An earlier post provides a transcription of questions from the corresponding May 7, 1949 exam given to prospective Ph.D. candidates in economics. That May exam was fished from the papers of Albert G. Hart and had only 29 questions. The January exam below comes from Martin Bronfenbrenner’s paper and consists of 46 questions. In both cases the examinees were to select five questions to answer. The large difference in the number of questions might be due to a missing page, but I suspect it has something to do with the number of prospective Ph.D. candidates taking the exam.
_______________
EXAMINATION
for
PROSPECTIVE CANDIDATES FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D. IN ECONOMICS
(January 8, 1949, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.)
Questions on Specific Areas of Economic Study
Answer any FIVE but NOT MORE THAN FIVE questions.
- Write all answers legibly in ink or on a typewriter.
- Begin each question on a fresh sheet of paper. Write your name on all sheets used.
- Be as specific as the question permits.
- Be sure that your statements are relevant to the question.
- Allow yourself time to reread your answers before handing in the sheets.
__________________
- What characteristics of the U.S. population in 1935 and what major features of the original Social Security Act produced the controversy over full reserve vis-à-vis pay-as-you-go financing? What in your judgment is the strongest argument in support of each position?
- Analyze the relationship of the Keynesian aggregate consumption function to the consumption functions of individuals.
- “The legislation of 1933-1935 virtually put the Federal Reserve Board out of business as a policy agency.” Evaluate this assertion and state why you either accept or reject it.
- It is argued that any serious step to control the present inflation in this country would precipitate an even more costly depression. Do you agree? Why, or why not?
- Discuss the nature and causes of the “grain problem” that prevailed in the USSR on the eve of the First Five Year Plan.
- To what extent do prices in the USSR correspond to and to what extent deviate from “labor value”?
- Discuss the nature and merits of the so-called “value of the service” principle of utility and railroad rate making as distinct from the “cost of service” principle.
- Discuss the arguments for and against a public policy of subsidized rural electrification. Assume, for the purpose of the discussion, that without a subsidy only 60% of the farms of the country in question will be electrified.
- Write a commentary on the following statement appearing in a recent book on appraisal:
“Modern writers in business finance have greatly clarified the problem of valuation by insisting that, with exceptions presently to be noted, the value of an enterprise is dependent entirely on prospective earnings.” - Compare the factors influencing the relative quantities of different agricultural commodities produced in (a) Russia, (b) England, (c) New Zealand or Australia, and (d) any tropical area.
- Discuss, with examples, the influences affecting the speed and pattern of industrialization.
- Define marginal productivity and discuss the conditions necessary, if the factors of production are compensated on that basis, to the result that the sum of the shares should equal the total product.
- Define elasticity of demand, distinguishing price elasticity and income elasticity, and outline briefly the problems affecting the degree of success which is practicable in trying to measure such elasticities.
- Discuss the “just price” in relation to market price, in medieval economic thought.
- Write a critique of Veblen’s theory of business cycles.
- Trace the reasons for the balance of payment difficulties of Great Britain since 1945.
- Discuss Soviet legislation on collective farms (kolkhoz) enacted after the publication of the model statute of an agricultural artel in 1935.
- Imagine yourself a capitalist in about 1830 with money to invest in manufacture. What considerations would influence your decision whether to put your money into manufacturing in Great Britain or into manufacturing in the United States?
- “The businessmen alone could not overthrow them; nor could they flourish under them. Therefore the peasants had to be called in, as well as the labor groups. The movement was thus enlarged into one of the great revolutionary movements of history, uniting interests and schools of thought ranging from millionaires to Communists; but it went forward raggedly because businessmen, peasants, and labor did not want exactly the same things and did not want to move forward at the same speed.” This is from Owen Latimore’s discussion of the Chinese Revolution. What modifications would need to be made to turn the statement into a serviceable description of the American Revolution?
- Differentiate the various sacrifice theories of equity and point out their implications for progressive taxation.
- Some economists hold that “the business cycle” came to an end with 1914 and that subsequent economic fluctuations are of different character. Do you agree? Why, or why not?
- Do you believe that Federal Reserve policy in 1946-1948 was helped substantially in resisting inflation? Explain with reference to open-market operations, interest rates, reserve requirements, and handling of Treasury cash balances.
- Discuss the major changes that have occurred in the structure of prices in the United States since the outbreak of the First World War. Note important alternations in terms of exchange, and comment on the implications of these shifts. Appraise 1948 price and wage relations, with reference to earlier standards.
- To what extent is the theory of demand, as it applies to competitive conditions, open to testing? Discuss the chief attempts that have been made to establish demand functions empirically.
- What are the objectives of correlation analysis? What are the chief measurements needed to define the relationship between two variables? What is the relation between correlation and causation?
- Enumerate the main items, or groups of items, that make up a country’s balance of international payments. Then explain what is meant by “equilibrium” or “disequilibrium” in the balance of payments.
- Does the doctrine of comparative costs (in any of its various formulations) depend on the assumption of full employment? How, if at all, does unemployment affect the case for international specialization and exchange?
- Describe the uses of money in pre-literate society and the manner in which they may be found to be institutionalized separately.
- Discuss the view according to which capitalism developed in Western Europe in the course of a more comprehensive process involving the nationalization of the major fields of social activity.
- How would you explain the fact that short-term interest rates have been sometimes higher, sometimes lower, than long-term rates?
- How does the retention of income by corporations affect economic stability?
- Explain the factors responsible for the sharp rise in worker productivity in agriculture, 1940-1948.
- Discuss the problems which arise in attempting to apply the theory of the firm under conditions of pure competition to the actualities of, say, an Iowa corn-hog farm of 250 acres.
- State the points at issue in the treatment of the government sector in the national income accounts, and evaluate the alternative methods of computation.
- Give a critical appraisal of von Mering’s book on The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation.
- Why did industries such as steel and cement adopt the basing-point price system?
- What does it mean to say that utility is measurable or non-measurable? Is it measurable?
- Explain and comment on three of the following characterizations of money interest:
- Interest equals the marginal rate of time preference.
- Interest reflects a discount of future satisfactions.
- Interest reflects the marginal productivity of capital.
- Loss of interest is the price of liquidity.
- Interest reflects the rate at which aggregate capital grows.
- Interest is the appropriation by the banks of the profits inherent in the power to coin money.
- Interest on money loans is a sinful exploitation of the needs of the distressed.
- The assumption, frequently made in partial analysis, that the marginal utility of money is a constant
- implies
- is compatible with
- is inconsistent with
- is synonymous with
the further condition that one or more of the goods being considered is an inferior good. Explain your answer.
- Under static conditions, one is more likely to encounter “perversely” sloping supply curves than “perversely” sloping demand curves. Why?
- Explain the materials and methods available historically for comparing unemployment in the United States and England.
- Discuss the pros and cons of industry-wide bargaining.
- What specific problems of federal and state taxation are presented by insurance companies?
- Define income-elasticity, cross-elasticity, and “own-elasticity” (Marshallian concept) of demand. Explain their interrelations and place in economic theory. Show how each can be determined for a given consumer if we are informed about his indifference-surface.
- Discuss the contribution to knowledge of business cycles made by recent empirical studies.
- State the relation between marginal productivity and prices of productive services under perfect competition. Reformulate this statement to make it correct under assumptions (a) that the employer is a monopolist; (b) that he is a monopsonist (i.e., can influence his buying-prices by the scale of his purchases); (c) that he is both at once. Reformulate further to give a general statement applying to these cases as well as to that of perfect competition.
Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 23, Folder “Exams: comprehensives 1949-73”.
Image Source:“Library Columbia University, New York City” The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 30, 2018.