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Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Enrollment, course description, final examinations. Statistics. Ripley, 1904-1905

William Zebina Ripley

 

The sole course devoted to number-crunching in the Harvard economics program in the early 20th century required no more than a command of the four arithmetic operations, sharp pencils and graph paper. William Z. Ripley was there to introduce his students to the myriad sources of economic and social statistics available for his time. Interpretation was what did with one’s data when one was not collecting, aggregating, averaging and/or tabulating raw counts and accounting sums.

In a collection of short bibliographies published in 1910, prepared with students of social ethics in mind,William Z. Ripley assembled the following Short Bibliography on Social Statistics for “Serious-minded Students”.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 4. Professor Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 11: 7 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 4. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. Tu., Th., at 10. Professor Ripley.

This course is intended to serve rather as an analysis of methods of research and sources of information than as a description of mere results. A brief history of statistics will be followed by an account of modes of collecting and tabulating census and other statistical material in the United States and abroad, the scientific use and interpretation of results by the mean, the average, seriation, the theory of probability, etc. The main divisions of vital statistics, relating to birth, marriage, morbidity, and mortality, life tables, etc.; the statistics of trade and commerce, such as price indexes, etc.; industrial statistics relating to labor, wages, and employment; statistics of agriculture, manufactures, and transportation, will be then considered in order. The principal methods of graphic representation will be comprehended, and laboratory work, amounting to not less than two hours per week, in the preparation of charts, maps, and diagrams from original material, will be required.

 

Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economics 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economics 1. It is especially recommended, in connection with Economics 2, for all candidates for advanced degrees.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 39-40.

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Economics 4
Mid-year Exam, 1904-05

  1. What were the main causes in 1890 for the “apparent loss of over 1,000,000 children under five years of age as compared with the proportion in 1880”? Were the same conditions revealed in 1900, and why?
  2. State separately at least four changes in vital statistics revealed in 1900 due to changes in immigration, explaining fully in each case the differences from the situation in 1900.
  3. What is the “chip system” in use in the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, comparing it with the Federal apparatus for tabulation?
  4. How is the birth rate for the United States calculated in the Federal Census Office?
  5. What is meant by “standardizing” a mortality rate? Has any proposal to do this internationally been made? Outline it in general.
  6. What are some of the theories seeking to explain the slight preponderance of boys over girls at birth?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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Economics 4
Year-end Exam, 1904-05

  1. Which system of price index numbers seems to you most reliable and why?
  2. What was Engel’s “quet” and wherefor was it devised?
  3. What are the best authorities on wage statistics; (a) for the United States; (b) for Great Britain?
  4. What are the principal difficulties in measuring the intensity of criminal phenomena in two countries over a term of years?
  5. What items in statistics of manufactures may be used with confidence, as being really indicative of conditions?
  6. Outline the nature of our American agricultural statistics, describing (1) the method of collection; (2) reliability; and (3) the problem of coöperation in effort.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 25.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910). Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Sociology Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Course readings, final exams, and enrollment for Principles of Sociology. Carver and Field, 1904-1905

 

The post begins with excerpts from Thomas Nixon Carver’s autobiography dealing with his own training and teaching of sociology. He was an economist back when most sociology courses were taught within economics departments as was the case at Harvard up through the early 1930’s. Carver’s recollections are followed by the enrollment figures, the reading list, and the semester examinations for his Principles of Sociology course from the 1904-05 academic year.

Likely readings for this course can be found in Sociology and Social Progress, compiled by Thomas Nixon Carver (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1905).

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Carver’s background and institutional legacy in sociology
(From his autobiography)

Graduate Coursework at Cornell

[p. 105] The economics faculty consisted of Jeremiah W. Jenks, chairman, Walter F. Willcox, Charles H. Hull, and young  [Lucius S.] Merriam. The history department was very strong but I did not take any history courses, to my later regret. My fellowship was officially a teaching fellowship, but I was told that the holders had never been called upon to teach. It paid $550 which proved sufficient for my needs. I took courses under all three of the older men in the department of economics, but none under Merriam. Jenks conducted the seminar and gave a course on economic legislation, both of which I took. Hull gave a course on the history of economic thought, which I took, and another on industrial history. Willcox gave a course in statistics and another on sociology, both of which I took….

[p.111] … Johns Hopkins at that time was known principally because of its graduate school. Cornell had a growing graduate school but it was an appendage rather than the main part of the university. At Johns Hopkins, graduate students were segregated and had relatively few contacts with undergraduates. At Cornell, on the other hand, they were pretty well mixed.

Cornell had a larger faculty than Johns Hopkins and probably as many distinguished scholars, but the average was perhaps not so high, most of them being concerned with undergraduate teaching.

In the Department of Economics, Jenks was the oldest member and chairman of the department. He was more interested in the practical than in the theoretical side of economics. Merriam was a brilliant theorist and, had he lived, would have strengthened that side of their work. Jenks was a wide awake and interesting teacher, a man of the world who could meet on equal terms men prominent in government and business and might have done well in the diplomatic service.

Hull had an encyclopedic knowledge of American industrial history and should have written books on the subject, but he was so afraid that he might overlook something that he never got quite ready to write.

Probably the most brilliant of the three was Walter F. Willcox. Before the rise of the mathematical school of statisticians he was the leading statistician of the country. He also took us through Spencer’s Principles of Sociology and added a good many original ideas of his own. He was one of the few teachers of sociology whom I have known who were capable of taking a realistic and rational view of things.

Teaching at Oberlin

[pp. 122-123] Professor Hull had returned from his sojourn at Johns Hopkins. This relieved me of the classes in English and American history which I had carried the year before [1894-1895]. I added a course [in 1895-1896] in anthropology and one in sociology to my offering.

