Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History: Charity Begins at Home – Why Britain resumed the Gold Standard after the French Wars
09/01/2024 (Seminars)
Bank of Greece
The Historical Archives of the Bank of Greece, in the context of the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History, jointly organised with the Athens University of Economics and Business and Panteion University, invite you to the lecture entitled:
Charity Begins at Home – Why Britain resumed the Gold Standard after the French Wars
Speaker: Pamfili Antipa (Banque de France & Science Po)
A few words on the topic:
The speaker will present the findings of a project jointly carried out with Quoc-Anh Do, associate professor at Monash University, and Walker Hanlon, associate professor at Northwestern University. At its core, the project takes a historical look at how politicians deal with conflicts of interest. Specifically, the research seeks to understand whether personal financial gain motivated British Members of Parliament (MPs) when they decided to return to the gold standard in 1819, following the end of the French Wars (1793-1815). Analysing the size and timing of MPs’ holdings of government debt, as recorded in the archives of the Bank of England, the researchers find that personal financial motivations played a key role in shaping politicians’ attitudes toward the gold standard. Many of those who publicly pushed for a return to the gold standard held large amounts of public debt, whose value would appreciate substantially if sterling were to return to gold. In addition, the timing of transactions also suggests evidence of insider trading. The analysis informs our understanding of how institutional structures generate credible commitments –in this case to stable money– and shows that allowing some amount of what would nowadays be considered corruption rendered the institution self-enforcing.
The sessions are held between 17:00-19:00 at the Museum of the Bank of Greece, at 3, Amerikis Street, Athens, and are open to the public, without requiring prior registration. The lecture will be delivered in English.
The complete programme of upcoming lectures is available on the website of the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History.
Relative links:
Poster of the event