A Ricardian Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on European Agriculture

Van Passel, Steven; Massetti, Emanuele; Mendelsohn, Robert O.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2463134

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A Ricardian Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on European Agriculture

CESifo Working Paper Series No. 4842

28 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2014

See all articles by Steven Van Passel

Emanuele Massetti

Georgia Institute of Technology; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); CMCC - Euro Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change; International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Robert O. Mendelsohn

Yale University - School of Forestry & Environmental Studies; Yale University

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 12, 2014

Abstract

This research estimates the impact of climate on European agriculture using a continental scale Ricardian analysis. Climate, soil, geography and regional socio-economic variables are matched with farm level data from 37,612 farms across Western Europe. We demonstrate that a median quantile regression outperforms OLS given farm level data. The results suggest that European farms are slightly more sensitive to warming than American farms with losses from -8% to -44% by 2100 depending on the climate scenario. Farms in Southern Europe are predicted to be particularly sensitive, suffering losses of -9% to -13% per degree Celsius.

Keywords: Ricardian analysis, climate change, European agriculture, climate change economics, quantile regression

JEL Classification: Q540, Q510, Q150

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Van Passel, Steven and Massetti, Emanuele and Mendelsohn, Robert O., A Ricardian Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on European Agriculture (June 12, 2014). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 4842, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2463134 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2463134