Factors behind the presence of agricultural credit cooperatives in Spain, 1900-1935an econometric model

Resumen

This paper analyzes the factor determining the presence and spread of agrarian credit cooperatives (rural savings banks) in Spain during the first third of the 20th century. We first provide descriptive evidence on the evolution of the number of agricultural cooperatives and then we analyze their economic and financial activity. We emphasize that the role of the public sector in this process is not always positive. Panel data estimates attest that the number of credit cooperatives is higher in regions with a higher number of potential competitors, i.e. saving banks and public granaries, also called positos. We also find that the higher the number of competitors in a year, the lower the number of cooperatives in the next year. As expected, the level of literacy of the population in a region determines the presence of credit cooperatives in that region.