Motivation
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1937-38
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1938-39
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1939-40
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1940-41
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1941-42
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1942-43
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1943-44
Fiscal Policy Seminar 1944-45
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[p. 298] Concerning the seminars which constitute our program of work little further comment seems necessary. A statement of last year’s program and that being followed this year is given in the appendix, where we have sought to describe in detail the content of the seminars and our methods of conducting them. Since properly qualified students carrying on graduate study in other schools and departments of the University may also participate in our seminars the program of the School embraces a student body many times larger than the number of fellows formally registered in the School. Thus at the present time there is a total enrollment of one hundred and eighty-eight students in the various seminars of the School. We began last year with five seminars and have expanded the program this year to eleven, of which five are full-year and six half-year seminars. In selecting the subjects we have been guided in large measure by our own interests and competence, but within these limits we have sought for subjects presenting problems of large public importance, problems both of policy and of procedure, requiring the combined efforts of different disciplines within the social sciences and permitting of effective cooperation between the University and the public service. Especially we have sought to find subjects that are at the research stage, and to put the emphasis upon investigation rather than upon formal instruction. Our interest is quite as much in learning for ourselves as in attempting to teach others…
[p. 314]
Fiscal Policy.
Professors WILLIAMS and HANSEN.
This seminar is concerned with public finance in relation to economic, political, and social institutions and systems. It deals with the monetary aspects of expenditures and revenues, with public finance as a compensatory mechanism in the business cycle, and with the social and political implications of government spending.
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FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1937-1938
Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVI February 28, 1939, No. 4.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1937-38, pp. 307-310.
The Fiscal Policy Seminar in 1937-1938 was conducted on two planes: (1) a general meeting which included active members of the seminar as well as others in the University, both graduate students and faculty members, who had a special interest in one or more of the fields covered at these meetings; (2) a meeting restricted to the working members of the seminar.
The general seminar session met each week on Friday from four to six and was addressed by a visiting consultant of the School. The afternoon session was followed by dinner with the visiting guest attended mainly by selected members from the working seminar who were especially interested in the particular topic under discussion, the dinner in turn being followed by an extended discussion, lasting frequently until 10 or 10:30 o’clock. The visiting speakers were for the most part government officials, but there were also included various officials in the Treasury, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Federal Reserve Board in Washington, Social Security Board, Works Progress Administration and the Federal Housing Administration….
The general seminar session with visiting consultants proved extremely valuable from various standpoints. It proved a means by which government officials on their part came into closer contact with the Faculty and students of the Graduate School of Public Administration and accordingly acquired a personal interest in its problems, and on the other side a means of presenting to the School in a more vital way the problems confronting the government. This type of close contact, moreover, is believed to be a useful means of developing placement openings for the graduates of the School in Washington. The discussions with the visiting consultants in the Friday sessions, moreover, proved extremely stimulating as a background for the research work done by the working members of the restricted seminar group.
The working seminar met each week on Monday from four to six. At these sessions papers were presented by various members of the seminar. Out of these papers a number of articles were prepared for submission for publication in various economic journals. It appears that out of the year’s work perhaps some four or five articles in leading journals are likely to materialize. Some have already been accepted.
The combined work of these two seminar meetings forms the background of a research project in Fiscal Policy, which it is planned will eventuate in a volume exploring the problem in a general way and raising important problems for further research.
Program of Friday Meetings
October 15. F. J. BAILEY — “The Work of the Federal Bureau of the Budget.”
October 22. CARL SHOUP — “General Over-All View of the American Tax System.”
October 29. EUSTACE SELIGMAN — “The Effect of the Capital Gains Tax on the Investment Market.”
November 12. GEORGE C. HAAS, JOSEPH S. ZUCKER, L. H. SELTZER and A. F. O’DONNELL — “The Federal Tax Structure.”
November 26. LAWRENCE SELTZER — “The Undistributed Profits Tax.”
December 3. GERHARD COLM — “Economic Consequences of Recent American Tax-Policy.”
December 10. GEORGE O. MAY — “The 1936 Federal Tax Legislation.”
December 17. JACOB VINER — “The General Relations between Fiscal Policy and the Business Cycle.”
February 11. DANIEL W. BELL — “Treasury Financing”; W. R. BURGESS – “Relations of the Reserve Banks and the Treasury.”
February 18. E. A. GOLDENWEISER — “Relations of Deficit Financing to the Banking System.”
February 25. WOODLIEF THOMAS — “Fiscal Policy and the Money Market.”
March 4. LAUCHLIN CURRIE — “Federal Income -Creating Expenditures.”
March 18. A. J. ALTMEYER and WILBUR J. COHEN — “Old Age Insurance and Old Age Assistance: Current and Future Prospects.”
March 25. MERRILL G. MURRAY and JOHN J. CORSON — “The Social Security Taxes.”
April 1. ERNEST M. FISHER — “The Federal Housing Administration.”
April 15. ARTHUR R. GAYER — “Compensatory Spending.”
April 22. CORRINGTON GILL — “Administrative and Fiscal Problems of the Relief Administration.”
April 29. LEWIS DOUGLAS — “Government Fiscal Policy.”
