Doctoral Dissertation Research: Calculated, Constrained, and Co-Opted Decisions: Explaining Agricultural Behavior of Malawian Farmers in Times of Uncertainty

博士论文研究：计算、约束和增选决策：解释马拉维农民在不确定时期的农业行为

• 批准号: 1227812
• 负责人: Bram Tucker
• 金额: $ 2.26万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2014-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1227812&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Calculated; Constrained

University of Georgia doctoral student Joseph W. Lanning, under the guidance of Dr. Bram Tucker, will conduct research that addresses a classic but important debate about how individuals make decisions. Are they rational, economic decision makers who, given certain constraints, carefully calculate costs and benefits or do they make decisions as social actors who are embedded in networks and structures that share low-cost, but potentially flawed, strategies? The research will be conducted among farmers in Malawi who are challenged by persistent hunger, uncertain prices for agricultural inputs, and decreasing soil fertility. Farmers are faced with decisions to invest in hybrid seeds and chemical fertilizer or to use alternatives, like planting legumes, to increase soil fertility and maintain yields. The researcher asks how variation in agricultural behavior among Malawian farmers is explained by (1) economic and environmental constraints, (2) ethno-agricultural knowledge of cause and effect, (3) attitude towards risk, or by (4) a farmer's use of decision-making short cuts such as just imitating what other farmers in their social networks do. The project will begin with a census recording basic demographics and the slope (flat, gentle, steep) of a farmer's primary maize field. A sample of farmers from the census, capturing variation in field slope, will participate in field mapping and semi-structured interviews, focused on economic and environmental constraints. An historical matrix exercise will explore perceptions of agricultural cause and effect relationships, while a small-stakes choice experiment will measure attitudes towards risk. Social network analysis will be used to examine the interactions with and influence of prestigious and successful farmers in each network. This project contributes to the development of decision-making models that unravel the degree to which ecological/economic variables versus social variables influence behavior. Revealing the determinants to investment in agriculture may be instrumental in the design of strategies that promote behaviors that maintain yields while preventing environmental decay or exacerbation of social and economic inequality.

格鲁吉亚大学博士生约瑟夫·W·在布拉姆·塔克博士的指导下，朗宁将进行一项研究，解决一个关于个人如何做出决定的经典但重要的争论。他们是理性的经济决策者，在某些限制条件下，仔细计算成本和收益，还是作为社会行为者，嵌入共享低成本但可能有缺陷的战略的网络和结构中？这项研究将在马拉维的农民中进行，他们面临持续饥饿，农业投入价格不确定和土壤肥力下降的挑战。农民们面临着这样的决定：是投资于杂交种子和化肥，还是使用替代品，如种植豆类，以增加土壤肥力和保持产量。研究人员询问马拉维农民农业行为的变化是如何解释的：（1）经济和环境限制，（2）因果关系的民族农业知识，（3）对风险的态度，或（4）农民使用决策捷径，如只是模仿其他农民在他们的社交网络做什么。该项目开始将进行一次普查，记录基本人口统计数据和农民主要玉米地的坡度（平、缓、陡）。从人口普查中抽取的农民样本将参与实地绘图和半结构化访谈，重点关注经济和环境限制因素，以捕捉田间坡度的变化。历史矩阵练习将探索农业因果关系的看法，而小利害关系的选择实验将衡量对风险的态度。社会网络分析将用于研究与每个网络中有声望和成功的农民的互动和影响。 该项目有助于开发决策模型，这些模型揭示了生态/经济变量与社会变量对行为的影响程度。揭示农业投资的决定因素可能有助于制定战略，促进保持产量的行为，同时防止环境恶化或社会和经济不平等的加剧。