Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Is there a causal relation between internal migrations and inequality? Using data on internal migrations in different regions of Italy (a nation historically prone to earthquakes), the paper analyzes the effects of migrations caused by natural disasters on inequality, at the subnational level, in the regions that are hit by the disaster, as well as the regions that attract internal migrants, after the shock. The paper considers the major earthquake that hit the center of Italy (and especially the region of Abruzzo) in April 2009. There has been very little research on the effects of internal migration due to exogenous causes on inequality in Italy. What this paper adds to existing literature is the causal relation between internal mobility and inequality. The paper analyzes the mentioned earthquake as the cause of migrations, as it helps dealing with the problem of endogeneity, being such shocks universally considered as exogenous and not influenced by local politics or policies. Once the causal relation between internal migration and inequality is established, I offer different policy implications.