TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bernanke,Ben
AU  - James,Harold
TI  - The Gold Standard, Deflation, and Financial Crisis in the Great Depression: An International Comparison
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3488
PY  - 1990
Y2  - October 1990
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3488
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3488.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ben S. Bernanke
E-Mail: Rita.C.Proctor@frb.gov, Michelle.A.Smith@frb.gov

Harold James
History Department and Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton University
Princeton NJ 08544
E-Mail: hjames@princeton.edu
M1  - published as Ben Bemanke, Harold James. "The Gold Standard, Deflation, and Financial Crisis in the Great Depression: An International Comparison," in R. Glenn Hubbard, editor, "Financial Markets and Financial Crises" University of Chicago Press (1991)

M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1991-03-01
AB  - Recent research has provided strong circumstantial evidence for the proposition that sustained deflation -- the result of a mismanaged international gold standard -- was a major cause of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Less clear is the mechanism by which deflation led to depression. In this paper we consider several channels, including effects operating through real wages and through interest rates. Our focus, however, is on the disruptive effect of deflation on the financial system, particularly the banking system. Theory suggests that falling prices, by reducing the net worth of banks and borrowers, can affect flows of credit and thus real activity. Using annual data for twenty-four countries, we confirm that countries which (for historical or institutional reasons) were more vulnerable to severe banking panics also suffered much worse depressions, as did countries which remained on the gold standard. We also find that there may have been a feedback loop through which banking panics, particularly those in the United States, intensified the worldwide deflation.
ER  -