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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate core economic theory, Syllabus and Exams. Chamberlin, 1941-42.

 

Reading assignments in the first year core economic theory course taught by Edward Chamberlin at Harvard University in 1941-42 included some of the golden ‘oldies of David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, John Elliott Cairnes, John Bates Clark, and Alfred Marshall. Works by Joan Robinson, John Hicks and, of course, Chamberlin himself provided modern accents to the economic theory taught in the course.

Edward Chamberlin’s syllabus and final year-end exam for his 1938-39 version of core economic theory were posted earlier as have been the syllabus and both semester final exams for 1946-47.

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Economic Theory.
Edward Hastings Chamberlin

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 101. Professor Chamberlin. – Economic Theory.

Total 53: 9 Graduates, 7 Radcliffe, 8 School of Public Administration.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1941-42, p. 63.

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Course Description

[Economics] 101. – Economic Theory.

This course aims to provide a general background in economic theory. Leading problems in value and distribution will be discussed with some reference to particular writers and schools of thought, but with the main objective of training the student in economic analysis. Active participation in the class discussions is expected.

Source: Identical descriptions in the Division of History, Government, and Economics announcements for 1940-41 and 1942-43.

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Economics 101

1941-42

First Semester

I.     Mill – Principles, Book II, chapter 4; Book III, chapters 1, 2.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapters 1, 2.

Mill – Principles, Book III, chapters 3, 5, 6.

Marshall – Principles, pp. 348-50; p. 806 note.

Mill – Principles, Book III, chapter 4.

Suggested Reading:

Introduction to the Ashley ed. of Mill, or

Mill’s Autobiography

Ricardo – Political Economy (Gonner edition), chapter 1.

II.   Boehm-Bawerk – Positive Theory of Capital, Books III, IV.

Marshall – Principles, Appendix I.

Wicksell – Lectures on Political Economy, chapter 1.

Suggested Reading:

Jevons – Theory of Political Economy, chapters 3, 4.

Phelps-Brown– The Framework of the Pricing System, chapter 2.

III.  Hicks – Value and Capital, chapters 1, 2.

IV. Marshall – Principles, Book V, chapters 1-5; Book IV, chapter 13; Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 12; Appendix H.

Knight, F. H. – “Cost of Production and Price over Long and Short Periods”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 29, p. 304 (1921). (Reprinted in Knight, The Ethics of Competition and Other Essays, Chapter 8).

Viner – “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, 1931.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, Appendix B.

Suggested Reading:

Additional reading in Marshall.

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

Sraffa – “The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions,” Economic Journal, Vol. 36, p. 535 (1926).

Taussig, F. W. –  “Price Fixing as Seen by a Price Fixer,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 33, p. 205.

V.  Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapter 3.

Abramovitz – “Monopolistic Selling in a Changing Economy”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 52, p. 191 (1938).

Suggested Reading:

Zeuthen – Problems of Monopoly, chapter 2.

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix A.Problems of Monopoly and Economic Warfare

VI.   Robinson – Imperfect Competition, Introduction, and chapters 1,2,3.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapters 4, 5; Appendices D, E.

Chamberlin – “Monopolistic or Imperfect Competition?”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1937.

Sweezy, P. M. – “On the Definition of Monopoly”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 51, p. 362 (1937)

Cassels, J. M. – “Excess Capacity and Monopolistic Competition”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 51, p. 426. (1937)

Suggested Reading:

Kaldor – “Professor Chamberlin on Monopolistic and Imperfect Competition”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1938: and Reply.

Robinson – Imperfect Competition, chapters 4, 5, 6, 7.

VII. Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, Appendix C.

Alsberg, C. L. – “Economic Aspects of Adulteration and Imitation”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 46, p. 1 (1931).

Suggested Reading:

Hotelling, H. “Stability in Competition”, Economic Journal, Vol. 39, p. 41 (1929)

Lerner, A. P. and Singer, H.W. – “Some Notes on Duopoly and Spatial Competition”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 45, p. 145 (1937)

Burns, A.R. – The Decline of Competition, chapter VIII, “Non-Price Competition”.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and ReadingLists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder, “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1941-42.”

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1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 101
Mid-year examination, 1942.

Answer question 2 and any five of the others (six in all).

  1. What parts of Mill’s theory of value would be acceptable and what parts not acceptable to economic theory today?
  2. Answer either (a) or (b).
    1. What does utility theory contribute to our understanding of the economic process, and how useful do you think it is to the economist of 1942? Answer the same question for the indifference curve analysis.
    2. Discuss the following proposition: “An individual will maximize his total satisfaction or utility, if the marginal utilities of all commodities are equalized.”
  3. Distinguish between a supply curve and a cost curve. Under what conditions is it possible for either or both to fall from left to right? What are the consequences of such a phenomenon?
  4. Write a critical appraisal of Professor Viner’s article “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” confining yourself to the subjects which seem to you most important. Compare his views where possible with those of other writers and with your own.
  5. What types of industries, if any, would you expect to find operating under conditions of increasing cost? Constant cost? Decreasing cost? Compare your own views with those of other writers with whom you are familiar.
  6. Discuss the difficulties involved in constructing a demand curve for the product of an individual firm where oligopolistic influences are important.
  7. What has monopolistic competition in common with pure competition? With monopoly? Discuss fully.
  8. Answer either (a) or (b).
    1. Discuss any aspect of the experimental market problem worked out in class which you think interesting or important.
    2. “With respect to quality there appears to be a sort of ‘Gresham’s Law’ for commodities: the inferior products tend to drive the better ones from the market.” Discuss.

Source:  Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 15, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations: History, History of Religions,…, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1942.

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Economics 101

1941-42

Second Semester

I.    Selling Costs:

Monopolistic Competition, Chapters 6, 7.

Braithwaite, Dorothea, “The Economic Effects of Advertisement,” Economic Journal, Vol. 38, p. 16 (1928). Reprinted as Chapter VII in Braithwaite and Dobbs, the Distribution of Consumable Goods.

II.   Distribution – General:

Marshall, Principles, Book VI, Chapters 1-5.

Clark, J. B., Distribution of Wealth, Chapter 8.

Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Chapter 4.

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 8.

Suggested Reading:

Garver & Hansen, Principles, Chapter 5.

Kahn, “Some Notes on Ideal Output” (last half) Economic Journal.

III. Wages:

Hicks, Theory of Wages, Chapters 1-7; 9; 10, section 1; 11, section 5.

Taussig, Principles, 3rd revised edition Chapter 47.

Robertson, Economic Fragments, Chapter on “Wage Grumbles.”

Suggested Reading:

Machlup,  “The Common Sense of Elasticity of Substitution,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. II, Page 202.

Cairnes, Leading Principles, Chapter 3.

IV.  Interest:

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory, Book I, chapter 2; Book II; Book V; Book VI, chapters 5, 6, 7; Book VII, chapters 1, 2, 3.

Fisher, Theory of Interest, pp. 473-85.

Marshall, Principles, Book IV, chapter 7; Book VI, chapter 1, sections 8, 9, 10, chapter 2, section 4, chapter 6.

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

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

Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development, chapters 1-5.

V.    Rent:

Ricardo, Chapter 2.

Marshall, Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 11.

Robinson, Imperfect Competition, chapters 8, 9.

VI.   Profits:

Marshall, Book VI, chapter 5, section 7; chapters 7, 8.

Taussig, Principles, 3rd revised edition, Vol. II, chapter 50, section 1.

Henderson, Supply & Demand, chapter 7.

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, chapter 5, section 6; chapter 7, section 6; Appendices D, E.

Schumpeter, (see under Interest)

Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation, Book IV.

Gordon, R.A., “Enterprise, Profits and the Modern Corporation,” in “Explorations in Economics,” p. 306.

Suggested Reading:

Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit.

VII. General:

Knight, The Ethics of Competition, Essay No. 11: “Economic Theory and Nationalism.”

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and Reading Lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder, “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1941-42.”

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1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 101
Final examination, 1942.

Write on FIVE questions altogether, four from Part A and one from Part B. Be careful to divide your time about evenly between the questions.

A
Write on FOUR questions from this group.

