Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/202725 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12379
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper provides estimates of labor productivity for one-third of UK manufacturing during the Great Depression. It covers engineering and allied industries, and metal working industries. A unique data set of actual hours of work is combined with comparable real output and employment statistics. It establishes that output per worker-hour was countercyclical in the 1929-1932 peak-to-trough years of the Depression. This result has also been found for US manufacturing over the same period. Working time is found to play a crucial role the UK productivity response. Countercyclical productivity is discussed in terms of (i) the strong final output and consumer price deflations of 1929 to 1934, (ii) an absence of significant labor hoarding, and (c) diminishing returns to long weekly hours of work.
Subjects: 
labor productivity
Great Depression
diminishing returns to hours
JEL: 
O47
E32
N64
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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