Category: Principles

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Exam Questions Harvard Principles Undergraduate

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Description, Enrollment, Exam Questions. Andrew, Mixter, and Sprague. 1902-1903

Over 500 students enrolled in the introductory course “Outlines of Economics” offered at Harvard in 1902-03. Frank Taussig continued his sick-leave through the academic year 1902-03 which is why his name was listed in the (ex ante) course description from June 1902 but not included in the departmental staffing report to the president (ex post) for 1902-03. 

Artifacts for the same course offered during the academic year 1901-1902 have been posted earlier. It is worth noting that of the three required texts listed below, Hadley’s Economics replaced Walker’s Political Economy (Advanced Course) that had been assigned for the previous year.

Fun Fact: Gilbert Holland Montague, one of the teaching assistants, left economics to become an anti-trust lawyer who quite apparently had the means to collect over 15,000 books and 20,000 pamphlets during his lifetime. He even owned a 14th century copy of the Magna Carta.

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Course Description, 1902-03
Economics 1

Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second or third year of their college career. Students who plan to take it in their first year are strongly advised to consult the instructor in advance. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economies 1.

[…]

Primarily for Undergraduates

  1. Outlines of Economics. — Lectures on Social Questions and Monetary Legislation. , Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Drs. [Abram Piatt] Andrew, [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and [Charles Whitney] Mixter, and Messrs. [Gilbert Holland] Montague and [Vanderveer] Custis.

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, and international trade. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States, will be treated in outline.

Course 1 will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. Large parts of Mill’s Principles of Political Economy, of Hadley’s Economics, and of Dunbar’s Theory and History of Banking will be read; and these books must be procured by all members of the course.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment, 1902-03
Economics 1

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

Economics 1. Drs. [Abram Piatt] Andrew, [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and [Charles Whitney] Mixter, and Messrs. [Charles] Beardsley [Jr.], [Vanderveer] Custis, and [Gilbert Holland] Montague. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 514: 2 Gr., 25 Se., 108 Ju., 270 So., 39 Fr., 70 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 67.

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Mid-year Examination 1903
Economics 1

Omit one question

  1. The population of the United States has increased from 23 millions in 1850 to about 80 millions in 1902 (not including the population of the islands acquired from Spain), and yet the “standard of living” has not fallen. Can you reconcile this with the Malthusian theory?
  2. “Economic rent and net profits are like the producers’ and consumers’ surplus described at the beginning of the chapter in being differential gains. . . .”
    Explain these terms and discuss Hadley’s comparison of profits and rent.
  3. How in your opinion does the use of labor-saving machinery in agriculture affect the value of agricultural produce, and the rent of agricultural land?
  4. What would you suppose to be the effect of immigration upon the production of wealth, upon wages, and upon the value of land in the United States?
  5. A recent Secretary of the Navy, in defending large naval appropriations, wrote as follows: “It is a taking thing to say that $100,000,000 could be better spent for education or charity; and yet, on the other hand, $100,000,000 spent in the employment of labor is the very best use to which it can be put. There is no charity in the interest of the popular welfare or of education so valuable as the employment of labor.”
    Discuss the economic argument implied in this statement.
  6. Should a railroad be compelled to charge the same rate per ton-mile for all goods of equal bulk? Why? or why not?
  7. Suppose that one piano manufacturer buys out all of the other piano manufacturers in the country, can he now sell the former aggregate output of all the factories at an advanced price? Give reasons for your answer.
  8. Explain by the theory of the value of money why prices are high in times of speculation and low when a period of depression sets in.
  9. Could a paper currency depreciate in value, if a government pledged the public lands for its redemption? Give reasons.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).

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Year-end Examination 1903
Economics 1

Omit one question from each group.

I

  1. What is meant by

unearned increment,
marginal utility,
double standard,
rapidity of circulation?

  1. Explain the relation of the law of diminishing returns to rent.
  2. It wages are determined by the productivity of labor, how would you explain the circumstance that labor organizations which impose restrictions upon individual output, have been accompanied by a rise of wages?
  3. What considerations are likely to determine the prices of trust-made commodities?

II

  1. In what ways would the repeal of our tariff duties affect our export trade?
  2. Former Speaker Reed, in an article on Protection, said: “Any system which enables our people to do our own work is a system which can give the best results. . . . The whole nation gets the benefit of it?”
    Discuss this statement.
  3. Give the principal reasons for and against the adoption of the policy of the single tax.
  4. How is the community served by the produce exchanges? by the stock exchanges?

III

  1. (a) What kinds of money are susceptible of increase under existing legislation in the United States? In what way?
    (b) In what way do clearing house loan certificates add to the circulating medium?
    Under what circumstances may they be issued?
  2. Suppose the deposits of the national banks to increase one hundred million dollars, would the position of the banks be rendered stronger thereby?
  3. Are the national banks of the United States unfairly granted the privilege of earning a double profit in respect to their circulation?
  4. In his last annual report, the Secretary of the Treasury writes: “I think a far better course for the present at least would be to provide an elastic currency available in every banking community and sufficient for the needs of that locality. This, I think, can be accomplished . . . . by several methods.”
    Explain some of these methods.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Sources: Abram Piatt Andrew (1920) from Wikimedia Commons. O.M.W. Sprague from Harvard Class Album 1920, p. 25.

 

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Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Principles Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Exams for the five sections of principles of economics, 1937-1938

 

This post is the first of transcribed mid-year and end-year course examinations in political economy at Johns Hopkins University for the academic year 1937-1938. Principles of economics was taught in five sections: three for the College of Arts and Sciences, one for the School of Business Economics and one for the School of Engineering.

Related earlier material from Johns Hopkins:

Exams 1921-22;  Exams 1923-24; Exams 1932-33. 

A report of activities of the department of political economy for 1935-1936 has also been transcribed and posted earlier.

Blog News

Today’s post is the first content getting a toot at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s new outpost at Mastodon.

Twitter and Facebook outposts will continue announcing new content as well as occasional retweets, toots, shared-links and other such social stuff. Different strokes and all that jazz, but so far no requests for music or dance videos.

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Course Description

1 C. Elements of Economics. Three hours weekly through the year. Section 1: Dr. Bullock, Th., F., S., 8.30. Maryland Hall 110. Section 2: Associate Professor Mitchell, M., Tu., W., 8.30. Maryland Hall 110. Section 3: Associate Professor Weyforth, M. Tu., W., 11.30. Gilman Hall 314. Section 4: Dr. Cooper, M., Tu., W., 10.30. Gilman Hall 311. Section 5: Mr. Deupree, M., Tu., W., 8.30. Gilman Hall 314.

Note: Students in the School of Engineering will be assigned to Section 1; students in the School of Business Economics to Section 3; and students in the College of Arts and Sciences to Sections 2, 4, and 5.

This course teaches the elements of the science, aiming to show the principles upon which economic society is organized and operated. Particular attention is given to the theory of value and the theory of distribution together with their application to leading economic problems. Such subjects as Money and Banking, Rent, Wages, Interest, Profits, Industrial Combinations, International Trade, are treated in the course. It is part of the purpose of the course to indicate the application of scientific principles to current economic problems.

Required of all students before graduation.

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular (1937). Vol. LVI, No. 486 (April, p. 61).

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Elements of Economics
Mid-year and End-year Examinations
1937-1938

Elements of Economics. Section 1
Dr. Roy J. Bullock

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Bullock

Wednesday
February 2, 1938, 9 a.m.

I.

Define or identify:

1. Property
2. Utility
3. Laissez-faire
4. Intensive margin of cultivation
5. Cumulative preferred stock
6. Time preference
7. Craft gild
8. Marginal revenue
9. Vertical combination
10. Demand

II.

What would be the difference between monopoly and competitive price under the following conditions:

    1. Elastic demand and increasing costs
    2. Elastic demand and rapidly decreasing costs
    3. Inelastic demand and increasing costs
    4. Inelastic demand and decreasing costs?

Illustrate each with a diagram.

III.

President Roosevelt has proposed a revision of the Federal Anti-Trust Laws. What reasons are there for being dissatisfied with our existing anti-trust laws? Are there any reasons for changing the objectives that have guided our anti-trust policy in the past? In what respects is the trust problem a price problem? Discuss.

IV.

Assume the following data with regard to a grain farm for the years 1930 and 1936:

1930 1936
Number of bushels produced 5,000 7,000
Total expenses of production $4,500 $8,000
Price of grain per bushel $.90 $1.30
Rate of return expected on farm investments 5% 4%
    1. What was the economic rent of this farm in 1930? in 1936? As a tenant what rent could you have afforded to pay in each year?
    2. Does the rent paid by the former have any effect on the price of grain at the primary market? Explain.
    3. As a buyer of land how much would you have been willing to pay for this farm in 1930? in 1936? Why?
    4. If grain alcohol became a commercial success as a substitute for gasoline, what would be the probable effect on the economic rent of this farm?

V.

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the individual proprietorship, the corporation and the partnership from the point of view of the organizer of a business. Why has the corporation gained in relative importance during recent years?

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Bullock

Friday, June 3, 1938 – 9 a.m.

I

Explain briefly the meaning or significance of:

1. Legal tender
2. Favorable balance of trade
3. Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
4. American Federation of Labor
5. Fiat money
6. Stoppage at the source
7. Elastic currency
8. Committee for Industrial Organization
9. Taxation according to benefit
10. Workmen’s compensation law.

II

(a) Explain clearly how commercial banks are able to make loans greatly in excess of their cash resources.

(b) Explain the difference between the equation of exchange and the quantity theory of money.

III

A popular slogan of recent years has been, “More business in government, less government in business.” Developments have been in the opposite direction to that advocated. Have these developments been the result of party politics or are they in accord with underlying economic tendencies? Evaluate the slogan in the light of current conditions.

IV

Appraise national legislation to stablish a minimum weekly wage and a maximum number of hours work per week with regard to its probable effect on laborers income and on the business cycle.

V

(a) “The restoration of the pound sterling to its pre-war value was equivalent to the imposition of a heavy tax upon the British exporting industries.” Explain. Did the increase in the value of the pound make it easier or more difficult for other countries on the gold standard to sell in the British market? Explain.

(b) Explain and illustrate the difference between a tariff schedule designed as a revenue measure and a schedule aimed primarily at protection.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Elements of Economics. Section 2
Associate Professor Broadus Mitchell

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
Political Economy 1 C

[Monday, Jan. 31, 1938. 9 a.m. Dr. Mitchell]

  1. What is the general theory of the competitive economic system?
  2. (a) Show how prices are determined under conditions of competition.
    (b) What are some of the forces which, in fact, interfere with this perfect operation of competition?
  3. On what economic theory do inflationists rely? Explain this theory briefly.
  4. State and explain the marginal utility theory of value.
  5. Identify briefly: the Physiocrats, Colbert, Kirkcaldy, James Watt, P. S. DuPont, Salmon P. Chase, R. B. Taney, Friedrich Engels, holding company, consumer‘s surplus, elastic demand.
  6. (a) Discuss the chief means used in this country to cope with the problem of unemployment.
    (b) What is meant by “technological unemployment”?
  7. Explain the changes made in the Federal Reserve System as a result of the depression of 1929.

 

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
IN
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Mitchell

May 30, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. (a) Give the purposes, structure, and method of operation of the Federal Reserve System.
    (b) Why, in your opinion, did it fail to prevent the depression of 1929 and the subsequent closing of the banks of the country?
  2. (a) Explain the differential or Ricardian theory of rent.
    (b) What were the influences responsible for Henry George’s book, Progress and Poverty?
    (c) What is the Socialist’s criticism of the single tax proposal?
  3. State and discuss the Wage Fund Theory and the Exploitation theory of wages.
  4. (a) How do pure profits arise?
    (b) What developments in American economic life appear to make our old reliance upon the profit motive inappropriate now?
  5. In what sense is it true that the cost known as interest would be present even in a collectivist economy?
  6. What forces are responsible for the present increased demand for industrial unionism as against craft unionism in the United States?
  7. Contrast the teachings of Robert Owen with those of Karl Marx.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Elements of Economics. Section 3
Assoc. Professor William O. Weyforth

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Weyforth

February 3, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. What is meant by the doctrine of “laissez faire”? That were the conditions under which the doctrine was developed? Explain the arguments in favor of the doctrine, and the factors responsible for a departure from the doctrine in recent years.
  2. What are the essential features of the corporation as a form of business organization? How do you account for the rise of the corporate form of business organization in recent years? Distinguish the following: common stock, preferred stock, bonds.
  3. What are the “factors of production” and the “agents of production”? What is meant by the “best combination of the agents of production” as applied to any business enterprise. Distinguish between the average total unit cost of production and the marginal cost of production. Illustrate by diagram.
  4. Explain what is meant by an individual demand schedule for any commodity. Show the relationship between such a demand schedule and the theory of marginal utility. Upon what principles does a consumer tend to divide his expenditures among different commodities? How is the total demand schedule in any market for a certain commodity related to the individual demand schedules?
  5. Show how the market price is determined by supply and demand under conditions of competition. Show how an increase in supply, demand remaining constant, will lead to a decline in price. Would the decline in price be greater where the demand is elastic or inelastic? Explain the problem by the use of diagrams.
  6. In what way is the monopolist able to control price? What is the theory of monopoly price? Explain the statement that the monopolist will tend to fix the price at the point where the marginal revenue curve intersects the marginal cost curve.
  7. What is meant by monopolistic competition? State some of the circumstances under which it tends to appear. Explain the difference in the shape of the demand curve for the product of an individual producer under conditions of pure competition and those of monopolistic competition.
  8. Explain the distinction between industries of constant cost, increasing cost, and decreasing cost. What are the factors primarily responsible for these differences, that is, under what circumstances are we likely to have each type of industry? How can we have an industry of increasing cost and at the same time constant or falling prices for the product of that industry over a period of years.
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Weyforth

June 2, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. In the regulation of public utilities, what are the important economic problems involved in the determination of a fair price to be charged for the services rendered?
  2. Show how bank deposits subject to check serve as a medium of exchange. Explain how the volume of such deposits may be affected by the loan and investment policies of banks.
  3. What are business cycles? Explain the theory that fluctuations in general business activity are due primarily to fluctuations in the volume of investment. What are the possibilities of public spending as a means of remedying business depression?
  4. Explain the theory that under conditions of competition the rate of wages in any occupation tends to correspond to the marginal productivity of labor in that occupation. According to this theory how do you explain the relatively higher wages paid to skilled workers as compared with unskilled workers?
  5. Explain how, other things being equal, the growth of population will affect the rent of land. How is this explanation related to Henry George’s proposal. for a single tax on land?
  6. Show how interest rates are determined by the supply of and the demand for loanable funds. What are the sources of the supply of and demand for loanable funds? How may banking policy affect interest rates? What are the limits of banking policy in this respect?
  7. What are the factors that give rise to profits? What functions do profits perform in an economic system of free enterprise?
  8. What are the characteristic features of capitalism? What do you mean by socialism? by communism? What is “utopian” socialism? “scientific socialism”?
  9. Explain the law of comparative cost as applied to international trade.

    *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Elements of Economics. Section 4
Dr. Howard E. Cooper

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UMIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

[Dr. Cooper]

January 31, 1938
9 a.m.

Please write your answers to these questions legibly and in ink.

  1. “The Production of wealth may take the form of the creation of form utility, of place utility, or of time utility.”
    Explain and give examples of each.
  2. What would be the effect on our industrial system of too much saving, of too little saving?
  3. “The division of labor promotes production by economizing labor, increasing its efficiency, and making more effective use of capital.” This is all helpful from the point of view of capital. How about the laborer?
  4. What is the concept of marginal utility?
  5. What are some examples of elastic demand?
    What are some examples of elastic supply?
  6. Distinguish between increasing costs and decreasing costs.
  7. What is the meaning of imperfect competition?
  8. What are some of the limitations on monopoly price?
  9. Suppose the quantity of money held by everyone were to be doubled. Would we be twice as wealthy? Explain.
  10. Discuss briefly some of the factors which influence the rate of interest.
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
IN
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Cooper

Monday [May] 30, 1938
9 A.M.

Please use ink and write clearly.

  1. In what ways does the Federal Reserve System seek to control credit?
  2. (a) What is the significance of the double budget made use of by President Roosevelt?
    (b) Trace briefly the National Debt of the United States?
  3. (a) What is meant by combining business risks to prevent their harmful effects? Illustrate.
    (b) What is meant by passing risks to the shoulders of others more able or willing to bear them? Illustrate.
  4. Define the following:
    (a) a pool
    (b) a trust
    (c) a holding company
    (d) a consolidation
    (e) a merger.
  5. The newspapers frequently carry statements to the effect that local patriotism requires that you patronize local merchants and industries in order to keep money at home. Criticize.
  6. What factors lead to fluctuations in foreign exchange?
  7. Would you advocate an early return to the gold standard? Give reasons for and against.
  8. Discuss briefly the factors affecting the supply and demand for labor.
  9. Distinguish between the craft or trade union, and the industrial union. Which do you think will be the union of the future? Why?
  10. Marx held that the tendency toward concentration, and the increasing numbers and misery of the laboring class would lead us into Socialism. Taking into consideration the long time period, is it possible that he was right?

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Elements of Economics. Section 5
Dr. Robert G. Deupree

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MID-YEAR EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Deupree

February 1, 1938
1 p.m.

  1. Define: wealth, utility, income, capital, functional distribution.
  2. Contrast: the manorial system, guild system, and domestic system.
  3. Distinguish between the following forms of the business unit: Individual proprietorship, partnership, limited partnership, and corporation.
  4. Discuss the economic effects of division of labor.
  5. Explain the marginal utility concept.
    How does it relate to price?
    Explain marginal cost of production.
    How does it relate to price?
  6. Distinguish between production under conditions of increasing, decreasing, and constant costs, giving examples of each.
  7. A monopolist finds the following cost and demand schedules prevailing in the market for his commodity:
Quantity Cost per unit Selling price per unit
1,000,000 1.00 1.00
750,000 1.07 1.10
500,000 1.36 1.40
250,000 1.49 1.50

What would be the monopoly price in this market? Why? Are there any limitations upon the monopolists’ power to fix price? Explain.

