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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Socialism and Planning. Syllabus and final exam. Tinbergen and Tsuru, 1957

 

During the spring term of 1957 at Harvard, two visiting professors jointly taught an undergraduate course on “Socialism and Planning”. The instructors were future (inaugural!) Nobel laureate, Professor Jan Tinbergen coming from the Netherlands School of Economics and Dutch Central Planning Bureau, and Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus (1940), Professor Tsuru Shigeto of Hitotsubashi University (Tokyo).

The American-Japan Intellectual Interchange Committee invited Tsuru Shigeto to be a visiting lecturer for one year at Harvard University in 1956-57. In his March 26, 1957 testimony before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate (his testimony will be included in the next post), Tsuru was asked “And what do you do, do you teach at Harvard?” and he answered “Under the terms of this invitation, my main job at Harvard is research. But I assist occasionally in a number of courses, to give sort of guest lectures.” This explains why both Tinbergen and Tsuru are listed on the course syllabus and final exam but only Tinbergen’s name appears in the annual report of the President of Harvard College.

__________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 111a. Socialism. Professor Tinbergen (Netherlands School of Economics). Half course.

(S) Total 30: 14 Other Graduates, 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 4 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1956-1957, p. 68.

__________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Professors Tinbergen and Tsuru, Spring 1957

Socialism and Planning
Outline

I. Socialism
Feb. 4 (Tinbergen) Introductory and remarks on treatment of the subject
4 (Tinbergen) History of socialism: “utopian” and “scientific”
6 (Tsuru) History of socialism: “utopian” and “scientific” (cont.)
8,11 (Tinbergen) Types of socialist doctrines in the post-Marxian period (revisionism, Fabianism, etc.)
13, 15, 18 (Tsuru) Economic characteristics of socialism
20 (Tinbergen) Recent socialist policies:
(1) Wage policy
25 (Tinbergen) (2) Social insurance
27
Mar. 1		 (Tinbergen) (3) Socialization
4 (Tinbergen) (4) Anti-depression policy
6 (Tinbergen) (5) War-time regulations
8 (Tinbergen) (6) Regulations of agricultural markets
11 (Tinbergen) (7) Income distribution
13, 15 (Tsuru) (8) Recent socialist policies in the Soviet Union
18, 20 (Tsuru) (9) Recent socialist policies in mainland China
II. Planning
Mar. 22,25 (Tinbergen) Use made of planning since 1940 (also critique of free-pricing society)

27, 29

Apr. 8

 (Tinbergen) “Free” planning illustrated by The Netherlands
10, 12 (Tinbergen) Some points of planning for detailed control
15 (Tinbergen) Development planning: (1) Italy
17, 22 (Tsuru) Development planning: (2) India
24, 26 (Tsuru) “Planning vs. the law of value”

 

READINGS
*Obligatory reading.

Books

Cole, G. D. H., Socialist Economics, London, B. Gollancz Ltd., 1950.

Central Planning Bureau of the Netherlands: Scope and Methods of the Central Planning Bureau, The Hague, 1956.

Government of India: Second Five Year Plan, New Delhi, 1956.

Gray, A., The Socialist Tradition, Moses to Lenin, Longmans, Green & Co., 1947.

Harris, S. E., Economic Planning; The plans of fourteen countries with analyses of the plans, New York, Knopf, 1949.

J. Jewkes, Ordeal by Planning, London, Macmillan, 1948.

W. Keilhau, Principles of Private and Public Planning, London, Unwin Bros., 1951.

Lewis*, W. A., The Principles of Economic Planning, Washington, Public Affairs Press, 1951.

K. Mannheim, Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London.

J. E. Meade, Planning and the Price Mechanism, London, Allen & Unwin, 1948.

H. Mendershausen, The Economics of War, New York, Prentice-Hall, 1941.

J. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, New York, Harper and Bros., 1947.

Socialist Union*, Twentieth Century Socialism, New York, Penguin Books, 1956.

N. Thomas, Democratic Socialism: A New Appraisal, New York, 1953.

United Nations, Measures for the Economic Development of Underdeveloped Countries, New York, 1951.

Articles

P. Baran, “National Economic Planning,” in: A Survey of Contemporary Economics II.

A. Bergson, “Socialist Economics,” in: A Survey of Contemporary Economics, I.

R. L. Marris, “The position of economics and economists in the government machine, a comparative critique of the United Kingdom and The Netherlands,” Economic Journal 1954.

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

__________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Final Examination
ECONOMICS 111a
Spring 1957

(Tinbergen & Tsuru)

  1. Comment on the book or articles which you read during the reading period.
  2. Give an answer to three of the following questions in no more than 15 lines for each:
    1. Which industries are publicly owned in most Western European countries?
    2. What does the term “revisionists” mean?
    3. Why do countries in war usually impose regulations on their economies?
    4. Why do agricultural markets tend to be unstable?
    5. What is the essence of social insurance schemes?
    6. What taxes are favored by socialists and why?
  3. Answer one of the following two questions in about two pages:
    1. Give the main arguments in favor of and those against socialization.
    2. What is meant by the economic surplus and what is its characteristic for a socialist economy?
  4. Answer three of the following questions in at most one page each:
    1. What is the difference between a forecast and a plan for the economy as a whole?
    2. Which are the main instruments used by:
      1. A country applying overall year-to-year planning;
      2. A country applying overall development planning; and
      3. A country applying detailed planning?
    3. What are the assumptions underlying input-output analysis and why are they first approximations only?
    4. What were the difficulties facing the Netherlands economy in 1951 and how were they solved?
    5. What is the issue involved in the controversy of “planning versus the law of value”?
    6. What are the salient features of development planning in the present-day India?

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

__________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Socialism and Planning
Outline and Extended Bibliography

(Professor Tsuru)

An Appraisal of Marx’s Contribution to Socialism

  1. Vision [1] [2] [3]
  2. Analysis [4]
    1. Historical materialism [5]
      1. Positing of objective laws of the development of society in which an economic process is the prime mover. [3] p. 162, [6] p. 8, [7] Ch. 12
      2. Productive relations and productive forces
    2. The nature of capitalism
      1. Its historical mission and achievements [1]
      2. The labor theory of value [8]
      3. Long-run trends [9] ch. 14, 15, 5, 6, 8, 9
        1. Concentration and monopoly
        2. Increasing misery and unemployment
        3. The falling tendency of the rate of profit
        4. Recurrent crises
      4. Explanatory concepts and ideas
        1. The repudiation of Say’s Law
        2. Reproduction scheme [9] Appendix, [10]
  3. Practical politics
    1. Class struggle [1]
    2. Blueprint—“socialism to communism” [11]
    3. Road to socialism [12] [13]

 

[1] K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto

[2] F. Engels, Socialism, from Utopian to Scientific

[3] J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 3rd ed., 1950

[4] W. Leontief, “The Significance of Marxian Economics for the Present-Day Economic Theory,” American Economic Review, Supplement, March 1938

[5] M. M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History

[6] P. M. Sweezy, The Present as History, 1953

[7] M. Dobb, On Economic Theory and Socialism, 1955

[8] R. L. Meek, Studies in the Labor Theory of Value, 1956

[9] P. M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, 1942

[10] S. Tsuru, Essays on Marxian Economics, 1956

[11] K. Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme

[12] K. Marx, Civil War in France

[13] N. Lenin, State and Revolution

*   *   *   *

Economic Characteristics of Socialism

  1. Can we speak of economic characteristics of socialism?
    1. In popular usage of the term [1] [2]
    2. In doctrinal discussion
      1. A few representative definitions
        1. W. G. Sumner [3]
        2. James Bonar [4]
        3. Indian Planning Commission [5]
      2. Earlier orthodox Marxist discussion [6] Ch. 1, [7], [8] Vol. 2, p. 52
        1. Public ownership of the means of production
        2. Centralized planning
        3. Corollaries
          1. conscious spelling out of social goals of production
          2. no class antagonism
      3. Official Soviet discussion
        1. “Basic economic characteristics” of Soviet socialism [9] Ch. 24
        2. Characteristics of people’s democracy [9] Chs. 41, 42
      4. More recent re-appraisal
        1. Background in both capitalist and socialist economies
        2. A standpoint which is increasingly supported by many…that economically socialism and capitalism shade into each other.
  2. Economic characteristics of socialism reconsidered
    1. Pivotal significance of the disposal of the surplus
      1. technical aspect of the surplus
      2. significant questions to be asked
    2. The form of the surplus
    3. The size of the surplus
      1. the incentive aspect
      2. Does the form affect the size? [10] [11]
    4. The manner of disposal of the surplus
      1. the interrelation between the form and the manner of disposal [12]
      2. the interrelation between the size and the manner of disposal
    5. Concluding remarks
      1. John Strachey’s position [13] Ch. 9
      2. What still remains of the economic distinction between socialism and capitalism
      3. Possibility under capitalism of ameliorating undesirable aspects through the action of the state [14] [15] Ch. 13, 19
  3. Secondary distinctions
    1. Insulation of wage-as-cost from wage-as-demand
      1. their unity under capitalism and its consequences
      2. the degree of freedom which exists under socialism and its consequences
      3. modifications which are now feasible under capitalism
    2. Full employment and the problem of cycles
      1. Cycles as characteristics of capitalism [16] Ch. 2
      2. Full employment under socialism
      3. Modifications which are now feasible under capitalism
    3. The role of money and the rate of interest
      1. Early discussions of the subject [8] Vol. 1, Ch. 3; [17]
      2. Different significance of money under capitalism and socialism
      3. The place of interest rate under socialism [18]
    4. The question of incentives
      1. Incentives geared to money return under capitalism vs. incentives geared to targets of limited specifications under socialism
      2. Attempt under socialism to substitute impersonal criteria in the case of firms
      3. Attempt under socialism to introduce more of monetary incentives in the case of individuals [19]
    5. Technological development and the price level
      1. Introduction of technological innovations [20] Ch. 7
      2. Possibility of lowering price level [21]

 

[1] Fortune, Feb. 1957, “The Crisis of Soviet Capitalism”, pp. 102ff.

[2] Sutton and others, The American Business Creed, 1956

[3] C. H. Page, Class and American Sociology: From Ward to Roos, p. 103

[4] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 13th ed. “Socialism”

[5] A. K. Dasgupta, “Socialistic Patterns of Society and the Second Five Year Plan,” The Economic Weekly (Bombay), January 1957, pp. 91-2

[6] P. M. Sweezy, Socialism, 1949

[7] P. M. Sweezy, “Marxian Socialism,” Monthly Review, November 1956

[8] K. Marx, Das Kapital

[9] Political Economy: Textbook (in Russian), Rev. ed., 1955

[10] Joan Robinson, Marx, Marshall & Keynes, (Tokyo) 1956

[11] P. M. Sweezy, The Present as History, Ch. 32, “A crucial difference between capitalism and socialism”

[12] S. Tsuru, “On the Soviet Concept of National Income,” The Annals of Hitotsubashi Academy, October 1954

[13] John Strachey, Contemporary Capitalism, 1956

[14] S. W. Moore, The Critique of Capitalist Democracy, 1957

[15] P. M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, 1942

[16] S. Tsuru, Essays on Marxian Economics, 1956

[17] N. Lenin, Collected Works (Russian ed.), Vol. 29, pp. 329-38

[18] G. Grossman, “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1953

[19] O. Lange, “Sans du nouveau programme économique,” Cahiers Internationaux, Sept.-Oct. 1956, pp. 72-81

[20] John K. Galbraith, American Capitalism, revised ed., 1956

[21] N. M. Kaplan and E. S. Wainstein, “A comparison of Soviet and American Retail Prices in 1950,” Journal of Political Economy, December 1956

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

Image Source: Jan Tinbergen from Dutch National Archives (February 25, 1966 photograph by Joost Evers).  Tsuru Shigeto from Eumed.net website, webpage: “Economistas”. Shigeto Tsuru (1912-2006).

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Policy Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economic Analysis and Public Policy, Readings and Exams. Baldwin, 1955-56

 

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. The next several posts will be dedicated to the graduate course taught for graduate students of economics and of public administration “Economic Analysis and Public Policy”. Robert Baldwin’s spring term syllabus for 1955-56 gives us a valuable clue as to the likely content of a missing page in the syllabus for the course as taught in 1956-57.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

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

Biographical information along with the reading list for Robert Baldwin’s course “Theories and Problems of Economic Development” taught in 1955 have been posted earlier.

_______________________

Course Enrollment

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

(F) Total 36: 10 Graduates, 22 Other Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

(S) Total 34: 10 Graduates, 21 Other Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1955-56, p. 78.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
[Baldwin, Fall Term, 1955-56]

Baumol, W. J., Economic Dynamics, Chapters 2, 3, and 4.

Bober, M. M., Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History.

Cassel, Gustav, The Theory of Social Economy, Chapter 4.

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

Dillard, Dudley, The Economics of J. M. Keynes.

Gray, Alexander, The Development of Economic Doctrine, Chapters 5, 6, 11.

Hansen, A. H., Business Cycles and National Income, Parts II and III.

Hansen, A. H., A Guide to Keynes.

Harris, S. E. The New Economics, Chapters 12, 13, 14, 16, 39.

Harris, S. E., Schumpeter, Social Scientist.

Harrod, Roy, The Life of J. M. Keynes.

Heilbroner, R. L., The Worldly Philosophers.

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

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

Klein, L. R., The Keynesian Revolution, Chapters 3 and 4.

Malthus, T. R., Essay on Population.

Marshall, A., Principles of Economics, Book V.

Marx, Karl, Communist Manifesto.

Mill, J. S., Principles of Political Economy, Book 4, Chapters 1-4.

Ricardo, David, Principles of Political Economy, Chapters 1-6, 21.

Ricardo, David, Notes on Malthus, Chapter 7.

Robinson, Joan, Essay on Marxian Economics.

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

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

Schumpeter, J. A., Ten Great Economists, Chapters 1, 4, 10.

Schumpeter, J. A., History of Economic Analysis.

Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, Chs. 1-9; bk. II, Ch. 3; Bk. IV, Ch. 2.

Smithies, Arthur, “Reflections on the Work and Influence of J.M. Keynes,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1951.

Smithies, Arthur, “Joseph Alois Schumpeter,” American Economic Review, Sept. 1950.

Stephen, Leslie, The English Utilitarians, Volume 2, Chapter 5.

Sweezy, Paul, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chapters 4, 5, 6, 8, 9.

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

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1955-1956 (2 of 2).

Reading Period Assignment:

No additional assignment

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1955-1956 (1 of 2).

_______________________

1955-56
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Economics 206
Mid-year Examination
January, 1956

(Three Hours)

Answer four (4) of the following six questions.

