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Harvard. Graduate Mathematical Economics. Syllabus and Final Exam. Chipman, 1952

 

 

John S. Chipman was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1926. He received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1951, and taught at the University of Minnesota from 1955 to his retirement as Regents’ Professor in 2007.

Before going to Minnesota Chipman was assistant professor of economics at Harvard from 1951-55. This post provides a transcription of the course syllabus and final examination for Chipman’s “General Interdependence Systems”, a name he chose for the course he inherited bearing the nominal title of “mathematical economics”.

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Course Announcement

Economics 214b (formerly Economics 204b). Mathematical Economics

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

General interdependence systems; in particular, Leontief linear systems. Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted to the course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1951-52 published in Official Register of Harvard University Vol. XLVIII, No. 21 (September 10, 1951), pp. 80-81 .

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Economics 214b
General Interdependence Systems

Second Semester, 1951-52
Syllabus

*Texts

I STATIC LEONTIEF MODEL

*Wassily W. Leontief: The Structure of American Economy, 1919-1939, New York, Oxford University Press, 1951.

II DYNAMIC MODELS

*John S. Chipman: The Theory of Inter-Sectoral Money Flows and Income Formation, Baltimore, The John Hopkins Press, 1951

Richard M. Goodwin: “The Multiplier as Matrix,” Economic Journal, December 1949

________________: “Does the Matrix Multiplier Oscillate?” December 1950

________________: “Static and Dynamic Linear General Equilibrium Models,” (mimeographed, Littauer Library)

David Hawkins and Herbert A. Simon, “Note: Some Conditions of Macroeconomic Stability,” Econometrica, July-October 1949

Oscar Lange, Price Flexibility and Employment, Bloomington, Indiana, Principia Press, 1944, Appendix.

Lloyd A. Metzler: “Stability of Multiple Markets: The Hicks Conditions,” Econometrica, October 1945

________________: “A Multiple Region Theory of Income and Trade,” Econometrica, October 1950

________________: “A Multiple-Country Theory of Income Transfers,” Journal of Political Economy, February 1951.

Paul A. Samuelson: Foundations of Economic Analysis, Ch. IX and Appendix B

________________: “A Fundamental Multiplier Identity,” Econometrica, July-October 1943

Arthur Smithies: “The Stability of Competitive Equilibrium,” Econometrica, July-October 1942

Robert Solow: “On the Structure of Linear Models,” Econometrica, January 1952

Frederick V. Waugh: “Inversion of the Leontief Matrix by Power Series,” Econometrica, April 1950

III ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES (“LINEAR PROGRAMMING”)

*Tjalling C. Koopmans (ed.): Activity Analysis of Production and Allocation, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1951.

________________: “Efficient Allocation of Resources,” Econometrica, October 1951.

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen: “Leontief’s System in the Light of Recent Result,” Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1950

John von Neumann: “A Model of General Economic Equilibrium,” Review of Economic Studies, October 1945.

 

MATHEMATICAL REFERENCES

(1) Matrices

R. A. Frazer, W. J. Duncan and A. R. Collar, Elementary Matrices, New York, Macmillan, 1947

C. C. MacDuffee, Vectors and Matrices, Menasha, Wisconsin, 1943

A. C. Aitken, Determinants and Matrices, Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1948

(2) Difference and Differential Equations

P. A. Samuelson, “Dynamic Process Analysis,” in A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, Blakiston, 1948

R. G. D. Allen, “Mathematical Foundations of Economic Theory,” Q.J.E. February 1949

F. R. Moulton, Differential Equations, New York, Macmillan, 1930, Ch. XV

W. J. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, New York, Macmillan, 1951.

(3) Set Theory and Abstract Algebra

F. P. Northrup and Associates, Fundamental Mathematics, Vol. I, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1948

Richard Courant and Herbert Robbins, What is Mathematics?, New York, Oxford University Press, 1941

Garrett Birkhoff and Saunders MacLane, A Survey of Modern Algebra, New York, Macmillan, 1950

Paul Halmos, Finite Dimensional Vector Spaces, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1948

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 5. Folder: “Economics, 1951-1952 (2 of 2)”.

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1951-52
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 214b
[Final examination]

Answer both questions

  1. Consider an economy composed of n sectors (say industries and households) and described by the model
    {{y}_{i}}\left( t \right)=\sum\limits_{j=1}^{n}{{{a}_{ij}}{{y}_{j}}\left( t-1 \right)}+\,\,\,\,{{b}_{i}}\,\,\,\,\left( i=1,...,n \right)
    where yi(t) is the output of sector i at time t, of which bi is the exogenous component, and where the input-output coefficients aij are all taken to be non-negative. Assuming the economy to be initially in a state of equilibrium, show under what conditions an autonomous rise in all the bi

    1. implies an increase in the equilibrium values of all the sector outputs;
    2. causes all sector outputs to approach, with time, new equilibrium values.
      Compare and interpret these conditions.
  2. “A possible activity is efficient if and only if there exists a set of positive prices for all commodities, which give rise to zero profits on this activity and non-positive profits on all other possible activities.”
    1. Prove this theorem, keeping in mind the following two properties of convex polyhedral cones:
      1. The negative polar of the intersection of two cones is equal to the sum of their negative polars;
      2. The sum of two cones is equal to the sum of their dimensionality spaces if and only if the relative interior of the one cone intersects the negative of the relative interior of the other.
    2. Indicate a modification of the theorem, with the appropriate modification of the definition of efficiency, when availability limitations are specified on certain primary commodities, which are no longer regarded as “undesirable.”
    3. Outline the properties of the efficient set in (b) when there is only one primary commodity and there is no joint production.
    4. Discuss the usefulness, significance, and validity of the notion of an efficient set of activities as employed in (a), (b), and (c).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…Economics,…, Air Sciences, Naval Science, June 1952.

Image Source: September 1961 entry card for John Somerset Chipman (b. 28 June 1926 in Montreal).  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, immigration Cards, 1900-1965 at ancestry.com.

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Computing Economics Programs Faculty Regulations Fields Harvard

Harvard. Discussed at Faculty Meeting. Computer Access and “Mathematical Economics and Econometrics” as Optional Field, 1959

 

Notes from a faculty meeting in my experience are more often a list of items, resolutions, motions, and votes than a narrative of the actual discussion. The transcribed notes in this post come from a 1959 Harvard economics faculty meeting that had two items on the agenda. The first was John R. Meyer’s report on how to manage graduate student computing needs if the department were to lose access to IBM-650 services. The second discussion was a continuation of a debate in the department whether a new Ph.D. oral examination field “Mathematical Economics and Econometrics” should be introduced (plot spoiler: the resolution was tabled, at least for the time being).

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Economics Faculty Meeting Minutes
December 8, 1959

The Department of Economics met on Tuesday evening, December 8 [1959] at the Faculty Club. Those present: Messrs. Bergson, Chamberlin, Dorfman, Dunlop, Gerschenkron, Leontief, Mason, J. R. Meyer, Smithies (Chairman), Taylor, Black, McKie, Artle, Erbe, Daniere, Gill, Lefeber, Anderson, Baer, Gustafson, Hughes, Jones, Kauffman, Wilkinson, Mrs. Gilboy, and Miss Berman.

Abandonment of IBM-650

Professor John Meyer explained that with cheaper time available on newer computers within and outside the University the market for IBM-650 services is waning. A deficit on operations can be expected within a few months, and it will, therefore, be impossible to retain the machine. The problem the Department now faces is that of making available to students a computer training device comparable to the 650. The Harvard Univac can serve this purpose well although it is likely to disappear in the near future through the competition of better machines.

Professor Smithies called the attention of the meeting to two further effects of withdrawing the IBM-650:

(a) Students without outside financing will not, as in the past, be able to solve their problems by making use of free 650 time.

(b) It will no longer be possible to handle problems requiring a succession for short programs with some elements of trial and error; every program will have to be handed to an operator and the results, good or bad, will not be available until days later.

Both Professor Dorfman and Meyer vouched that, even under these impediments, the cost of most computations would be far lower through such a machine as the 704 than with the 650.

With respect to student training and student problem financing, Professor Leontief expressed the opinion that if scientific departments at Harvard can receive funds for the purchase of materials and equipment needed in the training of their students the Administration should certainly be ready to offer similar help in the social sciences. After hearing from Professor Meyer that the Dean’s offices had not been particularly responsive to this suggestion, Professor Leontief suggested than an arrangement could be entered with IBM by which we could contract at a discount for a large block of 705 time at their Cambridge Street laboratory with the understanding that we would sell some of the time to financially able Harvard users and utilize the remainder for training and computing students’ problems.

Professor Meyer agreed that this might become feasible in the near future when, with the appearance of an IBM-709 at the Smithsonian Institute and other 704’s in the neighborhood, IBM may face a buyers’ market. His proposal for the time being was to turn to Univac while it is still on our premises and to divert some of the departmental contributions now going to the support of the Littauer Laboratory to subsidize student training and to some extent student problems on the 704.

