The business of central banking in Sweden, 1924–1939: regime change and adaptation

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dc.contributor.authorZhao, Liang
dc.contributor.authorKenny, Seán
dc.contributor.funderGuangdong Province Philosophy and Social Science PlanningProject
dc.contributor.funderGuangdong Science and Technology Department
dc.contributor.funderGuangdong Ocean University
dc.contributor.funderHandelsbankens forskningsstiftelser
dc.date.accessioned2026-10-08T14:00:02Z
dc.date.available2026-10-08T14:00:02Z
dc.date.issued2026-06-17
dc.description.abstractThis paper re-examines Swedish central banking during the interwar period (1924–1939), exploiting major regime shifts to analyze how the Riksbank adapted its core operations. Using monthly money-market data, we show that although interest rate policy broadly followed the ‘rules of the game’ after the return to gold in 1924, the Riksbank’s primary activity—rediscounting commercial bills—was largely financed through deposits from the National Debt Office, allowing domestic liquidity provision without reliance on gold flows. The Kreuger crisis underscores how the scale of emergency liquidity provision, combined with the collapse of international capital markets, strained the existing monetary–fiscal arrangement and hastened Sweden’s departure from gold. After abandoning gold in 1931 and moving to a pound peg in 1933, interest rate setting adhered even more closely to the ‘rules of the game’ than during the gold-standard period. Further, domestic rediscounting disappeared and was replaced by foreign bill purchases, placing downward pressure on the krona. These combined findings support the view that exchange-rate objectives, rather than price-level targeting, dominated Swedish monetary policy in the 1930s.en
dc.description.sponsorshipGuangdong Province Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project|GD24XWL0
dc.description.sponsorshipGuangdong Science and Technology Department|S202500038
dc.description.sponsorshipGuangdong Ocean University| Scientiffc Research Startup Fund: ‘Study on the Transmission Mechanism of Imported Financial Crises
dc.description.sponsorshipHandelsbankens forskningsstiftelser|P23-0079]
dc.description.versionPublished Version
dc.format.extent22
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.authororcidZhao, Liang
dc.identifier.authororcidKenny, Seán
dc.identifier.citationZhao, L & Kenny, S 2026, 'The business of central banking in Sweden, 1924–1939: regime change and adaptation', Business History, pp. 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2026.2681464
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/00076791.2026.2681464
dc.identifier.endpage22
dc.identifier.issn0007-6791
dc.identifier.journaltitleBusiness History
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/19423
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherTaylor and Francis Ltd.
dc.relation.urihttps://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105042073806
dc.rights© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
dc.rights.accessrightsopen access
dc.rights.licensenameAttribution 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.statusPeer reviewed
dc.subjectCentral banking
dc.subjectFinancial crisis
dc.subjectInterwar gold standard
dc.subjectMonetary-Fiscal co-ordination
dc.subjectSweden
dc.subject[CUBS]
dc.titleThe business of central banking in Sweden, 1924–1939: regime change and adaptationen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)
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