Weather and Welfare in Ethiopia

Jeremy Foltz, Jared Gars, Mutlu Özdoğan, Belay Simane and Ben Zaitchik

No 150298, 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Long term increases in rural incomes and productivity in Ethiopia are threatened by weather fluctuations. Changes in weather variability and the number of extreme weather events (specifically droughts) has the capacity to undermine development efforts if it translates into decreased food availability and incomes. This study integrates downscaled daily weather data with household surveys to study the impact of weather and temperature on rural household welfare in Ethiopia. Our panel data econometric approach is one of the first to measure the impacts of weather on household consumption directly. Generally, we find that food and non-food consumption are a function of weather in Ethiopia, and that this link is lessening over time but more pronounced for poor households. Evidence from these survey villages suggests that being in a vulnerable area may not actually result in being worse off relative to being poor in a non vulnerable area. These findings have implications for focusing climate mitigation strategies on the poor regardless of location rather than just the poorest regions.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; International Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea13:150298

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.150298

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