Sacha Kramer (Univ Lyon 1, GATE LSE, LBBE), Dominique Pontier (HDR LBBE), Thibaud Porphyre (HDR LBBE), Julie Rosaz(HDR BSB-CEREN), Benoît Tarroux (HDR Gate-LSE)
Exploring Changes in Farmers’ Economic Behaviors during Epizootics: An Experimental Study
Abstract : This research is aiming to investigate the economic behaviors of livestock farmers during health crises, particularly focusing on epizootics (i.e. animal epidemics). Motivated by the increasing interest in multidisciplinary studies merging economics and epidemiology (epieco), our study contributes to this field by conducting a financial double auction market (DA) experiment. The experiment simulates the dynamics of a contagious risk representing the spread of a disease among livestock traded by farmers. Our design consists of two parts of ten periods each, with the first part without any disease and the second part introducing a contagious disease risk associated with asset ownership.
During each period, participants can engage in buying and selling livestock, which yield random dividends at the end of the period for their owners. The introduction of a contagious risk in the second part decreases the average dividends for infected livestock, who also possess a probability of infecting other animals within the participant portfolio. Through this investigation, we aim to explore participants decision-making strategies in response to the risk of disease transmission. We analyze variations in prices and trading volumes following the introduction of the disease, highlighting the intricate relationship between economic interests and the potential spread of disease among assets. Our goal is to provide valuable insights into the intersection of economics and epidemiology and also gather data for epidemiological models and policymakers. Additionally, we seek to understand how infectious diseases emerging in markets alter farmers’ behaviors and impact the market, thereby enhancing our understanding of the economic implications of epizootics.