The Effects of Pierce Disease on the Spatial Pattern of Grape Production in California

Shuhan Zeng, Pierre Mérel and James N. Sanchirico

No 361095, 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: The spread of crop diseases poses significant challenges to the stability and location of agriculture. This paper examines how pest pressure influences the spatial patterns of crop production. Using detailed spatial data on pest infestations and crop acreage, we study the impact of Pierce’s Disease and its vector, the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter, on the spatial patterns of grape (the target of the disease) and citrus (the host of the vector) production in California. We combine crop maps and pesticide use reports to estimate how pest outbreaks affect growers’ location decisions. Our results show that pest pressure leads to spatial avoidance behavior: grape acreage tends to decline in infested areas, and the distance between citrus and grape production increases. We also find that pest control programs mitigate some of these effects, supporting their role in stabilizing agricultural land use. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating pest dynamics into models of agricultural spatial decision-making.

Keywords: Productivity Analysis; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/361095/files/7 ... han_Zeng_updated.pdf (application/pdf)

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:ags:aaea25:361095

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.361095

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().