Modeling crop yield distributions has been an important topic in agricultural production and risk analysis, and nonparametric methods have gained attention for their flexibility in describing the shapes of yield density functions. In this article, we apply a nonparametric method to model joint...

This thesis is composed of an essay on risks of farm yields in Indiana and an essay on impacts of new government commodity programs on farmers' risk management decisions. The first essay describes farm yield database collected from multiple Actual Production History (APH) records and...

Weather constitutes the major source for production risk in agriculture. Weather index can be used construct crop insurance that demand less information and can avoid moral hazard and adverse selection problems. Based on mean-variance model, theoretical results on the optimal insurance coverage...

In this paper, we study the efficiency of the Chinese wheat and soybeans futures markets and assess the conditions in agricultural commodity futures and cash markets in China. Formal statistical tests are conducted through Johansen's cointegration approach to identify the long-term equilibrium...

Risk theory tells us if an insurer can effectively pool a large number of individuals to reduce the total risk, he then can provide the insurance by charging a premium close to the actuarially fair rate. There is, however, a common belief that the risk can be effectively pooled only when the...

This paper adapts a generalized expected utility (GEU) maximization model (Epstein and Zin, 1989 and 1991) to examine the intertemporal risk management of wheat producers in the Pacific Northwest. Optimization results based on simulated data indicate the feasibility of the GEU optimization as a...

Rankings of different risk management portfolios including Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE), traditional government payment programs, crop insurance and hedging in futures; and optimal choices of insurance coverage levels and hedge ratios are evaluated for a representative central Indiana...

The overall goal of this dissertation is to investigate the price behavior for selected agricultural commodities, including grain, meats, tree fruits and cotton. The first essay examines the long-run relationship and the short-run behavior of the cotton prices in the United States and China's...