I am an environmental and agricultural economist. My research asks how farmers respond to climate change and environmental policy — adapting to heat stress, reallocating pesticide use under taxes and prescription mandates, and entering or exiting organic certification — and what these responses imply for agricultural productivity, the environment, and welfare. I combine structural and dynamic models, computable general equilibrium analysis, and quasi-experimental methods with detailed farm-level and administrative data from Quebec.
Heat Stress, Damage Control, and Structural Maladaptation
Farmers adapt to extreme heat rationally and without delay — and yields still fall. I show why: when the heat that drives visible pest pressure and the heat that silently determines yield arrive in different growth phases, defensive inputs are aimed at the wrong threat. Across four Quebec crops (1991–2022), barley — the one crop where these windows diverge — reveals this structural maladaptation. Read more →