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Northwestern. Robert J. Gordon selling Graduate Economics Program, 1977

 

The following soft-smile-hard-sell advertisement directed to potential applicants for the graduate economics program at Northwestern University was found in the economics department records of M.I.T. These notes were written by M.I.T. Ph.D. (1967) Robert J. Gordon who was then serving as the director of graduate admissions in economics for Northwestern in 1977-78. Gordon had been appointed professor of economics at Northwestern in 1973. This document provides a fascinating comparative glimpse of economics programs and locations as seen at that time.

Pro-tip:  Robert J. Gordon has shared his personal archive of “Photos of Economists”  on-line.

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INFORMAL NOTES ON GRADUATE ECONOMICS AT NORTHWESTERN

Robert J. Gordon
Director of Graduate Admissions in Economics, 1977-78

To supplement the rather formal compilation of admissions and degree requirements contained in the pamphlet “Graduate Program in Economics, 1977-78”, I have put together a more informal set of observations on economics and graduate student life at Northwestern. Just as television commercials are no longer inhibited in naming competitors, I have included a few comparisons between Northwestern and some of the other departments to which you may be planning to apply. My comments on other departments are entirely personal based on my years as a student or faculty member at Harvard, M.I.T., and Chicago, and on the academic “grapevine” as regards other schools. In no sense do these subjective comparisons represent an “official view” of anyone in the administration of the Department of Economics or Northwestern University, nor would my colleagues necessarily agree with them.

I. WHO SHOULD APPLY TO NORTHWESTERN?

Universities in the United States are currently awarding roughly 2,000 M.A.’s and about 850 Ph.D.’s in Economics every year. Taking account of voluntary and involuntary dropouts, this suggests that about 2,500-3,000 candidates enter graduate school in Economics every year, and that the number of applicants is even larger. Both the applicants and the graduate schools are diverse in quality, and the admissions process can be described as an exercise in “matching” wherein the best schools attempt to select the best candidates, the next-best schools attempt to find the next-best candidates, and so on down the line. As long as a fee is charged for an admission application (currently $25 at Northwestern), potential applicants must carry out what economists call a “cost-benefit” analysis when deciding how many and which schools should be applied to. Too many applications may waste fees, but too few applications may lead to unanimous rejections. The best strategy is to realize that admissions committees are imperfect judges of your own “true quality”, and in some cases you also may over- or underrate yourself. To protect yourself against mistakes, it is best to apply not only to schools at your own perceived quality level, but also somewhat above and below. (In a recent survey 57 percent of the respondents rated themselves in the top ten percent of their class!)

Rating Department “Quality”

While a number of different characteristics are relevant to the final choice, faculty quality is the most important single criterion by which alternative graduate programs should be judged. Among the advantages provided by faculty members who are widely regarded in the profession as among the best in their field are not only correct and current courses, but also guidance in Ph.D. dissertations and knowledge of the most promising areas for student research, the ability to win research grants which in most cases provide funds for student research assistantships, and finally, widespread professional contacts to aid students in the job market.1

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1By the way, there is currently no problem in finding jobs after graduate school in Economics. This contrasts with other disciplines, particularly the humanities, history, and sociology, where jobs are scarce and some Ph.D.’s are unemployed. The healthier job market in Economics is explained by the large demand for Ph.D. economists in business and government which supplements the demand by colleges for teaching posts.

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The already high quality of the Northwestern faculty has been supplemented in the last few years by the arrival of three new full professors who are both relatively young and are regarded as among the top economists in their respective fields—Marc Nerlove (winner in 1969 of the American Economic Association’s John Bates Clark award for the best American economist under the age of 40), Frederick Scherer, and myself. Since the most recent official survey to determine the ranking of Northwestern relative to other economics departments is more than five years out of date, there is no accurate information available which is both objective and current.

As a substitute I can provide the results of my own subjective but detailed evaluation, which is current as of Fall 1976 (e.g., it takes account of the movements of J. Stiglitz from Stanford to Oxford and Michael Rothschild from Princeton to Wisconsin). In consultation with several highly regarded economists, all permanent faculty members in the top 18 U.S. departments have been rated with a “quality score” ranging from one (low) to 10 (superman), and the total scores in each department of the faculty members rating “5” or above have been added up.2 An attempt has been made to include members of business schools known to play a major role in graduate economics education. For most departments official faculty lists have been obtained to insure completeness.

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2Note that this technique gives a premium to large departments, partially explaining the “victory” of Harvard over M.I.T.

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Department

Rating Points

Citations3

1.

 Chicago 152 (1574)
2. Harvard 147

(1472)

3.

 M.I.T. 139 (1241)
4. Yale 122

(598)

5.

 Northwestern 97 (401)
6. Princeton 96

(362)

7.

 Pennsylvania 93 (509)
8. Wisconsin 85

(587)

9.

 Berkeley 75 (420)
9. Stanford 75

(402)

11.

 Minnesota 72 (209)
12. U.C.L.A. 70

(344)

13.

 Rochester 43
14. Columbia 41

(454)

14.

 Maryland 41 (276)
16. Michigan 40

17.

 Carnegie-Mellon 38
18. Brown 23

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3Numbers in parentheses are faculty citations in the 1973-74 Social Sciences Citation Index.

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It would appear that there are four departments in the top category, and then a group of “next best” from ranks 5 through 12 which are very close together in total points. If you think rather highly of yourself, it is probably worthwhile to apply to at least one department in the “top four,” but keep in mind that the total number of first-year students in these departments is only about 135 out of the 2,500-3,000 students who enter graduate school in economics each year. Most students will want to apply to one or more of the “next best,” whether they are top students who want a safety valve, or whether they evaluate themselves at “next best,” or whether they think of themselves as “third best” but are willing to take a chance that an admissions committee in the second tier might overrate them.

Comparisons Among Departments

Selection of a choice among the “top four” depends on your abilities and tastes. M.I.T. is almost universally praised for the quality of its faculty, its devotion to the teaching of graduate students, and for its physical facilities, but it can accept only about 35 out of roughly 350 applications, and students without excellent mathematical training will feel left behind. Harvard has a senior faculty which is tops in fame and reputation but which is frequently criticized as aloof and inaccessible not only to students but even to junior faculty members; classrooms and faculty offices are in several buildings with no natural physical focal point for students; but on the other hand the attractions and convenience of Cambridge have appeal. At Chicago the faculty is better at teaching than at Harvard, is much more accessible, and in many fields of economics is more innovative than at M.I.T.; compared to M.I.T. Chicago’s disadvantages are huge first-year classes (55-80 is typical) and the neighborhood (crime is a problem, and also there is much less to do in Hyde Park as compared with Cambridge, so one is dependent on downtown Chicago, which is very difficult to reach by public transportation from Hyde Park at night). I lack personal experience at Yale—the problems which recur in “grapevine” conversations is the physical and social separation between the faculty in the Cowles foundation and in the rest of the departments, the aloofness of many faculty members, and the disadvantages of living in New Haven. On the other hand, some ex-graduate students claim that the Department/Cowles split does not affect them, even if it has disadvantages for faculty members.

How does Northwestern compare with its competitors in the “next best” group? Stanford, Berkeley, and U.C.L.A. are obviously superior in climate but suffer from other disadvantages. Because the Stanford campus is so vast, there is no university shopping district within easy walking distance, and the attractions of Palo Alto are uninterestingly suburban, with the delights of San Francisco 35 miles away and accessible only by car. Berkeley is a much better place to live, both more interesting by itself and closer to San Francisco, but the department itself is large and impersonal, with long corridors of closed office doors, and the mathematical economists are off across the campus in a separate building. Princeton is located in a posh expensive small town 45 miles from New York, which is therefore less accessible than Boston from Cambridge, San Francisco from Berkeley, or Chicago from Evanston. Pennsylvania is located in a relatively unattractive section of Philadelphia and faculty houses are widely dispersed (as is true at Harvard and M.I.T.), which inhibits the faculty from lingering after seminars and from giving post-seminar cocktail parties. I lack close familiarity with U.C.L.A., Penn, and Minnesota and won’t cast further aspersions, other than to note that they are all relatively large and impersonal universities.

