Public unemployment relief and health during the great depression

Bibliographic Data

ID12447347
AuthorsGregori Galofré‐vilà (0000-0003-2441-4868, Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), corresponding author), Gregori Galofré Vilà (Universidad Publica de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain)
Year2022
Volume28
Issue1
Pages132-148
Publication date2022-09-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe History of the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1081-602X • E-ISSN: 1873-5398
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1081602x.2022.2123840
OpenAlexW4296354028
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited11

This paper uses newly collected data on county-level unemployment relief recipiency in 1933 with an OLS with fixed effects and a cross-sectional border-county research design, to examine the correlation between Depression-era public assistance and contemporaneous mortality. The paper finds that in counties where the government tended to support more unemployed families, mortality was lower, particularly for white families. Overall, the unemployment relief program accounted for around 2.5 percentage points of the mortality decline. This cross-sectional finding, is robust to a range of specifications, including an instrument variable design. The largest mortality reductions came from drops in communicable and infectious diseases

Cross-sectional study · Demographic economics · Depression (economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Great Depression · Public health · Sociology · Unemployment · Demography · Employment and Welfare Studies · Health disparities and outcomes · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Medicine · Nursing · Gerontology

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