Coco, Giuseppe and de Meza, David 
ORCID: 0000-0002-5638-8310 
  
(2009)
In defense of usury laws.
    Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 41 (8).
     pp. 1691-1703.
     ISSN 0022-2879
  
  
  
      Identification Number: 10.1111/j.1538-4616.2009.00274.x
    
  
  
    Abstract
Usury law is often criticized by economists for curtailing lending and thus creating deadweight costs. This paper shows that if moral hazard leads to credit rationing, a just-binding usury law creates a deadweight gain. This property also holds in most market-clearing equilibria. Independent of social insurance benefits, or curbing present-biased preferences, interest rate caps have merit.
| Item Type: | Article | 
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(IS... | 
| Additional Information: | © 2009 The Ohio State University | 
| Divisions: | Management | 
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory | 
| Date Deposited: | 10 May 2011 15:48 | 
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2025 07:40 | 
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/36071 | 
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