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- Title
Technological change and work.
- Authors
Schneider, Benjamin
- Abstract
This doctoral thesis examines the impact of technological change on jobs in Great Britain and the United States between 1750 and 1910. It analyzes changes in work-related well-being by constructing and applying the Historical Occupational Quality Index (HOQI), which measures job quality based on wages, working time, stability of earnings, accident risk, industrial disease risk, control, intensity, and repetitiveness. The thesis uses qualitative evidence from various sources to describe tasks, tools, work locations, and components of job-related well-being. The case studies focus on the spinning section of the British textile industry, factory spinning in the Northeastern United States, and interurban transport in the Northeastern United States. The findings show that macroinventions expanded the task range of work, leading to increased job stratification and sometimes causing technological unemployment. Rising wages and regulations that reduced working hours were the primary drivers of improved job quality. Higher status workers tended to claim or retain the best jobs following disruptive innovation.
- Subjects
TECHNOLOGICAL innovations; ECONOMIC history; STANDARD of living
- Publication
European Review of Economic History, 2024, Vol 28, Issue 2, p307
- ISSN
1361-4916
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/ereh/head028