May 6. GUNNAR MYRDAL — “Fiscal Policy in Sweden.”
Program of Monday Meetings
October 18. R. A. MUSGRAVE — “The Twentieth Century Fund Report on Facing the Tax Problem.”
October 25. G. G. JOHNSON — “The Capital Gains Tax.”
November 1. R. V. GILBERT — “The Price of Common Stock as an Element in the Interest Price Structure.”
November 8. EMILE DESPRES — “The Effect of the Capital Gains Tax upon Capital Formation.”
November 15. Dr. HEINRICH BRUENING — “Monetary and Fiscal Policies in Germany during the Depression.”
November 22. WALTER SALANT — “The Effect of Securities Market Regulations upon Capital Formation.”
November 29. K. E. POOLE — “Tax Remission as a Compensatory Device.”
December 6. E. P. HERRING — “Administrative Problems in the Formulation and Execution of Fiscal Policy.”
December 13. E. N. GRISWOLD — “Legal Aspects of the Undistributed Profits Tax.”
February 14. ROBERT FRASE — “Economic Effects of Social Insurance Reserves, with particular reference to Unemployment Insurance Reserves.”
February 21. D. W. LUSHER — “The Relation of the Structure of Interest Rates to Investment.”
February 28. R. A. MUSGRAVE — “Limits in Public Debt and Taxation.”
March 7. WALTER SALANT — “Effects of Fiscal Policy on Business Stability.”
March 14. HERMAN M. SOMERS — “Future Fiscal Burdens Arising from the Social Security Program.”
March 21. MARTIN KROST — “Tax Variability as a Compensatory Stabilizing Device.”
March 28. NORTON LONG — “Some Aspects of Fiscal Planning under Democratic Government.”
April 11. S. J. DENNIS — “The Relation of the Undistributed Profits Tax and the Soldiers’ Bonus to the 1937 Depression.”
April 25. EMILE DESPRES — “Ezekiel’s Proposal to Secure Full Employment.”
May 2. G. G. JOHNSON — “The Trend Toward Treasury Control of Credit in the United States.”
May 9. GUNNAR MYRDAL — “Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Sweden.”
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FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1938-1939.
Professors Williams and Hansen
Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII March 30, 1940, No. 12.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1938-39, pp. 342-345.
The Fiscal Policy Seminar was conducted in 1938-1939 on substantially the same plan as in 1937-1938; that is, the general seminar sessions, which met on Fridays from four to six, were addressed by a visiting consultant and were attended by the active members of the seminar, as well as by faculty members and graduate students who were especially interested in the topics under discussion. Smaller meetings were held on Monday afternoons from four to six and were attended only by students engaged in research in the field of fiscal policy.
The general sessions were held less frequently than last year – usually twice a month – and on two occasions were conducted jointly with the Administrative Process Seminar. These joint meetings were on the subjects of the capital budget and federal grants to states, in which both seminars had an interest.
At the three December meetings, “previews” were held of round table discussions which were conducted later in the month at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. The round tables covered the topics “The Role of Public Investment and Consumer Capital Formation,” “Divergencies in the Development of Recovery in Various Countries,” and “The Workability of Compensatory Devices.” In each case three guest speakers presented papers covering different aspects of the problem and providing the basis for general discussion….
As last year, dinners attended by the visiting guest and a small group of students followed the Friday afternoon session, and in the evening informal meetings were held for further discussion.
At each Monday session, a paper was presented by a member of the group doing active research in fiscal policy. The paper was discussed by the other members of the seminar. These papers and discussions formed the basis for theses which were submitted at the close of the year by students who were taking the seminar for academic credit.
The research project begun last year has resulted in a preliminary manuscript on “Fiscal Policy in Relation to the Business Cycle and Chronic Unemployment.” During the coming year, it will be revised and expanded with a view to publication.
The following is a list of the Monday meetings of the seminar:
October 3. An Over-all View of the Current United States Tax System: Federal, State and Local.
October 10. An Over-all View of Governmental Expenditures, 1913-1938: Federal, State and Local.
An Over-all View of the Rise of Public Debt, 1913-1938: Federal, State and Local.
October 17. The 1938 Revenue Act.
October 24. Issues Raised by the Colm-Lehmann Pamphlets.
October 31. The Economic Consequences of Retirement of the Public Debt.
November 14. The Theoretical and Practical Implications of Separating the Investment Budget from the Current Budget.
November 21. New York City’s Experience.
November 28. A Re-examination of the Stabilization of Consumer Income.
December 5. A Program for the Cyclical Stabilization of Investment and Current Expenditures.
December 12. Public Investment: History and Program for Future.
December 19. An Analysis of Governmental Expenditures with a View to Showing the Effects of the Volume and Types of Different Expenditures on Consumption, Saving and Investment.
February 6. Canadian Fiscal Relations.
February 13. Japanese Monetary and Fiscal Recovery Policies.
February 20. The Development of Budgetary Organization.
February 27. Balkan Credit and Fiscal Policy.
March 6. The Economic Implications of a Rising Public Debt.
March 13. Consumption, Saving and Investment and Relief and Social Security.
March 20. A Re-examination of the Stabilization of Consumer Income.
March 27. Deficit Financing and the Banking System.