Teaching at Harvard
(Carver joined the faculty 1900-01)

[p. 132] There was no Department of Sociology at Harvard, but Edward Cummings had given a course on principles of sociology in the Department of Economics. Since I had been giving a course in that subject at Oberlin it was suggested that I continue it at Harvard. [1901-02; 1902-03 (taught by Ripley  and Carver); 1903-04] In addition I gave a course on economic theory and a half course on methods of economic investigation.

[p. 172] The course on the principles of sociology developed into a study of the Darwinian theory as applied to social groups. Variation among the forms of social organization and of moral systems, and the selection or survival of those systems and forms that make for group strength, were considered to constitute the method of social evolution.

The Harvard Illustrated, a student publication, at that time conducted a poll of the senior class, asking the students to name the best courses they had taken. For a number of

years Professor Palmer’s course in ethics ranked highest. My course on principles of sociology began to climb until it finally achieved first place. Then the poll was discontinued.

[pp. 210-212] I have mentioned several times the courses which I had developed at Harvard: principles of agricultural economics, principles of sociology, methods of social reform, and the distribution of wealth. I was, all those years, covering more ground than any other member of the department…
…Up to this time there had been no department of sociology at Harvard. There was a Department of Anthropology and a Department of Social Ethics, but the only course in sociological principles was the one which I gave in the Department of Economics. At one of the meetings of the American Sociological Society I heard Sorokin of the University of Minnesota read a paper. I was impressed by his prodigious learning and general sanity. I began to cultivate his acquaintance and finally was instrumental in bringing him to Harvard….The Department of Economics, on my motion, invited him to give a course of three lectures at Harvard. While he was in Cambridge, I introduced him to President Lowell. Later, on my motion, the department voted to recommend to the Corporation that Sorokin be offered a professorship in the Department of Economics to give courses in sociology at Harvard. The offer was made, he accepted, and a beginning was made toward starting a department of sociology.

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver. Recollections of an Unplanned Life. Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press, 1949.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 3. Professor Carver and Mr. J. A. Field. — Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.

Total 47: 10 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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ECONOMICS 3
Prescribed Reading and Collateral References. 1904-05

TO BE READ IN FULL
  1. Herbert Spencer. Principles of Sociology.
  2. Walter Bagehot. Physics and Politics.
  3. Benjamin Kidd. Social Evolution.
  4. F. H. Giddings. Principles of Sociology.
COLLATERAL READING. STARRED REFERENCES ARE ESPECIALLY RECOMMENDED

I. SCOPE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY

  1. Auguste Comte. Positive Philosophy. Book VI. Chs.2-4.
  2. Herbert Spencer. Classification of the Sciences, in Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative. Vol. II.
  3. *Herbert Spencer. The Study of Sociology. Chs. 1-3.
  4. J. S. Mill. System of Logic. Book VI.
  5. W. S. Jevons. Principles of Science. Ch. 31. Sec. 11.
  6. Lester F. Ward. Outlines of Sociology. I.
  7. W. H. Stuckenberg. Introduction to the Study of Sociology. Chs. 2 and 3.
  8. Émile Durkheim. Les Regles de la Méthode Sociologique.
  9. Guillaume de Greef. Les Lois Sociologiques.
  10. Arthur Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology. Introduction.

Il. THE FACTORS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

A. Physical and Biological Factors

  1. Herbert Spencer. The Factors of Organic Evolution, in Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative. Vol. I.
  2. Herbert Spencer. Progress, its Law and Cause, in Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative. Vol. I.
  3. Auguste Comte. Positive Philosophy. Book VI. Ch. 6.
  4. Lester F. Ward. Dynamical Sociology. Ch. 7.
  5. Simon N. Patten. The Theory of Social Forces. Ch. 1.
  6. Geddes and Thompson. The Evolution of Sex. Chs. 1, 2, 19, 21.
  7. Robert Mackintosh. From Comte to Benjamin Kidd.
  8. *G. de LaPouge. Les Sélections Sociales. Chs. 1-6.
  9. August Weismann. The Germ Plasm: a Theory of Heredity.
  10. George Job Romanes. An Examination of Weismannism.
  11. Alfred Russell Wallace. Studies: Scientific and Social.
  12. *R. L. Dugdale. The Jukes.
  13. Oscar C. McCulloh. The Tribe of Ishmael.
  14. *Francis Galton. Hereditary Genius.
  15. Arthur Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology. Pt. III.
  16. H. W. Conn. The Method of Evolution.

B. Psychic

  1. Auguste Comte. Positive Philosophy. Book VI. Ch. 5.
  2. *Jeremy Bentham. Principles of Morals and Legislation. Chs. 1 and 2.
  3. Lester F. Ward. The Psychic Factors of Civilization.
  4. Tarde. Social Laws.
  5. [G. Tarde]. The Laws of Imitation.
  6. [G. Tarde]. La Logique Sociale.
  7. Gustar Le Bon. The Crowd.
  8. The Psychology of Peoples.
  9. Mark Baldwin. Social and Ethical Interpretations.
  10. [J. Mark Baldwin]. Mental Development in the Child and the Race.
  11. John Fisk. The Destiny of Man.
  12. Henry Drummond. The Ascent of Man.
  13. Simon N. Patten. The Theory of Social Forces. Chs. 2-5.
  14. *E. A. Ross. Social Control.

C. Social and Economic

  1. Lester F. Ward. Outlines of Sociology. Pt. II.
  2. *[Lester F. Ward]. Dynamical Sociology. Ch. 10.
  3. Brooks Adams. The Law of Civilization and Decay.
  4. D. G. Ritchie. Darwinism and Politics.
  5. *A. G. Warner. American Charities. Pt. I. Ch. 5.
  6. *G. de LaPouge. Les Sélections Sociales. Chs. 7-15.
  7. T. R. Malthus. Principle of Population.
  8. H. Bosanquet. The Standard of Life.
  9. W. H. Mallock. Aristocracy and Evolution.
  10. T. V. Veblen. The Theory of the Leisure Class.
  11. W. S. Jevons. Methods of Social Reform.
  12. Jane Addams and Others. Philanthropy and Social Progress.
  13. Demolins. Anglo-Saxon Superiority.
  14. *Thomas H. Huxley. Evolution and Ethics.
  15. Georg Simmel. Ueber Sociale Differencierung.
  16. Émile Durkheim. De la Division du Travail social.
  17. J. H. W. Stuckenberg. Introduction to the Study of Sociology. Ch. 6.
  18. Achille Loria. The Economic Foundations of Society.
  19. [Achille Loria]. Problems Sociaux Contemporains. Ch. 6.
  20. William Z. Ripley. The Races of Europe.

