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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for first-year graduate economic theory. Haberler.

 

The first year graduate theory course at Harvard was jealously taught by Edward Chamberlin during the mid-20th-century. In 1950-51 Chamberlin sailed off to France as a Fulbright Exchange Scholar, leaving “his” course to be taught by the other alpha-theorist in the department, Gottfried Haberler. The outline and reading list for the two semester graduate introductory economic theory sequence (Economics 201) were transcribed and posted earlier. Today I just noticed that I hadn’t yet transcribed the exams for Ec 201 in 1950-51 that were copied during a later archival visit. So without further ado, I gladly (and proudly) add these exams to the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror collection.

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Course Announcement

Economics 201 (formerly Economics 101a and 101b). Economic Theory

Full course. Tu., Th., and (and the pleasure of the instructor) Sat at 10. Professor Haberler.

This course is normally taken by graduate students in their first year of residence. 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6, Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51,  p. 83.

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First Semester Final Exam, January 1951

1950-51
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 201a

Answer Five questions (Write legibly!)

  1. “Utility theory of the cardinal as well as of the ordinal type is a superstructure of questionable utility. It is much more sensible to start economic analysis with demand and supply curves and to forget about utility altogether.” (Cassel). Comment.
  2. In a price-quantity diagram we are given a demand curve for commodity A in terms of commodity B. Suppose we now look at this relationship as a supply of B in exchange for A. Show graphically what the supply curve of B will look like under the following assumptions:
    1. The demand curve for A is a sloping straight line.
    2. The demand curve for A has a constant elasticity of unity.
    3. The demand curve for A is infinitely elastic.
    4. The demand curve for A has an elasticity of less than one.
      Draw each supply curve alongside of the corresponding demand curve.
  3. It has been often argued, especially by Walras, that under free competition exchange produces an “optimum” situation. But it has also been stated that a discriminating monopolist can reach an “optimum” position as compared with a simple monopolist. Discuss the meaning and limitations of these statements with the aid of two superimposed indifference maps.
  4. Draw the short run and long run cost curves of an individual firm including marginal cost, average total cost and average variable cost curves.
    Indicate and discuss how the short run and long run supply curve of the firm is derived from or related to the cost curves.
  5. How do you derive an industry supply curve from the supply curves of the individual firms? Under what assumptions can that be done by simply adding horizontally the individual supply curves?
  6. Discuss the factors which may limit the size of a firm and the degree of vertical integration.
  7. Explain the meaning and the use of the production function. How would you derive a cost curve from the production function of a single product and two factors?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 17, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, Government, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science, January 1951 (in bound volume Final Exams—Social Sciences, Jan. 1951).

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Second Semester Final Exam, May 1951

1950-51
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 201

Write legibly

Part I (One Hour)

  1. Compare the interest theories of Schumpeter, Fisher, Knight, and Böhm-Bawerk.

 

Part II Choose four out of five (One Half Hour Each):

  1. Compare the theory of marginal productivity with Marshall’s theory of “joint demand.”
  2. Discuss some alternative explanations of profits. To what extent can the marginal productivity principle be used for the determination of profits?
  3. Discuss the principal contributions to price theory of the Oxford Study in Business Behaviour by R. L. Hall and C. J. Hitch.
  4. State and appraise critically the basic postulates of the so-called modern welfare economics, as compared with the “old” version.
  5. In what sense can it be said that (a) a monopolist in a product market and (b) a monopsonist in the labor market “exploit” their employees? Analyse the problem graphically.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 27, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, Government, Economics, …, Air Sciences, Naval Science, June 1951 (in bound volume Final Exams—Social Sciences, Jan. 1951).

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1950.