Financial Fragility and the Great Depression

37 Pages Posted: 6 Jan 2002 Last revised: 28 Aug 2022

See all articles by Russell Cooper

Russell Cooper

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Philip Dean Corbae

University of Wisconsin - Madison - Department of Finance, Investment and Banking

Date Written: July 1997

Abstract

We analyze a financial collapse, such as the one which occurred during the Great Depression, from the perspective of a monetary model with multiple equilibria. The economy we consider contains financial fragility due to increasing returns to scale in the intermediation process. Intermediaries provide the link between savers and firms who require working capital for production. Fluctuations in the intermediation process are driven by variations in the confidence agents place in the financial system. Our model matches quite closely the qualitative movements in some financial and real variables (the currency/deposit ratio, ex-post real interest rates, the level of intermediated activity, deflation, employment and production) during the Great Depression period.

Suggested Citation

Cooper, Russell W. and Corbae, Philip Dean, Financial Fragility and the Great Depression (July 1997). NBER Working Paper No. w6094, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=226496

Russell W. Cooper (Contact Author)

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Economics ( email )

Austin, TX 78712
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Philip Dean Corbae

University of Wisconsin - Madison - Department of Finance, Investment and Banking ( email )

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Madison, WI 53706
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