Tag: Samuelson

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Exam Questions History of Economics M.I.T. Suggested Reading Syllabus

M.I.T. History of Economic Thought. Misc. Readings and exams. Samuelson, 1973-78

 

Scattered across several folders in the Paul Samuelson Papers at Duke are course materials from the graduate history of economic course regularly offered by Samuelson in the 1970s. Not included below are a few class lecture handouts and class lists also in the folders. Instead I have just transcribed the suggested reading lists or Dewey library course reserve lists and two final exams found in the folders. 

I did not take this course, once having sat in on a Marxian economics lecture that consisted of Paul Samuelson commenting on his textbook’s appendix “Rudiments of Marxian Economics”. Perhaps the arrogance of my youth got the better of me, but I thought there were other courses that were going to teach me something that I had not already learned so I am now condemned to trying to reconstruct his course content from such scraps as these we find in his archival record. Maybe a visitor to this page of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has saved notes from the course?

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14.132 FALL 1973
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
P. SAMUELSON

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. FOR BACKGROUND

T. Kuhn
THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

and parts or all of any sample of secondary sources, such as those by Roll, Gray, Gide-Rist, brief Schumpeter (1912), Heilbroner.

FOR BIOGRAPHY

Keynes
ESSAYS IN BIOGRAPHY

Schumpeter
TEN ECONOMISTS

H. Spiegel
GREAT ECONOMISTS ON GREAT ECONOMISTS

2. BASIC BACKGROUND REFERENCE

Perhaps the basic background reference is the posthumous, uneven classic:
J. S. Schumpeter
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

A valuable, MIT-graduate-school kind of reference is
Marc Blaug
ECONOMIC THEORY IN RETROSPECT

3. ON RICARDO, you should at least sample

Sraffa edition
PRINCIPLES

Useful readings are:

Blaug

Baumol
ch 2 in ECONOMIC DYNAMICS

Stigler in
HISTORY OF ECONOMICS

Sraffa
his introduction to the PRINCIPLES

Kaldor
his brief section in 1954 RES “Alternative Theories of Distribution”

Models of Ricardo-like systems

Pasinetti
Samuelson
Edelberg

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Fall 1973”.

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14.132 FALL 1974
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
P. SAMUELSON E 52-394

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. FOR BACKGROUND

T. Kuhn
THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

and parts or all of any sample of secondary sources, such as those by Roll, Gray, Gide-Rist, brief Schumpeter (1912), Heilbroner, Cannan, Recktenwald’s POLITICAL ECONOMY: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

FOR BIOGRAPHY

Keynes
ESSAYS IN BIOGRAPHY

Schumpeter
TEN ECONOMISTS

H. Spiegel
GREAT ECONOMISTS ON GREAT ECONOMISTS

2. BASIC BACKGROUND REFERENCE

Perhaps the basic background reference is the posthumous, uneven classic:
J. S. Schumpeter
HISTORY OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

A valuable, MIT-graduate-school kind of reference is
Marc Blaug
ECONOMIC THEORY IN RETROSPECT

3. First Topic of land and the interest rate: Turgot, Böhm-Bawerk and Keynes-Modigliani

Böhm-Bawerk, Vol I, Ch. 4
„Land and the Rate of Interest“: also Samuelson (1958, 1968, 1974)
Modigliani (1954, 1974)
Diamond (1965)

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Fall 1973”.

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14.132 Fall 1975
STORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
P. A. SAMUELSON E52-394
FRIDAY 1:30-3:30

SUGGESTED READINGS

1. FOR BACKGROUND

Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolution
and parts or all of any sample of secondary sources, such as those by Roll, Gray, Gide-Rist, brief Schupeter (1912), Heilbroner, Cannan’s Review of Economic Theory, Recktenwald’s Political Economy: A Historical Perspective.

FOR BIOGRAPHY

Keynes, Essays in Biography

Schumpeter, Ten Economists

H. Spiegel, Great Economists on Great Economists [not in Dewey Library]

2. BASIC BACKGROUND REFERENCE

Perhaps the basic background reference is the posthumous, uneven classic:
J. A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis

A valuable, MIT-graduate-school kind of reference is
Mark Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect

For fruits of Marx’s hours in the British Museum, see
K. Marx, Theories of Surplus Value (many volumes, and sometimes called Vol. IV of Das Kapital)

Readable and scholarly essays are collected in
G. J. Stigler, Essays in the History of Economics

3. First topic of Quesnay’s Tableau Economique:

Any text like Gray, Peter Newman, Roll, Schumpeter;
Meek on Physiocracy, and edited volume;
A. Phillips, QJE, 1955;
S. Maital, QJE, 1972.

4. Topic of land and the interest rate: Turgot, Böhm-Bawerk and Keynes-Modigliani

Böhm-Bawerk, Vol I, Ch. 4, “Land and the Rate of Interest,” also,
Samuelson (1958, 1968, 1974)
Modigliani (1954, 1974)
Diamond (1965)

5. Modern model of Ricardo

6. Transformation problem of Marx

7. Smith, Adam

8. ….

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Fall 1975”.

_________________

Samuelson
To be placed on reserve for 14.132

Mass. Inst. Tech.
FEB 14 1977
DEWEY RESERVE

McLellan. Karl Marx: His Life and Thought

Luxemburg. Accumulation of Capital

Sweezy. Theory of Capitalist Development

Robinson. An Essay on Marxian Economics

Dobbs. History of Theories of Distribution [sic, Theories of Value and Distribution since Adam Smith: Ideology and Economic Theory]

Morishima. On Marxian Economics [sic, Marx’s Economics]

Schumpeter. History of Economic Analysis

Roll. History of Economic Thought 

Alexander Gray. The Development of Economic Doctrine

[Metzler Lloyd] Festschrift. (Trade, Stability and Macroeconomics) edited by G. Horowitz and P. Samuelson.

Reprints

Samuelson

Samuelson’s “Reply on Marxian Matters”

Insight and Detour in the Theory of Exploitation: A Reply to Baumol

Understanding the Marxian Notion of Exploitation: A Summary of the So-Called Transformation Problem Between Marxian Values and Competitive Prices

Marx as a Mathematical Economist

 

Journals

Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 2, 1934-35

American Economic Review, March 1938.

 

[Appendix: Rudiments of Marxian Economics (from Samuelson Economics, pp. 858-)]

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Spring 1977”.

_________________

14.132 Final Exam
History of Economic Thought
P. A. Samuelson
May 20, 1977

ANSWER (1) OR (2) QUESTIONS.

  1. Describe any aspects of the classical economists’ system that primarily interests you.
  2. Describe the doctrines of some one historical economist or school in which you have an interest.
  3. Analyze any aspects of Marxian economics that you think are of relevance to economic history and policy.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Spring 1977”.

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Reserve List, MIT Libraries
14.132 History of Economic Thought
Spring 1978

D. L. Thomson, Adam Smith’s Daughters, Exposition Press, 1973.

L. Robbins. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. Macmillan, 1935 and 1962.

M. Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect. Richard D. Irwin, 1962.

I. H. Rima. Development of Economic Analysis. Irwin, 1972.

H. W. Spiegel,The Growth of Economic Thought. Prentice-Hall, 1971.

Alexander Gray, Development of Economic Doctrines. Longman, Green and Co. 1934.

T. W. Hutchinson, A Review of Economic Doctrines, 1870-1929. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953.

Thomas Sowell, Classical Economics Reconsidered, Princeton U. Press, 1974.

Eric Roll, A History of Economic Thought. Faber and Faber, 1973.

Eric Roll, The World After Keynes, Praeger, 1968.

J. A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis. Oxford U. Press, 1954.

G. L. S. Shackle. The Nature of Economic Thought. Cambridge U Press, 1966.

J. A. Schumpeter, Ten Great Economists. Oxford, 1965.

R. L. Meek. Precursors of Adam Smith. Dear (London), 1973.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Spring 1978”.

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14.132 Take-Home Exam
Spring 1978

Answer any one of these questions or any two or all three.

  1. Describe some topic covered in this course that you find to be of interest. Discuss its broad significance; or concentrate in depth on any aspect of the problem that you believe to be worth exploring. Do not hesitate to let your imagination soar.
  2. Describe some aspect or aspects of what we call neoclassical economics. If you wish, compare and contrast it with earlier classical economics; or with later Keynesian economics; or with the Marx-inspired economics that developed around the same time.
  3. Thomas Kuhn attempted to throw light on how the natural sciences tend to develop. If any part of his paradigms seems to you useful in any part of the history of economic thought, describe the use. If you have criticisms to make of the Kuhnian methodology, feel free to enlarge on them.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “14.132 Spring 1977”.

Image Source:  Capture of the photos page from the Paul Samuelson memorial webpages at the MIT economics department (date of Wayback Machine capture May 22, 2011)

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Economists ERVM Funny Business

Attention subscribers to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror

 

Some historian of economics had to do it. Economics in the Rear-View Mirror is proud to announce the creation of a new portrait collection: Economists Wearing Bowties. Bookmark that page to follow as I add to the collection. We begin with the poster wunderkind of bowtied economists, Paul A. Samuelson.

