Matthew Kahn has a more optimisitic view
I guess Wolfram Schlenker and I have become the modern day Malthusians and doomsayers when it comes to potential impacts of climate change on agriculture. I often try to emphasize that we are not in fact doomsayers; we are simply laying out the range of possibilities, and show strong evidence that the downside is indeed bad. But we also maintain that there is room for adaptation in ways we cannot yet model or cannot yet anticipate. We're a long ways from Malthusians--he had a different kind of doom in mind and was much more certain about it that we are. Uncertainty is large. But, as Brad Delong often points out (and with whom I agree on this point), uncertainty is not our friend when it comes to climate change. Matthew Kahn, esteemed professor at UCLA, leading specialist in environmental economics, and author of the new book Climatopolis , recently wrote about our work and offers a more optimistic view. He argues that our work provides a clear incentive for innovation.