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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam Questions for Young’s Grad Course on Modern Economic Theories, 1921-27

 

While at Harvard between 1920/21 and 1926/27, Allyn Young taught a course to graduate students (Economics 15, Modern Schools of Economic Thought) that was intended to take students on a survey of economics from the mid-19th century up to the beginning of the 20th century. His colleague, Charles Bullock brought graduate students up to Adam Smith/Ricardo in Economics 14. Young, sometimes in a year-long course, but more often in a semester course, covered the subsequent schools of economic thought.

It is interesting to note that Young had no reservations about including German and French quotations in his graduate examinations. 

From Roger Sandilands (“New Evidence on Allyn Young’s Style and Influence as a Teacher” in the volume edited by Robert Leeson,  American Power and Policy, published in 2009 in the Springer Series  Archival Insights into the Evolution of Economics), we have a wonderful collection of archival testimony to Young’s impact in the training of young economists. The examination questions to follow can help us reconstruct what it was he covered in his survey course on economic theories.

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ACADEMIC YEAR 1920-21

From the Course Announcements

[Economics] 15. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Mon., Wed., at 3.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XVII, No. 51 (December 20, 1920). Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1920-21 (3rd edition), p. 101.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

[Economics] 15. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

7 Graduates, 1 Other:   Total 8.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1920-1921, p. 96.

[Final Examination, 1921]
ECONOMICS 15

  1. Classify the writers whose names follow, using two or three groups, and explain your classification: Cournot, Edgeworth, Jevons, Marshall, Pareto, Walras.
  2. What differences, if any, is there between Pareto’s theory of choice, and the type of theory which leads to the concept of marginal utility?
  3. What is there in Fichte’s views that may have influenced (a) the German historical economists? (b) the socialists?
  4. Distinguish and briefly characterize three different types of “solidarism.”
  5. In what ways, if at all, has Comte’s positivism influenced the development of economic science?
  6. In the reading assigned in Merz what seemed to you most significant, and why?
  7. Give a short summary and critical estimate of the economic philosophy of G. Sorel.
  8. What meaning or meanings do you attribute to the following phrases, and why?
    “The economic interpretation of history.” “An economic interpretation of history.” “Economic determinism.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination: Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Church History,…,Economics,…Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College, June 1921. Pages 70-71.(HUC 7000.28, 63 of 284).

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ACADEMIC YEAR 1921-22

From the Course Announcements

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., at 3.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1921-22 (3rd edition), p. 110.

Note: Enrollment figures for courses were not provided in the annual Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1921-1922.

 

[Final Examination, 1922]
ECONOMICS 151

  1. What is the substance of Mill’s reasoning with respect to the use of the “chemical, or experimental method” in the social sciences? The “geometrical, or abstract method”? The “physical, or concrete deductive method”?
  2. What do you conclude with respect to the following findings of Veblen, — and why?
    “The economists of the classical trend have made no serious attempt to depart from the standpoint of taxonomy and make their science a genetic account of the economic life process. As has just been said, much the same is true for the Historical School. The latter have attempted an account of developmental sequence, but they have followed the lines of pre-Darwinian speculations on development rather than lines which modern science would recognize as evolutionary. They have given a narrative survey of phenomena, not a genetic account of an unfolding process. In this work they have, no doubt, achieved results of permanent value; but the results achieved are scarcely to be classed as economic theory.”
  3. Explain the following paragraph from List by giving it background or context. What die List mean by “philosophy”? By “history”?
    “Die politische Oekonomie muss in Beziehung auf den internationalen Handel ihre Lehren aus der Erfahrung schöpfen, ihre Massregeln für die Bedürfnisse der Gegenwart und die eigentümlichen Zustände jeder besonderen Nation berechnen, ohne dabei die Forderungen der Zukunft und der gesamten Menschheit zu verkennen. Sie stützt sich demnach auf Philosophie, Politik und Geschichte.”
    [“Political economy, in matters of international commerce, must draw its lessons from experience; the measures it advises must be appropriate to the wants of our times, to the special condition of each people; it must no, However, disavow the exigencies of the future nor the higher interests of the whole human race. political economy must rest consequently upon Philosophy, Policy, and History.”]
  4. What distinction, if any, do you make between the historical and the genetic methods? What do you take to be the meaning of “historical laws”? Is there any way in which historical knowledge might have importance for economics even if such knowledge should not be reducible to terms of law?
  5. How many and what sort of premises do you deem adequate for the purposes of a theory of value and distribution?
  6. Give, in general terms, an estimate of the nature and extent of the influence of utilitarianism upon economics.
  7. Explain, without unnecessary detail, Pareto’s use of indifference curves and of indices of choice. Is this a successful escape from hedonism?
  8. Give, as concisely as possible, Schmoller’s conclusion with respect to the methods of economic science, as indicated by his Handwörterbuch

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination: Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Church History,…,Economics,…, Social Ethics, Education in Harvard College, June 1922. (HUC 7000.28, 64 of 284)

Note: translation of the List quote in question 3 from Friderich List, National System of Political Economy (G. A. Matile, translation), Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1856. page 63.

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ACADEMIC YEAR 1922-23

From the Course Announcements

15 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Mon., Wed., at 3.30, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIX, No. 45 (September 18, 1922). Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1922-23 (2nd edition), p. 110.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

[Economics] 15. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

13 Graduates, 1 Senior:   Total 14.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1922-1923, p. 92.

 

[Final Examination, 1923]
ECONOMICS 15

PART I

  1. Comment on the following excerpts from the Communist Manifesto:
    “The feudal system of industry now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets…Modern industry has established the world market for which the discovery of America paved the way….The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production….The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe.”
  2. Discuss the influence of Fichte and Hegel upon the development of economic thought in Germany.
  3. In what measure is it true that modern economic thought rests upon hedonistic psychology? What differences in this respect are there as among different schools or different writers?

 

PART II

Name and classify the different important schools of economic thought (after Adam Smith). What are the distinguishing characteristics of each? Name and comment upon one of the principal adherents of each.

(To occupy about two-thirds of your time.)

Final. 1923.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination: Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Social Ethics, Anthropology June 1923. (HUC 7000.28, 65 of 284)

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ACADEMIC YEAR 1923-24

From the Course Announcements

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 10, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XX, No. 44 (September 17, 1923). Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1923-24 (2nd edition), p. 108.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

151 hf. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

11 Graduates, 1 Radcliffe:   Total 12.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1923-1924, p. 107.

 

 

[Final Examination, 1924]
ECONOMICS 151

  1. “Es ist theoretisch und praktisch in der Volkswirtschaftslehre von entscheidender Bedeutung, ob man der individualistischen oder universalistischen Auffassung der Gesellschaft huldige.”—Spann.
    [From Othmar Spann’s Die Haupttheorien der Volkswirtschaftslehre auf lehrgeschichtlicher Grunlage (7th edition, 1920, p. 31.) “It is of crucial theoretical and practical importance for economics whether one pays homage to an individualistic or universalistic conception of Society.”]
    Explain and illustrate.
  2. Give a brief characterization of economic romanticism.
  3. What in your opinion, are the outstanding features of the doctrines of (a) Roscher, (b) Knies, and (c) Schmoller, respecting the scope and method of economics?
  4. Discuss Mill’s conclusion that “History does, when judiciously examined, afford empirical laws of society.” Do you agree?
  5. What common element are found in the writings of Bastiat and Carey?
  6. What is “psychological hedonism”? Do you find it in Smith? Mill? The Austrians?
  7. Give a short estimate of the significance of either Sismondi or Rodbertus.
  8. “Si la théorie de la solidarité de M. Bourgeois a un caractère politico-juridique, celle de M. Durkheim se place dans la sphere toute différente de la sociologie et de la morale.”—Gide.
    [“While M. Bourgeois’ theory of solidarity possesses a political-juridical character that of M. Durkheim is located within the completely different realm of sociology and morality.” From Book 5, Chapter 3 “Les Solidaristes” written by Charles Gide in Charles Gide and Charles Rist, Histoire des Doctrines Économiques, 2nd 1913, pp. 700-701.]
    What are the two theories?

Final. 1924.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Psychology, Social Ethics June 1924. (HUC 7000.28, 66 of 284)

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ACADEMIC YEAR 1924-25

From the Division’s Course Description

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 10, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Young.

In this course less attention will be given to specific economic doctrines than to questions of the scope, methods, premises, and goal of economic science, and of its relations to logic and psychology and to the other social sciences. Selections from the writings of the historical economists, the mathematical economists, the socialists, and other critics of the English classical school will be discussed. Special attention will be given to German and French writers, and readings in German and French will be required. Students with especial interests in this field may arrange to continue the course in the second half-year as a research course.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXI, No. 22 (April 30, 1924). Division of History, Government, and Economics 1924-25, pp. 71-2.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

151 hf. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

18 Graduates, 1 Senior, 5 Radcliffe:   Total 24.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1924-1925, p. 75.

 

 

[Final Examination, 1925]
ECONOMICS 151

  1. What do you make of Spann’s distinction between individualism and universalism? Why does Spann attach so much importance to it?
  2. What economic writers would you set down as romanticists, and on what grounds?
  3. Knies is generally counted a member of the historical school. Should you so classify him? Give your reasons.
  4. Why are Bastiat and Carey termed optimists?
  5. Did the reading of J. S. Mill’s autobiography increase or decrease the importance you attached to “Benthamism” as an element in his economics? Explain.
  6. What did Mill hold respecting “historical laws”? What was Roscher’s view? Rickert’s?
  7. What were the chief elements in List’s criticism of Smith and his followers?
  8. Veblen says of Schmoller: “His striking and characteristic merits lie in the direction of a post-Darwinian, causal theory of the origin and growth of species in institutions.” Do you agree?

Final. 1925.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History of Science, History,…,Economics,…, Anthropology, Military Science, June 1925. (HUC 7000.28, 67 of 284)

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ACADEMIC YEAR 1925-26

From the Course Announcements

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 4. Professor Young.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXII, No. 41 (September 21, 1925). Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1925-26 (2nd edition), p. 111.

 

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

151 hf. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

12 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Radcliffe:   Total 15.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1925-1926, p. 78.

 

[Final Examination, 1925]
ECONOMICS 151

Discuss two questions in each group.

