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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Syllabus and exams for Government Policy Toward Business. Kaysen, 1961

 

Carl Kaysen
from the 1958 Harvard yearbook

Carl Kaysen, who just this year [1958] was promoted to the position of Professor of Economics, has risen quickly up the educational ladder and has a distinguished record of non-academic accomplishments as well. At the age of 20, he served on the National Bureau of Economic Research, two years later he joined the Office of Strategic Services, and he served in the Air Force from 1943 to 1945. At thirty, he became an Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard, and was promoted to Associate Professor two years ago. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a Guggenheim Fellow.

Professor Kaysen is primarily interested in industrial organizations and monopoly practices. He is a co-author of The American Business Creed and is currently engaged in a study of the complexity of modern business firms.

Source: Harvard Class Album 1958.

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Course Description

Economics 144. Government Policy Toward Business
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 10. Professor Kaysen.

This course surveys the major areas of government regulation of the functioning of markets in the United States. Anti-trust policy, agricultural policy, public utility regulation, and the regulation of transportation are examined with an eye to both their underlying economic rationale and their outcome in practice.

Source: Courses of Instruction: Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. LVII, No. 21 (August 29, 1960), p. 96.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 144. Government Policy Toward Business. Professor Kaysen. Half course.

(Spring) Total 88: 2 Graduates, 29 Seniors, 32 Juniors, 19 Sophomores, 5 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1960-61, p. 76.

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Economics 144
Government Policy Toward Business

Professor Kaysen        Littauer 212    MW 11-12
Dr. Fromm                  Littauer 214    MW 11-12
Mr. Wilson                  Littauer 214 Tues 4-6

  1. Policy Goals, Economic Systems, and Policy Instruments (Feb. 6-17)

Watson, Donald S., Economic Policy: Business and Government, Part I, pp. 3-196.

  1. Competition: Enough and Just Enough (Feb. 20 – March 20)

Wilcox, Clair, Public Policies Toward Business, Revised Edition, Chapters 3-5, pp. 49-123.

Bain, Joe S., Industrial Organization, Chapter 13, pp. 477-539.

United States, Department of Justice, Report of the Attorney General’s National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws, Chapters 1 and 3, pp. 1-64 and 115-128.

Stelzer, Irwin M., Selected Antitrust Cases: Landmark Decisions in Federal Antitrust, Chapter 1 (except Yellow Cab Company, et al.) pp. 3-40, 44-59, Chapter 3, pp. 79-94, Chapter 4, pp. 95-105.

Oppenheim, S. Chesterfield, Recent Cases on Federal Anti-Trust Laws, 1951 Supplement to Cases on Federal Anti-Trust Laws;

United States v. American Can Co., pp. 434-451
Tag Mfrs. Institute, et al. v. Federal Trade Commission, pp. 304-318
United States v. Aluminum Company of America, pp. 209-289

Federal Supplement, United States v. Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co., 168 F. Supp. 576.

Levitan, Sar A., Federal Assistance to Labor Surplus Areas, A Report to the Committee on Banking and Currency, United States House of Representatives, 85th Congress, 1st Session, April 15, 1957, pp. 5-35.

Watson, Donald S., Economic Policy: Business and Government, Chapter 25, pp. 658-691.

Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, Staff Report on Employment, Growth, and Price Levels, December 24, 1959, Chapter 7, pp. 189-204.

  1. Monopolies, Near Monopolies (March 22 — April 17)

Wilcox, Clair, Public Policies Toward Business, Revised Edition, Chapters 19-22, pp. 539-642.

Watson, Donald S., Economic Policy: Business and Government, Chapter 16, pp. 391-421.

Meyer, J.R., Peck, M.J., Stenason, J., and Zwick, C., The Economics of Competition in the Transportation Industries, Chapters 6-9, pp. 145-273.

  1. External Effects and Ignorance (April 19-28)

Rostow, Eugene V., A National Policy for the Oil Industry, Chapters 3-6, pp. 16-53.

Bain, Joe S., The Economics of the Pacific Coast Petroleum Industry, Volume III, Chapter III, pp. 23-67.

Owen, Wilfred, Cities in the Motor Age, Chapter 2, pp. 18-41, Chapter 8, pp. 138-150.

Haar, Charles M., “The Master Plan: An Inquiry in Dialogue Form,” Journal of the American Institute of Planners, August 1959, pp. 133-142.

  1. General Overview (May 1-3)

To be announced.

Reading Period assignment to be announced.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1960-1961 (1 of 2)”.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Reading Period Assignments
Spring Term, 1960-61

Ec. 144:

J. E. Meade, Planning and the Price Mechanism, Ch. I, III, IV, AND W.A. Lewis, Principles of Planning, Ch. I, II, IV, VI, VII-IX
OR E. Devons, Planning in Practice.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1960-1961 (2 of 2)”.

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ECONOMICS 144
Hour Examination
April 14, 1961

Answer ALL questions.

PART I
20 Minutes

  1. Some economists have suggested that a “market power” standard should be used in judging monopolization cases under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. What would the differences between this standard and the exiting performance standard be? What would be achieved by adopting the proposed standard? What new problems might it create?

 

PART II
30 Minutes

  1. Outline the role of government economic policy as interpreted by:
    1. reform liberals
    2. neo-liberals
    3. conservatives
  2. What is the essential economic problem presented by the agricultural sector and the depressed areas? [handwritten note: “allocation of resources + factor mobility”]
  3. There is wide agreement that some regulation of the utility industries, such as electric power, is necessary. What economic facts and judgments underlie this agreement?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1960-1961 (1 of 2)”.

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ECONOMICS 144
Final Examination

PART I

Answer both questions.

  1. (a) Some problems in anti-trust regulation are:
    1. Parallel pricing vs. collusive behavior
    2. Monopolizing vs. monopoly
    3. Market power vs. monopoly

Discuss each in the light of Sherman Act enforcement and the cases you have read.

  1. Assume that you were an economic adviser to the Anti-trust Division during the Dupont Cellophane case. After you had heard Dupont present its defense, what arguments would you have given the Government’s lawyers in order to help them prepare their reply?
  1. (a) Why does the market fail to allocate resources properly in the oil industry? What possible remedies would you recommend and why?

(b) Discuss briefly the arguments why interference with the market mechanism is necessary in order to achieve an optimal allocation of land uses in a city. What do you consider to be the most difficult problems that an urban planning authority would face?

 

PART II

Answer one question only.

  1. (a) What are some of the difficulties encountered by the regulatory authorities when they attempt to set utility rates so as to guarantee a “fair return on investment”?

(b) Give reasons why the present system of pricing by electric utilities leads to misallocation of power uses. Set up a utility pricing scheme that would remove this misallocation.

  1. (a) What accounts for the existence of natural monopoly elements in the transportation industries? What distinguishes these industries from “pure” natural monopolies, such as electric utilities?

(b) Some economists have argued that railroads should be subject to less rather than more regulation. What arguments can be used to support their position? What problems would arise if the railroads were subject to no special regulation at all?

 

PART III

Answer one question only.

  1. Evaluate some of the arguments put forward by Meade and by Lewis to support their contention that some state planning is necessary to improve the functioning of the economic system. Discuss to what extent each of their proposals is an attempt to improve the functioning of competitive markets and to what extent it is an attempt to supplant market determined goals.
  2. Discuss Devon’s account of the problems that arise when planning is carried out in the absence of prices. Why would the use of prices help to solve some of these problems?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [for] History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…Naval Science, Air Science  in (Bound) Volume 134, Social Sciences. Final Examinations, June 1961.

Image Source:  Carl Kaysen in the Harvard Class Album 1958.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams on socio-economic conditions of working people. Edward Cummings, 1893

 

This post piggybacks on the previous one. I suppose it comes as no surprise that instructors for courses on socialism also typically taught courses in labor economics and/or sociology. Edward Cummings covered these courses in the Harvard economics department at the end of the nineteenth century. Below I have transcribed the examination questions for his course “The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the United States and in other Countries” from 1892-93. As for the previous post, I have added links to the works that are directly cited in the examination questions. Until I come across notes for his course or a syllabus, these links provide a peek into the material taught to Cummings’ students.

The examinations for the academic year for 1893-94 have been transcribed for an earlier post.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 9. Mr. Cummings.—The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the United States and in other countries. 3 hours.

Total 24: 3 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1892-1893, p. 68.

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ECONOMICS 9.
Mid-Year Examination (1893)

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience of different countries. Omit two questions.]

  1. “In a society adjusted to manual labor, it is absolutely impossible that a labor problem, as a class problem, should take its origin; but in a society adjusted to machinery, provided the English law of property be maintained, the development of class lines will surely make its appearance in industries.”
    State fully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with these assertions.
    [Henry Carter Adams. An Interpretation of the Social Movements of our Time. International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 2 (October, 1891), pp. 39-40.]
  2. “First, government must regulate the plane of competition, for without legal regulation the struggle between men for commercial supremacy will surely force society to the level of the most immoral man who can maintain himself.”
    What evidence does the history of factory legislation furnish upon these points?
    [Henry Carter Adams. An Interpretation of the Social Movements of our Time. International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 2 (October, 1891), p. 43.]
  3. Comment upon the following passage: “The object held in view by workmen, when they organized themselves into unions, was to gain again that control over the conditions of labor which they lost when machinery took the place of tools.”
    [Henry Carter Adams. An Interpretation of the Social Movements of our Time. International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 2 (October, 1891), p. 48.]
  4. “The English public has had the courage and strength to leave workingmen’s associations full freedom of movement, at the risk even of temporary excesses and acts of violence, such as at one time stained the annals of trades-unions.” Explain.
    How far is this true of France? Of the United States?
    [Josef Maria Baernreither. English Associations of Working Men. (London, 1891), p. 143]
  5. Describe briefly the origin, growth, and present tendencies of the English Friendly Society movement.
    [Josef Maria Baernreither. English Associations of Working Men. Part II. Friendly Societies (London, 1891), pp. 155-337.]
  6. To what extent do trade organizations and friendly societies constitute an aristocracy of labor?
    [Josef Maria Baernreither. English Associations of Working Men. (London, 1891), pp. 20ff.]
  7. To what forms of remuneration can the evils of “sweating” be traced?
    [David Frederick Schloss, Methods of Industrial Remuneration. (New York, 1892), especially Chapter XIV. On the Objections Entertained to the “Method” of Sub-Contract; and Herein of “The Sweating System,” 122-135.]
  8. “The aim of Coöperation is at the same time the aim of Trade Unionism.” In what sense?
  9. Sketch briefly the course of factory legislation during the present century either in England or in the United States.
    [This is a guess: though clearly would provide sufficient information to provide the English history. The English Factory Legislation from 1802 till the Present Time by Ernst von Plener (London, 1873).]
  10. Comment on the following passage: “the fact that the ignorant masses are enabled by the factory to engage in what it once took skilled labor to perform has given the widespread impression that factory labor has degraded the skilled, when in truth it has lifted the unskilled; and this is the inevitable result of the factory everywhere.”
    [United States Census Office. 10th Census, 1880. Report on the Factory System of the United States by Carroll D. Wright (Washington, D.C., 1884) p. 34.]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 3, Vol. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

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ECONOMICS 9.
Final Examination (June, 1893)

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience of different countries. Omit two questions.]

