Category: Harvard

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Courses Curriculum Harvard

Harvard. Mathematical Economics, 1933-37

In the Spring of 1933 Joseph Schumpeter got the ball rolling for a project to introduce an introductory course in mathematical economics at Harvard. I include here first a memo from statistics professor W. L. Crum to the economics department chair, Professor H. H. Burbank. This is followed by the subsequent proposal signed by six professors (Burbank, Chamberlin, Crum, Mason, Schumpeter and Taussig), presumably sent to some university level curriculum approval committee. From the enrollment records included below we see that 23 people attended that class in the first term of 1933-34. Starting the following academic year the course was taught by Leontief and a new course “primarily for Graduates”, “Mathematical Economics”, was introduced by Professor E. B. Wilson. Course descriptions and enrollments through 1936-37 are included in this posting. Here is an interesting 1936 letter from E. B. Wilson to Columbia’s W. C. Mitchell about what Schumpeter has wrought with economics in the curriculum.

An update with additional material for this course has been included in a later post.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

__________________________________

 

Memorandum for Professor Burbank

4 April 1933

  1. I discussed, at his request, the mathematical economics project with Professor Schumpeter last Friday. I will give further consideration to his suggestions, and to the conversations I have had with you on the same subject; and then I will write out, for discussion with you, an outline of my thoughts on the matter.
  1. In the meantime, I am making a specific suggestion with reference to one of the points you raised earlier. You indicated that it might be desirable for those officers interested in mathematical economics to get together as a group and discuss prospects. As things are developing rapidly it seems to me that such a committee (perhaps informal) could well be set up promptly. I hope you will feel that you can meet with the group and act as its chairman. If you cannot, I suggest Professor Schumpeter be asked to head the group. I suggest that its members include also: Professor Black (I think it very desirable that he be brought in early), Professor Wilson, and me. I think it well that this original group be empowered to add shortly the following: Professor Frickey, Dr. Leontief, and Professor Chamberlin (or one of the other interested younger men).

[Signed]
WLC

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers, 1902-1950. (UAV.349.10) Box 23, Folder “Course Administration: 1932-37-40”.

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Tentative Proposals for a Course on the Elements of Mathematical Economics to be Given during the Winter Term

The advanced student who is interested in the mathematical aspects of our subject has had in most cases some mathematical training and can be taken care of individually. But something should be done to acquaint a wider circle of less advanced students, or even of beginners, with those fundamental concepts of mathematics which are necessary to understand, say, Marshall’s Appendix and the more important and more accessible parts of the literature of mathematical economics, such as the works of Cournot, Walras, Edgeworth, and a few others. Since the necessary minimum of mathematics can be procured with little expenditure of time and energy, the experiment is proposed of importing this modicum of information to such graduate and undergraduate students as may wish to have it–subject to the approval of tutors in the case of undergraduates.

A half-course two hours a week would meet the case. Since any teaching of mathematics must work with examples if it is to convey any meaning, these examples will be drawn from economic problems. The course, therefore, should not be simply one on “mathematics for economists” but rather on “mathematical theory of economics.” Discussion will cover a number of simple and fundamental problems of economic theory, the mathematical concepts being explained as they present themselves. In the first term the whole venture will be frankly experimental. Coöperation and critique from all members of the economic staff is cordially invited. The final shape of this addition to our offering should, through common effort, be evolved during the next term. The following list is suggested of mathematics subjects with which it is proposed to deal in which seem to be both necessary and sufficient. The economic problems from which, and in connection with which, these mathematical topics are to be developed are merely the time-honored problems of marginal analysis.

(1) The fundamental concepts of analytic geometry, coordinates, transformations, equations of straight-line and curves, tangents, and so forth.

(2) Some fundamental notions of algebra, the theory of equations, forms, matrices, determinants, vectors, and vectorial operations.

(3) The concept of the integral and some of its applications, definite integrals, multiple integrals, and multiple integrals in polar coordinates.

(4) Functions and limits, differential coefficients, the elementary differential operations, maxima and minima, partial differentiations, developments, Taylor series.

(5) Simplest elements of the theory of differential equations. Functional equations and here and there some simple and useful tools from other mathematical fields as occasions may arise.

The course should be open to all who are interested, and participation of those wishing to follow it as auditors will be welcomed. It is highly desirable that as many tutors as possible should be present at the sessions of the first experimental term in order to contribute their advice, so that in the future the course may embody those topics and methods of present presentation which are found to be useful.

 

April 1933

H. H. Burbank
E. H. Chamberlin
W. L. Crum
E. S. Mason
J. A. Schumpeter
F. W. Taussig

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers, 1902-1950. (UAV.349.10) Box 23, Folder “Course offerings 1926-1937”.

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1933-1934

[Courses offered]

Economics 8a 1hf. Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory

Half-course (first half-year). Mon. 4 to 6, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Schumpeter, and other members of the Department.

Economics 8a is open to those who have passed Economics A and Mathematics A, or its equivalent. The aim of this course is to acquaint such students as may wish it with the elements of the mathematical technique necessary to understand the simpler contributions to the mathematical theory of Economics.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1933-34, 2n ed., p. 126.

 

[Course Enrollment]

[Economics] 8a 1hf. Professor Schumpeter and other members of the Department. — Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory.

15 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 5 Instructors. Total 23.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1933-1934, p. 85.

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1934-35

[Courses offered]

Economics 8a 1hf. Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory

Half-course (first half-year). Mon. 4 to 6, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Professor Schumpeter.

Economics A and Mathematics A, or their equivalents, are prerequisites for this course.

Economics 13b 2hf. Mathematical Economics

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., 3 to 4.30. Professor E. B. Wilson.

Arrangements for admission should be made with the Chairman of the Department
Omitted in 1935-36.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1934-35, 2n ed., p. 126-7.

 

[Course Enrollments]

[Economics] 8a 1hf. Professor Schumpeter. — Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory.

2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore. Total 4.

[Economics] 13b 2hf. Professor E. B. Wilson. — Mathematical Economics.

2 Graduates, 1 Junior, Total 3.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1934-1935, p. 81.

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1935-1936

[Course offered]

Economics 8a 2hf. Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory

Half-course (second half-year). Mon. 4 to 6. Assistant Professor Leontief.

Economics A and Mathematics A, or their equivalents, are prerequisites for this course.

 

[Economics 13b 2hf. Mathematical Economics]

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2. Professor E. B. Wilson.

Arrangements for admission should be made with the Chairman of the Department
Omitted in 1935-36.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1935-36, 2nd ed., p. 138-9.

 

[Course Enrollment]

[Economics] 8a 2hf. Professor Leontief. — Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory.

4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores. Total 6.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1935-1936, p. 82.

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1936-1937

[Courses offered]

Economics 4a 2hf. (formerly 8a) Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory

Half-course (second half-year). Mon. 4 to 6. Assistant Professor Leontief.

Economics A and Mathematics A, or their equivalents, are prerequisites for this course.

Economics 104b 2hf. (formerly 13b). Mathematical Economics

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2. Professor E. B. Wilson.

Arrangements for admission should be made with the Chairman of the Department

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1936-7, 2nd ed., p. 140, 142.

 

[Course Enrollments]

[Economics] 4a 2hf. Professor Leontief. — Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory.

1 Graduate, 2 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other. Total 9.

[Economics] 104b 2hf. (formerly 13b) Professor E. B. Wilson. — Mathematical Economics.

2 Graduates. Total 2.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1936-1937, pp. 92,93.

Image Source: Schumpeter, Leontief, Wilson from Harvard Album, 1934, 1939.

 

 

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Harvard

Harvard. James Ackley Maxwell, Ph.D., 1926

Earlier in Economics in the Rear-View Mirror I posted the Ph.D. examination announcements  for Lauchlin Currie and Harry Dexter White that took place in April 1927 at Harvard. The information in these printed announcements includes the academic history of the Ph.D. examinees as well as the listing of their subjects of examination, the members of their examination and thesis committees as well as the Ph.D. thesis title and principal advisor. This posting includes a transcription of the Ph.D. examination announcement for James A. Maxwell.

Tracking down the subsequent careers of alumni is sometimes surprisingly easy as it was for the following case of this public finance economist, a Clark University professor, who also turns out to have been a Canadian war hero and the father of a Hollywood actor according to a short article published in a New Glasgow (Nova Scotia) newspaper in 2014.

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James Ackley Maxwell.

Special Examination in Economics, Monday, October 25, 1926.

