Eighteen exams constituted the 1923 Economics Tripos at Cambridge University. This post adds them to the collection of transcribed artifacts that constitute the content of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Links to the 1923 Exams

Part I
English Economic History
Industry and Labour
Economic Theory (Value and Distribution)
Essay on one of seven subjects
Trade and Finance
Recent Economic and General History of Europe
Recent Economic and General History of the British Empire and the United States
Part II
Economic Principles
Public Finance
Subjects for an Essay
Structure and Problems of Modern Industry
Structure and Methods of Government in the Modern World
Distribution and Labour
Political Theory
Money, Credit and Prices
International Law
Economic Conditions in England 1823-1828, and Contemporary Social Thought
The Theory of Statistics

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Earlier and later
Economics Tripos

Links to economics examinations from the Economics Tripos at Cambridge University for other years:

Economics Tripos 1921.
Economics Tripos 1922.

Economics Tripos 1931.
Economics Tripos 1932.
Economics Tripos 1933.

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PART I

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MONDAY, May 28, 1923. 9-12.
ENGLISH ECONOMIC HISTORY.

1. Summarize briefly the agricultural improvements of the 18th century and point out their influence on the enclosure movement.
2. “The essence of the Industrial Revolution is the substitution of competition for the mediaeval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth” (TOYNBEE).
   Examine this statement.
3. “The principles of the Poor Law reform of 1834 were the principles of Elizabethan Statutes.” Discuss.
4. Explain the objects of the Corn Laws and the causes which led to their abolition.
5. Indicate broadly the influence exerted by improved means of transport on the progress of the Industrial Revolution.
6. Consider historically the use of the Income Tax as a means of effecting financial and social reform.
7. What were the causes of the great depression of 1873-96?
8. Show how the economic development of England since 1800 is reflected in the present distribution of her population.
9. What do you consider to have been the principal influences operating during the 19^th century to raise the wages of the very poor?
10. Contrast broadly the character of the economic policy of the State in 1820 with that in the first decade of the present century.
11. Contrast the situation of the agricultural labourer now with his situation one hundred years ago.

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MONDAY, May 28, 1923. 1.30-4.30.
INDUSTRY AND LABOUR.

1. If co-operative societies do not charge higher prices than private traders, where does the so-called “divi” come from?
2. “Trade Unionism has no definite policy in regard to the method of industrial remuneration.” Discuss this statement.
3. How do you account for the comparative slowness of the development of a Trust movement in British industry?
4. In what ways can the State most effectively take action to secure industrial peace?
5. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the joint-stock system of business organization.
6. Give an account of the difficulties of preparing an index number of the cost of living to the working classes.
7.  “…Wage rates at any moment and in every part of the industrial field can be so adjusted to the demand for labour of various grades, that no unemployment whatever can exist. In other words … unemployment is wholly caused by maladjustment between wage-rates and demand.”
   Comment upon this theory of unemployment.
8. What do you understand by “sweating”? Indicate the conditions and the types of industrial organization which are most likely to lead to sweating.
9. Give an account of the main features of the German Cartel system, and compare the Cartels with the American trusts.
10. If the private control of business is to disappear, what form of business management, do you consider, can most effectively take its place?
11. “The worst effects of unemployment, privation and physical deterioration, have been prevented” (The THIRD WINTER OF UNEMPLOYMENT).
    “Many of the unemployed are now suffering the progressive deterioration which inevitably attaches to the condition of being maintained without work” (ANNUAL REPORT OF MINISTRY OF HEALTH).
    Examine these two statements bearing upon the present unemployment situation.

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TUESDAY, May 29, 1923. 9-12.
ECONOMIC THEORY
(VALUE AND DISTRIBUTION).

1. Critically examine the argument that inasmuch as the instruments of production were made by Labour their earnings should go to Labour.
2. On what grounds are economists justified in making any distinction between the rent of land and (a) the return to exceptional natural ability, (b) the return to acquired skill?
3. Examine the view that fluctuations of credit are inevitable in an industrial system based on private enterprise.
4. “In business generally, good luck and bad luck about balance one another; so that the existence of business risks does not affect costs of production.” Examine this statement.
5. Trace the effects on the remuneration of the various agents of production engaged in any industry as the demand for the products of the industry sinks gradually to zero.
6. Which do you consider most threatening to the interests of unorganized labour: the monopolistic power of associations of workpeople or that of associations of employers?
7. What do you understand by the Supply of Labour; do you consider that economic influences play any important part in its regulation?
8. Examine the view that the greater the proportion of supplementary to prime costs in any industry the more fluctuating will be the value of its products.
9. “Economists concern themselves with imperfections in the manner in which production is adjusted to demands; they would be better employed in considering imperfections in the manner in which market demands express real needs.” Consider the importance of this criticism.
10. On the supposition that one motor van employing two men does the same work as two horse vans together employing four men, examine the probable effects on the general level of wages of the substitution of the one for the other.
11. “Every producer, whether entrepreneur, capitalist or workman, in effect sells his services to society for what they are worth; none therefore can draw from society any greater value than he contributes.” With what limitations would you accept this statement?
12. “Monopolistic price policy ranges between two limits. At the one extreme it yields results which are more, at the other extreme it yields results which are less, beneficial to the community than would obtain under a régime of free competition.” Elucidate this statement.

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TUESDAY, May 29, 1923. 1.30-4.30.

Write an essay on one of the following subjects:

1. The educational value of economic studies.
2. The coming economic age.
3. Finance, as an engine of social reform.
4. Economic competition among nations.
5. The decline of agriculture in Great Britain.
6. Principles of settlement — Vienna and Versailles.
7. Incentive in industry.

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WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1923. 9-12.
TRADE AND FINANCE.

1. Before the war the price of gold was fixed at £3. 17s. 10½d. per oz.; now the price varies from day to day. Explain the reasons for this.
2. Assume that a Capital Levy is successfully introduced reducing War Loan interest by £150 m. per annum, and that rates of Income Tax are reduced so as to diminish their total yield by a like sum. What would be the chief economic effects of these changes?
3. To what extent can the Bank of England now control inflation and deflation by means of its discount policy?
4. Consider the probable effects of a tax on sales, e. a tax on turnover, in this country.
5. What are the principal factors now governing the London-New York exchange?
6. Given that England is an exporter of machinery, consider the probable effects on this country of the development abroad of a large and efficient exporting engineering industry.
7. Consider the proposal to meet the cost of a municipal tramway service by a local rate instead of by the collection of fares.
8. Given a surplus of £50m. of State revenue over State expenditure, contrast the effects of employing this surplus (a) in reduction of debt, (b) in reduction of taxation.
9. Discuss the problems arising from the present great accumulation of gold in the United States.
10. “Whether speculation is good or bad depends partly on the speculator, partly on the conditions in which he operates.” Discuss.
11. Consider the difficulties of stabilizing the value of the dollar.

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WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1923. 1.30-4.30.
RECENT ECONOMIC AND GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE.

