Is the risk attitude measured with the Holt and Laury task reflected in farmers’ production risk?

This paper investigates the explanatory power of the risk attitude measured with the Holt and Laury (HL) task for farmers’ production decision behaviour. In order to achieve this, a Just and Pope production function is estimated using panel data of German farmers. The results show that the farmers’ risk attitude elicited using the HL task is correlated with their respective production risk. With higher risk aversion, less production risk is tolerated. Consequently, a neutrally framed HL task is proven to be an appropriate reflection of the risk farmers take in real production decisions.