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Economists Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Economic Theory and Monetary Economics. R.G. Hawtrey, 1928-29

 

 

Sir Ralph Hawtrey (Fun fact: according to J.M. Keynes,  Alfred Marshall was his third cousin once removed) was given leave by the British Treasury to lecture at Harvard during the 1928-29 academic year. Full course outlines with assigned readings are not found in the Harvard University Archives collection of course syllabi and reading lists. Only the titles of the items for the end of semester reading periods for his graduate course “Principles of Money and Banking” could be found and are transcribed below. The first semester exam for “Problems in Economic Theory” and both semester exams for “Principles of Money and Banking” are included in this post.

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Problems in Economic Theory

Course Announcement.

[Economics] 15. Problems in Economic Theory

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 4. Mr. R. G. Hawtrey.

In this course less attention will be given to specific economic doctrines than to questions of the scope, methods, premises, and goal of economic science, and of its relations to logic and psychology and to the other social sciences.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1928-29. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 71.

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Enrollment.

[Economics] 15. Mr. Hawtrey.— Problems in Economic Theory.

Total 6: 3 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1928-29, p. 72.

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1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 15
Mid-year examination

Five questions and ONLY FIVE should be answered

  1. How does the functioning of a market depend on dealers holding stocks of the goods dealt in?
  2. By what process does the investment market maintain equilibrium between the supply of savings and the supply of fresh capital?
  3. Jevons wrote: “By free capital I mean the wages of labour either in its transitory form of money or in its real form of food and other necessaries of life.”
    Is this an improvement on the Wages fund theory? Can you improve the statement further?
  4. Explain the relation of profit to (1) compensation for risk, (2) rent of ability, (3) quasi-rent.
  5. Why is the explanation of profit as the remuneration of management and organization incomplete?
  6. What are the chief objections to the doctrine that the end of economic activity is the maximum of total utility?
  7. Can justice in distribution be regarded as a part of the subject-matter of economics?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 11, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1929. Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations in History, New Testament,…Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science, January-February, 1929.

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
SPRING READING PERIOD—1928/29

Economics 15

No additional assignments.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics 1928-29”.

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Principles of Money and Banking

Course Announcement.

[Economics] 38. The Principles of Money and Banking

Tu., Th., at 10, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor. Mr. R. G. Hawtrey.

The course is intended to afford training in analysis and research in the field of money and banking. The subject as a whole will be systematically reviewed. Selections from important writings dealing with monetary principles will be read and critically discussed.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1928-29. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 73.

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Enrollment

[Economics] 38. Mr. Hawtrey. — Principles of Money and Banking.

Total 50: 32 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 1 Junior, 5 Radcliffe, 2 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1928-29, p. 73.

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
MID-YEAR READING PERIOD—1928/29

Economics 38

Select two from the following list and read about 300 pages.

  1. Keynes, J.M.: Indian Currency and Finance.
  2. Burgess, W. R.: The Federal Reserve System and the Money Market.
  3. Hargreaves, E. L. : Restoring Currency Standards.
  4. Knapp: State Theory of Money.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics 1928-29”.

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1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 38
Mid-year examination.

Six questions and ONLY SIX should be answered.

  1. What different meanings can be given to “velocity” in monetary theory?
  2. On what conditions can the use of gold coin be made to maintain a gold standard effectively?
  3. What are the essential functions of a bank? To what extent do they depend on the assignability of debts from one creditor to another?
  4. Why does a contraction of credit tend to cause unemployment?
  5. What circumstances determine the degree of sensitiveness of borrowers to the rate of discount or short-term interest?
  6. Upon what conditions does the power of a Central Bank to control credit depend? Is the issue of notes by the Central Bank essential?
  7. Describe the effect of external investment on the foreign exchange market.
  8. In what circumstances and to what extent will relatively high rates of discount and short-term interest attract balances from abroad for temporary investment.
  9. What is meant when London is called an international clearing centre?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 11, Bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1929. Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations in History, New Testament,…, Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science, January-February, 1929.

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
SPRING READING PERIOD—1929

Economics 38

Select two from the following list and read about 300 pages.

  1. Keynes, J.M.: Indian Currency and Finance.
  2. Burgess, W. R.: The Federal Reserve System and the Money Market.
  3. Hargreaves, E. L. : Restoring Currency Standards.
  4. Knapp: State Theory of Money.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics 1928-29”.

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1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 38

Final examination.

Five questions and only five to be answered.

  1. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the “elasticity” claimed for the fixed proportion system of gold reserve.
  2. How far is it true to say that gold reserve laws “exist to be broken”?
  3. To what extent can the phenomena of the business cycle, as experienced up to 1914, be traced to the working of the gold standard?
  4. What are the principal conditions likely to predispose a country to be the scene of a financial crisis?
  5. Compare, in respect of relative liquidity, the principal classes of assets usually held by banks. Criticise the idea of the “self-liquidating” bill.
  6. Show how speculation in the foreign exchanges may interfere with measures for the reestablishment of the gold standard in a country with an unstable currency.
  7. What grounds are there for supposing that it is practicable, through the coöperation of the central banks of gold standard countries to affect the purchasing power of gold?
  8. How, in your opinion, can the stability of the purchasing power of a currency unit best be tested statistically?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Bound volume (No. 71) Examination Papers, Finals, 1929. (Papers printed for Final Examinations in History, Church History,… , Economics,…, Military Science, Naval Science, June, 1929.

Image Source: Creative Commons image of Sir Ralph George Hawtrey by Walter Stoneman (1939) at the National Portrait Gallery.