Almost universally, implementers of index insurance for low income households have chosen to embed insurance with other interventions designed to improve productivity, with the insurance used almost entirely to make the other interventions possible. A common example is to use the insurance to...

The financial health of the agricultural economy has been excellent for the past few years, especially with farm income reaching record levels. However, the U.S. economy has experienced a recession and a credit crisis. Although the U.S. farm sector has been mostly shielded from the economic...

Credit markets are an essential economic institution. In developing countries, particularly in countries undergoing rapid social and economic transition, it is important to identify emerging credit demand and institute credit supply in a timely manner to facilitate economic transformation. This...

The influence of climate variability on agricultural production and financial risks faced by an individual or an institution has been the center of the public discussion in the recent years. The changing weather patterns and environmental conditions could cause substantial unpredicted economic...

We investigate irreversible investment behavior under uncertainty of payoffs using U.S. firm-level panel data. We estimate the relationship between the firm’s investment to capital ratio and the interest rate, while controlling for investment opportunities, real option values, uncertainty and...

Cash and futures prices should reach equality, or converge, upon contract maturity. Traders can impose convergence during the delivery month through arbitrage behavior: either making or taking delivery on futures contracts. If convergence is not predictable, a futures market fails to provide a...

Replaced with revised version of poster 08/03/10.

Crude oil price speculation during 2000s could have increased installed capacity in corn ethanol plants beyond what was warranted by the market factors. We use Muth’s commodity pricing model and Flood and Garber’s tests to test for speculative investment in US corn ethanol industry. The...

This study examines the financial performance and stress experienced by beginning farmers in the U.S. Using the USDA’s ARMS data, probit models are estimated to study the personal and farm characteristics that affect whether or not the financial ratios fall into critical zones. The results...