Category: M.I.T.

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Economists M.I.T.

M.I.T. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus Michael R. Dohan, 1969

 

This meet-an-alumnus post is the result of exercising due-diligence for the 1963 general examination questions in fiscal economics at M.I.T. that I found in Evsey Domar’s papers. There was nothing on the copy of the exam that explicitly mentioned M.I.T. though Domar’s grading sheet was in the same folder with the names of two students, one of whom was “Dohan”. Since I do like to gather biographical information about earlier graduate students of economics–where they came from and what their subsequent careers were,  I think the combination of the obligatory biographical note from his M.I.T. Ph.D. dissertation and his LinkedIn profile provide a very nice set of bookends for the professional life of Michael R. Dohan.

______________________

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE (1969)

            Michael Repplier Dohan, born on January 11, 1941 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, attended Haverford College during 1957-1961 and received a B. A. in June 1961. He entered the doctoral program of the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in September 1961 and passed the general examinations two years later. He studied in the Soviet Union Program of Harvard University during 1963/64, and then returned to M.I.T., where he was a teaching assistant and instructor in economics. He was Lecturer on the Soviet economy at Tufts University in the spring of 1966. In September 1966 he was appointed instructor in economics at the California Institute of Technology and was promoted to assistant professor in August 1969.

He has received a 2nd year Woodrow Wilson Fellowship awarded by M.I.T. (1962-63), a Foreign Area Fellowship (1963-64), a NSF Summer Fellowship for Graduate Teaching Assistants (1965) and a Fulbright to Germany (1963-64, received but not accepted).

Other research on the USSR includes “Soviet Concessions to Foreign Capital 1918-1931, A History,” (Harvard University, 1965, unpublished), and “An Analytical Model of the Soviet Industrialization Debate and the Role of Foreign Trade in Soviet Growth 1920-1930,” (Harvard University, 1967, unpublished).

 

Source:  Michael Repplier Dohan. Soviet Foreign Trade in the NEP Economy and Soviet Industrialization Strategy. M.I.T. Ph.D. thesis, submitted September 1969.  Thesis Supervisor: Evsey D. Domar

_____________________

From Michael R. Dohan LinkedIn Profile

 

Employment

CitiDexLI, Inc.
Senior Editor and Publisher
Apr 1992–[?]

Design and publish online Citidex and CitiDexLI directory- guides for Long Island and New York, used by 500,000 visitors per year.Over 1000 advertisers support this Internet media.
Also published paper versions, called the Traveller’s Yellow Pages for Saint Petersburg, Russia and for Moscow, Russia as well as very popular maps of Saint Petersburg and of Moscow. until 2008.

Queens College
Associate Prof. Of Economics
Feb 1971 – Aug 2015

Teach or have taught Intro Micro, Intro Macro, Intermediate Micro, Comparative Economic Systems, Environmental Economics, Energy Economics, Research Methods for Honors. Past Academic Senator, Past Advisor to the Economics Honor Society, Departmental Treasurer, Senior Evaluator of Foreign Transfer Credits for Foreign Students, active adviser to about 40 students per semester.

California Institute of Technology
Instructor/Assistant Professor
Sep 1965 – Dec 1970

Taught Macro, Micro and developed the first Environmental Economics Course (1965) at Caltech.

 

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  Ph.D. in Economics
1961 – 1969

Specialties: International Trade, Economic Development, Comparative Economics. Russian Research Institute (see Harvard University). Worked under Evsey Domar, Charles Kindleberger and Richard Eckaus. TA for Paul Samuelson. Won the 2nd Year Ford Foundation Scholarship.
While working on my dissertation I attended the MA Program in Russian Studies at Harvard as ABD to teach at Caltech and to finish my dissertation (in 1969): Soviet Foreign Trade in the NEP Economy and Soviet Industrialization Strategy 1913-1938.

 

Haverford College, BA in Economics
1957-1961

Glee Club, Bryn-Mawr-Haverford Madrigal Ensemble, Bryn-Mawr-Haverford Recorder Ensemble, Fencing, German House, Young Friends (Quaker) Meeting.
Sports were skating, skiing and hiking. Lived in German House and French House. Fluent in German and French. Served as translator for one summer as a member of AISEC for a French moving company in Paris.

 

Image Source: Michael Dohan, Professor Emeritus from the Queens College Economics website   captured in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine 18 August 2016.

 

Categories
Carnegie Institute of Technology Columbia Curriculum M.I.T. Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania. Memos from Ando and Dhrymes to the curriculum committee, 1965

 

The significance for the history of economics of the following three memos is that they provide an illustration of the diffusion (infiltration?) of the M.I.T. canon to other departments. Albert Ando taught a few years at M.I.T. before coming to Penn and Phoebus Dhrymes (M.I.T., Ph.D., 1961) wrote his dissertation under Kuh and Solow.  The memos were sent to the curriculum committee of the department of economics at the University of Pennsylvania in January 1965 (at least the Ando memo is dated January 14, 1965 and it explicitly refers to the Phoebus memo and their recommendations to the Mathematics Committee that are undated).

Obituaries for both Ando and Dhrymes have been added to this post and precede the three memos.

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror thanks Juan C. A. Acosta who found these memos in the Lawrence Klein Papers at the Duke University Economists’ Papers Project and has graciously shared them for transcription here. 

Addition to post: At Banca d’Italia, N. 7 – Albert Ando: a bibliography of his writings.

_______________________________

Albert Keinosuke Ando
1929-2002
Obituary

Dr. Albert Ando, professor of economics, SAS and professor of finance, Wharton, died on September 19 [2002] at the age of 72.

Dr. Ando was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1929 and came to the United States after World War II. He received his B.S. in economics from the University of Seattle in 1951, his M.A. in economics from St. Louis University in 1953, and an M.S. in economics in 1956 and a Ph.D. in mathematical economics in 1959 from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). Dr. Ando came to Penn in 1963 as an associate professor of economics and finance and became professor of economics and finance in 1967. He held this position until his death.

Dr. Lawrence Klein, Nobel laureate in economics and professor emeritus of economics wrote the following about his colleague.

After World War II many Japanese scholars visited the United States for general education and to modernize their training in some key subjects. Albert Ando, Professor of Economics and Finance, who died of Leukemia last week was an early arrival in the 1940s. He was educated at Seattle and St. Louis Universities and often expressed gratitude at the career start provided by his Jesuit teachers in an adopted country.

He completed the doctoral program in mathematical economics at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he was strongly influenced by Herbert Simon with whom he collaborated in research papers on aggregation and causation in economic systems. He also worked closely with another (Nobel Laureate to be) Franco Modigliani on the life cycle analysis of saving, spending, and income.

Dr. Ando was on the faculties of the Carnegie and of the Massachusetts Institutes of Technology before moving to the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained since 1963. He had visiting appointments at universities in Louvain, Bonn, and Stockholm. He consulted with the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve Board, The Bank of Italy, and the Economic Planning Agency of Japan. He held many positions as an editor of scholarly journals and wrote numerous articles and books.

The main contributions of Professor Ando were in econometrics (theory and applications), monetary analysis, demographic aspects of household economic behavior, economic growth, and economic stabilization. His work on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, and Social Science Research Council (MPS) model was of great benefit for the research department of the Federal Reserve Board, and his more recent work on econometrics for the Bank of Italy had been very fruitful.

He served as chairman of the graduate group in the economics department, 1986-1989, and developed excellent working relationships with many advanced students. He set very high standards, and those he worked with as thesis supervisor benefited greatly. He was extremely loyal and dedicated to their work, maintaining close connection with them after they departed from the University.

During his long and fruitful career, he earned many honors–as Fellow of the Econometric Society, as a Ford Foundation Faculty Research Fellow; as a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Japan Foundation Fellow. He was given the Alexander von Humboldt Award for Senior American Scientists.

Albert Ando is survived by his wife of 35 years, Faith H. Ando, two professorial sons, Matthew and Clifford, and a daughter, Alison, who has just been admitted to the New York Bar. His mother, sister, and brother, live in Japan.

–Lawrence Klein, Professor Emeritus of Economics

Source: University of Pennsylvania. Almanac. Vol. 49, No. 6, October 1, 2002.

_______________________________

Phoebus James Dhrymes
(1932-2016)

Phoebus J. Dhrymes (1932-2016), the Edwin W. Rickert Professor Emeritus of Economics, was a Cypriot American econometrician who made substantial methodological contributions to econometric theory.  Born in the Republic of Cyprus in 1932, Phoebus Dhrymes arrived in the United States in 1951, settling with relatives in New York City. After a few months, he volunteered to be drafted into the US Army for a two-year tour of duty; afterwards he attended the University of Texas at Austin on the GI Bill. In 1961 he earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Edwin Kuh and Robert Solow (Nobel Laureate 1987).  After a year-long post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford, he began his professorial career at Harvard, then moved to the University of Pennsylvania, and then UCLA.  In1973 he joined the Department of Economics at Columbia University; he was named the Edwin W. Rickert Professor of Economics in 2003 and retired in 2013.

Econometrics refers to that aspect of the economist’s work concerned with quantifying and testing economic trends. Phoebus Dhrymes‘early research focused on problems of production and investment, but he soon turned to more methodological work and produced important results on time series and on simultaneous equations.  Throughout his career, Phoebus Dhrymes placed much emphasis on the dissemination of scientific knowledge. In the early 1970s he helped found the Journal of Econometrics, which has become the leading journal in this field.  He was also on the advisory board of the Econometric Theory, and was managing editor and editor of the International Economic Review.He was a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Statistical Association.Dr. Dhrymes was also one of the founders of the University of Cyprus, from which he was later awarded an honorary degree.

He wrote a series of influential textbooks including Distributed Lags:  Problems of Estimation and Formulation. This work was translated into Russian and published by the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, and in the 1970s Dr. Dhrymes was invited to visit the (now former) Soviet Union, specifically Moscow and Novosibirsk. At the time such visits were unusual events for westerners, requiring rarely-issued visas and security clearances, particularly for centers of research such as Novosibirsk.

In a 1999 interview he characterized his books as “filters that distill and synthesize the wisdom of many contributors to the subject.   On this score, I was influenced in my writing by the way I learn when studying by myself.”  (Econometric Theory, 18, 2002)

Dr. Dhrymes is survived by his daughter, Alexis, and his sons, Phoebus and Philip. In his personal life, he was regarded as a generous, kind and gentle man, always there for his family. He came from humble beginnings, and garnered great respect from his family and friends for his achievements. He spoke often of how much he enjoyed teaching. He was always available to his students.He encouraged individualized thinking and understanding of processes rather than rote memorization in learning. He had a warm and affable demeanor, recalled fondly by former students and family members. He will be sadly missed.

Source: Obituary for Phoebus J. Dhrymes at the Columbia University Department of Economics Website.

_______________________________

Memorandum

To: Herbert Levine, Chairman, Curriculum Committee
From: Albert Ando
Subject: Offerings and Requirements in Macroeconomics, Monetary Theory, and Related areas in General Economics Ph.D. Program

  1. Macroeconomics

Enclosed herein is a copy of the outline and references of Economics 621 [The outline and references will be posted later] as I am offering it this fall. It is fairly similar to [the] one year course in macroeconomics which is required of all Ph.D. students at MIT. I am sure that opinions would vary on details, but it is my view that this represents more or less the topics and literature that all Ph.D. students in economics should be familiar with. Ideally, I think there should be another major topic at the end of the outline dealing with current problems and policies.

It is fairly clear that this outline could not be covered in one term, particularly under our present system in which there are only 13 to 14 weeks of classes for a term. As a matter of fact, this fall, with a great deal of rushing throughout the term, I will be able to finish the static part of the outline by the end of the fall term, but certainly no further.

This suggests that the required macroeconomics for Ph.D. students should be two term sequence of courses, the first term dealing essentially with the Keynesian static analysis, and the second term with dynamics, i.e., business cycles and growth models.

  1. Monetary Economics

I have just discovered that Economics 622 is taught without any prerequisite, and that there will be some students in 622 who have not had any macroeconomic theory this spring. I am somewhat stunned, and do not see how I will be able to teach a satisfactory course under the circumstances. This situation is indicated by the fact that 622 is required not only of Ph.D. students in economics but also of master’s candidates, and therefore it is apparently impossible to exclude the students from 622 who have not had 621. An obvious temporary solution is to make those students who have not had 621 wait until next year to take 622. In my view, elements of monetary problems should be included in the first term of the required macroeconomics course, and courses in monetary theory should be made elective. The course in monetary theory should then be taught assuming that students have had adequate preparation in macroeconomics and microeconomics, particularly the theory of general equilibrium, at the level where we can discuss the research and developments in the past dozen years or so, bringing students up to a point where they can draw a thesis topic from their work in the course. There is a room for an argument that there should be another course in addition to the advanced theory course, which deals with more traditional money and banking material. As a matter of fact, I offered two courses in monetary economics at MIT for several years, one dealing with traditional money and banking material taking the one term each of macro and micro economics as prerequisites, and another highly theoretical and advanced course taking two terms each of macro [and] micro economics as prerequisites. It seems to me, however, that Economics 639, Monetary Problems and Policies, should serve as the good traditional money and banking course, so that only one additional course seems to be needed.

  1. Microeconomics and Mathematics

After some discussion with Dhrymes, it is fairly clear that microeconomics should also be taught as a two term sequence. A possible division between two terms would be to deal with partial equilibrium analysis of consumers and firms during the first term, and with the general equilibrium analysis and welfare economics in the second term.

During this fall term, Dhrymes and I found it necessary to conduct a few special remedial sessions in mathematics so that some rudimentary notions of calculus and linear transformation will be available in the discussions in theory courses. The idea, of course, is to arrange so that all students are equipped with minimum of mathematics by the beginning of the second term. If the recommendation of the committee on mathematics is adopted, so that students will learn elementary calculus and the matrices and linear transformation, including rudiments of linear differences and differential equations at the level suggested by the committee it is possible to synchronize it with theory courses so that theory courses will be using only those mathematics students are learning in mathematics remedial courses. For instance, the first term of macro theory would not require too much mathematics except the notion of the systems of equations and their solutions, and the first term of micro theory not much more than the condition of extremum in a fairly informal manner. In the second term, on the other hand, theory courses will require conditions of stability in the general equilibrium analysis, and the difference and differential equations in dynamic models in macroeconomics.

  1. Overall First year program and Second year fields of specialization.

In addition to micro and macro theories and mathematics required for these theory courses, students should be asked to learn minimum of statistics and econometrics. The level of statistics and econometrics should be maintained at the level of text books such as Frazer, Brunk, or Mood plus Johnston.