General Examination passed October 30, 1923.

Academic History: Dalhousie University, 1919-21; Harvard College, 1921-23; Harvard Graduate School, 1923-27. B.A., Dalhousie, 1921; A.M., Harvard, 1923. Assistant Professor of Economics, Clark University, 1925-.

General Subjects: 1. Money and Banking. 2. Economic Theory and its History. 3. Economic History to 1750. 4 Statistics. 5. History of Political Theory. 6. Public Finance.

Special Subject: Public Finance.

Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Burbank, A. H. Cole and Usher.

Thesis Subject: A Financial History of Nova Scotia, 1848-99. (With Professor Bullock.)

Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Burbank, and Usher.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives, Harvard University Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1926-1927”. Division of History, Government and Economics. Examinations for the Degree of Ph.D. 1926-1927, pp. 1-2.

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James Ackley Maxwell was born to parents William and Anna (Marshall) Maxwell on March 7, 1897. James’s early life began on Drummond Road in Westville [Nova Scotia], a stone’s throw from the Intercolonial Coal Mine, where his father worked as the general manager….

… In 1915, the 18-year-old Westville bank clerk signed up for the Great War. He was assigned to the 85th Infantry Battalion, Nova Scotia Highlanders. …James A. Maxwell …moved up the ranks very quickly and became a Lieutenant at the age of 21. Officer Maxwell would also earn the Distinguished Conduct Medal for an “extremely high act of bravery” at the Battle of Amiens. …

…After World War One he enrolled at Dalhousie University and graduated with honours in history, philosophy and economics. In 1921, James was accepted at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where he excelled at economics and graduated with a Ph.D. in 1927. James Maxwell was hired immediately by Clark University of Worcester, Mass., where he would spend the next 43 years teaching economics. He held several posts at this prestigious campus and in 1964, Dr. Maxwell was chosen “Clark Man of the Year” and awarded an honorary “doctorate of humane letters,” and also titled “Emeritus Professor of Economics at Clarke University.”

…He specialized in “Public Finance and Fiscal Policy.” In 1935 he served as adviser to the Royal Commission on Provincial Financial Relations in Ottawa. He was appointed to serve on the United States Office of Price Administration and the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. Dr. Maxwell was also asked to prepare a study of “Federal Grants and Business Cycles” for the National Bureau of Economic Research and the President of United States Council of Economic Advisers. He was also involved with the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. Advisory Committee on International Relations and the U.S. Bureau of Management and Budget. In 1962, Dr. Maxwell was invited to participate in the International Institute of Public Finance in Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr. Maxwell was also a visiting lecturer at Melbourne University and the National University, both in Australia and the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C. He was also a Fulbright professor and was awarded a “Social Science Research Fellowship and a Guggenheim Research Fellowship.

Dr. Maxwell’s publications and books  [include] … Tax Credits and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, … Financing State and Local Governments, Tax Credits and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, The Fiscal Impact on Federalism in the United States and Commonwealth State Financial Relations in Australia….

…[His son] James Ackley Maxwell Jr. became a famous American actor, theater director and writer. James Jr. acted and directed many live theatre plays well as in television and big screen movies such as; Dr. Who, The Avengers, The Saint, Far From the Madding Crowd and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich….

…Dr. James A. Maxwell retired in 1966 and lived out his life at Worcester, Mass., where he passed away in 1975.

Source: John Ashton, Past Times: Westville’s war hero economist in The News (New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada), August 24, 2014.

Image Source:  Cropped selection from ibid.

 

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Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Market Organization and Control. Special Examination, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in market organization and control given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

_____________________________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Market Organization and Control

(Three hours)

PART I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. public control of stock markets,
    2. significance of NRA for future public policy,
    3. the Federal Trade Commission—an appraisal,
    4. two-price plans for farm products,
    5. farm tenancy,
    6. cooperative marketing in agriculture,
    7. public planning for electricity in Great Britain and in the United States,
    8. the question of relief for the railroads,
    9. the concept of “natural monopoly”,
    10. the holding company in industry and in public utilities,
    11. rural electrification,
    12. legislative and administrative standards for government price control.

 

PART II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions. Candidates for honors must answer one starred question

  1. (*) What problems do you think especially need study in a “monopoly investigation”?
  2. (*) “With a basing point system competition in such crude matters as price and quality has been put aside, and all that seems to remain is a gentlemanly emulation in the art of making friends and influencing people.”
  3. Discuss the relations of vertical combination to efficiency and to monopoly.
  4. “Pure competition is not the path to economic progress in an industrial age.”
  5. (*) “Selection of a short-run agricultural program should depend on long-run objectives. If the eventual aim is to reduce farm capacity some type of domestic allotment scheme is appropriate for short-run policy; if the purpose is to maintain present capacity unchanged for two or three decades, then export subsidy is indicated for the short run.”
  6. (*) In the case where farm products are purchased by a few large buyers can the prices paid be kept permanently below the level that they would approximate if there were many small buyers? Explain.
  7. Would you agree with the view that the important public problems concerning agriculture are those of land use and conservation rather than those of prices, costs, and incomes?
  8. “the fact that during the twenties the farmers did not move on into some non-agricultural pursuit shows that the incomes that they received were sufficient to keep them on the farms. Hence there was no real overcapacity in agriculture.”
  9. (*) The elimination of excessive profits from utility operations is, in itself, no proof of successful rate regulation.”
  10. (*) What do you think should be the objectives of regulation of securities and financial practices of operating utility companies? What principles of financial regulation seem best fitted to achieve these aims?
  11. Discuss some of the important economic problems in the field of communications.
  12. “If the utility has a thousand transactions a day and its charge on each is but a reasonable compensation for the benefit received by the party dealing with it, such charges do not become unreasonable because the aggregate of the profits is large.”

 

PART III

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. “The manufacturers who reduce output to maintain high prices nevertheless understand that the soundest principles of economics have been violated when farmers are assisted by government to plough under cotton and slaughter little pigs. These same farmers, however, will in the same breath denounce the railroads and utilities for not expanding production by reducing rates.”
  2. “Sizes of firms have nothing to do with the degree of price flexibility in a market. That depends fundamentally on conditions of demand and of costs.”
  3. How may prices of farm products and location of agricultural production be affected by freight rates?
  4. “Where a large proportion of the costs are fixed, competition is likely to be a poor regulator of industry. It seems highly probable that some industries escaped a situation somewhat analogous to that of farming because of monopolistic elements in competition.”
  5. Do you agree with the view that price discrimination is desirable in public utilities but undesirable in other industries? Explain.
  6. “A reduction in corporate taxes would be the most effective antitrust measure to get lower prices.”
  7. Do you think that total employment and total consumption of goods and services in the country as a whole can be influenced appreciably by (a) the policies of public utility managements and of regulatory commissions, or (b) the policies of farmers and of the Secretary of Agriculture?
  8. “The organization and mechanism of the socialist economy is almost identical with that of monopolistic corporate capitalism. It is the results which would differ.”
  9. “In the future the policies of labor unions will have more influence on industrial prices than the policies of business executives.”

 

May 10, 1939.

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Money and Government Finance. Division Exam, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in money and finance given at Harvard in May 1939. Note that by finance, government finance/fiscal policy was understood.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

_____________________________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Money and Finance

(Three hours)

PART I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. the depression of 1937-1938,
    2. the Federal Reserve System since the War,
    3. currency depreciation,
    4. price levels and foreign exchange under inflation,
    5. the recent and current policies of Germany with respect to foreign exchange and foreign trade, and their effects on the world economy,
    6. international short-term balances,
    7. the ability-to-pay theory of taxation,
    8. the burden of the public debt,
    9. taxes and subsidies as means to increase the national income,
    10. financing social security,
    11. taxation and the business cycle,
    12. the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury.

