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The Labor Market Consequences of Electricity Adoption: Concrete Evidence from the Great Depression

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  • Miguel Morin

Abstract

When the adoption of a new labor-saving technology increases labor productivity, it is an open question whether the economy adjusts in the medium-term by decreasing employment or increasing output. This paper studies the effects of cheaper electricity on the labor market during the Great Depression. The first-stage of the identification strategy uses geography as an instrument for changes in the price of electricity and the second-stage uses labor market outcomes from the concrete industry—a non-traded industry whose location decisions are independent of the instrument. The paper finds that electricity was an important labor-saving technology and caused an increase in capital intensity and labor productivity, as well as a decrease in the labor share of income. The paper also finds that firms adjusted to higher labor productivity by decreasing employment instead of increasing output, which supports the theory of technological unemployment.

Suggested Citation

  • Miguel Morin, 2015. "The Labor Market Consequences of Electricity Adoption: Concrete Evidence from the Great Depression," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1554, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:1554
    Note: mabm3
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    1. Alexandre Mas, 2016. "Does Disclosure affect CEO Pay Setting? Evidence from the Passage of the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act," Working Papers 2016-5, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    2. Angyridis, Constantine & Zhou, Haiwen, 2022. "Search, Technology Choice, and Unemployment," MPRA Paper 112064, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    electricity; technical change; Great Depression; labor market; employment; labor productivity; labor share of income.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • N62 - Economic History - - Manufacturing and Construction - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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