This post has been assembled around a list of books used in courses on transportation that were taught at Harvard in the mid-1930s. While the courses covered public utility regulation for the most part, I have not yet found complete course outlines or syllabi for the two courses considered. So paired with the final examinations for the course, the partial reading lists are all we can go on for now regarding the course content.
In the following post we meet the economics Ph.D. alumnus (Harvard, 1931), Donald Holmes Wallace who assisted Edward H. Chamberlin in teaching these courses at the time. Wallace put the lists together in response to an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission (see below).
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Related Harvard Course Posts
1931. Economics of Transportation
1934. The Corporation and its Regulation Syllabus
1939-40. Regulation of Public Utilities and Transportation
1940-41. Economics of Transportation and Public Utilities
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Course Announcements
1935-36
Economics 4c 2hf. Public Utilities (including Transportation)
Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.
Economics 4a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.
[Economics 48. Economics of Public Utilities]
Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.
Omitted in 1935-36.
Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1935-36, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 32, No. 7 (March 4, 1935), pp. 135, 139.
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1936-37
Economics 63b 2hf. (formerly 4c). Public Utilities (including Transportation)
Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace and Abbott.
Economics 61a [The Corporation and its Regulation] is a prerequisite for this course.
Economics 163. (formerly 48). Economics of Public Utilities
Wed., 4 to 6 (and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor). Professor Crum and Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.
Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1936-37, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 33, No. 5 (March 2, 1936), pp. 141,145.
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Course Enrollments
[Economics] 4c 2hf. Associate Professor Chamberlin and Drs. Wallace, Abbott and Baker. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).
Total 74: 2 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1935-36, p. 82.
* * * * * * * * * * *
[Economics] 63b 2hf. (formerly 4c) Associate Professor Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace. — Public Utilities (including Transportation).
Total 43: 1 Graduate, 25 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Other.
[Economics] 163. (formerly 48). Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin and Dr. Wallace.—Economics of Public Utilities (including Transportation).
Total 10: 4 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 2 Radcliffe.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1936-37, pp. 92, 94.
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Harvard University
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department of Government
Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 19, 1936
Miss C. C. Tatnall
Department of Economics
41 Holyoke House
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Dear Miss Tatnall:
Professor [William Y.] Elliott has had an inquiry from a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission about the books which are being used in the courses on transportation in the University. Have you a bibliography, or could a bibliography be prepared, of the material in use in the courses Economics 63b and 163? We shall appreciate any material you are able to collect.
Do you know if there are any other courses in the College which deal with transportation?
Thanks so much for your trouble.
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
[first name?] Dolan
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List of Books used in Economics of Transportation
October, 1936
D. H. Wallace
Undergraduate course entitled Public Utilities including Transportation:
Locklin: Economics of Transportation
Mosher and Crawford: Public Utility Regulation
Daggett: Principles of Inland Transportation
Owen: Highway Economics
Bauer and Gold: Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control
Bonbright and Means: The Holding Company
Reports of the Federal Coordinator.
Graduate course students make use of the following
Cunningham: American Railroads
Grodinsky: Railroad Consolidation
Jones: Principles of Railway Transportation
Miller: Inland Transportation
Ripley: Railroads
Ripley: Report on Consolidation for I.C.C.
Sharfman: American Railway Problem
Sharfman: Interstate Commerce Commission
Simnett: Railway Amalgamation in Great Britain
Vanderblue and Burgess: Railroads
I.C.C.: Annual Reports
I.C.C.: Decisions
Clark: Economics of Overhead Costs
Chamberlin: Theory of Monopolistic Competition (Duopoly and oligopoly)
Pigou: Economics of Welfare (Discrimination)
Robinson: Economics of Imperfect Competition (Discrimination)
Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 25. Folder “Suggested Readings”.
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Reading Period Assignment
May 4-26, 1936
Economics 4c: Read one of the following:
- First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37.
Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
- Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
- Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1935-36”.
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1935-36
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4c2
[Final Examination]
Answer questions 1 and 5 and TWO others. All questions are of equal weight.
- Answer the question appropriate to your Reading Period choice.
- Discuss the alternatives for a national policy toward the transportation problem in this country and explain which measures should in your opinion be included in such a program.
- Compare the chief developments in railway regulation in France and the United States during the past fifteen years.
- “The concept of ‘present value’ represents an unreal combination of judicial prejudice and economic abstraction.” Discuss.
- The economic surgery required by the provisions of the Public Utility Holding Company Act compelling realignment of companies into integrated regional systems is no less deplorable than an appendicitis operation upon a boy who has eaten too many green apples. A much more sensible policy was adopted in the consolidation provisions of the Transportation Act of 1920 which enabled a judicious mixture of private and public planning of combination.” Discuss.
- “The original cost method of valuation cannot provide a satisfactory way of determining rate bases in the case of competing railroads built at different times over different terrains. Under such circumstances the use of original cost will result either in robbing the stockholders of one road of the advantages of perspicacious management, or in forcing shippers to reward the stockholders of the other for building an expensive road.” Discuss.
- You are asked by one of the political parties to prepare a memorandum to serve as a basis for a plank concerning public utilities. It is requested that you explain specifically: (1) the economic criteria which seem to be the most useful for distinguishing industries which should be subjected to public ownership and operation or public regulation of investment, prices, and earnings; and (2) the legal principles used by the courts in recent cases involving the rights of Federal or state governments to regulate investment, prices, or earnings.
- Discuss two of the following quotations.
- “The ordinary consumer of utility services is interested only in price and quality of service. His disposition to leave to investors all concern over security structures, holding companies, and service charges finds a sound basis in the fact that these things affect only the division of the profits.”
