Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on December 1, 2009). Department of History, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Robert G. Barrows, Nancy Marie Robertson, Melissa Bingmann. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-98).

Pastaraisiais metais Lietuvos žiniasklaidoje netyla kalbos apie šalį apėmusią ekonominę krizę. Vis dažniau prisimenama ir Pasaulinė ekonominė krizė, kuri siautė visame pasaulyje 1929–1933 metais. Ši ekonominė krizė dar vadinama Didžiąja depresija. Šiai krizei gilumu bei platumu neprilygsta nei viena iki šiol buvusi ekonominė krizė. Šiame darbe yra nagrinėjama kaip Pasaulinė ekonominė krizė paveikė Lietuvos ūkį bei kokią ekonominę politiką vykdė Lietuvos vyriausybė siekdama ją įveikti. Ši tema yra aktuali tuo, kad šiuo metu vėl siaučiant jau antrai Pasaulinei ekonominei krizei, yra svarbu žinoti, kaip ankstensė ekonominė krizė paveikė Lietuvą ir kokių priemonių buvo imtasi jai likviduoti. Rašant šį darbą buvo naudotas mokslinės literatūros ir šaltinių analizės bei lyginamasis metodas. Tiriant šią temą, buvo atskleista kaip stipriai Pasaulinė ekonominė krizė paveikė Lietuvos ūkį, buvo gilinamasi į jos poveikį atskiroms ūkio šakoms, taip pat ir į krizės poveikį Lietuvos gyventojams. Be to, darbe yra tiriama Lietuvos ekonominė politika, taip pat ieškomi bendrumai ir skirtumai tarp Lietuvos Vyriausybės vykdomos ekonominės politikos ir užsienio kraštų vykdomos ekonomines politikos. Baigus tyrimą paaiškėjo, kad Pasaulinė ekonominė krizė palietė Lietuvos ūkį taip pat, kaip ir kitas valstybės, tačiau Lietuvoje ji turėjo ir savų išskirtinumų. Kovojant su krize, Lietuvos valstybė neišsiskyrė stipriai iš kitų pasaulio valstybių vykdoma ekonomine politika. Ji ėjo tuo pačiu ekonominės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In recent years the media of Lithuania keep talking about the country covered economic crisis. It is often remembered the Global Economic Crisis, which was raging around the world in 1929-1933. The latter economic crisis is known as the Great Depression. In this topic is researched the impact of the Global Economic Crisis on the economy of Lithuania and what economic policy was executed in order to overcome the crisis. In these days, when the second Global Economic Crisis is raging, it is important to know how the previous economic crisis affected Lithuania and what measures had been taken in order to overcome it. While writing this work were used the scientific literature, analysis of sources and comparative method. Doing the research of this topic was revealed how strongly The Global Economic Crisis has affected the economy of Lithuania, also the impact of crisis on different industries and population of Lithuania. Moreover, in this work was researched the economic policy of Lithuania, looked for similarities and differencies between the government of Lithuania implemented economic policy and foreign countries implemented economic policy. The research revealed that the Global Economic Crisis has affected the economy of Lithuania as well as the economy of other states, however the crisis in Lithuania had its own features. Overcoming the crisis Lithuania with its implemented economic policy did not distinguish heavily from other countries of the world. Its way of economic... [to full text]

The first essay of this dissertation focuses on studying the relationship between private politics and corporate environmentalism. This work analyzes the determinants and effects of two private political actions, boycotts and proxy contests. The analysis shows that: (i) the size of a firm is an important predictor of whether a firm will be chosen as a target of an activist campaign; (ii) firms headquartered in states with larger environmental constituencies are more likely to be targeted by activist campaigns; (iii) "dirty firms" (with larger relative or absolute emissions and/or high level of regulatory scrutiny) are more likely to become targets of an activist campaign; and (iv) private political campaigns are effective in improving the environmental performance of their targets. The second essay examines the trends in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and investigates the effects of major changes in the economy on measures of TFP in eight industries during the Interwar period from 1919 through 1939. TFP estimates show that each industry followed a different path of TFP change. There is no consistent evidence on large TFP decline during the years 1929-33 in the industries studied, as proposed in the literature. TFP measures also do not support the hypothesis that the 1930s were a period of interrupted TFP growth but there is evidence that five industries out of eight had higher productivity in the 1930s than in the 1920s. Regression analysis of major determinants of the TFP change for the motor vehicles and the cotton goods industry shows that TFP fell with increases in employment and strike activity. The NRA code might have also contributed to a decline in TFP.

