The Evolution of Modern Labor Markets

自19世纪以来，随着美国的工薪阶层从小企业转向大企业，各种规模公司的雇佣关系都发生了变化。简而言之，劳动力市场从现货市场过渡到隐含和显性的契约关系。这个项目的目的是分析企业和工人之间不断变化的关系的各个方面，以及这种不断变化的关系对经济的影响。考虑到美国经济持续而重大的结构调整及其对美国工人的影响，这项研究尤为及时和重要。有待检验的基本论点是，混乱的劳动力市场--工人经常参与非生产性流动--被一个在工作中磨练劳动产权、更充分地利用劳动力的市场所取代。工会、失业保险和其他劳工保护促进了这一变化，但它也是由其他力量带来的。这一演变的各个方面将被更彻底地分析，如失业和整个20世纪的工资结构。此外，还将研究几个相关问题，包括一般人力资本和特定人力资本的回报、雇佣关系的长度、福利的提供、行业间工资差异以及移民的影响。一些必要的数据集已经存在，但除此之外，还将收集大量公司级记录样本，以揭示20世纪工人与公司关系的细节。

Employment relationships across all sizes of firms were altered since the 19th century, as wage-earners in America moved from small enterprises to large ones. Simply put, there was transition from a spot market for labor to one of implicit and explicit contractual relations. The purpose of this project is analyze the dimensions of the changing relationship between firms and workers and the implications of this changing relationship for the economy. This research is particularly timely and important given the continuing and major restructuring of the American economy and the consequences this holds for American workers. The underlying thesis to be tested is that a chaotic labor market, in which workers often participated in nonproductive mobility, was replaced by one that grated labor property rights in jobs and that more fully utilized the work force. Labor unions, unemployment insurance, and other protection for labor fostered the change, but it was also brought about by other forces. Various aspects of this evolution will be analyzed more thoroughly such as unemployment and the wage structure across the 20th century. In addition, several related issues will also be studied including the returns to general and to specific human capital, the length of the employment relationship, the provision of benefits, the inter-industry wage differential, and the impact of immigration. Some of the necessary data sets exist, but in addition a large sample of firm-level records will be assembled to reveal details about worker-firm relationships during the 20th century.