 

PART II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions. Candidates for honors must answer one starred question

  1. (*) According to a recent proposal, new money (supplementary to our present currency) would be freely issued at a fixed price against the delivery of a stated composite of storable raw materials and redeemable at any time in the same commodity composite. Discuss the possibilities of this scheme as a means of mitigating the business cycle.
  2. (*) Explain (a) the factors that determine the current level of total consumption and investment in a community in a given period, and (b) the possible effects of the current on the future level of consumption and investment.
  3. “Inflation means that artificial purchasing power, which represents no goods and services available for exchange, is enabled to bid for goods and services.”
  4. Discuss the importance and the principles of proper control of the quality of bank credit.
  5. (*) “When a country is off the gold standard, its government and central bank have the power to control the exchange rate and prevent external events from causing domestic deflation and unemployment. And in this case even if the government and the bank are not conscious of this power and have no conscious policy, their actual behavior will precisely determine the exchange rate, and the output and income of the country.” Discuss.
  6. (*) Can the general conclusions of the classical theory of international trade be supported if the theory of comparative labor costs is replaced by a type of analysis consistent with the ideas about costs and values now accepted in general economic theory? Explain.
  7. “In practical world politics, the difference between the South Manchurian Railway Company and the Japanese Government, or between the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the British Government, is the difference between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.”
  8. Outline and explain the principal changes that have occurred in the balance of payments of the United States in the last two decades.
  9. (*) Are there any satisfactory criteria to distinguish between “productive” and “unproductive” government expenditure?
  10. (*) How may expenditure by government of funds obtained through taxes affect the incidence of the taxes?
  11. “All taxes tend to depress wages or increase prices and to lower the standard of living.”
  12. “Equity in taxation is an elusive mistress, whom perhaps it is only worth the while of philosophers to pursue ardently and of politicians to watch warily.”

 

PART III

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. “The budget should be balanced by issue of gold certificates. The government owns the gold and it has every right to use it to pay its debts.”
  2. “Keynes’s economic system is a reversion to the economic doctrines of mercantilism.”
  3. Compare the probably effectiveness of banking reform and tax reform as methods of preventing harmful inequalities of income.
  4. “The ‘abstinence’ for which investors are presumed to be rewarded under our system of private capitalism has too often become total and permanent abstinence, because our commercial bankers have departed from their proper functions and become mortgage bankers or bond salesmen, or even croupiers for the gambling games carried on in stock exchanges.”
  5. Do you think that the financing of a large governmental deficit by the banking system makes it difficult for private investment to expand enough to provide full employment?
  6. “The true meaning of laissez-faire, as the Classical economists well understood, is positive action by government in the spheres of money, public finance, and foreign trade to provide a framework within which free enterprise can function to bring desirable results.”
  7. “Free competition is essential to the proper functioning of capitalism and the necessity for competition in the banking business is perhaps the primary requisite in this respect.”
  8. Do you think that the foreign markets for this country’s surplus farm products are being seriously jeopardized by the present administration’s agricultural policies? Explain.
  9. “Public finance, above all, must ‘change with the times’, for the failure to adapt public finance to changing social pressures has always been a potent cause of revolution.”

 

May 10, 1939.

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Economic History since 1750. Division Examination, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in economic history since 1750 given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

_____________________________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

________________________

 

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Economic History since 1750

(Three hours)

PART I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. the effects of technological change upon economic and political change in the period 1750-1850 or 1850-1940,
    2. Ricardo’s influence on the policies and economic development of England,
    3. labor and politics during the last fifty years in France, or Great Britain,
    4. Bismarck’s policies and their effects on Germany’s economic development,
    5. causes and effects of the growth of restrictions on international trade in the last half-century,
    6. the corporation in America prior to 1850,
    7. prosperity-depression cycles in agriculture and in industry—comparative chronology and characteristics in any fifty-year period,
    8. the development of banking during the nineteenth century in the United States, France, or Germany,
    9. the influence of the railroads on the American economy, 1840-1900.

 

PART II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. How do you explain the world-wide fall of the price level in the latter part of the nineteenth century?
  2. To what extent have the causes of “economic imperialism” in modern history been economic causes?
  3. Sketch the principal favorable and unfavorable effects of the rise and spread of the factory system on the welfare of “the toiling masses.”
  4. Explain the principal economic consequences for Germany of the last world war and the Versailles Treaty.
  5. Outline the systems of land tenure in England and France in the nineteenth century and their effects on the development of agriculture in those countries.
  6. Has the Industrial Revolution ended? If so, when did it end?
  7. Explain the monetary events and theories of England’s “restriction period,” and their effects on later English legislation and monetary policy.
  8. Discuss the development of one of the following industries in Europe between 1870 and 1914 and its effects on European economic history: electricity, oil, chemicals.
  9. Discuss the economic causes and effects of the high rate of population growth that characterized the nineteenth century.
  10. “In the farm problem of the twentieth century the United States government is reaping both what it sowed and what it did not sow in its land policy of the preceding century.”
  11. What were the principal economic activities in the different sections of this country at that time and the changes in it during the next half-century.
  12. What part did economic factors play in causing the Civil War in the United States?
  13. Is there any good evidence that monopoly elements in the American economy increased between 1850 and 1910?

PART III

(About one hour)

Discuss two of the following questions.

  1. “The failure of the royal government of France to balance its budget brought on the French Revolution. In the light of that experience, it is folly to think that American democracy in our time can save itself by deficit financing to provide employment.”
  2. “The great errors of economic policy in the nineteenth century were excessive political interference with relative prices and disastrous neglect of the positive responsibilities of government under a free enterprise system.”
  3. “Economic history demonstrates that tariff policy exercised no significant effect on the economic development of leading European countries in the nineteenth century.”
  4. “Liberty of contract has provided both a great stimulus to economic progress and a great deterrent to social progress.”
  5. “A casual acquaintance with the history of the nineteenth century is sufficient to dismiss the claims of those who would substitute a ‘managed’ currency for sound money.”
  6. “Those who seek to ensure a market uncontrolled either by the state or by powerful interests in the state must be theoreticians rather than historians.”
  7. “The most potent influence on industrial organization in the United States has been American inventive genius.”

 

May 10, 1939.

 

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. A.B. Division Examination, Economic Theory, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “special examination” questions in economic theory given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

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________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Economic Theory

(Three hours)

A candidate may, at his option, write hour essays on TWO topics in Part I and omit Part II.

Part I

(About one hour)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. monopolistic competition and excess capacity,
    2. selling costs and social waste,
    3. the theory that interest is the price paid for ‘the service of waiting’,
    4. the effects on employment of a general cut in money wage-rates in the early stages of depression,
    5. the nature and causes of ‘pure profit’.

Part II

(About one hour)

Answer two questions.

  1. Explain, and discuss briefly, the meanings, the main ‘geometric’ properties and relations, and the main uses as aids to analysis, of the following ‘tools’: the demand curve for a firm’s output; the firm’s marginal revenue curve; its short- and long-period curves of average total unit costs; and its curve of marginal costs.
  2. “Although the ‘individual firm approach’ to value theory is in general superior, the ‘whole industry approach’ of Marshall still is capable of being used, without assuming ‘pure competition’, as an effective way of exploring certain important problems, which the other approach leaves out of sight.” Discuss.
  3. Explain the essential propositions of the ‘marginal productivity theory’ of income distribution in an economy characterized by pure competition; and the principal changes which must be made in this theory when account is taken (a) of monopoly elements in the markets in which products are sold, and (b) of monopoly elements in the markets in which factors are hired.
  4. “Those who hold that competitive allocation of economic resources in free markets would bring maximum satisfaction only if incomes were approximately equal, are in effect admitting that the market neither does, nor can, give sound guidance in any economic system that relies upon the profit motive to keep going.”
  5. Discuss the proper definitions, provinces, difference in assumptions, and relation to each other, of economic ‘statics’ and ‘dynamics’.
  6. Explain and discuss one major, novel concept introduced into economic theory by J. M. Keynes.

 

Part III

(About one hour)

Discuss two of the following questions.

  1. “Men are no longer units; they are being compulsorily coagulated into groups, and the forces of combination and regulation are producing a society very different from that which the nineteenth century Political Economy set out to interpret.”
  2. “The nature of an economic law is such that it can be neither established nor refuted by an appeal to the facts.”
  3. “The conception of the economic process as a circus off commodities and prices divorced from class relations is neither Marxian nor Classical.”
  4. “If we find something approaching pure competition in any branch of production, we can conclude that it is subject to increasing costs.”
  5. “Given fresh natural resources to develop, a rapidly increasing population, and foreign markets for goods and capital, even a trustified capitalism might be able to maintain high utilization of economic resources and an increasing national income. But in the absence of these favoring conditions it will be undermined more and more by direct government action to ward off the ever-present tendency to continuous depression.”

 

May 10, 1939.

Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Empirical Economics. Orcutt, 1950

This is the second batch of material I post from Guy Henderson Orcutt’s undergraduate course Economics 110 at Harvard. His bibliography on the scientific method was included in the previous posting.

A four item reading list for Economics 110 in 1949-50 and a selective reading list (Part I, no part II in the folder) for the 1950-51 course have been transcribed for this posting.

