Categories
Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Exams for second graduate price theory course. Griliches, 1965

 

A few posts ago Economics in the Rear-view Mirror presented the exams for the first quarter of graduate price theory (Economics 300) at the University of Chicago taught by Giora Hanoch in the autumn quarter of the 1964-65 academic year. In this post we have the exam questions for the winter quarter’s second graduate price theory course taught by Zvi Griliches.

As I transcribe these mind-numbing true-false-uncertain questions, I have wondered if there ever was a University of Chicago graduate student who answered all of the questions “uncertain” and tortured the graders with special cases, counter-examples, and intricate ad-hoc-ceteris-not-so-paribus explanations. But then I think of the canonical image of a WWII bomber that has returned to base with flak damage. Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.

________________________________

ECONOMICS 301
February 10, 1965
Two-hour Midterm Examination

I. (70 points)

Answer whether the statement is true, false, or uncertain. In each case, write a few sentences explaining your answer. Your grade will depend heavily on your explanation.

  1. The elasticity of a linear supply function that passes through the origin is always unity.
  2. If a firm is producing in the region of rising marginal costs, the firm is realizing profits.
  3. An effective price ceiling on cotton, i.e., one that holds its price below the free market level, will decrease the price of textiles.
  4. Steel prices and output usually move together during business cycles. This means that the income effect of a rise in price is greater than the substitution effect.
  5. Firms try to minimize unit costs; at the point where unit costs are at a minimum, they equal marginal costs; therefore, firms tend to operate where their unit and marginal costs are equal.
  6. Marginal productivity theory does not apply if factors are always used in fixed proportion.
  7. Since all firms in competitive industry have the same marginal costs, it is meaningless to speak of more or less efficient firms.
  8. If a Paasche price index is higher than the Laspeyres’ index, tastes must have changed.
  9. The demand for a product at the market price is inelastic. It follows that the product must be produced under conditions of net internal diseconomies.
  10. “Commodities with higher, income elasticities have higher demand (price) elasticities.” (Stigler, 1952 ed., p. 45)
  11. If X and Y are substitutes, a decline in the price of X can increase the amount of Y demanded only if Y is an inferior good.
  12. The elasticity of demand for a group of commodities with respect to the average price of the group can never be larger in absolute value than the largest of the individual price elasticities of the commodities which comprise the group.
  13. A rational consumer is insatiable.

II. (30 points)

A. The demand function for a product is P = 115 — Q. The total cost of producing Q units in one plant is given by TC = 400 — 100Q2 + Q3. Only one-plant firms are allowed.

(a) What is the long run competitive solution (price, quantity, and the number of firms in this industry)?

(b) What would be the approximate price charged and the quantity produced if there was only one one-plant firm and it maximized its profits. (Work only with round figures.) How much profit would it make?

B. Assume now that a firm may have more than one plant. What is the monopoly solution? How much profit will it make?

________________________________

March 15, 1965

ECONOMICS 301
Z. Griliches

FINAL EXAMINATION
Winter, 1965

2 HOURS TO COMPLETE EXAM

I. (80 points)

Answer each question “true”, “false”, or “uncertain”, and explain your answer briefly. Your grade will depend heavily on your explanation.

  1. A competitive firm will increase output as the result of a fall in the price of one of its inputs.
  2. In equilibrium, a competitive firm has all the business (sales) it wants. Hence advertising is incompatible with either competition or equilibrium.
  3. Duopolists with different cost functions cannot achieve a monopoly price without transfer payment between the firms.
  4. A multiplant firm will schedule its output so that the marginal costs are equal in all plants.
  5. The price of haircuts in Chicago is approximately 40 percent higher than in New York; therefore, average earnings of barbers in Chicago are higher than in New York.
  6. The supply curve of a monopolist is inelastic at the point of maximum monopoly profit.
  7. If it takes one day to catch a beaver and two to catch a deer, one deer will exchange for two beavers.
  8. Assume that the world demand elasticity for tin is -2 and that Bolivia produces 1/3 of the world’s tin. Therefore, the elasticity of demand for Bolivian tin is at least -6.0 (in absolute value).
  9. A safety ordinance prohibiting the use of automobiles older than 10 years will increase the long run demand for new automobiles.
  10. The own-price elasticity of demand for a commodity is no smaller in absolute value, than the marginal propensity to consume that commodity.
  11. For a single consumer the sum of income elasticities of demand for all commodities is unity, while the sum of their price elasticities is zero.
  12. It is a convention in economics to draw consumption indifference curves convex to the origin, but we have no way of knowing whether they really are.

II. (10 points)

Each firm in an industry is given a license to operate and no new firms are allowed to enter. The value of a license rises over time. Does this prove that firms operate subject to diseconomies of scale?

III. (30 points)

It is often asserted that Americans love money more than Englishmen (or Europeans, or Latin Americans). Can you think of a way to test this proposition?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches. Box 130, Folder “Syllabi and exams, 1961-1969”.

Source: From an image of the Brazilian immigration/visa card for Zvi Griliches dated 18 Aug 1959 that can be found at the ancestry.com website.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. First price theory course exams. Hanoch, 1964

Giora Hanoch graduated with a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in December 1965 with his dissertation “Personal earnings and investment in schooling.” He held the rank of assistant professor of economics for the academic year 1964-65, after which, according to his entry in the AEA 1969 Biographical Listing of Members,  he returned to Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 1965. With many visiting appointments throughout his career, his academic home was Hebrew University.

Clearly the faculty thought highly enough of him in his fourth year at Chicago to entrust him with the first quarter of the 300-level price theory sequence (Autumn Quarter, 1964).

_________________________

Giora Hanoch, Professor Emeritus of Economics
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

1932. Born in Haifa, Israel
1960. A.B. Hebrew University.
1961. A.M. Hebrew University.
1965. Ph.D. University of Chicago. Thesis “Personal Earnings and Investment in Schooling”
1970. Visiting Lecturer, Harvard University.
1974. Visiting Lecturer, Harvard University.
1975. Visiting Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles
1975— Fellow of the Econometric Society.

Source: “Giora Hanoch, economist”, Prabook website.

_________________________

Economics 300
G. Hanoch

Mid-Term Examination
November 18, 1964

I. (60 points)

Answer the following True, False, or Uncertain. Explain your answer briefly.

  1. If two individuals engage in barter, or direct exchange of goods, then always either: a) One individual benefits by the transaction while the other one is hurt; or b) Both are neither benefited nor hurt.
  2. In a perfect market economy, each consumer participates equally in determining what is produced.
  3. If an increase in the demand for X results in an increase i n the price of X, the demand for X is upward sloping.
  4. If the demand for X has unitary elasticity (η = -1), changes in the price of X will not affect the total expenditures on all other goods.
  5. If one good is inferior, at least one other good purchased by the consumer has to be income-elastic (ηxI> 1).
  6. If the marginal revenue is decreasing with an increase in the quantity X, the demand for X is inelastic.
  7. The substitution effect of a decrease in price, as defined by Slutsky, is positive for a normal good and negative for an inferior good.
  8. If the market for beef is in a stable equilibrium, changes in the supply of beef will have little or no effect on its price.
  9. It is possible for a consumer to buy a fixed positive) quantity of X every month, whatever the price of X may be. (i.e., his demand for X has zero elasticity for all prices).
  10. The demand for agricultural products is inelastic; hence plentiful harvests result in lower incomes for farmers, in a free market economy.
  11. In view of (10), each individual farmer can improve his own position by destroying a part of his production in good years.
  12. A linear and downward-sloping demand curve is always elastic at high prices and inelastic at low prices.
  13. If the Laspeyres quantity index between two periods is 1.10 and the Paasche index is 0.90, the consumers’ taste must have changed,
  14. The cross-elasticity of demand for left shoes with respect to the price of right shoes is zero.
  15. A consumer with a utility function is in equilibrium if the marginal utility of each good is proportional to its price.
  16. If all prices increase by 10%, but money income remains the same, the quantity of each good purchased will decrease.
  17. The demand of a consumer for X cannot be infinitely elastic at every quantity of X, because of the budget constraint.
  18. In an economy where the king distributes all the goods and services as free gifts to the consumers, all the prices are zero. Hence there is no place for price theory in that country.
  19. The demand for X is of unitary elasticity, and 200 similar firms sell X. A reduction of 1% in the price PX charged by one firm will result in doubling that firm’s sales, if other firms sell the same quantity at any price.
  20. Because of transportation costs, prices will differ in different geographical locations, whether or not there exists free competition in the market.

II. (40 points)

Two consumers, A and B, have equal and stable tastes and incomes. In December, each spent his entire monthly income on x units of X and y units of Y, when the prices in the market were $2.00 for X and $5 for Y. Consumer A accepted an offer of his employer to be paid in kind, by receiving the same quantities y and y every month directly. (He could still exchange any quantity of X and Y at the market, for the current market prices). B’s money income remained the same.

The following prices prevailed in the market during the next few months:

Month

$ per unit of X $ per unit of Y
1 2.00 5.00
2 2.20 5.50
3 2.00 5.50
4 2.00 4.50
5 1.80 4.50
6 2.20 4.50

1) Compare consumer A’s position in each of these months with his position in December (was he better-off, worse-off, or indifferent?)

2) Compare the positions of A and B in each month.

NOTE: Use budget lines (and, if necessary, indifference curves) for your analysis. Do not attempt to answer more questions than you were asked. Be brief and clear.

_________________________

ECONOMICS 300
G. Hanoch

FINAL EXAMINATION
December 14, 1964

(two hours)

I. (40 points)

Mark the following True, False, or Uncertain. Explain your answers very briefly.

  1. A monopolist can afford to pay wages below the market wage rates.
  2. A rise in the price of gasoline will lead to a rise in the price of tires.
  3. In a long run competitive equilibrium, the marginal firms produce where marginal costs equal average total costs.
  4. If a firm is in long run equilibrium, it is also in short-run equilibrium, whether it is a competitive or a monopolistic firm.
  5. If a production function is characterized by constant returns to scale, an increase in the use of one factor by 10% will increase output by less than 10%.
  6. A rise in the price of any factor used by the firm (other things unchanged) will always lead to a decrease in production by the firm.
  7. A firm producing the same product in many plants will determine the quantity produced in each plant so that average costs will be equal in all the plants.
  8. If a firm has zero variable costs, then its best profit output is where the elasticity of demand for the product is unitary.
  9. A firm will carry production to the point where the marginal productivities of all variable factors are equal.
  10. In a competitive industry with external economies, the total short run supply curve of the industry shifts to the left when there is a permanent decrease in demand for the product.

Il. (30 points)

A monopolist is faced with the following stable demand schedule for his patented machines:

Price per machine
(thousand dollars)

Quantity
per month
TR MR TC MC
40 1
35 2
30 3
25 4
20 5
15 6
10 8
5 10

The Costs of production are $5000 per machine, and the fixed costs are $16000 per month.

1.) Compute total and marginal revenue and total and marginal costs in the table above.

2.) Find the equilibrium price, quantity and profits of this firm.

3.) A tax of $60,000 per month is imposed on the firm. Find the new price, quantity and profits.

4.) Instead, a tax of 60% of the market price is imposed on the machines. What will be the monopolist price, output, profits? The tax revenues?

5.) Alternatively, a tax of $24000 per machine is levied. What are the equilibrium price, quantity, profits and tax revenues? What will be the long-run equilibrium quantity?

6.) If no tax is imposed, but a maximum price of $10,000 is enforced, what will be the quantity sold? The Profits?

7.) State your preference among the 5 alternatives ((2) – (6)) above, and justify your choice briefly.

III (30 points)

The current charge for telephone service in city C is $6.40 per month, allowing the consumer 80 free local calls every month, Each additional call costs five cents. Installation is free, and no long-distance calls are available.

NOTE: In the following, assume that each consumer behaves rationally, has constant money income and tastes, with convex indifference curves and no saturation in the relevant range.

Use separate diagrams for each sub-problem. Be precise.

  1. Use a diagram with money-income Y and phone calls X on the axes, to show a consumer’s budget constraint. Be careful to show all the combinations of X and Y available to him, including the case where no service is installed.
    (This portion is crucial for the rest of the problem).
  2. Use indifference curves between Y and X to analyze the consumer’s decision whether to have a telephone installed or not.
  3. Consumer A chooses to have a telephone, and he uses 120 calls every month. Show his equilibrium position geometrically. What is the average price (in cents) of a phone call for him? What is his marginal rate of substitution between money and phone calls?
  4. If the current rates are replaced by a flat rate of 7 cents a call for any number of calls,

(a) Show consumer A’s new budget line, compared with the current position.
(b) Would he now use more or less than 120 calls per month?
(c) Would he be better-off, indifferent, or worse-off relative to the current position?

  1. Consumer A claims that he would prefer to pay a flat rate of 84 per call rather than the current rates. Could he be rational? (demonstrate your answer geometrically).
  2. Consumer B uses only the 80 “free” calls every month, given the current rates. Compare (as in (4)) his consumption and welfare positions with the alternative of being charged a flat rate of 8¢ per call for any number of calls. Could he be indifferent with respect to the two alternative rates?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches. Box 130, Folder “Syllabi and exams, 1961-1969”.

Image Source: Giora Hanoch in “These Israelis Were Present at the Declaration of Independence.”  Haaretz. Apr. 17, 2018

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Mid-year and Year-End Final Exams in Economics and Social Ethics, 1894-1895

 

 

With this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror adds yet another annual collection of final examination questions for the economics courses offered at Harvard together with the questions from Professor Peabody’s “Ethics of the Social Questions” that covered issues such as poverty, labor relations, and socialism (as opposed to doctrines of individualism). In 1894-95 Frank Taussig was on sabbatical leave in Italy which accounts for his whereabouts that academic year.  Today I learned that “doctrine” was understood as a synonym for “theory” during the gay nineties, see Economics 2 (Economic Theory from Adam Smith to the present time) below.

Exams for one course taught were not included in the published collection of exams. It was Edward Cummings course Economics 14 (Philosophy and Political Economy.—Utopian Literature from Plato’s Republic to the present time). Exams for Economics 14 given in other years have been transcribed and posted.

__________________

1894-95.
PHILOSOPHY 5.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[PHILOSOPHY] 5. Professor [Francis G.] Peabody. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The questions of Charity, the Family, Temperance, and the various phases of the Labor Question, as problems of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. 2 hours.

Total 84: 1 Graduate, 40 Seniors, 15 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 25 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 59.

 

PHILOSOPHY 5.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS
Mid-Year Examination. 1895.

[Omit one question.]

  1. The Ethical Idealism of Plato, of Aristotle, and of Kant, compared with the modern doctrine of duty.
  2. Professor Sumner’s doctrine of the Social Fulcrum vs. the philosophy of scientific charity.
  3. Indicate, very briefly, the place in the History of Philanthropy of:

Frédéric Le Play,
Dorothea Dix,
Pastor von Bodelschwingh,
Charles L. Brace,
Samuel G. Howe.

  1. The Elberfeld System — its organization, officials, relation tomunicipal government, and practical working.
  2. The Liverpool System of Collection.
  3. Mr. Charles Booth’s eight classes of East London,— their definition, dimensions, traits, and proportion. (Labor and Life of the People, I. pp. 37-62.) Mr. Booth’s view of the children of Class E (p. 160).
  4. Compare Mr. Booth’s method and results in East London with his method and results in all London.
  5. Compare the principle as to direct relief of the London Charity Organization Society with that of the Boston Associated Charities. (Loch, Charity Organization, pp. 59, 82.) Which is the sounder principle? Why?
  6. The Belgian Labor Colonies,— their scope and method of classification. Compare their aims with those of the colonies of Holland and Germany.
  7. The Christian doctrine of the Social Order — its principles and its peril.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3. Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1894-95.

 

PHILOSOPHY 5.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Year-end Examination. 1895.

  1. Explain the theory of ethics which makes the basis of this course of study; and the way in which this theory is practically illustrated by phases of the modern labor question.
  2. In what respect do the social ideals of Carlyle and Ruskin seem identical, and in what respect do they appear to be inconsistent with each other?
  3. The authorship and the significance of the following phrases:

“There is no wealth but Life…. A strange political economy; the only one, nevertheless, that ever was or can be.”

“I am for permanence in all things. Blessed is he that continueth where he is.”

“The gospel of dilettantism.”

“Roots of honour.”

“Ricardo is the parent of Socialism.”

“The value of a thing is independent of opinion and of quantity.”

“The reformation was the work of a monk; the revolution must be the work of a philosopher.”

“The people are the Rock on which the Church of the future must be built.”

  1. The practical programme proposed by Scientific Socialism; the chief advantages claimed for it by its adherents; and the criticisms on it which appear to you most serious. Utilize here your reading of Naquet and The Social Horizon.
  2. Socialism and Religion. The apparent grounds for sympathy and the practical reasons for antagonism. The teachings concerning socialism in the Encyclical of 1891.
  3. The philosophy of history which encourages the Socialist, and the “Opportunist’s” view of this “Law” of social evolution.
  4. The growth of Trades Unionism in Great Britain, and its contribution to moral education.
  5. Federalism and Individualism in English Coöperation. The issue involved, and the advantages of each scheme of expansion.
  6. Compare the characteristics of the forms of Liquor Legislation in force in Massachusetts and in Pennsylvania. (Fanshawe, XI, XII.) How are licenses granted under the Brooks Law? What is the function of probation-officers in Massachusetts?
  7. How far do physiological considerations go to determine one’s duty as to drink?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” pp. 6-7.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 1.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 1. Professor [William] Ashley, Asst. Professor [Edward] Cummings, Dr. [John] Cummings, and Mr. [Frederick Redman] Clow. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. 3 hours.

Total 277: 2 Graduates, 39 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 159 Sophomores, 9 Freshmen, 50 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 1.
Mid-Year Examination. 1895.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the question. One question may be omitted.]

