Moving to Adaptation ? Understanding the Migratory Response to Hurricanes in the United States

Arnold Behrer and Valentin Bolotnyy

No 10528, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Using data on the paths of all hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin from 1992 to 2017, this paper studies whether migration has served as a form of adaptation to hurricane risk. The findings show that on average hurricanes have little to no impact on county out-migration, with population-weighted exposure to hurricanes increasing slightly over the sample period. Counties with high economic activity see net in-migration in the years after a hurricane. Further, return migration likely plays a role in offsetting any out-migration in the year of the storm. The intensity of pre-hurricane migration between county pairs is a strong predictor of excess migration after a hurricane, suggesting that existing economic and social ties dominate in post-hurricane migration decisions. Given existing policies and incentives, the economic and social benefits that people derive from living in high-risk areas currently outweigh the incentive to adapt to future storms by relocating across counties.

Date: 2023-07-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/09931550 ... 3120ff7d068d8c5a.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099315507272320722/pdf/IDU094cddbee04f5004bcf083120ff7d068d8c5a.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099315507272320722/pdf/IDU094cddbee04f5004bcf083120ff7d068d8c5a.pdf [302 Moved Temporarily]--> http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099315507272320722/pdf/IDU094cddbee04f5004bcf083120ff7d068d8c5a.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099315507272320722/pdf/IDU094cddbee04f5004bcf083120ff7d068d8c5a.pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10528

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().