The impact of the civil war on capital intensity and labor productivity in southern manufacturing
By: William Hutchinson, Robert A. Margo.
Contributors: Margo, Robert A. 1954-; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10886; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10886.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Manufacturing industries -- Southern States.; Capital intensity -- Southern States.; Labor productivity -- Southern States.; Southern States -- Economic conditions -- 19th century.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Economic aspects.
Description: "The Civil War resulted in a substantial divergence in the regional structure of factor prices.  In particular, wages fell in the South relative to the non-South, but interest rates and other measures of the costs of capital increased.  Using archival data for manufacturing establishments, we show that capital-output and capital-labor ratios in southern manufacturing declined relative to non-southern manufacturing after the War, precisely in the direction implied by the regional shifts in factor prices.  Labor productivity in Southern manufacturing also declined, but this decline is explained by the reduction in capital intensity"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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