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Self-published

Recovery before Jobs: Unemployment, Vacancies, and the State in Interwar Czechoslovakia, 1926–38 (ICPSR 251036)

Released/updated on: 2026-08-14
Time period: 1926-01-01--1938-09-30
Interwar recoveries are usually dated from output and registered unemployment. Czechoslovakia shows why that chronology can be premature. Monthly activity turned in 1933, but vacancies recorded by public labour exchanges continued to fall for 12–29 months and stood 46 per cent below an activity-implied benchmark in 1934–35. A census-anchored ensemble places February 1933 unemployment at 1.29 million, 368,000 above the register; changing coverage accounts for 59 per cent of the registered decline by November 1934. After compulsory vacancy notification was strengthened in 1936, notified openings rose by 69 per cent and placements by 72 per cent. The evidence revises the scale and timing of Czechoslovak recovery and establishes a wider point: where labour statistics are produced through registration and notification, recovery can begin in production, appear in administrative counts, and only later reach the opportunities confronting jobseekers.
Self-published

Interwar Central Banks’ Quest for Profitability: The Case of the Central Bank Of Chile, 1925-1933 (ICPSR 251617)

Released/updated on: 2026-08-13
Time period: 1926-01-01--1931-01-01
This article explores how profit seeking behavior shaped central banks adherence to the gold exchange standard in the interwar period. Existing literature has emphasized ideology and credibility, largely overlooking financial incentives in the regime. Drawing on Banco Central de Chile Board of Directors minutes, we show the institution managed foreign reserves to maximize returns through correspondent banks in London and New York. This reduced liquidity and increased currency and counterparty risk, vulnerabilities evident during the 1931 sterling crisis when Chile incurred losses and abandoned the gold standard. The Chilean case reflects broader practices among European and Latin American central banks.
Self-published

Resilient Markets in the Slump: Nordic Trade Performance against Europe, 1927–1938 (ICPSR 251456)

Released/updated on: 2026-07-29
Time period: 1927-01-01--1938-12-31
Why did the Nordic economies appear unusually resilient during the Great Depression? Existing accounts emphasise monetary autonomy, devaluation and export recovery. This article shifts the comparison from national trade totals to each country’s position in the European bilateral network. League of Nations statistics for twenty-one economies, 1927–1938, are reconstructed from both national reports of directional flows, converted into pounds sterling and combined symmetrically. A two-sided econometric shift-share decomposition, adapted from modern export-performance analysis, separates destination-adjusted exporter performance from source-adjusted importer absorption under lagged portfolio weights. The conventional exporter result weakens sharply. For 1930–1933, the Nordic premium is 0.127 log points in exporters’ local currencies, but 0.090 points are an exact currency-valuation wedge. In the dual-reported sterling account, exporter performance is positive but not exceptional among European groups of four. The distinctive regional result lies on the demand side. During 1930–1936, Nordic importer absorption exceeded the European benchmark by 0.056 log points annually; the bilateral-pair bootstrap interval is 0.026–0.096 and the exact two-sided probability is 0.020. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark occupy four of Europe’s five highest importer positions. The Nordics therefore stand out less as uniquely successful sellers than as unusually resilient markets for European exporters.
Self-published

Devaluation, Exports, and Recovery from the Great Depression (ICPSR 301321)

Released/updated on: 2026-04-21
Geographic coverage: United Kingdom
Time period: 1930-01-01--1931-12-31

Data and code for "Devaluation, Exports, and Recovery from the Great Depression," JEH 2026.

This paper evaluates how a major policy shift—the suspension of the gold standard in September 1931—affected employment outcomes in interwar Britain. We use a new high-frequency industry-level dataset and difference-in-differences techniques to isolate the impact of devaluation on exporters. At the micro level, the break from gold reduced the unemployment rate by 2.7 percentage points for export-intensive industries relative to non-export industries. At the aggregate level, this effect stimulated the labor market, the fiscal outlook, and economic growth. Devaluation was therefore an important initial spark of recovery from the depths of the Great Depression.

