Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2021

Publication Title

Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy

Abstract

Climate variability has the potential to affect both international and internal migration profoundly. Earlier work finds that higher temperatures reduce agricultural yields, which in turn reduces migration rates in low-income countries, due to liquidity constraints. We test whether access to irrigation modulates this temperature–migration relationship, since irrigation buffers agricultural incomes from high temperatures. We regress measures of international and internal migration on decadal averages of temperature and rainfall, interacted with country-level data on irrigation and income. We find robust evidence that, for poor countries, irrigation access significantly offsets the negative effect of increasing temperatures on internal migration, as proxied by urbanisation rates. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering access to alternative adaptation strategies when analysing the temperature-migration relationship.

Keywords

Agriculture, climate change, international migration, irrigation, rural-urban migration

DOI

10.1080/21606544.2021.1993348

ISSN

21606544

Comments

Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.

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