THE IMPACT OF EXTREME WEATHER ON CIVIL CONFLICT

Economic Journal: Droughts in China have historically been more likely to trigger peasant revolts than floods, according to research by Professor Ruixue Jia, published in the March 2014 issue of the Economic Journal. Her study finds that while both kinds of ‘weather shock’ significantly raised the prices of grains (wheat and rice), the price effect of droughts was nearly three times that of floods. The introduction of sweet potatoes, a drought-resistant crop from the Americas, led to a considerable reduction in civil conflict.