17/05/2017 Macimide / MGSoG / UNU-MERIT Migration Series by Fleur Wouterse

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Date/Time
Date(s) - 17/05/17
11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Location
UNU-MERIT, Boschstraat 24, Maastricht (Room 0.16/0.17)

Categories


In the upcoming seminar, Dr. Fleur Wouterse (International Food Policy Research Institute) will present Migration and rural welfare: The impact of potential policy reforms in Europe “. The seminar will be held from 11:00-12:00 in room 0.16/0.17 of the UNU-MERIT building at Boschstraat 24. A sandwich lunch will be provided.

Abstract: This paper uses an agricultural household model in an imperfect market environment and data from Burkina Faso to explore the impact of potential immigration policy reforms in Europe on the welfare of rural households. Simulation results demonstrate that, in contrast to continental migration, increased intercontinental migration has strong positive household welfare effects. Similarly, an increase in the stay abroad of intercontinental migrants impacts positively on welfare of the migrant-sending household. Results of these simulations lend support to the introduction of a TMP, which would, in addition to facilitating migration control in host economies, improve the welfare of sending households by allowing for increased engagement in intercontinental migration. The temporary nature of such a program would ensure that “Dutch disease” effects would be mitigated through eventual migrant return.

Speaker biography: Fleur Wouterse is a research fellow in IFPRI’s West and Central Africa Office. She studies the economic behavior of smallholder farmers in Africa. She has mainly worked on empirically linking migration and agricultural production and on analyzing the linkages between agriculture, health and education to identify priorities for public investment in rural areas of Burkina Faso. Fleur is currently assisting the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague on work involving smallholder value chain integration through rural producer organizations in Senegal and other countries and the role of empowerment in agriculture in Niger. She also functions as a gender expert on the task force of the National Agricultural Investment Plans (NAIPs) appraisal and formulation process in the context of CAADP-Malabo Declaration. Fleur obtained her PhD in Development Economics from Wageningen University in 2006 and worked as an assistant professor at Addis Ababa University prior to joining IFPRI.