The paper for Economics 411 is intended to be a stimulating research project. It is a major portion of your grade. You must begin working on the paper early in the semester. The hardest part of writing a paper is finding a suitable topic. I have set up a schedule (see syllabus) to ensure that you can write a rewarding paper. A list of subject areas selected by past students in Econ 411 can be found at the end of this handout.

1. Primary Sources

At least one primary source must be an important and integral part of your research and your paper (generally more than one source will be used). This part of the project creates the most confusion and it is imperative that you understand what a primary source is and is not.

The paper is not to be a literature review but must contain an original and creative addition of your own. There are a wide variety of primary sources. The most obvious are those containing data (e.g., census material), but your primary sources do not have to be statistical. Many primary sources (e.g., newspapers, diaries, Congressional hearings) have no quantitative information. Although it is not possible to construct an exhaustive list of primary sources, it is easy to describe what is not a primary source. Textbooks and most secondary references, even if they contain data from a primary source, are not primary sources. A primary source is one that has "not been interpreted." Using a primary source will give you the experience of constructing history from the remnants of the past. You must note the primary source(s) in the bibliography to your paper.

Primary sources include: the federal censuses of the United States (e.g., population, manufactures, agriculture, social statistics), reports and bulletins of the Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reports of the state bureaus of labor statistics, Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogues (e.g., for price data), newspapers, and firm records, among many others. The best way to become acquainted with historical statistics and with thousands of primary sources is to consult the 2 volumes of U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States from Colonial Times to 1970 (1975). These volumes contain statistical data on virtually every subject covered in the course including population, prices, national income, employment, wages, hours, union membership, fertility, and mortality. Primary sources also include a wide variety of documents that bear on domestic and foreign policy, household and consumer behavior, and the like. There are, for example, the voting records of the House and Senate (from the Congressional Record), novels, diaries, letters of influential people, cookbooks, plantation records, among many others.

2. Some Guidelines

Your first task is to select a topic. Next, read the secondary literature on the topic. Only then will you know what your question is and which primary sources will help you answer it. The biggest mistake that students make is not to consult secondary sources to narrow their topic. Secondary sources, in addition, will guide you to the most relevant primary sources.

Whatever topic you choose and whatever your methodology, the paper must be written well and must use a research-paper style and format. You should consult one of the many style handbooks (the University of Chicago’s famous Manual of Style is an obvious choice). Remember that you must write and rewrite, and then rewrite again. You will not get a good grade on a paper that has just emerged from your word processor. If you are uncertain concerning what constitutes plagiarism, please consult the Student Handbook, the Write Site, or ask me. Plagiarism is often unintentional. Footnote and reference your sources properly.

The following procedure will guarantee a doable project:

• pick a general subject of interest to you and of relevance to ECON 411 or to U.S. economic history in general (e.g., educational history of the U.S.);
• read the most relevant of the secondary literature (and compile a bibliography) by searching WebPals, JSTOR, and EconLit (or other search engines) using keywords;
• narrow the topic so that it is manageable (e.g., the politics of high school expansion in New York City from 1900 to 1930: the roles of geography and curriculum);
• frame the topic as a question (e.g., how did interest groups in New York City alter the geographic placement of high schools and their curriculum during the period of high school expansion?).
• find relevant primary source(s) (e.g., commissioner of Education reports; New York State reports of the superintendent of education).

You must include the following in your paper (failure to do so will result in a lower grade):

• bibliography of cited sources;

• all tables, graphs, figures, maps, and so on must be properly documented and capable of being replicated. The sources and notes must be written on the same page as the table or graph and must enable the reader to locate the necessary information to replicate it, if need be.

You are not required to use a primary source in your paper, but it is strongly encouraged. If you are the first to examine data, you will have original research. Secondary sources, however, can produce acceptable topics. For example you could improve a previous model or improve previous research by examining a different geographical region. In either case, cite your data sources.

• Community colleges since the 1920s; did they democratize or divert students from four-year colleges?
• Detroit elementary schools in the 1910s and 1920s: how did they respond to growing demand for industrial workers?
• The Harvard Extension School: how did the increased demand for high school teachers lead to its creations?
• Public versus private institutions of higher education: why do some states give greater financial support to students in public universities than do others?

• The blue-collar occupations and earnings of women in male-dominated manufacturing industries c.1900: What were they?
• Propaganda during World War II: what was its role in the increase of women and teenagers in the labor force?
• Rosie the Riveter: was Rosie a revolutionary role model or a home-front housewife?
• How did African-American iron and steel workers in Birmingham in the early 20^th century learn their craft?

