Category: Syllabus

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Chicago Courses Syllabus

Chicago. Money and Banking, Economics 330 Mints, 1932

The following reading list for Lloyd Wynn Mints’ course “Money and Banking” (Summer Quarter of 1932) was hand-marked by Albert G. Hart indicating either required or recommended readings. Everything in italics and within square brackets, [], are Hart’s additions. I have substituted asterisks for Hart’s use of checkmarks. My additions are placed inside parentheses within the square brackets [()].

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E: THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION

Courses 330, 331 are introductory to the problem and research courses.

330, 331. Money and Banking.–This is a double course having two objectives. (1) The student is expected to make a wide acquaintance with the literature of the field and to become familiar with those theories and principles in the fields of money and banking which are essential to an intelligent understanding of the problems arising in these fields. The relation of a medium of exchange to the processes by which changes in the price level are brought about is critically examined. Consideration is given to the principles which should govern the operations of individual commercial banks and of the banking system, and to the relation of these operations to changes in the price level and business conditions. (2) Time is devoted to a discussion of the feasibility of control of economic activities through the pecuniary system. The outstanding issues in international finance are surveyed. Prerequisite: accounting and statistics and Economics 230 or its equivalent. Summer, Autumn, Winter, Mints.

Source: Announcements, The University of Chicago, Vol. XXXII, no. 12 February 1932. Arts, Literature and Science for the Sessions of 1932-33, p. 358.

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Economics 330
Money and Banking

  1. The functions of money and banking
    1. The origins of money
      1. Monroe, Monetary Theory before Adam Smith (See the table of contents)
      2. Moulton, Readings in Money and Banking, pages 45-74
      3. Phillips, Readings in Money and Banking, pages 7-25
    2. The functions of money
      1. Monroe (See table of contents)
      2. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book III, ch. 7
      3. Foster and Catchings, Money, pages 1-52
      4. Holdsworth, Money and Banking, ch. 1
      5. Johnson, Money and Currency, ch. 1 and 2
      6. Kinley, Money, ch. 1
      7. Marshall, Money, Credit, and Commerce, pages 12-20
      8. Moulton, Financial Organization of Society, ch. 1-3
      9. Moulton, Money and Banking, Part I, pages 5-13, 31-44
      10. Scott, Money and Banking, pages 1-49
    3. The functions of banking
      1. Gilbart, The History, Principles and Practice of Banking, Michie edition, Vol. I, pages 210-223
      2. Mill, Book III, ch. 11
      3. McLeod, Theory and Practice of Banking, Vol. I, pages 313-326
      4. [*]Agger, Organized Banking, pages 3-36
      5. [*]Conant, Principles of Money and Banking, Vol. II. Pages 206-219; 239-255
      6. [*]Dunbar, Theory and History of Banking, pages 1-19
      7. [*]Moulton, In the Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 26, pages 484-508; 638-663; and 849-881
      8. Watkins, (and Moulton) in the Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 27, pages 578-605
      9. Steiner, Some Aspects of Banking Theory, pages 34-67
      10. Veblen, Theory of Business enterprise, pages 91-132
  2. Statement of theories concerning the relation of money and banking to the price level
    1. Monroe, chs. 7, 12, 19, 22, 29, 30, 34
    2. [1*]Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy (Gonner edition) ch. 27
    3. [2*]Mill, Book III, chs. 7-13
    4. Laughlin, Principles of Money, chs. 8 and 9
    5. [3*]Fisher, Purchasing Power of Money, chs. 2-5 [,8]
    6. Anderson, The Value of Money, ch. 20 [sample]
    7. [4?*]Cassel, Theory of Social Economy, ch. 11
    8. [5*]Hawtrey, Currency and Credit, pages 1-110 [(3rd ed. )]
    9. Keynes, Monetary Reform, pages 81-95
    10. Cannan, Money, 4th or 5th edition, parts I and II.
    11. Robertson, Money, revised edition, chs. 2, 3, and 4.
    12. [*]Marshall, Money, Credit, and Commerce, pp. 38-50
    13. Phillips, Readings in Money and Banking, pp. 178-212
    14. [**]Pigou, The Value of Money, in the Quarterly Journal of Economics for 1917-18, pp. 38-65
    15. Foster and Catchings, Money, ch. 10
    16. Kemmerer, Relation of Money and Credit to Prices, Book I, chs. 1 and 2; Book II, chs. 1 and 8
    17. Scott, Money and Banking, ch. 4
    18. [**]Keynes, A Treatise on Money, Vol. I, chs. 9-12 and 14[-17]
  3. Appraisal of these theories by means of
    1. Logical analyses
      [Vol I of Keynes, pp. 53-120, 221-39]

      1. Anderson, The Value of Money, chs. 2-19
      2. Burns, The Quantity Theory and Price Stabilization, in The American Economic Review for December, 1929; Part III, pp. 573-579.
      3. [*]Davenport, Velocities, Turnovers and Prices, in The American Economic Review for March, 1930; pp. 9-19
        [cf. Marget in J.P.E.]
      4. Laughlin, The Principles of Money, ch. 8
      5. Lewinski, Money, Credit and Prices, chs. 1 and 3
    2. Examination of the process of changes in the price level
      1. In countries whose governmental budgets were unbalanced
        1. Early European experiences
          1. Moulton, Money and Banking, pp. 89-95; 144-148
          2. Fisher, pp. 252-256
          3. Seligman, Currency Inflation and Public Debts
          4. Johnson, Money and Currency, ch. 14
          5. Walker Money ch. 16
          6. [*]Cannan, The Paper Pound of 1797-1821; contains the text of the Bullion Report
          7. Sumner, History of American Currency, ch. 2 and the appendix, pp. 311-324; contains the text of the Bullion Report
          8. [*]Hawtrey, Currency and Credit, 1st. and 2nd. Editions, chs. 15 and 16; 3rd edition, chs. 17 and 18
          9. Andreades, A History of the Bank of England, pp. 161-242
          10. [?]Angell, The Theory of International Prices, ch. 3
            [Harris, Assignat]
        2. American experience: pre-war
          [D C Barrett, Greenbacks]

          1. White, Money and Banking, Book II, pp. 79-192
          2. Moulton, Money and Banking, pp. 148-199; 210-248
          3. Hepburn, History of Currency in the United States, chs. 2, 11 and 13; but see also the table of contents
          4. Sumner, especially pp. 1-59 and 189-227
          5. Johnson, Money and Currency, pp. 272-290
          6. [Best]Mitchell, History of Greenbacks, especially Part I, chs. 1 and 2; and Part II, ch. 10
          7. Noyes, Forty Years of American Finance, chs. 1-3
          8. Fisher, pp. 256-265
          9. Walker, Ch. 15
        3. American experience: World War
          1. Garrett, Government Control over Prices (published by the War Trade Board), pp. 23-59.
          2. Comptroller’s Reports. See, for example, that for 1926, especially pp. 268-282.
          3. Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury; that for 1920, pp. 104-6; 413-16.
          4. Federal Reserve Bulletins.
          5. The Statistical Bulletin of the Standard Statistics Company.
          6. Annual Report of the Federal Reserve Board for 1926; especially pp. 40-2; 134; 142-3; and 220.
          7. The Review of Economic Statistics for July, 1927; pp. 121-141.
          8. Hardy and Cox, Forecasting Business Conditions, chs. 19-22 and Appendix A.
        4. European experience: World War
          Great Britain

          1. [*]Young, John Parke, European Currency and Finance (U. S. Senate Commission of Gold and Silver Inquiry). Vol. I, pp. 273-306; 442-69.
            [Something (from items 2-9)]
          2. Withers, Bankers and Credit, chs. 2, 4, and 5.
          3. Kirkaldy, British Finance, 1914-1921.
          4. Shaw, Currency, Credit and the Exchanges, chs. 1 and 3.
          5. Hawtrey, Monetary Reconstruction.
          6. Keynes, A Treatise on Money, Vol. II, pp. 170-89.
          7. Jack, The Restoration of European Currencies, ch. 2.
          8. Robertson, revised edition, ch. 6.
          9. Harris, Monetary Problems of the British Empire, pp. 65-82, 157-168.

          France

          1. [*]Rogers, The Process of Inflation in France, chs. 6, 11, and 12.
          2. Dulles, The French Franc, 1914-1928, chs. 1, 7, 8 and 9.
          3. Young, Vol. I, pp. 307-46; 470-93.
          4. Moulton and Lewis, The French Debt Problem.
          5. Jack, ch. 7.

          Germany

          1. [*]Graham, Exchange, Prices, and Production in Hyper-Inflation: Germany, 1920-1923, pp. 3-173.
          2. Young, Vol. I, pp. 387-430; 522-42.
          3. Rogers, ch. 7
          4. Jack, ch. 6.
          5. Moulton and McGuire, Germany’s Capacity to Pay.
          6. Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace.
          7. Schacht, Stabilization of the Mark.

          Austria

          1. [*]de Bordes, The Austrian Crown, pp. 144-229.
          2. Young, Vol. II, pp. 9-25, 291-297.
          3. Jack, ch. 10

          Some general references on the theory of international prices.

