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Cambridge Chicago Economists LGBTQ Northwestern

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, “gay godfather” and mentor. Roger Weiss, 1955

Milton Friedman wrote a recommendation for two University of Chicago economics graduate students to receive fellowships from the Earhart Foundation in 1953. Friedman’s letter was transcribed for the previous post that focussed on Gary Becker, who was the unambiguous first choice in Friedman’s eyes. In addition to adding to our stock of economics Ph.D. alumna/us stories, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror introduces the LGBTQ label here with Friedman’s second candidate for an Earhart Foundation fellowship, Roger William Weiss (Chicago, Ph.D., 1955). 

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Roger William Weiss. (1930-1991) Dissertation “Exchange Control in Britain, 1939-1952”, Ph.D. awarded Winter Quarter 1955.

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AEA Profile from 1969

WEISS, Roger William, academic; b. Bronxville, N.Y., 1930 stud., Northwestern U., 1946-48; M.A., U. Chicago, 1951, Ph.D. 1955; stud., Cambridge U., Eng., 1951-52. COC.DIS. “The British Exchange Controls, 1939-52,” 1954. PUB. “Economic Nationalism in Britain in the Nineteenth Century” (H.G. Johnson, Ed.), Econ. Nationalism in Old and New States, 1967; The Economic System, 1969; “The Case for Federal Meat Inspection Examined,” Jour. Of Law and Econs., Oct. 1964. RES. American Colonial Monetary System. Asst. prof., Vanderbilt U., 1953-57; pres., N. Weiss & Co., Inc., 1957-63; asso. Prof., U. Chicago since 1966. ADDRESS 1415 E. 54th St., Chicago, IL 60615.

Source: The American Economic Review, Vol. 59, No. 6, 1969 Handbook of the American Economic Association (Jan., 1970), p. 467.

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U. of Chicago obit for Roger W. Weiss

Roger Weiss, AM’51, PhD’55, professor in the social sciences since 1963, died March 7. His specialty was the role of economics in the arts and the international trade of art works. His books included The Economic System and The Weissburgs: A Social History, a history of his own family. He was also a member of the governing board of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Survivors include his mother, Irene, and a brother, John.

Source: University of Chicago Magazine, Vol. 83, No. 5, June 1991, p. 44.

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Roger Weiss and his partner, Howard Brown, in the University of Chicago gay community

Roger Weiss AM 1951, PhD 1955. Professor in the College and division of social sciences. Partner Howard Mayer Brown (1930-1993), Ferdinand Schevill distinguished service professor of music.

Professors Howard Brown and Roger Weiss were “out” by many standards. The University agreed to a “spousal hire” for the couple in the 1960s, and the two hosted parties for gay students and faculty in their home until Roger’s death in 1991, and Howard’s death in 1993. Bob Devendorf (AB 1985, AM 2004) remembered Howard and Roger as “gay godfathers” and mentors, while John DelPeschio (AB 1972) treasured the intergenerational community they fostered: “I felt as if I were entering a more adult world.”

However, Brown and Weiss’ refusal to participate in political actions and “come out” in the broader public sphere sometimes frustrated younger gay men like Wayne Scott (AB 1986, AM 1989), as he describes in this article. Jim McDaniel (AB 1968) remembers Howard saying “I don’t really care what anybody knows, I just care what I have to admit.”

Source: Closeted/OUT in the Quadrangles. A History of LGBTQ Life at the University of Chicago

 

Image Source: Senior year picture of Roger W. Weiss from the 1946 Hyde Park High School Yearbook, The Aitchpe.

 

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Chicago Economists

Chicago. Friedman recommends Becker and Weiss for Earhart Fellowships, 1953

 

The following letter of recommendation by Milton Friedman provides us a glimpse of the young Gary Becker. It is also interesting to observe the language used to describe potential superstardom as opposed to more conventional stardom in economics. The next post will provide career information for the “other candidate”, Roger Weiss.

______________________

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Chicago 37, Illinois
Department of Economics

January 27, 1953

Mr. James A. Kennedy
Earhart Foundation
First National Bank Building
Ann Arbor, Michigan

IN RE: BECKER, Gary S.

Dear Mr. Kennedy:

I am writing at the suggestion of Professors William Paton [University of Michigan] and John Van Sickle [Wabash College] to propose two young men for Earhart fellowships in economics: Gary Becker and Roger Weiss.

Gary Becker is a young man who received his A.B. from Princeton. He was recommended to us by his Princeton teachers for a departmental fellowship in terms that we found hard to take really seriously—the best person that we have had in the last ten years; the best student that I have ever had, and the like. After observing him closely for the past year and a half, I am inclined to use similar superlatives: there is no other student that I have known in my six years at Chicago who seems to me as good as Becker or as likely to become an important and outstanding economist. Though only twenty two years old now, Becker has already published one paper in the American Economic Review[*] and has collaborated with one of his teachers at Princeton in a paper published in Economica.[**] Both are first rate papers. Becker needs to do one more full year of graduate work to fulfill his requirements for his Ph.D. Our department has granted him a fellowship in the past and will again; in addition I believe he is applying for a Social Science Research Fellowship. I have asked him to summarize briefly his plans for next year, and enclose his brief statement. [not in this Hoover file]

Becker has a brilliant, analytical mind; great originality; knowledge of the history of economic thought and respect for its importance; a real feeling for the interrelationships between economic and political issues; and a profound understanding of both the operation of a price system and its importance as a protection of individual liberty. This is one of those cases in which there is just no question at all about Becker’s being preeminently qualified for one of your fellowships. I wish I could look forward to being able to find a candidate this good every year, but that is asking for too much.

Roger Weiss, the other candidate I would like to propose, is also an extremely able young man—he is not in Becker’s class, but that is a measure of Becker’s extraordinary qualities, not a reflection of Weiss. He is of the quality of the very top group of our graduate students.—the best half-dozen or so each year out of our 125 to 175 graduate students. He did some of his undergraduate work here; spent last year at Cambridge, England on a fellowship, and returned here this year for further graduate work. Another year should see him with his Ph.D. He has just turned twenty three.

Weiss has been working on a topic that he got interested in in England, namely, the operation of British Exchange controls in the post-war period. He came to the conclusion that their effectiveness was greatly overrated and their adverse effects on the efficiency of British industry greatly underrated. He is trying to see how far a more detailed study will support these judgments and permit them to be spelled out.

Weiss has an excellent mind and a thorough knowledge of price theory and monetary theory. His major interest is in problems connected with money and international trade. He is hardworking, conscientious, and productive. Perhaps his strongest quality is his ability to organize material well and to present it both in writing and speech lucidly and with some distinction. I expect Weiss to become a productive scholar and to have a most desirable influence through his writings on public policy. I have asked him, too, to prepare a brief statement of his plans, which I enclose. [not in this Hoover file]

I may say that I have checked these recommendations with my colleagues H. Gregg Lewis and Frank H. Knight, who concur in them.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Milton Friedman

MF-FF

[Handwritten:] P.S. This letter was written just prior to receiving yours of the 23rd. Both men do of course plan to go into University teaching.

[* “…taken from a larger essay originally submitted as a senior thesis in the department of economics and social institutions of Princeton University.” A Note on Multi-Country Trade. The American Economic Review, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Sep., 1952), pp. 558-568.]

[** The Classical Monetary Theory: The Outcome of the Discussion (with William J. Baumol). Economica, New Series, Vol. 19, No. 76 (Nov., 1952), pp. 355-376.]

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 194, Folder “Earhart Foundation…”.

Image Source:  Becker-Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago. Webpage “About Our Legacy”.