  1. How is the burden of contribution distributed in each of the three departments of the German system of compulsory insurance? What theoretical or practical objections have you to the system?
  2. “In England especially the State is not in a position to compete effectively with energetic Insurance Companies or with the Friendly Societies, pulsating with the vigour of social life; and still less can it so compete when hampered by restrictions which handicap its powers.” Discuss the evidence on this point furnished by English experience with government workingmen’s insurance. Are there any indications that German ideas are gaining ground in England?
    [Josef Maria Baernreither. English Associations of Working Men. (London, 1891), pp. 348-349.]
  3. “What, we will ask, is the relation of Profit-sharing to the ordinary wage system; and to what extent does Profit-sharing constitute an improvement upon the ordinary wage system?” Are there grounds for the assertion that Profit-sharing is “inferior in point of equity and expediency to the ordinary non-coöperative wage system”?
    [David Frederick Schloss. Methods of Industrial Remuneration. (New York, 1892), especially Chapter XXII, Critical Examination of the Method of Profit-Sharing, 195.]
  4. “Besides the militant trade unionist workmen, that very shrewd class of workingmen, the coöperators, regard Profit-sharing with marked disapprobation; so much so that, although Profit-sharing forms and essential part of the professed principles of Industrial Coöperation, yet by far the greater part of Industrial Coöperation is carried on upon the system of altogether excluding the employees from participation in profits.” What are the facts referred to, and how do you account for them?
    [David Frederick Schloss. Methods of Industrial Remuneration. (New York, 1892), especially Chapter XXII, Critical Examination of the Method of Profit-Sharing, 199.]
  5. “Here it is necessary to interpolate a protest against the assertion almost universally made by previous writers on this subject, that ‘Industrial Coöperation has succeeded in distribution, but has failed in production,’— an assertion generally coupled with the explanation that ‘production’ is too difficult to be, as yet, undertaken by workingmen.” What are the facts?
    [David Frederick Schloss. Methods of Industrial Remuneration. (New York, 1892), especially Chapter XXVII, Critical Examination of the Theory of Industrial Co-operation, p. 233.]
  6. “But the enthusiastic Coöperator will ask: why not develop the voluntary system of democratic Coöperation until it embraces the whole field of industry?” Why do you conceive to be the economic limits to such extension by consumers’ associations?
    [Beatrice Potter (Webb). The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain. Chapter VIII, Conclusion (1891) p. 225.]
  7. “Having considered the social and economic position of workers in the coal, iron and steel industries in several countries, let us now by proper combination ascertain the average conditions prevailing in the two continents.” What are the probably conclusions to be drawn from these comparative statistics of family budgets in the United States and other countries?
    [Elgin Ralston Lovell Gould. The Social Condition of Labor (Baltimore: January, 1893), p. 24.]
  8. “The Hungarians, Italians, Bohemians and Poles, who throng our gates give most concern…Up to the present time there seems no ground to fear that such new comers have wielded a depressing influence. There seems rather reason for congratulation in the fact that instead of their having lowered the American standard of living, the American standard of life has been raising them.” Discuss the evidence. What light do recent change in the character and volume of immigration from different countries throw on this problem?
    [Elgin Ralston Lovell Gould. The Social Condition of Labor (Baltimore: January, 1893), p. 38.]
  9. Indicate briefly the course of short-hour legislation in Massachusetts. How does it compare with the legislation in other states and other countries?
  10. Indicate carefully how far there has been any approximation to compulsory arbitration in Massachusetts; in New York; in other countries. What are the objections to compulsory arbitration?
  11. What do you conceive to be the significance of the Farmers’ Alliance and the Single Tax movements in the United States? And how are they related to each other?
  12. Precisely what evidence is there for and against the contention that the employment of “private armed forces” has been largely responsible for violence and bloodshed during strikes? Give concrete examples.

Source:Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Vol. Examination Papers, 1893-95. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1893), pp. 40-42.

Image Source: University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), pp. 155-156.

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Sociology

Harvard. Exams for Political Sociology and Socialism, Cummings, 1893

 

 

Examinations from Edward Cummings’ Harvard courses on socialism and communism 1893-1900 have been transcribed and posted earlier. Biographical information about him from 1899 has also been posted.

Thanks to Cummings’ examination style that used exact citations from the literature for students to explain or comment upon, I was able to reverse-engineer some of the key readings that were either assigned or discussed in class. Links to those readings follow the individual examination questions.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 3. Mr. Cummings.—The Principles of Sociology. —Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. 3 hours.

Total 22: 5 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1892-1893, p. 67.

 

ECONOMICS 3
Mid-Year Examination (1893)

Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit two.

  1. “We have just seen that a one-sided application of the conception that society is of organic growth leads to difficulties, as well as the conception of artificial making. These we can only escape by recognizing a truth which includes them both.”
    What are these difficulties, and what is this truth?
    [David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Chapter 1, Herbert Spencer’s Individualism and his Conception of Society (London, 1891), pp. 49-50]
  2. “If societies have evolved, and if that mutual dependence of parts which coöperation implies, has been gradually reached, then the implication is that however unlike their developed structures may become, there is a rudimentary structure with which they all set out.”
    What evidence do you find of such a structure?
    [Herbert Spencer. The Principles of Sociology, Vol. 2, Chapter 5, Political Forms and Forces (New York, 1883), p. 311]
  3. According to Aristotle, “Man is by nature a political animal.” According to Thomas Aquinas, “homo est animal sociale et politicum.” How far is this insertion of “sociale” alongside of “politicum” significant of the different way in which the State presented itself to the mind of the Greek and to the mind of the mediaeval philosopher?
    [David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Appendix Note A: The Distinction between Society and the State (London, 1891), p. 157]
  4. “The theory of the social contract belongs in an especial manner to the political philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But it did not originate with them. It had its roots in the popular consciousness of mediaeval society. As a philosophical theory, it had already been anticipated by the Greek Sophists.”
    Indicate briefly some of the important changes which the doctrine underwent.
    [David George Ritschie. Contributions to the History of the Social Contract Theory, Vol. 6 Political Science Quarterly (1891), p. 656.]
  5. “In primitive societies the person does not exist, or exists only potentially, or, as we might say, in spe. The person is the product of the State.” Explain. What is the theoretical and historical justification of this doctrine, as against the contention that the individual loses what the State gains?
    [David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Chapter 1, Herbert Spencer’s Individualism and his Conception of Society (London, 1891), p. 29.]
  6. Discuss the relative preponderance of free and of un-free elements at different stages of social development.
  7. It has been remarked by Spencer that those domestic relations which are ethically the highest, are also biologically and sociologically the highest. Discuss the historical evidence on this point. What is the test of this ethical superiority?
    [Herbert Spencer. The Principles of Sociology, Vol. 1, Part III, Chapter 2, The Diverse Interests of the Species, of the Parents, and of the Offspring (New York, 1883), p. 630]
  8. To what extent is there ground for saying that the influence of militant and of industrial organization is traceable in the status of women and the duration of marriage in the United States and in other countries?
    [Herbert Spencer. The Principles of Sociology, Vol. 1, Part III, Chapter 10, The Status of Women (New York, 1883), p. 765]
  9. “We find ourselves applying the ideal of a Greek city to our vast and heterogeneous modern political structures—a tremendous extension of the difficulties. If we are not more successful than the Greeks, the task is greater and the aim higher.” Explain.
    [Frederick Pollock. The History of the Science of Politics, (1883), p. 13. Originally published serially in the Fortnightly Review (August 1882—January 1883).]
  10. “The unit of an ancient society was the family, of a modern society the individual.”
    Describe the tendencies which have brought about this change.
    [David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Chapter 1, Herbert Spencer’s Individualism and his Conception of Society (London, 1891), p. 30.]
  11. “The ultimate responsibility of the ultimate political sovereign is a question for the philosophy of history; in other words, one may say it is a matter of ‘natural selection.’” Explain.
    [David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Appendix Note B: The Conception of Sovereignty (London, 1891), pp. 165-166.]
  12. What is your criterion of social progress? Why?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 3, Vol. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

 

ECONOMICS 3
Final Examination (June, 1893)

[Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit one.]

