EH.Net Abstracts in Economic History

                ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
                     (c) 2000 EH.Net
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Name: James Bessen
Email: jbessen at researchoninnovation.org
Institution: Research on Innovation

Co-author: none

Title: The Skills of the Unskilled in the American Industrial Revolution

Internet Address of abstracted work: 
http://www.researchoninnovation.org/skills.pdf

By mail:
James Bessen
6 Leslie Lane
Wallingford, PA 19086

Language: English

Abstract:
Were ordinary factory workers unskilled and was technology 
"de-skilling" during the Industrial Revolution? I measure foregone 
output to estimate the human capital investments in mule spinners and 
power loom tenders in antebellum Lowell. These investments rivaled 
those of craft apprentices, suggesting a different view of industrial 
technology. Accounting for skill, multi-factor productivity growth 
was negligible, contrary to previous findings. From 1834-55, firms 
made increasing investments in skill, allowing workers to tend more 
machines and generating rapid growth of per-capita output. This 
growing investment was motivated partly by changing factor prices and 
more by a changing labor supply. Calculations show that firm policy 
and social conditions, including literacy, influenced the investment 
in factory skills. When skills are considered, technological change 
at Lowell appears as a broad social process, dependent as much on 
innovation in institutions as on invention of machines.

Bibliography: Bessen, James. "The Skills of the Unskilled in the 
American Industrial Revolution." Working paper (September 2000).

Subject: M,T
Geographical Area: 7
Country/Region: USA
Time Period: 7
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