1. “After Trafalgar the war between England and France was to a great extent waged with economic weapons.” Explain the methods and results of this economic struggle.
2. What measures were taken by the Congress of Vienna to restore a balance of power in Europe?
3. “Until the middle of the nineteenth century the economic development of Germany was retarded by both political and economic circumstances.” Illustrate this statement.
4. Discuss the results of the French Revolution of 1830.
5. Explain the failure of the revolutionary movement of 1848-9 in Italy.
6. Do you consider that Austro-Prussian rivalry was the chief obstacle to German unity in the period 1815-1866?
7. In what sense were the years about 1860 a turning point in the agrarian history of modern France?
8. “The foreign policy of Napoleon III recoiled upon himself.” Is this the explanation of his downfall?
9. Explain the part played by the State in the industrial expansion of modern Germany.
10. Compare either the tariff policy or the colonial policy of Germany and France during the period 1871-1914.
11. “The great war followed inevitably when Germany abandoned the traditions of Bismarck’s foreign policy.” Examine this view.

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THURSDAY, May 31, 1923. 9-12.
RECENT ECONOMIC AND GENERAL HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE UNITED STATES.

1. “In the early history of both Canada and Australia serious problems were created by the land policy of the government.” Explain and compare these problems.
2. Compare the position held by the East India Company in India in the years 1783 and 1856.
3. What were the causes of the break up of South Africa into a group of States in the years 1836 to 1854?
4. Illustrate the influence of the United States on the economic and political development of Canada.
5. Compare the difficulties that had to be faced in the federation of the Australian and South African colonies.
6. What are the causes of famines in India and what measures have been taken to mitigate their severity?
7. “The making of the constitution was both a more difficult and a more important matter for the United States than winning the war of independence.” Discuss this view.
8. Explain the reasons why in the United States the Northern and Southern States came to hold different views on the question of slavery.
9. Discuss the influence of the Civil War on the financial and commercial policy of the United States.
10. To what principal causes do you attribute the great industrial expansion of the United States since 1880?
11. In what ways has the settlement of the Pacific Coast influenced the foreign policy of the United States?

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PART II

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MONDAY, May 28, 1923. 9-12.
ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES.

1. “The whole of economic theory is built on the assumption that people always consciously seek their own greatest pleasure: and now that this assumption is discredited, economic theory is in ruins.” Comment.
2. Examine fully the conditions under which a nation can impose a large part of the burden of a general import tariff on foreigners, and discuss whether, these conditions have any practical importance.
3. Discuss the theoretical validity, and the practical consequences, of drawing a distinction between an element of cost and an element of surplus in the payments made to the factors of production other than land.
4. How far does the theory that each factor of production is rewarded according to its marginal productivity appear to you to be applicable to the profits of business enterprise? Would you make any distinction in this respect between the profits of ordinary trade and manufacture and those of speculation in stocks or produce?
5. In what sense does competitive price tend to equal “marginal” costs and in what sense does it tend to equal “average” costs of production? Explain the bearing of your answer on the problem of fixing the price of a nationalised coal supply.
6. Explain carefully the connection between the phenomena of increasing return, joint supply and price-discrimination.
7. In what circumstances, if any, is it justifiable for particular groups of producers (e.g. rubber-growing companies, building trade operatives) to take concerted measures to restrict output?
8. “That able but wrong-headed man, David Ricardo, shunted the car of economic science on to a wrong line, on which it was further urged towards confusion by his equally able and wrong-headed admirer John Stuart Mill.” Explain and comment on this judgment of Jevons.
9. Trace the probable economic effects of providing free and universal travelling facilities within Great Britain and paying for them out of general taxation.
10. A is the only seller and B the only buyer of a certain commodity. At what point will the price of the commodity tend to settle?

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MONDAY, May 28, 1923. 1½-1½.
PUBLIC FINANCE.

1. From what sources can government draw the real revenue required to meet an exceptional and temporary emergency such as a war?
2. What are the principal factors which determine over a period of years (a) the maximum revenue which a government can raise by taxation for expenditure at home, (b) the maximum amount which it can pay as a tribute to foreign governments?
3. What truth, if any, is there in the maxim that “an old tax is no tax”?
4. “An income tax differentiates against saving by striking savings both when they are made and when they yield their fruit.”
   An income tax imposes the same burden on income applied to the saving-use as on income applied to the spending-use: hence those who say that it discriminates against saving really mean that it does not discriminate in favour of saving.
   Which of these opinions do you accept? and why?
5. A government has decided to spend a large sum upon an undertaking which will be completed in three years and will therefore probably yield a net annual revenue equal to the interest (at the rate now current) upon its cost. By what economic considerations should it be guided in deciding whether to raise the sum by a loan or by taxation?
6. A surplus of revenue over expenditure may be used either to pay off part of the national debt or to reduce taxation. In the present circumstances of this country, which course would be more favourable to the economic welfare of the people?
7. Compare the following three methods of assisting an “infant industry” in respect of (a) their effectiveness, (b) the cost which they impose upon the community adopting them: (1) an embargo on competing imports, (2) a protective import duty, (3) a bounty on home production.
8. Discuss the probable economic consequences of exempting from local rates for a period of fifteen or twenty years all working-class houses built in this country within the next three years.
9. Assuming that a service performed by a local authority is to be aided by a grant from the central exchequer, how far should the amount of the grant depend on (a) the amount and quality of the service rendered, (b) the expenditure of the local authority on the service, (c) the wealth of the locality?
10. Compare the effects of raising revenue by inflating the currency with those of a general tax on expenditure.

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TUESDAY, May 29, 1923. 9-12.
SUBJECTS FOR AN ESSAY.

1. Broadcasting
2. Economic Justice.
3. “If indeed all the high talent of the country could be drawn into the service of the government, a proposal tending to that result might well inspire uneasiness.”
4. Prison and the Prisoner.
5. “Whither France? Whither Europe?”
6. International Labour Legislation.

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TUESDAY, May 29, 1923. 1½-4½.
STRUCTURE AND PROBLEMS
OF MODERN INDUSTRY.

1. To what causes do you attribute the present depressed condition of British agriculture? Can you suggest any measures which would promote a revival of this industry without inflicting an economic loss on the community as a whole?
2. Explain shortly the nature and objects of the system of “deferred rebates” employed by shipping rings. Consider the arguments for and against its legal prohibition.
3. Describe and account for the form which industrial combination has taken in modern Germany.
4. In what way and to what extent does an organized produce exchange (a) bear and (b) eliminate the risks of productive industry? Does the Stock Exchange do either?
5. Classify the principal risks against which insurance is taken out in this country, indicating in each case the type of agency through which insurance is usually effected. Are there any branches of insurance in which a greater measure of State control would promote the economic welfare of the people? Give reasons for your opinion.
6. Illustrate from the experience of this and other countries the difficulties encountered by self-governing associations of manual workers seeking to undertake business on their own account. In what types of undertaking are these difficulties least serious and by what means can they be reduced?
7. “Capital and labour have lost the power they once had to attract raw materials; these now attract labour and capital.” Examine this statement in relation to the localisation of industry in the modern world.
8. Distinguish the various methods by which a nationalised industry might obtain new capital and consider their comparative advantages and disadvantages.
9. Examine the part played by the wholesale merchant in aggravating or mitigating the cyclical fluctuation of trade.

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TUESDAY, May 29, 1923. 1½-4½.
STRUCTURE AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT IN THE MODERN WORLD.

