What - or Who - Started the Great Depression?
Abstract
Herbert Hoover. I develop a theory of labor market failure for the Depression based on Hoover's industrial labor program that provided industry with protection from unions in return for keeping nominal wages fixed. I find that the theory accounts for much of the depth of the Depression and for the asymmetry of the depression across sectors. The theory also can reconcile why deflation/low nominal spending apparently had such large real effects during the 1930s, but not during other periods of significant deflation.Download Info
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 15258.Length:
Date of creation: Aug 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15258
Note: EFG
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Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Ohanian, Lee E., 2009. "What - or who - started the great depression?," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(6), pages 2310-2335, November.
- E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
- N1 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2009-08-30 (All new papers)
- NEP-CBA-2009-08-30 (Central Banking)
- NEP-HIS-2009-08-30 (Business, Economic & Financial History)
- NEP-MAC-2009-08-30 (Macroeconomics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Jacoby, Sanford M. & Sharma, Sunil, 1992.
"Employment Duration and Industrial Labor Mobility in the United States, 1880–1980,"
The Journal of Economic History,
Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(01), pages 161-179, March.
- Sanford M. Jacoby & Sunil Sharma, 1991. "Employment Duration and Industrial Labor Mobility in the United States, 1880-1980," UCLA Economics Working Papers 618, UCLA Department of Economics.
Citations
Blog mentions
As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- 笨蛋，問題在政治
by Jia-Yuh in 普通人的自由主義 on 2011-05-26 15:53:00 - Did Keynes get it wrong?
by paragwaknis in Musings of the Sorts on 2010-04-01 20:47:28
Cited by:
- Alfonso ARPAIA & Nicola CURCI, .
"EU labour market behaviour during the Great Recession,"
Working Papers
wp2010-6, Department of the Treasury, Ministry of the Economy and of Finance.
- Arpaia, Alfonso & Curci, Nicola, 2010. "EU labour market behaviour during the Great Recession," MPRA Paper 22393, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Alfonso Arpaia & Nicola Curci, 2010. "EU labour market behaviour during the Great Recession," European Economy - Economic Papers 405, Directorate General Economic and Monetary Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
- Crafts, Nicholas; Fearon, Peter, 2010.
"Lessons from the 1930s' Great Depression,"
CAGE Online Working Paper Series
23, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
- Nicholas Crafts & Peter Fearon, 2010. "Lessons from the 1930s Great Depression," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 285-317, Autumn.
- Crafts, Nicholas & Fearon, Peter, 2010. "Lessons from the 1930s' Great Depression," CEPR Discussion Papers 8057, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Guillermo A. Calvo & Fabrizio Coricelli & Pablo Ottonello, 2012.
"The Labor Market Consequences of Financial Crises With or Without Inflation: Jobless and Wageless Recoveries,"
NBER Working Papers
18480, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Calvo, Guillermo & Coricelli, Fabrizio & Ottonello, Pablo, 2012. "The Labor Market Consequences of Financial Crises With or Without Inflation: Jobless and Wageless Recoveries," CEPR Discussion Papers 9218, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Lee E. Ohanian, 2010. "The Economic Crisis from a Neoclassical Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(4), pages 45-66, Fall.
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