Essays on Human Capital, Labor, and Migration in Developing Countries

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three independent essays in the field of development economics, with a focus on human capital, labor markets, and migration in developing countries. The first essay analyzes the impact of remittances on educational investments in Nigeria, highlighting the gender gap in education. Using instrumental variables estimation, it finds that remittances increase the likelihood of school enrollment, particularly of girls, and thus help narrow the gender gap in education. The second essay examines whether certain forms of employment in Indonesia scar workers’ labor market outcomes and human capital in the long run. Fixed effects estimations show that casual workers and unpaid family workers are likely to experience scarring effects on future earnings, but little evidence is found in terms of scarring effects on human capital accumulation. The third essay estimates the effects of the massive migration of Syrian refugees on the labor market in Turkey. The results show that this shock affects workers differently according to their skill levels, and also that the regions receiving larger numbers of refugees experience larger effects, but the shock spreads to all regions due to regional migration of native workers.