Certain commodity producers face uncertain output and price, but can trade financial derivatives on price. I consider how best to use a put option on price. I introduce the variance surface, which is a data visualization technique that shows the level of variance across a grid of values for the...

In this paper we adapt a dynamic discrete choice model to examine the aggregated demand for single- and multi-year crop insurance contracts. We show that in a competitive insurance market with heterogeneous risk averse farmers, there is simultaneous demand for both insurance contracts. Moreover,...

In this paper, we analyze the potential impact on producers’ land-use decisions in moving from support payments based on entitlements to a single farm payment (SFP). Further, we then consider a single farm payment with a greening component as part of the 2013 CAP reform. Using data for...

Agricultural insurances based on a climate index are an innovative form of insurance that represent a viable alternative for low-income countries. Such insurances are tied to a climatic index (e.g. the level of precipitation, temperature, humidity or crop yield) rather than an actual loss. This...

Recently, Weather Index Insurance (WII) has received considerable attention as a tool to insure farmers against weather related risks, particularly in developing countries. Donor organizations, local governments, insurance companies, development economists as well as agricultural economists are...

This paper estimates how experimentally-manipulated experiences with a novel financial product, rainfall index insurance, affect subsequent insurance demand. Using a seven-year panel, we develop three main findings. First, recent experience matters for demand, consistent with overinference from...

Index-insurance is becoming increasingly popular because of its ability to provide low-cost, relatively easy to implement agricultural insurance for vegetation types whose productivity has been notoriously difficult to measure and to farmers in less-developed nations where traditional crop...

Rain-index insurance is strongly advocated in many parts of the developing world to help farmers coping with climatic risk that prevails in (semi-)arid rangelands due to low and highly uncertain rainfall. We present a modeling analysis of how the availability of rain-index insurance affects the...