CROP INSURANCE AND DISASTER ASSISTANCE DESIGNS FOR WHEAT AND GRAIN-SORGHUM

This study compares the effectiveness of two crop insurance and two di saster assistance program designs used in conjunction with a governmen t commodity program and a linked crop insurance/government commodity p rogram design. Stochastic dominance analysis of farm-level net return distributions is used to select the preferred design(s). The results i ndicate that the disaster assistance programs are preferred over the a lternatives. The results also suggest that individual crop insurance i s preferred to area crop insurance. A subsidy is required for risk-ave rse managers to prefer area crop insurance to individual crop insuranc e.