Replaced by updated/revised version. This is an electronic version of a journal article, please cite as: Collier, B., A.L. Katchova, and J. Skees. “Loan Portfolio Performance and El Nino, an Intervention Analysis.” Agricultural Finance Review 71(2011):98-119.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate event associated with warming sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. In years of extreme El Niño events, areas in northern Peru experience catastrophic flooding. As of 2010, it is possible for stakeholders in northern Peru to...

Financial intermediaries [FIs] in developing and emerging economies are poorly equipped to manage natural disasters. These events create losses for FIs, eroding capital reserves and compromising their ability to lend. Portfolio-level insurance against disasters can improve FI management of these...

We examine risk preferences using the flood insurance decisions of over 100,000 households. In each contract, households make a small stakes decision, the deductible, and a large stakes one, the coverage limit. Over 94 percent of household choose one of the two lowest deductibles out of six...

We examine small business financing outcomes approximately one year after Hurricane Harvey. Our data include the credit reports of 8,219 businesses and a detailed survey of 273 businesses in the affected area. We find that Harvey-related flooding increased credit delinquencies, especially...

This paper considers lender-level index insurance as a means of expanding access to credit in disaster-prone communities. In this approach, the lender transfers the disaster risk of loans in its portfolio by contracting on an observable measure of the catastrophe. I develop and calibrate a...

We examine the flood insurance decisions of over 100,000 households, using standard expected utility models and rank dependent utility models that incorporate probability distortions. Consumers' insurance choices provide important insights into their risk attitudes. Previous research has...