IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/wpaper/22360.html

Piece rates and learning: understanding work and production in the New England textile industry a century ago

Author

Listed:
  • Leunig, Tim

Abstract

New data on individual worker’s outputs show that New England ring spinners exhibited substantial on the job learning c. 1905. Despite this, variable capital-labour ratios meant high labour turnover reduced aggregate labour productivity only fractionally. The combination of variable capital-labour ratios and piece rates meant low average experience levels did not raise unit costs. This made firms willing to hire all comers, so immigrants readily found work. Equally firms were indifferent to labour turnover, so female workers could move between home and market work. As such piece rates were as an appropriate and successful labour market institution for this period.

Suggested Citation

  • Leunig, Tim, 2003. "Piece rates and learning: understanding work and production in the New England textile industry a century ago," Economic History Working Papers 22360, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:22360
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/22360/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lance E. Davis & H. Louis Stettler III, 1966. "The New England Textile Industry, 1825–60: Trends and Fluctuations," NBER Chapters, in: Output, Employment, and Productivity in the United States after 1800, pages 213-242, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. K. J. Arrow, 1971. "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 11, pages 131-149, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Abbott, Edith, 1910. "Women in Industry: A Study in American Economic History," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number abbott1910.
    4. Bessen, James, 2003. "Technology and Learning by Factory Workers: The Stretch-Out at Lowell, 1842," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(1), pages 33-64, March.
    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. Nickless, Pamela J., 1979. "A New Look at Productivity in the New England Cotton Textile Industry, 1830–1860," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 889-910, December.
    7. Anonymous, 1939. "A History of an Industrial City - Holyoke, Massachusetts: A Case History of the Industrial Revolution in America, by Constance McLaughlin Green. Yale University Press, 1939," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(6), pages 96-96, December.
    8. David, Paul A., 1973. "The Horndal effect in lowell, 1834-1856: A short-run learning curve for integrated cotton textile mills," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 131-150.
    9. Goldin, Claudia, 1992. "Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072709.
    10. Lazonick, William & Brush, Thomas, 1985. "The horndal effect in early U.S. manufacturing," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 53-96, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Labour repression & the Indo-Japanese divergence
      by pseudoerasmus in Pseudoerasmus on 2017-10-02 06:04:55

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Domenech, Jordi, 2005. "Labour market adjustment to economic downturns in the Catalan textile industry, 1880-1910: did employers breach implicit contracts?," Economic History Working Papers 22333, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    2. Joel Mokyr & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2012. "Understanding Growth in Europe, 1700–1870: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Sociology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 13(5), pages 57-102.
    3. James Bessen, 2009. "More Machines, Better Machines...Or Better Workers?," Working Papers 0803, Research on Innovation.

    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. Leunig, Tim, 2003. "Piece rates and learning: understanding work and production in the New England textile industry a century ago," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 22360, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Thompson, Peter, 2010. "Learning by Doing," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 429-476, Elsevier.
    3. 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.
    4. Bj�rn Eriksson & Maria Stanfors, 2015. "A winning strategy? The employment of women and firm longevity during industrialisation," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(7), pages 988-1004, October.
    5. Kenneth L. Sokoloff, 1986. "Productivity Growth in Manufacturing during Early Industrialization: Evidence from the American Northeast, 1820-1860," NBER Chapters, in: Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth, pages 679-736, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Ekkehart Schlicht, 2016. "Directed Technical Change and Capital Deepening: A Reconsideration of Kaldor's Technical Progress Function," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(1), pages 119-151, February.
    7. Ho, Chi Pui, 2016. "Rise of Women in Unified Growth Theory: French Development Process and Policy Implications," MPRA Paper 73864, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Wei-Bin ZHANG, 2014. "Gender Discrimination, Education and Economic Growth in a Generalized Uzawa-Lucas Two-Sector Model," Timisoara Journal of Economics and Business, West University of Timisoara, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 7(1), pages 1-34.
    9. Alessandro Bellocchi & Giuseppe Travaglini & Beatrice Vitali, 2023. "How capital intensity affects technical progress: An empirical analysis for 17 advanced economies," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 606-631, July.
    10. Rosés, Joan R., 1998. "The choice of tecnology in the Mediterranean basin : some evidence from the Spanish, Italian, British and us cotton mills(1830-1860)," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 6182, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    11. Paul Beaudry & Patrick Francois, 2010. "Managerial Skills Acquisition and the Theory of Economic Development," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(1), pages 90-126.
    12. Burnette, Joyce, 2024. "Are some piece rates better than others? Cross-sectional variation in piece rates at a US cotton factory," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. Ilzetzki, Ethan, 2025. "Guns and growth: The economic consequences of defense buildups," Kiel Reports 2, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    14. Jeremy Greenwood & Boyan Jovanovic, 2001. "Accounting for Growth," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 179-224, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Joyce Burnette, 2011. "The Emergence of Wage Discrimination in U.S. Manufacturing," Working Papers 11-18, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    16. Rao, B. Bhaskara, 2010. "Estimates of the steady state growth rates for selected Asian countries with an extended Solow model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 46-53, January.
    17. Raouf Boucekkine & Fernando Del Río & Omar Licandro, 2003. "Embodied Technological Change, Learning‐by‐doing and the Productivity Slowdown," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 105(1), pages 87-98, March.
    18. Abida Hafeez & Karim Bux Shah Syed & Fiza Qureshi, 2019. "Exploring the Relationship between Government R & D Expenditures and Economic Growth in a Global Perspective: A PMG Estimation Approach," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(4), pages 163-174, April.
    19. Foxon, T. J. & Gross, R. & Chase, A. & Howes, J. & Arnall, A. & Anderson, D., 2005. "UK innovation systems for new and renewable energy technologies: drivers, barriers and systems failures," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(16), pages 2123-2137, November.
    20. Agathe Gilain & Pascal Le Masson & Benoit Weil, 2018. "Managing Learning Curves In The Unknown: From ‘Learning By Doing’ To ‘Learning By Designing’," Post-Print hal-01900961, HAL.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • L6 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing
    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • B1 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ehl:wpaper:22360. 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: LSERO Manager on behalf of EH Dept. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/chlseuk.html .

    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.