  1. Show how economic rent arises on urban lands. Does the law of diminishing returns apply to urban lands? If so, in what manner? Explain what is meant by the extensive and intensive margins of cultivation in agriculture and their relation to economic rent.
  2. What is the time preference theory of interest?
    How would the rate of time preference be affected by:
  1. a steady growth of the national income?
  2. extravagance in consumption?
  3. old age pensions paid by the government?
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
FINAL EXAMINATION
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1 C

Dr. Deupree

June 1, 1938
9 a.m.

  1. Identify or define:
    1. Karl Marx
    2. Thomas Malthus
    3. Gresham’s law
    4. Knights of Labor
    5. Rochdale system
    6. Law of large numbers
    7. Hedging
    8. Processing taxes
    9. Gold export point
    10. Mint par of exchange.
  2. a. Discuss money.
    b. Define a commercial bank and discuss its functions.
    c. Define a central bank and discuss its functions.
  3. Summarize the major provisions of and evaluate any two of the following:
    a. Banking Act of 1935
    b. Social Security Act
    c. Trade Agreements Act
    d. National Labor Relations Act
    e. National Industrial Recovery Act
    f. Clayton Anti-trust Act
  4. a. Sketch the basis of the conflict between the American Federation of Labor and the Committee for Industrial Organization. Discuss the relative merits of the arguments.
    b. How would you account for the wages paid a particular group of workers — for example, carpenters in Baltimore?
  5. a. What are the basic Socialist proposals?
    b. Distinguish: Socialism, Communism, Fascism.
  6. How would you meet the unemployment problem in the United States? Give reasons for each step you propose.

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy. Curricular Materials. Series 6. Box 2. Folder “Department of Political Economy — Exams, 1936-1940”.

Categories
Chicago Economists Germany Harvard Principles

Chicago. Decennial Harvard Class Report of associate professor of political economy James A. Field, ABD, 1913.

College alumni reports often provide a glimpse into career paths of academic, business and government economists. I stumbled across the following tenth year report of the Harvard graduate James Alfred Field who ultimately achieved a professorship at the University of Chicago even though his highest academic degree was an A.B. from Harvard College in 1903. The next post will share some of his Harvard graduate record.  

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JAMES ALFRED FIELD

Born Milton, Mass., May 26, 1880.
Parents James Alfred, Caroline Leslie (Whitney) Field.
School Milton Academy, Milton, Mass.
Years in College 1899-1903.
Degrees A.B., 1903.
Unmarried  
Business University professor.
Address University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

       The opportunity to teach economics at Harvard came to me, quite to my surprise, near the close of our senior year. That autumn found me a graduate student, installed as proctor in Apley Court, and section hand in Economics 1. The next year I was appointed Austin Teaching Fellow in Economics, and took up, in addition to my duties in Economics 1, the work of assisting Professor Carver in his course on social problems, Economics 3. I sailed for Europe in August, 1905; studied during the winter semester at the University of Berlin, and rounded out nearly a year abroad by attending lectures in Paris and by reading in the British Museum library. From September, 1906, to June, 1908, I was instructor in economics at Harvard. In the summer of 1908 I accepted the offer of an instructorship at the University of Chicago, where I have since been teaching economics, specializing in statistics and the theory of population. I was made assistant professor of political economy in 1910, and am to advance this year (1913) to the rank of associate professor. Three years ago I revisited the British Museum and delved in manuscript records of a social reform propaganda of the early nineteenth century. I have written a little on the results of that study and on the related subject of eugenics, and have coöperated with my associates, Professor L. C. Marshall, 1901, and Professor C. W. Wright, 1901, in the preparation of two text-books embodying a method of teaching elementary economics which we have been working out together for the past five years. On the side, I am managing editor of the Journal of Political Economy; and I find myself involved in some of the minor executive duties with which a vigorous university contrives to keep folks busy. Books and articles which I have written: Outlines of Economics developed in a Series of Problems (joint author with L. C. Marshall and C. W. Wright) (third edition, 1912), The Early Propagandist Movement in English Population Theory(American Economic Review, April, 1911), The Progress of Eugenics (Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1911; also reprinted as a pamphlet, Harvard University, 1911) ; also other lesser articles. Member: Harvard Club of Chicago; Harvard Club of Keene, N.H., Harvard Club of New York, Quadrangle Club of Chicago, University Club of Chicago, City Club of Chicago, American Economic Association, American Statistical Association, American Sociological Society, Western Economic Society, American Association for Labor Legislation, National Child Labor Committee, Playground and Recreation Association of America, American Breeders Association, American Society for the Judicial Settlement of International Disputes, Art Institute of Chicago, University Orchestral Association of Chicago, Immigrants Protective League of Chicago, National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, Harvard Travellers Club.

Source: Harvard College Class of 1903. Decennial Report (1913), pp. 161-2.

Image Source: James A. Field. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06081, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. The black and white image has been cropped and colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Description, Enrollment, Exam Questions. Andrew, Mixter, and Sprague. 1901-1902

 

With the expansion of economics course offerings at Harvard going into the 20th century, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror will continue its collection of semester examinations but limiting each post in the series to a single course per year. This post brings together material from four different sources (announcement, enrollment, mid-year exam and final-year exam) for the first course in economics “Outlines of Economics” that was taught in sections by five instructors in 1901-1902. Frank W. Taussig was on leave in Europe that year which is the reason the course was entrusted to the experienced junior hands of Abram Piatt Andrew and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague.

The complete battery of 1900-01 course exams can be found in a previous post.

The course material for the 1902-03 academic year has been posted too.

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Course Announcement

…Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second or third year of their college career. Students who plan to take it in their first year are strongly advised to consult the instructor in advance. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics 1…

Primarily for Undergraduates

  1. Outlines of Economics. — Lectures on Social Questions and Monetary Legislation. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9.Drs. [Instructor in Political Economy, Abram Piatt] Andrew [Jr.] and [Instructor in Political Economy, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and Messrs. [Instructor in Political Economy, Charles] Beardsley and [Austin Teaching Fellow, James Horace] Patten.

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, and international trade. Social questions and the relations of labor and capital, and the recent currency legislation of the United States, will be treated in outline.

Course 1 will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. Large parts of Mill’s Principles of Political Economy, of Walker’s Political Economy (advanced course), and of Dunbar’s Theory and History of Banking will be read; and these books must be procured by all members of the Course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. pp. 35-36.

______________________________ 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

[Economics] 1. Drs. [Instructor in Economics, Abram Piatt] Andrew [Jr.], [Assistant in Economics, Charles Whitney] Mixter, and [Instructor in Economics, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and Messrs. [Austin Teaching Fellow, James Horace] Patten and [Assistant in Economics, Gilbert Holland] Montagne. — Outlines of economics.

Total 432: 19 Seniors, 79 Juniors, 239 Sophomores, 37 Freshmen, 58 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

______________________________ 

Mid-year Examination 1902
ECONOMICS 1

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. A man increases his capital by saving which involves diminution of his consumption, but his capital can be used only by being consumed. Explain.
  2. What is over-population? What is under-population? Some years ago British India had 200 inhabitants to the square mile; Belgium 469; Rhode Island 254. Which came nearer to over-population and which to under-population?
  3. Why are the wages of servants higher in the United States than in England for the same grade of service?
  4. How does Hadley’s justification of rent resemble that of profits? Does Mill differ from Hadley in regard to the “unearned increment”?
  5. To what other conceptions than that of return from land has the notion of “rent” been applied?
    Explain the analogy between these various sorts of “rent.”
  6. Which of Mill’s laws of value is applicable to
    1. iron ore
    2. shoes
    3. typewriters
    4. street railway fares
    5. postage stamps.

State the law of value governing each case.

  1. A member of Congress maintained that there was not money enough in the country, using the following argument: “Our currency must keep pace with our growth as a nation … France has a circulation per capita of thirty dollars: England, of twenty-five: and we with our extent of territory and improvements, certainly require more than either.” State your opinion of this argument.
  2. When it is asserted that the value of gold rose 40% or 50% between 1873 and 1896, what are the various methods by which such a measurement of the amount of appreciation is affected? Point out the limitations of these methods.
  3. Consider the monetary history of the United States since 1860 with reference to the quantity theory?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1901-02.

______________________________ 

Year-end Examination 1902
ECONOMICS 1

Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. One question in each group may be omitted.

I.
Answer two.
  1. Are the private ownership of capital, and the payment of interest on capital justified when it is said that interest is the reward of abstinence? If so, in what manner? If not, why not?
  2. Explain what Hadley means when he says that “economic rent and net profit are differential gains.”Does Mill differ from Hadley in regard to these subjects?
  3. What groups of persons are favored by rising prices? by falling prices?
II.
Answer two.
  1. Suppose that labor became twice as productive as it is in all of our industries, what would be the probable effect upon the prices and values of the articles we import? Distinguish between the immediate and the ultimate effects.
  2. It is frequently urged that the high rate of wages prevailing in the United States disables this country from competing with “the pauper labor” of Europe. Examine the grounds of this statement, and consider how far it forms a justification for protection to American industry.
  3. Suppose the discovery of important gold fields in France. What would be the effect upon her foreign trade?
III.
Answer two.
  1. What is the difference between a commercial bank and a savings bank?
  2. “As the exchange of checks through the Clearing House has had results far beyond the mere gain in convenience and safety to which the practice owes its origin, so the redemption of notes by some corresponding mode has important bearings of much greater scope than the convenience of banks in maintaining their issues, and quite independent of any question as to the security of the currency. (Dunbar, p. 74). Explain the system suggested, and the particular advantage referred to.
  3. “The notion is often entertained that the national banks have some peculiar opportunity for making a double profit, by receiving both interest earned by their bonds, and interest earned by the loan of the notes issued upon the bonds” (Dunbar, p. 180).
    Comment upon this.
IV.
Answer three.
  1. Do prices fluctuate because men speculate, or do men speculate because prices fluctuate?
  2. Would the country gain or lose from the abolition (1) of the “produce exchanges”? (2) of the “stock exchanges”? Give reasons in each case.
  3. Assuming that a combination has secured a monopoly, what influences would tend to check an indefinite increase in prices? Illustrate the varying operation of these influences in the case of diamonds, petroleum, and iron and steel.
  4. Discuss the economic effects of the immigration of unskilled labor to the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics… in Harvard College (June 1902) included in the bound volume: Examination Papers 1902-03.

Image Sources: Abram Piatt Andrew (1920) from Wikimedia Commons. O.M.W. Sprague from Harvard Class Album 1920, p. 25.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles Suggested Reading Syllabus Teaching Undergraduate

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Reading assignments, Exams, 1928

 

Partial course outlines from Harvard’s principles of economics course from 1927-28 and 1928-29 were found filed with the economics course outlines for 1938-39 in the Harvard Archives. The principal instructors for the courses in both years were Harold Hitchings Burbank and Edward Hastings Chamberlin, so combining the first semester outline from 1928-29 with the second semester outline from 1927-28 as transcribed below gives us a synthetic syllabus for the 1927-29 years. This post also includes enrollment figures for the two academic years as well as the corresponding semester final exams for the course. Links to the assigned textbooks have been added to complete the package.

____________________________

Course Announcement and Description

ECONOMICS
GENERAL STATEMENT

Course A is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor. Students concentrating in Economics should elect Course A in their Sophomore year, except in unusual cases. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics A…

INTRODUCTORY COURSES
Primarily for Undergraduates

A. Principles of Economics

Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank, Dr. [Edward Hastings] Chamberlin, Dr. [Charles Holt] Taylor, and Messrs. [John Bever] Crane, [Melvin Gardner] de Chazeau, [Edgar Jerome] Johnson, [Delmar] Leighton, [Talcott] Parsons, [Carl Johann] Ratzlaff, [James Harold] Shoemaker, [Samuel Sommerville] Stratton, [John Phillip] Wernette, [Harry Dexter] White and [Earle Micajah] Winslow; with lectures on selected subjects by Professor [Frank William] Taussig and other Members of the Department.

Course A gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes an analysis of the present organization of industry, the mechanism of exchange, the determination of value, and the distribution of wealth.

The course is conducted entirely by oral discussion in sections. Taussig’s Principles of Economics is used as the basis of discussion.

Course A may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

Source:  Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928). Division of History, Government, and Economics 1928-29, pp. 63-64.

____________________________

Enrollment in Economics A, 1928-29

[Economics] A. Professor Burbank and Dr. Chamberlin, Dr. Taylor and Messrs. Leighton, Stratton, Winslow, O.H. Taylor, E.J. Johnson, de Chazeau, Parsons, Wernette, H.D. White, and Ratzlaff, Crane and Shoemaker. — Principles of Economics.

Total 477: 55 Seniors, 127 Juniors, 242 Sophomores, 26 Freshmen, 27 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1928-29, p. 71.

 

____________________________

EXHIBIT D
First Half

OUTLINE OF STUDY FOR ECONOMICS A
1928-29

Hubert D. Henderson. Supply and Demand. (New York: 1922).

D. H. Robertson. The Control of Industry (London: 1923).

Frank W. Taussig. Principles of Economics, Vol. I, 3rd edition, (New York: 1921).

Sept. 27
Sept. 29		 Lecture.
Lecture.
Oct. 1 – 6 Taussig, Principles 1. Wealth and Labor.
2. Labor in Production.
3. Division of Labor and Development of Modern Industry.
Oct. 8 – 13 ”
”
”
Robertson		 4. Large Scale Production.
5. Capital.
6. Corporate Organization of Industry.
1 – 3. Control of Industry.
Oct. 15 – 20 Taussig
”
“		 8. Exchange, Value, Price.
9. Value and Utility.
10. Market Value. Demand and Supply.
Oct. 22 – 27 ”
”
“		 17. Coinage.
18. Quantity.
19. Secs. 2, 3, 4: History of Prices.
Oct. 29 – Nov. 3 ”
”
“		 20. Bimetallism.
22. Changes in Prices.
23. Government Paper Money
Nov. 5 – 10 ”
“		 24. Banking and Medium of Exchange.
25. Banking Operations.
Nov. 12 – 17 ”
”
“		 27. Banking System of United States
28. Crises.
29. Panics.
Nov. 19 – 24 ”
”
Hour Exam		 30. Prices.
31. Reform.
Nov. 26 – Dec. 1 ”
”
”
Henderson		 Review 8, 9, 10.
12. Constant Cost.
13. Diminishing Returns.
Demand and Supply (Nov. 26 to Dec. 15).
Dec. 3 – 8 Taussig
“		 14. Varying Cost.
15. Monopoly.
Dec. 10 – 15 ”
Henderson:		 16. Joint Cost and Joint Demand.
Ch. 5. Demand and Supply.
Dec. 17 – 22 Taussig 32. The Foreign Exchanges
RECESS Dec. 23 to Jan. 2
Reading Period Jan. 2 to 16  [No additional reading requirements]
Jan. 2 – 7 Taussig
“		 33. International Payments.
34. International Trade.
Jan. 9 – 14 ”
“		 36. Protection.
37. Free Trade.
MIDYEARS:

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2; Folder “Economics, 1938-1939 [sic].”

____________________________

1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
[Mid-Year Examination, 1929]

  1. Many business men are hoping for a period of rising prices; some financial writers are prophesying that it is inevitable. Assuming no change in our existing monetary and banking laws, what causes might lead to an increase in prices? How would such rising prices tend to affect the holders of various types of securities?
  2. “Some people argue that price is determined by cost of production; and yet they admit that producers with too high costs have to drop out. Thus it is clear that in reality a producer’s cost is determined by the price he can get, consequently price cannot be determined by cost of production.” Comment on this statement.
  3. What influence has the existence of joint cost upon the development of large scale production?
  4. It has been stated that with the Federal Reserve System in operation there will never be a recurrence in the United States of such (a) crises and (b) panics as occurred in 1893 and 1907. Do you agree?
  5. What attitude toward the tariff would you expect to be taken by a banker who has made large loans abroad, by a manufacturer of woolen cloth, by a professor of economics, by a Louisiana politician?
  6. Explain briefly:
    1. The principles of subsidiary coinage.
    2. The relation between markets and the division of labor.
    3. The distinction between consumers’ goods and producers’ goods.
    4. The significance of the following: “The plentifulness of money is in itself a matter of indifference.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-Year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 11, Bound volume: Examination Papers: Mid-Years 1929, Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, New Testament, Government, Economics….Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1929.

____________________________

Enrollment in Economics A, 1927-28

[Economics] A. Professor Burbank and Dr. Chamberlin and Messrs. K.W. Bigelow, [Theodore John] Kreps, Stratton, Winslow, O.H. Taylor, E.J. Johnson, de Chazeau, Parsons, Wernette, H.D. White, and D.V. Brown, with lectures on selected subjects by Professor Taussig and other Members of the Department. — Principles of Economics.

Total 532: 61 Seniors, 165 Juniors, 258 Sophomores, 20 Freshmen, 28 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1927-28, p. 74.

____________________________

OUTLINE OF ASSIGNMENTS FOR ECONOMICS A
1927-28, 2nd. Half year.

Thomas Nixon Carver. The Distribution of Wealth (New York: 1921).

Hubert D. Henderson. Supply and Demand. (New York: 1922).

D. H. Robertson. The Control of Industry (London: 1923).

Frank W. Taussig. Principles of Economics, 3rd edition, (New York: 1921). Volume I, Volume II.

