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Econometrics Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Introduction to Econometrics, Syllabus and Final Exam. Sims, 1967-68

Christopher A. Sims, portrait from his senior year

 

Christopher Sims was awarded a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in February 1968 and in the Spring term of 1967-68 he still taught at the rank of “Instructor in Economics” (Note: he was promoted to assistant professor of economics beginning with the Fall term of 1968-69). We see from the official course announcement for the 1967-68 academic year that the staffing of the undergraduate introduction to econometrics course had not been determined until some time after the printing of the course announcements. 

An earlier post provides the course syllabus and partial reading list for Sims’ graduate course on time series econometrics.

_______________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 195. Introduction to Econometrics.

Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., S., at 11. Dr. ——

Statistics applied to testing of economic hypotheses and estimation of economic parameters. Will center on multiple regression and analysis of variance techniques and their application to tests on time series and cross-section data and to estimation of simultaneous equation models.

Prerequisite: Statistics 123 [Statistics in the Social Sciences] or equivalent.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction, Harvard and Radcliffe, 1967-1968. Pp. 127-128.

_______________________________

Course Outline and Reading List

Dr. Sims
Spring 1968

Economics 195
Reading List and Outline

Alternative texts

Carl F. Christ, Econometric Models and Methods, Wiley, 1967
or
J. Johnston, Econometric Methods, McGraw-Hill, 1963

Other references not required for purchase:

Arthur S. Goldberger, Econometric Theory, Wiley, 1964

E. Malinvaud, Statistical Methods of Econometrics, Rand-McNally, 1966

Other required purchases:

National Income and Product of the U.S., 1929-65, U.S. G.P.O.

Economic Report of the President, 1968, U.S. G.P.O. (This may not be available until a few weeks after the semester begins.)

Some source of statistical tables — the F, t, normal and chi-squared distributions — will be necessary. Christ includes such tables. If you buy Johnston instead and you own no other source of tables, adequate sources are:

Tables for Statisticians, Barnes and Noble, or

Standard Mathematical Tables, Chemical Rubber Publishing Co.

Course Outline

Unstarred readings are passages which should parallel part of what is covered in class.

(*) Readings which are required and which may not be covered in class.
(**) optional readings.

  1. Least squares in econometrics.
    1. Abstract models which justify LS.
    2. How such Models arise in economics: structural models and conditional forecasts.

Johnston, p. 13-29, 106-112

Goldberger, p. 156-165, 179-80, 266-74, 278-80, 288-304.

Christ, Ch. VIII, IX.1-4, IV.4-6

  1. Tests of linear hypotheses in regression models

Johnston, p. 112-138

Goldberger, p. 172-180

Christ, p. 495-514

  1. Constructing models: Principles, gimmicks, and pitfalls.
    1. Models in general: Data transformations; altering specifications in the light of results.
    2. Time series forecasting models: Multicollinearity; distributed lags; lagged endogenous variables.

Christ, Ch. V

Johnston, p. 201-207, p. 212-221

Goldberger, p. 192-4

(*) Christ, p. 579-606

(*) Friend, Irwin and Robert C. Jones, “Short-Run Forecasting Models” in Models of Income Determination.

(*) Orcutt, G.H., and S.F. James, “Testing the Significance of Correlations between Time Series”, Biometrika 12/48

(**) National Bureau of Economic Research, The Quality and Significance of Economic Anticipations Data, 1960.

(**) National Bureau of Economic Research, Short Term Economic Forecasting (Studies in Income and Wealth, v. 27)

(**) National Bureau of Economic Research, Models of Income Determination (Studies in Income and Wealth, v. 28)

  1. Refinements of multiple regression
    1. Nonspherical disturbances and generalized least squares.

Christ, IX.5, IX.13

Goldberger, p. 201-212, 231-243

Johnston, Ch. 7

Zellner, A. “An Efficient Method for Estimating Seemingly Unrelated Regressions”, J. Amer. Stat. Assoc., 6/62

(**) Balestra, P. and M. Nerlove, “Pooling Cross-Section and Time Series Data in the Estimation of a Dynamic Model”, Econometrica, 7/66

    1. Errors in variables and instrumental variable estimation.

Goldberger, p. 282-287

    1. Dummy variables and analysis of variance

Goldberger, p. 218-231

Johnston, p.221-228

    1. Distributed lag estimation

Johnston, Ch.8.3

Goldberger, p. 274-8

Almon, S. “The Distributed Lag between Capital Appropriations and Expenditures”, Econometrica, 1/65

(**) Mundlak, Y., “Aggregation over Time in Distributed Leg Models”, Int. Econ. Rev. 5/61

(**) Jorgenson, D., “Rational Distributed Lag Functions”, Econometrica, 1/66

  1. Testing Revisited
    1. Serial correlation; the Durbin-Watson Statistic

Johnston, Ch.7.4

Christ, Ch.X.4

Goldberger, p. 243-244

Nerlove, M., and Wallis, K., “Use of the Durbin-Watson Statistic in inappropriate situations”, Econometrica, 1/66

    1. Tests of structural stability and forecast accuracy

Johnston, Ch.4.4

Christ, Ch. X.6, 7, 9

Goldberger, p. 169-70, 210-11

(**) Theil, H., Applied Economic Forecasting.

(**) Sims, C. “Evaluating Short-term Macro-economic Forecasts: The Dutch Experience”, Rev. Econ. and Stat. 5/67

  1. Estimation and testing in simultaneous equations models
    (Reading assignments for this section will be made when it is reached in class).
  1. Possible Additional. Topics
    (Readings for topics in this section will be assigned when and if they are reached in class.)

    1. Bayesian regression
    2. Nonlinear regression
    3. Principal components and discriminant analysis
    4. Spectral analysis

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 9. Folder “Economics, 1967-68”.

_______________________________

Final Examination
Economics 195

Spring 1968
Dr. C. Sims

Do all questions on the exam. Do not spend more than the suggested amount of time on any one question, unless you have time left over at the end. Most questions include at least some quite difficult parts, so you need not finish every question to get a good grade. Formulas and a table appear on the last page.

  1. (Time: 25 minutes)
    1. Define the terms “consistent estimator” and “unbiased estimator”.
    2. We wish to estimate a scalar parameter β, and we have available four estimators, bi(n), 1=1, … 4, where n is sample size.
      Suppose we know that these estimators have the forms

b1(n) = β + (1 + ν) / n

b2(n) = β + 2 ν /n

b3(n) = β + ν /200

b4(n) = β (1 + (ν / n)),

where ν ∼ N(0,1). For each of the four estimators, tell whether it is consistent or inconsistent, biased or unbiased.

    1. Among the three estimators b1(n), b2(n) and b3(n), which is the minimum variance unbiased estimator for a sample of size 10? Would your answer change if b4(n) were included in the comparison?
  1. (Time: 40 minutes)
    We are interested in measuring the relationship between I.Q. and income using the relationship:

yi(t) = α + β xi(t) + νi(t)

where yi(t) is the income and xi(t) the I.Q. of the i’th individual at time t. The variable νi(t) is an unobserved random term assumed to satisfy E [νi(t) | xi(t)] = 0.

    1. Suppose we have observations on yi(t0) and xi(t0) for a large cross-section of individuals at a single time (t=t0). What additional assumptions are necessary to guarantee that least squares regression of y on x in this sample will yield unbiased estimates of α and β? Comment briefly on the reasonableness of these assumptions in this context.
    2. Suppose we have observations on y0(t) and x0(t) for a single individual (i=0) for a large number of time periods. What additional assumptions are necessary to guarantee that least squares regression of y on x in this sample will yield unbiased estimates of α and β? Comment briefly on the reasonableness of these assumptions in this context.
    3. For a given sample size, which would you expect to yield more reliable estimates for this model — a cross-section as in part (a) or a time series on an individual as in part (b)? Why?
    4. Give sufficient conditions for the regression in part (b) to yield consistent estimates of α and β. Comment briefly on the reasonableness of these assumptions in this context.
  1. (Time: 35 minutes)

Economist A believes an individual’s savings in a given year depend only on his mean income over the current year and the preceding year, i.e.,

\bar{y}_{i} =\left( 1/2 \right) \left( y_{i}+y_{i}\left( -1 \right) \right).

Economist B believes savings depend only on the change in income between the current and the preceding year, i.e.,

\Delta y_{i}=y_{i}-y_{i}\left( -1 \right) .

They take a sample of 20 randomly selected individuals and regress savings (si) on current and lagged income
(yi and yi (-1)) with no constant term to obtain

1)      si = .08 yi – .02 yi(-1) + residual

as an estimated equation. Their computer printout contains in addition the following information:

\sum y_{i}^{2}=5;     \sum y_{i}\left( -1 \right)^{2} =5;     \sum y_{i}y_{i}\left( -1 \right) =4;

\sum s_{i}y_{i}=.32;     \sum s_{i}y_{i}\left( -1 \right) =.22;     \sum s_{i}^{2}=.0374;

\hat{\sigma}^{2} =\ .0009

(\hat{\sigma}^{2} =\ \text{equation residual variance, unbiased estimate).}

Formulate A’s and B’s theories as hypotheses about the coefficients in (1) and compute a test of each theory at the 5% level of significance in a two-tail test. Can either hypothesis be rejected at this significance level? State the assumptions about the distribution of the residuals in the model which are necessary to justify the test you use here.

(See table on last page)

  1. (Time: 40 minutes)
    1. Two of the following cannot be covariance matrices. Which two? (Point out what’s wrong with each of the two). (7 minutes)
      1. \left[ \begin{matrix}4&1\\ 1&2\end{matrix} \right]
      2. \left[ \begin{matrix}4&-1\\ -1&4\end{matrix} \right]
      3. \left[ \begin{matrix}4&1\\ -1&4\end{matrix} \right]
      4. \left[ \begin{matrix}1&-3\\ -3&3\end{matrix} \right]
      5. \left[ \begin{matrix}1&0\\ 0&1\end{matrix} \right]
    1. What is multicollinearity? (7 minutes)
    2. What is a Koyck distributed lag relationship? (7 minutes)
    3. What is an Almon polynomial distributed lag relationship? (7 minutes)
    4. What are some advantages and disadvantages of the Koyck as compared to the Almon distributed lag relationship for purposes of econometric model-building? (12 minutes)
  1. (Time: 45 minutes)

Consider the following model of income and employment determination in New England:

[demand for output] (A) Y = a1 + b1 Yus + c1W + ν1

[demand for labor] (B) E = a2 + b2 Y + ν2

[wage determination] (C) W = a3 + b3 (L – E) + ν3

[labor supply] (D) L = a4 + b4 t + c4 W + d4 E + ν4

where Y is aggregate income in New England

L is labor force (number at work or looking for work in New England)

E is employment (number actually at work in New England)

W is the ratio of New England wages to the national average.

Yus is aggregate U.S. income.

t is the current year.

νi, i = 1, . . ., 4 are random disturbances.

    1. Which variables are most reasonably treated as endogenous, which as exogenous in this model?
    2. Would any of the variables you specify as exogenous possibly be better treated as endogenous in a larger model? Why?
    3. Using the order criterion, which equations in the model are under-identified? over-identified?
    4. Describe briefly in words the simplest way to obtain consistent estimates of equation (A) (under the usual assumptions about distribution of residuals).
    5. Suppose you discovered that the residuals from equation (A) were highly correlated with federal defense expenditures. How would you modify the model? How would this modify your answer to part (c)?
Table and Formulae t-statistic
P[ |t| > x]
Degrees of Freedom .1 .05 .01
2 2.920 4.303 6.965
8 1.860 2.306 2.896
14 1.761 2.145 2.624
15 1.753 2.131 2.602
16 1.746 2.120 2.583
17 1.740 2.110 2.567
18 1.734 2.101 2.552
19 1.729 2.093 2.539
20 1.725 2.086 2.528

Ordinary least squares

\hat{b} =\left( X^{\prime}X \right)^{-1} X^{\prime}Y

V\left( \hat{b} \right) =\sigma^{2} \left( X^{\prime}X \right)^{-1}

\hat{\sigma}^{2} =\left( Y^{\prime}Y-\hat{b}^{\prime} X^{\prime}Y \right) /\left( n-k \right)

t-test on H_{0}:\ c^{\prime}b = M


t=\frac{c^{\prime}b-M}{\sqrt{\hat{\sigma}^{2} \left( X^{\prime}X \right)^{-1}}}

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [for] History, History of Religions, Government, Economics, … (June 1968).

Image Source: Christopher A. Sims ’63 in Harvard Class Album 1963. From the Harvard Crimson article “Harvard and the Atomic Bomb,” by Matt B. Hoisch and Luke W. Xu (March 22, 2018). Sims was a member of the Harvard/Radcliffe group “Tocsin” that advocated nuclear disarmament.

Categories
Distribution Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard alumnus. Extension course of six lectures on distribution. William M. Cole, 1896

During one of my recent scavenger hunts in the internet archive hathitrust.org I  scored the serendipitous discovery of a syllabus for six lectures given in 1896 by the recent Harvard economics A.M. alumnus and later professor of accounting, William M. Cole. His subject was the unequal distribution of wealth and the lectures were held under the auspices of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching of Philadelphia. In previous years this subject was treated by  Richard T. Ely and John Bates Clark.

Cole had been a teaching assistant for Frank W. Taussig’s introduction to the principles of economics and one presumes much (if not all) of what Cole offered his public was theory à la Taussig, warmed up and perhaps somewhat dumbed down for popular consumption.

An earlier post provides more detail about the later career of William M. Cole.

___________________________

Homecoming, 1896

…Portland people will be interested to know that Mr. William M. Cole, who is in this city to represent the American University Extension Society at Assembly hall tonight, is a Portland boy. He was a Brown medical scholar at the High school, graduating from Harvard as one of the eleven Summa cum laude men of his class, has been instructor in political economy at Harvard and at Radcliffe, and was secretary of the Massachusetts commission on the unemployed. He is now a lecturer on economics for the American University Extension Society. Mr. Cole devotes his leisure largely to literary work. His latest work is “An Old Man’s Romance,” published last summer, and favorably reviewed by such literary papers as the Bookman, the Bookbuyer, the Boston Transcript and the Atlantic Monthly. It appeared under the pseudonym, Christopher Craigie. Mr. Cole had an article “Alone on Osceola,” in the August New England Magazine.

Source: The Portland Daily Press (Portland, Maine)
6 Feb 1896, p. 8.

___________________________

Cole Lectured on Wealth Distribution four times in 1896

  • Bangor, Maine. Mar. 16, 30 Apr. 13, 20, 27 May 4
  • Farmington, Maine. Feb 18 Mar. 17, 31 Apr. 14, 21, 28
  • Portland, Maine. Apr. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 May 6
  • Saco, Maine. Feb. 19, Mar. 18, Apr. 1, 15, 22, 29.

Source: The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, Philadelphia. The Citizen (April 1896) p. 72.

___________________________

[Series E.]

University Extension Lectures
under the auspices of
The American Society
for the
Extension of University Teaching.
Syllabus of a
Course of Six Lectures on

The Causes of the Unequal Distribution of Wealth Treated with Special Reference to the Principles Underlying the Problems of Labor, Land and Capital.

BY
WILLIAM MORSE COLE, A. B.
Late Instructor in Political Economy in Harvard University.

No. 16.
Price, 15 Cents.

Copyright, 1896, by
American Society for the Extension of University Teaching,
111 S. Fifteenth St., Philadelphia, Pa.

___________________________

The Causes of
the Unequal Distribution of Wealth.

CLASS.— At the close of each lecture a class is held for those students who wish to study the subject more thoroughly. All who attend the lectures may remain for the class discussion, whether desirous of participating in it or not. The object of the class is to give the students an opportunity of coming into personal contact with the lecturer, in order that they may, by conversation and discussion, the better familiarize themselves with the principles of the subject, and get their special difficulties explained.

PAPERS.— Students are urged to send to the lecturer at regular intervals papers on the topics set. These papers are returned with corrections and comment.

EXAMINATIONS.— Those students whose papers and attendance upon the class exercises have satisfied the lecturer of the thoroughness of their work will be admitted to an examination at the close of the course. Each student who passes the examination successfully will receive from the society a certificate in testimony thereof.

STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION.— The formation of a Students’ Association for the reading and study before and after the lecture course, as well as during its continuance, is strongly recommended. In the case of fortnightly lectures the sessions of the Association may be held on the same evening of the alternate week.

REFERENCES.

NOTE.— Since Economics is a comparatively new science, the amount of new literature of which the permanent value has not yet been determined is very great. Much of the new doctrine, moreover, is incorporated in general text-books and set forth in detail rather for the specialist than for the general reader and thinker. It is deemed wise, therefore, to refer for this course to a few only of the standard books. These will familiarize the student with recognized doctrine so that he may read new literature with discrimination.

LECTURE I.

Wealth.— J. S. Mill, Political Economy, first ten pages of Preliminary Remarks; or J. L. Laughlin’s Abridgment of Mill, Preliminary Remarks.

Agents in Production.— Mill [The reference “Mill” will mean J. S. Mill, Political Economy.], Bk. I, Chaps. I to VII (incl.); or, Laughlin [The reference “Laughlin” will mean J. L. Laughlin’s Abridgment of Mill’s Political Economy.], Bk. I. F. A. Walker, Political Economy, Part. II.

Rent.— Mill, Bk. II, Chap. XVI; or Laughlin, Bk. II, Chap. VI. Walker, Polit. Econ., Part II, Chap. I, §§ 44, 45; Part IV, Chap. II.

Law of Diminishing Returns.— Walker, Wages Question, Chap. V.

LECTURE II.

Unearned Increment.— Mill, Bk. V, Chap. II, §§ 5, 6; or, Laughlin, Bk. V, Chap. I, § 5. Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Bk. VII, Chap. III; Bk. VIII, Chap. II. Walker, Polit. Econ., Pt. IV, Chap. II, §v258; Pt. VI, Chap. VII (3d Ed., Chap. X).

LECTURE III.

Wages and Profits.— Mill, Bk. II, Chap. XI, §§ 1, 2, 3; Chap XV; or, Laughlin, Bk. II, Chap. II, §§ 1, 2, 3; Chap. V. Walker, Polit. Econ., Pt. IV, Chaps. III. IV. V.

LECTURE IV.

The Increase of Capital.— Mill, Bk. I, Chap. XI and Chap. VIII; or, Laughlin, Bk. I, Chap. VIII and Chap. VI.

Trusts.— E. von Halle, Trusts (Macmillan & Co., 1895).

Railroads.— A. T. Hadley, Railroad Transportation, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890) Chaps. III, IV, V.

LECTURE V.

Wages in Different Employments.— Mill, Bk. II, Chap. XIV; or, Laughlin, Bk. II, Chap. IV. J. E. Cairnes, Political Economy, Part I, Chap. III, § 5. Report Mass. Commission on Unemployed, Pt. IV, p. 1 to lii. Walker, Wages Question, Chap. XIV.

Trade Unions.— J. E. Cairnes, Political Economy, Pt. II, Chaps. III, IV. Walker, Wages Question, Chap. XIX.

Profit Sharing.— N. P. Gilman, Profit Sharing (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889) Chaps. IX, X.

The Question of Population.— Mill, Bk. II, Chap. XI, § 6; Chaps. XII, XIII; or Laughlin, Bk. II, Chap. II, §§ 4, 5; Chap. III. Walker, Wages Question, Chap. VI; Chap. XVIII, § 3.

The Wages Fund.— J. E. Cairnes, Pt. II, Chap. I. Walker, Wages Question, Chaps. VIII, IX.

LECTURE VI.

International Trade.— Mill, Bk. III, Chap. XVII; or Laughlin, Bk. III, Chap XIII. J. E. Cairnes, Political Economy, Pt. III, Chap. I.

The Classical View of Laissez Faire.— Mill, Bk. V, Chap. XI. J. E. Cairnes, Polit. Econ., Pt. II, Chap. V.

Instability of Modern Conditions.— Walker, Polit. Econ., Pt. III, Chap. VI. C. F. Dunbar, The Theory and History of Banking, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1891) Chaps. I, II. Report Mass. Commission on Unemployed, Pt. IV, Introduction.

___________________________

LECTURE I.
The Agents in the Production of Wealth and the Primary Principle of Rent.

The field of economic study is the production, distribution, and exchange of wealth in civilized society and among men actuated by normal motives and conducting their operations in the normal manner. Economics, therefore, does not offer its conclusions to be applied directly to abnormal conditions or transactions. It is highly practical, for it furnishes the general, fundamental principles which give an insight into all economic activity. Its relation to politics, or the art of government, is like that of physiology to hygiene. It does not decide between policies, —it furnishes the knowledge of principles which enables one possessed of facts and having certain aims to decide for himself. (See Quarterly Journal of Economics, July, 1891, “The Academic Study of Political Economy,” by C. F. Dunbar.)

A knowledge of the primary laws of production and distribution is essential for a comprehension of the problems of wealth and poverty. Not all things useful or agreeable are wealth, but only those which are also transferable, capable of accumulation, and limited in quantity.

Man’s only physical power is that of moving things. His mechanical agency in producing wealth is therefore small. Without the forces and materials supplied by nature, man would be helpless. Yet, in modern times, even with the maximum assistance of nature, few men unassisted by capital could produce a tithe of what they consume. Thus land and labor are the requisites of production: and capital, though not always absolutely necessary, is a necessity if modern methods are used, and in any case increases the produce many fold.

Not all labor is productive of wealth; but some which seems at first sight unproductive is in reality highly productive and much that is unproductive is of far greater importance to the community than it could be if it were devoted to production.

Capital, in the economic sense of the word, is wealth set apart to assist further production. The owner has sacrificed his immediate satisfaction in the use of it by devoting it to increase the productive forces of the community. It serves its use by being consumed, but would be valueless to the community if it were hoarded. Recompense for its consumption is furnished in the product which it assists in producing.

