Protecting the Borrower: An Experiment in Colonial India

Chaudhary, Latika; Swamy, Anand

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2439833

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Protecting the Borrower: An Experiment in Colonial India

Posted: 23 May 2014 Last revised: 25 May 2016

See all articles by Latika Chaudhary

Anand Swamy

Williams College

Date Written: March 2016

Abstract

We study the impact of the Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act (DARA), a key legislation to protect debtors that was enacted in western colonial India. Using a panel dataset and a difference-in-difference estimation, we find a substantial decline in mortgage-backed credit after the passage of DARA. The contraction in credit did not reduce cropped area or agricultural investments in bullocks and carts, but may have led to less intensive cultivation.

Keywords: India, Legal Origins, Credit Markets

JEL Classification: G1; K1; K4; N2; N4

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Chaudhary, Latika and Swamy, Anand V., Protecting the Borrower: An Experiment in Colonial India (March 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2439833 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2439833