Tag: Bergson

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Economists Yale

Yale. Meet an assistant professor of economics. Montias, 1960

One of the first professors to lead me into the field of comparative economic systems was John Michael Montias (1928-2005). He provided me an early exposure to the economic theory behind the indexes of comparative productivity computed by Abram Bergson (see Chapter 6 by Bergson and also Chapter 7 by Evsey Domar published in Alexander Eckstein (ed.), Comparison of Economic Systems: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches. U. of California Press, 1971).

The portrait shows Mike Montias in his early thirties, a beaming assistant professor at Yale. I include the short biographical clip from The Yale Banner of 1960 that accompanied the portrait. I can confirm that he was very much “a genial person” and will add a “a very learned scholar.”

____________________

From: The Yale Banner of 1960

An authority on Soviet economics, JOHN M. MONTIAS, Assistant Professor of Economics, came to Yale in 1958 after extensive study at Columbia. As an undergraduate, Professor Montias studied both Russian and economics and decided to combine them in his later career. After serving three years as an economic analyst for the United Nations in Geneva, Beirut, and New York, Mr. Montias traveled extensively in central Europe, working as a consultant for the Ford Foundation on the Polish Fellowship Program and holding several fellowships and grants for research. In addition to co-authoring a book on the Polish economy, Professor Montias has written for numerous professional magazines. Mr. Montias likes to play chess, study languages and travel. A genial person, Mr. Montias is well liked in his undergraduate course on the Soviet economy and his graduate course on central planning.

Source: The Yale Banner 1960, p. 35.

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Computing Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Columbia. Structure of the Soviet Economy, Reading assignments. Bergson, 1954-1955

Abram Bergson was forty-years old and well on the way to becoming the “Dean of Soviet Economics” in the United States when he taught the following course on the structure of the Soviet Economy at Columbia University.

Bergson, along with my Yale professors Mike Montias and Ray Powell together with my M.I.T. dissertation supervisor Evsey Domar, got me hooked on the economic theory of index numbers. For my fellow index number nerds I link to a draft of my homage à Bergson “The ‘Welfare Standard’ and Soviet Consumers” that I presented at the Abram Bergson memorial conference (published in Comparative Economic Studies, 2005, vol. 47, issue 2, pp. 333-345).

The reading list for Bergson’s Economics of Socialism (Harvard, 1977) has been posted earlier at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 145 (Russian Institute)—Structure of the Soviet Economy. 2 pts. Professor Bergson
Tu. Th. 11. 403 Schermerhorn.

Analytical and statistical survey of the growth, operating principles, and organization of the economy of the Soviet Union under the Five-Year Plans, with attention to resources, population and labor, agriculture, industry, and domestic and foreign trade.

Source: Announcement of the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions, 1954-1955. Printed as Columbia University, Bulletin of Information. Vol. 54, No. 123 (June 19, 1954), p. 36.

________________________

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
RUSSIAN INSTITUTE

Winter Session, 1954-55

Economics 145
Structure of the
Soviet Economy

  1. THE RATE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH UNDER THE FIVE YEAR PLANS: ALTERNATIVE MEASURES.

Assigned Reading

Clark, C.; Gerschenkron, A.: “Russian Income and Production Statistics,” Review of Economic Statistics, Nov. 1947.

Dobb, M., “A Comment on Soviet Economic Statistics,” Soviet Studies, June 1949.

Gerschenkron, A., A Dollar Index of Soviet Machinery Output, The RAND Corporation 1951, Chs. 1-4.

Jasny, N., The Soviet Economy during the Plan Era, Stanford 1951.

Kaplan, N.M., “Arithmancy, Theomancy and the Soviet Economy,” Journal of Political Economy, April 1953.

Bergson, A., “Reliability and Usability of Soviet Statistics: Summary Appraisal,” American Statistician, June-July 1953.

Chapman, J. “Real Wages in the Soviet Union, 1928-52, Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1954.

Other References:

Baykov, A., “Postwar Economic Development….”, Univ. of Birmingham Bulletins, May 1953.

Bergson, A., “Soviet National Income: and Product in 1937,” New York 1953.

Clark, C., “The Valuation of Real Income in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Progress, Feb. and Mar. 1949.

Dobb, M., “A Comment on Soviet Statistics,” Review of Economic Statistics, Feb. 1948.

Harris, S.E.; Gerschenkron, A.; Bergson, A.; Baran, P.; and Yugow, A.: “Appraisals of Russian Economic Statistics,” Nov. 1947.

Hodgman, D., “Industrial Production,”;and Galenson, W., “Industrial Labor Productivity,” in Bergson, A., ed., Soviet Economic Growth, Evanston, Ill., 1953.

Kasdan, S., “Relationship between Machinery and Steel Production in Russia and the United States,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb. 1952.

Rice, S.; Schwartz, H.; Lorimer, F.; Gerschenkron, A.; Volin, L., “Reliability and Usability of Soviet Statistics,” American Statistician, April-May, June-July 1953.

Wyler, J., “The National Income of the Soviet Union,” Social Research Dec. 1946.

  1. SOVIET ECONOMIC GROWTH: SURVEY OF CONDITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES.

Assigned Reading

Grossman, G., “National Income”; Kaplan, N.M., “Capital Formation and Allocation”;

“Industrial Resources”; and Comments on foregoing in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

“Directives on the Fifth Five Year Plan,” pp. 21-28, Malenkov Report, pp. 106-115, in L. Gruliow, ed., Current Soviet Policies, New York, 1953.

Dobb, M., “Rates of Growth under the Five Year Plans,” Soviet Studies, April 1953.

Other References

Balzak et al., Economic Geography of the USSR, New York 1949.

Blackman, J.A., „Transportation,” and comments on this essay in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

Hoeffding, O., Soviet National Income and Product in 1928, New York 1954.

Bergson, A. and Heymann, H., “Soviet National Income and Product 1940-48.”

Schwartz, H., Russia’s Soviet Economy, 2nd ed. New York 1954, Ch. XV.

Shimkin, D., Minerals—A Key to Soviet Power, Cambridge, 1953.

Wiles, Peter, “Soviet Russia Outpaces the West,” Foreign Affairs, July 1953.

  1. AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE DECISION ON COLLECTIVIZATION.

Assigned Reading

Dobb, M., Soviet Economic Development since 1917, New York 1948, Chs. VIII-IX.

Erlich, A., “Preobrajenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 1950.

Stalin, J.V., Selected Writings. “On the Grain Front,” “Right Danger,” “Right Deviation,” “Problems of Agrarian Policy,” “The Policy of Eliminating the Kulaks as a Class,” “Dizzy with Success.”

Other References

Baykov, A., Development of the Soviet Economic System, New York, 1946, Ch. XII.

Dobb, M. Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. X.

Maynard, J., Russia in Flux, New York 1948, Chs. XVI, XIX.

  1. AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: TRENDS UNDER THE FIVE YEAR PLANS: PERSPECTIVES.

Assigned Reading

Schwartz, H. Russia’s Soviet Economy, Chs. VIII, IX.

