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Econometrics Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Introduction to Econometrics, Syllabus and Final Exam. Sims, 1967-68

Christopher A. Sims, portrait from his senior year

 

Christopher Sims was awarded a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in February 1968 and in the Spring term of 1967-68 he still taught at the rank of “Instructor in Economics” (Note: he was promoted to assistant professor of economics beginning with the Fall term of 1968-69). We see from the official course announcement for the 1967-68 academic year that the staffing of the undergraduate introduction to econometrics course had not been determined until some time after the printing of the course announcements. 

An earlier post provides the course syllabus and partial reading list for Sims’ graduate course on time series econometrics.

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Course Announcement

Economics 195. Introduction to Econometrics.

Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., S., at 11. Dr. ——

Statistics applied to testing of economic hypotheses and estimation of economic parameters. Will center on multiple regression and analysis of variance techniques and their application to tests on time series and cross-section data and to estimation of simultaneous equation models.

Prerequisite: Statistics 123 [Statistics in the Social Sciences] or equivalent.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction, Harvard and Radcliffe, 1967-1968. Pp. 127-128.

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Course Outline and Reading List

Dr. Sims
Spring 1968

Economics 195
Reading List and Outline

Alternative texts

Carl F. Christ, Econometric Models and Methods, Wiley, 1967
or
J. Johnston, Econometric Methods, McGraw-Hill, 1963

Other references not required for purchase:

Arthur S. Goldberger, Econometric Theory, Wiley, 1964

E. Malinvaud, Statistical Methods of Econometrics, Rand-McNally, 1966

Other required purchases:

National Income and Product of the U.S., 1929-65, U.S. G.P.O.

Economic Report of the President, 1968, U.S. G.P.O. (This may not be available until a few weeks after the semester begins.)

Some source of statistical tables — the F, t, normal and chi-squared distributions — will be necessary. Christ includes such tables. If you buy Johnston instead and you own no other source of tables, adequate sources are:

Tables for Statisticians, Barnes and Noble, or

Standard Mathematical Tables, Chemical Rubber Publishing Co.

Course Outline

Unstarred readings are passages which should parallel part of what is covered in class.

(*) Readings which are required and which may not be covered in class.
(**) optional readings.

  1. Least squares in econometrics.
    1. Abstract models which justify LS.
    2. How such Models arise in economics: structural models and conditional forecasts.

Johnston, p. 13-29, 106-112

Goldberger, p. 156-165, 179-80, 266-74, 278-80, 288-304.

Christ, Ch. VIII, IX.1-4, IV.4-6

  1. Tests of linear hypotheses in regression models

Johnston, p. 112-138

Goldberger, p. 172-180

Christ, p. 495-514

  1. Constructing models: Principles, gimmicks, and pitfalls.
    1. Models in general: Data transformations; altering specifications in the light of results.
    2. Time series forecasting models: Multicollinearity; distributed lags; lagged endogenous variables.

Christ, Ch. V

Johnston, p. 201-207, p. 212-221

Goldberger, p. 192-4

(*) Christ, p. 579-606

(*) Friend, Irwin and Robert C. Jones, “Short-Run Forecasting Models” in Models of Income Determination.

(*) Orcutt, G.H., and S.F. James, “Testing the Significance of Correlations between Time Series”, Biometrika 12/48

(**) National Bureau of Economic Research, The Quality and Significance of Economic Anticipations Data, 1960.

(**) National Bureau of Economic Research, Short Term Economic Forecasting (Studies in Income and Wealth, v. 27)

(**) National Bureau of Economic Research, Models of Income Determination (Studies in Income and Wealth, v. 28)

  1. Refinements of multiple regression
    1. Nonspherical disturbances and generalized least squares.

Christ, IX.5, IX.13

Goldberger, p. 201-212, 231-243

Johnston, Ch. 7

Zellner, A. “An Efficient Method for Estimating Seemingly Unrelated Regressions”, J. Amer. Stat. Assoc., 6/62

(**) Balestra, P. and M. Nerlove, “Pooling Cross-Section and Time Series Data in the Estimation of a Dynamic Model”, Econometrica, 7/66

    1. Errors in variables and instrumental variable estimation.

Goldberger, p. 282-287

    1. Dummy variables and analysis of variance

Goldberger, p. 218-231

Johnston, p.221-228

    1. Distributed lag estimation

Johnston, Ch.8.3

Goldberger, p. 274-8

Almon, S. “The Distributed Lag between Capital Appropriations and Expenditures”, Econometrica, 1/65

(**) Mundlak, Y., “Aggregation over Time in Distributed Leg Models”, Int. Econ. Rev. 5/61

(**) Jorgenson, D., “Rational Distributed Lag Functions”, Econometrica, 1/66

  1. Testing Revisited
    1. Serial correlation; the Durbin-Watson Statistic

Johnston, Ch.7.4

Christ, Ch.X.4

Goldberger, p. 243-244

Nerlove, M., and Wallis, K., “Use of the Durbin-Watson Statistic in inappropriate situations”, Econometrica, 1/66

    1. Tests of structural stability and forecast accuracy

Johnston, Ch.4.4

Christ, Ch. X.6, 7, 9

Goldberger, p. 169-70, 210-11

(**) Theil, H., Applied Economic Forecasting.

