Services in American Economic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 234-260
Author(s):  
Stephen N. Broadberry ◽  
Louis P. Cain ◽  
Thomas Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Labor Force ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Initial Section ◽  
Service Industries ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries

This chapter chronicles the transformation of the US economy to one where over 80 percent of the labor force is employed in the service sector. The initial section discusses the difficult task of defining services—the service industries as opposed to the service sector. The growth of services began earlier and increased faster in the United States than in other countries. The discussion of this growth is divided into sections on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The roles of education, the entry of women into the labor force, self-employment, and foreign trade are discussed. The final section concentrates on services’ role in the comparative productivity performance of the US, UK, and German economies.

Trade Policy in American Economic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 304-324
Author(s):  
Doug Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Trade Policy ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Competition ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The North ◽  
The Us

This chapter reviews the evolution of US foreign trade and trade policy from the colonial period to the present. International trade has been a small but important part of the US economy throughout the country’s history. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to levy import duties. The use of this power has been extremely controversial ever since, with the political debate revolving over whether tariffs on imports should be high or low. This debate has pitted export-oriented producers against domestic producers facing foreign competition. After the Smoot Hawley tariff of 1930, which coincided with the Great Depression, protectionism was given a bad name and the United States began to turn to reciprocal trade agreements with other countries. The led to the formation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947 and later agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993.

Immigration in American Economic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 100-118
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Ferrie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Initial Settlement ◽  
The Impact

Immigration has been a powerful force is the US economy right from the period of initial settlement in the early seventeenth century. It has been instrumental in building the nation’s infrastructure, transforming its manufacturing sector, and growing its labor force, as it transferred human capital from where it was initially generated (abroad) to where it was productively employed (the United States). This chapter surveys the impact on the economy, on the immigrants themselves, and on the Americans they joined in four eras: (1) settlement (1600s–1700s); (2) the first “Great Wave” (1800–1890); (3) the second “Great Wave” (1890–1920s); and (4) the post-1965 period.

scholarly journals On the Substitutability between Paid-employment and Self-employment: Evidence from the Period 1969–2014 in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 507
Author(s):  
Emilio Congregado ◽  
Antonio A. Golpe ◽  
Vicente Esteve
Keyword(s):  
Structural Breaks ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Paid Employment ◽  
Cointegration Tests ◽  
The Us ◽  
Employment Rates

This paper provides estimates of the elasticity of substitution between operational and managerial jobs in the US economy during the years 1969–2014, derived from an aggregate CES production function. Estimating the long-term relationship between (the log of) the aggregate employment/self-employment ratio and (the log of) the returns from paid-employment relative to self-employment and testing for structural breaks, we report different estimates of the elasticity of substitution in each of the two regimes identified. To this end we apply the methodology on instability tests proposed in Kejriwal and Perron (2008, 2010) as well as the cointegration tests developed in Arai and Kurozumi (2007) and Kejriwal (2008). Our results help to understand and interpret one of the most intriguing aspects in the evolution of self-employment rates in developed countries: the reversal of the trend in self-employment rates. Our estimates show that a higher level of development is associated with a greater number of entrepreneurs and smaller firms. Some rationales for understanding the growth of the elasticity between paid-employment and self-employment, including the recent trends in the digital economy, are also suggested.

Banking and Monetary Policy in American Economic History up to the Formation of the Federal Reserve

2018 ◽  
pp. 257-276
Author(s):  
Peter Rousseau
Keyword(s):  
Federal Reserve ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Banking System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Banking ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Money Creation ◽  
Private Banking ◽  
National Banking System

The US economy developed from an agricultural one mired in debt to an engine of growth between 1790 and 1913. The nation’s bourgeoning financial system was at the heart of this transformation. Growing from three banks in 1790 to more than 22,000 in 1913, the United States became the worldwide leader in private banking. This path, however, was not always smooth, and experiments with various forms of money creation and regulation subjected the nation to periodic panics. Despite a number of missteps, the approach led to financial development and monetary stability. We review this history and key research that defines the literature. Topics include early central banking, free banking, the National Banking System, and the founding of the Federal Reserve. We also offer a guide to areas that now generate considerable research interest, including finance and growth, the roles of banks and other intermediaries, crises, and the rise of deposits.

Military Subsidization of Human Capital and Gender Stratification in the US Economy

2021 ◽  
pp. 048661342098262
Author(s):  
Tyler Saxon
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
The United States ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Gender Stratification ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Capital Development ◽  
The Military

In the United States, the military is the primary channel through which many are able to obtain supports traditionally provided by the welfare state, such as access to higher education, job training, employment, health care, and so on. However, due to the nature of the military as a highly gendered institution, these social welfare functions are not as accessible for women as they are for men. This amounts to a highly gender-biased state spending pattern that subsidizes substantially more human capital development for men than for women, effectively reinforcing women’s subordinate status in the US economy. JEL classification: B54, B52, Z13

Rethinking U.S. National Security after Covid19

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda J. Bilmes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
Defense Spending ◽  
Federal Spending ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military

AbstractThe United States has traditionally defined national security in the context of military threats and addressed them through military spending. This article considers whether the United States will rethink this mindset following the disruption of the Covid19 pandemic, during which a non-military actor has inflicted widespread harm. The author argues that the US will not redefine national security explicitly due to the importance of the military in the US economy and the bipartisan trend toward growing the military budget since 2001. However, the pandemic has opened the floodgates with respect to federal spending. This shift will enable the next administration to allocate greater resources to non-military threats such as climate change and emerging diseases, even as it continues to increase defense spending to address traditionally defined military threats such as hypersonics and cyberterrorism.

