Calendrier du 30 juin 2021
Economic History Seminar
Du 30/06/2021 de 12:30 à 14:00
Via Zoom
GELDERBLOM Oscar (Université d Utrecht)
Coping with Financial fragility: the case of the Dutch Great Depression
écrit avec with Tim van der Valk
We analyze the financial behavior of Dutch households during the Great Depression with household level data on income and expenditure from two contemporary surveys, one a representative sample of 598 households outside the country's four major cities, the other a sample of 700 households whose breadwinner had been unemployed for at least six months. We find that five years into the Great Depression most Dutch households still managed to cope financially. Their incomes were high enough to reduce consumption without immediately falling into poverty. Households also benefited from previously created financial buffers and low levels of household debt. Only households facing long-term unemployment were fully dependent on the redistribution of income by local and central governments to make ends meet.