Theme 1: Economics of migration
Research papers and reports
Place premiums across different migration schemes, destinations, and origins (working paper), with Toan Nguyen (ANU), Dung Doan, and Matt Dornan (World Bank) [slides] [recording] [SocArXiv preprint] [Devpol DP]
Vocational qualification supply, demand, and returns from a half a billion dollar aid project in the Pacific (working paper), with Tunye Qui (ANU) [slides] [recording] [SocArXiv preprint] [Devpol DP]
Temporary migration and expenditure patterns in Tonga (working paper), with Hiroshi Maeda (JICA) [SocArXiv preprint] [Devpol DP]
Seasonal work visas and the wages, employment, and mobility of incumbent workers (working paper), with Toan Nguyen (ANU) [slides] [SocArXiv preprint] [Devpol DP]
Leveraging Human Capital in the East Asia and Pacific Region - A Companion Piece to the World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Society, World Bank (with many co-authors). [Full report]
Narratives, information, and immigration policy preferences (working paper), with Alyssa Leng and Terence Wood (ANU) [SocArXiv preprint] [Devpol DP] [blogs] [brief (available on request)] [Guardian coverage] [AAP coverage] [ABC coverage] [ANU Media]
Tongan remittances: channels, costs, and the potential gains from switching (working paper), with Hiroshi Maeda and Daniel Suryadarma (ADBI) [Devpol DP] [ADBI WP] [slides] [blogs]
The Gains and Pains of Working Away from Home: The Case of Temporary Migrant Workers in Australia and New Zealand (report), World Bank and ANU, November 2023 (with Dung Doan and Matt Dornan) [Full report] [Two-pager] [Canberra Times coverage] [VBTC coverage] [Radio New Zealand coverage] [AAC 2023 Launch Presentation Slides] [AAC 2023 Launch Presentation Video] [podcast]
Curtain, R., Edwards, R.B., Tani, M., and Withers, G (2022), “It is time for a new regional compact”, Australian Economic Review, May. [open access published version] [Parliamentary Library briefing]
Edwards, R.B. (2020) “Bubble in, bubble out: lessons for the global recovery and future crises from COVID-19 and the Pacific”, World Development, 135, November. [published version] [preprint]
Opinion and blogs
Public opinion on immigration: more malleable than you think, Devpolicy, 2025 (with Alyssa Leng and Terence Wood)
A mixed bag: views on immigration from Australia, Devpolicy, 2025 (with Alyssa Leng and Terence Wood)
Australians have much to learn about Pacific migration, Devpolicy, 2025 (with Alyssa Leng and Terence Wood)
Fiji fights for brain gain amid wave of emigration, East Asia Forum, 2024 (with Kushneel Prakash and Toan Nguyen)
It pays to switch remittance service providers, so what’s stopping people?, Devpolicy, 2024 (with Hiroshi Maeda and Daniel Suryadarma)
Customer choices are keeping Pacific remittance costs high, Devpolicy, 2024 (with Hiroshi Maeda and Daniel Suryadarma)
Remittance costs in the Pacific: measurement matters, Devpolicy, 2024 (with Hiroshi Maeda and Daniel Suryadarma)
Australia’s immigration spike not necessarily driving up housing prices, experts say, The Guardian, 2023 (comments)
New data to inform big decisions around Pacific labour mobility, Devpolicy, 2023 (with Dung Doan and Matt Dornan)
Look at the evidence: Cutting immigration would be a mistake for Australia, SMH/Age, 2023 (with Steven Hamilton)
PALM Hours, Devpolicy, 2023 (with Dung Doan and Matt Dornan)
A proposal for a new regional compact to promote people mobility, Devpolicy 2022 (with Richard Curtain, Max Tani, and Glenn Withers)
Does emigration hurt businesses in migrant-sending countries? Devpolicy, 2021
Evidence for the Senate Select Committee on Temporary Migration Hansard 14 October 2020 (with Stephen Howes and Holly Lawton)
Evidence for the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Trade Hansard 16 September 2020 (with Richard Curtain)
