Deconstructing the monolith : the microeconomics of the National Industrial Recovery Act / Jason E. Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, Jason E., author.

Series:

Markets and governments in economic history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933.

United States.

United States--Economic conditions--1918-1945.

Economic conditions.

Industrial policy--United States.

Industrial policy.

United States--Economic policy.

Economic policy.

New Deal, 1933-1939.

National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (United States).

Economic history.

Physical Description:

viii, 206 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Summary:

The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was enacted by Congress in June of 1933 to assist the nation's recovery during the Great Depression. Its passage ushered in a unique experiment in US economic history: under the NIRA, the federal government explicitly supported, and in some cases enforced, alliances within industries. Antitrust laws were suspended, and companies were required to agree upon industry-level "codes of fair competition" that regulated wages and hours and could implement anti-competitive provisions such as those fixing prices, establishing production quotas, and imposing restrictions on new productive capacity. The NIRA is generally viewed as a monolithic program, its dramatic and sweeping effects best measurable through a macroeconomic lens. In this pioneering book, however, Jason E. Taylor examines the act instead using microeconomic tools, probing the uneven implementation of the act's codes and the radical heterogeneity of its impact across industries and time. Deconstructing the Monolith employs a mixture of archival and empirical research to enrich our understanding of how the program affected the behavior and well-being of workers and firms during the two years NIRA existed as well as in the period immediately following its demise.

Contents:

Introduction

The underpinnings, precursors, and development of the NIRA

The NIRA code negotiation process

The president's reemployment agreement of August 1933

Codes of fair competition: industrial planning and collusion under the NIRA

The NIRA compliance mechanism in theory and practice

The economics of compliance and enforcement and the NRA compliance crisis

The Schechter decision and the lingering effects of the NIRA

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226603308

022660330X

OCLC:

1043307246