Category: Exam Questions

Harvard. Final Examinations in Economics courses, 1892-1893

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-11-10

The economic historian William J. Ashley joined the Harvard economics department in 1892-93, joining Professors Charles F. Dunbar and Frank W. Taussig and the instructors Edward Cummings and William M. Cole. This post gives us a complete set of semester examinations for all the economics courses offered at Harvard and, as extra bonus, exams for the Social Ethics course taught in the philosophy department by Francis G. Peabody.

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1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5. ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

Enrollment

[Philosophy] 5. Professor F. G. 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 131: 5 Graduates, 60 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 24 Divinity, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Mid-Year Examination]

Explain and illustrate the “correlation” of the Social Questions and the doctrine of Social Energy.
How does the history of ethical theory illustrate the philosophy of the Social Questions?
Compare the principles of the English Poor-Law with the principles of the Elberfeld System.
The plan, scope, and results of Mr. Charles Booth’s Study of East London.
The character of the migration to London and its effect on
1. social conditions in London (Charles Booth, I. 501, II. 444);
2. the problem of municipal charity.
How do the Germans deal with the problem of unemployed tramps?
One year of General Booth’s Social Scheme, — its achievements and its possible limitations.
Define the modern Labor Question and note its special characteristics.
What does Carlyle mean by:
Gospel of Mammonism? (Bk. III. ch. 2.)
Gospel of Dilettantism? (Bk. III. ch. 3.)
Captains of industry? (Bk. IV. ch. 4.)
Plugson of Undershot? (Bk. III. ch. 10.)

What is his lesson drawn from:
Gurth, the thrall of Cedric? (Bk. III. ch. 13; Bk. IV. ch. 5.)

Ruskin’s doctrine of wealth, of wages, and of exchange. How far, in your opinion, is Ruskin’s view of Political Economy justifiable?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-1893
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Year-End Final Examination]

State the Labor Question in terms of Ethics, arranging the various industrial propositions of the day in the order of their ethical sufficiency. Explain your arrangement.
Why does the Anarchist find encouragement in the philosophy of Herbert Spencer?
What is the philosophy of history which encourages the Socialist?
The practical advantages which the Socialist anticipates under his programme, his reasons therefor, and your own judgment of their probability.
The substitute for money proposed by Marx; with Schäffle’s criticism of the proposal. (Schäffle, pp. 77-90).
The German system of insurance against old age and invalidism, — its plan, scope and difficulties.
The Familistère at Guise and its lessons for socialism.
Why has Coöperation gained so large a place in English industry and had such meagre success in the United States?
The method of Profit-Sharing adopted in the Maison Leclaire, the secret of its success and the limits of its application in other cases. (Sedley Taylor, pp. 13-20).
The special characteristics of the latest liquor Legislation proposed in Germany, in England and in the United States.

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, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors [Frank W.] TAUSSIG and [William J.] ASHLEY, and Messrs. [Edward] CUMMINGS and [William M.] COLE. —

First half-year:

Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Second half-year:

Division A (Theoretical): Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Division B (Descriptive): Labor and Capital, Coöperation. — Hadley’s Railroad Transportation. — Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. — Financial Legislation. 3 hours.

Total 322: 1 Graduate, 50 Seniors, 114 Juniors, 116 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 38 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

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

“Production, and productive, are of course elliptical expressions, involving the idea of something produced; but this something, in common apprehension, I conceive to be, not utility, but wealth.” Why should not all labor which produces utility, be accounted productive?
“The distinction, then, between Capital and Non-Capital, does not lie in the kind of commodities, but in the mind of the capitalist.” Does pig-iron cease to be capital when the owner sells it and buys a country-house?
What is meant when it is said that rent is no burden on the consumer?
Why are the earnings of the professional classes higher than the wages of mechanics? Why are the wages of mechanics higher than those of day-laborers?
Explain the connection between:

The tendency of profits to a minimum.
The law of diminishing returns.
The effective desire of accumulation.

Is a general rise in prices advantageous to the community as a whole? to any part of it?
Specie, bank-notes, inconvertible paper, checks, —are they or are they not “money”?
“It is when the metals are completely superseded and driven from circulation that the difference between convertible and inconvertible paper begins to be operative.” Explain.
Does foreign trade tend to bring about the same level of (1) money wages, (2) prices, in the trading countries?
In what manner does a country gain when its exports increase?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 1.
[Year-End Final Examination]

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

What is meant when it is said that the rent paid for the use of a factory building enters into cost of production, while that paid for the use of the site does not?
What determines the limits within which the foreign exchanges may fluctuate?
According to Mill, “The universal elements of cost of production are the wages of labor and the profits of the capital.” Cairnes on the contrary says, “I repeat, therefore, that not only do wages not constitute the laborer’s share in the cost of production, but these can not be taken in any sense to represent that cost.”
Why not?
“It appears, therefore, that the fund available for those who live by labor tends, in the progress of society, while growing actually larger, to become a constantly smaller fraction of the entire national wealth.”
Why?
“The illusion which I am combatting, that Demand and Supply are independent economic forces, sometimes assumes another form in the notion that producers and consumers are distinct classes, and that production and consumption are acts which may go on irrespective of each other.”
Explain the illusion.
How is the price of wool in Australia likely to be affected by the shipment of frozen mutton to England?
“In the language of Mr. Mill, ‘the produce of a country exchanges for the produce of other countries at such values as are required in order that the whole of her exports may exactly pay for the whole of her imports.’ Now, as a matter of fact, it very rarely happens that the whole exports of a country, even if we take an average of many years, exactly pay for the whole of its imports; nor can it be truly said that there is any tendency in the dealings of nations toward this result.” Why not?
At what rate of interest did the United States borrow, when it exchanged 5-20 bonds for legal tender notes at par, in 1862-63?
What do you infer from the success of distributive coöperation in Great Britain, as to the future development of coöperation in general?
What are the grounds for saying that the general fall in prices in the United States in the period immediately after the civil war, had an effect on debtors different from that of the fall in prices since 1879?

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

Does the benefit of international trade lie in the exports? in the imports?
Why?
Is a general fall in prices harmful to debtors? to creditors?
Will an increase in the quantity of money in the community affect the rate of interest?
How would you estimate the minimum reserve required by law to be anywhere held for deposits in country national banks of the United States?
How would you explain the close correspondence in the banks of the United States between the amount of loans and the amount of deposits?
Explain the decline in the volume of national bank notes in recent years.
Explain why the original limit of uncovered issue for the Bank of England was put at £14,000,000.
How would an act for the free coinage of silver in the United States at the present mint ratio, affect the price of silver bullion?
Compare the attitude of the Latin Union toward the use of both metals in 1866 with its attitude in 1878.
Compare carefully, as to the character and quantity of the issues of money provided for, the legislation of the United States in 1878 with that of 1890.
Point out wherein profit-sharing is similar to coöperative production, wherein different.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2. ECONOMIC THEORY

Enrollment

[Economics] 2. Professor TAUSSIG. — Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from leading writers. 3 hours.

Total 38: 11 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Mid-Year Examination]

State George’s doctrine as to the cause of interest, and give an opinion of its soundness.
“It may be said, we grant that wages are really paid out of the product of current industry, and that capital only affects wages as it first affects production, so that wages stand related to product in the first degree, and to capital in the second degree only; still, does not production bear a certain and necessary ratio to capital? and hence may not the measure of wages be derived from capital virtually, — though not, it is true, directly, — through its determination of product?” Consider whether so much would be granted by one holding to the wages-fund doctrine; and answer the questions.
“The employer [in the West and South] advances to the laborer such provisions and cash as are absolutely required from time to time: but the ‘settlement’ does not take place until the close of the season or the year, and the final payment is often deferred until the crop is not only harvested but sold.” Under such conditions is it true that wages are paid out of capital, or limited in amount by the quantity of previously accumulated capital?
What do you conceive President Walker’s opinion to be as to the effect on business profits of the possession of large means by the business man at the outset of his career?
Are there grounds for saying that in a socialist community the conception of capital would be different from that in communities as now organized?
Compare Adam Smith’s doctrine as to the relation of capital and wages with Ricardo’s.
Compare Adam Smith’s conclusions with Ricardo’s as to the propriety of import duties levied to countervail internal taxes on necessaries consumed by laborers.
“No extension of foreign trade will immediately increase the amount of value in a country, though it will very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities, and therefore the sum of enjoyments.” What does Ricardo mean?
“There is only one case, and that will be temporary, in which the accumulation of capital with a low price of food may be attended with a fall in profits.” What is the case, and why did Ricardo think it would be temporary?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 2.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[One question in each of the three groups may be omitted.]

I.

What is the meaning and importance of the proposition that demand for commodities is not demand for labor?
How far is Ricardo’s doctrine as to the connection between labor and value similar to Marx’s doctrine that value consists of the labor incorporated in commodities?
What is meant when it is said that the connection between value and expenses of production depends on the mobility of capital, while the connection between value and cost of production depends on the mobility of labor and capital?
“The ideal of justice in distribution, applicable both to individual producers and to the different factors in production (land, labor, capital), may be stated thus: each should have a share in net income proportionate to the contribution which, by labor or by the use of material means of production, he has made to the product.”
What should you say as to the feasibility of carrying out such a principle?

II.

Explain briefly what is meant by total utility, marginal utility, and consumer’s rent.
“Subject to these corrections, then, we may regard the aggregate of the money measures of the total utility of wealth as a fair measure of that part of the happiness which is dependent on wealth.” Mention one or two corrections.
Give your opinion on the objection raised by Carey to the theory of rent, that the total rent paid for the use of land does not exceed interest at current rates on the total capital sunk in land.
How far is it an answer to the proposition that rent and business profits are analogous, when it is said that the losses of some business managers must be set off against the larger gains of others?
Explain Professor Marshall’s opinion as to the bearing on the relative wages of different laborers of
1. The “rent” of labor;
2. the standard of living among laborers;
3. the expenses of production of labor;

and point out the connection between his views on these subjects.

III.

Explain the distinctions (1) between private capital and social capital, (2) between historico-legal capital and national capital; and point out how far the two distinctions run on the same lines.
“In the present condition of industry, most sales are made by men who are producers and merchants by profession. . . . For them, the subjective use-values of their own wares is, for the most part, very nearly nil. . . . In sales by them, the limiting effect which, according to our theoretical formula, would be exerted by the valuation of the last seller, practically does not come into play.”
Explain what is meant, and consider the consequences as to the importance of the law that price is determined by the valuations of the marginal pairs.
“Our whole interest is centred in the question as to the position which the law (of cost of production), so well accredited by experience, takes in the systematic theory of price. Does it run counter to our law of marginal pairs or not? Our answer is that it does not. It is as little of a contradiction as we before found to exist between the proposition that the marginal utility determines the height of subjective value, and the other proposition that the costs determine it.”
In what way is the apparent contradiction removed in the two cases referred to by Böhm-Bawerk?
Explain the three grounds on which Böhm-Bawerk bases the superiority of present over future goods, and give your opinion as to their relative importance and significance.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 3. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

Enrollment

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

Total 22: 5 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Mid-Year Examination]

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

“We have just seen that a one-sided application of the conception that society is of organic growth leads to difficulties, as well as the conception of artificial making. These we can only escape by recognizing a truth which includes them both.”
What are these difficulties, and what is this truth?
“If societies have evolved, and if that mutual dependence of parts which coöperation implies, has been gradually reached, then the implication is that however unlike their developed structures may become, there is a rudimentary structure with which they all set out.”
What evidence do you find of such a structure?
According to Aristotle, “Man is by nature a political” According to Thomas Aquinas, “homo est animal sociale et politicum.” How far is this insertion of “sociale” alongside of “politicum” significant of the different way in which the State presented itself to the mind of the Greek and to the mind of the medieval philosopher?
“The theory of the social contract belongs in an especial manner to the political philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But it did not originate with them. It had its roots in the popular consciousness of medieval society. As a philosophical theory, it had already been anticipated by the Greek Sophists.”
Indicate briefly some of the important changes which the doctrine underwent.
“In primitive societies the person does not exist, or exists only potentially, or, as we might say, in spe. The person is the product of the State.” Explain. What is the theoretical and historical justification of this doctrine, as against the contention that the individual loses what the State gains?
Discuss the relative preponderance of free and of un-free elements at different stages of social development.
It has been remarked by Spencer that those domestic relations which are ethically the highest, are also biologically and sociologically the highest. Discuss the historical evidence on this point. What is the test of this ethical superiority?
To what extent is there ground for saying that the influence of militant and of industrial organization is traceable in the status of women and the duration of marriage in the United States and in other countries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Year-End Final Examination]

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

“The different forms of the State are specifically divided, as Aristotle recognized, by the different conceptions of the distinction between government and subjects, especially by the quality (not the quantity) of the ruler.” Explain. Indicate briefly the relation of the different forms of the State to one another.
“If there is any one principle which is clearly grasped in the present day, it is that political power is a public duty as well as a public right, that it belongs to the political existence and life of the whole nation, and that it can never be regarded as the property or personal right of an individual.” How far did this principle secure recognition in Greek, in Roman, and in medieval times?
“The past seems to prove that kings and aristocracies make States, and that left to themselves, the people unmake them.” State carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the political philosophy here involved.
“This is one of curious phases of the railway problem in Europe, which has a tendency to show how multiform and various are the influences at work to modify and change the conditions of the railway problem, and how little can be gathered from mere government documents and laws to shed light upon this most interesting and intricate of all modern industrial questions.” What light does Italian, French and Austrian experience with railroads throw on the general question of State control?
“Expediency and the results of experience must determine how far to go. They seem to justify public ownership of gas works, water works and electric lights. The same would doubtless be true of the telegraph and telephone.” Discuss the evidence.
“We will first concentrate our attention on the economic kernel of socialism, setting aside for the moment the transitory aspect it bears in the hands of agitators, its provisional passwords, and the phenomena and tendencies in religion by which it is accompanied.” State and criticise this “economic kernel.”
“The philanthropic and experimental forms of socialism, which played a conspicuous role before 1848, perished them[sic, “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?
How are the socialistic teachings of Lasalle and Marx related to the economic doctrines of Smith and Ricardo?
What ground do you find for or against the contention that “socialism is the economic complement of democracy”?
“Not only material security, but the perfection of human and social life is what we aim at in that organized co-öperation of many men’s lives and works which is called the State. . . . But where does protection leave off and interference begin?”

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA

Enrollment

[Economics] 4. Mr. COLE. — Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours.

Total 116: 41 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 45 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 18 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4.
[Mid-Year Examination]

I.
[Take all.]

State at least three parallels in the lives of Watt and George Stevenson.
From an economic point of view, and assuming that a revolution must have come sooner or later, was the occurrence of the disturbances in France between 1785 and 1815 opportune or inopportune for France?
Was there any necessary connection between the economic and the military reforms of Prussia between 1807 and 1812? If so, what?
Why was the United States helped more than any other country by the introduction of steam navigation?

II.
[Omit one.]

What was the origin and what were the main provisions of the English Corn Law of 1815?
What were the main provisions of the French railway law of 1842?
What were the main features of Gallatin’s plan for internal improvements in 1807?
What was the social status at the beginning of this century of poor immigrants into America?
What was the cause of the suspension of specie payments by the Bank of England in 1797?
What was the effect of the Continental wars of 1793-1815 upon the English laborers? How was it manifested?
What was the influence on French manufactures of Napoleon’s rise to power? Cite examples.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Year-End Final Examination]

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

What sort of wealth did France actually sacrifice in paying the German indemnity? What was the process?
Explain the influence of the Civil War upon our tariff legislation.
Explain whether or not England can obtain cheap coal from abroad after her own supplies become scarce.
What motives had Congress for granting lands to Western railroads, — other than the Union Pacific? What was the system of grants adopted?
It has been said that after 1850 England could not well maintain duties upon any class of imports, and hence free trade was inevitable. What do you think of the statement?
Was the Zollverein an experiment in free trade or in protection? Why do you think as you do?
How did the extraordinary demand for gold between 1871 and 1873 affect the rate of bank discount? How do you explain the effect?
Show at least three important benefits arising from improved means of transportation.
Explain carefully, but concisely, why the southern soils of the United States were rapidly exhausted before the war. Could resort have been made successfully to rotation of crops, to more careful cultivation, to the use of better tools?
Using only the materials which have been furnished by Economics IV, show what in your opinion, after careful thought, England would have gained or lost up to the present time if the American colonies had not won their independence.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5. RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 5. Professor TAUSSIG. — Railway Transportation. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 26: 7 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

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

“A more powerful force than the authority of the courts was working against the Granger system of regulation. The laws of trade could not be violated with impunity. The effects were most sharply felt in Wisconsin. . . . In the second year of its operation [that of the law reducing rates], no Wisconsin road paid a dividend; only four paid interest on their bonds. Railroad construction came to a standstill. . . . Foreign capital refused to invest in Wisconsin; the development of the State was sharply checked; the very men who most favored the law found themselves heavy losers. . . . The very men who passed the law in 1874 hurriedly repealed it after two years trial.” State the essential features of the legislation here alluded to, and give an opinion as to this explanation of its effects.
“The principle of tolls [rates based on cost of service] keeps rates up. If it is strictly applied, it makes it necessary that each item of business should pay its share of the fixed charges.” Why? or why not?
What is meant when it is said that railway rates are governed by value of service?
Compare :
1. The natural system of rates.
2. The German reform tariff.
3. The maximum rates of the Granger legislatures.
Is it true that the prohibition of pooling in the Interstate Commerce Act increases the severity of the long and short haul clause?
What were the causes of the depression of 1888-90?
Should you say that the approaching maturity of the Government debt gives a favorable opportunity for an experiment in public management, by the assumption of federal ownership of the Pacific roads?
Give an opinion on two among the suggestions made by Mr. Clark as to future legislation on railways by the states.
Sketch the history of railway policy in Italy.
What have been the financial results of public railway management in Prussia?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 6. HISTORY OF U.S. TARIFF LEGISLATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 6. Professor TAUSSIG. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 50: 7 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 6.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Answer all the questions, however briefly.]

