Policy and Economy: the causal factors of the economic crisis during the Second Republic (1931-1936)

Abstract

This article contrasts the explanations that contemporary economists gave to the economic crisis of the 1930’s using both the historical statistics and research that we have today. This article demonstrates that said contemporary economists’ statements were fairly neutral. The influence the international crisis had on the Spanish economy was more intense and widespread than Spanish economists thought: protectionism did not isolate the Spanish economy from abroad; it was not so strong nor was the depreciation of the currency so intense. The origins of the Spanish economic crisis cannot be found in the political and institutional factors that arose from the establishment of the Second Republic. They did slow down private investment however they did not hinder public investment. There was not even a change in the budgetary policy of the Second Republic with respect to that of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.