  1. What conflicts and harmonies of interest do you find between labor and the rest of society in the matter of wages, technical progress and efficiency? Discuss the issues involved with some reference to the economic theory of the subject.
  2. Describe and contrast the several most important types of interest theory which you have found in your reading, identifying them where possible with particular writers. State and defend your own theory of interest.
  3. The rent of land has been variously described as a scarcity return, a differential return, a surplus and a monopoly income. Discuss the issues presented by each of these terms and give your own conclusions.
  4. To what extent, if at all, do you believe it possible to explain profits in terms of the marginal productivity of the entrepreneurial factor? Discuss with some reference to issues raised in your reading on the subject of profits.
  5. What various meanings have been or may be given to the concept of “marginal productivity,” and under what conditions would each meaning be relevant? Discuss the circumstances under which all factors may be remunerated according to their marginal products without deficit or surplus.

B
Write on FOUR questions from this group.

  1. “Both prices and monopoly profits are necessarily increased by the presence of advertising.” Do you agree? Discuss critically.
  2. “From this it will appear that the law of increasing or decreasing economy of large-scale production, while sufficiently distinct from that of increasing or diminishing returns to warrant a difference of name, is yet very much like it.” (From Carver’s Distribution of Wealth) Discuss, giving your own conclusions on this set of issues.
  3. Discuss critically Knight’s essay on “Economic Theory and Nationalism” or any part or phase of it which interested you in particular.

Source:  Harvard University Archives.  Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001. Box 6, Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions,…, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1942.

Image Source: Edward Chamberlin in Harvard Class Album, 1939.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Commercial crises and trade cycles, final exams. Andrew, 1903-1908

 

 

A course on commercial and financial crises has been offered at Harvard nearly every year during the first half of the 20th century. The course was first offered by A. Piatt Andrew (Harvard Ph.D., 1900) who taught at Harvard until 1908. He went on to National Monetary Commission fame and later served in the U.S. Congress during the last fifteen years of his life.

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has a biographical page for A. Piatt Andrew. Also available is the reading list for A. Piatt Andrew’s money course, Economics 8, from 1901-02.

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Warren Samuels reported on the 1905-06 course “Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade” (Economics 12b):

Samuels, Warren J.  The Teaching of Business Cycles in 1905-6: Insight into the Development of Macroeconomic Theory. History of Political Economy, vol. 4 (Spring 1972), pp. 140-62.   Based on 177 pages of notes by Harvard senior Robert Lee Hale.

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Pro-tip: student lecture notes for Andrew’s financial crises course, 1905

Robert Lee Hale Papers at Columbia University Archives.

According to finding aid, the notes are in Box 5, Folder 67 “Lecture notes, Economics 12b, fall 1905”.

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1902-03

Course as Coming Attraction

It is expected that Professor Taussig will conduct his courses in economics next year. The subject mater of course 8 has been divided into three parts: 8a. on money by Dr. Andrew; 8b on banking by Dr. Sprague; and 12a on international trade and payments by Dr. Sprague. A new half-course has been added on the history and theory of commercial crises by Dr. Andrew. Courses 10 and 11 which were formerly given by Professor Ashley as full courses in alternate years will both be given in 1902-03 as half-courses by Mr. Gay. Course 5 on railways etc. will be given as a half-course. Economics 14 on methods of Social reform will be made a full course; 9 and 9a are combined into a full course on labor and industrial organization and will be given by Professor Ripley who has recently been appointed a full professor in the department.

Source: The Harvard Crimson. Changes in Courses for 1902-03. May 24, 1902.

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Course Enrollment, 1902-03

[Economics] 12b 2hf. Dr. Andrew.— History and Theory of Commercial Crises.

Total 37: 2 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 19 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1902-03, p. 68.

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Course Announcement and Description, 1902-03

[Economics] 12b2 hf. History and Theory of Commercial Crises. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 9. Dr. Andrew.

Course 12b will be devoted to the study of the more important crises of the past two hundred years. The phenomena of these crises will be described, and the record of events before and after will be examined with the object of disentangling their contributory causes and their consequences. The influence upon commercial fluctuations of the present organization of industry, of government finance, of foreign trade, of the money supply, of speculation, of banking methods, and of other credit institutions will be considered, as well as questions with regard to periodicity, over-production and over-investment. In connection with these subjects attention will be given to the methods actually employed in dealing with crises, and to proposed reforms designed to prevent or relieve them.

Subjects will be assigned for special reports, and these reports will be presented for discussion in class.

Course 12b is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

Source: Harvard University. University Publications, New Series, No. 55. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1902-03, pp. 48-49.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12b
Final Examination. 1903.

Omit one question.

  1. “The crisis is practically of nineteenth century origin, and it is an acute malady to which business appears to be increasingly subject.”
    Give your opinion of these statements.
  2. In what respects was the English crisis of 1866 peculiar?
  3. “Commercial crises of the earlier type now belong only to history in England.”
    Discuss this statement and explain the situation to which it refers.
  4. Compare the American crises of 1884 and 1893 as regards antecedent conditions, course of events and consequences.
  5. Describe in their mututal connections the fluctuations in exports and imports of commodities, in gold shipments, and in prices which occur in a normal trade cycle.
    Discuss DeLaveleye’s theory of crises.
  6. (a) How far did Jeveons succeed in proving a relation between crises and agricultural conditions?
    (b) To what extent can a connection be traced in the United States between trade cycles and crop conditions?
    (c) In the case of which crop is the connection closest?
  7. Explain and discuss Professor Laughlin’s theory as to the relations between “normal” and “abnormal” credit and price movements.
  8. Explain and discuss Rodbertus’ theory of crises.
  9. Explain and discuss Professor Carver’s theory of industrial depressions.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6: Bound volume for 1902-03, Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,… (June 1903), p. 30.

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1903-04

Course Enrollment, 1903-04

[Economics] 12b 1hf. Ass’t. Professor Andrew. History and Theory of Commercial Crises.

Total 39: 5 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1903-04, p. 67.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12b
Mid-Year Examination. 1904.

Omit one question.

  1. Discuss the merits and limitations of each of the following sorts of statistics as measures of industrial prosperity:—

Bank clearings, wages, cotton, copper, chemicals, iron and steel, railway net earnings, railway gross earnings.

  1. Explain the usual relation during a trade cycle,—
    1. between the number of failures and their liabilities.
    2. between banking and commercial failures.
  2. Explain and show the significance of any general differences between the price fluctuations,
    1. of raw and finished commodities.
    2. of securities and commodities.
  3. Compare industrial, political, and financial conditions in the United States in 1903 with those of 1873, 1883, and 1893.
  4. In what respects have the trade cycles of England differed from those of the United States during the past thirty years?
    What is your opinion is the explanation?
  5. Explain what the British government did to restore confidence in 1793, 1825, 1847, 1857, 1866, 1890?
  6. Upon what occasions within the past twenty years, and by what means, has the American Secretary of the treasury helped to relieve a stringency in the financial centres?
  7. The following are abstracted statements of the New York City clearing house banks.

 

Aug. 5 ‘93
(1)		 Feb. 3, ‘94
(2)		 May 20, ‘99
(3)		 May 23, ‘03
(4)
Loans 409 420 763 923
Deposits 373 552 902 914
Capital 129 133 134 224
Circulation 6 13 16 44
Reserve 79 250 260 238

Compare 1 with 2, and 3 with 4, explaining in each case the change in the relations (a) between loans and deposits (b) between deposits and reserve.

  1. Explain what in your opinion are remediable defects in the American banking regulations, and the best remedies therefor.
  2. To what extent in your opinion is there periodicity in trade reactions, and to what conditions is it attributable?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1903-04. (HUC 70000.55). Box 7.

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1904-05

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12b 1hf. Ass’t. Professor Andrew. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 41: 2 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1904-05, p. 75.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12b
Mid-Year Exam. 1905.

Omit one question.

  1. State briefly the geographical range of the various crises of the 19th
  2. Compare industrial and financial conditions in the United States in 1903 with those of 1873, 1883, and 1893.
  3. Explain Juglar’s theory as to the movements of bank loans and reserve, and state how far it is confirmed by American experience.
  4. What reasons are there for believing that a rise in the value of money will check the production of wealth? And what reasons for believing that it will not do so?
  5. How far in your opinion are trade conditions likely to be affected
    1. by the trust movement,
    2. by stock-exchange regulations like the German bourse law,
    3. by better facilities for storing staple products,
    4. by the maintenance of a large army and navy?
  6. How far in your opinion are trade reactions due to
    1. the waste or destruction of capital,
    2. the excessive creation of capital?
  7. “There are reasons, other than psychological, why an investor’s market must be more unstable than a consumer’s market.” What are they?
  8. Discuss three different methods of making our currency system more responsive to trade needs.
  9. What groups in a community are injured by a crisis? What groups are benefitted?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1904-05. (HUC 70000.55). Box 7.

