Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/242470 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2021: Climate Economics
Publisher: 
ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, Kiel, Hamburg
Abstract: 
West Africa is vulnerable to negative impacts of climate change and a potential channel of adjustment is migration. Using novel geo-referenced and high-frequency data, we investigate the extent to which soil moisture anomalies have an impact on international migration within the region and directed to Europe. Our findings show that drier soil conditions decrease rather than increase the probability to migrate. A standard deviation decrease in soil moisture leads to a 2 percentage points drop in the probability to migrate, which is equivalent to a decrease of about 25% in the number of migrants. This effect is concentrated during the crop-growing season, suggesting that the decrease in migration is mainly driven by financial constraints. The effect is only seen for areas that are in the middle of the income distribution, with no impact on the poorest or richest areas of a country.
Subjects: 
West Africa
climate change
migration
agriculture
JEL: 
F22
O13
O15
Q54
Document Type: 
Conference Paper

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