Europe’s Great Depression: coordination failure after the First World War

In this paper I survey and reinterpret the extensive literature on Europe’s Great Depression. I argue that Europe could not exploit its vast economic potential after 1918, because the war had not yet come to an end—indeed, it did not end before 1945. Both domestic and international institutions suffered from a lack of reciprocal trust and commitment, which can be clearly illustrated in the realm of monetary policy, but affected many other areas of policy-making, such as energy or migration policies. These institutions in turn affected expectations and thereby the extent to which, for example, expansionary policies could be effective.