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1905-06

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12b 1hf. Ass’t. Professor Andrew. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 55: 9 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 20 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1905-06, p. 72.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12b
Mid-Year Exam. 1906.

  1. Compare as regards recent cycles of trade,—
    1. the number and liabilities of failed firms.
    2. banking and commercial failures.
    3. railway and commercial failures.
  2. To what extent have changes in the clearings of the New York banks registered changes in general business?
  3. Explain Juglar’s theory as to the movements of bank loans and reserves, and state how far it is confirmed by American experience.
  4. Explain what was done by the Bank of England to relieve apprehension in 1825, 1847, 1857, 1866, 1890.
  5. Explain and discuss Rodbertus’ theory of crises.
  6. Upon what occasions within the past thirty-five years and by what means, have the American Secretaries of the Treasury helped to relieve a stringency in the financial centres?
  7. In what ways is business affected by the condition of the crops? Within what limitations? In the case of which crops is the connection closest?
  8. What part does “credit” play in the explanation of crises,—
    1. according to Laughlin,
    2. according to Chevalier,
    3. in your own opinion?
  9. In what ways and to what extent are trade conditions apt to be affected,—
    1. by the increasing gold supply,
    2. by the trust movement,
    3. by increasing armies and navies,
    4. by the present agricultural situation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1905-06. (HUC 70000.55). Box 7.

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1906-07

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12b 1hf. Ass’t. Professor Andrew. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 26: 4 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1906-07, p. 71.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12
Mid-Year Exam. 1907.

  1. “The crisis is practically of nineteenth century origin, and it is an acute malady to which business appears to be increasingly subject.” How far does your study confirm this statement?
  2. Name any occasions in the nineteenth century when crises have occurred either in England or America without occurring in both countries. Explain the variation in conditions as between the two countries in each case.
  3. What seem to you the main causes of the American crisis of 1893? In what respects did the movement which culminated in that year differ from the movement before the panic of 1884?
  4. Show briefly in what respects conditions in America in 1857 and in the years just preceding resembled those of 1907 and the years through which we have just passed? Show also the contrasting conditions.
  5. To what causes were crises attributed by (a) De Laveleye, (b) Rodbertus, (c) Jevons? Explain and criticize their theories.
  6. What contributions to the explanation of crises have you found in reading (a) Walker, (b) Selden, (c) Carver?
  7. What reasons are there for believing that an appreciating standard of value will hamper industry? And what reasons for believing that it will not do so?
  8. Under what circumstances and by what means have the following Secretaries of the Treasury helped to relieve disturbances in the New York money market? (a) Richardson, (b) Fairchild, (c) Gage, (d) Shaw.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1906-07. (HUC 70000.55). Box 7.

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1907-08

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12b 1hf. Ass’t. Professor Andrew. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 62: 1 Graduate, 17 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1907-08, p. 67.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12
Mid-Year Exam. 1908.

  1. When did stock speculation begin in England? Name the principal crises in England of the 18th century.
  2. To what extent have banks in this country suspended payment in successive panics since 1800? To what extent in England? To what extent in France?
  3. Describe the methods of relief pursued by Secretary Cobb in the panic of 1857? By Secretary Boutwell in the panic of 1873? By Secretary Shaw in the stringencies of 1902, 1903, and 1906? By Secretary Cortelyou in the panic of 1907?
  4. In your opinion does the emergence of loans above deposits in the New York banks necessarily betoken a condition of danger? Has it always done so in the past? Why, or why not?
  5. In what ways do crop conditions affect business in the United States? Are any recent changes in their influence to be noted?
  6. Enumerate briefly as many points of resemblance and of contrast as possible between the panics of 1893 and 1907 and their antecedent conditions.
  7. “The farther removed the producer’s goods are from some consumable product and the more remotely their value is derived from that of some consumable product, the more violent the fluctuations in value tend to be?”
    Explain and criticize this statement in its relation to the theory of crises.
  8. Suppose everybody resolved to consume productively only, what would be the result?
  9. What explanations of crises were offered by J. S. Mill? By de Laveleye? By F. A. Walker?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, Mid-Years. 1907-08. (HUC 70000.55). Box 8. Copy also available at Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), p. 36.

Image Source: A. Piatt Andrew at Red Roof, his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1910.  Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of A. Piatt Andrew.(Box 47, folder 9).

Categories
Exam Questions M.I.T.

M.I.T. General Examination in Advanced Economic Theory. Sept 1962 and May 1963

 

 

Edwin Burmeister received an M.A. from Cornell in September 1962 before going on to M.I.T. to complete his Ph.D. in economics in 1965. His papers at the Duke Economists’ Papers Archive include a folder of advanced economic theory general examinations at M.I.T. (May and September 1962; May 1963). The copy of the May 1962 exam has been transcribed and posted earlier. This post adds the remaining two exams to the collection of artifacts. Pro-tip:  Burmeister’s papers includes his solutions to the September 21, 1962 exam, most likely prepared during his preparation for the May 1963 exam.

I should mention that on none of the three exams is “M.I.T.” actually written. However, since Samuelson and Solow’s names are typed on the copy of the Sept 1962 exam and since Burmeister was a M.I.T. graduate student  for certainly the May 1963 examination (and, like many before and after him, cast an eye on previous exam questions), it is pretty obvious where the exam questions must have come from.

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General Examination
Advanced Economic Theory

Professors P. A. Samuelson and R. M. Solow
Friday, September 21, 1962

Do as many problems as you have time.

  1. Derive the demand function, Xi = Di(I, p1, …, pn) ≥ 0 for a consumer with income I and having positive prices and having respectively preferences satisfying the following utility functions:
      1. U = k1 log X1 + … + kn log Xn
      2. U = mX0 +logX1 [Be careful!]
      3. U = a1X1 + a2X2 + … + anXn [where] ai≥0

Extra credit

      1. U = Min (X1/b1, X2/b2, …, Xn/bn)
  1. A firm owning some fixed and non-transferable “capital” has a production function

Q = f(labor, land) = 20L.5T.25

It sells in a competitive market at $Pq. It rents labor in a competitive factor market at $W and rents land at $R.
What are its demand relations for factors, and its supply relation for output? What are its “profits” or “quasi-rents to owned capital.”
It will suffice for you to write down all the relations that define these desired functions and describe how they could be solved. (In other words, you don’t have to do the explicit solving.)

  1. In a Hicksian general equilibrium model all income effects turn out to be negligible. Comment decisively on its

(a) Property of dynamic stability (or possible instability)
(b) Property of imperfect stability (or possible instability)
(c) Property of perfect stability (or possible instability)

  1. Let H(X,y) be a function of non-negative vectors X(of dimension m) and y (of dimension n). Define X*, y* as a saddle point of H if

H(X*,y) ≥ H(X*,y*) ≥H(X,y*)

For all non-negative (X,y).
Prove that X* and y* are optimal vectors for a pair of dual linear programs if and only if they provide a saddle point for the function

H(X,y) = C’X+b’y – y’AX.

Show that a simple Leontief model is capable of producing any positive vector final demands (given enough labor) if and only if (I-A)-1 is non-negative.

  1. Consider the von-Neumann model with 3 activities and 4 commodities and with input matrix

\text{A}=\left[ \begin{matrix} 0 & 1 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 1 & 0 \\ \end{matrix} \right] and output matrix \text{B}=\left[ \begin{matrix} 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 \\ \end{matrix} \right]

Find the optimal activity and price vectors in the von-Neumann sense, and the associated expansion rate.

________________________

 

General Examination in Advanced Economic Theory: May 1963

Answer any 4 questions.