1. “It is the special weakness of the American Federation that in a community distinguished above all others for enormous aggregations of capital the machinery for giving effect to the ideal of social justice is less effectual than it is in any other highly-civilized State.” Explain the meaning of this judgment and discuss its truth.
2. Contrast and account for the part played by political parties in the British and American systems of government.
3. “Second chambers are the political failure of the British Empire.” Discuss this statement.
4. Compare and contrast the methods by which the control of the legislature over either foreign policy or public finance is secured in London, Washington and Paris.
5. “The parts assigned to the President and to the electorate in the new German constitution are wholly incompatible with the Cabinet system of government.” Discuss this statement.
6. Compare the part played by the permanent official in the English system of central and local administration with that played by him in either France or Germany.
7. Explain the different uses made of committees in modern legislatures and discuss their value.
8. What attempts have been made of recent years to improve methods of election to representative bodies, and how far have they proved successful?
9. “The policy of His Majesty’s Government is that of… the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire.” Explain briefly how far this development has proceeded.

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WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1923. 9-12.
DISTRIBUTION AND LABOUR.

1. How far would you consider the following phenomena as evidence that the distribution of income was becoming less unequal, (a) an increase in the number of moderate incomes relatively to the number of large incomes, (b) an increase in the number of estates subject to death duties relatively to the total number of the population?
2. “If the demand for labour in general were distinctly less elastic than is commonly supposed, a number of commonly accepted doctrines would be exploded.” Discuss this statement and give illustrations of the doctrines referred to.
3. Under what conditions is it economically advantageous to employers to work their machinery continuously by means of multiple shifts? Consider the effects of a more widespread adoption of this method of working and the reasons why it is not, in fact, more widely adopted.
4. In what respects does a Whitley Council differ from a Trade Board? Estimate the utility of these two institutions and their probable future.
5. “Unemployment insurance by industry is attractive in theory, but unworkable in practice.” Comment on this view.
6. “The payment of different district rates for the same class of work leads to an uneconomic distribution of labour and capital between different districts and is, therefore, economically unsound.” Discuss this statement.
7. “Men work harder after a fall in wages and less hard after a rise.” “A rise in wages is commonly followed by an increase in the efficiency of labour.” How far can these two statements be reconciled (a) with each other, (b) with the facts?
8. Give some account of existing arrangements for conciliation and arbitration in British trade disputes. In what respects, if any, do you think that we should copy more closely the arrangements of other countries?
9. Indicate the chief problems of organisation confronting the British Trade Union movement at the present time.

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WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1923. 9-12.
POLITICAL THEORY.

1. “It is a distinctive trait of medieval doctrine that within every human group it decisively recognises an aboriginal and active Right of the group taken as a whole.” Explain this statement, and show its connection with medieval theories of representation.
2. If Hobbes’ theory of sovereignty is to-day one of the commonplaces of jurisprudence. ethically and politically we occupy ourselves with erecting about it a system of limitations each one of which is in some sort due to Locke’s perception.”
3. “Rousseau’s doctrine of the General Will is merely a specious pretext for the coercion of minorities.
4. “Natural rights are real things, arising from real and permanent facts in our psychology.”
5. Within what limits do you consider that a government is justified in promoting or discouraging the creation and dissemination of opinion?
6. What principles should, in your opinion, direct the action of a government in the case of a trade dispute? To what extent, if at all, do these principles require modification where the State, as employer, is party to the dispute?
7. Examine the implications of the formula “Equality of opportunity,” and discuss its merits as a guide in legislation.
8. “It is neither possible nor desirable that judges, in administering the law, should be unaffected by current political and social ideas.”
9. “Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to a time when mankind have become capable of being improved by tree and equal discussion. Until then there is nothing for them but implicit obedience to an Akbar or a Charlemagne if they are so fortunate as to find one.

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WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1923. 1½-4½.
MONEY, CREDIT AND PRICES.

1. Explain and illustrate the influence exercised on the general level of prices by changes in the velocity of circulation of bank deposits.
2. Give an account of the mechanism of dealing in forward exchange, and the forces determining the difference between the spot and forward prices of foreign currencies.
3. Compare and contrast the banking systems of Great Britain, the United States, and any one other country.
4. Describe any two index numbers of prices in actual use, and indicate any respects in which it seems to you that they could be improved upon.
5. Discuss the advisability of immediately abolishing the restrictions on the export of gold from this country in the event of the dollar exchange reaching the pre-war parity.
6. “The experience of Germany suggests that movements in the exchanges are usually the cause and not the result of changes in the level of prices.” Comment.
7. Investigate the reasons for which the general level of prices may be permanently higher in one gold standard country than in another.
8. Discuss the issues raised by the proposal to nationalise the banking system of Great Britain.
9. Give an account of the gold exchange standard, with special reference (a) to its working in India before the war, (b) to its suitability as a solution of European currency problems.

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WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1923. 1.30-4.30.
INTERNATIONAL LAW.

1. Discuss the legality of the German submarine campaign during the late war, and whether it suggests any conclusions as to the advisability of drawing up a new code of rules for the future conduct of war at sea.
2. Suppose Greece made an unprovoked military attack on Bulgaria to-morrow, in what way would the application of the principles of neutrality by other countries differ either from the application which they would have had in June 1914 or from the application which they were given during the Greco-Turkish conflict in 1921 and 1922? Explain the differences.
3. Discuss the legality of large-scale air-bombardments directed against cities such as London, Paris or Berlin.
4. What is the mechanism provided in the various Treaties of Protection to racial, religious and linguistic Minorities, or established by the League of Nations, for dealing with complaints that the rights of these minorities have not been observed?
   Discuss its efficacy in the light of other proposals put forward and of the history of the protection of racial, religious and linguistic minorities during the 19th century and during the last three years.
5. “An unprovoked declaration of war is at once the most immoral and the most legal of all crimes.” Discuss this statement.
6. In what respects does the Permanent Court of International Justice differ from the Permanent Court of Arbitration? In what respects is it an improvement, and in what ways is it likely to improve the general system of international law?
7. Discuss shortly any three of the following:
   1. The Venezuela Boundary dispute.
   2. The Newfoundland Fisheries dispute.
   3. The Anglo-French dispute concerning the Conscription Laws in Tunis.
   4. The pending dispute between Germany and the Allied Powers concerning transit through the Kiel Canal.
   5. The “Optional Protocol” attached to the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice.
8. Discuss the proposals which have been made to summon an international conference for the codification of international law, and the relation of these proposals to the question of the obligatory jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice.
9. Consider whether the application given to the principle of the Open Door in the A, B, and C Mandates respectively is in strict accordance with the principles laid down in Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations.
10. Compare the methods adopted for drawing up and bringing into force general international conventions before and since the establishment of the League of Nations, and their results.

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THURSDAY, May 31, 1923. 9-12.
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 1823-1828, AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THOUGHT.

