Must-read: Suresh Naidu and Noam Yuchtman: “Labor Market Institutions in the Gilded Age”

Must-Read: Suresh Naidu and Noam Yuchtman: Labor Market Institutions in the Gilded Age: “Although 19th century labor markets were unencumbered by regulatory legislation…

…there existed frictions and rents… [that] played an active role in determining labor market outcomes and the distribution of income…. When firms experienced positive output price shocks, their employees earned wage premia…. The existence of rents in the labor contract suggests a role for bargaining and conflict between employees and employers. Workers in the late 19th century
attempted to strike to increase their wages; we present data on the frequency of strikes in the 19th century as well as some evidence suggesting that strikes were correlated with workers’ wages. Employers were supported by institutions of their own: we describe the important role played by the U.S. government in limiting the efficacy of union strikes in the 19th century…. We present new evidence documenting the rise of judicial injunctions that ended strikes, pointing to the important role played by the judicial branch of the U.S. government in structuring (Northern) American labor market institutions prior to the rise of legislative regulation.