Subjective and objective risk perceptions and the willingness to pay for agricultural insurance: evidence from an in-the-field choice experiment in rural China

We conducted in-the-field choice experiments in China to investigate farmers’ willingness to pay for crop insurance and to determine how objective and subjective beliefs affect Willingness to Pay (WTP). We deploy three variants of the choice experiment using a priming mechanism on objective and subjective beliefs plus a control. We find that the cuing frame matters in that there are differences in WTP within five attributes and across variants. In terms of practical policy, our results suggest that farmers’ frame of reference toward objective and subjective risks can affect insurance demand.