Of the three parts into which the produce of industry is commonly divided, we shall first consider rent. Rent owes its origin to the diversity of lands. If all land were like all other land and there were enough to satisfy everyone, there would be no rent. At one time in every country there was enough good land to satisfy everyone, and therefore no one paid rent. The poor lands were not cultivated. As the community grew and required a greater produce, however, the law of diminishing returns came into effect and forced cultivation down on poorer lands or induced more expensive processes of cultivation on the old lands. As the community was thus obliged to pay more for its produce, the better lands, producing as cheaply as before, yielded more than enough to pay the normal wages and profit. The owner demanded this surplus in rent, and the cultivator not only was able to pay it, but was forced to do so by the competition of others. Rent, then, is payment made to the owner of superior land for its use, and the amount of rent is measured by the superiority of that land over land which yields only normal wages and profits, i.e., the superiority of that land over the poorest land which must be cultivated to supply the needs of the community. A change in the demand for products which affects the margin of cultivation therefore affects rents.

Not only fertility, but accessibility, surroundings, etc., determine rent. These are the chief elements in the rental price of stores, offices, wharves, factories and residences. Yet a part of this is not rent but profit on the capital invested in the buildings.

Rent forms no part in the cost of production, for it is paid for superior advantages.

LECTURE II.
The Land Question.

Rent arises not only from superior fertility or productiveness, but from superior accessibility and superior surroundings. These are variable and are often the result of the growth of society, independent of effort on the part of the owners of land. Yet the owners appropriate the increase in rental or selling value without recompense to the society which produced it. Such appropriation of “unearned increment” is the origin of many fortunes in every community. Though legally and politically just, such appropriation is morally unjust. Yet there is no apparent way of remedying the injustice by any political machinery now in operation. A man who refused to appropriate the unearned increment would simply leave it for another’s benefit. The advocates of the single tax recommend the abolition of all injustice arising from appropriation of unearned increment by seizing for public benefit without compensation to the owner, except for improvements made, all land now privately owned. This would secure for society not only all present and future but also all past unearned increment. This would bring great wealth to the public treasury and thus make it possible to relieve poverty, but it would perpetrate an injustice much greater than that which it would correct; for the greater part of the unearned increment has been appropriated by past owners, and to confiscate the property of present owners would be to take away from them property for which they have already paid a presumably fair price. The single tax advocates say that there never was properly any valid title to land, since the land was created for all and no man made it, —and that therefore it is a man’s own fault if he buys and pays for a right which the seller did not possess.

This raises the question whether the right to exclusive control over land is a moral right. The usual answer is summed up in the phrase, “Give a man an insecure tenancy of a garden, and it will become a desert; but give him a nine years’ lease of a desert, and he will convert it into a garden.” Private ownership is considered necessary for a proper care and cultivation of landed property. This, however, is solely on the ground of policy. Yet, justice demands as much. In many localities population is excessive, crowds closer and closer together, and thereby not only raises the cost of living, but destroys much that makes the pleasure of the old inhabitant. If he, and his ancestors before him, or anyone from whom he may purchase, have chosen a place for their habitation or their work, no justice can demand that he be caused to suffer by the encroachment of a new population or an increased population for which he is not responsible. If population is to grow, as some predict, until it is pressed for means of subsistence, there is the more reason for sustaining, now while the world is big enough for all, the right of anyone to secure for himself and his descendants land which shall be their allotted space. Certain incompetent classes of population can grow in excess of all usefulness for themselves or others, and as their growth involves evil to those who are innocent of irresponsible growth, the one protection in the right of private property in land cannot justly be withdrawn.

This right of private property in land, however, does not include the right to appropriate the “unearned increment” which is the creation of society. The assumption of it by society would be both just and politic. The difficulty is one of practicability. The assumption could not cover the unearned increment of the past, for that cannot be traced; it could not cover all that in the present and future, for many of the present land owners have already compensated past owners for expected increment, and would thus suffer from injustice; and the line between earned and unearned increment, and the amount of increment, are not always apparent. Justice demands this assumption, however, and ways of making it practicable will be devised.

In one class of land, no private right of ownership should be recognized at all. Much of the world’s mineral wealth, for example, is locked up in few localities. This belongs to society at large. All mines, therefore, should be public property, and managed for society’s interest.

In the same category belong all lands having special narrowly-limited properties, such as that comprising grand scenery and natural transportation routes. Permanent private control of them constitutes monopoly, which is counter to public justice.

LECTURE III.
The Relation of Profits and Wages.

No man works in these days without the assistance of capital; and even his wages are paid out of capital. Temporarily, therefore, the rate of wages will depend upon the number of persons desiring employment and the number of commodities suitable for their use which are offered them by persons desiring their services. An increase in the number of persons desiring employment, without a corresponding increase in the capital available for their payment, produces lower wages, and an increase in the capital offered as wages, without corresponding increase in the number desiring employment, produces higher wages. A sudden rise in the value of commodities produced does not necessarily bring with it the ability to pay higher immediate wages, for as wages are usually paid out of capital, the wage-paying power is not immediately affected.

Labor is required by capital. The rate of wages, therefore, cannot permanently remain below the point which suffices to supply a working population. The amount which will supply population is determined largely by the workers themselves. If workers are unwilling to undertake the support of families at a given rate of wages, the number of marriages declines, the birth rate is reduced, and the population fails to supply the demand of capitalists for workers. Then the competition of employers for workers raises wages until the point at which workers are willing to marry and assume the support of families is reached. This point is in the long run the minimum limit of wages. Though there is no maximum limit, there is in most communities a natural force which tends to keep wages from reaching a very high range. The tendency of population to increase is generally manifest, and in most communities there appears to be a marked connection between the rate of increase and the wages of labor. An increase of wages among certain classes of workers often results in a larger population; and this, when unaccompanied by a proportionally increased capital, results in a reduction of wages. Thus the rise in wages counteracts itself. This increase in population, however, is by no means universal, and is in no case necessary. An important check on sudden fluctuations in wages is found in migration of laborers.

As capital greatly increases the world’s produce, and is a necessary element in carrying on business by modern methods, the possessor of it receives a share of the produce. This share is called profit, or, more strictly speaking, interest. The justification of this share lies in the fact that capital is the result of self-denial on the part of someone at sometime, in devoting to productive use wealth which might have given him immediate personal gratification if spent. Similar self-denial is involved also on the part of an inheritor of wealth who devotes it to productive use. Interest is not only just, but its payment is dictated by policy, for capital would not increase rapidly enough to assist the growing population if this inducement were withdrawn.

Chronologically, interest or profit is a residue. It consists of the balance of production after wages are paid. If the total amount of production is fixed, the greater the share of labor, the smaller that of capital, and vice versa. The rate of profit cannot permanently remain below that point at which it is worth the while of possible capitalists to save rather than to spend their wealth; for the moment it falls below that point expenditure increases and the fund for paying wages decreases, until laborers are obliged to accept lower wages or go without work. Then this reduction of wages increases profits, and it thus restores the rate at which wealth will be saved. A very high rate of profit, on the other hand, stimulates saving, and thus, by increasing the amount of capital seeking to hire laborers, raises wages and partially counteracts itself. The migration of capital is an important check upon extreme variations.

Yet high wages and high profits are not inconsistent. The interests of laborers and of capitalists are conflicting only in the act of dividing the produce of industry. They have a common ground in the desire to increase the produce so that the share of each may be larger.

The distinction between interest and profits is wide. One is the share of the owner of capital as such, and the other is the share of a manager, — or, strictly speaking, wages of superintendence. Thus, profits though usually associated with capital, are really reward for labor; and they form the usual path by which men pass from the rank of laborer to that of capitalist.

LECTURE IV.
The Problems of Capital.

No adequate understanding of economic problems is possible without some appreciation of the amount of capital involved in modern industries. Formerly, labor was assisted by capital; now the function of labor is chiefly directing capital. Dividing capital into two parts, the auxiliary (which the laborer employs in his work), and the remuneratory (which supports the laborer while he is engaged in production), the remuneratory will be found in many industries but a tithe as much as the auxiliary. Man has acquired and accumulated great control over the forces and supplies of nature, and converting these into capital he increases many fold the production of wealth. Whatever, therefore, affects the amount of capital in a community is of great importance.

No judgment upon the value of the service of capital is adequate unless it takes into account the element of risk involved in modern investment. A turn of fashion, a change of government policy, a new discovery in science, a new invention in machinery, may annihilate not only expected profits but capital itself. New investments are often surrounded with great risk. As it is the expectation rather than the actual existence of profit that determines the conversion of wealth into capital, a rate of profit extraordinarily high is justified if the possibility of it was needed to induce capitalists to enter a venture clearly for the public good.

Great combinations of capital result often from the risks of business. The prosperity of each business firm is dependent not only on the ability of its manager, but also, in a certain degree, upon that of competitors. An ill-judged move by one firm often brings disaster to its bitterest enemies as well as to itself. A union of interest so that the wisest counsel will prevail among all concerned is a natural step. Moreover, the union forms an insurance of each against the monopoly of special privileges and improvements by the others.

Much of the gain from the combination of capital arises from the conduct of business upon large scales. Too much emphasis can hardly be placed upon this element. Great saving arises from cheaper purchase of material in large quantities; from better utilization of material through a larger range of methods, machines and facilities; and through economy in purchasing, selling and directing agencies. Each member of a combination has the advantage of the best knowledge of every other member. Whether the goods produced are sold cheaper in consequence or not, society is richer, because the energy and capital saved are available for other things.

Combinations of capital to control the markets and exact tribute from consumers have no such economic basis. They are analogous to the monopoly of rich mines discovered by accident. It will be found, moreover, that combinations of capital to force unduly high prices are seldom permanently successful unless they are founded on a natural monopoly. In such cases it is the monopoly of things which should be the property of society at large, and not the combination of capital, that brings evil. Though a powerful combination having no natural monopoly may for a time control the market, it cannot long keep prices above the point at which they would be maintained without the combination; for whenever they raise prices artificially beyond that point a large profit can be made by any outside producer, and such will not be wanting.

One is not accustomed to consider crime an element in economics. Yet we find a species of it an important element in our discussion of capitalism. Unfortunately, the great combinations are not free from evidence of it. Many of them have been known to commit robbery and bribery. Their facilities for such work in bankrupting railroads, robbing stockholders, bribing legislatures, securing unjust discrimination, and the like, are great. Though their economic power gives them this political power, the question is not properly one of economics. Justice will not suffer any economic consideration, whatever it may be, to issue the final word in the matter of combinations of capital, if it is found that they create moral degradation and political corruption.

LECTURE V.
The Problems of Labor.

Though the wages of labor are found to differ in different employments in consequence of the conditions of each trade (as, e.g., the cost of learning, steadiness of employment, agreeableness, etc.,) the differences are often found much greater than can be accounted for by such causes. The explanation lies in the existence of barriers setting off non-competing groups, — the wages of the members of each group being determined largely by the economic position of the commodity which they produce. The wages of workers above the lowest class are determined partly by the principles that govern rent. This is especially clear of the entrepreneur or manager’s class.

The steady growth of improvements, adding to the productive power of capital, decreases the proportional though not the absolute share of the laborer in the product of industry. A great hope for the laborer lies in the possibility of becoming a capitalist. The law of minimum wages shows that a laborer who begins his career with determination may become a capitalist.

Co-operation is specially directed toward the realization of interest and profits for the laborer. Its failures have been due largely to inadequate appreciation by the co-operators of the functions of the entrepreneur.

Profit sharing, though aiming less high directly, may, when scientifically conducted, give the laborer as good opportunities. In principle, it furnishes the laborer opportunity to use his employer’s facilities for producing wealth, and to share with his employer the produce resulting.

The most popular agency for improving the worker’s lot is the trade-unions. Associations of workers to gather and spread information concerning trade conditions, to set high standards of workmanship, to stir up public opinion against inhuman employers, and to perform other like functions, are economic agents of good; but trade-unions have often defied natural law and involved themselves in inevitable destruction. Their danger is the blind following of unintelligent leaders, but a knowledge of fundamental economic principles is spreading among them.

Trade-unions, co-operation and profit-sharing are at best but palliatives. The ultimate labor problem lies deeper. Three fundamental questions must be asked. What does the laborer do for society? What does society do for the laborer? What does society owe the laborer?

The grades of labor are infinite, — from him who has brute strength and will work faithfully when under supervision, to him who has executive ability to direct and combine the varied works of a thousand others. The first can barely without aid support himself, and he cannot render to society much that it desires. The service of this man is hardly greater than that of his ancestors two centuries ago: if he does more, he does so through the help of inventions or the capital of others. It is the work of others, therefore, and not his work which is of increased utility.

The worker who is able by quick mind and nimble fingers to operate a delicate machine — the manipulation of which has been taught him — contributes somewhat individually to society; but the greater part of the gain here, also, lies in the machine which he operates. If, however, he can devise new methods, acquire versatility to operate several machines and thus economise time or labor, or invent a new machine or process, he has contributed something to economic progress. The services which may be rendered to society are infinite, and society’s wants are infinite.

Wages are higher in this generation than ever before in the history of the world. The poorest laborer counts as necessities articles of consumption which were luxuries for the well-to-do a century ago . Poverty to-day is rather relative than absolute. Fluctuations in circumstance rather than continued distress constitutes present-day poverty . For the fluctuations society is largely responsible, but the opportunities for success to make a fair average are continually growing.

Society does not owe more than it has received. A proper aim of life is development, which must proceed from generation to generation. A class of population industrially as incapable as its ancestors of two hundred years ago is a drag on society. Its labor is hardly more valuable to society than to itself. The highest grades of labor, utilizing the advance in knowledge and accumulated wealth, are able to render greater service to society than to themselves, and their reward is greater in consequence.

Though society may not owe more to the laborer, can she afford to give more? Clearly the advance of wealth renders high wages possible for all. Yet, even if society owes a living to every man of this generation, it does not owe a living to all the children he may beget. Whether one accepts the so-called Malthusian theory or not , one comes face to face with poverty which is clearly due to excessive population in certain classes. The growth of these classes is out of proportion to the growth of the services which they render society, and society cannot afford to assume the responsibility for their support and for the support of their increase.

The positive check to population has but infrequent play in our civilization. The preventive, though obvious, is alarmingly absent in the classes most needing a check. The true remedy for poverty, therefore, is a combination of the preventive check, operating in these classes, with an improvement in the character of the population which, through proper conditions of birth and education, shall lift the new generations into more efficient industrial classes.

LECTURE VI.
Modern Tendencies.

Not many years ago the wealth of the community depended largely upon its own industrial conditions. As the means of transportation were improved, the natural advantages of one section were reaped in part by others, through a division of labor. Division of labor sprang up internationally as well as locally, determined by comparative rather than absolute cheapness.

Nowadays though trade is continuing between different sections of the world, it is not merely international. The inhabitants of other continents obtain some of the advantages of the natural resources of America by coming personally to our shores. This change, though not wholly economic, had its origin in economic changes.

The natural resources of America are great only relatively: great because the population is unusually energetic and has not been numerous. As America absorbs more and more of the rest of the world, and becomes more and more like it, she loses more and more of her economic advantage.

Though the tendency is for greater correspondence in the industrial condition of different countries, the tendency is for greater inequality in the distribution of wealth in each country. Every year sees new control over the forces of nature, and this control is not universally shared. The man who by executive or inventive ability can add to the comfort or pleasure of many others is usually able thereby to secure a fair income. The number of men who can and do render service to society in such manner is yearly increasing. The ignorant laborer, on the other hand, has not, as a rule, ability or capital either to make or to use new discoveries, methods or combinations. The maximum productiveness of mere obedient brute force was reached many hundred years ago, and there is no economic reason why the man who has now nothing but obedient brute force to offer society should receive more for his work than such a man received several hundred years ago. Thus as society grows both in numbers and in wealth, the difference in income between the most serviceable member of society and the least serviceable member, economically speaking, becomes greater and greater.

Not only is the distribution of wealth tending to greater inequality, but to greater instability. Commercial transactions were formerly carried on largely with money. To day, money plays practically no part except in the retail trade. Its chief use is as a common measure of value. The world’s financial work is carried on almost wholly by credit. Merchants buy goods largely with notes or with checks; these notes and checks are discounted or deposited with banks, and in return bank credits are given. With these bank credits in the form of checks other payments for goods or notes are made, and thus the circuit is completed without the use of money. Though the banks hold money in reserve for the payment of their obligations, it is in small proportion to the amount of them; and much of this money, moreover, is either bank-bills or government legal tender, — both of these being paper based almost entirely on government credit. In international relations, finally, most payments are made in drafts (which correspond in nature to notes or checks), and international balances are settled largely in bonds, which are themselves forms of credit. The failure of any person concerned in these transactions to meet his obligation may precipitate difficulty on others, who again involve a new circle, and a financial crisis may result. In such a crisis not only speculative but real values collapse, and able, careful men of high financial standing may be rendered penniless by the misjudged steps of men across seas of whom they have never heard. Labor as well as capital may be involved in these disasters, for commercial stagnation often results temporarily. With most barriers broken down between nations, each is partly involved in the disasters of others, whether those disasters result from unpredictable circumstances or from mis judged or short-sighted policy.

One of the premises of economics is freedom from artificial restrictions. Until one realizes that natural laws are in operation, one is surprised to see how wages and profits, values, prices, etc., work themselves out to equilibrium. The conclusions of economics show that things must be thus and so. Yet we must not assume too readily that they are actually so in real life. All logic is based on premises, and therefore before applying the logic of economics to any particular phase of life, we must see that the premises correspond with the actual conditions. As a matter of fact, few communities realize the freedom which economics assumes. Whether one believes that this or that is the true fundamental principle for improving the condition of man- kind, one must know that a particular individual can never be judged wholly by that which is true of his class, that the hazards of modern industrial life have rendered generalization useful only for large classes, and that individual duty toward other individuals is greater than ever before.

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Questions.

LECTURE I.

  1. Which, if any, of the following persons are agents in increasing the wealth of the community: a pianist, a piano maker, a soldier, a dress maker, an architect, a hairdresser, a teamster, the captain of an excursion steamer? In each case, give your reason for including or excluding the person named.
  2. Would the total wealth of the community be increased immediately or ultimately, or both, if you sold to your neighbor for $9000 a house which cost you $8000, thus compelling him to save $1000 on the expense of a trip to Europe, and you devoted your profit to establishing a harness shop?
  3. Explain fully the cause of rent and show how rent may be estimated.
  4. How does Mr. Walker’s treatment of the law of “diminishing returns” differ from Mr. Mill’s?

LECTURE II.

  1. Explain the nature of the “unearned increment” from land.
  2. State the grounds for the assumption of “unearned increment” by the State
  3. What do you think of the justice of Mr. George’s single tax on land?
  4. What do you think of General Walker’s objections to the public assumption of the “unearned increment?”

LECTURE III.

  1. What do you understand to be the minimum rate of wages that may prevail in any community?
  2. Is there any economic reason for paying women lower wages than men?
  3. Explain by what process wages and profits are kept at an equilibrium.
  4. What is the difference between interest and profits?

LECTURE IV.

  1. Explain the chief advantages of production upon a large scale.
  2. What is the effect upon labor of the sudden conversion of large amounts of remuneratory capital into auxiliary capital? Is this a necessary result?
  3. What do you think of Karl Marx’s statement that capital is unproductive, and interest is mere confiscation of the product of laborer’s industry?
  4. What, in your opinion, are the comparative dangers in a combination of steel manufacturers and a combination of cotton cloth manufacturers?

LECTURE V.

  1. Do you believe that the restriction of population is the only fundamental remedy for poverty in the laboring classes?
  2. What would you give as the law of the differences of wages in different employments?
  3. Would you say that the failures of profit-sharing militate against it as a practicable palliative for the condition of laborers?
  4. What do you think of a proposition to “make work” by inaugurating an eight-hour day?

LECTURE VI.

  1. Do you look upon restriction of immigration as an economic necessity in the near future?
  2. Explain the effect of changes in transportation upon the growth of cities.
  3. What do you understand to be the conditions under which international trade will spring up?
  4. What is your attitude toward the doctrine of “Laissez-faire?”

Source: University Extension Lectures under the auspices of The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. Syllabus. Series E. Number 16.

Image Source: William Morse Cole faculty portrait in Radcliffe College, Book of the Class of 1913-14. Colorised at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Curriculum Economics Programs International Economics LSE Money and Banking Suggested Reading Syllabus

LSE. Courses in Banking and Currency. Descriptions and Readings. Gregory and Tappan, 1924-25

From time to time during my wanderings through internet archives I stumble upon material that is ideal content for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror and that is worth the effort of digitization. Some old published Calendars of the London School of  Economics and Political Science can be accessed online and they provide much in the way of thick course descriptions and suggested readings.

This post is limited to the course offerings under the heading “Banking and Currency” that covers both domestic and international aspects of banking and money markets. In the academic year 1924-25 this field was covered by then Reader in Commerce, T. E. Gregory, and Assistant in Economics, Marjorie Tappan.

Almost all the readings listed for the courses have been successfully linked to on-line copies.

Other fields will be added in the near future, so do check back with Economics in the Rear-view Mirror!

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London School of Economics
and Political Science
Calendar for Thirtieth Session 1924-25

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Who, what, and when

The Banking and Currency Instructors:

T. E. Gregory, D.Sc. (Econ.) London; Sir Ernest Cassel Reader in Commerce in the University of London.

Marjorie Tappan, B.A. Assistant in Economics.

The Degrees:

Bachelor of Science in Economics (B.Sc.Econ.)
Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.)
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
Higher Degrees, such as M.A., Ph.D., M.Sc. (Econ.), LL. M., LL.D., D.Sc. (Econ.), or D. Lit.

The Terms:

Michaelmas term (October 6 to December 12, 1924), Lent term (January 12 to March 20, 1925) and Summer term (April 27 to June 26, 1925) Terms
M.T., L.T. and S.T., respectively

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BANKING AND CURRENCY.

       The letter Y indicates that the course is a preparation for an Intermediate Examination, Z for a Final Pass Examination, and A for a Final Honours Examination. 

       The sign ¶ indicates a course beginning at 5.30 p.m. or later.

10. — Y. —Elements of Currency, Banking and International Exchange, a course of fourteen lectures by Miss Tappan, on Tuesdays, at 11 a.m., in the Lent and Summer Terms, beginning L.T. 17th February, S.T. 28th April.

