Human Capital, Mobility, and the Unequal Effects of Climate Change
Working paper · India · Climate adaptation
Abstract
Climate change erodes agricultural productivity most severely in places where households have the fewest alternatives. This paper studies whether human capital enables people to adapt by changing occupations or moving to less-exposed locations.
I use a large schooling expansion in India to estimate how education changes occupational and migration responses to worsening crop-growing conditions. I then develop a spatial model with climate change, occupational choice, migration, and human-capital investment to study these mechanisms in general equilibrium. The results highlight a persistent inequality: remote rural areas face larger climate damages while also investing less in the skills that make adaptation possible.
Current draft available on request — t.dobermann@lse.ac.uk