A few posts ago I provided a transcription of a bibliography of supplementary readings for Harvard’s principles of economics course in 1938-39. While not uninteresting and indeed suggestive of the breakdown of topics and associated canonical texts, the bibliography provided little insight to the actual course coverage.
To remedy this I took a deep dive into James Tobin’s sophomore year notes for the course that run 260 consecutively numbered, clean hand-written notes for his readings along with brief summaries of the content of the section meetings. I have written down the exact sequence of readings he took notes on and have included the dates of the sections that give us approximate windows for when he did the readings. For the record, Tobin got an A in the course which hardly surprises. Other students could have fallen far short on the reading, but not Tobin!
The two main texts by Taussig and Slichter come as no surprise. Ten chapters were also assigned from a draft book manuscript by McIsaac and Smith that was published the following year. Tobin was fairly exact and consistent in identifying the chapter numbers and titles in his reading notes for Taussig and Slichter. His chapter titles for McIsaac and Smith differ quite substantially from those of the printed textbook, so I have included both.
To complete the set, I have included two semester final exams with this post.
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Course Announcement
Economics A. Principles of Economics
Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Burbank and Dr. J. R. Walsh, and other members of the Department.
Economics A may be taken by properly qualified Freshmen with the consent of the instructor.
Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1936-37. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXIII, No. 42 (September 23, 1936) p. 141.
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Primary Course Texts
Taussig, Frank W. Principles of Economics 3rd ed. Volume I; Volume II.
Slichter, Sumner H. Modern Economic Society. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1931.
McIsaac, Archibald MacDonald and James Gerald Smith. Introduction to Economic Analysis. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1937.
“The authors gratefully acknowledge the many constructive criticisms and the friendly co-operation offered by the instructors in Economics A at Harvard University, where a preliminary edition of the text was used in during 1936-37.”
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Reading Notes Sequence
James Tobin, 1936-37
Official beginning of classes Thursday October 1, 1936.
Taussig.
Chapter 1 [Wealth and Labor]
Slichter.
Chapter I [The Control of Economic Activity]
Chapter 3 [Free Private Enterprise],
Section
Tuesday 10/6/36
Taussig.
Chapter 2 [Of Labor in Production];
Slichter.
Chapter 2 [Some Fundamental Economic Concepts]
Section
Thursday 10/8/36, Saturday 10/10/36
Slichter.
Chapter 3 [Free Private Enterprise],
Taussig.
Chapter 3 [The Division of Labor and the Development of Modern Industry]
Chapter 4 [Large-Scale Production]
Slichter.
Chapter 7 [Large Business Units]
Chapter 5 [Machine Industry]
Chapter 6 [Specialization]
Section
Saturday 10/17/36
Taussig.
Chapter 5 [Capital]
Chapter 8 [Introductory: Exchange, Value, Price]
Slichter.
Chapter 4 [Modern Industry—A Capitalistic Organization]
Chapter 11 [Modern Industry—A Credit Economy]
Section
[no date]
McIsaac & Smith.
Chapter I [Notes: The Approach to Economic Analysis. Book: Nature and Purpose of Economic Analysis]
Chapter II [Notes: Contemporary Economic Background. Book: Production and Income in the Modern Economy]
Chapter III [Notes: Economic Valuations. Book: The Mechanism of Exchange]
Chapter IV [Notes: Factors Affecting Demand. Book: Consumer Demand]
Chapter V [Notes: Methods of Determinaing Prices. Book: Analysis of Supply: Cost of Production]
Section
Tuesday 11/10/36, Thursday 11/12/36, Saturday 11/14/36
McIsaac & Smith
Chapter VI [Notes: Current Supply Price. Book: Current Price Adjustment: Competitive Conditions]
Chapter VII [Notes: Current Supply Price and Costs of Production. Book: Current Price Adjustment: Monopolistic Conditions]
Section
Tuesday 11/17/36, Thursday 11/19/36
McIsaac & Smith
Chapter VIII [Notes: Dynamic Supply Price & Costs of Production. Book: Normal Tendencies in Price Adjustment]
Chapter IX [Notes: Price Spreads. Book: Supply and Price under Dynamic Conditions]
Section
Tuesday 12/1/36
Slichter.
