Development of the American economy.

The NBER's Program on the Development of the American Economy, directed by Claudia Goldin of Harvard University, met in Cambridge on March 6. The following papers were presented:

Paul Rhode, NBER and University of North Carolina, "Technology, Markets, and the Dynamics of Business Location: The Pacific Coast Aircraft Industry, 1909-39"

Carolyn M. Moehling, NBER and Ohio State University, "Family Structure, School Attendance, and Child Labor in the American South, 1910"

Joseph P. Ferrie, NBER and Northwestern University, "A New View of the Irish in America: Economic Performance and the Impact of Place of Origin, 1850-1920"

Michael D. Bordo and Hugh Rockoff, NBER and Rutgers University; and Michael Edelstein, Queens College, City University of New York; "Was Adherence to the Gold Standard a 'Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval' during the Interwar Period?"

Lance E. Davis, NBER and California Institute of Technology, and Robert Gallman, University of North Carolina, "Waves, Tides, and Sandcastles: The Impact of Foreign Capital Flows on Evolving Financial Markets in the New World, 1865-1914"

Two important and related developments in the twentieth-century U.S. economy are the growth of the aerospace sector and the expansion of manufacturing in the Pacific region. Rhode explores why aircraft production was concentrated on the West Coast before World War I!. Around 1939, the region accounted for one-half of national aircraft production workers (9.5 times its share of all manufacturing). Traditional explanations focus on the roles of climate - in reducing costs and allowing easier testing and delivery - and the military. Rhode instead highlights the vanguard role that the Pacific Coast firms played in the "airframe revolution" of the early 1930s, achieving technological leadership with planes specifically designed for Western markets. He re-interprets the role of climate as increasing the region's "air-mindedness" and fostering an exceptionally large home market that promoted growth of this export activity. He argues that high volatility of demand prevented the industry's previous leaders from gaining much momentum from their earlier starts.

The percentage of children living apart from one or both parents was substantially higher for blacks than for whites even in the early twentieth century. Moehling examines how these racial differences in family structure affected the racial differences in children's school attendance and labor force participation...