April 10. Government Loans and Subsidies as a Stimulus to Private Investment.
April 17. The Economic Effects of the Income Tax.
April 24. Federal Aid to the States.
May 1. Some Attempts at the Statistical Determination of the Multiplier and the Propensity to Consume.
The non-resident consultants and the meetings which they attended were as follows:
October 7. J. ROY BLOUGH, Director of Tax Research, Division of Tax Research, United States Treasury Department. Tax Policy in the United States Today.
October 28. LAWRENCE H. SELTZER, Assistant Director, Division of Research and Statistics, United States Treasury Department. Tax Policy with Reference to Capital Accumulation.
November 7. FRITZ LEHMANN, New School for Social Research. The German Situation.
November 18. CHARLES W. ELIOT, 2nd., Executive Officer, National Resources Committee. Current and Capital Budgets.
GUNNAR MYRDAL, University of Stockholm. Swedish Budgetary Procedure.
This was a joint meeting with the Administrative Process Seminar.
November 25. ROSWELL MAGILL, former Under Secretary of the Treasury. The Formulation of a Revenue Bill.
December 2. Preview of American Economic Association Round Table on The Role of Public Investment and Consumer Capital Formation.
GERHARD COLM, New School for Social Research. The Government as Investor.
BENJAMIN W. LEWIS, Oberlin College. The Government as Competitor.
GRIFFITH JOHNSON, United States Treasury Department. The Effect of the Social Security Taxes on Consumption and Investment.
December 9. Preview of American Economic Association Round Table on Divergencies in the Development of Recovery in Various Countries.
GOTTFRIED HABERLER, Harvard University. Recovery Policies in Democratic Countries.
GEORGE N. HALM, Tufts College. Recovery Policies in Totalitarian States.
EMIL LEDERER, New School for Social Research. Is There a World-wide Drift Toward Regimented Control of Industry?
December 16. Preview of American Economic Association Round Table on the Workability of Compensatory Devices.
PAUL T. ELLSWORTH, University of Cincinnati. The Efficacy of Central Bank Policy.
PAUL A. SAMUELSON, Junior Fellow, Harvard University. The Theory of Pump-Priming Re-examined.
EMILE DESPRES, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D. C. The Proposal to Tax Hoarding.
February 17. LAUCHLIN CURRIE, Assistant Director, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Problem of the Multiplier and the Propensities to Save and Consume and the Outlook for Capital Expenditures.
March 10. GARDINER MEANS, Director, Industrial Section, National ResourcesCommittee. Discussion of preliminary edition of “Patterns of Resource Use” by the National Resources Committee.
March 17. E. A. GOLDENWEISER, Director, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Problems of the Quantity and Quality of Money from the Point of View of Monetary Regulation.
April 14. EWAN CLAGUE, Director, Bureau of Research and Statistics, Social Security Board. Federal Grants to States.
April 21. J. DOUGLAS BROWN, Princeton University. A Survey of the Social Security Program in the United States.
April 28. MARRINER ECCLES, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Financial and Fiscal Problems Faced by Capitalistic Democracies Today.
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THE FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1939-1940
Professors Williams and Hansen
Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVIII April 10, 1941, No. 20.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1939-40, pp. 324-326.
The Fiscal Policy Seminar continued its plan of holding meetings on Mondays from four to six, at which students actively engaged in research in the field of fiscal policy presented papers for discussion, and on occasional Fridays, when visiting consultants addressed the group. The Friday meetings, held usually twice a month, were attended by interested faculty members and graduate students as well as by the active members of the seminar. …Following the more formal afternoon presentation on Fridays, a part of the seminar usually met with the speaker in the evening for further informal discussion of the topic.
On October 20, the seminar met with the Administrative Process Seminar to hear Mr. Robert H. Rawson, a former Littauer Fellow, speak on the work of the Federal Bureau of the Budget. Two meetings were held jointly with the Price Policies Seminar – one in November at which Mr. Leon Henderson discussed price rigidities in our economy, and one in February at which Mr. Richard V. Gilbert, Chief of the Industrial Economics Division of the Department of Commerce, spoke on “War Inventories and the Current Economic Outlook.”
Discussion at the first five Monday meetings was based on the manuscript Fiscal Policy in Relation to the Business Cycle, a research project which has grown out of the meetings during the past two years. The subsequent Monday sessions were devoted to the presentation of papers by members of the group. These papers were discussed by the seminar and presented as theses at the end of the year by those receiving academic credit for the course.
The program of Monday meetings was as follows:
Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN
The Consumption Function.
Current Trends in Economic Theory with Special Reference to the Business Cycle.
Secular Trends in Investment and Saving.
Professor JOHN H. WILLIAMS.
Shifts in Control of Depressions.
Theories of Compensatory Spending.
Budgeting and Fiscal Policy.
The Marginal Propensity to Import.
The Australian Multiplier.
Investment in the American Economy, 1850-1940.
Fiscal Aspects of Ireland’s Economic Nationalism.
The Power of the Federal Reserve System to Restrict Expansion.
Wartime Corporation Finance.
Wartime Finance in Great Britain.
Unemployment Insurance Funds.
The Effect of Deficit Financing on the Banking System.
Public Health.