 

Introduction of a field labeled “Mathematical Economics and Econometrics” as an optional field for the oral Ph.D. examination

Professor Dorfman reintroduced his motion that “a field called ‘Mathematical Economics and Econometrics’ be one of the optional fields for the Ph.D. examination.” He recalled his previous arguments, i.e., that both Mathematical Economics and Econometrics become legitimate specialties in the general field of economics with a literature sufficiently abundant and specialized that a student well versed in economic theory and statistics will not generally know the former fields and that no student can become thoroughly familiar with them in his two years of graduate work unless his load is otherwise reduced. The substance of the proposed examination would be the literature in which relatively advanced methods of mathematical analysis are applied to economic theory and advanced methods of statistical analysis are applied to the processing of data relevant to economic problems.

The discussion centered around two objections: (1) to the extent that proficiency in economic theory is a prerequisite to mathematical economics and that an advance knowledge of statistics is required in econometrics, students who are examined in both the new field and one or both of the older fields of theory and statistics will obtain double credit for what is a single specialization and (2) an essential requirement of our Ph.D. is breadth of preparation in economics. As it is, nothing under the motion would prevent a student from presenting the following five fields: theory, statistics, mathematical economics and econometrics, mathematics and history. This clearly represents a narrow preparation and cannot be acceptable under our standards. The second objection, voiced most effectively by Professor Dunlop, was immediately recognized as valid, and Professor Dorfman amended his motion to include the condition that mathematics could not be presented jointly with the new field. He insisted, however, that students offering mathematical economics and econometrics are of such a type that, even without the amendment, they would not have taken advantage of the mathematics loophole. Their insistence on a mathematics examination is based entirely on the recognition that they cannot become proficient in their specialty while carrying in addition the same load as their colleagues.

Three different suggestions were offered as alternatives to the proposed motion.

(1) Professor Dunlop accepted the introduction of the new field as long as examinations in any or all of the three fields of theory, statistics, and mathematical economics and econometrics would not count toward more than two of the five fields required.

(2) Professor Chamberlin did not change the present field listing but proposed that a student could by previous arrangement ask to be examined in theory with emphasis on mathematical analysis, the requirements be correspondingly milder with respect to traditional theory and history of thought.

(3) Professor Bergson offered a variation of Professor Chamberlin’s proposal pointing out that, even without the introduction of mathematical analysis, economic theory is now a broad and somewhat ill-defined field so that, in order to better test the students’ analytical scale, fields of concentration should perhaps be agreed upon before the Ph.D. examination. He also emphasized that students do not after all stop learning after their oral examination and that since a student proficient in mathematics can be expected to make use of mathematical techniques in his thesis work the special examination might be the best time to test him on his ability in this field.

Professor Leontief injected a fatalistic note indicating that the problem will solve itself in the future as more and more students join the graduate school with a mathematical preparation such that the theory courses can make use of mathematical tools. For the present it would be unfortunate to have students neglect economic theory for the purpose of acquiring mathematical proficiency. We should, however, provide adequate training facilities for those who because of superior ability or previous preparation can benefit from courses in mathematical economics and, to the extent that recognition may be helpful, include a mention of their special skill in their records.

In view of the lack of agreement evidenced by the meeting, Professor Dunlop asked that the motion be tabled. All were in favor.

Andre Daniere
Secretary

Dictated 12/14/59

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics Correspondence and Papers, 1930-1961 and some earlier. (UAV349.11), Box 13.

Image Source: Harvard Faculty Club from JDeQ’s August 2, 2013  blog entry “Dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club“.

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Economics Programs Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Political Economy course enrollments and final exams, 1884-1885

 

Six of eight courses listed in Political Economy were taught during the 1884-85 year at Harvard. This post provides the enrollment information as well as the June final examinations for all of those courses. Mid-year examinations are not included with one exception.

 

Note to self: only the mid-year examination for Taussig’s Political Economy 6 is included below, the others still need to be located.

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Political Economy 1. Profs. Dunbar and Laughlin. 3 hours per week.

Laughlin’s Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on the Financial Legislation of the United States

Total: 166:  18 Seniors, 75 Juniors, 61 Sophomores, 4 Law, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

  1. If a farmer had the alternative of spending a sum of money either for manures, or for the services of useless servants, in which way would he give the greater employment to the laboring class by his expenditure? Explain your answer.
  2. (a) Discuss the causes affecting the efficiency of production; and (b) point out the relation of an increase in production to cost of labor.
  3. Is it strictly true that high wages do not make high prices? What would be the effect on real wages of a considerable increase of money in the community?
  4. Make it clear that, even if the state should take possession of all the land and charge no rent, bread would not be cheapened.
  5. What is the usual relation of a low cost of production in the manufacturing industry to prices? What is the relation of a low cost of production to wages in the same industry? From your two conclusions what inference would you draw as to the effect of high wages in the United States on the ability of Americans to compete with foreigners in a common market?
  6. Give an example illustrating the working of reciprocal demand and supply, and point out its relations to cost of production.
  7. What made the coinage act of 1834 necessary?
  8. On whom does a house-tax fall?
  9. Explain the refunding operations in 1881, and state what has since been done with the bonds in question.
  10. Give the reasons which obliged the banks to suspend specie payments in 1861. In doing so, point out the necessary relation between the items in their accounts which led them to this step.
  11. Describe the two great financial successes of the war period, explain the character of the obligations offered by the Treasury, and state why success was gained.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1885. In bound volume: Examination Papers, 1883-86, pp. 9-10.

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Political Economy 2. Prof. Dunbar. 3 hours per week.

History of Economic Theory. — Selections from Leading Writers

Total: 21:  10 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University.  Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

 

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

  1. Comment on the following:—

“Do the facts of history bear out the theory [of Ricardo]? If they do we shall find (1) that in any given area the amount of the produce of the land obtained in earlier times is greater in proportion to the number of laborers; (2) that of two countries, or two districts in the same country, if other things be equal, the one that is poorest in people is the one in which the average degree of personal wealth and comfort is the highest; (3) that the share that falls to the landlord increases, and that which falls to the laborer diminishes, as more land is brought under cultivation.” (Thompson’s Social Science, p. 93.)

  1. George says:—

“It is not necessary to the production [even] of things that cannot be used as subsistence, or cannot be immediately utilized, that there should have been a previous production of the wealth required for the maintenance of the laborers while the production is going on. It is only necessary that there should be, somewhere within the circle of exchange, a contemporaneous production of sufficient subsistence for the laborers, and a willingness to exchange this subsistence for the thing on which the labor is being bestowed.”
Is the necessity of previously produced subsistence avoided by the fact of “contemporaneous production,” etc.?

  1. George presents the current statement of the laws of distribution in this form:—

“Rent depends on the margin of cultivation, rising as it falls and falling as it rises.
“Wages depend upon the ratio between the number of laborers and the amount of capital devoted to their employment.
“Interest depends upon the equation between the supply of and demand for capital; or, as is stated of profits, upon wages (or the cost of labor), rising as wages fall, and falling as wages rise.

“In the current statement the laws of distribution have no common centre, no mutual relation; they are not correlating divisions of a whole, but measures of different qualities.”
Can you rewrite this “current statement” so as to present the correlation which Mr. George misses?

  1. Is there in rent any force of its own, enabling it to encroach upon wages and profits, or does it merely fill the space opened before it by other forces? What limit is there to this encroachment or expansion?
  2. Criticise the following as a statement of the Wages Fund theory:—
    “The means of purchase and the motives acting upon the minds of employers jointly determine the effective demand for labor, as the means of purchase and the play of motives determine the effective demand for a commodity.”
  3. Crocker says, p. 7:—
    “Our wealthy classes, wishing to accumulate still greater wealth, sought to use a large portion of their control or power over labor in creating profitable investments for themselves….Comparatively little harm would have been done if the new investments had simply turned out to be unprofitable, and the old ones had continued to supply the rich their accustomed dividends, and to the poor their accustomed wages. The mischief has been that the new investments have, by competition, ruined for the time being the old ones; dividends and wages have stopped, and the income of all, both rich and poor, being cut down, their demands upon labor have been greatly diminished, and the laborer has been left in idleness and without the means of procuring the necessaries of life.”
    Aside from all questions of fact,— what is the flaw in the above if the reasoning is bad, and what is the remedy for the evil if the reasoning is good?
  4. What is Mr. Carey’s theory as to the tendency (1) to decline in the value of commodities, and (2) to rise in the value of land; and how is this reconciled with his principle that the law of value is universal, embracing everything, “whether land, labor, or their products”?
  5. “With every increase in the facility of reproduction, there is a decline in the value of all existing things of a similar kind, attended by a diminution in the price paid for their use. The charge for the use of the existing money tends, therefore, to decline as man acquires control over the great forces provided by the Creator for his service; as is shown by the gradual diminution of the rate of interest in every advancing country.”
    What is the difficulty in this reasoning as to the rate of interest, and how would the reasoning apply in the case of a currency of inconvertible paper?
  6. How far can apparent resulting harmonies in the general working of society (as g. in Carey’s and Bastiat’s law of distribution between capital and labor) be accepted as a test of the truth of an economic proposition?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1885. In bound volume: Examination Papers, 1883-86, pp. 10-12.

