3
Acknowledgements: We thank Olivier Blanchard, Lee Buchheit, Guy-Uriel Charles, Mitu Gulati, Patrick
Honohan, Nicholas Lardy, Adnan Mazarei, Carmen M. Reinhart, Arvind Subramanian, Edwin M. Truman,
Jeromin Zettelmeyer, two anonymous reviewers, and the participants in a March 2021 workshop at the
Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) for comments on an earlier version of this paper.
We thank Eva Zhang from the Peterson Institute for International Economics for reviewing our data and
replicating our analysis, as well as John Custer, Parker Kim, and Soren Patterson from AidData for copy-
editing, formatting, and graphic design of the final publication. We also owe a debt of gratitude to the
large team of research assistants (RAs)—including Aiden Daly, Alex McElya, Amelia Grossman, Andrew
Brennan, Andrew Tanner, Anna East, Arushi Aggarwal, Bat-Enkh Baatarkhuu, Beneva Davies-
Nyandebo, Carina Bilger, Carlos Hoden-Villars, Caroline Duckworth, Caroline Morin, Catherine Pompe
van Meerdervoort, Cathy Zhao, Celeste Campos, Chifang Yao, Christian Moore, Claire Schlick, Claire
Wyszynski, Connor Sughrue, Dan Vinton, David (Joey) Lindsay, Eileen Dinn, Elizabeth Fix, Elizabeth
Pokol, Emma Codd, Emmi Burke, Erica Stephan, Fathia Dawodu, Florence Noorinejad, Gabrielle
Ramirez, Georgiana Reece, Grace Klopp, Haley VanOverbeck, Han (Harry) Lin, Hannah Slevin, Harin Ok,
Isabel Ahlers, Jack Mackey, Jiaxin Tang, Jiaying Chen, Jim Lambert, Jingyang Wang, Jinyang Liu, John
Jessen, Johnny Willing, Jordan Metoyer, Julia Tan, Julian Allison, Lukas Franz, Kacie Leidwinger,
Kathryn Yang, Kathryn Ziccarelli, Kathrynn Weilacher, Kieffer Gilman Strickland, Kiran Rachamallu, Leslie
Davis, Linda Ma, Lydia Vlasto, Marty Kibiswa, Mary Trotto, Mattis Boes, Maya Priestley, Mengting Lei,
Mihika Singh, Molly Charles, Natalie Larsen, Natalie White, Olivia Le Menestrel, Olivia Yang, Paige
Groome, Paige Jacobson, Patrick Loeffler, Pooja Tanjore, Qier Tan, Raul De La Guardia, Richard
Robles, Rodrigo Arias, Rory Fedorochko, Ryan Harper, Sam LeBlanc, Samantha Rofman, Sania Shahid,
Sarah Farney, Sariah Harmer, Sasan Faraj, Sebastian Ruiz, Shannon Dutchie, Shishuo Liu, Sihan
(Brigham)Yang, Solange Umuhoza, Steven Pressendo, Taige Wang, Tasneem Tamanna Amin, Thai-Binh
Elston, Undra Tsend, Victoria Haver, Wassim Mukayed, Wenyang Pan, Wenye Qiu, Wenzhi Pan,
Williams Perez-Merida, Xiangdi William Wu, Xiaofan Han, Xinxin (Cynthia) Geng, Xinyao Wang, Xinyue
Pang, Xuejia (Stella) Tong, Xufeng Liu, Yannira Lopez Perez, Yian Zhou, Yiling (Elaine) Zhang, Yiwen
Sun, Youjin Lee, Yunhong Bao, Yunji Shi, Yunjie Zhang, Yuxin (Susan) Shang, Zihui Tian, Ziqi Zheng, Ziyi
(Zoey) Jin, and Ziyi Fu—who helped identify, retrieve, and code the loan contracts in this study. We also
received excellent project and data management support from Brooke Russell, Joyce Jiahui Lin,
Katherine Walsh, Kyra Solomon, Lincoln Zaleski, Mengfan Cheng, Sheng Zhang, and Siddhartha Ghose.
This study was made possible with generous financial support from the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign,
Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and Georgetown University Law Center. We also
acknowledge that it was indirectly made possible through a cooperative agreement (AID-OAA-A-12-
00096) between USAID’s Global Development Lab and AidData at the College of William and Mary
under the Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) Program. Sebastian Horn and Christoph
Trebesch gratefully acknowledge support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the
Priority Programme SPP 1859. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, USAID, FCDO, the United States
Government, or the Government of the United Kingdom.