  1. “The different forms of the State are specifically divided, as Aristotle recognized, by the different conceptions of the distinction between government and subjects, especially by the quality (not the quantity) of the ruler.” Explain. Indicate briefly the relation of the different forms of the State to one another.
    [Johann Caspar Bluntschli. The Theory of the State (translation from 6th German edition), Chapter IV, The Principle of the Four Fundamental Forms of the State (Oxford, 1885), p. 318.]
  2. “If there is any one principle which is clearly grasped in the present day, it is that political power is a public duty as well as a public right, that it belongs to the political existence of life of the whole nation, and that it can never be regarded as the property or personal right of an individual.” How far did this principle secure recognition in Greek, in Roman, and in mediaeval times?
    [Johann Caspar Bluntschli. The Theory of the State (translation from 6th German edition), Chapter XIV, Constitutional Monarchy (Oxford, 1885), p. 398.]
  3. “The past seems to prove that kings and aristocracies make States, and that left to themselves, the people unmake them.” State carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the political philosophy here involved.
    [Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. The Modern State in Relation to Society and the Individual. (London, 1891), p. 100.]
  4. “This one of the curious phases of the railway problem in Europe, which has a tendency to show how multiform and various are the influences at work to modify and change the conditions of the railway problem, and how little can be gathered from mere government documents and laws to shed light upon this most interesting and intricate of all modern industrial questions.” What light does Italian, French and Austrian experience with railroads throw on the general question of State control?
    [Simon Sterne. Some Curious Phases of the Railway Question in Europe. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 1, No. 4 (July, 1887), p. 468.]
  5. “Expediency and the results of experience must determine how far to go. They seem to justify public ownership of gas works, water works and electric lights. The same would doubtless be true of the telegraph and telephone.” Discuss the evidence.
    [From conclusion of Edward W. Bemis. Municipal Gas Works in The Chautauquan, Vol. 16, no. 1 (October 1892), pp. 15-18. Cf. his Municipal Ownership of Gas in the United States published by the American Economic Association, Publications Vol. VI, Nos. 4 and 5 (July and September, 1891).]
  6. “We will first concentrate our attention on the economic kernel of socialism, setting aside for the moment the transitory aspect it bears in the hands of agitators, its provisional passwords, and the phenomena and tendencies in religion by which it is accompanied.” State and criticize this “economic kernel.”
    [Albert Schäffle. The Quintessence of Socialism, 3rd edition (London, 1891), p. 3]
  7. “The philanthropic and experimental forms of socialism, which played a conspicuous role before 1848, perished then in the wreck of the Revolution, and have never risen to life again.” What were the characteristics of these earlier forms; and what was their relation to the movements which preceded them and followed them?
    [John Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Chapter 1, Introductory (London, 1884), p. 2]
  8. How are the socialistic teachings of Lasalle and Marx related to the economic doctrines of Smith and Ricardo?
    [John Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Chapter 2, Ferdinand Lassalle; Chapter 3, Karl Marx (London, 1884)]
  9. What ground do you find for or against the contention that “socialism is the economic complement of democracy”?
    [E.g., Thomas Kirkup. An Inquiry into Socialism (London, 1887), p. 184; or his A History of Socialism, (London: 1892) p. 8.]
  10. “Not only material security, but the perfection of human social life is what we aim at in that organized co-operation of many men’s lives and works which is called the State…..But where does protection leave off and interference begin?”
    [Frederick Pollock. The History of the Science of Politics, (1883), p. 49. Originally published serially in the Fortnightly Review (August 1882—January 1883).]

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Vol. Examination Papers, 1893-95. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1893), pp. 36-37.

Image Source: University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), pp. 155-156.

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Socialism exams. John Graham Brooks, 1890-1891

 

According to the annual Report of the President of Harvard College for 1889/90 and 1890/91, “Prof. Taussig and Mr. Brooks” were the instructors for the course Political Economy 2. This post is dedicated to the second term of the Political Economy 2 in those years that was devoted to economic theories of socialism and taught by John Graham Brooks.  Four boxes of Brooks’ papers are to be found at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. Taussig’s exam scrapbook in the Harvard archives does not include exam questions for the second terms of 1890 and 1891 which is certainly consistent with Brooks being the instructor during the second term.

This post provides biographical information for John Graham Brooks followed by transcriptions of his two examinations.

Incidentally, W.E.B. Dubois was enrolled in Economics 2 in 1890/91 as a graduate student and was awarded a grade of A during the first term (one of six awarded to the twenty-two who received grades,  as recorded in Taussig’s scrapbook).

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Harvard Career

John Graham Brooks (see S.T.B. 1875), Lectr. On Socialism 1885-1886; Instr. in Political Economy 1898-1891.

Source: Harvard University. Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates, 1636-1925, p. 45.

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Brief biography

John Graham Brooks attended the University of Michigan Law School for a short time, before changing his mind about being a lawyer. He then attended Oberlin College and Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1875. Brooks was then ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister, preaching at a church in Massachusetts and speaking on the issues of the working poor. In 1882, Brooks resigned from his position as a minister and began studying history and economics at several German universities. He and his family then lived in London for a while, where Brooks lectured about the working class. He then returned to Massachusetts and preaching, while continuing to lecture about socialism and the lives of the working class. He also wrote articles for The Forum and The Nation. In 1891 he became an investigator of the conditions of workers for the U.S. Department of Labor, which led to him writing a book, The Social Unrest: Studies in Labor and Socialist Movements. Brooks wrote other books as well, in which he discussed class struggles. In 1904, he was the president of the American Social Science Association, and from 1899 to 1915 he was the first president of the National Consumers’ League.

Source: Brooks, John Graham (1846-1938) at the digital edition of the Jane Addams Papers Project.

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Boston Globe Obituary
February 9, 1938. Page 17.

JOHN G. BROOKS, 91,
ECONOMIST IS DEAD

Former Harvard Teacher,
Once Unitarian Cleric

John Graham Brooks, 91, labor champion, sociologist and political authority, died yesterday at his home at 8 Francis av., Cambridge.

During the early part of the century, he was extremely active as a friend of labor and a prolific lecturer throughout the country and in many universities on political and social economy.

He was born in Ackworth, N.H., and prepared for college in country schools. He was graduated from Oberlin College in 1872 and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1875. He added to his education the following three years with courses at the Universities of Berlin, Jena and Freiburg.

Returning to this country, he entered the ministry as associate pastor with Dr. George Putnam at the Unitarian Church in Roxbury and later was for six years pastor of the Unitarian Church of Brockton. At the same time he conducted courses at Harvard on economic subjects.

Leaving the ministry in 1890. he devoted the major part of his time to investigations and lectures on political science and social economy. For several years he was lecturer for the extension departments of the Universities of Chicago and of California. He was for two years the expert of the United States Department of Labor, and compiled for that department, in 1893, an exhaustive report on workmen’s insurance in Germany, and since that time continued to lecture on economic and sociological subjects all over the United States, especially at the People’s Institute in New York. As an author his best-known works are “The Social Unrest,” “As Others See Us” and “An American Citizen [Life of William Henry Baldwin, Jr.].”

Prof. Brooks served as president on the American Social Science Association, and president of the National Consumers’ League and a member of the national committee on child labor. He was a member of the famous committee of 50, which, under the lead of Pres. Eliot of Harvard, made an investigation of the workings of the Gothenburg system of dealing with the liquor traffic.

In 1908 Prof. Brooks lectured with now Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis on the old age pension problems and at the time expressed some pessimism over the systems then in use.

In recent years, Mr. Brooks has been in retirement, little in public life.

He is survived by a wife, Mrs. Helen Lawrence Brooks; a son, Lawrence Brooks, and four grandchildren.

 

[Other books:

American Syndicalism: The I.W.W. New York: Macmillan, 1913.

Labor’s Challenge to the Social Order: Democracy its own Critic and Educator. New York: Macmillan, 1920.]

_____________________

Enrollment 1889-90

[Political Economy] 2. History of Economic Theory. First half-year: Lectures on the History of Economic Theory.—Discussion of selections from Adam Smith and Ricardo.—Topics in distribution, with special reference to wages and managers’ returns.—Second half-year: Modern Socialism in France, Germany, and England.—an extended thesis from each student. Prof. Taussig and Mr. Brooks.

Total 24: 7 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1889-90, p. 80.

_____________________

Political Economy 2.
Year-end Examination, June 1890.

  1. Characterize French Socialism, chiefly with reference to St. Simon and Louis Blanc.
  2. What general differences do you note between French and German Socialism?
  3. Summarize Lasalle’s theory of history development.
  4. State and criticize in detail Marx’s theory of surplus value. What follows as to Socialism, if this theory fails?
  5. Is Schaeffle a Socialist? If so, why? If not, why not?
  6. State the present attitude of English Socialism, with special reference to the Fabian Society. Note the most important changes from the Marx type.
  7. In what definite ways would Socialism modify the system of private property?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Vol. Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1890), pp. 11-12.

_____________________

Enrollment 1890-91

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 2. Professor Taussig and Mr. Brooks. — History of Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from Leading Writers. — Socialism. 3 hours.

Total 23: 4 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source:   Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1890-91, p. 58.

_____________________

Political Economy 2.
Year-end Examination, June 1891.

  1. From Rousseau to the Fabians, what have been the chief historic changes in the Philosophy of Socialism?
  2. What was Lassalle’s conception of historic development?
  3. In detail, state the differences between the Marx type of Socialism and that of the Fabians.
  4. With reference to the “three rents” what are the most important objections to Socialism?
  5. What reasons can you give to show that Socialism is likely to have much further development in our society?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Vol. Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891), p. 11.

Image Source: The Bookman vol. 27 (March-August, 1908), p. 119.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Applied Economic Analysis, Readings and Exams. Duesenberry, 1955-56.

 

The Harvard economics professor, James Stemble Duesenberry (b. 18 July 1918; d. 5 October 2009) was best known for his relative-income hypothesis or at least that hypothesis was something I can recall from my undergraduate course taught by James Tobin almost exactly a half-century ago. Following the official Harvard obituary, you will find the reading lists and exams for his two-term course “Applied Economic Analysis” as taught in 1955-56.

____________________

Duesenberry’s Harvard Obituary

Economist Duesenberry dies at 91
by Amy Lavoie

James Stemble Duesenberry, an eminent economist who was an authority on monetary policy and a faculty member of Harvard University’s Department of Economics for more than half a century, recently passed away at his home in Cambridge at the age of 91.

Duesenberry came to Harvard in 1948 as assistant professor of economics and became associate professor in 1953. He received tenure in 1955, and became professor of economics.

An economic theorist who strove to affect policy and improve economic conditions, Duesenberry was a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors from 1966 to 1968, in Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. From 1969 to 1974 he was chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and he led the bank during the construction of the First National Bank Building in downtown Boston.

