Natacha Postel-Vinay is writing her thesis at the Department of Economic History at the LSE on banking crises in the U.S. Great Depression. She argues that mortgage lending in the 1920s was an important cause of bank failure during the Depression, especially in Chicago, which had the highest urban bank failure rate in the United States. Her work includes a longitudinal analysis of all Chicago bank portfolios from 1923 to 1933, a case study of one suburban bank, and an examination of mortgage contract deficiencies in all of the United States, drawing on contract theory. Her interests span all kinds of financial history, as well as the history of economic thought, as can be seen in her book reviews on the LSE Review of Books website.
Recent Presentations at BHC Annual Meetings