Temporary Work Visas as US-Haiti Development Cooperation: A Preliminary Impact Evaluation

Michael Clemens and Hannah M. Postel ()
Additional contact information
Hannah M. Postel: Princeton University

No 10548, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We report a small-sample, preliminary evaluation of the economic impact of temporary overseas work by Haitian agricultural workers. This work occurs in the United States in the context of a pilot program designed as a form of post-disaster development assistance to Haiti. We find that the effects of matching new seasonal agricultural jobs in the US with Haitian workers differs markedly from the effects of more traditional forms of assistance to Haiti, in three ways: The economic benefits are shared roughly equally between Haiti and the United States; these benefits are very large, including raising the value of Haitian workers' labor by a multiple of fifteen; and the portion of the benefits accruing to Haiti is uncommonly well targeted for the direct benefit of poor Haitian households. We discuss implementation challenges faced by the program and the potential for policies of this kind to complement more traditional forms of development and humanitarian assistance.

Keywords: development; policy; aid; assistance; migration; mobility; poverty; guest work; agriculture; farm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 O15 O22 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2017-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: IZA Journal of Labor & Development, 2017, 6:4

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp10548.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Temporary work visas as US-Haiti development cooperation: a preliminary impact evaluation (2017)
Working Paper: Temporary Work Visas as US-Haiti Development Cooperation: A Preliminary Impact Evaluation (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10548

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().