Category: Harvard

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams in money, banking and commercial crises. Guest professor, W. C. Mitchell, 1908-09

 

For the academic year 1908-09 Wesley Clair Mitchell took leave from the University of California to cover three courses previously taught by A. Piatt Andrew at Harvard on money, banking and foreign exchange, and commercial crises. This post provides enrollment figures and the examination questions for the three courses.

While I have been unable to find course outlines in the Harvard archives, here is the (almost complete) 1906 Syllabus for Mitchell’s money course taught at the University of California.

 ___________________

Money. A General Survey…in recent times

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 103: 4 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 48 Juniors, 20 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Special.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

 

ECONOMICS 8a1
Final Examination

1. and 2. Describe the monetary system of the United States, making such reference as is necessary for a clear understanding to monetary history and to the banking system.

  1. Sketch the monetary history of British India since 1873.
  2. Give a brief account of the production of gold and silver, and of the changes in the market ratio between them, for the years 1848 to 1908.
  3. State the case for bimetallism.
  4. What are the chief differences between monetary conditions in the Middle Ages and at present?
  5. Sketch some one of the paper-money episodes of the nineteenth century.
  6. What are index numbers? How are they constructed? Of what use are they?
  7. and 10. Discuss the way in which an increasing production of gold affects the price-level in gold-standard countries.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), p. 39.

 ___________________

Banking and Foreign Exchange

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 117: 3 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 61 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Special.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

ECONOMICS 8b
Final Examination

  1. Exercise in Banking Accounts
    Do not spend more than sixty minutes upon this exercise.

    1. Arrange the following items in the form of a bank statement: Bonds and stocks, $90,000; Undivided profits, $10,000; Due from other banks, $50,000; Notes, $50,000; Exchanges for the clearing house, $50,000; Expenses, $1,500; Notes of other national banks, $1,000; Due to banks, $60,000; Real estate, $40,000; Surplus, $50,000; United States deposits, $30,000; 5% redemption fund, $2,500; Due from reserve agents, $50,000; Lawful money, $66,000; Capital, $200,000; Individual deposits, $600,000; Loans, $630,000; Other assets, $19,000.
    2. If the statement is that of a National Bank, not in a reserve city, how much lawful money is it required by law to hold as reserve?
    3. Assume that the statement shows the condition of the bank at the close of business Thursday. During business hours Friday the following transactions take place:—
      1. The bank pays a coal bill of $1,000 in cash;
      2. The bank remits $5,000 of United States notes to its reserve agent;
      3. The following deposits are received from individual customers:—
        $2,000 in gold certificates;
        $1,000 in the bank’s own notes;
        $5,000 in checks against the bank itself;
        $42,000 in checks against other banks belonging to the same clearing house.
      4. The bank discounts a 30-day note for $50,000 at 6%, taking United States bonds as collateral security. The borrower takes the proceeds in such form that he can pay in checks.
      5. A note of $20,000, discounted six months before at 4%, is paid by means of a check against the borrower’s account.
      6. At the clearing house, the bank finds $55,000 presented against it. Balances are paid in gold.
        How does the bank stand at the close of business Friday?
  1. Sketch the development of banking in England to 1700.
  2. Describe briefly the condition of banking in the United States in 1860.
  3. What factors affect the profit upon the issue of national bank notes?
  4. Compare the methods of treating a commercial panic followed by the banks of New York and the Bank of England.
  5. State the case for and against the incorporation into national banking law of provisions for any one of the following purposes:—
    1. To guarantee deposits;
    2. To permit branch banking;
    3. To change the bond-secured circulation for asset currency;
    4. To establish a central bank on the German model.
  6. State the leading differences between the business of commercial banking and savings banking.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), pp. 40-41.

 ___________________

Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12 1hf. Asst. Professor Mitchell (University of California). — Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 68: 2 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 10 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

 

ECONOMICS 121
Final Examination

Describe business conditions in the United States from 1890 to 1908, inclusive, with such reference to business conditions abroad as is necessary for an understanding of American conditions. State the most important causes of the changes which have occurred.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 8. Bond volume: Examination Papers, 1908-09. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…, in Harvard College (June 1909), p.  44.

Image Source: Thumbnail image from a 1900 picture of Wesley Clair Mitchell at the University of Chicago in Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s Two Lives: The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate General Examination in Economics, 1956

 

 

Other undergraduate Harvard divisional/departmental  general exams that have been transcribed and posted earlier:

General Division Exam 1916

General Division Exam 1917

Division Exams 1939

Economics General Exam 1953

______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
GENERAL EXAMINATION — May 2, 1956
(Three hours)

Please be sure to use a separate bluebook for each Section, noting on the cover of each book the numbers of the questions discussed therein, and HONORS or NON-HONORS.

 

PART I
(One hour)
Economic Analysis

All candidates answer ONE question.

  1. It is often said that investment is one of the principal determinants of national income. On the other hand it is also claimed that national income is one of the principal determinants of investment. In what sense is each of these statements true? What are the implications of these propositions for the theory of business cycles?
  2. “Almost no one would select the industries which are distinguished by a close approach to the competitive model as a showpiece of American industrial achievement. The showpieces are, with rare exceptions, the industries which are dominated by a handful of large firms. The foreign visitor, brought to the United States by the Economic Cooperation Administration, visits the same firms as do attorneys of the Department of Justice in their search for monopoly.” Discuss.
  3. Wages and profits perform important functions in the economic system. To what extent are these functions the same and to what extent do they differ?
  4. Ricardo considered savings as the basis of economic growth. Some modern common economists on the other hand have argued that a high propensity to save reduces the rate of economic growth. Explain the reasons for each of these views.
  5. Agriculture is an excellent example of the failure of the competitive system to allocate resources efficiently. Discuss.

 

PART II
(Two hours)

Part II consists of five sections: A. Industrial Organization; B. Labor Economics; C. Economic History; D. Money, Economic Fluctuations, and International Trade; and E. Statistics. Each student must answer FOUR questions from Part II, distributed among the sections as follows:

Either

(1) TWO questions each from TWO different Sections chosen from A, B, C, D.

Or

(2) ONE question from Section E; and three other questions, TWO chosen from any ONE of A, B, C, D, and ONE from ANOTHER of these Sections.

A. Industrial Organization

  1. “The diversity of behavior revealed by a study of particular oligopolies in the United States helps explain why economists have been unable to produce a unique theory of oligopoly.” Discuss.
  2. Evaluate the evidence for and against the thesis that monopoly has increased during the last half-century in American manufacturing industries.
  3. With respect to either electric power or railroads, what do you think have been the chief achievements and shortcomings of the regulatory process in the United States?
  4. Discuss the problem of resale price maintenance laws, commenting on
    1. The historical circumstances from which resale price maintenance agreements evolved;
    2. The characteristics of goods most commonly sold under resale price maintenance agreements and why the producers of these goods prefer to operate under such agreements;
    3. The economic effects of resale price maintenance.

 

B. Labor Economics

  1. The following are recently released figures by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing production, man hours, and output per man hour in the bituminous coal industry since 1935. Selected years are shown as follows; 1947-49 is the base in each case.
Year Production Man hours Output per man hour
1935 67.0 89.0 75.3
1938 62.7 73.8 85.0
1941 92.5 100.5 92.0
1945 103.9 111.5 93.2
1948 107.8 109.0 98.9
1950 92.9 82.1 113.2
1954 70.4 47.3 148.8

(a) What factors would you advance to explain the movement in output per man hour? (b) Is the 100 percent rise in output per man hour in this twenty year period a consequence of, or a reason for, substantial wage rate increases?

  1. How do you praise be consequences of the merger between the AFL and CIO? Indicate the consequences for organizing campaigns and union growth, internal union government, legislative and political action, collective bargaining, and the movement of wages. Consider the consequences both within the labor movement and for the economy generally.
  2. “The growing importance collective-bargaining cannot be reconciled with the view that unions may be considered as private organizations or ‘clubs’.” Discuss. What types of public policy would you advocate with respect to governmental intervention in the internal affairs of unions?
  3. Explain the meaning of “marginal productivity” to a friend who is never studied economics. Explain further whatever degree of relation you believe exists between marginal productivity and wages.

