Alumni

The economics literature widely recognizes that risk can induce poverty trap. One instrument that could hedge risk is insurance. Insurance though beneficial given risk averse individuals, the market for insurance fails to develop due to classical market failures (information asymmetry and transaction costs). A recent innovation, weather index insurance, addresses the market failures and has attracted the academia and development practitioners alike. In view of this development, a series of questions arise: is there a demand for the product? If no, why? Given the existing level of demand, is there any impact of weather index insurance on farm household performance? Is the insurance solution only addresses the micro problem or does the insurance sector largely promotes growth at an aggregate level? Thus, this dissertation empirically addresses these questions using recent advances and appropriate econometric techniques.

	Selected publications by Yesuf Awel
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Awel, Yesuf & Théophile T. Azomahou, 2015, Risk preference or financial literacy? Behavioural experiment on index insurance demand, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2015-005
Theses
Awel, Yesuf, 2016, Insurance for Growth: Empirical Essays on Insurance Demand and Impacts in Africa, PhD dissertation Maastricht University / United Nations University