Structural Change and Internal Labor Migration: Evidence from the Great Depression

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Boone, Christopher D. A.; Wilse-Samson, Laurence
• 署名单位: University of Massachusetts System; University of Massachusetts Amherst; University of Johannesburg
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01116
• 发表日期: 2023-07
• 页码: 962-981
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; unemployment; agriculture; IMPACT; PRODUCTIVITY; mobility; CRISIS; LAND

摘要

We analyze sectoral labor reallocation and the reversal of urbanization in the United States during the Great Depression. The widespread movement to farms, which serves as a form of migratory insurance during the crisis, is largely toward farms with low levels of mechanization. In contrast, the mechanized agricultural sector sheds workers, many of whom reallocate into low-productivity or subsistence farming. The crisis perverts the normal process of structural change in which workers displaced by farm equipment are released into more productive occupations, suggesting that macroeconomic fluctuations are an important factor determining the labor market consequences of technological change.