Category: Suggested Reading

Categories
M.I.T. Suggested Reading Uncategorized

M.I.T. Imperfect competition and capital theory reading lists. Samuelson, 1948

 

 

The following two reading lists come from the second semester of the two-semester course Economic Analysis that Paul Samuelson taught in the 1940s. The first list covers Duopoly and Bilateral Monopoly followed by Monopolistic Competition. There is no date on that reading list, but based on the newest item of the list, Hurwicz’s Dec. 1945 paper in the AER, it is safe to say that the reading list was for the second half of the 1940’s. The fact that this mimeographed reading list immediately precedes the reading list for capital theory (also assigned to the same course, EC18) which is explicitly dated “Spring Semester 1948” makes it likely that this pair of reading lists were from the same semester. The folder has no other material for the course.

 

 

READING LIST EC18

  1. Duopoly and Bi-lateral Monopoly

Chamberlin, E. H., Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 3, Appendix A
Hicks, J.R., “Theory of Monopoly”, Econometrica, V. III, No. 1 (1935)
Cournot, A., Math. Principles of the Theory of Wealth, Ch. 7
Hurwicz, L., American Economic Review, Vol. 35, “Theory of Economic Behavior”, p. 909.

Optional

von Stackelberg, H., Marktform und Gleichgewicht. (German)

  1. Monopolistic Competition

Chamberlin, E. H., Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Chaps. 4,5.
Triffin, R., Monopolistic Competition and General Equilibrium Theory, Intro., pp. 17-35, 49-51, Chaps. 2, 3,5.
Stigler, G. J., Theory of Price, Chaps. 11, 15, pp. 266-287.

__________________

Readings on Capital Theory
Spring 1948

Ec 18

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital

Translator’s Preface
Book V, all
Book VI, Chs. V, VI, VII

Wicksell, LecturesVol. I

Part II
Part III

I. Fisher, Theory of Interest

Part I, Chs. I, III
Part II, all
Part III, Chs. X, XI

Hicks, Value and Capital

Part III, all
Part IV, Chs. XVII, XIX

Keynes, General Theory

Chs. 11, 13, 14

Knight, Ethics of Competition

Social Science Encyclopedia article on Interest
Cf. E.J., J.P.E., Economica, articles on same subject

N. Kaldor, Econometrica Annual Survey

(gives bibliography)

F. Lutz, Structure of Interest Rates, Q.J.E., 1940

 

Source:  Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul A. Samuelson Papers. Box 33, Folder “Miscellaneous Teaching Materials”.

Image Source:  Samuelson Memorial Information Page/Photos from Memorial Service.  Accessed via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Business cycle theory. Reading list and exam. Hansen and Haberler, 1938

 

This is one of those instances where I really would like to try to dig deeper to see what the actual course content was. From the 1940-41 Division announcements we have the following description of the Business Cycle course at Harvard:

The broad facts about the business cycle will be discussed first. The distinction between trend movements, seasonal fluctuations, long waves and the business cycle in various time series will be analyzed. Then various theories of the cycle will be reviewed and the principles of cycle policy and possibilities of mitigating or avoiding depressions considered.

For now we at least have a bibliographic list for the subject and the exam questions from the first time that Alvin Hansen and Gottfried Haberler co-taught the course together.

________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 45a 2hf. Professor Hansen and Associate professor Haberler.— Business Cycles.

Total 37: 2 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

 

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1937-1938, p. 85.

________________

[Penciled Note: 1937-38]

[Penciled Note: Ec. 45a]

BUSINESS CYCLE THEORY

I.

Haberler, Gottfried: Prosperity and Depression, League of Nations, Geneva, 1937
Hansen, Alvin H.: Business Cycle Theory, Ginn and Co., 1927
Röpke, Wilhelm: Crises and Cycles, William Hodge and Co., London, 1936.

 

II.

Selected List of Books, Articles and Forecasting Services

A. Books

Adams, A. B. 1. Economics of Business Cycles

2. Profits, Progress and Prosperity
Ayres, L. P. Economics of Recovery
Bellerly Control of Credit
Brookings Institution The Recovery Problem in the United States
Cassel, G. The Theory of Social Economy, Book IV.
Clark, J. M. 1. Strategic Factors in Business Cycles

2. Economics of Planning Public Works, (Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.)
Copeland, Douglas Australia in the World Crises
Dickinson, F. G. Public Construction and Cyclical Unemployment
Douglas, Paul H. Controlling Depressions
Durbin, E. M. F. 1. Purchasing Power and Trade Depressions

2. The Problem of Credit Policy
Economic Reconstruction (Report of Columbia University Commission)
Economic Essays in Honour of Gustav Cassel
Fisher, Irving 1. Booms and Depressions

2. 100% Money
Foster and Catchings 1. Profits, Part V.

2. Business Without a Buyer

3. Road to Plenty
Gayer, Arthur D. 1. Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization

2. Public Works in Prosperity and Depression
Haney, L. H. Business Forecasting
Hansen, A. H. 1. Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World

2. The Problem of Unemployment Insurance and Relief in the U.S., Part IV.
Hardy, C. O. and Cox, G. V. Forecasting Business Conditions
Harrod The Trade Cycle
Hawtrey 1. Good and Bad Taste [sic, “Trade”]

2. Trade Depression and the Way Out

3. Capital and Employment
Hayek, F. A. Prices and Production
Hobson, J. A. Economics of Unemployment
Hull Industrial Depressions
Keynes, J. M. 1. A Treatise on Money

2. The Means to Prosperity

3. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

4. Unemployment as a World Problem, pp. 1-42
Kuznets, S. S. Cyclical Fluctuations
Lavington Trade Cycle
Lundberg Economic Expansion
McCracken, H. L. Value Theory and Business Cycles
Meade  Economic Analysis and Policy
Mitchell, Wesley Business Cycles, the Problem and its Setting
Moore, Henry L. 1. Economic Cycles

2. Generating Economic Cycles
Moulton, H. G. 1. The Formation of Capital

2. Income and Economic Progress
Newman, William H. The Building Industry and Business Cycles
Ohlin, Bertil Course and Phases of the Depression (League of Nations)
Persons, Warren Forecasting Business Cycles
Persons, Foster and Hettinger The Problem of Business Forecasting
Pigou, A. C. Industrial Fluctuations
Robbins, Lionel The Great Depression
Robertson, D. H. 1. Money

2. Industrial Fluctuations

3. Banking Policy and the Price Level
Schmidt, C. T. German Business Cycles, 1924-1933
Schumpeter, Joseph A. The Theory of Economic Development
Slichter, S. H. Towards Stability
Smith, W. B. and  Cole, A.H. Fluctuations in American Business, 1790-1860
Snyder, Carl Business Cycles and Business Measurements
Timoshenko, V. 1. World Agriculture and the Depression

2. The Role of Agriculture Fluctuations
Tintner, Gerhard Prices in the Trade Cycle
Warren and Pearson Gold and Prices
World Prices and the Building Industry
Veblen, T. [1.] Theory of Business Enterprise

[2.] The Engineers and the Price System
Wagemann Economic Rhythm
Wicksell Interest and Prices

 

B. Articles

Aftalion, Albert in Review of Economic Statistics, October 1927

Haberler, Gottfried, “Some Reflections on the Present Situation of Business Cycle Theory,” Review of Economic Statistics, February, 1936

Hansen, Boddy and Langum, “Recent Trends in Business Cycle Literature,” Review of Economic Studies, May, 1936

Hansen and Tout, “Investment and Saving in the Business Cycle,” Econometrica, April 1933

Hansen, A. H., “Mr. Keynes in Under-employment Equilibrium,” Journal of Political Economy, October, 1936

Hansen, A. H., Harrod on the Trade Cycle,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1937

Hansen, A. H., “The Consequences of Reducing Expenditures,” Proceedings, Academy of Political Science, January, 1938

Kondratieff, M. D., “The Long Waves in Economic Life,” Review of Economic Statistics, November, 1935

Robertson, D. H., “The Trade Cycle—An Academic View,” Lloyds Bank Review, September, 1937

Schumpeter, Joseph, “An Analysis of Economic Change,” Review of Economic Statistics, May, 1935

 

C. Forecasting Services

  1. Annalist (Weekly)
  2. Brookmire Economic Service (Weekly and Special)
    Councillor; Annalist; Investor; Technician; Forecaster; Purchaser (outlook for commodity prices); Executive; Income Map; Special Reports on Industries.
  3. London and Cambridge Economic Service (Quarterly)
  4. Moody’s Investors Service (Weekly and Bi-weekly)
  5. Review of Economic Statistics; Harvard (Quarterly)
  6. Standard Statistics (Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly and Special)
    Business Prospects; Outlook for Security Market; Industry Reports A, B, C, etc.; Basic Statistics.
  7. United Business Service (Weekly)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1937-38”.

________________

1937-38
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 45a2
BUSINESS CYCLES

[Final Exam]

(Write on THREE questions)

  1. Write briefly on each of the following:
    1. Summarize and evaluate the analyses of “the long waves” made by (1) Schumpeter, and (2) Kondratieff.
    2. Compare Robertson and Aftalion with respect to the role of fixed capital in the business cycle.
  2. Show the significance and implications of (a) the “principle of accelerations” and (b) the “multiplier” with respect to the “pump-priming” theory.
  3. “The turning point from prosperity to depression is caused not by a shortage of capital but by inadequate consumption expenditures.”
    (In answering this question discuss, among other items, the following: (1) Is saving deflationary? (2) What is the effect of an increase in savings (a) upon the value of real investment? (b) upon consumption? (3) Is over-investment a cause of recession?
  4. Discuss the part played by monetary factors in the trade cycle, drawing particularly upon the analyses of Hawtrey and Hayek.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1938.

Image Source: Alvin Hansen (left) and Gottfried Haberler (right) from Harvard Class Album 1942.

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Princeton Suggested Reading Syllabus

Princeton. Syllabus for International Economic Policies. F.W. Fetter and C.R. Whittlesey, 1934

 

The Princeton course “International Economic Policies” was co-taught by Charles R. Whittlesey and Frank W. Fetter in 1934. Biographical material from their respective archival papers guides and the course syllabus are included in this post.

______________

Frank Whitson Fetter
(1902-1992)

1899, May 22—Born, San Francisco, Calif.
1916—Graduate of Princeton High School, Princeton, NJ
1920 A.B.—Political Science, Swarthmore College (Phi Beta Kappa)
1922 A.M.—Princeton University
1924 A.M.—Harvard University
1926 Ph.D.—Economics, Princeton University
1928-1934—Assistant Professor and Professor of Economics, Princeton University
1929, Jan. 14—Married Elizabeth Pollard (d. 1977)
1934—Member of Commission on Cuban Affairs, organized by the Foreign Policy Association
1934-1948—Associate Professor and Professor of Economics, Haverford College
1937-1938—Guggenheim fellowship (Research on banking in Great Britain)
1939—summer Economist for the Export-Import Bank of Washington
1940—summer Economic Advisor to the Central Bank of Ecuador
1943-1946—Economic Advisor with the Lend-Lease Administration and the Department of State; ten months spent in India
1948-1967—Professor of Economics, Northwestern University
1950—summer Advisor to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
1951—summer Advisor to the Department of State, Division of German Affairs, and member of the American Delegation to London for the Preliminary Conference on German Debts
1967-1968—Visiting Haney Professor, Dartmouth College
1978, Apr.—Married Elizabeth Miller Stabler (d. 1985)
1991—Died

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Guide to the Frank Whitson Fetter Papers.

______________

 Charles Raymond Whittlesey
(1900-1979)

Economist, author and educator; B.A., Philomath College, (1921), M.A., American U. of Beirut, (1924) and Ph.D., Princeton U., (1928) [dissertation: Government Control of the Crude Rubber Industry. The Stevensen Plan. Published by Princeton University Press, 1931]; faculty, Princeton U., (1925-1940); faculty, Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania, (194-1967); chairman, Dept. of Finance, (1945-1952, 1960-1963); economist for Penn Mutual Insurance Co. (1941-1961); specialist in monetary economics and monetary policy.

