Argentina Banking System in the Interwar Period: Stylized Facts in the Light of a New Database, 1925-1935

Documento de Trabajo #2303

Título: Argentina Banking System in the Interwar Period: Stylized Facts in the Light of a New Database, 1925-1935

Autor/es: Sebastian Alvarez and Gianandrea Nodari

Abstract: This article explores the evolution of the Argentine banking system between 1925 and 1935. In order to reach this goal, we gathered individual banks’ monthly balance sheets and offer a novel and comprehensive database on the Argentine banking system of the time. Using this new source, our analysis displays that the situation of Argentine banks during the Great Depression was more complex and dramatic than has been generally recognized. Although intense and deep, the banking crisis was not, however, homogeneous. The nature and timing of the problems, as well as their causes and scope, varied significantly between individual banks or groups of banks. As the article shows, the reasons and motives behind the heterogeneity of banks’ problems seem to be linked both to national political episodes of instability as well as to the contagion of the financial crisis from the core countries.