RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN HIRE/PURCHASE LENDING IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

A partial-observability model finds evidence of racial discrimination by retailers of consumer durables in apartheid South Africa. In particular, black households are 13 percentage points more likely to demand a hire/purchase loan but not to have one supplied than are other households, all else equal.Consumer finance, disequilibrium models, racial discrimination, truncated and censored models, South Africa, Financial Economics,