The Capital Budget.
The Implications of the Growth of Life Insurance for Full Employment.
Taxation in the Business Cycle.
Public Investment.
Redistribution of Income as a Result of Federal Expenditures.
The following is a list of the non-resident consultants and the topics which they discussed:
October 6. ISADOR LUBIN, Commissioner of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor.
Subject: The Position of Labor Relations and Labor Costs in the Current Situation.
October 20. HARRY D. WHITE, Director, Division of Monetary Research, United States Treasury Department.
Subject: Gold and Foreign Exchange.
October 30. ROBERT H. RAWSON, Junior Administrative Analyst, Bureau of the Budget.
Subject: Organization and Methods of the Federal Bureau of the Budget.
(Joint meeting with the Administrative Process Seminar.)
November 13.LEON HENDERSON, Commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission, and member of the Temporary National Economic Committee.
Subject: Price Rigidities in the American Economy.
(Joint meeting with the Price Policies Seminar.)
December 8. RAYMOND W. GOLDSMITH, Assistant Director, Research and Statistical Section, Securities and Exchange Commission.
Subject: The Volume and Components of Saving in the United States.
February 26. RICHARD V. GILBERT, Chief, Industrial Economics Division, United States Department of Commerce.
Subject: War Inventories and the Current Economic Outlook.
March 1. WARD SHEPARD, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture.
Subject: A Proposed Forest Policy for the United States.
March 8. EMILE DESPRES, Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Subject: Internal Expansion and the International Position of the United States.
March 29. GARDINER MEANS, Economic Adviser, National Resources Planning Board.
Subject: The Structure of the American Economy.
April 12. M. A. HEILPERIN, Institute for Higher International Studies, Geneva.
Subject: The International Monetary System and the Business Cycle.
May 3. GERHARD COLM, Economist, Division of Industrial Economics, United States Department of Commerce.
Subject: Some Problems of Long-Run Tax Policy.
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THE FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1940-1941.
Professors Williams and Hansen
Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXIX February 25, 1942, No. 5.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of Departments for 1940-41, pp. 323-326.
The Fiscal Policy Seminar continued its established practice of including in its program meetings at which visiting consultants discussed various topics of interest to the group, and sessions devoted to the presentation of student reports. The reports were presented in the second semester and were discussed at length by the other members of the seminar….
Seven of the meetings were held jointly with other seminars – four with the International Economic Relations Seminar and three with the Agricultural, Forestry, and Land Policy Seminar.
The program of meetings was as follows:
September 30. Professor HANSEN.
October 7. Professor WILLIAMS.
October 11. SVEND LAURSEN, Student, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University.
Subject: International Trade and the Multiplier.
(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations Seminar.)
October 21. Professor HANSEN and Professor WILLIAMS.
October 25. MARTIN KROST, Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Subject: The Excess Profits Tax.
October 28. RICHARD A. MUSGRAVE, Instructor, Department of Economics, Harvard University.
Subject: Report of the Canadian Royal Commission on Dominion Provincial Fiscal Relations.
November 4. Professor HANSEN.
November 8. GEORGE TERBORGH, Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Subject: Prospective Accumulated Backlog in Capital Goods and Durable Consumers’ Goods Industries in the Post-Defense Period.
November 18. ELIZABETH B. SCHUMPETER.
Subject: Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Japan.
November 25. BENJAMIN H. HIGGINS and RICHARD A. MUSGRAVE, Instructors, Department of Economics, Harvard University.
Subject: The Savings-Investment Problem Re-examined.
December 2. Professor HANSEN.
December 9. DAN T. SMITH, Associate Professor of Finance and Taxation, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University.
Subject: The Role of Borrowing in the Defense Program.
December 16. Professor HANSEN.
December 20. GUY GREER, Federal Housing Administration.
Subject: The Organization of the Federal Housing Program.
February 3. Student Report.
Subject: National Income and Military Effort.
February 10. Student Report.
Subject: United States Housing Program During and After the Defense Program.
February 17. ERIC ENGLUND, Assistant Chief, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture.
Subject: Alternatives in Financing of the Agricultural Programs.
(Joint meeting with Agricultural, Forestry and Land Seminar.)
February 21. HARRY D. WHITE, Director, Division of Monetary Research, United States Treasury Department.
Subject: Blocked Balances.
(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations Seminar.)
February 24. J. KEITH BUTTERS, Instructor, Department of Economics, Harvard University.
Subject: Discriminatory Features in Federal Corporation Income Taxes.
March 3. J. KENNETH GALBRAITH, National Defense Advisory Commission.
Subject: The Farm Credit Administration and Related Farm Credit Problems.
(Joint meeting with Agricultural, Forestry, and Land Policy Seminar.)
March 10. Student report.
Subject: Trends in the Fiscal Incapacity of State and Local Governments and Their Impact on Defense and Post-Defense Policy.
March 17. Student Report.
Subject: The Effect of the Tax Structures on Economic Activity in the United States and Great Britain, 1929-1937.
March 21. RICHARD V. GILBERT, National Defense Advisory Commission.
Subject: The American Defense Program.
(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations Seminar.)
March 24. Student Report.
Subject: Essays on Fiscal Policy and the Building Cycle.
