Unintended Doses: How Livestock Insurance Fuels Antibiotic Use on Chinese Hog Farms?

ABSTRACT While antibiotics boost livestock productivity and reduce disease risk, their overuse raises public health concerns, notably antimicrobial resistance. This study examines livestock insurance as an alternative to direct regulation of antibiotic use, like bans or prescription mandates. We present a framework showing how insurance interacts with antibiotics' dual roles, both risk‐reducing and risk‐increasing, and test it using a natural policy experiment in China. Using survey and insurance data, we apply difference‐in‐differences models and find that insurance significantly increases antibiotic use among hog farmers. This suggests antibiotics act as risk‐increasing inputs at current levels. Our findings highlight the need to align insurance with sustainable livestock and antibiotic stewardship strategies.