Tag: Kindleberger

M.I.T. Graduate Program in Economics Brochure, 1974-1975

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-08-06

It was fifty years ago this September that I entered the graduate program in economics at M.I.T. This is why the brochure outlining the graduate program as of the academic year 1974-75 is something I am particularly delighted to add as the newest digitized artifact to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

In other news, I just realized that I am now older than everyone seen on the faculty portrait taken in 1976.

_______________________

Most of the faculty members of the MIT department of economics on the steps of the Sloan Building (E52) in 1976.

Names of the assembled have been provided in an earlier post.

_______________________

MIT’s 1961 graduate economics brochure has been transcribed and posted earlier.

_______________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Graduate Program in Economics
1974 – 1975

General Information
The Ph.D. Program in Detail

Schematic Schedule of Typical Entering Student

1. Dissertation
Graduate Subjects in Economics
The Faculty in Economics

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Graduate Program in Economics
1974–75

1. General Information
  [Table of Contents]

Graduate study in economics began at M.I.T. in 1941 and has since developed to its present size of some 110 full-time students and 33 faculty members. Its major emphasis is on the training of doctoral candidates in a broad program of advanced study and research for professional careers in universities or colleges, in governmental and private research organizations, or in business or financial concerns. At the present time the demands on a professional economist are such that the depth and breadth of the doctoral program have become indispensable training for a successful career. The Department, therefore, ordinarily admits to full-time graduate study only candidates for the Ph.D. In order to maintain a close and continuing contact between students and faculty, the entering class is normally held to 30.

1. Program of Studies
  [Table of Contents]
  1. Ph.D. in Economics
    [Table of Contents]

The doctorate normally requires the full-time concentration of the student for three or four years. Formal requirements are limited in number. The candidate must (1) demonstrate a mastery in five fields of study in economics, one of which is economic theory, both micro and macro; (2) achieve a specified level of competence in economic history, econometrics, and statistics; (3) submit and defend a dissertation that represents a contribution to knowledge; and (4) be in residence for a minimum of two years.

These requirements are met not merely by passing some appropriate set of subjects, but through an over-all preparation of subject matter and techniques that goes beyond course work. Candidates may differ in their rate of progress toward the satisfaction of these requirements, depending on their background, preparation, and interests. Normally, however, the satisfaction of requirements, other than the dissertation, is completed by the end of the second year.

The dissertation is a test of the candidate’s ability to conduct independent research — to formulate a significant topic and to bring to bear on it the analytic and quantitative tools of economics. The dissertation is prepared under the direction of departmental committee. Upon submission of the completed thesis, the candidate is examined orally by the thesis committee.

The Department has no general foreign language requirements. When a foreign language is essential for full access to the literature in the field of the student’s major interest (for example, European Economic History, Communist Economies) or to his thesis research, a language requirement will be imposed by the Department upon the recommendation of the Thesis Supervisor or the Graduate Registration Officer. Such a requirement will be administered by the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics, and can be met by satisfactory course work at other schools, at M.I.T., or by examination.

1. 1. Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program
    [Table of Contents]

Occasionally students may desire a program that overlaps more than one department, but which in content and depth meets doctoral standards. At the initiative of the student, and with the approval of faculty members of each department, arrangements can be made to have the Dean of the Graduate School appoint a committee to guide the entire Ph.D. program. For details see the Graduate Student Manual. One such program, for instance, has been worked out with the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

1. 1. Master’s Program
    [Table of Contents]

In very special and rare cases, students are admitted for study programs leading to the M.S. in Economics. This is awarded upon the satisfactory completion of a program, approved by the Graduate Registration Officer, of a year’s full-time study, including the presentation of a satisfactory thesis. The master’s program usually involves completion of the Department’s core requirements (see below), a semester of econometrics, and two semesters of a special field, in addition to the thesis.

1. Admission to the Graduate School
  [Table of Contents]

To be admitted into the program, a student must hold a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from an accredited college or university. It is not essential that the undergraduate degree be in economics. Graduate students entering the Department have had a wide variety of major background preparation varying from literature to physics. Some preparation in undergraduate economics, especially in economic analysis, is almost a necessity. Candidates who, upon admission, are deficient in mathematics are strongly urged to take mathematics in the summer before entering the program or work on a recommended self-study program in calculus to prepare for 14.102 Mathematics for Economists.

Completed application forms for admission must be submitted to the Admissions Office at M.I.T. by January 15 of the calendar year in which the applicant wishes to enter. In addition to the Institute application forms, the Department expects each applicant to submit a statement (one or two pages) explaining his interest in economics. An informal questionnaire is provided for his general guidance. Entrance is normally in September. February entrance is granted only under exceptional circumstances, since many subjects given in the spring are continuations of work given in the fall.

All applicants are urged to take the Graduate Record Examinations no later than the January preceding the September in which they wish to enter. They should take the quantitative and verbal aptitude tests as well as the test in economics. (Information can be obtained by writing to Graduate Record Examinations, Educational Testing Service, Box 955, Princeton, New Jersey 08540. Students in western states or in eastern Asia or the Pacific should write to 1947 Center Street, Berkeley, California 94704.)

Decisions regarding admission are the responsibility of the Departmental Graduate Admissions Committee, which bases its judgment on the undergraduate academic record of the applicant, both in general and with respect to particular subjects, on the letters of recommendation, and on the Graduate Record Examinations. Further information may be secured by writing to the chairman of the committee. Notices of acceptance are sent out by April 1, and candidates have until April 15 to notify the Department of their choice.

1. Fellowships, Scholarships, and Financial Assistance
  [Table of Contents]

While in the past virtually all graduate students received financial aid through scholarships, fellowships, or assistantships, the financial situation has changed to such an extent that complete support can no longer be assured. Moreover, the outlook is so uncertain that no definite statement is possible, even about minimum aid. Every effort will be made within the limits of our financial resources to support students who perform effectively. In view of this uncertainty, the Department is making efforts to expand the number of research assistantships, but students should expect to earn or borrow a larger proportion of their support than has been true in the past.

The sources of financial support are varied. (1) Many students are assisted by fellowships for which there is a national competition, such as those given by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Ford Foundation, the Danforth Foundation, the Canada Council, and by foreign governmental agencies. Applications for such fellowships must be made directly to the appropriate foundation or agency, and an application for admission must also be made to M.I.T. (2) Awards of scholarships or fellowships are also made from M.I.T. funds or endowments. These include the Hicks Fellowship in Industrial Relations, the Graduate Economics Alumni Fellowships, endowed Institute fellowships, and a limited number of departmental awards. (3) A third group of students is supported by part time teaching and research assistantships and instructorships. In the past, research and teaching assistantships have been limited to candidates who have passed their general examination and are engaged in thesis research. However, in the light of the present financial stringency, these rules may be relaxed somewhat with respect to limited research assistantships for second year students. (4) Finally, students in good standing can avail themselves of loans through the Office of Financial Aid. U.S. citizens who are planning to be teachers may avail themselves of an NDEA loan, a substantial portion of which is forgiven upon entry into and continuance in teaching. They are also eligible for government-insured loans that are partially subsidized. Foreign students. however, may borrow only through the Graduate Loan Fund at the prime interest rate.

Entering students should apply for financial aid not later than January 15 of the calendar year in which they plan to enter. First-year awards are made on April 1, and applicants are given until April 15 to accept. Departmental awards for second and subsequent years are made in June. It is entirely appropriate for students to apply both for national awards and to M.I.T., since the outcome of national competitions is known before our awards are announced. Fellowships normally will include some cash payment toward living expenses, up to $2,000 for a single or married person without dependents, made in two equal installments at the beginning of each term. In offering scholarships and fellowships, the Department takes into account need as well as professional promise.

Remuneration for research assistantships varies, but in 1974-75 is normally at the rate of $6,585 per academic year for half-time work, out of which tuition of $3,350 must be paid. A half-time teaching assistantship in 1974-75 covers the tuition and pays $3,510 for the academic year — a total of $6,860. A very few half-time instructorships, for students who have demonstrated conspicuously effective teaching as an assistant, cover tuition plus $4,345 for living expenses — a total of $7,695 for the academic year.

As a supplement to academic-year appointments, both interdepartmental and departmental research groups are possible sources of full-time summer employment.

The academic performance of the student body is periodically reviewed to determine whether or not normal academic progress is being made. Failure to maintain normal progress may result in reduction or withdrawal of financial support. Students are invited at all times to discuss academic problems with their graduate registration officer, and the Department makes every effort to accommodate the needs of individual students.

1. Foreign Students
  [Table of Contents]

The Department has always welcomed foreign graduate students. They have typically constituted a significant portion of the student body. Some M.I.T. fellowships are available to entering foreign students, though the number is limited and the competition severe. Foreign students have an additional burden of transportation expense to cover and for this reason it is highly desirable to try to obtain at least partial support from other sources as well.

General information on scholarships, grants and travel can be obtained from the Institute of International Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, New York, New York, 10017, or from the Cultural Affairs Officer or the United States Information Service Office nearest the student’s place of residence.

Foreign applicants are required to submit evidence of their ability to carry on studies in English. Applicants whose native language is not English are required to take the test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Students whose schooling has been in English may request a waiver from the Advisor to Foreign Students at M.I.T. TOEFL is administered by the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, 08540; registration material and information about the test may be obtained by writing to the above address.

1. Living Arrangements
  [Table of Contents]

The Department is located in the Sloan Building, which, along with the adjoining Hermann Building, contains contiguous faculty offices, classrooms and seminar rooms, and student and faculty lounges. This complex also houses the Sloan School of Management, the Department of Political Science, and the Center for International Studies. The Dewey Library occupies two floors of the Hermann Building and contains the social science collection at M.I.T., reading rooms, and carrels to which thesis writers are assigned individually.

On-campus housing for graduate students is limited. Applications should be sent to the On Campus Housing Office, Room E18-307, M.I.T. Help in securing off-campus housing is given by the Community Housing Service, E18-306, M.I.T. Students should be alerted to the fact that Cambridge rental units are limited and in heavy demand. Transportation is convenient; the Sloan Building is located one block from the Kendall Square subway station.

1. Graduate Economics Associations
  [Table of Contents]

The Graduate Economics Association, composed of all graduate students, is a lively organization that sponsors monthly seminars and social events, and is one of the channels through which mutual student-faculty problems are discussed. The seminars permit discussions of current research by distinguished economists and occasional dialogues between faculty members. They are often followed by small dinners to which graduate students and faculty are invited, permitting more discussion among visitors, students and faculty. The Association annually elects nine student representatives to participate as voting members in Department meetings and other Department committees. Student representatives are full participants in all matters except those involving specific, identifiable individuals, or undergraduate matters. This policy at present excludes the discussion of details, but not the general policy, of tenure decisions, review of non-tenure faculty, new appointments, review of student performance, admissions and financial support.

The Black Graduate Economics Association provides a forum for the development and utilization of economic tools for solving the problems faced by Black people, encourages policies and programs which help increase the supply of highly qualified Black economists, opens lines of communication with other Black graduate students, Black economists, and the Black community, stimulates academic excellence, and provides outlets for various social activities. The BGEA has helped develop audio-visual aids now in use in many Black colleges’ economics departments, engaged in Institute recruiting projects, and participated in conferences of Black economists and administrators of Black colleges and universities. An econometric model of income and expenditures in Black communities is in its initial stage of development as a research project.

The Ph.D. Program in Detail
[Table of Contents]
1. General Plan of the Program
  [Table of Contents]

Students who complete the Ph.D. program should have a thorough understanding of the existing principles of economic theory and of the economic structure; an ability to think systematically about, and apply quantitative methods to, economic problems. The program gives roughly equal emphasis to these two goals, with formal courses and examinations to meet the first, and seminars, workshops, papers and the dissertation to meet the second. The student spends most of his first two years attempting to understand the existing ideas of economics. A basic principle of the program is that these ideas are sufficiently worthwhile so that their study is a necessary prelude to their use or criticism.

Throughout the program, there are formal provisions for students to engage in original work. During the first two years, term papers are often required. During the second year each student prepares a research paper as part of the requirement in econometrics. Second-year students are also encouraged to take part in workshops in their fields of primary interest. After passing the general examination, at the end of the second year or earlier, students spend full time in their own independent, original work. Their only formal obligation is to participate actively in the weekly meetings of the workshops in their fields of research.

1. The Core of the Graduate Curriculum
  [Table of Contents]

The Department offers an integrated set of subjects in economic theory, mathematics, econometrics and economic history.

1. 1. Economic Theory
    [Table of Contents]

The core in economic theory consists of two subject-years equally divided between microeconomics (14.121-14.124) and macroeconomics (14.451-14.454). These subjects are described in Section III of this report. The material is divided into half-semester subjects. The microtheory sequence starts in the fall term and runs through the first year, while the macrotheory sequence starts in the spring term and continues through the fall term of the second year. A qualifying examination on these subjects is offered three times a year — in September, December-January, and May — that must be passed in order to satisfy this part of the core requirement. The examination will cover each of the eight portions of the theory core, and a syllabus is available for each.

When a student feels sufficiently well qualified in the subject matter of any of the theory core subjects, he may take the qualifying examination, either before or after a particular set of lectures is offered. Only a passing grade is recorded when the examination is taken in advance of the lectures. If he fails to pass, he can then enroll for that particular section of theory and take the examination again at the end of that term. Should he pass some portion of theory by the preliminary examination, he could substitute a subject in advanced economic theory in the half-term in which he would have taken the basic theory subject. In principle, it is possible to pass all eight units of the theory core in this way and to proceed directly to more advanced work.

The Schedule for the Qualifying Examination in Theory is as follows:

Subject matter covered in:	Preliminary	Regular	Make-up
14.121-122	Sept.-Year I	Dec.-Year I	Sept.-Year II
14.123-124, 14.451-452	Jan.-Year I	May-Year I	Jan. Year II
14.453-454	Sept.-Year II	Dec.-Year II	Sept.-Year III

1. 1. Mathematics
    [Table of Contents]

The minimal core requirement in mathematics is calculus and linear algebra. Calculus is required for Statistics (14.381). While not stated as a formal prerequisite for the core theory subjects, it is virtually a necessity for mastering them.

If a student’s preparation in calculus were inadequate to satisfy the prerequisite for 14.102 Mathematics for Economists, the completion of the statistics and economics core requirements would be postponed a year. Econometrics (14.382 and 14.383 and most advanced theory subjects (14.141-14.149) require linear algebra. Students who have had a year of calculus and who want more mathematical training normally would take Mathematics for Economists (14.102) in the first term.

1. 1. Econometrics
    [Table of Contents]

The econometrics and statistics core requirement can be satisfied by (1) Statistics (14.381); (2) either Econometrics (14.382 and 14.383) or Applied Econometrics (14.388); and the completion of a piece of empirical research the equivalent of a term paper. This paper is due by the end of the fall term of the second year.

Entering students who lack calculus, and cannot take 14.102 in the first term, have two choices: either to postpone the three-term sequence: 14.381, 14.382, and 14.383 — to their third through fifth terms, or to take the two-term sequence, 14.381 and 14.388, in their third and fifth terms.

1. 1. Economic History
    [Table of Contents]

The core requirement in economic history is the satisfactory completion of one subject in American Economic History (14.731), European Economic History (14.733), or Russian Economic History (14.781).

1. Special Fields
  [Table of Contents]

In addition to the satisfactory completion of the core requirements, competence in four special fields must be demonstrated, two by passing a general examination and two by either satisfactory course work or a general examination. Preparation for a field examination normally consists of a year’s course work. Satisfaction of a field by course work alone requires the achievement of a grade of B or better in each of the two terms of subject matter. (The econometrics and history requirements can be satisfied with a grade of B-.) The areas in which the Department offers specialization are: advanced economic theory, international economics, labor economics, economic development, urban economics, monetary economics, fiscal economics, statistics and econometrics, economic history, industrial organization, comparative economic systems, Russian economics, human resources and income distribution, and, outside the Department, finance, production, transportation, and operations research. It is possible to use econometrics as a field without preparation beyond the core requirements. Economic history can be offered as a field by adding a second subject to the one satisfying the core requirement.

Students normally demonstrate competence in all four fields by the end of their second year. That is, they normally finish their required course work and general examinations by that time. In the event that scheduling or other difficulties interfere with this timing, one field other than theory or econometrics (including the paper — see II.B.3 above), or one subject in a field and in history, may be postponed until the third year. Before making such a deferment, students should consult with their Graduate Registration Officer.

Students planning to take the general examination before the end of the second year — the usual time — should consult in advance with their Graduate Registration Officer. In any case, such students would still be held to the above schedule.

Schematic Schedule of Typical Entering Student
[Table of Contents]

	[First year]		[Second year]
	1^st [term]	2^nd [term]	3^rd [term]	4^th [term]
Theory: Micro	14.121-2	14:123-4
Theory: Macro		14.451-2	14-453-4
Statistics and Econometrics	14.381 or 14.381	14.382	14.383 14.388
Mathematics	14.102
Special Fields and History	1 subject	1-2 subjects	2 subjects	4 subjects
Total Number of Subjects	4	4	4	4

*The minimal number of subjects to satisfy the special field and history requirements depends on whether history or econometrics is offered as a special field. If neither are offered, 9 subjects are required; if history, 8 subjects; if econometrics, 7 subjects; if both, 6 subjects.

1. Dissertation
  [Table of Contents]

Upon satisfaction of the core and field requirements, the Ph.D. candidate embarks on original research culminating in a completed dissertation that is defended orally. Thesis writers are required to participate in the workshop most germane to the subject of their thesis over the period of time they are working on it. Upon agreement on a topic with a primary thesis supervisor, a secondary thesis supervisor will be chosen by the student, subject to the approval of the Graduate Committee. A third faculty reader will be appointed by the Graduate Committee in consultation with the candidate when a final draft of the thesis will reasonably be expected to be completed within six months. The third faculty reader will have as his main function the unitary reading of the complete final draft of the thesis. These three faculty members will be the candidate’s thesis committee and are responsible for its acceptance and final defense.

In order to give adequate time for the final thesis review and revision, the completed draft must be submitted for final review a month before the Institute dates for submission of the dissertation. In 1975 the formal Institute dates are January 5, May 2, and August 11.

