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Labour markets in the interwar period and economic recovery in the UK and the USA

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  • Timothy J. Hatton
  • Mark Thomas

Abstract

We examine the labour-market experience of the UK and the US in the recessions of the early 1920s and the early 1930s and the subsequent recoveries. These were deep recessions, comparable to that of 2008--9, but the recoveries were very different. In the UK the recovery of the 1920s was incomplete, but that of the 1930s was rather less protracted than in the US. By contrast the US experienced very strong recovery in the 1920s but weaker recovery from the much deeper recession of the 1930s. A key ingredient to understanding these patterns is the interaction between economic shocks and labour-market institutions. Here we survey the large literature on interwar labour markets to identify the key elements that underpinned labour-market performance. We find that developments in wage-setting institutions and in unemployment insurance inhibited a return to full employment in interwar Britain, while, in the US, New Deal legislation impeded labour-market adjustment in the 1930s. We conclude with an assessment of the policy responses to labour-market crises in the past and in the present. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

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  • Timothy J. Hatton & Mark Thomas, 2010. "Labour markets in the interwar period and economic recovery in the UK and the USA," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(3), pages 463-485, Autumn.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:26:y:2010:i:3:p:463-485
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    3. Bertil Holmlund, 2013. "Wage and employment determination in volatile times: Sweden 1913-1939," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 7(2), pages 131-159, May.
    4. Barry Eichengreen, 2016. "The Great Depression in a Modern Mirror," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 1-17, March.
    5. Aleksynska, Mariya. & Schmidt, Alexandra., 2014. "A chronology of employment protection legislation in some selected European countries," ILO Working Papers 994862403402676, International Labour Organization.
    6. Albers, Thilo Nils Hendrik, 2018. "The prelude and global impact of the Great Depression: Evidence from a new macroeconomic dataset," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 150-163.
    7. Nicholas Crafts & Peter Fearon, 2010. "Lessons from the 1930s Great Depression," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(3), pages 285-317, Autumn.
    8. Christopher J. Napier, 2017. "The Good Fraud: Accounting, Finance and Banking in a 1930s English Novel," CONTABILIT? E CULTURA AZIENDALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(2), pages 43-70.
    9. Jari Eloranta, 2015. "Pro Bono Publico? Demand for military spending between the World Wars," Working Papers 15016, Economic History Society.
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    11. Ronicle, David, 2022. "Turning in the widening gyre: monetary and fiscal policy in interwar Britain," Bank of England working papers 968, Bank of England.
    12. Ghoshray, Atanu & Stamatogiannis, Michalis P., 2015. "Centurial evidence of breaks in the persistence of unemployment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 74-76.
    13. Amaral, Pedro S. & MacGee, James C., 2017. "Monetary shocks and sticky wages in the U.S. great contraction: A multi-sector approach," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 112-129.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings
    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-

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