  I analyze factory worker households in the early 1920s in Osaka to examine
idiosyncratic income shocks and consumption. Using the household-level monthly
panel dataset, I find that while households could not fully cope with
idiosyncratic income shocks at that time, they mitigated fluctuations in
indispensable consumption during economic hardship. In terms of risk-coping
mechanisms, I find suggestive evidence that savings institutions helped
mitigate vulnerabilities and that both using borrowing institutions and
adjusting labor supply served as risk-coping strategies among households with
less savings.