The implication of the above statement is that the course schedule for typical first year Ph.D. students should look as follows:

First term:

Microeconomics I (Partial equilibrium analysis)
Macroeconomics I (Static Keynesian analysis, including some monetary considerations).
Mathematics I (Elementary calculus)*
Mathematics II (Elementary Linear Algebra)*
Economic History (For those with Adequate mathematical training)

*For the suggested content of mathematics courses, see recommendations of Mathematics Committee.

Second Term:

Microeconomics II (General equilibrium analysis and welfare economics).
Macroeconomics II (Dynamics, business cycles and growth)
Econometrics (6 hour course)

This schedule, of course, would be subject to variations depending on the background and preparations of students. For instance, students who already have sufficient mathematical training might be encouraged to take a course in economic history and a course in somewhat more advanced mathematics, such as mathematical theory of probability or a course in topology in the first term in place of Mathematics I and II.

_______________________________

Lists of Topics for Mathematics for Economists
[Recommendations of Ando and Dhrymes submitted to the Mathematics Committee]

(Mr. Balinski is to suggest some alternative text books)

  1. Calculus
    1. Sets and Functions.
      1. Definitions
      2. Operations on Sets and Subsets.
      3. Relations, Functions.
        K.M.S.T. Chapter 2, Sections 1 through 6, possibly Sections 10 through 13.
    2. Functions, Limits, and Continuity.
    3. Differentiation and Integration of Functions of one variable.
      1. Concepts and Mechanics.
      2. Infinite series and Taylor’s Theories.
      3. Extremum Problems.
    4. Differentiation and Integration of Functions of many variables.
      1. Concepts and mechanics.
      2. Extremum problems, nonconstrained and constrained.
      3. Implicit Function Theorem.
        Any elementary text book in Calculus (e.g. Thomas; Sherwood and Taylor), Supplemented by some sections of a slightly more advanced text on Implicit Function Theorem and La Grange multipliers.
  2. Linear Algebra and others.
    1. Vector Spaces and Matrices.
      1. Vector Spaces and Matrices, Definitions, and Motivations.
        Perlis, Chapters 1 and 2.
      2. Linear Transformations.
        K.M.S.T., Chapter 4, Sections 7 through 12.
      3. Equivalence, Rank, and Inverse.
        Perlis, Chapter 3.
        Perlis, Chapter 4.
      4. Quadratic Forms, Positive Definite and semi-definite Matrices.
        Perlis, Chapter 5, Sections 1, 2, and 5
      5. Characteristic Vectors and Roots.
        Perlis, Chapter 8, Sections 1 and w[?], Chapter 9, Sections 1, 2, 5, and 6.
      6. Difference and Differential Equations; Linear with Constant Coefficients.
        Goldberg, Chapters 1, w, e, and Chapter 4, Sections 1 and 5; Perlis, Chapter 7, Section 10. Some reference to two dimensional phase diagram analysis of non-linear differential equations with 2 variables. Lotke?
      7. Convex Sets.
        K.M.S.T., Chapter 5.

_______________________________

MEMORANDUM
January 14, 1965

To: Curriculum Committee
From: Phoebus J. Dhrymes
Subject: Mathematics, Microeconomics, Statistics and Econometrics in the Economics Graduate Training Program

  1. Mathematics

It has become quite apparent to me during the course of the last term that our students are woefully equipped to handle instruction involving even very modest and elementary mathematics.

I think it is quite generally accepted that a student specializing in Theory, Econometrics and to a lesser extent International Trade and Industrial Organization would find it increasingly difficult to operate as a professional economist, and indeed seriously handicapped in satisfactorily carrying on a graduate study progress, without adequate mathematical training. With this in mind Albert Ando and I have prepared a tentative list of topics that graduate students ought be minimally familiar with and which has been presented to the Mathematics Committee.

This could form a remedial (and a bit beyond) course to extend over a year and to be taken (by requirement or suggestion) by students intending to specialize in the fields mentioned above during their first year of residence.

  1. Microeconomics

It has been my experience in teaching Econ. 620 that one semester is a rather brief period for covering the range of microeconomic theory a graduate student in Pennsylvania ought to be exposed to. As it is the case at both Harvard and MIT, I would propose that the course Econ. 620 be extended to a year course. Roughly speaking, the topics to be covered might be:

  1. Theory of Consumer Behavior
    1. the Hicksian version
    2. the von Neumann-Morgenstern version, including the Friedman-Savage paper
  2. Demand functions, elasticities, etc.
  3. Theory of the firm; output and price determination
    1. Production functions
    2. Cost functions and their relations to i.
    3. Revenue and profit functions and the profit maximizing hypothesis
    4. The perfectly competitive firm and industry, and their equilibrium; comparative statics; supply functions
    5. The monopolistic firm
    6. Monopolistic competition
    7. Duopoly and oligopoly
  4. Factor employment equilibrium
    1. Factor demand functions
    2. Factor employment equilibrium under various market institutional arrangements
    3. Some income distribution theory
    4. Factor supply.
  5. General Equilibrium Analysis; Input-Output models
  6. Welfare Economics (Samuelson; Graaf)
  7. Capital Theory (Fisher, Wicksell, recent contributions)
  8. (Marginally) Some revealed preference theory; or neoclassical growth models; or alternative theories of the firm (e.g., Cyert and Marsh)

It would be desirable if students were sufficiently well-equipped mathematically to handle these topics at some level intermediate between Friedman’s Price Theory Text and Henderson and Quandt; however, since this is not the case at present some other alternative must be found, such as in the manner in which the propose mathematics course is taught, and the order in which topics above are covered. The split of the subjects could be a) through c) or d) for the first semester and the remainder for the second semester. Clearly, neither the topics proposed nor the split represent my immutable opinion and there is considerable room for discussion.

  1. Statistics

At present the statistical training of our students suffers from their inadequate mathematical preparations.

It is my opinion that minimally we should require of our students that they be familiar with the elementary notions of statistical inference, estimation, testing of hypotheses and regression analysis at the level of, say, Hoel, or Mood and Graybill, or any other similar text, (a semester course). For students intending to specialize in Econometrics or other heavily quantitative fields, then it should be highly desirable that a year course be available, say at the level of Mood and Graybill, Graybill, or Fraser, Hogg and Craig, Brunk, etc., with suitable supplementary material. Since, we do have access to a statistics department it might be desirable for our students to take a suitable course there.

Again, due to the problems posed by the mathematics deficiency of incoming students, some accommodation must be reached on this score as well.

  1. Econometrics

Econometrics should not be a required subject; rather the requirement—minimal requisite—should be confined to the one semester course indicated under III. It would be desirable to offer a year course to be taken after the statistics sequence and which would cover at the level of, say, Klein, Goldberger, or my readings showing applications and problems connected thereto.

Topics, could start by reviewing the general linear model, Aitken estimators and similar related topics; simultaneous equation and identification problems, k-class estimators, 3SLS, maximum likelihood estimation, full and limited information, Monte Carlo methods.

Also selected topics from Multivariate Analysis; specification analysis, error in variable problems; elements of stochastic processes theory and spectral and cross spectra analysis.

It might be desirable to teach these subjects in the order cited above, although it would appear preferable to have multivariate analysis precede the review of the general linear model.

  1. General Comments:

I generally agree with Albert Ando’s memorandum on proposed curriculum revision in so far as they pertain to Mathematics requirements, Macro-economics and Monetary Theory.

I think that at present we require our students to take too many courses. I would favor only the following requirements; the basic Micro and Macro year courses. At least a semester of statistics, as indicated under III, and one semester in either economic history or history of economic thought—although I do not feel too strongly on the latter. I presume, in all of this that students in our program are only those ultimately aiming at specialization in Theory, Econometrics, International Trade, Industrial Organization, and possibly Comparative Systems, or Soviet Economics. It is my understanding that our curriculum will not cover those concentrating in Labor Relations, Regional Science or Economic History.

Thus, through their first year our students would be taking more or less required courses, with the second year essentially left open for their special fields of concentration.

Thus, the course program of a typical first year student will look more or less as shown in Albert Ando’s memorandum, p. 4, although I would be somewhat uneasy about requiring 6 hours of mathematics in the first term and 6 hours of statistics (econometrics) in the second term of the first year. Nonetheless I do not object strongly to this, and indeed in this past term many of the students taking 620 and 621 had in effect taken a six-hour course in Mathematics, 611 as taught by Dorothy Brady and approximately 3 hours as taught by Albert Ando and myself.

Quite clearly the above are merely proposals intended to serve as a basis for discussion an ultimately for guidance of entering students in planning their program of study rather than rigid requirements.

 

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive, Lawrence Klein Papers, Box 19, Folder “Curriculum”.

Images: Left, Albert Ando; Right, Phoebus Dhrymes. From the respective obituaries above.

Categories
Funny Business M.I.T.

M.I.T. Economics skit from about 1971

 

The following M.I.T. economics skit from ca. 1971 attains biblical proportions or at least displays biblical pretensions. The script comes from Robert Solow’s file of many such skits that Roger Backhouse has copied during his archival research. Alas this script displays some half-dozen gaps, but there is always some hope that the missing parts (mainly lyrics for songs noted below) will be found eventually in some other economist’s archived papers.

While there is no explicit date on the manuscript, the references to President Nixon, a mention of the eighth edition of Samuelson’s Economics (published in 1970) and the reference to Bishop and Domar who last taught the first graduate microeconomic and macroeconomic courses in 1970-71 are sufficient to give us a reasonably tight point estimate of early 1971 for this skit.

I have taken the liberty of correcting the many spelling errors and obvious typos. To improve readability I have also added boldface, alignment formatting etc. Comments are found within square brackets in italics.

Nerd humor, crude double entendre, puns coexist along side of flashes of wit and emotion. But it is mostly nerd humor.

_________________________

Opening Song [Lyrics missing]

Announcer [Text missing]

Narrator:

In the beginning God created the endowments and utility.
And God looked on the utility and saw that they were goods.
And there was darkness upon the face of the utility and the utility was without form.
And God said let there be light and there was light and the preferences were revealed.
And God said let there be a social welfare function and so it was that the preferences were ordered.
And God said let there be liberation of consciousness and there was consciousness of liberation.
And created economic man in his own image.
And on the seventh day God rested because the Robnett was closed.

[Robnett was name of the room in the Sloan Building that served as a graduate student lounge.]

[Enter Adam]

Adam: Like man, what am I gonna do with this endowment of two nuts I got stuck with. There ain’t no one to exchange ‘em with. I can’t get no satisfaction.

[Enter Eve tossing apple]

Eve: Hey man wanna bite of my apple

Adam: Now we’re getting down to the core of the problem.

Eve: Can I have one of your nuts if I give you a bite of my apple.

Adam: Well you see, I suffer from a certain lumpiness in my endowments. One nut ain’t no good to you on its own but I’ll exchange both of my nuts for 2 bites of your apple.

Eve: Hold it: I got a better idea. Why don’t we put your nuts and my apples together and reproduce them. Perhaps we can make a date.

[Gong and Lights]

God:   Stop! In creating this perfect static world for you, I forbade you to break the budget constraint. Now you have reproduced your endowments and broken the budget constraint. Henceforth I condemn all economic men to conduct their intercourse only through the medium of money, and each and every man shall maximize his profits.

[Exit God]

Narrator: ….and so it came to pass that a whole stream of prophets came into existence. And the first and greatest of these was Paul, son of Samuel, who led his tribe out of the gates of Harvard. And whilst resting at Tech. Square Paul saw a flash of burning light from behind the NASA building. And God spoke unto Paul and Paul wrote down these words on a tabernacle later to be called the Ten Foundations.

[Enter Paul]

Paul: Adam Smith who begat Malthus who had a surplus so he begat Ricardo who begat Marx, who By God was a bigoted begat. But Böhm-Bawerk begat Jevons who then begat Marshall who then get begat John Keynes. But Schumpeter came from the Austrian school and finally begat me.

While we’re waiting for Joan to print up the tabernacles for us why don’t we have a sing-song to make sure you know the begetting chain.

SONG – WHEN ECON.
[For the melody: Paul Robeson’s rendition of the original hymn]

LET MY PEOPLE KNOW

  1. When Econs were in Adams land (solo)
    Let my people know (chorus)
    Everything worked by the invisible hand (solo)
    Let my people know (chorus)
    Go down Paul way down in (Adams) land
    Tell old (Adam) let my people know
  2. When econs were in Ricardo’s land
    The topic was the rent on land
  3. When econs were in Marx’s land
    Come now brothers and join the band
  4. When econs were in Marshall’s land
    All was solved with a maximand
  5. When econs were in Keynesian Land
    Savings equaled investment planned

[Joan enters gives notes to Paul]

Paul: During the five minutes left to me I’ll read to you from the Ten Foundations.

TEN FOUNDATIONS
[Text missing]

[Gong, lights]

God: Paul! the promised land lies before the tribe of econs and thou must lead them unto this land of math and money. Thou shalt find it on a piece of old wasteland between the factories down on the river.

[Exit God]

Narrator: …and so the tribe of economists came to rest but Paul was not to become head of the tribe but instead the church grew and a Bishop was made head.

[Enter Bishop]

Bishop… Reads from manuscript in Pious voice

Everybody: Get off that’s last year’s skit.

[Exit Bishop]

Narrator: But the economists were not to live in peace for long for the mighty hosts of the Philistines fell upon them and besieged them.

[Enter 2 economists]

1st Econ: They say that these Philistines have a great warrior called Goliath who has issued a challenge to all economists to face him as champion of the Philistines.

2nd Econ: This character sounds Frankly Fishy to me

[Enter Frank]

Frank: No one calls Frank a Philistine. Take that and that.

[kills two economists.]

Narrator: And now a word from my sponsor: [Aitken Ad:]

 

Announcer: When you wake up in the morning, do your residuals seem to be going round and round?

If they do, you may be suffering from serial correlation. For severe bouts of serial correlation, especially if accompanied by lagged endogenous variables, see your local econometrician. But for the ordinary, everyday serial correlation, try Aitken’s, generalized least squares.
Don’t confuse Aitken’s with any ordinary least squares.

Scientific tests have proved that ordinary least squares is inefficient when it comes to serial correlation. Ordinary least squares merely covers up the problem, making you feel better by giving you optimistically high R2’s, low standard errors. Aitken’s heals while it conceals.

So for all of you who suffer from low Durbin-Watson statistics, the swing is to Aitkens’s. Aitken’s generalized least squares, brewed in Edinburgh, and other fine cities. But you know that.

[Others sing Amazing Frank]
[For the melody: Paul Robeson’s rendition of the original hymn]

Amazing Frank how sweet the sound
To save a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see.

That precious day that Frank appeared
The hour I first believed
Twas Frank that taught my heart to fear
And Frank my fears relieved.

Through many dangers toils & snares
I have already come
‘Tis Frank that’s brought me safe this far
And Frank will lead me home.

Narrator: ….and there was among the economists one called David.