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Chicago Economists Exam Questions

Chicago. Preliminary Examinations in Economic Theory. Friedman, chair. 1952

 

Today’s post includes not only the questions for the economic theory preliminary examinations (Part I and Part II) from the summer quarter of 1952 at the University of Chicago, but also some interesting background material. From Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution archives I have transcribed copies of the entire schedule of preliminary examinations for summer 1952 along with the correspondence between Friedman, Frank Knight and the departmental secretary. We can compare Friedman’s suggested questions with the questions that were actually used for the exam along with Friedman’s rankings of the anonymous examinations. Two sentences in Frank Knight’s letter to Friedman (after the grades had been compared among the graders and the veil of ignorance regarding the identities of the examinees was lifted) is definitely worth considering in light of current discussions about systemic elements of racism in the discipline of economics.

“I feel that these Negroes are in the same position as the Chinese students only more so in that they compete in a completely different market, and they are never really compared with our “full fledged” Ph.D. graduates. (Besides, between you and me, I have attended 4 or 5 Ph.D. exams this summer and thought very few of them ought to pass but they all did).”

I have gone on to track down the top eight examinees as ranked by Milton Friedman. Fun facts: Gary Becker won the bronze medal and Abba Lerner’s son, Lionel Lerner, placed fourth.

The summer 1951 theory preliminary exams were posted earlier.

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Schedule for the Preliminary Examinations
Summer 1952

July 15, 1952

To: Committee members of Preliminary examinations
From: J. Barker, Departmental Secretary
Re: Schedule and committees for Preliminary Examinations, Summer Quarter, 1952.

Date Examination Committee Registration
Tues., July 29 Economic Theory I M. Friedman, Chr.,
F. H. Knight
G. Tolley
26
Thurs., July 31 Economic Theory II (as above) 4
Tues., July 29 Government Finance P. Thomson, Chr.
H. Lewis
1
Thurs., July 31 Industrial Relations F. Harbison, Chr.
A. Rees
M. Reid
1
Tues., Aug. 5 Money, Banking & Monetary Policy L. Mints, Chr.
E. Hamilton
J. Marschak
21
Tues., Aug. 5 Statistics T. Koopmans, Chr.
W. Wallis
4
Thurs., Aug. 7 Agricultural Economics D. Johnson, Chr.
T. Schultz
P. Thomson
8
Thurs., Aug. 7 International Econoics L. Metzler, Chr.
C. Hildreth
H. Lewis
9

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Friedman to Knight and Tolley
Carbon copy

Orford, N.H.
July [19 or 20], 1952

F. H. Knight
G. Tolley

Dear Knight and Tolley:

I have just received word from Miss Barker that I am chairman of the Theory prelim committee for this summer, that you are the other members, and that the exams are to be in her hands by July 22.

I wish you could join me here for a session to get out the exams—and I am sure you do too if what we have been hearing about the weather in Chicago bears any resemblance to the truth.

Since you cannot, I enclose some suggested questions for both Part I and Part II. I wonder if the two of you could get together and combine these or such of them as you think worthy of retention with your own questions. Time does not permit of rechecking with me and I assure you I shall be more than satisfied with whatever decisions the two of you make.

As to the papers, have them sent to me at any stage that suits your own plans best, since mine are very flexible. I shall try to read them promptly and return them promptly. If I send you in my grades, perhaps the two of you can combine them with your own. I realize this puts more of the work on you, but I know not what else to do. I do hope we can get the grades in reasonably promptly, and certainly before the end of the quarter, which also means before I return.

Many thanks, and apologies. Best regards too.

Yours,

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Friedman’s proposed theory exam questions
Summer 1952

M. Friedman

Suggested Questions for Theory Prelim, Summer, 1952

Part I

  1. Define the following terms precisely and indicate briefly the use made of each in economics:
    1. Demand
    2. Supply
    3. Equilibrium
    4. Indifference Curve
    5. Marginal
    6. Rate of Substitution
    7. Marginal value product
    8. Marginal efficiency of capital
    9. Production function
    10. Time preference
    11. Profit
    12. Rent
    13. Run
    14. Net advantages
    15. Variable Costs
  2. (a) “I wouldn’t take it if you paid me”. Draw the consumption indifference curves implied by this statement. (You may find it helpful to suppose first that there is some finite minimum price per unit at which the speaker would take “it”; then approach the limit implied by the quotation.)
    (b) “I’ve reached the point of diminishing returns, so I better quit”. Analyze, indicating under what conditions and for what definition of diminishing returns this is a valid inference from the conditions for a maximum.
  3. (a) Complaints are often heard about the “high” incomes of bootleggers in dry states, or gamblers where gambling is illegal, or smugglers, etc. Are high incomes in such cases evidence of the success or the failure of the laws? Explain your answer.
    (b) A man buys a ticket in a lottery and wins. View this as a business transaction. How much, if any, of his prize is properly regarded as “profit”? Does your answer use the concept of “profit” implicit in the common statement “entrepreneurs seek to maximize profit”? Justify your answer and indicate the difference, if any, between the two concepts.
  4. (a) Outline the theory of joint supply
    (b) What factors determine the elasticity of the derived supply curve of one of a pair of jointly supplied items? Show the direction of influences and prove your statements graphically or otherwise.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

M. Friedman

Suggested questions for theory prelim, Summer, 1952

Part II

  1. During every hyper-inflation there are always recurrent complaints of a “shortage of money.” How do you explain this phenomenon?
  2. The following quotation is from an article on the illicit gold traffic:
    “Traffic on the Asian gold-smuggling trails has doubled since Korea…Meanwhile savings which could be productively invested by banks lie idle; paper money is snubbed for gold, depreciates with every rise in the gold price, and becomes a weaker and weaker factor in national economies.” (H.R. Reinhardt, The Reporter, July 22, 1952, p.21).
    Analyze this quotation. Precisely what effect would the willingness of people to hold bank deposits instead of gold have on productivity or productive investment, and through what channels? What of sense and what of nonsense is there in the statements after the semi-colon?
  3. There has been much talk of the so-called “wage-price spiral.” What is generally meant by this term? Give a theoretical analysis of the so-called spiral, indicating under what circumstances you think it could or could not arise.

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Actual Economic Theory Preliminary Examination Questions
Summer, 1952

Summer, 1952

ECONOMIC THEORY I

Time: 4 hours

Answer all questions.

  1. Define the following terms precisely and indicate briefly the use made of each in economics:
    1. Demand
    2. Supply
    3. Indifference Curve
    4. Rate of Substitution
    5. Marginal value product
    6. Marginal efficiency of capital
    7. Production function
    8. Time preference
  2. (a) Outline the theory of joint supply
    (b) What factors determine the elasticity of the derived supply curve of one of a pair of jointly supplied items? Show the direction of influences and prove your statements graphically or otherwise.
  3. Assume that Crusoe is interested in economizing the use of his resources and that during the period in question there is no change in his knowledge of production techniques. How does capital and interest theory aid in explaining the following observations?

(a) After several years, Crusoe begins to obtain berries by planting and cultivation rather than simply by picking them as he had done previously.
(b) After an additional number of years, he reverts to picking wild berries.

  1. What theories do you offer to explain the following phenomena?

(a) During a prolonged rise in the general level of prices, the price of soft drinks remained at five cents with no change whatsoever in the physical characteristics of the product.
(b) During a prolonged rise in the general level of prices the price of candy bars remained at five cents, at the same time, however, as the size of the bars decreased.

  1. Using diagrams, briefly discuss the long-run cost curve for a competitive industry. Indicate, with diagrams, the response to be expected from (a) an expansion of demand, (b) a decrease of demand, within periods too short for a significant change in the fixed investment.
  2. Briefly state the main changes in the body of accepted price theory at the turn from “classical” to “Austrian” (the subjective-value school), i.e., at the “revolution” of the 1870’s. Similarly describe the transition from Austrian to “New-classical” (Marshallian) doctrine.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Summer, 1952

ECONOMIC THEORY II

Time: 2 ½ hours

Answer all questions.

