Category: Suggested Reading

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Empirical Economics. Orcutt, 1950

This is the second batch of material I post from Guy Henderson Orcutt’s undergraduate course Economics 110 at Harvard. His bibliography on the scientific method was included in the previous posting.

A four item reading list for Economics 110 in 1949-50 and a selective reading list (Part I, no part II in the folder) for the 1950-51 course have been transcribed for this posting.

One more bibliographic list is filed under 1949-50, Economics 110: “A Bibliography of Statistical or Inductive Studies of the Determinants of Imports or Exports”. That bibliography is identical to Appendix 4B of Orcutt’s famous paper, Measurement of Price Elasticites in International Trade (Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 32, No. 2. May, 1950), 117-132. This material was explicitly discussed in the academic year 1950-51 in the course in Economics 210b (see Orcutt’s course offerings below).

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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1949-50
Economics 110
Reading List

(Additions will be made to this list)

Henry Schultz—The Theory and Measurement of Demand, University of Chicago Press, 1938.

William H. Nicholls—Labor Productivity Functions in Meat Packing, University of Chicago Press, 1948.

Dale Yoder, D. G. Paterson, et al—Local Labor Market Research, University of Minnesota Press, 1948.

Jacob Marschak—Introduction to Econometrics, Mimeographed lectures (Buffalo and Chicago). Only about two dozen copies are still available. They can be mailed for $2.25 a copy plus postage. To obtain them write the Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, Chicago 37, Illinois. I expect to use this book for Economics 110 and Economics 125b this semester and for mathematical economics next fall.

 

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”

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[Course offerings 1950-51: Orcutt’s Empirical Economics]

Economics 110a. Empirical Economics: National Income and Business Fluctuations

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the empirical foundations of economic theory in the fields of national income and business fluctuations, The methods by which various types of prediction are attempted will be given considerable attention.

 

[Economics 110b. Empirical Economics: The Price Mechanism]

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

Omitted in 1950-51; to be given in 1951-52.

This course will deal with the empirical foundations of economic theory concerning the functioning of the price mechanism. The agricultural and foreign trade sectors will receive particular attention.
Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted Economics 210b.

 

Economics 210a. Empirical Economics: National Income and Business Fluctuations
Half-course (fall term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the problems and techniques of testing economic theory and of prediction in the fields of national income and business fluctuations.

 

Economics 210b. Empirical Economics: The Price Mechanism

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Assistant Professor Orcutt.

This course will deal with the problems and techniques of testing economic theories and predictions concerning the functioning of the price mechanism. The agricultural and foreign trade sectors will receive particular attention. Properly qualified undergraduates will be admitted to this course.

 

Source. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September, 1950) , pp. 80, 84.

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A Selected List of Readings Relevant to
Economics 110a and 210a
Part I

Asher Achinstein, Introduction to Business Cycles, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1950

John Maurice Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles, National Bureau of Economic Research (1935), reprinted Augustus M. Kelley, Inc., 1949
http://papers.nber.org/books/clar34-1

James Duesenberry, Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, Harvard University Press, 1949

William J. Fellner, Monetary Policies and Full Employment, University of California Press, 1946

Edwin Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, Harvard University Press, 1942

Gottfried Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, 3rd ed., 1943, reprinted by United Nations, 1946

P. M. Hauser and W. R. Leonard, Government Statistics for Business Use, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1946

J. R. Hicks, A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1950

Lawrence R. Klein, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, 1921-1941, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1950

Tjalling C. Koopmans and others, Statistical Inference in Dynamic Economic Models, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1950

Wassily Leontief, Structure of the American Economy, 1919-1929, Harvard University Press, 1941

Jacob Marschak, Introduction to Econometrics, Cowles Commission, University of Chicago, 1949

A. F. Burns and Wesley C. Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1946

Oskar Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, Princeton University Press, 1950

Philip Neff and Annette Weifenbach, Business Cycles in selected Industrial Areas, University of California Press, 1949

W. Nelson Peach and Walter Krause, Basic Data of the American Economy, 3rd ed., Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Chicago

D. H. Robertson, A Study of Industrial Fluctuation, 1915, reprinted by London School of Economics and Political Science, 1948

Richard Ruggles, An Introduction to National Income and Income Analysis, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1949

J. Tinbergen, Statistical Testing of Business-Cycle Theories, Vol. I, “A Method and Its Application to Investment Activity,” Vol. II, “Business Cycles in the United States of America, 1919-1932,” League of Nations Economic Intelligence Service, Geneva, 1939

J. Tinbergen and J. J. Polak, The Dynamics of Business Cycles, University of Chicago Press, 1950

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789-1945

Thomas Wilson, Fluctuations in Income and Employment (3rd ed.), Pitman Publishing Company, New York, 1949

 

 

Source:   Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”

Image Source: Cropped from portrait in Harold W. Watts (1991). Distinguished Fellow: An Appreciation of Guy Orcutt. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 1, Winter, pp. 171-179.

 

 

Categories
Bibliography Courses Harvard History of Economics Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. History of Economic Thought. Fellner, 1950

 

 

To William John Fellner (1905-1983) I personally owe my career-long interest in the history of economics. He agreed to meet with me for a year in a one-on-one tutorial upon my request since Yale did not offer a course in the history of economics then (1971-72). 

I discovered the following Harvard syllabus that I only recently realized was for a course actually given by my mentor, apparently to help satisfy the continuing demand of Harvard undergraduates for history of economics following Schumpeter’s death in January 1950.

Because I owe so much to William Fellner, in his honor I have gone to the trouble of providing links to as many of the items on his syllabus and bibliography as I could find (in a half-day).

Between us, this is not a particulary well-crafted or imaginative selection of assigned readings and the bibliography is clearly a rush-job. But this nonetheless demonstrates that Fellner was on a mission to integrate the history of economics with the teaching of the principles of economics which he did at Yale through ca. 1970 as reflected in his book Emergence and Content of Modern Economic Analysis, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

______________________________________

 

Economics 100.
History of Economic Thought

Half-course (fall term). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor Fellner (University of California).

 

Source: Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September 1950): Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences During 1950-51, p. 79.

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1950-51
Economics 100
Fall Term

History of Economic Thought

In addition to the textbook assignments here listed, students will be required to do some amount of reading in the works of the writers who will be discussed in the course. The students will have a limited range of choice in this respect.

The textbook assignments here listed are not quite final. Some adjustments will presumably be made to include writers who will be discussed in the course but are not covered, or are covered inadequately, by the present assignments. Also, Assignment XI is too long and will be shortened so as to have it correspond to the classroom discussion.

 

I. Economic Ideas of Greek Philosophers

Gray, Ch. 1

II. Economic Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas

Gray, Ch. 2

III. Mercantilism

Gray, Ch. 3

IV. The Physiocrats

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 1

V. Adam Smith

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 2

VI. Malthus and Ricardo

Gide-Rist, Book I, Ch. 3

VII. Early Expressions of “Neo-classical” Ideas

Gray, Ch. 7, pp. 190-197; Ch. 8, pp. 238-248; Ch. 10, pp. 266-277.

VIII. Mill

Gide-Rist, Book III, Ch. 2

IX. Protectionist Views and the National Outlook

Gray, Ch. 8, pp. 227-238; Ch. 9, pp. 248-260.

X. Forerunners of Socialism (Simondi; the Ricardian Socialists)

Gide-Rist, Book II, Ch. 1

XI. French Pre-Marxian Socialists

Gide-Rist, Book II, Chs. 2, 3, and 5.

XII. Marxism

Gray, Ch. 11 and Roll’s chapter on Marx

XIII. The Historical School and Institutionalism

Gide-Rist, Book IV, Ch. 1

XIV. Early Expressions of the Welfare State Ideology

Gide-Rist, Book IX, Ch. 2, Ch. 4

XV. The Neo-classical School

Gray, Ch. 12

XVI. Neo-classical, Historical-Institutionalist and Socialist Influences on Contemporary Thought

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1950-51
Economics 100
History of Economic Thought

List of Books and Articles

I. General

Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (Edwin R. A. Seligman, Ed.: Alvin Johnson, Assoc. Ed.) [Vol. I; Vol. II ; Vol. III ; Vols.III & IV ; Vol. V ; Vols. VI & VI ; Vol. VII ; Vol. VIII ; Vol. IX ; Vol. X ; Vol. XI ; Vols. XI & XII ; Vol. XIII ; Vols. XIII & XIV ; Vol. XV .
Gide, Charles and Rist, Charles, History of Economic Doctrines
Gray, Alexander, The Development of Economic Doctrine
Haney, Lewis H., History of Economic Thought
Roll, Eric, A History of Economic Thought
Whittaker, Edmund, History of Economic Ideas [Schools and Streams of Economic Thought (1960)]
Schumpeter, Joseph, Epochen der Dogmengeschichte [1954 English translation]

II. On Problems of Methodology

Schumpeter, Joseph, Science and Ideology, American Economic Review, March 1949
Keynes, John Neville, Scope and Method of Political Economy
Robbins, Lionel, Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science
Hutcheson, T. W., Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., The Historical vs. the Deductive Method in Political Economy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1890
Cairnes, J. E., The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy
Senior, Nassau W., Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy
Sidgwick, Henry, Scope and Method of Economic Science
Bagehot, Walter, Economic Studies
Myrdal, Gunnar, Das politische Element in der nationaloekonomischen [Doktrinbildung]

II. On Specific Topics

O’Brien, G., An Essay on Mediaeval Economic Teaching
Laistner, M. L. W., Greek Economics
Tawney, R. H., Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Capital and Interest
Heckscher, Eli F., Mercantilism [Volume I; Volume II]
Horrocks, J. W., A Short History of Mercantilism
Hull, Charles H., Petty’s Place in Economic Theory, Q. J. E., 1900
Monroe, A. E., Monetary Theory before Adam Smith
Johnson, E. A. J., Predecessors of Adam Smith
Schmoller, Gustav, The Mercantile System and Its Historical Significance
Angell, James W., The Theory of International Prices
Viner, Jacob, Studies in the Theory of International Trade
Higgs, H., The Physiocrats
Oncken, August, Geschichte der Nationaloekonomie (on the Physiocrats)
Spengler, J. J., The Physiocrats and Say’s Law of Markets, Journal of Political Economy, September and December, 1945.
Rae, John, The Life of Adam Smith
Bonar, James, Malthus and his Work
Bowley, Marian, Nassau Senior and Classical Economics
Viner, Jacob, Bentham and Mill, American Economic Review, March 1949
Knight, F. H., The Ricardian Theory of Production and Distribution (Canadian Journal of Economics, 1935)
Williams, John H. The Theory of International Trade Reconsidered (Economic Journal, 1929)
Dicey, A. V., Law and Public Opinion in England
Cannan, Edwin, Theories of Production and Distribution
Stephen, Leslie, The English Utilitarians [Vol I Jeremy Bentham; Vol II James Mill; Vol III John Stuart Mill]
Halevy, Elie, The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism
Schumpeter, Joseph, The Communist Manifesto in Sociology and Economics, Journal of Political Economy, June 1949
Kautsky, Karl, The Economic Doctrine of Karl Marx [German original]
Carr, E. H., Karl Marx: A Study in Fanaticism
Mehring, Franz, Karl Marx
Keynes, J. M., Essays in Biography (Alfred Marshall)
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Karl Marx and the Close of His System
Schumpeter, Joseph A., Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
Gray, Alexander, The Socialist Tradition
Sweezy, Paul, The Theory of Capitalist Development
Croce, Benedetto, Historical Materialism
Stigler, George J., Theories of Production and Distribution
Schumpeter, Joseph, Vilfredo Pareto, Q.J.E., May 1949
Mulcahy, Richard E., The Welfare Economics of Heinrich Pesch, Q.J.E., August, 1949

