This paper examines credit repayment among rural Filipino households , using survey data collected in four
villages in the Cordillera mountains of northern Philippines between July, 1994 and March, 1995. We find
that the timing of loan repayment depends on shocks affecting lender and borrower but amounts repaid and
debt forgiveness do not. Borrowers occasionally repay debt in labor when faced with a bad shock.
Contractual interest charges often are reduced ex post but reductions do not depend on shocks except through
the timing of repayment. We find no evidence of loan roll-over, debt peonage, or labor bonding.