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Political Economy 3. Prof. Laughlin. 2 hours per week. [Consent of instructor required]

Lectures and Discussion [of Practical Economic Questions]. Subjects: Money, Precious Metals, Bimetallism, American Shipping, History of Note-issues by Government and Banks. — One Thesis by each student on some practical question of the day, intended as an exercise in investigation

Total: 18:  10 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University.  Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

 

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

  1. Explain the proper theory of a subsidiary coinage. How far was this followed by Congress in first establishing our coinage?
  2. Discuss the bearing which by its advocates bimetallism is supposed to have on the stability of a standard of payments. What connection has the theory of a Multiple Standard to this discussion?
  3. How far can you safely reason from comparative tables of prices as to changes in the value of gold or silver?
  4. Discuss the efficacy of a bimetallic league of states in regulating the value of silver relatively to that of gold.
  5. Explain the causes which led to the remarkable fall of silver in 1876.
  6. State the causes which, in your opinion, led to the growth of American shipping to 1856.
  7. How far do you regard it true that the decline in American shipping was due to the consequences arising from the use of steam and iron in ships engaged in the foreign trade?
  8. What measures, if any, would you propose in order to reestablish our shipping?
  9. What is meant by an “elastic currency”? Compare, in this respect, the notes of the National Banks with the legal tender notes of the United States.
  10. Give (a) the reasons for the general adoption of the features of the New York Banking Act of 1838; and (b) the reasons which actually led to the establishment of the National Banking System in 1864.
  11. Discuss carefully some measure for giving security to National Bank notes when United States bonds shall be no longer obtainable for that purpose.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1885. In bound volume: Examination Papers, 1883-86, pp. 12-13.

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Political Economy 4. Prof. Dunbar. 3 hours per week.

Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures

Total: 152:  61 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 37 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 2 Law, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University.  Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

 

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

Omit two questions

  1. Why was the repeal of the corn laws decisive as to the adoption of free trade by England?
  2. How did the French and Indian currencies tend to prevent the fall of gold after 1850 from being still heavier?
  3. How important a place among the causes of the decline of American shipping belongs to the civil war?
  4. The effects of the civil war on the system of landholding in the South and its probable ultimate effects on Southern industry.
  5. The steps by which the war determined the subsequent tariff policy of the United States.
  6. The causes of the suddenly increased importance of our trade in breadstuffs in the last ten years.
  7. Why did the payment of the French indemnity of 1871 seriously affect England, Austria and the United States?
  8. The real loss or gain of France and Germany respectively by the payment of the indemnity.
  9. What were the heavy demands for gold from 1871 to 1883, and why did they fail to produce serious financial disturbance?
  10. The difference in the development of city and of country banks respectively, in the United States and in England, and the inference to be drawn as to the future development of the banking systems.
  11. Why is a “triangular trade” between nations convenient and why is England the great centre for such trade?
  12. As the English government does not own nor tax the coal mines, why should fear of increasing cost of extracting coal lead Mr. Gladstone to favor an energetic reduction of the national debt.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1885. In bound volume: Examination Papers, 1883-86, p. 13.

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Political Economy 5. Prof. Laughlin. 1 hour per week. [Consent of instructor required]

Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, and Germany

Omitted in 1884-85.

Source: Harvard University.  Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

 

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Political Economy 6. Dr. Taussig. 1 hour per week. [Consent of instructor required]

History of Tariff Legislation in the United States, with discussion of principles. — Lectures

Total: 40:  1 Graduate, 26 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University.  Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 6
[Mid-Year Examination, 1885]

(Omit either question 3 or question 4.)

  1. Comment briefly on the following:—
    “There is not a single great branch of domestic manufactures which had not been established in some form in this country long before a protective tariff had been or could have been imposed. The manufacture of iron is nearly as old as the history of every colony or territory in which there is any iron ore. The manufacture of woolens is as old as the country itself, and was more truly a domestic manufacture when our ancestors were clothed with homespun than now. The manufacture of cotton is almost as old as the production of the fibre on our territory.”
  2. Compare the tariff act of 1816 with that of 1824, noting difference in (1) the general range of duties, (2) the circumstances under which they were passed, (3) the action taken in regard to them by the representatives of New England, the Middle States, and the South. It has been said that “the tariff of 1816 marks the beginning of protection in this country,” and that “the tariff of 1824 was our first tariff worthy of the name of protection.” Which of these statements is true, if either?
  3. Comment on the following:—
    “No protective duty was ever levied on a single article, the home manufacture of which grew to large proportions under that duty, without the price to the consumer growing cheaper, the duty thus being a boon instead of a tax.”
    “A duty on an imported article is invariably added to its price, at the cost of the buyer, and added also to the price of like articles made here.”
  4. State carefully the argument for the protection of young industries and mention the conditions, if any, which might justify the application of such protection.
  5. Give a brief critical statement of the views expressed by Hamilton, Gallatin, Clay, and Webster on the protective controversy.

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

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
[Final Examination, June 1885]

  1. State as nearly as you can the duties on the following articles from 1846 to 1884: pig-iron, steel-rails, wool, woollen cloths, silks, coffee, copper.
    Take any one of the following articles: pig-iron, wool, woollen cloths, silks, copper; and say something as to the economic effect of the duties on that one between 1860 and 1884.
  2. Give an account of the tariff act of 1864. Compare the tariff policy adopted in the United States after the close of the civil war, and with the policy of France after 1815.
  3. What has been the practice in our tariff acts since 1842 as regards the imposition of specific and ad valorem duties? Comment on the following: “It is an economic truth that the ad valorem system is the only equitable rule for assessing duties. With the whole power of a great government behind, there is no reason why the laws of the country should not be enforced. The outcry of undervaluation is simply a trick to blind the people, as it would be impossible to enact a law imposing duties of 80, 100, even 200 per cent. in the plain unvarnished form of ad valorem duties.”
  4. Comment briefly on two of the following:—
    (1)”The fairest and most satisfactory test of the effect of the tariff on prices is to compare prices of the same article under high and low tariffs. The average gold price of pig-iron before 1860 was $28.50 per ton; in recent years it has been $33.70. The average is higher by $5.20 under a high tariff than during the period of low duties.”
    (2) “Nothing can be more false than the claim of free trade advocates than that a duty is a tax that comes out of the farmers and artisans of this country. By far the greater part of the revenue collected on importations is the toll paid by people of other countries for the admission of their goods…I was assured by a score of manufacturers in England that the recent increase in the French tariff came out of their pockets, and not from the consumers in France; that they were compelled to sell their goods in France at the same price as before the increase of duty.”
    (3) “A conclusive answer to the assertion that the protective policy secures high wages to the laborers of this country, is found in the fact that wages are higher in the United States—absolutely and in comparison with the old world rates—in those industries which do not have, or confessedly do not need, protection.”
  5. Compare the grounds on which a policy of protection has been advocated in recent years with the grounds put forward in 1820-30, and give any reasons that may occur to you for changes in the arguments.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1885. In bound volume: Examination Papers, 1883-86, pp. 14-15.

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Political Economy 7. Prof. Dunbar. 1 hour per week. [Consent of instructor required]

Comparison of the Financial Systems of France, England, Germany, and the United States

Omitted in 1884-85.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

 

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Political Economy 8. Prof. Dunbar. 1 hour per week. [Consent of instructor required]

History of Financial Legislation in the United States.

Total: 39:  1 Graduate, 28 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1884-85, p. 86.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 8
[Final Examination, June 1885]

[Omit two questions.]

  1. State the circumstances which led to the adoption of the Independent Treasury and hard money as the policy of the Democratic party.
  2. How close an approach had been made to the issue of a government currency, prior to the Act of July 17, 1861?
  3. What has been the legislation since 1861 on the taxation of United States bonds,
    (1) by national authority,
    (2) by State authority,
    and the reasons therefor?
  4. The causes of the failure of the movements for resumption from 1865-70.
  5. The reasons for and against the claim of authority, under which Mr. Richardson increased the outstanding legal tender notes from $356,000,000 to $382,000,000.
  6. Trace the origin of the present three percents of the United States.
  7. Criticise the following extract from Mr Boutwell’s Finance Report of 1872:—
    “As the circulation of a bank is a source of profit, and as the managers are usually disposed to oblige their patrons by loans and accommodations, it can never be wise to allow banks or parties who have pecuniary interests at stake to increase or diminish the volume of currency in the country at their pleasure. Nor do I find in the condition of things a law or rule on which we can safely rely. Upon these views I form the conclusion that the circulation of the banks should be fixed and limited, and that the power to change the volume of paper in circulation, within limits established by law, should remain in the Treasury Department….
    “The problem is to find a way of increasing the currency for moving the crops and diminishing it at once when that work is done. This is a necessary work, and, inasmuch as it cannot be confided to the banks, where, but in the Treasury Department, can the power be reposed?”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College. June, 1885. In bound volume: Examination Papers, 1883-86, p. 15.

