The Evolution of Modern Labor Markets

自 19 世纪以来，随着美国的工薪阶层从小型企业转向大型企业，各种规模的企业的雇佣关系都发生了变化。 简而言之，劳动力现货市场转变为隐性和显性的合同关系市场。 该项目的目的是分析企业与工人之间关系变化的维度以及这种关系变化对经济的影响。 考虑到美国经济的持续重大重组及其对美国工人的影响，这项研究显得尤为及时和重要。 需要检验的基本论点是，工人经常参与非生产性流动的混乱劳动力市场，被一个磨灭劳动者工作产权、更充分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。 我们将更彻底地分析这一演变的各个方面，例如整个 20 世纪的失业和工资结构。 此外，还将研究一些相关问题，包括一般和特定人力资本的回报、雇佣关系的长度、福利的提供、行业间的工资差异以及移民的影响。 一些必要的数据集已经存在，但此外还将收集大量企业层面的记录样本，以揭示 20 世纪工人与企业关系的详细信息。

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.