Evidence for Development Policy: Linking Skills, Entrepreneurship and Migration

This inter-mobility proposal aims to attract two Distinguished Professors from the NOVA School of Business and
Economics, well-known development economists in Europe, for a joint sabbatical year in 2024-25. This double application is in line with LISER's increasing research focus on development cooperation, in particular within the Research Unit on Impact Evaluation of Development Policies, created in June 2022 at the initiative of the Directorate of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of the Luxembourg Government, and with Research Luxembourg in the context of the LuxAid BRIDGES funding instrument. The addition of Professors Catia Batista and Pedro Vicente will not only benefit the entire research ecosystem in Luxembourg, but will also enhance the reputation and international visibility of Luxembourg and position LISER as a prominent partner in the field of cooperation and development economics. Both professors bring strong technical expertise in field-based research and randomized controlled trials on development policy issues, a skill set that needs to be further developed at LISER. Their research activities cover complementary topics.
Professor Catia Batista is the co-founder and current scientific director of NOVAFRICA, a knowledge center that conducts studies on business and economic development in Portuguese-speaking African countries. She is a member of J-PAL Europe and is recognized as one of Europe's leading development researchers using experimental studies and lab-in-thefield experiments. She has made significant contributions through influential publications exploring the links between economic development, human capital formation, entrepreneurship, international migration, political attitudes, and individual behavior. Professor Batista has also studied the determinants of both labor migration and irregular migration from West Africa to Europe. She was the first in the literature to assess the impact of alternative policies to discourage irregular migration to Europe. Her research design can be implemented in Luxembourg's partner countries. She has also evaluated the impact of mobile money technology provision in low-income countries, both among rural agricultural populations and urban entrepreneurs. The addition of Professor Batista would strengthen our expertise in several areas of interest for collaboration with LISER and Luxembourg's cooperation. Her research agenda focuses on understanding the constraints affecting human capital investment decisions and more general economic behavior of entrepreneurs, migrants, and young
adults. She plans to continue her research projects on Portuguese-speaking countries and to extend them to Luxembourg's partner countries in collaboration with LISER members. In addition to research partnerships, Professors Vicente and Batista will contribute to knowledge transfer through capacity-building activities targeting the Research Luxembourg ecosystem and practitioners, doctoral training activities, LISER networking activities, and the organization of a joint NOVAFRICA-LISER workshop on impact evaluation of development policies. Our goal is to establish a long-term research collaboration with the Research Unit on Impact Evaluation of Development Policies, building on our ongoing agreement with J-PAL Europe. NOVAFRICA will become an institutional partner. This joint sabbatical would strengthen our internal expertise and contribute to positioning LISER as a leading research institution in development economics in Europe.