This study examines the actuarial implications of the loss cost ratio (LCR) ratemakingmethodology employed by the Risk Management Agency as a component of base ratesfor U.S. crop insurance programs, and identifies specific conditions required for the LCRmethodology to result in unbiased rates...

Factors affecting the adoption of crop insurance, forward contracting, and spreading sales areanalyzed using multivariate and multinomial probit approaches that account for simultaneousadoption and/or correlation among the three risk management adoption decisions. Our empiricalresults suggest...

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...

Using survey data from 258 Illinois corn farmers, we investigate the relationship between subjective and objective yield measures and their effect on the use of crop insurance. Our findings show that producers view themselves as better than average with respect to yields and in terms of their...

This paper examines the role of overconfidence in explaining farmer crop insurance purchasing decisions. The authors hypothesize that overconfidence could influence the participation decision and test this hypothesis. The preliminary results indicate that farmers are overconfident; however, the...

Considerable disagreement exists about the most appropriate characterization of farm-level yield distributions. Yet, the economic importance of alternate yield distribution specifications on insurance valuation, product designs and farm-level risk management has not been investigated or...

This research examines risk-return tradeoffs across a full range of crop insurance products and coverage levels. Results indicate that farm-level products reduce risk for low probability events, but that risk reductions often are not large for events that occur with more regularity. Risk...

This study evaluates the impacts on gross revenue distributions of the use of alternative crop insurance products across different coverage levels and across locations with differing yield risks. Results are presented in terms of net costs, values-at-risk, and certainty equivalent returns...

This study develops a multi-crop insurance model which is employed to evaluate crop insurance decisions when several crops are produced jointly. The results suggest that the diversification effects derived from producing multiple crops can substantially alter the risk reduction impacts of crop...