The successful expansion of the U.S crop insurance program has not eliminated ad hoc disaster assistance. An alternative currently being explored by Congress in preparation of the 2008 farm bill is a standing disaster relief program. One form such a program could take can be found in the area...

The production literature has shown that inputs such as fertilizer can be defined as risk-increasing. However, farmers also consistently overapply nitrogen. A model of optimal input use under uncertainty is used to address this paradox. Using experimental data, a stochastic production...

A framework is developed to examine organic crop insurance established by the Risk Management Agency (RMA). Given that the RMA links organic and conventional crop prices, the model is calibrated to reflect both markets to illustrate the impacts that pricing has on insurance coverage. Findings...

The most important minimum-variance hedging ration assumptions are (a) that production is deterministic and (b) that all of the agentÂ’'s wealth is invested in the cash position. Stochastic production greatly reduces optimal hedge ratios. An alternative investment greatly reduces opportunity...

Estimation risk occurs when parameters relevant for decision making are uncertain. Bayes'Â’ criterion is consistent with expected-utility maximization in the presence of estimation risk. This article examines optimal (BayesÂ’') land allocations and land allocations obtained using the...