Category: Exam Questions

Queen’s University at Kingston. Comprehensive Economic Theory Exam in Economic Theory, 1974

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-12-29

Your curator of the economic artifacts so lovingly transcribed here for future digital generations of historians of economics, human or artificially intelligent, has a weakness for orphaned examinations that he discovers upon riffling through the archival papers of defunct professors of economics. While I have no illusions about being able to give each worthy artifact I stumble upon a warm post in this collection, perhaps others will be inspired by my efforts to join in. Transcribe and upload!

About a dozen years ago I found a folder of University of Chicago economics exams in George Stigler’s papers in which rested a forlorn ten-page Ph.D. comprehensive examination in economic theory from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada (May 1974). I found no clue to the backstory of how this exam happened to have found its way to George Stigler’s papers. Was it from Stigler demand (“Could you send me a copy of your most recent Ph.D. exam in economic theory”) or was it a Queen’s colleague’s pride of workmanship that resulted in the supply? My maximum-likelihood-gut-instinct estimate is that the source was Richard Lipsey, then Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Economics, but it would come as no surprise if there was some Chicago Ph.D. alum on the faculty then at Queen’s who shared the examination with Stigler out of fealty. But the backstory is unimportant for our purposes here, below you will find an excellent comprehensive exam that expands our international cross-section of economic theory questions. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror hereby raises the following artifact from literal archival obscurity to virtual visibility.

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QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY AT KINGSTON
Department of Economics

Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination
ECONOMIC THEORY
May, 1974

Answer FOUR (4) questions — one from each of the four parts of the examination. All questions are of equal value.

PART I

Consider a world in which there are two commodities, beer and whisky and four individuals described by the following utility functions:

Tom: U^T = 2B + W
Sally: U^S = B + W
Dick: U^D = min (B, W)
Jane: U^J = min (B/2 , W)

where utility (U) is measured in utils, beer (B) in bottles and whisky (W) in shots. Bottles of beer and shots of whisky are perfectly divisible.

1. Draw the one-util indifference curve for each of these individuals.
2. Construct Tom’s and Dick’s uncompensated demand curves for beer under the assumption that each has a money income of $10 and the price of whisky is 50¢ a shot.
3. How much beer would Tom and Dick each consume if their money incomes were each $10 and a bottle of beer and a shot of whisky cost 25¢ and 50¢ respectively? Construct each of their compensated demand curves for beer through this point.
4. Suppose that Tom and Sally are stranded on an island with 15 shots of whisky and 10 bottles of beer. Use an Edgeworth box diagram to derive the set of efficient (Pareto optimal) allocations of beer and whisky between them.
5. Suppose that Tom had been stranded with Jane rather than Sally in Part (d). Derive the set of efficient allocations of the 15 shots of whisky and 10 bottles of beer between Tom and Jane.
6. Suppose finally that Dick and Jane had been caught in the predicament described in Part (d). Derive the set of efficient allocations of the beer and whisky in this case.
7. Suppose that Dick and Jane had decided to use a price system to sustain one of the efficient allocations in Part (f). What would be the effect on the price of whisky of a decrease in the endowment of whisky from 15 to 12 shots?

Assume a simple Keynesian type model in equilibrium with unemployed resources. Consider the effects on the velocity of circulation of money of (a) an upward shift in the consumption function, and (b) an open market purchase by the central bank. Answer the question under each of the following alternative assumptions.
1. 1. The money supply is fully exogenous.
  2. The money supply is partly exogenous and partly endogenous, the endogenous part being a function of national income and “the” rate of interest.
  3. The money supply is wholly endogenous because the monetary authorities are stabilizing domestic interest rates.

In answering this question assume a general demand for money function of the form

M^D = L(Y,r)

in which the only restrictions are L_Y > 0, L_r ≤ 0.

You should also pay attention to the following two special cases:

a) L_r = 0, L_Y > 0 and b) L_r > 0, (Y/M)L_Y = 1.

In so far as you have time, give explanations of your results.

Make the following assumptions about the market for cloth and yarn in a small country:
1. One spool of yarn is required for the manufacture of one bolt of cloth.
2. The world price of yarn is $1 per spool and the world price of cloth is $3 per bolt.
3. The domestic demand curve for cloth, the domestic supply curve of yarn, and the domestic supply curve of factors of production (other than yarn) in the manufacture of cloth have constant elasticities, and these elasticities are -1, 1 and 2 respectively.
4. In free trade, domestic consumption of cloth is 1,000,000 bolts, domestic production of yarn is 100,000 spools, and domestic production of cloth is 200,000 bolts.
  1. What tariff on cloth would just compensate factors of production in the manufacture of cloth for the imposition of a 15 percent tariff on yarn?
  2. What is the total welfare loss of imposing both tariffs?
  3. What would be your answer to (ii) above if the 15 percent tariff on yarn were imposed without the compensating tariff on cloth?
  4. In general, if there is to be a tariff on yarn, how does one determine the welfare implications of imposing a tariff on cloth, too?
  5. How would your answers to Parts (i) and (ii) above be affected if the elasticity of substitution between yarn and other factors in the manufacture of cloth were greater than zero?

PART II

Consider an economy producing two goods, X₁ and X₂, according to constant returns to scale production functions of the following form:

(1) X₁ = F¹(L₁)
(2) X₂ = F²(L₂, X₁₂)

where X_i is the gross output of the i-th good, X₁₂ is the amount of X₁ used as an input in the production of X₂, L_i is the amount of labour used in the production of X_i and the total supply of labour is fixed

${L_{1}+L_{2}=\bar{L}}$

Tastes in this economy can be represented by the utility function

U = AX_i^.25 X₂^.75

A) Suppose that equations (1) and (2) are of the particular form:

(1′) X₁ = 2L₁(2′) X₂ = L₂

and the total labour supply is 200 units.

1. Construct the economy’s production possibilities set.
2. What will be the effect on the equilibrium relative price of X₁ of:
  1. an increase of the labour force to 225 units,
  2. a doubling of the efficiency of labour in the X₁ sector?

B) Suppose now that equations (1) and (2) are of the particular form:

(1”) X₁ = 2L₁(2”) X₂ = min (L₂, 4X₁₂)

Answer Questions A(a) and A(b) under these circumstances.

C) Answer the same questions in the case where a second production process is made available to the X₂sector so that the production functions are of the form:

(1”’) X₁ = 2L₁(2”’) X₂ = (min (L₂, 4X₁₂) or min (.75L₂, 8X₁₂)

D) What would be the general shape of the production possibility curve if X₂ could be produced according to a differentiable concave constant returns to scale production function of the general form of (2) (e.g., Cobb-Douglas) while the production function for X₁ remained X₁ = 2L₁?

Standard demand theory predicts that if a man buys more apples when his income goes up he buys less apples when their price goes up. Say whether this prediction continues to follow, and why or why not, under each of the following circumstances.
1. 1. The quality of apples is judged by their price.
  2. The man is upset by his neighbour’s discarded apple cores.
  3. The man owns an apple orchard.
  4. The man loves the scent of apple blossoms.
  5. Apples are storable cheaply enough that one can speculate in them.
  6. The man drinks cider, the market price of which is positively related to the price of apples.
  7. Apples are a heavily advertised good.
  8. Apples and flour are only consumed in fixed proportions, in the form of apple pies.
  9. The price of apples divided by the price of pears is not equal to the man’s marginal rate of substitution between apples and pears.
  10. All goods are rationed, in such a way that they must be paid for not only with money but also with ration coupons, each consumer having a fixed total coupon allowance. (Coupons may not be bought and sold.)

6. [Capital theory and functional income distribution]

1. You are dealing with an economy in which there is only one product which is used either as a consumption good or as a capital good. Each period’s output is divided in some proportion between consumption use and additions to the capital stock. Capital goods do not depreciate. There are two factors of production, labour and capital goods, available in fixed supply in the short period. There is no unemployment of any factor that has a positive price.
  1. In what circumstances will the functional distribution of income be determined by conditions in the factor market only?
  2. Given that investment is exogenously determined and consumption is functionally related to incomes, in what circumstances might the functional distribution of income be determined from conditions in the product market?
  3. In what circumstances would the distribution of income be indeterminate?
  4. In what circumstances might conditions in the factor and product markets be inconsistent with a determinate distribution of income?
2. Now consider an economy with two consumer goods, one of which can also be used as the single capital good, both products being produced by labour and capital goods. Again there can be positive investment in each period and there is no depreciation.
  What would your answers to questions (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv) of part (a) be now?

PART III

An economy producing only one commodity, which may be used either as a consumer good or as a capital good, has a production function of the form

${Y_{t}=e^{\lambda t}K^{\alpha }_{t}L^{1-\alpha }_{t}}$

and we are given that

${L_{t}=e^{gt}L_{0}}$

where Y_t is the quantity of output; K_t is the capital stock; L_t the number of units of labour; g is the rate of growth of the labour force; ${\lambda}$ is the rate of Hicks neutral technological change; and ${\alpha}$ takes the values 0 < ${\alpha}$ < 1.

a) [“Golden-rule”]

1. 1. Derive the general formula that determines the golden rule capital-labour ratio when there is no technical change.
  2. Let g = 0.02, ${\lambda}$ = 0, ${\alpha}$ = 0.25. Calculate the golden rule level of the capital-labour ratio. (Carry your calculation to the last stage in which the solution is set up in the form of logs or as a power of a number.)
  3. Now let the growth rate of the labour force rise to .03. Find the ratio of the new golden rule capital-labour ratio, k₁, to the old golden rule capital-labour ratio, k₀.
  4. Maintain the growth rate of the labour force, g₁ at .03 and make ${\lambda}$ = .0225. Obtain the golden rule values of the path of the capital-labour ratio, labour being measured in natural units.

b) [Optimal steady state growth]

1. 1. Derive the rule that determines the capital-labour ratio of the optimal steady state growth path when there is positive subjective discounting of future per capita utilities at the rate, ${\rho}$ .
  2. Assume that g = .02, ${\lambda}$ = 0, ${\alpha}$ = 0.25 and ${\rho}$ = .04. Calculate the capital-labour ratio of the optimal steady state growth path.