Self-published

Commercial Hysteresis: Persistence and Reorganization in Europe’s Bilateral Trade Geography during the Great Depression (ICPSR 247132)

Released/updated on: 2026-03-25
Geographic coverage: Other: Europe
Time period: 1927-01-01--1938-12-31
This paper examines whether the Great Depression fundamentally remapped Europe’s bilateral trade geography or whether pre-crisis partner structures remained durable through the 1930s. Using a newly constructed bilateral trade panel for twenty-one European countries, 1927–1938, it studies persistence and reallocation in bilateral trade relations. The results show strong continuity: by 1937, partner rankings still resembled those of 1928, and most countries retained at least two pre-crisis core partners. Yet post-1931 shocks weakened inherited structures, especially on the import side. Germany became a distinctive focal partner within this selective reorganization. Interwar Europe thus exhibited commercial hysteresis rather than wholesale remapping.
Self-published

Replication Package for Crises and Educational Attainment (ICPSR 237108)

Released/updated on: 2025-08-06
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1924-01-01--1942-12-31
This is the replication package for Crises and Educational Attainment by Pawel Janas (JEH, 2026). It include the replication data and replication code for the figures and tables in the manuscript.Between 1910 and 1940, U.S. high school graduation rates rose five-fold, driving twentieth century economic growth. I explore how the Great Depression’s surge in youth unemployment influenced this trend, emphasizing gender and socioeconomic disparities. Using linked census data and newly digitized city-level unemployment rates, I find youth unemployment significantly increased high school and post-secondary completion among higher-income boys, while effects on girls and lower-income youths were negligible. These results underscore the role of household resources in leveraging educational opportunities, as financial constraints limited disadvantaged groups from benefiting from reduced opportunity costs.
Self-published

Firm Networks in the Great Depression (ICPSR 227501)

Released/updated on: 2025-05-02
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1935-01-01
We study how firms allocate resources across their constituent establishments in response to local economic shocks in the context of the Great Depression. Using establishment-level data from the Census of Manufactures, we find that establishmentsin multi-plant firms are affected by local shocks in the regions in which the other establishments comprising the firm are located. In particular, establishment employment is positively affected by positive shocks to the local supply of credit to other establishments that make up the firm. Our results show the important role of firms in the geographic propagation of local economic shocks
Self-published

Bank Lending and Deposit Crunches during the Great Depression (ICPSR 224122)

Released/updated on: 2025-03-24
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1933-12-31
Replication Files for Bank Lending and Deposit Crunches during the Great Depression
Bank distress was a defining feature of the Great Depression in the United States.
Most banks, however, weathered the storm and remained in operation throughout the contraction. We show that surviving banks cut lending when depositors withdrew
funds en masse during panics. This panic-induced decline in lending explains about
one-third of the reduction in aggregate commercial bank lending between 1929 and
1932, more than twice as much as attributed to the failure of banks.
Self-published

Hedges of the Second Republic: Firms, Equity Investors and Political Uncertainty in a Nascent Democracy, 1930-36 (ICPSR 211822)

Released/updated on: 2024-11-24
Geographic coverage: Spain
Time period: 1930-01-01--1936-12-31
Dataset for Battilossi, Stefano and Houpt, Stefan O., “Hedges of the Second Republic: Firms, Equity Investors and Political Uncertainty in a Nascent Democracy, 1930-36” (January 04, 2024), pre-print at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4907670; forthcoming in Revista de Historia Económica-Journal of Iberian and Latin-American Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0212610924000168 
Self-published

U.S. Municipal Bonds, 1929 (ICPSR 184123)

Released/updated on: 2024-07-01
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1929-12-31
This study contains information on U.S. municipal bonds outstanding as of 1929 collected from the Moody’s Manual of Governments publication. The data file contains bond-level data on 29,453 municipal bonds from all large cities in the U.S. (100 thousand in population as of 1930) and smaller cities in California, Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Massachusetts. 
Self-published

Data and Code: Industrial, Regional, and Gender Divides in British Unemployment Between the Wars (ICPSR 199962)

Released/updated on: 2024-04-06
Geographic coverage: England, United Kingdom
Time period: 1923-01-01--1936-12-31
Note: If you use the data in these replication files for any reason, you are required to cite the publication in the European Review of Economic History
Despite a substantial body of literature on the severe unemployment crisis in interwar Britain, our understanding of its distributional impacts remains limited. Using newly-digitized government data, this paper analyzes the gender, industrial, and regional composition of unemployment 1923–1936. I find that the unemployment rate was higher for men owing in part to a strongly gender-segmented labor market, that unemployment was widespread across industries and not just a product of the declining staple industries, that unemployment exhibited strong seasonality, and that regional unemployment differentials cannot be primarily attributed to regions’ varying industrial compositions. These results offer a more granular view of this mass unemployment episode.
Curated
Simple Crosstabs

United States Census of Manufactures, 1929-1935 (ICPSR 37114)

Released/updated on: 2023-03-09
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1935-12-31

These data are sourced from transcriptions of the original establishment-level schedules from the United States Census of Manufactures taken in 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935. This dataset combines industries currently archived by ICPSR with new transcriptions. In total, twenty-five industries are included representing some 20 percent of manufacturing output. In addition to information transcribed verbatim from Census schedules, the dataset includes establishment identifiers constructed to link establishments across the censuses.

