Gendered Migration Responses to Drought in Malawi

What is it about?

We set out to test the hypothesis that marriage of under-age daughters could be a coping strategy for poor households lacking access to other coping strategies following drought in a cultural context where the bride's family receives a payment from the groom or his family. To do so, we construct a retrospective panel of internal migrants in Malawi using data from the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) from 2000 to 2016 and combine it with meteorological data on drought.

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Why is it important?

The article contributes to exploring how mobility responses following drought differ according to sex and age categories of the migrants. It also contributes to the literature on marriage institutions in poor countries, and how they shape migration, as a household decision, across different distances. The article thus opens interesting perspectives to further investigate the links between weather shocks, marriage institutions and policy to limit the impacts of climate change in poor countries.