Three Topics In Weather Index Insurance

Abstract

This paper presents three papers on the topic of weather index insurance, the practice of mitigating risk according to objective measurements of weather conditions. The topic has a simple premise, but the implementation is anything but. The weather/crop yield relationship, and therefore risk, is not a straightforward function, and weather observations seldom align themselves for easy analysis. Being a relatively new technology, there are of course problems with implementation and rich opportunities for research and analysis. The first topic is to present the internet site that enabled access to the weather data. It is groundbreaking and among the first of its kind. The second topic regards plant disease risks when faced with risks in combination, specifically regards to heat and drought risk occurring simultaneously, and the last topic is an algorithmic approach to the problem of geographical basis risk.