[For B.Sc. (Econ.) Intermediate, B.Com. Intermediate (S.T. only) and B.A. Final Honours in Geography.]

Fee: —£1 15s.

¶ For evening students the same course of lectures will be given on Mondays, at 6 p.m., beginning 16th February.

Fee: — £1 3s. 4d.

Syllabus.

       PART I. — The principles governing the existence and distribution of international trade. Statistical problems in the measurement of international trade. The organization and operation of international markets. The balancing of international indebtedness. The Foreign Exchanges.

       PART II. — The functions of currency and the service of (a) money and (b) credit in their performance. The standard in a currency system and its relation to commodity prices. The elements of (1) The British Monetary System; (2) The British Banking System (a) pre-war; (b) at the present time. The influence of the Bank of England in the money and investment markets.

       BOOKS RECOMMENDED — PART I. — Marshall, Money, Credit and Commerce, Book III.; F. W. Taussig, Principles of Economics, Vol. I., Book IV.; Bastable, Theory of International Trade; Pigou, Protective and Preferential Import Duties; Higginson, Tariffs at Work; Hobson, C. K., The Export of Capital; Gregory, Foreign Exchange — before, during and after the War; Clare, A.B.C. of the Foreign Exchanges. The Official Statistics of British Trade.

                  PART II. — F. W. Taussig, Principles of Economics, Vol. I., Book III., Book IV., Ch. 32, 33; Hawtrey, Currency and Credit and Monetary Reconstruction, Chaps. I.-IV. and VI.; Kirkaldy, British Finance, 1914-1921; Cannan, Money and Economica, Jan., 1921, and Economic Journal, Dec., 1921; Robertson, Money; Layton, Introduction to the Study of Prices; Bagehot, Lombard Street, 1920 edition; Clare, A Money Market Primer; Duguid, The Stock Exchange.

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11. — Z and A. — Principles of Currency and Banking, a course of twenty lectures by Miss Tappan, on Wednesdays, at 12 noon, in Michaelmas and Lent Terms, beginning M.T. 8th October, L.T. 14th January.

[For B.Sc. (Econ.) Final and B.Com. Final Part I.]

Fee:— For the Course, £2 10s.; Terminal, £1 10s.

For evening students the same course will be given on Tuesdays, at 7 p.m., beginning 7th October.

Fee:— For the Course, £1 13s. 4d.; Terminal, £1.

Syllabus.

       M.T. Metallic Currency. — The nature of money: recent discussions of the nature and adequate definition of money. The classification of monetary systems. The value of money: recent discussions of the problem. The return to sound money: deflation and devaluation. The social effects of rising and falling prices. Periodicity and anticipation in relation to monetary value.

       L.T. Banking and the Money Market. — The functions and economic significance of banking. The general structure and methods of banking. The cheque system and the nature of deposits. Banking in relation to the price level. The functions of Central Banks. The regulation of Note-issues, and the Bank Acts. Comparison with foreign systems. Recent developments in banking.

       BOOKS RECOMMENDED: — Cannan, Money in Relation to Rising and Falling Prices; Cannan, Bank Deposits (Economica No. 1.) and The Application of the Apparatus of Supply and Demand to Units of Currency (Ec. Journal, Dec. 1921); Hawtrey, Currency and Credit and Monetary Reconstruction; J. Bonar, Knapp’s Theory of Money (Ec. Journal, March, 1922); Cassel, Money and Foreign Exchange since 1914; Irving Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money; L. von Mises, Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel; Laughlin, The Principles of Money; Layton, Introduction to the Study of Prices; Foxwell, Papers on Current Finance; Lavington, The English Capital Market; Döring, Die Geld Theorien seit Knapp; Keynes, Monetary Reform.

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12. — Z and — The Stock Exchange Speculative Markets, and Dealing, a course of six lectures by Dr. Gregory, on Tuesdays, at 11 a.m., in Summer Term, beginning 28th April.

[For B.Com., Group A, and B.Sc. (Econ.), Final — special subject.]

Fee:— 12s.

¶ For evening students the same course will be given on Tuesdays, at 7 p.m., beginning 28th April.

Fee:— 8.

Syllabus.

Markets, Valuation, and the Function of the Dealer. The Machinery of the Speculative Market. How far it requires organisation and regulation. The Stock Exchange as an example of the speculative market, and an indispensable adjunct of the banking system. Constitution of the London Stock Exchange. Methods of Dealing. The Settlement. Comparison with Foreign Markets. Promotion and Issue. The general causes affecting the value of securities.

       BOOKS RECOMMENDED. — Emery, Speculation on the Stock and Produce Exchanges of the U.S.A.; Emery, Ten Years’ Regulation of the Stock Exchange in Germany (Yale Review, May, 1908); Van Antwerp, New York Stock Exchange from Within; Lavington, The English Capital Market; Schwabe, Effect of War on Stock Exchange Transactions, 1915; Sayous, Les Bourses Allemandes de Valeurs et de Commerce; J. G. Smith, Organised Produce Markets; Reports on Cotton Exchange Methods, U.S. Commr. of Corporations 1908-14; various articles by Messrs. Emery, Stevens, Flux, Hooker, Chapman, Lexis, &c.; Burn, Stock Exchange Investments; Mead, Corporation Finance; Young, Plain Guide to Investment and Finance — 3rd Edition, 1919; Greenwood, Foreign Stock Exchange Practice and Company Laws; Reports of the U.S. [National] Monetary Commission.

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13. — A. — The History of Currency and Banking, with special reference to England, a course sixteen lectures, by Dr. Gregory, on Thursdays, at 5 p.m., in Lent and Summer Terms, beginning L.T. 15th January, S.T. 30th April.

[For B.Sc. (Econ.), Final—special subject.]

Fee for the course: £2; L.T., £1 10s.; S.T., 15s.

Syllabus.

The monetary system in the Middle Ages. History of the English silver pound. The silver famine and the effects of the supplies from the American mines. The controversy on the export of bullion and the Act of 1663. The early goldsmith bankers and the rise of banking in England. The foundation and early history of the Banks of England, Scotland and Ireland. The recoinage of 1696. The guinea and its ratings. Sir Isaac Newton’s reports on the currency. The recoinage of 1774. The restrictions on the tender of silver, Lord Liverpool’s Report of 1805, and the adoption of the gold standard.     The different developments of banking in England, Scotland and Ireland during the eighteenth century. The commercial expansion after 1763. The restriction of cash payments. The Bullion Committee. Lord Stanhope’s Act. The resumption of cash payments, and the various currency proposals made in connection with it by Ricardo, Baring and Huskisson.

       The modifications of the privileges of the Bank of England, and the rise of the English joint stock banks. The Bank Acts of 1844 and 1845. Recent developments in Banking.

       Throughout the course the attention of students will be specially directed to the study of important documents and to the sources of historical information generally.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED. — Ruding, Annals of the Coinage (for reference); Dana Horton, The Silver Pound; Chalmers, Colonial Currencies (for reference); Lord Liverpool, Treatise on the Coins of the Realm; Andréadès, History of the Bank of England; Powell, The Evolution of the Money Market, 1385-1915; Bisschop, The London Money Market, 1640-1826; Ricardo, Currency Tracts in McCulloch’s edn. of the Works, also partly reprinted as Ricardo’s Economic Essays (Bell & Sons, 1923); Graham, The One-pound Note in the History of Banking in Great Britain; Cannan, The Paper Pound: 1797-1821; Tooke and Newmarch, History of Prices (for reference); Bankers’ Magazine (for reference); Various Parliamentary and other Reports: especially the Reports of 1810 and 1819; Royal Mint: Statutes, etc., relating to the Coinage of the British Empire; Reports of the U.S.[National] Monetary Commission (for reference).

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14. — Z and A. — The Foreign Exchanges and International Banking, a course of five lectures by Dr. Gregory, on Thursdays, at 12 noon, in Summer Term, beginning 30th April.

[For B.Com., Group A, and B.Sc. (Econ.), Final—special subject.]

Fee:— 10s.

¶ For evening students the same course will be given on Thursdays, at 7 p.m., beginning 30th April.

Fee:— 6s. 8d.

Syllabus.

The concept of Foreign Exchange. Types of Bills of Exchange. Quotations and Markets. Bankers’ credits in relation to the Exchanges. The Discount Market and its relation to Finance Bills. Arbitrage. Forward purchases and sales of Bills. The regulation of Exchange rates by discount rate variations. The fundamental causes of Exchange movements, the purchasing power parity. The development of the theory of the Exchanges. The organisation of International Banking. Exchange in relation to trade. “Exchange dumping.”

BOOKS RECOMMENDED. — Whitaker, Foreign Exchange; O. Haupt, Arbitrages et Parités; Spalding, Foreign Exchange and Foreign Bills; Escher, Foreign Exchange Explained, Kemmerer, Modern Currency Reforms; Manual of Emergency Legislation (Financial Edition); Gregory, Foreign Exchange Before, During and After the War; Cassel, The World’s Monetary Problems (Constable & Co.); Cassel, Money and Exchange since 1914; J. M. Keynes, in the Manchester Guardian Reconstruction Numbers.

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15. — Z and A. — Banking and Finance in the Principal Countries, a course of forty lectures by Miss Tappan (T.) and Dr. Gregory (L.T.), on Tuesdays, at 12 noon, and Wednesdays, at 11 a.m., beginning M.T. 7th October, L.T. 13th January.

[For B.Com., Group A, and B.Sc. (Econ.), Final — special subject.]

Fee: — Sessional, £5; Terminal, £3.

¶ For evening students the same course of lectures will be given on Tuesdays, at 8 p.m., and Wednesdays, at 7 p.m., beginning 7th October.

Fee: — Sessional, £3 6s. 8d.; Terminal, £2.

(a) The U.S.A., South America and the Near East, twenty lectures by Miss Tappan, in the Michaelmas Term.

(b) Europe, twenty lectures by Dr. Gregory, in the Lent Term.

Syllabus.

This course will describe the main features in the evolution of the Currency and Banking Organisation of the countries concerned; the present position and the main problems of current interest.

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16.¶ — Z and A. — Banking in the British Dominions, a course of nine lectures by Dr. Gregory, on Thursdays, at 7 p.m., in the Lent Term, beginning 15th January.

[For B.Com., Group A, and B.Sc. (Econ.), Final—special subject.]

Fee: — 18s.

Syllabus.

The legal position and present economic organisation of Banking and Currency in Canada, South Africa, Australasia and India.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

17. — A. — Recent Monetary History and Monetary Controversies: an Introduction to the Monetary History of the Modern World, a course of six lectures by Dr. Gregory, on Wednesdays, at 5 p.m., in the Summer Term, beginning 29th April.

[For B.Com., Group A, and B.Sc. (Econ.), Final.]

Fee: —12s.

Syllabus.

The triumph of the gold standard in the last third of the 19th century. The re-opening of controversy; bimetallism, the gold exchange standard. The theoretical implications of the gold exchange standard. The revival of monetary mysticism. Knapp and his followers. The rise of prices and the suggested stabilisation of the value of money. Fisher’s Compensated Dollar. The spread of banking and the evolution of banking theory: was there a philosophy of Central Banking at all? The War and the ruin of the gold standard. Cassel’s theory of the Foreign Exchanges. The Monetary theories of the Brussels and Genoa Conferences Stabilisation and the Discount Rate.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

18.¶ — Banking Class, for students taking B.Com., Group A. or taking Banking as their special subject for the Final B.Sc, (Econ.), by Miss Tappan, in the Michaelmas Term on Tuesdays. at 3 p.m., beginning 14th October (day students); and Mondays, at 8 p.m., beginning 13th October (evening students). This class will be held by Dr. Gregory in the Lent and Summer Terms; on Tuesdays at 3 p.m., beginning 20th January (day students), and Thursdays at 6 p.m. beginning 22nd January (evening students).

N.B. — Reference should also be made to the following courses:—

No. 1. Accounts I.
No. 2. Accounts II.
No. 132. Mercantile Law (I.).
No. 135. Law of Banking.

Source: London School of Economics and Political Science, Calendar for Thirtieth Session 1924-25, pp. 72-75.

Image Source: Wikimedia commons. Portraits (from the 1930s?) of Theodore Emmanuel Gregory and Marjorie Tappan Hollond. Both images smoothed and colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Business Cycles Harvard Macroeconomics Money and Banking Paper Topics Suggested Reading

Harvard. Suggested paper topics and references for money and banking. Williams and Harris, 1938-1939

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is extremely proud to provide a comprehensive, granular set of references suggested for 137 possible topics for papers to be written in the undergraduate course “Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises” jointly taught by Professor John Henry Williams and Associate Professor Seymour Edwin Harris during the 1938-39 academic year at Harvard College. We have before us the vista of the breaking dawn of Keynesian macroeconomics as experienced by Harvard undergraduates(!).

Warning: I have encountered numerous misprints and I have corrected/edited when noticed. I have tried to transcribe accurately but the devil of typos is unlikely to be contained over 30 pages. Nonetheless I believe the value of the material transcribed below is hardly diminished by cooking and serving this document on the rare side. Certain items are included in many topics, giving an indication of their scope but also an indication of their importance in the eyes of the instructors.

_________________________

Course Material from the Other Years

1937-38
1940-41
1941-42

_________________________

Source: Harvard University Archives.

_________________________

Suggested Topics for Theses
in Economics 41
1938-39

I. COMMERCIAL BANKING AND THE MONEY MARKET [General References]

  1. Creation of Bank Deposits
  2. Growth of Bank Deposits since the War
  3. Guarantee of Bank Deposits
  4. Principles of Bank Note Regulation
  5. Role of Bank Notes in the U.S.
  6. Systems of Note Issue
  7. Velocity of Circulation
  8. Bank Assets from a Banker’s Viewpoint
  9. Bank Expenses
  10. Bank Failures
  11. Excess Reserves
  12. Member Bank Reserve Requirements
  13. 100% Reserve Plan
  14. The Banking Principle vs. the Currency Principle
  15. Competition of State and National Banks
  16. New York as International Financial Center
  17. Money Market in some one Year
  18. American Discount Market
  19. Agricultural Credit
  20. Eligible Paper
  21. Brokers’ Loans
  22. Collateral Loans vs. One Name Paper
  23. Interrelation of Rates of Interest
  24. Causes of Stock Market Crash
  25. Causes and Results of Bank Holiday
  26. Causes of Decline of Commercial Loans
  27. Banks and the Public Debt
  28. Federal Credit Agencies
  29. Bank Reform
  30. Nationalization of Banking
  31. Branch and Chain Banking
  32. Branch Banking in Britain
  33. Branch Banking in Canada
  34. Branch Banking in Russia
  35. Cunliffe Report on British Currency
  36. Monetary Developments in Some Countries Since the War

II. CENTRAL BANKING [General References]

  1. Development of Central Banking Functions
  2. Organization of Federal Reserve System
  3. Bank Act of 1933
  4. Bank Act of 1935
  5. Review of Federal Reserve Policy for Some Period
  6. Open Market Operations
  7. Varying Reserve Requirements
  8. Acceptance Market and the Federal Reserve System
  9. Industrial Advances of the Federal Reserve Banks
  10. Criteria of Monetary Policy
  11. Criteria of Federal Reserve Policy
  12. Neutral Money
  13. Price Stabilization: The Strong Bills
  14. Price vs. Economic Stabilization
  15. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Credit Control
  16. Central Bank Policy and Speculation
  17. Central Bank Policy and Agriculture
  18. Fiscal Function of Federal Reserve Board
  19. Bank Correspondent Relationship under Federal Reserve System
  20. Effectiveness of Central Bank Control
  21. Treasury Control of Monetary Policy
  22. Bank of England and London Money Market
  23. Central Banking in France
  24. Central Banking in Canada
  25. Cooperation of Central Banks

III. THE BUSINESS CYCLE — Analysis and Policy [General References]

  1. Causes of the Depression
  2. Critical Discussion of One Theory of the Business Cycle: Pigou / Robertson / Keynes / Hayek / Hawtrey / Mitchell
    Foster and Catchings / Schumpeter / Harrod
  3. Monetary Theory of the Trade Cycle
  4. Review of Warren and Person: Prices
  5. Period of Production and the Trade Cycle
  6. Review of Hayek: Prices and Production
  7. Theory of Forced Savings
  8. Theory of Bank Rates
  9. Installment Selling and the Business Cycle
  10. Underconsumption Theory of the Trade Cycle
  11. The Dilemma of Thrift
  12. Major Douglas’ Social Credit
  13. Fisher’s Compensated Dollar (Commodity Dollar)
  14. 100% Reserve Plan
  15. Public Expenditure and Prices
  16. The Theory of Public Works
  17. The Multiplier

78a Durable Consumer Goods and the Business Cycle
79b Construction and the Business Cycle
78c The Acceleration Principle
78d The Theory of the Long Waves

IV. MONETARY THEORY [General References]

  1. English Monetary Theory during the Napoleonic Wars
  2. Nominalistic vs. Metallistic Conception of Money
  3. Transaction vs. Cash Balances Approach to the Quantity Theory of Money
  4. Keynes’ Theory of Money
  5. Marshall as a Monetary Theorist
  6. Cannan as a Monetary Theorist
  7. Robertson’s Theory of Money
  8. Hawtrey’s Theory of Money
  9. Knapp’s Theory of Money
  10. Fisher’s Theory of Money
  11. Nature of Credit

V. INTERNATIONAL MONETARY RELATIONS AND POLICY [General References]

  1. Pre-War and Post-War Gold Standards
  2. Great Britain’s Return to the Gold Standard in 1925
  3. Stabilization of the Lira
  4. France and the Gold Standard
  5. The Gold Bloc
  6. Causes and Consequences of England’s Departure from Gold
  7. Methods of Return to the Gold Standard
  8. Present Outlook for the Gold Standard
  9. Gold Exchange Standard
  10. Gold Movements since the War
  11. Gold Distribution and the Depression
  12. Is there a Gold Shortage?
  13. Methods to economize Gold
  14. Exchange Depreciation and World Recovery
  15. Exchange Depreciation Experience of Japan
  16. Exchange Depreciation Experience of Sweden
  17. Exchange Depreciation Experience of Britain
  18. Exchange Depreciation Experience of Australia
  19. Exchange Depreciation Experience of U.S.
  20. Exchange Central
  21. Sterling-Dollar-Franc Triangle
  22. The “Gentlemen’s Agreement”
  23. British Equalization Fund
  24. Gold Buying Policy and Devaluation
  25. Recent Silver Policy of the United States
  26. Monetary Consequences of the Fall in the Price of Silver
  27. Flexible Parities
  28. Hot Money
  29. Exchange Rates Under Incontrovertible Paper
  30. Purchasing Power Parity vs. Balance of Payment Theory of the Determination of Exchange Rates
  31. International vs. National Objectives of Monetary Policy
  32. Measures of Over-valuation
  33. The International Transfer of Purchasing Power
  34. The Forward Exchange Market
  35. Spreading the Gold Points and Short Term Capital Movements
  36. American Export of Capital since the War
  37. International Short Term Balances and the Depression
  38. Tariff Policy and the Depression
  39. Bank of International Settlement

VI. MISCELLANEOUS [No General References]

  1. War Finance
  2. The Reparations Controversy
  3. War Debts
  4. Fall of Prices: 1873-96
  5. Rise of Prices: 1896-1913
  6. Price Movement since the War
  7. Probable Future Trend of Prices
  8. Changes in the Value of Money and the Distribution of Wealth
  9. Monetary and Financial Questions Raised by the Social Security Program

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

SUGGESTED TOPICS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
FOR COURSE THESES
IN ECONOMICS 41

I. COMMERCIAL BANKING AND THE MONEY MARKET

General References [Return]

Allen, A. M., et al. – Commercial Banking Legislation and Control

Westerfield, R. B. – Money, Credit and Banking

Thomas, R. G. – Modern Banking

Willis, H.P. and Chapman, J.M. – the Banking Situation: American Post-War Problems

Willis, H.P., Chapman, J.M., and Robey, R.W. – Contemporary Banking

Bogin, J.I., Foster, M.B., Nadler, M. – Money and Banking

  1. Creation of Bank Deposits [Return]

Phillips, C.A. – Bank Credit

  1. Growth of Bank Deposits since the War [Return]

Mills, F. C. – Economic Tendencies

– Memoranda on Commercial Banks

– Annual Publications

Goldschmidt, R.W. – The Changing Structure of American Banking

Phillips, C.A., McManus, T.F., – Banking and the Business Cycle

Currie, L. – The Economic Distribution of Demand Deposits – Journ. Amer. Stat. Assn., June 1938

Hartzel, E. – Time Deposits – Harvard Bus. Rev., October 1934

  1. Guarantee of Bank Deposits [Return]

Robb, T. B. – Guarantee of Bank Deposits (1921)

Blocker, J.G. – Guarantee of State Bank Deposits – Univ. of Kansas, Bur. of Bus. Research, Bull. 11, July 1929.

Emerson, Guy – Guarantee of Deposits under Banking Act of 1933, Quart. Journ. Econ., Feb. 1934

Association of Reserve City Bankers – Guarantee of Bank Deposits, 1933

American Banker’s Assn. – Economic Policy Committee – Guarantee or Bank Deposits 1933

Federal Reserve Bulletin – Oct., 1933

Business Week – April 1933

Bankers Magazine – June 1933

Hodgson, J. G. – Federal Control of Banking

Faust, M. L. – The Security of Public Deposits

Crowley, L. T. – Has Federal Deposit Insurance Strengthened the Banking System? – Banker’s Mag., Jan. 1938

Wilcox, V. – Vast Powers of the FDIC – Annalist Nov. 8,1935

Bradford, F. A. – Angell, The Behavior of Money, Quart. Journ. Econ., Feb. 1937

FDIC – Federal Reserve Bulletin – Oct., 1936

Woolsey, J. B. – The Permanent Plan for the Insurance of Bank Deposits, South. Econ. Jour. Apr. 1936

Fox, M.J. – Deposit Insurance as an Influence for Stabilizing the Banking Structure – Jour. Amer. Stat. Assn., Mar. 1936

Hoffman, C. W. – Federal Insurance of Deposits: The New Law and How it Works – Jour. of Ann. Ins. Assn., Nov. 1934

Kimmel, L.H. – Federal Deposit Insurance – Conf. Board Bull, July 10, 1934

Smith, A. A. – Guaranty of Bank Deposits – Social Science Quarterly, July 1934

Toggert, J.H. and Jennings, L.D. – The Insurance of Bank Deposits – Jour. Pol. Econ. August 1934

Emerson, G.– Guaranty of Deposits Under the Banking Act of 1933 – Quart. Journl. Econ., Feb.1934

  1. Principles of Bank Note Regulation [Return]

Simmons, E.C. – The Concept of Lawful Money – Journ. Pol. Econ. Feb. 1938

  1. Role of Bank Notes in the U. S. [Return]

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Conant, C. A. – History of Modern Banks of Issue

Dunbar, C. F. – History of National Bank Currency

Folwell, W.W. – Evolution of Paper Money in U.S.