  1. Suppose all of the N people in a market have identical indifference maps, that are homothetic (i.e., with unitary income elasticities everywhere). Let each jth man have his endowment

\left( \bar{Q}_{1}^{j},\bar{Q}_{2}^{j},\ldots ,\bar{Q}_{r}^{j} \right)

      1. Show that the final equilibrium of exchange is quite independent of the distribution among men of the fixed totals

    \begin{array}{l}\bar{Q}_{1}^{1}+\bar{Q}_{1}^{2}+\ldots +\bar{Q}_{1}^{N}={{A}_{1}}\\...................................\\\bar{Q}_{r}^{1}+\bar{Q}_{r}^{2}+\ldots +\bar{Q}_{r}^{N}={{A}_{r}}\end{array}

    1. Show that the equilibrium prices can be found by treating any man as the single Robinson-Crusoe living under autarky.
    2. What can you, therefore, state about the i) Imperfect, ii) Perfect, and iii) Dynamic stability of the equilibrium?
  2. A Kaldor-Goodwin model defines[sic]
    \text{a}\frac{\text{dK}}{\text{dt}}=\beta \text{Y}-\text{K, }\left( \text{a,b,}\beta \right)>0
    \text{b}\frac{\text{dY}}{\text{dt}}=\frac{\text{dK}}{\text{dt}}-\text{S}\left( \text{Y} \right)
    (i) Explain the meaning of each equation. (ii) Give an equation for its stationary equilibrium solution. (iii) What does its local stability and oscillation depend on? (iv) What shape for the only arbitrary function will give rise to unique-amplitude oscillation?
  3. In Mitopia
    \text{C}+\frac{\text{dK}}{\text{dt}}=\sqrt{\text{KL}}\text{ and L = }{{\text{L}}_{0}}{{\text{e}}^{\text{gt}}}.
    How must K(t) grow if C/L, per capita consumption, is to remain at a maximum constant level? What will then be the interest rate, and the relative share of labor?
  4. A machine with a length of life T costs $f(T). The machine is known with certainty to yield a net income stream of $a per year steadily throughout its lifetime. Find the equation determining the optimal length of life of a machine under each of the following assumptions.
    1. The instantaneous rate of interest in a perfect capital market is r; the length of life is chosen to maximize the present value of net cash flow (including initial cost).
    2. The interest rate r is used to discount net income, and durability is chosen to maximize the capital value of a new machine per dollar of initial cost.
    3. The internal rate of return (i.e. the discount rate that equates capital value and initial cost) is maximized.

Suppose that in cases (a) and (b) the interest rate is such that the capital value of the machine equals its initial cost. Show that all three solutions then coincide. Which is the “right” way to look at the problem?

  1. In a Leontief system with n commodities and one primary factor, labor, let Pi be the money price of commodity i, P0 the money wage, aoi the direct labor input per unit output of commodity i, Xi the output of commodity i, and Ci the final demand for commodity i. Show that the increase in Pj/P0 resulting from a unit increase in a0i equals the increase in Xi needed for a unit increase in Cj.
  2. Consider an individual whose life is divided into two periods, Present and Future. He is endowed with some physical good in each period.
    1. Show how to construct a supply curve relating the amount of saving he will do in the Present as a function of the rate of interest.
    2. Show that in a society of identical individuals with no time preference, the equilibrium rate of interest is zero if corresponding to each individual with endowment X in the Present and Y in the Future, there is another individual with endowment Y in the Present and X in the Future.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Edwin Burmeister papers. Box 23, (unlabeled) Folder.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exams for international payments and specie flows. Dunbar and Meyer, 1894,1901

 

At Harvard around the turn of the twentieth century, international economics was taught as a sequence of two semester courses—one on the subject of trade and tariffs and one on payments and international financial flows, especially specie flows. This post provides enrollment data and final exam questions for the international payments course taught, respectively, by Charles Dunbar and later by Hugo Richard Meyer.

 

______________________

Course enrollments

1893-94

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

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

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-1894, p. 62.

[Not offered 1894-95; 1895-96]

1896-97

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

Total 20: 9 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1896-1897, p. 66.

[Not offered 1897-1898; 1898-1899; 1899-1900]

1900-01

[Economics] 12a1 hf. Mr. Meyer.—International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals.

Total 16: 2 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.

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1893-94
ECONOMICS 122.

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

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

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

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

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

______________________

1900-01
ECONOMICS 12a1.
Mid-Year. 1901.

Observe strictly the order in which the questions are arranged.

  1. Sidgwick’s criticisms on Mill’s doctrine of international trade and their validity.
  2. What temporary changes in the general level of prices in this country should you expect to see, as the result of a large permanent withdrawal of foreign capital? What ultimate change of prices should you expect?
  3. Suppose the exportation of specie from the United States to be prohibited (or, as has sometimes been suggested, to be slightly hindered), what would be the effect on rates of exchange, and on prices of goods, either domestic or foreign? Would the country be a loser or not? [See Ricardo (McCulloch’s ed.), page 139.]
  4. The conditions which led to the flow of gold to the United States in the fiscal years 1880 and 1881?
  5. What economic conditions or events tended to make the year 1890 a turning point both in domestic and in international finance?

Alternative:

The reasons for the return flow from Europe of American securities in the years 1890-1900?

  1. What sort of wealth did France actually sacrifice in paying the indemnity? What was the process?
  2. Is Mr. Clare justified in making the general statement that “the gold-points mark the highest level to which an exchange may rise, and the lowest to which it may fall”?
  3. Why is it that certain trades bills are drawn chiefly, or even exclusively, in one direction, e.g. by New York on London and not vice versa; and how is this practice made to answer the purpose of settling payments which have to be made in one direction?

Alternative:

Why has England become the natural clearing-house for the world?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, Mid-Years: 1900-1901 (HUC 7000.55).

Image source: Harvard Gate, ca. 1899. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

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Carnegie Institute of Technology Exam Questions

Carnegie Tech. Final Exam for Advanced Economic Analysis. Modigliani, 1959 & 1960


An earlier post provided the outline for Franco Modigliani’s Advanced Economic Analysis course from the second term of the 1958-59 academic year that had been incorrectly filed in a folder of his notes for Advanced Monetary Theory III, 1953-1960″. A copy of the June 3, 1959 final examination was provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror for transcription by Juan Acosta.  I have added the May 27, 1960 final examination to this post as a second observation.

________________________

June 3, 1959

Advanced Economic Analysis I – GI 581
Final Examination

Answer questions I and IV, and either II or III.

  1. Assume that the government fixes by law the price of a commodity and hands out to the public ration coupons equal in number to the number of units of the commodity produced. Assume throughout that the supply is perfectly inelastic.
    1. Use an indifference diagram to show under what conditions the consumer would not use all of his coupons.
    2. Show that consumers would be better off if they were free to buy or sell their ration coupons in a free market.
    3. Supposing now that coupons could be bought and sold in a free market, explain how one could derive an individual consumer’s demand curve for coupons. (Hint: the situation is analogous to the consumer being forced to buy his ration of the good at the legal price and then being allowed to sell it or buy more of it on a free market.)
    4. Explain the formation of the equilibrium market price of coupons.
    5. What can be said as to the relation between the legal price, the price of coupons, and the price which would prevail in the absence of price control and rationing? Under what condition would the sum of the first two be equal to the third?
  2. A producer sells in his home market, in which he has a monopoly, and in a foreign market which is perfectly competitive. How would a sales tax imposed on the home market affect
    1. total output
    2. price in the home market
    3. price in the foreign market
    4. distribution of output between the two markets
  3. A profit maximizing monopolist buys factors of production in a perfect market.
    1. Discuss the long-run effect on his demand for each of the factors he uses and on his selling price of a tax on one of the factors. (Give a graphic treatment for the case of two factors.)
    2. Suppose that one of the two factors is fixed in the short run. Contrast the change in the long-run and short-run demand for both factors when a tax is placed on either.
  4. Discuss the significance of free entry for the relation of the long-run equilibrium size of the firm to the optimum size.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Franco Modigliani Papers, Box T1, Folder “Advanced Economics,1952-1960”.

________________________

May 27, 1960

GI-581 Advanced Economic Analysis I
Final Examination
F. Modigliani

 

  1. (Answer questions a-f; question g is elective)
    Suppose that the conditions of production for a given firm can be expressed by the production function.
    (1) X = KAaBb
    where A and B represent the inputs of two factors, X the output, and K, a, b, certain constants.

    1. Explain the meaning of a production function.
    2. Given the prices, PA, and PB of the two inputs determine the optimum input of each factor as a function of X, PA, PB.
    3. Exhibit the (minimized) total and marginal cost functions.
    4. Under what conditions is the above marginal cost increasing, decreasing or constant? Relate this result to the degree homogeneity of the production function (1) and to the notion of returns to scale.
    5. Discuss the relation between returns to scale and returns to each factor separately.
    6. How would you obtain the demand function of the firm for each factor, (i) if the firm sells in a competitive market? (ii) if the firm has a monopoly in the selling market?
    7. (Elective)
      Suppose that equation (1) describes the conditions of production for an entire industry, and assume further that the supply of factor A is infinitely elastic at the price PA while the conditions of supply of factor B can be expressed by the supply function PB = LBs, when L and s are constants, (s>0).

