Considerable disagreement exists about the most appropriate characterization of farm-level yield distributions. Yet, the economic importance of alternative yield distribution specifications on crop insurance valuation has not been well documented. The results of this study demonstrate that large...

Using a flexible method, we develop the term structure of volatility implied by corn futures options with differing maturities, and evaluate its ability to predict subsequent realized price volatility. The implied forward volatilities anticipate realized volatility well. For the nearby interval,...

Farmers' decisions to purchase crop insurance and their choices among alternative products are analyzed using a two-stage estimation procedure. The influences of risk perceptions, competing risk management options, as well structural and demographic differences are evaluated. The likelihood for...

A hedonic model of Illinois farmland values is estimated using county-level cross-section time-series data. Explanatory variables include land productivity, parcel size, improvements, distances to Chicago and other large cities, an urban-rural index, livestock production through swine operation...

A critical issue in identifying an appropriate characterization of crop yield distributions is that the best-fitting distribution in an in-sample framework is not necessarily the best choice out-of-sample. This study provides a methodology for estimating flexible and efficient mixture models...

Using a flexible method, we develop the term structure of volatility implied by corn futures options with differing maturities, and evaluate its ability to predict subsequent realized price volatility. The implied forward volatilities anticipate realized volatility well. For the nearby interval,...

Farmers' decisions to purchase crop insurance and their choices among alternative products are analyzed using a two-stage estimation procedure. The influences of risk perceptions, competing risk management options, as well structural and demographic differences are evaluated. The likelihood for...

A credit-risk valuation model is developed and empirically implemented to estimate the cost of insuring against credit risks in pools of agricultural mortgage loans. Probabilistic information about loss distributions across a broad set of loan-level and pool-level characteristics is used to...