The Geary Seminar Series - 15th March 2025

On 15th March we welcomed Prof Eric Strobl, University of Bern. Prof Strobl was a guest of Dr Frank Walsh, School of Economics, UCD, and visited the Geary Institute as part of the Geary BICS funding scheme. Title: Bugged Out: Locust Plagues, Migration, and Adaptation in 19th Century US Abstract: This paper examines the impact of locust invasions on internal migration and adaptive strategies in the late 19th-century United States. We find that individuals residing in locust-affected counties were, on average, 3.4 percentage points more likely to leave their home counties between 1870 and 1880 compared to those in unaffected areas. To establish causality, we employ an instrumental variable approach based on wind patterns and conduct several robustness checks. Our findings further suggest that farmers who relocated experienced a greater increase in their occupational income scores than those who remained. At the county level, locust invasions influenced agricultural outcomes, with varying effects on crop diversity, farm numbers, and livestock value depending on the severity of the invasion.