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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for “The Corporation and its Regulation”, 1935

 

 

While the Harvard archives collection of printed final examinations has a few serious gaps and is sometimes incomplete (especially with respect to the mid-year exams for year-long courses), it is truly a great resource, especially when the exams get paired to the corresponding syllabus/reading-list found elsewhere in the archives. I’m am now roughly a third of the way in matching exams to course syllabi/reading-lists that I have already posted. Once I catch up, I’ll be posting the combinations regularly from thereon out.

Today takes us back to the extremely popular (in the mid-1930s) Harvard course co-taught by Messrs. Crum, Mason, and Chamberlin on the corporation and its regulation. It is interesting to note that Henry Simons’ pamphlet “A Positive Program for Laissez-Faire” (1934) while not be included in the reading list was important enough to account for 50% of the examination (Q. 1) below. 

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Final Examination
The Corporation and its Regulation

Professors William Leonard Crum, Edward Sagendorph Mason, and Edward Hastings Chamberlin

1934-35
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 4a1

1. Note: Allow about an hour and a half for this question. Discuss any two of the following proposals:

A recently published programme for a liberal economic policy proposes in part:

  1. That no corporation which engages in the manufacture or merchandising of commodities or services shall own any securities of any other such corporation.
  2. That corporations may issue securities only in a small number of simple forms prescribed by law, and that no single corporation may employ more than two (or three) of the different forms.
  3. That investment corporations (including holding companies) shall hold stock in operating companies without voting rights, and shall be prohibited from exercising influence over such companies with respect to management.

2. Write on any three of the following:

  1. “The Securities Act is merely an attempt to make the corporation lawyer and financier the scapegoats of the depression.” Discuss.
  2. “It is not possible in a modern corporation to discover who performs the entrepreneurial function, nor to apply to a modern corporation any theory of profits based on the assumption that individual proprietorships and partnerships are the typical forms of business enterprise.” Discuss.
  3. Distinguish between earned and capital surplus. What is the importance of the distinction? In what various ways may a capital surplus arise? Discuss the declaration of dividends out of surplus.
  4. “One of the largest textile mills in the United States found itself in 1932 with $2,000,000 cash, no bonds, and hardly any current obligations. Its stock was quoted at $30 a share, though the corporation had nearly $35 in net quick assets. Accordingly, it purchased some of its own shares. Obviously, by whatever course of reasoning we proceed, this was of advantage not only to the corporation, because it reduced the number of shares upon which it must pay dividends in order to maintain its investment credit, but also to the great body of stockholders, because it increased the available equity of each share. We may add that it was of advantage to the individual shareholder who was forced to sell his shares, in that it increased the number of purchasers.” Discuss.

 

Final. [February] 1935.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers—Finals, 1935 (HUC 7000.28, 77 of 284).

Image Source: Crum, Mason and Chamberlin from Harvard Album 1934.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Examinations for Graduate Economic Theory. Chamberlin, 1948

 

From the Harvard archives I have transcribed the final examinations for the both semesters of a two-semester course in graduate economic theory taught in 1947-48 by Edward H. Chamberlin. The syllabus/reading-list for that course was transcribed in an earlier posting.

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Enrollments

[Economics] 101a. Professor Chamberlin—Economic Theory, I (F).

Total 84: of which 32 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 4 Junior, 17 Public Administration, 12 Radcliffe, 8 Others.

[Economics] 101b. Professor Chamberlin—Economic Theory, I (S).

Total 88: of which 37 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 1 Junior, 21 Public Administration, 8 Radcliffe, 11 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1947-48, p. 90.

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Final Examination
Economic Theory I
Professor Edward H. Chamberlin

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 101a

Write on the first question (one hour) and any four of the others (1/2 hour each). (The first question will receive double weight).

  1. (one hour) The Marshallian analysis of monopoly required only the demand curve for the monopolist’s product, and the cost curve for the monopolist’s production, in order to determine the price-output combination which would make profits a maximum for the firm. In what respects does monopolistic competition theory replace or supplement the earlier analysis? Was the earlier analysis logically wrong, incomplete, or both?
  2. (1/2 hour) Mill gave great importance to the category of constant cost in his theory of value. More recently, as a result of the Marshallian analysis, some have concluded that constant cost is of no importance whatever, whereas others would retain it as a major category. Discuss the issues involved and give your own conclusion.
  3. (1/2 hour) Suppose a firm already to possess a certain plant, and to contemplate its expansion. Using a diagram, distinguish between, and relate to each other, the following six curves:
    1. The average and marginal cost curves for the original plant.
    2. The average and marginal cost curves which would be relevant to deciding on the expansion policy.
    3. The average and marginal cost curves after the expansion has taken place.

Explain the most significant principles involved in this analysis.

  1. (1/2 hour) Explain Marshall’s concept of “quasi-rent,” distinguishing it from the concept of “rent.” Explain the analytic use to which Marshall puts the concept, and give an illustration (preferably one of your own).
  2. (1/2 hour) A production surface may be regarded as a hill which may be “sliced” in various directions. Draw a diagram, or “indifference map,” which shows the following “slices,” all passing through the same point:
    1. Constant product
    2. Constant outlay
    3. Constant proportions of factors
    4. One of the two factors constant.

Show also (5) a “scale line” passing through this same point.
Explain in each case the meaning of the curve you have drawn.
What is the relation of this diagram to the cost curve analysis?

  1. (1/2 hour) “There is no use discussing whether or not we measure utility. The alternative to measurement is chaos, and since markets are not chaotic, there must be measurement.” Discuss the issues involved in this quotation and in measuring utility generally. To what extent are they solved by the use of indifference curves instead of demand curves?
  2. (1/2 hour) What is the essential feature of oligopoly which makes the behavior of an oligopolistic firm so intractable to ordinary analysis? Indicate at least one technique whereby the problem of price determination under oligopoly (or, in the special case of two: duopoly) has been reduced to manageable proportions and some conclusion reached. Criticize this technique and the conclusion.

Final. January, 1948.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. HUC 7000.28, Box 15 of 284. Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. January, 1948.

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Final Examination
Economic Theory I
Professor Edward H. Chamberlin

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 101b

Please write on the cover of your bluebook the numbers of the questions you have answered, in the order in which they appear in the book.

Part I

Answer both questions, allowing 45 minutes each.

  1. Discuss any three specific problems involved in defining the marginal product of a factor of production. You may discuss particular factors, as well as the general problem.
  2. Discuss the major issues in “welfare economics” with respect to any three of the following subjects:
    1. The significance of “perfect competition” in welfare economics
    2. The production and exchange conditions for maximum economic welfare
    3. Equality of incomes
    4. Interpersonal comparisons
    5. Elements of monopoly
    6. Economic vs. non-economic welfare

Part II

Answer any three questions, allowing 30 minutes each.

  1. “Interest is a payment necessary to induce people to give up part of their current income to make capital formation possible. In a static state no capital formation takes place; therefore the interest rate in a static state would be zero.” Discuss.
  2. Outline a theory of profits taking into account all the factors which in your opinion influence both total profits and the earnings of particular Define your terms.
  3. Explain and contrast either Ricardian or Marshallian rent with Robinsonian rent. What is your own view on the main issues involved?
  4. Assume that trade unions consider the demand for the labor of their members in determining their wage objectives. Suppose a number of craft unions in an industry (say, the building industry) to be amalgamated into a single union. How would you expect this amalgamation to affect their wage objectives? (Do not discuss the question of bargaining strength).
  5. Discuss the equilibrium of the firm under conditions such that selling outlays are profitable.