  1. “All members of the community are not laborers, but all are consumers, and consume either unproductively or productively.” Explain and illustrate by examples. Suppose everybody resolved to consume “productively” only, what would be the result?
  2. “The distinction, then, between capital and not-capital, does not lie in the kind of commodities, but in the mind of the capitalist — in his will to employ them for one purpose rather than another.” Discuss this statement, using the following illustrations:—

Bread.
A knitting machine.
A steam engine.
A carriage.

  1. Where does true economic rent appear in the following cases:—

(a) The cultivation of a farm by its owner.
(b) The rental of a farm under a long lease by a tenant who has made permanent improvements on the land.

  1. What is the effect on values of a general fall of profits? Of a general fall of wages?
  2. What is the effect on rents of (1) an improvement in the methods of agriculture, (2) an improvement in transportation?
  3. “The price of land, mines, and all other fixed sources of income, depends on the rate of interest.” Explain.
  4. According to Mill, “Every addition to capital gives to labor either additional employment, or additional remuneration.” Why? What is the effect of an increase of labor-saving machinery on employment and on remuneration? Illustrate carefully.
  5. “Money cannot in itself perform any part of the office of capital, since it can afford no assistance to production.” Do you agree or disagree? Why? Is money capital? Is credit money? Is credit capital?
  6. What does Mill mean by “stationary state”? And what changes would bring about a progressive state?
  7. What would be the effect on prices of (1) adding to a gold and silver currency a small issue of inconvertible paper money, (2) the discovery of very rich gold fields?
  8. What do you understand by the Domestic system? By Competition? By Labor?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3. Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1894-95.

 

ECONOMICS 1.
Year-end Examination. 1895.

(Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the question. Omit three of the even numbers: answer all others.)

  1. “We must suppose the entire savings of the community to be annually invested in really productive employment within the country itself; and no new channels opened by industrial inventions, or by more extensive substitution of the best known processes for inferior ones.” How would profits be affected supposing population (a) to remain stationary; (b) to increase in proportion to the increase in capital?
  2. The operations, therefore, of speculative dealers, are useful to the public whenever profitable to themselves; and although they are sometimes injurious to the public, by heightening the fluctuations which their more usual office is to alleviate, yet, whenever this happens the speculators are the greatest losers. Explain Mill’s reasoning.
  3. Mill says of the stationary state, “I am inclined to believe that it would be, on the whole, a very considerable improvement on our present condition.” Why? Explain carefully.
  4. Is there a necessary hostility of interests between consumers organized in co-operative associations and producers organized in trade unions?
  5. Describe the different results obtained in co-operation by distributing profits in the form of dividend (a) on capital, (b) on labor (in proportion to wages), (c) on purchases. Illustrate by the experience of co-operation in France and England.
  6. How do you distinguish between what Mill calls the necessary and the optional functions of government?
  7. “We have had an example of a tax on exports, that is, on foreigners, falling in part on ourselves. We shall therefore not be surprised if we find a tax on imports, that is, on ourselves, partly falling on foreigners.” Explain carefully each case, tracing the possible effects upon prices and international trade of taxes (a) upon exports; (b) upon imports.
  8. “Equality of taxation, therefore, as a maxim of polities, means equality of sacrifice.” Apply this maxim to a tax on incomes.
  9. Suppose a tax of a fixed sum per bushel to be laid upon corn; what would be the effect (a) upon prices; (b) upon population; (c) upon profits; (d) upon rents?
    How would the results differ if instead of a fixed sum per bushel the tax were…

(i) …a fixed proportion of the produce;
(ii) …proportioned to the rent of the land;
(iii) …a fixed sum of so much per cultivated acre? Explain carefully each case.

  1. Describe the kinds of currency used in the United States, indicating briefly the conditions of issue in each case.
  2. Explain the causes and effects of (a) combined reserves, (b) a suspension of the Bank Charter Act in England.
  3. What are the provisions of the law in regard to the issue of bank notes at the present day in England? In Germany?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” pp. 33-34.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 2.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 2. Professors Ashley and [Silus Marcus] Macvane. — Economic Theory from Adam Smith to the present time. — Selections from Adam Smith and Ricardo. — Modern Writers. — Lectures. 3 hours.

Total 34: 9 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 2.
Mid-Year Examination. 1895.

N.B.—Not more than seven questions must be attempted.

  1. “The study which lately in England has been called Political Economy is, in reality, nothing more than the investigation of some accidental phenomena of modern commercial operations, nor has it been true in its investigation even of these. It has no connection whatever with political economy, as understood and treated of by the great thinkers of past ages; and as long as its unscholarly and undefined statements are allowed to pass under the same name, every word written on the subject by those thinkers—and chiefly the words of Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, and Bacon—must be nearly useless to mankind” (Ruskin, Munera Pulveris). Consider some or all of these assertions.
  2. Give a brief account of the Physiocrat doctrine, and state to what extent it was “corrected” by Adam Smith.
  3. Explain the origin and content of Adam Smith’s conception of “Nature.”
  4. “A diamond has scarcely any value in use.” Consider this statement in its relation to the discussion since Adam Smith’s time of the doctrine of Value.
  5. How does the doctrine of Rent expounded by Adam Smith agree with, and differ from, that of Ricardo?
  6. Compare Adam Smith’s “natural rate of wages” with Ricardo’s “natural price of labour.”
  7. “Population tends to outstrip the means of subsistence.” Distinguish the various meanings assignable to this phrase, and indicate which was meant by Malthus.
  8. What does Adam Smith understand by “Capital”? Compare his conception with that of John Stuart Mill.
  9. Present a critical estimate—based upon your own study—of one of the following:

1. Ingram, History of Political Economy.
2. Price, Political Economy in England.
3. Cossa, Introduction to the Study of Political Economy.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3. Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1894-95.

 

ECONOMICS 2.
Year-end Examination, 1895

Answer at least four, but not more than six, of the following questions:

  1. What is the economic source of Interest? Examine the proposition that “interest is the price paid for the use of capital.”
  2. State briefly your conclusions as to the law of general wages.
  3. Apply the Austrian theory of wages to the following case:
    Number of laborers 1,000,000; total subsistence fund $600,000,000; scale of increase of productiveness of labor as the “productive period” is lengthened from one year to seven years: $350, $450, $530, $580, $620, $650, and $670.
  4. How, in your opinion, are the profits of employers determined? What is your conclusion as to the function, in distribution, of the so-called “no profits employers.”
  5. Discuss the following passages:
    “This National Dividend is at once the aggregate Net product of, and the sole source of payment for, all the agents of production within the country: it is divided up into Earnings of labour, Interest of capital, and lastly the Producer’s Surplus, or Rent, of land and of other differential advantages for production. It constitutes the whole of them and the whole of it is distributed among them.”
    “The proposal to put rent aside while we are considering how earnings and interest are determined, has been found to suggest that rent is determined first and then takes part in determining earnings and interest; and this is, of course, the opposite of what really occurs.”
  6. It has been said that Mill expresses his meaning badly when he said that demand for commodities is not a demand for labor. Does the proposition seem to you to need revision!
  7. Does increase of saving tend to make the supply of goods outrun the demand for goods?
  8. Examine the doctrine that the exchange value of commodities is determined by marginal utility.
  9. Past and present relations between gold and silver.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” p. 35.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 3.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 3. Asst. Professor Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. 2 hours.

Total 52: 10 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 3.
Mid-Year Examination. 1895.

Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit three questions.

  1. State accurately the reading you have done in this course to date.
  2. “But now let us drop the alleged parallelism between individual organizations and social organizations. I have used the analogies elaborated but as a scaffolding to help in building up a coherent body of sociological inductions. Let us take away the scaffolding: the inductions will stand by themselves.” What are these inductions?
  3. “The family relinquishes one provisional and temporary function after another; its only purpose being to fill gaps in social offices, it made way for independent institutions … as soon as these institutions arose.” Explain and illustrate. How far would Spencer assent to this doctrine?
  4. “Most anthropologists who have written on prehistoric customs believe, indeed, that man lived originally in a state of promiscuity or ‘communal marriage’; but we have found this hypothesis is essentially unscientific.” Discuss the evidence.
  5. “The status of children, in common with that of women, rises in proportion as the compulsory coöperation characterizing militant societies, becomes qualified by the voluntary coöperation characterising industrial societies.” Why? Trace the rise, and illustrate.
  6. “These three distinct states of mind, all of which, in point of fact, are admitted to exist together at the present time, and perhaps to have always done so to a greater or less extent, Comte declares to have undergone a regular progressive movement in the history of society. There have been three successive epochs, during which these philosophic principles, each in its turn, preponderated over both the others and controlled the current of human events.” Explain.
  7. “So that as law differentiates from personal commands, and as morality differentiates from religious injunctions, so politeness differentiates from ceremonial observance. To which I may add, so does rational usage differentiate from fashion.” Explain and illustrate.
  8. How does Spencer account for the diverse types of political organization; and what influences determine the order in which they arise? Illustrate.
  9. “From the Evolution-standpoint we are thus enabled to discern the relative beneficence of institutions which, considered absolutely, are not beneficent; and are taught to approve as temporary that which, as permanent, we abhor.” Explain and illustrate. Does our idea of progress then include all social changes?
  10. “In all ways, then, we are shown that with this relative decrease of militancy and relative increase of industrialism, there has been a change from a social order in which individuals exist for the State, to a social order in which the State exists for individuals?” Explain and illustrate.
  11. According to Spencer, what are likely to be the future forms of political organization and action in societies that are favorably circumstanced for carrying social evolution to its highest stage?
  12. “At bottom this is a physical explanation, and Spencerian sociology in general, whether formulated by Mr. Spencer or by other writers under the influence of his thought, is essentially a physical philosophy of society, notwithstanding its liberal use of biological and psychological data.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3. Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1894-95.

 

ECONOMICS 3.
Year-end Examination

[Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit one question.]

  1. State accurately the reading you have done in this course to date.
  2. What has been the function of religion in social evolution? (Compare Spencer and Kidd.) Do you find reasons for thinking society will become more religious?
  3. “The only conclusion to which we are brought by this prolonged examination of authorities is that community of land has not yet been historically proved.” Discuss the evidence.
  4. “And as of old, Society and State tend to coincide, political questions to become identical with social questions.” Discuss the historical changes and tendencies in question. Distinguish carefully between Society, the State, the Government, the Nation.
  5. “It is becoming clear that, when people speak of natural rights of liberty, property, etc., they really mean, not rights which once existed and have been lost, but rights which they believe ought to exist, and which would be produced by a condition of society and an ordering of the State such as they think desirable.” Explain. How far do changes in the theory and practice of penal legislation substantiate this view?
  6. “The gulf between the state of society towards which it is the tendency of the process of evolution now in progress to carry us, and socialism, is wide and deep.”
    “The Individualism of the past is buried, and the immediate future is unmistakably with a progressive Socialism, the full extent of which no man can get see.” Discuss carefully the facts and theories upon which these opposing views are based.
  7. “The philanthropic and experimental forms of socialism, which played a conspicuous rôle before 1848, perished then in the wreck of the Revolution, and have never risen to life again.” What were the characteristics of these earlier forms; and what was their relation to the movements which preceded them and followed them?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” pp. 35-36.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 5.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 52. Mr. George Ole Virtue. — Railway Transportation. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 21: 2 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 5.
Year-end Examination. 1895.

  1. Sketch the railroad history of France.
  2. “The [Reilly] bill now before Congress proposes to extend the debt for another fifty years and a grand opportunity will thus be let slip for trying, under the most favorable circumstances, an experiment whose possibilities no man can measure.”
  3. What legislation can you suggest for improving the relations between the different classes of owners of railway capital? For the protection of the interests of investors in railway capital generally?
  4. State briefly the significance in railway history of the following cases: Munn v. Illinois; Wabash, etc. Ry. Co. v. Illinois; Ames v. U. P. Ry. Co.; Budd v. New York; In re Louisville & Nashville; The Denaby Main Colliery Case.
  5. Choose one:

(a) The bearing upon the making of rates, of the “cost of service”; “value of service”; “charging what the traffic will bear”; “joint cost.”
(b) “Group rates,” “equal mileage rates,” “the blanket rate,” “the postage rate,” “Wagen-raum tarif,” “differentials.”
(c) A “reasonable rates.”

  1. Recount the experience which has led the Interstate Commerce Commission to recomment an amendment to the Act to Regulate Commerce: (a) Construing the meaning of “the word ‘line’ when used in the act to be a physical line and not a business arrangement”; (b) relieving “shippers and individuals not connected with railway employment from liability to fine and imprisonment under Section 10,” with certain exceptions.
  2. What would be the probable effect of giving the Commission power to prescribe minimum as well as maximum rates? Would it obviate the necessity now claimed for pooling?
  3. “When the first bill to regulate commerce was passed the great and powerful wedge of State socialism, so far as government control of railroads is concerned, was driven one-quarter of its length into the timber of conservative government. … The pending bill, [the pooling which passed the House at the last session is referred to] the moment it becomes a law, will drive the wedge three-quarters of its length into the timber.”
    Give your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with each of the above statements.
  4. What conclusions on the question of public management can you draw from the experience of the states in the internal improvement movement?
  5. Why is it peculiarly true in railway business that “competition must end in combination”?
  6. The success of the State Railroad Commissions and suggestions for increasing their efficiency.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” pp. 36-37.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 71.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 71. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 28: 6 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 71.
Mid-year Examination. 1895.

  1. What is the “Benefit Theory” of taxation? What is the “Faculty Theory”? Define “Faculty” as used in this expression.
  2. What are the leading points of difference between the English, Prussian and American income tax systems?
  3. What reasons are there for having income tax levied by national authority rather than local? To what extent, if at all, do these reasons apply also to a general property tax?
  4. In levying a general property tax, should the debts of the taxpayer be deducted from the property held by him?
  5. By what reasoning is it maintained that,—
    “When the local real estate tax is levied according to rental value and assessed in the first instance on the occupier, as is the case in England, the main burden of the tax will rest ultimately on the occupier, not the owner of the premises.”
    Will the same reasoning apply to the income tax on rent, assessed under Schedule A., and collected from the occupier?
  6. What are the leading points of difference between the German method of taxing distilled liquors and the method practised in England and the United States?
  7. The theories of Canard, Thiers and Stein are,—
    “That every tax is shifted on everybody — that every consumer will again shift the tax on a third party, and that this third party who is again a consumer will shift it to someone else — and so ad infinitum. And since everyone is a consumer, everyone will bear a portion of the taxes that everybody else pays.”
    Professor Seligman’s comment is that “the error of this doctrine lies in the failure to distinguish between productive and unproductive consumption.” Is this answer complete? If not, wherein does it fail?
  8. In a statement of the circumstances under which a tax may or may not be capitalized, it is said,—
    “The principle would not apply to special taxes on property or profits if the capital value of this class of commodities should for any other reason fluctuate in price. For example, if a special tax were levied on government securities it might nevertheless happen that if some reason confidence in government bonds, as over against general securities, might decrease to such an extent as to counterbalance the decreased returns from the investment. In such a case there would be no capitalization of the tax.”
    What criticism have you to make on this reasoning?
  9. Can the theory of progressive taxation be satisfied by a gradually decreasing rate of progression [“degressively progressive taxation”]. or does it require a rate which shall cut off all income or accumulation above a certain level?
  10. What practical difficulties does the taxation of real estate offer in shaping a system of progressive taxation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” pp. 37-38.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 72.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 72. Professor Dunbar. — Financial Administration and Public Debts. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 28: 7 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 1 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 72.
Year-end Examination

[Spend an hour on A, and the remainder of the time on B.]

A.

  1. Give an account of the management of the English debt in the decade 1880-90.
  2. Do “sound rules of finance” demand that the principal of the debt or the rate of interest shall be determined by the government? that securities shall never be issued below par? that a government shall not buy in its securities at a premium?

B.

  1. How far, if at all, is the government justified in pledging itself to any fixed policy of debt payment?
    How may the policy of conversation conflict with the policy of debt payment?
  2. Give an account of the United States refunding operations in the decade 1865-75.
  3. Discuss the respective powers of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Great Britain, the minister of finance in France.
    In each case where does the responsibility for the financial policy of the government rest?
  4. Give an account of the creation of Pit’s sinking fund and of the successive modifications made in the sinking fund provisions down to 1803.
  5. Discuss the various methods of placing government securities in the market, and the conditions of contract which make one form of security more attractive to buyers than another.
  6. The United States 4 per cent. 30-year bonds are quoted at about 123¼; how is the present worth of these securities determined?
    What determines the present worth of a terminable annuity? of a perpetual annuity? of a life annuity?
  7. Discuss the manner of making up the estimates of public income and expenditure in Great Britain and in France; the manner of providing for any deficits which may occur in any department during the year; the manner of providing for carrying on the government where the enactment of the budget is delayed until after the beginning of the year; and the disposal of balances unexpended at the end of the year.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” p. 39.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 8.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 81. Professor Dunbar. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 2 hours.

Total 52: 5 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 8.
Mid-Year Examination. 1895.

