Maria is a doctoral candidate in International Development at the University of Oxford. Her thesis investigates the impact of youth migration on human development in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, drawing on the longitudinal data collected as part of the Young Lives study.

Maria holds an MSc in Development Economics and Policy from the University of Manchester and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Universidad del Pacifico (Lima). She is currently a Research Associate of the Young Lives study at the University of Oxford. Before starting her doctoral studies, Maria worked on data collection and research with the Young Lives study. Prior to this, she has worked on policy research and design at Save the Children, the World Bank and the Research Centre of the Universidad del Pacifico. Her research interests are youth and childhood poverty, migration, and policy and programme evaluation.

Session V - Migration and Development - 27/10/2017 9:30 - 11:30

Effects of Internal Migration of Youth’s Cognitive and Psychosocial Skills in Ethiopia, India, Peru,
and Vietnam

Youth migration can be seen as a mechanism through which individuals alter their environments and investments, facilitating the modification of skills. Therefore, it could be a helpful device to alleviate future inequalities. This paper looks at the impact of migration on young people’s cognitive (Mathematics and Reading) and psychosocial (Agency, Pride, Self-Efficacy, and Self-Esteem) skills in four developing countries, using household shocks as a source of exogenous variation in migration. Given that youth migration is often bundled with important life transitions, I also examine whether there are heterogeneous treatment effects of migration depending on their reasons for moving and the streams they follow. Finally, I estimate the impact of migration on the young person’s time use as a potential mechanism to explain my results.

Other speakers in this session

Jena Farai (University of Sussex)
Internal Migration and Employment in Zimbabwe

Rebecca Petrelli (FAO)
Internal migration and vulnerability to poverty in Tanzania

Kashi Kafle (IFAD)
Does relative deprivation induce migration? Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa