The Forgotten Half of Finance: Working-class Saving in Late Nineteenth-century New Jersey
ISBN: 978-1-78756-582-1, eISBN: 978-1-78756-581-4
Publication date: 22 August 2018
Abstract
Saving is essential to the health of economies and households, yet relatively little scholarship investigates saving behaviors among the urban working class in the nineteenth century. This chapter uses five surveys of industrial workers in 1880s New Jersey, an analysis of which reveals sophisticated saving behaviors consistent with life-cycle and precautionary theories. The mean saving rate was between 8% and 12% of annual income. Younger households saved less than older households. Householders with longer expected careers, on average, saved less. Life insurance and fraternal societies were the most popular saving vehicles, but workers also used savings banks and building and loan associations, alone and in combination.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
I thank Brian Beach, Michael Bordo, Ray Cohn, Chris Hanes, Gail Triner, Eugene White, seminar participants at Rutgers University, and an anonymous referee for comments on earlier versions. Special thanks go to Richard Sutch, who shared some of his considerable knowledge on historical household savings. Veronica Santarosa, Denica Karadzhova, Dimitar Marmarov, and Justus Staisiunas provided exceptional research assistance.
Citation
Bodenhorn, H. (2018), "The Forgotten Half of Finance: Working-class Saving in Late Nineteenth-century New Jersey", Research in Economic History (Research in Economic History, Vol. 34), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 35-65. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0363-326820180000034002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited