During the late 1990s a series of negative events occurred in the United Kingdom (UK) related to biotechnology. These events signaled potential risks associated with biotech foods and crops and were highly reported. According to the trust asymmetry hypothesis, such events ought to cause public...

The purpose of this study is to evaluate potential changes in the length of product life cycles in the US seed corn industry. We use the observed survival time on the market for hybrids sold during 1997-2009 to conduct a survival analysis. Our empirical results show that the expected lifetimes...

This research investigates the potential of investments in publicly traded value adding firms in the meat industry as a strategy for livestock producers to diversify risk and capture value-added profits, while allowing the producer to maintain management authority and minimize costs. The...

The effect of risk on farmland values and returns is analyzed using a capitalization model. County-level models are estimated using spatial econometric techniques. Our results show that riskier regions and growing conditions have both lower land values and higher risk-adjusted rates of return to...

This paper examines the spatial elements of marketing grain. The decision of " where" to market has been ignored due to data limitations and lack of necessity. The author will incorporate localized probability distributions of price/basis in an Excel spreadsheet using @RISK which will evaluate...

Several criteria that produce rankings of risk management alternatives are evaluated. The criteria considered are Value at Risk, the Sharpe ratio, the necessary condition for first degree stochastic dominance with a risk free asset, and the necessary condition for second degree stochastic...

Farmers need information about the expected value and variability of net revenues for alternative crop insurance and futures hedging strategies to manage risk. Specifically, the model will determine which risk management strategies are most desirable under various levels of risk aversion. The...

Empirical evidence for the existence of moral hazard in the U.S. crop insurance program has been inconclusive. Here, we seek empirical evidence of moral hazard in the U.S. crop insurance program, departing from the established empirical literature in two significant respects. First, we attempt...

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/17/08.

Averting or limiting the outbreak of infectious disease in domestic livestock herds is an economic and potential human health issue that involves both the government and individual livestock producers. Producers have private information about preventive biosecurity measures they adopt on their...