I

  1. “The economists of the classical trend have made no serious attempt to depart from the standpoint of taxonomy and make their science a genetic account of the economic life process.” — Veblen
  2. “The reason for the Austrian failure seems to lie in a faulty conception of human nature….In all the received formulations of economic theory, whether at the hands of English economists or those of the Continent, the human material with which the inquiry is concerned is conceived in hedonistic terms.”—Veblen.
  3. “Pour Smith la spontanéité des institutions économiques et leur caractère bienfaisant sont dans un rapport étroit. Volontiers, au xviiie siècle, on considère comme bon tout ce qui est naturel et spontané….Smith n’a pas échappé à cette association d’idées. En montrant l’origine ‘naturelle’ des institutions économiques, il lui semblait prouver par là meme leur caractère utile et bienfaisant.” —
    [“Smith saw the spontaneity of economic institutions and their beneficial character to be intimately related. In the 18th century one readily considered everything that was natural and spontaneous to be good…Smith did not escape this association of ideas. By demonstrating the ‘natural’ origin of economic institutions, he thought he had thus proved their useful and beneficial character.” From Book 1, Chapter 2 “Adam Smith” written by Charles Rist in Charles Gide and Charles Rist, Histoire des Doctrines Économiques, 2nd ed. 1913, p. 81.]

II

  1. In Roscher’s “Grundriss” of 1843 there are the following notes on the “historical method”: What is uniform in the development of the different peoples put in the form of a law of developent? Work of the historian and of the student of natural history similar. This historical method has, in any case, if it does not altogether go astray, objective truth.” What would Knies say to this?
  2. Summarize J. S. Mill’s views respecting the use of the deductive and inductive methods in the social sciences.
  3. Give either Spann’s view of economic romanticism or your own.

III

  1. What do you take to be the chief significance of either Sismondi or St. Simon?
  2. What are the distinguishing tents of the two types of neo-Marxism distinguished in Gide’s chapter?
  3. Compare marginal utility, final degree of utility, Edgeworth’s view of utility as a function of many variables, and Pareto’s function-index of choice.

Final. 1926.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Social Ethics, Military Science, June 1926. (HUC 7000.28, 68 of 284)

 

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ACADEMIC YEAR 1926-27

From the Course Announcements

151 hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 4. Professor Young.

Source: Harvard University, Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1926-27 (2nd edition), p. 116.

 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:–

151 hf. Professor Young.—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.

17 Graduates, 5 Radcliffe:   Total 22.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College 1926-1927, p. 75.

 

[Final Examination, 1927]
ECONOMICS 151

Use the three hours allotted for this examination in writing an essay upon one of the following topics.

  1. Utilitarianism and psychological hedonism, with special reference to their relation to economic theory.
  2. The historical school and institutional economics.
  3. French economic thought in the nineteenth century.
  4. The use of mathematics in economic theory.

Final. 1927.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…, Social Ethics, Military Science, June 1927. (HUC 7000.28, 69 of 284)

 

 

Categories
Harvard Regulations

Harvard. M.A. and Ph.D. requirements in Economics, 1958

 

 

Some economists keep more extensive files from their departmental lives than others. John Kenneth Galbraith not only wrote faster than most folks read, but routine departmental business is laced with his  wit (when he writes) and fortified with other people’s memos and supplements that have been filed with as great a care as successive drafts of Galbraith’s own writings and correspondence.

For new visitors to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, I should mention that my principal focus is the history of the organization and content of economics graduate education. Today we have an addition to the collection of “rules and regulations” governing the degree requirements for economists. It is only coincidental that this artifact has been recovered from the Galbraith papers. 

_____________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics, Littauer M-8

September 18, 1958

Dear Sir:

Enclosed is a copy of the latest departmental supplement. It includes all the latest revisions. Note especially the new requirement of the written General Examination, pp. 3-4.

Seymour E. Harris
Chairman

_____________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Supplement to the General Announcement*

[*To be read in conjunction with the Excerpts from the General Announcement and/or the General Announcement.]

 

Higher Degrees under the Department of Economics

The graduate program of the Department of Economics is designed both to provide students with a general graduate education in economics and to train them to undertake research in particular fields. While the Department has always stressed the importance of economic theory, history and statistics, its interest in abstract economics has always been tempered by its realization of the need to apply economics to the resolution of practical issues; it offers work also in mathematical economics and econometrics. As part of its empirical work, the Department, in cooperation with other branches of the University, operates and advanced statistical laboratory with the latest types of computational machines.

Students in economics are eligible for the regular Graduate School scholarships (see Excerpts from the General Announcement). The Henry Lee Memorial Scholarship is reserved specifically for students in Political Economy. At present, there are available ten to twenty scholarships yielding from $800 to $3,000. In addition, the Department hires annually about ten teaching fellows with stipends ranging from $880 to a maximum of $2,640. Ordinarily these appointments are available on a competitive basis to able student who have completed two years of graduate study in this Department.

The David A. Wells Prize is awarded annually for the best thesis on a subject which lies within the field of economics and is acceptable to the Department of Economics. Further details are available in the Department Office.

The Economics Club organized by graduate students meets regularly to hear speakers and to discuss problems of common interest.

 

HIGHER DEGREES IN ECONOMICS
Master of Arts (A.M.)

Prerequisites for Admission—Normally a distinguished undergraduate record and competence in a foreign language. Concentration in economics is not demanded, however, and persons with honor grades in their undergraduate work are welcomed. All applicants are urged to take the Aptitude Test of the Graduate Record Examination.

Residence—A minimum of two years: see General Announcement. The Department may waive up to one year of this requirement if a student has done graduate work elsewhere.

Program of Study—Four fields selected as follows from the fields listed below. Two fields, including Economic Theory, must be selected from Group A, and two must be chosen from Groups A, B and C (not more than one from group C).

GROUP A

(1) Economic Theory and Its History, with special reference to the Development of Economic Thought since 1776.
(2) Economic History since 1750, or some other approved field in Economic History.
(3) Statistical Method and Its Application.

 

GROUP B

(4) Money and Banking
(5) Economic Fluctuations and Forecasting.
(6) Transportation.
(7) Business Organization and Control.
(8) Public Finance.
(9) International Trade and Tariff Policies.
(10) Economics of Agriculture or Land Economics.
(11) Labor Problems.
(12) Socialism and Social Reform.
(13) Economic History before 1750.
(14) Consumption, Distribution, and Prices.
(15) Economics of Public Utilities.
(16) Social Security.
(17) Location and Regional Economics.
(18) Economics of Underdeveloped Areas.
(19) Forestry Economics.
(20) Any of the historical fields defined under requirements for the Ph.D. in History.
(21) Certain fields in Political Science listed under requirements for the Ph.D. in Political Science.

 

GROUP C

(22) Jurisprudence (selected topics).
(23) Anthropology.
(24) Philosophy (selected topics).
(25) History of Political Theory.
(26) International Law.
(27) Certain fields in Sociology defined under the requirements for the Ph.D. in Sociology.

Each student is required to submit for Departmental approval a plan showing four fields. The plan must be filed at the beginning of the third term of study on an official departmental form. Students may present for consideration of the Department reasonable substitutes for any of the fields named in the several groups.

Generally, students will take six courses, including one or two seminars, and two reading courses. During their first year of graduate study, students will normally take formal courses in theory, history, and statistics; but during their second year they are encouraged to take reading courses. These may consist of work under the direction of a member of the Faculty, or of independent work; in the latter case, the student must secure the approval of the Chairman of the Department.

Languages—A fluent reading knowledge, to be tested by a rigorous two-hour written examination, of advanced economic texts in one of the following languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, a Scandinavian language, or Russian.

A student may substitute mathematics for this requirement, in which case he must take an examination to show his capacity to read and understand the more elementary mathematics used in economics. This includes knowledge of analytic geometry and differential and integral calculus.

Examinations are given by the Department in the first week of November and March. This requirement should be fulfilled during the first term of residence, and must be fulfilled before the General Written Examination. A student who has twice failed a language or mathematics examination must present to the Department proof of further study before he can take the examination a third time.

General Examinations—Each student will take a General Written and a General Oral Examination, normally during his fourth term of residence.

The General Written Examination precedes the General Oral Examination and will consist of a four-hour comprehensive test in Economic Theory and its History. This examination will be given in March. A student whose graduate record at Harvard does not average at least B will not be allowed to take the General Written Examination.

The General Oral Examination is a two-hour examination in four fields selected in accordance with the rules stated under Program of Study. In his preparation for the examination, the student’s main purpose should be to provide himself with tools of analysis, to be aware of the contributions that theory, history, and statistics can make to the solution of economic problems, and to appreciate the relation of economics to other disciplines. A student who has not passed the General Written Examination cannot present himself for the General Oral Examination.

The General Oral Examinations are held throughout the academic year. The student should consult the Secretary of the Department six weeks in advance of the date upon which he proposes to be examined.

Thesis—None required.

 

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Prerequisites for Admission—In general, same as for the A.M.

Residence—Minimum of two years; see General Announcement.

Program of Study—Same as for the A.M., except that five fields are required, to be selected as follows. The three subjects in Group A are required, and two subjects from Groups B and C (not more than one from Group C). The student should include as one of his five fields the subject within which his thesis falls.

Languages—Two foreign languages selected from those listed under the requirements for the A.M. A test in one language must be passed before taking the General Written Examination and the other passed at least six months before the Special Examination. All candidates must offer French or German.

Mathematics may be substituted for the second language. For such substitution refer to rules for the A.M.

A student whose native language is not English may petition the Department to be excused from examination in the second language. He will then normally be examined in either French or German before taking his General Written Examination. In considering such petitions, account is taken of the amount of original economic literature in the student’s native language as well as of his general academic standing.

            General Examinations—Same as for the A.M. except that the General Oral Examination will cover five fields. The requirement of the fifth field is usually fulfilled by completing a full-year graduate course, other than Theory, in the Department of Economics at Harvard with the grade of B+ or higher. Seminars offered by the Graduate School of Public Administration are not acceptable for such “write-off” purposes. One half-course must have been completed in the write-off field with a grade of B+ or higher before the General Oral Examination. If the requirement for the write-off is not met prior to the General Oral Examination, all five fields must be offered.

Ordinarily students who have completed three terms of residence at Harvard are excused from the final examination in courses included in the fields presented for the General Oral Examination, provided it is passed after December 1 in the fall term, or after April 1 in the spring term, and before final course examinations are held, and provided it is passed with at least a grade of “Good”.

Thesis—The thesis should be written in one of the fields offered in the General Oral Examination and must show an original treatment of the subject and give evidence of independent research. The candidate must obtain written consent for his proposed topic from the faculty member who has agreed to supervise his thesis and must submit it to the Chairman within six months after passing the General Oral Examination. A student must make a report of progress on his thesis to the Department once a year until the thesis is submitted for approval. The thesis in final form together with a brief summary (4-10pp.) must be submitted within five years from the date of the General Oral Examination. Two bound copies of the thesis (the original and first copy) must be in the hands of the Department by December 1 for a degree at Mid-year and March 1 for a degree at Commencement.