 

Final. May, 1948.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. HUC 7000.28, Box 15 of 284. Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. May, 1948.

Image Source: Edward H. Chamberlin in Harvard Class Album 1946.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam for Charles Bullock’s Public Finance, 1916

 

From the Harvard archive’s collection of final examinations I have transcribed the final examination for Charles J. Bullock’s Public Finance Course from June 1916. The course readings were transcribed for an earlier posting. A brief note on Bullock is found over at The History of Economic Thought website.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 8. Professor Bullock—Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

Total 60: of which 27 Graduates, 28 Seniors, 5 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1915-16, p. 60.

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Final Examination
Public Finance
Professor Charles Jesse Bullock

1915-16
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 5

  1. Trace historically the position occupied by the customs revenue in the finances of the United States. What principles should be observed in establishing a system of customs duties? Discuss the incidence of these duties.
  2. To what extent and for what reasons has the working of the general property tax in Switzerland been different from the working of the same tax in the United States?
  3. Discuss briefly and concisely the characteristic features of three of the following: (a) The impôt-personnel mobilier; (b) The French business tax; (c) The Prussian business tax; (d) inheritance taxes in the United States.
  4. Explain and discuss critically the methods employed in the taxation of incomes in England and in Prussia.
  5. (a) What are the different theories regarding the best method of apportioning taxes?
    (b) Distinguish between “funded” and “unfunded” incomes. On what grounds can the heavier taxation of funded incomes be urged?
  6. What principles should govern the prices charged for the services of public commercial undertakings?
  7. Enumerate and discuss critically all the maxims, or canons, of taxation, with which you are familiar.
  8. State either the case for or the case against the single tax.

Final. 1916.

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1916. (HUC 7000.28, 58 of 284), pp. 53-54.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1915.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Examination Questions for Carver’s Sociology, 1918

 

For new visitors to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror and as a reminder to everyone else, Sociology was not a distinct department at Harvard until the 1930s but instead was one field taught within the economics department.

Today’s posting provides the examination questions for the final examination in Thomas Nixon Carver’s course  “Principles of Sociology” from June, 1918. The syllabus to the course along with links to the individual items has been posted earlier. The mid-year examination questions from February, 1923 for the later academic year and the final examination questions from June, 1923 have been also posted as well.

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Course Announcement

[Economics] 8. Principles of Sociology. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr….

A study in social adaptation, both passive and active. Problems of race improvement, moral adjustment, industrial organization, and social control are considered in detail.

Source:  Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics 1917-18 published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), p. 62.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8. Professor Carver–Principles of Sociology.

Total 17: of which 7 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 2 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1917-18, p. 54.

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Final Examination June 1918

1917-18
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 8

 

1.      (a) What is meant by adaptation in general?

(b) In what sense must the individual be “fitted into” the group?

(c) What special significance attaches to the sovereign group?

(d) In what sense must the sovereign group itself be “fitted into” something larger?

2.      (a) What is the relation of variation and selection to the process of adaptation?

(b) What is meant by passive adaptation?

(c) What is meant by active adaptation?

(d) In what respects does human adaptation differ from the adaptation of plants and animals?

3.      (a) Upon what factors must a program for the improvement of the race chiefly depend? Explain?

(b) What factors are now at work toward the improvement of the race in a modern, civilized society?

(c) What factors are tending to produce deterioration?

4.     (a) Under what circumstances might the fact that a man could prosper in an industrial society prove his fitness to survive, from the standpoint of race improvement?

(b) Under what circumstances might it prove the opposite?

(c) Is economic success a sign of fitness more frequently than of unfitness? Give reasons.

5.     (a) What is meant by moral adaptation in general?

(b) What is the ultimate test of the soundness of a moral code, from the standpoint of this course?

(c) What is the relation of religion to the problem of adaptation?

6.     (a) What is the relation of economic scarcity to the conflict of human interests?

(b) What are the chief causes of economic scarcity?

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music. June, 1918. (HUC 7000.28, 60 of 284).

 

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1915.

 

 

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for Carver’s Course on Socialism and Schemes of Reform, 1920

These examination questions from Thomas Nixon Carver’s course “The Single Tax, Socialism, Anarchism” come from June 1920. The corresponding list of course readings for that year have been posted already here at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.  

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 7b 2hf. Professor Carver—The Single Tax, Socialism, Anarchism.

Total 78: of which 10 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 14 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1919-20, p. 90.

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Final Examination

1919-20
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 7b

  1. What is socialism and what are the principal methods by which its advocates are trying to bring it into existence?
  2. Discuss Marx’s theory of value comparing it with that held by modern economists.
  3. What is meant by “the iron law of wages,” how much truth is there in it, and how does it fit into the “balancing up” program?
  4. In what sense is capital productive?
  5. What is thrift and how does its practice affect wages?
  6. Discuss the question: Is interest earned?
  7. What is meant by the single tax? What would be taxed and what exempted from taxation if it were in operation?
  8. What do you regard as the least defensible forms of ownership now permitted by law? Why?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Fine Arts, Music. June, 1920. (HUC 7000.28, 62 of 284).

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1915.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examination Questions for Taussig’s Economic Theory Course, 1924

 

A rough outline with assigned readings was posted during the early days of Economics in the Rear-View Mirror for Frank W. Taussig’s year long graduate economic theory course for 1923-24. Here we add both the enrollment figures as well as the examinations for mid-year (February 1924) and the final (June 1924).

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig–Economic Theory.

Total 51:  of which 37 Graduates, 5 Business School, 3 Seniors, 6 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University, Report of the President of Harvard College for 1923-24, p. 107.

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1923-24
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 11
Mid-Year. 1924.

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions

  1. What bearing has the turn-over of retail shops on the question whether the reward of labor is derived from the contemporaneous product of labor?
  1. “Suppose I employ twenty men at an expense of £1000 for a year in the production of a commodity, and at the end of the year I employ twenty men again for another year, at a further expense of £1000 in finishing or perfecting the same commodity, and that I bring it to market at the end of two years, if profits be 10 per cent, my commodity must sell for [?]. Another man employs precisely the same quantity of labour, but he employs it all in the first year; he employs forty men at an expense of £2000, and at the end of the first year he sells it with 10 per cent profit, or for [?].
    Give the figures which Ricardo put into the bracketed spaces, and explain in what way he reached his figures.
    What principle does he mean to illustrate by examples of this kind?

[David Ricardo, The Principles of Political Economy & Taxation. Everyman’s Library Edition (London, 1912), p. 23.]

  1. “Thus, in a charitable institution, where the poor are set to work with the funds of benefactors, the general prices of the commodities, which are the produce of such work, will not be governed by the peculiar facilities afforded to these workmen, but by the common, usual, and natural difficulties which every other manufacturer will have to encounter. The manufacturer enjoying none of these facilities might indeed be driven altogether from the market if the supply afforded by these favoured workmen were equal to all the wants of the community; but if he continued the trade, it would be only on condition that he should derive from it the usual and general rate of profits on stock; and that could only happen when his commodity sold for a price proportioned to the quantity of labour bestowed on its production.”
    What principle was Ricardo trying to elucidate in this passage? Is his reasoning sound?

[David Ricardo, The Principles of Political Economy & Taxation. Everyman’s Library Edition (London, 1912), p. 37.]

