Market contagion: evidence from the panics of 1854 and 1857

Cormac Ó Gráda and Morgan Kelly

Open Access publications from School of Economics, University College Dublin

Abstract: To test a model of contagion--where individuals hear some bad news and communicate it to their acquaintances, who then pass it on, leading to a market panic--requires a knowledge of the information networks of participants, something hitherto unavailable. For two panics in the 1850s this paper examines the behavior of Irish depositors in a New York bank. As recent immigrants, their social network was determined largely by their place of origin in Ireland, and where they lived in New York. During both panics this social network turns out to be the prime determinant of behavior.

Keywords: Financial crises--United States; Consumer behavior--United States; Information behavior--United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 N21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2000-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (156)

Published in: American Economic Review, 90(5) 2000-12

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10197/459 Open Access version, 2000 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Market Contagion: Evidence from the Panics of 1854 and 1857 (2000)
Working Paper: Market Contagion: Evidence from the Panics of 1854 and 1857 (1999)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucn:oapubs:10197/459

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Open Access publications from School of Economics, University College Dublin Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Nicolas Clifton ().