Migration as a Vector of Economic Losses From Disaster-Affected Areas in the United States

Abstract

We introduce the consideration of human migration into research on economic losses from extreme weather disasters. Taking a comparative case study approach and using data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax Consumer Credit Panel, we document the size of economic losses attributable to migration from 23 disaster-affected areas in the United States before, during, and after some of the most costly hur­ri­canes, tor­na­does, and wild­fires on record. We then employ demo­graphic stan-dard­i­za­tion and decom­po­si­tion to deter­mine if these losses pri­mar­ily reflect changes in out-migra tion or the eco nomic resources that migrants take with them. Finally, we con sider the impli ca tions of these losses for chang ing spa tial inequal ity in the United States. While disas ter-affected areas and their pop u la tions differ in their ­expe­ri­ences of and responses to extreme weather disas­ters, we gen­er­ally find that, relative to the year before an extreme weather disaster, economic losses via migration from disaster-affected areas increase the year of and after the disaster, these changes pri­mar­ily reflect changes in out-migra­tion (vs. the eco­nomic resources that migrants take with them), and these losses briefly dis­rupt the sta­tus quo by tem­po­rar­ily reduc­ing spatial inequality.