Woody biomass in terms of short rotation coppice (SRC) could be a promising alternative for producing biomass to generate renewable energy. Even through, from a single farms point of view, SRC seems to be an interesting land use alternative, farmers do not cultivate SRC. Some studies found out...

Woody biomass in terms of short rotation coppice (SRC) could be a promising alternative for producing biomass to generate renewable energy. Even through, from a single farms point of view, SRC seems to be an interesting land use alternative, farmers do not cultivate SRC. Some studies found out...

The present dissertation is twofold and takes up several issues in two separate and independent articles. In chapter II, the hedging effectiveness of weather index-based insurance with regard to aggregation biases in the underlying risk exposure of aggregated yield time series is presented. The...

The dissertation mainly consists of two articles: INVESTMENTS IN KAZAKHSTANI DAIRY FARMING: A COMPARISON OF THE CLASSICAL INVESTMENT THEORY AND THE REAL OPTIONS APPROACH Abstract This study analyzes the explanatory potential of the real options approach (ROA) regarding the reluctance of...

The first paper of this dissertation in Chapter II, “Insurance for Technology Adoption: An Experimental Evaluation of Schemes and Subsidies with Maize Farmers in Mexico”, analyzes experimentally how bundling the purchase of a risky technology, namely a higher yielding maize seed variety,...

Numerous studies have tried to provide a better understanding of firm-level investment behaviour using econometric models. The model specification of more recent studies has been based on two main approaches. The first, the real options approach, focuses on irreversibility and uncertainty in...

Experiments are often used to study individual decision‐making under controlled circumstances. Due to their low opportunity costs and high availability, university students are frequently recruited as the study population. Even though they are rather untypical with regard to many...

Three decades after the establishment of many smallholder oil palm plantations, large areas of oil palm will require replanting soon or are already overmatured. The process of replanting offers a unique opportunity to redesign plantations, close yield gaps, boost productivity and therefore...

Extreme weather events pose an economic threat to farms. The risk management behaviour against such events is often studied using prospect theory as a framework, but empirically deriving corresponding parameters in the field involving farmers is challenging. To address this issue, we compare...

Formal digital credit raises hopes to decrease the gender gap in financial inclusion. However, up until now, it remains unknown whether these hopes are justified. Using nationally representative household surveys from Kenya, the present study aims to fill this gap. We find strong indication that...