Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20971 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2000
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 132
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
On their intensive margins, firms in the British engineering industry adjusted to the severe falls in demand during the 1930s Depression by cutting hours of work. This provided an important means of reducing labour input and marginal labour costs, through movements from overtime to short-time schedules. Nominal wages dropped relatively modestly while real wages continued to rise throughout the trough years of the recession. Empirical work is based on cell data from a panel of 28 local labour markets for the period 1926-38. The data dichotomise between skilled fitters and unskilled labourers and between time-rate and piecerate workers. The findings have interesting implications for Phillips curve and wage curve studies.
Subjects: 
British engineering
the Great Depression
hours of work
Phillips Curve
wage curve
JEL: 
J31
E24
N34
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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