A Comprehensive Assessment of the Role of Risk in U.S. Agriculture

After all the research on agricultural risk to date, the treatment of risk in agricultural research is far from harmonious. Many competing risk models have been proposed. Some new methodologies are largely untested. Some of the leading empirical methodologies in agricultural economic research are poorly suited for problems with aggregate data where risk averse behavior is less likely to be important.
This book is intended to (i) define the current state of the literature on agricultural risk research, (ii) provide a critical evaluation of economic risk research on agriculture to date and (iii) set a research agenda that will meet future needs and prospects. This type of research promises to become of increasing importance because agricultural policy in the United States and elsewhere has decidedly shifted from explicit income support objectives to risk-related motivations of helping farmers deal with risk. Beginning with the 1996 Farm Bill, the primary set of policy instruments from U.S. agriculture has shifted from target prices and set aside acreage to agricultural crop insurance.
Because this book is intended to have specific implications for U.S. agricultural policy, it has a decidedly domestic scope, but clearly many of the issues have application abroad. For each of the papers and topics included in this volume, individuals have been selected to give the strongest and broadest possible treatment of each facet of the problem. The result is this comprehensive reference book on the economics of agricultural risk.

List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. Part 1: Behavior Under Risk: General Concepts and their Significance for Agriculture. 1. Expected Utility as a Paradigm for Decision Making in Agriculture; J. Meyer. 2. Non-Expected Utility: What Do the Anomalies Mean for Risk in Agriculture? D.E. Buschena. 3. Ordering Risky Choices; L.J. Robison, R.J. Myers. 4. Conceptual Foundations of Expectations and Implications for Estimation of Risk Behavior; R.E. Just, G.C. Rausser. 5. Information, Processing Capacity, and Judgment Bias in Risk Assessment; D.R. Just. Part 2: Conceptual Adaptations of Risk Models For Agriculture. 6. Dual Approaches to State-Contingent Supply Response Systems Under Price and Production Uncertainty; R.G. Chambers, J. Quiggin. 7. Can Indirect Approaches Represent Risk Behavior Adequately?; R.D. Pope, A. Saha. 8. The Significance of Risk Under Incomplete Markets; J.-P. Chavas, Z. Bouamra-Mechemache. 9. Contracts and Risk in Agriculture: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations; B. Hueth, D.A. Hennessy. Part 3: Adequacy of General Methodological Approaches for Risk Analysis. 10. Programming Methods for Risk-Efficient Choice; C.R. Taylor, T.P. Zacharias. 11. The Econometrics of Risk; M.T. Holt, J.-P. Chavas. 12. Agriculture as a Managed Ecosystem: Implications for Econometric Analysis of Production Risk; J.M. Antle, S.M. Capalbo. 13. Survey and Experimental Techniques As an Approach for Agricultural Risk Analysis; B. Roe, A. Randall. Part 4: Sources and Consequences of Agricultural Risk: How Farmers Manage Risk.14. Modeling Price and Yield Risk; B.K. Goodwin, A.P. Ker. 15. Agricultural Technology and Risk; M.C. Marra, G.A. Carlson. 16. Quality and Grading Risk; E. Ligon. 17. Finance and Risk Bearing in Agriculture; P.J. Barry. 18. DoesLiquidity Matter to Agricultural Production? M.J. Roberts, N. Key. 19. Precision Farming Technology and Risk Management; J.A. Larson, et al. Part 5: Policy Issues Relating to Risk in Agriculture. 20. Crop Insurance as a Tool for Price and Yield Risk Management; K.H. Coble, T.O. Knight. 21. Risk Management and the Role of the Federal Government; J.W. Glauber, K.J. Collins. 22. Risk Created by Policy in Agriculture; B.L. Gardner. 23. Risk Management and the Environment; M. Metcalfe, et al. Part 6: Conclusions Regarding the Significance of Risk Research for Agriculture. 24. How Much Does Risk Really Matter to Farmers? W.N. Musser, G.F. Patrick. 25. Past Progress and Future Opportunities for Agricultural Risk Research; R.E. Just, R.D. Pope. Index.