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Learning the hard way? Adapting to climate risk in Tanzania

Author

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  • Waage Skjeflo, Sofie

    (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)

  • Bruvik Westberg, Nina

    (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences)

Abstract

We use recent panel data on Tanzanian farm households to investigate how previous exposure to weather shocks affects the impact of a current shock. Specifically, we investigate the impact of droughts on agricultural outcomes and investments in children's health, measured by their short- and long-term nutritional status. As expected, we find that droughts negatively impact yields, and more so the more severe the drought is. We also find suggestive evidence that the more shocks a household has experienced in the past, the less crop yields are affected by a current shock. This suggests that households are able to learn from their past shock experience, and could imply that households are able to adapt to climate risk. Our results also suggest that the impact of a shock depends on when the household last experienced a shock. In terms of child health, our preliminary results are unable to uncover any clear shock impact on the short-term nutritional status of children, however long-term nutritional outcomes are negatively affected by past shocks. Further analyses using more recent weather data is necessary in order to conclude.

Suggested Citation

  • Waage Skjeflo, Sofie & Bruvik Westberg, Nina, 2014. "Learning the hard way? Adapting to climate risk in Tanzania," CLTS Working Papers 4/14, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 10 Oct 2019.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2014_004
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate risk; income shocks; adaptation; child health; Tanzania;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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