Special Examination—After approval of the thesis, the candidate must pass an oral examination of one and one-half hours, not less than one-half hour to be devoted to intensive examination in the special field without primary reference to the thesis. No examinations are held during the summer.

 

Ph.D. IN BUSINESS ECONOMICS

The purpose of this degree is to combine the more general training in Economics with the technical training in business courses and to prepare students to teach in schools of business administration.

Prerequisites for Admission—Same as for the Ph.D. in Economics.

Residence—Same as for the Ph.D. in Economics.

Program of Study—The student should prepare himself in five fields chosen from the groups given below. Only two fields, including Economic Theory and its History, may ordinarily be chosen from Group A. In all cases the program of study must be approved by the Chairman of the Department of Economics. For advice on courses relating to business subjects, students should see Professor John Lintner of the Business School.

 

GROUP A

(1) Economic Theory and Its History, with special reference to the Development of the History of Economic Thought since 1776.
(2) Economic History since 1750.
(3) Public Finance and Taxation.
(4) Economics of Agriculture.

 

GROUP B

(5) Accounting.
(6) Marketing.
(7) Foreign Trade.
(8) Production.
(9) Money and Banking.
(10) Business Organization and Control.
(11) Transportation.
(12) Insurance.
(13) Statistical Method and Its Application.
(14) Economics of Public Utilities.
(15) Labor.

 

Languages—Same as for the Ph.D. in Economics.

General Examinations—Same as for the Ph.D. in Economics.

Thesis—Same as for the Ph.D. in Economics.

Special Examination—Same as for the Ph.D. in Economics.

Further information regarding courses and programs of study in Economics may be obtained by writing directly to the Chairman, Department of Economics, M-8 Littauer Center, Cambridge 38, Massachusetts. Inquiries concerning admission and scholarships should be addressed to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge 38, Massachusetts.

 

Source:  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. John Kenneth Galbraith Papers, Series 5 Harvard University File, 1949-1990, Box 525, Folder “Harvard Dept of Econ: [Departmental Documents]”.

 

Categories
Curriculum Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Francis Bowen’s Final Exam for Political Economy, 1869

 

 

While collecting old economics examination questions at the Harvard University Archives, I happened to come across a final examination for Political Economy from the pre-Dunbar years. The senior year course during the academic year 1868-69 was taught by Francis Bowen who assigned his own textbook, The Principles of Political Economy applied to the Condition, the Resources, and the Institutions of the American People (2nd edition, 1859). In the following year (1870) Bowen published American Political Economy; including Strictures of the Currency and the Finances since 1861. One probably can presume his lectures were closer to the latter of the two books. 

For this post I have included Bowen’s obituary published by the Harvard Crimson as well as a summary of the Harvard College curriculum in 1868-69 as published in the annual report of the President of Harvard College.

 

__________________________

Bowen’s Examination Questions

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

  1. Explain the difference between the laws of England, France, and the United States in respect to the rights of inheritance and bequest of real estate and personal property, showing the economical results of each of the three systems.
  2. What are the Metayer system, the Allotment system, Tenant Right, the Cottier Tenure, Peasant Proprietors, and the advantages and disadvantages of each?
  3. Show the difference between Exchange Value, Market Price, and Cost of Production. What is the law of the Equation of Demand and Supply?
  4. Wherein does Monopoly or a Scarcity Value differ from ordinary Cost of Production? According to Ricardo, is Rent an element in the Cost of Production;–and why.
  5. How is the interchange of commodities between distant countries regulated not by their absolute, but their comparative, Cost of Production? Explain the Equation of International Demand, and show the influence of cost of carriage on International Values.
  6. By what is the Rate of Interest regulated? Does this Rate depend on the Value of Money? How does it affect the price of land?
  7. What are the fundamental rules of Taxation? Distinguish between Direct and Indirect taxation:–what provision in the Constitution of the United States on this subject? How ought this provision to affect the Income Tax?
  8. What effect has the Rate of Taxation on the amount of revenue collected? Ought taxes to be at the same rate on large and small incomes?
  9. When did the National Debts begin, and wherein do they differ from private debts? What is the Funding of a National Debt?
  10. How came both England and the United States to be in debt for a much larger amount than they ever received from their creditors? What are the arguments in favor of paying off a National Debt within the lifetime of the generation that contracted it?

Sen. Ann. June, 1869.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final Examinations 1853-2001. Box 1, Folder “Final examinations, 1868-1869”.

 

__________________________

An Obituary for Francis Bowen

Francis Bowen.
Harvard Crimson, January 22, 1890

Late yesterday afternoon it was announced that Professor Francis Bowen had died at his home at one o’clock of heart failure. He was born on September 8, 1811, at Charleston, Mass., and was therefore in his seventy-ninth year. In 1833 he was graduated from the college in the same class with Professor Lovering, Professor Torrey, Dr. M. Wyman, Professor J. Wyman, and the late Dr. George E. Ellis of Boston. During the four years following his graduation he was an instructor here in intellectual philosophy and political economy. In 1843 he succeeded Dr. Palfrey as editor and proprietor of the North American Review which he conducted until 1854. He was appointed professor of history in the college in 1850, but the board of overseers refused to confirm the appointment on account of his unpopular views on politics. Three years later, however, he was unanimously confirmed as Alford professor to succeed Dr. Walker. In this capacity he continued to serve the college until December, 1889, when he resigned the professorship; so that he has been in active service over thirty-six years. He was a prompt and constant attendant at lectures and always interested in his work. Of late years he has done only half-work and is not well-known to many of the undergraduates. But his influence on the graduates has been remarkably strong, many of them remembering him with the greatest affection.

In the early days of the Lowell Institute he was one of the most popular lecturers in the country. In 1848-9 he lectured before the Institute on the application of metaphysical and ethical science to the evidences of religion; in 1850 on political economy; in 1852, on the origin and development of the English and American constitutions; and subsequently on English philosophers from Bacon to Sir William Hamilton. The most of these lectures were subsequently published. He also published an annotated edition of Virgil, Critical Essays on the History and Present Condition of Speculative Philosophy, Principles of Political Economy, a text book on Logic, Sir William Hamilton’s essays on metaphysics, condensed and edited, and not more than five years ago he prepared the report of the U. S. Silver Commission. In 1879 the degree of L. L. D. was conferred upon him by the University, an honor fifty crowning his years of usefulness. The last years of his life have been quiet and uneventful.

 

__________________________

 

Overview of Harvard College Courses of Instruction, 1868-69

APPENDIX.
I.

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF THE COURSE OF INSTRUCTION PURSUED IN THE SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY DURING THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1868-69.

I. ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT.

 

  1. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

INSTRUCTION in Ethics and in Christian Evidences was given by the Acting President. During the First Term he heard recitations from the Freshman Class, twice a week, in Champlin’s First Principles of Ethics, and Bulfinch’s Evidences of Christianity.

During the Second Term he met the Senior Class twice a week, hearing them recite in Peabody’s Christianity the Religion of Nature, and delivering Lectures on the Christian Scriptures and the Evidences of Christianity. During the entire year the service of Daily Prayers was attended by him; and he supplied the Chapel pulpit on Sunday.

Two hundred and seventy-five students had leave of absence from Cambridge to pass Sunday at home; one hundred and forty-five attended worship in the College Chapel; and one hundred and sixteen attended other churches in Cambridge.

 

  1. PHILOSOPHY.

The means of instruction in this Department are recitations familiarly illustrated at the time by the Professor, lectures occasionally substituted for recitations, and written forensic exercises.

The Department was under the charge of Francis Bowen, A. M., Alford Professor, assisted by William W. Newell, A.B., Instructor in Philosophy. During the First Academic Term the Senior Class recited three times a week in Bowen’s Ethics and Metaphysics, and Bowen’s Political Economy. During a portion of the Second Term the same Class recited twice a week in Bowen’s Ethics and Metaphysics. An elective section of the same class also recited three times a week in Mill’s Examination of Sir W. Hamilton’s Philosophy, Schwegler’s History of Philosophy, Mansel’s Limits of Religious Thought, and Bowen’s Essays. The Junior Class recited twice a week to Mr. Newell in Bowen’s Logic, Reid’s Essays, and Hamilton’s Metaphysics. The Sophomores recited to Mr. Newell twice a week during one term in Stewart’s Philosophy of the Mind.

Forensics were read, in the First Term, once a month by the Seniors, half of the Class attending each fortnight. The Juniors also read Forensics once a month during one term.

 

  1. RHETORIC AND ORATORY.

This Department is under the superintendence of Francis J. Child, Ph. D., Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, assisted in the teaching of Elocution by James Jennison, A. M. Instruction was given to elective sections of the three higher classes in the Early English Language and Literature.

Sophomores had two lessons a week, and studied Vernon’s Anglo-Saxon Guide and Morris’s Specimens of Early English.

Juniors had three lessons a week, and studied Vernon’s Anglo-Saxon Guide, Morris’s Specimens, and Morris’s edition of the Prologues and Knightes Tale from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

The Senior section read Thorpe’s Analecta Anglo-Saxoniea and Mätzner’s Altenglische Sprachproben.

One fifth of the Sophomore Class wrote Themes, and attended a critical exercise upon them, each week throughout the year.

The Juniors wrote Themes, and attended a critical exercise upon them, once every three weeks during the First Term.

The Senior Class had four Themes during the Second Term.

The inspection of performances for Commencement and for the other public Exhibitions is committed to this Department.

The foregoing statement relates to the duties of the Professor.

There are separate courses of instruction in Elocution, and in Reading, which are wholly under the care of the Tutor in Elocution.

The Sophomores and Freshmen attended him once every week during the year as required, and he gave instruction to extra sections from all the classes.

He superintended rehearsals of performances for the Public Exhibitions of the year; the final rehearsal for each of which is regularly attended by the Professor.

 

  1. HISTORY.

In this Department instruction was given to the whole Senior Class by Professor Torrey and Professor Gurney; the textbooks used being the Abridgment of Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution, Guizot’s Civilization in Europe, Arnold’s Lectures, and Hallam’s Middle Ages. An elective class read with Professor Torrey May’s Constitutional History and Mill on Representative Government. A special examination was held of students who had offered themselves as candidates for Honors after having pursued an additional course of study.

The Sophomore Class recited to Professor Gurney in “ The Student’s Gibbon ” during the First Term.

The Freshman Class recited to Mr. Lewis, in the Second Term, in Duruy’s “Histoire Grecque.”