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Funny Business M.I.T.

M.I.T. Faculty skit. Robert Solow as the 2000 year old economist.

Would Mel Brooks' famous 2,000-Year-Old Man have understood modern language? Researchers say there's a possibility.

 

 

A skit in economics typically involves a humor transplant of some sort. The following script from the faculty contribution to an annual M.I.T. economics skit party (ca.  1979-80 which is when Luis Tiant pitched for the Yankees) took its inspiration from  two greats in American comedy, Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks, who sometimes performed as interviewer and 2,000 year-old man, respectively.

While it is fairly clear that Robert Solow performed and probably wrote the entire skit, the identity of the interviewer still needs to be established. Hint: there is a comment box at the bottom of this post. 

The script comes from a file of such Solovian skits that Roger Backhouse has copied during his archival research and has shared with Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

_________________

 

Q: You have probably all heard the interviews with the recently discovered 2000-year-old man. We are fortunate to have with us tonight another great find, the 2000-year-old economist, Robert M. Solow. By the way, Dr. Solow, just what does the M stand for?

A: Methuselah, dummy.

Q: Dr. Solow has seen so many skit parties in his life, that he was not very happy about appearing at this one. Do you remember the first skit party you ever went to?

A: No. Skit parties are like hangovers – best thing to do is forget ’em and swear never to do it again. I do have a hazy recollection of an early skit party, I think it was what the one where I first heard the joke about bordered determinants…

Q: What is the joke about border determinants?

A: I don’t know, but they sure laugh[ed] their fool heads off.

Q: Any other recollections about that skit party?

A: Well, you could hear them building pyramids in the background, I remember, and there was this Sphinx-like object, looked a lot like Dick Eckaus… You don’t suppose that, even then???? Nah, forget it.

Q: Turning to more serious issues, what is the biggest change in economics since the old days?

A: Mechanization, by cracky. First the electric typewriter, then the computer, then the Xerox machine [handwritten insert: but not fast enough for (3 or 4 illegible words)]. Nowadays people write papers at the rate they used to wipe their… glasses. I believe Feldstein has solved the problem of hooking the typewriter directly to the Xerox machine, and the whole paper is reproduced without being touched by human hands. There is even a rumor that he has a secret way of getting the paper written without human intervention…

Q: Come come, Dr. Solow, you don’t believe that.

A: Well, have you looked at any of Feldstein’s recent papers? Now in the good old days, stand-up roll-top desks, quill pens, the main-frame abacus, a man thought twice before he wrote a paper. At least he thought once. If only old Tom were here.

Q: Tom who?

A: Tom Gresham. You know: bad working papers drive out good. Not to mention Dave Hume, the inventor of the quantity theory of working papers. As Milton used to say: any way you slice it, it’s still baloney.

Q: Is that Milton Friedman?

A: No, Milton Horowitz, the inventor of the pastrami sandwich. I believe he appears in a footnote in Joskow’s classic mustard-stained work on the subject.

Q: Let’s come to your recent impressions. What do you see as the most important recent development in economics?

A: That’s easy – the increase in the mandatory retirement age to 70. Of course it’s got a long way to go before it does me any good, but I underestimate the DRI Mandatory Retirement Age Monitor estimates the retirement age to be rising at 1.73 years per year, so time is on my side.

Q: Apart from its effects on you personally, why do you think this is an important development?

A: It saves a lot of time at department meetings never to have to make a tenure appointment again. And you know what department meetings are like – even worse than skit parties.

Q: How do you think the change will affect students?

A: They’ll love it. Courses will be the same year after year. Reading lists will never change. Textbooks will go on and on and on. Can you imagine the 200th edition of Dornbusch and Fischer? I hope it’s printed on better paper than the low-grade papyrus of the first edition… I do wonder about Eckaus and that Sphinx…… Exams will be the same year after year. Students hate change. Look at what happened when you fellows tried to change 14.121 this year.

Q: Turning to economic theory, what has been the most important development you have witnessed in the last 2000 years?

A: The two-dimensional diagram.

Q: Be serious.

A: I am serious. Can you imagine Bhagwati, the Picasso of the Production Possibility Locus, trying to fit all those curves in a one-dimensional diagram, which was all we had in the old days? There wasn’t hardly room for anything besides the axis.

Q: Come, come. Bhagwati would find a solution for that little difficulty. Who needs an axis?

A: Maybe so, but can you imagine four-color one-dimensional diagrams? How could we have expensive textbooks without four-color diagrams? How could we have expensive professors without expensive textbooks? How could……

Q: OK, OK. What is the second most important development in economic theory in your lifetime?

A: The subscript.

Q: Don’t you know the difference between trivia and serious economic theory?

A: Sure. Trivia are worth remembering, but serious economics is OK to forget.

Q: Maybe we better stick to trivia…

A: I was just kidding. I really know the answer. There is no difference between trivia and serious economic theory.

Q: Tell us about the most interesting experience you ever heard of an economist having?

A: Easy. Happened to an agricultural economist I knew, feller named Samuelson, farm boy from Gary, Indiana. He was digging on the farm one day, checking out the law of diminishing returns, and he found a potato growing with a nickel in it. Marvelous thing. Folks came from miles away to see a potato with a nickel in it. Old Samuelson frittered away the rest of his life looking for another potato with the nickel in it. Never could find one. He did find a couple with three cents in them, but somehow it wasn’t the same. Never accomplished another thing, old Samuelson. Wonder whatever became of him? He’d be 2009, I reckon. By the way, whatever became of that other farmer, Weitzman?

Q: You mean Chaim Weitzman, the founding father of Israel? His last words were: you don’t have to convince me, Professor [Frank] Fisher, I’m Jewish too.

A: No, I mean Marty Weitzman, old quick and dirty, the lion of Levittown.

Q: Why do you ask?

A: Reminds me of the fellow I used to know, a Secretary of the Treasury named Hamilton……

Q: Reminds you of who? Oh, I get it, they both got killed in the dual.

A: Watch out, Buster – the agreement was that I tell the jokes and you prove the theorems.

Q: All right. Let’s get away from personalities. What do you think of recent macro theories?

A: Not much.

Q: What about rational expectations?

A: If there were any truth in that, it would have been thought up long ago.

Q: Not necessarily. The old-timers could have thought that someone would think of it, without thinking of it themselves.

A: That’s true, but the old-timers were too sensible to think that anyone would think a thought like that.

Q: How about the quantity theory?

A: Ingenious.

Q: Really?

A: Imagine saying that velocity is so stable that only money matters, and so unstable that no use can be made of the theory, and imagine getting away with both statements.

Q: But what is macroeconomics left with then?

A: Well, the old Ioto-Sigma Lamba-Mu [Greek for “IS-LM”] curves were good enough for Aristotle, it’s good enough for me.

Q: Would you care to comment on the theory of built-in stabilizers?

A: If you’re not going to be serious, we might as well go watch a ballgame. I understand Louis Tiant, the 2000-year-old pitcher is going for the Yankees.

Q: Use your 2000-year-old imagination. I’ll give you an example of built-in stabilization – Social Security.

A: How so?

Q: The less likely it is that anyone will ever be able to collect benefits, the likelier it becomes that they make even more money consulting on Social Security. Take [Peter] Diamond, for example.

A: You take Diamond.

Q: No thanks. Imagine a man leaving a perfectly good career in public finance to go into law and economics and make a hash out of both fields.

A: Stick to the straight-man lines, please.

[Handwritten insert begins here]

Q: What do you think of the proliferation of journals?

A: I think it is terrific. Of course it has been going on for a long time – ever since BJEA, the Babylonian Journal of Economic Analysis was challenged by the SEJ, the Sumerian Economic Journal.
What I particularly like is the increased specialization. Like JHR, the Journal of Human Regressions and JME, the Journal of Mathematical Existence.

Q: The Journal of Mathematical Existence – isn’t that the one that started with the famous 2-line proof: I count, therefore I am?

A: Yes and was followed by a 47 page proof that without continuity existence was still generic.
I also like this trend toward paired journals.

Q: Paired journals?

A: Yes, like the two Harvard journals – one publishes theory without measurement and the other measurement without theory.
And then there’s the 2 JPE’s – the Journal of Public Economics and the Journal of Private Enterprise.

[handwritten insert ends]

Q: What do you see as the greatest danger facing the economics profession?

A: The threatened extension of truth-in-lending legislation to truth-in-teaching. We could have the biggest rash of malpractice suits since Nicky Kaldor retired.

Q: I think you’re onto something there. How foresighted of this department to have hired an expert on malpractice like Marilyn Simon [joined faculty 1977-78 academic year], the world-famous author of Unnecessary Surgery – The View from the Inside.

A: Simon only writes about malpractice – [Jeffrey E.] Harris actually does it, I understand.

Q: You seem to have discovered a lot since you turned up around here. Anything else new on the malpractice front?

A: There’s a rumor that the University of Chicago has had to recall all the degrees issued during the last five model years.

Q: You mean…

A: Right. Defective transmission mechanisms.

Q: Gad. Are there any good defenses against malpractice suits in your long and varied experience?

