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Labour market adjustment to economic downturns in the Catalan textile industry, 1880-1910: did employers breach implicit contracts?

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  • Domenech, Jordi

Abstract

This paper studies the way workers and firms behaved in a highly cyclical sector such as the cotton textile industry, which encompassed 1/5 of the Catalan industrial workforce in the early 20th century. Using firm level evidence from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the paper shows that, in spite of weak unionisation and the lack of regional or local collective bargaining institutions, piece rates in cotton spinning and weaving were not subject to competitive rate cuts and remained fixed over the cycle. When facing a negative demand shock, firms adjusted by reducing output, hours of work, labour productivity and employment. I argue that in the Catalan case the stability of piece rate lists depended on a highly flexible labour market for female workers, limiting the pressure of unemployed workers on prevailing wages.

Suggested Citation

  • Domenech, Jordi, 2005. "Labour market adjustment to economic downturns in the Catalan textile industry, 1880-1910: did employers breach implicit contracts?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 22333, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:22333
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Huberman, Michael, 1986. "Invisible Handshakes in Lancashire: Cotton Spinning in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 987-998, December.
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    4. Sundstrom, William A., 1990. "Was There a Golden Age of Flexible Wages? Evidence from Ohio Manufacturing, 1892–1910," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(2), pages 309-320, June.
    5. Gary R. Saxonhouse, 1977. "Productivity Change and Labor Absorption in Japanese Cotton Spinning 1891–1935," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 91(2), pages 195-219.
    6. Lazonick, William, 1979. "Industrial Relations and Technical Change: The Case of the Self-Acting Mule," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 3(3), pages 231-262, September.
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    • N0 - Economic History - - General

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