D. Political and Legal

  1. Jeremy Bentham. Principles of Morals and Legislation. Chs. 12-17.
  2. F. M. Taylor. The Right of the State to Be.
  3. *W. W. Willoughby. Social Justice. Chs. 5-9.
  4. *D. G. Ritchie. Principles of State Interference.
  5. W. S. Jevons. The State in Relation to Labor.
  6. Henry C. Adams. The Relation of the State to Industrial Action, in Publications Am. Econ. Assoc. Vol. I. No. 6.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and readings in economics, 1895-2003. Box 1. Folder “Economics, 1904-1905.”

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ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

  1. What is meant by a rational sanction for conduct? How is it distinguished from the rationalization of religion and law?
  2. Has resentment, or the desire for vengeance, any place as a factor in producing social order? Explain your answer.
  3. Describe Spencer’s conception of the Industrial Type of Society and give your opinion of its validity.
    (a) as representing an actual stage in social progress;
    (b) as an ideal social type.
  4. What accounts for the force of the religious sanction for conduct among primitive peoples? What does Spencer believe will be the place of ethics in the religion of the future, and what are his reasons? Are the two explanations in harmony?
  5. Describe the principal forms of the family relation, and the type of society in which each form prevails.
  6. Comment briefly but specifically upon any five of the following topics:—
    (a) Exogamy.
    (b) The domestic relations of the Veddahs.
    (c) The domestic relations of the Thibetans.
    (d) The Ynca political system.
    (e) Political organization among the Eskimos.
    (f) The political system of the Dahomans.
    (g) The industrial attainments of the Fuegians.
  7. What is Spencer’s explanation of the origin of ceremonial in general; and how does he account for particular forms? According to this theory what does the formality of our social relations indicate concerning the original social or anti-social traits of mankind?
  8. By what stages has the medical profession been evolved, and how does it perform the general social function which according to Spencer characterizes the professions?
  9. “The salvation of every society, as of every species, depends on the maintenance of an absolute opposition between the regime of the family and the regime of the State.” Spencer, Vol. I, p. 719.
    What opposition is referred to? Does it appear more conspicuously in the militant or in the industrial type of society?
  10. “From war has been gained all that it has to give.” Spencer, Vol. II, p. 664.
    What has war done to develop society? Why is its work done? Why, if war is now intolerable, is it improper to check the conflicts of classes and individuals within the state?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question.

  1. “Can we then allege special connexions between the different types of family and the different social types classed as militant and industrial?” (Spencer, Principles of Sociology, I, p. 675.) Explain.
  2. In what particulars is society fundamentally unlike a biological organism?
  3. Can you define social progress in terms of human well-being and at the same time make it consistent with a general theory of evolution? Explain.
  4. What is meant by the storing of social energy and what are the agencies by which it is accomplished?
  5. What is meant by the power of idealization and how does it affect social progress?
  6. Under what conditions and on what grounds would you justify the interference of the state with the liberty of the individual?
  7. Give the titles and authors of such books as you have read of sociological topics, including those prescribed in the course, and write your impression of one which is not prescribed.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 24.

Image Source: “Thomas Nixon Carver, 1865-1961” link at the History of Economic Thought Website. “Portrait of Carver (as a young man)“.
Detail in the Oberlin College Yearbook 1901 Hi-o-hi (no. 16)

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Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Final exam for Price Theory (B). Friedman. Winter quarter 1964

The spirit of Chicago’s boot-camp training in price theory with Milton Friedman as canonical drill  instructor is captured in the examination transcribed below. 

Trivial observation: Questions 9 through 11 are based on a fictional monopoly Gimcrack Company that appears to be a homage to the old song “Jim Crack Corn” (a.k.a. “Blue tail Fly”). One can imagine the American graduate students hearing the voice of the folk singer Burl Ives rendering the tune as they attempted to answer the questions.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Some other exams for the second quarter of graduate price theory at Chicago from this period have been previously posted:

December 16, 1959 (Friedman); December 1960 (Friedman?); February 10/March 15, 1965 (Griliches); December 1965 (Telser)

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ECONOMICS 301
FINAL EXAM — Winter, 1964

M. Friedman
March 19, 1964

I. [25 Points] Indicate whether each of the following statements is true (T), false (F), or uncertain (U) and state briefly (on this paper) the reason for your answer.

  1. The elasticity of a straight line demand curve varies from point to point.
  2. In the long run, demand has no influence on the price of the product of a competitive industry that uses no specialized resources.
  3. Marginal revenue is always greater than average revenue when average revenue is rising as quantity increases.

[4. and 5.] Assume that the government is going to purchase a predetermined quantity of rice for foreign relief and that it is considering making its purchases (a) directly from the growers of rice, or (b) through the regular dealer on the grain exchange. Assume also that there are no other governmental actions affecting rise growing or marketing.

  1. The price to the domestic consumer of rice that remains will be higher in case (a) than in case (b).
  2. The price received by the farmer for the rice that remains will be higher in case (a) than in case (b).
  1. An “inferior” good is one such that a larger quantity is demanded at a high than at a low price.
  2. If the quantity of Y increases and the quantity of X decreases in such a way as to keep total utility constant, then the rate of substitution of Y for X is independent of the quantity of X.
  3. The income of the farmers raising corn increases when the price of corn rises. The rise in income is the “income effect of the rise in price.”

