Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.7
P. Rhode
The role of capital accumulation in the process of long-run income growth has been the subject of great debate. The classical and early neoclassical economists viewed capital accumulation as the fundamental driver of growth. Economists informed by the Solow growth model (and its successors) and by twentieth-century growth accounting exercises assign capital accumulation a much more marginal role. This now standard view takes certain constancies for granted: the rate of capital formation (i.e., the saving rate), the capital-output ratio, capital’s share of income, and the rate of return on capital (i.e., the interest rate). This chapter documents the historical evolution of capital in the American economy and challenges the conventional thinking. It shows that the role of capital accumulation in economic growth is dynamic and has changed dramatically over the past three centuries.
{"title":"Capital, Income Growth, in American Economic History","authors":"P. Rhode","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.7","url":null,"abstract":"The role of capital accumulation in the process of long-run income growth has been the subject of great debate. The classical and early neoclassical economists viewed capital accumulation as the fundamental driver of growth. Economists informed by the Solow growth model (and its successors) and by twentieth-century growth accounting exercises assign capital accumulation a much more marginal role. This now standard view takes certain constancies for granted: the rate of capital formation (i.e., the saving rate), the capital-output ratio, capital’s share of income, and the rate of return on capital (i.e., the interest rate). This chapter documents the historical evolution of capital in the American economy and challenges the conventional thinking. It shows that the role of capital accumulation in economic growth is dynamic and has changed dramatically over the past three centuries.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129324353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.5
R. Steckel
Anthropometric history arose in the 1970s and gained momentum as a supplement to traditional economic measures of the standard of living. he discovery of very large number of measurements of height have allowed social scientists to use heights as a summary measure of health from conception to maturity. Though dominated by genes, individual height is sensitive to diet, work effort, and disease, while income and its distribution affect average height within a population. Among the interesting results from hundreds of studies are (1) Americans were taller than Europeans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; (2) health declined during the early decades of industrialization in the United States (and elsewhere); (3) children bore the appalling brunt of slavery; (4) Plains Indians were tall during the nineteenth century. The superabundance of height records and surprising new insights into the standard of living bode well for the future of this research.
{"title":"Anthropometric History in American Economic History","authors":"R. Steckel","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.5","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropometric history arose in the 1970s and gained momentum as a supplement to traditional economic measures of the standard of living. he discovery of very large number of measurements of height have allowed social scientists to use heights as a summary measure of health from conception to maturity. Though dominated by genes, individual height is sensitive to diet, work effort, and disease, while income and its distribution affect average height within a population. Among the interesting results from hundreds of studies are (1) Americans were taller than Europeans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; (2) health declined during the early decades of industrialization in the United States (and elsewhere); (3) children bore the appalling brunt of slavery; (4) Plains Indians were tall during the nineteenth century. The superabundance of height records and surprising new insights into the standard of living bode well for the future of this research.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131693496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.21
M. Bailey, Brad J. Hershbein
Over the past two centuries, the United States has witnessed dramatic changes in fertility rates and childbearing. This chapter describes shifts in childbearing and family size from 1800 to 2010 and describes the role of different factors in this evolution. Demand factors such as industrialization, urbanization, rising family incomes, public health improvements, and the growth in women’s wages generally reduced the benefits and raised the costs of having many children. Supply factors such as increases in infant and child survival and improvements in the technology of contraception and abortion have also altered parents’ decisions about their childbearing. This chapter summarizes the long-run trends in US fertility rates and completed childbearing, both overall and by mothers’ race/ethnicity and geography. Next, it evaluates evidence on the determinants of childbearing, including both economic and demographic explanations for these patterns. A final section weighs the evidence supporting the existence of two fertility transitions.
{"title":"US Fertility Rates and Childbearing in American Economic History, 1800–2010","authors":"M. Bailey, Brad J. Hershbein","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.21","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.21","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past two centuries, the United States has witnessed dramatic changes in fertility rates and childbearing. This chapter describes shifts in childbearing and family size from 1800 to 2010 and describes the role of different factors in this evolution. Demand factors such as industrialization, urbanization, rising family incomes, public health improvements, and the growth in women’s wages generally reduced the benefits and raised the costs of having many children. Supply factors such as increases in infant and child survival and improvements in the technology of contraception and abortion have also altered parents’ decisions about their childbearing. This chapter summarizes the long-run trends in US fertility rates and completed childbearing, both overall and by mothers’ race/ethnicity and geography. Next, it evaluates evidence on the determinants of childbearing, including both economic and demographic explanations for these patterns. A final section weighs the evidence supporting the existence of two fertility transitions.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131152320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.11
R. Margo
This chapter discusses the historical evolution of the labor force and wages in the United States from 1800 to the present. Standard data sources for tracing this evolution, such as the decennial census and the Current Population Survey, are discussed. Basic statistics on the size of the labor force (total number of workers and in proportion to the population), its demographic composition (gender and age), the distribution of occupations, hours worked, unemployment rates, and wages are presented and interpreted. The shift from bound labor (indentured servitude and slavery) to free labor, the rise of unions, and government regulation of labor markets are examined. The chapter concludes with suggestions for further research.
