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Article: Usury, Market Power and Poverty Traps: A Study of Rural Credit in 1930s’ China

TitleUsury, Market Power and Poverty Traps: A Study of Rural Credit in 1930s’ China
Authors
KeywordsUsury
Rural credit
Monopoly power
Poverty trap
Tenancy
Issue Date2018
PublisherHigher Education Press. The Journal's web site is located at http://journal.hep.com.cn/fec/EN/1673-3444/current.shtml
Citation
Frontiers of Economics in China, 2018, v. 13 n. 3, p. 369-396 How to Cite?
AbstractThis paper studies the cross-regional variation of interest rates in China in the 1930s. Based on county-level data from the Buck (1941) rural surveys, we examine factors that may have influenced rural interest rates in pre-1949 China. Since the quality of institutions that define property rights and facilitate contract enforcement is important for such transactions as land tenancy arrangements, we treat land tenancy rate (or percentage of owner-farmers) as a proxy for institutional quality. Contrary to the popular belief among historians and economists that usury or high interest rates caused persistent poverty, we find that while the monopoly-exploitation hypothesis has little explanatory power, a region’s institutional quality and income level are persistent and significant determinants of interest rates. Thus, poverty is a key driver of high rates of interest. Economic growth and the development of market institutions are crucial for lowering high interest rates and combating usury.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/263821
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 1.5
2020 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.163
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorChen, Z-
dc.contributor.authorPeng, K-
dc.contributor.authorYuan, W-
dc.date.accessioned2018-10-22T07:45:01Z-
dc.date.available2018-10-22T07:45:01Z-
dc.date.issued2018-
dc.identifier.citationFrontiers of Economics in China, 2018, v. 13 n. 3, p. 369-396-
dc.identifier.issn1673-3444-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/263821-
dc.description.abstractThis paper studies the cross-regional variation of interest rates in China in the 1930s. Based on county-level data from the Buck (1941) rural surveys, we examine factors that may have influenced rural interest rates in pre-1949 China. Since the quality of institutions that define property rights and facilitate contract enforcement is important for such transactions as land tenancy arrangements, we treat land tenancy rate (or percentage of owner-farmers) as a proxy for institutional quality. Contrary to the popular belief among historians and economists that usury or high interest rates caused persistent poverty, we find that while the monopoly-exploitation hypothesis has little explanatory power, a region’s institutional quality and income level are persistent and significant determinants of interest rates. Thus, poverty is a key driver of high rates of interest. Economic growth and the development of market institutions are crucial for lowering high interest rates and combating usury.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherHigher Education Press. The Journal's web site is located at http://journal.hep.com.cn/fec/EN/1673-3444/current.shtml-
dc.relation.ispartofFrontiers of Economics in China-
dc.subjectUsury-
dc.subjectRural credit-
dc.subjectMonopoly power-
dc.subjectPoverty trap-
dc.subjectTenancy-
dc.titleUsury, Market Power and Poverty Traps: A Study of Rural Credit in 1930s’ China-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.emailChen, Z: zchen99@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityChen, Z=rp02041-
dc.description.naturelink_to_subscribed_fulltext-
dc.identifier.doi10.3868/s060-007-018-0019-6-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85106380186-
dc.identifier.hkuros294705-
dc.identifier.volume13-
dc.identifier.issue3-
dc.identifier.spage369-
dc.identifier.epage396-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000482969200003-
dc.publisher.placeChina-
dc.identifier.issnl1673-3444-

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