Images Source:  Harvard Library, Hollis Images. Charles F. Dunbar (left) and James Laurence Laughlin (middle) and Frank W. Taussig (right).

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Chicago Economic History Harvard NYU Pennsylvania Wisconsin

Minnesota. Interview about banking/financial historians. Heaton, 1955

In an earlier post we are provided with a glimpse of Minnesota professor Herbert Heaton’s wit in his answer to the question “What are economic historians made of?“. In preparing that post, I came across the following 1955 interview that provided some background assessments of economic historians who he judged might have been interesting for a Brookings project on the history of the Federal Reserve System.

A 2007 tribute from the Newsletter of the Economic History Association has been appended to this post for further biographical/career information.

___________________

Backstory to Heaton Interview

In 1954, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to the Brookings Institution to undertake “a comprehensive history of the Federal Reserve System.” The collection consists of documents gathered or generated between 1954 and 1958, during the course of the Committee’s work.

MA (the interviewer below) was Mildred Adams “a New York journalist specializing in economic affairs”.

“Deputy Treasurer of the United States W. Randolph Burgess expressed his interest in writing a “definitive” history of the Federal Reserve System when he retired from federal service….”

“On January 21, 1954, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant of $10,000 to the committee for an ‘exploratory study of the historical materials relating to the Federal Reserve System.’ The grant was to be administered by Brookings.”

“From January 1954 to June 1956, Mildred Adams served as research director of the project….Meanwhile, however, Burgess had been appointed under secretary of the Treasury and decided that he would not be able to start the planned comprehensive history any time soon. The committee spent the next two years searching for an able economic historian to assume direction of this major study.”

“By the spring of 1956, the committee’s failure to find a qualified scholar and Allan Sproul’s retirement from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and subsequent resignation as chairman of the committee caused problems. With no historian, the committee redefined its goals and requested the Rockefeller Foundation to relieve the committee of its obligation to write a ‘definitive’ major study and instead allow it to encourage smaller, topical studies of the Federal Reserve System.”

Source:  Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER. Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System: Guide to the Brookings Institution Archives.

___________________

Notes from interview with Herbert Heaton

June 11, 1955

Internal Memorandum

Interview with Dr. Herbert Heaton, Professor of Economic History at the University of Minnesota

I went out to see Dr. Heaton on a Saturday morning at his home in Minneapolis and found him a charming Yorkshireman with a delightful sense of humor and a wide knowledge of both economics and history. Were he a little younger, he might prove to be the ideal person to do this work, although I have not yet read his books. I discussed the whole project with him in detail and then asked for any suggestions of people he might have for our purposes.

Dr. Heaton confirmed what we have already found, namely that the field is a rather arid one in the realm where history and economics meet. He himself had been on the committee which set up the economic history group with which Professor Arthur Cole of Harvard works. He agreed with Dr. [Walter W.] Stewart that that had rather worked itself out, though he said that the Hidys [Ralph Willard Hidy and Muriel E. (Wagenhauser) Hidy] were doing good work in their chosen field. They are to spend this summer in Minneapolis working on the Weyerhauser Lumber business.

Dr. Heaton said that John [K.] Langum was a brilliant student in the Harvard Business School. He had a minor in economic history and a fine historical sense.

He suggested that we talk to [Charles] Ray Whittlesey of the Wharton School who is interested in banking history. He thought that Whittlesey might have useful recommendations and called him one of the best insofar as historical interests in economic matters are concerned.

He spoke of Herman Kruse [sic, Herman E. Krooss] of New York University as someone who wrote well on financial history. He said that Mr. Kruse had energy, capacity and ability to handle material, but he seemed to think that he was lacking in tact, and he was not quite sure what he might do with an assignment in this project.

A young man named Robert Jost, now at Minnesota doing a doctor’s thesis on the Chatfield Bank, may be a possibility later on in the project, depending on what he makes of the Chatfield Bank. It is a small bank in Minnesota which, for some fortunate reason, has kept all its records and is making a very interesting study.

At the University of Wisconsin Dr. Heaton said that Rondo Cameron was working on the Credit Mobilier in Paris was worth watching. This again is a matter of seeing what he turns out.

He said that [Walter] Rostow at M.I.T., who has been devoting himself to business cycles, would ask the right questions of the material. Rostow has a quick mind and the right range of interests for this project. Oxford and Cambridge had both invited him for next year. His research expert is Mrs. [Anna] Schwartz. His brother [Eugene Rostow] is Dean of the Law School at Yale. In Dr. Heaton’s opinion, Mr. Rostow ought certainly to be explored.

Dr. Heaton says that Arthur Marget is someone he has known in the past as being brilliant on history or theory. He did not know that Mr. Marget had now gone to the Board and wondered if this might rule him out so far as the international sphere is concerned.

He also spoke of Frank A. Knox, who got his Ph.D at the University of Chicago and now writes reviews in the Canadian Journal of Economic and Political Science. Mr. Knox has not published much, but he is worth watching in Dr. Heaton’s opinion.

Dr. Heaton promised to keep the project in mind. He will talk with his associates about it and will send us any other suggestions which come up in the course of his work at the University of Minnesota.

We explored the things which he himself was doing, and he said that he had just turned 65 and did not believe that one should take on these big projects after that age. I had the feeling that he might, however, be interested in the project sufficiently so that he would take a piece of it. I had no authority to discuss it with him at that time, but I think this is worth considering. As a beginning, it might be worthwhile to read his “Economic History of Europe.”

MA:IB

Source:  Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER. Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System.

___________________

Past Presidents of the EHA:
Herbert Heaton

Herbert Heaton was one of the founding members of the Economic History Association, serving as one of its two inaugural vice presidents, ascending to the presidency in 1949, and remaining active in the association until his death. Along with E.A.J. Johnson and Arthur Cole, he drafted a grant application to the Rockefeller Foundation, which resulted in a $300,000 award in December of 1940. The grant financed research in economic history over the next four years. Heaton was a member of the original board of trustees of the EHA. Each of the five original members went on to serve as president of the association: Edwin F. Gay (1941-42), Heaton (1949-50), Earl J. Hamilton (1951-52), E.A.J. Johnson (1961-62), and Shepard B. Clough (1969).

Heaton was active in the formation of the EHA and was personally responsible for the recruitment of most of the members from the Midwest. He was an enthusiastic scholar of the evolution and applications of economic history, authoring several articles on the history of the discipline and a biography of Edwin Gay, the first president of the EHA. In an article entitled “Clio’s New Overalls,” published in The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science(November, 1954), Heaton was one of the first authors to discuss the marriage of clio and its metric partner in regard to the study of economic history. His discussion of the metric side of the equation was anything but enthusiastic however. Instead, he criticized the tendency of young scholars to use technical tools to make precise measurements of what he considered to be inaccurate data.

Heaton was born in England on June 6, 1890, the son of a blacksmith. He studied history and economics at the University of Leeds, earning his B.A. in 1911. He earned his M.A. in 1912 from the London School of Economics before accepting a position as assistant lecturer in economics under (Sir) William Ashley at the University of Birmingham. While there, he earned another Masters degree in 1914. He then moved to Australia and began a post as lecturer in history and economics at the University of Tasmania.

While in Tasmania Heaton developed the study of economics and encouraged research into Australian economic history. His controversial comments on the war provoked the censure of the more conservative elements of the Tasmanian press and public. In 1917 he moved to the University of Adelaide where he expanded the economics discipline and developed the diploma of commerce. Once again his liberal opinions aroused the ire of the conservative business class. Heaton argued that capitalism was the root of all the evils of individual and corporate life. He subscribed to the Marxist belief that capitalism would eventually give way to socialism. Consequently, the university refused to establish a degree in economics while Heaton led the discipline. As a means of preserving his academic career, he accepted a chair of economic and political science at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1925. He stayed in Canada for two years before moving to the University of Minnesota, where he remained until he retired in 1958.

In 1936, Heaton compiled his research on Europe and published the Economic History of Europe, which was for a long time the standard text on the subject. Heaton said that he wrote the book especially for students with no background in economic history. He summed up economic history as the story of how man has worked to satisfy his material wants, in an environment provided by nature, but capable of improvement, in an organization made up of his relations with his fellows, and in a political unit whose head enjoys far-reaching power to aid, control, and appropriate. Such lofty views of the discipline were what made Heaton such a dedicated and valuable member of the Economic History Association.

Herbert Heaton died on January 24, 1973 in Minneapolis, survived by his three Australian-born children and his wife Marjorie Edith Ronson. He was an active scholar to the end of his life, publishing his ninth and final article in the JEH in June of 1969, nearly 28 years after his first JEH appearance.

Sources

Archives of the Economic History Association, Hagley Museum, Wilmington, DE.

Blaug, Mark, ed., Who’ s who in economics: a biographical dictionary of major economists, 1700-1986, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986, 2nd ed.

Bourke, Helen, “Heaton, Herbert (1890-1973),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 9, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp. 250-251.

