A comparative study of risk exposure in agriculture and aquaculture.

摘要

Agriculture and aquaculture have common features associated with their biological nature affecting the risk exposure of the businesses. The aim in this study was to compare risk exposure in salmon farming and agricultural businesses in Norway by using detrending and variance decomposition procedures to examine the risk structure of yields, output prices and economic returns at the farm level. Results indicated a higher farm-level year-to-year variability in yields, output prices and economic returns in salmon farming than in agriculture. The between-farm variability exceeded the within-farm variability, implying that returns critically depend on persistent factors such as managerial ability and farm-production conditions. Return on assets (ROA) was highest in salmon farming with an average annual return of 9.6%. All of the agricultural farm types exhibited a negative average ROA. Stochastic dominance analysis of the distribution of ROAs from aquaculture and agricultural farm types pointed to salmon farming as the most risk-efficient alternative.Digital Object Identifier http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16507541.2011.566418