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Work and prudence: Household responses to income variation in nineteenth-century Britain

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  • Horrell, Sara
  • Oxley, Deborah

Abstract

A survey of industrial households conducted in 1889–90 is used to investigate participation in self-help organisations, such as sickness and death benefit clubs and friendly societies, and to examine whether payouts were important in seeing families through earnings crises. Formal self-help has been hypothesised to underpin the male breadwinner family form, reducing the risk incumbent in reliance on one source of earnings. The results here show that those households with multiple earners took out most insurance and also had recourse to informal strategies, such as eliciting greater labour force participation from other family members and economising on rent, when adversity carried male earnings down. Those reliant on a male breadwinner were left vulnerable. They insured less, benefits were insufficient to make up earnings shortfalls and they were unable to compensate for deficits through labour market strategies. Formal self-help was a complement to, not a substitute for, family employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Horrell, Sara & Oxley, Deborah, 2000. "Work and prudence: Household responses to income variation in nineteenth-century Britain," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(1), pages 27-57, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:ereveh:v:4:y:2000:i:01:p:27-57_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Tatsuki Inoue, 2023. "Health Impacts of Public Pawnshops in Industrializing Tokyo," Papers 2305.09352, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    2. Horrell, Sara & Meredith, David & Oxley, Deborah, 2009. "Measuring misery: Body mass, ageing and gender inequality in Victorian London," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 93-119, January.
    3. Andersson, Fredrik & Konrad, Kai A, 2003. "Globalization and Risky Human-Capital Investment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(3), pages 211-228, May.
    4. Di Matteo, Livio & Herbert Emery, J. C., 2002. "Wealth and the demand for life insurance: evidence from Ontario, 1892," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 446-469, October.
    5. Kota Ogasawara, 2018. "Consumption smoothing in the working-class households of interwar Japan," Papers 1807.05737, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    6. repec:cte:whrepe:wh016301 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Emery, J.C. Herbert, 2010. ""Un-American" or unnecessary? America's rejection of compulsory government health insurance in the Progressive Era," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 68-81, January.
    8. J.C. Herbert Emery, "undated". "America’s Rejection of Compulsory Government Health Insurance in the Progressive Era and its Legacy for National Insurance Today," Working Papers 2008-23, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, revised 01 Apr 2008.
    9. Lars Fredrik Andersson & Liselotte Eriksson, 2016. "Voluntary or compulsory? Exploring dynamics of mutual cooperative formation in Swedish health insurance at the turn of the twentieth century," Working Papers 16007, Economic History Society.
    10. Sakari Saaritsa, 2016. "“Data to Die For”? Finnish Historical Household Budgets," HHB Working Papers Series 3, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    11. Lars Fredrik Andersson & Liselotte Eriksson & Paul Nystedt, 2022. "Workplace accidents and workers’ solidarity: mutual health insurance in early twentieth‐century Sweden†," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(1), pages 203-234, February.
    12. Jessica S. Bean, 2015. "‘To help keep the home going’: female labour supply in interwar London," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(2), pages 441-470, May.
    13. Stanfors, Maria & Karlsson, Tobias & Andersson, Lars-Fredrik & Eriksson, Liselotte, 2022. "Membership in Mutual Health Insurance Societies: The Case of Swedish Manufacturing, circa 1900," Lund Papers in Economic History 238, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    14. Nicolini, Esteban A., 2004. "Mortality, interest rates, investment, and agricultural production in 18th century England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 130-155, April.
    15. Tatsuki Inoue, 2019. "The role of pawnshops in risk coping in early twentieth-century Japan," Papers 1905.04419, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2019.
    16. Kota Ogasawara, 2023. "Consumption Smoothing in Metropolis: Evidence from Working-class Households in Prewar Tokyo," Papers 2311.14320, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.

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