IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/exehis/v65y2017icp94-105.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The boll weevil plague and its effect on the southern agricultural sector, 1889–1929

Author

Listed:
  • Ager, Philipp
  • Brueckner, Markus
  • Herz, Benedikt

Abstract

In the early 1890s, cotton fields in the American South were ravaged by the boll weevil. Using a model that controls for differences in the intensity of cotton production at the county level, we show how the boll weevil significantly changed southern agricultural labor arrangements and labor market outcomes. The boll weevil significantly reduced the number of tenant farms, decreased farm wages, and female labor force participation, particularly in counties with a higher intensity of cotton production.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:65:y:2017:i:c:p:94-105
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2016.07.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498316301061
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eeh.2016.07.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reid, Joseph D., 1973. "Sharecropping As An Understandable Market Response: The Post-Bellum South," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(1), pages 106-130, March.
    2. Fenton, F. A. & Dunnam, E. W., 1929. "Biology of the Cotton Boll Weevil at Florence, S. C," Technical Bulletins 157338, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. McGuire, Robert & Higgs, Robert, 1977. "Cotton, corn, and risk in the nineteenth century: Another view," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 167-182, April.
    4. Alston, Lee J. & Kauffman, Kyle D., 1997. "Agricultural Chutes and Ladders: New Estimates of Sharecroppers and “True Tenants” in the South, 1900–1920," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(02), pages 464-475, June.
    5. Metzer, Jacob, 1975. "Rational management, modern business practices, and economies of scale in the ante-bellum southern plantations," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 123-150, April.
    6. Leah Platt Boustan & William J. Collins, 2014. "The Origin and Persistence of Black-White Differences in Women's Labor Force Participation," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital in History: The American Record, pages 205-240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Goldin, Claudia, 1992. "Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072709.
    8. Claudia Goldin, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 1-21, May.
    9. Sundstrom, William A., 2001. "Discouraging Times: The Labor Force Participation of Married Black Women, 1930-1940," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 123-146, January.
    10. Osband, Kent, 1985. "The Boll Weevil Versus “King Cottonâ€," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 627-643, September.
    11. Lange, Fabian & Olmstead, Alan L. & Rhode, Paul W., 2009. "The Impact of the Boll Weevil, 1892–1932," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 685-718, September.
    12. Alston, Lee J. & Ferrie, Joseph P., 2005. "Time on the Ladder: Career Mobility in Agriculture, 1890–1938," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(4), pages 1058-1081, December.
    13. Baker, Richard B., 2015. "From the Field to the Classroom: The Boll Weevil's Impact on Education in Rural Georgia," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(4), pages 1128-1160, December.
    14. 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.
    15. Claudia Goldin & Kenneth Sokoloff, 1984. "The Relative Productivity Hypothesis of Industrialization: The American Case, 1820 to 1850," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(3), pages 461-487.
    16. McGuire, Robert A., 1980. "A portfolio analysis of crop diversification and risk in the cotton south," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 342-371, October.
    17. Hoyt Bleakley, 2007. "Disease and Development: Evidence from Hookworm Eradication in the American South," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 73-117.
    18. Alston, Lee J. & Kauffman, Kyle D., 2001. "Competition and the Compensation of Sharecroppers by Race: A View from Plantations in the Early Twentieth Century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 181-194, January.
    19. 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.
    20. Goldin, Claudia, 1977. "Female Labor Force Participation: The Origin of Black and White Differences, 1870 and 1880," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 87-108, March.
    21. Higgs, Robert, 1973. "Race, Tenure, and Resource Allocation in Southern Agriculture, 1910," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(1), pages 149-169, March.
    22. Claudia Goldin, 1986. "The Female Labor Force and American Economic Growth,1890-1980," NBER Chapters, in: Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth, pages 557-604, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Alston, Lee J. & Higgs, Robert, 1982. "Contractual Mix in Southern Agriculture since the Civil War: Facts, Hypotheses, and Tests," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(2), pages 327-353, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Philipp Ager & Benedikt Herz & Markus Brueckner, 2020. "Structural Change and the Fertility Transition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 806-822, October.
    2. Stephan E. Maurer & Andrei V. Potlogea, 2021. "Male‐biased Demand Shocks and Women's Labour Force Participation: Evidence from Large Oil Field Discoveries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 167-188, January.
    3. James J. Feigenbaum & Soumyajit Mazumder & Cory B. Smith, 2020. "When Coercive Economies Fail: The Political Economy of the US South After the Boll Weevil," NBER Working Papers 27161, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. El-Mallakh, Nelly & Maurel, Mathilde & Speciale, Biagio, 2018. "Arab spring protests and women's labor market outcomes: Evidence from the Egyptian revolution," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 656-682.
    5. Rudolf, Robert & Wang, Shun & Wu, Fengyu, 2023. "The Arab Spring, a setback for gender equality? Evidence from the Gallup World Poll," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. 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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ager, Philipp & Brückner, Markus & Herz, Benedikt, 2014. "Effects of Agricultural Productivity Shocks on Female Labor Supply: Evidence from the Boll Weevil Plague in the US South," MPRA Paper 59410, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. 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).
    3. Stephan E. Maurer & Andrei V. Potlogea, 2021. "Male‐biased Demand Shocks and Women's Labour Force Participation: Evidence from Large Oil Field Discoveries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 167-188, January.
    4. 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.
    5. Alston, Lee J. & Kauffman, Kyle D., 2001. "Competition and the Compensation of Sharecroppers by Race: A View from Plantations in the Early Twentieth Century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 181-194, January.
    6. Jung, Yeonha, 2018. "The Legacy of King Cotton: Agricultural Patterns and the Quality of Structural Change," SocArXiv trjfz, Center for Open Science.
    7. Philipp Ager & Leah Boustan & Katherine Eriksson, 2021. "The Intergenerational Effects of a Large Wealth Shock: White Southerners after the Civil War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(11), pages 3767-3794, November.
    8. 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.
    9. Leah Platt Boustan & Carola Frydman & Robert A. Margo, 2014. "Introduction to "Human Capital in History: The American Record"," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital in History: The American Record, pages 1-14, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. 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.
    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. 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.
    13. Anne McDaniel & Thomas DiPrete & Claudia Buchmann & Uri Shwed, 2011. "The Black Gender Gap in Educational Attainment: Historical Trends and Racial Comparisons," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(3), pages 889-914, August.
    14. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2023. "Scientific Background to the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2023-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    15. Salisbury, Laura, 2014. "Selective migration, wages, and occupational mobility in nineteenth century America," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 40-63.
    16. Margo, Robert A., 2016. "Obama, Katrina, and the Persistence of Racial Inequality," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(2), pages 301-341, June.
    17. Joanna N. Lahey, 2017. "Understanding Why Black Women Are Not Working Longer," NBER Chapters, in: Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages, pages 85-109, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Ran Abramitzky, 2015. "Economics and the Modern Economic Historian," NBER Working Papers 21636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Clay, Karen & Schmick, Ethan & Troesken, Werner, 2019. "The Rise and Fall of Pellagra in the American South," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(1), pages 32-62, March.
    20. Philipp Ager & Benedikt Herz & Markus Brueckner, 2020. "Structural Change and the Fertility Transition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 806-822, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:65:y:2017:i:c:p:94-105. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622830 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.