Pitfalls and potential of institutional change: Rain-index insurance and the sustainability of rangeland management

Birgit Müller; Martin F. Quaas; Karin Frank; Stefan Baumgärtner

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.06.011

Pitfalls and potential of institutional change: Rain-index insurance and the sustainability of rangeland management

Birgit Müller
, Martin F. Quaas
, Karin Frank
, Stefan Baumgärtner

Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

44 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Rain-index insurance is strongly advocated in many parts of the developing world to help farmers to cope with climatic risk that prevails in (semi-)arid rangelands due to low and highly uncertain rainfall. We present a modeling analysis of how the availability of rain-index insurance affects the sustainability of rangeland management. We show that a rain-index insurance with frequent payoffs, i.e. a high strike level, leads to the choice of less sustainable grazing management than without insurance available. However, rain-index insurance with a low to medium strike level enhances the farmer's well-being while not impairing the sustainability of rangeland management. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Original language	English
Journal	Ecological Economics
Volume	70
Issue number	11
Pages (from-to)	2137-2144
Number of pages	8
ISSN	0921-8009
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.06.011
Publication status	Published - 15.09.2011

Bibliographical note

Special Section - Earth System Governance: Accountability and Legitimacy, Edited by F. Biermann, A. Gupta

Research areas and keywords

Ecological–economic modeling
Weather-index insurance
Namibia
Risk
Grazing management
Africa
Management studies
Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics
Economics

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Economics and Econometrics
Environmental Science(all)

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10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.06.011

Cite this

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title = "Pitfalls and potential of institutional change: Rain-index insurance and the sustainability of rangeland management",

abstract = "Rain-index insurance is strongly advocated in many parts of the developing world to help farmers to cope with climatic risk that prevails in (semi-)arid rangelands due to low and highly uncertain rainfall. We present a modeling analysis of how the availability of rain-index insurance affects the sustainability of rangeland management. We show that a rain-index insurance with frequent payoffs, i.e. a high strike level, leads to the choice of less sustainable grazing management than without insurance available. However, rain-index insurance with a low to medium strike level enhances the farmer's well-being while not impairing the sustainability of rangeland management. {\textcopyright} 2011 Elsevier B.V.",

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AU - Frank, Karin

AU - Baumgärtner, Stefan

N1 - Special Section - Earth System Governance: Accountability and Legitimacy, Edited by F. Biermann, A. Gupta

PY - 2011/9/15

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AB - Rain-index insurance is strongly advocated in many parts of the developing world to help farmers to cope with climatic risk that prevails in (semi-)arid rangelands due to low and highly uncertain rainfall. We present a modeling analysis of how the availability of rain-index insurance affects the sustainability of rangeland management. We show that a rain-index insurance with frequent payoffs, i.e. a high strike level, leads to the choice of less sustainable grazing management than without insurance available. However, rain-index insurance with a low to medium strike level enhances the farmer's well-being while not impairing the sustainability of rangeland management. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

KW - Ecological–economic modeling

KW - Weather-index insurance

KW - Namibia

KW - Risk

KW - Grazing management

KW - Africa

KW - Management studies

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

KW - Economics

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JO - Ecological Economics

JF - Ecological Economics

IS - 11

ER -

Pitfalls and potential of institutional change: Rain-index insurance and the sustainability of rangeland management

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Research areas and keywords

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Access to Document

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Cite this