assumption accepted in that demonstration.

First, it is impossible to determine the amounts of labour in the commodities the production of which is tied together, for example—the grain and the straw. Only the sum of their prices can be compared with the total amount of labour necessary to produce them. That is the case of the famous example of Böhm-Bawerk about the prices of new and matured wine. The labour on the vineyard is spent to produce the new and the matured wine together. The prices of these kinds of wine are proportional to their marginal utilities.

Secondly, the prices of the commodities satisfying the same needs, for example—coal and petroleum, are not mutually independent. Only the sum of the prices of the petroleum and the coal must be compared with the total amount of labour spent on the production of fuel. Here arises the phenomenon of the differential rent in oil-extracting industry.

The theory I have developed since 1929 (first publication in 1949) does not find any supporters. I think it is essentially in accordance with your ideas. Any comments and criticism will be very valuable for me.

With best wishes,

Sincerely yours [signed, A. A. Konüs] /Konüs A.A./

VII.1966

_____________

Carbon copy of letter from Bronfenbrenner to Konüs
18 August, 1966

August 18, 1966

Dr. A. A. Konüs
Box 1587, Moscow Central P.O.
Moscow, USSR

Dear Dr. Konüs:

It has indeed been a pleasure to hear from you, and to learn the extent to which our respective “modernizations” of the Marxian system overlap. I hesitate even to consider our remaining differences, since you know the Marxian literature so much better than I. On the issue of “what Marx really meant” I tend to assume, in the difficult cases, that he meant different things at different stages of his thinking, and that the important issue is what he should have meant, i.e., how can one make sense most readily from his incomplete literary remains, and how might a younger Marx have made use of modern economics.

I am likewise overwhelmed by your ability to keep up with “bourgeois” economic literature at the “Morishima” level of difficulty, in a foreign language into the bargain. You must be over 70 years of age, a time when 99.9 percent of scholars feel exempted from the labor of learning anything new. (I long for such an exemption already, and I am 20 years younger!)

Since my late father (a bacteriologist) [Jacques Jacob Bronfenbrenner] and I collaborated in translating your seminal index-number article for Econometrica [The Problem of the True Index of the Cost of Living (January 1939)] nearly 30 years ago, perhaps you would enjoy hearing some our family legends:

My father was born in Odessa; my grandfather was a chemist at one of the waterfront flour mills. During the 1905 Revolution, my father and two of his brothers engaged in liaison activity between student revolutionary groups and the Potemkin sailors. During the subsequent reaction, my grandfather was shot. My father managed to escape to Paris after two years in hiding, and one uncle escaped from a ship en route to Siberia. My father became an American citizen shortly before the first World War; my uncle became a French citizen and lives near Paris. My late grandmother, a nurse, remained in Russia. She was head of a Red Army hospital during the doctor shortage of the Civil War. My late aunt, who also remained in Russia, died during the German siege of Leningrad in 1941. A second uncle emigrated to America during the famine years of 1920-21, and died last year.

An unusually wide range of political and economic views were represented by my Russian relatives. My grandmother was a good Stalinist. My uncles, repelled by the Terror, were a-political, but generally hostile to the Soviet Government. My father was a Social Revolutionary (SR) in his youth; later, he became a follower of Kerensky; in this country, he was a Roosevelt Democrat. His economics was “maximalist.” He believed there would be no economic problem in a well-run peaceful society. (All goods people “really” wanted could be free, and produced with relatively few years of compulsory labor service.) I should describe myself as a confused and imperfectly-consistent eclectic—considerably more “bourgeois” than Marxist, in my own view.

My mother was not of Russian descent. The family’s only common language was English. I had no opportunity to study Russian, and speak no Russian whatever. My cousin [Urie Bronfenbrenner, 2005 obituary in the New York Times], on the other hand, grew up in a Russian-speaking household. He speaks the language fluently, and does liaison work between Soviet and American workers in his specialty (psychology). I have often felt some jealousy at this superior opportunities.

Sincerely yours,

Martin Bronfenbrenner
Visiting Fellow

MB:has

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Project. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 7, Folder “Marxian Distribution Theory, n.d.”.

Tags Bronfenbrenner, Konüs

Chicago Columbia Economists Yale

Yale. James Tobin on Freedom to Friedman in 1964

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-03-03

The last paragraph of this letter from James Tobin to Milton Friedman could have been written yesterday (by someone with a good memory for history). While it is fair to say that Friedman’s team has managed to control the ball longer on the clock over the past half-century, Tobin’s team is better at keeping points on the scoreboard.

___________________

Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics
Box 2125, Yale Station

December 7, 1964

Professor Milton Friedman
Department of Economics
Columbia University
Fayerweather Hall
New York 27, New York

Dear Milton:

As you urged in your letter of November 11, I shall read Federal Bulldozer [Sample review of Martin Anderson’s book]. The only redevelopment I am at all familiar with is the one here in New Haven. I think it has, in some net balance, enlarged freedom. Eminent domain no doubt infringes on one dimension of freedom and is subject to abuse. But there are surely aspects of freedom other than freedom from government coercion.

The discussion would be advanced if you would recognize that some government actions might enlarge the scope for individual choice and action for some individuals by diminishing the environmental constraints upon them.

I think also it is useful to distinguish between expansion of the public sector as a purchaser and user of resources and increases in specific and direct governmental controls and regulations. I don’t think that “modern liberals” who favor the former favor the latter. Certainly I don’t. I would not have a minimum wage law, or a Davis-Bacon Act, or the agricultural mess. And, when I want more money for education, I don’t like to be accused of wanting an NRA [National Recovery Administration]. But this confusion is what happens by the indiscriminate use of the term “Big Government.”

It is on the question of freedom of expression that I find the most difficulty understanding you. My reading of history and of the contemporary scene would be that the main threats to freedom of dissent have almost nothing to do with the economic size of government in our kind of society. The main threats have come from the know-nothings, Mitchell Palmers, McCarthys [cf. a review of the Anderson book on Joseph McCarthy by Alonzo L. Hamby], Klu Kluxers, and the like. It is not the big Federal government that intimidates librarians, textbook writers, broadcasters, civil rights advocates in the South, etc. I do not know of cases where a democracy has crept into totalitarianism by gradually increasing the size and scope of government activity. But I do know of cases, like the Weimar republic, where the failure of conservative governments to use their powers for social and economic ends has delivered the whole country to a totalitarian dictator.

Sincerely,

[signed: “Jim”]

James Tobin

JT:lah

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 34, Folder 13 “Tobin, James”.

Images Sources: 1962 photo of James Tobin ; 1968 file photo of Milton Friedman.

Tags Friedman, Tobin

Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading

Chicago. Price Theory Exams. Albert Rees (Chicago PhD Alum 1950), 1962

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-02-28

Albert Rees (1921-1992) received his B.A. from Oberlin College (1943), M.A. (1947) and Ph.D. (1950) from the University of Chicago. He worked himself up the ranks at the University of Chicago (Assistant Professor, 1948-54; Associate Professor, 1954-61; Professor, 1961-66), serving as chair from 1962-1966. He moved on to chairing the economics at Princeton where he was professor (1966-79). He also served as a staff economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and headed President Gerald Ford’s Council on Wage and Price Stability, 1974-75. Besides once serving as Provost of Princeton University, Albert Rees also served as the President of the Sloan Foundation.

See The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics, Ross B. Emmett (ed.), Chapter 12 “Albert Rees” by Orley Ashenfelter and John Pencavel. [Downloadable as working paper.]

___________________________

PRICE THEORY
Economics 300
Autumn, 1962
Mr. Rees

Chapter assignments will be given in class.

American Economic Association, Readings in Price Theory. Irwin, 1952.

Friedman, Milton, Essays in Positive Economics. University of Chicago Press, 1953.

Leftwich, Richard H., The Price System and Resource Allocation, revised edition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961.

Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics, 8^th edition, Macmillan, 1922.

Stigler, George, The Theory of Price, revised edition. Macmillan, 1952.

___________________________

Economics 300
Midterm Examination

November 7, 1962
A. Rees

(50 points) Answer the following True, False, or Uncertain and explain your answer briefly. Your score depends on your explanation.
1. In a free market economy, all consumers participate equally in determining what will be produced.
2. A free market economy gives ample incentives to conserve natural resources provided that it is clear who owns each unit of the resources.
3. The cross-elasticity of demand between substitutes is positive.
4. If two linear demand curves each intersect the price axis, (q =0) the one that has the higher intercept is more elastic at this quantity.
5. An increase in the price of beef will increase the demand for pork and decrease the demand for beef.
6. If the market for eggs is in equilibrium an increase in supply will cause only a small change in price.
7. The elasticity of demand for oranges is greater in absolute value than the elasticity of demand for fruit.
(25 points)
1. Show by means of an indifference map (axes: oranges and grapefruit) the effect on the consumption of oranges of an increase in their price, the price of grapefruit remaining unchanged. Distinguish the income and the substitution effects. State whether you have used the Hicks or the Slutsky method.
2. How would your map have differed if the axes had been bread and meat? If they had been bread and butter?
(25 points) Increased costs cause manufacturers to reduce the size of 5 cent chocolate bars from 2-1/2 ounces to 2 ounces. Because the bars are smaller, people eat more of them and consumption rises from 10,000 bars a week to 11,000.
1. Can these events be shown on an ordinary supply and demand diagram? If so, show them. If not, explain why.
2. Can the elasticity of demand for chocolate be computed? If so, compute it. If not, explain.

___________________________

FINAL EXAMINATION

Economics 300
December 12, 1962
A. Rees

(50 points) Answer each of the following “true,” “false,” or “uncertain” and explain your answer briefly. Your score will depend heavily on your explanation.
1. If two linear demand curves have the same slope at the same price, then at that price the one for which quantity is largest is least elastic.
2. An important difference between an indifference map and an isoquant map is that indifference curves never cross.
3. An important difference between the utility functions depicted by usual indifference maps and production functions is that distances in utility space can be ordered but not measured.
4. The following conditions are necessary and sufficient for the short-run maximization of monopoly profits: (a) Marginal revenue is equal to marginal cost; (b) price is greater than average variable cost.
5. An increase in fixed cost caused by an increase in the rate of interest on long run term debt will increase long-run marginal cost but not short-run marginal cost.
6. An effective legal minimum wage above the prevailing wage will increase the employment of a firm that is a monopsonist in the labor market.
7. The costs of owner-operated businesses are generally understated because the owners do not pay themselves wages. If they did, the accounting costs would be equal to the economic costs.
8. The way to produce a given output in the long run at lowest cost is to construct the plant whose short-run average costs are at a minimum at that output.
9. If a monopolist maximizes profit in the short-run and operates where total revenue is at a maximum, he has no variable costs.
10. A production function shows constant returns to scale if an increase of 10 per cent in the input of one factor will increase output by 10 per cent.
(20 points) The New York, Ridgewood, and Exurban Railroad operates a commuter passenger service. Two kinds of reduced fares are offered: (1) children under 12 years of age ride at half-fare at all times. (b) on Wednesdays there are special half-fare tickets for adults good on trains leaving after 10:00 a.m. and returning before 4:30 p.m. The railroad has been accused by the New Jersey Commerce Commission of being a discriminating monopolist. Can you defend it against this charge with respect to either or both of its half-fare arrangements? If it is in fact a discriminating monopolist with respect to either arrangement, is it promoting an inefficient use of resources by its pricing practices?
(15 points) (a) Draw the short-run cost curves, demand curve, and marginal revenue curve of a monopolist who is suffering a short-run loss and is minimizing this loss. Indicate the amount of the loss on your diagram. (b) Show the same situation by means of short-run total cost and total revenue curves.
(15 points) A farmer has two plots of land on which he grows corn, plot A and plot B. The following table shows the amount of corn he can produce on each plot with varying applications of fertilizer of a given quality.

Fertilizer Used	Plot A	Plot B
(pounds)	(output in bushels)
0	10	8
1	14	13
2	16	17
3	17	20
4	18	21
5	17	20

If the price of fertilizer is $1.50 per pound and the price of corn is $1.00 per bushel, how much fertilizer will he use on each plot? (The figures are not intended to be realistic.) Under what circumstances would he use four pounds on each plot?

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Albert Rees Papers, Box 1, Folder “Economics 300”.

Image Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Albert Rees Papers, Box 1, Folder “Rees Personal”.

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Chicago Economic History Economist Market Economists Fields

Chicago. Report of the Bailey-Christ-Griliches Committee, 1957

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-02-23

Today’s artifact provides a collection of suggestions from three young faculty members of the University of Chicago department of economics in 1957 regarding (inter alia) thesis writing, linkages with business/law/statistics faculty, long-term staffing, and the creation of a working-papers series. After reading the report, I guess one should not be terribly surprised that all three of these young turks would ultimately end up spending the lion’s share of the rest of their working lives elsewhere than Chicago. Basically what we have below is a young insider’s view of how to proceed in promoting excellence at Chicago, though it does not really have the ring of a majority view of that faculty. For fans of Saturday Night Live, one might say Christ et al. wanted “less cowbell” but the “more cowbell” faction was stronger. [An alternate source for the SNL sketch]

The following report was written by Carl Christ who incorporated assessments by his fellow committee members Martin J. Bailey and Zvi Griliches. These guys were only ca. 34, 30, and 27 years old, respectively, in 1957. One suspects that the acting chair of the department of economics at the University of Chicago, D. Gale Johnson, was hoping to tap the minds of the younger faculty members for some fresh ideas. Both Friedman and Stigler had already entered mid-life at 45 and 46 years of age, respectively.

I have added footnotes to the text in square brackets, e.g. [1], where descriptions of the reader’s markings by T. W. Schultz are provided.

_______________________

T. S. Schultz’s handwritten notes attached to Report

I. Christ-G-B

dust off Master’s (hold)
treatment of the weak
rec[commend?] students with more enthusiasm
more history (underway)
combine workshops?

II. Business –Law-Statistics

O.K. more cross listing of courses. List of faculties for use in assigning committees (underway)

III. Information

prong 1. Special seminar (tied to more visitors)
prong 2. more 1 & 2 year visitors
prong 3. dist our staff (2 v.G.
prong 4. reprint service (underway)

_______________________

copy of T. W. S.

REPORT OF THE BAILEY-CHRIST-GRILICHES COMMITTEE*

*The committee was appointed by D. Gale Johnson, acting chairman of the Department, pursuant to a motion passed at a department meeting late in the spring quarter of 1957. The report was written by Carl F. Christ, chairman of the committee, and has been approved in substance by Martin J. Bailey and Zvi Griliches, the other two committee members.

The committee has met together several times. In addition, each of us has “held hearings” with colleagues on numerous informal occasions. Our original terms of reference centered on a long range view of the question of staffing the department. But in our discussions we have ranged very widely.

We have dealth [sic] with five broad topics, some of which are interconnected. The five are, loosely speaking:

Instruction, training and placement of students.
Relations with the business, law, and statistics faculties.
Information about the department for its members, for the economics profession and for prospective students.
The allocation of resources in economics research.
Kinds of economists the department ought to try to hire.

On some of these topics we have concrete suggestions, on some we have vague suggestions, and on some we merely have questions. This report provides a brief account of our discussions, and in the course of it it the suggestions and questions will appear.

(1) Instruction, training and placement of students.

This topic has not been a major one in our discussions. However we have several points under it.

First, the M.A. degree ought to be dusted off and made more respectable and more meaningful to students, so that those who do not choose or are not able to continue for the Ph.D. can go away from here with the feeling that they have made a worthwhile investment, to our credit as well as theirs.

Second, we ought to do a better job with our relatively weak Ph.D. aspirants in two respects: First, in discouraging or prohibiting from Ph.D. work any student who, in our opinion, is not capable of success by our standards. Second, once a student has been permitted to go ahead on his thesis, in encouraging and assisting him so that he is able to finish within a reasonable period of time and to have the feeling that he has been treated fairly. The reason for mentioning this point is that we have come across reports of several students who worked long and hard on theses and went through several revisions, with the result that they felt we had been unreasonably exacting and had unnecessarily delayed their degrees. [1] If the M.A. degree is made more respectable as suggested above, there should be less difficulty in maintaining our Ph.D. standards and at the same time avoiding long-drawn-out struggles with marginal Ph.D. students. [2]

Third, we ought to be more vigorous and more liberal in recommending our students for jobs. There appears to be some evidence that in making recommendations we typically assume that the prospective employer has standards as high as ours, and so sometimes fail to place some of our people in jobs that instead are filled by less qualified students from elsewhere. [3]

Fourth, we ought to give at least some of our students a better knowledge of history and inability to make use of it in economics. Too many of our students go away with only poor knowledge in this area. At the same time, in Earl Hamilton and John Nef, not to mention others, the department has access to some of the best historical talent that is to be found anywhere. Can it not be turned to the advantage of more students? [4]

Fifth, we ought to economize our resources a bit by combining into one the workshop appearance in the thesis seminar of those students whose workshop performances appear ex post to have served the purpose of the thesis seminar. It might also be possible to combine the Ph.D. oral examination with the seminar appearance in some cases, thus making a further saving.
Sixth, we ought to take more advantage of the resources in the business, law, and statistics faculties, and be prepared to let them do the same with us (see topic 2 below). [5]

(2) Relations with the business, law, and statistics faculties.

