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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Financial crises and political radicalization: how failing banks paved Hitler's path to power
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Sebastian Klaus Dörr
  • Stefan Gissler
  • José-Luis Peydró
  • Hans-Joachim Voth
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Journal of Finance
Publisher Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0022-1082
Volume 77
Number 6
Page Range 3339 - 3372
Date 2022
Abstract Text Do financial crises radicalize voters? We study Germany’s 1931 banking crisis, collecting new data on bank branches and firm-bank connections. Exploiting cross-sectional variation in precrisis exposure to the bank at the center of the crisis, we show that Nazi votes surged in locations more affected by its failure. Radicalization in response to the shock was exacerbated in cities with a history of anti-Semitism. After the Nazis seized power, both pogroms and deportations were more frequent in places affected by the banking crisis. Our results suggest an important synergy between financial distress and cultural predispositions, with far-reaching consequences.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1111/jofi.13166
Other Identification Number merlin-id:23261
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Keywords Economics and econometrics, finance, accounting