Chris Blattman

Chris Blattman

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Harvard’s general examination in the Department of Economics, in 1953

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Question 5 is as follows:

“Future historians may well write the epitaph of our civilization as follows:

From freedom and science came rapid growth and change.

From rapid growth and change came economic instability.

From instability came demands which ended growth and change.

Ending growth and change ended science and freedom.”

Discuss this alleged conflict between economic growth and measures to secure economic stability. In your answer refer to the views of some of the great economists, for example, Schumpeter and Keynes, on this problem.

Here is the full exam. Two reactions.

First, the blogger noted this:

Needless to say all this has changed dramatically. Earlier it required understanding of history and economics, now it is just about math.

Actually, my development and labor field exams at Berkeley were full of general questions like, such as “What do we know about the effects of raising the minimum wage” or “why is there corruption and what are its consequences?” Some of the answers required math. And a lot of the evidence I had to marshal involved complicated statistical studies. Economic history was ignored, but then I didn’t take the economic history field exam. But history was central in the department, with figures like Eichengreen and Delong as leaders, and a cohesive group of historians across the UC system who met together all the time.

So I don’t recognize the caricature of economics graduate school many paint.

Second, I am so asking this question on my political economy of development exam in May. Some of the most prominent political economists alive today have built their careers, articles and books tackling Question 5. Economics has never been more focused or better on this question. It could be better, I’m happy to see it trending in the good direction.

29 Responses

  1. Discuss this alleged conflict between economic growth and measures to secure economic stability. In your answer refer to the views of some of the great economists, for example, Schumpeter and Keynes, on this problem.

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  2. From rapid growth and change came economic instability. <<
    This actually skips the key step in US history:
    From rapid growth and change came huge economic advance, and inequality,
    From economic riches and inequality came economic instability …

    In 1953 it wasn't so clear that American Hegemony in post WW II was to usher in the 60 years of most economic advances in history. Too bad the politics is allowing the rich to buy off the poor with the drug of free-money dependency while restricting upward mobility for middle class workers.

  3. Schumpeter, cited in the exam and the former Chair of the department, was literally writing a book of mathematical economic theory, inspired by his student Samuelson, when he died. Harvard wasn’t Cowles or Columbia, but the idea that a question like this means no mathematics was implied, as the original blog post suggests, is just historically inaccurate.