 

C. Economic History

  1. It has been said that “mercantilism” has always been the dominant economic philosophy in American politics. Discuss.
  2. How does the development of the corporation as an institutional form for organizing business activity different in United States and Great Britain? What accounts for and what have been the consequences of these developments?
  3. Contrast ante- and post-bellum Southern Agriculture.
  4. What light does [sic] the depression experiences of 1873, 1920, 1929, cast on business cycle theories and policies?

 

D. Money, Economic Fluctuations, and International Trade

  1. What actions could the Federal Reserve authorities take to check an inflationary movement? What objections might be raised against the use of any combination of these actions?
  2. Suppose the trade unions force up money wages. Discuss the effect of the change on employment and prices in terms of (a) the Quantity Theory of Prices (b) the Keynesian theory of the price level.
  3. Supposed that aggregate income were to remain constant for the next six months while unemployment slowly rose. What budgetary and monetary policies would you recommend?
  4. In a recent statement to the Associated Press, Mr. T. Coleman Andrews, Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the first three years of the present administration until his resignation last Spring, declared his complete opposition to the taxation of personal income. He advocated completely doing away with the individual income tax and substituting “less burdensome” taxes.
    1. What reforms, if any, would you advocate in the taxation of individual income? Explain.
    2. Are there any “less burdensome” taxes than the individual income tax? Explain.
      Note: throughout your discussion keep in mind the fiscal policy aspects of taxation as well as considerations of the effects on incentives, equity, etc.
  5. With few exceptions output per worker is much higher in American industries (including agriculture) than in other countries. How is it possible under these circumstances to maintain equilibrium between exports and imports?

 

E. Statistics

  1. Summarize and discuss critically two quantitative studies dealing with one or more phases of household behavior.
  2. Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages aggregative time series data, cross sectional data, and re-interview data on identical households for purposes of estimation and testing of hypotheses.
  3. Discuss various ways in which statistics may be of use in economic research. In formulating your answer give consideration to some or all of the following: formation of hypotheses, testing of hypotheses, estimation of population parameters, and design of experiments.

 

Source:  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers, Harvard University File, 1949-1965, Box 528, Folder “Tutorial 9/15/51-9/57”.

Image Source: Duster House Tower, Harvard College. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Final exams for “Modern Economic Theory and its Critics”. O.H. Taylor, 1938-39.

 

Just started a “scope and methods of economics” course this semester and after consulting my files from archival visits to Harvard, I discovered that good old Overton Hume Taylor offered a similar course there fifteen times during the 1930s and 1940s. I have already transcribed/posted numerous syllabi and exams for his other courses in the history of economics, political economy, and socialism. For some unknown reason he apparently did not keep a syllabus of assigned readings on file for his “Modern Economic Theory and its Critics” course with the Harvard library. For now we’ll be limited to the printed semester final examinations that I have located in the Harvard archives to reverse-engineer his likely reading assignments.

The stability of the course content may be presumed from the identical course descriptions (with the sole exception of “programmes” becoming “programs”) in the 1932-33 and 1940-41 Division announcements, included below.

Overton Hume Taylor received his economics Ph.D. from Harvard in 1928 with the dissertation “The Idea of a Natural Order in Early Modern Economic Thought.” 

 

Chronology of O. H. Taylor’s course Economics 105
(formerly Economics 17)

1930-31. Ec17 Half-course (second half-year). Classical Economics and Eighteenth Century Philosophy. 3 students enrolled (1 Gr., 1 Sr., 1 Jr.)

1931-32. Ec17 Half-course (second half-year). Classical Economics and Eighteenth Century Philosophy.

1932-33. Ec17 Half-course (second half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1933-34. Ec17 Full-course. Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1934-35. Ec17 Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1935-36. Ec17 Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1936-37. Ec105 (formerly 17) Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1937-38. Ec105 (formerly 17) Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1938-39. Ec105 Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.” [Note: James Tobin took the second semester of the course. His student notes are found with his papers at the Yale University archives].

1939-40. Ec105 Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. “This course may be taken as a half-course in either half-year.”

1940-41. Ec105 Half-course (first half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1941-42. Ec105 Half-course (first half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1942-43. Ec105 Half-course (first half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

1943-44. Ec105a. Half-course (first half-year).  Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. 12 students enrolled (9 Graduates, 3 Public Admin.)

1944-45. Ec105a. Half-course (first half-year).  Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. 3 students enrolled (1 Graduate,1 Public Admin., 1 Radcliffe)

1945-46. Ec105a Half-course (first half-year). Modern Economic Theory and its Critics. 2 students enrolled (2 Graduate)

1946-47. Ec105a. Half-course (first half-year). 3 students enrolled (1 Graduate, 2 Radcliffe)

_______________________

Course Description, 1932-33

[Economics] 17 2hf. Modern Economic Theory and its Critics

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. Taylor.

A critical study of conflicting views in regard to the proper aim and scope, method, and basic “premises” of economic theory. The views considered are those reflected, in recent English and American literature, in the work of relatively “orthodox” theorists on the one hand, and in the criticisms, programmes, and attempted innovations of various “insurgent” writers on the other hand. Reading, lectures, and discussions.

 

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1932-33. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXIX, No. 32 (June 27, 1932), p. 77.

_______________________

Course Description, 1940-41

[Economics] 105a 1hf. Modern Economic Theory and its Critics

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 12. Dr. O. H. Taylor.

A critical study of conflicting views in regard to the proper aim and scope, method, and basic “premises” of economic theory. The views considered are those reflected, in recent English and American literature, in the work of relatively “orthodox” theorists on the one hand, and in the criticisms, programs, and attempted innovations of various “insurgent” writers on the other hand. Reading, lectures, and discussions.

 

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1940-41. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), pp. 58-59.

_______________________

Course Enrollment, 1938-39

[Economics] 105. Dr. O. H. Taylor.—Modern Economic Theory and its Critics.

Total 13: 6 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 2 School of Public Administration

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-1939, p. 99.

_______________________

Reading Period Assignments, 1938-39

Mid-year: January 5-18, 1939

Economics 105: Read one of the following:

  1. Jevons, W. S., Theory of Political Economy.
  2. Von Wieser, F., Natural Value.
  3. Wicksteed, P. Common Sense of Political Economy. Vol. I.

 

End-year: May 8-31, 1939

Economics 105: Read one of the following:

T. Veblen, Instinct of Workmanship.
T. Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1938-1939”.

_______________________

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 105
Final Examination, mid-year. 1939.

Answer one of the first three questions — four questions in all. Average time, 45 minutes per question — distribute your time at your own discretion.

  1. Write your own accounts, and critical discussions, of (a) realism and nominalism, (b) rationalism and empiricism, and (c) the ‘methods’ of the ‘classical’ and ‘historical schools’ in economics.
  2. Discuss the general ideas prevalent in the eighteenth century about (a) causal and (b) ethical “natural laws” pertaining to human activities and social life; and the contributions of these ideas to the outlook and beliefs of nineteenth century “orthodox” economists and economic liberals.”
  3. Write a summary and criticism of the main ideas or theses included in Bentham’s “utilitarianism”; and a discussion of the question whether, and how far, the same, or similar, ideas became “the basis” of economic theory, in the hands of Ricardo and of later writers.
  4. Explain the substance, and discuss the merits, of Ricardo’s arguments and “doctrines” about either(1)(a) labor and value, and (b) rent and value; or (2)(a) wages in the short run and in the long run and(b) profits.
  5. Discuss either (a) “romanticism,” and the views of Carlyle or of Ruskin about classical economics; or (b) “positivism,” and the views of Comte.
  6. Explain and discuss the main ideas and reasonings you’ve found in Jevons, von Wieser, or Wicksteed, on the topics of utility, cost, and value.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1939.

