In this paper, first the most commonly used utility functional forms were reviewed and their properties were compared. Then, using data collected from West Azarbaijan province, utility functions were estimated and absolute risk aversion coefficients were measured. Exponential and expo-power utility functions classified all farmers as risk averse, but quadratic and cubic utility functions classified 75% and 65% of farmers as risk-avers, respectively. Findings of this study indicated that alternative utility functions may classify farmers’ risk attitudes in different ways.