(**) Sims, C. “Evaluating Short-term Macro-economic Forecasts: The Dutch Experience”, Rev. Econ. and Stat. 5/67

  1. Estimation and testing in simultaneous equations models
    (Reading assignments for this section will be made when it is reached in class).
  1. Possible Additional. Topics
    (Readings for topics in this section will be assigned when and if they are reached in class.)

    1. Bayesian regression
    2. Nonlinear regression
    3. Principal components and discriminant analysis
    4. Spectral analysis

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 9. Folder “Economics, 1967-68”.

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Final Examination
Economics 195

Spring 1968
Dr. C. Sims

Do all questions on the exam. Do not spend more than the suggested amount of time on any one question, unless you have time left over at the end. Most questions include at least some quite difficult parts, so you need not finish every question to get a good grade. Formulas and a table appear on the last page.

  1. (Time: 25 minutes)
    1. Define the terms “consistent estimator” and “unbiased estimator”.
    2. We wish to estimate a scalar parameter β, and we have available four estimators, bi(n), 1=1, … 4, where n is sample size.
      Suppose we know that these estimators have the forms

b1(n) = β + (1 + ν) / n

b2(n) = β + 2 ν /n

b3(n) = β + ν /200

b4(n) = β (1 + (ν / n)),

where ν ∼ N(0,1). For each of the four estimators, tell whether it is consistent or inconsistent, biased or unbiased.

    1. Among the three estimators b1(n), b2(n) and b3(n), which is the minimum variance unbiased estimator for a sample of size 10? Would your answer change if b4(n) were included in the comparison?
  1. (Time: 40 minutes)
    We are interested in measuring the relationship between I.Q. and income using the relationship:

yi(t) = α + β xi(t) + νi(t)

where yi(t) is the income and xi(t) the I.Q. of the i’th individual at time t. The variable νi(t) is an unobserved random term assumed to satisfy E [νi(t) | xi(t)] = 0.

    1. Suppose we have observations on yi(t0) and xi(t0) for a large cross-section of individuals at a single time (t=t0). What additional assumptions are necessary to guarantee that least squares regression of y on x in this sample will yield unbiased estimates of α and β? Comment briefly on the reasonableness of these assumptions in this context.
    2. Suppose we have observations on y0(t) and x0(t) for a single individual (i=0) for a large number of time periods. What additional assumptions are necessary to guarantee that least squares regression of y on x in this sample will yield unbiased estimates of α and β? Comment briefly on the reasonableness of these assumptions in this context.
    3. For a given sample size, which would you expect to yield more reliable estimates for this model — a cross-section as in part (a) or a time series on an individual as in part (b)? Why?
    4. Give sufficient conditions for the regression in part (b) to yield consistent estimates of α and β. Comment briefly on the reasonableness of these assumptions in this context.
  1. (Time: 35 minutes)

Economist A believes an individual’s savings in a given year depend only on his mean income over the current year and the preceding year, i.e.,

\bar{y}_{i} =\left( 1/2 \right) \left( y_{i}+y_{i}\left( -1 \right) \right).

Economist B believes savings depend only on the change in income between the current and the preceding year, i.e.,

\Delta y_{i}=y_{i}-y_{i}\left( -1 \right) .

They take a sample of 20 randomly selected individuals and regress savings (si) on current and lagged income
(yi and yi (-1)) with no constant term to obtain

1)      si = .08 yi – .02 yi(-1) + residual

as an estimated equation. Their computer printout contains in addition the following information:

\sum y_{i}^{2}=5;     \sum y_{i}\left( -1 \right)^{2} =5;     \sum y_{i}y_{i}\left( -1 \right) =4;

\sum s_{i}y_{i}=.32;     \sum s_{i}y_{i}\left( -1 \right) =.22;     \sum s_{i}^{2}=.0374;

\hat{\sigma}^{2} =\ .0009

(\hat{\sigma}^{2} =\ \text{equation residual variance, unbiased estimate).}

Formulate A’s and B’s theories as hypotheses about the coefficients in (1) and compute a test of each theory at the 5% level of significance in a two-tail test. Can either hypothesis be rejected at this significance level? State the assumptions about the distribution of the residuals in the model which are necessary to justify the test you use here.

