Research
Publications:
Ocean Salinity, Early-Life Health, and Adaptation (with Amanda Guiubeau, Nidhiya Menon, and Liz Long) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (Forthcoming)
The Economic Value of Clarifying Property Rights: Evidence from Water in Idaho's Snake River Basin (with Oliver Browne) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2023) 119: 102799.
Short-Term Exposure to Air Pollution and Cognitive Performance: New Evidence from China’s College English Test (with Zhenyu Yao, Wei Zhang, and Weizhe Weng) Environmental and Resource Economics (2023) 85:211–237.
Mining and women’s agency: Evidence on acceptance of domestic violence and shared decision-making in India. (with Amanda Guimbeau, Nidhiya Menon, and Yana Rodgers) World Development (2023):162: 106135
The Effect of Prior Appropriation Water Rights on Land-allocation Decisions in Irrigated Agriculture. (with Kelly Cobourn, Sian Mooney, and Neil Cresenti) American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2022) 104: 947-975
The Labor Productivity Consequences of Exposure to Particulate Matters: Evidence from a Chinese National Panel Survey. (with Qi He) International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2021) 18(23): 12859
Weather Fluctuation, Expectation Formation, and the Short-run Behavioral Responses to Climate Change. (with Kelly Cobourn) Environmental and Resource Economics (2021) 78:77-119
A satellite-driven hydro-economic model to support agricultural water resources management. (with Maneta et al.) Environmental Modelling and Software (2020) 134: 104836
Characterizing the impact of climatic and price anomalies on agrosystems in the northwest United States. (with Wurster et al.) Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (2019), 280(15): 107778
The Economic Benefits of Irrigation Districts under Prior Appropriation Doctrine: An Econometric Analysis of Agricultural Land-allocation Decisions. (with Kelly Cobourn) Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics (2018), 66(3): 441-467
Working Papers:
Climate Change, Intimate Partner Violence, and the Moderating Effects of Climate Resilience Initiatives (with Amanda Guimbeau and Nidhiya Menon)
This paper investigates the impact of climate change on women’s agency in Bangladesh. Utilizing a novel dataset linking meteorological data with information on women’s agency from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, and controlling for a variety of weather indicators in flexible specifications, we find that dry shocks increase tolerance for intimate partner violence among poorest women in agriculture-dependent communities, thus amplifying existing socioenvironmental vulnerabilities. Climate resilience projects funded by the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust (BCCT) moderate the negative impacts of dry shocks on intimate partner violence, indicating an important role for initiatives that appear to have positive externalities in terms of ameliorating the harmful consequences of climate change on women. Our findings offer insights into the complex environmental and social dynamics that shape gendered climate change effects, and highlight the role of policy interventions in fostering resilience and women’s wellbeing.
The Effect of Climate Change on Irrigated Agriculture: Water-Temperature Interactions and Adaptation in the Western U.S. (with Kelly Cobourn and Weizhe Weng)
Previous empirical studies have found evidence of a positive interaction effect between temperature and water availability on agricultural land rent, which is attributable to a physiological increase in crop water demand under a warmer climate. In this study, we decompose this observed complementarity between temperature and water availability to show that it reflects a combination of two distinct mechanisms. At the intensive margin, temperature and water availability affect agriculture via physiological complementarity, but at the same time, these factors affect change along the extensive margin by influencing crop choice. Using a geo-referenced panel dataset at the scale of the irrigated parcel, we empirically estimate the latter effect by examining the response of land allocation decisions to temperature and water availability. We find that farmers grow a more profitable mix of crops when presented with an increase in growing degree-days, extreme degree-days, precipitation, surface water availability, and access to groundwater. However, we find differences in the magnitude of the response and its drivers over the short and long run. Short-term changes in crop mix are smaller in magnitude and are predominantly driven by changes in extreme degree-days and surface water availability. In the long run, changes in crop mix are driven primarily by changes in growing degree-days, precipitation, and groundwater access.