Relationship between Disaster Shock Experience and Farmers’ Entrepreneurial Inclination: Crisis or Opportunity?

Lijun Zhang, Wenlin Gao, Xiaoxiao Ma and Rongrong Gong ()
Additional contact information
Lijun Zhang: China Institute for Vitalizing Border Areas Additionally and Enriching the People, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Wenlin Gao: School of Economics, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Xiaoxiao Ma: School of Economics, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Rongrong Gong: School of Economics, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-26

Abstract: In the context of climate change, it is important to examine the correlation between farmers’ disaster shock experience and their entrepreneurial inclination, as well as its adaptive mechanisms for rural development. We define farmers’ entrepreneurship as farmers engaging in self-employment or business operation, then analyze the positive and negative correlations between disaster shock experience and farmers’ entrepreneurship and propose that there is a U-shaped relationship between them. We develop a mechanism based on the mediating role of farmers’ risk appetite and the moderating role of government support. Based on a survey of 39,113 households from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey, we test our hypotheses using a probit model and structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that disaster shock experience strongly correlates with farmers’ entrepreneurship. Over time, a U-shaped trend emerges between them, in which disaster shock experience can deter farmers’ entrepreneurship through risk appetite, while government support can alleviate this inhibitory effect. Moreover, different types of disasters show the same U-shaped trend, but the relationship differs based on farmers’ gender and income levels. These findings suggest that rural areas should enhance their development capacity and disaster resilience, and the government should establish long-term support mechanisms for entrepreneurship. Additionally, farmers need to accurately understand and cope with disaster shock experience, so they can uncover the potential value and opportunities it presents.

Keywords: disaster shock experience; farmers’ entrepreneurship; risk appetite; government support (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/7/1406/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/7/1406/ (text/html)

Related works:
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:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:7:p:1406-:d:1194611

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().