One more bibliographic list is filed under 1949-50, Economics 110: “A Bibliography of Statistical or Inductive Studies of the Determinants of Imports or Exports”. That bibliography is identical to Appendix 4B of Orcutt’s famous paper, Measurement of Price Elasticites in International Trade (Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 32, No. 2. May, 1950), 117-132. This material was explicitly discussed in the academic year 1950-51 in the course in Economics 210b (see Orcutt’s course offerings below).

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

______________________________________

1949-50
Economics 110
Reading List

(Additions will be made to this list)

Henry Schultz—The Theory and Measurement of Demand, University of Chicago Press, 1938.

William H. Nicholls—Labor Productivity Functions in Meat Packing, University of Chicago Press, 1948.

Dale Yoder, D. G. Paterson, et al—Local Labor Market Research, University of Minnesota Press, 1948.

Jacob Marschak—Introduction to Econometrics, Mimeographed lectures (Buffalo and Chicago). Only about two dozen copies are still available. They can be mailed for $2.25 a copy plus postage. To obtain them write the Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, Chicago 37, Illinois. I expect to use this book for Economics 110 and Economics 125b this semester and for mathematical economics next fall.

 

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”

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[Course offerings 1950-51: Orcutt’s Empirical Economics]

Economics 110a. Empirical Economics: National Income and Business Fluctuations

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the empirical foundations of economic theory in the fields of national income and business fluctuations, The methods by which various types of prediction are attempted will be given considerable attention.

 

[Economics 110b. Empirical Economics: The Price Mechanism]

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

Omitted in 1950-51; to be given in 1951-52.

This course will deal with the empirical foundations of economic theory concerning the functioning of the price mechanism. The agricultural and foreign trade sectors will receive particular attention.
Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted Economics 210b.

 

Economics 210a. Empirical Economics: National Income and Business Fluctuations
Half-course (fall term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the problems and techniques of testing economic theory and of prediction in the fields of national income and business fluctuations.

 

Economics 210b. Empirical Economics: The Price Mechanism

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the problems and techniques of testing economic theories and predictions concerning the functioning of the price mechanism. The agricultural and foreign trade sectors will receive particular attention. Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted to this course.

 

Source. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September, 1950) , pp. 80, 84.

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A Selected List of Readings Relevant to
Economics 110a and 210a
Part I

Asher Achinstein, Introduction to Business Cycles, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1950

John Maurice Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles, National Bureau of Economic Research (1935), reprinted Augustus M. Kelley, Inc., 1949
http://papers.nber.org/books/clar34-1

James Duesenberry, Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, Harvard University Press, 1949

William J. Fellner, Monetary Policies and Full Employment, University of California Press, 1946

Edwin Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, Harvard University Press, 1942

Gottfried Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, 3rd ed., 1943, reprinted by United Nations, 1946

P. M. Hauser and W. R. Leonard, Government Statistics for Business Use, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1946

J. R. Hicks, A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1950

Lawrence R. Klein, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, 1921-1941, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1950

Tjalling C. Koopmans and others, Statistical Inference in Dynamic Economic Models, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1950

Wassily Leontief, Structure of the American Economy, 1919-1929, Harvard University Press, 1941

Jacob Marschak, Introduction to Econometrics, Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, 1949

A. F. Burns and Wesley C. Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1946

Oskar Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, Princeton University Press, 1950

Philip Neff and Annette Weifenbach, Business Cycles in selected Industrial Areas, University of California Press, 1949

W. Nelson Peach and Walter Krause, Basic Data of the American Economy, 3rd ed., Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Chicago

D. H. Robertson, A Study of Industrial Fluctuation, 1915, reprinted by London School of Economics and Political Science, 1948

Richard Ruggles, An Introduction to National Income and Income Analysis, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1949

J. Tinbergen, Statistical Testing of Business-Cycle Theories, Vol. I, “A Method and Its Application to Investment Activity,” Vol. II, “Business Cycles in the United States of America, 1919-1932,” League of Nations Economic Intelligence Service, Geneva, 1939

J. Tinbergen and J. J. Polak, The Dynamics of Business Cycles, University of Chicago Press, 1950

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789-1945

Thomas Wilson, Fluctuations in Income and Employment (3rd ed.), Pitman Publishing Company, New York, 1949

 

 

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”

Image Source: Cropped from portrait in Harold W. Watts (1991). Distinguished Fellow: An Appreciation of Guy Orcutt. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 1, Winter, pp. 171-179.

 

 

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate Econometrics. Orcutt, 1950

Guy Henderson Orcutt (1917-2006) taught the first real course in econometrics to undergraduates at Harvard in the second semester of the 1949/50(!) academic year. Today I have selected his bibliography on the scientific method that provides us nice leads to those academic scribblers from whom one of the pioneers of econometrics had distilled his methodological frenzy.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

__________________________________

Economics Department Has Excellent Staff of Teachers

…Those who favor the mathematical approach to Economics will find two courses to interest them in the Department, Economics 104, introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory, and Economics 110, Introduction to Econometrics. The latter course represents the first time undergraduates will be given more than a glimpse of the field of econometrics, a combination of mathematics and economics of rapidly growing importance in the world of economic study….

Source: Harvard Crimson, April 22, 1949.

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[Economics 110. Announcement, 1949-50]

Economics 110. Introduction to Econometrics

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Dr. ——-

The matter will be presented in order of increasing mathematical difficulty. Only simplified models will be used to familiarize the students with the econometric approach: and to complete their knowledge of mathematical tools needed in quantitative economic analysis.

 

Source. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1949-50. Official Register of Harvard University, Vo. XLVI, No. 24 (September, 1949) , p. 79.

__________________________________

[Economics 110. Applied Economics. Enrollment 1950]

110 Applied Economics. (Sp) Assistant Professor Orcutt.

(Sp) 1 Graduate, 2 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore. Total: 6.

 

Source: Harvard University, Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1949-50, p. 72.

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1949-50
Economics 110
A Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Scientific Method
by Guy Orcutt

1. Books

Bacon, F., Novum Organum, edited by Thomas Fowler, Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1878.

Bowley, A.L., The Nature and Purpose of the Measurement of Social Phenomena, London. P. S. King and Son, 1915.

Boyle, R., The Philosophical Works of. edited by Peter Shaw, Vol. II, London. W. and J. Innys, 1725.

Bridgmen, P. W., The Logic of Modern Physics, New York. The Macmillan Co., 1938.

Cairnes, J. E., The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy, London. Macmillan and Co., 1888.

Carnap, R., The Logical Syntax of Language, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1937.

Cassel, G., Fundamental Thoughts in Economics, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Co, 1925.

———-, On Quantitative Thinking in Economics, New York. Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1935.

Clark, C., The Conditions of Economic Progress, London. Macmillan and Co., 1940.

Cohen, M.R., and Nagel, E., An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934.

Dalmulder, J.J.J., On Econometrics, Haarlem. De erven F. Bohn N.V., 1936.

Darwin, C. R., The Life and Letters of, Edited by Francis Darwin, Vol. 1, New York. D. Appleton and Company, 1919.

Dewey, J., Logic—The Theory of Inquiry, New York. H. Holt and Company, 1938.

Eddington, A.S., The Philosophy of Physical Science, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1939.

Enriques, F., The Historic Development of Logic, translated from the Italian by Jerome Rosenthal, New York. Henry Holt and Company, 1929.

Frank, P., Between Physics and Philosophy, Cambridge. Harvard University Press, 1941.

Gilbert, W., On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies also, and On the Great Magnet of the Earth, London. The Chiswick Press, 1900.

Herschel, J. F. W., Natural Philosophy, London. Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851.

Hume, D., A Treatise on Human Nature, edited by T. H. Green and T. H. Grose, London. Longmans, Green and Company, 1874.

Hutchison, T. W., The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory, London. Macmillan and Company, 1938.

Jeans, J. H., Physics and Philosophy, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1943.

Jeffreys, H., Scientific Inference, Cambridge. The University Press, 1937.

Jevons, W.S., The Theory of Political Economy, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1871.

———-, The Principles of Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1887.

———-, Elementary Lessons in Logic: Deductive and Inductive, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1895.

Keynes, J. M., The Scope and Method of Political Economy, 3rd edition, revised, London. Macmillan and Company, 1904.

Lindsay, R.B., and Margenau, H., Foundations of Physics, New York. John Wiley and Sons, 1936.

List, F., National System of Political Economy, translated from the German by G. A. Matile, Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1856.