_______________________

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 105
Final Examination, year-end. 1939.

Write on SIX questions; omit either (3) or (4), and either (6) or (8).

  1. Describe and discuss, with reference to Marshall’s Principles, either (a) his ‘sociological’ and ‘economic’ ideas, his theory about ‘wants’ and ‘activities,’ his views about ‘free enterprise,’ his view on the direction of ‘social evolution,’ and his attitude to ‘hedonism’ and the ‘money measure’; or (b) his theories of diminishing and increasing returns, and of ‘lengths of time’ and ‘normal value.’
  2. Describe and discuss Veblen’s idea of the nature of ‘modern science’; his account and criticism of the preconceptions of classical economics; his view of what economic science should be and do; his general theory of the evolution of institutions; and his theory of the conflict of the ‘industrial’ and ‘pecuniary’ classes in modern society. Add your own appraisal of Veblen as ‘scientist,’ and your list of what seems to you his most valuable contributions to economics.
  3. Describe and discuss Mitchell’s account and criticism of the psychological basis of classical theory, and his proposals for a new approach through modern psychologies; and explain your own views on this problem.
  4. Do you think that economic theory should, in reference to social institutions, (a) only postulate various institutional set-ups as ‘given’ and study the solutions of ‘economic’ problems attainable under them, or (b) include the development of institutions in its own subject-matter, i.e. study the interactions of ‘economic’ and ‘institutional’ change? Take one position or the other, and develop your arguments for the position you take.
  5. How does Chamberlin describe and explain the main economic consequences for society of product-differentiation and oligopoly, as compared with those of pure competition? Discuss the assumptions involved in, and the significance of, this comparison. Do you think it has any implications for public policy?
  6. Describe and discuss the main features of Schumpeter’s theory of capitalist ‘development’ – his theories of the nature and rôle of entrepreneurial activity, of credit, of capital, of profits, and of the business cycle.
  7. Write anything you wish to write, on the reading you did under the May reading assignment.
  8. Write a half-hour essay on any topic of your own choice, in any way related to any of the subject-matter of the course not treated in your answers to the foregoing questions.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4, Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June 1939.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1942.

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Life and works of political economy and philosophy professor Francis Bowen (1811-1890).

 

This post is dedicated to the life and works of Harvard professor Francis Bowen who taught political economy courses when not teaching philosophy and constitutional law courses decades before economics became an established department of its own. The biography comes from a reference work published at the turn of the 20th century “Universities and their Sons”. I managed to add links to all of the works by Bowen cited in the biographical article transcribed below. 

Here a less than flattering description of Francis Bowen’s pedagogical style with respect to political economy written by Harvard President Charles W. Eliot looking back to the start of his election in 1869.

__________________________

Exams for courses of Francis Bowen
transcribed at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror

1867-68

Seniors, Political Economy, January 1868

1868-69

Seniors, Political Economy, June 1869

1869-70

Seniors, First-term. Political Economy, December 1869.

__________________________

BOWEN, Francis, 1811-1890.

Born in Charlestown, Mass., 1811; graduate of Harvard, 1833; Instructor in Intellectual Philosophy and Political Economy at the same Institution, 1835-1839; Editor and Proprietor of the North American Review; delivered Lowell Institute Lectures in Boston; succeeded Dr. Walker in the Alford Professorship at Harvard; and “Emeritus” Professor at the time of his death, (1890).

FRANCIS BOWEN, LL.D., Alford Professor at Harvard, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, September 8, 1811. He was graduated at Harvard in 1833, two years later becoming Instructor in Natural Philosophy and Political Economy. While studying in Europe (1839-1841) he formed the acquaintance of such noted scholars as Sismondi and De Gerando. Returning to Cambridge, he, in 1843, took charge of the North American Review, as Editor and proprietor, and conducted that magazine for nearly eleven years. During the years 1848-1849 he lectured before the Lowell Institute, Boston, on the application of Metaphysical and Ethical Science to the Evidences of Religion. On account of his having taken the unpopular side in the Review on the “Hungarian Question,” the Board of Overseers of Harvard would not concur with the Corporation in appointing him to the McLean Professorship of History in 1850. In the winter of that year he again lectured before the Lowell Institute on Political Economy, and in 1852 his subjects were the Origin and Development of the English and American Constitutions. Upon the election of Dr. Walker to the Presidency of Harvard (1853), Mr. Bowen received almost unanimous confirmation by the Overseers as Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity, holding that Chair continuously until 1888, when he became Professor “Emeritus.” He was also for some time the Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Phillips-Exeter Academy. His subsequent Lowell Institute lectures were devoted to the English metaphysicians and philosophers from Bacon to Sir William Hamilton. Professor Bowen died in 1890. He was a fellow of the American Academy and a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His published works consist of: Virgil, with English notes; Critical Essays on the History and Present Condition of Speculative Philosophy; Lowell Lectures; an abridged edition of Dugald Stewart’s Philosophy of the Human Mind; Documents of the Constitution of England and America, from Magna Charta to the Federal Constitution of 1789; the lives of Steuben, Otis, and Benjamin Lincoln, in Sparks’ American Biography; Principles of Political Economy Applied to the Condition, Resources and Institutions of the American People; a revised edition of Reeve’s translation of de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America; a Treatise on Logic; American Political Economy, with remarks on the finances since the beginning of the Civil War; Modern Philosophy, from Descartes to Schopenhauer and Hartmann; Gleanings from a Literary Life, 1838-1880; and A Layman’s Study of the English Bible, considered in its Literary and Secular Aspect.

Source: “Francis Bowen” in Universities and their sons. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, ed. Vol. 2 (Boston: R. Herndon Company, 1900), pp. 144-145.

__________________________

Links to Bowen’s Work Cited

Virgil, with English Notes (Boston: David H. Williams, 1842).

Critical Essays on the History and Present Condition of Speculative Philosophy (Boston: H.B. Williams, 1842).

Lowell Lectures on the Application of Metaphysical and Ethical Science to the Evidences of Religion. Lectures at the Lowell Institute, Winters of 1848-49. (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1849).

Abridged edition of Dugald Stewart’s [Elements of the] Philosophy of the Human Mind (Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1859).

Documents of the Constitution of England and America, from Magna Charta to the Federal Constitution of 1789(Cambridge, MA: John Bartlett, 1854).

The lives of Baron Steuben (Vol. 9), Sir William Phips, (Vol. 7), James Otis (Vol. 2), and Benjamin Lincoln, (Second Series, Vol. 13) in Jared Sparks, ed. The Library of American Biography.

The Principles of Political Economy applied to the Condition, the Resources, and the Institutions of the American People (2ndedition, 1859).

Revised edition of Reeve’s translation of de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Volume I (2nd ed., 1863); Volume II (2nd ed., 1863). Cambridge: Sever and Francis.

A Treatise on Logic. (Cambridge, MA: Sever and Francis, 1864)

American Political Economy; including Strictures of the Currency and the Finances since 1861 ((New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1870). 

Modern Philosophy, from Descartes to Schopenhauer and Hartmann (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1877).

Gleanings from a Literary Life, 1838-1880 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1880), in which are reprinted:

A minority Report on the Silver Question. Presented to the Senate of the United States, in April, 1877

The Perpetuity of National Debt. A suppressed Chapter of Political Economy, read before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in March, 1868

The Financial Conduct of the War. A Lecture delivered before the Lowell Institute, in Boston, in November, 1865.

The Utility and the Limitations of the Science of Political Economy. From the Christian Examiner for March, 1838.

A Layman’s Study of the English Bible, considered in its Literary and Secular Aspect (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1885).