Graduate Subject in Economics
[Table of Contents]
1. General Economics and Theory
  [Table of Contents]

14.101	Mathematics for Economists Prereq.:—————	Units
14.101	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Elementary calculus. Applications in economics. (Not offered 1974-75)

14.102	Mathematics for Economists Prereq.: 14.101	Units
14.102	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Vector spaces and matrices; multivariate calculus and maximization with equality constraints; elementary differential equations.		H. A. Freeman

14.121	Microeconomic Theory I (A) Prereq.: 14.04	Units
14.121	Year: G(1) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Monopoly, oligopoly, product differentiation, monopsony. Comparison with pure competition. Comparative statics. Partial equilibrium welfare analysis.		R. L. Bishop

14.122	Microeconomic Theory II (A) Prereq.: 14.121	Units
14.122	Year: G(1) (2nd half of term)	2-0-4
Introduction to the theory of resource allocation and the price system. Emphasis on the use of efficiency prices as a guide to decentralized decision making.		M. L. Weitzman

14.123	Microeconomic Theory III (A) Prereq.: 14.122	Units
14.123	Year: G(2) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Theory of the producer and consumer. Cost functions, expenditure functions. Theory of distribution. Introduction to general equilibrium.		H. R. Varian

14.124	Microeconomic Theory IV (A) Prereq.: 14.123	Units
14.124	Year: G(2) (2nd half of term)	2-0-4
Capital theory and welfare economics.		P. A. Samuelson

14.132	Schools of Economic Thought (A) Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.132	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Economic ideas developed by different groups of economists in recent times.		R. L. Bishop, P. A. Samuelson

14.141	General Equilibrium Theory Prereq.:14.124	Units
14.141	Year: G(1) (2^nd half of term)	2-0-4
General equilibrium. Existence and stability of competitive equilibrium. The core of an economy. (Not offered in 1974-75)		F. M. Fisher

14.142	Mathematical Programming and Economic Theory (A) Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.142	Year: G(2) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
A rigorous treatment of linear and non-linear programming with applications to economic model building, including activity analysis and input-output.		M. L. Weitzman

14.143	Advanced Theory of the Market III (A) Prereq.: 14.122	Units
14.143	Year: G(2) (2^nd half of term)	2-0-4
Oligopoly and product differentiation, advertising, equilibria with seasonal or cyclical demand shifts.		R. L. Bishop

14.144	Applied Price Theory Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.144	Year: G(1) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Applications of price theory treated topically. Selected topics in price theory, with focus changing from year to year. Current emphasis is on the economics of exhaustible and renewable natural resources.		R. M. Solow

14.145	Economics of Uncertainty Prereq.:14.124	Units
14.145	Year: G(2)	3-0-9
Individual behavior under uncertainty. Equilibrium and welfare under uncertainty. Search and information.		J. A. Hausman, P. A. Diamond

14.148	Advanced Topics in Microeconomic Theory (A) Prereq.:14.124	Units
14.148	Year: G(2)	Arr.
14.149	Advanced Topics in Microeconomic Theory (A) Prereq.:14.124
14.149	Year: G(2)	Arr.
Advanced topics in microeconomic theory of current interest.		Staff

14.151	Mathematical Approach to Economics (A) Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.151	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
The use of mathematical methods in all the fields of economics.		P. A. Samuelson

14.191	Economics Seminar (A) Prereq.:14.121, 14.122	Units
14.191	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.192	Economics Seminar (A) Prereq.:14.121, 14.122
14.192	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Special economic problems. In 1974-75, 14.192 — Economics of Public Sector.		J. Rothenberg

14.193	Seminar: Topics in Economics (A) Prereq.:14.121, 14.451	Units
14.193	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.194	Seminar: Topics in Economics (A) Prereq.:14.122, 14.452
14.194	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Topics in economics of current interest.		Staff

14.195	Reading Seminar in Economics (A) Prereq.:14.122	Units
14.195	Year: G(1)	Arr.
14.196	Reading Seminar in Economics (A) Prereq.:14.122
14.196	Year: G(2)	Arr.
Reading and discussion of special topics in economics. (Open to advanced graduate students by arrangement with individual numbers of the staff.)		Staff

14.197	First-Year Graduate Seminar (A) Prereq.: 14.04	Units
14.197	Year: G(1)	2-0-6
Seminar limited to first-year graduate students. Discussion of projects of students, professional literature, methodology, economic policy, extending beyond regular curriculum.		J. N. Bhagwati

1. Industrial Economics
  [Table of Contents]

14.271	Problems in Industrial Economics (A) Prereq.: 14.04	Units
14.271	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Small and large enterprises in the American economy; market structures; degrees of monopoly and competition; requisites of public policy.		M. A. Adelman

14.272	Government Regulation of Industry (A) Prereq.: 14.271	Units
14.272	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Follows 14.271. Development of anti-trust policy, generally and in specific cases. “Public utility” price fixing, government ownership as alternative.		P. L. Joskow

14.291	Industrial Economics Seminar (A) Prereq.:14.271	Units
14.291	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.292	Industrial Economics Seminar (A) Prereq.:14.271
14.292	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Readings, discussions, reports on such topics as industrial price policies, government regulation of industry, competitive practices, and similar problems in industrial economics.		Staff

1. Statistics and Econometrics
  [Table of Contents]

14.371

Statistical Inference (A)
Prereq.: 18.02

Units

Year: G(1)

3-0-9

A compact one-term course in elementary probability and statistical Inference. Axiomatic probability, random variables, distribution functions, mathematical expectation, generating functions, transformations of random variables, simple correlation and regression models, the normal distribution, sampling theory, point and interval estimation, maximum likelihood, least squares, testing statistical hypotheses. The exposition is somewhat more mathematical than

14.381.

H. A. Freeman

14.373	Time-Dependent Probability (A) Prereq.: 14.371 or 18.303	Units
14.373	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Markov chains and Markov processes, the relevant ergodic theorem, Kolmogorov equations, time series theory; spectral density functions, harmonic representation, autoregressive models.		H. A. Freeman

14.374	Design and Analysis of Scientific Experiments (A) Prereq.: 14.381	Units
14.374	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Application of statistical theory to the design and analysis of scientific experiments. Factorial and fractional factorial designs. Applications to experimentation in the physical, chemical, biological, medical, and social sciences.		H. A. Freeman

14.381	Statistical Method in Economics (A) Prereq.: 14.101 or 18.02	Units
14.381	Year: G(1)	4-0-8
Self-contained introduction to probability and statistics which serves as a background for advanced econometrics. Elements of probability theory, sampling theory, asymptotic approximations, decision theory approach to statistical estimation focusing on regression, hypothesis testing and maximum likelihood methods. Illustrations from economics and application of these concepts to economic problems.		J. A. Hausman

14.382	Econometrics I (A) Prereq.:14.102, 14.381	Units
14.382	Year: G(2)	4-0-8
14.383	Econometrics II (A) Prereq.:14.382
14.383	Year: G(1)	4-0-8
Theory and economic application of the linear multiple regression model. Identification and structural estimation in simultaneous models. Analysis of economic policy and forecasting in macroeconomic models. A term paper involving substantive original empirical research is required in 14.383.		R. F. Engle, R. E. Hall, J. A. Hausman

14.386	Advanced Topics in Econometrics (A) Prereq.: 14.383	Units
14.386	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Selected topics including specification error, non-linear estimation, simulation, aggregation, and the derivation of economic policy models. (Not offered in 1974-5)		R. F. Engle, R. E. Hall, J. A. Hausman

14.388	Applied Econometrics (A) Prereq.: 14.102, 14.381	Units
14.388	Year: G(1)	3-0-9
Theory and practice of econometrics. The linear regression model, tests of hypotheses, generalized least squares, distributed lags, and simultaneous equations. Emphasis on applications. A term paper required.		R. F. Engle

14.391	Workshop in Economic Research (A) Prereq.:14.124, 14.454	Units
14.391	Year: G(1)	2-0-10
14.392	Workshop in Economic Research (A) Prereq.:14.124, 14.454
14.392	Year: G(2)	2-0-10
Designed to develop research ability of students through intensive discussion of dissertation research as it proceeds, carrying out of individual or group. research projects, and critical appraisal of current reported research. Workshops divided into various fields, depending on interest and size.		Staff

1. National Income and Finance
  [Table of Contents]

14.451	Macroeconomic Theory I (A) Prereq.: 14.06	Units
14.451	Year: G(1) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Macroeconomic analysis of general equilibrium. Financial markets and investment. Intertemporal equilibrium and growth models.		S. Fischer

14.452	Macroeconomic Theory II (A) Prereq.: 14.451	Units
14.452	Year: G(2) (2^nd half of term)	2-0-4
Determination of aggregate output, employment, and prices under static conditions. Keynes and alternate theories. The Phillips Curve. Inflation in the short and long run.		R. E. Hall

14.453	Macroeconomic Theory III (A) Prereq.: 14.452	Units
14.453	Year: G(1) (1^st half of term)	2-0-4
Quantitative macroeconomics. Consumption, investment, and other components of aggregate demand. Structure of complete econometric models of the U.S. economy		R. E. Hall

14.454	Macroeconomic Theory IV (A) Prereq.: 14.453	Units
14.454	Year: G(1) (2^nd half of term)	2-0-4
Growth models. Capital theory.		R. M. Solow

14.458	Advanced Topics in Macroeconomic Theory (A) Prereq.: 14.454	Units
14.458	Year: G(1)	Arr.
14.459	Advanced Topics in Macroeconomic Theory (A) Prereq.: 14.454
14.459	Year: G(2)	Arr.
Advanced topics in macroeconomic theory of current interest.		Staff

14.462	Monetary Economics I (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.462	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Examination of sources and determinants of supply of money with special attention to roles of commercial banks, Federal Reserve System, and Treasury. Discussion of nature of demand for money. Role of monetary policy in determination of level of economic activity. (Not offered in 1974-5; substitute 15.432 Capital Markets and Financial Institutions)		F. Modigliani

14.463	Monetary Economics II (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.463	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
General equilibrium theory of money, interest, prices, and output; portfolio problems, cost of capital, and the effects of monetary phenomena on investment and accumulation of wealth with special reference to problems arising from uncertainty.		S. Fischer

14.471	Fiscal Economics I (A) Prereq.:14.122, 14.452	Units
14.471	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.472	Fiscal Economics II (A) Prereq.:14.122, 14.452
14.472	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Examination, both theoretic and quantitative, of governmental fiscal institutions and behavior: the budget process, taxation, expenditure, pricing, and debt activities.		P. A. Diamond, A. F. Friedlaender

14.482	Income Distribution Economics (A) Prereq.: 14.124	Units
14.482	Year: G(1)	3-0-9
Modern theories and empirical studies of the determinants of the distribution of income and wealth.		L. C. Thurow

1. International, Interregional, and Urban Economics
  [Table of Contents]

14.572J	Regional Economic Analysis (A) Prereq.: 14.03 or 14.05	Units
14.572J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Analysis of regional economies with emphasis on the sources, characteristics, and implications of spatial concentrations of economic activities. Urban development in its regional setting is examined and the special problems of lagging areas in both developing and developed countries. Methods of integrating national and regional planning.		J. R. Harris

14.573J	Urban Economic Analysis I (A) Prereq.: 14.03 or 14.05	Units
14.573J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Patterns and processes of growth and structural change within metropolitan areas. The land use market and the spatial structure of the metropolitan community. The housing market: demand and supply, growth, aging, and renewal. The urban transportation system and its problems. Models of the metropolis. In each of these topics, emphasis on the resource allocation process, its efficiency and implications for income distribution.		W. C. Wheaton

14.574J	Urban Economic Analysis II (A) Prereq.: 14.573J	Units
14.574J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Continuation of 14.573J. The nature and problems of government decision-making in metropolitan areas. The economies of segregation, congestion, and pollution in the metropolitan area. Urban-suburban relations; market and government. Welfare economics and the normative theory of local public policy. Applied normative analysis: criteria for public expenditures; cost benefit analysis. Examination of public policy issues in current urban problems; poverty, race, the spatial form of the city, optimal land use patterns, growth and renewal, development and new communities.		J. Rothenberg

14.581	International Economics I (A) Prereq.: 14.04, 14.06	Units
14.581	Year: G(1)	4-0-8
Theory of international trade and applications in commercial policy.		J. N. Bhagwati

14.582	International Economics II (A) Prereq.: 14.581	Units
14.582	Year: G(2)	4-0-8
Adjustment in international economic relations with attention to foreign exchange markets, balance of payments, and the international monetary system.		C. P. Kindleberger

1. Labor Economics and Industrial Relations
  [Table of Contents]

14.671J	Labor Economics (A) Prereq.: 14.64 or 15.663	Units
14.671J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Primary emphasis on the structure of labor markets and the determinants of wage levels, unemployment, the distribution of income and employment opportunity. Special attention will also be given to the impact of unions on both wage and non-wage elements of collective bargaining in the light of the characteristics and objectives of particular unions. Other special topics growing out of recent research in labor economics.		M. J. Piore, C. A. Myers

14.672J	Public Policy on Labor Relations (A) Prereq.: 14.64, 15.663	Units
14.672J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Major trends in legislation and other government activities affecting the work place. Topics include wage and price controls, equal opportunity employment, and government regulation of union organization, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, wages and hours of work, and work-place health and safety. The broad economic and social questions raised by these trends also explored.		M. J. Piore D. Q. Mills

14.674J	Comparative Systems of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Development (A) Prereq.: 14.64, 15.663	Units
14.674J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
International and comparative analysis of industrial relations systems and systems of human resource development. Concentration on an examination of selected issues involving interest groups and the strategies of economic development, including discussion of the nature and functions of labor and management organization in different contexts; the role of the state in establishing procedures and in shaping the substance of industrial relations; the participation of interest groups in the formulation of economic and social policy: manpower and economic growth in the context of comparative systems of human resource development; worker participation in management, and other topics.		C. A. Myers E. Tarantelli

14.691J	Research Seminar in Industrial Relations (A) Prereq.:14.671J or 14.672J	Units
14.691J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
14.692J	Research Seminar in Industrial Relations (A) Prereq.:14.14.691J
14.692J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Discussion of important areas for research in industrial relations, frameworks for research, research techniques, and methodological problems. Centered mainly on staff research and the thesis research of advanced graduate students		C. A. Myers

14.672J	Public Policy on Labor Relations (A) Prereq.: 14.64, 15.663	Units
14.672J	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Major trends in legislation and other government activities affecting the work place. Topics include wage and price controls, equal opportunity employment, and government regulation of union organization, collective bargaining, industrial disputes, wages and hours of work, and work-place health and safety. The broad economic and social questions raised by these trends also explored.		M. J. Piore D. Q. Mills

1. Economic History
  [Table of Contents]

14.731	American Economic History (A) Prereq.: 14.121	Units
14.731	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Survey of the beginnings of American industrialization, emphasizing a quantitative approach and the nineteenth century. Topics include effects of government economic policies, such as land distribution and tariffs, the importance of railroads, profitability of slavery.		P. Temin

14.732	Russian Economic History (A) Prereq.: 14.122	Units
14.732	Year: G(2)	3-0-9
A comparative study of the major problems in Russian economic history prior to 1917 both for their own sake and as a background for understanding of the events of 1917 and of the Soviet policies since. The topics covered vary yearly depending on the interests of the participants, but the land and peasant problems and industrialization methods emphasized.		E. D. Domar

14.733	European Economic History (A) Prereq.: 14.121	Units
14.733	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Development of the European economy since 1750 and, especially since 1850, with emphasis on growth and slowdown, the transition from local to national and European-wide institutions, and extra-European relations.		C. P. Kindleberger

14.734	Problems in Economic History (A) Prereq.: 14.731, 14.732, or 14.733	Units
14.734	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Analysis of problems of industrial society, concentrating on the century after 1860 and on the American experience. Topics vary yearly and include effects of wars on welfare and growth, the nature of the long deflation of the late nineteenth century, the contrast in international relations before and after 1914, the depression of the 1930’s.		P. Temin

1. Economic Development
  [Table of Contents]

14.771	Problems of Economic Development (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.771	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
Analysis of problems of the rural sector in developing countries, urban-rural migration, unemployment, sectoral balance and efficiency of private resource allocation.		R. S. Eckaus

14.772	Theory of Economic Development (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.772	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Analysis of problems of international trade and development; study of structure and use of planning models for development policy and use of cost benefit analysis.		J. N. Bhagwati

14.773	Optimal Growth Theory (A) Prereq.: 14.124, 14.454	Units
14.773	Year: G(2)	3-0-9
The optimal growth problem, duality theory, development and application of the maximum principle. The behavior of optimal trajectories for a variety of situations. (Alternate years. Offered 1974-75.)		M. L. Weitzman

14.774J	Transfer and Adaptation of Technology in Developing Countries (A) Prereq.: Permission of Instructor	Units
14.774J	Year: G(2)	3-0-6
Consideration of the problems of transferring and adapting technologies originating and used in the richer countries of the world to the developing nations. Specific topics include: political, institutional, economic, and engineering issues involved in the transfer of technology.		R. S. Eckaus, F. Moavenzadeh, N. Choucri

14.782	Capitalism, Socialism and Growth (A) Prereq.: 14.122, 14.452	Units
14.782	Year: G(1)	3-0-6
A comparative study of capitalist and socialist economies mainly from the point of view of development and growth, and with major emphasis on the economy of the Soviet Union.		E. D. Domar

14.783	Theory of Central Planning (A) Prereq.: 14.124	Units
14.783	Year: G(2)	3-0-9
Multilevel planning. Decomposition principles and their application. Planning with prices and with quantities. Materials balancing and input-output. Applications of inventory theory. The problems posed by non-convexities. (Alternate years. Not offered 1974-75.)		M. L. Weitzman

The Faculty in Economics
[Table of Contents]

Morris A. Adelman, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics.

Sidney S. Alexander, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics.

Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics.

Robert L. Bishop, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics; Chairman, Graduate Admissions Committee.

E. Cary Brown, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics; Head of Department.

Peter A. Diamond, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics; Graduate Registration Officer; Chairman, Department Graduate Committee.

Evsey D. Domar, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics; Graduate Placement Officer.

Richard S. Eckaus, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics; Graduate Registration Officer; Chairman, Committee on Economic Research.

Robert F. Engle, III, Ph.D., Cornell; Associate Professor of Economics.

Stanley Fischer, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Associate Professor of Economics.

Franklin M. Fisher, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics (on leave).

Harold A. Freeman, S.B., M.I.T.; Professor of Statistics.

Ann F. Friedlaender, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics.

Robert E. Hall, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics; Graduate Registration Officer.

John R. Harris, Ph.D., Northwestern; Associate Professor of Economics.

Jerry A. Hausman, Ph.D., Oxford; Assistant Professor of Economics.

Karl G. Jugenfeldt, Ph.D., Visiting Professor of Economics (Spring Term).

Paul L. Joskow, Ph.D., Yale; Assistant Professor of Economics.

Charles P. Kindleberger, Ph.D., Columbia; Professor of Economics.

Edwin Kuh, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics.

Franco Modigliani, D.Jur., Rome, and D.Soc.Sci., New School of Social Research; Institute Professor; Professor of Economics.

Charles A. Myers, Ph.D., Chicago; Professor of Industrial Relations.

Michael J. Piore, Ph.D., Harvard; Associate Professor of Economics (on leave, Spring Term).

Jerome Rothenberg, Ph.D., Columbia; Professor of Economics.

Paul A. Samuelson, Ph.D., Harvard; Institute Professor; Professor of Economics.

Abraham J. Siegel, Ph.D., California (Berkeley); Professor of Industrial Relations; Associate Dean of Management.

Robert M. Solow, Ph.D., Harvard; Institute Professor; Professor of Economics.

Lance J. Taylor, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Nutritional Economics.

Peter Temin, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics.

Lester C. Thurow, Ph.D., Harvard; Professor of Economics (on leave, Spring Term).

Hal R. Varian, Ph.D., California (Berkeley); Assistant Professor of Economics.

Martin L. Weitzman, Ph.D., M.I.T.; Professor of Economics.

William C. Wheaton, Ph.D., Penn.; Assistant Professor of Economics.

Source: M.I.T., Institute Archives. MIT Department of Economics Records, Box 2, Folder “Department Brochures”.

Tags Adelman, Alexander, Bhagwati, Bishop, BrownEC, Diamond, Domar, Eckaus, Engle, Fischer, FisherFM, FreemanHA, Friedlaender, HallR, HarrisJR, Hausman, Joskow, Kindleberger, Kuh, MillsDQ, Modigliani, Myers, Piore, Rothenberg, Samuelson, Siegel, Solow, Tarantelli, TaylorLJ, Temin, Thurow, Varian, Weitzman, Wheaton

Economics Programs Economists M.I.T.

