Many economic historians have argued that adherence to the gold standard was an important obstacle to recovery from the Great Depression. It is therefore important to understand the factors that affected a country’s determination to remain on gold. Here I explore a neglected but fundamental determinant: income inequality. I find that countries with higher income inequality at the start of the Depression remained on gold longer than countries with lower inequality (Inequality of wealth could also be an important factor, but since the wealth data were limited for the interwar period, this paper just focuses on inequality of income). The paper lays out the econometric evidence for this relationship and analyzes the underlying political economy that explains the relationship between inequality and adherence to the gold standard.

许多经济历史学家认为，坚持金本位制是从大萧条中复苏的重要障碍。因此，了解影响一个国家继续持有黄金的决心的因素非常重要。在这里，我探讨了一个被忽视但基本的决定因素：收入不平等。我发现大萧条开始时收入不平等程度较高的国家比不平等程度较低的国家保持黄金的时间更长（财富不平等也可能是一个重要因素，但由于两次世界大战期间的财富数据有限，本文只关注关于收入不平等）。本文列出了这种关系的计量经济学证据，并分析了解释不平等与遵守金本位制之间关系的潜在政治经济学。