(See table on last page)

  1. (Time: 40 minutes)
    1. Two of the following cannot be covariance matrices. Which two? (Point out what’s wrong with each of the two). (7 minutes)
      1. \left[ \begin{matrix}4&1\\ 1&2\end{matrix} \right]
      2. \left[ \begin{matrix}4&-1\\ -1&4\end{matrix} \right]
      3. \left[ \begin{matrix}4&1\\ -1&4\end{matrix} \right]
      4. \left[ \begin{matrix}1&-3\\ -3&3\end{matrix} \right]
      5. \left[ \begin{matrix}1&0\\ 0&1\end{matrix} \right]
    1. What is multicollinearity? (7 minutes)
    2. What is a Koyck distributed lag relationship? (7 minutes)
    3. What is an Almon polynomial distributed lag relationship? (7 minutes)
    4. What are some advantages and disadvantages of the Koyck as compared to the Almon distributed lag relationship for purposes of econometric model-building? (12 minutes)
  1. (Time: 45 minutes)

Consider the following model of income and employment determination in New England:

[demand for output] (A) Y = a1 + b1 Yus + c1W + ν1

[demand for labor] (B) E = a2 + b2 Y + ν2

[wage determination] (C) W = a3 + b3 (L – E) + ν3

[labor supply] (D) L = a4 + b4 t + c4 W + d4 E + ν4

where Y is aggregate income in New England

L is labor force (number at work or looking for work in New England)

E is employment (number actually at work in New England)

W is the ratio of New England wages to the national average.

Yus is aggregate U.S. income.

t is the current year.

νi, i = 1, . . ., 4 are random disturbances.

    1. Which variables are most reasonably treated as endogenous, which as exogenous in this model?
    2. Would any of the variables you specify as exogenous possibly be better treated as endogenous in a larger model? Why?
    3. Using the order criterion, which equations in the model are under-identified? over-identified?
    4. Describe briefly in words the simplest way to obtain consistent estimates of equation (A) (under the usual assumptions about distribution of residuals).
    5. Suppose you discovered that the residuals from equation (A) were highly correlated with federal defense expenditures. How would you modify the model? How would this modify your answer to part (c)?
Table and Formulae t-statistic
P[ |t| > x]
Degrees of Freedom .1 .05 .01
2 2.920 4.303 6.965
8 1.860 2.306 2.896
14 1.761 2.145 2.624
15 1.753 2.131 2.602
16 1.746 2.120 2.583
17 1.740 2.110 2.567
18 1.734 2.101 2.552
19 1.729 2.093 2.539
20 1.725 2.086 2.528

Ordinary least squares

\hat{b} =\left( X^{\prime}X \right)^{-1} X^{\prime}Y

V\left( \hat{b} \right) =\sigma^{2} \left( X^{\prime}X \right)^{-1}

\hat{\sigma}^{2} =\left( Y^{\prime}Y-\hat{b}^{\prime} X^{\prime}Y \right) /\left( n-k \right)

t-test on H_{0}:\ c^{\prime}b = M


t=\frac{c^{\prime}b-M}{\sqrt{\hat{\sigma}^{2} \left( X^{\prime}X \right)^{-1}}}

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [for] History, History of Religions, Government, Economics, … (June 1968).

Image Source: Christopher A. Sims ’63 in Harvard Class Album 1963. From the Harvard Crimson article “Harvard and the Atomic Bomb,” by Matt B. Hoisch and Luke W. Xu (March 22, 2018). Sims was a member of the Harvard/Radcliffe group “Tocsin” that advocated nuclear disarmament.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Exams for history of economics to 1848. Bullock, 1907-1908

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, 1727-1781

The semester exam questions for the fifth time Charles Jesse Bullock taught this history and literature of economics through 1848 at Harvard. He also covered the field of public finance. Guess which field is not really taught much any more…

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Earlier versions of the course
by year and instructor

1899-1900. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. [William James Ashley]

1901-02. History and Literature of Economics, to the opening of the Nineteenth Century. [Charles Whitney Mixter]

1903-04. History and Literature of Economics to the opening of the Nineteenth Century [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1904-05. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1905-06. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1906-07. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 [Charles Jesse Bullock]