M.I.T. Department of Economics Annual Report by E. Cary Brown, 1975-1976

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-04-20

The following annual report of the M.I.T. department of economics was most likely written for the care and feeding of administrators and the members of the department’s visiting committee. This report covers what was my second year of graduate school, so for folks from that time it reads like an annual Holiday newsletter to the family.

_______________________

Department of Economics
1975 – 76

Undergraduate Program

The long-run impact of the past year’s changes in the Institute Requirement in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences is not yet clear. Unquestionably they have increased the Department’s enrollment, but the precise amount is uncertain because simultaneously a major revision was made in the two introductory economics subjects. In the past year enrollments were larger than previously, but smaller than in the transition of the previous year. Nearly 200 of the Class of 1976 concentrated in economics for their Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Requirement. Of all students presently enrolled, 327 (primarily juniors and seniors) have elected to concentrate in economics.

Undergraduate majors remain steady in numbers. As in 1974-75, 20 degrees were awarded. In the spring term the Undergraduate Economics Association was reactivated. Its weekly meetings with faculty led to several proposals for revision of the undergraduate program, and several student-faculty socials were organized.

Graduate Program

Enrollment has been remarkably steady in the graduate program. The number of applications for admission was virtually identical to the average of the previous six years. Next year’s entering class of 32 will be slightly larger than average, and will have fewer foreign students and more women, reflecting a shift in the percentage of applications from these groups. Four students from minority groups are expected to be in this class.

Financial support for the graduate student has changed very little over the last several years. We are still fortunate in having from one-third to one-half of the entering students on National Science Foundation Fellowships. For the whole student body, there has been an increase in the support by US foundations (other than NSF) and a decrease in support provided by M.I.T.

The number receiving the Doctor of Philosophy increased somewhat in the past year to 21. For the first time, two American blacks received degrees.* The class fared well in placement, their median salary offer totaling 24 percent above that of 1971. Like the past average, 86 percent went into teaching and 14 percent into non-teaching positions.

*Samuel Myers, Jr. Ph.D. thesis: “A Portfolio Model of Illegal Transfers”, supervised by Robert Solow.
Glenn Loury. Ph.D. thesis: “Essays in the Theory of the Distribution of Income”, supervised by Robert Solow.
See: William Darity Jr. and Arden Kreeger, “The Desegregation of an Elite Economics Department’s PhD Program: Black Americans at MIT“, History of Political Economy 46 (annual suppl.)

The Graduate Economics Association awarded the outstanding teacher in the Department prize to Professor Stanley Fischer.

PUBLIC SERVICE ACTIVITIES

The faculty has always been involved in public service activities tying research to the public interest. In connection with M.I.T.’s participation in the Bicentennial Celebration, Professor Jagdish N. Bhagwati set up a recent conference on the New International Economic Order: Professor Ann F. Friedlaender is planning one for this fall on Air Pollution and Administrative Control. Through the German Marshall Fund, Professor Richard S. Eckaus is organizing a fall conference on economic problems of Portugal. Professor Franco Modigliani arranged a conference through the Bank of Finland on International Monetary Mechanisms.

Various Congressional committees and government agencies have been advised. Professor Peter A. Diamond served on the Consultant Panel on Social Security for the Congressional Research Service. Professors Rudiger Dornbusch and Fischer and Institute Professor Paul A. Samuelson prepared a report for the US Department of Commerce on international financial arrangements. Professor Robert E. Hall was a member of the Advisory Committee on Population Statistics, Bureau of the Census. Professor Jerry A. Hausman served on the Econometrics Advisory Committee to the Federal Energy Administration. Institute Professor Modigliani was a consultant and member of the Committee on Monetary Statistics, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Institute Professor Samuelson consulted with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the US Treasury, and the Congressional Budget Office. Professor Charles A. Myers was a member of the National Manpower Policy Task Force. Institute Professor Robert M. Solow served as Deputy Chairman, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Several faculty members have been involved with the National Academy of Sciences and its related organizations. Professor Eckaus prepared a report, Appropriate Technology for Developing Countries, for the Board on Science and Technology for Developing Countries of the National Academies of Science and Engineering. Professor Franklin M. Fisher served on a National Academy panel on the Effects of Deterrence and Incapacitation; Professor Friedlaender was on the Executive Committee, Assembly of Behavioral and Social Sciences, National Research Council; Institute Professor Modigliani was on the Finance Committee; Institute Professor Samuelson served on the Editorial Board of the Proceedings; and Institute Professor Solow chaired the Steering Committee on Environmental Studies.

Professor Eckaus led an OECD Mission to Portugal that included Professors Lance Taylor and Dornbusch.* Professor Paul L. Joskow was a consultant to OECD in energy. Professor Evsey D. Domar was a member of a delegation of economists sent by the American Economic Association to the Soviet Union. Institute Professor Modigliani, who gave much time to the problems of stabilization in Italy, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Council for Social Sciences.

*Along with several graduate students among whom were Paul Krugman, Andrew Abel and Jeffrey Frankel. Paul Krugman has written a short note about this experience with a picture!

The Brookings Institution Panel for Economic Activity included Professors Dornbusch and Hall, with Institute Professors Modigliani, Samuelson, and Solow as senior advisors to it. Professor Friedlaender served on the examining committee, Graduate Records Examination, Educational Testing Service. Institute Professor Modigliani served on the Committee on Economic Stabilization, Social Science Research Council. Professor Fisher is a member of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University. Institute Professor Solow continues as Trustee for the Institute of Advanced Study.

RESEARCH

International topics seem to dominate the research interests of the faculty. Professor Bhagwati, in addition to his work in developing countries and international trade theory, has given attention to a proposal for applying taxation to the brain drain. Professor Eckaus studied the role of financial markets and their regulation and the behavior of income distribution in economic development. Professor Taylor had three major areas of research: the development of nutrition planning models in Pakistan, international food aid and reserve policies, and growth and income distribution in Brazil.

Professor Morris A. Adelman’s continuing research on the world oil market, Professor Joskow’s analysis of the international nuclear energy industry, and Professor Martin L. Weitzman’s examination of OPEC and oil pricing involve applied microeconomics with international implications.

Research in various applied microeconomics areas was responsible for the second largest fraction of faculty effort. Institute Professor Solow continued to research the economics of exhaustible resources, and Professor Weitzman completed his analysis of the optimal development of resource pools. Professor Joskow has explored the future of the electric utility industry and its financing, the future of the US atomic energy industry, and the pattern of energy consumption in the US. He is developing a simulation model of the energy industry, and is reviewing the regulatory activities of government agencies in general and the health care sector in particular. Professor Hausman examined the Project Independence Report and is analyzing the choice of new technologies in energy research.

In the transporation field, Professor Friedlaender surveyed the issues in regulatory policy for railroads and alternative scenarios in federal transporation policy. Professor Jerome Rothenberg examined such problems in urban transportation as pricing policies, demand sensitivity to price, and modeling locational effects. Professor William C. Wheaton considered an optimal pricing and investment policy in highways under a gasoline tax.

Inextricably intertwined with urban transportation are questions of urban location and housing. Professor Rothenberg carried out research in such aspects of this problem as microeconomics of internal migration, supply-demand for housing in multizoned areas, the impact of energy costs on urban location, and the development of a model of housing markets and of metropolitan development and location that can be applied to general policy questions. Professor Wheaton developed an equilibrium model of housing and locational choice based on Boston experience.

Institute Professor Modigliani also conducted research on the housing market, but his interest comes primarily from the side of stabilization policies and similar macroeconomic problems. He also participated in a review after 20 years of his life cycle hypothesis of saving, made monetary policy prescriptions for both the US and Italy, reflected on the description of financial sectors in econometric models, and explored more deeply the application of optimal control to the design of optimal stabilization policies in economic models. Institute Professor Samuelson reviewed the art and science of macromodels over the 50 years of their development. Professor Friedlaender completed a quarterly macromodel of the Massachusetts economy. Professor Hall developed a model to deal with income tax changes and consumption.

Public economics has both macro and micro aspects, both of which are represented in the Department’s research. With Visiting Professor James A. Mirrlees, Professor Diamond theorized about public shadow prices with constant returns to scale, and about the assignment of liability. He also has generalized the Ramsey tax rule and continued his research into an optimal Social Security system. Professor Hausman is reexamining the cost of a negative income tax; Professor Rothenberg analyzed the distributional impact of public service provision; and Professor Wheaton explored intertemporal effects of land taxes, fiscal federalism in practice, and the financial plight of American cities.

Besides such theoretical research, there was significant research of an entirely pure nature. Professor Robert L. Bishop reexamined the measurement of consumer surplus. Professor Fisher extended his exploration of the stability of general equilibrium and of aggregate production functions. Professor Weitzman investigated the welfare significance of national product in a dynamic economy. Professor Hal R. Varian further explored the theory of fairness, non-Walrasian equilibria, and macromodels of unemployment and disequilibrium. Professor Hausman examined the econometric implications of truncated distributions and samples, of probit models, and of simultaneous equation models. In historical research, Professor Domar was concerned with serfdom, while Professor Charles Kindleberger investigated the role of the merchant in nineteenth-century technologic transfer.

Publications

Professor Bhagwati edited Taxing the Brain Drain: A Proposal and Brain Drain and Taxation: Theory and Empirical Analysis, and coauthored Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: India. Professors Dornbusch and Kindleberger published numerous papers on implications of the new international monetary exchange structure for exchange rates, price stability, international trade, and international capital movements. Professor Weitzman continued his study of the Russian economy with a paper on the new Soviet incentive model.

With Visiting Professor of Management Ezio Tarantelli*, Institute Professor Modigliani published Labor Market, Income Distribution and Private Consumption (in Italian) and various papers on stabilization policy in Italy. He also wrote papers on inflation and the housing market and edited New Mortgage Designs for Stable Housing in an Inflationary Environment. Professor Hall’s labor market research resulted in papers on persistence of unemployment, occupational mobility, and taxation of earnings under public assistance. Professor Michael Piore wrote on labor market stratification and the effect on industrial growth of immigration from Puerto Rico to Boston. Professor Fisher had several publications on indexation and adjustment of mortgages to inflationary episodes. In the realm of economic history, Professor Temin published Reckoning with Slavery and Did Monetary Force Cause the Great Depression?

*Ezio Tarantelli was the victim of a Red Brigades’ assassination in 1985.

Institute Professor Samuelson published theoretical papers on factor price equalization and trade pattern reversal. In the realm of pure research, he put out papers on nonlinear and stochastic population analysis, optimal population growth, and the optimal Social Security system implied in a lifecycle growth model. He also brought out the tenth edition of his famous text, Economics: An Introduction Analysis.

FACULTY

Visiting Professor John R. Moroney was here from Tulane University; Visiting Professor Mirrlees came in the spring term from Nuffield College, Oxford University. Regular faculty on leave were Professors Fisher and Joskow in the fall and Professor Weitzman in the spring.

It is a pleasure to report the promotion to Associate Professor of Jerry A. Hausman. A new appointee, Professor Jeffrey E. Harris, with the unusual background of an M.D. and a Ph.D. in economics, will provide long-sought coverage in health economics.

Professor Kindleberger will retire as Ford Professor and become a Senior Lecturer on a half-time basis. Since 1948, when he came as an Associate Professor, Professor Kindleberger has been an effective teacher, scholar, participant in faculty governance, and counselor to governments and the public. He has trained the leading international economists of the next generation; he has produced a dozen books and more than a hundred articles in international trade and finance and in economic history. He epitomizes the highest kind of academician.

Several honors were bestowed on members of the Department. Institute Professor Modigliani will complete his year as President of the American Economic Association. Professor Myers received a Distinguished Alumni award from Pennsylvania State University. Professor Fisher was F.W. Paish Lecturer to the Association of (English) University Teachers of Economics. Institute Professor Solow received a D. Litt. from Warwick University, and Institute Professor Samuelson, a D.Sc. from the University of Rochester.

EDGAR CARY BROWN

Source: MIT Libraries, Institute Archives and Special Collections. MIT Department of Economics Records, Box 1, Folder “Annual Report 1975-6”.

Image Source: Building E52, Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Building, later Morris and Sophie Chang Building

https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/collections/subject/building-e52-alfred-p.-sloan-jr.-building-later-morris-and-sophie-chang-building-52

Tags Adelman, Bhagwati, Bishop, BrownEC, Diamond, Domar, Dornbusch, Eckaus, Fischer, FisherFM, Friedlaender, Hall, HarrisJE, Hausman, Joskow, Kindleberger, Mirrlees, Modigliani, MoroneyJR, Myers, Piore, Rothenberg, Samuelson, Solow, Tarantelli, TaylorLD, Temin, Varian, Weitzman, Wheaton

Curriculum Economics Programs Economists M.I.T. Teaching

M.I.T. Charles Kindleberger’s Ruminations on Professional Education, 1966

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-05-16

Today’s post was an absolute treat to prepare. It gives us an opportunity to rise above the tactical aspects of economics education (i.e. syllabi and exams) to consider issues of grand strategy in higher education.

Charles Kindleberger was one of my professors in graduate school. Though I did take his course in European economic history, I must confess that I was not ready to absorb much of the intuition and wisdom that he tried to share with us. That said, my classmates and I very much respected his old-school, gentlemanly charm and deeply appreciated the scholar-economist dutifully warning us whipper-snappers that “the second-derivative is the refuge of a scoundrel!”

While this essay from 1966 mostly appears to present a distillation of Kindleberger’s experience at M.I.T. in the economics department and as chairman of the Institute Faculty, in it you will find timeless insights into the nature of higher education in general and of training in economics in particular.

Research Tip: I found this jewel of an essay while trawling through the collection of Technology Review ar srchive.org.

_______________________

The following essay was one of three papers having the theme “Innovation in Education” prepared for the 1966 M.I.T. Alumni Seminar.

Charles P. Kindleberger is professor of economics and chairman of the Faculty at M.I.T. He is known for teaching and research on world trade and economic development, and he is a member of the President’s Committee on International Monetary Arrangements. As chairman of the Faculty, Dr. Kindlberger has participated directly in many of the recent developments in professional undergraduate curricula at the Institute.

_______________________

Professional Education:
Towards a Way of Thought

by Charles P. Kindleberger

Technology Review, November 1966

THE age of the amateur is dead. Professionalism rules — in the cockpit of spaceships, in football, and in learning. We have abandoned the British tradition of the amateur who was good at everything for that of the Grandes Ecoles, with rigorous scientific training leading to professional competence. “He’s a pro,” which used to be insulting in Britain, is now a compliment everywhere.

There is some room left for the amateur tradition — in politics. It is not good enough to duck the question of where the Inner Belt road should be located by saying that these are matters for resolution by experts. In economics, also, the number of distinct opinions on a given issue is frequently greater than one and sometimes approaches the number of experts. Social scientists resent that mere people feel entitled to have opinions on issues on which popular knowledge and capacity for theorizing are limited, but they have found no way to prevent it. And there is claimed to be scope for flair, inspiration and style — the hallmarks of the amateur — at the frontiers of science, when the ordinary professionals have carried the subject as far as they can. On the whole, however, the demand for professionals and professional education is greater than it has ever been.

Part of this demand is wasteful. An economic study some years ago claimed that there was not so much a shortage of scientists and engineers as very wasteful use of those on hand. Some part of the demand for Ph.D.’s today could perhaps be satisfied with M.S.’s, and some of the jobs seeking master’s could be filled by bachelor’s. During the long years of inadequate effective demand and considerable unemployment, we have tended to upgrade job requirements throughout the economy.

But the upgrading of the educational requirements of business and the professions goes well beyond snobbism and cultural lag. Knowledge has expanded. There is 100 times more information to be obtained today than in 1900, and it is estimated that by 2000 A.D. there will be 1000 times as much knowledge. Periodicals have risen in number from 45,000 in 1950 to 95,000 currently. Librarians blanch under the prospect of coping with the accelerating torrent of periodicals, books, monographs. A major problem in research is to find out what has been done by others so as to avoid rediscovering the same information.

The result is more professional education and more specialization. Eighty-five per cent of today’s new doctors are trained as specialists rather than general practitioners. Lawyers are experts in taxation, trusts domestic or international corporate law, or anti-trust. The man who used to be merely an economist is now a specialist in international economics or African trade. The one year of internship in medicine which was normal in 1945 has been extended to two, three or even four. Business recruits directly from the universities but increasingly from graduate schools of business, and even then the bright young graduate in management is put into a training program. Increasingly the practice is to spend a year in post-doctoral work in another university to extend one’s research training even beyond the scope of the doctorate. This stretching of the educational process to the point where the first professional income is not earned until age 25, or in some lines, 30 is expensive in many, as has been widely recognized by foundations, government, and, somewhat earlier, by parents. Together with the knowledge explosion, it is putting enormous pressure on our educational institutions to break out of old patterns and to find new ways of producing and packaging professional education.

These problems can properly be discussed in three Parts — preprofessional education, professional education as such, and mid-career upgrading. The divisions are hard to keep distinct, as will become apparent, but each section presents particular problems for the university in trying to rationalize and increase the efficiency of its professional mission.

BY preprofessional education is meant the provision of the prerequisites for professional training. In some fields such as law these are nothing more than the good general education which used to be required of the British civil servant. But I refer rather to the mathematics and physics which are needed for engineering, to organic chemistry and anatomy which used to be all that were needed as prerequisites for medical school, and to the elementary courses in a given field which must be mastered before a student goes on to the advanced reaches of any subject.

Any subject can be taught as general education, as preprofessional training, and for professional uses freshman mathematics can be taught so that the student learns to differentiate and integrate, which he needs to know preprofessionally outside of professional mathematics, or he can be taught them and mathematical analysis as well, either for general education, which includes a glimpse of the beauties of the mathematician’s universe, or as part of preprofessional work in mathematics. The clash between two of the ways of addressing a subject was neatly illustrated last spring by the resignation of 11 members of the Dartmouth medical school faculty who wanted to teach biochemistry, micro-biology and cytology as professional subjects rather than as preprofessional training for medicine.

The problem in the humanities is easier. One can argue that the ability to write a simple sentence is preprofessional education widely neglected, but for the most part English is taught as general education. But mathematics, physics, and chemistry are general education of a special sort, preprofessional education more narrowly.

The Challenge of Teaching

Most professional mathematicians, physicists, and chemists — and economists, political scientists, and psychologists as well — prefer professional to general preprofessional teaching. Preprofessional teaching for the narrow group or students which you know is going to be drawn further into the professional subject being taught is challenging and fascinating, but as general education, or preprofessional training for other fields, such training often fails to engage the excitement of the ordinary as opposed to the great teacher. The ordinary teacher is more engaged by the subject than by the students as people. The result is that he may succumb to the temptation to neglect this teaching, or to make it interesting to himself by making it more professional, or both. On his side the student is either bewildered or bored, or both. It is on this account that the quality of teaching in the first two years presents a problem of particular difficulty.

The problem is met not only at the university level. In medical school, I understand, the first two years are taken up with some anatomy and physiology but with a great deal of preprofessional training in biophysics, biochemistry, and subjects like pharmacology. It is difficult to have these well taught on the one hand, and well learned on the other, when the main professional mission or the school is clinical medicine.

Articulation: Skip or Repeat?

Articulation is painful. If the superbly trained preprofessional has to follow the regular route he is bored and discouraged. If he tries to skip large portions of early professional training which his preprofessional work presumably covered, he is never quite clear what of the work the others are taking he has mastered and what he has not.

