usury laws in the 19th century. We find evidence that usury laws were binding and enforced and that lending activity was …

Few pieces of economic regulation are ubiquitous as usury limits. Similarly, few economic principles are as widely … financial markets find that usury limits negatively affect credit availability. This study shows that when no regulatory … authority monitors and stands ready to punish violators of the usury limit when intermediaries and borrowers form long …

During the Colonial era usury laws in the United States were strict both in terms of the maximum rate that could be … percent, and both principal and interest were forfeited if usury could be proved against the lender. The laws were eased … abandoned its system of usury laws. By 1870, when a limited reaction set in, the liberalization had reached the point where the …

It is often argued that people might take on too much high-cost debt because they are present focused and … about getting out of debt. Borrowers are willing to pay a significant premium for an experimental incentive to avoid future …

growth rates are low. Data from U.S. states' regulations supports a connection between inequality and usury laws. The history … of usury laws suggests that this social insurance mechanism is one reason why usury laws persist, but it also suggests … that usury laws have had different functions across time (eg. rent-seeking, limiting agency problems within the church …

Economics and ethics both offer important perspectives on our society, but they do so from two different viewpoints … - the central focus of economics is how the price system in our economy values resources; the central focus of ethics is the …