PhD Candidate: Ioanna Maria Spyrou

Dissertation Title: “Essays on the Economics of Climate Shocks, Food Security, and Sustainable Agriculture”

Abstract:

This dissertation studies topics related to Sustainable Development in low-income countries. In my first essay, I compile a panel dataset on Ethiopian children and monthly precipitation data to measure the impact of droughts on children’s educational and health outcomes. I find that droughts decrease children’s likelihood of being enrolled in school and has a negative impact on grade completion. Results also show that droughts increase stunting and thinness and have a negative impact on food security. In my second essay, I exploit a unique panel World Bank dataset in Ethiopia. My second essay analyzes factors that help determine when farmers in Ethiopia adopt sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) such as crop rotation and mixed cropping.  I find that receiving agricultural assistance encourages farmers to adopt crop rotation and that both SAPs have a powerful impact on reducing food insecurity among households. In my third essay, I use machine learning (ML) techniques to predict food insecurity in four countries in Africa. Since food insecurity results from complex interactions between economic shocks, climate change and regional conflict, I compile high frequency data on these phenomena, and I use the two commonly used ML models, namely, Random Forest and XGBoost to predict food insecurity at district level. I find that the most important factors in predicting food insecurity are food price and vegetation indices. Overall, climate shocks, which nowadays occur with higher frequency and intensity, have detrimental effects on children’s education and well-being, through health and food security deterioration. Sustainable agriculture can be considered as an alleviation strategy to improve food security, which can be predicted through ML models using economic, climate and agricultural factors.

Committee:

Shatakshee Dhongde (Advisor), Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Robert Gonzalez, Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Olga Shemyakina, Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Casey J. Wichman, Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Karen Yan, Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology

Genti Konstantini (external member), Professor, University of Georgia

Date: July 11, 2024 

Time: 2 pm - 4 pm EST

Location: Old Civil Engineering Building Room G10 (Microsoft Teams link)