The committee met for an hour with Allen Wallis, James Lorie, and Arnold Harberger to discuss informally the probable future course of relations between the department and the school. From this it appeared that the school intends to continue to send many of its advanced students to the department for training in price theory and monetary and income theory, and also that the school will welcome students from the department who wish to study topics that are offered in the school. [6] It also appeared that the school intends to invest fairly heavily in staff in the areas of industrial and market organization in the public regulation of business (this interested us because we feel that one of the main weaknesses in the department’s coverage lies here; see topic 5 below). [7]

We discussed the fact that while relations between the department and the school have always been cordial, there has not been as much flow back and forth as desirable, and in particular that some of our students would be interested in the business school’s work fail to follow up this interest because our demands on their time are quite heavy. We concluded that if there were more cross-listing of courses in the catalog and time schedules (the business school now does a better job of this than we do), and if some of their faculty came to our seminars and oral examinations and vice versa, and if there were more preliminary examination committees and thesis committees with members from both the school and the department, then in the course of meeting their degree requirements, any interested economics department students will find it easier to draw on the resources of the business school and vice versa.[8]

A similar approach to law and statistics would appear promising.

(3) Information about the department for its members, for the economics profession, and for prospective students.

One of the most commonly recurring themes in our discussions with each other and with “witnesses” in our “hearings” was that we do not provide good enough information for each other and for outsiders about the kind of work that is going on here, and the advantages we believe we have. Our discussions on this point have led to one of the two major suggestions we have to offer (the other appears below in section 5).

The suggestion is to set up a four-pronged program something like the following. (We will quickly list the four prongs, and then return with some comments.) First, set up a sort of special seminar (which might be called the Economics Research Center Seminar) to meet more or less regularly about twice a month, at which the best work that students and faculty and guests are doing would be presented to the department and its guests. Second, have a larger number of one-year or two-year visitors from all over the U. S. and the world, either as post-doctoral fellows or research associates or the like, whose main responsibility here would be to work on their own research and participate in the special seminar, as well as to take part in one or more workshops and research projects. Third, distribute dittoed copies of our essentially finished work to a selected mailing list of economists in the US and abroad, as the Agricultural Economics group already does informally. And fourth, have a reprint series that would carry the best published articles and papers by our faculty, students, and guests.

It is clear that if such a special seminar is set up and no cut is made in the number of meetings of the other workshops and seminars, the faculty workload will increase. Since we feel that it is already pretty high, it seems sensible to suggest that each workshop skip one meeting each month. This should approximately compensate for the extra load created by the special seminar.*

*A crude survey of the faculty attendance at the Agricultural Economics Seminar and the Chile, Labor, Money, Public Finance, and Econometrics Workshops yields the estimate that about 40 faculty-hours (that is, about 20 man-seminars) per week go into these workshops. Assuming that about 10 faculty members would come to each special seminar, about every two weeks, this would require a weekly average of about 10 faculty-hours (or about 5 man-seminars), which would be released if the frequency of meetings of the workshops were reduced about 25%. Another economy measure in this direction is mentioned under topic (2), fifth item.

(In response to the special seminar idea, some colleagues have suggested that the important thing is to circulate advance notice of particularly good work that is about to be presented, so that interested faculty members and others can attend, and that if this can be done, there is no need to have a special seminar; the regular workshop sessions will suffice. If the idea is accepted that particularly good work ought to be publicized within the department before it is presented, then the question of whether to do this via notices of regular workshop meetings or via a special seminar can be discussed as a procedural matter.) [9]

The special seminar idea is tied in with the idea of more visitors, for one of the results we hope for is that the visitors will see our best work, and will spread the word about what kinds of things are being done here, when they leave and go elsewhere. [10]

The reprint series and the distribution of the dittoed manuscripts will, we hope, have a similar effect. Further, but dittoed manuscripts will enable some members of the profession at large to become familiar with our results many months before they can be brought out in published form. [11]

Other simpler measures that might improve the flow of information are the following: Putting out a special department circular or flyer describing the department, the workshops, the interchange of research among faculty and advanced students, and the large amount of faculty attention paid to students; returning to the practice of giving brief descriptions of courses in the catalog (and in the above-mentioned circular), instead of merely course titles as our department has been doing recently; and publishing an annual report for the Economics Research Center. [12] The matter of job recommendations for our students, which is related to the topic of providing information, was touched on under topic (1) above.

(4) The allocation of resources and economics research.

The area of economics that is the most fully developed, the most systematic, the most firmly established, and probably the most reliable for understanding and controlling economic events is the more or less traditional theory of prices, distribution, and the allocation of resources, based on the tools of supply, demand, and marginal analysis. Because it’s postulates (including utility maximization, profit maximization, and a fairly widespread knowledge of market alternatives) appear to be rather unrealistic, this theory has the reputation among many people of being dry, abstract, and of little or no practical value. In the opinion of the committee and of many economists in our department and elsewhere, this theory is a powerful one and can lead to highly useful results when applied to real-world problems. Indeed, one of the most productive kinds of activity for economists appears to be to apply this theory to situations where public and private policies are inappropriate to the goals people have in mind. [13]

In our opinion, the main strength of our department lies in just this kind of activity. We have a group of people who are very devoted to and very good at discovering important, unsolved economic problems that can be solved with the aid of this kind of theory, and solving them. [14]

Our agricultural economists’ approach to the farm problem is one example. Their work on optimum storage rules and on the development of natural resources or others. Our department’s work on economic growth in a sense is another, since when we find that the growth in national product is not fully accounted for by inputs of labor and capital is usually measured, we begin to look for some missing input, either in the form of something that shifts the production function, or in the form of some quality improvements that we have missed in the labor and/or capital: knowledge in either case. This is related to work by Friedman, Becker, in the labor workshop on the value of education as an investment, and to Knight’s concept of human beings as a form of capital. Harberger’s work on depletion allowances, and on the welfare costs of the U.S. tax system, are other examples. Friedman’s and Cagan’s work on the demand and supply of money are examples too, in the sense that attention is focused on the behavior of economic units seeking to maximize their utility or profit in their holding of money and their borrowing and lending operations. Friedman’s and Reid’s consumption work is similar in that into rests on the same view of individual behavior. The whole Chile project is an example par excellence. Friedman’s suggestions for allowing the price system more scope in the fields of education, military recruiting, and the like, for which Friedman and indirectly, the department are so well known, are still others, as is Becker’s free banking scheme, though there is probably more disagreement among economists generally about questions like these that about the other work mentioned above.

While it is clear to us that applications of the familiar theory of allocation of resources very productive, it seems equally clear that the real frontiers of economics lies elsewhere. Some areas that have claimed attention so far are economic history, political science, sociology and social psychology and cultural anthropology, psychology (including learning theory), information theory, statistical decision theory, linear programming, the theory of games. It seems at least as likely that major advances in economics will come by one of these routes or some as-yet-unidentified route as they will come from applications of the familiar resource-allocation theory.

The foregoing statement is so broad that it is almost certain to be true, and almost useless as a guide to research workers interested in major advances. The committee polled itself as to where it thinks pay dirt lies, and where it does not lie, with results something like the following: Among the areas particularly likely to be fruitful are the borderland with learning theory and psychology concerning choice and decision-making [15], the borderland with statistics concerning decision theory and game theory [16], the borderland with anthropology concerning culture and values [17], the borderland with political science concerning political institutions [18]. Also promising, we feel, are mathematical approaches generally, including mathematical approaches to some of the above mentioned borderlands. [19] None of us wanted to rule out linear programming, though none of us was enthusiastic about input-output.

In summary of this topic, we have two statements: First, the familiar resource allocation theory is a powerful tool and there remains a rich field for its application. Second, it seems to us that if some resources are invested in related but different areas such as those mentioned in the preceding paragraph, there is now a worthwhile chance of that substantial pay-off in the form of new knowledge relevant to economics.

(5) Kinds of economists the department ought to try to hire.

Over the past few years several members of the department (and a good many outsiders!) have expressed the view that our department is too homogeneous in several ways. [20] Most of us rely heavily on resource allocation theory, as suggested in the preceding section of this report, and do not emphasize peripheral and possibly frontier areas such as decision theory, learning theory, information theory, psychology, anthropology, and the like. [21] Most of us were trained at Chicago at some stage, are essentially anti-socialist, [22] have essentially similar views about monetary and fiscal policy, have similar views about how far public policy should rely on the price mechanism and how far it should interfere with it, and are primarily theoretically and analytically oriented as opposed to institutionally oriented.

In recent department meetings, our discussion of this matter has often gone something like this: First, we more or less agree that we ought to diversify by seeking a socialist, or an institutionalist, or something of the sort. [23] Then we considered names of economists who might qualify, and one by one we reject them on the ground that they are not really good economists. The discussion ends when someone says, “There’s really nobody good in that category.”

Granted that we want to maintain a high level of quality in the department, there are at least two difficulties involved in any attempt to diversify. One is that in hiring people we like to feel that we know them pretty well, so as to make informed decisions. And the younger people whom we know the best, by and large, are our own former students and fellow-students. This creates and perpetuates a bias in favor of people trained at Chicago. [24] The bias is not so strong, of course, in the cases of people who have published and made reputations, but even here it appears to exist (look at the people who were brought here as associate professor from elsewhere, and ask how many have had training at Chicago).

A second difficulty is simply that it is hard to separate judgment about the quality of an economist from judgment about his position on questions of research strategy and of economic policy. We agree in principle that high quality is very important, and also that it is possible for powerful and prolific minds to disagree in good faith concerning research strategy and public policy. Still there is a temptation to feel that one’s own views sincerely arrived at are best, and that somehow an economist who disagrees strongly with them cannot really be a very good economist. [25]

It seems to the committee that the real issue is not diversification per se. We see the issue somewhat as follows: As we said in the foregoing section of the report, we believe that the real frontiers of economics lie in directions that are somewhat unorthodox by the lights of the department. [26] We also believe that there are high-quality economists who are unorthodox in the same sense. If these two premises are correct, then our interest as a department in pushing forward the frontiers of economics must prompt us to make a serious attempt to add a few such people to our staff. It is only in this sense the diversification seems to be a worthwhile aim. [27]

The question of what sort of people the department ought to try to hire includes not only the problem of finding economists of high quality who appeared to have productive unorthodox approaches. [28] It also includes the problem of rounding out the subject-matter coverage of the department.

The committee pulled itself again, this time as to the subject matter areas that the department ought to pay special attention to, in seeking new faculty. The results were as follows.

For replacement of staff lost in recent years, the two high-ranking fields were mathematical economics-econometrics, and industrial and market organization in social control of business. [29] (The second of these seems less urgent for us, in the light of the business school’s intention to invest in it; see topic 2 above.) Ranking almost as high was the history of economic thought. [30]

For expansion, we thought of business fluctuations, the economics of the firm, and American economic history (the latter mainly so as to free Earl Hamilton to give work in his real specialty, European economic history, without sacrificing our offering in the American field).

The last two sections of the report may be summarized thus (and here is the second major suggestion referred to earlier). It is the feeling of the committee (1) that we should place a high value on quality, and (2) that in view of our belief that the present composition of the department is weak in areas where the frontiers of economics are to be found, we should make a serious attempt to find high quality people whose interests and competence give promise of advancing the frontier, as suggested in the end of the preceding section of the report. We also suggest that the department pay special attention to the fields mentioned in the foregoing paragraph. In particular, we suggest that the department undertake to appoint a person in the mathematical economics-econometrics area beginning in the fall of 1958. [31]

There is no reason why one or more of these things should not be combined in the same person. And, of course, there is no reason why we should pass up opportunities to hire good economists who are essentially orthodox by our lights, if our resources will permit us to do that as well as meet our author needs.

Handwritten Markings and Remarks

[1] Vertical line in left margin marks the last two sentences of paragraph.

[2] Question mark in left margin for this sentence.

[3] “a good point” in left margin for second sentence of paragraph. “need to ask[?] terms of the specific job + not general letters” in the right margin

[4] “good” in left margin. Vertical line in left-hand margin marks the entire paragraph.

[5] “OK” in left margin. Vertical line in left-hand margin marks the entire paragraph.

[6] “good” written in left margin next to this sentence.

[7] Vertical line in left margin marks the last sentence of the paragraph.

[8] “get list from these committees” in left margin for this sentence.

[9] “OK” in left margin for the last sentence of this paragraph.

[10] “OK” in left margin next to this paragraph.

[11] “OK” in left margin for the last sentence of this paragraph.

[12] underlined “merely course titles as our department has” and “publishing an annual report for the Economics”

[13] Four vertical lines in the left margin mark the last sentence of this paragraph.

[14] Vertical line in the left margin marks the entire paragraph.

[15] Underlined: “borderland with learning theory and psychology concerning choice and decision-making”, “(1)” in left margin.

[16] Underlined: “statistics concerning decision theory and game theory”, “(2)” in left margin.

[17] Underlined: “anthropology concerning culture and values”, “(3)” in left margin.

[18] Underlined: “political science concerning political institutions”, “(4)” in left margin.

[19] “(5)” with a vertical line in the left margin marking “mathematical approaches generally, including mathematical approaches to some of the above mentioned borderlands.”

[20] “is too homogeneous in several ways” is underlined.

[21] “decision theory, learning theory, information theory, psychology, anthropology” is underlined.

[22] “anti-socialist” is circled

[23] “socialist” and “institutionalist” are each circled.

[24] Vertical line in left margin marking the second, third, and fourth sentences of this paragraph.

[25] Vertical line in left margin marking this entire paragraph.

[26] “economics lie in directions that are somewhat unorthodox” is underlined.

[27] Vertical line in left margin marking the last two sentences of this paragraph.

[28] “productive unorthodox approaches” is circled

[29] “mathematical economics-econometrics” is circled “also Stigler” written in left hand margin with reference to “industrial and market organization”

[30] “history of economic thought” is underlined, connected with short line to bottom margin note “Stigler”.

[31] Curly vertical line in the left margin marks the entire paragraph.

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics Records, Box 42, Folder 8.
Mimeograph copy without marginal notes also found in Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 129, Folder “Correspondence, 1954-1959”.

Image Source: Professor Carl F. Christ in Johns Hopkins University yearbook. Hullabaloo 1962.

Tags BaileyMJ, Becker, Cagan, Christ, Friedman, Griliches, Hamilton, Harberger, Lorie, Nef, Reid, SchultzTW, Stigler, Wallis

Chicago Economists Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Memories of Chicago Economics Ph.D. Alumnus and JHU professor Carl Christ, 2017

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-02-21

Sometime in the second half of the 1980’s, when my stock as an expert on the economy of the German Democratic Republic was reasonably high and the future fall of the Berlin Wall was still sufficiently somewhere over the rainbow, the President of the Johns Hopkins University (Stephen Mueller) apparently hoped enough to attract me to the young American Institute for Contemporary German Studies of Johns Hopkins in some capacity to have the economics department of the university invite me to present a seminar and talk with colleagues there. Knowing now just how excited departments can be about suggestions coming from the university administration regarding potential appointments, I should have gone into this campus visit with low expectations.

As it turned out my host for the visit was the senior professor Carl Christ who was the proverbial gentleman and a scholar. He was an engaging and sympathetic mensch with broad interests. From that time I have read with delight his accounts of the Chicago years of the Cowles Commission. He struck me as a scholar you could trust. I was introduced to his colleague Peter Newman who, if memory serves me correctly, joined us for lunch. Come to think of it, for my latent interest in the history of economics, I could have hardly had a much better day.

However the story of my day with the Johns Hopkins department of economics would be incomplete without admitting that the seminar did not go well…for me. It was the first time in my (hitherto sheltered) academic life that I was mawled by a pit-bull seminarian over a point that was quite important for his c.v. but of third-order importance for the results of my paper. In any event, there was no further contact one way or another with the Johns Hopkins economics department after that.

My positive impressions of Carl Christ survived and I am delighted to share what I have found out about the life and career of the this fine specimen of a 1950 University of Chicago economics Ph.D. Note: “Although his economic training was in the ‘Chicago School,’ he never believed that economic efficiency was a higher goal than social justice,” wrote a daughter, Alice Christ of Lexington, Ky.”

The previous post provides his reading lists for a sequence of econometrics courses he taught at the University of Chicago in 1957.