  1. “The amount of produce raised, and therefore the position of the margin of cultivation (i. e., the margin of the profitable application of capital and labour to good and bad land alike) are both governed by the general conditions of demand and supply. They are governed on the one hand by demand; that is, by the numbers of the population who consume the produce, the intensity of their need for it, and their means of paying for it: and on the other hand by supply; that is, by the extent and fertility of the available land, and the numbers and resources of those ready to cultivate it. Thus cost of production, eagerness of demand, margin of production, and price of the produce mutually govern one another: and no circular reasoning is involved in speaking of any one as in part governed by the others.”
    Is this different from Ricardo’s doctrine on the relation between cost of production, value, rent? Is it inconsistent with Ricardo’s doctrine?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book V, Ch. X, §1 (London, 1920), p. 427.]

  1. “In short periods, that is, in periods short relatively to the time required to make and bring into full bearing improvements . . . no such direct influence on supply price is exercised by the necessity that such improvements should in the long run yield net incomes sufficient to give normal profits on their cost. And therefore when we are dealing with such periods, these incomes may be regarded as quasi-rents which depend on the price of the produce.”
    Would you regard “these incomes” as quasi-rents, in Marshall’s sense? Would you consider this a good definition of quasi-rents?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book V, Ch. X, §1 (London, 1920), p. 426.]

  1. Indicate summarily Mill’s doctrines regarding

 the law of the accumulation of capital;
the factors on which the rate of profits depends;
the tendency of profits to a minimum.

Are they consistent with each other? Which of them, if any, is in accord with Ricardo’s doctrine on profits?

  1. “An increase in the aggregate volume of production of anything will generally increase the size, and therefore the internal economics possessed by a representative firm; it will always increase the external economies to which the firm has access; and thus it will enable it to manufacture at a less proportionate cost of labour and sacrifice than before.”
    Why “generally” in the first case? Why “always” in the second? or why not in either case?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book IV, Ch. XIII, §2 (London, 1920), p. 318.]

  1. Explain

cost of production,
expenses of production,
supply price,
contemporaneous costs curve,
successive costs curve.

  1. “Among 1317 farms in one county in New York, 13 farms yielded labor incomes of over $2000. . . . Part of this difference was due to the soils being better than the average, and part was due to better management.” In the book from which this passage is taken, “labor income” is ascertained by deducting from the farm receipts (a) expenses incurred in operating the farm, (b) the interest which the farmer would have got if, instead of investing in the farm, he had lent his money at the current rate. Would you accept this definition of labor income?
    Does “economic rent” appear in the analysis? If so, where and how?

[George F. Warren, Farm Management (New York, 1913), p. 167.]

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1923-24
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 11
Final. 1924.

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions

  1. What is left, in the present stage of economic theory, of Ricardo’s doctrine of value? of wages? of profits?
  1. “When considering costs from the social point of view, when inquiring whether the cost of attaining a given result is increasing or diminishing with changing economic conditions, then we are concerned with the real costs of efforts of various qualities, and with the real cost of waiting. If the purchasing power of money in terms of effort has remained about constant, and if the rate of remuneration for waiting has remained about constant, then the money measure of costs corresponds to the real costs; but such a correspondence is never to be assumed lightly.” — Marshall.
    Consider separately the two propositions stated in these sentences, and give your opinion on them.

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book V, Ch. III, §7 (London, 1920), p. 350.]

  1. “Let us now drop the supposition that labour is so mobile as to ensure equal remuneration for equal efforts, throughout the whole of society, and let us approach much nearer to the actual conditions of life by supposing that labour is not all of one industrial grade, but of several. Let us suppose that parents always bring up their children to an occupation in their own grade; that they have a free choice within that grade, but not outside it. Lastly, let us suppose that the increase of numbers in each grade is governed by other than economic causes: as before it may be fixed, or it may be influenced by changes in custom, in moral opinion, etc.” — Marshall.
    On these suppositions, is value determined by “real costs.”? Wherein, if at all, do the suppositions differ from those made by Marshall in earlier editions?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Book VI, Ch. I, §6 (London, 1920), pp. 513-4.]

  1. “While we [the Austrians] say that the value of means of production, that is of cost-goods, is determined by the value of their products, the usual way of interpreting the law is to say that the value of their products, the usual way of interpreting the law is to say that the value of the products is determined by the amount of their costs, — by the value of the means of production out of which they are made.” — Böhm-Bawerk.
    What are grounds of this conclusion? What is your own view?

[Eugen v. Böhm-Bawerk,  The Positive Theory of Capital (New York, 1891), p. 184.]

  1. “The difference between land and other durable agents is mainly one of degree; and a great part of the interest of the study of the rent of land arises from the illustration it affords of a great principle that permeates every part of economics.” — Marshall.
    Why is the difference mainly one of degree? and what is the great permeating principle?

[Alfred Marshall. Principles of Economics, 8th ed., Appendix K, §2 (London, 1920), p. 832.]

  1. State the precise point on which Böhm-Bawerk rests his contention that there is no specific productivity of capital.
  1. Böhm-Bawerk remarks that the theory put forth by him bears a certain resemblance to the wage fund doctrine of the older English school, but differs from it in essentials. Explain the resemblance; point out the difference which Böhm-Bawerk believes to be essential; and give your instructor’s comment on that point of difference.
  1. Under the regulation for administering the Excess Profits Tax, while it was levied in the United States, an individual business man liable for this tax was allowed, when declaring his profits, to deduct from his receipts not only all outlays incurred but also (a) eight per cent on his invested capital, (b) a reasonable salary for his own labor of management.
    Were these two allowances in accord with the theoretic treatment of business profits by Clark? by Marshall? by your instructor?

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. (HUC 7882) Examination papers in economics 1882-1935, Prof. F.W. Taussig.

Image Source: Frank Taussig from Harvard Class Album 1925.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examination Questions for Chamberlin’s 2nd Semester Graduate Theory, 1939

My original enthusiasm for the trove of old Harvard economics examinations was slightly dampened when I noticed that mid-year examinations (i.e. in February) for full-year courses were not apparently included in the collections I saw during my recent archival visit. Today’s posting provides only the June examination questions for the second semester of Edward H. Chamberlin’s two-semester graduate economic theory course at Harvard during the 1938-39 academic year. The course syllabus for both semesters of Economics 101 with many links to the readings was transcribed and posted earlier. Maybe someone gets lucky and finds a copy of the February, 1939 exam to add here. Better yet, maybe someone finds a copy of Chamberlin’s own or some graduate student’s notes for the course.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 101

Answer SIX questions. (Please do not depart from the order in which they are listed.) Each question will receive equal weight.

  1. What minimum conditions are necessary to discrimination? What further conditions are necessary in order to make discrimination profitable? What further conditions would be necessary in order to have discrimination in the highest (“first”) degree? Describe the general conditions of equilibrium for a discriminating monopolist. Is it possible to say whether, from the point of view of society as a whole, price discrimination is desirable or not? Why or why not?
  2. Discuss the following quotations from Hicks, individually, and in relation to each other:

“In the short run, particular men may be displaced by an increase in saving; but in the long run, the accumulation of capital is always favorable to the interests of labor.”
“Now…inventions of this type…may reduce not only the relative share of labor, but also its absolute share.”