Medical schools’ admissions officers profess to be looking for broad-gauged young men and women with wide-ranging interests developed through general education rather than those who have extensive study and good grades in biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics. In their admissions choices, however, they are likely to favor the science specialist over the generalist on the score or preprofessional advantage. But this leaves the particularly well-trained young scientist likely to waste a great deal of the first two years of medical school while his generalist colleagues catch up. The problem is particularly acute for graduates of such preprofessional curricula as molecular biology at places like M.I.T. for they are catapulted somewhere into the middle of the normal first two years of training in medicine

We have a similar problem in graduate education in economics for those students who come to us with excellent training in social science from their undergraduate institutions. For them to take the first year of graduate training — the regular courses in micro- and macro-economic theory, mathematics, statistics and economic history — involves a duplication of some 60 to 75 per cent of what they have already studied. The second time around, and more systematically, this material is warmed-over porridge and not very appetizing. But to leap right into the second year of graduate work runs the risk of missing vital elements of preparation in the 25 to 40 per cent which has been missed. And we find that the undergraduate teachers have exhausted a considerable portion of the wonder and beauty of first looking into Marshall’s Principles, if I may transliterate a line from Keats; indeed, a small but disturbing fraction of our best-taught young men become sufficiently discouraged to drop out. This can be regarded perhaps a difficulty of articulating professional rather than preprofessional education, but it is a general one.

The Several Routes to a Profession

Some of these difficulties might be overcome if the choice of profession were made earlier and all students followed the same path. But this is impossible. Professional choices are not made consistently by various young people at the same stage, with the result that there must be a variety of avenues to professional education rather than merely one. And if professional choice is made only in the junior year of college, at 21, it is hard to push the preprofessional training to lower levels.

While there are children who have known since the age of five that they wanted to be involved with electricity, or machinery, or the human body as a life’s work, career choice is more and more presenting a difficult problem to American youth. Two generations ago father dominance helped, and hurt, such choice. Today fathers know enough not to push their children in directions of which they approve — or most of them know enough. The result is that career choice is much more squarely left to youth and is consequently fraught with youthful tension. The college dropout phenomenon is one aspect. Some young men welcome the army, the Peace Corps, or a year of travel, as legitimate means of delay in facing the necessity for career choice. Certain types of graduate training — business and law — are an escape from the need for decision. But even at M.I.T. at least 30 per cent of our undergraduates end up majoring in a different field than they put down as their intended specialization when they were admitted, and 20 per cent actually switch majors after they have chosen one at the end of their freshman year.

The social sciences labor under a considerable disability here, because fixing on a social science as a career comes as a rule much later than comparable decisions in science, engineering, medicine, or humanities. Children are aware of the body, animals, earth, sky, machines, and even prose, poetry, and the existence of the past, long before they become aware of the complexities of human society. The early models for career choice, as is well known, are firemen, policemen, and, in my day, streetcar conductors.

The consequence of late career decision is that one cannot insist that all applicants for professional training have completed their preprofessional work on admission — that all M.I.T. students, for example, come with calculus, or all medical students already have molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics. The only equitable, and I may add efficient, system of education is to keep all options open as long as possible. In consequence preprofessional cannot be dumped completely onto other training systems — by the technological institutes on to the schools, and by the graduate training programs on to the colleges. Some preprofessional education must be kept side-by-side with the professional, to offer a chance for the later chooser to catch up. This means that professional education must maintain a several-track system.

To keep preprofessional and professional education side-by-side in the same institution presents problems of teaching, as has already been mentioned. The ordinary instructor finds it easy and productive to take on advanced professional students — undergraduates in their senior year, or graduate students who have mastered the fundamentals. They work together, as members of a scholarly team, able to communicate in two directions. Preprofessional teaching, as I have said is less interesting.

There is no good solution for this problem. To divide the university into upper and lower division, as is sometimes done, creates a two-class system with invidious overtones. To separate preprofessional training off into colleges with dedicated teachers, and admit students to the universities only into graduate school from the four-year colleges and into the upper classes from junior colleges would not only violate traditions — which are important in the lives of institutions — but also compound the problem of articulation. The solution we see at M.I.T. is to strengthen the place of preprofessional teaching in the value system of the Institute, to restore it to the high esteem it enjoyed before it slipped under the pressure on staff of research, consulting, professional service and keeping up with the literature. No one contemplates that it is possible to staff a first-rate technological institution completely with instructors who are first-rate at teaching as they are at research and professional service. But the administration, the faculty, and the students can let all instructing staff know that whatever the professional demands on their time, teaching is not the marginal and dispensable activity.

Professional Education

The central issues in professional education have mostly been touched upon already: the extension or the material to be mastered, the difficulties of starting earlier because of late career choice, the downgrading of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees, the development postdoctoral training, the need for a rigorous scientific (instead of rule-of-thumb and seat-of-the-pants) approach in the applied fields because of the rapid rate of obsolescence, and so on. But I would make three points.

First, there is a risk that the revulsion from the empirical approach to engineering and applied social science in favor of science and pure theory can be carried too far. The simplest solution to a problem is not only the most efficient; it is also the most elegant. While it is true that one can stumble on solutions to applied problems as a by-product of pure theory, it is also true that theory is sometimes pursued for its own sake beyond the point of diminishing returns. It is not clear how much biophysics should be known to the gynecologist, how much topology to the student of fiscal policy, how much communication theory to the professor of the French language. I sometimes characterize these problems by a reference to medieval scholasticism and ask how many angels can dance on the rate of interest. Theory and pure mathematics are at the top or the pecking order in the intellectual world, and this is as it should be, just as the theoretical and mathematical requirements for the lowliest professional specialties have been increased. But high power can be overdone.

Second, the question of interdisciplinary education remains complex. The practitioner continues to be trained in a variety of fields — history, law, economics and political science for the foreign service officer; contracts, property, wills, constitution and international law for the lawyer (although the Yale Law School curriculum has been altered to include a year and a half of specialization); finance, statistics, accounting, marketing, and psychology for business; and so on. At the same time, research is increasingly conducted by centers which bring different specialists to bear on a single problem with the vantage point of their own focus: aeronautical, electrical, and mechanical engineers in instrumentation, for example. But the professional teaching which produces these scholars cannot be widely interdisciplinary. A man must master one social or physical science before attempting to integrate two. In my experience, the joint degree which bridges two or more fields in one Ph.D. is satisfactory neither for the student nor the faculty involved, and not only because of jurisdictional jealousies. Each field has an intellectual integrity as a discipline, much as it may lack in providing the complete answer to a complex research problem. The attempt to master them all ends in a mastery of none.

This is a pat answer which does not fully satisfy me. More and more professional practice is becoming the equivalent of research. Architectural design of a building is no longer a simple problem of drawing and construction engineering; as we at M.I.T. are acutely conscious, an architect needs to master the Venturi principle if his skyscraper is not to set up wind currents or micro-meteorology which makes it difficult to open the building’s doors. The designer of a rehousing project has to understand sociological grouping into communities.

Third, the narrowing distinction between research and practice leads me to question the desirability or intermediate degrees between the master’s and the doctorate, which we have developed at M.I.T. in the engineer degrees. These degrees are awarded to students who have completed the course work for the doctorate but who do not write the thesis. Their justification is that the student has undertaken course work beyond the master’s level and should get academic recognition for it. I can understand awarding the intermediate degree as a consolation prize to a student who is not being allowed to go on for the doctorate because of insufficient research creativity, or to a fully competent student who is unable for one reason or another to finish his thesis and who has gone far beyond the master’s level. But these degrees should not become ends in themselves. Teachers should have had exposure to a substantial research experience. and so. if possible, should practitioners.

IF there is an overpowering amount for professionals to learn, not only in the separate fields but in combining one or more of them, there is no need to learn it all at once, in the four, five, six to ten years between high school and professional practice. One of the most interesting developments in professional education today is mid-career schooling. This began in the business schools and is spreading rapidly. At M.I.T. we have the Sloan School of Management programs for junior and senior executives, the new Center for Advanced Engineering Study, and a host of one- and two-week summer courses. The larger companies — General Motors, General Electric, I.B.M., to cite only those I have lectured to — run training programs for their own executives. The American Bar Association has a Committee on Continuing Legal Education which runs week-long, weekend and day seminars on new problems in the law. The medical associations, national, state, and specialty groups, conduct study sessions of varying length in new techniques, medicines, specialties.

Mid-career education presents serious teaching problems. The engineer returning to the Center for Advanced Engineering Study, or the young executive enrolled in the Sloan Fellowship Program at M.I.T., is likely to need preprofessional brushing up before he can handle the material taught in professional subjects. The Sloan Fellows’ beginning experience is a summer term spent in a specially designed course which gets them up to first-year graduate speed for the regular year. The Center for Advanced Engineering has had design and give special subjects in modern calculus and quantum mechanics. This preprofessional teaching, I can say from experience, has its own special rewards for the teacher, because the students have a fresh point of view, a capacity to relate theory to real situations in a way that the undergraduate and regular graduate student cannot do. But here is another special job of teaching, and that is expensive.

Mid-career education is expensive for the university, for the student (who must uproot his family for the time) and for his company, which normally pays both his salary and tuition charges. Its great contribution is not the correction of obsolescence though this has importance. The real point is to give an opportunity in today’s complex world for a man who has worked his way through one field, and demonstrated his capacity, to introduce a slight shift in orientation and train for wider responsibilities. It used to be that only the armed services were wise enough to see its desirability and budget for the expense of training at all stages of a successful career. The State Department has long had program of sending individuals to do a year of graduate work and is now beginning to operate its own foreign Service Institute course of six months. It seems inevitable that government, industry, the learned professions and, above all others, university instructors must count on continuing education and re-education in a world of changing knowledge and maturing people.

This mid-career training need not be undertaken by the universities. The costs of adding to the diversity of the multiversity are high. It is more cheaply done without uprooting families. And yet there is benefit in bringing people from different companies, backgrounds and experience to rub elbows, in plunging the man of affairs back into the scholarly environment. The profit is mutual, so long as mid-career trainees do not overwhelm the academic tradition. There are obvious limits to how far universities can respond to the demand. If mid-career education grows, as is likely, it is reasonable to expect the development of new institutions which provide the specialized preprofessional training and mix students from different backgrounds.

No pat series of answers emerges from a discussion of professional education. I feel confident in rejecting a number of proposals for major reform. Starting professional studies earlier is undesirable insofar as it cuts general education on the one hand and closes off options for late deciders on the other. Eliminating the doctoral dissertation, or converting it to a longish paper representing a couple of months’ work, abolishes the vital test of whether a man can organize and carry through a substantial research project, a test of increasing importance in a world where the distinction between research and practice is narrowing. Dividing the university into divisions for general education and professional training not only misses the point that the same treatment of a subject can be preprofessional, general, or professional education for students with different abilities, backgrounds, and programs, but divides the faculty into elite and non-elite members in a way which subverts morale and harms the teaching mission of the university. How to improve the university’s performance in discharging the mission of general and preprofessional teaching remains an imposing challenge. Social science is a long way from ability to change value systems, and the real solution to the problem of undergraduate teaching is to restore the prestige accorded to non-professional teaching in the value systems or university staffs.

We have come a long way in American education, I believe, when we recognize that we have serious problems of what, when and how to teach and are prepared to modify the traditional system and to experiment with new techniques. The exact character of the new techniques may be less important than the attitude that the subject is important and that present conditions can be improved.

My basic conclusion is the trite one: professional education is a vastly different process than providing a young man with a hatful of formulas and training him to select the right one for the right occasion. The real task is to teach — if it can be taught, or by example to train — the young to attack a problem as a good experimental physicist, biologist, engineer, or economist would; to have a feel for the data and for the limits of standard analytical techniques; to sense, after a time, the distinction between the run-of-the-mill textbook case and that with new and puzzling complications. It is not enough to do what a professional does: one must think the way a professional thinks. And this capacity is communicated in a complex osmotic process which may be independent of or only very loosely connected with prerequisites, examinations, credits, and theses, much less closed-circuit television, teaching machines, computers, and high-powered mathematics. The educational process is an elusive one, but I venture to predict that in the long run it will be found to resemble more the chemistry of slow-cooking on the back of the stove than that of infrared split-second broiling of steaks from the deep freeze.

Source: MIT, Technology Review, 69(1), November 1966.

Image Source: Portrait of Charles Poor Kindleberger at the MIT Museum website. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Kindleberger

Exam Questions M.I.T.

M.I.T. Midterm and final exam questions for first half of international economics. Kindleberger, 1961-1967

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-01-30

The two term graduate sequence for international economics 14.581 and 14.582 provided the following course description in the M.I.T. catalogues, unchanged over the better part of the 1950’s and 1960’s:

The foreign exchange market, foreign trade and commercial policy, with emphasis on the relation of the items in the current account to national income, international finance and the achievement and maintenance of equibrium in the balance of payments as a whole; current problems of international economics.

For this post I have transcribed six sets of the 1960’s exams for the first course of the sequence taught by Charles Kindleberger.

Kindleberger’s exams for both 14.581 and 14.582 for 1954-55 have been posted earlier, as have his exams for 1950-51.

_____________________________

Fall Term 1961-62

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 hours/week, 37 Students.

14.581
November 9, 1961
HOUR QUIZ

Answer two questions (equal weight).

Discus some of the choices which balance-of-payments statisticians must make, and illustrate how the outcomes are governed by the purposes to be served on the one hand, and the nature of the raw material on the other.
Indicate the contribution which the establishment of a forward market can make to hedging facilities for foreign traders
Evaluate the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem as an explanation of comparative advantage.

14.581 – International Economics
FINAL EXAMINATION
C. P. Kindleberger
January 23, 1962

NO BOOKS ALLOWED.
Answer question 1 and any three of the following five.

(one hour) Discuss the relevance to the theory of international trade taken in the widest sense of any three of the classical assumptions of:

a) full employment
b) mobility of resources within but not between countries
c) perfect competition
d) the labor theory of value
e) Say’s Law of markets

How is the theory modified, and the prescription of free trade altered, if the assumptions you deal with have to be revised?

Answer three questions (forty minutes each).

Which side do you favor in the debate between the elasticities and absorption in the exchange -devaluation problem? Explain.
To what extent, if at all, does international trade theory illuminate the tariff history of some country with which you are familiar? Give details.
How do tariffs affect the distribution of income within and between countries? Illustrate, with reference to the relevant theorems.
Under what circumstances, if ever, are two of the following three weapons of commercial policy justified: a) tariffs; b) quota restrictions; c) foreign exchange control? Compare the measures you treat with alternative means of achieving the same goals, and include in your justification, if you find one, reasons for why the means indicated are superior to the alternatives.
How is the theory of international trade, and of commercial policy, altered by moving from two to a greater number of countries?

_____________________________

Fall Term 1962-63

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 Hours/week, 46 Students.

Quiz
14.581
November 6, 1962

Answer both questions. (25 minutes each)

How does the United States Department of Commerce define a “deficit” in the balance of payments? Comment on the adequacy of this definition.
Evaluate the success of the Heckscher-Ohlin theory in explaining the basis of international trade.

Tuesday, January 22, 1963
Time 1:30 – 4:30 P.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS 14.581

NOTE: Students are not permitted to use any books, notebooks, or papers in this examination. If brought into the room, they must not be left on the desks

Answer any five questions (36 minutes each).

What difference does the establishment of a forward-exchange market make to the conduct of international trade and exchange?
The underlying theory of international trade is sometimes called a theory of “comparative costs” and sometimes one of “comparative advantage.” Is there any real distinction between these views? Explain in detail.
Explain how trade and restrictions of trade alter the distribution of income within and between countries.
If you were called upon to judge the Alexander-Machlup debate over the adjustment mechanism under changing exchange rates, which side would you favor and why?
What is the “foreign repercussion” in the adjustment mechanism? How does it operate? Evaluate its significance.
What difference does it make, when a country restricts its international trade by a given amount, whether it uses tariffs or quotas?
Do customs unions enlarge welfare?

_____________________________

Fall Term 1963-64

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 Class Hours/Week, 19 Students.

[Note: one additional section of 14.581 was taught by L. Lefeber with 22 students]

14.581
One-hour Test
November 14, 1963

Answer both questions, which have equal weight.

What is meant by a deficit in the balance of payments?
Expound the law of comparative advantage in modern economic terms.

Tuesday, January 28, 1964
Time: 1.30 – 4.30 P.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

NOTE: Students are not permitted to use any books, notebooks or papers in this examination. If brought into the room they must not be left on the desks.

Answer six (6) questions (one-half hour each).

In balance-of-payments accounting, practice differs or is disputed in connection with the following items, among others. What are the various ways in which a country may treat five of them, and what is the justification for each possible treatment?

i) immigrants’ remittances
ii) payments to own nationals for carriage of imports
iii) foreign aid
iii) reinvested profits of foreign-owned enterprises
iv) new gold production sold abroad
v) short-term U.S. claims of commercial banks on foreigners
vi) prepayments of U. S. government loans to foreign governments,

Provide a geometric demonstration of the effect on the terms of trade of technological change in the export good which economizes the scarce factor. State all necessary assumptions explicitly, making them as neutral as possible.
Does the shift of the analysis of the theory of international trade from two to many countries change the theory? In what respects and to what extent?
Explain how currency devaluation under full employment affects the balance of payments, and the terms of trade
Meade states that the adjustment mechanism in international trade is virtually the same under the gold standard and under flexible exchange rates. How does he justify this assertion? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
The marginal propensity to spend on home goods out of national income in Country A is 2/3rds, and to spend on imports, 1/6. Country B has similar propensities of 1/2 and 1/4. Country A undertakes new expenditure of 100 divided normally between home and abroad. What amount does B have to change its expenditures to preserve internal balance? What happens to A’s balance of payments?
The Reciprocal Trade Agreement Acts of 1934 and thereafter, and the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 called for reciprocal reductions of trade barriers. Under what circumstances and to what extent is it useful for a single country to reduce its tariffs by itself without matching tariff reductions abroad?
Set out at length and in detail the conditions under which customs unions increase world welfare.

_____________________________

Fall Term 1964-65

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 Class Hours/Week, 29 Students.

HOUR TEST
14.581
November 12, 1964

Define accurately “lags and leads” in the balance of payments, and discuss their significance.
What assumption does the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem make about factor inputs of commodities, and what is the significance of this assumption.

Tuesday, January 26, 1965
Time: 9:00 – 12:00 A.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

Answer one question from each of Groups I to IV, and the single question in Group V.

Group I

Expound the theory of comparative advantage as simply and clearly as you can.
Does it make a significant difference to the theory of international trade to move from an analysis of two to more than two countries? Explain.
What are the gains from trade? How are they distributed? How does the gain of a single country change in response to a change in supply abroad? demand at home?

Group II

Is the purchasing-power-parity doctrine best described as a) a truism; b) a fallacy; c) a useful operational hypothesis? Explain.
Discuss the similarities and differences between the gold standard and the flexible exchange system.

Group III

Is free trade the best policy?
Analyze the slogan “There is nothing that a tariff can do that a subsidy cannot do better”.
Argue for or against international commodity agreements.

Group IV

Does a flexible exchange rate make it possible to pursue an independent monetary and fiscal policy internally? Explain.
What happens to the terms of trade when exchange rates alter?

Group V

What is the effect on its balance of payments of an increase in foreign demand for a country’s exports.

_____________________________

Fall Term 1965-66

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 Class Hours/Week, 46 Students.

[Note: No hour midterm exam questions found for the fall term 1965-66.]