I. Transport Development and Building Cycles.
II. Monetary Control of the Building Cycle.
April 7. Student Report.
Subject: The Monetary Powers of Some Federal Agencies outside the Federal Reserve System.
April 14. Student Report.
Subject: Incentive Taxation.
April 18. Student Reports.
Subjects: The Use of Credit as an Instrument of Social Amelioration in Agriculture. Credit for a Solvent Agriculture.
(Joint meeting with Agricultural, Forestry, and Land Policy Seminar.)
April 25. CARL SHOUP, Professor of Economics, Columbia University.
Subject: Defense Financing.
April 28. Student Report.
Subject: The Economic Development of a War Economy.
May 2. GUSTAV STOLPER, Financial Adviser.
Subject: Financing the American Defense Program.
(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations Seminar.)
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FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1941-1942
Professors Williams and Hansen
Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLI, September 26, 1944, No. 23.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of the departments for 1941-42, pp. 340-343.
Fiscal problems arising out of the war and plans for the post-war period were of dominant interest in the Fiscal Policy Seminar program during 1941-42. With regard to post-war problems particular attention was paid to the question of federal-state-local fiscal relations, and a special section of the seminar library was devoted to books and pamphlets on this topic.
Meetings were held on Mondays and Fridays, the latter being given over mainly to visiting consultants, with reports and discussions by student and faculty members of the seminar concentrated on Mondays. As in previous years, several meetings were held jointly with other Seminars, eight with the International Economic Relations Seminar, and two with the Agricultural, Forestry, and Land Use Policy Seminar….
The program of meetings was as follows:
September 29. The Development of Fiscal Policy.
October 6. Defense Financing.
October 17. The Relation Between Fiscal Policy and Inflation.
October 20. The Problem of Federal, State and Local Relationships.
HARVEY S. PERLOFF, Associate Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
October 24. The United States Housing Authority.
NATHAN STRAUS, Administration, United States Housing Authority.
October 27. Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles.
October 31. Urban Redevelopment.
GUY GREER, Senior Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
November 3. Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles.
November 10. The Present State of Fiscal Policy.
November 17. The Multiplier.
November 21. The Federal Advisory Council.
WALTER LICHTENSTEIN, Vice-President, First National Bank of Chicago.
November 24. The Multiplier.
PAUL SAMUELSON, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Professor HABERLER.
November 28. Economic Warfare.
NOEL HALL, British Embassy.
December 1. The Multiplier.
PAUL SAMUELSON, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
December 5. International Economic Relations with Special Reference to the Post-War Situation.
ROBERT BRYCE, Department of Finance, Canada.
December 8. Post-War Problems.
Professors HABERLER and HARRIS as well as Professors WILLIAMS and HANSEN.
December 12. The Revenue Act of 1941.
J. KEITH BUTTERS, Department of Economics, Harvard University.
December 15. The Theory of Public Investment.
Professor HARRIS.
December 19. The 1942 Revenue Act.
ROY BLOUGH, Director of Tax Research, Treasury Department.
January 26. The Problem of Post-War Reconstruction.
PER JACOBSSEN, Economist, Bank for International Settlements.
February 2. Economic Philosophy and Post-War Fiscal Policy.
ALEJANDRO SHAW, Argentina.
February 9. Equalization Grants and Their Role in Fiscal Policy (student report).
February 13. Monopolistic Trading and International Relations.
JACOB VINER, Chicago University.
February 16. War Finance and Inflation (student report).
February 20. The Effect of Federalism on Fiscal Policy.
LUTHER GULICK, National Resources Planning Board.
March 2. Agriculture in the Post-War Period.
LEONARD ELMHIRST, Elmhirst Foundation.
March 9. War Finance and Direct Taxation (student report).
March 13. Post-War Domestic and International Investments.
RICHARD M. BISSELL, Department of Commerce.
March 16. Monetary Implications of Fiscal Policy.
March 20. The Present Fiscal Situation.
ALBERT GAYLORD HART, Iowa State College.
March 23. Problems of Monetary Control.
ROBERT V. ROSA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
PETER L. BERNSTEIN, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
March 27. The Public Work Reserve.
BENJAMIN H. HIGGINS, Economic Consultant, Public Work Reserve.
April 6. A High-Consumption vs. a High-Savings Economy (student report).
April 10. Post-War Surpluses and Shortages in Plant and Equipment.
GEORGE TERBORGH, Senior Economist, Division of Research and Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
April 13. Private Industry Post-War Planning.
DAVID C. PRINCE, Vice-President, General Electric Company.
April 17. Commodity Taxation in a Progressive Tax System (student report).
April 24. Government Lending Agencies.
ROBERT V. ROSA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
PETER L. BERNSTEIN, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
April 27. The Impact of War Expenditures on State and Local Government (student report).
May 1. The Inflationary Gap.
WALTER SALANT, Chief, Price and Economic Policy Section, Division of Research, Office of Price Administration.
May 21. The Problem of Britain’s Food Supply.
E. M. H. LLOYD, Chairman, British Food Mission.
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FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1942-43
Professors Williams and Hansen
Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLI, September 28, 1944, No. 25.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of the departments for 1942-43, pp. 243-245.
