How was the Quantitative Easing Program of the 1930s Unwound?

Matthew Jaremski and Gabriel Mathy ()

No 23788, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Outside of the recent past, excess reserves have only concerned policymakers in one other period: the Great Depression. The data show that excess reserves in the 1930s were never actively unwound through a reduction in the monetary base. Nominal economic growth swelled required reserves while an exogenous reduction in monetary gold inflows due to war embargoes in Europe allowed excess reserves to naturally decline towards zero. Excess reserves fell rapidly in early 1941 and would have unwound fully even without the entry of the United States into World War II. As such, policy tightening was at no point necessary and could have contributed to the 1937-1938 Recession.

JEL-codes: E32 E58 N12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-hpe, nep-mac and nep-mon
Note: DAE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Matthew Jaremski & Gabriel Mathy, 2017. "How was the Quantitative Easing Program of the 1930s Unwound?," Explorations in Economic History, .

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Journal Article: How was the quantitative easing program of the 1930s Unwound? (2018)
Working Paper: How Was the Quantitative Easing Program of the 1930s Unwound? (2016)
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