Source:  University of Pennsylvania Archives. Webpage Papers of Charles Raymond Whittlesey, 1928-1974.

______________

Economics 526. (International Economic Policies.)
– 1934 –

Date

 Topic

Readings
Feb. 14 (CRW) Valorization Wallace and Edminster, International Control of Raw Materials. (Omit ch. 8 and Appendix).
Feb. 21 (CRW) Valorization 1.     C. R. Whittlesey, The Stevenson Plan, Journal of Political Economy, August 1931, pp. 506-25;

2.     Jacob Viner, Control of Raw Materials, Foreign Affairs, July 1926;

3.     F. Rowe, Studies in Artificial Control of Raw Materials, #3. Coffee;

4.     Senate Document 70, 73d Congress, 1st Session, World Trade Barriers in Relation to American Agriculture, pp. 1-141;

5.     T.T.Read, Valorization in the Mineral Industry, Political Science Quarterly, June 1932, pp. 234-241.

6.     Department of Commerce, Foreign Combines to Control Prices of Raw Materials, T. 1B. #385, 1926.

7.     W. S. Colbertson, Raw Materials and Foodstuffs in the Commercial Policies of Nations, Annals of Am. Acad. of Pol. and Soc. Science, March, 1924.

8.     J. Pedersen. Economic Stabilization in Economic Essays in Honour of Gustav Cassel, 1936.

9.     Reports by students on various aspects of Valorization.
Feb. 28 (FWF) Foreign Trade Monopolies and Commercial Treaties 1.     E.Lipson, An Introduction to the Economic History of England,
vol. 1, ch. 10 (Foreign Trade)
vol. 2, pp. 184-315 (Foreign Trade).2.     Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, ch. 6 (Of Treaties of Commerce).3.     U.S.Tariff Commission, Reciprocity and Commercial Treaties, pp. 389-450.4.     Vernon Seltzer, Did Americans Originate the Conditional Most Favored Nation Clause, Journal of Modern History, Sept. 1933.
March 7 (FWF) Reciprocity 1.     U.S. Tariff Commission, Reciprocity and Commercial Treaties, Conclusions and Recommendations, pp. 9-47.

2.     U. S. Tariff Commission, Effects of the Cuban Reciprocity Treaty, Summary and Conclusions, pp. 1-26.

3.     W. S. Culbertson, America’s New Commercial Policy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 38, Feb. 1924, pp. 352-357.

4.     League of Nations—Documentation of International Economic Conference of 1927 on “Discriminatory Tariff Classifications” and “European Bargaining Tariffs.”

5.     Reports by members of class, on: Canadian Reciprocity, Contingent Duties, Hawaiian Reciprocity, Tariff Bargaining under 1890 Act, Tariff Bargaining under 1897 Act.
March 14 (FWF) Colonial Tariff Policies 1.     U.S. Tariff Commission, Colonial Tariff Policies, pp. 1-78, 571-629.

2.     U.S. Tariff Commission, U.S. Philippine Tariff and Trade Relations, pp. 1-52
March 21 (FWF) British Tariff Policy and Colonial Preference 1.     Dunham, The Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce of 1860, ch. 1.

2.     W.J.Ashley, The Tariff Problem, Introduction and ch. 1-6.

3.     U.S.Tariff Commission, Colonial Tariff Policies, ch. 12, 13, 18.

4.     H.V.Hodson, Before Ottawa, Foreign Affairs, vol. 10, pp. 588-599.

5.     J.M.Macdonnell, After the Ottawa Conference, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 11, pp. 331-346.
March 28 (CRW) Dumping 1.     Jacob Viner, Dumping, pp. 1-329.

2.     Article on Dumping in Encyclopaedia of Soc. Sci.

3.     Sen. Doc. Anti-Dumping Legislation [Perhaps: Emergency Tariff and Antidumping. Hearing before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, April, 1921]
April 11 (CRW) Quotas and Exchange Control 1.     World Trade Barriers in Relation to American Agriculture, pp. 1-141.

2.     E.B.Dietrich, French Import Quotas, American Economic Review, Dec. 1933.

3.     C.R.Whittlesey, Exchange Control, American Economic Review, Dec. 1922.
April 18 (CRW) Quotas and Exchange Control 1.     W.H.Beveridge, Tariffs, The Case Examined. ch. 7, 9-18, and Appendix.

2.     Economist, Feb. 24, 1934, Clearing Agreements, pp. 405-6.

3.     U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, T. 1B. #812, Foreign Tariffs and Commercial Policy during 1932.
April 25 (FWF) Bounties and Subsidies 1.     D.G.Barnes, A History of the English Corn Laws, ch. 1-3.

2.     Josef Gruzel, Economic Protectionism, pp. 163-179, 200-231.

3.     Griffin, The Sugar Industry and Legilation in Europe, Q.J.E., vol. 17, pp. 1-43.

4.     F.W.Taussig, The End of the Sugar Bounties, Q.J.E., vol. 18, pp. 130-4.

5.     P.T.Cherington, State Bounties and the Beet Sugar Industry, Q.J.E., V. 26, pp. 381-386.

6.     League of Nations—Documentation of International Economic Conference, Direct and Indirect Subsidies, pp. 8-22.

7.     U.S. Tariff Commission, Preferential Transportation Rates, pp. 9-52

8.     Review, pp. 72-84 in World Trade Barriers in Relation to American Agriculture.
May 2 (CRW) Shipping Subsidies 1.     Dunmore, Ship Subsidies.

2.     U.S.Shipping Board, History of Shipping Discriminations.

3.     Nat. Inds. Conf. Bd: Amer. Merchant Marine Problem. Omit chs. 2-6.

4.     Grovenor M. Jones: Government Aid to Merchant Shipping, pp. 7-29; 257-84; 427-68.
May 9 (FWF) Control of Foreign Investments 1.     Herbert Feis, Europe, the World’s Banker. ch. 1-6.

2.     L.H.Jenks, The Migration of British Capital to 1875. ch. 9.

3.     T.E.Gregory, Foreign Investments and British Public Opinion, in Foreign Investments, by Cassell and others, pp. 97-119.

4.     Carter Glass, Government Supervision of Foreign Loans, Proceedings of The American Academy of Political Science, vol. xii, Jan. 1928, pp. 843-849.

5.     Charles P. Howland, Our Repudiated State Debts, Foreign Affairs, vol. 6, April 1928, pp. 395-407.

6.     John Foster Dulles, Our Foreign Loan Policy, Foreign Affairs, vol. 5, Oct. 1926, pp. 33-48.
May 16 (FWF and CRW) Present Day American Commercial Policy 1.     U.S. Tariff Commission, Methods of Valuation, pp. 1-43.

2.     U.S.Tariff Commission, Regulation of Tariffs by Administrative Action, Passim.

3.     Report of Ways and Means Committee on Reciprocal Trade Agreements Bill (House Report 1000, 72d Congress, 2d Session).

4.     Reciprocal Trade Agreements, Hearings before Ways and Means Committee on H.R. 8430.

a.     Testimonies of Hull, pp. 1-45

b.     Testimonies of Dickinson, pp. 183-227.

c.     Testimonies of Sayre, 293-319, 333-382, 387-389.

d.     Letters, pp. 282-286.

 

Source:  Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Frank Whitson Fetter Papers, Box 55, Folder “Teaching Ec 526 International Economic Policies (Princeton University)”.

Image Sources:  Frank W. Fetter (left) (ca. 1937) John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; Charles R. Whittlesey (right), Princeton Yearbook, Bric-a-Brac, 1939

Categories
Curriculum Economists Exam Questions Suggested Reading Toronto

Toronto. Five Annual Examinations in Economics. Ashley and McEvoy, 1891

 

Today’s post was just intended to be a quickie set of five economics exams I found for the University of Toronto from 1891. There turned out to be much more interesting information at the hathitrust.org digital library that I simply had to include: from the University of Toronto Calendar, I was able to obtain course announcements that provide course descriptions as well as list a few key readings. And as though this were not enough, it turns out that it was the practice, at least in Toronto at the end of the 19th century, when applying for a professorship to submit a printed application “cover letter” followed by short “testimonials”. As it so happens, the University of Alberta has copies of Professor William J. Ashley’s application for the vacant Drummond professorship in political economy at Oxford (1890) and of Mr. John Millar McEvoy’s application for Ashley’s vacant chair at Toronto, following Ashley’s move to Harvard in 1892. 

Following the “cover letters” with these two abbreviated c.v.’s are the course descriptions for all four economics courses offered at the University of Toronto in 1890-91 and five sets of examination questions.

__________________

To the Electors to the Drummond Professorship.
[From William J. Ashley, November 20, 1890]

My Lord and Gentlemen:

I beg to offer myself as a candidate for the Professorship of Political Economy in the University of Oxford.

I entered Balliol College with a History Scholarship in 1878, took a First-Class in the Honour School of Modern Histor. in 1881, and received the Lothian Prize in 1882. In February, 1885, I was elected to a tutorial Fellowship at Lincoln College, and soon afterwards was also appointed Lecturer in History in Corpus Christi College. Resigning this position in order to be able to devote my time more exclusively to economic studies, I was appointed Professor of Political Economy and Constitutional History in the University of Toronto in 1888; and by the subsequent appointment of an assistant I have recently been enabled to give my whole attention to Economics.

I began the study of Political Economy under the late Arnold Toynbee, whose Lectures on the Industrial Revolution the 18th CenturyI afterwards assisted in preparing for publication. I began to lecture on Political Economy in 1884; and after my appointment at Lincoln I lectured upon it each year; in one course stating and criticizing Modern Economic Theory, and in another following Economic History and Theory in their relation to one another from mediaeval to modern times. I may add that from 1886 to 1888 I acted as Secretary to the Oxford Economic Society; and that in 1887 and 1888 I examined in the Pass School of Political Economy.

Since my arrival at Toronto I have had the task of organizing the new Department of Political Science, a Department which has grown rapidly, and now numbers more than 100 students; and I have lectured on (i) Elementary Political Economy, (2) The History of Economic Theory; (3) The History of Economic Development; (4) Modern Finance. In dealing with the last mentioned subject I have had an opportunity to acquaint myself with the main features of Canadian and American Taxation, Tariffs, Currency, Banking, and similar subjects.

I have also undertaken the editorship of the Toronto University Studies in Political Science, of which the first, on The Ontario Township, has already appeared. For a further account of my work here I beg to refer you to the subjoined letters from the Chancellor and President of the University, the Minister of Education, the Manager of the Bank of Commerce, and from one of my pupils.

My own researches have hitherto been mainly in the field of Economic History. In 1887 the American Economic Association published my Early History of the English Woollen Industry. In 1888 appeared the first volume of my Introduction to Economic Historyand Theory, which I now beg to lay before you, together with the letters concerning it from English and foreign authorities printed below.

There are two directions in which, as it appears to me, it is most desirable to promote economic study in Oxford. Of these one is Public Finance; it might not be impossible

to secure for men who are about to enter into public life, the civil service, or the higher branches of business, a training similar to that provided by some foreign Universities. The other is the history of Economic Phenomena, and of the parallel growth of Economic Theory. While recognizing the value of recent work in the further analysis of theory, there is, I think, reason to believe that the most fruitful field for economic work at the present time in Oxford is the historical. An effort in this direction would be in sympathy with one of the strongest intellectual forces in the University, and it might reasonably be expected to enlist the interest of students in the School of Modern History.

I have the honour to be,

My Lord and Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

W. J. ASHLEY.

The University of Toronto,
November 20, 1890.

[…]

Source: Testimonials in Favour of W.J. Ashley M.A., Professor of Political Economy in the University of Toronto: Late Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. A Candidate for the Drummond Professorship of Political Economy in the University of Oxford, pp. 1-2.

__________________

TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE WILLIAM ROSS, LL.D.
MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO.

[Application of ] JOHN MILLAR McEVOY.
Toronto, July 30th, A.D. 1892.

Sir, — I beg leave to make application for the chair of Political Economy and Constitutional History, in the University of Toronto, lately rendered vacant by the resignation of Professor W. J. Ashley, M.A.

