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What Does Debt Relief Do for Development? Evidence from India's Bailout for Rural Households

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  • Martin Kanz

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of debt relief, using a natural experiment arising from India's "Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme," one of the largest household-level debt relief initiatives in history. I find that debt relief has a substantial impact on household balance sheets, but does not affect savings, consumption and investment, as predicted by theories of debt overhang or balance sheet distress. Instead, debt relief leads to greater reliance on informal credit, reduced investment, and lower agricultural productivity. Consistent with moral hazard generated by the bailout, beneficiaries are significantly less concerned about the reputational consequences of future default.

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  • Martin Kanz, 2016. "What Does Debt Relief Do for Development? Evidence from India's Bailout for Rural Households," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 66-99, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:66-99
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20130399
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sudha Narayanan & Nirupam Mehrotra, 2019. "Loan Waivers and Bank Credit: Reflections on the Evidence and the Way Forward," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 44(4), pages 198-210, December.
    2. Honda, Tomohito & Hosono, Kaoru & Miyakawa, Daisuke & Ono, Arito & Uesugi, Iichiro, 2023. "Determinants and effects of the use of COVID-19 business support programs in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Cariappa, A. G. Adeeth & Sendhil, R, 2021. "Does Institutional Credit Induce on-Farm Investments? Evidence from India," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315221, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Sowmya Dhanaraj & Vidya Mahambare & Pragati, 2021. "Are India’s farm debt waivers a political tool that impacts government finances?," Working Papers 2021-211, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    5. HONDA Tomohito & ONO Arito & UESUGI Iichiro & YASUDA Yukihiro, 2023. "Anatomy of Out-of-court Debt Workouts for SMEs," Discussion papers 23088, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    6. Cesar Leandro, Julio & Botelho, Delane, 2022. "Consumer over-indebtedness: A review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 535-551.
    7. Namhyun Kim & Sanha Noh, 2022. "Effects of Bad Debt Adjustment on Repayment: Evidence from the KR&C Data Set in South Korea," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 38, pages 509-539.
    8. Mahambare, Vidya & Dhanaraj, Sowmya & Mittal, Pragati, 2022. "The political budget cycles in the presence of a fiscal rule: The case of farm debt waivers in India," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 701-721.
    9. Molnár, György & Berlinger, Edina & Dobránszky-Bartus, Katalin, 2021. "Lejárt tartozások fogságában [Overdue debt as a poverty trap]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(7), pages 709-735.
    10. Sandeep Kandikuppa & Clark Gray, 2022. "Climate change and household debt in rural India," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 1-27, August.
    11. Kristina Czura & Anett John & Lisa Spantig, 2020. "Flexible Contract, Flexible Morale? Microcredit Design and Repayment Discipline," CESifo Working Paper Series 8322, CESifo.
    12. Renuka Sane, 2019. "The Way Forward for Personal Insolvency in the Indian Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code," Working Papers id:12987, eSocialSciences.
    13. Albuquerque Sant'Anna, André & Costa, Lucas, 2021. "Environmental regulation and bail outs under weak state capacity: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon11The authors gratefully acknowledge Antonio Ambrózio, Juliano Assunção, Arthur Bragança, Filipe ," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    14. Ranjan Kumar Ghosh & Shweta Gupta & Vartika Singh & Patrick S. Ward, 2021. "Demand for Crop Insurance in Developing Countries: New Evidence from India," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(1), pages 293-320, February.
    15. André Albuquerque Sant’Anna & Lucas Costa, 2019. "Bailing out environmental liabilities: moral hazard and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," Documentos de Trabajo 17435, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).
    16. Hudson, Michael & Goodhart, Charles A. E., 2018. "Could/should Jubilee debt cancellations be reintroduced today? If not, what alternative measures of debt relief and redistribution might be possible?," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 12, pages 1-25.
    17. Aidt, Toke & Asatryan, Zareh & Badalyan, Lusine, 2022. "Political consequences of consumer debt relief," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-049, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    18. Edina Berlinger & Katalin Dobránszky-Bartus & György Molnár, 2021. "Overdue Debts and Financial Exclusion," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-20, August.
    19. Lathaporn Ratanavararak & Sommarat Chantarat, 2022. "Do Agricultural Debt Moratoriums Help or Hurt? The Heterogenous Impacts on Rural Households in Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 195, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • Q14 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Finance
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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