8. [Keynesian macroeconomic theory]

1. Investigate the consequences for fiscal and monetary policy in a simple Keynesian model of assuming that consumption expenditure is unrelated to current income (because it is related to permanent income which is assumed constant over the time period in which we are interested). Would it matter whether or not there were some other element of aggregate expenditure that was related to current national income?
2. Explain how the permanent income hypothesis reconciles the observations drawn from long and short period time series and cross section studies that appeared inconsistent with the Keynesian consumption function. Is the weight of evidence such that we can have substantial confidence in the truth of the general concept that consumption relates to permanent rather than current income?
3. Briefly discuss the significance for the efficacy of short-term fiscal policy of establishing that consumption is a function of permanent income rather than current income.

Examine the validity of the following statements: a) when wages are only flexible upwards and b) when wages are fully flexible.
1. 1. Government spending in excess of tax revenue is inflationary in the long run.
  2. Union wage pressure can reduce unemployment due to the stimulating effects of higher wages on aggregate demand.
  3. Sooner or later automation will cause unemployment.

“Thinking about saving and investment from this technocratic point of view has convinced me that the central concept in capital theory should be the rate of return on investment. In short we really want a theory of interest rates, not a theory of capital.” (Solow: Capital Theory and the Rate of Return, p. 16. Italics in the original.)
1. What is the relationship between the two sentences in Solow’s quotation that makes the second sentence follow from the first? In your answer elaborate on the concept of the rate of return.
2. Can stocks of capital goods (or the aggregate of asset values) be more or less excluded from capital theory, which among other things must include a theory of intertemporal choice?

PART IV

Various officials and ministers of the Canadian government have expressed concern and implemented or at least suggested policies in response to recent increases in the world prices of certain commodities. One instance has been the imposition of a tax on exports of Canadian oil. This move has been hailed by members of the government on various grounds: its “anti-inflationary consequences”, its “benefit to the poor and to fixed income classes to whom cheap energy is so vital” and “the stimulus it will provide to the Canadian manufacturing sector”. Some observers have been obviously impressed with the success of this policy and have suggested a similar two-price system for certain Canadian agricultural exports because “there is no reason the Canadian consumer should suffer due to a world scarcity of these commodities when there is an abundant supply in Canada.”
1. Attempt to give a precise formulation to the exact policy goals which might be implied by each of the above quotations.
2. How would an export tax help to achieve each of these goals?
3. What would be the nature of the economic costs resulting from the use of an export tax to achieve these goals and what would determine the magnitude of these costs?

A certain country, previously without an unemployment insurance system, sets one up. Its rules are as follows:
1. 1. A minimum of 10 weeks work must be done before any benefits can be drawn.
  2. For each week worked above 10, a person is entitled to two-thirds of a week on unemployment benefits, except that no more than 12 weeks of benefit can be received in a year.
  3. While on benefit the weekly payment is three-quarters of the weekly wage previously earned.

To simplify the problem, the following assumptions may be made: how the system is financed is irrelevant; each year is self-contained, in the sense that benefits earned must be used up in the year or lost; one can draw benefit even if one quits voluntarily; no time is ever lost in finding a job if one wants one; a year is 50 weeks long.

1. Establish that a person’s income-leisure opportunity locus consists of four line segments, and draw them on the accompanying graph paper.
2. Will anyone ever work exactly 10 weeks under the new unemployment insurance system? Explain.
3. If leisure is a superior good, prove that those who used to work between 28 and 38 weeks a year (before the new unemployment insurance system) will now work less.
4. Define a “full-time worker” as one who works more than 38 weeks a year. Would you expect such a worker to work less after the scheme is introduced?
5. Demonstrate the possibility that people who did not work before will now work. Could they conceivably become “full-time” workers? Why or why not?

Consider a country with the following attributes:
1. 1. It has a floating exchange rate.
  2. It has a substantial rate of inflation which it is trying to lower.
  3. It has recently taken monetary action that has raised interest rates relative to those of other countries.
  4. It is buying quite large amounts of foreign exchange, apparently to have a dampening effect on the rise in the exchange value of its currency.
  5. This foreign exchange is acquired by use of government cash which requires extra government borrowing to the extent that the exchange accumulation was not foreseen (the country has been lucky in its foreign exchange receipts and disbursements for oil roughly matching).
  6. The country has outstanding large amounts of non-negotiable savings bonds which are redeemable on demand at face value, which have coupon rates considerably lower than rates of comparable securities, and which are being cashed in substantial quantities.

1. Are the objectives implied by the above actions mutually consistent? Always? In some circumstances? Never? In your answer elaborate on the relevance of some of the parameters of the system to it.
2. The federal government of this country will be bringing down its annual budget soon. What policies would you recommend (i) to alleviate inconsistencies in the implied objectives noted above, and (ii) to reinforce the impact of the actions described above?

Source: University of Chicago Archives. George Stigler Papers, Addenda. Box 33. Folder “Exams & Prelim Questions.”

Image Source: “Coat of Arms” in the on-line Queen’s Encyclopedia.

Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Course description and exam for Ethics of the Social Questions. Peabody, 1904-05

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-12-06

With the growth of the Harvard economics and economics-related course offerings exploding at the start of the 20th century, it’s taking more time for Economics in the Rear-View Mirror to work through all the courses, year by year as we move forwards. Of course the collection of artifacts becomes more valuable as the sample size increases, but I am aware that other content is wanted by visitors too. Or at least a nice mixture across time and space.

Anyhow, this post completes the Harvard exam transcriptions for 1904-05. It was not technically an economics course, but enough economics graduate students took the course for this to be considered a serious elective or even field of specialization at the time. And any present day economist not interested in the socio-normative side of economic life is unlikely to follow Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

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The Instructors

Francis Greenwood Peabody, A.M., D.D., Dean of the Divinity School, and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. The field “Social Ethics” was his responsibility in the teaching programs of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Philosophy) and the Divinity School (Ethics). It was a fairly popular elective field for graduate students in economics. Exam questions for 1889-90 and most intermediate years have been posted earlier.

David Camp Rogers (1878-1959). A.B. Princeton 1899. A.M. Harvard 1902 Ph.D. Harvard 1903 (Thesis: Coördinations in Space Perceptions). First Professor of Psychology at Smith College, appointed 1914. If this seems like an odd pairing of teaching assistant to professor, it would not have seemed particularly odd at that time. Both the study of ethics and human psychology were covered by the philosophy department. To get a Ph.D. in philosophy would have required examination in several fields of philosophy, so I suppose that ethics, or social ethics, was one of Rogers’ examination fields. He probably did well in the exam and was offered a teaching assistantship in social ethics on that basis.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05
[also listed as Ethics 1]

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

[Philosophy] 5 ¹hf. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers. — Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 122: 7 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 47 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 1 Freshmen, 20 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 76.

The Divinity School

[Ethics] 1 ¹hf. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers. — Introductory Course. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The modern social questions: Charity, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. — Lectures, special researches, and required reading. Half-course.

Total 122: 7 Graduates, 99 College, 5 Sc., 11 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 173.

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Course Description
1904-05

Ethics

Introductory Course. The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The modern social questions: Charity, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and required reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with the same subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the social situation and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature of the Moral Ideal [required reading from (John Stuart) Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from (Herbert) Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (3^rd edition: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3)];the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Devine, The Practice of Charity, and from Charles Booth’s Life and Labour of the People in London (1903 edition) [First Series, Poverty: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4. Second Series, Industry: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4; Vol. 5. Third Series: Religious Influences: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4; Vol. 5; Vol. 6; Vol. 7; Concluding Volume]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading: J.A. Hobson, The Social Problem; Schäffle’s The Quintessence of Socialism] and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from Rowntree and Sherwell, The Temperance Problem and Social Reform]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigations, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

A special library of 700 carefully selected volumes is provided for the use of students in this course.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University 1904-05, pp. 21-22.

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PHILOSOPHY 5¹
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

The chief historical steps in the evolution of the family.
The relation of the Family to the State:—
(a) As urged by Mr. Spencer (Spencer, Sociology, I, 707).
(b) As proposed by “Scientific Socialism.”
Certain economic movements which affect the integrity of the Family.
The causes of poverty, classified and compared.
The evolution of the “Double-Decker,” and the provisions of the New York “New Law” for tenements.
Charles Booth’s Class E in East London; its dimensions, special risk of degradation, and the way of security proposed.
Some elementary principles of organized charity (Devine, The Practice of Charity, ch. IX).
Compare the “Case System” with the “Space System.”
Compare the Church Districting System with the Liverpool system of collection.
Germany and Belgium compared in their provision for the “out-of-works.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 45.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Peabody

Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Money and Banking

Johns Hopkins. Semester Exams for Monetary Economics. Musgrave, 1959-1960

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-12-05

From 1958 through 1962 Richard Musgrave was Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins. One thinks of him today as a giant in the history of public finance but the examination below reminds us that he was also an economist who still taught graduate courses in monetary economics/policy at least into the early 1960s.

