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Working Hours of the World Unite? New International Evidence on Worktime, 1870-1900

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  • Michael Huberman

Abstract

Assembled by Angus Maddison, the most widely consulted data set on worktime in the long nineteenth century is seriously flawed, because it assumes all countries had British work hours. This paper constructs new measures of worktime in Europe, North America and Australia between 1870 and 1900. With the exception of Great Britain and Australia, work hours were very long. Trends in worktime varied across countries. The length of the workweek was inversely related to the level of income, but there was only a modest tendency toward convergence or catch-up as theory anticipates. National work routines and laws restricting working hours explain some of the divergence, but sectoral effects operated in the other direction. Competing-goods industries, like textiles, saw a race to the bottom. Because long hours were a source of competitive advantage, even the Lancashire textile worker set his watch to Italian time. Le plus connu des corpus de données sur le temps de travail au cours du long dix-neuvième siècle, réuni par Angus Maddison, est sérieusement erroné, car il présume que tous les pays avaient les mêmes heures de travail que celles des Britanniques. Cet article présente de nouvelles mesures du temps de travail pour l'Europe, l'Amérique du Nord et l'Australie, entre 1870 et 1900. À l'exception de la Grande-Bretagne et de l'Australie, les heures de travail étaient très longues, avec des rythmes de décroissance différents selon les pays. La longueur de la semaine de travail était inversement proportionnelle au niveau de revenu, mais avec une légère tendance convergente ou un rattrapage tel que la théorie le prévoyait. Les routines de travail et les lois régissant les heures de travail expliquent certaines différences, mais les particularités sectorielles vont dans le sens opposé. Au sein des industries concurrentielles, comme les textiles, il y avait un nivellement par le bas. Comme les longues heures de travail constituaient un avantage compétitif, même le travailleur du textile au Lancashire a dû ajuster sa montre à l'heure italienne.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Huberman, 2002. "Working Hours of the World Unite? New International Evidence on Worktime, 1870-1900," CIRANO Working Papers 2002s-77, CIRANO.
    • Handle: RePEc:cir:cirwor:2002s-77
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    File URL: https://cirano.qc.ca/files/publications/2002s-77.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Williamson Jeffrey G., 1995. "The Evolution of Global Labor Markets since 1830: Background Evidence and Hypotheses," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 141-196, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Paul Levine & Peter McAdam & Peter Welz, 2013. "On Habit and the Socially Efficient Level of Consumption and Work Effort," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0713, School of Economics, University of Surrey.

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