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Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal The economic impacts of climate change: Evidence from agricultural output and random fluctuations in weather

Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal

Deschenes O, Greenstone M
2007
The American Economic Review. 97 (1): 354-385

This paper measures the economic impact of climate change on US agricultural land by estimating the effect of random year-to-year variation in temperature and precipitation on agricultural profits. The preferred estimates indicate that climate change will increase annual profits by $1.3 billion in 2002 dollars (2002$) or 4 percent. This estimate is robust to numerous specification checks and relatively precise, so large negative or positive effects are unlikely. We also find the hedonic approach—which is the standard in the previous literature—to be unreliable because it produces estimates that are extremely sensitive to seemingly minor choices about control variables, sample, and weighting.

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Resource Description

    Food Security
    • Food Security: Crop/Plant Food Security
    General Geographic Feature
    United States
    General Health Impact
    Cost/Economic Impact Prediction
    Research Article
    Adaptation, Communication
    • Adaptation, Communication: Adaptation Co-Benefit/Co-Harm, Vulnerability Assessment
    • Adaptation, Communication: Researcher
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