Credit, Insurance, and Farmers’ Liability: Evidence from a Lab in the Field Experiment with Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica.

To cope with losses from extreme hydro-meteorological events, governments typically implement disaster relief programs and offer debt relief to affected parties. Governments in developing countries have made extensive use of total and partial debt coverage as a way to encourage investment in key sec...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Naranjo, Maria Angelica, Pieters, Janneke, Alpízar, Francisco
Formato: Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/9510
id RepoCATIE9510
record_format dspace
spelling RepoCATIE95102021-12-22T19:09:49Z Credit, Insurance, and Farmers’ Liability: Evidence from a Lab in the Field Experiment with Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica. Naranjo, Maria Angelica Pieters, Janneke Alpízar, Francisco CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO AGRICULTURA PRODUCTORES DE CAFÉ PROBABILIDAD HIDROMETEOROLOGIA CREDITO FINANCIAMIENTO PRESTAMOS VULNERABILIDAD COSTA RICA To cope with losses from extreme hydro-meteorological events, governments typically implement disaster relief programs and offer debt relief to affected parties. Governments in developing countries have made extensive use of total and partial debt coverage as a way to encourage investment in key sectors and in agriculture in particular. In the context of climate change, such practices are not viable because risk is systemic and losses can easily surpass most governments’ debt relief budgets. Insurance is an obvious alternative, but insurance uptake in developing countries is typically low, and little is known about the interaction between investment, insurance, and debt relief programs, which effectively reduce borrowers’ liability. This paper examines the effect of farmers’ liability on demand for credit with and without insurance. We test predictions of a theoretical model in a lab in the field experiment with coffee farmers in Costa Rica. Farmers choose how much to invest in six different settings, described on the one hand by whether the loan is insured or not, and on the other by the probability that the government provides full debt relief. As expected, uptake of loans with insurance is significantly higher than without insurance when farmers are fully liable, and insurance is not relevant for investments if debt relief is guaranteed. Interestingly, uncertainty about liability is enough to trigger the uptake of insured debt. Our results suggest that well-defined rules for disaster relief are needed to support development of insurance markets. 2020-08-24T23:02:57Z 2020-08-24T23:02:57Z 2017-03 Artículo https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/9510 en Environment for Development (March 2017) info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess application/pdf
institution Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza
collection Repositorio CATIE
language Inglés
topic CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO
AGRICULTURA
PRODUCTORES DE CAFÉ
PROBABILIDAD
HIDROMETEOROLOGIA
CREDITO
FINANCIAMIENTO
PRESTAMOS
VULNERABILIDAD
COSTA RICA
spellingShingle CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO
AGRICULTURA
PRODUCTORES DE CAFÉ
PROBABILIDAD
HIDROMETEOROLOGIA
CREDITO
FINANCIAMIENTO
PRESTAMOS
VULNERABILIDAD
COSTA RICA
Naranjo, Maria Angelica
Pieters, Janneke
Alpízar, Francisco
Credit, Insurance, and Farmers’ Liability: Evidence from a Lab in the Field Experiment with Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica.
description To cope with losses from extreme hydro-meteorological events, governments typically implement disaster relief programs and offer debt relief to affected parties. Governments in developing countries have made extensive use of total and partial debt coverage as a way to encourage investment in key sectors and in agriculture in particular. In the context of climate change, such practices are not viable because risk is systemic and losses can easily surpass most governments’ debt relief budgets. Insurance is an obvious alternative, but insurance uptake in developing countries is typically low, and little is known about the interaction between investment, insurance, and debt relief programs, which effectively reduce borrowers’ liability. This paper examines the effect of farmers’ liability on demand for credit with and without insurance. We test predictions of a theoretical model in a lab in the field experiment with coffee farmers in Costa Rica. Farmers choose how much to invest in six different settings, described on the one hand by whether the loan is insured or not, and on the other by the probability that the government provides full debt relief. As expected, uptake of loans with insurance is significantly higher than without insurance when farmers are fully liable, and insurance is not relevant for investments if debt relief is guaranteed. Interestingly, uncertainty about liability is enough to trigger the uptake of insured debt. Our results suggest that well-defined rules for disaster relief are needed to support development of insurance markets.
format Artículo
author Naranjo, Maria Angelica
Pieters, Janneke
Alpízar, Francisco
author_facet Naranjo, Maria Angelica
Pieters, Janneke
Alpízar, Francisco
author_sort Naranjo, Maria Angelica
title Credit, Insurance, and Farmers’ Liability: Evidence from a Lab in the Field Experiment with Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica.
title_short Credit, Insurance, and Farmers’ Liability: Evidence from a Lab in the Field Experiment with Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica.
title_full Credit, Insurance, and Farmers’ Liability: Evidence from a Lab in the Field Experiment with Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica.
title_fullStr Credit, Insurance, and Farmers’ Liability: Evidence from a Lab in the Field Experiment with Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica.
title_full_unstemmed Credit, Insurance, and Farmers’ Liability: Evidence from a Lab in the Field Experiment with Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica.
title_sort credit, insurance, and farmers’ liability: evidence from a lab in the field experiment with coffee farmers in costa rica.
publishDate 2020
url https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/9510
work_keys_str_mv AT naranjomariaangelica creditinsuranceandfarmersliabilityevidencefromalabinthefieldexperimentwithcoffeefarmersincostarica
AT pietersjanneke creditinsuranceandfarmersliabilityevidencefromalabinthefieldexperimentwithcoffeefarmersincostarica
AT alpizarfrancisco creditinsuranceandfarmersliabilityevidencefromalabinthefieldexperimentwithcoffeefarmersincostarica
_version_ 1808117506921988096