Constructing the Model of Environmental Migration

To address the surprising lack of research in the area of environmental migration, this paper reviews the existing literature and proposes two basic, two region, and general equilibrium models: a closed economy and a small open economy where migration occurs between regions. The models show that migration increases welfare in the rural region, characterized by a tragedy of the commons production function, but does not affect welfare in the region with a constant returns to scale production function. The paper also provides an economic definition of an environmental refugee in the respect of an environmental migrant.