Alternative techniques for representing dependencies among variables in multivariate simulation are discussed and compared in the context of rating a whole-farm insurance product. A procedure by lman and Conover (IC) that is common in actuarial applications is compared to a new technique...

Empirical studies point to negative crop yield skewness, but the literature provides few clear insights as to why. This paper formalizes three points on the matter. Statistical laws on aggregates do not imply a normal distribution. Whenever the weather-conditioned mean yield has diminishing...

Many important problems in agricultural and natural resource economics concern an intertemporal choice between alternate dynamic systems. This significance has motivated a theoretical literature generalizing the necessary conditions of Optimal Control Theory to multiple-phase problems. However,...

Industry cluster identification methods determine linkages between purchasers and suppliers at the county level for 447 economic sectors in Tennessee. Using an econometric model, the cluster analysis is extended to estimate which value chains contributed to economic growth between 2001 and 2006....

Recently developed ethanol futures contracts now allow direct-hedging by ethanol producers. This study examines the effectiveness of one-through eight-week hedges between 2005 and 2008. Our findings show (a) ethanol inventory hedging effectiveness is significant for two-week and longer hedges,...

This study develops a methodology to quantify the combined effects of two major nontariff barriers (NTBs), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and customs and administrative procedures. We employ a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) utility function with factor-augmenting technical...

How would a possible food safety scare influence food consumption? Using techniques from experimental psychology, a study of 103 lunchtime participants suggests that a food scare--avian influenza--would decrease consumption of the affected food by 17% if the subjects believed it was naturally...

The incentives researchers face depend directly upon what we as a profession value. The impacts of research can be either disciplinary by adding to economic knowledge or real world by being useful to economic agents. Various measures of research impact such as publications, citations, and...

This paper investigates private responses and ecological impacts of policies proposed to confront the problem of brucellosis being spread from elk to cattle in Wyoming. The policies consist of combinations of changes in elk feeding and population levels. Farmers' responses to these dynamics are...