The Service Sector in the United States, 1839 to 1899

1967 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Weiss
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Value Added ◽  
The United States ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Service Industries ◽  
Public Utilities ◽  
Personal Services ◽  
Government Education ◽  
Quantitative Development

The dissertation is a study of the service industries in the United States during the period 1839 through 1899. The primary purpose of the study is to provide three series relating to the quantitative development of the sector. These series—value-added, gainful workers, and capital stock—provide benchmark estimates at decade intervals centered on census years. Series are presented for the aggregate sector; the major components, final and intermediate services; and eight industries. These eight industries, defined as the service sector, are trade, transportation and public utilities, finance and insurance, professional services, personal services, government, education, and the independent hand trades.

What's new in the "new" US course towards the DPRK?

2021 ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Alexander Zhebin
Keyword(s):  
North Korea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Republic Of Korea ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nuclear Problem ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Taiwan Straits

The article analyzes the prospects for US-North Korean and inter-Korean relations, taking into account the completed policy review of the new US administration towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as the results of the President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in’s trip to Washington in May 2021 and his talks with US President Joe Biden. It is concluded that the “new" course proposed by the United States in relation to the DPRK will not lead to a solution to the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula and will interfere with the normalization of inter-Korean relations. During his visit to the US President Moon failed to obtain the US consent on ROK more “independent policy” toward North Korea. In spite of lavish investments into US economy and other concessions, Seoul was forced to promise to coordinate his approaches to the DPRK with US and Japan and support US position on Taiwan straits and South China Sea. The author argues that in the current conditions, the introduction of a regime of arms limitation and arms control in Korea should be a necessary stage on the way to complete denuclearization of the peninsula. The transition to a such method of the settlement of the nuclear problem could lead to the resumption of the negotiation process, mutual concessions, including reductions in the level of military-political confrontation, partial or large-scale lifting of economic sanctions in exchange for North Korea's restrictions of its nuclear weapon and missile systems.

scholarly journals Bad Biocitizens?: Latinos and the US "Obesity Epidemic"

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Greenhalgh ◽  
Megan Carney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Normal Weight ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Let's Move

For years now, the United States has faced an "obesity epidemic" that, according to the dominant narrative, is harming the nation by worsening the health burden, raising health costs, and undermining productivity. Much of the responsibility is laid at the foot of Blacks and Latinos, who have higher levels of obesity. Latinos have provoked particular concern because of their rising numbers. Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Campaign is now targeting Latinos. Like the national anti-obesity campaign, it locates the problem in ignorance and calls on the Latino community to "own" the issue and take personal responsibility by embracing healthier beliefs and behaviors. In this article, we argue that this dominant approach to obesity is misguided and damaging because it ignores the political-economic sources of Latino obesity and the political-moral dynamics of biocitizenship in which the issue is playing out. Drawing on two sets of ethnographic data on Latino immigrants and United States-born Latinos in southern California, we show that Latinos already "own" the obesity issue; far from being "ignorant," they are fully aware of the importance of a healthy diet, exercise, and normal weight. What prevents them from becoming properly thin, fit biocitizens are structural barriers associated with migration and assimilation into the low-wage sector of the US economy. Failure to attain the normative body has led them to internalize the identity of bad citizens, assume personal responsibility for their failure, naturalize the conditions for this failure, and feel that they deserve this fate. We argue that the blaming of minorities for the obesity epidemic constitutes a form of symbolic violence that furthers what Berlant calls the "slow death" of structurally vulnerable populations, even as it deepens their health risks by failing to address the fundamental sources of their higher weights.

scholarly journals FINANCIAL SECTOR INTERCONNECTEDNESS AND MONETARY POLICY TRANSMISSION

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 1074-1101
Author(s):  
Alessandro Barattieri ◽  
Maya Eden ◽  
Dalibor Stevanovic
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Vector Autoregression ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Vector Autoregression ◽  
Net Worth ◽  
Financial Variables ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Policy Shocks ◽  
Using Data

We present a stylized model that illustrates how interbank trading can reduce the sensitivity of lending to entrepreneurs' net worth, thus affecting the transmission mechanism of monetary policy through the credit channel. We build a model-consistent measure of interconnectedness and document that, in the United States, this measure has increased substantially during the period 1952–2016. Finally, interacting the measure of interconnectedness in a structural vector autoregression and a factor-augmented vector autoregression for the US economy, we find that the impulse responses of several real and financial variables to monetary policy shocks are dampened as interconnectedness increases. We confirm the same result using data from 10 Euro area countries for the period 1999–2016.

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