Two Centuries of Systemic Bank Runs
Bank runs play a key role for the allocation of resources in the economy by providing long-term loans funded by shorter-term deposits. Maturity transformation gives rise to a critical vulnerability: the possibility of bank runs. Despite much interest from both academics and practitioners over the past 40 years, measuring bank runs systematically has proven to be notoriously difficult.
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In "Two Centuries of Systemic Bank Runs", we produce the most comprehensive, historical, narrative chronology of bank runs covering 192 countries over 1800-2024. In addition, we assemble and harmonize a novel dataset of national banking sectors’ deposits, allowing us to measure episodes of significant deposit contractions. The synergy of qualitative, narrative-based identification of bank runs with a quantitative, statistical indicator of depositor withdrawals provides an unprecedented advancement in the measurement of bank run risk.
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​Full Paper​ CEPR DP VoxEU
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​​Cite as: Jamilov, R., Konig, T., Muller, K., and Saidi, F. "Two Centuries of Systemic Bank Runs", CEPR Discussion Paper 19382, 2025.
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Bank Runs and Crises: 1800-2024
Source: Jamilov et al. (2025). Note: The figures plot the frequencies of bank runs for which JKMS have narrative evidence and a unified banking crises measure from 1800 to 2024. The annual frequency of runs and crises is visualized as a moving average, using a ten-year time window. The frequency in each individual year is calculated as the total number of runs/crises divided by the number of countries for which the authors have data coverage in that specific year.