Sketch the industrial history of the country, and its bearing on tariff legislation, from 1816 to 1824.
How far do protective duties account for the growth of the cotton manufacture from 1830 to 1840? Of the iron manufacture from 1840 to 1850? Of the silk manufacture from 1860 to 1880?
What do you believe the state of public opinion to have been on tariff legislation in 1800? In 1824? In 1850?
State the important provisions of the tariff act of 1857.
Are there grounds for saying that the duty on pig iron since 1870 has proved a successful application of protection to young industries? State carefully what you think the test of success in such a case.
What can be said for, what against, the change in the duties on sugar made in 1890?
Compare the general character of the tariff act of 1883 with that of the act of 1890.
Assume that, on the imposition of a duty on tin-plates, domestic production should so develop that tin-plates were made with less labor in the United States than in foreign countries. What would happen if thereafter the duty were removed?
Explain what is the object, what the effect of minimum duties; and give two instances of their application, one before 1860, the other after.
Explain briefly in what manner the connection between the tariff and wages was discussed by Webster in 1824, by Clay in 1824, and by Walker in 1845.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7¹. THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 7¹. Professor DUNBAR. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special references to local taxation in the United States. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 21: 7 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7^[1].
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in the order of the questions.]

What is Mr. Bastable’s theory (pp. 339-342) as to the incidence of a tax on a commodity, and what are the conditions on which he finds that any shifting of the tax will depend? How far does his doctrine in this particular differ from that of Ricardo?
Discuss the following extract from Leroy-Beaulieu (Science des Finances, II. 303):—
So the land tax, unless it is extraordinarily high or very badly assessed, has no influence on the price of agricultural products: it merely diminishes what in scientific language is called the rent of land, — that is the net income of the landowner after deducting the expenses of cultivation and the profits of the farmer. This proposition is generally true in all countries where the land is completely occupied: it does not apply, on the contrary, to new countries where a large part of the soil is not yet under cultivation, like the United States or Australia. In these countries the land tax acts as an increase of the general cost of working new lands, and consequently retards their reduction to cultivation.
In answer to the demand for taxes resting exclusively or chiefly on land and its great unearned increment of value, it is sometimes urged that gains are often offset by losses, and that individuals can hardly be called on to give up their surplus gains unless they are guaranteed against possible loss. How much weight is to be attached to this answer?
Discuss Bastable’s remark that,—
It may be urged that progressive taxation is not in fact likely to weaken the disposition to save. It will only affect those who possess a good deal already, and such persons save as much from habit as from conscious motive. There is, too, the further fact that the heavier taxation on the rich will leave the poor a larger disposable sum, part of which they may save, and to that extent increase the store of wealth.
What do you say to the proposition maintained by Mill (Book V., ch. ii. §4) and discussed by Bastable (p. 297), that the part of income which is saved should be exempt from taxation?
W. is credited with having laid down two propositions: First, that “any income tax which permits of any exemption whatever is a graduated income tax”; and, secondly, that “a graduated income tax to the extent of its discrimination is an act of confiscation.”
State the general plan on which the French Contribution des Patentes is levied, and then discuss the following:—
1. Bastable says (p. 411):—
  The Patente is very far from being a proportional tax on industrial gains. It rather resembles a charge on certain necessaries of the business, such as buildings, labor, or motive power.
2. Leroy-Beaulieu (Science des Finances, I. p. 396) says:—
  The manufacturer being taxed by the general tax on rents [personelle-mobilière] there is evident injustice in loading him with an additional tax on his habitation.
3. And in general he says (ibid., p. 380):—
  In countries like France where incomes in general are not subject to any special direct tax, it is indisputable that a tax on the profit of manufacturers, of merchants, and of the liberal professions, has no reason for existence and can only be explained by the brutal law of fiscal necessity.
Describe the changes which the Prussian income tax has gone through and the distinctive characteristics of the law of 1891.
Describe the plan on which the English “death duties” are now arranged.
What are the methods used in different countries for the taxation of tobacco, and how far does each appear applicable in the United States?
Which of the following taxes are best fitted for national use and which for local, and why?

Excise;
Income;
Real Estate;
Stamps on deeds, commercial paper and legal instruments;
Successions.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7². FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC DEBTS

Enrollment

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

Total 23: 10 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 7^[2].
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Give one half of your time to a careful treatment of the questions under A.]

A.

Discuss the conditions necessary for maintaining a thoroughgoing budget system, and show what changes (if any) of constitution, law, or political practice would be required, in order to set such a system in operation in the United States.
When the United States issued the 5-20 bonds (principal and interest payable in gold), they had the choice between three courses, viz:
1. To sell the bonds for par in gold and make the rate of interest high enough to attract buyers;
2. to sell the bonds for gold at such discount as might be necessary, their interest being fixed at six per cent;
3. to sell the bonds for their nominal par in depreciated paper.
  Which of these courses now seems to you the best, and why?
Discuss the following:
“Viewed as a purely financial question, it is no occasion for congratulation that a debt is widely diffused. Not only is its management necessarily more expensive, but the facility offered to politicians to use the debt for party and personal ends often defeats the best purposes of the financier. . . .France, for example, continued to pay for a number of years a higher rate of interest than was necessary, because the government feared the voting power of the holders of rentes. Nor do industrial considerations necessarily lead to the approval of widely-diffused debt. The unfailing indication of healthy state of industries is found in the personal attention of all members of society to business affairs. and this can only come with personal interest in some particular form of product. In so far as the private income of individuals arises from payments of interest by the state, the public is deprived of the beneficial workings of that solicitous care which insures success in industrial ventures. —Adams, Public Debts, p. 43.

B.

State the manner in which the selling value of bonds is influenced, by, —
1. annual drawings by lot for payment;
2. reserved right to pay at pleasure;
3. agreement to pay at or after some distant date;
4. arrangement like that of the “Five-twenties.”
The distinction between a bond reimbursable from the date of issue and one which is secured against redemption for ten or twenty years, is said to be “one of the most fundamental that presents itself in the entire course of credit operations,” because,—
“A bond reimbursable from the date of its issue shows great carelessness on the part of the administration as to ultimate payment; on the other hand, a bond guaranteed against immediate payment is evidence of an intention to escape the evils of perpetual indebtedness.” — Adams, Public Debts, p. 161.
Give your reasons for agreeing or for disagreeing with this statement.
Under what conditions is the use of terminable annuities as a species of sinking fund advisable, and on what principle should the extent to which their use is carried be limited, if at all?
What do you say to the following dictum as to buying public debt:
“Payment by purchase (of bonds) upon the market at market prices is defensible when bonds are below par, but not when above par and so conditioned as to be payable, within a reasonable time, at their nominal value.”
Describe the operation by which the French government converted the Morgan Loan in 1875 and state any criticism to be made upon this conversion.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8. HISTORY OF U.S. FINANCIAL LEGISLATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 8. Professor DUNBAR. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 34: 3 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in numerical order.]

Hamilton has sometimes been charged with favoring the policy of a perpetual public debt. Discuss the grounds for this charge.
The act of 1790 for assuming the debts of the States did not wait for the settlement of accounts between the States and the Union. Did this failure to wait necessarily affect the result?
What is a “direct tax” of the United States and on whom and how is it laid? Give instances.
What were the provisions of law or the practices in use, regulating the kinds of currency received and paid by the Treasury, between 1789 and 1846?
What was the Specie Circular, and what were its effects?
What is Mr. Gallatin’s view of the part played by the United States Bank and of its influence, in the disastrous period 1837-1841?
Describe the Independent Treasury Act of 1846, and state any modifications that the system has undergone.
Give some account of the treasury notes issued 1837-46, and show how they resembled or differed from notes now issued by the United States.
What considerations are there which tend to create doubt as to the necessity of the first Legal Tender Act?
State the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Acts.
Sketch the legislation which has established the national banking system.
Describe the change which has taken place in the meaning attached to the word “resumption,” and the circumstances which have given us a legal tender currency of fixed amount.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN

An earlier post to this course with valuable links to the works quoted in the exams.

Enrollment

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

Total 24: 3 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 68.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Mid-Year Examination]

[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.]

“In a society adjusted to manual labor, it is absolutely impossible that a labor problem, as a class problem, should take its origin; but in a society adjusted to machinery, provided the English law of property be maintained, the development of class lines will surely make its appearance in industries.”
State fully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with these assertions.
“First, government must regulate the plane of competition, for without legal regulation the struggle between men for commercial supremacy will surely force society to the level of the most immoral man who can maintain himself.”
What evidence does the history of factory legislation furnish upon these points?
Comment upon the following passage: “The object held in view by workmen, when they organized themselves into unions, was to gain again that control over the conditions of labor which they lost when machinery took the place of tools.”
“The English public has had the courage and strength to leave workingmen’s associations full freedom of movement, at the risk even of temporary excesses and acts of violence, such as at one time stained the annals of trades-unions.” Explain.
How far is this true of France? Of the United States?
Describe briefly the origin, growth, and present tendencies of the English Friendly Society movement.
To what extent do trade organizations and friendly societies constitute an aristocracy of labor?
To what forms of remuneration can the evils of “sweating” be traced?
“The aim of Coöperation is at the same time the aim of Trade Unionism.” In what sense?
Sketch briefly the course of factory legislation during the present century either in England or in the United States.
Comment on the following passage: “The fact that the ignorant masses are enabled by the factory to engage in what it once took skilled labor to perform has given the widespread impression that factory labor has degraded the skilled, when in truth it has lifted the unskilled; and this is the inevitable result of the factory everywhere.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Year-End Final Examination]

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

How is the burden of contribution distributed in each of the three departments of the German system of compulsory insurance? What theoretical or practical objections have you to the system?
“In England especially the State is not in a position to compete effectively with energetic Insurance Companies or with the Friendly Societies, pulsating with the vigour of social life; and still less can it so compete when hampered by restrictions which handicap its powers.” Discuss the evidence on this point furnished by English experience with government workingmen’s insurance. Are there any indications that German ideas are gaining ground in England?
“What, we will ask, is the relation of Profit-sharing to the ordinary wage system; and to what extent does Profit-sharing constitute an improvement upon the ordinary wage system?” Are there grounds for the assertion that Profit-sharing is “inferior in point of equity and expediency to the ordinary non-coöperative wage system“?
“Besides the militant trade unionist workmen, that very shrewd class of workingmen, the coöperators, regard Profit-sharing with marked disapprobation; so much so that, although Profit-sharing forms an essential part of the professed principles of Industrial Coöperation, yet by far the greater part of Industrial Coöperation is carried on upon the system of altogether excluding the employees from participation in profits.” What are the facts referred to, and how do you account for them?
“Here it is necessary to interpolate a protest against the assertion almost universally made by previous writers on this subject, that ‘Industrial Coöperation has succeeded in distribution, but has failed in production,’ — an assertion generally coupled with the explanation that ‘production’ is too difficult to be, as yet, undertaken by workingmen.” What are the facts?
“But the enthusiastic Coöperator will ask: why not develop the voluntary system of democratic Coöperation until it embraces the whole field of industry?” What do you conceive to be the economic limits to such extension by consumers’ associations?
“Having considered the social and economic position of workers in the coal, iron and steel industries in several countries, let us now by proper combination ascertain the average conditions prevailing in the two continents.” What are the probable conclusions to be drawn from these comparative statistics of family budgets in the United States and other countries?
“The Hungarians, Italians, Bohemians and Poles, who throng our gates give most concern. . . . Up to the present time there seems no ground to fear that such new comers have wielded a depressing influence. There seems rather reason for congratulation in the fact that instead of their having lowered the American standard of living, the American standard of life has been raising them.” Discuss the evidence. What light do recent changes in the character and volume of migration from different countries throw on this problem?
Indicate briefly the course of short-hour legislation in Massachusetts. How does it compare with the legislation in other states and other countries?
Indicate carefully how far there has been any approximation to compulsory arbitration in Massachusetts; in New York; in other countries. What are the objections to compulsory arbitration?
What do you conceive to be the significance of the Farmers’ Alliance and the Single Tax movements in the United States? And how are they related to each other?
Precisely what evidence is there for and against the contention that the employment of “private armed forces” has been largely responsible for violence and bloodshed during strikes? Give concrete examples.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10. U.S. AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC HISTORY TO 1763

Enrollment

[Economics] 10. Professor ASHLEY. — The Economic History of Europe and America, to 1763. 3 hours.

Total 20: 6 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 3 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Mid-Year Examination]

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

Present the substance of recent suggestions as to the origin of the Celtic Sept, and compare them with earlier views.
Describe the Roman villa system, and compare it with mediaeval manorial agriculture and with modern American farming.
Discuss the value of the Domesday Survey for economic history.
Explain the importance of “Commutation.”
State and criticize Mr. Thorold Rogers’ view of the causes of the Peasant Revolt of 1381.
Describe the character of internal trade in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
To what extent was the mediaeval regulation of industry justified?
Trace the history, and comment on the significance, of Journeymen’s Societies.
“Capital is a historical category.” statement in the light of medieval history. Explain and criticize this statement in the light of mediaeval history.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Candidates are requested to attempt only six questions, — of which six one at least must be chosen from the first set.]

Compare the position of the Roman coloni with that of the peasants of the Middle Ages.
“The reign of Edward I appears to mark the turning-point in the history of the craft-gilds.” Explain and criticize this.
Estimate the importance of the work of M. Fustel de Coulanges in relation to Economic History.
________________________________
How did the Reformation affect the English craft companies?
Describe the “domestic system” of industry, and compare it with earlier and later systems.
Narrate the later fortunes of the Hanseatic merchants in England.
State and discuss the principles involved in the Poor Law of the sixteenth century.
Give some account of the various discussions concerning economic policy occasioned by the East India Company.
Compare a New England town with an English manor.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11. HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY BEFORE ADAM SMITH

Enrollment

[Economics] 11. Professor ASHLEY. — History of Economic Theory, down to Adam Smith. 2 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 8: 7 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Candidates are requested to attempt only six questions.]

Explain Aristotle’s view of chrematistics.
What has been the economic influence of the Roman law?
Compare the fundamental ideas of the Canonists with those of the Socialists.
Explain the Canonist doctrine of Partnership.
What were the principles involved in the discussion concerning Montes Pietatis?
Consider the influence of the Reformation on Economic opinion.
Sketch briefly the various stages in the history of Mercantilism.
Explain briefly the significance for the history of economic thought of either Bodin, or Sir Josiah Child.

Tags Ashley, ColeWM, CummingsEdward, Peabody, Taussig

Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Final exam from Economics 301 (Price Theory), Autumn Quarter 1960

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-09-12

The following exam comes from a graduate course in the price theory and distribution sequence at the University of Chicago taught in the Autumn quarter of 1960. This copy was found in Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives in the folder “Econ. 301” which also includes exams from 1959 and 1964 that can be attributed to Friedman. Still, I am not yet certain who was the author of the exam questions for autumn 1960. More than likely it was indeed Milton Friedman, but this needs to be checked.

_________________________

Economics 301
Final Examination
December, 1960

I. Indicate which alternatives, if any, are correct or fill in the indicated blanks. Where you think it required, briefly justify your answer.

Marginal revenue (a) cannot (b) may (c) must rise as output increases.
A monopolized product initially sells for $1. A tax is imposed on the product. A tax of t cents per unit will reduce marginal revenue at the pre-tax output (a) more, (b) less, (c) the same amount, (d) sometimes more sometimes less than a tax of t per cent.
In the preceding example, the imposition of a tax of t cents will lead the monopolist to reduce output (a) more, (b) less, (c) the same amount, (d) sometimes more sometimes less than a tax of t per cent.
A reduction in demand for a product is followed by a rise in quantity sold despite no change in conditions of supply. It follows that the product is being produced (a) in a competitive industry with increasing returns, (b) in a competitive industry with external diseconomies, (c) by a monopolist, (d) this result is impossible under any of the preceding conditions.
Assume that the government has been supporting the price of wheat by buying any wheat offered to it at its support price. Suppose it abandons the program. In the new position of long period equilibrium the total amount received by producers will rise (a) only if the market demand for wheat is inelastic in the range between the support and new price, (b) only if the market demand for wheat is elastic in this range, (c) whatever the demand elasticity, (d) under no circumstances.
An individual buys four commodities, W, X, Y, and Z, currently spending one-quarter of his income on each. The income elasticity of W and X are 2; of Y, 1. The income elasticity of Z is _________?
Consider three demand curves for commodity X: A, for given money income and other prices; B for given apparent real income in Slutsky’s sense; C, for given real income in Hicks’ sense. Let all three curves go through the point (p_o, x_o). If X is a superior good, then for a price higher than p_o, the quantity demanded will be larger for ____ than for ____ than for ____ (Insert A, B, C, in correct spaces).
Suppose p_o = $2, x_o = 40, the corresponding money income is $200, and the income elasticity of demand for x is unity. Suppose that at a price of $2.50, the quantity demanded on Curve A is 20. Then the income compensation required to pass from A to B is $ _____ (be sure to indicate sign of change) and the quantity demanded on curve B is _____.
If long run average cost (LRAC) equals short run average cost (SRAC) at an output on the falling segment of the LRAC curve then short run marginal cost (SRMC) (a) exceeds, (b) equals, (c) is less than long run marginal cost (LRMC) at that output.
If LRAC is rising and less than SRAC, then SRMC is (a) rising, (b) falling, (c) greater than SRAC, (d) less than SRAC.
In a discussion of the World Series last fall, Jones offered to take either side of a bet with Smith involving a payment of $2 by one party if the Pirates won, of $1 if the Yankees did. It follows that Jones’ estimate of the probability that the Yankees would win is _____ and that his utility function of income is (a) concave upward, (b) linear, (c) concave downward, (d) not concave upward, (e) not concave downward.
Alternatively, Jones refuses to take either side of the preceding bet but offered to take either side of a bet involving a payment of $200 by one party if the Pirates won or of $100 if the Yankees did. This behavior (a) contradicts or (b) is consistent with the expected utility hypothesis.

