Category: Harvard

Harvard. Economic Aspects of War Course Organised by Harris, 1940

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-29

Nine of the Harvard economics faculty pulled together to offer students a course on the Economic Aspects of War in the second semester of the 1939-40 academic year. According to the annual enrollment statistics, 25 students were registered for the course (perhaps there were auditors?). The enrollment jumped to 116 in 1940-41 and then dropped back down to 66 (1941-42) and fell to 34 (1942-43) as the number of concentrators (as well as instructional staff) fell during the course of WWII.

Addition: The final examination for Economics 18b from 1940.

________________________

WAR’S ECONOMIC PHASES STUDIED IN NEW COURSE
Harvard Crimson
December 19, 1939

Will Analyze Changes in Economics Incurred by War, With Emphasis on Present Conflict

Plans for a course on “Economic Aspects of War” to be given in the second semester were revealed yesterday by Seymour E. Harris ’20, associate professor of Economics, following approval by the Faculty Committee on Instruction.

Harris said, “This course will analyze the rapid dislocation of economic variables that occur in war times, and during the transition to peace. War economics is a branch of economics like Industrial Organization or Money and Banking, giving the department a chance to use Economics in the treatment of problems that face the world today.”

Contents of the Course

The course will use the tools of economic analysis, applying them to the present problem. Economics of past wars; market organization, price control and rationing; money and banking in war times; the relation of money and public and private capital markets; and the relation of war to economic fluctuations will be dealt with in the lectures and reading.

Included in the discussion will be a study of the effects of war on international balance of payments, on the distribution of gold and on commercial policy; repercussions on agriculture; methods of finance in the war and post-war periods; effects of war upon the distribution of income and wealth; trade unionism, money and real wages and employment in war times; and, finally, transition to peace.

Harris will be in charge of the course. Professor Harold H. Burbank, Professor William L. Crum, Professor Alvin H. Hansen, Professor Edward S. Mason, Professor Joseph H. Schumpeter, Professor Sumner H. Slichter, Professor John H. Williams, and Paul M. Sweezy ’32, instructor in Economics, will share in the teaching.

________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 18b 2hf. Associate Professor Harris.–Economic Aspects of War.

Total 25: 16 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments, 1939-40Harvard University. , p. 99.

________________________

Economics 18b
1939-40

In order to assure more continuity in the course it has seemed expedient to assign virtually all of the following books.

Bresciani-Turoni, The Economics of Inflation (G. Allen & Unwin).

Cannan, E., An Economist’s Protest.

(Not an assignment in any part but is suggested strongly.) The book deals with numerous problems chronologically and hence is not easily apportioned over the various sections of the course.

Clark, J. M., The Cost of the Great War to the American People.

Pigou, A. C., Political Economy of War.

Stamp, J., The Financial Aftermath of the War

E.J. = British Economic Journal.
J.R.S. = Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.

Q.J.E. = Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Proceedings = Proceedings of Academy of Political Science.

R.E.S. = Review of Economic Statistics.

Week 1 (Feb. 5-9)
INTRODUCTORY.
Professor Harris.

Plan, readings, bibliography; war economics in historical retrospect; peace versus war economics in broad outlines.

Assignment:

Pigou, A. C., Political Economy of War, pp. 1-71.

Important suggestions:

Slichter, S. H., “The Present Nature of the Recovery Problem,” Proceedings, 1940, pp. 2-15.

United States Government, Industrial Mobilization Plan (revision of 1939). Senate Document No. 134.

War Office, Statistics of Military Efforts of British Empire during the Great War 1914-20.

Wolf, F. B. “Economy in War Tim” in the volume War in the Twentieth Century, pp. 363-408.

Other suggestions:

Clapham, J. H., An Economic History of Modern Britain—An Epilogue, pp. 511-554.

Einzig, P., Economic Problems of the Next War (1939).

Higgins, B., “The Economic War since 1918” in the volume War in the Twentieth Century, pp. 135-90.

Manual of Emergency Legislation (G.B.) with four Supplements, 1914-17.

Noyes, A. D., The War Period of American Finance, Chs. I-III, pp. 1-162.

Possony, S. T., Tomorrow’s War, pp. 135-235.

Speier, H., and Kahler, A., War in Our Times, Chs. 4-7, pp. 78-171.

United States Council of National Defense, Reports 1917-8.

War Cabinet, Report of 1918, Cmd. 325 (1919).

Weeks 2-3 (Feb. 12-23)
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION.
Professor Mason and Dr. Sweezy.

Industry in war time. Industrial planning for war. Priorities, rationing and price control. The War Industries Board. Techniques of price fixing with special reference to the iron and steel industries. Present prospects for raw materials, industrial capacity and prices.

Assignment:

Clark, J. M., Costs of the World War, Chs. 19-21, pp. 262-291.

Heckscher, E., Sweden in the World War, Part I, pp. 3-42.

Keynes, J. M., “Policy of Government Storage of Foodstuffs and Raw Materials,” E.J., 1938, pp. 449-460.

Mason, E. S., “the Impact of the War on American Commodity Prices,” R.E.S., November, 1939.

Pigou, A. C., Political Economy of War, pp. 112-160.

Taussig, F. W., “Price Fixing as Seen by a Price Fixer,” Q.J.E., Vol. 33, p. 205.

Important suggestions:

Baruch, B., American Industry in the War (1921).

Beveridge, W., British Food Control (1928).

Report of War Industries Board, American Industry in the War (1921).

Other suggestions:

Birkett, M. S., “Iron and Steel Trade during War,” R.S.J., 1920.

Clarkson, G.B., Industrial America in the World War.

Clynes, J. R., “Food Control in War and Peace,” E.J., 1920, pp. 147-155.

Cunningham, W. J., “Railroads under Governemnt Operation,” Q.J.E., Vol. 36, pp. 188 et seq. and Vol. 36, pp. 30 et seq.

Day, E. E., “The American Merchant Fleet,” Q.J.E., Vol. 34, pp. 567 et seq.

Emeny, B., The Strategy of Raw Materials.

Final Report of the Chairman of the United States War Industries Board. (Feb. 1919), pp. 1-111.

Fontaine, A., French Industry during the War.

Great Britain Select Committee on High Prices and Profits, Special Report and Evidence (1917).

Great Britain Departmental Committee on Prices, Interim Report on Committee Appointed to Investigate Prices, Cmd. 8358, Cmd. 8483 (1917-18).

Hines, W. D., War History of American Railroads.

Litman, S., Prices and Price Control in Great Britain during the Great War.

Lloyd, E. M. H., Experiments in State Control.

Mitchell, W. C., Prices and Reconstruction (1920).

Morse, L. K., “The Price Fixing of Copper,” Q.J.E., Vol. 33, pp. 71 et seq.

Nolde, Russia in the Economic War.

Noyes, A. D., The War Period of American Finance, Ch. V (Mobilisation of American Industry), pp. 215-78.

Staley, E., Raw Materials in Peace and War (Council on Foreign Relations 1937).

Surface, M., Grain Trade during War (1921).

Scott, W. R., and Cunnison, J., The Industries of the Clyde Valley during the War.

War Industries Board, History of Prices during the War, W. C. Mitchell.

War Industries Board, International Price Comparisons, W. C. Mitchell.

War Trade Board, Government Control over Prices, P. W. Garrett.

Zagorsky, State Control of Industry in Russia during the War.

Zimmern, D., “The Wool Trade in War Times,” E. J., 1918, pp. 7-29.

Weeks 4-5 (Feb. 26-Mar. 8)
MONEY AND BANKING IN WAR TIMES.
Professors Williams and Hansen.

Objectives of monetary policy; weapons (including rationing); inflationary tendencies; relations of money and private and public capital markets.

Assignment:

Bresciani-Turoni, Economics of Inflation, Chs. 2 and 4, pp. 41-120, 145-182; VI, pp. 224-252.

Important suggestions:

Final Report, Committee on Currency and Foreign Exchange, (Cunliffe), (1919).

Hawtrey, Monetary Reconstruction.

Heckscher, Sweden in the World War, Part III (Monetary History), pp. 129-266.

Other suggestions:

Cannan, E., The Paper Pound of 1797-1821.

Cassel, G., Money and Foreign Exchanges after 1914, pp. 1-62.

Dulles, E. L., The French Franc 1914-28.

Edie, L. D., “The Influence of War on Prices,” Proceedings, 1940, pp. 34-46.

Edgeworth, Currency and Finance in Times of War.

Foxwell, H. S., Papers on Current Finance (1919), pp. 34-68.

Graham, F., and Whittlesey, R., Golden Avalanche.

Indian Exchange and Currency Commission, Report, Evidence and Appendices, Cmd. 527-9 (1920).

Rogers, J. H., Process of Inflation in France 1914-27, Ch. 1-4, 6-8.

Week 6 (Mar. 11-15)
RELATION OF WAR TO ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS.
Professor Schumpeter

Effects on consumption and investment demand; innovations; costs; employment, etc.

Assignment:

Bresciani-Turoni, Economics of Inflation, Chs. V, pp. 183-223; VII, pp. 253-281.

Important suggestions:

Clay, H., The Post-War Unemployment Problem, Ch. 1, pp. 1-24.

Other suggestions:

Graham, F. D., Exchange Prices and Production in Hyper-Inflation Germany. Part IV (Effects on German Economy), pp. 241-328.

Mills, F., Economic Tendencies in the United States, Ch. V., pp. 186-241.

Week 7 (Mar. 18-22)
EFFECTS ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE.
Professor Harris

Balance of payments and gold; exchange policy; commercial policy.

Assignment:

Bresciani-Turoni, Economics of Inflation, Chs. 1, pp. 23-41; 3, pp. 120-145.

Bullock, Williams, and Tucker, “Balance of Trade during the War,” in Taussig, Readings in International Trade, pp. 198-206.

Harris, S. E., “Gold and the National Economy,” R.E.S., February, 1940.

Hawtrey, R.G., Monetary Reconstruction, pp. 12-22.

Pigou, A. C., Political Economy of War, pp. 161-89.

Important suggestions:

Einzig, P., “The Unofficial Market in Sterling,” E.J., 1939, pp. 670-77.

Keynes, J. M., Tract on Monetary Reform, Chs. III, IV, pp. 81-192.

Other suggestions:

Bergendal, Sweden in the World War: Trade and Shipping Policy, pp. 43-128.

