The role of pawnshops in risk coping in early twentieth-century Japan

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21604960
AutoresTatsuki Inoue (0000-0002-3290-2100, Tokyo University of Science, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen28
Número3
Páginas319-343
Fecha de publicación2021-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFinancial History Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0968-5650 • E-ISSN: 1474-0052
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0968565021000111
OpenAlexW3122127172
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas24

This study examines the role of pawnshops as a risk-coping device in Japan in the early twentieth century, when the poor were very vulnerable to unexpected shocks such as illness. In contrast to European countries, Japanese pawnshops were the primary financial institution for low-income people up to the 1920s. Using data on pawnshop loans for more than 250 municipalities and exploiting the 1918–20 influenza pandemic as a natural experiment, we find that the adverse health shock increased the total amount of loans from pawnshops. This is because those who regularly relied on pawnshops borrowed more money from them than usual, and not because the number of people who used pawnshops increased. Our estimation results indicate that pawnshop loan amounts increased by approximately 7–10 percent due to the pandemic. These findings suggest that pawnshop loans were widely used as a risk-coping strategy

Business · Demographic economics · Development economics · Disease · Economic growth · Economics · Influenza pandemic · Loan · Pandemic · Political science · Shock therapy · Unemployment · Islamic Finance and Banking Studies · Medicine · Finance · Internal Medicine