Publications and forthcoming
Sichko, C., A. Zimran, and A. Howlader. 2025. “Environmental migration and race during the Great American Drought, 1935–1940.” Forthcoming at the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Sichko, C., 2025. “Environmental migration during the Great American Drought.” Forthcoming at the Journal of Economic Geography.
Burnett, W., C. Sichko, J. O’Hara, B. Garmig, and M. Bowman. 2024. “How could payments for U.S. climate-smart farming practices change the regional adoption of conservation practices?” Environmental Research Communications, 6(12), 125007.
Baldwin, K., B. Williams, D. Turner, F. Tsiboe, S. R. Skorbiansky, C. Sichko, J. Jones, and S. Toossi. 2024. “U.S. Agricultural Policy Review, 2023.” USDA Economic Research Service.
Hinson, A., G. McCarty, L. Du, C. Sichko, and K. Maguire. 2024. “Native bee pollination ecosystem services in agricultural wetlands and riparian protected lands.” Wetlands, 44(8), 116.
Sichko, C., 2024. “Migrant Selection and Sorting during the Great American Drought.” World Development, 181, 106632.
Muhammad, A., C. Sichko, and T. Olson. 2023. “African Americans and Federal Land Policy: Exploring The Homestead Acts of 1862 and 1866.” Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, 46(1), 95-110.
Baldwin, K., B. Williams, C. Sichko, F. Tsiboe, S. Toossi, J. Jones, D. Turner, S. Raszap-Skorbiansky. 2023. “U.S. Agricultural Policy Review, 2022.” USDA Economic Research Service.
Warziniack, T., K. Bagstad, M. Knowles, C. Mihiar, A. Nehra, C. Rhodes, L. Sanchez, C. Sichko, and C. B. Sims. 2023. Natural Capital Accounting on Forested Lands. In M. Bohman, E. Fenichel, and N. Muller (Eds.) Measuring and Accounting for Environmental Public Goods: A National Accounts Perspective. University of Chicago Press.
Selected Works in Progress
C. Sichko. Urban Migration and Climate Immobility: U.S. Heat Stress
This paper examines the impact of abnormally high temperatures on migration from urban areas across the United States. I use individual-level data from the 2005 to 2023 American Community Surveys, matched with county-level normalized weather and climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I begin by estimating the relationship between heat and migration using quasi-experimental regression analysis and find that, on average, unusually high heat reduces the likelihood of individual migration, with the strongest effects observed among those working in outdoor occupations. Although this pattern is novel in the context of the modern U.S., it aligns with a growing body of literature on climate immobility, which suggests that a key risk of global warming is the inability of vulnerable populations to relocate, producing trapped populations. To extend the analysis, I apply machine learning random forest models, incorporating climate forecast data from Localized Constructed Analogs (LOCA), to identify regions and cities in the United States where climate-driven immobility is likely to be most severe in the coming years and decades.
C. Sichko and A. Zimran. The Returns to Disaster Migration: Evidence from the Great American Drought, 1930 to 1940
How migrants fare at their destinations is key to assessing whether migration is a viable response to environmental shocks. However, little is known about the outcomes of environmental migrants. We use individual-level linked census data and county-level drought records to examine how drought migrants fared compared to non-migrants and non-drought migrants. We find that migrants had lower occupational standing in 1940, due to higher unemployment than similar non-migrants from their origin counties. Outcomes were similar between drought and non-drought migrants, suggesting that environmental migrants did not fare uniquely worse. However, returns to migration varied: men with little formal education and from farm backgrounds faced the highest unemployment at their destinations. These findings inform our understanding of labor market opportunities across the skill distribution, the experiences of disaster migrants, and, given the overwhelming negative returns to migration, how to conceptualize migration in times of environmental and economic stress, perhaps as survival-driven rather than opportunity-seeking.
C. Sichko. Predators, Policy, and the Economics of Coexistence in the American West
This paper examines the economic dimensions of predator management across the Western United States, with a focus on the complex interplay between human activity, wildlife populations, and policy. I explore the agricultural implications of predator presence, including livestock depredation, prevention strategies, and the economic trade-offs between lethal control measures and coexistence. The analysis also considers the role of hunting—both as a management tool and an economic activity—and the diversity of federal, state, and local policy approaches that govern human–predator interactions. In doing so, the paper highlights emerging challenges, such as changing predator distributions, evolving public attitudes toward wildlife, and the potential impacts of climate change on predator–prey dynamics. Finally, I synthesize and evaluate the current availability, scope, and limitations of data sources that can support quantitative research on predator management, with a focus on guiding future empirical work in environmental and resource economics.