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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Teaching Undergraduate

Harvard. Course Outline, Reading Assignments, Semester Exams. Principles of economics. Smithies, 1951-52

The self-confidence of the businessmen appointed to Harvard’s economics department visiting committee at mid-20th-century to weigh-in on all matters related to the scope and method of economics as a science and policy art is breath-taking, and I don’t mean that in a good way. For an earlier post I transcribed the November 1950 report submitted by the visiting committee and the January 1952 response from Harvard President James B. Conant. Reading Keller and Keller’s Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America’s University (2001), I learned that Clarence B. Randall [Chairman of the Economics Visiting Committee] alleged that the economics chairman, Arthur Smithies, ripped off the first page of the syllabus for the principles of economics course to hide the list of main sources of readings for the course, knowing that some of the items would displease Randall.

This was enough to get me to look at the syllabus with assigned readings and the final examinations for Economics 1 “Principles of Economics” for the academic year 1951-52 now transcribed for this post. The first page of the syllabus appears to simply be tables of primary sources for the readings assigned in the fall and spring terms that permit abbreviated reference in the course syllabus. But since he was given the complete list of readings and an outline of the course, I find it more likely that Randall merely saw a tempest in a teapot. Others can examine the artifacts themselves and come to their own conclusions.

If I were in the jury, I would vote to acquit Smithies of the charge of willfully destroying or hiding evidence known to be relevant. Any idiot could figure out Karl Marx made a guest appearance in the Harvard course readings from the course outline and its reading assignments. Smithies provided sufficient evidence as to course content to Randall. Actually I think Smithies should have been awarded damages for having his honor impugned, or even a Purple Heart. Suffering fools has always been a part of the price of departmental service.

__________________________

Cf. An earlier version of the Syllabus for “Principles of Economics”

1949-50.  Economics 1 outline and exams.

__________________________

Smithies’ letter of Oct 31, 1951 to Randall

October 31, 1951

Mr. Clarence B. Randall
38 South Dearborn Street
Chicago 3, Illinois

Dear Mr. Randall:

I was very glad to get your letter and I do wish we had more opportunities to sit down to discuss the affairs of the Department in a more leisurely manner than is usually possible.

We have given a great deal of thought during the fall to the questions about the Department that you have raised with the President. I am afraid it might confuse things if I attempted to discuss those questions by letter so I shall forebear. I would like to say, however, that whether or not I agree with your conclusions I have always found your criticisms of the Department very helpful.

Dave Bailey called and asked us to keep Sunday evening, January thirteenth, free for a meeting with the committee. As you know, I do not think these single evening meetings serve any very useful purpose. They do not enable the Committee to talk at any length with members of the Department or to make any adequate appraisal of the Department’s program. Several members of the Committee have told me that oven the full day we devoted to the purpose last year was too short. Several members of the Department have also indicated to me that they feel that the Sunday evening meeting is to [sic] perfunctory. Therefore, I very much hope we can arrange another program of the kind we had last year.

Things seem to be going quite satisfactorily here. The enrollment has not shrunk to anything like the extent that was anticipated last spring.

This year we have extended tutorial to sophomores in Group III and above so that we have now practically restored the tutorial system that was eliminated during the war.

I am sending you a copy of the outline of Economics 1 which may interest you. I still regard it as by no means perfect but am more satisfied with it than with what we have had before. We are continuing to have occasional lectures in Economics 1 and during the course of the year I hope that most of the senior members of the staff will give at least one lecture.

Our contract with the Business School for Smith and Butters to teach Burbank’s courses is working out quite as well as I expected. I want to make this a permanent arrangement, but I would not be surprised at some time to see some resistance from the Business School. If we need it, I hope we can rely on your Committee’s support to continue this arrangement.

The defense program has made fewer inroads on the Department than we expected. It is absorbing a good deal of Mason’s sabbatical leave; Dunlop is spending a day or two a week with the Wage Stabilization Board; and I go to Washington for a couple of days a week as a consultant to Charles E. Wilson.

If there is any chance of seeing you during the fall, I would very much appreciate the opportunity. I am regularly in Washington on Thursdays — if you can every bring yourself to visit that unholy city.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur Smithies

Enclosure

__________________________

Randall alleges sleight-of-hand by Smithies regarding the Economics 1 reading list.

“Besides their ideological concerns, the Overseers worried about the department’s ability (and desire) to teach undergraduates. [Chairman of the Economics Committee, Clarence B.] Randall fretted that research-obsessed professors were away too much; senior professors avoided teaching lowerclassmen. And he agreed with [President James B.] Conant that the field ‘has reached a point of ethereal content which is as lifeless to me as much…modern poetry. It just doesn’t seem to matter.’ Conant concede that the department ‘has not faced up to the problem of making a real effort ot improve the instruction in the introductory courses in Economics.’ Feeling the pressure, chairman [Professor Arthur] Smithies proposed an extensive plan to strengthen undergraduate teaching. Randall appreciated Conan’s response to his criticisms. He left the visiting committee in the fall of 1952, but not without a final disappointment. He heard that when he asked the chairman for a copy of the Economics A [sic, Principles of Economics last listed as “Economics A” in 1947-48. Beginning 1948-49 it was given the number “Economics 1″ ] reading list, Smithies tore off the first page because he thought that Randall would disapprove of many of the authors (as in all likelihood he would have). ‘I bear no animosity about that,’ Randall told Conant, ‘but it does make me a little heartsick. I am always shocked when I find amongst either professors or preachers ethical practices below the standard prevailing in business.”

Source:  Morton Keller and Phyllis Keller, Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America’s University (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 84-85.

__________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 1. Principles of Economics

Full course. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. The major part of the course is conducted in sections. However, throughout the year there will be occasional lectures on Wed. at 12. Mon., Wed., and Fri., will be the normal hour for section meetings but sections will be scheduled at other hours. Professor Smithies and other Members of the Department.

Economics 1 may be taken by properly qualified Freshmen with the consent of the instructor.

Economics 1 is designed to introduce students to the methods of economic analysis that bear on the issues that confront this country and the world. The course will thus serve the needs both of those students who plan no further work in economics and those who desire to obtain the groundwork for more advanced courses in the field.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction, 1951-52 pp.  75-76.

__________________________

Economics 1
Syllabus and Readings
1951-52

[first page begins]

ECONOMICS 1
1951-52
Fall Term

Sources:

Bowman and Bach, Economic Analysis and Public Policy, Second Edition (1949)
** Clark, J.M., Common and Disparate Elements in National Growth and Decline
Daugherty and Daugherty Principles of Political Economy, vol. II
The Midyear Economic Report of the President, July 1951
Editors of Fortune, U.S.A. — The Permanent Revolution
* Gayer, Harriss, and Spencer, Basic Economics, A Book of Readings
Hart, Defense Without Inflation
Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Mill, J. S., Principles of Political Economy
* Morgan, T., Introduction to Economics
Office of Defense Mobilization, Meeting Defense Goals
Ruggles, R., National Income and Income Analysis
Schumpeter, J. A., The Theory of Economic Development
Slichter, S., The American Economy
** Spengler, J. J., Theories of Socio-Economic Growth
[“Baumol Economic Analysis” inserted here]

* To be purchased.
** To be handed out in section meeting.

[end of first page]

ECONOMICS 1
Fall Term

PART I. The American Economy—Its Growth, Complexity, Institutions and Problems
  1. The Growth of the U.S. Economy and Its Present Complexity
    1. Change in productivity and income; the increase in population, capital accumulation, and the supply of natural resources.
    2. The functions of the economy.
    3. The complex division of labor and specialization within the U.S. economy for performing these functions.
    4. The role of the price system and market mechanism — the circular flow of economic activity.

Readings:

Slichter, Ch. 1, The American Economy

Gayer, et al., Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 59

Bowman and Bach, Ch. 3, The Economic System — A Summary View; Chapter 4, Private Enterprise, Profits, the Price System

  1. Prerequisites for a Growing Economy
    1. Climate and natural resources, attitudes of the population, capital and technology, institutional conditions and systems, etc.
    2. Comparisons among different economies

Readings:

Clark, Common and Disparate Elements in National Growth and Decline

Daugherty and Daugherty, Ch. 34, Modern Economic Society

  1. Institutions of an Advanced Industrial Economy
    1. Large scale enterprise — the organization of business
    2. The organization of labor and agriculture
    3. The role of the monetary system and its organization
    4. The role of the government

Readings:

Morgan, [Introduction to Economics]

Ch. 4, The Scale and Location of Production

Ch. 5, The Organization of Business

Ch. 6, The Rise of Labor Unions; Social Legislation of the 1930’s

Ch. 7, The Nature of Money

Ch. 8, The Supply of Money

Ch. 9, The Demand for Money

[“Ch. 28” inserted here]

Ch.10, The Control of Money

Ch. 3, Economic Decisions under Laissez-Faire, a Mixed Economy, and Socialism

Editors of Fortune, Ch. 4, The Transformation of American Capitalism

Gayer, et al., Nos. 51, 54, 65 [“, 12” inserted here]

  1. Some Views on Economic Growth
    1. The classical economists
    2. Schumpeter
    3. Marx
    4. Other socio-economic views

Readings:

Mill, Vol. II, Bk. IV, Ch. 6, Of the Stationary State

Schumpeter, Ch. 2, The Fundamental Phenomenon of Economic Development

Marx, The Communist Manifesto

Spengler, Theories of Socio-Economic Growth

  1. The Problems of a Growing and Complex Economy
    1. Business fluctuations and economic stability
    2. Competition and monopoly
    3. The distribution of income
    4. International problems
    5. Economic Power

Readings:

Morgan, Ch. 1, Economic Problems and Economic Progress, pp. 3-7

Slichter, Ch. 6, How Good is the American Economy

PART II. Fluctuations in National Income — The Problem of Economic Stability
  1. The Measurement of National Income
    1. Components of national income and their statistical measurement.
    2. Correcting national income figures for price changes over time — the real national income.

Readings:

Morgan, [Introduction to Economics]

Ch. 25, The National Income

Ch. 26, Fluctuations in the Real National Income: The Problem of Index Numbers

[“Ch. 27 Production & Employment” inserted here]

  1. The Sources of the Expenditures Determining National Income
    1. Consumption expenditures.
    2. Investment expenditures.
    3. Government expenditures.

Readings:

Morgan, Ch. 31, The Sources of Expenditure

  1. Fluctuations in National Income
    1. The determination of the level of national income.
    2. The effect of changes in spending—the multiplier and acceleration effects.
    3. Business cycle experience of the past.
    4. Counter-cyclical policies
    5. The problem of the national debt

Readings:

Morgan, Ch. 32, Fluctuations in Production and employment

Ruggles, Ch. 12, Economic Policy and the Level of Activity

Morgan, Ch. 36, Part C, The Burden of Public Debt, pp. 685-696

Gayer, et al., Nos. 81, 85

PART III. Economic Mobilization
    1. The pattern of mobilization.
    2. Methods of meeting the defense goals.
    3. The problem of checking inflation in the mobilization period.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

[first page begins]

ECONOMICS 1
1951-52
Spring Term

Sources:

Allen and Brownlee, The Economics of Public Finance
Blakiston Company, Readings in the Social Control of Industry
Buchanan and Lutz, Rebuilding the World Economy
Dean, J., Managerial Economics
Ellsworth, P. T. The International Economy
Federal Budget in Brief, latest available
* Gayer, Harriss, and Spencer, Basic Economics, A Book of Readings
Galbraith, J. K., American Capitalism
* Morgan, T., Introduction to Economics
Peterson, S., Economics
Schumpeter, J. A., Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
** Slichter, S., Profits in a Laboristic Society

* To be purchased.
** To be handed out in section meeting.

[end of first page]

ECONOMICS 1
Spring Term

PART IV. Economic Behavior of the Individual
    1. The problem of choice — the manner in which the individual will use his services and property to earn income and the way he will allocate his income among consumer goods.
    2. The factors influencing his decisions — marginal utility, prices and types of products and services, “conspicuous consumption,” technology, advertising, habit, etc.

Readings:

Peterson, ch. 19, pp. 478-488

Gayer, et al., Nos. 15, 18

PART V. Business Behavior in a Dynamic Economy
  1. Profit-making as the main objective of business enterprises.

The relevance of the time period, liquidity and safety, potential competition, the anti-trust laws, etc., for profit maximizing.

  1. The influence of market structure on the range of decisions by the firm.

Pure competition — agriculture;
Oligopoly or monopolistic competition — industry;
Monopoly — a limiting case.

    1. Conditions of product demand — income levels, availability of substitutes, the price and nature of the product, advertising, etc.
    2. Sales promotion plane and product improvement strategy — research.
    3. Investment decisions — choosing the best plant size and operating it in the most efficient manner.
    4. Pricing policies.
    5. Labor relations.
  1. The interactions of such decisions among business firms in a dynamic economy.
  2. The effectiveness of business behavior in satisfying consumer demand, allocating resources, and stimulating growth.

Readings:

Dean, Ch. 1, Sections 1, 2, 4, 5

Morgan, Chs. 12, 11, 15, 16

Dean, Ch. 7

Schumpeter, Ch. 8

Gayer, et al., Nos. 20, 21, 26

  1. Public Programs of Promotion and Control of Business.
    1. The historical development of government regulation.
    2. The anti-trust approach.
    3. Public utility regulation.
    4. Government sponsored restraints of competition.
    5. Evaluation of government regulation.

Readings:

Gayer, et al., No. 35

Morgan, Ch. 17

Readings in the Social Control of Industry, Ch. 1

Gayer, et al., Nos. 34, 38

PART VI. The Division of the National Income among the Major Groups
    1. The facts on distribution — past and present.
    2. The manner in which demand and supply factors affect the income of the means of production.
    3. The study of these elements in the determination of wages, rents, interest, and profits.
    4. Interactions among prices, profits, wages and property incomes in a dynamic, industrial economy.
    5. The influence of the government on the distributive shares.

Readings:

Morgan, Chs. 23, 18-22

Gayer, et al., Nos. 42, 41

Slichter, Profits in a Laboristic Society

Galbraith, Chs. 9-11, 14

Gayer, et al., Nos. 44, 50, 88 (Henry George)

PART VII. The International Economy
    1. The development of the world economy.
    2. The breakdown of the world economy.
    3. Reconstructing the world-economy-post-war problems and policies.