      1. The industry is composed of a large number of firms each of which takes the prices of the factors as given and independent of its inputs decisions;
      2. The entire industry is monopolized.
        Obtain the marginal cost for the industry in each of these two cases. What is the relation between this marginal cost and the supply functions? How is the slope of the supply function related to notion of returns to scale and of external and internal economies or diseconomies?
  2. In the figure below, X and Y denote the quantities of two commodities. Shown in the graph are four budget equations and the points chosen on each by a consumer.
    1. State the revealed preference postulate.
    2. Using this postulate, rank as far as possible the four points in order of preference.
    3. Draw a fifth budget line and observed point on it which would make possible an unambiguous ranking of the original four points.
    4. (Optional) Sketch out how the revealed preference postulate can be used to establish the slope of the Marshallian Demand function.
  1. Discuss briefly the meaning and significance of the following concepts and their interrelation in Economics:
    1. Statics;
    2. Dynamics;
    3. Comparative statics;
    4. Long and short run
      Discuss the notion of “long run,” “short run” and “reversibility” as they apply to demand functions.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Franco Modigliani Papers, Box T8, Folder “Notes on Advanced Monetary Theory III,1953-1960”.

Image Source: Franco Modigliani page at the History of Economic Thought Website.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam for location of economic activity. Usher, 1943

 

 The course announcement, enrollment figures, course description, and reading assignments for Abbott P. Usher’s Harvard half-course (first term, 1942-43), “The Location of Economic Activity. General Principles and Current Problems,” have been transcribed and posted earlier. 

This post provides a transcription of the final examination for the course.

________________

1942-43
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 65a1
[Final examination]

I
(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on a topic based upon the work of the reading period, or on one of the following topics: the basing point system, the effect of parallelism in a railway network upon the rate structure.

II
Answer THREE questions.

  1. Under what circumstances may we describe a region as “maturely” settled? Within what limits may we expect to find variations in the density of population in maturely settled areas?
  2. Discuss the relative significance of surplus food, coal, and water power as in the localization of economic activity in the modern world.
  3. Answer a, or b.
    1. Within what limits can we defend the charging of higher gross rates, per ton mile or per passenger mile, for shorter than for longer distances?
    2. Discuss: “It is probably safe to say that the centralization of manufacturing industry has reached its limit. A reaction toward decentralization began when manufacturers located their mills in the suburbs of large cities in order to escape high city rents….”
      Weber, Growth of Cities, 1899.
  4. Describe the pattern of production in the steel industry of the United States, and explain the outstanding features of the pattern of localization.
  5. Describe the processes of extracting and refining copper, and discuss the influence of these procedures upon the location of the various types of enterprises in the copper industry.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University: Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, Theology,…, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January, 1943. [Mid-Year Exams—Social Sciences, 1943. HUC 7000.55]

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1947.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Division Exams for the economics A.B., January 1917

 

The philosophy behind the use of division examinations for undergraduate history, government, and economics majors at Harvard was documented in an earlier post providing excerpts from relevant passages in annual reports of the President of Harvard College. This post adds to the growing stock of division exams from Harvard collected here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. Links to other exams are provided in the post along with the questions for four exams from the division examinations given in January 1917.

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Background

A significant event of the year [1915-16] was the inauguration by the Division of History, Government, and Economics of its new examination of candidates for the Bachelor’s degree who have concentrated in the Division. This examination was devised “not in order to place an additional burden upon candidates for the A.B., but for the purpose of securing better correlation of the student’s work, encouraging better methods of study, and furnishing a more adequate test of real power and attainment.” In their preparation students have from the beginning of the Sophomore year special tutorial instruction. The examination embraces three tests: first, a general paper, with a large number of alternative questions, treating comprehensively the subjects of the Division; second, a special paper, covering a chosen specific field; and lastly, a supplementary oral examination which may relate to either the general or the special paper, but ordinarily bears upon the specific field. The results of the first examination, taken by a comparatively small group of men graduating in three years, are in no way conclusive. The members of the examining committee, however, think them distinctly encouraging. Twenty-four candidates appeared, of whom twenty-two passed and two failed. Their selection of questions from the general paper indicated breadth of preparation and their bearing at the oral examination showed more than a little clearness and independence of thought.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1915-16, pp.75-76.

__________________

April 1927 Division Examinations Not Included in Cole’s Volume of Exams

Handwritten note added to the Arthur H. Cole volume of collected division examinations, 1916-1927:

“This volume contains the January exams for 1916-17. The April 1917 exams are shelved separately”.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Divisional and general examinations, 1915-1975 (HUC 7000.18). Box 6, Bound Volume (stamped “Private Library Arthur H. Cole”) “Divisional Examinations 1916-1927”.

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Other Harvard division exams transcribed and posted:

Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B.
Division of History, Government and Economics.

April/May 1916

History of Economic Thought, Public Finance, Labor 1931

Economic Theory 1939
Money and Government Finance 1939
Economic History (since 1750) 1939
Labor and Social Reform 1939

__________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS
FOR THE DEGREE OF A.B. DIVISION EXAMINATIONS
1916-17

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION GENERAL EXAMINATION
[January 6, 1917]

Part I

The treatment of one of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of the examination and should therefore occupy one and one-half hours. Write on one question only.

  1. How does the federal form of government affect the life of a nation?
  2. Discuss the arguments for and against universal manhood suffrage.
  3. What influences have been exerted by the Catholic Church on political development since 1500?
  4. Sketch the life and work of two or three of the following: (a) Calvin, (b) Cavour, (c) Hildebrand, (d) Jefferson, (e) Kant, (f) Marx, (g) J. S. Mill, (h) Sir Thomas More, (i) Theodosius.
  5. What were the political and economic effects before 1750 of the discovery of America?
  6. How has the physiography of the states of Europe influenced (a) their economic development? (b) their political organization, and (c) their present problems?
  7. What has been the influence of France in the Western hemisphere?
  8. Discuss the merits and defects of lawyers as statesmen?
  9. Explain the reasons for the differences in British foreign and colonial policy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
  10. What have been the consequences of the guarantee of freedom of contract?
  11. Do periods of internal and external national greatness tend to coincide?
  12. Discuss sectionalism in the United States since the Civil War.

 

Part II

Three questions only from the following groups, A, B, and C, are to be answered, of which not more than two may be from one group.

A

  1. What were the chief features of the economic life of New England prior to the nineteenth century?
  2. Trace and explain the development of American agriculture since 1860.
  3. What have been the causes and results of the growth of cities?
  4. State the case for and against a federal income tax in the United States.
  5. In what ways and by what means does war affect government regulation of industry?
  6. Indicate points at which British economic policy has influenced German policy.

B

  1. Compare the characters and careers of Philip II of Spain, Louis XIV of France, and William II of Germany.
  2. How does the history of Holland and of Portugal illustrate the principle of balance of power?
  3. Should the French Revolution be regarded as the beginning or as the end of a period?
  4. “…With the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”
    From what document is this quotation taken? Give a brief account of the subsequent applications of this principle.
  5. In how far was the navy responsible for the victory of the North in the Civil War?
  6. Give an account of the political and economic relations of Germany and the United States, since the Declaration of American Independence.

C

  1. Compare the powers exercised by the President of the United States in 1800, in 1850, and in 1916.
  2. Why should Europe dominate Africa?
  3. What are the arguments for and against centralization and decentralization of political power?
  4. Should members of cabinets sit and vote in national legislative bodies?
  5. To what causes has the expansion of the United States since 1800 been due?
  6. Why has the status of Turkey been a matter of importance in international affairs?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMIC THEORY
[January 10, 1917]

Answer six questions.

A

Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. “The difference between producer’s and consumer’s goods is at bottom only a difference of degree.” Explain. What is the essential difference between these two classes of goods?
  2. Define and analyze: (a) consumer’s surplus; (b) producer’s surplus. Under what conditions of cost does producer’s surplus arise? How is monopoly profit to be distinguished from producer’s surplus? Illustrate throughout by diagram.
  3. What is meant by “overinvestment”? “overaccumulation”? How does over-investment in particular industries “bring its own remedy”? How does a tendency toward overaccumulation?
  4. “The exchanges between different countries are analogous to the exchanges between non-competing groups within a country.” Explain.
  5. Discuss the more important difficulties in the way of socialism.
  6. What methods of investigation may be employed in economic theory? Give an illustration of the use of one of these methods.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Sketch and criticize the attitude of the English and American courts during the nineteenth century toward collective bargaining by labor.
  2. Trace the development of interest theories.
  3. To what extent were changes in the tariff policy of the United States during the nineteenth century based upon changes in the prevailing opinion concerning free trade and protection?

