Recent academic discussion regarding crop insurance in developing and transition countries has focused on weather index insurance. But empirical analyses of such schemes based on farm level data cannot be found in the literature, though this insurance type shows clear advantages compared to...

Index-based weather insurances are innovative tools for mitigating weather risks in agriculture.Several donor agencies and development organisations are investing substantially topropagate these programmes in developing countries. However, often due to high basis risks,these products mitigate...

California specialty crop growers are exposed to extreme price volatility, as well as considerable yield volatility caused by fluctuations in temperature, precipitation, and other specific weather events. Weather derivatives do provide a promising market-based solution to managing risks for...

The EPA has imposed mandatory refuge requirements for Bt crops to prolong the efficacy of Bt. Growers have no economic incentive to plant the required refuge because refuge crops are on average less productive and more risky. This paper evaluates refuge insurance—insurance thatpays indemnities...

Dentro do agronegócio brasileiro, o café arábica está entre os produtos com o mais elevado nível de risco e, ainda assim, é um produto importante para a economia brasileira. Os mercados futuros são reconhecidos como meio de gerenciamento desses riscos, mas observou-se o baixo uso desse...

The extent to which crop insurance programs have resulted in additional land being brought into production has been a topic of considerable debate. We extend a multi-equation structural model of crop acreage response, insurance participation, CRP enrollment, and input usage developed in Goodwin...

This study compares liquidity costs of electronic and open-outcry wheat futures contractstraded side-by-side on the Kansas City Board of Trade. Liquidity costs are considerablylower in the electronic market. Liquidity costs in the electronic market are still considerablylower after eliminating...

This study examines the actuarial implications of the loss cost ratio (LCR) ratemakingmethodology employed by the Risk Management Agency as a component of base ratesfor U.S. crop insurance programs, and identifies specific conditions required for the LCRmethodology to result in unbiased rates...

Regarding the nature of yield data, there are two basic characteristics that needs to be accommodated while we are about to model a yield distribution. The first one is the nonstationary nature of the yield distribution, which causes the heteroscedasticity related problems. The second one is the...

Options on agricultural futures are popular financial instruments used for agricultural price risk management and to speculate on future price movements. Poor performance of Black’s classical option pricing model has stimulated many researchers to introduce pricing models that are more...