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Abstract
This dissertation consists of three essays that analyze the impacts of environmental change and labor scarcity on adaptation in agriculture. The first paper analyzes the impacts of warming temperatures on variety choice in rice production in Japan. Weather and climate are significant causes of variation in agricultural production. The extent to which farmers are able to adjust to weather shocks is important for understanding the potential impacts of climate change and formulating agricultural and environmental policy. Public and private research organizations have shifted focus toward the development of agricultural technologies that allow farmers to cope with changing climatic conditions. Using rice variety data from Japan, I estimate the effect of high temperatures on the adoption of heat-tolerant and late-maturing rice varieties: two technologies that could potentially mitigate the negative impacts of a warming climate. Exposure to extremely high temperatures increases the share of heat-tolerant rice varieties, while exposure to moderate temperatures increases the share of late-maturing rice varieties. The second paper examines the effects of the negative migrant labor supply shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on choice of seeding technology in rice production. Using village and plot-level data in rural India, I find that the migrant labor scarcity increases the share of direct seeding of rice (DSR), a labor-saving method, while also increasing the employment of substitute local laborers for labor-intensive transplanting. The third paper examines the impact of extreme weather events on the use of agricultural guest workers in the U.S. Using the H-2A agricultural guest worker data from 2006 to 2018, I find that tropical cyclones increase the use of guest workers in agriculture. I also provide suggestive evidence that farms have difficulty hiring agricultural workers, which increases wages in the agricultural service.