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

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Title:: The static state and the technology of economic reform / Thomas Nixon Carver

Collection:: Economics Books

40 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK congested occupations artificially, but to reduce the amount of drunkenness. Dependability has become an important factor in the value of a man, especially in the higher occupations, and drunkenness definitely destroys dependability, and tends to make any one who is addicted to drunkenness, however capable in other respects, unfit for one of the higher occupations. A general state of undependability on the part of large numbers of potentially high grade workers results either in their demotion or in holding them down to the low grade or poorly paid occupations. The remedy for this situation, again, is not to decree high wages for those that are poorly paid, but to remove one or more of the reasons for those low wages. Low wages are universally the result of a congested occupation. The general promotion of sobriety would be another way of relieving that congestion. If that could be done, then without further effort, a higher equilibrium wage would automatically assert itself. The equilibrium wage is not wholly a matter of the supply of labor; it is partly a matter of demand. With a given supply of labor an equilibrium wage is a low wage if there is so little demand as to create a situation where as many laborers will offer themselves at the low wage as will be hired, at that wage, by the limited number of employers. It may be found, therefore, that one factor in a low equilibrium wage is a lack of demand for laborers. In that case we need to analyze the factors that enter into the demand for labor. If it is found that one impor- tant factor is a lack of managerial skill, or the fact that few men 00 into business who have the ability to organize the factors of production effectively, that is, in such ways as to enable the oroducts to be sold at prices which will induce consumers to buy, then the obvious thing is to see what can be done toward increas- ing the number and raising the quality of men who will go into industry as managers. A first-class school of business adminis- tration, if it can perceptibly increase the number and improve the quality of industrial managers, may be more effective in raising wages than 10,000 agitators demanding an immediate and direct rise in wages. To try to force a small number of managers of low capacity to pay higher wages may simply bankrupt a number of them, causing them to close down and thus throw considerable num- bers of laborers out of employment, again creating an industrial

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