Recent and presumable future developments tend to increase the risk associated with farming activities. This causes an increasing importance of risk management. Farmers have a wide variety of possibilities to influence the risk exposure of their operations. Among them are the choice of the...

Recent and presumable future developments tend to increase the risks associated with farming activities. These include climate risks which have always played an important role in farming. Weather based instruments can be valuable tools to reduce the risk associate with unfavourable climatic...

This paper examines the relationship between agricultural development, vulnerability to shocks and the risk management practices of small farmers in developing countries. Economic thinking on technology adoption has long been influenced by a model of a rational but risk-averse farmer....

This article examines the production risk effects and welfare implications of Bt corn adoption in the Philippines by specifically considering the impact of Bt on the mean, variance, and skewness of yields. Assessing the skewness effects of Bt provides further inferences about the downside risk...

The paper investigates the linkages between technological change and production risk, with an application to corn. The effects of technology on risk exposure are analyzed. We define technological progress to be risk-increasing (risk-decreasing) if it increases (decreases) the relative risk...

Recent academic discussion regarding crop insurance in developing and transition countries has focused on weather index insurance. But empirical analyses of such schemes based on farm level data cannot be found in the literature, though this insurance type shows clear advantages compared to...

This paper adapts a generalized expected utility (GEU) maximization model (Epstein and Zin, 1989 and 1991) to examine the intertemporal risk management of wheat producers in the Pacific Northwest. Optimization results based on simulated data indicate the feasibility of the GEU optimization as a...

Descriptive statistics and time-series econometric models are used to characterize the behavior of monthly fluid milk prices. Prices in April, May and June appear to be more variable than those in subsequent months, and the spring-time prices are perhaps skewed. Econometric models can capture...

Building on recent work by Mirand and Glauber (1997), this report shows that it is feasible to use exchange-based contracts as a substitute for the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA). The contract we analyze here is a Group Revenue Contract, which would allow producers to guarantee against...

A wide variety of insurance products is available to agricultural producers to insure against yield or price risks in the markets for the raw commodities they produce. Value-added enterprises, such as ethanol production, have been expanding over the last decade. This paper outlines the...