A: You can hire a mathematician for the faculty.

Q: What good does that do?

A: How the hell would I know? All I can say is that every department seems to be hiring mathematicians these days. It’s got to be for something.

Q: I’m looking for some more tried and true defense.

A: There’s always the Long-and-Variable Lags defense. See the Supreme Court decision in Tobin versus Friedman, in which Friedman successfully argued that first it’s true, second he never said it, and third wait till next year.

Q-: How about the Roy Lopez Defense?

A: You mean P–K4, P-K4; N-KB3, N-QB3; B-QN5, P-QR3?

Q: No, I mean Roy Lopez, the middle line-backer for the Princeton Economics Department – anyone sues for malpractice, he breaks their legs.

A: Sounds good. There’s also the classic defense due to Stanley Fischer, that truth should be indexed. Today’s malpractice is tomorrow’s conventional wisdom.

Q: Speaking of conventional wisdom, have you spoken with Professor Galbraith since your return?

A: No, but I have been reading his latest book: Why Are People Poor?

Q: I’ll bite; why are people poor?

A: Not enough income, according to Galbraith.

Q: Does he have a remedy?

A: Move to Switzerland.

Q: I see.

A: I can’t wait until the news reaches Calcutta.

Q: One last question, to return to the subject with which we started. Do you see any trends in student skits?

A: Longer.

Q: Longer and funnier?

A: Longer.

Q: Any final comment?

A: Let me ask you a question. What do you consider the most remarkable thing in this interview?

Q: That’s easy. We never mentioned IBM.

 

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

Image Source:  Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks performing the 2000 year old man from NPR KNAU, Arizona public radio article “Could You Talk To a Caveman?” (May 9, 2013) .

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Course outline, readings, exam questions, 1949-50

 

Of particular interest in this two-track (for economics concentrators and non-concentrators, respectively) principles of economics course is that the Keynesian Cross chapter (XII) of Paul Samuelson’s new textbook Economics was assigned in the concentrators’ version.

The course was taught by Professor Burbank and the newly minted Harvard Ph.D. Wesley Glenn Campbell who would later be hand-picked by former President Herbert Hoover to head to the Hoover Institution.

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Course Description

ECONOMICS
1949-50

Primarily for Undergraduates

Economics 1 (formerly Economics Aa and Ab). Principles of Economics

Full course. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. This course is conducted by sections. It will be divided into sections for concentrators and for non-concentrators. There will be sections at other hours. (Radcliffe sections will meet Tu., Th., Sat., at 11 and at such other times as the enrolment may justify.) Professor BURBANK, Dr. [Wesley Glenn] CAMPBELL [Harvard Ph.D., 1948], and other MEMBERS OF THE DEPARTMENT.

Economics 1 may be taken by properly qualified Freshmen with the consent of the instructor.

Economics 1 provides an introduction to the principles required for the analysis of economic problems. The development of principles in the main fields of economics and the study of economic organization give the non-concentrator a background for the understanding of economic problems and are indispensable for the concentrator’s further work in advanced courses.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-1950 (1 of 3)”.

________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 1 (formerly Economics Aa and Ab). Principles of Economics. (Full Co.) Professor Burbank, Dr. Campbell, and other Members of the Department.

(Fall) Total 441: 1 Graduate, 16 Seniors, 68 Juniors, 220 Sophomores, 110 Freshmen, 21 Radcliffe, 5 Special.
(Spring) Total 434: 1 Graduate, 18 Seniors, 72 Juniors, 240 Sophomores, 73 Freshmen, 26 Radcliffe, 4 Special.

 

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1949-50, p. 72.

 

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ECONOMICS I—CONCENTRATORS
1949-50
First Half

Sources:
Benham and Lutz Economics, American Edition (1941)
*Bowman and Bach Economic Analysis and Public Policy, Second Edition (1949)
Burns, Neal & Watson Modern Economics(1948)
Hart, A.G. Money, Debt, and Economic Activity(1948)
Merrill, Lynch, et al, How to Read a Financial Report
*Peach and Krause Basic Data of the American Economy, Revised Edition, (1949)
Peterson, S. Economics(1949)
Schumpeter, J. A. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
Slichter, S. H. Modern Economic Society(1931)
Slichter, S. H. The American Economy(1948)
Williamson, H. F. The Growth of the American Economy

*To be purchased by students.

 

PART I. Introduction

  1. The Economic Problem
    Benham: Ch. 1, General Survey
  2. Economic Institutions and Economic Development
    Burns: Ch. 2, Change and Growth in the Economy
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 6, Economic Analysis and Public Policy

PART II. National Income, Money, Banking and Price Levels

  1. National Income
    Burns: Ch. 4, National Income and National Output
    Peach & Krause: Section I, National Income
  2. Money, Banking and Price Levels
    Merrill, Lynch, et al.: How to Read A Financial Report
    Peach & Krause: Section 4, Money and Banking
    Peterson: Ch. 10, Exchange Media. Hand-to-Hand Money
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 10, The Banking System, the Money Supply, and Investment; Ch. 11, The Government and the Money Supply
    R.B.: Banking and Monetary Statistics, Section 10, pp. 360-366
    National Debt Series: 2, Our National Debt and the Banks; 3, Our National Debt and Interest Rates; 6, Our National Debt and Life Insurance
    Hart: Ch. 10, Inflation and Deflation

PART III. Role of Markets in the Allocation of Resources and the Determination of Relative Prices

  1. Markets—An Introduction to the Problems of Production, Distribution, Exchange and Consumption
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 2, Income and Consumption; Ch. 3, The Economic System—A Summary View; Ch. 4, Private Enterprise, Profits, and the Price System; Ch. 5, Business Enterprise in the Modern Economy—omit appendix
  2. Price Determination and Resource Allocation
    Bowman & Bach: Book III, Production, Individual Prices, and the Allocation of Resources
    Williamson: Ch. 25, The Location of Economic Activity
    Benham: Ch. 2, Markets, pp. 38-46
    Slichter: Ch. 10, Speculative Production, pp. 215-221
  3. Public Control of Markets
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 33, Government Policy and Business Practice
    Schumpeter: Ch. 8, Monopolistic Practices
    Peterson: Ch. 23, Market Control Policies in the United States, pp. 618-631
    Peach & Krause: Section 9, Agriculture
  4. The Productive Performance of the American Economy
    Slichter: Ch. 1, The American Economy; Ch. 6, How Good is the American Economy
    Peach & Krause: Section 2, Population and the Working Force in the United States
    Peach & Krause: Section 3, National Resources

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Lecture Schedules and Reading Lists, 1942-1970”, Subfolder “49-55”.

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ECONOMICS I—NON-CONCENTRATORS
1949-50
First Half

Sources:
Arnold, T. The Bottlenecks of Business(1940)
Benham and Lutz Economics, American Edition (1941)
Bowman and Bach Economic Analysis and Public Policy, Second Edition (1949)
*Federal Reserve System Federal Reserve Charts on Bank Credit, Money Rates and Business(Latest edition)
Hart, A.G. Money, Debt, and Economic Activity(1948)
Johnson, E. A. J. Some Origins of the Modern Economic World
Merrill, Lynch, et al., How to Read a Financial Report
*Peterson, S. Economics(1949)
Slichter, S. H. Modern Economic Society(1931)
*Slichter, S. H. The American Economy(1948)
Williamson, H. F. The Growth of the American Economy
*Wright, D. M. Democracy and Progress

*To be purchased by students.

 

PART I. Introduction

  1. The Economic Problem
    Benham: Ch. 1, General Survey
  2. Economic Institutions and Economic Development—An Historical Approach
    Johnson: Ch. 2, The Late-Medieval Background; Ch. 3, The Emergence of Capitalism; Ch. 4, The Beginnings of Scientific Technology
    Williamson: Ch. 3, The Organization of Production During the Colonial Period
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 6, Economic Analysis and Public Policy

PART II. The Role of Markets in the Allocation of Resources and the Determination of Relative Prices

  1. A Comprehensive View of the Market System
    Peterson: Ch. 2, The Occupational and Industrial Structure; Ch. 3, Production and Income—Individual and National; Ch. 4, Framework and Problems of the Economic System
  2. The Determinants of Productive Power and the Organization of Production Under Capitalism
    Peterson: Ch. 5, Natural and Human Resources; Ch. 6, Capitalistic Production; Ch. 7, The Organization of Production; Ch. 8, Business Enterprise and the Corporate Form
    Merrill, Lynch, et al.: How to Read a Financial Report
    Peterson: Ch. 9, Finance, pp. 207-214 and 221-236
    Williamson: Ch. 14, The Capital Markets, 1789-1860; Ch. 28, The Investment Market After the War Between the States
  3. Price Determination and Resource Allocation
    Peterson: Ch. 17, The Role of Prices; Ch. 18, Supply, Demand, and Market Price
    Benham: Ch. 2, Markets, pp. 38-46
    Slichter: Ch. 10, Speculative Production, pp. 215-221
    Peterson: Ch. 19, Nature and Role of Demand and its Elasticity; Ch. 20, Cost and the Expansion and Contraction of Industries
    Williamson: Ch. 25, The Location of Economic Activity
    Peterson: Ch. 21, Output from Existing Capacity
  4. Public Regulation of Markets
    Peterson: Ch. 22, Monopoly and the Public Interest
    Williamson: Ch. 30, Industrial Concentration and Government anti-Trust Policy
    Arnold: Ch. 2, How Restraints of Trade Affect Your Standard of Living; Ch. 3, How Restraints of Trade Unbalance the National Budget; Ch. 7, Procedure under the Sherman Act; Ch. 8, The Clarification of Law; Appendix I
    Peterson: Ch. 23, Market Control Policies in the United States
    Wright: Ch. 8, The Problems of Competition
  5. The Production and Distribution of Wealth
    Slichter: Ch. 1, The American Economy; Ch. 6, How Good is the American Economy
    Wright: Ch. 7, Economic Goals and the Distribution of Wealth