Feb. 6

Feb. 11

 Review
Value
Diminishing Returns		 Carver:
”
“		 Distribution of Wealth
Ch. I. Value
Ch. II. Diminishing Returns
Feb. 13

Feb. 18

 Rent Carver:
Taussig:
“		 V. Rent
Ch. 44. Rent (esp. Capitalization)
Ch. 43. Urban Site Rent
Feb. 20

Feb. 25

 Interest Carver:
Taussig:		 Ch. VI. Interest
Ch. 40. Interest
Feb. 27

Mar. 3

 Wages Carver:
Taussig:		 Ch. IV. Wages
Ch. 47. Social Stratification
Mar. 5

Mar. 10

 Profits, Population Carver:
Taussig:
“		 Ch. VII. Profits
Ch. 53. Population
Ch. 54. Population, continued
Mar. 12

Mar. 17

 Inequality Taussig:
”
”
“		 Ch. 7. Productiveness
Ch. 45. Monopoly
Ch. 51. Great Fortunes
Ch. 55. Inequality
Mar. 19

Mar. 24

 Land, Risk, Labor, etc. Henderson:
”
”
”
“		 Ch. VI. Land
Ch. VII. Risk Bearing Enterprise
Ch. VIII. Capital
Ch. IX. Labor
Ch. X. Real Costs of Production
Mar. 26

Mar. 31

 Labor Taussig:
”
“		 Ch. 56. Wages system
Ch. 57. Labor Unions
Ch. 58. Labor Legislation
Apr. 2

Apr. 7

 Labor ”
”
“		 Ch. 59. Industrial Peace
Ch. 60. Workmen’s Insurance
Ch. 61. Coöperation
RECESS April 8-14
Apr. 16

Apr. 21

 Railways ”
“		 Ch. 62. Railways
Ch. 63. Railway Problems, continued.
Apr. 23

Apr. 28

 Public Ownership & Combinations ”
“		 Ch. 64. Public Ownership & Control
Ch. 65 Combinations & Trusts
Apr. 30

May 5

 Industry and Capitalism Robertson:
”
”
Review		 Ch. V. Capitalism of Industry
Ch. VI. Finance and Industry
Ch. VII. Survey of CapitalismCh. X. Workers’ Control
May 7
READING PERIOD BEGINS
May 12		 Socialism Taussig:
“		 Ch. 66. Socialism
Ch. 67. Socialism, continued.
May 14

May 19

 Social Reform Robertson:
”
“		 Ch. IX. Collectivism
Ch. X. Workers Control
Ch. XI. Joint Control
May 21

May 26

 Taxation

Taussig:

“

 Ch. 68. Principles Underlying Taxation
Ch. 69 Income and Inheritance Taxes
REVIEW
EXAMINATIONS

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2; Folder “Economics, 1938-1939 [sic].”

____________________________

1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
[Final End-year Examination]

Allow one hour and one-half for the first question.

  1. Explain how the distribution of wealth is affected by the following:
    1. Large and rapid changes in the supply of money.
    2. Labor saving inventions.
    3. A rise in the standard of living of the wage earning classes.
    4. The opening for settlement of new areas of good agricultural land.
    5. The government regulation of public utilities.
  2. Discuss the accuracy of the following statements:
    “Three generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves.”
    “The rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer.”
    “To abolish wage slavery we must abolish the wages system; only through socialism can the wages system be forced to disappear.”
    “The one way a union can help its members is by limitation of the supply of hands.”
  3. What does each of the following propose: collectivism, single tax, producers’ coöperation, syndicalism?
  4. Explain briefly the case for and against minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, progressive taxation of incomes, the restriction of immigration.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers, Finals (HUC 7000.28). Bound Volume 70 (1928). Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, Church History,…Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science, June 1928.

Image Source: Harold Hitchings Burbank from Harvard Class Album 1934.

Categories
Cornell Courses Lecture Notes Principles Suggested Reading Syllabus

Cornell. Syllabus, Bibliography, Notes for Extension course “Practical Economic Questions”. Jenks, 1892

 

From time to time, one stumbles across a complete syllabus that really deserves to be html-edited for inclusion as an artifact in the Economics in the Rear-View Mirror collection. Today’s post runs 33-pages in MS-Word for a course that covers economic policy concerns as taught in 1892 by the newly appointed professor at Cornell, Jeremiah Whipple Jenks (1856-1929). The published syllabus prepared for the University Extension Department of the University of the State of New York includes a bibliography, reading assignments and lecture notes.

______________________

University of the State of New York
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION DEPARTMENT
Albany, N.Y.

Syllabus 1, Jan. 1892

Subject no. 330

PRACTICAL ECONOMIC QUESTIONS
By Prof. J. W. Jenks, Ph. D., Cornell University

Part I Reading list

LIST OF AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO
Not including periodicals

Adams, Henry Carter. Outlines of lectures on political economy. 85p. O. Ann Arbor. 1886. Sheehan, 50¢.

Andrews, Elisha Benjamin. Institutes of economics. 227p. D. Bost. 1889. Silver, Burdett & Co. $1.30.

Extremely concise and thorough in analysis.

Atkinson, Edward. Distribution of products; or, The mechanism and the metaphysics of exchange. 303p. D. N.Y. 1885. Putnam, $1.25.

Contents: What makes the rate of wages? What is a bank? The railway, the farmer and the public.

Baernreither, J. M. English associations of working-men; tr. by Alice Taylor. 15+473p. O. Lond. 1889. Sonnenschein, 15s.

A late survey.

Bowen, Francis. American political economy. New ed. D.  N.Y. 1885. Scribner, $2.50.

An excellent moderate statement of the protection doctrine.

Brentano, Lujo. Relation of labor to the law of today; tr. with an introd. by Porter Sherman. 300p.  D.  N.Y. 1891. Putnam, $1.75.

A late excellent book favoring trades unions.

Cairnes, John Elliot. Character and logical method of political economy. Ed. 2. 229p.  D.  N.Y. 1875. Harper, $1.50.

The best statement of method from the standpoint of the classical economists.

__________ Some leading principles of political economy newly expounded. 506p.  O.  N.Y. 1874. Harper, $2.50.

Specially valuable on wages.

Carey, Henry Charles. Manual of social science; condensed from Carey’s Principles of social science, by Kate McKean. Phil. H. C. Baird & Co. $2.25.

Carpenter, Edward. Civilization, its causes and cure. 156p.  D.  Lond. 1889. Sonnenschien, 75¢. (Social science ser. vol. 2)

A late strong work.

Clowes, W.L. “Black America.” N.Y. 1891. $1.50.

A late study by an English observer.

Cook, W.W. Trusts; the recent combinations in trade, their character, legality and mode of organization, and the rights, duties and liabilities of their managers and certificate holders. 63p.  S.  N.Y. 1888. L. K. Strouse & Co. pap. 50¢.

Cunningham, William. Growth of English industry and commerce during the early and middle ages. Ed. 2 enl. 15+626p.  O.  Lond. 1890. Macmillan, $5.

Dexter, Seymour. Treatise on cooperative savings and loan associations. 299p.  D.  N.Y. 1889. Appleton, $1.25.

A thoroughly practical manual giving New York statutes.

Dugdale, Richard. The Jukes; a study in crime, pauperism and heredity. Fourth ed. with introd. by W:  M.F. Round. 121p.  D.  N.Y. 1888. Putnam, $1.

A startling presentation of the effects of heredity.

Ellis, Havelock. The criminal. 8+337p.  D.  N.Y. 1890. Scribner, $1. (Contemporary science ser. no. 1)

Review of results thus far reached by students of criminal anthropology in Italy, France, Germany, England and the United States, with criticism.

Ely, Richard Theodore. Introduction to political economy. 358p.  O.  N.Y. 1889. Hunt & Eaton, $1.

__________ Problems of today; a discussion of protective tariffs, taxation and monopolies. 222p.  D.  N.Y. 1888. Crowell, $1.50.

__________ Labor movement in America. 373p.  D.  N.Y. 1886. Crowell, $1.50.

A history which includes the platforms of the principal labor organizations.

__________ & Finley, J. H. Taxation in American states and cities. 544p.  D.  N.Y. 1888. Crowell, $1.75.

Describes taxation as it is with suggestions for reform.

Farrer, Sir Thomas H. State in its relation to trade, II + 181p. D.  Lond. 1883. Macmillan, $1. (English citizen ser.)

Admirable.

Fawcett, Henry. Free trade and protection; an inquiry into the causes which have retarded the general adoption of free trade since its introduction into England. Ed. 6. 16+173p. D. Lond. 1888. Macmillan, $1.25.

American arguments for protection are specially considered.

George, Henry. Progress and poverty; an inquiry into the causes of industrial depressions and of the increase of want with increase of wealth: the remedy. 250p.  O.  N.Y. 1888. H: George & Co. pap. 35¢, cl. $1.

Gilman, Nicholas Paine. Profit sharing between employer and employé; a study in the evolution of the wages system. 460p. O.  Bost. 1889. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.75.

The one comprehensive book on this subject.

Hadley, Arthur Twining. Railroad transportation; its history and laws. 269p.  D.  N.Y. 1885. Putnam, $1.50.

The standard book on this subject.

Howell, George. Conflicts of capital and labor, historically and economically considered. New ed. 64+536p.  D.  Lond. 1890. Macmillan, $2.50.

Treats of British trades unions from the standpoint of a trades unionist.

__________ Trades unionism, new and old. 15+235p. D.  Lond. 1891. Methuen, 75¢.

“Written in view of the later developments of trades unionism, with especial reference to what may be termed the new departure in the organization of labor.” — Pref.

Hudson, James F. Railways and the republic. 489p.  O.  N.Y. 1886. Harper, $2.

Suggests that railways be made public highways, rolling stock to be supplied by private enterprise. The author would prohibit pools.

Jevons, William Stanley. Money and the mechanism of exchange. 23+350p.  D.  N.Y. 1879. Appleton, $1.75.

Best popular book for laying a basis of the generally accepted doctrines.

__________ State in relation to labor. 166p.  D.  Lond. 1882. Macmillan, $1. (English citizen ser.)

Keynes, John Neville. Scope and method of political economy. 14+359p.  D.  Lond. 1891. Macmillan, $2.

The most complete statement of the nature and methods of political economy. An excellent work.

Laughlin, James Laurence. History of bimetallism in the United States. 258p. charts and tables,  O.  N.Y. 1885. Appleton, $2.25.

Exhaustive.

__________ Study of political economy. 153p.  S.  N.Y. 1885. Appleton, $1.

Brings out the value of economics in discipline.

List, Friedrich. National system of political economy; tr. by G. A. Matile with notes by Richelot and Colwell.  O.  Phil. 1856. Lippincott, $2.

Unfinished work, First of German protectionists.

McCulloch, Oscar. Tribe of Ishmael; a study in social degradation. Ed. 4. 8p.  O.  Indianapolis, 1891. Charity organization society, 50¢.

A brief but thorough study of heredity as a cause of pauperism; a popular lecture, with diagram.

Marshall, Alfred. Principles of economics, vol. I. 28+754p.  O.  Lond. 1890. Macmillan, $3.

The most important work in English since J. S. Mill. To be completed in a second volume.

Mill, John Stuart. Principles of political economy; abridged with critical, bibliographical and explanatory notes and a sketch of the history of political economy by J. L. Laughlin. 658p. maps and diagrams,  O.  N.Y. 1884. Appleton, $3.50.

Best abridgment of the chief modern English economist.

Morrison, William Douglas. Crime and its causes. 11+236p.  O.  Lond. 1891. Sonnenschien, 75¢. (Social science ser.)

A new thorough study.

Patten, Simon N. Premises of political economy; a reexamination of certain principles of economic science. 244p. D. Phil. 1885. Lippincott, $1.50.

A radical and suggestive piece of criticism. Emphasizes social causes.

Ricardo, David. Principles of political economy and taxation; ed. with introd. essay, notes and appendices by E.C.K. Gonner. 62+455p.  D.  Lond. 1891. Bell, $2. (Bohn’s economic lib.)

Rogers, James Edwin Thorold. Economic interpretation of (English) history. 547p.  O.  N.Y, 1888. Putnam, $3.

Showing the powerful influence economics have had in English history.

Roscher, Wilhelm. Principles of political economy. 2 v.  O. N.Y. 1878. Holt, $7.50.

Translation of the most popular German treatise.

Rylands, L.G. Crime, its causes and remedy. 264p. Lond. 1889. Unwin, 6s.

Science economic discussion.  D.  N.Y. 1886. 50¢.

Republished from papers contributed to Science, v. 7 & 8, by Adams, Ely, Hadley, &c.

Sidgwick, Henry. Principles of political economy. Ed. 2. 24+595p.  O.  Lond. 1887. Macmillan, $4.

A late thorough, suggestive work.

Smith, Richmond Mayo. Emigration and immigration. 316p.  D.  N.Y. 1890. Scribner, $1.50.

An historical and statistical survey. An able and suggestive book, much the best on the subject.

Spencer, Herbert. Principles of sociology. 2 v.  O.  N.Y. 1890. Appleton, $4.

vol. 1 Data and inductions of sociology; domestic institutions. 883p.
vol. 2 Ceremonial and political institutions. 667+26p.

Stebbins, Giles B. American protectionists’ manual. 192p.  D.  Chic. 1888. C.H. Kerr & Co. 75¢. pap. 40¢.

Contains many quotations from industrial witnesses, and comparative figures.

Sumner, William Graham. History of American currency; with chapters on the English bank restrictions and Austrian paper money. 390p.  D.  N.Y. 1878. Holt, $3.

Deals with facts more than with theories. Apx. contains in full English “Bullion report” of 1810.

Taussig, Frank William. Tariff history of the United States, 1789-1888. 269p.  D.  N.Y. 1888. Putnam, $1.25. (Questions of the day, no. 47)

Valuable record of facts. Author a tariff reformer. Best general history of our tariff.

Taylor, Sedley. Profit sharing between capital and labor. 13+170p.  D.  N.Y. 1886. Fitzgerald, pap. 15¢.

Thompson, Robert Ellis. Elements of political economy. 419p.  D.  Phil. 1882. Porter, $1.50.

Wagner, Adolf. Finanzwissenschaft. 3 v. Leipzig, 1883-90. C.P. Winter.

The most comprehensive work on taxation in any language. Uncompleted.

Walker, Francis Amasa. Land and its rent. 220p.  S.  Bost. 1883. Little, Brown & Co. 75¢.

The best American book on the subject from the conservative standpoint.

__________ Money. 550p.  O.  N.Y. 1878. Holt, $2.

The standard American treatise. States and impartially examines the various theories of money.

__________ Political economy. 537p.  O.  N.Y. 1887. Holt, $2. (American science ser. — Advanced course)

Specially valuable in its elucidations of the questions of land and wages.

__________ Wages question; a treatise on wages and the wages receiving class. 428p.  O.  N.Y. 1876. Holt, $2.

Discriminates real from nominal wages. Takes account of sentiment as affecting economic forces.

Winter, Alexander. New York state reformatory in Elmira; with a pref. by Havelock Ellis. 10+172p.  D.  Lond. 1891. Sonnenschein, 75¢. (Social science ser. vol. 19)

An excellent account of this best of all reformatories.

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Lecture 1

At the close of each lecture there will be a free conference on the subject of the lecture, at which members of the class may ask questions of the lecturer, and bring forward their own views.

To aid the students in securing accurate notes of the lectures, the lecturer will distribute at the close of each meeting a printed syllabus of the lecture of the evening, to which will be added a number of questions or exercises for written work. Answers to two or more of these may be sent by mail to the lecturer, so as to reach him not less than 48 hours before the succeeding lecture.

The special class, consisting of those that do the written work, will meet 45 minutes before the beginning of the regular lecture, to receive back papers, get special information regarding reading, have difficulties made clear, etc.

NATURE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

1 Why do we study political economy?

Marshall. Principles of economics, vol. 1, ch. 1.
Laughlin. Study of political economy.
Ely. Political economy, pt 1, ch. 1-3.
Walker. Political economy, ch. 1.
Bowen. American political economy, ch. 1.

2 Nature and development of industrial society.

Marshall. Principles of economics, ch. 2-3.
Andrews. Institutes of economics; introduction.
Ely. Political economy, pt 1.
Cunningham. Growth of English industry and commerce.

3 Definition of political economy.

Marshall. Principles of economics, ch. 1.
Adams. Outlines of lectures on political economy, §14.
Walker. Political economy, ch. 1.
Roscher. Principles of political economy, vol. 1, ch. 3.

4 Method of economic study.

Keynes. Scope and method of political economy.
Science economic discussion.
Dunbar, C.F. Reaction in political economy (see Quar. jour. econ. 1:1-27).
Cairnes. Logical method of political economy.
Andrews. Institutes of economics, ch. 1.
Marshall. Principles of economics, ch. 4-8.
Walker. Political economy, ch. 1.
Adams. Outlines of lectures, pt 1-2.
Sidgwick. Principles of political economy, ch. 3.
Nasse, E. Economic movement in Germany (see Quar. jour. econ. 1:498-506.)

The books cited are all standard works and will be useful for nearly all the lectures. The bibliography is by no means complete but rather suggestive for those not familiar with the subjects treated. For those who read German, the works of Schönberg, Wagner and Cohn are recommended; for those who read French those of Cherbuliez, Courcelle-Seneuil and Garnier. The full title of the books is given only when the first reference is made. Later a short title is used.

It is not expected that each student will read all the references. Several have been suggested under each topic, in order that the student may use the one that is most convenient for him, and so far as possible they have been arranged in order of fitness for use of extension students. Each student should do as much reading as possible, and come to the lecture with some fairly defined opinion on each topic suggested, in order that he may take a more intelligent part in the discussions at the close of the lecture.

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Lecture 2

THE MONEY QUESTION

1 What is money? Its origin and nature.

Walker. Money, ch. 1-2.
Jevons. Money and the mechanism of exchange, ch. 1-5.
Carey, Social science (McKean’s abridgment), ch. 23.
Bowen. ch, 12.

2 Normal relation of government to money.

Andrews. §75.
Bowen. ch. 12.

3 Quantity of money needed.

Walker. Money, ch. 3.
Mill. Political economy (Laughlin’s ed.), bk. 3.

4 Territorial distribution of money.

Walker. Money, ch. 3.
_____. Political economy, ch. 3.

5 Single or double standard?

Laughlin. Bimetallism in U. S.
Taussig. Silver situation in the U. S. (see Quar. jour. econ. 4:291-315, Ap 90).
Silver situation in the U. S. (see Amer. econ. ass’n. publications, vol. 7, no. 1, Ja. 92.)
Jevons. Silver question (see Jour. soc. sci. 1879, no. 9, p. 14-20).
Nourse, B.F. Silver question (see Jour. soc. sci. 1879, no. 9, p. 21-43).
Sumner. History of American currency.