IV. Some Important Works in the History of Economic Thought

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Monroe, A. E., Early Economic Thought
Petty, Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, edited by Charles Henry Hull
King, Two Tracts of Gregory King, edited by George E. Barnett
Steuart, Sir James, Principles of Political Economy
Quesnay, François, Oeuvres Économiques et Philosophiques
Hume, David, Political Discourses
Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Malthus, T. R., Essay on Population (7th ed.) [eighth edition]
Malthus, T. R., Parallel chapters from the first and second edition of the “Essay” (edited by W. J. Ashley)
Malthus, T. R., Principles of Political Economy
Ricardo, David, Political Works (Ed. J. R. McCulloch, with a short biography by idem)
Ricardo, David, Principles of Political Economy
Ricardo, David, Letters of David Ricardo to the Rev. T. R. Malthus
Say, Jean Baptiste, Traité d’Économie Politique [2nd ed. 1814]
Say, Letters of J. B. Say to the Rev. T. R. Malthus
Sismondi, S. de, Nouveaux Principes d’Économie Politique
Senior, Nassau William, Outline of Political Economy
Carey, Henry Charles, Principles of Political Economy
List, Friedrich, Das Nationale System der politischen Oekonomie [German; 1909 English translation]
Cournot, Augustin, Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth (N. Bacon, translator)
von Thuenen, Heinrich, Der Isolierte Staat
Mill, John Stuart, Principles of Political Economy
Mill, John Stuart, Autobiography
Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Cairnes, J. E., Some Leading Principles of Political Economy
Mill, John Stuart, Dissertations and Discussions [Vol. I ; Vol. II ; Vol. III ; Vol. IV]
Marx, Karl, Capital
Marx, Karl, Capital and other works (Selections)
Marx and Engels, The Correspondence of Marx and Engels, 1846-95 (collected by the Marx-Lenin Institute)
Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
Hilferding, Rudolf, Das Finanzkapital
Luxemburg, Rosa, Die Akkumulation des Kapitals
Lenin (Vladimir Ulianov), Imperialism; The State and the Revolution
Gossen, Hermann Heinrich, Entwicklung der Gesetze des menschlichen Verkehrs
Jevons, W. S., The Theory of Political Economy (2nd or later edition)
Menger, Carl, Grundsaetze der Volkswirtschaftslehre
Walras, Leon, Élements d’Économie Politique Pure
Pareto, Vilfredo, Manuel d’Économie Politique
Pareto, Vilfredo, The Mind and Society (A. Livingston, Ed.) [Vol. I & Vol. II ; Vols. III & IV]
Boehm-Bawerk, E. v., Capital and Interest; and The Positive Theory of Capital
Wieser, F. v., Natural Value
Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics
Marshall, Alfred, Money, Credit and Commerce
Marshall, Alfred, Official Papers
Wicksteed, Philip, Commonsense of Political Economy
Wicksteed, Philip, The Coordination of the Laws of Distribution
Wicksell, Knut, Lectures on Political Economy [Vol. I ; Vol. II], [German translation 1913]
George, Henry, Poverty and Progress
Walker, Francis A., The Wages Question
Clark, J. B., The Distribution of Wealth
Clark, J. B., Essentials of Economic Theory
Fisher, Irving, The Purchasing Power of Money
Fisher, Irving, The Theory of Interest
Davenport, H. J., The Economics of Enterprise
Davenport, H. J., Value and Distribution
Veblen, Thorstein, The Theory of Business Enterprise
Veblen, Thorstein, The Place of Science in Civilization
Commons, John R., Institutional Economics
Schmoller, Gustav, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre [Erster Teil (1908); Zweiter Teil (1904)]
Wagner, Adolf, Grundlegung der Politischen Oekonomie [Vol. I, part 1. 1892, 3ed. ; (Vol 1, part 2. 1894 3ed]
Weber, Max, Theory of Social and Economic Organization
Rerum Novarum (Papal encyclical of May 15, 1891, Leo XIII)
Quadragesimo Anno (Papal encyclical of May 15, 1931, Pius XI)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1950-1951, (1 of 2)”.

Image Source: AEA portrait of William Fellner, Number 71 of a series of photographs of past presidents of the Association, in American Economic Review, Vol. 60, No. 1 (1970).

 

 

Categories
Courses Economic History Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economic History of the U.S., Gay and Klein, 1911.

During the academic year 1910-11 at Harvard, a pair of economic history courses were offered by Professor Edwin Francis Gay, assisted by a history department instructor, Julius Klein, who would go on to complete his Ph.D. in 1915. The first term course, Economics 6a, was dedicated to European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. The second term course, Economics 6b covered U.S. Economic and Financial History from colonial times up to 1900. Below we have the enrollment figures for Economics 6b and its reading list. One can see by the reliance on a textbook and relatively few standard sources that U.S. economic history was not Gay’s primary research interest. Biographical information on both Edwin F. Gay and Julius Klein can be found in the previous posting.

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Welcome to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can even subscribe to this blog below.  There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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[Enrollment: Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States.]

6b 2hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.—Economic and Financial History of the United States.

13 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 52 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 6 Other:
Total 119.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.

 

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ECONOMICS 6b (1911)
[Economic and Financial History of the United States]

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

 

1. Colonial Period

Callender*, Economic History of the United States, pp. 6-63, 85-121.

Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q. J. E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.

 

1776-1860

2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff

Taussig*, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.

Hamilton*, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Callender, Economic History, pp. 432-563.

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IV, pp. 15-89; Vol. VI, pp. 311-353.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

 

3. Internal Improvements

Callender*, Economic History, pp. 271-275, 345-404.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Gephart, Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle West, pp. 43-129.

Chevalier, Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Phillips, History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt, pp. 46-131.

Bishop, State Works of Pennsylvania, pp. 150-261.

Gallatin, Plan of International Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

 

4. Agriculture and Land Policy.—Westward Movement

Callender*, Economic History, pp. 597-692.

Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257; printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North during the Civil War, pp. 1-23.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

 

5. The South and Slavery

Callender*, Economic History, pp. 738-819.

Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hart, The Southern South, pp. 218-277.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-119.

Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. I, pp. 309-375.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

Ballagh, Land System of the South. Publications of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1897, pp. 101-129.

 

6. Finance, Banking, and Currency

Dewey*, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.

Catterall*, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.

Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Kinley, The Independent Treasury of the United States (U. S. Monet. Comm. Rept.), pp. 7-208.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

 

1860-1900

7. Finance, Banking, and Currency

Mitchell*, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43.

Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-48, 234-256 (73-233).

Sprague*, History of Crises under the National Banking System, pp. 43-108.

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

 

8. Transportation

Hadley*, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

Johnson*, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

Vrooman, American Railway Problems, pp. 10-45, 218-264.

 

9. Commerce and Shipping

Meeker*, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.

Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J.Pol.Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

Day, History of Commerce, pp. 553-575.

 

10. Agriculture and Opening of the West

Industrial Commission*, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 257-283.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.

Wright, Wool Growing and the Tariff, pp. 308-273.

 

11. Industrial Expansion

Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 114-152, 182-233.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

Sparks, National Development, pp. 37-52.

 

12. The Tariff

Taussig*, Tariff History, pp. 155-229, 321-360.

Taussig*, Tariff Act of 1909, Q.J.E., Vol. XXIV, pp. 1-38, also in Tariff History (ed. 1910), pp. 360-408.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol VIII, pp. 1-39.

Tausssig, Sugar, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CI, pp. 334-344 (Mar. 1908).

Taussig, Tariff and Tariff Commission, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CVI, pp. 721-729 (Dec. 1910).

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 610-647.

Wright, Wool Growing and the Tariff, pp. 274-328.

Robinson, History of the Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-437.

 

13. Industrial Concentration

Willoughby*, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

Noyes*, Forty Years of American Finance, pp. 284-354.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

 

14. The Labor Problem

Industrial Commission*, Vol. XIX, pp. 724-746, 793-833.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 502-547.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Commons, Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. IX, pp. 55-117.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

 

15. Population, Immigration, and the Race Question

United States Census Bulletin*, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

Industrial Commission*, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1910-1911.”

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Final Examination Economics 6b
(1910-11)

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.

 

 

 

Categories
Courses Economic History Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. 19th Century European Economic History. Gay and Klein, 1910

Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) came to Harvard in 1902 as an instructor of economic history taking over William Ashley’s courses after having spent a dozen years of training and advanced historical study in Europe (Berlin, Ph.D. in 1902 under Gustav Schmoller, also he was in Leipzig, Zurich and Florence). He was given a five-year contract as assistant professor of economics in 1903, but in just four years he actually advanced to the rank of professor. He served as a principal advisor to Harvard President Charles Eliot in establishing the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1908. After the favored candidate to be the founding dean of the business school, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Ph.D., Harvard 1909) turned down the offer, instead continuing as deputy minister of labor in Canada then later becoming prime minister of Canada, President Eliot turned to Gay. In nine years Gay put his stamp on the Harvard Business School, apparently playing an instrumental role in the use of the case method (pedagogic transfer from the law school) with a strong emphasis on obtaining hands-on experience through practical assignments with actual businesses. He is credited with establishing the academic degree of the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration), the credential of managers. 

During WW I Gay worked as adviser to the U.S. Shipping Board and then went on to become editor of the New York Evening Post that would soon go under, giving Gay “an opportunity” to return to Harvard where he could teach economic history up through his retirement in 1936. Gay was among the co-founders of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Council of Foreign Relations. He and his wife moved to California where he worked at the Huntington library where his bulk of his papers are to be found today.

A reading list for his course  Recent Economic History (1934-35) has been posted on Economics in the Rear-View Mirror earlier.

Assisting Gay in the 1910 course on European Economic History of the Nineteenth century was the history department instructor, Mr. Julius Klein (1886-1957). 

Litt.B. (Univ. of California) 1907, Litt. M (ibid.) 1908, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1913, Ph.D. (Harvard Univ.) 1915.
Subject of Ph.D. History.
Special Field: Spanish History
Thesis: The Mesta; A Study in Spanish Economic History, 1273-1836.
Instructor in History, later assistant professor.
In 1932 he was Assistant Secretary, United States Department of Commerce.

While tracking down Julius Klein I came up with the following link to an artifact of the Harvard History Department:

“[Julius Klein] made this portrayal of departmental bigwigs, in ink with black and brown washes, in a style evocative of the Bayeux Tapestry, which chronicles the Norman conquest of England.”

JuliusKleinInkDrawing

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Welcome to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to this blog below.  There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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[Enrollment: Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. 1910]

[Economics] 6a 1hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.—European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

12 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 3 Other:
Total 61.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 49.

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ECONOMICS 6a (1910)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

 

1. The Industrial Revolution

Cunningham*, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 609-669.

Hobson*, Evolution of Modern Capitalism, pp. 10-82.

Toynbee, Industrial Revolution, pp. 32-93.

Woolen Report of 1806; reprinted in Bullock, Selected Readings in Economics, pp. 114-124.

Walpole, The Great Inventions, in History of England, Vol. I, pp. 50-76; reprinted in Bullock, pp. 125-145, and Rand, Selections illustrating Economic History, chapter ii.

Chapman, The Lancashire Cotton Industry, pp. 1-112.

Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 1-101.

Hutchins and Harrison, History of Factory Legislation, pp. 14-42.

Wallas, Life of Francis Place, pp. 197-240.

Mantoux, La Révolution Industrielle, pp. 179-502.

Cooke Taylor, The Modern Factory System, pp. 44-225.

 

2. Agrarian Movement.—Continent

Von Sybel*, French Revolution, in Rand, Selections, pp. 55-85.

Seeley*, Life and Times of Stein, Vol. I, pp. 287-297, in Rand, pp. 86-98.

Morier*, Agrarian Legislation of Prussia, “Systems of Land Tenure,” pp. 267-275, in Rand, pp. 98-108.

Brentano*, Agrarian Reform in Prussia, Econ. Jour., Vol. VII, pp. 1-20.

Four de St. Genis, La Propriété Rurale, pp. 80-164.

De Foville, Le Morcellement, pp. 52-89.

Von Goltz, Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik, pp. 40-50.

Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. II, pp. 371-394.

Schulze-Gaevernitz, Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland, pp. 308-383.

Dawson, W. H., Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 255-294.

