IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/12626.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The anatomy of a trade collapse: The UK, 1929-33

Author

Listed:
  • O'Rourke, Kevin
  • de Bromhead, Alan
  • Fernihough, Alan
  • Lampe, Markus

Abstract

A recent literature explores the nature and causes of the collapse in international trade during 2008 and 2009. The decline was particularly great for automobiles and industrial supplies; it occurred largely along the intensive margin; quantities fell by more than prices; and prices fell less for differentiated products. Do these stylised facts apply to trade collapses more generally? This paper uses detailed, commodityspecific information on UK imports between 1929 and 1933, to see to what extent the trade collapses of the Great Depression and Great Recession resembled each other. It also compares the free trading trade collapse of 1929-31 with the protectionist collapse of 1931-3, to see to what extent protection, and gradual recovery from the Great Depression, mattered for UK trade patterns.

Suggested Citation

  • O'Rourke, Kevin & de Bromhead, Alan & Fernihough, Alan & Lampe, Markus, 2018. "The anatomy of a trade collapse: The UK, 1929-33," CEPR Discussion Papers 12626, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12626
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP12626
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrei A. Levchenko & Logan Lewis & Linda L. Tesar, 2009. "The Collapse of International Trade During the 2008-2009 Crisis: In Search of the Smoking Gun," Working Papers 592, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    2. Andrei A Levchenko & Logan T Lewis & Linda L Tesar, 2010. "The Collapse of International Trade during the 2008–09 Crisis: In Search of the Smoking Gun," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 58(2), pages 214-253, December.
    3. Marks,Steven G., 2016. "The Information Nexus," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107519633, September.
    4. Rauch, James E., 1999. "Networks versus markets in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 7-35, June.
    5. Marks,Steven G., 2016. "The Information Nexus," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107108684, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke, 2017. "Two Great Trade Collapses: The Interwar Period & Great Recession Compared," NBER Working Papers 23825, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. David S. Jacks & Dennis Novy, 2020. "Trade Blocs and Trade Wars during the Interwar Period," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 15(1), pages 119-136, January.
    3. Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke, 2018. "Two Great Trade Collapses: The Interwar Period and Great Recession Compared," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 66(3), pages 418-439, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iacovone, Leonardo & Ferro, Esteban & Pereira-López, Mariana & Zavacka, Veronika, 2019. "Banking crises and exports: Lessons from the past," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 192-204.
    2. Fontaine, François & Martin, Julien & Mejean, Isabelle, 2020. "Price discrimination within and across EMU markets: Evidence from French exporters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Kristian Behrens & Gregory Corcos & Giordano Mion, 2013. "Trade Crisis? What Trade Crisis?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 702-709, May.
    4. Angelo Secchi & Federico Tamagni & Chiara Tomasi, 2016. "Export price adjustments under financial constraints," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(3), pages 1057-1085, August.
    5. Bas, Maria & Fernandes, Ana & Paunov, Caroline, 2024. "How resilient was trade to COVID-19?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    6. Sotiris Blanas & Adnan Seric, 2018. "Determinants of intra‐firm trade: Evidence from foreign affiliates in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 917-956, September.
    7. Stumpner, Sebastian, 2019. "Trade and the geographic spread of the great recession," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 169-180.
    8. Arjan Lejour, 2015. "The Duration of Dutch Export Relations: Decomposing Firm, Country and Product Characteristics," De Economist, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 155-176, June.
    9. Claessens, Stijn & van Horen, Neeltje & Hassib, Omar, 2017. "The Role of Foreign Banks in Trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 11821, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Ran Jing, 2011. "The Collapse Speed of China's Exports in the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis," CESifo Working Paper Series 3584, CESifo.
    11. Logan Lewis, 2013. "Menu Costs, Trade Flows, and Exchange Rate Volatility," 2013 Meeting Papers 313, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Hollweg, Claire H. & Lederman, Daniel & Reyes, Jose-Daniel, 2012. "Monitoring export vulnerability to changes in growth rates of major global markets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6266, The World Bank.
    13. Castellares, Renzo & Salas, Jorge, 2019. "Contractual imperfections and the impact of crises on trade: Evidence from industry-level data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 33-49.
    14. Gita Gopinath & Oleg Itskhoki & Brent Neiman, 2011. "Trade Prices and the Global Trade Collapse of 2008-2009," NBER Working Papers 17594, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Gopinath, Gita & Itskhoki, Oleg & Neiman, Brent, 2012. "Trade Prices and the Global Trade Collapse of 2008–09," Scholarly Articles 11988099, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    16. Emilio Gutiérrez, 2013. "Air quality and infant mortality in Mexico: Evidence from variation in pollution levels caused by the usage of Small-Scale plants," Working Papers 1301, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.
    17. Rahul Giri & Enrique Seira & Kensuke Teshima, 2013. "Did trade crisis affect different exporters differently? Case of Mexico," Working Papers 1304, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.
    18. Jonathan Eaton & Samuel Kortum & Brent Neiman & John Romalis, 2016. "Trade and the Global Recession," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(11), pages 3401-3438, November.
    19. Alexandra Born & Zeno Enders, 2019. "Global Banking, Trade, and the International Transmission of the Great Recession," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(623), pages 2691-2721.
    20. Fabio C. Bagliano & Claudio Morana, 2011. "The Effects of the US Economic and Financial Crises on Euro Area Convergence," Chapters, in: Wim Meeusen (ed.), The Economic Crisis and European Integration, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Great depression; Great recession; Trade; Protectionism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • N74 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: 1913-

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12626. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.