The marginal effect of new deal relief work on county-level unemployment statistics

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Montana State University System; Montana State University Bozeman
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050700023524
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 659-687
• 关键词: POLITICAL-ECONOMY; DEPRESSION; FEDERALISM

摘要

This article uses 1937 and 1940 Census data to estimate the effect that hiring an additional relief worker in a county had on unemployment statistics for that county. The fundamental estimation problem arises because one cannot easily control for economic conditions that influenced both the number of individuals holding relief jobs and the number counted as jobless. To solve the problem, electoral data are used as instrumental variables. The econometric results suggest that additional relief hiring in a county would not have produced a substantial reduction in the number of individuals counted by the Census as jobless.