The Prudent Village: A Corroboration of Kimball's Conjecture

Gary Richardson

Working Papers from California Irvine - School of Social Sciences

Abstract: The prudent peasant mitigated the risk of crop failure by scattering his arable land Throughout his village, McCloskey argued, because formal insurance institutions did not exist. A Village of rational peasants facing idiosyncratic risks, Kimball replied, should have helped each other through hard times. This essay corroborates Kimball's conjecture by providing peasants in medieval England pooled risk through three institutions that fit Kimball's definition of farmers' cooperatives.

Keywords: AGRICULTURE; RISK; HISTORICAL ANALYSIS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N53 Q10 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:calirv:99-00-08

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