  1. Some economists have advocated a flexible money wage rate policy to ensure full employment. Discuss and contrast the effects of a cut in money wage rates on aggregate employment in the Keynesian and in the Classical (or neo-Classical) systems.
  2. Both Marx and Schumpeter believe that capitalism is doomed, but their reasons for this conclusion are quite different. Explain and criticize the analysis of each in regard to this point.
  3. According to Keynes, the habit of thrift may be a vice instead of a virtue. In Classical and neo-Classical thought, however, thrift is invariably regarded as a virtue. Explain the reasons for this difference in viewpoint.
  4. Discuss and appraise the analyses of Smith, Ricardo, and Marx concerning their view that the long-run rate of profit will decline.
  5. What is wrong with the labor theory of value as an explanation of how relative prices are determined? How did the neo-Classical theorists solve the problem of how relative prices are determined?
  6. In the Ricardian and Marxian theories of growth, labor fails to share in the fruits of long-run progress (in the sense of receiving a higher per capita income). However, according to Schumpeter and the neo-Classsical writers, this is not a necessary (and, indeed, is an unlikely) result. Why do these writers disagree on this matter?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 23, Volume: Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science, January 1956.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
[Baldwin, Spring Term, 1955-56]

Part I (cont.) The Post-Keynesian Growth Theorists

Readings:

Domar, “Expansion and Employment,” A.E.R., March 1947.

Baumol, Economic Dynamics, Ch. 4

Part II. The Changing Structure of the U.S. Economy

  1. “Real” Factors
  2. Institutional Conditions

Readings:

Dewhurst and Associates, America’s Needs and Resources, A New Survey, Chs. 4, 18, 28.

Galbraith, American Capitalism, Chs. 1, 4-10.

Kaysen, “Looking Around—Books About Competition,” Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1954.

Lilienthal, Big Business: A New Era

Slichter, The American Economy, Ch. 2.

Part III. Public Policy and Economic Goals

  1. Full Employment
  2. Price Stability
  3. Equitable Income Distribution
  4. Efficient Resource Allocation
  5. Economic Growth
  6. International Equilibrium

Readings:

A.E.A. Committee, “The Problem of Economic Instability,” American Economic Review, Sept., 1950.

Economic Report of the President, January 1956.

Elliot, The Political Economy of American Foreign Policy, Part II.

Galbraith, “Farm Policy: The Current Position,” Journal of Farm Economics, May, 1955.

Hansen, Business Cycles and National Income, Part III.

Hearings before the Joint Committee, January 1955 Economic Report of the President, Statements by Professors Hansen (p. 491) and Harris (p. 291).

Knight, “Economic Objectives in a Changing World,” in Economics and Public Policy, Brookings Institution

McDonald, “The Sherman Act and ‘Workable Competition’,” No. 28 in Readings in Economics, Samuelson, Bishop, and Coleman.

Mason, “Prices, Costs, and Profits,” in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of J.H. Williams.

Maxwell, Fiscal Policy

Report of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Foreign Economic Policy, January, 1956.

Smithies, “Economic Welfare and Economic Policy,” in Economics and Public Policy.

Smithies, “Full Employment at Whatever Cost: A Comment,” Q.J.E., November, 1950.

Subcommittee on Monetary, Credit, and Fiscal Policies of the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Money, Credit, and Fiscal Policies, No. 2 in Gramp and Weiler, Readings in Political Economy.

United Nations, National and International Measures for Full Employment.

Viner, “Full Employment at Whatever Cost,” Q.J.E., August, 1950.

Wright, The Impact of the Union, Ch. 8, 10.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder: “Economics, 1955-1956 (2 of 2).

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 206
Final Examination
June, 1956

Answer four (4) of the following seven questions:

  1. What are the major problems facing American agriculture? Analyze the economic forces behind these problems, and suggest the kind of policies you would favor in order to mitigate the difficulties.
  2. “The strained relations between the Federal Reserve and Treasury since the end of World War II clearly indicate the undesirability of the existence of a semi-autonomous monetary authority in this country.” Discuss.
  3. Domar’s condition for the maintenance of continuous full employment is not unlike the Queen’s observation in Through the Looking Glass; “A slow sort of country. Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”
    Explain and evaluate the requirements for full employment in Domar’s model.
  4. “The traditional view of anti-trust policy is based on a static conception of economic activity. What is needed is a revision of anti-trust policy which recognizes the dynamic nature of the American economy.” Discuss.
  5. Carefully explain and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of monetary policy versus fiscal policy as counter-cyclical weapons.
  6. Discuss the causes and attempted cures of the post-war dollar shortage.
  7. “The economist must attempt to formulate a compromise among various, and possibly conflicting, economic objectives. He must attempt to discuss the economic objectives of society, to remove contradictions among them, and to harmonize economic objectives with those that lie outside the economic field.” Do you agree? What are some of the possible conflicts among various economic objectives? Are there any policy changes which you would recommend “to remove contradictions” among various economic objectives?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 24, Volume: Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science, June 1956.

Image Source: 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.

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Exam Questions Harvard Policy

Harvard. Exams for Economic Analysis and Public Policy. Smithies, 1949-1950

Arthur Smithies’ 1949-50 graduate course “Economic Analysis and Public Policy” was the subject of an earlier post. There I transcribed the course syllabus, provided enrollment figures, and added the Harvard Crimson’s 1981 obituary for him.

Several years after that post, I was able to copy the course examinations during a research visit to the Harvard University archives. Transcriptions of those exams are included below.

_________________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 206
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND PUBLIC POLICY
[Mid-year Examination, January 1950]

(Three Hours)

Answer all questions.

  1. Characterize various types of economic organization according to the degree of central planning and control and the methods by which control is exercised.
  2. Discuss the wage-price question that seems to confront most private enterprise economies. Is a wage-price spiral inherent in a full employment economy? Could it be eliminated by allowing a sufficiently large pool of unemployment? Are compulsory and widespread wage and price controls consistent with democratic government?
  3. Compare the relative merits of a free price system and a controlled price system from the point of view of optimum allocation of resources and optimum rate of economic progress. What, if anything, is meant by these terms?
  4. Define the multiplier with numerical illustrations.
  5. From your reading of the Reports of the Council of Economic Advisers, what do you conclude about the type of stabilization policy they favor?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science, February 1950.

_________________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 206
[Final Examination, June 1950]

  1. Discuss Schumpeter’s concept of the entrepreneur and innovation from the point of view of its value (a) in explaining capitalistic development in the past, (b) in explaining the present in the U.S.
  2. Discuss “functional finance” from the point of view of its feasibility and desirability as a guide to policy in the U.S. How do you think Marshall, Schumpeter, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Anti-Trust Division would react to Lerner’s ideas?
  3. Is there a monopoly problem in the U.S.? If so, what ought to be done about it?
  4. The statement was made in class that the more we know about the operation of the economy the more difficult it becomes to operate it. How much nonsense and how much truth is there to this statement?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science, June 1950.

Image Source: Arthur Smithies, Harvard Album 1952.

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Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Final Exam for Theories and Problems of Economic Development. Baldwin, 1956.

 

In an earlier post I provided the syllabus for the undergraduate Harvard course “Theories and Problems of Economic Development” taught by Robert Baldwin in the second term of 1955-56. Career and other biographical information for this 1950 economics Ph.D. alumnus from Harvard are presented there.

This post adds the final examination for that course copied during a later visit to the Harvard Archives.

____________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 108

Answer two (2) questions from Part I and two (2) questions from Part II.

PART I.

  1. Post-Keynesian growth theorists conclude that in order to maintain a continuous state of full employment in the economy, investment must grow at a constant annual percentage rate.
    1. How do they reach this conclusion?
    2. Explain why this condition is not required in the neo-classical model of economic growth.
  2. “In the Ricardian system the rate of profit declines due to the absence of sufficiently rapid technological progress; in the Marxian model the rate of profit declines because of rapid technological progress.” Discuss.
  3. Explain and criticize Schumpeter’s analysis of the process of economic development. (Do not discuss in any detail his general sociological analysis of capitalist development).

PART II.

  1. What factors should be considered in determining investment criteria for poor countries?
  2. Discuss and appraise the arguments for tariff and exchange control policies in the poor countries.
  3. Explain the following concepts:
    1. the vicious circle of poverty
    2. disguised unemployment
    3. balanced growth
    4. underdevelopment and backwardness

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 24, Volume: Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science, June 1956.

Image Source: 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.

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Bibliography Fields Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Fiscal Seminar Bibliography and Topics. Williams and Hansen, 1946-47

Alvin Hansen and John H. Williams’  Fiscal Policy Seminar at Harvard was a major parade ground for Keynesian policy ideas in the United States. This post provides a transcription of all 29 pages of bibliography provided for the seminar along with three pages of fiscal policy topics, presumably suggestions for student papers/presentations. An earlier post includes lists of speakers for the first eight years of the seminar.

Harvard’s Fiscal Seminar, speakers 1937-44

_________________________

Seminar Enrollment

[Economics] 148a. (fall term) Professors J. H. Williams and Hansen. — (A seminar offered by the Graduate School of Public Administration.) Fiscal Policy.

Total 26: 9 Graduates, 17 Public Administration.

[Economics] 148b. (spring term) Professors J. H. Williams and Hansen. — (A seminar offered by the Graduate School of Public Administration.) Fiscal Policy.

Total 22: 7 Graduates, 1 Graduate Business, 14 Public Administration.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1946-47, p. 71.

_________________________

ECONOMICS 148
FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR
1946-1947

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. The National Income and Its Composition:
    1. Books:

Barger, Harold — Outlay and Income in the United States, 1942.

Basic Facts on Employment and Production, U. S. Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, 19th Congress, First Session, (Committee Print No. 4).

Bowley, A. L. — Studies in the National Income, 1942.

Clark, C. — National Income and Outlay, 1938.

Fabricant, S. — Capital Consumption and Adjustment, 1938.

Friedrich, C. J. and Mason, E. S., editors — Public Policy, Volume II, Chapters VII, 1941.

Hicks, J. R. — The Social Framework, Oxford, 1942.

Hicks and Hart — The Social Framework of the American Economy, Oxford, 1945.

Kuznets, S. — National Income and Capital Formation, 1919-1935, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1937.

Kuznets, S. — National Income and its Composition, 1919-1938, 2 volumes, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1941.

Lindahl, Dahlgren, and Koch — National Income of Sweden, 1861-1930, 1937.

Livingston, S.M. — Markets After the War. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, 1943.

Martin, R. F. — National Income in the U.S., 1799-1938, National Industrial Conference Board, 1939.

Meade and Stone, National Income and Expenditure, (Oxford, 1944).

National Wealth and Income —Report by the Federal Trade Commission.

Readings in Income Distribution, Blakiston Co. (1945).

Seventh Report of Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion, July 1, 1946.

Studies in Income and Wealth, National Bureau of Economic Research, 3 volumes, 1937, 1938, and 1939.

    1. Articles:

Gilbert, M. — “Measuring National Income as Affected by the War”, Journal of American Statistical Association, June 1942.

Chawner, L. J. — “Capital Expenditure in Selected Manufacturing Industries”, Survey of Current Business, December 1941.

Kaldor, N. — “The 1941 White Paper on National Income and Expenditure”, Economic Journal, June-September 1942.

Kaldor, N., “The 1943 White Paper on National Income and Expenditure,” Economic Journal, June-September 1943.

Harris, S. E. — “The British White paper on War Finance and National Income and Expenditure”, Journal of Political Economy, February 1942.

Copeland, M.A. — “The Defense Effort and the National Income Response Pattern”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1942.

Survey of Current Business — Articles on National Income and Gross National Product, Various Issues, 1942-46.

Stone, Richard — “National Income in the United Kingdom and the United States of America”, Review of Economic Studies, Winter 1942-1943.

Stone, R. — “Two Studies in Income and Expenditure in the U.S.”, Economic Journal, April 1943.

Stone, Richard —“The National Income Output and Expenditure of U.S.A., 1929-1941”, Economic Journal, June-September 1942.

Painter, Mary S. — “Estimates of Gross National Product, 1919-1928”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, September 1945.

Kalecki, M. — “The White Paper on the National Income and Expenditure in the years 1938-43”, Oxford Institute of Statistics Bulletin, July 1, 1944, Volume 6, No. 9.

Dacey, W. M. — “The 1944 White Paper on National Income and Expenditure”, Economic Journal, June-September 1944.

Bangs, R. B. — “The Changing Relation of Consumer Income and Expenditure”, Survey of Current Business, April 1942.

Gilbert, M. and Bangs, R. B. — “Preliminary Estimates of Gross National Product, 1929-1941”, Survey of Current Business, May 1942.

Gilbert, M. — “War Expenditure and National Production”, Survey of Current Business, March 1942.

Gilbert, M. — “U. S. National Income Statistics”, Economic Journal, April 1943.

Gilbert and Jaszi — “The 1945 White Paper on National Income and Expenditure”, Economic Journal, December 1945.

Smith, T. and Merwin, C. — “Corporate Profits and National Income Estimates, Quarterly, 1938-42”, Survey of Current Business, June 1942.

Hance, W. D. — “Estimates of Annual Business Inventories, 1928-1941”, Survey of Current Business, September 1942.

British White Paper on War Finance, Cmd. 6520 (reprinted in Federal Reserve Bulletin, July 1944.)

Stern, E. H. — “Public Expenditure in the National Income”, Economica, May 1943.

Gilbert, Milton; Staehle, Hans; Woytinsky, W. S. — “National Product, War and Prewar: Some Comments on Professor Kuznets’s Study”, Review of Economic Statistics, August 1944.

Hagen, Everett E. — “Postwar Output in the United States at Full Employment”, Review of Economic Statistics, May 1945.

Hagen, E. E. and Kirkpatrick, N. B. — “The National Output at Full Employment in 1950”, American Economic Review, September 1944.

Hoffenberg, M. — “Estimates of National Output, Distributed Income, Consumer Spending, Saving and Capital Formation”, Review of Economic Statistics, May 1943.

“Consumer Incomes and Expenditures in Wartime”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, April 1944.

  1. Fiscal Policy, Income and Employment
    1. Books.

Arndt, H. W. — The Economic Lessons of the Nineteen Thirties, Oxford, 1944.

Beveridge, W. H. — Full Employment in A Free Society, 1945.

Burchardt and Others — The Economics of Full Employment: Six Studies in Applied Economics, Oxford University Institute of Statistics, 1944.

Burns, A. E. and Watson, D. S. — Government Spending and Economic Expansion, 1940.

Copland, D. B. — The Road to High Employment, Harvard University Press, 1945.

deChazeau, Hart and Others — Jobs and Markets, McGraw-Hill, 1946.

Financing American Prosperity, A symposium (Anderson, Clark, Ellis, Hansen, Slichter, Williams) Twentieth Century Fund, 1945.

Giblin, L. F. — The Problem of Maintaining Full Employment, Melbourne University, 1943.

Hansen, A. H. — Full Recovery or Stagnation, 1938.

Hansen, A. H. — Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, 1941.

Hansen, A. H. — Economic Policy and Full Employment, 1946.

Harris, S. E. (editor) — Postwar Economic Problems, McGraw-Hill, 1943.

Harris, S. E. (editor) — Economic Reconstruction, McGraw-Hill, 1945.

Hayes, H. Gordon — Spending, Saving, and Employment, Knopf, 1945.

Keynes, J. M. — General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Harcourt, 1936.

Lerner, A. P. — The Economics of Control, Macmillan, 1944.

Nathan, Otto — Mobilizing for Abundance, McGraw-Hill, 1944.

National Budgets for Full Employment, National Planning Association.

