Climate variability and bank lending in the Southeast USA

In this paper, we investigate the possibility that agricultural loan portfolios of banks serving agricultural producers in the southeastern U.S. are affected by inter-annual climate fluctuations. The main finding is that La Nina years are associated with on average three times lower charge-offs and more and larger loans, in banks focusing on agricultural lending in this region. The results suggest that ENSO impact on the agricultural lending is relatively small perhaps because farmers utilize well existing insurance mechanisms and take advantage of government disaster relief payments.