Loans for the “Little Fellow”: Credit, Crisis, and Recovery in the Great Depression
中文摘要
本文识别了大萧条期间银行分支如何使地方经济受益。利用档案数据与叙事证据，我展示了1930年代加利福尼亚州美国银行的分支网络如何创造了一个内部资本市场，该市场分散了当地流动性短缺，使得该银行在1929至1933年间维持了比竞争银行高出49个百分点的信贷增长。该银行的存在缓解了城市财产价值的收缩，并增强了其直至1940年的复苏。关联的个体数据显示，该银行临近工人加快了1930年代从农业就业向人力资本密集型部门的转型，产生了结构变化与更高的工资。（JEL E32, G01, G21, N12, N22, N92, R23）
Abstract
This paper identifies how bank branching benefited local economies during the Great Depression. Using archival data and narrative evidence, I show how Bank of America’s branch network in 1930s California created an internal capital market that diversified away local liquidity shortfalls, allowing the bank to maintain 49 percent higher credit growth from 1929 to 1933 than competing banks. The bank’s presence mitigated cites’ property value contractions and strengthened their recovery through 1940. Linked individual data show that the bank’s proximity to workers hastened the transition from agricultural employment to human-capital–intensive sectors in the 1930s, generating structural change and higher wages. (JEL E32, G01, G21, N12, N22, N92, R23)