Low insurance participation rate and low willingness to insure among farmers have always been major problems in the sustainable development of agricultural insurance in China. This paper attempts to examine the peer effect on farmers’ agricultural insurance buying decisions and explore its mechanism. We have established an IVprobit model, using the survey data of 9452 farmers in the karst regions in China. The empirical results show that: (1) Peer effect has a significant influence on farmers’ participation in agricultural insurance. A 10% increase in farmers’ neighbors’ participation in agricultural insurance increases the likelihood of farmers’ participation by 3.25%. (2) Peer effect promotes farmers’ participation by enhancing farmers’ risk perception and insurance cognition. (3) Peer effect is asymmetrical: male and larger-scale farmers have more significant effects on their peers and probably lead the participation in agricultural insurance. The results of the study have the following policy implications: (1) Increasing policy publicity and enforcing policy advocacy would magnify the positive impact of peer effect. (2) Increasing the participation rate of male and larger-scale farmers by policy interventions, which would give full play and a positive demonstration effect of specific groups. (3) Innovating insurance publicity methods to enhance farmers’ risk awareness and insurance cognition. (4) More concentration should be focused on the primary-level governance in rural China. We should advance the stock of rural social capital on all fronts to leverage the role of peer effect within rural areas.

IntroductionWith rapid economic and social development, surging demand for domestic water, and the increasing shortage of water resources, the applications of intermittent water supply systems have become more common in rural China and other developing countries. The accompanying hygiene risks require our more attention.MethodsBased on the Grossman model, this paper conducted an IV-Oprobit model to investigate whether and how intermittent water supply affect rural residents' self-rated health status. Our data came from “China Karst Rural Economic Survey (CKRS)”, which covers 8 provinces and 641 villages in rural China's karst region.Results and discussionWe found that: (1) Intermittent water supply has adverse effects on the self-rated health status of rural residents. Compared with the rural residents under continuous water supply, the probability of “fair” health status under intermittent water supply significantly increases by 18.2%, while the probability of “excellent” significantly reduces by 58.8%. (2) Residents' water storage behavior and sanitary water habit are important mechanisms for intermittent water supply to affect residents' self-rated health status; (3) Intermittent water supply has a greater impact on the self-rated health of females and the groups with lower education levels. The results of our study have the following policy implications: relevant departments should make a rational plan about water supply methods and improve related supporting measures; we should strengthen health education for rural residents on water behavior to standardize their water storage and sanitary water behavior; government should enhance the pertinence of policy implementation and favor specific measures to specific populations.