IFPRI’s Applied Microeconomics & Development Seminar Series provides a forum for researchers to present top-quality applied microeconomics and development work. Seminars are held on the first and third Thursdays of each month, generally at IFPRI’s Washington DC office but periodically in country offices. Please contact Julie Lang (j.lang@cgiar.org) if you have any questions.
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September 10
Speaker: Dean Yang, Professor at University of Michigan
11:00-12:30pm Eastern Time
IFPRI HQ – Conference Room 12CD
Abundance from Abroad: International Migration and the Developing World
International labor migration from developing to developed countries generates income gains for migrants that dwarf those from any known development intervention, with workers routinely experiencing 4–5-fold wage increases upon migration. These individual gains translate into massive remittance flows to developing countries that far exceed foreign aid flows. This review synthesizes the rapidly growing literature on migration’s impacts on origin countries, emphasizing studies with credible causal identification. The evidence progresses from individual and household effects, where migrants and their families experience substantial gains in income, education investments, and consumption smoothing, to broader impacts on the origin area, including regional economic development and widespread human capital formation. Contrary to concerns about so-called brain drain, recent research reveals brain gain effects whereby migration opportunities increase educational investments and skill formation. Migration also has additional positive effects through trade and investment linkages, knowledge transfers, and changing social norms. This review also discusses policies for enhancing migration’s development impacts and key areas for future research.
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September 17
Speaker: Daniel Agness, Assistant Professor at University of Maryland
11:00-12:15pm Eastern Time
IFPRI HQ – Conference Room 12CD
Don’t Know, Don’t Care? Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Responsive Public Services in Ethiopia
Using rich survey data spanning citizens, firms and local government officials working in Ethiopia’s decentralized bureaucracy, we document low knowledge of public priorities among local bureaucrats, and substantial mismatch between priorities of bureaucrats and those of the public. We rule out information frictions as the primary cause, by experimentally showing that (a) bureaucrats fail to update beliefs or adapt policy when provided with feedback on citizens’ and firms’ priorities, even in sectors over which they have high autonomy; (b) bureaucrats’ demand for such information is very low. We also show that bureaucrats do not react when they know feedback from citizens and firms is being elicited, suggesting low accountability. These results highlight the limitations of decentralized bureaucracies in providing locally tailored public services without incentives or intrinsic motivation to meet public demand.
AMD Seminar Series 