Devaluation, Exports, and Recovery from the Great Depression
This paper evaluates how a major policy shift – the suspension of the gold standard in September 1931 – affected employment outcomes in interwar Britain. We use a new high-frequency industry-level dataset and difference-in-differences techniques to isolate the impact of devaluation on exporters. At the micro level, we find that the break from gold reduced the unemployment rate by 2.7 percentage points for export-intensive industries relative to more closed industries. At the aggregate level, this effect stimulated the labour market, the fiscal outlook, and economic growth. Devaluation was therefore an important initial spark of recovery from the depths of the Great Depression.
Date: 30 January 2024, 17:00 (Tuesday, 3rd week, Hilary 2024)
Venue: Nuffield College, New Road OX1 1NF
Venue Details: or https://zoom.us/j/99415477879?pwd=b29jVUZnYm5WMTkyakJ0TFNPNmlaUT09
Speaker: Jason Lennard (LSE)
Organising department: Department of Economics
Part of: Economic and Social History Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Shreyasi Banerjee, Edward Clark