[9., 10., 11.] The Gimcrack Company is a monopoly, selling in two distinct markets. Transportation costs between the two markets can be neglected.

  1. The company will always charge the same price for gimcracks in the two markets.
  2. The company will sell such quantities in the two markets as will make the elasticities of demand the same in the two markets.
  3. The company will sell such quantities in the two markets as will make marginal revenue the same in the two markets.

II. [25 Points] Fill in the blanks in the following questions.

  1. Consider three demand curves for commodity X: A for given money income and other prices; B, for given apparent real income in Slutsky’s sense; C, for given real income in Hick’s sense. Let all three curves go through the point (po , xo)
    If X is a superior good, then for a price lower than p0, the quantity demanded will be larger for_____ than for _____. (Insert A, B, C, in correct spaces.)
    If X is an inferior good, then for a price lower than p0, the quantity demanded will be larger for _____ than for _____.
    Suppose p0 = $5, X0 = $20, the corresponding money income $1, 000, and the income elasticity of demand for X is 2. Suppose that at a price $4, the quantity demanded on curve A is 25. Then the income compensation required to pass from A to B is $_____ (be sure to indicate sign of change) and the quantity demanded on curve B is _____.
  2. Blank is indifferent whether he wagers $1 at even-money that a coin he regards as fair will come up heads. He is eager to wager $1 against $3 (i.e., he pays $1 if he loses, receives $3 if he wins) that heads will come up twice in two successive throws of this coin. (He regards the throws as independent and so the chances of two successive heads as one in four.) Let the utility of his income if he loses $1 be 100; if he wins $1, 101. Then the utility to him of his present income can be taken to be _____ (insert a number); the utility to his present income plus $3 _____ (insert the most accurate statement the evidence permits).

III. [25 Points.] Find the mistakes (there are at least six) in the accompanying diagram showing long run and short run marginal and average cost curves for an individual firm, and explain the general principle corresponding to each particular mistake.

[NOTE: The answer to question III has been transcribed and posted with the Friedman’s December 16, 1959 exam for Economics 301.]

IV. [25 Points] Consider two alternative taxes imposed on a commodity: (a) a specific tax of T dollars per unit sold: (b) an ad valorem tax of t per cent of the price of the product.
Assume that the commodity is produced and sold under strictly competitive conditions and that the price inclusive of tax when the tax of T is imposed is P0. (i) Prove graphically that an ad valorem tax of t – T/P0will result in the same equilibrium price. (ii) Suppose a tax rate slightly greater than t – T/P0 is imposed. Under what conditions, if any, is it certain that the revenue will increase? (iii) Decrease?
Assume alternatively that the commodity is produced and sold by a monopoly. Suppose that, when a specific tax of T is imposed, the monopolist chose to sell at a price (inclusive of tax) of P1. Suppose now, an ad valorem tax of t – T/P1 is imposed. (iv) Will the monopolist’s optimum price be P1? If not, will it be higher? or lower? Prove your answer.

V. [20 Points] When someone offers a cigarette to pipe-puffing Surgeon General Luther Terry, he always grabs it. “Every one I accept I tear up,” he says. “That way there’s one less cigarette.” (Time, February 7, 1964).
Analyze the economics of the Surgeon General’s policy. In doing so, assume of course, that a substantial class of people with similar beliefs behave the same way, so the effect is at least potentially appreciable. Would it contribute to his objective of reducing smoking? If so, through what channels?

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PROBLEM
for
ECONOMICS 301
Winter Quarter, 1964

Analyze the business practice discussed in the accompanying excerpt from a Wall Street Journal story of December 4 1963.

Under what circumstances, if any would you expect such a practice to be in the self-interest of the participating companies? How would you suggest testing your explanation?

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 77. Folder: University of Chicago, Econ. 301.

Image Source: Detail from picture of Milton Friedman (November 1957) at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, pf1-06234, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollment and exams for Outlines of Economics. Taussig et al., 1904-1905

Frank W. Taussig & A. Piatt Andrew

From the final exams for the two semester introductory economics course run by Frank Taussig and A. Piatt Andrew in 1904-05 we see (among other things) that John Stuart Mill provided the backbone of theory and that there was room for a compare and contrast question regarding a liberal market economy vs a socialist economy.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Asst. Professor [Abram Piatt] Andrew, and Messrs. [Vanderveer] Custis, [James Alfred] Field, [Silas Wilder] Howland, [Selden Osgood] Martin, and [Chester Whitney] Wright. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 438: 10 Seniors, 84 Juniors, 232 Sophomores, 54 Freshmen, 58 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

One question in each group may be omitted.
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions
Give your reasons in all cases.

I

  1. Which among the following would you consider (1) “productive laborers,” (2) otherwise useful to society: actors, manufacturers of gambling implements, stock-brokers, landlords receiving and spending the rents of land.
  2. It has been laid down that,—
    Capital is distinguished from non-capital by its nature, — it consists of machinery, materials, and other apparatus for production;
    Capital is distinguished from non-capital by the intention of the owner in dealing with his wealth;
    Capital, though the result of saving, is yet continually consumed.
    Can you reconcile these propositions? If not, which do you consider sound?
  3. “The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths.” Is this true of the law stating the conditions under which the accumulation of capital takes place? of that stating the conditions under which production upon land takes place?
  4. Define briefly: value in use, value in exchange, utility, marginal utility, margin of cultivation, consumer’s rent.
  5. Can a person having a monopoly of a given commodity control its price at will? If so, how? If not, why not?
  6. “An individual speculator cannot gain by a rise in price of his own creating . . . when there is neither at the time nor afterwards any cause for a rise of prices except his own proceedings.”
    On what reasoning does this statement of Mill’s rest? Does the practice of dealings for future delivery (“futures”) affect the reasoning.

