This study presents evidence on the relative accommodation of credit requests made by minority start-up entrepreneurs in the U.S. farm sector. Loan packaging terms (amount, interest rate, and maturity) prescribed by lending officers of the Farm Service Agency, the government's lending arm to the farm sector, are analyzed and compared across racial/ethnic and gender groups of borrowers. The intention is to discern whether prescribed loan terms are favorable and supportive of the new farms' business growth and survival goals and uncover any trends of preferential treatment for certain groups of borrowers. Econometric results did not uncover any significant deviations in the lenders' decisions for beginning African American and White farmers for all three components of the loan package. While most packaging term decisions were similar among borrowers of different racial/ethnic attributes, the only exceptional terms were significantly larger loan amounts for American Indians and higher interest rates for Hispanic Americans. Compared to farmers in the South, loan term decisions seem to align with regional concentrations of farm typologies, such as the prevalence of livestock operations in the Plains and Midwest that require longer loan repayment periods and larger crop farms in the West with higher loan amount approvals.

中文翻译：

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针对非洲裔美国人和其他社会弱势农民的贷款包装决策

这项研究提供了美国农业部门少数族裔初创企业家提出的信贷请求相对宽松的证据。农业服务机构（政府向农业部门提供贷款的机构）的贷款官员规定的贷款包装条款（金额、利率和期限）会根据借款人的种族/族裔和性别群体进行分析和比较。目的是辨别规定的贷款条件是否有利并支持新农场的业务增长和生存目标，并发现对某些借款人群体的优惠待遇的趋势。计量经济学结果没有发现贷款人针对刚开始从事非洲裔美国和白人农民贷款计划的所有三个组成部分的决策存在任何重大偏差。虽然不同种族/族裔属性的借款人之间的大多数包装条款决定相似，但唯一的例外条款是美洲印第安人的贷款金额明显更高，而西班牙裔美国人的利率更高。与南方的农民相比，贷款期限决策似乎与农场类型的区域集中度一致，例如平原和中西部畜牧业普遍存在，需要更长的贷款还款期，而西部的农作物农场规模更大，贷款金额批准更高。