Income Uncertainty, Coping Mechanism and Farmer Production Management Decision: An Empirical Study from Yunan, Guizhou and Sichuan Provinces

摘要

The households in rural region try not only to increase income, but also stabilize income. Based on survey data collected on 1186 peasant households in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, this paper tests how dose ex-ante income-smoothing mechanisms affect peasants' behavior and welfare under the stroke of the income risks. The result indicates: Without formal mechanisms to manage risk, the peasants will select some informal mechanisms to cope with risk. Because of lacking ex-post risk prevention mechanism, to protect fanners from risks, the peasants have to cope with risk depending on ex-ante income-smoothing mechanisms. The conservative act of production play the most important role, but it has negative impacts on peasant welfare and productivity.