Readings:

Buchanan and Lutz, Ch. 1

Morgan, Ch. 38

Ellsworth, The International Economy, Ch. 5, 111-120 or

International Economics, Ch. 2

Gayer, et al., Nos., 100-102, 104, 105

PART VIII. Government Finance and Fiscal Problems
  1. Revenues and Expenditures of the Government
    1. The historical change in the role of the government.
    2. The structure of the Federal Budget.
    3. Financing expenditures from sources of taxation — types of taxes, who pays them, and their effects on the economy.
    4. The use of government borrowing to finance expenditures. Should we have an annual balanced budget? What is the burden of the National Debt.
    5. The role of the government as a credit agency.

Readings:

Allen and Brownlee, Ch. 1

Morgan, Ch. 24

Federal Budget in Brief.

Gayer, et al., Nos. 89, 90, 92, 95

PART IX. The Prospects and Fundamental Problems of the American Economy
    1. The problems of economic growth, economic stability, competition and monopoly, the distribution of income, and international economic relations.
    2. How can these problems best be met within the framework of democratic capitalism?

Readings:

To be assigned later.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1951-1952 (1 of 2)”.

__________________________

1951-52
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 1
[Mid-Year Examination, January 1952]

(Three hours)

Answer FIVE of the following SEVEN questions. Divide your time equally among each of the FIVE questions.

  1. “Although Schumpeter was influenced to a great extent by Marx’s ideas, his views of capitalistic development differed in many basic respects from those of Marx.”
    Develop the major points of similarity and difference of their theories of the process of capitalistic development.
  2. Define Gross National Product and National Income. Discuss some of the conceptual and statistical problems in measuring these economic aggregates including the difficulty of comparing Gross National Product at different times. Comment upon the usefulness of these concepts as measures of economic growth.
  3. Economic growth in the United States has been accompanied by bigness in business, labor, finance, and government. Should this concentration movement be regarded as inevitable in the process of capitalistic development? In your opinion has this trend towards bigness interfered with economic growth or accelerated it?
  4. (a) What powers does the Federal Reserve System have to combat inflationary and deflationary movements in the level of economic activity? Explain the manner in which the application of each measure is designed to influence the economy.
    (b) How has Treasury financing policy during the last decade interfered with the usefulness of these powers as a means of economic control?
  5. Discuss the behavior and interactions of consumption and investment expenditures as Gross National Product fluctuates over the course of the business cycle.
  6. “The Mobilization People seem to have two main goals – to maintain stability, i.e., prevent prices from rising, and to increase production. They are both laudable objectives by themselves. But those Washington bureaucrats don’t seem to realize they can’t have their cake and eat it too. They try to maintain stability by high taxes plus price and resource controls. Yet these are the very measures which strangle the businessman and take away his incentive to increase production. I say, forget the controls. American production in a free economy will achieve both goals.”
    Discuss the issues raised in this statement and, in so doing, suggest the kind of economic policies that you think will best meet our mobilization needs as presently conceived by the federal government.
  7. What in your opinion are the main factors which account for the different rates of growth in real income per capita at different periods of history and in various areas of the world.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Vol. 90 Final Exams [in] Social Sciences, January 1952.

__________________________

 1951-52
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 1
[Year-end Examination, May 1952]

PART I
(One hour)
Answer (a) and (b)

  1. (a) Assuming perfect knowledge and the desire to maintain profits, explain briefly the manner in which the price and output of a commodity are determined (1), under purely competitive conditions and (2) under conditions of pure monopoly.
    (b) How relevant and useful are these theories in adequately explaining business behavior:

(1) under industry conditions in which competitors are few and products differentiated,
(2) when short-run profit maximization may impair the long-run profit position, and
(3) in accounting for the phenomenon of innovation and company policy toward expansion.

PART II
(Two hours)
Answer any FOUR questions. Each will be counted equally.

  1. “The failure of traditional economic analysis to develop a theory of profits which links them to economic growth has in some ways resulted in an unrealistic anti-monopoly program.” Discuss.
  2. In what ways are wages related to the marginal productivity of labor? How does collective bargaining influence wages and employment?
  3. “Equality is a good thing, but so are rising living standards and greater opportunity.”
    To what extent do you think attempts to redistribute income are compatible with policies promoting economic growth? In your answer be careful to distinguish types of redistributive measures and their various effects.
  4. This year every presidential candidate is faced with the need for advancing a tax and expenditure program. As a citizen what economic issues would you want a candidate to cover and what criteria would you employ in evaluating his program?
  5. Answer (a) or (b).

(a) “We shall never have a sound system of international trade until we return to the Gold Standard.” Discuss critically the reasoning underlying this statement, particularly with regard to its implications as to the compatibility of domestic stability and international equilibrium.

(b) “Events in the past fifty years have seen the rise of the United States to a position of dominance in international trade. Yet it may be questioned whether we are willing to accept the responsibilities which our role in the world economy entails.”
Evaluate the statement in the light of the development of United States foreign economic policy in recent years.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Vol. 93 Final Exams [in] Social Sciences, June 1952.

Images Sources: Smithies from From Harvard Class Album 1952;
Portrait of Trustee of the University of Chicago, Clarence B. Randall, from the University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03000-082, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Berkeley Economists Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Graduate Public Finance. Syllabus and Exams. Berkeley professor George Break. 1964-1965

The Harvard archives of course syllabi and final examinations include materials for courses taught by visiting professors from other universities. Graduate public finance was a course normally taught by Otto Eckstein, who was appointed to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in September 1964. To cover that important field course, the Harvard economics department brought in the Berkeley professor of public finance, George Farrington Break for 1964-65. Below you will find Break’s obituary from a University of California (Berkeley) press release, followed by the syllabus and readings for his graduate public finance course at Harvard. Both the mid-year and year-end examinations have been transcribed and can be found at the end of the post. Break’s c.v. can be downloaded at the Wayback Machine internet archive.

 _____________________________

Public finance scholar George F. Break dead at 88

By Kathleen Maclay
30 March 2009

BERKELEY — George F. Break, an emeritus professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and an authority on public finance, died of heart failure at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley on March 13. He was 88.

George Break conducted influential empirical research on the effects of income taxation on work incentives, intergovernmental relations and tax reform in the United States and Canada.
He chaired UC Berkeley’s Department of Economics from 1969 to 1973. Break also served on numerous campus advisory committees and in 1990 was honored with the Berkeley Citation, one of the campus’s highest honors.

He was born June 10, 1920, in the city of London in Southwest Ontario, Canada. From 1942-1945, Break served in a meteorological office attached to the Royal Canadian Air Force and was a flying officer with its Meteorological Division in 1945. He married Helen Dean Schnacke on July 31, 1948.

Break went on to earn his Ph.D. in economics at UC Berkeley in 1951, and joined the economics department as an assistant professor the same year. Among his many students at UC Berkeley was Michael Boskin, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President George H.W. Bush. Break retired from the faculty in 1990.

Of the 11 books authored by Break, the best known are “Public Finance” (1961), which he wrote with Earl Rolph, and “Federal Tax Reform: The Impossible Dream?” (1975), authored with Joseph Pechman, which served as a foundation for the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986. Break also wrote “Financing Government in a Federal System” (1980), edited two books and wrote 74 articles or book chapters.

He was president of the National Tax Association from 1982 to 1984, and was honored in 1996 with the association’s Daniel M. Holland Medal for outstanding contributions to the study and practice of public finance. Break was a member of the American Economics Association, National Tax Association and Canadian Economics Association.

He was appointed by California Gov. George Deukmejian to the Tax Reform Advisory Commission, whose 1985 report suggested reducing corporate and individual income taxes and broadening the sales tax by including food, medical care and household utilities.

Break also assisted the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis, testified before congressional committees, consulted for various tax agencies within the United States and Canadian governments, and evaluated the tax systems of Greece and Jamaica.

Break was preceded in death by his wife, Helen, who died in 2007. He is survived by several nephews and nieces.

[…]

Source: UCBerkeleyNews. Press Release, 30 March 2009.
_____________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 251. Public Finance
Full course. M., W., (F.), at 10. Professor George Break (University of California).

Public finance in the context of the theory of economic policy; fiscal policy and the theory of output and prices; economics of public expenditure; theory of multi-level finance.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, 1964-65, p. 117.

_____________________________

Syllabus and Course Readings

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251
Public Finance

Professor George F. Break

Fall Term 1964

  1. Recommended for purchase: R. A. Musgrave, The Theory of Public Finance (McGraw Hill, 1959)
  2. Henry C. Simons, Personal Income Taxation (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1938)
  3. General Texts and Treatises: Due, John F., Government Finance (Irwin, 1959)
  4. Groves, H. M., Financing Government (5th ed. Holt, 1958)
  5. Schultz, W. J. and Harriss, C. L., American Public Finance (7th ed., Prentice-Hall, 1961)
  6. Buchanan, J. M., The Public Finances (Irwin, 1960)
  7. Rolph, E. R. and Break, G. F., Public Finance (Ronald, 1961)
  8. Hicks, U. K., Public Finance (2nd ed., Cambridge, 1955)
  9. Prest, A. R., Public Finance (Quadrangle, 1960)
  10. Dalton, Hugh, Principles of Public Finance (4th ed., Routledge, 1954)
  11. Pigou, A. C., A Study in Public Finance (3rd ed., Macmillan, 1947)
  12. Colm, Gerhard, Essays in Public Finance and Fiscal Policy (Oxford, 1955)
  13. Rolph, E. R., The Theory of Fiscal Economics (California, 1954)
  14. Blough, Roy, The Federal Taxing Process (Prentice-Hall, 1952)
  15. Universities–National Bureau Conference, The Public Finances (Princeton, 1961)
  16. Musgrave, R. A. and Peacock, A. T. (eds.): Classics in the Theory of Public Finance (Macmillan, 1958)
  17. Musgrave, R. A. and Shoup, C. S., (eds.), Readings in the Economics of Taxation (AEA series, Irwin, 1959)
  18. Hall, Challis A. Jr., Fiscal Policy for Stable Growth (Holt, 1960)
  19. Smithies, A. and Butters, J. K. (eds.), Readings in Fiscal Policy (AEA series, Irwin, 1955)
  20. Smith, D. T., Federal Tax Reform (McGraw-Hill, 1961)
  21. Smithies, A., The Budgetary System in the United States (McGraw-Hill, 1955)
  22. Burkhead, Jesse, Government Budgeting (Wiley, 1936)
  23. Harvard Law School International Program in Taxation, World Tax Series (volumes on Australia, Brazil, Mexico, India, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, published)
  24. Joint Economic Committee, The Federal Revenue System: Facts and Problems, 1964
  25. Joint Economic Committee, Federal Tax Policy for Economic Growth and Stability, 1955
  26. Joint Economic Committee, Federal Expenditure Policy for Economic Growth and Stability, 1957
  27. Committee on Ways and Means, Tax Revision Compendium (3 vols., 1960)

Serial Publications and Periodicals

U. S. Treasury Department, Treasury Bulletin (monthly)
U. S. Treasury Department, Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury
Budget Message of the President
Economic Report of the President
National Tax Association, Annual Proceedings
National Tax Journal
Taxes, The Tax Magazine
Public Finance (Finances Publiques)
Commerce Clearing House, Inc., and Prentice-Hall publish looseleaf tax services (in Law and Business School Libraries)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

1. The Fiscal Setting

7: Chs. 1, 2, 4, 5.

*1: Ch. 9.

21: Chs. 3-4; (5-7); 8-10.

22: Chs. *6-9; (Part III).

Symposium on Budgetary Concept. RES (May 1963):

Bator
Eckstein
*Musgrave
Taylor, Wendell and Brill

Andrew E. Gantt, II., “Central Governments: Cash Deficits and Surpluses, RES (Feb. 1963).

Survey of Current Business (July, 1964), pp. 1823.

Office of Business Economics, Dept. of Commerce, U.S. Income and Output (1958), pp. 55-7 and 164-79.

Joint Economic Committee (Roy Moor), The Federal Budget as an Economic Document (1962), pp. 524; *109-128; 138-148.

Alan T. Peacock and Jack Wiseman, The Growth of Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom (NBER, 1961).

Anthony Downs, “Why the Government Budget is Too Small in a Democracy,” World Politics (July, 1960).

2. Principles of Taxation

*1: Chs. 4, 5.

*2: Ch. 1.

16: Knut Wicksell, pp. 72-118.

17: Elmer D. Fagan No. 3, (JPE, 1938).

11: Part II, Chs. 1, 4-7.

20: Ch. 1.

W. J. Blum and H. Kalven, Jr., The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation (Chicago, 1953). Phoenix Paperback Edition, 1963.

Robert J, Lampman, “Recent Thought on Egalitarianism,” QJE (May, 1957).

3. Income, Spending and Net Wealth

*1: pp. 160-64.

2: Ch; pp. 89-100.

17: Robert Murray Haig, No. 4, (The Federal Income Tax, 1921).

*William Vickrey, Agenda for Progressive Taxation (Ronald, 1947), Ch. 1.

Irving Fisher, The Nature of Capital and Income (1906) Chs. 1, 2, 4, 7, 10.

__________, “Income in Theory and Income Taxation in Practice,” Econometrica (January, 1937).

Break, George F., “Capital Maintenance and the Concept of Income,” JPE (February, 1954).

Nicholas Kaldor, An Expenditure Tax (Allen and Unwin, 1955), pp. 21-53.

4. The Scope of Income Taxation

*2: Chs. 5, 7, 8.

*20: Chs. 3, 5.

*Vickrey: Chs. 2, 3, 5-I.

David J. Ott and Allen H. Meltzer, Federal Tax Treatment of State and Local Securities (Brooking, 1963) Chs. 1, 2, 8.

Richard Goode, “Policyholders’ Interest Income from Life Insurance under the Income Tax, Vanderbilt Law Review (Dec. 1962).

C. Harry Kahn, Business and Professional Income Under the Personal Income Tax, NBER, 1964.

5. The Definition of Net Income

*20: Ch. 4.

*Vickrey: Ch. 4.

E. Cary Brown, “The New Depreciation Policy under the Income Tax: an Economic Analysis,” NTJ (March 1955).

Norman B. Ture, “Tax Reform: Depreciation Problems,” AER (May, 1963), pp. 334-53.

Murray Brown, “Depreciation and Corporate Profits,” SCB (Oct. 1963).

Evsey Domar, The Case for Accelerated Depreciation,” QJE (Nov. 1953) and his Essays in The Theory of Economic Growth.

Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, Depreciation Guidelines and Rules, Publication No. 456 (7/62).

C. Harry Kahn, Personal Deductions in the Federal Income Tax (NBER, 1960).

*Richard Goode, “Educational Expenditures and the Income Tax,” in Selma Mushkin, ed., Economics of Higher Education (Washington, 1962).

6. The Taxpaying Unit

*Vickrey, Ch. 10-I, III.

