The influence of risk attitudes on suppression spending and on wildland fire program budgeting

Rossi, D; Kuusela, OP

HERO ID

7310502

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year

2020

Language

English

HERO ID 7310502
In Press No
Year 2020
Title The influence of risk attitudes on suppression spending and on wildland fire program budgeting
Authors Rossi, D; Kuusela, OP
Journal Forest Policy and Economics
Volume 113
Abstract Research has suggested that excessive risk aversion is a key driver of rising federal suppression costs. To formally understand how alternative risk attitudes of contracted incident managers can affect a public fire management organization's demand for fire management effort, a two-stage sequential game with complete information is presented. Qualitative expressions of the relevant comparative statics are derived and Monte Carlo simulations are constructed from the parameterized game to quantify these relationships. The simulation exercise reveals that risk aversion and a low tolerance for downside risk can have the similar effect of increasing the relative share of agency expenditures devoted to wildfire suppression. This theoretical analysis exposes the potential for multiple types of risk attitudes to influence an incident commander's demand for suppression effort. Consequently, these determinants of suppression demand also influence the organization's overall allocation of fire management budgets, suppression's expenditure share, and the overall agency exposure to downside risk.
Doi 10.1016/j.forpol.2019.102087
Wosid WOS:000519530000010
Is Certified Translation No
Dupe Override No
Comments Scopus URL: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85077948976&doi=10.1016%2fj.forpol.2019.102087&partnerID=40&md5=a108d90f6c89ee9cd351cd4f10822742
Is Public Yes
Language Text English
Keyword Fire management; Suppression; Risk aversion; Downside risk; Cost plus net value change; Budgetary institutions