Family Tree: Family’s Labor History For The Past 100 Years

ECON 540 uses economic analysis to explore how gender differences can lead to differences in economic outcomes, in both households and the labor market. Important questions that we will be covering this term include “How do individuals allocate time between the household and the labor market?” and “What are possible explanations for gender differences in education, health, labor force participation, occupational choice, and earnings?”

To personalize the material we are covering this semester, students are responsible for completing a family history paper. The goal of the project is to learn about the economic history of your own family, and to analyze how gender has affected the labor market experiences and family choices of your family members.

Each student will conduct research on his or her family’s labor history for the past 100 years or more (e.g., parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles).

• Begin by constructing a “Work Family Tree” for your family going back to your great- grandparents. Include parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunts and uncles in each generation. Who worked, and what types of work did they perform? Was the work influenced by the level of education they had? Did they work before and/or after marriage? Was your family in the United States for those four generations, or were they in another country? If so, what was their education and work experience there?

This Work Family Tree must be drawn up like a family tree with name, occupation and era on the tree. Accompanying narrative should cover the questions listed above in 2-3 pages. In addition, think and list the family members you would like to do your research on, with the occupation, era, and location (city, state, country) that they worked in.

• Choose four individuals to focus on. Compare a man and a woman in each of two different generations. For these individuals, create a more detailed economic history that addresses some or all of the following questions:

o What did the general labor market look like in the area at the time? How did macroeconomic conditions (e.g. inflation, unemployment) impact this labor market?

o How would you characterize the individual’s human capital investment? What was their educational attainment? Did they obtain any firm-specific training? Do you notice any gender differences? Was this influenced by economics and environment?

o What types of issues were (might have been) at play in the individual’s workplace? What were the wage structure, wage determination, and non-monetary benefits of the firm like? How were relations between labor and management? Were there issues of workplace safety?

o Was labor market discrimination a factor in this individual’s labor market experience? o Provide general information about the industry in which the individual was employed, possibly including the number of people employed in that industry at the time, the impact

Prof. A. Chaudhuri Econ 540

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Prof. A. Chaudhuri Econ 540

of immigration on the industry, and/or employment statistics for the particular town where the relative worked.

o Was the relative previously employed in another industry? Did he or she leave the industry you are studying? If so, why? Did the individual ever migrate in response to labor market conditions? In response to economic conditions, health conditions, etc?

o How do the labor market experiences of the members you have selected compare with the labor market experiences of a typical individual of the same gender, race, ethnicity, and era?

How to collect all this information?

• Much of the early labor market experience information will be collected from interviews with family members or family records (from living family members, library, ethnic histories, genealogies and the like).

• This information should be supplemented with data gathered from economic history books, labor market and demographic statistics from government records, supplementary readings in the syllabus, or macroeconomic indicator statistics. Students are expected to apply relevant theory and models studied in class in their papers.

• It is possible that some students will have difficulty in gathering a very complete labor market history for their family. In such instances, you can proceed in two ways:

o Focus on those family members for whom you can find slightly better information. In addition, you should comment on what you think it might mean that you can’t find information on some members. Are there gender-related reasons why this might be the case?

o Contextualize the figures by learning more about the particular regional/local context in which the individual worked.

o Collect secondary data and analyze this data to provide a context to choices made by your family member.



P.S I will be attaching my family tree my and I am i picking my my mother (Jamia Dunn) who is a single mother of four children , my grandmother (monica Jeffery) and grandfather ( willard white )



6 sources please.