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Current working papers

Financial Stability Policies and Bank Lending: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Federal Reserve Interventions in 1920-21

• Download draft: here (R&R at AEJ:Macro)
• Available on SSRN and as CEPR Discussion Paper 16490/2024 and ESRB Working Paper 113/2020 (older version)
• Awards: FWF Schroedinger Fellowship, French Finance Association Gallais-Hamonno Research Prize in Historical Finance 2021 (special commendation), Theodor Körner Prize 2019, ESRB Ieke van den Burg Prize 2019 (shortlisted)
• Media: Der Standard – Ökonomieblog (economics blog): “Warum Wirtschaftsgeschichte Sexy Ist” (in German; “Why economic history is sexy”), 21 May 2019.
• Previous version circulated with the title: “Should Monetary Policy Lean Against the Wind? Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Federal Reserve Policies in 1920-21”

The Deposit-Taker of Last Resort

• With Pamfili Antipa, Banque de France & LSE (second round R&R at Review of Finance)
• Download draft: here 

Macroscoping the Historical Lender of Last Resort: A Transatlantic Perspective

• Download draft: here (R&R at Explorations in Economic History)
• SAFE House of Finance & IBF Conference on the Evolving History of Central Banking Conference

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Publications in peer-reviewed journals

Banking on a Corporate Rebrand

• With Kris Mitchener, Santa Clara University, CEPR & NBER, and Matt Jaremski, Utah State University & NBER (accepted for publication in Management Science)
• Download paper: here 

Central Bank Communication by ??? The Economics of Monetary Policy Leaks

• Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol.161 (July 2026), pp. 1-18.
• Dowload paper: here (with M. Ehrmann, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, and P. Gnan, BMF)
• Media (selected): ECB Blog: “Anonymous Eurosystem leaks – minor nuisance or major problem?”, 19 May 2023; Financial Times: “ECB urges investors to ignore ‘noise’ from hundreds of media leaks”, 19 May 2023; EuroIntelligence: “Here is a leak, world-exclusive”, 22 May 2023; LesEchos: “Fuites de la BCE : quand les banquiers centraux parlent trop“, 15 June 2023

Dating the Lender of Last Resort

• The Economic Journal, Vol. 133 (652, May 2023), pp.1657-1676.
• Download paper: here (with M. Anson and T. Ryland, Bank of England, and D. Bholat, Barclays UK)
• To download the online appendix, click here.
• The replication package can be downloaded here. 
• Media: VoxEU CEPR Policy Portal: What we may learn from historical financial crises to understand and mitigate COVID-19 panic buying, 20 April 2020.
• An earlier and substantially different version of this paper was published as a Bank of England Staff Working Paper (Staff Working Paper No. 794, 4/2019).
• Previous version circulated with the title: “What You Owe or Who You Know? The Recipients of Central Bank Liquidity during the English Crisis of 1847″

Supervision without Regulation: Discount Limits at the Austro-Hungarian Bank, 1909-1913

• The Economic History Review, Vol. 76 (4, November 2023), pp.1074-1109.
• Download paper: here (with C. Jobst, University of Vienna)
• To download the online appendix, click here.
• The replication package can be downloaded here. 
• Available as CEPR Discussion Paper 16841/2021
• Awards: EHA Alexander Gerschenkron Prize 2018 (finalist), Michael Mitterauer Prize 2018

The (Not So) Quiet Period: Communication by ECB Decision-makers during Monetary Policy Blackout Days

• Journal of International Money and Finance, Vol. 130 (February 2023), pp.1-15.
• Download paper: here (with P. Gnan, WU Vienna)
• Previous version circulated with the title: “Who Talks During Monetary Policy Quiet Periods, and Why? Evidence from the European Central Bank’s Governing Council”
• Available as CEPR Discussion Paper 15735/2021

Monetary Policy Decision-Making by Committee: Why, When and How it Can Work

• European Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 72 (March 2022), pp. 1-30.
• Download paper: here 

(Un)promising Beginnings – Bagehot in the Land of the Waltz: Financial Crises and Lending of Last Resort in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1868-1914) 

• Dissertation summary published in The Journal of Economic History 79(2) (2019), pp. 507-542.
• Download summary: here 

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Policy papers, book chapters and surveys

Central Bank Decision-Making: Past and Present

• Draft prepared for the Routledge Handbook of the History of Central Banking (November 2024)
• Download draft chapter: here 

Clear, Consistent and Engaging: ECB Monetary Policy Communication in a Changing World

• ECB Occasional Paper 274/2021
• With colleagues from the ECB Strategy Review Workstream on Monetary Policy Communication
• Download paper: here 

The Effects of the Monetary Policy Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Preliminary Evidence from a Pilot Study using Austrian bank-level Data

• Monetary Policy and the Economy Q4 (2020) – Q1 (2021), pp. 131-152
• With C. Kwapil, OeNB
• Download paper: here

Principles, circumstances and constraints: the Nationalbank as lender of last resort from 1816 to 1931

• Monetary Policy and the Economy Q3-4 (2016), pp.140-162
• With C. Jobst, University of Vienna
• Download paper: here

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Ongoing Research Projects

Corridors of Power

• With R. Ferstl, OeNB and C. Kwapil, OeNB

Dispensable Men

• With A. Bachleitner, Austrian Fiscal Advisory Council

Mortgage Debt Resolution and Bank Distress: Evidence from the 1920s Commodity Price Bust

• With T. E. Messer, Federal Reserve Board

Like Taxi Drivers Disappearing in the Rain? Historical Evidence on the Usability of Liquidity Buffers

• With M. Carlson, Federal Reserve Board

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Hibernating Research Projects

The Impact of Tariff Protection: Evidence from British Colonies in Australia

• With L. Sauerhammer, WU Vienna
• Download slides: here

Financial Network Topology and Historical Market Crashes: Evidence from the Austro-Hungarian Gründerkrach of 1873

• Financial support by the science and research funding arm of the City of Vienna (2020-2021)

The Vienna Real Estate Market, 1868-1990: The First Long-run real estate price index for Austria

• With M. Lampe, WU Vienna, C. Jobst, University of Vienna, and K. Wagner, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, running 2018-2021
• Financial support by the OeNB Anniversary Fund
• Project homepage: link

A Historic(al) Run on Repo: Causes of Bank Distress during the Austro-Hungarian Gründerkrach of 1873 

• Download dissertation: here
• Awards: EHS New Researcher Prize 2017, EHA Alexander Gerschenkron Prize 2018 (finalist), Michael Mitterauer Prize 2018
• Summary: The Journal of Economic History 79, no. 2 (2019): 507-542.

Haunting the Specter of Credit Rationing: Unconventional Last Resort Lending during the Austro-Hungarian Gründerkrach of 1873

• Download dissertation: here
• Awards: EHA Alexander Gerschenkron Prize 2018 (finalist), Michael Mitterauer Prize 2018
• Summary: The Journal of Economic History 79, no. 2 (2019): 507-542.