“Jim Duesenberry was a very insightful man who thought deeply about problems in a way that was relatively unconstrained by the fashionable conditions of the day,” said Benjamin Friedman, William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy, who was a colleague of Duesenberry’s. “He thought that the purpose of economics was to speak to the way the economy behaves and what policy can do to improve economic performance.”

In 1969, Duesenberry was named William Joseph Maier Professor of Money and Banking. He was chair of the Department of Economics from 1972 to 1977, and led the department at a time when some called for greater intellectual diversity among the faculty. He retired in 1989, and became William Joseph Maier Professor of Money and Banking Emeritus.

Duesenberry’s first book, “Income Consumption and the Theory of Consumer Behavior” (Harvard University Press), was published in 1949. He is also the author of “Business Cycles and Economic Growth” (McGraw-Hill, 1957), “Money and Credit: Impact and Control” (Prentice-Hall, 1964), “Capital Needs in the Seventies” with Barry Bosworth and Andrew Carron (Brookings Institution, 1975), and “Money, Banking and Economy” with Thomas Mayer and Robert Z. Aliber (W.W. Norton, 1981).

Born in Princeton, W.Va., Duesenberry received his B.A. in 1939, his M.A. in 1941, and his Ph.D. in 1948, all in economics from the University of Michigan.

Duesenberry was a research fellow with the Social Science Research Council in 1941. During World War II, Duesenberry was a statistician in the Air Force, and reached the rank of captain. He was an instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1946, and in 1954, he was a Fulbright fellow at Cambridge University.

Duesenberry is survived by his son John of Brookline, Mass., and daughters Holly of Gouldsboro, Maine, and Peggy of Stirling, Scotland, as well as four grandchildren.

Source: Harvard Gazette, October 15, 2009.

_______________________

Enrollment

[Economics] 106. Applied Economic Analysis. Associate Professor Duesenberry. Full course.

(F) Total 25: 1 Graduate, 1 Other Graduate, 20 Seniors, 3 Juniors.
(S) Total 19: 16 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1955-1956, p. 76.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 106

Fall Term, 1955

  1. Wages and Labor Allocation and Efficiency
    1. A. Marshall, Principles of Economics, Bk. VI, Chs. 1-5.
    2. Shister, Economics of the Labor Market, Chs. 14, 15, 16.
    3. M. Friedman, “Significance of Labor Unions for Economic Policy,” Ch. X, in Wright, The Impact of the Union.
    4. Meade and Hitch, Introduction to Economic Analysis and Public Policy, Part II, Ch. 3.
    5. Peterson, Economics, Revised Edition, Ch. 20.
    6. Taussig, Principles of Economics, Vol. II, Ch. 52.
    7. M. Friedman and S. Kuznets, Income from Independent Professional Practice, Ch. 4.
    8. T. Parsons, “The Motivation of Economic Activity,” Ch. IX, in Essays in Sociological Theory.
    9. Sanders, Effects of Taxation on Executives, Chs. I and II.

Reading Period Assignment
Fall Term, 1955-56

Economics 106: O. Lange, “Scope and Method of Economics,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 13 (1943-46)

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 106

Mid-year Examination
(January, 1956)

Answer question 1 and four others

  1. (one hour)
    1. The appearance of unions in an otherwise perfectly competitive labor market with perfect mobility of labor is likely to distort the allocation of resources. Why?
      (Assume that unions do influence wages.)
    2. In the type of labor market which actually exists the adverse effect of unions on resource allocation is much less certain. Why?
  2. Wage differentials attributable to the cost of training both help to determine and are determined by the distribution of income. Discuss.
  3. Outline some of the fundamental factors which make an area a low wage area.
  4. Friedman argues that unions do not influence wages. What evidence does he cite in support of his position? What considerations cast doubt on the proposition?
  5. What are the major reasons for the narrowing of skill differentials in American industry? What evidence would you look for to determine whether any misallocation of resources has resulted?
  6. Wages tend to be higher in rapidly growing industries than in others. Why?
  7. Outline Schumpeter’s views on the influence of monopoly on static efficiency (resource allocation) and progress.
  8. Discuss the effects of income taxes on personal incentives to work.

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

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 106

Spring Term, 1955-56

Bain, Pricing, Distribution, and Employment, Chs. 5, 6.

P.W.S. Andrews, Manufacturing Business.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition Ch. 9.

Lutz, Theory of Investment of the Firm, Chs. 2, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16.

Hart, Anticipations, Uncertainty and Dynamic Planning.

Boulding, Economic Analysis, 3rd Edition, Ch. 38.

Durand, “Costs of Debt and Equity Funds” in Conference on Business Finance (National Bureau of Economic Research).

MacLaurin, Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry.

E.S. Mason, “Current Status of Monopoly Problems,” Harvard Law Review, June 1949.

Butters and Lintner, Effects of Taxation on Corporate Mergers, Chs. IX, X.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 106
Reading List (Cont.)

Federal Inter-Agency River Basin Committee, Subcommittee on Benefits and Costs, Proposed Practices for Economic Analysis of River Basin Projects, Chs. 1-5, pp. 1-56.

Smithies, A., The Budgetary Process in the United States, Ch. XIII.

Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, Water Resources and Power, June 1955, Vol. I, pp. 1-85.

Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, Task Force Report on Water Resources and Power, pp. 1-164.

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

 

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 106

Final Examination (May, 1956)

PART I.
(One Hour)

Required.

  1. Discuss the differences between monopoly and oligopoly in terms of (a) relation of prices to costs (b) investment behavior.

PART II.
(Half Hour)

Answer question 2 or 3.

  1. “The possibility that new firms will enter the industry influences the price and investment policies of firms in oligopolistic industries.” Discuss.
  2. The rivalry among oligopolists is more likely to result in product improvement than in price reduction. Why?

PART III.
(45 minutes for each question)

Answer two questions.

  1. What measures would you recommend for the improvement of the Federal Water Resource Program? Give reasons for your recommendations.
  2. The supply of any collective service by government action is likely to involve a redistribution of income. Discuss the possible effects of this on (1) the level at which these services may be supplied; (2) the degree of efficiency of the allocation of resources within a program.
  3. Even in an economy governed by the strongest preferences against government activity some economic needs will be met collectively. Why?

 

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

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Core economic theory. Readings and Exams. Carver, 1900/01-1902/03

Thomas Nixon Carver

 

 

For the academic years 1900/01 through 1902/03 the core course in economic theory at Harvard was taught by Thomas Nixon Carver. He was substituting for Frank Taussig, who later wrote that he had been “compelled by ill health to withdraw from teaching” (1901-03). [Chapter IX Economics (1871-1929) by The Development of Harvard University since the Inauguration of President Eliot, 1869-1929 Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930. p. 191].  

Schumpeter provided more detail: “We speak of nervous breakdown in such cases, which indeed are more frequent in the academic profession than one would infer from the general conditions of a professor’s life. He [Taussig] took leave and went abroad for two years, relaxing completely and spending one winter at Meran in the Austrian Alps, another on the Italian Riviera, and the summer between (1902) in Switzerland. Catastrophe was thus avoided, and in the fall of 1903 he was able to return to teaching and the editorship of the Quarterly Journal.” [Joseph A. Schumpeter, Chapter 7 “Frank William Taussig (1859-1940)” in Ten Great Economists from Marx to Keynes. p. 206.]

During the first term of 1903/04 Taussig resumed teaching the core economic theory course with Carver teaching the second term.  Beginning 1904/05 Taussig once again taught the course by himself.

___________________________

Economics 2.
Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century
1900-01

Enrollment
1900-01

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Asst. Professor Carver.— Economic Theory in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 45: 6 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1900-01, p. 64.

 

Reading list [previously posted]  for the first term

 

ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-year examination, 1901]

  1. Define value and explain why one commodity possesses more value in proportion to its bulk than another.
  2. Explain the various uses of the term diminishing returns, and define it as you think it ought to be defined.
  3. In what sense does a law of diminishing returns apply to all the factors of production.
  4. State briefly Böhm-Bawerk’s explanation of the source of interest.
  5. What, if any, is the relation of abstinence to interest.
  6. Would you make any distinction between the source of wages and the factors which determine rates of wages? If so, what? If not, why not?
  7. Discuss the question: Is a demand for commodities a demand for labor?
  8. What is the relation of the standard of living to wages.
  9. Discuss briefly the following questions relating to speculators’ profits. (a) Do speculators as a class make any profits? (b) Are speculators’ profits in any sense earned?
  10. In what sense, if any, does the value of money come under the law of marginal utility?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 4, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1900-01.

 

ECONOMICS 2
[Final examination, June 1901]

Discuss the following topics.

  1. The bearing of the marginal utility theory of value upon the questions of wages and interest.
  2. The definitions of capital as given by Taussig and Clark.
  3. Clark’s explanation of the place of distribution within the natural divisions of economics.
  4. Clark’s method of distinguishing between the product of labor and the product of capital.
  5. Clark’s distinction between rent and interest.
  6. Böhm-Bawerk’s theory of the nature of capital.
  7. The origin of capital, according to Böhm-Bawerk and Clark.
  8. The meaning of the word “productive” in the following proposition: “Protection is an attempt to attract labor and capital from the naturally more productive, to the naturally less productive industries.”
  9. The incidence of tariff duties.
  10. The theory of production and the theory of valuation as the two principal departments of economics.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Design, Music in Harvard College (June, 1901), pp. 23-24.

___________________________

Economics 2.
Economic Theory
1901-02

Enrollment
1901-02

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Asst. Professor Carver.— Economic Theory.

Total 32: 5 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1901-02, p. 77.

ECONOMICS 2.
1901-1902

General Reading. Prescribed.

Marshall. Principles of Economics.
Taussig. Wages and Capital.
Böhm-Bawerk. Positive Theory of Capital.
Clark. The Distribution of Wealth.

References for Collateral Reading. Starred references are prescribed.

I. VALUE.

1. Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Chs. 5, 6, and 7.

2. Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Chs. 1 and 4.

