Showing papers by "Jane Humphries published in 2009"
TL;DR: A second Industrious Revolution? Appendix I.1. The transformation of consumer desire in the long eighteenth century 2. The origins of the Industrious revolution 3. The Industrial Revolution: the supply of labor 4. The industrial revolution: consumer demand 5. The breadwinner-homemaker household 6.
Abstract: 1. The transformation of consumer desire in the long eighteenth century 2. The origins of the Industrious Revolution 3. The Industrious Revolution: the supply of labor 4. The Industrious Revolution: consumer demand 5. The breadwinner-homemaker household 6. A second Industrious Revolution? Appendix I.
267 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the mobility of mid-nineteenth century seamen and found that the tall, the literate and those who could remember the exact day, month and year when they were born were more likely to migrate to London.
58 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the 1840s Admiralty seamen's tickets were used to explore three anthropometric issues: being born in a city, with its associated disamenities, lead to stunting.
Abstract: A new source, 1840s Admiralty seamen's tickets, is used to explore three anthropometric issues. First, did being born in a city, with its associated disamenities, lead to stunting? Second, did being born near a city, whose markets sucked away foodstuffs, lead to stunting? Third, did child labour lead to stunting? We find that only those born in very large cities suffered a level of stunting that contemporaries could have observed. Being born near a city, which gave parents opportunities to trade away family calories, and perhaps increased exposure to disease, did not cause stunting. Britain was a well-integrated market; all families, whatever their locations, had options to trade and faced similar disease environments. Finally, although adults who had gone to sea young were shorter than those who did not enlist until fully grown, going to sea did not stunt. Instead, plentiful food at sea attracted stunted adolescents, who reversed most of their stunting as a result. But child labour at sea was different from other forms of children's work because wages were largely hypothecated to the child as food and shelter onboard. In contrast, where wages were paid to the child or his parents in cash, they became submerged in the household economy and their benefits were shared with other family members.
37 citations
TL;DR: The gender pay gap and related labor market segregation remain fiercely debated. as discussed by the authors argue that socially and culturally constructed gender identities can influence market outcomes, producing discrimination in wages and work that persists even in the face of competitive forces.
Abstract: Explanations of the gender pay gap and related labor market segregation remain fiercely debated. On the one side are those economic historians who take a primarily neoclassical view, in which competition among workers and employers eliminates wage differences that do not reflect productivity and occupational segregation that is not the outcome of choice. Persistent discrimination must reflect anticompetitive institutions, for instance, trade unions. A corollary of the neoclassical perspective is that markets are liberating, freeing agents, including women, from cultural stereotypes and ensuring that they get paid what they are worth, although of course this need not imply wage equality if there are gender differences in productivity. On the other side are those cultural historians who interpret wage differences as reflecting custom and, as far as women are concerned, the cultural deprecation of women's work, while occupational segregation represents gender stereotypes of fit work for women. In this view, socially and culturally constructed gender identities can influence market outcomes, producing discrimination in wages and work that persists even in the face of competitive forces.
14 citations