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Open in new tab Melanie Morten
Department of Economics
Stanford University
579 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305
memorten@stanford.edu
Current employment:
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Stanford University, 7/2021-
Professional service:
Associate Editor, Review of Economics and Statistics, 2/2019-
Affiliations:
Affiliate, Y-RISE, 8/2018-
Affiliate, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), 2/2017-
Affiliate, International Growth Center (IGC), 11/2016-
Affiliate, Bureau Research Economic Development (BREAD), 6/2016-
Affiliate, Stanford Center for International Development (SCID), 11/2014-
Affiliate, Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), 9/2014-
Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau for Economic Research, 5/2014-
Affiliate, J-PAL Urban Services Initiative, 2/2014-
Education:
Ph.D., Economics (with distinction), Yale University, 2007-2013
B.Com., (hons), The University of Auckland, 2005
Previous employment:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Stanford University, 7/2014-7/2021
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, MIT, 7/2018-12/2018
Junior Scholar, Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 6/2013-6/2014
Consultant for Macroeconomics (Karlan/Morduch) textbook, McGraw Hill, 1/2011-6/2011
Research Assistant, World Bank Development Economics Research Group, 6/2009-8/2009
Research Assistant, Motu Economic Research and Public Policy, Wellington, New Zealand, 2/2006-
7/2007
Thesis: “Temporary Migration and Endogenous Risk Sharing in Village India”
Committee: Mark Rosenzweig, Aleh Tsyvinski, Chris Udry
Publications in peer-reviewed journals (reverse chronological order):
1. Balboni, C., Bryan, G., Morten, M., & Siddiqi, B. (2021). Could Gentrification Stop the Poor from
Benefiting from Urban Improvements? Forthcoming: American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings
2. Mobarak, M., Meghir, C., Mommaerts, C., & Morten, M (2021). Migration and Informal Insurance.
NBER Working Paper 26082. Forthcoming: the Review of Economic Studies
3. Bryan, G. & Morten, M. (2019) The Aggregate Productivity Effects of Internal Migration: Evidence
from Indonesia. Journal of Political Economy, 127(5): 2229-2268.
4. Morten, M (2019), Temporary Migration and Endogenous Risk Sharing in Village India. Journal of
Political Economy, 127(1): 1-46. (Lead article)
5. Karlan, D., Morten, M. & Zinman, J. (2016). A Personal Touch in Text Messaging can Improve
Microloan Repayment. Behavioral Science and Policy, 1(2), 25-31.
6. Bollard, A., McKenzie, D., Morten, & M., Rapoport, H. (2011). Remittances and the Brain Drain
Revisited: The Microdata Show That More Educated Migrants Remit More. World Bank Economic
Review, 25(1), 132-156.
7. Bollard, A., McKenzie, D., & Morten, M. (2010). The Remitting Patterns of African Migrants in the
OECD. Journal of African Economics, 19(5), 605-634.
Working papers (reverse chronological order):
8. Balboni, C., Bryan, G., Morten, M., & Siddiqi, B. (2020). Transportation, Gentrification, and Urban
Mobility: The Inequality Effects of Place-Based Policies.
9. Chandrasekhar, A., Morten, M., & Peter, A. (2020). Network-based Hiring: Local Benefits; Global
10. Allen, T., Dobbin, C., & Morten, M. (2019). Border Walls. NBER Working Paper 25267. Revision
Costs. NBER Working Paper 26806
requested: Review of Economic Studies
11. Morten, M. & Oliveira, J. (2018). The Effects of Roads on Trade and Migration: Evidence from a
Planned Capital City. NBER Working Paper 22158. Revision requested: AEJ: Applied
Work in progress:
