We compare two different elicitation methods for measuring risk attitudes on a sample of French farmers. We consider the lottery tasks initially proposed by Holt and Laury (Econ Rev 92:1644–1655, 2002) and by Eckel and Grossman (Evol Hum Behav 23:281–295, 2002; J Econ Behav Org 68:1–7, 2008). The main empirical result from this within-subject study is that risk preference measures are affected by the type of mechanism used. We first show that this risk preference instability can be related to non-expected utility preferences of farmers. Using a risk-taking psychometric questionnaire, we then demonstrate that risk preferences of farmers are context-dependent. This may be another explanation of the observed risk preference instability.

This paper reports an investigation of the impact of price policies (PP) and non-price policies (NPP) on residential water demand. Using a sample of US water utilities located in Wisconsin, residential water demand was estimated by taking into account the fact that some of the characteristics of local communities that determine PP and NPP choices may also influence residential water consumption levels. It is first shown that neglecting endogeneity of PP or NPP may lead to biased parameter estimates. Second, it is demonstrated that the policy mix (PP or NPP) may be as important as the level of prices for determining water consumption. Lastly, evidence is provided that dissemination efforts made by local communities to promote NPP drive the effectiveness of those policies.