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More about Richard Musgrave

All posts with the tag “Musgrave” here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

In particular one post with biographical and career information.

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Richard Musgrave
Faculty of Arts and Sciences — Memorial Minute

At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences April 8, 2008, the following Minute was placed upon the records.

Richard Musgrave, the Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, was the leading public finance economist of his generation. He died on January 15, 2007, at the age of 96.

Richard Abel-Musgrave was born in Königstein, Germany, and educated in Munich and Heidelberg. He was of half Jewish ancestry, his paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother both being Jews who had converted to the Christian faith.

He came to the United States in 1933 as an exchange student at Rochester University but soon transferred to Harvard where he received his PhD in 1937. He decided not to return to Germany and applied for U.S. citizenship in that same year. At that time he dropped the hyphen in his family name, becoming Richard Abel Musgrave. He was known thereafter as Richard Musgrave.

After completing his PhD, Musgrave worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve until 1948. He then taught at Johns Hopkins, the University of Michigan and Princeton before joining the faculty at Harvard in 1965. He held simultaneous appointments in the economics department and in the Harvard Law School, the first person to hold a joint appointment in both the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Law School. Professor Musgrave took emeritus status in 1981 and moved to California where he was an adjunct professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Although the 19th-century giants of political economy, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill, wrote extensively about the theory of taxation, by the middle of the 20th century the teaching and writing on public finance in the United States was largely descriptive and institutional. Richard Musgrave changed all of that with his major volume, The Theory of Public Finance, published in 1959.

The Theory of Public Finance was both a theoretical research monograph and a text book. It applied the analytic tools of price theory and of Keynesian macroeconomics to the issues of tax incidence (i.e., who bears the burden of taxes), of efficiency (i.e., measuring the losses caused by the distorting effects of taxes), and of achieving full employment. All of this was done in a very readable and accessible way that made the book very widely studied. The book proved to be a particularly significant resource for tax law professors in their teaching and writing about federal tax policy.

A key feature of Musgrave’s Theory of Public Finance was the division of the problem of public finance into what Musgrave called three “branches.” One “branch” was devoted to the problem of achieving full employment. Here Musgrave applied the ideas of Keynesian fiscal policy to using tax reductions and government spending to increasing aggregate demand. A second “branch” focused on economic efficiency, i.e., on the design of taxes that would raise revenue with the least distortion to incentives and therefore the least loss of real incomes. The third “branch” then dealt with issues of redistribution to achieve a politically acceptable distribution of income. These branches were of course just pedagogical devices and not a way of organizing the actual making of policy.

Richard Musgrave was an inspiring teacher. It was clear to his students that he cared about both the analytic science in public finance and the practical implications of that analysis for improving our tax system. He taught students to think about the impact of taxes on economic efficiency while not losing sight of their distributional consequences. Or, as he might have said, to think about the distribution of the tax burden and the use of taxes and transfers to redistribute income while not losing sight of the consequences of the progressive tax and transfer structure on economic efficiency.

In the weekly graduate seminar in public finance, graduate students and visiting faculty would present their latest research. The seminar brought together not only graduate students and faculty from the department of economics, but also tax specialist members of the Harvard Law School faculty. Their presence added a greater degree of practical focus to the seminar’s discussion of tax reform. Musgrave’s questions and insights kept the seminar focused on the substantive importance of the problems rather than on the more abstract methodological issues. Many of the students taught by Richard Musgrave went on to do important work in public finance.

Although Musgrave felt strongly about tax policy and about transfer programs like Social Security and unemployment insurance, he was not an activist who tried to influence outcomes in Washington. He appeared to believe that he was most effective in developing the analysis and teaching students who would carry this material into practice.

An important exception to this was a major report on fiscal reform in Columbia that Musgrave prepared jointly with Malcolm Gillis in 1971. This report, prepared under the auspices of the Harvard International Tax Program of the Harvard Law School, was based on extensive and detailed work in Columbia.

Richard Musgrave was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association in 1978. Musgrave was one of the organizers of the International Seminar in Public Economics which brought together American and European faculty members who specialized in public finance. He also served as an honorary president of the International Institute of Public Finance.

Professor Musgrave collaborated with his wife, Peggy Musgrave, in writing a popular undergraduate text book, Public Finance in Theory and Practice, which was published in 1973. The Musgraves also found time to reach out to young colleagues and their wives at their homes in Belmont and in Vermont.

Respectfully submitted,

Lawrence Summers
Bernard Wolfman
Martin Feldstein, Chair

Source: The Harvard Gazette. June 12, 2008.

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Economics 611
Final Examination
Prof. R. A. Musgrave
January 22, 1960

I

Write for forty-five minutes.

There is by now pretty general agreement, among monetary theorists, regarding the various relationships by which the supply of money may affect the level of output and prices. Nevertheless, there remains a division between those who prefer to study the role of money in the framework of an income-expenditure approach, and those who prefer the quantity theory of equation of exchange tradition. What, if any, substantive justification is there for retention of this dichotomy? If there is none, which approach is to be retained? If there is, what distinct purposes are served by the two approaches?

II

Write on two out of the following three questions, thirty minutes each,

Various writers, including Wicksell, Fisher and Keynes, have treated the problem of monetary disequilibrium and the nature of the equilibrating process, in terms of the differential between two rates of interest. Discuss these approaches and compare the concepts of interest used therein.
Where do you stand on the loanable funds—liquidity preference controversy? In particular, are you satisfied that the distinction between the stock and the flow approach to monetary theory is purely terminological?
“It was a great misfortune for the development of monetary theory, that Marshall and Pigou did not stick with their initial intent to relate k to wealth, but proceeded to relate it to income. Thereby was postponed the recognition — so essential for a fruitful approach to monetary theory — that the demand for money must be dealt with in the context of a general portfolio theory.” Discuss.

III

Write on the following three statements, for fifteen minutes each. Indicate whether the statement is right or wrong and why.

“The real balance effect implies that the demand schedule for money has unit elasticity, from which it follows that the price level changes proportionately with the money supply.”
“The liquidity trap is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for under-employment equilibrium.”
“Classical theory was mistaken in assuming that the rate of interest is determined by income independent of money supply. As Keynes has shown, interest is determined by money supply and then determines income.”

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Dr. R. A. Musgrave
Friday, May 20, 1960

ECONOMICS 611

The following changes occur: Bill holdings at the Federal Reserve rise by 100 million, while bond holdings fall by 80 million. Also, bank holdings of bills fall by 70 million, non-bank holdings of bills fall by 30 million, and non-bank holdings of bonds rise by 80 million. What is the resulting change in excess reserves, assuming a reserve ratio of 20%, and why? (Assume that the system retains such changes in excess reserves as result, without reacting with corresponding changes in loans.)
Assume that the system is always loaned up. What will be the effects on member bank reserves and demand deposits of (a) an increase in vault cash by 100; (b) a decrease in currency in circulation by 200; (c) a gold outflow of 300; (d) a decrease in treasury deposits at commercial banks by 500. The reserve ratio is again 20%.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. The Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy [Records], Series 6/7, Box 3, Folder “Department of Political Economy, Graduate Exams 1933-1965”.

Image Source: Richard A. Musgrave page at the University of Michigan’s Faculty History Project.

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Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Theory

Johns Hopkins. Exam for Welfare Economics. Lerner, 1958

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-12-05

Abba Lerner changed his academic locations (including leaves of absence to accept visiting positions) with a frequency rivaled by few. The academic year 1957-58 found him visiting the department of political economy at Johns Hopkins University. The artifact for this post is the final examination for Lerner’s course on welfare economics.

Lerner’s notes for seminars on social welfare functions held at the IMF and at the Cowles Commission in 1952.

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Welfare Economics
18-640

Final Examination May 20^th 2-5 p.m., 1958.
Abba P. Lerner

Answer four questions, in separate blue books, in ink.

Discuss the meaning, the validity and the significance of the proposition that it is impossible to derive a social welfare function from individual preference functions.
How far can one carry the analogy between a political voting procedure and the economic price mechanism, and between the rationale of voting between alternative policies and that of allocating dollars between alternative purchases?
Discuss the rational elements in relation to other elements in the social objectives of optimum distribution of income, optimum population, and optimum rate of saving.
What is sound, what is unsound, and what is useful in the doctrine of consumers’ surplus?
Why is it socially desirable to have the prices of products equal to the value of the marginal factors used in their production? How is this objective affected by equity elements such as the need for subsidies?
Under what conditions would a partial freeing of trade be harmful to society in the largest sense? In your answer explain the treatment of this problem in terms of “second best” and the use of the concept of “divergence”.
Compare the arguments for the imposition of trade restrictions for the sake of affecting the international terms of trade with those undertaken for the sake of affecting the domestic distribution of income. Give special attention to the interdependence of efficiency and equity considerations.

Image Source: Photograph of Abba Lerner printed in an announcement for his speech “Israel—The Next Ten Years” (February 25) at the 1958 Forum presented by Beth Emet the Free Synagogue (Evanston, Illinois). Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. The Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 6, Folder 8 “ ‘B’ miscellany”. A copy of the announcement was posted by Ellen Blum Barish in Tablet (January 14, 2014).

