Landed Interests and Financial Underdevelopment in the United States / Raghuram G. Rajan, Rodney Ramcharan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rajan, Raghuram G.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Ramcharan, Rodney.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w14347.

NBER working paper series no. w14347

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2008.

Summary:

Landed elites in the United States in the early decades of the twentieth century played a significant role in restricting the development of finance. States that had higher land concentration passed more restrictive banking legislation. At the county level, counties with very concentrated land holdings tended to have disproportionately fewer banks per capita. Banks were especially scarce both when landed elites' incentive to suppress finance, as well as their ability to exercise local influence, was higher. Finally, the resulting financial underdevelopment was negatively correlated with subsequent manufacturing growth. We draw lessons from this episode for understanding economic development.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2008.