Hepburn, A. B. – History of Currency in U.S.

Rawie, H. L. – Fed. Res. Notes

Sumner, A. B. – History of American Currency

Simmons, E. C. – Elasticity of Fed. Res. Note – Amer. Econ. Rev., Dec. 1936

Simmons, E. C. – The Concept of Lawful Money – Jour. Pol. Econ. Feb. 1938

Brinton, C. – History of Paper Money to the War – Journ. of Modern History, Sept. 1934

  1. Systems of Note Issue [Return]

Simmons, E.C. – The Concept of Lawful Money – Journ. Pol.Econ. Feb. 1938

  1. Velocity of Circulation [Return]

Steinar, W. H. – Money and Banking

Keynes, J.M – Treatise on Money

Hawtrey, R. G. – Art of Central Banking

Hawtrey, R. G. – Currency and Credit

Anderson, – Value of Money

Laughlin, J. L. – Principles of Money

Fisher, I. – Purchasing Power of Money

Robertson, D. H. – Money

Foster, W.F. and Catchings, W., – Money

Foster, W.F. and Catchings, W., – Profits

Marshall, A. – Money, Credit and Commerce

Burgess, W. R. – Jour. Am. Statis. Ass., Vol. 18, #2

Lounsbery, A. W. – Quart. Jour. Econ., Nov. 1931

Lounsbery, A. W. – Quart. Jour. Econ., May 1933

Marget, A. W. – Jour. Pol. Econ., June and Aug. 1932

Marget, A. W. – Quart. Jour. Econ., Nov. 1932

Marget, A. W. – Theory of Prices

Marget, A. W. – The Velocity of Circulation – Quart. Journ. Econ. May 1934

Working, H. – Quart. Jour. Econ., 1923

Ellis, H. S. – German Monetary Theory

Ellis, H. S. – Some Fundamentals in the Theory of Velocity – Quart. Jour. Econ., May 1938

Dahlberg, Arthur – When Capital Goes on Strike: How to Speed up Spending

Angell, J. W. – The Behavior of Money

Angell, J. W. – Components of the Circular Velocity of Money, Quart. Journ. Econ., Feb. 1937

Bradford, F. A. – Angell, The Behavior of Money – Quart. Jour. Econ., Feb. 1937

King, W. I. – Recent Monetary Experiments and Their Effect on the Theory of Money and Prices – Jour. Amer. Stat. Assn., Aug. 1935

Gilbert, J. C. – A Note in Banking Policy and the Income-Velocity of Circulation of Money – Economica, May 1934

  1. Bank Assets from a Banker’s Viewpoint [Return]

Natl. Indus. Conf. Board – Banking Situation in the U.S.

Mitchell, W. F. – Uses of Bank Funds

Ostrolenk, B. and Massie – How Banks Buy Bonds

Atkins, P. M. – Banks’ Secondary Reserves and Investment Policies

Bradford, F. A. – Banking

Moulton, H. G. – Financial Organization of Society

Langston and Whitney – Banking Practice

Goldschmidt, R. W. – The Changing Structure of American Banking

Foulke, R. A. – Commercial Paper in the Banking System – Banking, Feb. 1935

Carson, W. J. – Trends of Principal Earning Assets – Amer. Stat. Assn., June 1938

  1. Bank Expenses [Return]

Bradford, F. A. – Banking

Fed. Res. Bank – Annual Reports

Secrist, H. – Banking Ratios

Powlison, K. – Profits of Natl. Banks

Natl. Indus. Conf. Board – Banking Situation in the U.S.

Stark, W. L. – Bank Expenses

Thompson, D. S. – Trends of Bank Earnings and Expenses – Am Stat. Assn., June 1938

  1. Bank Failures [Return]

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Spahr, W. – Bank Failures in U.S.– Am. Econ. Rev. Suppl. 1932

Tebbutt, A. R. – Bank Failures in Natl. Banking System

Annals of Amer. Acad. Pol. and Soc. Science – Jan. 1933 – Bank Failures

Industrial Arts Index, 1935 and 1934

Goldschmidt, R. M. – The Changing Structure of American Banking

Anderson, T. J. – Federal and State Control of Banking

  1. Excess Reserves [Return]

Edie, L. D. – Easy Money

Guaranty Survey, Jan. 1936 – Problem of Excess Reserves and Business Recovery

  1. Member Bank Reserve Requirements [Return]

Report of Committee on Bank Reserves of Fed. Res. System

Currie, L. B. – Supply and Control of Money

Rodkey, R. G. – Legal Reserves in American Banking – Michigan Bus. Studies, Vol. VI, No. 5

Watkins, L. L. – The Variable Reserve Ratio – Journ. Pol. Econ., June 1936

  1. 100% Reserve Plan [Return]

Fisher, I. – 100% Money

Fisher, I. – 100% Money and Branch Banking – Northwestern Banker, March 1937

Fisher, I. – The Banker’s Interest in 100% Money – Banker’s Mag., Oct. 1936

Fisher, I. – 100% Money and the Public Debt – Econ. Forum, Apr., June, 1936

Robinson, G. B. – 100% Bank Reserves – Harv. Bus. Rev. Summer 1937

Neuman, A. M. – 100% Money – Manchester School, Vol. VIII, No. 1, 1937

Angell, J. W. – The 100% Reserve Plan – Quart. Jour. Ec. Nov. 1935.

Spahr, W.E. – Fallacies of Professor Irving Fisher’s 100% Money Proposal

Graham, F. D. – Reserve Money and the 100% Proposal – Amer. Econ. Rev., Sept. 1936

Lehmann, F. – 100% Money – Social Research, Feb. 1936

  1. The Banking Principle vs. the Currency Principle [Return]

Andreades, A. M. – History of Bank of England

Feaveryear, A. E. – The British Pound

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking, pp. 706-10

Keynes, J.M. – Treatise on Money p. 195

Laughlin, J.L.– Principles of Money

Levinsky, Money, Credit, and Prices

Viner, Jacob – Studies in the Theory of International Trade

Harris, S. E. – The Commercial Theory of Credit – Journ. Pol. Econ. Feb.1936

  1. Competition of State and National Banks [Return]

Hilderman, L. C. – National and State Banks

Tippetts, C. S. – State Banks and Federal Reserve System

Federal Reserve Bulletin – 1933, pp. 166-86

Pole, J. W. – Barrons, Sept. 19, 1932

Pole, J. W. – Proposed Unification of Banking, Bankers Mag. May 1932

Pole, J. W. – Washington Looks at State Banks, Am. Banker’s Assn. Journ., May 1932

Pole, J. W. – Symposium on Proposed Unification of Banking under Fed. Supervision: Trust Companies, Apr. and May 1932

Natl. Indus. Conf. Board – The Banking Situation in the U.S.

Barnett, – State Banks and Trust Companies since Natl. Banking Act – Nat. Monetary Comm.

Hammond, E. – Banks, States and Fed. Govt. – Am. Econ. Rev., Dec. 1933

  1. New York as International Financial Center [Return]

Steiner, W. H. – Money und Banking

Einzig, P. – Fight for Financial Supremacy

Harris, B.D.– Branch Banks und Foreign Trade

Madden, J. T. und Nadler, M. – International Money Markets

Phelps, C. W. – Foreign Expansion of American Banks

  1. Money Market in some one Year [Return]

Statistical Sources – Reserve Bank and Board Bulletins

  1. American Discount Market [Return]

Foulke, R. A. – Commercial Paper Market

Reade, L. M. – Story of Commercial Paper Market

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Phillips, C. A. – Bank Credit

Balubanis, H. P. – The American Discount Market

  1. Agricultural Credit [Return]

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Sparks, E. S. – History and Theory of Agricultural Credit in the U.S.

Holt, W. S. – Federal Farm Loan Bureau

Stockdyke, E. A. and West, C. H. – The Farm Board

Norman, J. B. – Farm Credits in U.S. and Canada

Benner, O. L. – Federal Intermediate Credit System

  1. Eligible Paper [Return]

Hardy, C. O. – Credit Policies of Federal Reserve System

Dowrie, G. W. – American Monetary and Banking Policies

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Federal Reserve Policy

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Warburg, P. M. – Federal Res. System, Vol. I, p. 465

Goldenweisser, E. A. – Significance of the Lending Function of the Fed. Res. System – Journ. Amer. Stat. Assn. Mar. 1936

  1. Brokers’ Loans [Return]

Flynn, J. T. – Security Speculation

Hovey, L. H., Logan, L. S., and Gavens, H. S. – Brokers’ Loans

Rogers, J. H. – Stock Speculation and Money Market, Quart. Journ. Econ., May 1926

Eiteman, – Economics of Brokers’ Loans, Amer. Econ. Rev. March 1932

Eiteman, – Economic Significance of Brokers’ Loans and Bank Credit, Journ. Pol. Econ., Oct. 1932

Eiteman, – Regulation of Brokers’ Loans – Amer. Econ. Rev. Sept. 1933

Eiteman, – Speculation, Bank Liquidity, and Price – Amer. Econ. Rev., Dec. 1934

Hoover, C. B. – Bank Deposit and Brokers’ Loans, Jour. Pol. Econ. 1929

Anderson, B. M. – Brokers’ Loans and Bank Credit, Chase Econ. Bulletin, Oct. 1928

Thomas, W. – Credit in Security Speculation, Amer. Econ. Rev. Mar. 1933 and 1935

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Federal Reserve Policy

Ellis, H. S. – German Monetary Theory

20th Century Fund – The Security Markets

  1. Collateral Loans vs. One Name Paper [Return]

Westerfield, R. B. – Trend of Secured Loans – Journ. of Bus., 1932

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking, pp. 212-19 (ref. & biblio.)

Greef, A. O. – The Commercial Paper House in the U.S.

  1. Interrelation of Rates of Interest [Return]

Riefler, W. – Money Rates and Money Markets

Beckhart, B. H. – The New York Money Market

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Macauley, F. R. – Theoretical Problems Suggested by Movements of Interest Rates in U.S.

  1. Causes of Stock Market Crash [Return]

Fisher, I. – Stock Market Crash and After

Hawtrey, R. G.– Art of Central Banking

Cassel, (Univ. of Chicago, 1928)

Keynes, J.M. – Treatise on Money

Reed, H. L.– Fed. Res. Policy, 1921-1931

Hardy, C. O.– Credit Policy of the Fed. Res. System

Harris, S. E.– Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Ohlin, B. – Course and Phases of the World Econ. Depression

Robbins, L.– The Great Depression

Hayek, F. – Prices and Production

Hirst, T.M.– Wall St. and Lombard St.

McGregor, A. G. – Basic Cause of World Depression and Sound Remedy

Salter, Sir Arthur – Recovery, the Second Effort

  1. Causes and Results of Bank Holiday [Return]

Colt, C. O. and Keith – Twenty-eight Days, A History of Banking Crisis

Amer. Bankers’ Assn. – Econ. Pol. Assn. – Banking after the Crisis

Ayres – Lessons of Banking Disaster, Com. and Fin. Chronicle Mar. 15,1933

Economist, Mar. 4, 11, and 19, 1933, American Banking Crisis

  1. Causes of Decline of Commercial Loans [Return]

Currie, L. – Decline of Commercial Loan – Quart. Journ. Econ. Aug. 1931

Natl. Indus. Conf. Board – Availability of Bank Credit – 1933

Commercial Borrowing under Recovery Act – Am. Bankers’ Assn. Journal, Sept. 1933

Present Sources of Bank Income – Amer. Bankers’ Assn. Journ. May 1934

Why Banks Don’t Lend – Bankers’ Magazine, Feb. 1934

New Banking Problems – Amer. Banker’s Assn. Journ. Aug. 1934

What is a Sound Loan – Bankers’ Magazine, Nov. 1934

Stone, L. – Commercial Loans and Recovers – Barron’s Dec. 30, 1935

  1. Banks and the Public Debt [Return]

Willis, H. P. and Chapman, J. M. – The Banking Situation: American Post-War Problems

Cole, G. D. H. – What Everybody Wants to Know about Money

Smith, D. T. – Deficits and Depressions

Angell, J. W. – Fed. Finances and the Banking System, Amer. Stat. Suppl., March 1935

  1. Federal Credit Agencies [Return]

The Postal Savings System of the U.S. – Amer. Bankers’ Assn.

Survey of Government Banks – Banking, Jan. 1936

McDiarmid, J. – Govt. Corps and Federal Funds

Anderson, G. E. – Government Banking – Banking, Feb. 1936

  1. Bank Reform [Return]

Goldschmidt, R. W. – The Changing Structure of American Banking

Vanderlip, Frank A. – Tomorrow’s Money

Gephart, W. F. – Our Commercial Banking System – Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl. Mar. 1935

Hammond, R. – Long and Short Term Credit in Early Amer. Banking – Quart. Journ. Econ., Nov. 1934

Alling, N. D. – A Scientific Banking System – Bankers’ Mag. April 1935

Manuel, R. W. – Eliminating Bank Induced Inflation – Bankers’ Mag. Oct. 1937

Heilperin, M. A. – Economics of Banking Reform – Pol. Science Quarterly, Sept. 1935

  1. Nationalization of Banking [Return]

Currie, L. – Supply and Control of Money in the U.S.

Clark – Central Banking under Fed. Res. System

Sachse, O. – Socialization of Banking

White, A. B. – Nationalization of Banking (Eng.)

Proposal for Central Banking and Significance – Guaranty Survey, Sept. 1934

And Next – A Government Bank? – Rand McNally Bankers’ monthly, Nov. 1934

History Marks Boundary Between Govt. and Banking – Amer. Bankers’ Assn. Jour. May 1934

Essentials of American Banking Reform, etc. – Am. Bankers’ Assn. Journ., May 1933

Dodwell, D. W. – Treasuries and Central Banks

Goldschmidt, R. W. – Changing Structure of Amer. Banking

Moley, R. – Must Government Take over Banks? – Today, Feb. 3, 1934

Simons, H. C. – Positive Program for Laissez-Faire

Cole, G. D. H. – What Everybody Wants to Know about Money

Hubbard, Jos. B. – The Banks, The Budget, and Business

Govt. Ownership of the 12 Fed. Res. Banks – Ownership of the 12 Fed. Res. Banks – Hearings before the House Committee on Banking and Currency

Taylor, G. W. – The Case against the Nationalization of Banks – Journ. Canadian Bankers’ Assn., Oct. 1935

Rau, B. R. – The Nationalization of Money – Indian Jour. Econ., Oct. 1936

Paine, W. W. – Nationalizing the Bank – Bankers’ Ins. Manag. Mag., Sept. 1935

Socialization of the Banks – Bankers’ Ins. Manag. Mag., July 1934

Theodore, E. G. – Nationalization of Credit – Econ. Record, Dec. 1933

  1. Branch and Chain Banking [Return]

Annals of Am. Acad. Pol. And Soc. Science – Jan. 1934

Collins, C. W. – Branch Banking Question

Cartinhour, G. T. – Branch, Group and Chain Banking

Harr, L. A. – Branch Banking in England

Ostrolenk, B. – Economics of Branch Banking

Southworth, S. D. – Branch Banking in U.S.

Am. Bankers’ Assn. – A Study of Group and Chain Banking – Ec. Policy Com. 1929

Hearings on Branch, Group and Chain Banking – HR 141 – 1930

Chapman, J. M. – Concentration of Banking

Goldschmidt, R. W. – The Changing Structure of Am. Banking

Dowrie, G. W. – The Branch Banking Situation and Outlook – Harv. Bus. Rev., Summer 1938

Simpson, J. H. – Branch Banking in U.S. – Canadian Banker, Apr. 1938

Fisher, I. – 100% Money and Branch Banking – Northwestern Banker, Mar. 1937

Bradford, F. A. –Angell, The Behavior of Money – Quart. Jour. Econ. Feb. 1937

Galbraith, J. K. – Branch Banking and its Bearing on Agricultural Credit, Journ. Farm. Econ., April 1934

  1. Branch Banking in Britain [Return]

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking – 614-15 ref.

Sykes, J. – Amalgamation Movement in English Banking

Harr, L. A. – Branch Banking in England

Willis, H. P. and Beckhart – Foreign Banking Systems

Collins, C. W. – Branch Banking Question

  1. Branch Banking in Canada [Return]

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking, 614-15 ref.

Willis, H. P. and Beckhart, B. H. – Foreign Banking Systems

Collins, C. W. – Branch Banking Question

Holladay, J. – The Canadian Banking System

Dodds, J. – Banking in Canada – Jour. Canadian Bankers’ Assn., Jan. 1936

Addis, C. – Canada and Its Banks – Quart. Rev., July 1934

  1. Branch Banking in Russia [Return]

Arnold, A. Z. – Banks, Credit and Money in Modern Russia

Reddaway, W. B. – The Russian Financial System

Hubbard, L. E. – Soviet Money and Finance

Kellman, L. – Money and Banking in Russia – Harper’s Dec. 1936

Gourvitch, A. – Problem of Prices and Valuation in the Soviet System – Am. Econ. Rev. Suppl. [1936]

Nehru, S. S. – Controlled Currency and Credit – Some Russian Results – Indian Inst. Bankers’ Journ., Jan. 1935

  1. Cunliffe Report on British Currency [Return]

Cunliffe Report

War Period Literature

  1. Monetary Developments in Some Countries Since the War [Return]

Northrop, M. B. – Control Policies of the Reichsbank – 1924-33

Monetary Policy in the British Empire – Banker, Oct. 1935

League of Nations Reports

II. CENTRAL BANKING

General References [Return]

Westerfield, R. B. – Money, Credit and Banking

Thomas, R. G. – Modern Banking

Willis, H. P. and Chapman, J. H. – The Banking Situation: American Post-War Problems

Willis, H. P., Chapman, J. H. and Robey, R. W. – Contemporary Banking

Bogen, J. I., Foster, M. B., Nadler, M. – Money and Banking

  1. Development of Central Banking Functions [Return]

Smith, V. C. – The Rationale of Central Banking

Weyforth, W. O. – The Fed. Res. Board: A Study of Fed. Res. Structure and Credit Control

Dodwell, D. W. – Treasuries and Central Banks, Especially in England and the U.S.

Anderson, J. – The Philosophy of the Fed. Res. Act. – Bankers’ Mag. Sept. 1935

  1. Organization of Federal Reserve System [Return]

Willis, H. P. and Edwards – Banking and Business

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Clark – Central Banking under Fed. Res. System

Warburg, P. M. – Fed. Res. System, Vol. I

Harding – Formative Period of Fed. Res. System

Strong, Benj. – Addresses and Speeches

Nat. Ind. Conf. Board – Banking Situation in U.S.

Willis, H. P. – Federal Reserve System

Weissman, R. L. – The New Federal Reserve System: The Board Assumes Control

Bopp, K. –The Agencies of Federal Reserve Policy

Weyforth, W. O. – The Fed. Res. Board: A Study of Fed. Res. Structure and Credit Control

  1. Bank Act of 1933 [Return]

Fed. Res. Bulletin – June 1933

Brody – Act of 1933 and Emergency Act – Bankers’ Law Jour. 1933

Natl. City Bank Letter – July 1933

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Goodbar, J. E. – Managing People’s Money

Willis, H. P. – Federal Reserve System

Preston, J. J. – The New Federal Reserve System: The Board Assumes Control

Westerfield, R. B. – The Fed. Res. Board: A Study of Fed. Res. Structure and Credit Control

  1. Bank Act of 1935 [Return]

Amer. Inst. of Banking – Banking Act of 1935

Goodbar, J. E. – Managing People’s Money

Bradford, F. A. – Banking Act of 1935 – Am. Ec. Rev., Dec. 1935

Gayer, A. D. – The Banking Act of 1935 – Quart. Jour. Econ., Nov. 1935

Gayer, A. D. – The U.S. Banking Act 1935 – Econ. Jour., Dec. 1935

Kress, H. J. – The Banking Act of 1935 – Michigan Law Rev. Dec. 1935

Preston, H. H. – Banking Act of 1935 – Jour. Pol. Econ. Dec. 1935

Crowder, W. F. – Evolution and Analysis of the Banking Act of 1935 – Journ. Bus. Univ. Chi., Jan 1936

Williams, J. H. – The Banking Act of 1935 – Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl. March 1936

Eccles, M. S. – The Banking Bill of 1935 – Barron’s May 27, 1935

  1. Review of Federal Reserve Policy for Some Period [Return]

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Hardy, C. O. – Credit Policies of Fed. Res. System

Dowrie, G. W. – American Monetary and Banking Policies

Goldenweiser, E. A. – Fed. Res. System in Operation

Reed, H. L. –Development of Fed. Res. Policy

Reed, H. L. – Fed. Res. Policy, 1921-1930

Currie, L. B. – Supply and Control of Money in U.S.

Annual Reports of Fed. Res. Board

Fed. Res. Bulletins

Paris, J. D. – Monetary Policies of the U.S. 1932-38

Willis, H. P. – The Theory and Practice of Central Banking

Clark, L. E. – Central Banking under the Fed. Res. System with special reference to the New York Fed. Res. Bank

Weyforth, W. O. – The Fed. Res. Board: A Study of Fed. Res. Structure and Credit Control

Fisher, I. and Cohrssen, H. R. L. – Stable Money: A History of the Movement

Cole, G. D. H. – What Everybody Wants to Know About Money

Whitney, Caroline – Experiment in Credit Control: The Fed. Res. Sys.