PART III. Money, Banking, Price Levels and the National Income

  1. Money, Banking and Price Levels
    Peterson: Ch. 10, Exchange Media. Hand-to-Hand Money
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 10, The Banking System, the Money Supply, and Investment; Ch. 11, The Government and the Money Supply
    R.B.: Banking and Monetary Statistics, Section 10, pp. 360-366
    National Debt Series: 2, Our National Debt and the Banks; 3, Our National Debt and Interest Rates; 6, Our National Debt and Life Insurance
    Hart: Ch. 10, Inflation and Deflation
  2. Mechanics of the International Monetary Exchange
    Benham: Ch. 26, Balance of Payments
    Hart: Ch. 15, The Foreign Exchange Market
    Benham: Ch. 27, Free Exchange Rate; Ch. 28, The Gold Standard

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Lecture Schedules and Reading Lists, 1942-1970”, Subfolder “49-55”.

________________________

ECONOMICS I—CONCENTRATORS
1949-50
Second Half

Sources:
Benham and Lutz Economics, American Edition (1941)
*Bowman and Bach Economic Analysis and Public Policy,Second Edition (1949)
**Committee for Economic Development The Uses and Dangers of Direct Controls in Peacetime
**Economic Outlook Consumers, Workers Pay Cost of New Factories
Hart, A. G. Money, Debt, and Economic Activity(1948)
**International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Fourth Annual Report, 1948-49
**International Monetary Fund Annual Report, 1949
**Murray, P. The Steelworkers’ Case for Wages, Pensions and Social Insurance
*Peach and Krause Basic Data of the American EconomyRevised Edition (1949)
Peterson, S. Economics(1949)
Samuelson, P. Economics
Slichter, S. H. Basic Criteria Used in Wage Negotiations
**Slichter, S. H. Profits in a Laboristic Society
**Slichter, S. H. The Taft-Hartly Act
**Steel Industry Board Report to the President of the United States
**Voorhees, E. M. Statement before the Presidential Steel Board
Wright, D. M. Democracy and Progress

* To be purchased by students
**To be handed out in section meeting.

 

PART IV. The Distribution of Income

  1. Introduction
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 28, Introduction to the Study of Income Distribution
  2. Personal Income Distribution
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 29, Personal Income Distribution in the United States
    Wright: Ch. 7, Economic Goals and the Distribution of Wealth
  3. Determination of Returns to the Factors of Production
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 30, Wage and Salary Income; Ch. 32, Property Income
  4. Labor Organization and Labor Markets
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 31, The Economics of Labor Unionism
    Slichter: Basic Criteria Used in Wage Negotiations, pp. 7-31, and 36-40
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 35, Government Policy and Labor, pp. 651-673
    Slichter, The Taft-Hartley Act
  5. The Wages, Pensions, Prices and Profits Controversy
    Economic Outlook: Consumers, Workers Pay Cost of New Factories
    Slichter: Profits in a Laboristic Society
    Murray, The Steelworkers’ Case for Wages, Pensions and Social Insurance, pp. 9-29
    Voorhees, Statement before the Presidential Steel Board
    Steel Industry Board, Report to the President of the United States, pp. 1-11

PART V. International Economic Problems

Benham: Ch. 25, The Theory of International Trade; Ch. 26, Balances of Payments
Peach & Krause: Section 5, International Trade and Finance
Hart: Ch. 15, The Foreign Exchange Market
Benham: Ch. 27, Free Exchange Rates; Ch. 28, The Gold Standard; Ch. 29, Exchange Control; Ch. 30, Import Duties and Quotas
Hart: Ch. 18, International Monetary Cooperation
International Monetary Fund: Annual Report, 1949, pp. 1-46
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development: Fourth Annual Report, 1948-49, pp. 7-37

PART VI. Public Finance and the Economic Problem

Peach & Krause: Section 6, Government Expenditures, Tax Collections, Public and Private Debt
Bowman & Bach: Ch. 36, Introduction to the Public Economy; Ch. 37, Public Expenditures; Ch. 38, Public Revenues—Taxation; Ch. 39, Taxation (Continued)
Peterson: Ch. 30, Public Policy and the Distribution of Income

PART VII. The Nature of Economic Fluctuations and Policies Directed Toward Their Control

Samuelson: Ch. 12, Saving and Investment
Peach & Krause, Review Section 1, National Income
Hart: Review Ch. 10, Inflation and Deflation
Bowman & Bach: Ch. 13, The Rate of Economic Growth; Ch. 14, Economic Fluctuations
Peach & Krause: Section 7, Price Levels and Business Fluctuations
Wright: Ch. 6, Progress and Instability
Bowman & Bach: Ch. 40, Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization; Ch. 41, Fiscal Policy and Economic Stabilization; Ch. 42, Antimonopoly Measures, Wage-Price Policy, and Direct Controls
C.E.D.: The Uses and Dangers of Direct Controls in Peacetime

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Lecture Schedules and Reading Lists, 1942-1970”, Subfolder “49-55”.

________________________

ECONOMICS I—NON-CONCENTRATORS
1949-50
Second Half

Sources:
Benham and Lutz Economics, American Edition (1941)
Bowman and Bach Economic Analysis and Public Policy,Second Edition (1949)
**Economic Outlook Consumers, Workers Pay Cost of New Factories
Hart, A. G. Money, Debt, and Economic Activity(1948)
**International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Fourth Annual Report, 1948-49
**International Monetary Fund Annual Report, 1949
Jewkes, J. Ordeal by Planning(1948)
*Peterson, S. Economics(1949)
*Schumpeter, J. A. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy(1947)
*Slichter, S. H. The American Economy(1948)
Slichter, S. H. Basic Criteria Used in Wage Negotiations
**Slichter, S. H. Profits in a Laboristic Society
Sweezy, P. M. Socialism
*Wright, D. M. Democracy and Progress

* To be purchased by students
**To be handed out in section meeting.

 

PART IV. The Distribution of Income

  1. Personal Income Distribution
    Peterson: Ch. 24, Inequality—Extent and Significance; Ch. 25, Inequality in the Return from Labor
  2. Determination of Returns to the Factors of Production
    Peterson: Ch. 26, Productivity and Income; Ch. 28, The Basis of Property Incomes; Ch. 29, Profits, Interest, and Wealth
  3. Labor Organization and Labor Markets
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 31, The Economics of Labor Unionism, pp. 492-501
    Peterson: Ch. 27, Wage-raising Policies and Practices
    Slichter: Basic Criteria Used in Wage Negotiations, pp. 7-31, and 36-40
    Bowman & Bach: Ch. 35, Government Policy and Labor, pp. 651-681
    Slichter: Ch. 2, Co-operation or Conflict in American Industry
  4. The Wages, Prices and Profits Controversy
    Economic Outlook: Consumers, Workers Pay Cost of New Factories
    Slichter: Profits in a Laboristic Society

PART V. International Economic Problems

Benham: Ch. 25, The Theory of International Trade; Review Chs. 26, 27, 28
Hart: Review, Ch. 15
Benham: Ch. 29, Exchange Control; Ch. 30, Import Duties and Quotas
Hart: Ch. 18, International Monetary Cooperation
International Monetary Fund: Annual Report, 1949, pp. 1-46
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development: Fourth Annual Report, 1948-49, pp. 7-37

PART VI. Public Finance and the Economic Problem

Bowman & Bach: Ch. 36, Introduction to the Public Economy; Ch. 37, Public Expenditures; Ch. 38, Public Revenues—Taxation; Ch. 39, Taxation (Continued)
Peterson: Ch. 30, Public Policy and the Distribution of Income

PART VII. The Nature of Economic Fluctuations and Policies Directed Toward Their Control

Peterson: Ch. 14, Total Demand and the Depression Problem; Ch. 15, Cyclical Fluctuations
Wright: Ch. 6, Progress and Instability
Slichter: Ch. 3, The Problem of Economic Stability
Wright: Ch. 11, Three Plans

PART VII. The Prospects for Economic Progress under Capitalism and Other Systems

Schumpeter: Part II, Can Capitalism Survive
Wright: Ch. 1, Science, Democracy, and Capitalism; Ch.2, The Moral Dilemma of Progress; Ch. 3, The Meaning and the Method of Democratic Progress; Ch.4, Political Democracy and the Alternatives to Competition
Schumpeter: Part III, Can Socialism Work?
Sweezy: Ch. 10, Can Socialism Provide Incentives to Work and to Efficiency?; Ch. 12, Are Socialism and Freedom Compatible?
Jewkes: Ch. 1, The Spread of Fashion; Ch.2, Is the Business Man Obsolete; Ch. 5, Confusion Among the Planners; Ch. 6, Planners as a Species; Ch. 7, Planning as a Scientific Method; Ch. 8, Planning and Prosperity; Ch. 9, Planning and Economic Stability; Ch. 10, Planning and Freedom

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Lecture Schedules and Reading Lists, 1942-1970”, Subfolder “49-55”.

