The effectiveness of the Class III Milk futures market is analyzed in terms of the reduction in Value-at-Risk (VaR) for milk producers located in four regions: Wisconsin, Northeast, Florida and California. Constant hedge ratios are estimated using Myers and Thompson's (1989) generalized...

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/05/07.

This article focuses on innovation in weather insurance designed to fit the special circum-stances of the poor in lower income countries where rural and agricultural financial markets are largely underdeveloped. Index insurance is an innovation that circumvents many of the fundamental problems...