1. Indicate some of the pitfalls which must be avoided, if an impartial survey of economic conditions is to be derived from the Reports and Evidence of contemporary Parliamentary Papers.
2. What evidence, if any, is there that the distress of the Hand-loom Weavers was caused by the introduction of machinery?
3. Illustrate from Huskisson’s Speeches the closeness of the affinity between him and Adam Smith.
4. What justification is there for calling the early English Socialists “the Ricardian Socialists”?
5. “Co-operation seeks to put the working classes in that situation where they shall enjoy the produce of their labour, instead of that small part called wages.” (Extract from Address of Robert Owen, Chairman of the First Co-operative Congress.) Show the connection between the purpose of co-operation as thus defined and the future development of the Co-operative Movement in Great Britain.
6. From what angles did the Emigration Committees of 1826 and 1827 approach their problem; and how far did their recommendations meet the problem which they set out to solve?
7. How far was Cobbett correct in his view of the reactions of urban growth on rural industries?
8. Explain exactly the difference between the Combination Acts of 1824 and 1825. On what grounds did the Government defend the modifications introduced by the Act of 1825?
9. “The real wages of the labourer in a redundant population are no more than according to the habits of the country will enable him to subsist and propagate his race, and he must have the same real wages and will have no more, while the population is redundant, whether the taxes remain or are all repealed.” (PLACE, Diary, 12 Oct. 1826.)
   How far is this a legitimate deduction from the teaching of the Classical Economists?

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THURSDAY, May 31, 1923. 9-12.
THE THEORY OF STATISTICS.

1. Explain what is meant by two attributes being “associated”; give more than one test of association, and prove the principal properties of the fourfold table (association table).
2. “In selecting an index-number formula the purpose to which it is put is immaterial.” Discuss this.
3. Explain the uses of a measure of dispersion, define the principal measures and briefly discuss their relative advantages.
   Find the mean and standard-deviation of the following distribution.

Marks	Candidates
10—19	2
20—29	5
30—39	10
40—49	23
50—59	34
60—69	22
70—79	3
80—89	1
Total	100

4. State the product-sum formula for the correlation coefficient, deduce its principal properties and describe the form of the arithmetic when calculating the coefficient for a grouped correlation table.
   The coefficient of correlation between age at death of father and age at death of son is found to be 0.14: for a character determined solely by hereditary constitution it is estimated that the correlation should be 0.5. Supposing that N deaths can be sorted into two distinct classes, in pN of which the age is determined solely by hereditary constitution, and in (1 – p)N of which the age is purely a matter of chance, find the value of p required to reduce the correlation from 0.5 to 0.14.
5. If w₀, w₁, w₂, are the numbers living in three successive ten-year age-groups; u₀, u₁, u₂, u₃, u₄, u₅ the numbers in the corresponding five-year age-groups, so that

w₀ = u₀ + u₁,   w₁ = u₂ + u₃,   w₂ = u₄+ u₅

show, using Newton’s formula of interpolation, that we may take approximately

u₂ = (1/2) w₁ + (1/16)( w₀ –  w₂ ).

6. What is meant by “standardising” a birth-rate or death-rate? Discuss the possible methods of standardising birth-rates, and their difficulties.
7. Find the standard error of sampling of (a) the arithmetic mean, (b) the median, and show for what forms of frequency distribution the median will be relatively more stable than the mean.
8. Explain the problem to be solved in constructing a life-table and the meaning of the columns usually headed l_x, p_x, q_x, d_x, and m_x, giving the principal relations between these quantities.
   Supposing that you already possessed tables showing, for a series of districts, the death-rates for quinquennial age-groups 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, etc., discuss how far the construction of the corresponding life-tables would tend to throw any further light on the differences between them.
9. Describe and discuss the methods used for investigating, with the aid of the coefficient of correlation, the relations between two quantities varying with the time.

Source: Cambridge University. Economics Tripos Papers, 1921-1926. With the papers set in the Qualifying examinations 1925 & 1926. Cambridge at the University Press 1927, pp. 40-58.

Image Source: Kings College, Cambridge England. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540.

 

In the U.S. Library of Congress I came across a collection of the Cambridge University Economics Tripos examinations for 1931-1933. In an earlier post I provided transcriptions of the 1931 exams. This post provides the 21 examinations for 1932. For a later post I’ll transcribe the 1933 exams.

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PART I.

Monday, May 30, 1932. 9—12.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES I.

1. Bring out clearly the economic principles which determine the relative values of a bushel of wheat and a pair of boots.
2. Define the following and consider the relations between them: wealth, capital, land.
3. What do you understand by (a) saving; (b) investment? Explain the process by which savings are converted into capital.
4. A tenant farmer is cultivating a dairy farm in the West of England and paying a rent of £200 per annum. The landlord dies and the farm is put up for sale and offered for £4000 to the tenant, in the first instance. What various economic factors should influence the farmer in deciding whether to buy or not?
5. What forces tend to remove and what forces tend to perpetuate inequalities in wage rates (a) in the same industry in different parts of the country; (b) in different industries in the same country?
6. Bring out the importance for the theory of value of (a) marginal utility; (b) the principle of substitution.
7. How do you account fort he observed tendency for the prices of foodstuffs and raw materials to fluctuate much more widely than the prices of most manufactured articles?
8. Under what circumstances is it likely that unrestricted competition will lead to the formation of a monopoly?
9. On what does the marginal net product of labour depend?
10. Trace the stages by which a sudden but enduring fall of 50 per cent. in the demand schedule for an article will react upon (a) the supply of that article; (b) its price.
11. Analyse profits on capital and discuss the tendency of each element to rise or fall.
12. “To use the phrase ‘negative quasi-rent’ is to misconceive the nature of Marshall’s doctrine of ‘quasi-rent.’” Comment on this statement.

 

Monday, May 30, 19932. 1½ — 4½.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

1. What do you understand by (a) primary poverty, (b) secondary poverty? Are there in your view any immediate means of removing the causes or remedying the effects of primary poverty?
2. Which is the more suitable body for applying the “means test” to applicants for unemployment benefit, the Ministry of Labour or the Public Assistance authority? Is the test desirable as a permanent feature of the unemployment insurance system?
3. In which industries is unemployment most severe at the present time? In the event of a general revival of trade in England in the near future, in which industries would you expect employment to increase most rapidly?
4. Compare with reference to the course of events since the War the relative efficacy of (a) “direct action,” and (b) political pressure for increasing taxation and social services, as methods of improving the welfare of the working classes.
5. There has recently been a widespread substitution of piece-work for time-work in Russia, leading to large increases of output. Would you regard this as evidence in favour of extending piece-work in other countries?
6. Consider the arguments for and against the extension of unemployment insurance to cover agricultural workers.
7. What evidence is there that the population of Great Britain will begin to decline within twenty years? Would a declining population solve (a) the housing problem, (b) unemployment?
8. Would you favour the use of a Government housing subsidy to provide rent rebates varying according to the size of the family housed?
9. Under what conditions will the general introduction of the automatic loom in Lancashire aggravate unemployment? Is it desirable to introduce labour-saving machinery during depression?
10. How would you account for the growing tendency in recent years for the formation of Industrial Unions rather than Craft Unions?
11. “It is a direct corollary of the ‘marginal productivity’ theory of wages that high wages cause unemployment.” Discuss.
12. Why are the representatives of organized labour as well as of employers in this country opposed to compulsory arbitration as a method of settling trade disputes?

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1932. 9 — 12.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES II.

A.