Tags Lerner

Exam Questions Harvard Law and Economics

Harvard. Principles of industrial relations and commercial law, Exams. Wyman, 1904-1905

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-11-25

The economics department at Harvard at the start of the 20th century offered a course taught by the Law School assistant professor, Bruce Wyman (b. 15 June 1875; d. 21 June 1926), to provide future businessmen an overview of commercial and industrial relations law. Students expecting to go to study law were explicitly not encouraged to take the course.

An earlier post begins with the long personal report Wyman wrote about his life and career for the 25th anniversary of his Harvard Class of 1896.

Bruce Wyman pops up in an even earlier post. Harvard President Lowell complained to Professor Frank Taussig about Wyman’s course in the economics department having too soft a grade distribution (making it a “snap” course). Also we learn there the somewhat scandalous circumstances that led to Wyman’s forced resignation from his Harvard Law professorship in December 1913.

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Wyman’s exams from earlier years

1903-04
1902-03
1901-02

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 21. Asst. Professor Wyman. — Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations and Commercial Law.

Total 182: 14 Graduates, 65 Seniors, 76 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 21. Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations. — Commercial Law. — Competition and Combination. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Asst. Professor Wyman.

Course 21 is open to those students who will complete their undergraduate work in 1904-05.

This course considers certain rules of the law modern trade and the governing the course of organization of modern industry. The commercial law is thus taken up at large in its application to the conduct of modern business. The aim of the course is to give to students who mean to enter business life some contact with the law and some understanding of the legal point of view; at the same time the problems brought forward are actual and the rules of law discussed are specific, so that the instruction may prove of service in a business career. The course forms a natural introduction to the study of law, as it involves most of the elementary principles in one way or another. As the course deals with adjudication and legislation on questions of first importance in the economic development of modern times, it may also be of advantage to all those who wish to equip themselves for the intelligent discussion of issues having both legal and economic aspects.

In 1904-05 five principal topics will be discussed: Competition — Combination — Association — Consolidation — Regulation. The conduct of this course will be by the reading and discussion of cases from the law report. The cases selected cover the whole course of the industrial organization, so that both fact and law involved are informing.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 48-49.

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ECONOMICS 21
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

Answer all questions.

In the case of each question give a specific answer about one line in length, then proceed in subsequent paragraphs to discuss the matter involved both upon principle and upon authority.

A is the manufacturer of the X infants’ food; B is the manufacturer of the Z infants’ food. B inserts an advertisement in various magazines, which contains the following clause: — “The Z food is twice as nutritious as the X food.” A sues B for the publication of this statement; in this suit he offers to prove by expert testimony that the X food is in fact more nutritious than the Z food. The court is asked by B to dismiss the action of A. What result?
A is a workman employed in the works of B. B carries an indemnity policy covering accidents, written by C. A gets his hand crushed in one of the machines, which is improperly guarded. C attempts to make a settlement with A at $500, which A refuses; thereupon C threatens to get A discharged by B, but A still refuses to compromise. Next, C goes to B and demands that A be discharged. B is at first unwilling, but when C threatens to take advantage of the clause in the policy permitting cancellation of the policy upon five days’ notice, B reluctantly undertakes to discharge A at the end of the week for which he is employed, protesting that A is a good workman and he had intended to give him regular employment. After A is thus discharged he brings suit against C for damages for loss of his employment. What result?
A is a manufacturer of tomato catsup. He puts his product on the market in a tapering bottle with a screw cap of tin; this bottle he packs in a round pastboard carton covered with manila paper; on the wrapper is a picture of a bottle filled with red catsup, around which in black type are the brand and address. B another manufacturer of tomato catsup puts his product on the market in much the same way — in a tapering bottle with a screw cap of tin, wrapped in a round carton of pastboard with a label showing a bottle of red catsup, but with the name of his brand in plain black letters, as also his own name and address. A seeks an injunction against B. What result?
The North American Soap Company is organized under the laws of New Jersey. It buys from A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, who are the principal manufacturers of soap in the United States, all of their soap factories. The North American Company in the case of each purchase from A, B, C, D, E, F, and G takes an agreement from each not to engage in the soap business for ten years in the United States. The scheme of the promoters is to get control of the market by this process. B starts a large soap factory in New York two years later. Can he be stopped by injunction?
A is a dealer in coal in San Francisco. An agreement is made between B, C, D, E, F, and G, who are the principal dealers in coal in that city that they will sell for one year at prices to be fixed by the majority. The combination then votes to cut prices 20% for the next 4 months. At the end of 3 months, A’s capital is exhausted by this cut throat competition, and he retires from business a ruined man. A now brings suit against B for his losses. What result?
In a certain factory operated by X, A is employed by the week with 300 others, among whom are B, C, D, E, F, and G. B, C and D propose the organization of a trades union which every employee joins, except A who refuses. The trades union, at an early meeting, votes unanimously that theirs must be a union shop. The committee accordingly waits on X and informs him that unless A is discharged a strike will be called at the end of the week. X reluctantly discharges A at the end of the week. A now sues G for damages. What result?
The X hotel corporation is duly organized by A, B, and C. It builds a hotel the next year. Three years later A buys from B and C all of their stock. The next week A executes a mortgage upon the hotel property to the Y bank to secure a loan himself of $10,000; this is signed: — “X company, by A.” The week following, A transfers one share to M and another to N. A meeting of the shareholders in the X corporation is then called, A, M, and N attending; at this meeting it is unanimously voted to borrow $10,000 from the Z bank and to execute a mortgage upon the corporate property to secure the loan, which A is authorized to execute in the name of the company. This mortgage upon the hotel property is accordingly executed to the Z bank, being signed: — “X company, by A.” Which of these mortgages, the Y bank or the Z bank, will come out ahead, if the hotel property is only worth $15,000, not enough to pay both?
The X corporation is organized with a capitalization of $100,000; its shares are subscribed on the basis of 50% paid down, and all are issued. A year later it issues $50,000 in first mortgage bonds, and the next year $20,000 in second mortgage bonds. In the third year it goes into insolvency owing $60,000 to general creditors for goods. The sale of its properties realizes $50,000. In the final winding up how do the following parties come out: the first bonds? the second bonds? the general creditors? and the stockholders?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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ECONOMICS 21
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Answer all questions. Give full reasons. Cite some authorities.

