Climate Variability and Internal Migration: A Test on Indian Inter-State Migration

We match migration data from the Indian census with climate data to test the hypothesis of climate variability as a push factor for internal migration. The main contribution of the analysis is to introduce relevant meteorological indicators of climate variability, based on the standardized precipitation index. Gravity-type estimations derived from a utility maximization approach cannot reject the null hypothesis that the frequency of drought acts as a push factor on inter-state migration in India. The effect is significant for both male and female migration rates. Drought duration and magnitude as well as flood events are never statistically significant.