Jasny, N., The Socialized Agriculture of the USSR, Stanford 1949, pp. 1-99.

Timoshenko, V.P., “Agricultural Resources”; Kershaw, J., “Agricultural Output and Employment”; and comments on these essays in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

Volin, L., “The Malenkov-Khrushchev New Economic Policy”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1954.

Other References

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Ch. XVII.

Baykov., A., “Agricultural Development in the USSR,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, December 1951, May 1953.

in, G.; Schwarz, S.; and Yugow, A., Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, New York 1944. Ch. X – XVII.

Finegood, I.M., “A Critical Analysis of Some Concepts Concerning Soviet Agriculture,”

Soviet Studies, July 1952.

Hubbard, L.E., Economics of Soviet Agriculture, London 1939.

Maynard, Russia in Flux, Ch. XX.

Schlesinger, R.A.J., “Some Problems of Present Kolkhoz Organization, Soviet Studies, April 1951. See also the further discussion by Jasny, Nove and Schlesinger in Soviet Studies, Oct. 1951, Jan. 1952.

Volin, L., “Turn of the Screw in Soviet Agriculture,” Foreign Affairs, Jan. 1952.

  1. LABOR RECRUITMENT AND WAGE POLICY; INEQUALITY

Assigned Reading

Bergson, A., Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge, Mass., 1944 Chs. IV, X – XIV, Conclusion and Appendix F.

Inkeles, A., “Social Stratification and Mobility in the Soviet Union: 1940-1950,” American Sociological Review, August 1950.

Deutscher, I., Soviet Trade Unions, New York 1950.

Gsovski, V., Soviet Labor Law, Monthly Labor Review, March, April 1951.

Other References

Barker, G.R., “Soviet Labor,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, June 1951.

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XIII, XVIII.

Bergson, “On Inequality of Incomes in the USSR,” American Slavic and East European Review”, April 1951.

Bienstock, Schwarz and Vugow, Management in Soviet Industry and Agriculture, Ch. VIII.

Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. XVI.

Eason, W.W., “Population and Labor Force,” and comments in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

Gordon, M. Workers before and after Lenin, New York 1941.

Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Labor and Industry, London 1942.

Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy. Ch. XIII.

Schwarz, Solomon, Labor in the Soviet Union, New York 1952.

  1. FISCAL POLICY AND THE PRICE LEVEL

Assigned Reading

Berliner, J. S., “Monetary Planning in the USSR,” American Slavic and East European Review, Dec. 1950.

Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917. Ch. XIV.

Holzman, F.D, “Commodity and Income Taxation in the Soviet Union,” Journal of Political Economy, Oct. 1950.

Holzman, F.D, “The Soviet Budget, 1928-1952,” National Tax Journal, Sept. 1953.

Other References

Arnold, A.Z., Banks, Credit and Money in Soviet Russia. New York 1937.

Baran, P.A., “Currency Reform in the USSR,” Harvard Business Review, March 1948.

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System. Ch. XIX.

Baykov, A. and Barker G.R. “Financial Developments in the USSR,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, August 1950.

Bergson, A., Soviet National Income and Product in 1937. New York 1953.

Holzman, F.D., “The Burden of Soviet Taxation,” American Economic Review, Sept. 1953.

Bogolepov, M.I., The Soviet Financial System. (Pamphlet) London 1945.

Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Money and Finance, London 1936.

Reddaway, W.B., The Russian Financial System, London 1935.

Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy. Ch. XII.

Davies, R.W., “Finance,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, December 1952.

  1. THEORY OF SOCIALIST ECONOMICS

Assigned Reading

Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. I.

Lange, O., “On the Economic Theory of Socialism,” In B. Lippincott, ed., O. Lange, F. Taylor, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis 1938.

Other References

Bergson, A., “Socialist Economics,” in H. Ellis, ed. A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia 1948.

Dickinson, H.D., Economics of Socialism, Oxford 1939.

Dobb, M., Political Economy and Capitalism, New York 1940.

Hayek, F.A., ed., Collectivist Economic Planning, London 1935.

Lenin, V.I. State and Revolution.

Marx, K., Critique of the Gotha Programme, Political Economy in the Soviet Union (Pamphlet) New York, International Publishers, 1944.

Stalin, J., Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, Moscow, 1952.

  1. ECONOMICS OF THE FIRM

Assigned Reading

Bienstock, Schwarz and Yugow: Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, Chs. I — VI, IX.

Granick, D., “Initiative and Independence of Soviet Plant Management,” Plant Management, American Slavic and East European Review, Oct. 1951.

Berliner, J., “The Informal Organization of the Soviet Firm,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1952.

Other References

Arakelian, A., Industrial Management in the USSR, Washington, D.C. 1950.

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XI, XVI.

Granick, D., Management of the Industrial Firm in the USSR, New York 1954.

Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Labor and Industry.

  1. GENERAL PLANNING

Assigned Reading

Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XIV, XV, XX.

Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. I, XIII.

Hunter, H., “Planning of Investments in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1949.

Grossman, G., “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug. 1953.

Jasny, N., The Soviet Price System, Stanford 1951, Chs. I-IV.

Other References

Bettleheim, C., “On the Problem of Choice between Alternative Investment Projects,” Soviet Studies, July 1950.

Brutzkus, B., Economic Planning in Soviet Russia, London 1935.

Dobb, M., “The Problem of Choice between Alternative Investment Projects,” Soviet Studies, January 1951.

Eason, W., “On Strumilin’s Model,” Soviet Studies, April 1950.

Jasny, N., Soviet Prices of Producers’ Goods, Stanford 1952.

Kaplan, N., “Investment Alternatives…,” Jour. of Polit. Econ., April 1952.

Kursky, A., The Planning of the National Economy of the USSR, Moscow 1949.

Lange, O., The Working Principles of the Soviet Economy, New York 1943. (Pamphlet)

Miller, J., “Some Recent Developments in Soviet Economic Thought,” Soviet Studies, September 1949.

Miller J., ed., “Three Articles on the Effectiveness of Investments,” Soviet Studies, April 1950.

“Problems of Planning Capital Investment,” The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. II, No. 1, Feb. 18, 1950. “Planning Capital Investment II,” The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. II, No. 3, March 4, 1950.

Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy, Ch. V.

Zauberman, “Economic Thought in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Studies, 1949-1950, Nos. 39-40.

Zauberman, A., “Prospects for Soviet Investigations into Capital Efficiency,” Soviet Studies, April, 1950.

  1. FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS

Assigned Reading

Gerschenkron, A., Economic Relations with the USSR (The Committee on International Economic Policy in Cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), New York 1943.

Hoeffding, O., “Soviet Economic Relations with the Orbit”; Schwartz, H., “East-West Trade”; and comments on these essays in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.

Other References

Baykov, A., Soviet Foreign Trade, Princeton 1946, Chs. II – VI.

Condoide, M.V., Russian-American Trade, Columbus, Ohio 1946.

Dewar, M., Soviet Trade with Eastern Europe, New York 1951.

Gerschenkron, A., “Russia’s Trade in the Postwar Years,” The Annals, May 1949.

