Drought Exposure and the Livestock Forage Disaster Program: Impacts on U.S. Cattle Populations
by Helena Kagan Abstract This paper examines the impacts of drought conditions, as defined by the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), on U.S. beef cattle inventories between 2000 and 2023. Using a county-level panel dataset and fixed effects models that exploit geographical and time variation in drought exposure, we estimate how additional weeks of various drought […]
Religious Identity and Climate-Sustainable Behavior
by Zixin “Finnie” Zhao Abstract What motivates individual action on climate change? The study focuses on the potential influence of religious identities. It employs a laboratory experiment to investigate how priming religious identity affects individuals’ donation behaviors to climate versus non-climate charities in a dictator game setting. In contrast with expectations, this study finds no […]
Reconstruction following Destruction: Entrepreneurship in the Aftermath of a Natural Disaster
by Richard Lombardo Abstract Entrepreneurship is thought to be the engine of growth in many developing countries. There is, however, a paucity of evidence on the role that entrepreneurship plays in rebuilding economic livelihoods both in the short and longer-term in the aftermath of a large-scale shock. This is an important gap in the literature […]
Short and Long-Term Impacts of a Large-Scale Natural Disaster on Individual Labor Outcomes: Evidence from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
by Tony Sun Abstract Natural disasters are often highly disruptive to the livelihoods of impacted populations. This paper investigates the effects of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on male wages and labor supply from its immediate aftermath into the long run. Using fixed effects models that account for individual-specific heterogeneity, I find evidence of significant […]
A perfect storm: The effect of natural disasters on child health
by Cheyenne Danielle Quijano Abstract Typhoons and their accompanying flooding have destructive effects, including an increase in the risk of waterborne disease in children. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, I explore the immediate to short-term effects of flooding as a result of Typhoon Labuyo on the incidence of diarrhea and acute respiratory infection in […]
Global Warming and Obesity: The Effect of Ambient Temperature on BMI
By Aakash Jain Previous research has shown that ambient temperature affects human metabolism and behavior. Inspired by these findings, this study examines the effect of lagged annual temperatures in the United States on average reported BMI. The results indicate that higher temperatures in the future will lead to increases in average BMI. A conservative estimate […]
Unitization of Oil Reserves in Alaska and the Supply Elasticity of a Common Pool Resource
By Emily Bailey Unitization, a common but not omnipresent policy that is lauded in both the economics and environmental world for its efficiency, attempts to solve the “tragedy of the commons” common pool failure of oil production by creating a system in which all those with interests in one reserve produce jointly and split profits […]
