Replaced with revised version of paper 5/26/11.

Investment decisions are not only characterised by irreversibility and uncertainty but also by flexibility with regard to the timing of the investment. This paper describes how stochastic simulation can be successfully integrated into a backward recursive programming approach in the context of...

Agri-environmental measures are often not as accepted among farmers as expected. The present study investigates whether changes in income risks and the individual risk attitudes of farmers may constitute an explanatory approach for the low acceptance of the measures. For this purpose, a...

In agriculture, long-term decisions are usually made in an environment which is almost completely dynamic. For example, uncertainty arises from weather and climatic conditions. (Dis)investment in irrigation technology on farms has become more prominent over the past decade. The use of irrigation...

Viele Untersuchungen zur Quantifizierung der individuellen Risikoeinstellung von Probanden zeigen, dass verschiedene Methoden zur Messung der Risikoeinstellung zu unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen führen können. Zusätzliche Zweifel bezüglich der Zuverlässigkeit der Ergebnisse resultieren...

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...

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...

On the example of a commercial microfinance institution (MFI) in Tanzania this paper investigates first whether agricultural firms have a different probability to get a loan and whether their loans are differently volume rationed than loans to non-agricultural firms. Second, we analyze whether...