Coping with risk in agriculture

摘要

I learned my risk theory from Anderson, Dillon and Hardaker (1977) (ADH), so I came to this book with a positive sentiment. ADH was primarily a university text, but the authors of this book have more ambitious aims. As well as students, their intended audience includes extension workers, financial advisers, veterinarians, agricultural researchers, policymakers and even 'some farmers'. They have, therefore, attempted to make the book less theoretical and more practicai in style. To this end, they have attempted to explain concepts and procedures clearly and simply, they have included many numerical examples, illustrated how to lay out examples in spreadsheet templates, and omitted much of the algebra that was included in ADH. Like ADH, this book is a presentation of decision analysis, based on subjective expected utility (SEU) theory. Only passing reference is made to the accumulated evidence that the axioms underlying SEU theory are often violated in practice. Given the practical and normative focus of the book, this is appropriate.