          1. Mill, Book III, chs. 20-22.
          2. Young, Vol. I, pp. 29-49.
          3. Taussig, Principles of Economics, first edition, Vol. I, pp. 458-462.
          4. Viner, Canada’s Balance of International Indebtedness, pp. 191-255.
          5. Cassel, Money and Foreign Exchange after 1914, pp. 137-169, 187-202.
          6. Keynes, Monetary Reform, pp. 95-116.
          7. Taussig, International Trade, pp. 34-42, 337-408; but especially pp. 337-358.
          8. Angell, The Theory of Internaitonal Prices, chs. 7, 14-17.
      2. During a peace-time business cycle.
        1. [*]Mitchell, Business Cycles: The Problem and its Setting, ch. 2.
        2. Mitchell, Business Cycles (1913), pp. 6-18.
        3. Pigou, Industrial Fluctuations, Part I, chs. 8, 12-17; but particularly chs. 8 and 12.
        4. Cassel, Theory of Social Economy, chs. 17 and 19, and pp. 458-467.
        5. Keynes, A Treatise on Money, Vol. I, chs. 18 and 19.
        6. Fisher, ch. 4.
        7. Foster and Catchings, Money, particularly ch. 20, but also ch. 18.
        8. Foster and Catchings, Profits, last chapter.
        9. Anderson, ch. 10.
        10. Laughlin, pp. 92-112.
        11. Adams, Economics of Business Cycles, pp. 198-233.
        12. Hansen, Business Cycle Theory, chs. 1 and 6.
        13. Wagemann, Economic Rhythm, chs. 18 and 19.
        14. Copeland, Two Hypotheses Concerning the Equation of Exchange, in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Proceedings, 1929, pp. 146-48.
        15. Copeland, Recent Changes in Our Wholesale Price Level, in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Proceedings, 1930, pp. 164-169.
        16. Copeland, Special Purpose Indexes for the United States, 1919-1927, in the Journal of the American Statistical Association for June, 1929, pp. 109-122.
        17. Some convenient sources of data:
          1. Hardy and Cox, Appendix A.
          2. Schluter, The Pre-War Business Cycle
          3. Standard Statistics Bulletin
          4. Federal Reserve Bulletin
          5. Annual Reports of the Federal Reserve Board
          6. Survey of Current Business
      3. During a longer period covering several cycles.
        1. Cassel, Theory of Social Economy, pp. 467-473.
        2. Fisher, chs. 10-12 and respective appendices.
        3. Laughlin, Money and Prices, chs. 2-4, and 6.
        4. Anderson, ch. 19.
        5. Davis, The Quantity Theory and Recent Statistical Studies, in the Journal of Political Economy for March, 1921, pp. 213-221.
        6. Working, Prices and the Quantity of the Circulating Medium, 1890-1921, in the Quarterly Journal of Economics for 1922-23, pp. 228-256.
        7. Working, Bank Deposits as a Forecaster of the General Price Level, in the Review of Economic Statistics for 1926, pp. 120-133.
        8. Snyder, New Measures in the Equation of Exchange, in the American Economic Review for December, 1924, pp. 699-713.
        9. Edie, Gold Production and Prices before and after the World War.
        10. Burns, The Quantity Theory and Price Stabilization, in the American Economic Review for December, 1929, pp. 561-573.
        11. Kitchin; Berridge; Coyle; a series of articles on the production and consumption of gold, in the Review of Economic Statistics for 1920-21, 1924-26, and 1929.

[Business cycle

Hawtry Trade & Credit. “Trade Cycle”
J. M. Clark JPE Mar 1917 “Business Acceleration & law of demand”, Overhead Costs ch 19, esp. pp. 386-96]

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Albert Gailord Hart Papers. Box 60. Folder “Mints, Money 1932”.

Categories
Chicago Courses Syllabus

Chicago. Banking Theory and Monetary Policy. Mints, 1942

“Lloyd Mints, though less brilliant and exciting than Viner, served the same function for us in monetary theory that Viner did in price theory. His Economics 330 and 331 introduced us to the organic core of monetary theory. Like Viner, Mints concentrated on the fundamentals, not on institutional arrangements. He was thorough and meticulous in his presentations and, again, like Viner, assigned us readings ranging over a wide variety of views.”
Rose Friedman in Milton and Rose D. Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs (1998), p. 38.

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E: MONEY, BANKING, AND BUSINESS CYCLES

  1. Money.—An examination of various theories of the factors which determine the value of money in the short and in the long run. Prerequisite: Economics 230 [Mints’ course, Introduction to Money and Banking] or equivalent. Summer, 1:30; Autumn, 2:30; Mints.
  1. Banking Theory and Monetary Policy.—Theories upon which the Federal Reserve Act is based; the validity of these theories; and the possible objectives and techniques of central-bank and monetary management. Prerequisite: Same as for Economics 330. Summer, Winter, 2:30, Mints.

Source: Announcements, The University of Chicago, Vol. XLI, No. 10 (April 25, 1941). The College and the Divisions for the Sessions of 1941-42, p. 310.

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NOTE: The following reading list for Lloyd Wynn Mints’ course “Banking and Monetary Policy” (Winter Quarter of 1942) was hand-marked by Norman Kaplan with sufficient detail to warrant including his notes with the original reading list. Everything in italics and within square brackets, [], are Kaplan’s additions. A few non-italicized corrections/comments of mine are inside parentheses within the square brackets [()].

The identical printed reading list can be found at the Hoover Institution Archives, Milton Friedman’s papers (Box 5, Folder 12: Student years), together with other course reading lists. Since Milton Friedman himself never took this course according to his own course records and his copy of the reading list for Economics 331 definitely looks to be of a later vintage (at least less worn) from that of his reading list for Economics 330, we cannot conclude with any certainty that the reading list remained completely unchanged for the entire decade 1932-42.

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ECONOMICS 331
BANKING AND MONETARY POLICY

[Lloyd Mints, University of Chicago, Winter Quarter 1942]

  1. Theoretical and historical foundations of the Federal Reserve Act
    1. Theoretical
      1. Smith, The Wealth of Nations, part of Book II, chapter 2; in Everyman’s edition, pages 266-286 [in Vol I; for sake of completeness, Vol II]; in Cannan’s edition, pages 285-304
        [Read]
      2. Ricardo, Reply to Mr. Bosanquet’s Practical Observations on the Report of the Bullion Committee, chapter 5; in Gonner’s edition of Ricardo’s essays, pages 113-119
      3. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book III, chapter 24
      4. Scott, Money and Banking; in the second edition, pages 147-176
      5. Willis, The Federal Reserve, pages 46-84, 176-191
      6. Warburg, The Discount System in Europe (The National Monetary Commission)
      7. Dunbar, The Theory and History of Banking, chapters 3, 5, and 6
      8. Agger, Organized Banking, pages 31-33, 37-63, 140-174
        [Read pp. 31-33]
      9. Conant, The Principles of Money and Banking, Vol. II, pages 17-110, 143-163
      10. Moulton, Commercial Banking and Capital Formation, in the Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 26 (1918), pages 705-731
      11. Cannan, The Meaning of Bank Deposits, in Economica for January, 1921, pages 28-36
      12. Phillips, Bank Credit, chapter 3
        [Read]
      13. Angell and Ficek, The Expansion of Bank Credit, in the Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 41 (1933), pages 1-32, 152-193
        [Read Viner, Trade, pp. 218-288]
    2. Historical: The development of the Bank of England and the London money market
      1. Dunbar, The Theory and History of Banking, the chapter on the Bank of England
        [Read]
      2. Feavearyear, The Pound Sterling, A History of English Money
      3. Andreades, A History of the Bank of England
      4. Bagehot, Lombard Street, chapters 3, 7, 9-12
      5. Whitaker, Foreign Exchange, the chapter on “Foreign Money Market Factors”; in the first edition, chapter 8
        [Read]
      6. Leaf, Banking, chapters 3, 7 and 8
      7. Willis and Beckhart, Foreign Banking Systems, chapter 17
      8. Report of the Committee on Finance and Industry (The Macmillan Report), chapter 4
      9. The Report of the Bullion Committee; to be found in “The Paper Pound of 1797-1821,” edited by Cannan
        [Read]
      10. Gregory, the introduction to the reprint of the “History of Prices,” by Tooke and Newmarch; especially pages 69-91
    3. Historical: the development of banking in the United States before 1913
      1. Dewey, State Banking before the Civil War; and Chaddock, the Safety Fund Banking System in New York, 1829-1866 (The National Monetary Commission)
      2. Hepburn, History of Currency in the United States
      3. Noyes, The War Period of American Finance
      4. Sprague, Crises Under the National Banking System, chapter 1
        [*Read]
      5. Davis, Origin of the National Banking System
      6. The appropriate chapters in any good economic history of the United States
        [Read]
      7. Miller, Banking Theories in the United States before 1860
  1. The organization and operation of the Federal Reserve system
      1. Hardy, Credit Policies of the Federal Reserve System
        [Read]
      2. Burgess, The Reserve Banks and the Money Market
        [Read]
      3. Currie, The Suppply and Control of Money in the United States
        [Read a little if you have time]
      4. Willis and Steiner, Federal Reserve Banking Practice
        [Omit]
      5. Annual Report of the Federal Reserve Board for 1923, pages 3-39
        [*Read. Written by Walter W. Stewart, Mints thinks. Represents position of old Board which was homogeneous & consistent until 1934.]
      6. Woodworth, Supplement to Kilborne’s “Principles of Money and Banking” (1934; on recent developments)
      7. The Federal Reserve Bulletin for September, 1935 (the banking act of 1935)
      8. Huffman, Expansion Possibilities of Our Banking System, in the Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 34 (1926), pages 717-741.
        [Read if you want to]
        [added: Willis, Federal Reserve (not Res. System, a later book cf. A.5 for pages) 1st 2 or 3 chapters on what it was they were interested in in getting banking reform]
  1. The Problem of Monetary Policy
      1. Keynes, The Means to Prosperity
        [Omit]
      2. ________, Monetary Reform, pages 167-222[Read, not so important]
      3. ________, A Treatise on Money, Vol. I, pages 185-220, Vol. II, pages 211-408
        [Omit]
      4. Hawtrey, Trade Depression and the Way Out; in the first edition, pages 68-84
        [Read this or ch. 8 (of The Art of Central Banking by Hawtrey)]
      5. ________, The Art of Central Banking, chapters 5,7, and 8
        [(Read) ch. 8 or pp. 68-84 (of Trade Depression and the Way Out by Hawtrey)]
      6. Whittlesey, Banking and the New Deal (Public Policy Pamphlet No. 16)
        [Read if you want to]
      7. Fisher, 100% Money
        [Read if you don’t understand 100% money]
      8. Gayer, Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization
        [Read if you want to]
      9. Report of the Committee on Finance and Industry (the Macmillan Report)
        [Read if you want to]
      10. Simons, Currency Systems and Commercial Policy; in the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into National Policy in International Economic Relations, pages 344-349
        [Read]
      11. ________, Rules versus Authorities in Monetary Policy, in the Journal of Political Economy for February, 1936
        [Read Esp.]
      12. ________, A Positive Program for Laissez Faire (Public Policy Pamphlet No. 15)
        [Read]
      13. Gregory, The Gold Standard and its Future
        [Read if you want to]
      14. Hansen, Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World, pages 277-323
        [Read]
      15. Robertson, Banking Policy and the Price Level
        [ Written as a reaction against stable price level protagonists.]
      16. ________, Theories of Banking Policy, in “Economic Essays and Addresses,” by Pigou and Robertson, pages 95-115
        [Also in Robertson’s Essays in Monetary Theory]
      17. Harrod, The Expansion of Credit in an Advancing Community, in Economica, New Series, Vol. I (1934), pages 287-299
        [Omit]
      18. Durbin, The Problem of Credit Policy, pages 80-87, 109-241
        [Omit]
      19. Mahr, Monetary Stability (Public Policy Pamphlet No. 9)
        [Omit]
      20. Cassel, A Theory of Social Economy; in the McCabe translation, pages 414-419, 473-481
        [You might read this if you want to]

