Added and Discouraged Workers in the Late 1930s: A Re-Examination

48 Pages Posted: 28 Dec 2006 Last revised: 16 Feb 2023

See all articles by Aldrich Finegan

Aldrich Finegan

Vanderbilt University - College of Arts and Science - Department of Economics

Robert A. Margo

Boston University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: April 1993

Abstract

We revisit a famous controversy in labor economics: the debate between W.S. Woytinsky and Clarence Long over "added" and "discouraged" worker effects in the late 1930s. According to Woytinsky, the Depression created large numbers of added workers, persons who entered the labor force when the head of the household became unemployed. Long, on the other hand, believed that the number of added workers was trivial compared with the number of discouraged workers, and subsequent research has largely supported Long. Using a sample of married women drawn from the public use sample of the 1940 census, we show that added worker effect was alive and well in the late 1930s, but that its viability was muted by the operation of work relief. Wives whose husbands held "public emergency work relief" jobs with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) or related agencies were far less likely to participate in the labor force than wives whose husbands were employed in a private sector or non-relief government job, or whose husbands were unemployed, so much so that the added worker effect disappears in the aggregate if the impact of work relief is ignored.

Suggested Citation

Finegan, T. Aldrich and Margo, Robert A., Added and Discouraged Workers in the Late 1930s: A Re-Examination (April 1993). NBER Working Paper No. h0045, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=570808

T. Aldrich Finegan (Contact Author)

Vanderbilt University - College of Arts and Science - Department of Economics ( email )

Box 1819 Station B
Nashville, TN 37235
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(615) 322-3445 (Phone)

Robert A. Margo

Boston University - Department of Economics ( email )

270 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
United States
617-353-6819 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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