*Harold M. Croves, Federal Tax Treatment of the Family (Brookings, 1963).

Reed R. Hansen, “The Diminishing Exemption — a New Look at Equity,” Canadian Tax Journal (July-August, 1963).

Yung-Ping Chen, “Income Tax Exemptions for the Aged as a Policy Instrument,” NTJ (Dec. 1963).

7. Integration of the Personal and Corporate Income Taxes

*2: Ch. 9.

*20: Ch. 7.

*Vickrey, Ch. 5-II.

*Daniel M. Holland, Dividends Under the Income Tax (NBER, 1962), Ch. 4.

Holland, The Income-Tax Burden on Stockholders (NBER, 1958) Chs. 1, 2, 7.

Goode, The Corporation Income Tax (Wiley, 1951) Chs. 2, 3, 10.

Carl S. Shoup, “The Dividend Exclusion and Credit in the Revenue Code of 1954,” NTJ (March, 1955).

8. Income Tax Administration

*M. Farioletti, “Some Results of the First Year’s Audit Control Program of the Bureau of Internal Revenue,” NTJ (March, 1952).

Harold M. Groves, “Empirical Studies of Income-Tax Compliance,” NTJ (Dec. 1958).

W. H. Smith, “Electronic Date Processing in the Internal Revenue Service, NTJ (September, 1961).

Holland, Dividends Under the Income Tax, Ch. 2.

H. H. Hinrichs, “Underreporting of Capital Gains on Tax Returns…,” NTJ (June, 1964).

9. Income Taxation and Work Incentives

1: Ch. 11.

13: Ch. 10.

17: Goode, No. 29 (JPE, 1949).

*Gershon Cooper, No. 30 (QJE, 1952).

7: pp. 153-58.

*Break, “Income Taxes and Incentives to Work,” AER (September, 1957).

Kaldor, Ch. 4.

Break, “Income Taxes, Wage Rates, and the Incentive to Supply Labor Services,” NTJ (Dec. 1953).

10. Income Taxation and Investment Incentives

*1: Ch. 14.

 7: pp. 159-64.

13: Chs. 11, 12.

17: Domar and Musgrave, No. 31 (OJE, 1944).

E. Cary Brown, No. 32 (Income and Employment and Public Policy: Essays in Honor of Alvin B. Hansen (Norton, 1948).

Brown, “Mr. Kaldor on Taxation and Risk Bearing,” Rev. of Ec. Studies Vol. XXV:1.

Kaldor, Ch. III.

*Brown, “Tax Incentives for Investment,” AER (May, 1962).

*Goode, “Accelerated Depreciation Allowances as a Stimulus to Investment, QJE (May, 1955).

Goode, “Special Tax Measures to Restrain Investment,” IMF: Staff Papers (February, 1957).

*Sam B. Chase, Jr., “Tax Credits for Investment Spending,” NTJ (March, 1962), and comment by Brown in NTJ (June, 1962).

11. Income Taxation and Corporate Financial Policies

7: pp. 221-2; 229-30; and studies there cited by Lintner, Smith and Darling.

John A. Brittain,”The Tax Structure and Corporate Dividend Policy,” AER (May, 1964).

Miller and Shelton, “Effects of a Shifted Corporate Income Tax on Capital Structure,” NTJ (1955).

12. The Incidence of Sales and Excise Taxes

1: Chs. 15, 16, especially pp. 379-82.

*13: Chs. 6, 7. or JPE (April 1952) and AER (Sept. 1952) for Ch. 6.

17:   Harry Gunnison Brown, No. 21 (JPE 1939)

John F. Due, No. 22 (The Theory of Incidence of Sales Taxation, 1942)

Rolph and Break, No. 7 (JPE, 1949)

*Due, “Toward a General Theory of Sales Tax Incidence,” QJE (May, 1953).

*Due, “Sales Taxation and the Consumer,” AER (December, 1963).

*J. M. Buchanan, Fiscal Theory and Political Economy (Chapel Hill, 1960).

Break, “Excise Tax Burdens and Benefits,” AER (September, 1954).

Break, “Allocation and Excess Burden Effects of Excise and Sales Taxes,” in Committee on Ways and Means, Excise Tax Compendium (Washington, 1964).

*J. A. Stockfisch, “The Capitalization and Investment Aspects of Excise Taxes under Competition,” AER (June, 1954).

Paul Davidson, “Rolph on the Aggregate Effects of a General Excise Tax,” SEJ (July, 1960).

13. Incidence of a Corporation Income Tax

17: Shoup, No. 20 (NTJ 1948).

7: pp. 210-20.

27: Harberger, Volume I, pp. 231-50.

*Arnold C. Harberger, “The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax,” JPE (June 1962)

*Kerzyzaniak and Musgrave, The Shifting of the Corporation Income Tax (Johns Hopkins, 1963).

Diran Bodenhorn, “The Shifting of the Corporation Income Tax in a Growing Economy,” QJE (November, 1956).

*Challis A. Hall, Jr., “Direct Shifting of the Corporation Income Tax in Manufacturing.” AER (May: 1964).

14. Taxation of the Oil and Gas Industry

7: pp. 230-34.

Douglas M. Eldridge, “Tax Incentives for Mineral Enterprises,” JPE (June, 1950).

Stephen L. McDonald, Federal Tax Treatment of Income from Oil and Gas (Brookings, 1963).

McDonald, “Percentage Depletion and the Allocation of Resources: The Case of Oil and Gas,” NTJ (December, 1961); comments by Musgrave and Eldridge in NTJ (June, 1962), and McDonald’s reply in NTJ (September 1962).

Peter O. Steiner, “The Non-Neutrality of Corporate Income Taxation: with and Without Depletion,” NTJ (Sept. 1963), and comments by McDonald and Steiner in NTJ (March, 1964).

Paul Davidson, “Policy Problems of the Crude Oil Industry,” AER (March 1963) and discussion in AER (March, 1964).

A. E. Kahn, “The Depletion Allowance and Cartelization,” AER (June 1964).

15. Taxation of Capital Gains and Losses

25: Walter Heller, pp. 381-94.

2: Ch. 7.

7: pp. 123-29.

Lawrence H. Seltzer, The Nature and Tax Treatment of Capital Gains and Losses (NBER, 1951) Chs. 1, 4-6, 9.

Harold M. Somers, “Reconsideration of the Capital Gains Tax,” NTJ (Dec. 1960).

Martin David, “Economic Effects of the Capital Gains Tax,” AER (May, 1964).

Holt and Shelton, “The Implications of the Capital Gains Tax for Investment Decisions,” JF (Dec. 1961).

Alice J. Vandermeulen, “Capital Gains: Two Tests for the Taxpayer and Proposal for the President,” NTJ (Dec. 1963).

H. H. Hinrichs, “An Empirical Measure of Investors’ Responsiveness to Differentials in Capital Gains Tax Rates Among Income Groups, NTJ (Sept. 1963).

Holt and Shelton, “The Lock-in Effect of the Capital Gains Tax,” NTJ (Dec. 1962).

Lent and Menge, “The Importance of Restricted Stock Options in Executive Compensation, ” Management Record (June, 1962)

Holland and Lewellen, “Probing the Record of Stock Options,” HBR April, 1962).

16. The Redistributive Effects of U. S. Taxation

27:   Pechman, pp. 251-82. (Volume 1)

Hellmuth, pp. 283-316. (Volume 1)

*Musgrave, pp. 2223-2234. (Volume 3)

*Lampman, pp. 2235-2246. (Volume 3)

*Joseph A. Pechman, “Erosion of the Individual Income Tax,” NTJ (March, 1957).

Musgrave and others, “Distribution of Tax Payments by Income Groups: a Case Study for 1948,” NTJ (March, 1951), and discussion in NTJ (Sept.1951) and March, 1952).
Also later computations by Musgrave in No. 25, pp. 96-113.

James R. Beaton, “Family Tax Burdens by Income Levels,” NTJ (March, 1962).

George A. Bishop, “The Tax Burden by Income Class, 1958,” NTJ (March, 1961).

*A. R. Prest, “Statistical Calculations of Tax Burdens,” Economica (Aug. 1955).

Annual articles on the size distribution of income in SCB, e.g. (April, 1964).

17. The Structure of U. S. Taxation

27: Volume 1, pp. 1-250.

*NBER and Brookings, The Role of Direct and Indirect Taxes in the Federal Revenue System (Princeton, 1964), especially papers by Due, Eldridge, Eckstein and Chase.

*Committee on Way and Mean, Excise Tax Compendium (Washington, 1964), especially papers by Due, Eldridge, Shoup, and Stockfisch.

18. The Income Sensitivity of U. S. Taxes

*Pechman, “Yield of the Individual Income Tax During a Recession,” NTJ (March, 1954).

Leo Cohen, “An Empirical Measurement of the Built-in Flexibility of the Individual Income Tax,” AER (May, 1959). See also NTJ (June, 1960).

Paul E. Smith, “Built in Flexibility of the Individual Income Tax: Quarterly Estimates,” NTJ (June, 1962).

Smith, “A Note on the Built-in Flexibility of the Individual Income Tax,” Econometrica (Oct. 1963).

Wilfred Lewis, Jr., Federal Fiscal Policy in the Postwar Recessions (Brookings, 1962) Chs. 2 and 3.

*Groves and Kahn, “The Stability of State and Local Tax Yields,” AER (March, 1952).

*Dick Netzer, “Income Elasticity of the Property Tax: a Post-Mortem Note,” NTJ (June, 1964); also No. 15, pp. 23-40.

D. G. Davies, “The Sensitivity of Consumption Taxes to Fluctuations in Income,” NTJ (Sept. 1962).

Brown and Kruizenga, “Income Sensitivity of a Simple Personal Income Tax, RES (Aug. 1959).

M. O. Clement, “The Quantitative Impact of Automatic Stabilizers,” RES (Feb. 1960).

19. Value Added Taxation

*Shoup, “Theory and Background of the Value-Added Tax,” National Tax Association Proceedings (1955) pp. 6-19.

*Excise Tax Compendium, Papers by Smith and Rolph.

The Role of Direct and Indirect Taxes in the Federal Revenue System. Paper by Musgrave and Richman.

20. Spendings and Net Worth Taxes

7: Chs. 8, 9.

Kaldor, An Expenditure Tax.

Vickrey, Ch. 12.

Katona and Lansing, “The Wealth of the Wealthy,” RES (Feb. 1964).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 9, Folder “Economics, 1964-1965 (2 of 2)”.

_____________________________

Mid-year Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 251
Fall 1964

Answer any three questions

  1. There has been much discussion concerning, the role that the principle of taxation according to benefits received should play in modern fiscal systems. Contrast the views on this subject of Henry Simons and the voluntary exchange theorists. Set forth your own views and justify them.
  2. Discuss the incidence of a property tax levied by a single State (assume, if you like, that one State raises its tax rates while others hold them constant) on the land, buildings, and equipment of businesses operating within its borders. The tax applies both to local retail enterprises and to manufacturing corporations selling in national markets.
  3. “In a rational system of income taxation according to ability to pay there is no place for a separate tax on corporate income.” Discuss.
  4. Each of the following is a controversial aspect of the federal individual income tax:
    1. Employer contributions to the cost of employee life, accident, hospital and medical insurance.
    2. Social security retirement benefits.
    3. Income splitting.
    4. Deductions for state and local taxes and for interest on consumer indebtedness.
    5. Expenditures for higher education.
    6. Travelling and entertainment expenditures by businessmen.
    7. Personal exemptions.
    8. Interest on state and local debt.

Select any four of the above and discuss the problems to which they give rise. Include in your answer your own recommendations as to their treatment for tax purposes.

  1. Many critics of the U.S. tax system feel that it unduly impairs incentives to invest. Discuss this question both in general and with respect to the following specific characteristics of the tax system:
    1. depreciation allowances,
    2. loss carryovers,
    3. progressive individual income tax rates, and
    4. capital gains and losses.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Naval Science, Air Science (January, 1965) in the bound volume Social Sciences: Final Examinations, January 1965 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 157).

_____________________________

Year-end Examination

Economics 251
Final Examination
Spring Term, 1965

Part I

Answer both questions.

  1. (25%)
    (a) Compute the built-in flexibility and the yield elasticity of the federal individual income tax from the following data:

Y = 0.6 + 0.38X,

where Y = taxable individual income
and X =  gross national product,
both in billions of dollars

The equation was fitted to the period 1955-1963 during which income tax liabilities were 23 percent of taxable individual incomes in each year, and, on the average over the period, individual income tax liabilities were 7.9 percent of GNP

(b) Are there any reasons to expect the built-in flexibility of the individual income tax to be different in the upswing of the business cycle from what it is in the downswing? In the long run compared to what it is in the short run? Discuss.

(c) What effects, if any, would you expect a reduction in the corporate income tax to have on the built-in flexibility of the individual income tax?

  1. (25%)
    Evaluate each of the following as countercyclical fiscal policies:
    1. changes in excise tax rates
    2. variations in public works spending
    3. public debt operations

Part II

Answer any two questions.

  1. (25%) Write a critical analysis of the balanced budget theorem.
  2. (25%) Evaluate the major ways in which the federal government could increase its financial assistance to state and local governments.
  3. (25%) Discuss the problems involved in estimating social and private rates of return to investment in higher education.
  4. (25%) Discuss the importance of each of the following in benefit-cost analysis as applied to governmental spending programs:
    1. The rate of return on reinvested earnings
    2. Intangible benefits
    3. Pecuniary and technological spillovers
    4. Secondary benefits

Source: Harvard University Archives. Bound volume Social Sciences: Final Examinations, June 1965 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 159).

Image Source: George F. Break’s faculty profile page at the Berkeley economics department website.

Categories
Economic History M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. Reading list for Problems in Russian Economic History. Domar, 1975

Evsey Domar’s 1970 article, “The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom” (The Journal of Economic History. Vol. XXX, March, 1970) made him a one-hit wonder in the field of economic history. But what a hit!

He shared some of his life-long passion for Russian economic history  with M.I.T. graduate students back when M.I.T. could boast having three professors teaching economic history — Charles Kindleberger covered modern European history, Evsey Domar focussed on his Russian peasants, and Peter Temin was there for U.S. economic history of the new cliometric fashion. Just about ten years ago Peter Temin wrote a memoir on “the rise and fall of economic history at MIT“.

One salient memory I took from Domar’s Russian economic history class is associated with the very first meeting when Domar, not a very tall man, lugged into the classroom a huge rolled-up map of Russia to hang on the blackboard. He hardly referred to the map so I presumed he once ordered it in a fit of enthusiasm that far exceeded its pedagogical usefulness. Or maybe Domar was a kindred spirit of The Dude (see “Lebowski, Big”) and thought his Russia map really tied the classroom together. 

