Purpose – Pricing densities implied from options on live cattle futures show a persistent and negative skew. The purpose is to examine whether the skew can be explained, in part, by peso-type problems. Design/methodology/approach – Two announcements of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the characteristics of farms who participate in farm management associations to the wider population of farms at the state level. Design/methodology/approach – Farm-level records obtained from the USDA's Agricultural Resource Management...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the growth and rising costs association with the Federal Crop Insurance program in the USA, justifications for public support, and recent reforms that have been implemented or proposed to reduce program costs. It also analyzes a specific policy...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the empirical evidence about crop yield distributions that are often used in practical models evaluating crop yield risk and insurance. Additionally, a simulation approach is used to compare the performance of alternative specifications...