Climate Immobility Traps

The complex relationship between climate shocks, migration, and adaptation hampers a rigorous understanding of the heterogeneous mobility outcomes of farm households exposed to climate risk. To unpack this heterogeneity, the analysis combines longitudinal multi-topic household survey data from Nigeria with a causal machine learning approach, tailored to a conceptual framework bridging economic migration theory and the poverty traps literature. The results show that pre-shock asset levels, in situ adaptive capacity, and cumulative shock exposure drive not just the magnitude but also the sign of the impact of agriculture-relevant weather anomalies on the mobility outcomes of farming households. While local adaptation acts as a substitute for migration, the roles played by wealth constraints and repeated shock exposure suggest the presence of climate-induced immobility traps.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Letta, Marco, Montalbano, Pierluigi, Paolantonio, Adriana
Format:	Working Paper biblioteca
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2024-03-19
Subjects:	CLIMATE MIGRATION, IMMOBILITY TRAPS, ADAPTATION, CAUSAL FORESTS, HOUSEHOLD DATA,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099733203182440391/IDU1ff17bb7c1820d14ea71b1a41f7b756657814 https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41209
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!