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Obituary
May 3, 2017

Longtime JHU Economist Carl Christ dies at 93

Carl Christ, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, passed away on April 21, 2017. Professor Christ was born on September 19, 1923 in Chicago and graduated from the University of Chicago Lab School. He earned his BS in Physics from the University in Chicago in 1943 and his Ph.D. in Economics from the same institution in 1950. He worked as a Junior Physicist on the Manhattan Project in Chicago from 1943 to 1945 and was an Instructor in Physics at Princeton University from 1945 to 1946, after which he enrolled in the graduate program in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. He was a Research Associate at the Cowles Commission at Chicago from 1949-1950. He moved to the Department of Economics at Johns Hopkins in 1950, where he served on the faculty until 1955, when he moved back to the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he served as Associate Professor from 1955 to 1961. In 1961, he returned to Johns Hopkins as Professor, where he remained until he retired in 2005 and assumed Emeritus status.

Carl Christ had a distinguished record of scholarship across multiple topics. His interests ranged from econometric methods, especially the testing and evaluation of econometric models, to monetary and fiscal policy and to the history of econometrics. His work on macroeconometric models was rooted in the Cowles Commission tradition of structural econometric models based solidly on economic theory and careful attention to identification, endogeneity, and consistent and efficient estimation. He wrote a seminal paper on the forecast error variances from those types of models and on their sensitivity to model specification. He authored a widely used introductory econometrics textbook in 1966, Econometric Models and Methods, which popularized the structural econometric approach. The textbook was translated into several languages. In the area of monetary and fiscal policy, his major contribution was a deep incorporation of the federal budget constraint in all its dimensions–fiscal, monetary, reserves, debt, and so on–into macroeconometric models, which had inadequately incorporated those features prior to his work. He showed that policy multipliers were very different when the budget constraint was properly modeled. His interest in the history of econometric methods was also strong, and he wrote a history of the Cowles Commission during its first 20 years which was published in 1952, an expanded version of which appeared in the Journal of Economic Literature in 1994, and he wrote a history of the founding of the Econometric Society as well as several other pieces on the history of quantitative analysis. He was a student and admirer of Tjalling Koopmans and, with Martin Beckmann and Marc Nerlove, edited the Scientific Papers of Koopmans. A symposium in his honor where papers relating to his research were presented was held at Johns Hopkins in 1995 and was published in the Journal of Econometrics in 1998.

Christ served in numerous professional and department capacities during his career. He served in multiple capacities of the American Economic Association, including serving as Vice President, serving on its Executive Committee, chairing several other committees, and serving on the Editorial Board of the American Economic Review. He served in numerous roles for the National Bureau of Economic Research, including service as a Member, Vice Chair, and Chair of its Board of Directors. He served on the Council of the Econometric Society and in several other capacities for the Society. He was an elected Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Statistical Association and received many other citations and awards. At Johns Hopkins, he served as Chair of the Economics Department twice, from 1961 to 1966 and from 1969 to 1970. He also served on numerous university committees throughout his career and into his time as Emeritus Professor. The Department of Economics at Johns Hopkins has a named professorship as well as a named graduate student fellowship in his honor.

He is survived by his wife of 66 years, the former Phyllis Tatsch.

Source: Johns Hopkins University Department of Economics Website. “Longtime JHU Economist Carl Christ dies at 93”.

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IN MEMORIAM
Published Apr 25, 2017

Longtime Johns Hopkins economist Carl F. Christ dies at 93
Trailblazing expert in field of econometrics specialized in fiscal policy and government budget restraint, spent more than 40 years at JHU

by Jill Rosen

Carl F. Christ, a distinguished economist whose career at Johns Hopkins University stretched more than 40 years, including two stints leading his department, died Friday. He was 93.

Christ was a trail-blazer in the field of econometrics, where statistical analysis puts economic theories to the test. In the late 1960s he wrote one of the first textbooks on the subject, a book that became a standard text used for decades in economics courses worldwide. Much later, in 1998, the Journal of Econometrics honored him with a special issue, a collection of articles by “friends, colleagues, and professional admirers of his life’s work,” that praised his contributions, his influence, and the “beauty” of his analytical work.

Christ, born in Chicago, graduated in 1943 from the University of Chicago, where his father was on the faculty of the business school. He did not initially pursue economics, but physics, teaching it at Princeton and working on the Manhattan Project, a research effort during World War II that led to the creation of nuclear weapons.

But Christ realized he wanted to use his mathematics ability to help the world in a different, more peaceful way. He once told the News-Letter, “During World War II, I lived in a house full of pacifists while I was working on the atom bomb. I then wanted to do something that had to do with human problems.”

“He wanted to do more good in the world,” said his daughter, Lucy Smith. “He wanted to be constructive and he saw economics as the path to do that.”

After returning to school and earning a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, Christ joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins in 1950, where he stayed for most of the rest of his career, except for a six-year stint at the University of Chicago.

In addition to pioneering the use of computers to test econometric models, Christ’s niche was monetary and fiscal policy, especially government budget restraint. He is the author of four books, editor of one, and has more than 40 articles in journals and books, as well as more than 60 other publications.

“He was one of the greatest macro econometricians of the 1950s and 1960s,” said Johns Hopkins economist Robert Moffitt. “He worked on the first wave of econometrically-based macroeconomic models of the economy developed at the Cowles Foundation at the University of Chicago, and became a leading authority in the economics profession on their estimation.”

Students at Johns Hopkins chose him to win the George E. Owen Teaching Award in 1985, an award for outstanding teaching and devotion to undergraduates.

In 2008, when the university established a named professorship in his honor—the Center for Financial Economics’ Carl Christ Professorship—his colleagues described it as an honor for “the legacy of a man who has been an inspirational teacher and mentor to generations of Johns Hopkins students.”

Johns Hopkins economics professor emeritus Louis Maccini, who Christ hired, said Christ always had time for junior colleagues and students, ready with constructive criticism and good advice.

“When he hired me he was a very distinguished scholar, and I appreciated how I could talk with him and get sensible advice—passed on as if I was his equal,” Maccini said. “I tried to model myself after him in that regard.”

Beverly Wendland, dean of JHU’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, also recalled Christ’s dedication to the university.

“A renowned economist who was beloved by both his students and faculty colleagues, Carl was instrumental in making our Department of Economics the standard-bearer that it is today,” she said.” He will be remembered, not only for his pioneering work in econometrics, but for his love and dedication toward Johns Hopkins.”

Christ was passionate about the university community, joining numerous efforts and boards, and even appearing in a few Johns Hopkins theatrical productions. He was a devoted member of “The Oldtimers,” an informal club for retired faculty and staff.

“He held the thing together,” said Matt Crenson, a Johns Hopkins political scientist and an Oldtimer. “He planned meetings, he made reservations, he discussed the menu, and he sent out notices—I hope we’ll be able to survive without him.”

Off-campus, Christ served on the Maryland Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers and helped the Urban League by drafting brochures on financial topics, like how to buy a house with sustainable mortgage payments.

At Roland Park Place, where he lived, Christ joined the investment advisory committee and the hospitality committee. He could also be regularly spotted at the corner of 41st Street, with a “War is not the answer” sign.

In addition to his daughter Lucy, Christ is survived by his wife of 66 years, Phyllis; daughters Alice Christ and Joan Christ; and five grandchildren.

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Hub website.

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Obituary
April 26, 2017

Carl F. Christ, noted Johns Hopkins economist
by Frederick N. Rasmussen
The Baltimore Sun

Carl F. Christ, a noted Johns Hopkins University economist whose career spanned more than four decades and who during World War II worked on the Manhattan Project, died Friday of complications from prostate cancer at Roland Park Place.

He was 93.

“Carl Christ was one of the leading figures in the world on macroeconomics and econometrics, and was clearly one of the most distinguished senior faculty members at the time,” said Louis J. Maccini, who retired from Johns Hopkins in 2013, where he had served as chair of the economics department from 1992 to 2007.

“We have been colleagues and friends for almost 50 years, and it was Carl who hired me at Hopkins in 1969,” he said.

“An important ingredient about Carl was that he was a very constructive person, and his comments and opinions were always constructively offered to students and colleagues,” he said. “When I came to Hopkins, he treated me equally as a colleague, and I appreciated that. It was a key element of his personality that he was always helpful and constructive.”

The son of Jay Finley Christ, a professor in the business school of the University of Chicago, and Maud Trego Christ, an educator and suffragette, Carl Finley Christ was born and raised in Chicago and was a graduate of the University of Chicago Laboratories School, a high school. He attended Colorado College for two years.

He was a 1943 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Chicago, where he earned a degree in physics.

From 1943 to 1945, he worked as a junior physicist for the Manhattan Project, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.

After his wartime work with the Manhattan Project, Dr. Christ decided to use his mathematics acumen to achieve peaceful ends.

“During World War II, I lived in a house of pacifists while I was working on the atom bomb. I wanted to do something that had to do with human problems,” he once told the Johns Hopkins News-Letter.

After serving as an instructor in physics at Princeton University from 1945 to 1946, he returned to the University of Chicago, where he earned a Ph.D. in economics.

“Although his economic training was in the ‘Chicago School,’ he never believed that economic efficiency was a higher goal than social justice,” wrote a daughter, Alice Christ of Lexington, Ky.

He joined the Hopkins faculty in 1950 as an assistant professor and in 1953 was named assistant professor of political economy.

Dr. Christ was a senior Fulbright research scholar at the University of Cambridge from 1954 to 1955.

Dr. Christ left Homewood in 1955 when he became an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago, where he taught until 1961. He then returned to Hopkins as professor of political economy.

He was department chair from 1961 to 1966, and again from 1969 to 1970, and in 1977 was appointed to the Abram G. Hutzler professorship in political economy.

“Dr. Christ was a trailblazer in the field of econometrics, where statistical analysis puts economic theories to the test. In the late 1960s, he wrote one of the first textbooks on the subject, a book that became a standard text used for decades in economics courses worldwide,” according to a Johns Hopkins news release announcing his death.

The book, “Econometric Models and Methods,” was published in 1966. He was a contributor to the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Volume IV, which was published in 1968; “Simultaneous Equations Estimation,” 1994; and “Econometrics, Macroeconomics and Economic Policy” in 1996.

In 1998, the Journal of Econometrics honored Dr. Christ with a special issue that contained articles from “friends, colleagues and professional admirers of his life’s work,” and recognized him for the “beauty” of his work.

Dr. Christ also pioneered the use of computers to test econometric models. His field of specialties included monetary and fiscal policy, especially government budget restraint.

“He is particularly interested in what is known as the government budget restraint, which involves the three ways the government can raise funds when it spends money — taxing, borrowing or printing more money,” reported The Baltimore Sun in a 1981 article.

“Dr. Christ conceded that it is impossible to develop an economic theory that describes human behavior as well as scientific theory can describe the behavior of molecules,” according to the article.

In addition to his four books, he wrote more than 40 articles in journals and books, as well as in more than 60 other publications, including The Sun, regarding economic matters.

Dr. Christ was the recipient in 1985 of the George E. Owen Teaching Award, presented by Hopkins students for outstanding teaching and devotion to undergraduates.

His courses on macro- and microeconomics, government financial policy and the stock market were popular among students at the Homewood campus.

In 2008, Hopkins established a professorship in his honor at the Center for Financial Economics.

Dr. Christ began a phased-in retirement in 1989 and fully retired in 2009.

“According to department secretary Donna Altoff, he continued to show an exceptional level of interest in the students, and loved to talk to them and took interest in their job searches until the end,” wrote another daughter, Lucy Christ Smith of Seattle, in an email.

He and his wife of 66 years, the former Phyllis Tatsch, were former residents of Juniper Road in Guilford and moved to Roland Park Place in 2006. He remained active on many university committees and boards and even performed in several theatrical productions at Johns Hopkins and the Hamilton Street Club.

He was an active member of The Oldtimers, an informal club for retired Hopkins faculty and staff, where he planned meetings, discussed menus and sent out notices to the membership.

Dr. Christ served as a member of the Maryland Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers and helped the Urban League by drafting brochures in financial topics with such articles as how to purchase a house with affordable mortgage payments.

At Roland Park Place, he served as a member of the investment advisory and hospitality committees.

He also regularly participated in a weekly protest staged by residents along 40th Street in front of Roland Park Place, where he could be spotted carrying a sign that read “War is not the answer.”

He and his wife were avid catamaran sailors and windsurfers, and since 1933, he had spent summers on Lake Michigan at Williams Grove and Harbert Woods.

Dr. Christ donated his body to the Maryland Anatomy Board, and plans for a memorial service are incomplete.

In addition to his wife and two daughters, he is survived by another daughter, Joan Christ of Seattle; and five grandchildren.

Source: The Baltimore Sun, April 26, 2017.

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In Memoriam—Carl Christ (1923-2017)
Comments from Carl Christ’s students, friends and colleagues

From the Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University webpage:
http://econ.jhu.edu/in-memoriam-carl-christ-1923-2017/

“Carl was a great teacher and mentor. I was delighted that i managed to catch up with him for lunch on my last visit to the US. He had a most significant impact on me and I am sure on so many others. He was what made Hopkins.”

—John Hewson

“I was a student of Carl’s in the 1960s. It was an interesting time. Re econometrics, it was a time when it was becoming a more common tool for economists. Carl had just finished his book and was using it in class. I remember complaining about the high word-to equation ratio relative to competing books (by Johnson and by Goldberger). His story was that his book was especially for grown-up economists who needed to learn econometrics on their own and needed more examples and explanations. So it was a book more than a text book.

Three things I still remember that are still important:

He was an early nag about identification- something that faded for a while in the profession, but has come back with a vengeance.
He used to preach that an econometric paper must not only tell the truth and nothing but the truth, but also the whole truth-more appropriate than ever now, in a world of easy data mining.
I recall him once working on a draft of a survey paper on econometrics, and his secretary (there were secretaries then) misread “econometrics” in the title and typed “economic tricks.” He thought maybe that was a better title.

He was both a great scholar and a true gentleman. It is good that he lived so long.”

—Robert Van Order , George Washington University

“He was a kind and generous man and as residual claimant served as my thesis adviser for which I am eternally grateful. He may well have been the third or fourth member of the Department to be so engaged.”

—Stuart I. Greenbaum, Prof. Emeritus , Olin Business School, Washington U. STL

“Carl was my teacher in the early seventies. I still remember his course vividly. When he started his econometrics course with chapter (7?) on identification stating that the early chapters were background. He also insisted on giving us back his per-book royalty as we all had bought his book.

More recently, Carl invited me to write a piece on Bela Balassa for the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics which I accepted with pleasure. Even though he did most of the work, he insisted that my name appear first…..

Carl was a great mentor and the life at Hopkins.

When we organized a service for Bela at the Bank, Carl spoke of Bela with great emotion, breaking up in tears when he told us that Bela took the train back to DC to help his daughter with her homework only to come back to Homewood the next morning.”

—Jaime de Melo

“Here is another anecdote: when I took Carl’s class in 1992 his book was out of print and Greene (2nd edition!) was the official textbook. However, he lent us copies of his book. He had photocopies for the male students and the original textbook for our female classmates (the rationale was that the hard-copy was lighter to carry than the photocopies).

Like Jim and Bob, I also remember his emphasis on identification and on the economic interpretation of the results. He was a great scholar, teacher, and a true Gentleman.”

—Ugo Panizza

“Dr. Christ was my econometrics teacher and Dissertation Advisor in the mid /late 70s. He was amazing. Pieces I remember fondly are

His penchant for using every inch and corner of the board before erasing anything… (and side-bets among students about when he’d actually have to bring out the eraser)
Carl and Phyllis attending the periodic grad-Department-wide crab outings to Bo Brooks that I organized — with very messy Bay Seasoning-coated hands around red beer cups
His being a real person
His dedication to swimming / exercise
His desire to have people really understand what he was talking about — and instilling in me a real wish to be useful — something that has been a focus ever since.
He was my favorite teacher, and a real role model. It was wonderful to know him, and he’ll be missed.

And I use that story about “economic tricks” all the time before speeches I give (:-)).”

—Lisa A. Skumatz, Ph.D Principal , Skumatz Economic Research Associates (SERA)

“Many thanks for sending out this very sad notice of the passing of Professor Christ. I had not heard of his passing even though I live in the DC area. He was my econometrics professor at JHU and, although I showed no talent in econometrics, I enjoyed his class very much. He was so enthusiastic in class, and out of class as well. It was really special to see him at the retirement party for Lou Maccini a few years ago.

Professor Christ was a true scholar, and the personification of a great teacher. A truly classy person who, along with several other Hopkins professors, should have received Nobel prizes. I know he will be missed at Hopkins and by many of his former students like me.

Please convey my sincere regrets to his wife.”

—Eileen Mauskopf

“I join all of you in expressing my deep gratitude to Carl and in celebrating his life and work. Carl was my professor and thesis advisor (with Bela). I owe them both greatly.