Kerblay, B.H., “Economic Relations of the USSR…,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, March 1951.

Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy, Ch. XIV.

Yugow, A., Russia’s Economic Front for War and Peace, Ch. V.

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Joseph Dorfman Collection, Box 13, Unlabeled Folder containing miscellaneous course reading lists.

Image Source: Tourist Card for Citizens of American Countries for a Thirty-Day Stay in Brazil (20 Aug. 1962) of Abram Bergson.

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Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Reading list for Economics of Socialism. Bergson, 1977

The list of readings and final exam for Abram Bergson’s Harvard course “Normative Aspects of Economic Policy” (1960) were posted earlier. In this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provides the course outline and assigned readings for his “Economics of Socialism”. I encountered his 1961 book The Real National Income of Soviet Russia Since 1928 in four of my courses (taught by Raymond Powell and John Michael Montias at Yale; Evsey Domar at M.I.T.; and from Bergson himself at Harvard).

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Economics 1200:
Economics of Socialism
Spring Term, 1976-77
Professor Bergson

Note
The following will be the principal texts for the course:

Abram Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Yale, New Haven, Conn., 1964.

Nai-Ruenn Chen and Walter Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Aldine, Chicago, 1969

Joel B. Dirlam and James L. Plummer, An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy, Merrill, Columbus, Ohio, 1973.

Paul R. Gregory and Robert C. Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Harper and Row, New York, 1974.

Note that the Bergson, Gregory and Stuart, and Dirlam and Plummer books are available in paperback.

Items Marked with an asterisk are optional.

I. Introduction
  1. What is Socialism?

“Socialism” (by Daniel Bell), in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, 1968, pp. 506-516.

Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, International Publishers, 1938, pp. 3-23.

V. I. Lenin, State and Revolution, Ch. 5, “The Economic Base of the Withering Away of the State.”

Paul M. Sweezy, “Alternative Conceptions of Socialist Development” (Processed).

Alec Nove, “Market Socialism and Its Critics,” Soviet Studies, July 1972.

II. Comparative Development Strategy
  1. The Soviet Model

Gregory and Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Chs. 1-3, 12 (pp. 417-428 only).

A. Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, London, 1969, Chs. 6-8.

A. Erlich, “Preobrazhenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1950.

I.V. Stalin, “On the Grain Front,” “Right Danger,” “Right Deviation,” in Selected Writings, New York, 1942.

  1. Variants

Oleg Hoeffding, “Soviet State Planning and Forced Industrialization as a Model for Asia,” Problems of Communism, Nov.-Dec., 1959; reprinted in F. Holzman, Readings on the Soviet Economy, Chicago, 1962.

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy under Communism, Chs. 1, 2.

A. Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1975, pp. 9-22, 47-51.

See Sweezy under Topic 1.

III. Economic Organization and Planning
  1. Socialist Planning: Contents and Issues

O. Lange “On the Economic Theory of Socialism” including Appendix, in B. Lippincott ed., On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis, 1938; New York, 1964.

A. Bergson “Market Socialism Revisited,” Journal of Political Economy, October 1967 (Section on “Cooperative Variant” optional).

W. N. Loucks, Comparative Economic Systems, 7th ed., New York, 1965, pp. 108-120 (5th ed., pp. 98-110; 6th ed., pp. 93-105).

Joan Robinson, An Essay on Marxian Economics, 2nd ed., New York, 1966, pp. 10-28.

Note: As a preliminary to the foregoing readings, you may wish review relevant theoretic foundations in, say, Robert Dorfman, Prices and Markets, New Jersey, 1967, Chs. 7-8.

  1. Centralist Planning in the USSR: The Industrial Enterprise and Collective Farm

Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 5 and pp. 287-297; Chs 9 and 10.

J. Berliner The Innovation Decision in Soviet Industry, Cambridge, Mass., 1976, Chs. 14-16.

Gregory and Stuart, Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Chs. 7 (pp. 232-253), 10.

D. Granick*, “Managerial Incentives in the USSR and in Western Firms,” Journal of Comparative Administration, August 1973.

Emily C. Brown, Soviet Trade Unions and Labor Relations, Cambridge, Mass., 1966, Chs. 7, 9.

E. G. Liberman*, Economic Methods and the Effectiveness of Production, New York, 1973, pp. 21-47.

  1. Centralist Planning in the USSR: Coordination

Bergson, Economics of Soviet Planning, Chs. 1, 3,4, 7, 8,(*) 11.

Liberman*, Economic Methods and the Effectiveness of Production, pp. 75-116.

H. S. Levine, “Pressure and Planning in the Soviet Economy,” in H. Rosovsky, ed., Industrialization in Two Systems, New York 1966; reprinted in M. Bornstein and D.R. Fusfeld, eds., The Soviet Economy, 3rd ed., Homewood, Ill., 1970.

G. Grossman*, “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1953, reprinted in Holzman, Readings.

A. Nove, The Soviet Economy, New York, 1961, Rev. ed., Ch. 3, Ch. 7 (pp. 231-240).

R. W. Campbell, “Marx, Kantorovich, and Novozhilov,” in Slavic Review, October 1961; reprinted in H. Schaffer, The Soviet Economy, New York, 1963; and in George Feiwel, New Currents Soviet-Type Economies: A Reader, Scranton, PA, 1968.

G. Schroeder, “The 1966-67 Soviet Industrial Price Reform,” Soviet Studies, April 1969.

H. Kohler, Welfare and Planning, New York, 1966, pp. 82-95, 102-105.

M. Goldman, “Externalities and the Race for Economic Growth in the USSR: Will the Environment ever Win?” Journal of Political Economy, March/April 1972.

  1. Market Socialism in Hungary and Yugoslavia

Bela Balassa. “The Firm in the New Economic Mechanism in Hungary,” in M. Bornstein, ed. Plan and Market, New Haven, Conn., 1973.

D. Granick, “The Hungarian Economic Reform,” World Politics, April 1973, reprinted in M. Bornstein, ed., Comparative Economic Systems, 3rd ed., Homewood, Ill., 1974.

J. Vanek, The Participatory Economy, Ithaca, New York, 1971, Chs. 2-3.

Dirlam and Plummer, An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy Chs. 2, 3, 4 (pp. 88-99), 5 (pp. 122-141), 7 (pp. 165-177).

D. D. Milenkovich, Plan and Market in Yugoslav Economic Thought,New Haven, Conn., 1971, pp. 187-211.

D. D. Milenkovich*, “Plan and Market: The Case of Yugoslavia” (Processed).

  1. Planning in China: How Different?

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Ch. 6

Barry Richman. “Capitalists and Managers in Communist China,” Harvard Business Review, January/February 1967.

D. Perkins, “Industrial Planning and Management,” in A. Eckstein, W. Galenson and T. C. Liu, eds., Economic Trends in Communist China, Chicago, 1968.

Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ch. 12.

IV Foreign Economic Relations
  1. Foreign Economic Relations

F. D. Holzman, Foreign Trade Under Central Planning, Cambridge, Mass., 1974, Chs. 2, 6 (analysis of Fig. 6.1, p. 146 and section on foreign trade discrimination, pp. 150-152 are optional).

