Adaptation to Climate Change: Evidence from US Acreage Response

• Agricultural Economics Workshop

Date and Location

Thursday, November 9, 2017, 4:10 PM - 5:30 PM
ARE Conference Room, 2102 Social Sciences and Humanities

Abstract

Recent studies of climate change impacts on agriculture have predominantly focused on crop yields. However, climate change has heterogeneous effects across crops, so growers can adapt to climate change by adjusting planted acres. This paper measures how corn and soybean planted acres have responded to climate change in the United States since 1980. A county-level panel is formed with agricultural and high-resolution climatological data. To identify long-run effects of climate change, a “rolling-panel” approach is used, in which annual climatic variables are constructed by averaging growing-season temperature and precipitation over the past 30 years. Planted acres of corn and soybeans are positively affected by increases in temperature and precipitation in cool and dry areas, but negatively affected in warm and moist areas. In addition, irrigation alters how cropping patterns respond to climate change.