Expanding ethanol markets, abundance of water resources, and predominance of rainfed corn production in Alabama suggest possibility of irrigating cornfields. Numerical analysis shows that irrigated production becomes more preferable with higher corn prices and risk aversion. Adoption threshold...

We analyze two types of crop marketing contracts between agricultural producers and processors, delivery-at-harvest and an "option-to-purchase" that emerged in US peanut market after the 2002 Farm Act. This contract structure is interpreted as a marketing strategy trying to fill the gap left by...

In the paper, preliminary results of the analysis of potential use of climate forecast information in designing rainfall index insurance in the southeastern region of the U.S. are reported. Joint distributions of bi-monthly rainfall and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indexes are estimated...

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...