One bank to rule them all

Abstract

In 1914, 10 Austro-Hungarian banks have come together and established the Österreichische Kontrollbank für Industrie und Handel - a subsidiary bank whose explicit role was to restrict competition and enforce cartels across the empire. The 1918 dissolution of Austria-Hungary offers a natural experiment, as the enforcement of cartels by the OeKB continued in the Republic of Austria, but ceased across some 60% of the former empire’s territory.