Calendrier du 14 avril 2021
Paris Migration Seminar
Du 14/04/2021 de 17:30 à 18:30
SEQUEIRA Sandra (LSE)
Forced Displacement, Human Capital and Occupational Choice
écrit avec joint with Stelios Michalopolous
This paper examines the impact of conflict-driven displacement on investments in human capital and occupational choice, looking at the Mozambican civil war (1977-1992). We analyse all the different displacement trajectories that occurred between cities, rural areas and refugee camps in neighboring countries. Exploiting the universe of the first post-war census in 1997, we overcome selection concerns by comparing the displacement experience of siblings and twins separated during the war. Children displaced into urban areas were more likely to invest in education and later experience a shift towards occupations outside of agriculture, even when they returned to the countryside once the war was over. Displacement to neighboring countries, mostly to refugee camps or informal settlements, yields no discernible differences in education and occupational specialization. We then explore heterogeneity to shed light on the channels. Children whose parents and grandparents are literate invest more in education when moving to a new environment. Educational investments and occupational shifts are also more substantial for those internally displaced to areas with higher levels of human capital and population density. Finally, we implement a survey in Mozambique's largest Northern city that aims to uncover the long-run impact of forced displacement and explore aspects not covered in the census. 28 years after the end of the civil war, individuals displaced into the city have significantly higher education than their siblings who remained elsewhere. Moreover, they seem to have integrated socially into urban areas, having comparable views and attitudes to non-mover city-dwellers. However, those who were internally displaced have lower mental health levels, inter-community trust, and are less optimistic than their cohort of urban dwellers. These findings underscore how forced displacement can act as a mobility shock that breaks links with subsistence agriculture, increasing human capital accumulation and encouraging occupational shifts. However, it may come at the cost of decreased mental health and trust.
Development Economics Seminar
Du 14/04/2021 de 16:30 à 18:00
Via Zoom
BANERJEE Abhijit (MIT)
Trust and Efficiency in the Market for Healthcare in Low-income Countries
Economic History Seminar
Du 14/04/2021 de 16:00 à 17:30
via Zoom
PLATT BOUSTAN Leah (Princeton University)
Automation before robots: Machine tools and the US labor market
écrit avec with Jiwon Choi (Princeton), David Clingingsmith (Case Western)
Successive innovations in manufacturing have enabled machines to perform an increasing number of tasks formerly performed by workers. We investigate how the diffusion of one of the most important of these innovations – numerically controlled (NC) machine tools – affected the skill mix of metal manufacturing industries from 1973 and 2009. NC was originally invented in the United States in the late 1950s, but its widespread diffusion in the 1970s was driven by cost-reducing innovations in Japan and Germany. The timing of diffusion varied by type of tool: for example, lathes shifted to NC early and mechanical presses did so later. We construct a measure of NC diffusion using detailed information on the mix of machine tool types used in seven metal industries and the NC share of each tool types by leading exporters. We find that exposure to our NC diffusion measure led to the polarization of skills and job tasks, with greater relative demand for high school dropouts and college graduates. The unionized sector had more muted responses. Affected workers responded by going back to two- and four-year colleges