At the turn of the 20th century the breadth of Harvard’s course offerings grew faster than the depth of its instructional bench. Thomas Nixon Carver was teaching economic theory, sociology, social reform, and agricultural economics while William Zebina Ripley covered statistics, railroads, European resources, industrial and labor organization.
This post adds another year’s worth of Harvard statistics exams to the Economics in the Rear-View Mirror collection of transcribed artifacts.
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Course Description
- hf. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. Half-course. Tu., at 11. Professor Ripley.
This course is intended to serve rather as an analysis of methods of research and sources of information than as a description of mere results. A brief history of statistics will be followed by an account of modes of collecting and tabulating census and other statistical material in the United States and abroad, the scientific use and interpretation of results by the mean, the average, seriation, the theory of probability, etc. The main divisions of vital statistics, relating to birth, marriage, morbidity, and mortality, life tables, etc.; the statistics of trade and commerce, such as price indexes, etc.; industrial statistics relating to labor, wages, and employment; statistics of agriculture, manufactures, and transportation, will be them considered in order. The principal methods of graphic representation will be comprehended, and laboratory work, amounting to not less than two hours per week, in the preparation of charts, maps, and diagrams from original material, will be required.
Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economies 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economics 1. It is especially recommended, in connection with Economies 2, for all candidates for advanced degrees.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.
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Course Enrollment
Economics 4. hf. Professor Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.
Total 15: 10 Gr., 2 Se., 2 Ju., 1 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.
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Economics 4
Mid-Year Examination
1902-03
- The population of Massachusetts in 1870 was 1,457,351, in 1875 was 1,651,912, in 1880 was 1,783,085. The births in 1878 were 41,238. The Massachusetts Registration Report gives the birth rate in that year as 24.73. How was this obtained?
- The birth rates for 1885 in Massachusetts by counties were as follows: Barnstable, 17.4; Berkshire, 25.7; Dukes and Nantucket, 14; Suffolk, 28.7; Middlesex, 24.7; Worcester city, 27.1; Fall River city, 31.07; Cambridge, 27.04; Newburyport, 17.79, etc.
How would you determine the real significance of these differences? - Padding of the enumerator’s returns in Delaware counties in 1900, being known, how could you estimate the probable amount, assuming no considerable migration of population to have occurred?
- What are the main tests for determining the amount of migration in a given population between census periods?
- What single merit has the card system of tabulation used by the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, over the use of electric machines as in the Federal Census?
- Compare the rate of increase of the population of the United States with that of principal European countries. What probable future movement is indicated?
- What are the principal demographic results of an inequality in the distribution of the sexes? Illustrate by the United States.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).
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Economics 4
Year-End Examination
1902-03
- What is meant by the “duration of life”? What figures are apt to be confused with it in mortality statistics?
- What are the main objections to the use of index numbers, illustrating by examples?
- What is the “modulus” as applied to wage statistics? In what different ways may it be ascertained?
- Where would you seek for examples of the best practice in interpretation of (a) price statistics; (b) wage statistics?
- May the “cost of production” in manufactures be determined with precision? Where has the attempt has been made and with what results?
- Where are the best statistics of imports and exports compiled? How does the system differ from those of the United States?
- How is a logarithmic curve constructed; and for what purpose?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).
Image Source: MIT Museum website. William Zebina Ripley. Image colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.