Children's and Mothers' Wage Labor in Three Eastern U.S. Cities, 1880-1920

Kleinberg, S. J.

doi:10.1017/s0145553200013249

Cited by 3 publications

References 25 publications

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The Industrious Revolution

Vries

2008

806

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In the long eighteenth century, new consumer aspirations combined with a new industrious behavior to fundamentally alter the material cultures of northwest Europe and North America. This 'industrious revolution' is the context in which the economic acceleration associated with the Industrial Revolution took shape. This study explores the intellectual understanding of the new importance of consumer goods as well as the actual consumer behavior of households of all income levels. De Vries examines how the activation and evolution of consumer demand shaped the course of economic development, situating consumer behavior in the context of the household economy. He considers the changing consumption goals of households from the seventeenth century to the present and analyzes how household decisions have mediated between macro-level economic growth and actual human betterment. Ultimately, de Vries' research reveals the strengths and weaknesses of existing consumer theory, suggesting revisions that add historical realism to economic abstractions.

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The Industrious Revolution

Vries

2008

806

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Women's Paid Work in an Urban Developing Economy. Barcelona in 1930

Domènech

Elu-Terán

2008

RHE / JILAEH

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In this paper we explore the determinants of women's work using data from Barcelona in 1930. Although participation rates were much lower in Barcelona than in cities in the UK or the US at roughly the same time, our estimates of the labour supply suggest women in Barcelona did respond to wage incentives. The most distinguishable feature of the household division of labour in Barcelona is the lack of substitution effects among family members, especially among women. The sensitivity of the participation of each individual woman to the participation of other members of the household might indicate that labour markets were highly segmented and anticipates the existence of large differences in household earnings and welfare. We argue that the persistence of labour-intensive methods of production requiring on-the-job training might explain the type of household division of labour that we find in Barcelona. Revista de Historia Económica RESUMENEste artículo explora los determinantes del trabajo de las mujeres en la ciudad de Barcelona en 1930. Aunque las tasas de participación en Barcelona eran muy inferiores a las de algunas ciudades británicas o estadounidenses durante el mismo período de tiempo, nuestras estimaciones de la oferta de trabajo sugieren que las mujeres barcelonesas respondían positivamente a los estímulos salariales. Sin embargo, la característica más sobresaliente de la organización familiar del trabajo en el caso barcelonés es la inexistencia de efectos sustitución entre los miembros de la misma unidad familiar, y especialmente entre las mujeres. El hecho de que la decisión individual de cada mujer de participar estuviera positivamente influenciada por la participación de otras mujeres del mismo hogar apunta a la elevada segmentación de los mercados de trabajo y sugiere, a su vez, la existencia de grandes diferencias en los niveles de ganancias y bienestar de los hogares barceloneses de la época. El artículo argumenta que la persistencia de métodos de producción intensivos en trabajo y la acumulación de capital humano en el lugar de trabajo exclusivamente son factores explicativos del patrón de división del trabajo observado en los datos.Palabras clave: oferta de trabajo, organización del trabajo, ocupación femenina, estructura familiar

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Carrots over Sticks? Mothers’ Pensions and Child Labor in the Early 20th Century U.S.

2023

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While existing research suggests that nineteenth-century child labor laws largely failed to significantly reduce children’s workforce participation, we examine whether policies that tackled the problem by providing aid – rather than by penalizing work – were more effective. Between 1910 and 1920, forty U.S. states enacted mothers’ pension programs, giving needy “deserving” mothers, typically widows, cash aid to support their dependent children. One purpose of the programs was to reduce child labor. However, we find no negative relationship between child labor and the generosity of states’ mothers’ pension laws. Furthermore, we find no negative relationship between child labor and county-level mothers’ pension generosity, in terms of expenditures, in the seven states for which we have data. We attribute this to the small size of the pensions as well as the programs’ limited coverage and general lack of conditionality on children’s behaviors, such as attending school or not engaging in paid work. We also note states’ and counties’ limited administrative capacity to enforce eligibility requirements, such as school attendance, where these existed.

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Children's and Mothers' Wage Labor in Three Eastern U.S. Cities, 1880-1920

Cited by 3 publications

References 25 publications

The Industrious Revolution

The Industrious Revolution

Women's Paid Work in an Urban Developing Economy. Barcelona in 1930

Carrots over Sticks? Mothers’ Pensions and Child Labor in the Early 20th Century U.S.

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