Authors: Jerry Jiang and Jacob P. Weber
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Staff Reports
Who Collaborates with the Soviets? Financial Distress and Technology Transfer During the Great Depression
Number 1134
November 2024
November 2024
JEL classification: G21, N6, O33
We provide evidence that financial distress induces firms to sell their technology to foreign competitors. To do so, we construct a novel, spatial panel dataset by individually researching and locating U.S. firms who signed Technology Transfer Agreements (TTAs) with the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s in various U.S. counties. By relating the number of TTAs signed in each county to the number of bank failures, we establish a significant, positive relationship between financial distress and the number of firms signing TTAs with the Soviet Union. Our findings suggest that banking panics may create opportunities for foreign countries to acquire affected firms’ technology.
Author Disclosure Statement(s)
Jerry Jiang
The author declares that he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
Jacob Weber
The author declares that he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
The author declares that he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
Jacob Weber
The author declares that he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
Suggested Citation:
Jiang, Jerry, and Jacob P. Weber. 2024. “Who Collaborates with the Soviets? Financial Distress and Technology Transfer During the Great Depression.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 1134, November. https://doi.org/10.59576/sr.1134
Jiang, Jerry, and Jacob P. Weber. 2024. “Who Collaborates with the Soviets? Financial Distress and Technology Transfer During the Great Depression.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 1134, November. https://doi.org/10.59576/sr.1134
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