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Top Academic Journal of Economics and Statistics
Vol. 7 No. 3 (2022): May-June
Original Articles

THE TROPICAL CLIMATE CONUNDRUM: IMPLICATIONS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

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  • Dr. Emily Grace Mitchell
Dr. Emily Grace Mitchell
Department of Economics at Elmira College in Elmira.

Published 2023-09-13

Keywords

  • Climate,
  • temperature,
  • rainfall,
  • economic development,
  • per capita income

How to Cite

Mitchell, E. G. (2023). THE TROPICAL CLIMATE CONUNDRUM: IMPLICATIONS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Top Academic Journal of Economics and Statistics, 7(3), 1–18. Retrieved from http://topjournals.org/index.php/TAJES/article/view/330

Copyright (c) 2023 Top Academic Journal of Economics and Statistics

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Historically, economists have overlooked the influence of geographical factors on economic development, yet early scholars like Montesquieu and Huntington recognized the potential correlation between climate and prosperity. This study delves into the specific aspects of climate, particularly temperature and rainfall, to explore their impact on productivity and per capita income variation among nations. Drawing from prior research in economics and ecology, we aim to identify the key climate attributes that underpin this connection Pioneering works in this field, such as Kamarck (1973) and the economic historian Landes (1998), laid the foundation for investigating the interplay between geography, climate, and economics. Furthermore, scholars from diverse fields, including historian Crosby (1986) and biologist Diamond (1997), offered compelling explanations spanning centuries and millennia regarding these interconnected Recent economists, starting with Gallup et al. (1999), have conducted extensive cross-country analyses, revealing a negative relationship between tropical climates and both current and future per capita output. However, as Sachs (2001) aptly noted, the enduring phenomenon of tropical regions remaining relatively impoverished begs further exploration

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