Can the following be stopped as unfair competition:—
(1) One steamship company gives a rebate of 25% to those shippers who agree to give all their business and not to deal with a rival steamship company; (2) A tobacco manufacturer gives jobbers 5% discount extra if they will agree not to handle any goods of rival companies which sell for less than its own brands; (3) A manufacturer of shoe machinery who sells his machines only upon an agreement by the purchaser to buy the staples fed into it of the manufacturer finds that a rival manufacturer is offering staples at 25% off; (4) An oil corporation controlling 80% of its market reduces prices 50% in districts where competitors appear while raising prices 50% in districts where competition has been crushed out; (5) A gas company decides not to deal with any applicant who has had electricity put in by a rival company.
Eight corporations, constituting eighty per cent. of the soap manufacturers of the United States form a partnership to handle sale. Each corporation pays in $10,000 as working capital. It is provided that every manufacturer in the partnership shall have the right to run his own works in his own way, producing as much as he pleases, selling at what price he pleases. But it is further provided that every manufacturer shall pay to the treasurer of the partnership 2½ cents per lb. upon all soap made and sold by him. By another clause any member of the association has the right to withdraw at the end of any quarter. At the end of each quarter, it is stipulated, the treasurer shall pay over to each member of the partnership a share of the fund thus accumulated pro rata according to the capacity of his plant. At the end of the first quarter the X corporation, a member, withdraws; it has paid into the partnership $322; the pro rata share due is $5800. The X corporation now asks counsel what its rights are (1) To the $322; (2) To the $5800; (3) As to the $10,000; (4) Suppose the partnership were insolvent, what would be the respective rights of the X corporation and the general creditors of the partnership? (5) If the X corporation is content to remain in the arrangement, can its dissenting majority stockholders who believe the policy unsafe force it to withdraw?
A and B are co-partners engaged in cotton spinning. One C comes to A and B, whom he finds together in the office of the firm, and offers them 10,000 bales of cotton at 11c. per lb. This is a very large purchase for this firm to make, and the price is rather high as the price is falling. The proposition appeals to A, who says to B, “shall we take the cotton?” B says, “No.” Then A turns to C, who has heard all, and says “we need that cotton, despite what B says, and we will sign a contract with you;” thereupon, against the continued protests of B, A and C executed a contract for the cotton. A signs it, “A & B by A,” B forbidding him to do so to the last. The partnership later refuses to carry out the contract; C sues B for the damages caused by the breach. (1) What result in case as stated? (2) Suppose the partnership was buying a large amount of cotton in order to corner the market, which fact was unknown to C; (3) Would your answer be different if A and C had contracted for the cotton in B’s absence, A secretly intending to sell the cotton and run away with the proceeds? (4) Suppose while A and C were contracting, but before they had struck the bargain, B died without either knowing it; (5) Suppose the purchase price of the cotton was higher than the market, it being understood that in consideration of this C should cancel a debt of $4000 which A owed him.
A buys a mining claim for $8000; he sells it to B and eight others for $12,000, who agree that if they are successful in unloading it upon a corporation which they are planning to form for that purpose he shall have the same share of profits that the rest get. After trying to sell it to various other people for $12,000 and failing to do so (the best offer they can get is $4000) they all form the X corporation with their office boys as stockholders and directors, who vote to buy the mining claim of them for $62,000. The mine when developed by the people who buy into the X company turns out to be worth $500,000 at the least calculation. (1) What are the rights of the X company against A? (2) Suppose it had turned out to be worth only $1000? (3) Suppose the X corporation had already been formed by other parties before this syndicate was made up and that the directors for the time being had foolishly bought the property from the syndicate for $62,000 when most people would say that it was only worth $8000, what could the stockholders of the X company do about it? (4) Suppose B happened to be one of this board of directors, what would be the rights of the stockholders of the X company? (5) Suppose B happened to be a stockholder in this X corporation that bought the mining claim under the circumstances described in (3), could minority stockholders in the X corporation which had voted by a small majority (which included B’s vote) prevent the purchase from being carried through?
Three gas companies, — the A Co., the B Co., and the C Co., are engaged in supplying gas in a certain city. The principal stockholders are friendly, and they desire to consolidate. The following schemes are proposed; how many of these may be put through in any way (a) if every stockholder in the A Co., the B Co., and the C Co. is willing? (b) if minority stockholders dissent? (1) The first scheme proposed is to have the shares in the constituent companies conveyed to a board of three trustees who shall issue trust certificates retaining the voting powers; (2) the second scheme proposed is to have the shares sold to a holding corporation organized to buy them, the shareholders in the a holding constituent companies being offered either the market price of the shares in cash or in shares in the holding corporation; (3) the third scheme proposed is for the constituent companies to vote to sell all their property and franchises for cash to a new corporation organized to buy the properties, the cash to be distributed to the stockholders in the old companies pro rata; (4) the fourth scheme proposed is for the shareholders in the constituent companies to agree to elect identical boards of directors in accordance with a vote among themselves; (5) a fifth scheme is for the A Co. and the B Co. to execute leases of all of their properties to the C Co.
Are the following laws constitutional or do they deprive of life, liberty, and property without due process of law?: (1) prohibiting any manufacturing corporation from stipulating in any employment contract that one half of the employee’s pay shall be in orders for supplies from the employer’s general store; (2) forbidding the manufacture of clothing in any room in any tenement house; (3) forbidding the running of a department store, which is defined as an establishment where two of the following businesses are carried on: the sale of foods, the sale of dry goods, the sale of furniture, the sale of hardware; (4) prohibiting the sale of oleomargarine colored yellow, and requiring any one who sells it to put a sign out which shall say in letters one foot high “Oleomargarine sold here”; (5) making eight hours the limit of time for which any one may be employed to work in any factory.
Are the following refusals to enter into business relations legal? (1) By a telephone company which will install an instrument in the office of only one telegraph company; (2) by a railroad which will only allow one telephone company to establish a pay station in a union station; (3) by an electric company which refuses to furnish electricity for power; (4) by a sleeping car company which after assigning a traveller to “lower 5” reassigns him half an hour later to “upper 8” without making any explanation; (5) by a railroad which refuses to furnish facilities for doing the express business itself upon the ground that it has entered into an exclusive arrangement with one express company.
Do the following constitute illegal discriminations in commercial dealings? (1) By a steamship company which gives 20 per cent. rebate to all shippers who ship 1000 tons per year; (2) by a railroad which charges ten cents excess fare to passengers who have no tickets, even if they have found the ticket office closed; (3) by a hotel keeper who refuses to take in late at night a man and his wife who find themselves unable to get into their own house nearby because they have lost their key; (4) by a gas company which refuses (although offered prepayment) to sell gas to a rival company; (5) by a gas company which finds itself unexpectedly unable to supply its customers; (6) by an electric company which makes it a rule to supply the transformer free to such applicants only who have the wiring of their houses done by it.

Image Source: Lithograph by John Jepson “Harvard scores” published in 1905. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Accounting principles. Enrollment and final exam. Cole, 1904-1905

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-11-24

“Principles of Accounting” was one of three courses offered by the department of economics that were specifically targeted to advanced students who intended to start business careers after graduation. William Morse Cole, A.M. was the instructor. An earlier post provides an overview of his career.

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From previous years…

1900-01
1901-02
1902-03
1903-04

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 18 ¹hf. Mr. W. M. Cole. — Principles of Accounting.

Total 27: 7 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 18 ¹hf. The Principles of Accounting. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole.

This course is designed primarily for students who expect to enter a business career, and wish to understand the processes by which the earnings and values of industrial properties are computed. It is not intended to afford practice in book-keeping, but to give students a grasp of principles which shall enable them to comprehend the significance of accounts.

In order that students may become familiar with book-keeping terms and methods, a few exercises will be devoted to a brief study of the common systems of recording simple mercantile transactions. The chief work of the course, however, will be a study of the methods of determining profit, loss, and valuation. This will include an analysis of receipts, disbursements, assets, and liabilities, in various kinds of industry, and consideration of cost of manufacture, cost of service, depreciation and appreciation of stock and of equipment, interest, sinking funds, dividends, and the like. Published accounts of corporations will be studied, and practice in interpretation will be afforded. Attention will also be given to the functions and methods of auditors.

The instruction will be given by lectures, discussions, reading, and written work.

Course 18 is open to Seniors and Graduates who have taken Economics 1.

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ECONOMICS 18
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

Construct an imaginary trial balance of at least eight items, of which not over three shall represent persons or corporations.
In a proprietor’s absence the books of a business are opened and kept by a bookkeeper who keeps accurate record of transactions reported to him but cannot be trusted to figure valuations or profits. At the end of a year, the records show, before the books are closed and simply as the result of regular transactions, the following figures:
Proprietor’s investment, $100,000; Bills Payable, $17,000; Bills Receivable, $26,000; Real Estate, $20,000; Accounts Payable, $15,000; Accounts Receivable, $20,000; Cash, $5,000; Merchandise on hand, valued at cost, $75,000; Merchandise Dr. on ledger, $49,500; Expense, $12,000; Interest balance received, $500.
Now the proprietor returns and wishes to close his books for the year. If he needs any information not given above, what questions will he ask in obtaining it? Assume any fairly reasonable answers to such questions, if any, and then show what is the proprietor’s present investment in the business.
The annual report of a corporation shows the following figures: Profit and Loss credit balance at the beginning of the year, $20,000; Merchandise profit, $140,000; Expense, $100,000; appreciation of Real Estate, $10,000; permanent Surplus set aside at the end of the year, $15,000; Dividends, $50,000. Present in rough ledger form i.,e. debit and credit items, the Profit and Loss account for the year, showing the balance at the end of the year.
Explain the significance of each of the following accounts appearing, with a balance on the side indicated, on (1) a balance sheet for the beginning of a new fiscal year, and (2) a trial balance taken in the ordinary course of business during the year: Wages, Cr.; Interest, Dr.; Merchandise, Dr.; Profit and Loss, Dr.; Reserve Fund, Cr.; Supplies, Dr.
An annual report of a corporation shows, either on the income sheet or on the balance sheet, an item of which the title means little or nothing to you, e.g., “Pro rata share of bonds of H.R.L. Co.” Assuming the accounts to be kept properly, explain to what extent the position and the treatment of the item throw light upon its character.
A corporation shows the following statements:—

	1903.	1904.
Plant	$450,000	$440,000
Supplies	59,000	27,000
Real Estate	100,000	95,000
Cash	15,000	15,000
Bills Receivable	50,000	60,000
Accounts Receivable	20,000	15,000
Merchandise	83,000	108,000
Capital Stock	500,000	500,000
Bills Payable	150,000	150,000
Accounts Payable	100,000	90,000
Wages	7,000	10,000
Profit and Loss	20,000	10,000
Proceeds from sales		600,000
Direct cost of production		500,000
General expenses, fixed charges, etc.		70,000

Tell all you can about the history of the corporation for the year 1903-04.

If bonds on hand were bought at a premium, should that fact show upon the income sheet or in any way affect it?
The books of three concerns are open to your inspection. Outline briefly a scheme for consolidating the three concerns into a corporation.
[Do not allow yourself to get involved in the fascinating details of such a scheme at the expense of time needed for other things. This may well be left for surplus time and energy. Bookkeeping entries are not required. Show how the accounts of the three concerns can be interpreted for such a purpose.]

Image Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 16, p. 308. Portrait of William Morse Cole colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking Public Finance

Harvard. Course description, enrollment, exam questions for history of public finance. Bullock, 1904-1905

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-11-20

Step by step, inch by inch, course by course we transcribe and file away course materials from academic years gone by. Again we encounter Harvard assistant professor of economics, Charles Jesse Bullock, this time wearing his public finance hat. Note that at the turn of the twentieth century monetary and fiscal issues were taught as two sides of a single financial history.

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Previously…

1903-1904 enrollment and final exam questions.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

Economics 16 ¹hf. Asst. Professor Bullock. — Financial History of the United States.

Total 6: 4 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 16 ¹hf. The Financial History of the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and(at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Asst. Professor Bullock.

This course will deal mainly with the history of the finances of the federal government; but will include some study of the financial experience of the colonies, and will treat of the development of the finances of the states from 1775 to 1850.
Each student will be required to prepare a thesis upon some special topic.

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ECONOMICS 16¹
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

Describe the development of colonial tax systems.
State the main facts concerning the Continental paper money.
Describe Hamilton’s funding system.
Describe and criticise the sinking-fund act of 1795.
What are the main facts in the history of the Second Bank of the United States?
Describe the tariffs of 1828, 1838, and 1846.
What are the main facts in the history of the greenbacks?
Discuss the suspension of specie payments in December, 1861.
Describe the refunding of the national debt after the Civil War
What were the chief provisions of the resumption act? How was resumption actually accomplished?

Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, Vol. 45, p. 26. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Exams for the history of economics through Adam Smith. Bullock, 1904-1905

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-11-19

Meanwhile, back in the early 20th century we find Charles Jesse Bullock teaching the history of economics from the ancient Greeks to Adam Smith, judging from his exam questions. Nominally, the course was to cover economic thought through 1848. He, like Frank Taussig, examined economics Ph.D. candidates ability to read French and German. He taught Latin and Greek at the high-school level before going on to study economics so it is not surprising that he would have been expected to cover the ancient Greek and Latin literatures of economics as well.

The year-examination for this course in 1903-04 has been posted earlier.

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Course Enrollment
1904-05

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

Total 3: 3 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description, 1904-05

[Economics] 15. The History and Literature of Economies to the year 1848. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri, at 12. Asst. Professor Bullock.

The purpose of this course is to trace the development of economic thought from classical antiquity to the middle of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon the relation of economics to philosophical and political theories, as well as to political and industrial conditions.

A considerable amount of reading of prominent writers will be assigned and opportunity given for the preparation of theses. Much of the instruction is necessarily given by means of lectures.

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ECONOMICS 15
Mid-Year Examination, 1904-05

With what literature upon the history of economics are you familiar?
What place does Plato occupy in the development of economic thought?
What criticism did Aristotle make against Plato’s Republic?
What economic topics are discussed by Xenophon?
Describe the economic doctrines of Thomas Aquinas.
What do you think of the scholastic doctrine concerning usury?
What were the doctrines of Molinaeus and Salmasius?
Compare the Utopia with Plato’s Republic.
What do you think of Ingram’s treatment of economic thought in the Middle Ages?
Upon what subject do you consider the economic doctrine of the Schoolmen most satisfactory?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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ECONOMICS 15
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

What influence did the schoolmen have upon the economic thought of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Compare the contributions to economic thought made by English writers in the seventeenth century with those made by contemporaneous writers in France and Italy.
Give some account of the economic doctrines of Bodin.
Trace in outline the development of theories of money in Europe from 1550 to 1760.
Compare the communistic theories of Plato with those of More.
Describe the work done in the eighteenth century toward systematizing economic doctrines.
Describe the economic doctrines of two German and two Italian writers of the eighteenth century.
Give a general account of the life and writings of Adam Smith.
What different influences can be observed in the Wealth of Nations? To which do you attribute most importance?

Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, Vol. 45, p. 26. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus Theory

Queens College. Reading assignments and exams for macroeconomics. Lerner 1973-1975

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-10-15

Economics has its share of Wunderkinder, “Primo Donnos”, and heterodoxic poseurs. It is also a fact that economists are overwhelmingly herd animals. From time to time we find a genuine maverick among us, Abba Ptachya Lerner could be designated the poster-child of maverick economists.

In this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has assembled material over three consecutive years from his seminar in advanced macroeconomic theory offered at Queens College of the City University of New York from the 1970s. Class schedules, assigned readings, midterm and final exams are transcribed here from the Spring terms of 1973 through 1975.

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Course Description (1974)

Economics 710, 80:
Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory
Abba Lerner

An integration of the theories of employment, inflation, interest, capital, investment, and growth, and new lessons for the uses of monetary policy, fiscal policy, and price policy. The Keynesian revolution (interpretations and misinterpretations—general theory or special case?), pre-Keynesian, Keynesian, and post-Keynesian economics. International complications and the myth of international money.

Basic Reading

Ackley	Macroeconomics
Keynes	The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
Leijonhufvud	On Keynesian Economics and the Economics of Keynes
Lerner	“Money” (Encycl. Britt., 1946 ed.) Everybody’s Business Flation

1973

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710, 80: Advanced Macroeconomic Theory
Inflation, Employment and Growth
Seminar, Spring 1973

Prof. Abba Lerner
Th. 6:30-8:20 P.M.
SS 314

Reading

Branson	Macroeconomics Theory and Policy Harper & Row	(B)
Lerner	Flation Quadrangle Books	(F)
Lerner	Everybody’s Business Harper Torchbooks (paperback)	(EB)
Lerner	Money (Encycl. Britt 1946 edition)	(M)
Leijonhufvud	On Keynesian Ecs & the Ecs of Keynes Oxford U P	(L)
Keynes	The General Theory of Interest and Money (sic) Harcourt Brace	(K)

Tentative Outline

Week	Date
1	Feb. 8	Introduction	B:1-3 / M / EB:X.
2	15	The Classical Case	B:4-6 / F:1-5 / K.
3	22	Static Equilibrium	B:7-9 / F:6-7 / K.
4	Mar 1	Consumption and Investment	B:10,11 / K.
5	8	Money	B:12,13 / M / K.
6	15	Monetary & Fiscal Policy	B:14 / K.
7	22	The Foreign Sector	B:15 / F:16,17 / K.
8	29	International Money	F:18-20 / K.
9	Apr 5	Inflation	B:16 / EB:XI / F:8-15 / K.
10	12	Unemployment Disequilibrium	L: I and II / K.
11	19	Macromodels	L: III / K.
12	26	Liquidity Preferences	L:IV / K.
13	May 3	Keynes and Post Keynes	L:V and VI / I(sic).
14	10	Growth Models	B:17-19.
15	17	Optimum Growth Models	B:20-23.

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710 and 80
Prof. A. Lerner

Midterm Examination
March 22, 1973

Answer two questions from each Part

PART ONE

M = 300, V = 4, C(Y) = 5/6, I = 300 – 10i
(I = Investment), (1 = rate of interest)
What would be the equilibrium values of Y, i, I, and S?
What would happen to those if
1. there was an increase in liquidity preference?
2. M was increased to 450?
3. C(Y) increased to 7/8?

What is the multiplier? Now is it similar to and how different from the velocity of circulation of money? the accelerator? the balanced budget multiplier?
How would it be affected by
1. a change in liquidity preference?
2. a change in time preference
3. a change in the elasticity of supply of money?
4. a change in the propensity to consume?
5. a fixed M and v?

Describe carefully the mechanism by which an increase in M would increase S. How would this be affected if a lower i decreased the amount people wanted to save?

PART TWO

Discuss these statements:
“The main contribution of Keynes was to point out that full employment is not reached automatically because
1. cannot become negative.
2. workers have no way of reducing their real
3. workers insist on a real wage greater than their marginal product.
4. There is a liquidity trap.
Describe carefully the meaning of the marginal efficiency of capital and the marginal efficiency of investment, and how they are related.
1. in a growing economy
2. in a declining economy
3. in a stationary economy
4. in a steady state of growth economy.
“The rise and fall of the Phillips curve.”
or
“ The natural level of unemployment.”

Source: U. S. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 17, Folder 5 “Queens College of the City University of New York: Examinations”.

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

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710 and 80
Mr. Lerner

Final Examination
Spring 1973

Answer Question 1 and three others.

Branson Page 24 “the saving investment identity…as a natural derivative from the GNP identity”
Branson Page 26 “The basic GNP identity:—

C + I + G + (X -M) = GNP = C + S + T + R_f,”

[where]

C=616; I=135; G=219; (X-M)=4; GNP = 974;
S = 149; T=208; R_f=1

1. Show how the S, I identity can be derived from the GNP identity, spelling out any definitional differences in S or I.
2. Give (and explain) another definition of S or I, as used by economists that makes I necessarily equal to S only in equilibrium.

Compare the “classical” with the “keynesian” explanations of the automatic establishment of full employment on the assumption of wage and price flexibility.

Explain how an increase in thrift (the desire to save) could (or could not) have the effect of (a) increasing investment, (b) decreasing investment, (c) increasing total income, (d) decreasing total income.

Permanent Income, Life-cycle Consumption Hypothesis, Time Preference, Ratchet Effect, Wealth Effect, Pigou Effect — How are these six items related to the consumption function and to each other?

Explain Branson’s distinction between the “real wage model” and the “money wage model”, and the purpose of the distinction.

What do you consider the most distinctive feature of Leijonhufvud’s approach?

Discuss.
1. “With perfect wage and price flexibility there can be no problem of involuntary unemployment.”
2. “A little wage and price flexibility (such as might be achieved in practice) could be worse than none.”
3. “Too much wage and price flexibility could also cause trouble and not provide stable full employment.”

Why is a rise in the price of foreign currency considered more of a crisis than a rise in the price of coffee or Mutual Fund Shares or real estate?

Source: U. S. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 17, Folder 5 “Queens College of the City University of New York: Examinations”.

_______________________________________

1974

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710, 80
Inflation, Employment and Growth
Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory
[1974]

Abba Lerner
Tues. 6:20-8:00 P.M.
Temp. 3, Room 2

An Integration of the theories of Employment, Inflation, Interest, Capital, Investment and Growth, and its lessons for the uses of Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy and Price Policy. The Keynesian Revolution (Interpretations and Misinterpretations – General Theory or Special Case?) Pre-Keynesian, Keynesian and Post Keynesian Economics. International Complications and the Myth of International Money.

