The Spillover Impact of Index Insurance on Agricultural Investment by Cotton Farmers in Burkina Faso

Quentin Stoeffler, Michael Carter, Catherine Guirkinger () and Wouter Gelade ()

No 27564, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper examines whether agricultural insurance can boost investment by small scale farmers in West Africa. We conduct a randomized evaluation to analyze the impacts of index insurance for cotton farmers in Burkina Faso. We find no impact of insurance on cotton, but, consistent with microeconomic theory, we find significant spillover impacts on investment in other agricultural activities. Furthermore, the effects of insurance payouts on farmers hit by a shock confirm the potential of index insurance as a risk-management tool. However, we uncover important flaws in the implementation of the project that limited its impacts. Overall, this study suggests a promising role of index insurance for stimulating investment, but also draws attention to key challenges for an efficient delivery of insurance to small farmers. Finally, the hybrid, mixed methods RCT design that we employ offers lessons for the evaluation of complex interventions where trust, understanding and timing are all important.

JEL-codes: G22 I38 O12 O13 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-ias
Note: DEV
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published as Quentin Stoeffler & Michael Carter & Catherine Guirkinger & Wouter Gelade, 2022. "The Spillover Impact of Index Insurance on Agricultural Investment by Cotton Farmers in Burkina Faso," The World Bank Economic Review, vol 36(1), pages 114-140.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w27564.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Spillover Impact of Index Insurance on Agricultural Investment by Cotton Farmers in Burkina Faso (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27564

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w27564

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().