National Resources Planning Board — The Structure of the American Economy, Part II, Toward Full Use of Resources, 1940.

Pigou, A. C. — Lapses from Full Employment, Macmillan, 1945.

Pigou, A. C. — Employment and Equilibrium, Macmillan, 1941.

Polanyi, M. — Full Employment and Free Trade, Cambridge University Press, 1945.

Pierson, J. H. G. — Full Employment, 1941.

Robertson, D. H. — Essays in Monetary Theory, King, 1940.

Ruml, B. and Sonne, H. C. — Fiscal and Monetary Policy, National Planning Association, 1944.

Seven Harvard and Tufts Economists — An Economic Program for American Democracy, 1938.

Williams, John H. Postwar Monetary Plans, 2nd, 1945.

Wilson, T. — Fluctuations in Income and Employment, 1942.

Wright, D. McC. — Creation of Purchasing Power, 1942.

Committee on National Expenditure (May Committee) Cmd. 3920 (1931)

N.E.C. — Final Report of the Executive Secretary, Chapters 5, 7-13, 16.

Postwar Economic Studies, Nos. 1, 3, and 6, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 1945-6.

    1. Articles:

Lerner, Simons, and Others — “Planning and Paying for Full Employment”, International Postwar Problems, October 1945 and January 1946.

Hardy, C. O. — “Fiscal Policy and National Income: Review”, American Economic Review, March 1942.

Slichter, S. H. — “The Conditions of Expansion”, American Economic Review, March 1942.

Clark, J. M. — “The Relation of Government to the Economy of the Future”, Journal of Political Economy, December 1941.

Temporary National Economic Committee — Review of the Monographs, pp. 573-601, American Economic Review, September 1941.

Gayer, A. D. — “Fiscal Policies”, American Economic Association Proceedings, 1938.

MacGibbon, D. A. — “Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles”, Canadian Journal of Economic and Political Science, February 1943.

Mitchell, W. C. — “Economic Resources in Economic Theory”, University of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference, Studies in Economics and industrial Relations, 1941.

Clark, J. M. — “Investment in Relation to Business Activity and Employment”, University of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference, Studies in Economics and Industrial Relations, 1941.

Kuznets, S. — “Capital Formation, 1879-1938”, University of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference, Studies in Economics and Industrial Relations, 1941.

Slichter, S. H. — “The Development of National Labor Policy”, University of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference, Studies in Economics and Industrial Relations, 1941.

Brown, J. D. — “Is Unemployment Inevitable?”, University of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference, Studies in Economics and Industrial Relations, 1941.

Berridge, W. A. — “Is Unemployment Inevitable?”, University of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference, Studies in Economics and Industrial Relations, 1941.

Clark, J. M. — “An Appraisal of the Workability of Compensatory Devices”, American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1939.

Gayer, A. D. — “Fiscal Policies”, American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1938.

Myrdal, G. — “Fiscal Policy in the Business Cycle”, American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1939.

Seltzer, L. H. — “Direct vs. Fiscal and Institutional Factors”, American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1941.

Simons, H. C. — “Hansen on Fiscal Policy”, Journal of Political Economy, April 1942.

Williams, J. H. — “The Implications of Fiscal Policy for Monetary Policy and the Banking Systems”, American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1942.

Hansen, A. H. — “Income, Consumption, and National Defense”, Yale Review, Autumn, 1941.

Hardy, C. O. — “Fiscal Policy and National Income: Review”, American Economic Review, March 1942.

Somers, H. M. — “The Impact of Fiscal Policy on National Income”, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, August 1942.

Abbott, C. C. — “Administration of Fiscal Policy”, Harvard Business Review, Autumn, 1944.

Abrahamson, A. G. — “The Problem of Full Employment,” Harvard Business Review, Spring, 1944.

Anderson, Clay J. — “The Compensatory Theory of Public Works Expenditure”, The Journal of Political Economy, September 1945.

Beveridge, Sir W. — “The Government’s Employment Policy”, Economic Journal, June-September 1944.

Copeland, Morris A. — “How Achieve Full and Stable Employment”, American Economic Review, March 1944.

Garland, J. M. — “Some Aspects of Full Employment”, Economic Record, December 1944.

Goldenweiser, E. A. — “Postwar Problems and Policies”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, February 1945.

Pigou, A. C. — “The Classical Stationary State”, Economic Journal, December 1943.
(See also comment by M. Kalecki in Economic Journal, April 1944.)

Gragg, C. I. and Teele, S. F. — “The Proposed Full Employment Act”, Harvard Business Review, Spring 1945.

Hansen, A. H. — “Fiscal Policy: A Clarification”, American Economic Review, June 1945.

Hansen, A. H. — “Three Methods of Expansion Through Fiscal Policy”, American Economic Review, June 1945.

Hansen, Harris, Haberler, Slichter, McNair — “Five Views on the Murray Full Employment Bill”, Review of Economic Statistics, August 1945.

Harrod, R. F. — “Full Employment and Security of Livelihood”, Economic Journal, December 1943.

Herrick, L. — “Employment and Postwar Prosperity”, Yale Review, December 1944.

Hirsch, Julius —“Facts and Fantasies Concerning Full Employment”, American Economic Review, March 1944.

Klein, Lawrence R. — “The Cost of a Beveridge Plan in the United States”, Quarterly Journal, May 1944.

Langer, H. C., Jr. — “Maintaining Full Employment”, American Economic Review, December 1943.

McNair, Malcolm P. — “The Full Employment Problem”, Harvard Business Review, Autumn 1945.

Pierson, J. H. G. — “The Underwriting of Aggregate Consumer Spending as a Pillar of Full-Employment Policy”, American Economic Review, March 1944.

Smithies, Arthur — “Full Employment in a Free Society”, American Economic Review, June 1945.

Smullyan, E. B. — “Seventeen Postwar Plans — The Pabst Postwar Employment Awards”, American Economic Review, March 1945.

Wallich, H. C. — “Income-Generating Effects of a Balanced Budget”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1944.

Warburton, C. — “Normal Production, Income, and Employment, 1945-1965”, Southern Economic Journal, January 1945.

Welcker, J. W. — “The Federal Budget: A Challenge to Businessmen”, Harvard Business Review, Summer 1944.

Williams, John H. — “The Postwar Monetary Plans”, American Economic Review, March 1944.

Williams, R. S. — “Fiscal Policy and Propensity to Consume”, Economic Journal, December 1945.

Woytinsky, W.S. and Halasi, A. — “Prospects of Permanent Full Employment”, International Postwar Problems, September 1944.

Wright, D. McC. — “The Future of Keynesian Economics”, American Economic Review, June 1945.

Wright, D. McC. — “Hopes and Fears — The Shape of Things to Come”, Review of Economic Statistics, November 1944.

Yntema, Theodore O. — “Full Employment in a Private Enterprise System”, American Economic Review, March 1944.

“Employment Policy in Great Britain: The Government’s White Paper”, International Labor Review, August 1944.

Beattie, J. R. — “Some Aspects of the Problem of Full Employment”, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, August 1944.

Joseph, J. F. W., “The British White Paper on Employment Policy”, American Economic Review, September 1944.

  1. Saving and Investment
    1. Books:

Angell, J. W. — Investment and Business Cycles, 1941.

Hansen, A. H. — N. F. C. Hearings, Part IX, 1939.

Long, C. D. — Building Cycles and the Theory of Investment, 1940.

Machinery and Allied Products Institute — Savings and American Progress, December 1937.

Machinery and Allied Products Institute — Savings and Investment in the American Enterprise System, July 1939.

Moulton, H. G. — The Formation of Capital, Brookings, 1935.

National Industrial Conference Board — Capital Formation and Its Elements, 1939.

Postwar Economic Studies, No. 5., Federal Reserve Board, 1946.

Private Capital Requirements, Postwar Economic Studies, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 1945.

Williams, John H., Postwar Monetary Plans, 2nd, 1946.

N.E.C. Monograph No. 37, Saving, Investment and National Income.

    1. Articles:

Freeman and Barre — “Saving and Spending Pattern,” American Economic Review, June 1944.

Ezekiel, M. — “Saving, Consumption and Investment,” American Economic Review, March and June 1942.

Abramovitz, M. —“Savings and Investment: Profits vs. Prosperity,” American Economic Review, Supplement, June 1942.

Silberling, N. J. — “Some Aspects of Durable Consumer Goods Financing and Investment Fluctuations,” American Economic Review, September 1938.

Slichter, S. H. — “The Conditions of Expansion,” American Economic Review, March 1942.

Hoover, C. B. (Chairman) — “Durable Consumers Goods,” American Economic Association Proceedings, 1938.

Weintraub, D. — “Effects of Current and Prospective Technological Developments Upon Capital Formation,” American Economic Association Proceedings, 1939.

Deibler, F. S. (Chairman) — “The Effects of Industrial and Technological Developments Upon the Demand for Capital,” American Economic Association Proceedings, 1939.

Crum, W. L. (Chairman) — “Income and Capital Formation,” American Economic Association Proceedings, 1939.

Ruggles, C. — “Corporate Surpluses, Income and Employment,” American Economic Review, December 1939.

Dirks, F. C. — “Durable Goods Expenditures in 1941,” Federal Reserve Bulletin, April 1942.

Gilboy, E. W. — “The Propensity to Consume,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1938.

Gilboy, E. W. — “Changes in Consumption Expenditures and the Defense Program,” Review of Economic Statistics, November 1941.

Humphrey, D. D. — “The Relation of Surpluses to Income and Employment During Depression,” American Economic Review, June 1938.

Shackle, G. L. S. — “A Means of Promoting Investment,” Economic Journal, June-September 1941.

Simpson, K. — “Securities Markets and the Investment Process,” American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1938.

“Status and Role of Private Investment in the American Economy,” American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1941.

Tucker, R. S. — “Estimates of Savings of American Families,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1942.

Weintraub, D. — “Effects of Current and Prospective Technological Developments Upon Capital Formation,” American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1939.

Isard, W. A. — “A Neglected Cycle: The Transport-Building Cycle,” Review of Economic Statistics, November 1942.

Hicks, J. R. — “Maintaining Capital Intact: A Further Suggestion,” Economica, May 1942.

Wright, D. McC. — “The interpretation of the Kuznets-Fabricant Figures for ‘Net’ Capital Consumption,” Journal of Political Economy, June 1942.

Fulcher, G. S. — “Annual Saving and Underspending of Individuals 1926-37,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1941.

Gilbert, R. V. and Perlo, V. — “The Investment Factor Method of Forecasting Business Activity,” Econometrica, July-October 1942.

O’Leary, J. J. — “Malthus and Keynes,” Journal of Political Economy, December 1942.

Terborgh, G. — “Estimated Expenditures for Durable Goods, 1919-1938,” Federal Reserve Bulletin, September 1939.

Anderson, Montgomery, “A Formula for Total Savings,” Quarterly Journal, November 1943.

Jones, M. V. — “Secular and Cyclical Saving Propensities,” Journal of Business, University of Chicago, January 1944.

Leontief, W. W. — “Output, Employment, Consumption, and Investment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1944.

Neisser, Hans— “Government Net Contribution and Foreign Balance As Offset to Savings,” Review of Economic Statistics, November 1944.

Wright, D. McC. — “Limits to the Use of Capital,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1944.

  1. Technology, Population, and Investment:
    1. Books:

Gourvitch, Survey of Economic Theory on Technological Change and Employment, W.P.A. National Research Project, Report No. G-6 (1940).

Hearings, Temporary National Economic Committee, Part IX, 1939.

Lederer, E. — Technical Progress and Unemployment, International Labour Office, 1938.

Machinery and Allied Products Institute — Ten Facts on Technology and Employment, February 1936.

Machinery and Allied Products Institute — More Facts on Technology and Employment, April 1936.

Moulton, H. G. et al. — Capital Expansion, Employment and Economic Stability, 1940.

Myrdal, G. — Population, a Problem for Democracy, 1940.

National Resources Committee — Technological Trends and National Policy, 1937.

National Resources Committee — The Problem of a Changing Population, 1938.

Reddaway, W. B. — The Economics of a Declining Population, 1939.

Terborgh, G. — The Bogey of Economic Maturity, Machinery and Allied Products Institute, 1945.

Weintraub, D. — Effects of Technological Developments Upon Capital Formation, National Research Project, Report g-4 (1939).

T.N.E.C. Hearings, Part 30, Technology and Concentration of Economic Power.

T.N.E.C. Monograph, No. 22, Technology in Our Economy.

    1. Articles:

Neisser, H. P. — “Permanent Technological Unemployment,” American Economic Review, March 1942.

Dulles, E. — “War and Investment Opportunities: An Historical Analysis,” American Economic Review, Proceedings, March 1942.

McLauchlin, G. E. and Watkins, R. J. — “The Problem of Industrial Growth in a Mature Economy,” American Economic Association Proceedings, 1939.

DuBrul, S.M. (Chairman) — “Expansion and Contraction in the American Economy,” American Economic Association Proceedings, 1939.

Fleming, J. M. — “Secular Unemployment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1939.

Hansen, A. H. — “Extensive Expansion and Population Growth,” Journal of Political Economy, August 1940.

Hawley, A. H. and Bogue, D. J. — “Recent Shifts in Population: 1930-40,” Review of Economic Statistics, August 1942.

Round Table on Population Problems, American Economic Association Proceedings, 1940, pp. 283-298.

Weintraub, D. (Director) — “Unemployment and Increasing Productivity,” National Research Project, W.P.A., 1937.

Weintraub, D. (Director) — “Summary of Findings to Date,” National Research Project, W.P.A., March 1938.

Weintraub, D. — “Effects of Current and Prospective Technological Developments Upon Capital Formation,” National Research Project, 1939.

Gill, C. — “Unemployment and Technological Change,” National Research Project, W.P.A., 1950.

Gourvitch, A. — “Survey of Economic Theory on Technological Change and Employment,” National Research Project, W.P.A., 1940.

Hopkins, J. A. — “Changing Technology and Employment in Agriculture,” National Research Project, W.P.A., 1941.

Fellner, W. — “The Technological Argument of the Stagnation Thesis,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1941.

Lonigan, E. — “The Effect of Modern Technological Conditions Upon the Employment of Labor,” American Economic Review, June 1939.

Staehle, H. — “Employment in Relation to Technical Progress,” Review of Economic Statistics, May 1940.

Hansen, A. H. — “Economic Progress and a Declining Population Growth,” American Economic Review, March 1939.

Keynes, J. M. — “Some Consequences of a Declining Population,” Eugenics Review, Volume XXX, No. 1, April 1937.

Spengler, J. J. — “Population Movements and Economic Equilibrium in the United States,” Journal of Political Economy, April 1940.

Sweezy, A. R. — “Population Growth and Investment Opportunity,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1940.

Hansen, A. H. — “Some Notes on Terborgh’s ‘The Bogey of Economic Maturity,’” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1946.

Wright, D. M. — “Terborgh vs. Hansen,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1946.

Samuelson, P. A. — “Dynamics, Statics, and the Stationary State,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1943.

King, W. I. — “Are We Suffering From Economic Maturity?” Journal of Political Economy, October 1939.

