Economic History of the United States Practice Questions for Final Exam Fall 2012

The actual final exam will consist of 8 questions drawn from this list of 20 practice questions. As discussed in class I will choose which 8 of these questions will be on the exam. Once you have the exam you should then choose 7 of those 8 to answer.

1. Discuss population growth in Colonial America.

2. How is comparative advantage related to early American production?

3. Alice Hanson Jones research on colonial income and wealth has been extremely persuasive, based on her research and other relevant factors what can we say in comparing the relative well-being of colonial Americans?

4. What are some of the economic factors that may have been contributing causes to the American Revolution?

5. Contrast the views of Francis Walker with those of Paul Uselding and his coauthor Larry Neal regarding immigration.

6. What are tariffs and how do they relate to the conflict between the Northern and Southern states?

7. Describe some of Hamilton's contributions to U.S. financial policies.

8. Discuss the costs of the civil war.

9. How would Brinley Thomas describe US growth following the Civil War? Does this conflict with John Thomaske’s work?

10. Contrast the Knights of Labor with the AFL.

11. Two presidents named Roosevelt helped promote the acceptance of unions. What did Theodore Roosevelt do in 1902 to promote unionism? More importantly what did Franklin Roosevelt do in the mid-1930s?

12. Why did some people expect a recession immediately after WWI and why didn’t it materialize?

13. In 1929 the US had an unemployment rate of approximately 3.2%, or 1.6 million people unemployed, yet Hughes and Cain suggest we were at full employment. What do they mean by "full employment"?

14. Some economic historians think the Federal Reserve did not do all it should have to prevent the depression. Discuss alternative views of what they did or could have done.

15. Most economists argue that we should not strive to balance the budget on an annual basis and prefer to look at the structural budget. Some point out Hoover’s tax folly to emphasize their point. Explain what they are talking about.

16. In what ways was economic warfare a part of W.W.II?

17. Discuss inflationary pressures associated with W.W.II.

18. What was the War on Poverty and how does it relate to The Affluent Society and The Other America?

19. Why has the tertiary sector grown so much?

20. How is the fiscal drag Kennedy worried about related to supply side economics?