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Surviving large losses: financial crises, the middle class, and the development of capital markets

Author

Listed:
  • Gilles Postel-Vinay

    (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, LEA - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique)

  • Philip T. Hoffman

    (CS CALTECH - Computer Science Department - CALTECH - California Institute of Technology)

  • Jean-Laurent Rosenthal

    (CS CALTECH - Computer Science Department - CALTECH - California Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Financial disasters often have long-range institutional consequences. When financial institutions - banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, stock exchanges - collapse, new ones take their place, and these changes shape markets for decades or evne generations. Surviving large losses explains why such financial crises occur, why their effects last so long, and what political and economic conditions can help countries both rich and poor survive - and even prosper - in the aftermath. Looking at past and more recent financial disasters through the lens of political economy, the authors identify three factors critical to the development of financial institutions: the level of government debt, the size of the middle class, and the quality of information that is available to participants in financial transactions. They seek to find out when these factors promote financial development and mitigate the effects of financial crises and when they exacerbate them. Although there is no panacea for crises - no one set of institutions that will resolve them - it is possible, the authors argue, to strengthen existing financial institutions, to encourage economic growth, and to limit the harm that future catatrophes can do.

Suggested Citation

  • Gilles Postel-Vinay & Philip T. Hoffman & Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, 2007. "Surviving large losses: financial crises, the middle class, and the development of capital markets," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00826238, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-00826238
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Michael D. Bordo & Christopher M. Meissner, 2007. "Foreign Capital and Economic Growth in the First Era of Globalization," NBER Working Papers 13577, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Piketty, Thomas & Postel-Vinay, Gilles & Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent, 2014. "Inherited vs self-made wealth: Theory & evidence from a rentier society (Paris 1872–1927)," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 21-40.
    3. Howard Bodenhorn, 2016. "Two Centuries of Finance and Growth in the United States, 1790-1980," Working Papers id:11352, eSocialSciences.
    4. Les Hannah, 2014. "Corporations in the US and Europe 1790-1860," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(6), pages 865-899, September.
    5. Bordo, Michael D. & Cavallo, Alberto F. & Meissner, Christopher M., 2010. "Sudden stops: Determinants and output effects in the first era of globalization, 1880-1913," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 227-241, March.
    6. Osaore Aideyan & Osunde Omoruyi, 2016. "Credit Provision for the Poor: Testing the Theoretical Realm of the Social‐Institutional Basis of the Success of Small‐Scale Financial Institutions in Africa," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(2), pages 150-170, June.
    7. Roine, Jesper & Vlachos, Jonas & Waldenström, Daniel, 2009. "The long-run determinants of inequality: What can we learn from top income data?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(7-8), pages 974-988, August.
    8. Cull, Robert & Davis, Lance E. & Lamoreaux, Naomi R. & Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent, 2006. "Historical financing of small- and medium-size enterprises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 3017-3042, November.
    9. Fabio Braggion & Mintra Dwarkasing & Steven Ongena, 2018. "Household wealth inequality, entrepreneurs’ financial constraints, and the great recession: evidence from the Kauffman Firm Survey," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 533-543, March.
    10. Valentina Moiso, 2014. "Making access to credit more democratic: tools and practices between social innovation and old inequalities," CERIS Working Paper 201420, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    11. Chwieroth, Jeffrey M. & Walter, Andrew, 2019. "The financialization of mass wealth, banking crises and politics over the long run," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100765, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos, 2015. "Hilferding on derivatives," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 77-96, February.
    13. Oscar Gelderblom & Joost Jonker & Ruben Peeters & Amaury de Vicq, 2023. "Exploring modern bank penetration: Evidence from early twentieth‐century Netherlands," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(3), pages 892-916, August.
    14. Jihad Dagher, 2018. "Regulatory Cycles: Revisiting the Political Economy of Financial Crises," IMF Working Papers 2018/008, International Monetary Fund.

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    Keywords

    Financial crises;

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