This study examines the role of pawnshops as a risk-coping device in Japan in the early twentieth century, when the poor were very vulnerable to unexpected shocks such as illness. In contrast to European countries, Japanese pawnshops were the primary financial institution for low-income people up to the 1920s. Using data on pawnshop loans for more than 250 municipalities and exploiting the 1918–20 influenza pandemic as a natural experiment, we find that the adverse health shock increased the total amount of loans from pawnshops. This is because those who regularly relied on pawnshops borrowed more money from them than usual, and not because the number of people who used pawnshops increased. Our estimation results indicate that pawnshop loan amounts increased by approximately 7–10 percent due to the pandemic. These findings suggest that pawnshop loans were widely used as a risk-coping strategy.

中文翻译：

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20世纪初日本当铺在风险应对中的作用

本研究考察了 20 世纪初日本当铺作为一种风险应对手段的作用，当时穷人非常容易受到疾病等意外冲击的影响。与欧洲国家相比，日本典当行是 1920 年代之前低收入人群的主要金融机构。使用 250 多个城市的典当行贷款数据，并利用 1918-20 年流感大流行作为自然实验，我们发现不利的健康冲击增加了典当行的贷款总额。这是因为那些经常依赖当铺的人比平时从他们那里借更多的钱，而不是因为使用当铺的人数增加了。我们的估计结果表明，由于大流行，当铺贷款金额增加了约 7-10%。