Jones, M. V. — “Secular Trends and Idle Resources,” Journal of Business, October 1944.

  1. The Role of Public Investment
    1. Books:

Bretherton, Burchardt, Rutherford — Public Investment and the Trade Cycle in Great Britain, 1941.

Duffus, R. L. — The Valley and Its People: A Portrait of TVA, 1945.

Gayer, A. D. — Public Works in Prosperity and Depression, 1935.

Hansen, A. H. and Perloff, H. S. — Regional Resource Development, National Planning Association, 1942.

Housing, Social Security and Public Works, Postwar Economic Studies, No. 6, Federal Reserve Board, 1946.

International Development Loans, National Planning Association, 1942.

Lilienthal, David — V.A. Democracy on the March, (Harpers, 1944).

National Resources Committee — Public Works Planning, Report of the Committee, 1937.

National Resources Planning Board — The Structure of the American Economy, Part II, Toward Full Use of Resources, 1940.

National Resources Planning Board — The Economic Effects of the Federal Public Works Expenditures, 1833-1938, November 1940.

National Resources Planning Board — National Resources Development Report for 1942, January 1942.

Staley, E. — World Economic Development, 1944.

    1. Articles:

Government Expansion in the Economic Sphere,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November 1939.

Lewis, B. W. — “Government Competition and Private Investment,” American Economic Review, June 1939.

Copeland, M.A. — “Public Investment in the United States,” American Economic Association, Proceedings, 1939.

Blakey, R. G. (Chairman) — “The Role of Public Investment and Consumer Capital Formation,” American Economic Association Proceedings, 1939.

“Economic Planning,” pp. 247-280, American Economic Association Proceedings, 1940.

Gibson, A. H. — “Will Banking Eventually Become Nationalized?” Bankers’ Magazine, March 1944.

Hansen, A. H. and Kindleberger, C. — “World Institutions for Stability and Expansion,” Foreign Affairs, January 1944.

Smithies, Arthur — “The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development,” American Economic Review, December 1944.

Benedict, M. R. — “The Relation of Public to Private Lending Agencies (in Agriculture) and Recent Trends in Their Development,” Journal of Farm Economy, February 1945.

  1. Urban Redevelopment and Housing:
    1. Books:

Colean, Miles L. — American Housing, Problems and Prospects, 1944.

Greer, G. and Others — The Problem of Urban Redevelopment, Institute on Postwar Reconstruction, 1944.

Greer and Hansen — Urban Redevelopment and Housing, National Planning Association, 1942.

Housing, Social Security, and Public Works, Postwar Economic Studies, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 1946.

Housing Costs, Bulletin No. 2, National Housing Agency, 1944.

Housing Needs, Bulletin No. 1, National Housing Agency, 1944.

Housing After World War I, Bullentin No. 4, National Housing Agency, 1945.

Hearings on S. 1592, Committee on Banking and Currency, U.S. Senate, 79th Congress, 1st

Land Assembly for Urban Redevelopment, Bulletin No. 3, National Housing Agency, 1945.

National Resources Committee — Housing Monographs, Nos. 1-3, 1939.

National Resources Planning Board — Housing, the Continuing Problem, June 1940.

Postwar Economic Studies, No. 6, Federal Reserve Board, 1946.

Simon, Sir Ernest, Re-building Britain —A Twenty-year Plan (Victor Gollancz, 1945).

Uthwatt Report, Cmd. 6386 (1942).

The Problem of the Cities and Towns — Conference on Urbanism, Harvard University, 1942.

S. 1592, 70th Congress, 2nd Session — An Act to Establish a National Housing Policy.

T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 8, Toward More Housing.

    1. Articles:

Greer, Guy — “Housing,” Fortune, November 1944.

Greer, Guy — “A New Start for Cities,” Fortune, September 1944.

Husband, W. H. — “Interest Rates for Home Financing,” American Economic Review, June 1940.

French, D. M. — “The Contest for a National System of Home-Mortgage Finance,” American Political Science Review, February 1941.

“Call of Our Cities, Redevelopment and Postwar Housing,” Survey Graphic, April 1944.

Grebler, L. — “Housing Policy and the Building Cycle,” Review of Economic Statistics, May 1942.

Isard, W. and Isard C. — “The Transport-Building Cycle in Urban Development: Chicago,” Review of Economic Statistics, November 1943.

  1. Income Distribution, Consumption, and Saving:
    1. Books:

Bangs, R. B. — The Changing Relation of Consumer Income and Expenditure, April 1942.

Department of Agriculture — Consumer Purchases Studies, on Family Income and Expenditures, 1939-1941.

Family Spending and Saving in Wartime, Bulletin No. 822, U.S. Department of Labor, 1945.

Fisher, A. G. B., Economic Progress and Social Security (Macmillan, 1945).

Haberler, G. — Consumer Instalment Credit and Economic Fluctuations, 1942.

Leven, Moulton and Warburton — America’s Capacity to Consume, Brookings, 1934.

Leven, M. — The Income Structure of the U.S., 1938.

Moulton, H. G. — Income and Economic Progress, Brookings, 1935.

National Resources Committee — Consumer Expenditures in the U.S., 1933-36, 1939.

National Resources Planning Board — Family Expenditures in the U.S., Statistical Tables and Appendices, June 1941.

Nourse, E. G. — America’s Capacity to Produce.

T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 4, Concentration and Composition of Individual Incomes, 1918-1937.

    1. Articles:

Tucker, R. S. — “Estimates of Savings of American Families,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1942.

Green, A. R. — “Social Reconstruction by the Regulation of Incomes,” Economic Journal, April 1942.

Stauffacher, C. — “The Effect of Governmental Expenditures and Tax Withdrawals Upon Income Distribution, 1930-1939,” Public Policy, Volume II, 1941.

Tucker, R. S. — “The National Resources Committee’s Report on Distribution of Income,” Review of Economic Statistics, November 1940.

Gilboy, E. W. — “Income-Expenditure Relations,” Review of Economic Statistics, August 1940.

Pancoast, O., Jr. — “Malthus vs. Ricardo: The Effects of Distribution on Production,” Political Science Quarterly, March 1943.

Samuelson, P. A. — “Fiscal Policy and Income Determination,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1942.

Metzler, L. A. — “Effects of Income Distribution,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1943.

Pigou, A. C. — “Comparisons of Real Income,” Economica, May 1943.

Rhodes, E.C. — “The Distribution of incomes,” Economica, August 1942.

Smullyan, E. B. — “Net Investment, Consumption and Full Employment,” American Economic Review, December 1944.

Sweezy, A. R. — “Reply (to E. B. Smullyan),” American Economic Review, December 1944.

  1. Wages, Costs, and Prices:
    1. Books:

Abramovitz — Price Theory for a Changing Economy (Columbia U. Press, 1939).

Clark, J. M. — Demobilization of Wartime Economic Controls (McGraw-Hill, 1944).

de Chazeau, and others — Jobs and Markets (McGraw-Hill, 1944).

Financing American Prosperity, 20th Century Fund (1945).

Harris, S. E. — Inflation and the American Economy (McGraw-Hill, 1945).

Harris, S. E. — Price and Related Controls in the U.S. (McGraw-Hill, 1945).

Lange, O. — Price Flexibility and Employment, 1944.

National Bureau of Economic Research — Cost Behavior and Price Policy, 1943.

Oxford institute of Statistics, The Economics of Full Employment (Blackwell, 1944).

Pigou, A. C., Lapses from Full Employment (Macmillan, 1945).

Prices, Wages, and Employment, Postwar Economic Studies, no. 4, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 1946.

T.N.E.C. Hearings, Part 5, Monopolistic Practices in Industries.

National Resources Planning Board, The Structure of the American Economy, Part II (1940).

    1. Articles:

Mund, V. A. — “Monopolistic Competition Theory and Public Price Policy,” American Economic Review, December 1942.

Bangs, R. B. — “Wage Reductions and Employment,” Journal of Political Economy, April 1942.

Ezekiel, M. — “Productivity, Wage Rates, and Employment,” American Economic Review, September 1940.

Sweezy, A. — “Wages and Investment,” Journal of Political Economy, February 1942.

Weintraub, S. — “Monopoly Equilibrium and Anticipated Demand,” Journal of Political Economy, June 1942.

Bergson, A. — “Price Flexibility and the Level of Income,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1943.

Keynes, J. M. — “Relative Movements of Real Wages and Output,” Economic Journal, March 1939.

  1. Taxation, Investment, and Consumption:
    1. Books:

Butters, J. K. and Lintner, J. — Effect of Federal Taxes on Growing Enterprises, Study No. 2, Polaroid Corporation, 1945.

Colm, G. and Lehmann, F. — Economic Consequences of Recent American Tax Policy, 1939.

Committee on National Debt and Taxation (Colwyn Committee) Cmd. 2800 (1927).

Curran, Kenneth J. — Excess Profits Taxation, 1943.

Groves, H. M. — Production, Jobs, and Taxes, McGraw-Hill, 1944.

Groves, H. M. — Postwar Taxation and Economic Progress, McGraw-Hill, 1946.

Hazelett, C. W. — Incentive Taxation, 1939.

Hicks, J. R. and U. K. — The Incidence of Social Rates in G. B., (Occasional Paper No. 8 of National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Cambridge U. Press, 1945).

Koch, Albert R. — The Financing of Large Corporations—1929-39, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1943.

Machinery and Allied products Institute — Taxes and American Progress, March 1938.

Mering, O. — The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation, (Blakiston, 1942).

Newcomer, M. — A Tax Policy for Postwar America, Postwar Goals and Economic Reconstruction, Series 2, No. 6, 1943.

Tarasov, Helen, Who Does Pay the Taxes? Supplement IV, Social Research, (1942).

T.N.E.C. Monograph, No. 3, Who Pays the Taxes?

T.N.E.C. Monograph, No. 9, Taxation of Corporate Enterprise.

T.N.E.C. Monograph, No. 12, Profits and New Investment.

    1. Articles:

Benham, F. — “What is the Best Tax System?” Economica, May 1942.

Bradley, P. D. — “The Direct Effects of a Corporate Income Tax,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1942.

Gilbert, D. W. — “Taxation and Economic Stability,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1942.

Pettengill, R. B. — “Division of the Tax Burden Among Income Groups in the United States in 1936,” American Economic Review, March 1940.

Kuznets, S. — “National Income and Taxable Capacity,” American Economic Review, Proceedings, March 1942.

Colm, G. — “Full Employment Through Tax Policy? Social Research, November 1940.

Gilbert, D. W. — “Taxation and Economic Stability,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1942.

Paul, R. E. — “Redesigning Federal Taxation,” Harvard Business Review, Winter 1941.

Friedman, M. and Poole, K. E. — “The Spending Tax,” American Economics Review, March 1943.

Boulding, K. E. — “The Incidence of a Profits Tax,” American Economic Review, September, 1944.

Brown E. C. and Patterson, G. — “Accelerated Depreciation: A Neglected Chapter in War Taxation,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1943.

Buehler, A. G. — “The Sales Tax,” Bulletin National Tax Association, February 1945.

Buehler, A. G. — “The Taxation of Business,” Bulletin National Tax Association, December 1944.

Burkhead, J. V. — “Property Tax as a Burden on Shelter,” Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, August 1944.

Ciriacy-Wantrup, C. — “Taxation and the Conservation of Resources,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1944.

Domar, E. D. and Musgrave, R. A. — “Proportional Income Taxation and Risk-Taking,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1944.

Dowell, A. A. and Toben, G. E. — “Some Economic Effects of Graduated Income Tax Rates on Investors in Farm Capital,” Journal of Farm Economics, May 1944.

Dowsett, W. T. — “The Tax Lag Myth,” Economic Record, December 1944.

Ebersole, J. F. — “Banks Can Make More Postwar Jobs,” Harvard Business Review, Part I, Autumn 1943.

Goode, R. — “The Corporate Income Tax and the Price Level,” American Economic Review, March 1945.

Hubbard, J. C. — “Income Creation by Means of Income Taxation,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1944.

Macy, C. W. — “The Corporation Net Income Tax and the Cost-Price Structure,” Bulletin of National Tax Association, May 1944.

Magill, R. — “Business, Investment and Taxation,” Trusts and Estates, October 1943.

May, G. O. — “Corporate Structures and Federal Income Taxation,” Harvard Business Review, Part I, Autumn 1943.

Wald, H. P. — “A Comparative Analysis of Three Variations of Retail Sales Taxes,” American Economic Review, June 1944.

Ballantine, A. A. — “The Corporation and the Income Tax,” Harvard Business Reivew, Spring 1944.

  1. The Public Debt and Debt Management
    1. Books:

Cadman, F. F. — National Income and Deficit Financing, 1939.

Colwyn Report, Committee on National Debt and Taxation, Cmd. 2800, (1927).

Ellis, P. W. — The World’s Biggest Business —American Public Spending, 1914-1944, 1944.

Fine, Sherwood — Public Spending and Postwar Economic Policy, 1944.

Moulton, H. G. — The New Philosophy of Public Debt, Brookings, 1943.

Phillips, C. F. and Garland, J. V. — Government Spending and Economic Recovery, 1938.

Public Finance and Full Employment, Postwar Economic Studies, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 1946.

Seckler-Hudson, C. (Editor) — The Evolution of the Budgetary Concept in The Federal Government, 1944.

Villard, H. H. — Deficit Spending and the National Income, 1941.

Williams, J. H. — Post War Monetary Plans, (2nd 1945).
(See also titles in other sections)

    1. Articles:

Ratchford, B. U. — “The Burden of a Domestic Debt,” American Economic Review, September 1942.

Haley, B. F. — “The Federal Budget: Economic Consequences of Deficit Financing,” American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1941.

Hansen, A. H. and Greer, Guy — “The Federal Debt and the Future, Harpers, April 1942.

Higgins, B. and Musgrave, R. A. — “Deficit Finance —The Case Examined,” Public Policy, Volume II, 1941.

Smith, D. T. — “Is Deficit Spending Practical?” Harvard Business Review, Autumn 1939.

Williams, J. H. — “Federal Budget: Economic Consequences of Deficit Spending,” American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1941.

Williams, J. H. — “The Implications of Fiscal Policy for Monetary Policy and the Banking System,” American Economic Review, Proceedings, 1942.

Mitnitzky, M. — “Aspects of Government Borrowing,” American Economic Review, March 1943.

Roberts, R. O. — “Ricardo’s Theory of Public Debts,” Economica, August 1942.

Domar, E. D. — “The ‘Burden of the Debt’ and the National Income,” American Economic Review, December 1944.

Hansen, A. H. — “National Debt, Flexible Budget and Tax Cut,” Bulletin of National Tax Association, May 1944.

Poindexter, J. C. — “Fallacies of Interest-Free Deficit Financing,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1944.

Stettner, Walter F. — “Sir James Stewart on the Public Debt,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1945.

Warburton, Clark. — “The Monetary Theory of Deficit Spending,” Review of Economic Statistics, May 1945.

Wright, D. McC. — “Interest-Free Deficit Financing: A Reply,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1944.

Bell, E. V. — “Consequences of $300,000,000,000 Debt,” Savings Bank Journal, February 1945.