Weissman, R. L. – The New Fed. Res. System: The Board Assumes Control.

Villard, H. H. – The Fed. Res. System’s Monetary Policy in 1931 and 1932 – Jour. Pol. Econ., Dec. 1937

Fed. Res. Policy –Economist – London, Jan. 16, 1937

Miller, A. C. – Fed. Res. Policies, 1927-29, Am. Ec. Rev., Sept. 1935

  1. Open Market Operations [Return]

Weyforth, W. O. – The Fed. Res. Board: A Study of Fed. Res. Structure and Credit Control

Weissman, R. L. – The New Res. System: The Board Assumes Control

  1. Varying Reserve Requirements [Return]

[no references given for this item]

  1. Acceptance Market and the Federal Reserve System [Return]

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking, p. 309

Beckhart, B. H. – New York Money Market, Vol. III

Meech, S. P. – Journal of Business, Vol. II 1929

Riefler, W. – Money Rates and Money Markets

Hardy, C. O. – Credit Policies of the Fed. Res. System

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Jacobs – Bank Acceptances – Nat. Monetary Comm.

Whitney, Caroline – Experiment in Credit Control

  1. Industrial Advances of the Federal Reserve Banks [Return]

Hardy, C. O. and Viner, J. – Report on Availability of Bank Credit in 7th Fed. Res. District

Anderson, G. E. – Govt. Banking – Banking, Feb. 1936

Industrial Advances by Fed. Res. Banks – Fed. Res. Bull. April 1935

  1. Criteria of Monetary Policy [Return]

Gayer, A. D. – Monetary Policy and Econ. Stabilization. A Study of the Gold Standard

Slichter, S. H. – Towards Stability

Mills, R. C. and Walker, E. R. – Money

  1. Criteria of Federal Reserve Policy [Return]

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Hardy, C. O. – Credit Policies of the Fed. Res. System

Willis, H. P. – The Theory and Practice of Central Banking

Fisher, I. and Cohrssen, H. R. L. – Stable Money: A History of the Movement

Whitney, Caroline –Experiments in Credit Control

Weissman, R. L. – The New Fed. Res. System: The Board Assumes Control

Cassel, G. – Guiding Principles of Monetary Policy – Mysore Econ. Journ., July 1938

Eccles, M. S. – Credit and Monetary Policies of the Fed. Res. – Bankers’ Magazine, April 1937

  1. Neutral Money [Return]

Gayer, A. D. – Monetary Policy and Econ. Stabilization: A Study of the Gold Standard

Armstrong, W. E. – Savings and Investment

Slichter, S. H. – Towards Stability

Barger, H. – Neutral Money and the Trade Cycle – Economica, Nov. 1935

Hayek, F. – Prices and Production

Hayek, F. – Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle

Adarkar, B. P. – Hayek’s Neutral Money Doctrine – Ind. Jour. Econ. Jan. 1937

  1. Price Stabilization: The Strong Bills [Return]

Lawrence, – Stabilization of Prices

Keynes, J. M. – Monetary Reform

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Robertson, D. H. – Banking Policy and Price Level

Hayek, F. – Prices and Production

Haberler, G. – Essay in Gold and Monetary Stabilization

Hardy, C. O. – Credit Policies of Fed. Res. System

Cassel, G. – Rate of Interest, Bank Rate, and Stabilization of Prices, Quart. Jour. Econ., Aug. 1928

Phillips, G. A., McManus, T. F., Nelson, W. – Banking and the Business Cycle

Commodity Prices and Stability – Economist, (London) Dec. 4, 1937

  1. Price vs. Economic Stabilization [Return]

Gayer, A. D. – Monetary Policy and Econ. Stabilization: A Study of the Gold Standard

Phillips, C. A., McManus, T. F., Nelson, R. W. – Banking and the Business Cycle

Harrod, R. F. – The Expansion of Credit in an Advancing Community – Economica, Aug. 1934

Ohlin, B. – The Inadequacy of Price Stabilization-Index Dec. 1933

Egle, W. – Monetary Conditions of Economic Stability – Am. Ec. Rev. Sept. 1938

  1. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Credit Control [Return]

Robey, R. W. – Purchasing Power: An Introduction to Qualitative Credit Control

Dunkman, W. E. – Qualitative Credit Control

  1. Central Bank Policy and Speculation [Return]

Hardy, C. O. – Credit Policies of the Fed. Res. System

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy, Vol. II

Currie, L. – Supply and Control of Money in the U.S.

Williams, J. H. – Review of Keynes, Quart. Journ. Econ., Aug. 1931

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise, Ch. 15

Reed, H. L. – Fed. Res. Policy 1921-1930, pg. 168

Annual Report of Fed. Res. Board (especially 1929 and 1930)

Rogers, J. H. – Stock Speculation and Money Market, Quart. Journ. Ec. 1926

Hearings on Strong Bills (Cassel)

Anderson, B. M. – Chase Ec. Bulletin, May 1929 and Oct. 1928

Balogh, – Am. Ec. Rev., 1930

Hawtrey, R. G. – Stock Speculation and Wall St., Art of Central Banking

Machlup, F. – Boersenkredit, Industrielle Kredit und Kapitalbildung

Ohlin B. – Index #31, July 1928, Central Banking Policy and Prices

Burgess, W. R. – R.E.S. 1930

Hayek, F. – Economica, 1932, p. 38

Hoover, C. B. – Journ. Pol. Econ. 1929 – Brokers’ Loans and Bank Deposits

Eiteman, W. J. – Economics of Brokers’ Loans – Am. Ec. Rev., 1932, pp. 69-71

Hearings, –  Operation of Banking Systems 1931, p. 1024

Goodbar, J. E. – Managing People’s Money

Whitney, Caroline – Experiments in Credit Control: The Fed. Res. Sys.

Smith, D. T. – Deficits and Depressions

Thomas, W. – Credit in Security Speculation – Am. Ec. Rev. – Mar. 1935

The Banks and the Stock Market, Journ. Pol. Econ. – Dec. 1935

  1. Central Bank Policy and Agriculture [Return]

Black, J. – Provision of Agricultural Credit in the U.S. – Quart. Journ. Econ. 1928

Annual Reports of Fed. Farm Board

Lee, V. P – Principles of Agricultural Credit

James, F. C. – Economics of Money, Credit and Banking, ch. 25

Sparks, E. S. – History and Theory of Agricultural Credit in U.S.

  1. Fiscal Function of Federal Reserve Board [Return]

Chapman, J. M. – Fiscal Functions of Fed. Res. Banks

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Clark, L. E. – Central Banking Function under the Fed. Res. System

Smith, D. T. – Deficits and Depressions

  1. Bank Correspondent Relationship under Federal Reserve System [Return]

Clark, L. E. – Central Banking under fed. Res. System

Watkins, L. R. –  Bankers’ Balances

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking – p. 660

Hearings on Branch, Group and Chain Banking – 71st Congress

  1. Effectiveness of Central Bank Control [Return]

Hardy, D. O. – Credit Policy of Fed. Res. System

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Hawtrey, R. G. – Art of Central Banking

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money – Book VII

Robertson, D. H. – Banking Policy and Price Level

Currie, L. – Supply and Control of Money in the U.S.

Reed, H. L. – Fed. Res. Policy 1921-1931

Zorn, E. C. – Why our Easy Money Policy has Failed – Bankers’ Mag. July 1938

Alling, N. D. – Fed. Res. Sys. And Low Int. Rates – Bankers’ Mag. May 1937

Burgess, W. R. – Limitations of Fed. Res. Policy – Bankers’ Mag. Nov. 1936

Platt, E. –  The Limitations of Central Banking – Bankers’ Mag. Nov. 1936

Collins, E. H. – The Reserve Board Tests the Brakes – Banking Dec. 1935

Currie, L. – The Failure of Monetary Policy to Prevent the Depression of 1929-33, Jour. Pol. Econ., April 1934

Holladay, J. A. – Can Credit be Controlled? – Bankers Mag., May 1936

  1. Treasury Control of Monetary Policy [Return]

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Harding, W. P. G. – Formative Period of Fed. Res. System

Reed, H. L. – Fed. Res. Policy 1921-31

U.S. Chamber of Commerce – Banking and Currency Comm. Report & Suppl.

Dodwell, D.W. – Treasuries and Central Banks, Especially in England and the U.S.

Govts. And Central Banks – Economist, London, Mar. 28, 1936

Anderson, T. J. – Currency Powers of Congress – Bankers Mag., Jan. 1935

Powers of Congress over Banking – Bankers Mag., Feb. 1935

Bradford, F. A. – Political Banking Destroying the Reserve System – Annalist, Jan. 11, 1935

Ebersole, J. F. – The Money Management Powers of the Treas. and Fed. Res. Banks – Harv. Bus. Rev. Autumn 1936

Einzig, P. – Govt. Interference in Banking – Barron’s Nov. 18, 1935

  1. Bank of England and London Money Market [Return]

Andreades, A. M. – History of Bank of England

Spalding, – London Money Market

Strakes, – Money Market

Bagehot, W. – Lombard Street

Harris, S. E. – Monetary Problems of British Empire

Bisschop, – Rise of London Money Market

Thomas, S. E. –  British Banks and Finance of Industry

Sagers, R. S. – Bank of England Operations, 1890-1914

Truptil, R. J. – British Banks and the London Money Market

Madden, J. T. and Nadler, M. – The International Money Markets

Beach, W. E. – British International Gold Movements and Banking Policy

Biddulph, G. – The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy – Econ. Forum, Sept. – Oct. 1934

  1. Central Banking in France [Return]

Peel, G. – Economic Policy of France

Madden, J. T. and Nadler, M. – The International Money Markets

Boris, G. – Reforming the Bank of France – Foreign Affairs, Oct. 1936

  1. Central Banking in Canada [Return]

Holladay, J. – The Canadian Banking System

Cohen, J. C. – The Govt. and the Central Bank in Canada – Banker, London, Apr. 1934

Rhodes, E. N. – Canada’s Central Bank – Banking, Nov. 1934

Rogers, A. W. – The Bank of Canada – Journ. Canadian Bankers’ Assn. Oct. 1934

  1. Cooperation of Central Banks [Return]

Mlynarski, F. J. – Gold and Central Banks

Royal Inst. of Int. Affairs – International Gold Problem

Royal Inst. of Int. Affairs – Monetary Policy and Depression

League of Nations – Gold Report

MacMillan Report (Report of the Committee on Finance and Industry)

Hawtrey, H. G. – Art of Central Banking

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Goldstein, A. – Fed. Res. Aid to Foreign Central Banks, Rev. Econ. Stud., Feb. 1935

Goldstein, A. – International Aspects of Fed. Res. Policy – Rev. Ec. Stat., Aug. 1935

III. THE BUSINESS CYCLE – Analysis and Policy

General References [Return]

Gordon, R. A. – Bibliography on Business Cycles, Rev. of Econ. Statistics, Special Number, Feb. 1937

  1. Causes of the Depression [Return]

Robbins, L. – The Great Depression

Bratt, E. C. – Business Cycles and Forecasting

Haberler, G. – Prosperity and Depression

Dulles, E. L. – Depression and Reconstruction: A Study of Causes and Controls

  1. Critical Discussion of One Theory of the Business Cycle:
    Pigou / Robertson / Keynes / Hayek / Hawtrey / Mitchell
    Foster and Catchings / Schumpeter / Harrod [Return]

Bresciani-Turroni – Rev. of Money theory and Trade Cycle – Economica, Aug. 1934

Ellis, H. – German Monetary Theory

Hanson, H. H. – Rev. of Prices and Production, Am. Ec. Rev., June 1933

Hawtrey – Rev. of Prices and Production, Economica, Feb. 1932

Hawtrey – Capital and Employment

Hawtrey – Prof. Haberler on the Trade Cycle – Economica, Feb. 1938

Hayek, F. – Paradox of Saving, Economica, May 1931

Hayek, F. – Money and Capital, Ec. Journ. – June 1932

Hayek, F. – Capital and Industrial Fluctuations, Econometrica, April 1934

Hayek, F. – On Relationship between Investment and Output – Ec. Journ., June 1934

Hayek, F. – Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle

Hayek, F. – The Fallacy of Artificial Price Raising – Barron’s March 12, 1934

Keynes, J. M. – On Hayek’s Review – Ec. Journ., Nov. 1931

Knight, F. H. – Hayek’s Theory of Investment, Ec. Journ. Mar. 1935

Sraffa, P. – Hayek on Money and Capital – Ec. Journ., March 1932

Marget, A. W. – Theory of Prices

Hansen, A. H. – Full Recovery or Stagnation

Shackle, G. L. S. –Expectations, Investments and Income

Munro, H. – Principles of Monetary Industrial Stability

Haberler, G. – Prosperity and Depression

Harrod, R. F. – The Trade Cycle

Durbin, E. F. M. – Problem of Credit Policy

Hayek, F. – Investment that Raises the Demand for Capital – Rev. Am. Stat., Nov. 1937

Neisser, H. – Investment Fluctuation as Cause of the Bus. Cycle – Social Research, Nov. 1937

Chand, G. – Keynes and the Trade Cycle – Indian Jour. Econ. Apr. 1938

Muniswamy, M. K. –Recent Trends in Trade Cycle Theory – Indian Jour. Ec. – April 1938

Mr. Keynes and Finance – Ec. Jour. June 1935

Mukherjee, B. – Trade Cycle and Its Remedies – Nature and Causes of Trade Cycles – Indian Jour. Econ. Apr. 1931

Robertson, D. H. – Trade Cycle – An Academic View – Lloyd’s Bank Monthly Rev., Sept. 1937

Population Cycles: A Cause of the Business Cycle – Quart. Journ. Ec., Jan. 1937

Adarkar, B. P. – Prof. Hayek’s Neutral Money Doctrine – Ind. Journ. Ec., Jan. 1937

  1. Monetary Theory of the Trade Cycle [Return]

Hayek, F. – Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle

Haberler, G. – Prosperity and Depression

Weyforth, W. O. – The Fed. Res. Board: A Study of Fed. Res. Structure and Credit Control

Fisher, A. G. B. – Volume of Produce and Volume of Money – Am. Ec. Rev., June 1935

Shackle, G. L. S. – Some Notes on Monetary Theories of the Trade Cycle – Rev. Ec. Stud., Oct. 1933

Snyder, C. – Problem of Monetary and Econ. Stability – Quart. Journ. Econ., Feb. 1935

  1. Review of Warren and Person: Prices [Return]

Warren, G. and Pearson, F. A. – Prices

Warren, G. and Pearson, F. A. – World Prices and the Building Industry

Warren, G. and Pearson, F. A. – Monetary Policy and Prices – Journ. Farm. Econ., May 1935

Warren, G. – Some Statistics on the Gold Situation – Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl. March 1934

Spahr, W. – Monetary Theory of Warren and Pearson

Ransome and Mann – Future of Prices, Home and Abroad

Laughlin, J. L. – Principles of Money

Scott, – Money and Banking

Hardy, C. O. – The Warren-Pearson Price Theory

  1. Period of Production and the Trade Cycle [Return]

Hawtrey, R. G. – Capital and Employment

  1. Review of Hayek: “Prices and Production” [Return]

Hawtrey, R. G. – Capital and Employment

  1. Theory of Forced Savings [Return]

Robertson, D. H. – Money

Robertson, D. H. – Banking Policy and the Price Level

Economics of Saving – Amer. Econ. Rev., 1913

Egle, W. – Money and Production – Journ. Pol. Econ., June 1935

Durbin, E. F. M. – Purchasing Power and Trade Depression

  1. Theory of Bank Rates [Return]

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Keynes, J. M. – General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Harris, S. E. – Twenty Years of Fed. Res. Policy

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Hawtrey, R. G. – Art of Central Banking

Hawtrey, R. G. – Currency and Credit

Hayek, F. – Prices and Production

Hayek, F. – Monetary Theory of the Trade Cycle

Wicksell, K. – Natural Rate of Interest, Quart. Journ. Ec., 1907

Macaulay, F. R. – Theoretical Problems Suggested by Movements of Interest Rates in the U.S.

Adarkar, B. P. – Theory of Monetary Policy

Edie, L. D. – Easy Money

Wicksell, K. – Interest and Price

Fleming, J. M. – Determination of the Rate of Interest, Economica, Aug. 1938

Melville, R. G. – The Theory of Interest – Econ. Record, June 1938

Bissell, R. M. – The Rate of Interest – Suppl. Am. Ec. Rev., Mar. 1938

Conning, J. B. – The Rate of Interest – Suppl. Am. Ec. Rev., Mar. 1938

Lange, O. – Rate of Interest and the Optimum Propensity to Consume, Economica, March 1938

Lange, O. – The Place of Interest in the Theory of Production, Rev. Econ. Stud., June 1936

Keynes, J. M. – The “Ex Ante” Theory of Interest Rate – Ec. Journ. Dec. 1937

Tahata, Y. – Determination of Rate of Interest – Kyoto Univ. Ec. Rev. – July 1937

Lerner, A. P. – Alternative Formulations of the Theory of Interest, Ec. Journ., June 1938

Millikan, M. – Liquidity Preference Theory of Interest – Am. Ec. Rev., June 1938

Riley, R. H. – Note on “A Break in Keynes Theory of Interest” – Am. Ec. Rev., June 1928

Ohlin, B., Robertson, D. H., and Hawtrey, R. G. – Alternative Theories of the Rate of Interest – Ec. Journ. September 1937

Keynes, J. M. – Alternative Theories of the Rate of Interest – Econ. Journ., June 1937

Ellsworth, P. T. – Mr. Keynes on the Rate of Interest – Journ. Pol. Ec., Dec. 1936

Jones, H. L. – Should Interest be Abolished? – Bankers Mag., May 1936

Hutton, D. G. – Recovery and the Rate of Interest – Lloyd’s Bank Rev., Feb., 1937

  1. Installment Selling and the Business Cycle [Return]

Currie, L. – Supply and Control of Money in U.S.

Moulton, H. G. – Financial Organization of Society

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Clark, Evans – Financing the Consumer

Seligman, E. R. A. – Economics of Installment Selling

Ayres, M. V. and Plummer, C. W. – Social and Economical Consequences of Buying on the Installment Plan – Annals of the Amer. Acad. of Pol. and Soc. Science, 1927 Suppl.

Phelps, C. W. – Controlled Installment Credit – Household Fin. Corp.

Babson, R. W. – Folly of Installment Buying

Cover, J. H. – Financing the Consumer

Douglas, P. F. – Consumer Credit

Goldman, J. – Prosperity and Consumer Credit

Foster, L. B. R. – Credit for Consumers

Zweig, F. – The Economics of Consumer Credit

Silberling, N. J. – Consumer Goods Financing and Investment Fluctuations – Amer. Ec. Rev., Sept. 1938

Schwartz, G. L. – Installment Finance – Economica – May 1936

Installment Finance – “Index”, N.Y. Trust Co., April 1937

Consumer Credit – Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. Science, March 1938

  1. Underconsumption Theory of the Trade Cycle [Return]

Munro, H. – Principles of Monetary-Industrial Stability

Haberler, G. – Prosperity and Depression

Phillips, C. A., et al. – Banking and the Business Cycle

Adams, A. B. – Analysis of Business Cycles

Foster, W. T. and Catchings, W. – Profits

Slichter, S. H. – Towards Stability

Durbin, E. F. M. – Purchasing Power and the Trade Depression

Hayek, F. – Prices and Production

Hobson, J. A. and Durbin, E. F. M. – Underconsumption – Economica, November 1933

  1. The Dilemma of Thrift [Return]

Foster, W. T. and Catchings, W. – Profits

Pigou and Robertson –  Review of Foster and Catchings

Hayek, F. – Paradox of Saving – Economica, May 1931

Mitchell, W. C. – Business Cycles

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

  1. Major Douglas’ Social Credit [Return]

Douglas, C. H. – Social Credit

Holter, E. S. – The ABC of Social Credit

Meade, J. E. – Consumers’ Credit and Unemployment

Hansen, A. H. – Full Recovery or Stagnation

Hawtrey R. G. – Capital and Employment

Dobb, M. – Social Credit Discredited

Strachey, J. – Social Credit

Larkin, J. C. – From Debt to Prosperity

Chase, H. S. – Fallacies of Social Credit – Am. Ec. Rev. Dec. 1935

Chase, H. S. – Social Credit: A Study of the New Economics – Bankers Magazine, April 1935

Robinson, G. B. – Where Social Credit Has Led Us – Annalist, Dec. 27, 1935

The Social Credit Doctrine – Barron’s Weekly, Oct. 28, 1935

Cordell, W. and K. – Alberta and Social Credit – No. Am. Rev. March 1936

  1. Fisher’s Compensated Dollar (Commodity Dollar) [Return]

Fisher, I. – Stabilizing the Dollar

U.S. House of Representatives – Committee on Banking and Currency – Hearings on Goldsborough Bill, H. R., 11788 – 1923

U.S. House of Representatives – Committee on Banking and Currency – Hearings on Goldsborough Bill, H. R., 424 – 1929J

Report on Fisher’s Plan to Stabilize the Dollar – Journ. Am. Bankers’ Assn, 1920

Anderson, B. M. – Fallacy oft he Stabilized Dollar, Journ. Am. Bankers‘ Assn, 1929

Taussig, F. W. – Plan for Compensated Dollar – Quart. Journ. Ec. 1913

Lawrence, – Stabilization of Prices

Gideonse, H. D. – The Commodity Dollar

Kemmerer, E. W. – Money

Slichter, S. H. – Towards Stability

Reed, H. L. – The Commodity Dollar

Rorty, M. C. – The Commodity Dollar – Harv. Bus. Rev., Winter, 1936

  1. 100% Reserve Plan [Return]

(See Title Number 13)

  1. Public Expenditure and Prices [Return]

Gayer, A. D. – Public Works in Prosperity and Depression

Gayer, A. D. – Monetary Policy and Econ. Stabilization

Clark, J. M. – Economics of Planning Public Works

Pigou, A. C. – Public Finance (or any standard text)

Pigou, A. C. – Theory of Unemployment

Keynes, J. M. – Means to Prosperity

Hawtrey, R. G. – Trade Depression and the Way Out

Foster, W. T. and Catchings – Profits

Harris, S. E. – Public Expenditure and Prices – Rev. Ec. Stat., Feb. 1935

Kahn, R. F. – Home Investment – Ec. Journ. 1931

Worming, J. – Financing of Public Works – Ec. Journ. 1932

Bowley, A. – Is Unemployment Inevitable?