Basic Reading

Ackley	Macroeconomics	A
Breit & Ransom	The Academic Scribblers	B
Keynes	The General Theory of Employment, etc.	K
Leijonhufvud	On Keynesian Economics, etc.	L
Lerner	Money (Encycl. Britt 1946 edition)	M
Lerner	Everybody’s Business	EB
Lerner	Flation	F

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Econ. 80—710
MIDTERM

Mr. Lerner
April 16, 1974

Answer question 1 and 3 other — 4 altogether.

Suppose there is a decrease in the propensity to consume. Show how would this affect Employment, Prices and Investment
1. if the amount of money is held constant
2. if the rate of interest is held constant
  with wages and prices (1) perfectly flexible; (2) sticky downward

Explain the relationship between the marginal efficiency of capital and the marginal efficiency of investment.
How are these affected by an increase in

1. the rate of interest?
2. the optimism of investors?
3. the wealth of the economy?
4. the rate of time preference?

I-S, L-M. Explain the nature of these curves, their use, and the stability condition they demonstrate.

Show how the multiplier would be affected by an increase in
1. the propensity to consume
2. the marginal propensity to consume
3. the marginal propensity to save
4. the quantity of money
5. the velocity of circulation
6. liquidity preference
7. government spending
8. tax collection
9. (7) and (8) together

Why must saving (S) always be equal to investment (I)? What could be meant by the statement that an excess of S over I is deflationary?

What are the features which distinguish the Keynesian from the pre-Keynesian and from the Post-Keynesian theories of the equilibrium level of employment?

Source: U. S. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 17, Folder 5 “Queens College of the City University of New York: Examinations”.

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

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 80, 710
Inflation, Employment and Growth
Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory
Dr. A. Lerner

Final Examination
Spring 1974

Answer Question 1 and any three other questions — Four altogether

Suppose there is an increase in thriftiness. Show the direct and the indirect effects on the Multiplier, Income, Employment, Prices and Investment
1. with wages and prices perfectly flexible,
2. with wages and prices sticky downward,
  in each case
  1. with the quantity of money held constant
  2. with the rate of interest held constant
State and discuss the primary criticisms that Leijonhufvud makes of a) Keynes and b) the “Keynesians”.

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of indexing
1. when there is a steady rate of inflation and
2. when there is a danger of inflation getting out of control.

A well informed and intelligent observer remarks that “We are now suffering from an excess of saving over investment, which is deflationary”. He cannot really mean what he is saying because in the first place we are suffering from inflation rather than deflation and in the second place it is not possible for saving to be greater (or less) than investment. What could he be meaning to say?

Marginal productivity of capital; Marginal productivity of investment; Marginal efficiency of capital; Marginal efficiency of investment.
Under what conditions are any of these equal to the rate of interest? Explain carefully.

How come America allowed the dollar to depreciate on the international money market? How is this different from national bankruptcy? Will this not result in the disorganization of international trade “beggar thy neighbor” competitive devaluations of freely floating currencies. How could it have been prevented and why was it not prevented?

“The present very high interest rates show the determination of the government to stop the inflation. If this policy is persisted in it is bound to achieve this purpose since, as we all know, the fundamental cause of inflation is the increase in the quantity of money which the authorities have provided in the recent past in order to keep down interest rates”. Discuss the logic and the practicality of such a policy.

How is the size of the multiplier likely to be affected by an increase in:
1. the rate of interest?
2. time preference?
3. liquidity preference?
4. government spending?
5. the quantity of money?
6. the population?
7. the government budget?
8. the use of charge accounts for consumer credit?

Source: U. S. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 17, Folder 5 “Queens College of the City University of New York: Examinations”.

_______________________________________

1975

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710, 80
Inflation, Employment and Growth
Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory

Abba Lerner
Spring 1975
Temp. 3, Room 2

Basic Reading

Ackley	Macroeconomics	A
Keynes	The General Theory of Employment, etc.	K
Lerner	Money (Encycl. Britt 1946 edition)	M
Lerner	Everybody’s Business	EB
Lerner	Flation	F

Economics 710-80
Midterm Exam

Abba P. Lerner
March 20, 1975

Answer Question 1 and any two other questions (three altogether)

If the propensity to consume (average and marginal) increases from 50% to 60% what would be the effect on the level of income?
In your answer consider the six (6) possible combinations of the following conditions:
The mpI (marginal propensity to invest, i.e. the increase in investment due to an increase in income as a percentage of the increase in income) is (a) 40% (b) 30%
The elasticity of supply of money plus the elasticity of demand for money is (i) infinite (ii) unitary (iii) zero

Discuss your views and those of Keynes, Ackley, and Lerner on “Involuntary unemployment is basically due to the inability of workers to reduce their real wage”.

Which (if any) of [the following] statements are true? Why do you think so? Indicate any connections between them.
1. “The more steeply any average (A) is rising (falling) the more will the corresponding marginal (M) be above (below) it, i.e. the greater will be M minus A”.
2. “The short run mpC (marginal propensity to consume) is less than the short run apC (average propensity to consume)”.
3. “The long run mpC is equal to the long run apC”.
4. “For a temporary increase in income mpC minus apC is less than for a permanent increase in income”.

What is Say’s Law? Discuss its logical base, its empirical validity and its practical usefulness.

Income can be defined more widely or more narrowly. Distinguish between the different definitions and indicate how the different definitions could better serve different purposes.

Source: U. S. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 17, Folder 5 “Queens College of the City University of New York: Examinations”.

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

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710/80
Dr. A. Lerner
FINAL EXAMINATION
May 22, 1975 (Thursday)

Temp 3 Room 2

Answer Questions 1 and any two others — 3 altogether

Suppose consumption increases from 70% of GNP to 80% and the marginal propensity to consume increases from 50% to 75%. What could be the effect on the GNP if the elasticity of demand for money plus the elasticity of supply of money (with respect to changes in the rate of interest) is (a) infinite (b) zero (c) one, and the marginal propensity to invest (with respect to GNP) is (and remains) (i) 20% (ii) 25% (This makes six combinations).

Is an increase in the national debt beneficial, harmful or neutral for the welfare of (a) the present generation (b) future generations? State and examine the arguments for the different views.

“Involuntary unemployment is due to the inability of workers to reduce their real wage”. “Involuntary unemployment is due to an unsatisfied demand for a larger stock of money”. Discuss.

“To succeed in winning the battle against stagflation we must (a) tighten our belts (b) use the tax rebate to buy more automobiles and (c) make more money available for mortgages for housing”. Discuss.

“Say’s Law is invalid but useful while the Pigou Effect is valid but useless.” Does this make any sense?

Does the rate of interest determine the marginal efficiency of capital? Or Vice versa? Or what?

Source: U. S. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Papers of Abba P. Lerner, Box 17, Folder 5 “Queens College of the City University of New York: Examinations”.

Image Source: National Academy of Sciences. 1994. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 64, p.208. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Tags Lerner

Chicago Exam Questions Theory

Chicago. First quarter price theory exams. Rees, 1960

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-10-09

Happy to add another round of first quarter price theory exams from the University of Chicago to the collection. Always nice to have a picture from the early professional years of the economists featured here. Distinguished old farts were once rising stars after all. (A general wisecrack made with the qualification, “present company excluded”.)

______________________

Posted earlier

Reading list and exams from the Autumn quarter of 1962.

______________________

Economics 300
Mr. Albert Rees

Midterm Examination
Autumn 1960

(16 points) State whether each of the following statements about the U. S. economy is true, false, or uncertain, and explain your answers briefly.
1. Consumers decide what will be produced.
2. All consumers participate equally in determining what will be produced.
3. The government influences the composition of output in the private consumer goods sector.
4. The government determines the level of investment for the economy as a whole.

(10 points) Comment briefly on the following statement:
“When equilibrium prices in competitive markets are disturbed, they tend to be re-established. Thus the first effect of an increased supply of eggs is to lower the price. At this lower price, consumption is increased, and the increase in demand tends to drive the price back up again.”
(16 points) Increased costs cause manufacturers to reduce the size of 5 cent chocolate bars from 2-1/2 ounces to 2 ounces. Because the bars are smaller, people eat more of them and consumption rises from 10, 000 bars a week to 11,000.
1. Can these events be shown on an ordinary supply and demand diagram? If so, show them. If not, explain why.
2. Can the elasticity of demand for chocolate be computed? If so, compute it. If not, explain.

(24 Points) The following table gives hypothetical prices of pork and beef per pound in two years, and quantities consumed in a certain town.

	Price per pound		Pounds consumed
	1959	1960	1959	1960
Pork	40 cents	50 cents	1000	800
Beef	60 cents	60 cents	1000	1200

1. Compute the elasticity of demand for pork and the cross-elasticity of demand for beef in terms of the price of pork.
2. Compute the Laspeyres price index for the price of meat from 1959 to 1960 (assuming that pork and beef are the only kinds of meat).
3. Draw an indifference map for pork and beef for a typical consumer and illustrate the changes shown in the table on his indifference map. Derive two points on his demand curve for pork.
4. Assume that the consumer’s money income is increased by an amount equal to his original income times the Laspeyres price index computed in (b). Demonstrate that he has been overcompensated for the price rise. Under what condition if any would this increase in income fail to overcompensate him?
(16 points) Jones lives in a rented house for which he pays $150 a month. He has the opportunity of buying an identical house for $25,000, of which $15,000 will be paid in cash and $10,000 can be borrowed on a mortgage. He has figured that his monthly expenses would be $100 if he bought: $50 for interest on the mortgage, $20 for local taxes, and $30 for maintenance and depreciation. His income tax and expenses for fuel and utilities will not be affected by the purchase. He argues that it will cost him less to live if he buy the house; his wife argues that it will not.
1. Under what conditions is Jones right? Under what conditions is Mrs. Jones right?
2. Is there any divergence between the “right answer” to this problem from the private standpoint of the Jones family and from the standpoint of society? Explain.

