Farmers’ Risk Cognition, Risk Preferences and Climate Change Adaptive Behavior: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Rui He, Jianjun Jin, Foyuan Kuang, Chenyang Zhang and Tong Guan
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Rui He: State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Jianjun Jin: State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Foyuan Kuang: Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Chenyang Zhang: Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Tong Guan: Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Improving local farmers′ climate change adaptive capacity is an important policy issue in rural China. This study investigates farmers′ risk cognition, risk preferences and climate change adaptive behavior. Based on unique data from a survey and a paired lottery experiment completed by 240 rural farmers in Chongqing City of China, this paper finds that farmers have a pessimistic risk cognition towards climate change and the typical farmers are risk-averse and loss-averse. Risk cognition and adaptation cognition have significantly positive influences on climate change adaptive behavior, and loss aversion has a significantly positive influence on farmers′ adaptation decisions. Loss aversion exerts a positive impact on risk cognition and adaptation cognition, and risk aversion has a positive impact on adaptation cognition. This paper contributes to the emerging literature that relates risk preference in experiments and risk cognition to farmers′ climate change adaptive behavior.

Keywords: climate change adaptive behavior; risk cognition; risk preference; structural equations; rural China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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