Many of the North American railroads have introduced differentiated services for grain shipments in the past decade. Most interesting have been innovations in guaranteed railcar service which have evolved since their inception. In most cases, pricing and allocation of these services have used...

Malt barley is an important specialty crop in the Northern Plains and growers mitigate risk with federally subsidized crop insurance and production contracts. However, growers face considerable risk due to "“coverage gaps"” in crop insurance that result in uncertain indemnity payments due to...

Consistency of functional characteristics in hard red spring (HRS) wheat is a concern confronting sellers and buyers. This research analyzes contract incentives for importers with respect to cost and potential risk of acceptance. A principal-agent framework is utilized to examine contract...

Agricultural firms that use Value at Risk (VaR) tend to be the large diversified corporations. The benefits of VaR in the agricultural industry are not limited to large conglomerates; however, and this study provides empirical examples of how mid to large sized commodity end-users can use VaR to...

U.S. white corn production, consumption, and exports increased from 1980 to 1999/00 and production and area have since declined. White corn is produced largely in Nebraska, Kentucky, and Texas, although production in Texas has declined and has increased in other states (Illinois, Indiana, and...

Consistency of functional characteristics in hard red spring (HRS) wheat is a concern confronting sellers and buyers. This research analyzes contract incentives for importers with respect to cost and potential risk of acceptance. A principal-agent framework is utilized to examine contract...

Wheat protein is one of the most important specifications used in domestic and import purchase contracts. It is used as a proxy for functional quality that is important in domestic markets and to importers. Large differences exist in functional characteristics amongst wheat that vary by protein...

The value of credit guarantee programs has recently been called into question. Credit guarantees are important marketing tools in the world wheat market, both to develop new markets and to compete in existing markets. This study examines the additionality of export credit guarantees. Empirical...

One of the major trade policy problems identified by U.S. interests, including grower groups, traders, and policymakers, is that of pricing transparency. This has been a gnawing issue generally related to the pricing practices of competitor exporting countries with state trading enterprises...

Bidding competition plays an important role in price discovery and the determination of suppliers in international grains. In this paper we analyzeinternational bidding competition for wheat for a specific importer. Tender data over the period 1993-1999 were analyzed and bid functions estimated...