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

We intro duce the con sid er ation of human migra tion into research on eco- nomic losses from extreme weather disas ters. Taking a com par a tive case study approach and using data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax Consumer Credit Panel, we doc u ment the size of eco nomic losses attrib ut able to migra tion from 23 disas ter- affected areas in the United States before, dur ing, 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 dif fer in their experiences of and responses to extreme weather disasters, we generally find that, rel a tive to the year before an extreme weather disas ter, eco nomic losses via migra tion from disas ter-affected areas increase the year of and after the disas ter, 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.