  1. Hamilton is sometimes said to have favored the policy of perpetual debt, and Gallatin, on the other hand, to have established the policy of debt-payment. How far are these statements confirmed by the measures of Hamilton and Gallatin respectively?
  2. How far should you say that Hamilton was justified in his expectation (stated in the Report on Public Credit), (1) That the public debt, if properly funded, would answer most of the purposes of money, and (2) that it would increase the amount of capital for use in trade and lower the interest of money?
  3. When were the several classes of obligations in which the revolutionary debt was funded finally paid off?
  4. Was it fortunate or unfortunate that Congress did not adopt Madison’s policy as to a United States Bank in January, 1815? Why?
  5. Give a list, with dates, of the cases in which bills for establishing a United States Bank have been vetoed.
  6. Give as complete a chronology as you can of the events connected with the Bank, from President Jackson’s first attack upon it down to its final failure.
  7. The removal of the deposits is sometimes spoken of as a fatal blow to the United States Bank. What do you gather from your reading as to its importance as regards the business position or credit of the Bank?
  8. What was the Specie Circular of 1836, and what serious financial results did it produce?
  9. What led to the adoption of the National Bank system in 1863?
  10. How would it have eased the financial difficulty in 1861, if the Secretary of the Treasury had made more free use of his authority, under the act of August 5, for suspending some of the provisions of the Independent Treasury act?
  11. The earlier legal-tender acts provided for funding the notes, at the pleasure of the holder, in United States bonds. When and why was this privilege of funding withdrawn? What would probably have been the effect if it had been retained until the close of the war?
  12. What were the steps by which the legal tender issues came to be treated as the practically permanent element in our paper currency and to be fixed in amount?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3. Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1894-95.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 9.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 9. Asst. Professor Cummings. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the United States and in other countries. 3 hours.

Total 79: 3 Graduates, 34 Seniors, 31 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 9.
Mid-Year Examination, 1895.

(Arrange your answers, in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience of different countries.)

  1. State accurately the reading you have done in this course to date.
  2. “The interests of the working classes are identical in all lands governed by capitalist methods of production. The extension of the world’s commerce and production for the world’s markets, make the position of the workman in any one country daily more dependent upon that of the workmen in other countries.” Why? Explain how in the history of trade unions this community of interest among workmen, not only of the same trade and the same country but of different trades and different countries, has actually manifested itself. Illustrate.
  3. Precisely what answer to the “lump of labor” theory is to be drawn from that version of the wage-fund doctrine adopted by Mill, by Walker, by yourself?
  4. How far has the theory and the practice of coöperation offered a complete remedy for the evils of the existing industrial organization? and at precisely what points has the theory and the practice broken down? Illustrate carefully.
  5. “The struggle of the working classes against capitalist exploitation must of necessity be a political struggle.” How far does the history of trade unions and of coöperation show a tendency in this direction? Illustrate carefully.
  6. “But above all things, observe that all types of piece wage, whether single or progressive, and whether individual or collective, possess this most marked superiority over Profit-sharing.” … “At the same time, it is right to remark that there are many cases, in which the method of Profit-sharing surpasses in important respects any form of the ordinary wage-system.” Explain carefully the grounds of the alleged inferiority and superiority in each case.
  7. “Before, therefore, the trade union can realize its policy of ‘collective bargaining,’ it must solve the two-fold problem – how to bind its own constituents, and how to obtain the recognition of employers.” By what methods have trade unions endeavored to solve this problem? Illustrate.
  8. Trace the successive stages of the so-called “industrial revolution” during the last hundred and fifty years.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3. Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1894-95.

 

ECONOMICS 9.
Year-end Examination. 1895.

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by statistical and descriptive matter showing the relative condition of working people in the United States and in other countries.]

I.

State accurately the reading you have done in this course since the mid-year examinations.

II.

Devote three hours to a careful discussion of the merits and defects of the German system of compulsory insurance, under the following general heads:

  1. An accurate account of the origin, scope, organization, administration of the system in Germany, — stating approximately the numbers insured, the cost of insurance to all parties concerned, the benefits provided, the methods of collection, distribution, etc.;
  2. Difficulties, opposition, and criticisms thus far encountered;
  3. Progress of similar movements towards compulsory insurance in other countries;
  4. Facts bearing upon the adequacy of existing provisions for sickness, accident, old age in England and the United States;
  5. A biographical sketch showing at what age and in what respects the State already interferes to prescribe conditions of employment, education, etc., for operatives reared from childhood to old age in the factory system of Massachusetts: showing also the additional interference which would be involved in the adoption of the German system of compulsory insurance;
  6. Conclusion.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” p. 40.

__________________

1894-95.
ECONOMICS 10.

Course Title, Staffing, and Enrollment

[ECONOMICS] 10. Professor Ashley. — The Elements of Economic History from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. 2 hours.

Total 61: 9 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1894-1895, p. 62.

 

ECONOMICS 10.
Mid-Year Examination. 1895.

I. To be first attempted by all.

Translate, and comment on, the following passages:

  1. Quomodo vocatur mansio; quis tenuit eam T. R. E.; quis mod tenet; quot hidae; quot carrucae in dominio; quot hominum; quot villani; quot cotarii; quot servi; quot liberi homines; quot sochemanni.
  2. De virgis operantur ii diebus in ebdomada.
  3. Rex. . . destinavit per regnum quos ad id prudentiores.. . . cognoverat, qui circumeuntes et oculata fide fundos singulos perlustrantes, habita aestimatione victualium quae de hiis solvebantur, redegerunt in summam denariorum.
  4. Interiors plerique frumenta non serunt, sed lacte et carne vivunt, pellibusque sunt vestiti.
  5. Ideo rogamus, sacratissime imperator, subvenias. . . . ademptum sit jus etiam procuratoribus, nedum conductori, adversus colonos ampliandi partes agrarias.
  6. Arva per annos mutant et superest ager.
  7. Ego Eddi episcopus terram quae dicitur Lantocal tres cassatos Heglisco abbati libenter largior.
  8. Rex misit in singulos comitatus quod messores et alii operarii non plus caperent quam capere solebant.
  9. Noveritis nos concessisse omnibus tenentibus nostris . . . . quod omnia praedicta terrae et tenementa de cetero sint libera, et liberae conditionis.

II. Write on two only of the following subjects.

  1. The reasons for believing in the survival in Britain of the Roman agrarian organisation.
  2. A comparison, from the economic point of view, of the open-field system with modern methods of farming.
  3. The condition of the tillers of the soil in England in A.D. 1381 as compared with A.D. 1066.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3. Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1894-95.

 

ECONOMICS 10.
Year-end Examination. 1895.

I.
[To be first attempted by all.]

TRANSLATE, and comment on, the following passages:—

  1. In Kateringes sunt x. hidae ad geldum Regis. Et de istis
  2. hidis tenent xl. villani xl. virgas terrae. … Et omnes isti homines operantur iiibus diebus in ebdomada.
  3. Agriculturae non student; majorque pars eorum victus in lacte caseo carne consistit; neque quisquam agri modum certum aut fines habet proprios; sed magistratus ac principes in annos singulos gentibus cognationibusque hominum qui una coierunt, quantum et quo loco visum est agri attribuunt atque anno post alio transire cogunt.
  4. Nul ne deit rien acheter a revendre en la vile meyme, fors yl serra Gildeyn.
  5. Cives Londoniae debent xl marcas pro Gilda Telaria delenda; ita ut de cetero non suscitetur.
  6. Johannes Hore mortuus est, qui tenuit de domino dimidiam acram terrae cujus heriettum unus vitulus precii iiii d. Et Johanna soror dicti Johannis est proximus heres, quae venit et gersummavit dictam terram tenendam sibi et suis in villenagio ad voluntatem per servicia et consuetudines.

II.
[Write on four only of the following subjects.]

  1. “I contend that from 1563 to 1824, a conspiracy, concocted by the law and carried out by parties interested in its success, was entered into, to cheat the English workman of his wages, to tie him to the soil, to deprive him of hope, and to degrade him into irremediable poverty.” Consider this.
  2. Discuss the question whether the statute of 5 Eliz. c. 4, displays any distinct economic policy.
  3. Explain the causes, nature and consequences of the change in commercial routes in the sixteenth century.
  4. What is meant by a national economy, as contrasted with a town economy? Illustrate from European conditions in the 15th and 16th centuries.
  5. What has been the economic gain to England from immigration?
  6. Mention briefly those respects in which the economic development of England has resembled that of Western Europe, and those respects in which it has been peculiar.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4. Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics Fine Arts, Architecture, and Music in Harvard College, June, 1895,” pp. 40-41.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. The Soviet Economy, course outline and final exam. Herbert Levine, 1963

 

Herbert Levine was trained in economics and Russian studies at Harvard before going off to lifetime employment at the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Harvard in the fall term of 1963 to cover the Soviet economy class for Abram Bergson who was on leave at the Center for Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 1963-64.

 Along with a younger economist from the University of Texas, Ed Hewett, Levine championed my application to the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) for a research exchange fellowship in the German Democratic Republic back in the late 1970s. He was a mentor to many other young scholars working on the economies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. I last saw him in November 2003 at an economics workshop at Harvard where drafts of papers were presented that would later be published in a special issue edited by Paul R. Gregory and Marshall Goldman in honor of Abram Bergson (Comparative Economic Studies, 2005).

_____________________________

Obituary in The Daily Pennsylvanian

Former economics prof. leaves a legacy
47-year teacher is remembered fondly for his compassion and challenging courses

https://www.thedp.com/article/2007/06/former-economics-prof-leaves-a-legacy

By Alissa Eisenberg and Alissa Eisenber 06/14/07

Herbert Levine, Economics professor at Penn from 1960 to 2006, died Sunday, succumbing to complications from leg surgery after battling prostate cancer for the past 15 years.

Levine was 78.

Receiving his B.A. [1950], M.A. [1952] and Ph.D. [1961] degrees from Harvard University, Levine specialized in Soviet economics and his insights were “in demand during the period leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet system,” according to a written statement by fellow Economics professor Lawrence Klein.

Levine published several articles on his area of expertise, yet never failed to acknowledge the importance of the broader study of economics.

Winning several awards for excellent teaching at Penn including the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Kravis Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate teaching, Levine was highly regarded among students.

“Econ 1 is large, but [my dad] would call on people by name, he just taught that way and people cared for his courses,” said daughter and College alumna Jan Levine.

Former student and 1964 College alumnus Ted Kozloff echoed Levine’s revere for her father.

“Herb was a seminal figure in my education,” Kozloff said. “There are maybe one or two teachers in my lifetime that had an effect like Herb. . He enjoyed enormous popularity and there was enormous respect for him.”

And that respect remained prominent over his 47-year career at Penn.

Levine was Elizabeth Goldstein’s dissertation advisor in 1982, and she said he was “the most fabulous adviser anybody could ask for.”

Goldstein added, “He was rigorious but understanding and had an amazing gift for being able to guide people through very difficult and high-level economic theory.”

Many former students also noted his warmth and devotion to his personal life in addition to academics.

“Many people excel in their careers and forget their personal life, but Herb didn’t,” said former student Edward LaPuma.

Levine’s funeral was scheduled for this morning in Trevose, Pa.

He is survived by his wife Helene Levine, daughters Jan and Judith Levine, sister Myra Heller and three grandchildren. His son, Jonathon, predeceased him.

Obituary in the University of Pennsylvania Almanac,
Vol. 54, No. 1. July 17, 2007

https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/volumes/v54/n01/obit.html

Dr. Herbert S. Levine, professor emeritus of economics and expert on Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, died on June 10, after complications from surgery from a broken leg during the end of a fifteen-year battle with prostate cancer; he was 78.

Dr. Levine completed his postsecondary education at Harvard, earning an undergraduate degree in economics in 1950, followed by a master degree in Russian studies two years later. He also earned a doctorate from Harvard in 1961, writing his dissertation on the economic performance of the USSR, which earned important recognition of his research by winning the prestigious David A. Wells Prize.

Dr. Levine joined Penn’s faculty in 1960 as an assistant professor of economics. He studied the controlled economy of the USSR, in close touch with other members of a research center at Harvard University. He was promoted to professor in 1969. In addition to his teaching duties, Dr. Levine served as chairman of the graduate group in economics and as co-director of the Lauder Institute. After a 47-year career at Penn he retired in 2006.

His unusual abilities in presenting modern political economy to undergraduates resulted in him being awarded faculty prizes for his teaching including the Irving B. Kravis Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Teaching (1988 and 1991) and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Dr. Levine is survived by his wife, Helene; two daughters, Jan Levine, and Judith Levine and their husbands Michael Zuckerman and Edward Sobel; their grandchildren, Rachel Zuckerman, Joshua Zuckerman and Julia Sobel; and his sister, Myra Heller and brother-in-law Jack Heller.

_____________________________

Harvard Course Announcement Fall Term, 1963

Economics 133. The Economy of Soviet Russia (Offered jointly with the Committee on Regional Studies).

Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.) at 9. Professor Levine (University of Pennsylvania).

Economic development under the five-year plans: the rate of economic growth: structural changes; conditioning factors. Planning principles and procedures.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, 1963-1964, p. 103.

_____________________________

ECONOMICS 133, Fall Term, 1963-1964
The Economy of Soviet Russia
H. S. Levine

Course Outline and Reading List.

Books to be Purchased:

Dobb: M. Dobb, Soviet, Economic Development Since 1917, International Publishers, 1948.

Readings: Readings on the Soviet Economy, F. Holzman (ed.), Rand McNally, 1961.

Part One

I. Historical Overview

A. Pre-Revolution
(General Historical Background: D. Treadgold, Twentieth Century Russia, Rand McNally, 1959, Chapters 1-5, 8.

1. Bowden, Karpovich and Usher, An Economic History of Europe Since 1250, Chapters 14 and 29.

2. G. T. Robinson, Rural Russia Under the Old Regime, Chapters 6, 7, 11.

3. A. Gerschenkron, “The Rate of Industrial Growth In Russia Since 1885,” Part 1, The Journal of Economic History, Supplement VII, 1947, pp. 144-157 (only).

4. Supplementary Readings:

a) J. Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia, Chapters 24, 26, 27.

b) Robinson, Chapters 5, 12.

c) P. I. Lyashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia; on agriculture: Chapters 21, 23, 36; on industry: Chapters 25, 26, 32-34.

d) T. Von Laue, Sergei Witte and the Industrialization of Russia

e) A. Gerschenkron, “Russia: Patterns and Problems of Economic Development, 1861-1958, » in his Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (postpone Part Ill). This essay also appears in C. Black (ed.), The Transformation of Russian Society.

B. The Revolution, War Communism, and the New Economic Policy (1917-1927)
(General Historical Background: Treadgold, Chapters 9-14.

1. Dobb, Chapters 3-7.

C. The Industrialization Debates, Collectivization and the Beginning of the Plan Era
(General Historical Background: Treadgold, Chapter 17.

1. Dobb, Chapters 8 and 9

2. A. Erlich, “Preobrazhenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 1950, pp. 57-88

3. Readings: N. Jasny, “Early Kolkhozy and the Big Drive”

4. M. Fainsod, Smolensk Under Soviet Rule, pp. 242-258

5. Supplementary Reading:

a) Readings: A. Erlich, “Stalin’s Views on Soviet Economic Development”.

D. From the First Five Year Plan to the End of the War (1928-1945)
(General Historical Background: Treadgold, Chapter 18

1. Dobb, Chapter 10

2. N. Jasny, Soviet Industrialization 1928-1952, pp. 109-114

3. Dobb, Chapters 11, 12 and pp. 453-454

4 Jasny, Soviet Industrialization, pp. 177-187

E. Post-War to the Present
(General Historical Background: Treadgold, Chapter 25

1. Jasny, Soviet Industrialization, pp. 235-256

2. G. Grossman, “The Soviet Economy,” Problems of Communism, XIl:2, (Mar-Apr. 1963) pp. 32-40

3. Supplementary Readings:

a) O. Hoeffding, “Substance and Shadow in the Soviet Seven Year Plan,” Foreign Affairs, April, 1959

b) H. Levine, “The New Seven Year Plan,” The New Leader, May 25 and June 1, 1959,

II. Soviet Economic Growth

A. Problems of Measuring Growth

1. The Soviet Statistical System

a) G. Grossman, Soviet Statistics of Physical Output of Industrial Commodities, pp. 1-10, 22-46

2. Reliability of Soviet Statistics

a) Readings: A. Bergson, “Reliability and Usability of Soviet Statistics: A Summary Appraisal”

b) L. Turgeon, “On the Reliability of Soviet Statistics,” Review of Economics and Statistics, February 1952, pp. 75-6.

c) Grossman, Soviet Statistics, pp. 123-134.

3. Interpretation of Data

a) Readings: A. Bergson, “The Adjusted Factor Cost Standard of National Income Valuation.”

b) Readings: A. Nove, “1926/27 and All That.”

c) A. Gerschenkron, A Dollar Index of Soviet Machinery Output, pp. 47-58

d) R. Moorsteen, “On Measuring Productive Potential and Relative Efficiency,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1961, pp. 451-467

e) Supplementary Readings

1) J. R. Hicks, “The Valuation of the Social Income,” Economica, May 1940, pp. 105-124

2) P. Samuelson, “Evaluation of Real National Income,” Oxford Economic Papers, January 1950, pp. 1-29.

3) A. Becker, “Comparisons of US and USSR National Output: Some Rules of the Game,”World Politics, October 1960, pp. 99-111.

B. What Has Been Accomplished?

1. National Income

a) A. Bergson, “National Income,” in A. Bergson and S. Kuznets (eds.), Economic Trends in the Soviet Union, pp. 1-16 (only).

b) S. Cohn, “The Gross National Product in the Soviet Union,” in Joint Economic Committee, Dimensions of Soviet Economic Power, pp. 69-77.

c) Supplementary Reading

1) A. Bergson, The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928, Chapters 13 and 14.

2. Industry

a) Readings: N. Kaplan and R. Moorsteen, “An Index of Soviet Industrial Growth”

b) R. Greenslade and P. Wallace, “Industrial Production in the USSR,” in Dimensions, pp. 119-130

c) Supplementary Reading

1) R. Powell, “Industrial Production,” in Trends, pp. 150-176

3. Agriculture

a) D. G. Johnson, “Agricultural Production”, in Trends, pp. 203-214

b) J. Willet, “The Recent Record in Agricultural Production,” in Dimensions, pp. 95-100.

