AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF OLD AGE IN THE UNITED STATES: OCCUPATIONAL OBSOLESCENCE AND DOWNWARD MOBILITY, 1860-192

The dissertation establishes a historical-institutional understanding of the economics of old age in the United States. The origins of age discrimination are sought in the years 1860-1920, covering the nation's emergence from petty capitalism to leadership of the industrialized world. This period also saw family agriculture and small firms (endeavors most congenial to older workers) supplanted in importance by manufacturing and transportation activities (which favored younger workers). Additionally, population movement into urban areas was fragmenting families both physically and occupationally, so that older members became isolated from the economic and social ties that had been their mainstay in rural areas.;The emphasis throughout is on the waning importance of older people as active participants in economic life, and their concomitantly growing significance as family dependents and state wards. The key to the diminished prospects for older Americans' continuing participation in economic life lay in the workplace changes brought about by rapid technological advances. When technology had changed only slowly, the elderly's experience and knowledge remained valid for the rising generations, and thus older Americans' economic role could be sustained. However, the extreme relative scarcity of labor in early America had predisposed entrepreneurs to pursue capital-intensive production methods which conserved on labor; while rapid rates of inovation generated a tendency toward large business units to capture the scale economies made possible by the latest technologies.;Larger firms, it is shown, were more likely to discriminate against older workers; and by early in the twentieth century, massive immigration of primarily young workers reinforced an ageist bias in employment. The high cost and rapid obsolescence of capital heightened the tendency of American plants toward long workdays and rapid work pace. These conditions placed many jobs beyond the capacities of middle-aged and older workers. Furthermore, large firms were innovators in mangement and administrative practices which sought to remove all thinking and decision-making responsbilities from the shop floor. Such trends greatly reduced the value of the experience and judgment which older workers could offer, further limiting their employability.