Northwestern combines a number of advantages—a high-quality faculty which is extremely accessible to students both individually and in group seminars, together with a location which combines the best features of small-town and large-city living. Another significant strength is the relatively prosperous budgetary situation at Northwestern, which is currently allowing the Economics Department to embark on a major program of hiring new tenure and nontenure faulty members. It is likely that by the time current applicants arrive here, the relative ranking of Northwestern’s Economics Department will have risen even higher relative to the many universities which are currently suffering from tight budgets.

 

 II. ASPECTS OF GRADUATE LIFE AT NORTHWESTERN

Courses and Seminars

The Ph.D. program typically takes four years, divided into an initial two-year period devoted mainly to courses, followed by two additional years devoted to attending seminars, finding a thesis topic, and writing the dissertation. There is a single written general examination (“prelim”) in economic theory (three hours for macro and three hours for micro), which most students take after their first year of courses. The process of learning at Northwestern does not consist of rote learning or indoctrination, but rather a process by which the student is first trained in the tools of theoretical, mathematical, and statistical analysis, and then is exposed to the frontiers of economic science and urged to use his tools to help resolve controversies and contribute to the advance of knowledge.

The process by which a student arrives at a dissertation topic generally begins in the second year of class work. Unlike many graduate schools, where the general exam process continues to the end of the second year and sometimes beyond, at Northwestern most students enter the second year of classes with their general exam behind them and can concentrate on finding a special field of interest. Second year classes are usually small enough to allow students to participate actively in discussion and to encourage the faculty both to assign term papers and to read them carefully. Second-year term papers are a “proving ground” where students can experiment with possible thesis topics. Under a new system, students are required to give a paper in a field “workshop” after they are finished taking the courses their primary field sequence.

A formal requirement for admission to Ph.D. candidacy, in addition to the written general examination on economic theory, is an oral qualifying examination on the dissertation, which is usually taken during the third year. The purpose of the exam is to ascertain whether the dissertation topic chosen by the student is feasible. Usually the exam consists of a discussion of a brief written thesis proposal which a candidate submits to the faculty committee of examiners.

At many graduate schools there is no formal program for third and fourth year students, who simply “disappear” in the library or their homes and are unavailable for conversation and consultation with each other. At Northwestern, on the other hand, there is an active workshop program to provide forums where graduate students are exposed to new ideas and have a chance to see each other regularly. A centerpiece is the Tuesday night student- faculty seminar, where students present both early and finish versions of their dissertation research, with a substantial cross-section of the faculty attending regularly to provide advice and criticism. Research seminars in macroeconomics and labor, in applied micro economics, industrial organization and in mathematical economics (in collaboration with faculty members at the Graduate School of Management) meet regularly for presentation and discussion of papers by faculty, students, and visitors. These seminars are not only a major channel of communication between faculty and students, but are also an important method of intellectual interchange among faculty members. In addition, there is a regular visiting speakers program, in which well-known faculty members from other universities are invited to Northwestern to present talks on their research Evanston’s location also facilitates additional informal seminars by visitors who are traveling through the Chicago area.

Particular Strengths

Although the Economics Department teaches graduate courses in all of the major fields of economics, it has particular areas of strength in which faculty members are currently making a major research contribution:

Microeconomic Theory
Mathematical Economics
Econometrics
Theoretical and Applied Macroeconomics
Labor Economics
Public Finance
Managerial Economics and Industrial Organization
Transportation and Urban Economics
Economic History
Medical Economics
Economics of Population and the Family

Faculty and Student Accessibility

Faculty-student contact is unusually good at Northwestern for a number of reasons. Although the classes in economics theory in the first quarter are fairly large, since some management school students are required to attend, for the remaining two quarters of the first year the theory classes typically contain only 25. Second-year class enrollments are often in the range of 5 to 10, allowing a workshop atmosphere and considerable faculty attention to the individual student term papers and research projects. Most of the faculty live close to the Evanston campus and typically hold open cocktail parties in their homes after seminars by visiting speakers. After the Tuesday night faculty-student seminar, both students and faculty regularly adjourn to a local pub (this never happens at M.I.T., Harvard, or at other departments where faculty residences are located in distant suburbs). Many third-and fourth-year students have offices adjoining faculty offices and see their faculty neighbors regularly during coffee breaks. Another advantage promoting easy interaction is the relative youth of many of the tenured faculty, in contrast to the older “stars” at some other departments who spend more time consulting in Washington than talking to their students.

Easy contact among students is even more important than faculty-student contact in the first year, when students need to get to know each other and form into small study groups. This is facilitated at Northwestern by a graduate student lounge in the basement of 1922 Sheridan Rd. (the main economics building), where coffee is available and students are encouraged to study or talk between classes. Another convenience is the Library, completed in 1970 and about a 3-minute walk from the main department building. A special feature of the uniquely designed library is the divisional arrangement of books and journals in three research towers, one for the social sciences. On each of the circular levels of the research towers, ranges of books in specialized journals are placed in a radial pattern. At the periphery of each circle surrounding the collections is a repeating series of carrels, typing rooms, graduate and faculty studies, and seminar rooms in close proximity to the main body of printed materials needed by the various disciplines. (The computer center is also a great advantage, as it is relatively well-run and provides fast 15-20 minute “turnaround time” except in peak weeks at the end of the quarter).

Faculty and Courses in the Graduate School of Management

Although other universities also have business schools, of course, Northwestern’s provides a particular asset because of its unusual orientation toward economics and because of the unusually close contact between members of the Economics Department and the Management School. Economics topics covered in Management School courses include optimization theory and techniques, decision-making under uncertainty, models of production and technology, models of financial decision-making, and others. Management School courses are open to economics students, and dissertation committees often include Management School members.

Research Centers

Several “centers” headed by Department faculty members support and encourage research in their areas, provide offices and secretarial help, and arrange seminars by resident faculty, students, and visitors. Research Centers have been established in mathematical economics, transportation economics, and urban affairs.

 

III. ADMISSIONS AND FELLOWSHIPS

The formal admissions procedure is described in the “Graduate Program” pamphlet. Prospective applicants should note that they are required to submit scores from the Graduate Record Examination only for the verbal and quantitative aptitude tests and not for the advanced test in economics. This is consistent with our desire to encourage applications from those who have not chosen to major in economics as undergraduates. Our interest is in finding motivated, intelligent students with enough quantitative aptitude to understand economics theory and enough curiosity about the world around them to do creative economic research.

All available criteria are used by the Admissions Committee (myself and a few colleagues) to evaluate each applicant — undergraduate grade record, letters of recommendation, the applicant’s score on the Graduate Record Examination, and special factors. No arbitrary boundaries are established for grades or GRE scores. Applicant should encourage those writing letters of recommendation to be as specific as possible, a process which can be facilitated if applicants confer with the letter writers regarding their strengths and weaknesses. Applicants who have any unique qualifications or wish to explain “soft spots” in their grade record are encouraged to file supplementary statements with their applications.

Since first-year calculus is essential and second-year calculus is extremely useful for the study of economics, prospective applicants who have not yet taken these courses for credit are urged to do so at some time between now and their arrival at graduate school (wherever they choose to attend). The summer before arrival is an excellent time to take an extra course, and second-year calculus should receive top priority.