1. How is elasticity of demand measured? Under what conditions is the demand for some product likely to be very elastic?
2. What evidence would you require in order to discover whether this country is over-populated?
3. “Price is equal to marginal cost.” Explain the meaning of the word “marginal” in Economics. What is the relation of marginal to average cost?
4. What are the chief assumptions made in the construction of the competitive theory of value? Are they closely related to the actual conditions of modern economic life?
5. Show, with a diagram if possible, how a publisher would determine the price that he should charge for a new book.
6. “Owing to the falling off of sales in 1931, and the consequent increase of overhead cost per unit of output, it has proved necessary for us to advance the prices of our products.” Examine the validity of this argument as applied to a short period.

B.

7. By what means can a central bank control the level of prices in a country?
8. What effect on prices would you expect (a) if the practice of paying wages by cheque became more common, (b) if wages were paid monthly instead of weekly?
9. What is meant by the “purchasing power parity” theory of exchanges? How far do you consider it possible to calculate the present equilibrium rate of exchange between the pound and the dollar?
10. Can two countries both gain by the existence of a trade between them?
11. Explain in detail how a Bill of Exchange serves to make payments between persons in different countries.
12. Give some account of the legal enactments at present governing the issue of paper money in this country, and of the more important changes which have been made in the last hundred years.

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1932. 1½ — 4½.
ESSAY SUBJECTS.

Write an essay on one of the following subjects:

1. Mr MacQuedy: “Then, sir, I presume you set no value on the right principles of rent, profit, wages and currency?”
   The Rev. Dr. Folliott: “My principles, sir, in these things are, to take as much as I can get, and to pay no more than I can help. These are every man’s principles, whether they be the right principles or not. There, sir, is political economy in a nutshell.”
   (T. L. Peacock: Crotchet Castle.)
2. The future of party government.
3. The British Empire as an economic unit.
4. High Finance.
5. Sweepstakes.

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1932. 9 — 12.
ENGLISH ECONOMIC HISTORY

1. Give some account of the “old colonial system” and estimate its importance in the economic development of England from 1660 to 1776.
2. Examine the causes and the principal consequences of the enclosure movement of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
3. “So far from originating cruelty to children, the factory system called attention to the evil by concentrating it where all could see.” Discuss this view.
4. Compare the outlook and objectives of the Chartists with those of the advocates of the Repeal of the Corn Laws.
5. What were the principal reasons for the industrial leadership of Great Britain in the ‘fifties and ‘sixties of last century?
6. “All through the nineteenth century the railways have been the great factor making for the extension of the sphere of State action and the abandonment of the idea of free competition.” Discuss.
7. Outline the development of direct taxation from Pitt to Gladstone.
8. Describe and account for the main changes that took place in the general level of gold prices between 1850 and 1914.
9. What were the principal changes in agricultural organization and policy from the acute depression of the ‘seventies and ‘eighties to the outbreak of the World War?
10. Give some account of the growth of Trade Unionism and the Labour Movement between 1867 and 1913.
11. Why did the Protectionist campaign of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain fail, and that of Mr Neville Chamberlain succeed?

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1932. 1½ — 4½.
ECONOMIC STRUCTURE

1. Give some account of the technical advantages of large scale production in any one industry with whose conditions you are acquainted.
2. What is meant by “the external economies” of an industry? What difficulties are involved in this conception?
3. How would you account for the fact that some industries are much more localized than others? In what ways do you consider it likely that the development of the cheaper transmission of electricity will alter the location of British Industries?
4. Give some account of the objects and methods of Scientific Management.
5. If in any firm the most efficient technical size of several processes were too large for efficient management, how could the organization be adjusted to minimize this loss of efficiency?
6. What are the proper functions of advertisement? Do you consider that the total expenditure on advertising in this country is excessive?
7. How would you explain the fact that in many districts almost every firm turns out more than one product, instead of specializing on a single product?
8. Describe the more important channels whereby saving is placed at the disposal of industry. What suggestions would you make for their improvement?
9. Which of the various arguments used to justify the imposition of tariffs at the present moment do you consider valid?
10. Give an account of the monopoly organisations in any one important British Industry. What factors limit the power of the monopolist to raise prices in the case that you are considering?
11. Describe the methods employed for the marketing of either cotton or wool at each stage from the raw material to the finished product. Explain why each particular method is adopted, and consider whether any change in the method is desirable.

 

PART II.

Monday, May 30, 19932. 1½ — 4½.
SUBJECTS FOR AN ESSAY.
(OLD AND NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. Thrift.
2. The Future of the Party System.
3. Sky-writing.
4. The Scope and Method of Realistic Economics.
5. Disarmament as a Practical Problem.
6. Man in the Machine Age.

 

Monday, May 30, 1932. 9—12.
MONEY, CREDIT AND PRICES.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

1. Do you consider that the legal regulation of the Central Bank’s minimum gold reserve serves a useful purpose in a gold standard country? What form of regulation, if any, do you recommend?
2. Are there good reasons for holding that the “rate of saving” and “rate of investment” should appear as terms in the equation used to demonstrate the principal factors which govern the value of money?
3. Explain the working of a forward foreign exchange market. How far can it obviate the inconveniences which arise when there is no fixed par of exchange between currencies?
4. If it had been decided to stabilize the purchasing power of the national standard of value in terms of an index number of prices, what main categories of goods and/or services would you include in the index number?
5. What considerations have to be taken into account in analyzing the causes which determine the velocity of circulation of money?
6. If the principal nations of the world decide to adhere to a gold standard in future, would you consider that the impeding gold shortage gives ground for alarm? State your reasons.
7. In what respects, if any, do you conceive that the policy of the Federal Reserve System has been open to criticism in the period from 1926 to the present day?
8. “The resistance of wage earners to reductions in money wages has been of value in saving us from the worst excesses of deflation.” Examine this contention.
9. On what lines should the Indian currency system be developed?
10. Do you agree with the view that public works designed to stimulate employment in a slump “are a mere piece of ritual, achieving nothing which could not equally well be achieved b the banking system acting alone, through a sufficiently great alteration in tis terms of lending”?
11. Would the formation of a large “sterling area” be of advantage or disadvantage to this country, in your opinion, if she were endeavouring to maintain a stable currency divorced from gold?

 

Monday, May 30, 1932. 9—12.
POLITICAL THEORY.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

 

1. “The State may be defined as a juridically organized nation.” Discuss this definition.
2. Would you agree that political obligation is equally binding on the citizen whether he lives in a democracy or under a dictatorship?
3. Dicey contended that democracy and “collectivism” were inconsistent. Do you accept his contention?
4. Would you consider that the conception of a right of property as belonging to the individual has permanent value, or would you regard it as only characteristic of a particular phase of social development?
5. In what sense can we speak of law as being “enacted,” and what are the organs of such enactment in the modern State?
6. How would you analyse the conception of “public opinion,” and by what methods would you suggest that such opinion should be brought to bear on political government?
7. On what principles, and by what methods, would you impose limits (if any) on liberty of the expression of thought?
8. Discuss the prison as one of the institutions of political life, with reference to (a) the purpose which it should serve, and (b) the methods which it should employ.
9. It has been said that “the process of discovering the Sovereign is in all modern States the same.” By what process would you seek to discover the Sovereign in the modern State?
10. “The State properly intervenes not to conduct the economic business of the country, but to uphold social standards.” Discuss the value of the distinction here suggested.
11. ”The problem of our days is not the Man versus the State, as it was when Herbert Spencer wrote in 1884, but the State versus the Group.” Comment on this statement, explaining the sense which you would attach to the term “Group.”

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1932.  1½ — 4½.
DISTRIBUTION AND LABOUR.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

1. “Every factor of production tends to be remunerated at a rate equivalent to its marginal net product of commodities in general.” Does this statement need any modifications or qualifications when it is applied to land which are not equally necessary when it is applied to the other factors? Give your reasons.
2. “The Dole has kept up wages above their proper level.” What are the arguments in support of this view? Discuss their soundness. What changes in public policy, if any, do your conclusions suggest as desirable?
3. What principal factors determine the magnitude of the change which a fall in the general level of commodity prices occasions in the proportion of the national income accruing to the owners of fixed-interest bearing investments?
4. With the object of creating employment, a grant is made by the exchequer to a local authority for a road-widening scheme. The local authority sets about doing the work as efficiently as possible with the aid of steam navies and other labour-saving machinery. Ought the Exchequer to challenge this actions? Argue the case for and against.
5. “The money now paid in unemployment benefits should be used to provide employment.” Suggest possible schemes and discuss their soundness.
6. Compare the relative levels of wages in skilled and unskilled occupations in this country to-day and before the War. Discuss the bearing of any changes upon (a) the supply of skilled workers, (b) industrial contentment, (c) labour organization and policy.
7. What are the principal differences between the English and German provisions for State action in the regulation of wages and the settlement of industrial disputes? Discuss whether England could with advantage follow the German example in these matters more closely.
8. Discuss the relative merits of systems under which wage-rates vary with (a) the market price of the product, (b) a cost of living index, (c) a wholesale price index, (d) the profit of the undertaking.
9. Explain and discuss the place and function of the Trades Union Congress and the General Council of the Trades Union Congress in labour organization.
10. If you had to measure the change in the general level of money wages in this country since 1900, what difficulties, theoretical and practical, would you encounter?
11. If a British lace manufacturer proposed to run his establishment continuously on a three-shift system, what procedure would he have to adopt (a) to conform with legal requirements and (b) to meet possible opposition from any quarter?
12. What are the functions of the Public Assistance Committees? Do you consider that any of them should be transferred to other authorities or modified in any way? State your reasons.

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1932. 1½ — 4½.
STRUCTURE AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT IN THE MODERN WORLD.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

1. Discuss the powers of the Supreme Court, under the American system of government, in disallowing legislation. Would it, in your view, be possible or desirable to institute a judicial body with similar powers in a nonfederal State?
2. Discuss the methods by which the House of Commons controls finance. Would you regard those methods as adequate, at the present time, for the purpose of regulating the distribution of expenditure or of enforcing general economy?
3. Describe the effect of the main changes which have taken place in the relations of the component parts of the British Commonwealth between the outbreak of war in 1914 and the passing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931.
4. Describe the position and powers of committees of the legislature under the French system of parliamentary government. In what ways do they differentiate that system from the system in Great Britain?
5. What contrast would you draw between the British party system and that of Germany in regard to (a) their influence on the electorate, and (b) their effects on general working of the Constitution?
6. How far has England developed the French system of “administrative justice” during the present century? What are the defects of administrative jurisdiction as it exists in England to-day?
7. What would you regard as the main reforms effected in English local government since 1902, and what further reforms would you advocate in regard to the areas or functions of local authorities?
8. Describe in general terms the composition and functions of the National Economic Council of Germany, and discuss the tendencies in Great Britain towards the development of a similar system since 1918.
9. Give some account either of the merits and disadvantages of the system of “indirect rule” in the British Colonial Empire or of the varieties and the working of the system of British Mandated Territories.
10. Would you agree that there is an increasing recognition in Great Britain of the part which the “Expert” should play in the work of government?
11. Compare the position of the American Senate with that of the German Reichsrath. How would you account for the comparative weakness of the latter?

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1932. 9 — 12.
STRUCTURE AND PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRY.
(OLD REGULATIONS.)

1. “The entrepreneur has passed away with the Victorian era. His place has been taken by a combination of financier and salaried manager.” Discuss the truth of this contention.
2. Discuss the possibility of defining “an industry” so as to make it a useful conception in the analysis of economic structure without doing violence to its popular meaning.
3. Are there any special circumstances in England to-day that make the rational planning of each industry of more importance than in the past? Illustrate what is included under planning from your knowledge of any one industry.
4. Explain the nature and causes of any differences that occur in the marketing of (a) producers’ goods, (b) consumers’ goods, and the effect of these differences upon the location of the plants making these two types of goods.
5. How far can statistical proof be adduced for the contention that some manufacturing industries are subject to the law of increasing returns?
6. What precisely are the supposed defects in a system of private enterprise that have led to schemes for the public control of such activities as transport, generation of electricity and the supply of water?
7. “Co-operative societies in agriculture are nothing more nor less than cartels, and threaten the consumer with the same sort of exploitation.” Comment.
8. What forms of integration and combination seem to you to best calculated to reduce the risks of industrial fluctuations, and why?
9. Discuss the effect on national and international localization of industry of the modern and the possible future development of (a) the telephone, (b) road transport, (c) commercial aviation.
10. Are we bound to expect a contraction in British industries manufacturing for export? What statistical sources and methods would you use to estimate the extent of such contraction, and to indicate industries and services to which investment might advantageously be directed or transferred?
11. Discuss any differences between British and foreign systems of education and training in respect of their effect upon the costs of industrial leadership at home and abroad.

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1932. 9 — 12.
ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES.
(OLD AND NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. Use “the famous fiction of the ‘stationary State’” to illustrate the uses and abuses of abstraction in the treatment of economic problems.
2. Analyse, and illustrate by examples, the various ways in which a change in the supply of one commodity may affect the demand for others.
3. “Under conditions of simple competition in a perfect market, the price of a commodity must, in the long run, be equal both to the marginal and to the average cost of producing it in a representative firm.”
   Explain precisely, what you take this statement to mean, and briefly discuss its validity.
4. What effect might a substantial tax upon imports of wheat and wheaten flour be expected to have, in this country, upon (a) the price of bread, (b) farming profits, (c) agricultural rents? Give reasons for your answer.
5. What functions does a company promoter perform, and how are his earnings determined? Frame your answer so as to show how it fits into your general theory of distribution.
6. In a country like Great Britain, how would an increase in the supply of capital affect the earnings of labour? What do you understand by “an increase in the supply of capital”?
7. In what circumstances will a monopolist charge different customers different prices for the same product?
8. How would you proceed if you were required to decide whether profits in any given industry were ‘normal”?
9. For what reasons may a country permanently import part of its supply of a commodity and produce part at home; and what determines, in such a case, the proportion of the total supply which is imported?
10. When several different things are produced by the same firm, on what economic principle, if any, is it possible to assign a separate cost of production to each of them?
11. If the habit of keeping a banking account were to spread among wage-earners in this country, how would the general level of prices be affected?

