Farming Sector Finance in Australia

This paper develops a model from an ex-post borrowers perspective and then tests it for all main providers of Australian rural finance. The regression results reveal that the hypothesised five-variables model is generally valid for the banking sector. The models for Finance Companies and Other Government reduced to a two-variables model each, while Total Sources reduced to a three-variables model. The five-variables model was not confirmed for Insurance Companies and was not further analysed as this source has declined to an insignificant level. The results of all models indicate that, irrespective of the source of finance, the rural industry is highly risk-averse and has a preference for equity finance rather than loans.