The selection of fellowship winners—for both university and department fellowships—is made by the Admissions Committee shortly after the admissions decision. A number of fellowships are also available under a Rockefeller-sponsored Northwestern Program in the Economics of Population and Household Behavior. To maximize their chances of receiving support, applicants are urged to apply for several of the fellowships awarded by outside foundations, businesses, and government agencies. Do not despair if you do not receive the fellowship, for there are several other alternatives. Most obvious is the student loan program, through which students can borrow money to cover most or all of their tuition (for details, see the Northwestern Graduate School Catalog). A substantial portion of the loan funds is available at three percent interest, which in these days of inflation represents a negative “real” rate of interest. Remember also that inflation reduces the real value of the principal to be repaid. Other sources are part-time academic year jobs, research assistantships for faculty members (usually reserved for students in the third and fourth year), and support from parents and/or spouse (now that women have been liberated, the Ph.T. Degree—“putting hubby through”—has been supplemented by the Pw.T,—“putting wife through”). We do not at present normally award teaching assistantships to first-year students.

 

IV. LIVING IN EVANSTON AND CHICAGO

Evanston

Evanston is the first suburb north of Chicago along Lake Michigan, and the Evanston-Chicago boundary is located 9.5 miles north of the Chicago “Loop.” Despite its proximity to Chicago, Evanston’s aesthetic attractions are immediately apparent when one crosses north over the city line. All of it streets are lined with unusually grand old shade trees; street lights are old-fashioned; the downtown shopping area is free of overhanging neon signs and decorated by city-maintained flowerbeds; and the lakefront is lined with the bicycle path, parks, and beaches where swimming is safe in unpolluted water.

With a population of about 80,000, Evanston is about the same size as Berkeley and Cambridge and shares their advantage of combining the convenience and call of a relatively small self-contained city with the entertainment and cultural attractions of a large urban center. Its residents include not only students and professors, but also sizable numbers of lawyers, architects, and other professionals who help to support groups and organizations in music, politics, and other areas. Student housing is available both in private and university-owned buildings (see the Graduate School Catalog for details), and most students are able to live within a short walk or bicycle ride from Northwestern’s lakefront campus.

Evanston’s downtown shopping area begins immediately south of the campus, with a group of books stores located across the street from the main university administration building. Shopping opportunities are unusually diverse for a city of Evanston’s size, with several branches of downtown department and specialty stores, large supermarkets and small “gourmet” food shops, and a variety of shops selling both standard and esoteric clothes, furnishings, and other items.

Transportation within Evanston is easy whether or not students own cars. Parking is available on side streets and in public parking garages downtown. Since most side streets are relatively free of traffic, many students prefer to rely entirely on bicycles for travel within Evanston. The public transit fare is subsidized by the City Council at 25¢ for travel within Evanston on four bus lines and on the rapid transit stations which shuttle at five-minute intervals along a north-south axis which skirts the western boundary of the campus and continue south to the Chicago border and on to downtown Chicago  (see below).

Many Evanston residents formerly lived in the Hyde Park and South Shore districts of Chicago—adjacent to the University of Chicago—but moved north to escape the South Side crime problem. Evanston is fortunate in its low crime rate, less than half the rates recorded in Berkeley and Cambridge in the 1970-73 period, and is a place where both students and faculty feel perfectly free to walk out at night. The only noticeable disadvantage of life in Evanston is the climate between November 15 and March 15, when the average daily high-temperature is about 35 degrees (i.e., five degrees colder than New York). Average annual snowfall is a bit more than in New York and a bit less than in Boston. The weather during the rest of the year similar to that in the northeastern quadrant of the U.S. Over all the weather is obviously no match for Berkeley, about the same as Boston and decidedly better than Madison or Minneapolis.

Chicago

From the Northwestern campus the center of Chicago is 25 minutes by car via Lakeshore Drive, and is almost easily accessible via rapid transit trains which stop twice at the western edge of the campus and reach the “Loop” in 30 minutes during rush hours, and about 40 minutes at other times. These times overstate the duration of travel to many restaurants, theaters, and clubs, the majority of which are located on the North Side of the city, i.e., between the “Loop” in the Evanston border. Trains run all night, and at most hours their frequency is every five to ten minutes.

Until six years ago I had never been to Chicago and had an irrational fear of the unknown Midwest, which may be shared by some prospective applicants from the East and West Coasts. My years of sampling Chicago’s attractions have converted me, and perhaps you will be interested in some personal opinions and comparisons:

    • The main aesthetic attractions are (1) the Loop and Near North Side, containing some of the best urban architecture in the world, in (2) the 20-mile bicycle path along the lake front, which is a continuous band of parks, beaches, and yacht harbors.
    • The major museums are all very large and among the top two or three in the country, including the Art Institute, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Planetarium, the Aquarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry, the latter having special appeal for any economist interested in the history of technical change and in “how things work.” There are smaller art galleries as well, and a local “school” of modern art, which I saw exhibited in Mexico City as “La Nueva Escuela de Chicago.”
    • In New York visiting concerts of Georg Solti with the Chicago Symphony have become, according to the New York Times, the “most eagerly anticipated musical events since Toscanini.” The Symphony plays three concerts a week during the academic year at Orchestra Hall in the “Loop” and frequent concerts during the summer at the Ravinia Festival in a suburb a few miles north of Evanston. The Lyric Opera presents a three-month season in the fall and shares with San Francisco the top rank among US opera companies outside of New York. There are several local chamber music groups and a long list of touring concert artists, including the major New York ballet companies, which perform throughout the year. There are also three full-time FM classical music stations.
    • The “club scene,” both night clubs and coffee houses, is unsurpassed among cities outside of New York, and the blues and folk music offerings surpass New York. Each Friday a free newspaper, the Reader, lists about 150 blues, folk, rock, and jazz acts appearing in local clubs.
    • Speaking of newspapers, the Chicago Tribune has dropped its conservativism of the Col. McCormick days and was recently named one of the country’s 10 best by Time. Its local news and features are excellent, although it still can’t compare for national and international news with the New York Times (the latter is flown in daily for purchase at Evanston newsstands or for home delivery).
    • In the restaurant category Chicago ranks after New York, San Francisco, and perhaps New Orleans. Its best are not as good as in those three cities, but that doesn’t matter much for students who can’t very often afford $50 French dinners. More important and interesting is Chicago’s strength, the hundreds of inexpensive “storefront ethnic” restaurants, many of which are in the north part of Chicago close to Evanston. Take your choice among German, French Provincial, East European Italian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Mexican, Cuban, and Peruvian.
    • Cheap entertainment is available at the student-run film societies at Northwestern, other colleges, and the Art Institute, and at a number of commercial theaters on the north side of Chicago which only charge $.75 or $1.00 for a double bill of second- or third-run features.
    • While the quantity of live drama is no match for New York, there is a surprisingly broad offering by two accomplished professional repertory groups, a number of “off-Broadway” and experimental groups, and both pre- and post-Broadway touring shows. In recent years a number of shows have “graduated” to New York after starting here.

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Obviously the preceding notes will only begin to answer your questions. Write me for any additional information you need. I’ll respond without delay if I know the answer or else I’ll find a colleague who can advise you. I can also arrange for a current graduate student to provide more information on student reactions.

 

Source: M.I.T. Archives. Records of the Department of Economics. Box 3, Folder “Quality Rating.”

