Working papers:
Zombie International Currency: The pound sterling, 1945-1971
Awarded the 2021 EHS prize for Best New Researcher Paper.
Abstract: This paper examines the international role of sterling during the Bretton Woods era and challenges the view of a competition between dollar and sterling after WWII. I construct a new dataset on the composition of foreign exchange reserves of European and sterling area monetary authorities. The postwar reserve role of sterling was limited to the sterling area and was artificial as this area was built as a captive market. I document the exchange controls, commercial threats and economic sanctions employed by the British authorities on sterling area countries to constrain them to keep their foreign exchange reserves in sterling.
Media coverage: The Long Run
Presentations: LEAP seminar, ASSA 2022, 2021 Economic History Workshop - Princeton, 2021 Oxford graduate Economic History seminar, 2021 seminar of financial and business history, Paris School of Economics, 2021 EHS conference, 2020, Research Seminar of the Queen's University Centre for Economic History, Belfast, 2020 LSE Graduate Economic History Seminar - London, EHS NRS Online. 2019 Research seminar – Wirtschaftsuniversität, Wien, 2019 CEB Brown bag seminar – ULB.
At Your Service! Liquidity Provision and Risk Management in 19th Century France
Joint work with Vincent Bignon
Abstract: This paper uses a historical study to show a solution to the trade-off faced by central banks between providing liquidity to a broad group of financial intermediaries and the risk that this easy access may fuel moral hazard. In late 19th century the Bank of France operates a very wide discount window and uses a variety of risk management techniques to effectively subdue risk-taking behaviors and to protect its balance sheet from taking any loss. This allows agents to monetize a very diverse set of capital while limiting the risk of bail-out. We show that this effectively helps the central bank to stabilize the economy from the consequences of negative income shocks.
Media coverage: Vox column ; LSE Business Review
Presentations: 2022 Atlanta Fed Monetary and Financial history workshop, 2019 EHES conference, 2019 French Economic Association conference, 2019 PhD Day – University of Geneva, 2018 Historiales, 2018 CEPR Symposium, 2018 World Economic History Congress, 2017 Economic History Society annual conference.
Pre-doctoral publication:
Avaro, Maylis, and Henri Sterdyniak. "Banking union: a solution to the euro zone crisis?" Revue de l'OFCE (2014): 193-241. https://doi.org/10.3917/reof.132.0193
Work in Progress:
Banking and Monetary History:
A Gold Battle? Revisiting the History De Gaulle vs Dollar Hegemony during the Bretton Woods era. Presented at IPSA work congress, July 2021, Money Doctor workshop, Feb. 2022, Financial History Network, March 2022.
Financial development in late 19th century France: Banks and shadow banks. with Vincent Bignon and Clemens Jobst. Presented at Vienna's Wirtschafts und Sozialgeschichte conference, April 2021, and EBHS Salt Lake City, May 2022.
The Strong and the Weak: European currencies during the Snake, with Michael Bordo, Harold James and Alain Naef. Presented at EHES Groningen, June 2022, and WEHC Paris, July 2022.
Liquidity in the international currency choice in the Bretton Woods era. Presented at the conference From Bretton Woods to 2008 and beyond: global monetary governance, Sept. 2020.
The Role of the Media in Bank Runs, with Kim Oosterlinck and Hugues Pirotte.
History of Economics:
Productive, Unproductive, Reproductive: Women’s Unpaid Work and the Frontier of Economics. With Cléo Chassonery-Zaïgouche and Johanna Gautier Morin. Presented at Boundaries of Economics, June 2022.
Oikos nomos : Visibilité, mesures et valeurs du mode de production domestique en littérature contemporaine. Avec Mathilde Roussigné, Accepted at Fabula-LhT, issue ‘Inventer l’économie’, spring 2022.