Page "Gold standard" Paragraph 54

According to Keynesian analysis, the earliness with which a country left the gold standard reliably predicted its economic recovery from the great depression.

For example, Great Britain and Scandinavia, which left the gold standard in 1931, recovered much earlier than France and Belgium, which remained on gold much longer.

Countries such as China, which had a silver standard, almost avoided the depression entirely.

The connection between leaving the gold standard as a strong predictor of that country's severity of its depression and the length of time of its recovery has been shown to be consistent for dozens of countries, including developing countries.

This may explain why the experience and length of the depression differed between national economies.