I am a graduate of the University of Toronto in the Honor Department of Political Science. Throughout my course in that department I was first in first-class honors in all economic subjects. Since being graduated in Arts I have taken the University Law Examinations, and have been awarded the LL.B. degree. I have attended two years’ lectures in Osgoode Hall Law School, and have taken the examination required at the end of each year.

I may be permitted to mention the following scientific and literary work : —

  1. My “Essay on Canadian Currency and Banking,” which was awarded the Ramsay Scholarship. This essay, upon examination by some of the leading bankers of Canada, was thought to be so valuable that the various banking institutions of the Dominion in order to have it printed, have offered to take such a number of copies of it, at $1.50 per copy, as will provide for its publication and leave me a handsome margin.
  2. My essay on “Karl Marx’s Theory of Value,” which was read before the Political Science Association of the University of Toronto. This essay was publicly declared by Professor W. J. Ashley, M.A., to be “the ablest exposition of the kernel of the abstract theory of value that it had been his good fortune to have heard or read on any occasion.”
  3. At the invitation of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, which is controlled by the most distinguished Economists on the continent, I contributed a series of articles to their publication, the Annals, upon subjects of economic and historical importance to Canada. These may be seen in the November number of that journal for 1891.
  4. My essay on “The Ontario Township,” which was printed by the Minister of Education, as the first in the series of University of Toronto studies in Political Science, It has received favorable notice from American, English and German Economic Reviews and Journals. It has also been very favorably received by men engaged in the practical working of our municipal institutions. Several American publishing houses have asked me to publish a second edition; and there is a growing demand for it in our own Province.

As Fellow I have had two years’ experience in the practical work of the Department of Political Science in the University of Toronto. In consequence of sickness in Professor Ashley’s family, I had for a time during last year, full charge of the department. During this time I did acceptably Professor Ashley’s work as well as my own. Throughout last year the Constitutional History, both English and Canadian, has been entirely under my charge.

I have had two years’ experience as Examiner in Political Science in the University, and I have been for one year Examiner in Political Economy in the Ontario Agricultural College. My work throughout has been completely satisfactory, which fact may be easily verified by inquiry. What my success as a practical teacher of the science has been, I will leave you to infer from my testimonials.

It is my desire, if appointed, to spend the long vacations of each of the first three or four years at some foreign university, in which a regular course of lectures in Political Science is delivered during the summer months; and in that event I shall be glad to have your government indicate the institution most suitable for the further prosecution of my studies.

[…]

Source: Application and Testimonials of J. M. McEvoy, B.A., LL.B., for the Chair of Political Economy and Constitutional History in the University of Toronto. 1892.

__________________

FACULTY OF LAW

§1.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Professor: W. J. ASHLEY, M.A.

FIRST YEAR. (SECOND YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

The elements of Political Economy. Value, Price, Wages, Interest, Profits, Rent.

For Reference:

F.A. Walker, Political Economy.
Mill, Political Economy, ed. Laughlin.

 

SECOND YEAR. (THIRD YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

The history and criticism of economic theories.

The Economic ideas of Plato and Aristotle; the influence of Roman law; the teaching of the mediaeval church; Aquinas; the genesis of modern conceptions; the mercantile system; the Physiocrats; Adam Smith, Malthus, and Ricardo; the historical school.

Students are requested to especially examine (i.) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, chap. 10, part 2; Bk. IV, chaps. 1, 2, 3, part 2; chap. 7. (ii.) Malthus, Essay on Population, Bk. I, chaps. 1, 2. (iii.) List, National System of Political Economy(trans. Sampson Lloyd), chaps. 10, 11, 12. (iv.) Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy, chaps. 1-6.

For Reference:

Ingram, History of Political Economy.

 

THIRD YEAR. (FOURTH YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

(1) The History of Economic Development, including such topics as the following: the Manor; Guilds; Domestic Industry; Trading Companies; Enclosures; Agricultural changes; the Mercantile System and Protection; the measures of Colbert; the beginnings of modern finance; the Factory System.

For Reference:

Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages.
Ashley, Economic History, vol. I.
Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Bks. IV and V.
Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century in England.

 

(2) Modern Economic Questions, including such topics as the following: Socialism; taxation; public debt; currency (including banking); municipal finance; public domain; Government works.

Students are advised to consult such books as the following: Jevons, The State in Relation to Labour and Money; Giffen, Essays in Finance, vol. I, Essays ix, x, xiii, xiv; vol. II, Essay vi; Rae, ContemporarySocialism; Ely, The Labour Movement, and Taxation in American Cities and States; Adams,Public Debts; Seligman, Railway Tariffs, in Political Science Quarterly, vol. II; Adams, Relation of the State to IndustrialAction; and James, Modern Municipality and Gas Supply, in Publications of American Economic Association; Taussig, Tariff History of theU.S.; Felkin, The National Insurance Laws of Germany, in Contemporary Reviewfor August, 1888; Taussig, Workmen’s Insurance, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. II.

 

Source:  University of Toronto Calendar, 1890-91, pp. 43-44.

__________________

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Candidates for B.A.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

  1. What is Political Economy ?
  2. Illustrate the use of inductionand deductionin Political Economy.
  3. State and criticize the ‘Wage Fund Theory.’
  4. “Landlords were able to pocket the whole advantage of the Corn Laws, and the people suffered that rents might be kept up.” Explain and criticize.
  5. What are the functions of money ?
  6. State arguments for and against the adoption of bimetalism.
  7. Is a government justified in taxing the rich for the benefit of the poor? If so, to what degree?
  8. Distinguish the various meanings attached to the term “socialism.”

*  *  *  *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Candidates for B.A.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

  1. Sketch the history of the Teutonic Hanse in England.
  2. Describe the position of the mediaeval villein.
  3. Explain the causes for the decay of the Craft Guilds.
  4. Trace the development of the Poor Laws during Elizabeth’s reign.
  5. Show the importance in English Economic History of the woollen industry.
  6. Distinguish the various stages in the growth of English foreign trade.
  7. Describe the origin of the Bank of England, and explain its connection with the financial measures of the government of William III.
  8. Trace the progress of the East India Company, down to the beginning of the eighteenth century.
  9. What were the social effect of the “Enclosures” of the eighteenth century?
  10. Compare the Merchant Guild with the modern Joint Stock Company.
  11. Illustrate historically the relative advantages and disadvantages of the Factory system of Industry.
  12. Sketch the history of factory legislation in England.

*  *  *  *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Second Year.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

  1. Examine the assumption made by some Economists, that all persons will act in such a manner as will secure their own best interests.
  2. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the division of labor?
  3. Co-operation in production has not been so successful as co-operation in distribution. How would you account for this?
  4. Define value. How is the value of commodities determined?
  5. “The fundamental cause of rent is difference in fertility.” — Symes. Criticize.
  6. What do you understand by “average rate of profit?”
  7. State the theoretic arguments, if any, in favour of protection and the practical disadvantages, if any, in its application.
  8. What are the objects of trades unions? How far are they suited to the attainment of these objects?
  9. State the various circumstances which explain and justify the payment of interest.
  10. What would be the result if the government were to issue bills to every farmer to the extent of $500 on the security of his real estate?
    Illustrate the correct and incorrect use of the phrase “a violation of the laws of Political Economy.”

*  *  *  *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Third Year.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
ECONOMIC THEORY.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

  1. Show how the mediaeval doctrine of Usury was undermined by the doctrine of Interest.
  2. Describe the “Balance of Bargain” system.
  3. Compare the attitude of Child and Hume towards the Balance of Trade theory.
  4. Comment on the Maxims of Quesnay.
  5. Distinguish the essentials and non-essentials in the teaching of Malthus.
  6. In what case did Adam Smith consider “Protection” desirable.
  7. “What Smith sought to establish was the free competition of equal industrial units; what in fact he was helping to establish was the free competition of unequal industrial units.” Explain and comment upon.
  8. “Back to Adam Smith.” In what sense is this desirable.
  9. State and criticize the “Iron Law of Wages.”
  10. Examine the doctrine laid down by Ricardo that the relative values of commodities are governed by the relative quantities of labor bestowed on their production.
  11. Wherein does List find the teaching of Smith and his school defective.

*  *  *  *

University of Toronto.
Supplemental Examinations: 1891.
Fourth Year.

ARTS.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

  1. Does density of population tend to increase or to diminish the per capitaproductiveness of a nation? Apply your conclusions to determine the importance of the Malthusian doctrine of population.
  2. If it were deemed desirable to encourage the manufacturing of steel in Canada would you do so by levying a duty on imported steel, or by giving a bonus per ton for all steel produced in Canada?
  3. Examine the soundness of the two fundamental assumptions upon which the laissez fairedoctrine of the functions of Government proceeds.
  4. “Value depends on supply and demand.”
    What limitations and explanations does this statement require ?
  5. “Rents tend to rise with industrial propers .” [sic, “when industry prosper”]
    Examine this statement.
  6. On what principles would you proceed to determine what was “fair wages” between master and workman in any given industry?
  7. Describe some of the more important plans recently advanced for the uniting of labour and capital, and examine the expediency of each from an economic standpoint.

Source:  University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1891.

Image Source: William J. Ashley in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), p. 595.

Categories
Chicago Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Graduate money reading list. Friedman, 1970

 

The following course outline with its readings is pretty much self-explanatory, though I cannot help but notice that there is quite a bit of Milton Friedman to read in Milton Friedman’s money course. It reminds me of the remark by Samuelson:

One must not make the mistake attributed to Edward Gibbon when he wrote his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon, it was said, sometimes confused himself and the Roman Empire.

_____________________

Milton Friedman

ECONOMICS 331—MONEY
Reading List—Winter Quarter, 1970

(Note: Readings marked with an asterisk (*) cover the essential substantive material.)

I. Introductory Material

*Milton Friedman, The Optimum Quantity of Money and Other Essays, (Aldine, 1968), Chap. 1.

*Milton Friedman, The Quantity Theory, International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (reprints on reserve).

David Hume, “Of Money,” “Of Interest,” in Essays and Treatises.

H. G. Johnson, “Monetary Theory and Keynesian Economics,” reprinted in W. Smith and R. Teiger (eds.) Readings in Money, National Income, and Stabilization Policy.

D. H. Robertson, Money.

II. The Quantity Equation

*Irving Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money (Macmillan, 1913), chaps. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8.

*J. M. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform (1924), chap. 2; chap. iii, sec. 1.

*Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, The Problem and Its Setting (New York, 1927), pp. 128-39.

*A. C. Pigou, “The Value of Money” in Lutz, F. A., and Mints, L. W. (eds.) Readings in Monetary Theory.

Alfred Marshall, Official Papers, “Evidence before the Indian Currency Committee (1889),” questions 11758-62 (pp. 267-69); “Evidence before the Gold and Silver Commission (1887-88).” questions 9629-86 (pp. 34-53); testimony to Royal Commission on The Depression of Trade and Industry (1886), answers to question 8(i), pp. 7-15.

Henry Thornton, An Enquiry into the Nature and Effect of the Paper Credit of Great Britain (1802), Library of Economics edition (Allen and Irwin, 1939), chaps. iii and xi.

Jacob Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade (Harpers, 1937), pp. 119-289.

III. The Demand for Money

*Phillip Cagan, “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation,” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, esp. 11, 25-35 and 86-91.

*Milton Friedman, “The Quantity Theory of Money: A Restatement” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, ed., M. Friedman.

*J. R. Hicks, “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Theory of Money,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

*H. G. Johnson, “Monetary Theory and Policy,” American Economic Review (June, 1962), Part II.

*J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, chaps. 13 and 15.

Maurice Allais, “A Restatement of the Quantity Theory of Money,” American Economic Review (December, 1966), pp. 1123-57.

W. J. Baumol, “The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (November, 1952).

Karl Brunner and Allan H. Meltzer, “Predicting Velocity: Implications for Theory and Policy,” Journal of Finance (May, 1963), pp. 319-54.

Karl Brunner and Allan H. Meltzer, “Some Further Investigations of Demand and Supply Functions for Money,” Journal of Finance (May, 1964).