II

  1. What is the difference between a wages-fund and a wages-flow? Which seems to you the better mode of describing the influences that act on the general rate of wages?
  2. “The expectations of profit, therefore, in different employments, cannot long continue very different: they tend to a common average.”
    “It is true that, to persons with the same amount of original means, there is more chance of making a large fortune in some employments than in others.”
    “Gross profit varies greatly from individual to individual, and can scarcely be in any two cases the same.”
    Can these statements of Mill’s be reconciled?
  3. Is the return from capital sunk in the soil to be regarded as rent or interest? Is the return from urban real estate to be regarded as rent or interest? Is the return on corporate securities (stocks and bonds) to be regarded as rent or interest?
  4. How will a rise in the rate of interest affect the selling value of land? that of securities yielding a fixed income?
  5. “But it is impossible for anyone to study political economy, even as at present taught, or to think at all upon the production and distribution of wealth, without seeing that property in land differs essentially from property in things of human production, and that it has no warrant in abstract justice.” Henry George.
    Do you think this statement true in view of what you have learned in this course? Consider both your reading and the lectures.
  6. What would become of interest, rent, business profits, in a socialist state? what if there were an all-embracing régime of coöperative production?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question from each group.

I

  1. What is meant by the equilibrium of demand and supply? How is it secured?
  2. Suppose there were a general rise in wages: could capitalists, by charging higher prices for their goods, prevent profits from falling?
    Suppose a rise of wages in a particular trade: could the capitalists in that trade, by charging higher prices, keep their profits from falling?
  3. Under what head — wages, rent, interest, profits — would you class the remuneration of (1) an apothecary; (2) a city merchant who owns the building in which he carries on his business; (3) an author who receives copyright payments on books which he has written; (4) a stockholder in a company which owns a lucrative patent?
  4. Is land capital? Are buildings capital? Are the skill and capacity of a workman — such as a trained engineer or a great inventor — to be regarded as capital?

II

  1. What would be the effect on the price of beef if a high protective tariff were levied on the import of hides?
  2. Which of the economic advantages and disadvantages of combination, in the broad sense, result from (a) pooling, (b) merger in a single corporation, (c) monopoly?
  3. President Roosevelt in a recent message said that our tariff “duties must never be reduced below the point that will cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad.” Discuss this statement.
  4. Suppose that a country which manufactures only enough to supply half the home market, and which has a large export trade in wheat, imposes a uniform import duty of 50% on all commodities. What will be the effect on the nominal and the real wages of agricultural laborers, absolutely, and as compared with wages in manufacturing industries?

III

  1. How do you explain the fact that there is less than 1/10 as much silver in a dime as in a silver dollar? Is there any reason why this should be so?
  2. Explain briefly:—

(a) Deposit.
(b) Suffolk Bank system.
(c) Clearing House certificate.
(d) Post-note.
(e) Discount.
(f) Reserve city.
(g) Central reserve city.
(h) Asset currency.

  1. Secretary Shaw has said “Without claiming that the national banking act is perfect or that our currency system is free from objection I think that the world joins us in the verdict that it is the best system known to man.”
    Discuss this statement, comparing the American system as regards security and elasticity with those of England and Germany.
  2. If a national bank examiner should discover the following to be the account of a bank in Boston to what would he object:
Capital 200,000 Loans 733,000
Surplus 24,000 U.S. Bonds 75,000
Undivided profits 43,000 Other assets 42,000
Notes 78,000 Deposits in U.S. Treas. 3,500
Deposits 745,000 Deposits in other banks 150,000
Clearing House certificate 14,000
Coin & legal tender notes 72,500
1,090,000 1,090,000

Would his objections differ at all if the bank were located in Cambridge?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 21-23.

Image Sources:  Frank W. Taussig (Original black and white image from of Frank William Taussig from a cabinet card photograph, 1895, at the Harvard University Archives HUP); Abram Piatt Andrews (Picture from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article about Andrew’s appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51). Images colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Enrollment and exam questions for agrarian history. Gay, 1903-04

Edwin Francis Gay

Edwin F. Gay only taught the graduate economics course “General Outlines of Agrarian History” once. As we see from the course enrollment for this course offered at Harvard during the first term of 1903-04, only four students attended. Who among us has not been personally confronted with the reality that our supply does not necessarily generate its own demand? 

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Course Enrollment

Economics 24 1hf. Asst. Professor Gay. — General Outlines of Agrarian History.

Total 4: 3 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 24
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

  1. Explain briefly:

(1) emphyteusis.
(2) massa and fundus.
(3) mainmorte.
(4) gavelkind and Borough English.
(5) common recovery.
(6) copyhold.
(7) majorat and seniorat.
(8) Norfolk husbandry.

  1. Describe briefly:

(1) the provisions of the Capitulare de villis; its date and significance.
(2) the system of estate settlement by “Familienfideikommisse.”
(3) the place in agrarian history of Colbert, Orlando Bridgman, Arthur Young and Albrecht Thaer.

  1. “It seems to be almost certain that the ‘hams’ and ‘tuns’ [of England] were, generally speaking, and for the most part from the first, practically manors with communities in serfdom upon them.” Whose view is this? State succinctly the chief arguments for and against.
  2. What were the chief factors in the emancipation of the medieval serf and how far had the movement of emancipation progressed by 1500 in England, France and Northern Italy?
  3. What were the causes of the Peasant War of 1525? How did the condition of the peasant of South Germany differ from that of the peasant in the North-east and North-west?
  4. Summarize (with dates of the more important statutes) the changes of policy in the English Corn-laws.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1914.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for economics of agriculture. Carver, 1903-1904

 

In the second term of the 1903-04 academic year at Harvard, Professor Thomas Nixon Carver added a course in agricultural economics to his teaching portfolio. He was raised on a farm so this applied field must have been close to his heart. Details of his rural upbringing can be found in his autobiography, Recollections of an Unplanned Life (Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1949).