Cassel, G., Money and Foreign Exchanges, pp. 63-100, 137-186.

Dulles, E. L., The French Franc, 1914-28, Ch. 8, pp. 322-361.

Ellix, H., German Monetary Theory, Part III.

Graham, F., Exchanges, Prices, etc. in Germany, Parts II-III, pp. 97-241.

Holden, G., “Rationing and Exchange Control in British War Finance,” Q.J.E., February, 1940.

Loans to Foreign Governments, Senate Document No. 86 (1921).

Reparations and Inter-Allied Debt. Cmd. 1812 (1923).

EFFECTS ON AGRICULTURE.
Professor Harris.

Supply, demand, prices, etc.

Assignment:

Clark, J. M., The Costs of the War, Ch. 15, pp. 227-35.

Important suggestions:

Black, J. D., “The Effect of the War on Agriculture,” Proceedings, 1940, pp. 54-60.

Other suggestions:

Bernhardt, J., “Government Control of Sugar during the War,” Q.J.E., Vol. 33, pp. 672 et seq; “Transition of Control of Sugar to Competitive Conditions,” ibid., Vol. 34, pp. 720 et seq.

Eldred, W., “the Wheat and Flour Trade under Food Administration,” Q.J.E., Vol. 33, pp. 1 et seq.

Hibbard, B. H., Effects of the Great War upon Agriculture in the United States and Great Britain.

Reconstruction Committee, Agricultural Policy, Cmd. 9079, (1918).

Royal Commission on Wheat Supplies, First Report, Cmd. 1544 (1921).

Weeks 8-9 (Mar. 25-29)
PUBLIC FINANCE.
Professor Burbank.

Methods of Financing a war: Borrowing vs. taxes; tax policies, distribution of burden; management of public debt.

Assignment:

Bullock, C. J., “Financing the War,” Q.J.E., Vol. 31, pp. 357 et seq.

Clark, J. M., The Costs of the World War to the American People, Chs. 5-8, pp. 69-118.

Keynes, J. M., “The Income and Fiscal Potential of Great Britain,” E.J., 1939, pp. 626-35.

Pigou, A. C., Political Economy of War, pp. 71-112.

Important suggestions:

Clapham, J. H., “Loans and Subsidies in Times of War, 1793-1914,” E.J., 1917, pp. 493-501.

Edgeworth, Currency and Finance in Time of War.

Foxwell, H. S., Papers on Current Finance, pp. 1-33.

Great Britain Select Committee on National Expenditures, Reports 1917-22, Present and Pre-War Expenditures, Cmd. 802 (1920).

Keynes, J. M., Monetary Reform, Ch. II, pp. 46-81.

Keynes, J. M., Essays in Persuasion, Part I, pp. 3-76.

“Report of Committee on War Finance of the American Economic Association, A.E.R., Supplement, 1919, pp. 1-128.

Other suggestions:

Bogart, E. L., Direct and Indirect Costs of the Great World War (1919).

Fraser, Sir D., “The Maturing Debt,” R.S.J., 1921.

Jeze, G., and Truchy, H., The War Finance of France.

Mallet and George, British Budgets 1913-21.

May, G. O., “Economic Effects of Tax Policy in Peace and War,” Proceedings, 1940, pp. 61-68.

Moulton and Pasvolsky, World War Debt Settlements, pp. 1-425.

Noyes, A.D., The War Period of American Finance, Ch. IV, pp. 162-214.

Rogers, J. H., The Process of Inflation in France, Ch. V., pp. 48-88.

Silberling, N. J., “Financial and Monetary Policy of Great Britain during Napoleonic Wars,” Q.J.E., Vol. 38, pp. 214 et seq., 397 et seq.

Speier, H., and Kahler, A., War in Our Times, Chs. 8-11, pp. 171-245.

Sprague, O. M. W., “Conscription of Income,” E.J., 1917, pp. 1-25.

Stamp, J., Taxation during the War.

Warren, R., “War Financing and Its Economic Effects,” Proceedings, 1940, pp. 69-76.

EFFECTS OF WAR ON DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AND WEALTH
Professor Crum

Assignment: Read two of the following:

Allen, J. E., “Some Changes in Distribution of National Income during War,” R.S.J., 1920.

Clark, J. M., The Costs of the Great War to the American People, Chs. 10-12, pp. 150-80.

Ezekiel, M., “An Annual Estimate of Savings by Individuals,” R.E.S., 1937, pp. 178-191.

Keynes, J. M., Tract on Monetary Reform, Chs. 1 (Consequences to Society of Changes in Value of Money), pp. 3-45.

Samuel, H., “Taxation of Various Classes of People,” R.S.J., 1919.

Select Committee on Increase of Wealth, Proceedings, Evidence, Appendices, H.C. 102 (1920).

Important suggestions:

Mitchell, W., C., Income in the United States (1921).

Other suggestions:

Bowley, A. L., “Measurement of Changes in Cost of Living,” R.S.J., 1919.

Leven, M., Moulton, and Warburton, America’s Capacity to Consume (1934), Chs. I-IX.

Stamp, J., Wealth and Taxable Capacity, pp. 1-191.

Week 10 (April 15-18)
EFFECTS ON LABOR.
Professor Slichter.

Trade unionism; money and real wages and employment.

Assignment:

International Labour Review, November 1939: Articles on “Labour in War Times,” pp. 589-615, 654-687.

Monthly Labour Review, October, 1939: “American Labour in World War,” pp. 785-95.

Slichter, S. H., Economic Factors Affecting Industrial Relations Policy in War Period (Industrial Relations Counselors), 32 pp.

Robinson, E. A. G., “Wage Policy in War Time,” E.J., 1939, pp. 640-55.

Important suggestions:

Cannan, E., “Industrial Unreset,” E.J., 1917, pp. 453-70.

Makower, H., and Robinson, H. W., “Labour Potential in War-Time,” E. J., 1939, pp. 656-662.

Other suggestions:

Bowley, Arthur L., Prices and Wages in the United Kingdom (Oxford, 1921).

Cole, G. D. H., Trade Unionism and Munitions.

Cole, G. D. H., Self-Government in Industry (1918).

Douglas, P., Real Wages in the United States (selected parts).

Gompers, Samuel, American Labor and the War (1919).

Hammond, M. B., British Labor Conditions and Legislation during the War (1919).

Hanna, Hugh S., and Lauck, W. Jett, Wages and the War (1918).

Industrial Unrese, Cmd. 8696 (1917-18).

Kirkaldy, A. N., ed., British Association for Advancement of Science: Labour, Finance and War (1917).

Lescohier, Don D. The Labor Market (1919), Part II.

Lorwin, Lewis L., The American Federation of Labor, Part III.

National Industrial Conference Board, Changes in Wages, September, 1914 to March, 1920.

National Industrial Conference Board, Problems of Labor and Industry in Great Britain, France and Italy (1919).

Proceedings, 1918-1920, “War Labor Policies and Reconstruction,” pp. 139-358.

Speier, H., and Kahler, A., War in Our Times, Ch. 12, pp. 245-269.

United States Council of National Defense, An Analysis of the High Cost of Living Problem.

United States Council of National Defense, Shortage of Skilled Mechanics (1918).

United States Department of Labor, Bulletins No. 244 and 257. Labor Legislation of 1917 and 1918.

United States Department of Labor, History of the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board, 1917 to 1919.

United States Department of Labor, Reports 1918-1921.

United States Department of Labor, The New Position of Women in American Industry (1920).

United States Department of Labor, Industrial Efficiency and Fatigue in British Munition Factories.

United States Railroad Administration, Report of the Railroad Wage Commission.

Watkins, Gordon S., Labor Problems and Labor Administration in the United States during the World War (1919).

Webb, Sidney, The Restoration of Trade Union Conditions (B. W. Huebsch, 1917).

Wolman, L., Ebb and Flow of Trade Unionism, Chs. 2-3, pp. 15-32.

Wolman, L., Growth of American Trade Unions 1880-1923, Chs. 3-4, pp. 67-97.

Weeks 11-12 (April 22-)
TRANSITION TO PEACE (an attempt at integration).
Professor Harris.

Problems of costs, prices, money, international trade, public debt and taxation, wages, employment and output, agriculture and the distribution of the burden.

Assignment:

Bresciani-Turoni, The Economics of Inflation, Ch. X (Stabilization Crisis), pp. 359-98.

Clapham, J. H., “Europe after the Great Wars, 1816-1920”, E. J., 1920, pp. 423-36.

Pigou, A. C., Political Economy of War, pp. 161-182, 189-238.

Stamp, J., Financial Aftermath of War, Chs. I-III, V, pp. 9-88, 117-37.

Important suggestions:

Committee on National Debt and Taxation (Colwyn) Report.

Hawtrey, R. G., Monetary Reconstruction, pp. 55-91, 122-175.

Keynes, J. M., Economic Consequences of Peace.

Report of Committee on National Debt and Taxation, pp. 233-246 (Burden of Debt), 246-297 (Capital Levy), 297-351 (Taxes and Debt Redemption)

Scott, W. R., Economic Problems of Peace after War. Second Series.

Other suggestions:

Bonn, M. J., Stabilisation of Mark (1922).

League of Nations, Austria Financial Reconstruction, Summary Report 1926.

Macrosty, H. W., “Inflation and Deflation in the United States and United Kingdom 1919-23,” R. S. J., 1927.

Moulton and Pasovolvsky, World War Debt Settlements (Brookings).

Snowden, P., Labour and national Finance.

Stamp, J., Current Problems I Finance and Government, Ch. XI (The Capital Levy), pp. 227-71.

READING PERIOD.
Read one of the following:

Committee on National Debt and Taxation (Colwyn) Report.

Graham, F., Exchanges, Prices, etc. in Germany.

Hawtrey, Monetary Reconstruction.

Keynes, Economic Consequences of Peace.

Mitchell, W., Income in the United States (1921).

Moulton and Pasvolvsky. World War Debt Settlements.

Rogers, Process of Inflation in France, 1914-27.

Scott, W. R., Economic Problems of Peace after War, Second Series.

Speier, H., and Kahler, A., War in Our Times.

Stamp, J., Wealth and Taxable Capacity.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. HUC 8522.2.1 Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1939-40 (1 of 2)”.