  1. During every hyper-inflation there are recurrent complaints of a “shortage of money.” How do you explain this phenomenon? Compare the situation during acute depression.
  2. A part of the nation’s productive capacity is destroyed, say by a war. Ignoring any possible expectational and distributive effects, how will this affect: (a) the division of the national income between consumption and investment? and (b) the income-velocity of money. How, if at all, does your answer depend on whether wealth is a variable which influences behavior?
  3. There has been much talk of the so-called “wage-price spiral.” What is generally meant by this term? Give a theoretical analysis of the so-called spiral, indicating under what circumstances you think it would or would not arise.

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Theory Prelim, Summer, 1952, Part I. Grades by M. Friedman

General notes:

  1. I have classified the papers into five groups.

P—clear pass for the Ph.D. (7 papers)
P(?) Questionable pass for Ph.D. (5 papers)
A.M. Pass for a.M./questionable fail for Ph.D. (5 papers)
F(?) Questionable fail for A.M., clear fail for Ph.D. (4 papers)
F Clear fail for both (4 papers)

Should emphasize that as always this is somewhat arbitrary. In particular, difference between two fail classes is particularly small in this batch.

  1. In addition to the above class mark, Igive the ranking by my numerical grades. 1 is the best paper, 2, the next best, etc., to aid in seeing whether any differences among members of the committee reflect differences in absolute or relative grading.
# of candidate. Class grade Rank Remarks
1 AM 16
2 F 24
3 P 6
4 P(?) 8
5 P 5
6 F(?) 21
7 AM 14
8 P(?) 11
9 AM 15
10 P 4
11 P(?) 12
12 F 25
13 P 2 This and 15 distinctly the two best papers
14 F(?) 18
15 P 1 See under 13
16 AM 13
17 AM 17
18 F 23
19 F 22
20 P 7
21 P 3
23 F(?) 19
25 P(?) 10
26 F(?) 20
27 P(?) 9

 

PART II OF THEORY PRELIM

Not one of the three papers submitted on this part seems to me satisfactory. #1 is the best of the three, though not by much, and might deserve a questionable pass. Both of the others seem to me clear failures.

_________________________

 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Chicago 37, Illinois
Department of Economics

September 8, 1952

Mr. Milton Friedman
Orford
New Hampshire

Dear Milton:

Tolley and I have just gone over our three reports and find them fairly well in agreement. The most serious exception is #7—John J. Klein, whose paper you marked passable for the A.M. only, while both Tolley and I gave him a clear pass. Your rank was 14, as you probably have the record to show. What do you suggest? It will be no great hardship to us to re-read the paper, and we shall do so with the next day or so. Do you want to see it again? Or what can we report?

Another questionable case is Adolph Scott (Colored). Here I am the odd man, as I marked him passable, while you ranked him 23 out of 25, and Tolley ranked him 24. I yield as far as passing him for the Ph.D. is concerned but wondered what you would think about passing him for the A.M. He seems to have squeezed through in International Trade at the A.M. level. This would allow him to get the Master’s degree. I feel that these Negroes are in the same position as the Chinese students only more so in that they compete in a completely different market, and they are never really compared with our “full fledged” Ph.D. graduates. (Besides, between you and me, I have attended 4 or 5 Ph.D. exams this summer and thought very few of them ought to pass but they all did).

On Part II there is also some discrepancy. I had Mints read these papers, and he and I agree that #2, Mrs. Mullady, was passable. But you and Tolley both wrote failure and as she failed “flat” on Part I and has also failed a second time in another field, it looks as though that disposes of her case. This leaves S. Smidt who has your vote, a questionable pass, Tolley’s a clear pass, and Mints and I though a very very [sic] dubious pass. But Smidt passes Part I with colors flying. I am perfectly willing and in fact disposed to yield on him and pass him as I don’t feel competent to grade these Part II papers anyway.

Cordially,

(Dictated but not read)
Frank H. Knight

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 76. Folder 2 “University of Chicago ‘Economic Theory’”.

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Identities of eight examinees given passing grades
by Milton Friedman by rank

First place

Seymour Smidt. University of Chicago Ph.D. (1954). Dissertation: “Efficient Management for Government Wheat Stocks”.

Second place

Conrad Jan (Coen) Oort. University of Chicago A.M. (1954). Doctor of Economics, University of Leiden (1958).

Professor economics, U. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1960-1971; professor economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1956-1957; treasurer-general, Treasury, The Hague, The Netherlands, 1971-1977; managing director, Algemene Bank Nederland Bank (now Algemene Bank Nederland-AMRO), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1977-1989; non-executive director various companies, The Netherlands, since 1989; professor economics, Maastricht, The Netherlands, since 1986. Chairman KLM, Amstelveen, Netherlands, 1992, Robeco Group, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1989. Vice chairman Aegon Insurance, The Hague, 1990.
Source: Prabook webpage for Conrad Jan Oort.

Third place

Gary S. Becker. University of Chicago Ph.D. (1953). Dissertation: “The Economics of Racial Discrimination”.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1992.

Fourth place

Lionel John Lerner. [son of Abba P. Lerner and Alice Sendak]. University of Chicago A.B. (1950) and A.M. (1952). Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. (1955). Dissertation: “Theories of Imperialist Exploitation.”
Source: Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries, Special Collections. Commencement Program 1955, p. 19.

Fifth place

Edward J. Kilberg. Hofstra University B.A. (1949). Duke University A.M. (1952). University of Chicago A.M. (1957).
Apparently Kilberg was never awarded a Ph.D. in economics by the University of Chicago for his dissertation “Commercial bank holdings of cash and liquid items”. Most likely reason is that he died in the crash of a Northeast airliner at Nantucket Airport on August 15, 1958. Kilberg left a research job at the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1957 to go to the NBER where he worked as assistant to Arthur F. Burns for the book Prosperity Without Inflation (1958).

Sixth place

Hugh Roy Elliott. In the list of economics Ph.D. dissertations kept by the department of economics at the University of Chicago we find “Hugh R. Elliott. Dissertation: Savings Deposits as Money (Summer 1964)” which seems rather late in the game. But then we see: AER Sept. 1957, p. 838 “Hugy [sic] R. Elliott, B.A. Harvard 1950; M.A. Chicago 1952.” Thesis in preparation at Chicago “Savings deposits as money”.

Seventh place

Irwin Ira Baskind. I have found the following item “Baskind, Irwin. Postwar Monetary Policy in Belgium (Ph.D., Chicago)” from U.S. State Department, Bureau of Intelligence and Research. External Research. A List of Studies Currently in Progress, Western Europe, ER list no. 5.14 (April 1960), p. 9. Note: Baskind’s name does not appear in the list of economics Ph.D.’s kept by the Chicago department of economics.

Eighth Place

Paul Gabriel Keat. Baruch School of the City University of New York B.B.A. (1949). Washington University A.M. (1950). University of Chicago A.M. (1952, 1956). University of Chicago Ph.D. (1959). Dissertation: “Changes in Occupational Wage Structure 1900-1956”.

Keat, Paul G. PhD 88, passed away on April 2, 2014.Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia May 2, 1925. A WWII vet who served in Ardennes, Normandy and Rhineland. Decorated with the European African Middle Eastern Services Medal, Good Conduct Medal and WWII Victory Medal. Discharged 1946. Graduated 1959 from the University of Chicago with an M.A. and PhD in economics. Student of his cherished professor, Dr. Milton Friedman. Earned B.B.A. in accounting from Baruch School of the City University of New York and M.A. from Washington University. Paul’s work with IBM was extensive in both the United States and in the European headquarters based in Paris. He taught both finance and economics at the graduate level in numerous universities including Syracuse University, Washington University, the City University of New York, Iona College and the Lubin Graduate School of Business at Pace University. In 2013 he co-authored and published the seventh edition of his textbook “Managerial Economics”.
Source: Arizona Republic, Phoenix. April 13, p. F9.

