Consumption of Economic Information in Agriculture

Abstract

We develop a model of decision makers' demand for agricultural economic information services. This model treats choice of external decision-support services as a function of actors' assessment of how alternative investments in information complement their internal competencies. Data from a survey in four commodity systems are used to evaluate hypotheses as to how human capital, and functional role of actors in commodity systems affect demand for variously formatted information. By focusing on three axes of heterogeneity - diversity among decision makers, information service providers, and information - we are able to identify key structural and functional relationships in agricultural economic information systems.

Keywords: information, uncertainty, value of information