State of the literature on the economic impacts of climate change in the United States

Neumann James E. () and Strzepek Kenneth
Additional contact information
Neumann James E.: Principal, Industrial Economics, Inc., 2067 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA
Strzepek Kenneth: Research Scientist, Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, E19-411, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, 2014, vol. 5, issue 3, 411-443

Abstract: This paper discusses the current literature on impacts and adaptation costs at the sectoral level. The focus is primarily the US, but includes examples on international applications that highlight key differences or other relevant demonstrations of method and data use. The paper provides an overall framework that addresses the components of economic impacts, including definitions of impacts, adaptation costs, and residual damages. The paper then focuses on understanding the current breadth and depth of the literature that exists to characterize what we know about economic sectors studied in the recent literature (agriculture, coastal resources, water resources, infrastructure, health, crime, energy, labor productivity, and ecosystems), how the methodologies differ, what the gaps and challenges are, and offers a sense of the impacts at the US national level. A new generation of impact studies, including the U.S. EPA’s ongoing Climate Impacts and Risk Analysis (CIRA) project; the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR5 Working Group II report; the U.S. National Climate Assessment; and the Risky Business Project led by the Next Generation Foundation, provide the motivation for this review. These efforts, taken together, have advanced the state of US economic impact assessment work along two critical frontiers, both of which support benefit-cost analyses of climate change: assessment of the risk and economic consequences of extreme climatic events; and assessment of ecosystem effects. Yet, the latest work also highlights gaps in the lack of comprehensive sectoral coverage; more complete incorporation of adaptation opportunities in impact assessment; and critical cross- and multi-sectoral effects that remain poorly understood.

Keywords: adaptation; climate change; economic impacts; economic sectors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbca-2014-9003 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:jbcacn:v:5:y:2014:i:3:p:411-443:n:4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jbca/html

DOI: 10.1515/jbca-2014-9003

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis is currently edited by Glenn C. Blomquist and William H. Hoy

More articles in Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().