________________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS I
Non-Concentrators

Mid-Year Examination
January, 1950

I
(One hour and a half)
Answer both questions

  1. A member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has recently advised Congress that the policy of the Treasury has made it impossible for the Federal Reserve authorities to use their powers as controllers of the country’s money supply. Explain carefully why Treasury and Federal Reserve policies must be coordinated and in what ways they are likely to come in to conflict. Illustrate by reference to the national debt and other problems which arose in the war and the postwar periods.
  2. The problem of the allocation of scarce resources among a multitude of possible uses is one which is largely solved automatically in our economy.
    Explain how this problem is solved. Give careful attention to the role of and inter-relationships among each of the following: consumer decisions, producer decisions and markets.

II
(One hour and a half)
Answer any THREE questions

  1. The monetary control authorities generally attempt to control the level of prices and the level of income through control of the supply of money. Using the equation of exchange as an analytic framework, analyze how a policy which changes the supply of money might work out.
  2. Answer either (a) or (b) of the following
    1. Distinguish “rate level” from “rate structure.” Discuss the criteria relied on by regulatory commissions in determining each for a public utility, noting the major problems involved.
    2. What are the major economic arguments for and against monopoly? In the light of these arguments what elements do you think should be contained in any balanced government policy toward monopoly?
  3.      a. Explain the relationship between gross and net national product; between national income and aggregate personal income.
    1. Discuss a purpose for which each one of the above aggregates can be used.
    2. In the light of the above explanation and additional pertinent facts comment on the following statement: “A comparison of national income at the depth of a depression with that during a period of prosperity overstates the impact of the depression on the consuming public.”
  4. Answer TWO of the following:
    1. Explain how speculative markets control the rate of use of periodically produced goods.
    2. Restate the Malthusian thesis (law of population) using the principle of diminishing returns.
    3. Distinguish the short-run stabilization and long-run adjustment of the market for farm products. Consider both the objectives and the implied policies.
    4. Discuss the respective roles of technological change and savings and capital accumulation in the emergence of modern economic society.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.

________________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS I
Concentrators

Mid-Year Examination
January, 1950

 

I
(One hour and a half)
Answer both questions

  1. A member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has recently advised Congress that the policy of the Treasury has made it impossible for the Federal Reserve authorities to use their powers as controllers of the country’s money supply. Explain carefully why Treasury and Federal Reserve policies must be coordinated and in what ways they are likely to come in to conflict. Illustrate by reference to the national debt and other problems which arose in the war and the postwar periods.
  2. Consumers’ preferences change, thus increasing the demand for a certain product which is produced under conditions of pure competition. Trace in precise fashion the results of this increase in demand on the output of the individual firms and of the industry, and on the price of the product:
    1. in the short run,
    2. in the long run.

 

II
(One hour and a half)
Answer any THREEquestions

  1. The monetary control authorities generally attempt to control the level of prices and the level of income through control of the supply of money. Using the equation of exchange as an analytic framework, analyze how a policy which changes the supply of money might work out.
  2. What are the major economic arguments for and against monopoly? In the light of these arguments what elements do you think should be contained in any balanced government policy toward monopoly?
  3. Answer TWO of the following:
    1. Discuss three important factors determining the location of economic activity.
    2. “When there is oligopoly, even without collusive agreements, price competition will tend to be ‘nonaggressive’, and price will usually be higher than otherwise.” Discuss.
    3. “Competition on a nonprice basis has become more and more important in recent years.” Discuss the effects of this trend on the allocation of resources.
    4. Discuss the process of hedging in a commodity market and its significance to the non-speculative businessman.
  4. Define Gross National Output (Product), National Income, and Income Payments (Personal Income).
    1. What is the general use of these concepts and how might each one be used specifically?
    2. How is Gross national Output related to Aggregate Demand or Expenditure?
    3. How will the relation between National Income and income Payments vary in prosperity and depression?
    4. Can we place great reliance on these concepts as measures of economic welfare?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.

________________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS I
Non-Concentrators

Final Examination
June, 1950

I
(One hour and a half)
Answer both questions

  1. Investment is often said to play a “strategic role” in the business cycle. What is meant by this statement? What are its implications for counter-cyclical policy?
  2. “Remuneration for labor services and a share in the social dividend are the only sources of personal income under socialism. Therefore, the socialist planners can ignore rent, interest, and profits even though they are fundamental to the functioning of a capitalist system.” Discuss.

II
(One hour and a half)
Answer both questions

  1. Without stating general conclusions as to the merits of either side, explain the basic issues involved in the dispute between labor and industry over wages, prices and profits.
  2. Discuss the elements to be considered in the establishment of a model tax system for the United States at the present level of expenditures. (This includes all levels of Government.)

III
(Thirty minutes)
Answer one question

  1. An adverse balance of payments can be corrected by (1) changes in exchange rates, (2) changes in prices and incomes, or (3) exchange and import controls.
    1. Discuss briefly how each of the above three methods may be used to correct a country’s adverse balance of payments.
    2. Discuss the extent to which the member countries of the International Monetary Fund may make use of the above three methods.
  2. Comment on the following statement: “The object of American tariff policy should be to impose sufficient duty on goods of every kind to equalize the cost of production at home and abroad.”

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.

________________________

1949-50
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS I
Concentrators

Final Examination
June, 1950

I
(One hour and a half)
Answer both questions

  1. Investment is often said to play a “strategic role” in the business cycle. What is meant by this statement? What are its implications for counter-cyclical policy?
  2. The establishment of product prices and of returns to factors of production are two sides of the same economic process.
    1. Analyze the forces of supply and demand which determine the return to a factor of production.
    2. Explain (in terms of producer and consumer decisions) how these returns determine and are determined by the prices of products.

II
(One hour and a half)
Answer both questions

  1. Without stating general conclusions as to the merits of either side, explain the basic issues involved in the dispute between labor and industry over wages, prices and profits.
  2. Discuss the elements to be considered in the establishment of a model tax system for the United States at the present level of expenditures. (This includes all levels of Government.)

III
(Thirty minutes)
Answer one question

  1. An adverse balance of payments can be corrected by (1) changes in exchange rates, (2) changes in prices and incomes, or (3) exchange and import controls.
    1. Discuss briefly how each of the above three methods may be used to correct a country’s adverse balance of payments.
    2. Discuss the extent to which the member countries of the International Monetary Fund may make use of the above three methods.
  2. Comment on the following statement: “The object of American tariff policy should be to impose sufficient duty on goods of every kind to equalize the cost of production at home and abroad.”

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.

Image Source:  H. H. Burbank in the Harvard Class Album 1947.

Categories
Funny Business M.I.T.

M.I.T. “The Greatest Faculty Skit Ever Written”, ca. 1974

 

The following faculty skit comes from the M.I.T. department of economics when memories of the Senate Watergate Hearings (summer of 1973) were still very fresh in everyone’s memories.  This skit was likely presented at the 1973-74 annual skit party.  Frederick Mishkin received his B.S. in 1973 from M.I.T. and his first year as a graduate student at M.I.T. was in 1973-74. Other graduate students named were either second year or thesis-writers.

I presume “E. Hausman Hunt” was a blend of the names of the MIT econometrician Jerry Hausman and the Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt.

“Bob Dean” was likely a blend of the names of Robert Hall (who taught the course 14.123) and Nixon’s special counsel John Dean (wife’s name Maureen).

“Paul Colson” might have been a blend of the names of Paul Joskow and Charles Colson, Nixon’s man for “dirty tricks” and who claimed he would have walked over his own grandmother to get Nixon reelected.

“F.” would appear with the remark about not understanding “goyim” to have been Frank Fisher.

Roger Backhouse graciously made his copy of this skit available for transcription. I have corrected many typos in the original text. If I ever identify the author, I shall update this post. 

__________________

The Greatest Faculty Skit Ever Written
(in 1 hour, 15 minutes)

F. This here meeting will now come to order. Let the minutes show that this is the 732nd meeting of the Special Subcommittee of the Econometrics [sic] Society investigating the notorious Westgate affair.

M1: Mr. Chairman, a point of personal privilege—

F. Yes, Mr. Solow.

M2: I’ve been out of town testifying for IBM in Tulsa for the last 7 months. Could you fill me in on what’s been happening?

