The Economic Thought and Economic Policy during the Showa-Crisis: The Return to Gold Controversy in Japan Revisited(in Japanese)

Masazumi Wakatabe

ESRI Discussion paper series from Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

Abstract: The recent experience of deflationary recession in Japan has revived an interest in past episodes of deflationary recessions. This paper turns to one of such episodes in Japan, namely the Showa crisis of 1930-1931. The paper pays special attention to the "return to the gold standard controversy" in Japan, the foremost macroeconomic debate during the 1920s, as a pretext of the depression. This line of research accords with the recent literature on the international view on the Great Depression, which focuses on the role of the gold standard in the propagation of the Depression. It is shown that the policymakers and economists of the day were strongly influenced by two sets of ideas, or perhaps ideologies: the "gold standard mentality," and "liquidationism," both of which were also pervasive in some Western countries. The Showa crisis was the result of the economic policy formed by those two ideologies; ending the crisis required major efforts toward the liberation of those ideologies from the controversy.

Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2003-06
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