A problem set for this course has been transcribed and posted previously.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 23 2hf. Professor Carver. — The Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions.

Total 99: 5 Graduates, 32 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 17 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 15 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 23
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

  1. How does the agricultural group of industries in the United States compare in importance with the manufacturing group?
  2. Describe the principal classes of soils found in the United States, and state, in a general way, in what regions each class pre-dominates.
  3. What are the chief advantages of the rotation and diversification of crops?
  4. What, according to the evidence collected by the United States Industrial Commission, are the chief obstacles to successful agriculture?
  5. What are the chief factors which tend to build up the cities more rapidly than the rural districts?
  6. Why does wheat growing tend to move more rapidly than corn growing toward newer countries?
  7. What are the chief factors affecting international competition in corn, wheat, and cotton?
  8. How do the price of land and the cost of labor affect the intensity of cultivation in any community? Explain fully.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, p. 41.

Image Source: Figure 15, “A pioneer mode of breaking the land.” from T.N. Carver’s “Historical Sketch of American Agriculture,” in the Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. IV, edited by Liberty Hyde Bailey. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909, pp. 39-70.

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Exam Questions Harvard Law and Economics

Harvard. Enrollment and semester exams in law and economics. Wyman, 1903-1904

Harvard Law School, ca. 1901

To the archive of old economics exams this post adds the mid-year and final exams for the course “Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations” taught at Harvard in 1903-04 by assistant professor Bruce Wyman.

Since most undergraduate economics majors then as now do not pursue further graduate studies in economics, the Harvard economics department offered introductory courses in accounting and business law as a vocational sop in its early 20th century course offerings.

Two earlier sets of exams for this course have been transcribed and posted:  1901-02 (includes his 1921 report to the Class of 1896).; 1902-03 (includes an obituary for Bruce Wyman).

Fun fact: Wyman was alleged to offer “snapper” (i.e., easy) courses for Harvard undergraduates. Included in that post is a New York Times report of a scandal that led to his resignation from the Harvard Law School faculty.

___________________________

Course Enrollment

Economics 21. Asst. Professor Wyman. — Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations.

Total 148: 11 Graduates, 89 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 21
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

Answer eight questions. Give reasons with care.

  1. The general manager of the New York Magazine resigned his position to set up a rival magazine which he called the Empire Magazine. Before and after his resignation he solicited business for his new magazine from advertisers in the old. When he left he took a copy of the list of subscribers, intending to write them just before their subscriptions expired, urging them not to renew, but to subscribe to his new magazine, as all the good features of the New York would be found in the Empire in improved form. May the owner of the New York have any injunction against the former manager?
  2. Taddy & Co., manufacturers, sold large quantities of Myrtle Grove tobacco to Nelten & Co., jobbers, upon certain conditions in the invoices headed “minimum retail prices,” and below “acceptance of the goods will be deemed a contract between the purchaser and Taddy & Co.” Stenous & Co., retailers, bought a large amount of this Myrtle Grove tobacco from Nelten & Co., which they later offered to their customers at less than the minimum retail price. Can Taddy & Co. have an injunction against Stenous & Co.?
  3. A travelling agent of the Globe Stove Works goes through the Southwest getting small dealers to sign contracts for stoves. The travelling agent of the World Stove Works crosses his track often. In several instances the agent of the World Company, acting under orders from headquarters, makes a special price to dealers that have bought from the Globe Works, and induces them to cancel their orders for Globe stoves and buy the World stoves. Has the Globe Company any remedy against the World Company?
  4. The National Harrow Company sent broadcast the following circular: “We believe that we have the patents, and we have determined henceforth to sue any dealer handling these infringing harrows wherever they are found.” The infringing harrows referred to were those of the Davison Company. During the year following these circulars the business of the Davison Company fell off 50 per cent. In the year after that the Supreme Court decided in one of the suits which the National Company had prosecuted in good faith that their principal patents were invalid. The Davison Company now sue the National Company for damages done their business by the circulars quoted above. What decision?
  5. Most of the employees in certain breweries belong to a union, most of the brewers are in an association. By an agreement between the union and the association, any brewer must discharge any employee not belonging to the union, if the employee refuses for one week to join the union after being requested to do so. An engineer is taken on at one of the breweries; he refuses to join the union at request; one week later the secretary of the union gave notice to the brewer to discharge the engineer, which was accordingly done. Has the engineer any suit for damages against the secretary of the union?
  6. By a contract between the United States Fuel Company and the Ohio Operators Association, composed of ten concerns engaged in producing coal and coke in a certain district, the company was to handle for a term of years the entire output of the mines of the association intended for the western market. The amount to be furnished by each member of the association was to be fixed by its executive committee; the fuel company was to fix a uniform price from time to time at which it should sell the products turned over. The net profits of the fuel company less its commission were to be turned back to the members of the association pro rata. Is this agreement enforceable?
  7. There are two ice manufacturing companies in Tuscalosa, Ala. The second makes a lease of all its plant to the first for ten years for a high rental; then the first leases this same plant to third parties to be used only as a store house; thereupon the first ice company increases its rate 50 per cent. according to the previous understanding with the second company. This situation lasts for a year, when a new third company constructs a new plant with modern machinery and puts its rates at 50 per cent. below the first company. The first company reduces its rates, and thereupon refuses to pay the full rental to the second company according to the terms of the lease. What rights has the second company against the first company?
  8. An act of legislature provided: “That all the proprietors of the Charles River Marshes, are hereby constituted a corporation under the name of the Marsh Company, with authority to assess and collect from each member ten per cent. upon the valuation of his land, to be expended in making and maintaining a street across the same.” Nine of the ten proprietors after giving the tenth notice of the proposed meeting, meet, organize the corporation, and vote an assessment upon all the members for the amount specified in the charter. Suit by the company against the tenth man to collect the assessment. What decision?
  9. A company was formed by A. Solomon and his two sons, each subscribing one share, the statute for incorporations requiring “three associates each subscribing at least one share.” The capital stock was fixed at $100,300 of which $300 was paid in cash for the three original shares. A. Solomon then conveyed the real estate, machinery, stock in trade and good-will of his shoe business to this corporation for $100,000, which it was all worth at a conservative valuation. He took in payment debenture bonds to the amount of $50,000, a note for $25,000 and paid up shares to the face of $25,000. The remaining 50,000 shares later were sold at 50 each by the company, a discount of 50 per cent. being allowed. A year later a financial crisis comes, and the company is put in a receiver’s hands. He finds besides what has been related that the company has incurred new floating indebtedness to the amount of $25,000, while the property left may be sold for $65,000. How should the receiver wind up this corporation?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

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ECONOMICS 21
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

Answer any six questions. Give reasons.