 

Image Source: “Francis Bowen” in Universities and their sons. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, ed. Vol. 2 (Boston: R. Herndon Company, 1900), p. 144.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam questions for “The Labor Question in Europe and the U.S.” Edward Cummings, 1894

 

Edward Cummings, the father of the poet E. E. Cummings, covered the social economics course offerings at Harvard at the end of the 19th century. These included courses in labor economics and social reform movements (esp. “socialism and communism”). The exams for his comparative labor course from 1893-94 mostly consisted of specific unidentified quotations, with students asked to provide explanations or comments. The text-search functions at hathitrust.org, archive.org and google located a dozen of the quotations used by Cummings and links to the texts have been provided below.

___________________________

Course Description
(from 1896-97)

The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Asst. Professor Edward Cummings and Dr. John Cummings.    (VIII)

Course 9 is a comparative study of the condition and environments of workingmen in the United States and European countries. It is chiefly concerned with problems growing out of the relations of labor and capital. There is careful study of the voluntarily organizations of labor, — trade unions, friendly societies, and the various forms of cooperation; of profit-sharing, sliding scales, and joint standing committees for the settlement of disputes ; of factory legislation, employers’ liability, the legal status of laborers and labor organizations, state courts of arbitration, and compulsory government insurance against the exigencies of sickness, accident, and old age. All these expedients, together with the phenomena of international migration, the questions of a shorter working day and convict labor, are discussed in the light of experience and of economic theory, with a view to determining the merits, defects, and possibilities of existing movements.

The descriptive and theoretical aspects of the course are supplemented by statistical evidence in regard to wages, prices, standards of living, and the social condition of labor in different countries.

Topics will be assigned for special investigation, and students will be expected to participate in the discussion of selections from authors recommended for a systematic course of reading.

The course is open not only for students who have taken Course 1, but to Juniors and Seniors of good rank who are taking 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, 1897-98, pp. 36-37.

___________________________

Course Enrollment
1893-94

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

Total 43: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 5 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1893-94, p. 61.

___________________________

Mid-year Examination
ECONOMICS 9
1893-94.

(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. “It becomes my duty, therefore, in undertaking to interpret the social movement of our own times, to disclose, first, those changes in industrial methods by which harmony in industries has been disturbed, and then to trace the influence of such changes into the structure of society.” State carefully what these changes have been; and trace their influence.
    [Henry C. Adams. “An Interpretation of the Social Movements of our Time”, International Journal of Ethics, Vol II, October, 1891), p. 33]
  2. Discuss the effect upon wages of machinery, — (a) as a substitute for labor (b) as auxiliary to labor; (c) as affecting division of labor; (d) as concentrating labor and capital; (e) as affecting the nobility[sic, “mobility”] of labor and capital.
  3. “In my opinion, combination among workingmen is a necessary step in the re-crystallization of industrial rights and duties.” State fully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with this opinion. What forms of combination do you include?
    [Henry C. Adams. “An Interpretation of the Social Movements of our Time”, International Journal of Ethics, Vol II, October, 1891), p. 45]
  4. “Trade-unions have been stronger in England than on the Continent, and in America….” In what respects stronger? Why? Contrast briefly the history and present tendencies of the trade-union movement in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy.
    [Alfred Marshall, Elements of Economics of Industry: being the First Volume of Elements of Economics (London: Macmillan, 1892), Book VI, Ch. XIII. §18, p. 404]
  5. “Trade-unions have been stronger in England than on the Continent, and in America; and wages have been higher in England than on the Continent, but lower than in America.” “Again, those occupations in which wages have risen most in England happen to be those in which there are no unions.” How far do such facts impeach the effectiveness of trade-unions as a means of raising wages and improving the condition of workingmen? What do you conceive to be the economic limits and the proper sphere of trade-union action?
    [Alfred Marshall, Elements of Economics of Industry: being the First Volume of Elements of Economics (London: Macmillan, 1892), Book VI, Ch. §18, pp. 404-405.]
  6. “We saw at the beginning that in comparatively recent years the difficulties of keeping up a purely offensive and defensive organization had brought many of the unions back nearer their old allies, the friendly societies, and emphasized the friendly benefits in proportion as the expenditure for trade disputes seemed less important.” Explain carefully this earlier and later relation of trade-unions and Friendly Societies in England.
    [Edward Cummings, The English Trades-Unions, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. III (July, 1889), p. 432.]
  7. “This spirit of independent self-help has its advantages and its disadvantages. We have already had occasion to remark how slow in these Friendly Societies has been the progress of reform, and we must repeat that up to the present day it still exhibits defects.” Explain and illustrate the progress of the reform and the nature of existing defects. Does English self-help experience suggest the desirability or undesirability of imitating German methods of compulsory insurance?
  8. “Countless[sic, “Doubtless” in original] boards of arbitration and conciliation, the establishment of certain rules of procedure, agreements covering definite periods of time, may aid somewhat in averting causes of dispute or in adjusting disputes as they arise; but if we have these alone to look to, strife will be the rule rather than the exception.” Explain the various methods adopted and the results obtained. What have you to say of “compulsory arbitration?”
    [Francis A. Walker. “What Shall We Tell the Working Classes?” Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 2, 1887.  Reprinted in Discussions in Economics and Statistics, edited by Davis R. Dewey. Vol. II. 315-316.]
  9. “The conclusion of the whole matter seems to be, that what is desirable is not so much to put a stop to sub-contracting as to put a stop to ‘sweating,’ whether the man who treats the workman in the oppressive manner which the word ‘sweating’ denotes be a sub-contractor, a piece-master, or a contractor.” Indicate briefly some of the principal forms of industrial remuneration, — giving the special merits and defects of each.
    [David F. Schloss. Methods of Industrial Remuneration (London: Williams and Norgate, 1892), p. 140.]
  10. “Now that I am on piece-work, I am making about double what I used to make when on day-work. I know I am doing wrong. I am taking away the work of another man.” State and criticize the theory involved in this view of production.
    [David F. Schloss. Methods of Industrial Remuneration (London: Williams and Norgate, 1892), p. 43-44.]

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year, 1893-94.

___________________________

Year-End Examination
ECONOMICS 9.
1893-94.

(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. Take the first three questions and four others.)

  1. “As soon, however, as the factory system was established, the inequality of women and children in their struggle with employers attracted the attention of even the most careless observers; and, attention once drawn to this circumstance, it was not long before the inequality of adult men was also brought into prominence.” How far is this true (a) of England, (b) of the United States? Trace briefly the legislative consequences for children and for adults in the two countries.
    [Arnold Toynbee. Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century in England (The Humboldt Library of Popular Science Literature, Vol. 13. New York: Humboldt Publishing Co.), p. 17.]
  2. “It will be necessary, in the first place, to distinguish clearly between the failure of Industrial Coöperation and the failure of the coöperative method—a method, as we have seen, adopted, even partially, by only a very small fraction of Industrial Coöperation.” Explain carefully, discussing especially the evidence furnished by France and England.
  3. “These four concerns—the Maison Leclaire, the Godin Foundry, the Coöperative Paper Works of Angoulême and the Bon Marché—are virtually coöperative; certainly they secure to the employers and stockholders the substantial benefits of purely coöperative productive enterprises, while they are still, logically, profit-sharing establishments.” State your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing. Indicate briefly the characteristic features of each enterprise.
  4. “What inferences are we to draw from the foregoing statistics? Unmistakably this, that the higher daily wages in America do not mean a correspondingly enhanced labor cost to the manufacturer. But why so?” Discuss the character of available evidence in regard to the United States, Great Britain and the continent of Europe.
    [E. R. L. Gould. The Social Condition of Labor (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, January 1893), pp. 41-2.]
  5. “The juxtaposition of figures portraying the social-economic status of workmen of different nationalities in the country of their birth and the land of their adoption furnishes lessons of even higher interest. From this we are able to learn the social effect of economic betterment.” Explain. How do the facts in question affect your attitude toward recent changes in the character and volume of our immigration?
    [E. R. L. Gould. The Social Condition of Labor (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, January 1893), pp. 35-6.]
  6. “The Senate Finance Committee issued some time ago a comparative exhibit of prices and wages for fifty-two years, from which the conclusion is generally drawn that the condition of the wage earner is better to-day than it was thirty or forty years ago. A conclusion of this kind reveals the weakness of even the best statistics. No one can doubt that the work of the Finance Committee is work of high excellence, but for comparing the economic condition of workers it is of little value.” Do you agree or disagree? Why? Indicate briefly the character of the evidence.
  7. What are the principle organizations which may be said to represent the “Labor Movement” in the United States at the present time? How far are they helpful and how far hostile to one another?
  8. “In a preceding chapter I have said that as a moral force and as a system the factory system of industry is superior to the domestic system, which it supplanted.” State your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing.
    [Carroll D. Wright. Factory Legislation from Vol. II, Tenth Census of the United States, reprinted in First Annual Report of the Factory Inspectors of the State of New York (Albany, 1887), p. 41.]
  9. Contrast the English and the German policy in regard to Government Workingmen’s Insurance.
  10. “Gladly turning to more constructive work, I next consider some industrial changes and reforms which would tend to correct the present bias towards individualism.” What are they?
  11. Give an imaginary family budget for American, English and German operatives in one of the following industries, — coal, iron, steel, cotton, wool, glass, indicating roughly characteristic differences in such items as throw most light on the social condition of labor.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95.pp. 39-41.