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History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 15. Asst. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 7: 7 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY
Mid-Year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Describe the development of theories of commerce from the time of Aristotle to that of the Schoolmen.
  2. Compare the Republic of Plato with More’s Utopia.
  3. Give an account of the economic opinions of Xenophon.
  4. Describe the development of the doctrine of usury from the time of Aristotle to the year 1500.
  5. What do you think of Ingram’s treatment of the economic thought of the Middle Ages?
  6. How did Aristotle classify the various branches of the art of acquisition?
  7. How far would Aristotle’s classification of the various branches of the art of acquisition harmonize with the views of the Schoolmen concerning the various branches of industry and trade?
  8. What is your opinion of the Scholastic doctrine concerning usury?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF ECONOMICS.
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. What connection can be traced between the economic thought of the sixteenth century and that of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries?
  2. What traces of Aristotle’s influence can be seen in the political and economic theories of Adam Smith?
  3. What doctrines concerning money can be found in the writings of Aristotle, the Schoolmen, Davanzati, and Hume?
  4. Write a brief account of economic thought in England, France, and Italy from 1540 to 1590.
  5. Write a brief survey of the condition of economic thought in England, France, Germany, and Italy about the middle of the eighteenth century.
  6. Compare the opinions of Thomas Mun with those of two earlier and two later English Mercantilists.
  7. What was Turgot’s theory of distribution?
  8. At what points did Smith’s theory of distribution differ from that of Turgot?
  9. Describe the progress of Smith’s doctrines in France and Germany up to the year 1850.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 38-39.

Image Source: Jean-Antoine Houdon’s bust of Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727-1781). Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. History of Economics through 1848. Bullock, 1905-1906

For some reason this course was inadvertently skipped over when I was posting the 1905-06 Harvard exams earlier. Charles Jesse Bullock was responsible for the fields of public finance and the history of economic thought in the department during the first decades of the twentieth century. There’s more to come.

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Earlier history of economics exams
by year and instructor

1899-1900. The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. [William James Ashley]

1901-02. History and Literature of Economics, to the opening of the Nineteenth Century. [Charles Whitney Mixter]

1903-04. History and Literature of Economics to the opening of the Nineteenth Century [Charles Jesse Bullock]

1904-05. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. [Charles Jesse Bullock]

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

 Economics 15. Asst. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 7: 7 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 73.

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ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY
Mid-Year Examination, 1905-06

  1. What did Aristotle say concerning the following topics: commerce, money, usury, value?
  2. What economic topics were discussed by the Roman writers?
  3. Trace briefly the development of the political and economic theories of the Schoolmen.
  4. Upon what grounds do modern writers defend the prohibition of usury during the Middle Ages?
  5. What is your opinion of the theories by which the prohibition was upheld?
  6. Give some account of the economic opinions of Carafa.
  7. In the economic writings of the sixteenth century, so far as you are acquainted with them, what evidence do you find of continuity in the development of economic doctrine?
  8. Give an account of the economic opinions of John Hales?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06.

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ECONOMICS 15
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. What traces of Aristotle’s influence have you found in the economic literature of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries?
  2. What traces of Scholastic influence can be found in the economic literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
  3. Give a brief account of the writings and economic opinions of any three of the following men: Misselden, North, Locke, Vanderlint, Decker, and Hume.
  4. Write a brief account of the progress of economic thought in Italy from 1500 to 1770.
  5. Write a brief account of the rise and progress of Cameral Science in Germany.
  6. To what extent were the Physiocrats indebted to previous economic thought?
  7. What were the chief influences that contributed to the development of Adam Smith’s system of economic doctrine?
  8. Compare the “Wealth of Nations” with the “Lectures upon Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), pp. 40-41.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Transportation

Harvard. Railroad economics. Daggett, 1907-1908

Stuart Daggett (1881-1954) wrote his Harvard economics dissertation under William Z. Ripley and went on to become Professor of Transportation on the Flood Foundation at Berkeley.

While at Harvard Daggett co-taught the survey course on the economics of corporations with Ripley a couple of times and the economics of transportation with him several times. Daggett taught the course on railroad practice by himself which was offered for the first time 1906-07.

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Ph.D. Thesis

Stuart Daggett. A.B. [Harvard] 1903, A.M. [Harvard] 1904. Instructor in Economics. Ph.D. in Economics 1906. Thesis: Railroad Reorganization.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1905-1906, p. 147.

Railroad Reorganization by Stuart Daggett, Ph.D. Instructor in Economics in Harvard University. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1908.

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From the 1927 Berkeley Yearbook

A personal interest in the affairs and problems of the students enrolled in the College of Commerce has characterized the administration of Stuart Daggett, who was appointed Dean of that College in 1918.