C

Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Contrast the concepts of justice in taxation and justice in the distribution of wealth.
  2. What is the case for and against the Single Tax?
  3. To what extent and by what means can trade-unions influence (a) the wages paid in a given occupation? (b) the general level of wages?
  4. What has been the importance of the “American frontier” in the distribution of wealth in the United States?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
MONEY AND BANKING
[January 10, 1917]

Answer six questions.

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Analyze the relation of the value of gold to its cost of production. In what measure, if at all, is the indicated relation peculiar to gold?
  2. Discuss index numbers of prices with reference to (a) the purposes they may serve; (b) the various methods of construction; (c) the best index numbers for wholesale prices in the United States.
  3. Below is a combined statement of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks at a recent date.
    Explain the several items of the statement, and comment upon the more significant conditions disclosed.

RESOURCES

 LIABILITIES

(all items in thousands of dollars)
Gold coin and certificates in vaults

$283,730

 Capital paid in

$55,711
Gold settlement fund

$174,801

 Government deposits

$26,319
Gold redemption fund

$1,404

 Member bank deposits

$637,072
Legal tender notes, silver, etc.

$17,974

 Federal Reserve notes—net

$14,296
5 per cent redemption fund

$470

 Federal Reserve bank notes

$1,028
Bills discounted for members

$20, 501

 Other liabilities

$634
Bills bought

$102,092
United States bonds

$39,427
One-year Treasury notes

$11,167
Municipal warrants

$22,166
Federal Reserve notes—net

$15,414
Due from other Federal Reserve Banks—net

$43,263
Other resources

$2,651

$735,060

$735,060

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. What were some of the forms of primitive money? What functions were performed by each form?
  2. Describe the economic cycle culminating in the crisis of 1837.
  3. Trace and explain the inflationist movement in the United States from 1865 to 1900.
  4. What connections have existed since 1830 between the financial administration of the Federal Government and banks in the United States?

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. Would universal bimetallism conduce to a stable market ratio between gold and silver? to a stable price level? What have been the chief obstacles to universal bimetallism? Are these obstacles increasing or decreasing?
  2. When prices are rising how are the following affected: (a) farmers; (b) factor operatives; (c) manufacturers; (d) stockholders; (e) owners of gold mines?
  3. Give a detailed account of silver since 1890.
  4. Wherein is the Federal Reserve System like the banking system recommended by the National Monetary Commission? Wherein is it different? Discuss the differences.
  5. Trace and explain the course of foreign exchange rates since the beginning of the European War.
  6. What is meant by “agricultural credit”? Describe briefly and criticize the existing facilities for agricultural credit in the United States.

    *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
CORPORATE ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING RAILROADS
[January 10, 1917]

Answer six questions.

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Define “monopoly.” In what ways, if at all, is monopoly price affected by (a) cost of production per unit? (b) potential competition? (c) an elastic demand for the product? (d) the existence of satisfactory substitutes for the product?
  2. What official statistics throw light upon industrial organization in the United States? Criticise the available statistics of this subject.
  3. Describe the general features of the uniform accounting system now prescribed for railroads by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Why was the Commission given power to prescribe and supervise such a uniform accounting system?
  4. Enumerate the principal sources of railway statistics at the present time, and show the content, importance, and deficiencies (if any) of each.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Trace any connections between the corporate form of organization and the later stages of the Industrial Revolution.
  2. Sketch the history of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law and its enforcement.
  3. Give a brief account of the Granger movement.
  4. “Railways have been the most important agents in increasing the disparities of wealth in modern times.” Explain.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. If a corporation regularly earns 5 per cent on all its outstanding securities, can it be said to be overcapitalized? What constitutes overcapitalization? How, if at all, should the law attempt to deal with overcapitalization?
  2. Analyze the present policy of the Federal Government in its regulation of industrial combinations in the United States.
  3. What connections exist between banks and industrial combinations in the United States? Contrast the situation here with that in France.
  4. In railroading in the United States, what is the significance of the following: (a) large plant; (b) joint cost; (c) physical valuation; (d) competition of water routes; (e) division of powers between state and Federal governments?
  5. Discuss the forms and significance of discriminations in railway rate-making. Which of the discriminations, if any, tend to persist under government ownership?
  6. What provisions should be made for the settlement of wage disputes on interstate railroads in the United States?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATIONS
[not transcribed for this post]

MODERN HISTORY SINCE 1789, INCLUDING AMERICAN HISTORY
[January 10, 1917]

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
[January 10, 1917]

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Divisional and general examinations, 1915-1975 (HUC 7000.18). Box 6, Bound Volume (stamped “Private Library Arthur H. Cole”) “Divisional Examinations 1916-1927”.

Image Source:  Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library. Harvard Class Album 1920, p. 65.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. General Examinations in Micro- and Macroeconomic Theory, Fall 1992

 

 

The following general examinations for microeconomic and macroeconomic theory (Fall 1992) have been transcribed from a collection of general exams at Harvard from the 1990s provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Waggoner Wozniak (Harvard economics Ph.D., 2005). Abigail Wozniak was an associate professor of economics at Notre Dame before being appointed a senior research economist and the first director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is most grateful for her generosity in sharing this valuable material.

The “Wozniak collection” is over 90 pages long, so it will take some time for all the exams to get transcribed.

Transcriptions are available for:

Spring 1991 General Examinations in Microeconomic Theory and Macroeconomic Theory.

___________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

GENERAL EXAMINATION IN MICROECONOMIC THEORY
FALL 1992

Instructions:

  1. You have FOUR
  2. Answer a total of FOUR questions subject to the following constraint:
    There are four sections (I, II, III, IV). You must answer ONE question from each section.
  3. Please use a separate blue book for each question.
  4. Please put only your EXAM NUMBER on the blue book.

 

PART I

  1. Suppose that the consumption set is X=\left\{ x\in \mathbb{R}_{+}^{2}:{{x}_{1}}+{{x}_{2}}\ge 1 \right\} and the utility function is u(x) = x2.
    1. Represent graphically the consumption set and the indifference map.
    2. State and show that the locally cheaper consumption test for demand fails at the price/wealth combination (p, w) = (1, 1, 1).
    3. Show that market demand is not continuous at the above price/wealth combination. Interpret economically.
  2. An individual has Bernoulli utility indicator u and initial wealth w. Let lottery L offer a payoff of G with probability q and a payoff of B with probability 1 – q.
    1. If the individual owns the lottery, what is the minimum price s/he would sell it for?
    2. If s/he does not own it. What is the maximum price s/he would be willing to pay for it?
    3. Are buying and selling prices equal? Give an economic interpretation for your answer. Find conditions on the parameters of the problem under which buying and selling prices are equal.
    4. Let G = 10, B = 5, w = 0 and u(x) = x0.5. Compute the buying and selling prices for this lottery and this utility indicator.

 

PART II

Consider a market with three identical firms. The three firms set quantities as strategies and do so simultaneously. Each firm has marginal cost c, and market price is

p=1-\sum\limits_{i=1}^{3}{{{q}_{i}}}, where qi is firm i’s quantity.

  1. What are the Cournot equilibrium quantities and prices in this model?
  2. Suppose that firms 1 and 2 consider merging to form a single firm, which would have access to the two firms’ technologies. The merged firm, if it forms, would compete as a Cournot duopolist with firm 3. Assuming that the owners of firms 1 and 2 split the merged firm’s profit equally, would they find such a merger advantageous?
  3. Now suppose that firm 1 sets its quantity (as a Stackelberg leader) first and that firms 2 and 3 then follow and set quantities simultaneously. The model is otherwise the same as before. Suppose that firms 1 and 2 contemplate forming a merged firm that would act as a Stackelberg leader vis a vis firm 3. Will the merged firm’s profit be higher or lower than the sum of firm 1’s and 2’s profits in the pre-merger equilibrium? The question should be answered without making any mathematical computations.

 

PART III

Consider the country of Ec, a country with a small open economy. Ec’s economy produces two outputs, x and y, from two immobile factors, capital (K) and labor (L). The prices of x and y, px and py, are determined on the world market and are not affected by anything that happens in Ec. The aggregate production function in Ec for x is fx(K,L) and that for y is fy(K,L). Both of these functions are homogeneous of degree one in (K,L), continuous, differentiable, and have strictly convex upper contour sets. Let the input price of K  in Ec be r and that for L be w(these are prices in Ec, not world prices).

  1. Display the set of efficient production plans in an Edgeworth Box. Argue that the contract curve must lie either all above, all below, or be coincident with the diagonal in the interior of this box.

