The economics department of Columbia University set up a search committee to identify “the names of the most promising young economists, wherever trained and wherever located” from which a short list of three names for the replacement of Louis M. Hacker in Columbia College was selected. The Chairman of the Harvard Economics Department, Harold H. Burbank, suggested a few names to the committee. In this posting I have assembled Burbank’s letter, another by Schumpeter and a data-sheet apparently provided by the Harvard economics department (including a list of graduate courses taken at Harvard) plus a list of Goodwin’s publications as of the end of 1949.
_____________________
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Office of the Chairman
M-8 Littauer Center
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts
November 28, 1949
Dear Jimmy
I had thought that I might be able to make one or two definite recommendations by this time, but I find that I cannot be at all definite.
The young man whom I had expected to recommend most strongly is Richard M. Goodwin. Goodwin was graduated from Harvard College in 1934, summa cum laude. After three years at Oxford I had him return to the Department and he has been with us since that time. During the war years he worked with the group in mathematics and physics, improving and consolidating his knowledge of mathematics to a point where it is highly useful in his econonmics. Goodwin is now in the fourth year of his appointment as an assistant professor. Undoubtedly he will be considered for a permanent place here which is probably the best recommendation I can give you. With us he has worked mainly in theory and money and banking and in cycles. I am enclosing a copy of his publications It is true enough that his main interest for the moment is in monetary economics but his interests are so definitely broad that I feel that it would be no great difficulty for him to meet your needs.
[…]
Very sincerely
[signed]
H. H. Burbank
Professor James W. Angell
Department of Economics
Columbia University
New York 27, New York
Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”
_____________________
Richard Murphey Goodwin
Address: 7 Revere Street, Cambridge; E1 4-2981
Born: 1913 in U.S.
Married: Yes
Degrees:
A. B. Harvard, 1934
B.A. Oxford, 1936
B. Litt. Oxford, 1937
A.M., Harvard, 1939
Ph.D. Harvard, 1941
Experience: Annual Instructor, Harvard, 1939-46
Assistant Professor, Harvard, 1946-
Courses: 1937-38
Ec. 116 (Price Theory) B+
Ec. 103a (Adv. Theory) A
Ec. 121 (Statistics) A+, Exc.
Ec. 145 (Cycles) A, A
Ec. 4a (Math. Ec.) B+
1938-39
Ec.171 (Com. Dist) A
Fields of Study: Theory, Ec. History, Statistics, Cycles; write-off, Commodity Distribution and Prices
Special Field: Money and Banking
Thesis Topic: Studies in Money; England and Wales, 1919 to 1938
Generals: Passed May 24, 1938 with grade of Good Plus
Specials: Passed May 22, 1941 with grade of Excellent Minus
Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”
_____________________
Richard M. Goodwin – Bibliography
“The Supply of Bank Money in England and Wales, 1920-38”, Oxford Economic Papers, no. 5, 1941.
“Keynesian and Other Interest Theories,” Review of [Economic] Statistics, Vol. XXV, No. 1, February, 1943.
“Keynesian Economics,” a review of a book of Mabel Timlin, Review of Economic Statistics, Aug. 1944. Vol. XXVI.
“Innovations and the Irregularity of Economic Cycles,” Review of Economic Statistics, May 1946.
“Dynamical Coupling with Special Reference to Markets Having Production Lags,” Econometrica, July 1947.
“The Multiplier”, an article in the New Economics, edited by S. E. Harris, 1947.
“Secular and Cyclical Aspects of the Multiplier and the Accelerator,” a chapter in Income, Employment and Public Policy – Essays in Honor of Alvin Hansen, 1948.
“The Business Cycle as a Self Sustaining Mechanism,” a paper delivered befoe the Econmetric Society, December, 1948. Abstract published in Econometrica for April 1949.
“Liquidity and Uncertainty”, a discussion paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association in Cleveland, December 1948. Published in the Proceedings of the convention.
“The Multiplier as Matrix” accepted for publication but not yet published by the Economic Journal of the Royal Economic Society.
A book, “Dynamic Economics”, now in preparation.
Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”
_____________________
JOSEPH A. SCHUMPETER
7 Acacia Street
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts
December 3, 1949
Professor James W. Angell
Executive Officer
Department of Economics
Columbia University
New York 27, N.Y.
Private and confidential:
Dear Angell:
I greatly regret my inability to thank you, before leaving New York, for your hospitality and to have a chat with you. Now there is nothing confidential in this. What is strictly confidential however is a topic which I wished to bring up in that chat. The next year will terminate the five-year appointment of one of our best young men, Assistant Professor Richard Goodwin. According to our practice, the question of his promotion to permanent office is going to be discussed presently and I have no hope of securing a majority for him that the administration will consider adequate. This is not because any one has any fault to find with him personally but simply because other people have other candidates. You know how that is. Myself, I believe that Goodwin’s work in the field of dynamic models (and in particular four of his ten published articles) is of striking force and originality and also promises well for the future. In addition, I know that he is an excellent teacher. On the undergraduate level he runs personally and independently our biggest course, namely, the course on Money and Banking (But I do not count the general introductory course because it is run by sections). On the graduate level I have much admired his ability to express convey difficult material to an audience not really in command of the requisite technique. Therefore I am, myself, strongly in favor of promoting him but since I do not anticipate success I am anxious to sound you confidentially as regards possibilities at Columbia. An appointment might be combined with work at the National Bureau and would not therefore burden your budget very much immediately. Of course you will realize that the matter is strictly confidential but I would very much like to have your opinion.
Cordially yours,
[signed]
Joseph A. Schumpeter
JAS/jcs
[handwritten note by Schumpeter at bottom of page] I have talked to Burns
Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”
_____________________
Image Source: Harvard Class of 1951 Yearbook.