Our march through the economics examinations at Harvard resumes with the academic year 1908-09. We start obviously with the Principles of Economics à la Frank W. Taussig. His team of teaching assistants turned out to have amounted to quite a bit (see the links in the course enrollment section below).
In addition to the 1908-09 exam questions for Principles of Economics taught at Harvard by Frank W. Taussig, this post includes the following links to the previously transcribed 37 years worth of exams. As you can see we have come a long way, though there is still over a century’s worth of exams to go.
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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1907/08
1871-75.
1876-77.
1877-78.
1878-79.
1879-80.
1880-81.
1881-82.
1882-83.
1883-84.
1884-85.
1885-86.
1886-87.
1887-88.
1888-89.
1889-90.
1890-91.
1891-92.
1892-93.
1893-94.
1894-95.
1895-96.
1896-97.
1897-98.
1898-99.
1899-00.
1900-01.
1901-02.
1902-03.
1903-04.
1904-05.
1905-06.
1906-07.
1907-08.
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Course Enrollment
1908-09
Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig, assisted by Messrs. [Robert Lee] Hale, [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis, [Isaiah Leo] Sharfman, Stevens, and [Abbott Payson] Usher. — Principles of Economics.
Total 503: 1 Graduate, 21 Seniors, 97 Juniors, 241 Sophomores, 100 Freshmen, 43 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.
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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1908-09
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
- Explain what determines, in the long run, the value of
free goods;
public goods;
goods produced at the margin of cultivation;
goods produced above the margin of cultivation.
- “Even if it were the fact that there is never any land taken into cultivation, for which rent, and that too of an amount worth taking into consideration, was not paid; it would be true, nevertheless, that there is always some agricultural capital which pays no rent, because it returns nothing beyond the ordinary rate of profit.”
Do you think this holds good as to agricultural land? as to urban sites? - Suppose land to be of uniform fertility, and suppose not all of it to be under cultivation: would there be rent? would there be interest? (Neglect differences of situation.)
Would your answer be different, in either respect, if all the land were under cultivation? - What is the effect of larger scale of production and more minute division of labor on
the irksomeness of labor;
the productiveness of labor;
the reward of labor;
the share which goes to labor as compared with other sorts of incomes.
5. What is the connection between
the “round about” or “lengthened” process of production;
the “effective desire of accumulation”;
the “discounted marginal product” of labor;
economic rent.
- A strike takes place in an industry whose owners are protected from competition by a patent. Its settlement is referred to an arbitrator, before whom the workmen undertake (with success) to show that the industry has been highly profitable to the owners. How far, it at all, should the arbitrator consider this fact in his decision?
Suppose the case had been one of agricultural laborers on an unusually fertile farm, would your answer be different? - Suppose a great and permanent fall to take place in the rate of interest on capital, other things remaining the same; what changes would you expect in
the general rate of wages; the values of commodities;
the prices of urban sites;
the prices of securities yielding a fixed income?
- “The price of a monopolized article is commonly supposed to be arbitrary: depending on the will of the monopolist, and limited only by the buyer’s extreme estimate of its worth to himself. This is in one sense true, but forms no exception, nevertheless, to the dependence of value on supply and demand.” In what sense true? and why no exception?
- Would you expect the organization of employees into trade unions to bring about higher wages in the case of
domestic servants;
motormen on street railways;
plumbers.
If so, how? if not, why not?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1908-09.
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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1908-09
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
- Explain briefly: value; price; unit price; index numbers; weighted average.
- What determines the value of: gold dollars; gold bullion; silver dollars; silver bullion?
- What determined the par of exchange between (1) the United States and England in 1870; (2) the United States and England in 1880; (3) the United States and Mexico in 1890? [Mexico had a silver standard in 1890.]
- Is it conceivable that a country should steadily import goods which its own producers can make at less expense than foreign producers? that it should import goods which its own producers can make at less cost than foreign producers?
- What determines the reserve against deposits held by the Bank of England? by the Bank of France? by the First National Bank in New York City? by the Charles River National Bank in Cambridge?
- “There is, therefore, a rough correspondence between the movements of loans and deposits … The true connection between these movements is often forgotten, but its nature can not be mistaken by anybody who will observe the steps by which an ordinary ‘discount’ is placed at the command of the borrower.” What is the nature of the connection? What are the steps?
- Which among the following, if any, do you consider “unproductive” laborers: a stock-exchange broker; the promoter of a trust; a legislative agent (lobbyist) exerting himself to bring about high tariff legislation; the editor of a blackmailing newspaper?
- In a socialist community, what changes from existing conditions would you expect as to: the medium of exchange; economic rent; business profit; highly competent administrators?
- What do you understand by the principle of diminishing utility? of marginal utility? How does either principle bear on (1) the values of commodities, (2) proposals for equalizing the distribution of wealth?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 31-32.
Image Source: Frank W. Taussig in Harvard Class Album, 1915.