6 Free coinage of silver in the U.S. to-day.

Taussig. (As above under 5.)
Laughlin. Bimetallism in U.S.
Fairchild, G.S. U.S. and silver (see Forum, 11:550-58, Jl 90)
Coe, G.S. Why the silver law should be repealed (see Forum 12:611-13, Ja 92).

7 Inconvertible paper money.

Walker. Money, pt 2.
Rogers. Economic interpretation of history, ch. 10.

The standard works cited cover the whole subject. Many more articles in the current magazines can be found on the political phases of the question by consulting Poole’s Index to periodical literature and the later files of the periodicals.

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Lecture 3

THE RENT PROBLEM

1 Factors in production.

Marshall, bk 4-6.
Walker. Political economy, pt 2.
Andrews, pt 1.

2 Parties to the distribution of the product of industry.

Marshall, bk 7.
Walker. Political economy, pt 4, ch. 1.
Andrews, pt 1.

3 Origin of rent.

Ricardo. Political economy, ch. 2.
Walker. Political economy, pt 4, ch. 2.
Andrews. pt 4, ch. 2.

4 Law of rent. What fixes its amount?

Ricardo. ch. 2.
Sidgwick. bk 1, ch. 7.
Carey. (McKean’s abridgment) ch. 35.
Patten. Premises of political economy, ch. 1.
Andrews, pt 4, ch. 2.

5 Relation of rent to price of product; to wages.

Marshall, bk 6.
Walker. Political economy, pt 4, ch. 2.
Ricardo. Political economy, ch. 2.

6 Effect of social progress on rent.

Marshall, bk 7, ch. 13.
Carey, (McKean’s abridgment) ch. 35.

7 Henry George and land nationalization.

George. Progress and poverty.
Walker. Land and its rent.
Single tax debate (see Jour. soc. sci. 1890, no. 27, p. 1-124. George, Seligman and others).
Ely. Taxation in American states and cities, pt 3, ch. 4.
__________ Problems of to-day, ch. 25-26.
Consult also Poole’s Index and later files of political periodicals.

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Lecture 4

MONOPOLIES

1 Natural monopolies.

a. Gold, salt, etc.

Wagner. Finanzwissenschaft; — and other European writers on finance.
Ely. Problems of to-day, ch. 17-19.

b. Railroads, telegraphs.

James, E. J. Railway question (see Amer. econ. ass’n. Publications, vol. 2, no. 3).
Hadley. Railroad transportation.
Seligman. Railway tariffs and interstate commerce law (see Pol. sci. quar. 2: 223-64, 364-413).
Hudson. Railways and the republic.
Ely. Problems of to-day, ch. 22-23.

c. Municipal. Water, gas, street railways, etc.

Adams, H.C., and others. Relation of modern municipalities to quasi-public works, (see Amer. econ. ass’n. Publications, vol. 2, no. 6.)
James, E. J. Relation of modern municipality to the gas supply (see Amer. econ. ass’n. Publications, vol. 1, no. 2-3).
Bemis, E.W. Municipal ownership of gas in the United States, (see Amer. econ. ass’n. Publications, vol. 6, no. 4-5.)
Bulletin of U.S. census of 1891 on street railways.
Ely. Problems of to-day, ch. 20-21,

2 Capitalistic monopolies.

a. Trusts.

Cook. Trusts.
Reports of N.Y. senate, 1888; Congressional committee on manufactures, 1888; Canadian house of representatives, 1888.
Gunton. Economic and social aspect of trusts (see Pol. sci. quar. 3:385-408, S ‘88).
Jenks, J. W. Trusts in the United States (see Economic jour. 5:70-100, Mr. ‘92).
Dwight. Legality of trusts (see Pol. sci. quar. 3:592, D ‘88).

b. Corporations.

As above under a.

3 Advantages and disadvantages of great combinations of capital.

As above under 2.

4 Legislative action regarding monopolies.

James and Adams as above and references under 2a.
Swift, M. I. What shall be done with trusts (see Andover review, 10:109-26).
Bankers’ magazine (New York), October ‘88.
Consult Poole’s Index for many magazine articles.

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Lecture 5

THE WAGES QUESTION

1 Factors determining the rate of wages.

Walker. Wages question.
A full discussion of the whole subject. See also several articles by Walker, Clark and McVane in the last two volumes of the Quarterly journal of economics.
Sidgwick. Political economy, bk 2, ch. 8-12.
Atkinson. Distribution of products.

2 Highest and lowest limits of wages.

Walker. Wages question, ch. 14-16, 19.
Brentano. Relation of labor to the law of to-day, bk 2, ch. 7-8.
Andrews. Institutes of economics, pt 4, ch. 4.
Ricardo. Political economy, ch. 5.

3 Interest of society in the rate of wages.

Brentano. bk 2, ch. 12.
Journal of social science, 1891.
Andrews, pt 4, ch. 4.
Walker. Wages question and Political economy,
Ely. Labor movement.

4 Influence of trades unions on wages.

Journal of social science, 1891.
Sidgwick. bk 2, ch. 10.
Brentano. bk 2, ch. 6-8.
Ely. Labor movement.

5 Labor legislation.

Journal of social science, 1891.
Jevons. State in relation to labor.
Brentano, bk 2, ch. 9-10.
Howell. Conflicts of labor and capital, ch. 11.
Baernreither. English associations of workingmen, ch. 4.
Consult Poole’s Index for magazine articles.

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Lecture 6

COOPERATION AND PROFIT SHARING

1 Significance of cooperation.

Walker. Political economy, pt 6, §2.
Cairnes. Leading principles, ch. 5.
Howell. Conflicts of labor and capital, ch. 12.

2 Distributive cooperation.

Bemis, E.W. Cooperation in New England (see Amer. econ. ass’n. Publications, vol. 1 no. 5).
Warner, A.G. Three phases of cooperation in the west (see Amer. econ. ass’n. Publications, vol. 2, no. 1).
History of cooperation in the U. S. (in Johns Hopkins Univ. studies in hist, and pol. sci., vol. 6).

3 Productive cooperation.

History of cooperation in the U.S. (in J.H.U. studies in hist. and pol. sci. vol. 6).
Shaw, Albert. Cooperation in a western city (see Amer. econ. ass’n. Publications, vol. 1, no. 4).
Bemis, E.W. (As above under 2a.)
Howell. Conflicts of labor and capital, ch. 12.

a Building and loan associations

Dexter. Cooperative savings and loan associations.
Journal of social science, 1888, no. 25.

4 Profit-sharing. Its nature.

Gilman. Profit-sharing.
Taylor, Sedley. Profit-sharing.
Journal of social science, 1887, no. 23, p. 25-67.

a. Examples and methods.

Articles in Chicago Daily news, 1889.

Gilman. Profit-sharing.

5 Future of cooperation and profit-sharing; and adaptability for special industries.

Gilman, ch. 10.
Walker. Political economy, and other general works on economics.
Consult also Poole’s Index to periodical literature.

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Lecture 7

EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

1 The good of society the standpoint of discussion.

Smith. Emigration and immigration. The best authority on the whole subject.
Smith, R.M. Control of immigration (see Pol. sci. quar. 3:46-77, 197-225, 409-24).
Schuyler, Eugene. Italian immigration into the U. S. (see Pol. sci. quar. 4:480-95).
Reports of the consular officers of the United States, 1885-1886.

2 History of immigration into the United States.

Liégeard, Armand. Immigration into the U. S. (see Statistical society. Journal, 47:496-516).
Census of the United States, 1850-90.
See also under 1.

3 Forces of assimilation.

Boyesen, H.H. Dangers of unrestricted immigration (see Forum, 3:532-42).
See also under 1.

4 Political effects of immigration.

Boyesen, H.H. (As above under 3).
Coxe, A.C. Government by aliens (see Forum 7:597-608).
Round, W.M.F. Immigration and crime (see Forum 8:428-40).
Altgeld, J.P. Immigrant’s answer (see Forum 8:684-96).
Bemis, E.W. Restriction of immigration (see Andover rev. 9: 251-64).
Munger, T.T. Immigration by passport (see Century 35: 791-99).
Powderly, T.V. A menacing irruption, (see North Amer. rev. 147:165-74).

5 Economic effects.

Powers, F.P. Occupations of immigrants (see Quar. jour. econ. 2:223-28).

In England.

Fox, S.N. Pauper invasion of foreigners (see Contemporary review, 53: 855-67).

In France.

Spectator, 61: 1350.
See also under 1 and 4.

6 Social effects.

See under 1, 4, 5.

7 Relation of the state to emigration and immigration.

See specially Smith, Emigration and immigration.
Many other reports and articles in reports of bureaus of labor statistics, reports of the Conference of Charities and Corrections, etc.

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Lecture 8

THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF

1 Duty of the state toward industry.

Adams, H: C. Relation of the state to industrial action, (Amer. econ. ass’n. Publications, vol. 1, no. 6.)
Science economic discussion.
Sidgwick. Political economy, bk 3, ch. 3-4.
Jevons. State in relation to labor.
Farrer. State in relation to trade.

2 A protective in distinction from a revenue tariff.

Fawcett. Free trade and protection, ch. 2.
Pulsford, Edward. An Australian lesson (see 19th century, 24:393-409).

3 On what classes of goods may a protective duty be levied?

See under 5.

4 Who pays the protective tax?

Bowen. American political economy, ch. 20.
Sidgwick. Political economy, bk 3, ch. 5.
Stebbins. American protectionists’ manual, ch. 6.

5 Development of natural facilities and of industries.

List. National system of political economy, bk 2.
Carey. (McKean’s abridgment.)
Thompson. Political economy.
Stebbins. American protectionists’ manual,

6 “Infant industries” argument.

Taussig. Tariff history of the United States.
Sidgwick. Political economy, bk 3, ch. 5.

7 How high should a protective tariff be and for how long continued?

See under 5 and 6.

8 Protective tariff and wages.

Gladstone, W.E. Free trade (see North Am. rev. 150:1-27).
Blaine, J.G. Protection (see North Am. rev. 150:27-54).
Powers, F.P. Australian tariff experiment (see Quar. jour. econ. 3:87-98).
Thompson. Political economy, §224.
Stebbins. Protectionists’ manual, ch. 10.

9 Protective tariff and politics.

Taussig. Tariff history of the United States.

a. Is Congress able properly to adjust duties? See Poole’s Index for magazine articles.
b. Tariff in elections. See 9a.

10 General conclusion.

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Lecture 9

THE RACE PROBLEM

1 Nature of the problem.

Bryce, James. Thoughts on the negro problem (see North Amer. rev. 152: 641-60, D 91). Excellent on the whole subject.
Cable, G.W. Freedman’s case in equity (see Century, 7:409-18).
Grady, H.W. In plain black and white; a reply to Mr Cable (see Century, 7:909-17).

2 Statement of historic facts.

Clowes, W.L. Black America.
Craighead, J.B. Future of the negro in the south (see Pop. sci. mo. 26:39-46).
Gannett, Henry. Are we to become africanized? (see Pop. sci. mo. 27:145-65).
Keating, J.M. 20 years of negro education (see Pop. sci. mo. 28: 24-37).’
See also under 1

3 Present social conditions.

Clowes, W.L. Black America.
Census reports of 1870, 1880, 1890, vol. 1 on Population.
Price, J.C. Does the negro seek social equality? (see Forum 10:556-64).
See also under 2.

4 Present political conditions.

Census reports as above.
Mayo, A.D. Progress of the negro (see Forum 10:335-45).
Tourgée, A.W. Right to vote (see Forum 9: 78-92).
North American review, vol. 147, Oct. 1888.
See also under 1 and 3.

5 Remedies proposed.

a. Intermarriage.

Rawlinson, George. Duties of higher toward lower races. (see Princeton rev., Nov. 1878, p. 804-47).
Gardiner, C.A. Race problem in the U. S. (see Jour. soc. sci. 1883, no. 18, p. 266-75).

b. Congressional interference to raise social or political standard.

Tourgée, A.W. (As above under 4.)
Morgan, J.T. Federal control of elections, (see Forum 10:23-36).
North Am. rev., vol. 147, Oct. ‘88.

c. Colonization.

Clowes, W.L. Black America.
Gilliam, E.W. African in the U. S. (see Pop. sci. mo. 22:433-44, F ‘83).

d. Education.

As under 2.
Keating, J.M. (As above under 2.)
Dudley, T.U. How shall we help the negro? (see Century, 8:273-80.)
Shaler, N.S. Negro problem (see Atlantic mo., 54:696-709).

6 Measures to recommend.

See Poole’s Index for other articles.

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Lecture 10

PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL REFORM

1 Nature of society.

Spencer. Principles of sociology, pt 1, ch. 1-4, 27; pt 2, ch. 1-2.

2 What is a social evil?

Spencer. Sociology, pt 3, ch. 1-2.
Carpenter. Civilization, ch. 1, 4, 6,

3 Reform deals with individuals.

Morrison. Crime and its causes.
Rylands. Crime; its causes and remedy .
Winter. Elmira reformatory.

4 Heredity. How its influence may be modified.

Dugdale. The Jukes.
McCulloch. Tribe of Ishmael.
Ellis. The criminal.

5 Environment may be modified.

Spencer. Sociology, pt 1, ch. 2-4; pt 2, ch. 11; pt 5, ch. 5. Papers in penology published by Elmira reformatory.

a. For individuals.

Morrison. Crime and its causes.
Rylands. Crime, ch. 5.
Winter. Elmira reformatory.

b. By individuals for their own benefit.

See many short articles in the Summary, the paper published at the Elmira reformatory.
See also 5a.

6 Responsibility of individuals for social evils.

Ellis. The criminal.

7 Our duty regarding social evils.

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Part 2 Syllabus

Lecture 1

NATURE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

1 Why we study political economy.

a. To learn how to do wisely our share in governing.

The economist knows what is desirable for the people along industrial lines; the statesman sees how much of this it is possible to obtain and how to -lead the people toward this attainment.

“The science of economics has to-day the important task of working directly for practical life; and on the other hand not only the statesman, but also the merchant, the manufacturer and the farmer are in duty bound to take notice of economic science, and to form their own independent judgments on the economic problems of the day, because almost daily they are compelled to give their opinions, and votes, in political and social life, on these most important economic questions.” — Conrad.

b. To aid in business life.

A business man has to deal with economic facts, but may be successful without being a trained economist. A driver on an electric car must know some principles of electricity, but need not be a scientific electrician. An economist can not know too much about business, for he has to do with business principles which are drawn from business facts.

c. To help us in social and home life, and keep us from mistakes.

“Whoever can teach the masses of people how to get five cents’ worth a day more comfort or force out of the food which each one consumes, will add to their productive power what would equal a thousand million dollars a year.” — Quoted in Andrews. How much of our so-called charity is cruelty! A great fire is rarely a social blessing, though it does make work. If the best goods are the cheapest, the most expensive may not be. We fail to realize fully our interdependence upon one another.

d. To gain interesting knowledge and valuable mental discipline.

2 Nature of industrial society.

Industrial society — the world of business — is a great social organism, a structure of interdependent parts, each working for all, and all for each. Consider how many people have contributed their efforts to produce the things that satisfy your needs for one day; where they live; in what ways they have worked; what their motives have been; why you have benefited by their work. There can be no society without this harmonious cooperation; no complete man outside of society. The organism is very complex; its study must be difficult.

3 Definition of political economy.

It is the task of political economy to find out the principles that guide this industrial organism in its working.

“Political economy, or economics, is the science of wealth.” “Political economy has to do with nothing but wealth.” — Walker.

“Political economy may be properly defined as the science of industrial society. Its purpose as an analytic science is to explain the industrial actions of men. Its purpose as a constructive science is to discover a scientific and rational basis for the formation and government of industrial society.” — Adams.

“Political economy, or economics, is a study of man’s actions in the ordinary business of life; it inquires how he gets his income and how he uses it.” — Marshall.

It seems wise to keep prominently in mind man in society as the standpoint for our investigations because (1) This standpoint calls special attention to the forces at work in society; and (2) This standpoint shows us best the proper relations of economic theory and practice, man’s actions, practice, often forming a premise from which we reason to a principle, theory; as well as the theory furnishing a basis for practice.

4 Development of economic science.

In ancient times, industrial society was so organized that there could be no developed economic science in the modern sense.

In 11th and 12th centuries the development of cities, guilds and commerce started more thorough economic study.

In 16th and 17th centuries the mercantilists taught. (Colbert, Petty, et al.) Exaggerated ideas regarding the importance of money, foreign trade, etc. Relied too much on state interference.

In 18th century physiocrats (Quesnay, Gournay, Turgot, et al.) taught freedom of trade, single tax on land, etc.

1776 Adam Smith’s Wealth of nations published. His English followers and modifiers, especially Ricardo, Malthus, Senior, Mill, etc., the so-called orthodox or classical school.

The main premises for their reasoning are:

a. A few common traits of human nature, especially man’s desire for wealth and his dislike for labor.

b. Each man will follow his own interest, and the interest of all will thus be secured.

c. External nature, especially well known facts regarding grain production.

d. Free competition is generally assumed as the condition of business. Other motives and conditions are excluded in reasoning, and the method of reasoning is mainly deductive from the above premises.

The principles reached were sometimes called natural laws, and were considered to be universal in their application.

The historical school, starting in Germany a little before the middle of this century (Roscher, Knies, Hildebrand) takes for its premises all facts regarding man and nature, as far as is possible; declares that there are no natural laws in industrial society, universal in application; but hopes to find some few general principles that will be of wide application. The main work at present is to get facts, historical and statistical, as a basis for inductive reasoning to principles of wide application.

Most of the leading economists of to-day occupy a middle ground in doctrine and method. It is recognized that the desire for wealth is a chief motive, but others must be taken into account. Even nature gives us no fixed premise, for man getting command over nature brings about changes. We need also to study the legal structure of society, the artificial conditionings of society. “Land is a natural fact; private property in land a legal fact;” both are economic facts.

We must seek principles, but we may also study how to modify conditions. Society is not like an animal; it is an organism that is consciously modifying its own structure and conditions.