The twenty-five industries included are Agricultural Implements, Aviation, Beverages, Blast Furnaces, Bone Black, Cement, Cigars and cigarettes, Concrete, Glass, manufactured Ice, Ice cream, Linoleum, Macaroni, Malt, Matches, Motor Vehicles, Petroleum Refining, Planing-mill products, Radio, Rubber tires, Soap, Steel works, Cane Sugar, Refining Sugar.

Self-published

Foreclosures and mortgage lending during the Great Depression (ICPSR 119723)

Released/updated on: 2020-06-04
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1927-01-01--1940-12-31
These are the replication files for the paper "Collateral Damage: The Impact of Foreclosures on New Home Mortgage Lending in the 1930s" to be published in the September 2020 issue of the Journal of Economic History.Abstract of the paper: The Great Depression of the 1930s involved a severe disruption in the supply of home mortgage credit. This paper empirically identifies a mechanism lying behind this credit crunch: the impairment of lenders’ balance sheets by illiquid foreclosed real estate. With data on hundreds of building and loans (B&Ls), the leading mortgage lenders in this period, we find that the overhang of foreclosed real estate explains about 30 percent of the drop in new lending between 1930 and 1935
Self-published

Replication: Labor Earnings Inequality in Manufacturing During the Great Depression (ICPSR 117926)

Released/updated on: 2020-02-29
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1935-12-31
This is the replication package for  "Labor Earnings Inequality in Manufacturing During the Great Depression" published in the Journal of Economic History.A readme file is provided in the Code directory. It provides explanation for all of the code and data in this repository.
Curated
Simple Crosstabs

United States Census of Manufactures, Sugar Refining Industry, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935 (ICPSR 37211)

Released/updated on: 2018-12-12
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1929-12-31, 1931-01-01--1931-12-31, 1933-01-01--1933-12-31, 1935-01-01--1935-12-31
The United States Census Bureau has conducted surveys of manufacturing activity since 1810 with fluctuating frequency. Between 1919 and 1939 the Census of Manufactures (CM) was conducted biennially. This data collection consists of individual-plant data from the Census of Manufactures for 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935, the only years in this span for which original returns are available. The records of the Sugar Refining Industry have been coded to produce an electronic dataset to provide the basis for microeconomic evidence for the study of the Great Depression. The dataset contains observations on sugar refining operations, plants (e.g. name, location, etc.), products made, operation and working hours, employment, wages and salaries, and operating costs.
Curated
Simple Crosstabs

United States Census of Manufactures, Blast Furnace Industry, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935 (ICPSR 37208)

Released/updated on: 2018-12-10
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1929-12-31, 1931-01-01--1931-12-31, 1933-01-01--1933-12-31, 1935-01-01--1935-12-31
The United States Census Bureau has conducted surveys of manufacturing activity since 1810 with fluctuating frequency. Between 1919 and 1939 the Census of Manufactures (CM) was conducted biennially. This data collection consists of individual-plant data from the Census of Manufactures for 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935, the only years in this span for which original returns are available. The records of the Blast Furnace Industry have been coded to produce an electronic dataset to provide the basis for microeconomic evidence for the study of the Great Depression. The dataset contains observations on blast furnace operations, steel plants (e.g. name, location, etc.), productivity, output, operation and working hours, employment, wages, operating costs and amount of materials used, machinery, and the effects of The Great Depression.
Self-published

New Deal Studies (ICPSR 101199)

Released/updated on: 2018-11-18
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1940-12-31
These are a series of data sets from our projects on the New Deal.  For a survey of the projects, see Price Fishback.  “How Successful Was the New Deal?  The Microeconomic Impact of New Deal Spending and Lending Policies” Journal of Economic Literature 55(4) (December 2017):  1435-85. 
Self-published

Effects of New Deal Spending and the Downturns of the 1930s on Private Labor Markets in 1939/1940, Xing Liu and Price Fishback (ICPSR 107341)