Chapter 8 [Modern Business Organizations]
Section
Thursday 12/3/36
Slichter.
Chapter 17 [Public Authority as a Determinant of Price—The Problem in General]
Chapter 18 [Public Authority as a Determinant of Price—Public Utility Rates]
Chapter 19 [Public Authority as a Determinant of Price—The Stabilization Operations of the Federal Farm Board]
Chapter 22 [The Position of the Consumer]
Section
Tuesday 12/15/36, Thursday 12/17/36
Slichter.
Chapter 21 [The Determination of the Price Level]
Taussig.
Chapter 17 [The Precious Metals. Coinage]
Chapter 18 [The Quantity of Money and Prices]
Chapter 19 [The Cost of Specie in Relation to its Value]
Chapter 20 [Bimetallism]
Chapter 21 [Bimetallism, continued. The Displacement of Silver]
Chapter 23 [Government Paper Money]
Chapter 22 [Changes in Prices]
Section
Thursday 1/14/37
Taussig.
Chapter 24 [Banking and the Medium of Exchange]
Chapter 25 [Banking Operations]
Slichter.
Chapter 11 [Modern Industry—A Credit Economy]
Section
Tuesday 2/9/37, Thursday 2/11/37
Slichter.
Chapter 11 [Modern Industry—A Credit Economy]
Taussig.
Chapter 30 [The Theory of Prices Once More]
Section
Saturday 2/13/37, Tuesday 2/16/37, Thursday 2/18/37, Saturday 2/20/37
Taussig.
Chapter 32 [The Foreign Exchanges]
Chapter 33 [The Balance of International Payments]
Chapter 34 [The Theory of International Trade. Why Particular Goods are Exported or Imported]
Chapter 36 [Protection and Free Trade. The Case for Free Trade]
Chapter 37 [Protection and Free Trade, continued. Some Arguments for Protection]
Section
Tuesday 2/23/37, Thursday 2/25/37, Saturday 2/27/37
Slichter.
Chapter 29 [International Economic Policies—Restrictions on Imports and Exports]
Section
Tuesday 3/2/37, Thursday 3/4/37
McIsaac & Smith.
Chapter 10 [Notes: Demand for Indirect Uses. Book: Producer’s Demand]
Section
Saturday 3/6/37, Tuesday 3/9/37
Taussig.
Chapter 38 [Interest on Capital used in Production. The Conditions of Demand]
Chapter 39 [Interest, continued. The Equilibrium of Supply and Demand]
Chapter 40 [Interest, Further Considered]
Chapter 42 [Rent, Agriculture, Land Tenure]
Chapter 43 [Urban Site Rent]
Chapter 44 [Rent, concluded.]
Section
Saturday 3/13/37, Tuesday 3/16/37, Thursday 3/18/37, Saturday 3/20/37
Taussig.
Chapter 47 [Differences of Wages. Social Stratification]
Chapter 52 [The General Level of Wages]
Chapter 53 [Population and the Supply of Labor]
Chapter 54 [Population, continued.]
Slichter.
Chapter 9 [The Organization of Labor]
Section
Saturday 3/27/37, Tuesday 3/30/37, Thursday 4/1/37, Saturday 4/3/37
Taussig.
Chapter 49 [Business Profits]
Chapter 50 [Business Profits, continued.]
Chapter 51 [Great Fortunes]
Chapter 55 [Inequality and its Causes. Inheritance]
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences–Article on Population
Meade, James. on Population [in An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy, 1936] Part IV, chapter II [The Optimum Supply of Labour].
Hansen, Alvin. Theory of Population, Growth and Decline [Chapter XII in Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World, 1932.]
