Meghan Burke
Biographic Data
| ID | 125057 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Meghan Burke |
| GIVEN NAMES | Meghan |
| FAMILY NAME | Burke |
| SIGNATURE | BURKE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stanford University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4288-5858 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 123 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Dynamic, high-resolution poverty measurement in data-scarce environments
Relaxing Credit and Information Constraints
Low fertilizer use by smallholder farmers continues to limit crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa. We study the longer-term outcomes of a field experiment conducted between 2014 and 2016, which found that plot-specific fertilizer recommendations combined with a subsidy increased fertilizer use and maize yields. We return in 2019 and find that effects dissipate after the subsidy is discontinued. Our follow-up results suggest that credit constraints s…
In praise of cooking gas subsidies
Households that burn biomass in inefficient open fires-a practice that results in $1.6 trillion in global damages from health impacts and climate-altering emissions yearly-are often unable to access cleaner alternatives, like gas, which is widely available but unaffordable, or electricity, which is unattainable for many due to insufficient supply and reliability of electricity services. Governments are often reluctant to make gas affordable. We a…
Identifying child growth effects of elevated pollution levels during pregnancy
Poor air quality is known to be one of the leading contributors to poor child health globally, and a wealth of evidence has linked pollution exposure during pregnancy to adverse birth and early-life outcomes. While there is some evidence pollution exposure during pregnancy is associated with slowed child growth, this evidence is largely limited to empirical settings in which it is difficult to disentangle the role of pollution from other co-varyi…
Involvement in Determining Transition Services for Youth with Disabilities
Unlocking the benefits of credit through saving
Lower test scores from wildfire smoke exposure
Exposures and behavioural responses to wildfire smoke
The changing risk and burden of wildfire in the United States
Recent dramatic and deadly increases in global wildfire activity have increased attention on the causes of wildfires, their consequences, and how risk from wildfire might be mitigated. Here we bring together data on the changing risk and societal burden of wildfire in the United States. We estimate that nearly 50 million homes are currently in the wildland–urban interface in the United States, a number increasing by 1 million houses every 3 y. To…
Addressing Climate Change and Its Effects on Human Health
Human health is increasingly threatened by rapid and widespread changes in the environment and climate, including rising temperatures, air and water pollution, disease vector migration, floods, and droughts. In the United States, many medical schools, the American Medical Association, and the National Academy of Sciences have published calls for physicians and physicians-in-training to develop a basic knowledge of the science of climate change an…
Historical warming has increased U.S. crop insurance losses
Quantification of the sector-specific financial impacts of historical global warming represents a critical gap in climate change impacts assessment. The multiple decades of county-level data available from the U.S. crop insurance program—which collectively represent aggregate damages to the agricultural sector largely borne by U.S. taxpayers—present a unique opportunity to close this gap. Using econometric analysis in combination with observed an…
Using publicly available satellite imagery and deep learning to understand economic well-being in Africa
Accurate and comprehensive measurements of economic well-being are fundamental inputs into both research and policy, but such measures are unavailable at a local level in many parts of the world. Here we train deep learning models to predict survey-based estimates of asset wealth across ~ 20,000 African villages from publicly-available multispectral satellite imagery. Models can explain 70% of the variation in ground-measured village wealth in co…
Reply to
Dust pollution from the Sahara and African infant mortality
The Economic Origins of Conflict in Africa
We study the impact of global food price shocks on local violence across Africa. In food-producing areas, higher prices reduce conflict over the control of territory ("factor conflict") and increase conflict over the appropriation of surplus ("output conflict"). We argue that this difference arises because higher prices increase the opportunity cost of soldiering for producers while simultaneously inducing consumers to appropriate surplus as real…
Global warming has increased global economic inequality
Significance We find that global warming has very likely exacerbated global economic inequality, including ∼25% increase in population-weighted between-country inequality over the past half century. This increase results from the impact of warming on annual economic growth, which over the course of decades has accumulated robust and substantial declines in economic output in hotter, poorer countries—and increases in many cooler, wealthier countri…
Growing up Working Class
Armed conflict and child mortality in Africa
Using remotely sensed temperature to estimate climate response functions
Temperature data are commonly used to estimate the sensitivity of many societally relevant outcomes, including crop yields, mortality, and economic output, to ongoing climate changes. In many tropical regions, however, temperature measures are often very sparse and unreliable, limiting our ability to understand climate change impacts. Here we evaluate satellite measures of near-surface temperature ( Ts ) as an alternative to traditional air tempe…
Adaptation to Climate Change
Understanding the potential impacts of climate change on economic outcomes requires knowing how agents might adapt to a changing climate. We exploit large variation in recent temperature and precipitation trends to identify adaptation to climate change in US agriculture, and use this information to generate new estimates of the potential impact of future climate change on agricultural outcomes. Longer run adaptations appear to have mitigated less…
