Global warming and urbanization

Marc Helbling () and Daniel Meierrieks ()
Additional contact information
Marc Helbling: WZB Berlin Social Science Center
Daniel Meierrieks: WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Journal of Population Economics, 2023, vol. 36, issue 3, No 3, 1187-1223

Abstract: Abstract Analyzing 118 countries between 1960 and 2016, we find that higher temperatures correlate with higher urbanization rates in the long run, where this relationship is much more pronounced than any short-term linkage. The long-run relationship between global warming and urbanization is also conditional upon country-specific conditions. This long-run association is especially relevant in poorer and more agriculture-dependent countries with an urban bias as well as in initially non-urban countries in hotter climate zones. We also provide suggestive evidence that warming contributes to losses in agricultural productivity and to pro-urban shifts in public goods provision and that the global warming-urbanization nexus is partly mediated through these channels. Consequently, we argue that the estimated long-run relationship between temperature and urbanization partly captures the potential impact of increasing temperatures on urbanization via a rural push (by impairing agriculture) and an urban pull (via an increased demand for public goods primarily supplied in cities).

Keywords: Climate change; Global warming; Urbanization; Rural–urban migration; Panel vector error correction models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00148-022-00924-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:jopoec:v:36:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s00148-022-00924-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... tion/journal/148/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s00148-022-00924-y

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Population Economics is currently edited by K.F. Zimmermann

More articles in Journal of Population Economics from Springer, European Society for Population Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().