Let me share an anecdote and a comment.

Anecdote. In the late 1960s early 1970s I was an undergrad student of Econ at the Univ of Buenos Aires in Argentina. There was a bookstore in downtown BsAs specialized in imported books on economics, politics, and similar topics… I liked to go there and just look at the books (as a student, my income was limited). One day I was drawn to a green book on econometrics; I felt I had to buy it even though a) it was expensive; b) my econometrics was poor; and c) my English was even poorer to non-existent. Furthermore, I had not heard of the author and I was not planning on leaving my country to study abroad. Still, I bought the book and I carried it with me to the different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where I lived and worked when I left my country in 1976.

Fast forward several years, and the mystery of why I bought the book was finally revealed: I went to study at JHU, first at SAIS, and then at the Dep of Economics, where, you guessed it, I was the only one in my class with a personal copy of Carl’s famous book. Carl had a good laugh when I told him the story about my (his) book.

Comment. Other colleagues mentioned Carl’s work on identification. I’d like to highlight a related issue: his paper on Pitfalls in Macroeconomic Model Building along with the paper on government budget constraints were two of the most useful applied macroeconomics papers I have ever read. Once I heard someone say that “macroeconomics is national accounting identities plus opinions.” Everybody is entitled to her/his own opinions (on expectations, behavioral issues, market clearing mechanisms, and so on) but Carl made clear that you are not entitled to your own accounting identities, nor can you ignore them. Many policy disasters in developing countries (and some developed ones) happen because policy makers ignore basic double-accounting identities Carl so rightly emphasized (along with the proper matching of independent equations and the number of endogenous variables in a well-specified macro model).

It was a privilege knowing Carl. My thoughts and prayers go out to him, his family, and friends.”

—Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla

“Carl Christ’s greatest legacy was far more than celebrated author of “Econometric Models and Methods” – a 10 year undertaking. And far more than several dozen first rate Journal articles. Even more than a first rate teacher willing to tackle undergrad economics courses. It was his very demanding role as a Thesis Advisor par excellence that I consider his greatest Legacy. Demanding his students work to highest standards of scholarship. No matter how long it took. Always willing to read draft after draft with carefully made comments. Carl Christ was a demanding task master. But he was a superb Thesis Advisor and readily accessible. Under his indefatigable energies those of us privileged to be his Thesis students learned the standards of scholarship. It was the greatest of privileges to be his student. His reputation as a sterling Thesis Advisor went well beyond the Hopkins community.”

—Peter I Berman , (1963-67)

“I had the honor and privilege to have been Professor Christ’s grad student and TA for the Macroeconomics and Senior Honors Essay. Aside from his outstanding scholarship, I was lucky enough to observe a fantastic and dedicated teacher at work and a wonderful person and humanitarian to boot. Many of us tried and in vain to emulate this role model. When we heard the sad news, some of us were reminiscing about our experiences with Professor Christ.

Not sure how many know this, but beyond the academics, Professor Christ was also an athlete. I recall a sweet and funny anecdote when Kali Rath, Rafael Tenorio and I were teaching at University of Notre Dame in Indiana in the 90’s, and Gabriella Bucci at Depaul University. We received a call from Carl and Phyllis inviting us with our spouses to his summer house at the lake in New Buffalo, Michigan. We arrived at their home and proceeded to walk to the lake, where he wanted to teach us wind surfing. While walking to lake, we were all chatting with Carl and Phyllis when Kali noticed that Carl was casually holding two buckets containing equipment and other stuff for the sailboat etc.. so he insisted that he should help carry at least one. Carl asked “are you sure?” Kali assured him, and so Carl let go of one of the buckets and kept walking to the lake with the rest of us in tow. Suddenly, I realized that Kali was lingering way behind. I went back to ask him the matter and Kali said “Why don’t you try to lift the bucket” I tried and barely managed lift it before dropping it!! It took two of us to lift it and carry it to the lake panting and all, while marveling at how Carl managed to carry two of them and still lead the troops all the way to the lake while carrying on casual conversation with all of us. We had a wonderful day there.

As many others alumni already mentioned, he epitomized what Hopkins is.

He is and will be sorely missed. Deepest sympathies to Phyllis and family and the larger Hopkins one.”

—Ralph Chami , Assistant Director Institute for Capacity Development International Monetary Fund

“Dear friends and colleagues,

Carl Christ was a major reason I came to Hopkins. My undergraduate adviser knew his work and my budding interest in econometrics, and recommended that I apply to Hopkins. Little did I know that behind the book-writer was such a remarkable teacher, scholar, and person.

As a teacher, he was instrumental in helping me really understand identification, a concept I had only loosely grasped as an undergrad. His course built a foundation in econometrics that has served a whole generation of Hopkins students well to this day. More broadly than that, his approach to every question or idea in seminars or conversations was couched in terms that students could appreciate.

The depth of his involvement in his field of research was clear. Among other things, he would talk about the inner workings of the various macroeconometric models of the day. With his characteristic smile and a twinkle in his eye, he would relate that the publicized estimates from those models could sometimes be the technical estimate from the model –with a little final “from the gut” adjustment by the lead economist. Not trying to indict anyone, he was rather intending to both give us some insight to the complicated interaction of modeling limitations, the intuition of experienced economists, and policy influence, as well as get us thinking about what really constituted good research practices.

On the personal side, one of my early memories of the graciousness of Carl and Phyllis was the party they held for first-years in the fall of 1976, on election night for Ford vs Carter. Besides it being a wonderful social mixer, they held a little contest for who could pick the winner and his percentage of the popular vote. As I recall, the winner was the wife of one of our non-US classmates – politics has always been a universal language …

It was terrific to see Carl and Phyllis at Lou’s retirement event. While we hadn’t seen each other in a very long time, his memory was keen as always. He quickly recalled not only my first post-Hopkins job but also some of our DOPE softball days! Those are fond final memories.

My heartfelt condolences go to Phyllis and all of their family and friends.

Best regards,

—Richard J. Willke, Ph.D. , Chief Science Officer International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research

“And, yet several more anecdotes.

I remember Carl – we called him Dr. Christ, back then. I was a grad student in the latter part of the 1970s; macroeconomics and international finance were my declared fields.

I remember Carl most vividly for his skillful and intuitive application of mathematical modeling to the greater understanding of macroeconomic theory and policy.

One of my fondest memories of him, was observing how he sat during our general seminars. I remember chuckling to myself, as I watched him, sitting in his chair, his legs folded up underneath him, in the shape of a pretzel. I always marveled at his ability to do that. ?Like the other professors in the department, he was dedicated to his students, the Department, the University, and his profession.

Certainly, one of the great ones!

He will be missed!

My condolences to his wife and family.”

—Milt Pappas, Ph.D.

“Carl Christ was an inspiration to me. He was a brilliant economist and very approachable. As a student, I remember that any of the students would walk past his office and he would call out a welcoming greeting to us. My first teaching experience was as a TA for him and I learned a lot from him. I am still a Professor!

Carl, rest in peace and send your blessings to us here on earth.”

—Marianne McGarry Wolf, Ph.D. , Wine and Viticulture Department, California Polytechnic State University

” I have just learnt about the sad demise of my most respected Professor Carl Christ. He is the one who offered me the admission with Fellowship to the Graduate Program in Economics at JHU in 1966, was my Ph.D. dissertation major guide along with late Prof Niehans); wrote a rather strong recommendation to my first post Ph.D. employer, IIM Ahmedabad (India), where I served 1970 through until my retirement in 2010; gave a strong recommendation to the Illinois State University, where I served as a full time visiting professor for five semesters at different times during 1982-1990; among several other critical helps. More than these, he was the one who taught me how to conduct research, how to develop econometric models, and how to even draft the thesis in good and correct English language (he corrected the language of the entire first chapter of my thesis and asked me to correct the rest in the same ways). As he was away in England as a Visiting Professor during 1966-67, I missed having had any full course under him, though a lot of my learning in Macroeconomics and Econometrics is due to him. He encouraged me whenever I was upset during my thesis work, helped me even when I had personal difficulties, and arranged my thesis defense shortly after the Commencement as I was keen to return back to India to attend my sister’s wedding. On personal level, he invited me with his family to his house and blessed my wife and both daughters! Such a teacher and guide, rare to find, had been a great boon to me and my accomplishments. Prof Christ, Prof Niehans and Prof Edwin Mills, all at JHU, were great Professors to me! All of them were/are great economists and I have always felt great pride through them.

It has been my great fortune and privilege to be a student of Prof Carl Christ. I offer my humble prayers to the Almighty GOD to grant peace to the departed soul, and courage and strength to the bereaved family to bear this loss. Prof Christ will always remain in my heart and mind through my life. ”

—Girdharilal Saduram Gupta

“Carl Christ was an inspiring teacher. I was fortunate to be his research assistant (or one of them) on his econometrics text and in fact am cited in the acknowledgements in the book. It was a great honor to work with him.”

“Good memories of a fine man, Bob (Robert Van Order). I was on campus 1963-65 when he was doing his book (then went off to South Korea and finished the dissertation later on the work there). I do remember to this day his emphasis on identification and am glad you mentioned it.”

—Roger Norton, ’71 , Texas A&M University

“The tributes to Carl Christ are really nice to read. I entered Professor Christ’s econometrics class when I arrived at Hopkins, in 1971. The first thing he did was to give everyone a 5 dollar bill, which he told us was the royalty on his book that we had to buy for the class. I was impressed, as were others – indeed, I can still see that scene in my mind even now. Later on, I marked his econometrics assignments, and he became my thesis supervisor. He was a famous scholar of uncompromising integrity with his students and in his own work. By example, he inspires still.

My deepest condolences to Mrs. Christ and her family.”

—Stanley L. Winer , Canada Research Chair Professor in Public Policy, School of Public Policy and Department of Economics, Carleton University, Canada

“I was a student at Hopkins 1973-77. Carl taught me econometrics-and impressed upon me the importance of identification and, as a result, structural estimation. I passed his semester of economic tricks, but failed the second semester (with Charley Mallor, I believe). They gave me an oral exam—he and Charley. Carl’s synopsis—“It’s like pulling teeth, but you pass. Just don’t do a thesis in econometrics.” Good advice.

His ability to sit like a pretzel, his good cheer on every day I ever was in his presence, his willingness to slide hard into the catcher at the annual softball game, his obsessively-compulsively organized office (journals were organized like dentin woodwork on a house, with each year’s worth of a journal lined up perfectly, but every other year’s collection pulled forward precisely one inch)—all were memorable. But grad school is an apprenticeship, and Carl was unstinting in his ability–by example and by the gifts of his time—to develop us into fellow professionals.

If there is an afterlife, I’ll bet for Carl it involves him sailing Lake Michigan in the mornings and writing research in the afternoons—as was his wont during the summers when I knew him.”

—Robert A Driskill , Vanderbilt University

“Like all of us I have a great memory of Prof Christ. I was at JHU during 1968 to 1972. He was not my thesis advisor, but I had always learned from him in and out of his courses. He was always a great teacher. And one summer I had the privilege of living in his beautiful home, being his house keeper when he was on vacation. When I was returning to Thailand to begin my teaching career at Thammasat University he gave me one advice which I always follow. He said ‘when writing a recommendation letter, always tell the truth’.

I am forever grateful for what he had done for me.”

—Narongchai Akrasanee , Bangkok, Thailand

“Thank you everybody for bringing back wonderful memories about Dr Christ who contributed so much in making my Hopkins years (1973-77) so enjoyable.

Like Jim and Ugo put so eloquently, Dr Christ was indeed a scholar, a teacher, a true gentleman and a mentor. He was also a father figure for foreign students like me.

I was very moved to read in his obituary that he “regularly participated in a weekly protest staged by residents along 40th Street in front of Roland Park Place, where he could be spotted carrying a sign that read “War is not the answer.””

We were lucky to have known him and to benefit from his teachings of economic tricks and more importantly from his exemplary behaviour as a teacher and mentor that will always be wit us.

My sincere condolences to his wife and family.”

—Andre Sapir

“Fun to read so many tributes to Carl. Certainly, a “man for all seasons”, one who was always civil and professionally courteous in all situations which I can remember in my JHU days. After almost 40 plus years in academic life, I certainly appreciate the witness of Carl’s manner and style of interacting with colleagues and students. A collegiality which we cannot always take for granted, and which we cannot ever underestimate as a value when we recruit faculty in our institutions.

On his teaching and academic advising, looking back, of course, we of my vintage remember well the extensive treatment of identification and of properly-specified government budget constraints in any model, for meaningful policy discussion.

We of the Johns Hopkins diaspora were very fortunately to have him as one of our professors.”

—Paul McNelis

“Professor Carl F. Christ was my and Poonsa-nga econometrics professor and Dissertation Adviser in different period of time in the 70’s. He was an amazing scholar, teacher, a true gentleman, a great mentor and the life at Hopkins.

He was liked our father during our wedding and beyond. It was a big opportunity provided by him for Poonsanga to be a postdoctoral fellow at MIT in 1976 and for me to do my dissertation immediately after being a Ph.D. candidate.

I have stayed with him and Mrs. Phyllis three times, first with Poonsanga in Baltimore home in 1982, second I was alone in his summer home with Lucy and her family and the third with my two sisters in their Baltimore home in 2006.

Apart from losing our teacher and dissertation adviser, we have lost our beloved father. He will be in our hearts for ever. Our sincere condolences to Mom Phyllis and their 3 daughters and grandchildren.”

—Poonsa-nga and Borwornsri Somboonpanya Ph.Ds , International Education Travel Co., Ltd. (IET), Bangkok, THAILAND

“I have very fond memories of my days as a graduate student at JHU in the 60s.

Carl was a great teacher, a model as a scholar, and a wonderful and unforgettable person.”

—Ernst Baltensperger

“Carl lived a long, active and productive life.

I was only on the faculty at Hopkins for a year as a young assistant professor, but Carl was remarkably kind and always prepared to discuss without any condescension and when I came back for a brief visit in 2006 it was as if I had never been away. A true gentleman and a scholar.”

—Alan Kirman , Directeur d’études à l’EHESS, Membre de l’IUF, Professeur émerite à Aix-Marseille Université, Paris

“It is great to read the tributes to Carl Christ. I was also a student of his in the early 70’s as well as his TA. He cared about all his students; both the graduate and undergraduate students, and spent a great deal of time with them. As a first-year graduate student, I was assigned to be a discussant on a paper that he presented. When the paper was published, I was listed in the acknowledgements, which was a thrill for a young graduate student – the first time my name was in a journal.

He has been a role model for me as an academic. When I do empirical work, I always think of him and his admonishment that no matter how sophisticated the methods, the work stands on the economics behind it.”

—Susan Vroman , Department of Economics, Georgetown University

“I have very fond memories of Carl that go as far back as 1952 when I started my graduate studies at JHU. I took econometrics from him, way before his book came out. The following year Richard Stone was visiting Hopkins and he and Carl organized an evening seminar to read Morgenstern and von Neumann on the theory of games – way before game theory became popular.

The last time I saw Carl and Phyllis was at a conference in 2014. Attached is a photo from that conference of Carl with Takeshi Amemiya, Al Harberger and me.”

—Marc Nerlove , Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland College Park

“I took econometrics from Carl in the mid 1970s. I had no idea about his background in physics until I read his obituary. I think this background explains why Carl always thought that there should be no conflict between economic theory and econometrics; they are complementary. This view of economic research was what he imparted to generations of his students. It was his imprint on those of us lucky enough to takes his courses.

He truly was a gentleman and a scholar and as decent a man as I have known. My condolences to his family on their loss.”

—Robert J. Rossana , Dept. of Economics, Wayne State University

“Dr. Christ was my graduate econometrics professor and I was his TA for undergraduate macroeconomics in spring ‘92.

As I recall, it was a large class and I assisted Dr. Christ in exam grading and keeping track of records which he all scribed by hand. He was of the generation prior to the internet age, and I remember him being extremely afraid of computer viruses affecting his non-internet ready PC with a floppy disk drive.

My efforts to cajole him into using Excel to add efficacy was futile and I was vetoed with his totally convinced _expression_ that this may infect his computer. I thought it was funny that an intellectual giant of physics and math/stat-intensive econometrics would be so concerned with a computer virus which had almost no chance of penetrating his computer.

He was a great communicator who resonated with undergraduate students. He will be greatly missed.”

—Jongsung Kim , Professor of Economics, Bryant University

“I entered the program too late to take Carl’s courses. When I was on the job market, Carl was the one who taught me how to communicate and negotiate with the other side. Maybe that was the time he taught me the real “economic tricks.” When he was very happy to know that I got an offer from U Texas, Carl said, “You see, you are already wearing jeans.” Then he told me the joke that, since Texans are so proud of being the largest state in the contiguous US, Alaskans would split the state in half so that Texas would become the third largest state in the US. I still remember his smile, which I saw several times again since I moved back to Hopkins. Maybe that is the thing that lured me back: an celebrated academic with a warm heart.”