War and post-war fiscal problems were the main consideration in the Fiscal Policy Seminar in 1942-43. This included national aspects of inflationary and tax problems and post-war tax adjustments, as well as federal-state-local fiscal relations.
Meetings were held on Mondays and Fridays, the latter being given over mainly to visiting consultants, with reports and discussions by student and faculty members of the seminar concentrated on Mondays. As formerly, several meetings Were held jointly with other seminars….
The program of meetings was as follows:
October 5. Professor HANSEN.
Subject: A Survey of the Fiscal.War Picture.
October 9. MILTON GILBERT, Director of National Income Division, Department of Commerce.
Subject: Concepts of National Income and Its Statistical Measurement.
October 19. Professor WILLIAMS.
Subject: The Present Status of Fiscal Policy.
October 23. Professor PAUL SAMUELSON, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Subject: Consumption Function.
October 26. Professor WILLIAMS.
Subject: Changes in the Banking System.
October 30. Professor LAWRENCE H. SELTZER, Wayne University.
Subject: Possible Techniques for the Working of the PostWar Economic System.
November 2. Professor A. P. LERNER, Amherst College.
Subject: Rate of Interest.
November 9. Professor HANSEN.
Subject: War Financing in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
November 13. Professor FRITZ MACHLUP, Buffalo University. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)
Subject: National Income, Employment and International Relations.
November 16. Professor HANSEN.
Subject: Federal, State, Local Fiscal Relations.
November 20. DAVID E. LILIENTHAL, Director, Tennessee Valley Authority.
Subject: The Tennessee Valley Authority.
November 23. Dr. JOHN KEITH BUTTERS, Harvard University.
Subject: Revenue Act of 1942.
November 27. Hon. GRAHAM F. TOWERS, Governor, Bank of Canada. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)
Subject: Canadian War Economic Measures.
November 30. Professor WILLIAMS.
Subject: Basic Issues of Fiscal Policy.
December 4. LYNN R. EDMINSTER, Vice-Chairman, U. S. Tariff Commission.
(Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)
Subject: The Reconstruction of World Trade After War.
December 7. Professor WILLIAMS.
Subject: Basic Issues of Fiscal Policy.
December 1. Professor SEYMOUR E. HARRIS. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)
Subject: War Problems of International Trade.
December 14. Professor HANSEN.
Subject: The Beveridge Report.
February 1. Honorable HAROLD STASSEN, Governor of Minnesota.
Subject: Decentralized Government.
February 8. HARVEY S. PERLOFF, Federal Reserve Board, Washington.
Subject: State-Local Fiscal Relations.
February 12. THOMAS MC KITTRICK, President of the Bank for International Settlements.
Subject: The Bank for International Settlements.
February 15. Professor HANSEN.
Subject: The Beveridge Plan and a Post-War Minimum Budget.
February 24. Dr. LEO PASVOLSKY, State Department. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)
Subject: Post-War Problems in International Trade.
March 1. Dr. HANS STAEHLE, Harvard University.
Subject: Consumption and National Income in Post-War.
March 12. Dr. RICHARD MUSGRAVE, Federal Reserve Board, Washington.
Subject: Revenue Bill-1943.
March 26. Dr. PAUL STUDENSKI, Professor of Economics, New York University.
Subject: State-Local Fiscal Policies in New York in War-Time.
April 12. EMILE DESPRES, Office of Strategic Services, Washington. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)
Subject: The Transfer Problem and the Over-Saving Problem in the Pre-War and Post-War Worlds.
April 16. Dr. ALBERT HAHN. (Joint meeting with International Economic Relations seminar.)
Subject: Planned or Adjusted Post-War Economy.
May 8. GUY GREER, Editor of Fortune Magazine.
Subject: Urban Redevelopment.
___________________________
FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1943-44
Professors Williams and Hansen
Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLIV, July 7, 1947, No. 20.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1943-4, pp. 269-270.
Fiscal problems of the war and in the postwar period were the general topics under discussion in the Fiscal Policy Seminar in I943-44. More specifically this included national aspects of consumption and saving, taxation, budgeting, and the public debt. Emphasis was also placed on the international financial and monetary problems. Several of the meetings were devoted to discussion of the special fiscal and monetary problems in a number of Latin American countries.
Meetings were held on Mondays and Fridays and consisted of reports by student and faculty members of the seminar and of discussions led by outside consultants and by Dean Williams and Professor Hansen. As in other years, a number of meetings were held jointly with other seminars….
The program of meetings was as follows:
November 8. Professor WILLIAMS.
Subject: General Survey of Fiscal Policy.
November 15. Professor WILLIAMS.
Subject: General Survey of Fiscal Policy (cont.).
November 19. Dr. J. ROY BLOUGH, Director of Tax Research, Treasury Department.
Subject: Some Administrative Aspects of Taxation.
November 22. G. NEIL PERRY, Director, Bureau of Economics and Statistics, British Columbia.
Subject: Fiscal Policy and the Canadian Economy.
November 29. Professor WILLIAMS.
Subject: Problems of International Monetary Stabilization.
December 6. HANS ADLER.
Subject: Population Growth and Fiscal Policy.
December 13. Professor WILLIAMS.
