How is CO 2 affecting yields and technological progress? A statistical analysis

Witsanu Attavanich and Bruce McCarl

Climatic Change, 2014, vol. 124, issue 4, 747-762

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of climate, crop production technology, and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) on current and future crop yields. The analysis of crop yields endeavors to advance the literature by estimating the effect of atmospheric CO 2 on observed crop yields. This is done using an econometric model estimated over pooled historical data for 1950–2009 and data from the free air CO 2 enrichment experiments. The main econometric findings are: 1) Yields of C3 crops (soybeans, cotton, and wheat) directly respond to the elevated CO 2 , while yields of C4 crops (corn and sorghum) do not, but they are found to indirectly benefit from elevated CO 2 in times and places of drought stress; 2) The effect of technological progress on mean yields is non-linear; 3) Ignoring atmospheric CO 2 in an econometric model of crop yield likely leads to overestimates of the pure effects of technological progress on crop yields of about 51, 15, 17, 9, and 1 % of observed yield gain for cotton, soybeans, wheat, corn and sorghum, respectively; 4) Average climate conditions and climate variability contribute in a statistically significant way to average crop yields and their variability; and 5) The effect of CO 2 fertilization generally outweighs the effect of climate change on mean crop yields in many regions resulting in an increase of 7–22, 4–47, 5–26, 65–96, and 3–35 % for yields of corn, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, and wheat, respectively. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-014-1128-x

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