Institutional Change, Compensating Differentials, and Accident Risk in American Railroading, 1892—1945

Seung Wook Kim; Price V. Fishback

doi:10.1017/S0022050700051329

Institutional Change, Compensating Differentials, and Accident Risk in American Railroading, 1892—1945

Seung Wook Kim
, Price V. Fishback

Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

The labor markets in the railroad industry went through extensive institutional changes between 1890 and 1945. Federal laws increased railroad employers’ liability for workplace accidents in several stages. Unions expanded to cover more occupations. The federal government set railroad wages during World War I and then mediated and arbitrated a large number of collective bargaining disputes between 1920 and 1945. We examine how these changes in institutions affected compensating differentials for fatal and nonfatal accident risk. The increasing role of unionization and government intervention coincided with a decline in the size of compensating differentials.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	796-823
Number of pages	28
Journal	The Journal of Economic History
Volume	53
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700051329
State	Published - Dec 1993

ASJC Scopus subject areas

History
Economics and Econometrics
Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

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10.1017/S0022050700051329

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title = "Institutional Change, Compensating Differentials, and Accident Risk in American Railroading, 1892—1945",

abstract = "The labor markets in the railroad industry went through extensive institutional changes between 1890 and 1945. Federal laws increased railroad employers{\textquoteright} liability for workplace accidents in several stages. Unions expanded to cover more occupations. The federal government set railroad wages during World War I and then mediated and arbitrated a large number of collective bargaining disputes between 1920 and 1945. We examine how these changes in institutions affected compensating differentials for fatal and nonfatal accident risk. The increasing role of unionization and government intervention coincided with a decline in the size of compensating differentials.",

author = "Kim, \{Seung Wook\} and Fishback, \{Price V.\}",

note = "Funding Information: The article is based on material first discussed in Kim's dissertation written at the University of Georgia. The authors thank the following scholars for their comments on earlier drafts of the work: Choong Yong Ahn, Kookshin Ahn, Scott Atkinson, Christopher Cornwell, Albert Danielson, Kyttack Hong, Shawn Kantor, Donald C. Keenan, Daemo Kim, Yongbong Kim, Ken Kroner. Naomi Lamoreaux, Gary Libecap, Albert Niemi, Leslie Stratton, Yen Kyun Wang, Ronald Warren, Tom Weiss, and several anonymous referees. We would also like to thank Vanessa Cowan, Janet DeForest, Karen Page, Sally Reeves, Josh Gotkin, and Sule Balkan for help with data collection and entry. Fishback's work on this article benefitted from the financial support of the Earhart Foundation.",

year = "1993",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1017/S0022050700051329",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "53",

pages = "796--823",

journal = "The Journal of Economic History",

issn = "0022-0507",

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AU - Fishback, Price V.

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Institutional Change, Compensating Differentials, and Accident Risk in American Railroading, 1892—1945

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