Subject: Problems of International Monetary Stabilization.
December 17. Dr. HARRY WHITE, Director of Monetary Research, Treasury Department.
Subject: Problems of International Stabilization.
December 20. Professor HANSEN.
Subject: Consumption and Saving during the War.
January 3. Professor HANSEN.
Subject: Consumption and Saving in the Postwar.
January 10. Professor GOTTFRIED HABERLER.
Subject: Reparations.
January 14. Dr. N. NESS, Member of Mexican-U. S. Economic Committee.
Subject: Mexico.
January 17. Dr. BEARDSLEY RUML, Federal Reserve Bank, New York.
Subject: Economic Budget and Fiscal Budget.
January 21. Dr. P. T. ELLSWORTH, Economic Studies Division, Department of State.
Subject: Chile.
January 24. Dr. DON HUMPHREY, Special Adviser on Price Control to Haitian Government.
Subject: Haiti.
January 31. Dr. ROBERT TRIFFIN, Member of U. S. Economic Commission to Paraguay.
Subject: Money, Banking, and Foreign Exchanges in Latin America.
February 4. Dr. MIRON BURGIN, Office of Coördinator of Inter-American Affairs.
Subject: Argentina.
March 31. Mr. HENRY WALLICH.
Subject: Fiscal Policy and International Equilibrium.
April 14. Mr. EVSEY DOMAR, Federal Reserve Board.
Subject: Limitation of Public Debt in Relation to National Income.
May 5. Dr. J. KEITH BUTTERS and Dr. CHARLES ABBOTT, Harvard Business School.
Subject: Business Taxes.
May 19. Mr. GUY GREER, Board of Editors, Fortune.
Subject: Urban Redevelopment.
___________________________
FISCAL POLICY SEMINAR, 1944-45
Professors Williams and Hansen
Source:
Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLV, December 1, 1948, No. 30.
Issue containing the report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1944-45, pp. 282-284.
Fiscal problems of the war and in the postwar period were the general topics under discussion in the Fiscal Policy Seminar in 1944-1945. More specifically this included national aspects of consumption and saving, taxation, budgeting, and the public debt. Emphasis was also placed on the international financial and monetary problems. Several of the meetings were devoted to discussion of the special fiscal and monetary problems in a number of Latin American countries.
Meetings were held on Mondays and Fridays and consisted of reports by student and faculty members of the seminar and of discussions led by outside consultants and by Dean Williams and Professor Hansen. As in other years, a number of meetings were held jointly with other seminars….
Three of the papers presented at these meetings were subsequently published in economic journals. The program of meetings was as follows:
*Sept. 11. J. W. BEYEN, former president of the International Bank at Basle, Chairman of Netherlands Delegation at Bretton Woods.
Subject: Bretton Woods Conference.
*Sept. 18. RAGNAR NURKSE of Economic and Financial Section of League of Nations.
Subject: Bretton Woods Conference.
*October 30. Professor DOUGLAS COPLAND, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Subject: Australian Problems in the Transition from War to Peace.
*The dates in September and October, while part of the Summer Term, were integrated in the year’s program.
November 6. Professor JOHN H. WILLIAMS.
Subject: Estimates of Postwar National Income and Employment.
November 13. Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN.
Subject: Wartime Fiscal Problems.
November 15. RANDOLPH PAUL, formerly with the U.S. Treasury.
Subject: Postwar Federal Taxation.
November 20. Dr. FREDERICK LUTZ, Princeton University.
Subject: Corporate Cash Balances, I914-1943.
December 4. Professor JOHN H. WILLIAMS.
Subject: The Bretton Woods Agreements.
December 11. EDWARD M. BERNSTEIN, Assistant Director, Division of Monetary Research, Treasury Department.
Subject: The Scarcity of Dollars. (Published in The Journal of Political Economy, March I945.)
December 15. Dr. FRANCIS MC INTYRE, Representative of the Foreign Economic Exchange on Requirements Board of the War Production Board.
Subject: International Distribution of Supplies in Wartime.
January 8. DAVID E. LILIENTHAL, Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Subject: Tennessee Valley Authority.
January 15. Dr. OLIVER M. W. SPRAGUE (Professor Emeritus).
Subject: Postwar Corporate Taxation.
January 22. Dr. WALTER GARDNER, Federal Reserve Board.
Subject: Some Aspects of the Bretton Woods Program.
January 26. Dr. WILLIAM FELLNER, University of California.
Subject: Types of Expansionary Policies and the Rate of Interest.
January 29. Professor WALTER F. BOGNER, Dr. CHARLES R. CHERINGTON, Professors CARL J FRIEDRICH, SEYMOUR E HARRIS, TALCOTT PARSONS, ALFRED D. SIMPSON, AND Mr. GEORGE B. WALKER.
Subject: The Boston Urban Development Plan.
March 5. Dr. ROBERT TRIFFIN, Federal Reserve Board.
Subject: International Economic Problems of South America.
March 9. Dr. PAUL J. RAVER, Bonneville Power Administration.
Subject: Bonneville Power Administration.
March 12. Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN.
Subject: Murray Employment Bill.
March 16. H. L. SELIGMAN.