3. Mill.          “        “     Book III. Chs. 1-6.

4.  Cairnes     “        “     Part I.

5.*  Jevons. Theory of Pol. Econ. Chs. 2-4.

6.   Sidgwick. Pol. Econ. Book II. Ch. 2.

7.   Wieser. Natural Value.

8.* Clark. Philosophy of Wealth. Ch. 5

II. DIMINISHING RETURNS.

1.    Senior. Pol. Econ. Pp. 81-86.

2*.  Commons. The Distribution of Wealth. Ch. 3.

III. RENT.

1.   Adam Smith. Wealth of Nation. Book I. Ch. 2. Pts. 1-3.

2.* Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Chs. 2 and 3.

3.   Sidgwick. “     “       Book II. Ch. 7.

4.   Walker.     “     “       Pt. IV. Ch. 2.

5.   Walker. Land and its Rent.

6.  Hyde. The Concept of Price Determining Rent. Jour. Pol. Econ. V.6. p. 368.

7.  Fetter. The Passing of the Old Rent Concept. Q.J.E. Vol. XV. P. 416.

IV. CAPITAL

1.   Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book II.

2.   Senior. Pol. Econ. P. 58-81.

3.   Mill.        “       “       Book I. Ch. 4-6.

4.   Roscher. “      “       Book I. Ch. 1. Secs. 42-45.

5.   Cannan. Production and Distribution. Ch. 4.

6.   Jevons. Theory of Political Economy Ch. 7.

7.  Fisher. What is Capital? Economic Journal. Vol. VI. P. 509.

8.  Fetter. Recent Discussion of the Capital Concept. Q.J.E. Vol. XV. P. 1.

9.* Carver. Clark’s Distribution of Wealth. Q.J.E., Aug. 1901.

V. INTEREST.

1.   Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Ch. 9.

2.   Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Ch. 6.

3.   Sidgwick.  “     “        Book II. Ch. 6.

4*.  Carver. Abstinence and the Theory of Interest. Q.J.E, Vol. VIII. P. 40.

5.    Mixter. Theory of Saver’s Rent. Q.J.E. Vol. XIII. P. 345.

VI. WAGES.

1.   Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Ch. 8.

2*. Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Ch. 5.

3.   Senior.       “       “      Pp. 141-180 and 200-216.

4.   Senior. Lectures. Pp. 1-62.

5.   Mill. Pol. Econ. Book II. Chs. 11, 12, 13, and 14.

6.   Cairnes. Pol. Econ. Part II. Chs. 1 and 2.

7. Sidgwick.  “       “      Book II. Ch. 8.

8.  Walker.     “       “      Part IV. Ch. 5.

9.  Hadley. Economics. Ch. 10.

10*. Carver. Wages and the Theory of Value. Q.J.E. Vol. VIII, P. 377.

VII. PROFITS.

1.   Walker. Pol. Econ. Part IV. Ch. 4.

2.   Hobson. The Law of the Three Rents. Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. V. P. 263.

3.   Clark. Insurance and Business Profits. Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. VII. P. 40.

4*.  Hawley, F. B. in Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. VII. P. 459; Vol. XV. Pp. 75 and 603.

5.    MacVane, in in Quar. Jour. Econ.,  Vol. II. P. 1.

6.   Haynes, in               “     “       “     Vol. IX, P. 409.

Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1, Box 1 of 10 (Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003). Folder: 1901-1902.

 

ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-year examination, 1902]

Discuss the following topics.

  1. The relation of utility to value.
  2. The price of commodities and the price of services.
  3. Various uses of the term “diminishing returns.”
  4. The law of diminishing returns as applied to each of the factors of production.
  5. Prime and supplementary cost: illustrate.
  6. Joint and composite demand and join and composite supply.
  7. Quasi rent.
  8. Real and nominal rent.
  9. Consumer’s rent.
  10. The equilibrium of demand and supply

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

 

ECONOMICS 2
[Final examination, June 1902]

  1. State some of the different meanings which have been given to the law of diminishing returns, and define the law as you think it ought to be.
  2. Can you apply the law of joint demand to the wages fund questions?
  3. What is meant by an elastic demand and how does it affect monopoly price.
  4. Discuss Clark’s distinction between capital and capital goods.
  5. Under what conditions would there be no rent, and how would these conditions affect the value of products?
  6. Explain Clark’s theory of Economic Causation.
  7. What is the source of interest?
  8. What is the relation of the standard of living to wages?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 21.

___________________________

Economics 2.
Economic Theory
1902-03

Enrollment
1902-03

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Professor Carver.— Economic Theory.

Total 25: 5 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 67.

 

Course Description
1902-03

For Undergraduates and Graduates

[Economics] 2. Economic Theory. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30 Professors Taussig [sic] and Carver.

Course 2 is intended to acquaint the student with some of the later developments of economic thought, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles and the analysis of economic conditions. The exercises are accordingly conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the leading writers: and in this discussion of selected passages from the leading writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. Lectures are given at intervals outlining the present condition of economic theory and some of the problems which call for theoretical solution. Theories of value, diminishing returns, rent, wages, interest, profits, the incidence of taxation, the value of money international trade, and monopoly price, will be discussed. Marshall’s Principles of Economics [4th ed., 1898], Böhm-Bawerk’s Positive Theory of Capital [1888; William Smart translation, 1891], Taussig’s Wages and Capital [1896], and Clark’s Distribution of Wealth [1899] will be read and criticized.

Course 2 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

Source: Harvard University.  Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1902-03. The University Publications, New Series, No. 55 (June 14, 1902), pp. 40-41.

 

ECONOMICS 2.
1902-1903

General Reading. Prescribed.

Marshall. Principles of Economics.
Taussig. Wages and Capital.
Böhm-Bawerk. Positive Theory of Capital.
Clark. The Distribution of Wealth.

References for Collateral Reading. Starred references are prescribed.

I. VALUE.

1.  Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Chs. 5, 6, and 7.

2.  Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Chs. 1 and 4.

3.   Mill.          “        “     Book III. Chs. 1-6.

4.   Cairnes     “        “     Part I.

5.*  Jevons. Theory of Pol. Econ. Chs. 2-4.

6.   Sidgwick. Pol. Econ. Book II. Ch. 2.

7.   Wieser. Natural Value.

8.* Clark. Philosophy of Wealth. Ch. 5

II. DIMINISHING RETURNS.

1.  Senior. Pol. Econ. Pp. 81-86.

2.  Commons. The Distribution of Wealth. Ch. 3.

3*. Bullock. The Variation of Productive Forces, Q.J.E., August, 1902.

III. RENT.

1.  Adam Smith. Wealth of Nation. Book I. Ch. 2. Pts. 1-3.

2.* Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Chs. 2 and 3.

3.  Sidgwick. “     “       Book II. Ch. 7.

4.  Walker.     “     “       Pt. IV. Ch. 2.

5.  Walker. Land and its Rent.

6.  Hyde. The Concept of Price Determining Rent. Jour. Pol. Econ. V.6. p. 368.

7.  Fetter. The Passing of the Old Rent Concept. Q.J.E. Vol. XV. P. 416.

IV. CAPITAL

1.  Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book II.

2.  Senior. Pol. Econ. P. 58-81.

3.  Mill.        “       “       Book I. Ch. 4-6.

4.  Roscher. “      “       Book I. Ch. 1. Secs. 42-45.

5. Cannan. Production and Distribution. Ch. 4.

6.  Jevons. Theory of Political Economy Ch. 7.

7.  Fisher. What is Capital? Economic Journal. Vol. VI. P. 509.

8.  Fetter. Recent Discussion of the Capital Concept. Q.J.E. Vol. XV. P. 1.

9.* Carver. Clark’s Distribution of Wealth. Q.J.E., Aug. 1901.

V. INTEREST.

1.   Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Ch. 9.

2.   Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Ch. 6.

3.   Sidgwick.  “     “        Book II. Ch. 6.

4*. Carver. Abstinence and the Theory of Interest. Q.J.E, Vol. VIII. P. 40.

5.   Mixter. Theory of Saver’s Rent. Q.J.E. Vol. XIII. P. 345.

VI. WAGES.

1.   Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Ch. 8.

2*. Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Ch. 5.

3.  Senior.       “       “      Pp. 141-180 and 200-216.

4.   Senior. Lectures. Pp. 1-62.

5.   Mill. Pol. Econ. Book II. Chs. 11, 12, 13, and 14.

6.   Cairnes. Pol. Econ. Part II. Chs. 1 and 2.

 7.  Sidgwick.  “       “      Book II. Ch. 8.

8.  Walker.     “       “      Part IV. Ch. 5.

9.  Hadley. Economics. Ch. 10.

10*. Carver. Wages and the Theory of Value. Q.J.E. Vol. VIII, P. 377.

VII. PROFITS.

1.   Walker. Pol. Econ. Part IV. Ch. 4.

2.   Hobson. The Law of the Three Rents. Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. V. P. 263.

3.   Clark. Insurance and Business Profits. Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. VII. P. 40.

4*.  Hawley, F. B. in Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. VII. P. 459; Vol. XV. Pp. 75 and 603.

5.   MacVane, in in Quar. Jour. Econ.,  Vol. II. P. 1.

6.   Haynes, in               “     “       “     Vol. IX, P. 409.

Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1, Box 1 of 10 (Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003). Folder: 1902-1903.

 

ECONOMICS 2
[Mid-year examination, 1903]

Explain and illustrate any twelve of the following subjects.

  1. Marginal utility.
  2. Elasticity of wants.
  3. The law of diminishing returns from land.
  4. The extension of the law of diminishing returns to other factors than land.
  5. The law of economy of organization (Bullock).
  6. The law of varied costs (Bullock).
  7. The cause of rent.
  8. The law of rent.
  9. Quasi rent.
  10. Joint and composite demand.
  11. Joint and composite supply.
  12. Prime and supplementary cost.
  13. The relation of rent to the price of products.
  14. The effect of the shortening of the working day upon the demand for labor.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1902-03.

