This paper examines how insurance companies participating in delivery of crop insurance would change patterns of portfolio allocation across reinsurance funds in reaction to the 2005 Standard Reinsurance Agreement. The returns of insurance companies under the SRA are calculated using a...

This paper analyzes effects of hypothetical changes in the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA) on rates of return of private insurance companies participating in delivery of crop insurance. A computer simulation program is used to model companies' returns under the current and alternative SRA...

We show how to solve the stochastic spatial-temporal price equilibrium model numerically using the Chebychev collocation method. We then use the model to analyze the joint and interactive stabilizing effects of competitive storage and trade.

The paper presents an economic analysis of the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA), the contract that governs the relationship between the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation and the private insurance companies that deliver crop insurance products to farmers. The paper outlines provisions of the...

Without affordable reinsurance, private crop insurance markets are doomed to fail because systemic weather effects induce high correlation among farm-level yields, defeating insurer efforts to pool risks across farms. Using an empirical model of the U.S. crop insurance market, we find that U.S....

This research investigates the strategic behavior of private crop insurance firms reinsured by the USDA through the Standard Reinsurance Agreement. This arrangement allows the private firm to strategically allocate individual policies into different risk sharing arrangements. Thus, firm earnings...

Effective teaching of computational methods to economists in an introductory graduate-level course requires difficult choices regarding the material to be covered, the level at which the material will be covered, and the role of assigned exercises, laboratory sessions, and required readings. In...