Image Source: Robert J. Gordon at First Bank of Japan Monetary Conference, June 1983. Detail from picture with James Tobin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Economics Departments and University Rankings by Chairmen. Hughes (1925) and Keniston (1957)

 

The rankings of universities and departments of economics for 1920 and 1957 that are found below were based on the pooling of contemporary expert opinions. Because the ultimate question for both the Hughes and Keniston studies was the relative aggregate university standing with respect to graduate education, “The list did not include technical schools, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, nor state colleges, like Iowa State, Michigan State or Penn State, since the purpose was to compare institutions which offered the doctorate in a wide variety of fields.” Hence, historians of economics will be frustrated by the conspicuous absence of M.I.T. and Carnegie Tech in the 1957 column except for the understated footnote “According to some of the chairmen there are strong departments at Carnegie Tech. and M.I.T.; also at Vanderbilt”.

The average perceived rank of a particular economics department relative to that of its university might be of use in assessing the negotiating position of department chairs with their respective university administrations. The observed movement within the perception league tables over the course of roughly a human generation might suggest other questions worth pursuing. 

Anyhow without further apology…

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About the Image: There is no face associated with rankings so I have chosen the legendary comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello for their “Who’s on First?” sketch.  YouTube TV version; Radio version: Who’s on First? starts at 22:15

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From Keniston’s Appendix (1959)

Standing of
American Graduate Departments
in the Arts and Sciences

The present study was undertaken as part of a survey of the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania in an effort to discover the present reputation of the various departments which offer programs leading to the doctorate.

A letter was addressed to the chairmen of departments in each of twenty-five leading universities of the country. The list was compiled on the basis of (1) membership in the Association of American Universities, (2) number of Ph.D.’s awarded in recent years, (3) geographical distribution. The list did not include technical schools, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, nor state colleges, like Iowa State, Michigan State or Penn State, since the purpose was to compare institutions which offered the doctorate in a wide variety of fields.

Each chairman was asked to rate, on an accompanying sheet, the strongest departments in his field, arranged roughly as the first five, the second five and, if possible, the third five, on the basis of the quality of their Ph.D. work and the quality of the faculty as scholars. About 80% of the chairmen returned a rating. Since many of them reported the composite judgment of their staff, the total number of ratings is well over 500.

On each rating sheet, the individual institutions were given a score. If they were rated in order of rank, they were assigned numbers from 15 (Rank 1) to 1 (Rank 15). If they were rated in groups of five, each group alphabetically arranged, those in the top five were given a score of 13, in the second five a score of 8, and in the third five a score of 3. When all the ratings sheets were returned, the scores of each institution were tabulated and compiled and the institutions arranged in order, in accordance with the total score for each department.

To determine areas of strength or weakness, the departmental scores were combined to determine [four] divisional scores. [Divisions (Departments): Biological Sciences (2), Humanities (11), Physical Sciences (6), Social Sciences (5)]….

… Finally, the scores of each institution given in the divisional rankings were combined to provide an over-all rating of the graduate standing of the major universities.

From a similar poll of opinion, made by R. M. Hughes, A Study of the Graduate Schools of America, and published in 1925, [See the excerpt posted here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror] it was possible to compile the scores for each of eighteen departments as they were ranked at that time and also to secure divisional and over-all rankings. These are presented here for the purpose of showing what changes have taken place in the course of a generation.

The limitations of such a study are obvious; the ranks reported do not reveal the actual merit of the individual departments. They depend on highly subjective impressions; they reflect old and new loyalties; they are subject to lag, and the halo of past prestige. But they do report the judgment of the men whose opinion is most likely to have weight. For chairmen, by virtue of their office, are the men who must know what is going on at other institutions. They are called upon to recommend schools where students in their field may profitably study; they must seek new appointments from the staff and graduates of other schools; their own graduates tum to them for advice in choosing between alternative possibilities for appointment. The sum of their opinions is, therefore, a fairly close approximation to what informed people think about the standing of the departments in each of the fields.

 

OVER-ALL STANDING
(Total Scores)

1925

1957

1.

 Chicago

1543

1.

 Harvard

5403

2.

 Harvard

1535

2.

 California

4750

3.

 Columbia 1316 3. Columbia 4183
4. Wisconsin 886 4. Yale

4094

5.

 Yale 885 5. Michigan 3603
6. Princeton 805 5. Chicago

3495

7.

 Johns Hopkins 746 7. Princeton 2770
8. Michigan 720 8. Wisconsin

2453

9.

 California 712 9. Cornell 2239
10. Cornell 694 10. Illinois

1934

11.

 Illinois 561 11. Pennsylvania 1784
12. Pennsylvania 459 12. Minnesota

1442

13.

 Minnesota 430 13. Stanford 1439
14. Stanford 365 14. U.C.L.A.

1366

15.

 Ohio State 294 15. Indiana 1329
16. Iowa 215 16. Johns Hopkins

1249

17.

 Northwestern 143 17. Northwestern 934
18. North Carolina 57 18. Ohio State

874

19.

 Indiana 45 19. N.Y.U. 801
20. Washington

759

 

ECONOMICS

1925

1957
1. Harvard 92 1. Harvard

298

2.

 Columbia 75 2. Chicago 262
3. Chicago 65 3. Yale

241

4.

 Wisconsin 63 4. Columbia 210
5. Yale 42 5. California

196

6.

 Johns Hopkins 39 5. Stanford 196
7. Michigan 31 7. Princeton

184

8.

 Pennsylvania 29 8. Johns Hopkins 178
9. Illinois 27 9. Michigan

174

10.

 Cornell 25 10. Minnesota 96
11. Princeton 23 11. Northwestern

70

12.

 California 22 12. Duke 69
13. Minnesota 20 13. Wisconsin

66

14.

 Northwestern 18 14. Pennsylvania 45
15. Stanford 17 15. Cornell

32

16.

 Ohio State 15 16. U.C.L.A.

31

According to some of the chairmen there are strong departments at Carnegie Tech. and M.I.T.; also at Vanderbilt.

 

Source:  Hayward Keniston. Graduate Study and Research in the Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania (January 1959), pp. 115-119,129.

 

 

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Chicago Columbia Economists Gender Northwestern Social Work

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. Alumna, Helen Fisher Hohman, 1928

 

We have just met Helen Fisher Hohman’s husband Elmo Paul Hohman by way of his Northwestern reading list on labor problems that somehow found its way into the Harvard course syllabi archives. Helen herself went on to get a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1928 (Elmo was teaching at Northwestern) and her dissertation won the distinguished Hart, Schaffner and Marx competition over Simon Kuznets’ dissertation that was given honorable mention. 

One wonders what Helen Fisher Hohman’s career path might have looked like had she been born to a later cohort. It would be nice if we could find a picture of her, maybe some descendent will stumble upon this page and share with Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

_____________________

Helen Fisher Hohman

1916. B.A. University of Illinois.

1919. A.M. Columbia University.

1919. New York School of Social Work (completed two year program).

1920. Assistant in the economics department, Vassar College.

1921-22. Instructor of economics at Simmons College.

1928. Ph.D. University of Chicago. Thesis: The Trade Board Acts and the Social Insurance Acts in Relation to a Minimum Standard of Living in Great Britain: A Study in Attitudes toward Poverty and Methods of Dealing with It, 1880-1926.

Received first prize in the Hart, Schaffner and Marx competition in 1928 (honorable mention went to Simon S. Kuznets for his “Secular Movements in Production and Prices”)

1931. Edited Essays on Population and other papers by James Alfred Field. (Chicago: University of Chicago).

1933. The Development of Social Insurance and Minimum Wage Legislation in Great Britain: A Study of British Social Legislation in Relation to a Minimum Standard of Living. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

1940.  Old Age in Sweden: A Program of Social Security. U.S. Social Security Board.

Source:  Kirsten Madden. Women economists of promise? Six Hart, Schaffner and Marx Prize winners in the early twentieth century. Chapter 13 in Kirsten Madden, Robert W. Dimand (eds). Routledge Handbook of the History of Women’s Economic Thought. London: Routledge, 2018.
Also: Simmons College yearbook Microcosm 1922, p. 38.

