As agriculture becomes more industrialized, the role of risk measures such as value-at-risk (VaR) will become more utilized. In this case it was applied to geographical diversification and also modifying the traditional VaR estimation by incorporating a copula dependence parameter into the VaR...

An international wheat trade model incorporating climate variability is used to simulate different scenarios when wheat producers in the USA, Canada, and Australia adopt El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-based climate forecasts for use in production decisions. Adoption timing and rates are...

The economics of information is a broad field covering all aspects of information including decision making. We briefly describe 4 methods used to model the decision-making process. This is not an exhaustive list of the methods used to value information, nor are differences between the methods...

Given the role electricity and natural gas sectors play in the North American economy,an understanding of how markets for these commodities interact is important. Thisdissertation independently characterizes the price dynamics of major electricity andnatural gas spot markets in North America by...

Machinery investments represent a substantial portion of agribusiness firms’ costs. Because of high machinery costs, variable profit margins, and increasing competition, agribusiness managers continually seek methods to maintain profitability and manage risk. One relatively new method is...

Economic aspects of household recycling behavior and attitudes in City of Bryan are examined to improve solid waste management policies in the city. Using survey data collected by mail and personal interviews, residents’ attitudes towards solid waste management are analyzed, in general, and...

The dynamics of the U.S. and Canada natural gas spot markets are evolving throughderegulation policies and technological advances. Economic theory suggests that thesemarkets will be integrated. The key question is the extent of integration among themarkets. This thesis characterizes the degree...

Previous climate information studies have used static models to estimate the benefits of using seasonal forecasts. Technology adoption studies, on the other hand, have used dynamic models but have examined the benefits of adoption ex post. The objective of this study is to examine ex ante the...