Risk-Taking Preferences of Farmers in Northern Thailand: Measurements and Implications

Risk-taking preferences were elicited from small semi-commercial farmers in Northern Thailand using an experimental procedure that included real manetar:; payoffs of meaningful magnitudes. A total of five sets of lotteries with increasing payoffs were offered. The farmers were found to be risk averters, and their preferences conformed to the hypothesis of increasing (nondecreasing) partial relative risk aversion. Using regression analysis, farmers' expected variation of rice yields and farm size were found to be directly related to a decrease in risk aversion, while the extent of multiple cropping, availability of non-land household assets, and tested mathematical ability were found to be indirectly related to a decrease in risk aversion. The variables expected variation of rice prices, farmers' age, and tested abstract ability scores were not related to risktaking preferences