In 19th century France, the long working hours produced worse conditions for the working classes. In our perspective, and that is new, the labour market produced massive externalities which it could not control. In our view, and it is the purpose of this paper, the analysis of the process of...

This paper emphasises an underestimated hypothesis -health considerations- explaining the reduction of working time in the 19th century in France. The first part is devoted to the rising wage and the declining health. In the second part, we show that the deterioration of living conditions was a...