OREGON: ANALYSIS OF OREGON’S RESPONSE TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Abstract

The following paper details some of the most important reactions the State of Oregon had to the Great Depression during the 1930s.The majority of the work available today on the Great Depression deals with what the federal government did to help the states, but seldom is there information on what the states did themselves. Professor Price Fishback, of the University of Arizona, has provided his honors students with an opportunity to work on a project that has never been done before. With the data we now have, we are able to talk about what the states did during the Great Depression and back it up with hard evidence. By looking through state statutes and newspapers from the 1930s, I was able to construct a narrative describing Oregon during that time. A regression analysis is also included to find the effects of five variables on state tax revenue per capita and I was able to compare these variables with Oregon’s surrounding states to see how they all fared in comparison. The thesis paper provides us with greater insight to the State of Oregon during the Great Depression as well as a better understanding to the data that we currently have.