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Climate change and migration: the case of Africa

Author

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  • Bruno Conte
Abstract
How will future climate change affect rural economies like sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in terms of migration and welfare? How can policymakers enhance SSA’s capacity to adapt to this process? I answer these questions with a quantitative framework that, coupled with rich spatial data and forecasts for the future climate, estimates millions of climate migrants and unequal welfare losses across SSA. Investigating migration and trade policies as mitigating tools, I find a trade-off associated with the former: reducing SSA migration barriers reduces aggregate welfare losses at the cost of more climate migration and high regional inequality. Reducing tariffs attenuates this cost.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Conte, 2023. "Climate change and migration: the case of Africa," Working Papers 1411, Barcelona School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:1411
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    Cited by:

    1. Feriga,Moustafa Amgad Moustafa Ahmed Moustafa & Lozano Gracia,Nancy & Serneels,Pieter Maria, 2024. "The Impact of Climate Change on Work : Lessons for Developing Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10682, The World Bank.
    2. Conte, Bruno & Desmet, Klaus & Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban, 2022. "On the Geographic Implications of Carbon Taxes," CEPR Discussion Papers 17714, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Moustafa Feriga & Mancy Lozano Gracia & Pieter Serneels, 2024. "The impact of climate change on work lessons for developing countries," CSAE Working Paper Series 2024-02, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    4. Alan Feng & Haishi Li & Yulin Wang, 2023. "We Are All in the Same Boat: Cross-Border Spillovers of Climate Shocks through International Trade and Supply Chain," CESifo Working Paper Series 10402, CESifo.
    5. Delbridge, Victoria & Harman, Oliver & Oliveira Cunha, Juliana & Venables, Anthony J., 2022. "Sustainable urbanisation in developing countries: cities as places to innovate, trade, and work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118027, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; migration; economic geography;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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