F. L. Pryor, The Communist Foreign Trade System, Cambridge, Mass., 1963, Chs. 1, 5 (pp. 131-139).

E. A. Hewett, Foreign Trade Prices in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Cambridge, Eng., 1974, Ch. 2.

R. F. Dernberger, “Prices, the Exchange Rate and Economic Efficiency in the Foreign Trade of Communist China,” A. A. Brown and E. Neuberger, eds., International Trade and Central Planning, Berkeley, California, 1968.

V. Performance
  1. Comparative Productivity and Growth

S. Cohn, Economic Development in the Soviet Union, Lexington, Mass., 1970, Chs. 4, 6.

A. Bergson, Planning and Productivity Under Soviet Socialism, New York, 1968 Chs. 1-3.

R. W. Campbell, Soviet Economic Power, 2nd ed. Boston, Mass., 1966, Ch. 6.

A. Bergson “Development Under Two Systems: Comparative Productivity Growth Since 1950,” World Politics, July, 1971; reprinted in Bornstein, Comparative Economic Systems, 3rd ed.

B. Ward, “Capitalism vs. Socialism: A Small Country Version,” in G. Grossman, ed., Essays in Socialism and Planning in Honor of Carl Landauer, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Chen and Galenson, The Chinese Economy Under Communism, Ch. 9.

Eckstein, China’s Economic Development, Ch. 1.

John G. Gurley, “Capitalist and Maoist Economic Development,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, April-July 1970, pp. 42ff.

Reading Period:

Wage Determination and Inequality

Bergson, The Economics of Soviet Planning, Ch. 6.

Bergson, The Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge, Mass., 1944, Chs. 2, 13, 14.

M. Matthews*, “Top Incomes in the USSR: Towards a Definition of the Soviet Elite,” Survey, Summer, 1975.

Charles Hoffman, “Work Incentives in Chinese Industry and Agriculture,” in Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, An Economic Profile of Mainland China, Vol. 2, Washington, D.C., February 1967.

Convergence?

J. K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State, Boston, 1967, Ch. XXXV.

Bertram Wolfe, “Russia and the USA: A Challenge to the Convergence Theory” and J.K. Galbraith, “Reply,” American Humanist, September/October 1968.

Peter Wiles, “Convergence: Possibility and Probability” in Balinky et al., Planning and the Market in the USSR, Rutgers, 1967.

Source: Personal copy of Irwin Collier.

Portrait of Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

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Columbia Economist Market Economists

Columbia. Major wave of economics appointments. Stigler, Polanyi, Hart, Nurkse, Bergson. 1947

 

The economics department of Columbia University could rightly boast of its bumper crop of faculty appointments for the 1947-48 academic year. I’ll be surprised if I ever come across a press release announcing a correspondingly large wave of resignations anywhere. However, it is not uncommon for members of rival departments to comment on the movement of colleagues from one department to another as the result of such movement raising the average in both departments. But no doubt, quite a proud moment for economics at Columbia.

_______________________________

Columbia University Press Release
August 28, 1947

Public Information Office
Columbia University
Morningside Heights
New York 27, N.Y.
———————–
Robert Harron, Director

Appointments of several noted scholars in the field of economics, effective with the new academic year, were announced yesterday (Wednesday) by Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, acting president of Columbia University.

Dr. George Joseph Stigler, who has been a member of the faculty of Brown University, has been appointed professor of economics. Dr. Stigler was graduated from the University of Washington in 1931, and received advanced degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. He has held research positions with The National Resources Committee and the National Bureau of Economic Research, and is the author of “Production and Distribution Theories: the Theory of Price.” [sic, actually two different books: Production and Distribution Theories, The Formative Period (1941) and The Theory of Price (Revised 1952)]

Dr. Karl Polanyi, former lecturer at Oxford, the University of London, and Bennington College, has been named as visiting professor of economics. Dr. Polanyi, who was born in Vienna and was from 1924 to 1934 on the staff of the “Oesterreichische Volkswirt”, then a leading financial weekly, has been a naturalized British citizen since 1940. In 1944 he wrote “The Great Transformation, [1944]” which attracted international attention. It is an analysis of free enterprise capitalism as it affects western society. He was at Columbia during the recent Spring Session.

Three who were visiting professors during the past year have accepted permanent status. They are Albert Gailord Hart, visiting professor of economics; Ragnar Nurkse, visiting professor of international economics, and Abram Bergson, visiting associate professor of economics.

Professor Hart was educated at Harvard and the University of Chicago, has taught at Iowa State and the University of Chicago, and has served as research economist for the Committee for Economic Development. He is the author of “Anticipations, Uncertainty, and Dynamic Planning,” “Debts and Recovery, 1929-1937,” “The Social Framework of the American Economy” (with J.R. Hicks) and, with collaborators, “Paying for Defense.”

Professor Nurkse, a native of Estonia, worked with the economic and financial section of the League of Nations and has had major responsibility for a number of its publications, notably the volume, “International Currency Experience.” He holds an advanced degree from the University of Edinburgh. His work will be largely in the School of International Affairs.

Professor Bergson, who came to Columbia a year ago as a member of the Russian Institute staff, was trained at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, and has taught at the University of Texas. During the war he served with the office of Strategic Services as Chief of the Economic Subdivision, U.S.S.R. Division. He was also consultant on Russian financial questions to the Department of State and a member of the U.S. Reparations Delegations to the Moscow and Potsdam conferences.

Newly appointed to the department, whose executive officer is Professor Carter Goodrich, are Lawrence Abbott, a graduate of Harvard who has taught at Hotchkiss School, and Aaron W. Warner, former instructor in labor law at the University of Denver. Mr. Abbott will be an instructor in Columbia College. Mr. Warner will be in charge of economics in the School of General Studies.

Source: Columbia University Archives. Historical Subject Files, Series I: Academics and Research,  Box 23, Folder 5 “Economics, Dept. of, 1915—”.

Image Source: George Stigler (left) at the 1947 Mt. Pelerin Society meeting from the Milton Friedman Papers at the Hoover Institution Archives. Karl Polanyi (1947)  (right) picture found multiple times on webpages without attribution.

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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Readings and Final Exam for Normative Aspects of Economic Policy. Bergson, 1960

 

The reading list and final exam questions from 1959 for Abram Bergson‘s Harvard undergraduate course “Normative Aspects of Economic Policy” have been posted earlier. This post provides material for the same course taught in the spring term of 1960. The reading lists are completely identical, but this time I have gone to the trouble of providing links to most of the course readings.  The exam questions for the 1960 do indeed differ from those of 1959 while covering broadly the same material.

_________________

Enrollment

[Economics] 111a. Normative Aspects of Economic Policy. Professor Bergson. Half course. (Spring)

Total 36: 3 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 3 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1959-1960, p. 82.

_________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Normative Aspects of Economic Policy
Spring Term: 1959-60

  1. The concept of economic efficiency.

Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chicago, 1951, Chapter I.

