Events

Moving for Prosperity: Global Migration & Labor Markets

June 15, 2018

Washington, DC and Online

Access the full report here.

OVERVIEW
SPEAKERS

Migration presents a stark policy dilemma. Research has repeatedly confirmed that migrants, their families back home, and the countries that welcome them all experience large economic gains. Easing immigration restrictions is one of the most effective tools for ending poverty and sharing prosperity across the globe. Yet, we see substantial opposition in destination countries where migrants are depicted as the primary causes of many of their economic problems, from high unemployment to declining social services.
Join us on June 15 for the launch of Moving for Prosperity: Global Migration and Labor Markets, a new World Bank Policy Research Report that addresses this conflict. In addition to providing comprehensive data and analysis based on a voluminous literature, the report argues for a series of policies that work with rather than against labor market forces. Policymakers should aim to smooth short-run migration-related dislocations to ensure that we share the long-term benefits more evenly and avoid draconian policy restrictions that will hurt everybody.
Moving for Prosperity aims to inform and stimulate policy debate, facilitate further research, and identify prominent knowledge gaps. It demonstrates why existing income gaps, demographic differences, and rapidly declining transportation costs mean migration will continue to be a key feature of our lives for generations to come. Its audience includes anyone interested in one of the most controversial policy debates of our time.
CHAIR

Shanta Devarajan
Senior Director, Development Economics
Shanta Devarajan is the Senior Director for Development Economics (DEC) and Acting Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. Previously, he was the Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region. Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, and the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, the South Asia Region and Africa Region.

WELCOMING REMARKS

Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg
Elihu Professor of Economics at Yale University
Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg is the Elihu Professor of Economics at Yale University. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the American Economic Review from 2011 to 2016, and Coeditor in 2017 and from 2007 to 2010. She is currently Vice-President of the American Economic Association, Member of the Executive Committee of the Econometric Society, and President of the Eastern Economic Association.

SPEAKER

Çağlar Özden
Lead Economist and lead author of "Moving for Prosperity"
A Turkish national and a professional migrant, Caglar received his undergraduate degrees in economics and industrial engineering from Cornell University and Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. He is a fellow of IZA, CreAM and ERF. His research explores the nexus of globalization of product and labor markets, government policies and economic development.

PANELISTS

Michael Clemens
Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
Michael Clemens is co-director of migration, displacement, and humanitarian policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he studies the economic effects and causes of migration around the world. He has published on migration, development, economic history, and impact evaluation, in peer-reviewed academic journals including the American Economic Review, and his research has been awarded the Royal Economic Society Prize.

Dilip Ratha
Head of KNOMAD, World Bank
Dilip Ratha is Lead Economist, Migration and Remittances Unit, and Head, Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) in the Development Prospects Group of the World Bank. He is the focal point for the World Bank’s Migration Working Group and the Diaspora Bond Task Force, and a co-coordinator of the (G8) Global Remittances Working Group.