Images: The economic theory prelim examiners, Friedman, Knight, and Tolley. From the University of Chicago Photographic Archive.

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Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Graduate Preliminary Examination, Money and Banking, 1967

 

This copy of the 1967 Money and Banking prelim exam comes from Milton Friedman’s papers and has Milton Friedman’s name noted. So we may strongly presume that Friedman was in fact on the Money and Banking prelim committee as he was on the Income, Employment, and Price Level prelim committee that year.

______________________

Previous posts with University of Chicago preliminary examinations for Ph.D. and A.M.  degrees:

Preliminary Exam (Economic Theory I) 1955

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1956

Preliminary Exam (Economic Theory) 1957

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1959

Preliminary Exam (Economic Theory, Old Rules) 1960

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1964

Preliminary Exam (Income, Employment and Price Level) 1967

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1969

Preliminary Exam (Macroeconomics) 1969

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1969

Preliminary Exam (International Trade) 1970

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1975

Preliminary Exam (Industrial Organization) 1977

Preliminary Exam (History of Economic Thought) 1989

___________________________

[Handwritten note, top of page: “Mr Friedman”]

MONEY AND BANKING
Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees
Summer, 1967

WRITE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER

—Your code number and NOT your name
—Name of examination
—Date of examination

Results of the examination will be sent to you by letter.

ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS—ALL QUESTIONS HAVE EQUAL WEIGHT

1. a) “The fallacy in the quantity theory of money is that it allows for the circulation of money but not the circulation of goods. A correct theory would have a velocity of circulation of goods to parallel the velocity of circulation of money.” Discuss.

b) According to one writer, one of the “fundamental laws of economics” is that “the inflation rate is approximately equal to the interest rate when averaged over several decades.”
(Andre Gleyzal, “Theory of Money in a Free Economic System.” Discuss (and do not dismiss out of hand).

2. a) What is the “Phillips Curve”?

b) Give the theoretical analysis on which it rests. Do you regard it as valid? If so, defend it; if not, why not?

c) What is its relation to the notion of a “trade-off” between unemployment and inflation?

d) What is your understanding of the present state of the empirical evidence on the Phillips curve?

3. a) Expand the standard analysis of the IS-LM (or EEL) curves to include foreign trade and the balance of payments when all economies are operating with fixed exchange rates under a pure gold standard.

b) Would this analysis be any different under

i) fixed exchange rates with national currency standards?
ii) floating exchange rates?

Why, or why not?

4. a) A once and for all change in the money supply is expected to affect only the price level and not any real economic magnitudes. Yet some economic theorists who accept the neutrality of money in this sense argue that a sudden decrease (say) in the money supply will cause unemployment. How do you reconcile these two positions?

b) Assume that a country is operating on a classical gold standard. It has a central bank but the bank does not engage in open market operations. It confines its policy to setting an interest rate (discount rate) at which it lends freely. Let important gold discoveries be made in that country such that, at the prevailing price of gold, the rate of gold production increases. Does the neutrality of money still hold true in the long run? Will the increased rate of gold production affect only the price level and not the level of real income in the given country?

5. Most empirical studies of the demand for money that use time series data take the real stock of money as the dependent variable and take measures of real income or wealth and of the interest rate as explanatory variables. However, most monetary theorists treat the nominal stock of money as exogeneous. This appears inconsistent with the empirical work. Can you describe a sensible economic model to defend the choice made by the empirical investigators? Assume it is your purpose to predict the increase in the demand for real money balances resulting from an increase in real income. For simplicity, assume that current real measured income is the relevant income variable. Do not discuss the econometric theory of identification, etc. Focus your attention on the economic hypotheses in terms of the price level, the nominal money stock, interest rates, and nominal income. Would it be better to treat real money balances as an explanatory instead of as a dependent variable in estimating the demand for money?

6. Comment on the following proposition:

In the portfolios of banks, private loans and government bonds are alternatives. The smaller the quantity of loans that banks make (i.e., the tighter the supply of bank credit), the greater must be the quantity of government bonds the banks are holding in their portfolios. But the total supply of government bonds is fixed, and so this implies that the tighter is bank credit, the smaller the supply of government bonds available to the non-bank public to hold in their portfolios. But the smaller the quantity of government bonds available to the non-bank public, the greater the quantity of other assets they will hold. In other words, the tighter is bank credit, the greater the supply of private credit from non-bank holders of wealth, and the portfolio behavior of banks is largely irrelevant in determining the total supply of private credit.

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 77, Folder 8 “University of Chicago Econ. 331”.

Image Source:  “Money Talks” from the cover of Puck, Vol LX, No. 1541 (September 12, 1906). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.  “William Randolph Hearst sitting with two large, animated, money bags resting on his lap, with arms and legs, and showing two large coins as heads; on the floor next to Hearst is a box labeled ‘WRH Ventriloquist’.”

 

 

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Preliminary Exam for PhD, Theory of Income, Employment and Price Level, 1967

 

The following preliminary examination for the economics Ph.D. at the University of Chicago comes from Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives. Friedman’s own answers for the 20 true-false questions as well as equations for one question and diagrams for another are included below, following the exam.

______________________

Previous posts with University of Chicago preliminary examinations for Ph.D. and A.M.  degrees:

Preliminary Exam (Economic Theory I) 1955

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1956

Preliminary Exam (Economic Theory) 1957

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1959

Preliminary Exam (Economic Theory, Old Rules) 1960

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1964

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1969

Preliminary Exam (Macroeconomics) 1969

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1969

Preliminary Exam (International Trade) 1970

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1975

Preliminary Exam (Industrial Organization) 1977

Preliminary Exam (History of Economic Thought) 1989

______________________

[Handwritten note on top of first page: “Mr. Friedman (grade sheet attached)”]

CORE EXAMINATION
Theory of Income, Employment and Price Level
Summer, 1967

Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D.

WRITE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER:

—Your Code Number and NOT your name
—Name of Examination
—Date of Examination

Results of the examination will be sent to you by letter.

Answer all questions. Time: 3 hours.

 

Part I. Indicate whether each of the following statements is True (T) or False (F) and state briefly your reason. (One hour).  [2 points each]

  1. ____ Free reserves are the difference between total reserves and required reserves.
  2. ____ Member banks may count both currency in vault and deposits at their Federal Reserve Bank as satisfying reserve requirements.
  3. ____ All banks in the U.S. that are members of the Federal Reserve System are required to be members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations, but the reverse is not true.
  4. ____ The Federal Funds rate is the rate at which member banks may borrow from the Federal Reserve System.

5-8: A depositor in a commercial bank transfers funds from a demand deposit to a time deposit at that bank.

  1. ____ The bank’s total reserves are thereby increased.
  2. ____ The bank’s excess reserves are thereby increased.
  3. ____ The amount of currency plus demand deposits that can be outstanding in the System is increased.
  4. ____ The amount of currency plus demand deposits plus commercial bank time deposits that can be outstanding in the System is increased.

 

  1. ____If income velocity of circulation of money is not affected by an increase in real income per capita, then the income elasticity of demand for real balances is zero.
  2. ____ A rise in interest rates can be expected to raise the income velocity of circulation of money.
  3. ____ The real balance effect is absent if all money is “inside” money.
  4. ____ In order for a real balance effect to exist, wealth must be one of the variables entering the consumption function.
  5. ____ The real interest rate can be obtained from the nominal interest rate by dividing by a price index.
  6. ____ The more rapidly the quantity of money grows, the lower will be the quantity of real money balances.
  7. ____ The higher the rate of interest, the lower will be the Keynesian multiplier.
  8. ____ A tariff reduction involves a shift in the IS (or EE) curve associating a lower real income with each interest rate.
  9. ____ A substitution of taxes on property for taxes on earnings (to yield the same revenue at the same national income) will tend to lower national income.