  1. Consumers’ goods distribution and labor recruitment: the efficiency of perfect competition: other forms of market organization.

Scitovsky, Chapters II-V, XVI (pp. 338-41), XVIII, XX (pp. 423-427).
A. P. Lerner, Economics of Control, New York, 1946, Chapter 2.

  1. Conditions for efficiency in production.

Scitovsky, Chapters VI-VIII.
Lerner, Chapter 5.

  1. Production efficiency under perfect competition; monopolistic markets.

See the readings under topic 3.
Scitovsky, Chapter X, XI, XII, XV, XVI (pp. 341-363), XVII, XX (pp. 428-439).
Lerner, Chapters 6, 7.

  1. The optimum rate of investment.

Scitovsky, Chapter IX (pp. 216-228).
A. C. Pigou, Economics of Welfare, fourth ed., London, 1948, pp. 23-30.”Wa

  1. Price policy for a public enterprise.

Lerner, Chapter 15.
I. M. D. Little, A Critique of Welfare Economics, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1957, Chapter XI.
O. Eckstein, Water Resource Development, Cambridge, 1958, pp. 47-70, pp. 81-109.

  1. Socialist economic calculation.

O. Lange, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minn., 1938, pp. 55-141.
F. Hayek, Socialist Calculation: Economica, May 1940
A. Bergson, Socialist Economics, in H. Ellis, ed., A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, 1948.
M. Dobb, Economic Theory and Socialism, New York, 1955, pp. 41-92.

  1. Economic calculation in underdeveloped countries.

A. Datta, Welfare versus Growth Economics, Indian Economic Journal, October 1956.
T. Scitovsky, Two Concepts of External Economics, Journal of Political Economy, April 1954.
J. Tinbergen, The Design of Development, Balto., Md., 1958.

  1. The concept of social welfare.

The writings of Bergson and Dobb under topic 7.
Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Chapters I, VIII.
Lerner, Chapter 3.
J. R. Hicks, Foundations of Welfare Economics, Economic Journal, December 1939.
Arthur Smithies, Economic Welfare and Policy, in A. Smithies et al., Economics and Public Policy, Washington, 1955.

 

Other References on the Concept of Social Welfare and Optimum Conditions

M. W. Reder, Studies in the Theory of Welfare Economics, New York 1947.

P. A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Cambridge, 1947, Chapter VIII.

K. Boulding, Welfare Economics, in B. Haley, A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Homewood, Illinois, 1952.

H. Myint, Theories of Welfare Economics, Cambridge, Mass., 1948.

J. A. Hobson, Work and Wealth, London, 1933.

J. M. Clark, Guideposts in Time of Change, New York, 1949.

J. de V. Graaf, Theoretical Welfare Economics, Cambridge, 1957.

F. M. Bator, The Simple Analytics of Welfare Maximization, American Economic Review, March 1957.

A. Bergson, A Reformulation [of Certain Aspects] of Welfare Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1938.

P. A. Samuelson, Evaluation of Real National Income, Oxford Economic Papers, January 1950.

A. C. Pigou, Some Aspects of Welfare Economics, American Economic Review, June 1951.

T. Scitovsky, The State of Welfare Economics, American Economic Review, June 1951.

J. E. Meade, Trade and Welfare, New York, 1955, Part I.

[Note: no additional assignment for the reading period]

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1959-60”.

_________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Final Examination

June 2, 1960

Answer four and only four of the following six questions.

  1. Explain the “price-consumption” curve for a single household in a perfectly competitive consumers’ goods market. What determines the shape of the curve? By use of this curve, show how the household’s consumption might be affected by a percentage sales tax on one commodity. What determines the total taxes paid by the household?
  2. In an economy which otherwise is perfectly competitive, a trade union arbitrarily limits entry of workers into a single industry. In equilibrium, what conditions for an economic optimum are violated?
  3. “Under ‘free’ competition it is true that individual firms have monopoly power and hence charge prices above marginal costs. But since there is free entry, there hardly can be any serious economic waste on this account, for prices cannot long exceed average cost.” Discuss.
  4. For purposes of fixing prices for a public enterprise, what arguments might be advanced for and against acceptance of each of the following theoretic principles:
    1. Maximization of profits;
    2. Pricing at average cost, including a “normal” competitive return on invested capital;
    3. Pricing at marginal cost;
    4. Pricing at minimum average costs.
  5. Explain briefly:
    1. Parametric function of prices;
    2. “Technological” versus “pecuniary” external economies;
    3. “Accounting prices” in economics of development;
    4. “Defective telescopic faculty.”
  6. Discuss the different approaches employed in welfare economics to the problem of income distribution.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …,Naval Science, Air Science. June 1960. In Social Sciences, Final Examinations, June 1960 (HUC 2000.28, No. 128).

Portrait of Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

Categories
Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Welfare economics and policy. Readings and exam. Bergson, 1959

 

Before he began to be known as the (Western) Dean of Soviet Economic Studies, Abram Bergson’s greatest hit “A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics” (QJE, 1938) earned him an honored place in the pantheon of welfare economics theorists. Thus it is not surprising that besides courses on socialist economics and the economics of the Soviet Union, he also taught the following course involving the application of welfare economics to policy. 

The reading list and final exam questions for the same course offered in the Spring term of 1960 has been posted later. The reading list didn’t change at all between the two years, but I have provided links to most of the readings in the later post as well as the new exam questions.

__________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 111a. Normative Aspects of Economic Policy. Professor Bergson. Half course. (Spring)

Total, 21: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 3 Radcliffe, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1958-59, p. 70.

__________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Normative Aspects of Economic Policy
Spring Term: 1958-59

  1. The concept of economic efficiency.

T. Scitovsky, Welfare and Competition, Chicago, 1951, Chapter I.

  1. Consumers’ goods distribution and labor recruitment: the efficiency of perfect competition: other forms of market organization.

Scitovsky, Chapters II-V, XVI (pp. 338-41), XVIII, XX (pp. 423-427).

A. P. Lerner, Economics of Control, New York, 1946, Chapter 2.

  1. Conditions for efficiency in production.

Scitovsky, Chapters VI-VIII.

Lerner, Chapter 5.

  1. Production efficiency under perfect competition; monopolistic markets

See the readings under topic 3.

Scitovsky, Chapters X, XI, XII, XV, XVI (pp. 341-363), XVII, XX (pp. 428-439).

Lerner, Chapters 6, 7.

  1. The optimum rate of investment.

Scitovsky, Chapter IX (pp. 216-228).

A. C. Pigou, Economics of Welfare, fourth ed., London, 1948, pp. 23-30.

  1. Price policy for a public enterprise.

Lerner, Chapter 15.

