Many governments subsidize agricultural insurance for farmers. There are several reasons behind these subsidies, some having to do with market failures that constrain the development of private insurance markets, and some having more overt political and social objectives. While there would appear to be many contexts in which subsidized agricultural insurance has the potential to offer attractive benefits, experience shows that once introduced, well known challenges with the design and operation of agricultural insurance programs, poor design of subsidies, plus political dynamics can all contribute to disappointing results, an expensive draw on government budgets, and the creation of disincentive problems that lead to significant economic costs and inefficiencies, and in some circumstances, to environmental degradation. To avoid these problems, any insurance subsidy needs to be carefully designed to be “smart”, in the sense that it is cost effective in achieving its underlying purpose, minimizes disincentive problems, and does not become a growing financial burden on the government. Also, before subsidizing insurance, governments should first ensure that the basic public goods needed to create an enabling environment for insurance are in place, without which insurance markets cannot be expected to work well nor subsidies to achieve their intended purposes. This paper discusses these issues and proposes some best practice guidelines for the design and implementation of subsidized agricultural insurance.

许多政府为农民提供农业保险补贴。这些补贴背后的原因有很多，其中一些与限制私人保险市场发展的市场失灵有关，还有一些具有更为明显的政治和社会目标。尽管在许多情况下补贴农业保险有潜力提供诱人的利益，但经验表明，一旦引入，农业保险计划的设计和运作，补贴设计不佳以及政治动态等众所周知的挑战导致令人失望的结果，昂贵的政府预算支出以及导致不利的问题的产生，这些问题导致巨大的经济成本和效率低下，并在某些情况下导致环境恶化。为了避免这些问题，任何一种保险补贴都必须经过精心设计，以达到“明智”的目的，即在实现其根本目的方面具有成本效益，最大程度地减少激励问题，并且不会对政府造成越来越大的财政负担。此外，在对保险进行补贴之前，政府应首先确保建立有利的保险环境所需的基本公共物品到位，否则，就不能指望保险市场运作良好，也不能提供补贴以实现其预期目的。本文讨论了这些问题，并为补贴农业保险的设计和实施提出了一些最佳实践指南。并且不会增加政府的财政负担。此外，在对保险进行补贴之前，政府应首先确保创造有利的保险环境所需的基本公共物品到位，否则，就不能指望保险市场运作良好，也不能提供补贴以实现其预期目的。本文讨论了这些问题，并为补贴农业保险的设计和实施提出了一些最佳实践指南。并且不会增加政府的财政负担。此外，在对保险进行补贴之前，政府应首先确保创造有利的保险环境所需的基本公共物品到位，否则，就不能指望保险市场运作良好，也不能提供补贴以实现其预期目的。本文讨论了这些问题，并为补贴农业保险的设计和实施提出了一些最佳实践指南。