Christopher M. Meissner

article

Geography, policy, or productivity? Regional trade in five South American countries, 1910–50

Marc Badia‐Miró, Anna Carreras‐Marín, Christopher M. Meissner

The Economic History Review > 71 > 1 > 236 - 266

Regional trade in South America since independence has long been much smaller than would be expected if geography were the only constraint on trade. Several potential explanations exist, including low technological and demand complementarities; low productivity; and high natural and policy barriers to trade. Focusing on the latter explanations, policy makers have long advocated a South American/Southern...

article

Market potential and the rise of US productivity leadership

Dan Liu, Christopher M. Meissner

Journal of International Economics > 2015 > 96 > 1 > 72-87

Today's globalization, driven by lower barriers to trade, has increased market potential for many nations and led to gains in GDP per capita. We test whether this was true in the first wave of globalization by constructing market potential measures for a sample of 27 countries in 1900 and 1910 based on a general equilibrium model of production and trade. Cross-sectional estimates suggest that market...

article

Does inequality lead to a financial crisis?

Michael D. Bordo, Christopher M. Meissner

Journal of International Money and Finance > 2012 > 31 > 8 > 2147-2161

The recent global crisis has sparked interest in the relationship between income inequality, credit booms, and financial crises. Rajan (2010) and Kumhof and Rancière (2011) propose that rising inequality led to a credit boom and eventually to a financial crisis in the US in the first decade of the 21st century as it did in the 1920s. Data from 14 advanced countries between 1920 and 2000 suggest these...

article

Book review

Christopher M. Meissner

Journal of International Economics > 2012 > 86 > 1 > 181-182

article

Business cycle co-movement: Evidence from the Great Depression

Gabriel P. Mathy, Christopher M. Meissner

Journal of Monetary Economics > 2011 > 58 > 4 > 362-372

Recent analysis focuses on the gold standard as a channel for the transmission of the Great Depression. Trade linkages, which loom large in the recent literature, play a smaller role. Both the gold standard and trade were associated with higher co-movement at the bilateral level during the entire interwar period. We document that fixed exchange rates and trade made a comeback after 1932, but co-movement...

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Trade booms, trade busts, and trade costs

David S. Jacks, Christopher M. Meissner, Dennis Novy

Journal of International Economics > 2011 > 83 > 2 > 185-201

What has driven trade booms and trade busts in the past and present? We employ a micro-founded measure of trade frictions consistent with leading trade theories to gauge the importance of bilateral trade costs in determining international trade flows. We construct a new balanced sample of bilateral trade flows for 130 country pairs across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania for the period from...

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Foreign currency debt, financial crises and economic growth: A long-run view

Michael D. Bordo, Christopher M. Meissner, David Stuckler

Journal of International Money and Finance > 2010 > 29 > 4 > 642-665

Foreign currency debt is widely believed to increase risks of financial crisis, especially after being implicated as a cause of the East Asian crisis in the late 1990s. In this paper, we study the effects of foreign currency debt on currency and debt crises and its indirect effects on short-term growth and long-run output effects in both 1880–1913 and 1973–2003 for 45 countries. Greater ratios of...

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Trade costs in the first wave of globalization

David S. Jacks, Christopher M. Meissner, Dennis Novy

Explorations in Economic History > 2010 > 47 > 2 > 127-141

What factors drove globalization in the late 19th century? We employ a new micro-founded measure of bilateral trade costs based on a standard model of trade in differentiated goods to address this question. These trade costs gauge the difference between observed bilateral trade and frictionless trade. They comprise tariffs, transportation costs, and all other factors that impede international trade...

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Sudden stops: Determinants and output effects in the first era of globalization, 1880–1913

Michael D. Bordo, Alberto F. Cavallo, Christopher M. Meissner

Journal of Development Economics > 2010 > 91 > 2 > 227-241

We study the determinants and output effects of sudden stops in capital inflows during an era of intensified globalization from 1880 to 1913. Higher levels of exposure to foreign currency debt and large current account deficits associated with reliance on foreign capital greatly increased the likelihood of experiencing a sudden stop. Trade openness and strong reserve positions had the opposite effect...

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Identifying the effects of an exchange rate depreciation on country risk: Evidence from a natural experiment

Michael D. Bordo, Christopher M. Meissner, Marc D. Weidenmier

Journal of International Money and Finance > 2009 > 28 > 6 > 1022-1044

A natural experiment is used to study exchange rate depreciation and perceived sovereign risk. France suspended coinage of silver in 1876 provoking a significant exogenous depreciation of all silver standard countries versus gold standard currencies like the British pound – the currency in which their debt was payable. The evidence suggests an exchange rate depreciation can significantly increase...

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Why do countries peg the way they peg? The determinants of anchor currency choice

Christopher M. Meissner, Nienke Oomes

Journal of International Money and Finance > 2009 > 28 > 3 > 522-547

What determines the currency to which countries peg or “anchor” their exchange rate? Data for over 100 countries between 1980 and 1998 reveal trade network externalities are a key determinant of anchor currency choice. This implies currency anchoring strategies could be sub-optimal. Hence, certain currencies could be oversubscribed as anchors, and changes in anchor choices of a small number of countries...

article

Global capitalism: Its fall and rise in the twentieth century

Christopher M. Meissner

Journal of International Economics > 2007 > 71 > 2 > 523-525

article

The role of foreign currency debt in financial crises: 1880–1913 versus 1972–1997

Michael D. Bordo, Christopher M. Meissner

Journal of Banking and Finance > 2006 > 30 > 12 > 3299-3329

We show that exposure to foreign currency debt does not necessarily increase the risk of having a financial crisis. Some countries do not suffer from financial fragility despite original sin. Before 1913 British offshoots and Scandinavia afflicted with it avoided financial meltdowns. Today many advanced countries have original sin, but few have had crises. In both periods, aggregate balance sheet...

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Voting rules and the success of connected lending in 19th century New England banks

Christopher M. Meissner

Explorations in Economic History > 2005 > 42 > 4 > 509-528

How well do decision-making processes within firms serve as control mechanisms? The voting rules governing loan approval in early 19th century New England banks are analyzed to find out. These banks exhibited high levels of lending to directors and their associates. Some theories of corporate governance argue that this could lead to increased managerial opportunism. However, a model shows that banks...

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A new world order: explaining the international diffusion of the gold standard, 1870–1913

Christopher M. Meissner

Journal of International Economics > 2005 > 66 > 2 > 385-406

The gold standard gradually became an international monetary regime after 1870. Similarly, some nations in the European Union are waiting to adopt the euro while others have joined immediately. What explains the timing of exchange rate regime adoption? To find out, the international diffusion of the gold standard is analyzed. Duration analysis shows that network externalities operating through trade...

INFONA - science communication portal

Search results for: Christopher M. Meissner

Geography, policy, or productivity? Regional trade in five South American countries, 1910–50

Market potential and the rise of US productivity leadership

Does inequality lead to a financial crisis?

Book review

Business cycle co-movement: Evidence from the Great Depression

Trade booms, trade busts, and trade costs

Foreign currency debt, financial crises and economic growth: A long-run view

Trade costs in the first wave of globalization

Sudden stops: Determinants and output effects in the first era of globalization, 1880–1913

Identifying the effects of an exchange rate depreciation on country risk: Evidence from a natural experiment

Why do countries peg the way they peg? The determinants of anchor currency choice

Global capitalism: Its fall and rise in the twentieth century

The role of foreign currency debt in financial crises: 1880–1913 versus 1972–1997

Voting rules and the success of connected lending in 19th century New England banks

A new world order: explaining the international diffusion of the gold standard, 1870–1913

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