18-20: In the simple income-expenditure model with rigid prices:

  1. ____ A constant positive rate of growth of the quantity of money implies a constant interest rate.
  2. ____ A constant rate of government deficit spending with a fixed stock of money implies a constant interest rate.
  3. ____ A rising stock of capital is inconsistent with a constant interest rate.

 

Part II: Each of the following statements is true. Prove it. (1/2 hour).

  1. The slope of the LM (or LL) curve is flatter, the more elastic the demand for money with respect to the interest rate and the less elastic with respect to income.
  2. Monetary velocity can be expected to be uncorrelated with the level of prices but to be sensitive to the rate of change of prices.
  3. Treasury policy of substituting long term obligations for short-term obligations in the federal debt outstanding will produce deflationary pressure on the economy if and only if the expectations hypothesis about the term structure of interest rates is false or incomplete.
  4. For a given quantity of money, an increase in the government deficit will produce inflationary pressure on the economy, if and only if the elasticity of demand for real money balances with respect to the rate of interest is less than zero.
  5. The usual balanced budget multiplier is unity if and only if liquidity preference is either absolute or depends on income excluding government expenditures.

 

Part III. Consider the following two proposed fiscal policies: (1/2 hour).

(a) Balance continuously the high-employment budget.
(b) Keep tax rates constant.

In considering (a), assume that it can be followed (i.e., that it is possible with at most a brief lag to change taxes in response to changes in government expenditures so that, at high employment, the proceeds of all taxes would equal the amount of expenditure at that level of employment.) Assume also all other conditions, including monetary policy, the same for (a) and (b).

Aside from the effect on the average level of income, which policy do you believe would produce greater stability of income? Justify your answer as rigorously as you can.

 

Part IV. Analyze the likely short and long run effects on interest rates, prices, employment and income velocity of an increase in the rate of monetary expansion from, say, a non-inflationary full employment rate to a higher rate. (1/2 hour).

 

Part V. In a closed economy the central bank can determine the nominal quantity of money, while the public determines its real value, whereas in an open economy the nominal quantity of money is determined by the balance of payments.
Discuss the validity of this statement under alternative assumptions of fixed and flexible exchange rates. (1/2 hour).

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Milton Friedman’s answers and notes

  1. False. = Excess Reserves, Free Reserves = Excess Reserves less Borrowing.
  2. True.
  3. True.
  4. False.
  5. False.
  6. True.
  7. False.
  8. True.
  9. False. Not zero, unity.
  10. True.
  11. True.
  12. True.
  13. False.
  14. True.
  15. True.
  16. True.
  17. Uncertain. Lower W/Y therefore raises savings[?]. [ six words illegible]
  18. False.
  19. True.
  20. False.

Part II.

  1. \begin{array}{l}{{M}^{D}}=f\left( i,y \right)\\{{M}^{S}}=h\left( i \right)\\f\left( i,y \right)=h\left( i \right)\\\frac{dy}{di}=\frac{-\frac{\partial f}{\partial i}+\frac{\partial h}{\partial i}}{\frac{\partial f}{\partial y}}\end{array}

Part V.

 

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 77, Folder “University of Chicago Econ. 331”.

Image Source:  Element from Social Science Research Building. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07449r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Economic Theory Prelim Exam, Friedman (chair), 1955

 

The examination committee for the Economic Theory prelim given in the summer of 1955 consisted of Milton Friedman (chair), W. Allen Wallis, and D.G. Johnson. Besides the questions, we have some of the answers that are transcribed from Milton Friedman’s handwritten notes from his copy of the examination questions.

Previous posts with University of Chicago preliminary examinations for Ph.D. and A.M.  degrees:

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1956

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1959

Preliminary Exam (Economic Theory, Old Rules) 1960

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1964

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1969

Preliminary Exam (Macroeconomics) 1969

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1969

Preliminary Exam (International Trade) 1970

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1975

Preliminary Exam (Industrial Organization) 1977

Preliminary Exam (History of Economic Thought) 1989

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ECONOMIC THEORY I
Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees
Summer Quarter 1955

WRITE YOUR NUMBER AND NOT YOUR NAME ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER.

Answer all questions. Time: four hours.

  1. (30 points) Indicate whether each of the following statements is true (T), false (F), or uncertain (U). Give a brief explanation of your answer.
    1. ____ If the income elasticity of demand for a product is greater than unity, the relative price of that product will rise as real per capita incomes increase, i.e., will rise relative to products with income elasticity less than unity.
    2. ____ When a firm is producing in a region of rising marginal cost, that firm is in equilibrium because average costs are increasing also.
    3. ____ The market price of steel and iron scrap fluctuates more than the price of finished steel primarily because the scrap market is competitive while the finished steel market is in the hands of monopolists.
    4. ____If automobile firms overproduce and competition forces down the price of new cars, this harms a car owner who has purchased his car on credit since his mortgaged car has suffered a decline in price.
    5. ____ It is frequently stated that the more disagreeable or dirty a job is the more it will be necessary to pay workers, but this is contradicted by the fact that college professors earn more than foundry workers.
    6. ____ Lowering the support price of wheat in the United States at present would aggravate rather than relieve the problem of surpluses, since farmers would simply produce proportionately more in order to maintain their incomes.
    7. ____ An increase in demand for a commodity increases its price, but an increase in price reduces demand. Increases in demand tend, therefore, to be self-compensating.
    8. ____ Increasing the minimum wage rate to one dollar per hour will have little or no effect outside the South, since most workers now being paid less than one dollar per hour are in the South.
    9. ____ In the absence of factors making for an increase in demand, and other things being equal, a new method will be introduced sooner in a competitive than in a monopolized industry.
    10. ____ Without collective bargaining, the workers’ market disadvantage would enable the owners of other productive agencies to appropriate income that would otherwise go to labor.
    11. With collective bargaining, workers in general can appropriate income from the owners of other agents.
    12. ____ In equilibrium, it is enough to know the marginal factor cost of any one factor and its marginal physical product to know the marginal cost of the product, even though the product is produced by many factors.
    13. ____ The demand for a product at the market price is inelastic. It follows that the product must be produced under conditions of net internal diseconomies.
    14. ____ Under competition, the marginal efficiency of capital is equal to the marginal physical product of a particular kind of capital good times the price of the product.
    15. ____ To assert that the rate at which a consumer is willing to substitute x for y decreases as the quantity of x increases along an indifference curve is equivalent to saying that the indifference curve is concave toward the origin.
  2. (10 points) “East coast gas wars are forcing big producers to chop prices to retailers. With some Manhattan service stations selling gas as low as 15.8¢ per gallon, Socony Mobil, Esso Standard Oil and others have cut wholesale prices up to ½¢ per gallon in most of the seaboard marketing area from Maine to Washington, D.C., the first price reduction in nearly a year” Time, July 25, 1955.
    Explain why this quotation is bad economics.
  3. (10 points) Fair trade is now rapidly disappearing. However, a few firms (Sunbeam, Schaeffer) are actively trying to enforce fair trade pricing.
    • (a) Are these firms just misguided or are there circumstances in which fair trade would help them?
    • (b) If fair trade were generally observed, what would be the effect on return on capital and entrepreneurial effort engaged in retailing?
  4. (15 points) A recent court decree requires a company (The United Shoe Machinery Co.) which heretofore has only leased its machines, for which there are at present no competitors, to offer them for sale at prices which will make it neither more nor less advantageous to buy than to rent the machines. How can such prices be determined, and by what criteria can it be determined whether a given price meets the requirement?
  5. (15 points) Discuss the role of “Euler’s theorem” in distribution theory, and give your own position on the issues.
  6. (20 points)
    1. Define (a) perfect competition, (b) oligopoly, (c) monopoly, (d) monopolistic competition, (e) cartel, (f) monopsony.
    2. State the conditions of maximum return for the individual firm in a form in which they are applicable to all the preceding market conditions. Indicate the special form which these take for each of the preceding market conditions.
    3. Define “length of run” and state is effect on these conditions.

