Economic essays

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Elasticity of supply as a determinant of distribution / Paul H. Douglas

Collection:: Economics Books

ELASTICITY OF SUPPLY AS A DETERMINANT OF DISTRIBUTION 101 higher and because the practice of demanding bonuses for over- time work becomes more and more firmly established as the unions increase in power. There are two qualifications which should be thoroughly appre- ciated. The first is that if the strike should prove difficult to win the union members might well lower their rate below the level B;. This would cause those from B; to Bs to lower their section of the curve and would lead to a lowering in absolute units of the curve between B; and Bs with or without change in the elasticity for these points. Secondly, such a supply curve would tend to be much more of a short-time than a long-time curve. The long- time supply would be greatly modified by the rate of population growth which any change in wages would induce. If the relative strength of organization persisted without a corresponding increase in that of the rival factors, this alteration in the supply curve would still persist although in a somewhat mitigated form. The effects on the supply curves of the factors of properly enforced legislation dealing with wages, hours, and interest rates are even more apparent. When through state action a minimum wage ruling is passed forbidding employers to hire labor for less than a given sum, say 40 cents an hour, the supply curve of labor is immediately given a point of origin which is above and to the left of the former supply curve. Even though those who would originally have offered themselves for only 40 cents an hour do not increase their sticking-points, then the new supply curve will be higher than the old for a portion at least of the supply. The quantity of labor which would previously have been forthcoming at less than 40 cents an hour will not now be supplied unless this amount is paid. If, because of the higher curve in the lower reaches of the labor supply, those in the upper reaches were also to ask for more, the supply curve here would shift to the left also. Such a situation can be shown by Figure 16 when A A, represents the original supply curve and BB, B, the curve resulting from minimum wage fixation by the state. The effect of shortening the hours of work, were it not accom- panied by a corresponding increase in the intensity of labor, would, of course, be tantamount to a decrease in the supply of labor. For purposes of analysis we can then represent an improvement

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