Now assume that production of x is more capital intensive than is production of y in the sense that for any given ratio of input prices, r/w, the cost minimizing way to produce any given amount of output involves a strictly larger capital-labor ratio, K/L, in the production of x than in the production of y.

  1. What can you say about the shape of the contract curve now? How do the slopes of the isoquants of the two production processes vary at various points on the contract curve?

Now assume that Ec has a perfectly competitive economy.

  1. Show that there is a unique equilibrium input price ratio r/w.
  2. Prove that if the world price of the capital intensive good (px) rises, then the equilibrium input price ratio, r/w, increases.
  3. Prove that if the endowment of labor in Ec increases, the output of good y increases and output of good x

 

PART IV

  1. How is it that, even in a world of linear technologies, different theories of growth and distribution lead to different theories of value, i.e., different theories of relative prices? Doesn’t this violate the non-substitution theorem, which shows that, for a given cost of capital, the technology which minimizes costs will be chosen irrespective of demand? Is the existence of different theories of value compatible with the idea that competition eliminates any difference between price and cost of production? How does utility maximization enter into neoclassical and non-neoclassical theories of value?
  2. Overheard in the corridors of Littauer:
    “I took the best road home yesterday.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “If there had been a better one I would have taken it.”
    Analyze the above dialogue from the point of view of both partisans and critics of revealed preference theory.

 

Source: Department of Economics, Harvard University. Past General Exams Spring 1991-Spring 1999, pp. 72-77. Copy provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Wozniak.

___________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

GENERAL EXAMINATION IN MACROECONOMIC THEORY
FALL 1992

Instructions:

  1. You have FOUR
  2. Answer a total of SIX questions subject to the following constraint:
    There are four sections (I, II, III, IV). You must answer ONE question from each section.
  3. Please use a separate blue book for each question.
  4. Please put only your EXAM NUMBER on the blue book.

 

PART I

  1. Answer the question, “Does money affect output?” Support your answer with both theoretical arguments and empirical evidence. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this evidence. Finally, include a detailed discussion of one theory that supports your position.
  2. The response among pundits to the recent reduction in German interest rates has been overwhelmingly positive. Evaluate this response in light of the Mundell-Flemming model. How does foreign monetary policy affect domestic output in the model? What other channel might American commentators have in mind. Speculate about the cause of this difference and give an opinion as to who is correct.

 

PART II

Problem 1

Consider the following dynamic version of the Mundell-Fleming model:

{{\dot{e}}}/{e}\;={{i}^{*}}-i

i=\alpha y-\beta m

\dot{y}=\gamma \left( d-y \right)

d=\lambda y-\theta e+g

where

e is the exchange rate (measured so that an appreciation of the domestic currency is an increase in e),
i* is the (exogenous) world interest rate,
i is the domestic interest rate,
y is output,
m is (exogenous) real money balances,
d is demand,
g is a measure of (exogenous) fiscal policy,
and \alpha >0,\,\,\beta >0,\,\,\gamma >0,\,\,0<\lambda <1,\,\,\theta >0.

  1. Give an interpretation of each equation.
  2. Write the model using two variables and two laws of motion. Identify the state (non-jumping) variable and the costate (jumping) variable.
  3. Draw the phase diagram, including the steady-state conditions, the implied[?] dynamics, and the saddle-point stable path.
  4. Describe the effects of a sudden, permanent increase in g. Compare the results to the standard (static) Mundell-Fleming model.
  5. Describe the effects of a sudden, permanent increase in Compare the results to the standard (static) Mundell-Fleming model.

 

Problem 2

Suppose that the representative consumer maximizes the following intertemporal utility function:

{{E}_{t}}\sum\limits_{j=0}^{\infty }{{{\left( 1+\rho  \right)}^{j}}U\left( {{C}_{t+j}},{{G}_{t+j}} \right)}

where C is consumption,

G is (exogenous) government spending,

\rho is the subjective rate of discount,

The consumer has random earnings, and she can borrow and lend at the constant real interest rate r.

  1. What is the consumer’s intertemporal first-order condition? Explain.
  2. In this problem, what variable follows a random walk (that is a martingale)? What variable doesn’t? Explain.
  3. Suppose that government spending follows a predictable pattern: in particular, suppose that (for some political reason) G fluctuates as a sine wave. What is the implied pattern of consumption?
  4. Describe the equity-premium puzzle.
  5. Suppose now that government spending is countercyclical (that is, the government increases G when the economy goes into a recession). How might this model help resolve the equity-premium puzzle? What condition would you need for the utility function U(.)?

 

PART III

  1. What implications for the conduct of monetary policy follow from the fact that many of the familiar variables that economists have urged central banks to adopt as their operating targets—for example, prices, or real interest rates, or measures of money other than the monetary base—are inherently endogenous in the sense that a central bank typically cannot set any of these variables directly via its open market operations? Use a specific model of your choice to illustrate what role a variable like the price level or the real interest rate, or a measure of money other than the monetary base, can plausibly play in the monetary policymaking process even when it is clearly endogenous.
  2. “Whether or not debt-financed government spending ‘crowds out’ private capital formation depends on whether or not the economy’s private resources are already fully employed. At less than full employment, deficit spending will crowd out investment even if it raises output (which it may or may not do). By contrast, the mechanisms that cause this decline in investment at less than full employment are not operative when the economy is fully employed.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain your reasoning as explicitly as possible.

 

PART IV

  1. Suppose that the government wishes to minimize the present value of costs, zt, which are given for period t by {{z}_{t}}=a\cdot {{\left( {{\pi }_{t}} \right)}^{2}}-b\cdot \left( {{\pi }_{t}}-\pi _{t}^{e} \right)+\left( {c}/{2}\; \right){{\left( {{\pi }_{t}}-\pi _{t}^{e} \right)}^{2}}
    where a, b, c, > 0 are constants, {{\pi }_{t}} is the inflation rate for period t, and \pi _{t}^{e} is the inflation rate that people expected at the start of period t.

    1. If the government takes \pi _{t}^{e} as given, then what value of {{\pi }_{t}} minimizes the cost zt for period t?
    2. If the government acts as in part I., and everyone knows it, then what is the full equilibrium under conditions of rational expectations? Explain the costs that are borne in this equilibrium. How are they affected by an increase in the parameter a, which measures the cost of inflation? Explain the results.
    3. If the government can commit to an inflation rate for period t, then what rate should it commit to? Explain how the costs in this situation compare with those from the equilibrium in part 2.
    4. Can the equilibrium described under 2. still apply if the government takes account of costs in future periods as well as for period t?
  2. Consider the neoclassical growth model for a closed economy of Solow, Cass, Koopmans, et al.
    1. If we think of all countries as closed, does this model imply convergence in the sense that poor countries tend to grow faster per capita than rich countries? Discuss in your answer the distinction between absolute convergence—where the poor grow faster than the rich—and conditional convergence—where a poor country grows faster for given values of some exogenous variables.
    2. How do the rates of convergence in this model relate in a general way to the diminishing returns to capital and to the behavior of the saving rate? How would the rate of convergence be affected by allowing for some capital mobility across countries?
    3. If poor countries tend to grow faster per capita than rich countries does it follow that the dispersion of per capita incomes across countries will tend to narrow over time?

 

Source: Department of Economics, Harvard University. Past General Exams Spring 1991-Spring 1999, pp. 78-83. Copy provided to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror by Abigail Wozniak.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1946.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. European Economic History from the Industrial Revolution. Gay, 1934

 

 

A brief biography of Harvard economic historian and first Dean of the Harvard Business School, Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) is found in the earlier post for his course “Recent Economic History” that was also taught at Harvard in the 1934-35 academic year. Below we have the course announcement, enrollment figures, reading list, and final exam for the course on European Economic History from the Industrial Revolution.

______________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 2a 1hf. European Economic History from the Industrial Revolution

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor Gay.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1934-35, second edition. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXI, No. 38 (September 20, 1934), p. 125.

______________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 2a 1hf. Professor Gay.—European Economic History since the Industrial Revolution.

Total 50:  3 Graduates, 21 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1934-35, p. 81.

______________________________

Assigned and Suggested Readings

ECONOMICS 2a
[pencil insert: 1934-5]

European Economic History from the Industrial Revolution

Hour Test on November 13 [Pencil insert: Extended to Nov. 15] will cover Groups I and II.