Lanston, A. G. — “Crucial Problems of the Federal Debt,” Harvard Business Review, Winter 1946.

Leland, S. E. — “The Government, the Banks, and the Debt,” Commercial and Financial Chronicle, January 17, 1946.

Slater, A. — “U.S. Debt Pattern,” (Public and Private Debt), Survey of Current Business, September 1945.

Shoup, Carl — “Postwar Federal Interest Charge,” Supplement of American Economic Review, Part 2, June 1944.

Simons, H. C. — “On Debt Policy,” Journal of Political Economy, December 1944.

Simons, H. C. — “Debt Policy and Fiscal Policy,” Rev. of Econ. Stat., May 1946.

Abbott, Charles C. — “Management of the Federal Debt,” Harvard Business Review, Autumn 1945.

Leland, Simeon E. — “Management of the Public Debt After the War,” American Economic Review Supplement, Part 2, June 1944.

Symposium on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Rev. of Econ. Stat., May 1946.

  1. Fiscal Policy and the War Economy:
    1. Books:

Crowther, G. — Ways and Means of War, 1940.

Crum, Fennelly, Seltzer — Fiscal Planning for Total War, 1942.

Durbin, E. F. M. — How to Pay for the War, 1941.

Harris, S. E. — Economics of American Defense.

Hart and Allen — Paying for Defense, 1941.

Hicks, J. R., Hicks, U. K., and Rostas, L. — The Taxation of War Wealth, 1941.

Keynes, J. M. — How to Pay for the War, Harcourt, 1940.

Parkinson, J. F. — Canadian War Economics, 1941.

Seidemann, H. P. — Curtailment of Non-Defense Expenditures, Brookings Institution Pamphlet No. 30, 1941.

Spiegel, H. W. — The Economics of Total War, 1942.

Stein and Backman (Editors) — War Economics, 1942.

Tax Institute Symposium — Financing the War, 1942.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics — Study of Consumer Purchases, 1939-1941.

    1. Articles

“Billions for Defense,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1941.

“Bank Credit and War Finance,” Federal Reserve Bulletin, June 1942.

Clark, J. M. — “Further Remarks on Defense Financing and Inflation,” Review of Economic Statistics, August 1941.

Crum, W. L. — “Paying for the War,” Academy of Political Science Proceedings, May 1942.

Douglas, M. — “Limitations of the Financial Factor in a War Economy,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, August 1942.

Eccles, M. S. — “How Shall We Pay for the War?”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, March 1942.

George, C. O. — “British Public Finance in Peace and War,” Journal of Royal Statistical Society, Part III, 1941.

Hansen, A. H. — “Monetary and Fiscal Controls in Wartime,” Yale Review, Winter 1940.

Hansen, A. H. — “Defense Financing and Inflation Potentialities,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1941.

Hansen, A. H. — “Some Additional Comments on the Inflation Symposium,” Review of Economics Statistics, May 1941.

Hansen, A. H. and Others — “Some Economic Problems of War, Defense, and Postwar Reconstruction,” American Economic Review, February 1941.

Hansen, A. H. — “We Can Pay the War Bill,” The Atlantic, October 1942.

Hart, A. G. — “Flexible Taxes to Combat Inflation,” American Economic Review, March 1942.

Hart, A. G. — “What It Takes to Block Inflation,” Review of Economic Statistics, August 1942.

Feiler, A. — “‘Full Employment of Resources’ and War Economy,” (Note) Social Research, February 1942.

Mackintosh, W. A. — “Canadian War Financing,” Journal of Political Economy, August 1942.

Polak, J. J. — “Rationing of Purchasing Power to Restrict Consumption,” Economica, August 1941.

Roberts, G. and Others — “War Finance and Inflation,” Academy of Political Science Proceedings, May 1942.

Villard, H. H. — “The Effect of the War Upon Capital Markets,” American Economic Review Proceedings, March 1942.

Viner, J. — “Inflation: Menace or Bogey?” Yale Review, Summer 1942.

Blakey, R. G. and G. C. — “The Revenue Act of 1941,” American Economic Review, December 1941.

Weintraub, S. — “Compulsory Savings in Great Britain,” Harvard Business Review, Autumn 1941.

Hansen, A. H. — “Changes in Economic Structure Arising Out of the War and Their Implications for Public Policy,” Part III, Chapter IV, Public Policy, Volume III, Harvard University, 1942.

Fellner, W. — “War Finance and Inflation,” American Economic Review, June 1942.

Salant, W. A. — “The Inflationary Gap,” American Economic Review, June 1942.

Pigou, A. C. — “Types of War Inflation,” Economic Journal, December, 1941.

Nathan, O. and Fried, M. — “Consumer Spending, Inflation and the Wage Earner in the United States,” International Labour Review, February 1942.

Blakey, R. G. and C. C. — “Federal Revenue Legislation, 1943-44,” American Political Science Review, April 1944.

Ensley, G. W. — “Budget for the Nation,” Social Research, September 1943.

Haig, R. M. — “The Background of Our War Finance,” Political Science Quarterly, September 1943.

Harris, C. L. — “Revenue Implications of a Progressive-Rate Tax on Expenditure,” Review of Economic Statistics, August 1943.

Mosak, J. L. and Salant, W. S. — “Income, Money, and Prices in War-Time,” American Economic Review, December 1944.

Newcomer, M. — “Congressional Tax Policies in 1943,” American Economic Review, December 1944.

Seligman, H. L. — “Patterns of Wartime Borrowing in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada,” Federal Reserve Bulletin, November 1944.

Allen, E. D. — “Treasury Tax Policies in 1943,” American Economic Review, December 1944.

Hansen, A. H. — “A General View of the Institutional Effects of the War,” American Economic Review Supplement, March 1942.

Musgrave, R. A. and Seligman, H. L. — “The Wartime Tax Effort in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada,” Federal Reserve Bulletin, January 1944.

  1. Fiscal Policy in the Post War:
    1. Books:

Clark, C. — The Conditions of Economic Progress, 1940.

Eccles and Others — Curbing Inflation Through Taxation, Symposium, Tax Institute, 1944.

Galloway, G. B. and Associates — Planning for America, 1941.

Galloway, G. B. — Postwar Planning in the U.S., 1942.

Hansen, A. H. — After the War — Full Employment, National Resources Planning Board, January 1942; Revised, February 1943.

National Planning Association, Pamphlet No. 15 — International Development Loans, September 1942.

Shoup, C. — Federal Finances in the Coming Decade, 1941.

Shoup, Carl; Friedman, Milton; and Mack, Ruth P. — Taxing to Prevent Inflation, 1943.

Financing American Prosperity; 20th Century Fund (1945).

    1. Articles:

Hansen, A. H. — “Wanted: Ten Million Jobs”, Atlantic Monthly, September 1943.

Hansen, Alvin H., and Guy Greer — “Toward Full Use of Our Resources”, Fortune, November 1942.

“From War to Work”, (Articles by Sir Arthur Greenwood, Marriner Eccles, B. Ruml, Sidney Hollman, Walther Nash, Alvin Hansen) Survey Graphic, May 1943.

Clark, J. M. — “Economic Adjustments After Wars: The Theoretical Issues”, American Economic Review Supplement, March 1942.

Blakey, R. G. — “State and Local Postwar Financial Policies”, Bulletin of National Tax Association, March 1944.

Burrell, O. K. — “The Pattern of Postwar Federal Taxes”, Oregon Business Review, December 31, 1944; January 31, 1945.

Butters, J. Keith — “An Appraisal of Postwar Tax Plans”, Harvard Business Review, Winter 1945.

Butters, J. Keith — “Tax Revisions for Reconversion Needs”, Harvard Business Review, Spring 1944.

Eccles, M. S. — “Statement on a Capital Gains Tax to Curb Rising Prices of Capital Values”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, March 1945.

Groves, Harold M. — “Revising the Postwar Federal Tax System”, American Economic Review Supplement, Part 2, June 1944.

Haygood, T. F. — “Federal Fiscal Measures and Agricultural Prosperity”, Agricultural Financial Review, November 1944.

Heer, C. — “Styles in Postwar Taxation”, (Review Article), Bulletin of National Tax Association, December 1944.

Houston, G. S. — “Postwar Taxes: Individuals vs. Corporate Tax Reduction”, Trusts and Estates, December 1944.

Howenstine, E. J., Jr. — “Methods of Federal Financing of Postwar Public Works”, Bulletin of National Tax Association, February 1945.

Lerner, A. P. — “Government Spending, Public Debt and Postwar Taxation”, International Postwar Problems, January 1945.

Lutz, H. L. — “A Postwar Tax Program”, Bulletin of National Tax Association, June 1944.

Musgrave, R. A. — “Three Plans for Postwar Taxation: A Comparison of the CED, Twin Cities and Ruml-Sonne Tax Proposals”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, December 1944.

Shoup, C. — “Three Plans for Postwar Taxation”, American Economic Review, December 1944.

Slichter, S. H. — “Present Savings and Postwar Markets”, Harvard Business Review, Part II, Autumn 1943.

Spero, H. and Leavitt, J. A. — “Inflation as a Postwar Problem”, Journal of Political Economy, August 1943.

Wolman, Leo — “Policies of Postwar Employment”, Political Science Quarterly, December 1943.

“Possibilities of Postwar Inflation and Suggested Tax Action”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, March 1944.

“Slowing Down of Credit Expansion”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, June 1944.

“War Finance and Banking”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, August 1944.

“The Wartime Expansion of Liquid Assets”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, October 1944.

Bell, D. W. — “Financing the War and the Postwar Readjustment”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, January 1944.

Hansen, A. H. and Kindleberger, C. P. — “The Economic Tasks of the Postwar World”, Foreign Affairs, April 1942.

Hansen, A. H. — “Changes in Economic Structure Arising Out of the War and Their Implications for Public Policy”, Public Policy, Volume III, 1942.

Slichter, S. H. — “Postwar Boom or Collapse”, Harvard Business Review, Autumn 1942.

Thorp, W. L. — “Postwar Depressions”, American Economic Review Proceedings, 1941.

Gustin, R. P. and Holme, S. A. — “An Approach to Postwar Planning”, Harvard Business Review, Summer 1942.

  1. Inter-governmental Relations:
    1. Books:

Federal, State, and Local Government Fiscal Relations, U.S. Treasury Department, 1943.

Hansen and Perloff — State and Local Finance in the National Economy, 1944.

Hicks, J. R. and U. K. — Standards of Local Expenditure, Macmillan, New York, 1943.

Silver, A. N. — The Reform of Local Government Finance, 1945.

    1. Articles:

Blakey, R. G. (Chairman) — “Coordination of Federal, State and Local Fiscal Systems”, American Economic Review Supplement, March 1942.

Blakey, R. G. — “State and Local Taxation of Federal Property”, Bulletin of National Tax Association, January 1945.

Graves, W. B. and Scholz, K. W. H. — “Meeting the Needs for State and Local Revenues in the Postwar Era”, American Political Science Review, October 1944.

Haig, R. M. — “Federal-State Financial Relations: A Conscientious Governor Studies a Senate Document,” Political Science Quarterly, June 1944.

Heer, C. — “State and Local Finance in the Postwar Plans of the South,” Southern Economic Journal, January 1945.

Hicks, J. R. and U. K. — “The Beveridge Plan and Local Government Finance”, Review of Economic Studies, Winter, 1943.

Kaiser, A. R. — “Coordination of Federal and Local Revenue Sources”, Bulletin of National Tax Association, November 1944.

Pond, C. B. — “Impact of the War on State Tax Systems”, Bulletin of National Tax Association, November 1943.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics 1946-47 (2 of 2)”.

_________________________

ECONOMICS 128
FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR
1946-1947
TOPICS ON FISCAL POLICY

  1. Fiscal policy as a business-cycle control measure contrasted with fiscal policy as a means for structural readjustment.
  2. The fiscal problems growing out of war and depression contrasted.
  3. Deficit spending and its limits.
  4. A high-consumption economy vs. a high-savings economy.
  5. The dual economy and its relation to stability and full employment; the role of the government corporation (T.V.A., R.F.C., etc.); the program of the British Labor Party.
  6. The relation between income, output, and employment in the short run and in the long run.
  7. The public debt as an instrument of fiscal policy.
  8. The economic background of war-time expansion in the United States compared with that in Great Britain.
  9. Increased production vs. reduced consumption as war-time anti-inflation measures.
  10. Consumption, investment, income, and national expenditure in war time.
  11. The relation and importance of the various war-time control schemes (direct controls, monetary controls, fiscal controls).
  12. The timing of the various control measures in the transition period.
  13. Federal non-armament expenditures during the war.
  14. The control of non-essential investments in war time.
  15. A sharply progressive income tax vs. consumption taxes as a means to reduce war-time consumption.
  16. The relation between taxation and borrowing at different stages in the war and transition periods.
  17. Fiscal policy and the control of inflation in the postwar.
  18. “Easy money” and the role of monetary control in the prevention of postwar inflation.
  19. The taxation of war wealth.
  20. The Keynes plan of deferred wage payments as a means to prevent war-time inflation.
  21. Accumulation of social security reserves as a means to prevent war-time inflation.
  22. Forecasting and the timing of fiscal control measures in the postwar.
  23. Fiscal policy as a measure against:
    1. a postwar inflation,
    2. a postwar slump.
  24. Public investments and relief expenditures in the postwar period.
  25. Fiscal policy and the redistribution of income.
  26. The shift from a “free market” to a planned economy.
  27. British discussions on postwar debt and the wisdom of a capital levy.
  28. British and American postwar debt problems contrasted.
  29. Establishment of a monetary and fiscal authority to administer a flexible fiscal policy.
  30. Effective fiscal policy as a means of securing international stability.
  31. Trends in intergovernmental fiscal relations since the first World War.
  32. The shift of functions toward the central government in Canada and the U.S. and fiscal implications of this development.
  33. Efforts toward limiting the property tax and substituting other tax sources.
  34. A reorganized system of federal, state, and local taxation.
  35. The relation between the spending unit and the revenue-raising unit as a test of financial efficiency.
  36. Administrative reorganization as a prerequisite for intergovernmental fiscal reorganization.
  37. State control of local finance.
  38. Methods of revenue sharing between federal, state, and local government.
  39. The relation between federal, state, and local debt.
  40. Federal fiscal policy and the redistribution of income among the various states.
  41. The impact of the war on the fiscal relations between federal, state, and local government.
  42. War prosperity and the financial situation of the local governmental units.
  43. Trends in federal-local fiscal relations in Australia, Canada, and Great Britain.
  44. The relation between the federal debt and liquid assets.
  45. The relation between the public debt and the money supply.
  46. The public debt and the commercial banks.
  47. The relation between public debt retirement and the maintenance of private savings.
  48. The monetization of the debt.
  49. Interest-free financing proposals.
  50. Debt retirement and the “100 per cent money” proposal.
  51. Recent trend among some economists to emphasize monetary rather than fiscal policy.
  52. The inter-relations between monetary and fiscal policy.
  53. The effect of increased taxation on new enterprise.
  54. The effect of increased taxation on investment.
  55. The effect of increased taxation on consumption.
  56. The effect of modern progressive tax structures (England, Canada, U.S.) on income distribution.
  57. Comparison of the effects of:
    1. capital gains tax,
    2. inheritance tax,
    3. income tax,
      …on enterprise and investment.
  58. Comparison of postwar federal tax plans.
  59. The proposal to tax idle money.
  60. The proposal to underwrite private consumer expenditures.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Alvin Harvey Hansen. Lecture Notes and Other Course Material. Box 1 [might be box 3], Folder “Econs. 148”.

