Currency devaluations and beggar-my-neighbour penalties: evidence from the 1930s

The currency devaluations of the 1930s facilitated a faster recovery from the Great Depression in the countries depreciating, but their unilateral manner provoked retaliatory and discriminatory commercial policies abroad. This article explores the importance of the retaliatory motive in the imposition of trade barriers by gold bloc countries during the 1930s and its effects on trade. Relying on new and existing datasets on the introduction of quotas, tariffs, and bilateral trade costs, the quantification of the discriminatory response suggests that these countries imposed significant beggar‐my‐neighbour penalties. The penalties reduced trade to a similar degree that modern regional trade agreements foster trade. Furthermore, the analysis of contemporary newspapers reveals that the devaluations of the early 1930s triggered an Anglo‐French trade conflict marked by tit‐for‐tat protectionist policies. With regards to global trade, the unilateral currency depreciations came at a high price in political and economic terms. These costs must have necessarily reduced their benefit to the world as a whole

A global corporate census: publicly traded and close companies in 1910

In 1910 the world had almost half a million corporations, only one-hundredth of today's total. About one-fifth—with over half of corporate capital—were publicly tradable, higher portions than today. Most publicly quoted corporations traded in Europe and the British Empire, but most close (private) corporations operated in the US, which, until the 1940s, had more corporations per capita than anywhere else. The 83 countries surveyed here differed markedly in company numbers, corporate capital/GDP ratios, and average corporate size. Enclave economies—dominated by quoted (and often foreign-owned) companies—had the largest average sizes, while other nations had more varied mixes of large quoted corporations and close company small and medium enterprises

Elite Influence? Religion, Economics, and the Rise of the Nazis

Adolf Hitler's seizure of power was one of the most consequential events of the twentieth century. Yet, our understanding of which factors fueled the astonishing rise of the Nazis remains highly incomplete. This paper shows that religion played an important role in the Nazi party's electoral success -- dwarfing all available socioeconomic variables. To obtain the first causal estimates we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in the geographic distribution of Catholics and Protestants due to a peace treaty in the sixteenth century. Even after allowing for sizeable violations of the exclusion restriction, the evidence indicates that Catholics were significantly less likely to vote for the Nazi Party than Protestants. Consistent with the historical record, our results are most naturally rationalized by a model in which the Catholic Church leaned on believers to vote for the democratic Zentrum Party, whereas the Protestant Church remained politically neutral

Statistik des Deutschen Reichs.

Each vol. has also a distinctive title.Some vols. include supplements.Mode of access: Internet

Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich.

Vols for 1921-22, 1924-25, 1939-40 issued combined.Mode of access: Internet.Herausgegeben vom Kaiserlichen Statistischen Amt, 1880-1918; vom Statistischen Reichsamt, 1919-Electronic serial mode of access: World Wide Web

Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich.

Mode of access: Internet.Superseded by Statistisches Jahrbuch für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Vierteljahrshefte zur Statistik des Deutschen Reichs.

Each Jahrg. in 4 HefteNo more published?Supplements accompany some numbers.Mode of access: Internet.Issued 1892-1917 by the office under an earlier name: Kaiserliches Statistisches Amt.An earlier series formed part of the "Statistik des Deutschen Reichs," 1873-1876. This series ("Neue Reihe") together with the "Monatliche Nachweise über den auswärtigen Handel des deutschen Zollgebiets" continues the "Monatshefte zur Statistik des Deutschen Reichs.

Monatliche Nachweise über den auswärtigen Handel Deutschlands.

Other slight variations in title ..."Erscheinen in Gemeinschaft m. den Vierteljahrsheften zur Statistik d. Deutschen Reichs als Fortsetzung des 'Monatsheft zur Statistik d. Deutschen Reichs.'" Cf. Kayser. Völlstandiges Bücher-Lexikon, v. 28, p. 227.Publication suspended July 1914-June 1920, Jan.-Apr. 1921.Includes Erganzungshefte.Mode of access: Internet