Image Source: Seymour E. Harris from Harvard Class Album 1942.

Tags Burbank, Crum, Hansen, Harris, Mason, Schumpeter, Slichter, SweezyP, Williams

Economists Harvard

Harvard. Haberler Argues Against Galbraith And On Behalf of Samuelson, 1948

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-26

Gottfried Haberler was apparently unable to attend an Executive Committee meeting of the Department of Economics at which it must have been decided to recommend John Kenneth Galbraith as the successor to Harvard’s agricultural economist J. D. Black. Haberler was so unhappy with this decision that he went behind the backs of his colleagues in a letter to the Dean. Apparently one of his former graduate students and his later Harvard colleague, Abram Bergson, must have heard about the letter some three decades later and asked Haberler about it. It certainly looks like Haberler had to ask the Dean’s Office in 1981 to have a copy of that 1948 letter sent to him. At least as important as learning about Haberler’s opinion of Galbraith, we are also treated to a full-throated praise of Paul Samuelson’s virtues. We also get a glimpse of a coalition of School of Public Administration economists wanting to hire a policy-oriented economist with some one or other(s) of the stock of senior economic theorists protecting their turf from Samuelson at his Wunderkind-best.

___________________________________

1981 Letter from Haberler’s AEI Secretary to Abram Bergson

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
1150 Seventeenth Street, N. W. Washington, D. C. 20036

(202) 862-5800

August 17, 1981

Professor Abram Bergson
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Dear Professor Bergson:

When Professor Haberler called his office from abroad today, he asked that the attached copy of a letter he wrote to Professor Buck in 1948 be sent to you. He also asked that you be told that although he “was ashamed his memory failed him and he did not remember writing it, he was not ashamed of the letter.”

I am certain that on his return to the office around September 8^th Professor Haberler will be in touch with you.

Sincerely yours,

Secretary to
Professor Haberler

Encl.

___________________________________

1981 Cover Note from Dean Rosovsky to Gottfried Haberler

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Office of the Dean

5 University Hall
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

For Professor Haberler from Dean Rosovsky

[handwritten note: 8/11/81, cc to Sils, Envelopes#2]

___________________________________

1948 Letter from Gottfried Haberler to Provost Paul H. Buck

Harvard University
Graduate School of Public Administration

International Economic Relations Seminar

Littauer Center
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

November 27, 1948

Provost Paul H. Buck
University Hall
Harvard University
Cambridge 38, Mass.

Dear Mr. Buck:

I had to go to Paris, London, Oxford and Cambridge for a brief visit in connection with the creation of an International Association of Economists and was therefore prevented from attending the meetings of the Executive Committee of the Department of Economics on November 17 and 24.

Let me inform you by letter that in my opinion the recommendation to appoint J. K. Galbraith to the remaining vacant professorship is a great mistake and calculated to reduce the level and reputation of our Department. I am rather hesitant to put it so bluntly, because I am on the best of terms with Galbraith. (For that reason I would be obliged if you would treat this letter as confidential.) But I think it is my duty to state my views clearly in such an important matter.

In my opinion, Galbraith is not a first-rate man. As you have said to me on one or two occasions, he has shot his bolt and there is no new evidence, it seems to me, which would warrant a change of that judgment. Galbraith is good average, not more. Moreover, he is not an agricultural economist. For years, not only during the time he served in Washington, he has written on subjects like monopoly and competition, international economic relations, full employment policies and the like. This shows a wide range of interests, but in none of these fields is he regarded as an outstanding expert. Yet he is now to be appointed as successor to John D. Black.

I am afraid the Department is on its way to fill all vacancies with respectable mediocrities. This is the more astonishing and inexcusable, because we could have a man who is almost universally regarded as one, if not the, most outstanding economist, namely P. A. Samuelson. As you know, Samuelson was awarded the Walker medal [sic, “Clark medal” is correct] by the American Economic Association which is to be given to the most outstanding economist under forty. He has had offers from first-rate universities, Chicago among others. He has without doubt the most brilliant record of all living economists under forty. He is an excellent teacher and would fit ideally into the Department from the point of view of our age distribution, a factor which has been, in my opinion very rightly, stressed by the Administration of the University. (Galbraith, on the other hand, falls more or less within the age group which is most strongly represented.)

It is, I think, a scandal (which is recognized and commented on everywhere) that the appointment of Samuelson has been prevented again and again. I have been repeatedly asked, more or less discretely, by leading economists at home and abroad, why a man like Samuelson is not at Harvard. Several of my colleagues admit that they have had the same experience. Samuelson has a tremendous reputation abroad. In London, Cambridge and Oxford where I visited last week, everyone was impressed by him and by the lectures he gave there recently.

I know, of course, the arguments which are used against his appointment. Mason, for example, while admitting that he is the most brilliant scholar in the field, says that Galbraith is more useful for the School for Public Administration. But Smithies has just been appointed to the School. If we look at the University as an institution which is primarily interested in extending the limits of scientific knowledge, rather than as a training school for Government officials, the choice between the two men should not be difficult.

Some members of the Department are afraid that Samuelson would enter the crowded field of theory. It is, of course, unavoidable that a brilliant young man would step on the toes of some older men in the Department. That is the nature of progress. But I would say that our Department is large enough and the students numerous enough to absorb a new man without undue hardship on vested interests. With Schumpeter near retiring age, it is time to look for a successor in the field of theory. Moreover, Samuelson could, and I think would, give instruction in the important field of advanced statistics, where we have an embarrassing void at the present time.

I am under no illusion that it will be possible to change the minds of the majority of the Department, although I know that several members who voted for the recommendation of Galbraith feel about it as I do. But the fact that you have prevented the Department on several occasions from making a fool of itself, gives me hope that it may not be too late. Moreover, I wanted to relieve my own conscience.

Very sincerely yours,

[signed]

G. Haberler

H:B

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Gottfried Haberler Paper, Box 12, Folder “J. Kenneth Galbraith”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1950.

Tags Bergson, BlackJD, Galbraith, Haberler, Mason, Samuelson, Smithies

Economists Harvard

Harvard. Memorial Minute for Professor Silas Marcus Macvane, 1914.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-24

From this minute from the record of a meeting of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (February 17, 1914), the historian Silas Marcus Macvane (incidentally, a classmate of the first head of the Chicago Department of Political Economy, J. Laurence Laughlin), we see that his first academic appointment was as an Instructor in Political Economy in Harvard College, two years after receiving his B.A. in 1875. Five years later he was appointed Instructor in History and rose through the ranks in that field. He published nine articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics up through its ninth volume in 1895.

Note: The copy of the Harvard Album of the Class of 1873 (its “yearbook”) in the Harvard Archives was the personal copy of J. Laurence Laughlin.

________________________

Minute on the Life and Services of Professor Silas Marcus Macvane

The following minute on the life and services of Professor Macvane was placed upon the records of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the meeting of February 17, 1914 : —

Silas Marcus Macvane, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History, Emeritus, died at Rome, Italy, January 19, 1914, in the seventy-second year of his age.

He was born at Bothwell, Prince Edward’s Island, June 4, 1842, of Scotch farming ancestry, and spent his boyhood in the rough but wholesome discipline of farm life. His natural taste for study led him to Acadia College, Nova Scotia, where he was graduated at the age of twenty-three. The six years following were spent in school teaching and in travel and study abroad.

In 1871 he entered the Junior Class in Harvard College, and was graduated here with the Class of 1873. While in College he came under the influence of Professor Henry Adams, to whom the later development of historical study at Harvard upon a scientific basis was largely due.

Immediately after graduation here Macvane married and began teaching in the Roxbury Latin School. There, as grateful pupils still bear witness, he developed that shrewd and sympathetic insight into young human nature which was to mark all his later dealing with more advanced pupils. Two years of teaching boys, however, sufficed to show that Macvane was, as his chief, Principal Collar, used to say, too large a man for that work, and in 1875 he was appointed Instructor in Political Economy in Harvard College. In 1878 he became Instructor in History, in 1883 Assistant Professor, and in 1886 Professor. In 1887 he was assigned to the McLean Professorship, and retained that title until his retirement in 1911, after thirty-six years of continuous service.

During that long period he was called upon by the demands of a rapid departmental expansion to teach at one time or another in every branch of Political Science, in History, Economics, International and Constitutional Law, Modern Government and Political Theory. In all these he showed himself adequately and evenly prepared, and his instruction in each was broadened and enriched by this many-sided preparation. For many years, however, he was especially identified with the instruction in Modern European History, a subject which he inherited directly from his favorite teacher, Henry Warren Torrey of happy memory. His method of teaching was deliberate, with cautious but incisive criticism, appealing to the better elements of his large classes and always commanding the respect of the rest by its obvious sincerity.

As a scholar he represented the older, wholesome tradition which dreaded a narrow specialization, abhorred the parade of curious learning, and shrank from hasty or ill-considered publication.

In the field of Economic Theory he was a recognized authority, and most of his published work was in that subject. He was a frequent contributor to the Quarterly Journal of Economics during the editorship of Professor Dunbar. In historical publication his most important work was a translation and revision of Seignobos’ Political History of Europe since 1814.

As a working member of this Faculty during the critical years in which the system of academic freedom was being worked out into practicable shape, he was a factor always to be reckoned with. His sympathy was with what in those days was rightly described as progressive, but he saw also the perils of too rapid progress. Never a quick debater, he followed carefully the course of discussion and invariably came in at the close with some shrewd comment which brought out the essential point and not infrequently turned the tide of opinion. His command of practical details led to his appointment on the Committee on the Tabular View, and for many years he was its responsible head, performing a thankless task with infinite patience and consideration for the wishes of his colleagues.

He was a sturdy fighter for the best things, a courteous opponent, a loyal friend and a devoted servant of the truth through loyalty to the College which he loved. Patient under prolonged trial, thinking no evil, he gave his life without complaint to the service of others, finding his sufficient reward in the sense of duty well done.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. IX, No. 22, February 21, 1914, p. 149-50 .

Economic Publications of Silas Marcus Macvane

Crocker, Uriel H., and S. M. Macvane. “General Overproduction.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 1, no. 3 (1887): 362-66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1882763.

Macvane, S. M. “The Theory of Business Profits.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 2, no. 1 (1887): 1-36. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1879348.

__________. “Analysis of Cost of Production.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 1, no. 4 (1887): 481-87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1879343.

