Il ruolo dei paesi a basso reddito nelle crisi finanziarie del 1929 e del 2008

The evolution of GDP is examined in a panel of 17 advanced economies and 15 developing countries during the Great Depression and the 2008 crisis. The 2008 crisis provoked less severe consequences for the real economy, and highlighted an unprecedented resilience of developing and emerging economies. Two explanations are proposed. First, a massive increase of manufactures’ export from China and other Asian countries radically changed their disadvantaged role in world trade as suppliers of raw materials. Second, the 1997 East Asian crisis pushed many emerging economies to raise their foreign exchange reserves. From passive recipients of capital inflows, developing economies became active participants in global capital markets. The Age of Credit replaced the Age of Money, favoring the ‘excess elasticity’ of a global financial system which can generate and spread financing means worldwide, regardless of the underlying real resources backing them.