Specification and estimation of heterogeneous risk preference

In this paper we specify and estimate producers’ risk preference using farm data. We allow heterogeneous risk preference across individuals and propose a specification to model the heterogeneity. We base farmers’ decision making on a utility maximization framework and incorporate both market and production risk in farmers’ decision making. We do not assume any specific utility function or distribution of risk. The empirical application to farm level production data shows that risk preference does vary among individuals; demographic and institutional factors have significant effect on producers’ risk attitude.