Broadening access to finance can enable communities to adapt to large adverse climatic shocks and reduce emigration
Read "Finance and Climate Resilience: Evidence from the Long 1950s US Drought" by Raghuram Rajan and Rodney Ramcharan here.
Understanding how communities can adapt to climatic shocks is crucial in the face of an increasingly volatile climate. In this episode of VoxDevTalks, Raghuram Rajan and Rodney Ramcharan join us to discuss how access to credit impacted adaptation to the long 1950s US drought. Their research finds that bank lending, net immigration, and population growth decline sharply in drought exposed areas with limited initial access to bank finance, and also shows that unequal access to finance drives migration patterns. After talking through their research, Raghuram and Rodney identify takeaways for policymakers in the Global South.