Experimental examination of land investment decisions with volatile returns A comparison between Kazakhstani and German farmers

Kazakhstan and Germany have different development levels of the agricultural sector. One of the explanations for this fact might be the different investment behavior of farmers in the two countries. In this study, we experimentally compare the investment behavior of farmers in the two countries in a farmland investment treatment and a coin tossing game investment treatment. In addition, farmers were confronted with the two treatments in a different order. Results demonstrate that German farmers are more reluctant to make investment than Kazakhstani farmers. Moreover, results are independent from the framing of a farmland investment and a coin tossing game investment treatment. Furthermore, the investment behaviors of farmers were contrasted with normative benchmark of the classical investment theory and the real options theory. Our results show that both theories cannot exactly explain the investment behavior of farmers. However, farmers learn from former investment behavior and consider the value of waiting over time.