Released/updated on: 2018-11-17
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1940-12-31
This document describes the data sets and files we used to estimate the model in the paper forthcoming in Explorations in Economic History.Effects of New Deal Spending and the Downturns of the 1930s on Private Labor Markets in 1939/1940Xing (Michelle) Liu and Price FishbackAbstract of paperGross Domestic Product recovered much more quickly than labor markets did during the 1930s.  We provide new analysis of this issue by estimating a cross-sectional model for individuals in 1939-1940 as a function of the measures of the Great Contraction of 1929-1933, the recovery, and the Second Dip Recession and average information for three types of New Deal spending.   The results show that the Great Contraction of 1929-1933 and the Second-Dip Recession still had powerful negative effects on county labor markets in 1939/1940 and these were only partially offset by public works grants.  Relief grants had somewhat negative effects although this might have arisen because of a large layoff of workers by the WPA in 1939.  The AAA payments to farmers to take land out of production were associated with lower earnings and private employment, but had mixed effects on skill mobility.  
Self-published

The Prelude and Global Impact of the Great Depression Evidence from a New Macroeconomic Dataset (ICPSR 105160)

Released/updated on: 2018-08-01
Geographic coverage: Earth
Time period: 1925-01-01--1936-12-31
This website contains the replication files for "The Prelude and Global Impact of the Great Depression Evidence from a New Macroeconomic Dataset." Besides Stata and Matlab codes, it contains the underlying dataset of about 1150 macroeconomic time series for 28 countries. It can be used to replicate all results and robustness checks.
Self-published

Recovery from the Great Depression: The Farm Channel in Spring 1933 (ICPSR 103860)

Released/updated on: 2018-07-16
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1932-01-01--1934-12-31
This contains data and programs used for "Recovery from the Great Depression: The Farm Channel in Spring 1933." Underlying data come from ICPSR studies 1,7,2896, and 35206. For further information, see the paper and the data and programs posted on the American Economic Review's website. 
Self-published

Inflation Expectations and Recovery in Spring of 1933 (ICPSR 100223)

Released/updated on: 2016-06-29
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1932-10-01--1933-11-01
This paper uses the historical narrative record to determine whether inflation expectations shifted during the second quarter of 1933, precisely as the recovery from the Great Depression took hold.  First, by examining the historical news record and the forecasts of contemporary business analysts, we show that inflation expectations increased dramatically.  Second, using an event-study approach, we identify the effect of the key events that shifted inflation expectations on financial markets. Third, we gather new evidence—both quantitative and narrative—that indicates that the shift in inflation expectations played a causal role in stimulating the recovery.
Self-published

Fiscal Policy and Economic Recovery: The Case of the 1936 Veterans' Bonus (ICPSR 100128)

Released/updated on: 2015-10-12
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1930-01-01--1938-12-31
This contains the dataset of the 1936 household consumption survey and 1930 census data used in "Fiscal Policy and Economic Recovery: The Case of the 1936 Veterans' Bonus." The underlying household survey data come from ICPSR study 08908. The Census data come from the IPUMS 5% sample from the 1930 Census. The primary data file is urban_lprob.dta. urban_nodups.dta contains a subset of these data for programming convenience. For further documentation, see the paper, and the data and program files posted on the American Economic Review's website. 
Curated
Simple Crosstabs

United States Census of Manufactures, Motor Vehicle Industry, 1929-1935 (ICPSR 35604)

Released/updated on: 2015-05-22
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1929-12-31, 1931-01-01--1931-12-31, 1933-01-01--1933-12-31, 1935-01-01--1935-12-31
The United States Census Bureau has conducted surveys of manufacturing activity since 1810 with fluctuating frequency. Between 1919 and 1939 the Census of Manufactures (CM) was conducted biennially. This data collection consists of individual-plant data from the Census of Manufactures for 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935, the only years in this span for which original returns are available. The records of the Motor Vehicle Industry have been coded to produce an electronic data set to provide the basis for microeconomic evidence for the study of the Great Depression. The data set contains observations on: basic information about the plants (e.g. name, location, owner, etc.), products made and materials used, operation and working hours, employment, wages and salaries, costs and amount of materials used, value and quantity of products by type, and power used.
Curated
Simple Crosstabs

United States Census of Manufactures, Cotton Goods Industry, 1929-1935 (ICPSR 35605)

