U.S. Educational Attainment and Youth Unemployment During the Great Depression

This replication package contains data and code for analyzing the impact of the Great Depression's youth unemployment on U.S. high school and post-secondary completion rates between 1910 and 1940. It includes linked census data and newly digitized city-level unemployment rates to examine gender and socioeconomic disparities. The analysis finds that youth unemployment significantly increased educational attainment for higher-income boys, with negligible effects for girls and lower-income youths.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between city-level unemployment rates and high school graduation rates across different socioeconomic groups.
• Replicate econometric models from the manuscript to test the effect of youth unemployment on post-secondary completion.
• Examine gender disparities in educational attainment using linked census data from the 1910-1940 period.
• Study how household resources, as indicated by socioeconomic status in census data, mediated the impact of economic crises on education.

Strengths

• Data covers a critical 30-year period (1910-1940) of rapid educational expansion in the U.S.
• Integrates multiple data sources, including linked census records and newly digitized city-level statistics.
• Specifically designed for replicating peer-reviewed research findings from a journal article.

Limitations

• The dataset is a replication package; its structure, variables, and completeness are tailored to the original study's analysis.
• Sample size, column definitions, and data formats are not specified in the input.
• Focus is on a specific historical period and U.S. context, limiting generalizability to other eras or geographies.

Provenance

Source

Pawel Janas, via ICPSR Harvested Dataverse.

Collection Method

Linked census data and newly digitized city-level unemployment rates.

Time Range

1910 to 1940.

Freshness

Last updated in February 2026.

Geography

United States.