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1932. 9 — 12.
INTERNATIONAL LAW.
(OLD AND NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. Discuss the modern theories of the basis of obligation in International Law.
2. What is the present position in International Law of the right of navigation of international rivers?
3. What are the sanctions provided by the Covenant of the League of Nations for its enforcement? They have been termed “Pseudo-Sanctions”; do you consider there is any justification for this?
4. Under what circumstances is a war-ship justified in interfering with a merchant ship of another State on the high seas in time of peace?
5. What is the connection between the Permanent Court of International Justice and the League of Nations?
   What is implied by signing the “Optional Clause”?
6. Explain the circumstances under which a State may (a) sue, (b) be sued in a foreign Court of Law.
7. Article 21 of the Covenant of the League of Nations speaks of “regional undertakings like the Monroe Doctrine for securing the maintenance of peace.”
   Comment on this.
8. Give the provisions of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928. What methods exist for the pacific settlement of international disputes?
9. What is the position of
   (a) Sea-borne Mails,
   (b) Submarine Cables,
   in time of war?
10. What were the methods employed by the Allied Powers in the restriction of enemy commerce during the war of 1914-18? Discuss their legality under the rules of International Law

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1932. 1½ — 4½.
PUBLIC FINANCE.
(OLD AND NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. What considerations of equity are involved by the action of a Government which reduces rewards to its employees either (a) as a measure to repair a national deficit, or (b) as an example to other employers?
2. Consider whether there are any grounds for believing that taxation should be progressive if it is to impose equal sacrifice.
3. “Twenty-five years ago differential taxation was first levied on unearned as against earned income. The time has now come to differentiate between unearned income from fixed-interest securities and that from fluctuating sources.” Is this proposed differentiation (a) desirable (b) feasible?
4. In what sense, if any can (a) the Income Tax, and 8b) Local Rates be said to enter into the cost of production of goods?
5. Discuss the possibility of devising a scheme for the taxation of incremental site values which does not place an unfair burden on existing landowners as a class compared with other property owners.
6. Examine the view that Family Endowment has a good claim to be made a charge on the Exchequer.
7. If a Board, having a monopoly of the import and export trade of a country and able to buy and sell at current prices at home and abroad, were instructed to maximize its profits, would the effect be more or less advantageous to the country than the flow of trade in free trade conditions?
8. Compare the economic effects of devaluating the currency of a country by x% in terms of all foreign currencies, with those of imposing an x% ad valorem tariff on all her imports together with an x% ad valorem bounty on all her exports.
9. What fiscal policy would you adopt if your sole object were to secure the reduction of foreign import duties affecting British exports?
10. Compare the proper policy of the central authority with that of local authorities with regard to the expansion or contraction in the volume of their outstanding indebtedness.
11. On what principles should a municipality owning a tramway system proceed in computing the fares to be charged to its passengers?

 

Thursday, June 2, 1932. 1½ — 4½.
THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

1. Down to 1860 the economic relations of Great Britain and the United states were complementary rather than rival: after 1870 they were sharply rival.” Comment.
2. Give examples of the influence of English thought and practice upon the labour movements of America in the early part of the nineteenth century.
3. Why did the American Mercantile Marine fall away after the Civil War?
4. Can it be argued that the North and South went to war over any other issue than slavery?
5. How far was the Tariff responsible for the growth of Trusts? Test your conclusion by reference to particular Trusts.
6. Distinguish between the “Old” and the “New” Immigration, in respect of (a) its origin, (b) its contribution to American economic life.
7. Discuss the effect of the disappearance of free land on the economic and social structure of the United States.
8. Show the significance of the concept of an economic metropolis in an examination of the distribution and range of American industry and commerce.
9. Indicate, by a sketch map if possible, the regional specialization of American agriculture.
10. Compare the experience of the United States under the paper dollar of 1862-79 with the experience of England under the paper pound of 1797-1821.

 

Monday, May 30, 1932. 9 — 12.
MONEY.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. Do you consider that the effects of Peel’s Bank Act were salutary?
2. Are there good reasons for holding that the “rate of saving” and “rate of investment” should appear as terms in the equation used to demonstrate the principal factors which govern the value of money?
3. Explain the working of a forward foreign exchange market. How far can it obviate the inconveniences which arise when there is no fixed par of exchange between currencies?
4. If it had been decided to stabilize the purchasing power of the national standard of value in terms of an index number of prices, what main categories of goods and/or services would you include in the index number?
5. What considerations have to be taken into account in analyzing the causes which determine the velocity of circulation of money?
6. Would you have been a mono-metalist or a bi-metalist in the year 1886? State your reasons.
7. In what respects, if any, do you conceive that the policy of the Federal Reserve System has been open to criticism in the period from 1926 to the present day?
8. “The resistance of wage earners to reductions in money wages has been of value in saving us from the worst excesses of deflation.” Examine this contention.
9. “A series of accidents gave India a more satisfactory standard of value than England had in the period from 1873 to 1923.” Discuss.
10. Do you agree with the view that public works designed to stimulate employment in a slump “are a mere piece of ritual, achieving nothing which could not equally well be achieved by the banking system acting alone, through a sufficiently great alteration in its terms of lending”?
11. Would the formation of a large “sterling area” be of advantage or disadvantage to this country, in your opinion, if she were endeavouring to maintain a stable currency divorced from gold?

 

Tuesday, May 31, 1932. 1½ — 4½.
LABOUR.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. Sketch in outline the course followed by real wages in this country during the second half of the nineteenth century, and give some account of the principal causes which brought the changes about.
2. “The Dole has kept up wages above their proper level.” What are the arguments in support of this view? Discuss their soundness. What changes in public policy, if any, do you conclusions suggest as desirable?
3. What principal factors determine the magnitude of the change which a fall in the general level of commodity prices occasions in the proportion of the national income accruing to the owners of fixed-interest bearing investments?
4. With the object of creating employment, a grant is made by the Exchequer to a local authority for a road-widening scheme. The local authority sets about doing the work as efficiently as possible with the aid of steam navies and other labour-saving machinery. Ought the Exchequer to challenge this action? Argue the case for and against.
5. “The money now paid in unemployment benefit should be used to provide employment.” Suggest possible schemes and discuss their soundness.
6. Compare the relative levels of wages in skilled and unskilled occupations in this country to-day and before the War. Discuss the bearing of any changes upon (a) the supply of skilled workers, (b) industrial contentment, (c) labour organization and policy.
7. What are the principal differences between the English and German provisions for State action in the regulation of wages and the settlement of industrial disputes? Discuss whether England could with advantage follow the German example in these matters more closely.
8. Discuss the relative merits of systems under which wage-rates vary with (a) the market price of the product, (b) a cost of living index, (c) a wholesale price index (d) the profit of the undertaking.
9. Trace the history of the “One Big Union” idea and movement in this country since 1800.
10. If you had to measure the change in the general level of money wages in this country since 1900, what difficulties, theoretical and practical, would you encounter?
11. What were the principal influences determining the development of factory legislation in this country between 1825 and 1878?
12. What are the functions of the Public Assistance Committees? Do you consider that any of them should be transferred to other authorities or modified in any way? State your reasons.