Gregory C. Chow, “On the Long-run and Short-run Demand for Money,” Journal of Political Economy (April, 1966), pp. 111-31.

John V. Deaver, “The Chilean Inflation and the Demand for Money,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (The University of Chicago, Department of Economics, Winter, 1961).

Edgar Feige, The Demand for Liquid Assets: A Temporal Cross-Section Analysis (Prentice-Hall, 1964).

Milton Friedman, “The Demand for Money: Some Theoretical and Empirical Results,” Journal of Political Economy (August, 1959), pp. 327-51.

H. G. Johnson, “Recent Developments in Monetary Theory,” Essays in Monetary Economics.

David Laidler, “Some Evidence on the Demand for Money,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1966), pp. 55-68.

H. A. Latane, “Cash Balances and the Interest Rate—A Pragmatic Approach,” Review of Economics and Statistics (November, 1954) and (November, 1960).

Allan H. Meltzer, “The Demand for Money: The Evidence from the Time Series,” Journal of Political Economy (June, 1963).

Merton H. Miller and Daniel Orr, “A Model of the Demand for Money by Firms,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, LXXX (August, 1966), 413-35.

George R. Morrison, Liquidity Preferences of Commercial Banks (University of Chicago Press, 1966).

Joan Robinson, “The Rate of Interest,” Econometrica, Vol. 19 (1951), reprinted as chap 1 of The Rate of Interest and Other Essays.

James Tobin, “Liquidity Preference and Monetary Policy,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 19 (May, 1947), 130-31.

James Tobin, “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Toward Risk,” Review of Economic Studies (August, 1956), pp. 241-47.

James Tobin, “The Interest Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash,” Review of Economics and Statistics (August, 1956).

Clark Warburton, “Monetary Velocity and Monetary Policy,” and Tobin’s rejoinder, Review of Economic Statistics, XXX (November, 1948), 310-17.

IV. The Supply of Money (covered mostly in Econ. 330)

*Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, “Appendix B: Proximate Determinants of the Nominal Stock of Money,” from A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960.

*H. G. Johnson, “Monetary Theory and Policy,” sec. 3.

Phillip Cagan, Determinants and Effects of Changes in the Stock of Money, 1875-1960 (New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1968).

Phillip Cagan, “The Demand for Currency Relative to the Total Money Supply,” Journal of Political Economy (August, 1958).

William Dewald, “Free Reserves, Total Reserves, and Monetary Control,” Journal of Political Economy (April, 1963).

Milton Friedman, A Program for Monetary Stability, chap. ii.

A. G. Hart, “The ‘Chicago’ Plan of Banking Reform,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

A. J. Meigs, Free Reserves and the Money Supply (University of Chicago Press, 1962).

Lloyd W. Mints, A History of Banking Theory, pp. 9-12, 29-35, 217-22, 247-57, 265-87.

George Tolley, “Providing for Growth of the Money Supply,” Journal of Political Economy (Dec., 1957), pp. 465-85.

U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Systems Purposes and Function.

Knut Wicksell, “The Influence of the Rate of Interest on Prices,” Economic Journal, 171 (June, 1907), 213-20

V. Liquidity and Financial Intermediaries

*Phillip Cagan, “Why Do We Use Money in Open Market Operations,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1958).

*Roland N. McKean, “Liquidity and a National Balance Sheet,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

J. G. Gurley, “Liquidity and Financial Institutions in the Postwar Period,” Study Paper No. 14, Joint Economic Committee, January, 1960.

J. G. Gurley and E. S. Shaw, Money in a Theory of Finance.

H. Makower and J. Marschak, “Assets, Prices and Monetary Theory,” Readings in Price Theory.

Alvin Marty, “Gurley and Shaw on Money in a Theory of Finance,” Journal of Political Economy (February, 1961).

Edward Simmons, “The Relative Liquidity of Money and Other Things,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

VI. The Monetary Standard and International Monetary Arrangements

*”Conditions of International Monetary Equilibrium,” Session at 1962 meeting of American Economic Association, with papers by H. G. Johnson, Richard E. Caves, and Peter B. Kenen, and Discussion by J. Marcus Fleming, Harry C. Eastman, and J. Herbert Furth, American Economic Review (May, 1963), pp. 112-46.

*Milton Friedman, “Commodity Reserve Currency” and “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” Essays in Positive Economics.

*Lloyd Mints, Monetary Policy for a Competitive Society, chaps. 4 and 5.

Frank W. Fetter, Development of British Monetary Orthodoxy, 1797-1875 (Harvard University Press, 1965).

Milton Friedman and Robert V. Roosa, The Balance of Payments: Free versus Fixed Exchange Rates, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1967.

H. G. Johnson, International Trade and Economic Growth, chaps. 6, 7.

H. G. Johnson, “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates, 1969,” Review of Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (June, 1969).

J. M. Keynes, Tract on Monetary Reform, chap. iii, secs. 2, 3, 4; chaps. iv and v (*especially chap. iii, sec. 2; chap. iv, sec. 2).

Egon Sohmen, Flexible Exchange Rates (University of Chicago Press, 1961).

VII. The Process of Adjustment: Inflation, Business Cycles

*Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, “Money and Business Cycles,” Supplement to Review of Economics and Statistics (February, 1963), containing proceedings of Conference on Monetary Economics. Also, comments by H. Minsky, A. Okun, and C. Warburton.

Phillip Cagan, “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation,” Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money.

Milton Friedman, Dollars and Deficits (Prentice-Hall, 1968), chaps. 1, 4, and 5.

Milton Friedman, “The Inflationary Gap,” in Essays in Positive Economics.

Milton Friedman, “The Monetary Studies of the National Bureau,” in The National Bureau Enters Its Forty-fifth Year, 44th Annual Report, National Bureau of Economic Research, June, 1964, pp. 7-25.

Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, esp. chapter 7.

Arnold C. Harberger, “The Dynamics of Inflation in Chile,” in C. Christ, et al., Measurement in Economics (Stanford University Press, 1964).

Eugene M. Lerner, “Inflation in the Confederacy, 1861-65,” Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money.

Clark Warburton, “The Misplaced Emphasis in Contemporary Business-Fluctuation Theory,” Readings in Monetary Theory.

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 55, Folder 7.

Image Source:  Milton Friedman (undated) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06231, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Course readings for undergrad and graduate labor economics, mid-1920s

 

This is one of those postings that I sort of wish I had never started. I began, feeling pretty sure that I knew who the instructor (William Z. Ripley) was and which course was being taught at Harvard some time during the second-half of the 1920s (Economics 6a, Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems). At the Hoover Institution Archives I had found eleven hand-written notecards  of Vervon Orvall Watts (Harvard Ph.D., 1932. Thesis: The Development of the Technological Concept of Production in Anglo-American Thought) that were filed together under the keyword “wages”.

Upon closer inspection it became clear that the artifacts were not from a single course and perhaps not even for a single instructor. The problem of identifying unambiguously the instructor for the undergraduate course might have been solved if there had been a clear date on any of the notecards. 

The graduate course was always taught by William Z. Ripley over this period. The course outline and reading list for the 1931 graduate course Problems of Labor taught by William Z. Ripley has been transcribed and posted earlier. That post also includes some biographical information. 

Since I was dealing with handwritten references, I went to the trouble of tracking down almost all the items. When I did, I added links to the lists, adding both to the accuracy and research value of the transcriptions. Square brackets indicate my additions.

The following post provides nearly complete enrollment data and final exams for the “Trade-unionism and Allied Problems” course for 1913-32.

_________________

On Vervon Orvall Watts:

V. Orval Watts’ obituary in the Los Angeles Times (April 1, 1993).

Watts’ 1952 Book Away from Freedom: The Revolt of the College Economists was republished by the Ludwig von Mises Institute (Auburn, Alabama) in 2008. “This book had a powerful impact on a generation — a kind of primer on Keynesian fallacies that still pervade the profession if not by that name.“

_________________

Course Descriptions

6a 1hf. Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley.

This course will deal mainly with the economic and social relations of employer and employed. Among the topics included will be: the history of unionism; the policies of trade unions respecting wages, machinery, output, etc.; collective bargaining; strikes; the legal status of unionism, closed shop, etc.; efficiency management; unemployment, etc., in the relation to unionism, will be considered.
Each student will make at least one report upon a labor union or a special topic, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice.

34. Problems of Labor. Full-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 2. Professor Ripley.

This course deals more intensively with the same topics which are comprehended in Economics 6a, as given for undergraduates. Especial attention is given to methods of investigation and original sources. Specific aspects of trade union policy and the legal status of unionism are given priority over the broader issues of labor legislation and kindred subjects.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXI, No. 22 (April 30, 1924): Division of History, Government, and Economics 1924-25, pp. 68-69, 73.

_________________________

Card 1

Ec. 6a. Feb. 2[second digit illegible]. Topics.

Wages.

Justice in Distribution—(Lowell[?] & Dempsey[?])
Wages & Supply of Labor.—Supply falls with rise in wages.
Laissez-faire, Competition (Railroads, vs coal mines, sweat shops.)
Tendency increasing [illegible 2 letters] various kinds of regulation in all sorts of trades.
Competition: over-development of industries & depression of wages.
Trace effects of increase in efficiency of individual, of trade, of group of trades. Effects on other individuals, own wages, wages of other groups.
Increase of efficiency of all trades—benefits landlord largely. Workers get only part of increase. Capitalists benefit.
Increased efficiency of exploitation of land.
Sweated trades—benefits of a strong union. (causes of sweatshops—competition with machinery.)
Effects of rise in wages for union methods (monopoly) upon other classes of wage-earners.
Union answer: universal organization.

_________________________

Card 2

[Probably Econ 6a]

Orth, S. P. The Armies of Labor [1919].
Brissenden. The I. W. W. [1920 Columbia University dissertation].
Selekman. Sharing Management with the Workers. [1924]
Paul Gemmill. The Actors’ Equity. [cf. Paul F. Gemmill. Equity: The Actors’ Trade Union, QJE (1926)  ]
J. R. Commons. Industrial Goodwill [1919].
S. Perlman. History of Labor in the U.S. [Vol. I, 1918; Vol. II, 1918]
Gompers, S. Labor & the Common Welfare. [1919]
Cole, G.D.H. Labor in the Coal-Mining Industry (1914-1921) [1923].
Tawney, R. H. The British Labor Movement [ca. 1925].

Papers:

What kind of workers make a good trade union?
The A. F. of L. vs. the I. W. W.
Employee Representation: What has it to offer?
The Ford industries & unionism.
The Efficacy of Company Unions.
The Economic Basis of Effective Unionism
The Objection of Unions to the Use of the Injunction in Labor Disputes
The Case for a Labor Party in the U.S.

East. Mankind at the Crossroads. [1923]
Marshall. Industry & Trade. [3rd edition, 1920]
Budish & Soule. The New Unionism in the Clothing Industry.
Selekman & Van Kleeck Employe’s Representation in Coal Mines. [1924] [cf. Miners and Management; a study of the collective agreement between the United Mine Workers of America and the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company, 1934]

______________________

Card 3

[Probably Econ 6a]
(Assignments to a Junior by William Thomas Ham)

Hammond, J. L. B. The Rise of Modern Industry. [1925]
H. Ford. My Life and Work. [1922]
Lewisohn, S. The New Leadership in Industry. [1926]
Lewisohn, Sam A. et al. Can Business Prevent Unemployment? [1925]
Carver. The Present Economic Revolution in the United States. [1926]
Groat. Labor and the Courts. [“Unionism and the Courts,” Yale Review (August, 1910) ]
Gompers. S. Editorials.
Commons and Andrews. Labor Legislation. [1916]
Blum, S. Labor Economics. [1925]
11th Special Report of U.S. Commissioner of Labor. Regulation and Restriction of Output. [1904]
Allen, H. J. The Party of the Third Part. [1921]
Pound, R. The Spirit of the Common Law. [1921]  Freedom of Contract (in Harvard Law Review, sic) [Perhaps “Liberty of Contract” in the Yale Law Journal (1909) is meant here]
Commons, J.R. Trade Unionism and Labor Problems, selections. [1921]
Webb. Industrial Democracy (Selections). [1920]
Robertson, D.H. The Control of Industry. [1923]
Feis. The Principles of Wage Settlement. [1924]  The Settlement of Wage Disputes. [1921]
P. Douglas. The Family Wage (sic). [cf. Wages and the Family (1925)]
Barnett, G. A. Machinery and Labor. [1926]
Taussig. Inventors and Money-Makers [1915].  The Minimum Wage. [cf. Minimum Wages for Women in QJE (1916) pp. 411-442 ]

Papers:

The right to strike and the doctrine of conspiracy.
What should be the painters’ policy re the [two illegible words] machine?
The Use of the Injunction in Labor Disputes.
Wage Principles in Arbitration cases.

