IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxecpp/v57y2005i1p169-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

General human capital and employment adjustment in the Great Depression: apprentices and journeymen in UK engineering

Author

Listed:
  • Robert A. Hart

Abstract

The relationship between training and firm-level employment adjustment given an unanticipated fall in product demand has been central to human capital theory. The most cataclysmic negative output shock occurred in 1929-30. At this time, easily the most important source of United Kingdom general training was the apprenticeship system. Using data collected by the Engineering Employers' Federation (EEF), this paper examines the impact of the Great Depression on numbers of apprentices and skilled journeymen. Statistics cover eight skilled engineering occupations in 27 local labour markets over the period 1928--38. Relative employment adjustment responses of apprentices and journeymen accord well with general human capital arguments. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert A. Hart, 2005. "General human capital and employment adjustment in the Great Depression: apprentices and journeymen in UK engineering," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 57(1), pages 169-189, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:57:y:2005:i:1:p:169-189
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oep/gpi011
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ben S. Bernanke & James Powell, 1986. "The Cyclical Behavior of Industrial Labor Markets: A Comparison of the Prewar and Postwar Eras," NBER Chapters, in: The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change, pages 583-638, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Saint-Paul, Gilles, 1993. "Productivity growth and the structure of the business cycle," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 861-883, May.
    3. Bean, Charles R., 1990. "Endogenous growth and the procyclical behaviour of productivity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2-3), pages 355-363, May.
    4. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    5. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mühlemann, Samuel & Wolter, Stefan C. & Wüest, Adrian, 2009. "Apprenticeship Training and the Business Cycle," IZA Discussion Papers 4460, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Dietz Daniel & Zwick Thomas, 2020. "Training in the Great Recession – Evidence from an Individual Perspective," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 240(4), pages 493-523, August.
    3. Robert A Hart, 2022. "Labour productivity during the Great Depression and the Great Recession in UK engineering and metal manufacture [The Productivity Puzzle: a Firm-level Investigation into Employment Behaviour and Re," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 431-452.
    4. Hart, Robert A., 2007. "Women doing men's work and women doing women's work: Female work and pay in British wartime engineering," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 114-130, January.
    5. Hart, Robert A., 2008. "Piece work pay and hourly pay over the cycle," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 1006-1022, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bisio, Laura & Ventura, Luigi, 2012. "Growth and volatility reconsidered: reconciling opposite views," MPRA Paper 35937, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mark Funk, 2006. "Business cycles and research investment," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(15), pages 1775-1782.
    3. Pellens, Maikel & Peters, Bettina & Hud, Martin & Rammer, Christian & Licht, Georg, 2018. "Public investment in R&D in reaction to economic crises: A longitudinal study for OECD countries," ZEW Discussion Papers 18-005, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Manthos D. Delis & Sotirios Kokas & Steven Ongena, 2016. "Foreign Ownership and Market Power in Banking: Evidence from a World Sample," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(2-3), pages 449-483, March.
    5. Nucci, Francesco & Pozzolo, Alberto Franco, 2010. "The exchange rate, employment and hours: What firm-level data say," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 112-123, November.
    6. Rok Spruk & Mitja Kovac, 2018. "Inefficient Growth," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 9(2).
    7. Thiess Buettner & Georg Wamser, 2009. "The impact of nonprofit taxes on foreign direct investment: evidence from German multinationals," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 16(3), pages 298-320, June.
    8. Timothy Halliday, 2006. "Income Risk and Health," Working Papers 200612, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    9. Timothy Halliday, 2006. "The Impact of Aggregate and Idiosyncratic Income Shocks on Health Outcomes: Evidence from the PSID," Working Papers 200606, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    10. Maritza López-Novella & Salimata Sissoko, 2009. "Working Paper 12-09 - Salaires et négociation collective en Belgique : une analyse microéconomique en panel," Working Papers 0912, Federal Planning Bureau, Belgium.
    11. Todo, Yasuyuki & Miyamoto, Koji, 2006. "Knowledge Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment and the Role of Local R&D Activities: Evidence from Indonesia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 173-200, October.
    12. Lee, Dongyeol, 2016. "Role of R&D in the productivity growth of Korean industries: Technology gap and business cycle," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 31-45.
    13. Kåre Johansen, 2002. "Regional Wage Curves Empirical Evidence from Norway," Working Paper Series 0302, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    14. Alberini, Anna & Gans, Will & Velez-Lopez, Daniel, 2011. "Residential consumption of gas and electricity in the U.S.: The role of prices and income," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 870-881, September.
    15. Mitja Kovac & Rok Spruk, 2019. "Does the ban on trans-fats improve public health? In search of the optimal policy response," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 258-281, June.
    16. Eric Delattre & Brigitte Dormont, 2003. "Fixed fees and physician‐induced demand: A panel data study on French physicians," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(9), pages 741-754, September.
    17. Maritza López Novella & Salimata Sissoko, 2013. "Understanding wage determination in a multi-level bargaining system: a panel data analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 879-897, April.
    18. Matthew Rafferty, 2003. "Do Business Cycles Influence Long-Run Growth? The Effect of Aggregate Demand on Firm-Financed R&D Expenditures," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 29(4), pages 607-618, Fall.
    19. Kolasa Marcin, 2008. "How does FDI inflow affect productivity of domestic firms? The role of horizontal and vertical spillovers, absorptive capacity and competition," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 155-173.
    20. Martin, Philippe & Ann Rogers, Carol, 2000. "Long-term growth and short-term economic instability," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 359-381, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:57:y:2005:i:1:p:169-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.