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Time on the Ladder: Career Mobility in Agriculture, 1890-1938

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  • Lee J. Alston
  • Joseph P. Ferrie

Abstract

We explore the dynamics of the agricultural ladder (the progression from laborer to cropper to renter) in the U.S. before 1940 using individual-level data from a survey of farmers conducted in 1938 in Jefferson County, Arkansas. Using information on each individual's complete career history (their tenure status at each date, in some cases as far back as 1890), their location, and a variety of their personal and farm characteristics, we develop and test hypotheses to explain the time spent as a tenant, sharecropper, and wage laborer. The pessimistic view of commentators who saw sharecropping and tenancy as a trap has some merit, but individual characteristics played an important role in mobility. In all periods, some farmers moved up the agricultural ladder quite rapidly while others remained stuck on a rung. Ascending the ladder was an important route to upward mobility, particularly for blacks, before large-scale migration from rural to urban places.

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  • Lee J. Alston & Joseph P. Ferrie, 2005. "Time on the Ladder: Career Mobility in Agriculture, 1890-1938," NBER Working Papers 11231, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11231
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    Cited by:

    1. Alston Lee J. & Mueller Bernardo, 2018. "Priests, Conflicts and Property Rights: the Impacts on Tenancy and Land Use in Brazil," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-26, June.
    2. Eric C. Edwards & Martin Fiszbein & Gary D. Libecap, 2022. "Property Rights to Land and Agricultural Organization: An Argentina–United States Comparison," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(S1), pages 1-33.
    3. Deirdre Bloome & James Feigenbaum & Christopher Muller, 2017. "Tenancy, Marriage, and the Boll Weevil Infestation, 1892–1930," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(3), pages 1029-1049, June.
    4. Richard Hornbeck & Suresh Naidu, 2014. "When the Levee Breaks: Black Migration and Economic Development in the American South," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(3), pages 963-990, March.
    5. Depew, Briggs & Fishback, Price V. & Rhode, Paul W., 2013. "New deal or no deal in the Cotton South: The effect of the AAA on the agricultural labor structure," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 466-486.
    6. Jin, Songqing & Deininger, Klaus W. & Nagarajan, Hari K., 2006. "Equity and efficiency impacts of rural land rental restrictions: Evidence from India," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21305, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Jung, Yeonha, 2020. "The long reach of cotton in the US South: Tenant farming, mechanization, and low-skill manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    8. Salisbury, Laura, 2014. "Selective migration, wages, and occupational mobility in nineteenth century America," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 40-63.
    9. Juan Carmona & Joan R. Rosés & James Simpson, 2015. "Spanish Land Reform in the 1930s: Economic Necessity or Political Opportunism?," Working Papers 0090, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    10. Melinda C. Miller, 2020. "“The Righteous and Reasonable Ambition to Become a Landholder”: Land and Racial Inequality in the Postbellum South," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 381-394, May.
    11. William J. Collins & Marianne H. Wanamaker, 2022. "African American Intergenerational Economic Mobility since 1880," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 84-117, July.
    12. Lee Alston & Bernardo Mueller, 2016. "Economic Backwardness and Catching Up: Brazilian Agriculture, 1964–2014," NBER Working Papers 21988, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Ager, Philipp & Brueckner, Markus & Herz, Benedikt, 2017. "The boll weevil plague and its effect on the southern agricultural sector, 1889–1929," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 94-105.
    14. Elman, Cheryl & Cunningham, Solveig A. & Howard, Virginia J. & Judd, Suzanne E. & Bennett, Aleena M. & Dupre, Matthew E., 2023. "Birth in the U.S. Plantation South and Racial Differences in all-cause mortality in later life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    15. Andrew S. London & Cheryl Elman, 2017. "Race, Remarital Status, and Infertility in 1910: More Evidence of Multiple Causes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(5), pages 1949-1972, October.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy
    • N5 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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