F. On the night of June 20, 1972 several graduate students were apprehended breaking into Gary Becker’s office. It appeared that these students were after Prof. Becker’s manuscript on a theory of marriage. Several pieces of evidence point [to] the fact that these students were after Prof. Becker’s manuscript on a theory of marriage. Several pieces of evidence point [to] the fact that a well known Eastern economist (with initials PAS) may have funded this break-in for as yet unknown reasons. This committee has been called to investigate this matter.

M1Thank you Mr. Chairman.

F. Will the first witness step forward to testify?
Please state your name.

EHH   E. Hausman Hunt.

F. What have you been doing for [the] last 3 months?

EHH.  I’ve spent the last 3 months in Charles St. Jail polishing up my lecturing technique. If I could only speak a little faster during my lecture, just think how much more material I could cover.

F. Is it true that you were in charge of organizing the burglary of Becker’s office?

EHH. Yes; I used several graduate students from MIT: my first choices were Rick Kasten and Roger Gordon but we had to reject them since we were afraid they were too talkative. However I finally settled on Rick Mishkin and Glenn Loury; Mishkin because he was so calm and organized; and Louryto comply with equal opportunities satisfy HEW.

F. Is it true that you write econometrics papers under a pseudonym?

EHH. Yes, I’ve just produced my 43rdpaper on the identification problem using the pseudonym “Franklin M. Fisher”

F. Well, I may be an old country bullfrog, but…
Next witness, please

(BH steps forward; Maureen sits in his lap; F. gives the eyebrows to the audience)

F. State your name, rank.

BD. I’m Bob Dean, special assistant professor.

F. And whom do you assist?

BD. Prof. Paul Anthony Samuelson, BA, PhD, L.H.D, L.L.D, Litt.D. (hon), LSD.

F. Can you describe briefly your part in the Westgate affair?

BD. Prof Samuelson was working on a theory of marriage at the same time as Prof. Becker. He had just succeeded in developing the formal first order conditions for the optimal marriage (using the LeChatelier principle) when he discovered Prof Becker’s work. He asked me to arrange for him to get a look at Prof. Becker’s manuscript.

F. Isn’t it true that you got married on or about this same period?

BD. Yes, that was also part of Prof Samuelson’s theory of marriage. He had also arranged for an empirical part of this work; after deriving the first order conditions, he hired a computer programmer to search for the optimal marriage in the department. Maureen and I were chosen. Pressured by Samuelson we agreed to get married.

F. How did you afford your honeymoon on an assistant prof’s salary?

BD. I borrowed some money from a departmental slush fund.

F. What is the source of this slush fund?

BD. It was accumulated for the sale of lecture notes from 14.123; why else do you think we sell those notes?

F. (eyebrows) I see. When did you again meet with Prof Samuelson?

BD. March 21, 1973;

F. What happened at that meeting?

BD. We received instructions from Prof. Samuelson on how to behave on our honeymoon. We asked Prof. Samuelson if it would be OK if our marginal utilities were not equalized; he said that “it would be wrong.”

F. Why was Prof Samuelson taking such an interest in your honeymoon?

BD. He wanted to be sure that his theory involved only “empirically refutable propositions”. He was also worried that we might behave too formally.

F. I don’t think I’ll ever understand you goyim.

F. Next witness. Please state your name.

PC. Paul Colson.

F. For what purpose were you hired by Prof Samuelson?

PC. I was supposed to ghost write the empirical part of the paper.

F. It says here (looking at notes) that you are one of the most dedicated of the applied econometricians?

PC. Yes, I’d run over my own grandmother to get a t-statistic greater than 2.

F. What were Prof. Samuelson’s instructions?

PC. As you know, Prof Samuelson was worried that Bob and Maureen Dean might be too formal on their honeymoon; I was sent along to collect data on their performance.

F. What happened? (eyebrows)

PC. As I peered into their motel room, I saw Bob come out of the bathroom dressed in pajamas and say to Maureen: I offer my honor. Maureen came out in her nightgown and replied I honor your offer.

F. (eyebrows) What happened next?

PC. From then on it was just honor and offer all night.

F. What went wrong?

PC. We forgot to check the second-order conditions and it was only a saddle point.

 

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

Image Source: Photo from U.S. Senate Watergate hearings. From left to right: minority counsel Fred Thompson, ranking member Howard Baker, and chair Sam Ervin of the Senate Watergate Committee.

Categories
Computing M.I.T.

M.I.T. Request for funds so Samuelson can multiply, 1941

 

 

I fondly remember the experience of having a desktop Wang calculator that could calculate logarithms when I was an intern at the Council of Economic Advisers in 1972. Hard to imagine that only three decades earlier, Paul Samuelson had to hustle to find funds to pay for access to an IBM punch card calculating machine that would multiply, multiply I say! A casual search of the internet turned up the Wikipedia article on the first IBM calculating machine that could multiply, the IBM 601. I am guessing that must be the machine in question since the IBM 602 (that could do division) was only introduced in 1946. 

Source: IBM 601 multiplying punch. By Sandstein – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.

________________

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of
Economics and Social Science

Cambridge, Mass

February 20, 1941

Mr. J. R. Killian
Room 3-208
M.I.T.

Dear Mr. Killian:

As I mentioned in our conversation of yesterday, the Department is badly in need of about $150.00 to defray expenses involved in the use of punch card computing services. The Institute’s Hollerith machine can be used for part of the work, but since this machine does not multiply we need to supplement it from the equipment available at the International Business Machine Co. The money will be required to cover the rental of machines, cost of cards and to hire a trained operator. The work arises out of research problems in business cycles in which Professor Samuelson is engaged.

Since the Department funds are at a very low ebb, I should be extremely grateful if you could charge this expense to any fund that may be available and appropriate.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Ralph E. Freeman

REF:d

 

Source:  MIT Archives. MIT. Office of The President, 1930-1958. Box 93, Folder “1940-1944. Freeman, R.E.”.

Image Source: Paul A. Samuelson, fellowship awarded 1948 .  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Categories
Exam Questions Swarthmore Undergraduate

Swarthmore. Senior comprehensive economics exam, 1931

 

The two previous posts provided undergraduate comprehensive examinations for Harvard and Princeton from the early 1930s that were published in the Bulletin of the Association of American Colleges (December, 1933). The cross-section of comprehensive economics exams is now expanded with this post to include Swarthmore College’s economics department.

A decade later Swarthmore College brought in external examiners (many of whom recruited from Wolfgang Stolper’s network of Harvard graduate buddies), e.g.

_________________

Senior Comprehensive Examination in Economics

Swarthmore College, 1931

  1. a. Why have railroads been subject to an unusual amount of regulation?
    b. Appraise reproduction cost as a basis for the valuation of public utilities.
    c. Explain the operation of the principle of joint costs in the determination of rates for specific services.
  2. Discuss:
    a. “One of the unions’ chief errors is restriction of output, which is always against the social interest and even fruitless for the workers.”
    b. “To the extent that employee representation seems to the worker to be just an employer’s weapon against trade unionism, it will be still less popular in the future than today and even its good points will be ignored.”
  3. Is it necessary to make goods in order to make money? Give the answers of T. N. Carver, S. & B. Webb, F. M. Taylor, T. Veblen, Adam Smith, R. H. Tawney, and Alfred Marshall. Why have these scholars come to such contrary conclusions after examining the facts? Is it possible that both groups are right; that neither one is right? How so? If not, which group is right and why?
  4. a. Since it is understood that all kinds of money in this country are to be maintained at a parity of value with standard money, would not inconvertible paper money issued by our government be quite as acceptable and useful as any kind? Explain.
    b. In the United States there are many kinds of money. What are they, and what is the security behind each one? Does Gresham’s Law operate? Why, or why not.
  5. a. It is said that the United States is evolving into a commission form of government; that the government set up by the Constitution is gradually delegating its duties to “expert commissions.” Bearing in mind the frailty of commissioners and their staffs, do you believe this is a wise movement? Why? Be specific.
    b. Giving generous reference to the history of governmental regulation in the United States, what do you believe will be the position of the government as a regulator of business twenty-five years hence?
  6. According to present estimates, the federal government will complete this fiscal year, June 30, 1931, with a deficit of nearly one billion dollars. Outline, in detail, the causes of this deficit. Suggest, with reasons, the fiscal program which the government should adopt, for the coming year, in view of this deficit.
  7. Philip Snowden, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, has proposed the imposition of a tax on the site value of land as a means of balancing the British budget. It is argued that such a tax would have less of a repressive effect upon industry than any other type of tax which might be imposed. Give in detail the reasoning which supports this position.
  8. Give an historical account of the currency agitation and legislation from the end of the Civil War to the end of the last century. What issues were involved and how did they arise? On the whole, do you think that our currency history of this period refutes or verifies the quantity theory of money?
  9. a. Imagine yourself a Congressman in the year of 1828 and make a brief argument for the high tariff policy adopted in that year. Would you argue in the same way today? If not, why not? Is your supposed speech that of a representative from South Carolina or Pennsylvania? Give reasons.
    b. Briefly comment upon what you regard as three important causes or factors in the present industrial depression.
  10. a. How important for price theory and for practical life are differences in the elasticity of demand for commodities? Illustrate, using diagrams.
    b. Translate, and if necessary, correct the following popular statements into the more exact language of economic theory:

(1) “We produce too much coal and people freeze to death; we raise too much cotton and people go naked.”
(2) “Great Britain’s foreign trade is in a bad way; she has an extremely unfavorable balance.”
(3) “The price of corn is low because you can buy good corn land so cheaply.”
(4) “Depressions are due to over-production, and by this I mean that more goods are produced than can be sold, for two reasons; rich people save too much, and the workers do not get high enough wages.”

