Climate change, crop yields, and internal migration in the united states
By: Shuaizhang Feng, Michael Oppenheimer, Wolfram Schlenker
Contributors: Oppenheimer, Michael; Schlenker, Wolfram; National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 17734; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 17734.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "We investigate the link between agricultural productivity and net migration in the United States using a county-level panel for the most recent period of 1970-2009.  In rural counties of the Corn Belt, we find a statistically significant relationship between changes in net outmigration and climate-driven changes in crop yields, with an estimated semi-elasticity of about -0.17, i.e., a 1% decrease in yields leads to a 0.17% net reduction of the population through migration.  This effect is primarily driven by young adults.  We do not detect a response for senior citizens, nor for the general population in eastern counties outside the Corn Belt.  Applying this semi-elasticity to predicted yield changes under the B2 scenario of the Hadley III model, we project that, holding other factors constant, climate change would on average induce 3.7% of the adult population (ages 15-59) to leave rural counties of the Corn Belt in the medium term (2020-2049) compared to the 1960-1989 baseline, with the possibility of a much larger migration response in the long term (2077-2099).  Since there is uncertainty about future warming, we also present projections for a range of uniform climate change scenarios in temperature or precipitation"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 3/6/2012.

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