Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Dissertation_Dougherty.pdf (1.11 MB)

Supplemental Files

File List


IRB Approval _ Tanzania.pdf (666.88 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Three Essays on the Economic Sustainability of Drought Insurance and Soil Investment for Smallholder Farmers in the Developing World

Dougherty, John Paul
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2809-2210
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531672015876609

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics.
Smallholder agriculture in the developing world is subject to numerous risks and trends. This dissertation investigates the economic sustainability of mechanisms used by smallholder farmers to mitigate risk as they adapt to a changing environment. The first two essays focus on index-based drought insurance and its relationship to changing risk caused by climate change and the growth of rural microfinance programs. The third essay focuses on how smaller farm sizes due to rural population growth affect farmer incentives to invest in soil quality. The first essay utilizes a framed field experiment in Tanzania and a structural learning model to study how climate change affects the demand for index insurance programs. I find evidence that demand will likely not keep pace with rising premiums in the absence of subsidies, threatening the economic sustainability of these programs in areas of changing risk. The second essay utilizes an analytic theoretical model to study the interaction between index insurance and microfinance programs. I find that if premiums are sufficiently low, coupling index insurance and microfinance can help mitigate the moral hazard problem inherent in loan contracts. The third essay utilizes a theoretical model and a panel data set from Tanzania to test how decreased farm sizes caused by population growth affect investment in fertilizer and soil quality. I find that smaller farm sizes lead to greater fertilizer use, particularly for organic materials such as compost and manure, and an indeterminate effect on soil quality.
Mario Miranda (Advisor)
Jon Einar Flatnes (Advisor)
Abdoul Sam (Committee Member)
107 p.
Agricultural Economics; Economics; Environmental Economics
Ambiguity Aversion; Climate Change; Dynamic Incentives; Farm Size; Fertilizer; Index Insurance; Learning; Microfinance; Recency Bias; Risk Mitigation; Soil Investment

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dougherty, J. P. (2018). Three Essays on the Economic Sustainability of Drought Insurance and Soil Investment for Smallholder Farmers in the Developing World [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531672015876609

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dougherty, John. Three Essays on the Economic Sustainability of Drought Insurance and Soil Investment for Smallholder Farmers in the Developing World. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531672015876609.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dougherty, John. "Three Essays on the Economic Sustainability of Drought Insurance and Soil Investment for Smallholder Farmers in the Developing World." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1531672015876609

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1531672015876609
475
© 2018, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.