 

3. Agrarian Movement.—England

Johnson*, A. H., Disappearance of the Small Landholder in England, pp. 7-17, 107-164.

Curtler*, W. H. R., Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 190-271.

Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 71-116.

Taylor, Decline of Land-Owning Farmers in England, pp. 1-61.

Prothero, Pioneers and Progress of English Farming, pp. 64-103.

Broderick, English Land and English Landlords, pp. 65-240.

Caird, English Agriculture in 1850, pp. 473-528.

Colman, European Agriculture (2d ed.), Vol. I, pp. 10-109, 133-174.

Levy, Entstehung und Rückgang des landwirtschaftlichen Grossbetriebs in England.

 

4. The Free Trade Movement.—England

Armitage-Smith*, G., Free Trade and its Results, pp. 39-94, 130-144.

Morley*, Life of Cobden, chapters vi, vii, xvi.

Levi, History of British Commerce, pp. 218-227, 261-272, 292-303; in Rand, pp. 207-241.

Ashworth, Recollections of Cobden and the League, pp. 32-64, 296-392.

Prentice, History of the Anti-Corn Law League, Vol. I, pp. 49-77.

Parker, Sir Robert Peel from his Private Letters, Vol. II, pp. 522-559; Vol. III, pp. 220-252.

Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, pp. 27-99.

Tooke, History of Prices, Vol. V, pp. 391-457.

Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 271-293.

Schulze-Gaevernitz, Britischer Imperialismus, pp. 243-375.

 

5. Tariff History—Continent

Ashley*, P. Modern Tariff History, pp. 3-62, 301-312.

Worms, L’Allemagne Économique, pp. 57-393.

Amé, Les Tarifs de Douanes, Vol. I, pp. 21-34, 219-316.

Perigot, Histoire du Commerce Français, pp. 77-185.

Lang, Hundert Jahre Zollpolitik, pp. 168-230.

 

6. Banking and Finance

Cunningham*, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. III, pp. 689-703, 822-829, 833-840.

Andréadès*, History of the Bank of England, pp. 284-294, 331-369, 381-388.

Tugan-Baranowsky, Studien zur Theorie und Geschichte der Handelskrisen in England, pp. 38-54, 62-121.

Giffen, Growth of Capital, pp. 115-134.

Macleod, Theory and Practice of Banking (4th ed.), Vol. I, pp. 433-540; Vol. II, pp. 1-197.

Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. V, chapters 3 and 4 (3d ed), pp. 629-657.

 

7. The New Gold

Cairnes*, Essays, pp. 53-108; in Rand, pp. 242-284.

*Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance, pp. 34-92.

Leroy-Beaulieu, Traité d’Économie Politique, Vol. III, pp. 192-238.

Giffen, Economic Inquiries and Studies, Vol. I, pp. 75-97, 121-228.

Hooper, Recent Gold Production of the World, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1901, pp. 415-433.

 

8. Transportation—Private Ownership

Hadley*, Railroad Transportation, pp. 146-202.

Acworth*, Elements of Railway Economics, pp. 61-75, 99-159.

McLean, English Railway and Canal Commission of 1888, in Q. J. E., 1905, Vol. XX, pp. 1-55, or in Ripley, Railway Problems, pp. 603-649.

Acworth, Railways of England, pp. 1-56.

McDermott, Railways, pp. 1-149.

Porter, Progress of the Nation, pp. 287-339.

Edwards, Railways and the Trade of Great Britain, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1908, pp. 102-131.

Pratt, Railways and their Rates, pp. 1-184.

Colson, Legislation des Chemins de Fer, pp. 3-20, 133-182.

Kaufmann, Die Eisenbahnpolitik Frankreichs, Vol. II, pp. 178-284.

Guillamot, L’Organisation des Chemins de Fer, pp. 82-120.

Forbes and Ashford, Our Waterways, pp. 107-177, 215-252.

Léon, Fleuves, Canaux, Chemins de Fer, pp. 1-156.

Evans, A. D., British Railways and Goods Traffic, Econ. Jour., 1905, pp. 37-46.

Thompson, H. G., Canal System of England, pp. 1-73.

 

9. Transportation.—State Ownership

Hadley*, Railroad Transportation, pp. 236-258, [203-235].

Meyer*, Governmental Regulation of Railway Rates, pp. 92-188.

Acworth, Relation of Railways to the State, Econ. Jour., 1908, pp. 501-519.

Mayer, Geschichte und Geographie der Deutschen Eisenbahnen, pp. 3-14.

Lotz, Verkehrsentwicklung in Deutschland, pp. 2-47, 96-142.

Lenshau, Deutsche Wasserstrassen, pp. 9-56, 95-161.

Peschaud, Belgian State Railways, translated in Pratt, State Railways, pp. 57-107.

Tajani, The Railway Situation in Italy, Q. J. E., Vol. XXIII, pp. 618-653.

Pratt, Railways and their Rates, pp. 185-326.

Pratt, Railways and Nationalization, pp. 1-120, 253-293.

 

10. Commerce and Shipping

Bowley*, England’s Foreign Trade in the Nineteenth Century (ed. 1905), pp. 55-107.

Meeker*, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 1-95.

Cornewall-Jones, British Merchant Service, pp. 252-260, 306-317.

Glover, Tonnage Statistics of the Decade 1891-1900, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1902, pp. 1-41.

Ginsburg, British Shipping, in Ashley, British Industries, pp. 173-195.

LeRoux de Bretagne, Les Prime à la Marine Marchande, pp. 93-224.

Charles-Roux, L’Isthme et le Canal de Suez, Vol. II, pp. 287-339.

Von Halle, Volks- und Seewirtschaft, pp. 136-219.

 

11. Agricultural Depression

Report on Agricultural Depression*, Royal Commission of 1897, pp. 6-10, 21-40, 43-53, 85-87.

Haggard*, Rural England, Vol. II, pp. 536-576.

The Tariff Commission, Vol. III, Report of the Agricultural Committee, 1906.

Thompson, Rent of Agricultural Land in England and Wales during the Nineteenth Century, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, pp. 587-611.

Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 274-364.

Arch, Autobiography, pp. 65-144, 300-345.

Little, The Agricultural Labourer, Report to the Royal Commission on Labour, 1894, Vol. I, pp. 195-253.

Adams, Position of the Small Holding in the United Kingdom, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1907, pp. 412-437.

Plunkett, Ireland in the New Century (ed. 1905), pp. 175-209.

Bastable, Some Features of the Economic Movement in Ireland, Econ. Jour., Vol. XI, pp. 31-42.

  1. Méline, The Return to the Land, pp. 83-144, 185-240.

Imbart de la Tour, Le Crise Agricole, pp. 24-34, 127-223.

Simkhovitch, The Agrarian Movement in Russia, Yale Review, Vol. XVI, pp. 9-38.

King and Okey, Italy Today, pp. 156-192.

 

12. Recent Tariff History

Smart*, Return to Protection, pp. 14-27, 136-185, 234-259.

Balfour*, Economic Notes on Insular Free Trade, pp. 1-32. (Also in Fiscal Reform, pp. 71-95)

Chamberlain*, Imperial Union and Tariff Reform, pp. 19-44.

Ashley, W. J., Tariff Problem, pp. 53-210.

Marshall, Fiscal Policy of International Trade, pp. 30-82.

Pigou, Protective and Preferential Import Duties, pp. 1-117. (See also his Riddle of the Tariff, pp. 1-107.)

Cunningham, Rise and Decline of the Free Trade Movement, pp. 100-168.

Ashley, P., Modern Tariff History, pp. 78-112, 313-358.

Zimmermann, Deutsche Handelspolitik, pp. 218-314.

Meredith, Protection in France, pp. 54-129.

Balfour, Fiscal Reform, pp. 97-113, 2266-280.

 

13. Industrial Development

Ashley*, W. J., British Industries, pp. 2-38, 68-92.

Howard*, Recent Industrial Progress in Germany, pp. 51-109.

Cox, British Industries under Free Trade, pp. 2-84, 142-175, 235-376.

Levasseur, Questions ouvrières et industrielles en France sous le troisième République, pp. 27-166.

La Belgique, 1830-1905, pp. 397-617.

Fischer, Italien und die Italiener (ed. 1901), pp. 240-267.

Machat, Le Developpement Économique de la Russie, pp. 157-229.

Jeans, J. S., Iron Trade of Great Britain, pp. 1-73, 100-111.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 37-65.

Helm, E., Survey of the Cotton Industry, Q. J. E., Vol. XVII, pp. 417-437.

 

14. Industrial Combination

Report of the Industrial Commission*, Vol. XVIII, pp. 7-13, 75-88, 101-122, 143-165.

Macrosty*, The Trust Movement in Great Britain, in Ashley, British Industries, pp. 196-232.

Macrosty, Trust Movement in British Industry, pp. 24-56, 81-84, 117-154, 284-307, 329-345.

Walker, Monopolistic Combinations in Europe, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 13-41.

Walker, Combinations in the German Coal Industry, pp. 38-111, 175-289, 322-327.

Walker, German Steel Syndicate, Q. J.E., Vol. XX, pp. 353-398.

Liefmann, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 22-32.

Baumgarten und Meszlény, Kartelle und Trusts, pp. 83-152.

Chastin, J., Les Trusts et les Syndicats, pp. 23-127.

 

15. Labor.—Coöperative Movement

Bowley*, Wages in the United Kingdom, pp. 22-57, 81-127.

Shadwell,* Industrial Efficiency, Vol. II, pp. 307-350.

Wood, Real Wages and the Standard of Comfort since 1860, Roy. Stat. Soc. Jour., 1909, pp. 91-101.

Cost of Living of the Working Classes in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Report to the Board of Trade, 1909.

Webb, Trade Unionism, pp. 344-478.

Howell, Labor Legislation, pp. 447-499.

Willoughby, Workingmen’s Insurance, pp. 29-87.

Beveridge, Unemployment.

Ashley, W. J., Progress of the German Working Classes, pp. 1-65, 74-141.

Dawson, The German Workman, pp. 1-245.

Holyoake, History of Coöperation in England (ed. 1906), Vol. I, pp. 32-42, 70-162, 283-298; Vol. II, pp. 361-396.

Gide, Productive Coöperation in France, Q. J. E., Vol. XIV, pp. 30-66.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 394-397, 407-413.

Dawson, Evolution of Modern Germany, pp. 294-308.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1910-1911.”

________________________

Final Examination Economics 6a
(1910-11)

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.

 

Categories
Chicago Courses Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Introduction to Money and Banking. A. G. Hart, 1933

In the early 1930’s Lloyd Mints alternated teaching the undergraduate money and banking course at the University of Chicago (Econ 230) with the doctoral student Albert G. Hart who held the ranks of teaching assistant/instructor before receiving his Ph.D. in 1936. In Hart’s papers at Columbia University there is a copy of material for his course kept for students in the Harper Reading Room at the University of Chicago. The “Report on Conduct and Content of Course” included in this posting presents a detailed outline of his course as of its third iteration. Square brackets are used where I have supplied specific page numbers for the textbook assignments that I have found elsewhere in the same folder with this Report. 

In the Review section Hart includes among the “leading ideas” of the course: “… in fields where prices are sticky, inflation and deflation take themselves out on volume of sales and hence of production and/or employment…”

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

_________________________________

[Course Description from University of Chicago Announcements]

230. Introduction to Money and Banking.—The material in the course includes a study of the factors which determine the value of money in the short and in the long run; the problem of index numbers of price levels; and the operation of the commercial banking system and its relation to the price level and general business activity. Prerequisite: Social Science I and II or equivalent. Summer, Hart; Autumn, Mints; [Spring], Hart.

Source: University of Chicago, Announcements [for 1933-34], Arts, Literature and Science, vol. 33, no. 8 (March 25, 1933), p. 266.

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Report on Conduct and Content of Course.

