Harvard. Business Cycles Course. Hansen, 1950.

According to the course catalogue for 1950-51, this course was to be co-taught by Professor Alvin Hansen and Assistant Professor Richard Goodwin. (Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. 47, No. 23, September, 1950.) However, Goodwin did not receive tenure at Harvard and moved on to Cambridge University in 1950. In the following years material for this course was swept into the second semester of Economics 141. “Money, Banking and Economic Fluctuations” offered jointly by Hansen and John H. Williams.

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Economics 145a
Business Cycles 1950-51
Professor Hansen

Part I. Descriptive Survey

Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Ch. 1,9.
Hansen, Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Ch. I, II.
Schumpeter, “The Analysis of Economic Change,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. I.
Federal Reserve Chart Book (available at the Coop.)

Suggested Reading:

Mitchell, “Business Cycles,” in Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 3, pp. 92-106.
Kondratieff, “The Long Waves in Economic Life,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 3.
Frickey, Economic Fluctuations in the United States.
Burns and Mitchell, Measuring Business Cycles.
Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society, Part II, Sec. 1 and Appendix A.
Schumpeter, Business Cycles, pp. 161-174; 212-219.
Dewey and Dakin, Cycles, Ch. 1-9.
Aschinstein, Introduction to Business Cycles, 1950.

Part II. The Meaning and Genesis of National Product

Hansen, Economic Policy and Full Employment, Ch. 3, 4.
Gilbert and Jaszi, “National Product and Income as an Aid in Economic Problems,” in Readings in the Theory of Income and Distribution, Ch. 2.
Machlup, “Period Analysis and Multiplier Theory,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 10, only pp. 210-234.
Morgan, Income and Employment, Ch. I.
Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Ch. 8, Section 4, pp. 222-232; Ch. 13, Section 1, pp. 455-461.
Hansen, Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Ch. XI, XII, XIII, XIV.

Suggested Reading:

National Income, Supplement to Survey of Current Business, July, 1947.
Kuznets, (a) The National Income and its Composition, Ch. 1; (b) National Income, A Summary of Findings.
Kaldor, “The Quantitative Aspects of the Full Employment Problem in Britain,” Appendix C in Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society.

Part III. Theory of Cycles and Investment

Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Ch. 10, 11, and 3; Ch. 13, Section 3, pp. 473-479.
Hansen, (a) Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Ch. XVI and XVII; (b) Economic Policy and Full Employment, Ch. 14-16.
Keynes, General Theory, ch. 22.
Lerner, Economics of Control, Ch. 21, 22.
Harris, The New Economics, Ch. 33.
Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Ch. IV, Sections A, B, and C, pp. 130-161; Ch. VII, Section C., pp. 325-351.
Morgan, Income and Employment, Ch. 7-9.

Suggested Reading:

Tinbergen and Polak, The Dynamics of Business Cycles.
Long, Building Cycles and the Theory of Investment, Ch. I, II, VII, VIII, XII.
Haberler, Prosperity and Depression, Chapter VIII.
Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Chapters 6 and 7.
Tinbergen, Robertson, Hayek, Hawtrey in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 4, 15, 16, 17.
Clark, Strategic Factors in Business Cycles.
Wilson, The Fluctuations in Income and Employment Ch. 1-10.
Estey, Business Cycles, Ch. 1-16.
Hansen (a) Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 4, 8; (b) Full Recovery or Stagnation, Ch. 3 (Hayek); and Appendix Keynes’ Treatise, pp. 331-343.
Metzler, (a) “The Nature and Stability of Inventory Cycles,” in Review of Economic Statistics, August, 1941; (b) “Business Cycle Theory and the Theory of Employment,” in American Economic Review, June, 1946.
Samuelson, Readings in Business Cycle Theory, Ch. 12.
Samuelson, Chapter II in Harris’ Postwar Economic Problems: Income, Employment and Public Policy, Norton, 1948.

Part IV. Policy

Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society, Parts IV and V.
C. E. D., Taxes and the Budget, 1947.
Hansen, (a) Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles, Ch. 9; (b) Economic Policy and Full Employment, Ch. 5-13; 22.

Suggested Reading:

Hicks, Ch. 24, in Readings in Income Distribution (Keynes and the Classics; also in Econometrica, Vol. 5, 1937).
Pigou, Lapses from Full Employment.
Kaldor, “Stability and Full Employment,” in the Economic Journal, December, 1938.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Postwar Studies, No. 3, Musgrave, “Federal Tax Reform,” pp. 22-52.
Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Ch. XV, XVI, XVII.
Twentieth Century Fund, American Housing, Ch. 12, pp. 311-341.
Financing American Prosperity, Twentieth Century Fund, (especially, Clark, Slichter and Williams).

READING PERIOD ASSIGNMENT

Read one of the following four assignments:

1. Morgan, Income and Employment, Ch. 10-18.
2. Polanyi, Free Trade and Full Employment, Ch. 3, 4, 6, 7; AND John H. Williams, “Free Enterprise and Dull Employment,” Chapter 7 in Financing American Prosperity.
3. Terborgh, George, The Bogey of Economic Maturity (entire book, disregarding appendices) AND H. Hansen’s review of Terborgh’s book in Appendix B in Economic Policy and Full Employment AND Wright’s review in Review of Economic Statistics, February, 1946, pp. 13-22.
4. National and International Measures for Full Employment, United Nations, Department of Economic Affairs, 1949.

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

Image Source:  Harvard Album 1952.