______________________

Card 4

Appears not to properly belong to either course (penciled addition)

Sorokin. Social Mobility. [1927]
Popenoe and Johnson. Applied Eugenics. [1922]
Sumner and Keller. The Science of Society, Soc. 543.16.20 [1927, 4 volumes]  [Vol. II; Vol III; Vol. IV]
C. S. Day. This Simian World. [1920]

______________________

Card 5

Ec. 6a—Topics

Does the competition of women and children tend to lower wages of men? Does prohibition of it benefit men workers?
Standard of Living.   make assumption of family of 5.
cf P. Douglas, The Family Wage  (sic). [cf. Wages and the Family (1925)]
Extent to Wk. Budgets/Minimum of Subsistence should be considered by arbitration boards in adjusting/fixing wages (rising/falling/stable prices).
Could it be maintained if given? I.e. do poor make their standards, or do the low wages make the standards?
Do the poor make the slums, or the slums produce the poor?
(Note Tugwell’s [?] estimate that American real wages rose 400%–1820 to 1922.)

______________________

Card 6

[Probably Ec 34]
Labor Problems—Sources.

Monthly Labor Review, and Bulletin of U.S. Business of Labor Statistics. can be obtained cheaply from Washington as they appear by writing for them.

Law and Labor. Published by the League for Industrial Rights

(cf. Sayer: The Law and Labor: a Collection of Cases)
(Ellingwood and Coombs: The Government and Labor)

Report of the British Royal Commission on Labor, 1894 (19 Vol.).

[T. G. Spyers, The Labor Question. An Epitome of the Evidence and the Report of the Royal Commission on Labour. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1894]  ]

Report of the U.S. Industrial Commission 1899

Hearings before the Industrial Commission on relations and conditions of capital and labor employed in manufacturing and general business (1899).

Report of the New York State Factory Investigation. Vol. 1-3;  Vol. 4-5.

Report of the U.S. Coal Commission, 1923.

(Q. J. E. for 1924, Resumé of the Report).

Part I. Principal Findings and Recommendations [1923]
Part II. Antracite—Detailed Studies
Part III. [could not find a link]
Part IV. Bituminous Coal—Detailed Studies of Cost of Production, Investment and Profits. [1923]
Part V. [could not find a link]

______________________

Card 7

[Probably Econ 34] Labor.

Catlin, W. B. The Labor Problem. [1926]

Ripley says is best general text. Cfs. Eng. and U.S. A long section (40 pp) on restriction of output. Interesting style. Gives sources. Is weak on legislative side.

Blum: Labor Economics. [1925]

Good on Wages. Knows economic theory. Investment is rather abstract.

Hoxie: Trade Unionism in the U.S. 1917 (13-33). 

Furniss: Labor Problems (1-17). 1925.

S. and B. Webb. Industrial Democracy. [1920]
——————. History of Trade Unionism. [1920]

Old, confined to England. Over-sympathetic with labor. Contrast Hoxie and Webb on the Labor Leader.

Commons and Andrews. Principles of Labor Legislation.

Best on legal aspects. [1920]

(Watkins, Groat, Carlton–dsg[?]. Over-sympathetic with labor. Cf Adams and Sumner, Ely.)

Hoopingarner [Dwight Lowell Hoopingarner, Labor Relations in Industry (1925)] from employers standpoint.

Lauck: Political and Social Democracy. [1926]

Intimate contact with labor in U.S. Knows subject. Interesting. Not good text book.

______________________

Card 8

[Probably Econ 34] Topics. Labor Problems.

Life of Robert Owen (G. D. H. Cole). [1920]

Origin and Causes of Trade Unionism

Are they, as Persons and Perlman say, a defensive reaction against excessive cut-throat competition among producers, a competition which is due to the Industrial Revolution and instead of machine-methods of production.
–Due to a desire to reduce costs and widen markets.

Trade Unionism in U.S.

Note influence of free lands in the West, and (increasing) new opportunities in Young and expanding country. Is there likely in future to be this same vertical mobility of labor which has hindered growth of Unionism in U.S. So union inevitable accompaniment of capitalism.

Laissez-faire and Labor Legislation

Laissez-faire and Trades Unions.

______________________

Card 9

[Probably Econ 34] Labor

D. Houser: What the Employer Thinks. (Econ 7409.27.5) [1927]
W. B. Catlin: The Labor Problem. [1926]
E. S. Furniss, and L. R. Guild. Labor Problems. [1925]
R. W. Cooke Taylor: The Modern Factory System (IE, 20.26) [1891]
J. A. Fitch: The Causes of Industrial Unrest (inefficiency of present order) [1924]
W. L. M. King: Industry and Humanity [1918]

Ch. 12—plea for making worker understand bigger economic tendencies and results for him. e.g. machinery, large-scale industry, etc.

Brooks, J. G.: The Social Unrest (S.E.) [1903]
Penty, A. J.: Post-Industrialism [1922]
Feis, Herbert: Principles of Wage Settlement [1924].

______________________

Card 10

References. Ec. 34.

Unemployment

Beveridge. Unemployment in Industry. [Unemployment—A Problem of Industry (3rd ed, 1912)]

J. L. Cohen. Unemployment Insurance. [Insurance Against Unemployment. London, 1921.]

Feldman. Regularization of Employment [1925] [also published as a Columbia University, Ph.D. thesis)]

[Berridge et al.] Business Cycles and Unemployment.[NBER publication for a Committee of the President’s Conference on Unemployment, and a Special Staff of the Naitonal Bureau (1923)]  (collection of papers)

Berridge. Business Cycles and Unemployment. (re indexes for unemployment—how to construct) [William A. Berridge. Cycles of Unemployment in the United States, 1903-1922. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1923.]

U.S. Bureau of Labor (No. 310)-1922- Bulletin on Unemployment in U.S., No. 310. [Ernest S. Bradford, Industrial Unemployment—A Statistical Study of Its Extent and Causes, BLS Bulletin 310 (August 1922)]

Secretary of Labor, Report on Unemployment in U.S., 1928. (head of Bur. of Labor Statistics) (Shrinkage in competition, 1925-7, in a few industries)

The Ministry of Labor Gazette—figures for England and Britain, monthly, operat[?] of unemployment doles.

Feb. 1928, Q. J. E.—German Unemployment Insurance. [Frieda Wunderlich. The German Unemployment Insurance Act of 1927. Quarterly Journal of Economics (Feb. 1928)]

______________________

Card 11

Readings. Ec. 34. Feb 28.

W. B. Catlin. [The Labor Problem, 1926] 259-315.
Brissenden. The I. W. W. 83-110, 155-178, (297-309)
Hoxie. [Trade Unionism in the U.S., 1917] 103-139
Furniss. [Labor Problems, 1925] 267-325

[…]

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. V. Orval Watts Papers. Box 21, Blue-tab-Notecard File, Tab W (Wages).

Image Source: William Zebina Ripley in the Harvard Class Album, 1928.

Categories
Exam Questions Gender Harvard Radcliffe Socialism Suggested Reading

Harvard. Exams and reading period assignment for Programs of Social Reconstruction (Socialism). Mason, 1933.

 

In the collection of final examinations in the Harvard archives, I came across both the Radcliffe and Harvard final examinations for the identical course with the title “Programs of Social Reconstruction” taught by Edward S. Mason. This course was one of the undergraduate staples offered earlier by Thomas Nixon Carver that was handed off to Mason starting 1926/27. 

A few things I find interesting from the materials I was able to find for this year (Note: a course reading list for 1928 needs some work, will be posted later):

  • The final examination questions only cover Marxian socialist theory and movements except for the question  on the reading period assignment that is dedicated to contemporary U.S./U.K. reform. It is possible that earlier utopian socialist literature, Henry George, and anarchism were tested in a mid-term examination, or of course the course description had not been changed. The exact same course description was used by Mason for the 1928-29 academic year.
  • From the Harvard President’s report and the final exam (note the superscript “1” which means first term), it would appear that Mason taught the course in the first term of 1932-33 and not during the second term as announced earlier in the Harvard Register. So it does appear that he taught the course one semester to Harvard men and the following semester to Radcliffe women, so having different final examinations makes sense.
  • The Harvard exam as printed can be compared to the Radcliffe exam to see that there is an obvious type:  the first question only be allocated one hour and the remaining four questions would fill the rest of the examination time.

____________________

Radcliffe College Course Announcement

Economics 7c 2hf. Programs of Social Reconstruction

Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Asst. Professor E. S. Mason.

 

Source: Radcliffe College. Courses of Instruction, 1932-33. Page 87.

____________________

Harvard Course Announcement with Course Description

Economics 7c 2hf. Programmes of Social Reconstruction

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Associate Professor Mason.

A comparison of the various radical programmes, such as socialism, communism, anarchism and the single tax, the theories upon which they are based, and the grounds of their attack upon the present industrial system. An examination of the various criteria of distributive justice, and of the social utility of the institution of property. A comparison of the merits of liberalism and authoritarianism, of radicalism and conservatism. An analysis also of the present tendencies toward equality under liberalism in this country.

 

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1932-33 in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXIX, No. 32 (June 27, 1932), p. 74.

____________________

Course Enrollment (Harvard)

[Economics] 7c 1hf. Associate Professor Mason.—Programs of Social Reconstruction.

Total 42: 26 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Others.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1932-33, p. 65.

____________________

Reading Period Assignment

Economics 7c

Read one:

1. Norman Thomas, America’s Way Out.
2. Stuart Chase, A New Deal.
3. George Soule, A Planned Society.
4. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, A Constitution for the Socialist Commonwealth of Great Britain.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1932-1933”.

____________________

1932-33
RADCLIFFE COLLEGE

ECONOMICS 7c
Final Examination

I

Allow about one hour.

  1. Write a critical review of the book you read for the reading period.

II

Answer four of the following questions.

  1. What position does technological change occupy in Marx’s theory of the decline of capitalism?
  2. What importance has economic imperialism for the tactics of a socialist party according to Marxian theorists?
  3. How do you explain the collapse of the Second International in 1914.
  4. Discuss the validity of the labor-hour as a unit of cost in a socialist planned economy.
  5. Can Marx’s theory of value be reconciled with his explanation of the tendency toward an equal rate of profit in all industries? Discuss.

Final. 1933

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, Finals 1933 (HUC 700028, No. 75). Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science. January—June, 1933.

____________________

1932-33
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 7c1
Final Examination

Allow about one hour.

  1. Write a review of the book you read for the reading period assignment.
  2. “The essence of the Marxian contribution to socialism was and is the discovery of the proletarian path to power.” Discuss.
  3. What does Lenin mean by economic imperialism?
  4. Consider the position in the history of socialist thought of one of the socialist leaders before Marx.
  5. “With his ‘socially necessary labor time’ Marx anticipated the Technocrats by three quarters of a century and proposed a technological measure of cost and value whose use would immediately put an end to all the stupid absurdities of the price system.” Discuss.

Final. 1933.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, Finals 1933 (HUC 700028, No. 75). Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,…Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science. January—June, 1933.

Image Source:  Edward S. Mason in Harvard Album 1934.