Section
Thursday 4/15/37, Saturday 4/17/37,
Tuesday 4/20/37, Thursday 4/22/37, Saturday 4/24/37,
Tuesday 4/27/37, Thursday 4/29/37, Saturday 5/1/37,
Tuesday 5/4/37, Saturday 5/8/37,
Tuesday 5/11/37, Thursday 5/13/37,
Tuesday 5/18/37,
Thursday 5/27/37
Taussig.
Chapter 62 [Railways]
Chapter 63 [Railway Problems, continued]
Chapter 64 [Public Ownership and Control]
Chapter 65 [Combinations and Trusts]
Chapter 45 [Monopoly Gains]
Slichter.
Chapter 16 [Monopoly and Custom as Determinants of Price]
Chapter 28 [The Support of the State]
Silverman, Herbert Albert. Taxation; Its Incidence and Effects. London: Macmillan, 1931.
Chapter 5. General Principles of Incidence.
Slichter.
Chapter 20 [The Business Cycle]
Wooton, Barbara. Plan or No Plan. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935.
Chapter 1. The Nature of an Unplanned Economy.
Chapter 2. Nature of Russian Planned Economy.
Chapter 3. Achievements and Possibilities of an Unplanned Economy.
Source: Sequence of readings assemble from Yale University Archives. James Tobin Papers. Box 7, Volume Economics A.
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1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
Mid-Year Final Examination
Part I
Answer TWO of the following three questions
- “In the long run the factors which are of importance in explaining prices are different from those which are of importance in the short run.” Discuss critically.
- Explain and distinguish between the determination of prices under conditions of:
- Indirect or monopolistic competition.
- Pure competition.
- “Both monopolies and monopolistic competition (indirect competition) may lead to an uneconomical use of the factors of production.” Discuss.
Part II
Answer all questions
- In view of the tremendous advantages accruing to the large unit of production, how can one explain the continued existence, and in some lines of industry and trade, the prevalence of the small scale enterprise?
- Discuss (a) the process of formation and (b) the function of the country’s capital equipment.
- “It is highly doubtful whether from a social point of view the advantages of the corporate form of enterprise outweigh its disadvantages.” Discuss.
- “Everybody knows that the trouble with this country is a shortage of money. You know it to be true in your case; I know it to be true in mine. My plan is simple. On Christmas morning — at the very time when extra cash will be appreciated — I propose to give every man, woman, and child a brand new dollar bill for every dollar he or she now has.” Discuss.
1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS A
Year-End Final Examination
Part I
- Hour essay on quotation (a) or (b).
- “In a price economy the factors of production are so distributed that the goods most desired by consumers are produced by the most efficient methods. A control planning board could at best only duplicate the results which in an unplanned economy are achieved without conscious effort.”
- “Most of our economic troubles are ascribable to the fact that we are half way between laissez-faire and free competition on the one hand and a planned economy on the other. Thus we get many of the evils of both without the benefits of either.” Discuss with special reference to the “evils” and “benefits,” and give your opinion as to where the balance lies.
Part II
Write on each question of this part.
- It is said that wages are determined by:
- the law of supply and demand,
- the process of bargaining—individual and collective—between workers and employers,
- Social stratification—i.e. non-competing groups.Can these explanations be reconciled with the marginal productivity theory?
- Some economists have denied that interest corresponds to a real cost of production as wages correspond to labor. They say that interest is rather a surplus above actual cost, and a measure of capitalistic exploitation of wage-earners. According to them interest would not arise in a communist economy.
Do you agree? Why or why not?
Part III
Write on any TWO of the following.
- “Lately our imports of goods have been increasing faster than our exports. If this tendency continues it will eventually bankrupt the country. We can no more continue to pay out more than we take in than can a business man afford to have outgo continually in excess of income.”
- Explain the mechanism by which an increase in aggregate bank reserves will affect the level of prices.
- Discuss the causes of industrial fluctuations and the public action that might ameliorate them.
- A tax on unimproved land will not be shifted but a tax on factory buildings probably will be shifted. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992 (UA V 349.295.6), Box 1, Folder “Economics I, Final Exams 1913-1939”.
Image Source: James Tobin’s senior year portrait in Harvard Class Album, 1939.