I. M. D. Little, A Critique of Welfare Economics, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1957, Chapter XI.

O. Eckstein, Water Resource Development, Cambridge, 1958, pp. 47-70, pp. 81-109.

  1. Socialist economic calculation.

O. Lange, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minn., 1938, pp. 55-141.

F. Hayek, “Socialist Calculation,” Economica, May 1940.

A. Bergson, “Socialist Economics,” in H. Ellis, ed., A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, 1948.

M. Dobb, Economic Theory and Socialism, New York, 1955, pp. 41-92.

  1. Economic calculation in underdeveloped countries.

A. Datta, “Welfare versus Growth Economics,” Indian Economic Journal, October 1956.

T. Scitovsky, “Two Concepts of External Economics,” Journal of Political Economy, April 1954.

J. Tinbergen, The Design of Development, Balto., Md., 1958.

  1. The concept of social welfare.

The writings of Bergson and Dobb under topic 7.

Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Chapters I, VIII.

Lerner, Chapter 3.

J. R. Hicks, “Foundations of Welfare Economics,”Economic Journal, December 1939.

Arthur Smithies, “Economic Welfare and Policy,” in A. Smithies et al., Economics and Public Policy, Washington, 1955.

 

Other References
on the Concept of Social Welfare and Optimum Conditions

M. W. Reder, Studies in the Theory of Welfare Economics, New York, 1947.

P. A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Cambridge, 1947, Chapter VIII.

K. Boulding, Welfare Economics, in B. Haley, A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Homewood, Illinois, 1952.

H. Myint, Theories of Welfare Economics, Cambridge, Mass., 1948.

J. A. Hobson, Work and Wealth, London, 1933.

J. M. Clark, Guideposts in Time of Change, New York, 1949.

J. de V. Graaf, Theoretical Welfare Economics, Cambridge, 1957.

F. M. Bator, The Simple Analytics of Welfare Maximization,” American Economic Review, March 1957.

A. Bergson, “A Reformulation of Welfare Economics,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1938.

P. A. Samuelson, “Evaluation of Real National Income,” Oxford Economic Papers, January 1950.

A. C. Pigou, “Some Aspects of Welfare Economics,” American Economic Review, June 1951.

T. Scitovsky, “The State of Welfare Economics,” American Economic Review,” June 1951.

J. E. Meade, Trade and Welfare, New York, 1955, Part I.

[Note: no additional assignment for the reading period]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 7, Folder “Economics, 1958-1959 (1 of 2)”.

__________________

Harvard University
Department of Economics

Economics 111a
Final Examination
June 1, 1959

Answer four and only four of the following six questions.

  1. Explain the “contract curve” that is employed in the analysis of the optimum allocation of different consumers’ goods between households. In what sense does the curve define an economic optimum?
  2. Under perfect competition how is the efficiency of resource allocation affected by:
    1. The levying of a sales tax on the output of a single industry;
    2. A government policy of making capital available to one industry at an interest charge that is less than the market rate.
  3. “As distinct from perfect competition, free competition tends in the long-run to cause the individual firm to make insufficient use of its fixed resources and to operate with excess capacity.” Discuss.
  4. How are the volume of investment and the rate of interest determined in the Competitive Solution of Socialist Planning? What arguments might be advanced for and against the policies and procedures involved?
  5. Explain briefly each of the following:
    1. Variation Cost
    2. Price-offer curve for labor
    3. Lerner’s Rule
  6. “When all is said and done, if there are very heavy overhead costs, public ownership may often make possible rational determination of the scale of output in an industry where this could not be achieved under any of the usual alternatives, such as competition, monopoly or even public rate regulation, if unaccompanied by ownership.” Discuss.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28). Box 37. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,.., Economics,…, Naval Science, Air Science (June, 1959).

Portrait of Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

Categories
Columbia Economist Market Salaries Teaching

Columbia. Due to exploding graduate economics enrollments, Stigler hired as visiting professor, 1946

 

 

The graduate economics courses at Columbia University were swamped by registrations one year after the end of the Second World War. Over 160 students were registered for the two graduate economic theory courses offered by A.G. Hart and William S. Vickrey. The executive officer of the economics department, Carter Goodrich, requested the central university allow the department to hire a visitor to ease the burden on Hart and Vickrey. That victory won with the visiting appointment for George Stigler (then a professor at Brown), Goodrich next pushed for an increase in the general budget for teaching assistants as well as for hiring Dorothy Fox assist him in his U.S. economic history class.

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

September 30, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal
Acting President, Columbia University
Low Memorial Library

Dear Mr. President:

The extremely heavy enrollment for the graduate work in economics raises serious questions for the future staffing of the Economics Department. I should very much appreciate the opportunity to discuss these with you when the final figures are in, and when we can assess the situation more fully.

Meanwhile, however, there is one question on which emergency action at once seems essential. We advise the great majority of our students to take a general, systematic course in economic theory or economic analysis. We offer this year two such courses: Economics 153-4, given by Prof. A.G. Hart; and Economics 159-60, given by Mr. William S. Vickrey. Prof. Hart and Mr. Vickrey have between them over one hundred and sixty students registered. The work in these courses cannot be given on a mass lecture basis in a way that would meet the standards of any first-rate institution. It would not serve the purpose for which the Department intends it if there were not at least some degree of individual instruction.

I wish, therefore, to request an additional man to take one section of this basic course. I should like authority to approach Prof. Arthur Smithies, who taught Economic Theory at the University of Michigan, but who is at present in the Bureau of the Budget, at Washington. The proposal would be that the class should meet for two hours one day a week. I suggest $2500 for the year as the appropriate compensation. If preferred, $500 of this might properly be described as traveling expenses.

The money is available in the present budget, partly from the salary allotted for the professor of international economics on which only a half-time appointment was made for the present year, and from the money available for the unfilled position on economic history. Both these salaries, I should add, will be needed next year.

I should be most grateful if you would give me a decision on this at once, since the step must be taken immediately if it is to bring effective relief.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich

CG:jg

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

October 14, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal
213 Low Memorial Library.

Dear Mr. President:

This time the report is not wholly negative. Following our conversation of Thursday afternoon, I invited Prof. George J. Stigler, of Brown University, to come to help us in the emergency situation in Economic Theory. Prof. Stigler has agreed to come for the first semester, but is not as yet prepared to commit himself for the entire year. I am therefore enclosing a form for his appointment for the Winter Session on the terms agreed. The salary for the first semester is available from the unused portion of the salary of Professor A.F. Burns.

I hope that we may be able to persuade Prof. Stigler to continue the work throughout the year. If not, there is a possibility that Prof. Smithies may be able to come for the second semester.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich

______________________

[Carbon Copy]

October 18, 1946

Professor Carter Goodrich
Fayerweather

Dear Professor Goodrich

I have your letter of October 14 in regard to the appointment of Stigler as Visiting Professor and will see that the appointment goes through the next meeting of the Trustees.

Maybe I had better point out that there is no money available in Prof. Burns’ position. In addition to his own half pay, the salaries of Vickrey ($2000) and Alexander ($1700) have already charged against that. However, we will make the appointment against the balance remaining in the vacant professorship.

Very truly yours

Frank D. Fackenthal
Acting President

VS

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

October 22, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
213 Low Memorial Library.

Dear Mr. President:

I very much appreciate your action on the Stigler appointment.

The second paragraph of your letter of October 18 puzzled me, since I had never heard of Alexander. We have tracked the matter down and it appears to be an appointment in Contemporary Civilization, chargeable to a budget of Dean Carman’s. It should not be a charge on the Department of Economics.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich
Executive Officer, Department of Economics.