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.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Readings, midterm and final exams for economic growth course. Kuznets, 1960-61

 

Simon Kuznets (b. 1901; d. 1985) left Johns Hopkins University to join the Harvard economics faculty beginning with the 1960-61 academic year. This post provides the reading list and exams for Kuznets’ signature course on economic growth from his first year as a Harvard professor. 

_________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 203 Economic Growth and Comparative Economic Structures. Professor Kuznets. Full course.

(F) Total 23: 12 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 2 Radcliffe, 7 Other Graduate.

(S) Total 22: 12 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 2 Radcliffe, 6 Other Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1960-1961, p. 77.

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 203

Long Term Changes and International Differences—National Income and its Components

GENERAL

  1. Simon Kuznets, “National Income and Industrial Structure,” in Economic Change, Chapter 6, 145-192.
  2. Simon Kuznets, “International Differences in Income Levels,” ibid., pp. 216-252.
  3. Colin Clark, Conditions of Economic Progress, 3rd Edition 1957 or any of the earlier editions (for browsing).
  4. M. Gilbert and I.B. Kravis, An International Comparison of National Products and the Purchasing Power of Currencies, Paris, O.E.E.C., 1954.
    or (Comparative National Products and Price Levels, 1958)

RATES OF GROWTH

  1. Simon Kuznets, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. V, no. 1, October 1956.
  2. Simon Kuznets, Six Lectures on Economic Growth, Free Press, 1959, pp. 13-41.

INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE

  1. A.G.B. Fisher, The Class of Progress and Security, London 1935.
  2. E.M. Ojala, Agriculture and Economic Progress, Oxford University Press, 1952.
  3. T.W. Schultz, The Economic Organization of Agriculture, N.Y. 1953, part I.
  4. Hollis B. Chenery, “Patterns of Industrial Growth,” American Economic Review, September 1960, pp. 624-654.
  5. P.T. Bauer and B.S. Yamey, Economic Journal, December 1951, pp. 741-755.
  6. Simon Kuznets, Economic Development and Cultural Change, (a) Supplement to No. 4, Vol. V, July 1957; (b) Part 2, Vol. VI, July 1958, also Six Lectures on Economic Growth, pp. 43-67.

FACTOR SHARES

  1. R. M. Solow, “The Constancy of Relative Shares,” American Economic Review, September 1952, pp. 618-30.
  2. I. B. Kravis, “Relative Income Shares in Fact and Theory,” American Economic Review, December 1959, pp. 917-947.
  3. Simon Kuznets, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. III, No. 3, Part 2, April 1959.

CAPITAL FORMATION

  1. M. Abramovitz, ed., Capital Formation and Economic Growth, Princeton 1955. Papers by Kuznets, Goldsmith, Usher, MacLaurin, and Rostow.
  2. Simon Kuznets, Economic Development and Cultural Change,
    (a) Vol. VIII, no. 4, Part II, July 1960.
    (b) Vol. IX, no. 3, Part II, April 1961

CONSUMPTION PATTERNS

  1. M. K. Bennett, “International Disparities in Consumption Levels,” American Economic Review, September 1951, pp. 632-649.
  2. Simon Kuznets, Regional Economic Trends and Levels of Living,” in P.M. Hauser, Population and World Politics, Free Press 1958.
  3. International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, Income and Wealth Series II, Chapter VI, particularly pp. 167-177. (1953)

INCOME DISTRIBUTION BY SIZE

  1. I. B. Kravis, “International Differences in the Distribution of Income,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1960, pp. 402-416.
  2. Simon Kuznets, “Economic Growth and Income Inequality,” American Economic Review, March 1955, pp. 1-28.

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

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 203
Midyear Examination
January 1961

Choose 6 out of the 8 questions, omitting one out of group 2-5 and one out of group 6-8.

Please write clearly and concisely. An outline of the answer rather than a full presentation is also acceptable, provided the outline is sufficiently detailed and informative.

  1. Outline the time pattern of rates of natural increase of population in the transition from the pre-modern period to modern growth, distinguishing movements of birth rates and death rates, separately for the older (European) and younger (overseas) countries. Comment briefly on probable causes.
  2. State the connection between Malthus’ population theory, the theory of differential rent, the law of diminishing returns, the iron law of wages, and the theory of long-term trends in distribution of national product and of the approach to the stationary state.
  3. Outline the types of evidence claimed in support of Pearl’s “law of population growth” and comment on their validity.
  4. What is the general structure of assumptions underlying an empirical projection of population growth? Distinguish the theory of the model from the theory of deviations and comment briefly on each.
  5. Indicate the reasons adduced by Alvin Hansen to demonstrate the depressive effects on economic growth of retardation in the growth of population, and evaluate them.
  6. Outline the major features of trans-ocean trade in the centuries immediately prior to the industrial revolution, and the various contributions made by it to the emergence of modern capitalism.
  7. Why was the industrial revolution concentrated primarily in cotton, iron, steel, and steam power?
  8. Discuss the slackening in the rate of technical change in the cotton textile industry after the mid-nineteenth century, as well as in the economic effects of technical change in the industry. Indicate both the ways of measuring the changes, and the reasons for slackening in the rate of their occurrence.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Social Sciences, Final Examinations. Vol. 131. January 1961. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science. January 1961.

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 203
Final Examination
June 6, 1961

Answer at least 4 questions, choosing at least one from each of the four Roman numeral groups. You may answer more if you wish. A detailed outline of an answer, instead of a complete text, is acceptable.

Group I

  1. In what sense is the association between technical changes and scientific discoveries, illustrated by the history of the radio industry, different from that characterizing the inventions of the Industrial Revolution? Discuss.
  2. Outline (and discuss) factors making for a retardation in the rate of growth, observable in most specific industries in the Western European countries and in the United States.

Group II

  1. Indicate properties of national income or product estimates as measures of economic growth. Consider particularly limitations arising out of difficulties as to scope, netness, and valuation.
  2. What are the implications of the rates of growth in per capita product, observed for the past half century or longer for the developed countries, as to the comparative levels of per capita product in underdeveloped countries today and in the presently developed countries just prior to their industrialization? Discuss.

Group III

  1. Discuss the factors involved in the long-term decline, in the process of modern economic growth, in the share of agriculture in national product? In labor force? Distinguish clearly between the trends in the share in product and in the share in labor force.
  2. How do you explain the rise in the shares of labor force attached to the service industries in the course of economic growth? Define the service industries before answering the question.

