Joshua L. Rosenbloom

Marshallian factor market externalities and the dynamics of industrial localization

Abstract When an industry has thus chosen a locality for itself, it is likely to stay there long: so great are the advantages which people following the same skilled trade get from near neighborhood to one another …. A localized industry gains a great advantage from the fact that it offers a constant market for skill. Employers are apt to resort to any place where they are likely to find a good choice of workers …; while men seeking employment naturally go to places where there are many employers who need such skill as theirs …. The advantages of variety of employment are combined with those of localized industries in some of our manufacturing towns, and this is a chief cause of their continued growth. Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics , 8th ed., pp. 271–272 (1920).

The Effects of Child-Bearing on Married Women's Labor Supply and Earnings: Using Twin Births as a Natural Experiment

Married womens decisions about child-bearing and market work are importantly interrelated. Although there are many estimates of the effects of fertility on female labor supply few of them have adequately addressed the problems of simultaneity inherent in these choices. In this paper, we use exogenous variations in fertility due to twin births to measure the impact of an unanticipated child on married womens labor supply and earnings. We find that the short-run effects of an unanticipated birth on labor supply are appreciable and have increased in magnitude as more mothers enter the labor market. It also appears that the impact of unanticipated births on earnings and wages has changed from 1980 to 1990. In 1980 reduced labor supply caused a temporary drop in earnings, but in 1990 earnings and wages remained depressed well after the labor supply effects of a twin birth had disappeared.

Was There a National Labor Market at the End of the Nineteenth Century? New Evidence on Earnings in Manufacturing

Average annual earnings calculated from the census of manufactures are used to extend previous research on labor market integration in the United States. In contrast to earlier research examining occupational wage rates, census average earnings indicate that a well-integrated labor market had emerged in the Northeast and North Central regions as early as 1879. They also reveal substantial convergence within the South Atlantic and South Central regions, suggesting the emergence of a unified southern labor market. Large and persistent North-South differentials indicate, however, that a unified national labor market did not develop before World War I.

One Market or Many? Labor Market Integration in the Late Nineteenth-Century United States

This article examines the geographic integration of U.S. labor markets from 1870 to 1898, using previously unexploited wage and price data for 23 occupations in 12 major cities. In contrast to the increasing nationalization found in other markets at that time, the labor market was characterized by large and persistent real wage differentials both within and between regions, leaving little doubt that late nineteenth-century labor markets remained far from completely integrated. The differentials, however, owed as much to substantial variations in labor demand growth as to the lack of labor market integration.

The Decline and Rise of Interstate Migration in the United States: Evidence from the Ipums, 1850-1990

We examine evidence on trends in interstate migration over the past 150 years, using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series of the U.S. Census (IPUMS). Two measures of migration are calculated. The first considers an individual to have moved if she is residing in a state different from her state of birth. The second considers a family to have moved if it is residing in a state different from the state of birth of one of its young children. The latter measure allows us estimate the timing of moves more accurately. Our results suggest that overall migration propensities have followed a U-shaped trend since 1850, falling until around 1900 and then rising until around 1970. We examine variation in the propensity to make an interstate move by age, sex, race, nativity, region of origin, family structure, and education. Counterfactuals based on probit estimates of the propensity to migrate suggest that the rise in migration of families since 1900 is largely attributable to increased educational attainment. The decline of interstate migration in the late nineteenth century remains to be explained.

The Geography of Innovation Commercialization in the United States During the 1990s

This article analyzes the geographic distribution and interrelationship of three measures of innovation commercialization across the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States and estimates a model of the factors explaining variations in the location of innovation commercialization. Innovation commercialization tends to be highly concentrated geographically, suggesting the presence of substantial external economies in these functions. Beyond these scale effects, however, the author finds that university science and engineering capacity and local patenting activity both help to account for intercity differences in the level of innovation commercialization activity.

The effects of child-bearing on women's marital status: using twin births as a natural experiment

Abstract We use the exogenous variation in fertility caused by a twin birth to measure the impact of an unplanned child on a woman’s marital status. Contrary to previous research, we find that an unplanned child has little effect on the married mother’s probability of subsequent divorce or remarriage. For unmarried mothers we find that an unplanned child does reduce the likelihood of marriage, but that the magnitude of this effect appears smaller than previous estimates suggest.

EXAMINING THE OBSTACLES TO BROADENING PARTICIPATION IN COMPUTING: EVIDENCE FROM A SURVEY OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS

This article describes the results of a survey of professional workers that was designed to explore the underlying reasons for the widely documented under representation of women in information technology jobs. Our analysis suggests that it is different occupational personalities between men and women rather than the demanding nature of IT work that is largely responsible for the relatively few women in IT occupations. We discuss the implications these results have for policies that are designed to create greater gender equity in the rapidly-growing IT industries.

Quantitative economic history : the good of counting

Contents, Preface, Acknowledgements, 1. Editors Introduction: The Good of Counting, Joshua L. Rosenbloom, 2. An Economic History of Bastardy in England and Wales, John Ermisch, 3. Epidemics, Demonstration Effects, and Municipal Investment in Sanitation Capital, Louis P. Cain and Elyce J. Rotella, 4. Profitability, Firm Size and Business Organization in Nineteenth Century U.S. Manufacturing, Jeremy Atack and Fred Bateman, 5. Railroads and Local Economic Development: The United States in the 1850s, Michael R. Haines and Robert A. Margo, 6. Did Refrigeration Kill the Hog-Corn Cycle?, Lee A. Craig and Matthew T. Holt, 7. Measuring the Intensity of State Labor Regulation During the Progressive Era, Rebecca Holmes, Price Fishback and Samuel Allen, 8. Reexamining the Distribution of Wealth in 1870, Joshua L. Rosenbloom and Gregory W. Stutes

Economic and business dimensions Increasing gender diversity in the IT work force

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