—Yingyao Hu , Professor of Economics, Johns Hopkins University

“I was very saddened to hear of the passing away of Professor Christ. I was his student in the early seventies when I was a graduate student at Hopkins. He was a great teacher and a wonderful person. I too remember him returning the royalty money to the students who had purchased the Econometrics textbook. His stress on the Identification problem has stayed with all of us it seems.

Professor Christ was an inspiring teacher, and could set tough exams. He would set an open book final exam and students had twenty four hours to complete it. Most of us had to stay up all night trying to figure out the answers! He was an enthusiastic participant in all department activities, whether dissertation seminars or even Halloween parties!

Professor Christ was also my dissertation adviser,together with Professor Hugh Rose. He was generous with his time, and our discussions were always stimulating and thought provoking. My husband and I stayed with him and his wife when I visited Hopkins for my graduation, and we remember their warm hospitality. Please convey my sincere condolences to his wife, and other family members.”

—Bimal Kaicker Beri

“I studied in Hopkins 1966-69, took Carl’s modules on macroeconomics and econometrics, worked as his

A in undergraduate macroeconomics and benefited from generous hospitality at his fine house .

I have nothing but happy memories of my interactions with him during those years. He was brilliant without showmanship, considerate in all matters, diligent and conscientious as a lecturer. He gave us graduate students a deep and long-lasting insight into macroeconomic foundations. I count myself lucky to have had him as teacher and mentor.

There was something quintessentially American about him. He embodied the best of American virtues: openness, honesty, seriousness of purpose combined with optimism and a prevailing cheerfulness. Unlike many other US academic economists he seemed to have a strong sense of place, as witness his enduring devotion to Hopkins.

He was rightly admired as a man of the highest integrity. One of many instances of this stays in my memory. The recommended text for his econometrics module was (naturally and properly) his own textbook Econometric Models and Methods that had recently been published. It was an expensive tome and he was conscious of the tight budget constraint many of us graduates were subject to in those days. He believed it was wrong for him to benefit personally from his choice of textbook. Accordingly everyone in the class who had bought his book was given an envelope addressed in his own hand containing the amount of the royalty he would receive from each sale, calibrated to the last cent.

Thank you, Carl! I’ll raise a glass to you for a good life well-lived.

May he rest in peace.”

—Dermot McAleese , Emeritus Whately Professor of Political Economy, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

“I am deeply saddened to hear the news that Mr. Carl Christ has passed away on April 21, 2017. I join my fellow econ-alumni in offering my condolences to the family and friends of Carl was my teacher and thesis supervisor (with Bela Balaasa and Lawrence Klein (from U Penn) at the Department of Political Economy during 1985-1987. He was not only a kind teacher but also a great human being as he was always willing to help student.

What I liked most about Carl was that he would comment on the papers of the faculty and graduate students during Graduate Student Seminars in a polite yet constructive manner. I never found him being harsh while offering comments. I had the opportunity to interact with Carl on a regular basis, when I was writing my Ph.D. dissertation. His comments were always constructive and improved the quality of my work.

Let me share with my fellow econ-alumni some interesting facts about Carl and my Ph.D. defense. I defended my thesis on August 5, 1987. By then Carl had already left for Beijing to set up JHU Campus in China. My other supervisor, Bela Balassa had to go through 13 hours throat surgery in Washington, D.C on August 4, 1987—a day prior to my defense. He too, was therefore not available during my defense. Larry Klein was in some Latin American Country and had promised to be present at my defense on August 5. By 10:50 am (the defense time was 11:00 am), Klein did not show up at the JHU which made me really nervous, thinking that none of my supervisors would be there during my defense. However, by 10:55am, Larry Klein entered the building of Economic department. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Larry Klein with his travel bag entering the department. Bruce Hamilton and Louis Maccini represented Carl and Balassa in my defense.

Before Carl left for Beijing, I had a long meeting with him in his office where we went through the final draft of the thesis. He was very much satisfied with my work which gave me enough confidence and encouragement to defend my thesis, of course, Larry Klein was a great source of strength during the defense. I defended my thesis on August 5, 1987 with minor comments; submitted the revised version within 10 days and left US on August 25, 1987. My thesis defense was a memorable event for me as I defended my thesis in the absence of two of my supervisors (Carl and Bela).

It was indeed a privilege and honor for not only knowing Carl but also being his student. With Carl’s demise, I lost all of my thesis supervisors. The world has lost three great human beings that the God had bestowed on us. May God rest Carl’s, Bela’s and Klein’s souls in peace and give strength to their families and friends to bear this loss.”

—Professor Ashfaque Hasan Khan , Principal & Dean, School of Social Sciences & Humanities (S3H), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad

“I entered Hopkins in 1961, the same year as the second coming of Carl to JHU. When I applied to JHU, I was attracted by the names like Machlup, Domar, and Musgrave, but both Machlup and Domar were gone by the time I entered. Musgrave was still there for two more years, and I learned a great deal by reading his textbook Public Finance. A greatest boost for me, however, was the fact that Carl came back in the same year. He invited me to his office and asked me if I liked mathematics. I proudly answered yes. Then he asked me if I knew differential equations. My heart sagged as I didn’t know them. During the first two years at Hopkins I worked as research assistant to Dr. Edwin Mills in his project on water resources. It was good education for me as Dr. Mills was a man of a very sharp mind. But I was bogged down by the need to study geology of water, which I found extremely boring. Just then Carl came along and suggested I should work on econometrics, which I did. Initially I had planned to finish my dissertation in two years, but as my father became rather ill, I wanted to finish the thesis in one year and go back to Japan with a doctor’s degree and show it to my father. He died two weeks after I came home. I couldn’t have finished the thesis in one year without Carl’s cooperation way beyond his duty. The other members of the committee were Edwin Mills and Geoff Watson, to whom I am also grateful.”

—Takeshi Amemiya , Stanford University

“I took Dr. Christ’s course in Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory in spring 1963, and his econometrics course in 1965-66. Dr. Christ was a brilliant and challenging teacher. He always gave each student, who purchased his econometrics book for class, a refund equal to the amount of the book royalty. I have never had another professor do that. During my time in graduate school, Dr. Christ was the Department Chair. In my opinion, he did an excellent job.”

—Alan Sorkin , Ph.D.,1966

“As a grad student, I took Professor Christ’s Econometrics course in 1971-72 and also TA’d for him in the undergraduate macro principles course. For someone seeking a career at a teaching institution, as I did, there couldn’t have been a better role model than Professor Christ. He took great pains to make sure the TA’s knew what he would be lecturing on before each class, prepared us for what would be the most difficult material for the students, allowed us (really, expected us) to come up with our own quiz and exam questions, met with us regularly, etc. One day each week he would have lunch in the undergraduates’ cafeteria, just so his students would have a chance to interact with him outside the classroom setting. What a great example he set of a true teacher-scholar! I feel very fortunate to have been mentored by him.”

—Geoffrey Gilbert , Professor Emeritus of Economics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

I once came across Dr. Carl Christ in the hallway when I was still a graduate student. We briefly talked and he was very approachable to me. He gave me a lot of encouragement on economics study and also a few books that I still keep them now. He was a gracious scholar and gentleman.

—Yizhen Zhao , East Carolina University

Carl Christ has made a lasting positive difference. He was my thesis supervisor

during my graduate school days at Hopkins (1962-1966). I also served as his teaching assistant in an undergraduate course in economics. I chose university teaching and research as a profession, from which I am now retired. Whenever a student thanked me for my supervision and advice, I smiled in thankful remembrance of my experience with Professor Christ. I endeavoured to pass on the Christ attitude towards students, even though lacking his natural devotion to the cause of education and, above all, his easy ability to detect and direct you, always, to the important details in the analysis or argument. I received prompt and insightful comment when I submitted research to Carl Christ as late as 2004. A resounding thank-you. May the life that Carl Christ lived lessen the family’s grief at his passing.

—John W. Iton , Ph.D.(1966) Retired

I would like to mention another way in which Carl Christ was a memorable professor — he was a terrific teacher of undergraduates.

I was an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins (BA ’88), and I went on to graduate school in economics later on. I took Macro Principles with Carl (or Dr. Christ, as I called him then), and Micro Principles with Bruce Hamilton, and both the content of these classes and the personal regard of both professors had a huge influence on me. (And while I’m mentioning it, so did my first TAs, Jonathan Neuberger and Greg Hess.)

Carl was gracious to everyone, but not only that — he took me, as a 19-year-old, seriously. I recognize, now that I am a professor too, how meaningful that is. I got more and more excited about economics the more classes I took, and I ended up taking some first-year graduate classes, including econometrics from Carl, before I left Hopkins. As many of the letter writers have mentioned, his emphasis on simultaneous equations models stayed with me forever after!

I look back very fondly on these formative years that I experienced at Johns Hopkins.

—Leora Friedberg , Department of Economics, University of Virginia

Carl and I exchanged holiday cards regularly for more than 40 years, updating each other on our professional, family, and social accomplishments and challenges. Like many of my fellow Hopkins doctoral students, Carl Christ was a friendly, insightful, and demanding professor: certainly one of the great leaders in the department when I was there from 1967-71. Two anecdotes: Our econometrics class was one of the first to use his textbooks. One of the students in the class – not me – off handedly mentioned that there might be a conflict of interest if an instructor required his students to purchase a book that he had written. The next class day Carl gave each of us who had purchased the book something like $2.00 to reflect his royalties. However, his generosity had limits: there was nothing for anyone who had purchases a used copy. Second: At the time I was at Hopkins the department was on the top floor of Gilman Hall. There was a back staircase, and one day after lunch several doctoral students, including myself, decided to race us the stairs from the ground floor. We did this in waves, and not very quietly. At one point, at the top of the landing, we were greeted by Carl, and expected a stern “what are you doing?” or “you are disturbing the peace.” Instead, he simply smiled and asked what was the best time. I suspect that he might have tried to beat it!

—Bruce Jaffee , Emeritus Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University

Image Source: Carl Christ at the Mathematical Economics Conference in Honor of M. Ali Khan in 2013. From the gallery of pictures at “In Memoriam–Carl Christ (1923-2017)”.

Tags Amemiya, Christ, NerloveM

Chicago Statistics Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Econometrics sequence (2 quarters). Christ, 1957

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-02-21

From 1955 through 1961 the University of Chicago economics Ph.D. alumnus (1950) and early Cowles Commission researcher, Carl Christ, was associate professor at the University of Chicago. I stumbled upon the following reading lists for his two quarter econometrics sequence from 1957 filed away in Milton Friedman’s papers along with Econ 300A and 300B (Price Theory and Distribution) reading lists.

It is interesting to see that input-output theory and linear programming are still considered parts of “econometrics” at even this relatively advanced date.

The next post will provide life and career information as well as anecdotes shared by former students and colleagues following his death in April 2017.

___________________

Economics 314 and 315
Econometrics and Special Topics in Econometrics
READING LISTS
Winter and Spring 1957
Mr. Christ

Econometrics “Texts”

Chiefly for 314:

Tinbergen, Jan, Econometrics.

For both 314 and 315:

Tintner, Gerhard, Econometrics.
Klein, Lawrence R., A Textbook of Econometrics.
Hood, William C., and Tjalling C. Koopmans, Studies in Econometric Method (Cowles Commission Monograph 14). Especially chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9. (Chapter 6 is chiefly for Economics 315).

Statistical Inference (Including Regression and Correlation)

In addition to relevant parts of books listed above, the following are useful. They are approximately in increasing order of difficulty.

Chiefly for 314:

Wallis, W. Allen, and Harry V. Roberts, Statistics: A New Approach. Especially the following sections and chapters.
2.8; 4.5-6; 5; 6.1, 6.5; 8.7; 9; 10.9-12; 12; 14.1-2, 14.5-6, 14.8; 15; 17; 18; 19
Walker, Helen M., and Lev, Statistical Inference.

For both 314 and 315:

Ezekiel, Mordecai, Methods of Correlation Analysis, 2^nd edition.
Yule, George Udny, and Kendall, An Introduction to the Theory of Statistics (not the earlier book by Yule alone).
Snedecor, George W., Statistical Methods.
Fisher, Ronald A., Statistical Methods for Research Workers, 6^th edition or later.
Tippett, L. H. C., The Methods of Statistics.
Hoel, Paul G., Introduction to Mathematical Statistics.

Chiefly for 315:

Anderson, R. L., and T. A. Bancroft, Statistical Theory in Research.
Mood, A. M., Introduction to the Theory of Statistics.
Wilks, S. S., Mathematical Statistics.
Cramer, Harald, Mathematical Methods of Statistics.

Econometric Techniques and Problems (Including the Estimation of Parameters)

In addition to relevant sections of books cited under I and II above, see the following. Items marked with an asterisk(*) are particularly important.

Chiefly for 314:

Working, E. J., “What do Statistical ‘Demand Curves’ Show? QJE 41 (February, 1927), pp. 212-35. Reprinted in AEA Readings in Price Theory, pp. 97-115.
*Christ, Carl F., “History of the Cowles Commission,” in Cowles Commission, Economic Theory and Measurement. (20^th Annual Report). Especially pp. 12-13, 30 (bottom)-41, 47 (middle)-60.
*Koopmans, Tjalling C., “Identification Problems in Economic Model Construction,” Econometrica 17 (April, 1949), pp. 125-44. Reprinted as chapter 2 in Hood and Koopmans (cited under I above), pp. 27-48.
*Marschak, Jacob, “Economic Structure, Path, Policy, and Prediction,” AER, XXXVII (May, 1947), pp. 81-4.

For both 314 and 315:

Koopmans, Tjalling C., “The Logic of Econometric Business Cycle Research,” JPE 49 (April, 1941), pp. 157-81.
*Haavelmo, Trygve, “The Statistical Implications of a System of Simultaneous Equations,” Econometrica 11 (January, 1943), pp. 1-12.
*Marschak, Jacob, “Econometric Measurements for Policy and Prediction”, Chapter 1 in Hood and Koopmans (cited under I above), pp. 1-26.
*Bennion, E. G., “The Cowles Commission’s ‘Simultaneous Equation Approach’”, Rev. Econ. and Statistics, XXXIV (February, 1952), pp. 49-56.
*Meyer, John R., and Miller, “Some Comments on the ‘Simultaneous Equations Approach’”, Rev. Econ. and Statistics, XXXVI (February, 1954), pp. 88-92.
*Bronfenbrenner, Jean, “Sources and Size of Least Squares Bias in a Two-Equation Model,” chapter 9 in Hood and Koopmans (cited under I above), pp. 221-35.
*Haavelmo, Trygve, “Methods of Measuring the Marginal Propensity to Consume,” JASA 42 (March, 1947), pp. 105-22. Reprinted as chapter 4 in Hood and Koopmans (cited under I above), pp. 75-91.
Foote, R. J., and K. A. Fox, Analytical Tools for Measuring Demand, U. S. Department of Agriculture Handbook No. 64.
*Klein, Lawrence R., “On the Interpretation of Theil’s Method of Estimation of Economic Relations,” Metro-economica 7 (December, 1955).
*Basmann, Robert, “A Generalized Classical Method of Linear Estimation of Coefficients in a Structural Equation”, Econometrica 25 (January, 1957).

Chiefly for 315 (in chronological order):

*Haavelmo, T., “The Probability Approach in Econometrics,” Econometrica 12 (1944), Supplement.
*Koopmans, Tjalling C., “Statistical Estimation of Simultaneous Economic Relationships,” JASA 40 (December, 1945), pp. 448-66.
Cochrane, Donald, and Guy H. Orcutt, “Application of Least Squares Regression to Relationships Containing Autocorrelated Error Terms,” JASA 44 (March, 1949), pp. 32-61.
Orcutt, Guy H. and Donald Cochrane, “A Sampling Study of the Merits of Autoregressive and Reduced Form Transformations in Regression Anaysis,” JASA 44 (September, 1949), pp. 356-72.
Koopmans, Tjalling C., ed., Statistical Inference in Dynamic Economic Models (Cowles Commission Monograph 10).
*Koopmans, Tjalling C., and W. C. Hood, “The Estimation of Simultaneous Linear Economic Relationships,” chapter 6 in Hood and Koopmans (cited under I above), pp. 112-99.

Statistical Tests for Econometric Equations

For both 314 and 315:

Durbin, James, and G. S. Watson, “Testing for Serial Correlation in Least Squares Regression. II.” Biometrika 38 (June, 1951), pp. 159-78.
Hotelling, Harold, “The Selection of Variates for Use in Prediction,” Annals Math. Stat. 11 (1940), pp. 271-83.

