Climate Change Literacy and Migration: Micro-Level Evidence from Africa

While the effects of climate change on migration flows have already been widely studied at the country level, we have very little knowledge about the mechanisms at the individual level. We argue that climate change literacy, i.e. knowledge about climate, constitutes a major determinant why some people migrate in response to rising temperatures. This knowledge helps people translate their perceptions of temperature changes into an understanding of its long-term irreversible consequences. We test this hypothesis by leveraging highly accurate geo-coded data for 37,000 individuals across 30 African countries. We show that climate change leads to stronger migration intentions only among climate literates and when climate change is approximated by long-run increases in local temperatures but not when it is operationalized as changing heat wave or precipitation patterns. Further analyses show that climate literates are more likely to live in urban areas, have high news consumption, be highly educated and have demanding occupations.