Cole, Arthur H., “Economic History in the United States: Formative Years of a Discipline,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Dec., 1968), pp. 556-589.

de Rouvray, Cristel, “‘Old’ Economic History in the United States: 1939- 1954,” Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 26, No. 2 (June, 2004), pp. 221-39.

Harte, N.B., “Herbert Heaton, 1890-1973: A Biographical Note and a Bibliography [Obituary],” Textile History Vol. 5 (1974), p. 7.

Payne, Elizabeth, “Herbert Heaton,” term paper for Professor Robert Whaples, Wake Forest University, 2006.

Selected writings of Herbert Heaton

“Heckscher on Mercantilism,” The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 45, No. 3 (June, 1937), pp. 370-93.

“Rigidity in Business Since the Industrial Revolution,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 30, No. 1, Part 2, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Fifty-second Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (Mar., 1940), pp. 306-313.

“Non-Importation, 1806-1812,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Nov., 1941), pp. 178-98.

“The Early History of the Economic History Association,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 1, Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History (Dec., 1941), pp. 107-09.

“Recent Developments in Economic History,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 47, No. 4 (July, 1942) pp. 727- 46.

“The Making of an Economic Historian,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 9, Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History (1949), pp. 1-18.

“Clio’ s New Overalls,” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Nov., 1954), pp. 467-77.

“Twenty-Five Years of the Economic History Association: A Reflective Evaluation,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Dec., 1965), pp. 465-79.

Modern economic history, with special reference to Australia, Melbourne: Macmillan & Co., 1925.

A history of trade and commerce, with special reference to Canada, Toronto: T. Nelson & Sons, 1928.

The British Way to Recovery: Plans and Policies in Great Britain, Australia, and Canada, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1934.

Economic History of Europe, New York: Harper, 1948.

A Scholar in Action, Edwin F. Gay, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952.

 

Source: Past Presidents of the EHA: Herbert Heaton, The Newsletter of the Economic History Association (ed. Michael Haupert), No. 31 (December 2007), pp. 16-18.

Image Source: Newsletter of the Economic History Association, No. 31 (December 2007), p. 16.

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Economists Harvard Policy Princeton Williams

Harvard. Economics PhD Alumnus. Donald Holmes Wallace, 1931

 

The previous post included lists of books used for undergraduate and graduate courses dealing with the economics of railroad regulation taught at Harvard in the mid-1930s. The list was put together by Donald Holmes Wallace who was a recent Harvard Ph.D. graduate and soon to be appointed to an assistant professorship in economics.

His career was cut short at age 50 by a heart attack. His early promise was recognized with the award of the prestigious David A. Wells prize for his 1931 dissertation on the aluminum industry.

________________________

Ph.D. 1931

Donald Holmes Wallace, A.B. 1924, A.M. 1928.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economics of Corporate Organization. Thesis, “The Aluminum Monopoly in the United States.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1930-31, p. 120.

________________________

Donald Holmes Wallace
(1903-1953)

Born in West Chester, PA, June 29, 1903.

1924. A.B. Harvard.

1924. Taught at the Suffield school in Suffield, CT.

1925. Instructor in economics at the University of Vermont.

1926-27. Assistant in economics at Harvard

1927-36. Instructor and tutor in economics at Harvard.

1928. A.M., Harvard.

1931. Ph.D., Harvard. Thesis: The Aluminum Monopoly in the United States.
Awarded the David A. Wells dissertation prize 1933-34.

1931-32. Year in Europe funded by a Social Science Research Council grant.

1937. Revised version of dissertation published by Harvard University Press: Market Control in the Aluminum Industry.  “The present study first took partial form as a doctoral dissertation (presented in 1931) upon the aluminum monopoly in the United States. Thereafter, the scope of the inquiry was widened to include market control in Europe and international relations in this industry.”–Preface.

1937-39. Assistant professor of economics at Harvard

1939. Associate professor of economics at Williams.

1939. Part-time economist for the Department of Labor

1940. Consultant of the National Defense Advisory Commission

1941. Consultant of the Office of Price Administration

1942-43. Director of OPA industrial manufacturing price division.

1943, Summer. Acting deputy administrator for prices of OPA.

1943-1945. (He resigned from Williams in 1945) Economic adviser to the deputy price administrator.

1945-1953. American Economic Association’s representative on the National Bureau of Economic Research.

1946-47. Member of the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers.

1948. Hired by Princeton “to inaugurate the graduate study program of Woodrow Wilson School, as well as apppointment as Professor of Economics.

1951. Vice-President of the American Economic Association.

1953, September 19. Died in Princeton, NJ. [Final position: Director of the Graduate Program of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs]

Source:  North Adams Transcript (MA), September 21, 1943, p. 3; Eveline M. Burns “In Memoriam, Donald Holmes Wallace”, AER, Papers and Proceedings (May, 1954), p. 696.

Image Source: Dr. Donald H. Wallace. Head Economic Analyst, Office of Price Administration (OPA) and Civilian Supply. From the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Photograph Collection. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings and Exams. Public Utilities and Transportation. 1935-37.

This post has been assembled around a list of books used in courses on transportation that were taught at Harvard in the mid-1930s. While the courses covered public utility regulation for the most part, I have not yet found complete course outlines or syllabi for the two courses considered. So paired with the final examinations for the course, the partial reading lists are all we can go on for now regarding the course content.

In the following post we meet the economics Ph.D. alumnus (Harvard, 1931), Donald Holmes Wallace who assisted Edward H. Chamberlin in teaching these courses at the time. Wallace put the lists together in response to an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (see below).

_____________________________

Related Harvard Course Posts

1931. Economics of Transportation

1934. The Corporation and its Regulation Syllabus

1939-40. Regulation of Public Utilities and Transportation

1940-41.  

_____________________________

Course Announcements

1935-36

Economics 4c 2hf. Public Utilities (including Transportation)

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.

Economics 4a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.

[Economics 48. Economics of Public Utilities]

Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.

Omitted in 1935-36.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1935-36, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 32, No. 7 (March 4, 1935), pp. 135, 139.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1936-37

Economics 63b 2hf. (formerly 4c). Public Utilities (including Transportation)

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.

Economics 61a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.

Economics 163. (formerly 48). Economics of Public Utilities

Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1936-37, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 33, No. 5 (March 2, 1936), pp. 141,145.

_____________________________

Course Enrollments

[Economics] 4c 2hf. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace, Abbott and Baker. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 74: 2 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1935-36, p. 82.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

[Economics] 63b 2hf. (formerly 4c) Associate Professor Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 43: 1 Graduate, 25 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Other.

[Economics] 163. (formerly 48). Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace.—Economics of Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 10: 4 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1936-37, pp. 92, 94.

_____________________________

Harvard University
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department of Government

Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 19, 1936

Miss C. C. Tatnall
Department of Economics
41 Holyoke House
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Miss Tatnall:

Professor [William Y.] Elliott has had an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission about the books which are being used in the courses on transportation in the University. Have you a bibliography, or could a bibliography be prepared, of the material in use in the courses Economics 63b and 163? We shall appreciate any material you are able to collect.

Do you know if there are any other courses in the College which deal with transportation?

Thanks so much for your trouble.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
[first name?] Dolan

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

List of Books used in Economics of Transportation
October, 1936
D. H. Wallace

Undergraduate course entitled Public Utilities including Transportation:

Locklin: Economics of Transportation

Mosher and Crawford: Public Utility Regulation

Daggett: Principles of Inland Transportation

Owen: Highway Economics

Bauer and Gold: Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control

Bonbright and Means: The Holding Company

Reports of the Federal Coordinator.

Graduate course students make use of the following

Cunningham: American Railroads

Grodinsky: Railroad Consolidation

Jones: Principles of Railway Transportation

Miller: Inland Transportation

Ripley: Railroads 

Ripley: Report on Consolidation for I.C.C.

Sharfman: American Railway Problem

Sharfman: Interstate Commerce Commission

Simnett: Railway Amalgamation in Great Britain

Vanderblue and Burgess: Railroads

I.C.C.: Annual Reports

I.C.C.: Decisions

Clark: Economics of Overhead Costs

Chamberlin: Theory of Monopolistic Competition (Duopoly and oligopoly)

Pigou: Economics of Welfare (Discrimination)

Robinson: Economics of Imperfect Competition (Discrimination)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 25. Folder “Suggested Readings”.

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
May 4-26, 1936

Economics 4c: Read one of the following:

  1. First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37.
    Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
  2. Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
    and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
  3. Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1935-36”.

_____________________________

1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4c2
[Final Examination]

Answer questions 1 and 5 and TWO others. All questions are of equal weight.

