Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to bring out the development of a flexible model for nonstationary crop yield distributions and its applications to decision-making in crop insurance. Design/methodology/approach: The authors design a nonparametric Bayesian approach based on Gaussian...

Does monetary policy affect the real economy? If so, what is the transmission mechanism or channel through which these effects occur? These two questions are among the most important and controversial in macroeconomics. This dissertation presents some new empirical evidence that addresses each...

Given the emerging consensus from previous studies that crude oil and refined product (as well as crack spread) prices are cointegrated, this study examines the link between the crude oil spot and crack spread derivatives markets. Specifically, the usefulness of the two crack spread derivatives...