*  * *  *  * *  *  * *  *  * *  *  *

Milton Friedman’s Handwritten Notes for Examination

  1. (30 points)
    1. Uncertain. Depends on conditions of supply
    2. False. (blank)
    3. False. Primarily because supply is more inelastic
    4. True. Applies equally to all car owners, whether mortgaged or not
    5. Uncertain. Must allow for extra costs of becoming college professor
    6. Uncertain. Backward (word illegible) supply curve unlikely for crop like wheat with alternative that can be produced instead
    7. False. Confusion of shift in demand and movement along demand schedule
    8. False. affects complements and substitutes in (letter illegible, possibly “N”)
    9. Uncertain. In competitive industry, only necessary that AC of new be less than AC of old which is equal to MC (word illegible) at margin. In monopoly (word illegible) AC of new must be less than MC of old for (3 words illegible).
    10. False. Under competition, no market disadvantage. But (word illegible) that (4 words illegible) enable workers to get larger total income.
      With collective bargaining, workers in general can appropriate income from the owners of other agents.
    11. Uncertain. Depends on elasticity of demand for labor.
    12. True. (blank)
    13. True. if net internal economies, monopoly, which wouldn’t operate at inelastic demand]
    14. False. (not legible)
    15. True

  1. (10 points) (blank)

 

  1. (10 points)

(a) (comment not legible)
(b) Reduce it

  1. (15 points) (blank)

 

  1. (15 points)

1) Exhaustion of product problem—lh;
2) Proves too much;
3) Condition of equilibrium not result of lh.
(“lh” = “linear homogeneity”?)

  1. (20 points)
    1. Definitions. (6 points)
    2. 11 points

2 points for stating the conditions in form applicable to all the market conditions listed in question 1.

1/MR = MPPa/MFCa= MPPb/MFCb= …. = 1/MC

Special form for conditions for

      1. (2 points, perfect competition) MFCa = pa, MR = px
      2. (1 point, oligopoly) (illegible word) MFCa= pa
      3. (1 point, monopoly) MFCa= pa
      4. (1 point, monopolistic competition) same as c.
      5. (2 points, cartel) MFCa= pa, MR not equal MC
      6. (2 points, monopsony) MR = px
    1. (Definition) 1 point; (Effect) 2 points: MFC = infinity or zero for some factors

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 76, Folder “76.2 University of Chicago Economic Theory”.

Image Source:  Milton Friedman (undated) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06230, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Graduate prelim exams in economic theory. Metzler, Friedman and Knight, 1951

 

The previous post provided the names of the examination committee members for the economics preliminary exams for the Ph.D./A.M. by field at the University of Chicago for the summer quarter of 1951. The names of the students registered for the respective examinations were transcribed as well. The economic theory examining committee for that round consisted of Lloyd Metzler (chair), Milton Friedman, and Frank Knight. This post provides a transcription of both economic theory exams along with Friedman’s hand-written answer to Question 5 of Part I.

_____________________

ECONOMIC THEORY
Part I
Summer Quarter, 1951

(Do not write your name on your paper. Use only the number in the top right-hand corner of this examination.)

Ph.D. candidates. Write 3½ hours. Answer all questions.

A.M. candidates. Write 2½ hours on questions #1 and #2 and one other.

  1. Discuss the probable shape of the long-run cost curve for an industry operating under approximately perfect competition. How would it differ in the short run, i.e., in response to an unanticipated shift in the demand-curve for the product, assumed not to be permanent?
  2. Briefly discuss the Ricardian conception of capital, specifically in relation to his theory of wages. Argue the question whether wages are paid out of (pre-existing) capital or out of (current) product.
    Can you find any relation between the Böhm-Bawerk production-period theory of interest and the Ricardian theory of capital and profit? What is the crucial assumption about the nature and source of capital which underlies the production-period theory, and is it sound? How does diminishing returns to investment enter into Ricardo’s and Böhm-Bawerk’s theories?
  3. Consider a trade union that is strong enough to prevent nonmembers from working at the trade in question and whose membership, for simplicity, will be supposed unaffected by the level of returns to members within broad limits (e.g., future membership consists of present membership minus members who die plus male children of present members). Analyze what its position would be toward the immigration of unskilled labor if it took account solely of the effect of such immigration on the incomes of its members. What considerations, if any, should lead it to favor more extensive immigration? What considerations, if any, to favor restriction on immigration? Is there a clear balance in favor of the one position or the other?
  4. “The orthodox tools of supply and demand assume that sellers and buyers are free to buy or sell any quantities they wish at the price determined by the market. This assumption cannot validly be made when price controls or rations are imposed by government. It follows that these tools are useless in analyzing the effects of such governmental actions. Economists should free themselves from slavish adherence to outmoded concepts and fashion new tools for the new problems raised by the modern Leviathan.” Discuss.
  5. The following figures represent the prices and quantities of two commodities, A and B, consumed by three individuals having the incomes stated in two different periods of time.

First Period

Second Period
Pa Qa Pb Qb Income Pa Qa Pb Qb

Income

Arthur

$1

20 $2 10 $40 $2 10 $1 20

$40

John

$2

20 $1 10 $50 $1 10 $2 20

$50

Paul

$2

20 $1 10 $50 $2.50 10 $1.25 20

$50

Assuming that each individual spends his whole income on the two commodities, and assuming also that there is no change in tastes between the two periods, indicate for each individual what the above information reveals as to whether the bundle of goods consumed in Period I represents a lower or a higher level of satisfaction that the bundle consumed in Period II. Explain your conclusions fully. (It is recommended that a diagram be used in answering this question.)

 

[Answers to Question 5 in pencil: Arthur “Can’t tell”; John “Inconsistent”; Paul: “First period better”]

From sketch in Milton Friedman’s copy of the exam.

 

 

ECONOMIC THEORY II
Summer Quarter, 1951

Time: 2½ hours.

  1. (a) Describe and discuss briefly the circumstances that gave rise to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System and the major events (including its actions) in its history.
    (b) In light of this survey of the record, comment on the following conclusion of one student: “The Federal Reserve System should be abolished. It served as an engine of inflation in two World Wars and post-war periods, hindered the re-establishment of satisfactory monetary standards throughout the world in the 1920’s, and failed to prevent the Great Depression, if indeed it was not itself largely responsible for the severity of that depression. The United States would have had a happier history if the pre-1913 monetary arrangements had been continued thereafter.”
  2. “From the preceding considerations it would be seen, even if it were not otherwise evident, how great an error it is to imagine that the rate of interest bears any necessary relation to the quantity or value of the money in circulation. An increase in the currency has in itself no effect, and is incapable of having any effect, on the rate of interest.” (J.S. Mill)
    “We can sum up the above in the proposition that in any given state of expectation there is in the minds of the public a certain potentiality towards holding cash beyond what is required by the transactions-motive or the precautionary-motive, which will realize itself in actual cash holding in a degree which depends on the terms on which the monetary authority is willing to create cash…Corresponding to the quantity of money created by the monetary authority, there will, therefore be set.  par. a determinate rate of interest.” (J. M. Keynes)
    “The saving schedule tells us what part of income the community desires to save. The technical conditions…expressed by the marginal-efficiency-of-investment function, determine the marginal efficiency of the amount of investment that the giving up of consumption permits undertaking. (The intersection of the two schedules determines) the equilibrium rate of interest.” (F. Modigliani).
    Can you reconcile these opinions concerning the determinants of the interest rate? Explain fully, making and stating any assumption you like as to the conditions of production, the time period under consideration, and the flexibility of prices and costs.
  3. What measures would you advocate—and give your reasons for inclusion and omission—for controlling the inflationary tendency in the U.S. under present conditions?