Monday, January 24, 1966
Time: 1:30-4:30 p.m.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

NOTE: Students are not permitted to use any books, notebooks or papers in this examination. If brought into the room they must not be left on the desks

Answer Question 1 and 3 others–all of equal weight. 45 minutes each.

Discuss the significance for the pure theory of international trade of two of the following assumptions:

1) two countries, two commodities, two factors
2) identical linear homogeneous production functions of the first degree
3) the labor theory of value
4) perfect competition in goods and factor markets
5) no transport costs.

What are the effects of a tariff on the distribution of income between countries and within them?
Comment at length on the Meade view that financial policies can be used to achieve internal balance, and exchange-rate variation to achieve external balance.
Write an essay on the “gains from trade,” including, inter alia, a discussion on what countries gain, how much, and under what circumstances.
Argue for or against discrimination in international trade, including, as one case, the customs union.

_____________________________

Fall Term 1966-67

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger with P. Bardhan, 3 Class Hours/Week, 39 Students.

Hour Test
14.581
December 1, 1966
10:30 a.m.

Answer one question under each of A and B (two in all, half hour each). Use a separate book for each question. Mark with your name and letter and number of the question.

Describe in detail how a central bank can use forward exchange operations a) to protect its foreign exchange reserves in the event of capital outflow; and b) to gain reserves. What are the benefits of such forward operations? their limits?
For 1964, 1965, and 1966 first nine months at an annual rate, the United States balance of payments showed the following data:

	1964	1965	1966*
	(in billions of dollars)
Gold sales	-0.1	-1.7	-0.6
Liquidity balance	-2.8	-1.3	-1.2
Official Reserve Transactions Balance	-1.5	-1.3	+0.8

*First nine months of 1966 at an annual rate, seasonally adjusted except for gold sales.

Did the balance of payments improve or worsen each year? If one cannot say, what more would one need to be able to do so? Explain fully.

B

Suppose you have a model with two countries, three goods, three factors, and internationally identical fixed-coefficients production functions for each good. What are the sufficient conditions for factor-price equalization in this model?
In the usual two-by-two trade model if all of wage income is spent on one good and all of rental income from capital is spent on the other good, find out the conditions for uniqueness of static equilibrium in such a model.
Take a small country in a large world with given terms of trade. Suppose in this country capital grows at a higher rate than labour and there is Hicks-neutral technical progress at a uniform rate in all the industries. What will happen to the wage rate and the rental rate on capital?

14.581T
24 January 1967
FINAL EXAMINATION

Answer question 1 or question 2 (one hour) and three others (forty minutes each)

Compared to a pre-trade situation how will free trade affect income distribution in the trading countries in terms of the Heckscher-Ohlin model, comment on the assumptions of this model.
What do you think are the most important limitations of the existing theory of international trade? Give suggestions, in as much detail as possible, about how you would go about removing one or two of them.
Defend or refute the view of those who claim that free trade hinders rather than stimulates economic growth.
What difference does it make to the impact of a tariff in general equilibrium what happens to the proceeds of the tariff?
Comment at length on the usefulness of the purchasing-power parity theory.
Suppose you have a country large enough to affect world prices. In that context comment on Samuelson’s proposition that “some trade is better than no trade.”
In a standard two-sector two-factor neoclassical trade model with constant proportions of income being spent on each good, show how patterns of specialization will change with factor accumulation.
Protectionists argue out — occasionally successfully — a case for government intervention, but a case for government intervention is not necessarily a case for tariffs. Illustrate with reference to the case of external economies in production.

Source: M.I.T. Institute Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, 1934-1999. Box 22, Folder “Examinations 14.581, 1949-1966”.

Image Source: Charles P. Kindleberger from the MIT Museum.

Tags Bardhan, Kindleberger, Lefeber

Exam Questions M.I.T.

M.I.T. Exams from International Economics, Kindleberger, 1954-1955

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-06-21

International trade and finance were covered at M.I.T. in a two semester sequence from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s mostly by Charles Kindleberger who handed off “his” courses to Jagdish Bhagwati and Rudiger Dornbusch. In his papers at the M.I.T. archives we find two folders with many, if not most, of the exams for these courses. Today I add transcriptions of the exam questions from the 1953-54 and 1954-55 years.

________________

Posted earlier:
M.I.T. International Economics Examinations. Kindleberger, 1950-51

https://www.irwincollier.com/m-i-t-international-economics-examinations-1950-51/

________________

Course Announcement

14.581, 14.582. International Economics. [Kindleberger] The foreign exchange market, foreign trade and commercial policy, with emphasis on the relation of the items in the current account to national income; international finance and the achievement and maintenance of equilibrium in the balance of payments as a whole: current problems of international economics.

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Catalogue Issue for 1954-1955 (June 1954), p. 147.

________________

14.581 One hour quiz
November 15, 1955

(10 minutes)
In balance-of-payments accounting, practice differs or is disputed in connection with the following items, among others. What are the various ways in which a country may treat three of them, and what is the justification for each of these.
1. Immigrants’ remittances
2. Payments to one’s own nationals for carriage of imports
3. Official international grants, such as Marshall Plan aid
4. Profits of a foreign enterprise, located within the reporting country’s borders
(10 minutes)
Define, sketch the content of discuss the usefulness of the purchasing power parity doctrine.
(30 minutes)
In what major respects does the classical theory of international trade differ from modern theory, with particular reference to the origin of trade and the mechanism of adjustment?

Source: MIT Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examination 14.481, 1949-1966.”

________________

Typed Kindleberger notes
for 14.581 Quiz of November 23, 1954
[Quiz question sheet not available]

True or False

Some ambiguity attached to three questions:

#3. Where purchasing power parity said to relate merely to foreign trade goods. Originators thought of it as much more than this and therefore false. Foreign trade goods always equated through law of one price.

#4 may depend on which multiplier used [this item added as handwritten note]

#5. Is trade possible with identical endowments and tastes: yes because of decreasing costs (answer yes with different states of arts, i.e. different production functions).

What factors determine what goods and services a country will export and import?

Answer should encompass

law of comparative costs or advantage
production possibilities curves and tastes
possibly the many-commodity case
factor endowments underlying the production possibility curve, decreasing costs as a special case
possible qualification for transport costs

No need to discuss question of price, offer curves at any length in the two commodity case. Does become important in the many-commodity case.

Demonstration either mathematical, prose, arithmetic, geometrical

Points should be mentioned: offer curves or average revenue curves
elasticities of supply
initial size of deficit
not partial but complete elasticity (i.e. income effects)

________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS 14.581

Wednesday, January 26, 1954
Time 9:00-12:00 A.M.

NOTE: Students are not permitted to use any books, notebooks or papers in this examination. If brought into the room, they must not be left on the desks.

Answer 6 questions. All have equal weight.

Argue for or against including four of the following in the current account of the balance of payments:
1. Immigrants’ remittances
2. Payments to own nationals for carrying imports
3. Domestic gold production
4. Government shipments of supplies to own troops abroad
5. Government shipments of supplies to foreign troops abroad under military assistance programs
6. Increase of inventories abroad held by domestic firms
Discuss the relation of a forward market to the ease and cost of hedging and speculation in foreign exchange under various conditions.
Indicate in what ways the effects of discriminatory state trading can be duplicated by multiple exchange rates and by a system of tariffs and subsidies on exports and imports.
What is the role of demand in the pure theory of international trade?
Describe differences and similarities in the process of adjustment in international trade, starting say with a domestic crop failure in an export commodity, under the fixed-exchange standard on the one hand and the fluctuating exchange standard on the other.
What difference does it make whether a country uses tariffs or quotas in carrying out its commercial policy?
Attack or defend anti-dumping tariffs.
Analyze the forces non engaged in trying to change or modify the tariffs of the United States.

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

[Kindleberger’s typed comments in the margins of examination.
These appear to have been written (at least in part) after having graded the examinations.]

natl income vs fx budget
treatment of M
monetary vs non-monet
residents
exports and donation
capital not current
some neglected severance of arbitrage
Question 3 should be reworded effects of state trading can be duplicated by multiple exchange rates and a system of taxes and subsidies
offer curves
indif curves
Graham
not elasticities (pure)
Question five drew 3 blanks of people who looked only at short run mechanism and not at long run.
[following list spans questions 5 and 6 in the margin]
income effects
price effects
symmetry and dif.
redistribution
protective
but revenue
Question six should include in answer reference to multiplier, potential monopoly
many mercantilists discovered

Source: MIT Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examination 14.481, 1949-1966.”

________________

Mid-Term Quiz
14.582

March 22, 1955

(Twenty-five minutes each)

What happens to the terms of trade in the course of a capital transfer?
Evaluate the contribution which direct investment can make to economic development.

Discuss the problem of economic stability in an “export economy.”

Source: MIT Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examination 14.482, 1951-1976.”

________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC—14.582

Saturday, May 28, 1955
Time: 9.00-12.00 A.M.

NOTE: Students are not permitted to use any books, notebooks or papers in this examination. If brought into the room, they must not be left on the desks.

Answer 1 and 2; and three of the remaining five questions, but not 5, 6, and 7

Write a review of the monograph on capital movements which you read, setting out in particular what the author was trying to demonstrate, how effectively he (or she) succeeded, and whether the passage of time and the development of economic theory have made it possible to modify his (or her) conclusions.
Discuss the principal problems concerning foreign trade in a country engaged in economic development with which you are familiar.

……………………….

To what extent and under what circumstances can short-term capital movements give rise to or substitute for gold movements under a fixed-exchange standard?
Compare and contrast the International Monetary Fund and the European Payments Union. What are the strengths and limitations of each institution?
Discuss the effects of differential rates of productivity increase on international economic equilibrium.
Compare exchange depreciation and deflation as remedies for balance-of-payments disequilibrium.
To what extent, in your judgment, is the present disequilibrium state of balances of payments due to the failure to create institutions which provide for international, long-term capital movements.

Source: MIT Archives. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examination 14.482, 1951-1976.”

Image Source: Charles P. Kindleberger from the MIT Museum.

Tags Kindleberger

Economics Programs M.I.T. Regulations

MIT. Revising Economics Ph.D. General Examinations. E.C.Brown, 1975

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-02-12

What makes this memo from E. Cary Brown particularly useful is that it provides us with a list of the graduate economics fields along with the participating faculty members as of 1975. Also the major revision proposed was to have a system of two major fields (satisfied with general examinations) and two minor fields (satisfied by course work). Interesting to note that graduate student input was clearly integrated into the revision procedure.

________________________

Memo from Chairman E. Cary Brown
on a Revision of General Exams, 1975

April 28, 1975

To: Economics Department Faculty and Graduate Students
From: E. C. Brown
Re: Revision of General Examinations

While it has been left that a Committee would be appointed to review the procedures of the general examination (see minutes of the Department Meeting of April 23, 1975), further informal discussion has moved toward a proposed concept of these examinations that I am submitting for consideration and agreement.

There seems reasonable satisfaction about the structure of the present examinations, subject to clarification of the final 2 field examinations and their relationship to the 2 field write-offs.
It is proposed that the 2 fields satisfied by passing the “general” examinations be designated major The examination will be offered in a field, will cover the field in a general way, and will be separated from course examinations. Minor fields will be satisfied by course work. A somewhat lower standard will be imposed in minor fields than in major fields. The “generals” examination, therefore, would apply to the fields of the candidate’s expected expertise, and emphasis would be on a broad coverage of the field.
Each field should, therefore, describe its general requirements for the field as a major one, and list the subjects that may reasonably be offered as a write-off to satisfy the field as a minor one. There should also be some details on the requirements when fields are closely linked (e.g., the proposal for the transportation field and its relationship to urban economics).
Assuming this proposal to be agreeable, the question of term papers still needs settling.

I propose, therefore, the following procedures:

Would each of you give Sue Steenburg a list of your graduate subjects for this academic year, with an indication of whether or not a term paper was required and, if so, the percentage of final grade it represented.
Would faculty in each field submit a list of subjects that may be used to satisfy major and minor requirements in their field as it would ultimately appear in the brochure. The fields to be covered are as follows, the faculty in the field are listed, and the responsible member underlined.

Advanced Economic Theory	Bishop, Diamond, Solow, Fisher, Samuelson, Varian, Hausman, Weitzman
Comparative Economic Systems	Domar, Weitzman
Economic Development	Eckaus, Bhagwati, Taylor
Economic History	Kindleberger, Temin, Domar
Finance	Merton
Fiscal Economics	Diamond, Friedlaender, Rothenberg, Brown
Human Resources and Income Distribution	Thurow, Piore
Industrial Organization	Adelman, Joskow
International Economics	Kindleberger, Bhagwati
Labor Economics	Piore, Myers, Siegel
Monetary Economics	Fischer, Modigliani
Operations Research	Little, Shapiro
Russian Economics	Domar, Weitzman
Statistics and Econometrics	Hall, Hausman, Fisher, Kuh
Transportation	Friedlaender, Wheaton
Urban Economics	Rothenberg, Wheaton

If there are any difficulties with these suggestions, let me know right away. If we can proceed along these lines, it appears to be simply a clarification of our recent past and a substantial timesaver. The reports can be looked at this summer by a student-faculty group, with responsibility for faculty on me and for students on Dick Anderson.

Source: M.I.T. Archives. Department of Economics Records, Box 2, Folder “Grad Curriculum”.

Image with identifications: Economics Faculty group portrait, 1976.

Tags Adelman, Bhagwati, Bishop, BrownEC, Diamond, Domar, Eckaus, FisherFM, Friedlaender, HallR, Hausman, Joskow, Kindleberger, Kuh, MertonRC, Modigliani, Myers, Piore, Rothenberg, Samuelson, Shapiro, Siegel, Solow, Soloway, TaylorFW, Temin, Thurow, Weitzman, Wheaton

Economics Programs M.I.T.

M.I.T. Minutes of the Visiting Committee of Department of Economics and Social Science, 1958

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-01-25

From a cover letter, dated March 25, 1959, written by R. T. Haslam, Chairman of the Visiting Committee for the Department of Economics and Social and Science at M.I.T., it appears that the mimeographed document transcribed below was described as “the full transcript of the Meeting” sent by the Department of Economics for the report to be submitted by the visiting committee to the M.I.T. Corporation. At that time the department of economics and social studies included sections for economics, industrial relations, psychology, and political science together with a center for international studies.

_______________________

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Meeting of the Visiting Committee
October 7, 1958

Present: Visiting Committee

Robert T. Haslam, Chairman
Consultant and Director, W. R. Grace and Company

James A. Lyles
Senior Vice President, Frist Boston Corporation
Robert L. Moore
Chairman of the Board, Sheraton Corporation of America

Robert V. Roosa
Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Willard L. Thorp
Professor, Merrill Center for Economics, Amherst College

Max L. Waterman
Vice President and Director, Singer Manufacturing Company

Clarence Wynd
Eastman Kodak Company

M.I.T.

John E. Burchard
Dean, School of Humanities and Social Studies

Robert L. Bishop
Professor of Economics; Head, Department of Economics and Social Science

Ralph E. Freeman
Professor of Economics; former Head, Department of Economics and Social Science

E. Cary Brown
Professor of Economics; in Charge of the Undergraduate Program

Roger W. Brown
Associate Professor of Psychology

Davis H. Howes
Assistant Professor of Psychology

Norman J. Padelford
Professor of Political Science; Director, Political Science Section

Ithiel deS. Pool
Professor of Political Science

Charles A. Myers
Professor of Industrial Relations; Director, Industrial Relations Section

Max F. Millikan
Professor of Economics; Director, Center for International Studies

Charles P. Kindleberger
Professor of Economics; in Charge of the Graduate Program

As the membership of the Committee is entirely new to the Department of Economics, Professor Bishop opened the meeting by giving a brief resume of its present organization and activities.

Teaching and research cover four main fields: Economics, Industrial Relations, Political Science, and Psychology. In one or more of these four fields, the Department teaches at least five distinguishable types of students: (1) undergraduates who elect one or more of the Department’s four fields as a part of their Humanities and Social Science program; (2) undergraduates who major in Course XIV, in (a) Economics or Political Science and (b) Science or Engineering; (3) graduate students in Course XIV, who are mostly Ph.D. candidates in either Industrial Economics or Political Science; (4) regular graduate students in the School of Industrial Management; and (5) members of the two Executive Development programs administered by the School of Industrial Management, including both Sloan Fellows (who are here for twelve months) and Senior Executives (who are here for ten weeks in either the Fall or Spring).

(1) Until the 1940’s, all juniors at the Institute took two terms of Economic Principles; and this was the substance of the Department’s contribution to the Humanities and Social Science program. Subsequently, we have added the fields of Industrial Relations, Political Science, and Psychology. As a result, the Department now offers four of the ten fields from which all students select their Humanities and Social Science subjects in their junior and senior years. (The attached Tables I and II [only a Table II was present in the departmental records. It is transcribed below] show total enrollments during 1956-57 and 1957-58 in the Department’s four fields and in the individual subjects within those fields. Most of the undergraduate enrollment represents students in the general Humanities and Social Science program). In 1957-58, as Table II shows, total undergraduate enrollments were: Economics 1206, Labor Relations 242, Political Science 378, and Psychology 519.)

(2) For eleven years the Department has had its own undergraduate major in Economics (Course XIV). At first this was just Economics and Engineering; later the option of Economics and Science was added. More recently there has been added an option in Political Science, which is an alternative to Economics but is also joined with Science or Engineering. In the future, Psychology might become a similar option; but Psychology is not now a major subject for undergraduates.

(3) The program for a Ph.D. degree in Economics, now one of the largest in this country, was in operation for some years before the Department had an undergraduate major in Economics. This year for the first time we are offering a program for a Ph.D. in Political Science. Our S.M. program is relatively small, and it is limited to Economics and Engineering (or Science). Unlike the Ph.D. program, it is open only to students who have studied Science or Engineering at the undergraduate level, as in our own undergraduate Course XIV.

(4) The Department offers several special subjects for the regular graduate students in the School of Industrial Management, who are all S.M. candidates. In addition, these students sometimes enroll in the same classes with our own graduate students in Economics; and, indeed, this has increased the size of some of our graduate subjects substantially during the past year or two. Furthermore, a small but increasing number of Industrial Management graduate students are becoming interested in going on to a Ph.D. in a combination of Economics and Industrial Management. Our colleagues in the School of Industrial Management have also been considering the addition of a Ph.D. program of their own. If this should materialize, it is likely that our Department will continue to participate substantially on the Economics side of such a program.

(5) The other teaching activity carried on in cooperation with the School of Industrial Management is in their two executive development programs. The older of these is the Sloan Fellowship program, for which executives in the 32- to 36- year age bracket spend a full calendar year at M.I.T. The other, shorter executive development program in which the Department teaches is aimed at a higher executive level. Our department handles about one-quarter of both of these programs.

Dean Burchard stated what he considers to be the present problems of the Department of Economics.

(1) To have the undergraduate program in Course XIV better known to secondary schools so that students will come to M.I.T. specifically for these combinations of humanities and sciences.

(2) To organize our offering in Psychology. A number of years ago a committee recommended that a Department of Psychology be established in the School of Science; but the latter was not prepared to take on such a department. Although there are courses in Psychology given in other Schools at M.I.T., the largest amount of teaching in Psychology comes under the School of Humanities. Therefore the development and improvement of the Psychology Section within the Department of Economics and Social Science is our responsibility.

(3) The new Political Science Section is fairly well organized; yet it still faces the problem of integration with the work of the Center for International Studies, particularly on research projects.

