In Pursuit of the Transformational Sum: Lottery and Savings in Haiti Technology Adoption when Risk Attitudes Matter: Evidence from Incentivized Field Experiments in Niger Combinatorial Innovation, Evidence from Patent Data, and Mandated Innovation Information and Environmental Policy

This study analyses farmers’ adoption of improved rice technology, taking into account farmers’ risk preferences; the unobserved spatial heterogeneity associated with farmers’ risk preferences; farmers’ household and farm characteristics; farm locations, farmers’ access to information, and their perceptions on the rice improved varieties (i.e., high yield varieties, HYV). The study used data obtained from field experiments and a survey conducted in 2016 in Nigeria. An instrumental-variable probit model was estimated to account for potential endogenous farmers’ risk preference in the adoption decision model. Results show that risk averse (risk avoidant) farmers are less likely to adopt HYV, with the spatial lags of farmers’ risk attitudes found to be a good instrument for spatially unobserved variables (e.g., environmental and climatic factors). We conclude that studies supporting policy action aiming at the diffusion of improved rice varieties need to collect information, if possible, on farmers’ risk attitudes, local environmental and climatic conditions (e.g., climatic, topographic, soil quality, pest incidence) in order to ease the design and evaluation of policy actions on the adoption of improved agricultural technology.

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Right-to-Choose Auctions: A Field Study of Water Markets in the Limari Valley of Chile

Agricultural and Resource Economics Review ◽

10.1017/s1068280500007255 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 213-226 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jonathan E. Alevy ◽

Oscar Cristi ◽

Oscar Melo

Keyword(s):

Field Study ◽

Research Team ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Time Preferences ◽

Water Markets ◽

Risk Attitudes ◽

Sequential Auction ◽

The Difference ◽

Water Volumes ◽

The Right

Field experiments were conducted with farmers in the Limari Valley of Chile to test extant theory on right-to-choose auctions. Water volumes that differed by reservoir source and time of availability were offered for sale by the research team. The auctions were supplemented by protocols to elicit risk and time preferences of bidders. We find that the right-to-choose auctions raise significantly more revenue than the benchmark sequential auction. Risk attitudes explain a substantial amount of the difference in bidding between auction institutions, consonant with received theory. The auction bidding revealed distinct preferences for water types, which has implications for market re-design.

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Gender differences in risk attitudes: Field experiments on the matrilineal Mosuo and the patriarchal Yi

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization ◽

10.1016/j.jebo.2011.06.010 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 83 (1) ◽

pp. 59-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Binglin Gong ◽

Chun-Lei Yang

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Risk Attitudes

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Crowded out: Heterogeneity in risk attitudes among poor households in the US

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty ◽

10.1007/s11166-021-09363-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Arianna Galliera ◽

E. Elisabet Rutström

Keyword(s):

Risk Aversion ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Household Head ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Household Size ◽

Household Composition ◽

Risk Attitudes ◽

Risk Averse ◽

Data Set ◽

Poor Households

AbstractNot much is known about the heterogeneity of risk attitudes among poor households in rich countries. This paper provides estimates from a unique data set collected among the urban poor in Atlanta, Georgia. The data set includes lab-in-the-field experiments on the relationship between risk attitudes and several household characteristics. Apart from looking at income, wealth, and education, we are particularly interested in household composition as it captures the number and kind of people who are dependant on the income of the household head. Heads of households who are less risk averse may be willing to take on the extra risk from smaller resource margins resulting from additional dependants, implying a negative relationship between household size and risk aversion. However, if the size of the household is a result of exogenous forces some heads of households may become more risk averse with more dependants. Household size can also reflect a risk management choice that involves adding non-dependant members who can provide resources and risk sharing. However, this possibility is limited to homes that are not already too crowded. We find that household size correlates positively with the risk aversion of the head, but with a large proportion of children the correlation is strongly dampened. However, this negative effect of children is conditional on the home not already being crowded. These heterogeneous findings have implications for the design of new insurance, savings, and credit programs where risk attitudes are important to the decisions to adopt.

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An Assessment of Experimental Evidence on Agricultural Technology Adoption in Developing Countries

Annual Review of Resource Economics ◽

10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023202 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 299-316 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Jeremy R. Magruder

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Technology Adoption ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Agricultural Technology ◽

Future Research ◽

Informational Frictions ◽

Adoption Decision ◽

On Demand ◽

Mitigating Factor ◽

Uninsurable Risk

This article reviews recent results on technology adoption in developing countries, primarily from field experiments. It focuses on studies that highlight three constraints to adoption: credit, insurance, and information. Interventions supplying credit are consistently effective in spurring technology adoption for a minority of farmers, while interventions supplying insurance have had more mixed results. This review suggests that one mitigating factor on demand for both of these products is incomplete information, which adds additional uninsurable risk to the technology adoption decision. A broad group of studies identify the presence of strong informational frictions. The review concludes with some potential directions for future research.

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Does Education Increase Risk Aversion in Households? Some Evidence Using Artefactual Experiments in Peru

Latin American Economic Review ◽

10.47872/laer.v30.22 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Alberto Chong ◽

Joan Martínez

Keyword(s):

Risk Aversion ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Causal Link ◽

Risk Attitudes ◽

New Schools ◽

Representative Data ◽

Increase Risk ◽

Measures Of Risk ◽

Identification Strategy

We provide empirical evidence supporting a causal link between education and risk attitudes when using representative data from representative surveys and artefactual or lab-on-the-field experiments in Lima, Peru. We employ three standard experimental measures of risk attitudes and find that each is positively correlated with years of education. Furthermore, we suggest that this relationship may be causal as we take advantage of an identification strategy that exploits an exogenous boom in the construction of new schools in Lima, providing evidence that more education may increase risk attitudes. Our findings are further confirmed when applying a broad set of robustness tests.

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