(Answer five questions. Use the first half-hour to study and select your questions. Then devote about thirty minutes to answering each question.)

 

Source:  Edward S. Jones. Comprehensive Examinations in the Social Sciences, Supplement to the December, 1933 Bulletin of the Association of American Colleges, pp. 41-43.

Image Source: Parrish Hall, Swarthmore College  .

 

Categories
Funny Business M.I.T.

M.I.T. Economics Christmas skit with basketball theme, 1961

Boston, MA - 1/1/1960: From left, Boston Celtics players Tom Heinsohn, Bill Russell, Capt. Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman and Frank Ramsey pose together at the Boston Garden in Boston circa 1960. (Boston Globe Archive/) --- BGPA Reference: 170504_BS_001

 

Spoiler alert: you are about to encounter one of the least funny economics skits in the history of the genre, so this artifact is regrettably low on entertainment value.  Still the six acts have a certain seven-acts-of-man structure: Act I (the department recruits), Act II ( advising the first-year student), Act III (graduate student complaints), Act IV (choosing guest speakers), Act V (general examinations), Act VI (job market). 

After reading the skit, you might need a palate cleansing or better: for that purpose here are a few links to the key word “Funny Business” at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror that take you to some of the greatest hits of economics skits.

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ANOTHER TWO POINTS FOR THE FACULTY,
ANOTHER FOUL ON THE STUDENTS

A Christmas Drama (with suggestions for a cast), December 15, 1961

ACT I

(The curtain rises on a scene of [Edgar Cary] Brown, [Franklin Marvin] Fisher, [Charles Poor] Kindleberger and [Abraham J.] Siegel seated around a table reading applications.

SIEGEL: Here’s a guy who may be OK…No…the place is no good. A cow college. They average only 50 points a game.

BROWN:  Here’s a good one.

FISHER: What’s his record?

BROWN: Pretty darn good. Worth at least tuition plus $500. Maybe $750.

FISHER: What’s his record?

BROWN: Pretty darn good. He’s from Podunk. And they’re pretty good. He was the best they had.

FISHER: How did he score, for crying out loud?

BROWN: He’s six-feet-five, weighs 195 pounds, and fast; he averaged 23.7 points a game. He has a great set shot, never misses from the foul line, and superb off the backboard. He’s just what we need in Graduate Economics at M.I.T.

 

ACT II

(An office: Siegel is advising a student.)

SIEGEL: For the first year I would take pretty standard fare: theory, history, statistics, finance, and international, plus of course the workshop. There’s no use trying to take too much. Pace yourself.

STUDENT (perhaps [Stephen Herbert] Hymer?): I don’t have much math. Why do I need to take statistics?

SIEGEL: Ando is very good. He doesn’t always make things completely clear, but you have to take statistics if you want to be able to handle averages, to work out the point per game and point per shot records; and you need probability to help compute odds on all the league games. Statistics is a must.

STUDENT: Why the history, finance and international?

SIEGEL: International is important. You ought to know how to schedule the Harlem Globetrotters, and who has the best chance in the Olympics. One of our best graduates played on the Oxford team against Poland and Czechoslovakia. That was Chuck Cooper, and it got him a job as Walter Heller’s assistant at the Council. Finance is important. When the gamblers start bribing players you need to know how to invest the funds. And history is vital. On the general exams they always ask who was James Naismith, the man who invented basketball. That’s for every student. The good students they ask when it was invented…of course 1891. And the very best students they ask where…past, Springfield, Mass. Remember, it’s not Springfield, Illinois. That’s Abe Lincoln.

STUDENT: OK. But tell me about the last one.

SIEGEL: Theory isn’t much. [Paul Anthony] Samuelson teaches about how to make inputs for two points, and when to dribble.

STUDENT: Samuelson teaches drivel?

 

ACT III

(A group of students, griping.)

STUDENT 1 (Francis Michel Bator?): This place is no good. It’s theory, theory, theory all the way. Anyone knows that the way to win at basketball is to practice. Practice makes perfect. Theory makes perfect fools. All you do is study and take exams. “Who was James Naismith? Who was Adam Yea-Smith? When do you chop down the tree?” Bah! I say we ought to study policy. With a two-point lead and three minutes to go, should you freeze the ball or plop in an input for an output of two points?

STUDENT 2 ([Paul Narcyz] Rosenstein-Rodan?): They tell me [Robert Merton] Solow has been converted from theory to policy. He is no longer interested in questions like whether the best set shot is an inverted rectangular parabola, but real issues, like the queuing problem: how many substitutes does a team need to field five men for an hour, with one personal foul every six minutes and four personal fouls per man disqualifying. If you have too many players on the bench you get unemployment. The team needs growth. Maybe you ought to add a man and play six.

STUDENT 3 ([Robert] Evans?): What’s bad is to have to play far away from the Sloan building. Those workshops on top on Walker and over in the Armory are OK, but they are too far away. We need the Ford Foundation to give us a workshop right here.

STUDENT 1: Haven’t you heard? The talk is that the new building to go up in the back lot is a library. But as I see its dimensions unfold- 90 feet by 50 – and transparent backboards and netting and grandstands, I can’t believe it’s a library. It must be a basketball court.

 

ACT IV

(A meeting of the G.E.A.)

RALPH BULL (played by [Robert Lyle] Bishop?): Do any of you fellows have suggestions for speakers besides Cousy, Russell, Jungle Jim Lusketoff, and that 6.8 outstanding economist, [John Kenneth] Galbraith, who can stand with his head coming up through the basket?

STUDENT B: What about Milton Friedman? He is under the five feet which some say is the minimum allowable in a monetary theorist, but he sure is good at the far-fetched shot.

STUDENT B: Why not get Clifford Odets?

RALPH BULL: Clifford Odets? Why him?

STUDENT B: Don’t you remember the famous line in “Awake and Sing”? “My brother Sam joined the Navy. He don’t know from nothin’, that dumb basketball player.” I want to know whether the emphasis is “that dumb basketball player” or “the [sic] dumb basketball player”. Are there any smart basketball players?

 

ACT V

KINDLEBERGER: As chairman of this exam, let me tell you that you have the right to pick the order of your exam. Do you want to start with Theory, or Statistics?

STUDENT (Samuelson?): I think I’ll start by jumping against Fisher, your professorship, sir. Ando’s the smaller, so I’ll take him last when I’m tired.

KINDLEBERGER: All right. (Student and Fisher face each other. Kindleberger blows whistle and throws imaginary ball. Cheers of amazement from faculty.)

FISHER: Very well. I have decided to let you combine Theory and Economic History.

STUDENT: Hey, Ref, your Ph.D.ship, sir, I’m not responsible for History. Isn’t that a foul?

KINDLEBERGER: I didn’t see nuthin’.

FISHER: Consider the population explosion of the last 150 years. Discuss the relative roles of (a) men and (b) women in this affair.

ANDO [Albert Keinosuke] : Good shot. That’s two points for our side.

STUDENT: I don’t know that, your cap-and-gownship, sir, but I know the roles are neither reflexive, symmetric, or transitive.

KINDLEBERGER: (blows whistle) Foul. You used big words in a generals. That’s only permitted the faculty.

FISHER: I’ll give Albert my free throw.

ANDO: (taking the foul shot) Please discuss the role of the nearly decomposable take-off in the application of a priori oligopoly theory to the A&P case.

STUDENT: Hey! You guys are ganging up on me.

ANDO: Well, you outnumber us in class.

STUDENT: (driving hard for basket) It can be set up as a nine-dimensional matrix problem and the latent roots dispensed with. I think the take-off is fine if done along the turnpike, watching out for model changes in passing cars.

ANDO: Fantastic! (Faculty huddle.)

KINDLEBERGER: That was a good answer. We’ve decided to give you an Excellent minus for being a good scorer, but to ask you to leave the Institute for fouling out on personals.

KINDLEBERGER, ANDO, FISHER: Rah, team!

 

ACT VI

DOMAR [Evsey David]: Well, you have the degree wrapped up, and now want a job. Not bad. You got a good grade on the orals, and would have gotten a top grade if you hadn’t thought that Stilt Chamberlain played for the Celtics and failed to distinguish Slippery Sam Jones from Casey Jones. Your thesis was entirely satisfactory, on a good topic: How to Get to the Boston Garden from Madison Square Garden: An Application of the Turnpike Theorem. And you even did languages: basketball communication in the Ivy League, or basketball with a broad A. Now the job. What do you think? Big Ten? Ivy League? Small liberal arts? Girls’ rules like Wellesley or Vassar? Or maybe the real big time: Kentucky, Long Island University, St. Joseph’s in Brooklyn, Notre Dame. L.I.U. is to economics like M.I.T. was to economics.