We need in our studies the individual stand-point, the national standpoint, the cosmopolitan standpoint.

5 Hindrances and aids to the study of economics.

Among hindrances may be mentioned the many premises and their complicated nature, the difficulty of employing, in a fixed scientific sense, terms which are in every day use with varied meanings, — wealth, value, price, etc.; the wide-spread conviction that, because economics deals with every day life, our every day experience is enough to enable us to solve the problems of economics, etc.

It is an advantage that every one is interested in the problems of economics, because they concern every one’s business and life; that from our consciousness of our own motives and our knowledge of our own business we are able to know without study some of our premises, etc.

Topics for papers

  1. How far may a man be a good banker, and still not understand the science of money.
  2. Mention three mistakes in methods of life or in economic belief that are common among the uneducated, but that a knowledge of economics would prevent.
  3. Compare in detail, as regards their relative excellence, the definitions of political economy given by Walker and Marshall.
  4. If an economist could demonstrate beyond question that paper money was the best currency for the United States, would congress be justified in any case in refusing to pass a law to make paper money our currency? Give full reasons.
  5. Defend the orthodox school of political economy, as regards their method of reasoning and investigation.
  6. Give examples of man’s action upon nature within the last 50 years that would change our results in reasoning upon any economic question.

    ______________________

Lecture 2

THE MONEY QUESTION

1 Origin and nature of money.

The earliest form of trading is barter, i.e., the exchange of one commodity directly for another commodity that one wishes to use. As economic society develops and exchanges increase in number, the difficulty for a buyer of finding a person who has the desired object that he wishes to sell, and for a seller of finding a purchaser who can give in exchange for one’s goods an exact equivalent of some desired object, leads practically to the adoption of some one article of general desirability as a medium by which exchanges may be readily effected. This commodity differs from others specially in this, that it is generally desired, so that any one is willing to take it, feeling sure that he can readily dispose of it when he wishes to make purchases.

To do its work well, it must, of course, be in some form that may be taken as a standard, and that can be used as a measure by which the values of other commodities are estimated.

As business becomes complex, and the credit system is established, this generally used commodity will naturally be the one in the terms of which contracts for deferred payments will be drawn.

To perform these functions to the best advantage, this commodity must have the properties of general acceptability, portability, durability, divisibility, stability of value, cognizability, homogeneity. Gold and silver have these properties to a greater degree than any other known commodity.

This instrument by which exchanges are effected, one of the most important instruments for saving labor, is called money.

2 Normal relation of government to money.

For convenience of its citizens the government may well impress its stamp on coins, thus practically certifying to their weight and fineness. So, to insure business convenience, it may well make some standard coin a legal tender for the payment of debts.

“A standard unit of value must always be a fixed quantity of a fixed quality of a specific commodity.” — Adams.

This government stamp certifies to value; it does not give value, as experience shows. Again, experience shows that a legal tender act, irrespective of quantity of issue, can not sustain value of light coin or of paper money.

3 Quantity of money needed.

Enough money must be on hand in a country to effect the cash payments due at any one time. This amount varies with the season, the method of doing business, and other circumstances. The value of the money unit varies inversely as the amount in the country, and consequently inversely as general prices.

4 Territorial distribution of money.

If money is good, that is in coin of full weight or in some form exchangeable on demand into such coin, it will be distributed between exchanging countries freely to meet the needs of business. A surplus of money in any country, by increasing prices, will check the foreign demand for goods while increasing the home demand for foreign goods, thus creating a demand for money abroad. Too small an amount in a country will produce the opposite effects, and thus in time secure the extra amount needed. Bad money always drives out good money. — Gresham’s law.

5 Single or double standard?

a. A single standard has the advantage of simplicity. The disadvantage of the single gold standard is that, in the opinion of many excellent authorities, gold is increasing less rapidly than the demand for it, so that its value is constantly rising, thus, by lowering prices, exerting a bad effect on business.

b. With a double standard, if the ratio of values can be maintained, the fluctuation of the standards in value will be much less. If many countries unite, the ratio could probably be maintained.

As yet, the ratio never has been maintained for a long period, and monometallists think it can not be maintained.

6 Free coinage of silver in the U. S. to-day.

With the continued large-purchase of silver, and use of silver in paying dues to the government, it seems but a question of time when the supply of gold in the U.S. treasury will be so small that it will have to make all its payments in silver. If this happens, the market value of the silver dollar would probably fall to the bullion value, and instead of a bimetallic currency we should have, or shall have, a single silver standard, in fact, whatever the law may be.

7 Inconvertible paper money.

a. If strictly limited in amount to business needs, it may not depreciate.

b. The interest of debtors and the exigencies of the treasury in time of need are powerful influences tending to overissue, and in practice, an overissue is found to be almost inevitable.

Topics for papers

  1. May any commodity become money without the sanction of law? Reasons for answer.
  2. Explain why our silver dollars pass in the United States as equal to gold.
  3. Why is not the argument in favor of a double standard even stronger in favor of a quintuple standard?
  4. Explain the territorial distribution of money of full bullion value.

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Lecture 3

THE RENT PROBLEM

1 Factors in production.

If we consider the process of production of any commodity, for example, a pair of shoes, we at once see that natural forces, labor and capital (tools) have contributed as factors to its production. Some economists think that the work of the business manager, the organizer of business, the entrepreneur, is so different in character from that of the ordinary work-man and that of the capitalist that the business manager as such is better considered as a fourth factor in the production of wealth.

2 Parties to the distribution of the product of industry.

If these factors unite to make a product, it seems but right that this product be divided among them in proportion to the service that each has rendered, as far as this proportion can be ascertained.

It is so difficult to discover this just proportion that the classes representing these factors are apt to disagree, and from this arise in good part the discords of society.

This distribution, too, it is to be noted, is a matter of human institution solely, and may vary in its principles in different ages and countries; hence the method and results of the distribution of the product of human industry in any society form a fair criterion of the character of that society.

One man may, of course, represent all the parties in distribution, but for the sake of clearness in discussion, the parties must be distinguished.

3 Origin of rent.

Rent arises from the varying degrees of productivity of different pieces of land cultivated for the supply of the same market. The price of the product of all being the same, the more productive pieces can be cultivated to greater advantage, and the cultivators can afford to pay rent to the owners.

4 Law of rent.

“The normal rent of any piece of land is fixed by the difference between its annual yield and that of the least productive land actually cultivated for the supply of the same market.” — Walker.

5 Relation of rent to price of product; to wages.

Economic rent forms no part of the price of the product, when there is free competition, and when there is still free land.

The payment of economic rent has no effect on wages under free competition.

6 Effect of social progress on rent.

The effect of increasing density of population, or of other progress that strengthens the demand for land is to increase rent. Note a similar effect on railroad stock, and other kinds of property whose value depends largely on a dense population.

7 Henry George and land nationalization.

As rent is due to the demand for land consequent on the increase of society, and not to the individual efforts of the owner, it seems that the economic rent is not earned by the land-owner, but comes to him through his right of ownership. Consequently, many have thought that, as society creates the demand for products that results in rent, society should get the rent either through state ownership of the land, or through taxation.

Most advocates of this doctrine think that present owners of land should be compensated for the capital they have invested in the land, or that the state should take by taxation only the increase of the rent. Henry George favors taxing to full amount without compensation, a course that seems entirely unjust.

George’s statement that there is a tendency for the benefit of all improvements in production to be absorbed by rent is not true.

State ownership would probably not secure so efficient use of the land as does private ownership.

It would increase the state machinery, perhaps, to an undesirable extent.

In cities, in many cases, the government might probably retain to advantage the ownership of the land, and rent for short fixed periods at an appraised valuation, thus securing a large revenue without injustice.

Topics for papers

  1. If wheat sells at $1 a bushel, and the various tracts of land contributing to the supply of the market produce respectively 18, 20, 22, and 24 bushels to the acre, what will be the economic rent per acre on each tract?
  2. Show that the principle of rent applies also to exceptional business ability, so that the profits or extra wages made by a man possessing this exceptional ability might fairly be called rent.
  3. Mention other kinds of property besides land whose value is increased by the mere growth of society, without effort on the part of the owner.
  4. Show clearly that economic rent forms no part of the price of agricultural products, while an increase in price will raise rent.
  5. How does the rent of mines differ from that of farm land?

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Lecture 4

MONOPOLIES

1 Natural monopolies.

a. Certain natural products, some of which are of common use in society, such as salt, nickel, gold, from the nature of their production are not capable of increased production at will. Their production is limited to a certain place, and the owner of this place has of necessity a monopoly of the product, and may fix the price within certain limits at will.

In such cases the people may readily be unduly oppressed. Free competition is impossible.

b. Other kinds of business, (especially those connected with transportation, railroads, telegraphs, etc.,) that require a large initial outlay of capital, but that, after the plant is established, for every additional outlay bring a return in product much more than proportional to the increased outlay, have also the nature of a monopoly. For when they are once established, no rival can enter their territory without a much greater outlay of capital than they need make to do the same business.

In such cases competition on equal terms is impossible. An attempted competition results in great waste of capital. To parallel a railroad costs vastly more than to double the capacity of one already built. Shall the saving be made, or competition attempted?

c. In cities, the supply of water, gas, electric lighting, transportation by street railways, etc., is subject to the same conditions as those enterprises mentioned under b, for the number of street railways, gas mains, etc., in any one street is strictly limited by physical and economic conditions.

The case is the same as under b, but the government can more readily take control and manage for the good of the public than in the other larger enterprises.

2 Capitalistic monopolies.

A great aggregation of capital in business frequently gives the same advantage, in good part, as that held by the so-called natural monopolies; for the extent of business through more complete organization enables the large establishment to produce at much less expense than the small one.

a. The trust, a union of many corporations under one management, so that a pooling of profits makes their interests one, has proved one of the most successful forms of such capitalistic monopolies.

b. But the same result is accomplished by extending a corporation so that its business is equally great.

There may be competition in these cases, but only on a great scale. The consequence is that competition is very destructive, and in practice will not continue.

The combination has the advantages (1) Of the most skilled management, (2) Of great saving in the cost of management, (3) frequently of saving in the cost of transportation, (4) in purchase, making and use of inventions, etc.

Its disadvantages are that it has the power to raise prices above that normally fixed by free competition, e. g., the sugar trust and whiskey trust have done so at times. Still, this power is always strictly within limits fixed, (1) by the lessening demand for goods as the price increases, and (2) by the danger of attracting new capital into the business, if the profits become too great. Claus Spreckles and sugar trust, etc.

3 Legislative action regarding monopolies.

a. Experience seems to show that municipalities can wisely manage water and gas works at a saving generally to the citizens.

b. Legislation that forbids combinations, pooling, etc., providing a legal penalty for such acts, either deprives the community of the really great savings made by such combinations, or more commonly in important industries leads to the more complete consolidation into huge corporations. Neither result, perhaps, is desirable.

c. But the state should protect the citizens against extortion on the part of such combinations, (1) by providing for the fullest publicity regarding their business, (2) by forbidding undue increase of prices. How the latter provision is best enforced, whether by private suit, by commission, or otherwise, must be determined by experience. In some cases it is probable that state ownership of the enterprise is the readiest and best means of protecting the rights of the people.

The legal monopoly held by owners of patents frequently becomes oppressive. A careful revision of the law so as to prevent this, while still encouraging inventors, is desirable.

Topics for papers

  1. Why will great establishments compete in lowering prices till all are losing money?
  2. What good arguments for state ownership of the telegraph are not sound for state ownership of the railroads?
  3. Is complete publicity of the methods of business and of the status of a great monopolistic enterprise a real check to abuse of power?
  4. In what respects is the telephone monopoly, based on our patent laws, less injurious or dangerous than the telegraph monopoly, based on the nature of the business?
  5. Under what conditions only should the franchise be granted to street railways?
  6. What arguments can you give against city ownership and management of street railways, gas works, etc.?

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Lecture 5

THE WAGES QUESTION

1 Factors determining the rate of wages.

a. Wages are determined in the main by the productivity of the labor. The efficiency of laborers is affected by their food, physique, intelligence, training, hopefulness, faithfulness, etc. Brassey found in building railways that English navvies at 6s. per day were often cheaper than French navvies at 3s. A New England factory superintendent has found that a rest of ten minutes and a glass of milk in the middle of the forenoon, given to his factory girls, more than pay for themselves in increased product.

b. Machinery, if intelligently used, and skillful organization increase the product, thus affording the opportunity for increase of wages, if prices of product can be prevented from falling proportionally.

c. Laborers must know and seek their own interests in order to secure the gains that come from the increase in their efficiency with improved methods of production.

2 Highest and lowest limits of wages.

a. Highest limit of wages, all that the employer can pay and remain in business. If wages are about uniform in any line of business, the best manager could pay more than he will need to pay. Other things equal, under competitive system, the workman is best off who works for the employer that makes the largest profits.

b. Lowest limit of wages, the least sum that will keep the laborer in working condition. In exceptional cases, it might pay the employer, economically, to work horses or slaves to death, or to pay starvation wages. Generally it is an economic mistake to pay less than good living wages. Lassalle’s “iron law of wages” rarely true in real life.

3 Interest of society in the rate of wages.

Whatever may be true of individual employers, society is interested in keeping up and improving the “standard of life.” To secure this end, employers and laborers must meet on equal terms in arranging wages, rules regarding work, etc.; and society may be justified in taking measures to secure this result.

4 Influence of trades unions on wages.

Trades unions are a product of modern methods of production that put large numbers of workingmen of the same trade under one employer. They are suited to the conditions, a development.

a. They may at times raise wages by their direct influence on employers, by threats of strikes, etc. Their power is limited by the productivity of the industry, but (1) they may, by increased energy and saving, increase their own productivity and get then an increase in wages; (2) in exceptional cases, they may force up wages at expense of employer; (3) in exceptional cases, their efforts may keep up prices or raise prices, and thus permit them to increase wages.

b. They may improve the conditions of their members, their real wages, by traveling funds, insurance funds, bureaus of information, etc.

5 Labor legislation.

Legislation is a dangerous method of reform, but is sometimes necessary. The legislative measures that have seemed to aid laborers most are:

a. Factory acts, providing for government inspection;

b. Regulation of labor of women and children;

c. Employers’ liability acts;

d. Laws providing for payment of wages regularly, and in cash;

e. Courts of arbitration, etc.;

f. In Europe, especially in Germany, compulsory insurance of workingmen against accident, sickness, disability from old age and other causes partly at the expense of the workingman, partly of the employer and partly of the state. The German government seems satisfied with the results so far; the opinions of economists regarding the success of the experiment differ.

The aim of legislation is not to give workingmen an advantage over their employers, but to remedy social abuses and to put the competing classes on an equal footing.

Topics for papers

  1. In hard times, why do employers more frequently discharge the poorest paid workmen first?
  2. Are the American workingmen more productive than European workingmen because their wages are higher? Or are their wages higher because they are more productive? Or is there no relation between their relative wages and productivity?
  3. Under what circumstances ought trades unions to limit the amount of work that they will permit their members to do?
  4. May we look forward to any great increase in the wages of skilled laborers? If so, from what source will this increase in wages be drawn?
  5. Mention any law passed in the interest of workingmen, or advocated by them that is, or would be, injurious to them.
  6. Why ought not the state to supply labor for the unemployed?

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Lecture 6

COOPERATION AND PROFIT-SHARING

1 Significance of cooperation.

Cooperation means the union of the industrial classes. By this union the employer, the entrepreneur, is done away with, and the profits that he ordinarily reaps are divided among the laborers. The laborers may get interest, but if so they must own the capital. They may save rent, but if so they must own the land. In order to gain by cooperation, the business must be better managed than it is by the poorest class of employers; otherwise there will be no profits to save.

Since on account of their personal interests in the business cooperating laborers are likely to work better than for an employer, a cooperative industry, fairly well managed, is likely to be profitable.

2 Distributive cooperation.

The first, and on the whole, the most successful example of distributive cooperation is that of the Rochdale pioneers in England. In 1844, 28 weavers agreed to put one pound sterling each into a common fund to supply themselves with provisions. One of their number was to attend the store for two evening’s each week. The first investment made so great a profit that other members came into the business, and it rapidly grew until it is now one of the largest establishments in England with hundreds of stores and millions of pounds of capital The average rate of profit has been over 25% clear.

Similar enterprises have been started in the United States, notably by the farmers of the West in their cooperative stores, and in many similar establishments in New England. The most successful stores have followed the Rochdale plan: (a) they give no credit; (b) they always sell genuine goods; (c) as they are sure of customers they do little advertising; (d) they declare and fix a dividend of four or five per cent on their stock and divide the surplus among the purchasers in proportion to the amounts purchased. Members usually get a larger proportion on their purchases than non-members.

The chief dangers surrounding such enterprises come from competition with outsiders, ignorance and short-sightedness on the part of the managers, too low an estimate of the difficulties to be encountered, and voting by stock instead of by membership.

3 Productive cooperation.

The most successful enterprises in the United States have been in cooperage in Minneapolis; in stone cutting in Vermont; in iron manufacture in New York; in shoe making in Massachusetts. The work is usually done by the piece; the usual wages are paid; and the profits are divided in proportion to the work, after a low dividend has been declared.

Cooperation is especially suited to industries requiring comparatively little skill, in which piece work is common, and for which relatively little capital is required, and little supervision.

One of the chief advantages is that it trains men to understand business, to appreciate its difficulties and to be independent. It has a promising future.

A building and loan association is a cooperative enterprise in which men of small means, by each paying in a small amount, monthly or weekly, and loaning the sum thus accumulated to the one of their members most desiring it, supply themselves with capital for the building of houses, payment of debts, etc. These associations take the place in many cases of savings banks, and have acquired great importance in this country.

4 Profit-sharing.

a. Profit-sharing differs from cooperation in that the employer still remains to direct the business enterprise. It resembles cooperation in that a part of the profits is divided among the workingmen.

b. The plan was first developed by M. Leclaire in Paris. In 1842 Leclaire, a painter, agreed to give his regular workmen a share of his profits. He showed them how unusual excellence of work and diligence and saving would provide a fund from which he might, while obtaining greater profits for himself, increase their wages. They were skeptical at first, but the first division of profits satisfied them. He paid the highest wages in the city and was able eventually to add over 20% to their wages.