II. Translate the following quotations into economics and discuss:

“Costs are down partly because contractors expanded their equipment to get ready for the Federal Government’s enlarged program. But it was cut back in 1959. … Some contractors needed work to pay for their expensive equipment, and they began making low bids, often at cost, to get the work. They complain bitterly about the price-chopping competition.” (Time, Dec. 12, 1960)
“Most foods will be much more abundant and a bit cheaper in 1959 than they were this year [1958]. This optimistic forecast was made by the Agriculture Department which warned, however, that retail price cuts won’t be as deep as the prospect of plenty would seem to indicate. Higher marketing and processing costs, officials explained, will partly offset the expected decline in food prices at the farm.”

III. A consumer in a three commodity market buys the following quantities at the following prices:

Situation	Price of Commodity			Quantity of Commodity
	X	Y	Z	X	Y	Z
A	1	1	1	1	2	5
B	1	1	2	7	0	0
C	3	2	1	0	7	0

Prove that this behavior is consistent with his having constant tastes and an ordinal utility index.

IV. State briefly what seem to you the central features of Chamberlin’s analysis of monopolistic competition and Stigler’s criticism of the analysis.

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

Image Source: Social Science Research Building. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07490, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Friedman

Exam Questions Harvard M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Basic graduate microeconomic theory. Chamberlin and Samuelson, 1956-1957

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-09-09

For some reason, Paul Samuelson was asked to help out with the teaching of Edward H. Chamberlin’s graduate theory course during the 1956-57 academic year. In Paul Samuelson’s papers at Duke I was able to find a letter from the Harvard economics chair, Seymour Harris, confirming his appointment as “Visiting Professor” for co-teaching Economics 201. The actual “allocation of subject matter” between Chamberlin and Samuelson is not clear from Samuelson’s papers, nor from the course outlines. Since the second semester reading list only has Chamberlin’s name on it, it seems likely that Samuelson’s participation was limited to the first semester of the course. Because Robert Bishop’s manuscript on Economic Theory (taught to generations of M.I.T. graduate students) was included in the first section of the fall semester reading list and we find questions for a one hour mid-term exam in Samuelson’s folder for the course, I am led to conjecture that Samuelson taught most or all of the first half of the fall semester of the course. As we can see from the internal M.I.T. department teaching records included below, Paul Samuelson continued teaching his courses at “Tech” that year.

Perhaps a future trip to Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library to consult the Edward H. Chamberlin papers that were donated in 2019 will help to establish why Samuelson was needed at Harvard that year.

_________________________

Letter from Chairman Seymour Harris to Paul Samuelson
May 25, 1956

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Office of the Chairman

M-8 Littauer Center
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

May 25, 1956

Professor Paul A. Samuelson
Department of Economics and Social Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge 39, Massachusetts

Dear Paul:

Economics 201 meets Tuesday, Thursday, and at the pleasure of the instructor Saturday at 10. It would be hard to change that hour because of the arrangement of other courses, and also because we must have the same hour for the second semester.

I hope that you would get together with Ed and discuss the allocation of subject matter. You can have [Richard] Gill as an assistant, and he would, I am sure, be willing to meet the class once a week when you think it necessary. You will find him a most adequate assistant.

I may add that the Dean has agreed to recommend your appointment as a Visiting Professor, which is an unusual appointment, for most appointments of this kind, inclusive of Tech, are Visiting Lecturers. This suggests the high regard in which we hold you.

Sincerely yours,

[signed] Sey
Seymour E. Harris
Chairman

SEH/c
cc: Professor Chamberlin

P.S. I hope you will remember to bring my article on Saturday and any comments.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Paul Samuelson, Box 33, Folder “Ec201 Harvard Course, 1955-1956 [sic]”.

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From the M.I.T. economics department records for 1955-56

Paul Samuelson was teaching full time 1956-57. He taught Economics and Industrial Management (14.117) and Mathematical Approach to Economics (14.151) in the fall semester and Economic Analysis (14.122) and Economics Seminar (14.192) in the Spring semester.

Source: M.I.T. Archives. M.I.T. Department of Economics Records, 1947—. Box 3, Folder “Teaching Responsibility”.

_________________________

Enrollment figures from Harvard President’s Report

[Economics] 201. Economic Theory. Professor Chamberlin and Professor Samuelson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Full course.

(F) Total 38: 26 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 4 Radcliffe, 5 Others.
(S) Total 39: 27 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 3 Radcliffe, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1956-1957, p. 70.

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Economics 201
Economic Theory
Fall 1956
READING LIST

I. Supply, Demand, Revenue and Cost

Marshall, Principles (4^th edition or later), Book III, Ch. 3, 4, 6

Mill, Principles, Book III, Ch. 1-6

Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 2

Schultz, H., Theory and Measurement of Demand, pp. 5-12

Bishop, Economic Theory Ms., Book II, Ch. 1, 2, 3

Viner, Cost Curves and Supply Curves (1930), AFA or Clemence Readings

Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Ch. 2

Suggested:

Ricardo, Political Economy (Gonner Edition or Sraffa Edition), Chapter I

Mills’ Autobiography or the Introduction to the Ashley edition of the Principles

Jevons, Theory of Political Economy, Chapters 3, 4

Keynes, “Alfred Marshall,” Economic Journal, September 1924 (Also in Keynes, Essays in Biography)

II. Production and Consumption Analysis

A. Production and Cost

Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 8, Appendix B

Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, pp. 94-109.

Stigler, Production and Distribution Theories, Introduction

Stigler, Theory of Price, Chs. 7, 8

Suggested:

Douglas, P. Theory of Wages

Hicks, Value and Capital, Chs. 6, 7

Carlson, Sune, Theory of Production

Cassels, J. H, “On the Law of Variable Proportions,” in Explorations in Economics, essays in honor of Taussig

Schneider, E., Pricing and Equilibrium

B. Utility and Consumption Theory

Hicks, Value and Capital, Chs. 1, 2, 3

Stigler, Theory of Price, Chs. 5, 6

III. Welfare Economics

Boulding, K., “Welfare Economics,” Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. II

Hicks, J.R., “Foundations of Welfare Economics,” Economic Journal, 1939

Pigou, A.C., Economics of Welfare, Preface, Part I., Chs. 3, 7, 8; Part II, Introductory, Ch. 9

Lerner, A. P., Economics of Control, Chs. 3, 5, 6, 7, 9

Source: Harvard University Archives, Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003”, Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1956-1957 (2 of 2)”.

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Economics 201
Hour Exam
November 3, 1956

Define “external” and “internal” economies. What do we mean when we say these economies are (a) “pecuniary,” (b) technological”? (10 min.)
What are the conditions of stable equilibrium of supply and demand as analyzed by (a) Walras and (b) Marshall? Explain the “apparent contradiction” between the Walrasian and Marshallian stability conditions. (20 min.)
In the “Ricardian increasing cost” case, as described by Viner, what would be the effect on price, output, and rent to the fixed factor, of a tax of “x” cents per unit of output? Illustrate graphically. (20 min.)

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Paul Samuelson, Box 33, Folder “Ec201 Harvard Course, 1955-1956 [sic]”.

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1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 201
Midyear examination. January, 1957.

Answer the first two (2) questions and any three (3) of the others. Be sure to allocate your time approximately as indicated.

(Forty-five minutes). Assume two individuals (who act as pure competitors) and two commodities. Given the “production-possibility” or “transformation” curve for each individual and also his indifference map, indicate graphically: a) the equilibrium price; b) the equilibrium quantities of each good produced by each individual; and c) the quantity of each good exchanged.
(Forty-five minutes). Discuss the scope and limitations of “Welfare Economics.” Illustrate your discussion with reference to one or two specific theoretical problems (e.g., the box-diagram).
(One-half hour). A production function relates product (Q) to two factors, labor (L) and capital (C). Distinguish the “three stages” for each factor, and give an interrelations among them in a) the case of constant returns to scale (homogeneous production function) and b) the general case.
(One-half hour). Distinguish “internal” and “external” economies and analyze the possibility of equilibrium under pure competition in each case.
(One-half hour). A monopolistic firm can buy labor and land at fixed prices but sells its output in an impurely-competitive market. Now let it be subject to a tax of $X per unit of its output. On the oversimplified assumption that the tax leaves its factor prices, the consumer demand for its product, and its production function unchanged, compare the new equilibrium of output, price, and factor hirings with the old.
(One-half hour). Define the “income” effect and “substitution” effect of a price change. Indicate, in terms of these effects, the likelihood of a) a backward-bending supply curve, and b) a positively-sloping demand curve.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 25. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science. January, 1957.

_________________________

_________________________

Economics 201
Spring Term, 1956-57
Economic Theory—Professor Chamberlin

I. Monopoly and Monopolistic Competition

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chapters 1, 4,5, 9.

_________, “Monopolistic Competition Revisited,” Economica, November 1951.

Robinson, J., Imperfect Competition, Foreword, Introduction, Chapter 1.

Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 3, Appendix A.

Triffin, Monopolistic Competition and General Equilibrium T-heory, pp. 78-108.

Hall and Hitch, “Price Theory and Business Behavior,” Oxford Economic Papers, No. 2 (1939). (Also in Oxford Studies in the Price Mechanism, T. Wilson, Editor).

Chamberlin, “‘Full Cost’ and Monopolistic Competition,” Economic Journal, May 1952.

_________, “The Product as an Economic Variable,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1953.

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix C, Chapters 6, 7.

Chamberlin, “Product Heterogeneity and Public Policy,” American Economic Review, May 1950.

Suggested:

Robinson, J., Imperfect Competition, Chapters 3-7.

Fellner, Competition Among the Few, Chapters 1-7.

Holton, Richard H., “Marketing Structure and Economic Development,” Q.J.E., August 1953.

Alsberg, C. L., “The Economic Aspects of Adulteration and Imitation,” Q.J.E., 46:1 (1931)

Brems, “The Interdependence of Quality Variations, Selling Effort, and Price,” Q.J.E., May 1948.

II. Income Distribution—General; Wages.

Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, 3.

Marshall, Principles, Book VI, Chapters 1-2.

Hicks, Theory of Wages, Chapters 1-4.

Readings, 12.

Monopolistic Competition, Review Chapter 8 and pp. 215-18, 249-52, (5^th or later edition).

Hicks, Chapters 5, 6.

Marshall, Book VI, Chapters 3-5.

Taussig, Principles, 4^th edition, Chapter 52 (or 3^rd revised edition, Chapter 47).

E.H.C., “The Monopoly Power of Labor,” in The Impact of the Union.

Readings, 19.

Hicks, pp. 170-185.

Suggested:

1. Douglas, Theory of Wages, Chapter 2.

2. J.B. Clark, Distribution of Wealth, Chapters 7, 8, 12, 13.

III. Interest

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory, Book I, Chapter 2; Book II; Book V.

Marshall, Principles, Book IV, Chapter 7; Book VI, Chapter 6.

Wicksell, Lectures, Vol. I, pp. 144-171, 185-195, 207-218.

Clark, J.B., Distribution of Wealth, Chapters 9, 20.

Suggested:

Fisher, I., Theory of Interest, Chapters 5, 6.

Readings, Chapters 20, 21.

IV. Rent

Ricardo, Chapter 2.

Marshall, Book V, Chapters 8-11.

Robinson, Imperfect Competition, Chapter 8.

V. Profits

Marshall, Book VI, Chapter 5, Section 7; Chapters 7,8.

Taussig, Principles (4^th edition), Vol. II, Chapter 49, Section 1 (3^rd revised edition, Chapter 50, Section 1)

Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise, Chapter 3.

Henderson, Supply and Demand Chapter 7.

Bernstein, P., “Profit Theory—Where Do We Go From Here?” Q.J.E., August 1953

Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 5, Section 6; Chapter 7, Section 6; Appendices D, E.

Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development, Chapters 1-4.

Suggested:

1. Readings, 27, 29.

Source: Harvard University Archives, Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003”, Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1956-1957 (2 of 2)”.

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 201
Final Examination
May, 1957

A. Choose two of the following questions, allowing one-half hour for each.

Write a brief article on the subject of “oligopoly” designed for an encyclopedia of the social sciences, and therefore to be consulted and used mainly by non-specialists in the subject. (Consider well your objective before you begin.)
Discuss excess capacity in the economy, its meaning and its compatibility with “equilibrium.” What are the chief forces tending (a) to bring about, and (b) to eliminate, excess capacity?
(a) Discuss the issues involved in distinguishing between production costs and selling costs, and defend your own conclusions. (b) Are selling outlays, like production outlays, subject to the law of diminishing returns? Discuss, and illustrate your conclusion graphically.

B. Choose four of the following questions, allowing one-half hour for each.

“It is inappropriate to say that the marginal productivity of a certain type of labor determines its wage; wages, like the prices of all economic goods, are determined by both supply and demand.” Discuss with particular reference to the role of supply factors in an adequate theory of wages.
Develop the role which you would give to either (a) monopoly, or (b) rent, in your own theory of wages.
“Waiting is certainly not an element of the economic process in a static state, because the circular flow, once established, leaves no gaps between outlay or productive effort and the satisfaction of wants. Both are, following Professor Clark’s conclusive expression, automatically synchronized.” Discuss the several aspects of this quotation.
Outline your own theory of land rent, with some critical discussion of writers with whom you are familiar. (Restrict your discussion to the problem of land income, without extending the analysis to other factors.)
Write on risk as an element in the theory of profits, choosing such subdivisions or aspects of the problem as seem to you most significant. In what respects, if at all, would you regard a risk theory of profits as inadequate?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science. June, 1957. In bound volume Final Exams—Social Sciences—June 1957 (HUL 7000.28, 113 of 284).

Image Sources:

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Edward H. Chamberlin, Fellow 1958.

M.I.T., Paul Samuelson Memorial Information Page/Photos from Memorial Service. Accessed via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Tags Chamberlin, Gill, Samuelson

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final examinations in Political Economy courses, 1891-1892

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-09-09

HARVARD. ECONOMICS EXAMINATIONS, 1891-1892

With the start of the 2021-22 academic year Economics in the Rear-view Mirror resumes the careful transcription of documents for the digital record of the development of economics education.

The Harvard archives are full of exam materials across time and fields so I pick up with where I left off in that series. Edward Cummings joined the teaching staff that in 1891-92 only consisted of two professors (Dunbar and Taussig) and a pair of instructors (Edward Cummings and William M. Cole).

_______________________

Note to self: Still Missing for 1891-92.

Political Economy 3. Edward Cummings. Mid-year examination, 1892
Political Economy 4. William M. Cole. Mid-year examination, 1892
Political Economy 7. Charles F. Dunbar. Mid-year examination, 1892

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Course Description and Enrollment.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Mr. [William M.] Cole, and Mr. [Edward] Cummings.

— First half-year: Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

— Second half-year:

Division A (Theoretical): Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Division B (Descriptive): Lectures on Finance, Labor and Capital, Coöperation. — Hadley’s Railroad Transportation.—Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. 3 hours.

Total 288: 1 Graduate, 47 Seniors, 102 Juniors, 91 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.]

I.
[Omit one.]

Mill says that “the laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. . . . Whatever mankind produces must be produced in the modes, and under the conditions, imposed by the constitution of external things, and by the inherent properties of their own bodily and mental structure.” Is this true of the laws and conditions of production from land? of the laws and conditions of the accumulation of capital?
Of things limited in quantity, it is said that “their value depends on the demand and the supply. . . . But the quantity demanded is not a ﬁxed quantity, even at the same time and place; it varies according to the value; if the thing is cheap, there is usually a demand for more of it than when it is dear. The demand therefore partly depends on the supply. But it was before laid down that the value depends on the demand. From this contradiction, how shall we extricate ourselves? How solve the paradox, of two things, each depending on the other?”
“Every fall in proﬁts lowers in some degree the value of things made with much or durable machinery, and raises that of things made by hand; and every rise in proﬁts does the reverse.” Explain.
Is there any inconsistency between the propositions that the value of money depends,
(1) on its cost of production at the mines;
(2) on its quantity;
(3) on the expansion and contraction of credit;
(4) on the terms on which a country gets its imported commodities.
Explain Mill’s reasoning (1) as to the manner in which an issue of inconvertible paper money drives specie out of circulation; (2) as to the manner in which, under a double standard, one metal [which one?] disappears from circulation. Are the results, in fact, brought about in the manner described by Mill?
Explain carefully how a decrease in the foreign demand for a country’s exports causes loss to those who consume its imports.

II.
[Answer all, briefly.]

Does nature give more aid to man in one kind of industry than in another?
Are there grounds for saying that the necessity of restraining population is conﬁned to a state of inequality of property?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a currency composed of specie, as compared with one of equal amount composed of inconvertible paper money?
What are the laws of value applicable to (1) silver bullion; (2) iron nails; (3) wool; (4) eighteenth century furniture?
Does the beneﬁt of foreign trade consist in its affording an outlet for the surplus produce of a country?
Mill says the superiority of reward in certain occupations may be the consequence of competition, and may be due to the absence of competition. Explain which explanation holds good of the high wages (1) of laborers in whom much conﬁdence is reposed; (2) of laborers in disagreeable employments; (3) of laborers whose education has been expensive.
What is the nature of the remuneration received by (1) a manufacturer on a large scale; (2) an independent artisan; (3) a farmer tilling land which he has leased at a ﬁxed rent; (4) the owner, of a building who receives rent from those using the building.

Source: J. L. Laughlin, Economics 1: A Synopsis of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy (Cambridge, MA: W.H. Wheeler, 1892), pp. 101-103.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division A.
Final Examination, 1892.

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

I.
[Omit one.]

“It will be remembered that in a former portion of this work I criticized at some length the received doctrine of Cost of Production, which, as expounded by Mr. Mill and others, is represented as consisting in, and varying with, the wages and profits of producers. I stated then that this conception of cost was not reconcilable with the doctrine of international values upheld by the same authorities, which refers these phenomena, not to cost of production, but to the reciprocal demand of exchanging nations.” Why not reconcilable?
[John Elliott Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 343. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t85h88k6k?urlappend=%3Bseq=351]
“The actual price, therefore, of any given commodity will, it is evident, be the composite result of the combined action of these several agencies”—namely, reciprocal international demand, reciprocal domestic demand, and cost of production. Explain.
[John Elliott Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 94. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t85h88k6k?urlappend=%3Bseq=102]
“Assuming a certain field for investment, and the prospect of profit in this such as to attract a certain aggregate of capital, and assuming the national industries to be of a certain kind, the proportion of this aggregate capital which shall be invested in wages is not a matter within the discretion of capitalists, always supposing they desire to obtain the largest practical return upon their outlay.” Why?
[John Elliott Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 186. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t85h88k6k?urlappend=%3Bseq=194]
“We see, then, within what very narrow limits the possibilities of the laborer’s lot are confined, so long as he depends for his well-being upon the produce of his day’s work. Against these barriers Trades-unions must dash themselves in vain.” What, according to Cairnes, are the barriers?
[John Elliott Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 283. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t85h88k6k?urlappend=%3Bseq=291]
“Saving (for productive investment), and spending, coincide very closely in the first stage of their operations.” Explain Mill’s meaning.