Undergraduate Program

Professor E. Cary Brown, chairman of the Committee on the Undergraduate Program, reported on his committee’s consideration of possible revisions in the curriculum in Course XIV. Normally the M.I.T. student can spend 80 per cent of his time in Science and Engineering, with the remaining 20 per cent in Humanities or Social Science. In Course XIV, the student spends the equivalent of a year in Economics or Political Science, instead of taking the more advanced or specialized subjects in his field of Science or Engineering.

After reviewing the experience of the past ten years on the Economics side—looking over thesis topics, the electives chosen by our majors, and finally the jobs that our graduates have held—it seems clear that we are dealing mostly with students who become engineers first of all, with social science skills on the side. For these students, we shall continue to offer our option in General Economics. We have also recommended, however, the addition of two other options in Economics. One will be in Industrial Economics, including Industrial Relations. The other will be in Quantitative Economics and Methods.

The program in Industrial Economics will be aimed at the range of problems confronting business firms on an industry-wide basis. We shall aim to turn out students in this option who will be industry analysts in the broadest sense.

The Quantitative Economics option will be even more professional in orientation. Emphasis will be on technical training in analytical methods, with primary attention to statistics, econometrics, and programming and decision theory, including “operations research,” for which there is a rapidly growing demand.

At present, too many of our basic Economics subjects are not taken until the senior year; so we have recommended changes that will allow our majors to take these subjects earlier. We have also recommended several new subjects, including a research seminar as thesis preparation in the first term of the senior year.

There followed a discussion of a variety of departmental problems. One concerns the fact that, in the Economics wing, we have relatively many young full professors, in their early forties, with relatively few associate and assistant professors. The demands of our graduate program and our undergraduate major are such that relatively few senior members of the staff participate at any one time in the elementary subjects, 14.01 and 14.02. There also was discussion of the assistance that can be given by the older members of the Department to graduate students who are carrying out their first teaching assignment in the sections of elementary Economics. As Mr. Haslam pointed out, these are the first instructors that the student meets in the Department of Economics, and a favorable impact is very important.

The Psychology Section (reported by Professors Roger W. Brown and Davis Howes)

At present Psychology teaching is limited to the Humanities program; but within the next year or two we hope to set up a Psychology option in Course XIV. The decision that we have to make with the administrative authorities is whether to be content with a purely routine service in teaching elementary Psychology or whether to have a Psychology Section composed of persons with significant research activities who will develop a broader teaching program.

There are other psychologists at the Institute in both the School of Industrial Management and in the new Communications Center. These people are concerned with a limited set of rather specialized applications of Psychology. Collaboration with these other psychologists would be very fruitful if a graduate program of training Ph.D.’s in Psychology could be set up, and some of them occasionally teach Psychology subjects in the Humanities program; but, for the time being, the responsibility for manning and administering that program rests wholly on the Psychology Section in our Department.

There is a remarkable opportunity at M.I.T. for collaboration between psychologists and other scientists—in computers, to name one example, and also in such fields as electronics and the chemical effects of drugs on human behavior. These potential opportunities will always draw able young research-oriented psychologists to M.I.T.; but they will not stay beyond about three years unless there is more chance for growth and development of the psychology program than at present. Now there is no senior member of the Psychology group; the four psychologists of faculty rank consist of one associate professor and three assistant professors. It was agreed that a constructive step would be the appointment of a full professor of psychology.

The Political Science Section (reported by Professors Norman J. Padelford and Ithiel de S. Pool)

Political Science has gone through some of the problems that Psychology is now facing. Immediately after the war we started out as a purely service group, offering as part of the Humanities program undergraduate courses which have averaged from 350 to 400 students. Three years ago we came to feel, as the psychologists do now, that a mere service function would not satisfy us professionally. As the first step to broaden our base we set up an undergraduate course combining Political Science with Science and Engineering. After this course was launched and operating satisfactorily, there were discussions about a Ph.D. program in Political Science. The same arguments that were used for Economics and for Psychology came up—namely, that the ablest men cannot be recruited and retained unless they have good graduate students around them. We have had to go to Harvard and to Fletcher School for young teachers in our undergraduate courses.

A program for a Ph.D. in Political Science was launched this Fall. We have 13 mature and talented graduate students whose interests are focused on policy problems. We put these students to work on research projects. This is possible with a small group only slightly outnumbered by staff; for each student can work as assistant to a staff member.

As far as our group is concerned, we see no point in simply duplicating what is done at other institution. Our range of interests covers the following major topics:

(1) We are concerned with the growth and evolution of political communities from an elementary stage to maturity, whether in such places as Burma or at the international level, where we have been studying the process by which a group of nations in the so-called Atlantic community can become knitted together.

(2) We have a strong interest in the role of communications in the political process between men and between groups in the political process. This is an important topic, which has been inadequately stressed elsewhere.

(3) The touchstone of our approach is a study of the place of government and the role of public policy against the background of changes in science and technology.

One final word about our needs as we look ahead. We have set up six fields of study: (1) International Relations and Foreign Policy, (2) Political Communications, (3) Defense Policy, (4) Government and Science, (5) Political and Economic Development, and (6) Political Theory and Comparative Politics. In the areas of Defense Policy and Government and Science, we are not provided with faculty as we should be. We need to find individuals for each of these fields and also the wherewithal to support them at the faculty level. Our second need—and the most urgent at the moment—is for fellowships and scholarships. We are encouraging our graduate students to take loans for their education, paying them back afterwards rather than depending on scholarship money.

The Industrial Relations Section (reported by Professor Charles A. Myers)

The Industrial Relations Section is the oldest of the sections in the Department of Economics. Last November we had a 20^th Anniversary Conference in which we reviewed what we have been trying to do. Originally we set up our teaching program solely at the undergraduate level; but we have expanded to include participation in the doctoral program of the Department. Today M.I.T. has more students working for doctor’s degrees in Economics with emphasis on Industrial Relations than has any other university in this country. Our activities include courses for management, both in the programs of the School of Industrial management and in the new Greater Boston program for executive development. As we have no staff of our own but share our teachers with the Department of Economics, we confine our activities to certain areas such as the Scanlon Plan—a union-management cooperation plan, which has annual conferences attracting about 200 participants from all over the country. In addition, we have held conferences on research administration; some trade unions have come here for conferences under our auspices; and we hold each year a one-day workshop in connection with the Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Professor Pigors has pioneered in a method of management training and development called the incident process, which is now used by 800 companies. We think it offers more challenge to students than the case method. The case method presents a problem with all the material supplied; the incident process gives the student only an incident, leaving him to seek out the pertinent facts by questioning the discussion leader. As a teaching device it has had wide impact outside of M.I.T.

Some of our recent research has been on comparative international studies. As we learned more about economic development, we saw its close connection with problems of industrial relations. We obtained a Ford Foundation grant; and my two trips to India and a book have come out of that. We plan to cover India, Mexico, Japan, Western Germany, Indonesia, Sweden, England, France, and Italy in our studies of management in industrial societies.

The Center for International Studies (reported by Professor Max F. Millikan)

Although the CIS has a Visiting Committee of its own, its work is so closely connected with that of the Department of Economics and Social Science that they share each other’s problems. There are two ways in which the Center’s activities are important to the Department of Economics. First, there is a considerable overlap of staff members who conduct research in the Center and teach in the Department; so the Center and the Department have a joint interest in recruiting an outstanding and stable staff. Second, The Center’s research program provides opportunities for graduate students in the Department to undertake thesis work in the international field.

Briefly, the Center was founded in 1951, growing out of a contract which M.I.T. undertook on behalf of the State Department to explore a defense against jamming the Voice of America. Growing out of this study appeared the need for a research organization on problems related to American foreign relationships, as there are many ways in which technology and science have become involved in foreign policy and international relations. The Center then removed itself from government affiliation and became a permanent member of the M.I.T. family.

Since 1952, with the support of the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie Funds, it has carried on projects in four different fields: (1) relations between the United States and the Soviet bloc, especially in the area of Soviet scientific publications and the administrative handling of research and development in the Soviet Union; (2) economic and political development of the underdeveloped countries—especially the process of economic growth in Indonesia, India and Southern Italy; (3) international communications—especially the pattern of information-flow in foreign countries and its effect upon attitudes and decisions of significant political groups; (4) Professor Rostow, who was responsible for the studies on the Soviet Union and on China which we have published, has now turned his attention to the features in American society which influence our attitude toward foreign policy.

Our principal problem for the future is to provide some stability for our research staff. We have drawn key people to M.I.T. who have made a substantial contribution through their research; but many members of our staff are listed as visiting professors because M.I.T. cannot provide tenure positions for them. What we need is a continuing corps to devote half time to research in the Center and the other half to teaching.

The Center is in a position to offer to graduate students research opportunities second to none in this country. In the future we look toward using the Center’s resources at the undergraduate level. In these new areas it is normal for development to begin at the graduate level and work down.

The Graduate Economics Program (reported by Professor Charles P. Kindleberger)

In the first place, our graduate program aims primarily at a Ph.D. degree; we do not offer a Master’s degree except in a combination of Economics with Science or Engineering (mostly as a fifth year for our own Course XIV graduates). In the Ph.D. program we limit ourselves to a small group of high-quality candidates—about 20 to 25 new students each year.

Admission of Graduate Students. These 20 to 25 new students are chosen from a group of about 120 applicants, who have various reasons for wanting to study at M.I.T. Some are attracted by the men on our teaching staff and some by the prestige of M.I.T. in general. We should also face the fact, however, that competitive fellowship offers also play a prominent role in applicants’ decisions to come here or go elsewhere. On the other side of the picture, some would-be applicants are scared away if they are not highly skilled in mathematics, even though only a minority of our graduate students specialize in areas of economics where high-powered mathematical techniques are used.

Financing Graduate Students. There are various ways in which a graduate student can pay his way here: he may get a fellowship from an outside source to be used at any university of his choice—National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Woodrow Wilson Fellowship support comes this way; also, we have some privately endowed “name” fellowships in our department—Goodyear, Westinghouse, and Hicks; and we have some departmental and Institute funds to offer; lastly, a student may pay his own way. Sometimes students who do not qualify for financial assistance at first, but who come on their own, turn out to be very good. We hire no teachers from the group of first-year graduate students, so this source of earning is not open until at least the second year of graduate study, and usually not until the third.

Ph.D. Curriculum. At the end of the second year, the graduate student takes his general examinations—four written and four oral. After this comes his thesis. We are very much interested in the process of writing a thesis, as we believe that it is here that the student acquires professional maturity. We do not go along with the movement to cut down on the time of the Ph.D. degree by reducing the thesis to the proportions of an article.

Post-Doctoral Students. More and more M.I.T. is attracting post-doctoral scholars from abroad—last year a Swede, a Norwegian, a Dutchman, and a Turk; this year two Germans, a Swede, an Italian, a Belgian and a Frenchman. These people add to the scholarly atmosphere; and we need mature students for training at a post-doctoral level. This, however, requires more money; and we have already applied to the Ford Foundation for funds for this purpose.

* * * * * *

In the general discussion of pressing problems Professor Bishop mentioned the following:

The Economics Library Budget. The state of our Dewey Library budget can be held over for discussion at the next meeting of this committee. If we have not been successful in our drive for funds, we shall need to ask the assistance of the committee.

Ours is very much of a library department, as we have no laboratory. Although our library budget is high compared with that of some engineering departments, it is low compared with that of other leading departments in Economics. For example, our library budget stands at $4,000 annually, compared with $6,000 for that of Johns Hopkins. Ours is possibly the best industrial relations library in the country; but it is a second-class economics library. I should like to see the budget figure raised by $2,000.

(Mr. Maslam offered to approach Mr. Bradley Dewy for a donation for this purpose.)

Age Distribution of Department Members. It happens that our department has an unusual age distribution in the field of Economics. There is a great gap between the full professors and the instructors. The former are all in their early forties; and there are few runners-up at the associate professor and assistant professor level. This is a problem of major importance.

* * * * * *

Professor Thorp suggested this kind of Committee report to the Corporation: that the Committee has met; that all its members are new; that they therefore need time to get acquainted with what is going on in the Department; that they find no problems requiring immediate action; and that they are looking forward to a meeting next year. There was also agreement in recommending that there be somewhat more continuity of membership on the Visiting Committee than in the past.

* * * * * *

TABLE II
Comparative Numbers of Students Completing Individual Subjects in the Department of Economics and Social Science, 1956-57 and 1957-58
[Note: Course titles provided after Table II]

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Economics—Undergraduate
14.01	466	292	758	460	316	776	+18
14.02	58	117	175	94	143	237	+62
14.03	26	—	26	26	18	44	+18
14.04	—	14	14	—	8	8	-6
14.09	27	28	55	25	19	44	-11
14.20	—	23	23	—	—	—	-23
14.30	—	25	25	—	—	—	-25
14.32	—	20	20	—	17	17	-3
14.33	18	—	18	16	21	37	+19
14.40	—	20	20	—	20	20	—
14.43	11	—	11	13	—	13	+2
14.54	—	11	11	—	10	10	-1
Totals			1156			1206	+50

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Economics—Graduate
14.101	11	—	11	14	—	14	+3
14.102	—	5	5	—	8	8	+3
14.115	34	—	34	36	—	36	+2
14.116	—	34	34	—	36	36	+2
14.117	18	24	42	15	20	35	-7
14.121	32	—	32	31	—	31	-1
14.122	—	30	30	—	31	31	+1
14.132	—	6	6	—	—	—	-6
14.151	6	—	6	11	—	11	+5
14.161	15	—	15	15	—	15	—
14.162	—	12	12	—	16	16	+4
14.171	11	—	11	8	—	8	-3
14.172	—	6	6	—	9	9	+3
14.174	—	5	5	—	14	14	+9
14.192	—	5	5	—	1	1	-4
14.195	10	—	10	1	—	1	-9
14.196	—	11	11	—	5	5	-6
14.271	11	—	11	7	—	7	-4
14.272	—	7	7	—	7	7	—
14.281	13	—	13	15	—	15	+2
14.282	—	—	—	—	18	18	+18
14.292	—	7	7	—	10	10	+3
14.371	34	—	34	35	—	35	+1
14.372	—	15	15	—	16	16	+1
14.381	56	—	56	27	—	27	-29
14.382	—	—	—	—	1	1	+1
14.451	23	—	23	24	—	24	+1
14.461	8	—	8	8	—	8	—
14.471	—	15	15	—	12	12	-3
14.481	9	—	9	6	—	6	-3
14.581	20	—	20	23	—	23	+3
14.582	—	16	16	—	17	17	+3
Totals			509			497	-12
Totals—Economics			1665			1703	+38

* * * * * *

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Industrial Relations—Undergraduate
14.61	12	—	12	—	—	—	-12
14.63	86	75	161	80	75	155	-6
14.64	47	75	122	36	51	87	-35
Totals			295			242	-53

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Industrial Relations—Graduate
14.671	—	6	6	—	7	7	+1
14.672	10	—	10	—	—	—	-10
14.673	—	—	—	18	—	18	+18
14.674	—	—	—	10	—	10	+10
14.681	17	—	17	18	—	18	+1
14.682	—	19	19	—	10	10	-9
14.694	—	—	—	—	16	16	+16
Totals			52			79	+27
Totals—Industrial Relations			347			321	-26

* * * * * *

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Political Science—Undergraduate
14.51	50	93	143	73	72	145	+2
14.52	29	25	54	31	25	56	+2
14.53	7	—	7	—	25	25	+18
14.90	17	13	30	14	11	25	-5
14.91	25	36	61	26	23	49	-12
14.92	—	18	18	—	42	42	+24
14.93	7	11	18	—	26	26	+8
14.95	22	—	22	—	—	—	-22
14.96	—	14	14	—	—	—	14
14.97	6	—	6	3	—	3	-3
14.98	—	—	—	—	3	3	+3
14.99	—	—	—	4	—	4	+4
Totals			373			378	+5

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Political Science—Graduate
14.521	6	—	6	—	—	—	-6
14.523	—	—	—	4	—	4	+4
14.524	—	—	—	—	2	2	+2
14.531	—	15	15	3	—	3	-12
14.533	18	—	18	12	—	12	-6
14.571	—	34	34	—	36	36	+2
14.941	—	—	—	—	8	8	+8
14.953	10	—	10	7	—	7	-3
14.954	—	1	1	—	5	5	+4
14.956	—	5	5	—	8	8	+3
14.957	6	—	6	7	—	7	+1
14.958	—	—	—	—	6	6	+6
Totals			95			98	+3
Totals—Political Science			468			476	+8

* * * * * *

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Psychology—Undergraduate
14.70	112	175	287	83	126	209	-78
14.73	83	73	156	32	35	67	-89
14.77	47	—	47	27	16	43	-4
14.79	—	42	42	8	29	37	-5
14.81	—	14	14	—	9	9	-5
14.82	—	—	—	11	43	54	+54
14.84	—	—	—	—	35	35	+35
14.85	—	—	—	32	—	32	+32
14.86	—	—	—	18	32	50	+30
14.88	—	—	—	—	3	3	+3
Totals			546			519	-27

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Psychology—Graduate
14.771	32	—	32	—	—	—	-32
14.772	—	—	—	—	6	6	+6
14.774	12	—	12	5	—	5	-7
14.791	5	—	5	8	—	8	+3
14.792	—	11	11	—	2	2	-9
Totals			60			21	-39
Totals—Psychology			606			540	-66

1956-57				1957-58
Subject	Fall	Spring	Total	Fall	Spring	Total	Net Change
Grand Totals for the Department			3086			3040	-46

Source: M.I.T. Archives. MIT Department of Economics Records, Box 4, Folder “V.C. [19]47-64”.

________________________

Course numbers, names and instructors
1957-58*

	ECONOMICS (UNDERGRADUATE)
14.01	Economic Principles I (Bishop)
14.02	Economic Principles II (E. C. Brown)
14.03	Prices and Production (A. Williams)
14.04	Industrial Organization and Public Policy
14.09	Economic Problems Seminar (Bishop)
14.20	Building Economics (Maclaurin)
14.30	Elementary Statistics (Ando)
14.32	Statistical Quality Control (H. A. Freeman)
14.33	Elementary Statistics (Ando)
14.40	Money and Income (R.E. Freeman)
14.43	Public Finance (E.C. Brown)
14.54	International Trade (Kindleberger)
	ECONOMICS (GRADUATE)
14.101	Mathematics for Economists (H. A. Freeman)
14.102	Mathematics for Economists (H. A. Freeman)
14.115	Economics and Finance: Principles and Policies II (Kindleberger, R.E. Freeman)
14.116	Economics and Finance: Principles and Policies III (Kindleberger)
14.117	Economics and Industrial Management (Solow, E.C. Brown)
14.121	Economic Analysis (Bishop)
14.122	Economic Analysis (Samuelson)
14.132	Schools of Economic Thought (Bishop)
14.151	Mathematical Approach to Economics (Samuelson)
14.161	Economic History (W. W. Rostow)
14.162	Economic History (W. W. Rostow)
14.171	Theory of Economic Growth (Rosenstein-Rodan)
14.172	Research Seminar in Economic Development (Millikan)
14.174	Non-Economic Factors in Economic Growth (Hagen)
14.192	Economics Seminar
14.195	Reading Seminar in Economics
14.196	Reading Seminar in Economics
14.271	Problems n Industrial Economics (Bishop)
14.272	Government Regulation of Industry (N.N.)
14.281	Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Development (Maclaurin)
14.282	Economics of Innovation Seminar (Maclaurin)
14.292	Industrial Economic Seminar
14.371	Statistical Theory (H. A. Freeman)
14.372	Statistical Theory (H. A. Freeman)
14.381	Statistical Method (Houthakker, Durand)
14.382	Economic Statistics (Houthakker)
14.451	National Income (Millikan)
14.461	Monetary and Banking Problems (Higgins)
14.471	Fiscal Policy? (E. C. Brown)
14.481	Business Cycles (Houthakker)
14.581	International Economics (Kindleberger)
14.582	International Economics (Kindleberger)

	INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (UNDERGRADUATE)
14.61	Industrial Relations (D. V. Brown)
14.63	Labor Relations (Siegel)
14.64	Labor Economics and Public Policy (A. R. Weber)
	INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (GRADUATE)
14.671	Problems in Labor Economics (Miernyk)
14.672	Public Policy on Labor Relations (Myers)
14.673	Labor-Management Relations and Public Policy (D. V. Brown, Myers)
14.674	The Labor Movement: Theories and Histories (Siegel)
14.681	Seminar in Personnel Administration (Pigors)
14.682	Seminar in Personnel Administration (Pigors)
14.694	Seminar in Union-Management Cooperation (N.N.)

