Using a new database for the late 19th century, when the pound sterling circulated all over the world, this paper …

This paper studies the role of unemployment in sterling’s inter-war experience. According to most narrative accounts …, the proximate cause of the 1931 sterling crisis was a high and rising unemployment rate that placed pressure on British … can reproduce the main features of sterling’s inter-war experience. Econometric evidence lends further support to the view …