II.
[Answer all.]

Why is there a tendency of profits to a minimum?
What is the effect of a rise in the value of money on debtors and on creditors?
“Though laborers in certain departments of industry are practically cut off from competition with laborers in other departments, the competition of capitalists, as I have already pointed out, is effective over the whole ﬁeld.” How is this consistent with the existence of large amounts of Fixed Capital?
“And here this remark may at once be made: that as the course of price in the ﬁeld of raw products is, on the whole, upward, so in that of manufactured goods the course is, not less strikingly, in the opposite direction. The reasons of this are exceedingly plain.” (Cairnes.) What are they?
What would be the effect on wages and proﬁts of the universal adoption of coöperative production? of proﬁt-sharing ?
How far did the premium on gold during the civil war measure the real depreciation of the paper?
Compare Mill’s attitude on coöperation with Cairnes’s.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1892) in the bound volume: Examination Papers 1890-92.

Also J. L. Laughlin, Economics 1: A Synopsis of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy (Cambridge, MA: W.H. Wheeler, 1892), pp. 106-108.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division B.
Final Examination, 1892.

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

What is the fundamental objection to the issue of inconvertible paper money? What light is thrown on it by the experience of the United States during the civil war?
Is a rise in the value of money advantageous to debtors or to creditors, or to neither? Why?
What is the cause of the tendency of the rate of interest to fall?
What would be the effect upon the price of food, and upon rent, of a tax of a fixed sum per acre upon agricultural land?
Taking the two following accounts as representing the condition of a bank at different dates, state (1) what operations are most likely to have given rise to the changed condition, and (2) whether the bank is American or foreign, city or country, with your reasons for thinking so:—

I.
Capital	100,000	Government securities	5,000
Surplus	10,000	Other securities	50,000
Profits	3,000	Loans	255,000
Notes	20,000	Expenses	2,000
Deposits	250,000	Cash	71,000
	383,000		383,000

II.
Capital	100,000	Government securities	5,000
Surplus	12,000	Other securities	50,000
Profits	2,000	Loans	260,000
Notes	20,000	Expenses	1,000
Deposits	270,000	Cash	88,000
	404,000		404,000

What is the sliding scale of discount? Name two countries in which it is used.
Point out wherein there are differences, wherein similarities, in the legal provisions of the United States, England, and France, for the security, immediate and ultimate, of bank notes.
Give a brief history of the small change (under one dollar) in the United States since 1850.
What would be the effect upon the price of silver bullion of an act for free coinage of silver?
What was the nature and purpose of the original restriction upon the amount of national bank notes in the United States? When and why was it repealed?
Compare the main features of the silver acts of 1878 and 1890.
How are profits divided in schemes for distributive coöperation? For credit coöperation? What is the important difference?

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Course Description and Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 2. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from leading writers. 3 hours.

Total 38: 9 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Freshman, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

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

Are laborers paid out of the product of their own labor in cases where the employer sells the product before pay-day and pays the laborers out of the proceeds?
“Whether wages are advanced out of capital in whole, or in part, or not at all, it still remains true that it is the product to which the employer looks to ascertain the amount which he can afford to pay: the value of the product furnishes the measure of wages. . . .
It is the prospect of a profit in production which determines the employer to hire laborers; it is the anticipated value of the product which determines how much he can pay them.”
Is this consistent with the wages-fund theory?
Consider the following: —

“Given machinery, raw materials, and a year’s subsistence, does it make no difference with the annual product whether the laborers are Englishmen or East-Indians? Certainly if one quarter part of what has been adduced under the head of the efficiency of labor be valid, the difference in the product of industry arising out of differences in the industrial quality of distinct communities of laborers are so great as to prohibit us from making use of capital to determine the amount that can be expended in any year or series of years in the purchase of labor.”

How does President Walker prove the existence of a no-profits class of business men?
Wherein does President Walker’s theory of distribution differ from Professor Sidgwick’s?
What grounds are there for saying that Political Economy is distinctly a modern science?
“Let us suppose, for example, that in the greater part of employments the productive powers of labour had been improved to ten-fold, or that a day’s labour could produce ten times the quantity of work which it had done originally; but that in a particular employment they had been improved only to double, or that a day’s labour could produce only twice the quantity of work it had done before. In exchanging the produce of a day’s labour in the greater part of employments for that of a day’s labour in this particular one, ten times the original quantity of work in them would purchase only twice the original quantity in it. Any particular quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight, for example, would appear to be five times dearer than before. In reality, however, it would be twice as cheap.” — Wealth of Nations, Book I. ch. viii.
Explain what Adam Smith meant; and what Ricardo would have said as to this passage.
Explain Adam Smith’s conclusions as to the effect on wages, profits, and rent, of the progress of society; noting briefly the reasoning which lead to the conclusion in each case.
Examine the following criticisms on Malthus: —
1. that there is no such difference of law between the increase of man and of the organic beings which form his food, as is implied in the proposition that man increases in a geometrical, food in arithmetical ratio;
2. that the adaptation of numbers to the means available for their support is effected by the felt or anticipated pressure of circumstances and the fear of social degradation, within a tolerable degree of approximation to what is desirable.
Explain carefully Ricardo’s doctrine as to the effect of profits on value.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Frank Taussig’s Scrapbook of his examinations. Posted earlier in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Final Examination, 1892.

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

Does the example of a laborer hired by a farmer, and paid by him at the close of the season, after the crop has been harvested and disposed of, present a case of labor paid, not out of capital, but out of the product of current industry?
What do you conceive the relation of political economy to laissez faire to have been with Adam Smith? with Ricardo and his contemporaries? How would you state the relation yourself?
“Ricardo never fairly appreciated that his notion of the laborer’s ‘necessaries’ stood for something subject to wide variation in different stages of civilization. It is true that in one passage he says with emphasis that the necessaries, which determine the natural rate of wages, depend on habits which vary with time and place; but elsewhere he sets up a distinction between gross and net income, which is tenable only if we put the laborer’s necessaries side by side with other elements of cost of production. The distinction loses its practical harshness, when he admits that the laborer may at times receive, over and above natural wages, some part of the community’s net income; but its theoretic shortcomings then become the more obvious.” (Cohn, National-oekonomie.)
Explain Ricardo’s conception of natural wages and net income, here referred to; and examine the justice of this criticism.
“The average rate of profits is the real barometer, the true and infallible criterion of national prosperity. A high rate of profit is the effect of industry having become more productive, and it shows that the power of society to amass capital, and to add to its wealth and population, has been increased.” (M’Culloch’s Political Economy.) What led to the adoption of this test by M’Culloch? Should you accept it?
What were Ricardo’s views as to the effect of foreign trade on profits?
“In the actual period of production, on a wages system, the existing supplies for laborers are distributed to laborers in wages, while they, with the help of fixed capital, till the ground and work up the raw materials, transforming the old capital into a new product. . . . The product is divided at the end of the period of production into the replacement of capital (support of laborers, raw material, and wear of fixed capital), profits, and rent. . . . Hence it is clear that wages and profits are not parts of the same whole. Wages were in capital at the beginning of the period of production; profits are in product at its close.” (W. G. Sumner.)“We may suppose that share of the National Dividend which goes as rent to be set on one side; and then there remains what would be produced by labour and capital if they were all applied under conditions no more favourable than those under which they were applied at the margin of profitable employment; and a proposal was made by the present writer, in the Economics of Industry, that this should be called the Wages-and-Profits Fund, or the Earnings-and-Interest Fund. These terms were suggested in order to emphasize the opinion that the so-called Wages-Fund theory, however it might be purified from the vulgar errors which had grown around it, still erred in suggesting that earnings and interest, or wages and profits, do not stand in the same relation to the National Dividend.” (Marshall.)
Which of these seems to you the sounder view?
Explain what is meant by Consumer’s Rent; and examine the effect on Consumer’s Rent and on the aggregate satisfaction of the community, of a tax on a community subject to the law of Diminishing Returns.
Explain the grounds which lead Professor Marshall to believe that the forces by which the wages of different grades of laborers are determined, work by a process similar to that by which the expenses of production determine the value of commodities.
Examine carefully Professor Marshall’s view of the part played by rent of natural ability in determining manager’s earnings.
Wherein is there similarity, wherein difference, in the positions of Carey and Bastiat in the history of economic theory?

Also found in Frank Taussig’s Scrapbook of his examinations. Posted earlier in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Course Description and Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 3. Mr. [Edward] Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. 3 hours.

Total 25: 8 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

[Not yet found]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Final Examination, 1892.

[Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. Omit one.]

“The liberty of the subject is only a means towards an end; hence, when it fails to produce the desired end, it may be set aside, and other means employed.”
What do you conceive to be this “desired end”? On what is the prerogative in question founded?
“When everything has been done to deter from crime or reform the criminal there will still remain a certain class whom it is hopeless to influence, and who must be dealt with in course of law, not for much result on themselves, but to carry out the principle of justice, and mainly to deter others.”
Discuss the theoretical and practical validity of the principles of penal legislation here affirmed.
“There are still two more weaknesses, which are peculiar to all states, not only to the modern elective State. From the strictly professional point of view, in the technical works which they direct; public functionaries have neither the stimulus nor the restraint of personal interest.”
“Nearly every present acknowledged function of government has once been intrusted to private enterprise….Now, of all the enterprises which the state has thus appropriated to itself, there is not one which is not managed better and more wisely than it had been managed before by private parties. Most of them are such that the world has entirely forgotten that they were ever private enterprises.”
What light is thrown on this controversy by the experience of continental governments in the management of railroads? Do the same arguments apply to railroads as to the telegraph, and the post? Why?
State an criticize the theory of “surplus value.”
“Let us suppose the whole field of industry covered by syndicates….Competition complained of by the Socialists would be largely gone, being merged within the syndicate; useless middlemen displaced; the employing capitalist with his too high wages replaced by a manager: all steps towards the Socialist goal. What is wanting chiefly?”
Give a general outline of the Collectivist scheme, from the point of view of production, distribution and value.
“But the bare labor-cost value, as it has been formulated up to now, invests the whole economy of socialism for the present with the character of a Utopia….It is remarkable, and even comforting, that all which is required to make socialism so much a matter of practical discussion, urges it to preserve, and even to intensify, the brighter elements of the liberal economic system.”
“Moreover it is not difficult to deduce the necessity of State interference from Mr. Spencer’s own fundamental principles….The inspector is himself in fact, as Prof. Jevons says, a necessary product of social evolution and the division of labor.”
Does expansion of public and municipal industry necessarily indicate the “gradual triumph of socialism”?
Compare briefly the political and economic tendencies in Glasgow, London, and New York.
What ground do you find for De Laveleye’s assertion that Socialism is pessimistic, while Political Economy is optimistic?
State the arguments for and against municipal manufacture of gas in the United States.
The systems of state education in the United States have been devised by the several states of the Union, and are exceedingly heterogeneous and defective. In certain States scarcely anything worthy of the name of education exists, while in others the systems have attained a high degree of perfection.”
How in this respect does the United States compare with European countries.

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Course Description and Enrollment

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 4. Mr. [William M.] Cole. — Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours.

Total 132: 35 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 40 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 16 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

[Not yet found]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Final Examination, 1892.

[Answer both the questions in Roman numerals, and eight of the nine in Arabic numerals.]

Compare the facilities for transportation by land as they existed in 1700 with those of 1830 and those of 1890.
Do the same, for the same periods, for water transportation, for cotton manufacturing, and for banking.
Compare the growth in the numbers of population in the United States since 1790 with the growth in the density of population per square mile. If you find any discrepancies, explain them.

How far has England’s policy regarding free trade been affected by the policy of other nations?
What, in your opinion, would have been the status in the United States of slavery, as a system of producing wealth, if emancipation had not taken place? State your reasons.
Explain the change in the position of the American merchant marine at about the time of the Civil War.
What influence has the extensive investment of capital in foreign countries upon the need, for the world’s commerce, of specie?
By what process, and in what way, did the payment of the German indemnity by France affect the Crisis of 1873?
How was the United States able to accumulate enough gold for Resumption in 1879?
Was the indemnity demanded of France by Germany in 1871 just? Give your reasons.
By what sort of processes has the United States reduced the annual burden of its debt faster than the principal?
Why has England become the natural clearing-house for the world?

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Course Description and Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 5. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — Railway Transportation. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 42: 3 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Final Examination, 1892.

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

Compare the modes in which New York and Pennsylvania tried to secure communications with the West in 1825-1840.
Sketch the salient events in the history of the New York Central Railway to the present time.
Sketch the important provisions of the Thurman Act of 1878 in regard to the Pacific railroads, and the results which have ensued.
Why was the railway mileage constructed in the United States in 1887 the largest yet reached?
Why has the railway beaten the canal?
Does the practice of charging what the traffic will bear result from the fact that railways present a case of industrial monopoly? Would it cease if competition were fully effective in railway operations?
Discuss separately or together,
(a) Whether the prohibition of railway pools is wise;
(b) Whether there are grounds for permitting or prohibiting such combinations, which do not apply to attempts to bring about combination and monopoly in other industries.
Point out wherein the schedules of maximum rates fixed by the State of Iowa resemble the German Reform Tariff, and wherein they differ from it.
Explain what is the state of legislation as to long and short haul rates in the United States, England, France, and Germany; and state your opinion as to the desirability of preventing lower charges on the longer haul.
Sketch the history of railway policy in Belgium.
Why are railway pools and traffic agreements more stable in England than in the United States?
Point out wherein the Railway Commission under the English Act of 1888 differs from the Interstate Commerce Commission.

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Course Description and Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 6. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 3 hours. 1^st half-year.

Total 64: 7 Graduates, 32 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

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

Criticize the arguments by which Hamilton endeavored to show (1) that agriculture was not more productive than manufactures; (2) that the greater division of labor and use of machinery in manufactures made the introduction of manufacturing industries peculiarly advantageous to a country.
How do you explain the change, between 1820 and 1840, in the arguments as to the bearing of high wages on the protective system?
Sketch the growth of the international trade of the United States from 1820 to 1860.
Are there good grounds for saying that the tariff act of 1846 led to a period of general prosperity?
In what way have the duties on fine woolens been higher in recent years than those on cheap woollens? Does the difference explain the fact that the domestic production is confined mainly to the cheaper goods? Give your reasons carefully.
Explain the difference (1) in character, (2) in probable effects, between the Continental sugar bounties and the present United States bounty.
Wherein would there probably be differences between the effects of reciprocity treaties (1) with Great Britain, admitting iron free; (2) with Great Britain, admitting wool from Australia free; (3) with Germany, admitting refined sugar free?
How far is it true that the high level of wages in the United States is an effective obstacle to the successful prosecution of manufacturing industries?
What were the duties on coffee, cotton goods, pig-iron, and wool, in 1799, 1819, 1839, 1859, 1879? (Use tabular form, if you wish.)
How far did the South secure what it aimed at from the tariff act of 1833?
Sketch the tariff legislation of 1872.
Is it true that the adoption of a policy of free trade in England dates from the abolition of the corn-laws?

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Course Description and Enrollment.

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 7. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar.

— First half-year:—

The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special references to local taxation in the United States. 3 hours.

Total 30: 2 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 8 Juniors.

— Second half-year —

Banking, and the History of the leading Banking Systems. 3 hours.

Total 38: 2 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Mid-year examination (first half-year), 1892.

[not yet found]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Final examination (second half-year), 1892.

A.
Of these five questions one may be omitted.

Which of the three great banks, the Bank of England, the Bank of France, and the Reichsbank, appears to you to present the best model for a great national bank, — and why?
What peculiarities in the Scotch banking system account for the high credit and extended usefulness of the Scotch banks, and make their issue of £1 notes both necessary and safe?
The value of a currency is said to depend on (a) its quantity, rapidity of circulation, and the amount of transactions to be effected, and (b) on the cost of the precious metals. How is this reasoning to be made applicable to deposits, considered as a part of the currency?
A recent pamphlet contains the following:—
“The ‘Currency Principle’ was advocated by Lord Overstone and others, and held that, under a system of free banking, over-issue [of convertible notes] is possible and likely to occur, inflating the currency. In England, the principle of limiting the issues was adopted in the Bank Act of 1844. A different application of the same principle obtains in this country under the National Bank system.”
Discuss the closing statement in the above extract.
As saving banks and banks of deposit and discount are alike bound to pay their depositors on demand, on what ground can investments be treated as safe or suitable for one of these classes of banks and not for the other? This may be illustrated by reference to investments in mortgages, in bank stock, and in commercial paper.

