Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2019
This paper studies the risk attitudes of winegrowers in France. In French viticulture, most of the production is done under an appellation regime that constrains maximum authorized yields. We consider a trans-log cost function under the constraint of this maximum yield and estimate winegrowers' attitudes to risk. Our estimates are based on the European Farm Accountancy Data Network database (2005–2014) and data from the French National Institute of Origin and Quality. We find that winegrowers are risk averse. For the majority of winegrowers, risk aversion is declining with expected profit. In the Champagne region, however, where expected profits are far higher than in the other regions, we observe the reverse relation: winegrowers become more risk averse as expected profits rise. (JEL Classifications: C13, C33, O33, Q16).
We are indebted to an anonymous reviewer for comments and suggestions that helped to improve this paper. We also thank the participants at the AAWE conference at Cornell University in Ithaca 2018. This work is supported by a public grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the “Investissements d'Avenir” program (reference: ANR-10-EQPX-17) and by Bordeaux Sciences Agro and Irstea. It benefited from the data of the CASD (Centre d'acces sécurisé aux données). We also want to thank Eric Giraud-Héraud and Stephane Lemarié for their remarks and comments.”