__________. “Business Profits and Wages: A Rejoinder.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 2, no. 4 (1888): 453-68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1879389.

__________. The Working Principles of Political Economy in a New and Practical form: a Book for Beginners. New York: Effingham Maynard & Co., 1890. https://archive.org/details/workingprincipl02macvgoog

__________. “Boehm-Bawerk on Value and Wages.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 5, no. 1 (1890): 24-43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1880831.

__________. “Capital and Interest.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 6, no. 2 (1892): 129-50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1882544.

__________. “Marginal Utility and Value.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics7, no. 3 (1893): 255-85. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1884004.

__________. “The Austrian Theory of Value.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 4 (1893): 12-41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1009036.

__________. “The Economists and the Public.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 9, no. 2 (1895): 132-50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1885596.

__________. Review of The Letters of John Stuart Mill by Hugh S. R. Eliot, Mary Taylor. The American Economic Review 1, no. 4 (1911): 800-02. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1806884.

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin, Macvane

Bibliography Fields Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Suggested Readings for Tutorial, ca 1951

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-23

While undated, the following set of recommended books by field appears to have been put together for Harvard economics tutors in 1951. This set was found in a separate folder in Professor Alvin Hansen’s papers in the Harvard University Archives (a dozen typed pages, stapled).

________________________________

Harvard. Six Economics Ph.D. examinees, 1906-07

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-22

This posting lists six graduate students in economics who took their subject examinations for the Ph.D. at Harvard from April 4 through May 23, 1907, apparently the entire 1906-07 Ph.D. examination cohort. The examination committee members, academic history, general and specific subjects are provided along with the doctoral thesis subject, when declared. Lists for 1903-04, 1904-05, 1915-16, and 1926-27 were posted previously. In the same archival box one finds lists for the academic years 1902-03 through 1904-05, 1906-07 through 1913-14, 1915-16, 1917-18 through 1918-19, and finally 1926-27. I only include graduate students of economics (i.e. not included are the Ph.D. candidates in history and government).

Titles and dates of Harvard economic dissertations for the period 1875-1926 can be found here.

________________________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.

1906-07

Arthur Norman Holcombe.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, April 4, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Lowell, Bullock, Gay, Ripley, and Andrew.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-07; A.B. (Harvard) 1906.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. [2. Economic History to 1750.] 3. Economic History since 1750. [4. Sociology and Social Reform.] 5. Public Finance. [6. Modern Government and Comparative Constitutional Law.] Excused from further examination in subjects 2, 4, and 6 on account of having taken Highest Final Honors.
Special Subject:
Thesis Subject: “The Telephone Situation.” (With Professor Taussig.)

Walter Wallace McLaren.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, April 10, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Hart, Bullock, Munro, and Andrew.
Academic History: Queen’s University (Canada), 1894-99; Queen’s University Theological College, 1899-1902; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-07; A.M. (Queen’s Univ.) 1899; B.D. (ibid.) 1902.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology and Social Reform. 3. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 4. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization. 5. The History of Canada. 6. Municipal and Local Government.
Special Subject: Canadian Economic History.
Thesis Subject: “History of the Canadian Tariff.” (With Professor Taussig.)

Frank Richardson Mason.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Channing, Bullock, Gay, Ripley, and Andrew.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-07; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid.) 1906.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Money, Banking and Commercial Crises. 5. Social Reform and Industrial Organization. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: United States Economic History (or Crises?).
Thesis Subject: “The Silk Industry in Europe and America.” (With Professor Taussig.)

Charles Phillips Huse.

Special Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 15, 1907.
General Examination passed May 11, 1906.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Stimson, Taussig, Bullock, and Andrew.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1900-03; Harvard Graduate School, 1904-07; A.B. (Harvard) 1904; A.M. (ibid.) 1906.
Special Subject: Public Finance and Financial History.
Thesis Subject: “Financial History of Boston, 1822-1859, with a Preliminary Chapter.” (With Professor Bullock.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Taussig, Ripley.

William Jackman.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 22, 1907.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Macvane, Taussig, Bullock, Ripley, and Andrew.
Academic History: University of Toronto, 1892-96; University of Pennsylvania, 1899-1900; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-07; A.B. (Univ. of Toronto) 1896; A.M. (ibid.) 1900.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Statistics. 4. Sociology and Social Reform. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization. 6. English History since 1500.
Special Subject: Modern Economic History of England.
Thesis Subject: “The Development of Transportation in Modern England before the Steam Railway Era.” (With Professor Gay.)

Edmund Ezra Day.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 23, 1907.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Channing, Taussig, Bullock, Andrew, and Wyman.
Academic History: Dartmouth College, 1901-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-07; S.B. (Dartmouth) 1905; A.M. (ibid.) 1906.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Statistics. 3. Money, Banking and Crises. 4. Public Finance and Financial History. 5. Industrial Organization and Corporation Finance. 6. American Institutions and Constitutional Law.
Special Subject: Taxation.
Thesis Subject: “Taxation of Corporations in Connecticut and Maine.”(?) (With Professor Bullock.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1906-1907”.

Image Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 .

Tags Andrew, Bullock, Day, Gay, Holcombe, Huse, Jackman, Lowell, MasonFR, McLarenW, Ripley, Taussig

Exam Questions Fields Harvard Statistics Suggested Reading

Harvard. General Exam Preparation for Statistics, 1947

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-20

______________________

April 1, 1947

SUGGESTIONS FOR PREPARATION IN THE GENERAL FIELD OF STATISTICS

Work in the two courses, Economics 121a and 121b, is in almost all cases an essential core of the preparation of the field of Statistics for General Examinations (requirements for the Special Field differ substantially), but such work does not constitute sufficient preparation. A considerable volume of additional reading is recommended, and Sections II and III below give certain pertinent suggestions; but candidates who wish to make other selections should submit their choices for the approval of one of the undersigned.

I. Foundation Theory

For statistical theory as such, a thorough knowledge of the work—in the classroom and in reading assignments—of Economics 121a is ordinarily adequate preparation. The main reading assignments in that course are:

C. U. Yule and M. G. Kendall—An Introduction to the Theory of Statistics, 1937 edition, entire book beginning with Chapter 6;

D. C. Jones—A First Course in Statistics, specified chapters on curve fitting and sampling;

W. P. Elderton-Frequency Curves and Correlation, specified portions on curve fitting and correlation;

but candidates should be prepared as well in the other assigned readings.

II. and III. Statistics Applied to Economics

Suggestions under heads II and III aim at giving the candidate an intensive acquaintance with (a) the applied statistical work of three specific authors, and (b) the applied statistical work in some particular economic area. Candidates who, in undertaking to meet these two requirements, select books or memoirs customarily treated in Economics 121b should understand that a more complete and intensive knowledge of such items is expected in the General Field than in 121b. In respect to each of these readings the candidate will be expected to know the contributions to statistical methodology in that item of reading, to have a critical appraisal of the statistical procedure used, and to know the importance and validity of the results for economic analysis.

The items listed below are merely suggestions; candidates may offer substitute readings for the approval of one of the undersigned.

II. Authors in Applied Statistics

In this section, no elementary statistics textbook is acceptable, nor will the classic Bulletin No. 284, U.S.B.L.S., by W. C. Mitchell, be accepted. Knowledge of these is taken for granted. For any author selected below, some book or extensive memoir presenting an application of statistics to economic problems is intended; but in no case should any item here be identical with one chosen under III below. Each candidate should select three authors.

Suggested Examples:

Sir Wm. Beveridge, Wheat Prices and Rainfall in Western Europe

A. L. Bowley, Wages and income in the United Kingdom since 1860

A.F. Burns, Production Trends

A. F. Burns and Wesley C. Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles – (certain portions may be omitted; see the note at the end of this memorandum.)

W. L. Crum, Corporate Size and Earning Power

*E. E. Day, The Physical Volume of Production

Paul Douglas, Real Wages in the United States

Ralph Epstein, Industrial Profits

Mordecai Ezekiel, Methods of Correlation Analysis

Solomon Fabricant, Output of Manufacturing Industries

Solomon Fabricant, Employment in Manufacturing, 1899 -1939

*Irving Fisher, Making of Index Numbers

Edwin Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the United States

Ralph G. Hurlin and W. A. Berridge, Employment Statistics for the United States

Simon Kuznets, Commodity Flow and Capital Formation

Simon Kuznets, National Income and its Composition (Vol. 1)

Simon Kuznets, Secular Movements

Wassily Leontief, Quantitative Input and Output Relations

F. C. Mills, Behavior of Prices

*W. C. Mitchell, Business Cycles—1927 ed. (statistical portions)

*W. M. Persons, Construction of Index Numbers (pp. 1-44)

*W. M. Persons, Indices of General Business Condition

Henry Schultz, The Theory and Measurement of Demand (statistical portions)

*Henry Schultz, Statistical Laws of Demand and Supply (the first part, on demand)

J. A. Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Vol. 1 (with emphasis on statistical portions)

Carl Snyder, Business Cycles and Business Measurements

Woodlief Thomas, et al., The Federal Reserve Index of Industrial Production, Federal Reserve Bulletin for August 1940, pp. 753-771; September 1940, pp. 912-924; July 1942, pp. 642-644; October 1943, pp. 940-984.

III. Statistical Studies in a Single Economic Field

The object of this section is to guide the candidate in studying statistical investigations of more than one author in some one economic subject. The candidate should choose one such subject, and have and intensive knowledge of the statistical work in that subject, or two or more leading authors. Comparisons among such authors will constitute a part of the requirement.

Suggested Examples

Index Numbers: *Fisher, Making of Index Numbers; * Persons, Construction of Index Numbers; (also, look briefly at Frickey, The Theory of Index-Number Bias, Review of Economic Statistics, November 1937.)

Secular Growth of Output: Burns, Production Trends; Fabricant, Output of Manufacturing Industries

Cycles, I: *Mitchell, Business Cycles (1927); Burns and Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles (certain portion of this book may be omitted; see the note at end of this memorandum).

Cycles, II: *Persons, Indices of Business Conditions; Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Vol. 1

Multiple Correlation: Ezekiel, Methods of Correlation Analysis; Black et al., The Short-Cut Graphic Method of Multiple Correlations, Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1937, pp. 66-112, and February 1940, pp. 318-364.

