scholarly journals Rating exotic price coverage in crop revenue insurance

2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (5) ◽  
pp. 609-631
Author(s):  
A. Ford Ramsey ◽  
Sujit K. Ghosh ◽  
Barry K. Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
Crop Yields ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Serial Dependence ◽  
Archimedean Copulas ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Insurance Policies ◽  
Revenue Insurance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Vine Copulas

PurposeRevenue insurance is the most popular form of insurance available in the US federal crop insurance program. The majority of crop revenue policies are sold with a harvest price replacement feature that pays out on lost crop yields at the maximum of a realized or projected harvest price. The authors introduce a novel actuarial and statistical approach to rate revenue insurance policies with exotic price coverage: the payout depends on an order statistic or average of prices. The authors examine the price implications of different dependence models and demonstrate the feasibility of policies of this type.Design/methodology/approachHierarchical Archimedean copulas and vine copulas are used to model dependence between prices and yields and serial dependence of prices. The authors construct several synthetic exotic price coverage insurance policies and evaluate the impact of copula models on policies covering different types of risk.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that the price of exotic price coverage policies is sensitive to the choice of dependence model. Serial dependence varies across the growing season. It is possible to accurately price exotic coverage policies and we suggest these add-ons as a possible avenue for developing private crop insurance markets.Originality/valueThe authors apply hierarchical Archimedean copulas and vine copulas that allow for flexibility in the modeling of multivariate dependence. Unlike previous research, which has primarily considered dependence across space, the form of exotic price coverage requires modeling serial dependence in relative prices. Results are important for this segment of the agricultural insurance market: one of the main areas that insurers can develop private products around the federal program.

Building insurance through an NGO

2016 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Christine Bélanger
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Purpose – This paper is based on a crop insurance implementation currently undergoing in Haiti. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a program tailored to rice production in the Artibonite Valley, the challenges and opportunities that are arising from the exercise as well as pitfalls and ways to avoid them. Design/methodology/approach – The Système de Financement et d’Assurances Agricoles en Haïti’s approach for the development of crop insurance is in accordance with 13 concepts considered essential in the implementation of agricultural insurance programs. The case study is presented through each of these 13 fundamental concepts. Findings – The paper provides an insight on challenges any organization will face when implementing crop insurance for smallholder farmers. It points out notably that close collaboration of executing agencies with local partners is essential from data collection through insurance development and delivery and that all participants should receive a specific training tailored to their level of education and understanding. Social implications – Haiti is one of the poorest countries on the planet. Smallholder farmers could benefit a lot from crop insurance. It could help them stabilize their income when facing crop losses due to natural hazards or uncontrollable natural events. Originality/value – This paper fulfills an identified need to share real case studies exposing challenges faced when implementing crop insurance for smallholder farmers.

The US crop insurance program and WTO disciplines

2016 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph William Glauber
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Insurance Program ◽  
The Us ◽  
Domestic Support ◽  
Green Box

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the US crop insurance programs in the context of domestic support disciplines under the World Trade Organization (WTO). Crop insurance has become an integral part of many domestic support programs, not just in developed countries, but in important emerging markets as well. An often-cited impetus for the growth in insurance program is the potential treatment of such programs as exempt from WTO reduction commitments. Design/methodology/approach – A detailed examination of the so-called “green box provisions” of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture is presented with particular emphasis on eligibility criteria for crop yield and revenue insurance programs. Findings – While WTO rules potentially shield green box policies from reduction, few developed countries have notified agricultural insurance policies under Annex 2. Moreover, crop insurance programs have been challenged in recent WTO dispute settlement cases and domestic countervailing duty investigations. Originality/value – The paper presents a unique perspective on a program which has become the largest single farm program in the USA.

The effects of overconfident yield forecasting on cross-coverage level crop insurance demand

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clayton P. Michaud
Keyword(s):  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Coverage Level ◽  
Insurance Demand ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Revenue Insurance ◽  
Yield Risk ◽  
Yield Forecasting ◽  
Yield Insurance

PurposeThis paper examines the effect of overconfident yield forecasting (optimism bias) on crop insurance coverage level choices across both yield and revenue insurance.Design/methodology/approachThis study simulates a representative producer’s preferred coverage level for both yield and revenue insurance under three potential models of decision-making and four potential manifestations of overconfident yield forecasting. The study then uses this framework to examine how coverage level choices change as overconfidence increases (decreases).FindingsAs overconfidence increases, producers prefer lower levels of crop insurance coverage than they would otherwise prefer, with extreme overconfidence inducing farmers to buy no insurance at all. While overconfidence affects cross-coverage demand for revenue and yield insurance similarly, this effect is more pronounced for yield insurance. Cross-coverage level demand for revenue insurance is relatively stable across changes in the correlation between prices and yields.Practical implicationsThis research has important implications for crop insurance subsidy design and crop insurance demand modeling.Originality/valueThere is a growing body of literature suggesting that producers are overconfident with regard to their future yield risk and that this bias reduces their willingness to pay for risk management tools such as crop insurance. This is the first study to look at how such overconfidence affects cross-coverage level demand for crop insurance.

