Management summary Research study „Socio-demographic drivers of the risk-taking propensity of micro farmers: Evidence from the Czech Republic

Farming business is considered as risky business because of the ongoing climate change and epidemic outbreaks. Alternatively, the risk of lower European Union budget raised the question, how to implement publicly supported financial instruments for micro farmers which have lower credit rating. The purpose of this study is to find socio-demographic determinants of the risk-taking propensity of the Czech micro farms.

The sample of 747 farmers was processed through ordinal logistic regression. The study is based on the subjective self-assessment of the risk-taking behavior.

The results have commercial and political implications. Younger farmers, singles and lower-educated farmers have significantly higher risk-taking propensity and can be potentially risky clients for banks. Such farmers represent the financial gap in the credit market, and their viable development projects could be subject for implementation of financial instruments co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development in the forthcoming programming period past 2020.

Target groups of stakeholders: banks, policymakers

Citation: Špička, J. (2020). Socio-demographic drivers of the risk-taking propensity of micro farmers: Evidence from the Czech Republic. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 12(4), 569-590. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-09-2019-0143