________________________

PROBLEMS IN RUSSIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY
14.732

E.D. Domar
Spring Term 1974-75

The purpose of this list is to indicate to the student the sources in which the more important topics of the course are discussed from several points of view. He will be held responsible for the topics rather than for “who said what.”

Since it is difficult to understand the economic and social developments in a country without a good general background in the country’s history, it is suggested that students who have not had a course in Russian history familiarize themselves with some standard textbook, such as A History of Russia by Nicholas V. Riasanovsky (New York: Oxford University Press, 1963), to which some references will be made here.

The book which will be used from cover to cover is Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961). It would be best to buy a copy. (Paperbacks are available).

Each student is expected to write a term paper of about 30 double-spaced pages on a subject agreed upon with the instructor.

There will be a 80 minute final examination on the last day of class in May.

PART I – KIEVAN RUSSIA
PART II – APPANAGE RUSSIA

REQUIRED

Riasanovsky, Parts I, Il, and III.

Blum, Introduction, Chapters 1-7.

RECOMMENDED

Karl Bosl, Alexander Gieysztor, Frantisek Graus, M. M. Postan, and Ferdinand Seibt, Eastern and Western Europe in the Middle Ages (Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, Inc., 1971).

Francis Dvornik, The Slavs in European History and Civilization (Rutgers University Press).

James Gregory, Russian Land, Soviet People: A Geographical Approach to the U.S.S.R. (London, 1968).

V. O. Kliuchevsky, A History of Russia, translation by C. J. Hogarth.

Peter Liashchenko, History of the National Economy of Russia to the 1917 Revolution, translated by L. M. Herman (New York: 1949, 1970).

Frank Nowak, Medieval Slavdom and the Rise of Russia (Greenwood Press, Inc.)

W. H. Parker, An Historical Geography of Russia (London: 1968).

Henry Paszkiewicz, The Origin of Russia (New York: 1969).

M. N. Pokrovaky, History of Russia from the Earliest Times to the Rise of Commercial Capitalism(Bloomington, Indiana: 1966).

B. H. Slicher (van Bath), The Agrarian History of Western Europe, A.D. 500-1850.

Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol. III, pp. 391-454.

George Vernadsky, Kievan Russia (New Haven: 1948).

George Vernadsky, The Mongols and Russia (New Haven: 1953).

Warren B. Walsh, Readings in Russian History from Ancient Times to the Post-Stalin Era, Vol. I, (Syracuse University Press, 1963).

PART III — THE DEVELOPMENT OF SERFDOM BEFORE PETER I
XVI and XVII CENTURIES

REQUIRED

Riasanovsky, Part IV (as a background)

Blum, Chapters 8-14.

Evsey D. Domar, “The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom,” The Journal of Economic History. Vol. XXX, March, 1970, pp. 18-32.

Richard Hellie, Enserfment and Military Change in Muscovy (Chicago: 1970). Introduction, Parts I, II (omit the details and get the man ideas).

Joseph T. Fuhrmann, The Origins of Capitalism in Russia: Industry and Progress in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Chicago: 1972), Chapters 1, 2, 10-13 (omit the details).

RECOMMENDED

Paul Avrich, Russian Rebels, 1600-1800 (Schocken Booke, 1972).

Lloyd E. Berry and Robert O. Crummey, editors, Rude & Barbarous Kingdom (The University of Washington Press, 1968).

V. O. Kliuchevsky, A Course in Russian History: The 17th Century (Quadrangle Books, Inc.)

James Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (New York: 1965), two volumes.

R. E. F. Smith, The Enserfment of the Russian Peasantry (Cambridge: 1968).

George Vernadsky, The Tsardom of Moscow, 1547-1682, in two volumes, (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969).

Jerome Blum, “The Rise of Serfdom in Eastern Europe,” American Historical Review, Vol. LXII, 1957, pp. 807-836.

T. S. Wellan, The Early History of the Russia Company (New York: 1969).

See also Part I and II of the Reading List.

PART IV – FROM PETER I TO THE EMANCIPATION OF THE PEASANTS
1700 — 1861

REQUIRED

Blum, Chapters 15-27.

James Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (New York: 1925, 1965), pp. 100-141 (omit the details).

A. Kahan, “Continuity in Economic Activity and Policy During the Post-Petrine Period in Russia,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. XXV, March, 1965, pp. 61-85.

A. Kahan, “The Costs of ‘Westernization’ in Russia: The Gentry and the Economy in the Eighteenth Century,” The Slavic Review, Vol. XXV, March, 1966, pp. 40-66.

R. Portal, “The Industrialization of Russia,” The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. VI, Part II, (Cambridge: 1965), pp. 801-810.

W. Blackwell, The Beginnings of Russian Industrialization, 1800-1860 (Princeton: 1968), (Get the main ideas and omit all details).

RECOMMENDED

Clifford M. Foust, Muscovite and Mandarin: Russia’s Trade with China and its Setting, 1727-1805 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1969).

Baron August Von Haxthausen, Studies on the Interior of Russia (University of Chicago Press, 1972).

Baron August Von Haxthausen, The Russian Empire, Volume 1 and 2.

James Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (New York: Russell and Russell, Inc., 1925, 1965), pp. 142-374, Volume I.

Anatole G. Mazour, The First Russian Revolution, 1825: The Decembrist Movement — Its Origins, Development, and Significance (Stanford: 1937).

Walter McKenzie Pintner, Russian Economic Policy Under Nicholas I (Cornell University Press, 1967).

Charles H. Pearson, Russia by a Recent Traveller (Frank Cass and Co. Limited, 1970).

S. P. Turin, From Peter the Great to Lenin: A History of the Russian Labour Movement with Special Reference to Trade Unionism (W. Heffer and Sons)

PART V — FROM THE EMANCIPATION OF THE PEASANTS TO
THE SOVIET REGIME 1861-1917

REQUIRED

A. Gerschenkron, “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization: Russia 1861-1917,” The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. VI, Part II, (Cambridge: 1965) , pp. 706-800 (Get the main ideas and skip the details).

G. T. Robinson, Rural Russia Under the Old Regime (New York: 1962).

A. Gerschenkeron, “Russia: Patterns and Problems of Economic Development, 1861-1958,” Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, Mass.: 1962), pp. 119-151.

A. Gerschenkron, “The Rate of Industrial Growth in Russia Since 1885,” The Tasks of Economic History, Supplement VII, 1947, to The Journal of Economic History, pp. 144-174.

R. W. Goldsmith, “The Economic Growth of Tsarist Russia, 1860-1913,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. IX, April, 1961, pp. 441-475 (only pp. 441-443 are required).

Paul Gregory, “Economic Growth and Structural Change in Tsarist Russia: A Case of Modern Economic Growth?” Soviet Studies, Vol. XXIII, January, 1972, pp. 418-434.

T. H. Von Laue, Sergei Witte and the Industrialization of Russia (New York: 1963), (not in detail), pp. 1-35, 262-308.

RECOMMENDED

Dorothy Atkinson, “The Statistics on the Russian Land Commune, 1905-1917,” Slavic Review, Vol. 32, Number 4, December, 1973, pp. 773-787.

Alexis N. Antsyferov, Russian Agriculture during the War: Rural Economy (New Haven: 1930).

Haim Barkai, “The Macro-Economics of Tsarist Russia in the Industrialization Era: Monetary Developments, the Balance of Payments and the Gold Standard, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. XXXIII, June, 1973, pp. 339-371.

A.V. Chayanov, The Theory of Peasant Economy (Homewood, Illinois: 1966).

T. Emmons, The Russian Gentry and the Peasant Emancipation to 1861 (Cambridge: 1968).

A. Gerschenkron, Continuity in History and Other Essays (Cambridge, Mass.: 1968).

A. Gerschenkron, Europe in the Russian Mirror: Four Lectures in Economic History (Cambridge University Press, 1970).

Geoffrey A. Hosking, The Russian Constitutional Experiment: Government and Duma, 1907-1914 (New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1973).

Isaac A. Hourwich, The Economics of the Russian Village (New York: Columbia University, 1892).

Stefan Kieniewicz, The Emancipation of the Polish Peasantry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969).

V. I. Lenin, The Development of Capitalism in Russia, (second Russian edition, Moscow: 1907; English translation, Moscow: 1956).

James Mavor, An Economic History of Russia (New York: Russell & Russell, 1925, 1965).

John P. Mckay, Pioneers for Profit: Foreign Entrepreneurship and Russian Industrialization, 1885-1913(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970).

Margaret Miller, The Economic Development of Russia, 1905-1914, second edition, (New York: 1967).

W. H. Parker, A Historical Geography of Russia (London: 1968).

Alfred J. Rieber, editor, Politics of Autocracy: Letters of Alexander II to Prince Bariatinskii, 1857-1865 (New York: 1966).

Amende Roosa, “Russian Industrialists and ‘State Socialism’, 1906-1917,” Soviet Studies, Vol. XXIII, January, 1972, pp. 395-417.

Teodor Shanin, The Awkward Class: Political Sociology of Peasantry in a Developing Society: Russia 1910-1925 (Oxford: 1972).

Mikhail I. Tugan-Baranovsky, The Russian Factory in the 19th Century, Richard D. Irwin, 1970.

Wayne S. Vucinich, editor, The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968; London: 1970).

Reginald E. Zelnik, Labor and Society in Tsarist Russia: The Factory Workers of St. Petersburg, 1855-1870(Stanford: April, 1971).

Male, D. J., Russian Peasant Organisation Before Collectivisation. A Study of Commune and Gathering 1925-1930. (Cambridge University Press, 1971).

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Image Source:  MIT Economics Facebook post (Evsey Domar, In Memoriam) of October 10, 2014.

Categories
Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list for Economics of Socialism. Bergson, 1977

The list of readings and final exam for Abram Bergson’s Harvard course “Normative Aspects of Economic Policy” (1960) were posted earlier. In this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provides the course outline and assigned readings for his “Economics of Socialism”. I encountered his 1961 book The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928 in four of my courses (taught by Raymond Powell and John Michael Montias at Yale; Evsey Domar at M.I.T.; and from Bergson himself at Harvard).

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 1200:
Economics of Socialism
Spring Term, 1976-77
Professor Bergson

Note
The following will be the principal texts for the course:

Abram Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Yale, New Haven, Conn., 1964.

Nai-Ruenn Chen and Walter Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Aldine, Chicago, 1969

Joel B. Dirlam and James L. Plummer, An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy, Merrill, Columbus, Ohio, 1973.

Paul R. Gregory and Robert C. Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Harper and Row, New York, 1974.

Note that the Bergson, Gregory and Stuart, and Dirlam and Plummer books are available in paperback.

Items Marked with an asterisk are optional.

I. Introduction
  1. What is Socialism?

“Socialism” (by Daniel Bell), in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, 1968, pp. 506-516.

Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, International Publishers, 1938, pp. 3-23.

V. I. Lenin, State and Revolution, Ch. 5, “The Economic Base of the Withering Away of the State.”

Paul M. Sweezy, “Alternative Conceptions of Socialist Development” (Processed).

Alec Nove, “Market Socialism and Its Critics,” Soviet Studies, July 1972.

II. Comparative Development Strategy
  1. The Soviet Model

Gregory and Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Chs. 1-3, 12 (pp. 417-428 only).

A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, London, 1969, Chs. 6-8.

A. Erlich, “Preobrazhenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1950.

I.V. Stalin, “On the Grain Front,” “Right Danger,” “Right Deviation,” in Selected Writings, New York, 1942.

  1. Variants

Oleg Hoeffding, “Soviet State Planning and Forced Industrialization as a Model for Asia,” Problems of Communism, Nov.-Dec., 1959; reprinted in F. Holzman, Readings on the Soviet Economy, Chicago, 1962.

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy under Communism, Chs. 1, 2.

A. Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1975, pp. 9-22, 47-51.

See Sweezy under Topic 1.

III. Economic Organization and Planning
  1. Socialist Planning: Contents and Issues

O. Lange “On the Economic Theory of Socialism” including Appendix, in B. Lippincott ed., On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis, 1938; New York, 1964.

A. Bergson “Market Socialism Revisited,” Journal of Political Economy, October 1967 (Section on “Cooperative Variant” optional).

W. N. Loucks, Comparative Economic Systems, 7th ed., New York, 1965, pp. 108-120 (5th ed., pp. 98-110; 6th ed., pp. 93-105).

Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics, 2nd ed., New York, 1966, pp. 10-28.

Note: As a preliminary to the foregoing readings, you may wish review relevant theoretic foundations in, say, Robert Dorfman, Prices and Markets, New Jersey, 1967, Chs. 7-8.

  1. Centralist Planning in the USSR: The Industrial Enterprise and Collective Farm

Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 5 and pp. 287-297; Chs 9 and 10.

J. Berliner The Innovation Decision in Soviet Industry, Cambridge, Mass., 1976, Chs. 14-16.

Gregory and Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Chs. 7 (pp. 232-253), 10.

D. Granick*, “Managerial Incentives in the USSR and in Western Firms,” Journal of Comparative Administration, August 1973.

Emily C. Brown, Soviet Trade Unions and Labor Relations, Cambridge, Mass., 1966, Chs. 7, 9.

E. G. Liberman*, Economic Methods and the Effectiveness of Production, New York, 1973, pp. 21-47.

  1. Centralist Planning in the USSR: Coordination

Bergson, Economics of Soviet Planning, Chs. 1, 3,4, 7, 8,(*) 11.

Liberman*, Economic Methods and the Effectiveness of Production, pp. 75-116.

H. S. Levine, “Pressure and Planning in the Soviet Economy,” in H. Rosovsky, ed., Industrialization in Two Systems, New York 1966; reprinted in M. Bornstein and D.R. Fusfeld, eds., The Soviet Economy, 3rd ed., Homewood, Ill., 1970.

G. Grossman*, “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1953, reprinted in Holzman, Readings.

A. Nove, The Soviet Economy, New York, 1961, Rev. ed., Ch. 3, Ch. 7 (pp. 231-240).

R. W. Campbell, “Marx, Kantorovich, and Novozhilov,” in Slavic Review, October 1961; reprinted in H. Schaffer, The Soviet Economy, New York, 1963; and in George Feiwel, New Currents Soviet-Type Economies: A Reader, Scranton, PA, 1968.

G. Schroeder, “The 1966-67 Soviet Industrial Price Reform,” Soviet Studies, April 1969.

H. Kohler, Welfare and Planning, New York, 1966, pp. 82-95, 102-105.

M. Goldman, “Externalities and the Race for Economic Growth in the USSR: Will the Environment ever Win?” Journal of Political Economy, March/April 1972.

