The Competitiveness of Farm Credit Markets in a Deregulated Environment

Abstract

Despite the proliferation of banking offices occurring since banking deregulation, about one-third of all counties in the US were still considered to have little competition with respect to agricultural credit. Counties considered less competitive were located in regions where farming is less prevalent; Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Appalachia, and Southeast. There was no evidence that farm interest rates charged by commercial banks were higher regions with less competition. Higher FCS interest rates in counties with less competitive suggested that full-time commercial-size farms may be disadvantaged by a lack of credit market competition.Agricultural Finance,