Econ 230
A. G. Hart

General Remarks:

My general policy (in which I follow the suggestions of Mr. Mints) has been to conduct the course definitely as a theoretical study, with the emphasis on analysis rather than history or factual description. Class meetings are devoted largely to discussion, with inevitable lapses into lecturing when historical or factual questions cannot be avoided. My reading assignments have been light (about 100 pages a week), but are of a character to call for mulling over. So far as possible I have avoided second-hand textbook material and gone to authoritative writers. On the necessary technical banking material a textbook is inevitable, and I have used Rodkey’s Banking Process twice and Bradford’s Banking once. (To my taste the former is definitely preferable.) On other subjects I have gone to standard authorities, as Irving Fisher, J. M. Keynes, Alvin Hansen, Wesley Mitchell, D. H. Robertson. These writers are emphatically not beyond the grasp of undergraduate classes here. Some points have been emphasized by written exercises; and I have tried by giving our examinations and by putting past examinations on reserve to make my examinations a guide to what I expected students to take away with them. Full assignments, as made this summer, and past examinations are in my assignment folder on reserve in Harper main reading room.

The following scheme is that given in my assignments; the order of various points somewhat altered from time to time, especially when current events bring certain sides of the course to the fore.

 

Scheme of Course:

I.  Introduction: Money Concepts; Sketch of Monetary History; Present Circulating Medium in U. S.

Explanation of purposes of the course; the notion of money in the broader notion of circulating medium; a summary of the history of the American circulating medium; brief analysis of the current statistics on money in circulation and on bank deposits. Emphasis is laid on the fact that the class of circulating media has no clear-cut boundary, but shades off into the realm of ordinary commodities, and on the importance of bank deposits in American circumstances. Reading: Robertson, Money, pp. 1-17. Class Time: usually two, perhaps three hours.

II. The Quantity Theory of Money According to Fisher.

An analysis of the relations between quantity of money and bank deposits, their velocities, prices, and volume of transactions, through the Fisher equation. Emphasis is laid on the validity of the equation, the restricted conditions under which the Quantity Theory holds, and the consequent inadequacy of the Quantity Theory for short-period analysis; also on relative flexibility of different groups of prices. Reading: Fisher, Purchasing Power of Money, pp. 1-32, 47-54, 74-111, 184-97. Class Time: five or six hours.

III. The Quantity Theory According to the Cambridge School; European Postwar Monetary Experience.

A restatement of the Quantity Theory in “Cambridge” terms, using Keynes’ Monetary Reform as type. This is used to reinforce the analysis of the difficult “velocity” problem in the preceding section, and leads into some examination of the workings of inflation. The idea of forced saving is here brought out. Lately I am coming to doubt the pedagogical usefulness of the formulation in Monetary Reform; and I may take a different tack another time. Reading: Keynes, Monetary Reform, pp. 3-45, 46-80 [, 81-94]; Robertson, Money, e.g. 18-43. Class Time: three or four hours.

IV. Index Numbers: Refinement of Concept of Purchasing Power.

The concept of an index number of prices as reflecting changes in the value of a composite commodity of fixed make-up; index of quantity as reflecting valuations of different mixtures of goods at fixed prices. Necessity of index number analysis to put meaning into notion of price and output changes brought about by money. Emphasis is placed, of course, on fundamental notions and interpretation, not on the technique of index-number compilation. Reading: Fisher, Purchasing Power, pp. 198-233; memorandum of my own in assignment folder. I should assign Keynes [Treatise (optional), I, pp. 53-94] but for library difficulties. Written Assignment: problem in index-number computation, with simplified arithmetic, calculated to bring out differences among the various basic formulas. Class Time: three or four hours.

V. Nature of Banking and Clearing.

(In the Autumn Quarter, 1932 I put this before the treatment of monetary theory, which appears to be just about as satisfactory as the present arrangement.) Basic character of a bank; demand liabilities greater than quick assets, and demand liabilities serving as circulating medium. Mechanism of making and transferring deposits; clearing relations among banks. History of American banking. Study of bank reserves; of earning assets. Principle of credit pyramiding on increment of reserves. Reading: textbook passages [Rodkey, Banking Process, 1-86, 124-37, 137-54, 178-95, 201-224, 267-86; or Bradford, Banking, pp. 1-51, 52-96, 98-123]; Phillips, Bank Credit, chapter III [pp. 32-77]. Written Assignment or Hour Examination: reconstruction and interpretation of dismembered bank statement, involving comparison of two banks or one bank at two dates. Class Time: ten or twelve hours.

VI. Central Banking: Federal Reserve System.

Analysis of open market, re-discount and clearing functions of the Federal Reserve Banks, and of the administration of the system and its influence on the member bank reserve position. I have made no attempt to cover foreign central banking except for an hour’s lecture on the Bank of England and incidental references from this point in the course on to practices of foreign central banks. This is not because I doubt the usefulness of treating foreign banking ceteris paribus; but the marginal utility of time in a one-quarter course is so high as to put this below the zone of profitable use of resources. Emphasis is placed on the essential simplicity of central banking — holding cash reserves and earning assets and swapping them on the open market according to the position of business—, on its necessary non-profit character, etc. The leading ideas in this section are largely modeled on Mr. Mints. One of the drawbacks of using Bradford as text is the necessity of scrambling sections V and VI together to follow its arrangement. Reading: textbook passages [Rodkey, Banking Process, pp. 36-123, 196-200, 224-238; or Bradford, Banking, pp. 125-144, 145-168, 170-222, 223-247, 248-274, 311-336, 337-355]; W. R. Burgess, Reserve Banks and the Money Market, pp. 206-229; passages in Federal Reserve Bulletin [March 1932, pp. 1-5]. Written Assignment or Classroom Work: Analysis of weekly statements of Federal Reserve Banks and weekly reporting member banks; calculation of Federal Reserve reserve and collateral requirements and of free gold. [take F.R. statement for July 13 (published in morning papers July 21). Compute gold reserve requirements against deposits and notes, calculate excess gold reserves. Compute gold collateral requirement on notes, with and without Glass-Steagal arrangement, and calculate free gold on each basis.] From this point in the course the statement is discussed at some length every Friday. Class Time: five or six hours, plus a short time each week toward the end of the quarter for study of the statement.

VII. Foreign Exchange; International Banking Relations.

The mechanism of the exchange markets: acceptances, cable drafts, etc. The balance of payments and supply and demand of foreign funds; determination of the rate and adjustment of balances on and off the gold standard. Classical mechanism of adjustment; orthodox types of central bank intervention; post-war manipulative tricks in exchange market. Due largely to the trend of current events, emphasis has been placed on the determination of rates off the gold standard and on the short-run importance of flight from the currency and other types of speculative movements. Reading: as the topic is peripheral and cannot absorb much time, I have compromised between textbook readings and authoritative material, and have been assigning Taussig, Principles, vol. I, pp. 447-78 besides text-book passages. [Rodkey, Banking Process, pp. 155-68; or Bradford, Banking, 275-310; Robertson, Money, 69-91] Class Time: three or four hours.

VIII. Short Period Monetary Theory.

Inapplicability of quantity theory (though not of Fisher equation) in “transition period”. Generalization of Fisher cash-transactions approach: can be used wherever flow of goods and flow of money which buys it can both be conceptually isolated. Analysis through income concepts. Hawtrey’s scheme as a special case of transactions approach; illustration of analysis by his cycle theories. Concept of forced savings. Reading: Fisher, Purchasing Power, 55-74; Robertson, Money, 92-116; Hawtrey, Currency and Credit, 1-64. Class Time: four to six hours.

IX. Business Cycles.

Concept of business cycle; basic types of series showing cycle. Types of business cycle theories. Problems of “overproduction” in various senses. Reading: Mitchell, Business Cycles, the Problem and its Setting, pp. 1-60. Class Time: three to five hours.

X. Banking Policy and “Stabilization”.

General concept of stabilization – largely connotation with meaning vague. Monetary stabilization – constancy of index number or the exchange rate. Partial incompatibility of former and latter. Criteria of desirable indices to stabilize – full employment chief – point to desirability of gently raising money wages on average; consequences in other price groups. Central difficulty of price stickiness. Ways and means – inadequacy of central-bank control; inevitable influence of government finance. Savings-investment criterion of policy – its weaknesses. Reading: Robertson, Money, 144-194; Hansen, Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World, 3-27, 65-113, 271-314. Class Time: 4 to 6 hours.

Review:

When possible (it isn’t in the summer) I plan to devote four or five hours to systematic review. Leading ideas are brought out more clearly; especially: 1) the price level associated with the given flow of goods cannot rise, unless less goods of this group are sold or more money is spent on them; 2) when price movements are on foot the various forms of “price stickiness” make the movements of different speed and amplitude in different fields; 3) it is these relative price movements which are of practical importance; 4) in fields where prices are sticky, inflation and deflation take themselves out on volume of sales and hence of production and/or employment; 5) a banking system uncontrolled except by “qualitative” considerations will inevitably bring about inflation and deflation involving destructive movements of relative prices and of production; 6) in fact these considerations do not even enable a banking system to protect itself against a heavy proportion of failures in deflation.

 

Discussion of Above Scheme:

It will be observed that the course as I have given it contains little or no discussion of two topics which occupy a great deal of the literature, viz.: bimetallism and the classification of money under various heads (commodity, token, fiat etc.) Both of course come in for incidental mention; but neither, it seems to me, belongs in a one-quarter course here and now. Bimetallism, as discussed in the books, is today rather a historical relic; the effective issue is not double versus single standard, but gold standard versus “paper standard”. Systematic classification of money has distinct uses; but I’m inclined to trust to the passage on the subject in Robertson and avoid wasting class time on it. The necessary discussion of monetary history affords opportunity to talk a bit about both these matters; but a student who had taken the course with me could probably not explain the relation (e.g.) between over-valued and under-valued metal, or between proper bimetallic and limping standards.

More serious than these omissions of subject-matter is another type of omission: the course as I give it makes little attempt to inoculate the student against cranks by systematic study and dismemberment of the work of theoretical bunglers. It is a rather serious pedagogical defect to include little reading with which the instructor thoroughly disagrees. My excuses firstly that the course must take up more material then can be so treated in a single quarter and secondly that it seems to me the line between correct and incorrect analysis is fairly clearly drawn in the elementary phases of monetary and banking theory here treated. But frankly I’m afraid I must lay more weight on the first excuse than the second.

Albert G. Hart.

 

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Albert Gailord Hart Papers: Box 61, Folder “Assignments and Other Memoranda for Reserve in Harper Reading Room/Sec 2 Ec 230 1933 Chicago, Money (Summer Quarter)”.

Image Source:  ditto.

Categories
Courses M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. Advanced Economic Theory (Capital and growth). Solow and Phelps, 1962

Edwin Burmeister (MIT PhD, 1965) took the advanced theory course that was devoted to capital theory and economic growth during the fall term 1962-63. The course that term was co-taught by Robert Solow (2 hour 37 minute oral history interview at this link) and Edmund Phelps. Burmeister’s notes for the course are available in the Burmeister Papers at Duke University Rubenstein Library’s Economists’ Papers Project. The reading list for the course has a Part I, but I could find no corresponding part II. However, Burmeister’s notes appear to be complete otherwise so that it seems likely that Solow and Phelps wanted to divide the course into positive and normative parts with the reading list for optimal saving not ready at the start of the term.  I have inserted five titles between Parts D and E that were explicitly mentioned in the lectures but not included in the Part I reading list.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

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ADVANCED ECONOMIC THEORY
14.123
Fall 1962

R. M. Solow and E. S. Phelps

 

Part I: INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

A. Capital and Production

Lutz, “Essentials of Capital Theory”, The Theory of Capital (International Economic Association).

Scitovsky, T., Welfare and Competition, Chapter 9.

Lutz and Lutz, The Theory of the Investment of the Firm, Chapters 5 and 6.

Kaldor, N., Essays on Value and Distribution, Part IV.

Lange, O., “The Place of Interest in the Theory of Production”, REStud, 1935-36.

Dorfman, R., “Waiting and the Period [of] Production”, QJE, August 1959.

Robinson, “The Production Function and the Theory of Capital”, REStud, 1953-54.

Comment and Reply:

Solow, R., “The Production Function…”, REStud, 1955-56.

