Bank Lending and Deposit Crunches during the Great Depression

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Gary Richardson, University of California at Irvine

Version:  View help for Version V1

Version Title:  View help for Version Title Version 1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
Replication File - Event Studies - ICPSR - 20250110.do text/plain 14.1 KB 03/24/2025 01:23:PM
Weekly_Reporting_Replication_20250314.dta application/x-stata-dta 838.3 KB 03/14/2025 02:28:PM

Project Citation: 

Richardson, Gary. Bank Lending and Deposit Crunches during the Great Depression. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-03-24. https://doi.org/10.3886/E224122V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Replication Files for Bank Lending and Deposit Crunches during the Great Depression

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.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources The University of California at Irvine’s Program on Corporate Welfare provided financial support.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Banking; Financial Panics; Banking; Great Depression; Discount Lending; Monetary Policy
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1929 – 1933 (Summer 1929 to Winter 2933)
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2012 – 2023 (Collected from 2012 to 2023)
Universe:  View help for Universe Data from Weekly Reporting Banks in certain Fed districts 1929 to 1933. 
Data from member and nonmember bank balance sheets aggregated at the Fed district level from 1929 to 1933.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) aggregate data; observational data

Methodology

Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Federal Reserve District at each call report date
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit Federal Reserve District

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-03-24]

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