(Updated December 5, 2024 to reflect new results)
by Fiona Burlig, Amir Jina, Erin M. Kelley, Gregory Lane, and Harshil Sahai
Climate change increases weather variability, preventing farmers from tailoring investments to the upcoming monsoon. In theory, accurate, seasonal forecasts overcome this challenge. We experimentally evaluate monsoon onset forecasts in India, randomizing 250 villages into control, forecast, and benchmark insurance groups. Forecast farmers update their beliefs and behavior: receiving “good news” relative to a farmer’s prior increases cultivation, farm inputs, farm profits (for those unaffected by flooding) and reduces business; receiving “bad news” reduces cultivated land and farm profits but increases business. Overall, forecasts raise a welfare index by 0.06 SD. Unlike insurance, forecasts reduce climate risk by enabling tailoring.
The study was funded by the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago, The International Growth Center (IGC), J-PAL’s Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative and King Climate Action Initiative, and the World Bank.