Risk attitude, innovativeness and financial literacy—A cross-occupational comparison of German farmers and foresters

Abstract

Factors such as risk attitude, innovativeness, and financial literacy are crucial in agricultural and forest economics, especially amidst weather and market risks. Hence, understanding them is central for fostering a resilient primary sector. We surveyed 371 German farmers and 215 foresters in 2022 online. Both groups were financial literate, reported a neutral generalized risk attitude, leaned towards risk aversion in their professional context, were open to innovation, and showed statistically significant differences between contextualized and generalized risk attitude. Unlike foresters, farmers displayed statistically significant differences between their self-reported general and contextualized innovativeness. Among other things, the results highlight the value of context-specific methods in primary sector research. The study showcases a commitment to open science by using a synthetic dataset to make the analysis transparent and allowing for replication while ensuring participant privacy through the differential privacy framework.