Costs of adjustment to climate change |
| |
| Authors: | John Quiggin John Horowitz |
| |
| Affiliation: | Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland, USA; Schools of Economics and Political Science, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, University of Queensland, Australia |
| |
| Abstract: | The present paper argues that the costs of climate change are primarily adjustment costs. The central result is that climate change will reduce welfare whenever it occurs more rapidly than the rate at which capital stocks (interpreted broadly to include natural resource stocks) would naturally adjust through market processes. The costs of climate change can be large even when lands are close to their climatic optimum, or evenly distributed both above and below that optimum. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
