The present dissertation is twofold and takes up several issues in two separate and independent articles. In chapter II, the hedging effectiveness of weather index-based insurance with regard to aggregation biases in the underlying risk exposure of aggregated yield time series is presented. The...

The first paper of this dissertation in Chapter II, “Insurance for Technology Adoption: An Experimental Evaluation of Schemes and Subsidies with Maize Farmers in Mexico”, analyzes experimentally how bundling the purchase of a risky technology, namely a higher yielding maize seed variety,...

To date, studies dealing with the impact assessment of changing irrigation policies predominately rely on normative rational choice models that are subject to rather restrictive assumptions such as profit-maximizing behavior. However, there is increasing evidence that decision makers pursue...

Replaced with revised version of paper 5/26/11.

Agent-based models (ABM) are used in many cases of policy assessment in agriculture. But the behavioural assumptions of these models consider farmers as myopic optimizing profit maximizers. In this contribution we compare the behaviour of myopic computer agents with the behaviour of students...

Agrarian structures are often characterized by some kind of economic inertia. It is particularly puzzling why unprofitable farms persist over time instead of being sold. In this paper we analyze the exit decision of farmers using the real options approach. The validity of the real options theory...

In diesem Beitrag wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit Optimierungsansätze wie lineare Programmierungsmodelle geeignet sind, bessere Entscheidungen als reale Entscheider zu treffen. Auch beleuchtet werden Unterschiede im Entscheidungsverhalten und in den Produktionsstrategien. Dazu lassen wir...

Bislang ist wenig über das Verhalten von Landwirten bei Vertragsangeboten für die Lieferung nachwachsender Rohstoffe bekannt. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung wird deshalb die Akzeptanz von Landwirten für Industrierübenlieferverträge untersucht. Dabei zeigt sich, dass das Antwortverhalten...