PARAMETRIC AND NON-PARAMETRIC CROP YIELD DISTRIBUTIONS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON ALL-RISK CROP INSURANCE PREMIUMS

Normal, gamma and beta distributions are applied to 609 crop yield histories of Ontario farmers to determine which, if any, best describe crop yields. In addition, a distribution free non-parametric kernel estimator was applied to the same data to determine its efficiency in premium estimation relative to the three parametric forms. Results showed that crop yields are most likely to be described by a beta distribution but only for 50% of those tested. In terms of efficiency in premium estimation, minimum error criteria supports use of a kernel estimator for premium setting. However, this gain in efficiency comes at the expense of added complexity.