Air pollution and internal migration: evidence from an Iranian household survey
Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, Hassan F. Gholipour, Mostafa Javadian
Abstract
Abstract Air pollution has become an important national issue in Iran in recent years. Several studies in Iran have shown that air pollution harmfully impacts the physical and mental health of citizens, reducing labor productivity and student academic performance. One aspect of air pollution that is yet to be examined is if it explains migration behavior across the provinces of Iran. Between 2011 and 2016, approximately 4.3 million Iranians (about 5% of the population) left their habitual residences and moved to new locations (mostly within the borders of Iran). The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of air pollution (measured using satellite data of aerosol optical depth) on net outmigration. We used data from the 2011 and 2016 National Population and Housing Censuses for 31 provinces in Iran and applied panel fixed effects and instrumental variable procedures to analyze the data. Our results show that air pollution has a positive and significant effect on net outmigration. We also found that higher levels of economic activities discourage outmigration.