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

October 24, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
213 Low Memorial Library,
Columbia University

Dear Mr. President:

In my letter of September 30th I spoke of the problems raised for the Economics Department by the extremely heavy enrollment in the graduate school. Now that the final enrollment is in, I wish to recommend two further measures, in addition to the emergency adjustment in Theory which you have been good enough to authorize. The total registration in the graduate courses borne on the budget of the Department of Economics for this session is double that for the Spring Session of 1946, which in turn was very much larger than that for the Winter Session of 1945. In 22 courses last spring there were 788 registrations; in 24 courses this session there are 1578. 7 of these courses have enrollments of more than 100 students (Angell, 112; A. R. Burns, 127, 153; Bergson, 142; Goodrich, 141; Nurkse, 130; Wolman, 140.)

To meet this situation I request, first, that the appropriation for Assistance be raised from $1,000-$1,500. Prof. Taylor estimates the needs of the College department, which has in the past used the greater part of the Assistance fund, as $500. Professors Angell, Bergson, A.R. Burns, Nurkse, and Wolman have all asked this year for reading assistance and will certainly need it in these courses.

Second, I request the appointment of Mrs. Dorothy G. Fox as an assistant in Economics to aid in my own course Economic history of the United States, so that a part of the time may be given to discussion in sections of a reasonable size. Mrs. Fox is at present an instructor in Economic principles in University Extension. I propose a salary of $700 for the academic year.

Money for these adjustments may be taken, if necessary, from what remains in the salary allotted to the vacant professorship. I should add, however, that these adjustments are made necessary solely by the extraordinary enrollment and that making them would not in any way diminish the long-run needs of the Department.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich
Executive Officer of the Department of Economics.

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

January 15, 1947

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
Columbia University

Dear Mr. President:

I beg to request the appointment of Dr. Moses Abramovitz as Visiting Lecturer in Economics for the Spring Session, at a compensation of $1,000. This is a further adjustment to meet the emergency situation in economic theory. As indicated in my letter of October 14th, 1946, Professor Stigler, of Brown University, agreed to come for the first semester, but was not prepared to commit himself for the entire year. He has informed us, much to our regret, that he cannot continue and I am therefore proposing a substitute. Dr. Abramovitz is one of the very best of the recent Ph.D.’s in this Department and holds a responsible research position with the National Bureau of Economic Research. He taught the same course in this Department during 1940-1941 and 1941-1942.

The total compensation for Professor Stigler, as you recall, was $1,250, of which $250 was counted as traveling expenses. The $1,000 requested for Dr. Abramovitz is available, $500 from the unused portion of the salary of Professor Arthur F. Burns and $500 from the funds for the vacant professorship.

I am enclosing the form for Dr. Abramovitz’ appointment and I very much hope you will be able to make it.

Respectfully yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich
Executive Officer, Department of Economics.

 

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Central Files 1890-. Box 406, Folder “Goodrich, Carter. 1/1”.

Image Source: Low Memorial Library, Columbia University from the Tichnor Brothers Collection, New York Postcards, at the Boston Public Library, Print Department.

Categories
Economists Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Portrait of undergraduate Abram Bergson (Burk), ca. 1930

 

Virtually thumbing through old Johns Hopkins yearbooks (the Hullabaloo) that have been digitized by the Johns Hopkins archives, I was hoping to find a college yearbook photo of the economist Abram Bergson, but I could not find him in the Hullabaloo for the class of 1933 or earlier.

While at Johns Hopkins and then in grad school at Harvard, Bergson was still going by the American version of his father’s name, “Burk”.  This was the name he used for the original publication of his justly famous Quarterly Journal of Economics article that introduced the “social welfare function” into the economist’s box of tools : “A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics“, QJE, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Feb. 1938), pp. 310-334.  

Abram Bergson was born April 21, 1914 and graduated from Johns Hopkins in June 1933…you can do the math. Fortunately I searched other Johns Hopkins archival websites and struck gold.  According to the Johns Hopkins archive data for this photo, the portrait below was taken approximately in 1930. It is certainly the face of a teenager. I have taken the liberty of cropping the photo and cleaning some of the dust and scratches. Here is a link to the original, it is, alas, just as unfocused as what you see here. Visitors to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror can compare and contrast the young and old faces to confirm for themselves.

Portrait of the teenage Abram Burk: Johns Hopkins graphic and pictorial collection.

Portrait of Professor Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

Categories
Economic History Harvard Regulations

Harvard. What to do about economic history, 1973

 

 

The December 1973 memo transcribed below can be viewed as a last stand in anticipation of the retirement of Alexander Gerschenkron to continue to require Harvard graduate students in economics demonstrate a modest acquaintance with some economic history from somewhere or other. The Committee writing the report consisted of two professors, Abram Bergson (Soviet economy and comparative economics) and Albert O. Hirschman (by this time dedicated to work in matters of intellectual history) along with two Harvard economics graduate students, Deborah G. Clay-Mendez (b. 1949, Harvard Ph.D., 1981) and William D. White (b. 1945, Harvard Ph.D., 1975).

Cf. Harvard’s current distribution requirement (from a screen capture dated November 13, 2018 at the Wayback Machine)

The distribution requirement is fulfilled by taking an approved field course in Economic History, Political Economy or Behavioral. The purpose of the requirement is to ensure that students are exposed to non-standard ways of thinking about issues central to economics. The course must be passed with a grade of B or better.

 

_______________

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

January 9, 1974

To: Members of the Department of Economics
From: James S. Duesenberry, Chairman

NOTICE OF DEPARTMENT MEETING

There will be a meeting of the Department of Economics on Tuesday, January 15thin the Littauer Lounge from 4 to 6 p.m.

The main items on the Agenda will be a report of the Committee on Economic History Requirements and a discussion of theory requirements.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Course Offerings and Examinations in Economic History

As directed by the Chairman of the Economics department and the Chairman of the Graduate Instruction Committee, a Committee consisting of the undersigned has reviewed the graduate course offerings and examinations in economic history at Harvard. We have deliberated as a group a number of times, and have also solicited the opinions of persons not members of the committee, including graduate students in economics and faculty members offering courses in economic history and related fields. We focused on several related issues, and set forth below our recommendations on each in turn:

