Risk and risk management in organic and conventional cash crop farming in Norway

This study presents empirical insight into organic and conventional cash crop farmers' perceptions of risk and risk management strategies, and identifies socio-economic variables linked to these perceptions. The data originate from a questionnaire survey of farmers in Norway. The results indicate that organic farmers perceived themselves to be less risk averse than conventional farmers. For both groups, crop prices and yield variability were the two top rated sources of risk, followed by institutional risks. The two groups evaluated risk management strategies quite similarly; favoured strategies were good liquidity and to prevent and reduce crop diseases and pests. The farmers' evaluation of sources of risk and choice of risk strategies depended on various socio-economic variables. The importance of institutional risks implies that policy makers should be cautious about changing policy capriciously and they should consider strategic policy initiatives that give farmers more long-term reliability.     

An empirical analysis of the relationship between hedge ratio and hedging horizon using wavelet analysis

In this article, optimal hedge ratios are estimated for different hedging horizons for 23 different futures contracts using wavelet analysis. The wavelet analysis is chosen to avoid the sample reduction problem faced by the conventional methods when applied to non‐overlapping return series. Hedging performance comparisons between the wavelet hedge ratio and error‐correction (EC) hedge ratio indicate that the latter performs better for more contracts for shorter hedging horizons. However, the performance of the wavelet hedge ratio improves with the increase in the length of the hedging horizon. This is true for both within‐sample and out‐of‐sample cases. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:127–150, 2007     

Risk aversion,disappointment aversion,and futures hedging

This article examines the effect of disappointment aversion on futures hedging. We incorporated a constant‐absolute‐risk‐aversion (CARA) utility function into the disappointment‐aversion framework of Gul (1991). It is shown that a more disappointment‐averse hedger will choose an optimal futures position closer to the minimum‐variance hedge than will a less‐disappointment‐averse hedger. The effect of disappointment aversion is stronger when the hedger is less risk averse. A small disappointment aversion will cause a near‐risk neutral hedger to take a drastically different position. In addition, a more‐risk‐averse or disappointment‐averse hedger will have a lower reference point. Numerical results indicate that the reference point of a disappointment‐averse hedger tends to be lower than that of a conventional loss‐averse hedger. Consequently, the disappointment‐averse hedger will act more conservatively, not exploiting profitable opportunities as much as the conventional loss averse hedger will. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:123–141, 2002     

Turnover in U.S. Agricultural Labor Markets

Agricultural workers move in and out of agriculture frequently. Migration between types of jobs takes relatively little time. Legal female workers tend to stay out of the U.S. labor market longer once they stop being employed and their access to jobs outside of agriculture is more limited than that of their male counterparts. Predictions made when the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed that granting people amnesty would induce most of them to leave agriculture were incorrect.     

Understanding IT professionals’ knowledge sharing intention through KMS: a social exchange perspective

Knowledge sharing is the behavior of disseminating acquired knowledge to other members of an organization, and often presents major challenges, because some employees resist sharing their knowledge with others. In this paper, we investigate the knowledge sharing behavioral intention based on social exchange theory (SET). SET emphasizes non-material exchange, and people share their knowledge by weighing the potential benefits and risks of social relationships. The research presented in this study includes various constructs based on SET and social cognitive theory. This study examines the role of social exchange factors (perceived organizational support, organizational trust and reciprocal relationship expectancy) in explaining IT professionals’ knowledge sharing intentions through KMS. Based on a survey of 251 IT professionals in STSP, this study applies structural equation modeling to verify the research model. The results showed that trust, self-efficacy and reciprocal relationship expectancy are significantly associated with knowledge sharing through KMS.     

Direct medical costs of complications of diabetes in the United States: estimates for event-year and annual state costs (USD 2012)

Objective:

To estimate the direct medical costs associated with managing complications, hypoglycemia episodes, and infections associated with type 2 diabetes expressed in 2012 United States dollars (USD).

Methods:

Direct data analysis and microcosting were used to estimate the costs for an event leading to either a hospital admission or outpatient care, and the post-acute care associated with managing macrovascular and microvascular complications, hypoglycemia episodes, and infections. Data were obtained from many sources, including inpatient and emergency department databases, national physician and laboratory fee schedules, government reports, and literature. Event-year costs reflect the resource use during an acute care episode (initial management in an inpatient or outpatient setting) and any subsequent care provided in the first year. State costs reflect annual resource use required beyond the first year for the ongoing management of complications and other conditions. Costs were assessed from the perspective of a comprehensive US healthcare payer and expressed in 2012 USD.

Results:

Event-year costs (and state costs) for macrovascular complications were as follows: myocardial infarction $56,445 ($1904); ischemic stroke $42,119 ($15,541); congestive heart failure $23,758 ($1904); ischemic heart disease $21,406 ($1904); and transient ischemic attack $7388 ($179). For two microvascular complications the event-year and state costs were assumed the same: $71,714 for end stage renal disease, and $2862 blindness. The event-year cost was $9041 for lower extremity amputations, and $2147 for diabetic foot ulcers. Costs were also determined for managing hypoglycemic episodes: $176–$16,478 (depending on treatment required), and infections: vulvovaginal candidiasis $111, lower urinary tract infection $105.

Conclusions:

This study, which provides up-to-date cost estimates per patient, found that managing macrovascular and microvascular complications results in substantial costs to the healthcare system. This study facilitates conduct of other research studies such as modeling the management of diabetes and estimating the economic burden associated with complications.     

Quantile information share

This paper presents a new method to estimate Hasbrouck-type market information share in price discovery. The prevailing market information share is calculated on the basis of conditional mean. We propose a conditional quantile regression approach to obtain a new market information share measure, quantile information share, which varies across the combinations of different price quantiles. The method is illustrated with two data sets, one on the spot and futures markets in pricing S&P 500 equity index, and the other on price discovery for a cross-listed stock.