Classical and count data regression models are estimated to predict improvement in three key financial indicators—net worth, debt-to-asset ratio and current ratio—as well as the number of loan restructurings and delinquencies. Data consist of Farm Service Agency direct loans originated in...

This paper presents preliminary results on the possible demand for weather insurance in China. Results from 1,564 farm households from Western and Central China between October 2007 and October 2008 suggest that the greater risk for farmers is drought followed by excessive rain. Heat is less...

Commodity and energy prices have exhibited an unprecedented increase between October 2006 and July 2008, only to fall sharply during the last months of 2008. Many explanations have been offered to this phenomenon, including steadily increasing demand from China and India, large mandated...

Systemic weather risk is a major obstacle for the formation of private (nonsubsidized) crop insurance. This paper explores the possibility of spatial diversification of insurance by estimating the joint occurrence of unfavorable weather conditions in different locations. For that purpose copula...

This paper is only a part of research completed for the PhD degree in agricultural economics in University of Miyazaki. The paper is subjected to further improve and finalised.

Investment models typically explain only a small share of the total investmentvariation within or between firms. A reason for this may be that those models do not explicitlydifferentiate between the decision to invest and the decision about the level of investment. Inthis paper, a two-steps...

We analyze the current state and future requirements of an agricultural income stabilization mechanism in a transition country – namely, the crop insurance system in Kazakhstan. Three objectives will be pursued: First, factors influencing the development of the crop insurance market will be...

While economies of scope of lending and mobilizing deposits in banking are justifiedtheoretically (Diamond, 1984) and found empirically (see Saunders, 1999), in microfinance, theexistence and the magnitudes of scope economies has not been investigated. We use a semiparametric smooth coefficient...

Farm-level, cross-section and panel data were used with econometric methods to examine relationships between variability in net farm income and explanatory variables including government payments, gross crop income, gross livestock income, costs, efficiency measures, and other socioeconomic...

This study examines the question of income adequacy as it relates to the broader issue of an economically viable farm size in the Columbia Basin of Washington State. The issue is especially relevant because of possible limitations on farm size resulting from enforcement of the 1902 Reclamation...