Employment: Fabricant, Employment in Manufacturing, 1899 – 1939; Hurlin and Berridge, Employment Statistics for the United States

Profits: Epstein, Industrial Profits; Crum, Corporate Size and Earning Power

Wages: Brissenden, Earnings of Factory Workers; Douglas, Real Wages in the United States

Prices: Mills, Behavior of Prices; Warren and Pearson, Prices (or Gold and Prices).

Distribution of Income: Brookings Report, America’s Capacity to Consume; Lough, High-Level Consumption

N.B. OF THE FIVE BOOKS CHOSEN UNDER II AND III, NOT MORE THAN FOUR MAY BE BOOKS WHICH ARE MARKED WITH A STAR (*) IN THE LISTS ABOVE.

Each candidate should submit his program, well in advance, for the approval of one of the undersigned:

L. W. Crum
Edwin Frickey

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

Image Source: Crum and Frickey in Harvard Class Album, 1942 and 1950.

Tags Crum, Frickey

Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Programs of Social and Economic Reconstruction, Leontief and Taylor. 1942-43

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-19

This course on socio-economic reform and revolution was team taught the previous year by Wassily Leontief, Paul Sweezy and Overton Taylor. Sweezy took leave from Harvard to join the War effort so he was unavailable for the 1942-43 version of this course that has been in the Harvard economics course catalogue almost as long as courses in public finance and labor problems.

____________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 115. Associate Professor Leontief and Dr. O. H. Taylor.—Programs of Social and Economic Reconstruction.

Total 10: 3 Graduates, 1 Junior, 1 School of Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments for 1942-43, p. 47.

____________________________

Course Assignments

Reading for the Monday Oct. 19 Meeting of Ec 115

Bastiat Frédéric. Harmonies of Political Economy, pp. 1-46, 196-217.

Sismondi, Simond de. Essays on Political Economy, pp. 113-122, 224-244. (Nouveaux Principes d’Economie Politique, Vol. I and II[,] to browse For those who read French)

Gray, John. A Lecture on Human Happiness, pp. 1-72.

Clark, J. B. Distribution of Wealth, pp. 36-76.

Carver. Essays in Social Justice, pp. 232-263.

Keynes, J. M. The General Theory of Interest and Employment, pp. 372-384.

Economics 115
Assignment for October 26

Handbook of Marxism, pp. 313-38.
Capital, Vol. I, Ch. X, Sections 1, 2, 5, 6.
Marx-Engels Selected Correspondence, Letter no. 214.
Lenin, State and Revolution.
J. Laski, The State in Theory and Practice, Ch. 2.

Economics 115
November 2, 1942
Social and Economic Theories of the New Deal

Immediate Background
New Deal Movement as a Dynamic Organism of Diverse Potentialities
Specific Analysis of the Program Adopted
Significance of the New Deal
Where did the New Deal Fail?

Assignment

Background for those who need it:

A. M. Schlesinger, New Deal in Action
or
R. H. Jackson, The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy

For everyone:

Golden and Ruttenberg, The Dynamics of Industrial Democracy, pp. 317-42.
Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown in Transition, Chs. IV, XII.
C. A. Beard, Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, pp. 149-188.
F. D. Roosevelt, Papers and Addresses, Vol. I, nos. 139, 141; Vol. II, nos. 1, 50, 101; Vol. III, nos. 1, 102; Vol. V, nos. 1, 53, 176.

Also recommended:

Thurman Arnold, Folklore of Capitalism
Thorstein Veblen, Absentee Ownership

Economics 115
November 9, 1942
The Revisionist Movement in German Socialism

The beginnings of reformist socialism in Germany
Bernstein and the Revisionist offensive
The counterattack and the split on the Left
The social roots of reformism
German Social-Democracy vs. socialism: 1914, 1919, 1933

Assignment

Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism, pp. ix-xviii, 1-94, 165-199
Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution
M. Philips Price, Germany in Transition, pp. 18-47

Economics 115
Assignment for Nov. 16, 1942

CLASSICAL LIBERALISM AND NEO-LIBERALISM
–A Comparison and a Critique—

The historical development of Liberalism.
Common elements in both types of Liberalism.
Political implications of the divergence.
Neo-Liberalism — Will it work?

Assignment:-

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Bk. V, ch. 11.
Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (Abridged Edition, D. Appleton & Co., 1892) pp. 55-61, 121-140.
Walter Lippman, The Good Society, chs. 10 and 11.
Henry Simon, Positive Program for Laissez-Faire.
Max Lerner, It is Later Than You Think, Chs. 1 and 6.
J. M. Keynes, The End of Laissez-Faire, pp. 39-54.

Suggestions for those who may wish to go further into the problem:-

John Dewey, Liberalism and Social Action.
Articles “The Rise of Liberalism” and “Individualism and Capitalism” in the Introduction to The Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
Thorstein Veblen, “Preconceptions of Economic Science,” in The Place of Science in Modern Civilization.

Economics 115
Assignment for November 23, 1942
The Economic Doctrines of the Bolsheviks

The relationship between Marxism and Bolshevism—Marxism restored and militant.
The Bolshevik elaboration of the Marxian theory of capitalist development; its application to the analysis of the period of monopoly capitalism or imperialism.
1. The transition from free competition to monopoly as a result of the concentration and centralization of capital.
2. Finance capital and the role of the banks.
3. The struggle for markets, for raw materials and for outlets for capital export and the resulting tariff and colonial policy of imperialism
4. The growth of international cartels and the ‘theory’ of ultra-imperialism.
5. The progressive intensification of the contradictions of capitalism — crises, wars and catastrophe.
6. The proletarian revolution as the only way out.
The political implications of the Bolshevik analysis of imperialism — the working class must gird itself for a struggle à outrance for the overthrow of world capitalism and the establishment of a socialist order.

Assigned Reading

Lenin: Imperialism.
P. M. Sweezy: The Theory of Capitalist Development, Part IV.

Economics 115
The Theory of Marx and Engels Concerning the Transition From Capitalism to Socialism
November 30, 1942

Sources and Constituent Parts of Marxism
Class-Domination Theory of the State
The Overthrow of the Bourgeois State by Revolution
Establishment of Proletarian Dictatorship — First Phase of the Communistic Society
Withering Away of Proletarian State and the Higher Phase of the Communistic Society

Assignment:

Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, pp. 9-15.
Burns, A Handbook of Marxism, pp. 537-570.
Engels, The Origin of the Family, Chap. 9.
Lenin, The State and Revolution, Chaps. 1 and 5.
Engels, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, Chap. 3.
Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism, Chap. 9.
Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program.

Suggested:

Chang, Sherman, The Marxian Theory of the State.

Economics 115
January 3, 1943
Socialism In The British Labour Party

A definition of the term Socialism
Necessary reforms arising from frictions of the Industrial Revolution
Socialist gains acquired through self-interest of pressure groups
Growth of the Labour Party
Socialism as a policy of the Labour Party
Socialist administrations
Future of Socialism in England

Assignment

Clifford Allen, Labour’s Future At Stake.
G. D. H. Cole, British Working Class Politics, Epilogue.
Arthur Greenwood, M. P., The Labour Outlook.
J. Ramsy McDonald, A Policy for the Labour Party.

Optional

Arthur Henderson, The Aims of Labour.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1942-43 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source: Leontief and Taylor from Harvard Class Album 1939.

Tags Leontief, TaylorOH

Economists Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings for Chinese Economic Problems, 1947

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-18

Today I thought I would have a light posting, not even a page of readings for a course offered at Harvard University on the Chinese economy in the spring semester of the 1946-47 academic year. Transcribing the reading list itself was child’s play. Next I wanted to get the course enrolment found in the annual report of the Harvard president that also provided the name of the instructor, “Dr. Lindsay”. I had never come across his name so I decided to try to track down Dr. Lindsay. Fortunately that name and China narrows down the field considerably.

Long story short: Michael Francis Morris Lindsay, 2nd Baron Lindsay of Birker certainly led an exciting life before coming to offer that course at Harvard as seen in the newspaper article about his exploits and his obituary. The obituary of his Chinese wife adds a few other details to the story.

I end the post with Lindsay’s list of course readings for Economics 14a: Chinese Economic Problems.

_____________________________

British economist who aided China’s guerrilla resistance
By Cui Shoufeng

The Telegraph
25 Aug 2015

Englishman Michael Lindsay helped smuggle supplies to guerrilla fighters during the Second World War and spent years behind enemy lines

Michael Lindsay arrived in Beijing in 1938 to teach Keynesian economics, but instead he played an important part in China’s resistance against the Japanese.

The Englishman helped to smuggle supplies to guerrilla fighters during the Second World War and spent years behind enemy lines, where he even started a family.

War had already broken out by the time Lindsay arrived to take up a lecturing post at Yenching University (later Peking University).

The Japanese army’s all-out invasion of China began in July 1937, and three months later the first village massacre was reported in Hopei Province (now Hebei).

In the capital, Lindsay was “distressed by his students’ stories of the way they were treated by the Japanese police at the city gate”, said his granddaughter, Susan Lawrence.

The Washington-based scholar said her grandfather also witnessed appalling acts by the occupying forces.

The economist, just 28, had a life-or-death decision to make: flee or fight?

In the spring on 1938, Lindsay learned of a resistance movement forming outside Beijing and travelled with colleagues to the communist-led Jinchaji base in central China.

Inspired, he returned to the capital and began to send supplies, mostly medicine and radio parts, through secret channels to the guerrilla forces.

Due to his foreign appearance, “the Japanese troops … couldn’t search him like they did to all the locals”, said Prof Lyu Tonglin at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who is an authority on foreigners involved in China’s resistance during the Second World War.

The economist enlisted the help of a student to re-label the items he bought, to avoid stores facing any backlash if Japanese soldiers intercepted his shipments. That student was Hsiao Li, who later became his wife.

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, which led to the United States declaring war on Japan, meant Lindsay’s face no longer protected him, so he and his bride left for the Jinchaji base where he became a full-time radio technician.

To improve communications, he tinkered with the radio sets to make them more powerful, reliable and easier to carry over rough terrain.

Annoyed by the fact that the world — including southern China — knew hardly anything about the resistance in the north, Lindsay offered his expertise to Yan’an, the Communist Party’s central base in Shaanxi province.

A large transmitter and a directional aerial built there by Lindsay enabled the Xinhua News Agency to send reports to Washington.

