Melanie Morten, from Stanford Univrersity, will present   "The effects of legal short-term migration: Evidence from the H-2A program"

Abstract: In 2023, 300,000 temporary legal migrants worked on H-2A visas in the agricultural sector in the United States. These migrants - primarily men -- hail primarily from Mexico. In this paper, we randomize H-2A seasonal visas for Mexican workers to work in the United States. We follow H-2A recruits who did and didn't receive the visa, alongside their households in Mexico, to understand the impact of migrating on consumption, investment decisions, individuals' beliefs, and household dynamics.