4.  Consumption

a) J. Chapman, “Consumption,” in Trends, pp. 235-270

b) Supplementary Reading

1) R. Golden, “Recent Trends in Soviet Personal Income and Consumption,” in Dimensions, pp. 347-366.

C. Analysis of Growth

1. H. Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy (2nd and Revised Editions), pp. 1-26

2. W. Eason, “Labor Force,” in Trends, pp. 38-93

3. N. Kaplan, “Capital Formation and Allocation,” in A. Bergson (ed.), Soviet Economic Growth, pp. 37-80

4. A. Bergson, “National Income,” in Trends, pp. 17-35.

5. Supplementary Readings

a) F. Seton, “Production Functions in Soviet Industry,” American Economic Review, May 1959, pp. 1-14

b) R. Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, Chapter 4

c) N. DeWitte, “Education and the Development of Human Resources,” in Dimensions, pp. 233-268

d) Readings: “Forced Labor in the Soviet Union”.

Ill. The Operation of the Soviet Economy

A. General Operating Framework and Principles

1. P. Cook, “The Administration and Distribution of Soviet Industry,” in Dimensions, pp. 183-210.

2. A. Nove, The Soviet Economy, Chapter 1.

3. W. Loucks, Comparative Economic Systems (6th Edition), pp. 444-453.

4. Supplementary Reading

a) G. Grossman, “The Structure and Organization of the Soviet Economy,” Slavic Review, June 1962, pp. 203-222.

B. Planning

1. O. Lange, “On the Economic Theory of Socialism” in B. Lippincott (ed.), O. Lange and F. Taylor, On the Economic Theory of Socialism.

2. Schwartz, Chapter V

3. Readings: H. Levine, “The Centralized Planning of Supply in Soviet Industry.”

4. Readings: G. Grossman, “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine”

5. Readings: “On the Problem of Determining the Economic Effectiveness of Capital Investments.”

6. Supplementary Readings

a) J. Drewnowski, “The Economic Theory of Socialism: A Suggestion for Reconsideration,” Journal of Political Economy, August 1961, pp. 341-354

b) Dobb, Chapter 1

c) H. Hunter, “Optimum Tautness in Developmental Planning,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, July 1961, Part l, pp. 561-572.

d) R. Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, Chapter 5

e) I. Yevenko, Planning in the USSR, (Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow), esp. Chapter III.

f) Readings: D. Granick, “An Organizational Model of Soviet Industrial Planning.”

C. The Firm and Problems of Industrial Administration

1. Readings: J. Berliner, “The Informal Organization of the Soviet Firm.”

2. Readings: A. Nove, “The Problem of Success Indicators in Soviet Industry.”

3. “The Liberman Proposals”

a) Current Digest of the Soviet Press, XIV:36 (Oct. 3, 1962), pp. 13-15

b) Harry Schafer, “Ills and Remedies,” Problems of Communism, May-June 1963, pp. 18-26.

4. A. Nove, “The Soviet Industrial Reorganization,” Problems of Communism, Nov.-Dec. 1957, pp 19-25.

5. H. Levine, “Recent Developments in Soviet Planning,” in Dimensions, 1st Section, pp. 167-185.

6. P. Cook, “Party, State and Economic Reorganization in the USSR.” The ASTE Bulletin, V:l (Winter 1963), pp. 2-11

7. Supplementary Readings

a) Readings: J. Berliner, “Managerial Incentives and Decisionmaking.”

b) G. Grossman, “Soviet Growth: Routine, Inertia, and Pressure,” American Economic Review, May 1960, pp. 62-72.

c) Readings: O. Hoeffding, “The Soviet Industrial Reorganization of 1957.”

d) M. Goldman, “Economic Controversy in the Soviet Union,” Foreign Affairs, 1963:3, pp. 498-512.

e) A. Nove, “The Liberman Proposals,” Survey, April 1963, pp. 112-118.

D. Prices

1. M. Bornstein, “The Soviet Price System,” American Economic Review, March 1962, pp. 64-103.

2. V. Nemchinov, “Value and Price Under Socialism,” Problems of Economics, IV:3 (July 1961), pp. 3-17.

3. R. Campbell, “Marx, Kantorovich, and Novozhilov: Stolmost Versus Reality,” Slavic Review, October 1961, pp.402-418.

4. M. Bornstein, “The 1963 Soviet Industrial Price Revision,” Soviet Studies, July 1963, pp. 43-52.

5. Supplementary Readings

a) Readings: G. Grossman, “Industrial Prices In the USSR.”

b) A. Wakar and J. Zielinski, “Socialist Operational Price Systems,” American Economic Review, March 1963, pp. 109-127

c) “The Great Value-Price Controversy in the USSR….” in H. Shaffer (ed.), The Soviet Economy (A Collection of Western and Soviet Views), pp. 340-421.

d) A. Zauberman, “Soviet Planometrics,” Soviet Studies, July 1962, pp. 62-74.

E. Finance

1. A. Nove, The Soviet Economy, Chapter 3

2. Readings: F. Holzman, “Financing Soviet Development”

3. Readings: F. Holman, “Soviet Inflationary Pressures, 1928-1957”

4. Readings: D. Hodgman, “Soviet Monetary Controls Through the Banking System”

5. Supplementary Reading. F. Holzman, Soviet Taxation, Chs. 1-4, 9.

F. Labor

1. Readings: E. Brown, “The Soviet Labor Market”

2. Schwartz, pp. 554-565, 534-548

3. Readings: A. Nove, “Social Welfare in the USSR.”

4. W. Galenson, “The Soviet Wage Reform” Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting, Industrial Relations Research Association (1961), pp. 250-265.

5. A. Nove, “Toward a Communist Welfare State?” Problems of Communism, January-February 1960.

6. Supplementary Readings

a) E. Nash, “Trends in Labor Controls In the Soviet Union,” in Dimensions, pp. 393-404.

b) E. Brown, “Labor Relations in Soviet Factories,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, January 1958

c) E. Brown, “A Note on Employment and Unemployment in the Soviet Union in the Light of Technical Progress,” Soviet Studies, January 1961, pp. 231-240.

G. Agriculture

1. Schwarz, Chapter VIII

2. C. Harris, “Soviet Agricultural Resources Reappraised,” Journal of Farm Economics, May 1956, pp. 258-273

3. Readings: L. Volin, “Agricultural Policy of the Soviet Union.”

4. J. Willet, “The Recent Record in Agricultural Production,” in Dimensions, pp. 100-113.

5. H. Walters, Agriculture in the United States and the Soviet Union, U.S. Dept of Agriculture, 1963).

6. Supplementary Readings

a) J. Newth, “Soviet Agriculture: the Private Sector, 1950-59,” Soviet Studies, October 1961 and April 1962.

b) A. Nove, “Soviet Agriculture Marks Time,” Foreign Affairs, July 1962.

c) D. G. Johnson, “Agricultural Production,” in Trends, pp. 214-234

H. Domestic Trade, Foreign Trade and Foreign Aid

1. M. Goldman, Soviet Marketing, Chapters 2, 3, 8.

2. A. Nove, and D. Donnelly, Trade with Communist Countries, pp. 21-57.

3. P. Thunberg, “The Soviet Union in the World Economy,” in Dimensions, pp. 409-438.

4. G. Carnett and M. Crawford, “The Scope and Distribution of Soviet Economic Aid,” in Dimensions, pp. 457-474.

5. A. Zauberman, “Economic Integration,” Problems of Communism, July-August 1959, pp. 23-29.

6. Supplementary Readings

a) M. Goldman, “Product Differentiation and Advertising: Some Lessons from Soviet Experience,” Journal of Political Economy, August 1960, pp. 346-357.

b) Readings: J. Berliner, “Soviet Foreign Economic Competition”

c) Readings: N. Spulber and F. Gehrels, “The Operations of Trade Within the Soviet Bloc.”

d) Readings: F. Holzman, “Some Financial Aspects of Soviet Foreign Trade.”

e) “Discrimination Within the Bloc: Mendershausen vs. Holzman,” The Review of Economics and Statistics: May 1959, May 1960 and May 1962.

I. Future Prospects and Their Implications

1. A. Bergson, “The Great Economic Race: USSR vs. USA,” Challenge, March 1963.

2. A. Bergson and J. Berliner, “Economic Aspects of the Party Program,” The ASTE Bulletin, IV:2 (Winter 1962) pp. 20-36.

3. Readings: O. Hoeffding, “Soviet State Planning and Forced Industrialization as a Model for Asia.”

4. Supplementary Reading

a) J. Hardt et al, The Cold War Economic Gap. (Praeger 1961).

b) Articles by Peterson, Colm, Rostow and Schwartz in Joint Economic Committee, Comparisons of the United States and Soviet Economies, Parts Il and Ill.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1963-64”.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 133

Final Examination
January 27, 1964

Part I (One hour)
Answer three of the following four questions.

1. (20 minutes)

Compare the economic policies of Vishnegradsky and Witte with those of Stalin.

2. (20 minutes)

Discuss the problem of “success indicators” in Soviet industry.

3. (20 minutes)

Describe briefly how prices and wages are formed and the role they play in the Soviet economy,

4. (20 minutes)

Describe the operation and role of foreign trade in the Soviet economy.

Part II (One hour)
Answer two of the following three questions,

5. (30 minutes)

“In order to understand why the Russians (at least until very recently) have been so successful in achieving rapid economic growth, one need look no further than the high rate of investment they have been able to attain.”
Discuss.

6. (30 minutes)

You are a high ranking official of the Soviet Communist Party and you have just been appointed chief of agricultural affairs. You are requested to prepare a report in which you are to:

a) describe briefly the major reforms instituted in Soviet agriculture in the last 10 years;
b) discuss the extent of their success and/or failure; and
c) propose some further measures which may be taken to improve the agricultural situation.

How would you respond to this request? (“Flee the country” is not an acceptable response.)

7. (30 minutes)

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency recently claimed that the rate of growth of Soviet national income in the last two years (1962 and 1963) has been 2.5% per year.
In analyzing this claim, answer the following questions:

a. What is meant by the “index number problem” in measuring economic growth? Why does it arise?

b. To what extent may there be an index number problem in CIA’s calculation?

c. How does this CIA figure differ from the rates of growth of Soviet national income which have been calculated by Bergson and Cohn for earlier periods?

d. What in your opinion might account for the differences?

e. Bonus (If you have time)

What do you think are the prospects for Soviet economic growth in the next 10 to 20 years? Explain.

Part III (One hour)
Answer the following question.

8. (60 minutes)

Suppose the Soviet government were to decide that it were no longer necessary or desirable to maintain a policy of achieving a maximum rate of economic growth. Suppose instead, it were to decide on a policy of achieving moderate growth (say about 4% per year in national income), rising standards of living for its people and full employment (in short, a “civilized” economic policy).

Discuss the possible effects such a decision might have on the various different elements in the organization and operative of the Soviet economy.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Midyear Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…,Naval Science, Air Science (January 1964) in bound volume Social Sciences. Final Examinations. January 1964 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 150 of 284).

Image Source: Associate Professor of Economics, Herbert S. Levine. University of Pennsylvania Yearbook, The 1967 Record, p. 108.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. General Examination in Economic Theory, Spring 1989

Trawling the Zvi Griliches papers at the Harvard archives recently, I was able to retrieve the following copy of the economic theory general examination (transcribed below) for Harvard Ph.D. students from 1989. The Berlin Wall was still standing and the exam took place close to the time of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. We see that it was business as usual at Harvard Square with respect to economic theory. Students were discouraged from answering more than one question (i.e., 25% of the exam) dealing with the history of economic theories. 

______________________

Some later general examinations

Spring 1991

Microeconomics; Macroeconomics

Spring 1992

Micro- and Macroeconomics

Fall 1992

Micro- and Macroeconomics

______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

GENERAL EXAMINATION IN ECONOMIC THEORY
SPRING 1989

You have four hours. Spend approximately one hour on each question as all questions will receive equal weight in grading.

Start each question in a fresh blue book. Write your number and the number of the question answered on the cover of each blue book. DO NOT INDICATE YOUR NAME.

 

PART A
ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS.

Question 1

Consider an investor with von Neumann-Morgenstern utility

{u_{i}=-e^{-a_{i}w_{i}}}

where ai > 0 is a constant and wi is his wealth. Suppose this investor can choose to invest his initial wealth {\bar{w}_{i} } in a set of n assets. One (n = 1) is a safe asset with return unity, and the others are risky. Let their returns be denoted (r2,..,rn) which are jointly distributed according to F(r2,…., rn). Take the prices of these assets, in units of the safe asset, to be (p2,..,pn).

  1. Show that the optimal portfolio puts a share of initial wealth in each of the risky assets that is proportional to initial wealth.
    Suppose that the risky assets are in fixed supply—for example, they are issued inelastically by firms in exchange for the investors’ initial wealth. The safe asset is elastically supplied.
  2. Write the conditions on asset prices that determine an equilibrium on the asset markets.
  3. Now suppose that some additional investors are added to the economy, each with positive initial wealth and the same form of utility function. Show that the asset prices change in such a way that the mean return to the portfolio of all risky assets decreases.
  4. Take the limiting case in which the number of investors and their total wealth becomes very large in comparison with the fixed asset supplies. Comment on your results.

 

Question 2

Empirical evidence indicates that money and output are positively associated over business cycles. What are the strong points and shortcomings of each of the following three approaches to explaining this observation.

  1. The Keynesian model.
  2. The new classical model with incomplete information.
  3. Models with “endogenous money”.

 

Part B
ANSWER TWO OF THE SIX QUESTIONS.
YOU SHOULD NOT ANSWER BOTH QUESTION 7 & 8.

Question 3

A government is concerned with providing disability insurance for its citizens. Each individual has a probability of  {\pi } of being disabled. If disabled, the individual has utility function v(c) where c is the individual’s consumption of society’s sole consumption good. If able, the individual has utility level u(c) – h where c is consumption (of society’s sole consumption good) and h is the number of hours worked by the individual. All jobs require H hours of work and one hour of work produces 1 unit of the consumption good.

  1. Suppose the government can observe whether an individual is disabled or not. Suppose, also, that there are enough individuals in society so that exactly a fraction {\pi } end up disabled. Set up and solve the government’s problem of finding the optimal disability insurance program. (HINT: Think of the government as directly picking a consumption level for the disabled cd, and a consumption level for the able ca, to maximize a representative individual’s expected utility subject to the overall societal resource constraint. Assume that able individuals always work.] What do consumption levels in the optimal program look like? Draw a picture in (ca, cd) space illustrating the solution.
  2. Suppose now that the government cannot observe whether an individual is disabled or not. Thus, an individual can pretend to be disabled by choosing not to work.

(i) Set up the government’s problem under the assumption that it is desirable to have all able individuals choose to work.

(ii) Characterize the solution under the assumption that for any (ca,cd) such that
u(ca) – H ≥ v(cd) we have u'(ca) < v'(cd).
Draw a picture in (ca,cd) space illustrating the solution.

  1. Suppose that disability is unobservable but that now there are two types of individuals. They differ only in their probability of being disabled. Suppose the fraction of high probability types is {\lambda_{H}}, and that the government maximizes a utilitarian social welfare function. What do consumption levels with the optimal disability insurance program look like?
    Draw a picture in (ca, cd) space illustrating the solution.

 

Question 4

Suppose that the representative household/producer attempts to maximize

{U=\int^{\infty }_{0} u\left( c\right)  e^{-\rho t}dt }

where c is consumption per household,  {\rho >0},  {u\left( c\right)  =\left( c^{1-\sigma }-1\right)  /\left( 1-\sigma \right)  }, and  {\sigma >0}. There is a constant number of these immortal households.

Production is  {y=c+\dot{k} =Ak}, where y is output per household, k is the capital stock per household, and  {A>\rho }. The capital stock, which does not depreciate, begins at time zero at the quantity k(0).

  1. What is the household’s first-order optimization condition for consumption over time? What is the transversality condition?
  2. What are the steady-state growth and saving rates in this economy? How do growth and saving behave in the transition to the steady state?
  3. What condition on A and {\rho} ensures that the transversality condition is satisfied? Is utility per household bounded in this case?

 

Question 5

MATCHING.

Suppose there are two hospitals, X, Y and two doctors A, B out of medical school. Hospitals and doctors have to be matched up for residency purposes. A matching is a pairing of hospitals and doctors,
e.g. {(X, A), (Y, B)}.

Hospitals or doctors have preferences for the doctors, or hospitals, they are matched with. For example, Hospital X could have preferences A >X B, similarly X >A Y, Y >B X, etc. For simplicity, suppose there is never strict indifference.

  1. Define a concept of Pareto Optimality for matchings.
  2. Define a matching as stable if there is no pair of hospital-resident that can block it. A pair can block if both would [be] better off leaving their current partners and pairing off. For example, for the preference: A >X B, A >Y B, Y >A X, X >B Y the matching {(X, A), (Y, B)} is not stable because (Y,A) can block (why?) Is it Pareto optimal? Exhibit a stable matching for the above preferences.
  3. Suppose that interns are allocated to hospitals as follows: Hospital X chooses an intern and Hospital Y gets the remaining one (call this Allocation System I). Show that this system guarantees that the obtained matching is Pareto optimal but not necessarily stable. (Give an example to make the last point.)
  4. Consider now a different allocation system (call it Allocation System II): Each hospital (the sequencing does not matter) makes an offer to some intern. If each intern receives an offer, this determines the matching. If an intern receives two offers, s/he chooses which one to accept, the rejected hospital then pairs off with the remaining intern. Which matching would this system yield for the preferences:
    A >X B, A >Y B, Y >A X, X >B Y? Show that for any pattern of preference this system yields a stable matching.
  5. Suppose you now consider a System III which is identical to System II except that the roles of hospitals and interns are reversed: The offers are now made by interns and accepted or rejected by the hospitals. Show by example that the stable matchings generated by System II and III can be different. Discuss this difference in terms of which side of the “market” is relatively favored.

