Bank Lending and Deposit Crunches during the Great Depression

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Santa Clara University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California Irvine
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050725000166
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 442-474
• 关键词: panics; failures

摘要

Bank distress was a defining feature of the Great Depression in the United States. Most banks, however, weathered the storm and remained in operation throughout the contraction. We show that surviving banks cut lending when depositors withdrew funds en masse during panics. This panic-induced decline in lending explains about one-third of the reduction in aggregate commercial bank lending between 1929 and 1932, more than twice as much as attributed to the failure of banks.