  1. A soap company buys the majority of the stock in a competing soap company. At the next meeting of this corporation it elects a board of directors. This new board of directors of the second company vote to enter into a five years’ contract with the first company to sell to it the whole product of the factory at a price which will barely cover the cost of production. Have the minority stockholders in the second company any relief at law?
  2. Three competing steel corporations agree to manufacture and sell rails at joint profit, accounting to each for a pro rata share upon each sale, settlements to be made semi-annually. One of these companies manufactures as much as possible, then sells all at the high prices prevailing since the arrangement, and then withdraws from the pool refusing to account to the others. Have the other two any remedy against it?
  3. An oil corporation is organized with an authorized capitalization of $500,000,000. It issues all its stocks for a variety of properties (distilleries, pipe lines, etc., etc.) which its directors value at $500,000,000, as these properties before consolidation are earning for their owners $50,000,000 per annum. As a result of this monopolization the new corporation earns $100,000,000 per annum. Is there any relief against this situation at law?
  4. A natural gas company is engaged in the supply of gas to a certain city. After about two thirds of the inhabitants have been taken on, it was discovered that by sinking more wells no more gas is gotten. The present supply is no more than enough to keep up a sufficient pressure to give the present takers proper service. In this condition of things a householder who lives upon the pipe lines of the company, in the centre of the city, applies to the company for gas. The company refuses him. Should a mandamus be granted?
  5. A telephone company in New York operates as a separate branch of its business a service of messengers on call. A messenger company applies to the telephone company for a telephone. The telephone company refuses upon the ground that the messenger company wish the telephone connection in order that people all over the city may summon messengers from it, which would be competition with the business of the telephone company. What decision?
  6. A traveller took a train on a railroad and presented to the conductor an excursion ticket which was in two parts. The conductor accidentally punched the wrong coupon; he then wrote on the back “cancelled by mistake” and signed the statement. The rules of the company also required a conductor under such circumstances to draw a circle about the hole accidentally punched. This circle not having been drawn, the conductor on the return trip refused to accept the punched ticket, and ejected the passenger upon his refusal to pay fare. Has the passenger any cause of action? If so, for what?
  7. A State passes a statute forbidding the sale of oleomargarine colored any shade of yellow. Is this constitutional?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, pp. 40-41.

Image Source: Harvard Law School ca. 1901 from the Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection (Library of Congress).

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Exam Questions International Economics Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. International Economics Exams. Balassa, 1968-69.

 

This post is able to match the examination questions to the corresponding reading list for one semester of Bela Balassa’s international trade theory course that he taught at Johns Hopkins in 1968-69. Alas, the archival box did not have the reading list for the second semester, but at least the exam questions for the second semester, also transcribed below, give us a good idea of the main course content during the spring of 1969.

I am also delighted to have found a picture of Bela Balassa to replace the one I had found on a webpage that, as it turns out, happens to be of an entirely different Balassa (see note at the bottom of the post for details). Professor M. Ali Khan of Johns Hopkins tipped me off about the previous picture (used in other posts) not being quite right. 

____________________________

Note: the reading list for the fall semester course was transcribed and posted earlier.

EXAMINATION
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS 18.641
Thursday, January 16, 1969

Dr. Balassa

  1. Answer two questions (80 minutes)
    1. Discuss the meaning of the expressions “labor” and “capital” in the Heckscher-Ohlin framework and indicate the implications that the recent interpretations of these concepts have for the theory of international trade.
    2. Analyze the relationship between country size and the commodity composition of exports and imports.
    3. Discuss the applicability of alternative theories of specialization to trade among industrial countries.
  2. Answer two questions (80 minutes)
    1. Examine the usefulness of a general equilibrium approach to trade theory.
    2. Consider the implications of introducing intermediate goods in trade models.
    3. Show the applicability of the theory of duopoly and bilateral monopoly to the theory of tariffs.
  3. Answer one question (40 minutes)
    1. State briefly the Stolper-Samuelson and the Rybczynski theorems and indicate the relationship between the two.
    2. What welfare consequences can be derived from the following results if subscript 2 refers to the after-trade and subscript 1 to the before-trade situation:

ΣP2Q2 < ΣP2Q1

ΣP1Q2 > ΣP1Q1

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Note: the reading list for the spring semester course was not included in the collection of course outlines for the department of political economy in the Johns Hopkins University archives.

Final Examination
International Trade Theory 18.642
May 21, 1969

Professor Balassa

Give approximately equal time to all questions.

  1. Answer two questions.
    1. It has been customary to consider separately internal and external balance and to examine the effects of the use of various policy instruments on each. How can this be reconciled with Johnson’s proposition that “the balance-of-payments is the difference between aggregate receipts and payments in the domestic economy:”
    2. Reformulate the exchange stability problem if the devaluation is regarded as a transfer.
    3. Indicate the effects of a devaluation on the non-merchandise items of the balance of payments.
  2. Answer two questions.
    1. Examine the welfare implications of alternative means for attaining balance-of-payments equilibrium, including devaluation, restrictions on trade, restrictions on capital movement, and domestic deflation.
    2. Milton Friedman has recently argued that the introduction of the two-tier gold market has placed the world on a dollar standard and thus the United States no longer has a balance-of-payments problem. Similar conclusions have been reached by Depres-Kindleberger-Salant on the grounds that the U.S. plays the role of the world banker. Discuss.
    3. Discuss the implications of fixed and flexible exchange rates for national monetary and fiscal policies under the assumption of perfect capital mobility.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Series 6. Box 3; Folder: “Graduate Exams, 1933-1965”.