Subject: Bank Earnings and Taxation of Bank Profits.
March 19. Dr. LOUIS RASMINSKY, Foreign Exchange Control Board, Ottawa, Canada.
Subject: British-American Trade Problems from the Canadian Point of View. (Published in the British Economic Journal, September 1945.)
March 26. Dr. HERBERT FURTH, Federal Reserve Board.
Subject: Monetary and Financial Problems of the Liberated Countries.
April 2. Dr. LLOYD METZLER, Federal Reserve Board.
Subject: Postwar Economic Policies of the United Kingdom. (An article based on this paper and written in collaboration with Dr. RANDALL HINSHAW was published in The Review of Economic Statistics, November 1945.)
April 13. s. s. PU [sic]
Subject: Fiscal Policies and Income Generation.
April 16. Professor EDWARD S. MASON, State Department, Washington.
Subject: Commodity Agreements.
April 20. HECTOR TASSARA.
Subject: The Role of the Central Bank in the Argentine Economy.
April 23. Dr. ABBA P. LERNER, New School for Social Research, N. Y.
Subject: Postwar Policies.
April 27. Professor JOHN VAN SICKLE, Vanderbilt University.
Subject: Wages and Employment: A Regional Approach.
April 30. Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN.
Subject: Postwar Wage Policy.
May 14. Dr. E. M. H. LLOYD, United Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, British Treasury.
Subject: Inflation in Europe.
May 21. AXEL IVEROTH, Swedish Legation, Washington.
Subject: Postwar Plans in Sweden.
May 28. Professor LEON DUPRIEZ, University of Louvain, Belgium.
Subject: Problem of Full Employment in View of Recent European Experience.
May 29. Professor SEYMOUR E. HARRIS, Professor WASSILY W. LEONTIEF, Professor GOTTFRIED HABERLER, Professor ALVIN H. HANSEN.
Subject: The Shorter Work Week and Full Employment.
means that “investment decisions are always carried out”, so that when
and interpret and analyze the resulting model. Compare its behavior with the case analyzed in class.
where m is the real per capita stock of money, k is the capital-labor ratio, and 
is the expected rate of inflation which is equal to the actual rate 
in the steady state.
is the rate of inflation in (b) that maximizes steady state consumption per head. Would a higher rate of inflation lead to a higher or lower long-run capital-labor ratio?![\dot{k}=sf\left( k \right)-nk-\left( 1-s \right)\left[ \dot{m}+nm+{{\pi }_{m}}m \right]{{p}_{m}}](https://s0.wp.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdot%7Bk%7D%3Dsf%5Cleft%28+k+%5Cright%29-nk-%5Cleft%28+1-s+%5Cright%29%5Cleft%5B+%5Cdot%7Bm%7D%2Bnm%2B%7B%7B%5Cpi+%7D_%7Bm%7D%7Dm+%5Cright%5D%7B%7Bp%7D_%7Bm%7D%7D&bg=ffffff&fg=000&s=0&c=20201002)
![{{p}_{m}}m=L\left[ {{p}_{m}}m+k,{{\pi }_{m}},{f}'\left( k \right),f\left( k \right) \right]](https://s0.wp.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7Bp%7D_%7Bm%7D%7Dm%3DL%5Cleft%5B+%7B%7Bp%7D_%7Bm%7D%7Dm%2Bk%2C%7B%7B%5Cpi+%7D_%7Bm%7D%7D%2C%7Bf%7D%27%5Cleft%28+k+%5Cright%29%2Cf%5Cleft%28+k+%5Cright%29+%5Cright%5D&bg=ffffff&fg=000&s=0&c=20201002)
, that is that the government always vary its deficit to produce a constant rate of deflation 
(which would, of course, be an inflation if .) 
![\dot{k}=\frac{sf\left( k \right)-nk-\left( 1-s \right)n\left( {{p}_{m}}m \right)}{\left[ 1+\left( 1-s \right)C \right]}](https://s0.wp.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdot%7Bk%7D%3D%5Cfrac%7Bsf%5Cleft%28+k+%5Cright%29-nk-%5Cleft%28+1-s+%5Cright%29n%5Cleft%28+%7B%7Bp%7D_%7Bm%7D%7Dm+%5Cright%29%7D%7B%5Cleft%5B+1%2B%5Cleft%28+1-s+%5Cright%29C+%5Cright%5D%7D&bg=ffffff&fg=000&s=0&c=20201002)
![C={\left[ {{L}_{1}}+{{L}_{3}}{f}''+{{L}_{4}}{f}' \right]}/{\left( 1-{{L}_{1}} \right)}\;>0](https://s0.wp.com/latex.php?latex=C%3D%7B%5Cleft%5B+%7B%7BL%7D_%7B1%7D%7D%2B%7B%7BL%7D_%7B3%7D%7D%7Bf%7D%27%27%2B%7B%7BL%7D_%7B4%7D%7D%7Bf%7D%27+%5Cright%5D%7D%2F%7B%5Cleft%28+1-%7B%7BL%7D_%7B1%7D%7D+%5Cright%29%7D%5C%3B%3E0&bg=ffffff&fg=000&s=0&c=20201002)
the same regardless of 
on the stable steady-state stock of capital?
