Metin Çakır, the Austin A. Dowell Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota, will give the talk, "California Drought, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Prices, and Consumer Welfare," at noon on Wednesday, April 29, in 157 Hosler Building at Penn State University Park. The event is part of a spring seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI). Talk is free and open to the public.
The economic impacts of extreme weather events have become a pressing policy concern as both their frequency and intensity continue to rise. Çakır will discuss how recurrent droughts in California - America's leading producer of fruits and vegetables - affect retail prices of fresh fruits and vegetables across major U.S. metropolitan markets.
"Using data from 2009 to 2022, we constructed a novel set of share-weighted drought indices that capture the geographic concentration of fresh fruit and vegetable production within California and match these indices to scanner-level retail price data from major metropolitan statistical areas," Çakır said.
Results reveal a nuanced relationship between drought severity and prices: While mild and moderate droughts have negligible or even negative effects, extreme and exceptional droughts significantly increase retail prices, particularly for vegetables.
"Overall, the findings highlight the vulnerability of national food prices to regional climate shocks and underscore the importance of developing climate-resilient agricultural systems and supply chains," Çakır said.
Çakır's research focuses on the industrial organization of food and agricultural markets and consumer economics. He teaches courses in microeconomic theory, business strategy, consumer economics and industrial organization. His work has been published in leading journals, including the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Retailing, and Food Policy. His research has received several awards, including the Quality of Research Discovery Award from the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA). Çakır is an active member of the AAEA and has served in multiple roles within the association. He previously served as an area editor for the Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and currently serves as a co-editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
About EEEPI
Established in 2011, EEEPI operates as a University-wide initiative at Penn State with support from the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Institute of Energy and the Environment. EEEPI seeks to catalyze research in energy and environmental systems economics across the University and to build a world-class group of economists with interests in interdisciplinary collaboration.