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 76, Folder “76.2 University of Chicago, ‘Economic Theory’”.

Image Source: Social Science Research Building. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07490, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Chicago Economics Programs Economists Fields

Chicago. Schedule of the preliminary economics exams for the Ph.D. and A.M., Summer 1951

 

The following schedule for preliminary examinations in economics at the University of Chicago from the summer quarter of 1951 comes from Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives. We see that he was on the two economic theory examination committees along with Lloyd Metzler and Frank Knight. Besides providing the names of the faculty members serving on the nine committees, the schedule also provides the names of the sixty students registered for the examinations during that quarter.

____________________

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

SCHEDULE FOR PRELIMINARY EXAMINATIONS
FOR THE PH.D. AND FOR THE A.M.

Summer Quarter, 1951

The schedule below shows the examinations requested for the current quarter. Will the chairman of each committee please be responsible for turning in the complete examination at least one week before the date on which it is to be given?

 

Date

Examination Committee

Students Registered

Thurs., Aug. 2
8:30
Law Court

Agricultural Economics

D.G. Johnson, chr.
C. Hildreth
T.W. Schultz
Dunsing, Marilyn (A.M.)
Fox, Kirk (Ph.D)
Hughes, Rufus (Ph.D.)
Taylor, Maurice (Ph.D.)

Tues., July 31
8:30
Law Court

Economic Theory I

L. Metzler, chr.
M. Friedman
F. Knight
Baskind, Irwin (Ph.D.) in abs.
Bassett, Marjorie (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Blumberg, Lionel (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Chen, Ho-Mei (Ph.D.)
Chen, Sze-te (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Chien, Chih Chien (Ph.D.)
Cleaver, George (Ph.D.)
Dunsing, Marilyn (A.M.)
Emmer, Robert (Ph.D.)
Fox, Kirk (Ph.D.)
Frank, Andrew (Ph.D.-A.M.) in abs
Gustus, Warren (Ph.D.)
Heizer, Raymond (Ph.D.)
Herlihy, Murray (Ph.D.)
Hoch, Irving (Ph.D.)
Hughes, Rufus (Ph.D.)
Krawczyk, Richard (Ph.D.-A.M.) in abs
Lerner, Eugene (Ph.D.)
Liang, Wei K. Liang (Ph.D.)
Lininger, Charles (Ph.D.)
Lurie, Melvin (Ph.D.)
McGuire, Charles (Ph.D.)
Malhotra, Man Mohan (Ph.D.)
Malone, John (Ph.D.)
Mitcham, Clinton (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Morrison, George (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Sonley, Lorne (Ph.D.)
Taylor, Maurice (Ph.D.)
Terrell, James (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Toscano, Peter (Ph.D.)
Traeger, Gordon (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Viscasillas, Felipe (Ph.D.)
Waldorf, William (Ph.D.)
Weir, Thomas (Ph.D.)
Weiss, Roger (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Zelder, Raymond (Ph.D.)

Tues., Aug. 7
8:30
Law Court

Economic Theory II

L. Metzler, chr.
M. Friedman
F. Knight
Chen, Ho-Mei (Ph.D.)
Herlihy, Murray (Ph.D.)
Hoch, Irving (Ph.D.)
Toscano, Peter (Ph.D.)
Weir, Thomas (Ph.D.)

Thurs., Aug. 9
8:30
Law Court

Government Finance

P. Thomson, chr.
J. Marschak
D.G. Johnson
Frank, Andrew (Ph.D.-A.M.) in abs
Haskell, Max (Ph.D.) in abs
Henry, Edward L. (Ph.D.)
Horwitz, Bertrand (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Lininger, Charles (Ph.D.)
Selden, Richard (Ph.D.)

Thurs., Aug. 9
8:30
Law Court

Industrial Relations

F. Harbison, chr.
E. Hamilton
H.G. Lewis
Barghout, Saad (Ph.D.)
Bechtolt, Richard (Ph.D.)
Hoch, Irving (Ph.D.)
Liang, Wei K. (Ph.D.)
Mullady, Philomena (Ph.D.)
Ness, David (Ph.D.)

Thurs., Aug. 2
8:30
Law Court

International Economics

L. Metzler, chr.
B. Hoselitz
A. Rees
Alberts, William (Ph.D.)
Anderson, Edwin (Ph.D.) in abs
Chen, Sze-te (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Chien, Chih Chien (Ph.D.)
Cleaver, George (Ph.D.)
Frank, Andrew (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Glick, Milton (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Gustus, Warren (Ph.D.)
Lukomski, Jesse (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Mitcham, Clinton (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Morey, Donald J. (Ph.D.-A.M.)

Tues., Aug. 7
8:30
Law Court

Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy

L. Mints, chr.
E. Hamilton
J. Marschak
Alberts, William (Ph.D.)
Bauer, Milton (Ph.D.)
Blumberg, Lionel (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Chen, Sze-te (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Chien, Chih Chien (Ph.D.)
Cleaver, George (Ph.D.)
Conomikes, George (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Davis, George (Ph.D.) in abs
Emmer, Robert (Ph.D.)
Heizer, Raymond (Ph.D.)
Horwitz, Bertrand (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Hughes, Rufus (Ph.D.)
Krawczyk, Richard (Ph.D.-A.M.) in abs
Lerner, Eugene (Ph.D.)
Liang, Wei K. (Ph.D.)
Lukomski, Jesse (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Meckling, William (Ph.D.)
Mitcham, Clinton (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Morey, Donald (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Ogawa, George (Ph.D.)
Smulekoff, Suzanne (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Sonley, Lorne (Ph.D.)
Taylor, Maurice (Ph.D.)
Terrell, James (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Traeger, Gordon (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Zelder, Raymond (Ph.D.)
Zingarelli, Carla (Ph.D.-A.M.)
Rayack, Elton  (Ph.D.) in abs

Thurs., Aug. 2
8:30
Law Court

Statistics

T. Koopmans, chr.
C. Hildreth
H.G. Lewis
Cagan, Phillip (Ph.D.)
Hogan, Lloyd (Ph.D.)
Katzman, Irwin (Ph.D.)
Malhotra, Man Hohan (Ph.D.)
Waldorf, William (Ph.D.)

Thurs., Aug. 2
8:30
Law Court

Economic History

E. Hamilton Mullady, Philomena (Ph.D.)
Toscano, Peter (Ph.D.)

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 76, Folder “University of Chicago ‘Economic Theory’”.

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Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Economic Theory Prelim Exam, Winter Quarter 1957

With this post the stock of old Chicago preliminary examinations for the M.A. and Ph.D. in economics transcribed for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has grown by one to make it an even dozen.

_____________________

Previously posted prelim examinations at the University of Chicago:

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1956

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1959

Prelim Theory 1960.

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1964

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1969

Preliminary Exam (Macroeconomics) 1969

Preliminary Exam (Money and Banking) 1969

Preliminary Exam (International Trade) 1970

Preliminary Exam (Price Theory) 1975

Preliminary Exam (Industrial Organization) 1977

Preliminary Exam (History of Economic Thought) 1989

_____________________

ECONOMIC THEORY I
Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. and A.M. Degrees
Winter Quarter 1957

WRITE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON YOUR EXAMINATION PAPER:

Your Code Number and NOT your name
Name of Examination
Date of Examination

Results of the Examination will be sent to you by letter after results on all preliminary examinations have been received.

