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 field experiment to explore risk preferences related to sweet potato production among a sample of farmers in nor...

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Main Authors: de Brauw, Alan, Eozenou, Patrick
Format: Artículo preliminar
Language:Inglés
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154676
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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 field experiment to explore risk preferences related to sweet potato production among a sample of farmers in northern Mozambique. 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 find that we can reject the null that farmers'preferences follow the CRRA utility function in favor of the more flexible power risk aversion preferences. In a mixture model, we find that about three-fourths of farmers in our sample develop risk preferences by rank dependent utility. We also find that by making the common CRRA assumption in our sample, we poorly predict risk preferences among those who are less risk averse.
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spelling CGSpace1546762025-11-06T06:05:31Z Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers de Brauw, Alan Eozenou, Patrick sweet potatoes risk risk reduction farmers' attitudes 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 field experiment to explore risk preferences related to sweet potato production among a sample of farmers in northern Mozambique. 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 find that we can reject the null that farmers'preferences follow the CRRA utility function in favor of the more flexible power risk aversion preferences. In a mixture model, we find that about three-fourths of farmers in our sample develop risk preferences by rank dependent utility. We also find that by making the common CRRA assumption in our sample, we poorly predict risk preferences among those who are less risk averse. 2011 2024-10-01T14:03:06Z 2024-10-01T14:03:06Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154676 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute de Brauw, Alan and Eozenou, Patrick. 2011. Measuring risk attitudes among Mozambican farmers. HarvestPlus Working Paper 6. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154676
spellingShingle sweet potatoes
risk
risk reduction
farmers' attitudes
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
risk
risk reduction
farmers' attitudes
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154676
work_keys_str_mv AT debrauwalan measuringriskattitudesamongmozambicanfarmers
AT eozenoupatrick measuringriskattitudesamongmozambicanfarmers