 

  1. MODERN LANGUAGES.

This Department is under the superintendence of James R. Lowell, A. M., Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages, and Professor of Belles-Lettres. Elbridge J. Cutler, A. B., Assistant Professor, has special charge of the instruction in French and German. Bennett H. Nash, A. M., is instructor in Italian and Spanish. Thomas S. Perry, A. M., is Tutor of Modern Languages. Louis C. Lewis, A. M., was Tutor of Modern Languages during the last year.

French is a required study during the First Term of the Freshman year; and Ancient History is taught from a French textbook during the Second Term of that year. French is an elective study during the Senior year. German is a required study during the Sophomore year; and an elective during the Junior and Senior years. During the last year the Sophomores studied French instead of German, they having failed to study French during their Freshman year, for reasons given in the last Annual Report. Spanish is studied as an extra, i. e. without marks, during the Junior year, and as an elective during the Senior year. Italian is an elective in the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years, and the students are allowed to study Italian during any one or two of these three years; but no Senior beginning Italian is allowed to receive marks for the same.

The Professor gave a course of lectures to the Seniors during the Second Term.

The Assistant Professor taught elective German to the Seniors in two sections, three times a week throughout the year. Text-books, Otto’s and Weisse’s German Grammars, “Egmont,” “Taugenichts,” “Braune Erica,” Schiller’s “Maria Stuart,” and Goethe’s “Wahrheit und Dichtung.” He also taught elective French to the Seniors in two sections, three times a week. Textbooks, Beaumarchais’s “Barbier de Seville,” La Fontaine’s Fables, Racine’s “Athalie,” “Selections from French Prose-Writers,” and Pylodet’s “ Littérature Française.”

Instruction was given in Italian as follows :—

To a section of the Senior Class, in three recitations a week. This section read portions of Tasso’s “Gerusalemme ” and of Dante’s “Divina Commedia,” upon which the Instructor gave explanatory lectures. The section also handed in written translations from English into Italian, and had exercises in writing Italian from dictation. They had one written examination beside the annual examination.

To a section of the Junior Class, in two recitations a week. The textbooks used were Cuore’s Grammar, Nota’s “La Fiera,” and Dall’ Ongaro’s “La Rosa dell’ Alpi.” They attended one private written examination, practised writing Italian from dictation, and gave in written translations from English into Italian.

To two sections of the Sophomore Class. Each section had two recitations a week in the same text-books as the Juniors. Each section was exercised in writing Italian from dictation. Beside the annual examination at the close of the Second Term, the Sophomores attended three written examinations.

Instruction was given in Spanish as follows : —

To a section of the Senior Class, which attended three recitations a week, and read Moratin’s “El sí de las niñas,” Lope de Vega’s “La Estrella de Sevilla,” and portions of “Don Quijote.” This section wrote Spanish from dictation, and also translations from English into Spanish. They had one private examination in writing, beside the Annual Examination at the close of the Second Term.

To a section of the Junior Class, which recited twice a week, studying Josse’s Grammar and Reader, and portions of Le Sage’s “Gil Blas.”

 

  1. LATIN.

During the last year this Department was under the superintendence of George M. Lane, Ph. D., University Professor of Latin, aided by Mr. James B. Greenough and Mr. Prentiss Cummings, Tutors. The instruction of the Senior and Junior Classes was conducted by Professor Lane, that of the Sophomore Class by Mr. Cummings, and that of the Freshman Class by Mr. Greenough.

Instruction was given to the Freshman Class in Lincoln’s Selections from Livy (two Books), the Odes of Horace, Cicero’s Cato Major, Roman Antiquities, and in writing Latin:

To the Sophomore Class, in Cicero’s Laelius, Cato Major, and Select Epistles; Terence’s Phormio, Eunuchus, and Adelphi; Quintus Curtius, selections from Ovid, Seneca’s Hercules Furens, and in Writing Latin:

To the Junior Class, in Horace’s Satires, Tacitus’s Annals, and Juvenal :

To the Seniors, in Juvenal, Cicero de Deorum Natura, Lucretius, and Plautus, in the regular elective division. Besides this, instruction was given to the candidates for Honors, in Tacitus and in Latin Composition.

 

  1. GREEK.

The Greek Department, in the absence of William W. Goodwin, Ph. D., Eliot Professor of Greek Literature, was under the charge of Evangelinus A. Sophocles, LL.D., University Professor of Ancient, Byzantine, and Modern Greek, and Isaac Flagg, A. M., and William H. Appleton, A.M., Tutors in Greek.

The Freshmen were instructed by Mr. Flagg and Mr. Appleton. They were divided into four sections, and attended four recitations a week during each Term, besides exercises in Greek Composition. The text-books were Xenophon’s Memorabilia, the Odyssey, and Lysias.

The Sophomores were instructed by Mr. Flagg. They recited twice a week, in four sections, and read the Prometheus of Aeschylus, the Birds of Aristophanes, and the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes. The elective section in advanced Greek read also Plato’s Apology and Crito, the Alcestis of Euripides, and half of the First Book of Herodotus. The Class was also instructed in Greek Composition.

An elective section of Juniors read the first three books of Polybius with Professor Sophocles. A section of Juniors read Aeschines, and Demosthenes on the Crown with Mr. Flagg.

An elective section of Seniors read Plato’s Apology and Crito, and the Electra of Sophocles with Mr. Flagg; and another section read the Antigone of Sophocles, the Alcestis of Euripides, and Thucydides with Professor Sophocles.

 

  1. HEBREW.

This Department, vacant the First Term, was filled the Second Term by Rev. Edward J. Young, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental Languages, who gives instruction twice a week to such students as desire it.

 

  1. NATURAL HISTORY.

This Department, now wholly elective, was, in the absence of Professor Gray, under the care of Wm. T. Brigham, A.M.

The course was attended by sixty-four Students of the Junior Class; and the instruction was given by recitations in Structural Botany, lectures on Vegetable Physiology and Organography, and practical work in plant-analysis with the microscope, followed by oral and written examinations. Each student was occupied three hours each week in the lecture-room. From the Thanksgiving recess to the end of the First Term the Class attended recitations and lectures on Animal Physiology and Anatomy, under the care of Jeffri9es Wyman, M. D.

 

  1. ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.

A course of twenty Lectures on the Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrated Animals was delivered during the First Term, to members of the Senior Class, and to members of the Professional Schools, by Jeffries Wyman, M.D., Hersey Professor of Anatomy. The Lectures were given on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 12 M. During the second half of the First Term, fifty members of the Junior Glass attended recitations from a text-book on Physiology, on Wednesdays and Fridays, from 10 to 12 A.M.

 

  1. CHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY.

The instruction in this Department was given by Josiah P. Cooke, A.M., Erving Professor, and George A. Hill, A.B., Tutor in Physics and Chemistry. During the First Term the Sophomore Class studied Cooke’s Chemical Physics, reciting in three divisions twice each week, and passing two private examinations during the Term. In the Second Term the same Class studied “The First Principles of Chemical Philosophy,” passing one private examination, and the usual public examination at the end of the year. They also attended a course of Lectures, one each week, on General Chemistry.

Those of the Junior Class who elected this department attended during the whole year a course of instruction in Practical Chemistry, giving their attendance in the Laboratory six hours each week, in addition to the three regular hours of recitation. The text-books used were Galloway’s Qualitative Chemical Analysis and Cooke’s Chemical Philosophy; but the course is specially designed to train the faculties of observation and to teach the methods of scientific study, and hence the greater part of the instruction is necessarily oral. The course of Lectures on General Chemistry begun in the Second Term of the Sophomore was continued during the First Term of the Junior Year, two each week until the end of the Term.

Those of the Senior Class who elected Chemical Physics received instruction in Crystallography during the First Term (the text-book used being Cooke’s Chemical Physics), and during the Second Term in Blowpipe Analysis and in Mineralogy, the course consisting of Lectures and practical instruction in the laboratory and cabinet. Elderhorst’s Blowpipe Analysis and Dana’s Manual of Mineralogy were used as books of reference.

 

  1. PHYSICS.

During the last academic year instruction in this Department was conducted by George A. Hill, A.B., Tutor in Chemistry and Physics. Joseph Lovering, A.M., Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, was absent in Europe through the year, so that the usual courses of Lectures on Physics to the Senior and Junior Classes were not given.

The whole Junior Class recited to Mr. Hill three times a week during the First and Second Terms; and read Herschel’s Outlines of Astronomy and Lardner’s Course of Natural Philosophy [Optics]. This Class was examined at the end of the Second Term in both books.

The Class recited in three Divisions; each Division remaining with the instructor one hour at every exercise; in all nine hours a week.

 

  1. MATHEMATICS.

The instruction in this Department was given by Benjamin Peirce, LL.D., Perkins Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics; James Mills Peirce, A.M., Assistant Professor of Mathematics; Edwin P. Seaver, A.M., Tutor; and George V. Leverett, A.B., Instructor.
The Freshman Class recited, throughout the year, in four sections three times in the week, and in two sections, once in the week, from the following text-books: Peirce’s Plane and Solid Geometry, and Peirce’s Algebra. The Freshmen were also instructed in Plane Trigonometry.
The study of Mathematics was elective during the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years.
In the Sophomore year the instruction in Pure and Applied Mathematics was arranged in four courses of two lessons a week each, and Students were allowed to elect one or more of these courses. The subjects taught were Analytic Geometry (Puckle’s Conic Sections, and lectures on the Elements of Analytic Geometry of Three Dimensions), the Differential Calculus (lectures and examples), Spherical Trigonometry
(lectures and examples), Elementary Mechanics (Goodwin and Kerr), and the Theory of Sound (Peirce).
Instruction was given to those who elected Mathematics in the Junior and Senior years, by lectures and recitations, on three days in the week, throughout the year, in Differential, Imaginary, Integral, and Residual Calculus, in the Calculus of Quaternions, and in the Mathematical Theory of Mechanics and Astronomy.
Applied Mathematics (Kerr’s Elementary Mechanics) was also an elective study in the Junior year.

[…]

 

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION FOR THE ACADEMICAL YEAR, 1868-69.

[…]

SENIOR CLASS.
FIRST TERM.

  1. Philosophy. Bowen’s Ethics and Metaphysics.—Bowen’s Political Economy.—Forensics.
  2. Modern History. Guizot’s and Arnold’s Lectures.—Story’s Abridged Commentaries on the Constitution.

ELECTIVE AND EXTRA STUDIES.