  1. Answer the question appropriate to your Reading Period choice.
    1. Discuss the alternatives for a national policy toward the transportation problem in this country and explain which measures should in your opinion be included in such a program.
    2. Compare the chief developments in railway regulation in France and the United States during the past fifteen years.
    3. “The concept of ‘present value’ represents an unreal combination of judicial prejudice and economic abstraction.” Discuss.
  2. The economic surgery required by the provisions of the Public Utility Holding Company Act compelling realignment of companies into integrated regional systems is no less deplorable than an appendicitis operation upon a boy who has eaten too many green apples. A much more sensible policy was adopted in the consolidation provisions of the Transportation Act of 1920 which enabled a judicious mixture of private and public planning of combination.” Discuss.
  3. “The original cost method of valuation cannot provide a satisfactory way of determining rate bases in the case of competing railroads built at different times over different terrains. Under such circumstances the use of original cost will result either in robbing the stockholders of one road of the advantages of perspicacious management, or in forcing shippers to reward the stockholders of the other for building an expensive road.” Discuss.
  4. You are asked by one of the political parties to prepare a memorandum to serve as a basis for a plank concerning public utilities. It is requested that you explain specifically: (1) the economic criteria which seem to be the most useful for distinguishing industries which should be subjected to public ownership and operation or public regulation of investment, prices, and earnings; and (2) the legal principles used by the courts in recent cases involving the rights of Federal or state governments to regulate investment, prices, or earnings.
  5. Discuss two of the following quotations.
    1. “The ordinary consumer of utility services is interested only in price and quality of service. His disposition to leave to investors all concern over security structures, holding companies, and service charges finds a sound basis in the fact that these things affect only the division of the profits.”
    2. “Whatever may be urged to the contrary, regulation of transportation agencies in the United States has been imposed as a result of unfair treatment of the shipping public.”
    3. “Personal discrimination is bad enough in that it confers an unwarranted favor upon one of two producers located in the same place; long and short haul discrimination is worse because it gives an undue advantage to the producer who is located farther away from raw materials or markets.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1936. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 78).

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
May 10-June 2, 1937

Economics 63b: Read one of the following:

  1. First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37,
    and
    Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
  2. Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
    and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
  3. Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 63b2
[Final Examination]

Write on four questions, including the first and the last. Divide your time about equally between them.

  1. Choose either (a) or (b):
    1. “The fact that ‘charging what the traffic will bear’ develops under unregulated competition is no excuse for permitting the practice when rates are regulated by public authority. It is simply another form of discrimination which it is the duty of the I.C.C. to put down.” Discuss.
    2. Comment on the following figures for the electrical industry for 1935:

 Customers
Per cent		 Consumption
Per cent		 Revenue
Per cent
Domestic: 82.6 18.0

36.6
Commercial:
   Retail

14.9

 18.3

28.0
   Wholesale

2.0

 53.1

27.5
Municipal, Street railways and miscellaneous

0.5

 10.6

7.0

100.0

 100.0

100.0
  1. “With the Act of 1920 the policy of regulation of railroads reached its highest development. If that policy fails, the only alternative is public ownership.” Discuss.
  2. Discuss the merits and defects of the policies adopted in in this country for public planning of operating systems either in electricity supply or in railroad transportation.
  3. “In the last analysis, it has been the presence or absence of monopoly which determined whether or not an industry was held to be a public utility. Actually, there are several other elements which ought to be given important consideration.” Discuss.
  4. Answer the question appropriate to your reading period choice:
    1. (Eastman report.) Do you think that all agencies of transport should be subjected to the same or to different sorts of regulation? Explain.
    2. (Bauer and Gold.) Explain briefly what you understand by “fair value” according to the law of the land and discuss its significance for the regulation of earnings of public utilities.
    3. (Foreign railways.) What significant comparisons may be made between the post-war railroad problems of France, Germany and England? What light has your reading here thrown upon the problems of this country?

Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
January 4-20, 1937

Economics 163: Read the following:

Bonbright and Means, The Holding Company.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Mid-Year Examination]

All six questions are of equal weight. Answer the first question, the last question, and any two among questions 2 to 5.

  1. The Public Utility Act of 1935 authorizes an examination of holding company systems with a view to determining “the extent to which such holding company systems and the companies therein may be simplified, unnecessary complexities therein eliminated, voting power fairly and equitably distributed among the holders of securities thereof, and the properties and business thereof confined to those necessary or appropriate to the operations of integrated public utility systems.” What facts with respect to these questions would you expect such an examination to disclose?
  2. Discuss either of the following statements by Burns:
    (a) “Vertical integration thus dictated by the opportunity to secure technical economies of production is not directly caused by the decline of price competition although it may contribute to that decline.”
    (b) “In common with all forms of integration, however, this type (of the production of commodities requiring similar selling organizations) hinders the comparison of costs and prices for each separate branch of production.”
  3. Discuss either of the following statements:
    (a) “Closely related and also a chief point of controversy, was the effect of limitation of liability upon the position of the creditor.” Hunt (commenting upon the Royal Commission Report of 1854).
    (b) “It is to be noted that hardly anywhere in these reports (those of 1837, 1850, 1851, and 1854) was a pure measure of limited liability discussed. What was discussed at great length was this mixed form (of the en commandite type) with unlimited and limited partners.” Shannon.
  4. (a) Discuss the significance and usefulness of either ratio analysis, with illustrative comment upon important types of ratios, or analysis by use of so-called statements of source and disposition of funds.
    (b) Outline the major arguments against enforced publicity of corporate accounts.
  5. (a) Discuss the effect of each of the following devices in bringing about separation of control from ownership in corporations: (i) the stockholder’s proxy, (ii) classification of stock.
    (b) Outline the main considerations determining a corporation’s dividend policy.
  6. Write on either (a) or (b):
    (a) What difficulties, if any, are created by the corporate form of organization for the theory of profits?
    (b) What effect do you think a sizeable tax on the transfer of securities (say 1 or 2 per cent of the market price) would have on the behavior of security prices?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13, Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1936-1937”.

_____________________________

Reading Period Assignment
May 10—June 2, 1937

Economics 163: No additional assignment.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.

_____________________________

1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Final Examination]

Write on four questions, including number 6. Divide your time about equally between them.

  1. “To justify the principle of discrimination is not to justify either particular instances or particular types of discrimination.” Discuss.
  2. Discuss the possibilities for regulating the earnings of public utilities either (a) with, or (b) without, valuation.
  3. Discuss the possible effects of regulation upon efficiency. What suggestions as to public policy can you make for strengthening the incentives towards efficient operation?
  4. “The arguments for and against public ownership are the same as the arguments for and against regulation.” Discuss.
  5. Discuss the problems of public planning for the size and structure of operating units and the relations between them, with reference to either (a) railroad transport, or (b) electricity supply.
  6. Write on transport coordination: its meaning, significance and possibilities.

Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).

Image Source: Cover of the 1946 Harvard Album.

 

Categories
Chicago Economic History Economists Harvard Nebraska Northwestern

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. alumnus. Ernest H. Hahne, 1930

I have mentioned this before, the papers of the economic historian Earl Hamilton are a grab-bag of essentially unsorted material. Sometimes you find a rough gem to include in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. For this post below we have a brief description of Harvard economic history professor Edwin Francis Gay’s seminar. To complete the post I have uncovered a few career facts about the author of the letter to Earl Hamilton that congratulates him for his memorial article about Gay.

______________________

Ernest Herman Hahne
(b. Oct. 20, 1890; d. November 25, 1952)

1911. University of Nebraska, B.A.

1913. University of Nebraska, LL.B.

1914. Harvard University, A.M.

1916. Doctoral Dissertation in preparation. AER 1916, p. 503: The History of the meat packing industry in the United States.

1930. University of Chicago, Economics Ph.D. “Special Assessment Theory and Practise with Special Reference to Chicago.”

Listed among graduate students of political economy in the 25th year report of the University of Chicago department of political economy:

Academic career:

Taught sociology at the University of Chicago.

Taught economics and sociology at Dakota Wesleyan University (Mitchell, South Dakota)

Professor of economics, Northwestern (1919-1946)

Assistant dean of liberal arts college and director of the summer session at Northwestern.

President of Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)  April 1, 1946- November 25, 1952)

Chairman of the board of the Cincinnati branch of the Cleveland Federal Reserve

______________________

Miami University
Oxford, Ohio

Office of the President

December 22, 1947

Professor Earl J. Hamilton
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
Chicago 37, Illinois

Dear Earl:

Thanks for the complimentary copy of the memorial you have written on Edwin Francis Gay in the June issue of the American Economic Review. As I read it, it brought back many a fond memory. I don’t know whether I ever told you that I started writing my doctor’s thesis, the history of the parking industry, and Gay recommended that I go to University of Chicago and carry on additional work and get first-hand information there. Therefore I went to Chicago in 1915, eventually to wind up as an assistant in sociology under E. W. Small and Scott E. W. Bedford. I not only took Gay’s courses in economic history but followed them with his course on French and German economists. Most of us were taking the work not only to brush up on continental theory but also to master the languages preparatory to the general exams. We met in Gay’s home. The course was supposed to last about two hours. I doubt if it ever broke up in less than three and a half to four hours. It was a small group that sat at the feet of Gamaliel but it included Rice of Dartmouth, Stehman of Minnesota, Van Sickle of Wabash, and two graduate students who went into business.

I remember writing a term paper for Gay in French history on the origin of the British labor exchanges. I never worked so hard on a paper in my life, but when it came back with the word “Excellent” sighed E.F.G. I felt well repaid. In fact I still have that paper in my library. I prize it highly. All this is simply to say that your admiration of one of Harvard’s greatest teachers does not exceed mine.