Not only have individuals received assistance and encouragement from him, but many of the college organizations have benefited by his interest and suggestions. The Commercia, the monthly publication of the Commerce students, first moved from a needed storeroom in Budd Hall to a single desk in the Commerce office, and finally found a permanent home through the efforts of Dean Daggett. When the Physics Department was moved to its present quarters, leaving South Hall to be occupied by the Department of Economics and College of Commerce, the present Commerce Club Rooms building was being used as the physics machine shop. This Dean Daggett succeeded in procuring as an office for the Commercia, and as club rooms for the Commerce Association, the foremost social organization of the college. By some effort, the club house has been kept sacred to the students of the College of Commerce. During the campaign for Amendment 10, when the University was looking for some central location from which to conduct the drive, the Commerce Association offered the use of their rooms to President Campbell, thus furnishing a convenient location.

Dr. Daggett attended Harvard University, from which institution he received the degrees of A.B in 1903, and M.A. the next year, and a Ph.D. in 1906. He instructed in economics at the same university for two years after receiving the last degree. In 1909, he became an assistant professor on the University of California faculty; in 1913 was made associate professor; and finally, in 1917, became professor of railway economics on the Flood Foundation. The next year he succeeded Henry R. Hatfield as Dean of the College of Commerce.

Source: University of California, Berkeley. Blue and Gold 1927, p. 25.

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Railroad Practice
1907-08 

Course Enrollment
1907-08 

Economics 17 2hf. Dr. [Stuart] Daggett. — Railroad Practice.

Total 34: 2 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

ECONOMICS 17
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. The following items appear on the balance sheet of a Boston & Maine agent located at one of that road’s junction points:—
    1. Advanced charges on freight forwarded.
    2. Prepaid charges on freight forwarded.
    3. Prepaid beyond on freight forwarded.
    4. Prepaid beyond on freight received.
    5. Cash remitted treasurer.
    6. Collect charges on freight received.
    7. Drafts on treasurer for advances.

Arrange the above to show the debits and credits to the agent. How would the charges on a collect shipment sent to an interior junction point, such as Nashua, be handled in the station accounts of that junction point?

  1. The following waybills from Providence, R.I., may have been reported to the Boston & Maine by the New Haven as representing freight turned over to the former at Boston for delivery to Boston & Maine stations:—
Destination Articles Weight Rate Freight Advance Prepaid
Portsmouth, N.H. Blackboards, boxed 30,000 16 $48.00 $4.00 $52.00
Portland, Me. Hods 20,000 19 38.00 2.00
North Adams, Mass. Lamps 5,000 30 15.00 3.00 8.00

Assume that the New Haven is entitled to one-half the through rate on (1), to one-third of the through rate on (2), and to one-quarter of the through rate on (3), and that settlements between the two roads have been made on this basis. It subsequently is discovered that the shipments reported never reached the Boston & Maine. What money must be refunded in each case, and to which road is the refund due?

  1. Suppose the shipments referred to in (2) had come to the Boston & Maine from the Maine Central or from the New York Central. Could the same mistake have occurred? If from the Maine Central, how would the balances between the handling roads have been ascertained and settled? Explain fully.
  2. How would a car record have been kept if the shipment had been between two points on the Great Northern Railway? How if the shipment had been of manifest fast freight on the Illinois Central Railroad?
  3. At what speed, according to some recent estimates, could this freight most economically have been handled? Explain the way the estimates were arrived at, and discuss the principal elements of cost due to high speed.
  4. How might the shipment have been handled after its arrival
    1. at the terminal yards at point of destination;
    2. at the terminal station?

Draw a diagram of an infreight and of an outfreight house, and explain the reasons for any difference in construction.

  1. Would the shipment between Providence and Portland have come under the jurisdiction of any railroad traffic association? Describe the organization and scope of
    1. The American Railway Association;
    2. The Southeastern Freight Association;
    3. The Western Classification Committee?
  2. How far do the arguments for demurrage charges justify the imposition of reciprocal demurrage charges? Describe
    1. The method by which demurrage charges are kept watch of and collected.
    2. The present situation in the matter of reciprocal demur-rage.
  1. Analyze the statistics of accidents on railways in the United States. What measures have been taken to reduce accidents, and with what results?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 41-43.

Image Source: University of California, Berkeley. Blue and Gold 1927, p. 25. Colorized at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Public finance and taxation exams. Bullock, 1907-1908

The Fountain of Taxation

Early twentieth century public finance and taxation courses at the Harvard economics department belonged to the domain of Charles Jesse Bullock (1869-1941). He regularly examined economics graduate students to certify that they demonstrated having a reading knowledge of French and German.

________________________

Bullock’s earlier public finance exams
at Harvard

1901-02. Economics 7a and 7b. Financial administration; taxation [undergraduate]

1903-04. Economics 16.  Financial history of the United States

1904-05. Economics 7a. Introduction to public finance [undergraduate]

1904-05. Economics 7b. Theory and methods of taxation [undergraduate]

1904-05. Economics 16. Financial history of the United States.

