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Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Undergraduate

Johns Hopkins. Comprehensive Exams on Reading List for Economics Majors, 1933-40

 

 

The exam questions transcribed below come from two folders of economics examinations at Johns Hopkins University from the 1930s in the Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives at the university. The folders are mostly filled with individual course final examinations at mid-year (Jan/Feb) and end-year (May), but the following exams are not associated with any particular course and, considering the breadth of the topics addressed,  we may presume that these exams had the function of serving as comprehensive tests (see the May 11, 1935 exam below).

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EXAMINATION ON READING LIST FOR A.B. MAJORS IN BUSINESS ECONOMICS
May 24, 1933

  1. Discuss the more important abuses in corporation management in recent years.
  2. Indicate some of the more important departures from the laissez-faire doctrine in recent years in the United States.
  3. What were the ideas of Adam Smith as to the desirability of state interference in economic activity and as to the proper sphere of state activity.
  4. Distinguish between Socialism and philosophical Anarchism.
  5. What is meant by a planned economic system? Discuss its feasibility.
  6. Distinguish between the statistical method, the historical method, and the theoretical method in the study of business cycles.
  7. What has been the policy of the United States as regards the protection of American investments abroad?

[Examination on the reading list in political economy (May 1934) was not in folder]

COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION FOR MAJORS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
May 11, 1935

  1. Contrast, as to structure and methods, the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor.
  2. Contrast “Utopian” and “Scientific” Socialism.
  3. How would G. D. H. Cole make the transition from Capitalist to Cooperative Society?
  4. Describe in brief outline the mechanics of setting up a “code of fair competition”.
  5. Contrast the position of the journeyman under the Guild System and the average American wage-earner today.
  6. What does Mr. George Soule mean by saying that we are now passing through an economic and social revolution?
  7. “Economic behavior” constitutes an attempt to work out an institutional approach to the study of economics. Discuss this statement.
  8. What are the effects of the corporate system on fundamental economic concepts?
  9. Who were the leading members of the Austrian School of economists? What in general was the contribution of this group?
  10. What has been the contribution of the statistical method upon the study of business cycles?
  11. What is meant by the open door as an international economic policy? What has been the policy of the United States in this respect?

 

EXAMINATION FOR MR. HOWELL ON READING FOR MAJOR IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
October 5, 1935

  1. What have been the main policies of the American Federation of Labor?
  2. What where the chief contentions of Karl Marx?
  3. How would Mr. G. D. H. Cole use social control of credit to bring about a cooperative commonwealth?
  4. Describe the organization of rural life in England in, say, the 12th and 13th centuries.
  5. What are the economic consequences of “the Power Age”?
  6. What is an institution? Illustrate. What is the institutional approach to economics?
  7. What is Ricardo’s place in the history of Economic thought?
  8. Discuss the dispersion of stock ownership.
  9. Professor Wesley Mitchell says: “We do not say that a business economy has developed in any community until most of its economic activities have taken on the form of making and spending money.” What is the meaning of this statement? What is its significance in the theory of business cycles?
  10. What is the meaning and purpose of the “most favored nation” clause in commercial treaties? What has been the history of the American interpretation of this clause?

Source:  Johns Hopkins University. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Records, Series 6. Curricular Materials; Exams, 1924-29; Exams, 1951-55. Box 2, Folder “Exams, 1930-1935”.

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[Examination on the reading list in political economy (May 1936) was not in folder]

EXAMINATION ON THE READING LIST IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
May 17, 1937

  1. What can you say of the relationship between trade restrictions in the world depression?
  2. What where the similarities of the Statute of Apprentices, 1563, and the NRA?
  3. Contrast the general character of the economic doctrine of John Stuart Mill with that of Karl Marx.
  4. Characterize briefly the factory acts movement, Chartist, cooperative, labor union, and Socialist movements of 19th century England.
  5. Discuss administrative prices.
  6. What is meant by quasi-rent?
  7. Discuss Lutz’s requisites for a sound tax system.
  8. What is the “most-favored-nation clause”? What are its consequences? What has been the American policy with respect to this clause?
  9. Give an explanation of what seems to you the most reasonable theory of business cycles.
  10. What does Veblen mean by Business Enterprise? What economic consequences does he ascribe to a system of business enterprise?

 

EXAMINATION ON THE READING LIST IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
May 2, 1938

  1. What does G. D. H. Cole say as to the causes and consequences of present-day protectionism in the world?
  2. Give some account of the Factory Acts Movement in England in the 19th century.
  3. “Modern industry has produced a set of conditions radically different from those in which laissez-faire principles apply. It has introduced new types of industrial and business organization whose operations impede or distort the process of automatic adjustment.” Discuss.
  4. Should tax-exempt securities be abolished in the United States?
  5. Comment upon the various methods of commercial diplomacy that have been employed by the United States in order to promote the export business of the country.
  6. Discuss the theory that the explanation of the business cycle is to be found in the capitalistic process of production.
  7. What are Veblen’s ideas concerning the causes of the business cycle? His suggested remedies?
  8. What does Marshall mean by the phrase “the representative firm”? How does he employ the concept?
  9. Contrast the doctrines of Friedrich List and Adam Smith.
  10. Given the following figures concerning the cost and the demand for the output of a single firm operating under the conditions of “Imperfect” competition, determine the price. Explain and discuss briefly your answer. Construct the demand schedule for the product of this firm under the condition of “perfect” competition, using as one figure in the schedule a price of 19 for an output of 11. What would be the price under “perfect” competition and how many articles would be sold? (Remember that the demand schedule for the product of a single firm is different from the general demand schedule for all firms operating under perfect competition.”

Output

 Total cost at given output Demand price for given output
9 183

21

10

 188 20
11 195

19

12

 205 18
13 220

17

14

 239 16
15 263

15

 

[Examination on the reading list in political economy (May 1939) was not in folder]

 

EXAMINATION ON THE READING LIST IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
May 10, 1940

  1. To what extent does the present Federal corporation income tax conform to the requisites of a sound tax system set forth by Lutz?
  2. What lines of government policy seem to you most likely to succeed in reducing unemployment? Explain why.
  3. What are the principal methods used by producers to stabilize the prices of their products? Discuss the probable economic consequences of private price fixing.
  4. Explain clearly and fully Professor Marshall’s concept of the “representative firm”. What place does this concept have in Marshall’s exposition of the process of price-determination? Do you think that the concept is useful as an instrument in the elaboration of value-theory under modern conditions of industrial organization? Why or why not?
  5. Explain the relationship between money and the business cycle. In what ways can monetary control affect the business cycle?
  6. What is meant by the “open-door” and the “closed-door” in international economic relations? Explain the policies which the United States has pursued as respects these doctrines.
  7. In respect to the theory of economic development, compare David Ricardo and Karl Marx. In your answer take note of (a) theory of value, (b) theory of distribution, (c) relation of state to industry, (d) method of analysis, (e) degree of realism of each (give your opinion as to the validity of their doctrines).
  8. Contrast the English reform movement before 1860 with that after 1860. (In your answer indicate the motives that prompted the reforms; mention also what in your opinion were the two most important reforms in each period.)

Source:  Johns Hopkins University. Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy Records, Series 6. Curricular Materials; Exams, 1924-29; Exams, 1951-55. Box 2, Folder “Exams, 1936-1940”.

 

Source: Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University. Hullabaloo 1924.