Robinson, Ibid.

Swan, T., Appendix to “Economic Growth and Capital Accumulation,” Ec Record, November, 1956.

Solow, R., “Substitution and Fixed Proportions in the Theory of Capital,” REStud, June, 1962.

Phelps, E., “Substitution, Fixed Proportions, Growth and Distribution,” Parts 1-3 and Appendix B only. CFDP [Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper] 133, Feb. 1962.

Samuelson, P., “The Surrogate Production Function,” REStud, June 1962.

N. & N. Ruggles, “Concepts of Real Capital Stocks and Services,” Output, Input and Productivity Measurement, No. 25 in Studies in Income and Wealth (NBER).

[handwritten addition: Wicksell, LECTURES]

 

B. Technical Change

Dickinson, H., “A Note on Dynamic Economics”, REStud, 1954-55.

Uzawa, H., “Neutral Inventions and the Stability of Growth Equilibrium,” REStud, Feb. 1961.

Fellner, W., “Two Propositions in the Theory of Induced innovation,” Econ. Journ., June 1961.

 

C. Models of Investment, Technical Progress and Growth

Johnson, H., “A Simple Joan Robinson Model of Accumulation with One Technique,” Osaka Econ. Papers, Feb. 1962.

Swan, T., “Economic Growth and Capital Accumulation,” op. cit.

Solow, R., “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth,” QJE, Nov. 1956.

Pitchford, J., “Growth and the Elasticity of Factor Substitution,” Ec. Record, Dec. 1960.

Phelps, E., “Substitution, Fixed Proportions, Growth and Distribution,” CFDP [Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper] 133, Feb. 1962, Parts 4-5.

Arrow, K., “The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing,” REStud, June, 1962.

Kaldor, N., and J. Mirlees, “Growth and Obsolescence,” Ibid.

 

D. The Quantitative Importance of Investment and Technical Change for Economic Growth

Solow, R., “Technological Change and the Aggregate Production Function,” REStat, August 1957.

Masslee, B., “A Dissaggregated View of Technical Change,” JPE, Dec. 1961.

Solow, R., “Investment and Technical Progress, “Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, (Stanford, 1960).

Phelps, E., “The New View of Investment”, QJE, Nov. 1962.

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[Insert: Optimal problems in capital theory…beginning ca Dec. 14, 1962]

[Ramsey problem, optimal control à la Pontryagin]

von Weizsäcker, Carl Christian. Wachstum, Zins und optimale Investitionsquote. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Basel, 1961. Published in Veröffentlichungen der List Gesellschaft Bd. 26, Reiche B Studien zur Ökonomie der Gegenwart, Kyklos-Verlag, 1962

Phelps, Edmund. 1961. “The Golden Rule of Accumulation: A Fable for Growthmen”. The American Economic Review 51 (4): 638–43.

Robinson, Joan. 1962. “Comment”. The Review of Economic Studies 29 (3): 258–66.

Goodwin, R. M., 1961. “The Optimal Growth Path for an Underdeveloped Economy”. The Economic Journal,Vol. 71, No. 284: 756–74.

Chakravarty, S., 1962. “Optimal Savings with Finite Planning Horizon”. International Economic Review 3 (3): 338–55.

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E. Investment in Knowledge and Skills

Nelson, R., “The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research, JPE, June 1959.

Arrow, E., “The Allocation of Scientific Resources” in The Rate and Direction of Innovative Activity, (NBER).

Schultz, “Investment in Human Capital,” AER, March 1961.

 

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Edwin Burmeister papers, 1960-2008. Box 23.

Image Source: Robert Solow, MIT Web Museum.

Categories
Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Methods of Social Reform. Frank A. Fetter, 1906.

Thomas Nixon Carver was granted a sabbatical leave from Harvard for the academic year 1906-07. Frank Albert Fetter from Cornell was hired to teach Carver’s course that covered economic utopias and proposed social reforms. 

Inspecting university course catalogues from where Fetter had previously taught, I was able to find that he did indeed once teach a one term course at Cornell before teaching Carver’s course in 1906:  “Political Science 55a: Socialism and Communism” that was given in the Fall term of a three term academic year 1894-95.

After Fetter returned to Cornell, it appears he then taught a course very similar to what he taught at Harvard: Political Science 66b Social Reforms. “History and growth of the more radical modern plans for changing industrial conditions; program and spirit of the socialistic parties in Europe and America.” (1907-08)

Here are the main dates in Fetter’s career:

1891  A. B. Indiana University
1892  Ph.M. Cornell University
1894  Ph.D. University of Halle
1894-1895   Instructor in Political Economy, Cornell University
1895-1898   Professor of Economics and Social Science, Indiana University
1898-1901   Professor, Stanford University
1901-1911   Professor, Cornell University
1911-1933   Professor, Princeton University

1912  President of the American Economic Association

Comparing this syllabus with those used by Carver before and after this year, one sees that Fetter essentially added items to Carver’s syllabus and made some minor rearrangements of the topics, e.g. anarchism moved to the end of the term.

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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below.  There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting…

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[Course Enrollment First Half-year 1906-07]

[Economics] 14b 1hf. Professor Fetter (Cornell University).—Methods of Social Reform. Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.

4 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 7 Other. Total 32.

 

Source:  Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1906-07, p.71.

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ECONOMICS 14b
METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM

First Half-Year, 1906 – 07, F. A. Fetter.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I.  Evil’s and Discontent Portrayed.

Engels, F., Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.
Rowntree, B. S., Poverty (a study of York, Eng.).
London, J., The People of the Abyss (in London).
Brooks, J. G., The Social Unrest (1903).
Hunter, R., Poverty (a pessimistic view of the U. S.).
Spargo, J., The Bitter Cry of the Children (1906).

II. Utopian Romances (chronological order of publication).

Plato, The Republic (4th century B.C.).
Morley, H. (ed.), Ideal Commonwealths (containing Plutarch’s Lycurgus, More’s Utopia (1516), Bacon’s New Atlantis (1629), Campanella’s City of the Sun (1520), Hall’s Mundus Alter et Idem (1607)).
Cabet, E., Voyage en Icarie (1839)
Bellamy, E., Looking Backward (1887).
Morris, W., News from Nowhere.
Hertzka, Freiland.
Bellamy, E., Equality (1897).
Wells, H. G., Anticipations (1902).
________, Mankind in the Making (1904).
Parry, The Scarlet Empire (1906, anti-utopian).

III. Communistic Experiments (American books in chronological order).

Kautsky, Karl, Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation.
Cabet, E., Icaria (history of the society in America, 1852).
Noyes, J. H., History of American Socialisms (1870).
Nordhoff, Charles, The Communistic Societies of the United States (1875).
Hinds, W. A., American Communities (1878, and later revised edition).
Shaw, Albert, Icaria, a Chapter in the History of Socialism (1884).
Codman, J. T., Brook Farm; Historic and Personal Memoirs (1894).
Randall, E. O., The Zoar Society (1899).
Landis, G. B., The Separatists of Zoar.
Lockwood, George B., The New Harmony Communities.
Broom, Isaac, The Last Days of the Ruskin Coöperative Association (1902).
Hillquist, M., History of Socialism in the United States (1903).

IV. Religious and Altruistic Socialism

Lamennais, Les Parole d’un Croyant.
Kaufman, Lamennais and Kingsley. Contemporary Review, April, 1882.
Kingsley, Charles, Alton Locke.
Stubbs, Charles Kingsley.
Woodworth, A. V., Christian Socialism in England (1903).
Gladden, Washington, Tools and the Man, A View of Christian Socialism.
Strong, Josiah, Our Country (1885), The New Era (1893).
Ballon-Adin, Practical Christian Socialism.
Nitti, F., Catholic Socialism (trans. 1895).
Carlyle, Thomas: “The Socialism and Unsocialism of Thomas Carlyle,” a selection of chapters by W. D. P. Bliss.
Ruskin, John: “The Communism of John Ruskin,” a selection by W. D. P. Bliss from Unto This Last, The Crown of Wild Olive, and Fors Clavigera.
“William Morris, Poet, Artist, Socialist,” a collection of his socialistic writings, by F. W. Lee.

V. History and Exposition of Collectivism (alphabetic by authors).

Dawson, W. H., German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle (1888).
Ely, R. T., French and German Socialism (1883); Socialism, an examination of its nature, strength, and weakness (1895).
Flower, B. O., How England Averted a Revolution of Force (1903).
Gonner, E. C. K., The Socialist Philosophy of Rodbertus (1899).
Graham, William, Socialism, New and Old.
Kirkup, Thomas, A History of Socialism.
Peixotto, Jessica B., The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism (1901).
Rae, John, Contemporary Socialism (2d ed. 1891).
Russell, Bertrand, German Social Democracy.
Schaeffle, Albert, The Quintessence of Socialism (1874).
Sombart, Werner, Socialism and the Social Movement in the 19th Century (1st ed. translated; 5th ed. revised, in German, 1905).
____________, Der moderne Capitalismus, 2 vols.

VI.  Collectivist arguments.

German.

Karl Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1847).
Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867).
Engels, F., Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
Bebel, A., Woman in the Past, Present and Future (trans. 1894).
Kautsky, K., The Social Revolution (trans. 1903).
Bernstein, E., Ferdinand Lassalle (trans. 1893).
_________, Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus (1899).
_________, Zur Geschichte und Theorie des Sozialismus (2d ed. 1901).

English and American.

Hyndman, H. M., The Economics of Socialism (English of the Marxist school).
Webb, Sydney and Beatrice, Problems of Modern Industry.
Fabian Essay in Socialism, B. Shaw and others.
Fabian Tracts, 1-86 (1884-1899).
Blatchford, R., Merrie England (1895).
Gronlund, L., The Coöperative Commonwealth (1895).
_________, The New Economy (1898).
Bliss, W. P. D., A Handbook of Socialism (1895).
Vail, Modern Socialism (1899).
Ghent, W. J., Our Benevolent Feudalism.
_________, Mass and Class.
London, J., War of the Classes.
Spargo, John, Socialism (1906).

Various.

Selections from Fourier.
Jaures, J., Studies in Socialism (trans. 1906).
Ensor, R. C. K., Modern Socialism as set forth by Socialists (collection of 29 articles, 1904).
Labriola, A., Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History (trans. 1904).
Vandervelde, E., Collectivism.

VII. Anti-Collectivist Arguments.

Brunhuber, Dr. Robert, Die heutige Sozialdemokratie (1906).
Cathrein, Rev. Victor, Socialism Exposed and Refuted (trans. 1902).
______________, Socialism, its Theoretical Basis and Practical Application.
Gilman, N. P., Socialism and the American Spirit.
Gonner, E. C. K., The Socialist State.
Guyot, Y., The Tyranny of Socialism.
Le Bon, G., Psychology of Socialism (trans. 1899).
Mackay, T., A Plea for Liberty.
Malloch, W. H., Labor and the Popular Welfare (new ed., 1894).
___________, Classes and Masses.
___________, Aristocracy and Evolution (1898).
Menger, A., The Right to the Whole Produce of Labor (trans. 1899).
Sanders, G. A., Reality, or Law and Order vs. Anarchy and Socialism, a reply to E. Bellamy (1898).
Schaeffle, A., The Impossibility of Social Democracy (1884).
Simonson, G., A Plain Examination of Socialism (1900).
Spencer, H., The Coming Slavery.

VIII. Land Nationalization.

Favorable.

George, H., Progress and Poverty.
______________, Our Land and Land Policy.
Wallace, A. R., Studies, Scientific and Social (in Vol. II, articles on land nationalization).
Loria, A., Problèmes Sociaux Contemporains.
George, H., Jr., The Menace of Privilege.
Shearman, T. G., Natural Taxation.

Unfavorable.

Cathrein, Rev. Victor, The Champions of Agrarian Socialism, A Refutation of Lavelèye and George (trans. 1889).
Huxley, T. H., Evolution and Ethics (chs. on single tax, 1894).
_________, Social Diseases and Worse Remedies (1891).
Rae, John, Ch. 12 of Contemporary Socialism.
Smart, W., Taxation of Land Values (1900).
Walker, F. A., Land and Its Rent (1883).

