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.

Gender equality had long been discussed and studied. Besides education and the influence from society, the family is the closest and most important place in which people form and change their views and values about the gender issue. Are old values more likely to be passed on in families in which several generations live together? We found interesting results here. East Asia has a relatively high level of economic growth; however, the gender equality status is still not satisfying. China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan share highly similar cultural backgrounds. Additionally, they all underwent rapid development after World War II. Most importantly, they share a tradition of several generations living together. By studying the impact of co-residence on gender attitudes in families in those four societies, the impact of co-residence is carefully examined.

Much of the literature on herbicide resistant weeds suggests that farmers do not adopt resistance management practices on rented land to the same extent as on owned land. This study uses data from the USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey for corn and soybeans to compare adoption of resistance management practices on owned and rented land analyzing national and regional data for a variety of weed management practices. There was little support for the hypothesis that renters adopted resistance management practices less than owners. In most cases, there was no significant difference in adoption rates. In cases where there were statistically significant differences, it was more common that resistance management practice adoption was higher on rented land than on owned land. The second part of this study estimated a hazard model to predict when resistance to glyphosate would first be detected in corn fields in a state. The model was used to test hypotheses about whether adoption of different weed management practices delayed or sped up the onset of resistance. The analysis found evidence that greater use of phosphinic acid herbicides (the herbicide family that includes glyphosate) sped up the onset of glyphosate resistant weeds.

There is a significant amount of literature documenting empirical linkages between socioeconomic status and mental health of individuals. While economic studies have found beneficial impacts of anti-poverty programs (e.g., micro-credit programs) on mental and emotional health, non-economic studies have documented the powerful roles of social capital in determining mental and emotional health. In this thesis, we study the impact of a large community-driven development (CDD) women's empowerment program, Jeevika, on mental health. JEEViKA is a rural livelihood program in Bihar, India, which promotes women's livelihood through a network of women's self-help group (SHG). Using data on a sample of 2300 SHG women from matched pairs of 66 high-exposure and low-exposure Jeevika villages, we estimate the causal impact of Jeevika on mental health. The results suggest that mental health improves with increasing age and among socially backward communities in high exposure JEEViKA villages. However, overall both the individual and village level analysis demonstrates no significant impact of JEEViKA on the mental health.

The purpose of this research is to quantify how macro-scale factors such as weather, crop prices, and land conversion affect agricultural water use at the irrigation district level in central Arizona and to understand what constraints and considerations district managers face when making water-sourcing decisions. A conceptual model is developed and econometrically estimated finding that much of the annual variation in total water use for agriculture can be explained by differences in precipitation, cotton prices, and alfalfa prices. Further, results from empirical analysis support the notion that total water use for agriculture has been greatly affected by land conversion from agriculture to other uses. Irrigation district manager interviews indicate that the water sourcing process is very similar across districts in central Arizona and has varied little since 1995, due to common constraints. This research lays an important foundation for future models designed to forecast agricultural water use in central Arizona.