B.
Of these five questions one may be omitted.

Describe Mr. Goschen’s proposals for increasing the stock of gold in the Bank of England and issuing £1 notes, and state the objects to be gained by the plan and the objections to it.
Discuss the propositions, laid down by Mr. Buckner, in his speech of April, 1882, in opposition to the Bank Charters Extension Bill,—
1. That the currency ought to be issued by the government;
2. That an elastic currency is mischievous, as introducing an element of uncertainty, and that the government should therefore issue a fixed amount of convertible notes.
It is urged that the characteristics which insure the high credit and universal currency of the national bank circulation,—
“are qualities which 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.”
Discuss the question whether issues having only local credit would remedy the difficulties suggested above?
Discuss the following proposition for the issue of bank-notes under State authority:—
1. Take off the present 10 per cent. tax from the notes of any bank complying with the following regulations:—
2. Permit any State to tax circulation, in order to accumulate a fund to redeem notes of such of its own banks a may fail.
3. Forbid any bank to issue notes in excess of two-thirds of its capital.
4. Make notes a first lien on all assets of the issuing bank.
5. Require coin redemption by the banks and a coin reserve of 25 per cent. of outstanding notes.
6. Leave any State free to forbid or permit the issue of notes under the above regulations by banks within its jurisdiction.
  [Commercial and Financial Chronicle, May 14.]
Discuss the following propositions for completely free banking, made by Courcelle-Seneuil (Traité des Opérations de Banque, Book IV., ch. ix., §3):—
“Il vaudrait mieux donner au premier venu le droit d’émettre des billets à vue et au porteur sous certaines conditions définies par la loi….On doit supposer que le banquier sait mieux son métier que le législateur; celui-ci ne doit point réglementer ce qui est du métier; il doit se borner à prévenir la fraude, et il ne peut mieux y parvenir qu’en imposant au banquier un fort cautionnement envers le public, c’est-à-dire un fort capital….Les vérifications officielles de portefeuille ne peuvent présenter au public aucune garantie.”

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Course Description and Enrollment.

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 8. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 3 hours. 2d half-year

Total 50: 7 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Final Examination, 1892.

Two questions may be omitted.

What were the terms on which the different portions of the revolutionary debt were made redeemable by the act of August 4, 1790, and when and how was their redemption actually undertaken?
What are the leading cases of suspension of specie payments in the United States since 1789, and what were the general causes in each case?
What was the method by which specie payments were resumed in 1817?
Von Holst says (II., p. 32), “Jackson did not come to Washington resolved to wipe out the bank.” What is probably the truth as to Jackson’s attitude towards the bank when he was inaugurated, and as to the breaking out of the bank war?
What were the “branch drafts” issued by the branches of the second United States Bank, the reasons for their issue, and the objections thereto?
What is the history of the following item in the general account of the Treasurer of the United States:—
“Unavailable amount on deposit with the States, $28, 101,645.”
What were Mr. Chase’s reasons for urging the establishment of the national banking system?
How does the legal tender decision in Juillard vs. Greenman differ in principle from that in the earlier case of Knox vs. Lee?
What were Mr. McCulloch’s reasons for wishing to establish the policy of contracting the currency without delay in 1865?
What influences led Congress to restrict, and finally annul, Secretary McCulloch’s authority for retiring United States notes? Give approximate dates of the Acts.
President Grant wrote, in 1874:—
“I would like to see a provision that…the currency issued by the United States should be redeemed in coin…and that all currency so redeemed should be cancelled and never be re-issued.” [ To Jones.]
How does this compare with the redemption actually practiced under the Resumption Act, and how came the present practice to be adopted?
Sherman, speaking of the first Legal Tender Act, said:—
“We agreed in that act that we would apply one per cent. of the principal of the debt to the payment of the debt. The debt is now $2,5000,000,000. One per cent. is $25,000,000, and that must not only be applied every year, but it must be applied in the nature of a sinking fund.” [Speeches p. 264.]
How far has the government followed this interpretation of the act?

Tags ColeWM, CummingsEdward, Dunbar, Taussig

Economics Programs Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Exams for Undergraduate Political Economy Courses, 1923-1924

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-07-26

Several undergraduate course exams for the 1922-23 academic year at Johns Hopkins University in Political Economy have been posted earlier. The exams for 1919-20 have also been transcribed. A more complete (though still incomplete) sample is available the the university archives for the following year and which have been transcribed for this post.

_______________________________

Johns Hopkins Faculty
for the Undergraduate Courses in Political Economy
1923-1924

Barnett, George Ernest, Ph.D., Professor of Statistics.

A.B., Randolph-Macon College, 1891; Fellow, John Hopkins University, 1899-1900, and Ph.D., 1901.

Weyforth, William Oswald, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Economy.

A.B., Johns Hopkins University, 1912, and Ph.D., 1915; Instructor, Western Reserve University, 1915-17.

Mitchell, Broadus, Ph.D., Associate in Political Economy.

A.B., University of South Carolina, 1913; Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 1916-17, and Ph.D., 1918.

Jacobs, Theo, A.B., Associate in Social Economics.

A.B., Goucher College, 1901; Federated Charities of Baltimore (District Assistant, 1905-07, District Secretary, 1907-10, Assistant General Secretary, 1910-17, Acting General Secretary, 1917-19).

Newlove, George Hills, Ph.D., Associate in Accounting, School of Business Economics.

Ph.B., Hamline University, 1914; A.M., University of Minnesota, 1915; Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1918; C.P.A. (Ill.), 1918; C.P.A. (S.C.), 1919.

Gillies, Robert Carlyle, A.B., Instructor in Political Economy.

A.B., Princeton University, 1920.

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular, University Register 1922-1923, No. 342, January 1923. Announcements for 1923-1924.

Biographical information for George Hills Newlove found in John J. Kahle American Accountants and their Contributions to Accounting Thought, 1900-1930. Routledge Library Editions: Accounting, 2014.

_______________________________

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
1923-24

Elements of Economics.
Particular attention is given to the theory of distribution and its application to leading economic problems

Three hours weekly through the year. Associate Professor WEYFORTH, Dr. MITCHELL and Mr. GILLIES.

Statistical Methods.

After a preliminary study of the value and place of statistics as an instrument of investigation, attention is directed to the chief methods used in statistical inquiry.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Mr. GILLIES.

Money and Banking.

The principles of monetary science are taught with reference to practical conditions in modern systems of currency, banking, and credit.

Three hours weekly, second half-year. Associate Professor WEYFORTH.

American Trade Unionism.

The history, structure and functions of American trade unionism are studied.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Professor BARNETT.

Labor Problems.

The problems growing out of modern industrial employment will be studied.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Professor BARNETT.

(Course 5 will not be given in 1923-24.)

Corporation Finance.

The theory and practice of corporation finance are considered , with particular reference to the problems presented in the United States.

Three hours weekly, second half-year. Professor BARNETT.

Investments.

Includes historical and analytical description of the more important forms of investments and theories of valuation and amortization.

Three hours weekly, second half-year. Professor BARNETT.

(Course 7 will not be given in 1923-24.)

Applied Statistics.

The applications of statistics to business and economic problems, such as price levels, cost of living, wage adjustments, business cycles, and business forecasting, are considered.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Associate Professor WEYFORTH.

Foreign Trade and Exchange.

The economic principles of international commerce, the methods of conducting foreign trade, and the theory and practice of foreign exchange will be studied.

Three hours weekly, first half-year. Associate Professor WEYFORTH.

(Course 9 will not be given in 1923-24.)

Business Organization.

This course is designed not only to show the structure of typical business entities, but their methods of formation and expansion. The common forms of securities are examined. Operation and administration of business units and the processes of marketing are studied in detail.

Three hours weekly, second half-year. Mr. GILLIES.

Accounting.

This course deals with the fundamental principles underlying the recording of business transactions in the accounting books and records, and the preparation of balance sheets and statement of profit and loss for single entrepreneurs, partnerships, and corporations.

Four hours weekly, through the year. Dr. NEWLOVE.

Economic History.

This course is designed to furnish a background for the study of economic principles and special phases of economic activity. It is a particular purpose of the course to show the relationship between economic fact and economic and political theory and practice.

Three hours weekly, through the year. Dr. MITCHELL.

Social Economics.

The history and development of charitable and social agencies are traced. Causes and treatment of cases of dependency and delinquency are discussed.

Two hours weekly, through the year. Miss JACOBS.

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular, University Register 1922-1923, No. 342, January 1923. Announcements for 1923-1924, pp. 255-256.

_______________________________

Examinations for
Undergraduate Political Economy Courses
Johns Hopkins University
1923-1924

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “A”

February 5th, 1924—9-12 A.M.

Compare the manorial system with farming at the present time. Compare the system of industry in towns during the middle ages with the modern industrial system.
What is meant by the “industrial revolution”? What theories in regard to the proper relationship of the state to industry, developed at this time? Explain. Compare these new ideas with the theory and practice preceding. What is the tendency of present theory and practice as regards state interference with industry?
(a) “Labor alone is the producer of wealth; take away labor and not all the capital in the world could produce anything.” Allowing the second clause to be true as a statement of fact, does it prove the proposition contained in the first? Explain.
(b) “Discovery and invention have doubtless played a very large part in securing our present high industrial efficiency. But they are not the whole thing. The increase of capital has been equally necessary; for, without capital, invention could have accomplished little or nothing.” Defend and illustrate the last sentence.
Explain how market price is the result of the forces of supply and demand. Illustrate by tables and diagrams showing supply and demand. At what point does price tend to be fixed? Why?
Define the following: (a) utility; (b) diminishing utility, (c) marginal utility. Why can we say that the market price of a good corresponds to the marginal utility of that good to the marginal consumer?
In general, what is the relationship between cost of production and market price? What is the relationship between the cost of production of two goods produced under conditions of joint cost and the selling prices of those goods? If the price of cotton seed oil should rise, what would tend to be the effect upon the price of cotton fibre? Why?
What are the functions of money? What is meant when it is said that we have a “gold standard” in the United States? What are the actual kinds of money in use in the United States?
What is credit? What service does it perform in the modern economic system? What is the difference between a promissory note and a bill of exchange? What use does the business man make of a commercial bank?

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “A”
[Dr. Weyforth]

Thursday; May 29, 1924—9 a.m.

Explain the economic factors that must be taken into consideration in determining Germany’s capacity to pay reparations. How will Germany obtain funds abroad with which to make such payments?
What policy should be pursued by the business man during a period of cumulating prosperity? What would be the policy of banks during such a period?
Explain the principles determining the rent of land. If the price of wheat is $1.50 per bushel, what rent could be paid for the use of an acre of land that yielded 30 bushels at an average cost in labor and capital of $1.25 per bushel? Would the tendency be for any of these bushels to cost the producer $1.50? Explain.
How do you account for the great differences in the wages of railroad presidents and of unskilled laborers? Suggest a general program for our society that would tend to bring about a much greater degree of equality in the returns for labor service than now prevails.
Explain why interest can be paid and why it must be paid. What is the effect upon the rate of interest of (a) increased saving, (b) inventions making possible the use of more elaborate machinery, (c) war? Explain.
What is the nature of the railroad problem in the United States? Describe briefly the history of our governmental policy toward railroads. What possible methods of handling the problem are open to us at the present time?
Distinguish socialism from anarchism and syndicalism. What would you say is the fundamental idea in socialism? What criticisms do the socialists make of our present economic system? Give a critical estimate of socialism.
What would you expect to be the relation between the goods exports and the goods imports of a country during the following periods:
1. When it is first open to settlement or to industrial enterprise;
2. When it has become quite well supplied with imported capital goods;
3. When its citizens begin to make investments in other countries;
4. When a relatively large amount of such foreign investments have been made.

Explain the reasons for your answer. In which of the above stages is the United States? England? Mexico?

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “B” [Mitchell.]

Tuesday, February 5th, 1924—9-12 A.M.

What are the distinctions between the physical sciences and the social sciences?
Why is our interest turning at this time to production?
Define briefly: consumer’s surplus, capital, wealth, “unearned increment”, diminishing returns.
What is the chief criticism to be made of cost theories of value?
(a) Why is it sometimes to the advantage of an individual landowner to withhold his land from use?
(b) How does the withholding of land from use affect the incomes of landlords as a class?
(c) Can a tax on land be shifted from owner to occupier?
What do you understand by Ricardo’s “iron law of wages”?
(a) Why is interest paid? (b) Why did the schoolmen of the Middle Ages object to interest?
What is the justification of a progressive income tax?
State all you know about the personnel of the new labor government in Great Britain.

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “B”
Elements of Economics

Thursday, May 29, 1924

Discuss the several sorts of monopoly.
What are the advantages of the corporate form of business enterprise?
(a) What is the justification for a progressive income tax?
(b) Compare the advantages of financing a war by taxation and by borrowing.
Describe briefly the Federal Reserve System.
What are the economic and social effects of inflation?
Discuss the main doctrines of Karl Marx.
What are the chief benefits and drawbacks of a cooperative system as opposed to a competitive system?
(a) Discuss the origin of trade unionism.
(b) Distinguish between the purposes and methods of the I.W.W. and the unions affiliated with the A.F. of L.

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “C”

February 5th, 1924—9-12 A.M.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the present economic system? What are its present tendencies? Under what conditions should the state interfere in our economic processes, and how?
Summarize the case for competition as opposed to (a) private monopoly; (b) state ownership. In what type of cases would private monopoly under state regulation offer the best solution?
How is the price of labor affected by changes in the volume of immigration? By shifting of the negro population? What classes of labor would be affected? Relate your answer to the fact that wages rose constantly in the United States from 1897-1921.
(a) Given the following data:

	Price (Dollars)
	3.00	4.00	5.00
Demand (units)	52	46	30
Supply (units)	24	35	56

Calculate the elasticity of demand at $4.00.
(b) What are the conditions that make for a slow rate of diminishing utility?

Is there any necessary connection between monopoly and “big business”? What is the difference between a partnership and a corporation in (a) legal requirements and liability, (b) structural organization, (c) comparative advantages?
Define non-cumulative-participating-preferred stock; holding company; general-mortgage bond. Give the principal features of the Sherman Act. Name some methods of unfair competition.
Would wheat be a satisfactory money commodity? Would diamonds? Give reasons for your answers. What is meant by the “gold standard”? What has been our experience with bimetallism? Can it work?
What is meant by “fiat” money? Were the greenbacks fiat money? Were the Federal Reserve notes issued during the World War fiat money? Why did prices go up during both wars? Is this necessary? Why?
Describe the Federal Reserve System, its chief functions, changes it produced in our money and banking system, etc. How are checks cleared under the system?
What is the quantity theory of money? What would be the effect upon prices of (a) adopting bimetallism, (b) increased bank reserve requirements, (c) a national fad for gold ornaments, (d) a higher rediscount rate, (e) enforcing seigniorage?
If the quantity of metallic money has not changed, nor the level of prices, how do you reconcile this fact with a change in the volume of business over the same period?

POLITICAL ECONOMY I “C”
[Mr. Gillies]

May 29, 1924—9 A.M.

Whom do you consider the most important factor in modern business, the landlord, the laborer, the capitalist, or the entrepreneur? Give reasons for answer.
What other elements must be separated from price movements before the business cycle can be recorded? How can you tell when business is near a crisis?
What is the purpose of the finance bill, and how does it operate? Discuss the merits and limitations of the doctrine of purchasing power parity, and tell what effect the maintenance of a high tariff by the United States against England has in the working of the doctrine as between these two countries.
Validate the statement that the only way Germany can pay her indemnity is by an excess of exports over imports.
Show how the mechanism of foreign exchange and international trade tends to produce like price movements all over the world.
Outline the argument for the utility theory of value as opposed to the cost of production theory of value and show the application of these arguments to the determination of the share of industrial earnings going per unit to land and to capital.
How is rent determined when the same land may be used for a number of different purposes? What has the varying intensivity [sic] of cultivation to do with rent?
What is the economic justification of labor unions?
Distinguish the attitude of British law and the Clayton Act in regard to labor disputes. What place does the concept of conspiracy play in the treatment by the courts of labor troubles in this country? Do you consider it just for the employer to bear the whole cost of industrial accidents? Is this the effect of our compensation laws?
How large a return must be imputed to capital goods in order that they may truly pay for themselves? Does the fact that the price of consumption goods, when traced back, ultimately resolves into rent, wages and interest mean that there is no such thing in the long run as profits? (Reasons)
Show roughly how income is distributed among our population. What can be done to improve this distribution.
Is an increasing percentage of the national income spent for governmental activity a sign of increasing extravagance? (Reasons) To what extent should a government borrow and to what extent should it support itself by taxation? What constitutes justice in taxation?
Distinguish direct and indirect taxes. Name some taxes of each kind. What taxes can be shifted? What determines the amount of shifting? What are the objections to a general property tax?

Examination in Statistics
(Pol. Econ. II)

January 31, 1924

What are some of the common sources of secondary data? Given the relative advantages and disadvantages of collecting data by (a) personal investigation, (b) questionnaires, (c) enumerators. Give examples where possible in all cases.
20 minutes.
Give the number and total capacity of box cars, coal cars, and other cars in the Eastern, Southern, and Western Districts of the United States, tabulate so as to show average capacity of these three types and of all cars in each district and in all districts; use letters with subscripts to represent data, e.g. capacity coal cars in the Southern District = C_cs.
30 minutes.
Sow the various ways in which the above data could be presented diagrammatically, pictorially, or graphically.
20 minutes.
Given the following data:

Article of Food	Consumption, 1901, per family	Average Retail Price per Unit
Article of Food	Consumption, 1901, per family	1913	1917	1920
Sirloin steak	70 lbs.	$0.25	$0.32	$0.35
Eggs	80 doz.	0.35	0.48	0.70
Milk	350 qts.	0.09	0.11	0.17
Potatoes	15 bu.	1.00	2.60	3.80

Show (do not compute) how an index number for these four commodities would be made up on

1. 1. Bradstreet’s method,
  2. Dun’s method.
  3. Compute the index number for 1917 and 1920 according to the method of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (base = 1913).
  4. What is the chief objection to an “average of relatives” index number?
    25 minutes.

5. (A or B).

1. How is an ogive constructed? Illustrate by sketch and show how the mode and the eighth decile may be determined from it. How is a percentage histogram constructed? What is its purpose?
2. Prove the general validity of the short-cut method of computing the standard deviation.
  15 minutes.

Given the following data:

Operating Revenues of Class I Carries Eastern District—1920 In Millions of Dollars
1	2	3	4	7	15	24	74	492
1	2	3	4	8	15	26	75	—
1	2	3	5	10	15	30	76	—
1	2	3	5	10	16	35	81	—
1	2	4	5	11	17	39	94	—
1	2	4	5	11	19	45	94	—
2	2	4	6	12	19	51	107	—
2	2	4	6	12	22	65 [?]	200	—
2	3	4	7	14	23	70	314	—
Arithmetic Average $32,268.