Margenau, H., see Lindsay, R.B.

Meyerson, E., Identity and Reality, translated from the French by Kate Loewenberg, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1930.

Mill, J.S., A System of Logic Ratiocinative and Inductive, London. G. Routledge and Sons, 1892.

Minto, W., Logic Inductive and Deductive, New York. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1893.

Moore, H.L., Synthetic Economics, New York. The Macmillan Compnay, 1929.

Nagel, E., see Cohen, M.R.

Nicod, J., Foundations of Geometry and Induction, translated from the French by Philip Paul Wiener, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1930.

Pearson, K., The Grammar of Science, London. Walter Scott, 1892.

Pigou, A.C., The Functions of Economic Analysis, London. Oxford University Press, 1930.

Poincare, H., Science and Method, translated from the French by Francis Maitland, London. Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1914.

Reade, W.H.V., The problem of Inference, Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1938.

Ritchie, A.D., Scientific Method, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1923.

Robbins, L., An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1932.

Roepke, W., Crises and Cycles, adapted from the German and revised by Vera C. Smith, London. W. Hodge and Company, 1936.

Roscher, W., Principles of Political Economy, translated from the German by John J. Lalar, New York. H. Holt and Company, 1878.

Senior, N.W., Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy, London. Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852.

Sidgwick, H., The Scope and Method of Economic Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1885.

Stamp, J., The Statistical Verification of Social and Economic Theory, London. Oxford University Press, 1927.

Thurstone, L.L., The Vectors of Mind, Chicago. The University Press, 1935.

Venn, J., The Principles of Empirical or Inductive Logic, London. Macmillan and Company, 1889.

Whewell, W., The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. II, London. John W. Parker, 1847.

Whitehead, A.N., An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge, Cambridge, University Press, 1925.

Wolf, A., Essentials of Scientific Method, London. G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1925. Textobook of Logic, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1930.

 

2. Articles

Fisher, I., “The Application of Mathematics to the Social Sciences,” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 36 (1930), pp. 225-243.

Fisher, R.A., “The Logic of Inductive Inference,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 98 (1935), pp. 39-54.

Frisch, R., “Editorial,” Econometrica, Vol. 1 (1933), pp. 1-4.

Harrod, R.F., Scope and Method of Economics, Economic Journal, Vol. 48 (1938), pp. 383-412.

Mitchell, W. C., “Quantitative Analysis in Economic Theory, “ American Economic Review, Vol. 15 (1925), pp. 1-12.

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”.

Image Source: Orcutt’s senior year picture from the University of Michigan yearbook, Michiganensian, 1939.

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Business Organization and Control. Sydney Alexander 1948-49.

Sydney Stuart Alexander (1916-2005) [Harvard S.B., 1936; A.M., 1938; Ph.D. 1946] taught the popular undergraduate course on Business Organization and Control before it was taken over by John Kenneth Galbraith and Carl Kaysen. While waiting for a delivery of material one day in the Harvard Archives, I thumbed through the 25th anniversary report of the Class of 1936 and came across Alexander’s report to his class (1961). You can see him standing in the front-row of the Department of Economics (MIT) group picture taken in 1976.

I was touched by the philosophical reflection in his 1961 report to his class that I have transcribed and now post before his syllabus for Economics 161.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

__________________________

 

“My professional life since graduation can be told as a tale of three cities: Cambridge, New York and Washington, each with a multiple exposure. Three tours of duty in Cambridge as teacher and research worker, two in New York, once in empirical research and once in business, and two in Washington, once in wartime intelligence-oriented economic research, and once as an international civil servant for the International Monetary Fund….the many job shifts have simply been alterations between theory and practice. Now I juggle both theory and practice at the same time. I teach economic theory to practically oriented students of management at the School of Industrial Management at M.I.T…

“…I try to balance my interest in applied economics with the study, as yet embryonic, of the foundations of welfare judgments…There is a substantial body of economic doctrine, in the theory of economic welfare, which deals with the problem of how given wants of individuals can be best (most economically) satisfied. But the doctrine starts from the assumption of given want, and it leaves open the question of how important it is to satisfy those wants. Once the problem is viewed more broadly, it becomes obvious that the merit of want satisfaction depends on the desirability of the wants. The wants themselves are generated largely by the social framework, not least by the economy itself as it operates to satisfy the wants.

Inquiry into this range of problems runs counter to the last fashion but one in the social sciences—that of positivism, which scorned the questions that could not be expressed in operational terms. It is my thesis that the most important social issues cannot be handled in operational terms like problems in physics, nor yet in analytical terms, like problems in mathematics, but only by a sort of discussion which is more like literary criticism. That discussion cannot be based on the authority of experimental evidence or logical truth, though it may draw upon both. Its foundations, however, must be in the non-operational field in which terms like important, better, or worse have meaning…”

Source: Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, Harvard Class of 1936. Cambridge, 1961, pp. 11-12

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[Economics 161, 1948-49: Enrollment]

161 (formerly Economics 61a and 62b). Business Organization and Control. (Full Co.) Assistant Professor Alexander.

(F) 1 Graduate, 68 Seniors, 147 Juniors, 31 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 10 Radcliffe:   Total 261.
(Sp) 66 Seniors, 126 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 7 Radcliffe: Total 214

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1948-49, p. 77.

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Economics 161 (formerly Economics 61a and 62b). Business Organization and Control
Full Course. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Assistant Professor Alexander.

Source: Harvard University. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1948-49, p. 75.

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Economics 161
1948-49
Business Organization and Control

 

I. Fundamentals of Economic Organization

September 28

 Introduction Brookings, Ch. 2
Fainsod and Gordon, Ch. 1
Meade and Hitch, Part D, Chs. 1 and 2

October 1

 The Free Enterprise System

II. Nature and Origin of the Corporation

October 4

 The legal character of the corporation: Buchanan, Ch. 3
B & M, Book II, Ch. 1
Dewing, Book I, Chs. 1 and 2

October 6

 The history of the corporation:

III. Financial Structure and Operation of the Corporation

October   8

 Structure and Operation MLPF & B (entire pamphlet) and
Dewing, Book I, Ch. 4 to p. 83, Ch. 7, 8, 9 to p. 218, and 230-242
Dewing, Book III, Chs. 1 and 2

11

13

14 or 15

 Section

IV. The Large Corporation

October 11

 The extent and consequences of concentration: Gordon, Ch. 2, 4, and 5
Baker, Ch. IVB & M: Book I, Ch. I; Book IV, Chs. I through IV
Burnham, Chs. VI-IX, & XVI

20

 The operation of the large corporation:

22

 Section

25

 The separation of ownership from control:

27

 The managerial revolution?

29

 Section

V. Active Governmental Regulation of the Corporation

November 1

 New issues and the securities markets: Cherrington, Chs. 9 & 10 and
Dewing, Book IV, Ch. 9 & 6

3

5

 Section

8

 The holding company & its regulation: Allen, Ch. 9

10

 Corporate reorganization: Buchanan, Ch. XV or
Dewing, Book V, Chs. 3, 5, & 6

12

 Section

VI. Theory of Markets

November 15

 Competition, perfect and monopolistic: Boulding, Chs. 24 and 27
F & G, Ch. 9

17

 Duopoly and oligopoly:

19

 Section

VII. Markets and Their Regulation

November 22

 Railroads and their Regulation: Locklin, Chs. VIII, XV, & XVI

24

26

 Section

29

 Agriculture and the Government: Black & Kiefer, Chs. VIII, IX, XI, XVIII, XX, XXI, XXV, and XXX.

December 1

3

 Section

6

 The Petroleum Industry Rostow, Parts I, II, III and V.

8

10

 Section

13

 Lumber industry and trade associations: Burns, Ch. II and IV

15

 The meat industry

17

 Section

Reading period

 

References

Allen, Frederick L., The Lords of Creation, 1935.
Baker, John C., Directors and Their Functions, 1945.
Berle, A. A., and Gardiner C. Means (B & M), The Modern Corporation and Private Property, 1932.
Black, John D., and M. E. Kiefer, Future Food and Agricultural Policy, 1948.
Boulding, Kenneth E., Economic Analysis.
Brookings Institution (Lyon and associates), The Government and Economic Life, Vol. I, 1939.
Buchanan, Norman S., The Economics of Corporate Enterprise.
Burnham, James, The Managerial Revolution (Penguin, 1945).
Burns, Arthur R., The Decline of Competition.
Cherrington, Homer V., Business Organization and Finance, 1948.
Dewing, Arthur S., Financial Policy of Corporations, 1941, 2-vol. edition.
Fainsod, Merle, and A. L. Gordon (F & G), Government and the American Economy, 1941.
Gordon, Robert A., Business Leadership in the Large Corporation, 1945.
Locklin, D. Philip, Economics of Transportation, 1947.
Meade, J. E., and Charles Hitch, An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy.
MLPF & B: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beans, How to Read a Financial Report.
Rostow, Eugene V., A National Policy for the Oil Industry, 1947.

