Triple justificación de las secciones de crédito de las cooperativas agrarias de la Comunidad Valenciana: jurídica, económica y social

This study aims to justify the survival and support of credit sections from a threefold perspective: legal, economic and social. Firstly, the paper examines the legislation governing cooperatives with a credit section, comparing the Valencian legislation with that of the rest of Spain (in particular, the legislation in Catalonia and Extremadura). Secondly, looking at the matter from an economic perspective, we examine the advantages of credit sections for agricultural cooperatives (transaction costs) and analyse the credit sections’ levels of performance and efficiency, comparing them with those of agricultural credit banks and savings banks. Finally, from a social perspective, we analyse the benefits that credit sections can offer members and other sections of the agricultural cooperative to which they belong. To do this, we examine the financial differential presented by credit sections compared to that of agricultural credit banks.