Combining satellite imagery and machine learning to predict poverty
Measuring consumption and wealth remotely Nighttime lighting is a rough proxy for economic wealth, and nighttime maps of the world show that many developing countries are sparsely illuminated. Jean et al. combined nighttime maps with high-resolution daytime satellite images (see the Perspective by Blumenstock). With a bit of machine-learning wizardry, the combined images can be converted into accurate estimates of household consumption and assets…
Behind the white picket fence
Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production
Climate and Conflict
We review the emerging literature on climate and conflict. We consider multiple types of human conflict, including both interpersonal conflict, such as assault and murder, and intergroup conflict, including riots and civil war. We discuss key methodological issues in estimating causal relationships and largely focus on natural experiments that exploit variation in climate over time. Using a hierarchical meta-analysis that allows us to both estima…
Incorporating Climate Uncertainty into Estimates of Climate Change Impacts
Quantitative estimates of the impacts of climate change on economic outcomes are important for public policy. We show that the vast majority of estimates fail to account for well-established uncertainty in future temperature and rainfall changes, leading to potentially misleading projections. We reexamine seven well-cited studies and show that accounting for climate uncertainty leads to a much larger range of projected climate impacts and a great…
The poverty implications of climate-induced crop yield changes by 2030
The Economic Origins of Conflict in Africa
We study the impact of global food price shocks on local violence across Africa. In food-producing areas, higher prices reduce conflict over the control of territory ("factor conflict") and increase conflict over the appropriation of surplus ("output conflict"). We argue that this difference arises because higher prices increase the opportunity cost of soldiering for producers while simultaneously inducing consumers to appropriate surplus as real…
Income Shocks and HIV in Africa
We examine how variation in local economic conditions has shaped the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Using data from over 200,000 individuals across 19 countries, we match biomarker data on individuals' serostatus to information on local rainfall shocks, a large source of income variation for rural households. We estimate infection rates in HIV‐endemic rural areas increase by 11% for every recent drought, an effect that is statistically and economically…
Shifts in African crop climates by 2050, and the implications for crop improvement and genetic resources conservation
International Trade in Meat
This paper provides an original account of global land, water, and nitrogen use in support of industrialized livestock production and trade, with emphasis on two of the fastest-growing sectors, pork and poultry. Our analysis focuses on trade in feed and animal products, using a new model that calculates the amount of "virtual" nitrogen, water, and land used in production but not embedded in the product. We show how key meat-importing countries, s…
Exposures and behavioural responses to wildfire smoke
Lower test scores from wildfire smoke exposure
Using climate models to improve Indonesian food security
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events exert significant influence on Southeast Asian rice output and markets. This paper measures ENSO effects on Indonesia's national and regional rice production and on world rice prices, using the August Niño 3.4 sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) to gauge climate variability. It shows that each degree Celsius change in the August SSTA produces a 1,318,000 metric ton effect on output and a $21/metric to…
Dust pollution from the Sahara and African infant mortality
Behind the white picket fence
Strangers and neighbors
Using climate models to improve Indonesian food security
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events exert significant influence on Southeast Asian rice output and markets. This paper measures ENSO effects on Indonesia's national and regional rice production and on world rice prices, using the August Niño 3.4 sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) to gauge climate variability. It shows that each degree Celsius change in the August SSTA produces a 1,318,000 metric ton effect on output and a $21/metric to…
International Trade in Meat
This paper provides an original account of global land, water, and nitrogen use in support of industrialized livestock production and trade, with emphasis on two of the fastest-growing sectors, pork and poultry. Our analysis focuses on trade in feed and animal products, using a new model that calculates the amount of "virtual" nitrogen, water, and land used in production but not embedded in the product. We show how key meat-importing countries, s…
Prioritizing Climate Change Adaptation Needs for Food Security in 2030
Investments aimed at improving agricultural adaptation to climate change inevitably favor some crops and regions over others. An analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions was conducted to identify adaptation priorities, based on statistical crop models and climate projections for 2030 from 20 general circulation models. Results indicate South Asia and Southern Africa as two regions that, without sufficient adaptation measure…
Why are agricultural impacts of climate change so uncertain? The importance of temperature relative to precipitation
Estimates of climate change impacts are often characterized by large uncertainties that reflect ignorance of many physical, biological, and socio-economic processes, and which hamper efforts to anticipate and adapt to climate change. A key to reducing these uncertainties is improved understanding of the relative contributions of individual factors. We evaluated uncertainties for projections of climate change impacts on crop production for 94 crop…
