Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers

Although farmers in developing countries are generally thought to be risk averse, little is known about the actual form of their risk preferences. In this paper, we use a relatively large lab-in-the-field experiment to explore risk preferences related to sweet potato production among a sample of far...

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Main Authors: de Brauw, Alan, Eozenou, Patrick
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Elsevier 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149838
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author de Brauw, Alan
Eozenou, Patrick
author_browse Eozenou, Patrick
de Brauw, Alan
author_facet de Brauw, Alan
Eozenou, Patrick
author_sort de Brauw, Alan
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Although farmers in developing countries are generally thought to be risk averse, little is known about the actual form of their risk preferences. In this paper, we use a relatively large lab-in-the-field experiment to explore risk preferences related to sweet potato production among a sample of farmers in northern Mozambique. A unique feature of this experiment is that it includes a large subsample of husband and wife pairs. After exploring correlations between husband and wife preferences, we explicitly test whether preferences follow the constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility function, and whether farmers follow expected utility theory or rank dependent utility theory in generating their preferences. We reject the null hypothesis that farmers' preferences follow the CRRA utility function, in favor of the more flexible power risk aversion preferences. If we make the common CRRA assumption in our sample, we poorly predict risk preferences among those who are less risk averse.
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spelling CGSpace1498382025-02-24T06:48:10Z Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers de Brauw, Alan Eozenou, Patrick sweet potatoes field experimentation laboratories farmers' attitudes risk Although farmers in developing countries are generally thought to be risk averse, little is known about the actual form of their risk preferences. In this paper, we use a relatively large lab-in-the-field experiment to explore risk preferences related to sweet potato production among a sample of farmers in northern Mozambique. A unique feature of this experiment is that it includes a large subsample of husband and wife pairs. After exploring correlations between husband and wife preferences, we explicitly test whether preferences follow the constant relative risk aversion (CRRA) utility function, and whether farmers follow expected utility theory or rank dependent utility theory in generating their preferences. We reject the null hypothesis that farmers' preferences follow the CRRA utility function, in favor of the more flexible power risk aversion preferences. If we make the common CRRA assumption in our sample, we poorly predict risk preferences among those who are less risk averse. 2014-11 2024-08-01T02:50:03Z 2024-08-01T02:50:03Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149838 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154676 Open Access Elsevier de Brauw, Alan; and Eozenou, Patrick. 2014. Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers. Journal of Development Economics 111(November 2014): 61-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.08.002
spellingShingle sweet potatoes
field experimentation
laboratories
farmers' attitudes
risk
de Brauw, Alan
Eozenou, Patrick
Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers
title Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers
title_full Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers
title_fullStr Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers
title_full_unstemmed Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers
title_short Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers
title_sort measuring risk attitudes among mozambican farmers
topic sweet potatoes
field experimentation
laboratories
farmers' attitudes
risk
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149838
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