  1. Philosophy. Mill’s Examination of Hamilton’s Philosophy.—Last 140 pages of Bowen’s Logic.
  2. Mathematics. Peirce’s Analytic Mechanics.
  3. History. May’s Constitutional History.—Mill on Representative Government.
  4. Chemistry. Crystallography and Physics of Crystals.
  5. Greek. The Antigone of Sophocles.—The Alcestis of Euripides.
  6. Latin. Juvenal.—Cicero de Deorum Natura.—Tacitus’s Annals and Latin Exercises, with an extra Division.
  7. German. Goethe’s Egmont.—Schiller’s Wallenstein’s Lager und Maria Stuart.—Exercises in Writing German.
  8. French. Mennechet’s Littérature Française Classique.—La Fontaine’s Fables.—Writing French.
  9. Advanced Spanish. Moratin’s El sí de las niñas.—Lope de Vega’s La Estrella di Sevilla.
  10. Advanced Section. Tasso’s Gerusalemme.
  11. English. Thorpe’s Analecta Anglo-Saxonica.—Mätzner’s Alt-englische Sprachproben.
  12. Modern Literature. Lectures.
  13. Patristic and Modern Greek.
  14. Geology. Lectures.
  15. Anatomy. Lectures.

SECOND TERM.

  1. History. Hallam’s Middle Ages, one volume.
  2. Religious Instruction.
  3. Political Economy. Bowen’s, finished.
  4. Rhetoric. Themes.

 

ELECTIVE AND EXTRA STUDIES.

  1. Philosophy. Schwegler’s History of Philosophy (Selections).—Mansel’s Limits of Religious Thought.—Exercises and Lectures.
  2. Mathematics. Peirce’s Analytic Mechanics.—Lectures on Quaternions.
  3. Greek. Thucydides, First two Books.—Homer’s Iliad, Book IV.
  4. Latin. Lucretius and Plautus (Selections).
  5. History. Constitutional History.—Constitution of the United States, and the Federalist.
  6. Chemistry. Mineralogy and Determination of Minerals.
  7. German. Die Braune Erika.—Goethe’s Hermann and Dorothea.—Faust.—Writing German.
  8. French. Mennechet’s Littérature Française Classique.—Molière’s Misanthrope.—Beaumarchais’s Barbier.—Lessons in French Pronunciation.
  9. Advanced Spanish. Don Quijote.
  10. Advanced Section. Dante’s Divina Commedia.
  11. English. Studies of First Term continued.
  12. Zoölogy. Lectures.
  13. Modern Literature. Lectures.
  14. Patristic and Modern Greek.

[…]

 

The required studies of the Senior Class are History, Philosophy, and Ethics (together five hours a week). The elective studies are Greek, Latin, Mathematics, Physics, Chemical Physics, History, Philosophy, and Modern Languages (French, German, Italian, and Spanish). In each elective department there will be three exercises a week. Each Senior may choose three or two electives (at his pleasure), and receive marks for the same. Special students for honors may be permitted to devote the whole nine hours to two elective departments, under such restrictions as may be prescribed. Marks will be allowed in Modern Languages in the Senior year to advanced students only.

 

 

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1868-69.

Image Source:  Portrait of Francis Bowen from the Harvard Square Library (Unitarian Universalism). The Harvard Book: Portraits.

 

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. Business Organization and Control. Mason and Kaysen, 1950-51

 

The frequency of posting has been reduced during this three week trip to archives for more material. From yesterday’s haul from the Harvard archives I have transcribed the syllabus for an industrial organization and regulation course taught at mid-century by Edward S. Mason and Carl Kaysen.

__________________

Economics 261 (formerly Economics 161a and 162b). Business Organization and Control

Full course. Mon., Wed., Fri., and 3. Professor Mason and Assistant Professor Kaysen.

 

Source: Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (Sept. 1950), p. 86.

__________________

Obituary: IN MEMORY OF Carl Kaysen
February 9, 2010

Twenty years ago, as the crumbling of the Berlin Wall signaled the end of the Cold War, Carl Kaysen wrote an essay whose title asked: “Is War Obsolete?” Coming from someone else, the question might have seemed rhetorical or whimsical, but Dr. Kaysen’s career brought to his musings the force of history.

He was President John F. Kennedy’s personal representative to talks that resulted in the 1963 signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty to prevent nuclear bomb tests in the atmosphere, underwater, and outer space. He succeeded J. Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the Manhattan Project, as director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.

John Kenneth Galbraith, the noted economist who died in 2006, once called Dr. Kaysen “the most widely read, the most widely informed man I know.”

“He was a very wise man, one of Kennedy’s wisest counselors,” said Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy’s special counsel and speechwriter.

Dr. Kaysen, a professor emeritus of political economy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died in his sleep Feb. 8 at his home in Cambridge. He was 89. His health had failed after a bad fall in October and a decade of battling spinal stenosis.

In the Kennedy administration, Dr. Kaysen was deputy special assistant for national security affairs, a second-in-command to McGeorge Bundy, the president’s national security adviser.

As Kennedy, Bundy, and others spent 13 days and nights of brinksmanship during the Cuban missile crisis, “Carl was essentially in charge of all other White House foreign policy matters during that time,” Sorensen said. “The president had complete confidence in him.”

Dr. Kaysen’s leadership led some in the White House to nickname him the “vice president in charge of the rest of the world.” Reflexively modest, he never trumpeted that role.

“He was low-key, never loud, and maybe that’s why he is an unsung hero,” Sorensen said. “He received much less publicity and attention compared to other people in Kennedy’s White House and inner circle.”

Although Dr. Kaysen’s career as an economist took him to teaching posts at Harvard and MIT, along with the Institute for Advanced Study, his most lasting contribution may lie in his work for Kennedy while negotiating the Partial Test Ban Treaty.

“I think he was the principal officer in the White House helping to shepherd that through,” said Sorensen, who added that he would miss Dr. Kaysen, one of his closest friends.

“He spent his entire life, right up to last week, trying to deflect and change the impulse toward war,” said James Carroll, a columnist for the Globe’s opinion pages who chronicled some of Dr. Kaysen’s contributions in the 2006 book, “House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power.”

Dr. Kaysen “played a pivotal role at what is the pivot of the whole story, when Kennedy basically shifted US policy from arms buildup to arms control,” Carroll said. “Kaysen was critical in putting in place the arms control regime, which ultimately enabled the Soviet Union and the United States to end the conflict nonviolently.”

In his 1990 essay, Dr. Kaysen searched for a way for the world to stop seeing war as inevitable.

“The international system that relies on the national use of force as the ultimate guarantor of security, and the threat of its use as the basis of order, is not the only possible one,” he wrote. “To seek a different system with a more secure and a more humane basis for order is no longer the pursuit of an illusion, but a necessary effort toward a necessary goal.”

Born in Philadelphia, Dr. Kaysen graduated in 1940 with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, then did graduate studies at Columbia University while serving on the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

During World War II, Dr. Kaysen served as an intelligence officer, helping pick targets for bombardiers in the Army Air Corps.

“We invented a form of poetry called bomb damage assessment,” he told Carroll during interviews for “House of War.”

Rather than send planes to bomb civilian areas, Dr. Kaysen and his colleagues sought to specify locations, such as oil refineries, that would hobble the German Army.

After the war, he went to Harvard, where he studied economics and received a master’s and a doctorate. He began teaching at Harvard in the mid-1950s and, except for his work with the Kennedy administration, stayed until 1966, when he became head of the Institute for Advanced Study. He resigned from that position in 1976 and joined MIT’s faculty.

Dr. Kaysen married Annette Neutra, whom he had known since they sat next to each other in first grade, in 1940. They had two daughters, Susanna of Cambridge and Jesse of Madison, Wis., and moved where his career took them: to Washington, D.C., to London on one study grant and Greece on another.

His wife died in 1990. Four years later, he married Ruth Butler, a writer.

“He did great things, but he was extremely modest,” Butler said. “There was a quietness about his sense of his own life that was really enchanting.”

Dr. Kaysen, she added, “had a beautiful voice,” the kind that — combined with his intellect —could dominate any room and any discussion, though he usually chose to avoid doing so.

“He was a famously great teacher,” said Susanna, who wrote the acclaimed memoir “Girl, Interrupted.” “Of course, I never took a class from him, but my whole life was a class from him.”

She said her father, who was known for reading a few books at a time, had tastes that ranged from high culture to popular fare. He could quote the German writer Goethe and liked to listen to jazz pianist Fats Waller.

For decades, Dr. Kaysen was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, and cochaired its Committee on International Security Studies. In 2002, he coauthored “War With Iraq: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives.”

Leslie Berlowitz, CEO of the organization, said with “a very quiet wisdom and a wry, ironic sense of humor,” Dr. Kaysen brought “his wealth of experience in arms control and international negotiations to the academy,” which became a key area of study.

“He was the soul of calm and kindness,” Carroll said of Dr. Kaysen’s leadership at the academy. “He was the most unfailingly gracious person, and was profoundly respectful of other people.”

Dr. Kaysen also leaves a sister, Flora Penaranda, of Bogot·.

A memorial service will be announced.

— Bryan Marquard
The Boston Globe

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Tech. Volume 130, Issue 3 (February 9, 2010).

__________________________

READING ASSIGNMENTS
Economics 261a
1950-51

Authorized for purchase by veterans:

R. A. Gordon, Business Leadership in the Large Corporations.
Twentieth Century Fund, Electric Power and Government Policy.

First Week: History and Legal Structure of the Corporation.

Reading:

Purdy, Lindahl and Carter, Corporate Concentration and Public Policy, Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Second, Third, and Fourth Weeks:

Determination of Corporate Income.
Depreciation and Replacement.
Patterns of Corporate Financial Structure.
Flow of Funds—Savings and Investment.

Reading:

A. S. Dewing, Financial Policy of Corporations, either 3rd or 4th Editions; Book III, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6.
Richard Ruggles, National Income and Income Analysis, Chapters 2 and 3.
T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 37, pp. 1-71.
T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 12, Part III.

Fifth Week: Internal Organization of the Corporation.

Reading:

R. A. Gordon, Business Leadership in the Large Corporation, Chapters 3, 4, 12, 13, and 14.
Peter Drucker, Concept of the Large Corporation, Part II.
Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property. Book IV.

Sixth and Seventh Weeks: Economic Concentration and the Position of the Large Corporation.

Reading:

Federal Trade Commission, The Merger Movement.
John Lintner and Keith Butters, “The Effect of Mergers on Industrial Concentration”, Review of Economics and Statistics, February, 1950.
Willard Atkins, George Edwards, and Harold S. Moulton, The Regulation of Security Markets.

Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Weeks: Public Utility Regulation—Electric Power.

The Nature of Public Utilities.
Cost and Demand Structure of the Power Industry.
History and Prospects of Regulation.
Theory of Rate-Making.
Government vs. Private Power Operations; Power in Multi-Purpose Projects.

