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Hail risk and risk management in Swiss agriculture
Hail events constitute an important risk for fruit growers’ income. Various risk management strategies exist. The central question of this thesis is whether high-resolution hail risk data can improve our understanding of hail risk management uptake?
Keywords: Risk Management; Hail; Data science
**Background**
Hail events constitute an important risk for fruit growers’ income, as a single hail event can destroy an entire harvest (Menapace et al. 2015). Different strategies exist to deal with hail risk, e.g. nets, insurances. The use of strategies is very heterogeneous, driven by environmental, farm and farmers’ characteristics as well as policy environment (e.g. Menapace et al. 2015, Finger and Lehmann 2012), Additionally, hail risk and experienced damages are important drivers – but hail risk is often not explicitly considered despite the fact that good data is increasingly available. The goal of this thesis is to answer the questions 'whether high-resolution hail risk data can improve our understanding of hail risk management uptake'.
**Methods**
Regression analysis: Empirically link Swiss farmers behavior with hail risk, accounting for various controls
- To this end, different data sources are combined
- Empirical work is embedded in an economic framework on uptake of risk management
**Data**
- Bookkeeping Data form Swiss farms OR Survey data
- Hail data provided by Net-IT Services (www.netit-services.com) and VKG (www.vkg.ch)
**References**
Finger, R. and N. Lehmann (2012). "The influence of direct payments on farmers’ hail insurance decisions." Agricultural economics 43(3): 343-354.
Menapace, L., G. Colson and R. Raffaelli (2015). "A comparison of hypothetical risk attitude elicitation instruments for explaining farmer crop insurance purchases." European Review of Agricultural Economics 43(1): 113-135.
**Background**
Hail events constitute an important risk for fruit growers’ income, as a single hail event can destroy an entire harvest (Menapace et al. 2015). Different strategies exist to deal with hail risk, e.g. nets, insurances. The use of strategies is very heterogeneous, driven by environmental, farm and farmers’ characteristics as well as policy environment (e.g. Menapace et al. 2015, Finger and Lehmann 2012), Additionally, hail risk and experienced damages are important drivers – but hail risk is often not explicitly considered despite the fact that good data is increasingly available. The goal of this thesis is to answer the questions 'whether high-resolution hail risk data can improve our understanding of hail risk management uptake'.
**Methods**
Regression analysis: Empirically link Swiss farmers behavior with hail risk, accounting for various controls - To this end, different data sources are combined - Empirical work is embedded in an economic framework on uptake of risk management
**Data**
- Bookkeeping Data form Swiss farms OR Survey data - Hail data provided by Net-IT Services (www.netit-services.com) and VKG (www.vkg.ch)
**References**
Finger, R. and N. Lehmann (2012). "The influence of direct payments on farmers’ hail insurance decisions." Agricultural economics 43(3): 343-354.
Menapace, L., G. Colson and R. Raffaelli (2015). "A comparison of hypothetical risk attitude elicitation instruments for explaining farmer crop insurance purchases." European Review of Agricultural Economics 43(1): 113-135.