Roads and Loans

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Agarwal, Sumit; Mukherjee, Abhiroop; Naaraayanan, S. Lakshmi
• 署名单位: National University of Singapore; Hong Kong University of Science & Technology; University of London; London Business School
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhac053
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1508
• 关键词: rural roads; finance; GROWTH; access; IMPACT; entrepreneurship; railroads; highway; TRADE

摘要

Does financing respond to changes in productive opportunities, even for the world's poor? We answer this question by examining the response of private bank financing to an infrastructure program that brought road access to unconnected Indian villages. This program prioritized roads for villages above specific population thresholds, allowing us to exploit the resultant discontinuities for identification. Using detailed data from a large bank, we find that 75% more villagers get loans, and the average amount lent to them is 30%-35% higher, in villages just above these thresholds. District-level analyses further suggest that roads and loans are complements in the growth process.