Reading:

Twentieth Century Fund, Electric Power and Government Policy, Chapter 1; 4; 9, pp. 480-540;10.
Bauer, J., Transforming Public Utility Regulation, Chapters 1 through 8.
W. A. Lewis, Overhead Costs, Chapter 2.
A. M. Henderson, “The Pricing of Public Utility Undertakings”, Manchester School, September, 1947.

Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Weeks: Railroad Transportation.

Demand and Cost Conditions in Transportation.
Structure of Freight Rates.
Interrelations of Freight Rates and Industrial Location.
Railroad Regulation: Aims, Problems and History.
Intercarrier Competition.

Reading:

D. P. Locklin, Economics of Transportation, 3rd Edition, Chapters 2, 3, 7, 8 18, 19.
D. H. Wallace, “Joint and Overhead Costs in Railway Rate-Making”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1934.
C. Dearing and W. Owen. National Transportation Policy, Chapters 9, 11-16 inclusive.
W. A. Lewis, Overhead Costs, Chapter 1.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 261
1950-51
Reading Assignments—Second Term

First Three Weeks:

Cost Behavior and Price Determination.

National Bureau of Economic Research, “Cost Behavior and Price Policy”, Chapters 2, 3, 5, 10, 11.
Fritz Machlup, “Marginal Analysis and Empirical Research”, American Economic Review, September, 1946.
E. G. Nourse, Price Making in a Democracy, Chapters 7, 9, 10, 11.
Blakiston, Survey of Contemporary Economics, Chapters 3, 4.

Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Weeks:

  1. Oligopoly.

W. J. Fellner, Competition Among the Few, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 7.

  1. Integration and Price Discrimination (Including Basing-Point Systems).

T.N.E.C. Monograph 27, Part VI, The Product Structure of Large Corporations, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5.
D. H. Wallace, Market Control in the Aluminum Industry, Chapters 8, 9, 10 Sec. 3 (pp. 216-224) only, 16.
M. A. Adelman. “The Large Firms and Its Suppliers, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1949.
Fritz Machlup, The Basing Point System, Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7.
Carl Kaysen. “Review of Machlup”, Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1950.

  1. Patents and Industrial Research.

A. A. Bright, Jr. and R. Maclaurin, “Introduction of the Flourescent Lamp”, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1943.
R. L. Bishop, “The Patent System and Patent Reform”, (mimeographed).
H. Bergson, “Patents and the Anti-Trust Laws” (mimeographed).

Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Weeks:

Anti-Trust Policy.

T.N.E.C. Monograph 38, A Study of the Concentration and Enforcement of the Federal Anti-Trust Laws.
Other reading to be assigned.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 5. Folder “Economics 1950-51 (2 of 2)”.

 

Image Sources: Edward S. Mason, Harvard Class Album 1950; Carl Kaysen, 1955 fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

 

Categories
Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Thirteen Economics Ph.D. Examinees, 1908-09.

 

 

This posting lists the five graduate students in economics who took their subject examinations for the Ph.D. at Harvard from March 12 through May 21, 1908. The examination committee members, academic history, general and specific subjects are provided along with the doctoral thesis subject, when declared. Lists for 1903-04, 1904-051905-06, 1907-081915-16, 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.

1908-09

Edmund Thornton Miller.

General Examination in Economics, January 7, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Gay, Sprague, and Mitchell.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-03, 1907-09; A.B. (University of Texas) 1900; A.M. (ibid) 1901; A.M. (Harvard) 1903. Instructor in Political Science, University of Texas, 1904-; Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Money, Banking and Transportation. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and the Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The Financial History of Texas.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

Charles Edward Persons.

General Examination in Economics, February 25, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, MacDonald, and Ripley.
Academic History: Cornell College (Iowa), 1898-1903; Harvard Graduate School, 1904-05, 1906-09; A.B. (Cornell College) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1905. Instructor in Economics at Wellesley College, 1908-.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History from 1750. 4. Sociology and Social Reform. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Industrial History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The History of the Ten-Hour Law in Massachusetts.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Frank Richardson Mason.

Special Examination in Economics, May 3, 1909.
General Examination
passed May 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Bullock, Ripley, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-08; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1906-08.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Silk Industry in America.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Bullock, and Sprague.

 

Robert Franz Foerster.

Special Examination in Economics, May 12, 1909.
General Examination passed May 21, 1908.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Peabody, Carver, Ripley, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-05; University of Berlin, 1905-06 (Winter Semester); Harvard Graduate School, 1906-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1906. Assistant in Social Ethics (Harvard), 1908-09.
Special Subject: Labor Problems.
Thesis Subject: “Emigration from Italy, with special reference to the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Ripley, and Gay.

 

David Frank Edwards.

General Examination in Economics, May 13, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Ripley, MacDonald, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Academic History: Ohio Wesleyan University, 1899-1903; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-06; A. B. (Ohio Wesleyan) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1906. Teacher, High School of Commerce (Boston), 1907-.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization (and Social Reform). 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 4. Commercial Geography and Foreign Commerce. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: International Trade and Tariff Problems.
Thesis Subject: “The Glass Industry in the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Harley Leist Lutz.

General Examination in Economics, May 14, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Carver, Gay, MacDonald, and Sprague.
Academic History: Oberlin College, 1904-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; A. B. (Oberlin) 1907; A.M. (Harvard) 1908. Assistant (Oberlin), 1906-07; Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750, with especial reference to England. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and Financial History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “State Control over the Assessment of Property for Local Taxation.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

Joseph Stancliffe Davis.

General Examination in Economics, May 17, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Bullock, Ripley, Mitchell, and Dr. Tozzer.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1904-08; Harvard Graduate School, 1908-09; A. B. (Harvard) 1908; Assistant in Economics (Harvard) 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Progress. 4. Money, Banking, and Industrial Organization. 5. History of American Institutions, especially since 1783. 6. Anthropology, especially Ethnology.
Special Subject: Corporations (Industrial Organization).
Thesis Subject: “The Policy of New Jersey toward Business Corporations.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

James Ford.

Special Examination in Economics, May 19, 1909.
General Examination
passed May 16, 1906.
Committee: Professors Carver (chairman), Peabody, Ripley, Taussig, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-04; Harvard Graduate School, 1904-06, 1907-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Robert Treat Paine Travelling Fellow, 1906-07; Assistant, Social Ethics (Harvard), 1907-09.
Special Subject: Social Reform (Socialism, Communism, Anarchism).
Thesis Subject: “Distributive and Productive Coöperative Societies in New England.” (With Professor Carver.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Carver, Peabody, and Taussig.

 

Edmund Ezra Day.

Special Examination in Economics, May 20, 1909.
General Examination
passed May 23, 1907.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Ripley, Munro, and Mr. Parker.
Academic History: Dartmouth College, 1901-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-07, 1908-09; S.B. (Dartmouth) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Instructor in Economics, Dartmouth College, 1907-.
Special Subject: Public Finance and Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The History of the General Property Tax in Massachusetts.” (With Professor Bullock.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Taussig, and Ripley.

 

Clyde Orval Ruggles.

General Examination in Economics, May 20, 1909.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Carver, Taussig, Gay, and MacDonald.
Academic History: Hedrick Normal School, 1895-96; Iowa State Normal School and Teachers’ College of Iowa, 1901-06; State University of Iowa, 1906-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; A. B. (Teachers’ College) 1906; A.M. (State Univ.) 1907.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology and Social Reform. 3. Statistics. 4. Economic History to 1750, with especial reference to England. 5. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Money and Banking.
Thesis Subject: “The Greenback Movement with especial Reference to Wisconsin and Iowa.” (With Professors Andrew and Mitchell.)

 

Edmund Thornton Miller.

Special Examination in Economics, May 21, 1909.
General Examination
passed January 7, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Taussig, and Mitchell.
(See first item for Academic History etc.)

 

Emil Sauer.

General Examination in Economics, May 21, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, Mitchell, Munro, and Ripley.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1900-03, 1904-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; Litt.B. (University of Texas) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1908.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Statistics. 4. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 5. Transportation and Industrial Organization. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 and the Relations between the United States and Hawaii, 1875-1900.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Charles Edward Persons.

Special Examination in Economics, May 24, 1909.
General Examination
passed February 25, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Peabody, Bullock, Ripley, and Sprague.
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Bullock, and Ripley.
(See second item for Academic History etc.)

 

Carl William Thompson.

General Examination in Economics, June 2, 1909.
Committee: Professors Carver (chairman), Taussig, Sprague, Ripley, Cole, and MacDonald.
Academic History: Valparaiso College, 1899-1901; University of South Dakota, 1902-03; Harvard Graduate School, 1903-04; A.B. (Valparaiso) 1901; B.O. (ibid) 1901; A.B. (South Dakota) 1903; A.M. (ibid.) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1904. Professor of Economics and Sociology, University of South Dakota.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology and Social Reform. 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 4. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization.. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: (undecided).
Thesis Subject: (undecided.)

 

Arthur Norman Holcombe.

Special Examination in Economics, June 7, 1909.
General Examination
passed April 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Ripley, Bullock, Cole, and Munro.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1906; Assistant in Economics (Harvard), 1906-07; Rogers Travelling Fellow, 1907-09
Special Subject: Public Service Industries.
Thesis Subject: ”The Telephone Situation.” (with Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Ripley, and Munro.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D. 1908-09”.

Image Source:  Harvard Gate, ca. 1899. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard Stanford

Columbia Ph.D. alumnus. Two images of Kenneth Arrow.

 

Many economists are sharing their personal memories of Kenneth Arrow. Today I’ll just share the photo heading this post that I took on August 22, 2011, one day before his 90th birthday. Taking a break from working in the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford, I visited Kenneth Arrow in his office to interview him about his own graduate education and memories of Columbia University. 

Those same intense eyes can be seen in his 1936 high-school yearbook photo (Townsend Harris High School in Flushing, NY).

Categories
Harvard Statistics Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus for Undergraduate Course, Economic Statistics. Frickey, 1940-41

 

In the last post we saw the final exam for the course taught by Edwin Frickey on Economic Statistics at Harvard during the first term of the 1938-39 year. The earliest syllabus for this course that I have been able to  find comes from the collection of course outlines at the Harvard Archives. The syllabus was unchanged (except updating for the current academic year) from 1940-41 through 1946-47.

_____________________________

 

Course Listing

Economics 21a 1hf. Introduction to Economic Statistics

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Associate Professor Frickey.

Two hours a week laboratory work are required.

 

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1940-41. (First edition). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII, No. 31 (May 21, 1940), p. 56.