Image Source: Portrait of Bela Balassa in the Johns Hopkins University Yearbook, Hullabaloo 1976.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam for Principles of Accounting. Cole, 1903-1904

William Morse Cole offered his principles of accounting course as a vocational non-credit course for seniors in the Harvard economics department from 1900-1905, after which time the subject received for-credit status. In 1908 Cole was appointed assistant professor of accounting in Harvard’s newly established business school.

Exam questions for 1900-01, 1901-02 and 1902-03 have been posted earlier.

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ECONOMICS 18
Course enrollment. 1903-04

Economics 18 1hf. Mr. W.M. Cole. — The Principles of Accounting.

Total 51: 2 Graduates, 33 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 18
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

I.

Do not devote more than half your time to this part of the paper.

  1. (a) On which side of a balance sheet is the balance of the following accounts likely to be?
    (b) What, in each case, does the amount of such a balance indicate?

Bills Receivable.
Accounts Payable.
Plant.
Profit and Loss.
Wages.
Merchandise.

  1. If December 31 is the end of the fiscal year, and after office hours on that day the books are closed for the year, in what respects would a trial balance, taken at the opening of business on January 1, differ from one taken at the close of business December 31? Illustrate by means of specific accounts.
  2. Why, in any logical system of accounting, must there be a debit for every credit?
  3. (a) What is the function of a ledger? (b) How do items usually get into a ledger? (c) Can items in the ledger have any other origin than that referred to in (b)? If so, what?

II.

  1. Suppose you are the executor of the estate of one of two partners. Suppose you are given a trial balance of the books as they stood at the time of the death of the partner whose estate you represent, and that the surviving partner swears to the correctness of that trial balance. In order to be sure of doing justice to the heirs of the deceased partner, how far do you need, in arranging settlement, to go beyond or behind the trial balance?
  2. You organize a corporation, and on January 1, 1904, the following facts are shown by the books:—

The corporation has taken over from an individual owner a business of which the assets, determined by conservative valuation of the property, are $100,000 (Bills Receivable and Accounts Receivable, $20,000; Supplies, $5,000; Real Estate and Plant, $75,000). Capital stock to the amount of $500,000 has been issued, of which $200,000 has been given the original owner for his title, $300,000 has been sold for cash at par. The corporation has bought a neighboring plant for $100,000, paying for it by Bill Payable to that amount.

Show a brief balance sheet under these conditions.

Now, you are absent from the corporation’s affairs for two years. On your return you are told that 6 per cent. dividend has been paid in each year, and you are shown the balance sheets below.

Write a brief history of the business for each of the two years of your absence.

Jan. 1, 1905.
Real Estate and Plant, $420,000 Capital Stock $500,000
Bills Rec.& Accts.Rec. 70,000 Funded Debt 100,000
Supplies 5,000 Profit and Loss 20,000
Merchandise 105,000
Cash 20,000            
$620,000 $620,000

Jan. 1, 1906.
Real Estate and Plant $400,000 Capital Stock $600,000
Deprec’n Fund Bonds 20,000 Reserve Fund 20,000
Reserve Fund Bonds 20,000 Profit and Loss 20,000
Bills Rec.& Accts.Rec. 70,000
Supplies 5,000  
Merchandise 105,000  
Cash 20,000            
$640,000 $640,000
  1. (a) What is the difference between a revenue and a capital account?
    (b) If time shows that items originally charged to revenue account should have been charged to capital account, what treatment can be given such items at the end of the year, without changing their ledger classification, so that the profit or the loss shall be correctly determined?
    (c) Reverse the conditions of (b), — i.e., assume error to have been made in charging to capital instead of to revenue, — and designate the required treatment.
  2. Conceive the balance sheet of a railroad to be exactly the same for 1904 as for 1903. Conceive the true net income to be $11,000,000, the fixed charges $3,000,000, the “other income” $2,000,000, and the road to be operated for 66 2/3 per cent.
    Construct as much as you can of the income sheet.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

 

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for U.S. Financial History. Bullock, 1903-1904

Charles Jesse Bullock first taught at Harvard as a visiting instructor in 1901-02. He returned at the rank of assistant professor of economics in 1903-04. The previous post provided the short biography from the Williams College yearbook from his last year on the faculty there together with his year-end exam for his Harvard course on the history of early economics (ancient Greeks through Adam Smith) in 1903-04.

___________________________

Course Enrollment
Economics 16, 1903-04

Economics 16 2hf. Asst. Professor Bullock. — The Financial History of the United States.

Total 27: 11 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 162
Year-End Examination, 1903-04

  1. Discuss colonial and State tariffs prior to 1789.
  2. Discuss fully the subject of requisitions and taxation under the Confederation.
  3. What do you consider to be the real services of Hamilton from 1789-1795? At what points was his policy open to criticism?
  4. Characterize the sinking-fund laws of 1795, 1802, and 1817.
  5. Describe in outline the course of tariff legislation from 1846 to 1861.
  6. Why was the independent-treasury system established? To what extent has its original purpose been secured? At what points is it open to criticism?
  7. What were the chief defects of the financial policy followed during the Civil War?
  8. What changes were effected in the national debt between 1865 and 1871?
  9. What different methods of resuming specie payments were proposed after the Civil War? What method was finally adopted?
  10. At what times during its history has the federal government been confronted with the problem of a surplus revenue? How, at each time, has the problem been solved?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, p. 37.

Image Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, Vol. 45, p. 26. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.