The Decline of Apprenticeship in North America: Evidence from Monetreal
利用蒙特利尔50年间的学徒合同数据,发现学徒制衰落始于1815年左右,最初因合同执行困难,后受大型企业兴起影响。
Apprenticeship was, at one time, the foremost means of acquiring skill in North America and Europe. Today it is rare in North America for reasons that are not well understood. I draw on the population of apprentice contracts signed in Montreal over a 50-year period to pinpoint the start of the decline and explore its origins. I find that the decline began around 1815. During its first phase masters responded to greater difficulties in contract enforcement. A direct effect of the rise of larger establishments on the market for apprentices appears later, in the late 1820s and 1830s.