	POLITICAL SCIENCE (UNDERGRADUATE)
14.51	International Relations (Padelford)
14.52	Principles and Problems of American Diplomacy (Pye)
14.53	Seminar in International Politics (Schilling)
14.90	Government, Politics and Technology (R. C. Wood)
14.91	The American Political System (Tillman)
14.92	Comparative Political and Economic Systems (L. W. Martin)
14.93	Seminar: Issues in Contemporary American Politics
14.95	Politics, Society, and Policy Making (Pool)
14.96	Influences on Policy Decisions (N.N.)
14.97	Political Science Seminar (Padelford)
14.98	Political Science Seminar (Padelford)
14.99	International Political Communication (Davison)
	POLITICAL SCIENCE (GRADUATE)
14.521	Strategic and Political Geography (N.N.)
14.523	National Security and Military Technology (McCormack, Schilling)
14.524	Politics and National Defense Policy (Schilling)
14.531	Asian Politics and United States Foreign Policy (Pye)
14.533	Social Science and U. S. Foreign Policy (Millikan)
14.571	Major Problems in Untied States Foreign Policy (Padelford)
14.941	Government and Public Administration (R. C. Wood)
14.953	Mass Media and Communication Systems (Lerner)
14.954	Methods of Communication Research (Lerner)
14.956	Public Opinion and Propaganda (Davison)
14.957	Research Seminar in International Communications (Davison)
14.958	Research Seminar in International Communications (Davison)

	PSYCHOLOGY (UNDERGRADUATE)
14.70	Introductory Psychology (Swets)
14.73	Organization and Communication in Groups (Swets, Gleicher)
14.77	Psychology of Language and Communication (N.N.)
14.79	Learning (Howes)
14.81	Psychology of Perception (Swets in 1958-59)
14.82	Psychology of Motivation (N.N. in 1958-59)
14.84	Theories of Personality (R. W. Brown in 1958-59)
14.85	Social Psychology (R. W. Brown in 1958-59)
14.86	Behavior in Groups (M. E. Shaw in 1958-59)
14.88	Advanced Psychology Seminar (Staff in 1958-59)
	PSYCHOLOGY (GRADUATE)
14.771	Interpersonal Relations Seminar (N.N.)
14.772	Industrial Sociology Seminar (N.N.)
14.774	Social Psychology Seminar (R. W. Brown)
14.791	Reading Seminar in Social Science
14.792	Reading Seminar in Social Science

Source: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bulletin, General Catalogue Issue 1957-58. Chapter 10, Descriptions of Subjects, 14. Economics and Social Science, pp. 233-238.

*For 14.81/14.82/14.84/14.85/14.86/14.88 information from the General Catalogue Issue 1958-59 pp. 237-8.

Image Source: From Technique (1949), M.I.T. Yearbook cover.

Tags Bishop, BrownEC, FreemanRE, Kindleberger, Millikan, Myers

Exam Questions M.I.T.

M.I.T. General Examinations in International Economics. Feb/May 1966

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-07-21

The following general exams for the field of international economics in 1966 at M.I.T. cover mainly topics related to international payments and finance as opposed to pure trade theory and commercial policy.

The general exams in international economics from 1959 have been posted earlier.

_________________________

General Examination in International Economics
February 9, 1966

Make the case for or against economic integration, as you define it, in Europe, in a particular corner of the world, or more widely.
Working Party 3 of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been assigned the topic of balance-of-payments adjustment policy. Write a sketch of the line it should take, in your estimation, regarding speed of adjustment, approved mechanisms, responsibilities of surplus countries, etc.
In the wide ranging controversy about the adequacy of international monetary reserves, where do you inscribe yourself, and why?
Discuss the theory of international trade in terms of the empirical support which various theories have been able to muster. Does one theory survive this testing better than others?
Explain why, if it be true, that foreign trade was an effective engine of economic growth in the 19^th century, but is not in the 20^th.

_________________________

International Economics General Exam
May 1966

Write three essays, of one hour each, on Topic 1, and one each out of Groups 2 and 3 (but excluding the combination of #3 (United States) and #5).

Group 1

The Relevance of the Theory of Comparative Advantage to Problems of Development in Less Developed Countries Today

Group 2

The Role of Technological Change in Balance-of-Payments Disequilibrium
Specific Policy Recommendations (with appropriate analysis) for the Balance-of-Payments Problem of the United Kingdom, the United States, or a developing country such as India

Group 3

The Costs and Benefits of Well-Functioning International Capital Markets
International Monetary Arrangements Today

Source: Institute Archives and Special Collections, MIT Libraries. Charles Kindleberger Papers, Box 22, Folder “Examinations International Economics 1959-75”.

Image Source: Boston Public Library, Tichnor Brothers Postcard Collection. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. Tichnor Bros. Inc., Boston, Mass., 1930.

Tags Kindleberger

Economics Programs M.I.T.

M.I.T. Graduate Economics Association’s info-welcome letter to new cohort, April 1965

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-03-16

Sloan Building
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge 39, Massachusetts
April 21, 1965

Dear New Students:

On behalf of the Graduate Economics Association, I would like to welcome you to M.I.T. and Cambridge. This letter will try to tell you a little about your prospective surroundings at M.I.T. and in Boston, and about the GEA itself. If, after reading this letter, you have some unanswered questions, I heartily encourage your writing to me for more information. My address is on the last page of this letter.

M.I.T.

You have probably studied the Sears-sized catalogue of the Institute and found it an impressive document, if a bit forbidding. You will find that the Institute means business, but is run to make things reasonably smooth for the large body of students and staff. This means that it pays to read the notices, check mail boxes and announcements to meet deadlines, but that rules are made to be broken, given a good and sufficient reason. The idea is to ask the right person and keep asking until you get an authoritative answer.

The Economics Department

You will find that most of the time you spend and the contacts you make at M.I.T. will be within the department, especially if you do not live in the Graduate House. The department is located in the Sloan Building at the extreme east end of the campus, on the second and third floors (the latter housing the graduate registration officer and the head of the department). In the same building are the Sloan School of Management and the Faculty Club. Dewey Library, the Political Science Department and the Center for International Studies will be moving next door to quarters in the new Hermann Building. This may cause some confusion so be prepared to ask twice to find something. To reach the Sloan Building via public transportation you may either take a Massachusetts Avenue bus to any of the stops at the Institute, then proceed east along Memorial Drive (along the Charles River) about seven minutes walk; or you may take the Harvard-Ashmont MTA line to Kendall Square, then follow Wadsworth Street south (toward the River), and you are there.

You are about to begin graduate work with some of the finest economists in the world. We also like to feel that the group of graduate students here is an unusually stimulating and interesting one. There is an Institute rule that in effect requires residence until the thesis is completed. This rule is largely for your benefit, so that you can work alongside more advanced students. They are happy to talk to new students and should prove the best sources of more-or-less reliable information on all sorts of subjects. Incidentally, while you may feel that the most highly developed science among your colleagues is baseball, do not hesitate to ask for help in clearing up a point in economics. Some of us remember back to first-year courses.

The faculty are busy, but not too busy to see you if you have a question. Your initial faculty contact will be with Professor Kindleberger on Registration Day (September 20), whom you will deal with throughout the rest of the term regarding schedules, course changes, and other departmental affairs. Shortly after the beginning of the first term, we will arrange a short session for all first-year graduate students with one of the members of the department to enter your questions about department policy on graduate study in economics at M.I.T.

Most of the economics books and journals you will need can be found in Dewey Library. On Registration Day, beginning at about 3:00 p.m., Miss Klingenhagen, the head librarian will give entering students her Grand Tour of the library. You will find that it is quite easy to make use of Dewey’s reading and research facilities. You will also find that the freedom of individual movement is relatively greater than in most large institutional libraries (including some other M.I.T libraries). This, of course, behooves students to comply with a few wishes of the library staff regarding (the relative absence of) noise and the process of checking out, caring for, and returning books. If you have questions, suggestions, or complaints, see Miss Klingenhagen, Mr. Presson, or anyone else on the library staff. Do not hesitate to ask the library to get any books relating to economics which they do not have, or of which more copies are required. Of course, the longer lead time you give on your requests for books, the better the library is able to serve you.

The huge library resources of Harvard have become less accessible recently, but they can be used on occasion given sufficient ingenuity and a modicum of determination. Widener is the most attractive and of course the most restricted library at Harvard. Littauer (economics and public administration) and Baker (business school) are both available without much trouble, at least for in-room use and certain stack privileges. The surest way to gain access to all this wealth is to take a course at Harvard. Short of this direct (and perhaps painful?) approach, more devious and less certain means must be employed.

The Graduate Economics Association

As you may have guessed, the GEA is comprised of all graduate students in economics. Its functions are to provide services involving external economies. This includes a lounge, economics seminars, social functions, student-faculty liaison, and the present opus. All this is run on the paltry sum of $2.00 per member per year, payable at the cocktail party to be held on:

Registration Day, September 20, 1965

On Registration Day, the GEA will sponsor a cocktail party to celebrate your entrance and the beginning of classes the next day. TIME: 4:00 p.m. PLACE: Faculty Club Penthouse on the 6-1/2 floor of the Sloan Building. The first two drinks will be subsidized to the amount of $0.50; anyone who thinks he can stand a third (or fourth…) will have to subsidize himself (note we said “sponsor” a cocktail party). The primary purpose of the party is to afford everyone an opportunity to meet his colleagues, both new and “old” students and faculty.

Earlier in the day, from 10-12 a.m., the GEA will provide (not sponsor) a free advisory service to clear up confusion and to give life and meaning to catalogue course descriptions. GHQ for this service will be the Economics Lounge on the second floor of the Sloan Building.

LIVING IN THE BOSTON AREA

Geography

Boston, like all great metropolitan areas, is a slum-infested city surrounded by hundreds of suburbs. You will quickly find that each landlord sells the combination of housing and location, and that a good location may come dear. Yet it will also be discovered that the good locations and the popular may differ markedly, especially for you. The Sloan Building is located in an industrial district, and there is little in the way of living quarters in that part of Cambridge. On the other hand, just across the “Pepperpot” Bridge is Beacon Hill. This famous address is actually a paradoxical combination ranging from the homes of some of Boston’s venerable old families, to near-slums with various degrees in between which are acceptable to a struggling graduate student. The whole riverside area from there up to the Fenway lies within possible walking distance and abounds with possible living accommodations. Moving further back, rents become cheaper and flats more modest as we go into the Back Bay area. The adjacent suburbs such as Allston, Brighton, Brookline, Somerville, Watertown, and, for that matter, the other parts of Cambridge itself offer still more in the way of apartments, remodeled homes, and, for the single person, rooming houses. (There are some good rooming houses for singles just off Central Square.) Cambridge, especially in the Harvard Square area, tends to charge for location. Obviously you can evaluate this in terms of the time and money that the distance involves. Whether you have a car or whether you can get into a car pool with a fellow student will contribute to this decision. But don’t plan on parking privileges at M.I.T. The parking lot next to the Sloan Building is filled with construction. Even in better days students seldom qualify for “a parking sticker.” it would be wise to write the Campus Patrol for an application, but the general rule is you must live outside of Cambridge and off the MTA routes. Then available spaces are allotted by seniority (leaving Graduate Students next to last). The public transportation in Boston is probably more adequate than those who suffer with it like to think. Fares are 20 cents for the subway, and 10 cents for most surface transit.

Housing

Housing in the areas listed above is a problem for everyone, especially those who are on a tight budget (i.e., everyone). For unmarried students, the solutions are: the Graduate House, a room, or an apartment. The alternatives to the new M.I.T. housing for married students are an apartment or a house. Some sources of information on available accommodations are:

–the M.I.T. housing office in Building 7, Room 7-102. Up-to-date listings are available.

–Phillips Brooks House at Harvard (supposedly for Harvard students, but no questions are asked). Up-to-date listings are available.

–bulletin boards, at M.I.T.: Graduate House, Dewey Library (in Sloan Building), Building 10; at Harvard: ask bearded students; and at the Stop & Shop Supermarket on Memorial Drive, Cambridge.

–local newspapers, especially the Sunday Globe, Tech Talk, Harvard Crimson.

–real estate agents, pavement pounding, asking everyone, putting up notices, etc.

You will find that rents may be found in the neighborhood of $70 per month and (mostly) up for good apartments, $110 to $150 (for two persons), and that rooms may go for a little as $10 per week. If you can, come up early and spend a day or two looking. Don’t get discouraged by the places or prices, since there are good places available, particularly before the first week of September. Anyone who waits until after September first, however, will almost certainly find his choice limited. Most leases run for 12 months, expiring the end of August. As you shall probably have to pay for the entire month of September, this is an additional incentive to arrive early, whenever possible.

Furniture

Here again the situation is confusing. The extra cost of a furnished apartment may be far greater than the value in use of the furniture. There are numerous ways to obtain furnishings. First, check the bulletin boards, although these are the most fruitful in May and June. Second, call the M.I.T. Dames who hold a furniture sale each fall (M.I.T. Student Furniture Exchange, Ext. 4293). Rental services can be a good value, and there are a large number of secondhand dealers. Massachusetts Avenue, in Cambridge, between Central and Harvard Squares, is lined with these places. Charitable groups such as the Salvation Army, the Morgan Memorial, and the Saint Vincent de Paul Society also sell second-hand furniture. On the other hand, judicious shopping in the legitimate new furniture stores and discount houses such as Sears or Lechmere Sales may yield better values in the long run. As might be expected, those firms specializing in the student trade raise prices come September—therefore, early arrival and use of more general sources is advisable. Last fall I became the Chippendale of amateur furniture makers and would be happy to give advice on this, if requested.

Graduate House

For unmarried students who want to avoid housekeeping, the Graduate House may be the answer. On paper the House, with its activities, dining room, and proximity to campus, seems ideal. Prices range from $160 to $235 a semester, and it is quite likely that you will be paying the higher prices, as there are many more rooms available in this range—all triples. Singles are almost impossible to obtain as a first-year student; further, the chances of rooming with a fellow economist are quite small. However, it has been possible in the past to switch roommates and/or rooms during the year if desired.

The rooms are fully furnished, which is a help, and contain lamps, beds, desks, easy chair, and bureaus. With the latest rent increase, the Institute also cut down janitorial service and stopped providing linen. There are washing machines in the basement, where the showers are also located. It is an old but well-kept-up building. Some of the rooms are on the dingy side, but they are large if nothing else (except for some of the singles, which look like converted closets).

There is a cafeteria-dining room in the Graduate House, which serves somewhat-better-than-average institutional food on a pay-as-you-eat basis; meal costs here are likely to run close to $3.00 per day (for three meals). You can contract for commons meals, arranging for these either at the Grad House or at Walker Memorial, or a combination of the two (breakfast at the Grad House, lunch and dinner at Walker, has proven convenient for Grad House residents who spend their life in the relative isolation of the Sloan Building). Walker Memorial is close to 5 minutes walk from the Grad House, but on the way to the Sloan Building, and provides a gathering spot for many economics students at lunch and dinner. For the single student, these gatherings can be a valuable aspect of life around M.I.T. The Grad House sponsors assorted dances, teas, and lectures, and is equipped with ping-pong, television, a record player, and a darkroom. There are intramural sports and you are allowed to entertain guests at any time. There is generally a long waiting list for entry into the Grad House, but students who have lived there recommend it highly, and well worth the effort of applying. A check at the House on arrival may reveal that the waiting list has shortened considerably as people changed their mind, went elsewhere, or otherwise dropped out.

Parking around the Graduate House is quite difficult, but not impossible. Parking permits to the House parking lot are next to impossible to obtain unless there is a special reason. The lot is open to all, however, on weekends, and occasional weekday parking in the lot usually leads to no difficulty.

Roomates

While normally considered a personal problem, we sympathize with the desire of some incoming graduate students to make contact with other members of your class in hopes of sharing an apartment (sounds like a lonely hearts club). Therefore, for your convenience (and to satisfy your curiosity), we have included a list of students admitted for next fall. If any of you want to make contact with classmates, send your name back to me by the end of May, plus your summer address, and I will compile a short list of those desiring roommates. This will be returned to the interested parties. All further action must be initiated by you. Correspondence during the summer might more safely be addressed to Myra Strober. (See last page)

The Coop

You are entitled to be a member of the nation’s most successful consumers’ cooperative—the Harvard Cooperative Society (or Coop). Its main store in Harvard Square stocks a full line of clothing, supplies, books and other needed items, and its Technology Store—to be located on the first floor of the new M.I.T. Student Union—on Massachusetts Avenue across from the main building of M.I.T.—carries a moderate number of these items and can, if feasible, have others transferred. The big advantage is that you get a 10 per cent discount on your purchases payable the following fall. (Economists have often wondered how all the bookstores in Harvard Square meet this competition. Apparently they can survive without following the same course; but one, the Mandrake, does give a 10 per cent spot discount which is, of course, even better than the Coop’s deferred 10 per cent. However, some negotiating may prove that the practice is more widespread than that.)

Employment for Students

Summer jobs and part-time jobs are handled through the Placement Office and/or the Department of Economics. See Professor Kindleberger or Miss Tapley for this.

Employment for Wives

The search for jobs for students’ wives can be something of a struggle. As in all cities women will find:

–employers are more interested in secretarial skills than higher education

–the fields where women can use their special training are those in which there is a shortage of men—the sciences in particular

–the average Boston company has little faith in the career girl, and she is likely to get passed over in favor of the male

The large employers in Boston are the insurance companies and banks, and the schools such as M.I.T. and Harvard. They are all constantly searching for qualified people, though the emphasis is generally on secretarial and clerical rather than professional or administrative jobs. At the Institute, both the Office of Personnel Relations and the Technology Dames are particularly interested in helping students’ wives find jobs.

There are commercial employment agencies which charge a week’s salary (or more) for placement, but they tend to be fee-happy and should be a last resort. However, the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union at 264 Boylston Street, Boston, is said to combine real counseling, consideration of your interests, and wide variety of jobs. The Boston Globe has the best listing of employment opportunities of all the papers.

Another field worth exploring, as we are told, is teaching in one of the private schools which may be open to women with college degrees even if they have had no formal training in education. However, they may require experience. The public school systems are a mass of prejudices, arbitrary rules, and other impediments to hiring. As a start, on requires American citizenship and certification by the Massachusetts Department of Education. For such work you will obviously need education courses and may find bars against you due to lack of experience or because of marriage. Surprising as it may seem, the suburban public school systems, which are the more attractive from a teacher’s standpoint, seem to be more willing to hire working wives of students than do the Boston or Cambridge Systems.