Wolman, L. – Public Works

Hubbard, J. B. – Economics of Public Works

Boynton, P. H., et al. – Economics of Pump Priming

Slichter, S. H. – The Economics of Public Works – Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl. March 1934

Cole, G. D. H. – Economic Planning

Douglas, Paul – Controlling Depressions

  1. The Theory of Public Works [Return]

(See above Title and References)

  1. The Multiplier [Return]

Harrod, R. F. – Trade Cycle

Kahn, R. F. – Home Investment, Econ. Journ. 1931

Clark, Colin – Determination of the Multiplier from Natl. Income Statistics – Rev. Econ. Stat., May 1938

Bresciani-Turroni, C. – The Multiplier in Practice – Rev. Econ. Stat., May 1938

IV. MONETARY THEORY

General References

Gordon, R. A. – Bibliography on Business Cycles, Review of Economic Statistics, Special Number, Feb. 1937

  1. English Monetary Theory during the Napoleonic Wars [Return]

MacLeod, H. D. – Theory of Credit

Cannan, E. – Paper Pound

Thornton – Paper Credit of Great Britain

Report of Bullion Committee

Tracts on Bullion Committee Report

Ricardo, D. – Price of Gold

Keynes, J. M. – Essays in Biography, on Malthus

Andreades, A. M. – History of the Bank of England

Angell, J. – International Prices

Fisher, I. and Cohrsson, H. R. L. – Stable Money: A History of the Movement

  1. Nominalistic vs. Metallistic Conception of Money [Return]

Encyclopedia of Social Sciences

Knapp, – The State Theory of Money

Ellis, – German Monetary Theory

  1. Transaction vs. Cash Balances Approach to the Quantity Theory of Money [Return]

Marget, A. W. –

Ellis, – German Monetary Theory

  1. Keynes’ Theory of Money [Return]

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Keynes, J. M. – Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Williams, J. H. – Review of Keynes – Quart. Journ. Ec., Aug. 1931

Robertson, D. H. – Review of Keynes – Ec. Journ. Sept. 1931

Robertson, D. H. – Mr. Keynes and “Finance” – Ec. Journ. Sept. 1938

Hayek F. – Review of Keynes – Economica, Aug. 1931, Feb. 1931 (see also Keynes’ rejoinders in Economica, Nov. 1931 and FF)

Hawtrey, R. G. – Art of Central Banking

Marget, A. W. – Theory of Prices

Curtis, Myra and Townsend, Hugh – Modern Money

Joy, D. – Keynes on Money – Banker (London) April 1936

  1. Marshall as a Monetary Theorist [Return]

Marshall, Alfred – Money, Credit and Commerce

Marshall, Alfred – Official Papers

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Angell, J. W. – Theory of International Prices

Memorial to Alfred Marshall, especially Keynes Essay

Robertson, D. H. – Economic Fragments

Pigou, A. C. and Robertson, D. H. – Economic Essay and Addresses

  1. Cannan as a Monetary Theorist [Return]

Cannan, E. – Modern Currency and Regulation of its Value

Cannan, E. – Economic Scares

Cannan, E. – Money (trace through 3rd to 6th editions)

Gregory, T. E – Professor Cannan’s Contemporary Monetary Theory – “London Essays on Economics”.

  1. Robertson’s Theory of Money [Return]

Robertson, D. H. – Money

Robertson, D. H. – Banking Policy and Price Level

Robertson, D. H. – Economic Fragments

Robertson, D. H. and Pigou, A. C. – Economic Essay and Addresses

  1. Hawtrey’s Theory of Money [Return]

Hawtrey, R. G. – Currency and Credit

Hawtrey, R. G. – Trade Depressions

Hawtrey, R. G. – Art of Central Banking

Cannan, E. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Gold Standard, Ec. Journ., Dec. 1927

Cannan, E. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Trade Depression, etc., Ec. Journ. Mar. 1932

Hardy, C. O. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Art of Central Banking, Am. Ec. Rev. June 1933

Harrod, R. F. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Currency and Credit, Ec. Journ., June 1929

Harrod, R. F. – Rev. of Trade Depression, etc., Ec. Journ. June, 1934

Keynes, J. M. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Currency and Credit, Ec. Journ., Sept. 1920

Marget, A. W. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Gold Standard, Quart. Journ. Ec. Nov. 1927

Pigou, A. C. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Trade and Credit, – Ec. Journ., June 1929

Robertson, D. H. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Monetary Reconstruction – Ec. Journ., June 1923

Young, A. A. – Rev. of Hawtrey, Currency and Credit, Quart. Journ. Ec. May 1920

  1. Knapp’s Theory of Money [Return]

(Consult Library Card Catalog)

  1. Fisher’s Theory of Money [Return]

(Consult Library Card Catalog)

  1. Nature of Credit [Return]

MacLeod, H. D. – Theory of Credit

Mill, J. S. – Chapters on Credit

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Prendergast and Steiner – Credit and its Uses

Robertson, D. H. – Money

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Hawtrey, R. G. – Art of Central Banking

Phillips, C. A. – Bank Credit

Currie, L. – Supply and Control of Money in the U.S.

V. INTERNATIONAL MONETARY RELATIONS AND POLICY

General References [Return]

Young, J. P. – International Trade and Finance

Westerfield, R. B. – Money, Credit and Banking

Thomas, R. G. – Modern Banking

Madden, J. T. and Nadler, M. – The International Money Market

Einzig, Paul – World Finance, 1914-35

  1. Pre-War and Post-War Gold Standards [Return]

Irons, W. H. – A Study of the Causes Underlying the International Gold Crisis

Gayer, A. D. – Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization: A Study of the Gold Standard

Cassel, G. – Downfall of the Gold Standard

Morgan-Webb, Charles – The Rise and Fall of the Gold Standard

Puxley, H. L. – A Critique of the Gold Standard

  1. Great Britain’s Return to the Gold Standard in 1925 [Return]

Keynes, J. M. – Monetary Reform

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Report of the Committee on Finance and Industry (MacMillan)

Cunliffe Report on British Currency

Hawtrey, R. G. – Gold Standard and Monetary Reconstruction

Gregory, T. E. – Gold Standard

Brown, W. A. – England and New Gold Standard

McVey, F. L. – Financial History of Great Britain, 1914-20

Bogart, E. L. – Direct and Indirect Costs of World War

Litman, S. – Prices and Price Control in Great Britain and the United States during the World War

Fraser, H. F. – Great Britain and Gold Standard

Benham, F. – British Monetary Policy

Harris, S. E. – Monetary Problems of the British Empire

Pethick-Lawrence, F. W. – This Gold Crisis

  1. Stabilization of the Lira [Return]

[No references given]

  1. France and the Gold Standard [Return]

Hawtrey, R. G. – French Monetary Policy

Hawtrey, R. G. – Art of Central Banking

Rogers, J. H. R. – Process of Inflation in France

Rogers, J. H. R. – America Weighs Her Gold

Final Gold Report of the League of Nations

Sollohub, W. A. – Depression in France – Harv. Bus. Rev., July 1933

Miller, H. E. – The Franc in War and Reconstruction – Quart. Journ. Ec. 1929

Dulles, E. – The French Franc, 1914-1929

Vineberg, P. F – The French Franc and the Gold Standard, 1926-36

The Franc in 1926 and 1927 – Economist (London) Oct. 8, 1937

Wynne, W. H. – France and the Franc – Canadian Banker, Oct. 1936

Readjustment of the Franc – Lloyd’s Bank Rev., Oct. 1936

  1. The Gold Bloc [Return]

[No references given]

  1. Causes and Consequences of England’s Departure from Gold [Return]

Harris, S. E. – Monetary Problems of the British Empire

Fraser, H. F. – Great Britain and the Gold Standard

League of Nations – Gold Reports

Royal Institute of International Affairs – Monetary Policy

Irons, W. H. – A Study of the Causes Underlying the International Gold Crisis

Cassel, G. – Downfall of the Gold Standard

  1. Methods of Return to the Gold Standard [Return]

Cassel, G. – Post-War Monetary Stabilization

Hawtrey, R. G. – Monetary Reconstruction

League of Nations – Genoa Conference and other annual publications

Gregory, T. E. – Gold Standard and Future

Fraser, H. F. – Great Britain and Gold Standard

International Labor Review – Great Britain and Gold Standard

Gregory – Barron’s Weekly, Aug. 28, 1933

Gold Reports of League of Nations

Sprague, O. M. W. – Pre-requisites to Monetary Stabilization – Foreign Affairs 1937

  1. Present Outlook for the Gold Standard [Return]

Einzig, P. – Will Gold Depreciate?

Einzig, P. – The Future of Gold

Gregory, T. E. – The Gold Standard and Its Future

Hansen, A. H. – Situation of Gold Today in Relation to World Currencies – American Ec. Rev., Suppl., Mar. 1937

Jones, J. H. – The Gold Standard – Econ. Journ., Dec. 1933

  1. Gold Exchange Standard [Return]

Edie, L. D. – Money, Bank Credit and Prices

Gold Reports of League of Nations

McMillan Report

Hawtrey, R. G. – Gold Standard

Hawtrey, R. G. – Monetary Reconstruction

Hawtrey, R. G. – Currency and Credit

Gregory, T. E. – First Year of Gold Standard

Robertson, D. H. – Money

Kemmerer, E. W. – Money

  1. Gold Movements Since the War [Return]

Royal Institute of Int. Affairs – Int. Gold Problems (bibliog)

League of Nations – Final Gold Report; other publications

Brown, W. A. – England and the Gold Standard

Reports of Director of Mint – U.S.

Federal Reserve Bulletins

Cassel, G. – Crisis in World’s Monetary System, 1932

Young, J. P. – European Currency and Finance, Commission of Gold and Silver Inquiry, U.S. Senate

Warren, G. F. – Some Statistics on the Gold Situation – Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl., Mar. 1934

  1. Gold Distribution and the Depression [Return]

Gayer, A. D. – Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization

Phillips, C. A. – Banking and the Business Cycle

Bowen, H. – Gold Maldistribution – Am.Econ.Rev., Dec. 1936

  1. Is there a Gold Shortage? [Return]

Royal Institute of International Affairs – Monetary Policy and Depression

Gregory, T. E. – Gold Standard and its Future

League of Nations – Gold Reports

Mlynarski, F. J. – Gold and Central Banks

Rist – In “Current Economic Policies”

Warren and Pearson – Prices

Hardy, C. O. – Is There Enough Gold

Keynes, J. M. – The Supply of Gold – Econ. Journ., Sept. 1936

  1. Methods to Economize Gold [Return]

Niemeyer, O. – International Gold Problem (How to Economize Gold)

Gold Reports of League of Nations – Final and Interim

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money

Hawtrey, R. G. – Monetary Reconstruction – Genoa Conference

Gayer, A. D. – Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization

  1. Exchange Depreciation and World Recovery [Return]

Harris, S. E. – Exchange Depreciation

Eder, G. J. – Effect of Gold Price Changes on Prices for Other Commodities – Journ. Royal Stat. Assn., p. I, 1938

Malenbaum, W. – Power of Undervalued Currency – Rev. Ec.Stud., Feb. 1938

Edelberg, V. – Measuring Power of Under-valued Currency to Stimulate Exports – Rev.Ec.Studies, Oct. 1937

  1. Exchange Depreciation Experience of Japan [Return]

[No references given]

  1. Exchange Depreciation Experience of Sweden [Return]

[No references given]

  1. Exchange Depreciation Experience of Britain [Return]

Harris, S. E. – Exchange Depreciation

  1. Exchange Depreciation Experience of Australia [Return]

Copland, D. – Australia and the World Crisis, 1929-33

  1. Exchange Depreciation Experience of U.S. [Return]

Harris, S. E. – Exchange Depreciation

  1. Exchange Central [Return]

Exchange Restrictions in European Countries – circ. #421, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce

Einzig, P. – Exchange Control

Ohlin, B. – Mechanisms and Objectives of Exchange Control – Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl., March 1937

Williams, J. H. – Adequacy of Existing Currency Mechanisms – Am.Econ.Rev. Suppl., March 1937

  1. Sterling-Dollar-Franc Triangle [Return]

New York Times

Current Articles

  1. The “Gentlemen’s Agreement” [Return]

Spahr, W. E. – Tripartite Agreement – Annalist, Nov. 13, 1936

Warren, R. B. – The Gentlemen’s Agreement – Annalist, Nov. 13, 1936

  1. British Equalization Fund [Return]

Hall, N. F. – The Exchange Equalization Account

Harris, S. E. – Exchange Depreciation

The British Exchange Equalization Fund – 1935-7 – Economica, Aug. 1937

Crump, N. – Development of Exchange Funds – Lloyd’s Rank Monthly Rev., Jan. 1937

Paish, F. W. – The British Exchange Equalization Fund – Economica, Feb. 1935

Paish, F. W. – The British Exchange Equalization Fund – Economica, Feb. 1936

Comstock, A. – British Exchange Equalization Account – Am. Ec. Rev. Dec. 1933

  1. Gold Buying Policy and Devaluation [Return]

Fifty-cent dollars, etc. – Commercial and Finan. Chronicle, June 1, 1932

Incidence of Devaluation – Commercial and Finan. Chronicle, June 8, 1932

Hacker, L. M. – Short History of New Deal

Brown, et al. – Ec. of Recovery Program

Hubbard, J. B. – Current Economic Policy

Hardy, C. O. – Devaluation of the Dollar

Harris, S. E. – British and American Exchange Policy – Quart. Journ. Ec., May & Aug., 1934

Graham, F. O. – Journ. Amer. Statis. Assn., Sup. 1935, March

Edie, L. D. – Easy Money

Harris, S. E. – Exchange Depreciation

Eder, G. J. – Effect of Gold Price Change on Prices of Other Commodities, Jour. Royal Stat. Soc., part I, 1938

Woolfson, A. P. – Our Gold Policy and the Commodity Price Outlook – Bankers Mag., Aug. 1937

Whittlesey, C. R. – The Gold Dilemma – Quart. Journ. Ec., Aug. 1937

Silverstein, A. L. – American Devaluation: Prices and Export Trade – Am. Econ. Rev., June 1937

  1. Recent Silver Policy of the United States [Return]

Gregory, T. E. – Silver Situation, etc.

London Monetary and Economic Conference – agreements

Foreign Policy Assn. – Silver, its International Aspects (1931)

Deterding, H. W. A. – Silver and Foreign Debt Payments

Smith, G. A., Jr. – On Silver – Harv. Bus. Review 1934

Kreps – Silver and Chinese Purchasing Power

Leong, Y. S. – Silver (Brookings – 1934)

Elliston, H. – The Silver Problem – Foreign Affairs, April 1931

Willis, H. P. – Silver – New Republic, March 11, 1931

Westerfield, R. B. – Our Silver Debacle

Barbour, P. E. – America’s Silver Policy – Annalist Dec. 13, 1935

Berridge, W. A. – Some Facts Bearing on the Silver Program – Rev. Econ. Stat., Nov. 1934

Smith, G. A. – Silver: Its Status and Outlook – Harv. Bus. Rev., Oct. 1934

  1. Monetary Consequences of the Fall in the Price of Silver [Return]

Seyd – Fall in the Price of Silver

Nogaro – Modern Monetary Systems

Westerfield, R. B. – Our Silver Debacle

Leavens, D. H. – American Silver Policy in China – Harv. Bus. Rev. Autumn, 1935

Leavens, D. H. – Distribution of the World’s Silver – Rev. Ec. Stat. Nov. 1935

Wu, L. T. K. – China’s Monetary Dilemma – Far East Survey, Dec. 4, 1935

Spalding, W. F. – The Silver Problem as it Affects Mexico – Bankers’ Ins. Manag. Mag., June 1935

Berridge, W. A. – Some Facts Bearing on the Silver Program, Rev. Ec. Stat., Nov. 1934

Deterding, H. W. A. – Silver: Its International Position – Econ. Forum, June-July 1934

Kreps, T. J. – The Price of Silver and Chinese Purchasing Power – Quart. Journ. Ec. – Feb. 1934

  1. Flexible Parities [Return]

Meade, J. E. – Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy

Hayek, F. – Monetary Nationalism and International Stability

British Monetary Policy – Economist (London) Oct. 24, 1936

Henderson, H. D. – Case Against Returning to Gold – Lloyd’s Bank Monthly Review – June 1935

Graham, F. D. and Whittlesey, C. R. – Fluctuating Exchange Rates, Foreign Trade and the Price Level – Am. Econ. Rev. – Sept. 1934

Whale, P. B. – Theory of International Trade – Economica – Feb. 1936

Williams, J. H. – Adequacy of Existing Currency Mechanisms, Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl. – March 1937

  1. Hot Money [Return]

Kindleberger, C. P. – International Short Term Capital Movements

Feiler, A. – International Movement of Capital – Amer. Econ. Rev. Suppl., Mar. 1935

  1. Exchange Rates Under Incontrovertible Paper [Return]

Cassel, G. – Money and Foreign Exchange After 1914

Angell, J. – Theory of International Prices

Nogaro – Modern Monetary Systems

Taussig, F. W. – International Trade

Whitaker – Foreign Exchange

Viner, J. – Studies in the Theory of International Trade

  1. Purchasing Power Parity vs. Balance of Payment Theory of the Determination of Exchange Rates [Return]

Cassel, G. – Econ. Journ., March 1916

Cassel, G. – Econ. Journ., Sept. 1916

Cassel, G. – Econ. Journ., Dec. 1918

Cassel, G. – Annals of Amer. Acad. Of Pol. And Soc. Science, Vol. 89, May 1920

Cassel, G. – Money and Foreign Exchange after 1914

Ellis – German Monetary Theory

Keynes, J. M. – Monetary Reform, p. 87 ff

Keynes, J. M. – Treatise on Money, ch. 5

Keilhau – Econ. Journ., 1925, pp. 221 ff

Angell, J. – Theory of International Prices

Nogaro – Modern Monetary System

Taussig, F. W. – International Trade

Bogen, J. I. – Money and Banking

Viner, J. – Studies in the Theory of International Trade

Kindleberger, C. P. – International Short Term Capital Movements

Graham, F. D. – Recent Movements in International Price Levels, and the Doctrine of Purchasing Power Parity – Journ. Am. Stat. Assn., Suppl., Mar. 1935

  1. International vs. National Objectives of Monetary Policy [Return]

Gayer, A. D. – Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization

Hayek, F. – Monetary Nationalism and International Stability

  1. Measures of Over-valuation [Return]

Kindleberger, C. P. – International Short-Term Capital Movements

Whale, P. B. – Theory of International Trade – Economica, Feb. 1936

  1. The International Transfer of Purchasing Power [Return]

Einzig, P. – Foreign Balances

Kindleberger, C. P. – International Short-Term Capital Movements

Ohlin, B. – International and Interregional Trade

Taussig, F. W. – International Trade

Feiler, A. – International Movement of Capital – Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl. March 1935

Cassel, G. – International Payments under a System of Paper Currencies – Skon Kredit Quart. Rept., Oct. 1934

  1. The Forward Exchange Market [Return]

Einzig, P. – The Theory of Forward Exchange

Einzig, P. – Some Theoretico-Technical Aspects of Official Forward Exchange Operations – Econ. Journ. June 1938

Kindleberger, C. P. – International Short-Term Capital Movements

Keynes, J. M. – Tract of Monetary Reform

  1. Spreading the Gold Points and Short Term Capital Movements [Return]

[No references given]

  1. American Export of Capital since the War [Return]

League of Nations – Course and Phases of World Econ. Depression

Hansen, A. H. – Econ. Stabilization in Unbalanced World

Young, J. P. – International Financial Position of U.S.

Moon, P. T. – America as a Creditor Nation

Angell, J. – Financial Foreign Policies of U.S.

Angell, J. – Balance of Payments in U.S.

