Econometric Estimation of Producers' Risk Attitudes

Abstract General methods are proposed for the identification and econometric estimation of the parameters of the distribution of risk attitudes in a producer population. The proposed methods also provide the basis for the development of statistical tests of model specification and of behavioral hypotheses. Econometric risk attitude estimation is shown to be possible under less restrictive conditions than previously believed. A moment‐based version of the general model is applied to Indian data, and the econometrically estimated risk attitudes are presented and compared to experimental results for a similar group of producers.