Miscellaneous

Harvard and M.I.T. students put out various unofficial guides to graduate school life, full of information on the worldly temptations of the area (music, women, restaurants, etc.). These are worth reading even if you are sure you will never stray from the path of duty. A copy of M.I.T.’s guide is sent to American students only, with admissions material. We will have copies of the guide available for those who did not receive them at the desk of the registration officer’s secretary (room 52-380) on registration day.

Owning a car here is extremely expensive and inconvenient, but the alternatives do not appeal to many people. Since Massachusetts auto registration and insurance in the Cambridge-Boston area are very expensive, you will be well advised to maintain your home-state registration. Daytime parking around M.I.T. is difficult, unless you arrive by 8:00 a.m. or are prepared to pay or walk. As was noted above, Tech parking lots are for staff, employees, and those who live far away (in the past this has meant outside Cambridge and off the M.T.A. routes) or are disabled. If you get lost frequently while driving in Boston, you are normal, but otherwise traffic is no heavier than in other cities. The style of driving takes some getting used to, but you can stand up to anyone except taxis and pedestrians.

Finally, here is a way to be one-up around M.I.T. The secret is numbers. Buildings, courses (i.e. fields of study), subjects, rooms, and books carry numbers, as do students. Example: your number is 658350, as you find out from your registration card. You are in Course XIV (Economics and Social Science), you are taking 14.121 (a first-semester, graduate economics subject), which meets in room 52-143 (Sloan Building, first floor, room 43.)

If you have any questions in the meantime, I would be happy to hear from you: my address is listed below. When you arrive at M.I.T., others will be pleased to answer any questions, and I will usually be available around the Dewey Library or the Economics Department on weekdays. The place is small enough that there should be no difficulty finding me there.

In closing, let me once again encourage you to write me if you have any questions, problems—or just to say hello. In any case, I look forward to seeing you come September.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Lovell S. Jarvis

GEA Officers

President	Secretary-Treasurer	Seminar Chairman
Lovell S. Jarvis 417 East Tenth Street Winfield, Kansas (During April and May, Room 52-371, M.I.T.)	Myra H. Strober 368 Riverway Boston, Massachusetts	William M. Vaughn, III

Source: M.I.T. Archives. Department of Economics Records. Box 2, Folder “1969 G.E.A. 1970”

Source: Historical Working Papers on the Economic Stabilization Program …, Part 3, By United States. Department of the Treasury. Office of Economic Stabilisation, p. 1496.

Tags Jarvis, Kindleberger, Strober, Vaughn

Funny Business M.I.T.

M.I.T. Dystopian Faculty Skit by Solow,1969

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-02-19

The current events of the late ‘sixties are the clear inspiration for this somewhat dark, dystopian skit for the M.I.T. economics departmental Christmas party of December 1969. According to the cover page, it was written by Robert Solow with input from Frank Fisher.

The skit was transcribed from the typed text [that includes a short handwritten addition] from Robert Solow’s papers in the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. A grateful tip of the hat to Roger Backhouse for this artifact that should keep a cultural historian of economics busy for a few hours and be worth a few minutes of procrastination for working economists.

Pro-tip: you can summon all of the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror posts with economic humor content using the keyword “Funny Business”:

https://www.irwincollier.com/category/funny-business/

_______________________

Back-story for selected references in the text

SPECTRE. In Ian Fleming’s world of James Bond the acronym for the organization of international evil [Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion].

Chairman Edel. Assistant Professor Matthew D. Edel (Yale, Ph.D.) taught the course Economic Growth and Development. Presumably pronounced to rhyme with “Fidel”. Edel was a regional expert for Latin America, spoke at a colloquium February 4, 1970 on “The Strategy of Cuban Economic Development”

14.463 Monetary Economics in term I, 1969-70 was taught by four instructors.

According to the staffing report for that term in the departmental records at the MIT archive.

Karen H. Johnson, M.I.T. Ph.D. (1973),
Robert K. Merton, M.I.T. Ph.D. (1970), advisor Paul Samuelson
David T. Scheffman, M.I.T. Ph.D. (1971), advisor Paul Samuelson
Jeremy J. Siegel, M.I.T. Ph.D. (1971)

There is no record that Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were ever graduate students of economics in M.I.T.

Bread and Roses. Reference to the Women’s Liberation Organization in Boston, 1969-1971. The name chosen in memory of the Great Lawrence Strike of 1912.

Ted Behr. An M.I.T. Ph.D. (1969) who by 2009 had already gone through seven career changes and twelve jobs. Must have been quite a character judging from this interview.

I think we may assume that no Bulgarians were injured in the writing or performance of this skit.

_______________________

Some Obvious Context

Fall 1964. Berkeley Free Speech Movement

Wikipedia Entry on the Protest Year 1968

April 1968. Columbia Student Strike ; Harvard Student Strike

February 1969. Black student strike at the University of Wisconsin

_______________________

RIP VAN SAMUELSON RETURNS TO MIT AFTER THE REVOLUTION
FACULTY SKIT
Christmas 1969

CAST

P. Diamond
R. Eckaus
R. Engle
F. Fisher
C. Kindleberger
M. Piore

SCRIPTWRITER-IN-CHIEF — R. Solow

HELPED BY – F. Fisher

Is it really true that Samuelson has been asleep all these years? Then how come the 13^th and 14^th editions of the textbook came out on time?

Well, I don’t know. Samuelson isn’t talking.

Careful, there. If it’s not talking it’s not Samuelson.

It’s got to be. His broker recognizes his fingerprints from soiled sell orders. Actually, there are two schools of thought about how the textbook came out while Samuelson was sleeping. Modigliani claims that the 13^th and 14^th editions were simply forecasted by the FRB-MIT model, using a long lag. But some people believe that the 13^th and 14^theditions are just the 2^nd and 3^rd editions reprinted. Can’t verify that, though. Nobody’s been able to find a copy of the early editions.

Not that it matters. Must be a shock for Paul to realize that nobody uses the text any more, except of course for the Bulgarian translation. They’re the only people reactionary enough to go for that stuff any more.

You mean even Hanoi University has dropped it?

Oh sure, they adopted Best Known Thoughts of Chairman Edel, last year. You know, the one that begins “Equilibrium grows out of a barrel…”

Out of the barrel of a gun?

No, no, a barrel of rum. Chairman Edel never got over that trip to Cuba.

Did you fellows hear that Samuelson is back? When did he disappear anyway?

Oh, a long time ago. Even before Chomsky became President. It’s hard to know the exact date. Things were pretty clear up until April 1972, when we were supposed to have 31 days of moratorium, but the month only had 30 days, so we cancelled the first day of May, only you couldn’t cancel May Day — Christmas you could cancel, but not May Day. So we cancelled the second day of May. But then we were three days short to fit in the 32 days of moratorium for that month, so we had to run into June. From then on it was chaos.

Things are still a little funny. I can’t get used to having summer vacation in the middle of winter, and Fisher pretending to go off skiing when it’s 90 degrees in the shade, when we all know he’s leading rent strikes anyway.

Don’t complain. It might have been worse. Solow claimed to have a proof that the term would never end once we got up to 32 moratorium days a month. But one of the younger mathematical economists made a brilliant application of the theory of Riemann surfaces and showed that you could pack any finite number of moratorium days into one month if you did it right.

It was the last article anyone published in this department. Can you remember when we used to write articles and hope for tenure? That was before tenure was abolished. God, life was easy then. Nowadays it’s all action, action, action. And if you’re lucky, if you happen to win a rent strike, or destroy some draft records, or win an amateur topless contest, then maybe the central committee of SPECTRE will keep you on for a year. But suppose you lose the strike, or you let a white man go to work on a construction site, boy that SPECTRE can be tough. You remember when they threw Domar into the arena with Kampf and gave Kampf the bullhorn?

I looked away. Bloodthirsty crew — they awarded Kampf both ears and the tail that day. We had to take up a collection to send Ricky and Alice [note: Evsey Domar’s daughters] to Bread and Roses Karate School. And today they’re members of SPECTRE, the Student Power Electoral Committee for Teachers of Relevant Economics. It was better in the old days when appointments went on good looks and amiability. Even publishing was better than action all the time. That last piece of work I did, keeping the recruiter for Mars Bars from getting onto the campus, it went well but it was exhausting.

Why are we against Mars Bars?

Space, military, it’s all the same.

Anyhow, now that he’s back, what’s Paul going to do around the department? He’s getting a little old for real action, and he might find it hard to pass the monthly Relevance Check.

It’s going to be a problem. He was falling behind the times when he went to sleep. Of course he looks better now, with 10-15 years growth of beard, but he doesn’t dig the revolution. El Lider Maximo of the Graduate Student Commune asked him what he could contribute, and Samuelson said he’d like to teach the History of Economic Thought.

The History of WHAT???

That’s exactly what the Commune Lider said.

Poor old Samuelson doesn’t know that Thought isn’t Relevant. In fact he didn’t even know that Economics isn’t Relevant. When El Lider explained that it was all action now, old Samuelson said he thought there should be both Thought and Action just so their marginal net productivities were equal.

Gad, I haven’t heard anything like that since the day they fired Diamond for saying “Pareto-optimal” once too often.

Whatever happened to Diamond?

What else, he’s at B.I.T., the Bulgarian Institute of Technology. Boy, if the old stuff ever comes back in style, those Bulgarians will have it made. But go on, what happened when Samuelson pulled that bourgeois bit about marginal whatnots?

Well, Solow was standing there and he muttered something to Samuelson—it sounded like “Check the second-order conditions, Paul old boy”—and then went back to trying to look hip.

That’s living dangerously. Solow just barely passed last month’s Relevance Check, and he hasn’t been on a successful action in a long time. I don’t think that went over so good when he claimed that skiing Black Mountain was a real action. He better watch out — if B.I.T. won’t take an old man like that, SPECTRE may throw him to Kampf.

Right on. Nothing gets past El Lider. When Solow whispered that to Samuelson about second-order conditions, El Lider asked him right away — Did you say something? Solow replied Negative. Definite. That’s really living dangerously — I think it’s code of some kind.

It certainly doesn’t sound Relevant. I haven’t read anything like that in Ted Behr’s Newsweek column, at least not lately.

What’s going on this week in the department?

In the Theory course we’re holding an obstructive picket line at the drug counter of the Tech Store. Somebody discovered they were selling only white pills.

If I know what the pills are for, I hope the picket line isn’t too obstructive.

Of course not; I told you it was the Theory course. Then in the Economics of Education course we’re going to burn down a school. In the Money course, Johnson, Merton, Siegel, Bonnie, and Clyde are going to rob a bank and distribute the proceeds to the C.L.F.

Is that the California Liberation front?

Oh no, Berkeley has been a free-fire zone for months; nobody is left. It’s the Center for Love and Finance, our answer to the profit motive. Has anyone told you what the Econometrics Commune is doing?

No. Last week somebody had an idea for an empirical paper, but the results only came out at the 10% Relevance Level and half the commune was purged for Type One Error.

Served them right. Any Type II Error executions?

You know we have to have public trials for Type II error.

That’s right—Power to the People…. Well, it’s nice to see that the action curriculum is moving along. Sure beats the Old Days before chairman Edel — remember when they taught about Indifference curves? INDIFFERENCE curves, mind you, with innocent people being napalmed in Laos, Birmingham, Princeton, they taught about indifference curves.

Hard to believe. Of course now, ever since we adopted Bohmer’s best-selling text Economics for Good Guys we handle all that stuff by the tangency of the Relevance Map and the Isoconcern lines. Makes all the difference in the world, takes the subject out of the mind and puts it back in the gut, where it obviously belongs.

The Admissions Commune has been meeting all day.

How does the entering Movement look?

Terrific. There’s one girl who was heavyweight sugar-cane-cutting champion of the Big Ten, and another who had already led three successful rent strikes as a junior — two of them publishable, according to her advisor. Then there are a couple of Black Belts from Bread and Roses — they come on Karate Scholarships of course.

Any amateur topless contest winners?

We’re trying for a few, but most of them will go to Harvard—ever since they hired Brigitte Bardot for the economics faculty—

She was past her peak.

Peaks. And aren’t they all? Anyhow, all the amateur topless winners go to Harvard. But we’ve got some applicants who’ve starred in home movies. Not to mention a few school-burners and a couple of guys who have specialized in destroying computers.

How are their vibrations?

Good.

Fine. If there’s anything I can’t stand it’s bad vibrations. How about GRE scores.

The Graduate Relevance Exam grades just came — most of the people we’re accepting are in the 800’s on Obstructive and at least 750 in Vituperative. Looks like a good class — I mean Movement.

Has anyone heard what the Placement and Appointments Committees have decided?

They decided to eliminate the middleman and merge. That way everybody stays forever — once a Commune always a Commune. It gives new meaning to that old phrase about departmental inbreeding.

We still have this problem about what to do with Samuelson. Here he is after all those years asleep and hardly knowing anything about action and relevance and all the new things. The Bulgarians won’t take him — B.I.T. doesn’t mind using the old textbook, but they’re overloaded with these old-timers. If we can’t find something for him to do we may have to throw him to….

Terrible news. The students are revolting again. There’s a new movement sweeping all the Communes. They want one day of classes this month, two days of classes next month, three days the month after…there’s no telling where it will end, except that nobody can count over 30 any more.

Gad, we may have to go back to teaching again. Well, at least that gives something for Samuelson to do.

Oh didn’t they tell you. When Samuelson saw what the new system was like, he went back to sleep. Better get the Bulgarians on the phone.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Robert M. Solow, Box 83.

Image Source: Robert Solow in his office, MIT Museum Website.

Tags BehrT, Diamond, Domar, Eckaus, EdelMD, Engle, FisherF, JohnsonKH, Kindleberger, MertonRK, Modigliani, Piore, Samuelson, ScheffmanD, SiegelJ, Solow

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The Graduate Program in Economics 1974 – 1975

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The Graduate Program in Economics 1974–75

Department of Economics 1975 – 76

Professional Education: Towards a Way of Thought

by Charles P. Kindleberger

Fall Term 1961-62

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 hours/week, 37 Students.

14.581 November 9, 1961 HOUR QUIZ

14.581 – International Economics FINAL EXAMINATION C. P. Kindleberger January 23, 1962

Fall Term 1962-63

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 Hours/week, 46 Students.

Quiz 14.581 November 6, 1962

Tuesday, January 22, 1963 Time 1:30 – 4:30 P.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Scheduled Examination in INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS 14.581

Fall Term 1963-64

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 Class Hours/Week, 19 Students.

14.581 One-hour Test November 14, 1963

Tuesday, January 28, 1964 Time: 1.30 – 4.30 P.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Scheduled Examination in INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

Fall Term 1964-65

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 Class Hours/Week, 29 Students.

HOUR TEST 14.581 November 12, 1964

Tuesday, January 26, 1965 Time: 9:00 – 12:00 A.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Scheduled Examination in INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

Group I

Group II

Group III

Group IV

Group V

Fall Term 1965-66

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger. 3 Class Hours/Week, 46 Students.

Monday, January 24, 1966 Time: 1:30-4:30 p.m.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Scheduled Examination in INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

Fall Term 1966-67

14.581 International Economics. Professor C. P. Kindleberger with P. Bardhan, 3 Class Hours/Week, 39 Students.

Hour Test 14.581 December 1, 1966 10:30 a.m.

B

14.581T 24 January 1967 FINAL EXAMINATION

Posted earlier: M.I.T. International Economics Examinations. Kindleberger, 1950-51

Course Announcement

________________

14.581 One hour quiz November 15, 1955

Typed Kindleberger notes for 14.581 Quiz of November 23, 1954 [Quiz question sheet not available]

________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Scheduled Examination in INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS 14.581

Wednesday, January 26, 1954 Time 9:00-12:00 A.M.

[Kindleberger’s typed comments in the margins of examination. These appear to have been written (at least in part) after having graded the examinations.]

Mid-Term Quiz 14.582

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Scheduled Examination in INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC—14.582

Saturday, May 28, 1955 Time: 9.00-12.00 A.M.

Memo from Chairman E. Cary Brown on a Revision of General Exams, 1975

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE Meeting of the Visiting Committee October 7, 1958

Undergraduate Program

The Psychology Section (reported by Professors Roger W. Brown and Davis Howes)

The Political Science Section (reported by Professors Norman J. Padelford and Ithiel de S. Pool)

The Industrial Relations Section (reported by Professor Charles A. Myers)

The Center for International Studies (reported by Professor Max F. Millikan)

The Graduate Economics Program (reported by Professor Charles P. Kindleberger)

TABLE II Comparative Numbers of Students Completing Individual Subjects in the Department of Economics and Social Science, 1956-57 and 1957-58 [Note: Course titles provided after Table II]

Course numbers, names and instructors 1957-58*

General Examination in International Economics February 9, 1966

International Economics General Exam May 1966

M.I.T.

The Economics Department

The Graduate Economics Association

Registration Day, September 20, 1965

LIVING IN THE BOSTON AREA

Geography

Housing

Furniture

Graduate House

Roomates

The Coop

Employment for Students

Employment for Wives

Miscellaneous

GEA Officers

Back-story for selected references in the text

Some Obvious Context

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Graduate Program in Economics
1974 – 1975

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The Graduate Program in Economics
1974–75

Department of Economics
1975 – 76

Professional Education:
Towards a Way of Thought

14.581
November 9, 1961
HOUR QUIZ

14.581 – International Economics
FINAL EXAMINATION
C. P. Kindleberger
January 23, 1962

Quiz
14.581
November 6, 1962

Tuesday, January 22, 1963
Time 1:30 – 4:30 P.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS 14.581

14.581
One-hour Test
November 14, 1963

Tuesday, January 28, 1964
Time: 1.30 – 4.30 P.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

HOUR TEST
14.581
November 12, 1964

Tuesday, January 26, 1965
Time: 9:00 – 12:00 A.M.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

Monday, January 24, 1966
Time: 1:30-4:30 p.m.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS – 14.581

Hour Test
14.581
December 1, 1966
10:30 a.m.

14.581T
24 January 1967
FINAL EXAMINATION

Posted earlier:
M.I.T. International Economics Examinations. Kindleberger, 1950-51

14.581 One hour quiz
November 15, 1955

Typed Kindleberger notes
for 14.581 Quiz of November 23, 1954
[Quiz question sheet not available]

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS 14.581

Wednesday, January 26, 1954
Time 9:00-12:00 A.M.

[Kindleberger’s typed comments in the margins of examination.
These appear to have been written (at least in part) after having graded the examinations.]

Mid-Term Quiz
14.582

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Scheduled Examination in
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC—14.582

Saturday, May 28, 1955
Time: 9.00-12.00 A.M.

Memo from Chairman E. Cary Brown
on a Revision of General Exams, 1975

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Meeting of the Visiting Committee
October 7, 1958

TABLE II
Comparative Numbers of Students Completing Individual Subjects in the Department of Economics and Social Science, 1956-57 and 1957-58
[Note: Course titles provided after Table II]

Course numbers, names and instructors
1957-58*

General Examination in International Economics
February 9, 1966

International Economics General Exam
May 1966

RIP VAN SAMUELSON RETURNS TO MIT AFTER THE REVOLUTION
FACULTY SKIT
Christmas 1969