Climate stress and female internal migration in China

This study examines female internal migration in China under climate-related shocks within a push-and-pull framework. It combines longitudinal microdata from the China Family Panel Studies (2010-2022) with city-level climate and economic indicators. Gender-specific probit models assess how environmental stress, local labor markets, and household characteristics shape women’s migration. Droughts, heatwaves, and floods act as push factors, and urban economic opportunities as pull factors, with marked heterogeneity across regions and groups. The response to climate stress is itself gendered: Education enables women to move, whereas the burden of elderly care holds them in place.