| beanabstract.pdf |
Job Market Paper
Poverty and Female Labor Supply in Interwar London
Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between poverty and female labor supply at a time when women's labor force participation rates, especially those of married women, were still relatively low. I use a large sample of working-class households from the 1929-31 New Survey of London Life and Labour to examine the determinants of women’s participation and hours-of-work decisions and how these varied by wage level and poverty status. My main finding is that, in general, the labor supply curve was negatively sloped -- women worked longer hours at lower wages -- but there is some evidence that the relationship was positive at the higher wages associated with the emerging white-collar sector. I also find that women from poor households were significantly more likely to be in the labor force, worked longer hours, and were more responsive to household earnings and benefit income. Finally, I explore the ways in which the labor supply behavior of married women, female household heads and young single women related to their differing roles within the household economy.
Poverty and Female Labor Supply in Interwar London
Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between poverty and female labor supply at a time when women's labor force participation rates, especially those of married women, were still relatively low. I use a large sample of working-class households from the 1929-31 New Survey of London Life and Labour to examine the determinants of women’s participation and hours-of-work decisions and how these varied by wage level and poverty status. My main finding is that, in general, the labor supply curve was negatively sloped -- women worked longer hours at lower wages -- but there is some evidence that the relationship was positive at the higher wages associated with the emerging white-collar sector. I also find that women from poor households were significantly more likely to be in the labor force, worked longer hours, and were more responsive to household earnings and benefit income. Finally, I explore the ways in which the labor supply behavior of married women, female household heads and young single women related to their differing roles within the household economy.
| jessica_bean_jmp.pdf |
Publication
"The Trade Boards Act of 1909 and the Alleviation of Household Poverty" (with George Boyer), British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 47, 2 (June 2009).
Abstract
This paper examines the effects of the 1909 Trade Boards Act on women’s wage rates and income contributions to poor households. The Act established boards charged with setting minimum hourly wages in selected low-paid trades, and the majority of workers affected before the First World War were women. Many of the women whose wages were raised by the Act were the wives and daughters of low-skilled workers, while many others were sole earners who supported children or elderly parents. We find that the minimum wage rates that were set would have affected the majority of workers in our sample, that they would have increased weekly earnings by about 4s. per worker affected, and that this increase would have been enough to reduce the household poverty rate by more than 20 percentage points. We conclude by arguing that, although the legislation would have affected a relatively small number of workers, it had the potential to have a real impact on poverty among those it did reach, and that it represented a reasonable strategy for improving worker welfare at a time when a national minimum wage for male workers would not have been politically feasible.
"The Trade Boards Act of 1909 and the Alleviation of Household Poverty" (with George Boyer), British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 47, 2 (June 2009).
Abstract
This paper examines the effects of the 1909 Trade Boards Act on women’s wage rates and income contributions to poor households. The Act established boards charged with setting minimum hourly wages in selected low-paid trades, and the majority of workers affected before the First World War were women. Many of the women whose wages were raised by the Act were the wives and daughters of low-skilled workers, while many others were sole earners who supported children or elderly parents. We find that the minimum wage rates that were set would have affected the majority of workers in our sample, that they would have increased weekly earnings by about 4s. per worker affected, and that this increase would have been enough to reduce the household poverty rate by more than 20 percentage points. We conclude by arguing that, although the legislation would have affected a relatively small number of workers, it had the potential to have a real impact on poverty among those it did reach, and that it represented a reasonable strategy for improving worker welfare at a time when a national minimum wage for male workers would not have been politically feasible.
| bean_boyer_bjir_june_2009.pdf |
Work in Progress
The Labor Supply Behavior of Home Workers in London, 1897-1908
Abstract
This paper explores labor supply behavior among female home workers around the turn of the twentieth century. Household-level data is scarce for the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, but the two Home Industries of Women in London reports published by the Women’s Industrial Council in 1897 and 1908 offer a unique, and as yet unused, opportunity to relate women’s work behavior and household situation. I have compiled a new data set which details the occupation, average weekly earnings and hours, marital status, and household size, composition and total income of 950 female home workers drawn from these two surveys.
