National Bureau of Economic Research Series on Long-Term Factors in Economi – serie

The urgent demand for housing after World War I fueled a boom in residential construction that led to historic peaks in home ownership. Foreclosures at the time were rare, and when they did happen, lenders could quickly recoup their losses by selling into a strong market. But no mortgage system is equipped to deal with credit problems on the scale of the Great Depression. As foreclosures quintupled, it became clear that the mortgage system of the 1920s was not up to the task, and borrowers, lenders, and real estate professionals sought action at the federal level. Well Worth Saving tells the story of the disastrous housing market during the Great Depression and the extent to which an immensely popular New Deal relief program, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), was able to stem foreclosures by buying distressed mortgages from lenders and refinancing them. Drawing on historical records and modern statistical tools, Price Fishback, Jonathan Rose, and Kenneth Snowden investigate important unanswered questions to provide an unparalleled view of the mortgage loan industry throughout the 1920s and early '30s.Combining this with the stories of those involved, the book offers a clear understanding of the HOLC within the context of the housing market in which it operated, including an examination of how the incentives and behaviors at play throughout the crisis influenced the effectiveness of policy. More than eighty years after the start of the Great Depression, when politicians have called for similar programs to quell the current mortgage crisis, this accessible account of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation holds invaluable lessons for our own time.

Winner of the 1998 Paul A. Samuelson Award given by TIAA-CREF, The Evolution of Retirement is the first comprehensive economic history of retirement in America. With life expectancies steadily increasing, the retirement rate of men over age 64 has risen drastically. Dora L. Costa looks at factors underlying this increase and shows the dramatic implications of her findings for both the general public and the U.S. government. Using statistical, and demographic concepts, Costa sheds light on such important topics as rising incomes and retirement, work and disease, the job prospects of older workers, living arrangements of the elderly, the development of a retirement lifestyle, and pensions and politics. "[Costa's] major contribution is to show that, even without Social Security and Medicare, retirement would have expanded dramatically."—Robert J. Samuelson, New Republic"An important book on a topic which has become popular with historians and is of major significance to politicians and economists."—Margaret Walsh, Business History

Workers' compensation was arguably the first widespread social insurance program in the United States - before social security, Medicare, or unemployment insurance - and the most successful form of labor legislation to emerge from the early progressive movement. In "A Prelude to the Welfare State", Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor challenge widespread historical perceptions by arguing that workers' compensation, rather than being an early progressive victory, succeeded because all relevant parties - labor and management, insurance companies, lawyers, and legislators - benefited from the ruling. Rigorous and convincing, "A Prelude to the Welfare State" is a major reappraisal of the causes and consequences of a movement that ultimately transformed the nature of social insurance and the American workplace.

Examining the political and economic forces that have shaped the civil service system from the Pendleton Act of 1883 through today, the authors explain why, despite efforts to overhaul the federal bureaucracy (most recently by Vice President Al Gore), significant change remains a formidable challenge. Although politicians criticize the unwieldiness of the bureaucracy, this volume shows how they have been largely responsible for its design. The authors examine the development of federal employee interest groups and their negotiations with the president and Congress over hiring policies, salaries and conditions for terminating employment. Using transaction cost analysis and public choice theory, this book aims to provide a new understanding of the growth of the federal bureaucracy and the political and economic obstacles to reforming it.

Research by economists and economic historians has greatly expanded our knowledge of labour markets and real wages in the United States since the Civil War, but the period from 1820 to 1860 has been far less studied. Robert Margo fills this gap by collecting and analyzing the payroll records of civilians hired by the United States Army and the 1850 and 1860 manuscript federal Censuses of Social Statistics. New wage series are constructed for three occupational groups - common labourers, artisans, and white-collar workers - in each of the four major census regions -Northeast, Midwest, South Atlantic and South Central - over the period 1820 to 1860, and also for California between 1847 and 1860. Margo uses these data, along with previously collected evidence on prices, to explore a variety of issues central to antebellum economic development. This volume makes a significant contribution to economic history by presenting a vast amount of previously unexamined data to advance the understanding of the history of wages and labour markets in the antebellum economy.

Robert A. Margo mines a wealth of newly available census data and school district records to explore the experience of blacks in the American economy. Identifying the links between educational expenditures, racial discrimination, and occupational mobility, he clarifies the costs of segregation.

The interrelation among race, schooling, and labor market opportunities of American blacks can help us make sense of the relatively poor economic status of blacks in contemporary society. The role of these factors in slavery and the economic consequences for blacks has received much attention, but the post-slave experience of blacks in the American economy has been less studied. To deepen our understanding of that experience, Robert A. Margo mines a wealth of newly available census data and school district records. By analyzing evidence concerning occupational discrimination, educational expenditures, taxation, and teachers' salaries, he clarifies the costs for blacks of post-slave segregation. "A concise, lucid account of the bases of racial inequality in the South between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights era. . . . Deserves the careful attention of anyone concerned with historical and contemporary race stratification."—Kathryn M. Neckerman, Contemporary Sociology"Margo has produced an excellent study, which can serve as a model for aspiring cliometricians. To describe it as 'required reading' would fail to indicate just how important, indeed indispensable, the book will be to scholars interested in racial economic differences, past or present."—Robert Higgs, Journal of Economic Literature"Margo shows that history is important in understanding present domestic problems; his study has significant implications for understanding post-1950s black economic development."—Joe M. Richardson, Journal of American History