  1. “Under a régime of private property and competitive industry, doubtless all that unionism can achieve in raising wages is to aid in bringing them to the full marginal productivity of labor.” Discuss.
  2. Are production and consumption “synchronized” by capital in a static state? Discuss fully and explain what importance (if any) you think this issue has for the theory of interest.
  3. Compare and contrast the interest theory of Boehm-Bawerk with that of either Wicksell or Indicate and defend your own view on the most important points of difference.
  4. “Jevons asks: ‘If land which has been yielding £2 per acre rent, as pasture, be ploughed up and used for raising wheat, must not the £2 per acre be debited against the production of wheat?” The answer is in the negative.” Discuss.
  5. What rôle, if any, do you assign in your own theory of profits to each of the following: (a) marginal productivity, (b) risk, (c) innovation, (d) monopoly, and (e) the separation of ownership and control in the modern corporation?
  6. Discuss critically Knight’s analysis of cumulative inequality as a factor in economic and political evolution.

Final. 1939.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations, History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1939. (HUC 7000.28) Box 4 of 284.

Image Source: Professor Edward H. Chamberlin in Harvard Class Album 1939.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Examination for Paul Sweezy’s Economics of Socialism, 1940

During my recent archival visit to Harvard, I was able to copy a magnificent trove of final examinations in economics (up through 1949…there is much more going forward, but I had to move on). Now I begin the curatorial work of pairing some of those examinations to course materials I have posted earlier and where the exam questions were missing.

Today I am adding a transcription of Paul Sweezy’s final examination for his 1939-40, second semester course “Economics of Socialism”.

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1939-40

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11b2

Part I
(Reading Period—One Hour)

  1. Write a critical appraisal of EITHER Pigou’s Socialism versus Capitalism OR Lange’s On the Economic Theory of Socialism.

Part II
(Answer all three—One Hour and a Half)

  1. Explain the Marxian theory of value and surplus value. What is your own opinion of its usefulness?
  2. Discuss briefly each of the following: (a) fetishism of commodities; (b) industrial reserve army; (c) law of the falling tendency of the rate of profit.
  3. “It has been shown time and again that an empire, so far from being a source of riches to the mother country, is a distinct economic liability. In view of this, it is difficult to see how any one can continue to uphold the Marx-Lenin theory of imperialism.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

 

Part III
(One Half Hour)

  1. Discuss EITHER (a) OR (b)

(a) The meaning and significance of costs in a socialist economy
(b) The distribution of income in a socialist economy

Final. 1940.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations, History, History of Religions, … ,Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1940. (HUC 7000.28) Box 5 of 284

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1942.

Categories
Courses Curriculum Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Economics courses with enrollments and exam questions, 1871-1875

 

In an earlier posting I assembled information for the two or three economics courses regularly offered at Harvard in the mid-1870s. Today’s posting provides information on the economics course offerings during the first half of the 1870s. Except for the academic year 1870-1, all the courses were taught by Charles Dunbar, who only began teaching at Harvard in 1871/72. Below you will find titles of the textbooks assigned for the courses, enrollment figures, and final examination questions pieced together from the Harvard course catalogues, reports of the President of Harvard and a few unpublished exams I have found during my visit to the Harvard archives in February 2017.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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1870-71

REQUIRED: POLITICAL SCIENCE.
Junior year

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Ellis Peterson, A.M. Roger’s Political Economy. Mr. O. W. Holmes, Jr. — Alden, Constitution of the United States.

One hour a week. 119 students, 3 sections, 1 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for instructor [for political economy]. 2 sections, 1 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for instructor [for constitutional law].

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1871-72, p. 39;  Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1870-71, p. 51.

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Final Examination, June 1871
Junior year

I.

1. What is the sense in which the term wealth is used in Political Economy? 2. What was the cause, and also the effect of the belief that wealth was money? 3. In what sense is the term value used by Political Economists? 4. What is the cause of economical value, and under what conditions is land an exception to the rule of value? 5. Distinguish price from value, and show that while there may be a general rise in prices, there cannot be a general rise in values.

II.

1. What are the causes of “demand,” and which of these are relative, and which absolute? 2. On what does the price of commodities depend in the long run? Also, at any particular time? 3. Why is the increase in the price of bread-stuffs greater than the decrease in the supply? 4. Explain the effects of a very high price of bread on the price of meat. 5. Illustrate by the “cotton famine” in England (1826-65), how demand and supply affect prices.

III.

1. Give the origin and the definition of capital. 2. What are the real profits of capital, and what are included in the gross profits? 3. What are the principal causes of the unequal distribution of capital? 4. How are capital and labor affected by governmnet’s contracting a loan for an unproductive purpose? 5. Why are the fluctuations in the rate of disocunt greater than in the rate of interest?

IV.

1. Show that unproductive labor may be indirectly productive? 2. Give the advantages of “Division of Labor.” 3. Analyze wages of labor. 4. (1)If the number of laborers and the amount of capital invested in production be given, what of course must be the average wages of labor? (2)What causes the difference of wages in different employments? (3)What causes fluctuations of wages of a certain labor, and also of a certain laborer? 5. Show how the staple food of a country may affect the rate of wages?

V.

1. Give Malthus’s Theory of Population. 2. Why have the credit banks of M. Delitzsch been successful? 3. What is the first of Adam Smith’s four canons of taxation? 4. Distinguish direct from indirect taxes. 5. Give briefly the arguments for and against direct and also indirect taxation.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28) Box 1 of 284, Folder “Final Examinations, 1870-1871”.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 4
POLITICAL ECONOMY
Senior year

Nicholas St. John  Green, LL.B. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy.

Three times a week. 99 Seniors, 2 sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1871-72, p. 41;  Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1870-71, p. 52.

PHILOSOPHY IV
POLITICAL ECONOMY
Final Examination, June, 1871

  1. In what respect do the views of Mr. Mill upon co-operation and the division of labor differ from the views of Adam Smith?
  2. On what does the degree of Productiveness of productive Agents depend?
  3. What is the doctrine of Malthus and what is Mr. Mill’s opinion of that doctrine?
  4. What is Communism? St. Simonism? Fourierism?
  5. What does Mr. Mill think concerning property in land?
  6. What is the remedy for low wages?
  7. What are the functions of money, and how and to what extent can credit supply its place?
  8. What are the evils of an inconvertible paper currency?
  9. What are the ordinary functions of government?
  10. What are the limits of the province of government?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28) Box 1 of 284, Folder “Final Examinations, 1870-1871”.

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1871-72

REQUIRED: POLITICAL SCIENCE.
Junior year

Prof. Dunbar. Roger’s Political Economy. — Alden, Constitution of the United States.
One hour a week. 128 students, 3 sections, 1 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for instructor.

[Note: Political Economy and the U.S. Constitution were each a half-year course with Political Economy covered in the first semester and the U.S. Constitution in the second semester.]

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1872-73, p. 58;  Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1871-72, p. 46.

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Final Examination, February 1872
Junior year

  1. What is the difference between price and value?
  2. What is capital, and whence is it derived?
  3. Is a legal tender note of the United States money? If not, then what is it?
  4. What effect has an excessive issue of paper currency upon prices?
  5. In an estimate of public wealth, what kinds of individual wealth are excluded, and why?
  6. Why is the rate of interest high in a newly settled Western State?
  7. What determines the rate of wages?
  8. What was the theory of Malthus as to the growth of population?
  9. What effect has the introduction of machinery upon the rate of wages?
  10. What is rent, and how does it depend upon the cost of production?
  11. In the trade between nations, how is the transmission of gold and silver for the most part avoided?
  12. If there is a scarcity of some article of which there are several qualities of different prices, will the cheapest or the dearest quality rise most, and why?
  13. What is the difference between direct and indirect taxation, and what are their respective advantages!
  14. Why is a tax on raw materials a bad tax?
  15. How does our national debt differ in form from the English, and what advantage has either form?