_____________________

1940. Helen Fisher Hohman was listed as Consultant, Bureau of Research and Statistics [Social Security Board]; and Lecturer in the Division of Social Work, Northwestern University.

Source:  Helen Fisher Hohman. Social Democracy in Sweden. Social Security Bulletin, Vol.3, No. 2. February 1940, pp. 3-10

_____________________

Obituary of Helen Hohman (nee Fisher)
August 2, 1894 – December 18, 1972

Mrs. Helen Fisher Hohman, 78, of 606 Trinity Ct., Evanston, former professor of economics at Northwestern University and an authoress, died yesterday in the infirmary of Presbyterian Home, Evanston.

Mrs. Hohman, who taught at N. U. during World War II, wrote the book “British Insurance and Minimum Wage Legislation in Great Britain,” which won a Hart, Schaffner and Marx prize in 1928. Survivors include her husband, Elmo; a daughter, Mrs. Rene Wadlow; and two grandchildren. Private services will be held.

Transcribed from Chicago Tribune, December 19, 1972 by Marsha L. Ensminger

Source:  Genealogy Trails History Group for Washington County, Illinois.

 

 

 

Categories
Economists Harvard Northwestern

Harvard. Economics PhD alumnus, Elmo Paul Hohman, 1925

 

In the previous post Economics in the Rear-View Mirror salvaged part of a reading list for a course on labor problems from a new assistant professor of economics at Northwestern University who would go on to complete his economic history dissertation at Harvard on the American whaling industry (1785-1885). 

Below we add to our record some biographical and career information on this economics Ph.D. alumnus of Harvard.

Elmo Hohman’s wife, Helen Fisher Hohman,  was herself an economics Ph.D. alumna of the University of Chicago. Her post in our series “Get to know an economics Ph.D.” immediately follows.

____________________

Pre-Harvard history theses at the University of Illinois

Hohman wrote his B.A. thesis in history at the University of Illinois:  “The Ku Klux Klan: Its Origin, Growth, and Disbandment” (1916).  His M.A. thesis in history at the University of Illinois is also available: “The Attitude of the Presbyterian Church in the United States Towards American Slavery” (1917).

____________________

Traces from Harvard graduate school

“The Ricardo Prize Scholarship in Economics has been awarded to Elmo P. Hohman 1G. of Nashville, Ill” (Harvard Crimson, 4 June 1920).

“Among the men appointed tutors in History, Government, and Economics for next year is James W. Angell ’18, son of president-elect Angell of Yale. The other newly-appointed tutors are James Hart, William A. Berridge ’14, Karl W. Bigelow, Elmo P. Hohman, and Norman J. Silberling ’14.” (Harvard Crimson, 17 June 1921).

____________________

Harvard Ph.D. awarded 1925

ELMO PAUL HOHMAN, A.B. (Univ. of Illinois) 1916, A.M. (ibid.) 1917, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1920.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Labor Problems. Thesis, “The American Whaleman: A Study of the Conditions of Labor in the Whaling Industry, 1785-1885.” Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1924-25. Page 100.

____________________

Career of Elmo Paul Hohman

Assistant and tutor, department economics, Harvard, 1920-1923. Instructor economics, Northwestern University, 1923-1925, assistant professor, 1925-1931, associate professor, 1931-1938, professor since 1938. Special referee, division of unemployment compensation, Illinois Department of Labor, 1939-1942.

Regional price executive, OPA, Chicago, 1942, district price executive Chicago Metropolitan office, 1942-1944. Vice chairman, shipbuilding commission National War Labor Board, 1944, war shipping panel, 1945. Chairman advising committee, Yale Fund for Seamen’s Studies since 1946.

Observer, visiting scholar, International Labor Office, 1928-1929, 1936-1937, 1946, 1958-1959. National panel arbitrators Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Member maritime division International Labor Organization, Geneva.

Student, 3d R.O.T.C., Camp Grant, Illinois, 1918. Commander Second lieutenant infantry, 1918. Associate field director, American Red Cross transport service, 1919.

Source:  Prabook entry for Elmo Paul Hohman.

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Obituary of Elmo Paul Hohman
August 2, 1894 [in Salem,Washington County, Illinois]– January 1, 1977 [Evanston, Illinois]

Services for Elmo Paul Hohman, 82, professor emeritus of economics at Northwestern University, were pending. Mr. Hohman, of 606 Trinity Ct., Evanston, died last Saturday in Evanston Hospital. He joined the faculty of Northwestern in 1923 as an instructor of economics and retired as a professor in 1962. He wrote several books on the American Merchant Marine, among them, “The American Whale Man,” Seamen Ashore,” and “The History of American Merchant Seamen.” He is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Eleanore Wadlow, and two grandchildren. His late wife, Mrs. Helen Fisher Hohman, was also a professor of economics at Northwestern.

Transcribed from Chicago Tribune January 5, 1977 by Marsha L. Ensminger

Memorial service for Elmo Paul Hohman

A memorial service for Elmo Paul Hohman, professor emeritus of economics at Northwestern University, will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the Presbyterian Home Chapel, 3131 Simpson St., Evanston. Mr. Hohman died Jan. 1. He retired as a professor at Northwestern in 1962 after 39 years on the faculty. His late wife, Helen Fisher Hohman, who died in 1972, also was a professor of economics at Northwestern. He is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Eleanore Wadlow, and two grandchildren.

Transcribed from Chicago Tribune February 26, 1977 by Marsha L. Ensminger

Source:  Genealogy Trails History Group for Washington County, Illinois

Image Source: Photo of Elmo Paul Hohman from his passport application dated 30 January 1919. Hohman applied for a passport to join the Transport Service of the American Red Cross in France and England.

 

 

 

Categories
Harvard Northwestern

Northwestern [?]. Partial reading list for labor problems. Hohman [?], 1924

 

 

The following artifact was found all alone, an orphan in a folder in the Harvard University archives marked “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics 1923-24”. The course outline is obviously incomplete since the second semester of the academic year 1923-1924 at Harvard ran from the second week of February through  the end of April 1924. Also peculiar is the fact that the course number “B3”  on the outline does not correspond to an economics course at Harvard. The only clue we have is the handwritten (and crossed out) name Hohman in the upper right corner of the page.

It turns out that Elmo Paul Hohman (Harvard Ph.D. 1925) was appointed at Northwestern University as an assistant professor of economics in 1923-24. I have also been able to confirm that “B3” is consistent with the course numbering system used at Northwestern at that time. Based on the handwritten additions and underlining noted in the transcription below, one can reasonably conclude that someone teaching a labor economics course at Harvard added the items on British labor experience from Hohman’s outline.

Since the reading list at Northwestern was for the second semester of 1923-24, it seems likely that the reading list was forwarded to the Harvard library reserve desk for either the second semester of 1923-24 or 1924-25. The second semester of the two Harvard labor economics courses, “The Labor Movement in Europe”, was taught by Richard Stockton Meriam (Harvard, Ph.D. 1921) who briefly overlapped with Elmo Hohman as an economics tutor. Exams from 1913-1932 for the first semester labor course (Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems) taught by W. Z. Ripley have been posted earlier. Since one finds an examination question about British trade-unions in Ripley’s course, it is also possible that some of Hohman’s readings were included for Ripley’s course.

In subsequent posts I’ll provide biographical and career information for Harvard Ph.D. alumnus Elmo Paul Hohman and for his wife, Chicago Ph.D. alumna, Helen Fisher Hohman.

______________________

Links to Items on Homan’s Labor Problems Reading List

Watkins, Gordon S. An Introduction to the Study of Labor Problems. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1922.

Douglas, Paul H., Curtice N. Hitchcock, and Willard E. Atkins. The Worker in Modern Economic Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923.