(18 points) The GJS corporation, manufacturers of gadgets, have determined that for every 10 per cent increase in the capacity of a gadget factory, minimum short-run average total cost falls by 1 per cent throughout the relevant range of capacities.
1. What can you say about the production function for gadgets over the relevant range?
2. Suppose that the company hires two factors of production, labor and capital, and pays each its marginal product. Will anything be left over for the owners of the company who contribute no services? Explain.
3. Suppose that the company wants to build a plant to produce 10,000 gadget per week. What can you say about the size of the plant that will produce these most efficiently?

Economics 300
Mr. Rees
Fall. 1960

Final Examination
December 14, 1960

(21 points) Show each of the following events on an indifference map:
1. The change in the consumption of margarine following an increase in income (axes: butter and margarine. Assume that the income elasticity of demand is positive for butter and negative for margarine.)
2. The change in the consumption of bread following a rise in its price. (axes: bread and all other commodities.) Identify the income and substitution effects of the price change.
3. Do part (b) over using Friedman’s “Marshallian demand curve” concept and explain the difference between the diagrams for (b) and (c).
(19 points) In the United States, about one-fifth to one-fourth of all income is property income. State briefly (a) the advantages of having private income from property in our economy (b) the costs or disadvantages. You may judge these according to any values you care to use, making the values as explicit as possible.
(20 points) In a certain isolated area there are 50 farms of each of two types, A farms and B farms (100 farms in all). Within each type, all farms are identical. All farms are worked by identical workers. The marginal product schedules of one farm of each type are given below, in bushels of wheat per year.

	A Farm	B Farm
No. of workers
1	100	95
2	90	84
3	80	73
4	70	62
5	60	51

If there are 260 workers in the area, how many will be employed on each kind of farm? What is the total product of each kind of farm? The rent of each kind of farm? The wages of workers on each type of farm in bushels per year? (Assume that farmers compete freely for labor, and labor can move within the area.)
By means of an irrigation project, the owners of twenty B farms transform them into A farms. Recompute the answers to (a), counting the transformed farms as A farms. Who gained and who lost from the project, and why?
1. (20 points) By means of appropriate diagrams and/or explanations, show the short-run effect of each of the following taxes on the output and profits of a monopolist.
2. An excise tax of 10 cents per unit of product.
3. An excise tax of 10 percent of the price of the product.
4. A corporate profit tax equal to 50 percent of net profits.

(20 points) The Edgeworth Box Company is the only employer in the town of Yarmouth. Its supply schedule of labor is given by W = 40 + 1/4 q, where W is the wage in cents per hour and q is the number of manhours supplied per week. The company sells boxes in a competitive market. The value of the marginal product of labor is given by
V = 100 – 1/2 q for values of q greater than zero.
How many man-hours of labor will the company employ, and at what wage?
Show diagramatically for part (a) first, the wage bill and second, the sum of monopoly profits and the return to factors of production other than labor.
What will be the effect on employment of a legal minimum wage of 60 cents an hour? of 80 cents an hour?

This problem may be solved algebraically or graphically. The following table gives numerically some points on the schedules whose equations are given above:

Supply		Marginal Product
q (Man-hours)	W (cents)	q (man-hours)	W (cents)
1	40.25	1	99.5
2	40.50	2	99.0
3	40.75	3	98.5
4	41.00	4	98.0
etc.		etc.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Albert Rees Papers, Box 1, Folder “Economics 300”.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-07002, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Tags Rees

Lekachman	Keynes’ General Theory – Reports of Three Decades
Harrod	Life of Keynes
Lerner	The Economics of Employment

Lerner	Economics of Employment
Ackley	Macroeconomics
Lekachman	Keynes’ General Theory – Reports of Three Decades
Lekachman	The Age of Keynes
Harrod	Life of Keynes

Lekachman	Keynes’ General Theory – Reports of Three Decades
Harrod	Life of Keynes
Lerner	The Economics of Employment

Week	Date
1	Feb. 5	Outline — Classical to Keynes	M, A 1-4, EB 10, F 1-5
2	12	Lincoln’s Birthday — no classes
3	19	Outline — Post Keynes	A 5-8, EB 11, F 6-10
4	26	Say’s Law, Saving and Investment	EB 13-14, F11-15
5	Mar 5	Monetary Policy	A 9
6	12	Fiscal Policy, Consumption Function	A10-12
7	19	The Complete Keynes Model	A13-15
8	26	Inflation and Investment	A16-17
9	Apr 2	Capital and Growth	A18-19
10	9	No Class (Recess)
11	16	International Money	F16-20
12	23	Keynesian Revolution? Dynamics	L Parts I, II
13	30	Macromodels	L Part III
14	May 7	Liquidity and Wealth	L Part IV
15	14	Expectations, Illusions and Policies	L Parts V, VI
16	21	Review	M, A 20, EB, F

Lekachman	Keynes’ General Theory – Reports of Three Decades
Lerner	The Economics of Employment

QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY AT KINGSTON Department of Economics

Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination ECONOMIC THEORY May, 1974

The Instructors

Course Enrollment 1904-05 [also listed as Ethics 1]

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

The Divinity School

Course Description 1904-05

Ethics

PHILOSOPHY 51 THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS

More about Richard Musgrave

Richard Musgrave Faculty of Arts and Sciences — Memorial Minute

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Economics 611 Final Examination Prof. R. A. Musgrave January 22, 1960

I

II

III

Dr. R. A. Musgrave Friday, May 20, 1960

ECONOMICS 611

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Welfare Economics 18-640

Final Examination May 20th 2-5 p.m., 1958. Abba P. Lerner

Wyman’s exams from earlier years

Course Enrollment 1904-05

Course Description 1904-05

ECONOMICS 21 Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

ECONOMICS 21 Year-end Examination, 1904-05

From previous years…

Course Enrollment 1904-05

Course Description 1904-05

ECONOMICS 18 Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

Previously…

Course Enrollment 1904-05

Course Description 1904-05

ECONOMICS 161 Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

Course Enrollment 1904-05

Course Description, 1904-05

ECONOMICS 15 Mid-Year Examination, 1904-05

ECONOMICS 15 Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Course Description (1974)

Economics 710, 80: Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory Abba Lerner

Basic Reading

Other Suggested Readings

1973

QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Reading

Tentative Outline

Other Suggested Readings

QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710 and 80 Prof. A. Lerner

Midterm Examination March 22, 1973

QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710 and 80 Mr. Lerner

Final Examination Spring 1973

1974

QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710, 80 Inflation, Employment and Growth Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory [1974]

Basic Reading

Other Suggested Readings

QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Econ. 80—710 MIDTERM

Mr. Lerner April 16, 1974

QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 80, 710 Inflation, Employment and Growth Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory Dr. A. Lerner

1975

QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710, 80 Inflation, Employment and Growth Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory

Abba Lerner Spring 1975 Temp. 3, Room 2

Basic Reading

Other Suggested Readings

Economics 710-80 Midterm Exam

QUEENS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710/80 Dr. A. Lerner FINAL EXAMINATION May 22, 1975 (Thursday)

Posted earlier

Economics 300 Mr. Albert Rees

Midterm Examination Autumn 1960

Economics 300 Mr. Rees Fall. 1960

Final Examination December 14, 1960

QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY AT KINGSTON
Department of Economics

Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination
ECONOMIC THEORY
May, 1974

Course Enrollment
1904-05
[also listed as Ethics 1]

Course Description
1904-05

PHILOSOPHY 5¹
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS

Richard Musgrave
Faculty of Arts and Sciences — Memorial Minute

Economics 611
Final Examination
Prof. R. A. Musgrave
January 22, 1960

Dr. R. A. Musgrave
Friday, May 20, 1960

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Welfare Economics
18-640

Final Examination May 20^th 2-5 p.m., 1958.
Abba P. Lerner

Course Enrollment
1904-05

Course Description
1904-05

ECONOMICS 21
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

ECONOMICS 21
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Course Enrollment
1904-05

Course Description
1904-05

ECONOMICS 18
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

Course Enrollment
1904-05

Course Description
1904-05

ECONOMICS 16¹
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

Course Enrollment
1904-05

ECONOMICS 15
Mid-Year Examination, 1904-05

ECONOMICS 15
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Economics 710, 80:
Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory
Abba Lerner

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710 and 80
Prof. A. Lerner

Midterm Examination
March 22, 1973

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710 and 80
Mr. Lerner

Final Examination
Spring 1973

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710, 80
Inflation, Employment and Growth
Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory
[1974]

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Econ. 80—710
MIDTERM

Mr. Lerner
April 16, 1974

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 80, 710
Inflation, Employment and Growth
Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory
Dr. A. Lerner

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710, 80
Inflation, Employment and Growth
Seminar in Advanced Macroeconomic Theory

Abba Lerner
Spring 1975
Temp. 3, Room 2

Economics 710-80
Midterm Exam

QUEENS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Economics 710/80
Dr. A. Lerner
FINAL EXAMINATION
May 22, 1975 (Thursday)

Economics 300
Mr. Albert Rees

Midterm Examination
Autumn 1960

Economics 300
Mr. Rees
Fall. 1960

Final Examination
December 14, 1960