Image Source: Hansen (left), Williams (right). Harvard Class Album, 1942.

 

 

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Fields Harvard

Harvard. History, Government, and Economics Division Exams, 1919

 

 

While during the fall of 1918 both Harvard and M.I.T. found themselves caught in the influenza epidemic, it is interesting to note that not a single question in the undergraduate divisional examinations for History, Government, and Economics was dedicated to that significant current event.

This post adds to the slowly growing Harvard divisional exams collection here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

_______________________

Previous Division A.B. Exams from Harvard

Division Exams 1916

Division Exams, January 1917

Division Exams, April 1918

Division Exams 1931

Special Exam for Money and Government Finance, 1939

Special Exam Economic History Since 1750, 1939

Special Exam for Economic Theory, 1939

Special Exam for Labor and Social Reform, 1939

_______________________

DIVISION EXAMINATION

Beginning with the Class of 1917, students concentrating in the Division of History, Government, and Economics will, at the close of their college course and as a prerequisite to the degree of A.B. and S.B., be required to pass an examination upon the field of their concentration. This examination ·will cover the general attainments of each candidate in the field covered by this Division and also his attainments in a specific field of study. The examination will consist of three parts:—

(a) A general examination, designed to ascertain the comprehensive attainment of the candidate in the subjects of this Division. The paper will be the same for all students, but there will be a large number of alternative questions to allow for differences in preparation.

(b) A special examination, which will test the student’s grasp of his chosen specific field (see list of fields below). The candidate will be expected to show a thorough understanding of the subject of this field; knowledge of the content of courses only will not suffice. The examination will be upon a subject, not upon a group of courses.

(c) An oral examination, supplementary to either or both of the written examinations, but ordinarily bearing primarily upon the candidate’s specific field. The specific field should ordinarily be chosen from the following list, which indicates also the courses bearing most directly upon each field. In special cases other fields or combinations of fields may be accepted by the Division. This field should be selected by the end of the Sophomore year.

Specific field of concentration:

History

  1. Ancient History
  2. Mediaeval History
  3. Modern History to 1789
  4. Modern History since 1789
  5. American History
  6. History of England
  7. History of France
  8. History of Germany
  9. History of Eastern Europe
  10. History of Spain and Latin America
  11. Economic History
  12. Constitutional and Legal History
  13. History of Religions

Government

  1. Modern Government—American
  2. Modern Government—European
  3. Municipal Government
  4. Political Theory
  5. Constitutional Law
  6. International Law and Diplomacy

Economics

  1. Economic Theory and its Application
  2. Economic History
  3. Economics and Sociology

Applied Economics

  1. Money and Banking
  2. Corporate Organization, including Railroads
  3. Public Finance
  4. Labor Problems
  5. Economics of Agriculture

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1917-18. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), pp. 78-81.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION GENERAL EXAMINATION
[May 9, 1919]

PART I

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

  1. Compare the methods of guaranteeing private rights against the government in England, France, and the United States.
  2. How far is it true that agriculture is the most stable source of a country’s material prosperity?
  3. Show the effect of changes in the systems of land holding upon political life.
  4. What should be the foreign policies of a socialist state?
  5. Contrast Roman and English systems of legislation.
  6. Were American colonial institutions indigenous or exotic?
  7. Compare the administrations of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson with those of Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson.
  8. To what extent do events since 1800 bear out the following proposition:
    “As the Creator is a being, not only of infinite power and wisdom but also of infinite goodness, he has been pleased so to contrive the constitution and frame of humanity that we should want no other prompter to enquire after…but only our self-love, that universal principle of action. For He has…inseparably interwoven the laws of external justice with the happiness of each individual.”
  9. Comment on the following quotation from de Tocqueville:
    “America is the country of the whole world where the Christian religion has conserved the most real power over the souls of men.”
  10. What are the arguments for and against a general agreement that “all states shall grant equal treatment to all aliens within their borders.”

Part II

Answers to questions 11 and 12 are required and will be regarded as equivalent to one-third of the examination, and should therefore occupy one-half hour each.

  1. Estimate the situation on August 4, 1914; on May 7, 1915; on April 6, 1917, and on November 11, 1918 with reference to:
    (1) Political power.
    (2) Military power.
    (3) Economic conditions.
    (4) National ideals.
  2. Give an outline and critical report upon some one standard work (not the course textbook) the whole of which you have studied as collateral reading with reference to this General Examination.

Part III

Three questions only from the following groups, A, B, and C are to be answered, of which two must be from one group and the third from either of the remaining groups.

A

  1. Give a brief account of the career of Alexander the Great. Why has it been so attractive to modern German scholars?
  2. Describe the relations of Innocent III to the sovereigns of his time.
  3. In his recent debate with President Lowell, Senator Lodge said, “I believe there are some thirty (leagues of nations) in the pages of history.” Mention, with approximate dates, as many of these thirty as you can, and give a full account of one of them.
  4. Discuss the rivalry of Russia and Austria in the Balkan peninsula since 1815.
  5. Wherein lies Lincoln’s right to a place in world history?

B

  1. What factors were most important in the earlier development of the modern city?
  2. What have been the interrelations of international balances of trade and national foreign policies?
  3. To what extent and for what reasons are monetary inflation and the financing of war inseparably connected?
  4. Trace the evolution of one of the following:
    (a) The eight-hour working day.
    (b) Syndicalism.
    (c) Vocational education.
    (d) Protectionism on the continent of Europe.
  5. To what extent and under what conditions does national well-being rest upon political control of essential raw materials?

C

  1. Does history show that law stifles originality and individuality? Use illustrations freely.
  2. Explain the ideas or movements, giving approximate dates, with which five of the following were associated:
    1. Fremont,
    2. Garibaldi,
    3. Kotzebue,
    4. Metternich,
    5. Moltke,
    6. Parnell,
    7. Raphael,
    8. Renan,
    9. Sully,
    10. Thiers.
  3. Distinguish the following terms: (a) federation, (b) confederation, (c) alliance, (d) league of nations, (e) federal state, (f) international union, (g) society of nations, (h) world state.
  4. Discuss the historical, political, and economic aspects of “freedom of the seas.”
  5. “Neighboring nations are naturally enemies to each other unless their common weakness forces them to league in a confederative republic.” Can this be supported by the history of the eighteenth century?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

MODERN HISTORY SINCE 1789
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions in all, taking at least one from each of the three sections into which the paper is divided.

I

  1. The years 1796-97 have been characterized as the most critical in the history of the British navy. What was the nature of the crisis? Account for the subsequent naval successes.
  2. Compare the attitudes of England and of the United States towards the movement for the independence of Latin America.
  3. Give a brief history of the Papacy from 1848 to 1870, with special reference to political affairs.
  4. Account for the revival of the Austrian Empire after the shocks it received in 1848-49.
  5. Give a brief account of the relations of China and Japan from 1890 to 1910.

II

  1. What are the origins and principal features of the present constitution of the French Republic?
  2. Outline the principal changes that have taken place in England’s outlying possessions since 1815 and in her relations to them.
  3. Give a brief account of the international questions which have arisen in connection with Venezuela in the past twenty-five years.
  4. What have been the principal issues between Madrid and the northeastern part of Spain during the past one hundred years?
  5. What do you understand by nationalism? Is it true that the proposed league of nations will safeguard it?

III

  1. Give a brief history of the Church in France from 1789 to 1815.
  2. What measures have been taken in England during the past one hundred years for the amelioration of the conditions of the working classes?
  3. What is Bolshevism? What is its probably future? Does the past history of Russia account for its presence there today?
  4. What are the principal natural resources of Latin America, and where are they located? In what natural resources is Latin America preeminently lacking?
  5. Do you think that clauses relative to labor and labor conditions ought to have a place in the peace treaty at present under discussion at Paris? Give your reasons for your answer.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

AMERICAN HISTORY
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions in all, taking at least one from each of the three sections into which the paper is divided.

I

  1. How were the English Colonies in North America affected by the course of events in Europe between 1650 and 1670?
  2. Compare the methods by which the United States acquired Texas with those by which she acquired Oregon.
  3. Describe the various projects for the annexation of Cuba by the United States, and give the reasons for their failure.
  4. Give a brief account of the military operations of 1864. What do you consider to be the turning point of that campaign?
  5. What are the principal international questions which have arisen in connection with Venezuela in the past twenty-five years?

II

  1. Compare the political organization of colonial Virginia with that of colonial New England, and explain the reasons for the differences.
  2. Is the Union older than the States?
  3. What were the effects of the administration and character of Andrew Jackson on the national government?
  4. Criticize the policy by which Reconstruction was carried out.
  5. Comment on, discuss or explain, as the case may require, eight of the following: Tordesillas Line, Mason and Dixon’s line, Greenback, Fundamental Constitutions, Barnburners, Drago Doctrine, Forty acres and a mule, Kitchen Cabinet, Bear Flag, Writs of Assistance.

III

  1. Give a short account of the Society of Jesus in the New World.
  2. “The development of transportation in the years following the treaty of Ghent is the most significant factor in American life between the inauguration of Washington and the firing on Fort Sumter.” Is this statement true? Explain at length.
  3. What arguments for the continuance of slavery could have been advanced by a conscientious slave holder in 1860?
  4. Describe the origin of Mormonism, and the importance of the Mormons in the western movement of population.
  5. Mention, with approximate dates, the names and principal works of four American poets, of three American painters, of three American inventors, of four American historians.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

ECONOMIC HISTORY
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions.

A

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

  1. Trace the course of the rate of interest in modern times. What probably will be the course of the rate during the next few years? Why?
  2. Give a brief history of the trade balance of the United States since 1850. Account for the changes noted.
  3. What factors have contributed most to changes in the distribution of wealth in the United States since 1870?
  4. What contribution has statistical method to make to historical research? Offer illustrative suggestions.

B

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

  1. Outline the history of the merchant marine of the United States.
  2. What was the Chartist movement? To what extent were its fundamental causes economic? To what degree was it associated with the trade union movement? the movement for the repeal of the Corn Laws?
  3. What part was played by the Zollverein, in the different stages of its development, in the struggle for the balance of power in the Germanic Confederation?
  4. Compare the economic life and organization of colonial Virginia with that of the New England colonies, and account for the differences.
  5. Trace the history of the public debt of the United States.
  6. What have been the most important developments in American agriculture since 1850?
  7. Sketch the development of the railway net of the United States.

C

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

  1. Discuss critically the “free silver” agitation of the nineties.
  2. In what particulars and for what reasons has labor legislation been backward in the United States?
  3. Describe the traditional German policy toward industrial combination. Analyze the more important consequences of the policy.
  4. In what respects is the present railway situation in the United States like, in what respects unlike, that prevailing before the War?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions. Take at least one question from each group.

A

  1. Discuss the distinction between “fair” and “unfair” competition.
  2. Analyze the probable economic after-effects of the War.
  3. What is the social justification of speculation?
  4. Discuss the following statement: “Products that are made for wages less than living and by hours longer than health endurance are anti-social and immoral products and express a ruinous social cost, no matter what the selling price may be. Such products are the result of parasitic industry and are filled with social poison. All industry of this nature is a leech upon the economic and race life and should be outlawed as we outlaw adulterations and fought as we fight pestilence.”

B

  1. Give a critical account of marriage and divorce statistics in the United States.
  2. Compare birth registration in the United States and Great Britain.
  3. What are the principal difficulties in the collection and subsequent use of statistics of crime?
  4. Discuss critically the decline of the birth rate during recent times.

C

  1. What is social progress? Indicate the importance of racial factors in social progress.
  2. Discuss “freedom of speech” as the right of every individual in a democratic society.
  3. Contrast the different bases of morality.
  4. Discuss the origin and effect of “fashion” on social and economic life.
  5. In a few words indicate the most important contributions to sociology by three of the following: (a) Comte, (b) Darwin, (c) Spencer, (d) Galton, (e) Kidd, (f) Ward, (g) Tarde, (h) Giddings.
  6. What are the most serious evils of modern social life? Why are these “most serious”?

D

  1. What are the principal causes of interruptions of family income? How are such interruptions to be prevented, or their evil consequences reduced to a minimum?
  2. What are the essentials of a satisfactory system of poor relief?
  3. What are the principal problems of rural community life in the United States?
  4. What is Bolshevism? What is its probable future?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

LABOR PROBLEMS
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions.

A

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

  1. What are “fair wages”? Consider the question with reference to (a) the effects of unrestricted competition; (b) the influence of collective bargaining; (c) the problems of compulsory arbitration; (d) the ideals of socialism.
  2. Discuss the following analogy: “Like machinery, the immigrants have relieved native laborers of heavy and disagreeable toil and have elevated them to an aristocracy of labor.”
  3. What are the principal difficulties in the statistical analysis of the course of real wages?
  4. What are the chief sources of industrial accident statistics in the United States?

B

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

  1. Contrast the development of social insurance in England, Germany, and the United States before the War. How do you account for the differences?
  2. Sketch the history of one of the following: (a) Knights of Labor; (b) American Federation of Labor; (c) British Labor Party; (d) German Social Democrats.
  3. Give an account of one of the following strikes: (a) Homestead; (b) Pullman; (c) Patterson; (d) Lawrence (1912); (e) French railway employees (1910); (f) British coal miners (1912).
  4. Compare the positions and policies of labor in the United States, England, and France during the War

C

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

  1. Describe and criticize the organization and work of the United States Department of Labor.
  2. What are the present relations between the labor and socialist movements?
  3. Analyze critically the results of compulsory arbitration in Australia.
  4. What are the functions of the employment manager?
  5. Classify and characterize the different types of labor union.
  6. Discuss the nature and uses of sabotage.
  7. Discuss critically the present attempt to internationalize labor policies.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

PUBLIC FINANCE
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions.

A

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

  1. Discuss “conscription of income” as a measure of war finance.
  2. What is the case for and against a tax on capital in England at the present time?
  3. To what extent and by what methods are statistics regarding the distribution of income and wealth in the United States to be derived from the present Federal income tax returns?
  4. Describe critically the form of budget employed by some important city, American or foreign.

B

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

  1. Trace the evolution of the taxation of land in England.
  2. What has been the history of the fee system of compensating public officials?
  3. Give a brief history of the state income tax in the United States.
  4. Compare British war finance during the past five years with the policies of the Napoleonic period.

C

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

  1. What is meant by “classification of property for purposes of taxation”? What are the reasons for such classification? What obstacles have stood in its way in American states?
  2. What have been the effects of the Congressional committee system upon national finance in the United States?
  3. State the case for and against the increment tax. What is the best mode of levying increment taxes?
  4. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the protective customs duty and the bounty as a means of encouraging home industry.
  5. Discuss the chief problems of inheritance taxation.
  6. What is the science of public finance? What is its relation to (a) economic theory? (b) political science? (c) administrative law?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

CORPORATE ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING RAILROADS
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions.

