Risk, Uncertainty and the Agricultural Firm

Book excerpt: 1. Introduction. 1.1. Formulating the risk problem. 1.2. Decision criteria. 1.3. Decision making under risk : fact and fiction -- 2. Probability theory - a mathematical basis for making decisions under risk and uncertainty. 2.1. Set theory and probability. 2.2. Random variables. 2.3. Conditional probability and independence. 2.4. Some useful distribution functions. 2.5. Expected value, moments, and the moment generating function. 2.6. Estimating probability functions. 2.7. Martingales and random walks. 2.8. Summary -- 3. Expected utility - the economic basis of decision making under risk. 3.1. Consumption and utility. 3.2. Expected utility. 3.3. Expected value - variance and expected utility models. 3.4. Problems with expected utility. 3.5. Summary -- 4. Risk aversion in the large and small. 4.1. Arrow-Pratt risk aversion coefficient. 4.2. Eliciting risk aversion coefficients. 4.3 Summary -- 5. Portfolio theory and decision making under risk. 5.1. The expected value - variance frontier. 5.2. A simple portfolio. 5.3. A graphical depiction of the expected value-variance frontier. 5.4. Mean-variance versus direct utility maximization. 5.5. Derivation of the expected value-variance frontier. 5.6. Summary -- 6. Whole farm-planning models. 6.1. Farm portfolio models. 6.2. Minimize total absolute deviation. 6.3. Focus-loss. 6.4. Target MOTAD. 6.5. Direct utility maximization. 6.6. Discrete sequential stochastic programming. 6.7. Chance-constrained programming. 6.8. Interpreting shadow values from risk programming models. 6.9. Summary -- 7. Risk efficiency approaches - stochastic dominance. 7.1. Stochastic dominance. 7.2. Applications of stochastic dominance. 7.3. Summary -- 8. Dynamic decision rules and the value of information. 8.1. Decision making and Bayesian probabilities. 8.2. Concepts of information. 8.3. A model of information. 8.4. Summary -- 9. Market models of decision making under risk. 9.1. Risk equilibrium from the consumer's point of view. 9.2. The role of the riskless asset. 9.3. Risk equilibrium from the firm's perspective. 9.4. Arbitrage pricing theorem. 9.5. Empirical applications of capital market models. 9.6. Summary -- 10. Option pricing approaches to risk. 10.1. Introductions to options and futures. 10.2. Real option valuation. 10.3. Crop insurance. 10.4. Summary -- 11. State contingent production model : the stochastic production set. 11.1. Depicting risk and input decisions in the production function. 11.2. State Production set and input requirement set. 11.3. Distance functions and risk aversion. 11.4. Summary -- 12. Risk, uncertainty, and the agricultural firm - a summary and outlook