【主讲】龚亚珍 讲师 (中国人民大学)
【主题】Farmers' Risk Preferences and Pesticide Use Decisions: Evidence from Field Experiments in China
【时间】2013年3月5日 (周二) 15：30-17：00
【地点】上海财经大学经济学院楼701室
【语言】英文
【摘要】In China, farmers use pesticides extensively to mitigate production risk, which has had serious impacts on water quality and human health. Therefore, understanding a farmer's input choices is important to balance the environmental impacts of pesticide use with the need for food security. In this article, we focus on farmers' pesticide use decisions to analyze: [1] the effect of farmers' risk preferences, farmland size, and other household socio-economic characteristics on pesticide use; and [2] whether risk preferences had different effects for the pesticide use decisions of farmers who cultivated crops exclusively for home consumption (i.e. consumption-oriented farmers) versus those who cultivated crops for marketing purpose (i.e. market-oriented farmers). Primary data was collected from 300 farm households using surveys and artefactual field experiments in Yunnan Province of southwestern China, where we separately consider consumption-oriented and market-oriented farmers. We find that: [1] most farmers exhibited substantial risk aversion; [2] higher risk aversion was significantly correlated with the increased use of pesticides; [3] risk preferences had a stronger influence on the decisions of home consumption oriented farmers, but these effects were mitigated by larger farm size; and [4] finally, accessibility to cash affected input decisions for consumption-oriented farmers, but not market-based farmers. We concluded that an agricultural crop insurance scheme, particularly if directed at smaller and home consumption-oriented producers, might help reduce the environmental impacts of pesticide use and improve household food security.
