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New Deal

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Abstract

US President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal created the most dramatic peacetime expansion of government in American economic history. It established the basic structures for modern federal/state social welfare programmes, farm programmes, labour policies, regulations of many industries, and government insurance of deposits and mortgages. Roosevelt experimented with a cartel-like industrial policy that was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The emergency public works and relief programmes built a large number of roads, dams, and other public works, and employed millions of labourers. Recent studies suggest that the impact of the New Deal varied greatly by programme.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, 2008. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume

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Fishback, P.V. (2008). New Deal. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2554-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2554-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5

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