{"title":"The Labor Force in American Economic History","authors":"R. Margo","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.11","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the historical evolution of the labor force and wages in the United States from 1800 to the present. Standard data sources for tracing this evolution, such as the decennial census and the Current Population Survey, are discussed. Basic statistics on the size of the labor force (total number of workers and in proportion to the population), its demographic composition (gender and age), the distribution of occupations, hours worked, unemployment rates, and wages are presented and interpreted. The shift from bound labor (indentured servitude and slavery) to free labor, the rise of unions, and government regulation of labor markets are examined. The chapter concludes with suggestions for further research.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116836065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.2
Eric Hilt
This chapter presents a history of the organization of American enterprise, from the first corporations to the emergence of large, vertically integrated conglomerates. It begins with a discussion of the monopolistic privileges of early corporations, and efforts to reform the process by which corporations were created. It then presents a discussion of the alternative organizational forms that became available to entrepreneurs. Finally, it analyzes the rise of “big business” in the late nineteenth century, and the legal and institutional context within which those enterprises began to emerge. The discussion of each is focused on the changing nature of the problems faced by entrepreneurs, and the changing legal and institutional environment in which they operated. Among the topics discussed are the evolution of corporation law, the choice of organizational form, recurring problems in corporate governance, the role of financiers in corporate governance, and the emergence of pyramidal holding company structures.
{"title":"Business Organization in American Economic History","authors":"Eric Hilt","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.2","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents a history of the organization of American enterprise, from the first corporations to the emergence of large, vertically integrated conglomerates. It begins with a discussion of the monopolistic privileges of early corporations, and efforts to reform the process by which corporations were created. It then presents a discussion of the alternative organizational forms that became available to entrepreneurs. Finally, it analyzes the rise of “big business” in the late nineteenth century, and the legal and institutional context within which those enterprises began to emerge. The discussion of each is focused on the changing nature of the problems faced by entrepreneurs, and the changing legal and institutional environment in which they operated. Among the topics discussed are the evolution of corporation law, the choice of organizational form, recurring problems in corporate governance, the role of financiers in corporate governance, and the emergence of pyramidal holding company structures.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114403590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.38
S. Broadberry, L. Cain, T. Weiss
This chapter chronicles the transformation of the US economy to one where over 80 percent of the labor force is employed in the service sector. The initial section discusses the difficult task of defining services—the service industries as opposed to the service sector. The growth of services began earlier and increased faster in the United States than in other countries. The discussion of this growth is divided into sections on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The roles of education, the entry of women into the labor force, self-employment, and foreign trade are discussed. The final section concentrates on services’ role in the comparative productivity performance of the US, UK, and German economies.
{"title":"Services in American Economic History","authors":"S. Broadberry, L. Cain, T. Weiss","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.38","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter chronicles the transformation of the US economy to one where over 80 percent of the labor force is employed in the service sector. The initial section discusses the difficult task of defining services—the service industries as opposed to the service sector. The growth of services began earlier and increased faster in the United States than in other countries. The discussion of this growth is divided into sections on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The roles of education, the entry of women into the labor force, self-employment, and foreign trade are discussed. The final section concentrates on services’ role in the comparative productivity performance of the US, UK, and German economies.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127174584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.13
M. Haines
This chapter deals with the population of the United States from its beginnings in colonial times since the first census in 1790 to the present. It deals with the processes of population growth and change: fertility, mortality, urbanization, and migration, both external and internal. In the 220 years since 1790, the population of the United States increased from about 4 million to almost 309 million persons in 2010. Relatively high fertility in earlier times combined with moderate mortality and significant net immigration combined to create this growth. The chapter also deals with changes in population by race, ethnicity, and location.
{"title":"Demography in American Economic History","authors":"M. Haines","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.13","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter deals with the population of the United States from its beginnings in colonial times since the first census in 1790 to the present. It deals with the processes of population growth and change: fertility, mortality, urbanization, and migration, both external and internal. In the 220 years since 1790, the population of the United States increased from about 4 million to almost 309 million persons in 2010. Relatively high fertility in earlier times combined with moderate mortality and significant net immigration combined to create this growth. The chapter also deals with changes in population by race, ethnicity, and location.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130004863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.1
Hoyt Bleakley, L. Cain, Sok Chul Hong
Long-run changes in public health and well-being have been remarkable; Americans are living healthier, longer, and more productive lives. This chapter begins with a consideration of health trends over the past three hundred years. The shift from the miasmatic to the germ theory of disease ushered in a period of significant improvement. The second section considers the disease environment for both chronic and infectious diseases, how it has changed over time, and how those changes impacted the economy. Models of health based on selection, cumulative effects, and critical periods are contrasted. The final section focuses on the sanitary systems that have played a major role in improving health. The evolution of water supply and wastewater removal systems from simple wells and sewers to today’s complex treatment systems have improved health and reduced mortality. Estimates of the economic effectiveness of these systems suggest these large investments in public capital have been justifiable.