Calculate, showing operations, the quartile coefficient of dispersion and skewness (series is theoretically continuous).
Compute, in tabular form, the coefficient of dispersion based on the median (to nearest whole number of millions).
How many places are justified in the above arithmetic average, on basis of data shown? Calculate the coefficient of skewness based on the mode.
30 minutes.

Inflation of money is accompanied, or followed, by higher prices. Price fluctuations are measured roughly by index numbers. To the extent that inflation in one country exceeds that in another, its exchange in terms of the currency of the other country will depreciate. The following exercise is designed to test the tenth [sic, “truth”] of this doctrine.
Given the following data:

1920	Index Numbers		Sterling Cables New York Value £ in Dollars
1920	B.L.S.* (United States)	Statist⁺ (England)	Sterling Cables New York Value £ in Dollars
January	248	288	$3.68
February	249	306	3.39
March	253	307	3.72
April	265	313	3.93
May	272	305	3.85
June	269	300	3.95
July	262	299	3.86
August	250	298	3.63
September	242	292	3.52
October	225	282	3.47
November	207	263	3.43
December	189	243	3.63
* Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wholesale Prices. + The Statist, English journal of finance, Wholesale Prices.

Reduce the B.L.S. indices to relatives of the corresponding statist indices, and correlate these relatives with the price of sterling by Pearson’s method. Does result confirm the above theory? How would you modify the method to correlate the short time changes in the two variables? Compute the standard deviation for one variable in your table.
Explain log. How would you plot a logarithmic historigram of the B.L.S. index numbers?
40 minutes.

POLITICAL ECONOMY III

Monday, May 26, 1924—9 a.m.

What is standard money? State the requisites of (a) a gold standard; (b) a bimetallic standard; (c) a paper standard. State the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Explain the functions of a commercial bank, showing what economic services it performs. Distinguish the functions of a commercial bank from those of (a) a savings bank; (b) an investment banker.
Define, illustrate and explain the use of the following types of credit instruments: (a) promissory note; (b) bill of exchange; (c) trade acceptance; (d) bank acceptance.
Explain the connection between the loans and deposits of commercial banks. To what extent ordinarily can an individual bank increase its loans as the result of a cash deposit of $100,000? To what extent can the loans of the banking system as a whole be increased as the result of such an addition to the cash deposits of the system? Explain.
How does the Federal Reserve System provide for elasticity in currency and in credit? What is the need for such elasticity?
What is the need for the control of bank credit? How may this control be effected under the Federal Reserve System?
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York receives $8,000,000 of gold deposits.
1. If member banks take all their rediscounts in federal reserve notes, how much additional paper can the reserve bank rediscount for its members, assuming that it does not borrow at other reserve banks? Make no allowance for discount charges.
2. Answer the same question, assuming that member banks leave all their rediscounts on deposit.
3. Answer the same question, assuming that member banks take 1/5 of their rediscounts in federal reserve notes and leave the remainder on deposit.
4. Explain the quantity theory of money, showing the effect upon prices, of changes in the quantity of money, and of bank credit.

POLITICAL ECONOMY IV

January 31, 1924—9-12 A.M.

Define a trade union and indicate the distinctions between trade unions and other analogous associations such as cooperative societies, societies of physicians, etc.
Classify trade unions according to the character of the employer.
Sketch the historical development, by periods, of American trade unionism.
Describe the present structure of American trade unionism, indicating the relation of the national union to the other forms of organization.
Classify American national trade unions from the point of view of function.
Classify and discuss the methods of enforcement used by trade unions.
What is meant by collective bargaining? What is the economic justification for collective individual bargaining?
Describe the system known as scientific management and indicate why it has been opposed by trade unions.

POLITICAL ECONOMY VI
Corporation Finance

Monday, May 26, 1924

Define a “bond”. Describe the following classes of bonds: divisional bonds, guaranteed bonds, income bonds, convertible bonds.
Distinguish the capitalization, the capital, and the capital stock of a corporation.
Distinguish equipment bonds and equipment trust certificates.
Distinguish repairs, depreciation, and obsolescence.
Discuss the relative advantages of serial bonds and sinking fund bonds.
State and illustrate the law of balanced returns.
Describe the various financial devices which have been used in the expansion of American railways.
What is usually the nature of the agreement among the members under which an underwriting syndicate is formed?
A corporation with common stock of $1,000,000 wishes to secure additional capital. The stock has a par value of $100 and is selling at $150. The corporation offers additional stock at par to the amount of $200,000, or one share of the new for each five shares held. What will be the value of the rights? What will be the value of the stock after the issue is consummated? Explain your answer.
Define a “reorganization”, a “receivership”.

POLITICAL ECONOMY X
Business Organization

Monday, May 26, 1924—9 A.M.

Lectures

Discuss the relation between the problem of distribution and the density of population, proportion of inhabitants living in cities, etc. What part does credit play in this problem? Is it a cause or an effect?
What gains could be made in efficiency of our distribution system by the general state ownership and control of industry? Do you consider these possible gains sufficient grounds for the adoption of such a plan? (Reasons)
What is meant by scientific management? Why is the present a logical time for its introduction into business? What is the purpose of motion study, and what does it consist of?
Discuss the elements to be considered in locating an establishment. What is the proper balance between fixed and circulating capital (including investment in labor)? Why is (or is not) the cost-plus method of letting building contracts to be preferred to the lump sum method?
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of profit-sharing as a method of stimulating employee efficiency.

Text: Stockder

What are securities? When is an industry said to be in the securities-capital stage? What are factors’ agreements? Why is it proper for railways to issue long term mortgage bonds, without sinking fund or serial retirement provisions, even to an amount exceeding the par value of stocks, and not for an ordinary industry to do so?
Describe the joint-stock company operating structure. Why is the business trust said to be superior to all other forms of business organizations? Are these two forms of organization common law or statute law?
Tell what you would do to organize a holding company which also to operate as an industrial company; including principal terms of agreements, regulations, etc.
Describe the formation of the Standard Oil trust of 1882, using sketch. Is Federal Incorporation an effective or desirable remedy for commercial abuses? (Reasons)
Have you completed the auxiliary reading, including supplementary forms in Stockder and pamphlets from U.S. Chamber of Commerce? If not, to what extent have you completed this reading?

POLITICAL ECONOMY XI
Accounting 1

January 30, 1924—9-12 A.M.

[Given the following items:]

Cash	$2,320
Inventory	$12,000
Accounts Receivable	$21,000
Reserve for Bad Debts		$1,500
Store	$20,000
Reserve for Depreciation		$7,000
Accounts Payable		$2,500
Capital Stock		$20,000
Surplus		$23,940
Insurance	$120
Wages		$500
	$55,440	$55,400

Purchased on credit $20,000; paid creditors $21,500. Credit sales were $30,000; collected from customers $45,000. Estimated amount of uncollectable accounts receivable on books $1,750. Depreciation for period was $2,000. Other cash disbursements: Wates $6,000, Dividends $10,000. At the end of the year the unexpired insurance was $60, inventory $11,000, accrued wages $400.
From the above starting point—closing trial balance and the interim adjustments given, prepare a closed ledger, a final balance sheet, and a profit and loss statement.

Describe two different ways of recording cash discounts on sales in the cash books. Do not mention any accounting books except the cash books.
Define the different kinds of indorsements used with negotiable instruments.
A note for $1,000, dated June 10, for 4 months, with interest at 7 per cent, was discounted July 30, at 8 per cent. Find the net proceeds under the rules of bank discount.

POLITICAL ECONOMY XI
Accounting 1
[Dr. Newlove]

May 28, 1924—9-12 a.m.

A and B start in partnership investing $10,000 and $8,000, respectively, on January 1. A withdrew $2,000 on May 1 and invested $2,000 on November 1. B invested $3,000 on March 1 and withdrew $3,000 on July 1. Give the entries for the above transactions together with the allocation of a net profit of $5,000 on the average investment basis.
X and Y, partners, sell their business to a new corporation, whose authorized stock of $50,000 is all paid to the partners. The balance sheet of X and Y is:

Cash	$5,000	Accounts Payable	$15,000
Merchandise	30,000	X, Capital	15,000
Accounts Receivable	25,000	Y, Capital	30,000
	$60,000		$60,000

Give the detailed closing entries of the partnership.

Give the detailed opening entries for the corporation in Problem 2.
(a)

Accounts Receivable	Reserve for Bad Debts
$75,000		$5,000

Make entry for a customer owing $500 who becomes bankrupt and pays 10 cents on the dollar.
(b)

Machinery	Reserve for Depreciation
$50,000		$4,000

A machine, which cost $1,000 five years ago, is sold for $400. The recorded depreciation on the machine is $500. Give the entry for sale.

C and D entered on January 1 a joint venture each contributing merchandise costing $5,000. C paid expenses of $1,000 on the same date. On July 1 C received a draft from the consignee for $15,000. Interest was allowed at the rate of 6 per cent per annum. Show the accounts on C’s books affected by the venture, if C settled with D on July 1.

POLITICAL ECONOMY XII
ECONOMIC HISTORY

January 29, 1924—9-12 A.M.

How does economic history differ from political history?
What did the Romans accomplish economically for Britain?
(a) What were the rights and obligations of the various classes under the manorial system
(b) Did William the Norman change the manorial plan fundamentally?
How were goods exchanged in England of the Middle Ages?
What were the facts which rendered the guilds suitable to the economic needs of the country at the time they flourished?
(a) What were the consequences of the “Black Death”?
(b) Of the “Peasants’ Revolt”?
What were the main facts of the Industrial Revolution, and what was the economic theory upon which it rested?
Tell something of (a) chartism; (b) the Factory Acts; (c) the rise of trade unions.
What is the present status of child labor legislation in the United States?
What have been the forces that have brought the Labor Party into power in England?

POLITICAL ECONOMY XII
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Saturday, May 24, 1924

What were the colonial policies of Great Britain?
(a) Give the chief economic doctrines of Alexander Hamilton.
(b) What was the connection between economic interests and the formation of the Constitution?
What were the chief economic causes and effects of the Civil War?
Discuss the economic and political consequences of the opening of the West.
What were the main routes covered by canals and railroads, and why were these selected?
Discuss the growth of trusts.
Why is the Federal Government gaining in power while the individual State Governments are losing power?
A factory needing 500 operatives is located in a farming community. What will be the likely economic results?
Discuss the tariff vs. free trade.

POLITICAL ECONOMY XIII
SOCIAL ECONOMICS

February 4^th, 1924—9-12 A.M.

Why are delinquency and dependency community problems?
Give the laws regulating school attendance in Maryland. Are they adequate?
Give the Child Labor Laws of Maryland.
Give the significance of the White House Conference of 1909. State the recommendations made. Give what you think the most important outcome of this conference.
Give the names of the social agencies in the Alliance of Charitable and Social Agencies. Describe the work of the Family Welfare Association and one other social organization in the federation.

POLITICAL ECONOMY XIII
SOCIAL ECONOMICS

Friday, May 30, 1924—9 a.m.

What are the functions of a Charities Endorsement Committee?
On what principles is social case work based? What is the difference in the meaning of social case work and social work?
Of what value is knowledge of social economics to the professional and business man?
Give the social functions of recreation.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy, Series 5/6, Box 6/1, Folder “Exams, 1907-1924”.

Image Source: Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University. Hullabaloo 1924.

Tags Barnett, Gillies, JacobsT, Mitchell, Newlove, Weyforth

Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Exam for undergraduate history of economic thought. Fellner, 1950-1951.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-07-21

The transcribed exam below is the third in a series of posts for mid-twentieth century Harvard courses for which outlines and reading lists have been previously transcribed at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Required readings for William Fellner’s history of economic thought course were taken from:

Gide, Charles and Rist, Charles, History of Economic Doctrines
Gray, Alexander, The Development of Economic Doctrine

The course outline together with the required chapter readings along with a list of over a hundred titles (most of which have been linked to digital copies) can be found at the link:

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-history-of-economic-thought-fellner-1950/

_______________________

Economics 100.
History of Economic Thought

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor Fellner (University of California).

Source: Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September 1950): Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences During 1950-51, p. 79.

_______________________

Mid-year final examination, January 1951

1950-51
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 100

Part I

Discuss the following question:

“Historical change in economic doctrine reflects changes in the orientation and the objectives of writers. However, it also reflects improvement in methods of approach.” Do you agree with this statement? Explain your position and illustrate it.

Part II

Discuss two questions and comment briefly on a third.

Draw a contrast between mercantilistic and physiocratic thought and discuss the reaction of Adam Smith to both.
In what respects was Malthus a “classical” economist and in what respects was he not?
Discuss Ricardo’s views on comparative costs and appraise the bearing of this theory on the free trade doctrine.
Is the Marxian value theory rooted in classical doctrine? What are the main differences? What is the significance of the Marxian value theory for the Marxian system as a whole?
Trace the main stages in the development of the theory of rent from Adam Smith to about the end of the nineteenth century.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 17, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, Government, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science, January 1951 (in bound volume Final Exams—Social Sciences, Jan. 1951).

Image Source: Photo of William Fellner from Hoover Institution Archives, Gottfried Haberler Papers, Box 43, Blue Folder without label.

Tags Fellner

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Semester exams for advanced economic theory. Fellner, 1950-1951

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-07-20

William Fellner from the University of California was called in to fill for Wassily Leontief’s graduate course in Advanced Economic Theory during the academic year 1950-51 at Harvard. Leontief had been awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Fellner also taught a history of economics for undergraduates during his year at Harvard.

The outline and reading list for Fellner’s advanced economic theory course have been previously posted.

________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 202 (formerly Economics 102a and 102b). Advanced Economic Theory

Full course. Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Fellner (University of California).

Economics 201 or an equivalent training is a prerequisite for this course. Other properly qualified students must obtain permission to register from the instructor.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6, Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51, p. 83.

________________________

Mid-year Examination, June 1951

1950-51
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 202

Answer THREE of the following four questions:

On usual definitions of rationality, the following is true of some types of market: Price and output can be derived from technological functions and utility functions or indifference maps (for a given distribution of income), without allowance for additional determinants such as “bargaining power” or “relative strength.” However, there exist important market structures of which this is not true. Do you agree with these propositions? Discuss them, appraising also the significance of the rationality assumptions for the proportion contained in the first sentence.
According to equilibrium analysis for specific industries, monopoly output is (almost always smaller than competitive output. Discuss some of the difficulties standing in the way of applying this proposition directly to the socially significant questions of the “restrictive effects” of deviations from pure competition in the real world.
Theories of market structures are concerned with groups of firms that may perhaps be loosely called industries. However, these do not coincide with industries in the conventional sense. Discuss.
By what purpose are economists led in their attempt to “go behind” the demand curves of individuals and to derive these from underlying concepts (e.g. indifference maps)? How satisfactory are the results? Illustrate your views with reference to some specific aspect of the theory in question. Do you feel that economics would be poorer, in essential respects, if it regarded the demand functions of individuals as ultimate (“given”) data?

________________________

Final Examination, June 1951

1950-51
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 202

Discuss questions 1; 2 or 3; and 4.

[Three parts]
1. Describe how income and employment are determined in the Keynesian system.
2. Discuss the effect of changes in the wage unit on the equilibrium level of income, introducing alternative assumptions concerning the elasticity of the liquidity preference function and that of the marginal efficiency function.
3. How would the Keynesian analysis be affected by the assumption that consumption is a function of the supply of money as well as of the rate of income?
Do you consider Irving Fisher’s income concept superior in some respects to those usually employed? If so, in what respects? How do you explain the fact that it is not used more frequently?
If, along given production functions, the supply of one factor is increased in relation to the other, would you expect the relative share of the increasing factor to fall? Do you believe that in such circumstances innovations in general, and induced innovations in particular, are likely to influence the result?
[Four parts]
1. Explain the significance of time-preference and of the productivity of capital for the determination of “the” interest-rate.
2. What is implied in the “classical” assumption that monetary factors do not influence the rate of interest in the long run?
3. How can the monetary factors be worked into the theory if the assumption described in the preceding paragraph is not made (or if the analysis is concerned with the short run)?
4. Do you suggest drawing a distinction between the “risk premia” included in interest-rates (other than the pure or net rate) on the one hand, and profit on the other? Along what lines could this distinction be drawn?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, Government, Economics, …, Air Sciences, Naval Science, June 1951 (in bound volume Final Exams—Social Sciences, Jan. 1951).

Image Source: AEA portrait of William Fellner, Number 71 of a series of photographs of past presidents of the Association, in American Economic Review, Vol. 60, No. 1 (1970).

Tags Fellner, Leontief

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for first-year graduate economic theory. Haberler.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-07-19

The first year graduate theory course at Harvard was jealously taught by Edward Chamberlin during the mid-20th-century. In 1950-51 Chamberlin sailed off to France as a Fulbright Exchange Scholar, leaving “his” course to be taught by the other alpha-theorist in the department, Gottfried Haberler. The outline and reading list for the two semester graduate introductory economic theory sequence (Economics 201) were transcribed and posted earlier. Today I just noticed that I hadn’t yet transcribed the exams for Ec 201 in 1950-51 that were copied during a later archival visit. So without further ado, I gladly (and proudly) add these exams to the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror collection.

_________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 201 (formerly Economics 101a and 101b). Economic Theory

Full course. Tu., Th., and (and the pleasure of the instructor) Sat at 10. Professor Haberler.

This course is normally taken by graduate students in their first year of residence.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6, Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51, p. 83.

_________________________

First Semester Final Exam, January 1951

1950-51
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 201a

Answer Five questions (Write legibly!)

“Utility theory of the cardinal as well as of the ordinal type is a superstructure of questionable utility. It is much more sensible to start economic analysis with demand and supply curves and to forget about utility altogether.” (Cassel). Comment.
In a price-quantity diagram we are given a demand curve for commodity A in terms of commodity B. Suppose we now look at this relationship as a supply of B in exchange for A. Show graphically what the supply curve of B will look like under the following assumptions:
1. The demand curve for A is a sloping straight line.
2. The demand curve for A has a constant elasticity of unity.
3. The demand curve for A is infinitely elastic.
4. The demand curve for A has an elasticity of less than one.
  Draw each supply curve alongside of the corresponding demand curve.
It has been often argued, especially by Walras, that under free competition exchange produces an “optimum” situation. But it has also been stated that a discriminating monopolist can reach an “optimum” position as compared with a simple monopolist. Discuss the meaning and limitations of these statements with the aid of two superimposed indifference maps.
Draw the short run and long run cost curves of an individual firm including marginal cost, average total cost and average variable cost curves.
Indicate and discuss how the short run and long run supply curve of the firm is derived from or related to the cost curves.
How do you derive an industry supply curve from the supply curves of the individual firms? Under what assumptions can that be done by simply adding horizontally the individual supply curves?
Discuss the factors which may limit the size of a firm and the degree of vertical integration.
Explain the meaning and the use of the production function. How would you derive a cost curve from the production function of a single product and two factors?

