Toman Barsbai
tomanbarsbai.com
Toman Barsbai
@tomanbarsbai.com
320 followers 310 following 12 posts
Professor of Economics ‪at the University of Bristol‬. Development, migration, culture, and behavior. tomanbarsbai.com
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Reposted by Toman Barsbai
New from me:

An interactive data visualization showing billionaire migration: paths from birthplace to most recent residence for > 3,100 of the world’s richest individuals.

Most importantly, fun to play around with; also, useful for thinking about q's re: elites and comparative wealth ineq. 1/5
Billionaire Migration: An Interactive Map
An interactive map of city-level migration flows for 3,106 billionaires from birth to most recent residence.
wesleystubenbord.com
📢 Call for papers: Bristol Applied Economics Meeting (BÆM) on Fairness in the Economy

🗓️ 8 May 2026📍University of Bristol

Confirmed speakers: Ernst Fehr, Roland Bénabou, Ingvild Almås

No parallel sessions. Plenty of discussions. Call: baem.info/CfP_FIE_26.pdf
📢 Call for papers: Bristol Applied Economics Meeting (BÆM) on Economics of Migration

🗓️ 6-7 May 2026📍University of Bristol

Confirmed speakers: Ran Abramitzky, Joan Monras, Caroline Theoharides

No parallel sessions. Plenty of discussions. Call: baem.info/CfP_MIG_26.pdf
📢 Call for papers: Bristol Applied Economics Meeting (BÆM) on Development Economics

🗓️ 5-6 May 2026📍University of Bristol

Confirmed speakers: Mushfiq Mobarak, Kate Orkin, Imran Rasul, Pauline Rossi

No parallel sessions. Plenty of discussions. Call: baem.info/CfP_DEV_26.pdf
BÆM is back! Submit your paper and join us for the 3rd Bristol Applied Economics Meetings. Three workshops with a fantastic lineup of invited speakers:

Development Economics, 5-6 May
Economics of Migration, 6-7 May
Fairness in the Economy, 8 May

Calls for papers👇https://www.baem.info/
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
The economic effects of international students go far beyond their tuition dollars.

Many stay, innovate, & shape the productivity of the entire economy.

My co-authors & I estimate the impact of US international student exclusion policy in this new paper commissioned by the @nationalacademies.org.
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
Great news on @malengo.org: With a new large investment from The Shapiro Foundation (theshapirofoundation.org), we'll be able to bring several hundred vocational training and university students from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda to Europe over the coming years!

More here: malengo.org/malengo-secu...
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
In today's blog, I discuss 3 ways for international migration to be part of a structural transformation policy: 1) as an industry itself; 2) training people abroad in the skills to develop a new industry at home; and 3) through immigration (eg Start-up Chile) blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
International Migration as a Structural Transformation Policy
blogs.worldbank.org
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
📢 New publication out!
We introduce the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Refugee Survey — a high-quality, longitudinal household panel on refugee integration in Germany. Combining rich survey data with administrative linkages.

📰 doi.org/10.1093/esr/...

@iabnews.bsky.social @bamf.de @diw.de
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
Free Primary Education is widely seen as a tool to promote long-term growth, but in a new working paper (🚨),
@eleonoraguarnieri.bsky.social, Helmut Rainer and I show that the effects are more immediate and wide-reaching, with FPE leading to reduced fertility and greater female empowerment.
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
✨Did markets make Americans more cooperative❓🔍

✅YES‼️

Between 1850 and 1920, the US became the largest and most integrated economy in the world 📶🌎

We show that this shift didn’t just move goods and affect prices—it fundamentally changed culture and behavior

🧵 👇 1/17
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
🆕 Why ‘Brain Drain’ is an incomplete story of migration 📢

Today on VoxDevTalks, @catiabatista.bsky.social (@novafrica.bsky.social) & Caroline Theoharides (Amherst College) discuss the channels through which emigration can benefit origin countries: voxdev.org/topic/migrat...
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
"The human niche began to expand substantially ~70ka, driven by increased use of diverse habitats, from forests to deserts. Humans dispersing out of Africa after 50ka had distinct ecological flexibility as they encountered climatically challenging habitats." New from @elliescerri.bsky.social & co.👇🧪
Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal - Nature
Analysis of species distribution models in a pan-African database comprising chronometrically dated archaeological sites over the past 120,000 years shows major expansion in the human niche from 70 ka...
www.nature.com
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
How does high-skilled emigration affect countries of origin? I summarize our recent Science paper, &draw out lessons from where we need nuance (not all high-skilled is the same, & most studies lump together), what we don't know (especially how to do better policy) blogs.worldbank.org/en/impacteva...
How does high-skilled emigration affect countries of origin? A new review highlights what we’ve learned and what we still don’t know
blogs.worldbank.org
How does high-skilled emigration affect countries of origin? "The weight of the evidence suggests that migration opportunities often increase human capital stock in origin countries and produce downstream beneficial effects."

I love Figure 3, which summarizes the mechanisms.
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
Fascinating latest model of Homo sapiens evolution within Africa.

Interesting finding that cultural innovation was accelerated by both population size increases, but also recombination across partially isolated regions (e.g. Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa)
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
Malengo @malengo.org · May 15
Our scholars in Kenya are getting ready to start nursing training in Germany, supported by #Malengo. They've learned German & now seek forward-thinking employers. Know a clinic or healthcare provider hiring? Let us know!
📷 www.malengo.org
#Nursing #TVET #Migration
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
Cross-species teamwork from @livingingroups.bsky.social reveals unexpected similarities in three social mammals 🤔

By lead author @pminasandra.bsky.social with Emily Grout, Katrina Brock, Meg Crofoot, Vlad Demartsev, Amlan Nayak, Eli
Strauss, Ari Strandburg-Peshkin🧵1/2

www.ab.mpg.de/679000/news_...
Very different mammals follow the same rules of behavior
Research hints at an underlying architecture that orders the movements of animals
www.ab.mpg.de
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
NBER @nber.org · May 17
Reviewing the literature on the relationship between culture and political preferences, from Vasiliki Fouka and Marco Tabellini https://www.nber.org/papers/w33786
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
When ethnic groups within countries become more culturally distant from those holding power in the central government, their likelihood of rebelling increases significantly. We spoke with @eleonoraguarnieri.bsky.social of @bristoluni.bsky.social about why such conflicts arise. #econsky
The cultural roots of rebellion
Eleonora Guarnieri discusses the role of cultural distance in driving civil conflict in Africa.
www.aeaweb.org
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
Day 3 of the 2025 Bristol Applied Economics Meetings (BÆM)! After two fantastic days on development economics, we continue with the meeting on “Gender, Diversity, and Human Capital”. Stay tuned for some excellent papers!
Reposted by Toman Barsbai
Welcome to the 2025 Bristol Applied Economics Meetings (BÆM)! We’re kicking off with Development Economics. We have an exciting lineup of speakers, incl. @saralowes.bsky.social as keynote and Devesh Rustagi & @deanyang.bsky.social as invited speakers. Stay tuned for one key takeaway per talk!