In the Pillsbury Flouring Mills in Minneapolis, in a number of years, 33 1/3% has been added from the profits to the regular wages of a large portion of the men, although their wages had been the highest in the city. Mr Pillsbury says it pays the firm also.

The N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Company of St Louis have for several years divided part of their profits among all men who have worked for them for more than six months. Mr Nelson says, “I look upon this plan as business and duty, and not as any philanthropy or kindness.” Both employers and laborers are benefitted.

Proctor and Gamble, the soap manufacturers; Rogers, Peet & Co., manufacturers of clothing in New York; Rand, McNally & Co. of Chicago; John Wanamaker, and many other wealthy employers of labor have followed similar plans, to the satisfaction of themselves and their workmen.

Some railroads in France, and the Toledo and Ann Arbor railroad in the United States, have adopted similar plans with gratifying success.

c. Methods of division of profits.

Some employers give an indeterminate sum to the employees; some divide all the profits above a certain per cent, among the employees; some divide the surplus profits, after interest on the capital has been paid, between capital and wages in proportion to their relative amount; some in proportion to the relative amounts of sales of goods and wages, etc. All agree that the system is as profitable to the employers as to the employees.

5 Adaptability of cooperation and profit-sharing for special industries.

While cooperation is best adapted to industries requiring small capital in proportion to the labor, to those needing little supervision and employing unskilled labor, profit-sharing is best adapted to those that require large capital and careful supervision, and in which much waste may be avoided by care on the part of the laborers. The effect of both is to educate the laborers, to make their interests one with those of their employers and thus to bring about harmony between the industrial classes.

Topics for papers

  1. Is farming an industry well-adapted for cooperation or profit-sharing? Reasons for answer.
  2. Non-borrowing members of building and loan associations often make from 12 to 20 per cent, profit on their investment. What is the source of this large profit?
  3. Why are railroads not well-adapted to profit-sharing?
  4. If the plan can be well applied to railroads, what special benefits to society would come therefrom?
  5. What are the chief causes of failures (a) of cooperative enterprises (b) of profit-sharing enterprises?

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Lecture 7

EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

1 The good of society the standpoint of discussion.

We must consider the effects of immigration not merely on the wealth of our country, but on our politics, our social life, our morals, our religion, etc. The question is, perhaps, to be considered as mainly social and political, and only to a less degree economic.

2 History of emigration and immigration.

Early migrations were for purposes of conquest or colonization. Emigration in these later days is for the benefit of the individuals, though it is frequently thought that emigration will relieve the pressure of population on the means of subsistence in the older densely populated countries. Statistics show that only from Ireland is emigration large enough to absolutely decrease population. Those countries with large emigration have also high birth rates. “Had there been no emigration in this century, the population of Europe would probably have been even less than now.” Emigration is not a remedy for over-population, unless the emigrants are the weak and thriftless.

From 1783 to 1820 there were perhaps 250,000 immigrants into the United States. In 1842 there came some hundred thousand; in 1854, 427,833; in 1882, 730,000. The immigration of 1882 probably represents a normal birth increase of a population of 50,000,000 of people. We have therefore now an annual immigration nearly equal to a normal increase by births of a population of some 45,000,000.

3 Causes of immigration and forces of assimilation.

The chief causes of immigration are: (a) commercial disaster; (b) cheap transportation; (c) solicitation of steamboat companies; (d) prepaid tickets from friends; (e) hope of improving one’s political and social conditions.

The chief forces of assimilation are: (a) economic prosperity, with the consequent love of the country that has helped them; (b) free institutions; the vote, schools, etc.; (c) the English language; (d) intermarriage.

4 Political effects of immigration.

The immigrants of one nationality largely vote as a unit, instead of from individual convictions. At times they permit foreign politics to influence their votes here; their foreign customs and training leads them at times to vote against our peculiarly American institutions. The vote force of our immigrants is much greater than that of the same number of Americans. Among immigrants the proportion of males is large, and they average older than native-born citizens. Their voting force compared with that of the same number of native-born Americans is about as 46 to 25.

5 Economic effects.

(a) They bring small amounts of property; (b) the cost of raising and educating them is saved to the country; but (c) the economic value of a man lies mainly in his capacity and character, not in the cost of bringing him up. It is the amount of wealth which he will add to the community before he dies.

Three-fourths of the immigrants are unskilled laborers, and the proportion of unskilled laborers is much greater of late years. In earlier days, when we needed much unskilled labor, our immigrants were doubtless an economic advantage; at present the advantage is much less. If their standard of life is very low, their competition on the labor market is dangerous to our standard of life.

3 Social effects.

The immigrants in many cases come from the lower classes, and have, therefore, a tendency to lower our standard of thrift, morality, health and intelligence. The more favorable conditions here may remove this danger, as it often has done. It cannot be shown statistically that the foreign-born furnish a larger proportion of the insane, blind, deaf, and so on, than do natives. The immigrants furnish a large proportion of our criminals, a still greater proportion of our paupers, and our illiteracy is doubtless greatly increased by immigration.

4 Relation of the state to emigration and immigration.

Early in this century, emigration of the poor and criminal classes was assisted at times by foreign states, at times by private societies, at times by steamship companies for the sake of the fare. Since the American nations have protested against these acts, they have been largely stopped. Europe should protect her citizens from emigration brought about by false representations.

Immigration of contract labor, and of the defective, dependent and criminal classes is forbidden by our laws. The best methods of controlling immigration are doubtless: (a) rigid enforcement of our present laws; (b) an extension of those laws in such a way as to ascertain more thoroughly the character of the immigrants before permitting them to enter our country; and (c) by working in unison with the European nations.

A state ought to restrict an immigration that is degrading. It owes it to itself and to the world not to lower its plane of civilization. “One nation on a high plane of civilization is better than half the world in a state of semi-civilization.”

Topics for papers

  1. Mention laws, either national or local, passed by the votes of the foreign-born, contrary to the will of the native-born.
  2. Make an estimate of the net cash value to the country of an average, diligent, sober laborer, whose working period covers 40 years, who is supported by his parents 15 years, and by his children five years.
  3. If a Chinaman works in this country for 10 years at one-third less wages than the American workmen, and then takes his savings with him to China, has the country lost by him?
  4. Is restriction of immigration un-American? Give reasons for your answer.
  5. Can you give any reason against making the English language the medium of study and communication in all our schools, even though some schools be in German districts, where nearly all the children are German?

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Lecture 8

THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF

1 Duty of the state toward industry.

The interests of individuals do not always coincide with the interests of the people. It is the duty of the state to further the general welfare, even though it be at times at the expense of individuals. There is, however, always danger in state interference. Society is so complicated that the ultimate effects of laws are with difficulty traced. The primary duty of a State is, so far as may be, to keep opportunities equal for all.

2 A protective tariff vs. a revenue tariff.

The main purpose of the revenue tariff is to provide means for the support of government, and it should be so levied as to interfere as little as possible with the natural course of industry in a country. A protective tariff, on the other hand, finds its chief purpose in aiding the development of certain industries.

Does it thereby check the development of others? Any revenue that comes from a protective tariff is to be considered as incidental. It is no argument in favor of a protective tariff that it furnishes a large revenue.

3 On what classes of goods should a protective tariff be levied?

A protective tariff should not be levied, (a) On goods that without it can be produced here more advantageously than abroad. Such laws have a bad effect in that they deceive the people, are used for “log-rolling” in congress, and often lead to the making of new laws through wrong motives, (b) On goods for the production of which the country is ill adapted, unless they be needed for defense or for their educational value.

It can be justified, then, only for those industries to which our country is well adapted, but in which, for the present at least, foreign nations have the advantage.

4 Who bears the burden of the duty?

Trade is usually for the advantage of both parties to the bargain. As a rule, however, the advantage is not equal to both. The one that is put at the greatest disadvantage in making the bargain, profits least. When foreign nations must send goods through our country or into our country to get rid of a surplus, the probability is that the price is such that the foreign manufacturer pays a good part or all of the tariff duty; when we are at a like disadvantage, we pay it all. Generally speaking, the consumer of the imported goods pays in increased prices, not all, but a good part of the tariff, and he pays often an equal amount on the home manufactures protected.

5 Development of natural resources.

It is well to have the natural facilities of any country developed and to have a great variety of industries in every country. This development and variety may be reached at too great a cost, and the cost is always to be taken into consideration in proposing laws to aid in the development of new industries.

6 Infant industries.

The inhabitants of a city frequently pay a large bonus for the establishment of a new industry in their midst; similarly, a country might profitably at times pay, by means of a tariff, for the introduction of new industries, until they became strong enough to stand alone. But these industries will come in time at any rate, if the country is well adapted for them; and care must be taken that they are not procured at too great a cost. By the policy of protection, capital is drawn for a time from productive industry into a business that is less productive than the average in the country, unless the new industry be established by foreign capital. If the industry when established becomes more profitable than the average, the policy may pay.

7 How high should a protective tariff be and how long continued?

A protective tariff should be high enough to protect, but not higher; otherwise bad investments will be made that will prevent the lowering of the tariff at the proper time.

A protective tariff should continue till an industry is fully established, if it is one well adapted to the country, but no longer. If experience shows that the protected industry can not thrive, it is evident that the tariff was unwisely laid, and it should be withdrawn on due notice.

8 Protective tariff and wages.

A protective tariff may and frequently does raise the wages in certain protected industries, but this is in part, temporarily at least, at the expense of other industries in the country. A protective tariff, however, cannot raise the general level of wages in the country, so long as the tariff itself is necessary.

9 Protective tariff in politics.

From the political side, a protective tariff is dangerous. A proper adjustment of duties is a task of the greatest difficulty and one for which congress from its nature is ill adapted.

Interested parties may and do bring strong pressure to bear to obtain duties unduly high and to keep them longer than is wise. To secure these ends, large corruption funds will naturally be raised for use in elections.

10 Conclusion.

Unless well laid and managed, a task of very great difficulty, a protective tariff may well do more harm than good. One should not be levied, until a strong affirmative case is made for every product protected.

Topics for papers

  1. Does not every argument in: favor of a protective tariff by the United States against England apply as well to a tariff by Minnesota and Illinois against New York and Pennsylvania?
  2. If an industry, protected by a fair tariff for 60 years, is not yet well enough established to meet foreign competition without the tariff, what course ought to be pursued regarding it?
  3. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage to the workingmen of the United States that foreign workingmen have lower wages?
  4. If our tariff were abolished to-morrow in toto and all our revenues were raised by direct taxation, should we probably have, after 20 years, more or fewer different industries than we have now?
  5. (a) Are American workingmen really more productive than foreign workingmen, or are their higher wages due to the tariff? (b) How can an immigrant become much more productive immediately on his arrival here than he was in Germany or Ireland a month earlier?

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Lecture 9

THE RACE PROBLEM

1 Nature of the problem.

Foreigners, in general, consider the race problem the most difficult one before the American people. In its nature it is economic, social and political. It concerns the welfare, not only of the negro, but of the white as well, and it is a question that is becoming of greater import every day.

2 Statement of historic facts.

History and science seem to show that the negro is an inferior race, and one as yet incapable of an advanced, civilized self-government. Throughout all history, the race has been an enslaved one. The experience of the West Indies shows that, as left to themselves, the negroes are rapidly relapsing from a state of higher civilization into a state of barbarism. In the reconstruction period in the United States, the negro governments of the South invariably ran the states heavily into debt, even to bankruptcy, passed laws of shameful oppressiveness against the whites, fostered corruption, dishonesty and tyranny.

3 Present social conditions.

While the negroes in the South have made some advancement in the accumulation of property in the last 25 years, still the advance in most places is so slight that it shows them now, as a race, to be exceedingly careless and improvident. Relatively very few of them in the South ever accumulate enough to become regular tax-payers. In whole states, where they are as numerous as the whites, not one will be found with any shares in bank, railroad or other business stock. In Chatham Co., Georgia, in which Savannah is situated, the negroes constitute 61 per cent of the population and hold 2 per cent of the property. There is in the South not more than one negro lawyer or physician to 50 white men of the same profession and not one within 25 years has risen above mediocrity in any line. Douglass and Bruce are not pure-blooded negroes.

The morals of the negroes in the South are unspeakably bad. “They are full of base, downright hypocrisy and falsehood.” — Rev. Isaac Williams (colored). In many places, legal marriage and marital faith are almost unknown. In Mississippi, in one county where the negroes should have taken out 1,200 marriage licenses, only three were taken out.

The negro has made since the war decided gains in education. In 1880, in the black belt, more than 50 per cent of the negroes were illiterate; in 1890, probably about 30 per cent. The education is, however, very meagre; but there are more than 16,000 colored school teachers, a noteworthy fact. Most of the negroes are wofully superstitious.

Socially the negroes have no standing among the whites. Education or partly white blood seems to make no difference in this respect; and their social condition in the North does not differ materially from that in the South.

4 Present political conditions.

“The negro is not permitted to vote if the vote disturbs the judgment of the white majority; and if it changes the verdict of their former masters, it is not counted.” — W.T. Sherman. The fact illustrates the importance of the question, for the experience of reconstruction days seems to justify the whites in keeping the supremacy, even by revolutionary measures, if necessary. “Senator Hampton stated that to get the negro out of politics, he would gladly give up the representation based on his vote.” If this could be done legally by an educational qualification for the suffrage, it would seem to be desirable.

5 Remedies proposed.

  1. While intermarriage has been advocated by many, experience seems to show that race feeling is so strong as to render this solution of the problem impracticable. The mulattoes are rapidly decreasing in number, since the abolition of slavery.
  2. Congressional interference has so far proved ineffectual, when not injurious. Such interference by election laws or social rights laws beyond the present ones would probably be unwise, if not oppressive, unless they were to bring about such a solution as that suggested by Senator Hampton.
  3. Colonization by force is probably entirely impracticable, and would be unjust. A voluntary emigration to some of the best parts of Africa now controlled by civilized governments, though mainly populated by blacks, might perhaps be encouraged with good effect. The more intelligent of the race, with little hope of preferment here, might well expect to become men of influence and even of distinction there, while most of them would have grounds of hope for improving their condition.
  4. For the present, education is certainly to be fostered, as a means of elevating the race and making it less dangerous. So far the negro, with individual exceptions, gives little promise of great advancement, but the only hope is along the line of education, academic and specially industrial.

6 Measures to recommend.

Give the best education possible to elevate the negro in all ways, and study carefully the question of voluntary emigration. If the condition of the negro can be made better in some of the most fertile parts of Africa than it can become here, it would probably be the best solution of the problem to encourage him to emigrate. If he remains, it is perhaps probable that he will disappear eventually before the stronger race, as does the Indian.

Topics for papers

  1. In what respects, from the legal and moral standpoint, did the action of the whites in the South, in depriving the negro of his suffrage, at the close of the reconstruction period, differ from that of the American colonies in their resistance to Great Britain in 1776?
  2. Would it probably be best for either the southern states or the country as a whole to have the negro vote cast and counted in southern states where the negro voters are in a majority
  3. Why do not southern Democrats advocate and carry through an educational qualification for the suffrage.
  4. Define manhood

______________________

Lecture 10

PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL REFORM

1 Nature of society.

Society is not merely an aggregation of men, women and children living in the same locality, but it is this aggregation so organized under laws and institutions that it becomes an independent being. These laws and institutions, the whole form of the organization in fact, are the product of the changing thoughts, feelings, superstitions, beliefs that have come from the influences external and internal that have been brought to bear upon individuals.

2 Social good and evil.

Anything that molds the beliefs of individuals so as to lead them toward a stronger, higher civilization is a social good. Anything that molds beliefs in such a way that civilization is weakened or made worse is a social evil. Things that in one society are an evil, in another society may be a good, and vice versa. Innocent customs when they become social evils are frequently not recognized as such; and the first clear-headed people who recognize them as evil are considered fanatics.

3 The reformer deals with individuals.

If society is based upon the beliefs, feelings, superstitions of individuals, social reforms must deal with the passions, fears, hopes, aspirations and beliefs of individuals. The reformer must make individuals see evils for themselves and for society, and thus lead them to change their customs.

4 How the influence of heredity may be modified.

The influence of heredity in endowing men with evil passions, thoughts and motives, is everywhere recognized. This influence of heredity may be modified: first, by bringing good influences to bear upon the victim, especially in early youth; and second, by preventing people that are ruled by evil passions from propagating their kind. Hereditary criminals and paupers are not normal human beings. They must be treated as if ill or insane, and cured. A few days’ imprisonment of the confirmed drunkard or criminal is a waste of public time and money. “It is unsocial to plead insanity as a defense. It is an explanation. If we permit the plea we encourage crime.” The insane must be influenced toward self control.

5 Influence of environment.

Criminals and paupers are not only born, but they are frequently made through the influence of their environment. Not all criminals are born evil. Society is in good part responsible for a criminal environment. “Every society has the criminals that it deserves.” An environment may be changed: (a) At times, by laws, but the effect of law is only temporary and only a means, (b) By establishing societies and leading individuals to bring purer social influences to bear upon adults and to rescue children from debasing homes and influences, (c) In the case of criminals, by the best reformatory methods.

The best method of reform for adults is to lead them to change their own environment; sometimes by pledges and promises. Children should be trained in school and in the home to self control. Civilization means freedom from the power of custom and external influences and the direction of life by reason. An educated man does as he wills, and he wills according to the dictates of reason; an untrained man acts under the influence of passion and impulse.

6 Responsibility of citizens and their duty regarding social evils.

From the very nature of society it follows that every individual in society is responsible more or less for social evils; that social reforms must come from the influence of individuals upon individuals; that, consequently, it is the duty of every citizen by influence and example and self control to train himself and others toward the highest civilization. Society is certain ultimately to improve, though the process of improvement may be very slow.