  1. Market Socialism in Hungary and Yugoslavia

Bela Balassa. “The Firm in the New Economic Mechanism in Hungary,” in M. Bornstein, ed. Plan and Market, New Haven, Conn., 1973.

D. Granick, “The Hungarian Economic Reform,” World Politics, April 1973, reprinted in M. Bornstein, ed., Comparative Economic Systems, 3rd ed., Homewood, Ill., 1974.

J. Vanek, The Participatory Economy, Ithaca, New York, 1971, Chs. 2-3.

Dirlam and Plummer, An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy Chs. 2, 3, 4 (pp. 88-99), 5 (pp. 122-141), 7 (pp. 165-177).

D. D. Milenkovich, Plan and Market in Yugoslav Economic Thought,New Haven, Conn., 1971, pp. 187-211.

D. D. Milenkovich*, “Plan and Market: The Case of Yugoslavia” (Processed).

  1. Planning in China: How Different?

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Ch. 6

Barry Richman. “Capitalists and Managers in Communist China,” Harvard Business Review, January/February 1967.

D. Perkins, “Industrial Planning and Management,” in A. Eckstein, W. Galenson and T. C. Liu, eds., Economic Trends in Communist China, Chicago, 1968.

Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ch. 12.

IV Foreign Economic Relations
  1. Foreign Economic Relations

F. D. Holzman, Foreign Trade Under Central Planning, Cambridge, Mass., 1974, Chs. 2, 6 (analysis of Fig. 6.1, p. 146 and section on foreign trade discrimination, pp. 150-152 are optional).

F. L. Pryor, The Communist Foreign Trade System, Cambridge, Mass., 1963, Chs. 1, 5 (pp. 131-139).

E. A. Hewett, Foreign Trade Prices in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Cambridge, Eng., 1974, Ch. 2.

R. F. Dernberger, “Prices, the Exchange Rate and Economic Efficiency in the Foreign Trade of Communist China,” A. A. Brown and E. Neuberger, eds., International Trade and Central Planning, Berkeley, California, 1968.

V. Performance
  1. Comparative Productivity and Growth

S. Cohn, Economic Development in the Soviet Union, Lexington, Mass., 1970, Chs. 4, 6.

A. Bergson, Planning and Productivity Under Soviet Socialism, New York, 1968 Chs. 1-3.

R. W. Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, 2nd ed. Boston, Mass., 1966, Ch. 6.

A. Bergson “Development Under Two Systems: Comparative Productivity Growth Since 1950,” World Politics, July, 1971; reprinted in Bornstein, Comparative Economic Systems, 3rd ed.

B. Ward, “Capitalism vs. Socialism: A Small Country Version,” in G. Grossman, ed., Essays in Socialism and Planning in Honor of Carl Landauer, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Ch. 9.

Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ch. 1.

John G. Gurley, “Capitalist and Maoist Economic Development,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, April-July 1970, pp. 42ff.

Reading Period:

Wage Determination and Inequality

Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 6.

Bergson, The Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge, Mass., 1944, Chs. 2, 13, 14.

M. Matthews*, “Top Incomes in the USSR: Towards a Definition of the Soviet Elite,” Survey, Summer, 1975.

Charles Hoffman, “Work Incentives in Chinese Industry and Agriculture,” in Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, An Economic Profile of Mainland China, Vol. 2, Washington, D.C., February 1967.

Convergence?

J. K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State, Boston, 1967, Ch. XXXV.

Bertram Wolfe, “Russia and the USA: A Challenge to the Convergence Theory” and J.K. Galbraith, “Reply,” American Humanist, September/October 1968.

Peter Wiles, “Convergence: Possibility and Probability” in Balinky et al., Planning and the Market in the USSR, Rutgers, 1967.

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Portrait of Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading List and Final Exam for Games and Strategy. Schelling, 1963

 

Thomas Schelling was hired by the Harvard economics department as a professor in 1958. According to the Harvard course catalogues, he taught the undergraduate course “Games and Strategy” nine times during the 1960’s.  This post provides the syllabus/reading list and final exam for that course from the first term of the 1963-64 academic year.

Materials from Schelling’s course “Economics and National Security” that he taught in 1960 and from his 1970 course “Conflict, Coalition and Strategy” have been transcribed and posted earlier here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 135. Games and Strategy

Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 10. Professor Schelling

Theories and experimental studies of rational decision in conflict, collusion, coalition, bargaining, collective decision, arbitration, and uncertainty.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. LX, No. 21 (September 4, 1963): Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe 1963-1964, p. 103.

________________________

Economics 135
Games and Strategy
Fall, 1963

Reading Assignments

PART I. COPING WITH AN INTELLIGENT ADVERSARY

  1. Rapoport, Anatol: Fights, Games and Debates, Chapters 7, 8, 9; pages 130-165. (35 pages)
  2. Williams, John D.: The Compleat Strategyst, Chapters 1, 2; pages 1-85, and Chapter 3, pages 86-91 then scan rest of chapter. (91 pages)
  3. Hitch, Charles J. and McKean, Roland: The Economics Defense in the Nuclear Age, Chapter 10, “Incommensurables, Uncertainty, and the Enemy,” pages 182-205. (23 pages)
  4. Read, Thornton: “Strategy for Active Defense,” Papers and Proceedings of the AEA, American Economic Review, Vol. 51, No. 2, May 1961, pp. 465-471.
  5. Alchian, Armen A.: “The Meaning of Utility Measurement,” American Economic Review, Vol. 43 (March 1953) pages 26-50. (25 pages)

(OPTIONAL: R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa, Games and Decisions, Chapters 1-4, pp. 1-87.)

PART II. COERCION AND DETERRENCE

  1. Schelling, Strategy of Conflict, Chapters 1, 2, 5, 7, 8; pages 3-52, 117-161, 175-203. (121 pages)
  2. Ellsberg, Daniel: “The Theory and Practice of Blackmail,” (38 pages) mimeograph
  3. Schelling: “The Threat of Violence in International Affairs,” Proceedings, 57th Annual Meeting, American Society International Law. (INT. 16.8)
  4. Stevens, Carl M.: Strategy and Collective Bargaining Negotiation, chapters 3 and 5, pages 27-56 and 77-96. New York: McGraw Hill, 1963.

PART III. MUTUAL RESTRAINT

  1. Kenneth: Conflict and Defense, Chapters 1, 2, 6, pp. 1-40, 105-122. (58 pages)
  2. Schelling: Chapters 3, 4, 9, 10; Appendix A; pages 53-118, 207-254, 257-266. (121 pages)
  3. Cassady, Ralph, Jr.: “Taxicab Rate War,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 1, pages 364-8 (December, 1957). (5 pages)
  4. Valvanis, Stephan: “The Resolution of Conflict When Utilities Interact,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 2 (June 1958) pages 156-69. (13 pages)
  5. Rapoport, Chapter 10, pp. 166-79 (14 pages)
  6. Boulding, Chapters 12, 13, pp. 227-73.
  7. Schelling: “War Without Pain and Other Models,” World Politics, XV, (April, 1963) pp. 465-487.

PART IV. COLLECTIVE DECISION AND ARBITRATION

  1. Farguharson, Robin: “Sincerity and Strategy in Voting,” mimeograph (February 5, 1955) (7 pages)
  2. Black, Duncan: “On the Rationale of Group Decision Making,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 56 (February, 1948), pages 23-34 (12 pages)
  3. Steinhaus, Hugo: “The Problem of Fair Division,” Econometrica, Vol. 16 (January, 1948), pages 101-109. (9 pages)
  4. Dahl, Robert A.: A Preface to Democratic Theory, Chapter 2, pages 34-60, with special attention to notes 9 and 12, pages 42-43 and 43-44. (26 pages)
  5. Rapoport, Chapter 11, pp. 180-194. (15 pages)
  6. Rapoport, Chapter 12, pages 195-212. (17 pages)

PART V. EXPERIMENTAL GAMES

  1. Flood, Merrill M.: “Some Experimental Games,” Management Science, Vol. 5 (October, 1958) pages 5-26. (22 pages)
  2. Kaplan, Burns, and Quandt: “Theoretical Analysis of the Balance of Power,” Behavioral Science, Vol. 5 (July, 1960), pages 240-52. (12 pages)
  3. Schelling: Chapter 6, pages 162-72. (11 pages)
  4. Rapoport: Chapter 13, pages 213-25. (12 pages)

READING PERIOD

  1. Burns, Arthur L.: “A Graphical Approach to some Problems of the Arms Race,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 3, pages 326-42. (16 pages)
  2. Thibaut, John W. and Kelley, Harold H.: The Social Psychology of Groups, Chapter 7, pages 100-125. (26 pages)
  3. Goffman, Irving: “On Face-Work,” Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, Vol. 18 (August 1955), pp. 213-31.
  4. Twain, Mark, “The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg,” in The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1963-64”.

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FINAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS 135
January 29, 1964

ANSWER ALL FIVE QUESTIONS: The first two questions should take no more than ten or twenty minutes each, allowing at least forty-five minutes each for the last three.

  1. The following entry was submitted to the PUNCH “Toby competition” calling for an “unpleasing codicil to a will,” and received a runner-up award in the issue of July 6, 1960:

To my daughter, Judith Georgina Margaret, I leave my house, land and all my worldly possessions therein on the condition that it should be run as either an hotel, a college for gardeners or a rest-house for disappointed Beatniks.

My cash and capital are to be put into a trust. My widow, three daughters and nine grandchildren will each have an equal share in the trust. No income or capital can be drawn from the trust until the will is contested by a legatee. If this happens, the contesting legatee will lose his share to the others. If the others pay compensation for this loss, all capital will go untied to a charity.

Describe and discuss in game-theoretical terms the arrangement described in the second paragraph. Draw a matrix to represent it. (For purposes of the matrix, you may reduce the number of legatees to two.) Include, with respect to the two-person matrix, any pertinent references to a “solution,” “equilibrium point,” dominant or dominated strategies, or “efficiency” of outcome.

  1. It has been observed that for many people an important criterion in sending or not sending a Christmas card to someone is whether or not they expect to receive one from the person. They would be embarrassed if they received one and had not sent one, but would rather not bother sending one unless they were going to receive one. They might also not wish to embarrass the recipient by sending a card he did not expect and implying he had been negligent. It may not be going too far to suppose that some people, in deciding whether or not to send a card, recognize that the other person, in deciding whether or not to send his card, is wondering whether or not he will get a card.
    Draw a matrix corresponding to this situation, explaining your choice of numerical payoffs, and analyze the situation in familiar fashion.
  2. Two companies, Vitamins, Inc. and Hormones, Inc., sell to groups of potential customers that partially overlap. Some potential consumers of vitamins can meet their needs with hormones, but not all of them; and some potential consumers of hormones can meet their needs with vitamins, but not all of them. Prices are such that the two commodities are pertinent[sic, “perfect”?] substitutes for each other within the overlapping market. Advertizing is the principle form of competition between the two companies. Advertizing also increases, for Vitamins, Inc., sales to those who have no interest in hormones, and similarly for Hormones, Inc.
    The total advertizing budgets for the two companies are fixed by long-term contracts. In the short run they can vary the content of their advertizing. Specifically, the vitamin company can emphasize those uses of vitamins that compete with hormones or those uses that do not. If it emphasizes the uses that do compete, it tends to increase its share of the common market; if it emphasizes the virtues peculiar to vitamins it will increase consumption of vitamins by those who have no interest in hormones but will tend to lose in the market common to both. And similarly for the hormone company. A good deal of research has been done by both companies, leading to advertizing policies that take the rival’s advertizing campaign into account.

V has settled on the following policy:

      1. If H puts less than 20% of its budget into competitive advertizing, V will put none into that form;
      2. If H puts 20% or more into the competitive form, V will put the same percentage into competitive advertizing as H does.

H has arrived at the following policy:

      1. If V puts less than 25% into competitive advertizing, H will put twice that percentage into competitive advertizing;
      2. If V puts 25% or more into competitive advertizing, H will put exactly 50% into that form.

The Problem:

    1. Sketch the “partial equilibrium curves,” and analyze what may happen if each of the two firms simply reacts to what it sees the other doing.
    2. If H gets sophisticated and understands V’s behavior (but V goes on just reacting to what Hdoes), what policy do you expect H to follow, with what result?
    3. If both get sophisticated and realize the nature of their interacting policies, how does your analysis change?
    4. Reinterpret this problem in terms of two countries with fixed defense budgets, allocating their military resources into “offensive” and “defensive” components.
  1. A three-man board composed of A, B, and C, has held hearings on a personnel case involving an officer of the company. This officer was scheduled for promotion but, prior to final action on his promotion, he took a decision that cost the company a good deal of money. The question is whether he should be (1) promoted anyway, (2) denied the promotion, or (3) fired.
    The board has discussed the matter at length and is unable to reach unanimous agreement. In the course of discussion it has become clear to all three of them that their separate opinions are as follows:

A considers the officer to have been a victim of bad luck, not bad judgment, and wants to go ahead and promote him but, failing that, would keep him rather than fire him.
B considers the mistake serious enough to bar promotion altogether; he’d prefer to keep the officer, denying promotion, but would rather fire than promote him
C thinks the man ought to be fired but, in terms of personnel policy and morale, believes the man ought not to be kept unless he is promoted, i.e. that keeping on an officer who has been declared unfit for promotion is even worse than promoting him.

To recapitulate, their preferences among the 3 outcomes are:

Promote Keep Fire
A 1st 2nd 3rd
B 3rd 1st 2nd
C 2nd 3rd 1st

They must proceed to a vote. Voting is by majority. These are the two alternative procedures for voting, and they must first vote on which procedure to use. These alternative procedures are:

    1. Decide first, by majority vote, whether or not he is guilty of a mistake. If (I) he is not found guilty, promote him; if (II) he is found guilty, decide by another majority vote whether to (i) fire him or (ii) to keep him.
    2. By majority vote decide first, as a matter of principle, on the proper course of action if he is guilty — (I) to fire him or (II) to keep him without promotion. Then, once the appropriate penalty has been decided, decide by another majority vote whether he is guilty or not,

(i) promoting him if not guilty, otherwise
(ii) proceeding in accordance with the penalty decided on (I or II) in the first vote.

They must first elect one of the two procedures. They do this, too, by majority vote. They first hold a majority vote to choose procedure 1 or 2; they then vote in accordance with the procedure so selected.

