Branch Banking, Credit Growth, and Economic Recovery in 1930s California
Creators:
Bank of America (historical records) and U.S. Census Bureau (linked individual data)
Publication Date:
2024/06/10
Data Category:
Dataset Description:
This dataset combines archival data from Bank of America’s branch operations with property value, employment, and credit flow data across California cities during the Great Depression. It was used by Sarah Quincy in her 2024 American Economic Review paper to study how branching mitigated local economic shocks by creating an internal capital market. The dataset includes bank-level loan activity, narrative documentation from archives, and linked individual-level census records to analyze structural labor market shifts and urban recovery trajectories between 1929 and 1940.
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