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SUMMARY:Technological Unemployment in the British Industrial Revolution: T
 he Destruction of Hand Spinning - Benjamin Schneider (Oslo Metropolitan Un
 iversity)
DTSTART:20240214T131500Z
DTEND:20240214T144500Z
UID:TALK211420@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Aleksandra Dul
DESCRIPTION:This paper analyzes the elimination of hand spinning in Britai
 n during the Industrial Revolution and shows that it was one of the earlie
 st examples of large-scale technological unemployment. First\, it uses new
  empirical evidence and sources to estimate spinning employment before the
  innovations of the 1760s and 1770s. The estimates show that spinning empl
 oyed up to 8% of the population by c. 1770. Next\, the paper systematicall
 y analyzes the course\, extent\, and locations of technological unemployme
 nt produced by mechanization using more than 200 detailed qualitative sour
 ces. It first presents an estimate of job loss in hand spinning of cotton 
 by the late 1780s. It then uses evidence from more than 2200 observations 
 by contemporary social commentators\, county agricultural surveys\, and th
 e 1834 Poor Law Commission’s Rural and Town Queries to show the breadth 
 and duration of unemployment produced by mechanization. The destruction of
  hand spinning began to impact women and households in the 1780s\, and the
  effects persisted until at least the mid-1830s. Finally\, it shows that t
 his technological shock likely had an unequal effect on family incomes tha
 t resulted from variation in household composition and local labor market 
 conditions. The findings demonstrate that unemployment must be incorporate
 d into analysis of the impacts of industrialization on living standards an
 d highlight the potential long-run costs of job-replacing technology.\n\nT
 he seminar meets Wednesdays at 1:15 pm in the History Faculty and online o
 n Zoom\nhttps://zoom.us/j/96176307098?pwd=aHNlWEZ4SHd1a0MrVkpUQ05aZVFuUT09
 \n
LOCATION:Seminar Room 5 (Faculty of History) and on Zoom
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