{"title":"Health, Disease, and Sanitation in American Economic History","authors":"Hoyt Bleakley, L. Cain, Sok Chul Hong","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.1","url":null,"abstract":"Long-run changes in public health and well-being have been remarkable; Americans are living healthier, longer, and more productive lives. This chapter begins with a consideration of health trends over the past three hundred years. The shift from the miasmatic to the germ theory of disease ushered in a period of significant improvement. The second section considers the disease environment for both chronic and infectious diseases, how it has changed over time, and how those changes impacted the economy. Models of health based on selection, cumulative effects, and critical periods are contrasted. The final section focuses on the sanitary systems that have played a major role in improving health. The evolution of water supply and wastewater removal systems from simple wells and sewers to today’s complex treatment systems have improved health and reduced mortality. Estimates of the economic effectiveness of these systems suggest these large investments in public capital have been justifiable.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131962295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.24
Gavin Wright
This chapter surveys the role of natural resources in American economic history, from colonial times to the present. The central theme is that natural resources do indeed have a history: to a very considerable degree, American resource abundance has been “socially constructed” through responses to economic incentives, investments in transportation, and development of technologies of exploration and extraction using advanced forms of knowledge. During the nineteenth century, Americans adapted their technologies and consumption patterns toward wood to an extent unmatched in the world at that time. The country’s rise to world leadership in minerals was not based primarily on geological endowment, but on an accommodating legal environment, expansion of the infrastructure of public knowledge, and investment in higher mining education. Recent American developments in shale oil and shale gas confirm the historical generalization that natural resources are not given by nature but by policy choices and human behavior.
{"title":"Natural Resources in American Economic History","authors":"Gavin Wright","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190882617.013.24","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter surveys the role of natural resources in American economic history, from colonial times to the present. The central theme is that natural resources do indeed have a history: to a very considerable degree, American resource abundance has been “socially constructed” through responses to economic incentives, investments in transportation, and development of technologies of exploration and extraction using advanced forms of knowledge. During the nineteenth century, Americans adapted their technologies and consumption patterns toward wood to an extent unmatched in the world at that time. The country’s rise to world leadership in minerals was not based primarily on geological endowment, but on an accommodating legal environment, expansion of the infrastructure of public knowledge, and investment in higher mining education. Recent American developments in shale oil and shale gas confirm the historical generalization that natural resources are not given by nature but by policy choices and human behavior.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125707214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-07-16DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.39
Changkeun Lee, P. Rhode
Over past 200 years, industrialization was the driving force in the economic development of most nations experiencing “modern economic growth.” Industrial activity generally expanded faster than the economy as a whole, and the sector grew to account for sizable shares of output, employment, and trade. Manufacturing activities have generally experienced faster rates of productivity growth than the economy as a whole and the sector has often paid higher labor wages. Manufacturing also contributes materiel and technology for military purposes. For these reasons, policymakers and the public have long viewed manufacturing as being of greater importance than other activities. This chapter surveys growth and structural change in the American manufacturing sector over the past 200 years. It chronicles the sector’s transformation during the first (1810–1860), second (1870–1920), and third (1970–present) industrial revolutions. It examines the forces, such as globalization, information technologies, and deindustrialization, shaping the sector today.
{"title":"Manufacturing Growth and Structural Change in American Economic History","authors":"Changkeun Lee, P. Rhode","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.39","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190882617.013.39","url":null,"abstract":"Over past 200 years, industrialization was the driving force in the economic development of most nations experiencing “modern economic growth.” Industrial activity generally expanded faster than the economy as a whole, and the sector grew to account for sizable shares of output, employment, and trade. Manufacturing activities have generally experienced faster rates of productivity growth than the economy as a whole and the sector has often paid higher labor wages. Manufacturing also contributes materiel and technology for military purposes. For these reasons, policymakers and the public have long viewed manufacturing as being of greater importance than other activities. This chapter surveys growth and structural change in the American manufacturing sector over the past 200 years. It chronicles the sector’s transformation during the first (1810–1860), second (1870–1920), and third (1970–present) industrial revolutions. It examines the forces, such as globalization, information technologies, and deindustrialization, shaping the sector today.","PeriodicalId":116778,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, vol. 1","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131148384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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