Theory and application of weather index-based insurance in agriculture : to pitfalls of aggregation biases and the insurability of farmers in the North China Plain

The present dissertation is twofold and takes up several issues in two separate and independent articles. In chapter II, the hedging effectiveness of weather index-based insurance with regard to aggregation biases in the underlying risk exposure of aggregated yield time series is presented. The set of problems that arouse during the evaluation of the risk reduction potential for the application of weather index-based insurance in the NCP is discussed in chapter III. Before the specific objectives of both chapters are listed, weather risk in agriculture is reconsidered and the scope of risk ...