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Wildcat Bankers or Political Failure? The Irish Financial Pantomime, 1797-1826

Kenny, Seán LU and Turner, John D. (2018) In Lund Papers in Economic History
Abstract
Using a new biography of banks, we examine the stability of Irish banking from 1797 to 1826 by constructing a failure rate series. We find that the ultimate cause of the frequent and severe banking crises was the crisis-prone structure of the banking system, which was designed to benefit the political elite. There is little evidence to suggest that wildcat banking or the failure of the Bank of Ireland to act as a lender of last resort were to blame. We also find that the main economic effect of the episodic crises was major diminutions in the money supply.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
banking crisis, bank failure, Ireland, wildcat banking, political economy of banking, partnership, E42, N13, N23, G21
in
Lund Papers in Economic History
issue
2018:176
pages
68 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
eda132b0-472c-4b42-991b-3b7883696c3e
date added to LUP
2018-06-20 15:17:45
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:40:30
@misc{eda132b0-472c-4b42-991b-3b7883696c3e,
  abstract     = {{Using a new biography of banks, we examine the stability of Irish banking from 1797 to 1826 by constructing a failure rate series. We find that the ultimate cause of the frequent and severe banking crises was the crisis-prone structure of the banking system, which was designed to benefit the political elite. There is little evidence to suggest that wildcat banking or the failure of the Bank of Ireland to act as a lender of last resort were to blame. We also find that the main economic effect of the episodic crises was major diminutions in the money supply.}},
  author       = {{Kenny, Seán and Turner, John D.}},
  keywords     = {{banking crisis; bank failure; Ireland; wildcat banking; political economy of banking; partnership; E42; N13; N23; G21}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2018:176}},
  series       = {{Lund Papers in Economic History}},
  title        = {{Wildcat Bankers or Political Failure? The Irish Financial Pantomime, 1797-1826}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/46567943/2018_176.pdf}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}