A Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers' Compensation

A Prelude to the Welfare State: The Origins of Workers' Compensation, edited by Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor, is now available from the University of Chicago Press for $37.50 (clothbound).

Fishback and Kantor challenge widespread historical perceptions, arguing that, rather than being an early progressive victory, workers' compensation succeeded because all relevant parties -- labor and management, insurance companies, lawyers, and legislators -- benefited from the legislation. Their work, one in a series of NBER volumes on Long-Term Factors in Economic Development, is a major reappraisal of the causes and consequences of a movement that changed the nature of social insurance and the American workplace. It should interest labor leaders, policymakers, and students of economic history.

Both Fishback and Kantor are NBER Research Associates in the Program on the Development of the American Economy. Fishback is also professor of economics at the University of Arizona. Kantor is a professor of economics and public administration and policy at the same institution.