Catia Batista is Associate Professor of Economics at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where she is also co-Founder and Scientific Director of the NOVAFRICA research center. Catia holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago.

Catia has research interests related to international migration and remittance flows, mobile money, entrepreneurship, technology adoption, education and policy evaluation. She has done work including randomized and lab-in-the-field experiments in countries such as Cape Verde, the Gambia, Ireland, Kenya, Portugal, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe.

Currently a research fellow at the CReAM center (University College London, UK), Catia has taught at the University of Chicago, University of Oxford, Notre Dame University, and Trinity College Dublin. Previously, she worked at the International Monetary Fund and Portuguese Catholic University, and consulted for the World Bank and the International Growth Center. Her academic work has appeared in outlets such as the Journal of Development Economics, and the World Bank Economic Review.

Catia is currently a Research Fellow at IZA, and joined IZA as a Research Affiliate in May 2005.