Weather Derivatives as Crop Insurance in Iowa

Crop insurance has been used by farmers to reduce yield loss risk. In this thesis we explore the plausibility of using weather derivative products to hedge against temperature induced corn yield losses. The ultimate goal is to explore relationships between weather and yield in order to hedge yield risk with exchange traded weather derivatives. This paper sets up the groundwork for these strategies by determining the weather relationships to annual yield and variability of yields using log-linear models. We find significant links among corn, soybeans, and hay yields in Iowa and weather variables such that using temperature based weather derivatives to hedge against yield loss is economically viable.

Avery_MS_Thesis_20160512_COR.pdf (14.79 MB)

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