Group IV

  1. Define various types of proportion of capital formation to aggregate product (gross-net, domestic-national, etc.) that can be calculated; the corresponding types of capital-output ratios; and discuss their possible use in the analysis of economic growth.
  2. Discuss factors that might have made for a rising trend in the proportion of capital formation to national product observed in many (if not all) countries. Distinguish between gross and net capital formation proportions; and between domestic and national.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Social Sciences, Final Examinations. Vol. 134. June 1961. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science. June 1961.

Image Source: National Academy of Sciences. 2001. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 79. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, p. 202.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exams for European and U.S. Economic History. Gay and Klein, 1911

This post adds  final examinations for the 1910-11 academic year to previous posts dedicated to two economic history courses taught by Edwin F. Gay during the second decades of the twentieth century at Harvard. 

_____________________

Instructors: Edwin F. Gay, Julius Klein

Biographical information

_____________________

Reading list: First term, 1910-11.
Economics 6a.

European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Final exam. First term, 1910-11.
Economics 6a.

[European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century]

  1. (a) “The essence of the industrial revolution is the substitution of competition for the mediaeval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth….Competition came to be believed in as a gospel.” (Toynbee.)
    Give illustrations of the substitution of competition, and state why, in your opinion, the good rather than the evil of competition was emphasized at this period.
    (b) Toynbee said: “The effects of the industrial revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being.” A Boston reformer, speaking of the advent of machinery, says, “The profits from the machine were absorbed by capital,” so that the people did not have their share. Does the economic history of the nineteenth century support these views?
  2. (a) Trace concisely the influence of agricultural interests upon the tariff history of England, France and Germany in the nineteenth century.
    (b) Has England been more affected by the agricultural depression of the last thirty years than other European countries? Why has it not been more influenced by the “protectionist reaction?”
  3. How has the French railroad policy differed from that of Prussia? Which has been the more beneficial? Give reasons.
  4. Do the actual conditions warrant the assertions concerning “the ominous situation of British trade?” Give reasons.
  5. State succinctly the chief facts concerning:—
    (a) Assignats.
    (b) British shipping subsidies.
    (c) Crisis of 1857.

Source: Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, Mid-years (HUC 7000.55). Box 8, Examination Papers, Mid-years, 1910-11.

cf. Final exam. First term, 1914-15.
Economics 2a.

European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

_____________________

Reading list: Second term, 1910-11.
Economics 6b.

Economic and Financial History of the United States.

 

Final exam: Second term, 1910-11.
Economics 6b.

[Economic and Financial History of the United States]

  1. Outline fully the topics you would discuss if you were to write a thesis on the history of the iron and steel industry in the United States.
  2. Comment on the following:—
    1. “We import annually millions of dollars’ worth of tropical products that could be grown in the United States.” (Report of Secretary of Agriculture for 1901.)
    2. “The sum paid by American producers and manufacturers to these foreign bottoms during the past year was $500,000,000, a sum sufficient to dig the Panama Canal and operate it for twenty years. Remember that all this good American money has gone into the pockets of foreigners.” (Admiral Evans in a recent magazine article.)
  3. (a) Outline our tariff history since 1890.
    (b) Comment on Senator Aldrich’s statement: “I do not believe there are any duties levied in this bill [the tariff act of 1909] that are excessive or are prohibitory.”
    (c) The American experience with reciprocity. Are you in favor of the reciprocity treaty with Canada? State your reasons.
  4. Rhodes in his history of the United States says: “This tendency [the accumulation of large fortunes and the development of abject poverty] had begun before the War and has been the result rather of the constantly deteriorating character of the European immigration than of industrial changes on our own soil.”
    Do you agree with this view? Give your reasons.
  5. Comment on the following: “The year 1896 was in fact one of those periods rare in the history of any country of which it could be said that a given chapter had definitely closed and that another was about to open.”
  6. Compare briefly the conditions before and after the Civil War in respect to
    1. The defects of our banking system;
    2. The public land policy;
    3. Governmental assistance to and control of transportation enterprise.

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 44. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

cf. Final Exam. Second term, 1914-15.

Economics 2b
Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Readings and Final Exam for Normative Aspects of Economic Policy. Bergson, 1960

 

The reading list and final exam questions from 1959 for Abram Bergson‘s Harvard undergraduate course “Normative Aspects of Economic Policy” have been posted earlier. This post provides material for the same course taught in the spring term of 1960. The reading lists are completely identical, but this time I have gone to the trouble of providing links to most of the course readings.  The exam questions for the 1960 do indeed differ from those of 1959 while covering broadly the same material.

_________________

Enrollment

[Economics] 111a. Normative Aspects of Economic Policy. Professor Bergson. Half course. (Spring)

Total 36: 3 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 3 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1959-1960, p. 82.

_________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Normative Aspects of Economic Policy
Spring Term: 1959-60

  1. The concept of economic efficiency.

Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chicago, 1951, Chapter I.

  1. Consumers’ goods distribution and labor recruitment: the efficiency of perfect competition: other forms of market organization.

Scitovsky, Chapters II-V, XVI (pp. 338-41), XVIII, XX (pp. 423-427).
A. P. Lerner, Economics of Control, New York, 1946, Chapter 2.

  1. Conditions for efficiency in production.

Scitovsky, Chapters VI-VIII.
Lerner, Chapter 5.

  1. Production efficiency under perfect competition; monopolistic markets.

See the readings under topic 3.
Scitovsky, Chapter X, XI, XII, XV, XVI (pp. 341-363), XVII, XX (pp. 428-439).
Lerner, Chapters 6, 7.

  1. The optimum rate of investment.

Scitovsky, Chapter IX (pp. 216-228).
A. C. Pigou, Economics of Welfare, fourth ed., London, 1948, pp. 23-30.”Wa

  1. Price policy for a public enterprise.

Lerner, Chapter 15.
I. M. D. Little, A Critique of Welfare Economics, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1957, Chapter XI.
O. Eckstein, Water Resource Development, Cambridge, 1958, pp. 47-70, pp. 81-109.

  1. Socialist economic calculation.

O. Lange, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minn., 1938, pp. 55-141.
F. Hayek, Socialist Calculation: Economica, May 1940
A. Bergson, Socialist Economics, in H. Ellis, ed., A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, 1948.
M. Dobb, Economic Theory and Socialism, New York, 1955, pp. 41-92.

  1. Economic calculation in underdeveloped countries.

A. Datta, Welfare versus Growth Economics, Indian Economic Journal, October 1956.
T. Scitovsky, Two Concepts of External Economics, Journal of Political Economy, April 1954.
J. Tinbergen, The Design of Development, Balto., Md., 1958.

  1. The concept of social welfare.

The writings of Bergson and Dobb under topic 7.
Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Chapters I, VIII.
Lerner, Chapter 3.
J. R. Hicks, Foundations of Welfare Economics, Economic Journal, December 1939.
Arthur Smithies, Economic Welfare and Policy, in A. Smithies et al., Economics and Public Policy, Washington, 1955.

 

Other References on the Concept of Social Welfare and Optimum Conditions

M. W. Reder, Studies in the Theory of Welfare Economics, New York 1947.

P. A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Cambridge, 1947, Chapter VIII.

K. Boulding, Welfare Economics, in B. Haley, A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Homewood, Illinois, 1952.

H. Myint, Theories of Welfare Economics, Cambridge, Mass., 1948.

J. A. Hobson, Work and Wealth, London, 1933.

J. M. Clark, Guideposts in Time of Change, New York, 1949.

J. de V. Graaf, Theoretical Welfare Economics, Cambridge, 1957.

F. M. Bator, The Simple Analytics of Welfare Maximization, American Economic Review, March 1957.

A. Bergson, A Reformulation [of Certain Aspects] of Welfare Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1938.

P. A. Samuelson, Evaluation of Real National Income, Oxford Economic Papers, January 1950.

A. C. Pigou, Some Aspects of Welfare Economics, American Economic Review, June 1951.

T. Scitovsky, The State of Welfare Economics, American Economic Review, June 1951.

J. E. Meade, Trade and Welfare, New York, 1955, Part I.

[Note: no additional assignment for the reading period]

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1959-60”.

