Biography: Marco Tabellini is an assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy unit and is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), RF Berlin, and IZA. He explores how international and internal migration reshapes politics, societies, and the economy. His work investigates when and why immigration stirs political backlash, what drives successful social integration, and how migration alters societal boundaries in diverse countries such as the United States. He also examines the economic consequences of immigration, including its effects on labor markets and growth. Finally, his research sheds light on the role of climate as a powerful force shaping migration flows across time and place.
“Climate Matching in Migration: From the American Frontier to Prehistory”
Abstract: We examine how climate shapes human migration across both modern history and deep prehistory. Drawing on rich U.S. census and administrative data, we show that migrants systematically sort into destinations whose climates resemble those of their origins, a pattern we term climate matching. This pattern holds for both international and internal migration, across historical (1850–1920) and modern (1970–2020) periods, and played a central role in shaping the geography of U.S. settlement, population growth, and economic activity. We then push these ideas back into prehistory, using ancient DNA to trace related individuals buried hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart. Linking these inferred migration flows to paleoclimate reconstructions reveals that even prehistoric populations tended to move along ecological corridors and into familiar climatic zones.