Your memorial is splendidly done.

With the Season’s greetings and best wishes from the Hahnes to the Hamiltons,

Cordially yours,
[signed]
Ernest

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence — misc. 1919, Aug. 26; 1920s-1970s and n.d.”

Image Source: Yearbook of Miami University, Recensio 1946, p. 13.

Categories
Economists Gender Harvard NBER Radcliffe Smith Vassar

Radcliffe.Economics Ph.D. Alumna, Dorothy Carolin Bacon, 1928

 

This post began after I noticed that it has been some time since I posted biographical and career information for a economics Ph.D. alumna. I figured it would be good to search for a candidate that Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has already caught in an earlier archival trawling expedition but for whom the details of post-doc life had not been added. Dorothy Carolin Bacon was awarded her Radcliffe economics Ph.D. in 1928 and the following item was what I had to start with.

Dorothy Carolin Bacon.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 26, 1927.
Committee: Professors Persons (chairman), Carver, Crum, Gay and Holcombe.
Academic History: Simmons College, 1918-19; Radcliffe College, 1919-22, 1923-24, 1926-. A.B., Radcliffe, 1922; A.M., ibid., 1924. Assistant in Economics, Vassar College, 1924-25. Instructor in Economics, ibid., 1925-26.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory. 2. Sociology. 3. History of Political Theory. 4. Statistics. 5. Economic History. 6., Money, Banking and Crises.
Special Subject: Money, Banking and Crises.
Thesis Subject: A Study of the Dispersion of Wholesale Commodity Prices, 1890-1896.  (With Professor Persons.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1926-1927”.

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One of the items that came up after searching for a Google search was an advertisement for her handwritten Radcliffe student journal notes from her Physics course in 1922. Besides being surprised to see a list price of $750.00 for this notebook, I was intrigued by the relatively detailed information provided about Dorothy Bacon. While everything about the text struck me as fully plausible, I thought it worth some due diligence to confirm what I could from the bookseller’s bio-blurb. I have added links wherever possible to sources that confirm the details below. It would appear that information from the above item in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror as well as from the Dzuback chapters in Madden and Dimand (eds.)  and Margaret A. Nash (ed.) have provided some (or even much) of what was included in the D. Anthem advertisement that follows.

The section on Smith College in Mary Ann Dzuback’s chapter “Women economists in the academy: struggles and strategies, 1900-1940” in the Routledge Handbook of the History of Women’s Economic Thought, Kirsten Madden and Robert W. Dimand (eds.) provides information on Dorothy Bacon from the faculty files of the Smith College Archives [Office of President William Allan Neilson Files, Box 364, Folder 34]:

Bacon came to Smith a year before finishing her Ph.D. at Radcliffe in 1928. She took research and service sabbatical leaves to work for the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the 1930s. She focused her research on money flows during the 1930s, cost price problems, and the development of federal level credit institutions. By the 1940s, she was working with the federal Office of Price Administration. By the 1950s, she was consulting with the Brookings Institution, had been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and received grants from the SSRC. She published a monograph on the recent economic history of five towns around Northampton, Massachusetts, in the late 1930s, and was completing a book on the development of Philippine credit institutions by 1970.

________________________

Another paragraph by Mary Ann Dzuback

From: Mary Ann Dzuback. Chapter 7. Research at Women’s Colleges, 1890-1940. Women’s Higher Education in the United States (Historical Studies in Education), edited by Margaret A. Nash. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Dorothy Bacon (1927–54) arrived in 1928, eventually taking an endowed chair. She investigated the flows of currency during the Depression, cost price problems, and the growth of credit institutions, and was in great demand by private research agencies and the federal government. A sometime consultant with the National Bureau of Economic Research, in the 1920s and 1930s she worked with a range of government and research agencies. She was awarded grants by the Social Science Research Council and published regularly. Bacon’s record of research and service, and her sabbaticals, suggest that women social science scholars at Smith were encouraged to use their research to inform policy at the federal and international levels.

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From: Advertisement for “Economist Dorothy Bacon’s 1922 Physics 2 Journal from Radcliffe College (1922)

Dorothy Carolin Bacon was born in 1902 to George Preston Bacon, a professor of Physics and Dean of both the Tufts Engineering School and the Bromfield-Pearson School, and Hannah Churchill Bacon, a trained nurse. Her sister, Ruth Bacon, also attended Radcliffe College and later became the first female officer of a State Department geographical bureau (Bureau of Eastern Affairs). Bacon attended Simmons College from 1918-19 before transferring to Radcliffe, the former women’s liberal arts college that fully merged with Harvard in 1999. She earned her B.A. (1922), M.A. (1924) and Ph.D (1927) [sic, 1928] there with her dissertation concerning A Study of the Dispersion of Wholesale Commodity Prices, 1890-1896. While at Radcliffe she also worked for the Federal Reserve Board’s Division of Research and Analysis [as a Statistical Clerk starting 1 July 1922] earning an annual salary of $1600 before resigning [May 10] in 1923.

She was hired as an assistant professor [sic, “Assistant” is a lower rank than “Assistant Professor”] in economics at Vassar in 1924 [cf. AER, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Dec. 1924), p. 829 “Miss Dorothy C. Bacon is assistant in economics at Vassar College.”], but was recruited by Esther Lowenthal, Dean of the Faculty and chair of the economics department at Smith, to join Smith’s faculty in 1927. At Smith she focused her research on money flows during the 1930s, cost price problems, and the development of credit institutions at the federal level. In 1930, she was one of three research associates selected for the National Bureau of Economic Research where she studied the relation of current stock prices to earnings per share from the twenty corporations comprising the Index of Industrial Stock Prices of the Harvard Economic Service. Her monograph, Recent Economic History of the Five Towns (1937) was published by the Works Progress Administration. In 1942, Bacon left her post at Smith [sic, only temporary leave] to work under Leon Henderson at the Office of Price Administration. It was there that she wrote a study of the scrap metal market in Syracuse, NY. By the 1950s, she was consulting with the Brookings Institution and was publishing her research in the Review of Economic Statistics, the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the National Encyclopedia. She appears to have never married [she wasn’t]  and when she died in 1998 she was buried at Shawsheen Cemetery in Bedford, MA, alongside her parents and sister.

Source: D. Anthem, Bookseller advertisement for “Economist Dorothy Bacon’s 1922 Physics 2 Journal from Radcliffe College (1922) [posted price: $750.00!]

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A.E.A. Biographical Listing, 1969

BACON, Dorothy Carolin, academic; b. Beloit, Wis., 1902; student Simmons Coll., 1918-19; A.B., Radcliffe Coll., 1922, A.M., 1924, Ph.D., 1928. FIELDS 2c, 5e, 4a. Research asso., Nat. Bur. Econ. Research, 1930-31; formerly sr. research asso., Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp.; fed. Dir. Research project, Work Progress Adm., 1935-36; asst. div. economist, food price div., OPA [Office of Price Administration], 1943-47, OPS [Office of Price Stabilization], 1951; Fulbright prof., U. Philippines, 1956-57; mem. Faculty, Smith Coll. Since 1927, prof. since 1938, Robert A. Woods prof. since 1956. ADDRESS Smith Coll., 115 Elm St., Northampton, MA 01060.

Note. Fields: 2c (Economic Development Studies); 5e (General International Economics); 4a (Monetary and Financial Theory and Institutions).

Source: The American Economic Review, Vol. 59, No. 6, 1969. Handbook of the American Economic Association (January 1970), p. 17.

________________________

Bachelor of Arts, Radcliffe (1922)

With Distinction in Special Subjects
Cum Laude

Dorothy Carolin Bacon [of] Medford. In Mathematics.

Source: Report of the Dean in Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1920-1923, p. 43.

________________________

Master of Arts, Radcliffe (1924)

Dorothy Carolin Bacon, A.B.

Source: Report of the Dean in Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1923-1924, p. 31.

________________________

Doctor of Philosophy, Radcliffe (1928)

Dorothy Carolin Bacon A.M.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Money and Banking. Dissertation, “Maladjustment of Prices with Special Reference to the Wholesale Prices of Commodities in the United States; 1890-1896”

Source:  Report of the Dean in Annual Reports of Radcliffe College for 1927-1928, p. 23.

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Publications of Dorothy C. Bacon

A Monthly Index of Commodity Prices, 1890-1900. Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 8, No. 4 (October 1926), pp. 177-83.

The Significance of Fixed-base and Link Relatives in Studies of Price Stability: A Comment on the Behavior of Prices. Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 23 (September 1928), pp. 274-81.

Maladjustment of Prices with Special Reference to the Wholesale Prices of Commodities in the United States, 1890-1896. Ph.D. thesis, Radcliffe College.

Encyclopedia articles in the National Encyclopedia.

Recent Economic History of Five Towns. Northampton, Mass.: Smith College, 1937.

________________________

Vital Dates and Miscellaneous Information

Born:  25 February 1902 in Beloit, Wisconsin.