General.

Epps, Land Systems of Australia.
Lefèvre-Shaw, English Commons and Forests.

IX. The Extension of State Action

Adams, H. C., The Relation of the State to Industrial Action.
Ely, R. T., Problems of To-day (chs. 17-23).
Hobson, J. A., The Social Problem, Life and Work (1901).
Jevons, W. S., Methods of Social Reform (last 5 chs.).
Ritchie, D. C., Principles of State Interference.
_________, Darwinism and Politics.
Taylor, F. M., The Right of the State to Be (1891).
Willoughby, W. W., Social Justice.

X. Anarchism and Nihilism.

Godwin, William, Political Justice; on Property.
Tolstoi, L., The Slavery of Our times (1900).
Kropotkin, The Scientific Basis of Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 21: 238.
______________, The Coming Anarchy. Nineteenth Century, 22: 149.
Reclus, Elisée, Anarchy. Contemporary Review, 14: 627.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1906-1907).

Categories
Chicago Courses Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Monetary Dynamics Seminar. Milton Friedman, 1952

Welcome to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled thus far. You can subscribe to this blog below.  There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

______________________

Transcribed from items in the Milton Friedman papers at the Hoover Institution today’s posting includes the bibliographic handout provided by Milton Friedman to the participants in his graduate seminar “Monetary Dynamics” that took place in the Spring Quarter of 1952 along with the official class list. We note that one of the graduate students enrolled in the seminar was Gary S. Becker. It is also interesting to note that “empirical studies” essentially meant “case studies” as of mid-twentieth century.

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The University of Chicago
Office of the Registrar

OFFICIAL CLASS LIST
SPRING QR. 1952

Instructor: FRIEDMAN MILTON
Department: ECON
Course number: 432

Student name:

Axilrod, Stephen H.
Becker, Gary S.
Deaver, John V.
Drayton, James
Fisher, Lawrence
Klein, John
Oort, Coenraad J.
Timberlake, Richard H. Jr.
Venetianer, Edmond

___________________________

 

Economics 432: Monetary Dynamics
Spring Quarter, 1952

  1. The central topic for this quarter will be monetary inflation. We hope to cover the theory of monetary inflation and empirical evidence on monetary inflations. The major issues in this area are, the process whereby changes in the stock of money produce their effect on prices and output or conversely, whereby changes in prices and output affect the stock of money; the role of the interest rate in inflation or, conversely, the effect of monetary changes on the interest rate; the role of exchange rates in monetary inflation as both cause and effect; the relative value of alternative simplified theories for predicting the course of inflationary movement; the role and problems of governmental monetary policy in inflationary periods; empirical regularities in monetary inflations and hyperinflations.
  2. We shall of course not be able to cover all these issues at all adequately; the interests of the members of the seminar will guide the selection made.
  3. There is a vast literature on these problems. The following bibliography, despite its length, is highly selective and is designed to suggest material available and to give leads to people working on particular topics rather than to be exhaustive. The three parts into which the essentially theoretical material is classified (1 to 3) are by no means mutually exclusive and many entries could with equal justification have been classified elsewhere; the sections are meant only to indicate major broad divisions and the order within the sections, the rough lines of theoretical development. Similarly, many of the items in Section 4, supposedly dealing with policy, could readily have been classified in the earlier sections; and many of the entries in section 5, labeled empirical studies, contain discussions of policy or of theory.

 

1. Classical analysis of inflation

A. Original sources

David Hume, “Of Money,” “Of Interest” in Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, part II (first published 1752).

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776), Vol I. Bk. II, Chap 4; Bk 1, Ch xi, part of Pt. III (pp. 188-210 in Cannan edition); Bk. II, Ch. 11, esp. pp. 283-87 of Cannan edition.

Henry Thornton, An Essay on Paper Credit (1802), esp pp. 254-8, 281, 296-7, and 335-9 of reprint.

David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy, (3rd ed. London (1821), Ch. 21; The Works and Correspondence, edited by P. Sraffa, Volume III, passim. (Cambridge 1951).

Nassau Senior, On the Value of Money (1840)

________________, Three Lectures on the Cost of Obtaining Money (1930)

John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, (1848), Bk. III, Ch. 8, 9, 23.

J. E. Cairnes, “Essays Toward a Solution of the Gold Question,” (written, 1858 to 1860) in Essays in Political Economy, Theoretical and Applied, (London, 1873) pp. 1 to 165.

B. Secondary sources

T. E. Gregory, Introduction to Tooke and Newmarch (London (1928), esp. pp. 22-31.

F. A. Hayek, “A Note on the Development of the Doctrine of ‘Forced Savings’”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1932, pp. 123-33.

J. W. Angell, The Theory of International Prices – history, criticism, and restatement (Cambridge, Mass., 1926)

Jacob Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade, (New York, 1937), Ch. III, IV, V.

Lloyd W. Mints, History of Banking Theory (Chicago, 1945)

2. Neo-classical

A. Swedish school

Knut Wicksell, Interest and Prices, esp introduction, by Bertil Ohlin, Preface, (London 1936) and Ch. 5-9.

_______________, Lectures, Vol. 2, Ch. IV; pp. 127-222 (London 1935)

Gunner Myrdal, Monetary Equilibrium, London (1939).

E. Lundberg, Studies in the Theory of Economic Expansion, (Stockholm, 1937)

E. Lindahl, Studies in the Theory of Money and Credit (London, 1939)

A. P. Lerner, “Swedish Stepping Stones in Economic Theory,” Canadian Journal of Economics, November 1940.

Brinley Thomas, Monetary Policy and Crisis, Ch. 3 and 4. (1936)

J. Marschak, “Wicksell’s Two Interest Rates,” Social Research, Nov. 1941.

B. Austrian school

L. von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit (1934) Eng. Translation.

F. A. Hayek, Prices and Production (2nd edition (1935)).

C. Cambridge school

Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, pp. 593-5; Money, Credit, and Commerce, pp. 38-50 (1923)

__________________, Official Papers, Ch. II, esp. 38-41, 45-6, 123-32, 157-60. (1926)

D. H. Robertson, Essays in Monetary Theory, esp. Ch. II, XII (1940)

__________________, Banking Policy and the Price Level (3rd ed, 1950)

__________________, “Notes on the Theory of Money,” Readings in Monetary Theory, (Blakiston, 1951), pp. 159-61.

A. C. Pigou, Industrial Fluctuations (1927)

J. M. Keynes, Monetary Reform (London, 1923) especially Ch. III.

F. Langston, The Trade Cycle.

D. Other

J. M. Keynes, A Treatise on Money, esp Vol I, Ch. 13, pp. 293-302, Vol. II, Ch. 25, 30, 32, 33 (1930).

R. G. Hawtrey, The Art of Central Banking (1933), esp. pp. 116-207, 366-71.

__________________, Capital Employment, (1937) Ch. 4-6.

Irving Fisher, Elementary Principles of Economics, Ch. IX (N.Y. 1912) (revised)

__________________, The Purchasing Power of Money, (1926) Ch. 8.

__________________, The Rate of Interest, Ch. 8, 14, 16.

Bertrand Nogaro, Modern Monetary Systems (London, 1927)

M. Albert Aftalion, Monnaie, Prix et Change (Paris, 1927)

Joseph Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Vol II, Ch. 8 (1939)

MacMillan Report, Royal Commission on Finance and Industry, Cmd 3897 (1931), Ch. 11, pp. 92-160.

E. Critiques

H. Ellis, German Monetary Theory (1934) Ch. 8, 9, 19.

R. J. Saulnier, Contemporary Monetary Theory (1938)

Arthur Marget, The Theory of Prices (1938, 1942) Vol 1, Ch. 2, 12-16, Vol 2, Ch. 3.

R. S. Sayers, Modern Banking, Ch. VI (1939, rev. ed.)

G. Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, (1941, 3rd ed.) Part I.

3. Keynes of General Theory

A. General

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. (London, 1936)

R. F. Kahn, “The Relation of Home Investment to the Multiplier,” Economic Journal, 1931.

Joan Robinson, Essays in the Theory of Employment (1938)

________________, “The Economics of Hyper-Inflation,” (Economic Journal, Sept. 1938), “War Time Inflation,” both in Collected Economic Papers (New York, 1951).

M. Kalecki, Essays on the Theory of Economic Fluctuations (1939)

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital (2nd ed. 1946) Parts 3 and 4.

Alvin H. Hansen, Fiscal Policy and Full Employment, (1941).

________________, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy (1949) Chapter. 7, 8, 9.

________________, Economic Policy and Full Employment (1947).

L. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution (1947)

T. Wilson, Fluctuations in Income and Employment (3rd ed. 1948)

W. Fellner, A Treatise on War Inflation (1942)

A. G. Hart, Money, Debt and Economic Activity, (1948) Ch. 10.

A. P. Lerner, The Economics of Control, Ch. 21-25 (1944)

Walter A. Salant, “The Inflationary Gap, Meaning and Significance for Policy Making,” American Economic Review (June, 1942) pp. 308-14.

Milton Friedman, “Discussion of the Inflationary Gap,” American Economic Review (June, 1942) pp. 314-20.

Arthur Smithies, “The Behavior of Money National Income under Inflationary Conditions,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1942.

T. C. Koopmans, “The Dynamics of Inflation,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1942, pp. 53-65 (comment by A. Smithies and reply, pp. 189-90.)

Franklin Holzman, “Income Determination in Open Inflation,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1950.

Clark Warburton, “Monetary Expansion and the Inflationary Gap,” American Economic Review, 1944.

Lloyd A. Metzler, “Wealth, Saving, and the Rate of Interest,” Journal of Political Economy, April, 1951.

B. Wage-Price Spiral

Ralph Turvey, “Period Analysis and Inflation,” Economica, 1949.

________________, “Some Aspects of the Theory of Inflation in a Closed Economy,” Economic Journal, Sept. 1951.

J. Dusenberry, “The Mechanics of Inflation,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1950.

W. A. Morton, “Trade Unionism, Full Employment, and Inflation” American Economic Review, March 1950.

_______________, “Keynesianism and Inflation,” Journal of Political Economy, June 1951.

M. W. Reder, “Theoretical Problems of a National Wage Policy,” Canadian Journal of Economics (Feb. 1948)

_____________, “On Money Wages,” Industrial Relations Research Association conference, 1950.

A. Rees, “Postwar Wage Determination in the Basic Steel Industry,” American Economic Review (June 1951).

4. Government Policy in Inflationary Periods

David Ricardo, “Funding System,” in The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed by Piero Sraffa (Cambridge, 1951), Vol. IV, esp pp. 185-200; also Vol. III, passim.

A. C. Pigou, The Political Economy of War (revised ed., 1940)

A. G. Hart, E. D. Allen, and collaborators, Paying for Defense (Philadelphia, 1941)

M. Kalecki, “General Rationing,” Bulletin of Oxford Institute of Statistics, January 1941.

G. L. Bach, “Rearmament, Recovery, and Monetary Policy,” American Economic Review, 1941

W. A. Wallis, “How to Ration Consumer Goods and Control Their Prices,” American Economic Review, 1942.

Carl Shoup, Milton Friedman, and Ruth Mack, Taxing to Prevent Inflation (New York, 1943).

Milton Friedman, “The Spendings Tax as a Wartime Fiscal Measure,” American Economic Review, 1943.

J. J. Polak, “On the Theory of Price Control,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1945.

L. Seltzer, “Is a Rise in Interest Rates Desirable or Inevitable,” American Economic Review, December, 1945.

R. I. Robinson, “Monetary Aspects of Public Debt Policy,” Postwar Economic Studies #3, Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System.

H. C. Wallich, “The Changing Significance of the Interest Rate,” American Economic Review, December 1946.

R. G. Hawtrey, “Monetary Aspects of the Economic Situation,” American Economic Review, March 1948.

Ten Economists on Inflation, Review of Economics and Statistics, 1948.