Challenges in the design of crop revenue insurance

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry K. Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Commodity Prices ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Farm Bill ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Insurance Program ◽  
Revenue Insurance ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Production Practices ◽  
Recent Policy

Purpose – The federal crop insurance program has become the cornerstone of US agricultural policy. Since its introduction in the mid-1990s, crop revenue insurance has grown in prominence and now represents nearly 90 percent of liability for major crops. The pricing and design of revenue insurance raises a number of important challenges. The 2014 Farm Bill brought about several important changes in the program, resulting in a moving target for analysts and researchers. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The risks are of a multivariate nature and are likely to be highly dependent on one another. The crop insurance setting is also constantly changing, with technological changes in production practices and highly volatile commodity prices. Compounding these challenges is the fact that US policymakers continually change the program. Findings – The program has indeed undergone many changes and a number of important research questions need to be addressed. Originality/value – Original research based upon recent policy.

Rank-dependent preferences, social network and crop insurance uptake: field experimental evidence from rural China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruojin Zhang ◽  
Dan Fan ◽  
Gene Lai ◽  
Junqian Wu ◽  
Jungong Li
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Likelihood Function ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Southwestern China ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rice Farmers

PurposeAgricultural insurance has become increasingly important to farmers' livelihood and production in rural China. Yet despite the enormous governmental subsidizing efforts, the insurance participation rate remains below expectations. This study revisits the linkage between farmers' risk attitudes and crop insurance utilization by providing a cross-cutting perspective such that the role of risk aversion is re-scrutinized in Chinese “kindred” village economies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors administrated a lottery-based multiple price list (MPL) experiment by recruiting rice farmers from 12 villages in Sichuan province in southwestern China. Using the experimental data, farmers' risk attitudes are assessed and coefficients of risk aversion are estimated within the rank-dependent expected utility (RDEU) framework by maximizing a structured likelihood function.FindingsThis study provides substantiating evidence that rice farmers in southwestern China exhibit relatively high risk aversion. The authors also provide suggestive evidence of the positive relationship between farmers' risk aversion and crop insurance utilization. In addition, findings reveal that kinship network has a negative effect on crop insurance utilization, such that farmers who are connected in higher degree of kinship network have lower likelihood of crop insurance utilization, which suggests that kinship network may be substitute for formal crop insurance. Result also demonstrates that the incentive effect of risk aversion on farmers' crop insurance participation manifests differently depending on the degree of kinship network in rural China.Originality/valueThis study provides a cross-cutting perspective by scrutinizing the effects of farmers' risk attitudes and kinship network on crop insurance participation in rural China, which has received relatively little attention in the literature. Conclusions on the effects of risk aversion on crop insurance participation have been mixed in previous studies. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, little has been done to explicitly examine the influence of social proximity and networks on farmers' insurance uptake. This study attempts to fill both gaps. This study provides new insights which might shed lights on the understanding of farmers' crop insurance participation in rural China.

scholarly journals The impact of enterprise unit policy change on the quantity demanded for crop insurance

2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-527
Author(s):  
Harun Bulut
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
High Coverage ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Time Path ◽  
Unit Structure ◽  
Catastrophic Coverage ◽  
Economic Regions ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe article examines the impact of policy change on enterprise unit subsidies that took place in 2009 on the quantity demanded for crop insurance.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis covers corn, soybeans, and wheat that are grown in six economic regions and uses various measures of purchasing such as acres insured, unit structure, coverage levels, as well as crop hail use as proxies for the quantity demanded.The analysis first employs time series econometric tools to analyze whether the time path of the share of enterprise units within buyup acres is influenced by the policy change in enterprise unit subsidies. It then comparatively examines the insurance experience between 2008 (right before the change) and 2015 (well after the change).FindingsFor corn, soybean, and wheat, the analysis establishes that the time path of the share of enterprise units within buyup coverage acres is statistically and economically influenced by the intervention. The analysis further quantifies the intervention's immediate and long-term impacts and finds that farmers' unit choices are highly responsive (elastic) to subsidy rates in those units.Between 2008 and 2015, the insurance experience generally indicates that the share of enterprise units within buyup coverage surged, the share of acres under catastrophic coverage declined, and the share acres in high coverage levels increased. Meanwhile, growers have increasingly utilized crop-hail policies.Originality/valueThis appears to be the first study (1) quantifying the sensitivity of farmers' unit choices with respect to subsidy rates in those units and finding that such choices are actually highly responsive (elastic), and (2) pointing out the interaction between MPCI and crop-hail products and offering insights as to their combined use. The findings should be of considerable value to policymakers, academics, bankers, and producers in regards to the design and use of risk management tools.

scholarly journals Applicability of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in Index-Based Crop Insurance Design

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calum G. Turvey ◽  
Megan K. Mclaurin
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Extreme Heat ◽  
Precipitation Extreme ◽  
Regression Equations ◽  
Agricultural Insurance

