The objective of this paper is to compare the accuracy of crop insurance rating methods based on historical liability and indemnity data (similar to the procedure currently used by the Risk Management Agency) and “yield distribution” approaches. Estimated rates are compared to “true”...

This paper employs a cost function analysis method to investigate the existence of moral hazard in cotton buy-up insurance. The trans-log cost function estimates of the own-price elasticity of fertilizer, herbicide, and insecticide is -0.222, -0.143, and -0.121, respectively for Mississippi...

An agronomic crop growth model, Decision Support System for Agro-Technology Transfer (DSSAT), is used to find optimal crop management strategies for cotton production in Mitchell, Miller, and Lee Counties in Georgia during the past 10 years. Planting date and irrigation threshold are the two...

The objective of this study is to evaluate and model the spatial dependence of systemic yield risk. Various spatial autoregressive models are explored to account for county level dependence of crop yields. The results show that the time trend parameters of yields are correlated across spaces and...

This article examines the volatility spillovers from energy market to corn market. Using a volatility spillover model from the finance literature, we found significant spillovers from energy market to corn cash and futures markets, and the spillover effects are time-varying. The business cycle...

This paper investigates the effect of government-provided crop insurance on farm failure rates. By exploiting random variation in weather and the Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act of 1994, which mandated crop insurance coverage for the first time, I employ two natural experiments that identify...

The single index model (SIM), developed for analysis of financial assets, is assessed as a tool for evaluating the risk-return tradeoff faced in agricultural enterprise selection. This study tests whether some of the hypotheses underlying the SIM are valid when the SIM is used in agricultural...

Since nearly the entire U.S. output of agricultural commodities is produced by proprietors with limited liability, it is important to understand how limited liability affects decision in a risky environment. This article extends the work of Robinson and Barry; Robinson and Lev; and Robinson,...