Agro-biodiversity as natural insurance and the development of financial insurance markets

Arbeitspapier

Agro-biodiversity can provide natural insurance to risk averse farmers. We employ a conceptual ecological-economic model to analyze the choice of agrobiodiversity by risk averse farmers who have access to financial insurance. We study the implications for individually and socially optimal agro-ecosystem management and policy design when on-farm agro-biodiversity, through ecosystem processes at higher hierarchical levels, generates a positive externality on other farmers. We show that for the individual farmer natural insurance from agro-biodiversty and financial insurance are substitutes. While an improved access to financial insurance leads to lower agro-biodiversity, the effects on the market failure problem (due to the external benefits of on-farm agro-biodiversity) and on welfare are determined by properties of the agro-ecosystem and agro-biodiversity's external benefits. We derive a specific condition on agro-ecosystem functioning under which, if financial insurance becomes more accessible, welfare in the absence of regulation increases or decreases.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Working Paper Series in Economics ; No. 61

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services; Biodiversity Conservation; Bioeconomics; Industrial Ecology ; Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies ; Externalities
• Thema: Landwirtschaft ; Biodiversität ; Umweltmanagement ; Risikoaversion ; Landwirtschaftliche Versicherung ; Theorie

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Baumgärtner, Stefan ; Quaas, Martin F.
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre
• (wo): Lüneburg
• (wann): 2007

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/28179
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