Assume that (a) everyone’s preferences among the three outcomes are fully evident as a result of discussion, (b) everyone is shrewd enough and willing to vote in whatever fashion will attain his own preferences, and assumes everyone else will do the same, (c) voting is silent, by simultaneous ballot, and (d) no “deals” can he made among the three voters as to how they will vote.

The question:

      1. What happens to the officer? Promoted, just kept, or fired?
      2. Which of the two voting procedures, 1 or 2, did they elect to use?
      3. What would have happened to the officer if board-member A had preferred not to promote him?
      4. What might have happened if A and B could make a deal and vote accordingly?
      5. Describe some third majority-vote procedure which if it were used, would lead to the officer’s being kept (pursuant to the board’s preferences in the above table).
  1. Goffman says, “To study face-saving is to study the traffic rules of social interaction. …By face-work I mean to designate the actions taken by a person to make whatever he is doing consistent with face. …Thus poise in one important type of face-work, for through poise the person controls his embarrassment and hence the embarrassment that he and others might have over his embarrassment.”

See how far you can go in treating “poise” and “embarrassment” by a Richardson-process interaction model along the lines of Boulding or Valavanis.

Source: Papers Printed for Midyear Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Naval Science, Air Science (January, 196) in the bound volume Social Sciences, Final Examinations January 1964 (HUC 7000.28, no. 150).

Image Source: Harvard Kennedy School Magazine, Summer 2012.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Introduction to Quantitative Methods. Joint Economics and Graduate School of Public Administration. Bolton, 1964

 

Roger E. Bolton received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1964. His dissertation adviser was Otto Eckstein and according to his c.v. (May 2019) Roger Bolton  was an Instructor in Economics and nonresident Tutor in Adams House at Harvard at the time he taught the economics course “Introduction to Quantitative Methods” to students of the Graduate School of Public Administration.

___________________________

From GSPA report

…Dr. Roger E. Bolton, Instructor in Economics, was asked to continue his course, Introduction to Quantitative Methods, which was established particularly for the benefit of students in this School who, without previous mathematical training, needed an introduction to modern methods of economic measurement and projection.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1964-1965, p. 376.

___________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 168. Introduction to Quantitative Methods (Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Public Administration). Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., S., at 9. Dr. Bolton

An introduction to national income accounts, input-output tables, index numbers, capital coefficients, and other methods of economic measurement and projection. This course assumes no previous mathematical or statistical training.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe1964-1965, p. 111.

___________________________

Economics 168
Harvard University
Fall Term, 1964

Dr Roger E. Bolton
Littauer 322

There will be no hour examination. Each student will write a 15 page paper, due about midway in the reading period. The paper is to be some sort of “quantitative” analysis of an important policy problem facing the country of the student, if sufficient data are available for that country. The student will be given considerable latitude in selecting a topic but must confer with the instructor about it in advance. The paper must use extensively some body of statistical data, and include some commentary on the data and their reliability, suitability for the analysis. etc.

In addition to the paper and the final exam, there will be a number of problem sets to be worked during the term. The primary purpose of the problems is learning, not testing, but students’ performance on them will be weighed in determining the final grade. The final exam grade will be weighted 60 per cent, the paper grade 25 per cent, and the problems 15 per cent.

Outline and Readings

Students are expected to do at least some of the suggested readings during the term. There will be no special reading period assignment.

I. Introduction to Important Kinds of Economic Quantities (September 29-October 1)

Ackley, Macroeconomic Theory, pp. 78-88.

Freund and Williams, Modern Business Statistics, 1958, chs. 15-10.

II. Basic Statistical Inference (October 3-8)

Beach, Economic Models, pp. 113-171.

Dixon and Massey, Introduction to Statistical Analysis, ch. 3, pp. 11-23; ch. 5, pp.48-54; ch. 6, pp. 76-82, and all of chs. 8 and 9.

III. National Income and Product: Concept and Measurement (October 10-29)

A. Purposes and uses

Kuznets, Economic Change, Ch. 7.

Kuznets, Six Lectures on Economic Growth, pp. 13-18 and all of Lecture 4.

Suggested: Hitch and McKean, The Economics of Defense in the Nuclear Age, Ch. 3.

B. History

Rosen, National Income, ch. 1

Suggested: Studenski, The Income of Nations, Part 1.

C. Basic Concepts

Harvard Business School, Notes on National Accounting.

Rosen, National Income, chs, 4-5.

Suggested: Ackley, Macroeconomic Theory, chs. 2-3.

D. United States Practices

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, National Income, 1954 ed., pp. 27-60.

U. S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business July 1964 issue, tables giving data on the national accounts.

E. The United Nations System

United Nations Statistical Office, A System of National Accounts and Supporting Tables (Studies in Methods, series F, no. 2, Rev. 2 — second revision).

Suggested:

Organization for European Economic Co-operation, A Standardized System of National Accounts, 1958, pp. 31-49, and Systems of National Accounts in Africa, 1960, pp. 9-63.

Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada, National Accounts Income and Expenditure, 1926-1956, pp. 103-176.

Central Statistical Office, Great Britain, National Income Statistics: Sources and Methods, 1956, chs. 1-3.

F. Real Output, Deflation Principles, Various Price Indexes

Ackley, Macroeconomic Theory, pp. 88-99.

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, National Income 1954 ed., pp. 153-158.

U. S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 1168, Techniques of Preparing Major BLS Series, chs. 9-10.

Suggested: U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Hearings on Government Price Statistics, 87th Congress, 1961, especially pp. 9-78 of the report presented by the National Bureau of Economic Research

G. Other Common Indexes

No assigned readings

H. Intertemporal and International Comparisons

Bornstein, “A Comparison of Soviet and United States National Product,” in U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Comparisons of the United States and Soviet Economies, 1959.

Suggested: Gilbert and Kravis, An International Comparison of National Products and the Purchasing Power of Currencies.

I. Sources of Data

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, National Income 1954 ed., pp. 68-72, 76-86.

Ruggles and Ruggles, National Income Accounts and Income Analysis, ch. 8 and appendix to ch. 8.

United Nations Statistical Office, Methods of National Income Estimation (Series F, No. 8, of Studies in Methods).

J. Issues in National Income Accounting; Reliability of Data

Rosen, National Income, chs. 8-9.

Schelling, “National Income, 1954 edition,” in Review of Economics and Statistics, November 1955.

Schelling, essay in National Bureau of Economic Research, A Critique of the National Income and Product Accounts.

Jaszi, “The Statistical Foundations of the Gross National Product” in Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1956.

Suggested: Musgrave, The Theory of Public Finance, ch.8

IV. Other Summary Accounts and their Relation to the National Income Accounts (October 31-November 3)

A. The Balance of Payments

Kindleberger, International Economics, Ch. 2

U. S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business, July 1964 issue, tables.

Suggested:

“The Bookkeeping of the Balance of Payments,” Morgan Guaranty Survey, May 1962.

Badger, “The Balance of Payments: A Tool of Economics Analysis,” International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, September 1951.

B. The Government Budget

U. S. Bureau of the Budget, The Budget of the United States, Special Analysis A.

U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Survey of Current Business, July 1964 issue, tables.

Suggested: U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, The Budget as an Economic Document, a report by R. Moor (not the hearings of the same title).

V. Models of National Output Determination (November 5-19)

A. The Distinction between Potential and Actual Output

Schultze, National Income Analysis, ch. 6.

Suggested: Hamberg, Principles of a Growing Economy, ch. 7.

B. Potential Output Models

Kindleberger, Economic Development, ch. 4.

Higgins, Economic Development, 642-653.

Hamberg, Principles of a Growing Economy, ch. 8.

Suggested: Knowles,The Potential Economic Growth of the United States, Study Paper 20 of: U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Employment, Growth and Price Levels, 1960.

C. Actual Output Models

Hamberg, Principles of a Growing Economy, chs. 9-13.

Schelling, National Income Behavior, chs. 13-14.

Suggested:

Schelling, National Income Behavior, the remainder of book, but especially chs. 9-11.

Polak, “Monetary Analysis of Income Formation and Payments Problems, International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, November 1957.

VI. Input-Output Models (November 21-December 5)

A. Purposes and Uses

Chenery and Clark, Interindustry Economics, ch. 1.

B. Principles

Chenery and Clark, Interindustry Economics, chs. 2,3,5,6.

Suggested: Chenery and Clark, ch. 4.

Stone, Input-Output and National Accounts.

Bruno, Interdependence, Resource Use and Structural Change in Israel, chs. 1-3, Appendices A-1, B-2, and B-3.

C. Applications

Leontief, “The Structure of Development,” in Scientific American, September 1963.

Wonnacott, Canadian-American Interdependence, chs. 1-3, 5-7.

One of these three:

Meyer, “An Input-Output Approach to Evaluating the Influence of Exports on British Industrial Production in the Late 19th Century,” in Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, Volume 8, number 1.

Hirsch, “Interindustry Relations of a Metropolitan Area,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Nov. 1959.

Leontief and Hoffenberg, “The Economic Effects of Disarmament,” Scientific American, April 1961.

Suggested: Wonnacott, the remainder of the assigned book. The other two of the above articles by Meyer, Hirsch, and Leontief and Hoffenberg.

D. Evaluation

Dorfman, “The Nature and Significance of Input-Output,” Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1954.

Seers, “The Role of National Income Estimates in the Statistical Policy of an Underdeveloped Area,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 20, pp. 159-168, and his rejoinder in the same journal, Vol. 21, pp. 229-231.

Prest, “Comment” (on Seers), Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 21, pp. 223-228.

Peacock and Dosser, “Input-Output Analysis in an Underdeveloped Country,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 25, pp. 21-24.

Suggested: Arrow and Hoffenberg, A Time-Series Analysis of Inter-Industry Demands, especially chs. 1-2, appendix to ch. 2, ch. 3, ch. 7, pp. 117-126, 132-133.

VII. Aspects of Development Planning (December 8-19)

A. General

Chenery and Clark, Interindustry Economics, chs. 7, 9, 10.

Bruno, Interdependence, Resource Use, and Structural Change in Israel chs. 4-6.

Tinbergen, The Design of Development.

Rosenstein-Rodan, ed. Formation and Economic Development, pp. 11-32, 68-82.

Suggested:

Rosenstein-Rodan, ed. remainder of book.

Chenery and Clark, ch. 11.

B. Cases

India, Planning Commission, Third Five-Year Plan, 1961; skim enough to get the flavor.

Pakistan, Planning Commission, The Second Five-Year Plan; skim enough to get the flavor.

Mahalanobis, The Approach of Operational Research to Planning in India, 1955, ch. 1, 3, 4, appendix to ch. 4, chs. 5-7, and the three chapters in Appendix II.

C. Investment Criteria

Chenery, “Comparative Advantage and Development Policy, American Economic Review, March 1961.

Suggested:

Galenson and Leibenstein, “Investment Criteria, Productivity, and Economic Development” Quarterly Journal of Economics. August 1955.

Eckstein, “Investment Criteria for Economic Development and the Theory of Intertemporal Welfare Economics.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1957.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1964-1965 (1 of 2)”.

___________________________

Final Examination

ECONOMICS 168
FINAL EXAMINATION
Dr. Bolton
January 26, 1965

DO ALL 5 QUESTIONS.
Read each question carefully before beginning it. Please write legibly

  1. Briefly explain each of these terms: (30 minutes)

a. Net National Income at Factor Cost
b. Unbiased estimate (in statistical inference)
c. Commodity Flow Method
d. Statistical Discrepancy (in national income accounting)
e. “Accounting Prices”
f. Participation Rate

  1. Explain how you would use each of the following numbers in making economic policy decisions: (30 minutes)
    1. The number in row i and column j of an input-output “inverse”
    2. The “standard error of estimate” of a regression estimate of the marginal propensity to import
    3. The amount of planned saving which would occur when actual output is equal to potential output.
    4. The income-elasticity of consumption of a specific product
  2. Do three of the following four short problems: (30 minutes)
    1. Explain what amounts must be added to or subtracted from Gross Domestic Product to calculate Personal Disposable Income
    2. In regard to the change from 1963 to 1964 in a certain country, the income-elasticity of total consumption was 1.10, measuring both income and consumption in current prices. The rate of growth of income, in current prices, was 6 per cent. The consumer price index increased by 5 per cent. What was the rate of growth of real consumption between 1963 and 1964?
    3. Which of the following items are included in Gross National Product as calculated in the in the United States:

(1) State and local government interest
(2) Government purchase of land
(3) The level of inventories at the end of the year
(4) The net profit of a government enterprise
(5) Consumers’ repayment of debt
(6) Government sale of gold, from the monetary stock to foreigners
(7) Pensions paid to former government employees
(8) Purchase of repairs to old consumer durable goods
(9) Receipt by U.S. residents of dividends from foreign corporation
(10) Goods produced on government order but not yet paid for by the government

    1. The following values from the Gross National Product accounts of a certain country are available for a certain year. Calculate the government surplus or deficit for the year.
Personal disposable income 400
Personal consumption 360
Residential construction 60
Inventory investment 10
Business Fixed Investment 30
Exports 40
Imports 35
Depreciation allowances 30
Corporate profits taxes 30
Retained corporate earnings 30
Dividends 20
  1. Write an essay on input-output analysis, including a brief explanation of each of the following points: (45 minutes)
    1. The purposes and assumptions of the analysis
    2. The nature of the variables the analysis predicts
    3. The kinds of forecasts which must be made before the analysis can be used
    4. The differences between “open” and “closed” systems
    5. The way in which total Gross National Product is predicted
    6. The kinds of data needed to apply the analysis
    7. The relevance of input-output analysis to underdeveloped countries
      You may use mathematical notation and examples if you choose, but it is not necessary to do so.
  1. (45 Minutes)

In 1964, actual and potential GNP in the country of Karicutta were both $1,000 million, and the capital stock was $3,000 million. Potential GNP in this country can be exactly predicted by this Cobb-Douglas function:

O = A L3/4 K1/4

It is known that in 1965 the rate of growth of A will be 1 per cent, and the rate of growth of L will be 2 percent. All capital in the country is created by investment by corporations, and information about their investment plans for 1965 is given later in the problem.

Actual GNP can be exactly predicted by this model: (all dollar amounts are in millions)

Consumption = C = 50 + .8(1-t)Y
Investment = I = an exogenous variable
Government Purchases = G = an exogenous variable
Exports = X = an exogenous variable
Imports = M = .03Y
GNP = Y = C + I + G + X – M

In 1964, the variables had the following values:

T= .40
I= 250
G = 200
X = 50

The variable t represents the sum of:

.10 = the share of total GNP which is retained corporate earnings (“undistributed profits”)
.30 = the share of total GNP which is taxes

In 1965 it is known that exports will rise to 60. On the last day of 1964, all corporations in the country made the the following joint announcement to their shareholders: “It is necessary to increase our annual investment to 300 million dollars, and we shall do this beginning in 1965. To finance this added expenditure we will retain more profits and reduce dividends. Assuming that GNP will be 1,000 million in 1965 as it was 1964, we can raise the extra 50 million by raising the share of GNP retained by us from .10 to .15. Therefore, during the year 1965 we shall retain 15 per cent of GNP instead of 10 per cent, and we shall invest 300 million dollars.

