You are cordially invited to join us virtually for the Australian-wide Health & Human Capital Economics Seminar Series (short: AHHCES). Our speaker will be:

Eliana La Ferrara
Harvard University

Informing Risky Migration:
Evidence from a field experiment in Guinea

Wednesday 17 May 2023

09:00 – 10:00 (AEST)

Via Zoom Link: 81587599208

Abstract:
Can information provision to potential migrants influence risky and irregular migration? We address this question conducting a large-scale randomized experiment with about 7,000 secondary school students in Guinea. Combining aggregate statistics and video testimonies by migrants who settled in Europe, we study the effect of three information treatments: (i) about risks and costs of the migration journey; (ii) about economic outcomes in the destination country; and (iii) a treatment pooling (i) and (ii). We find that, one month after the intervention, all the treatments affect beliefs about the risks and the economic outcomes of migration. Moreover, one year after the intervention, the first treatment has a significant effect on actual migration outcomes: migration outside Guinea decreases by 51%. The effect is driven by a decrease in irregular migration and concentrated among poorer students and those without contacts in Europe. These findings are consistent with the predictions of a theoretical model where students can choose to migrate and to do so regularly or irregularly, and where migrants forego part of the consumption in the home country deriving from family wealth and remittances from contacts abroad.

We meet at least once per month on Wednesdays virtually. Feel free to pass on this invitation.

Best wishes from Stefanie, Adeline, Rebecca, Victoria, Brenda, and Sarah

Coming up next? Full program LINK

 Australian Health & Human Capital Economics Seminar Series

University of Melbourne (A/Prof Victoria Baranov)

University of New South Wales (Dr Sarah Walker)

University of Sydney (Prof Stefanie Schurer & Dr Rebecca McKibbin)

University of Technology Sydney (Prof Adeline Delavande)

University of Queensland (Prof Brenda Gannon)

Web: AHHCES

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