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The Farmer and the Fates: A Theoreti...

Malacarne, Jonathan G.

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The Farmer and the Fates: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Locus of Control and Investment in Risky Environments.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	The Farmer and the Fates: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Locus of Control and Investment in Risky Environments./
Author:	Malacarne, Jonathan G.
Published:	Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, : 2019,
Description:	147 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 81-06, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International81-06A.
Subject:	Agricultural economics. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=22582601
ISBN:	9781392884904

The Farmer and the Fates: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Locus of Control and Investment in Risky Environments.
Malacarne, Jonathan G.

The Farmer and the Fates: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Locus of Control and Investment in Risky Environments. - Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2019 - 147 p.

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 81-06, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Davis, 2019.

This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.

Despite growing concerns over the impact of risk exposure on household welfare, adoption rates for technologies that seek to make vulnerable households more resilient are often underwhelming. In this dissertation, I draw on the construct of locus of control to consider the possibility that the same risks that motivate public investment in resilience-enhancing technologies might make vulnerable decision-makers unwilling to adopt them.The locus of control construct has a long history in psychology but has receive relatively little attention in economics. In Chapter 1, I demonstrate its conceptual relationship to neoclassical choice and derive its implications for investment behavior. I hypothesize that locus of control affects a decision-maker's perception of the production function. Further, I suggest that a more external locus of control -- the belief that forces outside of a decision-maker's control play a relatively large role in determining outcomes - depresses the perceived marginal product of investment, leading to lower investment levels. In Chapter 2, I describe the elicitation and properties of two locus of control measures among a population of maize-producing households in Eastern Africa. In addition to a standard, general locus of control measure common in the psychology literature, I develop and study a measure of locus of control specific to rainfed maize production. Using three years of primary data from 3,000 maize producers in Mozambique and Tanzania, I present evidence that locus of control does not reflect differences in preferences or subjective probabilities, but rather beliefs about the production function itself.In the final chapter, I study the predictive potential of locus of control. I show that farmers with a more external locus of control are significantly less likely to use improved maize varieties. They are also less likely to adopt new, drought-tolerant maize (DTM) varieties in response to a randomized marketing intervention. DTM technology was explicitly developed to reduce weather risk. The decreased willingness of vulnerable farmers to adopt DTM suggests that, in addition to its direct negative effects on well-being, risk exposure may limit the ability of vulnerable decision-makers to take advantage of important, technology-based mitigation strategies. The dissertation concludes by highlighting avenues for future research and considering the broader implications of the conceptual and empirical discussions of the preceding chapters.

ISBN: 9781392884904Subjects--Topical Terms:

3172150
Agricultural economics.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Agricultural Economics

The Farmer and the Fates: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Locus of Control and Investment in Risky Environments.
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245 1 4 $a The Farmer and the Fates: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Locus of Control and Investment in Risky Environments.
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300 $a 147 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 81-06, Section: A.
500 $a Advisor: Boucher, Stephen R;Carter, Michael R.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Davis, 2019.
506 $a This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
520 $a Despite growing concerns over the impact of risk exposure on household welfare, adoption rates for technologies that seek to make vulnerable households more resilient are often underwhelming. In this dissertation, I draw on the construct of locus of control to consider the possibility that the same risks that motivate public investment in resilience-enhancing technologies might make vulnerable decision-makers unwilling to adopt them.The locus of control construct has a long history in psychology but has receive relatively little attention in economics. In Chapter 1, I demonstrate its conceptual relationship to neoclassical choice and derive its implications for investment behavior. I hypothesize that locus of control affects a decision-maker's perception of the production function. Further, I suggest that a more external locus of control -- the belief that forces outside of a decision-maker's control play a relatively large role in determining outcomes - depresses the perceived marginal product of investment, leading to lower investment levels. In Chapter 2, I describe the elicitation and properties of two locus of control measures among a population of maize-producing households in Eastern Africa. In addition to a standard, general locus of control measure common in the psychology literature, I develop and study a measure of locus of control specific to rainfed maize production. Using three years of primary data from 3,000 maize producers in Mozambique and Tanzania, I present evidence that locus of control does not reflect differences in preferences or subjective probabilities, but rather beliefs about the production function itself.In the final chapter, I study the predictive potential of locus of control. I show that farmers with a more external locus of control are significantly less likely to use improved maize varieties. They are also less likely to adopt new, drought-tolerant maize (DTM) varieties in response to a randomized marketing intervention. DTM technology was explicitly developed to reduce weather risk. The decreased willingness of vulnerable farmers to adopt DTM suggests that, in addition to its direct negative effects on well-being, risk exposure may limit the ability of vulnerable decision-makers to take advantage of important, technology-based mitigation strategies. The dissertation concludes by highlighting avenues for future research and considering the broader implications of the conceptual and empirical discussions of the preceding chapters.
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653 $a Development Economics
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653 $a Tanzania
653 $a Technology Adoption
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793 $a English
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