A DECOMPOSITION APPROACH TO ANALYZING RACIAL AND GENDER BIASES

This study provides a different perspective in revisiting the racial and gender discrimination issue regarding FSA loans. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method, commonly used in wage discrimination analysis, is employed to determine whether there exist unwarranted differences between the loan amounts approved among racial and gender classes. The findings of this study are inconclusive. As with previous studies, no clear and convincing evidence was found to signal racial or gender discrimination with respect to approved loan amounts to farmer borrowers.