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Reading Period — Economics 161 — December 1948

Read 5 articles in FORTUNE, all from within one of the following groups. Within your chosen group read at least two articles from subgroup a, the remaining three articles may be chosen freely from either subgroup a or b. For brevity, titles are not given verbatim. Bracketed items should be read together as a group.

All copies of FORTUNE needed for this course may be found with the other bound periodicals on the open shelf.

Group I—Transportation

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. British Rys., p. 87, April ‘47 1. Penns. R.R., I, p. 67, May ‘36

2. Penns. R.R., II, p. 87, June ‘36

3. Penns. R.R., III, p. 84, March ‘48
2. Rate Battle, p. 149, Oct. ‘44
3. Railroads, p. 50, Aug. ‘39
4. Inland Waterways, p. 39, Oct. ‘31 4. Young & Ce & O., p. 97, May ‘46
5. R.R. Consolidations, p. 39, Mar. ‘30 5. Santa Fe, p. 122, Nov. ‘48
6. Rock Island, p. 140, Dec. ‘44

7. Keeshin Trucking, p. 47, Feb. ‘36
8. Pullman I, p. 39, Jan ‘38

9. Pullman II, p. 73, Feb. ‘38
10. Southern Pacific, p. 91, Nov. ‘37

 

Group II—Petroleum and Gas

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. Oil Shortage? p. 94, Jan. ‘44 1. Amerada, p. 128, Jan. ‘46
2. Oil Play, p. 69, Aug. ‘48 2. Engineers of Energy, p. 107, Nov. ‘48
3. Pipelines, p. 125, Jan. ‘45 3. Sun Oil, p. 51, Feb. ‘41
4. Natural Gas, p. 56, Aug. ‘40 4. Socony, I, p. 111, Nov. ‘42

5. Socony II, p. 114, Feb. ‘43
5. Ickes Arab. Nights, p. 121, June ‘44
6. Oil Abroad, p. 37, March ‘31 6. Standard (N.J.)I, p. 49, April ‘40

7. Standard (N.J.)II, p. 79, May ‘40

8. Standard (N.J.)III, p. 61, June ‘40
9. Gulf, p. 79, Oct. ‘37
10. Sinclair, p. 60, Nov. ‘32

 

Group III—Steel

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. Steel in War, p. 121, May ‘46 1. Labrador Venture, p. 115, Dec. ‘48
2. Basing Point Muddle, p. 73, Sept. ‘48 2. Spark in Steel, p. 95, Dec. ‘48
3. Iron Ore Dilemma, p. 129, Dec. ‘45 3. Steel in West, p. 130, Feb. ‘45
4. Steel I, p. 85, May ‘31 4. Great Lakes I, p. 31, July ‘40
5. Steel II, p. 52, July ‘31 5. Great Lakes II, p. 43, July ‘40
6. Steel III, p. 41, Sept. ‘31 6. Bethlehem, p. 61, April ‘41
7. National, p. 31, June ‘32
8. Republic, p. 54, Sept. ‘33
9. U. S. Steel I, p. 59, March ‘36

10. U.S. Steel II, p. 127, April ‘36

11. U.S. Steel III, p. 113, June ‘36

 

Group IV—Agriculture

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. Agriculture, p. 68, July, ‘40 1. Garm Co-ops, p. 153, Aug., ‘45
2. Planning for Plenty, p 61, Oct., ‘41 2. Cotton I, p. 138, Nov. ‘45

3. Cotton II, p. 159, Dec., ‘45
3. Agriculture, p. 80, March, ‘36
4. Cattle, p. 88, April, ‘43
5. Wingate, p. 72, Oct. ‘41
6. Farm Income, p. 89, Oct. ‘37
7. Milk in Chicago, p. 80, Nov. ‘39

8. Grade A, p. 83, Nov., ‘39

 

Group V—Food Processing, etc.

Subgroup a and b combined
1. Continental Baking, p. 67, July ‘38 18. Pineapple, p. 33, Nov. ‘30
2. Nabisco, p. 86, June, ‘48

3. Nabisco, p. 64, Aug., ‘36

 19. Armour and Co., p. 59, June ‘34

20. Hormel and Company, p. 127, Oct. ‘37

21. Swift and Co., p. 55, Feb. ‘30
4. Standard Brands, p. 77, Jan. ‘38
5. Life Savers, p. 94, Feb ‘38 22. Procter and Gamble, p. 77, April ‘39
6. Planters’ Peanuts, p. 78, Apr. ‘38 23. General Mills, p. 117, April ‘45

24. General Mills, p. 81, Nov. ‘30
7. Del Monte, p 77, Nov. ‘38
8. Corn Products, p. 55, Sept. ‘38 25. Nestle’s, p. 117, Feb. ‘46
9. Coca-Cola, p. 65, Dec. ‘38
10. Cream of Wheat, p. 68, Jan. ‘39
11. Frozen Foods, p. 61, June ‘39
12. Wessen Oil, p. 67, Sept. ‘39
13. General Goods, p. 69, Oct. ‘34
14. Hershey Chocolate, p. 72, Jan. ‘34
15. Ralston, p. 84, Jan. ‘48
16. Beech Nut, p. 85, Nov. ‘36
17. Campbell Soup, p. 69, Nov. ‘35

 

Group VI—Public Utilities

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. Power to Burn, p. 141, Feb. ‘45 1. I. T. & T., p. 145, Sept. ‘45
2. A. T. & T., p. 37, Sept. ‘30 2. A. G. & E., p. 165, Dec. ‘45
3. Com & Sou., p. 83, May ‘37
4. TVA, p. 167, May ‘35
5. TVA, p. 92, Oct. ‘33
6. Cal. G. & E., p. 77, July ‘30
7. Niagara Hudson, p. 43, June ‘31

 

 

Group VII—Retail Trade

Subgroup a and b combined
1. Marshall Field, p. 143, Dec. ‘45

2. Marshall Field, p. 79, Oct. ‘36

 9. May Stores, p. 109, Dec. ‘48
10. Bergdorf-Goodman, p. 62, June ‘31
3. Allied Stores, p. 123, March ‘47 11. Neiman-Marcus, p. 133, Nov. ‘37
4. Sears Roebuck, p. 84, Aug. ‘48

5. Sears Roebuck, p. 43, Feb. ‘32

 12. Woolworth, p. 63, Nov. ‘33
13. A & P, p. 41, July ‘30

14. A & P, p. 53, March ‘33

15. A & P, p. 93, April ‘38
6. Montgomery Ward, p. 69, Jan. ‘35
7. Macy’s, p. 82, May ‘30

8. Macy’s, p. 23, April ‘33

 

Group VIII—Coal and Coke

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. British Coal, p. 118, Oct. ‘46 1. Koppers, p. 73, April ‘37
2. Coal I, p. 86, March ‘47 2. Pittsburgh, p. 57, Oct. ‘33
3. Coal III, p. 99, April ‘47 3. Island Creek, p. 87, March ‘38
4. Anthracite, p. 72, Feb. ‘31

 

Group IX—Distilling and Brewing

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. Whiskey, p. 28, Nov. ‘33 1. Seagram’s, p. 97, Sept. ‘48
2. Liquor Reviewed, p. 98, Oct. ‘34 2. Schenley, p. 99, May ‘36
3. Econ. of Repeal, p. 47, May ‘32 3. Anheuser-Busch, p. 42, July ‘35
4. Ballantine’s, p. 64, June ‘38
5. Hiram Walker, p. 68, March ‘39

 

Group X—Automobiles

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. Ford, Chev., Plym., p. 86, Oct. ‘31 1. Studebaker, p. 89, Feb. ‘35
2. General Motors I, p. 41, Dec. ‘38 2. Chrysler, p. 103, Oct. ‘48
3. General Motors II, p. 37, Jan., ‘39 3. Chrysler, p. 57, Dec. ‘40
4. General Motors IV, p. 45, March ‘39 4. Willys, p. 80, Aug. ‘46
5. Kaiser, p. 91, Dec. ‘47
6. Nash, p. 125, Sept. ‘45
7. Borg-Warner, p. 109, June ‘46
8. Ford, p. 63, Dec. ‘33
9. Ford, p. 82, May ‘46
10. C.I.T., p. 71, Jan. ‘33
11. Auto Selling, p. 38, Dec. ‘31
12. Packard, p. 55, Jan. ‘37
13. Used Car, p. 39, June ‘38

