Research

Economic Brief

November 2012, No. 12-11

Are Depression-Era Employment Swings Overstated?

Jonathon Lecznar
Jessie Romero
Pierre-Daniel G. Sarte

Our Research Focus: Labor Markets

The rapid fall in unemployment after the Great Depression suggests that there is nothing inherently persistent in a high unemployment rate. But a closer examination of the data indicates that changes in the unemployment rate might not have been as pronounced as generally believed.

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Additional Resources

Romer, Christina, "Spurious Volatility in Historical Unemployment Data," Journal of Political Economy, February 1986, vol. 94, no. 1, pp. 1–37. (A working paper version is available online.)

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