The sole course devoted to number-crunching in the Harvard economics program in the early 20th century required no more than a command of the four arithmetic operations, sharp pencils and graph paper. William Z. Ripley was there to introduce his students to the myriad sources of economic and social statistics available for his time. Interpretation was what did with one’s data when one was not collecting, aggregating, averaging and/or tabulating raw counts and accounting sums.
In a collection of short bibliographies published in 1910, prepared with students of social ethics in mind,William Z. Ripley assembled the following Short Bibliography on Social Statistics for “Serious-minded Students”.
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Course Enrollment
1904-05
Economics 4. Professor Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.
Total 11: 7 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.
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Course Description
1904-05
[Economics] 4. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. Tu., Th., at 10. 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 then 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 Economics 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economics 1. It is especially recommended, in connection with Economics 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, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 39-40.
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Economics 4
Mid-year Exam, 1904-05
- What were the main causes in 1890 for the “apparent loss of over 1,000,000 children under five years of age as compared with the proportion in 1880”? Were the same conditions revealed in 1900, and why?
- State separately at least four changes in vital statistics revealed in 1900 due to changes in immigration, explaining fully in each case the differences from the situation in 1900.
- What is the “chip system” in use in the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, comparing it with the Federal apparatus for tabulation?
- How is the birth rate for the United States calculated in the Federal Census Office?
- What is meant by “standardizing” a mortality rate? Has any proposal to do this internationally been made? Outline it in general.
- What are some of the theories seeking to explain the slight preponderance of boys over girls at birth?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.
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Economics 4
Year-end Exam, 1904-05
- Which system of price index numbers seems to you most reliable and why?
- What was Engel’s “quet” and wherefor was it devised?
- What are the best authorities on wage statistics; (a) for the United States; (b) for Great Britain?
- What are the principal difficulties in measuring the intensity of criminal phenomena in two countries over a term of years?
- What items in statistics of manufactures may be used with confidence, as being really indicative of conditions?
- Outline the nature of our American agricultural statistics, describing (1) the method of collection; (2) reliability; and (3) the problem of coöperation in effort.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 25.
Image Source: Harvard University Archives. William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910). Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.