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

In: The journal of economic history, Band 59, Heft 3, S. 659-687

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.