Labor-Market Regimes in U.S. Economic History

Joshua Rosenbloom () and William A. Sundstrom

No 15055, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In much economic analysis it is a convenient fiction to suppose that changes over time in wages and employment are determined by shifts in supply or demand within a more or less competitive market framework Indeed, this framework has been effectively deployed to understand many episodes in American economic history. We argue here, however, that by minimizing the role of labor-market institutions such an approach is incomplete. Drawing on the history of American labor markets over two centuries, we argue that institutions--by which we mean both formal and informal rules that constrain the choices of economic agents--have played a significant role in the determination of wages, employment and other market outcomes over time. The historical evolution of American labor markets can best be characterized as a sequence of relatively stable arrangements punctuated by shifts in institutional regimes. Our narrative emphasizes the importance of understanding the historically contingent role of institutional regimes in conditioning the operation of supply and demand in empirical and policy analysis of the labor market.

JEL-codes: J0 J18 N3 N31 N32 N4 N41 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-lab
Note: DAE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published as “Labor - Market Reg imes in U.S. Economic History,” with William A. Sundstrom, in Paul W. Rhode, Joshua L. Rosenbloom and David F. Weiman, eds. Economic Evolution and Revolutions in Historical Time ( Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011)

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