Full Citation
Title: The household as a source of labor for entrepreneurs: Evidence from New York City during industrialization
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2020
ISBN:
ISSN: 1932-4391
DOI: 10.1002/sej.1309
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: Research Summary:This article conceptualizes households as a cru-cial pool of labor for small entrepreneurs. The household varied his-torically in its scope (depending on whether bonded workers wereincluded) and work intensity (depending on the authority or coer-cion exercised by household heads). Drawing on data that enumer-ate over 100,000 households in New York City, I examine how theshift from institutions of unfree labor to wage labor affected busi-ness proprietorship between 1790 and 1850. Given the dispropor-tionate importance of unfree household labor to smallentrepreneurs, the contraction of this labor source may offer onegeneral explanation for their decline.Managerial Summary:How does household scope and compositionaffect the ability of an individual to run their own business? Histori-cal archives can provide useful insights into this question. Theytrack long-term declines in family size and the emancipation ofnon-family members—such as apprentices, indentured servants,and slaves—from the authority of household heads. Examining records from early New York City, this study shows that business ownership was strongly linked with the ownership of slaves and the presence of dependent males after the American Revolution.Large households and unfree laborers were especially important for entrepreneurship among individuals with limited wealth. For mod-ern economies, the results suggest that policymakers considerpotential tensions between small business ownership and thedevelopment of free and equitable labor markets.
Url: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sej.1309
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Ruef, Martin
Periodical (Full): Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
Issue: 1
Volume: 14
Pages: 20-42
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Housing and Segregation
Countries: United States