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1872-73, p. 241.

ELECTIVE: POLITICAL ECONOMY
Senior year

Prof. Dunbar. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy.
Three times a week. 75 Seniors, 2 sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1872-73, p. 61;  Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1871-72, p. 48.

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Special Examination, December, 1871

  1. What is probably the most important advantage obtained by the division of labor?
  2. Define wealth.
  3. Define money.
  4. What is the difference between value and price?
  5. What is the real price of an article, and by what is it measured?
  6. What is the natural price?
  7. What is the market price, and what is its relation to the natural
    price?
  8. In a country where gold and silver coin are both used, what effect will a permanent increase in the supply of either metal have upon the currency? What effect upon prices?
  9. Can these effects be avoided or mitigated, and if so, by what expedient?
  10. What is rent, and how does it depend upon the cost of production?
  11. In the trade between nations, how is the transmission of gold and silver for the most part avoided?
  12. If there is a scarcity of some article of which there are several qualities of different prices, will the cheapest or the dearest quality rise most, and why?
  13. What is the difference between direct and indirect taxation, and what are their respective advantages!
  14. Why is a tax on raw materials a bad tax?
  15. How does our national debt differ in form from the English, and what advantage has either form?

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1872-73, p. 248-9.

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Special Examination, January, 1872

  1. What is the distinction between wealth and capital?
  2. What is the difference between fixed and circulating capitals? and to which does money belong?
  3. When either of the precious metals becomes more abundant, and the remedy of over-valuation and limitation of the right of tender is to be applied, does it make any difference which metal is over-valued, and if so, what difference?
  4. On what basis is the Bank of England established?
  5. How does Smith distinguish between productive laborers and unproductive?
  6. Explain the paradox that “what is annually saved is as regularly consumed as what is annually spent.”
  7. What is the error of Locke and Montesquieu as to the supposed connection between the depreciation of value of gold and silver and the lowering of the rate of interest?
  8. What is Adam Smith’s view as to the point at which the rate of interest should be fixed by law, and what is his mistake?
  9. How can a paper currency be kept at par with gold?
  10. What was the theory of the balance of trade, and in what respect was it fallacious?
  11. Why do manufactures often flourish while a nation is carrying on a foreign war?
  12. What was the theory of the agricultural system, and what was its great error?
  13. State the general objection to any system for the extraordinary encouragement of a particular branch of industry, and such partial or complete answers to that objection as may occur to you.
  14. What is the chronological relation of the several systems of Political Economy?
  15. Consider the following passage from a Report of the Comptroller of the Currency, made in December, 1871:—

“The tenacity with which the Pacific States adhere to a gold currency is quite notable. Whether it is equally praiseworthy is another thing. It is not clear that those States derive any substantial benefit from the course they have pursued, and it is beginning to be manifest that the United States are not at all benefited by it. The substitution of a paper currency in California and the other gold-producing States for their present hard money would probably set free for the use of the government and the whole country some thirty or forty millions of gold, and, at the same time, provide those communities with a more economical, active, and accommodating circulating medium.”

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1872-73, p. 249-50.

POLITICAL ECONOMY
Final Examination, June, 1872.

  1. How does Mr. Mill distinguish between productive labor and unproductive? and under which head is mental labor (as, e.g., that of a philosopher or inventor) to be placed?
  2. If a nation has to meet extraordinary expenses, as in time of war, is it better to raise the amount by loan, or by taxes within the year! and why?
  3. What is the relation between profits and the cost of labor?
  4. What is the law which determines the value of that class of commodities of which the supply can be indefinitely increased without increase of cost?
  5. Why are both profits and wages high in a new and fertile country?
  6. If a fall in profits takes place, are manufactured articles or agricultural produce most likely to fall in value, and why?
  7. Why does Mr. Mill think a general over-supply of commodities impossible?
  8. Suppose a paper currency to be issued, of which every note represents actual property. Can it be depreciated, and why?
  9. Can two countries exchange products if in one the general cost of production is higher than in the other, and why?
  10. What is the general law determining the values at which a country exchanges its produce with other countries?
  11. What effect is produced upon international trade by an improvement which introduces a new article of export?
  12. What effect is produced upon rent, profits, and wages respectively, by a great improvement in agriculture?
  13. What reasons are there in theory for exempting from income tax so much of income as is saved and invested?
  14. If a tax upon agricultural produce is of long standing, on whom does it finally fall, and why?
  15. Under what circumstances does Mr. Mill think that protecting duties can properly be levied?

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1872-73, p. 250.

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1872-73

REQUIRED: POLITICAL SCIENCE.
Junior year

Prof. Dunbar. Fawcett’s Political Economy. — Constitution of the United States.
Two hours a week. First half-year. 162 students, 1 lecture, 4 recitations, 2 exercises per week for students, 5 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1873-74, p. 62;  Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1872-73, p. 42.

Final Examination, February, 1873
CONSTITUTION AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
Prof. Dunbar

If unable to answer all the questions on this paper, do not fail to answer a part under each class.

A.

  1. What are the essential points in which the Constitution differs from the Confederation?
  2. Who are citizens of the United States?
  3. State the rule by which Representatives are to be apportioned among the States under Amendments XIV., and XV.
  4. What does the Constitution provide as to the issue of paper currency, whether by Congress or by the States, and whence does Congress derive its power to make paper a legal tender?
  5. On what provision did the claim of power by Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories chiefly rest?
  6. Whence does either House of Congress obtain its power to punish witnesses for refusal to testify before a committee?
  7. State the change which was made in the method of electing president by Amendment XII., adopted in 1804, and the circumstances which led to that change.
  8. State briefly the provisions relating to the veto power.
  9. State the provisions which define the treaty-making power, and the power of appointing to office.
  10. To what does the judicial power of the United States extend, and how is it limited by Amendment XI.?
  11. How does the Constitution define treason and provide for its punishment?
  12. How can the Constitution be amended, and what exception is there to the power of amendment?

B.

  1. How are the permanently different rates of profit in different pursuits in the same country accounted for?
  2. How does credit affect prices?
  3. What is the advantage obtained by the consumer from the warehousing system?
  4. Should permanent incomes derived from invested property be taxed at the same rate as temporary or professional incomes? Give the reason.
  5. On whom does a tax laid on premises occupied for manufacturing purposes fall, and why?

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1873-74, p. 265.

 

ELECTIVE: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Senior year

Prof. Dunbar. J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — McCulloch on Taxation. — Subjects in Banking and Currency.
Three times a week. First half-year. 65 Seniors, 2 sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1873-74, p. 67;  Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1872-73, p. 44.

