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Alternatives for Distressed Banks during the Great Depression

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  • MARK CARLSON

Abstract

Using data on individual banks during the Great Depression, I find that institutions that failed during periods in which failures were especially numerous, such as the banking panics, appear to have been at least as financially sound as banks that were able to pursue alternative resolution strategies, such as merging with another institution or suspending and recapitalizing, during less extreme periods. This result suggests that problems associated with having numerous banks in distress simultaneously during the Depression may have exacerbated the number of banks closed and the economic downturn.

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  • Mark Carlson, 2010. "Alternatives for Distressed Banks during the Great Depression," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(2‐3), pages 421-441, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:42:y:2010:i:2-3:p:421-441
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1538-4616.2009.00293.x
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    2. Dunn, Jessica Kay & Intintoli, Vincent J. & McNutt, Jamie John, 2015. "An examination of non-government-assisted US commercial bank mergers during the financial crisis," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 16-41.
    3. Mark Carlson & Kris James Mitchener & Gary Richardson, 2010. "Arresting Banking Panics: Fed Liquidity Provision and the Forgotten Panic of 1929," NBER Working Papers 16460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Kris J. Mitchener & Angela Vossmeyer & Kris James Mitchener, 2023. "How Do Financial Crises Redistribute Risk?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10597, CESifo.
    5. Jenter, Dirk & Aldunate, Felipe & Korteweg, Arthur & Koudijs, Peter, 2021. "Shareholder Liability and Bank Failure," CEPR Discussion Papers 16309, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Alvarez, Sebastian, 2015. "Playing with Fire? Internationalization and Condition of Mexican Banks Prior to The 1982 Debt Crisis," Working Papers unige:55513, University of Geneva, Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History.

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