Agricultural Entrepreneurs' Decision Making and Structural Change: An Experimental Approach

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Christian D. Schade
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Agrarökonomie, Agrarpolitik, Agrarsoziologie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2007 bis 2015
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 53162462

The rational calculus of farmers assumed in many agricultural economic models is unrealistic and non-predictive of their actual decision making. Understanding structural change in agriculture can thus be improved via a realistic modeling of the decision making by agricultural entrepreneurs. Specifically, slow disinvestment (i.e., postponing farm exit), persistence of market structures (i.e., failure to reallocate land plots towards higher efficiency), and more generally characterizing the decision making of farmers are crucial for a better understanding of structural change and policy advice. We apply economic experiments to better understand such disinvestment choices, land markets with economies of scale and private opportunity costs, different auction and bargaining forms to improve allocation efficiency of land markets, and to generally characterize the decision making of farmers.

• DFG-Verfahren: Forschungsgruppen
• Teilprojekt zu: FOR 986: Structural Change in Agriculture