“Xinhua’s radio broadcasts were of interest to Washington,” Prof Lyu explained. “It wanted to know more about the Japanese deployment and operations.”

Lindsay also wrote notes and took photographs, shared his opinions with overseas contacts, and passed advice and criticism to leaders of the resistance, including Nie Rongzhen, the top commander at Jinchaji.

In his reports to the embassies of the United States and Britain and newspapers, he wrote about what he saw in Jinchaji and Yan’an and said he believed the atrocities by the Japanese would motivate more people to join the resistance.

Securing success lied not only in the guerrillas’ military capabilities, he said, but also in their ability to mobilise the masses. Two of Lindsay and Li’s three children were born during their time in Yan’an.

After the war, the family moved to England where, upon his father’s death the economist became the second Baron Lindsay of Birker, making Li a baroness and Britain’s first Chinese-born peeress.

After a spell teaching in Australia, Lindsay and his family settled in the United States, where he died in 1994. He made only a few low-profile visits to China after the war.

It has been only recently that Lindsay has begun to gain attention in China. Today, more people are hailing him as a rare internationalist who helped the Chinese people through their most diffcult time.

Luo Wangshu contributed to this story, which was originally produced and published by China Daily.

_____________________________

MICHAEL LINDSAY DIES AT 84

Washington Post
February 22, 1994

Michael Francis Morris Lindsay, 84, retired chairman of the Far East program of the American University School of International Service, died of lymphoma Feb. 13 at his home in Chevy Chase. He had lived in the Washington area for 35 years.

He retired in 1975 after 16 years as a professor of Far Eastern studies at American University. During the 1950s, he was a senior fellow in international relations at Australian National University in Canberra.

Mr. Lindsay was a native of London and a graduate of Oxford University, where he also received a master’s degree in economics. In 1952, he inherited property in the English Lake District county of Cumbria and became Baron Lindsay of Birker. Since then, Mr. Lindsay, an Australian citizen, had sat periodically in the House of Lords.

Mr. Lindsay began his teaching career in Beijing in 1937. He taught economics at Yenching University until 1942. During World War II, he was a technical adviser to the Chinese Communists.

After the war, he was a visiting lecturer in East Asian studies at Harvard University and a lecturer in economics at University College in Hull, England.

He was the author of five books about China, including “The Unknown War.” His articles about China appeared in publications that included the Times of London, the Manchester Guardian and China Quarterly.

He was a member of the Oxford Society of Washington and the Asia Society.

Survivors include his wife, Hsiao Li Lindsay of Chevy Chase; two children, James F. Lindsay, an Australian diplomat now based in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Mary Lindsay Abbott of Knoxville, Tenn.; a brother, Martin Lindsay of Brussels; a sister, Drusila Scott of Aldeburgh, England; and five grandchildren. A daughter, Erica Lindsay, died in December.

_____________________________

Obituary: Lady Lindsay of Birker

The Telegraph
9 June 2010

Lady Lindsay of Birker, who has died aged 93, was the daughter of a rich Chinese landowner and became a British peeress after falling in love with Michael Lindsay, later the 2nd Lord Lindsay of Birker, an English professor teaching in Beijing in the late 1930s during the Japanese occupation of China.

For four years from 1941 Hsiao Li and her husband performed dangerous work behind enemy lines smuggling radio parts, teaching English and supporting the communist resistance in Yenan in north-west China, for which they won the personal thanks of Mao Tse-tung and other communist commanders.

After the war – but not before attending a farewell dinner thrown by Chairman Mao and his wife – the couple left for Britain, where Michael’s father was the newly ennobled Master of Balliol College, Oxford. The peerage passed to Michael in 1952, making Hsiao Li – the new Lady Lindsay – the first Chinese peeress in history, an event remarked upon by The New York Times.

Hsiao Li was born Li Yueying in Taiyuan, in China’s northern Shanxi province, on July 17 1916. A fine horsewoman, she showed an early rebellious streak, taking part in student demonstrations at Taiyuan Normal University before fleeing to Beijing, where she changed her name after being blacklisted by the authorities.

In Beijing she was admitted to Yenching University, where she met Michael Lindsay, a professor who was already using his protected foreign status to assist the communists in obtaining medical and radio supplies. Hsiao Li, one of his brightest students, was quickly recruited to the cause.

With her parents’ blessing, but nonetheless breaking the taboos of the time, the couple married in June 1941. But their wartime adventures were nearly brought to an end after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that December suddenly rendered Michael liable to arrest as a citizen of an enemy power.

The Japanese, long suspecting the Lindsays’ covert activities, moved quickly to arrest the couple – but not quickly enough. “As we escaped through one gate, the Japanese secret police came through another gate to arrest us,” recalled Hsiao Li in her memoir Bold Plum: With the Guerrillas in China’s War Against Japan, written shortly after the war but not translated into English until 2007.

So began four years of dangerous work behind enemy lines, Michael working in the communists’ all-important Radio Department and later at the New China News Agency while Hsiao Li taught English to the cadres.

Hsiao Li always credited her rebellious character to her father, Li Wenqi, an army officer who in 1912 had defied his landowning family to join Sun Yat Sen’s republican movement, running a training school for a local warlord. When Hsiao Li asked to bind her feet, he refused.

After two years in the guerrilla region, the couple completed a circuitous 500-mile journey on foot to reach the communist HQ in Yenan, taking shelter with local peasants who risked torture and death if discovered by the Japanese.

During that period Hsiao Li gave birth to two children: Erica was delivered in a hut high in the mountains, with no running water or electricity, after a Japanese offensive caused the hospital to be evacuated; James was born in the hospital cave in Yenan.

After moving to Britain, Hsiao Li followed her husband’s career – first to Australia, where Michael Lindsay taught at the Australian National University; and then, in 1959, to Washington, DC, where he had joined the faculty of the Far Eastern programme at American University. They remained in Washington after he retired in 1975.

In 1949 and 1954 the couple made two visits to China – where Hsiao Li said she “never stopped thinking” of living – but in 1958 they were refused visas after Michael criticised the communist leadership; his wife later revealed that he had supported the leadership not out of ideological sympathy but because he believed in the patriotic right of the Chinese to resist occupation.

Later Hsiao Li, who became a United States citizen in 1975, would echo Soong May-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-shek, in saying that China’s totalitarian system was “worse than Hitler or Stalin”, remarking in one speech reported in the American press in 1975 that the communists had “destroyed individual belief in one’s self and have ignored human dignity”.

It was not until the late 1970s, after the death of Mao Tse-tung, that the couple were able to return to China. They made extensive visits, renewing acquaintances with old friends from their Yenan days, among them now some of the most senior members of the Chinese government.

Within six weeks of her husband’s death in 1994 Hsiao Li returned to live full time in China, taking up the offer of a Beijing apartment provided by the Chinese government “in gratitude” for her work during the wartime years. She remained in the Chinese capital until 2003, when she returned to Washington to live with her granddaughter, Susan Lawrence.

Hsiao Li Lindsay, who died on April 25, is survived by her son James (the 3rd Lord Lindsay of Birker) and another daughter, Mary Lindsay Abbott. Erica died in 1993.

Note: an English translation of her account of the war years in China was published: Hsiao Li Lindsay, Bold Plum (2006).

_____________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 14a. (spring term) Dr. Lindsay.—Chinese Economic Problems.

Total 13. 5 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Business School.

Source: Harvard University, Reports of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1946-47, p. 69.

_____________________________

Course Readings: Chinese Economic Problems

Economics 14a
1946-47

J. B. Condliffe: China Today, Economic; Ch. 195.132.5
R. H. Tawney: Land and Labour in China; Ec. 6444.232
Chen Ta: Population in Modern China; Ch. 194.146
G. B. Cressey: China’s Geographical Foundations; Ch. 189.34
J. L. Buck: Land Utilization in China; Ec. 6444.237
———— Chinese Farm Economy; Ec. 6444.230.2
Fei Hsiao-tung; Peasant Life in China; Ch. 195.139
——————- Earthbound China; Ec. 6444.245
Chen Han-seng: Landlord and Peasant in China; Ec. 6444.236
——————– Industrial Capital and the Chinese Peasant; Soc. 1405.240
R. P. Hommel: China at Work; Ch. 189.37.20
D. K. Lieu: Chinese Industry and Finance; Ch. 195.127 B
F. M. Tamagna: Banking and Finance in China; Ch. 196.42
W. Y Lin: The New Monetary System of China; Ch. 196.57
Chang Kai-ngau: China’s Struggle for Railway Development
H. D. Fong: Post-war Industrialization of China; Ch. 195.01
—————– China’s Industrialization; Oc. 3.9.60

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. HUC 8522.2.1 Box 4, Folder “Economics 1946-47”.

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

Tags Lindsay

Curriculum Fields Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Taussig Reports to Alumni About the Special Needs of the Economics Department, 1915

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-02

A recent post provided Harvard President Lowell’s interpretation (1916) of the results of a recently completed study on economics instruction at Harvard (subsequently published in 1917). In this post we see how Professor Frank W. Taussig spins his reception of the ongoing study for a pitch to Harvard alumni to get over their edifice complexes (i.e. their revealed preference to fund new structures) and to create more endowments to fund graduate students and post-docs who are an important link between the research and instructional missions of the University in general and the department of economics in particular.

______________________________

THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS.
PROF. F. W. TAUSSIG, ’79.

The most striking change that has taken place during the last fifty years in the content of the College curriculum has been the dominance acquired by the political and economic subjects. What Greek, Latin, Mathematics were a half-century ago, that Economics, Government, History are now, — the backbone of the ordinary undergraduate’s studies. I will not undertake to say whether on the whole the change is or is not to be welcomed. It has its good sides and its bad sides. In one respect it is undoubtedly good. The main cause behind it is a great awakening of public spirit, — a consciousness that the country is confronted with pressing political and economical problems, and that we must gird our loins to meet them. And an assured consequence will be that the new generation of College men, who are being graduated every year by the thousands and tens of thousands, all trained in these subjects, will constitute a leavening force which must in time affect profoundly and beneficially the conduct of public affairs. At all events, so far as university teachers and administrators are concerned, the plain fact must be faced: instruction in these subjects has to be provided on a large scale.