Initial analysis of the data reveals that the female home workers who were surveyed were drawn overwhelmingly from poor households. On average, these women contributed over 50% of total household income, and about a third of their households relied entirely on their earnings. It is often quite clear in the survey that a woman was working because her husband was unemployed or a casual laborer out of work, or it is explicitly stated that she worked only a little to supplement the adequate wages of a husband in regular work. Weekly wages and hours of work varied considerably by industry, but averaged about 6-10s. and 35-40 hours, and the correlation between weekly hours and hourly wages is negative and significant. This finding is consistent with much of the literature on secondary workers in low-wage employment in the developing world, but is novel in the context of an early-twentieth century urban setting, and suggests that female home workers in early-twentieth century London exhibited labor supply behavior that was similar to that of low-wage workers in developing countries.
The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1906: British Workers' Living Standards on the Eve of the Liberal Welfare Reforms (with George Boyer)
Abstract
In 1906 Britain was the richest country in Europe. Real wage rates for manual workers increased sharply from 1870 to 1900, as did workers’ deposits in savings accounts and membership in friendly societies and benefits-providing trade unions. Despite the rapid growth in self-help, Parliament in 1906-11 adopted a series of welfare measures, called the Liberal Welfare Reforms, which provided health care for school children, pensions to those over 70, sickness and unemployment insurance, and minimum wages for poor women in some occupations. Were the Liberal Welfare Reforms needed? Did they reduce poverty rates? These questions are addressed by examining workers’ living standards in the first decade of the century using various sources, including wage data from the Board of Trade’s 1906 wage survey, poor relief data, data on workers’ bank accounts and membership in mutual insurance organizations, and various other data reported in the appendices to the 1909 Report of the Royal Poor Law Commission.
The Labor Supply Behavior of Home Workers in London, 1897-1908
Abstract
This paper explores labor supply behavior among female home workers around the turn of the twentieth century. Household-level data is scarce for the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, but the two Home Industries of Women in London reports published by the Women’s Industrial Council in 1897 and 1908 offer a unique, and as yet unused, opportunity to relate women’s work behavior and household situation. I have compiled a new data set which details the occupation, average weekly earnings and hours, marital status, and household size, composition and total income of 950 female home workers drawn from these two surveys.
Initial analysis of the data reveals that the female home workers who were surveyed were drawn overwhelmingly from poor households. On average, these women contributed over 50% of total household income, and about a third of their households relied entirely on their earnings. It is often quite clear in the survey that a woman was working because her husband was unemployed or a casual laborer out of work, or it is explicitly stated that she worked only a little to supplement the adequate wages of a husband in regular work. Weekly wages and hours of work varied considerably by industry, but averaged about 6-10s. and 35-40 hours, and the correlation between weekly hours and hourly wages is negative and significant. This finding is consistent with much of the literature on secondary workers in low-wage employment in the developing world, but is novel in the context of an early-twentieth century urban setting, and suggests that female home workers in early-twentieth century London exhibited labor supply behavior that was similar to that of low-wage workers in developing countries.
The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1906: British Workers' Living Standards on the Eve of the Liberal Welfare Reforms (with George Boyer)
Abstract
In 1906 Britain was the richest country in Europe. Real wage rates for manual workers increased sharply from 1870 to 1900, as did workers’ deposits in savings accounts and membership in friendly societies and benefits-providing trade unions. Despite the rapid growth in self-help, Parliament in 1906-11 adopted a series of welfare measures, called the Liberal Welfare Reforms, which provided health care for school children, pensions to those over 70, sickness and unemployment insurance, and minimum wages for poor women in some occupations. Were the Liberal Welfare Reforms needed? Did they reduce poverty rates? These questions are addressed by examining workers’ living standards in the first decade of the century using various sources, including wage data from the Board of Trade’s 1906 wage survey, poor relief data, data on workers’ bank accounts and membership in mutual insurance organizations, and various other data reported in the appendices to the 1909 Report of the Royal Poor Law Commission.