 

ECONOMICS 2
[Final examination, June 1903]

  1. Explain the principal of marginal utility.
  2. Explain the law of diminishing returns and extend it to other factors than land.
  3. What is the relation of cost to value?
  4. What is the relation of rent to value?
  5. What is the relation of waiting to interest?
  6. What is capital?
  7. What is the relation of capital to wages?
  8. Explain joint and composite demand and joint and composite supply.
  9. Does the home consumer necessarily pay the whole of the tariff duty?
    Give reasons for your answer.
  10. Is the value of money determined in all particulars as the value of any other commodity?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1903), p. 21.

Source Image: Thomas Nixon Carver, Harvard Class Album 1906.

 

Categories
Cornell Economists Harvard Race

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Michael Francis McPhelin, S.J., 1951

 

 

This post in the series, “Get to know an economics Ph.D.”, began unintentionally with a check of the proper capitalization for the name of a relatively obscure Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus. The crop of 1950-51 Ph.D.’s was large (41) and included Thomas Schelling, Robert M. Solow, and William Parker who already have dedicated posts here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.  I discovered that the Jesuit priest-economist, whose name I double-checked, had been awarded a bronze star as an army chaplain in World War II and later went on to become the founding faculty member of the department of economics at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. This post presents a variety of artifacts associated with Rev. Michael Francis McPhelin, S.J. that I collected after a half-day’s worth of internet trawling.

In the history of U.S. academic economics Professor McPhelin turns out to be associated with a major moment at the intersection of the politics of race and academic freedom. There are quite a few cases of external forces attempting to influence hiring decisions and curricula involving economists (e.g. Samuelson’s textbook), but McPhelin’s case was an inside-the-ivory-tower-job. He put himself in the cross-hairs of student activists who wanted him dismissed for alleged racism in the classroom. A fairly complete accounting of the “McPhelin affair” that included an occupation of the Cornell economics department offices can be found in:

Downs, Donald Alexander. Chapter 4 “Racial Justice Versus Academic Freedom” in his Cornell ’69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University. Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press, 1999. pp. 68-96.
A book review by Jon Porter. 

With respect to Father McPhelin, Downs gives the benefit of the doubt:

McPhelin was treading into an area of delicate expectations and sensitivities, and he was doing so in front of the leading advocates of Black Power on campus. Worse, McPhelin entered this fray with fewer strategic skills than other professors who managed to get away with similar remarks in class. According to Nathan Tarcov, who lived in the same house as the visiting priest, McPhelin was a friendly, decent man who had the misfortune of being obtuse. “He really just could not fully comprehend what was happening to him,” Tarcov said. “He just didn’t get it.” [Downs, p. 72]

I have included a considerably less than flattering portrayal of McPhelin by a Philippine businessman/politician/journalist who clearly bore an anti-colonial grudge against the Jesuit academics, his “Great White Father(s)”.

The former president of the Philippines (Benigno Aquino III) appears to have had a much higher opinion of McPhelin.

The post ends with a list of papers that Professor Michael McPhelin published in the journal Philippine Studies.

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Michael Francis McPhelin (Ph.D., 1950-51)

Michael Francis McPhelin, A.B. (Woodstock Coll.[Baltimore, MD]) 1935, A.M. (ibid.) 1936, S.T.L. (ibid.) 1942.

Special Field, The History of Economic Thought.
Thesis, “The Meaning and Requirements of Economic Order.”

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1950-51, pp. 111.

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New York Times obituary

The Rev. Michael F. McPhelin, a Jesuit who was a former dean of the Fordham University School of Business, died Jan. 21 in Manila. He was 70 years old.

In 1950 he was assigned to the faculty of Ateneo de Manila and had returned there for service over the last two decades. A native of New York, he completed his seminary studies at Woodstock College in Maryland. He served as a chaplain with the 275th Infantry in World War II and then received a doctorate from Columbia University [sic].

He became an assistant professor of economics at Fordham in 1950 and later taught at Gregorian University, Rome. He became dean at Fordham in 1954.

He is survived by a brother, James, and a sister, Ann Young.

Source: The New York Times, January 31, 1981, section 1, page 11.

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War record as Chaplain in the Infantry

McPhelin, Michael F. (New York)

Born: 16 May 1911. Entered Society: 14 Aug 1929. Ordained: 22 Jun 1941. Present Province: Philippines.

Appointed to the Army 6 Jan 1944. Serial number: 0543081. To the rank of Captain 9 Dec 1944; to Major 21 Aug 1946. Assignments: Harvard Chaplain School (10 Feb 1944) ; Monterey, Cal., and Camp Cooke, Cal. (1944) ; 275th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division, at Camp Adair, Ore., at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and in France (1944) ; 275th Infantry Regiment, France (1945) ; 23rd Corps Artillery, Germany (1945) ; 30th Infantry Regiment, Germany (1946) ; Division Artillery, 3rd Infantry Division (1946). Reverted to inactive status 20 Oct 1946. Award: Bronze Star.

Source: Woodstock Letters, vol. 89, no. 4 (November 1, 1960), p. 402.

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War Anecdote

Jan 7, 1945 (-4 to +5 deg F!!!)

…following is the story of Father Michael McPhelin…This being Sunday, he is making his rounds to say Mass. In the daylight, the men cannot stick their heads up without being shot at from Germans on higher ground. When he arrives at Co F in the forward-right sector below Baerenthal, he is told that the men could not possibly risk coming together for Mass. Chaplain McPhelin replied, “Well, if that’s the case, I will have to go to them. That’s my job.” While there is every expectation that the Germans will shoot him, since they can clearly see him move from foxhole to foxhole, they don’t.”

Source: Timothy McG. Millhiser and Ross R. Millhiser (June, 2000) “Operation Northwind” History of Company A, 275th  Regiment, 70th Division.

Cf. Charles Whiting. The Other Battle of the Bulge: Operation Northwind. The History Press (2007). Chapter 3.

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Ateneo Economics Department:
A BRIEF HISTORY

Over the past fifty years, the Ateneo Economics Department has distinguished itself with its rich history and the countless contributions its alumni have made to Philippine society.

The Economics Department started out as a subdepartment of Social Science. Although it was recognized as a separate department, Economics had no official head and was under control of the chair of Social Science. When the Economics Department was finally established in 1953, it had only Rev. Michael McPhelin, S.J. as its lone faculty member. He became the first moderator of the Economics of the Ateneo (ESA) when it was founded in 1962.

In the school year 1957-1958, the Economics Department achieved greater autonomy with the appointment of a chair separate from that of the Department of Social Science. This was Rev. William J. Nicholson, S.J., who was one of four faculty members in 1955. A notable faculty member who also became chair of the Department was Dr. Vicente Valdepeñas, who would subsequently become the director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). He is currently a member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The year 1970 was significant for the Economics Department. For the first time, it acquired female faculty, among them Victoria Valdez, Ellen Palanca, and later Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The last two would go on to acquire doctorates and continue teaching in the Department. Mrs. Macapagal –Arroyo would eventually leave the academe to become a member of the Aquino cabinet, senator, vice president, and President of the Republic.

Today, the Ateneo Economics Department is widely recognized as one of the most important academic groups in the country. It boasts of faculty members who not only provide analytical assistance to government agencies, multilateral organizations and non-government organizations, but also lead their students into careers that are dedicated to the improvement of the national economy and national well-being.

The Department tirelessly and resolutely charts new directions for growth and development. It continues to offer the bachelor’s and master programs begun in 1951, the Management Economics Program introduced in 1984, and the Ph.D. program initiated in 2002. Three thousand men and women have graduated with degrees in the Department’s various courses, and thousands more will follow in the coming years.

Indeed, the Economics Department of the Ateneo de Manila is keeping alive the Jesuit tradition of academic excellence and service to God and the Filipino people.

Source: Ateneo de Manila University Economics Department website.

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The Great White Father
by Hilarion M. Henares, Jr.

Hilarion

Philippine Daily Inquirer
September 24, 1986

…Abrasive in manner and speech, a cruel glint in his eyes, inveterate party goer, he was a racist who was thrown out of Cornell University for lectures telling the Negroes they were bioogically inferior to the whites. He was Father Michael McPhelin, head of the Economics Department of Ateneo University, suspected CIA agent, a hanger-on at Malacañang as some sort of Rasputin, and the beloved mentor of NEDA Director Vince Valdepeñas…

The first time I met Father McPhelin was as a young businessman just fresh out of college invited to speak before the Ateneo Economic Society. He was the rudest person I ever met, he kept interrupting me, making insulting remarks about the integrity and competence of Filipino businessmen, and made no bones about his conviction that American multinationals should be given free rein to exploit our country…

Finally, I spoke to him thus: “McPhelin, you have me at a disadvantage. In the first place, you are a priest; that means God must be on your side. In the second place, you are a Jesuit priest, which means that you are probably one of the most brilliant of holy men. Above all, you are an American Jesuit priest, which makes you in the worst and most ominous sense of the term, a Great White Father about whom we Ateneans and Filipinos have a colonial mentality. But mark this, McPhelin, from here on, there will be no public forum you will ever attend that I will not grace with my presence.  And I promise you when we meet in debate, I will wipe the floor with the two protuberances of your ischia–that is, with your butt!” He was shocked out of his wits at the first Pinoy that ever talked back to him.

This big bully Father McPhelin browbeat an entire generation of Ateneo students into being Little Brown Brothers, without pride of race or faith in the Filipino. I hounded him for years, challenging him to a debate, questioning him in the open forum period, till he developed diarrhea at the very sight of me. Everywhere he went, he brought his assistant with him, a nice harmless young man named Vicente Valdepeñas Jr.; and when he saw me, he rushed out leaving poor Vince to face me as I complained: “Must I spend the rest of my life debating with altar boys?” And golly I still am….

Source:  From Hiarion M. Henares, Jr. Make My Day. 

For a personal report about Henares: see the blogpost in honor of his 88th birthday by Bel Cunanan “How to solve a problem like Larry Henares” from April 10, 2013.

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President (2010-2016) Benigno Aquino III
recalls his economics professor

President Aquino “…was the keynote speaker at the opening program of the Ignatian Festival 2013 on his alma mater’s [Ateneo de Manila University] campus in Loyola Heights, Quezon City, with the theme “Lahing Loyola Para sa Kapwa (A Loyola Race for Others)…

…He said he “owed a debt of gratitude” to his former teachers and mentors for molding his character.

