Today’s posting is a transcription of the “correlation examination” questions for government regulation of industry given at Harvard in May 1939.
Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]
A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project.
- One Departmental Examination from the Department of Economics.
- Five Division Special Examinations.
Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.
- Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates.
Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
CORRELATION EXAMINATION
Government Regulation of Industry
(Three hours)
Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, including TWO from each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on ONE of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.
A
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part
- Discuss (a) the political and (b) the economic problems that must be met if cyclical fluctuations are to be moderated by a great public works program.
- “Despite popular misconceptions the courts have failed to nullify the antitrust laws.”
- “The trouble with the large corporation is not its size nor any lack of efficiency but rather its lack of social responsibility.” Is there any way short of out-right government ownership for meeting this problem?
- “The existence of cartels vastly facilitated the penetration of political power into the economic sphere in the Fascist countries.”
- “The foremost mandate to those who wish to avoid the expansion of public ownership and operation, is to bring about the adoption of a rational method for determining base values of public utilities for regulatory purposes.”
- “Although the mixed undertaking has points in common with the public corporation such as its corporate form and monopolistic position, the two organizations are strikingly different.”
- “At present the United States does not have a democratically administered radio. The present system is subject to the pressure of groups interested in economic advantage. Are the evils of a private-profit radio greater than those of a nationalistic radio?”
- “The fiscal system cannot serve as an engine of social control unless it is very materially redesigned and remodeled. It can become a means of social control only by becoming itself the object of control.”
- “The public utility problem, in whatever form it is found, is primarily a question of distributing controls. The locus of ownership is merely an incidental aspect of the whole problem.”
B
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part
- “Perhaps the most acute of our present problems is that of preserving the democratic control of an increasingly centralized government power over economic life, rather than the avoidance of further extension of centralized government control.”
- Compare briefly commission regulation and government competition (as alternative methods of controlling market results) with respect to their most important political, administrative, and economic aspects.
- “The experience of the last ten years in ‘solving’ the farm problem leads to one conclusion only—that it can never be solved by government.”
- “Experience since 1920 demonstrates that the only way we can get desirable consolidation of railroads, which would yield great economies, is to allow the carriers to consolidate as they wish free from legal restrictions.”
- Discuss the administrative tasks and methods of the National Labor Relations Board.
- “Many of the bad effects of monopoly could be eliminated simply by amending the antitrust laws to prohibit the practices of price leadership and sharing the market.”
- “If price fixing according to the criterion laid down in the National Bituminous Coal Act of 1937 were extended to a large number of major industries wages and profits would be higher all ‘round.”
- Discuss some of the economic and administrative problems presented by the Robinson-Patman Act.
- Explain why you would favor or oppose the establishment of a Bureau of Industrial Economics to collect and publish basic industrial statistics and engage in continuous study of the problems of industrial organization and business policies.
May 12, 1939.
Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers. Box 7. [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics. Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.