The purpose of this research is to analyze the economic behavior of the American industrial economy during the period 1929-1935. This period spans the largest decline in demand ever to strike the manufacturing sector of the economy. Understanding the response of the economy to this dramatic decline in demand, both in output markets and the labor markets is of enormous analytic importance and central to understanding the Great Depression. A new data set will be assembled which consists of individual- plant data form the Census of Manufacturing for 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935. These data are far finer than any extant data set for the period, and establishment-level micro-data such as these will be used to analyze the response of the output and labor markets to the severe down turn in aggregate demand experienced during that period. The project will create establishment panel data sets for a variety of important industries. In addition, the rich information on the Census schedules will link in extra- Censal information about the firms owning the establishments and about the technology employed by the firms. This project is important because it will provide new information and insights about the contraction of the economy during the Great Depression.