Hammond, J.L. and Barbara Hammond. The Town Labourer, 1760-1832. The New Civilisation. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1920.

Blanshard, Paul. An Outline of the British Labor Movement. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1923.

Perlman, Selig. A History of Trade Unionism in the United States. New York: Macmillan, 1922.

______________________

[handwritten] British
[handwritten] Hohman

ECONOMICS B3.—LABOR PROBLEMS.
(Second Semester, 1923-1924)
OUTLINE OF SUBJECT-MATTER OF COURSE, WITH ASSIGNED READINGS.

I.—Historical Development of the Labor Movement in England and the United States.

1.—English Background Up to and Including the Industrial Revolution.

Feb. 11 Readings:

Watkins, 9-23.
Douglas, 89-96;101-111;121-129.
Hammond, 17-36; 144-150; 156-163; 172-182.

2.—Recent British Experience. [underlined in pencil]

Feb. 18 Readings:

Douglas, 706-718.
Blanshard[underlined in pencil with added note in margin:“look up”], 22-31; 49-90; 100-107; 156-163.

3.—Early American Labor Conditions.

Feb. 25 Readings:

Watkins, 24-40.
Perlman, 3-66.

4.—Modern development of American Labor.

Mar. 3 Readings:

Perlman, 68-80; 106-128; 130-145; 163-166; 235-261; 279-284.

 

II.—The Various Types of Activity Which Have Played a Part, Effective and Ineffective, in the Development of the Labor Movement.

A.—Self-Help; Methods Springing from and Controlled by the Laborers Themselves.

5.—Trade Unionism.

Mar. 10 Readings:

Watkins, 298-324; 330-338; 351-387; 438-444.

6.—Mutual Insurance; Demand for a Larger Share in the Control of Industry; Political Action; Workers’ Education.

Mar. 17 Readings:

Watkins, 366-369; 449-473.
Douglas, 667-668; 719-739; 761-765.
Perlman, 285-294.
Blanshard, 137-145. [underlined in pencil]

 

B.—Public and Governmental Activities.

7.—Labor Legislation.

Mar. 24 Readings:

Watkins, 592-602; 609-620; 120-144; 146-186.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1923-1924”.

Image Source: Cigar box label from the collections of the Museum of the City of New York.

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Berkeley Chicago Columbia Cornell Economics Programs Economists Harvard Illinois Johns Hopkins Michigan Minnesota Northwestern Ohio State Pennsylvania Princeton Stanford Toronto Wisconsin Yale

Economics Graduate Programs Ranked in 1925

 

Filed away in the archived records of the University of Chicago’s Office of the President is a copy of a report from January 1925 from Miami University (Ohio) that was based on a survey of college and university professors to obtain a rank ordering of graduate programs in different fields. The following ordering for economics graduate programs 1924-25 is based on two dozen responses. I have added institutional affiliations from the AEA membership list of the time and a few internet searches. The study was designed to have a rough balance between college and university professors and a broad geographic representation. What the study lacks in sophistication will amuse you in its presumption.

_____________________

This rating was prepared in the following way: The members of the Miami University faculty representing twenty fields of instruction were called together and a list of the universities which conceivably might be doing high grade work leading to a doctor’s degree in one or more subjects was prepared on their advice. Each professor was then requested to submit a list of from forty to sixty men who were teaching his subject in colleges and universities in this country, at least half of the names on the list to be those of professors in colleges rather than in universities. It was further agreed that the list should be fairly well distributed geographically over the United States. [p. 3]

 

ECONOMICS

Ratings submitted by: John H. Ashworth [Maine] , Lloyd V. Ballard [Beloit], Gilbert H. Barnes [Chicago], Clarence E. Bonnett [Tulane], John E. Brindley [Iowa State], E. J. Brown [Arizona], J. W. Crook [Amherst], Ira B. Cross [California], Edmund E. Day [Michigan], Herbert Feis [ILO], Frank A. Fetter [Princeton], Eugene Gredier, Lewis H. Haney [N.Y.U.], Wilbur O. Hedrick [Michigan State], Floyd N. House [Chicago], Walter E. Lagerquist [Northwestern], W. E. Leonard, L. C. Marshall [Chicago], W. C. Mitchell [Columbia], C. T. Murchison [North Carolina], Tipton A. Snavely [Virginia], E. T. Towne [North Dakota], J. H. Underwood [Montana], M. S. Wildman [Stanford].

 

Combined Ratings:  (24)

1 2 3 4-5
Harvard 20 4 0 0
Columbia 11 9 2 1
Chicago 9 7 3 2
Wisconsin 8 7 4 2
Yale 3 3 9 3
Johns Hopkins 2 4 8 3
Michigan 0 6 4 5
Pennsylvania 0 3 6 8
Illinois 0 5 4 4
Cornell 0 2 7 5
Princeton 2 1 4 4
California 0 3 4 5
Minnesota 0 2 4 6
Northwestern 0 2 3 6
Stanford 0 1 4 6
Ohio State 0 1 2 8
Toronto 0 2 2 3

Staffs:

HARVARD: F.W. Taussig, E.F. Gay, T.N. Carver, W.Z. Ripley, C.J. Bullock, A.A. Young, W.M. Persons, A.P. Usher, A.S. Dewing, W.J. Cunningham, T.H. Sanders, W.M. Cole, A.E. Monroe, H.H. Burbank, A.H. Cole, J. H. Williams, W.L. Crum, R.S. Meriam.

COLUMBIA: R.E. Chaddock, F.H. Giddings, S.M. Lindsay, W.C. Mitchell, H.L. Moore, W. Fogburn, H.R. Seager, E.R.A. Seligman, V.G. Sinkhovitch, E.E. Agger, Emilie J. Hutchinson, A.A. Tenney, R.G. Tugwell, W.E. Weld.

CHICAGO: L.C. Marshall, C.W. Wright, J.A. Field, H.A. Millis, J.M. Clark, Jacob Viner, L. W. Mints, W.H. Spencer, N.W. Barnes, C.C. Colby, P.H. Douglas, J.O. McKinsey, E.A. Duddy, A.C. Hodge, L.C. Sorrell.

WISCONSIN: Commons, Elwell, Ely Garner, Gilman, Hibbard, Kiekhofer, Macklin, Scott, Kolb, McMurry, McNall, Gleaser, Jamison, Jerome, Miller, S. Perlman.

YALE: Olive Day, F.R. Fairchild, R.B. Westerfield, T.S. Adams, A.L. Bishop, W.M. Daniels, Irving Fisher, E.S. Furniss, A.H. Armbruster, N.S. Buck.

JOHNS HOPKINS: W.W. Willoughby, Goodnow, W.F. Willoughby, Thach, Latane.

MICHIGAN: Rodkey, Van Sickle, Peterson, Goodrich, Sharfman, Griffin, May, Taylor, Dickinson, Paton, Caverly, Wolaver.

PENNSYLVANIA: E.R. Johnson, E.S. Mead, S.S. Heubner, T. Conway, H.W. Hess, E.M. Patterson, G.G. Huebner, H.T. Collings, R. Riegel, C.K. Knight, W.P. Raine, F. Parker, R.T. Bye, W.C. Schluter, J.H. Willits, A.H. Williams, R.S. Morris, C.P. White, F.E. Williams, H.J. Loman, C.A. Kulp, S.H. Patterson, E.L. McKenna, W.W. Hewett, F.G. Tryon, H.S. Person, L.W. Hall.

ILLINOIS: Bogart, Robinson, Thompson, Weston, Litman, Watkins, Hunter, Wright, Norton.

CORNELL: W.F. Willcox, H.J. Davenport, D. English, H.L. Reed, S.H. Slichter, M.A. Copeland, S. Kendrick.