I. SOCIAL THOUGHT AND PROGRESS

A. V. Dicey—Law and Public Opinion in England (1908). Lectures 4-7 (Pages 62-258)

J. M. Keynes—The End of Laissez Faire. (1926)

G. Wallas—Life of Francis Place (1918). Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 (pages 1-92, 157-240)

II. TRANSPORTATION

E. A. Pratt—A History of Inland Transport and Communication in England (1912). Chapters 8-22 (pages 51-311)

J. H. Clapham—Economic Development of France and Germany (1921). Chapters 5, 7, 12 (Pages 104-120, 140-157, 339-375)

III. AGRICULTURE

Lord Ernle—English Farming, Past and Present (3d edition, 1922). Chapters 17, 18

J. H. Clapham—Economic Development of France and Germany (1921). Chapter 9 (pages 195-231)

C. L. Christensen—Agricultural Cooperation in Denmark. Pages 9-54, 81-87

IV. TARIFF POLICY

P. Ashley—Modern Tariff History (1920). Part 1, Part 3 (pages 3-128, 269-355)

J. Morley—Life of Richard Cobden (1881). Chapters 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 16 (pages 140-172, 209-247, 290-307, 355-389)

V. BANKING

A. Andreades—History of the Bank of England (1909). Vol. 1, part 4; Vol. 2, Introductory chapter and Part 1 (pages 161-294)

H. Feis—Europe The World’s Banker, 1870-1914 (1930). Part I; Part II; Part III, Chapters 12, 13 (pages 3-190-258-313)

VI. READING PERIOD ASSIGNMENT

Choose ONE of the following groups:

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

P. Mantoux—The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century (English translation, 1928)

Part I, Chapter 2
Part II, Chapters 1, 2, 3
Part III, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4
(pages 93-139-193-317, 349-489)

J. H. Clapham—Economic Development of France and German. Chapters 3, 4 (pages 53-103)

LABOR

S. & B. Webb—History of Trade Unionism (1920 edition). Chapters (in part) 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 (pages 64-112, 153-179, 180-204, 249-298, 358-421, 472-546, 594-611, 634-676, 677-704)

Cambridge Modern History—Volume 12—Chapter 23—Social Movements (by Webb) (pages 730-765

BRITISH INDUSTRY AND CAPITAL

A. Siegfried—England’s Crisis (1933 edition)

L. H. Jenks—The Migration of British Capital to 1875 (1927). Chapters 1, 5, 7, 11. Pages 1-24, 126-157, 193-232, 326-336)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING—NOT ASSIGNED

A. Birnie—Economic History of Europe 1760-1930 (1930)

C. Day—Economic Development in Modern Europe (1933)

J. H. Clapham—An Economic History of Modern Britain—2 vol. 1926-32 [3 vols. 1926-1938]

L. Domeratzsky—The International Cartel Movement (1928)

R. J. S. Hoffman—Great Britain and the German Trade Rivalry 1875-1914 (1933)

P Fitzgerald—Industrial Combination in England (1927)

L. C .A. Knowles—The Economic Development of the British Overseas Empire, 2 vols. (1924-1930)

F. L. Nussbaum—A History of the Economic Institutions of Modern Europe (1933)

H. M. Robertson—Aspects of the Rise of Economic Individualism (1933)

L. C .A. Knowles—Economic Development in the Nineteenth Century (1932)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics 1934-1935”

______________________________

1934-35
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 2a1
[Final. 1935.]

Comment briefly on THREE of the statements in part I, and discuss more fully TWO of the questions in Part II.

Part I

  1. “During the period 1785-1802 there was an increase rather than a decrease of the yeomen proper in England.”
    “The Industrial Revolution was responsible for a decrease in the number of yeomen.”
  2. “The solution for the problem of agricultural distress is to be found, as the example of Denmark clearly shows, not in protective tariffs but in coöperative organization.”
  3. “The Bank was right in 1811 in rejecting the main recommendations of the Bullion Committee and in thereby refusing to follow the counsels of doctrinaires.”
  4. “The Trade Union of today is a direct descendant of the old Gild.”
  5. “The fact that the landlords supported the Factory Acts and that the manufacturers agitated for the repeal of the Corn Laws indicates that both of these powerful antagonists desired the welfare of the working class and that this class, as yet unenfranchised, wielded great political power.”

Part II

  1. “It was the increase of population which rendered necessary the Industrial Revolution.” (Lewinski.)
    “The cotton industry by its demand for the labor of women and children was chiefly responsible for the great increase of population in the towns during the generation and a half preceding the Reform Bill.”
    Comment and give your own view concerning the movement of population in Great Britain and its relation to the Industrial Revolution.
  2. “The community as a whole benefits more by falling than by rising prices.” (Layton.)
    Is this statement supported by the experience of England in the nineteenth century?
  3. Show the chief difference (giving reasons therefor) between France and Germany in railroad development and control.
  4. “The manifold connections and activities of British commerce and finance achieved for Great Britain in their freedom a vigorous expansion.” (Feis) Explain and exemplify.
  5. Summarize concisely:
    1. Bullion Report.
    2. New Unionism.
    3. Cobden Chevalier Treaty.
    4. Méline Tariff.
    5. Bank Act of 1844.
    6. Taff Vale Case.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12. Volume: Examination Papers. Mid-Years, 1934-35.

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay in Harvard Class Album 1934.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final examination for graduate mathematical economics. Goodwin, 1950-51

 

 

 

The reading list for the one-term course Economics 204b. Mathematical Economics, taught by Richard Goodwin during the first term of 1948-49 was posted earlier.

This same course number, Economics 204b, was later assigned to a Goodwin’s seminar in mathematical economics in 1950-51 (that covered “General interdependence systems: in particular, Leontief linear systems”), so we can assume that much of the reading list for his course Economics 204a in 1950-51  would have been very similar to the earlier list linked above. In any event, here are the exam questions for the 1950-51 course.

_____________________

Course Description

Economics 204a. Mathematical Economics

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., 2:30-4. Assistant Professor Goodwin.

Micro-and macro-dynamical economic systems.

Prerequisites: one course in economics and one in college mathematics. Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted to the course.

Source: Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September, 1950), p. 83.

_____________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 204a
Final. January, 1951

Please use right hand side of page only, leaving the left hand side for scratchwork.

I
Required hour question.

  1. Write an essay on the role of stability in economic science. Include some discussion of various definitions of it, how to measure it, and its use by Walras and by Marshall. Would you be inclined to accept as valid the following type of proposition: we may assume that all or most markets have stable equilibria, for “the plausibility of such a stability hypothesis is suggested by the consideration that positions of unstable equilibrium, even if they exist, are transient, nonpersistent states, and hence on the crudest probability calculation would be observed less frequently than stable states” (Samuelson)?

II
Take any TWO questions, allowing about 40 minutes for each.

  1. State concisely the economic assumptions and derivation of any one macrodynamic model of an inventory cycle. In terms of the model discuss the factors governing the period of its cycle.
  2. Develop briefly a simply macrodynamic model based on ‘fixed’ capital theory. Indicate the important non-linearities and give a graphical discussion of the nature of the solutions and their limit cycle. What are the principal characteristics of the system’s behavior?
  3. Two different economic situations are described by the somewhat similar equations:
    1. \ddot{x}+.12\dot{x}+2.3x=10;
    2. x\left( t+2 \right)+.12x\left( t+1 \right)+2.3x\left( t \right)=10.
      Compare and contrast the behavior implied in the two cases.

 

III
Take any TWO questions, allowing about 20 minutes for each.

  1. If the multiplier mechanism is represented by
    {1}/{v}\;\dot{y}+\left( 1-\alpha \right)y=i\left( t \right)+H ,
    and if
    i\left( t \right)=\kappa \dot{y}+I\cos \omega t,
    Obtain the complete solution for y.
  2. Given a Marshallian type market, specified by
    \begin{array}{l}{{p}_{d}}={{p}_{d}}\left( q \right),\\{{p}_{s}}={{p}_{s}}\left( q \right),\\\text{and}\\\dot{q}=f\left( {{p}_{d}}-{{p}_{x}} \right),\end{array}

    1. State the meaning and use of its phase line, \psi \left( q \right);
    2. Derive the relationship between the slope of \psi \left( q \right) and the slopes of the supply, the demand, and the reaction curves;
    3. Show what conditions on the slopes of the other curves are implied by a stable equilibrium point.
    4. If all curves are linear for small variations, show how the time constant, \tau , depends on the slopes of the supply, the demand, and the reaction curves.
    5. With the help of graphs, discuss the various possible behavior types of a ‘cob-web’ market with general, non-linear supply and demand curves. Explain briefly in words the meaning of your results.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 17, Bound volume: Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January, 1951.

Image: Harvard Class Album 1951.