 

[Final Examination May or June 1873]
Political Economy
Prof. Dunbar

  1. Mill says, “That high wages make high prices is a popular and wide-spread opinion.” To what extent, and why, is that opinion incorrect?
  2. Suppose the recent combinations of English agricultural laborers to be successful in securing higher wages; what would be the effect on the price of food, the profits of farmers, and the rent?
  3. Adam Smith’s theory of the benefit of foreign trade was that it affords an outlet for surplus produce, and enables the country to replace a part of its capital with a profit. What criticism is to be made on this theory?
  4. How does Bastiat apply his theory of value, for the purpose of showing which of two nations will gain the most from an exchange of products?
  5. Explain Mill’s remark that “there are two senses in which a country obtains commodities cheaper by foreign trade: in the sense of value, and in the sense of cost.”
  6. If a country has regular annual payments to be made abroad, as e. g. interest on a public debt, what effect is produced thereby on the imports and exports, and on the terms on which it exchanges products with other countries?
  7. Suppose capital and population are both increasing; what will be the effect on rent, wages, and profits, and why?
  8. What will be the effect, in the case supposed above, if a great improvement is made in cultivation?
  9. Apply the results in Nos. 7 and 8 to the case of a country like the United States, where the land and the agricultural capital are generally owned by the same person.
  10. State the reasons for and against an income tax, the leading exemptions which should be made, and the rule to be observed in taxing incomes from invested property and from business profits respectively.
  11. Under what circumstances will a tax on exports fall upon foreigners?
  12. In what cases will a duty on imports fall upon foreigners?
  13. What answer is made to Adam Smith’s argument that home trade affords more encouragement to productive industry than foreign trade?’
  14. What answer is made to the objection that the system of protection adds the amount of the duty to the price paid by consumers of protected commodities?
  15. It being admitted that revenue must be raised by duties on imports, how does the plan of “a revenue tariff with incidental protection” fail to satisfy either the theory of protection or that of free trade?

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1873-74, p. 266.

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1873-74

REQUIRED: POLITICAL SCIENCE.
Sophomore and Junior year

[Note: In 1873 the required study of Political Science was transferred from the Junior to the Sophomore Year that implies combining Juniors and Sophomores for the transition year 1873-74.]

Prof. Dunbar and Mr. Howland. Elements of Political Economy. — Constitution of the United States.
Two hours a week. Half-year. 153 students, 3 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1873-74, p. 67; Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1873-74, p. 44.

Final Examination
PRESCRIBED POLITICAL ECONOMY
February 1874

Political Economy

Those who are also to pass in the Constitution may omit questions marked (*).

  1. Define (a) wealth; (b) value; (c) price; (d) capital; (e) money.
  2. What are the qualities which make gold and silver suitable materials for a currency? What are the objections to a double standard of value?
  3. Explain the action of demand and supply upon the prices (a) of raw materials; (b) of manufactured articles.
  4. Show how rents would be affected by suddenly doubling the productiveness of all lands under cultivation. Prove that rent does not enter into the price of agricultural produce.
  5. State and illustrate the causes which produce a difference in the rate of wages in different employments.
  6. Suppose the amount of the (gold) currency of a country to be suddenly doubled, what would be the effect upon (a) values; (b) prices; (c) exports and imports?
  7. Define direct and indirect taxation. What are the objections to an import duty on raw materials? What is the incidence of a tax levied on the rent of land and paid by the tenant?
  8. (*) Define productive and unproductive consumption. If the latter were to cease altogether, what would be the ultimate effect upon production?
  9. (*) Show how the cost of labor is affected, (a) if the efficiency of labor is increased; (b) if the margin of cultivation sinks.
  10. (*) What are the elements of which profits are composed? Why does the rate of profits vary (a) in different employments; (b) in different countries?
  11. (*) Explain the several ways in which credit promotes production. What are the disadvantages of an irredeemable paper currency?
  12. (*) Explain the use of bills of exchange. What is meant by an unfavorable balance of exchange?
  13. (*) Discuss the question, whether temporary and permanent incomes should be taxed alike.

 

Constitution of the United States.
Those who are also to pass in Political Economy may omit questions marked (*).

  1. (*) When and by whom was the Constitution framed, and what were the principal steps leading to its formation and adoption?
  2. Define citizenship.
  3. What changes have the abolition of slavery and the consequent amendments of the Constitution made in the system of representation?
  4. State the method of electing the President, and the difference between the present method and that at first adopted.
  5. (*) By whom are questions settled which affect the validity of elections (a) of representatives, (b) of senators, (c) of President?
  6. (*) What provision does the Constitution make tor the removal, death, resignation, or inability to serve of the President or Vice-President, or for a failure to elect either officer or both?
  7. (*) What powers over the militia are given to Congress or to the President?
  8. What are the provisions of the Constitution affecting the subject of currency?
  9. What are the provisions relating to taxation, and what are direct taxes under the Constitution?
  10. (*) What are the provisions relating to impeachment?
  11. Under what provision did Congress claim and exercise the power of prohibiting slavery in the territories?
  12. What is the extent of the judicial power of the United States, and where is it vested?
  13. What is the provision for amending the Constitution?

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1874-75, p. 218-19.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. — Sumner’s History of American Currency.
Three hours a week. 70 Seniors, 1 Junior.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1873-74, p. 67; Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1873-74, p. 46.

 

Final Examination
Philosophy 6 (Political Economy)
June 1874

  1. If the recent efforts to promote emigration on a large scale among English agricultural laborers should be successful, what would be the effect on the price of food, the profits of fanners, and rent!
  2. What is the reason for the expectation that both capitalists and laborers will be gainers from co-operation, and that neither will gain at the expense of the other? and how is this expectation to be reconciled with the general doctrine of Ricardo, that “the rate of profits depends on wages, rising as wages fall, and falling as wages rise”?
  3. Is it desirable to collect a surplus revenue for the purpose of paying off a national debt, or should the amount be left “to fructify in the pockets of the people”? Give the reason.
  4. Explain Mill’s doctrine of the tendency of profits to a minimum, the causes which produce that tendency, and the circumstances which counteract it.
  5. State the general law which determines the values at which a country exchanges its produce with foreign countries, and illustrate its application by the example of cloth and linen.
  6. Explain the incidence of taxes on imports, and the arguments that may be drawn thence as to the policy of protecting duties.
  7. Does or does not a protecting duty give additional employment to home labor? Give the reason.
  8. Criticise the following passage from Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” Book II., chapter iv. : —

“The legal rate of interest, it is to be observed, though it ought to be somewhat above, ought not to be much above the lowest market-rate. [If it were much above] the greater part of the money which was to be lent, would be lent to prodigals and projectors, who alone would be willing to give this high interest. Sober people, who will give for the use of money no more than a part of what they are likely to make by the use of it, would not venture into the competition. . . . Where the legal rate of interest, on the contrary, is fixed but a very little above the lowest market-rate, sober people are universally preferred, as borrowers, to prodigals and projectors. The person who lends money gets nearly as much interest from the former as he dares to take from the latter, and his money is much safer in the hands of the one set of people than in those of the other. A great part of the capital of the country is thus thrown into the hands in which it is most likely to be employed with advantage.”

  1. A respectable newspaper remarks, that “the object of taxation is to make all property bear its equitable share.” Is this a correct statement of the principle which should be followed in adjusting a system of taxation? Why, or why not?
  2. What effect will high internal taxes have upon prices and upon values?
  3. Explain the incidence of taxes laid on the rent of houses or stores, in a city where the value of land is great. Would the result be different if the tax were laid on the assessed value of the premises? Why, or why not?
  4. Give the leading facts and dates in the history of the United States Bank.
  5. Explain fully how the suspension of Peel’s act of 1844 gives relief to the money market in a panic, and what relation it bears to a suspension of specie payment.
  6. The dollar contains 23.22 grains of pure gold. A dollar in silver currency, if of full value, according to this standard should contain about 866.7 grains, but in fact contains only 345.6 grains of pure silver. How does this explain the somewhat tardy disappearance of silver change when our paper currency depreciated, and to what point must the value of the paper rise before silver can come back into general circulation?
  7. State present limits of our paper currency, and discuss the objections to such a currency when, like ours, it is redundant and depreciated, and has a maximum fixed by law.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1874-75, p. 223-4.