Last Residence: Niceville, Okaloosa, Florida [Socal Security death index].

Died: 8 November in Meriden, New Haven County, Connecticut. [Apparently visiting: the Connecticut Death Index notes her address 2475 Virginia, Residence Andover, District of Columbia].

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Image Source: Senior year picture of Dorothy Carolin Bacon in the  Radcliffe Year Book 1922, p. 23.

 

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economic Analysis and Public Policy, Readings and Exams. Smithies and Baldwin, 1956-57

While Harvard archive’s collection of old course syllabi and reading lists offers a treasure chest of material, there still are plenty of “missing observations” and lost pages between us and a complete record. Fortunately there is often significant inertia in the actual syllabi so that interpolation is less hazardous than one might expect in filling the gaps. As noted below, the reading list for the Spring term was not found in the corresponding folder for Harvard economics course syllabi in the Harvard archives.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Arthur Smithies’ syllabus for this course as taught in 1949-50 has been transcribed and posted.

Robert Baldwin’s reading lists and exams for 1955-56 have been likewise transcribed and posted.

________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 206. Economic Analysis and Public Policy. Professor Smithies and Assistant Professor Baldwin. Full course.

(F) Total 49: 9 Graduates, 36 Other Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Radcliffe, 2 Others.
(S) Total 51: 10 Graduates, 37 Other Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Radcliffe, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1956-57, p. 70.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
Reading List, Fall 1956

  1. Economic Analysis and Public Policy

F. H. Knight, “Economic Objectives in a Changing World,” Economics and Public Policy, The Brookings Institution, 1955.

A. Smithies, “Economic Welfare and Policy,” Ibid.

  1. The Ricardian System

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy, Chs. 2-6, 21.

W. J. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, Ch. 2.

Suggested:

Ricardo, Chs. 1, 31

G. J. Stigler, “The Ricardian Theory of Value and Distribution,” The Journal of Political Economy, LX, 3 (June 1952).

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Bk. 3, Ch. 6 and 14;

Mimeographed paper on Smith and Ricardo*

  1. Marxian Dynamics

Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Preface.

M. M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History, Chs. 1-3, 9-13.

Suggested:

Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics.

P. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chs. 4-6, 8, 9,

J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part I.

Mimeographed paper on Marx*

  1. The Neo-classical System

L. Walras, Elements of Pure Economics, Part I.

G. Cassel, The Theory of Social Economy, Ch. 4

W. S. Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy, Introduction.

Suggested:

E. Phelps Brown, Framework of the Pricing System

  1. The Schumpeterian System

J. A. Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Vol. I, Chs. 3, 4.

J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part II

Suggested:

J. A. Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development.

Mimeographed paper on Schumpeter*.

  1. Keynesian Economics

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Ch. 19.

D. Dillard, The Economics of J. M. Keynes, Chs. 2, 3.

A. Hansen, Business Cycles and National Income, Part II

Suggested:

A. Hansen, A Guide to Keynes

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.

  1. Post-Keynesian Growth Theorists

E. Domar, “Expansion and Employment,” American Economic Review, March 1947.

W. Baumol, op. cit., Ch. 4

Suggested:

R. Harrod, Towards a Dynamic Economics, Ch. 3.

D. Hamberg, Economic Growth and Instability, Ch. 2, 3

*Available in Lamont and Littauer Libraries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1956-1957 (1 of 2).

________________________

1956-57
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 206
Fall 1956
Final Examination

Answer FIVE of the following seven questions.

  1. What conclusions can be drawn concerning the optimization of resource allocation in a competitive versus a monopolistic economy? Consider the problem under both static and dynamic conditions.
  2. Analyze the possible employment effects of an increase in the money supply in the Keynesian and the neo-classical aggregate models.
  3. Both Ricardo and Marx assert that real wages tend to be driven to a subsistence level in the long-run. Contrast the reasoning of these two writers in reaching this conclusion.
  4. Contrast the reasons why the classical writers were pessimistic about development prospects under capitalism whereas the neo-classical economists were quite optimistic about growth possibilities.
  5. Neo-classical writers claim that long-run equilibrium at a less than full employment level is impossible. Keynesians, on the other hand, assert that less than full employment equilibrium is possible. Carefully explain the reasons why these two groups differ on this point.
  6. What were the major policy recommendations of Ricardo? Analyze how, according to Ricardo, the adoption of these measures would postpone the arrival of the stationary state.
  7. Contrast the role of the interest rate as a determinant of investment in the Schumpeterian, neo-classical, and Keynesian models.

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

________________________

Note: The reading list for Economics 206, Spring Term 1957 was not found in the Harvard archives with the other filed course syllabi from 1956-57.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 206

Spring Examination, 1957

Answer FOUR of SEVEN.

  1. a) Under what conditions could the U.S. economy achieve uninterrupted growth? Do you think these conditions are likely to prevail?
    b) What sort of obstacles to steady growth would you expect to find in the U.S. economy? Are they self-correcting or would you recommend specific policies to overcome them?
  2. Is an equal or unequal distribution of income more compatible with the achievement of steady growth? What are the chief determinants of income distribution in the United States? Would you expect a shift in distribution as the economy grows?
  3. Analyze the causes of inflationary pressure. With our present institutional arrangements, what policy measures would you advocate to alleviate an inflation? Discuss any changes in present institutions that you feel would be desirable for combating inflation. Would your policy measures change if you were operating under changed legal or institutional arrangements? (i.e. Would you use the same instruments in a different way?)
  4. What is the meaning of balance of payments disequilibrium? How would you deal with such a disequilibrium in a country that had a goal of maximizing economic growth?
  5. Do you think there was a fundamental change in the U.S. economy between the prosperous ‘20’s and the depressed ‘30’s or between the ‘30’s and the post World War II era? If so, what were these changes and how do they contribute to an explanation of the behavior of the economy in these periods? If not, how would you explain the mixed performance of the economy?
  6. How can the traditional theory of the firm be used to explain the distribution of income? Would the theory lead you to expect a different distribution in an imperfectly competitive economy than in a purely competitive one?
  7. Are large budgets consistent with equilibrium growth? What effect on growth would an increase in government expenditure have if (a) it is deficit financed, (b) it is tax financed?

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

Image Sources:  (Left) John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website. Arthur Smithies (1955 Fellow); (Right) Robert Baldwin from Selection from photograph (ca. 1975) of Robert E. Baldwin from the University of Wisconsin Archives/The University of Wisconsin Collection/The UW-Madison Collection/UW-Madison Archives Images.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Comparative Land Tenure Systems, Final Exam. Laughlin, 1884

 

1883-84 brought a significant expansion in economics course offerings at Harvard. Cf. Report published in the Harvard Crimson and the report published in the New York Evening Post.

    1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. – Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Prof. Dunbar and Asst. Prof. Laughlin.
    1. History of Economic Theory and a Critical Examination of Leading Writers. – Lectures. Mon., Wed. at 2 and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri. at 2. Prof. Dunbar.
    1. Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. – Theses, Tu., Th., at 3, and a third hour to be appointed by the instructor. Assistant Professor Laughlin.
    1. Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. – Lectures. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Professor Dunbar.
      Course 4 requires no previous study of Political Economy.
    1. Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France and Germany. – Theses. Once a week, counting as a half course. Asst. Professor Laughlin.
    1. History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. – Once a week, counting as a half course. Mr. Taussig.
    1. Comparison of the Financial Systems of France, England, Germany and the United States. – Tu., at 2, counting as a half course. Professor Dunbar.

Note-to-self: still need to find the mid-year exam for this course.

___________________________

Course Enrollment

[Political Economy] 5. Prof. Laughlin. Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, and Germany.— Lectures and Theses.

Total 5: 1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1883-84, p. 72.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 5
[Final Examination, June 1884]

  1. What are your conclusions as to the effect of land tenures in England and France upon (1) production, and (2) distribution?
  2. Compare the increase of population in England, France, and Ireland, and indicate what you think to be the chief causes controlling such increase in each country.
  3. How far does the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1883 interfere with freedom of contract? What is the present position of English legislation in regard to entailed estates?
  4. It has been stated that the abolition of the Corn Laws by Great Britain would not injure the farmer, but would lower the rent of the landlord. Has this proved true? What are the facts as to changes in agriculture and the amount of rent?
  5. It is said that capital Is more equally distributed in France than in Great Britain. How would you account for it?
  6. Which classes in England and France are the greatest buyers of land? What differences do these facts create in respect to production from land?
  7. Contrast briefly the processes by which out of past conditions France, Germany, and Ireland have reached their present systems of holdings.
  8. Compare the security of tenure to the tenant in England and Ireland. Is it possible to extend the comparison to France?
  9. Discuss the origin and workings of Tenant Right in Ireland. What legislation has been passed affecting it?
  10. Compare the class of agricultural laborers in England and Ireland with the corresponding class in France.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Bound volume “Examination Papers, 1883-86”. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1884), pp. 11-12.

Image Source: Portrait (1885-88) of James Lawrence Laughlin. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.