A

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

  1. Discuss the following statement: “When you find a business in staples attaining size, you may be sure that in some broad economic way it makes for increased efficiency and gives a very fundamental service to consumers. In no other way could it continue to exist.”
  2. What theoretical problems are involved in government regulation of corporate security issues?
  3. Enumerate and explain the more important statistical units employed in analyses of railroad operations.
  4. What is the present practice of American railroads in regard to depreciation of equipment under the Interstate Commerce Commission regulations?

B

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

  1. Give an account of the organization and subsequent career of one of the large American industrial combinations.
  2. Compare the history of water transportation in the United States, England, and Germany.
  3. Trace the evolution of English policy toward industrial combination.
  4. Outline the history of the railroads of France.

C

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

  1. Discuss critically the financial results of government operation of the railroads in the United States since January 1, 1918.
  2. In what particulars, if at all, should the Sherman Anti-Trust Law be amended?
  3. Describe and criticize the Federal Income Tax insofar as it applies to corporations.
  4. Discuss the organization and work of the Federal Trade Commission.
  5. Should concerns doing an interstate business be compelled to incorporate under the Federal government? Why, or why not?
  6. Upon what different bases may railway systems be appraised? In what ways, if at all, is railway valuation related to railway rate regulation?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

MONEY AND BANKING
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions.

A

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

  1. Of what concretely do uninvested, of what do invested, savings consist? Can they accumulate to an indefinitely large amount? Can saving be carried to excess?
  2. Indicate the means by which the amount of monetary inflation is to be measured.
  3. Describe the principal books of a large city commercial bank.
  4. Draft an income or profit and loss statement suitable for a commercial bank.

B

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

  1. Trace the evolution of modern coinage practices.
  2. What kinds of money circulated in the United States in 1800? 1840? 1860? 1870? 1880? 1895? Explain any changes noted.
  3. Outline the history of the Bank of France.
  4. Give a brief account of the office of Comptroller of the Currency.

C

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

  1. “The pivotal thing in sound banking is the character of the bank’s assets.” Is this statement correct? What kind of assets, if any, are of particular importance?
  2. Describe critically the use of gold during the War.
  3. Explain briefly the functions of the following officers and departments in a large bank: (a) note teller; (b) collection department; (c) credit department; (d) cashier; (e) loan department.
  4. Wherein, if at all, might the monetary system of the United States be substantially improved?
  5. Discuss the banking problems involved in the flotation of an immense government war loan.
  6. What is to be said for and against the separation of commercial and investment banking? How extensively are the two combined today in (a) the United States, (b) England, (c) France?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

POLITICAL THEORY
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions.

A

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

  1. “In every body politic there is a maximum strength which it cannot exceed and which it only loses by increasing in size. Every extension of the social tie means its relaxation; and generally speaking, a small state is stronger in proportion that a great one.” Has this opinion been accepted by any political philosophers? Does history support it?
  2. How has political theory been influenced at different periods by the prevailing economic doctrines?
  3. Who were the authors of the following: (a) Oceana, (b) The Prince, (c) A Fragment on Government, (d) Democracy in America, (e) The Republic, (f) The Wealth of Nations. In what order should these be recommended to a student of government? Justify this order.
  4. Name and give with brief criticism the ideas of the leading political theorist of (1) France, (2) Germany, (3) America.

B

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

  1. Discuss “He who serves the state should rank above all others.”
  2. Could Plato’s ideas of a republic be applied in the twentieth century?
  3. State in outline your own theory of the state and show how this would apply to the United States.
  4. How far has the war of 1914-19 a justification in political theory?

C

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

  1. “Law is regarded as a truth to be discovered not as a command to be imposed.” Discuss critically giving conclusions with reasons.
  2. Contrast the political ideas of (1) Hobbes, (2) Rousseau, (3) Kant.
  3. Has progress in Europe been more rapid since than before the thirteenth century.” What is progress?
  4. “Who is wise and prudent, cannot or ought not to keep his parole, when the keeping of it is to his prejudice and the causes for which he promised removed.” Discuss the theory based on and give the source of this quotation.
  5. Give a brief outline of two of the following and name the authors: (a) City of the Sun, (b) The Federalist, (c) On Liberty, (d) Philosophical Theory of the State, (e) Principles of Political Obligation, (f) Patriarcha, (g) Two Treatises of Government, (h) Politics.
  6. What has been the relation of Common Law to national development?
  7. Compare the following methods of study of political theories: (a) Metaphysical, (b) Analytical, (c) Historical, (d) Comparative.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions.

A

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

  1. Discuss the significance of joint cost in the calculation of the cost of production of agricultural staples.
  2. To what extent have American farming methods been characteristically wasteful?
  3. Describe a model system of accounts for a large dairy farm.
  4. Give an account of the organization and work of the International Institute of Agriculture.

B

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

  1. Describe the part played by the American farmer in the (a) Granger movement; (b) Populist Party; (c) Free Silver campaign of 1896; (d) Non-Partisan League.
  2. Outline the history of wheat-growing on the North American continent.
  3. Describe in detail the methods of agriculture in England during the Middle Ages.
  4. Trace the development of the manufacture of farm implements.

C

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

  1. Analyze the problem of farm labor.
  2. Discuss critically the work of the United States Food Administration during the War.
  3. Describe the present organization of the meat-packing industry in the United States.
  4. To what extent and in what particulars is agricultural credit different from mercantile credit?
  5. What are the opportunities for cooperation in agriculture?
  6. Discuss the principal problems of rural community life in the United States.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

STATISTICS
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions. Take at least one question from each group.

A

  1. What is meant by “statistical method”? What is the scientific importance of the method? What are its limitations?
  2. What is the logical distinction, if there be any, between a weighted and a simple arithmetic mean? What are the reasons for and against weighting? Under what circumstances may weighing safely be omitted?
  3. Discuss the standard deviation of a series with reference to (a) its meaning; (b) its computation; (c) its merits and defects as compared with other measures of dispersion; (d) its use in graphic analysis and presentation.
  4. Criticise the following statement: In the case of historical variables, “no coefficient equals the graphic method for demonstrating whether correlation does or does not exist.”
  5. Describe the methods of obtaining an approximation to the value of r without actually computing the coefficient.

B

  1. What are the more important steps in preparing for the actual field count of a population census?
  2. Describe the successive steps of machine tabulation. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such tabulation?
  3. Explain the nature of, and indicate the best form for, each of the following varieties of statistical table:
    (a) historical,
    (b) cumulative frequency,
    (c) contingency,
    (d) correlation.
  4. Draft a set of rules for the graphic presentation of historical series.
  5. In a few words indicate the contributions to statistics of three of the following: (a) Petty; (b) Achenwall; (c) Süssmilch; (d) Quételet; (e) Pearson; (f) F. A. Walker; (g) A. Bertillon; (h) Levasseur; (i) Edgeworth.

C

  1. Trace the development of the United States Census.
  2. Compare the present status of birth registration in the United States and Great Britain.
  3. Discuss the different statistical devices now in use for the forecasting of general business conditions.
  4. Enumerate and criticize the chief sources of wage statistics in the United States.
  5. Give a brief account of the organization and work of the International Institute of Agriculture.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions. Answer at least one question in each group.

A

  1. Compare the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
  2. Give brief sketches of five of the following: (a) T. H. Benton, (b) Louis Cass, (c) Cyrus Field, (d) John Jay, (e) William L. Marcy, (f) S. F. B. Morse, (g) Richard Rush, (h) M. P. Trist, (i) William Walker, (j) Eli Whitney.
  3. Discuss the following statement attributed to President Jackson: “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” Show the application of this quotation.
  4. Explain four of the following: (a) “Era of good feeling,” (b) “The Battle of the Maps,” (c) “The Great Expounder of the Constitution,” (d) “Fifty-four, forty or fight,” (e) “Millions for defence but not one cent for tribute,” (f) “They ask of me a town, I give them an empire.”
  5. “The Northern Hive would excite the same ideals and sensations in more southern parts of America which it formerly did in the more southern parts of Europe. Nor does it appear to be a rash conjecture that its young swarms might often be tempted to gather honey in the more blooming fields and milder air of their luxurious and more delicate neighbors.” (From the Federalist discussing a proposal that the American colonies divide themselves into three or four nations.) To what events in European history does the above quotation allude? Is the conjecture sound? Why?
  6. What constitutional questions have arisen in the United States in regard to the acquisition of territory and how have these been decided?

B

  1. Give the reasons for and against the appointment of the following to negotiate a treaty: (a) the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, (b) the Commanding General of the Army, (c) the Secretary of the Navy, (d) the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, (e) the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
  2. Discuss “Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.”
  3. What extraordinary powers may be exercised by the President and by Congress in time of war?
  4. What lines should be drawn in limiting the powers of municipalities?
  5. “The Fourteenth Amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer’s Social Statics.” Explain.
  6. Name five important acts of Congress for the regulation of business. To what extent have these attained their object?

C

  1. What readjustment of governmental functions should be made in the United States?
  2. Have recent state constitutions containing detailed provisions proven more satisfactory than the older constitutions?
  3. “A war declared by Congress can never be presumed to be waged for the purpose of conquest or the acquisition of territory, nor does the law declaring the war imply an authority in the President to enlarge the limits of the United States by subjugating the enemy country.” Discuss with reference to international law and the constitutional law of the United States.
  4. What are the defects in the method of taxation in the United States, and what are the proposed remedies?
  5. Would it be advantageous for the United States to substitute for the system of geographical representation, a greater degree of class representation?
  6. What conclusions can be drawn from the recent experience of the United States in operating public utilities?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

INTERNATIONAL LAW
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions, of which at least three must be from Group B, and one from each of the other Groups.

A

  1. What did three of the following contribute to the development of International Law: (a) Bentham, (b) Bluntschli, (c) Hobbes, (d) Machiaevelli, (e) Pufendorf, (f) Suarez, (g) Wolff?
  2. Compare the Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes with the League of nations Covenant.
  3. Compare the state of international law at the following periods: 100, 800, 1414, 1914.
  4. Does the rule of Jus Sanguinis or Jus Soli most widely prevail? Which doctrine should prevail? Why?
  5. “Sea Power is essentially a defensive weapon.”
    “To be master of the sea is an epitome of monarchy.”
    Are these statements accurate? Are they compatible?

B

  1. A, the United States sheriff is pursuing X, a horse-thief, near the Mexican border. Just before X reaches the border Mr. A lassos him, but X has sufficient impetus to get across the border. There he falls down and Mr. A drags him back. Mexico demands the return of X.
  2. After neutral state X has issued regulations forbidding all foreign submarines in its ports, a submarine of the navy of neutral state Y enters in stress of weather. A cruiser of X opens fire and the submarine is damaged. State Y demands reparation and a salute of her flag.
  3. A, B, and C living in states X, Y, and Z respectively are in partnership, the business of the firm being the shipping of raw products from X and Y to Z where they are manufactured. War breaks out between X and Y. A cruiser of X captures a vessel flying the flag of X loaded with cotton shipped by the firm to Mr. C. They are placed before the prize court.
  4. Is it ever justifiable under international law to employ armed forces on the territory of a friendly state? If so, under what circumstances?
  5. States X and Y being at war, an armed merchant vessel of X enters a port of neutral state N and takes on a cargo of guns and ammunition. It captures a merchant vessel of Y on the high seas and brings it in to port where it is condemned. State Y demands the value of the vessel from state N.
  6. What exemptions from territorial jurisdiction and exceptions to the theory of territorial jurisdiction are recognized by international law?

C

  1. Explain (a) sovereignty, (b) independence, and (c) equality of states. Should these conceptions be maintained?
  2. “The theory that the treaty (guaranteeing the rights of sovereignty and property of Colombia in the Isthmus of Panama) obliged the government of the United States to protect the government of Colombia against domestic insurrection or its consequences, is in its nature inadmissible.” Is this good law?
  3. In what respects does the right of the United States over the Panama Canal Zone differ from its right over Porto-Rico?
  4. To what extent are the following doctrines recognized in international law: (a) most favored nation treatment, (b) the open door, (c) the Monroe Doctrine, (d) intervention, (e) freedom of immigration.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
[May 15, 1919]

Answer six questions of which three questions must be from one group, two must be from another group and one must be from the remaining group.

A

  1. Explain the rules governing the legal liability of a municipal corporation for the torts of its employees.
  2. Give reason why the city manager plan is suitable or is not suitable for cities with over 200,000 population.
  3. What are the essentials of a satisfactory street railway franchise?
  4. What are the relative merits of the sinking-fund and serial bond methods of municipal borrowing?
  5. Describe the framework of government in any one of the following cities: (1) Des Moines, (2) Dayton, (3) San Francisco, (4) Washington, (5) Philadelphia.
  6. Granting a condition similar to that of a former industrial city in a devastated war area in Europe, what methods of reconstruction should be adopted?

B

  1. Give a sketch of municipal government in the United States before 1850.
  2. Explain the system of administration of municipal corporations in Colonial America.
  3. Give an idea of conditions in English municipalities before 1835. What is the source of information for this period?
  4. When New York had a population of 60,000 the city expenditure was about $100,000. When Ann Arbor had a population of 15,000 the city expenditure was about $150,000. Why?
  5. Explain three methods of election of municipal officials and show why one is best.
  6. Under what conditions was the present system of city administration in France established? What are its merits?

C

  1. Should American cities adopt a segregated budget system, and what should be its main divisions?
  2. Can civil service principles be applied in all city departments, and with what advantages and disadvantages?
  3. Should the city of Boston own the docks, and railroad terminals?
  4. What principles of valuation for tax purposes should be applied to land or to buildings in municipalities?
  5. How far would the Prussian system of municipal government as it existed in 1914 be suitable for American cities?
  6. (a) Should there be a limit on campaign expenses for municipal office? What should this limit be? (b) Has there been a relatively greater misuse of municipal than of other public funds? Why?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Divisional and general examinations, 1915-1975.  Box 6. Bound volume [from the private library of Arthur H. Cole]: Divisional Examinations, 1916-1927. Division of History, Government and Economics for the Degree of A.B. Division Examinations, 1918-19.

Image Source:  Sever Hall, Harvard University, ca. 1904. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Year-end exam on Practical Economic Questions. Laughlin, 1884

 

 

The 1883-84 academic year at Harvard marked a notable expansion in economics course offerings. That year the third course (on practical economic questions) was taught by J. Laurence Laughlin. According to the brief description included in the annual report of the Harvard College President, it appears that the first semester was devoted to “the general question of Bimetallism”. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found the mid-year final examination for the first semester. However, I have found a copy of the end-of-year final exam covering government policy regarding sea transportation and paper currency. Those questions have been transcribed and are included below.

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Course Enrollment

Political Economy 3. Prof. Laughlin. Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. — Theses and lectures on the general question of Bimetallism, on its history, and on the production of gold and silver. — Lectures on the Navigation Laws and American shipping, and on the relative advantages of government issues and national bank notes.

