Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Total Factor Productivity Based on Spatial Panel Data Model: Evidence from China

Zhangqi Zhong (), Yiqin Hu and Lei Jiang
Additional contact information
Yiqin Hu: School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China
Lei Jiang: School of Economics, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: To respond to the adverse impact of climate change on agricultural total factor productivity, the question of how to adopt actively appropriate strategies is particularly critical for the stakeholders. However, the previous researchers have paid more attention to investigating the measure methods, regional differences, and determinants of Chinese agricultural total factor productivity, but the possible impact of climate change factors like rainfall, temperature, and evaporation on regional agricultural total factor productivity in China have not yet received the attention that they deserve. Furthermore, more importantly, the study on how to take active measures to reduce and mitigate the negative effects from climate change is relatively small. Therefore, in allusion to the above-mentioned problems, using the data envelopment analysis and building a spatial panel data model embedded with climate change factors, this paper calculated Chinese agricultural total factor productivity and then explored the possible impact of climate change on regional agricultural total factor productivity at a provincial level in China. Results mainly show that the impact of some factors, like annual total precipitation, average temperature in the growing season, and evaporation intensity on regional agricultural total factor productivity, are all very significant and negative, which suggests that the more precipitation, the higher the temperature is, and the higher evaporation intensity would lower agricultural total factor productivity in China. Furthermore, in order to response to mitigate the adverse effects from climate change on agricultural total factor productivity, local governments should continue to increase financial support for the local agricultural economic development, because this action could be beneficial for the related stakeholders in improving agricultural total factor productivity. Summing up, our evidence study would provide an important basic theory basis in terms of increasing agricultural total factor productivity and promoting regional agricultural economic development in China.

Keywords: agricultural total factor productivity; regional difference; spatial panel data model; adaptive strategy; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1516/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1516/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1516-:d:213403

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().