What will be potential output in 1965? What must government purchases be in order to make actual output equal to potential? The tax rate is not to be changed. Show your calculations clearly in order to receive partial credit if your final answer is not correct.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Social Sciences. Final Examinations. January 1965 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 157). Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …,Naval Science, Air Science, January 1965.

Image Source: Roger E. Bolton in the Williams College Yearbook, Gulielmensian 1977, p. 18.

 

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. Course outline, readings, examination for introduction to econometrics. Marschak, 1949

The following course material was transcribed from copies found in Franco Modigliani’s papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Duke University. These items are also available in a scanned .pdf file at the Cowles Foundation website at Yale. Modigliani’s original mimeographed copy is for the most part much more legible than the on-line scanned copy at the Cowles Foundation. This is particularly true for the “terminal examination” questions. Over forty pages of typescript for the lectures are also found in the original Cowles Commission Discussion paper.

More on Jacob Marschak can be found in Robert W. Dimand’s “Keynesian Economics at the Cowles Commission” (Review of Keynesian Studies, vol. 2, 2020, pp. 22-25).

________________________

J. Marschak. INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMETRICS
Economics 314
Spring 1949.

314. Introduction to Econometrics: Statistical testing of economic theories. Numerical estimation of demand and cost functions and other functions occurring in the theory of the firm and household, the theory of markets and the theory of national income. Estimation of economic models. Statistical prediction under conditions of changing economic structure and policy. Prerequisites: Econ 310, 311, 312 or equiv. Win [sic] TuTh 3-4:30; Marschak.

Source: University of Chicago.The College and the Divisions, Sessions of 1948-1949. In Announcements Vol. XLVIII (May 25, 1948) No. 4, p. 250.

________________________

INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMETRICS
20 Lectures given at the University of Chicago in Spring, 1949*

Cowles Commission Discussion Papers, Economics: 266

[*To be used jointly with 24 Lectures (same title) given at the University of Buffalo in Spring, 1948.]

Part I. Non-stochastic economics [11 lectures]

  1. Best policy. Goal variable; non-controlled, controlled, strategic variables.
  2. Exogenous variables and structural parameters. Types of prediction.
  3. Determining the structure from theory and data.
  4. An example.
  5. Econometric “pitfalls” due to disregarded variables or relations. Non-idenifiable structures.
  6. [continued]
  7. The identification, continued
  8. Why does the identification problem arise in non-experimental sciences?
  9. Discussion of earlier problems.
  10. Discussion of earlier problems. [continued]
  11. When need we know the structure?

Part II. Stochastic economics: Population properties [8 lectures]

  1. Joint distributions, non-parametric.
  2. Mid-term examination.
  3. Parameters of joint distributions.
  4. Least-squares property of coefficients of linear regression. Properties of normal distributions.
  5. Exogenous and endogenous variables in stochastic economics.
  6. Identification and determination of structure by the method of reduced form: examples.
  7. More examples.
  8. Motion of an economic variable. Dynamic models. The assumption of independent successive disturbances and its implication.

Part III. Stochastic economics: Sample properties [1 lecture]

  1. Useful properties of certain least squares and maximum likelihood estimators. Obtaining maximum likelihood estimates of structure from those of reduced form.
Recommended reading.
Attached Materials**

J. Marschak, “Economic Structure, Path, Policy and Prediction”

__________, “Statistical Inference from Non-Experimental Observations—an Economic Example”

G. Hildreth, “Problems in the Estimation of Agricultural Production Functions”

[**As far as available.]

*     *     *

READING MATERIAL TO BE USED IN COURSE ON INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMETRICS,
SPRING QUARTER, 1949

  1. Allen, R. G. D., Mathematical Analysis for Economists.
  2. American Economic Association, “Survey of Contemporary Economics” (Blakiston Co., 1949).
  3. Haavelmo, T., “The Probability Approach to Econometrics” (Supplement to Econometrica, 194) .
  4. Haavelmo, T., “Quantitative Research in Agricultural Economics,” Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. 29, No. 4, November, 1947.
  5. Girshick, M. A., and T. Haavelmo, “Statistical Analysis of the Demand for Food,” Econometrica, Vol. 15, No. 2. April, 1947.
  6. Klein, Lawrence R., “The Use of Econometric Models,” Econometrica, April, 1947.
  7. Haavelmo, T., “Methods of Measuring the Marginal Propensity to Consume,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, March, 1947.
  8. Klein, Lawrence R., “A Post-Mortem on Transition Predictions,” Journal of Political Economy, August, 1946.
  9. Marschak, J., L. Hurwicz, Abstracts of papers: Econometrica, April, 1946, pp. 165-170.
  10. Koopmans, T., “Statistical Estimation of Simultaneous Economic Relations,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 40, December, 1945.
  11. Marschak, J. and William H. Andrews, “Random Simultaneous Equations and the Theory of Production,” Econometrica, Vol. 12, No. 3-4, July-October, 1944.
  12. Marschak, J., “Money Illusion and the Demand Analysis,” The Review of Economic Statistics, 25, February, 1943.
  13. Marschak, J., “Economic Structure, Path, Policy, and Prediction,” American Economic Review, Vol. 37, May, 1947, pp. 81-84. Lil.
  14. Marschak, J., “Statistical Inference from Non-Experimental Observations,” Econometrica, January, 1948, p. 53.
  15. Hurwicz, L., “Some Problems Arising in Estimating Economic Relationships,” Econometrica, Vol. 15, July, 1947.
  16. Tinbergen, J., “Business Cycles in the U.S.A. 1919-1932” (Statistical Testing of Business-cycle Theories. II), League of Nations, Geneva, 1939.
  17. Koopmans, T., “Measurement without. Theory,” Review of Economic Statistics, 29, August, 1947.

*     *     *

J. Marschak.
INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMETRICS
Economics 314, Spring 1949.

Terminal Examination

Note: Try to answer all 4 problems first, omitting the questions (III) in problems 1 and 4. Answer the questions (III) if time remains.

Problem 1. The quantity x and the price p of a perishable farm product (each measured from its population mean) are determined as in the following model (subscripts indicate time):

(1.1) Demand: xt = αpt + ut

(1.2) Supply: xt = βpt-1 + ut

(1.3) The disturbance ut is not autocorrelated; nor is vt.

Show

(I) How to estimate α for a long time series.

(II) What other structural parameters are present?

(III) (If time remains): How would you estimate those other parameters?

Problem 2. The model of the previous problem is modified as follows:

(2.1) Demand: xt = αpt + ut  (ut not autocorrelated)

(2.2) Price fixation: p_{t}=p^{\ast }_{t} , a level fixed every year by decree.

Show

(I) How to estimate α and σuu?

(II) Is the estimate of α the same as in the previous problem?

Problem 3. National income y, consumption c, and annual (saving) investment i are all measured in dollars of constant purchasing power, and

(3.1) c = αy + β + u ;

(3.2) E(u);

(3.3) i = y – c (an identity);

(3.4) i is exogenous.

(I) Show how to estimate α, β, σuu from a long time series of data on y, c, i.

(II) Suppose y, c, i denote the income, consumption and saving of an individual family which can control its savings but not its income. How does this modification affect the model and the estimation procedure from a time series of family data, or from a survey of a large number of families?

Problem 4. A survey of very large number T of firms belonging to the same industry but located in places with different wage-rates w1, …, wT has been made. The price p of the product is the same for all firms. Wage-rates and price are fixed independently of the firms’ action. The output Xt of each firm depends on labor used only, Nt, according to the formula

(4.1) {X_{t}=B_{t}N^{A}_{t}}C , t = 1, …, T

(the elasticity A being the same for all firms.) Hence,

(4.2) xt = bt + Ant, t = 1, …, T

where the small letters (except for t) stand for the logarithms. Further assume that each firm pushes its output to the point where, apart from a random deviation, the ratio \left( w_{t}/p\right)  \equiv R_{t} equals the labor’s marginal product,

(4.3) Rt = (dXt/dN)⋅Ct, t = 1, …, T

where Ct is a random percentage deviation. Hence

(4.4) Rt = R_{t}=AN^{A-1}_{t}\cdot B_{t}C_{t} , t = 1, …, T

(4.5) rt = a + bt + ct + (A-1)nt, t = 1, …, T,

where again small letters indicate logarithms.

Questions:

(I) How to estimate A?

(II) What other structural parameters are present?

(III) (If time remains): How to estimate those?

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Franco Modigliani Papers, Box T1, Folder “Jacob Marschak’s Courses, 1940-1949.”

Image Source: Carl F. Christ. History of the Cowles Commission, 1932-1952

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of population growth. Syllabus and examination. Kuznets, 1963

Simon Kuznets was born in Pinsk (Russian Empire, now Belarus) April 30, 1901. He went to secondary school in Rovno and in Kharkov. In 1918–1921 he attended Kharkov Commercial Institute, after which he worked 1921–1922 in the Department of Labor Statistics of South Bureau of Council of Trade Unions. His family emigrated to the United States in 1922.

The Kharkiv National University of Economics in Ukraine was named after Simon Kuznets in 2013.

Previously transcribed and posted here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror: materials from Simon Kuznets’ 1960-61 Harvard course, Economics 203 “Economic Growth and Comparative Economic Structures”.

____________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 286. Economics of Population Growth
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2-3:30. Professor Kuznets.

A review of long-term trends in growth and structure of population and of their economic implications.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, 1962-1963. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. LIX, No. 17 (August 20, 1962), p. 108.

____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 286
Professor Kuznets

Spring Term, 1963

List of Readings (preliminary)

The Malthusian Theory

  1. T. R. Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1st edition 1798, reprinted by Macmillan 1929 (or other reprints)
  2. James Bonar, Malthus and His Work, London 1885, reprinted in 1924, (particularly Book I, pp. 1-207)

(For Browsing)

  1. Kenneth Smith, The Malthusian Controversy, London 1951
  2. Harold A. Boner, Hungry Generations, New York 1955

The Low-level Equilibrium Trap

  1. R. R. Nelson, A Theory of the Low-Level Equilibrium Trap, American Economic Review, December 1956, pp. 894-908
  2. Harvey Leibenstein, Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth, New York 1957, Chapter 10, pp. 117-173

Historical Background

  1. United Nations, The Determinants and Consequences of Population Trends, New York 1953, Chapter II, pp. 5-20

Mortality

  1. United Nations, volume listed under (7), Chapter IV, pp. 47-70
  2. George J. Stolnitz, A Century of International Mortality Trends, Population Studies, vol, IX, no. 1, July 1955, pp. 24-55 and vol. X no. 1, July 1956, pp. 17-42

(For Browsing)

  1. Thomas McKeown and R. S. Record, two papers on causes of decline in mortality in England in the 18th and in the 19th centuries, Population Studies, vol. IX, 1955, pp. 119-41 and vol. XVI, 1962, pp. 94-122

Fertility

  1. United Nations, volume listed under (7), Chapter V, pp. 71-97
  2. Frank Lorimer, Culture and Human Fertility, UNESCO 1954, pp. 15-251
  3. Kingsley Davis and Judith Blake, Social Structure and Fertility: An Analytic Framework, Economic Development and Cultural Change, vol. IV, no. 3, April 1956, pp. 211-35
  4. Gary S. Becker, An Economic Analysis of Fertility, Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, Universities-NBER Committee volume, Princeton 1960, pp. 209-240
  5. E. E. Hagen, Population and Economic Growth, American Economic Review June 1959, pp. 310-327

Migration

  1. United Nations, volume listed under (7), Chapter VI, pp. 98-134

Economic Implications

  1. United Nations, volume listed under (7), Chapter XIII, pp. 220-38
  2. Simon Kuznets, Population Change and Aggregate Output, in the volume listed under (6), pp. 324-351
  3. Ansley J. Coale and Edgar M. Hoover, Population Growth and Economic Development in Low Income Countries, Princeton 1958, Part Five, pp. 295-335

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Folder “Economics, 1962-1963 (2 of 2)”.

____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 286
Examination, May 23, 1963

Please answer six and no more than eight questions, choosing at least one question in each of the four Roman numeral groups.

A detailed outline of an answer is a good substitute for writing out the answer in full,

Please write legibly.

I

  1. What are the connections in the Malthusian theory of population growth among the rate of natural increase of population, the “Iron” law of wages, and the law of diminishing returns? In answering consider birth and death rates separately.
  2. What assumptions are made in the low-level equilibrium trap theories concerning the connection between death rates and per capita income? Concerning the connection between birth rates and per capita income? Discuss the validity of these assumptions.

II

  1. What factors made for significant declines in mortality in the period since the late 18th century? In outlining the groups of factors involved, suggest why the declines were delayed for long periods in the 19th century in many developed countries.
  2. Indicate the differences in magnitudes of decline in mortality among (a) age groups; (b) sex groups; (c) urban and rural population. Select any two of these for a discussion of the factors that may have been responsible for the differences in magnitude of mortality decline.

III

  1. Outline the major trends in the birth rates since late 18th century in: (a) older developed countries of Europe; (b) younger offshoots of Europe overseas; (c) underdeveloped countries. In answering the questions, indicate, in case trends are significant, whether they apply to crude rates alone or also to rates per woman of child-bearing age and per married woman of child-bearing age.
  2. What groups of factors have been suggested to account for the downward trends in birth rates in the developed countries? In outlining these, and the relevant theories, mention also the cross-section differentials in birth rates that provide the empirical base for such theories.
  3. What do the current differences in crude birth rates between developed and underdeveloped countries reflect in the way of different marriage rates, different ages of women at marriage, differential fertility by age of mother and age of father, total number of children in a completed family? Suggest some economic implications of these differences.

IV

  1. What relationship between population trends and economic trend account for much of internal and external migration observed since the late 18th century in and among developed countries? In answering, try to specify as closely as possible the economic and the population trends involved.
  2. What effects on the efficiency of labor can be ascribed to internal (and external) migration in developed countries? Indicate briefly the various types of effect that might be usefully distinguished.
  3. What effects on the pattern of life and consumption of the population can be ascribed to internal (and external) migration in developed countries? Indicate briefly the various type of effect that might be usefully distinguished.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, …Naval Science, Air Science. June 1963. In bound volume: Social Sciences, Final Examinations, June 1963 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 147 of 284).

