Migration, Climate Similarity, and the Consequences of Climate Mismatch

Marguerite Obolensky, Marco Tabellini and Charles Taylor

No 32035, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper examines the concept of “climate matching” in migration—the idea that migrants seek out destinations with familiar climates. Focusing on the US, we document that temperature distance between origin and destination predicts the distribution of migrants across counties. This pattern holds for internal and international migration in the past (1850-1940) and today (2011-2019), and is not explained by the spatial correlation of climate or the persistence of ethnic networks. We provide suggestive evidence for two mechanisms driving climate matching: climate-specific skills and climate-as-amenity. Then, we study the implications of climate matching for migrants. Leveraging plausibly exogenous variation in climate mismatch, we document that climate distance reduces life expectancy among immigrants, and increases mortality rates for their US-born children. We calculate an individual-level mortality cost of a 1°C change in climate to be $5,250.

JEL-codes: J15 J61 N31 N32 Q54 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-gro, nep-his, nep-int, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-ure
Note: DAE EEE POL
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w32035.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

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:nbr:nberwo:32035

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w32035
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().