How might migration help in the world’s response to climate change? Listen to this episode of the AEA podcast series to hear Klaus Desmet explain how his research shows that migration is likely to play a key role in mitigating the economic damage of global warming and rising sea levels.
While large coastal cities like Bangkok and Shanghai are vulnerable to rising oceans, major inland cities like Dallas or Mexico City are not. And while higher temperatures spell disaster for areas around the equator, they might be good news for Canada or Siberia. Building on this intuition, Klaus Desmet’s research uses high-resolution data on the world’s economic geography to show how migration and a spatial reorientation of economic activity will greatly reduce the adverse economic impacts of climate change.