1905-06 Economics 7.  Public finance [undergraduate]

1905-06 Economics 16. Public finance [advanced]

1906-97 Economics 16. Public finance and taxation

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

From 1906: Selected Readings in Public Finance edited by Charles Jesse Bullock (Boston: Inn & Company).

From 1910: Short bibliography on public finance “for serious minded students” by Bullock

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Course Enrollment, Public Finance
1907-08

Economics 16a 1hf. Asst. Professor Bullock. — Introduction to Public Finance

Total 33: 6 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

 

ECONOMICS 16a
INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC FINANCE
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. What were the causes of the increase of public expenditures in the nineteenth century?
  2. Compare the opinions of Adam Smith and Rau concerning public domains.
  3. Discuss the financial results of the United States Post Office.
  4. What have been the financial results of public ownership of railroads?
  5. Describe the organization of the United States Treasury Department.
  6. Describe the budgetary practice of American municipalities.
  7. For what purposes is it proper that a municipality should borrow money?
  8. Discuss the proposition that loans are drawn from the capital of a country and that taxes come from income.
  9. State and criticise Dr. Price’s theory of sinking funds.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), p. 39.

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Course Enrollment, Taxation
1907-08

Economics 16b 2hf. Asst. Professor Bullock. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation

Total 59: 7 Graduates, 18 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

ECONOMICS 16b
THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. From a practical point of view what is to be said concerning progressive taxation?
  2. What can be said concerning the incidence of the following taxes: the property tax levied by Massachusetts upon machinery, upon merchandise, and upon livestock; and the corporate franchise tax on street railways?
  3. Discuss the experience of American states in taxing: (a) tangible personal property; (b) intangible personal property.
  4. State and discuss three cases of double taxation which often occur in the United States.
  5. What do you think of the proposition that a tax on the income of land is a tax on land, and therefore a direct tax under the provisions of the Constitution of the United States?
  6. What taxes would be paid by a French manufacturer who owned all the property, real and personal, employed in his business? What would be paid by an English manufacturer similarly situated?
  7. Compare excise taxation in Great Britain with excise taxation in France.
  8. Enumerate and discuss four constitutional limitations upon the taxing power of the legislature of Massachusetts.
  9. Compare national taxation in Great Britain with national taxation in the United States.
  10. What do you think of the expediency of employing taxation as an instrument of social reform?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), p. 40.

Image Source: Library of Congress. Puck, 23 June 1909. “The fountain of taxation”. Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, Puck Building.

A large fountain with four basins, at top, supported by a crown and scepters, is a basin labeled “Millionaire”, next resting on a cornucopia is “Well-To-Do”, then the “Middle Class” basin supported by an octopus, and at the bottom is the largest basin labeled the “Laboring Class”. The fountain is standing on a platform labeled “Tax System”; the water, cascading from top down is labeled “Burden of Taxation”.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Exam questions for Social Reform, Socialism, Communism. Carver, 1907-1908

Harvard’s Thomas Nixon Carver, individualist to a fault, played less a devil’s advocate in his courses on social economic reform than he engaged with the theories behind the social movements of his time to disabuse his students’ of the economic schemes of reformers and revolutionaries that attracted them like moths to a flame. 

While  Bakunin, Marx and George are seen in the Rear-view Mirror of today, they were still objects seen in the side-view mirrors of Carver’s time — objects he probably believed to be closer than they appeared. In any case, objects to avoid for safety’s sake.

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Previously posted

Pre-Carver:
Carver’s courses

Post-Carver:

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 14b 2hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

Total 20: 5 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 14b
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. In what particulars does the socialist movement resemble a religious rather than a rationalistic movement?
  2. What are the leading doctrines of “Orthodox Socialism”?
  3. In what particulars are socialism and anarchism alike, and in what particulars are they unlike?
  4. State and comment upon Karl Marx’s theory as to the origin of capital and of interest.
  5. Compare the single tax movement and the socialist movement.
  6. Have you any clearly defined conclusion as to the proper, or logical, limits of state enterprise? If so, explain. If not, state the difficulty in the way of arriving at such a conclusion.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), p. 38.

Images: Mikhail Bakunin, Karl Marx, Henry George from the Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.  New York Public Library Digital Collections.

 

 

Categories
Distribution Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam for Distribution of Wealth. Carver, 1907-1908

 

Thomas Nixon Carver was originally hired by Harvard for his work in economic theory. His course portfolio expanded to cover agricultural economics, sociology, economic reform schemes, and methodology, but his course on distribution probably is the best single reflection of his core economic understanding (beliefs?) regarding economic theory. 