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1874-75

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Prof. Dunbar. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Half-year. 208 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 45.; Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 45.

 

Final Examination June, 1875
PRESCRIBED POLITICAL ECONOMY

Political Economy

[Do not change the order of the questions. Those who are to pass in the Constitution may omit questions marked (*).]

  1. (*) If A owns a United States bond, is it wealth? Is it capital?
  2. (*) What is the differene between circulating capital and fixed capital, and how is it that each “in order to fulfil its functions must be consumed?”
  3. (*) What is the difference between value, as the term is used in this discussion, and value in use?
  4. What is the relation between market price and cost of production? Consider this with reference to each of the three classes into which commodities are divided in relation to their value.
  5. (*) How is the value of gold determined?
  6. What circumstances are said to have counteracted the effect of the Australian and Californian gold discoveries? Did these circumstances affect the value of gold in England alone, or in other countries also? How?
  7. If a country uses both gold and silver coin as its legal tender, and silver depreciates, which coin will remain in circulation? Why?
  8. On what does the cost of labor depend? In your answer distinguish between real wages and money wages.
  9. What is the difference between convertible paper currency and inconvertible? Is one more secure against depreciation than the other? Why?
  10. Why does the interest earned on capital in different employments tend to equality at any given time and place?
  11. Explain the incidence of taxes laid on dwelling houses.
  12. Apply the four canons of taxation to the case of a duty on imported goods, and show whether it answers their requirements or not.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. (HUC 7000.28) Box 1 of 284, Folder “Final Examinations, 1874-1875”.

Image Source: Charles Franklin Dunbar from The Harvard Graduates’Magazine, Vol. VIII, No. 32 (June, 1900), Frontspiece.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam Questions for Young’s Grad Course on Modern Economic Theories, 1921-27

 

While at Harvard between 1920/21 and 1926/27, Allyn Young taught a course to graduate students (Economics 15, Modern Schools of Economic Thought) that was intended to take students on a survey of economics from the mid-19th century up to the beginning of the 20th century. His colleague, Charles Bullock brought graduate students up to Adam Smith/Ricardo in Economics 14. Young, sometimes in a year-long course, but more often in a semester course, covered the subsequent schools of economic thought.

It is interesting to note that Young had no reservations about including German and French quotations in his graduate examinations. 

From Roger Sandilands (“New Evidence on Allyn Young’s Style and Influence as a Teacher” in the volume edited by Robert Leeson,  American Power and Policy, published in 2009 in the Springer Series  Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics), we have a wonderful collection of archival testimony to Young’s impact in the training of young economists. The examination questions to follow can help us reconstruct what it was he covered in his survey course on economic theories.

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ACADEMIC YEAR 1920-21

From the Course Announcements

[Economics] 15. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Mon., Wed., at 3.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XVII, No. 51 (December 20, 1920). Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1920-21 (3rd edition), p. 101.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

[Economics] 15. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

7 Graduates, 1 Other:   Total 8.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1920-1921, p. 96.

[Final Examination, 1921]
ECONOMICS 15

  1. Classify the writers whose names follow, using two or three groups, and explain your classification: Cournot, Edgeworth, Jevons, Marshall, Pareto, Walras.
  2. What differences, if any, is there between Pareto’s theory of choice, and the type of theory which leads to the concept of marginal utility?
  3. What is there in Fichte’s views that may have influenced (a) the German historical economists? (b) the socialists?
  4. Distinguish and briefly characterize three different types of “solidarism.”
  5. In what ways, if at all, has Comte’s positivism influenced the development of economic science?
  6. In the reading assigned in Merz what seemed to you most significant, and why?
  7. Give a short summary and critical estimate of the economic philosophy of G. Sorel.
  8. What meaning or meanings do you attribute to the following phrases, and why?
    “The economic interpretation of history.” “An economic interpretation of history.” “Economic determinism.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination: Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Church History,…,Economics,…Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College, June 1921. Pages 70-71.(HUC 7000.28, 63 of 284).

______________________________

ACADEMIC YEAR 1921-22

From the Course Announcements

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., at 3.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1921-22 (3rd edition), p. 110.

Note: Enrollment figures for courses were not provided in the annual Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1921-1922.

 

[Final Examination, 1922]
ECONOMICS 151

  1. What is the substance of Mill’s reasoning with respect to the use of the “chemical, or experimental method” in the social sciences? The “geometrical, or abstract method”? The “physical, or concrete deductive method”?
  2. What do you conclude with respect to the following findings of Veblen, — and why?
    “The economists of the classical trend have made no serious attempt to depart from the standpoint of taxonomy and make their science a genetic account of the economic life process. As has just been said, much the same is true for the Historical School. The latter have attempted an account of developmental sequence, but they have followed the lines of pre-Darwinian speculations on development rather than lines which modern science would recognize as evolutionary. They have given a narrative survey of phenomena, not a genetic account of an unfolding process. In this work they have, no doubt, achieved results of permanent value; but the results achieved are scarcely to be classed as economic theory.”
  3. Explain the following paragraph from List by giving it background or context. What die List mean by “philosophy”? By “history”?
    “Die politische Oekonomie muss in Beziehung auf den internationalen Handel ihre Lehren aus der Erfahrung schöpfen, ihre Massregeln für die Bedürfnisse der Gegenwart und die eigentümlichen Zustände jeder besonderen Nation berechnen, ohne dabei die Forderungen der Zukunft und der gesamten Menschheit zu verkennen. Sie stützt sich demnach auf Philosophie, Politik und Geschichte.”
    [“Political economy, in matters of international commerce, must draw its lessons from experience; the measures it advises must be appropriate to the wants of our times, to the special condition of each people; it must no, However, disavow the exigencies of the future nor the higher interests of the whole human race. political economy must rest consequently upon Philosophy, Policy, and History.”]
  4. What distinction, if any, do you make between the historical and the genetic methods? What do you take to be the meaning of “historical laws”? Is there any way in which historical knowledge might have importance for economics even if such knowledge should not be reducible to terms of law?
  5. How many and what sort of premises do you deem adequate for the purposes of a theory of value and distribution?
  6. Give, in general terms, an estimate of the nature and extent of the influence of utilitarianism upon economics.
  7. Explain, without unnecessary detail, Pareto’s use of indifference curves and of indices of choice. Is this a successful escape from hedonism?
  8. Give, as concisely as possible, Schmoller’s conclusion with respect to the methods of economic science, as indicated by his Handwörterbuch

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination: Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Church History,…,Economics,…, Social Ethics, Education in Harvard College, June 1922. (HUC 7000.28, 64 of 284)

Note: translation of the List quote in question 3 from Friderich List, National System of Political Economy (G. A. Matile, translation), Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1856. page 63.

______________________________

ACADEMIC YEAR 1922-23

From the Course Announcements

15 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Mon., Wed., at 3.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIX, No. 45 (September 18, 1922). Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1922-23 (2nd edition), p. 110.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

[Economics] 15. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

13 Graduates, 1 Senior:   Total 14.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1922-1923, p. 92.

 

[Final Examination, 1923]
ECONOMICS 15

PART I

  1. Comment on the following excerpts from the Communist Manifesto:
    “The feudal system of industry now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets…Modern industry has established the world market for which the discovery of America paved the way….The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production….The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe.”
  2. Discuss the influence of Fichte and Hegel upon the development of economic thought in Germany.
  3. In what measure is it true that modern economic thought rests upon hedonistic psychology? What differences in this respect are there as among different schools or different writers?