[Read these:

Henry Villard, “Federal Reserve System’s Monetary Policy in 1931 & 1932.” JPE (To be read in connection with II)

L.V. Chandler, “Monopolistic Elements in Commercial Banking” JPE
G. L. Bach, “Monetary Policy & the Price Level”, typewritten condensation of doctoral dissertation

Optional on gold vs. Paper

C. R. Whittlesy, International Monetary Issues, chs. 4-7 (for paper)
F. A. Hayek, Monetary Nat’lism & Internat’l Stability (for gold)
Gregory, pro-gold standard
Heilperin (a book Mints can’t remember published in last 3 years)

You should read some in:

Hansen, Fiscal Policy & Business Cycles, ch. 15 esp.]

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Source: Kaplan, Norman Maurice. Papers, [Box 3, Folder 6], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Image Source: From a Japanese webpage that certainly appears to be about the Chicago School(s) of Economics. Here is the link to the picture of Mints.

 

Categories
Columbia Courses Economists Syllabus

Columbia. Introductory Economics. First-term, 1912-13.

According to the Columbia University Catalogue for 1912-13, Economics 1-2, Introduction to economics–Practical economic problems was a 3 hour course taught by Professors Seager, Mussey, Agger, and Dr. Anderson. According to this outline it would appear that these instructors taught the material in the assigned textbook readings listed and once a week, a professor from the graduate faculty of Political Science would hold a lecture. The printed copy of the lectures and assignments transcribed here was found in the Papers of John Bates Clark.

________________________

Columbia College

Lectures and Assignments, Economics I.
[1912-13]

 

SEPTEMBER
27 Introductory Lecture. Professor H. R. Seager
30 ELY, Chapter I.—Nature and Scope of Economics.
OCTOBER
2 SELIGMAN, Chapter V.—The Economic Stages.
4 Lecture. The Accumulation of Economic Facts. Prof. R. E. Chaddock.
7 SELIGMAN, CHAPTER IV.—The Historical Forms of Business Enterprise
9 SELIGMAN, CHAPTER IX.—Private Property
11 Lecture. Conservation as an Economic Movement. Prof. R. E. Chaddock.
14 SELIGMAN, CHAPTER X.—Competition
16 SELIGMAN, CHAPTER XI.—Freedom
18 Lecture. A Method of Approaching and Testing Economic Reforms. Prof. R. E. Chaddock.
21 ELY, Chapter VII.—Elementary Concepts. To page 101.  
23 ELY, Chapter VIII.—Consumption. Pages 106 to 113 to “Luxury”
25 Lecture. Value and Price. Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr.
28 ELY, Chapter IX.—Production. Pages 121-131 incl. (omitting 132-145).
30 Written Quiz covering all the above.
NOVEMBER
1 Lecture. Normal Price. Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr.
4 ELY, Chapter XI.—Value and Price. Pages 156-163 to “Elasticity”. [corrected by hand from “Electricity”]
6 ELY, Chapter XI.— Value and Price. Pages 163-168 incl.
8 Lecture. Capitalization of Value. Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr.
11 ELY, Chapter XII.—Value and Price. Pages 170-177 to “The Surplus of Bargaining”.
13 ELY, Chapter XII.— Value and Price. Pages 177-186.
15 Lecture. The Size of the Population. Prof. H. L. Moore.
18 ELY, Chapter XIII.—Monopoly. Pages 187-192 to “Classification” and page 197 “Monopoly Price” to page 201.
20 ELY, Chapter XIII.—Monopoly. Pages 201-208 to “Monopolies and the Distribution of Wealth”.
22 Lecture. The Quality of the Population. Prof. H. L. Moore.
25 Review.
27 Written quiz.
29 Thanksgiving Holidays.
DECEMBER
2 ELY, Chapter XIX.—Distribution as an Economic Problem, Pages 315-325.
4 ELY, Chapter XIX.— Distribution as an Economic Problem, Pages 326-333.
6 Lecture. Efficiency and Income. Prof. H. L. Moore.
9 SELIGMAN, Chapter XXIII.—Profits. Sections 152-154 incl.
11 SELIGMAN, Chapter XXIII.—Profits. Sections 155-157 incl.
13 Lecture. Profits. Prof. J. B. Clark.
16 ELY, Chapter XXI.—Rent of Land. Pages 348-357 to “The Different Uses of Land”.
18 ELY, Chapter XXI.—Rent of Land. Pages 357-366.
20 Lecture. The Rent of Land and the Single Tax. Prof. J. B. Clark.
Christmas Holidays
JANUARY, 1913
6 ELY, Chapter XXII.—The Wages of Labor. Pages 367-376 to “Subsistence Theory.”
8 ELY, Chapter XXII.—The Wages of Labor. Pages 376-385.
10 Lecture. Wages of Labor. Prof. J. B. Clark.
13 ELY, Chapter XXIV.—Interest. Pages 416-425 to “The Shifting of Investment”.
15 ELY, Chapter XXIV.—Interest. Pages 425 to 438 omitting fine print.
17 Lecture. Capital and Interest. Prof. J. B. Clark.
20 Review

The text assignments are to the 1910 editions of Prof. E. R. A. Seligman’s Principles of Economics and to Prof. R. T. Ely’s Outlines of Economics.

 

            COLLATERAL READING: (Pages to be assigned)

Bücher Industrial Evolution

Bullock Readings in Economics.

George Progress and Poverty. [Memorial Edition(1898): Vol. I, Vol. II.]

 

Source: John Bates Clark Papers, Series II.4. Box 9. Folder “Administrative Records and Course Material Undated”; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

 

Categories
Columbia Courses Economists Syllabus

Columbia. Syllabus for Trust Problem. Seager, 1907

The second in a two-semester “problem sequence” taught by Professor Henry Rogers Seager at Columbia. Found in the papers of John Maurice Clark. The first semester was a course on the labor problem. The field of pre-game-theory industrial organization can trace its roots to the trust problem.

________________________

ECONOMICS 106—Trust Problem.        Professor Seager.

Tu. And Th. At 11.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course special attention is given to the trust problem as it presents itself in the United States. Among the topics considered are the rise and progress of industrial combinations, the forms of organization and policies of typical combinations, the common law and the trusts, anti-trust acts and their results, and other proposed solutions of the problem.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

Source: Columbia University. Bulletin of Information. Fifth Series, No. 10 (March 25, 1905). History, Economics, and Public Law. Courses Offered by the Faculty of Political Science. Announcement 1905-07, p. 25.

________________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York

 

THE TRUST PROBLEM

OUTLINE OF COURSE
BY
HENRY R. SEAGER
Professor of Political Economy

 

(The references are to the numbers attached to the titles in the bibliography. Those printed in heavy-faced type constitute the required reading for the course. Those marked with asterisks are especially recommended.)

 

  1. Nature and scope of the trust problem. Survey of literature. (43, chap. XVIII, pp. 428-441.)
  2. Progress of the corporation movement in the United States. (*8, chap. I; *36, June, 1890, pp. 50 et seq.; 47, 1900, vol. VII, chap. II, sec. XI, and 1905, Bulletin 57, pp. 13-18.)
  3. Progress of the trust movement in the United States. (5, chap. I; 9, chap. I; *14, chap. V; *30, chap. I; 31; 41, vol. XIX, pp. 595-608; 47, 1900, vol. VII, chap. II, sec. XVII.)
  4. Conflicting theories in regard to the economic advantages of the trusts. (22, chaps. I and II; 43, chap. XVIII, pp. 442-461; *6, pp. 35-42; *14, chap. IV; *30, chap. II; 27, Part I.)
  5. Typical American trusts; the Addyston Pipe Company. (22, chap. VII ; 43, chap. V.)
  6. Typical American trusts : the Standard Oil Company. (22, chap. VIII, pp. 151-157; 29; 39; 40; 41, vol. I, pp. 93-173; *44; 46.)
  7. Typical American trusts: the Standard Oil Company today. (*37.)
  8. Typical American trusts: the United States Steel Corporation. (22, Appendix F ; *28, chap. XVII ; 41, vol. I, pp. 173-205; 42; *48.)
  9. The United States Steel Corporation’s bond conversion (43, chap. VIII.)
  10. Typical American trusts: the International Mercantile Marine Company. (43, Chap. VI.)
  11. Typical American trusts: the United States Shipbuilding Company (43, chap. IX.)
  12. The success of American trusts as business enterprises. (*15, 1907; 31.)
  13. Conflicting legal theories in regard to corporations and the attitude of American courts. (16; *17, pp. XVIII-XLIII ; *21, pp. 7-16 ; *45, chaps. III and VIII.)
  14. The development of corporation laws in the American states and the present law of New Jersey. (4; *6, pp. 383-394, 409-422 ; *21; 23.)
  15. The Massachusetts Business Corporation Law. (43, chap. XV; *38.)
  16. State anti-trust legislation and the reasons for its failure. (*1, 1904, pp. 37-41; *13, vol. II, part VIII; 30, chap. V ; 41, vol. I, pp. 225-232, vol. II.)
  17. The federal anti-trust act of 1890 and what has been accomplished under it. (43, chap. XII ; 13, vol. II, part VII.)
  18. Latest phases of the attempt to enforce the anti-trust act. (43, chap. XIV.)
  19. The trust problem in the United Kingdom and the British Companies Act of 1900. (43, chap. XVII; 20, part II, chap. III ; 27, chaps. VIII and IX ; 41, vol. XVIII, part I, chap. II.)
  20. The trust problem in Germany. (22, chap. XII; 24 ; 35, third series, vol. V, no. 3; *41, vol. XVIII, part I, chap. V.)
  21. Germany’s corporation law and the attitude of the German government towards trusts. (43, chap. XVI; 24 ; *41, vol. XVIII, part II, chap. IV.)
  22. Present problem in the United States: the trusts and investors. (22, chaps. V and VI; 28, chaps. VII, VIII, XV, and XIX ; 41, vol. I, Digest, pp. 242-253.)
  23. Present problem in the United States: the trusts and wage-earners. (22, chap. IX; 6, pp. 349-354 ; 9, chaps. VII and VIII.)
  24. Present problem in the United States: the trusts and consumers. (22, chap. VIII; 41, vol. I, part I, pp. 39-57.)
  25. Present problem in the United States: the trusts and the tariff. (22, chap. III; 5, chaps. VI and XV; *6, pp. 171-177 ; *8, chap. III; 25; 41, vol. XIX pp. 627-631.)
  26. Proposed solutions of the trust problem. (22, chap. XI; *1, 1904, pp. 44-63; 30, chap. VI; 41, vol. XIX, pp. 649-652.)
  27. Objects to be accomplished through federal control over the trusts. (22, chap. XIII; *7, chaps. IV and V; 21, pp. 168-173; 28, chap. XX.)
  28. The future of trusts in the United States. (*26, part III, chap. II; *27, chap. XII.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

