UCLA

This thesis examines how ownership structure and climate change issues affect farmers in developing countries in three chapters. The first chapter surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on how ownership structure and industry competitiveness interact. The second chapter examines the role of sugar mill ownership and regulations on farmers in one region of India. The third chapter studies how climate change has affected agricultural yields over a 50-year period in India, accounting for the role that farmer adaptations may play in mitigating these effects. This thesis finds substantial ownership effects on farmer outcomes, due ultimately to the unexpected ways in which regulatory restrictions affect the incentives of privately-owned firms. It does not find that climate change impacted crop yields during the period of study, perhaps due to farmer adaptations that mitigated any adverse climate effects.