Georgia Tech in Venice

Our great Summer Study Abroad Program on Sustainable Development and Climate Change in Venice has started!

We have already met with climatologists at CMCC in Bologna, visited the MOSE project to protect Venice from the high waters, practice glass making skills in Murano with an exclusive visit to the Seguso glass factory, and explored Venice to understand why it had a great past and how it failed over the centuries.

For some pictures, follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gtveniceprogram/.

Does harmful climate increase or decrease migration? Evidence from Rural Households in Nigeria

Totally new draft and new title for paper on migration and climate in Nigeria.

Accepted for publication on the November 2019 Issue of Climate Change Economics (updated on June 6, 2019)

Abstract: This paper analyses whether migration is an adaptation strategy that households employ to cope with climate in Nigeria. We estimate our model using cross-section variation in climate and long-term migration decisions because we are interested in the average response to long-term climatic conditions. For households that operate farms, we find that the relationship between climate and migration is non-linear. In particular, climates with closer to ideal farming conditions are associated with a higher propensity to migrate, whereas in the least favorable climatic conditions, the propensity to migrate declines. The marginal effect of rainfall and temperature changes on migration varies by season. We estimate the impact of climate change on the number of migrant households in 2031-2060 and 2071-2100, ceteris paribus. With current population levels, climate change generates between 3.6 and 6.3 million additional migrants, most of them internal. However, these estimates are not statistically significant.

The Effect of Extreme Temperatures and Adaptation across Eastern American Farms

Massetti, E., and R. Mendelsohn. 2019. “The Effect of Extreme Temperatures and Adaptation across Eastern American Farms” Revise and Resubmit.

Abstract. Previous Ricardian models of climate change impacts on agriculture have been criticized because they rely on mean temperatures and do not explicitly include extreme temperatures. This paper compares results using the entire distribution of daily temperature versus just the mean seasonal or growing season temperature in a Ricardian model. Including all temperatures does not increase measured long run damage. The warmest and coldest temperatures cause only modest harm to farmland values suggesting farmers have adapted to these extremes. The paper shows a few examples of these adaptations by farmers.