Linking risk aversion, time preference and fertilizer use in Burkina Faso

Tristan Le Cotty, Elodie Maitre D'Hotel, Raphael Soubeyran and Julie Subervie

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Abstract: This paper investigates whether Burkinabe maize farmers' fertilizer-use decisionsare correlated with their risk and time preferences. We conducted a survey and a se-ries of hypothetical experiments on a sample of 1,500 farmers. We find that morepatient farmers do use more fertilizer, but it is only because they plant more maize (afertilizer-intensive crop) rather than because they use more fertilizer per hectare ofmaize planted. Conversely, we find no statistically significant link between risk aver-sion and fertilizer use. We use a simple two-period model, which suggests that riskaversion may indeed have an ambiguous effect on fertilizer use.

Keywords: fertilizer; western africa; agriculture; time preferences; risk aversion; agricultural price; engrais; burkina faso; afrique occidentale; prix agricole; aversion au risque (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-01-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-dev, nep-exp and nep-upt
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01429099v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Linking Risk Aversion, Time Preference and Fertiliser Use in Burkina Faso (2018)
Working Paper: Linking risk aversion, time preference and fertilizer use in Burkina Faso (2017)
Working Paper: Linking Risk Aversion, Time Preference and Fertiliser Use in Burkina Faso (2017)
Working Paper: Linking risk aversion, time preference and fertilizer use in Burkina Faso (2017)
Working Paper: Linking Risk Aversion, Time Preference and Fertilizer Use in Burkina Faso (2017)
Working Paper: Linking risk aversion, time preference and fertilizer use in Burkina Faso (2017)
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