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Despite growing concerns over the impact of risk exposure on household welfare, adoption rates for technologies that seek to make vulnerable households more resilient are often underwhelming. In this dissertation, I draw on the construct of locus of control to consider the possibility that the same risks that motivate public investment in resilience-enhancing technologies might make vulnerable decision-makers unwilling to adopt them. The locus of control construct has a long history in psychology but has receive relatively little attention in economics. In Chapter 1, I demonstrate its conceptual relationship to neoclassical choice and derive its implications for investment behavior. I hypothesize that locus of control affects a decision-maker's perception of the production function. Further, I suggest that a more external locus of control -- the belief that forces outside of a decision-maker's control play a relatively large role in determining outcomes – depresses the perceived marginal product of investment, leading to lower investment levels. In Chapter 2, I describe the elicitation and properties of two locus of control measures among a population of maize-producing households in Eastern Africa. In addition to a standard, general locus of control measure common in the psychology literature, I develop and study a measure of locus of control specific to rainfed maize production. Using three years of primary data from 3,000 maize producers in Mozambique and Tanzania, I present evidence that locus of control does not reflect differences in preferences or subjective probabilities, but rather beliefs about the production function itself. In the final chapter, I study the predictive potential of locus of control. I show that farmers with a more external locus of control are significantly less likely to use improved maize varieties. They are also less likely to adopt new, drought-tolerant maize (DTM) varieties in response to a randomized marketing intervention. DTM technology was explicitly developed to reduce weather risk. The decreased willingness of vulnerable farmers to adopt DTM suggests that, in addition to its direct negative effects on well-being, risk exposure may limit the ability of vulnerable decision-makers to take advantage of important, technology-based mitigation strategies. The dissertation concludes by highlighting avenues for future research and considering the broader implications of the conceptual and empirical discussions of the preceding chapters.
Is the next disruptive idea in fintech or AI? Or semi-conductor design or quantum computing? Or mobility? Or another internet? Or, perhaps, social business? In this book, the author lays out the principles, focus areas and method that not only can empower farmers but also could lead to tectonic shifts in patterns of business ownership. 'The farmer entrepreneur' is the audacious vision for an enlightened, equitable and just global order that only the farmer can bring to life. It spurs the largest, yet weakest, section of the population to create a robust, resilient and sustainable framework that is the foundation to organize into one whole. That organization into one ensures that the farmer’s life is eminently bearable and flourishing, financial security being the last of her worries. The progressive hierarchy consummates with the entire economy being at the clutches of the farmer entrepreneur. Considering the enormity of climate change and socio-economic inequality (among many other global challenges), farmers have a moral imperative to wrest control from career politicians and covetous businessmen to create that new future.
The role of food writing in the sustainable food movement At turns heartfelt and witty, accessible and engaging, The Farmer, the Gastronome, and the Chef explores how Wendell Berry, Carlo Petrini, and Alice Waters have changed America’s relationship with food over the past fifty years. Daniel Philippon weighs the legacy of each of these writers and activists while planting and harvesting vegetables in central Wisconsin, speaking with growers and food producers in northern Italy, and visiting with chefs and restaurateurs in southeastern France. Following Berry, Petrini, and Waters in pursuit of his own “ideal meal,” Philippon considers what a sustainable food system might look like and what role writing can play in making it a reality. Warning of the dangers of “agristalgia,” Philippon instead advocates for a diverse set of practices he calls “elemental cooking,” which would define sustainable food from farm to table, while also acknowledging the importance of seeking social justice throughout the food system. A rigorous yet generous appraisal of three central figures in the sustainable food movement, The Farmer, the Gastronome, and the Chef demonstrates how the written word has the power to change our world for the better, one ideal meal at a time.
Writing team Thompson & Cook once again explore the history of the ancient Dragonlance world in The Wizard's Fate, the next title in The Ergoth trilogy. Considered the historical specialists of the Dragonlance world, the authors take the story to a colorful and violent era of its history that has not been previously chronicled in any novel.