Joyce Chen is Assistant Professor at the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics
at the University of Ohio.

She is a development economist with research interests in migration, household bargaining and human capital. Her research program focuses on analyzing migration choices and the impact of those choices on household decision-making and the intra-household allocation of resources. One line of research highlights the importance of distinguishing temporary migrants, who retain their household membership, and permanent migrants, who have established new, separate households. These two types of migration represent different household strategies and different degrees of involvement with the origin household, with very different implications for the household as well as the origin and destination communities.

Current work looks at the importance of non-monetary linkages between migrants and their origin households, patterns of selection into temporary and permanent migration, and optimal survey design for characterizing migration episodes. Previous work has examined information asymmetries and limited commitment among household members and the implications for household productivity and efficiency as well as investments in children’s schooling and health. A second line of research examines the impact of climate risk on migration and, in turn, the impact of this migration on risk and resilience in vulnerable areas. Work-in-progress estimates the impact of rainfall variability, freshwater flooding, and saltwater intrusion on migration in Bangladesh. Chen is also a Co-PI on an interdisciplinary Belmont Forum Grand Challenge project - Bangladesh Delta: Assessment of the Causes of Sea-level Rise Hazards and Integrated Development of Predictive Modeling Towards Mitigation and Adaptation (BanD-AID).

Joyce Chen joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2015.