Global Micro in the Making: The Marketization of Weather Index Insurance for Agriculture in Africa

全球微观正在形成：非洲农业天气指数保险的市场化

• 批准号: 231664470
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Marc Boeckler
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Humangeographie (IHG)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Priority Programmes
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-31 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/231664470?language=en
• 关键词: Global; Micro; Making; Marketization; Weather

Untouched by the current crisis of radical market-oriented policies, market integration continues to serve as the dominant one-size-fits-all approach for poverty reduction and economic development in the Global South. One frontier of current marketization processes is constituted by the nexus of climate change adaptation and financial inclusion. Debates about climate change suggest that countries in Africa are particularly vulnerable to altering climate patterns. Hence, the management of weather-related risks in agriculture has turned into an urgent topic and in consequence has been put at the forefront of the global agenda by international development organizations. Index-based weather insurance products for small-scale farmers are expected to respond to these new and emerging needs. By constructing markets for the poor, microinsurance programs are contributing to the broader development agenda of microfinance. Development economists and practitioners currently design and implement this market-based risk transfer as a new adaptation tool. This research project problematizes markets by studying the emergence of weather-related insurance markets on a micro level in African contexts. It does so by analyzing the global production of market models for microinsurance products and their subsequent translation into specific settings in West- and East Africa. This mobility triggers processes of mutual adaptation. Because African sites are serving as testing grounds for the finance industry, not only are local societies transformed to conform the model, but simultaneously the model itself will be altered in processes of marketization. Therefore the role of development economists is a central subject of scrutiny insofar as they essentially contribute to the performativity of economics in general and the making of index-based weather markets in particular. The research is inspired by theoretical insights from various strands of science and technology studies. It not only takes into account the constitutive role of technologies such as economic models, economic experiments and various calculative practices, but also processes of organizing and signification that are indispensable in producing and stabilizing new markets. Empirically, the research addresses three different contexts and scales: First, there is a focus on the international microinsurance scene and the production of global knowledge related to index-based insurance. Second, the market-oriented localization and adaptation of this knowledge and relevant practices within exemplary case studies in Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya are analyzed with a specific focus on processes of subjectification and individual responsibilization. Third, the generation and translation of economic knowledge via economic experiments such as randomized control trials and lab experiments regarding index-based insurance is reconstructed.

市场一体化没有受到当前激进的市场导向政策危机的影响，仍然是全球南方减贫和经济发展的主要的一刀切办法。当前市场化进程的一个前沿领域是气候变化适应和金融包容性之间的关系。关于气候变化的辩论表明，非洲国家特别容易受到气候模式变化的影响。因此，农业中与天气有关的风险管理已成为一个紧迫的主题，并因此被国际发展组织放在全球议程的前列。面向小农的基于指数的天气保险产品预计将对这些新的和正在出现的需求做出回应。通过为穷人建立市场，小额保险方案正在为更广泛的小额信贷发展议程做出贡献。发展经济学家和从业人员目前正在设计和实施这种基于市场的风险转移，将其作为一种新的适应工具。这项研究项目通过研究与天气有关的保险市场在微观层面上在非洲背景下的出现，使市场成为问题。为此，它分析了小额保险产品的全球市场模式，并随后将其转化为西非和东非的特定背景。这种流动性引发了相互适应的过程。由于非洲的网站是金融业的试验田，当地社会不仅被改造以符合模式，同时模式本身也将在市场化过程中发生变化。因此，发展经济学家的作用是审查的一个中心主题，因为他们基本上有助于整个经济学的绩效，特别是基于指数的天气市场的形成。这项研究的灵感来自于各种科学和技术研究的理论见解。它不仅考虑了经济模型、经济实验和各种计算实践等技术的构成作用，而且还考虑了组织和意义的过程，这些过程对于生产和稳定新市场是不可或缺的。在经验上，这项研究涉及三个不同的背景和范围：第一，重点放在国际小额保险领域和与指数型保险有关的全球知识的产生上。其次，在加纳、埃塞俄比亚和肯尼亚的示范案例研究中分析了这种知识和相关做法的市场化本地化和改编，并特别侧重于主题化和个人责任化的过程。第三，重构了通过随机对照试验和关于指数保险的实验室实验等经济实验产生和转化经济知识的过程。