_________________________

Second Semester Final Exam, May 1951

1950-51
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 201

Write legibly

Part I (One Hour)

Compare the interest theories of Schumpeter, Fisher, Knight, and Böhm-Bawerk.

Part II Choose four out of five (One Half Hour Each):

Compare the theory of marginal productivity with Marshall’s theory of “joint demand.”
Discuss some alternative explanations of profits. To what extent can the marginal productivity principle be used for the determination of profits?
Discuss the principal contributions to price theory of the Oxford Study in Business Behaviour by R. L. Hall and C. J. Hitch.
State and appraise critically the basic postulates of the so-called modern welfare economics, as compared with the “old” version.
In what sense can it be said that (a) a monopolist in a product market and (b) a monopsonist in the labor market “exploit” their employees? Analyse the problem graphically.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1950.

Tags Chamberlin, Haberler

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Political Economy Courses and Ethics of Social Questions, 1890-1891

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-06-24

With the academic year 1890-91, a new instructor joined the Harvard political economy team, William Morse Cole who co-taught Political Economy 1 with Frank Taussig and Political Economy 8, History of Financial Legislation in the United States. Cole went on to have a successful career as professor of accounting at Harvard Business School.

The previous year’s exams have been transcribed and posted earlier:

Harvard. Final exams in political economy and ethics of social reform, 1889-1890

_________________________

1890-1891. Philosophy 14.

Enrollment

[Philosophy] 11. Professor F. G. Peabody. — The Ethics of Social Questions. — The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Temperance, and the various phases of the Labor Question (Socialism, Communism, Arbitration, Cooperation, etc.), as questions of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. 3 hours.

Total 103: 4 Graduates, 53 Senior, 28 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 57.

PHILOSOPHY 14.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Mid-year examination (1890-91)

[Omit one question.]

The attitude of political economy toward the questions of social reform.
Consider the possible relations in which your own life may stand to the life of society, and their ethical significance.
Examine a special case of moral heroism and state what, in your opinion, was its motive.
What, according to Professor Sumner, are the duties toward others of “a free man in a free democracy”? Why? And with what result, in your opinion, to society?
Enumerate and illustrate some of the practical rules of good charity which issue from the philosophy of charity.
The relation of the labor question in France and England to the political history of those countries.
Compare the conditions of wealth and the possibilities of revolution in England and in this country.
Consider Carlyle’s doctrine of the “Captain of Industry” as a solution of the modern labor question.
What does Ruskin mean by: Roots of honor; veins of purple; non-competitive just exchange; ad valorem?
What is there in religion which encourages the Socialist and what is there which repels him, and what relation between socialism and religion is, in your judgment, likely to be the result?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

PHILOSOPHY 14.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

[Omit one question.]

“All wealth is due to labor; therefore to labor all wealth is due.” What, in your opinion, is the economic importance, and the justice, of this proposition?
Compare the views of the Socialist, the Individualist and the “Opportunist” as to the tendency toward State interference. What is your own view of the merits of this kind of legislation?
“Well may Prince Bismarck display leanings toward State Socialism.” Why does Mr. Spencer make this remark, and with what justice?
On what principle would a Professor be paid, under the Socialist programme?
Consider the commercial advantages and hindrances of an establishment like the Hebden Bridge Fustian Mill.
Compare the principle of profit-sharing formerly used in the American Fisheries with that represented by the firm of Billon et Isaac.
Describe the general features and the main intention of the Dawes Indian Bill; and the supplementary legislation now proposed.
What is meant by the “Philosophy of the Family,” and what is its relation to the modern Divorce Question?
If you should enter the retail liquor business in Boston, what legal restrictions would you find hampering the freedom of your trade?
Apply the doctrine of the “Social Organism” to the question of Temperance.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1890-91.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig and Mr. [William Morse] Cole. —

First half-year: —

Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours

Second half-year: —

Division A (Theoretical): Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Division B (Descriptive): Lectures on Finance, Labor and Capital, Coöperation. — Hadley’s Railroad Transportation. — Laughlin’s Bimetallism. 3 hours.

Total 201:

A: 10 Seniors, 53 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 19 Others.
B: 12 Seniors, 31 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

Student notes available at the Harvard Archives

Kennedy, Frank Lowell, Notes on lectures by Frank W. Taussig and William M. Cole on Political Economy 1, 1890-1891. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371.1

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-year examination.

[Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.]

I.
[Omit two.]

“Whether men like it or not, the unproductive expenditure of individuals will pro tanto tend to impoverish the community, and only their productive expenditure will enrich it.”
“It would be a great error to regret the large proportion of the annual produce which in an opulent country goes to supply unproductive consumption.”
Can you reconcile these two statements of Mill’s?
“Hardly any two dealers in the same trade, even if their commodities are equally good and equally cheap, carry on their business at the same expense, or turn over their capital in the same time. That equal capitals give equal profits, as a general maxim of trade, would be as false as that equal age or size give equal bodily strength, or that equal reading or experience give equal knowledge.” Can you reconcile this statement of Mill’s with the doctrine of the tendency of profits to an equality?
How far is it true that a general rise or fall in wages would not affect values?
Suppose a country having a metallic currency to issue inconvertible paper to one-half the amount of the coin, and trace the effects on prices and on the circulating medium (1) in an isolated country, having no international trade; (2) in a country having international trade.
On the same supposition, trace the effects, in the country having international trade, on the foreign exchanges, on the course of international trade, and on the terms of international exchange.
“If consumers were to save and covert into capital more than a limited portion of their income, and were not to devote to unproductive consumption an amount of means bearing a certain ratio to the capital of the country, the extra accumulation would be merely so much waste, since there would be no market for the commodities which the capital so created would produce.” Is this true?

II.
[Answer all.]

“Capital is not the result of saving; it is not an accumulation. Its nature is that it should be consumed almost as fast as it is produced. … Saving or accumulation would necessarily defeat the end of its existence. How can materials or tools be saved?” Answer the question.
Explain why rent is not an element in the cost of production of the commodity which yields it.
Connect the law of the increase of labor with the law of production from land.
What is the effect of gratuitous education for a profession on the wages of those engaged in it?
Why does the durability of the precious metals give stability to their value?
What are the laws of value applicable to (1) iron ore, (2) watch-springs, (3) wool and mutton, (4) patented bicycles?
How does the rate of interest bear on the price of land and of securities?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end examination (June 1891)
Division A.

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

Wherein is the effect of a change in the demand for commodities on the wages-fund different (1) if competition among laborers is effective? (2) if it is not effective?
On what grounds does Cairnes reach the same conclusions, as to the possible effects of Trades Unions on general wages, for England and for the United States?
Examine Cairnes’s reasoning as to the possibility of maintaining the accumulation of capital in a socialist community.
Why are the wages of women, according to Mill, lower than the wages of men? Accepting Mill’s explanation, what would Cairnes say as to the laws of value applicable to the exchange of the products of women’s labor with the products of men’s labor?
What is the error in saying that high wages make high prices?
“Gold may be cheap, and prices at the same time be low.” Explain.
Is it true that the benefit of foreign trade lies in its affording an outlet for the surplus produce of the community?
Suppose the people of the United States to borrow annually large sums from Europe; and suppose them also to have large interest payments to make on loans contracted in previous years; would you expect our foreign trade to show an excess of imports or of exports?
Mill says that an emission of inconvertible paper money, equal in amount to the specie previously circulating, will drive out the whole of the metallic money; “that is, if paper be issued of as low a denomination as the lowest coin; if not, as much will remain as convenience requires for the smaller payments.” What light is thrown on this statement by the experience of the United States in 1862?
Why did the circumstance that an exceptionally large part of the country’s business was done for cash in the period immediately after the civil war make the time favorable for a speedy contraction of the currency?
Is payment for capital sunk in the soil, rent, or profit?

Division B.

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

Why have pools and traffic agreements been more stable in England than in the United States?
Why does a railroad charge more per ton per mile on cotton goods than on coal?
“A government enterprise may be managed on any one of four principles: 1. as a tax; 2. for business profits; 3. to pay expenses; 4. for public service, without much regard to the question of expenses.” Explain, giving an example under each head.
Wherein is there a resemblance between the legislation of France as to railways and as to banking?
Arrange in proper order the following items of a bank account: Capital, 300; Loans, 1150; Bonds and Stocks, 50; Surplus, 85; Undivided Profits, 10; Cash, 110; Cash items, 90; Notes, 90; Real Estate, 25; Other Assets, 20; Deposits, 960.
Do you see any reason for believing this bank to be or not to be a national bank of the United States? To be a city or a country bank?
Suppose the national banks of the United States ceased to issue notes, their other operations remaining as now; how great would be the effect of the change on the circulating medium of the community? Compare the effect with that which would ensue in Germany if the note issue of the German banks were to cease.
Under the national bank act, how does the action of our banks, when their reserves are suddenly lowered, differ from that of the Bank of England in like case?
Wherein is the mode of dividing profits among members of the coöperative stores in England different from that of the coöperative building associations of the United States?
Wherein does bimetallism as now practiced in France differ from bimetallism as it was in France in 1850? Wherein does it differ from bimetallism as it is in the United States now?
Compare the legislation of Germany on coinage in 1873 with that of the United States in 1853.
Mill divides commodities into three classes, according to the laws of value applicable to them. In which class would you put silver bullion?
Describe carefully the act for the resumption of specie payments, stating when it was passed, when it went into effect, and how far it was successful in accomplishing the desired object.
Will a general rise in wages affect values? prices? profits?

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 2. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig and Mr. [John Graham] Brooks. — History of Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from Leading Writers. — Socialism. 3 hours.

Total 23: 4 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

Previously Posted

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-history-of-economic-theory-final-exam-questions-taussig-1891-94/

Fun fact: W.E.B. Dubois was enrolled in Economics 2 in 1890/91 as a graduate student and was awarded a grade of A (one of six awarded to the twenty-two who received grades, as recorded in Taussig’s scrapbook).

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-year examination.

[Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.]
[Omit one question.]

It has been suggested that the real source from which wages are paid is not the product of the laborer, nor the capital of the employer, but the income of the consumer. What should you say?
To which of the following cases, if to any, is the reasoning of the wages fund theory applicable? (1) The farmer tilling his own land with his own capital; (2) the fisherman working for a share of the catch; (3) the independent artisan working on his own account with borrowed capital; (4) the employer who habitually sells his product before pay-day, and pays his laborers with the proceeds.
Wherein does President Walker’s view of the source from which wages are paid differ from George’s?
“The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talent in business, or superior business arrangements, are very much of a similar kind [to rent.] If all his competitors had the same advantages, and used them, the benefit would be transferred to the consumers, through the diminished value of the article; he only retains it for himself because he is able to bring his commodity to market at a lower cost, while its value is determined by a higher…. Wages and profits represent the universal elements in production, while rent may be taken to represent the differential and peculiar; any difference in favor of certain producers, or in favor of production in certain circumstances, being the source of a gain, which, though not called rent, unless paid periodically by one person to another, is governed by laws entirely the same with it.”—Mill, Political Economy, book iii., ch. v., §4.
What has President Walker added to this in his discussion of business profits?
“It is true that money does not beget money; but capital does manifestly beget capital. If a man borrows a thousand ducats and ties them up in a bag, he will not find any little ducats in the bag at the end of the year; but if he purchases with the ducats a flock of sheep, he will, with proper attention, have lambs enough at the end of the year to make a handsome interest on the loan, and make a handsome profit for himself. If the turns the ducats into corn, he will find it bringing forth, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold…Very seldom does a man borrow money to use it, as money, through the term of his loan. When he does so, as brokers for example sometimes do, he may to Antonio’s question, ‘Is your gold and silver rams and ewes?’ return Shylock’s answer, ‘I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast.’”
Discuss this explanation of interest. Whom do you suppose to be the writer of the extract?
“The natural history of the notion on which it [the wages-fund doctrine] rests, is not obscure. It grew out of the conditions which existed in England during and immediately subsequent to the Napoleonic wars. Two things were then noted. First, capital had become accumulated in the island to such an extent that employers found no (financial) difficulty in paying their laborers by the month, week, or day, instead of requiring them to await the fruition of their labor in the harvested or marketed product. Second, the wages were, in fact, generally so low that they furnished no more than a bare subsistence, while the employment offered was so restricted that an increase in the number of laborers had the effect to throw some out of employment or to reduce the wages for all. Out of these things the wages-fund theory was put together.”
Examine this account of the rise of the wages-fund doctrine.
Discuss the method of reasoning followed by Adam Smith, and illustrate by his treatment of two of the following topics: (1) the causes which bring about high wages; (2) the effects on domestic industry of restraints on importation; (3) the origin and effects of the division of labor.
Explain how Ricardo’s conception of wages bears on his conclusions as to the effects of taxes on wages, and as to the net income of society.
What can be said in justification of the views of the writers of the mercantile school?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

Second semester taught by John Graham Brooks.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

From Rousseau to the Fabians, what have been the chief historic changes in the Philosophy of Socialism?
In detail, state the differences between the Marx type of Socialism and that of the Fabians.
With reference to the “three rents” what are the most important objections to Socialism?
What reasons can you give to show that Socialism is likely to have much further development in our society?

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 3. Mr. [John Graham] Brooks. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. — Social Questions. — Short theses. 1^st half-year. 3 hours.

Total 10: 1 Graduate, 7 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year examination

State the general objects of the German State Insurance, with reasons why it is likely, or not likely, to reach its objects.
State in detail the strong points and the weak points of Trades Unions.
What is the effect of Trades Unions upon their own wages, as distinguished from wages in general?
What advantages has Profit Sharing over the present forms of the wages system?
Are there reasons to believe that Profit Sharing will have much larger influence in the future?
With special reference to the work of the half year, what “social remedies” appear to you most promising?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 4. Professor [Charles Franklin] Dunbar. — Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. —Lectures and written work. 3 hours.

Total 103: 29 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 17 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

Other course material available at the Harvard Archives

Topics and references in political economy IV [1891?]. Student’s copy belonging to C. King Morrison, ’91. with manuscript notes. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371

Larrabee, Ralph Clinton (A.B. 1893). Notes in Political Economy 4: lectures by Prof. Dunbar, 1890-1891. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371.4.48

Principle text for Political Economy 4

From the prefatory note to Benjamin Rand’s (ed.) Selections illustrating economic history since the Seven Years’ War (Cambridge, MA: Waterman and Amee, 1889):

These selections have been made for use as a text-book of required reading to accompany a course of lectures on economic history given at Harvard College.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Mid-year examination

Lay out your time carefully, reserving 15 minutes for review and correction.

A.
Give half of your time (say 80 minutes) to A, omitting one question.

Make a careful statement of the leading provisions of the English navigation and colonial system.
Adam Smith’s reasons for saying that the policy of Great Britain towards her colonies had, upon the whole, been less illiberal and oppressive than that of other countries towards theirs. [Rand, pp. 12-26.]
Contrast the effects of the French revolutionary period upon the holding and distribution of land, in France and Germany respectively.
Describe the current of opinion and the industrial conditions which made free trade inevitably the policy for England.
State the reasons for the logical and political importance of the corn laws in the English free trade movement.
The essential differences between the French and the Anglo-American methods of managing railway construction and ownership, and the effect and advantages of each.

B.
Give 80 minutes to B, omitting two questions.

The trade between the United States and the British West Indies, before our revolution, and after.
The inventions or improvements which made the development of the cotton States possible.
The condition of commerce and manufactures in the United States in the two periods, 1794-1808, and 1808-1815.
The successive enterprises for opening communication with the territory north of the Ohio, and their importance.
The English legislation respecting cotton goods in the last century and the reasons for it.
What was the effect of the Napoleonic wars upon the introduction of manufactures on the continent of Europe?
The comparative state of preparation of England, France, Germany, and the United States for undertaking the modern industries when the peace of 1815 came.
Give what account you can of the career and opinions of Turgot, with dates.
The contributions of Stein and Hardenberg respectively to the reform in the Prussian system of land-holding.
On what plan was the Zollverein organized?
What are the differences in industrial characteristics which make it natural for England and France to adopt different policies as to protection and free trade?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

Lay out your time carefully, reserving 15 minutes for review and correction

A.
Give half of your time to A. omitting one question.

The establishment of the Zollverein is spoken of [Rand, page 138] as “the first step towards what is called the Germanization of the people” and to have “prepared the way for a political nationality.” Show how it had this effect.
Cairnes, in his discussion of the new gold, [Rand, page 197] shows that “a given addition to the metallic stock of Great Britain and the United States … will cause a greater expansion of the total circulation, and therefore will support a greater advance in general prices, that the same addition to the currency of … France … and that again, the effect in countries like France will be greater than in countries like India or China.” Why is this, and how much effect did this difference in sensitiveness produce in the years after 1850?
Cairnes lays down [Rand, page 209] that “every country is interested in raising as rapidly as possible the prices of its productions,–in other words, in the most rapid possible depreciation in the local value of its gold.” What are the grounds for this proposition?
The writer in Blackwood’s, [Rand, page 228] says that the most important point in the payment of the French indemnity is “How came it that £170,000,000 [4,250,000,000 francs] of bills could be got at all”? What is the explanation of this fact?
What are the reasons for looking upon Italy as a possible serious competitor in ocean navigation, and what are her great drawbacks in such competition?