  1. Should there be an economic history requirement for graduate students in economics? We all agreed that there should be, and that the aim of such a requirement should be to assure that the student gains an understanding of processes of long-term economic change, and of the comparative role of economic and non-economic factors in such change. The requirement should also be a means by which the student becomes better acquainted with a variety of economic institutions other than our own contemporary ones.
  2. What sort of requirement is in order? In our view, normally the completion of work with an average grade of B+ or better in two semester courses in economic history or their equivalent. Should the student fail to achieve a grade of B+ or better in such courses, however, he may be allowed, on petition to the Committee on Economic History (see below), to complete the requirements by retaking the final examination in one or both of the courses in question. Alternatively, depending on the circumstances, the student might be asked to do under faculty guidance a research paper of suitable quality. As in the past, a creditable performance in an appropriate and suitably delimited oral examination should also signify completion of the requirement.
  3. In what specific fields of economic history may the requirement be completed? We agreed that the requirement should permit work in various fields of economic history relating to the experience of industrialized societies including among others those of Western Europe, the United States and Japan.
    To that end, the Department has an obligation to see that appropriate courses in diverse fields are in fact offered to the student. Additional courses might be made available in other departments and through cross registration at MIT, the Business School and the like.
    The Committee also considered whether work in economic development or comparative economic systems might be countered towards the requirement. It was agreed that one semester’s course work in one field or the other might be counted, but on the understanding that the courses in question must be substantially concerned with processes of long-term economic change and in a context in which substantial attention is given to the interplay between economic and non-economic factors, and between economic doctrines and developments.
  4. How should the requirement be administered? We agreed that a Committee should be appointed by the Department to oversee the economic history requirement. It should be responsible particularly for assuring that in one way or another suitable courses are available, and for determining just what courses should be eligible for meeting the economic history requirement. It should also consider petitions such as are referred to in item 2, above, and should have responsibility for setting standards for and delimiting oral examinations.

Respectfully submitted

Deborah Clay
William White
Albert Hirschman
Abram Bergson, Chairman

December 26, 1973

 

Source:  John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526, Folder: “Harvard University. Department of Economics: General Correspondence, 1967-1974 (1 of 8)”.

Image Source: Abram Bergson (From National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir written by Paul Samuelson); Albert O. Hirschman (From the Institute for Advanced Study Archives).

Categories
Harvard Radical Seminar Speakers Suggested Reading

Harvard. Critical Spirit in Economics, Grad student symposium, 1968

 

Fished out of miscellaneous items filed chronologically under the label “Harvard University Department of Economics” in John Kenneth Galbraith’s papers is the following early outline for a symposium organized by the Graduate Economics Club for the month of May, 1968. Faculty were invited to join in the discussions by the president of the Graduate Economics Club, David M. Gordon (New York Times obituary: March 19, 1996). I have yet to confirm whether any or all of the four Friday afternoon sessions actually took place. John Kenneth Galbraith sent his regrets less than a week before a session that was to consider the reception of the New Industrial State. Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis were on the program that also included Hilary Putnam, a philosopher of science.

_______________________

Dear faculty member,

The Graduate Economics Club is sponsoring a series of discussion during the month of May, emphasizing certain broad questions of critical perspective in economic theory.

It is our hope that these discussions will initiate and promote an open discussion and exchange of ideas among students and faculty.

Enclosed you will find an outline of the first few of these round-table discussion. Central to the success of these discussions is the participation of the faculty. We cordially invite your attendance.

All meetings will be held in Littauer, the room to be announced.

Sincerely,

Graduate Economics Club,
Dave Gordon, Pres.

_______________________

THE CRITICAL SPIRIT IN ECONOMICS

  1. The Myth of an Objective Economics: The Separation of Positive and Normative Thought.
    Friday, May 3, 2:00 – 4:00.

    1. The Ideological Element in Conceptualization and Model-Building: Professor Hilary Putnam.
      Professor Putnam, a philosopher of science and logician at Harvard, will speak on the contributions of T. S. Kuhn and Karl Popper, after which the discussion will be opened to the group.
      Readings are (starred items are most important):

      1. *T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, esp. chap. 2, 4, 10, 12, 13. (72 pages)
      2. *Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, I, II; esp. pp. 27-30, 32-34, 40-42.
      3. *Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Author’s Preface (Xerox, pp. 9-15).
      4. *Milton Friedman, “The Methodology of Positive Economics,” in Essays in Positive Economics.
      5. Stephen Toulman, The Philosophy of Science, chap. 2, pp. 17-56.
      6. Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, chap. 2, pp. 18-32.
      7. Pratt, Raiffa and Schlaiffer, Introduction to Statistical Decision Theory, Appendix A3, esp. A3.4.
    2. Examples from Economic Literature: These readings are meant to illustrate points made in the above readings:
      1. *Roy Harrod, “Scope and Method in Economics”, Economic Journal, Sept., 1938.
      2. *Oscar Lange, “Marxian Economics and Modern Economic Thought”, Review of Economic Studies, June, 1935.
      3. *Robert Solow, “Son of Affluence”, The Public Interest, Fall, 1967.
      4. *Robin Marris, review of Galbraith’s New Industrial State, Am. Econ Review, March, 1968, pp. 240-247.
  2. Paradigms in Development Economics
    Friday, May 10, 2:00 – 4:00

    1. Tensions, Preferences and Economic Development: Sherman Robinson.
      1. *Sherman Robinson, “Tensions, Preferences and Development”, Xerox in Littauer Library.
      2. *Gunnar Myrdal, Prologue to Vol. I of Asian Drama.
    2. Development paradigms
      1. *H. Chenery, “Comparative Advantage and Development Policy”, AER, March, 1961. Reprinted in Surveys of Economic Theory, AEA
      2. *Paul Baran, “On the Political Economy of Backwardness”, in Agarwala and Singh
      3. Gunnar Myrdal, Economic Theory and Underdeveloped Regions, chap. 2, “The Principle of Circular and Cumulative Causation,” and chap. 6, “National State Policies in Under-Developed Countries.”
    3. The Relevance of Economic Theory to Economic Development: Prof. Samuel Bowles.
      1. *Gunnar Myrdal, op. cit., chap. 4, “The Role of the State” and chap. 5 “International Inequalities”
      2. *Hla Myint, “Classical Theory of International Trade and the Underdeveloped Countries”, Economic Journal, June 1958, reprinted in Readings in Economic Development, T. Morgan, 1963.
      3. Hla Myint, “The Gains from International Trade and the Backward Countries”, REStud., 1954-55, pp. 29-42.
      4. Mason, Economic Planning in Underdeveloped Areas, chap. 2, sections 2, 5.
      5. Lenin, Imperialism.
      6. *Hobson, The Evolution of Modern Capitalism, chap. X, sections 9, 10.
      7. *Aron, Peace and War, Part II, chap. IX, “On Resources”, pp. 243-278.
  1. Welfare Economics and the Value of Efficiency Criteria: Herb Gintis.
    May 17, Friday, 2:00 – 4:00
    Professor A. Bergson has kindly agreed to participate.
    Readings to be Announced.
  1. The Role of the State in Economic Theory
    Friday, May 24, 2:00 – 4:00.
    Speakers and readings to be announced.

_______________________

Carbon Copy of Galbraith’s response

April 29, 1968

Mr. Dave Gordon
Graduate Economics Club
Littauer Center M-8

Dear Mr. Gordon:

Unhappily I will be in Italy on May 3rd, so I will not be able to attend the round-table discussion on that day. I am sorry.

Yours faithfully,

John Kenneth Galbraith

 

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Papers of John Kenneth Galbraith, Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526, Folder “Harvard University Department of Economics: General Correspondence, 1967-1974 (3 of 3)”.

Image Source: David M. Gordon in Harvard Class Album, 1964.