Dust Bowl Migrants: Environmental Refugees and Economic Adaptation
Self-published
Public
Principal investigator:
Time periods:
1935 -- 1940
Summary:
This is the replication package for:
Dust Bowl Migrants: Environmental Refugees and Economic Adaptation
Abstract:
The 1930s American Dust Bowl created archetypal
“Dust Bowl migrants,” refugees from environmental collapse. I examine this
archetype, comparing migration from more-eroded and less-eroded counties to
distinguish Dust Bowl migrants from other migrants. Dust Bowl migrants were
“negatively selected,” in years of education, compared to other migrants who were
“positively selected.” Dust Bowl migrants had lower incomes than natives in
their destinations, which is reflected in popular impressions. I estimate
strikingly modest impacts of the Dust Bowl on average wage incomes in 1939,
however, which contrasts with the Dust Bowl’s large and enduring impacts on
agricultural land.