  1. Annual Reports of the United States Commissioner of Corporations. 1904—
  2. Baker, Monopolies and the People. Third edition. 1899.
  3. Beach, A Treatise on the Law of Monopolies and Industrial Trusts. 1898.
  4. Black, Corporation Laws of New York and New Jersey. Second edition, 1904.
  5. Bolen, Plain Facts as to the Trusts and the Tariff. 1902.
  6. Chicago Conference on Trusts, September, 1899. 1900.
  7. Clark, The Control of Trusts. 1901.
  8. Clark, The Problem of Monopoly. 1904.
  9. Collier, The Trusts. 1900.
  10. Cook, “Trusts.” Second edition. 1888.
  11. Davis, Corporations: Their Origin and Development, 2 vols. 1905.
  12. Dos Passos, Commercial Trusts. 1901.
  13. Eddy, The Law of Combinations, 2 vols. 1901.
  14. Ely, Monopolies and Trusts. 1900.
  15. Financial Review (Annual) of the Commercial and Financial Chronicle.
  16. Freund, The Legal Nature of Corporations. 1896.
  17. Gierke, Political Theories of the Middle Ages. 1900.
  18. Gunton, Trusts and the Public. 1899.
  19. von Halle, Trusts or Industrial Combinations in the United States. 1895.
  20. Hirst, Monopolies, Trusts and Kartells. 1905.
  21. Horack, the Organization and Control of Industrial Corporations. 1903.
  22. Jenks, The Trust Problem. Revised edition. 1903.
  23. Laws of the State of New Jersey Relating to Business Companies. 1905.
  24. Liefmann, Die Unternehmerverbände. 1897.
  25. Liefmann, Schutzzoll und Kartelle. 1903.
  26. Macgregor, Industrial Combination. 1906.
  27. Macrosty, Trusts and the State. 1901.
  28. Meade, Trust Finance. 1903.
  29. Montague, The Standard Oil Company. 1904.
  30. Montague, Trusts of Today. 1904.
  31. Moody, Truth about the Trusts. 1904.
  32. Mussey, Combination in the Mining Industry. 1905.
  33. Nettleton, Trusts or Competition. 1900.
  34. Political Science Quarterly. 1886—
  35. Publications of the American Economic Association. 1886—
  36. Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association. 1888—
  37. Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Transportation of Petroleum. 1906.
  38. Report of the Committee (Massachusetts) on Corporation Laws. 1903.
  39. Report of the Committee (New York) on General Laws on the Investigation Relative to Trusts. New York Senate Document No. 50, Vol. V. 1888.
  40. Report of the Committee (United States) on Manufactures on the Investigation of Trusts. House of Representatives Report, No. 3112. 1888.
  41. Report of the United States Industrial Commission, 19 vols. 1900—1902.
  42. Reports of the United States Steel Corporation. 1902—
  43. Ripley, Trusts, Pools, and Corporations. 1903.
  44. Tarbell, The History of the Standard Oil Company, 2 vols. 1904.
  45. Taylor, A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations. Fifth edition. 1905.
  46. Trust Investigation of the Ohio Senate. 1898.
  47. United States Census Reports and Bulletins.
  48. Wilgus, The United States Steel Corporation. 1901.

Source: Columbia Archives. John M. Clark Collection. Box 23, Lecture Notebooks.

Monopoly Image: From The Up-to-date Primer: A First Book of Lessons for Little Political Economists.

Categories
Chicago Columbia Courses Syllabus

Columbia. Friedman Course. Structure Neoclassical Economics 1939-40

In 1939-40 Milton Friedman taught the course Structure of Neo-classical Economics,  Columbia University Extension ub-171/172. The outline and reading assignments from this course were later used as a foundation for the earliest version of Friedman’s Price Theory, Economics 300A, taught in the Autumn Quarter of 1946 at the University of Chicago. In a later posting  and most recently we will see the obvious similarities but for now the following note found among the early Friedman papers for Economics 300A is sufficient to document that link.

Columbia University Extension
Course Outline
Course Reading Assignments

______________________________

­­­­­­­­­­

Tuesday

Dear Nerlove:

The only thing I have on the theory course is the attached outline of a course I gave at Columbia. I shall depart from this at numerous points but, for the moment at least, plan to follow its broad outlines.

I should appreciate it if you would return this when you’re through with it, since I have only one other copy.

[signed]

Milton Friedman

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 76, Folder 9 (Ec 300a)

Note: From the location of this note in the folder and the fact that the outline to which is being referred was indeed returned, the note is most likely from 1946. The econometrician Marc Nerlove (b. 1933) would have been too young to be the addressee. Perhaps this was addressed to his father Chicago Business School professor, Samuel Nerlove, or a much older sibling.

______________________________

Columbia University Extension Courses

“With the beginning of the academic year 1910-1911 the financial responsibility for the work of Extension Teaching, as the movement was then known, was assumed by the Trustees of Columbia University…the development of Extension Teaching may be said to be an outgrowth of the striking success of the Summer Session of the University. After ten years’ experience, the Summer Session had more than justified itself, and it was proposed to extend the operation of the principles which had been successful in the Summer Session so as to provide classes and laboratory work at the University, both in the evening and during the day, in other parts of the city, and in neighboring parts of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, for the benefit of those who were not able to avail themselves of the regular courses of instruction. In 1921, by act of the trustees, the title of Extension Teaching was changed to University Extension.”

______________________________

Outline of Course Given at Columbia by M. Friedman
Entitled “Structure of Neo-classical Economics”

A. Pricing of Final Goods [“Pricing of Final Goods Sold on Market” in original]

  1. The nature of economics; the concept of a free enterprise system; general outline of how free enterprise system solves economic problem.
  2. Momentary price
    1. Market demand for a product: demand curve, composite demand, joint demand, dealers’ [apostrophe placement as in original] demand, consumer’s [apostrophe placement as in original] demand
    2. [Momentary] Supply of a product: supply curve, effect of time
    3. Price as set by supply and demand
  3. The demand curve
    1. General
      1. Elasticity of demand
      2. Assumptions underlying demand schedule
      3. Generalization of mathematical school
      4. Statistical demand curves: from time series; from spatial data; [“Engel curves” crossed out in original] cobweb theorem
    2. Demand curve of an individual consumer
      1. Utility analysis
      2. Difficulties with utility analysis
      3. Indifference curve analysis
      4. Difficulties with indifference curve analysis
    3. Demand curve for the product of an individual firm [“Demand curve for the product of an individual producer” in original]
      1. Competitive vs. monopolistic
      2. Relevance of anticipations
      3. Marginal revenue
    4. Short run supply
      1. Economics of individual firm
        1. [Crossed out in original “a. Production function. Law of diminishing returns”] Perfect competition: producer must decide what to produce, how to produce it, how much to produce
        2. Monopolistic conditions: producer must decide what to produce, how to produce it, price or how much to produce [In original last item reversed: “how much to produce or price”]
        3. Cost curves for individual firm
      2. Widespread importance of marginal concepts
      3. Relation of cost curves of individual firm to supply curve of industry under competition
      4. Different kinds of monopolistic conditions: monopolistic competition, oligopoly, duopoly
      5. Supply under monopolistic competition: impossibility of defining industry, or supply curve for industry; [following not in original] implications for practical usefulness of theory of monopolistic competition
      6. Law of diminishing returns
      7. Translation of physical law of diminishing returns into economic cost curves
      8. Statistical cost curves: how reconcile declining marginal cost curves with theoretical expectations? [Original: “Statistical cost curves: how can declining marginal cost curves be reconciled with theory?”]
    5. Long run supply
      1. Implications of linear homogeneous production function: constant costs
      2. Effect of indivisibilities and discontinuities
      3. Pecuniary factors making for decreasing or increasing cost[s]
      4. Internal and external economies of scale
      5. Social and private economies and diseconomies of scale

[Crossed out “6. Joint Demand and Supply (Transition to Distribution)

1. Joint demand and supply; derived demand
2. Distribution theory if factors must be used in fixed proportions”]

B. Distribution Theory

  1. General: pricing of factors special case of theory of market price [“market” added]
  2. Demand for factors of production
    1. Marginal productivity determines demand by individual firm
    2. Relation between demand by individual firm and demand for factor
    3. Determinants of marginal productivity
    4. Ethical implications of marginal productivity theory: does it justify existing distribution of income? Meaning of exploitation
    5. Relation of marginal productivity analysis to cost curve analysis
      1. Alternative ways of explaining equilibrium of individual firm
      2. Translation of marginal productivity curves into cost curves [Original: “Relation of cost curves to marginal productivity curves”]
      3. Influence of [“changing” in original] number of firms
    6. Monopsony: impossibility of defining demand curve for factor
  3. Supply of labor
    1. Short run
    2. Long run
  4. Wages in different occupations
    1. Equalizing differences
    2. Non-competing groups
    3. Frictional differences [“3. Frictional differences” was added.]
  5. Capital theory
    1. Why marginal productivity analysis not applicable to determination of interest rate [“to determination of interest rate” was added]
    2. Alternative approaches adopted to explain demand curve
      1. Time preference
      2. Time period of production
      3. Knight’s simultaneous equation
      4. Keynes’ marginal efficiency of capital [“of capital” was added]
      5. Comparison of Keynes and Knight [Ordering in original: “Knight and Keynes”]
    3. Supply of capital
      1. Sources of capital
      2. Difficulties in defining capital, in measuring and defining savings [“in defining capital,” not in original]
      3. Relation of savings to rate of interest
    4. Relation between functional distribution of income and personal distribution.

