New Deal Spending and the States: The Politics of Public Works

2000 ◽  
pp. 105-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim F. Couch ◽  
William F. Shughart
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Public Works

A Fair Deal or a Raw Deal?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cybelle Fox
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Civilian Conservation Corps ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Relief Program ◽  
Work Relief

This chapter focuses on the first New Deal and access to Federal Emergency Relief, as well as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Civil Works Administration. Despite the New Deal's nationalizing reforms, intended largely to standardize relief policies across the country, local political economies and racial regimes continued to influence the administration of relief. Like blacks, Mexicans gained significantly greater access to relief during the New Deal, although they continued to face racial discrimination at the local level. Citizenship barriers were also typically strongest for local public work programs out West, and Mexican Americans were sometimes wrongly denied work relief on the assumption that they were non-citizens. The largest relief program during the first New Deal was the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), which brought blacks and Mexicans unprecedented access to relief.

New Deal, New Development: A Public Works Philosophy

2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-61
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Simon
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Public Works ◽  
New Development

scholarly journals How Successful Was the New Deal? The Microeconomic Impact of New Deal Spending and Lending Policies in the 1930s

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 1435-1485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Price Fishback
Keyword(s):  
New Deal ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Consumption Activity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The New Deal

The New Deal during the 1930s was arguably the largest peace-time expansion in federal government activity in American history. Until recently, there had been very little quantitative testing of the microeconomic impact of the wide variety of New Deal programs. Over the past decade scholars have developed new panel databases for counties, cities, and states and then used panel data methods on them to examine the impact of New Deal spending and lending policies for the major New Deal programs. In most cases, the identification of the effect comes from changes across time within the same geographic location after controlling for national shocks to the economy. Many of the studies also use instrumental variable methods to control for endogeneity. The studies find that public works and relief spending had state income multipliers of around one, increased consumption activity, attracted internal migration, reduced crime rates, and lowered several types of mortality. The farm programs typically aided large farm owners but eliminated opportunities for share croppers, tenants, and farm workers. The Home Owners' Loan Corporation's purchases and refinancing of troubled mortgages staved off drops in housing prices and home ownership rates at relatively low ex post cost to taxpayers. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation's loans to banks and railroads appear to have had little positive impact, although the banks were aided when the RFC took ownership stakes. (JEL D72, E61, L52, N41, N42)

Federal Art Project

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Pocock
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Visual Artists ◽  
Community Art ◽  
Federal Art Project ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Federal Music Project ◽  
War Propaganda

The Federal Art Project (FAP) was a branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a work relief agency established in 1935 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Second New Deal. Aimed at mitigating unemployment during the Great Depression, the WPA hired 8.5 million Americans for public works projects, focused mainly on infrastructure improvements. The WPA’s Federal Project Number One—which comprised the FAP, the Federal Writers’ Project, Federal Theater Project, Federal Music Project, and Historical Records Survey—subsidized the creative activities of 40,000 artists, writers, actors, and musicians. The FAP commissioned 5,000 visual artists to paint murals in public buildings; create easel paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings that were displayed in traveling exhibitions; teach in newly established Community Art Centers; document the activities of the WPA photographically; and design posters promoting New Deal policies. In addition to providing financial aid to destitute artists, the FAP aimed to preserve their skills and encourage a thriving American artistic tradition at a time when there were few private commissions. Though it operated nationwide, the FAP was concentrated in New York City, where 3,000 artists participated in the project, including many who went on to achieve international recognition after World War II as part of the Abstract Expressionist movement. By 1941, the FAP was limited to the production of war propaganda and training aids, and in 1943, President Roosevelt terminated all WPA projects.

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