David: All of my people are being killed—I must rescue them.

[hands cigarette to Frank who dies]

All Econs: How did you do it?

David: It’s easy—he got stoned!

All: Oh!

Narrator:…and so David became King of the tribe of Economists.

…and David begat a wise son called Solomon who inherited the ability to always know the question when given the answer

[QUESTION AND ANSWER: Text Missing]

Narrator:…But the economists lost their respect for the elders of the tribe and the world became more and more evil. This threw the economists into an economic and moral problem. The reproduction rate became higher, a labour saving device had to be introduced.

[LET’S CONTRACEPT: Lyrics or Text Missing]

[Bishop enters]

Bishop: I’m not surprised the world’s becoming more evil that Nixon just sits and fiddles while Arthur Burns. I must read the economic word to the econs

[23rd Psalm: Lyrics or Text Missing]

My lesson isn’t working, just listen to the people

[ain’t gonna deflate]

AIN’T GONNA DEFLATE

[Sung to the tune Blood on the Risers (Gory Gory What a Helluva Way to Die)]

VERSE

  1. They increased supply of money till the central bank was bust
    Commercial banks gave credit till restrictions were a must
    Investment broker ran amuck with their investment trusts
    AND we ain’t gonna deflate no more

CHORUS:
Glory Glory what a hell of a way to go (3 times)
And we ain’t gonna deflate no more

  1. They equaled up the tax receipts to gov’ment expenditure
    They raised the defense budget- so to help along the war
    And Dicky’s own account became more and more and more
    AND we ain’t gonna deflate no more

CHORUS:

  1. They lowered the rate of interest to keep Euro-dollars out
    The Germans out exchange rates messed everyone about
    The French exported gold to all as if there were a draught
    AND we ain’t gonna deflate no more

CHORUS

  1. They printed paper money and handed it around
    Sent money to Cape Kennedy got rockets off the ground
    But all the money printed went straight to Herr von Braun
    AND we ain’t gonna deflate no more

CHORUS

  1. Speculators bulled and beared till buffaloed they got
    Stability was never heard become a laughing spot
    The widows and the orphans cried keep down that old p dot
    NO     WE AIN’T GONNA DEFLATE NO MORE.

 

Narrator: ….one man alone was good in all this world.

[Franco Sawing]

[Gong, lights]

[The following Noah’s ark piece borrows heavily from the 1963 comedy album “Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Man….Right!” ]

God: Franco! (3 times) crescendo

Franco: No answer.

God: This is the Lord, Franco (Thunderously)

Franco: I’ll be with you in about 5 minutes.

God: Franco I want you to build me a model. I want it to be 60 equations long and 30 variables wide.

Franco: But I don’t know any econometrics.

God: So! Franco I want you to take two of every kind of variable into your model. Your model alone can save mankind for I shall flood the world with money.

Narrator: ….and so Franco worked feverishly not to say Frank-tically gathering variables from all his students until eventually he had two of every kind.

[Gong, lights]

God: Franco

Franco: What!

God: The time has come Franco

Franco: Do you know what I’ve been through. I’ve got all these variables and stuck them all in my model. They all look the same to me. How am I supposed to identify them?
Besides you didn’t tell me those variables were homoskedastic.
Now the investment’s got galloping consumptions, that infant industry’s riding his business cycle everywhere, income’s got a growth.
The whole model’s exploding.

[Gong, lights]

Franco: My God it’s shorting

Narrator:…and so money rained for forty days and forty nights.

[Franco looks out from model]

Franco: It’s stopped.

[Lights, gong]

God: Franco

Franco: Here we go again

God: You must tell all the variables to leave the model and multiply.

[Exit God]

Franco: Easier said than done. All right, come on out all you variables. Go away and multiply…go away and multiply.

[Enter 2 adders kissing]

1st Adder: We can’t multiply

Franco: Why not?

2nd Adder: We’re adders

Franco: There must be some way. God’s always right. Look, look, they’ve multiplied. How did you manage it.

1st adder: It’s marvelous what you can do with Logs isn’t it.

[Exeunt]

Narrator:…and so a population explosion occurred over night. And new preachers of the true economic world arose.

Announcer: And they begat three economists, Diamond, Modigliani, and Bhagwati.

 

[SONG: JAG, PETER, AND FRANCO]
[Still need to establish the original song used to parody]

THREE ECONOMISTS

(soft shoe routine)

Together: I’m Peter, I’m Franco, I’m Jagdish Bhagwati
We are the finest teachers in the world

Peter: I teach public finance though it’s sometimes hard to tell

Franco: I teach monetary and I give my students hell

Jagdish: I just sit and listen to the questions of Steve Zell

Together: Oh we are the finest teachers in the world.

[Peter does his thing, commentator describing. Text/Lyrics missing]

Together: I’m Peter, I’m Franco, I’m Jagdish Bhagwati
We all have our own teaching techniques.

Peter: I like mathematics—it’s a discipline sublime

Franco: I think talking slowly is a really awful crime

Jagdish: I draw Johnson diagrams—a dozen for a dime.

Together: Oh we all have our own teaching techniques

[Franco does his ad for the MITFRB model. Text/Lyrics missing]

[Jagdish does his offer curves spiel. Text/Lyrics missing]

Together: I’m Peter, I’m Franco, and I am Jagdish B.
We are the hardest workers in the world

Peter: I worked through Thanksgiving but I didn’t get much done

Franco: I run back and forwards from Cambridge to Washington

Jagdish: My output of articles is measured by the ton

Together: Oh we are the hardest workers
No we couldn’t be called shirkers
Yes we are the hardest workers in the world, oh yeah.

 

[STUDENTS LAMENT]

THE GRADUATE STUDENTS’ SONG

[To the tune of “My God how the money rolls in”]
[swaying from side to side, arms linked, on choruses]

ALL:

  1. Oh we are all graduate students
    We study with vigor and vim
    ‘Cos once we have got our Ph.D’s
    My God how the money rolls in.

Rolls in, rolls in, my God how the money rolls in, rolls in
Rolls in, rolls in, my God how the money rolls in.

  1. Our first year it was quite traumatic
    Just like being torn limb from limb
    We made it through Bishop and Domar
    Although at times it was quite grim
  2. But now as we’re facing the generals
    Our chances of passing seem slim
    We’re trying to alter the format
    The faculty will not give in

(pleading)

Give in, give in, oh faculty won’t you give in, give in
Give in, give in, oh faculty won’t you give in.

  1. And then we’ll start writing our theses
    We’ll make a great contribution
    We’ll go to the AEA meetings
    To get in the job market swim
  2. We’ll write up some erudite papers
    With lots of equations therein
    Then next comes a best-selling textbook
    To give Paul some competition

Competition, competition, to give Paul some competition, ‘tition
Competition, competition, to give Paul some competition.

  1. Paul Samuelson’s text is on top now
    It’s up to its eighth edition
    But we’ll supersede it entirely
    And start off a new tradition
  2. The they’ll give the Nobel Prize to us
    Our pride will be full to the brim
    And after we’ve published we’ll perish
    My God how the money rolls in

Rolls in, rolls in, my God how the money rolls in, rolls in
Rolls in, rolls in, my God how the money rolls in.

 

Source:   Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives, Papers of Robert M. Solow, Box 83.

Image Source:   Sir John Betjeman—an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. From “Myrth Study” at the National Geographic Website (23 Dec 2013). He has nothing to do with the history of economics, but I love this picture of laughter!

Categories
Curriculum M.I.T.

M.I.T. Course Descriptions for Economics and Statistics, 1930-31

 

Before the dawn of the Samuelson era at M.I.T., the department had definitely a different look and feel. Davis R. Dewey was a reasonably known scholar of public finance in his day. But the mixture of business and economics is the most striking impression one takes away from the course offerings. Look at the program 30 years later!   The group portrait of the M.I.T. economics department in 1976 reveals the addition of one woman!     

Back row:  Foster, Fiske, Thresher, Underwood, Elder
Middle row: Ingraham, Raymond, Fernstrom, Doten, Silverman
Front row: Schell, Dewey, Tucker, Porter

Source: The M.I.T. Yeaarbook, Technique 1930, p.

________________________

Faculty of Economics, Statistics [and Business]

Davis Rich Dewey, A.B., University of Vermont’79, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins ’86, L.L.D., University of Vermont ’10.
Professor of Political Economy and Statistics; in charge of the Department of Economics and Statistics: in charge of the course in Engineering Administrations.

Floyd Elmer Armstrong, B.A., ’14,  M.A., ’15 University of Michigan.
Professor of Political Economy

Carroll Warren Doten, Ph.B., ’95, A.M. ’99, University of Vermont; A.M., Harvard University ’02.
Professor of Political Economy.

Erwin Haskell Schell, S.B. ’12, M.I.T.
Professor of Business Management.

Donald S. Tucker, A.B., Colorado College ’06; A.M., Williams College ’12; Ph.D., Columbia University ’23.
Professor of Political Economy.

Charles H. Porter, A.B., Brown University ’00; S.B. ’03.
Associate Professor of Accounting.

Karl Dickson Fernstrom, S.B. ’10.
Associate Professor of Business Management.

Fairfield Eager Raymond, A.B., Harvard University ’18; S.B. ’21.
Assistant Professor of Industrial Research.

Wyman Parkhurst Fiske, A.B. ’20, M.A.B. ’23, Harvard University; LL.B., Suffolk Law School ’27.
Assistant Professor of Accounting.

Robert Fairchild Elder, A.B., Harvard University ’22.
Non-Member of the Faculty, Instructor.

F. Leroy Foster, S.B. ’25.
Non-Member of the Faculty, Instructor.

Olin Ingraham, Ph.B., A.M.
Instructor.

Abraham George Silverman, S.B., Harvard University ’21; M.A., Stanford University ’23; A.M., Harvard University ’24.
Non-Member of the Faculty, Instructor.

Brainerd Alden Thresher, S.B. ’20; A.M., Harvard University ’28.
Non-Member of the Faculty, Instructor.

Raymond Underwood, S.B. ’29
Non-Member of the Faculty, Assistant.

Oscar W. Hausserman, A.B. ’12, LL.B., ’16, Harvard University.
Special Lecturer for Business Law

Joseph Chrisman MacKinnon, S.B. [?]
Registrar of Business Administration, M.I.T.

________________________

DESCRIPTION OF SUBJECTS
ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
M.I.T., 1930-31

In this Department is grouped the instruction given in general economics to students all courses, and also the more specialized subjects provided for the course in Business and Engineering Administration (XV).

Subjects Ec1 to Ec99

Ec21. Political Economy. [Prerequisite: E12] Less extensive in its scope than Political Economy Ec31, Ec32. More emphasis is placed upon fundamental principles, and less time devoted to such subjects as money, banking, trusts, labor problems, etc., which are covered by special subjects in Course XV. [Doten]

Ec31, Ec32. Political Economy. [Prerequisite: E12] Elementary but comprehensive. Consists of an analysis and description of the existing economic structure of society, a brief study of economic theory and the application of that theory to some of the more important economic questions. Special attention is given in Ec32 to fundamental business processes including principles of accounting, corporate organization and finance, credit and banking, labor problems and business management. [Dewey and D. S. Tucker]

Ec35. Political Economy. [Prerequisite: E31] Given for students in Course XIII-A. Covers Ec31 and part of Ec32. [Armstrong]

Ec37. Banking. [Prerequisite: E21, Ec65] Credit instruments, credit documents, national banks, state banks, trust companies, savings banks, different kinds of loans, securities for loans, credit statements, the bank statement, the money market, relation of the treasury and crop movement to money market, clearing house, domestic and foreign exchange. [Dewey]

Ec45. Industrial Relations. Covers in general the same field as G21, though in somewhat abbreviated form. Special consideration is given to the history of the railroad brotherhoods and to the federal laws applicable to disputes in that industry as well as to its personnel problems. [Doten]

Ec46. Industrial Relations. [Prerequisite: E21 or Ec31] Intended to familiarize the student with the more important problems which arise out of the relation of employer and employee under present conditions of industry. In addition to a consideration of the organizations and policies of the parties to the contract of employment, it deals with the principles and to some extent the technique of employment management or personnel work. [Doten]

Ec471, Ec472. [Prerequisite: E21 or Ec31, G21] Personnel Management (A). Principles and technique of personnel work, sometimes called human engineering. Problems that arise in practice in recruiting, training and maintaining a labor force. Comparative studies of the methods and practices in selection, including mental and trade tests; placement, promotion and transfer; education and training; job analysis and specifications; the measurement and control of turnover; regularization of employment; absenteeism and tardiness, and other specific problems. Other topics for investigation will include methods of wage payment; benefit plans, including pensions and insurance; health and welfare work; housing; labor legislation, including safety supervision and workmen’s compensation. [Doten]

Ec50. Accounting. [Prerequisite: E12] Systematic recording of financial data is a requisite of business; its basis double entry bookkeeping. But more important for management, stockholders and the general public is analysis directed toward useful conclusions. Instruction therefore, deals with balance sheets, profit and loss statements, surplus, depreciation reserves, methods of report analyses, etc. Actual corporation reports and records are studied. [C. H. Porter, W.P. Fiske]

Ec51. Cost Accounting (B). [Prerequisite: E50, Ec70] Methods of determining costs of materials, processes of labor and machines; the distribution of direct costs and overhead expenses; cost data to test management and to show the particular sources of profits or losses; shipping orders; inventories; recording and payment of wages. The development of standard costs as a basis for management and industrial control is emphasized. [C. H. Porter, W.P. Fiske]

Ec521. Analysis of Business Statements (A). [Prerequisite: E51] Aims to develop analytical ability in the interpretation of business statements and reports. Will include analysis of actual statements, study of type and information needed for complete analysis, adequacy of accounting methods used, structure and content of statements. Points of view of the creditor, the investor and the manager will be considered. Will include study of statements of financial condition, statements of earnings, operating and cost reports, both published statements and internal reports. Methods will include ratios, trends, standards of comparison, and absolute change. [Fiske]

Ec522. Control Through Business Records (A). [Prerequisite: E51] Control of any but the smallest business depends upon an adequate system for the gathering of information needed by executives. Will examine the fundamental principles behind records systems and the extent to which various actual systems meet the requirements for which they were set up. Periodic reports, budgets, costs, cash control, internal check, inter-company and branch office control, voucher procedure, inventory records, payroll procedure, expense control, sales records, machine accounting and special problems of control in various industries will be considered. A general study of some complete record system or a detailed study of some special problem of control will be required of each student. [Fiske]

Ec53. Building Finance (B). [Prerequisite: E21] Describes the financing of new building projects as well as the financing of the building constructor. The topics studied include the valuation of real estate, method appraisal, depreciation, financing by first and second mortgages, mortgage companies, building and loan associations, construction loans, bank credit and the administration of finance. Special attention will be devoted to those aspects of building finance which are connected with the problem of securing new business for the building constructor. [D. S. Tucker]