 

Wednesday, June 1, 1932. 9 — 12.
INDUSTRY.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. “The entrepreneur has passed away with the Victorian era. His place has been taken by a combination of financier and salaried manager.” Discuss the truth of this contention.
2. Discuss the possibility of defining “an industry” so as to make it a useful conception in the analysis of economic structure without doing violence to its popular meaning.
3. Are there any special circumstances in England to-day that make the rational planning of each industry of more importance than in the past? Illustrate what is included under planning from your knowledge of any one industry.
4. Explain the nature and causes of any differences that occur in the marketing of (a) producers’ goods, (b) consumers’ goods, and the effect of these differences upon the location of the plants making these two types of goods.
5. How far can statistical proof be adduced for the contention that some manufacturing industries are subject to the law of increasing returns?
6. Consider the reasons for the introduction and development of municipal trading during the nineteenth century.
7. How far is it true that since the days of Malthus science and invention have entirely offset any tendency to diminishing returns in the various branches of agriculture?
8. What forms of integration and combination seem to you to best calculated to reduce the risks of industrial fluctuations, and why?
9. Discuss the effect on national and international localization of industry of the modern and the possible future development of (a) the telephone, (b) road transport, (c) commercial aviation.
10. Are we bound to expect a contraction in British industries manufacturing for export? What statistical sources and methods would you use to estimate the extent of such contraction, and to indicate industries and services to which investment might advantageously be directed or transferred?
11. Discuss any differences between British and foreign systems of education and training in respect of their effect upon the costs of industrial leadership at home and abroad.

 

Thursday, June 2, 1932. 9 — 12.
THEORY OF STATISTICS (OLD REGULATIONS.)
STATISTICS. (NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. Give an account of the principal properties of the association table, and tests for or measures of association,. Use Table A to illustrate your remark.

TABLE A.
	Nervous Symptoms
Women engaged in	None or slight	Marked	Total
Factory work	53	30	83
Clerical work	31	7	38
Total	84	37	121

2. Explain what is meant by a “frequency distribution” and state how, given the data, you would proceed to compile the distribution, directing attention to common faults of presentation. You can use Table B as an illustration. Comment on the dictum “Think in terms of frequency distributions, not of averages.”

TABLE B.
Salaries per day of 10 hours: workers on the French railways, 1896.
Salary	Number of workers per 10000
0.25—0.75	10
0.76—1.25	53
1.26—1.75	46
1.76—2.25	145
2.26—2.75	1010
2.76—3.50	3545
3.51—4.25	1921
4.26—5.50	2009
5.51—6.50	702
6.51—7.50	353
7.51—9.00	150
9.10—11.00	37
11.10—15.00	15
15.10—20.00	4
Total	10000

Find some form of average and measure of dispersion for Table B, giving reasons for your choice.

3. Prove the formula

where σ is the standard deviation, s is the root-mean-square deviation when deviations are measured from an arbitrary origin, and d is the difference of the mean from the arbitrary origin.
Find the standard deviation of the data in Table C, and check your own work by any method you consider most effective.

TABLE C.
Deaths from Glanders, persons England and Wales.
1882	3	1892	5
1883	2	1893	6
1884	2	1894	2
1885	5	1895	3
1886	5	1896	1
1887	6	1897	6
1888	2	1898	4
1889	8	1899	5
1890	3	1900	2
1891	4	1901	4

4. Table D shows the correlation between the class obtained in Part I and the class obtained in Part II by 500 candidates who sat for both parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1922-30. Find the correlation, and the regression equation for class in Part II on class in Part I, and check the fit of the line of regression. The following are the means and standard deviations: suffix 1 refers to Part I and 2 to Part II.

M1= 1.66	σ12 = 0.4337	σ1 = 0.659
M2= 1.93	σ22 = 0.5445	σ2 = 0.738.

 

TABLE D.
	Class in Part II
Class in Part II	1	2	3	Total
1	121	35	—	156
2	92	117	16	225
3	11	72	36	119
Total	224	224	52	500

5. Explain what is meant by a “weighted” mean, giving illustrations of its use in connection with index numbers of prices.
   Show that ,
   
   where M_w is the weighted mean of X, M the arithmetic mean of X, σ_x the standard deviation of X, σ_w the standard deviation of the weights w, the mean of the weights and r the correlation between X and w. In the light of this formula comment on the statement “Weighting usually has little effect.”
6. What is meant by the “standard error” of a statistical constant? State carefully the conditions assumed, and explain how these limit the value of the standard error as a general measure of “trustworthiness.”
   Prove the formula for the standard error of the arithmetic mean, and find the standard error of the difference between the means M₁, M₂ below, σ₁ and σ₂ being the respective standard deviations and N₁, N₂ the numbers of observations.

M1= 41.3	σ1= 3.8	N1= 100
M2= 38.9	σ2= 3.2	N2= 64.

 

7. (1) Test the significance of the association in Table A.
   (2) Test whether the data of Table C show anything but mere fluctuations of sampling.
8. Table E shows the numbers of married women in England and Wales at ages between 15 and 45, reduced to a total of 1000. By some method of interpolation break up the two final decennial groups into quinquennial groups.

TABLE E
Age	Married Women per 1000
15—	7
20—	100
25—	431
35—45	462
	1000

9. Table F shows the beginning of a life-table for Females (no. 7, 1901-10). Explain the meaning of the columns and calculate the figures that should be inserted in the spaces numbered (1), (2) etc. to (9).
   Find also the life-table death-rate and explain why this greatly exceeds the mean crude death-rate for Females 1901-10, viz. 14.4. What light does this phenomenon throw on the probable future course of the crude death-rate?

TABLE F
Age								Age
x	lx	dx	px	qx	Lx	Tx	e°x	X
0	1000	1174	.8826	.1174	9163	523820	(7)	0
1	8826	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(8)	1
2	8494	—	—	—	—	(6)	(9)	2

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1932. 1½ — 4½.
PRINCIPLES OF POPULATION.
(NEW REGULATIONS.)

1. Discuss the main features of Hegel’s conception of “economic” or “bourgeois” Society (die bürgerliche Gesellschaft). How far can that conception be regarded as the basis of Marxian theory?
2. “The expansion of England…was an expansion of Society, and not of the State” (Unwin). Examine the part played by social co-operation, as distinct from political organization, in the development of modern England.
3. What is the value, and what are the dangers, of the application of biological metaphors (e.g. “the body politic” or “the social organism”) to the study of political theory?
4. “A true conception of personality and its claims is the first necessity of political theory.” Discuss this statement.
5. “Liberty is rightly preferred to equality, when the two are in conflict.” Would you agree with this proposition?
6. What, in your view, is the final basis of the authority of law?
7. How far does the idea of a “social contract” afford a satisfactory answer to the problem of political obligation?
8. Does the conception of “the sovereignty of the national State” necessarily involve the unlimited supremacy of such a State?
9. How far is the conception of “natural rights” a necessary condition of legal progress?
10. Is the preservation of a distinction between the different “functions” or “powers” of government essential to the liberty of the subject?
11. What are the political principles implied in the development of “social services” in England during the present century? What limits would you assign on grounds of principle, to the further extension of such services?
12. “Democracy is not a particular form of State, but the necessary mode of action of all forms of State.” How far would you accept, or on what grounds would you criticize, this proposition?

 

Source:  Cambridge University. Economics Tripos Papers 1931-1933. Cambridge, UK: University Press, 1933, pp. 28-52.

Image Source: Cambridge University, St. John’s Library from website Vintage Postcards.