The role of farmers' behavioral attitudes and heterogeneity in futures contracts usage

The authors are grateful for the generous participation of the 440 farmers in the personal computer-assisted interviews. Financial support provided by the Amsterdam Exchanges (AEX), Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Foundation for Research in Agricultural Derivatives, the Office for Futures and Options Research, and the Niels Stensen Foundation made it possible to conduct the large-scale interview. The authors would like to thank J.A. Bijkerk for building a user-friendly interface for the computer-assisted personal interviews. The authors express special thanks to W. Brorsen, M. Candel, C. Ennew, P. Garcia, F. ter Hofstede, S. Irwin, M.T.G. Meulenberg, M. Rockinger, F. Verhees, A. Smidts, J-B.E.M. Steenkamp, B. Wierenga and the participants of the 1999 NCR-134 meeting held at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for helpful comments on the research project and preliminary versions of this manuscript