The Costs of Doing Hard Time: A penitentiary-based regional price index for Canada, 1883-1923

We construct consumer price indices for Canada, mainly based on the expenditure records of Canada’s federal penitentiaries. Regional price variation was much greater in Canada in the late nineteenth century than in the northern U.S. The new data suggest substantial price decline to 1900. Regional price variation in Canada decreased gradually to 1914, and quickly during the First World War. For 1900-14 and 1922-3, new data are largely consistent with consumer price data compiled by The Labour Gazette. The new data suggest more inflation during the First World War.

THE COSTS OF DOING HARD TIME: A PENITENTIARY-BASED REGIONAL PRICE INDEX FOR CANADA, 1883-1923

We construct consumer price indices for Canada, mainly based on the expenditure records of Canada's federal penitentiaries. Regional price variation was much greater in Canada in the late nineteenth century than in the northern U.S. The new data suggest substantial price decline to 1900. Regional price variation in Canada decreased gradually to 1914, and quickly during the First World War. For 1900-14 and 1922-3, new data are largely consistent with consumer price data compiled by The Labour Gazette. The new data suggest more inflation during the First World War.

Labour market dynamics in Canada, 1891-1911: a first look from new census samples

This paper uses newly available census evidence to portray changes in labour market outcomes in Canada between 1891 and 1911. Multiple census cross-sections allow for the documentation of how the location, occupation, and earnings of Canadian and foreign-born cohorts changed over time. The westward movement of young anglophones after 1901 contributed to the formation of a national labour market. Anglophone, francophone, and foreign-born cohorts all experienced significant occupational mobility between 1891 and 1911, but francophones and immigrants remained over-represented at the bottom of the occupational ladder. Greater occupational and geographical mobility supported higher rates of earnings growth among Anglophones

Hours of Work in Old and New Worlds: The Long View, 1870-2000

This paper brings a long-term perspective to the debate on the causes of worktime differences among OECD countries. Exploiting new data sets on hours of work per week, days at work per year, and annual work hours between 1870 and 2000, we challenge the conventional view that Europeans began to labor fewer hours than Americans only in the 1980s. Like Australians and Canadians, Americans tended to work longer hours, after controlling for income, beginning around 1900. Labor power and inequality, which are held to be important determinants of worktime after 1970, had comparable effects in the period before 1913. To explain the longstanding predisposition of the New World to give more labor time, we examine the effects of three initial factors in 1870, culture, human capital, and geography on hours of work in 2000. We find that geography – the low population density of the New World that has led to shorter commutes and lower fixed costs of getting to work – has had an enduring impact on supply of labor time.

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Labour market dynamics in Canada, 1891-1911: A first look from new census samples

This paper uses newly available census evidence to portray changes in labour market outcomes in Canada between 1891 and 1911. Multiple census cross-sections allow for the documentation of how the location, occupation, and earnings of Canadian and foreign-born cohorts changed over time. The westward movement of young anglophones after 1901 contributed to the formation of a national labour market. Anglophone, francophone, and foreign-born cohorts all experienced significant occupational mobility between 1891 and 1911, but francophones and immigrants remained over-represented at the bottom of the occupational ladder. Greater occupational and geographical mobility supported higher rates of earnings growth among Anglophones.labour market, census, Canada, ethnicity, anglophone, francophone, occupations, earnings regression, 1891, 1901, 1911

Conspicuous by their Absence: French Canadians and the Settlement of the Canadian West

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Networks in the Premodern Economy: the Market for London Apprenticeships, 1600-1749

This paper examines the importance of social and geographical networks in structuring entry into skilled occupations in premodern London. Using newly digitised records of those beginning an apprenticeship in London between 1600 and 1749, we find little evidence that networks strongly shaped apprentice recruitment. The typical London apprentice did not have an identifiable connection to his master in the form of a kin link, shared name, or shared place or county of origin. The majority of migrant apprentices' fathers came from outside of the craft sector. Our results suggest that the market for apprenticeship was strikingly open: well-to-do families of all types were able to access a wide range of craft and trade apprenticeships, and would-be apprentices had considerable scope to match their perceived ability and aptitude to opportunity.Apprenticeship, human capital formation, training, migration, networks, UK, early modern

Institutions, history and wage bargaining outcomes: international evidence from the post-World War Two era

This paper uses international evidence to assess the impact of tripartism and other forms of government involvement in bargaining on wage moderation and wage dispersion. We find that government involvement in wage bargaining leads to a modest increase in wage moderation and reduction in wage dispersion. Historic differences in bargaining institutions between countries have greater moderating effects