The vagaries of the sea: evidence on the real effects of money from maritime disasters in the Spanish Empire

Adam Brzezinski, Yao Chen, Nuno Palma and Felix Ward
Additional contact information
Adam Brzezinski: Department of Economics, University of Oxford
Felix Ward: Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam

No 170, Working Papers from European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

Abstract: We exploit a recurring natural experiment to identify the effects of money supply shocks: maritime disasters in the Spanish Empire (1531-1810) that resulted in the loss of substantial amounts of monetary silver. A one percentage point reduction in the money growth rate caused a 1.3% drop in real output that persisted for several years. The empirical evidence highlights nominal rigidities and credit frictions as the primary monetary transmission channels. Our model of the Spanish economy confirms that each of these two channels explain about half of the initial output response, with the credit channel accounting for much of its persistence.

Keywords: Monetary Shocks; Natural Experiment; Nominal Rigidity; Financial Accelerator; DSGE; Minimum-Distance Estimation; Local Projection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E43 E44 E52 N10 N13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2019-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-his, nep-mac, nep-mon and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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https://www.ehes.org/wp/EHES_170.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Vagaries of the Sea: Evidence on the Real Effects of Money from Maritime Disasters in the Spanish Empire (2024)
Working Paper: The vagaries of the sea: evidence on the real effects of money from maritime disasters in the Spanish Empire (2024)
Working Paper: The vagaries of the sea: evidence on the real effects of money from maritime disasters in the Spanish Empire (2022)
Working Paper: The Vagaries of the Sea: Evidence on the Real Effects of Money from Maritime Disasters in the Spanish Empire (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hes:wpaper:0170

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