Apurva Sanghi

Measuring the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture

The set of studies in this report explores farm performance across climates in India. The goal of the study is to examine farm behavior and test if there is any evidence that farmers in developing countries, such as India, currently adjust to their local climates. The reported studies measure the climate sensitivity of low-capital agriculture. They test whether actual farm performance is as sensitive to climate as agronomic models predict assuming no adaptation.

The effect of development on the climate sensitivity of agriculture

This paper examines whether a countrys stage of development affects its climate sensitivity. The paper begins with a model of agriculture that shows that the effect of development on climate sensitivity is ambiguous, depending on the substitution between capital and climate. To resolve this issue, the climate sensitivity of agriculture in the United States, Brazil, and India is measured using a Ricardian approach. Relying on both intertemporal as well as cross-country comparisons, the empirical analysis suggests that increasing development reduces climate sensitivity.

Yes in my backyard? : the economics of refugees and their social dynamics in Kakuma, Kenya

This report comes at a crucial time when the unprecedented global refugee crisis, most notably in Europe and the Mediterranean, has not only focused the world’s attention on the plight of refugees, but has also led to the politicization of refugee influxes. This report, which provides an original analysis of the economic and social impact of refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp on their Turkana hosts, therefore comes at an opportune time and can resonate with governments and policy makers beyond Kenya’s borders. In particular, the methodology the authors have developed enables to run policy scenarios in a rigorous manner, ranging from encampment to decampment (that is, camp closure) scenarios, and the potential to apply this methodology in other refugee situations around the world is particularly advantageous.

Bright Lights, Big Cities: Measuring National and Subnational Economic Growth in Africa from Outer Space, with an Application to Kenya and Rwanda

This paper uses the night lights (satellite imagery from outer space) approach to estimate growth in and levels of subnational 2013 gross domestic product for 47 counties in Kenya and 30 districts in Rwanda. Estimating subnational gross domestic product is consequential for three reasons. First, there is strong policy interest in how growth can occur in different parts of countries, so that communities can share in national prosperity and not get left behind. Second, subnational entities want to understand how they stack up against their neighbors and competitors, and how much they contribute to national gross domestic product. Third, such information could help private investors to assess where to undertake investments. Using night lights has the advantage of seeing a new and more accurate estimation of informal activity, and being independent of official data. However, the approach may underestimate economic activity in sectors that are largely unlit notably agriculture. For Kenya, the results of the analysis affirm that Nairobi County is the largest contributor to national gross domestic product. However, at 13 percent, this contribution is lower than commonly thought. For Rwanda, the three districts of Kigali account for 40 percent of national gross domestic product, underscoring the lower scale of economic activity in the rest of the country. To get a composite picture of subnational economic activity, especially in the context of rapidly improving official statistics in Kenya and Rwanda, it is important to estimate subnational gross domestic product using standard approaches (production, expenditure, income).