IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aes026/397878.html

Crop yield distribution modeling faces three key challenges: complex distributional structure, limited historical data at the county level, and the need to incorporate evolving climate conditions into distributional dynamics. We propose a Fixed-Effect Panel Neural Mixture (FEPNM) framework to address these challenges. FEPNM extends finite mixture models to a panel data setting, allowing information sharing across counties through fixed effects to mitigate short time-series limitations. We further generalize the mixture model into a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) type specification by introducing a neural-network gating mechanism that flexibly maps climate variables and conservation practices to time-varying regime probabilities. This structure enables direct modeling of the probability of yield loss as a nonlinear function of climate exposure and management adoption. Simulations demonstrate that FEPNM substantially improves the precision of structural parameter estimates and average partial effects, particularly in short-T settings. In an empirical application to U.S. county-level corn yields, FEPNM outperforms conventional mixture and single-distribution specifications in both in-sample and out-of-sample likelihood. Our results provide structural evidence on how climate exposure and conservation practices jointly shape corn yield distributions. Heating Degree Days (HDD) significantly increase the probability of yield loss, while adoption of cover crops and no-tillage practices significantly reduces downside yield risk. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating nonlinear climate effects and management practices into distributional modeling for agricultural risk management and crop insurance design

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Yixuan
  • Ker, Alan
  • Aglasan, Serkan