C. General Equilibrium

  1. Concept of interdependence: direct and indirect effects [“direct and indirect effects” not in original]
  2. Walrasian equations of general equilibrium

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 75, Folder 1 “Columbia University” for carbon copies of the typed outline. “Original” refers to Friedman’s handwritten draft found in Box 75, Folder 12.

_________________________________

The following list of assignments for Friedman’s course Structure of Neo-classical Economics was taken from a poor carbon copy with Friedman’s handwritten revisions, e.g. the new title would read “Assignments in course given at Columbia by M. Friedman entitled ‘Structure of Neo-classical Economics’”. Also the sections of suggested readings for mathematicians and in mathematics in the Columbia version were apparently intended to be omitted in the later version. We have Friedman’s handwritten notes for the dates of assignments. Lectures (for which typed student notes are available) are designated below with an asterisk (*). These incomplete student notes are misfiled in Hoover Institution Archives,Milton Friedman Papers, Box 75, Folder 12 “University of Minnesota, B.A. 102”. There is a later typed alternate version of this assignment list with a few handwritten additions that I have included below in curved brackets {}.

_________________________________

{Wallis and Friedman—Indifference Curves
Knight—Functions}

Assignments in Economics ub-171-2 [1939-40]
“Structure of Neo-classical Economics”

Instructor: Milton Friedman

(listed in order in which assigned)

First Semester

[Sept 28*:] Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, Book III, ch. 2, 3, 4; Book V, ch. 1, 2

[Oct 5*:] Henry Schultz, The Meaning of Statistical Demand Curves, pp. 1-10

{§§5,6,7,8,III, ch 4. Add Marshall Bk III, ch 5 }

E.J. Working, “What do Statistical ‘Demand Curves’ Show?”, Q. J. E. Vol. XLI (1927), pp. 212-27

Frank H. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, ch. 3.

Frederic Benham, Economics, pp. 89-100

Suggested

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, pp. 11-37

Suggested readings for mathematicians

O. Lange, “On the Determinateness of the Utility Function”, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. I (1933-34), p. 218ff.

R. G. D. Allen, “The Nature of Indifference Curves”, Ibid., p. 110ff

Suggested reading in mathematics

R. G. D. Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists, ch. 2, §§ 2.1, 2.2 (pp. 28-36), §2.9 (pp. 54-56); ch. 4, ch. 5, pp. 107-14; ch. 6, Sec. 6.1-6.3 (pp. 134-40), 6.5-6.6 (pp. 143-9), Balance of Chapter 5 also pertinent.

[October 12*: “Assignment: Think over paragraph below. What does it mean? Is it true. Write paragraph or two discussing it.

“Since elasticity measures variations in quantity (demanded or offered) divided by variations in price, the elasticity of demand for anything will be seven times as large for seven similar demanders as it is for one.” A. C. Pigou, A Study in Public Finance, p. 207.”

October 19*. Elasticity of Demand.
October 26*. Usefulness of Elasticity of Demand. Implicit assumptions underlying the demand curve.]

Marshall, Book V, ch. 3, 4, 5, 12, Appendix H

[November 2*. Estimating demand curves. Data difficulties.
November 9*. Problem of the Demand Curve of the Individual Consumer.
November 16*: rest of list for first semester is distributed]

A. L. Meyers, Elements of Modern Economics, ch. 5 (pp. 46-62); 7,8,9 (pp. 83-124)

Joan Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, ch. 2 (pp. 26-43)

J. M. Clark, The Economics of Overhead Cost, ch. 9 (pp. 175-203)

Jacob Viner, “Cost Curves and Supply Curves”, Zeitschrift fuer National oekonomie, Bd. III (Sept., 1931), pp. 23-46

Edward Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 3, sec. 1 (pp. 30-32); 4,5,6 (46-55); ch. 5 (71-116)

M. Abramovitz, “Monopolistic Selling in a Changing Economy”, Q. J. E. , Feb., 1938, pp. 191-214

R. F. Harrod, “Doctrines of Imperfect Competition”, Q. J. E., May, 1934, sec. I, pp. 442-61

[November 23 (Thanksgiving)
November 30
December 7
December 14
December 21 (probably not held)
January 5. Lecture No. 12.
January 12
January 19
Exam Jan 26]

Second Semester

Marshall, {handwritten addition: Book IV, ch. 1, 2, 3} Book V, ch. 6

J.B. Clark, The Distribution of Wealth, Preface, ch. 1, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 23

John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, ch. 14

J. R. Hicks, The Theory of Wages, ch. 1-6

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, ch. 10

Marshall, Book VI, ch. 1-5

Simon Kuznets and Milton Friedman, “Incomes from Independent Professional Practice”, Bulletin 72-3, National Bureau of Economic Research, section 5, appendix
{handwritten addition: Preface V to X; ch. 3, Sec 3 (pp. 81-95; ch. 4, Sec 2, pp. 118-137; Appendix Sec 1, 3, pp. 142-151 and 155-161}

F. H. Knight, “Interest”, in Encyclopoedia of the Social Sciences, also in Ethics of Competition

J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, ch. 11-14

Gustav Cassell, Fundamental Thoughts in Economics, ch. 1, 2, 3

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 76, Folder 1 “Columbia University” for carbon copies of the typed outline. “Original” refers to Friedman’s handwritten draft and reading assignments (both carbon copy and hand-written) found in Box 75, Folder 12.

Image Source: Columbia University, Columbia 250 Celebrates Columbians Ahead of Their Time.

Categories
Courses Johns Hopkins Syllabus

Johns Hopkins. Courses. 1881-82

Ely’s course History of Political Economy, met twice weekly Tuesday and Friday 4 P.M. and had 26 students enrolled during the first half-year. According to the class roll (Johns Hopkins University Circulars, No. 12, December 1881, p. 157), Thorstein B. Veblen attended the class.

______________________________

COURSES IN HISTORY, INTERNATIONAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY, 1881-82.

[…]

SIMON NEWCOMB, LL.D., of Washington, will give a short course of lectures upon Political Economy, with special reference to the subject of Taxation.

HON. JOHN J. KNOX, of Washington, Comptroller of the Currency, will give three lectures upon Finance, with especial consideration of the National System of Banking, November 10–17.

RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D. [Heidelberg, 1879], will give a course of twenty class lectures on the History of Political Economy, beginning Friday, October 14, at 4 P. M., and continuing on successive Tuesdays and Fridays at the same hour.

The lectures will be given in Room 1, 193 North Eutaw Street. It is designed in this course of lectures to describe the teachings of leading political economists from the time of the mercantilists up to the present. The origin of the various economic schools and their relations will be explained. The sources of economic knowledge and the methods of work will be pointed out, and topics for original investigation suggested. The writing of essays on assigned topics will be expected from the advanced students in the class.

ORDER OF TOPICS.

Introductory. Utility of the Historical Method. Discussion of the Questions: What is Political Economy? What has it accomplished?

Mercantilists. Commerce. Balance of Trade.

Physiocrats. Agriculture the Sole Source of Wealth.

Adam Smith. Recognition of Manufacturing Industry as also a Source of Wealth; hence the name Industrial System.

Adam Smith’s Followers: A. The Development of Pessimistic Tendencies, (a) Malthus, (b) Ricardo, (c) Mill; B. The Optimists, (a) Bastiat, (b) Carey.

The Opponents of Adam Smith. National Economy. Ad. Muller, Fr. List, Carey and others.

Communism.

Socialism. A. Social Democracy. B. Professorial Socialism

The Present Condition of Political Economy; (a) in France, (b) in Germany, (c) in England, (d) in America and elsewhere.

Review of the Field and Conclusion.

P. B. MARCOU, A. M., will conduct a special historical course, two hours weekly during the first half-year, in the Modern French Socialists. A knowledge of French is requisite for those pursuing this course.

______________________________

Source:  Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. No.12, December, 1881, p. 162.

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard Economics. Course. Graduate Theory. Schumpeter. 1935-36

 

 

The graduate economic theory course, Economics 11, was taught by Schumpeter for both semesters of the academic year 1935-36. According to Schumpeter’s own handwritten list of students and grades for that course, Paul Samuelson received a grade of A+ and represented the local maximum of the “Ec 11 boys, graduates”.

1935_6_Ec11_SchumpeterGrades

____________________

Because the “cost controversy” was discussed during the first term of the academic year 1935-36 (one can gleam a glimpse of content from Schumpeter’s course notes from random names and words not written in his shorthand) I append here the corresponding readings assigned for the second term of the the academic year 1934-35.  Note that Pigovian welfare economics appears to have been covered some time during the second term of the academic year 1935-36, see the exam below.

