TY - JOUR
T1 - Labour markets in the interwar period and economic recovery in the UK and the USA
AU - Hatton, Timothy
AU - Thomas, Mark
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - We examine the labour-market experience of the UK and the US in the recessions of the early 1920s and the early 1930s and the subsequent recoveries. These were deep recessions, comparable to that of 2008-9, but the recoveries were very different. In the UK the recovery of the 1920s was incomplete, but that of the 1930s was rather less protracted than in the US. By contrast the US experienced very strong recovery in the 1920s but weaker recovery from the much deeper recession of the 1930s. A key ingredient to understanding these patterns is the interaction between economic shocks and labour-market institutions. Here we survey the large literature on interwar labour markets to identify the key elements that underpinned labour-market performance. We find that developments in wage-setting institutions and in unemployment insurance inhibited a return to full employment in interwar Britain, while, in the US, New Deal legislation impeded labour-market adjustment in the 1930s. We conclude with an assessment of the policy responses to labour-market crises in the past and in the present.
AB - We examine the labour-market experience of the UK and the US in the recessions of the early 1920s and the early 1930s and the subsequent recoveries. These were deep recessions, comparable to that of 2008-9, but the recoveries were very different. In the UK the recovery of the 1920s was incomplete, but that of the 1930s was rather less protracted than in the US. By contrast the US experienced very strong recovery in the 1920s but weaker recovery from the much deeper recession of the 1930s. A key ingredient to understanding these patterns is the interaction between economic shocks and labour-market institutions. Here we survey the large literature on interwar labour markets to identify the key elements that underpinned labour-market performance. We find that developments in wage-setting institutions and in unemployment insurance inhibited a return to full employment in interwar Britain, while, in the US, New Deal legislation impeded labour-market adjustment in the 1930s. We conclude with an assessment of the policy responses to labour-market crises in the past and in the present.
U2 - 10.1093/oxrep/grq023
DO - 10.1093/oxrep/grq023
M3 - Article
SN - 0266-903X
VL - 26
SP - 463
EP - 485
JO - Oxford Review of Economic Policy
JF - Oxford Review of Economic Policy
IS - 3
ER -