Taussig, F. W. – International Trade

League of Nations –Report of Gold Delegation

League of Nations – Stat. Yearbook

U.S. Dept. of Commerce – American Underwriting of Foreign Securities in 1929

Haberler, G. – International Trade

Kindleberger, C. P. – International Short-Term Capital Movements

Feiler, A. – International Movement of Capital – Am. Ec. Rev. Suppl. March 1935

  1. International Short Term Balances and the Depression [Return]

Einzig, P. – Foreign Balance

Kindleberger, C. P. – International Short-Term Capital Movements

  1. Tariff Policy and the Depression [Return]

Report of Committee of Inquiry into National Policy in International Economic Relations

  1. Bank of International Settlements [Return]

Dulles, E. L. – B. I. S. at work (1932)

Einzig, P. – Bank of International Settlement

Gideonse, H. R. – The International Bank

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Bank of International Settlement – Annual Reports

Traylor, M. – Bank of International Settlement Documents – First Natl. Bank, Chicago

Dulles, E. L. – Bank of International Settlement – Am. Ec. Rev. June 1938

Fraser, L. – The International Bank and Its Future – Foreign Affairs, April 1936

Keynes, J. M. – Report of the Bank of International Settlement – Econ. Journ., Sept. 1934

De Clery, A. R. – The Bank of International Settlement and the World Economic Crisis, Interparliamentary Bulletin, Nov. 1934

VI. MISCELLANEOUS

  1. War Finance [Return]

American Econ. Assn. – Report of Committee on War Finance

League of Nations –Currencies after the War

U.S. Senate – Comm. of Gold and Silver – Inquiry – European Currencies and Exchange

Grady, H. F. – British War Finance, 1914-1919

Nicholson, J. S. – War Finance

Harris, S. E. – Monetary Problems of British Empire

Graham, F. D. – Exchange, Prices and Production in Hyperinflation in Germany, 1920-23

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking

Hollander, J. B. – War Borrowing

Bogart, E. L. – War Costs and their Financing

Pigou, A. C. – Political Econom. of War

Smith, D. T. – Treasury Operations and Money Market

Hawtrey, R. G. – Currency and Credit

  1. The Reparations Controversy [Return]

Moulton, H. G. and Pasvolsky – War Debts and World Prosperity

Myers, D. P. – The Reparation Settlement

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking – 902 ff

Young, J. P. – International Trade and Finance

  1. War Debts [Return]

(same as No. 130)

  1. Fall of Prices: 1873-96 [Return]

Layton – Intro. To Study of Prices

Price, L. L. –Money and its Relation to Prices

Ransome and Mann – Future of Prices at Home and Abroad

Warren and Pearson – Prices

Kuznets, S. – Secular Movements in Production and Prices

League of Nations – Gold Reports

Peterson, J. and Peterson, O. S. – An Analysis of Price Behavior During Period 1855-1913

Mills, F. C. – Prices in Recession and Recovery

  1. Rise of Prices: 1896-1913 [Return]

(see no. 132)

Ashley, Gold and Prices (1912)

  1. Price Movement since the War [Return]

Mills, F. C. – Prices in Recession and Recovery

  1. Probable Future Trend of Prices [Return]

Ransome and Mann – Future of Prices at Home and Abroad

Warren and Pearson – Prices

Hayek, F. – Prod. and Prices

League of Nations – Gold Reports

Journal of Farm Econ., Jan. 1932 – Future of General Price Level

  1. Changes in the Value of Money and the Distribution of Wealth [Return]

Keynes, J. M. – Monetary Reform

Edie, L. D. – Money, Bank Credit and Prices

Fisher, I. – Stabilizing the Dollar

Robertson, D. H. – Money

Steiner, W. H. – Money and Banking (786-795)

Willis, H. P. – The Economics of Inflation

  1. Monetary and Financial Questions Raised by the Social Security Program [Return]

Hansen, A. H. and Murray, H. G. – A New Plan for Unemployment Reserves

Hansen, A. H. – Full Recovery or Stagnation

Hansen, A. H. et al. – Program for Unemployment Insurance Relief in U.S.

Beveridge, W. H. – Causes and Cures of Unemployment

Wolfenden, H. H. – Unemployment Funds: A Survey and Proposal

Woll, M. – Labor, Industry and Govt.

Achsner, E. H. – Social Ins. And Econ. Security

Heyman [?], E. – Unemployment Preventions and Relief

Douglas, P. H. and Director, A. – Problem of Unemployment

Slichter, S. H. – Making Booms Bear the Burden of Relief

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Additional Thesis Subjects — Economics 41
  1. Monetary policy of neutral countries in war.
  2. War finance in Germany (Great Britain, France).
  3. Problems of war finance.
  4. Exchange rates and war.
  5. The international money proposal.
  6. Business cycle policy under the National Banking System.
  7. The Peel Banking Act of 1844.
  8. The crisis of 1837 (1857, 1873, 1897, 1907).
  9. War debts and reparations.
  10. Monetary aspects of the demand for colonies.
  11. Monetary aspects of recovery policy in Australia.
  12. Monetary controls in Germany (Sweden, Canada, Great Britain).

Image Source: Portraits of John Henry Williams and Seymour Edwin Harris from Harvard Class Album 1939. Enhanced by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Gender Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Seminar readings for the economics of technological change. Anne P. Carter, 1967

Anne Pitts Carter is 99 years old at the time of this post. Amanar Akhabbar’s “Anne P. Carter: A Biographical Presentation” (2011) [also available as “Anne P. Carter: A Biographical Note” in Oeconomia (March 2011)] provides full details of the first 85 or so years of her life.

Anne Pitts Carter was awarded a Ph.D. from Radcliffe [Note: her first married-name was “Grosse”] in March 1949. She became an assistant professor of economics at Harvard in 1966-69, was director of the Harvard Economic Research Project 1966-72, and from 1971 on professor of economics at Brandeis.

Today’s post adds the reference list for her seminar on the economics of technological change to the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror collection of course syllabi.

___________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 262.
Seminar: The Economics of Technological Change

Half course (spring term) Th., 2-4. Assistant Professor A. P. Carter

Study of the development and diffusion of new techniques and products in the United States and abroad and their impacts on industrial specialization, competitive structure, industrial interdependence, prices and employment, in a general equilibrium framework.

Source: Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. Course of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe 1966-67, p. 122.

___________________________

SUGGESTED REFERENCES
Economics 262
Seminar: THE ECONOMICS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

Assistant Professor Anne P. Carter
Spring 1967

Abramovitz et. al. Allocation of Economic Resources.

Almon, Clopper, The American Economy to 1975.

Arrow, Karlin, Suppes, Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences.

Bain, Joe, International Differences in Industrial Structure.

Boon, Gerald K., Economic Choice of Human and Physical Factors in Production. North Holland Publishing Company, 1964.

Bowen, H.R. and Magnum, Automation and Economic Progress.

Bright, F., Automation and Management, Boston, Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, 1958.

Bright, F., Automation and Technological Change, Columbus, Ohio: Battelle-American Assembly, 1963.

Dunlop, J. T., Automation and Technological Change. (American Assembly)

Dunlop, J.T. and Diatckenko, Labor Productivity.

Jerome, Harry, Mechanization in Industry.

Landsberg, Fishman and Fisher, Resources in America’s Future.

Leontief, et al., Studies in the Structure of the American Economy.

Manne, Alan, Studies in Process Analysis – Cowles Commission Monograph #18.

Melman, Seymour, Dynamic Factors in Industrial Productivity. (John Wiley and Sons, 1956)

National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress

Report: Technology and American Economy

Six Appendices:
The Outlook For Technological Change and Employment
The Employment Impact of Technological Change
Adjusting to Change
Educational Implications of Technological Change
Applying Technology to Unmet Needs
Statements Relating to the Impact of Technological Change

National Bureau of Economic Research, Problems of Capital Formation, Studies in Income and Wealth.

National Bureau of Economic Research, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity.

National Resources Committee, Technological Trends and National Policy.

Salter, W.E.G., Productivity and Technical Change.

Samuelson, Solow, and Dorman, Linear Programming and Economic Analysis.

Schurr, Netschart, et. al., Energy in the American Economy, 1850-1975.

Sen, A.K., Choice of Techniques.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 9. Folder “Economics, 1966-67”.

Image Source: Peter A. Petri’s webpage “Lemberg Program, 1986-1994”. The image was enhanced using the program Pixelup on my cellphone. To my eye, this AI-smoothed image is very faithful to the original web image.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. American Economic and Financial History. Gay, 1907-08.

Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. Painted by N.C. Wyeth

The materials for this post come from the second time Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history at Harvard. Other than having its bibliographic furniture rearranged, the course content is virtually identical to that of the 1906-07 version of the course.

__________________________

Previously…

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06. Gay taught this course alone in 1906-07.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 143: 14 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 33 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

__________________________

[Except for a minor rearrangement in the sequence of topics, the course reading list for 1907-08 is, with only one exception, identical to that for 1906-07.]

Course Reading List
Economic and Financial History
of the United States

ECONOMICS 6b (1908)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

1. Colonial Period.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.

1776-1860.
2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

3. Internal Improvements.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Polities in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

4. Agriculture and Land Policy. – Westward Movement.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257 printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.
[Replaces “Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181” from the 1906-07 reading list.]

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

5. The South and Slavery.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

6. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.

Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

1860-1900.
7. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254, (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

8. Transportation.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

9. Agriculture and Opening of the West.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.

10. Industrial Expansion.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-clxxviii.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

11. The Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-229.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, p. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-487.

12. Commerce and Shipping.

*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.
[This reading has been switched to required status in 1907-08.]

Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

13. Industrial Concentration.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

14. The Labor Problem.

*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.

Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

15. Population, Immigration and the Race Question.

* United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economies and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1907-1908”.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Briefly:—
    1. The Bland-Allison and Sherman Acts.
    2. The National Banking Act.
    3. The Homestead Law.
    4. Reciprocity since 1890.
  2. Compare the condition of manufactures in the United States in 1791 (Hamilton’s report) with that in 1900.
  3. Why has the cotton industry developed more satisfactorily than the woolen industry?
  4. Compare in its chief features the state of Southern agriculture before and after the Civil War.
  5. [Farm indebtedness and tenancy]
    1. Farm indebtedness in the United States 1885-1900; its relation to agricultural prices and the demand for monetary reform.
    2. Farm tenancy in the United States.
  6. Is railroad “pooling” permitted in the United States? Should it be permitted? What do you think of Anti-Trust Legislation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: Website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Webpage: History. Lincoln and the Founding of the National Banking System.

“Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. N.C. Wyeth painted this mural in the lobby of what was then the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The former bank building is today the Langham Hotel.”

Categories
Harvard Libertarianism Principles Suggested Reading Syllabus

Antioch College. Syllabus for principles of economics. Watts, 1935-1936

Vervon Orval Watts (1898-1993)  was a Thomas Nixon Carver  inspired libertarian economist from pre-Keynesian Harvard times. Before going on to become the first head economist for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce (1939-46) and later an economic adviser to the Foundation for Economic Education starting in 1946, Watts taught economics at Antioch College (1930-36) and Carleton College (1936-39). His full biographical timeline can be found at the link above. For this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has transcribed the syllabus with the assigned and optional readings for the principles course Watts taught at Antioch College in 1935-36.

In the mid-1960s Watts was the Dean of the short-lived Freedom School Phrontistery in Colorado, the brainchild of Robert LeFevre that was to become a libertarian version of a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics program of study.

_____________________________

Harvard Ph.D. awarded in 1932

Vervon Orval Watts, A.B. (Univ. of Manitoba) 1918, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1923.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Development of the Technological Concept of Production in Anglo-American Thought.”
Associate Professor of Economics, Antioch College.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1931-1932, p.124.

_____________________________

A Syllabus of Instruction
for
Economics 101-102

A Survey of Modern
Economic Life

V. O. Watts
Antioch College
1935-1936

PURPOSES OF THE COURSE

  1. To obtain information concerning American economic institutions.
  2. To develop the habit in the ordinary experiences of daily life of observing, analyzing and appraising the economic results of the conduct of individuals and of groups of individuals as wage-earners, employers, farmers, manufacturers, merchants, financiers, and legislators.
  3. To develop skill in tracing out and explaining the ramifications of the economic effects of an event.

CONDUCT OF THE COURSE

Required Readings

Study of the required readings, those starred and underlined in the list of references in this syllabus, constitutes the larger part of the work of this course. The following methods of study are therefore suggested:

  1. Note the relation of each chapter or section in the text or syllabus to the sections preceding and following it.
  2. Read or scan quickly the material in one or two chapters at a time before underlining or taking notes, so that you may gain perspective and distinguish the more significant principles from the accompanying illustrations and qualifications.
  3. Think out answers to the questions and problems given at the end of each section or chapter in the text or question book, referring back to the appropriate section of the text, when necessary, to clarify your understanding of the principles involved.
  4. Re-read the text, making written note of essential points in definitions of technical terns, statements of important principles, list of arguments pro and con on controversial issues, advantages and disadvantages of proposed policies, and qualifications of principles.
    This note-taking should provide opportunity for practice in expressing yourself in economics, therefore do not copy the author’s words, but put his ideas into your own words. It should also provide an aid to quick and effective review and help you to organize your thinking in this field, therefore keep your notes brief, well-organized, and neatly arranged.
  5. Before class discussions and examinations review those notes, practicing recall, illustrating the points noted, questioning and criticizing the author’s ideas, and formulating your own conclusions.

Periodicals

Each student in this course is expected to keep posted on current economic and political events and opinions through the regular reading of a newspaper or news weekly.

                  Some acquaintance with a number of leading journals in the fields of business and political economy is also required. To that end some of the journals listed below should be consulted with the following questions in mind concerning each: (1) How often is it published? (2) Who are the publishers or editors? (3) What is the professional status or occupation of its contributors? (4) What is the general character or point of view of most of its articles? (5) What special place does it fill in the field and to what type of reader is it likely to have most appeal?

Examine the table of contents for several recent issues of some of these magazines to see if there may be articles which especially interest you. In some journals you may find few or none, but in others you should find many such articles. Try to read at least one article during the semester in each of several of the journals listed.

Recommended Readings

The optional, or recommended, readings listed below present additional information or develop points of view differing more or less from that dominant in the required text. In some cases they may present clearer explanations of the points covered in the required readings.

Class Meetings

There are customarily three class meetings per week.

Conferences

Each student should meet the instructor for a conference at least once in each five-week period. To these conferences the student should bring his economics notebook and recent test papers.

Tests and Examinations

Approximately once a week there will be a ten-minute written test on the subject matter of the required readings. At the end of the first and third divisions there will be a one-hour examination on the readings and lectures. At the end of each semester there will be a three-hour examination covering the entire work of the course to date.

Answers to examination questions should be well planned and neatly written. Each distinct point or argument should be treated in a separate paragraph, and points correlative in meaning and importance should be numbered. All papers should be written in ink.

Oral Report

In the second division of the second semester each student will be expected to present to the class in a ten or fifteen minute report the results of his study outside the required readings of a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. The time allotted for preparation of this report should be approximately one-tenth of the time devoted to the entire course. The report itself should not take the form of reading an essay, but should be a short talk from a brief outline.

Textbooks

L. A. Rufener, Principles of Economics

R. M. Rutledge, Everyday Economics

SCHEDULE OF READINGS, LECTURES, AND EXAMINATIONS

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

FIRST SEMESTER

First Week

*Rufener, ch.1. Wants, Goods, and Welfare

*Rutledge, ch. 1.

Stuart Chase, Your Money’s Worth

C. E. Carpenter, Dollars and Sense

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, Elementary Economics, chs. 1, 7.

S. H. Slichter, Modern Economic Society, ch. 22.

Lecture: The Significance of Scarcity.

Second Week

*Rufener:

ch. 2. Improving Methods of Production
ch. 3. Exchange, Value, and Price
ch. 4. Business Organization and Profits

*Rutledge, ch. 4.

V. O. Watts, The Myth of the Industrial Revolution

Third Week

*Rufener:

ch. 5. Demand and Supply and Market Price
ch. 6. Demand and Supply and Market Price (continued)
ch. 7. Demand Schedules for Producers’ Goods

*Rutledge, ch. 6

W. H. Hamilton, Current Economic Problems, selections 63-66

Slichter, chs. 12, 13, 14

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 11-15.

Fourth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 8. Costs of Production, Market Price, and Profit
ch. 9. Cost and Price in Agriculture: Wheat-Growing
ch. 10. The Rent and Price of Agricultural Land

*Rutledge, ch. 10.

J. B. Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 180-207

Slichter, chs. 17, 19. “Public Authority as a Determinant of Price”.

Fifth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 11. Indirect Costs in Agriculture
ch. 12. Economic Rent and the Unearned Increment
ch. 13. Cost of Production in Manufacturing: Decreasing Cost

*Rutledge ch. 12.

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 31, 32.

Hour Examination

Sixth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 14. Decreasing Costs, Indirect Costs, and Price
ch. 15. Monopoly and Monopoly Price
ch. 16. Industrial Monopolies and Government Control

*Rutledge:

ch. 15.
ch. 16.

F. A. Fetter, The Masquerade of Monopoly

M. W. Watkins, Industrial Combinations and Public Policy

Lecture:
The Economies and Limitations of Large-Scale Methods

Seventh Week

*Rufener:

ch. 17. Public Utilities and Government Control
ch. 18. Railroads and Government Control
ch. 19. Demand Schedules for Labor

Slichter, ch. 18.

Eighth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 20. Differences in Wages
ch. 21. Labor Organization

*Rutledge:

ch. 20
ch. 21

Paul Douglas, Real Wages in the United States

Slichter, ch. 24. “The Labor Bargain—The Determination of Wages”

Fairchild, Furniss and Buck ch. 35. “The General Law of Wages.”

Rufener, ch. 22. “Labor Legislation”

Lectures:

Principles of Justice in Distribution
Wage Theories
The Malthusian Principle of Population

Ninth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 23. The Price of Loans.
ch. 24. Producers’ Loans and the Rate of Interest.

*Rutledge, ch. 23.

*R. Epstein, Supplementary Readings in Economics, ch. 18. “The Nature of Capital and Interest”

Lecture:
The Nature and Importance of Saving and Investment.

Tenth Week

Semester Examination

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SECOND SEMESTER

First Week

*Rufener:

ch. 25. The Qualities and Quantity of Money
ch. 27. Government Paper Money

*Rutledge:

ch. 25
ch. 27

*Rufener, ch. 28. Bank Deposits and Bank Notes

D. H. Robertson, Money

Rufener, ch. 26

Second Week

*Rufener:

ch. 29. Bank Credit and Business Cycles.
ch. 30. Government Regulation of Banking in the U.S.

*Rutledge, ch. 29.

Slichter, ch. 11, ch. 20 (pp. 471-491).

L. Robbins, The Great Depression.

H. Clay, J. Stamp, J. M. Keynes, The World’s Economic Crisis and the Way of Escape.

L. Ayres, The Economics of Recovery.

W. C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, ch. 1, sections 3, 4.

Lecture:
The Causes of the 1930-1935 Depression.

Third Week

*Rufener:

ch. 31. Risk, Insurance and Speculation.
ch. 32. Clearings, Collections, and Exchange.

*Rutledge, ch. 31.

Slichter, ch. 30. “International Economic Policies—Monetary and Financial Problems.”

H. G. Moulton:

Germany’s Capacity to Pay.
The World War Debt Settlements.

Rufener, ch. 33.

Fourth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 34. International Trade
ch. 35. Protection and Free Trade.

*F. W. Taussig, Free Trade, the Tariff, and Reciprocity, pp. 44-57 and chs. 3,4,7, and pp. 168-179.

S. Crowther, America Self-Contained.

W. Redfield, Dependent America.

J. M. Jones, Tariff Retaliation.

F. Bastiat, Economic Sophisms.

H. F. Fraser, Foreign Trade and World Politics.

Rutledge, ch. 35.

Fifth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 37. Theories of Taxation.
ch. 38. The Tax System of the United States.

Hour Examination

Sixth to Ninth Weeks

*Rufener:

ch.39. Problems of Agriculture.
ch.36. The Functions of Government
ch.40. Evils of the Price and Profit System, and Remedies Proposed.

*Rutledge ch. 40.

*Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 3-21.

Stuart Chase:

The Tragedy of Waste.
The Economy of Abundance.

T. N. Carver:

Essays in Social Justice, chs. 4-7, 9-16.
The Economy of Human Energy, chs. 2, 3, 6—9.

P. Sorokin, Social Mobility.

A. T. Hadley, Standards of Public Morality, chs. 1-3.

H. M. Robinson, Relativity in Business Morals.

See also the following references to current periodicals.

Lectures:

Economic Inequality
The Social Nature of Property
The Economy of Abundance
Planned Production
A Program of Economic Reorganization.

Tenth Week

Final Examination.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

PERIODICALS

                  The following publications are devoted partly or wholly to economic and business subjects.

Academy of Political Science, Proceedings

*American Economic Review

*American Labor Legislation Review

American Statistical Association Journal

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

*Annalist

*Business Week

Chase Economic Bulletin

*Commercial and Financial Chronicle

Commonweal

Congressional Digest

*Economic Forum

Economic Geography

*Economic Journal

Factory Management and Maintenance

Foreign Affairs

Fortune

Harvard Business Review

International Labor Review

*Journal of Political Economy

*Magazine of Wall Street

Monthly Labor Review

Nation (New York)

National City Bank of New York Bulletin

Nation’s Business

New Republic

Personnel Journal

*Political Science Quarterly

*Printer’s Ink

*Quarterly Journal of Economics

Review of Economic Statistics

Yale Review

*Current issues in the Economics Reading Room, Main Bldg., Room 37.

The following articles in issues of the past year are especially recommended:

First Semester

“The Coal Resources of China,” W. Belden, M. Salter, Economic Geography, July 1935.

“The Public Utility Issue,” L. Olds, The Yale Review, Summer, 1935.

“Economic Effects of Wages and Hour Provisions in Codes,” T. O. Yntema, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.

“The American Labor Movement Since the War,” D. J. Saposs, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1935.

“Economic and Political Radicalism,” M. C. Kruger, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(The effect of the depression on the economic and political policies of organized labor.)

“Workers’ Education in the United States,” A. S. Cheyney, International Labor Review, July, 1935.

“The Negro in Industry,” G.S.Mitchell, The American Scholar, Summer 1935.
(The problem of race prejudice in trade unions)

“Incidence upon the Negroes,” C.S. Johnson, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(Incidence of the burdens of the depression upon negroes)

“Compensation of Corporation Executives, 1928-1932 Record,” J.C.Baker and W. L. Crum, Harvard Business Review, Sumner 1935.

“Old Age Security,” E. E. Witte, National Municipal Review, July 1935.

“Paying for Economic and Social Security,” J. P. Harris, National Municipal Review, August 1935.

“Problems of Social Security Legislation in the United States,” several articles in the Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June 1935.

Second Semester

“The Royal Road to Inflation,” A. Wolff, Economic Forum, Spring 1935.
(Shows how continued federal budget deficits may lead to currency inflation.)

“Trade Treaty Need,” Cordell Hull, “American Trade Policy and World Recovery,” P. Molyneaux, International Conciliation, June 1935.

“Death Duties, Enterprise, and the Growth of National Capital,” B. M. Anderson, Chase Economic Bulletin, August 6, 1935.

“The Outlook for American Cotton,” J. D. Black, Review of Economic Statistics, March 1935.
(Is America losing her foreign cotton markets?)

“The New Deal and Economic Liberty,” A. A. Berle, and other articles on government control of business, Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, March 1935.

“A Planned Economy for Wall Street,” C. H. Meyer, The American Scholar Summer 1935.
(The economic consequences of the Securities Acts of 1933, 1934)

“Government Control of Investments and Speculation,” R. S. Tucker, American Economic Review, Supplement, March 1935.

