Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Introduction -- 2. The role of climate in agricultural production -- 3. Literature review of economic impacts of climate change on agriculture -- 4. The Ricardian method -- 5. Modeling adaptation to climate change -- 6. Structural Ricardian models -- 7. Ricardian analyses of aggregate data -- 8. Ricardian models of individual farms -- 9. Adaptation studies -- 10. Structural Ricardian studies -- 11. Summary of results -- 12. Policy implications and future research needs.

Despite its great importance, there are surprisingly few economic studies of the impact of climate on agriculture and how agriculture can adapt under a variety of conditions. This book examines 22 countries across four continents, including both developed and developing economies. It provides both a good analytical basis for additional work and solid results for policy debate concerning income distributional effects such as abatement, adaptation, and equity.