Aggregate Econometric Models of the U. S. Economy

For both 314 and 315:

Tinbergen, Jan, Statistical Testing of Business Cycle Theories, Vol. II: Business Cycles in the U.S.A., 1919-1932.
Klein, L. R., Economic Fluctuations in the U.S., 1921-1941 (Cowles Commission Monograph 11).
Clark, Colin, “A System of Equations Explaining the U.S. Trade Cycle 1921-1941,” Econometrica Vol. 17 (April, 1949), pp. 93-123.
Christ, Carl, “A Test of An Econometric Model for the U.S., 1921-1947,” in Conference on Business Cycles (N.B.E.R.), pp. 35-129.
Valavanis-Vail, Stefan, “An Econometric Model of Growth, U.S.A. 1869-1953,” AER 45 (May, 1955), pp. 208-21, 225-7.
Klein, L. R., and Arthur Goldberger, An Econometric Model of the U.S., 1929-1952 (Contributions to Economic Analysis, No. IX).
Fox, Karl A., “Econometric Models of the U.S., “ JPE 64 (April, 1956), pp. 128-42.
Christ, Carl F., “Aggregate Economic Models,” AER 46 (June, 1956), pp. 385-408

Demand Studies

For both 314 and 315:

Schultz, Henry, Theory and Measurement of Demand.
Girshick, M. A., and Trygve Haavelmo, “Statistical Analysis of the Demand for Food,” Econometrica 15 (April, 1947), pp. 79-110. Partly reprinted as chapter 5 in Hood and Koopmans (cited under I above), pp. 92-111.
Wold, Herman, and Lars Jureen, Demand Analysis.
Fox, Karl A., The Analysis of Demand for Farm Products (U. S. Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin No. 1081).
Working, Elmer J., Demand for Meat (American Institute of Meat Packing).
Stone, Richard N., The Measurement of Consumers’ Expenditure and Behaviour in the U.K., 1920-1938, Vol. I (National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London).

Consumption Functions

For both 314 and 315:

Ferber, Robert, A Study of Aggregate Consumption Functions (N.B.E.R.).
Modigliani, Franco, and R. E. Brumberg, “Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function,” in Kenneth Kurihara, ed., Post Keynesian Economics.
Brumberg, R. E., “An Approximation to the Aggregate Saving Function,” Economic Journal 66 (March, 1956).
Nerlove, Marc, “Estimates of the Elasticities of Supply of Selected Agricultural Commodities,” Journal of Farm Economics 38 (May, 1956), pp. 496-512. Read primarily for the expectations hypothesis.
Friedman, Milton, and Gary Becker, “A Statistical Illusion in Judging Keynesian Models,” JPE 65 (February, 1957).

Other Applications

Chiefly for 314:

Douglas, Paul H., “Are There Laws of Production?” AER 38 (March, 1948), pp. 1-41.
Mendershausen, Horst, “On the Significance of Professor Douglas’ Production Function,” Econometrica 6 (April, 1938), pp. 143-53.

Chiefly for 315:

Hildreth, Clifford, and Frank Jarrett, A Statistical Study of Livestock Production and Marketing (Cowles Commission Monograph 15).
Prais, S. J., and H. Houthakker, The Analysis of Family Budgets (Cambridge Univ., Dept. of Applied Economics).

Input-Output

Chiefly for 314:

Evans and Hoffenberg, “The Interindustry Relations Study for 1947,” Rev. Econ. and Statistics, XXXIV (May, 1952), pp. 97-142.
Dorfman, “The Nature and Significance of Input-Output,” Rev. Econ. and Statistics, XXXVI (May, 1954), pp. 121-33.
Christ, Carl F., “A Review of Input-Output Analysis,” in Conference in Research on Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 18: Input-Output Analysis: An Appraisal (N.B.E.R.).

Linear Programming

Chiefly for 314:

Dorfman, “Mathematical, or ‘Linear’, Programming,” AER XLIII (December, 1953), pp. 797-825.
Chipman, “Linear Programming,” Rev. Econ. and Statistics, XXXV (May, 1953), pp. 101-17.
Heady, “Simplified Presentation and Logical Aspects of Linear Programming Technique,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXVI (December, 1954), pp. 1035-48.
Boles, “Linear Programming and Farm Management Analysis,” Journal of Farm Economics, XXXVII (February, 1955), pp. 1-24.

Calculus

The following (arranged in increasing order of difficulty) are useful.

Thompson, Sylvanus P., Calculus Made Easy.
Allen, R. G. D., Mathematical Analysis for Economists.
Courant, R., Differential and Integral Calculus (2 vols.).

Matrix Algebra and Determinants

In addition to the following, see appendices in Tintner and in Klein (cited under I above), and special sections in Anderson and Bancroft and in Mood (cited under II above):

Aitken, A. C., Determinants and Matrices.
Albert, A. A., Introduction to Algebraic Theories.
Ferrar, William L., Algebra.
Wade, Thomas L., The Algebra of Vectors and Matrices.
Allen, R. G. D., Mathematical Economics, Chapters 12-14.

Source: The Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 77, Folder 1 “University of Chicago 300A & B”.

Image Source. Detail of “Carl Christ, teaching economics-1963” (second from left at seminar table) from the Carl Christ memorial webpage of the Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University.

Tags Christ

Chicago Economists

Chicago. Economics Department on Possible Candidate for Permanent Employment, 1950

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-02-10

How big was the split within the department of economics in 1950 at the University of Chicago? Judging from the decision by chairman T. W. Schultz to essentially table the matter of approaching the central university administration with a candidate for a permanent position, there was a departmental deadlock.

The half-dozen economists discussed were: George Stigler, Abba Lerner, Kenneth Boulding, Leonid Hurwicz, Kenneth Arrow, and Lawrence Klein. Contemplate those names for a moment and then read aloud the following two sentences:

Several members of the Department stated that none of these men had all of the qualities sought: a good mind reaching out fruitfully in new directions in economics. It was agreed, however, that there were no likely candidates possessing these qualities in a high degree.

We can only speculate which alpha economists happened to lock horns in those three meetings.

_________________________

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
May 24, 1950.

Present: T. W. Schultz, T. Koopmans, A. Rees, H. G. Lewis, D. G. Johnson, E. J. Hamilton, R. Burns, J. Marschak, F. H. Harbinson, F. H. Knight, M. Friedman, B. Hoselitz, L. Metzler

[…]

II. Appointments

Schultz informed the Department that Hildreth’s position has been renegotiated for a term of three years. The Department approved a motion authorizing for Hildreth the courtesy rank of Associate Professor for a three year term.

The Department then considered the appointment problem raised by the leaving of Blough (probably initially on a one year leave of absence) and Brownlee. Schultz suggested that the Department had two alternatives open to it: a temporary replacement (construed broadly) and a permanent appointment of a top ranking person.

The Department considered first possible candidates for permanent appointment. Attention centered on George Stigler, Abba Lerner, Kenneth Boulding, Leonid Hurwicz, Kenneth Arrow, and Lawrence Klein. For a temporary appointment Schultz suggested Gunnar Myrdal.

[Meeting began at 3:30 pm and ended 5:45 p.m.]

_________________________

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
May 30, 1950.

Present: T. W. Schultz, R. Burns, D. G. Johnson, E. J. Hamilton, F. H. Knight, L. Metzler, R. Blough, F. H. Harbinson, A. Rees, H. G. Lewis, T. Koopmans, J. Marschak, M. Friedman.

Appointments

The discussion of appointments continued from the previous meeting. Schultz expressed the conviction that the time was propitious for a new permanent appointment. On Metzler’s suggestion, the Department returned to discussion of the following candidates for a permanent appointment: Stigler, Hurwicz, Boulding, Klein, Lerner, Arrow.

Several members of the Department stated that none of these men had all of the qualities sought: a good mind reaching out fruitfully in new directions in economics. It was agreed, however, that there were no likely candidates possessing these qualities in a high degree.

The chairman then polled those present with respect to their first choice (or ties for first) for a permanent appointment. As a result of the poll the list of candidates was narrowed to Hurwicz, Stigler, and Lerner. The chairman then polled those present on their position toward permanent appointment of each of these men.

The poll showed that of those present

4 would favor and 5 oppose the permanent appointment of Hurwicz
4 would favor and 5 oppose the permanent appointment of Lerner
6 would favor and 6 oppose the permanent appointment of Stigler

A motion was passed instructing the chairman to poll the absent members of the Department in the same way on the appointment of Hurwicz, Lerner, and Stigler and to report back to the Department for further discussion.

[Meeting began at 3:30 pm and ended 6:15 p.m.]

_________________________

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
June 8, 1950.

Present: T. W. Schultz, H. G. Lewis, D. G. Johnson, J. Marschak, H. Kyrk, P. Thomson, M. Friedman, T. Koopmans, A. Rees, E. J. Hamilton, F. H. Knight, R. Blough.

Appointments

Schultz reported that he had polled Kyrk, Thomson, Mints, and Nef (but had not heard from Goode) on the matter of a permanent appointment for Stigler or Hurwicz or Lerner. The upshot of the poll was that the Department, the Chairman not voting, was evidently divided in its rating of Stigler for a permanent appointment; both permanent members and temporary members of the faculty showed an even division. The Chairman explained that he would abstain from voting on the belief that the Department was not now prepared to advance, with a strong meeting of minds, a strong case to the Central Administration for a permanent appointment. Schultz proposed that we investigate a slate of names for a one-year appointment.

A motion was passed authorizing the Chairman to put Gunnar Myrdal in the first position on the slate for a one-year appointment.

Successive motions passed by the Department added the following names to the slate:

Nicholas Kaldor Simon Kuznets
Arthur F. Burns
H. M. Henderson
W. Vickrey
A. Hart
H. Stein

The Department then, following the system of ranking used in fellowship appointments, ranked these seven persons. The rank order follows:

1. Kaldor
2. Burns
3. Henderson
4. Kuznets
5½. Vickrey
5½. Hart
7. Stein

[Meeting began at 3:30 pm and ended 6:00 p.m.]

Source: University of Chicago Archives, Department of Economics Records, Box 41, Folder 12.

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

Tags Arrow, Blough, Boulding, BurnsAF, BurnsR, Hamilton, Harbinson, HartAG, HendersonHM, Hoselitz, Hurwicz, JohnsonDG, Kaldor, Klein, Knight, Koopmans, Kuznets, Kyrk, Lerner, LewisHG, Marschak, Metzler, Mints, Myrdal, Nef, Rees, SchultzTW, SteinH, Stigler, ThomsonP, Vickrey

Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Price Theory (Econ 300A and B) Exams. Friedman, Winter Quarter, 1947

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-02-03

Norman Kaplan’s handwritten list of readings for Milton Friedman’s price theory courses (Economics 300A and 300B) taught during the winter quarter of 1947 at the University of Chicago has been posted earlier. That winter quarter was the first time Friedman taught Economics 300B and only the second time he taught Economics 300A. In Friedman’s and Kaplan’s papers at Hoover and Chicago, respectively, I have found examination materials from that quarter. Friedman’s two quarter sequence was not included in the course announcements for 1946-47, so I have included the announcement for 1947-48. The 1948 course reading assignments have been transcribed as well.

_________________________

Course Announcement

300A,B. Price Theory. A systematic study of the pricing of final products and factors of production under essentially stationary conditions. Covers both perfect competition and such imperfectly competitive conditions as monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. 300A deals primarily with the pricing of final products; 300B, with the pricing of factors of production. Prereq: Econ 209 or equiv. and Econ 213 or equiv or consent of instructor.

300A. Aut: MWF 9:30; Win: MWF 10:30; Friedman.
300B. Win: MWF 9:30; Spr: MWF 9:30; Friedman

Source: Announcements. The College and the Divisions, Sessions of 1947-1948. Vol. XLVII, No. 4 (May 15, 1947), p. 224.

_________________________

PROBLEM FOR ECONOMICS 300A, WINTER 1947

Assume that a comprehensive system of point rationing is superimposed on a money price system. Each consumer is given an equal number of points although money incomes are very unequal. Point prices exist for every commodity for which a money price exists, and a consumer must pay over both points and money to purchase a commodity. To simplify the analysis, assume throughout (1) that the points are dated, (that is, can be used only during a specific period), (2) that fixed and known quantities of various commodities are available each period.

(a) Indicate (on an indifference diagram or in any other manner) how to determine the quantity of each good that an individual would purchase, given money prices, point prices, his money income, and his point income (i) if it is illegal to transfer points from one person to another and consumers conform to this requirement, and (ii) if points may legally be bought and sold for money. In this case, take as given to the individual consumer also the price of points in terms of money.

(b) If the only thing the government fixed were the number of points each individual receives, and it were to allow the money prices, point prices, and price of points in terms of money to be determined on the market, there would not be a unique set of values of these variables that would establish equilibrium, because the number of variables would be greater than the number of conditions. Explain this statement. Suppose the government tries to remove the indeterminacy by assigning values to some variables on the basis of criteria other than clearing the market. How many variables could the government so set and still have a determinate equilibrium? Does it matter which variables the government sets?

(c) It has been argues that every consumer will gain if non-transferable points, case (a) (i), were made freely transferable into money, case (a) (ii). Do you think this correct? Discuss.

Mid-Quarter Examination in Economics 300A
Winter, 1947

(20 points) Define briefly:
1. Indifference curve
2. Income effect of a change in price
3. Equilibrium price
4. Marshallian demand curve
5. Marginal rate of substitution
(40 points) Indicate whether each of the following statements is true (T), false (F), or uncertain (U), and state briefly the reason for your answer.

A government subsidy of $100 per year to each grower of potatoes enacted after the end of a particular planting season and expected to be continued indefinitely will lower the price of potatoes (which it is assumed cannot be stored)

_____ a. for that season’s crop.

_____ b. in the long run.

During period when general business is improving, both the price and output of steel rise. This means

_____ a. that the income effect of the rise in price is greater than the substitution effect.

_____ b. that the demand for steel is inelastic.

_____ c. that the demand for steel increases with income.

Removal of rent control would

_____ a. reduce the money wages of maids.

_____ b. reduce the price of trailers.

_____ If the removal of rent controls were to lead to a rise in rents, then the total amount paid in rents would decline if the demand for rental housing were elastic and rise if the demand for rental housing were inelastic.

_____ “Since elasticity measures variation in quantity (demanded or offered) divided by variations in a price, the elasticity of demand for anything will be seven times as large for seven similar demanders as it is for one.” (A. C. Pigou)

_____ A rise in the price of coal will reduce the number of “Okies” trying to go to California.

(40 points) Assume that a system of point rationing is superimposed on a price system. Each consumer is given a specified total number of points, point prices are set on various commodities, and a consumer must pay over both points and money to purchase a commodity. For simplicity, assume that there are only two commodities in the system. Indicate (on an indifference diagram or in any other manner), how to determine the quantity of each of the two commodities an individual would purchase, given money prices, point prices, his money income, and his point income.

(a) If it is illegal to transfer points from one person to another and consumers conform to this requirement. In your explanation, distinguish among the various special cases that may arise.

(b) If points may legally be bought and sold for money. In this case, take as given also the price of points in terms of money.

(c) Suppose that a fixed total quantity of each of the two goods is available; that point prices are fixed by the government, money prices are freely determined so as to clear the market; and that in case (a) some consumers are left with points which they cannot spend because they do not have enough money. The legal prohibition against transferring points is now removed, the point prices and the total number of points issued are unchanged, and the price of points in terms of money is determined in the open market. What, if anything, can be said about the price of points in terms of money under these conditions?

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 76, Folder 9 “University of Chicago Econ. 300A”.

Final Examination 300A
Winter, 1947

Has not been found either in Milton Friedman papers (Hoover Archives) nor at the Norman Kaplan papers (University of Chicago Archives).

_________________________

Mid-Quarter Examination in Economics 300B
Winter, 1947

Indicate briefly whether the following statements are correct or incorrect and why.
1. Economic theorists contend that, under competition, wages are always equal to the marginal product of labor. It seems to follow that if they are right, the simplest way to raise the productivity of labor, and hence to increase the total output of society, is to force employers to pay higher wages.
2. The value of the marginal product of a laborer employed at the same wage rate is higher if he is employed by a monopolistic firm than if he is employed by a competitive firm. It follows that the monopoly employs labor more efficiently.
3. A rise in wages will tend to lower the marginal productivity of capital.
4. The law of diminishing returns is contradicted by the fact that agricultural output of this country has increased tremendously despite a decrease in the proportion of the working population on farms.
Discuss the conditions that may give rise to long-run decreasing cost for an industry. What are the implications of the various conditions for the state of competition in this industry.
Suppose the wage differential between northern and southern laborers of the same grade were eliminated by raising the southern wage rates. Discuss the short- and long-run economic effects, including the effects on employment in the north and south.
A particular industry composed of numerous competing firms each producing a single product has been hiring labor by the hour and is in a position of long-run equilibrium. This industry (and no other) is required, because of a new law, to hire the labor by the year at a guaranteed annual wage equal to the hourly wage prevailing prior to the change times the number of hours in a normal working year. Discuss (1) the short-run effect of this change on (a) the average and marginal cost curve of a typical firm, (b) the output of that firm, (c) the number of man hours of labor employed by that firm; (2) the long-run effects on the number of firms in the industry and the output of the industry.