Categories
Bibliography Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Money And Banking. Readings and Exams. Williams and Hansen, 1947-48

 

The graduate course for Keynesian economics at Harvard in the 1940s was Principles of Money and Banking taught by Alvin H. Hansen and John H. Williams. Course materials for 1946-47 were transcribed and posted earlier [Fall term 1946; Spring term 1947; General course bibliography]. Almost all of the exam questions for 1947-48 are new. The Spring term of 1948 taught by John  Williams turns out to be unchanged from the previous year. The Fall term of 1947 taught by Alvin Hansen does show some minor rearrangements, and significant additions (e.g. Tobin on liquidity preference).

____________________________

Course Enrollment
1947-48

[Economics] 141a. Professors Williams and Hansen. — Principles of Money and Banking (F).

Total 81: 47 Graduates, 1 Senior, 20 Public Administration, 4 Business, 9 Radcliffe.

 

[Economics] 141b. Professors Williams and Hansen. — Principles of Money and Banking (Sp).

Total 70: 41 Graduates, 2 Juniors, 20 Public Administration, 2 Business, 5 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1947-48, p. 91.

 

____________________________

ECONOMICS 141
PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING

 

Economics 141a — First Semester, 1947-8 (Professor Hansen)

  1. Central Banking: Current Problems and Policies
  2. Theory of Money, Liquidity-Preference, Interest and Prices

 

Economics 141b — Second Semester, 1947-8 (Professor Williams)

  1. International Monetary Equilibrium
  2. Monetary and Fiscal Policy

 

READING LIST FOR ECONOMICS 141a
Principles of Money and Banking
1947-1948

 

Note: Pre-requisite reading (for those who are deficient in undergraduate preparation in Money and Banking:

  1. Banking Studies, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, (1941).
  2. Southard, F. A., Foreign Exchange Practice and Policy, (McGraw-Hill, 1940).
  3. Any one standard textbook in Money and Banking, such as: Thomas, Our Modern Banking and Monetary System, (Prentice-Hall, 1942); or Reed, Money, Currency and Banking, (McGraw-Hill, 1942).

 

  1. Central Banking: Current Problems and Policies.
    1. Minimum Reading List:
      1. Books and Pamphlets:
        1. International Currency Experience (League of Nations, 1944), Chapters I-IV, pp. 7-112.
        2. World Economic Survey, 1942-44 (League of Nations, 1945), Chapter IV “Finance and Banking” (pp. 173-213).
        3. Ellis, H. S., (in Harris: Economic Reconstruction, McGraw-Hill, 1945), Chapter 13, “Central and Commercial Banking in Postwar Finance” (pp. 237-252).
        4. Hansen, Alvin H., America’s Role in the World Economy (Norton, 1945), Chapter XVII, “Gold, Exports and Liquidity” (pp. 144-157).
        5. Harris, S. E., Inflation and the American Economy (McGraw-Hill, 1945), Chapter XXIV, “Money and Savings” (pp. 372-383).
        6. Hawtrey, R. G., The Art of Central Banking (Longmans, 1933) pp. 116-207.
        7. Keynes, J. M., Treatise on Money, Volume II, Chapters 25, 32, 33, (pp. 49-78; 225-278).
        8. Robertson, D. H., Essays in Monetary Theory (King, 1940), Chapter II, “Theories of Banking Policy” (pp. 39-59); Chapter XII, “British Monetary Policy” (pp. 154-167).
        9. Williams, John H., Postwar Monetary Plans (Knopf, second edition, 1945), Chapter 6, “The Banking Act of 1935” (pp. 112-129); Chapter 8, “The Crisis of the Gold Standard” (pp. 154-172); Chapter 9, “Monetary Stability and the Gold Standard” (pp. 172-190).
        10. Financing American Prosperity (Twentieth Century Fund, 1945):
          1. Ellis, H. S., “Monetary Controls and the Business of Banking” (pp. 140-153).
          2. Williams, John H., “Money and Banking” (pp. 381-5).
        11. Postwar Economic Studies, No. 3 (Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, 1945): Wallich, H. C., “Public Debt and Income Flow” (pp. 84-100).
        12. Hansen, Alvin H., Economic Policy and Full Employment, Chapters 20 and 22 (pp. 233-247; 261-288).
      2. Reports and Articles:
        1. Treasury Bulletin, April, 1946, “Federal War-time Financing and Growth of Liquid Assets”, pp. A11-20.
        2. Federal Reserve Bulletins:
          1. July, 1947, “Debt Retirement” (pp. 775-87); “Consumer Incomes and Liquid Assets” (pp. 788-802); “International Monetary and Financial Problems” (pp. 836-850).
          2. April, 1947, “Economic Survey of the United Kingdom” (pp. 367-391); “Annual Report of the Bank of Canada” (pp. 392-97); “Monetization of Public Debt by Banks” (pp. 402-04).
          3. “Estimated Liquid Assets of Individuals and Business”, November, 1946, pp. 1236-37; June, 1947, pp. 689-91.
        3. Annual Reports of Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System:
          1. Thirty-second Report (for the year 1945) pp. 1-15.
          2. Thirty-third Report (for the year 1946) pp. 1-49.
        4. Bopp, K. R., “Central Banking at the Crossroads”, Supplement, American Economic Review, March 1944 (pp. 260-77).
        5. Samuelson, Paul, “The Effect of Interest Rate Increases on the Banking System”, American Economic Review, March 1945.
        6. Seligman, H. L., “The Problem of Excessive Commercial Bank Earnings”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1946.
        7. Whittlesey, C. R., “Federal Reserve Policy in Transition”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1946.
    2. Supplementary Reading List:
      1. Books
        1. Arndt, H. W., The Economic Lessons of the Nineteen Thirties, (Oxford, 1944).
        2. Coulborn, W, A. L., An Introduction to Money, (Longmans, 1938) Chapters 5, 13-14 (pp. 48-64, 209-241).
        3. Fisher, Irving, 100 Per Cent Money, (Adelphi, 1935; Third Edition City Printing Co., New Haven, 1945).
        4. Johnson, G. G., The Treasury and Monetary Policy, (Harvard 1939), Chapter I-V (pp. 3-160)
        5. Hawtrey, R. G., The Gold Standard in Theory and Practice (Longmans, Fourth Edition, 1939).
        6. Hawtrey, R. G., A Century of Bank Rate. (Longmans, 1938).
        7. Lewinski, J., Money, Credit and Prices, (King, 1929) Chapters IV-V (pp. 99-144).
        8. McCracken, Paul W., The Future of Northwest Bank Deposits, Federal Reserve Bank, Minneapolis, 1946.
        9. Mints, L. W., A History of Banking Theory (Chicago, 1945), Chapters VI and X (pp. 74-100; 178-197).
        10. Morgan, E. V., The Theory and Practice of Central Banking, (Macmillan, 1943).
        11. Niebyl, Karl H., Studies in the Classical Theories of Money, (Columbia, 1946).
        12. Sayers, R. S., Modern Banking, (Oxford, 1938), Chapters 4-5 (pp. 70-145).
        13. Viner, J. Studies in the Theory of International Trade, (Harper, 1937), Chapter V, “English Currency Controversies” (pp. 218-289).
        14. Wernette, P., Financing Full Employment, (Harvard, 1945), Chapter 3 (pp. 33-61).
        15. Macmillan Report, Royal Commission in Industry and Commerce, Cmd. 3897 (1931) pp. 2-45; 106-160.
      2. Articles
        1. Abbott, C. C. (Review articles on Financing Problems and Bank Liquidity), Review of Economic Statistics, February 1946 (pp. 48-51).
        2. Abbott, C. C., “Management of the Federal Debt”, Harvard Business Review, Autumn 1945.
        3. Goldenweiser, E. A., “Commercial Banking After the War”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, September 1944.
        4. Seltzer, Lawrence, “Is a Rise in Interest Rates Desirable or Inevitable?”, American Economic Review, December 1945.
        5. Treasury Bulletin, April 1946, “Federal War-time Financing and the Growth of Liquid Assets”.
        6. Keynes, J. M., “The Objective of International Price Stability”, Economic Journal, June-September 1943.
    3. General Reference Reading (see below).

 

  1. Theory of Money, Liquidity Preference, Interest and Prices.
    1. Minimum Reading List:
      1. Books:
        1. Fellner, William, Monetary Policies and Full Employment, Chapter 6, (pp. 174-209).
        2. Hansen, Alvin H.:
          1. Economic Policy and Full Employment, Chapters 12, 13, 18, 19 and 21, (pp. 145-160; 202-232; 248-260).
          2. Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, (Norton, 1941), Chapters 1-5; 11-15; (pp. 13-105; 225-338).
          3. Full Recovery or Stagnation, (Norton, 1938), Chapter 3 (pp. 59-87); Appendix, pp. 331-343.
        3. Hayek, F. A., Prices and Production, (Routledge, 1935), Chapters 1 and 4 (pp. 1-31; 105-128).
        4. Keynes, J. M., Monetary Reform, (Harcourt, 1924), pp. 81-95; 152-191.
        5. Keynes, J. M., A Treatise on Money, (Harcourt, 1930), Chapters 9-13 and 30 (Volume I, pp. 123-220; Volume II, pp. 148-208).
        6. Keynes, J. M., General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, (Harcourt, 1936), pp. 3-45; 61-65; 74-221; 245-271; 292-332; 372-384.
        7. Klein, Lawrence, The Keynesian Revolution, Chapters 1-3, (pp. 1-90).
        8. Marget, Arthur W., The Theory of Prices, Volume I, (Prentice-Hall, 1938), Chapters 12 and 15 (pp. 302-343, 414-459, and large type sections).
        9. Marget, Arthur W., The Theory of Prices, Volume II, (Prentice-Hall, 1942), Chapter 3 (pp. 89-133, large type sections).
        10. Marshall, A., Money, Credit and Commerce, (Book I, Chapter XX, pp. 38-50.
        11. Robertson, D. H., Essays in Monetary Theory, (King, 1940), Chapters 1, 6, 11 (pp. 1-38; 92-7; 113-153).
        12. Schumpeter, J. A., Business Cycles, (McGraw-Hill, 1939), Volume II, Chapter 8, (pp. 449-482).
        13. Wicksell, K., Interest and Prices, (Macmillan, 1936), Introduction by Bertil Ohlin; also author’s Preface; Chapters 5, 7-8, 11 (pp. 38-50; 81-121; 165-177).
        14. Wicksell, K., Money: Lectures on Political Economy, Volume II, (Macmillan, 1935), Chapter IV (pp. 127-228).
        15. Wright, David McC., The Creation of Purchasing Power, (Harvard, 1939), Chapters 4-6 (pp. 60-121).
        16. Macmillan Report, Royal Commission on Finance and Industry, Cmd. 3897 (1931), Part I, Chapter 11 (pp. 92-105).
      2. Articles:
        1. Clark, Colin, “Public Finances and Changes in the Value of Money”, Economic Journal, December 1945.
        2. Hicks, J. R., “Mr. Keynes and the Classics: A Suggested Interpretation”, Econometrica, April 1937.
        3. Hawtrey, R. G. and Hicks, J. R., “Interest and Bank Rate”, The Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, October 1939.
        4. Harrod, Hansen, Haberler, and Schumpeter, “Keynes’ Contribution to Economics”, Review of Economic Statistics, November, 1946.
        5. Keynes, J. M., “Relative Movement of Real Wages and Output”, Economic Journal, March 1939.
        6. Lange, O., “The Rate of Interest and the Optimum Propensity to Consume”, Economica, February 1938.
        7. Lerner, A. P., “Interest Theory: Supply and Demand for Loans or Supply and Demand for Cash”, Review of Economic Statistics, May 1944.
        8. Mints, Hansen, Ellis, Lerner, Kalecki, “A Symposium on Fiscal and Monetary Policy”, Review of Economic Statistics, May 1946.
        9. Modigliani, F., “Liquidity Preferences and the Theory of Interest and Money”, Econometrica, January 1944.
        10. Simons, H. C., “Debt Policy and Banking Policy”, Review of Economic Statistics, May 1946.
        11. Tobin, James, “Liquidity Preference and Monetary Policy”, The Review of Economic Statistics, May 1947.
    2. Supplementary Reading List:
      1. Books:
        1. Adarkar, B. P., The Theory of Monetary Policy, (King, 1935), Chapter 1-8; 13-15 (pp. 3-52; 101-122).
        2. Chandler, L. V., An Introduction to Monetary Theory (Harper, 1940), pp. 1-205.
        3. Coulborn, W. A. L., An Introduction to Money, (Longmans, 1938), Chapters 6-8; 15-16 (pp. 65-116; 242-264).
        4. Haberler, G., Prosperity and Depression (1939) Chapters 8, 13 (pp. 168-254; 455-507).
        5. Hicks, J. R., Value and Capital, Chapters 12-13.
        6. Lindahl, Erik, Studies in the Theory of Money and Capital, (Allen and Unwin, 1939), Part II, Chapters 4-6, (pp. 199-268).
        7. Myrdal, Gunnar, Monetary Equilibrium, (Hodge, 1939), Chapters 1-3 (pp. 1-48).
        8. Polanyi, M. Full Employment and Free Trade, (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1945), Chapters 1, 4, (pp. 1-66; 87-103).
        9. Robertson, D. H., Money (Harcourt, 1929) Chapters 2-4; 7-8.
        10. Sayers, R. S., Modern Banking. (Oxford, 1938), Chapter 6 (pp. 146-164).
        11. Thomas, Brindley, Monetary Policy and Crises, (Routledge, 1936), Chapters 3-4 (pp. 62-156).
      2. Articles:
        1. Lange, O., “Economic Controls After the War,” Political Science Quarterly, March 1945.
        2. Lerner, A. P., “Alternative Formulations of the Theory of Interest”, Economic Journal, June 1938.
        3. Lerner, A. P., “Ex Ante Analysis and Wage Theory”, Economica, November 1939.
        4. Lerner, A. P., “Some Swedish Stepping Stones in Economic Theory”, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, November 1940.
        5. Marschak, J., “Wicksell’s Two Interest Rates”, Social Research, November 1941.
        6. Simons, H. C., “On Debt Policy”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1945.
        7. Warburton, Clark, “The Volume of Money and the Price Level Between the World Wars”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1945.
        8. a. Warburton, Clark, “The Monetary Theory of Deficit Financing”, Review of Economic Statistics, May 1945.
          b. Arndt, H. W., “The Monetary Theory of Deficit Financing; A Comment”, Review of Economic Statistics, May 1946.
        9. Bean and others, “Five Views on the Consumption Function”, Review of Economic Statistics, November, 1946.
    3. General Reference Reading (see below).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1947-48 (2 of 2)”.

