Externalities and Institutions: The Decrease in Working Hours nineteenth Century France

Jérôme Bourdieu and Benedicte Reynaud

Research Unit Working Papers from Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquee, INRA

Abstract: In 19th century France, the long working hours, produced worse conditions for the working classes even at times when real wages were increasing. In our view, the analysis of the process of decreasing of working hours, consists of identifying very long working hours as externalities. We show that even though there is a monetary transaction involved in the work contract, workers were in no position to defend their term interests and more precisely their health. We sustain that internalisation of externalities has been historically achieved through a collective effort to provide information and through the building of new institutions (unions, laws,...).

Keywords: Labour market; working hours; economic history; externality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 J22 J5 J7 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2000-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-eec and nep-pke
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lea:leawpi:0001

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