TY - JOUR
T1 - Way down in the hole
T2 - Adaptation to long-term water loss in rural India
AU - Blakeslee, David
AU - Fishman, Ram
AU - Srinivasan, Veena
N1 - Funding Information:
* Blakeslee: New York University, Abu Dhabi (email: [email protected]); Fishman: Tel Aviv University (email: [email protected]); Srinivasan: ATREE (email: [email protected]). Esther Duflo was the coeditor for this article. We thank two anonymous referees, Shilpa Aggarwal, Tamma Carleton, John Ham, Solomon Hsiang, Avinash Kishore, Deepak Malghan, Reed Walker, and seminar participants at UC Berkeley, I.I.M. Bangalore, Cornell University, and the Indian School of Business for helpful comments and suggestions. We thank V. S. Prakash, K. V. Raju, and G. S. Srinivasa Reddy for their support and insights. We thank the Boris Mints Institute, the International Growth Center, and the International Development Research Center, Canada, for funding. We would also like to thank Divakar Naik, Omri Gerlitz, Suraj Jacob, Shruti Korada, Yoav Rothler, and Karan Singh for excellent research assistance. The usual disclaimer applies. The authors declare that they have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Economic Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/1
Y1 - 2020/1
N2 - Worsening environmental conditions threaten to undermine progress in reducing rural poverty. Little is known, however, about the prospects for farmer adaptations to mitigate this threat, in particular through opportunities for income diversification presented by recent non-agricultural growth. We study the effects of increasing water scarcity in India using quasi-random, geologically determined differences in access to groundwater. The drying up of wells results in a precipitous and persistent decline in farm income and wealth, with little evidence of agricultural adaptation. However, labor reallocation to off-farm employment appears successful in maintaining overall income, particularly in locations with a more developed manufacturing sector.
AB - Worsening environmental conditions threaten to undermine progress in reducing rural poverty. Little is known, however, about the prospects for farmer adaptations to mitigate this threat, in particular through opportunities for income diversification presented by recent non-agricultural growth. We study the effects of increasing water scarcity in India using quasi-random, geologically determined differences in access to groundwater. The drying up of wells results in a precipitous and persistent decline in farm income and wealth, with little evidence of agricultural adaptation. However, labor reallocation to off-farm employment appears successful in maintaining overall income, particularly in locations with a more developed manufacturing sector.
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U2 - 10.1257/aer.20180976
DO - 10.1257/aer.20180976
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078842205
SN - 0002-8282
VL - 110
SP - 200
EP - 224
JO - American Economic Review
JF - American Economic Review
IS - 1
ER -