Another project and some travel have kept me busy since the last post. At last I have some time to get back to producing a flow of new content for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. I’ll pick up where I left off posting exam questions for courses at Harvard in the academic year 1908-09.
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Charles J. Bullock’s earlier public finance exams at Harvard
1901-02. Economics 7a and 7b. Financial administration; taxation [undergraduate]
1903-04. Economics 16. Financial history of the United States
1904-05. Economics 7a. Introduction to public finance [undergraduate]
1904-05. Economics 7b. Theory and methods of taxation [undergraduate]
1904-05. Economics 16. Financial history of the United States.
1905-06 Economics 7. Public finance [undergraduate]
1905-06 Economics 16. Public finance [advanced]
1906-07 Economics 16. Public finance and taxation
1907-08 Economics 16. Public finance and taxation
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From 1906: Selected Readings in Public Finance edited by Charles Jesse Bullock (Boston: Inn & Company).
From 1910: Short bibliography on public finance “for serious minded students” by Bullock
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Course Enrollment
1908-09
Economics 7 2hf. Professor Bullock, assisted by Mr. Harrison. — Public Finance considered with special reference to the Theory and Methods of Taxation.
Total 110: 22 Seniors, 38 Juniors, 41 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 4 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.
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Course Description
1908-09
7 2hf. Public Finance, considered with special reference to the Theory and Methods of Taxation. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Professor Bullock.
This course is for undergraduates exclusively, and cannot be elected by graduates. As stated in the title, much attention is given to the subject of taxation, which will occupy about one half of the time of the course and will be studied with special reference to federal, state, and local taxation in the United States. The remainder of the time will be given to such topics as governmental expenditures, governmental industries (including some study of the relation of the state to railways and other public-service industries), public debts, and financial administration.
The course may, with the consent of the instructor, be elected by students who are taking Economics 1 in the same year.
Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09,
p. 48.
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ECONOMICS 7
Year-end Examination, 1908-09
- What causes are tending to increase municipal expenditures in the United States?
- What can be said for and against the proposition that increasing public expenditures are a sign of advancing civilization?
- In what actual cases has public ownership and operation of industries tended to reduce the burden of taxation? What do you consider the probable financial result of public ownership and operation?
- Describe the experience of the United States with income taxes.
- Write a brief history of the federal tax on spirits in the United States.
- By what criteria would you determine the justice of a proposed tax law?
- Why should a national debt be paid?
- Give a detailed account of the present method of taxing personal property in Massachusetts.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 39.