____________________________

Mid-year Exam

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 141a

Part A. Write on one question only.

  1. Write an essay on Federal war-time financing including a discussion of:
    1. The role played by (a) the Federal Reserve Banks, (b) the commercial banks.
    2. The impact on (a) the money supply, (b) the liquid assets, (c) member bank reserves, (d) currency in circulation, (e) the rate of interest.
  2. Discuss major problems currently confronting the Federal Reserve System including an appraisal of various proposals to deal with these problems.

Part B. Write on any three questions.

  1. Write an essay (historical and analytical) on the relation of the money supply to the national income. In this connection discuss: (a) the Quantity Theory (b) the Marshallian “k” and (c) the Keynesian liquidity preference functions.
  2. Using the diagrams and analysis of Hicks and Keynes, discuss the role of (a) the schedule of the marginal efficiency of capital (b) the consumption function (c) the liquidity preference function and (d) the quantity of money, as determinants of the rate of interest and of income.
  3. State precisely the conditions (in particular including the relevant functions and their interest-elasticities) under which Monetary Policy alone, or Fiscal Policy alone (without either being supplemented by the other) may be (a) fully effective, (b) wholly ineffective, in raising income.
  4. Write an essay on the “theory of prices” including a discussion of money, income, wage and cost functions; in particular make use of the Keynesian analysis contained in the General Theory, Book V. (Money, Wages, and Prices.)
  5. Write an essay on any one of the following:
    1. International Currency Experience (League of Nations).
    2. Hawtrey, The Art of Central Banking.
    3. Keynes: Treatise on Money.
    4. Robertson: Essays on Monetary Theory.
    5. Williams, Postwar Monetary Plans.
    6. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution.
    7. Wicksell: Interest and Prices.

Note: You will be expected to write on 4 questions (one from part A and three from Part B.

Final. January, 1948.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations 1853-2001. Box 15. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions…, Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, January, 1948.

____________________________

 SECOND SEMESTER
ECONOMICS 141b: PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING

  1. International Monetary Equilibrium:
    1. Cassel, G., The Downfall of the Gold Standard (1936).
    2. Copland, Douglas, Australia in the World Crisis (1934).
    3. Ellis, H. S., Exchange Control in Central Europe (1941).
    4. Graham and Whittlesey, Golden Avalanche (1939).
    5. Hall, M. F., The Exchange Equalization Account (1935).
    6. Hahn, George, International Monetary Cooperation (1945).
    7. Hansen, Alvin, H., America’s Role in the World Economy (1945).
    8. Hardy, C. O., Is There Enough Gold (1936).
    9. Harris, S. E., Exchange Depreciation (1936).
    10. Harris, S.E., Economic Problems of Latin America (1944).
    11. Iverson, Carl, International Capital Movements (1936).
    12. Kindelberger, C. P., International Short-term Capital Movements (1937).
    13. League of Nations, Final Report on Gold (1932).
    14. League of Nations, Economic Fluctuations in the United States and the United Kingdom, 1918-22 (1942).
    15. Nurkse, R., International Currency Experience (1944).
    16. Warren and Pearson, (a) Gold and Prices (1935);
      (b) World Prices and the Building Industry (1937).
    17. Williams, John H., Postwar Monetary Plans (Second Edition, 1945)
  2. Monetary and Fiscal Policy:
    1. Beveridge, Sir William, Full Employment in a Free Society (1945).
    2. British White Paper on “Employment Policy” (1944).
    3. de Chazeau, Hart, and Others, Jobs and Markets (1946).
    4. Economics of Full Employment. Six Oxford Economists (1945).
    5. Fellner, W., Monetary Policies and Full Employment (1946).
    6. Financing American Prosperity, Twentieth Century Fund (1945).
    7. Groves, H. M., (a) Production, Jobs and Taxes (1944).
      (b) Postwar Taxation and Economic Progress (1946).
    8. Hansen, Alvin, H., Economic Policy and Full Employment (1946).
    9. Harris, S. E., Postwar Economic Problems (1943).
    10. Harris, S. E., Economic Reconstruction (1945).
    11. Hayes, H. Gordon, Spending, Saving and Employment (1945).
    12. League of Nations: Anti-Depression Policy (1945).
    13. Langum, John K., Postwar Banking Problems (1946).
    14. Postwar Economic Studies No. 3, Public Finance and Full Employment (1945).
    15. Postwar Economic Studies No. 8, Federal Reserve Policy (1946).
    16. Ruml and Sonne, Fiscal and Monetary Policy (1944).
    17. Terborgh, George, The Bogey of Economic Maturity (1945).
    18. Williams, John H. Postwar Monetary Plans (Second Edition, 1945), Chapters 4, 5.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1947-48 (2 of 2)”.

____________________________

Year-end Exam

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 141b
PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING

(Three hours)

Discuss one question in each part.

I

  1. Your own appraisal of Keynes’ “General Theory.”
  2. The role of money in Keynes’ “General Theory”.

II

  1. Postwar Federal reserve policy.
  2. The secondary (government security) reserve proposal.

III

  1. International monetary and trade adjustment in the postwar world.
  2. Harrod’s “Are These Hardships Necessary?”
  3. The franc devaluation.

 

Final. May, 1948.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations 1853-2001. Box 14. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions…, Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, May, 1947.

____________________________

 ECONOMICS 141
PRINCIPLES OF MONEY AND BANKING
GENERAL REFERENCE READING
[13 pages!]

Has been transcribed and posted with the material for 1946-47.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1946-47 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source: Alvin H. Hansen and John H. Williams in Harvard Class Album 1942.

 

 

 

 

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Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus

Johns Hopkins. Income Distribution Theory, Readings and Exams. Machlup, 1950’s

 

 

The following reading list on the theory of income distribution taught by Fritz Machlup in the mid-1950s at Johns Hopkins University was found in a file in the Evsey Domar papers marked “Macroeconomics, Old Reading Lists”. I hadn’t realized until this post that Machlup’s papers are archived at the Hoover Institution, where 45 boxes alone are filled with the archival remains of his academic career. OK, next time.

I remember that my dissertation supervisor, the same Evsey Domar, did not particularly “like” Fritz Machlup. The two of them were at Johns Hopkins in the 1950s, Machlup being a dozen years Domar’s senior. It is not that Evsey Domar would have actually trash-talked Fritz Machlup in front of a student of his, but I do have a vague recollection of Domar judging Machlup’s approach to economics as having been excessively concerned with terminological issues over substantive economics. Also I sensed that Domar considered Machlup to have viewed matters of academic rank and relative status with excessive seriousness. But these memories fall closer to the legend end of the historical spectrum than to those frequencies reserved for documented anecdotes. 

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JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
THE THEORY OF RELATIVE INCOMES
18-603, Fall Term 1954-55
Prof. Fritz Machlup

READING LIST

Texts:

  1. American Economic Association, Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution. (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1946)
  2. Any one of the books on the list below.

 

  1. General Background

Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics (London: Macmillan, 8th ed. 1936) Books V and VI.

[Handwritten note, “theory of derived demand exp. Ch. 1-6”, apparently referring to Marshall, Book V (“derived demand” found in Chapter 6 of Book V)]

Eugen v. Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital (London: 1891; Reprinted New York, Stechert, 1940) Book III, Ch. X; Book IV, Ch. VII.

Philip H. Wicksteed, The Common Sense of Political Economy. London: Routledge, 1933) Vol. I, Book I, Chapter IX.

Frank H. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit (Boston: 1921, Repreinted London School of Economic) Part II.

John R. Hicks, Value and Capital (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939) Part II.

 

  1. General Equilibrium Theory

Gustav Cassel, A Theory of Social Economy (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1924) Chapter IV.

Bertil Ohlin, Interregional and International Trade (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1933) Appendix I.

George Stigler, Production and Distribution Theories (New York: Macmillan, 1941) Chapter IX and XII.

Joan Robinson, “Euler’s Theorem and the Problem of Distribution” Economic Journal, Vol. XLIV (1934).

 

  1. Marginal Productivity and Substitution

John Bates Clark, The Distribution of Wealth (New York: Macmillan, 1900) Chapter XII and XIII.

Joan Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition (London: Macmillan, 1934) Books VII, VIII, IX.

John R. Hicks, The Theory of Wages (London: Macmillan, 1935) Chapter I and VI.

Paul H. Douglas, The Theory of Wages (New York: Macmillan, 1934) Chapter III.

Paul H. Douglas, “Are There Laws of Production?” American Economic Review, Vol. XXXVIII (1948).

Fritz Machlup, “The Commonsense of the Elasticity of Substitution,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. II (1935).

Richard A. Lester, “Shortcomings of Marginal Analysis for Wage-Employment Problems.” American Economic Review, Vol. XXXVI (1946)

Fritz Machlup, “Marginal Analysis and Empirical Research” American Economic Review, Vol. XXXVI (1946).

Articles by Cassels, Stigler, Chamberlin, Machlup, Robinson, Lange, and Kalecki in A.E.A. Readings.

 

  1. Wage

John R. Hicks, The Theory of Wages Chapters II, III, IV.

Paul H. Douglas, The Theory of Wages Chapter X.

Edwin Cannan, “The Demand for Labour”, Economic Journal, Vol. XLII. (1932)

Fritz Machlup, The Political Economy of Monopoly (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1952) Chapters IX and X.

Articles by Robertson, Robbins, Bloom, Rolph, Reynolds, Lerner, Tarshis, and Dunlop in AEA Readings.

 

  1. Rent

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1st ed. 1817) Chapter II.

Hubert D. Henderson, Supply and Demand (Cambridge: University Press, 1922, Revised, 1932) Chapter VI.

Joan Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Chapter VIII.

Gordon F. Bloom, “Technical Progress, Costs, and Rent”. Economica IX, New Series (1942)

Articles by Buchanan, and Boulding in AEA Readings.