Question 6

Assume that a consumer maximizes

{E_{0}\sum^{\infty }_{t=0} \beta^{t} \frac{exp\left( -\rho c_{t}\right)  }{-\rho }}

subject to

{a_{t+1}=R\left( a_{t}+y_{t}-c_{t}\right)  ,}

{y_{t+1}=y_{t}+\epsilon_{t+1} ,\  \epsilon_{t+1} \sim N\left( 0,\sigma^{2} \right)  }

and a transversality condition to rule out Ponzi schemes. Impose  {\beta \in \left( 0,1\right)  } and  {\rho >0}, and define at = nonhuman wealth at t, and yt = endowment at t. R is the (gross) safe interest rate, and E0 denotes expectation conditional on information available at time 0. The  {\epsilon^{\prime } s} are assumed to be identically and independently distributed.

  1. Write the first-order condition associated with an optimum consumption path.
  2. Show that, if {\beta R=1}, the optimum consumption path satisfies

{c_{t+1}=c_{t}+\frac{\rho \sigma^{2} }{2} +\epsilon_{t} }

Explain the presence of the second term on the righthand-side of this expression. [Hint: It is reminded that if  {x\sim N\left( m,2s^{2}\right)}, then  {E\  exp\left( x\right)  =exp\left( m+s^{2}\right)}.]

  1. Suppose that our consumer is representative of all other consumers in the economy. Compute the equilibrium safe interest rate.
  2. What are the factors conducive to a high equilibrium safe interest rate?

 

Question 7

Economists of different schools of thought have emphasized the symmetry of resource allocation and income distribution with respect to the organization of production. As Samuelson put it in “Wages and Interest: A Modern Dissection of Marxian Economic Models,” (AER, 1957), “Remember that in a perfectly competitive market it really doesn’t matter who hires whom; so have labor hire ‘capital.’” Yet one of the more striking facts of contemporary economic life from Chicago to Moscow is that labor is generally the hired factor rather than the hiring factor. Give accounts of this phenomenon which roughly fit within neoclassical, Marxian, and Keynesian frameworks, respectively. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

Question 8

“Economic science is, and must be, one of slow and continuous growth. Some of the best work of the present generation has indeed appeared at first sight to be antagonistic to that of earlier writers; but when it has had time to settle down into its proper place, and its rough edges have been worn away, it has been found to involve no real breach of continuity in the science.” (A. Marshall).

Critically evaluate this view of the history of economics.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 125, Folder “General Examination in Economic Theory and its History, undated.”

Categories
Exam Questions History of Economics Princeton Suggested Reading Syllabus

Princeton. History of Economic Thought. Reading List, General Exam. Baumol, 1987-1988

What I find useful about the syllabus on classical economics from William Baumol’s Princeton course transcribed below is that it provides a lean and precise list of original text reading assignments to work through. Full-blown bibliographies have their use for students when writing term papers, but this butcher’s choice of filet cuts provides a wholesome main course that will last a semester and provide pleasant memories for a lifetime.

Here you will find other postings at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror that offer material from courses in the history of economics.

_______________________

Alan B. Krueger’s Interview with William J. Baumol in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Summer 2001), pp. 211-231.

_______________________

Princeton University
Department of Economics

Economics 506
History of Economic Thought

Fall Term 1988

Professor W.J. Baumol

Smith, Adam, Wealth of Nations, 1776, Book I, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 (first 20 pages), 10 (first 17 pages); Book II, Chapter 3; Book IV, Chapters 1, 2, 8.

Malthus, T.R., An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798, Pelican Edition, 1970, Introduction by Anthony Flew, Chapters 1-5, 18, 19.

Ricardo, David, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, London, 1817, Chapters I-X, XIX-XXI, XXX-XXXI.

*Ricardo David, Notes on Malthus, Piero Sraffa, editor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951, Editor’s Introduction and pp. 300-382.

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party.

Marx, Karl, Capital (3 volumes), New York: International Publishing Company.

Volume I: Author’s Prefaces; Chapter 1; Chapter 3, Sections II a, b; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7, Section 2; Chapter 8; Chapter 9, Sections 1, 3, 4; skim Chapter 10; Chapter 15, Section 6; Chapter 16; Chapter 24, Sections 2, 3, 5; Chapter 25.

Volume II:Preface; Chapter 9; Chapter 16, Part 3; pp. 390-396 (Chapter 17, last 6 pages on Simple Reproduction); Chapter 20; pp. 576-9 (Chapter 21, I, Accumulation in Department 1 (1) formation of a hoard).

Volume III: Preface; Chapters 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 22, 27, 37, 38, 48.

*Marx, Karl,  A Critique of the Gotha Program, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1937.

*On reserve at Firestone Library.

Source: Edward Tower (compiler). Economics Reading Lists, Course Outlines, Exams, Puzzles & Problems, Vol. 24. History of Economic Thought. Durham, NC: Eno River Press, August 1990, page 38.

_______________________

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

General Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

History of Economic Thought
January 1987

Time: 3 hours

  1. Distinguish the roles of the labor command and the labor content discussions of value in Adam Smith. What was Smith’s general model of the determination of long run exchange value under competition?
  2. In terms of the formal Ricardian model, explain the consequences of elimination of a tariff on grain (corn) (a) in the short run; (b) in the long run.
  3. (a) Explain why, in Marx’s view, profits under capitalism can be expected to decline with the passage of time. (b) Why did he reject Ricardo’s model leading to the same conclusion? (c) On what grounds has Marx’s model of the declining profit rate been criticized?
  4. In one sentence each, characterize some of the main work of the following:
    1. Jeremy Bentham
    2. Frederick Bastiat
    3. J.B. Clark
    4. J. R. McCulloch
    5. Enrico Barone
  5. (for Arthur Moretti) Describe the logic of the Hayek business cycle model. What role is played by technological elements? by monetary elements? What is the pertinence of the “Ricardo effect?”
  6. (for Kin Yip Louie) Explain the source of Marshall’s error in using consumers’ surplus to argue that increasing returns industries should be subsidized. Would the Hicksian analysis of the four consumers surpluses have helped ra avoid the error? Why or why not?
  7. (for Susan Skeath [“Susan Skeath van Mulbregt”, Princeton Ph.D., 1989; Professor of Economics at Wellesley College]) Explain the role played by utility in J. S. Mill’s value theory. Does his utility concept lead him to particular policy conclusions? How do Mill’s views on the appropriate role of government differ from those of his classical predecessors?
  8. (for Teow-Hock Koh [“Winston Teow-Hock Koh”, Princeton Ph.D., 1988; Professor at Singapore Management University; died 2013]) (To what extent does Malthus’ contradistinction to his analysis conclusions) structure anticipate the of the Keynesian model? In provide a answering this, summary of the workings of the pertinent parts the Keynesian analysis. What features of Marxian Theory overlap with the Keynesian model?
  9. (for Vicente Morales) a) Describe any of the mathematical solutions to the transformation problem showing how prices and the rate of profit are related to values and the rate of surplus value. b) Explain Samuelson’s criticism of the entire analysis and Morishima’s reply.

Source: Edward Tower (compiler). Economics Reading Lists, Course Outlines, Exams, Puzzles & Problems, Vol. 24. History of Economic Thought. Durham, NC: Eno River Press, August 1990, pp. 266-267.

Image Source:  Cropped from portrait of William J. Baumol in 1981 published in his obituary published in The New York Times, May 10, 2017.

Categories
Exam Questions Fields Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Graduate Theory of International Trade Exam. Machlup and Harberger, 1951

 

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Theory of International Trade

Drs. Fritz Machlup and Arnold C. Harberger
May 28, 1951

Answer three questions including I.

I.

Assume that Country A has been importing 1,000,000 tons of X per period over a duty of $2.00 per ton. Domestic production has been 11,000,000 tons per period, the domestic price $6.00 per ton. Pure competition prevails among domestic and foreign producers. Demand and supply conditions remain stable everywhere; the elasticity of domestic demand is -1.0, the elasticity of domestic supply is + 0.5, and the elasticity of the foreign excess supply is infinite.

Now a tariff reduction of $1.00 per ton is granted for imports up to a certain maximum per period; imports in excess of this quota are permitted but subject to the full duty of $2.00. State the effects of the tariff reduction upon domestic price, domestic production, and total imports of X and upon customs revenue, if the tariff quote is

(a) 1,000,000 tons of X per period;
(b) 2,000,000 tons of X per period; and
(c) 4,000,000 tons of X per period.

[Your calculations need not be exact.]

 

II.

Comment on the following statements and discuss whether and under what conditions they may be true or false.

  1. A country cannot gain from imposing an export tax if the foreign demand for its exports is of greater than unit elasticity.
  2. In a country with a relative scarcity of capital the real interest rate will be higher if a general import tariff is imposed than it would be under free trade.
  3. For every situation in which trade is encumbered by tariffs, there exists a situation of unencumbered trade in which all countries involved would be better off.

 

III.

Would you expect “national welfare” in Country A to increase, decrease, or remain the same as a result of

  1. an increase in foreign demand for the export product(s) of country A?
  2. an increase in the foreign excess supply of the product(s) which country A imports?
  3. an improvement in technology in Country A?
  4. a tariff imposed on its imports by Country A?
  5. a tax imposed on its exports by Country A?
  6. a tariff imposed on imports from Country A by country B (the rest of the world)?
  7. a tax Imposed on exports to country A by country B (the rest of the world)?

Give reasons for your answers.

 

IV.

It is generally agreed that the receipt of dollar grants by a country will raise its maximum level of real consumption plus investment. Little has been said in the literature about changes in the relative shares of the increased total which go to the various factors of production. On the basis of the analysis developed in this course, what can be said about the circumstances under which these relative shares are likely to change? Are they likely to change at all? If so, in what direction? If not, why not? In your discussion, assume continuous full employment in all (both granting and receiving) countries, and assume that the grant is used fully by the receiving country.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives.  Department of Political Economy Series 6. Box 3/1, Folder: “Department of Political Economy. Graduate Exams, 1933-1965.”

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Semester exams for all economics and one social ethics course, 1893-1894

 

With this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror adds yet another annual slice of final examinations from Harvard. Over twenty pages of exam questions (with course enrollment figures) for the 1893-94 academic year have been transcribed and are now available to the internet community of historians of economics.  For other years visitors can simply scan or search the chronological catalogue of artifacts. Alternatively using Google search constrained to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, “harvard economics exams site:irwincollier.com“, will get you links to plenty of Harvard examination postings through the years.

______________________

Enrollment for Philosophy 5.
The Ethics of the Social Questions.
1893-94.

Enrollment.

[Philosophy] 5. Professor Peabody. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Temperance, and the various phases of the Labor Question, as problems of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. 2 hours.

Total 118: 6 Gr., 56 Se., 23 Ju., 2 So., 12 Others, 19 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 58.

1893-94.
PHILOSOPHY 5.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Mid-Year Examination.

  1. “Political Economy ought to combine with the old question: ‘Will it pay?’ another and higher query: ‘Is it right?’” (C. D. Wright, Political Economy and the Labor Question, p. 17.) The place and value of this view of Political Economy.
  2. Spencer’s formula for conduct, explained and criticized (Data of Ethics, p. 14.)
  3. The Socialist’s view of Charity and the argument which sustains it. Mr. Spencer’s view of Charity and his practical advice. (Principles of Ethics, II. p. 376, ff.)
  4. What does Mr. Charles Booth regard as the “crux” of the Social Problem in East London? (Labour and Life of the People, I. pp. 596 and 162.) Why? The practical remedy proposed by him.
  5. The causes of poverty in East London, as analyzed by Mr. Booth, (I. 147); in their order of importance and the proportion of cases involved.
  6. The Labor Colonies of Germany compared with those of Holland, in method and intention. How far, and under what principle, is such an enterprise applicable to the condition of this country?
  7. Liberalitas” and “Caritas,” — the aim, the service, and the peril of each.
  8. The historical development and the practical rules of the English Poor-Law System.
  9. The Relation of Charity Organization in England to Poor-Law Relief. (Loch, p. 37, ff.); and the objections to Charity Organization. (Loch, p. 97, ff.)
  10. The growth of Charity Organization in the United States, its present extent and its two types (Report, pp. 1-8.) Which type is represented by the London Charity Organization Society? (Loch p. 54.) Which is the sounder principle for this country? Why? Which is the more generally accepted principle? (Appendix of Report, p. 34.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94

PHILOSOPHY 5.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Final Examination

[Omit one question.]

  1. The authorship and the historical importance of the following phrases:—
    “The value of a thing is independent of opinion and of quantity. To be valuable is to avail towards life.”
    “All commodities are only masses of congealed labor-time.”
    “The high road to a stable sufficiency and comfort among the people is through the medium of their character.”
    “Cash-payment never was or could, except for a few years, be the union-bond of man to man.”
    “Aristocracy of talent.”
    “It is easier to determine what a man ought to have for his work, than what his necessities will compel him to take for it.”
    “Ill-th.”
  2. Compare Carlyle and Ruskin in their attitudes toward the growth of democracy and in their doctrine of social progress.
  3. Compare the view of the “Social Horizon” with that of Naquet as to the effect of collectivism on enterprise and invention. (Social Horizon, pp. 112-151; Naquet, pp. 92-126.)
  4. The Anarchist’s criticism of the Socialist, the Socialist’s criticism of the Anarchist, and the Communist as he is criticised by both.
  5. Is thrift a virtue? Who doubts it? Why?
    Is competition an evil? Who doubts it? Why?
  6. Christian Socialism and its difficulties. The logical and the practical relation of Socialism to Religion.
  7. In the four ideals which are possible to Socialism and Individualism, “the normal relation would be that of cross-correspondence.” (Bosanquet. The Civilization of Christendom, p. 136.) Explain and comment on this statement.
  8. Enumerate and classify the arguments presented in the Course on the ethical aspects of Socialism, with your judgment of the weight of these suggestions.
  9. Compare the plan of profit-sharing in the Paris and Orleans Railway (Sedley Taylor, pp. 77-86) with that adopted by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
  10. How far are we carried in the argument for abstinence from intoxicating drink by considerations drawn from the “risks of life.” Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1853-2001. Box 2, Volume: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, p. 7.

______________________

Economics 1.
Outlines of Economics.
1893-94.

Enrollment.

[Economics] 1. Professors Taussig and Ashley, Asst. Professor Cummings and Mr. Clow. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. 3 hours.

Total 340: 1 Gr., 35 Se., 111 Ju., 136 So., 7 Fr., 50 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 1.
Mid-Year Examination.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
One question may be omitted.]

  1. “Let us consider whether, and in what cases, the property of those who live on the interest of what they possess, without being personally engaged in production, can be regarded as capital.” Illustrate by example.
  2. “Capital, though saved, and the result of saving, is nevertheless consumed. The word saving does not imply that what is saved is not consumed, nor even necessarily that its consumption is deferred.” Explain. Who is the consumer? and is the consumption usually deferred?
  3. Are wages likely to be low or high in different occupations because of (1) attractiveness, (2) unpleasantness, of the work? Why?
  4. “This equalizing process, commonly described as the transfer of capital from one employment to another, is not necessarily the slow, onerous, and almost impracticable process which it is often represented to be.” What is the equalizing process? and why is it or is it not slow and onerous?
  5. “Even if there were never any land taken into cultivation for which rent was not paid, it would be true, nevertheless, that there is always some agricultural capital which pays no rent.” Explain, and give the reasons for the statement.
  6. What are the laws of value applicable to: silver bullion, cotton-cloth, raw hides, wheat-bread, telephones?
  7. Explain what is meant by a fall in the value of money; an appreciation of gold; a depreciation of inconvertible paper; a stable standard of value.
  8. Wherein does the play of demand and supply, in determining the value of money, differ from its operation in determining the value of commodities in general? Wherein does cost of production determine the value of money and of commodities differently?
  9. What is the effect of general high wages on prices? on values? on profits? Why?
  10. “So far as rents, profits, wages, prices. are determined by competition, laws may be assigned for them. Assume competition to be their exclusive regulator, and principles of broad generality and scientific precision may be laid down, according to which they will be regulated.” Trace the historical origin of the conditions here assumed.
  11. What seems to you to be the value of economic history in relation to the study of economic theory?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 1.
Final Examination.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

I.
[One question in this group may be omitted.]

  1. Explain the connection between the law of diminishing returns the pressure of population on subsistence; the tendency of profits to a minimum.
  2. What is the nature of the remuneration received by the holder of a government bond; the holder of a railway bond; the landlord of a building let for business purposes; the landlord of land let for agricultural purposes; a manufacturer carrying on business with borrowed capital; the holder of a patent receiving a royalty for its use?
  3. How does cost of production influence tire value of (1) silver bullion, (2) oats, (3) coffee, (4) bicycles?
  4. What seems to you to be the value of economic history in relation to the study of economic theory?

II.
[One question in this group may be omitted.]

  1. In 1851, very rich deposits of gold were found in Australia. What would you expect the result to be in Australia on wages, prices, imports and exports?
  2. Is the gain from international trade to be found in the import or in the exports? Why and how?
  3. It is said that when the quantity of money is increased, prices rise precisely in proportion to the increase. What exceptions or qualifications would you make to this statement?
  4. Is the exportation of specie from a country disadvantageous?

III.
[Answer all in this group.]

  1. What sorts of advantages, in regard to wages, do Trade-unions and Coöperative Societies offer to workingmen?
  2. “Deposits are currency.” What is meant?
  3. What is the most important objection to the use of inconvertible paper money? What illustrations of its force do you find in the experience of the United States since 1860?
  4. Compare the policy followed in times of panic by the Bank of England, the Reichsbank of Germany, and the National Banks of the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1853-2001. Box 2, Volume: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, pp. 34-35.

