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

市场一体化没有受到目前激进的市场导向政策危机的影响，继续是全球南方减少贫穷和经济发展的一刀切的主要办法。当前市场化进程的一个前沿是适应气候变化和普惠金融之间的联系。关于气候变化的争论表明，非洲国家特别容易受到气候模式变化的影响。因此，管理农业中与天气有关的风险已成为一个紧迫的话题，因此已被国际发展组织置于全球议程的前列。面向小农的基于指数的天气保险产品有望满足这些新的和正在出现的需求。通过为穷人构建市场，小额保险项目正在为小额信贷更广泛的发展议程做出贡献。发展经济学家和实践者目前正在设计和实施这种基于市场的风险转移，作为一种新的适应工具。本研究项目通过在非洲微观层面上研究与天气有关的保险市场的出现，使市场出现问题。它通过分析小额保险产品市场模式的全球生产及其随后在西非和东非特定环境中的转化来实现这一目标。这种流动性触发了相互适应的过程。由于非洲地区是金融行业的试验场，不仅当地社会要转变为符合这种模式，而且这种模式本身也将在市场化过程中发生改变。因此，发展经济学家的角色是审查的中心主题，因为他们基本上为经济学的总体表现做出了贡献，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技术研究的理论见解。它不仅考虑到诸如经济模型、经济实验和各种计算实践等技术的构成作用，而且还考虑到在产生和稳定新市场中不可或缺的组织和意义过程。在实证方面，本研究涉及三种不同的背景和尺度：首先，重点关注国际小额保险场景和与指数保险相关的全球知识生产。其次，在加纳、埃塞俄比亚和肯尼亚的示范案例研究中，以市场为导向的本地化和适应这种知识和相关实践，并特别关注主体化和个人责任的过程。第三，重构了基于指数保险的随机对照试验和实验室实验等经济实验对经济知识的生成和转化。

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.