PRINCETON: F.A. Fetter, E.W. Kemmerer, G.B. McClellan, D.A. McCabe, F.H. Dixon, S.E. Howard, F.D. Graham.

CALIFORNIA: I.B. Cross, S. Daggett, H.R. Hatfield, J.B. Peixotte, C.C. Plehm, L.W. Stebbins, S. Blum, A.H. Mowbray, N.J. Silberling, C.C. Staehling, P.F. Cadman, F. Fluegel, B.N. Grimes, P.S. Taylor, Helen Jeter, E.T. Grether.

MINNESOTA: G.W. Dorwie, J.D. Black, R.G. Blakey, F.B. Garver, N.S.B. Gras, J.S. Young, A.H. Hansen, B.D. Mudgett, J.E. Cummings, E.A. Heilman, H.B Price, J.J. Reighard, J.W. Stehman, H. Working, C.L. Rotzell, W.R. Myers.

NORTHWESTERN: Deibler, Heilman, Secrist, Bailey, Pooley, Eliot, Ray Curtis, Bell, Hohman, Fagg.

STANFORD: M.S. Wildman, W.S. Beach, E. Jones, H.L. Lutz, A.C. Whitaker, J.G. Davis, A.E. Taylor, J.B. Canning.

OHIO STATE: M.B. Hammond, H.G. Hayes, A.B. Wolf, H.F. Waldradt, C.O. Ruggles, W.C. Weidler, J.A. Fisher, H.E. Hoagland, H.H. Maynard, C.A. Dice, M.E. Pike, J.A. Fitzgerald, F.E. Held, M.N. Nelson, R.C. Davis, C.W. Reeder, T.N. Beckman.

Compiled with the assistance of J.B. Dennison, associate professor of economics.

 

Source:  Raymond Mollyneaux Hughes, A Study of the Graduate Schools of America. Oxford, OH: Miami University (January 1925), pp. 14-15.  Copy from University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records, Box 47, Folder #5 “Study of the Graduate Schools of America”, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago.

 

Image Source: Four prize winners in annual beauty show, Washington Bathing Beach, Washington, D.C. from the U. S. Library of Congress. Prints & Photographs. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b43364

 

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Berkeley Carnegie Institute of Technology Chicago Columbia Cornell Duke Economist Market Harvard Illinois Indiana Iowa Johns Hopkins M.I.T. Michigan Minnesota Northwestern Princeton Salaries Stanford UCLA Virginia Wisconsin Yale

Economics Faculty Salaries for 15 U.S. universities. Hart Memo, April 1961

 

Here we have a memo written by member of the Columbia University economics department executive committee, Albert G. Hart, that presents the results of what appears to be his informal polling of the chairpersons of 21 departments. Fifteen of the departments provided the salary ranges at four different ranks. No further details are provided, this one page memo was simply filed away in a folder marked “memoranda”. Maybe there is more to be found in Hart’s papers at Columbia University. Up to now I have only sampled Hart’s papers for teaching materials and perhaps next time, I’ll need to look into his papers dealing with departmental administrative affairs.

For a glance at salaries about a half-century earlier:  Professors and instructors’ salaries ca. 1907. 

________________

AGH [Albert Gailord Hart] 4/21/61

CONFIDENTIAL information on economic salaries, 1960-61, from chairmen of departments

Institution

 Professors Associate professors Assistant professors

Instructors
Harvard

$12,000-22,000

 $9,000-12,000 $7,500-8,700

$6,500
Princeton

$12,000-…?…

 $9,000-11,500 $7,000-8,750

$6,000-6,750
California

$11,700-21,000

 $8,940-10,344 $7,008-8,112

$5,916-6,360
MIT

$11,000-20,000

 $8,000-11,000 $6,500-9,000

$5,500-5,750
Minnesota

$11,000-18,000

 $8,500-11,000 $6,800-8,400

?
COLUMBIA

$11,000-20,000

 $8,500-10,000 $6,500-7,500

$5,500-5,750
Northwestern

$11,000-…?…

 $8,000-11,000 $6,800-7,500

?
Duke

$11,400-16,000

 $8,200-10,000 $7,200-8,200

$5,800-6,500
Illinois

$11,000-15,000

 $7,500-10,000 $6,900-8,600

$6,500-7,100
Cornell

$10,000-15,000

 $8,000-10,000 $6,500-7,500

$5,500-6,500
Indiana

$10,000-14,800

 $8,300-10,000 $6,500-7,500

?
Michigan

$10,000-…?…

 $8,700-..9,500 $6,600-8,000

$5,000
Virginia

$..9,800-15,000

 $7,800-..9,800 $6,600-7,800

?
Wisconsin

$..9,240-16,150

 $8,000-..9,000 $6,550-8,460

$5,250-5,450
Iowa State (Ames)

$..8,500-13,000

 $7,500-..8,500 $6,700-8,000

$4,700-6,600

[…]

Note: The following institutions for which data were not included in the source materials are believed to pay their economists at scales at or above the Columbia level:

Carnegie Tech
Chicago
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
Yale
UCLA

[…]

 

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Columbia University, Department of Economics Collection. Carl Shoup Materials: Box 11, Folder: “Economics—Memoranda”.

Categories
Chicago Duke Economic History Economists Harvard Northwestern

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus (1929), later Chicago professor, E.J. Hamilton.

 

In an earlier post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provided the undergraduate and graduate academic transcripts of Earl J. Hamilton, who besides having gone on to a distinguished career as a leading economic historian also served as the editor of the Journal of Political Economy for seven years. For this post I have transcribed c.v.’s from ca. 1948 and from Hamilton’s emeritus years, presumably from the 1970s, but he did live for nearly another two decades.

The previous post was dedicated to a long-time professional colleague and friend, Jacob Marschak, with whom Hamilton had overlapped at the Universidad Internacional (Santander, Spain) during the summer of 1933, and to whom Marschak had written for some advice regarding an application for a possible University of Chicago job.

Earl Hamilton died May 7, 1989. [Find-a-Grave link]

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On Hamilton’s research on economic history

John H. Munro. “Money, Prices, Wages, and ‘Profit Inflation’ in Spain, the Southern Netherlands, and England during the Price Revolution era: ca. 1520-ca. 1650”. História e Economia—Revista Interdisciplinar. Vol. 4, No. 1 (1° semester 2008), pp. 13-71.

John H. Munro’s eh.net review of Hamilton’s American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501-1650 (1934).

See:  Earl J. Hamilton Papers on the Economic History of Spain 1351-1830.

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Hamilton’s unfinished John Law Project

“John Law has attracted the interest of many writers. In the twentieth century two of the most active scholars researching on John Law were Paul Harsin and Earl Hamilton…Hamilton, who devoted some fifty years of his life to Law, never produced his promised biography and left only a couple of short articles on the man he so passionately studied…

Unfortunately, there is little order in the Hamilton papers. It will take the librarians of Duke University, assisted by experts on Law and his System, many years to classify them…As such, Earl and Gladys Hamilton will have left a very rich legacy for future generations of scholars.”

Source:    Antoin E. Murphy, John Law: Economic Theorist and Policy-maker.  Clarendon Press, (1997), especially Chapter 2 “Law’s Writings and his Critics”, pp. 8-13.

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Earl J. Hamilton c.v., ca. 1948

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Chicago 37, Illinois
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

EARL. J. HAMILTON, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago

Previous and Present Positions: Assistant professor of economics, 1927-29, professor, 1929-44, director of graduate study in economics, 1938-44, Duke University; professor of economics, 1944-47, Northwestern University; professor of economics, 1947—, University of Chicago. Delegate for Spain, International Scientific Committee on Price History, 1930-36; lecturer, Universidad Internacional (Santander, Spain), summer, 1933, Colegio de Mexico, summer, 1943; rapporteur, Committee on World Regions, Social Science Research Council, spring, 1943; director of civilian instruction, Army Finance School, 1943-44. Editor of the Journal of Political Economy, August, 1948—.