____________________

The Laws of Cost and Returns. Probably three or four weeks. It is proposed to deal fully with the so-called “cost controversy”, a series of more or less closely connected articles which appeared in the Economic Journal from 1922 to 1932. The following is a list of the articles in the order of their appearance. Students will not be held responsible for those included in brackets, some of which are connected only remotely with the main controversy. 1) “On Empty Economic Boxes”, J. H. Clapham, Sept. 1922; “Empty Economic Boxes: a Reply”, A.C. Pigou, Dec. 1922; “Those Empty Boxes”, D. H. Robertson, March, 1924; “The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions”, P. Sraffa, Dec. 1926; [“The Laws of Diminishing and Increasing Costs”, A.C. Pigou, June 1927]; [“An Analysis of Supply”, A. C. Pigou; June 1928]; “Varying Costs and Marginal Net Products”, G. F. Shove, June 1928; [“The Instability of Capitalism”, J.A. Schumpeter, Sept. 1928;] [“The Representative Firm”, L.C. Robbins, Sept. 1928]; “Increasing Returns and Economic Progress”, A.A. Young, Dec. 1928; “Increasing Returns and the Representative Firm: a Symposium”, D.H. Robertson, G.F. Shove, and P. Sraffa, March 1930. The following two articles by R.F. Harrod are in effect a continuation of the “cost controversy”, but they will be considered later in connection with the discussion of imperfect competition: “Notes on Supply”, June 1930; and “The Law of Decreasing Cost”, Dec. 1931.

Source: Harvard University Archives,  HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: Ec11 Fall 1935.

____________________

Economics 11 [First term]

            Following is a list of some of the most important works in English dealing with problems outside the range of perfect competition. They are not all assigned, but assigned reading is taken altogether from this list.

Pigou, A. C., Economics of Welfare, 3rd Edition.
Chamberlin, E. H., The Theory of Monopolistic Competition.
Chamberlin, E. H., On Imperfect Competition, in the March, 1934 Supplement of The American Economic Review, pp. 23-27.
Robinson, Joan, Economics of Imperfect Competition.
Robinson, Joan, What is Perfect Competition, Q. J. E., Nov. 1934.
Zeuthen, F., Problems of Monopoly and Economic Warfare.
Cournot, A. A., Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth.
Edgeworth, F. Y., The Pure Theory of Monopoly (Papers, Vol. I)
Hotelling, Harold, Stability in Competition, E. J., March 1929.
Shove, G. F., The Imperfection of the Market, E. J., March 1933.
Harrod, R. F., Doctrines of Imperfect Competition, Q. J. E., May 1934.
Hicks, J. R., The Theory of Monopoly, Econometrica, Jan. 1935.

The subjects, in the order in which they will be taken up, together with the assigned reading, are given below.

I. The Technique and the Background.
Pigou, Part II, Ch. XIV.
Robinson, Chs. 1, 2.
Chamberlin, Chs. 1, 2.		 V. Monopolistic Competition
Chamberlin, Chs. 4, 5, 6, 7.
Robinson, Ch. 7. Q.J.E., Nov. ‘34
Shove, E.J., March ’33.
Harrod, Q.J.E., May ’34.
II. Simple Monopoly.
Pigou, Part II, Ch. XVI.
Robinson, Chs. 3, 4, 5.		 VI. Discrimination.
Pigou, Chs. XVII, XVIII (Part II).
Robinson, Chs. 15, 16.
III. Duopoly and Oligopoly
Pigou, Part II, Ch. XV.
Chamberlin, Ch. 3.		 VII. Imperfect Competition and the Theory of Distribution.
Chamberlin, in March ’34 A.E.R. Supplement.
IV. Bilateral Monopoly.(To be discussed in class)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives,  HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: Ec11 Fall 1935.

____________________

1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11

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

  1. Discuss the concepts “internal economies” and “spreading of overhead” and explain what, if any, relations exist between the two.
  2. What do we mean by Production Function? Discuss its principal properties, and state why and for what purpose we need this instrument of analysis.
  3. “Wherever products are differentiated, the theory of monopoly seems adequately to describe their prices. Competition is not eliminated from the explanation; it is fully taken into account by the recognition that substitutes affect the elasticity of demand for each monopolist’s product.” Do you agree? Justify your answer.
  4. “Under imperfect competition, in conditions of full long period equilibrium, it is not only true that average costs for the individual firm may be falling; they must be falling.” Discuss. Does this necessarily imply falling supply price?
  5. Assume that a commodity is offered by two sellers. Disregard costs. Describe the courses of action open to the two sellers, and discuss the conditions of the case in which price and quantity sold are uniquely determined. Show that in this case price will as a rule be higher than under perfect competition and lower than under monopoly.
  6. In his 1926 article, Sraffa says, “It is necessary to abandon the path of free competition and turn in the opposite direction, namely, towards monopoly.” Discuss the considerations which led him to adopt this view.
  7. Discuss price and output under discriminating monopoly.
  8. State and discuss the principle involved in “Hotelling’s case.”
  9. “The economist has shown that, granted certain assumptions, a set of prices exists which, if established from the beginning, would produce a state of equilibrium; he has never demonstrated, however, that forces are at work which would tend to establish such a system of prices.” Discuss.

Mid-Year. 1936.

Source: Harvard University Archives,  HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: Ec11 Fall 1935.

____________________

ECONOMICS 11 [Second term]

            The first four or five weeks of the second term will be devoted to a study of distribution, with special emphasis on the theory of wages. Topics to be covered include (1) marginal productivity, (2) the elasticity of substitution, and (3) opportunity costs. The following is a list of reading.

  1. Marginal Productivity and the Theory of Wages
    1. Marshall, Bk. VI, especially Ch. I.
    2. Hicks, J. R., “The Theory of Wages”, Chs. I and VI.
    3. ——-, Marginal Productivity and the Principle of Variation,” Economica, Feb., 1932.
    4. Schultz, Henry and Hicks, J. R., “Marginal Productivity and the Lausanne School: A Reply” and “A Rejoinder”, Economica, Aug., 1932.
    5. Clark, J. B., “The Distribution of Wealth”, Ch. VIII.
    6. Robertson, D. H., “Wage Grumbles” in the volume of essays entitled Economic Fragments.
  2. Elasticity of Substitution
    1. Hicks, Ch. VI (Cf. above).
      (mathematical treatment in Appendix for those who prefer)
    2. Machlup, Fritz, “The Common Sense of the Elasticity of Substitution”, Review of Economic Studies, June, 1935.
    3. Also notes and articles on substitution in Review of Economic Studies, Vol. I, nos. 1 and 2, though not required reading, may be consulted.
  3. Opportunity Costs.
    1. Green, D.I., “Pain Cost and Opportunity Cost”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1894.
    2. Davenport, H.J. , “Economics of Enterprise”, Ch. VI.
    3. Knight, F.H., “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Statement of the General Theory of Price”, Journal of Political Economy, 1928.

Source: Harvard University Archives,  HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: Ec11 1935-36.

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ECONOMICS 11  [Second term]

            The next two or three weeks will be devoted to the discussion of capital and interest. A select bibliography and the assigned reading are listed below. The readings from Wicksell and Knight will probably not be covered in class and may, therefore, at pleasure be postponed until the reading period. As usual in this course there will be no additional reading period assignment.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Böhm-Bawerk, E., Capital and Interest (a history of interest theories); The Positive Theory of Capital (the third edition, available only in German, containing the polemical Excursi, is to be preferred to the English translation)
  2. Marx, Karl, Capital (especially Vol. I, Parts III and VII; Vol. II, Part III; Vol. III, Parts II and III)
  3. Wicksell, Knut, Über Wert, Kapital und Rente;  Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. I
  4. Fisher, Irving, The Rate of Interest (1907);  The Theory of Interest (1930) (a rewriting of the earlier work)
  5. Taussig, F.W., Wages and Capital
  6. Knight, F.H., “Interest”, article in The Encyc. of Soc. Science
  7. For a rather complete list of the numerous recent articles on capital, interest and the structure of production, Cf. Machlup, Fritz, “Professor Knight and the Period of Production”, Journal of Political Economy, 1935, first footnote.
  8. For an exposition of Böhm-Bawerk, Wicksell and the later work along the same lines done in Sweden, particularly by Gustav Akerman, Cf. Kirchmann, Hans, Studien zur Grenzproduktivitätstheorie des Kapitalzinses.

 

ASSIGNED READING

  1. Fisher, The Rate of Interest, Part I, Chs. 1,2,3; Part III, Ch. 10
  2. Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory, Book I, Ch. 2; Book II, Chs. 2,4,5; Book V, Chs. 1,2,3,4,5; Book VI, Chs. 5,6,7; Book VII, Chs. 1,2,3.
  3. Wicksell, Lectures, Vol. I, pp. 144-171; 185-195.
  4. Knight, “Professor Fisher’s Theory of Interest: a Case in Point”, Journal of Political Economy, April, 1931.

Source:  Harvard University Archives, HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: “Ec11 1935-36”

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[Given that Economic Welfare, the distinction between marginal social value and private net value product, and the national dividend show up in questions 5 and 6 in the final, I append here the corresponding readings assigned for the second term of the the academic year 1934-35]

Welfare and the National Dividend. Approximately two weeks. The discussion will turn around the following chapters from “The Economics of Welfare” by A.C. Pigou (3rd or 4th edition): Part I, Chapters 1,2,3,5,6,7,8; Part IV, Chapter 2; and Part II, Chapters 1,2,3,4,11. In the second edition the corresponding chapters from Part I are 1-7 inclusive and from Part II, 1,2,3,4,10. Chap. 10 Part II is completely revised in the third edition (where it appears as Chap. 11, Part II) and should if possible be read in the third.

Source:  Harvard University Archives, HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: “Ec11 Fall 1935”

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1935-36
Final Examination
Economics 11

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

  1. What is the relation between elasticity of substitution and elasticity of demand? Interpret the following statement: “If the demand price of capital increases as a result of a fall in wages, then the elasticity of demand for labor is greater than the elasticity of substitution.”
  2. How would you expect inventions to affect the rate of interest?
  3. Marginal productivity of labor is held to determine wages. How does this work out in the cases of perfect and of imperfect competition?
  4. State and discuss Boehm-Bawerk’s theory of interest.
  5. “If in all industries the values of marginal social and marginal private net product differed to exactly the same extent, the optimum distribution of resources [between their possible uses] would always be attained, and there would be, on these lines, no case for fiscal interference”. Discuss.
  6. Define Economic Welfare and National Dividend. Do you consider these two concepts to be serviceable instruments of economic analysis? Why or why not?

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives, HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter, Lecture Notes. Box 9, Folder: “Ec11 Fall 1935”

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Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard Syllabus

Harvard Economics. Course. Graduate Theory. Schumpeter. Spring 1935

The second semester of Economics 11 for the academic year 1934-35  was taught by Joseph Schumpeter after Frank W. Taussig taught the first semester.

