The Forgotten Half of Finance: Working-class Saving in Late Nineteenth-century New Jersey

Howard Bodenhorn

A chapter in Research in Economic History, 2018, vol. 34, pp 35-65 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: Saving is essential to the health of economies and households, yet relatively little scholarship investigates saving behaviors among the urban working class in the nineteenth century. This chapter uses five surveys of industrial workers in 1880s New Jersey, an analysis of which reveals sophisticated saving behaviors consistent with life-cycle and precautionary theories. The mean saving rate was between 8% and 12% of annual income. Younger households saved less than older households. Householders with longer expected careers, on average, saved less. Life insurance and fraternal societies were the most popular saving vehicles, but workers also used savings banks and building and loan associations, alone and in combination.

Keywords: Household saving; life-cycle saving; savings banks; life insurance; fraternal societies; precautionary saving; N21; D14; E21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... 3-326820180000034002
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rehizz:s0363-326820180000034002

DOI: 10.1108/S0363-326820180000034002

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Research in Economic History from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().