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Title: Essays on Adaptation to Climate Change

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2014

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Abstract: Climate change represents a formidable challenge for mankind going forward. It is important to understand its effects. In this thesis I study how people adopt to climate change and argue that these responses could go a long way towards mitigating the effects of climate change. I show that in some cases accounting for such adaptation could completely reverse the negative effects of climate change. In the first chapter of my thesis I consider the general impact of adaptation without focusing on a particular adaptation mechanism studying mortality in Russia. Using regional monthly mortality and daily temperature data, I estimate a flexible nonparametric relation between weather and mortality. I find evidence that regions are better adapted to temperature ranges they experience more frequently. In particular, damages from the high heat are smaller in regions where the average summer temperature is higher and damages from cold are lower in regions where winters are usually more severe. On the basis of these estimates I propose a novel way to account for adaptation to climate change without restricting attention to one particular channel. Namely, I assume that if some currently cold region in the future will be exposed to the high heat on a regular basis, then its (future) response will be similar to the present response of a warmer region which currently is exposed to such heat on a regular basis. I illustrate my approach . . .

Url: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/1388/

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Authors: Portnykh, Margarita

Institution: Clemson University

Department: Economics

Advisor: Mroz, Thomas A

Degree: PhD

Publisher Location: Clemson, South Carolina

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other

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