Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION (OPA) was the federal agency tasked with establishing price controls on nonagricultural commodities and rationing essential consumer goods during World War II (1939–1945). This effectively set the price ceiling at March 1942 levels.

What was the purpose of the Office of Price Administration? During World War II (1939–1945), the federal government became the major consumer of production for the war period. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was a federal agency in World War II that controlled prices and wages and ration consumer goods. The organized setting of what the public will be charged for certain products or services agreed to by competitors in the marketplace in…, Fisher-Price Inc. . Thompson, Victor A. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1943. Add Your Phone To The Fight! The Office of Price Administration was a federal agency created in August 1941 under the Office for Emergency Management of the U.S. government. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Wage and price controls were initiated by the U.S. government in 1942, in order to help win World War II (1939–1945), and maintai…, Pricing is the process of determining and applying prices to goods and services.

It was established by Executive Order number 8875 back on August 28th of 1941. Custom-Writing, 9 Apr. New York: King's Crown Press, 1950. Any violations of price became litigated by the Department of Justice as of June 1st of 1947. Its goal was to control inflation and guarantee minimum essential goods to civilians, and also to bring more equality to American society. . April 9, 2020. https://custom-writing.org/qna/the-purpose-of-the-office-of-price-administration/. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. His organization decreed a general maximum price rule which made any prices being charged as of March 1942 the maximum ceiling prices for the vast majority of commodities. These he merged together into the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply, known by its acronym OPACS under the auspices of the Office for Emergency Management utilizing Executive Order number 8734 on April 11th of 1941.

Accordingly, Congress instituted a price fixing authority on all goods and wages with the creation of the Office of Price Administration (OPA), and the "General Maximum Price Regulation" (General Max), which froze all retail prices at their highest price levels as of March 1942. On 28 August 1941, Executive Order 8875 transferred the Civilian Supply group to the Office of Production Management to consolidate the similar efforts of the two entities. While OPA pointed to an overall 31-percent rise in retail prices in World War II compared to a 62-percent rise in World War I (1914–1918), undoubtedly a black market developed in response to price controls. Such regulations became modified and expanded as necessary under various administrators of the OPA, most especially Leon Henderson from 1941-1942, Prentiss H. Brown in 1943, and Chester B. Bowles from 1943-1946. What was the fucntion of the National War Labor Board? Noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith was chosen to direct OPACS's Price Division and served in this function through 1943. Any other remaining OPA functions were assumed by the Department of Commerce’s Division of Liquidation as of June 1st of 1947. © 2019 Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. President Roosevelt’s Office of Price Administration was intended to nip any wartime inflation in the bud before it appeared.
Office of Temporary Controls. ." Maintenance of product quality was a constant concern. Download The COVID Alert PA App Now. On April 27, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt outlined another aspect of price administration, to be known as "rationing" (which Roosevelt described as a "democratic, equitable solution" to the issue of providing goods for Americans that had become scarce because of the war). https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Office+of+Price+Administration+and+Civilian+Supply, Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply, Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary, the webmaster's page for free fun content, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives, Office of Post Compulsory Education Training and Employment, Office of Post-Compulsory Education and Training, Office of Postmarketing Drug Risk Assessment, Office of Postsecondary Education Identification, Office of Postsecondary Education Identifier, Office of Preaward Research Administration, Office of Precollegiate Programs for Talented and Gifted, Office of Preparedness and Emergency Operations, Office of Preparedness, Security & Fire Safety, Office of Prevention and Early Intervention, Office of Prevention and Victims Services, Office of Prevention, Pesticides & Toxic Substances, Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxics, Office of Primary Development Responsibility, Office of Principal Preparation and Development, Office of Privacy, Information Protection and Data Security, Office of Privatization and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Procurement and Assistance Management, Office of Procurement and Grants Management, Office of Procurement and Policy Management, Office of Procurement and Real Property Management, Office of Professional Accountability Review Board, Office of Professional and Community Education, Office of Professional and Corporate Development. What was the purpose of the Office of Price Administration? Wilson, William Jerome, and Mabel Randolph. Ultimately the government disbanded the entire agency by 1947. Office of Price Administration. Encyclopedia.com.

One source states, “by the end of the war, the rationing program also included coffee, shoes, stoves, meats, processed foods, and bicycles.” Moreover, the OPA fixed maximum prices for rents that people paid on their residences. Eventually the OPA became entirely abolished as of May 29th of 1947.

History: Established May 17, 1946, as the last of a succession of headquarters offices that began in December 1941 with the Field Operations Division. At the same time, the OPA similarly imposed ceilings on all residential rents which consumers were forced to pay. The price is the monetary cost of the product (the good or service)…, PRICE-FIXING 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States, Statistical Summary of Holdings by Record Group Number, How to File a FOIA Request for Archival Records.

Toll Free: (800) 432-5437 All rationing ended by the end of September 1945. Office of Price Administration Following the beginning of World War II, The Office of Price Administration was established to control rents and the overall cost of items that might be affected by the conflict. What happened during the Dumbarton Oaks Conference? The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The OPA and Its Pricing Polices. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Rationing for gasoline and foodstuffs was discontinued on 15 August 1945. Price controls remained in effect in the hopes of preventing price instability as the war economy converted back to peacetime functions, but they were gradually discontinued through 1947.

This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. A number of important and famous individuals worked for the Office of Price Administration during the war. OPA Bibliography, 1940–1947. Custom-Writing.org. Best source for material on the Office of Price Administration.

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In 1944, a total of 338,029 violations were reported, with 205,779 administrative warning letters sent out. ." By the end of the war, the OPA was able to say with some satisfaction that it had mostly succeeded in maintaining generally stable prices throughout the second half of the war years for Americans. Retrieved September 30, 2020 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/office-price-administration. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/office-price-administration, Hines, William G. "Office of Price Administration New York: Fairchild, 1945. It was then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt who dusted off the thirty year old Advisory Commission to World War I Council on National Defense beginning on May 29th of 1940. Fax: (716) 687-3476 On 11 May 1941, by Executive Order 8734, the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (OPACS) was created from the two NDAC divisions. Leon Henderson, head of the Price Stabilization Division, was appointed as administrator and quickly dubbed in the media as the "Price Czar."


Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1948.