My colleague Chris Colvin, along with Abe de Jong and Philip Fliers (both of the Rotterdam School of Management), has recently published a paper in Explorations in Economic History looking at what determined bank distress during the financial crisis which occurred in the Netherlands in the 1920s. Their working paper is available here and the published version is here. Below is a video where Philip Fliers outlines the main findings of their paper.
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.