George Taylor

I am a PhD student in the Business & Public Policy group at the Berkeley Haas School of Business. My main research interests are in development economics.

Work In Progress

Agricultural Productivity Impacts of Floods: Evidence From India
with Vineet Gupta, Maulik Jagnani, and Rohini Pande

Floods threaten nearly a third of India’s population, half of whom depend on agriculture. Using MODIS-derived cropped area estimates, we investigate the dynamic agricultural impacts of flooding across India for 2000-2018. Event-study estimates show that flooded areas lose 9.0% of contemporaneous monsoon-season output and 8.2% of subsequent winter-season output, with damages increasing in inundation duration. Rarely flooded regions suffer larger losses from prolonged flooding, suggesting prior exposure improves adaptive capacity. Yet output recovers to pre-flood levels by the subsequent monsoon season. A spatial regression discontinuity design around the 2008 Kosi River flood corroborates these patterns, showing large but temporary losses in areas largely flood-free for fifty years. Farmer helpline calls suggest recovery is supported by crop switching and governmental credit schemes.

Expanding Access to Flood Early Warnings for Urban Firms in Nepal
with Maulik Jagnani and Rohini Pande