Answer all questions: Time: Four hours.

Do section I of the examination on this paper and turn it in to the proctor with the rest of your examination. You are to do sections II-VII separately.

 

  1. Indicate whether each of the following statements is true (T), false (F), or uncertain (U). Explain briefly the basis for your answer.
    1. _____. If the market elasticity of demand for peaches is -2, a peach producer whose output accounts for 1/20th of the total supply of peaches will be faced by a demand function of elasticity -40.
    2. _____. If a constant amount of carpenters’ services is required per unit of housing constructed, and the elasticity of demand for housing is -1, the elasticity of demand for carpenters’ services used in housing must be less (in absolute value) than unity.
    3. _____. If the production possibilities for wire can be represented by a Cobb-Douglas production function, and the wire industry is competitive, a rise of 10 per cent in the wages of wire-workers will lead to a reduction of 10 per cent in their employment.
    4. _____. The elasticity of demand for a group of commodities with respect to the average price of the group can never be larger in absolute value than the largest of the individual price elasticities of the commodities which comprise the group.
    5. _____. If total consumer expenditures are the same before and after a tax, then an excise tax on a consumer good of elastic demand will lead to an increase in consumer spending on other consumer goods, while an excise tax on a consumer good of inelastic demand will lead to a decline in consumer spending on other consumer goods.
    6. _____. A tax of 10 per cent per year on the rental value (actual or imputed) of all land will in the long run lead to a lowering of the marginal productivity of labor in agriculture.
    7. _____. A technological advance opening up widespread possibilities for new investment in the electronics industry at very high rates of return will tend to lower the real value of the existing stock of residential housing in the United States.
    8. _____. A supply curve passing through the origin has an elasticity equal to unity.
    9. _____. Given certainty, no firm would hold inventories.
    10. _____. A negatively sloping supply curve of labor implies a positively sloping demand curve for leisure.
    11. _____. It is impossible to derive a supply function for a monopolist.
    12. _____. A legally enforced minimum wage for a particular occupation may increase employment in that occupation.
    13. _____. Wage rates rise while interest rates remain the same. It follows that the ratio of capital to labor will increase.
    14. _____. Engel’s laws are due to Friedrich Engels.
  2. “It is too obvious for argument that a single employee bargaining with a great corporation, or even with a moderately small employer, is under a disadvantage, except perhaps in time of serious labor shortage”. (Arthur Larsen, A Republican Looks at his Party, p. 125)
    Analyze, being sure in the process to discuss the concepts of  “bargaining disadvantage” and “labor shortage”.
  3. Derive a demand function for a factor of production. What does it depend on? What things are held constant in the derivation?
  4. a) What was Malthus’ theory of population? In answering, distinguish explicitly between the two variants of his theory, according to the character of the restraints on population.
    b) Tell how equilibrium is established under each variant.
    c) What effect did the theory have on economic theory?
  5. In the analysis of supply, an important role is played by a fourfold classification of economies or diseconomies of production: internal and external, each of these cross-classified as pecuniary and technical.
    1. What does each of the four concepts mean and what role does it play in the analysis of supply?
    2. For each of the four concepts, what would be its counterpart in the analysis of demand? If you can, illustrate by example each type of economy, each type of diseconomy.
    3. Why is so much more importance attached to these concepts in the analysis of supply than in the analysis of demand?
  6. “The interest rate measures the rate of time-preference. Therefore, in a community, the members of which are as anxious to provide for the future as for the present, the rate of interest will be zero. But the rate of interest also equals the marginal productivity of capital. It follows that in such a community the marginal productivity will be zero”.
    Discuss the validity of this argument.
  7. The U.S. government currently guarantees a large fraction of mortgages on newly-constructed houses through the Federal Housing Administration and the Veteran’s Administration. The government guarantee naturally makes these more attractive than non-guaranteed mortgages and so leads to their being available at a lower rate of interest. Recently there has been a decline in residential building. Representatives of the industry have suggested that one means of stimulating building would be to extend the government guarantee to mortgages on existing houses. They claim that the higher cost of mortgages on such houses inhibits their sale and thus prevents individuals currently owning houses from coming into the market for new houses.
    Analyze the effect that the enactment of this proposal would have on the rate of construction of residential housing. Do not discuss the desirability as a matter of public policy of either the existing guarantees or the proposed extension.

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 76, Folder 2 “University of Chicago ‘Economic Theory’”.

Image Source: Social Science Research Building. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07466, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Courses Minnesota

Minnesota. Proposal for Seminar on Business Cycles. Friedman, 1945-46

The format of the following seminar proposal matches exactly the template also used for the National Income and Product Accounting course taught by Milton Friedman at the University of Minnesota, 1946. The folder the proposal is found in was incorrectly labelled “University of Chicago. Seminar on Business Cycles” in Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives. I still need to check whether this seminar was approved and actually taught.

One can hear in this proposal the rumblings of the future debate to be initiated by Tjalling Koopmans in his 1947 paper, “Measurement without Theory”  One can speculate where Friedman stood with respect to the opposite extremes in empirical business cycle research at this time.

Also of interest is his paragraph on the importance of lags in the implementation of stabilisation policy.

___________________

Description of Proposed Course: “Seminar on Business Cycles”

  1. Purpose: To supplement the existing one-quarter course in business cycles, thereby enabling graduate students to get a fuller training in current work on cyclical fluctuations.
  2. Content: The course would deal primarily with empirical work on cyclical fluctuations and with proposals for the control of cycles. A cursory acquaintance with the leading theories of cyclical fluctuations would be assumed. Analysis of the bearing of empirical findings on the validity of the various theories, and consideration of the theoretical assumptions implicit in proposed measures for mitigating cyclical fluctuations would provide an opportunity for more intensive discussion of the various theories. The following three paragraphs indicate in somewhat more detail the range of topics to be covered:
    1. Description of cyclical fluctuations

The students would study actual time series covering a variety of economic activities; they would attempt to isolate and to date cyclical fluctuations in these series. The aim would be to give a realistic picture of the temporal behavior of economic activity; to bring home the diversity of movement; to exorcise the naïve notion that cyclical movements consist of clearly delineated synchronous, and uninterrupted upward and downward movements in practically all sectors of economic activity; and to leave with the student a knowledge of the character and timing of the business cycles in this country during the past few decades.

    1. Empirical studies of cyclical fluctuations

The emphasis under this topic would be on both techniques of studying cyclical fluctuations and the substantive findings of various investigators. At least two techniques would be considered: (1) the National Bureau technique; (2) the technique of constructing a system of simultaneous difference equations from statistical data (e.g. Tinbergen’s work). The reason for choosing these is that they represent techniques at opposite extremes; the guiding principle of the Bureau technique is to describe the facts compactly and exactly without departing from them, at least in the initial stages of the work; the guiding principle of the simultaneous equations technique is to replace the facts by a mathematical model as early in the analysis as possible.

  1. Measures for controlling cyclical fluctuations

A variety of proposals would be considered. The discussion of each would include analysis of the theoretical assumptions underlying it, the practical problems involved, and the empirical evidence, if any, on its possible success. The success of most of the measures depends critically on (1) the lag between the need for action and the recognition of the need (2) the lag between the action and its results. Some attention will therefore be given to the possibility of forecasting and to possible lags between action and effect.

  1. Title: “Seminar on Business Cycles”
  2. Prerequisites: B.A. 112, Econ. 149, B.A. 101-102.
  3. Duration: Two quarters

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 76, Folder  3 “University of Chicago [sic]. ‘Seminar on Business Cycles’”.

Image Source: Milton Friedman in 1947 at the founding meeting of the Mt. Pelerin Society. Collected Works of Milton Friedman website at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.