Topics for papers

  1. Which has the greater influence over us in our daily lives, law or custom?
  2. Mention some customs which are social evils with us to-day that in other times or countries have been social benefits.
  3. Why ought not the state to execute all criminals and paupers that are recognized as incorrigible, and certain to be a burden and menace to the state throughout their lives?
  4. Have you any reason for thinking that you would not be a burglar or tramp or criminal of some other kind, had you been reared as most of those classes have been?
  5. In what way are you personally responsible for the acts of the drunkards in your city?

 

Source: Jeremiah Whipple Jenks. Practical Economic Questions. University of the State of New York, University Extensions Department (Albany, N.Y.), Syllabus 1, January 1892.

Image Source:  Jeremiah Whipple Jenks. Cornell University, Rare Book and Manuscript Collections.

Categories
Exam Questions M.I.T. Principles Suggested Reading Undergraduate

M.I.T. Principles of Macroeconomics. 1995-2006

 

An earlier post provided links to assorted course materials for Principles of Microeconomics (14.01) taught at M.I.T. from 1994 to 2005.

Perhaps my productivity as an internet archive scavenger has simply improved with practice, but I suspect that the instructors and their teaching assistants for Principles of Macroeconomics (14.02) from 1995 through 2006 at M.I.T. were simply better organized in keeping copies of their syllabi, problem sets, exams etc. available for later cohorts. Anyhow, today I provide the results of several days of trolling (in a good way) the Wayback Machine internet archive for a decade long window spanning the most recent turn of a century.

Below you will find syllabi, class schedules, problem sets and solutions, exams and solutions plus links to lecture slides and supplementary readings where found. 

Fall 1995
Professor Olivier Blanchard

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1  (Solutions)

Problem Set 2  (Solutions)

Problem Set 3  (Solutions)

Problem Set 4  (Solutions)

Problem Set 5  (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions )

Problem Set 7 (Solutions )

Problem Set 8  (Solutions )

Problem Set 9 (Solutions)

Exams

Exam 1   (Solutions)

Exam 2 (Solutions)

Final Exam (Solutions not found)

Spring 1996
Professor Ricardo Cabellero

Exams

Exam 1 (Solutions)

Exam 2 (Solutions)

Final Exam (Solutions) [neither questions nor solutions found]

Fall 1996

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Problem Set 8 (Solutions)

Problem Set 9 (Solutions)

Exams

Exam 1 (Solutions)

Exam 2 (Solutions)

Final Exam (Solutions) [neither questions nor solutions found]

Spring 1997
Professor Ricardo Caballero

Home page

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Problem Set 8 (Solutions)

Problem Set 9 (Solutions)

Exams

Exam 1 (Solutions)

Exam 2 (Solutions)

Final Exam (Solutions) [neither questions nor solutions found]

Fall 1997
Professor Paul Krugman

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions) [questions not found]

Problem Set 2 (Solutions) [questions not found]

Problem Set 3 (Solutions) [questions not found]

Problem Set 4 (Solutions) [questions not found]

Problem Set 5 (Solutions) [questions not found]

Problem Set 6 (Solutions) [questions not found]

Problem Set 7 (Solutions) [questions not found]

Problem Set 8 (Solutions) [questions not found]

Problem Set 9 (Solutions) [neither questions nor solutions found]

Exams

Exam 1 (Solutions)

Exam 2 (Solutions)

Final Exam (Solutions)

Spring 1998
Professor Ricardo Caballero

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Problem Set 8 (Solutions)

Problem Set 9 (Solutions)

Exams

Exam 1 with Solutions

Exam 2, Parts I and II with Solutions

Exam 2, Part III (Solutions)

Final Exam with Solutions

Fall 1998
Professor Paul Krugman

For this term we have a cornucopia of material that includes lecture slides and handouts along with syllabus, reading assignments, problem sets and examination questions with solutions. This material has been put together for an earlier post.

 

Spring 1999
Roger Brinner

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics

Syllabus and schedule

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4  (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Exams

Exam 1 (Solutions)

Exam 2 (Solutions)

Final Exam [neither questions nor solutions found]

Fall 1999
Professor Ricardo Caballero

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics

Course home page

Syllabus

Schedule

Lecture Slides

September 8 — Chapter 1: Tour of the World

September 13 — Chapter 2: Economic Data

September 15 — Chapter 2 and 3: Economic Data and the Goods Market

September 20 — Chapter 3 and 4: The Goods Market and Dynamics

September 22 — Chapter 5: The Financial Market

September 27 — Chapter 5: The Financial Market and the Role of Banks

September 29 — Chapter 6: The Role of Banks and the IS-LM Model

October 4 — Chapter 6: The IS-LM Model

October 6 — Chapter 6 : Review of the IS-LM Model

October 13 — Chapter 11: Openness in Goods and Financial Markets

October 18 — Chapters 11 and 12: Openness in Goods and Financial Markets

October 20 — Chapter 12: Openness in the Goods Market

October 25 — Chapters 12 and 13: Open Economy IS-LM

October 27 — Chapter 13: Open Economy IS-LM

November 1 — Chapters 13, 14.4 and 14.5: Fixed Exchange Rates and Crises

November 3 — Review: a collection of old transparencies, not posted

November 8 — Chapter 15: The Labor Market

November 10 — Chapters 15 and 16: Aggregate Supply and Demand

November 15 — Chapter 16: Aggregate Supply and Demand

November 17 — Chapter 16: Shifting the AS-AD

November 22 — Chapter 17: The Phillips Curve

November 24 — Chapters 18 and 19: Disinflation and Real Interest Rates

November 29 — Chapter 19: Inflation, Real Interest Rates and Exchange Rates

December 1 — Chapters 19, 22 and 23: AS-AD with Fixed Exchange Rates; Growth

December 6 — Chapters 22 and 23: Growth; Review I

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Problem Set 8 (Solutions)

Problem Set 9 (Solutions)

Exams

Exam 1 (Solutions)

Exam 2 with solutions

Final Exam  (Solutions)

Spring 2000
Professor Roger Brinner

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics(2nded).

Syllabus

Schedule

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Problem Set 8 (Solutions)

Exams

Exam 1 (Solutions)

Exam 2 (Solutions)

Final Exam (Solutions not found)

Fall 2000
Professor Ricardo Caballero

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics

Course home page

Syllabus

Schedule

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Problem Set 8 (Solutions) (Graphs)

Problem Set 9 (Solutions)

Exams

Exam 1 (Solutions)

Exam 2 (Solutions)

Exam 2, conflict (Solutions)

Exam 3 (Solutions)

Exam 3, conflict (Solutions)

Spring 2001
Professor Roger Brinner

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics(2nd edition)

Course home page

Syllabus

Schedule

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions not found)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions not found)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions not found)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Solutions)

Quiz #1 Conflict (Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions, htm; Solutions, pdf)

Final Exam:  Book One (.doc); Book Two (.doc)

Fall 2001
Professor Ricardo Caballero

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics (2nded)

Syllabus

Schedule

Lecture slides

September 5 — Chapter 1: Tour of the World

September 10 — Chapter 2: Tour of the Book

September 12 — Chapter 3: The Goods Market

September 19 — Chapter 3: The Goods Market (continued)

September 24 — Chapter 4: Financial Markets

September 26 — Chapter 4: Financial Markets (continued)

October 1 — Chapter 5: The IS-LM Model

October 3 — Review Session

October 10 — Chapter 18: The Open Economy

October 15 — Chapter 19: The Goods Market in an Open Economy

October 17 — Chapter 20: Output, the Interest Rate and the Exchange Rate

October 22 — Chapter 20: Output, the Interest Rate and the Exchange Rate (continued)

October 24 — Chapter 21.2: Exchange Rate Crises

October 29 — Chapter 6.3-6.4: Building the Aggregate Supply: The Labor Market

October 31 — Chapter 6.5-7.1: Building the Aggregate Supply (continued)

November 5 — Chapter 7.1-7.3: Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply

November 7 — Review Session

November 14 — Chapter 7.4-7.7: AD-AS, Canonical Policy Shocks

November 19 — Chapter 8: The Phillips Curve

November 21 — Chapter 9: The Phillips Curve and the Natural Rate

November 26 — Chapter 14.1, 14.3-14.4: Nominal and Real Interest Rates
Chapter 21.1: Open Economy AS-AD

November 28 — Chapter 13.1-13.2: Productivity Growth in AD-AS.  Chapter 10: Growth – The Facts

December 3 — Chapter 11.1-11.2: Growth – Saving, Capital Accumulation and Output

December 5 — Review

Problem Sets (best seven of nine for 25% of grade)

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions) (Graphs)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions) (Graphs)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Problem Set 8 (Solutions)

Problem Set 9 (Solutions) (Graphs)

Exams (note no final exam, three quizzes for 75% of grade)

Quiz 1 (Solutions)

Quiz 2 (Solutions)

Quiz 3 (Solutions)

Spring 2002
Professor Roger Brinner

Lectures

February 06: Course Objectives and Introductions

February 11: The Policy Tradeoff: Unemployment vs. Changes in Inflation

February 13: The Fiscal Policy

February 19: National Income Accounts and the Government Budget

February 20: Core Growth Theory

February 25;&27: Basic Econometric Tools Used in Macroeconomics

March 1: Basic Econometric Tools Used in Macroeconomics- Handout

March 06: IS-LM Introduction

March 08: Aggregate Supply and Demand

March 11: Review

March 13: Review

March 18: Consumer Spending & House Demand

March 20: Business Investment

April 01: Foreign Trade & Exchange Rates

April 03: Inflation

April 08: Money Demand

April 10: Review by Prof. Brinner

April 17: Growth

April 22: Integrating IS-LM and the Modern Phillips

April 24: Fiscal Policy in the 1990s

April 29: International Growth & Crises

May 01: Stock & Bond Markets

May 06: Monetary Policy in the 1990s

May 08: Social Security and the National Debt

May 13: US Business Cycles: Experience vs. Theory

May 15: Review

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions)

Quiz #3 (Solutions)

Fall 2002
Professor Huntley Schaller

Syllabus

Schedule

Readings

Recitations

Recitations by Samer HajYehia (PDF)
“Consumption and Housing” Recitation (PDF)
Class Notes Part 1 (PDF)
Class Notes Part 2 (PDF)

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Problem Set 8 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions)

Quiz #3 (Questions and Solutions)

Spring 2003
Professor Olivier Blanchard

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard’s Macroeconomics, 3rd ed.

Course Home Page

Syllabus

Schedule

 REQUIRED READINGS:

 REVIEW ARTICLES:

 ADDITIONAL READINGS:

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions)

Quiz #3 (Solutions)

Fall 2003
Professor Ricardo Cabllero

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard’s Macroeconomics.

Course Home Page

Syllabus

Schedule

Ha Yan Notes (zip)

Lectures

Lecture 1. Introduction

Lecture 2. Basic Definitions

Lecture 3. Basic Aggregate Demand Model

Lecture 4. Goods/Financial Markets

Lecture 5. Financial Markets (Cont.)

Lecture 6. IS-LM

Lecture 7. IS-LM (Cont.)

Lecture 8 (review)

Lecture 9. Open Economy

Lecture 10. Goods Market in the Open Economy

Lecture 11. Goods Market and the Exchange Rate

Lecture 12. The Open Economy IS-LM (II)

Lecture 13. Exchange Rate Systems

Lecture 14. Building Aggregate Supply

Lecture 15. Aggregate Supply–Aggregate Demand

Lecture 16. Aggregate Supply, Aggregate Demand (cont.)

Lecture 17. AD-AS + The Phillips Curve

Lecture 18. Inflation and Unemployment

Lecture 19. Devaluations in an AD-AS framework (.ppt)

Lecture 20. Productivity growth (.ppt)

Lecture 21. Growth (.ppt)

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Questions and Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Questions and Solutions)

Quiz #3 (Questions and Solutions)

Spring 2004
Professor Olivier Blanchard

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard’s Macroeconomics, 3rd edition.

Syllabus

Schedule

Readings

Week of 2/9:

Article 1:  “Easy Money”  (The Fed and inflation)

Article 2: “Competitive Sport in Boca Raton”  (Questions about the strength of the dollar)

Week of 2/16:

Article 3: “Irrational Exuberance”

Article 4:  Insanity in the Japanese stock market?

Article 5:  The Unemployment Rate and Economic Health

Article 6: Soaring stocks in Southeast Asia

Article 7:  Are the tech stocks back?

Week of 2/23:

Article 8: Macroeconomic performance in Germany

Week of 3/15:

Article 9: Unemployment rates in Spain and Portugal

Week of 4/5:

Article 10:  Economic Recovery in the U.S.

Week of 4/19:

Article 11:  Chinese economic outlook

Article 12:  U.S. economic outlook

Article 13:  Interest rates in the US

International Monetary Fund’s semi-annual report

Week of 5/3:

Reading (not required): Overview of Argentina

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions) [note: dated 3/17/03, but not same as problem 3 of Spring 2003]

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions) (Graphs)

Quiz #3 (Solutions)

Fall 2004
Professor Richard Caballero

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard’s Macroeconomics, 3rd edition.

Course home page

Syllabus

Schedule

All course materials as zip file

Lectures

Lecture 1. Introduction

Lecture 2. Definitions and First Model

Lecture 3. Basic Aggregate Demand Model

Lecture 4. Financial Markets

Lecture 5. IS-LM (1)

Lecture 6. IS-LM (2)

Lecture 7. Open Economy

Lecture 8. Goods Market and Exchange Rate

Lecture 9. Review

Lecture 10. Open Economy IS-LM

Lecture 11. Mundell-Fleming

Lecture 12. Aggregate Supply

Lecture 13. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand

Lecture 14. AD-AS and the Phillips Curve

Lecture 15. Phillips Curve

Lecture 16. Review

Lecture 17. Real Interest Rates/Open economy AD-AS framework

Lecture 18. Growth

Lectures 19 and 20. Solow model (apparently available in zipped files above)

Lecture 21. Technological Progress and Unemployment

Lecture 22. Expected Present Discounted Values

Lecture 23. Bond Prices and Yields

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions)

Quiz #3 (Solutions)

Spring 2005
Professor Olivier Blanchard

Textbook:  Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics, 3rd edition.

Course Home Page

Syllabus

Schedule

Lectures (only seven found)

Lecture 1 (Feb 2): Introduction and a Tour of the World (Ch 1)

Lecture 6 (Feb 22): The 2001 Recession

Lecture 20 (Apr 20): Open Economy (Ch 18)

Lecture 21 (Apr 25): Open Economy–The Goods Market (Ch 19)

Lecture 22 (Apr 27): Open Economy–The Goods Market (Ch 19)

Lecture 23/24 (May 2/4): Output, Interest Rate, and the Exchange Rate (Ch 20)

Lecture 25/26 (May 9/11): Exchange Rate Regimes (Ch 21)

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Problem Set 7 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Questions and Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions)

Quiz #3 (Questions and Solutions)

Fall 2005
Professor Francesco Giavazzi

Textbook:  Olivier Blanchard. Macroeconomics, 4th ed.

Course Material Folder

Syllabus

Schedule

Lectures. (Only last lecture found)

December 14. Using the book to understand the state of the U.S. economy

Problem Sets

Problem Set 1 (Solutions)

Problem Set 2 (Solutions)

Problem Set 3 (Solutions)

Problem Set 4 (Solutions)

Problem Set 5 (Solutions)

Problem Set 6 (Solutions)

Exams

Quiz #1 (Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions)

Quiz #3 (Solutions)

Spring 2006
Olivier Blanchard

Textbook: Olivier Blanchard. Macroeconomics 4/E (2006)

Course home page

Syllabus

Schedule

Problem Sets with Solutions

Problem set 1

Problem set 2

Report of the President (B4)

Report of the President (B5)

Fed. Funds Rates

Japan (OECD)

Problem set 3

Problem set 4

Spreadsheet for SQ.1

Problem set 5

Problem set 6

ps6sq3.xls

Practice exercise for Chapter 20

Exams

Quiz #1 (Solutions)

Quiz #2 (Solutions)

Quiz #3 (Solutions)

 

Image:  Mr. Peabody (dog) and Sherman (boy) activating the original WABAC Machine.

 

 

Categories
Harvard Principles Problem Sets Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Principles of Economics, Ec 10. Feldstein and Li, 2000

 

Harvard’s Principles of Economics Course (Ec 10) has been historically taught as weekly lectures by some big faculty gun with parlour tricks pedagogy conducted in smaller sections run by graduate students or even junior faculty, especially in earlier years. The lecture part of the course has evolved to include more guest lecturers for specific fields but the grand-lecture/small recitation section format has been robust and apparently quite popular.

I thought it would only involve a few short dives into the internet archive, The Wayback Machine, to reconstruct the course around the year 2000. This turned out to be an over-optimistic plan. Still, I did not re-surface empty-handed and I provide links below to the materials I was able to salvage from that time. Perhaps some still young economist from the period, can provide us copies of problem sets and teaching-handouts to complete our collection. But hey, econometricians have to worry about measurement error, so historians of economics are really not allowed to complain about missing observations. Just as long as we are doing the best we can with what we’ve got. And what you see is what I got.

________________

Registrar Identifies Biggest Classes
By Catherine E. Shoichet
Harvard Crimson. October 2, 2000

When it comes to picking Core classes, Harvard students tend to be risk averse.

Preliminary figures show that last fall’s two most popular courses, Social Analysis 10, “Principles of Economics” and Moral Reasoning 22, “Justice,” have taken the top slots again this year.

Social Analysis 10, usually called Ec 10, has 805 students this year, according to preliminary course enrollment numbers released by the Office of the Registrar last week. Justice is a close second with 754.

Judith A. Li, an assistant professor of economics who teaches Ec 10 along with Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein ’61, says that despite the class’s large lecture size, most of the basic skills introduced in Ec 10 are taught in smaller sections of about 20 students.

“Our goal for the course is to provide students with a solid and comprehensive foundation in economics,” Li wrote in an e-mail message. “By taking a course like Ec 10, they will be better able to evaluate government policies and political proposals on their own.”

The course is particularly popular among first-year students, many of whom are considering economics as a potential concentration.

