The relationship between climate warming and associated socio-economic development is a central question for environmental economists and social scientists. The scientific literature focusing on the economic effects of climate change is mainly based on the cross-sectional impact of temperature...

How global warming affects human development is a central question for economists as well as social scientists. While most of the literature has focused on the impact of rainfall and temperatures on individual well-being, precipitations alone do not capture the actual soil water availability,...

The economic effects of global warming have gained considerable attention in recent economic literature. However, the interaction between desertification and agricultural productivity has not received substantial consideration. In this paper, we explore the relationship between soil...

This study explores how aridity (proxied with a measure of soil potential evapotranspiration) impacts agricultural productivity and child wellbeing in Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate conditions, crop yield, and infant health measures are collected over approximately 4,000 grid cells of 0.5 x 0.5 in...

This study shows how soil aridity (proxied with a measure of soil potential evapotranspiration) impacts child wellbeing in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using climate and infant health data from a grid of approximately 4,000 cells in 34 African countries, we find that infants born in arid areas are...

We examine the effects of human-induced desertification on economic growth by exploiting a 56 km-by-56 km grid-cell global dataset on the annual frequency from 1990-2015. We find that areas that experienced large soil aridification are associated with a reduction in GDP per capita. Our results...

This paper describes the WITCH - World Induced Technical Change Hybrid - model in its structure, calibration, and the implementation of the SSP/RCP scenario implementation. The WITCH model is a regionally disaggregated hard-linked model based on a Ramsey type optimal growth model and a detailed...

This paper provides evidence that the rapid increase in the demand for lithium-ion batteries has reduced the education rates of individuals living in cobalt-rich regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In contrast with other minerals, I find that children in cobalt-mining villages...

Being rich of crucial minerals might be a leading determinant of local economic development. On the other hand, intensive extraction might prove to negatively affect the health and wealth of people living close to mineral deposits and the surrounding environment. I examine the effects that local...

This study provides an estimation of the causal relationship between the reduction in malaria transmission and farmer agricultural productivity. Exploiting exogenous geographic variations in the stability of malaria and using historical disaggregated county data for the US together with a robust...