Abram Piatt Andrew (b. 1873, Princeton A.B. 1893; Harvard  Ph.D. 1900) and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (b. 1873, Harvard A.B. 1894; A.M. 1895; Ph.D. 1897) were rising stars in the department of economics at Harvard in the 1903-04 academic year. Together they covered the bases of money, banking, and international payments.  ___________________________ Related, previous posts Andrew, Sprague, and Meyer’s money, banking, and international payment exams from 1901-02. Andrew’s (linked) reading list for money from 1901-02. Andrew’s Money exam from 1902-03. Sprague’s ..read more

  Today’s post was an absolute treat to prepare. It gives us an opportunity to rise above the tactical aspects of economics education (i.e. syllabi and exams) to consider issues of grand strategy in higher education. Charles Kindleberger was one of my professors in graduate school. Though I did take his course in European economic history, I must confess that I was not ready to absorb much of the intuition and wisdom that he tried to share with us. That said, my classmates and I very much respected his old-school, gentlemanly charm and deeply appreciated the scholar-economist dutifully wa ..read more

  On April 10, 1945, the chairman of the University of Chicago’s economics department, Professor Simeon E. Leland, submitted a 77 page (!) memorandum to President Robert M. Hutchins entitled “Postwar Plans of the Department of Economics – A Wide Variety of Observations and Suggestions All Intended To Be Helpful in Improving the State of the University”. In his cover letter Leland wrote “…in the preparation of the memorandum, I learned much that was new about the past history of the Department. Some of this, incorporated in the memorandum, looks like filler stuck in, bu ..read more

  Before Charles Jesse Bullock took over the field of public finance in the Harvard economics department as a permanent faculty member in 1904-05, Frank Taussig taught the taxation course three times. The previously posted reading list from 1897-1898 has been updated for this post with the addition of links to all the assigned references [link provided below]. Taussig’s exam questions from the 1903-04 academic year have been transcribed and are included here. ___________________________ Reading list and exam questions from the previous time Frank Taussig taught Economics 7b (1897-1898) H ..read more

  Research documenting a trend (long known by professional economists) that economics professors and policymakers have been trained at a relatively small number of institutions is attracting attention from outsiders looking in. The following 1961 memorandum written by the head of the M.I.T. economics department, Robert L. Bishop, provides evidence of the strength of that department already in 1961 to attract the lion’s share of Woodrow Wilson Fellows in economics. This pattern would be later observed over the coming decades in the graduate school choices of National Science ..read more

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is always (well, almost always) on the lookout for artifacts providing autobiographical detail on the economists whose course materials have been transcribed and posted here. While trawling the hathitrust.org archive yet another time for material on the Harvard economics/business professor O. M. W. Sprague, I found seven reports of the secretaries of the Harvard Class of 1894, of which Sprague was a distinguished graduate. Sprague’s personal reports are sometimes repetitive, but it is still handy to put them together in one post. Bonus Material: Sprague’s brie ..read more

  William Zebina Ripley had recently published his chapter on transportation for the Industrial Commission’s Final report in 1902 so that a course on (mostly or almost exclusively) railroads would have been easy for him to teach.  Bonus material: Here is a link to Appleton Prentiss Clark Griffin [I wonder what his friends called him], Chief Bibliographer of the U.S. Library of Commerce, A list of Books with Reference to Periodicals Relating to Railroads in their Relation to the Government and the Public [Second Issue]. Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1907. ___ ..read more

  For some unknown reason the June collection of spring semester exams in 1903-04 for the economics courses in the Harvard economics department does not include the year-end examination for Professor William Z. Ripley’s statistics course. It is for this reason that today’s post is limited to the fall semester final examination questions only. Fortunately the exams for both semesters from 1901-02 and 1902-03 have been posted earlier together with the published course description. Ripley’s short bibliography for social statistics (1910) with links to all its  items ..read more

  A book of course readings for Thomas Nixon Carver’s principles of sociology was published about one year later: Sociology and Social Progress: A Handbook for Students of Sociology. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1905. A linked reading list for the course taught jointly by Carver and Ripley from 1902-03 has been posted earlier along with a course description and semester examination questions. ___________________________ ECONOMICS 3 Enrollment, 1903-04 Economics 3. Professor Carver. — Principles of Sociology — Theories of Social Progress. Total 61: 8 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 20 Juniors ..read more

  Frank Taussig resumed teaching at Harvard in the fall semester of 1903 following his leave of absence for health reasons. Economic theory was his most important course and it was split between him (first semester) and Thomas Nixon Carver (second term) during 1903-04. It is striking to see how different their examination styles were. Carver appears to have taught a catechism of doctrine in contrast to Taussig’s attempt to teach some economic reasoning. Thereafter Taussig taught his course right up to his retirement.  Joseph Schumpeter then picked up the economic ..read more