Determinants of Livestock Insurance Demand: Experimental Evidence from Chinese Herders

Abstract We provide the first evidence about insurance preferences among herders in pastoral regions in China. We estimate herders’ preferences for alternative insurance configurations based on a hypothetical and a consequential choice experiment, aiming to minimise hypothetical bias. Our results show that herders prefer the insurance plan in general with demand for livestock insurance increasing when insurance premiums decrease or payouts increase. The hypothetical bias only influences the willingness‐to‐pay estimates through the cost attribute, while the marginal rates of substitution of non‐cost attributes remain largely unchanged. The hypothetical treatment nearly doubles the magnitudes of willingness‐to‐pay estimates for some insurance attributes.