Great Depressions of the Twentiety Century

Abstract

The papers in this volume study twelve great depressions—those in Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States in the interwar period; those in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile during the “lost decade” of the 1980s; those in New Zealand and Switzerland that began in the early 1970s; and another great depression in Argentina that began in 1998. It also studies three not-quite-great depressions—that in Italy in the interwar period and those in Finland and Japan in the 1990s. All of the papers rely on growth accounting to decompose changes in output into the portions due to changes in factor inputs and the portion due to the changes in efficiency with which these factors are used. All of the papers employ simple applied dynamic general equilibrium models. Collectively, these papers indicate that government policies that affect productivity and hours per working-age person are the crucial determinants of the great depressions of the twentieth century.