Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T05:27:14.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Slack and Slacker: Job Seekers, Job Vacancies, and Matching Functions in the U.S. Labor Market during the Roaring Twenties and the Great Contraction, 1924–1932

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2016

Woong Lee
Woong Lee*
Affiliation:
Woong Lee is Research Fellow, Department of the Asia-Pacific, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, Building C, Sejong National Research Complex, 370 Sicheongdaero, Sejong-si, 30147, Korea. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I use unique city-month level disaggregated data, from public employment offices, to estimate the matching functions for the 1920s and the early 1930s. The results show that the public labor exchange was slack, a relative deficiency of job vacancies, in the 1920s and it became slacker during the Great Depression. However, the findings show that there was no deterioration of the matching efficiency in the early 1930s. The outcome of a deficiency of labor demand during the 1930s implies that there was a need for effective government policies to implement the new job-creation programs.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 840 - 873
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I acknowledge the generous comments from Gavin Wright at the All UC Group in Economic History Conference in 2009. I am also indebted to Price Fishback who advised and shared his expertise on the data, and benefitted from the helpful comments and suggestions of the two anonymous referees and Paul Rhode. Finally, I thank my advisor, Dan Bogart, for his generous guidance. All the errors and views in the article are the author's own.

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, Patricia M., and Burgess, Simon M.. “Empirical Matching Functions: Estimation and Interpretation Using State-Level Data.” Review of Economics and Statistics 82, no. 1 2000: 93–102.Google Scholar
Atkinson, Raymond. C., Odencrantz, Louise C., and Deming, Ben. Public Employment Service in the United States. Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1938.Google Scholar
Barnichon, Regis. “Building a Composite Help-Wanted Index.” Economics Letters 109, no. 3 2010: 175–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, Eli. “Help Wanted, Job Needed: Estimates of a Matching Function from Employment Service Data.” Journal of Labor Economics 15, no. 1 1997: 251–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berridge, William A. “Labor and the Business Cycle: Some Industrial Aspects.” Review of Economics and Statistics 8, no. 3 1926: 134–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berridge, William A. “Labor Turnover in American Factories.” Monthly Labor Review 29, no. 1 1929: 62–5.Google Scholar
Beveridge, William. Report on Full Employment in a Free Society. New York: Norton, 1945.Google Scholar
Blanchard, Oliver J., and Diamond, Peter A.. “The Aggregate Matching Function.” In Growth, Productivity and Unemployment, edited by Diamond, Peter A., 159–206. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Blanchard, Oliver J., and Diamond, Peter A.. “The Flow Approach to Labor Markets.” American Economic Review 82, no. 2 1992: 354–59.Google Scholar
Bleakley, Hoyt, and Fuhrer, Jeffrey C.. “Shifts in the Beveridge Curve, Job Matching, and Labor Market Dynamics.” New England Economic Review 9, no. 10 1997: 3–19.Google Scholar
Boeri, Tito, and Burda, Michael C.. “Active Labor Market Policies, Job Matching and the Czech Miracle.” European Economic Review 40 1996: 805–17.Google Scholar
Bogart, E. L. “Public Employment Offices in the United States and Germany.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 14, no. 3 1900: 341–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borowczyk-Martins, Daniel, Jolivet, Gregory, and Postel-Vinay, Fabine. “Accounting for Endogeneity in Matching Function Estimation.” Review of Economic Dynamics 16, no. 3 2013: 440–51.Google Scholar
Boschan, Charlotte. “Job Openings and Help-Wanted Advertising as Measures of Cyclical Fluctuations in Unfilled Demand for Labor.” In The Measurement and Interpretation of Job Vacancies, edited by NBER, 489–518. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Burda, Michael C., and Profit, Stefan. “Matching across Space: Evidence on Mobility in the Czech Republic.” Labour Economics 3, no. 3 1996: 257–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, Simon, and Profit, Stefan. “Externalities in the Matching of Workers and Firms in Britain.” Labour Economics 8, no. 3 2001: 313–33.Google Scholar
Cahuc, Pierre, and Zylberberg, André. Labor Economics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Coles, Melvyn G., and Smith, Eric. “Cross-Section Estimation of the Matching Function: Evidence from England and Wales.” Economica 63, no. 252 1996: 589–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Steven J., Faberman, Jason, and Haltiwanger, John. “The Flow Approach to Labor Markets: New Data Sources and Micro-Macro Links.” Journal of Economic Perspective 20, no. 3 2006: 3–26.Google Scholar
De Koning, Jaap, Denys, Jan, and Walwei, Ulrich. Deregulation in Placement Services: A Comparative Study for Eight EU Countries. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1999.Google Scholar
Department of Labor. Employment and Training Administration. http://www.uses.doleta.gov/wp.cfm (accessed 3 August 2006).Google Scholar
Diamond, Peter A., and Şahin, Ayşegül. “Shifts in the Beveridge Curve.” Federal Reserve Bank of New Staff Reports No. 687. New York: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, August 2014.Google Scholar