Image Source: Simon Kuznets portrait from 1971 in Wikipedia Commons.

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Junior Honors Reading Lists. Conrad and Henderson, 1958-1959

 

Before the 1958-59 academic year began, tragedy struck the Harvard economics department. Assistant professor of economics Stefan Valavanis (31 years old) was found shot in his tent near Mt. Olympus. He was to be the lead instructor for the Junior year honors course in economics during the up-coming year. With his loss the course was left to his assistant professor colleagues, Alfred Haskell Conrad and James Mitchell Henderson.

Alfred Haskell Conrad, Ph.D. 1954. The Redistribution of Incomes and the Matrix Multiplier: The Impact of Fiscal Policy on the Distribution of Income in 1950. Advisors: W.W. Leontief and John S. Chipman. (Mathematics Genealogy Project)

James Mitchell Henderson, Ph.D. 1955. The Efficiency of the Coal Industry: An Application of Linear Programming. Advisors: W.W. Leontief and Elizabeth Waterman Gilboy. (Mathematics Genealogy Project)

James M. Henderson was co-author with Richard Quandt of Microeconomic Theory: A Mathematical Approach, the leading graduate microeconomics text in its day and (fun fact) married Anne O. Krueger in July 1981 when they both were professors at the University of Minnesota. The two of them moved on to become professors at Duke University. Henderson died in 1992.

_____________________

Course Announcement

Economics 100. Junior Honors Course

Full course. M., 4-6. Assistant Professors [Stefan] Valavanis (in charge), [Alfred Haskell] Conrad and (spring term) [James Mitchell] Henderson.

Permission required of Assistant Professor Valavanis.

Required course for Economics concentrators who are candidates for honors. This course will deal with the theory of wages and prices; problems of public policy in the fields of Industrial Organization and Labor; the relation between descriptive material and theoretical analysis; methods of testing hypotheses. One two-hour group meeting each week organized as a seminar with papers by students. Additional papers and individual conferences with staff members.

Source: Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1958-1959. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. LV, No. 20 (September 3, 1958), p. 89.

_____________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 100. Junior Honors Course. Assistant Professors Conrad and (S) Henderson. Full course.

(F) Total 49: 3 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe
(S) Total 46: 4 Seniors, 37 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1958-59, p. 70.

_____________________

Final Reading List and Course Outline
Economies 100
Fall, 1958

I. Introduction: Some background and material on the nature and setting of American industrial enterprise. The market mechanism.

W. Adams (ed.), The Structure of American Industry, Chs. 5, 6, 7, 11, 13.

A.B. Jack, “The Channels of Distribution for an Innovation,” Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, IX, p. 113.

K.E. Boulding, Economic Analysis, Part I (any edition).

II. The Empirical Measurement of Economic Functions.

M.J. Moroney, Facts from Figures, Ch. 2, 4; (probability and central tendency).

R.E. Freund, Modern Elementary Statistics, Ch. 12, 13.

Jan Tinbergen, Econometrics, Chs. 1, 2, 5.

R. G. D. Allen, Mathematical Analysis for Economists, Ch. 2; Ch. 6 (recommended) (functions and derivatives).

III. Factors Determining Industry Structure.

A. Production Theory

E. A. G. Robinson, The Structure of Competitive Industry, Chs. 1-5.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chs. 6,7.

V. E. Smith, “The Statistical Production Function,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1944-45, pp. 543-62.

R. G. Bressler, Jr. “Research Determination of Economies of Scale,” Journal of Farm Economics, 1945, p. 526.

B. Cost Curves

Committee on Price Determination for the Conference on Price Research, Cost Behavior and Price Policy, pp. 80-115, 291-301, 219-263, 321-329.

J. Viner, “Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” Readings in Price Theory. Ch. 10, p. 198.

M. Colberg, et al, Business Economics, Ch. 4, 5.

C. Barriers to entry other than economies of scale

J. Bain, Barriers to New Competition, Ch. 6.

IV. Markets and Pricing:

A. Indifference Curves and Consumer Theory

George J. Stigler, The Theory of Price (any edition) Ch. 5.

Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chs. 2, 3, 4.

Boulding, Economic Analysis, Ch. 34 (revised edition).

B. Pure Competition and Pure Monopoly

E. H. Chamberlin, Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Chs. 1, 2.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chs. 8, 16.

C. Oligopoly

Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Chs. 3, 4, 5.

Readings in Price Theory, Chs. 20, 21.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Ch. 20.

R. M. Alt, “Statistical Measurement of Price Flexibility,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1949, p. 92.

J. Bain, Barriers, Ch. 7.

J. Vanek, “The Nature of Equilibrium in Monopolistic Competition,” Mimeographed.

V. Investment Theory

A. An outline of formal theory

Samuelson, Economics, Ch. 29.

Boulding, Chs. 35-37 (revised edition).

Joel Dean, Capital Budgeting, Chs. 1-3.

J. M. Clark, “Business Acceleration and the Law of Demand,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory.

J. Meyer and E. Kuh, The Investment Decision, Ch. 11 (2).

B. Uncertainty

R. Weckstein, “On the Use of the Theory of Probability in Economics,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1953, pp. 191-198.

Ward Edwards, “The Theory of Decision Making,” Psychological Bulletin, 1954.

A. G. Hart, Anticipation, Uncertainty, and Dynamic Planning.

C. Financial Considerations

J. Meyer and E. Kuh, The Investment Decision, Chs. 9, 12.

R. Mack, The Flow of Business Funds and Consumer Purchasing Power, Ch. VIII.

W. Heller, “The Anatomy of Investment Decisions,” Harvard Business Review, March 1951.

Fortune, “The Fine Art of Raising Capital,” u, July 1956 and ”How Much Can Business Borrow?” June 1956.

D. The Influence of Market Structure on the Investment Decision and Innovation.

W. Fellner,” The Influence of Market Structure on Technological Progress,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1951, pp. 556-577.

C. Kaysen, “A Dynamic Aspect of the Monopoly Problem,” Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1949, pp. 109-113.

Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Ch. VIIl, pp. 87-106.

_____________________

Economics 100
Reading List
Spring, 1959

I. General Equilibrium.

E. Phelps Brown, The Framework of the Pricing System, Chaps. II-IV.

F. Zeuthen, Economic Theory and Method, Chaps. 10-12 and pp. 194-197.

J. R. Hicks, Value and Capital, Part II.

W. W. Leontief, “Input-Output Economics,” Scientific American, October, 1951.

W. W. Leontief, “Input-Output Analysis and the General Equilibrium Theory,” in T. Barna, ed., The Structural Interdependence of the Economy, pp. 42-49.

Selected Applications

(The material listed under this heading may be used as the basis for tutorial papers and discussion. Specific assignments will be made by the instructor.)

W. W. Leontief, “Factor Proportions and the Structure of American Trade,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Nov., 1956.

R. S. Eckaus, “The Factor Proportions Problem in Underdeveloped Areas,” American Economic Review, September, 1955.

II. Welfare Economics.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chaps. 4, 8, 16. (for review).

J. de V. Graaff, Theoretical Welfare Economics. Chaps. I-V, X, XI. (omit the appendices)

K. Boulding, “Welfare Economics,” in Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. II, B. F. Haley, ed.

A. P. Lerner, The Economics of Control, Chaps. 3, 4.

Selected Applications

M. Friedman, in R. Solo, ed., Economics and the Public Interest, Chap. 9.

W. S. Vickey, The Revision of the Rapid Transit Fare Structure of the City of New York, (hectographed; in Littauer Library).

J. V. Krutilla and O. Eckstein, Multi-Purpose River Development, 1958.

N. Kaldor, The Expenditure Tax.

III. Macro Models — Cycles, Growth, Money.

G. Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Chaps. 2, 3, 5.

A. Hansen, Business Cycles and National Income, Part Il.

A. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chaps. 3-6.

J. S. Duesenberry, Business Cycles and Economic Growth, Chaps. 2-5, 9-12.

C. Christ, “Aggregate Econometric Models,” American Economic Review, June, 1956

H. Makower and J. Marschak, “Assets, Prices and Monetary Theory,” in G. Stigler and K. Boulding, eds., Readings in Price Theory. Chap. 14.

J. Gurley and E. Shaw, “Financial Aspects of Economic Development,” American Economic Review, September, 1955.

Selected applications from the fields of wage and price policy, inflation, international trade and development will be assigned by the instructors.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University: Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1958-59 (1 of 2).”

Image Sources:

Left. 1959 Alfred Haksell Conrad, John Simon Guggeheim Memorial Foundation.
Right:  1959, James M. Henderson, University of Minnesota Archives.

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Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. Reading lists for Aggregate Economic Theory, Dorfman. 1962

 

 

“Macro-economics” was explicitly named in the course description for the Harvard undergraduate economics tutorial in 1962-63. However, not a single course included “macroeconomics” in its title. Instead graduate students were treated to “aggregate economic theory”, an early and one might argue more felicitous name than “macroeconomics”.  This post provides the reading list for Robert Dorfman’s aggregate economic theory course. During the second term of 1958-1959 the same course content was taught by Dorfman as “Economics 241. Money and Banking”.

_________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 241. Aggregate Economic Theory

Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 12. Professor Dorfman.

Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe, 1962-1963, p. 106.

_________________________

Fall, 1962

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 241
READING LIST NO. 1

TEXTS

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

American Economic Association, Readings in Business Cycle Theory.

Also recommended:

Alvin H. Hansen, A Guide to Keynes

Introductory Material

A. P. Lerner, “The General Theory (1),” S.E. Harris, ed., The New Economics, Ch. 11.

L. Tarshis, “An Exposition of Keynesian Economics,” R.V. Clemence, ed., Readings in Economic Analysis, Vol. I, pp. 197-208.

Gardner Ackley, Macroeconomic Theory, Chs. II, III, IV.

U.S. Department of Commerce, National Income, 1954 Edition (Supplement to the Survey of Current Business), pp. 27-60 and skim the rest.

T.C. Schelling, “National Income, 1954 Edition,” Rev. of Econ. and Stat., XXXVII, 321-335 (November 1955).

Consumption

J.M. Keynes, General Theory. Book III.

Robert Ferber, “Research on Household Behavior,” Amer. Econ. Rev., LII, 19-63 (March 1962) .

Irwin Friend, Individuals’ Saving, Ch. 8

J.S Duesenberry, Income, Saving and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, Ch. 3.

M. Friedman, A Theory of the Consumption Function, Ch. 9, at least.

G. Haberler, “My. Keynes’ Theory of the Multiplier,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 9.

Fritz Machlup, “Period Analysis and Multiplier Theory,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, ch. 10.

Investment

J.M. Keynes, General Theory, Chs. 11, 12, 16.

I. Fisher, Theory of Interest, Chs. 5-11.

A. A. Alchian, “The Rate of Interest, Fisher’s Rate of Return over Costs and Keynes’ Internal Rate of Return,” Amer. Econ. Rev., X, 938-943 (December 1955).

J.R. Meyer and E. Kuh, The Investment Decision. Chs. 2, 12.

J.S.  Duesenberry, Business Cycles and Economic Growth, Chs. 3, 5.

F. Modigliani and M.H. Miller, “The Cost of Capital, Corporation Finance and the Theory of Investment,” Amer. Econ. Rev. XLVIII, 261-297 (June 1958).

J.M. Clark, “Business Acceleration and the Law of Demand,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 11.

 

 

Fall, 1962

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 241
READING LIST NO. 2

Interest Theory

J. M. Keynes, General Theory. Chs. 13, 14, 15, 17.

G.L.S. Shackle, “Recent Theories Concerning the Nature and Role of Interest,” Economic Journal, 71 (June 1961), 209-254.

A.P. Lerner in S.E. Harris, ed, The New Economics, Chs. 45, 46.

B. Ohlin, “Some Notes on the Stockholm Theory of Saving and Investment,” Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 5

F. A. Lutz, “The Outcome of the Saving-Investment Discussion,” ibid., Ch. 6.

W. Fellner and H.M. Somers, “Alternative Monetary Approaches to Interest Theory,” Rev. of Ec. And Stat., Feb, 1941.

T. Wilson and P.S.W. Andrews, eds., Oxford Studies in the Price Mechanism, Ch. 1.

R. W. Clower, “Productivity, Thrift, and the Rate of Interest,” Economic Journal, March 1954.

Monetary Theory

Irving Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money, Chs. 2, 3, 8.

Alfred Marshall, “Minutes of Evidence before the Royal Commission on the Values of Gold and Silver,” Questions 9629-9664 (pp. 34-46), Question 9686 (pp. 51-52).

J.M. Keynes, A Tract on Monetary Reform, pp. 74-87.

A.C. Pigou, “The Value of Money,” in F. A, Lutz and L.W. Mints, eds., Readings in Monetary Theory, Ch. 10

W.F. Crick, “The Genesis of Bank Deposits,” ibid., Ch. 4.

H.S. Ellis, “Some Fundamentals in the Theory of Velocity,” ibid., Ch. 7.

Milton Friedman, “The Quantity Theory of Money—A Restatement,” in M. Friedman, ed., Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, pp. 3-21.

H. Johnson, “Monetary Theory and Policy,” Am. Ec. Rev., June 1962.

W.J. Baumol, “The Transactions Demand for Cash, Quarterly Journ. of Econ., November 1952.

 

 

Fall, 1962

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 241
READING LIST NO. 3

Synthesis of Aggregative Economics

J.M. Keynes, General Theory: Chs. 18, 19, 21.

Franco Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money” in Readings in. Monetary Theory, Ch. 11.

J.R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the ‘Classics’” in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, Ch. 24.

A.C. Pigou, “The Classical Stationary State,” Economic Journal, December 1943.

Don Patinkin, “Price Flexibility and Full Employment,” American Economic Review, September 1948.

P.A. Samuelson, “The Simple Mathematics of Income Determination,” in Income, Employment and Public Policy (New York: 1948), 133-155.

D.B. Suite, “Forecasting and Analysis with an Econometric Model.” American Economic Review, March 1962.

Marc Nerlove, “A Quarterly Econometric Model for the United Kingdom,” American Economic Review, March 1962.

Aggregative Models of Economic Growth

R.P. Harrod, Towards a Dynamic Economies, Lecture 3.

E.D. Domar, Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth, Chs. 3-5.

Robert Solow, “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1956.

W.J. Baumol, Economic Dynamics, Ch. 4.

READING PERIOD ASSIGNMENT.

J. M. Keyes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, entire.

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

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1962-1963 (1 of 2)”.