Title: Agricultural Income Shocks Drive Drought Induced Migration from Mexico to the US

Speaker: Shan Li, Central University of Finance and Economics

Time: October 12th, 2016 13:30–15:00 

Venue: Conference Room 106B, Zhonghui Building (College of Economics, JNU)

About the speaker:

Shan Li is an Assistant Professor at the China Center for Human Capital and Labor Market Research, Central University of Finance and Economics. She received her PhD degree from the George Washington University in 2016. Her research interests include international migration, human capital, and technology diffusion.

Abstract:

There is now substantial empirical evidence that climatic variability increases migration in both developing and developed countries, but less is known about the mechanism. In this paper, we show that drought induced migration from Mexico to the U.S. is mediated by agricultural income shocks. We show that migration rates increase in drought years, but only in those parts of Mexico in which agriculture is sensitive to drought, and only by farmers whose lands are unirrigated and do not have non-agricultural income sources.