An Empirical Study on Aquaculture Insurance Purchase in Taiwan from A Behavioral Economics Perspective

In Taiwan, fish farmers buying aquaculture insurance are subsidized by over 50% of the premiums, but the demand is still low. Also, there is clear pattern that if they got little claim payments this year, their incentive to insure would decrease next year, and vice versa. This paper investigates the factors that affect aquaculture insurance purchase insurance in Taiwan from a behavioural economics perspective. By the survey sample data of 343 fish farmers from a research project of Council of Agriculture, we provide the evidence of the farmers’ narrow framing bias, and, by using a logistic regression, the results shows that those who are less willingness to buy, because the claims did not occur, less likely buy the insurance. It also supports the hypothesis that fish farmers with higher narrow framing bias and shortsightedness would buy less aquaculture insurance. Thus, it leads to the low demand for the aquaculture insurance.