Slack and Slacker: Job Seekers, Job Vacancies, and Matching Functions in the US Labor Market during the Roaring Twenties and the Great Contraction, 1924-1932

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050716000759
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 840-873
• 关键词: sampling weights; Beveridge curve; business-cycle; UNITED-STATES; flow approach; unemployment; EMPLOYMENT; policies

摘要

I use unique city-month level disaggregated data, from public employment offices, to estimate the matching functions for the 1920s and the early 1930s. The results show that the public labor exchange was slack, a relative deficiency of job vacancies, in the 1920s and it became slacker during the Great Depression. However, the findings show that there was no deterioration of the matching efficiency in the early 1930s. The outcome of a deficiency of labor demand during the 1930s implies that there was a need for effective government policies to implement the new job-creation programs.