Shifts in African crop climates by 2050, and the implications for crop improvement and genetic resources conservation
The poverty implications of climate-induced crop yield changes by 2030
Climate, conflict, and social stability
Are violent conflict and socio-political stability associated with changes in climatological variables? We examine 50 rigorous quantitative studies on this question and find consistent support for a causal association between climatological changes and various conflict outcomes, at spatial scales ranging from individual buildings to the entire globe and at temporal scales ranging from an anomalous hour to an anomalous millennium. Multiple mechani…
Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production
Climate and Conflict
We review the emerging literature on climate and conflict. We consider multiple types of human conflict, including both interpersonal conflict, such as assault and murder, and intergroup conflict, including riots and civil war. We discuss key methodological issues in estimating causal relationships and largely focus on natural experiments that exploit variation in climate over time. Using a hierarchical meta-analysis that allows us to both estima…
Incorporating Climate Uncertainty into Estimates of Climate Change Impacts
Quantitative estimates of the impacts of climate change on economic outcomes are important for public policy. We show that the vast majority of estimates fail to account for well-established uncertainty in future temperature and rainfall changes, leading to potentially misleading projections. We reexamine seven well-cited studies and show that accounting for climate uncertainty leads to a much larger range of projected climate impacts and a great…
Income Shocks and HIV in Africa
We examine how variation in local economic conditions has shaped the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Using data from over 200,000 individuals across 19 countries, we match biomarker data on individuals' serostatus to information on local rainfall shocks, a large source of income variation for rural households. We estimate infection rates in HIV‐endemic rural areas increase by 11% for every recent drought, an effect that is statistically and economically…
Whiteness fractured
Strangers and neighbors
Adaptation to Climate Change
Understanding the potential impacts of climate change on economic outcomes requires knowing how agents might adapt to a changing climate. We exploit large variation in recent temperature and precipitation trends to identify adaptation to climate change in US agriculture, and use this information to generate new estimates of the potential impact of future climate change on agricultural outcomes. Longer run adaptations appear to have mitigated less…
Combining satellite imagery and machine learning to predict poverty
Measuring consumption and wealth remotely Nighttime lighting is a rough proxy for economic wealth, and nighttime maps of the world show that many developing countries are sparsely illuminated. Jean et al. combined nighttime maps with high-resolution daytime satellite images (see the Perspective by Blumenstock). With a bit of machine-learning wizardry, the combined images can be converted into accurate estimates of household consumption and assets…
Behind the white picket fence
Using remotely sensed temperature to estimate climate response functions
Temperature data are commonly used to estimate the sensitivity of many societally relevant outcomes, including crop yields, mortality, and economic output, to ongoing climate changes. In many tropical regions, however, temperature measures are often very sparse and unreliable, limiting our ability to understand climate change impacts. Here we evaluate satellite measures of near-surface temperature ( Ts ) as an alternative to traditional air tempe…
Armed conflict and child mortality in Africa
Global warming has increased global economic inequality
Significance We find that global warming has very likely exacerbated global economic inequality, including ∼25% increase in population-weighted between-country inequality over the past half century. This increase results from the impact of warming on annual economic growth, which over the course of decades has accumulated robust and substantial declines in economic output in hotter, poorer countries—and increases in many cooler, wealthier countri…
Growing up Working Class
Using publicly available satellite imagery and deep learning to understand economic well-being in Africa
Accurate and comprehensive measurements of economic well-being are fundamental inputs into both research and policy, but such measures are unavailable at a local level in many parts of the world. Here we train deep learning models to predict survey-based estimates of asset wealth across ~ 20,000 African villages from publicly-available multispectral satellite imagery. Models can explain 70% of the variation in ground-measured village wealth in co…
Reply to
Dust pollution from the Sahara and African infant mortality
The Economic Origins of Conflict in Africa
We study the impact of global food price shocks on local violence across Africa. In food-producing areas, higher prices reduce conflict over the control of territory ("factor conflict") and increase conflict over the appropriation of surplus ("output conflict"). We argue that this difference arises because higher prices increase the opportunity cost of soldiering for producers while simultaneously inducing consumers to appropriate surplus as real…
The changing risk and burden of wildfire in the United States
Recent dramatic and deadly increases in global wildfire activity have increased attention on the causes of wildfires, their consequences, and how risk from wildfire might be mitigated. Here we bring together data on the changing risk and societal burden of wildfire in the United States. We estimate that nearly 50 million homes are currently in the wildland–urban interface in the United States, a number increasing by 1 million houses every 3 y. To…
Geography (21 works) · Economics (19 works) · Environmental Science (16 works) · Climate change (14 works) · Natural resource economics (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Agricultural risk and resilience (11 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Agriculture (10 works) · Biology (10 works)