L. V. Chandler, “Federal Reserve Policy and Federal Debt,” American Economic Review, March 1949.

R. S. Sayers, “Central Banking in Light of Recent Experience,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1949.

H. C. Murphy, The National Debt in War and Transition (1950)?E. A. Goldenweiser, American Monetary Policy (1951)

L. W. Mints, Monetary Policy for a Competitive Society. (1950)

Subcommittee on Monetary, Credit and Fiscal Policies (“Douglas subcommittee”), Hearings, 81st Congress, 1st Session and Report, 81st Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Document 129.

“The Controversy over Monetary Policy,” (Seymour Harris, Lester Chandler, Milton Friedman, Alvin Hansen, Abba Lerner, and James Tobin), Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1951.

J. K. Galbraith, The Theory of Price Control (1952)

Joint Committee on the Economic Report, Monetary Policy and the Management of the Public Debt, Joint Committee Print, 82nd Congress, 2nd Session (Washington, 1952) in two volumes.

5. Empirical Studies

W. C. Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks (Chicago, 1903)

_______________, Gold, Prices, and Wages under the Greenback Standard (Berkeley, 1908)

N. S. Silberling, “Financial and Monetary Policy of Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (1924), pp. 214-33, 397-439.

C. Bresciani-Turroni, The Economics of Inflation.

E. L. Dulles, The French Franc (New York, 1929)

W. De Bordes, The Austrian Crown (London, 1924)

S. S. Katzenellenbaum Russian Currency and Banking, 1914-24 (London, 1925)

James H. Rogers, The Process of Inflation in France, 1914-27 (New York, 1929)

Frank D. Graham, Exchange, Prices, and Production in Hyper-inflation: Germany, 1920-23 (Princeton, 1930)

Seymour Harris, The Assignats (1930)

R. A. Lester, Monetary Experiments (1939)

E. J. Hamilton, “Prices and Wages at Paris under John Law’s System,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (November, 1936).

______________, “Prices and Wages in Southern France under John Law’s System,” Economic History, a supplement of the Economic Journal (February, 1937)

Bertrand Nogaro, “Hungary’s Monetary Crisis,” American Economic Review (Sept. 1948).

Henry W. Spiegel, “A Century of Prices in Brazil,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1948

A. J. Brown, “Inflation and the Flight from Cash,” Yorkshire Bulletin of Economic and Social Research, Vol. 1 (Sept., 1949)

L. V. Chandler, Inflation in the United States, 1940-49. (1951)

Milton Friedman, “Price, Income, and Monetary Changes during Three Wartime Periods,” [American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, May 1952, pp. 612-625]

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 78, Folder 4 (University of Chicago, Econ 432).

 

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Schumpeter’s Socialism Course. Syllabus and Exam, 1946

Welcome to my blog, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have already assembled for you to sample or click on the search icon in the upper right to explore by name, university, or category. You can subscribe to my blog below.  There is also an opportunity to comment below….

______________________

…Regular vistors to this blog have seen that an economics course on socialist thought and movements was a regular part of the curriculum at Harvard during the first half of the twentieth century. Up to this posting I have included material from the following courses: Thomas Nixon Carver’s SINGLE TAX, SOCIALISM, ANARCHISM (1919-20), Edward Mason and Paul Sweezy’s ECONOMICS OF SOCIALISM (1938), and Paul Sweezy’s ECONOMICS OF SOCIALISM (1940).

This course became part of Joseph Schumpeter’s teaching portfolio in the 1940s. His course outline and exam for the winter semester of 1943-44 has been posted as well.

______________________

[Course Announcement]

Economics 11b. Economics of Socialism

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at  10. Professor Schumpeter.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1945-46. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 42, No. 8 (March 31, 1945), p. 36.

______________________

[Enrollment]

[Economics] 11b (spring term) Professor Schumpeter. –Economics of Socialism.

5 Graduates, 18 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Radcliffe, 9 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1945-46, p. 58.

______________________

ECONOMICS 11b
1945-46
OUTLINE AND ASSIGNMENTS

[Joseph A. Schumpeter]

I.   FIRST TWO WEEKS: The Socialist Issue.

Socialist ideas and socialist parties. Socialism and the labor movement. Laborite and intellectualist socialism. The definition of socialism.

*H. W. Laidler, Social-Economic Movements, 1944, esp. Parts V and VI.
Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, article on Socialist and Labor Parties.

II. THIRD TO FIFTH WEEK: The Theory of Centralist Socialism., 1938

*O. Lange and F. M. Taylor, The Economic Theory of Socialism, 1938.
[A. P. Lerner, The Economics of Control, 1944.]

III. SIXTH TO NINTH WEEK: The Economic Interpretation of History. The Class Struggle, and the Marxist Theory of Capitalism.

*Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I, chs. I, IV, V, VI.
Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto.
*Paul M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, 1942, chs. I-VI
(pp. 1-108).

IV. TENTH TO TWELFTH WEEK: The Socialist Theory of the State and of the Proletarian Revolution, Imperialism, National Socialism.

V.I. Lenin, State and Revolution, 1926.
[M. Dobb, Political Economy and Capitalism, ch. VII.]
Paul M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chs. XIII-XIX.

READING PERIOD ASSIGNMENT

Read E. Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism, 1909, especially pp. 18-95, and survey again the items in the reading list marked *.

NOTE: The items in square brackets are recommended but not assigned. So is: Bienstock, Gregory, and Schwartz, Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, 1944.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. HUC 8522.2.1. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1945-1946 (1 of 2)”.

______________________

1945 – 46
Harvard University
Economics 11b

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

  1. What is Syndicalism?
  2. Characterize the type, aims, and importance of the group that called itself Fabians.
  3. “Rational allocation of factors of production presupposes the existence of prices. Prices presuppose free markets. Hence the problem of rational allocation of factors of production would be insoluble in a socialist society.” Criticize.
  4. Discuss the various methods by which investment could be financed (that is, the resources for the extension of the productive apparatus could be provided) in a socialist society.
  5. Explain and criticize what is known as the Marxist Theory of Exploitation.
  6. What meaning do you attach to, and what do you think of, the proposition that Socialism is “inevitable?”

Final, May 1946

Source: Harvard University Archives. Joseph Schumpeter Papers. Lecture Notes Box 2, Folder “Course notes (Jan 1950—Found in Drawer—Cambridge Study) Misc 1945-1947”.

Image Source: Harvard Album 1947.

Categories
Courses Exam Questions M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. Intermediate Macroeconomics. Modigliani, 1961

Welcome to my blog, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have already assembled for you to sample or click on the search icon in the upper right to explore by name, university, or category. You can subscribe to my blog below.  There is also an opportunity to comment below….

______________________

These course materials for undergraduate intermediate macroeconomics at MIT in the Spring term of the 1960/61 academic year are clearly identified as being for a course taught by Franco Modigliani. As it happens from time to time, one finds syllabi and reading lists in the files of colleagues and not just in the papers of students who took the course or the professors who taught them. These materials from reading list through class-assignments, term-paper assignment, up to and including the final examination all come from Robert Solow’s papers at the Duke University library’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

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14.05 Economic Fluctuations and Growth

Prereq.: 14.02
Year: U(1,2)     3-0-5

Analytical study of determinants of national income level, employment, and prices; study of their fluctuations and long-run trends. Consideration of historical and current behavior of the economic system, and role of stabilization policies.

Modigliani

Source:   Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin. The General Catalogue Issue for the Centennial Year 1960-61. p. 240.

 

___________________________________________

Spring, 1961
Professor Modigliani

 

14.05—Economic Fluctuations and Growth
READING LIST

 

Suggested Purchases: Dernburg & McDougall, Macro-Economics (1960)—(referred to below as D&M)
US Department of Commerce, U.S. Income and Output (1958)
Federal Reserve Chart Book, Historical Supplement (1960)

Review references in each section are to Samuelson, Economics (4th ed., 1958)

 

I. Introduction

Review: Samuelson, Ch. 1
New: D&M, Ch. 1

Friedman: Essays in Positive Economics, pp. 1-30.

II. National Income and Other Measures of Economic Activity.

Review: Samuelson, Ch. 10
New:   D&M, Ch. 1-5

Hart, Money, Debt, and Economic Activity (2nd ed., pp. 167-171)
G. Moore, Statistical Indicators of Cyclical Revivals and Recessions, pp. 1-20, 63-77
Survey of Current Business—“The Business Situation” in a recent issue, and look at annual review in February, 1960, number.

References: For current business conditions and course problems, get acquainted with the following, by examining thoroughly at least one recent issue:

Survey of Current Business (monthly; annual summary in February; National Income issue in July)
Federal Reserve Bulletin (monthly)
Economic Indicators (monthly; historical supplement, 1957)
See Bratt, Business Cycles and Forecasting (1953), Chapter 15, for additional source material

III. The Supply of Money and the Banking System.

Review: Samuelson, Chap. 15 and Appendix, 16.
New:   Hart, Money, Debt, etc., Ch. 4 and 6.

Federal Reserve System: Purposes and Functions

IV. The Determinants of the Level of National Income.

A. Monetary Approaches

Review: Samuelson, Ch. 14 and Appendix
New:   D&M, Ch. 9

Hart, Money, Debt, Ch. 10, 12

B. The Theory of Effective Demand

Review: Samuelson, Ch. 11, 12
New: D&M, Ch. 6, 7

Hart, Money, Debt, Ch. 11, pp. 167-179
(optional) Modigliani & Brumberg, “Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function”, in Post-Keynesian Economics (esp. pp. 388-418)
(optional) Ando, “Aggregative Implications of the Modigliani-Brumberg Consumption Function” (mimeographed), pp. 1-118 and Summary

V. Cyclical Fluctuations and Growth.

A. Nature and Causes of Economic Fluctuations

Review: Samuelson, Ch. 13
New: D&M, Ch 19, Section 1-3

Metzler, “The Nature and Stability of Inventory Cycles”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 1941-42
Modigliani, “Business Reasons for Holding Inventories and their Macro-economic Implications”, pp. 495-506
Modigliani, “Discussion of Hickman on Capacity, Capacity Utilization and the Acceleration Principle”, pp. 450-463 N.B.E.R. reprint
Cobren, “Inventories in Postwar Business Cycles”, Survey of Current Business, April, 1959
Tinbergen, The Dynamics of Business Cycles, Ch. 13
Hicks, Trade Cycle, Ch. 8, 9 (optional)
Fortune, series on the capital goods market in August, September, November, and December, 1958. (Sample, especially December issue.)

References only: Summaries of historical development of business cycle theories: Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Part I.

