The Dark Side of Social Capital? Battles and Mortgage Lending

I investigate the long run effects of the American Civil War on current mortgage lending approval between 2005 and 2011. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, exploiting the random occurrences of battles during the Civil War, I find that location matters for credit extension: Being located in a county in which a battle took place fosters the probability of loan approval. However, minority mortgage applicants have a significant lower probability to obtain a mortgage loan in counties where a battlefield during the Civil War was located compared to similar applicants in adjacent non-battle counties. Conditional upon approval they also receive lower loan amounts. I show that a channel through which this battle effect persists is culture: Counties in which soldiers actively fought during the Civil War show higher levels of social capital today. Additionally, I find that remembrances of Civil War battles are important for the persistency of local social capital: Those battle counties that actively remember through re-enactment groups have even higher social capital today compared to those battle counties that do not. Moreover, minority applicants have both a significant lower probability to see their application currently being approved and, conditional upon approval, are granted a lower loan amount in these counties compared to minority applicants from battle counties that do not actively remember through such groups, suggesting a possible ‘dark side’ of social capital.

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