Ateneo teaches that “I am in the position to help” improve the lives of others, he said, without adding that state universities and other schools also do the same.

Repeating the age-old dichotomy between success and public service (or servant leadership, as Ateneans like to call it), Mr. Aquino asked: “Isn’t this more sensible than the other institutions’ drive to enhance their students ability to quickly ascend the ladder of wealth and prestige?”

He cited the pivotal role played by his economics professor, Fr. Michael McPhelin, a Harvard alumnus, in enriching his knowledge of the subject.

He recalled debating with McPhelin matters dealing with economics and statistics during the “last 15 minutes of each and every class” held three times a week.

After passing the course, he was told by McPhelin that “he just wanted me to be like my father so he pressured me… into getting used to going through a lot of tests,” Mr. Aquino said.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer Sunday July 21, 2013.

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Papers by Michael F. McPhelin
published in Philippine Studies

Vol 7, No 4 (1959) The Margin Act

Vol 7, No 4 (1959) Economic Freedom: Adam Smith vs. The Papacy

Vol 8, No 1 (1960) Political Transmission 15 I. Economics of the Transmission

Vol 8, No 2 (1960) The “Filipino First” Policy

Vol 8, No 3 (1960) Post-Summit Reflections

Vol 8, No 3 (1960) Inducement to Invest: The United States Investment Guaranty Program and Foreign Investment

Vol 9, No 1 (1961) Financial Achievement of 1960

Vol 9, No 2 (1961) The Chinese Question

Vol 9, No 2 (1961) Where Angels Fear To Tread: Too Many Asians

Vol 9, No 3 (1961) The Purchase of Meralco

Vol 10, No 2 (1962) Not One But Ten: Southeast Asia Today and Tomorrow

Vol 10, No 4 (1962) Boeke’s Thesis Examined: Indonesian Economics

Vol 12, No 2 (1964) A Philippine Economic Geography: Shadows on the Land

Vol 12, No 4 (1964) The Economic Development Foundation

Vol 13, No 2 (1965) A Practical Man’s Economics Guide: The Planning and Execution of Economic Development

Vol 13, No 4 (1965) National Development and Human Resources: Manpower and Education

Vol 14, No 1 (1966) Wages and Justice

Vol 14, No 1 (1966) A Source Book For Economic Geography: World Economic Development

Vol 14, No 4 (1966) Philippine: International Trade and Problems of Modernization

Vol 17, No 2 (1969) Economic Dilemma of Asian Countries Asian Drama

Vol 17, No 3 (1969) On the Diversity of Philippine Geography: The Philippine Island World

Vol 17, No 4 (1969) Manila: The Primate City

Vol 18, No 1 (1970) Economic Nationalism and Planned Stagnation

Vol 18, No 3 (1970) An Inquiry into Economic Nationalism

Vol 20, No 4 (1972) The Philippines: Problems and Prospects

Vol 20, No 4 (1972) Sicat: Economic Policy and Philippine Development

Vol 24, No 4 (1976) The Philippines: An Economic and Social Geography

Vol 24, No 4 (1976) Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: The Philippines

Vol 25, No 4 (1977) The Tropics and Economic Development A Provocative Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of Social Security. Reading list and exam. Harris, 1951

 

While the following syllabus was filed with the Harvard economics syllabi for 1951-52, Seymour Harris’ course on the economics of social security was actually not offered that year. It was offered during the spring term of 1950-51 for which there is a final exam to be found. Both the course reading list and the exam are transcribed below.

____________________

Course Announcement

Economics 186 (formerly Economics 86a). Economics of Social Security

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Harris.

Economics 286 (formerly Economics 186b). Social Security and its Relation to Fiscal and Cycle Problems

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Professor Harris.

This course treats of the United States Social Security programs primarily, and foreign areas secondarily. Unemployment, health, old age insurance, education receive much attention; also assistance programs. Methods of finance, relations to economic activity, effects on income distribution are also considered.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6. Official Register of Harvard University vol. 47, no. 23 (September, 1950). Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1950-51, pp. 82-83, 89.

____________________

Prof. S. E. Harris

Economics 186 and 286
1951

I. Social Security and the National Economy—Four weeks

Philosophy; problems of distribution; monetary, financial and cyclical aspects; broad outlines of the American and British systems.

Assignment:

E. Burns: The American Social Security System, Chs. 1-3

Haber and Cohen: Readings in Social Security, Chs. 1-3

Suggested readings:

*The Beveridge Report (Social Insurance and Allied Problems)

+*W.R. Robson (Ed.): Social Security

R.C. Davison: The Unemployed

*R.C. Davison: British Unemployment Policy

S.E. Harris: Economics of Social Security, pp. 1-161

A.H. Hansen: Full Recovery or Stagnation? pp. 137-192

III. Attacks on Insecurity

The Old Age Problem—Two weeks

Assignment: Burns, Chs. 4,5; Haber-Cohen, pp. 249-322

Assistance—One week

Assignment: Burns, Chs. 11, 12

Unemployment—Two weeks

Assignment: Burns, Chs. 6,7; Haber-Cohen, Ch. 4

Sickness and Health Insurance—Two weeks

Assignment: The Practitioner, pp. 1-61; Haber-Cohen, Ch. 6

Veterans

Assignment: Burns, Ch. 10

 

Suggested Readings:

H.M. Stationary Office: Social Insurance, Part I, 1944

The Final Report of the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, 1932

Backman and Meriam: The Issue of Compulsory Health Insurance (The Brookings Institution)

+S.E. Harris: Economics of Social Security, pp. 162-443

*Recommendations for Social Security Legislation: Reports of the Advisory Council on Social Security to the Senate Committee on Finance, 1949.

The Nation’s Health: A Ten Years Program

+Millis and Montgomery: Labor’s Risk and Social Insurance

*Report to the President of the Committee on Economic Security, 1935

*Reading period: Any one of these items.

+Graduate students: Read 300 pages additional from one of these three items (but exclusive of your reading period choice) and write a 2500-word comment on the additional reading.

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

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1950-51
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 186 AND 286
[Final Examination. June, 1951]

Economics 186: Answer five questions, including number 6.

Economics 286: Answer four questions, including numbers 5 and 6.

Indicate Class next to your name.

  1. “Under the British National Health Service Act, the relative position of practitioners, nurses, specialists, dentists, obstetricians, and the relative outlays on various services have been affected.” Discuss this quotation on the basis of your reading in The Practitioner and lectures.
  2. Compare the present status of British and American programs of social security.
  3. Give the main provisions, major weaknesses, and suggest methods of improvement of the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Program.
  4. Under Old Age Insurance (U.S.A.), the problem of appropriate benefits is a difficult one. Consider some of the crucial problems raised in developing appropriate benefits.
  5. Relate the problem of economic fluctuations to the American Social Security program.
  6. Summarize and comment on the reading period assignment. (30 Minutes.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Air Sciences, Naval Science. June, 1951.

Image Source: Seymour Harris in the Harvard Class Album 1957.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings, exams for business cycles. Hansen and Haberler, 1942-44

Materials from the 1941-42 course in business cycles co-taught by Gottfried Haberler and Alvin Hansen have been posted earlier. This post adds material for the same courses offered in the next two years.

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Enrollment, 1942-43

45a. [and 145a] (winter term) Professors Hansen and Haberler.—Business Cycles.

Total 45: 10 Graduates, 15 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 1 Public Administration, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1942-43, pp. 47.

___________________

SPECIFIC READING ASSIGNMENTS IN ECONOMICS 45a
1943

  1. Types of Cycles and Statistical Materials(about 3 weeks)
    1. Haberler: Prosperity and Depression, Chapters 1, 9, 10,11
    2. Hansen: Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Chapters 1,2
    3. Schumpeter: Business Cycles, pp. 325-351
    4. Schumpeter: “Analysis of Economic Change,” Review of Economic Statistics, May, 1935
    5. Kondratieff: “The Long Waves in Economic Life,” Review of Economic Statistics, November 1935
    6. Federal Reserve Chart Book (Available at the Coop. 50¢)
  2. General Theoretical Analysis
    1. Hansen: Full Recovery or Stagnation?, Chapters 1-2
    2. Haberler: Prosperity and Depression, Chapters 2-4: 7-8; 13
    3. Hansen: Business Cycle Theory, Chapter 4
    4. Hansen: Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Chapters 11,12
    5. Wilson, T., Fluctuations in Income and Employment, (Pitman) 1942.
    6. Hansen: Full Recovery or Stagnation?, Chapters 16-20
  3. Reading Period (Choose A or B):
    1. 1. Mitchell: “Business Cycles,Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 3, pp. 92-106.
      2. Hansen: Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Chs. 3-5; 16-17; 23-24.
    2. Clark, J.M.: Strategic Factors in Business Cycles (entire book).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1942-1943 (2 of 2)”.

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Reading Period
April 26-May 8, 1943

Economics 45a: Choose A or B:

A.

(1) Mitchell, “Business Cycles, Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 3, pp. 92-106.
(2) Hansen, Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Chs. 3-5; 16-17; 23-24.

B. Clark, J.M., Strategic Factors in Business Cycles(entire book).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1942-1943 (1 of 2)”.

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1942-43
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 45a
[Final examination, May 1943]

I
(Answer any four questions in Part I)

  1. If the downward movement is cumulative why should it ever come to an end short of zero employment?
  2. Discuss cycles of different length and their possible interrelation and causation. Say something about the literature and state your own opinion.
  3. How is the business cycle as a whole, or particular phases of it, likely to be influenced by the widespread existence of monopolies? State your own opinion and give your reasons for it and, if you like, report about other people’s views.
  4. Is it circular reasoning to say that consumption depends on investment as explained by the multiplier and that investment depends on consumption as stated by the acceleration principle?
  5. “The kind of wave-like movement, which we call the business cycle, is incident to industrial change and would be impossible in an economic world in which there are no industrial innovations and discoveries.” Discuss.
  6. Why is it that the production of durable goods shows wider percentage fluctuations than that of perishable goods? Is this a cause or consequence of the cycle? Suppose by social security payments or otherwise, consumer spending were kept on an even keel (constant or steadily rising), could fluctuations in output and employment then arise?