Abstract Index insurance is becoming increasingly popular because of its ability to provide low-cost, relatively easy to implement agricultural insurance for vegetation types whose productivity has been notoriously difficult to measure and to farmers in less-developed nations where traditional crop insurance schemes are not reasonable to implement. This study examines if the remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) can be an effective basis for index-based crop insurance over a diverse set of locations. To do this the authors compare Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) values to cumulative precipitation, extreme heat, and crop yields for 60 locations across the United States for the years 1982–2003. Quadratic regression equations are used to explore these relationships. The findings suggest that the relationship between NDVI, precipitation, extreme heat, and crop yields is highly variable and dependent on location-specific characteristics. Without site-specific calibration, NDVI should not be widely applied to index-based insurance product design. However, NDVI may still be a useful tool in insurance design under certain circumstances. This may be disappointing to proponents of NDVI as a risk transfer mechanism but the authors believe it important to report negative results as a caveat, and to give researchers and practitioners pause before investing time and money into the proposition.

scholarly journals Problems and directions of improving the insurance of agricultural crops and plantings of perennial plantations against the risks of natural emergencies

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 777-786
Author(s):  
N. N. Semenova ◽  
A. Y. Averin
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Federal Budget ◽  
Agricultural Crops ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Material Interest ◽  
Separate Area ◽  
Independent Distribution ◽  
Regional Authorities ◽  
The Impact

The simultaneous existence of two interrelated forms of state aid - subsidizing classical agricultural insurance and compensation for damage to affected regions from the federal budget - requires understanding the basic principles of interaction and assessing the mutual impact of these areas of support. The purpose of the study is to identify the problems of the development of crop insurance and planting of perennial crops against the risks of natural emergencies. The research was carried out in the context of insurance statistics of Russian regions using generally accepted methods. The conducted research revealed the negative dynamics of a significant decrease in the volume of crop insurance of agricultural crops in 2016-2020. Regional authorities in the conditions of a single subsidy are not interested in the independent distribution of funds allocated by the state for the development of agricultural insurance. This is due to the fact that when the agricultural sector has significant losses as a result of the impact of natural disasters, the practice of introducing an emergency regime by the region is widespread. Which gives grounds for receiving compensation for half of the amount of damage directly from the federal budget. This determines the main problem of the development of classical agricultural insurance - the lack of expediency and material interest in this mechanism of protection of property interests both on the part of producers of agricultural products and on the part of regional authorities. In this regard, a brief justification was given for the feasibility of transforming the mechanism for providing direct assistance to the regions from the federal budget into a separate area of crop risk insurance in case of a natural emergency. This line of support will complete the classic multi-risk agricultural insurance.

Preferences for crop insurance attributes among cocoa farmers in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Owusu ◽  
Awudu Abdulai ◽  
Williams Ali
Keyword(s):  
Latent Class ◽  
Credit Constraints ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Input Use ◽  
Cocoa Farmers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Participation Decisions ◽  
Southern Ghana

PurposeThis article analyzes farmers' preferences for different nonindexed crop insurance alternatives, using discrete choice experiment data on cocoa farmers from southern Ghana. We examine farmers' attendance to attributes by comparing self-reported attribute nonattendance (ANA) to the behavior inferred from the choices.Design/methodology/approachWe utilize the latent class endogenous attribute attendance (EAA) model to address potential endogeneity by jointly modelling farmers' attribute processing strategies with their choice of attributes of the insurance products.FindingsThe results show that premium levels, mode and length of indemnity payouts tend to influence farmers' preferences for crop insurance products. The findings also reveal that credit-constrained farmers attend more to premium and payment mode attributes of the crop insurance products and that credit-constrained farmers tend to exhibit lower willingness-to-pay estimates for the crop insurance attributes.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings from the study suggest that credit constraints do not only limit input use, but also tend to have statistically significant impact on farmers' cocoa insurance participation decisions.Originality/valueThe study examines the impact of credit constraints on farmers' crop insurance preferences while accounting for ANA.

Does federal crop insurance lead to higher farm debt use? Evidence from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer E Ifft ◽  
Todd Kuethe ◽  
Mitch Morehart
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Farm Sector ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
Farm Debt ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Agricultural Resource Management Survey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider how the federal crop insurance (FCI) program influences farm debt use, one of the key financial decisions made by farm operators. Design/methodology/approach – Using data from the nationally representative Agricultural Resource Management Survey, the paper implements a propensity score matching model of the impact of FCI participation on various measures of farm business debt use. To account for the simultaneity of financial decisions, the paper further tests this relationship using a seemingly unrelated regression model. Findings – FCI participation is associated with an increase in use of short-term farm debt, but not long-term debt, consistent with risk balancing behavior and current trends in the farm sector. Research limitations/implications – In addition to risk balancing, the results are also consistent with credit constraints or lender preferences. The paper cannot fully establish causality between crop insurance participation and short-term debt levels. Future research should address these limitations. Practical implications – Agricultural lending standards are generally conservative and the farm sector as a whole currently has historically low leverage, which implies that an increase in debt use may not be a threat to the financial health of the farm sector. Social implications – The results indicate that the reduction in total risk facing the farm sector is significantly less than the decline in risk provided by FCI, which is an important consideration for policymakers. Originality/value – This is the first paper to use an econometric model to analyze the relationship between FCI and farm debt use decisions. This paper can inform future research on the FCI program and farm financial decisions.

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