1. Climate Change, Inequality, and Human Migration
- Author
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Michał Burzyński, Christoph Deuster, Frédéric Docquier, Jaime de Melo, Rouanet, Fabienne, Laboratoires d'excellence - Designing new international development policies from research outcomes. An enhanced - - IDGM+2010 - ANR-10-LABX-0014 - LABX - VALID, Center for Research in Economic Analysis (CREA), Université du Luxembourg (Uni.lu), Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Institut de recherches économiques et sociales (UCL IRES), Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Fondation pour les Etudes et Recherches sur le Développement International (FERDI), Université de Genève (UNIGE), ANR-10-LABX-0014,IDGM+,Designing new international development policies from research outcomes. An enhanced(2010), and UCL - SSH/LIDAM/IRES - Institut de recherches économiques et sociales
- Subjects
inequality ,JEL: F - International Economics/F.F2 - International Factor Movements and International Business/F.F2.F22 - International Migration ,J24 ,urbanization ,migration ,conflicts ,JEL: J - Labor and Demographic Economics/J.J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor/J.J2.J24 - Human Capital • Skills • Occupational Choice • Labor Productivity ,[SHS.ENVIR] Humanities and Social Sciences/Environmental studies ,0502 economics and business ,ddc:330 ,Climate change ,050207 economics ,[SHS.ECO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance ,10. No inequality ,Migration ,050208 finance ,Q54 ,Urbanization ,05 social sciences ,1. No poverty ,JEL: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth/O.O1 - Economic Development/O.O1.O15 - Human Resources • Human Development • Income Distribution • Migration ,JEL: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics • Environmental and Ecological Economics/Q.Q5 - Environmental Economics/Q.Q5.Q54 - Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming ,[SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance ,O15 ,JEL: J - Labor and Demographic Economics/J.J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers/J.J6.J61 - Geographic Labor Mobility • Immigrant Workers ,climate change ,Inequality ,13. Climate action ,[SHS.ENVIR]Humanities and Social Sciences/Environmental studies ,8. Economic growth ,J61 ,F22 ,E24 ,sense organs ,General Economics, Econometrics and Finance ,Conflicts JEL Classification: E24 - Abstract
This paper investigates the long-term implications of climate change on global migration and inequality. Accounting for the effects of changing temperatures, sea levels, and the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, we model the impact of climate change on productivity and utility in a dynamic general equilibrium framework. By endogenizing people’s migration decisions across millions of $5 \times 5$ km spatial cells, our approach sheds light on the magnitude and dyadic, education-specific structure of human migration induced by global warming. We find that climate change strongly intensifies global inequality and poverty, reinforces urbanization, and boosts migration from low- to high-latitude areas. Median projections suggest that climate change will induce a voluntary and a forced permanent relocation of 62 million working-age individuals over the course of the 21st century. Overall, under current international migration laws and policies, only a small fraction of people suffering from the negative effects of climate change manages to move beyond their homelands. We conclude that it is unlikely that climate shocks will induce massive international flows of migrants, except under combined extremely pessimistic climate scenarios and highly permissive migration policies. In contrast, poverty resulting from climate change is a real threat to all of us.
- Published
- 2021
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