IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ahe/invest/v10y2014i02p81-91.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Historical reflections on the causes of financial crises: Official investigations, past and present, 1873–2011

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Marichal

    (Centro de Estudios Históricos, El Colegio de México, México, D. F., Mexico)

Abstract

In the present essay we review a set of enquiries and reports that were realized and published as a result of the major financial crises of the past and of the contemporary era. Generally these documents not only address the issue of the causes of collapse of bank and capital markets but also shed light on regulations proposed at different points in time to improve financial stability. We begin with reference to extensive hearings published by the British Parliament following what may be termed the first global financial crisis in 1873 and, then, proceed to a discussion of official reports on the crises of 1907, 1929 and above all that of 2008, which has produced the greatest outpouring of these types of publications. It is our hypothesis that one important avenue for a historical understanding of the great financial debacles of the past consists in a careful evaluation of official literature and documents that can complement the theoretical approaches of economists in search of explanations for these events. KEY Classification-JEL: N20

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Marichal, 2014. "Historical reflections on the causes of financial crises: Official investigations, past and present, 1873–2011," Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research (IHE-EHR), Journal of the Spanish Economic History Association, Asociación Española de Historia Económica, vol. 10(02), pages 81-91.
    • Handle: RePEc:ahe:invest:v:10:y:2014:i:02:p:81-91
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/IHE/article/view/70625/42750
    Download Restriction: This is an Open Access journal
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bordo, Michael D. & Rockoff, Hugh, 1996. "The Gold Standard as a “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval”," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(2), pages 389-428, June.
    2. Tarullo, Daniel, 2008. "Banking on Basel: The Future of International Financial Regulation," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 4235, January.
    3. Alessio Moro & Galo Nuño & Pedro Tedde, 2015. "A twin crisis with multiple banks of issue. Spain in the 1860s," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 19(2), pages 171-194.
    4. Vizcarra, Catalina, 2009. "Guano, Credible Commitments, and Sovereign Debt Repayment in Nineteenth-Century Peru," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(2), pages 358-387, June.
    5. Michael D. Bordo & Anna J. Schwartz, 1984. "A Retrospective on the Classical Gold Standard, 1821-1931," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bord84-1.
    6. Flandreau, Marc, 2012. "The vanishing banker1," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-19, April.
    7. Flandreau, Marc & Flores, Juan-Huitzi, 2007. "Bonds and Brands : intermediaries and reputation in sovereign debt markets 1820-1830," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp07-12, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    8. Musson, A. E., 1959. "The Great Depression in Britain, 1873–1896: a Reappraisal," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 199-228, June.
    9. Cassis,Youssef, 2006. "Capitals of Capital," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521845359, October.
    10. Anna J. Schwartz, 1984. "Introduction to "A Retrospective on the Classical Gold Standard, 1821-1931"," NBER Chapters, in: A Retrospective on the Classical Gold Standard, 1821-1931, pages 1-22, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Mitchener, Kris & Trebesch, Christoph, 2021. "Sovereign Debt in the 21st Century: Looking Backward, Looking Forward," CEPR Discussion Papers 15935, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Flores Zendejas, Juan, 2015. "Capital Markets and Sovereign Defaults: A Historical Perspective," Working Papers unige:73325, University of Geneva, Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History.

    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. Bordo, Michael D. & Schwartz, Anna J., 1999. "Monetary policy regimes and economic performance: The historical record," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 149-234, Elsevier.
    2. Kramer, Bert S. & Milionis, Petros, 2022. "Democratic constraints and adherence to the classical gold standard," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Singleton,John, 2010. "Central Banking in the Twentieth Century," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521899093, October.
    4. Weidenmier, Marc & Mitchener, Kris, 2015. "Was the Classical Gold Standard Credible on the Periphery? Evidence from Currency Risk," CEPR Discussion Papers 10388, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Kim Oosterlinck, 2013. "Sovereign debt defaults: insights from history," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 29(4), pages 697-714, WINTER.
    6. John B. Taylor, 1986. "Improvements in Macroeconomic Stability: The Role of Wages and Prices," NBER Chapters, in: The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change, pages 639-678, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bazot, Guillaume & Monnet, Eric & Morys, Matthias, 2019. "Taming the gobal financial cycle: Central banks and the sterilization of capital flows in the first era of globalization," IBF Paper Series 03-19, IBF – Institut für Bank- und Finanzgeschichte / Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt am Main.
    8. Allan Meltzer & Saranna Robinson, 1989. "Stability Under the Gold Standard in Practice," NBER Chapters, in: Money, History, and International Finance: Essays in Honor of Anna J. Schwartz, pages 163-202, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. J. Bradford DeLong & Lawrence H. Summers, 1986. "The Changing Cyclical Variability of Economic Activity in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change, pages 679-734, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Maurice Obstfeld & Alan M. Taylor, 2017. "International Monetary Relations: Taking Finance Seriously," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 3-28, Summer.
    11. Michael D. Bordo & Anna J. Schwartz, 1994. "The Specie Standard as a Contingent Rule: Some Evidence for Core and Peripheral Countries, 1880-1990," NBER Working Papers 4860, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Giuseppe Tullio & Jürgen Wolters, 2007. "Monetary Policy in Austria–Hungary, 1876–1913: An Econometric Analysis of the Determinants of the Central Bank’s Discount Rate and the Liquidity Ratio," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 521-537, November.
    13. Karl‐Friedrich Israel, 2021. "The fiat money illusion: On the cost‐efficiency of modern central banking," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 1701-1719, June.
    14. Hautcoeur Pierre-Cyrille & Riva Angelo E., 2013. "What Financiers Usually Do, and What We Can Learn from History," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 313-331, April.
    15. Michael D. Bordo, 1993. "The gold standard, Bretton Woods and other monetary regimes: a historical appraisal," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Mar, pages 123-191.
    16. Michael D. Bordo & Andrew T. Levin, 2017. "Central Bank Digital Currency and the Future of Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 23711, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Monnet, Eric & bazot, guillaume & Morys, Matthias, 2019. "Taming the Global Financial Cycle: Central Banks and the Sterilization of Capital Flows in the First Era of Globalization (1891," CEPR Discussion Papers 13895, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Matthias Morys, 2006. "Adjustment under the Classical Gold Standard: How costly did the external constraint come to the European periphery?," Working Papers 6009, Economic History Society.
    19. Jevtic, Aleksandar R., 2020. "Gold rush: The political economy of gold standard adoption in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia," eabh Papers 20-02, The European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH).
    20. Nikolaus Wolf, 2010. "Europe's Great Depression: coordination failure after the First World War," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(3), pages 339-369, Autumn.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial crises. Collapse of banks and capital markets. Official reports. Financial stability;

    JEL classification:

    • N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative

    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:ahe:invest:v:10:y:2014:i:02:p:81-91. 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: Elena Garcia Cruz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeheeea.html .

    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.