IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/jlaare/105550.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Actuarial Impacts of Loss Cost Ratio Ratemaking in U.S. Crop Insurance Programs

Author

Listed:
  • Woodard, Joshua D.
  • Sherrick, Bruce J.
  • Schnitkey, Gary D.

Abstract

This study examines the actuarial implications of the loss cost ratio (LCR) ratemaking methodology employed by the Risk Management Agency as a component of base rates for U.S. crop insurance programs, and identifies specific conditions required for the LCR methodology to result in unbiased rates when liabilities trend. Specifically, constant relative yield risk resulting in growing absolute variance through time and other restrictive requirements are required for the LCR to result in unbiased rates. These requirements are tested against a large farm-level data set for Illinois corn. Our findings indicate that the conditions required for appropriate use of the LCR methodology are violated for this high premium volume market, resulting in large implied rate biases. The process does not correct itself through time with the addition of longer rating periods as sometimes claimed. A simple correction function is suggested and demonstrated.

Suggested Citation

  • Woodard, Joshua D. & Sherrick, Bruce J. & Schnitkey, Gary D., 2011. "Actuarial Impacts of Loss Cost Ratio Ratemaking in U.S. Crop Insurance Programs," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 36(1), pages 1-18, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:105550
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.105550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/105550/files/JARE_Apr2011__13_pp211-228_Woodard.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.105550?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francis Tsiboe & Jesse Tack, 2022. "Utilizing Topographic and Soil Features to Improve Rating for Farm‐Level Insurance Products," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 52-69, January.
    2. Woodard, Joshua D. & Chiu Verteramo, Leslie & Miller, Alyssa P., 2015. "Adaptation of U.S. Agricultural Production to Drought and Climate Change," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205903, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Jim Teal & Andrew W. Stevens, 2024. "Race and premium misrating in the U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(1), pages 169-188, March.
    4. Paloch Suchato & Taro Mieno & Karina Schoengold & Timothy Foster, 2022. "The potential for moral hazard behavior in irrigation decisions under crop insurance," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(2), pages 257-273, March.
    5. Chengguo Weng & Lysa Porth & Ken Seng Tan & Ryan Samaratunga, 2017. "Modelling the Sustainability of the Canadian Crop Insurance Program: A Reserve Fund Process Under a Public–Private Partnership Model," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 42(2), pages 226-246, April.
    6. Joshua D. Woodard & Leslie J. Verteramo‐Chiu, 2017. "Efficiency Impacts of Utilizing Soil Data in the Pricing of the Federal Crop Insurance Program," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 99(3), pages 757-772, April.
    7. Kim, Youngho, 2023. "Payments for Ecosystem Services Programs and Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335971, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Delbridge, Timothy A. & King, Robert P., 2016. "How Important is the T-Yield? An Analysis of Reforms to Organic Crop Insurance," Staff Papers 244732, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    9. Kirwan, Barrett E., 2014. "The Crowd-out Effect of Crop Insurance on Farm Survival and Profitability," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170881, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Shen, Zhiwei, 2016. "Adaptive local parametric estimation of crop yields: implication for crop insurance ratemaking," 156th Seminar, October 4, 2016, Wageningen, The Netherlands 249984, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Ramirez, Octavio A. & Shonkwiler, J. Scott, 2017. "A Probabilistic Model of Crop Insurance Purchase Decision," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 42(1), pages 1-17, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:105550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/waeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.