 

  1. Interest

Eugen v. Böhm-Bawerk, The Positive Theory of Capital, Books II, V, VI, and VII.

Knut Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy (New York: Macmillan, 1934) Vol. I, Part II, Ch. 2.

John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (London: Macmillan, 1936) Chapters 11, 12, 13 and 14.

Friedrich A. Hayek, The Pure theory of Capital (London: Macmillan, 1941) Chapters III, V, VI, VIII, XI-XIV.

Fritz Machlup, “Professor Knight and the ‘Period of Production’”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. XLIII (1935).

____________ “The Rate of Interest as Cost Factor and as Capitalization Factor”, American Economic Review, Vol. XXV, (1935)

Articles by Hayek, Knight, Keynes, Robertson, Hicks, Somers, and Lutz, in Readings.

 

  1. Profit

Frank H. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Chapters IX-XII.

Joseph Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934) Chapter IV.

Robert Triffin, Monopolistic Competition and General Equilibrium Theory (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1940) Chapter V.

Fritz Machlup, The Economics of Sellers’ Competition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1952), Chapters VII and VIII.

Articles by Knight, Hart, Gordon, and Crum, in Readings.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Project, Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 15, Folder “Macroeconomics, Old Reading Lists”.

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
The Theory of Relative Incomes
18-603

January 21, 1953

Professor Fritz Machlup

Answer three questions, one from each group.

Write on loose sheets of paper; start a new sheet for each question.
Identify each sheet by the Question Number in the left corner and your Examination Number (which you draw before the examination) in the right corner; your name should appear nowhere.(I.

  1. Describe in words, without using any symbols, the Walrasian system of general equilibrium, stating the essential assumptions, the variables assumed to be given, and the unknowns to be derived.

II.

  1. Discuss the influence of different types of inventions on the marginal productivity of labor. Indicate also their probably effects on the total income of the labor class and on its relative share in the national income.
  2. Dennis H. Robertson divides the effects which “an artificial raising of the wages” is apt to have upon employment into “two analytically separable reactions”, first, “a movement along the existing [marginal productivity] curve,” and second, “a cumulative lowering of the curve”. Explain the two reactions and indicate what assumptions concerning other factors of production, especially capital, are involved.

III.

  1. State the three grounds on which Böhm-Bawerk bases his explanation of the existence of interest and discuss whether each or any of them constitutes a necessary and/or sufficient condition of the existence of interest. (You may avoid committing yourself to the arguments expressed by attributing them to “some writers”.)
  2. Without indicating your own opinions or inclinations, present both sides in the controversy between Frank H. Knight and the “Austrians” with respect to the following points:
    1. that all capital is conceptually perpetual or conceptually non-permanent;
    2. that economic progress may result in a “shortening” of the investment period;
    3. that an increase in the supply of capital need not change the original factors of the remote past.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy, Series 6, Exams, 1956-62. Box 3/1, Folder “Graduate Exams, 1933-1965”.

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THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
THEORY OF RELATIVE INCOMES
18.603

January 1957

Professor Fritz Machlup

Answer four questions, one from each part.

Write on loose sheets of paper; start a new sheet for each question.
Identify each sheet by the Question Number in the left corner and your Examination Number (which you draw before the examination) in the right corner; your name should appear nowhere.
You are on your honor not to use notes or to give or accept advice.

PART I.

  1. A product, X, is made from three “ingredients” or factors of production, A, B, and C, all of which are necessary and can be used only in a fixed proportion. Total output of X is 1000 units per unit of time; the product sells at a price of $100 per unit. The factor costs per unit of product are $60 for A, $30 for B, and $10 for C. The supplies of A and B are perfectly elastic to the industry. The demand for X has an elasticity of -2. The industry is competitive both in its buying and selling.
    Assume that the quantity of C which is available to the industry is reduced by 20 per cent. Calculate the elasticity of the industry’s derived demand for C. Show your reasoning step by step.
  2.      a. Define or explain the concept of elasticity of substitution as it is used by Mrs. Robinson.
    1. Is it “technical” substitution or “total” substitution which is involved in Mrs. Robinson’s concept? What is the difference between the two substitutabilities?

PART II.

  1. Discuss various concepts of “bargaining power” in the labor market, commenting on the selection of criteria, the problem of measurability, and the uses to which the concepts are put.
  2. Ricardo says in the chapter “On Rent” of his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation: “If the high price of corn were the effect, and not the cause of rent, price would be proportionately influenced as rents were high or low, and rent would be a component part of price. But that corn which is produced by the greatest quantity of labor is the regulator of the price of corn; and rent does not and cannot enter in the least degree as a component part of its price.” Discuss. Take account of the possibility that land has other uses besides the production of corn.

PART III.

  1. Without indicating your own opinions or inclinations, present both sides in the controversy between Frank H. Knight and the “Austrians” with respect to the following points:
    1. that all capital is conceptually perpetual or conceptually non-permanent;
    2. that economic progress may result in a “shortening” of the investment period;
    3. that an increase in the supply of capital need not change the original factors of the remote past.
    4. that it is not possible to identify the contributions of the original factors of the remote past.
  2. On p. 208 of his Lectures, Vol. I, Wicksell quotes the following statement by Gustav Cassel: “A man who attaches the same importance to future needs as to present ones, if he expects to be able to provide for his needs in the future just as easily as he does now, has no reason for setting aside anything of his present income.” According to Wicksell, “Cassel is not quite correct” inasmuch as his “argument actually presupposes the absence of any rate of interest.” Explain.

PART IV.

  1. What, if anything, does general-equilibrium theory contribute to the understanding or development of income-distribution theory?
    In order to facilitate a thoughtful discussion of this question it is suggested that you treat it in three parts:

    1. The function of a theory of relative incomes. (What is it designed to do? What kind of general principles or conceptual schemes seem to be useful in developing a theory of income distribution?)
    2. The essentials of general-equilibrium theory. (What is it designed to do and how? What do we learn from it?)
    3. The contribution, or lack of it, of general-equilibrium systems to the theory of relative incomes.

 

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy, Series 6, Exams, 1956-62. Box 3/1, Folder “Graduate Exams, 1933-1965”.

Image Source:  Fritz Machlup page  at the website Austrian Economics Center.

 

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Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading

Chicago. Price Theory Exams. Albert Rees (Chicago PhD Alum 1950), 1962

 

 

Albert Rees (1921-1992) received his B.A. from Oberlin College (1943), M.A. (1947) and Ph.D. (1950) from the University of Chicago. He worked himself up the ranks at the University of Chicago (Assistant Professor, 1948-54; Associate Professor, 1954-61; Professor, 1961-66), serving as chair from 1962-1966. He moved on to chairing the economics at Princeton where he was professor (1966-79). He also served as a staff economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and headed President Gerald Ford’s Council on Wage and Price Stability, 1974-75.  Besides once serving as Provost of Princeton University, Albert Rees also served as the President of the Sloan Foundation.

See The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics, Ross B. Emmett (ed.), Chapter 12 “Albert Rees” by Orley Ashenfelter and John Pencavel. [Downloadable as working paper.]

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PRICE THEORY
Economics 300
Autumn, 1962
Mr. Rees

Chapter assignments will be given in class.

American Economic Association, Readings in Price Theory. Irwin, 1952.

Friedman, Milton, Essays in Positive Economics. University of Chicago Press, 1953.

Leftwich, Richard H., The Price System and Resource Allocation, revised edition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961.

Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics, 8th edition, Macmillan, 1922.

Stigler, George, The Theory of Price, revised edition. Macmillan, 1952.

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Economics 300
Midterm Examination

November 7, 1962
A. Rees

  1. (50 points) Answer the following True, False, or Uncertain and explain your answer briefly. Your score depends on your explanation.
    1. In a free market economy, all consumers participate equally in determining what will be produced.
    2. A free market economy gives ample incentives to conserve natural resources provided that it is clear who owns each unit of the resources.
    3. The cross-elasticity of demand between substitutes is positive.
    4. If two linear demand curves each intersect the price axis, (q =0) the one that has the higher intercept is more elastic at this quantity.
    5. An increase in the price of beef will increase the demand for pork and decrease the demand for beef.
    6. If the market for eggs is in equilibrium an increase in supply will cause only a small change in price.
    7. The elasticity of demand for oranges is greater in absolute value than the elasticity of demand for fruit.
  2. (25 points)
    1. Show by means of an indifference map (axes: oranges and grapefruit) the effect on the consumption of oranges of an increase in their price, the price of grapefruit remaining unchanged. Distinguish the income and the substitution effects. State whether you have used the Hicks or the Slutsky method.
    2. How would your map have differed if the axes had been bread and meat? If they had been bread and butter?
  3. (25 points) Increased costs cause manufacturers to reduce the size of 5 cent chocolate bars from 2-1/2 ounces to 2 ounces. Because the bars are smaller, people eat more of them and consumption rises from 10,000 bars a week to 11,000.
    1. Can these events be shown on an ordinary supply and demand diagram? If so, show them. If not, explain why.
    2. Can the elasticity of demand for chocolate be computed? If so, compute it. If not, explain.

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FINAL EXAMINATION

Economics 300
December 12, 1962
A. Rees

  1. (50 points) Answer each of the following “true,” “false,” or “uncertain” and explain your answer briefly. Your score will depend heavily on your explanation.
    1. If two linear demand curves have the same slope at the same price, then at that price the one for which quantity is largest is least elastic.
    2. An important difference between an indifference map and an isoquant map is that indifference curves never cross.
    3. An important difference between the utility functions depicted by usual indifference maps and production functions is that distances in utility space can be ordered but not measured.
    4. The following conditions are necessary and sufficient for the short-run maximization of monopoly profits: (a) Marginal revenue is equal to marginal cost; (b) price is greater than average variable cost.
    5. An increase in fixed cost caused by an increase in the rate of interest on long run term debt will increase long-run marginal cost but not short-run marginal cost.
    6. An effective legal minimum wage above the prevailing wage will increase the employment of a firm that is a monopsonist in the labor market.
    7. The costs of owner-operated businesses are generally understated because the owners do not pay themselves wages. If they did, the accounting costs would be equal to the economic costs.
    8. The way to produce a given output in the long run at lowest cost is to construct the plant whose short-run average costs are at a minimum at that output.
    9. If a monopolist maximizes profit in the short-run and operates where total revenue is at a maximum, he has no variable costs.
    10. A production function shows constant returns to scale if an increase of 10 per cent in the input of one factor will increase output by 10 per cent.
  2. (20 points) The New York, Ridgewood, and Exurban Railroad operates a commuter passenger service. Two kinds of reduced fares are offered: (1) children under 12 years of age ride at half-fare at all times. (b) on Wednesdays there are special half-fare tickets for adults good on trains leaving after 10:00 a.m. and returning before 4:30 p.m. The railroad has been accused by the New Jersey Commerce Commission of being a discriminating monopolist. Can you defend it against this charge with respect to either or both of its half-fare arrangements? If it is in fact a discriminating monopolist with respect to either arrangement, is it promoting an inefficient use of resources by its pricing practices?
  3. (15 points) (a) Draw the short-run cost curves, demand curve, and marginal revenue curve of a monopolist who is suffering a short-run loss and is minimizing this loss. Indicate the amount of the loss on your diagram. (b) Show the same situation by means of short-run total cost and total revenue curves.
  4. (15 points) A farmer has two plots of land on which he grows corn, plot A and plot B. The following table shows the amount of corn he can produce on each plot with varying applications of fertilizer of a given quality.

Fertilizer Used

 Plot A Plot B
(pounds)

(output in bushels)

0

 10

8

1

 14 13
2 16

17

3

 17 20
4 18

21

5

 17

20

If the price of fertilizer is $1.50 per pound and the price of corn is $1.00 per bushel, how much fertilizer will he use on each plot? (The figures are not intended to be realistic.) Under what circumstances would he use four pounds on each plot?

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Albert Rees Papers, Box 1, Folder “Economics 300”.

Image Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Albert Rees Papers, Box 1, Folder “Rees Personal”.