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Labor History and Labor Economics

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The Future of Economic History

Part of the book series: Recent Economic Thought Series ((RETH,volume 9))

Abstract

What would a modern economist want to learn from American labor history? Economists interested in long-term growth and development might want to begin with the material conditions of the laboring classes, the growth of worker real incomes and living standards in relation to general economic progress. This sort of interest would not stop at the consumption of goods as conventionally defined, but would include other components of economic welfare, such as long-term trends in conditions of work: hours, safety, job security, workpace, and perhaps more elusive aspects of “job quality.” For the analytically minded economist of today, however, learning these bare facts would only be the beginning. The modern economist would then want to know something about what kind of market or nonmarket mechanisms generated these results. Have worker preferences changed, for example, regarding the trade-offs among money income, job security, shorter hours, and better working conditions? How has the labor market priced these job attributes at different historical periods? If some improvements in the conditions of workingmen’s lives have been purchased only at an economic cost, what was this cost, and what were the implications for national economic progress?

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  1. Deapartment of Economics, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, 95053, USA

    Alexander J. Field

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Wright, G. (1987). Labor History and Labor Economics. In: Field, A.J. (eds) The Future of Economic History. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3269-2_7

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