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From earlier semesters

1904-05
1905-06

The course content is undoubtedly captured in Carver’s 1904 book The Distribution of Wealth which was reprinted several times during his lifetime.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 14a 1hf. Professor Carver. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 19: 5 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 14a
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Assuming that the labor of a man and team, with the appropriate tools costs the farmer the equivalent of 5 bushels a day, how many days could he most profitably devote to the cultivation of each of the four fields described in the following table:—
Number of days’ labor of a man and team with the appropriate tools. Total product, in bushels, of each of four fields under
varying applications of labor.

Field A

 Field B Field C

Field D

5

 50 45 40 35
10 150 140 130

125

15

 270 255 240 220
20 380 360 300

270

25

 450 420 350 310
30 510 470 390

340

35

 560 510 420 360
40 600 540 440

375

45

 630 560 450 385
50 650 575 455

390
  1. Assuming that the relation of the labor supply to the land supply is such that for four fields like those assumed in the table there are 130 days labor of the kind assumed, what, in bushels, would be the normal rate of wages — i.e., what is the highest rate of wages at which the farmers could find it more to their advantage to employ all the labor than to leave some of it unemployed.
  2. Under the conditions assumed in Problem 2, how much, approximately, would the total product of the community be reduced if field A were withdrawn from cultivation.
  3. Exactly what do you understand by capital and how does it come into existence.
  4. How, if at all, is the supply of capital related to the rate of wages? What authors have you read upon this point and how does your opinion compare with theirs?
  5. What do you understand by the standard of living, and how does it affect wages?
  6. How is the productivity of an instrument of production determined? How is its value determined? How and where, in the process of valuation, does interest arise?
  7. What is the risk theory of profits? What writers, among those whom you have read, hold to this theory, and how do their views compare?
  8. What classes of incomes do you regard as earned, and what as unearned? Justify your position.
  9. What are the leading theories, so far as you have studied, as to how wealth ought to be distributed? Which do you prefer? Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

Image Source: Portrait of Thomas Nixon Carver from the Harvard Class Album 1913. Colorized and enhanced by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Methodology

Harvard. Semester Exams for Methods of Economic Investigation. Carver, 1907-1908

The following exam questions on Methods of Economic Investigation were for a course listed as primarily for graduate students, taught by Thomas Nixon Carver at Harvard, 1907-08. It is hard for me to imagine there was any period in the last 120 or so years when anyone might have been impressed by this shallow dive into questions of methodology. Am I missing something?

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Some biographical details
for Thomas N. Carver

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-course-readings-final-exams-and-enrollment-for-principles-of-sociology-carver-and-field-1904-1905/

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Exams from earlier years

1900-01
1901-02
1903-04
1904-05

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 13 hf. Professor Carver. — Methods of Economic Investigation

Total 3: 2 Graduates, 1 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 13
Mid-year examination, 1907-08

  1. How can the method of difference be applied to the determination of the shares in the distribution of wealth.
  2. What do you understand by the analytical method in economics? Give examples.
  3. Is the mathematical and diagrammatic method capable of being used in investigation, or it is only a method of exposition? Give reasons for your answer.
  4. Is there a noticeable tendency among certain writers to treat economics as though it were the science of surplus wealth, and among others to treat it as a science of human well-being? What is the real difference between the two points of view.
  5. How would you subdivide economics into departments; (a) if you were going to write a text-book; (b) if you were going to organize a department of economics in a university where you could have a teaching staff, say, of 8 specialists, and could get men who would fit into whatever special fields you might plan for them?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

ECONOMICS 13
Year-end examination, 1907-08

  1. To what extent is the question of method determined by the kind of information which the investigator is seeking? Illustrate.
  2. Is the question of method ever confused with the question of the source from which information must be gathered? Illustrate.
  3. Is the mathematical method a method of investigation or of exposition? Explain and illustrate.
  4. What quantitative concepts are, or should be, used when we speak of a quantity of land, of oats, of capital, of labor, of money?
  5. Describe and criticise three methods of ascertaining to what extent immigration, since 1820, has increased the population of the United States.
  6. Contrast three methods of ascertaining the causes of poverty.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 36-37.

Image Source: Harvard football poster (1907) by F. Earl Christy. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

 

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exams for Modern Economic History of Europe. Gay, 1907-1908

Portrait of Jakob Fugger the Rich by Albrecht Dürer

 

Today’s artifact is a reminder of the importance of economic history in the economics curriculum throughout most of the twentieth century (and of course earlier). While it is by no means obvious that knowledge of the sort of stuff taught by Edwin F. Gay over one hundred years ago will help working economists develop and use the tools of modern economic analysis in their present day research, it should be rather obvious that the record of human experience is loaded with variation begging for understanding and explanation. It seems like an awful lot of evidence to ignore. So let us see what Edwin Gay’s students were expected to have learned about European economic history.

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Earlier, related posts

A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from 1902-03.