_________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Final Examination

June 2, 1960

Answer four and only four of the following six questions.

  1. Explain the “price-consumption” curve for a single household in a perfectly competitive consumers’ goods market. What determines the shape of the curve? By use of this curve, show how the household’s consumption might be affected by a percentage sales tax on one commodity. What determines the total taxes paid by the household?
  2. In an economy which otherwise is perfectly competitive, a trade union arbitrarily limits entry of workers into a single industry. In equilibrium, what conditions for an economic optimum are violated?
  3. “Under ‘free’ competition it is true that individual firms have monopoly power and hence charge prices above marginal costs. But since there is free entry, there hardly can be any serious economic waste on this account, for prices cannot long exceed average cost.” Discuss.
  4. For purposes of fixing prices for a public enterprise, what arguments might be advanced for and against acceptance of each of the following theoretic principles:
    1. Maximization of profits;
    2. Pricing at average cost, including a “normal” competitive return on invested capital;
    3. Pricing at marginal cost;
    4. Pricing at minimum average costs.
  5. Explain briefly:
    1. Parametric function of prices;
    2. “Technological” versus “pecuniary” external economies;
    3. “Accounting prices” in economics of development;
    4. “Defective telescopic faculty.”
  6. Discuss the different approaches employed in welfare economics to the problem of income distribution.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …,Naval Science, Air Science. June 1960. In Social Sciences, Final Examinations, June 1960 (HUC 2000.28, No. 128).

Portrait of Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam Questions. International Monetary Economics. Meyer and Sprague, 1900-1901.

Oliver Sprague

Having just returned from nearly three weeks of travel to visit family in the U.S., I can continue the work of transcribing and posting of artifacts for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. During my trip I was even able to sneak in a few days of work in the Harvard University archive. My first priority now is to supplement earlier posts with complementary material from this last archival visit.

Very recently I posted “Harvard. Final exams for international payments and specie flows. Dunbar and Meyer, 1894,1901“. That post included the mid-year examination for the course taught by Hugo Richard Meyer (International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals) in 1900-1901. This post is able to include the final examination for the second semester course taught by Oliver M. Sprague (Banking and the history of the leading Banking Systems). It does not appear that the courses were conceived as a sequence, but the common course number does reflect the shared substantive content of international payments and finance. 

__________________

About the instructors

Hugo Richard Meyer (b. 1866, d. 1923). Biographical information.

Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (b. 1873, d. 1953). Biographical Information.

__________________

Enrollments
1900-01

[Economics] 12a1 . Mr. Meyer.—International Payments and the Flow of the Precious Metals.

Total 16: 2 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Other.

[Economics 122 hf. Dr. Sprague. — Banking and the History of the Leading Banking Systems.

Total 128: 4 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 14 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 64.

__________________

ECONOMICS 12a1.
Mid-Year Examination. 1901.

Observe strictly the order in which the questions are arranged.

  1. Sidgwick’s criticisms on Mill’s doctrine of international trade and their validity.
  2. What temporary changes in the general level of prices in this country should you expect to see, as the result of a large permanent withdrawal of foreign capital? What ultimate change of prices should you expect?
  3. Suppose the exportation of specie from the United States to be prohibited (or, as has sometimes been suggested, to be slightly hindered), what would be the effect on rates of exchange, and on prices of goods, either domestic or foreign? Would the country be a loser or not? [See Ricardo (McCulloch’s ed.), page 139.]
  4. The conditions which led to the flow of gold to the United States in the fiscal years 1880 and 1881?
  5. What economic conditions or events tended to make the year 1890 a turning point both in domestic and in international finance?

Alternative:

The reasons for the return flow from Europe of American securities in the years 1890-1900?

  1. What sort of wealth did France actually sacrifice in paying the indemnity? What was the process?
  2. Is Mr. Clare justified in making the general statement that “the gold-points mark the highest level to which an exchange may rise, and the lowest to which it may fall”?
  3. Why is it that certain trades bills are drawn chiefly, or even exclusively, in one direction, e.g. by New York on London and not vice versa; and how is this practice made to answer the purpose of settling payments which have to be made in one direction?

Alternative:

Why has England become the natural clearing-house for the world?

__________________

ECONOMICS 122
Final Examination.

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions under A and two of those under B

A

  1. Explain in detail and under different circumstances the effect of an advance of the rate of discount by the Bank of England upon the money market of London and upon the foreign exchanges.
  2. Taking the separate items of a bank account point out how those of the Bank of Amsterdam differed from those of a modern bank.
  3. Define and explain:—
    1. Bill broker.
    2. Banking Principle.
    3. The State Bank of Indiana.
    4. The banking law of Louisiana.
    5. Clearing House Certificates.
  4. The extent and banking consequences of government control of the Bank of France and the Reichsbank.
  5. How do government receipts and expenditures affect the money market (a) of London, (b) of New York?
  6. Explain with illustrations from the crises of 1857 and 1893 the nature of the demand for cash in time of crisis, and consider how far that demand may be met under a flexible system of note issue.

B

  1. (a) How far and with what qualifications may banking experience in the United States before 1860 be appealed to in the discussion of changes in our banking system? (b) How far, similarly, may Canadian experience be applied?
  2. “Why compel banks to send home for redemption a multitude of notes which can as well be used in payments and are sure to be reissued at once? Why impede the free use of its power of circulation by any enterprising bank by requiring the early redemption of notes which the holder does not in fact care or need to have redeemed?”
    Explain from past experience what regulations may be expected to bring about these results, and give the reasons for demanding them.
  3. Discuss the question of branch banking with reference to the United States, including in your discussion considerations of safety and economy. Would branch banking be more desirable than at present if notes were issued against general banking assets.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, June, 1901 , pp. 33-35.

Image Source: Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague in Harvard Business School Yearbook, 1930-31, p. 18.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate core economic theory, Syllabus and Exams. Chamberlin, 1941-42.

 

Reading assignments in the first year core economic theory course taught by Edward Chamberlin at Harvard University in 1941-42 included some of the golden ‘oldies of David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, John Elliott Cairnes, John Bates Clark, and Alfred Marshall. Works by Joan Robinson, John Hicks and, of course, Chamberlin himself provided modern accents to the economic theory taught in the course.

Edward Chamberlin’s syllabus and final year-end exam for his 1938-39 version of core economic theory were posted earlier as have been the syllabus and both semester final exams for 1946-47.

___________________________

Economic Theory.
Edward Hastings Chamberlin

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 101. Professor Chamberlin. – Economic Theory.

Total 53: 9 Graduates, 7 Radcliffe, 8 School of Public Administration.

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

___________________________

Course Description

[Economics] 101. – Economic Theory.

This course aims to provide a general background in economic theory. Leading problems in value and distribution will be discussed with some reference to particular writers and schools of thought, but with the main objective of training the student in economic analysis. Active participation in the class discussions is expected.

Source: Identical descriptions in the Division of History, Government, and Economics announcements for 1940-41 and 1942-43.

___________________________

Economics 101

1941-42

First Semester

I.     Mill – Principles, Book II, chapter 4; Book III, chapters 1, 2.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapters 1, 2.

Mill – Principles, Book III, chapters 3, 5, 6.

Marshall – Principles, pp. 348-50; p. 806 note.

Mill – Principles, Book III, chapter 4.

Suggested Reading:

Introduction to the Ashley ed. of Mill, or

Mill’s Autobiography

Ricardo – Political Economy (Gonner edition), chapter 1.

II.   Boehm-Bawerk – Positive Theory of Capital, Books III, IV.

Marshall – Principles, Appendix I.

Wicksell – Lectures on Political Economy, chapter 1.

Suggested Reading:

Jevons – Theory of Political Economy, chapters 3, 4.

Phelps-Brown– The Framework of the Pricing System, chapter 2.

