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Working-Class Household Consumption Smoothing in Interwar Britain

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  • SCOTT, PETER M.
  • WALKER, JAMES

Abstract

We examine the strategies interwar working-class British households used to “smooth†consumption over time and guard against negative contingencies such as illness, unemployment, and death. Newly discovered returns from the U.K. Ministry of Labour's 1937/38 Household Expenditure Survey are used to fully categorize expenditure smoothing via nineteen credit/savings vehicles. We find that households made extensive use of expenditure-smoothing devices. Families' reliance on expenditure-smoothing is shown to be inversely related to household income, while households also used these mechanisms more intensively during expenditure crisis phases of the family life cycle, especially the years immediately after new household formation.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott, Peter M. & Walker, James, 2012. "Working-Class Household Consumption Smoothing in Interwar Britain," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(3), pages 797-825, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:72:y:2012:i:03:p:797-825_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Peter Scott & James T. Walker & Peter Miskell, 2015. "British working-class household composition, labour supply, and commercial leisure participation during the 1930s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(2), pages 657-682, May.
    2. Tatsuki Inoue, 2023. "Health Impacts of Public Pawnshops in Industrializing Tokyo," Papers 2305.09352, arXiv.org.
    3. Kota Ogasawara, 2023. "Consumption Smoothing in Metropolis: Evidence from the Working-class Households in Prewar Tokyo," Papers 2311.14320, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.

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