Farm Product Prices, Redistribution, and the Early US Great Depression

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050721000334
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 649-687
• 关键词: monetary-policy; transmission; consumption; RECOVERY; STATES

摘要

We argue that falling farm product prices, incomes, and spending may explain 10-30 percent of the 1930 U.S. output decline. Crop prices collapsed, reducing farmers' incomes. And across U.S. states and Ohio counties, auto sales fell most in crop-growing areas. The large spending response may be explained by farmers' indebtedness. Reasonable assumptions about the marginal propensity to spend of farmers relative to nonfarmers and the pass-through of farm prices to retail prices imply that the collapse of farm product prices in 1930 was a powerful propagation mechanism worsening the Depression.