Hilde Behrend (13 August 1917 – 11 January 2000) was an economist known for her research into industrial relations and the motivational differences between workers.

Background and education

Hilde Behrend was born on 13 August 1917 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany. Her father, Felix Wilhelm Behrend, was a physics and mathematics teacher and well-known educationalist, who was demoted and dismissed by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

due to his Jewish heritage. Her brother,

Felix Behrend Felix Adalbert Behrend (23 April 1911 – 27 May 1962) was a German mathematician of Jewish descent who escaped Nazi Germany and settled in Australia. His research interests included combinatorics, number theory, and topology. Behrend's theor ...

, became a mathematician. In 1936, aged 19 years old, Behrend moved to London. She first worked as a secretary, but in 1941 she started at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

to study

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

. Here, she won the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

's Metcalfe scholarship for women and graduated with honours in economics in 1944. After finishing her degree, she taught German and French at a grammar school, before starting work as a research assistant for Professor Sargant Florence at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

Economic contributions

Behrend completed her PhD on 'Absence Under Full Employment' at Birmingham, before moving to the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

in 1954, to take up a research lectureship at the new social sciences research centre led by Professor

John Macmurray John MacMurray (16 February 1891 – 21 June 1976) was a Scottish philosopher. His thought both moved beyond and was critical of the modern tradition, whether rationalist or empiricist. His thought may be classified as personalist, as his wri ...

. She remained at Edinburgh for the whole of her academic career. Behrend's research focused primarily on labour and

industrial relations Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade unions, employer organizations, ...

, in particular the interrelationships between

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

in understanding how people operate at work. She coined the phrase 'effort bargaining', in relation to her research into the ways in which workers relate their effort to the pay they receive, observing that workers will work at less than their highest capacity in order to match their level of effort to what they perceive to be a fair amount of work for their pay. She also came up with the 'blue Monday index' which measures the difference between Monday’s and Friday’s absence rates, and how these voluntary absence varied by types of worker.

Bibliography

* ''Problems of labour and inflation,'' Croom Helm, 1984''.'' * Behrend, H. (1953). Absence and labour turnover in a changing economic climate. ''Occupational Psychology'', 27(2), 69-79. * Behrend, H. (1957). The effort bargain. ''ILR Review'', 10(4), 503-515. * Behrend, H. (1959). Voluntary absence from work. ''Int'l Lab. Rev''., 79, 109 * Behrend, H. (1959). Financial incentives as the expression of a system of beliefs. ''The British Journal of Sociology'', 10(2), 137-147. * Behrend, H. (1963). The field of industrial relations. ''British journal of industrial relations'', 1(2), 383-394. * Behrend, H., & Pocock, S. (1976). Absence and the individual: a six-year study in one organisation. ''Int'l Lab. Rev''., 114, 311. * ''How to Monitor Absence from Work,'' Inst. of Personnel Mgmt., 1978

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Behrend, Hilde British economists British women economists Alumni of the London School of Economics Academics of the University of Edinburgh People from Berlin Industrial relations 1917 births 2000 deaths Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom