• DOI:10.1257/POL.20190316
• Corpus ID: 85529687

Climate Change and Agriculture: Subsistence Farmers’ Response to Extreme Heat

@article{Aragon2019ClimateCA,
  title={Climate Change and Agriculture: Subsistence Farmers’ Response to Extreme Heat},
  author={Fernando M. Arag'on and Francisco Oteiza and Juan Pablo Rud Department of Economics and Simon Fraser University and Department of Environmental Science and Ucl Institute of Education and Departmentof Economics and Royal Holloway and University of London and Institute of Fiscal Studies},
  journal={American Economic Journal: Economic Policy},
  year={2019}
}

• Fernando M. Arag'on, F. Oteiza, +7 authors Institute of Fiscal Studies
• Published 1 February 2019
• Economics
• American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

This paper examines how subsistence farmers respond to extreme heat. Using microdata from Peruvian households, we find that high temperatures reduce agricultural productivity, increase area planted, and change crop mix. These findings are consistent with farmers using input adjustments as a short-term mechanism to attenuate the effect of extreme heat on output. This response seems to complement other coping strategies, such as selling livestock, but exacerbates the drop in yields, a standard measure of agricultural productivity. Using our estimates, we show that accounting for land adjustments is important to quantify damages associated with climate change. (JEL O12, O13, Q11, Q12, Q15, Q54)