Contextual Framing and Monetary Incentives in Field Experiments on Risk Preferences: Evidence from German Farmers

Recent studies cast doubt on the ability of abstract experiments to predict decision‐making in the field. Thus, scholars have argued for more ‘realism’ by introducing context to field experiments. Yet, such realism may work against the induced values of monetary incentives in economic experiments. It is an open question whether contextual framing works best with or without inducing values, through methods such as the use of monetary incentives. Using a sample of 146 German farmers, we compare experimentally the predictive power of a framed lottery in an agricultural context vs. using an abstract version. For one half of the sample, lotteries are incentivised; for the other half, they are hypothetical. Although risk preferences differ between treatments, all four lottery tasks correlate poorly with farmers’ real‐world use of risk management instruments such as harvest or hail insurance. Subjects who start with an agricultural framing are willing to take significantly greater risks in the lotteries. More generally, our findings cast doubt on the ability of lottery tasks to predict risk‐taking in the field.     

Evolution and future direction of intensified agriculture in the central mid-hills of Nepal

Nepalese mid-hill farmers have shifted from a subsistence-based farming system to an intensified farming system. This paper attempts to describe the evolution of the process of agricultural intensification in the mid-hill region by examining external drivers, trends in fertilizer use, landholding, cropping patterns, irrigation and labour use in the years 1989, 1999 and 2009. Data were obtained by means of structured interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and field observations. The study revealed that modern technology and the involvement of NGOs have facilitated the agricultural intensification process in three ways: (i) by providing access to technology without any financial cost to the farmer, (ii) by increasing the variety and number of crops and encouraging farmers to discontinue crops that had pest problems and (iii) by maximizing the use of chemical fertilizers to increase production. Results showed a significant increase in the application of urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) and a decrease in the application of farm yard manure (FYM) and muriate of potash from 1989 to 2009 (p < 0.001). The average landholding of 0.76ha in 1989 was reduced to 0.63ha by 2009. The number of crops (rice, maize or millet) cultivated per year increased to at least three crops with the introduction of potatoes and spring rice; however, some crops such as sugarcane and tobacco were not continued as a result of pest problems. Increased nitrogen input could lead to increased N₂O emissions; therefore, a better understanding of nitrogen fertilization and quantification of N₂O emissions from intensified agriculture is urgently needed to assess the possible environmental impact of input intensification.     

Business Alignment: Versicherungsfachwissen als Kernkompetenz der IT

Information technology (IT) of insurance companies refers to the variety of organizational units that are in charge of development, implementation and operation of the specific entrepreneurial IT-applications. Our analyses follow the notion that nowadays information technologies departments face increasing cost pressure and the modern reflex of introducing outsourcing-and offshoring-measures does not necessarily lead to cost reductions. Therefore a closer cooperation of IT departments and other organizational units is crucial and strengthens the improvement of competitiveness of the entire insurance company. Furthermore a method leading to a gradual Business Alignment of IT departments within insurance companies will be introduced.     

A unifying framework for the problem of adjudicating conflicting claims

In a recent paper, Thomson and Yeh [Thomson, W., Yeh, C.-H., 2008. Operators for the adjudication of conflicting claims. Journal of Economic Theory 143, 177–198] introduced the concept of operators on the space of rules for the problem of adjudicating conflicting claims. They focused on three operators in order to uncover the structure of such a space. In this paper, we generalize their analysis upon presenting and studying a general family of operators inspired by three apparently unrelated approaches to the problem of adjudicating conflicting claims. We study the structural properties of this family and show, in particular, that most of Thomson and Yeh’s results are specific cases of our study.     

Bridging and bonding forms of social capital in a regional strategic network

Research on networks emphasizes the importance of bonds between actors. Social reciprocity strengthens network bonds, which is assumed to have positive effects on business relationships between firms. However, the importance of weak ties is also stressed in network research. An important policy issue is therefore if more attention should be devoted to the creation of bridges to other social groups and loosening bonds between network actors. The difficulty in doing so is described and analyzed in this article focusing on a regional strategic network, which is viewed in three network perspectives. Interview data were collected from all participating managers in a regional strategic network in 2004 and 2010. The findings shed light upon the paradox of using a regional strategic network to counteract over-embeddedness and freeing the involved actors from existing network lock-ins instead of further strengthening such social institutions.