Abstract Using the history of northeastern China (1898–1911), this paper shows that imperial colonialism leads to specific lending patterns by contemporary firms and their debt-asset ratio. We further show that… Click to show full abstract
Abstract Using the history of northeastern China (1898–1911), this paper shows that imperial colonialism leads to specific lending patterns by contemporary firms and their debt-asset ratio. We further show that the debt-asset ratio mediates the effect of imperial colonialism on firm lending. Ultimately, we document that imperial colonialism drove contemporary firms to turn to shadow banking. In particular, our estimates tend to be robust to potential endogeneity bias.
               
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