Krakowska szkoła ekonomii wobec Wielkiego Kryzysu
Great Depression in the Views of Cracow School of Economics

Summary/Abstract: The Great Depression which began in 1929 was one of the most important shocks that hit the world economy in the inter-war period and even in the whole XX century. Many economists of that time tried to give a theoretical explanation of the causes of the crisis and to present some policy proposals that could stabilize economic situation both in individual countries and worldwide. The article presents the viewpoints on this question formulated within the so-called Cracow school of economics which included prominent Polish economists of that time: Adam Krzyżanowski, Ferdynand Zweig, and Adam Heydel. Within that school, two major stands on the subject can be distinguished: one favouring devaluation (Krzyżanowski and Zweig), and another arguing in favour of deflation (Heydel) – the latter being close to business cycle theory of Mises and Hayek. These two proposals, despite the similarity of liberal political views, were divergent in the diagnosis of crisis’ causes, which resulted in different recommendations as to the anti-crisis policy.

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