III.  Hicks – Value and Capital, chapters 1, 2.

IV. Marshall – Principles, Book V, chapters 1-5; Book IV, chapter 13; Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 12; Appendix H.

Knight, F. H. – “Cost of Production and Price over Long and Short Periods”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 29, p. 304 (1921). (Reprinted in Knight, The Ethics of Competition and Other Essays, Chapter 8).

Viner – “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, 1931.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, Appendix B.

Suggested Reading:

Additional reading in Marshall.

Keynes – “Alfred Marshall” – Economic Journal, September 1924. (Also in Keynes, Essays in Biography.)

Sraffa – “The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions,” Economic Journal, Vol. 36, p. 535 (1926).

Taussig, F. W. –  “Price Fixing as Seen by a Price Fixer,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 33, p. 205.

V.  Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapter 3.

Abramovitz – “Monopolistic Selling in a Changing Economy”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 52, p. 191 (1938).

Suggested Reading:

Zeuthen – Problems of Monopoly, chapter 2.

Monopolistic Competition, Appendix A.Problems of Monopoly and Economic Warfare

VI.   Robinson – Imperfect Competition, Introduction, and chapters 1,2,3.

Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, chapters 4, 5; Appendices D, E.

Chamberlin – “Monopolistic or Imperfect Competition?”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1937.

Sweezy, P. M. – “On the Definition of Monopoly”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 51, p. 362 (1937)

Cassels, J. M. – “Excess Capacity and Monopolistic Competition”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 51, p. 426. (1937)

Suggested Reading:

Kaldor – “Professor Chamberlin on Monopolistic and Imperfect Competition”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1938: and Reply.

Robinson – Imperfect Competition, chapters 4, 5, 6, 7.

VII. Chamberlin – Monopolistic Competition, Appendix C.

Alsberg, C. L. – “Economic Aspects of Adulteration and Imitation”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 46, p. 1 (1931).

Suggested Reading:

Hotelling, H. “Stability in Competition”, Economic Journal, Vol. 39, p. 41 (1929)

Lerner, A. P. and Singer, H.W. – “Some Notes on Duopoly and Spatial Competition”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 45, p. 145 (1937)

Burns, A.R. – The Decline of Competition, chapter VIII, “Non-Price Competition”.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and ReadingLists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder, “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1941-42.”

___________________________

1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 101
Mid-year examination, 1942.

Answer question 2 and any five of the others (six in all).

  1. What parts of Mill’s theory of value would be acceptable and what parts not acceptable to economic theory today?
  2. Answer either (a) or (b).
    1. What does utility theory contribute to our understanding of the economic process, and how useful do you think it is to the economist of 1942? Answer the same question for the indifference curve analysis.
    2. Discuss the following proposition: “An individual will maximize his total satisfaction or utility, if the marginal utilities of all commodities are equalized.”
  3. Distinguish between a supply curve and a cost curve. Under what conditions is it possible for either or both to fall from left to right? What are the consequences of such a phenomenon?
  4. Write a critical appraisal of Professor Viner’s article “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” confining yourself to the subjects which seem to you most important. Compare his views where possible with those of other writers and with your own.
  5. What types of industries, if any, would you expect to find operating under conditions of increasing cost? Constant cost? Decreasing cost? Compare your own views with those of other writers with whom you are familiar.
  6. Discuss the difficulties involved in constructing a demand curve for the product of an individual firm where oligopolistic influences are important.
  7. What has monopolistic competition in common with pure competition? With monopoly? Discuss fully.
  8. Answer either (a) or (b).
    1. Discuss any aspect of the experimental market problem worked out in class which you think interesting or important.
    2. “With respect to quality there appears to be a sort of ‘Gresham’s Law’ for commodities: the inferior products tend to drive the better ones from the market.” Discuss.

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

___________________________

Economics 101

1941-42

Second Semester

I.    Selling Costs:

Monopolistic Competition, Chapters 6, 7.

Braithwaite, Dorothea, “The Economic Effects of Advertisement,” Economic Journal, Vol. 38, p. 16 (1928). Reprinted as Chapter VII in Braithwaite and Dobbs, the Distribution of Consumable Goods.

II.   Distribution – General:

Marshall, Principles, Book VI, Chapters 1-5.

Clark, J. B., Distribution of Wealth, Chapter 8.

Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Chapter 4.

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 8.

Suggested Reading:

Garver & Hansen, Principles, Chapter 5.

Kahn, “Some Notes on Ideal Output” (last half) Economic Journal.

III. Wages:

Hicks, Theory of Wages, Chapters 1-7; 9; 10, section 1; 11, section 5.

Taussig, Principles, 3rd revised edition Chapter 47.

Robertson, Economic Fragments, Chapter on “Wage Grumbles.”

Suggested Reading:

Machlup,  “The Common Sense of Elasticity of Substitution,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. II, Page 202.

Cairnes, Leading Principles, Chapter 3.

IV.  Interest:

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory, Book I, chapter 2; Book II; Book V; Book VI, chapters 5, 6, 7; Book VII, chapters 1, 2, 3.

Fisher, Theory of Interest, pp. 473-85.

Marshall, Principles, Book IV, chapter 7; Book VI, chapter 1, sections 8, 9, 10, chapter 2, section 4, chapter 6.

Wicksell, Lectures, Vol. I, pages 144-171, 185-195, 207-218.

Clark, J. B., Distribution of Wealth, chapters 9, 20.

Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development, chapters 1-5.

V.    Rent:

Ricardo, Chapter 2.

Marshall, Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 11.

Robinson, Imperfect Competition, chapters 8, 9.

VI.   Profits:

Marshall, Book VI, chapter 5, section 7; chapters 7, 8.

Taussig, Principles, 3rd revised edition, Vol. II, chapter 50, section 1.

Henderson, Supply & Demand, chapter 7.

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, chapter 5, section 6; chapter 7, section 6; Appendices D, E.

Schumpeter, (see under Interest)

Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation, Book IV.

Gordon, R.A., “Enterprise, Profits and the Modern Corporation,” in “Explorations in Economics,” p. 306.

Suggested Reading:

Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit.

VII. General:

Knight, The Ethics of Competition, Essay No. 11: “Economic Theory and Nationalism.”

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and Reading Lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder, “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1941-42.”

___________________________

1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 101
Final examination, 1942.

Write on FIVE questions altogether, four from Part A and one from Part B. Be careful to divide your time about evenly between the questions.

A
Write on FOUR questions from this group.

  1. What conflicts and harmonies of interest do you find between labor and the rest of society in the matter of wages, technical progress and efficiency? Discuss the issues involved with some reference to the economic theory of the subject.
  2. Describe and contrast the several most important types of interest theory which you have found in your reading, identifying them where possible with particular writers. State and defend your own theory of interest.
  3. The rent of land has been variously described as a scarcity return, a differential return, a surplus and a monopoly income. Discuss the issues presented by each of these terms and give your own conclusions.
  4. To what extent, if at all, do you believe it possible to explain profits in terms of the marginal productivity of the entrepreneurial factor? Discuss with some reference to issues raised in your reading on the subject of profits.
  5. What various meanings have been or may be given to the concept of “marginal productivity,” and under what conditions would each meaning be relevant? Discuss the circumstances under which all factors may be remunerated according to their marginal products without deficit or surplus.

B
Write on FOUR questions from this group.

  1. “Both prices and monopoly profits are necessarily increased by the presence of advertising.” Do you agree? Discuss critically.
  2. “From this it will appear that the law of increasing or decreasing economy of large-scale production, while sufficiently distinct from that of increasing or diminishing returns to warrant a difference of name, is yet very much like it.” (From Carver’s Distribution of Wealth) Discuss, giving your own conclusions on this set of issues.
  3. Discuss critically Knight’s essay on “Economic Theory and Nationalism” or any part or phase of it which interested you in particular.

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

Image Source: Edward Chamberlin in Harvard Class Album, 1939.