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Risk Management Strategies in Agriculture: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

edited by R.B.M. Huirne, J.B. Hardaker and A.A. Dijkhuizen

Wageningen: Agricultural University (Mansholt Studies 7, ISSN 1383-6803)

(xiv), 319p. paperbound

ISBN 90-6754-497-3

98 Dutch Guilders (NLG) from Backhuys Publishers backhuys@euronet.nl

This is a difficult book to review. With 26 separate contributions, an appraisal of the individual papers would take too long, and in any case, the book comes with an excellent summary, by Hardaker, Huirne, Barry and King (given that no executive is ever likely to read it, however, I fail to see why it is called an Executive Summary). The alternative of using a review as platform for the reviewer's own opinions has also been forestalled. The book begins with a magisterial overview of the field and its development by Jock Anderson, and also includes a survey of the policy debate by Anderson and Peter Hazell.

I will, therefore, jump directly to the question of who should read the book and whether it is worth buying. The book is, as its title suggests, representative of the 'state of the art', not in the sense that all the contributions are at the frontier, but as a representative sample of high-quality current research in agricultural risk management. This may be seen, for example, in the range of models of choice under uncertainty used in the papers. The modal choice is the subjective expected utility (SEU) model. However, both older (expected value, mean-variance, MOTAD) and newer (rank-dependent EU) models are well represented. The range of topics covered is similarly comprehensive including risk measurement, elicitation of risk attitudes, decision analysis, risk management and the role of risk in agricultural policy. The book would therefore make valuable reading for any agricultural economist with an interest in risk.

Despite the 'sticker shock' of a landed price nearing $A100 for a paperback, I believe the book is worth buying. Unlike many collective volumes arising from seminars, the book has been professionally edited and typeset, making it a pleasure to read. Also unlike many collective volumes, it contains no obvious 'duds'. The average standard of the papers is comparable to that of AJARE or its US counterpart. Purchase of this book might be compared to a two-year subscription to a journal devoted specifically to risk and agriculture, if such a journal existed. Viewed this way, the price is a bargain.

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