_____________________________

 

Course Enrollment

Economics 21a 1hf. Associate Professor Frickey.—Introduction to Economic Statistics

Total 92: 10 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 31 Sophomores, 5 Others.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments, 1940-41, p. 58.

_____________________________

 

Economics 21a
1940-41

References:

C.P.T.—Crum, Patton and Tebutt, Economic Statistics;
N.P.—mimeographed Notes and Problems

 

  1. Introduction to Course

Outline of course. Relation of statistics to economics. Elementary concepts. Introductory problem, designed to get students familiar with sources and the nature of statistical analysis in economics.

C.P.T., Ch. I

  1. The Description of a Statistical Series by Charts, Tables, and Statistical Measures

The description of a statistical series by these various devices; the condensing of information. Principles of table and chart construction, illustrated by laboratory work. The description of a statistical series by statistical measures, developed by means of an example—the study of profits and certain economic problems connected therewith. Averages, dispersion, skewness: the criterion for choice of statistical measures; technique of computation; basis for critical judgment.

C.P.T., Chs. V to IX, XI, XII, XIV.
N.P., pp. 81-90, 111-119, 131-132, 161-167.

  1. Index Numbers

Use of index numbers in economics. Basic concepts. Points of view as to the nature of an index number. The simpler methods of computation—weighted aggregate, arithmetic mean of relatives, geometric mean of relatives—and the assumptions behind them. The Fisher formula: advantages and limitations. Various aspects of the problem of weighting. Non-technical discussion of topic of “bias,” indicating its practical importance.

C.P.T., Chs. XVIII, XIX.
N.P., pp. 201-233.
Bulletin No. 284, U.S.B.L.S. (Wesley C. Mitchell on Price Index Numbers), first half of pamphlet.

  1. Time Series

Use of index numbers in economics. Basic concepts. Points of view as to the nature of an index number. The simpler methods of computation—weighted aggregate, arithmetic mean of relatives, geometric mean of relatives—and the assumptions behind them. The Fisher formula: advantages and limitations. Various aspects of the problem of weighting. Non-technical discussion of topic of “bias,” indicating its practical importance.

C.P.T., Chs. VIII, XX to XXIII.
N.P., pp. 300-311, 338-345, 381-388.
Frickey, “The Problem of Secular Trends,” Review of Economic Statistics, September 1934.

  1. Correlation: the Study of Relationships

Use of statistical correlation procedure in economic problems. Basic concepts. Linear versus non-linear correlations. The three fundamental aspects: description, sampling inference, causation. The questions which correlation analysis attempts to answer. The correlation coefficient and related measures: step-by-step development of the logic of the various modes of explanation. The drawing of inferences from the results of a correlation study pertaining, explicitly or implicitly, to a sample. The relation of correlation to causation. Cautions regarding the calculation and interpretation of correlation measures.

C.P.T., Chs. XV, XVI.
N.P., pp. 401-437.
Day, Statistical Analysis, Chs. XII, XIII.
Mills, Statistical Methods, pp. 370-374 and Ch. XI.

  1. Sampling

The various sampling methods used in economics; their advantages and limitations. The precise significance of random sampling and “probable errors.”.

C.P.T., Chs. XIII.

  1. Basic Statistical Data

Statistical Sources. The collection of statistical data. The problem of obtaining homogeneity. The possibilities for misuse of statistical data—illustrated by problems.

C.P.T., Chs. II to V.
Mills, Statistical Methods, Ch. I.
Chaddock, Principles and Methods of Statistics, Chs. I to III.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives, Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1940-41”.

Image Source: From the cover of Harvard Class Album 1946.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Undergraduate Introduction to Economic Statistics. Final Exam, 1939

 

The exam questions seen below, even making an allowance for coming from an undergraduate course (nonetheless 13 of the 87 students were graduate students), indicate that the statistical training of economists at Harvard was a fairly low-grade affair even by the late 1930s, only a mechanical manipulation of different measures of central tendency and dispersion with a dash of trend-fitting and seasonal adjustment for good taste.

_____________________________

Course Listing

Economics 21a 1hf. Introduction to Economic Statistics

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Associate Professor Frickey.

 

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1938-39. (Second edition). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXV, No. 42 (September 23, 1938), p. 147.

_____________________________

Course Enrollment

 

Economics 21a 1hf. Associate Professor Frickey.—Introduction to Economic Statistics

Total 87: 13 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen, 3 Others.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments, 1938-39, p. 98.

_____________________________

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 21a1

Part I

(One hour and thirty minutes.)
Answer any THREE questions.

    1. You are faced with the problem of computing an index of physical production of agricultural products for the years 1910 through 1935.
      1. What significant differences would you expect to find between the results of indexes computed as the weighted geometric mean of relatives and as the weighted arithmetic mean of relatives? Which average would you choose, and why?
      2. What difference would you expect to find among indexes computed respectively on the bases 1910, 1926, and 1935? Would you choose one of these three base periods, or some other base period?
      3. What sort of system of weights would you employ? Why?
    2. During a given interval in 1936, the wages paid to individual laborers in two New England cloth mills were recorded. A frequency table of wages paid was drawn up for each mill, and from the frequency tables, the following characteristics were computed.
Mean Wage Median Wage Standard Deviation of Individual Wages
Company A $25 $25 8.367
Company B $25 $16 23.875
    1. Inferring from the above data, describe the general nature of the frequency distribution of wages for each firm, and compare the wage conditions in the two firms.
    2. What “typical average” would you choose for the distribution of Company A? For that of Company B?
  1. The monthly ordinates of trend found by fitting a linear or curvilinear trend line to a time series of price data would be held by some to represent “long-run normal prices”—that is, the values which the price data would have assumed in the absence of short run cyclical disturbances. Others would maintain that these same trend ordinates are merely the outcome of the particular trend—fitting procedures applied by the statisticians, and therefore reflect only his arbitrary definition of what constitutes “trend” and what constitutes “cycle” in the price series. Evaluate the relative merits of these two points of view toward statistical trend lines, and state your own viewpoint.
  2. In an investigation conducted to ascertain the correlation existing between the value of the assets of firms and the amount of their annual net earnings, the following results were among those obtained. For the specialty store field, the line of regression of annual earnings on asset values gave a “standard error of estimate” of $1000. For the service station field, a similar line of regression of annual earnings on asset values showed a “standard error of estimate” of $500.
    Can we conclude from this that the correlation between earnings and assets is twice as great for service stations as for specialty stores? Why or why not? What additional data would you require in order to ascertain the actual correlation in each case and thereby clinch your argument?

 

PART II

(One hour and thirty minutes.)
Answer question 1, and either 2 or 3.

    1. (Approximately one hour.) The following is a segment of a time series for which certain statistical values have already been computed.
1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter 4th quarter
1924 21 27 34 40
1925 32 36 28 30
1926 35 37 31 35
1927 36 41 35 39

The central ordinate of trend (a), and the annual increment of trend (b), based on annual averages of quarterly data for a longer period, have been found to be as follows: a = 35; b = 4. The center of the trend period for which these quantities were computed falls at the middle of the year 1924.
The median link relatives, showing typical quarter to quarter change for a longer period, have been found to be:

1st q ÷ 4th q = 110
2nd q ÷ 1st q = 105
3rd q ÷ 2nd q = 85
4th q ÷ 3rd q = 112

Given the preceding data, compute for the period 1924 through 1927 the following:

    1. The quarterly ordinates of trend
    2. The relatives of actual items to the trend.
    3. The seasonally adjusted relatives to trend, to the base 100. (This last step will require also the computation of a seasonal index by the Persons method.)
  1. For the following frequency series, compute the quartile deviation, the coefficient of variation, and determine a good empirical mode. (Show your computations, but do not compute any square roots.)
Wages (dollars per week) No. of Men
0—5 22
5—10 29
10—15 18
15—20 12
20—25 9
25—30 5
30—35 3
35—40 2

 

  1. (a) From the data below compute a price index for 1933 on 1932 as a base, using the Fisher formula.
Commodity Unit Price per unit Physical quantity
1932 1933 1932 1933
A bu. $0.50 $0.60 60 50
B lb. $3.00 $3.30 22 20
C bu. $0.30 $0.24 240 200

(b) If the Fisher formula price index for 1934 on 1933 as a base is 110, and for 1935 on 1934 as a base is 90, construct from the index which you have computed and from the results just given an index for the four years 1932-1935 by which each year is related to a common base.

 

Mid-Year. 1939.

 

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Dust Proof File”.

Image Source: Harvard Album 1947.

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard

Harvard and Columbia. The Role of University Presidents in the US. Economist, 1909.

 

 

Today’s post provides a glimpse of the major American universities as seen by the eyes of an Englishman (presumably F. W. H. was both English and a man). While the article highlights the role played by the university presidents, there are other differences noted, e.g. “all-pervading atmosphere of work” observed in the Harvard Law School and the “much greater popularity of politics and political economy”.

For fun I have appended the short-story referred to in the Economist article: “What the College Incubator Did for One Modest Lambkin.” It provides some nice examples of early 20th century American vernacular. Does anyone out there know what the “Harvard walk” looks like?

 

_______________

AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS.—THE UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR PRESIDENTS.

            Although my primary object in visiting America was to get some insight into the commercial and financial system, and to inform myself about the prevalent notions of commercial policy and monetary reform, it was desirable and even indispensable for the objects I had in view to see as much as possible of University men. If the average American university is less powerful than either Oxford or Cambridge as a medium for colouring society, it is perhaps for that reason a stronger element in the national life. The rather exclusive caste with its innumerable degrees that files out of Oxford and Cambridge is but faintly reproduced in the American system by Harvard and Yale, whose mannerisms are sometimes imitated by the youthful universities of the West, and often caricatured by the American humorist. No one who has read it could easily forget George Ade’s description of the grey-haired agriculturist of the Middle West who took his son to a cheap provincial university in the hope that he would “soak up all the knowledge in the market,” and qualify for an inspectorship of schools [George Ade, Breaking into Society (New York: Harper & Brothers,1904), pp. 21-30.]. When the first vacation came, the old man discovered with horror that his young scholar had only acquired the Harvard walk, a passion for athletics, and the habit of large expenditure upon dress. As a matter of fact, universities like Harvard, Yale, Colombia [sic], Cornell, the John Hopkins at Baltimore, and Jefferson’s University of Virginia, have a very high average standard of work. Diligence, as Mr Bryce puts it, is the tradition of the American colleges, partly because “in all but a few universities the vast majority of the students come from simple homes, possess scanty means, and have their way in life to make.” Even at Harvard, with all its rich endowments, its old traditions, and its association with Boston as the home of American men of letters, there is far less of the dilettantism and indifference to the practical business of life than is to be found in the extravagant sets at our fashionable colleges. But this may be partly due to the absence of the college system—a system which has its advantages as well as its defects.

