Risk-Sharing and Agricultural Contracts


Book Description

Structuring contracts to share risk in light of incentive problems is the central premise of contract theory, yet the risk-sharing implications have rarely been thoroughly tested using micro-level contract data. In this paper we test the major implications of a principal-agent model of contracts using detailed data on over 4,000 individual contracts from modern North American agriculture. In conducting this investigation we stress the importance of assumptions about risk preferences in generating testable implications. On a case-by-case basis, our evidence fails to support risk-sharing as an explanation of contract choice in modern North American farming. At the same time, we find support for models that assume risk-neutral contracting parties and stress multiple margins for moral hazard and enforcement costs.




Agricultural Contracting in Roman Palestine


Book Description

In many contracts that deal with the division of future quantities, there is a tension between risk-sharing aspects and incentive aspects. Over the last twenty-five there has been relatively more attention paid to these incentive aspects, particularly moral hazard. In this paper, we point out that risk-sharing is, nevertheless, a very important part of such contracts. Furthermore, contract characteristics that seem to be motivated by moral hazard considerations may sometimes turn out to actually be motivated by risk-sharing needs. We investigate the economic rationale for a law pertaining to tenancy in Roman Palestine, found in a Jewish legal text. This law allows for risk-sharing (through rent reduction) between tenant and landlord when the macro-economic situation is severe (makas medina), but not if the particular rental plot has a bad harvest. We consider and reject the possibility that the restriction of risk-sharing to times of makas medina can be explained from a moral hazard perspective. We show, rather, that this feature of the rental contract can be explained as the optimal rental contract in an economy characterized by tenants whose income sources are diversified. We provide empirical evidence supporting this possibility.




The Nature of the Farm


Book Description

A theoretical and empirical study of agricultural contracts and organization based on the transaction cost framework.




Income Risk Management in Agriculture


Book Description

These OECD workshop proceedings examine the various risk strategies used by farm households, in particular those attracting renewed interest such as diversification of income sources, vertical co-ordination, hedging on futures markets, insurance coverage and public safety-nets.




Risk Modeling Concepts Relating to the Design and Rating of Agricultural Insurance Contracts


Book Description

"Goodwin and Mahul identify the key issues and concerns that arise in the design and rating of crop yield insurance plans, with a particular emphasis on production risk modeling. The authors show how the availability of data shapes the insurance scheme and the ratemaking procedures. Relying on the U.S. experience and recent developments in statistics and econometrics, they review risk modeling concepts and provide technical guidelines in the development of crop insurance plans. Finally, they show how these risk modeling techniques can be extended to price risk in order to develop crop revenue insurance schemes. This paper-- a product of the Financial Sector Operations and Policy Department-- is part of a larger effort in the department to develop effective risk management and financial products for agriculture"-- World Bank web site.




Agricultural Risk Transfer


Book Description

Gain a holistic view of agricultural (re)insurance and capital market risk transfer Increasing agricultural production and food security remain key challenges for mankind. In order to meet global food demand, the Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that production has to increase by 50% by 2050 and requires large investments. Agricultural insurance and financial instruments have been an integral part to advancing productivity and are becoming more important in increasingly globalized and specialized agricultural supply chains in the wake of potentially more frequent and severe natural disasters in today’s key producing markets. Underwriting, pricing and transferring agricultural risks is complex and requires a solid understanding of the production system, exposure, perils and the most suitable products, which vastly differ among developed and developing markets. In the last decade, new insurance schemes in emerging agricultural markets have greatly contributed to the large growth of the industry from a premium volume of US$10.1 billion (2006) to US$30.7 billion (2017). This growth is bound to continue as insurance penetration and exposure increase and new schemes are being developed. Agricultural (re)insurance has become a cornerstone of sovereign disaster risk financing frameworks. Agricultural Risk Transfer introduces the main concepts of agricultural (re)insurance and capital market risk transfer that are discussed through industry case studies. It also discusses best industry practices for all main insurance products for crop, livestock, aquaculture and forestry risks including risk assessment, underwriting, pricing, modelling and loss adjustment. Describes agricultural production risks and risk management approaches Covers risk transfer of production and financial risks through insurance and financial instruments Introduces modelling concepts for the main perils and key data sources that support risk transfer through indemnity- and index-based products Describes risk pricing and underwriting approaches for crop, livestock, aquaculture and forestry exposure in developed and developing agricultural systems Become familiar with risk transfer concepts to reinsurance and capital markets Get to know the current market landscape and main risk transfer products for individual producers, agribusinesses and governments through theory and comprehensive industry case studies Through Agricultural Risk Transfer, you’ll gain a holistic view of agricultural (re)insurance and capital market solutions which will support better underwriting, more structured product development and improved risk transfer.










The Economics of Contract Choice


Book Description

This work examines the nature of agrarian contracts. Agricultural land tenancy and farm labor are basic institutions binding the life and work of billions of people in the Third World. Issues of efficiency and equity associated with a particular form of contract--such as sharecropping--are not merely of academic interest, but have critical bearing on land tenure reform as well as innovations in credit and marketing institutions in agrarian economies. There have been major controversies surrounding the role of land tenure in agricultural and rural development, with much confusion arising from only partial and separate treatments of land and labor contracts. Through a comprehensive critical survey of existing literature, Hayami and Otsuka present a general theory of agrarian contracts by integrating land and labor contracts. Insights from the scrutiny of agrarian contracts are of relevance to industrial organization and management in developed economies as well as to the study of these fields.




Agricultural Contracting Update


Book Description

Marketing and production contracts covered 39% of the value of U.S. agricultural production in 2008, up from 36% in 2001, and a substantial increase over 28% in 1991 and 11% in 1969. However, aggregate contract use has stabilized in recent years and no longer suggests a strong trend. Contracts between farmers and their buyers are reached prior to harvest (or before the completion stage for livestock) and govern the terms under which products are transferred from the farm. Contracts are far more likely to be used on large farms than on small farms. Production contracts are used widely in livestock production, while marketing contracts are important to the production of many crops. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.