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Implications of within county yield heterogeneity for modeling crop insurance premiums

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph Cooper
  • Carl Zulauf
  • Michael Langemeier
  • Gary Schnitkey

Abstract

Purpose - Farm level data are essential to accurate setting of crop insurance premium rates, but their time series tends to be too short to allow them to be the sole data source. County level data are available in longer time series, however. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology to make full use of the information inherent in each of these data sets. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses a novel application of statistical tools for using farm and county level yield data to generate farm level yield densities that explicitly incorporate within county yield heterogeneity while accounting for systemic risk and other spatial or intertemporal correlations among farms within the county. Findings - The empirical analysis shows that current approaches used by the Risk Management Agency to individualize premiums for a farm result in substantial mispricing of crop insurance premiums because they do not adequately capture farm yield variability and yield correlations between farms. The new premium setting method is empirically shown to substantially reduce government subsidies for crop insurance premiums. Originality/value - The paper demonstrates how to extract more information from available data when setting crop insurance premiums, which allows the government to more closely tailor premiums to the farm than do current approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph Cooper & Carl Zulauf & Michael Langemeier & Gary Schnitkey, 2012. "Implications of within county yield heterogeneity for modeling crop insurance premiums," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 72(1), pages 134-155, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:afrpps:v:72:y:2012:i:1:p:134-155
    DOI: 10.1108/00021461211222213
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Cooper, Joseph, 2009. "Payments under the Average Crop Revenue Program: Implications for Government Costs and Producer Preferences," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 49-64, April.
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    15. Calm G. Turvey, 1992. "An Economic Analysis of Alternative Farm Revenue Insurance Policies," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 40(3), pages 403-426, November.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Cooper, Joseph & Delbecq, Benoît, 2014. "A multi-region approach to assessing fiscal and farm level consequences of government support for farm risk management," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 3(3), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Cooper, Joseph & Hungerford, Ashley & O'Donoghue, Erik, 2015. "Interactions of Shallow Loss Support and Traditional Federal Crop Insurance: Building a Framework for Assessing Commodity Support Issues for the Next Farm Act," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205310, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Gerlt, Scott & Thompson, Wyatt & Miller, Douglas, 2014. "Exploiting the Relationship between Farm-Level Yields and County-Level Yields for Applied Analysis," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 39(2), pages 1-18.
    4. Zulauf, Carl R. & Orden, David, 2014. "Assessing the Political Economy of the 2014 U.S. Farm Bill," 2014: Food, Resources and Conflict, December 7-9, 2014. San Diego, California 197160, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    5. Gerlt, Scott & Westhoff, Patrick, 2013. "Analysis of the Supplemental Coverage Option," 2013 AAEA: Crop Insurance and the Farm Bill Symposium 156704, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Zulauf, Carl R. & Demircan, Vecdi & Scnhitkey, Gary & Barnaby, Glenn Arthur, Jr. & Ibendahl, Gregg & Herbel, Kevin, 2013. "Examining Contemporaneous Farm and County Losses Using Farm Level Data," 2013 AAEA: Crop Insurance and the Farm Bill Symposium 157812, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Cooper, Joseph C. & Delbecq, Benoit A. & Davis, Christopher G., 2012. "Fiscal and Farm Level Consequences of “Shallow Loss” Commodity Support," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124199, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Gerlt, Scott & Westhoff, Patrick, "undated". "Comparison of County ARC and SCO," 2014 AAEA: Crop Insurance and the 2014 Farm Bill Symposium: Implementing Change in U.S. Agricultural Policy, October 8-9, 2014, Louisville, KY 184289, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. David Orden & Carl Zulauf, 2015. "Political Economy of the 2014 Farm Bill," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1298-1311.
    10. Zulauf, Carl & Orden, David, 2014. "The US Agricultural Act of 2014: Overview and analysis:," IFPRI discussion papers 1393, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

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