“I really enjoy the lectures,” Leah E. Wahba ’04 said. “It’s an honor to be in Marty Feldstein’s class because he has so much extensive experience in the field of economics.” […]

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From the Ec 10 home page (2000-2001)

Social Analysis 10

Faculty
Martin Feldstein
Judith Li

Ec 10 is the introductory course for both economics concentrators and those who plan no further work in the field. This course provides an introduction to economic issues and basic economic principles and methods. Fall term focuses on “microeconomics”: supply and demand, labor and financial markets, taxation, and social economic issues of health care, poverty, the environment, and income distribution. Spring term focuses on “macroeconomics”: the impact of both monetary and fiscal policy on inflation, unemployment, interest rates, investment, the exchange rate, and international trade. We study the role of government in the economy, including Social Security, the tax system, and economic change in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and China. By the end of the year, you should be able to use the analysis practiced in the course to form your own judgments about the major economic problems faced by the United States and other countries.

Note: Must be taken as a full course, although in special situations students are permitted to take the second term in a later year. Taught in a mixture of lectures and sections. No calculus is used, and there is no mathematics background requirement. Designed for both potential economics concentrators, and those who plan no further work in the field. The Department of Economics strongly encourages students considering concentration to take this course in their freshman year.

Source: Webpage capture from the Wayback Machine.

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Course Syllabi (.pdf files)

Spring 2000, Fall 2000/01

Syllabus Spring 1999-2000 (Macroeconomics)

Syllabus Fall 2000-2001 (Microeconomics)

Course Syllabi (.html files)

Syllabus Spring 1996-1997 (Macroeconomics)

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Miscellaneous Course Materials

Spring 1997 (Macroeconomics)

Unit Test Program explained

 

Spring 2000 (Macroeconomics)

Introductory Lecture for Macroeconomics and Growth by Martin Feldstein (Feb.2, 2000)

Future of Social Security by Martin Feldstein by Martin Feldstein (Feb. 9, 2000)

Problem Set 3, Answers (March 14, 2000)

Spring 2001 (Macroeconomics)

July 23, 2001 capture of Social Analysis 10 (Ec 10) homepage

[October 4, 2002 FAQ about unit tests in Ec 10]

Unit 1, Economic Growth: Test 1A solutions

Unit 2, Financial Markets: Test 2A questions

Unit 2, Financial Markets: Test 2A solutions

Unit 2, Financial Markets: Test 2B questions

Unit 2, Financial Markets: Test 2B solutions

Unit 3, Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand:  Test A questions

Unit 4, Monetary Policy: Test 1A questions

Unit 4, Monetary Policy: Test 1A solutions

Unit 4, Monetary Policy: Test 1B solutions

Unit 5, Fiscal Policy: Test 1A  questions

Unit 5, Fiscal Policy: Test 1A solutions

Unit 5, Fiscal Policy: Test 1B solutions

 

Fall Semester 2002 (Microeconomics)

From the Fall 2002/03 home page

Social Analysis 10
Principles of Economics
Martin Feldstein

Introduction to economic issues and basic economic principles and methods. Fall term focuses on supply and demand, labor and financial markets, taxation, and social economic issues of health care, poverty, the environment, and income distribution. Spring term focuses on the impact of both monetary and fiscal policy on inflation, unemployment, interest rates, investment, the exchange rate, and international trade. Studies role of government in the economy, including Social Security, the tax system, and economic change in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Covers international trade and financial markets.
Source: Webpage capture from the Wayback Machine.

Syllabus Fall 2002-2003 (Microeconomics)

Lecture on Unions by Richard B. Freeman (October 28, 2002)

Lecture on the Economics of Health Care by Martin Feldstein (Nov. 20, 2002)

Ec 10 Hourly Exam Questions (December 11, 2002)

 

Spring Semester 2003 (Macroeconomics)

Introductory Lecture by Martin Feldstein (January 29, 2003)

What Should the Fed do Now? lecture by Martin Feldstein (April 18, 2003)

The Dollar and the Trade Deficit lecture by Martin Feldstein (April 21, 2003)

 

Image Source:  “Das Feldstein-Horioka-Paradoxon” in Finanz und Wirtschaft (November 18, 2014).

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Courses Harvard Principles

Harvard. Report on the Recitation Sections of Principles of Economics, 1913-14

 

 

A member of the Department of Economics Visiting Committee, John Wells Morss, took it upon himself to sit in and observe classroom performance in the recitation sections of the Harvard Principles of Economics course during the Fall term of 1913-14. From the first paragraph of his report it would appear that the department of economics had invited him to provide a report to serve as a complementary (friendly?) assessment to the survey being (or to be) conducted by the Harvard Division of Education on teaching in the economics department. That Division of Education report was later published: The Teaching of Economics in Harvard University—A Report Presented by the Division of Education at the Request of the Department of Economics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1917. 

Morss’ report was passed along to President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard by the chairman of the department of economics, Charles Bullock, for-the-(positive)-record. While the report seems rather long-winded by today’s standards, it does provide us some good information, e.g. about the importance of the weekly questions discussed in the recitation sections. For a sample of the questions we are fortunate to have the published record.

Edmund Ezra Day and Joseph Stancliffe Davis. Questions on the Principles of Economics. New York: 1915.
“A few of the questions here presented are frankly borrowed from previously published collections…More of the questions have been drawn from a stock accumulated through several years in the hands of the instructing staff of the introductory course in Economics at Harvard University.” (p. vii)
The questions were arranged by topics to follow Taussig’s own textbook Principles of Economics (Second, revised edition of 1915: Volume One; Volume Two).

Another interesting takeaway is that Morss noted that over the four weeks that he attended sections, the average amount of assigned reading for these recitations was 33 pages per week from the Taussig textbook. This certainly seems modest from the perspective of today’s nominal reading lists but perhaps actually corresponds to the actual reading completed by the average undergraduate in an introductory or intermediate economics course.

Note: Since the following items come from the last folder from a box that contains the papers of President Lowell of 1909-14 and the month of February is significantly closer to the start than the end of the year, it seems likely that the date, “1913”, found in the typed date on Charles Bullock’s cover letter was mistaken and that both items transcribed below are from February 1914.

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Course Announcement and Description, 1913-14

[Economics] A. (formerly 1). Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11.

Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Day, assisted by Messrs. Burbank, J. S. Davis, R. E. Heilman, and others.

            Course A gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. course A may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

 

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1913-14, published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. X, No. 1, Part X (May 19, 1913) , p. 60.

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Course Enrollment, 1913-14

[Economics] A (formerly 1). Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Day, assisted by Dr. J. S. Davis, and Messrs. P. G. Wright, Burbank, Eldred, and Vanderblue.—Principles of Economics.

Total, 494: 1 Graduate, 1 Business School, 13 Seniors, 129 Juniors, 280 Sophomores, 24 Freshmen. 46 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1913-1914, p. 54.

 

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Examination Questions for Economics A, 1913-14

Mid-year and Year-end final exams for 1913-14 for Economics A have been transcribed and posted earlier. 

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Cover letter from Professor Bullock (Economics)
to President Lowell

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 20, 1913 [sic].

Dear Mr. Lowell:

Mr. John Wells Morss of our Visiting Committee has recently completed a very thoro investigation of the work done in the sections of Economics A. I enclose herewith a copy of the Report, which I think, will be of great interest to you. Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of an hour’s conference with Mr. Morss, in which he told me somewhat more fully about this investigation; and I think it may be worth your while to confer with him upon the subject.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
C. J. Bullock.

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Harvard University

THE SECTION MEETINGS OF ECONOMICS A

Notes by John Wells Morss
February, 1914.

When an amateur attempts to pass upon the work of professionals, a knowledge of his point of view is essential to one who would consider his conclusions. It therefore seems fitting to state that I was invited by the Department of Economics to make an examination of some of its work not because I was expected to reach results comparable to those expected from the examination now being conducted by the Department of Education, but because, as my invitation expressed it, the Department of Economics believed it “important to secure the opinion of some one who represents a different point of view, and brings to the work of inspection the experience of a man of business rather than of a student of education”. I have limited my examination to the work of the section meetings of the Economics Department, and shall limit this report to the work of the section meetings of Economics A, as that course has a large majority of the section meetings of the Department, and to consider them only greatly simplifies what I have to say. I have not compared my results with those of the Department of Education, and I have sought but little to obtain the views of those who conduct the section meetings as to their problems and difficulties lest they overwhelm my own observation.

Economics A, the introductory course to the subject most popular in Harvard College, has an enrollment of students this year of about five hundred and twenty-five. On Saturdays a lecture is delivered to the students in a body in the New Lecture Hall. On two other days of the week each student attends a meeting of the section to which he is assigned. There are twenty-one sections, each with a membership of about twenty-five. They are conducted by five instructors and Assistant Professor Day, all of whom will be referred to as the instructors. Twenty minutes or more of the one hundred minutes given weekly to the section meetings are devoted to writing an answer to a question set by the instructor. As twenty-one section meetings cannot be held at once, the same question cannot be put to all the students of the course; but the six different questions, prepared at a conference of the instructors, are all designed to serve the same purpose of testing the students’ knowledge and comprehension of recent work. I have not attempted to judge either questions or answers, but their usefulness seems to me to be unquestionable. After the answer is written the rest of the two meetings is devoted to a quiz with explanations and discussions based on the required reading which is usually from twenty to fifty pages of Prof. Taussig’s “Principles of Economics”. It is to this part of the work that I have given the most of my attention.

The attendance has been excellent at all the meetings at which I have been present. The maximum number of absences in a section of twenty-five does not ordinarily exceed two. One section had but five absences in six successive meetings beginning in the second week of the fall term. This record may not be equaled at meetings close to holidays and other special occasions, but on the whole the attendance is surprisingly good.

The preparation of the students is stimulated and tested by the questions asked of them by the instructor. So generally did it appear that substantially all the students of a section were called upon in an hour that I ceased after a time to attend to the point, though it seems plain that care should be used not to miss sluggish students assigned to seats in the back of the room. How generally the required reading had been done it was difficult to judge. Perhaps on the average three or four at each meeting answered that they were not prepared. At one meeting near the end of the year in another course than Economics A the preparation had been widely neglected, but that was a single case in my experience, and on the whole it seems that success is attained in the attempt to cause the students to work throughout the year with reasonable regularity.

The attention of the students seemed also satisfactory. Nobody went to sleep and apparently very few were near it. I saw no carving of the desks, though many results of such handiwork are visible. A half dozen raised hands would often indicate a strong desire to answer a question or join in the discussion. A considerable number of questions were asked in the class, some showing thought above the realization of ignorance. At some meetings a few students asked questions after the class, though the total number of those so doing was rather disappointing, considering the theoretical and stimulating nature of the subject.

The quality of the thinking done by the students did not seem to equal their attention. That they should show a lack of practical knowledge and of well considered opinions was to be expected in an elementary course; but they showed a striking incapacity for the simplest mental arithmetic, and on one occasion but few, if any, of them had had the curiosity, when studying the different kinds of currency, to look at the bills in their own pockets. And there was frequently illustrated the difference in result between reading and hard study. Often their ideas seemed hazy and too often a whole class seemed unable to answer a question adequately explained in the text. In other words, one who seeks the thoroughness required of a man is disappointed as is also he who expects to find among these students the indifference of an idle boy. When however one remembers that the average student of an elementary course in college is neither boy nor man, but in progress of development from one to the other, one is reasonably satisfied with the attitude and work of the students, and with their response to what is done for them.

In one particular however it seems that special effort should be made to improve the work of the students. In all the section meetings I attended comparatively few notes were taken. A reason may be that it is difficult to take notes of a running discussion; but the results of the discussions are often summarized by the instructor, and nobody can really take notes who can only report a slowly delivered lecture. Moreover in one case apparently not a single member of a section copied from the blackboard figures excellently illustrating the working of a clearing house. I for one should be glad to see lectures delivered to all the students of the College explaining the importance of note taking, and suggesting various practical methods. Further I would have the instructors of this course informally supplement such lectures from time to time by encouraging good note taking.

When the work of the instructor of a section meeting is considered, it is necessary early to realize that one of the most serious limitations under which he works is that of time. The maximum time available weekly for discussion in the section meetings is a short eighty minutes. The average number of pages assigned to be read in four successive weeks was thirty-three, and an experiment showed that it takes three minutes to read aloud one of those pages very rapidly. In other words there are but eighty minutes to discuss a text which cannot be read rapidly in less than one hundred minutes, and which is usually condensed in statement, closely reasoned and in many points debatable. There has therefore arisen a demand for an additional section meeting. This does not appeal to me. Economics A is a course which should be taken by every student in the College, and it should not require an exceptional amount of time from its students lest the number of them taking it be thereby limited. Moreover an additional fifty minutes would not solve the problem; the cry for still another hour would inevitably follow.

The work of the instructor is also rendered difficult by the exceptional nature of the course itself. Economics A is not only an introductory course, but is also the only course in Economics taken by a large proportion of its members. It embraces a great number of topics, each as a rule involving difficult questions of theory and based on a great variety of facts. The amount of ground to be covered is so great that of most topics only a cursory view can be had. It is impossible to pursue to any considerable extent the method of teaching by asking questions introduced into the Law School by Prof. Langdell. With that method, at least in the first year, but little ground can be covered, the facts must be few and certain, and the students either trained to reason closely or ambitious to become so trained. In Economics A the students are two or three years younger than in the Law School, and the facts and principles involved in a simple economic problem are generally of much greater complexity than those contained in the printed report of a law case. Moreover it is a rare person who does not believe that his general knowledge of economics questions is valuable. Therefore the attempt to teach elementary economics by questioning usually leads into a maze of disputed facts. Frequently therefore the instructor can ask questions only until the points are developed and then must make a statement relative to the matter under discussion. These statements are necessary and save much time, but one wonders occasionally if they are fully understood by the students, and whether a question or two after the statement would not furnish a useful test.

The variety, and to some extent the inconsistency, of the objects sought to be accomplished in the section meetings is another difficulty of the instructor. He seems called upon to see that his students do steady work; to check that work for deficiencies; to emphasize the more important, and explain the more difficult parts of a difficult subject; to stimulate intellectual interest and develop good mental habits; and, so far as time allows, to add to the contribution of others further facts and principles. In other words he must be a drill sergeant, an efficient and inspiring teacher, and an authority overflowing with his subject. An illustration of the problems caused by this diversity of objects presents itself when we consider whether it is better to ask single questions of one student after another, or to ask a considerable number of questions of one student before calling on another. If the latter course is followed, the subject can be more thoroughly and consistently developed, and the questioned student better tested and aroused. But then the poorer members of the class may fail to follow the line of questioning or may even regard the considerable time given to one man as an opportunity mentally to go to sleep. A rattling fire of single questions keeps the whole class wide awake.

An observer who has come to realize some of the difficulties of conducting a section meeting, and has seen different methods pursued by different instructors, is tempted to theorize and to select the methods which he thinks he would adopt if he were himself conducting a meeting. He would call upon his students in an order which they could not forsee, and would call on each one of them at least weekly to test his reading of the text. He would use the single question when the simplicity of the subject matter encouraged it, or the class seemed dull, and would seek the opportunity to develop with one student a more complicated problem by a series of questions. He would realize that the limitation of time made it necessary not to attempt to cover in the class all the ground covered by the text, but to plan carefully what topics should be touched upon and the amount of time to be given to each of them, even if his intention was not to hold rigidly to his plan, but to meet the needs of his class as it developed in the meeting. He would try to present in some measure of scale the most important points, although saving time on those which could not fail to be seized by the students because of their relative simplicity or general popular interest. In such an introductory course he would tend to emphasize reasons rather than conclusions, and theory rather than facts, although he would welcome an opportunity to explain and illustrate the actual working in detail of practical affairs. He would as a rule follow the opinions of the text and not complicate a problem by introducing too often his own opinions or those of other authorities; nor would he expect himself largely to contribute additional material to the discussion; yet he would avoid frequent references to the text by name, but endeavor to have a proposition rest not on the authority of the writer but on its own reasonableness. Realizing that a problem is half solved when the definitions of its terms are accurately determined, he would emphasize the importance of the exact meaning of words, and would not infrequently write on the blackboard a list of significant words and phrases as an outline for the work of the meeting.

But even if a method could be determined upon which would be better than any other, its creator would still be far from his goal. The very perfection of the method of one instructor may cause his class to bow to it and hardly ask a question, while the apparent deficiencies of another’s method seems to stimulate his class to ask questions until the ground is well covered. Again a method highly successful with one teacher cannot be effectively pursued by another; and the needs of the students, even of the students of the same section, vary greatly from time to time. Moreover almost every conclusion embodied in a method is a resultant of conflicting considerations and its application is a question of degree. One therefore is here led to an opinion often reached before in similar cases that good teaching is primarily a matter not of method, but of judgment, energy and skill in the teacher.

In studying the characteristics of the instructors of Economics A, one first notes that they are men of very diverse temperaments, experience and methods. So different are they that when I learned that they had a weekly meeting I thought that they might greatly help each other by consultation about their common work, especially as most of them obtain in in this course their first experience in teaching. I was distinctly disappointed when I learned that the object of their weekly meeting was mainly to prepare the questions for the written answer, rather than to consult about the next week’s teaching. Still much consultation, if attempted, might easily become formal or cramping, and it may be better that each should be left alone to work out his results, and that we should trust that freedom will continue to justify itself by its fruits. Whichever plan is followed, the probability that there will occasionally be employed an instructor of inferior quality is sufficiently great to raise the question whether it would not be desirable to have each section taught by different instructors in the first and second half years. This would guarantee to each section at least a half year’s good instruction, and in addition would give to the students the advantage of two methods and two points of view.

In conclusion I am happy to be able to report that in my opinion the instructors of the section meetings of Economics A, with all their differences, are men of an exceptionally high average of ability and earnestness, and that their instruction is notably good,–much better than I had expected to find. The expenditure in the past few years of additional money to better the grade of these instructors has been justified by results, and those responsible for it are entitled to congratulations.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers 1909-1914, Box 14, Folder 404.

Image Source:  Wikimedia Commons photograph by Bill McLaughlin : Lowell Hall, originally called “New Lecture Hall”, Harvard University.