Restructuring of U.S. banking markets has raised concerns that insufficient access to loanable funds will limit economic growth in some rural areas. Access to nonlocal funds can provide public benefits through enhanced competition and efficiency, but subsidized access to nonlocal funds can...

Rural families pay more on average for mortgage financing than do urban families. While the $2 million estimated annual efficiency cost is too low to justify policy action, the estimated $300 million of additional interest paid by rural borrowers presents an equity concern. Part the difference...

Methane digesters—biogas recovery systems that use methane from manure to generate electricity—have not been widely adopted in the United States because costs have exceeded benefits to operators. Burning methane in a digester reduces greenhouse gas emissions from manure management. A policy...

In 2008, wheat futures prices spiked and then crashed along with prices for other agricultural and nonagricultural commodities. Market observers offered several theories to explain this common movement, or comovement, in prices, and have proposed policies to address the perceived problem of...

This report presents State-level soybean production cost and return estimates for the 1990 production year, along with coefficients of variation for each cost item. Per-acre costs are highly variable among States due to differences in production practices, inputs, and type and size of machines...