Constituencies and Legislation: The Fight over the McFadden Act of 1927 / 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. w17266.

NBER working paper series no. w17266

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Constituencies and Legislation

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2011.

Summary:

The McFadden Act of 1927 was one of the most hotly contested pieces of legislation in U.S. banking history, and its influence was felt over half a century later. This paper studies the Congressional voting behavior surrounding the Act's passage. We find congressmen in districts in which landholdings were concentrated, and credit costlier were significantly more likely to oppose the act. The evidence suggests that while the law and the overall regulatory structure can shape the financial system far into the future, they themselves are likely to be shaped by elites, even in countries with benign political institutions.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2011.