Abstract

Crop yield distribution modeling faces three key challenges: complex distributional structure, limited historical data at the county level, and the need to incorporate evolving climate conditions into distributional dynamics. We propose a Fixed-Effect Panel Neural Mixture (FEPNM) framework to address these challenges. FEPNM extends finite mixture models to a panel data setting, allowing information sharing across counties through fixed effects to mitigate short time-series limitations. We further generalize the mixture model into a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) type specification by introducing a neural-network gating mechanism that flexibly maps climate variables and conservation practices to time-varying regime probabilities. This structure enables direct modeling of the probability of yield loss as a nonlinear function of climate exposure and management adoption. Simulations demonstrate that FEPNM substantially improves the precision of structural parameter estimates and average partial effects, particularly in short-T settings. In an empirical application to U.S. county-level corn yields, FEPNM outperforms conventional mixture and single-distribution specifications in both in-sample and out-of-sample likelihood. Our results provide structural evidence on how climate exposure and conservation practices jointly shape corn yield distributions. Heating Degree Days (HDD) significantly increase the probability of yield loss, while adoption of cover crops and no-tillage practices significantly reduces downside yield risk. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating nonlinear climate effects and management practices into distributional modeling for agricultural risk management and crop insurance design.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Yixuan & Ker, Alan & Aglasan, Serkan, 2026. "Crop yield distribution modeling faces three key challenges: complex distributional structure, limited historical data at the county level, and the need to incorporate evolving climate conditions into distributional dynamics. We propose a Fixed-Effec," 100th Annual Conference, March 23-25, 2026, Wadham College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 397878, Agricultural Economics Society (AES).
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:aes026:397878
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.397878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/397878/files/alan_Ker_A%20Panel%20Mixture%20Neural%20Network%20Framework%20for%20Modeling%20Climate%20Impacts%20on%20Crop%20Yield%20Distributions.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.397878?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deb Partha & Trivedi Pravin K., 2013. "Finite Mixture for Panels with Fixed Effects," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 35-51, July.
    2. Joshua D. Woodard & Bruce J. Sherrick, 2011. "Estimation of Mixture Models using Cross-Validation Optimization: Implications for Crop Yield Distribution Modeling," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(4), pages 968-982.
    3. Paul Gallagher, 1987. "U.S. Soybean Yields: Estimation and Forecasting with Nonsymmetric Disturbances," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 69(4), pages 796-803.
    4. Wolfram Schlenker & Michael J. Roberts, 2006. "Nonlinear Effects of Weather on Corn Yields," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 28(3), pages 391-398.
    5. Alan P. Ker & Tor N. Tolhurst & Yong Liu, 2016. "Bayesian Estimation of Possibly Similar Yield Densities: Implications for Rating Crop Insurance Contracts," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(2), pages 360-382.
    6. Ng, Horlick & Ker, Alan P., 2021. "On the Changing Nature of Canadian Crop Yield Distributions," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 46(01), January.
    7. Jesse Tack & Ardian Harri & Keith Coble, 2012. "More than Mean Effects: Modeling the Effect of Climate on the Higher Order Moments of Crop Yields," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1037-1054.
    8. Yong Liu & A. Ford Ramsey, 2023. "Incorporating historical weather information in crop insurance rating," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(2), pages 546-575, March.
    9. Tor N. Tolhurst & Alan P. Ker, 2015. "On Technological Change in Crop Yields," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(1), pages 137-158.
    10. Yu Yvette Zhang, 2017. "A Density-Ratio Model of Crop Yield Distributions," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(5), pages 1327-1343.
    11. Gallagher, Paul W., 1987. "U.S. Soybean Yields: Estimation and Forecasting with Non-Symmetric Disturbances," Staff General Research Papers Archive 10779, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    12. Bruce J. Sherrick & Fabio C. Zanini & Gary D. Schnitkey & Scott H. Irwin, 2004. "Crop Insurance Valuation under Alternative Yield Distributions," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 86(2), pages 406-419.
    13. Barry K. Goodwin & Alan P. Ker, 1998. "Nonparametric Estimation of Crop Yield Distributions: Implications for Rating Group-Risk Crop Insurance Contracts," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 80(1), pages 139-153.
    14. Sunjae Won & Roderick M. Rejesus & Barry K. Goodwin & Serkan Aglasan, 2024. "Understanding the effect of cover crop use on prevented planting losses," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(2), pages 659-683, March.
    15. Joseph Atwood & Saleem Shaik & Myles Watts, 2003. "Are Crop Yields Normally Distributed? A Reexamination," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(4), pages 888-901.
    16. Carl H. Nelson & Paul V. Preckel, 1989. "The Conditional Beta Distribution as a Stochastic Production Function," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 71(2), pages 370-378.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liang, Weifang & Liu, Yong, 2023. "Rating Crop Insurance Contracts with Model Stacking of Gaussian Processes," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335759, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. repec:ags:aaea22:335759 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Yong Liu & Alan P. Ker, 2021. "Simultaneous borrowing of information across space and time for pricing insurance contracts: An application to rating crop insurance policies," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(1), pages 231-257, March.
    4. Jesse B. Tack & David Ubilava, 2015. "Climate and agricultural risk: measuring the effect of ENSO on U.S. crop insurance," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(2), pages 245-257, March.
    5. A Ford Ramsey, 2020. "Probability Distributions of Crop Yields: A Bayesian Spatial Quantile Regression Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 220-239, January.
    6. Ramsey, A., 2018. "Conditional Distributions of Crop Yields: A Bayesian Approach for Characterizing Technological Change," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277253, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Christopher N. Boyer & B. Wade Brorsen & Emmanuel Tumusiime, 2015. "Modeling skewness with the linear stochastic plateau model to determine optimal nitrogen rates," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(1), pages 1-10, January.
    8. Liu, Y. & Ker, A., 2018. "Is There Too Much History in Historical Yield Data," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277293, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Jesse Tack & David Ubilava, 2013. "The effect of El Niño Southern Oscillation on U.S. corn production and downside risk," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 121(4), pages 689-700, December.
    10. Ker, Alan. P & Tolhurst, Tor & Liu, Yong, 2015. "Rating Area-yield Crop Insurance Contracts Using Bayesian Model Averaging and Mixture Models," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205211, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Ozaki, Vitor & Campos, Rogério, 2017. "Reduzindo a Incerteza no Mercado de Seguros: Uma Abordagem via Informações de Sensoriamento Remoto e Atuária," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 71(4), December.
    12. Jing Wang & Feng Fang & Qiang Zhang & Jinsong Wang & Yubi Yao & Wei Wang, 2016. "Risk evaluation of agricultural disaster impacts on food production in southern China by probability density method," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 83(3), pages 1605-1634, September.
    13. Ozaki, Vitor Augusto & Olinda, Ricardo & Faria, Priscila Neves & Campos, Rogério Costa, 2014. "Estimation of the Agricultural Probability of Loss: evidence for soybean in Paraná State," Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural (RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 52(01), January.
    14. repec:isu:genstf:201101010800002976 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Kuangyu Wen, 2023. "A semiparametric spatio‐temporal model of crop yield trend and its implication to insurance rating," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(5), pages 662-673, September.
    16. Fujin Yi & Mengfei Zhou & Yu Yvette Zhang, 2020. "Value of Incorporating ENSO Forecast in Crop Insurance Programs," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(2), pages 439-457, March.
    17. 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(01), pages 1-17, January.
    18. Jesse Tack & Ardian Harri & Keith Coble, 2012. "More than Mean Effects: Modeling the Effect of Climate on the Higher Order Moments of Crop Yields," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1037-1054.
    19. repec:isu:genstf:201701010800006248 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Tor N. Tolhurst & Alan P. Ker, 2015. "On Technological Change in Crop Yields," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(1), pages 137-158.
    21. repec:isu:genstf:201501010800005371 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Shen, Zhiwei, "undated". "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.
    23. Arora, Gaurav & Agarwal, Sandip K., 2020. "Agricultural input use and index insurance adoption: Concept and evidence," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304508, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    24. Yong Liu & A. Ford Ramsey, 2023. "Incorporating historical weather information in crop insurance rating," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(2), pages 546-575, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:aes026:397878. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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/aesukea.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.