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Worker Turnover in the 1920s: What Labor-Supply Arguments Don't Tell Us

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Laura J. Owen
Laura J. Owen
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Economics, DePaul University, I E. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604.
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Abstract

This article investigates the decline in turnover of manufacturing workers in the United States that occurred in the 1920s. Three labor-supply explanations are evaluated using aggregate data on manufacturing workers and case studies of four manufacturing firms. The labor-supply analysis does not yield a satisfying explanation of the decline in quit rates of manufacturing workers. The suggestion is made that an examination of firms' employment policies is necessary to explain why workers were quitting their jobs less frequently.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 822 - 841
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1995

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