Futures markets on agricultural commodities typically trade with maximum maturity dates of less than four years. If these markets did trade with maturities eight or ten years distant, futures prices would have value as price forecasts and as a way to structure long-term swaps and insurance...

We use event study analysis to determine whether the release of Newsweek’s “Global 100 Ranking” is relevant for the market. We look at one- and two-day event windows to check two possible reactions of the market: changes in the value of an equal-weight portfolio, and changes in the...

Since the convening of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), agricultural trade policies have been a prime issue of these negotiations. The European Union (EU) Agricultural Commission responded to the pressures of such focus on agricultural policies as well as...

Since 1986 the federal crop insurance program has changed in several ways: the number of covered crops has increased dramatically; the number of insured acres and amount of total premiums have risen; and new styles of crop insurance policies have been introduced. Each change has had a...

In 1996, two new crop insurance products--Crop Revenue Coverage and Income Protection--were introduced to insure against losses in revenue, as opposed to the traditional multiple-peril crop insurance that insures against crop yield losses. Using yield and price difference distributions in 1,000...

With the pending debate on the 1995 Farm Bill, crop insurance and disaster assistance have become major topics for discussion. This paper explores the performance of the current MPCI program and presents alternative programs. The need for a unified approach to ease the problem of agricultural...