 

PART II

Name and classify the different important schools of economic thought (after Adam Smith). What are the distinguishing characteristics of each? Name and comment upon one of the principal adherents of each.

(To occupy about two-thirds of your time.)

Final. 1923.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination: Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Social Ethics, Anthropology June 1923. (HUC 7000.28, 65 of 284)

______________________________

ACADEMIC YEAR 1923-24

From the Course Announcements

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 10, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XX, No. 44 (September 17, 1923). Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1923-24 (2nd edition), p. 108.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

151 hf. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

11 Graduates, 1 Radcliffe:   Total 12.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1923-1924, p. 107.

 

 

[Final Examination, 1924]
ECONOMICS 151

  1. “Es ist theoretisch und praktisch in der Volkswirtschaftslehre von entscheidender Bedeutung, ob man der individualistischen oder universalistischen Auffassung der Gesellschaft huldige.”—Spann.
    [From Othmar Spann’s Die Haupttheorien der Volkswirtschaftslehre auf lehrgeschichtlicher Grunlage (7th edition, 1920, p. 31.) “It is of crucial theoretical and practical importance for economics whether one pays homage to an individualistic or universalistic conception of Society.”]
    Explain and illustrate.
  2. Give a brief characterization of economic romanticism.
  3. What in your opinion, are the outstanding features of the doctrines of (a) Roscher, (b) Knies, and (c) Schmoller, respecting the scope and method of economics?
  4. Discuss Mill’s conclusion that “History does, when judiciously examined, afford empirical laws of society.” Do you agree?
  5. What common element are found in the writings of Bastiat and Carey?
  6. What is “psychological hedonism”? Do you find it in Smith? Mill? The Austrians?
  7. Give a short estimate of the significance of either Sismondi or Rodbertus.
  8. “Si la théorie de la solidarité de M. Bourgeois a un caractère politico-juridique, celle de M. Durkheim se place dans la sphere toute différente de la sociologie et de la morale.”—Gide.
    [“While M. Bourgeois’ theory of solidarity possesses a political-juridical character that of M. Durkheim is located within the completely different realm of sociology and morality.” From Book 5, Chapter 3 “Les Solidaristes” written by Charles Gide in Charles Gide and Charles Rist, Histoire des Doctrines Économiques, 2nd 1913, pp. 700-701.]
    What are the two theories?

Final. 1924.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Psychology, Social Ethics June 1924. (HUC 7000.28, 66 of 284)

______________________________

ACADEMIC YEAR 1924-25

From the Division’s Course Description

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 10, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

In this course less attention will be given to specific economic doctrines than to questions of the scope, methods, premises, and goal of economic science, and of its relations to logic and psychology and to the other social sciences. Selections from the writings of the historical economists, the mathematical economists, the socialists, and other critics of the English classical school will be discussed. Special attention will be given to German and French writers, and readings in German and French will be required. Students with especial interests in this field may arrange to continue the course in the second half-year as a research course.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXI, No. 22 (April 30, 1924). Division of History, Government, and Economics 1924-25, pp. 71-2.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

151 hf. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

18 Graduates, 1 Senior, 5 Radcliffe:   Total 24.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1924-1925, p. 75.

 

 

[Final Examination, 1925]
ECONOMICS 151

  1. What do you make of Spann’s distinction between individualism and universalism? Why does Spann attach so much importance to it?
  2. What economic writers would you set down as romanticists, and on what grounds?
  3. Knies is generally counted a member of the historical school. Should you so classify him? Give your reasons.
  4. Why are Bastiat and Carey termed optimists?
  5. Did the reading of J. S. Mill’s autobiography increase or decrease the importance you attached to “Benthamism” as an element in his economics? Explain.
  6. What did Mill hold respecting “historical laws”? What was Roscher’s view? Rickert’s?
  7. What were the chief elements in List’s criticism of Smith and his followers?
  8. Veblen says of Schmoller: “His striking and characteristic merits lie in the direction of a post-Darwinian, causal theory of the origin and growth of species in institutions.” Do you agree?

Final. 1925.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History of Science, History,…,Economics,…, Anthropology, Military Science, June 1925. (HUC 7000.28, 67 of 284)

______________________________

ACADEMIC YEAR 1925-26

From the Course Announcements

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 4. Professor Young.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXII, No. 41 (September 21, 1925). Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1925-26 (2nd edition), p. 111.

 

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

151 hf. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

12 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Radcliffe:   Total 15.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1925-1926, p. 78.

 

[Final Examination, 1925]
ECONOMICS 151

Discuss two questions in each group.

I

  1. “The economists of the classical trend have made no serious attempt to depart from the standpoint of taxonomy and make their science a genetic account of the economic life process.” — Veblen
  2. “The reason for the Austrian failure seems to lie in a faulty conception of human nature….In all the received formulations of economic theory, whether at the hands of English economists or those of the Continent, the human material with which the inquiry is concerned is conceived in hedonistic terms.”—Veblen.
  3. “Pour Smith la spontanéité des institutions économiques et leur caractère bienfaisant sont dans un rapport étroit. Volontiers, au xviiie siècle, on considère comme bon tout ce qui est naturel et spontané….Smith n’a pas échappé à cette association d’idées. En montrant l’origine ‘naturelle’ des institutions économiques, il lui semblait prouver par là meme leur caractère utile et bienfaisant.” —
    [“Smith saw the spontaneity of economic institutions and their beneficial character to be intimately related. In the 18th century one readily considered everything that was natural and spontaneous to be good…Smith did not escape this association of ideas. By demonstrating the ‘natural’ origin of economic institutions, he thought he had thus proved their useful and beneficial character.” From Book 1, Chapter 2 “Adam Smith” written by Charles Rist in Charles Gide and Charles Rist, Histoire des Doctrines Économiques, 2nd ed. 1913, p. 81.]

II

  1. In Roscher’s “Grundriss” of 1843 there are the following notes on the “historical method”: What is uniform in the development of the different peoples put in the form of a law of developent? Work of the historian and of the student of natural history similar. This historical method has, in any case, if it does not altogether go astray, objective truth.” What would Knies say to this?
  2. Summarize J. S. Mill’s views respecting the use of the deductive and inductive methods in the social sciences.
  3. Give either Spann’s view of economic romanticism or your own.

III

  1. What do you take to be the chief significance of either Sismondi or St. Simon?
  2. What are the distinguishing tents of the two types of neo-Marxism distinguished in Gide’s chapter?
  3. Compare marginal utility, final degree of utility, Edgeworth’s view of utility as a function of many variables, and Pareto’s function-index of choice.

Final. 1926.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Social Ethics, Military Science, June 1926. (HUC 7000.28, 68 of 284)

 

_____________________________

ACADEMIC YEAR 1926-27

From the Course Announcements

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 4. Professor Young.

Source: Harvard University, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1926-27 (2nd edition), p. 116.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

151 hf. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

17 Graduates, 5 Radcliffe:   Total 22.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1926-1927, p. 75.

 

[Final Examination, 1927]
ECONOMICS 151

Use the three hours allotted for this examination in writing an essay upon one of the following topics.

  1. Utilitarianism and psychological hedonism, with special reference to their relation to economic theory.
  2. The historical school and institutional economics.
  3. French economic thought in the nineteenth century.
  4. The use of mathematics in economic theory.

Final. 1927.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Social Ethics, Military Science, June 1927. (HUC 7000.28, 69 of 284)