Semester of Graduation

Summer 2026

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Climate variability is a major source of risk to U.S. crop production, disrupting planting schedules and threatening yields. While prior research has explored the implications of weather shocks on crop yields, this study investigates the indirect channel via which weather variability impacts corn yield through planting delays in the U.S. Previous research has shown that U.S. corn production is highly vulnerable to short-term climate variability (Hu & Buyanovsky, 2003). We use county-level data from 2015 to 2024 for the top five corn-producing states and use a 2-stage least squares method to measure the effect. However, in our specification, planting day is endogenous. To address this, we use late March precipitation and growing degree days accumulated over seven days as instruments. Our results indicate that a one-day delay in planting, induced by early-season weather, reduces corn yields by about 2.6 percent. This significant effect confirms that U.S. corn production is not only directly affected by the prevailing local weather, but also indirectly via planting delays. Our findings highlight the importance of investing in technologies to reduce the vulnerability of crop planting to weather disruptions.

Date

7-2-2026

Committee Chair

Goyal, Raghav

LSU Acknowledgement

1

LSU Accessibility Acknowledgment

1

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