“The Paths of Economic Change,” Calvin B. Hoover, American Economic Review, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.
(Fascism, Communism, and Capitalism compared.)

“The Corporate State and NRA,” G. Bottai, Foreign Affairs, July 1935.

“The Permanent New Deal,” W. Lippmann, The Yale Review, Summer 1935.
(A comparison of the policies of Herbert Hoover with those of Franklin D. Roosevelt.)

“Borrowing Machines,” H. A. Davis, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(Are the now “authorities” a blessing or menace?)

“Gyp Vendor & Co.,” G. B. Seybold, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(New York’s attempt to secure economy in municipal expenditures discloses numerous rackets and forms of graft.)

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of V. Orval Watts, Box 1, Folder “Misc. writings, etc. 1930s + 1940s”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1932.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list and Exam for U.S. Economic History. Gay, 1906-1907

Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history in 1906-07. He modified and expanded the course reading list from that used in the previous year by him and Taussig, but the structure of the course nonetheless appears to have been essentially unchanged.

__________________________

Previously…

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor [Edwin Francis] Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 112: 20 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 71.

__________________________

Course Reading List
1906-07

[Library Stamp: “May 13, 1907”]

ECONOMICS: 6b

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

1. COLONIAL PERIOD.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp.36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86; 124-139.

1776-1860.
2. COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, AND TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

3. AGRICULTURE AND LAND POLICY. — WESTWARD MOVEMENT.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257; printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181.

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci, and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

4. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Politics in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

5. FINANCE, BANKING AND CURRENCY.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 75-117, 223-237, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

*Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37. 64-76.

Kinley. History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

6. POPULATION AND SLAVERY.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

1860-1900.
7. FINANCE, BANKING AND CURRENCY.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254 (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

8. TRANSPORTATION.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

9. AGRICULTURE AND OPENING OF THE WEST.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, 193-213.

10. THE TARIFF.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 156-229.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-437.

11. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-cxc (note especially the maps and comments on pp. clxx-clxxviii).

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

12. COMMERCE AND SHIPPING.

*Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

13. INDUSTRIAL CONCENTRATION.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-107.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

14. THE LABOR PROBLEM.

*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept. 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept. 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.

Levasseur. American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

15. POPULATION, IMMIGRATION
AND THE RACE QUESTION.

*United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-Ivii.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 38-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder: “Economics 1906-07”.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1906-07

  1. Describe briefly (not more than five minutes each) :—
    1. Independent Treasury.
    2. Greenbacks
    3. Mills Bill.
    4. Minimum system.
    5. Homestead system.
    6. Chief Canal systems.
  2. Outline succinctly :—
    1. The history and results of the tariff on wool and woolens.
    2. The experience of the United States with reciprocity.
  3. Comment on the following (from Grant’s message of 1870):
    “Building ships and navigating them utilizes vast capital at home; it creates a home market for the farm and the shop; it diminishes the balance of trade against us precisely to the extent of freights and passage money paid to American vessels, and gives us a supremacy of the seas of inestimable value in case of foreign war.”
  4. Compare in its more important features the economic history of the decade 1870-80 with that of the decade 1890-1900.
  5. [International labor migration]
    1. Describe the administration of the alien contract labor law.
    2. What are the present tendencies in the distribution of immigrants?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 29-30.

Image Source: Edwin F. Gay, seated in office, 1908. From Wikipedia. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Education Harvard Labor Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list for economics of education and technology. Bowles, 1967-68

The following reading list comes from a Harvard course on the economics of education and technology offered by assistant professor Samuel S. Bowles in the spring semester of the 1967-68 academic year. Bowles was 28 years young then. Here is a link to his Santa Fe Institute webpage.

Only the pages of the syllabus with the reading lists were submitted to the Harvard library for the purpose of putting books on reserve. Not included were the couple of paragraphs of motivation/description for each of the seven sections of the course. I had to insert approximate titles for sections IV and VII and have put those words between square brackets.

__________________________

Most likely spot to find more course content

Samuel Bowles, Planning Educational Systems for Economic Growth. Harvard University Press, 1969.

[When you get an account with archive.org, it is like having an old fashioned library card and you will have access to this book for an hour at a time when it is not being borrowed by another user.]

__________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 151 (formerly Economics 177). Economics of Education and Technology (Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Education)
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 9. Assistant Professor S. S. Bowles

Attention will be given to the economics of the education process, the theory and implications of innovation, the effects of education and technological change on the distribution of income and the role of education and technological change in economic growth. Relevant case studies and current policy issues related to the United States and underdeveloped countries will be considered.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction, Harvard and Radcliffe, 1967-68, p. 124.

__________________________

Reading list
Ec. 151
Sam Bowles

I. THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME — RECENT U.S. EXPERIENCE

A. Batchelder, “Decline in the Relative Income of Negro Men,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1964, pp. 525-48.

*H. Miller, Rich Man, Poor Man, chapters 1, 2, 4-6, pp. 54-134.

I. Kravis, “Relative Income Shares in Fact and Theory,” American Economic Review, 1959, pp. 917-947.

R. Lampman, The Share of Top Wealth-Holders in National Wealth, chapter 1, pp. 1-26; also Table 97, p. 209.

(Supplementary)

*G. Kolko, Wealth and Power in America.

H. Miller, Distribution of Income in the United States.

II. EDUCATION AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME
  1. Education and Earnings

*H. Miller, Rich Man, Poor Man, Chapters 8 and 9, pp. 148-194.

  1. Education as Investment

I. Fisher, The Theory of Interest, Chapters 4, 7, 10, and 11, pp. 61-98, 159-177, and 231-287.

T. Ribich, Poverty and Education, Chapter I, pp. 1-17 and 23-32, mimeo.

G. Becker, Human Capital, Chapters 1-5; 7 and 8, pp. 1-123; 136-159.

  1. Equality of Educational Opportunity

J. Coleman, “Equal Schools or Equal Students,” in The Public Interest, Summer, 1966, pp. 70-75.

*P. Sexton, Education and Income, pp. 58-69.

(Supplementary)

*Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU), Youth in the Ghetto: A Study in the Consequences of Powerlessness, Chapter 7.

*J. Conant, Slums and Suburbs, Chapters 1, 2, and 3.

*P.  Sexton, “City Schools,” in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1964, reprinted in L. Ferman, et al., eds., Poverty in America.

  1. A Model of Education and the Distribution of Earnings

G. Becker, “Human Capital and the Personal Distribution of Income: An Analytical Approach,” mimeo, 59 pp.

  1. Education and the War on Poverty

B. Weisbrod, “Preventing High School Dropouts,” in R. Dorfman, (*) Measuring the Benefits of Government Investments, pp. 117-148.

J. K. Folger and C. B. Nam, Education of the American Population (U.S. Department of Commerce).

(Supplementary)

O. Lewis, “The Culture of Poverty,” Scientific American, October, 1966, pp. 19-25.

*Haryou, Youth in the Ghetto, Chapter 12.

C. A. Anderson, “A Skeptical Note on Education and Mobility,” in H. Halsey, J. Floud, C. Anderson, (*) Education Economy and Society.

III. TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME
  1. The Theory of Production and Distribution

M. Brown, On the Theory and Measurement of Technological Change, chapter 2, pp. 9-28.

*J. Meade, Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property, Chapter 1, pp. 11-26.

J. Hicks, Theory of Wages, Chapter VI, pp. 112-135.

  1. Commentaries, Past and Present

A. Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter 1.

D. Ricardo, The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter 31, “On Machinery.”

K. Marx, Capital, Volume I, Chapter XV, sections 3, 5 and 6, pp. 430-456; 466-488. (Pages refer to Modern Library edition.)

P. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chapter 5, pp. 75-95.

R. Solow, “Technology and Unemployment,” The Public Interest, Fall, 1965, pp. 17-26.

(Supplementary)

R. Eckaus, “The Factor Proportions Problem in Underdeveloped Areas.” American Economic Review, September, 1955, reprinted in A. Agarwala and S. P. Singh; (*) The Economics of Underdevelopment, pp. 348-78.

  1. Making the Most Out of Technological Change

*J. Meade, Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property, Chapters 2-7, pp. 27-77.

*National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress, Technology and the American Economy, Vol. 1, chapters 1-4, pp. 1-58.

IV. [ECONOMIC GROWTH: MEASUREMENT, THEORY, PRODUCTIVITY]
  1. The Measurement and Characteristics of Economic Growth

S. Kuznets, Postwar Economic Growth, Lecture II, “Characteristics of Modern Economic Growth,” pp. 36-68.

*C. Cipolla, The Economic History of World Population, Chapters 1 and 2, pp. 15-58.

*E. Denison, The Sources of Economic Growth in the United States, Chapters 1, 2, and 3, pp. 3-22.

(Supplementary)

M. Abramovitz, “The Welfare Interpretation of Secular Trends in National Income and Product,” Abramovitz, et al. (*) The Allocation of Economic Resources, pp. 1-22.

*S. Kuznets, Modern Economic Growth.

*O. Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, Chapters 1 and 2.

  1. Theories of Economic Growth

G. Winston, “The Power Growth Model,” mimeo, 18 pp.

*J. Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development, Chapters 1 to 4, pp. 3-156.

*J. Meade, A Neoclassical Theory of Economic Growth, Chapters 1 and 2, pp. 1-18.

  1. The Advance of Productivity in the U.S. Economy

J. Kendrick, Productivity Trends in the United States, pp. 3-12, 59-77.

(Supplementary)

M. Abramovitz, “Resource and Output Trends in the U.S. Since 1870,” American Economic Review, 1956.

R. Solow, “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1957.

V. EDUCATION AND GROWTH

T. Schultz, The Economic Value of Education, pp. 1-70.

S. Strumilin, “The Economic Significance of National Education,” in J. Vaizey and E. A. G. Robinson, The Economics of Education, pp. 276-323.

B. Weisbrod, “Education and Investment in Human Capital,” Journal of Political Economy Supplement, October, 1962, pp. 106-123.

W. Bowen, Economic Aspects of Education, Essay I, “Assessing the Economic Contribution of Education,” pp. 3-38.

*E. Denison, The Sources of Economic Growth in the U.S. and the Alternatives Before Us, pp. 23-46; 66-80; 84-87.

T. Schultz, “Investing in Farm People,” in T. Schultz, (*) Transforming Traditional Agriculture, pp. 175-206.

(Supplementary)

T. Schultz, “Investment in Human Capital,” American Economic Review, December, 1961.

W. Bowman, “The Human Investment Revolution in Economic Thought,” Sociology of Education, Vol. 39, No. 2, Spring, 1966, pp. 112-137.

*B. Weisbrod, The External Benefits of Public Education.

A. Harberger, “Investment in Men vs. Investment in Machines: The Case of India,” in M. Bowman and C. A. Anderson, Education and Economic Development, pp. 11-33.

Carl Shoup, et al., The Fiscal System of Venezuela, pp. 406-409.

M. Bowman and C. Anderson, “Concerning the Role of Education in Development,” in C. Geertz, Old Societies and New States, pp. 247-279.

S. Bowles, “Sources of Growth in the Greek Economy,” mimeo.

VI. TECHNOLOGY AND GROWTH
  1. The Production of New Technologies

J. Enos, “Invention and Innovation in the Petroleum Industry,” in National Bureau of Economic Research, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity, pp. 299-322.

H. Dickenson, “The Steam-Engine to 1830,” in Charles Singer et al. A History of Technology, Volume IV, pp. 168-198.

(Supplementary)

Articles by Peck, Mueller and Nelson, in National Bureau of Economic Research, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity.

R. Nelson, “The Economics of Invention: A Survey of the Literature,” in Journal of Business, April, 1959, pp. 101-127.

J. Schmookler, Invention and Economic Growth, Chapters 6 and 7.

  1. The Spread of New Technologies

W. E. G. Salter, Productivity and Technical Change, Chapters 4, 5, 6 and appendix to Chapter 7, pp. 48-82, 95-99.

Z. Griliches, “Hybrid Corn and the Economics of Innovation,” Science, July 29, 1960, Vol. 132, pp. 275-280.

(Supplementary)

J. Habakkuk, American and British Technology.

  1. Technology and Growth

E. Denison, The Sources of Economic Growth in the United States, pp. 154-255.

Z. Griliches, “Research Costs and Social Returns: Hybrid Corn and Related Innovations,” Journal of Political Economy, October, 1958, pp. 419-431.

  1. Efficiency of Resource Allocation in Research and Development

R. Nelson, “The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research,” in Journal of Political Economy, June, 1959, pp. 297-306.

(Supplementary)

K. Arrow, “Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention,” in National Bureau of Economic Research, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity, pp. 609-625.

VII. [ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION]
  1. The Concept of Efficiency in Education

H. Johnson, “Economics and Education,” in School Review, Autumn, 1957, pp. 260-269.

(Supplementary)

Project Talent, Studies of the American High School, Cooperative Research Project 226, U.S. Office of Education. Chapters 6, 9, and 10.

J. Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education.

  1. The Market for Educated Labor

H. Leibenstein, “Shortages and Surpluses in Education in Underdeveloped Countries,” in M. J. Bowman and C A. Anderson, Education and Economic Development, pp. 51-62.

K. Arrow and W. Capron, “Dynamic Shortages and Price Rises, The Engineer-Scientist Case,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1959, pp. 292-308.

  1. Market Solutions to the Problem of Efficient Resource Allocation in Education

M. Friedman, “The Role of Government in Education,” in R. Solo, Economics and the Public Interest, pp. 123-144.

A. Daniere, Higher Education in the American Economy, chapters 2 and 4-5 pp. 13-19, 33-55.

(Supplementary)

C. Jencks, “Is the Public School Obsolete?” in The Public Interest.

  1. Educational Planning

M. Blaug, “Conflicting Approaches to Educational Planning,” mimeo, 34 pp.

H. Johnson, “The Economics of the Brain Drain,” Minerva, 1965.

A. Daniere, “Rate of Return and Manpower Approach in Educational Planning” in Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration, Public Policy, 1965, pp. 162-200.

(Supplementary)

F. Harbison and C. Myers, Education, Manpower and Economic Growth.

J. Tinbergen, et al., Econometric Models of Education, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 1965; An Experiment in Planning by Six Countries, 1966.

H. Parnés, Forecasting Education Needs for Economic and Social Development, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 1962.

R. Hollister, A Technical Evaluation of the First Stage of the Mediterranean Regional Project, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1966.

R. Eckaus, “Economic Criteria for Education and Training,” Review of Economics and Statistics, (May, 1964), pp. 181-190.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1967-1968, Box 9. Folder “Economics, 1967-68”.

Image Source: The Boston Globe (December 5, 1969), p. 15.

Categories
Econometrics Harvard Statistics Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus and partial reading list for graduate time-series econometrics. Sims, 1968-1969

Christopher A. Sims, portrait from his senior year

 

Future economics Nobel laureate (2011) Christopher A. Sims was a 26 year old assistant professor at Harvard tasked in the fall term of 1968 to teach a graduate level introduction to time-series econometrics. He had been awarded a Harvard economics Ph.D. earlier that year. His dissertation supervisor was Hendrik Houthakker.

A copy of Sims’ initial list of reading assignments and topics can be found in the papers of Zvi Griliches in the Harvard Archives. Sims does appear to have offered a rather heavy dose of time-series econometrics for that time. Perhaps it was too much of a good thing, at least too much to swallow for most of the department’s graduate students. In any event Econometric Methods I was transferred to / taken over by Zvi Griliches in the following years when the topic of time series was reduced to an amuse-bouche of serial correlation.

In the previous year the course had been taught by Marc Nerlove (Yale University) with the following brief description provided in the course catalogue:  “An introduction to the construction and testing of econometric models with special emphasis on the analysis of economic time series.” 

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Course Announcement
Fall Term, 1968

Economics 224a. Econometric Methods

Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., S., at 9. Assistant Professor C. A. Sims

The theory of stochastic processes with applications to the construction and testing of dynamic economic models. Analysis in the time domain and in the frequency domain, in discrete time and in continuous time.

Prerequisite: Economics 221b [Multiple regression and the analysis of variance with economic applications] or equivalent preparation in statistics.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction, 1968-69, p. 133.

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Fall 1968
Economics 224a
Asst. Prof. C. Sims

Course Description

            The accompanying Course Outline gives a detailed description of topics 0 through III which will (hopefully) occupy the first third of the semester. These topics include most of the mathematical tools which will be given econometric application in the later sections. The list of topics in the outline, even under the main headings 0 through III, is not exhaustive; and the topics listed are not all of equivalent importance.

            Many of the references listed overlap substantially. In the first, theoretical, section of the course (except for Section 0) the references are chosen to duplicate as nearly as possible what will be covered in lectures. They should provide alternative explanations when you find the lectures obscure or, in some cases, provide more elegant and rigorous discussion when you find the lectures too pedestrian.

            The primary emphasis of this course will be on the stationarity, or linear process, approach to dynamic models. The Markov process, control theory, or state space approach which is currently prominent in the engineering literature will be discussed briefly under topics V and VII.

            The latter parts of the course will apply the theory developed in the first parts to formulating and testing dynamic economic models or hypotheses. Some background in economics is therefore essential to participation in the course. The mathematical prerequisites are a solid grasp of calculus, a course in statistics, and an ability to absorb new mathematical notions fairly quickly.

            The course text is Spectral Methods in Econometrics by Gilbert Fishman. Spectral Analysis by Gwilyn M. Jenkins and Donald G. Watts is more complete in some respects, but it is less thorough in its treatment of some points important in econometrics and it costs three times what Fishman costs. A list of other texts which may be referred to in the accompanying course outline or in future outlines and reading assignments follows. Some of these texts are at a higher mathematical level than is required for this course or cover topics we will not cover in detail. Those texts which should be on library reserve are marked with a “*”, and those which are priced below the usual high prices for technical texts are marked with a “$”.

List of Text References

* Ahlfors, Lars, Complex Analysis, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1953.

Acki, Max., Optimization of Stochastic Systems, Academic Press, 1967.

* Deutsch, Ralph, Estimation Theory, Prentice Hall, 1965.

* Fellner, et.al., Ten Economic Studies in the Tradition of Irving Fisher, Wiley, 1967.

* Freeman, H., Introduction to Statistical Inference, Addison-Wesley, 1963.

Granger, C.W.J., and M. Hatanaka, Spectral Analysis of Economic Time Series, Princeton University Press, 1964.

Grenander, U., and M. Rosenblatt, Statistical Analysis of Stationary Time Series, Wiley, 1957.

Grenander, U., and G. Szego, Toeplitz Forms and Their Applications, University of California Press, 1958.

*$ Hannan, E.J., Time Series Analysis, Methuen, London, 1960.

$ Lighthill, Introduction to Fourier Analysis and Generalized Functions, Cambridge University Press.

Rozanov, Yu. A., Stationary Random Processes, Holden-Day, 1967.

*$ Whittle, P., Prediction and Regulation by Linear Least-Square Methods, English Universities Press, 1963.

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

Preliminary Course Outline
Fall 1968
Economics 224a
Asst. Prof. C. Sims

0. Elementary Preliminaries.

Complex numbers and analytic functions, definitions and elementary facts. Manipulation of multi-dimensional probability distributions.

The material in this section will not be covered in lectures. A set of exercises aimed at testing your facility in these areas (for your information and mine) will be handed out at the first meeting.

References: Ahlfors, I.1, I.2.1-2.4, II.1; Jenkins and Watts, Chapters 3 and 4 or the sections on probability in a mathematical statistics text, e.g. Freeman, part I.

I. Stochastic Processes: Fundamental definitions and properties.
  1. Definitions:

stochastic process;
normal (stochastic) process;
stationary process;
linear process; — autoregressive and moving average processes;
covariance stationary process.
autocovariance and autocorrelation functions
stochastic convergence — in probability, almost sure, and in the (quadratic) mean or mean square;
ergodic process — n’th order ergodicity, sufficient conditions for first and second order ergodicity.
process with stationary n’th difference
Markov process

  1. Extensions to multivariate case.

References: Fishman, 2.1-2.5; Jenkins and Watts, 5.1-5.2.

II. Background from Mathematical Analysis
  1. Function spaces.
  2. Linear operator on function spaces; their interpretation as limits of sequences of ordinary weighted averages.
  3. Convolution of functions with functions, of operators with functions; discrete versus continuous time.
  4. Measure functions; Lebesgue-Stieltjes measures on the real line.
  5. Integration; the Lebesgue integral, the Cauchy-Riemann integral, and the Cauchy principal value; inverting the order of integration.
  6. Fourier transforms; of functions; of operators; continuous, discrete, and finite-discrete time parameters; the inverse transform and Parseval’s theorem.
  7. Applications to some simple deterministic models.

References: Jenkins and Watts, Chapter 2. For more rigor, see Lighthill. No reference I know of covers topics 4 and 5 in as brief and heuristic a way as we shall.

III. The spectral representation of covariance-stationary processes and its theoretical applications.
  1. Random measures; the random spectral measure of a covariance stationary process; characteristics of the random spectral measure in the normal and non-normal cases.
  2. The spectral density; relation to autocovariance function; positive definiteness.
  3. Wold’s decomposition; regular, mixed, and linearly deterministic processes; discrete and continuous component in the spectral measure; example of non-linearly deterministic process; the criterion for regularity with continuous spectral density.
  4. The moving average representation; criteria for existence of autoregressive representation.
  5. Optimal least squares forecasting and filtering.
  6. Generalized random processes.
  7. The multivariate case; cross spectra.
  8. Applications to econometric models.

References: Fishman, 2.6-2.30; Jenkins and Watts, 6.2 and 8.3: For a much more abstract approach, see Rozanov, chapters I – III.

IV. Statistical analysis using spectral and cross-spectral techniques.

V. Regression in time series.

VI. Seasonality.

VII. Estimation in distributed lag models.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 123. Folder “Econometric Methods 1968-1982.”

Image Source: Christopher A. Sims ’63 in Harvard Class Album 1963. From the Harvard Crimson article “Harvard and the Atomic Bomb,” by Matt B. Hoisch and Luke W. Xu (March 22, 2018). Sims was a member of the Harvard/Radcliffe group “Tocsin” that advocated nuclear disarmament.