Ec542. Public Utility Accounting and Analysis (A). [Prerequisite: E21, E50, E57] The special accounting problems of gas and electric companies; a study of the figures needed by the operating management of the companies; the reaction of cost and sales analysis on rates and rate forms; both problems and discussion will be based very largely on actual cases. [C. H. Porter]

Ec551. Public Utility Finance (A). [Prerequisite: E21, E50, E57] Lectures, readings and reports on the financial organization and operation of public utilities, with an analysis of their security issues. Attention is given to government control of financing, the analysis of public utility reports, and the market position of utility stocks and bonds. The operations of holding companies and finance companies and their relation to operating companies constitute an important part of the work. [Armstrong]

Ec552. Public Utility Regulation and Rates (A). [Prerequisite: Ec551] The development and evolution of public utility regulation; the various methods of regulation contrasted and compared; the legal foundations of regulation, the legal duties imposed upon pubic utilities and their legal rights; rates, rate structures and rate control, with much attention to important rate cases; valuation of utility properties and a comparisons of the different methods proposed for determining the rate base. Students will devote some time to actual attendance at hearings before the Public Utility Commission. [Armstrong]

Ec56. Corporate Organization. [Prerequisite: E21, E50] The organization and control of corporations with some attention to other forms of business. Consideration is given to procedure and problems of incorporation, relationships of the parties in the corporation, and combinations of corporations in our large industrials. Public utility corporations are studied briefly with the purpose of presenting the relations of public service corporations and the public. [Armstrong]

Ec57. Corporate Finance and Investments. [Prerequisite: E56] Covers fundamental principles of financial organization and management. The various types of corporate securities are examined, the financial problems of the promoter, the incorporators and the later financial management are studied and illustrations are drawn from concrete cases. The latter part of this subject considers more specifically the different kinds of investment securities with exercises in investment analysis, and a discussion of the methods of the exchanges, brokerage and speculation. Lecturers from investment houses assist in this branch of the subject. [Armstrong]

Ec591. Public Utility Management and Finance (A). [Prerequisite: E21 or Ec31] Deals with the theoretical and practical phases of public utility management. The subject matter will include a brief study of corporate organization and management in general, followed by the application of the general principles of finance and management to public utility enterprises. Emphasis will be placed upon problems of capitalization, holding company organization and certain phases of accounting which bear upon the financial policies of these companies. [Armstrong]

Ec592. Public Utility Management and Finance (A). [Prerequisite: E591] A continuation of Ec591 including public relations, rate making, valuation and regulation by commissions. Some attention will be given to analysis of territory served. In addition to instruction by members of the Institute Faculty, a broad range of topics of direct concern to pubic utilities and to users and refiners of fuels will be covered by lectures by men of special achievement in their several fields. [Armstrong]

Ec61, Ec62. Business Law. [Prerequisite: E37, Ec57] (1) General principles of contract law; and (2) special kinds of contracts, such as contracts for sale of real estate, contracts for sale of personal property, contracts of employment, and bills and notes; (3) agency; (4) forms of business enterprise from standpoint of legal structure, i.e., corporations, partnerships, business trusts, etc. [Hausserman]

Ec63. Business Law and Organization (A). [Prerequisite: E31] A graduate study of business organization from both a legal standpoint and a management standpoint. The subject of contracts and the personal relations of individuals within the organization are emphasized. The advantages and disadvantages of various types of organization are discussed. [Hausserman]

Ec65. Statistics. [Prerequisite: E12] Elementary instruction is given in the construction of statistical tables and charts, official sources of commercial and financial statistics of the United States, and the interpretation of such material. Some attention is given to the statistical methods of forecasting. [Dewey]

Ec661, 662. Statistical Methods (A). [Prerequisite: E65, M21] Study of the principles and methods used in more advanced statistical analysis. Some of the topics included are correlation of two variables, multiple and partial correlation, simple sampling and the basic theory of probability with special reference to business problems. Determination of historical trends and periodic fluctuations of economic time series will receive attention preparatory to the major problem of business forecasting. [MacKinnon]

Ec681, Ec682. Business Cycles (A). [Prerequisite: E37, Ec57, Ec65] A study of the fluctuations in the different phases of business. In this is involved statistical interpretation, theories of the business cycle, studies of the intercausation of the different types of business changes, the interpretation and experimental tests of forecasting methods. [Ingraham]

Ec70, Ec71, Ec72. Business Management Ec71, Ec72 (B). [Prerequisite: E56] Deals with problems of the production and distribution of manufactured goods. Among the more important topics considered are: Organization; plant location, layout and equipment; purchasing; intra-factory transportation; traffic; inspection; stores; design; time, motion and fatigue study; production control; office organization, layout and equipment; commercial research; marketing methods, sales promotion and advertising. As far as possible the practices of production and marketing are studied in parallel, thus emphasizing the development of similar principles of scientific management in both fields. [Schell]

Ec74. Contracting Management. Deals with the business aspects of the building industry. The following topics are considered from an administrative viewpoint: organization, estimating, purchasing, contracts, insurance, sales promotion, control of equipment, control of materials, office control, regularization of work, research coordination of sales, finance and construction programs, organization and management of small construction enterprises, cost accounting and the law of contracts. [Schell]

Ec751, Ec752. Manufacturing Analysis (A). [Prerequisite: E72] Deals with the conduct of professional engineering analyses of management methods in a manufacturing establishment. Schedules are prepared for the critical investigation of such functions as organization, arrangement and maintenance of buildings and equipment, product research and design, purchasing traffic control, storage of materials and product, intra-factory transportation, quality control, salvage, time study and production control. Library research, field interviews and inspections, and a brief thesis are requirements of the course which is conducted as a seminar. [Schell]

Ec761, Ec762. Marketing of Manufactured Products. [Prerequisite: E72 or equiv.] Advanced practice in the organization of the various marketing functions, such as market research, sales forecasting, quota setting, budgets, and sales incentives. Familiarity with current practice is a prerequisite. Trends in development of marketing functions are studied, with the aim of preparing a technique for analyzing the efficiency of any marketing organization. Special emphasis is given to the coordination of selling methods, and to the fundamentals underlying sales policies. The marketing of goods sold to the manufacturers and the marketing of goods sold to the ultimate consumer are handled separately. Readings in current sources, field investigations of specific problems, and a brief thesis are required. [Elder]

Ec781, Ec782. Standards of Measurement in Industrial Management (A). [Prerequisite: Ec70, Ec71, Ec72] Measurement in management is a new conception of the relation of executive responsibilities to the success of any industrial enterprise through the recognition of the principle that a qualitative unit of measure is essential to the scientific regulation of any activity. Weekly classroom discussions based on original investigations will be devoted to a study of practical standards employed in industry and the derivation of methods of measuring and evaluating accomplishment as typified by financial and management ratios, the kilo man-hour, productivity index, economic production and purchase quantities, economic processes, wages, time and motion study, office efficiency ratios, economic sales volume, etc. [Raymond]

Ec80. Ocean Shipping Administrations. [Prerequisite: E31] Deals with the types of ocean services and traffic agencies and their organizations; rate and traffic agreements; ocean shipping documents; ocean rates and regulation; marine insurance; and admiralty law. Its purpose is to acquaint the student with the more important aspects of the business administration of ocean shipping activities. [Fernstrom]

Ec90, Ec91. Investment Analysis (A). [Prerequisite: Ec50, Ec57, Ec65] Various methods of analyzing financial reports of companies whose securities are placed upon the market. Testing of ratios for appraising the value of the security. Risks versus yield of junior and senior obligations; yields and risk of common stock; problems raised by convertible securities; measurements of risks and yield of the securities of new industries; of the securities of stationary and dwindling industries; relation of price to earnings; risk and yield of securities of holding companies and investment trusts; railroad records and derivative ratios; tests of investment bank statements, of business ratios; tests of investment bank statements, of business ratios applicable to investments, and of systems of rating. [Ingraham]

Ec95. Industrial Traffic Management. [Prerequisite: Ec72] A detailed study of the organization and operation of a traffic management department of an industrial plant. The course deals with industry’s conception, interpretation and use of such matters as freight classifications, rate structures, routes, carrier-shipper relations, common carrier liabilities, general and special services, national and state common carrier regulations and protective insurance. Due consideration is given to the types of transportation agencies such as rail, water, air, motor truck, mail, parcel post and express. [Fernstrom]

 

The following subjects are offered as general studies. For description of G25 see Division of General Studies, page 231.

Ec46. Industrial Relations. G25. Investment Finance.

 

Source: Course Catalogue of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1930 – 1931, pp. 222-225; 281-282

Image Source: Davis R. Dewey in the M.I.T. Yearbook, Technique 1931, p. 47.

 

Categories
Exam Questions M.I.T.

M.I.T. General Exams in Economic Fluctuations: 1950, -52, -54, -56

 

There does appear to be a pattern at M.I.T. of having every second year a general examination for the subject of business fluctuations in this collection of exams for the period 1950-56. It is also possible that Paul Samuelson only served on the examination committee every-other year. Still we can be happy to have a series of four general exams on this topic for MIT covering the first half of the 1950s.  In a previous post, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror transcribed Domar’s stash of general exams in macro that covers the 1960s.

_________________

James Hanson

GENERAL EXAMINATION
in
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS AND POLICY
October 6, 1950

Answer question 1, and three of the remaining questions.

  1. (1 hour) What areas in the analysis of the determination of the level of real income are least satisfactory at the present time? Criticize in detail the shortcomings of one of these areas.
  2. What are some of the statistical and conceptual difficulties met in distinguishing between gross and net national product? For what purposes is this distinction important?
  3. Outline a positive role for the Federal Reserve authorities in shaping the aggregate level of economic activity. Discuss and appraise the difficulties the authorities will face.
  4. What contributions to the theory of the business cycle and economic growth are suggested by the study of the relationships between the level of income and the stock of capital?
  5. Governmental expenditures on national defense are going to rise to a new level, $20 billion per year higher than the existing one. This level will be maintained for three years and then will fall back to the present one. What fiscal policies would you recommend to cope with this situation? Appraise the feasibility of your program and compare it with alternative economic policies.
  6. What do you conceive to be the role of forecasting in stabilization policy?

 

_________________

GENERAL EXAMINATION IN
BUSINESS FLUCTUATIONS

9:00-12:00 n.
Friday
May 9, 1952

ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS
(1 hour)

  1. (1 hour) Discuss the use and limitations of national-income data in planning alternative mobilization policies.
  2. (½ hour) Discuss and appraise the effectiveness, both theoretic and practical, of automatic fiscal-monetary devices. In your answer give examples from the economic literature.
  3. (½ hour) “We solemnly explain that excise taxes are deflationary because they raise prices, that is, because they are inflationary.” Comment critically on the above quotation.
  4. (½ hour) Appraise the effect of the Wage Stabilization Board’s Steel-wage recommendations on the level of real and money national income.
  5. (½ hour) Indicate the contribution of two of the following to the understanding of economic fluctuations.
    Wicksell; Kuznets; Mitchell; Metzler; Klein; Lange

    _________________

GENERAL EXAMINATION IN ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
May 19, 1954

Answer any four questions.

  1. It has been said that the Keynesian system of income analysis contains no explicit supply considerations. Appraise this criticism, with particular reference to Keynes as well as later writers.
  2. How would you go about testing the empirical validity of the Colin Clark hypothesis that inflation results whenever the level of taxation and expenditure exceed 25 percent of “national income”?
  3. “Obviously, under-employment equilibrium with flexible wages is impossible.” Discuss.
  4. What are the relevant economic considerations in choosing between tighter money, higher personal-income taxes, or lower government expenditures as a means of closing an inflationary gap.
  5. Some writers claim that the business cycle of the interwar and earlier periods has disappeared as an economic phenomenon. What structural changes in the U.S. economy of the last 15 years would account for their attitude? Do you agree or disagree with the conclusion of these writers?
  6. “There is a cyclical fluctuation in business-cycle theories. Earlier theories embodied a theory of cumulative movement and a theory of turning points. Later work showed that a single set of relationships could explain both and now there is a trend back toward the earlier explanations.” Discuss, citing specific authors.
  7. Will an increase in the desire of households to save change the rate of interest? Explain.
  8. “For both political and economic reasons fiscal policy is more successful in a depression, whereas monetary policy is superior in a boom.” In discussing this statement draw on your knowledge of the operation of monetary and fiscal policy in the United States over the past three decades.

_________________

GENERAL EXAMINATION IN BUSINESS FLUCTUATIONS
September 12, 1956

Answer any five questions.

  1. “There is a cyclical fluctuation in business-cycle theories. Earlier theories embodied a theory of cumulative movement and a theory of turning points. Later work showed that a single set of relationships could explain both; and now there is a trend back toward the earlier explanations.” Discuss, citing specific authors.
  2. Discuss briefly the issues for national income accounting raised by two or more of the following:
    1. gross and net national product
    2. government activities
    3. desire for welfare interpretations
  3. Summarize briefly our knowledge of capitalism’s historical business cycles. What views does this experience lead you to?
  4. “Economic forecasting is both an art and a science.” “Economic forecasting is neither an art nor a science.” Appraise the current status of economic forecasting.
  5. What are the important policy problems of economic stabilization? Be comprehensive and specific.
  6. What contributions to the theory of the business cycle and economic growth are suggested by the study of the relationships between the level of income and the stock of capital?
  7. “We solemnly explain that excise taxes are deflationary because they raise prices, that is, because they are inflationary.” Comment critically on the above quotation.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscripts Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “Teaching Exams 1952, 1956”

Image Source: M.I.T., Technique 1950.

Categories
Harvard M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Undergraduate reading list for Industrial Organization and Public Policy. Bishop, 1955-56

 

 

Robert L. Bishop was called by his alma mater to render service to cover the undergraduate course on industrial organization and public policy in 1955-56. He still taught that year at M.I.T. according to the course staffing records, so the cross-Cambridge commute was a convenient (for all parties) gig. The previous year the same course was co-taught by Carl Kaysen and Merton Peck. Comparing the Spring term syllabus, items I, III, and V were the taken over “as is” by Bishop. The only question is now how much of the Fall term reading list was in common.

_____________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 161. Industrial Organization and Public Policy. Associate Professor Bishop. (M.I.T.). Full course.

