TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cecchetti,Stephen G.
AU  - Kohler,Marion
AU  - Upper,Christian
TI  - Financial Crises and Economic Activity
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15379
PY  - 2009
Y2  - September 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15379
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15379.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Stephen G. Cecchetti
Monetary and Economic Department
Bank for International Settlements
Centralbahnplatz 2
4002 Basel
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 61 280 8350
Fax: +41 61 280 9113
E-Mail: stephen.cecchetti@bis.org

Marion Kohler
Bank for International Settlements
Centralbahnplatz 2
4002 Basel
Switzerland
E-Mail: marion.kohler@bis.org

Christian Upper
Bank for International Settlements
Centralbahnplatz 2
4002 Basel
Switzerland
E-Mail: christian.upper@bis.org
AB  - We study the output costs of 40 systemic banking crises since 1980. Most, but not all, crises in our sample coincide with a sharp contraction in output from which it took several years to recover. Our main findings are as follows. First, the current financial crisis is unlike any others in terms of a wide range of economic factors. Second, the output losses of past banking crises were higher when they were accompanied by a currency crisis or when growth was low at the onset of the crisis. When accompanied by a sovereign debt default, a systemic banking crisis was less costly. And, third, there is a tendency for systemic banking crises to have lasting negative output effects.
ER  -