Managing Environmental Risk in Presence of Climate Change: The Role of Adaptation in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia

This study investigates the impact of climate change adaptation on farm households’ downside risk exposure in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. The analysis relies on a moment-based specification of the stochastic production function. We use an empirical strategy that accounts for the heterogeneity in the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental & resource economics 2014-04, Vol.57 (4), p.553-577
Main Authors: Di Falco, Salvatore, Veronesi, Marcella
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Adaptation to change
Agricultural economics
Agricultural production
Agriculture
Climate adaptation
Climate change
Climatic conditions
Crop loss
Decision
Drought
Economic models
Economic Policy
Economic statistics
Economic theory
Economics
Economics and Finance
Environmental Economics
Environmental impact
Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice
Environmental Management
Environmental monitoring
Environmental risk
Ethiopia
Farmers
Heterogeneity
Households
Production
Production functions
Rain
Risk exposure
Risk management
River basins
Skewness
Studies
Water conservation
Water shortages
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study investigates the impact of climate change adaptation on farm households’ downside risk exposure in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. The analysis relies on a moment-based specification of the stochastic production function. We use an empirical strategy that accounts for the heterogeneity in the decision on whether to adapt or not, and for unobservable characteristics of farmers and their farm. We find that past adaptation to climate change (i) reduces current downside risk exposure, and so the risk of crop failure; (ii) would have been more beneficial to the non-adapters if they adapted, in terms of reduction in downside risk exposure; and (iii) is a successful risk management strategy that makes the adapters more resilient to climatic conditions.
ISSN:0924-6460
1573-1502
DOI:10.1007/s10640-013-9696-1