Hélène Bouscasse (CESAER-INRAE)
This paper examines residential mobility as a margin of adaptation to extreme heat, using two decades of individual-level administrative data for France combined with high-resolution temperature records and a dynamic event-study framework allowing for recurrent treatment.
We show that heatwave exposure significantly increases the likelihood that movers relocate toward cooler municipalities. Responses are delayed but persistent, and the spatial pattern is non-monotone: short-distance moves show the strongest response, medium-distance the weakest, and long-distance moves remain economically meaningful.
Adaptive mobility is concentrated among higher-income renters, younger individuals, and childless households, while homeownership substantially dampens adaptation through a transaction-cost lock-in effect. Overall, climate adaptation through mobility operates through gradual and selective relocation rather than large-scale displacement, a margin of adjustment that may reinforce spatial inequalities if constrained households are unable to adapt.