The objective of this paper is to explore the potential of the real options approach for analyzing farmers’ choice to switch from conventional to organic farming. Understanding the determinants of this decision is relevant in particular for agricultural policy makers when predicting the...

Optimization has been recognized as a powerful tool in teaching and research for a long time. In spite of its well known problem solving capacity, some methodological obstacles have persisted over the years. The main problem is that stochastic variables and their correlations cannot be...

Investment decisions are, as a rule, characterized by uncertainty, irreversibility and flexibility. Simple net present value calculations will not account for these features. In many situations even flexible investment planning with decision trees, which represents the most advanced method of...

The importance of weather as a production factor in agriculture is well established long time and a significant portion of yield fluctuations is caused by weather risks. Traditionally, farmers have tried to hedge against unfavorable weather using insurance, such as crop insurance. In recent...

Since the mid-nineties, agricultural economists discuss the suitability of “weather derivatives†as hedging instruments for volumetric risks in agriculture. Contrary to traditional insurance contracts, the payoffs of such derivatives are linked to weather indices (e.g. accumulated...

In this paper we examine whether there is room for improvement in farm program decisions through the integration of formal mathematical optimisation into the planning process. Probing the potential for improvement, we investigate the cases of four Brandenburg cash crop farms over the last six...

In this paper we analyse the timing of disinvestment decisions by applying a real options approach to explain the experimentally observed disinvestment behaviour of agricultural entrepreneurs. Within this framework the tendency to postpone exit and termination choices can be rationalised. The...

Purpose – Using a unique dataset of a commercial microfinance institution (MFI) in Madagascar, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how credit access probabilities and loan volume rationing magnitudes for farmers change if the MFI switches to offer flexible microfinance loans, which can...

Purpose – The use of weather derivatives is impaired with a basis risk which diminishes the hedging effectiveness and hinders the distribution of these risk management instruments in the agricultural sector. A frequently suggested approach to reduce the basis risk is the use of mixed indices...

To date, studies dealing with the impact assessment of changing irrigation policies predominately rely on normative rational choice models that are subject to rather restrictive assumptions such as profit-maximizing behavior. However, there is increasing evidence that decision makers pursue...