Download This PaperWages, Productivity, and Work Intensity in the Great Depression
24 Pages Posted: 29 Aug 2002
Date Written: August 2002
Abstract
We show that U.S. manufacturing wages during the Great Depression were importantly determined by forces on firms' intensive margins. Short-run changes in work intensity and the longer-term goal of restoring full potential productivity combined to influence real wage growth. By contrast, the external effects of unemployment and replacement rates had much less impact. Empirical work is undertaken against the background of an efficient bargaining model that embraces employment, hours of work and work intensity.
Keywords: Wages, Productivity, Work Intensity, Great Depression
JEL Classification: J24, J31, N62
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Non-Monetary Effects of the Financial Crisis in the Propagation of the Great Depression
-
The Gold Standard and the Great Depression
By Barry Eichengreen and Peter Temin
-
By Ben S. Bernanke and Harold James
-
The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression: A Comparative Approach
-
Nominal Wage Stickiness and Aggregate Supply in the Great Depression
By Ben S. Bernanke and Kevin Carey