- “Whatever may be urged to the contrary, regulation of transportation agencies in the United States has been imposed as a result of unfair treatment of the shipping public.”
- “Personal discrimination is bad enough in that it confers an unwarranted favor upon one of two producers located in the same place; long and short haul discrimination is worse because it gives an undue advantage to the producer who is located farther away from raw materials or markets.”
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1936. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 78).
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Reading Period Assignment
May 10-June 2, 1937
Economics 63b: Read one of the following:
- First Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37,
and
Third Report of the Federal Coordinator of Transportation, pp. 3-129.
- Stuart Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition), Chs. 36-38
and H.E. Dugall, two articles on French railways, Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933, pp. 289-333 and June, 1934, pp. 385-392.
- Bauer, J. and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.
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1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 63b2
[Final Examination]
Write on four questions, including the first and the last. Divide your time about equally between them.
- Choose either (a) or (b):
- “The fact that ‘charging what the traffic will bear’ develops under unregulated competition is no excuse for permitting the practice when rates are regulated by public authority. It is simply another form of discrimination which it is the duty of the I.C.C. to put down.” Discuss.
- Comment on the following figures for the electrical industry for 1935:
|
|
Customers
Per cent |
Consumption
Per cent |
Revenue
Per cent |
| Domestic: |
82.6 |
18.0 |
36.6
|
| Commercial: |
| Retail |
14.9
|
18.3 |
28.0
|
| Wholesale |
2.0
|
53.1 |
27.5
|
| Municipal, Street railways and miscellaneous |
0.5
|
10.6 |
7.0
|
|
100.0
|
100.0 |
100.0
|
- “With the Act of 1920 the policy of regulation of railroads reached its highest development. If that policy fails, the only alternative is public ownership.” Discuss.
- Discuss the merits and defects of the policies adopted in in this country for public planning of operating systems either in electricity supply or in railroad transportation.
- “In the last analysis, it has been the presence or absence of monopoly which determined whether or not an industry was held to be a public utility. Actually, there are several other elements which ought to be given important consideration.” Discuss.
- Answer the question appropriate to your reading period choice:
- (Eastman report.) Do you think that all agencies of transport should be subjected to the same or to different sorts of regulation? Explain.
- (Bauer and Gold.) Explain briefly what you understand by “fair value” according to the law of the land and discuss its significance for the regulation of earnings of public utilities.
- (Foreign railways.) What significant comparisons may be made between the post-war railroad problems of France, Germany and England? What light has your reading here thrown upon the problems of this country?
Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).
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Reading Period Assignment
January 4-20, 1937
Economics 163: Read the following:
Bonbright and Means, The Holding Company.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.
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1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Mid-Year Examination]
All six questions are of equal weight. Answer the first question, the last question, and any two among questions 2 to 5.
- The Public Utility Act of 1935 authorizes an examination of holding company systems with a view to determining “the extent to which such holding company systems and the companies therein may be simplified, unnecessary complexities therein eliminated, voting power fairly and equitably distributed among the holders of securities thereof, and the properties and business thereof confined to those necessary or appropriate to the operations of integrated public utility systems.” What facts with respect to these questions would you expect such an examination to disclose?
- Discuss either of the following statements by Burns:
(a) “Vertical integration thus dictated by the opportunity to secure technical economies of production is not directly caused by the decline of price competition although it may contribute to that decline.”
(b) “In common with all forms of integration, however, this type (of the production of commodities requiring similar selling organizations) hinders the comparison of costs and prices for each separate branch of production.”
- Discuss either of the following statements:
(a) “Closely related and also a chief point of controversy, was the effect of limitation of liability upon the position of the creditor.” Hunt (commenting upon the Royal Commission Report of 1854).
(b) “It is to be noted that hardly anywhere in these reports (those of 1837, 1850, 1851, and 1854) was a pure measure of limited liability discussed. What was discussed at great length was this mixed form (of the en commandite type) with unlimited and limited partners.” Shannon.
- (a) Discuss the significance and usefulness of either ratio analysis, with illustrative comment upon important types of ratios, or analysis by use of so-called statements of source and disposition of funds.
(b) Outline the major arguments against enforced publicity of corporate accounts.
- (a) Discuss the effect of each of the following devices in bringing about separation of control from ownership in corporations: (i) the stockholder’s proxy, (ii) classification of stock.
(b) Outline the main considerations determining a corporation’s dividend policy.
- Write on either (a) or (b):
(a) What difficulties, if any, are created by the corporate form of organization for the theory of profits?
(b) What effect do you think a sizeable tax on the transfer of securities (say 1 or 2 per cent of the market price) would have on the behavior of security prices?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13, Folder “Mid-year examinations, 1936-1937”.
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Reading Period Assignment
May 10—June 2, 1937
Economics 163: No additional assignment.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1936-37”.
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1936-37
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 163
[Final Examination]
Write on four questions, including number 6. Divide your time about equally between them.
- “To justify the principle of discrimination is not to justify either particular instances or particular types of discrimination.” Discuss.
- Discuss the possibilities for regulating the earnings of public utilities either (a) with, or (b) without, valuation.
- Discuss the possible effects of regulation upon efficiency. What suggestions as to public policy can you make for strengthening the incentives towards efficient operation?
- “The arguments for and against public ownership are the same as the arguments for and against regulation.” Discuss.
- Discuss the problems of public planning for the size and structure of operating units and the relations between them, with reference to either (a) railroad transport, or (b) electricity supply.
- Write on transport coordination: its meaning, significance and possibilities.
Source: Harvard University, Examination Papers, Finals 1937. (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 79).
Image Source: Cover of the 1946 Harvard Album.
