Livestock as insurance and social status. Evidence from reindeer herding in Norway
Abstract
The theory of livestock as a buffer stock predicts that agropastoralists facing substantial risks typically will use liquid assets, such as livestock, for self-insurance to smooth consumption. This paper examines this hypothesis for reindeer herders in Norway where the herders, in contrast to pastoralists in, say, Sub-Saharan Africa, face well functioning credit markets. Using survey data including slaughtering responses to a hypothetical meat price increase, we test whether keeping reindeer as insurance against risks affects the slaughter response. Furthermore, we study whether status motives for keeping large herds affect the harvest response to a changing slaughter price. As a background for the empirical analysis, a stochastic bioeconomic model describing Saami reindeer herding is formulatedDownload Info
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology in its series Working Paper Series with number 10509.Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: 10 Jul 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:nst:samfok:10509
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Keywords:This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-AGR-2009-08-02 (Agricultural Economics)
- NEP-ALL-2009-08-02 (All new papers)
- NEP-IAS-2009-08-02 (Insurance Economics)
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As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- Cattle as self-insurance in modern economies
by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2009-09-11 14:56:00
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