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

Exams for 1905-06.

Exams for 1906-07.

A short bibliography for “serious students” of economic history assembled by Gay and published in 1910 has also been posted.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 11. Professor Gay. — Modern Economic History of Europe.

Total 5: 3 Graduates, 1 Seniors, 1 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 11
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Explain briefly:—
    1. the open field system.
    2. the manorial system.
    3. the town economy.
    4. Erbuntertänigkeit.
    5. lettre de maîtrise.
    6. the Steelyard.
  2. Serfdom.
    1. When and why did it disappear in England?
    2. When on the Continent?
    3. Can you account for the differences between England and the Continent in the manner and time of disappearance?
  3. The craft gild.
    1. What in general was its object and policy?
    2. What changes took place in its internal organization?
    3. What, during the sixteenth century, was the attitude toward it of the national government in England and France?
  4. The woollen industry in England to the end of the sixteenth century.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1907-08.

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ECONOMICS 11
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Criticise the following statement:—

“The two ways by which a villein or slave could always get free in England were, first, by owning land; and secondly, by joining the guild of a trade, in a town, and working at it for a year and a day. In a sense, therefore, labor is the source of freedom in England; for many millions more Englishmen got free through this door than by any other way.”

  1. (a) Who were the Fuggers? What type of company organization do they represent?
    (b) Compare the form of company organization in the following: Merchant Adventurers, the Commenda, English Levant Company, English and Dutch East India Companies prior to 1660.
  2. Describe the chief changes in taxation in England during the seventeenth century.
  3. (a) Define the domestic and factory systems.
    (b) Give in detail examples of three different forms of the domestic system.
  4. Summarize the history and results of wage regulation by public authority in England.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), p. 35.

Image Source: Portrait of Jakob Fugger (1459-1525) by Albrecht Dürer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Macroeconomics Money and Banking

Johns Hopkins. Final exam for monetary economics. Poole, 1968

The artifact chosen for this post is the final examination for William Poole’s monetary economics course at Johns Hopkins University in 1968. Not all artifacts at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror are long.

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William Poole’s Career

William Poole became the eleventh president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on March 23, 1998, and retired March 31, 2008.

Poole was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He received a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in 1959 and a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1963 and 1966, respectively. Before joining the St. Louis Fed, Poole was Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics at Brown University. He served on the Brown faculty from 1974 to 1998 and the faculty of Johns Hopkins University from 1963 to 1969. Between these two university positions, he was senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He was also a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the first Reagan administration from 1982 to 1985.

Poole has published numerous papers in professional journals and engaged in a wide range of professional activities. He has published two books: Money and the Economy: A Monetarist View in 1978 and Principles of Economics in 1991 (coauthored with J. Vernon Henderson). During his ten years at the St. Louis Fed, he delivered over 150 speeches on a wide variety of economic and finance topics.

In 1980 and 1981, Poole was a visiting economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia; in 1991, he was the Bank Mees and Hope Visiting Professor of Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He has served on various advisory boards of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and New York and the Congressional Budget Office. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Delaware, senior economic adviser to Merk Investments, and a special adviser to Market News International.

Swarthmore honored Poole with a doctor of laws degree in 1989. He was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2005 and presented with the Adam Smith Award by the National Association for Business Economics in 2006. In 2007, the Global Interdependence Center presented him its Frederick Heldring Award.

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20240607041405/https://www.federalreservehistory.org/people/william-poole

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Other relevant posts

Reading list for monetary economics, 1964 (JHU)

Modigliani and Poole’s MIT reading list, 1977 (MIT)

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The Johns Hopkins University
Political Economy 662
— Monetary Theory

W. Poole

Final Exam — 2 hours
May 27, 1968

Answer three of the four questions below.

  1. In principle It would be possible to “automate” monetary policy by deriving an optimal decision rule. Explain how such a rule might actually be determined, and what the difficulties of such an approach to monetary policy might be.
  2. Discuss the theory and the cyclical behavior of the term structure of interest rates. Is an understanding of this behavior likely to be of any value to the policy-maker?
  3. “It has been argued that lags in the demand for money function may off-set lags in the expenditure sector, thus leading to a rapid response of income to monetary policy actions. But this result depends on large interest rate fluctuations and such fluctuations are inconsistent with both the notion of a speculative demand for money and with the Meiselman learning model of the term structure of interest rates.” Discuss.
  4. “In a one-sector neoclassical growth model, money will affect the growth path provided that the money is outside money and that zero interest is paid on money balances. Therefore, a sensible growth policy is to prohibit payment of interest on demand deposits and to increase the rate of growth of the money stock.” Discuss.

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

Image Source: William Poole at the Federal Reserve Centennial, 2014.