Speaker
Description
In this paper, we study the effect of exogenous global food price changes on out-migration from agricultural and non-agricultural households in Sub-Saharan Africa due to economic reasons. We show that the effect of a locally relevant global food price increase on household out-migration depends on the initial household wealth. Higher international producer prices relax the budget constraint of poor agricultural households and facilitate migration. Unlike positive weather shocks, which mostly facilitate internal rural-urban migration, positive income shocks through rising producer prices only increase migration to neighboring African countries. We further find evidence that higher producer prices increase output conflict over the appropriation of surplus in agricultural districts, which serves as a parallel mechanism explaining the household decision to send a member as a migrant.
| Keyword | Agricultural Economics |
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