The responsibility thus devolving on the Harvard Department of Economics among others was impressed on its members by the outcome of the new system of concentration introduced in 1910. It appeared that in some years this department had the largest number of concentrations of any; and in every year the number was very large. Its only rival was the English Department. These figures — familiar enough to Harvard men — set the economists to thinking. Under the able leadership of the chairman, Prof. C. J. Bullock, a deliberate inspection of the Department’s work was decided on. Obviously, the surest way to get at the unvarnished facts was to enlist the services of outside critics. To this end the Department of Education was asked to come to our aid. Its members were invited to attend lectures and recitations, to read examination books and theses, to learn by questionnaires what the students themselves said and thought, to suggest improvements. In addition, some members of the Visiting Committee appointed by the Board of Overseers really visited, attending systematically the exercises in some courses and preparing valuable critical reports. The Educators responded to the appeal with gratifying heartiness, and the two Departments have cooperated cordially in a course of action which is unique in the history of the University.

Already this movement has borne fruit; and it will bear still more. The introductory course Economics A (which has successively borne the names Philosophy 6, Political Economy 1, Economics 1, and now Economics A) has been systematically visited. New methods of instruction have been suggested, old methods have been tested, promising devices are on trial. It should be added that the more expensive and effective methods of instruction tried in it, and started even before the educational survey, were made possible only by generous financial support from the Visiting Committee. This is the largest elective course in College, having over 500 students; here is the most important teaching task. In the next tier of courses, two are being conducted on new lines; in these cases on the department’s own initiative rather than in consequence of advice from outside. They are the undergraduate courses on accounting and statistics, in which something closely akin to a laboratory system is being applied. That is, the assigned tasks are done, not in the student’s room and at his own (procrastinated!) hour, but in special quarters equipped for the purpose, at times appointed in advance, and under the supervision and with the aid of well-trained assistants. Other courses, especially those having considerable numbers, are now under similar inspection, and we have every hope that in them also good advice will be secured and good results obtained.

The problems of instruction in this subject, as in so many others, are far from being solved. How far lecture, how far enlist discussion, how far recite? In what way bring it about that the students shall think for themselves? In what way communicate to them the best thinking of others? Almost every department of the University, not excepting the professional schools, is asking itself these questions and is experimenting with solutions. Undoubtedly, different methods will prove advantageous for different subjects. Within the Department of Economics itself there is occasion for variety in methods. Some courses, especially those dealing with matters of general principle and of theoretic reasoning, are best conducted by discussion. Others, dealing with concrete problems, with the history of industry and of legislation, with description and fact, call for a judicious admixture of required reading, lectures, written work. In all, the great thing to be aimed at is power and mastery: training in thinking for yourself, in reaching conclusions of your own, in expressing clearly and effectively what you have learned and thought out. The courses that deal with industrial history, with the labor problems, with railways and combinations, taxation and public finance, money and banking, need something in the nature of laboratory work, such as I have just referred to; an extension and improvement, supervision and systematization, of the familiar thesis work.

Now, throughout all such endeavor and experimentation, the indispensable thing is a staff of capable and well-trained instructors. We need able men, effective personalities. We need them throughout, from top to bottom, — professors, assistant professors, instructors, assistants. The ideal man is one having a good head, good judgment, good teaching power, good presence, good training, the spirit of scholarship and research. Men who possess all these qualities are rare birds; we are in luck when we get the perfect combination. Often we have to accept men not up to the ideal. But we know what we ought to have, and we should strive to get as nearly to its height as we can.

In no subject is there greater need of good teachers and of trained thinkers than in economics. The subject is difficult, and it abounds with unsolved problems. Some things in its domain are indeed settled, — more than would be inferred from current popular controversies or from the differences in the ranks of the economists themselves. But on sundry important topics it is useless to maintain that we have reached demonstrable conclusions. There are pros and cons; conflicting arguments must be weighed; only qualified propositions can be stated. Differences of temperament, of upbringing, of environment, will cause the opinions of able and conscientious men to vary. Hence there is need above all of teachers who can think, weigh, judge; who are aware of the inevitable divergencies of opinion and of the causes that underlie them. There is abundant room for conviction, for enthusiasm, for the emphatic statement of one’s own views. But also there is need, above all in the teacher, of patience, discrimination, charity for those whose views are different.

It is thus of the utmost importance that young men of the right stamp should be drawn into the profession. I say the profession, because it has come to be such. And it is a profession with large possibilities, one that may well tempt a capable, high-spirited, and ambitious young man. Twenty-five years ago, when I was in the early stage of my teaching career, it would have been rash to encourage such a youth to train himself to be an economist. Then academic positions were but ill-paid, and were not held in assured high esteem. The situation has changed. Though salaries are still meager, they are rising; and the public regard for scientific work is increasing for all subjects, and not least for this one. Quite as important is the circumstance that the services of trained economists are now in demand for the public service, and that in this direction there are large opportunities for usefulness and for distinction. The possible range of work has come to be much wider than the academic field. And no large pecuniary bait is necessary to enlist men of the needed quality. Those who are interested primarily in money-making cannot indeed be advised to enter the profession; but they are also not of the sort to be welcomed in it. I am convinced that nowadays there are more young men than ever, in Harvard and elsewhere, to whom something nobler appeals. The spirit of service is abroad in the land, and moves students not only in their choice of college courses, but in their choice of a career. Yet a career should be in sight. There should be a reasonable prospect of promotion, a decent income according to the standards of educated men.

To enlist men of the right stamp in the service of the University there must be still another sort of inducement. There must be a stimulating atmosphere, a pervasive spirit of initiative and research. To mould the thoughts of students and so the opinions of the coming generation is an attractive task; but no less attractive, often more so, — much will depend on temperament, — is the opportunity to influence the forward march of thought, the solution of new problems. As I have just said, economics offers unsolved problems in abundance. There are high questions of theory, concerned with the very foundations of the social order and tempting to the man of severe intellectual ambition. There are intricate questions of legislation and administration, calling for elaborate investigation and pressing for prompt action; these will tempt the man of practical bent. For either sort of work, there must be something more inspiring than the opportunity for routine teaching. The advanced student needs the clash of mind on mind, the companionship of eager inquiry. It is this way that the Graduate School most serves Harvard College, and indeed is indispensable to the College. Without the opportunity and the stimulus of independent scientific work by the graduate students as well as by the teaching staff, it would be hopeless to try to enlist in the University service promising men of the desired quality.

I dwell for a moment on this aspect of the situation, because it is not understood by those among the alumni who believe that too much of the University’s money and too much of the professors’ time are given to graduate instruction. The late Professor Child, one of the most distinguished scholars as well as one of the most delightful men in the annals of Harvard, is said to have remarked that Cambridge would be a most attractive place were it not for the students. The remark reflects the weariness which in time comes over the professor whose teaching is confined to the routine instruction of undergraduates. It is astonishing how much scholarly work of high quality was achieved by Child and others of the older generation, under the untoward conditions of their day; sometimes, there is ground for suspecting, — not, by the way, in Child’s case, — because they simply slighted their routine teaching. Under the new conditions and the new competition in the academic world, we may be sure that if this were the only sort of work expected of the staff, the staff would be made up in the main of men qualified for this work only. It is the opportunity of doing creative work that tempts the highest intellectual ability; and creative work needs a creative atmosphere.

It is to be noted, further, that the source from which Harvard College and all the colleges must draw their teaching staffs is in these graduate schools. The experience of the Department of Economics convinces its members that the only way to secure a good staff of junior teachers, — instructors and assistants, — is to train them in a graduate school. The staff of the Department has been very much improved during the last ten years, and the improvement has come almost exclusively by recruiting from its own advanced students. We are confident that the training we give them is thoroughly good; we even cherish the belief that nowhere else can so good a training be secured. At all events, we try to retain the best of our advanced students in our service; if not indefinitely, at least for considerable stretches of time. And among the inducements which lead them to stay with us are the opportunities not only for teaching, but for research of their own, made possible by a moderate stint of stated work and enriched by the wealth of material in our great library.

What the Department of Economics most needs, then, and indeed what the University most needs in every department, is men. The University must have buildings, laboratories, libraries; but most of all it must have ripe scholars, inspiring teachers, forward thinkers. As it happens, external and mechanical facilities count less in economics than in many other subjects. There is no need of expensive laboratories, such as are indispensable for physics, chemistry, biology, the medical sciences. Like the Law School, we use chiefly collections of books and documents, and convenient lecture and conference rooms. The one fundamental thing is the men, and the one way to get them is to have free money, — enough money to pay good salaries to those on the ground, and to draw to the University the rare genius whenever by good fortune he is to be found. The specific way in which the generous-minded graduate can serve the needs of such a department is by the endowment of instruction and research.

The endowment of instruction ordinarily takes the form of the establishment of a professorship; and this will doubtless remain the most effective way of achieving the end. But there are other ways also. Professor Bullock has recently called attention in these columns to the possibilities of the endowment of economic research. I venture to offer a suggestion for something analogous, — something which may combine the endowment of research with that of instruction, and which has the further merit of not requiring so formidable a sum as is necessary nowadays for the foundation of a professorship. The University has at its disposal a not inconsiderable number of fellowships for training young men of promise. I believe that it could use with high advantage similar posts, more dignified and more liberally endowed, for mature men who are more than promising, — whose powers are proved, whose achievements are assured. Research fellowships they might be called, or professorial fellowships, if you please. An endowment of a moderate amount would enable the incumbent of such a post, if a young unmarried man, to give his whole time to research; if an older man, to limit his teaching hours within moderate bounds and so to give a large share of his time and energy to research and publication. The appointments would be made, I should suppose, for a specified term of years; and they would go preferably to scholars in the full vigor of early manhood. They would be highly honorable, and they would be tempting to men of high ideals and of quality coming up to our own ideals of University service. Will not some of our friends, not of the multi-millionaire class, desirous of doing what they can for our benignant mother, and perhaps of perpetuating a cherished name, reflect on this possibility?

Source: The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine. Vol. 24, No. 94 (December, 1915), pp. 274-279.

