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Signals and Stigmas from Banking Interventions: Lessons from the Bank Holiday in 1933

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  • Matthew S. Jaremski
  • Gary Richardson
  • Angela Vossmeyer

Abstract

A nationwide panic forced President Franklin Roosevelt to declare a banking holiday in March 1933. The government reopened banks sequentially using a process that sent noisy signals about banks’ health. New microdata reveals the public responded to these signals. Deposits at rapidly reopened banks grew quicker than deposits at comparable or stronger banks that reopened even a few days or weeks later. The stigma of late reopening lasted for a decade. This stigma shifted funds from stigmatized to lauded banks and among communities that they served, but the shift in funds across institutions and communities had no measurable impact on the rate at which localities recovered from the Great Depression.

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  • Matthew S. Jaremski & Gary Richardson & Angela Vossmeyer, 2023. "Signals and Stigmas from Banking Interventions: Lessons from the Bank Holiday in 1933," NBER Working Papers 31088, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31088
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    Cited by:

    1. Calomiris, Charles W. & Jaremski, Matthew, 2024. "The puzzling persistence of financial crises: A selective review of 2000 years of evidence," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • N22 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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