Nursing Under the Old Poor Law in Midland and Eastern England 1780-1834.

This article uses data drawn from the overseers' accounts and supporting documentation in thirty-six parishes spread over four English counties, to answer three basic questions. First, what was the character, extent, structure, range of activities, and remuneration of the nursing labor force under the Old Poor Law between the late eighteenth century and the implementation of the New Poor Law in the 1830s? Second, were there regional and intra-regional differences in the scale and nature of spending on nursing care for the sick poor? Third, how might one explain such differences? The article suggests that nursing became an increasingly important category of spending for the poor law from the later eighteenth century, but that there were significant variations within and (particularly) between English counties in parochial attitudes toward the provision of nursing for the sick poor. These variations can be explained by applying a matrix of explanatory variables ranging from the minor (differences in how parishes defined "nursing") through to the major (long-standing cultural attitudes toward the responsibility of parishioners to their sick compatriots and the ingrained expectations of the sick poor). The article also throws new light on the hidden aspects of female labor force participation, pointing to the development of professional nursing networks long before the later nineteenth century.

The eighteenth-century vagrant contractor.

This article traces the salient developments in poor law and vagrancy law that led to the counties of England and Wales being obliged to shoulder the financial burden of the mobile poor throughout the eighteenth century. It shows that despite the lack of statutory authority many, probably most, counties contracted with a new type of official to implement the conveyance of vagrants under vagrancy legislation in an attempt to counter suspected negligence and profiteering by constables. It shows, with particular reference to Middlesex and the West Riding, that the terms and conditions of these contracts varied considerably, and describes arrangements for the vagrants. The article also suggests reasons why the mobile poor formed an increasing segment of the population well into the nineteenth century and finds that by then the contractors were suspected of the same faults as the constables before them, leading to the abandonment of the contractor system.

Mandating insurance offers for low-wage workers: an evaluation of labor market effects.

Employing a simultaneous model of part-time status, health insurance offers, and wages, we examine the impacts on employment and health insurance coverage of nondiscrimination rules in the tax code governing employer-sponsored health insurance. Using 1988 and 1993 Employee Benefits Supplements to the Current Population Surveys and variations in health insurance premiums and minimum wages, we find that health insurance coverage among low-wage primary earners is increased by at most 31 percent by the policy, at a cost of an estimated 0.8-5.4-percentage-point decrease in full-time employment for low-wage workers.