Male and female risk preferences and maize technology adoption in Kenya

This thesis uses experimental techniques to elicit risk aversion, loss aversion, and nonlinear probability weighting parameters from Kenyan farmers. Enumerators interviewed primary male and female decision-makers within the same household about their maize cultivation practices and performed risk experiments with these same respondents. I use risk preference parameters to explain household maize variety adoption decisions at the subplot level and find that all three Prospect Theory parameters are significant in different model specifications. This suggests that Prospect Theory is more appropriate than Expected Utility Theory. Risk preferences affect adoption differently for men and women in the same households, and also differently in the eastern and western regions.