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The Earnings Gap Between Agricultural and Manufacturing Laborers, 1925–1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Lee J. Alston  and
T. J. Hatton
Lee J. Alston
Affiliation:
professor of Economics, University of Illiois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801.
T. J. Hatton
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, EnglandCO4 3SQ.
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Abstract

We estimate the monthly and hourly earnings ratio between agricultural and manufacturing laborers, adjusting for compensation received in-kind and differences in the cost of living. Our results indicate that prior to the Great Depression, agricultural compensation was similar to that in manufacturing within geographic regions, and a substantial earnings gap in favor of manufacturing emerged in the early thirties.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 83 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1991

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