(Fall) Total 130: 2 Freshmen, 15 Sophomores, 74 Juniors 36 Seniors, 3 Radcliffe.
(Spring) Total 123: 2 Freshmen, 8 Sophomores, 73 Juniors 37 Seniors, 3 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1955-56, pp. 77-78.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 161
Fall Term 1955-56
Professor Bishop

 

  1. The Modern Business Unit (Sept. 26 – Oct. 7; 4 lectures, 2 sections)

N. S. Buchanan: The Economics of Corporate Enterprise, Ch. 3
H.G. Guthman and H.E. Dougall, Corporate Financial Policy, Ch. 2
A.A. Berle and G.C. Means: The Modern Corporation and Private Property, Bk. II, Ch. 1
R.A. Gordon: Business Leadership in the Large Corporation, Ch. 1-3, 12-14
National Bur. of Ec. Research: Cost Behavior and Price Policy, Ch. X
H.L. Purdy, M.L. Lindahl and W.A. Carter: Corporate Concentration and Public Policy, (2nd ed.) Ch. 7
J.K. Butters and J.V. Lintner: The Effects of Taxation on Corporate Mergers, Chs. IX, X

  1. The Functioning of Markets and the Economic Norms of Public Policy (Oct. 10-Nov. 4; 7 lectures, 4 sections)

J. S. Bain: Price Theory (or Pricing, Distribution, and Employment, Rev. Ed.) Ch. 1-7 (Ch. 3 is useful chiefly as review)

  1. Monopolistic and Oligopolistic Markets (Nov. 7 – Nov. 30; 8 lectures, 2 sections, hour exam)

Donaldson Brown, “Pricing Policy in Relation to Financial Control” (reprints)
TNEC Monograph No. 21; Monopoly and Competition in American Industry, Ch. IV
W. Nutter: “The Extent and Growth of Enterprise Monopoly” (pp. 141-153) in Gramp and Weiler, eds., Economic Policy: Readings in Political Economy
W.A. Adams, ed.: The Structure of American Industry (rev. ed.) Ch. V-XI
F. Machlup: The Basing-Point System, Ch. 1, 3, 6, 7
“Big Business in a Competitive Society,” Fortune, Supplement, Feb. 1953

  1. Anti-Trust Policy (Dec. 5- Dec. 21; 6 lectures, 2 sections)

S. C. Oppenheim: Cases on Federal Anti-Trust Laws, pp. 57-69; App. A, B, C (pp. 963-85) pp. 106-127, 164-182, 250-265, (monopoly cases); pp. 281-286, 291-301, 310-330 (combination cases)
S.C. Oppenheim: 1951 Supplement, pp. 203-289 (Alcoa remedy)
U.S. v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., Fed. Supp.
E.S. Mason: “The Current Status of the Monopoly Problems in U.S.,” Harvard Law Review, June 1949
C.E. Griffin: An Economic Approach to Anti-Trust Problems
J.B. Dirlam and A.E.Kahn: Fair Competition: The Law and Economics of Anti-Trust Policy, Ch. 1, 2, 5, 9

Reading Period Assignment

Markham: Competition in the Rayon Industry

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 161
Spring Term 1956
Professor Bishop

 

  1. Markets of Large Numbers (Feb. 1 – Mar. 2; 8 lectures, 5 sections)

Agriculture
Cotton Textiles
Women’s clothing
Crude Oil

R. Schickele, Agricultural Policy, Ch. 9-11, 13-17.
K. Brandt, Farm Price Supports, Rigid or Flexible?
J.K. Galbraith, “Farm Policy: The Current Position,” Journal of Farm Economics, May, 1955, pp. 292-304.
A.M. McIsaac, “The Cotton Textile Industry,” in Adams, The Structure of American Industry, 2nd ed.
“Adam Smith on 7th Avenue,” Fortune [handwritten note: Jan. 1949?]
N. Ely, “The Conservation of Oil,” Ch. 11 in Readings in the Social Control of Industry.
E.V. Rostow, A National Policy for the Oil Industry, Part II.

  1. The Plane of Competition—The Securities Markets (Mar. 5-Mar. 9; 2 lectures, 1 section)

Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beane, How to Read a Balance Sheet.
W. E. Atkins, G.W. Edwards, and H.G. Moulton, The Regulation of the Securities Markets, Chs. 2-6.

  1. The Regulated Industries (Mar. 12 – Apr. 13; 8 lectures, 3 sections; hour exam, Apr. 13)

Electric Power
Transportation

Twentieth Century Fund: Electric Power and Government Policy, Ch. I-IV, X.
M. L. Fair and E.W. Williams, Jr., Economics of Transportation, Ch. 18-23, 25, 30, 32.

  1. The Patent System (Apr. 16 – Apr. 20; 2 lectures, 1 section)

Symposium, Law and Contemporary Problems, Vols. 12 and 13 (1947-48)—articles by:

Hamilton and Till, Vol. 13, pp. 245-59,
Abramson, Vol. 13, pp. 339-53,
Stedman, Vol. 12, pp. 649-79,
Davis, Vol. 12, pp. 796-806.

R. L. Bishop, “The Glass Container Industry,” in Adams, The Structure of American Industry, 1st ed.

  1. Nationalization and Planning (Apr. 23 – Apr. 30; 3 lectures, 1 section)

J. E. Meade, Planning and the Price Mechanism, pp. 1-104.
B.W. Lewis, British Planning and Nationalization, Ch. 1-3.
H.A. Clegg and F.E. Chester, The Future of Nationalization, Ch. 1, 3.

Reading Period Assignment

To be announced.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1955, 1956, (2 of 2)”.

Image Source:   Robert Lyle Bishop. MIT Museum.

 

Categories
Economics Programs Fields M.I.T.

M.I.T. Graduate Economics Program Brochure, 1961

 

 

 

Robert Solow served as the graduate registration officer of the Department of Economics and Social Science at M.I.T. perhaps even as late as when the graduate program brochure (transcribed below) was printed in 1961. Since Solow went down to Washington to serve as a senior staff economist on the Council of Economic Advisers in 1961, it seems likely that the brochure would have been drafted sometime before John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. This brochure is striking in many ways, e.g. its 100% informational content, presumably reflecting significant authorship/editor responsibilities of Robert Solow.

Five cherry-picked quotes from the brochure I found particularly sweet:

“The M.I.T. program does not concentrate on mathematical economics”
[It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear.]

“The department welcomes applications from qualified women”
[Apparently in the DNA of the department since World War II nearly emptied the pool of qualified male applicants.]

“The purpose of the minor program is to broaden the interests or capacities of the student in other areas than those of his major intellectual objective. While some latitude is allowed in particular cases, the spirit of this purpose is always held in view.”
[As opposed to the commandment “Thou shalt stay in thy lane”.]

“Students who are prepared for graduate work in economics are almost never deficient in humanities. Similarly, deficiencies in science are infrequent; but candidates are frequently admitted without preparation in calculus.”
[You go to war with the army you have.]

“In judging promise, special weight is naturally given to letters of recommendation from economists known to members of the department. The difficulty of evaluating records in foreign institutions and of judging foreign references constitutes a serious but no impassable barrier for foreign applicants.”
[Signal extraction problem vs. the problem of old boy networks]

Incidentally, neither “microeconomics” nor “macroeconomics” appear in the document at all. The preferred terms seen here in the brochure are “price and allocation theory” and “income analysis”.

____________________________________

The Graduate Program in Economics

School of Humanities and Social Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[1961]

This brochure has been prepared especially for students who may enter the graduate program in economics at M.I.T. Its purpose is to answer a number of questions which have been recurrently raised about the program and to add to the information which is given in the M.I.T. catalogue.

 

Highlights of the M.I.T. Graduate Program in Economics

  1. The program is almost entirely for doctoral candidates. The master’s degree at M.I.T. is given in either economics and engineering or economics and science; it requires the equivalent of the M.I.T. undergraduate content in engineering or science.
  2. The M.I.T. program does not concentrate on mathematical economics. All students are required to have and use a minimum of mathematics. Students who enter without calculus may make up their deficiency in the first term with a one-semester subject (Mathematics for Economists—14.101), given in our own department. Most of the work in most fields, however, is nonmathematical.
  3. The program is limited in size. Approximately twenty-five students are admitted in any year; sixty or so students are in residence at one time. The department has more than thirty faculty members, twenty of whom have a major responsibility in the graduate program.
  4. The department welcomes applications from qualified women.
  5. All applicants are urged to take the Graduate Record Examination no later than during the January preceding the September in which they wish to enter. They should take the quantitative and verbal aptitude tests as well as the test in economics (Write to the Graduate Record Examinations, educational Testing service, 20 Nassau Street, Princeton, New Jersey, for information on these examinations. Students in western states should write to 4640 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles 27, California.)
  6. Visits to the M.I.T. Campus are helpful both to the candidate and to the departmental admissions committee. Appointments are desirable but are not generally essential, since members of the committee are likely to be available.
  7. The department would like each applicant to submit a statement (one or two pages) explaining his interest in economics. An informal questionnaire is provided for general guidance.
  8. Admission in February is granted only on an exceptional basis, because many subjects given in the spring are continuations of work given in the fall. In any event, fellowship assistance is given only as a consequence of the annual March competition, for students entering in the following September.
  9. Fellowships and scholarships in amounts up to $3250 are available for entering graduate students.
  10. Winners of outside fellowships are welcome to use them at M.I.T. It is entirely appropriate to apply for a Woodrow Wilson, G.E., A.A.U.W., National Science Foundation, or other outside fellowship at the same time that one applies to M.I.T. As a rule, M.I.T. learns of the outside award prior to making its own announcements.
  11. Liberal second-year fellowships are available both to students entering with fellowships and to those who enter without financial assistance. Awards are made on the basis of first-year performance.
  12. Teaching assistantships are ordinarily available for third-year students only, although some second-year students may do a small amount of teaching. Assistantships are not available to entering students unless they have had prior graduate study and teaching experience elsewhere.
  13. I.T. these are written in residence. Following an Institute rule, theses are prepared in residence except where the special requirements of the subject, such as field work, dictate otherwise. All theses are written in residence.
  14. For further information, write the Graduate Registration Office of the Department of Economic and Social Science, Professor Robert M. Solow.

 

S.M. in Economics and Engineering or Economics and Science

The department offers a Master of Science degree only in the combined fields of economics and engineering or economics and science. This degree is available primarily to students whose undergraduate work was in either engineering or science. Its purpose is to enable scientists and engineers, and in particular graduates of the undergraduate Courses in Economics and Engineering or Science (Course XIV) at M.I.T., to carry their economics training to the graduate level in order to equip them more fully for work in industry or government.

 

Ph.D. Degree

Ph.D. degrees are awarded in economics (including industrial relations) and in political science. In addition, candidates occasionally work for a doctorate in two or more fields—for example, economics and mathematics, economics and operations research, or economics and regional planning. These candidates are examined by special committees, on which members of the Department of Economics and Social Science serve jointly with members of the other departments concerned. Most of the graduate work in the department is directed towards the doctor’s degree. This pamphlet deals exclusively with the Ph.D. in economics; a separate bulletin describing graduate work in political science is available on request.

There are four departmental requirements for the Ph.D. degree: the passing of a general examination in a number of approved fields within the area of economics and social science; the satisfactory completion of a “minor” program in another department; demonstration of ability to read two foreign languages of significance in economics; and preparation and defense of a dissertation.

 

Major Program and General Examinations

Work taken in the Department of Economics and Social Science for the doctorate in economics is divided—broadly speaking—into two separate options: economics and industrial relations. But there is considerable overlap between the two.

All students in both options are examined five fields. Among the fields presently available are the following: economic theory, advanced economic theory, monetary and fiscal economics, industrial organization, economic development, international economics, economics of innovation, labor economics and labor relations, personnel administration, human relations in industry, statistical theory and method, and economic history. Each student selects one field as having primary importance for this professional career; ordinarily this is the field in which he writes his dissertation, though exceptions may be made. The remaining four fields are designated secondary fields. One of the five fields must be economic theory.

Students are also required to have at least a minimum knowledge of statistics and economic history. This minimum is presently interpreted to mean one semester of work in each at the graduate level. Candidates who present statistics or economic history as a primary or secondary field normally take two or three semester subjects in the field and automatically satisfy the requirements in that area.

Students may qualify in one of the secondary fields through course work only, provided that they receive a mark of B or better in two subjects. Students are examined in writing in the remaining four fields during an eight-day period (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Monday). The theory examination is four hours long (divided roughly between microeconomics and macroeconomics), while the other three are each three hours long.

Following these written examinations, the student takes a two-hour oral examination which covers theory, his primary field, and one secondary field.

 

Foreign Languages

Doctoral candidates must show reading knowledge of two foreign languages; the standard set is the ability to read works of scientific interest at a relatively slow pace. Acceptable languages are German, French, Russian, or any other language which has a literature in economics or which will advance the educational program planned by the individual student. Students are examined by the Department of Modern Languages.

Students whose language preparation has been limited may take subjects which prepare specifically for the language examinations. Students with no previous training in a language frequently are able to attain the necessary minimum proficiency during a single semester of fairly intensive study. Others, who have already had some introduction to a language, often pass the requirement at some time before the end of the semester.

 

Minor Program

Every candidate for the doctor’s degree at M.I.T. must complete a program in a minor field in another department of the Institute. This program consists of a minimum of 24 units, which ordinarily implies three one-semester subjects. The choice of the minor field is made by the student, with the approval of the Department of Economics and Social Science. The content of the program within the other department is a matter for that department’s determination. Satisfactory completion of a minor is ordinarily contingent upon an average rating of 3.5 (in effect, a minimum of two B’s and a C). The normal standard is that the minor work shall be beyond the level required of M.I.T. undergraduates. Students who have done advanced undergraduate work in some field other than economics may often use it to meet part of the minor requirement.

Students in economics have met the minor requirement in such fields as mathematics, industrial management, history, international relations, other social sciences, literature, city planning, chemistry, and electrical engineering. Subjects taken in the minor program must not duplicate work which may be offered for one of the five fields in economics. A minor program in history may include only one term of economic history, since two terms would qualify the student to offer it as a field in economics. Similarly, students minoring in industrial management may not concentrate in such areas as personnel administration. The purpose of the minor program is to broaden the interests or capacities of the student in other areas than those of his major intellectual objective. While some latitude is allowed in particular cases, the spirit of this purpose is always held in view.

 

Courses at Harvard

Students regularly enrolled at M.I.T. are permitted to take a limited number of subjects at Harvard University—about two miles distant in Cambridge—on an exchange basis, without paying extra tuition. Such subjects may be taken as a part of the minor program. Fields for the major program other than those described above may sometimes be offered on the basis of work at Harvard.

 

Residence Requirements

The minimum residence requirement for the Ph.D. degree, including thesis, is the equivalent of one and one-half full-time academic years. No specific number of subjects is required for the general examinations. In general, however, it is recommended that students have at least the equivalent of three semesters of work at the graduate level for the primary field; four semesters in economic theory; and two semesters in each of the other fields. Work on the graduate level at other institutions is considered in meeting these broad approximations of the requisite preparation. Since there are no formal course requirements, there is no occasion to have graduate credits from other schools transferred.