Wolfgang Stolper’s notes for the course (Box 19, Notebook “Taussig Ec 11 Theory. 1934-35”) taken during the Spring Semester 1935 follow the printed reading lists given below that are undated in the folder marked “Ec11 Fall 1935” in Schumpeter’s papers.

_____________________

Economics 11

The following is a brief outline of what will be covered in the first four to six weeks of the second semester.

I. Welfare and the National Dividend. Approximately two weeks. The discussion will turn around the following chapters from “The Economics of Welfare” by A.C. Pigou (3rd or 4th edition): Part I, Chapters 1,2,3,5,6,7,8; Part IV, Chapter 2; and Part II, Chapters 1,2,3,4,11. In the second edition the corresponding chapters from Part I are 1-7 inclusive and from Part II, 1,2,3,4,10. Chap. 10 Part II is completely revised in the third edition (where it appears as Chap. 11, Part II) and should if possible be read in the third. The material from Part II leads to the second main topic, namely,

II. The Laws of Cost and Returns. Probably three or four weeks. It is proposed to deal fully with the so-called “cost controversy”, a series of more or less closely connected articles which appeared in the Economic Journal from 1922 to 1932. The following is a list of the articles in the order of their appearance. Students will not be held responsible for those included in brackets, some of which are connected only remotely with the main controversy. 1) “On Empty Economic Boxes”, J. H. Clapham, Sept. 1922; “Empty Economic Boxes: a Reply”, A.C. Pigou, Dec. 1922; “Those Empty Boxes”, D. H. Robertson, March, 1924; “The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions”, P. Sraffa, Dec. 1926; [“The Laws of Diminishing and Increasing Costs”, A.C. Pigou, June 1927]; [“An Analysis of Supply”, A. C. Pigou; June 1928]; “Varying Costs and Marginal Net Products”, G. F. Shove, June 1928; [“The Instability of Capitalism”, J.A. Schumpeter, Sept. 1928;] [“The Representative Firm”, L.C. Robbins, Sept. 1928]; “Increasing Returns and Economic Progress”, A.A. Young, Dec. 1928; “Increasing Returns and the Representative Firm: a Symposium”, D.H. Robertson, G.F. Shove, and P. Sraffa, March 1930. The following two articles by R.F. Harrod are in effect a continuation of the “cost controversy”, but they will be considered later in connection with the discussion of imperfect competition: “Notes on Supply”, June 1930; and “The Law of Decreasing Cost”, Dec. 1931.

_____________________

[There is a gap in reading lists between the laws of costs and production above and the discussion of imperfect competition and monopolistic competition below. The following three topics and readings are taken from the second term of the academic year 1935-36. According to Stolper’s notes (both from class and his reading notes), the topics and material were at least touched upon in the second term of the academic year 1934-35. Cf. the final exam questions below.]

 

  1. Marginal Productivity and the Theory of Wages
    1. Marshall, Bk. VI, especially Ch. I.
    2. Hicks, J. R., “The Theory of Wages”, Chs. I and VI.
    3. ——-, Marginal Productivity and the Principle of Variation,” Economica, Feb., 1932.
    4. Schultz, Henry and Hicks, J. R., “Marginal Productivity and the Lausanne School: A Reply” and “A Rejoinder”, Economica, Aug., 1932.
    5. Clark, J. B., “The Distribution of Wealth”, Ch. VIII.
    6. Robertson, D. H., “Wage Grumbles” in the volume of essays entitled Economic Fragments.
  2. Elasticity of Substitution
    1. Hicks, Ch. VI (Cf. above).
      (mathematical treatment in Appendix for those who prefer)
    2. Machlup, Fritz, “The Common Sense of the Elasticity of Substitution”, Review of Economic Studies, June, 1935.
    3. Also notes and articles on substitution in Review of Economic Studies, Vol. I, nos. 1 and 2, though not required reading, may be consulted.
  3. Opportunity Costs.
    1. Green, D.I., “Pain Cost and Opportunity Cost”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1894.
    2. Davenport, H.J. , “Economics of Enterprise”, Ch. VI.
    3. Knight, F.H., “A Suggestion for Simplifying the Statement of the General Theory of Price”, Journal of Political Economy, 1928.

Source: Harvard University Archives, HUC (FP) – 4.62. Joseph Schumpeter Lecture Notes, Box 9, Folder “Ec11 1935-36”.

_____________________

Economics 11

Following is a list of some of the most important works in English dealing with problems outside the range of perfect competition. They are not all assigned, but assigned reading is taken altogether from this list.

Pigou, A. C., Economics of Welfare, 3rd Edition.
Chamberlin, E. H., The Theory of Monopolistic Competition.
Chamberlin, E. H., On Imperfect Competition, in the March, 1934 Supplement of The American Economic Review, pp. 23-27.
Robinson, Joan, Economics of Imperfect Competition.
Robinson, Joan, What is Perfect Competition, Q. J. E., Nov. 1934.
Zeuthen, F., Problems of Monopoly and Economic Warfare.
Cournot, A. A., Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth.
Edgeworth, F. Y., The Pure Theory of Monopoly (Papers, Vol. I)
Hotelling, Harold, Stability in Competition, E. J., March 1929.
Shove, G. F., The Imperfection of the Market, E. J., March 1933.
Harrod, R. F., Doctrines of Imperfect Competition, Q. J. E., May 1934.
Hicks, J. R., The Theory of Monopoly, Econometrica, Jan. 1935.

The subjects, in the order in which they will be taken up, together with the assigned reading, are given below.

I. The Technique and the Background.Pigou, Part II, Ch. XIV.
Robinson, Chs. 1, 2.
Chamberlin, Chs. 1, 2.		 V. Monopolistic CompetitionChamberlin, Chs. 4, 5, 6, 7.
Robinson, Ch. 7. Q.J.E., Nov. ‘34
Shove, E.J., March ’33.
Harrod, Q.J.E., May ’34.
II. Simple Monopoly.Pigou, Part II, Ch. XVI.
Robinson, Chs. 3, 4, 5.		 VI. Discrimination.Pigou, Chs. XVII, XVIII (Part II).
Robinson, Chs. 15, 16.
III. Duopoly and OligopolyPigou, Part II, Ch. XV.
Chamberlin, Ch. 3.		 VII. Imperfect Competition and the Theory of Distribution.Chamberlin, in March ’34 A.E.R. Supplement.
IV. Bilateral Monopoly.(To be discussed in class)  

_____________________

1934-35
Harvard University
ECONOMICS 11

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

  1. State the principle of Pigou’s method of measuring the National Dividend, and explain the relation of variations in the National Dividend, as thus measured, to “Welfare.”
  2. “What the production of any commodity costs to society or any individual, is the satisfaction which could have been derived from producing something else with the same means of production.” What do you think of this proposition?
  3. Explain briefly what is meant by
    (a) Elasticity of demand,
    (b) Elasticity of substitution,
    (c) Marginal revenue,
    (d) Bilateral monopoly,
    (e) Perfect competition.
  4. State the three theorems, which together constitute the “theory of marginal productivity” and show what, if anything, corresponds to each of them in the case of imperfect competition.
  5. “Monopolistic competition implies oligopoly and could not exist without it.” Do you agree?
  6. Define discrimination, and formulate the condition which must be fulfilled in order to maximize the discriminating monopolists profit. Do you think that the monopolists output will be greater or less than it would be without discrimination?

Final. 1935.

No. 55

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Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC (FP)–4.62. Joseph Schumpeter Lecture Notes, Box 6. Folder “Ec 11, Fall 1935”.

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard Syllabus

Harvard Economics. Course. Graduate Economic Theory. Taussig. 1934-5

Frank W. Taussig’s last time teaching the graduate theory course, Economics 11, was  in the Fall Semester of 1934. Joseph Schumpeter took over the second half of the course for the Spring Semester of 1935. In Schumpeter’s papers are 3 pages of Taussig’s handwritten notes and carbon copies of reading lists. Note: the folder where the material is found is labelled “Ec 11 Fall 1935” but material from 1934-35 is in it as well.

 

ECONOMICS 11, FALL SEMESTER 1934

_________________

[handwritten notes by F. W. Taussig, cf. initials in letter June 9, 1914 to Hunnewell in Lowell Papers, Box 14 Folder 403]

Economics 11 — 1934-35

Topics taken up by F.W.T. [Taussig], in order

  1. Ricardo, Mill—Theory of Value + Distribution
  2. “Labor Theory” as modified by non-competing Groups + Social Stratification
  3. Temporary Equil of S. + D.—inflow of goods to market from an existing stock
  4. Equil. of S. + D. for longer period.
    a) Marshall 2nd period—inflow from existing plant
    b)      “           3rd period—inflow from changing plant
  5. External + Internal Economies—M’s [Marshall’s] 4th period
  6. Quasi-Rent
    Agricultural + Urban Rent
  7. Profits
  8. Clark—B.B. [Böhm-Bawerk]
  9. Consumer’s Surplus.

