To what extent was the summer of 1931 a financial crisis in Britain? Previous research has shown how London merchant banks were affected, but it remains unclear to what extent the largest commercial banks of London – the clearing banks – were under threat. Monthly balance sheets reported by...

Existing research on how international insurance demand varies with income is largely driven by cross-sectional variation post-1970. Drawing on newly collected historical long-run data on life insurance premiums starting as early as 1850 to 2020 for 20 OECD countries, we evaluate the 'S-Curve'...