OPTIMAL CAPITAL STRUCTURE AND INCOME SUPPORT REFORM UNCERTAINTY

This paper investigates the extent to which an active agricultural policy directed to the return and/or the variability of return in farming that is understood and anticipated, where the political process creates parameter uncertainty and noise about the precise timing of reform, influences the capital structure at the farm level. Closed for solutions for the implied restructuring prior to the reform is derived. The empirical analyses the policy induced incentives for debt levels adjustment that may have prevailed prior to and after the 1996 Farm Bill. The empirical analysis strongly supports the theoretical analysis.