Topics not taken up

Theory of Monopoly Price
Austrian Theory of Value

_________________

[handwritten notes by F. W. Taussig]

(1

Ec 11 — ‘34-35

I

Ricardo, chs I Value (omitting the discussion of Adam Smith)

“    II Rent,   III Rent of Mines
“    IV
“    V Wages
“    VI Profits

Mill, Bk III chs I, III[,] IV

(Value, omitting ch II, which was considered later in connection with Marshall)

Mill   Bk II, ch. XVI ; Bk I, ch. XII (Rent)

“      Bk II, ch XI ; XIII, §§3-4 Wages
“      Bk II, ch XV ;   Profits
“      Bk IV, chs IV[,] V, VI ; Profits to a minimum

_________________

[handwritten notes by F. W. Taussig]

(2

Reading List—Econ 11 — 1934-35

Non-competing Groups + Labor Theory of Value

Cairnes[,] Leading Principles.  P+I, ch. III

Mill[,] Bk II, ch XIV (Differences of wages), cf. Adam Smith, Bk I, ch. X

Taussig, Principles, ch 47, 48

Marshall, Book VI chs IV, V;  Book IV, ch 6

Cf. Marshall second edition,  Bk VI, ch I, §3 (p. 557-558)

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[handwritten addition] 3)

[Typed table of readings that is nearly identical to Wolfgang Stolper’s hand-written reading list in his course notes from the Fall Semester 1934. Cf. Duke University, Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Wolfgang F. Stolper Papers, Box 19, Notebook: Taussig Ec 11 Theory, 1934-35]

Economics 11
1934-35

Demand,
Market
Value		 Mill, Book III, chs. 1, 2.
Marshall, Book III, ch. 3; Book V, chs. 1, 2.
Taussig, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1921
Normal
Value		 Mill, Book III, chs. 3, 4.
Marshall, Book V, chs. 3, 4, 5.
Viner, Zeitschrift f. Nationaloekonomie, Sept. 1931, vol. I
Taussig, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1919.
Marshall, Appendix H
Quasi
Rent		 Marshall, Book V, ch. 8; Book V, ch. 9.
Fetter, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1901 (vol. 15).
Increasing
Returns		 Marshall, Book V, ch. 12; Book IV, ch. 9, §7; ch. 10, 13.
Agricultural
Rent,
Urban Rent		 Marshall, Book IV, chs. 2, 3; Book V, ch. 10, (omit §§4, 5); Book VI, ch. 9; Book V, ch. 11.
Ely, Outlines, 5th ed., ch. 22.
Profits Mill, Book II, ch. 15.
Marshall, Book IV, chs. 12, 13; Book VI, chs. 7, 8.
Knight, “Risk, Uncertainty and Profits”, chs. 9, 10.
Ely, Outlines, ch. 24.L.
Robbins, The Representative Firm, Economic Journal (1928)
[handwritten addition] Marshall Bk V, ch. 10 §2 (settlers in a new country); Bk VI, ch V, §7 (rare natural abilities)
[handwritten addition] Schumpeter—Theory of Ec. Development ch. IV

_________________

[Typed carbon list]

[handwritten addition] 4)

Economics 11
1934-35
Reading

I

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital

Book II, chs. 1, 2, 4, 6
Book V, chs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Book VI, chs. 1 (pp. 285-286), 2, 4, 5, 6
Book VII, chs. 1, 2, 5

II

Clark, Distribution of Wealth

chs. 6, 7, 8, 9, 20
chs. 11, 12, 13, 21

Marshall, Book IV, ch. 7 (“The Growth of Wealth”—Capital, Saving etc); Book VI, chs. 1, 2

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[Final Exam Economics 11, Fall Semester 1934]

1934-35
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11

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

  1. “Suppose that society is divided into a number of horizontal grades, each of which is recruited from the children of its own members; and each of which has its own standard of comfort, and increases in numbers rapidly when the earnings to be got in it rise above, and shrinks rapidly when they fall below that standard. Suppose, then, that parents can bring up their children to any trade in their own grade, but cannot easily raise them above it and will not consent to sink them below it….”

Suppose also that there is free competition as regards the earnings of capital.

On these suppositions what would be the relation between

(a) the values of commodities and their “real cost”
(b) the values of commodities and their money costs;
(c) the values of commodities and their supply prices?

  1. “Internal economies of large-scale production are primarily a long-run phenomenon, dependent upon appropriate adjustment of scale of plant to each successive output. They should not be confused with the economies resulting from ‘spreading of overhead.’” Why or why not to be thus confused?

“Internal economies of large-scale production are independent of the size of output of the industry as a whole, and may be accruing to a particular concern whose output is increasing at the same time that the output of the industry as a whole is undergoing a decline.” Why or why not?

  1. Does quasi-rent have the same meaning in the following passages?

(a) “The quasi-rent of farm-buildings.”
(b) “When the artisan or professional man has once obtained the skill required for his work, a part of his earnings are for the future really a quasi-rent of the capital and labor invested in fitting him for his work, in obtaining his start in life, his business connections, and generally his opportunity for turning his faculties to good account; and only the remainder of his income is true earnings of effort. But this remainder is generally a large part of the whole. And here lies the contrast. For when a similar analysis is made of the profits of the business man, the proportions are found to be different; in his case the greater part is quasi-rent.”
(c) “In relation to normal value the earnings of high ability are to one regarded as a quasi-rent rather than as a rent proper.”

  1. Is it fatal to the conception of consumers’ surplus to admit:

(a) that differences in income make it impossible to measure satisfactions;
(b) that each unit of a homogeneous supply yields ipso facto the same satisfaction as every other unit;
(c) that the satisfaction indicated by the high price paid for an article having “prestige value” will disappear when the article becomes cheap

  1. Does “capital,” as distinguished from “capital goods,” serve to synchronize the effort of labor with the reward for labor? If so, how? If not, why not?
  1. Explain the distinctions

(a) between the intensive and the extensive margins of cultivation for land;
(b) the intensive and the extensive zones of indifference in the application of labor;
(c) the marginal product of labor and the product of marginal labor.

State summarily your opinion of the usefulness of the distinctions as tools of analysis.

Mid-Year. 1935.

No. 37

Source: Harvard University Archives. Joseph Schumpeter Papers. HUC (FP) – 4.62
Box 9 (Lecture Notes), Folder “Ec11 Fall 1935”.

Categories
Courses Harvard Socialism Syllabus

Harvard Economics. Course. Economics of Socialism. Sweezy. 1940

The course “Economics of Socialism” (Economics 11b) was taught during the Spring Semester 1940 by Dr. Paul M. Sweezy. According to the Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1939-40 (p. 99), sixty students were enrolled:  20 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 6 Sophomores and 9  out-of-course candidates for the Bachelor’s degree.

For biographical detail about Paul Sweezy, take to the following link at the Monthly Review website for the Memorial Service for Paul Marlor Sweezy (1910-2004) by John Bellamy Foster (Feb 27, 2004).

Addition April 18, 2017:  Final Examination for Sweezy’s course “Economics of Socialism” in 1940.

Fun Fact:  John F. Kennedy took this course in the second semester of his senior year according to the copy of his Harvard College record at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

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ECONOMICS 11b
1939-40

 

Outline and Assignments—First Eight Weeks

The first eight weeks (to spring recess) will be devoted to the socialist critique of capitalist economy. The last four weeks will be devoted to the problems of socialist economy. This sheet covers only the first eight weeks.

Assigned readings are taken from the following works:

  1. Böhm-Bawerk, E. v., Karl Marx and the Close of his System
  1. Burns, Emile, Handbook of Marxism.
  1. Dobb, Maurice, Political Economy and Capitalism.
  1. Lenin, V. I., Imperialism.
  1. Lenin, V. I., State and Revolution.
  1. Marx, Karl, Capital, Vols. I and III.
  1. Marx, Karl, Value, Price and Profit.
  1. Lange, Oskar, “Marxian Economics and Modern Economic Theory,” Review of Economic Studies, June 1935.

In addition to the assigned reading every student will be expected to submit before the spring recess a report of about 1500 words on one of the following books:

  1. Cole, G. D. H., Life of Robert Owen.
  1. Foster, W. Z., From Bryan to Stalin.
  1. Fox, Ralph, Lenin: a Biography.
  1. Freeman, Joseph, An American Testament.
  1. Hicks, Granville, John Reed, the Making of a Revolutionary.
  1. Hillquit, Morris, Loose Leaves from a Busy Life.
  1. Mayer, Gustav, Friedrich Engels: a Biography.
  1. Mehring, Franz, Karl Marx: the Story of his Life.
  1. Trotsky, Leon, My Life: an Attempt at an Autobiography.
  1. Weir, L.M., The Tragedy of Ramsey Macdonald.

____________________

Outline and Assignments

FIRST WEEK. Marx and Engels; dialectical materialism and historical materialism; classical economics.

Burns, Handbook of Marxism, Chs. I, XIII, XIV, XX.

Ricardo, Principles, Ch. I (Sections I-V inclusive).

SECOND AND THIRD WEEKS. Commodities; the law of value; suplus value; accumulation; the reserve army of labor.

Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Ch. I (sections 1, 4).

Marx, Value, Price and Profit.

Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Ch. XXIII; Ch. XXIV (sections 1, 2 3); Ch. XXV.

FOURTH WEEK. Law of the falling tendency of the rate of profit; crises.

Marx, Capital, Vol. III, Part III.

Dobb, Political Economy and Capitalism, Ch. IV.

FIFTH WEEK. Value calculation and price calculation.

Marx, Capital, Vol. III, Chs. VIII, IX.

Böhm-Bawerk, Karl Marx and the Close of his System, Chs. II, III.

SIXTH WEEK. Theory of Social Classes and the State.

Lenin, State and Revolution.

SEVENTH WEEK. Monopoly and the Theory of Imperialism.

Lenin, Imperialism.

Dobb, Political Economy and Capitalism, Ch. VII.

Lange, “Marxian Economics and Modern Economic Theory.”

EIGHT WEEK. Review.

Book reports due. No additional assignment.

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ECONOMICS 11b
1939-40

Outline and Assignments—Last Four Weeks and Reading Period

Assigned readings are taken from the following works:

  1. Dickinson, H. D., Economics of Socialism (1939).
  1. Pigou, A. C., Socialism vs. Capitalism (1937).
  1. Lange, Oskar and Taylor, F. M., On the Economic Theory of Socialism (1938).

NINTH WEEK (April 7-13). Historical sketch of the economics of a socialist society; demand and cost in a socialist economy.

Dickinson, Economics of Socialism, pp. 24-98.

TENTH WEEK (April 14-20). Prices and incomes in a socialist economy.

Dickinson, Economics of Socialism, pp. 98-166.

ELEVENTH WEEK (April 21-27). Special problems of a socialist economy.

Dickinson, Economics of Socialism, pp. 166-226.

TWELFTH WEEK (April 28-May 4). Income distribution in socialist theory and practice.

Assignment to be announced.

 

READING PERIOD

Read both:

1. Pigou, Socialism vs. Capitalism.

2. Lange and Taylor, On the Economic Theory of Socialism. pp. 55-142.

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Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. HUC 8522.2.1. Box 2, Folder (1939-1940, No. 1).