Empirical studies point to negative crop yield skewness, but the literature provides few clear insights as to why. This paper formalizes three points on the matter. Statistical laws on aggregates do not imply a normal distribution. Whenever the weather-conditioned mean yield has diminishing...

While controversy surrounds skewness attributes of typical yield distributions, a better understanding is important for agricultural policy assessment and for crop insurance rate setting. Day (1965) conjectured that crop yield skewness declines with an increase in low levels of nitrogen use, but...

Price‐dependent loan agreements at low interest rates have sometimes been included in North American hog sector long‐term marketing contracts. We show that a general form of this stipulation can be viewed as a hybrid between a forward rate agreement and a bundle of commodity spot options. In...