Event Date
Speaker: Xiao Hui Tai, Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, UC Davis
Title: "Civil Conflict Affects Seasonal Labor Flows"
Abstract: Beyond immediate loss of life and physical destruction, civil conflict affects societies in a myriad of ways, many of which are difficult to quantify. In this work, we study the effect of conflict on economic activity, in the form of seasonal labor flows. We develop an approach to measure seasonal agricultural labor flows in a data-scarce setting, using satellite imagery and mobile phone data. We estimate the relationship between the amount of cultivation and our measured seasonal inflows. We then examine how conflict in the form of violence and insurgent activity affects this relationship, revealing differential effects. The context that we study is opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, a chronically violent country that accounts for around 70-80% of the world's supply of opium. More broadly, this work demonstrates how non-traditional data sources can help improve our understanding of complex development challenges.
Seminar Date/Time: Thursday, Nov 17, 4:10pm
Refreshments: 3;30pm, MSB Courtyard (will move inside 1147 if it rains or is cold)