Total 7: 1 Graduate, 6 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1883-1884, p. 71

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POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
[Year-end Examination. June 1884]

  1. Discuss the effects of the English Navigation Acts of 1651 on English and Dutch shipping.
  2. Explain the following terms: enumerated articles, Pacte colonial, droit de tonnage, surtaxe de pavillon, surtaxe d’entrepôt.
  3. Describe the causes which led to the American Navigation Laws. State some of the existing anomalies in their provisions.
  4. To what do you ascribe the decline of our merchant marine? What is our position in regard to wooden sailing vessels since 1869?
  5. Discuss the argument that so long as foreigners carry our goods, this country is paying them a tribute for freight which is an utter loss to us.
  6. In looking at the history of the issues of paper money by the two United States Banks and the State Banks, which have furnished the safest currency? Why?
  7. Describe the workings of the New York Banking Act of 1838, and its results. Of what was this legislation the natural outcome?
  8. In the provisions of the National Banking Act of 1864, what are the exact provisions as to immediate, and ultimate redemption of notes? Is convertibility secured?
  9. Explain the operations by which the national banks can now contract their issues. Does this furnish an “elastic currency” since the passage of the Free Banking Law?
  10. Discuss the main disadvantages of a government paper money. By what interpretation of the Constitution has the recent decision of the Supreme Court declared the post-bellum issues constitutional?
  11. What are the merits of the Potter Bill now pending in the present Congress?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound Volume: Examination Papers 1883-1886. Papers set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1884), pp. 9-10.

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

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Economics Programs Economists Harvard Radical

Harvard. Leontief and Galbraith report on conflict within department, 1972

In December 1972 the conflict about opening the Harvard economics faculty to include “broader and necessarily ‘softer’ questions of social structure, social functions and social reform” exploded beyond the confines of the economics department. This post provides two letters/memos sent to Harvard’s President Derek C. Bok written by Wassily Leontief and John Kenneth Galbraith, respectively, that supported curriculum reform involving the continued appointments of young radical economists. It would appear from Leontief’s account that a relatively silent majority of the younger mathematical economists in the department was able to block the recommendation of their more senior colleagues to expand course offerings to meet the demand of students for courses outside the confines of “orthodox technical economics”…a revolution that devoured its own parents.

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Background tip:

Talk presented by Tom Weisskopf “The Origins and Evolution of Radical Political Economics” (September 25, 2012).

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Photocopy Leontief to Harvard President Derek C. Bok

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Wassily Leontief
Professor of Economics

309 Littauer
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
(617) 495-2118

December 21, 1972

Mr. Derek Bok
President
Harvard University
Massachusetts Hall 1

Dear Derek:

I am writing in response to your request for my views on the conflict that for some time has been straining the relationships within the Executive Committee of our Department on the one hand and Executive Committee and the graduate student body on the other. It developed along rather familiar lines and finally broke into the open.

The controversy, as I see it, centers on the question whether the Department of Economics should widen the range of its intellectual concerns and of its teaching responsibilities beyond the narrowly delineated field of orthodox technical economics by inclusion of broader and necessarily “softer” questions of social structure, social functions and social reform: questions raised for example in the old Marxist and the new radical economics.

While a minority in the Executive Committee favors a move in this direction, arguing that it would reflect the natural growth and extension of our discipline, the majority opposes it on the grounds that this would amount to politicalization of the field and lowering of intellectual standards. Somewhat paradoxically, the minority favoring a change comprises mostly senior members of the Department while the core of the majority group consists of the younger mathematical economists. Needless to say, the students are on the side of the minority. While the minority did most of the talking, the majority was content with voting.

Last spring a mixed faculty-student committee appointed by the Chairman proposed a modest curriculum reform that would reflect the interest in the new subjects. After a stiff fight, the report was first accepted, then watered down, and finally scuttled.

The division within the Department was clearly reflected in a series of votes on new appointments. Three years ago, the junior staff contained four radical economists: Herb Gintis, Tom Weisskopf, Art MacEwan and Sam Bowles. All were let go. Gintis is now lecturer in the Department of Education, Tom Weisskopf was avidly acquired by the Department of Economics of the University of Michigan, Sam Bowles failed a week ago to receive a permanent appointment, and Art MacEwan was denied this week a second three-year appointment. The slate is clear except for Steve Marglin, who was elevated to full professorship before his interests had shifted into the field of institutional analysis and criticism.

Adverse votes are invariably based on lack of intellectual distinction and creditable contributions to knowledge by the candidate; this notwithstanding the fact that several permanent slots were filled in the past by scholars of admittedly indifferent stature on the ground that a vacancy had to be filled in some narrowly defined specialized field.

Reluctantly the minority on the Executive Committee came to the conclusion that its advice and counsel will be disregarded in the future as it was in the past; that crucial decisions will be made on the basis of an often silent, but invariably effective majority vote. The rising tension finally led to acrimonious exchanges at the last meeting of the Executive Committee.

The obvious frustration of the graduate students finds its expression in sharp verbiage used by the radical minority and sullen indifference and cynicism among the rest. I hardly need to add that the students are quite aware of the division within the Executive Committee.

This is where we stand now. At best one could observe that as a whole the senior teaching staff of the Economics Department is much less effective than one could have expected it to be considering the distinction of its individual members. At worst, the continuation of the conflict might result in resignations and damage all around.

After you called me up, Jim Duesenberry asked several members of the Department to serve on a committee that would review the intellectual problems involved and try to find some way out. The proposed composition of the committee (Arrow, Bergson, Dorfman, Galbraith and me) assures that its report will give full weight to the minority point of view.

I myself feel that nothing short of a clear-cut reversal in the present trend can prevent further deterioration of the situation. Needless to say, I will do all I can to bring about a constructive and peaceable solution of the difficult problems we are facing. Some counsel and some help from you and John [probably economist John T. Dunlop who was serving as Dean] most likely will be needed. Let me add that some of my colleagues who up to now held an opposing point of view have offered their full cooperation.

I have dictated this letter but had no time to proofread it since Estelle and I are leaving for London two hours from now. In case of need, please do not hesitate to call me. My secretary, Mary Conley, will know all the time where I can be reached.

With best wishes from Estelle and me to Sissele and you.

Sincerely,
[signed]
Wassily Leontief

WL:mc

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

Carbon copy Galbraith to Harvard President Derek C. Bok

December 22, 1972

President Derek C. Bok
Massachusetts Hall

Dear Derek:

This I hope will diminish the concern you may have had following my telephone call of the other evening. My personal anger, as usual, has been difficult to sustain although I surely intend to stay with this problem until things are put right. I’ve met with the young radicals and I think they are persuaded that Toronto is not a good forum and that neither Arrow nor I is the man they most want to embarrass. John has operated with usual skill and panache. He accepts the idea of a commission to consider and act before things get worse, and I am drafting up the terms of reference for discussion with Jim Duesenberry. I’ve gone over the rough outlines with Wassily. With considerable approval, I’ve raised the question of conflict of interest with external corporate enterprises. I enclose a document on that subject.

In any case, a Merry Christmas.

Yours faithfully,

John Kenneth Galbraith

JKG:kv

Enclosure

 

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526. Folder “Harvard Dept. of Economics, Discussion of appointments, outside interests and reorganization, 1972-1973 (1 of 2)”.

Image Source: Wassily Leontief from Harvard Class Album 1957.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final examination for Chinese Economic Problems. Lindsay, 1947

 

Michael Francis Morris Lindsay, 2nd Baron Lindsay of Birker, taught “Chinese Economic Problems” (Economics 14a) at Harvard during the Spring term 1947. The short bibliography of course readings has been posted earlier along with details of Lindsay’s interesting life.

Reading list and final exam for the 1955 course taught by Douglas Seymour Paauw have also been transcribed and posted.

This post adds a transcription of the course final examination.

_____________________

1946-47
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 14a

Chinese Economic Problems
[Final Examination, May 1947]

(Answer at least three, preferably four, of the following questions, not more than one from each section.)

(a)

  1. How far has China got the natural resources necessary to develop into an important industrial power?
  2. Discuss the possibilities of economic development in the West and Northwest of China.
  3. Discuss the transportation system of China and give some suggestions as to the most urgently required improvements and the most suitable plans for future development.

(b)

  1. How far can China be taken as an illustration of the Malthusian theory?
  2. Discuss the evidence for the view that the population of China has not increased appreciably during the last century.
  3. To what extent is there a surplus of unemployed labour available in China?

(c)

  1. “There is no want of available land in this country which is more than sufficient for distribution among the population…The question of exploitation and readjustment is therefore, in my opinion, more important than that of distribution.” (Chiang Kai-shek in 1933) Discuss this view of the agrarian problem.
  2. How far can food production be increased in China?
  3. What are the essentials for a programme of rural economic reconstruction?

(d)

  1. What part can co-operatives and handicraft industry play in the future economic development of China?
  2. What are the difficulties that have hindered the development of industry in China?
  3. To what extent is government action necessary to secure industrialization in China?

(e)

  1. Discuss the problem of China’s balance of payments.
  2. What are the main differences between the monetary system of China and those of Western countries?
  3. What are the main problems in getting a satisfactory taxation system in China?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations 1853-2001, Box 14. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. May, 1947.

Image Source:  Michael Lindsay tuning a radio receiver at the Jinchaji base in Hebel province, sometime between 1941 and 1944. China Daily April 8, 2015.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economy of Russia. Enrollment, Outline, Readings, Final Exam. Leontief, 1949

 

The course outline for Leontief’s The Economy of Russia course taught in the Spring term of 1949 is identical to that of the previous year’s version (only the Dobb book has been updated to a more recent edition). The value-added of this post is found in the course enrollment numbers, links to most readings, and the final exam questions.

Fun fact: Jacob Marschak was an editor of the Bienstock et al. book Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture assigned in Leontief’s course.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 112b (formerly Economics 12b). The Economy of Russia (Sp). Professor Leontief.

Total 44: 19 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Public Administration, 6 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1948-49, p. 76.

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Economics 112b
The Economy of Russia
Spring Term, 1949

  1. From the Emancipation to the Revolution
    1.  Agricultural development and reforms
    2.  First stages of industrialization

Reading assignments:

Bowden, Karpovich, and Usher, An Economic History of Europe since 1750, Ch. 29, pp. 598-615.
Hubbard, L. E., The Economics of Soviet Agriculture, Chs. 1-8, pp. 1-63.
Maynard, J., The Russian Peasant, Chs. 1, 2, pp. 13-62.

  1. War and Revolution
    1. War economy up to the October Revolution
    2. Agrarian revolution and the nationalization of industries

Reading assignments:

Maynard, Ch. 6, pp. 63-81.
Baykov, A., The Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. 1, 2, 3, pp. 1-48.

  1. War Communism
    1. Industrial collapse
    2. Agricultural contraction

Reading assignments:

Dobb, M. Russian [sic, “Soviet” is used in the later edition] Economic Development since the Revolution, Ch. 5, pp. 97-125.

  1. The New Economic Policy
    1. Private enterprise and the socialized sector
    2. Agricultural recovery
    3. Industrial reconstruction

Reading assignments:

Maynard, Ch. 10, pp. 148-182.
Baykov, Chs. 4-9, pp. 49-152.

  1. The Economics of High Pressure Industrialization
    1. Capital accumulation
    2. Structural change

Reading assignments:

Yugow, A., Russia’s Economic Front for War and Peace, Ch. 2, pp. 30-42, and Ch. 9, pp. 198-219.
Baykov, A., Ch. 10, pp. 153-158.
Dobb, M., Ch. 8, pp. 177-208.

  1. Socialist Agriculture
    1. The process of socialization (collectivization)
    2. The Kolkhoz
    3. The Sovkhoz and machine-tractor station
    4. Development of agricultural output and its allocation

Reading assignments:

Baykov, Ch. 13, pp. 189-311; Ch. 17, pp. 309-334.
Yugow, Ch. 3, pp. 43-81.
Maynard, Ch. 15, pp. 279-309.
Bienstock, Schwarz, and Yugow, Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, Chs. 10-17, pp. 127-179.

  1. Industrial Expansion
    1. The three Five-Year Plans
    2. Industrial organization
    3. Labor and unions

Reading assignments:

Yugow, Ch. 2, pp. 13-30; Chs. 7 and 8, pp. 149-197.
Bienstock…, Chs. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 9.
Baykov, Ch. 11, pp. 159-187; Ch. 13, pp. 212-233; Ch. 16, pp. 277-308; and Ch. 18, pp. 335-363.
Bergson, A., The Structure of Soviet Wages, Chs. 1, 2, pp. 3-25; Chs. 11, 12, 13, and 14, pp. 159-210.
Report of the C.I.O. Delegation to the Soviet Union, 1947.
Dobb, M., Ch. 16, pp. 407-453.

  1. Functional Structure of the Economic System
    1. Prices, wages, taxes, and profits
    2. The governmental budget as an instrument of economic policy
    3. Methods of planning
    4. Principles of planning

Reading assignments:

Baykov, Ch. 15, pp. 251-276; Ch. 20, pp. 423-479.
Yugow, Ch. 4, pp. 82-95; Ch. 10, 11, pp. 219-243.
Bienstock…, Ch. 4, pp. 47-57; Ch. 6, pp. 66-90; Introduction, pp. xiii-xxxii.
Lange, Oscar, The Working Principles of Soviet Economy, American-Russian Institute.
Dobb, M., Chs. 13 and 14, pp. 313-348.

  1. War and Post-War
    1. Soviet war economy
    2. The new Five-Year Plan
    3. Soviet economy and world economy

Reading assignments:

Schwartz, Harry, Russia’s Postwar Economy
Gerschenkron, A., Economic Relations with the U.S.S.R.
Yugow, Ch. 5, pp. 96-122.
Dobb, M., Ch. 12, pp. 290-312.

General reading:

Gregory, J., and Shave, D. W., The U.S.S.R., A Geographical Survey, Part I, pp. 1-250.

Reading Period Assignments
May 8-May 27, 1949

Economics 112b: Read both N. Voznesnesky, The Economy of the U.S.S.R. during World War II, Public Affairs Press, 1948, and The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1949, “Soviet Union since World War II,” read all articles on economic subjects contained in this issue.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics 1948-49 (1 of 2)”

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1948-49
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 112b
[Final Examination]

Please Write Legibly

Answer FOUR questions

  1. Describe the organization of Russia’s agriculture on the eve of 1861, outline the economic basis of the Reform, and indicate its principal economic consequences.
  2. Describe the New Economic Policy, discuss the reasons for its adoption and the causes of its liquidation.
  3. Compare the successive Five Year Plans and indicate the principal distinctive features of each one of them.
  4. Describe the structure of the Soviet price system and compare its role in the operation of the planned economy with the role of the competitive price mechanism in a capitalist economy.
  5. Analyze the use of economic incentives in the operation of Soviet industry and agriculture.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001. Box 16. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1949.

Image Source: Drawn from the J. F. Horrabin poster “The Workers’ Country Must Be Built by Work”. Frontispiece for Maurice Dobb’s special trade union edition of Russian Economic Development since the Revolution. London: 1928.