The Great Depression Period in John Steinbeck’s Prose The object of the research is the theme of the Great Depression in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961). In the novels, the theme of the Great Depression is analyzed through different values: protagonists’ struggle to remain human, land as a value and friend as a value. The aim of the research is to reveal the theme of the Great Depression through different values in Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) by Steinbeck.Steinbeck’s novels deal with the question of values, which appear to be relevant in all three novels under investigation. Nonetheless, during the Great Depression period the majority of values were pushed aside, however, values such as: friend as a value, land as a value and mans’ struggle to remain human became the most important within the period. / Šiuose kūriniuose Didžiosios depresijos tema analizuojama per skirtingas vertybes: draugystė kaip vertybė, žemė kaip vertybė, pagrindinio veikėjo pastangos išlikti žmogumi. Tyrimo tikslas – atskleisti Didžiosios depresijos temą romanuose Apie peles ir žmones (1937), Rūstybės kekės (1939), Mūsų nerimo žiema (1961) per skirtingų vertybių aspektus.Visi romanai nagrinėja vertybių problemą, kuri aktuali kiekviename analizuotame kūrinyje. Nepaisant to, kad Didžiosios depresijos laikotarpiu dauguma vertybių buvo nustumtos į šoną, vis dėlto, tokios vertybės, kaip draugystė, žemė, bei žmogaus pastangos išlikti žmogumi, tapo svarbiausios analizuojamuoju laikotarpiu.

This thesis is about Charlotte Whitton’s advisory role to Conservative Prime Minister R.B. Bennett during the summer and fall of 1932 researching and producing the only official report on unemployment and relief ever commissioned by the Bennett administration during the Great Depression. By 1932, the collapse of Bennett’s previous relief policies convinced him to reconsider his approach to relief. At Bennett’s behest, Charlotte Whitton, one of Canada’s most prominent social workers, undertook a June to August tour of Western Canada, observing how each province experienced and dealt with unemployment and relief. Whitton then prepared a report for Bennett which informed him of her observations and made specific recommendations for how Canada’s relief system could be reformed. Her final product, however, was far from an impartial policy document. As this thesis argues, Whitton’s report was a biased document which reveals as much about Whitton’s personal ideology and professional ambitions as it does the conditions facing the Western provinces; the observations and suggestions contained within it were heavily conditioned by Whitton’s pre-existing belief in social and fiscal conservatism. Although Whitton’s tour allowed her a first-hand view of the amount of poverty and despair faced by Canada’s unemployed, as this thesis argues, her beliefs conditioned her response and nothing she encountered changed her hard-line, traditionalist approach to relief. Yet, while Whitton’s report reveals much about its author, as this thesis contends, an analysis of Bennett’s reaction to it also sheds light on Bennett’s approach to unemployment and relief during this time. His commissioning of the report marks a moment three years before his New Deal legislation when Bennett pondered reforming the relief system. Yet, instead of taking action, Bennett did nothing to change the status quo. While Whitton’s conservative report certainly agreed with his personal assessment of relief and unemployment in Canada, her central suggestion, that professional social workers be placed in charge of Canada’s relief system at all levels to increase efficiency and curtail abuse, was still too costly for Bennett to implement. His failure to seize on this earlier opportunity to introduce a solution to Canada’s unemployment issues challenges the sincerity of his New Deal legislation, and his claims to support reform.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Dwight F. Burlingame, Philip V. Scarpino, Frances A. Huehls. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-154).