Final Examination in 300B
Winter Quarter, 1947

Part I

The income of farmers from the sale of their products depends on the prices at which the products sell. The general level of agricultural prices, in turn, depends primarily on the income of nonfarm population. But the income of the nonfarm population depends on the prices of nonfarm products which, in turn, depends partly on the income of farmers.
This kind of analysis is often criticized as circular reasoning and hence as incapable of leading to any useful conclusions. Is this criticism valid? Explain your answer.
Discuss the following quotation from Marshall:

“A useful history of the opposition to machinery is given in Industrial Democracy (by Sidney and Beatrice Webb)…It is combined with the advice (to trade unions) not generally to resist the introduction of machinery, but not to accept lower wages for working on the old methods in order to meet its competition. This is good advice for young men. But it cannot be followed by men who have reached their prime.”

How would you expect prices in local, neighborhood, stores in large cities to compare with prices in the central shopping district (in Chicago, the “loop”)? In your answer, distinguish among different products, and include an evaluation of the statement so often made by neighborhood stores that they can charge lower prices because they pay lower rents.

Part II

There are 100 each of A and B farms. The product schedules of one farm are

Number of laborers	Total Product
Number of laborers	A Farm	B Farm
1	40	40
2	90	80
3	140	115
4	185	145
5	225	170
6	260	190
7	290	205
8	315	215
9	335	220

a) Determine wages, rents, and employment on both types of farms

(i) if there are 900 laborers and full competition
(ii) if with 900 laborers, the laborers on the A farms organize and succeed in setting a wage rate of 40,
(iii) if, with 900 laborers, the laborers on the A farms organize and succeed in raising the standard wage rate to 47.

b) State briefly the general economic principles illustrated by each part of the above problem.

Consider a hypothetical society in which there is no investment, either net or gross. All capital is completely permanent, not subject to change in form but capable of being used for different purposes. There is no lending or borrowing, no selling or buying of capital goods: whoever owns the capital goods is forced by the laws or conventions of society to hold them and is permitted only to rent them out (i.e., all capital is subject to the conventions that now govern human capital). Hence there is no market interest rate that matters, and all saving takes the form of hoarding of cash. The total amount of money in society is fixed in nominal units (say dollars). Wages are initially rigid (by law or otherwise) and the society is in a state of Keynesian unemployment equilibrium, unemployment keeping the real income down to a level at which dissaving equals saving, so total net saving is zero.Now wages are made flexible. Describe the process of adjustment to a new equilibrium position. Does this new position involve unemployment? What is the equilibrium condition on total net saving? What forces operate to bring about the satisfaction of this equilibrium condition?

Source: Kaplan, Norman Maurice. Papers, Box 1, Folder 8, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Image Source: Milton Friedman, from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06230, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Friedman, Kaplan

Chicago Funny Business M.I.T.

M.I.T. Christmas skit “God and Keynes at M.I.T.”, 1951

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-01-29

The title of the Christmas skit presented by the Graduate Economic Association players at MI.T. in December 1951 , “God and Keynes at M.I.T”, is a clear reference to the political screed, God and Man at Yale (1951), by the young and future conservative pundit, William F. Buckley, Jr. This is one of many MIT skits found in the papers of Robert M. Solow and has been graciously shared for ERVM transcription by Roger E. Backhouse of, most recently, Becoming Samuelson, 1915-1948 fame.

One of the signs you are dealing with truly academic humor is the use of footnotes to provide proper attribution. In particular we find here seven items borrowed (and sometimes modified) from the University of Chicago Political Economy Club repertoire. Thus we see not only were some of the Greatest-Hits of Chicago skit humor “remastered” in the Windy City but also that the G.E.A. of M.I.T. was not above performing “covers” of Freshwater Hits. ERVM has already transcribed a few of these and for the sake of completeness will soon complete this list with the Chicago originals:

First Epistle unto New Students
The Keynesian Song
We Must Be Rigorous
Jingle Bells (Variation)
His Rules Go Marching On
Sergeant’s Song
Mabel’s Song

There is still plenty of original material in the following skit, and the few modifications worth noting include a key substitution of Keynes (MIT) for Marshall (Chicago) and another substitution of “psychology and sociology” (MIT) for “Macroeconomics and Probability” (Chicago).

________________________

THE GRADUATE ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION
present
The G. E. A. Players
in
GOD AND KEYNES AT M. I. T.
15 December 1951

*Items so marked are modified versions borrowed from the University of Chicago, Political Economy Club.

PROLOGUE

(the scene is set to reveal the young college graduate relaxing in his home. He has made application to M.I.T. for entry to Course XIV. We hear the door-bell ring, and the letter arrives. He reads:)

An economics department great in dignity
In fairest Cambridge, where we lay our scene
Offers to disturb you, from present peace
To come to our proximity.

From forth of this great and new transition
A host of new subjects will take their position;
Econometrics, propensities, and laboristic relations;
Matrices, consumption, and similar sensations.

And if you will survive the economic pains
We’ll make of you another John Maynard Keynes.
So won’t you please say that you will come and stay;
Let me know real soon, signed sincerely, C. P. K.

(the student arrives at Tech, finds the library, and enters the elevator. On the way up to the third floor he hears:)

FIRST EPISTLE UNTO NEW STUDENTS*

To all who enter through the Gate of Admissions unto the sanctity of the Department, heed ye well one who is wiser and older than thou. For verily I have dwelt in the land of Keynes for many years, and have felt the curse of Generals on my brain.
Beware the courses called 121 and 122, for they will tax thee sorely. They have been devised that the supply may be known from the demand.
Present thyself upon the appointed hour, lest the social cost exceed the private gain and the wrath of the Master fall upon thee mightily.
Shun thou the geometer, for he seeks to seduce thee with curves. His siren song is pleasant but he lacketh rigor.
Shun thou also the temple of the twin gods, psychology and sociology, for therein dwell the Philistines who worship not the calculus. There wilt thou be set upon with all manner of strange things and thou shalt feel the lash of the complex verbage, and thy head shall whirl with cultural patterns and institutional mores.
Treasure thy Keynes, for verily all manner of mysteries are set down therein. Read it well and carefully, but say not that thou hast understood.
Take to thine own bosom the demand curve lest it desert thee in thine hour of need.
Attend well the lectures called innovation, for there if thou learnest nothing else, shalt thou learn at least one thing and it shall be a contribution to thy general education.
Shun thou the industrial economist when he is at his data, for he loveth them dearly and will defend them as a lioness her cubs.
Beware also the statistician who will leave the witless with a pair of dice.
Shun the welfare economist, for he loveth mightily to stick out his neck and will teach thee his evil ways.
Shun thou the coffee hour, but study diligently in Dewey lest thou and thy end thy days in Course XV.
There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. Be thou silent in the presence of the Master, for he shall reveal to thee the secrets of Keynes and there shalt thou solve the riddle of the Sphinx.

(the student steps out of the elevator into the third floor hall. He sees before him many doors, all with different names on them. He decides to investigate each one. First, he comes to:)

“John Maynard Keynes”

(he knocks. The door opens, and out steps an angel, wings, white sheet, and all. The angel says:)

‘He ain’t here; but you’ll meet him in the long run!’

(on to the next door:)

“Paul A. Samuelson”

(the door opens, and the chorus sings:)

THE KEYNESIAN SONG*
(to the tune “They Call me Little Buttercup”)

They call me a Keynesian, a Keynesian economist
That I can never deny
For I am a heretic, a classicist critic—
Bold little Keynesian, I.

I’ve equations and functions, and marginal assumptions
All here in my little kit bag.
I’ve tricky proposals for income disposals
All lest the economy sag.

To deficit spending and government lending
I give a hearty “Huzzah”.
I distrust automaticity despite its simplicity—
I doubt it would work at all.

For I am a Keynesian, a Keynesian economist
That I can never deny
For I’m a heretic, a classical critic—
Bold little Keynesian, I.

When faced with deflation or misallocation
I feel that the former is worse
I abominate waste with Ricardian distaste
But first things always come first.

And yet they deplore me, criticize and abhor me
For I am the standard straw man
But blows I don’t heed—Oh, I’ll stick to my credo
That a plan is a plan is a plan.

For I am a Keynesian, a Keynesian economist
That I can never deny
For I’m a heretic, a classical critic—
Bold little Keynesian, I.

“Robert Solow”

(scene, his classroom, where the students are singing:)

WE MUST BE RIGOROUS*
(to the tune of “The American Patrol”)

We must be rigorous,
We must be rigorous,
We must fulfill our role;
If we hesitate
Or equivocate,
We won’t achieve our goal.
We must investigate
Our system, complicated
To make our models whole;
Econometrics brings about
Statistical control.

Our esoteric seminars
Bring statisticians by the score.
But try to find economists
Who don’t think algebra a chore.
O, we must urge them all emphatically
To become inclined mathematically
So that all that we’ve developed, may
Someday be applied.

(repeat first 11 lines)

“Charles P. Kindleberger”

(the door opens, and we hear a voice say:)

Intuition is the basis
on which decisions should be made;
These are really the foundations
On which economics has been laid.

All that’s mathematical
Definitely is tabled;
Even the little diagrams
Never have been labeled.

Be careful, however
That you never neglect
The varied use
Of the Kindleberger effect.

Art or skill
or merely a quirk
This man’s intuition
Does the work.

“Robert L. Bishop”

(the door opens, and we find snow falling. The chorus is on a toboggan, singing:)

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)*

Maximize, maximize, that’s the crucial key;
Allocate resources by their productivity.
Equalize V.M.P.’s with their prices, and
Your production function is the finest in the land.

(voice) In the course of industrialization men have observed the alternating rises and falls of economic activity. And, lo, see what befell us:

“Walt W. Rostow”

(the voice continues:)

To shoot, or overshoot, ah, there’s the cycle;
Whether ‘tis nobler from underinvestment to suffer
Than to prolong the period of gestation
And, by consumption end it?

To history! No more of economics; and by the use of it
To end the confusion and million little theories
That economics left us;
That’s the solution we plan to introduce.

“E. Cary Brown”
(to the tune of “Deep in the Heart of Texas”)

(chorus)

To fill the gap
On the Keynesian map
We must again raise taxes;
The prices rise
If we don’t equalize
Savings, investment and taxes.

(solo)

Income grows
In ever rising flows
We must again raise taxes;
In government spends
There seem no ends
Up must go the taxes.

(solo)

dC/dY
Is all awry
We must raise those taxes
The propensity
It’s a calamity
Up must go those taxes.

(chorus)

The interest rate
Is out of date
So we must raise those taxes;
Though bonds recede
We must proceed
To raise again those taxes.

(solo)

The crystal balls
In the third floor halls
Say raise those taxes;
Or you will fret
And long regret
If you don’t raise those taxes.

(solo: and how!)

Flexibility
Cries the C.E.D.
Boys, raise those taxes
Says the N.A.M.
It’s all a sham
Don’t raise those taxes

(chorus)

But God and Keynes
Have the true refrains
Up must go the taxes;
At M.I.T.
We all agree
More savings and more taxes.

(by now, our student has traveled one-half the length of the hall. He approaches the other half, where a voice speaks:)

Friend; first year man; lend me your ear.
I come to convince you that industrial relations
Occupies a so much higher station
That economics—while ’t is good and fine
Must of necessity bow under our sign.
The evil that me do lives after them;
The good is oft interred within their books;
So let it be with economics.

We offer to show you the extent of cooperation
Between management and labor in every relation,
And prove to you that what’er your belief
Our unique methods will give either side full relief.

Economists, you know, often speak of productivity;
But that’s a matter of total relativity
Since our writers—Shultz, Myers, Coleman and Brown
Are the most productive in a many a college town.

“Charlie Myers”

(the door opens, and we see Myers writing vigorously and adding stacks of manuscripts to already huge piles labeled “To Prentice Hall,” “To McGraw-Hill,” and “Rejects—to Technology Press.” Secretary enters:)

Secretary: “Prof. Myers, here’s that book you asked me to write for you.”

Myers: “Good; don’t forget to start on that other one for me.”

(enter George Shultz carrying a manuscript)

Myers: “Hello, George. I see we’ve written another book. Mind if I look at it?”

Shultz: “Not at all, Charlie. I’ve already begun on the other one for us. You know, though, I think we’re getting a bit too abstract. We ought to go down to a level where it’s good and dirty.”

Myers: “In that case, let’s call in Joe Scanlon. Hey, Joe. Come here.”

(the chorus enters, dressed as bums; they sing:)

THE JOE SCANLON SONG
(to the tune of “Union Maid”)

There once was a bright young man
Who thought he had a plan
He studied cost
And jobs he lost
His name is Joe Scanlan

He soon met a man named Phil
Whose work gave him a thrill
He organized and compromised
He always fought up-hill.

This made of him a wreck
And so he came to Tech.
He sells his plan
To all the clan;
You ought to see his check.

CHORUS:
O you can’t scare us, we’re sticking with Scanlon,
Sticking with Scanlon, sticking with Scanlon;
Oh you can’t scare us, we’re sticking with Scanlon,
Sticking with Scanlon, until we die.

When the bosses have no dough
They always call for Joe;
They shed their tears
And buy him beers
And up their profits go—

(repeat CHORUS)

(as the final chorus ends, the door opens, and we see a body on the table)

Bishop: “What’s the matter with him, Morrie Adelman?”

Adelman: “He’s just been brought in; he’s suffering from a severe case of elephantiasis.”

Bishop: “Oh, don’t worry; I’ve got a classical solution. It contains some of Euler’s serum.” (pull up a jug so labeled and apply to patient’s arm)

Adelman: “Well, what do you expect that to accomplish?”

Bishop: “It’ll create perfect competition among the disease germs. What could be better?”

Adelman: (pause) “Well, I don’t see him recovering.”

Bishop: “But it’s not a pure case. Perhaps we should call in Dr. D. V. Brown. He’s had medical experience. (enter D.V.B.)

Brown: “Hi-ja.” (looks at body, and shows surprise) “My goodness, Charlie! I always knew he’s work too hard.” (looks at body more closely) “Looks to me like an impure case of oligopoly.”

Adelman: “O-o-o-oh! Let me see!” (goes over to feel arm) “No, there’s no concentration here. But even if there were, there’s really no harm in it.”

Brown: “Well, I’d like to stay, but I have to dash off to a court case.”

COURT SCENE

Judge: “The court is now in session. Bring in the first case.”

Prosecutor: “Your honor, this man is accused of attempting to overthrow the neo-classical Chicago School.”

Judge: “What’s your name?”

Coleman: “Sir, my name is Jack Coleman.”

Judge: “Prosecutor, define more explicitly what the charge is against this man.”

Prosecutor: “This man is presently collaborating with a well-known group of collectivists.”

Judge: “What proof have you of this?”

Prosecutor: “I have here my star witness.”

Judge: “What is your name?”

Buckley: “Your honor, sir, my name is Ludwig von Buckley.”

Judge: “Speak.”

Buckley: “I have here a book written by Paul A. Samuelson, and it says here on page.–., Oh, well, let’s not bother with the page number now. It says: “…know…conclusively…that…Karl Marx…is…(turn pages back towards front)…correct.”

Judge: “Speak no more. Any man collaborating with the author of such a book must be guilty of attempting to overthrow the Chicago School. I hereby sentence you to six months of solitary confinement, with a copy of Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson.” Next case.”

(Coleman leaves; enter Herb Shepard)

Prosecutor: “Your honor, this man is accused of playing marbles with the fabulous Alex Bavelas.”

Judge: “What is your name?” (say it aggressively)

Shepard: “Say, you’re unusually aggressive today. Has your wife stopped beating you? How’s your libido?”

Judge: “Now that you mention it, I have been feeling rather despondent.”

Shepard: “Judge, I’m a Freud…you’re tending toward a psycho-social orientation that no longer promotes an optimization of gratification.”

Judge: “Noooooo—I’m too JUNG to die!….But what am I saying! Herbert Shepard, for this circumlocutionist behavior, I hereby sentence you to the marble pits in ex-communication.”

(the student next comes to a door marked “reserved for Chicago U. delegates to the A.E.A. Convention.” He knocks, the door opens, and he hears:)

HIS RULES GO MARCHING ON*
(to the tune of the Battle Hymn of Republic)

If you want to pass your prelims
You must listen now to me;
You must learn your catechism
If you want to get your ‘B’
They have flunked the finest people
The department ever had
And they never said ‘too bad.’