Elsby, Michael W.L., Michaels, Ryan, and Ratner, David. “The Beveridge Curve: A Survey.” Journal of Economic Literature 53, no. 3 2015: 571–630.Google Scholar
Fahr, René, and Sunde, Uwe. “Occupational Job Creation: Patterns and Implications.” Oxford Economic Papers 56 2004: 407–35.Google Scholar
Fêve, Patrick, and Langot, François. “Unemployment and the Business Cycle in a Small Open Economy: GMM Estimation and Testing with French Data.” Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 20, no. 9 1996: 1609–39.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia. “Labor Markets in the Twentieth Century.” In The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, III, edited by Engerman, Stanley L. and Gallman, Robert E., 549–624. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Jacoby, Sanford M. Employing Bureaucracy: Managers, Unions, and the Transformation of Work in American Industry, 1900–1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Kano, Shigeki, and Ohta, Makoto. “Estimating a Matching Function and Regional Matching Efficiencies: Japanese Panel Data for 1973–1999.” Japan and the World Economy 17 2005: 25–41.Google Scholar
Lee, Woong. “Private Deception and the Rise of Public Employment Offices in the United States, 1890–1930.” In Studies of Labor Market Intermediation, edited by Autor, David H., 155–81. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Margo, Robert. “Employment and Unemployment in the 1930s.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7, no. 2 1993: 41–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mumford, Karen, and Smith, Peter. “The Hiring Function Reconsidered: On Closing the Cycle.” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 61, no. 3 1999: 343–64.Google Scholar
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Help-Wanted Advertising in Newspapers. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Macrohistory Database Series 08082 http://www.nber.org/databases/macrohistory/data/08/m08082a.db (accessed 2 May 2011).Google Scholar
Petrongolo, Barbara, and Pissarides, Christopher A.. “Looking into the Black Box: A Survey of the Matching Function.” Journal of Economic Literature 39, no. 2 2001: 390–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfeffermann, Danny. “The Role of Sampling Weights When Modeling Survey Data.” International Statistical Review (Revue Internationale de Statistique) 61, no. 2 1993: 317–37.Google Scholar
Phillips, Peter C., and Moon, Hyungsik R.. “Nonstationary Panel Data Analysis: An Overview of Some Recent Developments.” Econometric Review 19, no. 3 2000: 263–86.Google Scholar
Pissarides, Christopher A. “Unemployment and Vacancies in Britain.” Economic Policy 1, no. 3 1986: 376–90.Google Scholar
Pissarides, Christopher A. “Loss of Skill during Unemployment and the Persistence of Employment Shocks.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 107, no. 4 1992: 1371–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pissarides, Christopher A. Equilibrium Unemployment Theory. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Rosenbloom, Joshua L. Looking for Work, Searching for Workers: American Labor Markets during Industrialization. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sargent, Frank B. “Statistics of Unemployment and the Work of Employment Offices.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Bulletin, no. 109, pp. 5–140. Washington, DC: GPO, 1912.Google Scholar
Shimer, Robert. “The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies.” American Economic Review 95, no. 1 2005: 25–49.Google Scholar
Slichter, Sumner H. “The Current labor Market Policies of American Industries.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 43, no. 3 1929: 393–435.Google Scholar
State of Illinois Department of Labor. The Labor Bulletin. Chicago, IL, January 1922-January 1933.Google Scholar
State of New York Industrial Commission. The Industrial Bulletin. Albany, NY, July 1924-December 1933.Google Scholar
Stewart, Annabel M., and Stewart, Bryce M.. Statistical Procedure of Public Employment Offices. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1933.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Abstract of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. Part 1. Washington, DC: GPO, 1975.Google Scholar
U.S. Employment Service. Monthly Report of Activities of State and Municipal Employment Services Cooperating with U.S. Employment Service. Washington, DC: GPO, January 1924-January 1932.Google Scholar
U.S. Employment Service. “Historical Sketch of Public Employment.” Employment Service News 2, no. 2 1935: 2–8.Google Scholar
van Ours, Jan C. “The Efficiency of the Dutch Labor Market in Matching Unemployment and Vacancies.” De Economist 139, no. 3 1991: 358–78.Google Scholar
Weir, David R. “A Century of U.S. Unemployment, 1980–1990: Revised Estimates and Evidence for Stabilization.” Research in Economic History 1992: 301–46.Google Scholar
Winship, Christopher, and Radbill, Larry. “Sampling Weights and Regression Analysis.” Sociological Methods and Research 23, no. 2 1994: 230–57.Google Scholar
Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South. New York: Norton, 1986.Google Scholar
Yashiv, Earn. “The Determinants of Equilibrium Unemployment.” American Economic Review 90, no. 5 2000: 1297–332.Google Scholar
Zagorsky, Jay L. “Job Vacancies in the United States: 1923 to 1994.” Review of Economics and Statistics 80, no. 2 1998: 338–45.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Lee supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Lee supplementary material(File)
File 33.4 KB