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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Introductory Economics. Mid-Year and Final Exams, 1938-39

 

A supplementary bibliography for Harvard’s introductory economics course along with the enrollment data were transcribed for the previous post. The final exams for both semesters of this two semester course are transcribed below. A transcription of the first multiple-choice exam for introductory economics at Harvard (1948!) has also been posted.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
Mid-year Final Examination

Choose and SIX questions

  1. “Large-scale production and the modern corporation have rendered obsolete such concepts as private property, free enterprise and individual initiative.” Do you agree?
  2. “The only thing which has kept large business units from crowding out small units in every part of the economic system has been the willingness of the small operators to stand continual losses in order to retain their independence.” Discuss.
  3. “The principal function of commercial bank credit is to make unnecessary the physical transfer of metallic and paper money. Commercial banks merely hold balances in the form of these types of money for a depositor and enable him to transfer claims to this money to other depositors.” Do you agree? Explain fully.
  4. “Assume that Congress had voted that the ‘Federal Reserve Board be commissioned to stabilize the price level.’” How, would you suggest, should the Federal Reserve Board go about it?
  5. Because of unsettled political conditions abroad, the pickup of general business conditions here, and the undervaluation of the dollar relative to other currencies, there has been lately a steady influx of gold into this country.
    1. Discuss the adjustments you would expect to take place if the so-called automatic gold standard were in effect.
    2. Discuss the adjustments possible under a managed gold standard.
  6. What would be the effect on prices and output of a lowering of the price of the raw materials used in a purely competitive industry? Discuss from the short and long run point of view.
  7. “A single department store carries 19 toothpastes and 15 toothpowders, which are only a fraction of the total varieties of these articles. That this is wasteful and uneconomical is beyond argument, but it would not be so easy to prove it keeps up the price of toothpaste in general. The very competition in these items of which we see evidence in all national advertising probably tends in the other direction.” Discuss.

 

 

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
Year-End Final Examination

I

(One hour and one-half.)

Write on BOTH of the following in this section. Choose either ONE as a subject for an hour essay, marking it as such.

  1. “Defenders of the competitive system rest their case upon the operation of a price system which secures the optimum utilization of the factors of production. This point of view, however, completely ignores the realities of the situation.” Discuss.
  2. “Business spending depends upon business prospects; business prospects depend upon consumer expenditures; but consumer expenditures depend upon business spending. Thus we face a dilemma from which there is no escape.”

 

II

Write on any THREE of the following:

  1. “The fact that there are ten million unemployed is sufficient evidence that our population is too large. A gradually declining population is to be welcomed rather than feared, since it would in time eliminate the unemployed surplus.” Discuss.
  2. “The rate of wages in a particular plant depends mainly on the bargaining strength of the workers and the employer. The workers can therefore always raise their wages by organizing into a trade union.” Discuss.
  3. “The free traders would have us turn the whole earth into one free market, with the result that the standard of living in every nation would in time become approximately equal. Thus although the ‘have-not’ nations would be better off, this would be because of a corresponding sacrifice on the part of the ‘have’ nations. The protective tariff protects our standard of living.” Discuss.
  4. “Of one thing we can be sure, any tax on land cannot be shifted.” Discuss.
  5. “It is a truism that demand and supply determine the rate of interest. The important thing is to know what factors affect the demand for and supply of capital.” Discuss.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Econ A”. Also in Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 1, Folder “Economics I: 1939-1962”.