When Professor Lawrence Lowell, who has just been unanimously elected president of Harvard, took me over the law school, I was immensely impressed by the all-pervading atmosphere of work. The ample libraries were filled not only with books, but with students, all engrossed in study, and each apparently convinced that he had not a moment to lose in the race after knowledge. But then, the Harvard law school is justly famous as the largest and best in the English-speaking world. The connection of law with business and of the universities with law is much more close and more real in the states than at home; the chief reason, I think, being the diversity of State legislation upon which all the corporations depend, and the consequent impossibility of carrying on the business of large concerns without constant advice from lawyers. The reliance of business men upon lawyers brings legal firms into far more intimate relations with business conditions than is the case in our own country. Moreover, as there is no distinction between barrister and solicitor, the eminent pleaders and jurists of the United States are not secluded and screened by an intermediate profession from real contact with their real client.

Another evidence of what may be called the actuality of academic life in America is the much greater popularity of politics and political economy. At Harvard, for example, Professor Lowell’s lectures on politics and Professor Taussig’s lectures on economics are regularly attended by three or four hundred students. The large universities have quite a number of economic lecturers, who often specialize on live subjects, such as railways, banking, or industrial corporations. Thus the students are constantly reminded of the various lines of business into which they can enter in order to earn a living after they have taken their degrees.

Lastly, the American university, while it resembles the Scottish or the German more than the English in many respects, differs from all European institutions in the singular importance that it attaches to the office of president. In the words of Mr Bryce, the position is one of honour and influence: “No university dignitaries in Great Britain are so well known to the public, or have their opinions quoted with so much respect, as the heads of the seven or eight leading universities in the United States.” President Eliot, of Harvard, for example, who has just resigned after a long and brilliant career, and Professor Butler, of Colombia[sic], who is still in the prime of life, are two of the most popular orators in the best sense of the word—one should perhaps say popular instructors—in the United States. Most of the presidents of universities are excellent business men, skilled in the arts of advertising their institution, and of attracting students and endowments. When they happen also to be gifted and erudite, their moral and intellectual influence over public opinion is naturally enormous. I was only when I began to realize all this that I could quite understand why the people one met in Boston and New York were often more excited about the presidential election for Harvard than about the Presidential election for the United States. It is probably not generally known that the president-elect, Professor Lowell, whose recently published work on our Constitution is already a classic, has been a successful director of large cotton mills, and is the sole manager of the Lowell Trust. A scholar and a business man with an aptitude for public speaking and liberal views of education should prove an ideal president for Harvard.

F. W. H.

Source: The Economist, January 16, 1909, pp. 105-6.

Image Source:  Abbott Lawrence Lowell, photographic portrait (1904) in Harvard University Archives Photograph Collection: Portraits; The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, the new President of Columbia University, New York.

 

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What the College Incubator Did for One Modest Lambkin.

from George Ade, Breaking into Society (New York: Harper & Brothers,1904), pp. 21-30.

ONE Autumn Afternoon a gray-haired Agriculturist took his youngest Olive Branch by the Hand and led him away to a Varsity. Wilbur was 18 and an Onion. He had outgrown his last year’s Tunic, and his Smalls were hardly on speaking terms with his Uppers. He had large, warty Hands, which floated idly at his sides, and his Wrists resembled extra Sets of Knuckles. When he walked, his Legs gave way at the Hinge and he Interfered. On his Head was a little Wideawake with a Buckle at the Side. Mother had bobbed his Hair and rubbed in a little Goose-Grease to make it shine. The Collar that he wore was size 13, and called the Rollo Shape. It rose to a Height of a half-inch above his Neck-Band. For a Cravat he had a Piece of watered Silk Ribbon with Butterflies on it.

Wilbur had his Money tied up in a Handkerchief, and he carried a Paper Telescope loaded down with one Complete Change and a Catalogue of the Institution showing that the Necessary Expenses were not more than $3.40 per Week.

As the Train pulled away from Pewee Junction Wilbur began to Leak. The Salt Tears trickled down through the Archipelago of Freckles. He wanted to Crawfish, but Paw bought him a Box of Crackerjack and told him that if he got an Education and improved his Opportunities some day he might be County Superintendent of Schools and get his $900 a Year just like finding it. So Wilbur spunked up and said he would try to stick it out. He got out the Catalogue and read all of the copper-riveted Rules for the Moral Guidance of Students.

The Curriculum had him scared. He saw that in the next four Years he would have to soak up practically all the Knowledge on the Market. But he was cheered to think that if he persevered and got through he would be entitled to wear an Alpaca Coat and a Lawn Tie and teach in the High-School, so he took Courage and began to notice the Scenery.

Wilbur was planted in a Boarding-House guaranteed to provide Wholesome Food and a Home Influence. Father went back after making a final Discourse on the importance of learning most everything in all of the Books.

Nine Months later they were down at the Depot to meet Wilbur. He had written several times, saying that he could not find time to come Home, as he was in pursuit of Knowledge every Minute of the Day, and if he left the Track, Knowledge might gain several Laps on him. It looked reasonable, too, for the future Superintendent of Schools had spent $400 for Books, $200 for Scientific Apparatus, and something like $60 for Chemicals to be used in the Laboratory.

When the Train suddenly checked itself, to avoid running past the Town, there came out of the Parlor Car something that looked like Fitz, on account of the Padding in the Shoulders. Just above one Ear he wore a dinky Cap about the size of a Postage Stamp. The Coat reached almost to the Hips and was buttoned below. The Trousers had enough material for a suit. They were reefed to show feverish Socks of a zigzag Pattern. The Shoes were very Bull-Doggy, and each had a wide Terrace running around it. Father held on to a Truck for Support. Never before had he seen a genuine Case of the inflammatory Rah-Rahs.

Wilbur was smoking a dizzy little Pipe from which the Smoke curled upward, losing itself in a copious Forelock that moved gently in the Breeze. Instead of a Collar, Wilbur was wearing a Turkish Towel. He had the Harvard Walk down pat. With both Hands in his Pockets, the one who had been pursuing Knowledge teetered towards the Author of his Being and said, ” How are you, Governor?”

Father was always a Lightning Calculator, and as he stood there trying to grasp and comprehend and mentally close in, as it were, on the Burlap Suit and the Coon Shirt and the sassy Pipe, something told him that Wilbur would have to Switch if he expected to be County Superintendent of Schools,

“Here are my Checks,” said Wilbur, handing over the Brasses.” Have my Trunks, my Golf Clubs, my portable Punching-Bag, the Suit-Case and Hat-Boxes sent up to the House right away. Then drive me Home by the Outside Road, because I don’t want to meet all these Yaps. They annoy me.”

“You’d better git out of that Rig mighty quick if you don’t want to be Joshed,” said his Parent. “Folks around here won’t stand for any such fool Regalia, and if you walk like a frozen-toed Hen you’ll get some Hot Shots or I miss my Calkilations.”

“Say, Popsy, I’ve been eating Raw Meat and drinking Blood at the Training-Table, and I’m on Edge,” said Wilbur, expanding his Chest until it bulged out like a Thornton Squash.” If any of these local Georgie Glues try to shoot their Pink Conversation at me I’ll toss them up into the Trees and let them hang there. I’m the Gazabe that Puts the Shot. Any one who can trim a Policeman and chuck a Hackman right back into his own Hack and drive off with him doesn’t ask for any sweeter Tapioca than one of these Gaffer Greens. The Ploughboy who is muscle- bound and full of Pastry will have a Proud Chance any time that he struts across my Pathway. In my Trunks I have eight suits a little warmer than this one and 47 pairs of passionate Hose. I’m out here to give the Cornfields a Touch of High Life. It’s about time that your Chaws had a Glimpse of the Great Outside World. Any one who gets Fussy about the Color-Combinations that I spring from Day to Day will be chopped up and served for Lunch. To begin with, I’m going to teach you and Mother to play Golf. If these Mutts come and lean over the Fence and start to get off their Colored- Weekly Jokes we’ll fan the Hill-side with them.”

“What do they teach up at your School — besides Murder?” inquired Father. ” I thought you wanted to be County Superintendent of Schools.”

“I’ve outgrown all those two-by-four Ambitions,” was the Reply. “I’m going to be on the Eleven next Fall. What more could you ask?”

That very week Wilbur organized a Ball Team that walloped Hickory Crick, Sand Ridge, and Sozzinsville. He had the whole Township with him. Every Cub at Pewee Junction began to wear a Turkish Towel for a Collar and practise the Harvard Walk.

MORAL : A Boy never blossoms into his full Possibilities until he strikes an Atmosphere of Culture.

Categories
Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Five Economics Ph.D. examinees, 1907-08

 

This posting lists the five graduate students in economics who took their subject examinations for the Ph.D. at Harvard from March 12 through May 21, 1908. 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, 1905-061915-16, 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.

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

1907-08

Walter Wallace McLaren.

Special Examination in Economics, Thursday, March 12, 1908.
General Examination
passed April 10, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), McLean (University of Toronto), Gay, Bullock and Munro.
Academic History: Queen’s University (Canada), 1894-99; Queen’s University Theological College, 1899-1902; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-08; A.M. (Queen’s Univ.) 1899; B:D. (ibid) 1902.
Special Subject: Canadian Economic History.
Thesis Subject: “History of the Canadian Tariff.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Gay, Munro. 

Edmund Thornton Miller.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 6, 1908.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Hart, Ripley, Gay, and Andrew.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-03, 1907-08; A.B. (University of Texas) 1900; A.M. (ibid) 1901; A.M. (Harvard) 1903.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Money, Banking and Transportation. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and the Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The Financial History of Texas.” (With Professor Bullock.)

Melvin Thomas Copeland.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 13, 1908.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Taussig, Carver, Hart, Ripley, and Andrew.
Academic History: Bowdoin College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-08; A.B. (Bowdoin) 1906; A.M. (Harvard) 1907.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Statistics. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “Cotton Manufacturing in the United States since 1860.” (With Professor Taussig.)

Frank Richardson Mason.

Special Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 14, 1908.
General Examination
passed May 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, Bullock and Andrew.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-07; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Silk Industry in America..” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Carver, and Gay.

Robert Franz Foerster.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 21, 1908.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Royce, Carver, Ripley, Gay, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-05; University of Berlin, 1905-06; A.B. (Harvard) 1906.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Statistics. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization. 6. Philosophy.
Special Subject: Labor Problems.
Thesis Subject: “Emigration from Italy, with special reference to the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1907-1908”.

Image Source: Memorial Hall, ca. 1900. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.