Anatomy of a trade collapse: The UK, 1929-33
The literature has identified several stylised facts which characterise the nature and causes of the collapse in international trade during 2008 and 2009. This column uses detailed, commodity-specific information on UK imports between 1929 and 1933 to document several similarities between the trade collapses of the Great Depression and the Great Recession. The findings are in line with theories emphasising the composition of expenditure changes during major economic crises, or the relative sizes of firms operating closer to or further away from the margin between exporting or not.
CEPR