We exploit plot data from the agricultural module of the third Malawi Integrated Household Survey (IHS-3) to investigate how organic cultivation techniques contribute to productivity of non-subsidized local maize and what to expect from using organic inputs on a larger scale. We approximate...

This paper investigates the influence of perception of natural disaster risks on the probability of local people to participate in a hypothetical disaster microinsurance. We use household data for a specific disaster risk of the Mount Merapi in Java. We find that respondent's perception of...

We investigate the impact of the Krakatau eruption in August 1883 on the spatial distribution of population across residencies in Java. The analysis is based on historical data of the indigenous population at residency level covering the period from 1880 to 1928. Based on our empirical analysis...

We investigate how food-aid affects price and production of staple food, with a partial equilibrium model with non-separable production and consumption. The model captures the key characteristics of sub-Saharan Africa subsistence economies. Simulations generate negative but also positive...

In West Africa, farm income is highly exposed to risks from crop failure in the drier, inland areas, and from fluctuations in (world market) prices in the wetter coastal areas. As individuals and even extended families are poorly equipped to deal with these, provision of social safety nets is...

Summary We simulate the impact of a joint price and yield index insurance on the basis of a small representative panel data set of Indian smallholder pepper growers. Affordable and feasible index insurance reduces crop revenue risk to around 68% of its original level, while a reduction to 50% of...