II
(Answer either A or B)

  1. Discuss the relation of population growth to the business cycle.
  2. What are Clark’s findings about the amplitude of fluctuation in various series? Are these useful in explaining the business cycle?

Source:Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 7. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions,…, Economic,…, Military Science, Naval Science. May, 1943.

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Enrollment, 1943-44

45a. (winter term) Professor Hansen.—Business Cycles.

Total 34: 4 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen 3 Public Administration, 6 Radcliffe, 9 Navy V-12, 2 ROTC.

145a. (winter term) Professor Hansen.—Business Cycles and Economic Forecasting.

Total 8: 4 Graduates, 3 Public Administration, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1943-44, pp. 56, 58.

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1943-44
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 45 and 145
[Final examination, February 1944]

  1. Discuss and compare the explanations of the cycle as developed by the following writers:
    1. Schumpeter
    2. Spiethoff
    3. Keynes
  2. Give a full discussion of the factors that bring about a termination of the boom—in short, an explanation of the upper turning point in the cycle. In this connection introduce the views of different cycle theorists, and consider the role of the acceleration principle.
  3. (Undergraduates should choose one of the following; graduates must write on )
    1. What are the strategic factors in business cycles according to Clark?
    2. With respect to Mitchell, discuss:
      1. “specific cycles” and “business cycles”
      2. The various phases of the business cycle.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 8. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions,…, Economic,…, Military Science, Naval Science. February, 1944.

Image Source:  Alvin Hansen and Gottfried Haberler in the Harvard Class Album, 1942.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings and Exams for undergraduate money, banking, and crises. Harris and Williams, 1941-42

 

A staple of the undergraduate economics program at Harvard throughout the first half of the 20th century covered both money/banking and commercial crises. For this academic year that included the entry of the United States into World War II, I have only been able to locate the first semester course outline and the final exam for both semesters. If I ever come across the course outline for the second semester, I will be sure to post it!

_________________________

Course Material from
Other Years

1937-38
1938-39 (Paper topics)
1940-41

______________________

Course enrollment

Economics 41. Professor Williams and Associate Professor Harris. — Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.

Total 81: 18 Seniors, 50 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 1 School of Public Administration, 1 Other

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

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1941-42
Readings in Economics 41 (First Term)

  1. Introductory Survey
    1. “The Federal Reserve System—Its Purposes and Functions”
      (Published by Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; a good brief statement of our deposit banking and Federal Reserve mechanism.)
  2. Nature and Functions of Banking
    1. Dunbar, “Theory and History of Banking”, Chs. 1,2,3,4, pp. 1-60.
    2. White, “Money and Banking”, Ch. 16, pp. 349-372.
  3. Note Issue
    1. Currie. “Supply and Control of Money”, Ch. 10, pp. 110-115.
    2. Longstreet, “Currency System of United States”, in Banking Studies by Members of the Staff, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, pp. 65-83.
  4. Creation of Deposits
    1. Phillips, “Bank Credit”, Ch. 3., pp. 32-77.
    2. Currie, op. cit., Chs. 6, pp. 65-68.
  5. Commercial Loan Theory
    1. Robertson, “Money”, Ch. 5, pp. 92-117.
    2. Currie, op.  cit., Ch. 4, pp. 34-46.
  6. Central Banking; Federal Reserve System
    1. “Banking Studies”, pp. 1-476.
    2. Federal Reserve Bulletin, July 1935: “Supply and Use of Member Bank Reserve Funds,” pp. 419-428.
    3. Langum, “The Statement of Supply and Use of Member Bank Reserve Funds,” Review of Economic Statistics, August, 1939, pp. 110-115.
    4. Williams, “The Banking Act of 1935”, American Economic Review Supplement, March 19366, pp. 95-105.
  7. Some Current Problems of Reserve Organization
    Excess reserves; 100 per cent reserves; special reserves against inter-bank deposits; “ceiling plan”, et cetera; branch banking
  8. International Monetary Organization and Policy; The “Gold Problem”
    1. Graham and Whittlesey, “Golden Avalanche”.
    2. Hansen, “Gold in a Warring World”, Yale Review, June, 1940, pp. 668-686.
    3. Williams, “The Adequacy of Existing Currency Mechanisms Under Varying Circumstances”. American Economic Review Supplement, March, 1937, pp. 151-168.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1941-42”.

Reading Period
Jan. 5-14, 1942
Economics 41

Read one of the following:

  1. Hardy, Federal Reserve Policy.
  2. Hawtrey, Art of Central Banking, pp. 116-303.
  3. Keynes, Treatise on Money, Vol. II, Book VII.
  4. Sprague, Crises under the National Banking System.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1941-42”.

______________________

1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 41
Money, Banking and Commercial Crises
Mid-Year Examination

Please put the day and hour of your section meeting on the cover of your first blue book.

Part I
(Answer all three questions.)

  1. Supply and Use of Member Bank Reserve Funds.
(millions of dollars)
Nov. 19— Nov. 19—
Bills discounted 2,762 1,228
Bills bought 276 79
U.S. Government securities 320 208
Other Reserve bank credit 109 29
Monetary gold stock 2,586 3,308
Treasury and National bank currency, 1,711 1,835
Money in circulation 5,375 4,386
Treasury cash and deposits with the Federal Reserve banks 236 260
Non-member deposits 27 28
Other Federal Reserve accounts 344 350
Member bank reserve balances 1,782 ?
    1. For each of the above items, give the meaning, indicate the manner in which it influences the volume of member bank reserve balances, and state in figures what its actual effect was on these balances in the period covered by the example.
    2. Calculate what member bank reserve balances were at the later date and explain in words their change from the earlier.
    3. To what years do you think the statement might apply?
    4. What can you deduce from these figures about monetary changes and central bank policy during this period?
  2. What is meant by the difference between “compensated” and “uncompensated” deposits or withdrawals, and how do their effects differ? Describe briefly all the types of “uncompensated” payments.
  3. Reading period. Answer one of the following:
    1. Hardy: Give a résumé of the problem of “qualitative” vs. “quantitative” credit control by the Federal Reserve. What was its meaning and importance?
    2. Sprague: “Somewhere in the banking system of a country there should be a reserve of lending power.” Discuss with relation to any one of the crises prior to 1914.
    3. Hawtrey or Keynes: Contrast the more significant differences between the working of the Federal Reserve System and the Bank of England. Assess their importance in practice.
    4. Keynes: Can the banking system control the rate of investment?

Part II
Answer any TWO questions.

  1. Discuss: “The cost of acquiring [gold] imposes a heavy burden; the purchase constitutes a subsidy to producers; the chief benefit goes to foreigners.” Do you regard this as a correct analysis of the cost of our huge gold imports during the last eight years?
  2. What, in your view, are the chief merits and defects of the 100% reserve plan?
  3. Discuss the significance of “liquidity” for the operation of the commercial banking system.
  4. Discuss: “Whereas the lack of a banking crisis in 1920 or 1929 led us to believe the Federal Reserve System a satisfactory cure for the evils of the national banking system, the bank holiday in 1933 proved that this is not the case.”
  5. Would you agree that the function of the central bank is to enable the banking system “to accommodate the needs of trade”?
  6. What limitations are placed on domestic monetary policy by external considerations?

 

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

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Reading Period.
May 4-23, 1942

Economics 41. Read one of the following:

  1. Keynes, General Theory of Employment, Chs. 1-19, omit appendices.
  2. Hawtrey, Capital and Employment, all but Chs. 8, 9, 11.
  3. Hawtrey, Art of Central Banking, Chs. 1, 2, 4, 8.
  4. Durbin, The Problem of Credit Policy.
  5. Hansen, Full Recovery or Stagnation.
  6. K. Wicksell, Interest and Prices, and Keynes, Treatise, I, Chs. 2-5, 7, 14.
  7. G. Haberler, Prosperity and Depression (1939 ed.), Part I.
  8. E. Wood, English Theories of Central Banking Control.
  9. Paper Pound of 1797-1821 (Cannan edition), and
  10. Heckscher, Sweden in the World War, Part III.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1941-42”.

______________________

1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 41
Final Examination

Answer five questions, one in Part I, the question in Part II, and three in Part III.

Part I
(Take one hour. Answer one question only.)

  1. “The gold standard limits the discretion and fetters the independent action of the Government or Central Bank of any country which has bound itself to the international gold standard. It may not be the ideal system, but it maintains a certain standard of efficiency and avoids violent disturbances and gross aberrations of policy.” Discuss this point and assess its importance in the advantages and disadvantages of the gold standard.
  2. Can the banking system control the price level?
  3. “The question now arises whether the magnitude of this velocity of circulation can be regarded as determined by independent factors; or whether, rather as is sometimes maintained, it is not merely the resultant, given the quantity of goods exchanged and of available money, of the particular level of commodity prices, themselves determined by quite different ” What does Wicksell say about this? If you disagree on any points give your reasons.

Part II
(Answer one question.)

  1. Write an essay on some one topic discussed in the book you took as the reading period assignment. Do notwrite a summary of the book.

Part III
(Answer any three questions.)

  1. What is the relation of the gold standard and the quantity theory of money? Discuss the relationship as a factor contributing towards the breakdown of the gold standard? Mention briefly some other factors contributing towards the collapse of the gold standard.
  2. What kind of foreign exchange policy would you advocate for the U.S. after the war? Support your recommendations.
  3. “The real cause of a rise in prices is to be looked for, not in the expansion of the amount of money as such but in the provision by the Bank of easier credit, which is itself the cause of the expansion.”
  4. What is the nature of the relations between the quantity of money and interest and prices?
  5. “The problem of war finance is simple. If the government wishes to avoid inflation, it must not allow any increase in the quantity of money.” Do you agree?
  6. Is Chandler a Keynesian?

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

Image Source: John H. Williams (left) and Seymour Harris (right) from Harvard Class Album 1939.