A full-time student is expect to take the equivalent of five subjects each semester for credit; this may include one “reading subject,” in which the student will broaden his reading in his regular subjects. A half-time student is permitted to take approximately three subjects, and a third-time student two subjects. Auditing of additional subjects is permitted as an overload.

 

Dissertation and Special Examination

The Institute requires that all dissertations be prepared in residence, during which period tuition must be paid. Field work may be necessary to gather material; but the analysis of this material must take place at the Institute, under supervision of the instructor in charge of the dissertation. In some cases the writing of the final, polished version of the thesis may be completed elsewhere.

As in other institutions, the dissertation is expected to make a contribution to knowledge in the subject. Shortly after each candidate has submitted his thesis, he is examined on its subject. This examination is oral, conducted by a committee generally consisting of three faculty members, and usually is one hour in length.

 

Total Program of Course Work

The typical student comes to the Institute directly from college with no previous graduate study, having a deficiency in one subject and the ability to pass the reading examination in one language. He can usually prepare for the general examinations in four semesters (two academic years) taking five subjects in each, divided as follows:

 

In the Department of Economics Economic theory—four subjects
One primary field—three subjects
Three secondary fields—six subjects
Statistics—one subject
In other departments Deficiency—one subject
Language—one subject
Minor—three subjects
Total: Twenty subjects
[sic, total of the above is nineteen]

This program is only illustrative, of course, and a wide number of variations are to be expected. Additional work may be required because of additional deficiencies or lack of language preparation. The number of subjects may be reduced by absence of deficiencies, by better preparation in languages, by postponing one or more requirements (such as a part of the minor) until after the general examinations, or by incorporating economic history and/or statistics as primary or secondary fields.

 

Time Required for the Ph.D. Degree

A student entering the program with only a bachelor’s degree may expect to receive the Ph.D. degree in three years under optimum conditions. This will entail taking the general examination in May of the second year and completing a satisfactory dissertation in two semesters of full-time work thereafter. Normally, however, somewhat more time is needed, either in summer work or in some part of a fourth year. Students may need this additional time for more extensive preparation before the general examination, for the thesis, or (in the ordinary case) because teaching duties prevent full-time progress as a student. Many students who plan to enter the teaching profession take advantage of the opportunity to teach part-time at M.I.T. Teaching assistantships are available for students who have passed their general examinations, and occasionally for second-year students.

General examinations are given in the department at the beginning of each semester—in September and February—an again in May. Defense of the dissertation is arranged individually at any time.

Students enrolling in the Ph.D. program with a master’s degree from another institution, based on one or more years of residence at that institution, are urged to take their general examinations earlier than May of their second year at M.I.T. It is not usual, however, for a student to be able to transfer between institutions without some loss of time.

 

Summer School

The department does not offer any subjects at the graduate level during the summer session. However, students may enroll during the summer for thesis credits, for which tuition must be paid. Scholarships are only rarely available for payment of summer school tuition.

 

Admission

To be admitted into the program, a student must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. To be admitted without deficiencies, he must have taken one year of college mathematics, including at least one semester of calculus; one year of college science; and a minimum of three years of college work in the humanities and social sciences. While an undergraduate degree in economics is not indispensable, students are expected to have done a considerable amount of undergraduate work in this field. Students who are prepared for graduate work in economics are almost never deficient in humanities. Similarly, deficiencies in science are infrequent; but candidates are frequently admitted without preparation in calculus.

 

Special Students

Special students, taking from one to five subjects, may be admitted to the Institute and to the department from time to time under special circumstances. Admission of special students automatically lapses each semester; application for re-admission, in the case of students wishing to continue course work, must have the approval of the instructor concerned and the department.

 

Deficiencies

Students who, upon admission, are deficient in mathematics may make up this deficiency by taking a special one-semester subject offered by the Department of Economics—Mathematics for economists (14.101.) Since calculus is required for some of the work in economic theory and statistics, students entering with a deficiency in this area are required to make it up as soon as possible. Though this is not specifically recommended, some students may be able to make up a deficiency in calculus by studying at a summer school prior to fall enrollment at the Institute.

 

Fellowships, Scholarships, and Financial Assistance

Fellowships and scholarships are awarded on a competitive basis only. First-year awards are made on April 1 for the academic year beginning in the following September. Second-year and subsequent departmental awards are made in June. No academic assistance is available for students applying after April 1, or (until the following September) for those entering in February.

Fellowships cover the tuition fee of $1500 and some cash payment toward living expenses. A fellowship of $3200 will thus include $1500 tuition and $1700 cash. The cash award is paid in two equal installments, at the beginning of each semester.

The total of fellowship assistance varies from year to year. There are several name fellowships: the Goodyear, varying from $3000 to $3500; the United States Steel, at about $3100 for each of two years (awarded every other year); the RAND Corporation Fellowship in Mathematical Economics, varying from $3000 to $3500; the Hicks, for students of industrial relations, ranging from $2000 to $3000; and the Center for International Studies Fellowship in Economic Development, ranging from $3000 to $3500; In addition to these, the Institute awards Whitney Fellowships ($3000 in 1961), open only to first-year graduate students coming from outside M.I.T., upon recommendation of the department; and the department has limited funds with which it makes scholarship and fellowship awards varying from $1500 to $3000.

In offering scholarships and fellowships, the department takes into account a variety of factors; academic achievement, career promise, and need. In judging promise, special weight is naturally given to letters of recommendation from economists known to members of the department. The difficulty of evaluating records in foreign institutions and of judging foreign references constitutes a serious but no impassable barrier for foreign applicants.

In general, outside fellowships are financially better than all but a few of the department’s awards. Applicants are therefore urged to seek Woodrow Wilson, Danforth, National Science Foundation, and similar fellowships for use at M.I.T., if they think they stand a good chance of success in the national competition.

Students who perform effectively in their first year are assured of financial support needed to finish the degree. Part of this takes the form of fellowships, in amounts somewhat lower than first-year awards; the rest consists of teaching and research assistantships and instructorships. The half-time teaching assistantship covers the half-time tuition fee of $1000 and pays $180 a month for nine months—a total of $2620. The half-time instructorship, which is reserved for students who have demonstrated effective teaching as an assistant, pays the same tuition and $235 monthly–$3115 for the academic year. The few research assistants appointed each year receive a higher rate of pay than teaching assistants but pay their own tuition. They have the advantage, however, of working on a subject related to their thesis. The department is occasionally able to obtain assistantships for applicants in other parts of the Institute, such as the School of Industrial Management or the Operations Research Group.

Third-year students are also encouraged to compete for outside assistance in supporting their thesis research, such as the Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Awards, the Social Science Research Council Fellowships, and Fulbright Awards.

 

The Faculty in Economics and Industrial Relations

Morris A. Adelman, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1948
Industrial organization, government regulation

Albert K. Ando, Assistant Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Carnegie Institute of Technology 1959
Statistics and econometrics, economic fluctuations

Francis M. Bator, Associate Professor of Economics
Ph.D. M.I.T. 1956
Price and allocation theory, income analysis, economic growth

Robert L. Bishop, Professor of Economics, in charge of the department
Ph.D. Harvard 1949
Price and distribution theory, industrial organization, history of economic thought

E. Cary Brown, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1948
Public finance, income analysis, fiscal economics

Evsey D. Domar, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1947
Income analysis, economic growth, Soviet economics, fiscal economics

Robert Evans, Jr., Assistant Professor of Industrial Relations
Ph.D. Chicago 1959
Labor economics, industrial relations

Franklin M. Fisher, Assistant Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1960
Econometrics, price and allocation theory

Harold A. Freeman, Professor of Statistics
S.B. M.I.T. 1931
Statistical theory, experimental design probability methods

Ralph E. Freeman, Professor of Economics, Emeritus; Lecturer
A.M. McMaster 1914, B. Litt. Oxford 1919
Monetary economics

Everett E. Hagen, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Wisconsin 1941
Economic development, income analysis

Ralph C. James, Jr., Assistant Professor of Insutrial Relations
Ph.D. Cornell 1957
Labor economics, industrial relations

Charles P. Kindleberger, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Columbia 1937
International economics, monetary theory and policy

Edwin Kuh, Associate Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1955
Econometrics, income analysis

Max F. Millikan, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Yale 1941
Economic development, income analysis

Charles A. Myers, Professor of Industrial Relations
Ph.D. Chicago 1939
Labor economics, industrial relations

Paul Pigors, Professor of Industrial Relations
Ph.D. Harvard 1927
Personnel administration, industrial relations

Paul N. Rosenstein-Rodan, Professor of Economics
Dr.Rer.Pol. Vienna 1925
Economic development

Walt W. Rostow, Professor of Economic History
Ph.D. Yale 1940
Economic history, economic growth

Paul A. Samuelson, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1941
Price and allocation theory, income analysis, monetary theory and policy

Abraham J. Siegel, Associate Professor of Industrial Relations
M.A. Columbia 1949
Labor economics, industrial relations

Robert M. Solow, Professor of Economics
Ph.D. Harvard 1951
Price and allocation theory, income analysis, econometrics

 

Graduate Subjects

Price and allocation theory

14.121, 122 Economic Analysis
14.123 Advanced Economic Theory
14.132 Schools of Economic Thought
14.151 Mathematical Approach to Economics

 

Income analysis

14.451 Theory of Income and Employment
14.452 Economic Growth and Fluctuations

 

Economic history and economic development

14.161,162 Economic History
14.171 Theory of Economic Growth
14.172 Research Seminar in Economic Development
14.182 Capitalism, Socialism, and Growth

 

Economics of industry

14.271 Problems in Industrial Economics
14.272 Government Regulation of Industry

 

Statistics and econometrics

14.371,372 Statistical Theory
14.374 Design and Analysis of Scientific Experiments
14.381 Statistical Method
14.382 Economic Statistics
14.391 Research Seminar in Economics
15.032 Sampling of Human Populations1

 

Monetary and fiscal economics

14.461,462 Monetary Economics
14.471 Fiscal Economics
14.472 Seminar in Fiscal and Monetary Policy

 

International economics

14.581,582 International Economics
14.584 Seminar in International Economic Theory

 

Industrial relations

14.671 Problems in Labor Economics
14.672 Public Policy on Labor Relations
14.674 The Labor Movement: Theories and Histories
14.681,14.682 Seminar in Personnel Administration
14.691,692 Research Seminar in Industrial Relations
14.693 Collective Bargaining and Union-Management Cooperation
14.694 Seminar in Union-Management Cooperation

1School of Industrial Management

 

[Production Credits]

Editorial service by the M.I.T. Office of Publications. Design by Brigitte Hanf. Typesetting by the Lew A. Cummings Company, Inc., Manchester, New Hampshire, and The Composing Room, Inc., New York. Production by the Lew A. Cummings Company, Inc. January, 1961.

 

Source: MIT Archives, Department of Economics Records, Box 2, Folder “Department Brochures”.

Image Source: MIT beaver mascot, Tim,  from Technology Review in 1914.

Categories
Chicago Funny Business M.I.T.

M.I.T. Christmas skit “God and Keynes at M.I.T.”, 1951

 

The title of the Christmas skit presented by the Graduate Economic Association players at MI.T. in December 1951 , “God and Keynes at M.I.T”, is a clear reference to the political screed, God and Man at Yale (1951), by the young and future conservative pundit, William F. Buckley, Jr. This is one of many MIT skits found in the papers of Robert M. Solow and has been graciously shared for ERVM transcription by Roger E. Backhouse of, most recently, Becoming Samuelson, 1915-1948 fame.

One of the signs you are dealing with truly academic humor is the use of footnotes to provide proper attribution. In particular we find here seven items borrowed (and sometimes modified) from the University of Chicago Political Economy Club repertoire. Thus we see not only were some of the Greatest-Hits of Chicago skit humor “remastered” in the Windy City but also that the G.E.A. of M.I.T. was not above performing “covers” of Freshwater Hits. ERVM has already transcribed a few of these and for the sake of completeness will soon complete this list with the Chicago originals:

There is still plenty of original material in the following skit, and the few modifications worth noting include a key substitution of Keynes (MIT) for Marshall (Chicago)  and another substitution of “psychology and sociology” (MIT) for “Macroeconomics and Probability” (Chicago).

________________________

THE GRADUATE ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION
present
The G. E. A. Players
in
GOD AND KEYNES AT M. I. T.
15 December 1951

*Items so marked are modified versions borrowed from the University of Chicago, Political Economy Club.

 

 

PROLOGUE

(the scene is set to reveal the young college graduate relaxing in his home. He has made application to M.I.T. for entry to Course XIV. We hear the door-bell ring, and the letter arrives. He reads:)

An economics department great in dignity
In fairest Cambridge, where we lay our scene
Offers to disturb you, from present peace
To come to our proximity.

From forth of this great and new transition
A host of new subjects will take their position;
Econometrics, propensities, and laboristic relations;
Matrices, consumption, and similar sensations.

And if you will survive the economic pains
We’ll make of you another John Maynard Keynes.
So won’t you please say that you will come and stay;
Let me know real soon, signed sincerely, C. P. K.

(the student arrives at Tech, finds the library, and enters the elevator. On the way up to the third floor he hears:)

 

FIRST EPISTLE UNTO NEW STUDENTS*

  1. To all who enter through the Gate of Admissions unto the sanctity of the Department, heed ye well one who is wiser and older than thou. For verily I have dwelt in the land of Keynes for many years, and have felt the curse of Generals on my brain.
  2. Beware the courses called 121 and 122, for they will tax thee sorely. They have been devised that the supply may be known from the demand.
  3. Present thyself upon the appointed hour, lest the social cost exceed the private gain and the wrath of the Master fall upon thee mightily.
  4. Shun thou the geometer, for he seeks to seduce thee with curves. His siren song is pleasant but he lacketh rigor.
  5. Shun thou also the temple of the twin gods, psychology and sociology, for therein dwell the Philistines who worship not the calculus. There wilt thou be set upon with all manner of strange things and thou shalt feel the lash of the complex verbage, and thy head shall whirl with cultural patterns and institutional mores.
  6. Treasure thy Keynes, for verily all manner of mysteries are set down therein. Read it well and carefully, but say not that thou hast understood.
  7. Take to thine own bosom the demand curve lest it desert thee in thine hour of need.
  8. Attend well the lectures called innovation, for there if thou learnest nothing else, shalt thou learn at least one thing and it shall be a contribution to thy general education.
  9. Shun thou the industrial economist when he is at his data, for he loveth them dearly and will defend them as a lioness her cubs.
  10. Beware also the statistician who will leave the witless with a pair of dice.
  11. Shun the welfare economist, for he loveth mightily to stick out his neck and will teach thee his evil ways.
  12. Shun thou the coffee hour, but study diligently in Dewey lest thou and thy end thy days in Course XV.
  13. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. Be thou silent in the presence of the Master, for he shall reveal to thee the secrets of Keynes and there shalt thou solve the riddle of the Sphinx.