Late in 1931, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that worldwide unemployment had reached 20-25 million. The ILO was also mindful that the consequences of unemployment were borne by dependents and concluded that the number of people directly affected by unemployment was therefore probably in the region of 50-60 million. The thesis revisits this old theme of the 'Hungry Thirties' but considers it in a new and different way. Most histories of unemployment during the Great Depression have been presented in national terms but this study examines unemployment from an international perspective by utilizing the League of Nations and ILO as sites through which to explore how debates about unemployment and how to respond to it were being internationalized. Utilizing the vast archives of the League of Nations and ILO, the thesis focuses on a series of interconnected themes - public works and economic policy, migration, housing, and nutrition - themes that the League and ILO identified as being the 'fallout' from unemployment. It builds on recent research of the League and ILO that has revealed more complex histories of these two international organizations and that has recognized that the 'technical' agencies were core functions that consumed significant resources of personnel and money. Crucially, this work not only continued during the 1930s but thrived even as the political atmosphere darkened; it is, therefore, a history that offers another side to the autarky and nationalism of the 1930s. The thesis also connects the technical agencies of the League of Nations to the ILO and, in contrast to the customary treatment of the interaction of these two organizations that emphasizes inter-agency tension, it identifies how the collaboration was an important step in the rediscovery of the fundamental connection between economy and society by linking economic policy to social and physical welfare.

This case study examines the Self-Help Cooperative Movement (SHCM). Largely ignored by social scientists for the past eighty years, the movement took place during the Great Depression and, while national in scope, it was concentrated in Los Angeles. This movement combined traditional protest tactics with pre-figurative politics; its goal was to provide full employment for all Americans through the proliferation of worker and consumer cooperatives. Despite a very promising start in 1931, the movement collapsed and disintegrated by 1940. This dissertation examines the reasons for the SHCM's early successes and later its failures. The SHCM's early successes were made possible through their alliances with Japanese farmers (who lived on the outskirts of Los Angeles) and people of color in general, Los Angeles businesses and conservative business leaders, and with sympathetic politicians and state agencies. These alliances were, in turn, made possible by the inherent ambiguity of the SHCM's politics, which incorporated both conservative practices (e.g., self-help) and socialist practices (e.g., workplace democracy). This unique mixture, what the Los Angeles Times called "voluntary communism", generated widespread support among hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers and among conservative, socialist, and liberal political actors. In 1933, the SHCM underwent a profound transformation when Upton Sinclair and the End Poverty in California movement assumed leadership of the cooperatives and the California Democratic Party, promising to place state support behind the cooperative movement and in the process both end unemployment and undermine capitalism. The gubernatorial campaign of 1934 became a referendum on the cooperatives. Over the course of the prolonged bitterly fought campaign the cooperatives became associated with communism, and their liberal and conservative allies responded by discontinuing their support. With the loss of this political and financial assistance the SHCM slowly faded away. While the movement failed to achieve its specific goals, its impact on California politics, along with other Utopian Socialist movements in Los Angeles during this period, was immense. By the 1940s both political parties in California were supporting liberal and socialist initiatives (e.g., universal health-care and mass university education).

This thesis is focused on the solution to economic crises in Czechoslovakia in 1930's projected by Josef Macek. The first part describes process and consequences of the crisis and its influence on Czechoslovakian economy. Concrete arrangements made by government and main attitudes to this problem will be mentioned also in this section.The second part will be devoted to the personality of Josef Macek and his economic theories. The last and largest part deals with proposals of Josef Macek which should help the Czechoslovakian economy in the period of recession and bring the economy back to expansion. Opinions of Josef Macek are taken and analyzed from prime sources of information -- his works, public performances and articles -- written during 1930's. The aim of this thesis is to introduce the opinions of Josef Macek as a opposite to arrangements made by the government.

The thesis analysis the primary causes of the Great Depression and Great Recession in the US. The author is looking for common signs of these crisis with special attention to monetary policy, which is considered as a crucial. The author aims to analyze economic and political measures that accompanied the crisis. The first part deals with the Fed policy including its origin, the roaring twenties, the stock Exchange crash, anti-crisis economical and political measures during the crisis and there is also written about the theoretical interpretation of the different schools of economics. The second part deals with causes of Great Recession, the government sponsored enterprises, the housing bubble or federal emergency programs. Further, it discussed the credit expansion and the Fed´s policy and in the end the author offers an comparison of both crisis and presents his own view on the issue.