What are the marked differences between the great change in the production and value of the precious metals in the sixteenth century, and that in the nineteenth?
Why was an additional supply of gold especially important to the world in the years 1850-60?
How does the mere saving of time in transportation, or in the transmission of intelligence, produce an effect upon commerce?
How far was the civil war the cause of the decline of American shipping after 1860?
What reasons made the breaking out of a financial crisis in the United States in 1873 easier than usual?
Why did the payment of the French indemnity disturb the financial quiet of other countries than France and Germany?
What are the great cases of resumption of specie payment in the years 1875-85, and how were they brought about respectively?
Why is the trade between countries so often “triangular,” and why is England so generally one of the parties concerned?
How does the modern theory of the utility of colonies differ from that of a century or two ago?

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 6. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 2d half-year

Total 43: 1 Graduate, 28 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

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

Explain wherein France and the United States were in similar positions, as regards customs policy, in 1814-15; and state briefly the legislation to which these situations led in the two countries.
What was the argument, discussed in Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures, which rested on the supposed exceptions productiveness of agriculture? What was Hamilton’s answer? What is the sound view?
How did Gallatin propose in 1831 to fix customs duties without regard to their protective effect? Walker in 1845?
Was there any ground in 1832 for saying that the duties on imports were equivalent to duties on exports? Is there now?
How did the general fall in prices after 1819 affect the growth of manufactures in the United States?
“The climate, soil, and conditions generally in the Northwest, are very favorable to the cultivation of flax fibre as well as of the seed. After a short experience as to the primary manipulation and handling of the flax fibre, our farmers would produce flax which would compare favorably with the best varieties of the fibre. It seems strange that a practical people like ourselves should for years have been satisfied to cultivate seed for flax at a value of about $15 per acre, and at the same time allow 600 pounds of flax fibre per acre to rot on the ground, this fibre having a value, after being manipulated, of $186 per ton.”
Can you explain the anomaly?
Describe the process by which the duties on woollen cloths, as they stand in the act of 1890, were arrived at.
What ground is there for saying that the protective movement in the United States is part of a general reaction towards protection which has appeared in most civilized countries in recent years?
It has been said that the tariff act of 1789 began the protective policy of the United States; that the act of 1816 was the first giving serious protection; that the act of 1824 was the first strictly protective act. Which statement, if any, do you think true?
Which of the important tariff acts between 1835 and 1859 were passed quite without regard to financial considerations?
What does the continued importation of clothing wool indicate as to the effect of the duty on the domestic price? of pig iron? of silks?

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 7. Professor [Charles Franklin] Dunbar. — Public Finance and Taxation. — Cohn’s Finanzwissenschaft. 3 hours.

Total 7: 2 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

It is recommended that at least a third of the time be given to B.

Accepting the usual reasoning that a tax under some circumstances, by diminishing the income from property, diminishes its selling value, and so ceases to be felt by subsequent purchasers, should you say,—
1. That the French impôt foncier is a tax on present landholders?
2. That the English income-tax under Schedule A. is a tax on present landholders?
  The reason for the difference, if any exists.
What is your final conclusion as to the sale of bonds or annuities at a discount, — is it defensible or not, and on what grounds?
Explain the English method of using terminable annuities for the reduction of the public debt, as in 1867 and 1883, and discuss its advantages and drawbacks.
“The administrator of local finances is permitted to found a sinking-fund at the time of issuing bonds, a permission, it will be remembered, contrary to sound rules of national financiering.”
Does the distinction here made between local and national finances give solid ground for difference of treatment? Are the propositions as to the propriety of establishing sinking-funds in the two cases respectively tenable?
Say remarks that the French government, in providing for the indemnity, bought any kind of foreign bills of exchange, “prenant tous les changes qu’elle pouvait acquérir sur quelque pay que ce fût.” How did this purchase of a bill, say upon Russia, facilitate the payment of the indemnity any more than the purchase of a bill upon Marseilles would have done, seeing that in either case the government had to collect the proceeds in order to use them?

In 1872 Herr Bamberger, in his pamphlet die Fünf Milliarden, regretted that Germany had not been allowed more time to absorb the indemnity, so as to avoid the risk of over-stimulated enterprise, rise of prices, and speculation.
Discuss the probably effects, in Germany or elsewhere, (1) of longer time allowed to France; (2) of more cautious introduction of the wealth into Germany, effected
1. By longer deposit (say) in London,
2. By payment in securities, to be sold by Germany by degrees.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 8. Mr. [William Morse] Cole. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 1^st half-year.

Total 46: 1 Graduate, 29 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Mid-year examination

“That the public credit was much better during the Civil War than during the War of 1812 is proved by the fact that during the former war the bulk of the loans were sold at par, whereas during the latter the larger part were sold below par.”
Comment on this statement.
Under what authority does the Secretary of the Treasury purchase bonds in the market? Why does he not redeem them at par?
Explain: “Five-twenties”; “Seven-thirties”; and tell why they were made seven-thirties; “Deferred sixes,” “5% redemption fund.”
When were the first legal tenders under the present constitution authorized?
What have been the express legal exemptions of government obligations from taxation since the outbrake of the Civil War?
In what different capacities was each of the following men connected with the finances of the nation: Hugh McCulloch, Levi Woodbury, William Pitt Fessenden, John Tyler?

II.
(Omit two.)

1, 2. [Counts as two questions.] Compare the causes of the suspensions of 1814, 1837, and 1861.

3, 4. [Counts as two.] Mention the different systems which have been in vogue since 1789 for caring for public funds, and tell why each change was made.

1. It was said that the bill which finally became the act for resumption in 1875 really provided for nothing in particular, and therefore ought not to be put upon the statute book. Did the provisions of the bill warrant the remark? Did subsequent history justify the remark?
2. In what way were the French Spoliation Claims connected with the Second-Bank Struggle?
3. Hamilton wished to have a system of internal taxation in working order as a resource in case of emergency. Does history throw any light upon the wisdom or folly of such a policy?
4. What were the causes of Gallatin’s retirement from the Treasury?
5. What history would you cite as an argument upon a proposition to replace bonds exempt from all taxation by bonds taxed to a moderate extent, and to distribute the receipts from the tax among the States according to the federal ratio?
6. In a speech on the refunding bill it was said that the government made no threat, but merely promised certain privileges to those who presented bonds to be refunded at a lower rate. “No one proposes…the alternative adopted by our own Government under Hamilton’s plan of reducing the interest.”
  Is this implication regarding Hamilton’s funding justified by the facts?

11, 12. [Counts as two.] Mention as many as possible of the kinds of obligations which have been contracted by the government; i.e. character of obligation (bond or what), length of time to run, and rate of interest. Give one example under each kind,—giving period of issue, but not necessarily the exact date.

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 9. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — Railway Transportation. —Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 2d half-year

Total 20: 14 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

[Answer all the questions, and arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Can it be fairly said that the early experience of the States of the Union supplies strong arguments against State ownership of railways? Can it be fairly said of the experience of France since 1878?
State the salient events in the history of the federal land grants to railways.
How do you explain the rapidity with which the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads were completed?
Wherein did the so-called Granger legislation on railway rates resemble the “natural” system advocated in Germany after 1871? Wherein did it differ from it?
Sketch the history and machinery of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association.
Explain the difference in the working of the Trunk Line Association before and after the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act.
What ground is there for saying that the prohibition of pooling in the Interstate Commerce Act is inconsistent with its prohibition of discrimination between individuals?
Suppose a railway to be built and used exclusively for coal traffic; would its rates be arranged on a plan essentially different from that in use with ordinary railways, having a varied traffic?
It has been said that the principle of tolls, or rates based on cost of service, makes it necessary that each item of business should pay its share of the fixed charges. Why, or why not?
Sketch the history of government management of railways in Italy.
“Property has reached an ideal perfection. It is felt and treated as the national lifeblood. The rights of property nothing but felony and treason can override. The house is a castle which the King cannot enter. The Bank is a strong box to which the King has no key. Whatever surly sweetness possession can give is tasted in England to the dregs. Vested rights are awful things, and absolute possession gives the smallest freeholder identity of interest with the duke.”—Emerson, English Traits.
Wherein does the trait here described make the railroad situation in England different from that in the United States?

Tags BrooksJG, ColeWM, Dunbar, Peabody, Taussig

Exam Questions M.I.T.

M.I.T. Exams from International Economics, Kindleberger, 1954-1955

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-06-21

International trade and finance were covered at M.I.T. in a two semester sequence from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s mostly by Charles Kindleberger who handed off “his” courses to Jagdish Bhagwati and Rudiger Dornbusch. In his papers at the M.I.T. archives we find two folders with many, if not most, of the exams for these courses. Today I add transcriptions of the exam questions from the 1953-54 and 1954-55 years.

________________

Posted earlier:
M.I.T. International Economics Examinations. Kindleberger, 1950-51

https://www.irwincollier.com/m-i-t-international-economics-examinations-1950-51/

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Course Announcement

14.581, 14.582. International Economics. [Kindleberger] The foreign exchange market, foreign trade and commercial policy, with emphasis on the relation of the items in the current account to national income; international finance and the achievement and maintenance of equilibrium in the balance of payments as a whole: current problems of international economics.

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Catalogue Issue for 1954-1955 (June 1954), p. 147.

________________

14.581 One hour quiz
November 15, 1955

(10 minutes)
In balance-of-payments accounting, practice differs or is disputed in connection with the following items, among others. What are the various ways in which a country may treat three of them, and what is the justification for each of these.
1. Immigrants’ remittances
2. Payments to one’s own nationals for carriage of imports
3. Official international grants, such as Marshall Plan aid
4. Profits of a foreign enterprise, located within the reporting country’s borders
(10 minutes)
Define, sketch the content of discuss the usefulness of the purchasing power parity doctrine.
(30 minutes)
In what major respects does the classical theory of international trade differ from modern theory, with particular reference to the origin of trade and the mechanism of adjustment?

Source: MIT Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examination 14.481, 1949-1966.”

________________

Typed Kindleberger notes
for 14.581 Quiz of November 23, 1954
[Quiz question sheet not available]

True or False

Some ambiguity attached to three questions:

#3. Where purchasing power parity said to relate merely to foreign trade goods. Originators thought of it as much more than this and therefore false. Foreign trade goods always equated through law of one price.

#4 may depend on which multiplier used [this item added as handwritten note]

#5. Is trade possible with identical endowments and tastes: yes because of decreasing costs (answer yes with different states of arts, i.e. different production functions).

What factors determine what goods and services a country will export and import?

Answer should encompass

law of comparative costs or advantage
production possibilities curves and tastes
possibly the many-commodity case
factor endowments underlying the production possibility curve, decreasing costs as a special case
possible qualification for transport costs

No need to discuss question of price, offer curves at any length in the two commodity case. Does become important in the many-commodity case.

Demonstration either mathematical, prose, arithmetic, geometrical

Points should be mentioned: offer curves or average revenue curves
elasticities of supply
initial size of deficit
not partial but complete elasticity (i.e. income effects)

________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS 14.581

Wednesday, January 26, 1954
Time 9:00-12:00 A.M.

NOTE: Students are not permitted to use any books, notebooks or papers in this examination. If brought into the room, they must not be left on the desks.

Answer 6 questions. All have equal weight.

Argue for or against including four of the following in the current account of the balance of payments:
1. Immigrants’ remittances
2. Payments to own nationals for carrying imports
3. Domestic gold production
4. Government shipments of supplies to own troops abroad
5. Government shipments of supplies to foreign troops abroad under military assistance programs
6. Increase of inventories abroad held by domestic firms
Discuss the relation of a forward market to the ease and cost of hedging and speculation in foreign exchange under various conditions.
Indicate in what ways the effects of discriminatory state trading can be duplicated by multiple exchange rates and by a system of tariffs and subsidies on exports and imports.
What is the role of demand in the pure theory of international trade?
Describe differences and similarities in the process of adjustment in international trade, starting say with a domestic crop failure in an export commodity, under the fixed-exchange standard on the one hand and the fluctuating exchange standard on the other.
What difference does it make whether a country uses tariffs or quotas in carrying out its commercial policy?
Attack or defend anti-dumping tariffs.
Analyze the forces non engaged in trying to change or modify the tariffs of the United States.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

[Kindleberger’s typed comments in the margins of examination.
These appear to have been written (at least in part) after having graded the examinations.]

natl income vs fx budget
treatment of M
monetary vs non-monet
residents
exports and donation
capital not current
some neglected severance of arbitrage
Question 3 should be reworded effects of state trading can be duplicated by multiple exchange rates and a system of taxes and subsidies
offer curves
indif curves
Graham
not elasticities (pure)
Question five drew 3 blanks of people who looked only at short run mechanism and not at long run.
[following list spans questions 5 and 6 in the margin]
income effects
price effects
symmetry and dif.
redistribution
protective
but revenue
Question six should include in answer reference to multiplier, potential monopoly
many mercantilists discovered

Source: MIT Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examination 14.481, 1949-1966.”

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Mid-Term Quiz
14.582

March 22, 1955

(Twenty-five minutes each)

What happens to the terms of trade in the course of a capital transfer?
Evaluate the contribution which direct investment can make to economic development.

Discuss the problem of economic stability in an “export economy.”

Source: MIT Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examination 14.482, 1951-1976.”

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MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC—14.582

Saturday, May 28, 1955
Time: 9.00-12.00 A.M.

NOTE: Students are not permitted to use any books, notebooks or papers in this examination. If brought into the room, they must not be left on the desks.

Answer 1 and 2; and three of the remaining five questions, but not 5, 6, and 7

Write a review of the monograph on capital movements which you read, setting out in particular what the author was trying to demonstrate, how effectively he (or she) succeeded, and whether the passage of time and the development of economic theory have made it possible to modify his (or her) conclusions.
Discuss the principal problems concerning foreign trade in a country engaged in economic development with which you are familiar.

……………………….

To what extent and under what circumstances can short-term capital movements give rise to or substitute for gold movements under a fixed-exchange standard?
Compare and contrast the International Monetary Fund and the European Payments Union. What are the strengths and limitations of each institution?
Discuss the effects of differential rates of productivity increase on international economic equilibrium.
Compare exchange depreciation and deflation as remedies for balance-of-payments disequilibrium.
To what extent, in your judgment, is the present disequilibrium state of balances of payments due to the failure to create institutions which provide for international, long-term capital movements.

Source: MIT Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examination 14.482, 1951-1976.”

Image Source: Charles P. Kindleberger from the MIT Museum.

Tags Kindleberger

1892-93. PHILOSOPHY 5. ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

Enrollment

1892-93. PHILOSOPHY 5. [Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893 PHILOSOPHY 5. [Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 1. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 1. [Mid-Year Examination]

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

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 1. [Year-End Final Examination]

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

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

1892-93. ECONOMICS 2. ECONOMIC THEORY

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 2. [Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 2. [Year-End Final Examination]

[One question in each of the three groups may be omitted.]

I.

II.

III.

1892-93. ECONOMICS 3. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

Enrollment

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 3. [Mid-Year Examination]

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

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 3. [Year-End Final Examination]

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

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4. [Mid-Year Examination]

I. [Take all.]

II. [Omit one.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4. [Year-End Final Examination]

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

1892-93. ECONOMICS 5. RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 5. [Mid-Year Final Examination]

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

1892-93. ECONOMICS 6. HISTORY OF U.S. TARIFF LEGISLATION

Enrollment

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 6. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Answer all the questions, however briefly.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 71. THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 7[1]. [Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in the order of the questions.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 72. FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC DEBTS

Enrollment

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 7[2]. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Give one half of your time to a careful treatment of the questions under A.]

A.

B.

1892-93. ECONOMICS 8. HISTORY OF U.S. FINANCIAL LEGISLATION

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 8. [Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in numerical order.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 9. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 9. [Mid-Year Examination]

[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.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 9. [Year-End Final Examination]

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

1892-93. ECONOMICS 10. U.S. AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC HISTORY TO 1763

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 10. [Mid-Year Examination]

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

1892-93. ECONOMICS 10. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Candidates are requested to attempt only six questions, — of which six one at least must be chosen from the first set.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 11. HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY BEFORE ADAM SMITH

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 11. [Year-End Final Examination]

Economics 301 Final Examination December, 1960

I. Indicate which alternatives, if any, are correct or fill in the indicated blanks. Where you think it required, briefly justify your answer.

II. Translate the following quotations into economics and discuss:

III. A consumer in a three commodity market buys the following quantities at the following prices:

IV. State briefly what seem to you the central features of Chamberlin’s analysis of monopolistic competition and Stigler’s criticism of the analysis.

Letter from Chairman Seymour Harris to Paul Samuelson May 25, 1956

HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Office of the Chairman

M-8 Littauer Center Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

From the M.I.T. economics department records for 1955-56

Enrollment figures from Harvard President’s Report

1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5. ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 1.
[Year-End Final Examination]

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

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

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2. ECONOMIC THEORY

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 2.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 3. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4.
[Mid-Year Examination]

I.
[Take all.]

II.
[Omit one.]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5. RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 6. HISTORY OF U.S. TARIFF LEGISLATION

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 6.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7¹. THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7^[1].
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7². FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC DEBTS

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 7^[2].
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8. HISTORY OF U.S. FINANCIAL LEGISLATION

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10. U.S. AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC HISTORY TO 1763

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11. HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY BEFORE ADAM SMITH

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11.
[Year-End Final Examination]

Economics 301
Final Examination
December, 1960

Letter from Chairman Seymour Harris to Paul Samuelson
May 25, 1956

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

M-8 Littauer Center
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

Economics 201
Economic Theory
Fall 1956
READING LIST

Economics 201
Hour Exam
November 3, 1956

1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 201
Midyear examination. January, 1957.

Economics 201
Spring Term, 1956-57
Economic Theory—Professor Chamberlin

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 201
Final Examination
May, 1957

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

I.
[Omit one.]

II.
[Answer all, briefly.]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division A.
Final Examination, 1892.

I.
[Omit one.]

II.
[Answer all.]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division B.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Mid-year examination (first half-year), 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Final examination (second half-year), 1892.

A.
Of these five questions one may be omitted.

B.
Of these five questions one may be omitted.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Final Examination, 1892.

Johns Hopkins Faculty
for the Undergraduate Courses in Political Economy
1923-1924

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
1923-24

Examinations for
Undergraduate Political Economy Courses
Johns Hopkins University
1923-1924