The Marginal Effect of New Deal Relief Work on County-Level Unemployment Statistics

1 September 1999

journal article
research article
Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Journal of Economic History

Vol. 59 (3) , 659-687
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022050700023524

Abstract

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.

Keywords

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