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The effect of ambiguous risk, and coordination on farmers' adaptation to climate change - A framed field experiment

Alpizar, F ; Carlsson, F and Naranjo, MA (2011) In Ecological Economics 70(12). p.2317-2326
Abstract
The risk of losses of income and productive means due to adverse weather can differ significantly among farmers sharing a productive landscape, and is of course hard to estimate, or even "guesstimate" empirically. Moreover, the costs associated with investments in reduced vulnerability to climatic events are likely to exhibit economies of scope. We explore the implications of these characteristics on farmer's decisions to adapt to climate change using a framed field experiment applied to coffee farmers in Costa Rica. As expected, we find high levels of risk aversion, but even using that as a baseline, we further find that farmers behave even more cautiously when the setting is characterized by unknown or ambiguous risk (i.e. poor or... (More)
The risk of losses of income and productive means due to adverse weather can differ significantly among farmers sharing a productive landscape, and is of course hard to estimate, or even "guesstimate" empirically. Moreover, the costs associated with investments in reduced vulnerability to climatic events are likely to exhibit economies of scope. We explore the implications of these characteristics on farmer's decisions to adapt to climate change using a framed field experiment applied to coffee farmers in Costa Rica. As expected, we find high levels of risk aversion, but even using that as a baseline, we further find that farmers behave even more cautiously when the setting is characterized by unknown or ambiguous risk (i.e. poor or non-reliable risk information). Secondly, we find that farmers, to a large extent, coordinated their decisions to secure a lower adaptation cost, and that communication among farmers strongly facilitated coordination. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Risk, Ambiguity, Technology adoption, Climate change, Field experiment
in
Ecological Economics
volume
70
issue
12
pages
2317 - 2326
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:80053334821
ISSN
0921-8009
DOI
10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.07.004
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
00840e48-29f2-49c9-94de-639743389565 (old id 4448533)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:11:55
date last changed
2022-03-29 06:07:30
@article{00840e48-29f2-49c9-94de-639743389565,
  abstract     = {{The risk of losses of income and productive means due to adverse weather can differ significantly among farmers sharing a productive landscape, and is of course hard to estimate, or even "guesstimate" empirically. Moreover, the costs associated with investments in reduced vulnerability to climatic events are likely to exhibit economies of scope. We explore the implications of these characteristics on farmer's decisions to adapt to climate change using a framed field experiment applied to coffee farmers in Costa Rica. As expected, we find high levels of risk aversion, but even using that as a baseline, we further find that farmers behave even more cautiously when the setting is characterized by unknown or ambiguous risk (i.e. poor or non-reliable risk information). Secondly, we find that farmers, to a large extent, coordinated their decisions to secure a lower adaptation cost, and that communication among farmers strongly facilitated coordination. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}},
  author       = {{Alpizar, F and Carlsson, F and Naranjo, MA}},
  issn         = {{0921-8009}},
  keywords     = {{Risk; Ambiguity; Technology adoption; Climate change; Field experiment}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  pages        = {{2317--2326}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Ecological Economics}},
  title        = {{The effect of ambiguous risk, and coordination on farmers' adaptation to climate change - A framed field experiment}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.07.004}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.07.004}},
  volume       = {{70}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}