| A study of equilibrium acreage allocation decisions at the farm and regional levels under risk aversion, yield uncertainty, and endogenous crop prices is undertaken in a two-crop, two-region setting. The main insight is that a partial specialization in one crop at a regional level may be an equilibrium dominant strategy relative to the more diversified crop mix produced on farm. This is due to the trade-offs among the effects of the "natural hedge" based on the negative price-yield correlation on the probability distributions of crop revenues and whole-farm revenue risk reduction through crop enterprise diversification. Another finding is that equilibrium in which each region grows only one crop is unlikely unless there are comparative advantages in... |
