2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

How the Board of Trade's organizational characteristics and policy-making influenced the formation of the Unemployment Insurance in Britain.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20520633
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	History of Europe and America
Research Institution	Gunma University
Principal Investigator	MATSUNAGA Tomoari Gunma University, 国際社会科学研究科, 教授 (50334082)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	社会政策 / 失業保険 / イギリス / 行政
Research Abstract	This project dealt with the origins of unemployment insurance established by Part Two of the National Insurance Act of 1911, which had been the first national compulsory insurance of its kind in world history. I made clear that the civil servants at the Board of Trade who introduced the unemployment insurance were in charge of the promotion of export trade at the same time, and that they tried to avoid introducing a minimum wages legislation. As a result of this project, I proposed the new thesis that unemployment insurance had been a strategy devised by the civil servants at the Board of Trade to weaken workers' demands for higher wages.