Degrees: B.S., with Honors, 1920, Mississippi State College; M.A., 1924, University of Texas; Ph.D., 1929, Harvard University.

Affiliations: Economic History Association (Vice-President, 1941-42, Bd. Editors, 1941—); American Association of University Professors; American Historical Association; Economic History Society (Engl.); Corresponding Member, Hispanic Society of America; Fellow, Royal Economic Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Publications: American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501-1650 (1934); Money, Prices, and Wages in Valencia, Aragon, and Navarre, 1351-1500 (1936); War and Prices in Spain, 1651-1800 (1947); El Origen del Capitalismo y Otros Ensayos de Historia Económica (1948). Articles on history of economic thought, economic history, money, and prices.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence-Misc. 1930’s-1940’s and n.d.”.

____________________

Earl J. Hamilton c.v.
early 1970s[?]

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

1126 East 59thStreet
Chicago, Illinois 60637

 

Earl J. Hamilton

Born at Houlka, Mississippi on May 17, 1899

B.S. with Honors, Mississippi State University 1920
M.A. University of Texas 1924
Ph.D. Harvard University 1929

Docteur Honoris Causa, University of Paris 1952; LL.D. Duke University 1966; Doctor Honoris Causa University of Madrid 1967.

Have held Thayer Fellowship and Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, Harvard University; Social Science Research Council Fellowship; Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship; and Faculty Research Fellowship from the Ford Foundation.

Have spent a total of more than twelve years gathering research data in the archives and manuscripts divisions of libraries in France, Italy, Holland, Spain, Belgium, England, Scotland and Latin America.

Speak, read, and write French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch.

Assistant Professor of Economics, Duke University, 1927-1929
Professor of Economics, Duke University, 1929-1944
Professor of Economics, Northwestern University, 1944-1947
Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, 1947-1968
Distinguished Professor of Economic History, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1967-1969
Now Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Chicago and Distinguished Professor of Economic History Emeritus, State University of New York Binghamton.

Editor of the Journal of Political Economy for seven years.

President of the Economic History Association, 1951-1952.

Have determined from original manuscript sources the volume of precious metals imported into Europe from Mexico and Peru in the first hundred and seventy years after the discovery of America and have written a history of price in Spain from 1350 to 1800 based on contemporaneous account books, published in three volumes by the Harvard University Press. I have published a book of essays in Spanish entitled El Florecimiento del Capitalismo y Otros Ensayos de Histoira Económica [1948].

Am now writing from manuscript sources in the archives of France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, England and Scotland, to be published in four or five volumes a definitive history of John Law’s System, one of the greatest inflationary and deflationary episodes in history, popularly known as the Mississippi Bubble, and a biography of John Law of Lauriston.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Various Financial Correspondence (Personal) (1930s-1960s)”.

Image Source:  University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-02446, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

 

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Economists Harvard History of Economics Northwestern

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus Homer Bews Vanderblue, 1915

 

Homer Bews Vanderblue (Harvard Ph.D., 1915) won his academic spurs for work on the economics of railroads. He went on to become the Dean of the School of Commerce at Northwestern. Before leaving for Northwestern in 1939 he donated his personal collection of Adam Smith materials to the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.

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Homer Bews Vanderblue’s Ph.D. exams at Harvard

General Examination in Economics, Monday, May 11, 1914.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Turner, Sprague, Day, and Dr. Copeland.
Academic History: Northwestern University, 1907-12; Harvard Graduate School, 1912—. A.B., Northwestern, 1911; A.M. ibid., 1912. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1913—.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Statistics. 3. History of American Institutions since 1789. 4. Economic History since 1750. 5. Commercial Organization. 6. Transportation.
Special Subject: Transportation.
Thesis Subject: “Railroad Valuation.” (With Professor F. W. Taussig and Mr. E. J. Rich.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1913-14”.

Note:  Thesis published as Railroad Valuation, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917.  It was awarded second prize ($500) in Class A of the Hart, Schaffner & Marx competition.

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From the 1941 Harvard Business School Yearbook

Homer Bews Vanderblue
Honorary Curator of Early Economic Literature

Degrees: A.B., 1911; A.M., 1912, Northwestern University; Ph.D., 1915 Harvard University.

History in Brief: Instructor in Economics, Harvard College, 1914-15; Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor of Transportation, Northwestern University, 1915-22; Research Director, Denver Civic and Commercial Association, 1920-21; Economist and Director, Harvard University Committee on Economic Research, 1922-29; Professor of Business Economics, 1922-29; Vice President, Tri-Continental Corporation, New York City, 1929-37; Member, Library Committee, College of William and Mary since 1936; Member, Committee on Economic Bibliography, British Academy since 1937; Honorary Curator of Early Economic Literature since 1936; Dean of College of Commerce, Northwestern University since 1939.

Source: Harvard University, The Harvard Business School Yearbook, 1941, page 37.

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Death notice from Harvard College President’s Annual Report

Homer Bews Vanderblue, Honorary Curator of Early Economic Literature in the Baker Library, died on July 12, 1952, in his sixty-fourth year. His first appointment at the University was as Assistant in Economics and Proctor in 1913-14. He became Instructor in Economics in 1914-15. Until 1922, he taught at Northwestern University as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Transportation. From 1922 until his resignation in 1929, he was Professor of Business Economics, and from 1936 until his death he filled the post of Honorary Curator of Early Economic Literature in the Baker Library. He returned to Northwestern as Professor of Business Economics and Dean of the School of Commerce (1939-49).

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments, 1951-52, pp. 49-50.

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Vanderblue as Head of Northwestern’s School of Commerce

Homer Vanderblue becomes the fifth dean of the School of Commerce. Vanderblue proves to be a successful academic and administrative leader, keeping the school functioning during the resource shortages associated with World War II when most business schools curtailed their operations or suspended instruction entirely.

Under Dean Vanderblue, the school shifts away from technical specialization toward a broader managerial education. To accomplish this shift—which would take years to complete—Vanderblue introduces the “rotating chairs” system for academic department heads, thus sidestepping department rigidity. He recruits faculty sympathetic to his goals and ideals of “liberal business education.”

Vanderblue also works to bridge the fiscal gap between what the school generates for the university and what it earns to meet its expenses. Among other things, Vanderblue proposes raising faculty salaries, which had declined during the depression, and constructing new buildings in Evanston and Chicago. Vanderblue admits that to retain the best faculty, he has to draw upon loyalty to Northwestern by “playing on the ‘I love Evanston’ key” to retain the best senior professors, something he is able to do in many cases.

Dean Vanderblue retires due to ill health in 1949.

 

Source: Northwestern University, Webpage: “Kellogg School History: 1938-1947.”

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Adam Smith—Vanderblue Collection

Baker Library has brought together one of the most comprehensive collections of the works of Adam Smith in the world, with a special focus on The Wealth of Nations. This collection contains virtually all published editions in English of this work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Essays on Philosophical Subjects as well as translations into Chinese, French, Russian, and numerous other languages. Further, it holds many of Smith’s other published materials, manuscript letters, and several volumes from Smith’s own library. Harvard Business School Professor Homer B. Vanderblue donated the collection in 1939.

Source: https://www.library.hbs.edu/Find/Collections-Archives/Special-Collections/Collections/European-Economic-History-Philosophy-Kress-Collection/Adam-Smith-Vanderblue-Collection

Image Source: Homer Bews Vanderblue from the 1946 volume of the Northwestern University yearbook Syllabus. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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.

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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”.

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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.