• Migration from the dustbowl in the 1930s: what was its impact on the California economy?
• How different were the skills of first generation Irish relative to second generation Irish c.1900?
• What factors led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882? An analysis of Congressional votes.
• Why did the Great Migration of African-Americans to the North occur when it did?
• How did ethnic enclaves grow and what evidence is there for "chain migration"?
• Did the native-born in the United States respond to immigration by moving to areas of lower immigrant intensity in the 1910s?

• How did black and white southern fertility rates change after Emancipation?
• How did the age at first marriage change as women’s market work opportunities were enhanced from 1920 to 1980?

• The California economy before Silicon Valley: why did California grow rapidly in the 1950s?
• What was the role of the minimum wage in the economic convergence of the South and the North from 1940 to 1960?
• What was the impact of urbanization on the spread of tuberculosis in the late 19^th century?
• What caused the switch from private to public ownership of Boston’s subways and elevated trains?
• Arsenals of Growth. How did military installations affect employment in California, 1939 to 1947?
• Ghost towns. Why did some California towns grow and others disappear after the Gold Rush?

• How did United Fruit Inc. maintain its monopoly in the early 20^th century?
• The American Ice Trust: how could the production and sale of "ice" be monopolized and how was the monopoly broken?
• The rise of General Motors versus Ford and the creation of oligopoly in automobiles: what was GM/s new advantage?
• How did Swift & Co. become a giant in meat-packing – the role of vertical integration.
• The steel industry in the United States: what accounts for its decline and when did it decline?
• Vertical integration of U.S. Steel and iron ore mines: was integration for efficiency or monopoly reasons?
• Deregulation of the airlines: how did the most important airline regulations evolve and what were their efficiency effects?

• Electricity and manufacturing: a cross-sectional analysis of the impact of electricity on manufacturing productivity.
• The First Technological Revolution in the Office—computing before computers. How did early calculators change the market for office personnel and the office?

• Why were agricultural price supports adopted in 1933 and why did they last for decades – insights from a comparison of the United States and France.
• How did the adoption of withholding and pay-as-you-go income tax affect the federal government’s ability to collect revenue and raise taxes since the 1940s?
• What was the role of enforcement on the repeal of Prohibition?

In writing your prospectus, more information is preferred to less. You may want to state how you arrived at the topic and what sources you consulted. In framing your question, note where you may encounter problems and what you might do about them. When citing your primary sources, mention those you have not yet consulted but about which you saw reference in secondary sources.

*****

Topic: Immigration and immigration restriction. In particular, congressional legislation concerning the restriction of European immigration debated and passed before the quotas of the 1920s.

I became interested in the topic after the Econ 416 lecture on immigration. Prof. Greenley noted that there were several votes in Congress, before the quotas of the 1920s, regarding immigration restriction and the "literacy test." These votes were taken from 1897 to the 1917 (1897, 1913, 1915, 1917) and were vetoed on all occasions (with an override in 1917).

Question: What were the constituencies in favor of this legislation and what constituencies opposed it?

I don’t know how detailed I will be able to get with respect to the "constituencies." For both houses of Congress I will be able to see how Democrats, Republicans, and Populists (and others from third parties) voted. I will also be able to see how states and regions voted (e.g., was the South for or against an "open door"?) But I’m not certain whether I will be able to link this information to other, more detailed, data particularly for the House (e.g., business, labor, agricultural interests; ethnicities of the foreign born in the district). Ideally, I would like to examine whether the existence of certain ethnic groups in a district constrained a Congressman’s vote. For example, if there were many Polish in a district, one would think that the district would vote against the proposed act since Poland was still a large sending country. I would also like to look at the role of economic factors, such as whether the immigrants were competing for jobs with the existing labor force in the district. But that may be too difficult for a short paper. Any advice on that?

I have looked at the following secondary sources (although I have not read each carefully):

Higham, John. (1955). Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Hutchinson, E.P. (1981). Legislative History of American Immigration Policy, 1798-1965. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. [this may be a primary source; advice?]

Jones, Maldwyn Allen. (1992). American Immigration. 2^nd edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Taylor, Philip. (1971). The Distant Magnet: European Emigration to the U.S.A. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode.

Primary Sources: I plan to use the Congressional Record to get information on the votes on the various bills and the debate. The Congressional Directory contains information on the members of the House and Senate. I may also use various volumes of the U.S. Census of Population to get information on the makeup of the foreign born in various states.


(Greg's sources: This handout and the sample prospectus are a modified version of the same handouts provided by Prof. Claudia Goldin to her economic history class.)