Released/updated on: 2015-05-22
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1929-01-01--1929-12-31, 1931-01-01--1931-12-31, 1933-01-01--1933-12-31, 1935-01-01--1935-12-31
The United States Census Bureau has conducted surveys of manufacturing activity since 1810 with fluctuating frequency. Between 1919 and 1939 the Census of Manufactures (CM) was conducted biennially. This data collection consists of individual-plant data from the Census of Manufactures for 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935, the only years in this span for which original returns are available. The records of the Cotton Goods Industry have been coded to produce an electronic dataset to provide the basis for microeconomic evidence for the study of the Great Depression. The dataset contains observations on: basic information about the plants (e.g. name, location, owner, etc.), products made and materials used, operation and working hours, employment, wages and salaries, costs and amount of materials used, value of products and processing tax (1933 and 1935), machinery, and power used.
Curated

Changing the Rules: State Mortgage Foreclosure Moratoria During the Great Depression (ICPSR 24542)

Released/updated on: 2009-01-09
Geographic coverage: United States
Many U.S. states imposed temporary moratoria on farm and nonfarm residential mortgage foreclosures during the Great Depression. This article describes the conditions that led some states to impose these moratoria and other mortgage relief during the Depression and discusses the economic effects. Moratoria were more common in states with large farm populations (as a percentage of total state population) and high farm mortgage foreclosure rates, although nonfarm mortgage distress appears to help explain why a few states with relatively low farm foreclosure rates also imposed moratoria. The moratoria reduced farm foreclosure rates in the short run, but they also appear to have reduced the supply of loans and made credit more expensive for subsequent borrowers. The evidence from the Great Depression demonstrates how government actions to reduce foreclosures can impose costs that should be weighed against potential benefits.
Curated

The Federal Response to Home Mortgage Distress: Lessons from the Great Depression (ICPSR 22682)

Released/updated on: 2008-06-09
Geographic coverage: United States
This article examines the federal response to mortgage distress during the Great Depression. It documents features of the housing cycle of the 1920s and early 1930s, focusing on the growth of mortgage debt and the subsequent sharp increase in mortgage defaults and foreclosures during the Depression. It summarizes the major federal initiatives to reduce foreclosures and reform mortgage market practices, focusing especially on the activities of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), which acquired and refinanced one million delinquent mortgages between 1933 and 1936. Because the conditions under which the HOLC operated were unusual, the author cautions against drawing strong policy lessons from the HOLC's activities. Nonetheless, similarities between the Great Depression and the recent episode suggest that a review of the historical experience can provide insights about alternative policies to relieve mortgage distress.
Curated

Detroit Area Study, 1991: Collective Memories (ICPSR 2160)

Released/updated on: 2005-12-15
Geographic coverage: Detroit, United States, Michigan
Time period: 1991-01-01--1991-12-31

For this survey, respondents were asked to consider key historical national and world events since 1930 and to describe the impact of these events upon their lives and why these events seemed especially important. The list of events respondents were queried about included the invention of the television, the decline of communism in eastern Europe, the Korean War, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, space exploration, terrorism and hostage-taking, and the threat of nuclear war. Those queried were also asked about events or changes that were especially poignant to them and whether they kept memorabilia from the past, such as items from World War II, the Holocaust, or the Vietnam War. Specific questions on the events of World War II were included in the survey. Respondents also answered questions regarding events or changes related to their own interests, such as religion, sports, music, television, and films. Background information includes religion, marital status, education, employment, political orientation, and income.

Curated

Conducting Monetary Policy Without Government Debt: The Fed's Early Years (ICPSR 1259)

Released/updated on: 2003-01-23
Geographic coverage: United States
The Federal Reserve implements its monetary policy by using open market operations in United States government securities to target the federal funds rate. A substantial decline in the stock of United States Treasury debt could interfere with the conduct of monetary policy, possibly forcing the Fed to rely more heavily on discount window lending or to conduct open market transactions in other types of securities. Either choice would cause the implementation of monetary policy to resemble the methods used by the Fed before World War II. This paper describes two things: (1) how the Fed implemented monetary policy before the war and (2) the conflicts that arose within the Fed over the allocation of private-sector credit when discount window loans and Fed purchases of private securities were a substantial component of Federal Reserve credit. Those conflicts help explain the Fed's failure to respond vigorously to the Great Depression. The experience suggests that a renewed reliance on the discount window or on open market operations in securities other than those issued by the United States Treasury could hamper the conduct of monetary policy if it leads to increased pressure on the Fed to affect the allocation of credit.
Curated

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Data on Banks in the United States, 1920-1936 (ICPSR 7)

Released/updated on: 1992-02-16
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1920-01-01--1936-12-31
This data collection contains information on banks in the United States in the period 1920-1936. Information is provided by county and in thousands of United States dollars on the total annual deposits in all banks, deposits in national and state banks, number of banks suspended, and number of national and state banks active in the period.
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