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.
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.
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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) .
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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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)”.
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[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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|
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
PART II. National Income, Money, Banking and Price Levels
PART III. Role of Markets in the Allocation of Resources and the Determination of Relative Prices
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”.
________________________
|
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
PART II. The Role of Markets in the Allocation of Resources and the Determination of Relative Prices
PART III. Money, Banking, Price Levels and the National Income
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”.
________________________
|
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
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”.
________________________
|
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
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”.
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Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.
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Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.
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Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Course Reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992, Box 2, Folder “Economics 1, Exams 1939-1962”.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
_________________
(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 .
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.
____________________
(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.
(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?
(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.
(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?
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!
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)
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.
_____________________
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.
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.
______________
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 .
The economic theory core courses at M.I.T. during the four academic years 1966/67 through 1969/70 consisted of two terms of microeconomic theory (“Economic Analysis”, 14.121 and 14.122) and two terms of macroeconomic theory (“Theory of Income and Employment”, 14.451, and “Economic Growth and Fluctuations”, 14.452). The instructors for the course by academic year were:
|
|
14.121 (Term 1) | 14.122 (Term 2) | 14.451 (Term 1) | 14.452 (Term 2) |
| 1966/67 | Bishop | Samuelson | Eckaus |
Solow |
|
1967/68 |
Bishop | Samuelson | Domar | Solow |
| 1968/69 | Bishop | Samuelson | Domar |
Foley |
|
1969/70 |
Bishop | Samuelson | Domar |
Foley |
A retrospective evaluation survey of these four courses was conducted (probably) sometime in late-1970. The original student responses wound up in Evsey Domar’s files and can be found today in his papers in the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University.
In other posts we have the responses for Robert Bishop’s Economic Analysis (14.121), Evsey Domar’s National Income and Employment (14.451) and Robert Solow’s/Duncan Foley’s Economic Growth and Fluctuations (14.452).
In this post I’ll limit attention to the term in the core taught by Paul Samuelson, namely, course 14.122 that covered the topics of consumer theory, general equilibrium, capital theory and welfare economics.
First I provide the information about the course found in the announcement in the MIT course catalogues that essentially remained unchanged for the years from which the evaluations were solicited. The official course staffing and enrollment data that follow the course announcement confirm that Paul Samuelson taught 14.122 in the four consecutive years surveyed. We also learn the names of the four instructors who taught the recitation sections for Samuelson’s course.
Next I include the cover letter for the questionnaire sent out along with a tabulation of responses to the qualitative questions regarding the amount of economics presumed, the amount of mathematics and the balance of the course among the topics nominally covered.
Finally, and very much worth reading!, the interested visitor will find transcriptions of the written student comments concerning Samuelson’s course. These reports of Samuelson’s teaching from the last half of the 1960s are consistent with my memory from the spring of 1975. The general laments about economic theory seen in some of the evaluations are not unfamiliar to those who have cared to listen to their students over the intervening decades.
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14.121T Economic Analysis (A)
[Bishop]
Prereq.: 14.03
Year: G (1) 4-0-8
14.122T Economic Analysis (A)
[Samuelson]
Prereq.: 14.121
Year: G (2) 4-0-8
General theory of equilibrium under competition and monopoly. Theory of consumer choice, of demand, of the firm, of production and distribution, of welfare economics.
Source: MIT. Catalogue 1966-67, p. 289.
“ ‘T’ at the end of a subject number indicates that (1) a change has been made in the content or units of the subject or (2) the number was previously assigned to a different subject.
‘(A)’ following the name of a subject indicates that it is an approved subject for a graduate degree…
‘G’ is a graduate subject.
The time distribution of the subject, showing in sequence the units allotted to: recitation and lecture; laboratory, design, or field work; and preparation. Each unit represents 15 hours of work. The total unit credit for a subject is obtained by adding together all the units shown. One unit of recitation or lecture credit, and two units of laboratory or design credit, are each equivalent to one semester hour.”
Source: MIT. Catalogue 1966-67, p. 219.
MIT. Catalogue 1967-68: Same without T, p. 305.
MIT. Catalogue 1968-69: Prerequisite for 14.121 changed to 14.04T, p. 310.
MIT. Catalogue 1969-70: p. 293.
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1967: Term II. 3 hours/week. 40 regular students, 0 Listeners.
Samuelson with Assistant Professor C. D. MacRae
1968: Term II. 3 hours/week. 53 regular students, 3 Listeners.
Samuelson with Instructor D. Jaffee [2 sections]
1969: Term II. 4 ½ hours/week. 49 regular students, 1 Listener
Samuelson with visiting Assistant Professor H.J.B. Rees.
1970: Term II. 3 Hours/week. 40 regular students, 0 Listeners.
Samuelson with Assistant Professor R. E. Grieson (1 hour per week recitation)
Source: M.I.T. Archives. Department of Economics Records. Box 3, Folder “Teaching Assignments”
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There are two problems that the theory sequence must continually face if it is going to be as useful as possible. The first of these is adjusting to the changing background of the incoming students. The second is adjusting to the changing needs of students who will use the theory course as background for other courses and research. This questionnaire is an attempt to gather information of the current state of the theory sequence relative to these two questions. The enclosed forms contain an outline of each of the theory courses and asks three questions.
These pertain to each heading in the course outline:
Does the course assume too much or too little economics background in this area?
Does the course use too much or too little mathematics in this area?
Given the overall constraint of time, is this area gone into too deeply or not deeply enough?
For each of the questions there is room to check too much or too little, no check at all to be given if the course is about right. Please put the year in which you took the theory courses at the top of each page. There is also room in each area for more detailed comment. Use this space to be specific on the changes in the given areas which you feel would be improvements—particularly in answer to question 3. Use the space at the bottom of each page to comment on topics that are not on the list, but should appear in the course; or to make other comments we haven’t thought to ask for.
Please return to 52-380 (Miss Pope) before Tuesday, October 21.
|
Ec 122: |
Economic background | Math |
Coverage |
|
Consumer theory |
Too little: 0
Too much: 1 |
Too little: 1
Too much: 1 |
Too deep: 3
Not deep enough: 1 |
|
General equilibrium |
Too little: 0
Too much: 1 |
Too little: 2
Too much: 0 |
Too deep: 0
Not deep enough: 8 |
|
Capital theory |
Too little: 2
Too much: 2 |
Too little: 1
Too much: 0 |
Too deep: 0
Not deep enough: 12 |
|
Welfare economics |
Too little: 1
Too much: 1 |
Too little: 0
Too much: 0 |
Too deep: 0
Not deep enough: 7 |
YEAR TAKEN: 1967-68
YEAR TAKEN: 1968-69
Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Evsey D. Domar Papers.Box 16, Folder “Student Evaluations (1 of 2)”.
Image Source: Samuelson Memorial Information Page/Photos from Memorial Service. Accessed via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.