 

Group XI—Ferrous Metals

Subgroup a and b combined
1. Aluminum Co., p. 20, Nov. ‘32
2. Aluminum Co., p. 46, Sept. ‘34
3. Anaconda, p. 53, Jan. ‘42

4. Anaconda, p. 83, Dec. ‘36

5. Anaconda, p. 71, Jan. ‘37

6. Copper Ind’y., p. 70 April ‘30

7. Phelps Dodge, p. 40, July ‘32
8. St. Joseph Lead, p. 93, June ‘37
9. U.S. Smelting, p. 74, July ‘35
10. Climax Molybdenum, p. 105, Oct. ‘36

 

Group XII—Housing

Subgroup a

Subgroup b
1. Mr. Wyatt’s Shortage, p. 105, April ‘46 1. Metro. Life in Housing, p. 133, April ‘46
2. Fed. Housing Policy, p. 76, June ‘35 2. Where is Prefabrication? p. 127, April ‘46
3. Slum Clearance, p. 27, Feb. ‘34 3. Ind’y. Capitalism Forgot, p. 61, Aug. ‘47
4. Housing Survey I, p. 61, Feb. ‘32
5. Housing Survey III,   p. 35, April ‘32
6. Housing Survey VI, p. 60, July ‘32

__________________________

 

Spring Term, 1948-49
Economics 161—Business Organization and Control

 

Text: Burns, required; Purdy, optional.

Outline and Assignments

Date

 Lecture

Reading
Feb. 9 Integration Purdy, Ch. 22, and Burns, Ch. IX and pp. 76-92, 140-145; TNEC No. 21, pp. 121-132.
Feb. 11 Price Leadership
Feb. 14 Price Discrimination and the Basing Point System Burns, Ch. VI and VII
Feb. 16
Feb. 17 & 18 Sections
Feb. 21 Patents TNEC No. 21, pp. 158-165, 215-224;
Brookings, V 1, Ch. VI;
Purdy, Ch. 24; Stocking, Ch. 3
Feb. 23 Cartels
Feb. 24, 25 Sections
Feb. 28 Competition among Giants Hamilton, Section II; F& G, pp. 636-654
TNEC, No. 21, pp. 31-39, 48-51, 24-26, 194-198 and pp. 179-182, 170-172
March 2 Too Much Competition?
March 3 and 4 Sections
March 7 Housing, Problem Industry TNEC No. 8, Ch. IV; 20th Century, Housing. Chs. 5 and 6; TNEC No. 21, pp. 287-293
March 9 Non-Price Competition Burns, Ch. VIII
March 10-11 Sections
March 14 Chain Stores 20th Century, Distribution, pp. 133-141, and pp. 146-165; F&G 595-608
March 16 Problems of Small Business Kaplan, Chs. II, VIII, X
March 17-18 Sections
March 21 Anti-Trust History Purdy, Chs. 15, 16, and 17
Readings, Chs. 1 and 2
March 23
March 24-26 Sections
March 28 Recent Landmarks in Anti-Trust Purdy, Ch. 11; TNEC No. 21, p. 185-189; Oppenheim, Ch. 5 and pp. 310-328
March 30
Mar 31/Apr 1 Sections
April 3-10 Vacation
April 11 Unfair Competition and the F.T.C. F & G, Ch. 14

Burns, Ch. X
April 13 The N. R. A.
April 14-15 Sections
April 18 O. P. A. and W. P. S. U. S. at War, pp. 50-63, and Chs. 5, 9, and 10 (excluding pp. 281-298)
April 20
April 21-22 Sections
April 21 (sic) Price Flexibility Economic Report, January, 1948, pp. 75-79; Economic Report, January, 1949, pp. 43-45, 65-66
N.R.C., Part II, pp. 27-34; TNEC No. 1, ch. II; Nourse, Ch. XI
April 28-29
April 28-29 Sections
May 2 Modification of Competition and Full Employment Wallace, Entire Article
May 4 Workable Competition
May 6 Summary of Course

Reading Period Assignment to be Announced

 

References

Brookings Institution (Lyon et al.), Government and Economic Life, Vol. I
Burns, Arthur R., The Decline of Competition
Economic Report, Economic Report of the President, January, 1948 and January, 1949
F. and G., Fainsod and Gordon, Government and the American Economy
Hamilton, Walton H., Price and Price Policy
Kaplan, A. D. H., Small Business: Its Place and Problems
Nourse, Edwin, Price Making in a Democracy
N. R. C., U. S., National Resources Committee, Structure of the American Economy, Part II (Note that the assignment is in Part II, a volume separate from part I)
Oppenheim, S. Chesterfield, Cases on Federal Anti-Trust Laws (1948)
Purdy, Lindahl and Carter, Corporate Concentration and Public Policy
Readings in the Social Control of Industry (Blakiston Press)
Stocking and Watkins, Cartels or Competition? (Not to be confused with Cartels in Action by the same authors)
TNEC: U. S., Temporary National Economic Committee Monographs.

No. 1, Price Behavior and Business Policy
No. 8, Toward More Housing
No. 21, Competition and Monopoly in American Industry

20th Cent.; Distribution, Dewhurst et al., Does Distribution Cost Too Much?
20th Cent., Housing
U. S. at War, U. S. Bureau of the Budget, The United States at War
Wallace, Donald, “Industrial Markets and Public Policy,” in Public Policy, 1941, edited by Friedrich and Mason, pp. 59-129

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1948-49 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source: Harvard Album 1950.

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard History of Economics Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. History of Economic Thought. Fellner, 1950

 

 

To William John Fellner (1905-1983) I personally owe my career-long interest in the history of economics. He agreed to meet with me for a year in a one-on-one tutorial upon my request since Yale did not offer a course in the history of economics then (1971-72). 

I discovered the following Harvard syllabus that I only recently realized was for a course actually given by my mentor, apparently to help satisfy the continuing demand of Harvard undergraduates for history of economics following Schumpeter’s death in January 1950.

Because I owe so much to William Fellner, in his honor I have gone to the trouble of providing links to as many of the items on his syllabus and bibliography as I could find (in a half-day).

Between us, this is not a particulary well-crafted or imaginative selection of assigned readings and the bibliography is clearly a rush-job. But this nonetheless demonstrates that Fellner was on a mission to integrate the history of economics with the teaching of the principles of economics which he did at Yale through ca. 1970 as reflected in his book Emergence and Content of Modern Economic Analysis, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960.

______________________________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

______________________________________

 

Economics 100.
History of Economic Thought

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor Fellner (University of California).

 

Source: Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September 1950): Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences During 1950-51, p. 79.

______________________________________

 

1950-51
Economics 100
Fall Term

History of Economic Thought

In addition to the textbook assignments here listed, students will be required to do some amount of reading in the works of the writers who will be discussed in the course. The students will have a limited range of choice in this respect.

The textbook assignments here listed are not quite final. Some adjustments will presumably be made to include writers who will be discussed in the course but are not covered, or are covered inadequately, by the present assignments. Also, Assignment XI is too long and will be shortened so as to have it correspond to the classroom discussion.

 

I. Economic Ideas of Greek Philosophers

Gray, Ch. 1

II. Economic Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas

Gray, Ch. 2

III. Mercantilism

Gray, Ch. 3

IV. The Physiocrats

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 1

V. Adam Smith

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 2

VI. Malthus and Ricardo

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 3

VII. Early Expressions of “Neo-classical” Ideas

Gray, Ch. 7, pp. 190-197; Ch. 8, pp. 238-248; Ch. 10, pp. 266-277.

VIII. Mill

Gide-Rist, Book III, Ch. 2

IX. Protectionist Views and the National Outlook

Gray, Ch. 8, pp. 227-238; Ch. 9, pp. 248-260.

X. Forerunners of Socialism (Simondi; the Ricardian Socialists)

Gide-Rist, Book II, Ch. 1

XI. French Pre-Marxian Socialists

Gide-Rist, Book II, Chs. 2, 3, and 5.