CHORUS:

Stick, stick, stick with Henry Simons;
Henry is the man to see you through;
He’s the most consistent [man]
With an economic plan;
His rules go marching on.

He would nationalize the railroads,
He would atomize the firm,
He would then repeal the tariff
And the “E” bonds he would burn;
He would cleanse the banking system
Of the Federal Reserve;
His rules go marching on.

[Repeat] CHORUS:

He is the man who’d fix up
The progressive income tax;
He would fill in every item that
The present structure lacks;
He’d repeal the excise levies
And forget the margarine tax;
His rules go marching on.

[Repeat] CHORUS:

(by now the student will have reached the end of the hall; but questions linger in his mind. He wonders how the student takes all this. And as if in answer, he hears this song between students and faculty:* (to the tune of the ‘Sergeant’s Song’ from the Pirate[s] of Penzance)

Grad Students:

From nine around to nine—Tarantara! tarantara!
We remain in that salt mine—Tarantara!
-Our eyes are growing dim–Tarantara! tarantara!
Our hair is getting thin—Tarantara!
As we while away our youth—Tarantara! tarantara!
In sedate pursuit of Truth—Tarantara!!
Searching stacks and aching backs,
Third degree for a PhD—Tarantara! tarantara! tarantara!

Faculty: (to the tune of “Mabel’s Song” from the Pirate[s] of Penzance)

Go, you students, you’ll not be sorry.
You’ll contribute to MY great story.
You shall live in footnote glory.
Go to immortality!

Go to work and hold off suicide,
For if your work with our needs coincide,
Our reluctance to grant degrees we’ll override.
Go, you heroes, go and work!

(finally, as our student reaches the end of his journey, he meet the one ‘older and wiser than thou’, and listens as he tells of the ‘impending doom’.)

Twas the night before Orals
When all through the room
A feeling forecast
The impending doom.
The facts were placed
In each head with care
In hopes that when needed
They’d surely be there.
The victims then nestled
All snug in their beds
While visions of cost curves
Danced in their heads.
I soon fell asleep
And began to dream
I sat in a room
All filled with steam.
When out in the yard
There arose such a clatter
I sprang from the chair
To see what was the matter.
Over to the window
I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters
And threw up the sash.
When what to my wondering
Eyes there appears
A miniature sleigh
And eight tiny examineers.
Instead of the four
They usually required
They sent me four more
If the others got tired.
As I drew in my head
And was turning around
In through the window
They came with a bound.
They were dressed all in black
From their head to the toe;
Whose funeral, I asked,
Someone I know?
A wink of their eyes,
A twist of each head
Soon gave me to know
I had plenty to dread.
They spoke not a word
But went straight to their work
Of filling the blackboards
Then turned to the jerk.
The questions commenced
Like machine gun fire;
I couldn’t keep straight
The seller from buyer.
Now sir, please listen
One of them said
Try to imagine
All this in your head.
Nansen and Johansen
Have only one sled;
They’re at the North pole
And have not bread.
Suddenly there appears
A giant Tartar
Coming from Siberia
Looking to barter.
They can bake some bread
At increasing cost
Yet without a compass
They’ll certainly be lost.
He has a compass
And they have bread
And without exchange
They all will be dead.
They started to bargain
Until he did tell you
That the Russians decided
The ruble to devalue.
Only Sterling is recognized,
So they start to bake
Instead of the bread
A large pound cake.
Then suddenly Nansen
Thought to remember
That neither of them
Was a union member.
Closed shops were enforceable
As a matter of fact
For this was before
The Taft-Hartley Act.
They went ahead anyway,
They didn’t give a hoot;
It was so cold
They needed a union suit.
Before they acted
Or did anything drastic
They examined their demand curve
To see if it was elastic.
Their cost curve was unknown–
It had never been seen;
How lucky they were
That Nansen was really Joel Dean.
Their consumption function told them
Just how to behave;
They knew what to consume
And how much to save.
Please consider the theories
of Tibor Scitovsky
And the two fisted cowboy
two-gun Baranowsky.
If you remember these facts
And keep them in mind,
The right answer, I know
You certainly should find.
I shivered and shook,
In the chair I did writhe;
Now the question, they said
Who was Adam Smythe?
The leader then yelled
For a decision it’s time;
This man has suffered,
He has paid for his crime.
And laying a finger
Aside of his nose
Out of the window
All eight of them goes.
It was the leader then
That I heard exclaim
As he shouted and whistled,
And called them by name:
Now Myers, now Bishop
Now Shultz and C.P.K.
On Coleman, on Solow,
Let’s now dash and dash away.
They sprang to their sleigh
And away they flew
Like they were speeding
To another rendezvous.
Although some details
Of this horrible nightmare
Still seem a bit hazy
I certainly would swear,
Before I awoke
I heard them say
Merry Christmas to all,
And to all a good day.

EPILOGUE

As disproved by classical economics
All good things much reach an end;
And so we must leave our attempt at comics,
Hoping we’ve pleased both foe and friend.

‘Tis true enough that our little parody
Has given economics unusual clarity,
And that our writers if circumstances permit it
Will prefer to have their names omitted.

So then, since ours must be the last say,
a real Merry Christmas from the G.E.A.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Robert M. Solow Papers, Box 83, Folders “Economic Skit Parties”.

Image: Cover art from “God and Keynes at M.I.T.” December 15, 1951. Ibid.

Tags Adelman, Bishop, BrownDV, BrownEC, Coleman, Kindleberger, Myers, Rostow, Samuelson, Scanlon, Shepard, ShultzG, Simons, Solow

Chicago Economist Market Economists

Chicago. Marschak on potential hires for department, 1946

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-01-25

In his magnificent article about the departmental politics behind the appointment of Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago in 1946, David Mitch refers in passing to a February 1946 memo written to the Chancellor and President of the University by Vice-President Rueben G. Gustavson in which the Vice-President reports on a discussion he had with Jacob Marschak about various economists being considered for appointment.

Mitch’s online Appendix to his article provides an excellent selection of archival artifacts to which the transcription of the Gustavson memo below may be added. In this memo it looks like we are observing active lobbying (at least providing his “spin”) on Marschak’s part rather than a senior faculty member summoned by an administrator to provide deep background on prospective hires.

It is worth noting that the names of five future Nobel prize winners in economics can be found in a single 1946 memo. It is also interesting that the last two candidates mentioned in the memo, namely Lloyd Metzler and Milton Friedman, were the only two to turn out to become permanent acquisitions of the department.

See: David Mitch, “A Year of Transition: Faculty Recruiting at Chicago in 1946,” Journal of Political Economy 124, no. 6 (December 2016): 1714-1734. [working paper version (ungated)]

__________________________________

Biographical Note of Rueben Gilbert Gustavson

Rueben Gilbert Gustavson was born (April 6, 1892-February 24, 1974) to Swedish immigrants James and Hildegard Gustavson. As a young man Gustavson developed a strong belief in moral responsibility to others. After a childhood injury made following in his father’s footsteps as a carpenter impossible he attended high school where he excelled in his studies. In deference to his father’s wish he learn practical skills Gustavson took courses in typing and stenography. These classes enabled Reuben to gain employment with Colorado and Southern Railroad where he became secretary to the auditor. The monies Gustavson earned working at the railroad enabled him to enroll in at the University of Denver, DU. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree DU Gustavson decided to pursue a master’s degree in chemistry. He received his MS in chemistry in 1917 and briefly became a chemist at the Great Western Sugar Company. He accepted an offer to teach at the Colorado Agricultural College in Fort Collins but became disillusioned when told that as a professor he could not teach and conduct research. Gustavson returned to DU where he remained for the next seventeen years. During that time he spent summer breaks working toward his PhD at the University of Chicago. Initially, specializing in radioactivity the loss of his advisor enabled him to change to biochemistry. Gustavson received his PhD in 1925 and taught at the University of Chicago during the 1929-30 academic year. A disagreement over what Gustavson felt were unethical practices involving student athletes led to him leaving DU. University of Colorado President, George Norlin, invited Gustavson to join the faculty as a professor of chemistry. He was appointed chairman of the chemistry department and remained in that position from 1937-42. In 1942 the Dean of the Graduate School became ill and Gustavson was chosen as a temporary replacement but when the dean died the position became permanent. Now involved in the academic administration of the university Gustavson was chosen to substitute for the new president of the University of Colorado, Robert L. Stearns, during World War II. Stearns was commissioned as an officer in the Army Air Corps. Gustavson accepted the position with the understanding that Stearns would resume the presidency when he returned. After the war Gustavson became the Vice President and Dean of Faculties at the University of Chicago for a short time in 1945-46. During Gustavson’s time at the University of Chicago he worked with Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller on the atomic bomb project. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki convinced Gustavson the only hope for human survival was the promotion of peace through education that taught appreciation of other peoples and cultures. In 1946 Gustavson moved to the University of Nebraska where he remained as Chancellor until 1953. After leaving the University of Nebraska Gustavson became the first president of Resources for the Future where he served from 1953-1959. An outgrowth of his work on the atomic bomb project this organization conducted economic research and analysis to help craft better policies on the use and preservation of natural resources. Gustavson then resumed teaching at the University of Arizona and was a member of the chemistry department from 1960 until his death in 1974.

Source: John Patrick McSweeney. The Chancellorship of Reuben G. Gustavson at the University of Nebraska, 1946-1953. Lincoln: Digital Commons @ University of Nebraska, 1971.

__________________________________

Gustavson Memorandum of Discussion with Jacob Marshak

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Date February 19, 1946

To: RMH [Robert Maynard Hutchins, President of the University of Chicago (1929-45); Chancellor (1945-51)]; ECC [Ernest Cadman Colwell, President of the University of Chicago (1945-51)]
From: RGG [Reuben G. Gustavson, Vice-President of the University of Chicago (1945-1946)]

Professor Marschak came in to talk to me about possible recommendations for men in the Department of Economics. He discussed the following:

John Hicks of London. He is now at Oxford but is coming to this country. He is about forty years of age. He is quite well known, especially for his book called the “Brainwork of Social Economy.” [sic, The Social Framework: An Introduction to Economics] This book is now being used in the College.
Paul Samuelson is a much younger man than Hicks. He is now an associate professor at M.I.T. He is known for his work in the general theory of disequilibrium.
Arthur Smithies is professor at the University of Michigan. He is now in the Bureau of the Budget at Washington. Marschak describes him as a man who is concerned with economic policies. He takes the empirical approach to the study of economics.

Marschak states that Mr. Hicks is also a good man in local finance [Hicks’ wife, Ursula Hicks, probably mentioned by Marschak]. He says also that T. Koopmans, Research Associate with the Cowles Commission, who has been recommended for an associate professorship, is a very fine man. He is in mathematical statistics. He speaks highly of Lionel Robbins of the London School. Marschak says he is an all-around personality. He has been of great service to the English government during the war.

He thinks very highly of Lloyd Metzler. He was an instructor at Harvard. He as applied the modern methods of Samuelson to international trade.

Professor Marschak also thinks very highly of Milton Friedman, who is a graduate of the University of Chicago.

I shall discuss all these men with Schultz.

Source: University of Chicago Library, Department of Special Collections. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 284, Folder “Economics, 1943-1947”.

Image Source: Reuben G. Gustavson from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06588, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Friedman, Hicks, HicksU, Koopmans, Marschak, Metzler, Robbins, Samuelson, SchultzTW, Smithies

Letter from Alexander Konüs to Martin Bronfenbrenner 7 July 1966

Carbon copy of letter from Bronfenbrenner to Konüs 18 August, 1966

Yale University New Haven, Connecticut

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics Box 2125, Yale Station

PRICE THEORY Economics 300 Autumn, 1962 Mr. Rees

Economics 300 Midterm Examination

November 7, 1962 A. Rees

FINAL EXAMINATION

Economics 300 December 12, 1962 A. Rees

T. S. Schultz’s handwritten notes attached to Report

copy of T. W. S.

REPORT OF THE BAILEY-CHRIST-GRILICHES COMMITTEE*

(1) Instruction, training and placement of students.

(2) Relations with the business, law, and statistics faculties.

(3) Information about the department for its members, for the economics profession, and for prospective students.

(4) The allocation of resources and economics research.

(5) Kinds of economists the department ought to try to hire.

Handwritten Markings and Remarks

Obituary May 3, 2017

Longtime JHU Economist Carl Christ dies at 93

IN MEMORIAM Published Apr 25, 2017

Longtime Johns Hopkins economist Carl F. Christ dies at 93 Trailblazing expert in field of econometrics specialized in fiscal policy and government budget restraint, spent more than 40 years at JHU

by Jill Rosen

Obituary April 26, 2017

Carl F. Christ, noted Johns Hopkins economist by Frederick N. Rasmussen The Baltimore Sun

In Memoriam—Carl Christ (1923-2017) Comments from Carl Christ’s students, friends and colleagues

Economics 314 and 315 Econometrics and Special Topics in Econometrics READING LISTS Winter and Spring 1957 Mr. Christ

Econometrics “Texts”

Statistical Inference (Including Regression and Correlation)

Econometric Techniques and Problems (Including the Estimation of Parameters)

Statistical Tests for Econometric Equations

Aggregate Econometric Models of the U. S. Economy

Demand Studies

Consumption Functions

Other Applications

Input-Output

Linear Programming

Calculus

Matrix Algebra and Determinants

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department, May 24, 1950.

II. Appointments

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department, May 30, 1950.

Appointments

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department, June 8, 1950.

Appointments

Course Announcement

PROBLEM FOR ECONOMICS 300A, WINTER 1947

Mid-Quarter Examination in Economics 300A Winter, 1947

Final Examination 300A Winter, 1947

Mid-Quarter Examination in Economics 300B Winter, 1947

Final Examination in 300B Winter Quarter, 1947

Part I

Part II

THE GRADUATE ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION present The G. E. A. Players in GOD AND KEYNES AT M. I. T. 15 December 1951

PROLOGUE

FIRST EPISTLE UNTO NEW STUDENTS*

“John Maynard Keynes”

“Paul A. Samuelson”

THE KEYNESIAN SONG* (to the tune “They Call me Little Buttercup”)

“Robert Solow”

WE MUST BE RIGOROUS* (to the tune of “The American Patrol”)

“Charles P. Kindleberger”

“Robert L. Bishop”

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)*

“Walt W. Rostow”

“E. Cary Brown” (to the tune of “Deep in the Heart of Texas”)

“Charlie Myers”

THE JOE SCANLON SONG (to the tune of “Union Maid”)

COURT SCENE

HIS RULES GO MARCHING ON* (to the tune of the Battle Hymn of Republic)

Grad Students:

EPILOGUE

Biographical Note of Rueben Gilbert Gustavson

Gustavson Memorandum of Discussion with Jacob Marshak

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Letter from Alexander Konüs to Martin Bronfenbrenner
7 July 1966

Carbon copy of letter from Bronfenbrenner to Konüs
18 August, 1966

Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics
Box 2125, Yale Station

PRICE THEORY
Economics 300
Autumn, 1962
Mr. Rees

Economics 300
Midterm Examination

November 7, 1962
A. Rees

Economics 300
December 12, 1962
A. Rees

Obituary
May 3, 2017

IN MEMORIAM
Published Apr 25, 2017

Longtime Johns Hopkins economist Carl F. Christ dies at 93
Trailblazing expert in field of econometrics specialized in fiscal policy and government budget restraint, spent more than 40 years at JHU

Obituary
April 26, 2017

Carl F. Christ, noted Johns Hopkins economist
by Frederick N. Rasmussen
The Baltimore Sun

In Memoriam—Carl Christ (1923-2017)
Comments from Carl Christ’s students, friends and colleagues

Economics 314 and 315
Econometrics and Special Topics in Econometrics
READING LISTS
Winter and Spring 1957
Mr. Christ

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
May 24, 1950.

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
May 30, 1950.

From the MINUTES, Meeting of the Department,
June 8, 1950.

Mid-Quarter Examination in Economics 300A
Winter, 1947

Final Examination 300A
Winter, 1947

Mid-Quarter Examination in Economics 300B
Winter, 1947

Final Examination in 300B
Winter Quarter, 1947

THE GRADUATE ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION
present
The G. E. A. Players
in
GOD AND KEYNES AT M. I. T.
15 December 1951

THE KEYNESIAN SONG*
(to the tune “They Call me Little Buttercup”)

WE MUST BE RIGOROUS*
(to the tune of “The American Patrol”)

“E. Cary Brown”
(to the tune of “Deep in the Heart of Texas”)

THE JOE SCANLON SONG
(to the tune of “Union Maid”)

HIS RULES GO MARCHING ON*
(to the tune of the Battle Hymn of Republic)