STUDENT (perhaps [Max Franklin] Millikan?): I don’t now if I’m ready for the Big Time.

DOMAR: What about applying some of your basketballmetrics for the government? They need our graduates. Or for an oil company. Maybe you would like to take a ball and a whistle and go abroad, demonstrating technical assistance to underdeveloped countries. There are jobs like that.

STUDENT: No. I guess I’m fussy. What I’d like is just what all the gang would like, to stay here at Cambridge with Harvard and the Celtics, and to referee like you and [Robert Lyle] Bishop and Samuelson, always blowing off your whistle and shouting foul, going first class to conferences, and shouting foul, foul, foul at the students.

 

Source:  M.I.T. Archives. MIT Department of Economics records, Box 2, Folder “GEA 1961-67”.

Image Source:  Boston Celtics players Tom Heinsohn, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman and Frank Ramsey in 1960. “Twelve of the greatest Celtics players of all time”  from Boston.com website (March 18, 2018)

 

Categories
Berkeley Economists Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumna Alice Bourneuf, 1955

 

 

In the continuing series, meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus/a, we have here an obituary for the Harvard Ph.D. (1955), Alice Bourneuf, whose career milestones included early work in the IMF through the building up the economics department at Boston College. Paul Samuelson counted her among Schumpeter’s circle of graduate students at Harvard in the 1930’s.

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Alice Bourneuf (1912-1980)
Boston College Obituary

Alice Bourneuf, professor emeritus, dies
Instrumental in shaping economics department

Alice E. Bourneuf, Boston College economics professor emeritus, died Dec. 7 in Boston after a long illness. Bourneuf, 68, was the first woman to hold a tenured professorate within the College of Arts and Sciences and was instrumental in making the department of economics the distinguished unit it is today.

President Monan was with Bourneuf in her final moments and was principal celebrant of a memorial Mass at the Chapel of the Most Blessed Trinity, Newton Campus, Dec. 13.

Bourneuf was born in Haverhill on Oct. 2, 1912. Her career in education and public service spanned four decades.

She graduated from Radcliffe in 1933 and continued her studies there, receiving the MA in 1939 and the PhD in 1955. An authority on national and international economies, her main fields of research and writing were macroeconomic theory, money and banking, public finance, business cycles, unemployment and investment.

She participated in the formulation of international monetary plans for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC from 1942 to 1946. From 1946 to 1948 she conducted research on exchange rates and internal financial problems for the International Monetary Fund. She was senior economist for the Marshall Plan in Norway and France from 1948 to 1953.

After teaching at Mt. Holyoke College and the University of California at Berkeley, Bourneuf joined the BC economics department as a tenured full professor in 1959. She retired in 1977.

Recalling Bourneuf, Assoc. Prof. Harold Peterson (Economics) said she was “one of the two or three people who’ve had a profound influence on my life.” He spoke of how she “revolutionized” and “modernized” the economics program here, bringing in new faculty to help her accomplish the task.

“Hers was a constant struggle,” Peterson added. “She showed us immense courage, both in her life and in her death.”

Prof. Michael Mann (Economics) called Bourneuf “a towering figure at BC.” Mann said she was an inspiration not only to her immediate colleagues, but to the entire university and the community-at-large as well. “Alice set standards for academic integrity—for good work, quality work,” Mann said. “Even those who disagreed with her respected her opinions.”

“The economics department at Boston College is now well-known,” said Harvard economist Richard E. Caves. “It’s rise is primarily attributed to Alice Bourneuf.”

MIT economist Paul Samuelson called Bourneuf “a magnificent person and economist.” Recalling Bourneuf’s recruitment activities on behalf of BC, Samuelson said, “When Alice Bourneuf and (economics professor) Fr. Robert McEwen appeared at American Economic Association conventions, department heads quaked for the ivory they were hoarding.”

In 1976, BC established the Bourneuf Award, which is given annually to the outstanding undergraduate in the field of economics. Bourneuf also received honorary degrees from Boston College (1977) and Regis College (1975) and was the recipient of numerous fellowships and honors during her lifetime. In October 1979 the University dedicated Bourneuf House, offices of the academic vice president. Asked about the honor at that time, Bourneuf said, “I can’t believe it or understand it. They should have named it after some famous person.” She leaves four sisters, two brothers and 18 nieces and nephews.

 

Source:   Boston College Biweekly, Volume 1, Number 8, 18 December 1980, pp. 1,4.

Image Source:  Webpage “Breaking the Mold” at the World Bank/IMF website: The Bretton Woods Institutions turn 60.

Categories
Columbia Cornell Economists M.I.T.

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, David Durand. Obituary, 1996

 

David Durand’s Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation (degree awarded in 1941) was published as Risk Elements in Consumer Instalment Financing. National Bureau of Economic Research, Financial Research Program, Studies in Consumer Instalment Financing, no. 8. New York: NBER, 1941. He is perhaps best known among economists, as Paul Samuelson notes, for his pioneering empirical work on the yield curve.

David Durand. Basic Yields of Corporate Bonds, 1900-1942. NBER, June 1942.

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Prof. David Durand of MIT Dies at 83
February 28, 1996

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–Dr. David Durand, a professor emeritus of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was an early adherent of applying statistical methods–especially sampling–to problems in corporate finance and other fields, died Monday, Feb. 26, at the MIT Infirmary. Dr. Durand, who lived in Lexington, Mass., was 83.

His family said the cause of death was aplastic anemia.

Raised in Ithaca, N.Y., Dr. Durand received a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University in 1934, and both a master’s degree (1938) and PhD (1941) from Columbia University. He was a lieutenant in the US Naval Reserve during World War II, serving in the Hawaiian Islands and on Guam.

Before coming to MIT in 1953, he was associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, then in Riverdale, N.Y., and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. He also did consulting work for the Twentieth Century Fund and taught part-time at Columbia.

It was at the National Bureau of Economic Research, said MIT economist Dr. Paul A. Samuelson, an Institute professor and Nobel laureate, that Dr. Durand “pioneered the empirical study of how long-term bonds usually require a higher yield than short. Everyone understands that today, but he was the first to document it.”

Dr. Durand’s first appointment at MIT was as a research associate at the Sloan School of Management. He became an associate professor in 1955 and professor in 1958. He retired in 1973.

In addition to the application of statistical methods to financial problems, his fields of specialization included term structure of interest rates and statistics.

His research in finance included a sampling analysis of default experience for consumer installment loans, farm mortgage lending experience and factors affecting bank stock prices.

His work with statistical methodology and techniques involved the early use of punched card equipment for general statistical tabulation as well as for mathematical computation.

He was the author of a textbook, Stable Chaos, as well as numerous articles for professional journals. He was an associate editor of Financial Management for a number of years.

Some of Dr. Durand’s strongly-held views stirred lively debate with other members of the management faculty.

One of his former doctoral students, Don Lewin of Lewin Associates of York, Pa., a consulting firm, said that Dr. Durand “used his keen intellect and statistical knowledge and skills to develop many ideas” and to question whether statistical models matched reality. “Frequently, this did not endear him to those enamored of a model. Indeed, his doubting approach caused him to be often in the center of a controversy.”

In one such case involving the cost of capital, Dr. Durand wrote that two Sloan colleagues who disagreed with him “have cut out for themselves the extremely difficult, if not impossible, task of being pure and practical at the same time. Starting with a perfect market in a perfect world, they have taken a few steps in the direction of realism; but they have not made significant progress…”

Dr. Durand insisted, too, Dr. Lewin said, that the model builder rely heavily on his or her own judgment. In Stable Chaos, Dr. Durand wrote, “Systematic procedures and objective tests serve to strengthen the analyst’s judgment, not to replace it; they enable him to learn more quickly and more effectively from his own experience, and to sharpen his critical faculties.”

Dr. Durand also championed good writing and enlivened some of his own journal articles with intriguing figures of speech. In one, he wrote: “To suppose that any imaginative analyst or responsible financial manager, interested in a comprehensive view, would be content to base an important appraisal and the subsequent investment decision on just one of the many useful numbers available is on a par with supposing that a hungry gourmet at a smorgasbord would be content to make a whole meal of pickled herring…”

Another former student, Dr. Paul D. Berger, professor and department chair in Quantitative Methods & Marketing at the Boston University School of Management, recalls Dr. Durand as “a special teacher and mentor to many students. He had a ‘jolly’ manner about himself that set students at ease and allowed them to enjoy the material he imparted to them. He cared about people and was dedicated to academic integrity and excellence.”

Dr. Durand was a member of the American Economic Association, the Finance Association, the American Society for Quality Control, the American Statistical Association, the Econometric Society, the Biometric Society, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the International Association for Statistics in Physical Science.

He leaves his wife, Edith (Elbogen) Durand of Lexington, and a daughter, Marie Durand of Princeton, N.J.

There was no funeral service.

A memorial service will be held in the MIT Chapel on April 13 at 1 PM.

Contributions may be made to Deep Springs College in Dyer, Nev. 89010.

Source:  MIT News. Obituary for Prof. David Durand, February 28, 1996.

Image Source:David Durand portrait at the MIT Museum Website  .