Call for papers: 19th International Conference on Migration and Development
Yonsei University, Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE), Bank of Korea and the Asian Development Bank, together with the World Bank Development Economics Group and the French Development Agency (AFD) request paper submissions for the 19th International Conference on Migration and Development to be held on 16-17 April 2026 in Seoul, South Korea.
The conference is focused on investigating ways in which international migration affects economic and social change in developing countries. Possible topics for the conference include the effects of migration on poverty, inequality, and human capital formation; financial inclusion and empowerment of migrants; social networks and migration; migration and globalization; migration and institutional, technological, demographic and cultural change in sending countries, today and in the past.
This year the conference will also include policy sessions to discuss financial inclusion and digital remittances, and the economic rationale, logistics, and financing of worker migration into Korea and other Asian countries.
Keynote speakers: Samuel Bazzi (University of California, San Diego) and Melanie Morten (Stanford University).
The conference will be in-person in Seoul, Korea, subject to travel restrictions at the time of the conference.
Submission Deadline: Sunday, February 8, 2026, 11:59 PM US ET
Organizing Committee: Aiko Kikkawa (ADB), Bryant Kim (Yonsei University), Jongkwan Lee (Yonsei University), Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University), Hillel Rapoport (Paris School of Economics), Neela Saldanha (Y-RISE)
Scientific Committee: Co-chairs – Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University) and Hillel Rapoport (Paris School of Economics).
Ran Abramitzky (Stanford University), Cevat Aksoy (King’s College and EBRD), Cátia Batista (Nova School of Business & Economics), Samuel Bazzi (UC San Diego), Michel Beine (U of Luxembourg), Simone Bertoli (CERDI), Patricia Cortés (Boston University), Frédéric Docquier (LISER), Giovanni Facchini (U of Nottingham), Paola Giuliano (UCLA), Clément Imbert (Sciences Po), Anna Maria Mayda (Georgetown University), David McKenzie (World Bank), Stylianos Michalopoulos (Brown University), Melanie Morten (Stanford University), Çaǧlar Özden (World Bank), Sandra Sequeira (LSE), Caroline Theoharides (Amherst College), Dean Yang (University of Michigan).
Submission process
Submit your paper using this link: Paper Submission Link
We will only consider completed papers.
● You can make multiple submissions but submit each paper separately.
● The author intending to present should submit the paper.
● Use the following convention to name your paper: Submitter_Keyword e.g., Mobarak_Remittance_Frictions
● The cover page of each submission must include the paper title, authors, affiliations, abstract, authors, and contact information for the applicant.
We will notify applicants by Feb 27, 2026.
Accommodation and expenses
The organizers are pleased to offer accommodation and reimbursement for reasonable economy-class travel expenses for one author per paper. We will be reserving rooms at a hotel near the conference location at a discounted group rate.
Please direct any questions regarding this call for papers to yrise@yale.edu
About Y-RISE
Y-RISE (The Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale) aims to advance the science of scaling policy interventions in global development. We are interested in rigorous research on the complexities of scaling interventions. Complexities of scale include external validity and evidence aggregation, political economy effects, spillovers, network and general equilibrium effects, macro, growth and welfare effects, implementation fidelity at scale, and policy take-up.