Interest Rate Restrictions in a Natural Experiment: Loan Allocation and the Change in the Usury Laws in 1714
利用1714年英国将最高利率从6%降至5%的自然实验，发现利率上限导致平均贷款规模和最低贷款规模上升，社会资本少的人更难获得贷款，抵押贷款重新占据主导，且未发现帕累托改进的社会保险证据。
This article studies the effects of interest rate restrictions on loan allocation. The British governmenttightened the usury laws in 1714, reducing the maximum permissible interest rate from 6% to5%. A sample of individual loan transactions reveals that average loan size and minimum loan sizeincreased strongly, while access to credit worsened for those with little social capital. Collateralisedcredits, which had accounted for a declining share of total lending, returned to their former role ofprominence. Our results suggest that the usury laws distorted credit markets significantly; we findno evidence that they offered a form of Pareto-improving social insurance.