Determinants of the Storage Season Corn Basis in South Carolina

Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE REGIONAL COTTON BASIS

Few empirical basis studies have examined the basis in multiple regions and few have concentrated on cotton. This paper addresses this topic, examining consumption market factors that affect the cotton basis in five U.S. cotton production regions. The seemingly unrelated regression results indicate that the following factors are significant in explaining the basis: total U.S. cotton stocks and the ratio of foreign cotton stocks to foreign mill use in the Southeast and North Delta regions; regional stocks, the opportunity cost of storage and the foreign stocks to use ratio in the West Texas region; and regional stocks, total U.S. stocks, the opportunity cost of storage, and the foreign stocks to use ratio in the Desert Southwest and San Joaquin Valley regions. All significant coefficients have the hypothesized signs except the coefficient for the opportunity cost of storage and the coefficient for the ratio of foreign stocks to foreign mill use in two regions. The results indicate that the cotton basis in different regions is typically affected by different factors.cotton basis, futures markets, Marketing,

Men’s Rights Activists and the Ray Rice Domestic-Violence Case: Using Critical Communication Pedagogy to Counter Hegemonic Masculinity

Some groups in society communicate in ways that attempt to marginalize others. One such group is the Men’s Rights Activists (MRA) who use language to attempt to normalize the subjugation of women through its rejection of feminism. This activity is designed to engage students in a dialogue about MRA’s response to the domestic-violence incident involving Baltimore Ravens’ running back Ray Rice and his fiancé, Janay Palmer, in a hotel elevator. Specifically, the activity allows students to learn about MRA members and their hegemonic ideology, to examine/view the domestic-violence incident, and to use critical-communication pedagogy (CCP) as a means to examine a MRA’s blog that was devoted to the incident. Overall, the activity allows instructors and students to engage in a meaningful dialogue about MRAs through the lens of CCP in order to respond to instances of hegemony in their own lives

EVALUATION OF CROP INSURANCE PREMIUM RATES FOR GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA PEACHES

We estimate actuarially fair premium rates for yield insurance for Georgia and South Carolina peaches for comparison to the premium rates established by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) for the 1999 crop. The RMA premium rates varied from county to county, but were identical for all growers in a given county. The estimated premium rates decrease with the grower's expected yield. The RMA rate structure encouraged adverse selection, as premium rates were too low for growers with low expected yields (especially at low coverage levels) and were too high for growers with high expected yields (especially at high coverage levels).adverse selection, crop insurance, peaches, premium rate, yield guarantee, Risk and Uncertainty,

REVENUE INSURANCE FOR GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA PEACHES

We estimate actuarially fair premium rates for yield and revenue insurance for Georgia and South Carolina peaches. The premium rates for both products decrease at a decreasing rate as the mean farm-level yield increases. In general, the premium rate for revenue insurance exceeds the premium rate for yield insurance for a given coverage level and expected yield. Although the revenue and yield insurance rates differ in a statistical sense, they do not appear to differ in an economic sense except at high coverage levels for growers with very high yields.crop insurance, peaches, revenue insurance, yield insurance, Risk and Uncertainty,