Mathematical programming has for a long time been recognized as a powerful tool. Despite its capacity for solving constrained optimization problems under uncertainty, some methodological obstacles have persisted over the years. The main problem is that the eventually complex results of an...

The probability that buyers are deceived with regard to the quality or safety of purchased products (moral hazard) increases with the profits which suppliers can earn through opportunistic behavior. It decreases with the probability and level of losses that result from disclosure of malpractice....

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is widely used to compare the empirical performance of decision making units such as firms or public bodies. With a view to the recent boom of applications to a very wide range of different problems, this paper shows for which data and problem structures DEA...

Since the mid-1990s, agricultural economists have discussed the relevance of index-based insurances, also called “weather derivatives”, as hedging instruments for volumetric risks in agriculture. Motivated by the question of how weather derivatives should be priced for agricultural firms,...

The probability that buyers are deceived with regard to the quality or safety of purchased products (moral hazard) increases with the profits which suppliers can earn through opportunistic behaviour. It decreases with the probability and level of losses that result from disclosure of...

Landwirte wechseln oft nicht von ihrer Hausbank zu einer anderen Bank, auch wenn diese bessere Konditionen bietet. Diese „Wechselträgheit“ kann zum einen in den Transaktionskosten des Wechsels begründet sein. Zum anderen kann sie aber auch das Ergebnis begrenzt rationalen...

Sowohl Ernteversicherungen als auch „Wetterderivate“ sind neuartige Risikomanagementinstrumente, die eine Absicherung gegen Schäden aus nichtkatastrophalen Wetterereignissen ermöglichen, in Deutschland aber bisher nicht verbreitet sind. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird mit Hilfe eines...

Agricultural production relies to a great extent on biological processes in natural environments. In addition to volatile prices, it is thus heavily exposed to risks caused by the variability of natural conditions such as rainfall, temperature and pests. With a view to the apparently lacking...