Smallholder Farmer Risk Preferences in Northern Ghana:Evidence from a Controlled Field Experiment

摘要

We conduct a controlled field experiment to elicit risk preferences among maize farmers in Northern Ghana. Farmers participating in the experiment were asked to choose from a menu of lotteries representing different hypothetical probability distributions over yields produced by 'traditional' and 'high yield' maize varieties. We estimate a Rank-Dependent Utility Model (RDU) with an Expo-Power utility function, allowing for systematic subjective underweighting or overweighting of outcome probabilities and non-constant relative risk aversion. Based on our estimates, we cannot reject the hypotheses that decisions made by farmers in our study can be uniformly characterised by conventional Von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility theory (EUT), but reject the hypothesis that farmers exhibit constant relative risk aversion.