Tags Taussig

Chicago Economists Harvard

Harvard. Jacob Viner Beats Paul Douglas for Ricardo Prize Scholarship, 1916

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-01-02

Jacob Viner and Paul Douglas were not only colleagues at the University of Chicago, they also overlapped briefly in graduate school at Harvard in 1915-16. The Ricardo prize scholarship that they both competed for was worth $350 and considerably exceeded the regular annual tuition-fee, e.g., for a newly enrolled (1916-17) full-time, resident student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences annual tuition was $200. Since both were already enrolled in 1915-16, they would have been charged the tuition fee published in the earlier catalogue for 1915-16 that I have not yet hunted down. One might speculate that Douglas had hoped to complete his Ph.D. at Harvard but that he needed to win the scholarship…or perhaps “honorable mention” was not honorable enough for him. In any event, Douglas went on to receive his Ph.D. from Columbia University. In all fairness, Viner was in his second year at Harvard and could use the Ricardo prize scholarship exam in April as a dress rehearsal for his Ph.D. examinations that he took the next month.

________________________

Ricardo Prize Exam. Will be Held in Upper Dane Tomorrow

Harvard Crimson, April 4, 1916

The Ricardo Prize Scholarship examination will be held in Upper Dane Hall tomorrow at 2 o’clock. The scholarship is valued at $350, and is open to anyone who is this year a member of the University, and who will next year be either a member of the Senior class or of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Each candidate will write in the examination room an essay on a topic chosen by himself from a list not previously announced, in economics and political science. In addition, statements of previous studies, and any written work, must be submitted by every candidate to the Chairman of the Department of Economics not later than the time of the examination. The man who wins the scholarship must devote the majority of his time next year to economics and political studies.

________________________

Ricardo Prize Scholarship

The Ricardo Prize Scholarship for 1916-17 has been awarded to Jacob Viner, A.M., of Montreal, Quebec, a second-year student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Honorable mention has been awarded to Paul Howard Douglas, A.M., of Cambridge, a first-year student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. XI, No. 34, May 13, 1916, p. 181 .

Image Source: Collage of details taken from photos apf1-08488 (Viner) and apf1-05851 (Douglas) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Tags Douglas, Viner

J. E. Meade and C. J. Hitch	Introduction to Economic Analysis and Public Policy
K. Boulding	Economic Analysis
G. J. Stigler	Production and Distribution Theories
R. G. D. Allen	Mathematical Analysis for Economists

D. Ricardo	Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
A. Smith	The Wealth of Nations
A. Cournot	Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth
J. S. Mill	Principles of Political Economy
K. Marx	Value, Price and Profit Wage-Labour and Capital

A. Marshall	Principles of Economics
A. C. Pigou	Economics of Welfare
K. Wicksell	Lectures on Political Economy, v I
J. Robinson	Economics of Imperfect Competition
G. H. Chamberlin	Theory of Monopolistic Competition
F. H. Knight	Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit

A. P. Lerner	Economics of Control
O. Lange	Economic Theory of Socialism
J. M. Keynes	General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
J. R. Hicks	Value and Capital
J. A. Schumpeter	Theory of Economic Development

P. A. Samuelson	Foundations of Economic Analysis
Irving Fisher	The Theory of Interest
L. Robbins	The Nature and Significance of Economic Science
Blakiston (pub)	Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution
H. S. Ellis (Ed)	A Survey of Contemporary Economics

A. Gray	The Development of Economic Doctrine
E. Roll	History of Economic Thought
J. M. Keynes	Essays in Biography

M. Weber	The Theory of Social and Economic Organization
J. A. Schumpeter	Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
K. Marx	The Communist Manifesto
J A. Hobson	Imperialism
T. Veblen	The Engineers and the Price System
F. H. Knight	The Ethics of Competition
P. M. Sweezy	The Theory of Capitalist Development
D. M. Wright	Democracy and Progress
M. Levy	The Family Revolution in China

S. E. Harris (ed)	Saving American Capitalism
W. H. Beveridge	Full Employment in a Free Society
F. H. Knight	Freedom and Reform
H. Simons	Economic Policy in A Free Society
F. A. Hayek	The Road to Serfdom
J. M. Clark	Alternative to Serfdom
C. W. Mills	The New Men of Power
United Nations Economic and Social Council [Authors: J. M. Clark, A. Smithies, N. Kaldor, Pierre Uri, E. R. Walker (chairman)]	National and International Measures for Maintaining Full Employment [1949]
Reports of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers

S. Kuznets	National Income, A Summary of Findings
K. Wicksell	Interest and Prices
G. Haberler	Prosperity and Depression
J. M. Clark	Strategic Factors in Business Cycles
A. H. Hansen	Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles
L. R. Klein	The Keynesian Revolution
J. Tinbergen	Business Cycles in the United States, 1920-1939
J. A. Schumpeter	Business Cycles (2 vol)
J. R. Hicks	A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle
C. Clark	The Conditions of Economic Progress
R. F. Harrod	Toward a Dynamic Economics
Blakiston (pub)	Readings in Business Cycle Theory
L. R. Klein	Economic Fluctuations in the United States 1921-1941
D. H. Robertson	Banking Policy and the Price Level

WAR’S ECONOMIC PHASES STUDIED IN NEW COURSE Harvard Crimson December 19, 1939

Will Analyze Changes in Economics Incurred by War, With Emphasis on Present Conflict

Course Enrollment

Economics 18b 1939-40

Week 1 (Feb. 5-9) INTRODUCTORY. Professor Harris.

Weeks 2-3 (Feb. 12-23) INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION. Professor Mason and Dr. Sweezy.

Weeks 4-5 (Feb. 26-Mar. 8) MONEY AND BANKING IN WAR TIMES. Professors Williams and Hansen.

Week 6 (Mar. 11-15) RELATION OF WAR TO ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS. Professor Schumpeter

Week 7 (Mar. 18-22) EFFECTS ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE. Professor Harris

EFFECTS ON AGRICULTURE. Professor Harris.

Weeks 8-9 (Mar. 25-29) PUBLIC FINANCE. Professor Burbank.

EFFECTS OF WAR ON DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AND WEALTH Professor Crum

Week 10 (April 15-18) EFFECTS ON LABOR. Professor Slichter.

Weeks 11-12 (April 22-) TRANSITION TO PEACE (an attempt at integration). Professor Harris.

READING PERIOD. Read one of the following:

1981 Letter from Haberler’s AEI Secretary to Abram Bergson

1981 Cover Note from Dean Rosovsky to Gottfried Haberler

1948 Letter from Gottfried Haberler to Provost Paul H. Buck

Minute on the Life and Services of Professor Silas Marcus Macvane

Economic Publications of Silas Marcus Macvane

SUGGESTED READING FOR TUTORIAL

Economic Analysis — General

History of Economic Thought

Socio-Economic Analysis

Economic Policy

Aggregative Analysis, Business Cycles

Money and Banking

International Trade

Agriculture

Economic History

Economic Measurement: Applied Economics

Labor

Public Finance

Applied Price Theory and Industrial Organization

DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.

1906-07

SUGGESTIONS FOR PREPARATION IN THE GENERAL FIELD OF STATISTICS

Course Enrollment

Course Assignments

Reading for the Monday Oct. 19 Meeting of Ec 115

Economics 115 Assignment for October 26

Economics 115 November 2, 1942 Social and Economic Theories of the New Deal

Assignment

Background for those who need it:

For everyone:

Also recommended:

Economics 115 November 9, 1942 The Revisionist Movement in German Socialism

Assignment

Economics 115 Assignment for Nov. 16, 1942

CLASSICAL LIBERALISM AND NEO-LIBERALISM –A Comparison and a Critique—

Assignment:-

Suggestions for those who may wish to go further into the problem:-

Economics 115 Assignment for November 23, 1942 The Economic Doctrines of the Bolsheviks

Assigned Reading

Suggested Reading

Economics 115 The Theory of Marx and Engels Concerning the Transition From Capitalism to Socialism November 30, 1942

Assignment:

Suggested:

Economics 115 January 3, 1943 Socialism In The British Labour Party

Assignment

Optional

British economist who aided China’s guerrilla resistance By Cui Shoufeng

The Telegraph 25 Aug 2015

Englishman Michael Lindsay helped smuggle supplies to guerrilla fighters during the Second World War and spent years behind enemy lines

MICHAEL LINDSAY DIES AT 84

Obituary: Lady Lindsay of Birker

Course Enrollment

Course Readings: Chinese Economic Problems

Economics 14a 1946-47

THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS. PROF. F. W. TAUSSIG, ’79.

Ricardo Prize Exam. Will be Held in Upper Dane Tomorrow

Ricardo Prize Scholarship

WAR’S ECONOMIC PHASES STUDIED IN NEW COURSE
Harvard Crimson
December 19, 1939

Economics 18b
1939-40

Week 1 (Feb. 5-9)
INTRODUCTORY.
Professor Harris.

Weeks 2-3 (Feb. 12-23)
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION.
Professor Mason and Dr. Sweezy.

Weeks 4-5 (Feb. 26-Mar. 8)
MONEY AND BANKING IN WAR TIMES.
Professors Williams and Hansen.

Week 6 (Mar. 11-15)
RELATION OF WAR TO ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS.
Professor Schumpeter

Week 7 (Mar. 18-22)
EFFECTS ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE.
Professor Harris

EFFECTS ON AGRICULTURE.
Professor Harris.

Weeks 8-9 (Mar. 25-29)
PUBLIC FINANCE.
Professor Burbank.

EFFECTS OF WAR ON DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME AND WEALTH
Professor Crum

Week 10 (April 15-18)
EFFECTS ON LABOR.
Professor Slichter.

Weeks 11-12 (April 22-)
TRANSITION TO PEACE (an attempt at integration).
Professor Harris.

READING PERIOD.
Read one of the following:

DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.

Economics 115
Assignment for October 26

Economics 115
November 2, 1942
Social and Economic Theories of the New Deal

Economics 115
November 9, 1942
The Revisionist Movement in German Socialism

Economics 115
Assignment for Nov. 16, 1942

CLASSICAL LIBERALISM AND NEO-LIBERALISM
–A Comparison and a Critique—

Economics 115
Assignment for November 23, 1942
The Economic Doctrines of the Bolsheviks

Economics 115
The Theory of Marx and Engels Concerning the Transition From Capitalism to Socialism
November 30, 1942

Economics 115
January 3, 1943
Socialism In The British Labour Party

British economist who aided China’s guerrilla resistance
By Cui Shoufeng

The Telegraph
25 Aug 2015

Economics 14a
1946-47

THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS.
PROF. F. W. TAUSSIG, ’79.