Lack of access to finance is often cited as a key reason for why poor people remain poor. This Paper uses data on the Indian rural branch expansion programme to provide empirical evidence on this issue. Between 1977 and 1990, the Indian central bank mandated that a commercial bank could open a branch in a location with one or more bank branches only if it opens four in locations with no bank branches. We show that, between 1977 and 1990, this rule caused banks to open relatively more rural branches in Indian states with lower initial financial development. The reverse was true outside this period. We exploit this fact to identify the impact of opening a rural bank on poverty and output. Our estimates suggest that the Indian rural branch expansion programme significantly lowered rural poverty, and increased non-agricultural output.
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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number
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Find related papers by JEL classification: E50 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - General G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative O10 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General O20 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General O30 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - General O40 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
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Angus Deaton & Jean Dreze, 2002.
"Poverty and Inequality in India: A Re-Examination,"
Working Papers
184, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
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Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002.
"Government Ownership of Banks,"
Journal of Finance,
American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 265-301, 02.
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Other versions:
La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2001.
"Government Ownership of Banks,"
Working Paper Series
rwp01-016, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
[Downloadable!]
Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopezde-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2000.
"Government Ownership of Banks,"
NBER Working Papers
7620, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.) This item has more than 25 citations. To prevent cluttering this page, these citations are listed on a separate page.