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Climate Change, Natural Disasters, and Migration—a Survey of the Empirical Evidence

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  • Michael Berlemann
  • Max Friedrich Steinhardt

Abstract

Climate-induced migration is one of the most hotly debated topics in the current discourse on global warming and its consequences. There is a burgeoning field in economics and other social sciences linking climatic factors or climate-related natural disasters to migration. Existent empirical studies use different measures to quantify migration flows and climatic factors and apply a variety of methodologies to disparate data sets and samples of countries. Our review article aims to provide a unifying perspective over this complex field by structuring the literature and summarizing the empirical findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Berlemann & Max Friedrich Steinhardt, 2017. "Climate Change, Natural Disasters, and Migration—a Survey of the Empirical Evidence," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 63(4), pages 353-385.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cesifo:v:63:y:2017:i:4:p:353-385.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; natural disasters; migration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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