Guy Henderson Orcutt (1917-2006) taught the first real course in econometrics to undergraduates at Harvard in the second semester of the 1949/50(!) academic year. Today I have selected his bibliography on the scientific method that provides us nice leads to those academic scribblers from whom one of the pioneers of econometrics had distilled his methodological frenzy.
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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Economics Department Has Excellent Staff of Teachers
…Those who favor the mathematical approach to Economics will find two courses to interest them in the Department, Economics 104, introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory, and Economics 110, Introduction to Econometrics. The latter course represents the first time undergraduates will be given more than a glimpse of the field of econometrics, a combination of mathematics and economics of rapidly growing importance in the world of economic study….
Source: Harvard Crimson, April 22, 1949.
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[Economics 110. Announcement, 1949-50]
Economics 110. Introduction to Econometrics
Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Dr. ——-
The matter will be presented in order of increasing mathematical difficulty. Only simplified models will be used to familiarize the students with the econometric approach: and to complete their knowledge of mathematical tools needed in quantitative economic analysis.
Source. Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1949-50. Official Register of Harvard University, Vo. XLVI, No. 24 (September, 1949) , p. 79.
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[Economics 110. Applied Economics. Enrollment 1950]
110 Applied Economics. (Sp) Assistant Professor Orcutt.
(Sp) 1 Graduate, 2 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore. Total: 6.
Source: Harvard University, Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1949-50, p. 72.
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1949-50
Economics 110
A Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Scientific Method
by Guy Orcutt
1. Books
Bacon, F., Novum Organum, edited by Thomas Fowler, Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1878.
Bowley, A.L., The Nature and Purpose of the Measurement of Social Phenomena, London. P. S. King and Son, 1915.
Boyle, R., The Philosophical Works of. edited by Peter Shaw, Vol. II, London. W. and J. Innys, 1725.
Bridgmen, P. W., The Logic of Modern Physics, New York. The Macmillan Co., 1938.
Cairnes, J. E., The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy, London. Macmillan and Co., 1888.
Carnap, R., The Logical Syntax of Language, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1937.
Cassel, G., Fundamental Thoughts in Economics, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Co, 1925.
———-, On Quantitative Thinking in Economics, New York. Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1935.
Clark, C., The Conditions of Economic Progress, London. Macmillan and Co., 1940.
Cohen, M.R., and Nagel, E., An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934.
Dalmulder, J.J.J., On Econometrics, Haarlem. De erven F. Bohn N.V., 1936.
Darwin, C. R., The Life and Letters of, Edited by Francis Darwin, Vol. 1, New York. D. Appleton and Company, 1919.
Dewey, J., Logic—The Theory of Inquiry, New York. H. Holt and Company, 1938.
Eddington, A.S., The Philosophy of Physical Science, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1939.
Enriques, F., The Historic Development of Logic, translated from the Italian by Jerome Rosenthal, New York. Henry Holt and Company, 1929.
Frank, P., Between Physics and Philosophy, Cambridge. Harvard University Press, 1941.
Gilbert, W., On the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies also, and On the Great Magnet of the Earth, London. The Chiswick Press, 1900.
Herschel, J. F. W., Natural Philosophy, London. Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851.
Hume, D., A Treatise on Human Nature, edited by T. H. Green and T. H. Grose, London. Longmans, Green and Company, 1874.
Hutchison, T. W., The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory, London. Macmillan and Company, 1938.
Jeans, J. H., Physics and Philosophy, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1943.
Jeffreys, H., Scientific Inference, Cambridge. The University Press, 1937.
Jevons, W.S., The Theory of Political Economy, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1871.
———-, The Principles of Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1887.
———-, Elementary Lessons in Logic: Deductive and Inductive, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1895.
Keynes, J. M., The Scope and Method of Political Economy, 3rd edition, revised, London. Macmillan and Company, 1904.
Lindsay, R.B., and Margenau, H., Foundations of Physics, New York. John Wiley and Sons, 1936.
List, F., National System of Political Economy, translated from the German by G. A. Matile, Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1856.
Margenau, H., see Lindsay, R.B.
Meyerson, E., Identity and Reality, translated from the French by Kate Loewenberg, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1930.
Mill, J.S., A System of Logic Ratiocinative and Inductive, London. G. Routledge and Sons, 1892.
Minto, W., Logic Inductive and Deductive, New York. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1893.
Moore, H.L., Synthetic Economics, New York. The Macmillan Compnay, 1929.
Nagel, E., see Cohen, M.R.
Nicod, J., Foundations of Geometry and Induction, translated from the French by Philip Paul Wiener, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1930.
Pearson, K., The Grammar of Science, London. Walter Scott, 1892.
Pigou, A.C., The Functions of Economic Analysis, London. Oxford University Press, 1930.
Poincare, H., Science and Method, translated from the French by Francis Maitland, London. Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1914.
Reade, W.H.V., The problem of Inference, Oxford. The Clarendon Press, 1938.
Ritchie, A.D., Scientific Method, New York. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1923.
Robbins, L., An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1932.
Roepke, W., Crises and Cycles, adapted from the German and revised by Vera C. Smith, London. W. Hodge and Company, 1936.
Roscher, W., Principles of Political Economy, translated from the German by John J. Lalar, New York. H. Holt and Company, 1878.
Senior, N.W., Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy, London. Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852.
Sidgwick, H., The Scope and Method of Economic Science, London. Macmillan and Company, 1885.
Stamp, J., The Statistical Verification of Social and Economic Theory, London. Oxford University Press, 1927.
Thurstone, L.L., The Vectors of Mind, Chicago. The University Press, 1935.
Venn, J., The Principles of Empirical or Inductive Logic, London. Macmillan and Company, 1889.
Whewell, W., The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. II, London. John W. Parker, 1847.
Whitehead, A.N., An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge, Cambridge, University Press, 1925.
Wolf, A., Essentials of Scientific Method, London. G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1925. Textobook of Logic, New York. The Macmillan Company, 1930.
2. Articles
Fisher, I., “The Application of Mathematics to the Social Sciences,” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 36 (1930), pp. 225-243.
Fisher, R.A., “The Logic of Inductive Inference,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 98 (1935), pp. 39-54.
Frisch, R., “Editorial,” Econometrica, Vol. 1 (1933), pp. 1-4.
Harrod, R.F., Scope and Method of Economics, Economic Journal, Vol. 48 (1938), pp. 383-412.
Mitchell, W. C., “Quantitative Analysis in Economic Theory, “ American Economic Review, Vol. 15 (1925), pp. 1-12.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-50, (1 of 3)”.
Image Source: Orcutt’s senior year picture from the University of Michigan yearbook, Michiganensian, 1939.
2 replies on “Harvard. Undergraduate Econometrics. Orcutt, 1950”
Interesting to see the course there on the syllabus so early. But it is frustrating in that it gives no indication of the syllabus. Did “econometrics” mean, for Orcutt, what we mean by it today, or did it cover mathematical economics as well as statistical analysis? The reason I ask is that, though Orcutt was into statistical work, around this time a lot of people were still using the term econometrics to cover any mathematical economics, whether theoretical or empirical, and at some point the use of the term narrowed to statistical analysis. It would be good to be able to document this transition more precisely, for which evidence from this course could be useful. But I guess evidence is not available, otherwise you would have posted it.
More is coming on the course…stay tuned Roger!