 

(the student steps out of the elevator into the third floor hall. He sees before him many doors, all with different names on them. He decides to investigate each one. First, he comes to:)

“John Maynard Keynes”

(he knocks. The door opens, and out steps an angel, wings, white sheet, and all. The angel says:)

‘He ain’t here; but you’ll meet him in the long run!’

(on to the next door:)

“Paul A. Samuelson”

(the door opens, and the chorus sings:)

THE KEYNESIAN SONG*
(to the tune “They Call me Little Buttercup”)

They call me a Keynesian, a Keynesian economist
That I can never deny
For I am a heretic, a classicist critic—
Bold little Keynesian, I.

I’ve equations and functions, and marginal assumptions
All here in my little kit bag.
I’ve tricky proposals for income disposals
All lest the economy sag.

To deficit spending and government lending
I give a hearty “Huzzah”.
I distrust automaticity despite its simplicity—
I doubt it would work at all.

For I am a Keynesian, a Keynesian economist
That I can never deny
For I’m a heretic, a classical critic—
Bold little Keynesian, I.

When faced with deflation or misallocation
I feel that the former is worse
I abominate waste with Ricardian distaste
But first things always come first.

And yet they deplore me, criticize and abhor me
For I am the standard straw man
But blows I don’t heed—Oh, I’ll stick to my credo
That a plan is a plan is a plan.

For I am a Keynesian, a Keynesian economist
That I can never deny
For I’m a heretic, a classical critic—
Bold little Keynesian, I.

 

“Robert Solow”

(scene, his classroom, where the students are singing:)

 

WE MUST BE RIGOROUS*
(to the tune of “The American Patrol”)

We must be rigorous,
We must be rigorous,
We must fulfill our role;
If we hesitate
Or equivocate,
We won’t achieve our goal.
We must investigate
Our system, complicated
To make our models whole;
Econometrics brings about
Statistical control.

Our esoteric seminars
Bring statisticians by the score.
But try to find economists
Who don’t think algebra a chore.
O, we must urge them all emphatically
To become inclined mathematically
So that all that we’ve developed, may
Someday be applied.

(repeat first 11 lines)

 

 

“Charles P. Kindleberger”

(the door opens, and we hear a voice say:)

Intuition is the basis
on which decisions should be made;
These are really the foundations
On which economics has been laid.

All that’s mathematical
Definitely is tabled;
Even the little diagrams
Never have been labeled.

Be careful, however
That you never neglect
The varied use
Of the Kindleberger effect.

Art or skill
or merely a quirk
This man’s intuition
Does the work.

 

 

“Robert L. Bishop”

(the door opens, and we find snow falling. The chorus is on a toboggan, singing:)

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)*

Maximize, maximize, that’s the crucial key;
Allocate resources by their productivity.
Equalize V.M.P.’s with their prices, and
Your production function is the finest in the land.

 

(voice) In the course of industrialization men have observed the alternating rises and falls of economic activity. And, lo, see what befell us:

“Walt W. Rostow”

(the voice continues:)

To shoot, or overshoot, ah, there’s the cycle;
Whether ‘tis nobler from underinvestment to suffer
Than to prolong the period of gestation
And, by consumption end it?

To history! No more of economics; and by the use of it
To end the confusion and million little theories
That economics left us;
That’s the solution we plan to introduce.

 

“E. Cary Brown”
(to the tune of “Deep in the Heart of Texas”)

(chorus)

To fill the gap
On the Keynesian map
We must again raise taxes;
The prices rise
If we don’t equalize
Savings, investment and taxes.

(solo)

Income grows
In ever rising flows
We must again raise taxes;
In government spends
There seem no ends
Up must go the taxes.

(solo)

dC/dY
Is all awry
We must raise those taxes
The propensity
It’s a calamity
Up must go those taxes.

(chorus)

The interest rate
Is out of date
So we must raise those taxes;
Though bonds recede
We must proceed
To raise again those taxes.

(solo)

The crystal balls
In the third floor halls
Say raise those taxes;
Or you will fret
And long regret
If you don’t raise those taxes.

(solo: and how!)

Flexibility
Cries the C.E.D.
Boys, raise those taxes
Says the N.A.M.
It’s all a sham
Don’t raise those taxes

(chorus)

But God and Keynes
Have the true refrains
Up must go the taxes;
At M.I.T.
We all agree
More savings and more taxes.

(by now, our student has traveled one-half the length of the hall. He approaches the other half, where a voice speaks:)

 

Friend; first year man; lend me your ear.
I come to convince you that industrial relations
Occupies a so much higher station
That economics—while ’t is good and fine
Must of necessity bow under our sign.
The evil that me do lives after them;
The good is oft interred within their books;
So let it be with economics.

We offer to show you the extent of cooperation
Between management and labor in every relation,
And prove to you that what’er your belief
Our unique methods will give either side full relief.

Economists, you know, often speak of productivity;
But that’s a matter of total relativity
Since our writers—Shultz, Myers, Coleman and Brown
Are the most productive in a many a college town.

 

“Charlie Myers”

(the door opens, and we see Myers writing vigorously and adding stacks of manuscripts to already huge piles labeled “To Prentice Hall,” “To McGraw-Hill,” and “Rejects—to Technology Press.” Secretary enters:)

Secretary: “Prof. Myers, here’s that book you asked me to write for you.”

Myers: “Good; don’t forget to start on that other one for me.”

(enter George Shultz carrying a manuscript)

Myers: “Hello, George. I see we’ve written another book. Mind if I look at it?”

Shultz: “Not at all, Charlie. I’ve already begun on the other one for us. You know, though, I think we’re getting a bit too abstract. We ought to go down to a level where it’s good and dirty.”

Myers: “In that case, let’s call in Joe Scanlon. Hey, Joe. Come here.”

(the chorus enters, dressed as bums; they sing:)

THE JOE SCANLON SONG
(to the tune of “Union Maid”)

There once was a bright young man
Who thought he had a plan
He studied cost
And jobs he lost
His name is Joe Scanlan

He soon met a man named Phil
Whose work gave him a thrill
He organized and compromised
He always fought up-hill.

This made of him a wreck
And so he came to Tech.
He sells his plan
To all the clan;
You ought to see his check.

CHORUS:
O you can’t scare us, we’re sticking with Scanlon,
Sticking with Scanlon, sticking with Scanlon;
Oh you can’t scare us, we’re sticking with Scanlon,
Sticking with Scanlon, until we die.

 

When the bosses have no dough
They always call for Joe;
They shed their tears
And buy him beers
And up their profits go—

(repeat CHORUS)

 

(as the final chorus ends, the door opens, and we see a body on the table)

Bishop: “What’s the matter with him, Morrie Adelman?”

Adelman: “He’s just been brought in; he’s suffering from a severe case of elephantiasis.”

Bishop: “Oh, don’t worry; I’ve got a classical solution. It contains some of Euler’s serum.” (pull up a jug so labeled and apply to patient’s arm)

Adelman: “Well, what do you expect that to accomplish?”

Bishop: “It’ll create perfect competition among the disease germs. What could be better?”

Adelman: (pause) “Well, I don’t see him recovering.”

Bishop: “But it’s not a pure case. Perhaps we should call in Dr. D. V. Brown. He’s had medical experience. (enter D.V.B.)

Brown: “Hi-ja.” (looks at body, and shows surprise) “My goodness, Charlie! I always knew he’s work too hard.” (looks at body more closely) “Looks to me like an impure case of oligopoly.”

Adelman: “O-o-o-oh! Let me see!” (goes over to feel arm) “No, there’s no concentration here. But even if there were, there’s really no harm in it.”

Brown: “Well, I’d like to stay, but I have to dash off to a court case.”

 

COURT SCENE

Judge: “The court is now in session. Bring in the first case.”

Prosecutor: “Your honor, this man is accused of attempting to overthrow the neo-classical Chicago School.”

Judge: “What’s your name?”

Coleman: “Sir, my name is Jack Coleman.”

Judge: “Prosecutor, define more explicitly what the charge is against this man.”

Prosecutor: “This man is presently collaborating with a well-known group of collectivists.”

Judge: “What proof have you of this?”

Prosecutor: “I have here my star witness.”

Judge: “What is your name?”

Buckley: “Your honor, sir, my name is Ludwig von Buckley.”

Judge: “Speak.”

Buckley: “I have here a book written by Paul A. Samuelson, and it says here on page.–., Oh, well, let’s not bother with the page number now. It says: “…know…conclusively…that…Karl Marx…is…(turn pages back towards front)…correct.”

Judge: “Speak no more. Any man collaborating with the author of such a book must be guilty of attempting to overthrow the Chicago School. I hereby sentence you to six months of solitary confinement, with a copy of Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson.” Next case.”

(Coleman leaves; enter Herb Shepard)

Prosecutor: “Your honor, this man is accused of playing marbles with the fabulous Alex Bavelas.”

Judge: “What is your name?” (say it aggressively)

Shepard: “Say, you’re unusually aggressive today. Has your wife stopped beating you? How’s your libido?”

Judge: “Now that you mention it, I have been feeling rather despondent.”

Shepard: “Judge, I’m a Freud…you’re tending toward a psycho-social orientation that no longer promotes an optimization of gratification.”

Judge: “Noooooo—I’m too JUNG to die!….But what am I saying! Herbert Shepard, for this circumlocutionist behavior, I hereby sentence you to the marble pits in ex-communication.”

 

(the student next comes to a door marked “reserved for Chicago U. delegates to the A.E.A. Convention.” He knocks, the door opens, and he hears:)

 

HIS RULES GO MARCHING ON*
(to the tune of the Battle Hymn of Republic)

If you want to pass your prelims
You must listen now to me;
You must learn your catechism
If you want to get your ‘B’
They have flunked the finest people
The department ever had
And they never said ‘too bad.’

CHORUS:

Stick, stick, stick with Henry Simons;
Henry is the man to see you through;
He’s the most consistent [man]
With an economic plan;
His rules go marching on.

 

He would nationalize the railroads,
He would atomize the firm,
He would then repeal the tariff
And the “E” bonds he would burn;
He would cleanse the banking system
Of the Federal Reserve;
His rules go marching on.

[Repeat] CHORUS:

He is the man who’d fix up
The progressive income tax;
He would fill in every item that
The present structure lacks;
He’d repeal the excise levies
And forget the margarine tax;
His rules go marching on.

[Repeat] CHORUS:

 

(by now the student will have reached the end of the hall; but questions linger in his mind. He wonders how the student takes all this. And as if in answer, he hears this song between students and faculty:* (to the tune of the ‘Sergeant’s Song’ from the Pirate[s] of Penzance)

Grad Students:

From nine around to nine—Tarantara! tarantara!
We remain in that salt mine—Tarantara!
-Our eyes are growing dim–Tarantara! tarantara!
Our hair is getting thin—Tarantara!
As we while away our youth—Tarantara! tarantara!
In sedate pursuit of Truth—Tarantara!!
Searching stacks and aching backs,
Third degree for a PhD—Tarantara! tarantara! tarantara!

 

Faculty: (to the tune of “Mabel’s Song” from the Pirate[s] of Penzance)

Go, you students, you’ll not be sorry.
You’ll contribute to MY great story.
You shall live in footnote glory.
Go to immortality!

Go to work and hold off suicide,
For if your work with our needs coincide,
Our reluctance to grant degrees we’ll override.
Go, you heroes, go and work!

 

(finally, as our student reaches the end of his journey, he meet the one ‘older and wiser than thou’, and listens as he tells of the ‘impending doom’.)

Twas the night before Orals
When all through the room
A feeling forecast
The impending doom.
The facts were placed
In each head with care
In hopes that when needed
They’d surely be there.
The victims then nestled
All snug in their beds
While visions of cost curves
Danced in their heads.
I soon fell asleep
And began to dream
I sat in a room
All filled with steam.
When out in the yard
There arose such a clatter
I sprang from the chair
To see what was the matter.
Over to the window
I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters
And threw up the sash.
When what to my wondering
Eyes there appears
A miniature sleigh
And eight tiny examineers.
Instead of the four
They usually required
They sent me four more
If the others got tired.
As I drew in my head
And was turning around
In through the window
They came with a bound.
They were dressed all in black
From their head to the toe;
Whose funeral, I asked,
Someone I know?
A wink of their eyes,
A twist of each head
Soon gave me to know
I had plenty to dread.
They spoke not a word
But went straight to their work
Of filling the blackboards
Then turned to the jerk.
The questions commenced
Like machine gun fire;
I couldn’t keep straight
The seller from buyer.
Now sir, please listen
One of them said
Try to imagine
All this in your head.
Nansen and Johansen
Have only one sled;
They’re at the North pole
And have not bread.
Suddenly there appears
A giant Tartar
Coming from Siberia
Looking to barter.
They can bake some bread
At increasing cost
Yet without a compass
They’ll certainly be lost.
He has a compass
And they have bread
And without exchange
They all will be dead.
They started to bargain
Until he did tell you
That the Russians decided
The ruble to devalue.
Only Sterling is recognized,
So they start to bake
Instead of the bread
A large pound cake.
Then suddenly Nansen
Thought to remember
That neither of them
Was a union member.
Closed shops were enforceable
As a matter of fact
For this was before
The Taft-Hartley Act.
They went ahead anyway,
They didn’t give a hoot;
It was so cold
They needed a union suit.
Before they acted
Or did anything drastic
They examined their demand curve
To see if it was elastic.
Their cost curve was unknown–
It had never been seen;
How lucky they were
That Nansen was really Joel Dean.
Their consumption function told them
Just how to behave;
They knew what to consume
And how much to save.
Please consider the theories
of Tibor Scitovsky
And the two fisted cowboy
two-gun Baranowsky.
If you remember these facts
And keep them in mind,
The right answer, I know
You certainly should find.
I shivered and shook,
In the chair I did writhe;
Now the question, they said
Who was Adam Smythe?
The leader then yelled
For a decision it’s time;
This man has suffered,
He has paid for his crime.
And laying a finger
Aside of his nose
Out of the window
All eight of them goes.
It was the leader then
That I heard exclaim
As he shouted and whistled,
And called them by name:
Now Myers, now Bishop
Now Shultz and C.P.K.
On Coleman, on Solow,
Let’s now dash and dash away.
They sprang to their sleigh
And away they flew
Like they were speeding
To another rendezvous.
Although some details
Of this horrible nightmare
Still seem a bit hazy
I certainly would swear,
Before I awoke
I heard them say
Merry Christmas to all,
And to all a good day.

 

EPILOGUE

As disproved by classical economics
All good things much reach an end;
And so we must leave our attempt at comics,
Hoping we’ve pleased both foe and friend.