B. Growth and its Interrelation with Cycles

D&M Ch. 16, 17
Abramovitz, Resource and Output Trends in the U.S. since 1870
(optional) Ando & Modigliani, “Growth Fluctuations and Stability”, AER, May 1959, pp. 501-524
Bratt, Business Cycles and Forecasting (1953 ed.), Ch. 3
“A New Look at Production Growth Rates”, in Survey of Current Business, April 1957
Fortune, “The Market of the 1960’s” (series of 9 articles, Jan.-Sept. 1959) (Sample, esp. April issue)
Committee for Economic Development, Economic Growth in the United States (hurriedly)

VI. Business Forecasting.

Charles Roos, “Survey of Economics Forecasting Techniques”, Econometrica, October 1955
Moore, Statistical Indicators of Cyclical Revivals and Recessions, pp. 63-77 (National Bureau of Economic Research Method)
Moore, Measuring Recessions, esp. pp. 259-272
Sidney S. Alexander, “Rate of Change Approaches to Forecasting—Diffusion Indexes and First Differences”, The Economic Journal, June 1958
Fortune, “The Business Roundup”, January 1960
“1959 Survey of Consumer Finances”, Federal Reserve Bulletin, July and September 1959 (note supplementary tables)
Klein & Lansing, “Decisions to Purchase Consumer Durable Goods”, Journal of Marketing, October 1955
Fortune, series cited above on “The Market of the 1960’s” and on “The Coming Capital Goods Boom”
Modigliani & Weingartner, “Forecasting Uses of Anticipatory Data on Investment and Sales”
Bassie, Economic Forecasting (good general reference)
Abramson and Mack, Business Forecasting in Practice (for reference)

VII. Public Policy and Economic Stabilization.

A. Synthesis of Monetary and Income Analysis

Review: Samuelson, Ch. 17
New: D&M, Ch. 8, 9, 10

B. Monetary Policy

D&M, Ch. 11
United States Monetary Policy (American Assembly) –(esp. Ch. 1, 2, 4, 6)
Friedman, “The Supply of Money and Changes in Output”, in The Relationship of Prices to Economic Stability and Growth (Joint Econ. Committee)
Bach, “The Economics and Politics of Money”, Harvard Business Review 1953 (reprint)
Committee on the Economic Report (Patman Subcommittee)—Replies pp. 368-384, 402-428 (for reference)

C. Fiscal and Debt Policy

Review: Samuelson, Ch. 18
New:   D&M, Ch. 20, 21

The Federal Budget in Brief for Fiscal 1961 (get acquainted; copy of complete budget also on reserve)
Committee on Economic Development, Taxes and the Budget; also reprinted in Readings in Fiscal Policy (Parts I and II only)
Committee on Economic Development, The Budget and Economic Growth
Samuelson, “The New Look in Tax and Fiscal Policy”, in Federal Tax Policy for Economic Growth and Stability, pp. 229-34
Butters, “Taxation, Incentives, and Financial Capacity”, in Readings in Fiscal Policy
McCracken, “The Debt Problem and Economic Growth”, Michigan Business Review, November 1956

D. Wages, Productivity, Prices, and Inflation

D&M, Ch. 12, 14, 18
Wages, Prices, Profits and Productivity, American Assembly, (esp. Ch. 1, 3, 4, 6)

E. Overall Stabilization Policy and Economic Growth.

Friedman, “Framework for Monetary-Fiscal Stability”, Readings in Monetary Theory, OR;
Bach, “Monetary-Fiscal Policy Reconsidered”, Readings in Fiscal Policy
Rockefeller Committee, The Challenge to America
C. E. D. Defense Against Inflation, July 1958
Eckstein, “Inflation, the Wage-Price Spiral, and Economic Growth”, in The Relationship of Prices to Economic Stability and Growth (Joint Economic Committee)
Bach, Inflation, Ch. 2, 4
Samuelson and Solow, “Analytical Aspects of Anti-Inflation Policy”, AER May 1959 (reprint)

VIII. International Aspects.

Review: Samuelson, Ch. 31 and Appendix
New:   D&M, Ch. 15

___________________________________________

 

Spring 1961
Professor Modigliani

14.05 – Economic Fluctuations and Growth
GUIDE SHEET TO BASIC ECONOMIC DATA SOURCES.

BASIC HISTORICAL INFORMATION:

Historical Statistics of the United States Colonial Times to 1952 (U. S. Government Printing Office) – Data on all major economic and many social areas, with descriptions of series.

U. S. Income and Output – A Supplement to the Survey of Current Business, providing data of all components of gross national product, 1929-1957.

Banking and Monetary Statistics, 1860-1941 (Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System)-More detailed series on money and banking, with descriptions of series.

The Economic Almanac (published annually by the National Industrial Conference Board) – each issue repeats large amount of historical data, some back to 1790. Several of these series go back further than the official government series; as such, they are often less accurate because of the less adequate coverage of the series and larger likely estimating errors involved.

(U. S. Census (U. S. Government Printing Office) – Vast amounts of data on most aspects of the economic life of business and individual, reaching back to 1790. Difficult to use without assistance or experience.

CURRENT DATA – OFFICIAL SOURCES

Survey of Current Business (U. S. Department of Commerce, monthly) – The most complete source of basic economic data, plus objective analyses of various economic developments. An annual survey is published each year in the February issue, and Annual Statistical Supplements have been issued in several recent years, which provide the data in more easily usable form than do most of the monthly issues.*

Federal Reserve Bulletin (Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, monthly) – The basic source of current official monetary and banking data, plus monthly analyses of monetary developments.

Monthly Labor Review (U. S. Department of Labor) – The basic source of current official data on labor and on price movements, plus monthly analyses of developments in these areas.

Statistical Abstract of the U. S. (U. S. Government Printing Office, annually) – The basic annual compilation of all U. S. Government statistical data; corresponds to the Historical Statistics of the United States, above.

*Business Statistics, 1959 Biennial Edition – The latest major supplement to the Survey. It includes all major series published in the Survey, from 1929 through 1958 in most cases.

CURRENT DATA AND ANALYSES—UNOFFICIAL

There are a vast number of analyses of current economic developments published. Among the more widely recognized as careful and influential are:

Monthly Letter of the National City Bank of New York – General business conditions and financial conditions.

Fortune Magazine (monthly) – Current business analyses and industry studies, written from a relatively “liberal” business slant.

The Conference Board Business Record (National Industrial Conference Board, monthly) – Briefly analyzes current developments; more conservative than Fortune.

CURRENT EVENTS—NEWSPAPERS

Three newspapers are widely thought to provide the most complete coverage of current economic events. They are:

New York Times (daily and Sunday) – Provides the most complete coverage of current economic events.

New York Herald-Tribune (daily and Sunday) – The Times’ closest rival.

Wall Street Journal (daily) – Leading financial and business paper. Complete daily data on most important markets; also includes many speculative news stories and analyses of current and expected developments.

___________________________________________

Spring, 1961
Professor Modigliani

14.05-Economic Fluctuations and Growth
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

I. Due Monday, February 13

“Inflation erodes the purchasing power of the dollar, robs the average man, and lowers the national standard of living. These results are pernicious and disastrous. Inflation must be avoided.” (Excerpt from recent statement by U. S. Senator)

Do you agree with the Senator? Why or why not?

 

II. Due Friday, September 17

Prepare a brief report (two to three pages) on the current business conditions and the outlook for the next six to twelve months.

___________________________________________

Spring, 1961
Professor Modigliani

14.05-Economic Fluctuations and Growth
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

III. Due February 24

Economists as well as politicians are very much concerned with the overall burden of taxes, or share of the nation’s income taxed away by the government.

Using as a framework for National Income Accounts of the Department of Commerce, state and defend what seems to you the most useful and meaningful measure of the “share of the nation’s income taken by the government” (paying attention to the numerator as well as to the denominator). Compute this year for 1948 and 1957.

Is the above concept identical with the “share of the nation’s output of goods and services consumed by the government”? If not, define the second concept and measure this year for the same two years.

Include any comments that may be suggested by your empirical findings.

___________________________________________

Spring, 1961
Professor Modigliani

14.05-Economic Fluctuations and Growth
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

IV. Due March 6

In a small, completely isolated economy (i.e., no foreign trade with money-using habits comparable to those of the U. S., there are four identical banks. Each bank’s balance sheet is as follows:

Cash $3,000,000 Deposits $8,000,000
Loans 2,000,000
Government Securities 5,000,000 Capital and Surplus 2,000,000
$10,000,000 $10,000,000

The law prescribes that banks must hold a 20% cash reserve against deposits. There is no central bank.

(a) A customer of bank letter a minds $1 million of gold (considered as cash for reserve purposes) and deposits it in his bank. Trace through any likely expansion of the money supply by Bank Letter a and by the entire banking system. What would be the maximum expansion possible?
Specify clearly any assumptions that you make, and state your reasoning carefully and precisely.

(b) Is the banking system in a more or less sound position after the gold deposit in any consequences you have predicted above? Explain why or why not.

___________________________________________

Spring, 1961
Professor Modigliani

14.05-Economic Fluctuations and Growth
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

V. Due March 10

In 196X the Federal Government will collect about 85 billion in taxes, according to present estimates, which also indicate that the money will be used roughly as follows:

Regular government expenses $77 billion
Repayment of government debt
…..Held by commercial banks 3 billion
…..Held by individuals and businesses other than banks 5 billion

Suppose these estimates are accurate, and assume it Government deposits are carried out with the commercial banks.

a. What will be the effect of these operations on the amount of money (current and deposits) owned by the public (including individuals and businesses other than banks)?

b. What will be the effect on the amount of total liquid assets (money plus government securities) owned by the public?

c. How, if at all, would your answers to (a) and (b) have been different if:

(1) All bonds paid off had been owned by commercial banks.
(2) All months paid off had been owned by the Federal Reserve Banks.

d. What generalization, if any, can you draw from this reasoning as to the most effective means of retiring the government debt, if the main aim is to alleviate inflationary pressure.

Explained concisely the reasoning by which to obtain the answers given.

___________________________________________

14.05-Economic Fluctuations and Growth
TERM PAPER—DUE MAY 15, 1961

Write an essay on the postwar “creeping inflation” in the U.S. – Its nature, causes and possible remedies. The essay should review the major explanations that have been advanced (e.g. cost-push and demand-poll); assess their usefulness in the light of the empirical evidence; and provide a formulation of your own conclusions and the evidence which supports them. It should further examine the implications of your analysis with respect to the outlook for price stability in the years immediately ahead.

The following items have been placed on reserve in Dewey Library to serve as a starting point, you should feel free to trace and use other references.

Books

American Assembly, Wages, Productivity, Prices, and Inflation
American Assembly, Wages, Prices, Profits and Productivity
Bowen, W. G., The Wage–Price Issue

Pamphlets, Monographs, Periodicals, etc.

Bowen, W. G., “Wage Behavior in the Postwar Period”, monograph, Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, 1960
Eckstein, O., “Inflation, the Wage-Price Spiral, and Economic Growth”, in The Relationship of Prices to Economic Stability and Growth (Joint Economic Committee)
Phelps, E. S., “A Test for the Presence of Cost Inflation in the United States, 1955-1957”, Yale Economic Essays, Spring 1961
Samuelson and Solow, “Analytical Aspects of Anti-Inflation Policy”, AER, May 1960
Schultze, C., “The Recent Inflation in the United States”, Study Paper No. 1, Joint Economic Committee, 1959
Selden, R., “Cost-Push Versus Demand-Pull”, JPE, February 1959

___________________________________________

Prof. Modigliani
May 24, 1961

 

14.05 – ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS AND GROWTH
Final Examination

Answer all Questions.

I. Indicate whether the following statements are true or false and give a brief explanation of your answer. Major weight attaches to the explanation. (5 points per question)

(a) The money supply can always be increased through the Federal Reserve open market purchases.

(b) The relation between the two main demand liabilities of the FRB, namely Federal Reserve notes and member bank deposits is determined primarily by reserve requirements.

(c) Inflation will tend to occur whenever the money supply rises faster than productivity.

(d) Liquidity preference helps to explain why the velocity of circulation tends to vary over the business cycle.

(e) If the rate of investment expenditure declines, the stock of capital goods in the economy declines.

(f) Built-in flexibility in fiscal policy means that the level of government expenditure should vary countercyclically.

(g) A high marginal tax rate has a stabilizing effect on the economy by reducing the marginal propensity to consume.

(h) The most important characteristic of a good leading indicator is that it should always turn ahead of general business conditions.

 

II. (20 points) Given the following information (in billions of dollars per year):

Full employment income (Yf) 300
Consumption expenditure 20 plus 80 percent of disposable income
Government purchase of goods and services 50
Government receipts 20 percent of national income (Y)
Transfer payments 10 plus 5 percent of the difference between Yf and Y
Net investment 22

(a) Calculate the equilibrium level of income implied by this information and explain carefully in what sense it is an “equilibrium” level.

(b) What rate of investment would be required to bring about full utilization of resources? What measures other than an increase in investment could be utilized to reach full employment?

 

III. (20 points) Define the following concepts:

(a) multiplier

(b) capital coefficient

(c) acceleration principle,

and explain their use in business cycle analysis.

 

IV. (20 points) Explain the functioning of monetary policy as a stabilization device, and analyze its strength and weaknesses.

 

Source: Duke University. Rosenstein Library. Robert Solow Papers. Box 68. Folders “Reading Lists”, “Assignments, home problems”, and “Exams, tests, quizzes”.