Belief in Disaster Relief and the Demand for a Public–Private Insurance Program

Producers' demand for a public–private crop insurance program in the Netherlands is surveyed. A novel aspect was the inclusion of the producer's belief in disaster relief. Despite emphatic assertions that future governmental involvement would only be directed at a hypothetical insurance program, the participation decision was negatively and significantly associated with the producer's belief about the availability of disaster relief in the future. So, if governments continue to provide (free) ad hoc disaster relief, an important incentive to participate would be severely undermined. However, the conditional decision about the amount was not affected.