______________________

Economics 2.
Economic Theory from Adam Smith
to the Present Time.
1893-94.

Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Economics] 2. Professor Taussig. — Economic Theory from Adam Smith to the present time. — Examination of selections from leading writers. 3 hours.

Total 43: 12 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Others.

Source:   Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

1893-94
ECONOMICS 2.
Mid-Year Examination.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Write with deliberation, but answer all the questions.]

  1. “It is no doubt true that a portion of capital is always remuneratory and not auxiliary in its nature; that is, does not consist of instruments that make labour more efficient, but of finished products, destined for the consumption of labourers and others. This part of capital continually becomes real wages (as well as real profits, interest, and rent), being purchased by the labourer with the money wages he receives from time to time. But it does not seem to me therefore correct to regard the real wages as capital ‘advanced’ by the employer to the labourer. The transaction between the two is essentially a purchase, not a loan. The employer purchases the results of a week’s labour, which thereby becomes part of his capital, and may be conceived — if we omit for simplicity’s sake the medium of exchange — to give the labourer in return some of the finished products of his industry.”
    Consider whether and how remuneratory capital continually becomes real interest and rent, as well as real wages; and give your opinion as to the closing analysis of the relation between employers and laborers.
  2. Suppose (1) that profit-sharing were universally adopted; (2) that laborers habitually saved a very large part of their income, — and consider whether any modification must be made in the reasoning of those who would maintain a Wages-Fund doctrine.
  3. It has been said that while the capital of the employing class is the immediate source from which wages are paid, the ultimate and important source is the income of the consumers who buy the goods made by the laborers for the capitalists. Consider this doctrine.
  4. Compare critically the treatment by Walker, Sidgwick, and Ricardo, of the relation between the profits of the individual capitalist and the amount of capital owned by him.
  5. State carefully Ricardo’s criticism of Adam Smith’s doctrine on labor as the measure of value.
  6. Compare Adam Smith’s reasoning with Ricardo’s as to the manner in which the progress of society in wealth affects profits.
  7. “We have seen that in the early stages of society both the landlord’s and the labourer’s share of the value of the produce of the earth would be but small; and that it would increase in proportion to the progress of wealth and the difficulty of procuring food. We have known, too, that although the value of the labourer’s portion will be increased by the high value of food, his real share will be diminished; while that of the landlord will not only be raised in value, but will also be increased in quantity.”
    Explain the reasoning by which Ricardo reached the several conclusions here summarized, and give your opinion as to the soundness of the conclusions.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook). Also: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94.

1893-94
ECONOMICS 2.
[Final Examination.]

  1. “Perhaps the most striking conflict of the Wages-Fund-theory with facts, is found in the periodical influctions and depressions of trade. After a commercial crisis, when the shock is over and the necessary liquidation has taken place, we generally find that there is a period during which there is a glut of capital, and yet wages are low. The abundance of capital is shown by the low rate of interest and the difficulty of obtaining remunerative investments.” — Nicholson, Political Economy
    How far is the theory in conflict with the facts here adduced?
  2. How is the significance of the doctrine of consumer’s rent affected by the fact that the money incomes of different purchasers vary widely?
  3. Explain Marshall’s doctrine as to the influence on wages of the standard of living among laborers; and consider how far it differs from Richard’s teaching as to the connection between wages and the price of food.
  4. Explain Marshall’s doctrine of the quasi-rent of labor; compare it with his conclusions as to the rent of business ability; and point out how far he finds in either case something analogous to economic rent as defined by the classic writers.
  5. “It is not true that the spinning of yarn in a factory, after allowance has been made for the wear-and-tear of the machinery, is the product of the labour of the operatives. It is the product of their labour (together with that of the employer and subordinate managers) and of the capital; and that capital itself is the product of labour and waiting; and therefore the spinning is the product of labour (of many kinds) and of waiting. If we admit that it is the product of labour alone, and not of labour and waiting, we can no doubt be compelled by inexorable logic to admit that there is no justification for interest, the reward of waiting.”
    How far would you accept this reasoning?
  6. “Barter, though earlier historically than buying and selling, is really a mere complex transaction, and the theory of it is rather curious than important.” — Marshall.
    “The attribute of normal or usual value implies systematic and continuous production.” — Cairnes.
    “Where commodities are made for sale, the sellers’ subjective valuations fall out altogether, and price is determined by the valuation of the last buyer.” — Böhm-Bawerk.
    Explain these statements, separately or in connection with each other.
  7. What does Böhm-Bawerk mean by the general subsistence market, or the total of advances for subsistence; and how far do the “advances” differ from the wages-fund of the classic economists?
  8. Explain Böhm-Bawerk’s views as to the connection between the prolongation of the period of production, and the increase in the productiveness of labor; and consider how far his conclusions as to interest would need to be modified, if those views were changed.
  9. Explain briefly, by definition or example, the sense in which Böhm-Bawerk uses the terms, —

social capital;
private capital;
subjective value;
marginal pairs;
technical superiority of present goods.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook). Also: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1853-2001. Box 2, Volume: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, pp. 35-36.

___________________________

Economics 3.
Principles of Sociology.
1893-94.

Enrollment.

[Economics] 3. Asst. Professor Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. 3 hours.

Total 47: 17 Gr., 19 Se., 5 Ju., 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

 

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 3.
Mid-Year Examination

(Arrange your answers in the order of your questions. Omit two.)

  1. “In fact, the conception of society as an organism seems to admit of more easy application to just those very views about the State which Mr. Spencer most dislikes: and, though the conception or organism has its value in helping political thinking out of the confusions of individualism, if it be taken as a final key to all mysteries, it leads to new confusions of its own, for which it would be absurd to blame Mr. Spencer.” Explain and criticise.
  2. How does Spencer account for the diverse types of political organization; and what influences determine the order in which they arise? Illustrate.
  3. What evidence of political evolution is there in the sequence of the various forms of political organization in Greek, Roman, and Medieval society? Trace the steps.
  4. According to Burke, “Society is indeed a contract. … It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.” Explain. How does this differ from earlier conceptions of the social contract? From the conception of society as an organism?
  5. Upon what grounds does Spencer base his preference for the industrial rather than the militant type of society?
  6. According to Jevons, “the first step must be to rid our minds of the idea that there are any such things in social matters as abstract rights, absolute principles, indefeasible laws, inalterable rules, or anything whatever of an eternal and inflexible nature.” According to another view, “the state presupposes rights and the rights of individuals.” What is your own opinion? Why? Are there “Natural Rights”? Illustrate.
  7. “The State is after all the least of the powers that govern us.” How far is this true at different stages of social development?
  8. What is involved in the conception of Sovereignty? In whom is it rested? On what does it rest? For example, England and the United States.
  9. What is the bearing of Comte’s maxim, “Voir pour prevour,” upon the doctrine of social evolution?
  10. “The environment in our problem must, therefore, not only include psychical as well as physical factors, but the former are immeasurably the more important factors, and as civilization advances their relative importance steadily increases.”
  11. What do you mean by State Interference? By Individual liberty?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 3.
Final Examination

[Questions are in all cases to be discussed with direct reference to facts and theories presented in this course. Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. Take either the first question or six others.]

  1. Devote three hours to a discussion of “Social Evolution”;— expounding Mr. Kidd’s views, discussing his opinions and conclusions in the light of facts and theories presented in this course, and stating carefully your own reasons for agreeing or disagreeing.
  2. What, according to Mr. Kidd, are the necessary “Conditions of Human Progress”? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
  3. What are the points of resemblance and of difference between the “Scientific Socialism” of today and earlier forms of so-called socialistic propaganda which have appeared within this century?
  4. “Step by step the community has absorbed them, wholly or partially, and the area of private exploitation has been lessened. Parallel with this progressive nationalization or municipalization of industry, there has gone on, outside, the elimination of the purely personal element in business management.” Indicate briefly the character, extent and probable significance of “nationalization and municipalization” in the United States and in European Countries.
  5. What inferences may and what may not safely be drawn from American experience in municipal ownership or control of gas, of water, and of electric light plants? Discuss carefully the extent and character of the evidence.
  6. “According to them, the tribe or horde is the primary social unit of the human race, and the family only a secondary unit, developed in later times. Indeed, this assumption has been treated by many writers, not as a more or less probable hypothesis, but as a demonstrated truth. Yet the idea that a man’s children belong to the tribe, has no foundation in fact.” Indicate briefly the present state of this controversy. What significance do you attach to it?
  7. “The central fact with which we are confronted in our progressive societies is, therefore, that the interests of the social organism and those of the individuals comprising it at any time are actually antagonistic; they can never be reconciled, they are inherently and essentially irreconcilable.” State carefully the arguments for and against this position.
  8. “True Socialism of the German type must be recognized to be, ultimately, as individualistic and as anti-social as individualism in its advanced forms.” By what line of reasoning is this conclusion reached? State carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1853-2001. Box 2, Volume: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, pp. 36-37.

___________________________

Economics 5 (First Semester).
Railway Transportation.
1893-994.

Enrollment.

[Economics] 51. Professor Taussig. — Railway Transportation. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 39: 3 Gr., 24 Se., 9 Ju., 1 So., 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 5.
Final [Mid-Year] Examination.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

  1. State what important general lessons are to be learned from the early experiments of Pennsylvania and Michigan in constructing and managing transportation routes.
  2. Why the change in the attitude of the public towards the Pacific railways after 1870? And what were some consequences of the change?
  3. What was the effect of the land-grant system on the welfare of the community, and on railway profits?
  4. “These conditions [leading to financial losses] may fairly enough be described as the Interstate Commerce Commission describes them, — parallel railroad construction and wars of rates. But when the Commission goes on to say that they cannot with any justice be claimed to have resulted from the act or from its administration, they make an unwarranted assertion.” What were the conditions here referred to (give dates)? And was the assertion unwarranted?
  5. Consider the probable results of the repeal of the section of the Interstate Commerce act which prohibits pooling.
  6. “High rates on some articles are not to be regarded as a tax which could be removed if low rates on others were abandoned.” Why not?
  7. “The enormous fixed capital and the consequent impossibility of retiring from the enterprise if it becomes unprofitable; the greater or less degree of monopoly; the wide gulf between railway managers and investors, sometimes leading to consequences of its own,” consider in what manner and extent these circumstances have affected railway rates in the United States.
  8. What do you believe to be the significance and importance of the following figures (for the United States in 1891):
Revenue per passenger mile 2.142 cents
Average cost of carrying a passenger one mile 1.910 cents
Revenue per ton mile 0.895 cents
Average cost of carrying a ton one mile 0.583 cents
Revenue per freight train mile $1.63
Average cost of running a freight train one mile $1.06
  1. Compare the course of railway policy in France, Prussia, and Italy, in 1880-85.
  2. Compare the principles which underlie the natural (car-space) system of freight rates and the zone system of passenger rates.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1853-2001. Box 2, Volume: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, pp. 37-38.

___________________________

Economics 6 (Second Semester)
History of Tariff Legislation
in the United States.
1893-94.

Enrollment.

[Economics] 62. Professor Taussig. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 97: 11 Gr., 33 Se., 36 Ju., 2 So., 1 Fr., 14 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 62.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 6.
Final Examination

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer all the questions.]

  1. Is it to be inferred from Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures that if he were now living, he would not be an advocate of protection?
  2. What grounds are there for saying that the act of 1789 was a protective measure?
  3. State the important provisions of the act of 1816, and consider whether it differs in any essentials from the act of 1824.
  4. Was Clay right in affirming, or Webster in denying, that the protective system of 1824 was “American”?
  5. How would you ascertain what were the duties, in 1840, on (1) woollen goods, (2) cotton goods, (3) silk goods, (4) bar iron?
  6. Suppose the present specific duties on woollen manufactures to be removed; the ad valorem duties to remain unchanged; wool to be admitted free; and consider how far there would ensue a change in the effective protection given on finer woollen cloths, on cheaper woollen cloths, and on carpets.
  7. Mention briefly what were the duties on tea and coffee in the successive stages of tariff legislation from 1789 to 1890; noting the significance of the changes made from time to time.
  8. Why do the effects, in recent times, of the duties on flax and hemp, and on glassware, “reduce themselves in the last analysis to illustrations of the doctrine of comparative costs”?
  9. Wherein is there resemblance, wherein difference, between the general course of tariff history in the United States after the civil war, and in France after the Napoleonic wars?
  10. What would be the probable effects of the removal of the present duties on cotton goods?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1853-2001. Box 2, Volume: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, pp. 38-39

___________________________

Economics 8 (First Semester)
History of Financial Legislation
in the United States.
1893-94.

Enrollment.

[Economics] 81. Professor Dunbar. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 63: 9 Gr., 26 Se., 23 Ju., 1 So., 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 62.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 8.
Mid-Year Examination.

Instead of answering the starred questions in this paper you may substitute, if you prefer, an essay on the subject marked A, printed at the close.

  1. *“It is sometimes said that Mr. Hamilton believed in a perpetual debt, and when one notices the form into which he threw the obligations of the United States, the only escape from this conclusion is to say that he was ignorant of the true meaning of the contracts which he created.” — [H. C. ADAMs, Public Debts, p. 161.]
    How far is the above remark confirmed by the provisions as to the payment of the debt funded by the Act of 1790?
  2. How far should you say that Gallatin, although an anti-Federalist, finally adopted Federalist measures or methods in financial matters?
  3. Give a general statement of the agreement between the banks and the Treasury for the resumption of specie payment in 1817, and show the way in which it was intended to operate.
  4. Inasmuch as Jackson’s general prepossessions were unfavorable to all banks, how are we to explain his resort to the plan of depositing Government funds in State banks after the removal of the deposits in 1833?
  5. *How serious a blow did Jackson really strike when he removed the deposits from the United States bank in 1833?
  6. What expedients were suggested for supplying the needs of the government in 1861-62 without resorting to the issue of legal-tender notes?
  7. *The “Gold Bill” of June 17, 1864, and its fate.
  8. What was the process by which the bonds issued during the war were refunded under the act of 1870 and when did the refunding take place?
  9. What signs of change in the policy of Congress as to the resumption of specie payments are to be found in the legislation between 1865 and 1876?
  10. State the provisions of the Resumption Act of 1875 as to the redemption of legal-tender notes, and show whether the act did or did not provide for the possible eventual disappearance of all the notes. What has made the amount of outstanding legal-tender notes stationary at $346,681,016?
  11. *A recent writer, discussing the question of a paper currency issued by government, says:—
    “In the United States there were twenty issues of treasury notes before the late war. Those issues were receivable in the revenues the government, and were always preferred to gold.”
    What criticism is to be made on this statement?
  12. *Describe the different kinds of paper currency now in use in the United States, stating as to each the cases in which it can be tendered for private debt, and those which it. can he received or paid out by the government.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
A.

The change which has taken place since 1846 in the conditions affecting the Independent Treasury, and the justification of Secretary Carlisle’s statement, in the Finance Report for 1893, that “the laws have imposed upon the Treasury Department all the duties and responsibilities of a bank of issue, and to a certain extent the functions of bank of deposit.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94.

___________________________

Economics 9.
The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the United States and in other countries.
1893-94.

 Enrollment.

[Economics] 9. Asst. Professor Cummings. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the United States and in other countries. 3 hours.

Total 43: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 5 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

Mid-year Examination.
ECONOMICS 9.
1893-94.

(Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience of different countries. Omit two questions.)

  1. “It becomes my duty, therefore, in undertaking to interpret the social movement of our own times, to disclose, first, those changes in industrial methods by which harmony in industries has been disturbed, and then to trace the influence of such changes into the structure of society.” State carefully what these changes have been; and trace their influence.
    [Henry C. Adams. “An Interpretation of the Social Movements of our Time”, International Journal of Ethics, Vol II, October, 1891), p. 33]
  2. Discuss the effect upon wages of machinery, — (a) as a substitute for labor (b) as auxiliary to labor; (c) as affecting division of labor; (d) as concentrating labor and capital; (e) as affecting the nobility[sic, “mobility”] of labor and capital.
  3. “In my opinion, combination among workingmen is a necessary step in the re-crystallization of industrial rights and duties.” State fully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with this opinion. What forms of combination do you include?
    [Henry C. Adams. “An Interpretation of the Social Movements of our Time”, International Journal of Ethics, Vol II, October, 1891), p. 45]
  4. “Trade-unions have been stronger in England than on the Continent, and in America….” In what respects stronger? Why? Contrast briefly the history and present tendencies of the trade-union movement in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy.
    [Alfred Marshall, Elements of Economics of Industry: being the First Volume of Elements of Economics (London: Macmillan, 1892), Book VI, Ch. XIII. §18, p. 404]
  5. “Trade-unions have been stronger in England than on the Continent, and in America; and wages have been higher in England than on the Continent, but lower than in America.” “Again, those occupations in which wages have risen most in England happen to be those in which there are no unions.” How far do such facts impeach the effectiveness of trade-unions as a means of raising wages and improving the condition of workingmen? What do you conceive to be the economic limits and the proper sphere of trade-union action?
    [Alfred Marshall, Elements of Economics of Industry: being the First Volume of Elements of Economics (London: Macmillan, 1892), Book VI, Ch. §18, pp. 404-405.]
  6. “We saw at the beginning that in comparatively recent years the difficulties of keeping up a purely offensive and defensive organization had brought many of the unions back nearer their old allies, the friendly societies, and emphasized the friendly benefits in proportion as the expenditure for trade disputes seemed less important.” Explain carefully this earlier and later relation of trade-unions and Friendly Societies in England.
    [Edward Cummings, The English Trades-Unions, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. III (July, 1889), p. 432.]
  7. “This spirit of independent self-help has its advantages and its disadvantages. We have already had occasion to remark how slow in these Friendly Societies has been the progress of reform, and we must repeat that up to the present day it still exhibits defects.” Explain and illustrate the progress of the reform and the nature of existing defects. Does English self-help experience suggest the desirability or undesirability of imitating German methods of compulsory insurance?
  8. “Countless[sic, “Doubtless” in original] boards of arbitration and conciliation, the establishment of certain rules of procedure, agreements covering definite periods of time, may aid somewhat in averting causes of dispute or in adjusting disputes as they arise; but if we have these alone to look to, strife will be the rule rather than the exception.” Explain the various methods adopted and the results obtained. What have you to say of “compulsory arbitration?”
    [Francis A. Walker. “What Shall We Tell the Working Classes?” Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 2, 1887.  Reprinted in Discussions in Economics and Statistics, edited by Davis R. Dewey. Vol. II315-316.]
  9. “The conclusion of the whole matter seems to be, that what is desirable is not so much to put a stop to sub-contracting as to put a stop to ‘sweating,’ whether the man who treats the workman in the oppressive manner which the word ‘sweating’ denotes be a sub-contractor, a piece-master, or a contractor.” Indicate briefly some of the principal forms of industrial remuneration, — giving the special merits and defects of each.
    [David F. Schloss. Methods of Industrial Remuneration (London: Williams and Norgate, 1892), p. 140.]
  10. “Now that I am on piece-work, I am making about double what I used to make when on day-work. I know I am doing wrong. I am taking away the work of another man.” State and criticize the theory involved in this view of production.
    [David F. Schloss. Methods of Industrial Remuneration (London: Williams and Norgate, 1892), p. 43-44.]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94. Transcribed and posted earlier at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Year-End Examination
ECONOMICS 9.
1893-94.

(Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience of different countries. Take the first three questions and four others.)

  1. “As soon, however, as the factory system was established, the inequality of women and children in their struggle with employers attracted the attention of even the most careless observers; and, attention once drawn to this circumstance, it was not long before the inequality of adult men was also brought into prominence.” How far is this true (a) of England, (b) of the United States? Trace briefly the legislative consequences for children and for adults in the two countries.
    [Arnold Toynbee. Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century in England (The Humboldt Library of Popular Science Literature, Vol. 13. New York: Humboldt Publishing Co.), p. 17.]
  2. “It will be necessary, in the first place, to distinguish clearly between the failure of Industrial Coöperation and the failure of the coöperative method—a method, as we have seen, adopted, even partially, by only a very small fraction of Industrial Coöperation.” Explain carefully, discussing especially the evidence furnished by France and England.
  3. “These four concerns—the Maison Leclaire, the Godin Foundry, the Coöperative Paper Works of Angoulême and the Bon Marché—are virtually coöperative; certainly they secure to the employers and stockholders the substantial benefits of purely coöperative productive enterprises, while they are still, logically, profit-sharing establishments.” State your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing. Indicate briefly the characteristic features of each enterprise.
  4. “What inferences are we to draw from the foregoing statistics? Unmistakably this, that the higher daily wages in America do not mean a correspondingly enhanced labor cost to the manufacturer. But why so?” Discuss the character of available evidence in regard to the United States, Great Britain and the continent of Europe.
    [E. R. L. Gould. The Social Condition of Labor (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, January 1893), pp. 41-2.]
  5. “The juxtaposition of figures portraying the social-economic status of workmen of different nationalities in the country of their birth and the land of their adoption furnishes lessons of even higher interest. From this we are able to learn the social effect of economic betterment.” Explain. How do the facts in question affect your attitude toward recent changes in the character and volume of our immigration?
    [E. R. L. Gould. The Social Condition of Labor (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, January 1893), pp. 35-6.]
  6. “The Senate Finance Committee issued some time ago a comparative exhibit of prices and wages for fifty-two years, from which the conclusion is generally drawn that the condition of the wage earner is better to-day than it was thirty or forty years ago. A conclusion of this kind reveals the weakness of even the best statistics. No one can doubt that the work of the Finance Committee is work of high excellence, but for comparing the economic condition of workers it is of little value.” Do you agree or disagree? Why? Indicate briefly the character of the evidence.
  7. What are the principle organizations which may be said to represent the “Labor Movement” in the United States at the present time? How far are they helpful and how far hostile to one another?
  8. “In a preceding chapter I have said that as a moral force and as a system the factory system of industry is superior to the domestic system, which it supplanted.” State your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing.
    [Carroll D. Wright. Factory Legislation from Vol. II, Tenth Census of the United States, reprinted inFirst Annual Report of the Factory Inspectors of the State of New York (Albany, 1887), p. 41.]
  9. Contrast the English and the German policy in regard to Government Workingmen’s Insurance.
  10. “Gladly turning to more constructive work, I next consider some industrial changes and reforms which would tend to correct the present bias towards individualism.” What are they?
  11. Give an imaginary family budget for American, English and German operatives in one of the following industries, — coal, iron, steel, cotton, wool, glass, indicating roughly characteristic differences in such items as throw most light on the social condition of labor.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95. pp. 39-41. Transcribed and posted earlier at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

______________________

Economics 10.
The Elements of Economic History from the Middle Ages to Modern Times.
1893-94.

[Economics] 10. Professor Ashley. — The Elements of Economic History from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. 3 hours.

Total 51: 6 Gr., 17 Se., 20 Ju., 4 So., 1 Fr., 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 10.
Mid-Year Examination.

 

  1. A modern writer has insisted upon the difference between the point of view of economic history and the point of view of constitutional history. Consider this in relation to the growth of mediaeval towns.
  2. Distinguish briefly between the various processes known as “Enclosure,” and explain their relation to the open-field husbandry.
  3. What light does the history of the English woollen industry throw upon the question as to the relation between the gild and the domestic workshop?
  4. “Only one who is unacquainted with social conditions under Henry VIll. and Edward VI. can maintain that the Reformation was not responsible for English pauperism.” Discuss this.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 10.
Final Examination.

[Candidates are requested to answer only six questions, of which the first should be one.]

  1. Translate and comment upon:
    1. Omnes isti sochemanni habent viii carrucas, et arant iii vicibus per annum. Et quisquis eorum metit in Augusto de blado domini dimidiam acram et ii vicibus in Augusto precationem.
    2. Sciatis me concessisse … civibus meis in Oxenforde omnes libertates et consuetudines et leges et quietantias quas habuerunt tempore regis Henrici avi mei, nominatim gildam suam mercatoriam cum omnibus libertatibus et consuetudinibus in terris et in silvis pasturis et aliis pertinentiis, ita quod aliquis qui non sit de gildhalls aliquam mercaturam non faciet in civitate vel suburbiis.
  2. Give some account of the changes in trade-routes during the sixteenth century.
  3. Describe the organization of industry in the middle of the reign of Elizabeth.
  4. Compare the Enclosures of the eighteenth century with those of the sixteenth.
  5. What was the condition of the mercantile marine of New England in the eighteenth century? What connection was there between this condition and the Navigation Acts?
  6. Institute a comparison between the reforms of Stein and Hardenberg and recent agrarian legislation in Ireland, or any other country with which you are familiar.
  7. What light is cast upon the teaching of (1) Adam Smith, (2) Malthus, (3) Ricardo, by contemporary economic conditions.
  8. Estimate the importance of Arthur Young in the economic history of England.
  9. What seem to you the most characteristic features of the economic development of the United States during the present century as contrasted with England.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1853-2001. Box 2, Volume: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, pp. 42-43.

___________________________

Economics 12 (First Semester).
Banking and the History
of the leading Banking Systems
1893-94.

 Enrollment.

[Economics] 121. Professor Dunbar. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 50: 10 Gr., 24 Se., 15 Ju., 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 62.

1893-94.
ECONOMICS 12[1].
Mid-Year Examination

  1. Which system of banks appears to present the greatest advantages, — (a) one with a powerful central bank as in England and Germany: (b) an aristocracy of strong banks as in Scotland; or (c) a democracy of banks as in this country?
  2. In any period of financial pressure, would the Bank of England he under any obligation, legal or moral, to act for the relief of the public, if such action involved risk or loss to its stockholders? What would be the source of such obligation, if any exists?
  3. The German bank act requires every bank to hold cash, (a) for all notes issued by it above its limit of uncovered issue: (b) and amounting to at least one third of all the notes issued Why is it that notes of other banks can be reckoned as cash in one of these cases, but not in the other?
  4. What is to be said as to the proposition frequently maintained. that “note issue is in reality a function of the State as much as coinage, and should not be delegated to corporations or to private hands?”
  5. If we hold that all note issues need to be kept under national control, in order to secure uniformity of value, what ground is there for denying that all deposit banking needs the same control for the same reason?
  6. Supposing the securities required for deposit under the national banking system to be abundant and fairly attractive as investments, — would that system afford an elastic currency?
  7. To the plan of securing notes by a safety fund (as practiced formerly in New York and now in Canada), it has been objected that it would be unjust to require well-managed banks to pay for losses incurred by weak or imprudent ones, and that a premium would be offered for bad management. How much weight is there in this objection?
  8. To the plan of making the notes of a bank a first lien on its assets it has been objected,—
    “It deprives the bank of the fund which is the basis of its credit in asking for deposits Without the deposit the banks cannot do a profitable business. It is difficult to believe that, the capital being subjected to a first lien for the amount of the notes, and there being always the possibility of an over-issue of such notes, the credit of the bank in its discount and deposit business would not be impaired. is calling upon the capital to do a double work when it is already loaded with the single task of inspiring confidence in the people who have to make deposits.”
    What is the answer to this objection?
  9. Discuss the following extract from the Commercial and Financial Chronicle of May 14th, 1892:—
    “Every prerogative and attribute even of our bank notes, and still more of our silver certificates, tends to draw them away from the interior, even when the issuer is resident in a Southern or Western State, and lodge them in an Eastern city. [The semi legal-tender quality of the national bank circulation and its redemption at the Treasury help to make its movements unnatural, artificial, and impart to it a roaming character helping to force it away from the issuer, away from the country districts where it is needed, and consequently to induce its accumulation when out of active commercial employment in the great financial centres, and while there to foster and become more or less fixed in speculative ventures — that is unresponsive to commercial influences when needed for commercial work?”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94.

___________________________

Economics 12 (Second Semester).
International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals.
1893-94.

Enrollment.

[Economics] 122. Professor Dunbar.—International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 38: 12 Graduates, 18 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 62.

1893-94
ECONOMICS 122.
Final Examination.

  1. Mr. Goschen says that while a gold currency existed on both sides of the Atlantic the actual par of exchange between New York and London was about 109. What is the explanation of this method of stating the point of equilibrium?
  2. Is Clare justified in making the general statement that “the gold-points mark the highest level to which an exchange may rise, and the lowest to which it may fall?”
  3. What effect would the current rate of interest (as e.g. in a tight money market, either in the drawing or in the accepting country,) have on the rates for sixty-day bills as compared with cash bills?
  4. Clare makes the remark that “as the rate of exchange between two countries…must be fixed by the one who draws and negotiates the bill, it follows that the exchanges between England and most other countries are controlled from the other side, and that we in London have scarcely part or say in the matter.” Is the rate then a matter of indifference to those in London?
  5. Why is it that in certain trades bills are drawn chiefly, or even exclusively, in one direction, as e.g. by New York on London and not vice versa; and how is this practice made to answer the purpose of settling payments, which have to be made in one direction as well as the other?
  6. Mr. Goschen says that the primary cause which makes England the great banking centre of the world is “the stupendous and never-ceasing exports of England, which have for their effect that every country I the world, being in constant receipt of English manufactures, is under the necessity of making remittances to pay for them, either in bullion, in produce, or in bills.”
    Compare this statement with the fact that for ten years past the imports of merchandise into England have averaged about £400,000,000 annually, and the exports from England have averaged a little under £300,000,000.
  7. Suppose the exportation of specie from the United States to be prohibited (or, as has sometimes been suggested, to be slightly hindered,) what would be the effect on rates of exchange, and on prices of goods, either domestic or foreign? Would the country be a loser or not? [See Ricardo (McCulloch’s ed.) p. 139.]
  8. State Mr. Cairnes’s general doctrine as to the movement of prices which determines the normal flow of new supplies of gold from one country to another in the process of distribution over the commercial world.
  9. Cairnes argues that, as the effect of the cheapening of gold, “each country will endure a loss;” but that in particular cases “the primary loss may…be compensated, or even converted into a positive gain.” State and discuss the reasoning on which this proposition rests.
  10. Say, in his Report on the Indemnity, says:—
    La France a, en réalité, (1) fait passer à l’étranger le plus de capitaux possible, en prenant tous les changes qu’elle pouvait acquérir sur quelque pays que ce fût, et (2) a ensuite dirigé sur l’Allemagne tout ce qu’elle avait approvisionné ailleurs.

    1. What reason was there why France should prefer the course described in (1) rather than a direct transfer to Germany?
    2. What movements of trade or capital, of any sort, made the course described in (1) possible or easy?
    3. What movements of the same nature made (2) possible, or enable Germany to absorb the capital thus turned towards her?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

  1. On either of the following topics, give an orderly and concise statement, as complete as you can make it in thirty minutes:—
    1. Sidgwick’s criticisms on Mill’s doctrine of international trade and their validity.
    2. The supply and distribution of the new gold from the United States and Australia, 1858-70.
    3. The action of the new gold in the banking countries.
    4. The absorption of new gold by the currency of France and the foreign trade of that country.
    5. The reasons for the varying ability of India to absorb silver?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 2, Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, pp. 44-46. Transcribed and posted earlier in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

____________________

1893-94
Enrollment for Economics 13.
The Development of Land Tenures and of Agrarian Conditions in Europe.

Enrollment.

[Economics] 13. Professor Ashley. – The Development of Land Tenures and of Agrarian Conditions in Europe. 1 hour.

Total 2: 1 Graduate, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

Note: No printed final examination in the collection of Harvard semester examinations.

____________________

Economics 14.
Ideal Social Reconstructions
from Plato to the Present.
1893-94.

Enrollment.

[Economics] 14. Asst. Professor Cummings. — Ideal Social Reconstructions, from Plato’s Republic to the present time. 1 hour.

Total 22: 7 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

ECONOMICS 14.
Mid-year examination, 1893-94.

(Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. Omit one.)

  1. What is a Utopia? and what significance do you attached to the recurrence of such literature at certain historical ethics?
  2. “For judging of the importance of any thinker in the history of Economics, no matter is more important to us than the view he takes of the laboring population.” Judge Plato, More and Bacon by this standard.
  3. “Moreover, it is hardly too much to say that Plato never got to the point of having a theory of the State at all.” In the Republic “man is treated as a micropolis, and the city is the citizen writ large.” Explain and criticize.
  4. “In More’s Utopia we have a revival of the Platonic Republic with additions which make the scheme entirely modern.… The economical element in the social body receives for the first time its proper rank as of the highest moment for public welfare.” Explain. To what extent have the ideals of Utopia been realized?
  5. “Then we may say that democracy, like oligarchy, is destroyed by its insatiable craving for the object which defines to be supremely good?” What, according to the Republic are the peculiar merits and defects of the several forms of political organization? and how are these forms related in point of origin and sequence?
  6. “Sir Thomas More has been called the father of Modern Communism.” How does he compare in this respect with Plato? How far do you trace the influence of historical conditions in each case?
  7. “But in your case, it is we that have begotten you for the State as well as for yourselves, to be like leaders and kings of the hive,– better and more perfectly trained than the rest, and more capable of playing a part in both modes of life.” Criticise the method and purpose of the educational system of the Republic. How far does Plato’s argument as to the duty of public service apply to the educated man to-day?
  8. “The religious ferment produced by the Reformation movement had begun to show signs of abatement, when another movement closely connected with it made its appearance almost at the same time in England and Italy, namely, the rise of a new philosophy.” How was this new philosophy embodied in the social ideals of Bacon and of Campanella? and what is the distinguishing characteristic of it?
  9. What essential contrast between pagan and Christian ideals have you found in schemes for social regeneration?
  10. Is there any recognition of “Social Evolution” in the Utopian philosophies thus far considered?
  11. What in a word, do you regard as the chief defect of the social reconstruction suggested in turn by Plato, Lycurgus, More, Bacon and Campanella? To what main problems suggested by them have we still to seek an answer?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94. Previously transcribed and posted in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

 

ECONOMICS 14.
Final examination, 1893-94.

(Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.)

  1. [“]The essential unity and continuity of the vital process which has been in progress in our civilization from the beginning is almost lost sight of. Many of the writers on social subjects at the present day are like the old school of geologists: they seem to think that progress has consisted of a series of cataclysms.” How far is this criticism true? Is the characteristic in question more or less conspicuous in earlier writers?
  2. “At the outset underneath all socialist ideals yawns the problem of population…. Under the Utopias of Socialism, one of two things must happen. Either this increase must be restricted or not. If it be not restricted, and selection is allowed to continue, then the whole foundations of such a fabric as Mr. Bellamy has constructed are bodily removed.” State carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing. In which of the schemes for social reconstruction, ancient or modern, do you find any adequate recognition of the part which selection plays in progress?
  3. “If it is possible for the community to provide the capital for production without thereby doing injury to either the principle of perfect individual freedom or to that of justice, if interest can be dispensed with without introducing communistic control in its stead, then there no longer stands any positive obstacle in the way of the free social order.” Discuss the provisions by which Hertzka hopes to guaranteed this “perfect individual freedom.” Contrast him with Bellamy in this respect.
  4. “I perceive that capitalism stops the growth of wealth, not – as Marx has it – by stimulating ‘production for the market,’ but by preventing the consumption of the surplus produce; and that interest, though not unjust, will nevertheless in a condition of economic justice becomes superfluous and objectless.” Explain Hertzka’s reasoning and criticise the economic theory involved.”
  5. What is the gist of “News from Nowhere”?
  6. The condition which the social mind has reached may be tentatively described as one of realization, more or less unconscious, that religion has a definite function to perform in society, and that it is a factor of some kind in the social evolution which is in progress.” How far have you found a recognition of this factor in theories of social reconstruction?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28). Box 2, Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894.

