My dissertation research is composed of three essays to investigate the role of procurement contracting, market structural features, and market participants¡¦ behavior as determinants of the implications of contracting for spot price determination, market segments, and welfare effects. A key...

Knowledge plays an important role in firm decision making as it involves the selection of technological systems and understanding and executing technologies that are implemented. Knowledge management therefore is a learning behavior which is undertaken to acquire additional knowledge and improve...

Commodity futures can supply fair investment return and unique diversification benefits to a portfolio manager. The relative performance between commodity futures and traditional financial assets is varied with business and market conditions. In general, commodity futures are negatively...

This study analyzed a pilot insurance program for pastures, rangeland, and forage called Rainfall Index (RI-PRF). It is designed as a risk management tool to insure against declines in the accumulated rainfall index within a geographic grid. Although conceptually RI is an easy to understand risk...

Motivated by several contemporary problems existing in U.S. agriculture, this thesis investigates three particular issues concerning different aspects of agricultural contracting between growers and processors. Specifically, the first essay investigates the relationship between the use of...