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Abstract
Risk is pervasive in developing country agriculture, and risk preferences are though to impact seed and technology choice. Empirical research on risk preferences and technology adoption typically only consider the risk preferences of a single household member. In this paper experimental techniques based on prospect theory (PT) to elicit risk aversion, loss aversion, and
nonlinear probability weighting parameters from husbands and wives in Kenyan agricultural households. We also use survey data about their maize seed choice from these same respondents. We find that all three PT parameters are significant in different model specifications, and that
risk preferences affect adoption differently for men and women in the same households, and also differently in the eastern and western regions of the country.