Xander (Alexander) Abajian

Biography

I am currently a postdoctoral associate at the Yale School of the Environment. My research studies spatial heterogeneity in the effects of climate change with a focus on how the effects climate change and energy policy will depend on variation in intrinsic local characteristics as well as the composition of the population that lives there. I am most interested in modeling how migration will serve as a channel for adaptation to climate, and how the dynamics will change based on the relative size of effects on local incomes and barriers to adjustment. Prior to my time as a graduate student, I worked as a research economist for two years at the Council of Economic Advisers in Washington, D.C. on energy and trade. I hold a B.A. from Brandeis University in Economics and Physics.

Job Market Paper Title

"Savings and Migration in a Warming World"

Abstract

This paper introduces a global model of climate change where agents can adapt through precautionary savings and migration. Analytical results show how the extent to which migration will serve as adaptation, and in turn alter the global population distribution, will be determined by mobility costs. Adaptation through migration is income-dependent; while wealthy agents are able to pay international migration costs in order to take advantage of locations forecast to gain under climate change, poor and low-wealth agents are unable to move and can only insure against adverse shocks through savings. The calibrated model predicts that 6 percent of the global population will migrate internationally because of climate change by the end of the 21st century. Welfare effects from climate change are highly unequal; warming under RCP 4.5 raises the wealthiest agents’ welfare by 4.0 percent, while the poorest agents in low-income countries experience losses of 8.5 percent.

JEL Classification Codes: D52, F22, J61, Q54