">Financial Crises and Economic Activity= 4 )) { temp = navigator.appVersion.split("MSIE") version = parseInt(temp[1]) if (version == 0) { version = 5 }}V5pl = (version >= 5);V4pl = (version >= 4);V4 = (version == 4);NS5pl = (NS && V5pl);NS4pl = (NS && V4pl);NS4 = (NS && V4);IE4pl = (IE && V4pl);IE4 = (IE && V4);IE5pl = (IE && V5pl);doAll = document.all ? 1 : 0;doGEl = document.getElementById ? 1 : 0;if (IE4pl || NS5pl) { document.write('')}else if (NS4pl) { document.write('')}doneLoad = 0;function get_hide(showit) { if (!doneLoad) { return 0 } if (!doGEl) { return 0 } if (MAC && IE5pl) { return 0 } document.getElementById('pubbar').style.display = "none"; document.getElementById('homebar').style.display = "none"; document.getElementById('resbar').style.display = "none"; document.getElementById('databar').style.display = "none"; document.getElementById('aboutbar').style.display = "none"; document.getElementById('peoplebar').style.display = "none"; document.getElementById('loginbar').style.display = "none"; if (showit) { document.getElementById(showit).style.display = "block";// document.getElementById('maine').style.MozOpacity = 0.2; } else {// document.getElementById('maine').style.MozOpacity = 1; }}// -->Jump to the Navigation BarFinancial Crises and Economic ActivityUse a mirror (582 K) Stephen G. Cecchetti, Marion Kohler, Christian Upper NBER Working Paper No. 15379Issued in September 2009NBER Program(s): MEWe study the output costs of 40 systemic banking crises since 1980. Most, but not all, crises in our sample coincide with a sharp contraction in output from which it took several years to recover. Our main findings are as follows. First, the current financial crisis is unlike any others in terms of a wide range of economic factors. Second, the output losses of past banking crises were higher when they were accompanied by a currency crisis or when growth was low at the onset of the crisis. When accompanied by a sovereign debt default, a systemic banking crisis was less costly. And, third, there is a tendency for systemic banking crises to have lasting negative output effects"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.