TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hornbeck,Richard
TI  - The Enduring Impact of the American Dust Bowl: Short and Long-run Adjustments to Environmental Catastrophe
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15605
PY  - 2009
Y2  - December 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15605
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15605.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Richard Hornbeck
Department of Economics
Harvard University
232 Littauer Center
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 202/494-0722
E-Mail: hornbeck@fas.harvard.edu
AB  - The 1930's American Dust Bowl was an environmental catastrophe that greatly eroded sections of the Plains.  Analyzing new data collected to identify low-, medium-, and high-erosion counties, the Dust Bowl is estimated to have immediately, substantially, and persistently reduced agricultural land values and revenues. During the Depression and through at least the 1950's, there was limited reallocation of farmland from activities that became relatively less productive.  Agricultural adjustments, such as reallocating land from crops to livestock, recovered only 14% to 28% of the initial agricultural cost.  The economy adjusted predominately through migration, rather than through capital inflows and increased industry.
ER  -