Raoul van Maarseveen wins 2020 IPUMS Research Award

-The competition was tough, and the Award Committee agreed that Raoul van Maarseveen's article was the best contribution in the category of research by a graduate student using IPUMS International data, says Steven Ruggles, Director IPUMS, Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation, University of Minnesota. 

In his paper, van Maarseveen explores questions such as the effects of growing up in a city on improving outcomes for children in developing countries, and whether rural to urban migration is a viable way to increase opportunities. To answer these questions, he uses census data on 14 African countries combined with an age-at-move design.

- I am very grateful and honoured to have received this award for my research. The availability of public census data for developing countries opens up very exciting new ways to study interesting questions particularly regarding to urban migration, and I look forward to continue working on these topics, says van Maarseveen.

The main findings from van Maarseveen's research are that childhood exposure to cities raises primary school completion, school attendance and literacy rates across all countries studied. The results are robust for the inclusion of household fixed effects, visible across all population groups and particularly large for girls. Hence, the findings suggest that rural-to-urban migration in developing countries on average benefits child outcomes. Furthermore, the paper highlights an alternative channel through which urbanization can stimulate economic development, even in the absence of structural transformation.

The full article can be down-loaded here.

Raoul van Maarseveen's personal web.