Thrilled to share our new paper!
A simple info app improved immigrant integration in Portugal AND transmitted democratic norms to Cape Verde with political spillovers strongest in areas with lower far-right support.
With the amazing @catiabatista.bsky.social, #LaraBohnet & @gazeaud.bsky.social
🌟 New @novafrica.bsky.social Working Paper!
"From Destination to Origin: Experimental Evidence on the International Spillovers of Migrant Integration"
By @catiabatista.bsky.social #NovaSBE #LaraBohnet #NYU @gazeaud.bsky.social #CNRS & @juliaseither.bsky.social #UofC
🔗 tinyurl.com/627brza4
Apply and join us for this year’s @NovaSBE PhD Summer School in Development Economics!
Last days to submit your papers to the @novafrica.bsky.social
Conference on Economic Development!
June 18-19 - @NovaSBE
- Lisbon, Portugal
Submit your paper by Feb 15: bit.ly/4pKGkjs
Keynotes
Abhijit Banerjee @MIT
Isaac Mbiti @NotreDame
Sandra Sequeira @LSE
#NOVAFRICA2026
Last days to submit your papers to the @novafrica.bsky.social
Conference on Economic Development!
June 18-19 - @NovaSBE
- Lisbon, Portugal
Submit your paper by Feb 15: bit.ly/4pKGkjs
Keynotes
Abhijit Banerjee @MIT
Isaac Mbiti @NotreDame
Sandra Sequeira @LSE
#NOVAFRICA2026
Apply to present your work at the @novafrica.bsky.social PhD Workshop on Development Economics.
Organized by the fantastic Econ PhD students at Nova SBE!
🌍 What does the evidence say about international migration and economic development?
Read the new @voxdev.bsky.social literature review on “International Migration" co-edited by NOVAFRICA Scientific Director and @NovaSBE Professor @catiabatista.bsky.social
👉 voxdev.org/voxdevlit/in...
One week left to apply for the #PhD in #Economics at Nova School of Business and Economics (@NovaSBE)!
🎓 Join a vibrant research environment and train with leading faculty. Scholarships available.
👉 Apply here: www.novasbe.unl.pt/en/programs/...
📩 Questions? Email: phd@novasbe.pt
📢 Our new VoxDevLit on International Migration is out now!
Senior Editor Dean Yang & Co-Editors Catia Batista, Gaurav Khanna, David McKenzie, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Caroline Theoharides review research on international migration.
Read & download here: https://ow.ly/qXx950XWAar
All are welcome to the launch talk for the new VoxDevLit on International Migration! Co-authored with @catiabatista.bsky.social, @econgaurav.bsky.social, @dmckenzie.bsky.social, @mushfiq-econ.bsky.social , Caroline Theoharides.
Wed 14 Jan, 9 am US eastern.
Thrilled to be back at @novafrica.bsky.social @NovaSBE
and to celebrate the many research achievements of our community!
Looking forward to what's ahead in 2026!
@catiabatista.bsky.social & #PedroVicente (2025)
"Is Mobile Money Changing Rural Africa?"
Review of Economics and Statistics
Main finding:
Newly introducing #MobileMoney in #Mozambique promoted #StructuralTransformation by inducing #Migration out of rural areas
direct.mit.edu/rest/article...
@catiabatista.bsky.social Han Haushofer Khanna McKenzie Mobarak Theoharides & Yang (2025)
"Brain Drain or Brain Gain?"
Science
Main finding:
Skilled #emigration can possibly create a variety of “brain gains” for origin countries.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Thank you for highlighting our article - honored to be in such great company!
Kicking off 2026 w/ a list of my favorite published dev papers from 2025 #econtwitter #econsky! (Favorite, not best, because best is hard to define - but I loved these papers + learned a lot from them. by "2025", I mean in a journal volume last year)
In today's JMP blog, @hardiahmed.bsky.social uses DiD to show how sharia law reform in Northern Nigeria affected child health and fertility, and how this varies with enforcement intensity. Weak enforcement of child protection laws particularly harmed non-muslims blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...?
With @jeromevalette.bsky.social & Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, we are happy to announce the CfPapers for the
4th edition of the Junior Workshop on the Economics of Migration
on May 26-27, 2026 @uc3meconomics.bsky.social, Spain.
Submit until February 1, 2026 on economig2026.sciencesconf.org
Thanks to E&M for the thoughtful interview and to our incredible field team and partners in Mozambique!
Interview: issuu.com/media4develo...
Paper: doi.org/10.1162/rest...
Bottom line:
Mobile money does much more than speed up transactions - it can transform rural economies, strengthen resilience, and accelerate structural change and urbanization.
Welfare improved:
Despite less farming, households reported higher well-being, fewer episodes of hunger, and higher spending on essentials like education and medicines.
Agricultural activity declined:
With more urban migration opportunities, families reduced agricultural activity and investment. This shows how simple financial technologies can shift labour and reshape local economies.
Remittances went up:
The value of remittances received more than doubled for treated households — especially when they were hit by shocks like floods or health problems. Mobile money became a powerful tool for risk sharing.
Migration increased:
Households with access to mobile money were 14.5 percentage points more likely to have a migrant two years later. Cheaper, safer remittances make migration a more viable strategy.
Our study was the first randomized field experiment to introduce mobile money in rural areas with no prior access to formal financial services.
We followed about 100 villages over 3 years to measure how this technology reshaped rural life.
I spoke with #Media4DevelopmentMoçambique about our work on the impacts of #MobileMoney in rural #Mozambique, based on research joint with #PedroVicente published in the #ReviewOfEconomicsAndStatistics. 🧵👇
Interview: issuu.com/media4develo...
Paper: doi.org/10.1162/rest...
Join us learning #DevelopmentEconomics at @NovaSBE #MasterInEconomics!
Apply here: www.novasbe.unl.pt/en/programs/...
I was happy to join the "Forum de Economia" at #BancodePortugal to discuss the topic of #Youth #Emigration from #Portugal.
Important insights from the work by #NunoAlves and #VandaCunha, who brought much-needed evidence to a key public policy debate.
Read more: www.bportugal.pt/en/node/427935
What have we learned about training entrepreneurs?
Issue 4 of our VoxDevLit on Training Entrepreneurs by @dmckenzie.bsky.social, Christopher Woodruff & Co-Editors is out now!➡️ voxdev.org/voxdevlit/tr...
Today's podcast covers the update➡️ voxdev.org/topic/firms/...