Also: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1853-2001. Box 2, Volume: Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1894, pp. 46-47. Previously transcribed and posted in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

 

Source: Left-to-right: Dunbar, Taussig, Ashley. From University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), pp. 159 [Dunbar], 595 [Ashley].   Vol. III (1899), p. 99 [Taussig]

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Syllabus and Final Exam, International Monetary Economics. Metzler, 1971

The two items below (syllabus and final exam) were incorrectly filed in Lloyd A. Metzler’s papers at Duke. I accidentally stumbled upon both today and thought that rather than trusting my memory of the locations of the syllabus and final exam for Economics 370 in 1971, I’d just transcribe and post the two artifacts today. According to the biographical note below, Lloyd Metzler retired from the University of Chicago in 1971 so this must have indeed been the last time that he taught international monetary economics at Chicago.

__________________________

Biographical Note

Lloyd Appleton Metzler was born on April 3, 1913 in Lost Springs, Kansas. He attended the University of Kansas, where he studied economics under John Ise and earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1935 and an MBA in 1938. Metzler then entered Harvard University. He served as an instructor and tutor at Harvard and completed a Ph.D. in economics in 1942. His dissertation, “Interregional Income Generation,” earned him the Wells Prize. That same year, Metzler was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship.

From Harvard, Metzler went on to Washington, D.C., where worked for the Office of Strategic Services and several economic policy and planning commissions between 1943 and 1946. Metzler joined the research staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 1944. In 1946 he returned to academia when he accepted a teaching position at Yale University. He soon left Yale for the University of Chicago in 1947, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Dr. Metzler survived surgery for a brain tumor in 1952, and with the help of his wife Edith, managed to continue teaching and writing for the next twenty years. He served as Editor of the Journal of Political Economy from 1966 until his retirement in 1971. Metzler made numerous contributions to business cycle literature, macro-monetary theory, tariff theory, mathematical economics, and the field of international trade. The Metzler paradox, Laursen-Metzler effect, and Metzler matrix, all bear his name. He died on October 26, 1980.

Source: University of Chicago Library. Guide to the Lloyd A. Metzler Papers 1941-1948.

__________________________

For Intertemporal Comparison

Syllabus and readings for Economics 370 in 1950.

Exam for Economics 370 in 1953.

Syllabus, readings and final exam for Economics 370 from Winter Quarter 1967.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 370

Monetary Aspects of International Trade
Major Topics and Reading List
Winter, 1971

  1. Mechanism of the Foreign Exchange Market
    1. Alan R. Holmes and Francis Schott, The New York Foreign Exchange Market. New York: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 1965, Chapters 1-6.
    2. Frank A. Southard, Jr., Foreign Exchange Practice and Policy. New York: The McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1940.
    3. Norman Crump, The ABC of the Foreign Exchange. London: MacMillan and Company, Ltd., 1951.
    4. James E. Meade, The Theory of International Economic Policy: Vol. I. The Balance of Payments. London: Oxford University Press, 1951, Chapter 1.
  2. The Quantity of Money, the Rate of Interest, and the Price Level
    1. James Tobin, “The Monetary Policy and the Management of the Public Debt: The Patman Inquiry,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. XXXV, No. 2, May 1953, pp. 118-27.
    2. Subcommittee on General Credit Control and Debt Management of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Hearings on the Question, What Should our Monetary and Debt Management Policy Be? 82nd Congress of the United States 1952, pp. 688-711, 691-98. (These pages include the testimony of Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson).
    3. Robert V. Roosa, “Interest Rates and the Central Bank,” In Money, Trade, and Economic Growth, in honor of John Henry Williams, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951.
    4. Lloyd A. Metzler, “Wealth, Saving, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LIX, No. 2, April 1951, pp. 93-116.
    5. Robert A. Mundell, “The Public Debt, Corporate Income Taxes, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXVIII, No. 6, December 1960, pp. 622-26.
    6. George Horwich, “Real Assets and the Theory of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXX, No.2, April 1962, pp. 158-69.
    7. Don Patinkin, Money, Interest, and Prices, 1st edition, Evanston: Row, Peterson and Company, 1956, Part II.
  3. The Role of Money in International Adjustment: Full Employment and Under-Employment
    1. J. M. Keynes, Treatise on Money: Vol. 1. The Pure Theory of Money. London: Macmillan and Company, 1935, Chapter 21.
    2. Lloyd A. Metzler, “The Theory of International Trade,” from A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Howard S. Ellis, Editor, Homewood, Ill.: R.D. Irwin, Inc., 1948.
    3. Lloyd A. Metzler, “The Process of International Adjustment Under Conditions of Full Employment: A Keynesian View,” first delivered before the Econometric Society, 1960, republished in AEA, Readings in International Economics, Vol. XI, Richard Caves and Harry Johnson, editors, Homewood, Ill.: R. D. Irwin, Inc., 1968, Chapter 28.
  4. Free-Market Exchange Rates
    1. A. J. Brown, “The Foreign Exchanges,” in Oxford Studies in the Price Mechanism, T. Wilson and P.W.S. Andrews, editors, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1951, Part II.
    2. Sidney Alexander, “Effects of a Devaluation on a Trade Balance,” International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, Vol. Il, No. 2, April 1952.
    3. Milton Friedman, “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” in Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1953, pp. 157-203.
    4. Joan Robinson, “The Foreign Exchanges,” in Essays in the Theory of Employment. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1947, Part III.
    5. Lloyd A. Metzler, “Exchange Rates and the International Monetary Fund,” in International Monetary Policies, Postwar Economic Studies, No. 7, Washington, D.C.: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, September 1947.
    6. Rudolph R. Rhomberg. “A Model of the Canadian Economy under Fixed and Fluctuating Exchange Rates,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXXII, No. 1, February 1964, pp. 1-31.
  5. Forward Exchange Rates
    1. Paul Einzig, The Theory of Forward Exchange. London: Macmillan and Company, Ltd., 1937.
    2. Paul Einzig, A Dynamic Theory of Forward Exchang. London: Macmillan and Company, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1961.
    3. Alan R. Holmes and Francis Schott, The New York Foreign Exchange Market. New York: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 1965, Chapters 7-8.
    4. Paul Einzig, “Some Recent Development in Official Forward Exchange Operations,” Economic Journal, Vol. LXXIII, No. 290, June 1963, pp. 241-53.
    5. Paul Einzig, “Some Recent Changes in Forward Exchange Practices,” Economic Journal, Vol. LXX, No. 279, September 1960, pp. 485-95.
  6. The Balance of Payments and the Concepts of Income
    1. R. F. Bennett, “Significance of International Transactions in National Income,” in Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. VI. New York: The National Bureau of Economic Research, 1943.
    2. U. S. Department of Commerce, Income and Output, 1958 Supplement to the Survey of Current Business.
  7. The Theory of Income Transfers
    1. J. M. Keynes, “The Transfer Problem,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 153, March 1929, pp. 1-7.
    2. B. Ohlin, “The Reparation Problem: A Discussion. I. Transfer Difficulties, Real and Imagined,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 154, June 1929, pp. 172-78.
    3. J. M. Keynes. “The Reparation Problem: A Discussion. II. A Rejoinder,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 154, June 1929, 179-82.
    4. J. Rueff, “Mr. Keynes’ Views on the Transfer Problem,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 388-99.
    5. B. Ohlin, “Rejoinder to J. Rueff,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 400-04.
    6. J. M. Keynes, “Reply to J. Rueff,” Economic Journal, Vol. XXXIX, No. 155, September 1929, pp. 404-08.
    7. L. A. Metzler, “The Transfer Problem Reconsidered,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. L, No. 3, June 1942, pp. 397-414.
    8. H. G. Johnson, “The Transfer Problem and Exchange Stability,” Journal of Political Economy, LXIV, No. 3, June 1956, pp. 212-25, Republished in International Trade and Economic Growth. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1958, Chapter VII.
    9. L. A. Metzler, “Flexible Exchange Rates, The Transfer Problem, and the Balanced-Budget Theorem,” Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciale, Anno XIII, No. 4, April 1966, pp. 301-18. Republished in Essays in Honor of Marco Fanno, Vol. II, Tullio Bagiotti, editor, edizioni cedam, Padova, 1966, pp. 449-76.
  8. Evolution of the International Monetary System
    1. Randall Hinshaw. Toward Currency Convertibility. Princeton University, Essays in International Finance, No. 31, 1958.
    2. Robert Triffin, Europe and the Money Muddle, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.
    3. Charles P. Kindleberger. The Dollar Shortage, Cambridge, Mass.: The Technology Press, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1950.
    4. Robert Triffin, “The International Monetary Position of the United States,” in The Dollar in Crisis, Seymour E. Harris, editor, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1961.
    5. Hal B. Lary, Problems of the United States as World Trader and Banker, Princeton: Princeton University Press for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 1963.
    6. Robert Triffin, The Evolution of the International Monetary System: Historical Reappraisal and Future Perspectives. Princeton Studies in International Finance Section. Princeton University, 1964.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “The Dust Proof File”.

__________________________

L. A. Metzler

ECONOMICS 370
FINAL EXAMINATION
WINTER, 1971

Answer all questions

  1. It is frequently said that forward purchases and sales have a two-fold effect upon the assets and liabilities of the bank making the forward transactions. When a bank makes a forward purchase, for example, it is entitled to receive a given amount of foreign currency some time in the future and this right to receive foreign currency constitutes an asset. On the other hand, when the bank receives the foreign currency, it is obligated to pay a given amount of its own currency, and exchange, and this obligation constitutes a liability. Conversely, when the bank makes a forward sale, it is obligated to deliver a given amount of foreign currency some time in the future and such an obligation constitutes a liability. But when the bank delivers the foreign currency, it is entitled to receive a given quantity of domestic currency to complete the transaction, and this receipt constitutes an asset.
    1. In view of the two-fold effect of both forward sales and purchases, how can you justify the inclusion of forward sales as liabilities and the inclusion of forward purchases as assets in an account of the bank’s foreign currency position?
    2. If it is actually true that both sales and purchases increase assets and liabilities by the same amount, what does this imply with respect to the bank’s ability to put itself in a closed position by means of operations on the forward exchange market?
  2. The table, below, presents the yield on 90-day Canadian treasury bills (rc), the yield on 90-day U.S. treasury bills (rus), the 90-day forward exchange rate (FR), and the spot exchange rate (SR) for Canadian currency. The yields for both Canadian and United States bills are stated on an annual basis and the exchange rates represent the price, in United States dollars, of one unit of Canadian dollars. The table covers various periods of time, from A to I.
Period of time Yield on
90-day Canadian treasury bills (rc)
Yield on
90-day
U.S.
treasury bills (rus)
90-day forward exchange rate (FR) Spot exchange rate (SR)
A .05 .06 1.0100 1.000
B .06 .05 1.0050 1.000
C .06 .04 1.0025 1.000
D .07 .03 0.9975 1.000
E .05 .04 0.9900 1.000
F .04 .05 0.9950 1.000
G .02 .04 0.9975 1.000
H .02 .06 1.0025 1.000
I .01 .05 2.0050 2.000

On the basis of the information given in the table above, you are asked to:

    1. Indicate which periods are periods of short-term potential capital outflow (O), and which periods are periods of short-term capital inflow (I) from the point of view of U.S. banks.
    2. Prepare a table showing the profits or losses on security transactions, the profits or losses on currency transactions, and the net outflow or inflow margin for all time intervals from A to I.
    3. Show what transactions a U.S. bank would make in carrying out a short term covered capital outflow and what transactions the bank would make in carrying out a short term capital inflow. From this information, show that arbitrage activities of the U.S. bank always influence rc, rus, FR, and SR in such a way as to put the market values back on the interest parity line.
    4. Comment on the stabilizing effects of interest arbitrage.
  1. Professor Alexander maintains that devaluation will be ineffective unless fiscal measures are taken to control spending.
    1. Discuss Alexander’s argument.
    2. Is it also applicable against a system of flexible exchange rates? Explain.
  2. Country A and Country B are trading with each other under a system of flexible exchange rates. Country A makes a unilateral transfer of t currency units, payable in the currency of B. On the assumption that both countries balance their budgets, prove that factor income remains unchanged in both countries while net output rises in A and falls in B. Give both an algebraic and a commonsense explanation of these results. What bearing do these results have on the controversy between Keynes and Ohlin concerning German reparations?
  3. The success of the Canadian experiment with flexible exchange rates is frequently given as an argument for the introduction of flexible exchange rates as a means of eliminating the deficit in the U.S. Balance of Payments.
    1. Would Alexander’s absorption principle apply to this situation?
    2. Can you see any reason why the comparison between Canada and the United States might be inappropriate?

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Econ 371 [sic] Reading List.”

Source Image: Posting by Margie Metzler on the Metzler Family Tree at the genealogical website, ancestry.com.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Price Theory (B). Final Exam Questions. Friedman, December 1959

 

Along with the exam questions and answers transcribed below, Milton Friedman’s papers include the official course registration list together with his hand-written grades that were calculated based on the results of this exam and a problem set. During the autumn quarter of 1959 thirty students were enrolled in Friedman’s course with two students receiving incompletes. For the remaining 28 students 2 A’s, 10 B’s, 10 C’s, 5 D’s and 1 F grades were awarded. The two A grades went to Arthur Lionel Broida (1963 economics Ph.D. “Liqudity as a Variable in Monetary Analysis”) and Charles N. Tingley [probably Charles Nicholas Tingley, Yale 1957. Worked for Humble Oil and Refining Company  at the time of his marriage to Cary Clift MacFadden in 1964].

______________________________

ECONOMICS 301
[Price Theory B]
Final Examination
December 16, 1959

  1. [30 points total] The accompanying graph gives a set of consumption indifference curves for two commodities or services each of which for some range of quantities and in combination with some amounts of the other is capable of being either a “good” or a “bad” (a “product” or a “factor”) like books and bookshelves, or cutting the grass and playing the piano (either of which may be “labor” or “play”). Of the curves drawn, I1 corresponds to the lowest level of utility. Answer this question on this paper, wherever relevant filling in the blanks.

    1. [3 points] What is the interpretation to be placed on point B? [Answer: Bliss]
    2. [8 points total; 2 points each] Mark of I1 into four sectors [Answers circled on figure] according as

(1) _____both X and Y are “goods”
(2) _____X is a “good” and Y is a “bad”
(3) _____X is a “bad” and Y is a “good”
(4) _____X and Y are both “bads”

Use letters to designate the dividing points between the sectors and enter the description of each sector in the proper place above. [Answer: see X’s used in figure]

    1. Budget lines AC and A´C´ are the usual type which supposes that the consumer must pay for both products and has a fixed sum to spend on both.

(1) [1 point] The consumer’s optimum position for A´C´ is [Answer: D´].
(2) [4 points] The consumer’s optimum position for AC is [Answer: B].

    1. On budget lines EF and GH, one of the commodities is something the consumer must pay for (it is a “product” and has a positive price), the other is something he gets paid to accept (it is a “factor” and has a negative price). In addition for both lines, the consumer has a fixed sum derived from some other source to spend.

(1) [2 points] For EF [Answer: Y] is the product; [Answer: X] is the factor.
(2) [2 points] For GH [Answer: X] is the product; [Answer: Y] is the factor.

    1. For OK also one commodity is a product and one is a factor but there is no additional source of expenditures and hence no way from the line itself to know which is which. However, it does make a difference to the optimum position which is which.

(1) [2 points] If X is a factor and Y a product, then the optimum point is [Answer: B].
(2) [2 points] If Y is a factor and X a product, then the optimum point is [Answer: K].
(3) [5 points] Can you suggest a simple graphical way of distinguishing the two cases? [Answer: Shading areas].

  1. [30 points] Find the mistakes (there are at least six) in the accompanying diagram showing long and short run marginal and average cost curves, and explain the general principle corresponding to each particular mistake.

[Answers: (1)SRMC ≠ SRAC at minimum; (2) SRAC < LRAC; (3) SRMC ≠ LRMC where SRAC = LRAC; (4) SRMC < SRAC when SRAC rising; (5) SRMC < LRMC when to left of point of tangency of SRAC and LRAC; (6) LRAC> LRMC when LRAC rising or LRMC ≠ LRAC when LRAC max).]

  1. [24 points] Define briefly the following terms [3 points each]:
    1. Marginal revenue
    2. Fixed cost
    3. Income elasticity
    4. Profit
    5. Production function
    6. Diminishing returns
    7. Inferior good
    8. Luxury
  2. [30 points] Discuss the following quotations:
    1. (from a newspaper story) “The Sun Rose Bar and Grill…advertised ‘the largest glass of beer in the city for five cents’ and did a tremendous business in eight-ounce glasses of beer as soon as the public realized it was no April Fool proposition…
      ‘If enough of us do this’ said…one of the proprietors, ‘the brewers will have to cut prices!’”.
    2. (from a newspaper story) “Domestic producers of oil contend that unrestricted imports hurt them not only because they swell the supply, but because a barrel of foreign crude costs about $1 less than a comparable barrel of U.S. crude.”
    3. “All of this is to say, of course, that in practice what we have to reckon with is not a unique marginal cost for a given level of output, but a complex of marginal costs, each of which is pertinent to a particular period of time. As a longer period of time is considered, more of the ‘fixed factors’ become variable. Because of this greater flexibility in the production process, long-run marginal cost will generally be less than short-run marginal costs.” A. Bergson in A Survey of Contemporary Economics.

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 77, Folder 2: “University of Chicago, Econ. 301”.

Image Source: Detail from picture of Milton Friedman 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.