12. Bryan, G., Milusheva, S., Morten, M., Siddiqi, B, & Zhang, S. The Importance of Place: Spatially
Conditional Transfers in Dar es Salaam
13. Chandrasekhar, A., Morten, M., & Peter, A. Experimental Evidence on Contracting Frictions
14. Bryan, G., Chowdhury, S., Mobarak, M., Morten, M. & Smits, J. Identifying Migrant Selectivity.
Grants as a Principal Investigator:
Evaluating the Impacts of the Dar es Salaam BRT System
1. Stanford SEED, 2017, ($125,000)
2. 3ie, 2016, ($249,477)
3. IGC, 2016, (GBP 132,346)
Contract Structure, Social Networks, and Firm Size
4. Stanford Center on Global Poverty and Development, 2017, ($45,000)
5. NSF, 2014, ($578,447) (joint with Arun Chandrashekar)
Seasonal Migration in Myanmar
6. G2LM|LIC, 2020, (Euro 334,777)
Fellowships, honors and awards:
Sloan Research Fellowship, 2019-2021
JEEA Excellence in Refereeing Award, 2018
National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2018-2023
Stanford IRiSS Faculty Fellow, 2017-2018
Yvette Gurley Research Scholar, Stanford, 2016
Review of Economic Studies, May Meetings Speaker, 2013
George Trimmins Dissertation Prize, 2013
Poster Prize, NEUDC, MIT, 2010
Robert Evenson Travel Fellowship, Yale University, 2010
Sasakawa Fellowship, Yale University, 2010
Overbrook Fellowship, Yale University, 2009-2010
A.R. Bergstrom Prize in Econometrics, 2008
Yale Fellowship for Doctoral Study, 2007-2013
Motu Doctoral Scholarship, New Zealand, 2007
Invited seminar presentations:
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
Job Market
UAB
UC Berkeley (Haas), UC Berkeley (ARE), University of Minnesota, University of Chicago
Booth, Arizona State University
UC Berkeley (ARE, International), UC Berkeley (Development), UCSD, UCLA,
Wharton, Princeton, Oxford, Georgetown
USC, UW Seattle, MIT/Harvard, Yale, Boston University
Simon Fraser, UCSC, IFPRI, Namur, Paris School of Economics, Toulouse, Princeton
University of Houston, USF, Duke, Penn State, IIES Stockholm, University of California
Berkeley (Trade), University of California Berkeley (ARE), Dartmouth
University of Chicago, University of Toronto, University of California Berkeley
(Development)
Harvard/MIT Joint Development Seminar, WUSTL/Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis,
Brown University, University of Calgary
Royal Holloway, UCL/LSE Joint Development Seminar, University of Oxford, USC
UCLA, University of Minnesota, University of Chicago, Stanford GSB, Stanford, UCL,
Harvard University, University of Wisconsin Madison, Princeton University,
Northwestern University
Conference presentations:
2020*
BREAD, ASSA (x2)
American Economic Association, FRB Dallas – U. of Houston – Banco de Mexico
Conference in International Economics
UCLA Trade/Devo Mini Conference, SED Mexico City, NBER Summer Institute
(Labor Studies), Urban Economics Association
NBER Trade and Geography Conference, Notre Dame Development Mini-Conference,
NBER Summer Institute (Development)
ASSA meetings, U Washington Bangladesh Conference, SED, Duke Applied
Microeconomics Jamboree
NBER Summer Institute (Economic Growth; Productivity and Entrepreneurship; Urban
Economics), Armenia Mini-Conference on Growth and Development, SED Warsaw,
Barcelona Summer Workshop on Migration, UCLA Trade/Devo Mini Conference,
Oxford Center for Study of African Economies Conference
ASSA meetings, NBER Summer Institute (Development Economics), AFD/CGD
Migration and Development Conference (Oxford), PODER/CEPR Workshop
(Stockholm), IFS/CEAR Family and Risk Workshop
Restud May Meetings (Central European University Budapest, Goethe University
Frankfurt, University of Edinburgh), IZA/WZB Field Days Conference (Berlin), NBER
Summer Institute (Development Economics)
NEUDC (Dartmouth), CEAR Households and Risk Workshop (University of Georgia)
NEUDC (Yale), Advances with Field Experiments Conference (University of Chicago)
NEUDC (MIT, Poster), Migration and Development Conference (Paris School of
Economics)
* including scheduled
Public and Departmental Service:
Organizing Committee, Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics (SITE): 2014—current
Scientific Committee, Migration and Development Conference, 2018—current
Program Committee, Society for Economic Dynamics Conference: 2015—2018
Stanford Graduate Admissions Committee: 2015—2016
Stanford Undergraduate Policy Committee: 2019—current
Referee Service:
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Review, Economic
Development and Cultural Change, Econometrica, Economic Journal, Innovations for Poverty Action
Research Review Committee, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of the European Economic
Association, Journal of Human Capital, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Economic Geography,
Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Urban Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Regional
Science, Review of Economic Dynamics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Economic
Studies, Science, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, World Bank Economic Review.
Ad-hoc reviewer for Innovations for Poverty Action and the National Science Foundation.
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
PhD students:
(Secondary committee member, unless otherwise noted. Initial placement noted.)
Alex Lenk, expected 2023
Sally Zhang, expected 2022
Cauê Dobbin, expected 2022
Eduardo Muggenberg, expected 2021
Diego Javier Hernandez, expected 2021
Yiming He, expected 2021
Alessandra Peter, 2019, (NYU)
Thomas Ginn, 2019, (Center for Global Development)
Travis Baseler, 2019, (Rochester)
Katy Bergstrom, 2019, (World Bank)
Kevin (Hoan) Nguyen, 2017, (Amazon)
Santiago Perez, 2017, (UC Davis)
Santiago Saavedra, 2017, (Universidad del Rosario)
Michela Giorcelli, 2016, (UCLA)
Courses taught:
Introductory economics (2014—2016)
Undergraduate development economics (2020—2021)
Graduate development economics (2014—2021)
Updated: 6/30/21