‘Tis true enough that our little parody
Has given economics unusual clarity,
And that our writers if circumstances permit it
Will prefer to have their names omitted.

So then, since ours must be the last say,
a real Merry Christmas from the G.E.A.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Robert M. Solow Papers, Box 83, Folders “Economic Skit Parties”.

Image: Cover art from “God and Keynes at M.I.T.” December 15, 1951. Ibid.

 

Categories
Funny Business Harvard M.I.T.

Harvard or MIT. Economics graduate student skit, ca. 1963.

 

Because of the reference to Jaroslav Vanek’s leaving Harvard, we are able to date the following script to 1962-63 since Vanek left Harvard to work at the State Department in 1963. Almost everything about this script would lead me to conclude that it was used in a Harvard graduate student skit that somehow wound up in the folder for the Graduate Student Association at the Department of Economics of M.I.T. The folder is otherwise filled with clearly M.I.T. skit material from the 1960s. One of the students is identified as “David” another “Bob” and the third looks like “Les”.  

Lester Thurow did get his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1964 and came to M.I.T. in 1968 so it is not inconceivable that the following transcription is indeed based upon his personal typed script copy with original pencil stage directions that made its way into the folder. 

One thing that I find rather surprising about the text is just how many Harvard professors’ names have been misspelled.

__________________________

D—This is a review with a message—a message no economist can afford to ignore. The year is 2000 A.D. 16 years have now passed since 1984, that Armageddon of the economics profession when Professor Wassily Leontief finally established that the world really was homogeneous of degree one. The then President of the United States, Mr. Norman Mailer, immediately issued the great Marginal Product Proclamation. Everyone was to receive their marginal product.

B— But there was nothing left over for the economists. Economists became the hand-loom weavers of the 20th. century.

L—Arthur Schlesinger Jr. vividly described their position in a 17-volume work entitled “The Coming of the Raw Deal.” Economists everywhere, after the first shock, set out upon new careers. Tonight we shall discover what happened to some of those whom we know and love.

D—Several of them went into the movie industry and we will now let you hear the soundtrack of the preview of one of their movies.

(Epic Music—Bruckner?)

[Insert: Stand]

L—Ladies and Gentlemen, 21st Century Fox are proud to present Arthur Smithies and Joan Robinson in….The Big Push, the story of the unbalanced growth of an economist….

B—Production by Karl [sic] Kaysen

D—Copyright by Edward Hastings Chamberlain [sic]

L—All labor disputes on location and with Elizabeth Taylor arbitrated by John Dunlop.

B—Continuity by Simon Kuznets

L—Editing by Seymour Harris, of course.

D—Costumes by Robert Dorfman.

B—This is the story of Ragnar Maynard von Eckstein (his parents had always wanted him to be an economist). After many struggles at last he got to Harvard Graduate School.

L—It is a tale of |horror. See him now at a seminar on the economics of Medical Care…..

D—This after-noon I am going to discuss the economics of Blood-banking. One of the crucial problems in this field is what proportion to maintain of liquid assets. In this category we have blood [Insert:   L. What about near blood] near-blood. We also have non-liquid assets—bonds in the form of pounds of flesh. Another problem is the current shortage of tellers, for we can only employ vampires with a strong liquidity preference. If we cannot get more it will clot up the flow of funds and reduce the velocity of circulation.

L—It is a tale of |ambition…..

B—Coming from a family whose marginal product was zero, Ragnar Maynard realized that to get on quickly he must publish something. But what? He had not written anything. But our resourceful hero saw a way out: he would publish his first book before it was written. It was called First Draft, a revised tentative, preliminary, provisional text. It was based on Photostat copies of his blackboard notes.

L—It is a tale of |love….

D—Ragnar Manyrd fell passionately in love with a beautiful capital theorist, played in the movie by ravishing Joan Robinson. His demand for her love was infinitely elastic; her supply could not meet him—at least not at his price. The price was to join him in his exhausting search over peaks and through troughs for the elusive U-shaped cost curve.

L—It is a tale of |excitement

B—See Ragnar Maynard trying to free himself from the dreaded liquidity trap.

Insert: D—It’s true, it really is thicker than water

L—All this and more you can see in this movie—The Big Push is a take-off point in the development of the motion-picture.

B—See the exciting attempt on Professor Leontief’s life (with a 202 rifle) to try to prevent him revealing his startling discovery of a constant returns world.

D—See the world’s largest input-output table which proved it—drawn by the Economic Research project in the sand of the New Mexican desert.

L—You cannot afford to miss this motion picture. Filmed in wonderful new—Solocolor. An introducing revolutionary—Rostowscope.

(concluding epic music)

[Insert: Sit]

D—But the movies could not accommodate everybody…

[Insert: Bob in middle]

[Insert: one illegible word]

L—Professor Leontief, having escaped with his life, and using his input-output table from Scientific American as a testimonial, got into the business of designing bathroom tiles.

B—Professor Duesenbery [sic] was well qualified to go into the demonstration business. He drove Cadillacs around low-income districts to stimulate demand. And changed his name to Jones so that it would be him that everyone was keeping up with.

D—In England many economists went to work for the government where they produced a remarkable effect. Before 1984 political speeches had sounded something like this.

B—Good evening; I’m the Prime Minister. My name is….. [insert: ad lib] etc.

D—But now all this has changed…

B—Good evening…[insert: ad lib] etc.

L—Professor Tom Schelling took up a career in Madison avenue. It was he who was responsible for some of the following products…

D—Ladies, now you can wear the most powerful and alluring perfume in the world—First Strike—the only perfume with complete credibility. It also contains the only deodorant with overkill.

B—Now at last there is a product to take away the smell of deodorant—it is called Counterforce. Only Counterforce gives you 24-hour protection against odorlessness. [Insert: 5120 or S120]

[Insert: STAND]

L—For years girls have been searching for a perfume which will attract the men and yet prevent them from taking liberties—now they have it in the form of Deterrence—the perfume which is effective [Insert: only] if you don’t use it.

D—He also introduced a city wide deodorant campaign under the title of Civil defence.

L—And the only really safe method of birth control—Early Warning.

B—Meanwhile Professor Dunlop had become a truck driver and a shop steward for Jimmy Hoffa.

D—And Professor Kuznets took to selling abacuses.

[Insert: Some economists, not from Harvard opened a cafeteria.]

[Insert: Bob-Les—come forward]

L—Professor Galbraith first thought of becoming a rice farmer. But he soon saw that since there was no more need for economists he could now come into his own. After a coup d’etat he took over the Littauer building and changed it into the department of Affluent Studies. The idea was the ultra-popularization of economics; the main qualification for admission was to be a good phrase-monger. The new department published books like…

B—The Economics of Sex, with an appendix on the second derivatives of Jayne Mansfield. A geometric interpretation with diagrams.

D—The department became identified with a new theory of economic decline, published as a non-Rostovian manifesto. All countries, it said, tend to decline, and their speed of decline is determined by their relative degree of economic advancement. Its five stages of decline started with the age of mass consumption, through the age of preconditions for decline, coming then to the crucial landing stage.

B—Other books appeared like ‘The Naked Truth about Public Squalor, and so on.

[Insert: Pause—back to audience]

L—Only one of the redundant economists took the highest calling of all. Let us now eavesdrop on a sermon by [Insert: his eminence] Archbishop Gerschenkron…

[Insert: seated]

B—You know, when I was an economist one of my graduate students wrote a very good paper for my course. Matthew, [Insert: I said] why don’t you publish this paper, no, really why don’t you publish. But you know youll have to change the title. What journal is going to publish a paper called ‘the First Gospel’? But you know it really was a very good paper. There was a lot of interesting material about the farm problem in Egypt and about the almost miraculous elasticity of supply of loaves and small fishes in Gallillee [sic]. Then there was a very good section about Christ throwing the money-changers from the temple. Well, you see, the rate of interest was very high then. Don’t you think that the real reason why Christ did this was to reduce the rate of interest and to stimulate investment. You see, I wanted Matthew to rewrite his paper for the Quarterly Journal and call it ‘Christ as a proto-Keynsian’ [sic] But no, he was a very strong-willed boy and he brought it out in a syposium [sic] edited by Seymour Harris, called the Bible, essays in honor of God. But, you know, it was still required reading for my course.

D—Professor Harberler [sic] took to song writing, and here is a sample…

[Insert: stand behind table]

(tune: God bless America)

[Insert: All:] God bless free enterprise,
[Insert: MOC or HOC or NOC] System divine,
Stand beside her and guide her,
Just as long as the profits are mine.
[Insert: Salute]
Corporations may they prosper
Big business, may it grow!
[Insert: MOC or HOC or NOC] God bless Free Enterprise,
The Status quo!

L—Well, David, I guess that’s it. Do you think they’ll throw us out?

D—I dont know. But I dont suppose we’ll ever be allowed to pass generals. There are still some jobs you can get without a Ph.D.

B—No chance at all is there? I mean about generals….

D—Well they were all in it weren’t they—all the generals board.

L—What about Professor Vanek? He emerged unscathed.

D—That’s true but he’s leaving.

B—That’s fair, of course.

L—Yes, he hasn’t done much since he’s been here really.

D—Half a dozen good articles…

B—4 books, or is it 5?

L—He’s become an acknowledged expert on at least two major fields of economics…

D—A clear and stimulating teacher…
And a nice guy…

L—Not much really. [Insert: Clearly not a Harvard type]

B—Not surprised they’re letting him go

D—Well, that’s it then.

B—One more thing actually…The perpetrators of this entertainment would like it to be known that any resemblance of characters in this review to any person or persons living or half-dead is purely intentional.

L—So be it.

All—In the name of the Holy Trinity:

D—Dorfman,

L—Samuelson,

B—and Solow.

All—Amen

 

Source:   MIT Archives. Department of Economics Records, Box 2, Folder “GEA 1961-67”.

 

Categories
Economists Gender M.I.T. Northwestern

M.I.T. Complaint about ill-treatment of woman in job interview, 1982

 

With the current discussion of economist men acting badly with respect to their women colleagues and students in mind, I have transcribed the following letter by the long-time head of the M.I.T. economics department to complain about the positively unprofessional treatment of a woman graduate student interviewed by the Northwestern economics department. E. Cary Brown’s letter is a fine example of what senior male colleagues can do to support their women students. Perhaps someone knows how the letter was received at Northwestern.

Brown’s MIT obituary has been appended to this posting.

____________________

Chair to Chair Complaint
E. Cary Brown to Dale Mortensen

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Department of Economics
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

January 9, 1982

Professor Dale T. Mortensen
Department of Economics
Northwestern University
2750 Ridge Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201

Dear Professor Mortensen:

It is no pleasure to report to you that one of our graduate students was extremely upset by the interview given her by the Northwestern delegation at the recent American Economic Association meetings, and so are we.

She reports that there were six people in the room, three of whom were lying on the bed for the whole time of the interview; she was introduced to no one; she was sat down in a low chair with the sun shining in her face; she was questioned in a desultory way with what seemed to her to be an elaborate lack of interest in anything she had to say. Naturally she suspects that she was part of a pro forma affirmative action charade, and the evidence makes it difficult to deny.

We are all aware that job interviews are an extraordinarily tense time for graduate students, even when conducted with courtesy and consideration. My colleagues join me in hoping that the reported experience was a major deviation from Northwestern policy.

Sincerely yours,

[signed]

E. Cary Brown
Head

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Archives. Department of Economics. Records, 1947—, Box 3, Folder “N”.

____________________

E. Cary Brown, fiscal policy expert, dies at 91

June 27, 2007

E. Cary Brown, a leading expert on fiscal policy and the economics of taxation and a member of the MIT economics faculty for more than 60 years, passed away on June 8. He was 91.

As a professor of economics at MIT, Brown taught a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses on tax policy design, statistical methods for economics and the economics of fiscal policy.

Brown was born on April 14, 1916, in Bakersfield, Calif. He received the B.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1937 and pursued graduate work in economics at Berkeley and Harvard. His graduate studies were interrupted by World War II. Brown served as an economist at the War Production Board in 1940-41 and as an economist at the Division of Tax Research at the U.S. Treasury Department between 1942 and 1947. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1948.

Brown joined the MIT faculty in 1947 and was promoted to full professor in 1958. He was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Ford Foundation Faculty Fellow and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as department head for Economics for 18 years, presiding over a period of departmental expansion and a time when MIT achieved recognition as one of the world’s leading economics departments. He retired from the MIT faculty in 1986 and served as an emeritus professor until his death.

Brown was widely acclaimed for his seminal research on the design of depreciation allowances, the income tax provisions that permit corporations and other investors who purchase long-lived assets to claim tax deductions as these assets decay. In a classic 1948 study, “Business Income Taxation and Investment Incentives,” Brown outlined a fundamental set of relationships between the investment credit a firm receives when it makes an investment, the present discounted value of subsequent depreciation allowances and the effective tax burden on new investments. His insights have remained a touchstone for virtually all subsequent research on this issue and still feature in the public policy debate on the choice between income and consumption taxation.

Brown was also an expert on broader issues of fiscal policy. His 1956 paper on “Fiscal Policy in the Thirties: A Reappraisal” was one of the first applications of the full-employment budget deficit concept. In contrast to the then-prevailing wisdom, the study suggested that fiscal policy had not been particularly expansionary through much of this period, thereby calling into question the extent to which fiscal policy could have contributed to the U.S. economy’s recovery from the depths of the Great Depression.

Brown was a leader in the post-World War II research effort to understand the economic effects of different tax instruments and to design an equitable and efficient tax system. Policy-makers often sought his advice on questions of tax policy, and he was a frequent consultant to the U.S. Treasury Department. In the early 1960s, he was actively involved in the Kennedy Administration’s consideration of proposals for accelerated depreciation for capital goods, and he was one of the architects of the 1962 investment tax credit.

Brown was an avid tennis player throughout his life. After his retirement from MIT, he played on the Super Seniors Tennis circuit, competing throughout the United States and winning several competitions in various age groups. He remained an active tennis player until he was 88.

A long-time resident of Concord, Brown is survived by three sisters, Phyllys Ohanian of Newton, Mass., Molly Canan of Philomath, Ore., and Constance Morse of Plymouth, Mich.; and one brother, Lewis Brown of New York City. He is also survived by his daughters, Rebecca Brown Corwin of Roslindale, Mass., and Gretchen Brown Rossman of Amherst, Mass.; two granddaughters, three great-grandchildren and two stepchildren.

His first wife, Tomlin E. (Edwards) Coggan, died in 1994; they were divorced. His second wife, Margaret Durham, resides in Evergreen, Colo.; they were divorced.

Source:  MIT News, June 27, 2007.

Image Source:  E. Cary Brown portrait from the MIT Museum Website.