AMER.LABOR: Can Lower Rates of Labour Productivity in US Cotton Mills be Explained by Higher Rates of Worker Turnover?

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                ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
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Name: Dr Tim Leunig
Email: t.leunig@lse.ac.uk
Institution: London School of Economics

Co-author: none

Title: Can Lower Rates of Labour Productivity in US Cotton Mills Be
Explained By Higher Rates of Worker Turnover?

Internet Address of abstracted work: not available

By mail:
Dr Tim Leunig
Lecturer in Economic History
Department of Economic History
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London
WC2A 2AE

Phone: +44 20 7955 7857
E-mail: t.leunig@lse.ac.uk

Language: English

Abstract:
In earlier work I showed that - surprisingly - Britain had higher
labour productivity than America in cotton spinning c. 1900. This
paper provides a quantitative rationale for that finding. We know
that job tenures are shorter in the US than in Britain.If workers
learned on the job, shorter job tenures in the US would imply lower
average labour productivity than in the UK. To test the effect of
experience on productivity, I have collected 14,000 weekly wage
records for American ring spinners. Each record gives the individual
worker's hours, output and earnings for that week. Individuals'
learning over time proves to be substantial, and sufficient to
explain about two-fifths of the aggregate productivity differential.
Learning continues for over 100 weeks, suggesting the literature is
wrong in its characterisation of female ring spinners as unskilled.

Bibliography: Leunig, T. "Can Lower Rates of Labour Productivity in
US Cotton Mills Be Explained By Higher Rates of Worker Turnover?"
Mimeo, LSE 2001.

Subject: B,D,R
Geographical Area: 0,4,7
Country/Region: US, Britain
Time Period: 8

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