XII. Marxism

Gray, Ch. 11 and Roll’s chapter on Marx

XIII. The Historical School and Institutionalism

Gide-Rist, Book IV, Ch. 1

XIV. Early Expressions of the Welfare State Ideology

Gide-Rist, Book IX, Ch. 2, Ch. 4

XV. The Neo-classical School

Gray, Ch. 12

XVI. Neo-classical, Historical-Institutionalist and Socialist Influences on Contemporary Thought

______________________________________

1950-51
Economics 100
History of Economic Thought

List of Books and Articles

I. General

Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (Edwin R. A. Seligman, Ed.: Alvin Johnson, Assoc. Ed.) [Vol. I; Vol. II ; Vol. III ; Vols.III & IV ; Vol. V ; Vols. VI & VI ; Vol. VII ; Vol. VIII ; Vol. IX ; Vol. X ; Vol. XI ; Vols. XI & XII ; Vol. XIII ; Vols. XIII & XIV ; Vol. XV .
Gide, Charles and Rist, Charles, History of Economic Doctrines
Gray, Alexander, The Development of Economic Doctrine
Haney, Lewis H., History of Economic Thought
Roll, Eric, A History of Economic Thought
Whittaker, Edmund, History of Economic Ideas [Schools and Streams of Economic Thought (1960)]
Schumpeter, Joseph, Epochen der Dogmengeschichte [1954 English translation]

II. On Problems of Methodology

Schumpeter, Joseph, Science and Ideology, American Economic Review, March 1949
Keynes, John Neville, Scope and Method of Political Economy
Robbins, Lionel, Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science
Hutcheson, T. W., Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., The Historical vs. the Deductive Method in Political Economy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1890
Cairnes, J. E., The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy
Senior, Nassau W., Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy
Sidgwick, Henry, Scope and Method of Economic Science
Bagehot, Walter, Economic Studies
Myrdal, Gunnar, Das politische Element in der nationaloekonomischen [Doktrinbildung]

II. On Specific Topics

O’Brien, G., An Essay on Mediaeval Economic Teaching
Laistner, M. L. W., Greek Economics
Tawney, R. H., Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Capital and Interest
Heckscher, Eli F., Mercantilism [Volume I; Volume II]
Horrocks, J. W., A Short History of Mercantilism
Hull, Charles H., Petty’s Place in Economic Theory, Q. J. E., 1900
Monroe, A. E., Monetary Theory before Adam Smith
Johnson, E. A. J., Predecessors of Adam Smith
Schmoller, Gustav, The Mercantile System and Its Historical Significance
Angell, James W., The Theory of International Prices
Viner, Jacob, Studies in the Theory of International Trade
Higgs, H., The Physiocrats
Oncken, August, Geschichte der Nationaloekonomie (on the Physiocrats)
Spengler, J. J., The Physiocrats and Say’s Law of Markets, Journal of Political Economy, September and December, 1945.
Rae, John, The Life of Adam Smith
Bonar, James, Malthus and his Work
Bowley, Marian, Nassau Senior and Classical Economics
Viner, Jacob, Bentham and Mill, American Economic Review, March 1949
Knight, F. H., The Ricardian Theory of Production and Distribution (Canadian Journal of Economics, 1935)
Williams, John H. The Theory of International Trade Reconsidered (Economic Journal, 1929)
Dicey, A. V., Law and Public Opinion in England
Cannan, Edwin, Theories of Production and Distribution
Stephen, Leslie, The English Utilitarians [Vol I Jeremy Bentham; Vol II James Mill; Vol III John Stuart Mill]
Halevy, Elie, The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism
Schumpeter, Joseph, The Communist Manifesto in Sociology and Economics, Journal of Political Economy, June 1949
Kautsky, Karl, The Economic Doctrine of Karl Marx [German original]
Carr, E. H., Karl Marx: A Study in Fanaticism
Mehring, Franz, Karl Marx
Keynes, J. M., Essays in Biography (Alfred Marshall)
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Karl Marx and the Close of His System
Schumpeter, Joseph A., Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
Gray, Alexander, The Socialist Tradition
Sweezy, Paul, The Theory of Capitalist Development
Croce, Benedetto, Historical Materialism
Stigler, George J., Theories of Production and Distribution
Schumpeter, Joseph, Vilfredo Pareto, Q.J.E., May 1949
Mulcahy, Richard E., The Welfare Economics of Heinrich Pesch, Q.J.E., August, 1949

IV. Some Important Works in the History of Economic Thought

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Monroe, A. E., Early Economic Thought
Petty, Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, edited by Charles Henry Hull
King, Two Tracts of Gregory King, edited by George E. Barnett
Steuart, Sir James, Principles of Political Economy
Quesnay, François, Oeuvres Économiques et Philosophiques
Hume, David, Political Discourses
Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Malthus, T. R., Essay on Population (7th ed.) [eighth edition]
Malthus, T. R., Parallel chapters from the first and second edition of the “Essay” (edited by W. J. Ashley)
Malthus, T. R., Principles of Political Economy
Ricardo, David, Political Works (Ed. J. R. McCulloch, with a short biography by idem)
Ricardo, David, Principles of Political Economy
Ricardo, David, Letters of David Ricardo to the Rev. T. R. Malthus
Say, Jean Baptiste, Traité d’Économie Politique [2nd ed. 1814]
Say, Letters of J. B. Say to the Rev. T. R. Malthus
Sismondi, S. de, Nouveaux Principes d’Économie Politique
Senior, Nassau William, Outline of Political Economy
Carey, Henry Charles, Principles of Political Economy
List, Friedrich, Das Nationale System der politischen Oekonomie [German; 1909 English translation]
Cournot, Augustin, Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth (N. Bacon, translator)
von Thuenen, Heinrich, Der Isolierte Staat
Mill, John Stuart, Principles of Political Economy
Mill, John Stuart, Autobiography
Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Cairnes, J. E., Some Leading Principles of Political Economy
Mill, John Stuart, Dissertations and Discussions [Vol. I ; Vol. II ; Vol. III ; Vol. IV]
Marx, Karl, Capital
Marx, Karl, Capital and other works (Selections)
Marx and Engels, The Correspondence of Marx and Engels, 1846-95 (collected by the Marx-Lenin Institute)
Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
Hilferding, Rudolf, Das Finanzkapital
Luxemburg, Rosa, Die Akkumulation des Kapitals
Lenin (Vladimir Ulianov), Imperialism; The State and the Revolution
Gossen, Hermann Heinrich, Entwicklung der Gesetze des menschlichen Verkehrs
Jevons, W. S., The Theory of Political Economy (2nd or later edition)
Menger, Carl, Grundsaetze der Volkswirtschaftslehre
Walras, Leon, Élements d’Économie Politique Pure
Pareto, Vilfredo, Manuel d’Économie Politique
Pareto, Vilfredo, The Mind and Society (A. Livingston, Ed.) [Vol. I & Vol. II ; Vols. III & IV]
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Capital and Interest; and The Positive Theory of Capital
Wieser, F. v., Natural Value
Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics
Marshall, Alfred, Money, Credit and Commerce
Marshall, Alfred, Official Papers
Wicksteed, Philip, Commonsense of Political Economy
Wicksteed, Philip, The Coordination of the Laws of Distribution
Wicksell, Knut, Lectures on Political Economy [Vol. I ; Vol. II], [German translation 1913]
George, Henry, Poverty and Progress
Walker, Francis A., The Wages Question
Clark, J. B., The Distribution of Wealth
Clark, J. B., Essentials of Economic Theory
Fisher, Irving, The Purchasing Power of Money
Fisher, Irving, The Theory of Interest
Davenport, H. J., The Economics of Enterprise
Davenport, H. J., Value and Distribution
Veblen, Thorstein, The Theory of Business Enterprise
Veblen, Thorstein, The Place of Science in Civilization
Commons, John R., Institutional Economics
Schmoller, Gustav, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre [Erster Teil (1908); Zweiter Teil (1904)]
Wagner, Adolf, Grundlegung der Politischen Oekonomie [Vol. I, part 1. 1892, 3ed. ; (Vol 1, part 2. 1894 3ed]
Weber, Max, Theory of Social and Economic Organization
Rerum Novarum (Papal encyclical of May 15, 1891, Leo XIII)
Quadragesimo Anno (Papal encyclical of May 15, 1931, Pius XI)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1950-1951, (1 of 2)”.

Image Source: AEA portrait of William Fellner, Number 71 of a series of photographs of past presidents of the Association, in American Economic Review, Vol. 60, No. 1 (1970).