Australians support the Pacific travel bubble, DevPolicy, 2020 (with Chris Hoy and Terence Wood) ABC Pacific Beat interview
Pacific islander communities and employment in Australia, DevPolicy, 2020 (with Beth Orton)
Submission to the Select Committee on Temporary Migration, 2020 (with Holly Lawton)
Study in Australia or teach in the Pacific?, DevPolicy, 2020 (with Satish Chand)
Thinking about brain drain: part three, DevPolicy, 2019
Thinking about brain drain: part two, DevPolicy, 2019
Thinking about brain drain, DevPolicy, 2019
Presentation slides and videos, podcasts, and interviews
Seasonal work visas and the wages, employment, and mobility of incumbent workers, Pacific Labour Mobility Technical Working Group, 2024 (slides, with Toan Nguyen)
Country Today 19893WM, 2024 (interview)
Timor-Leste president slams exploitation in Australia's PALM scheme, ABC News, 2024 (comments)
The financial lives of Pacific migrants, 2024, ANU Pacific Migration Update (slides, with Estelle Stambolie)
A brief update on Pacific-Australia migration, 2024, Australia Solomon Islands Business Forum (slides)
Pacific Migration Update, 2024, ANU Migration Update (slides)
Migration and the Pacific, 2024, ANU Migration Hub-Department of Home Affairs seminar series (slides)
ABC Pacific Beat interview on remittance costs, 2024 (comments; story from 37 min)
The gains and the pains of working away from home, Devpolicy Talks (podcast), 2024 (with Amita Monterola and Dung Doan)
The Pacific Labour Mobility Survey: Key Findings from Wave One, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, 2024 (with Dung Doan)
Tongan Remittances, Pacific Labour Mobility Technical Working Group, 2024
The migration debate is heating up, but will the war of words lead to action?, ABC News, 2024 (comments)
Immigration is good, actually, Building Beautifully, 2024 (podcast/youtube)
Migration and development, Guest lecture for Governing Global Migration, 2024
Evaluating Pacific-Australia labour mobility, Public Sector Economics Conference, ANU, 2023
The Pacific Labour Mobility Survey: Key Worker Survey Findings, PALM Advisory Group meeting, 2023, and Pacific Heads of Mission Workshop, 2023 (with Dung Doan)
The labour market impacts of lower-skilled temporary immigration: evidence from the PALM scheme, Australian Workshop on Public Finance, 2023, ANU (subsequently Melbourne Institute and USyd)
Submission to DFAT’s Pacific Labour Mobility Consultation, 2021 (with Richard Curtain, Stephen Howes, Rochelle Lee Bailey, Charlotte Bedford, and Michael Rose)
ABC Pacific Beat interview on the new Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, 2021
Pacific islanders in Australia, Interdepartmental Committee on Pacific Education and Labour Mobility New Policy Measures, 9 August 2021, Australian Government [Slides]
Australians support the Pacific travel bubble, DevPolicy, 2020 (with Chris Hoy and Terence Wood) ABC Pacific Beat interview
Pacific Labour Mobility in 2050: Australia’s role: Submission to the DFAT consultation on the Pacific Islands Forum 2050 Strategy, 2020 (with Stephen Howes)
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about migration policy, PODstemology podcast, with Mark Fabian
Major field projects
Promoting employment and welfare for the poor in Papua New Guinea through assistance in international labor migration, with Dean Yang (UMich), IPA, and the World Bank. Seed and pilot funding from J-PAL SPI; full-scale IE funding from DFAT via World Bank. Pilot delayed to 2025.
The Pacific Labour Mobility Survey, Wave Two, with the World Bank (multiple co-PIs). Funded by DFAT via PRPII. Expanded to cover eight countries. In the field 2025. Final report and data release 2026. [podcast]
Shifting migration attitudes and perceptions in Australia, with Alyssa Leng, Toan Nguyen, and Terence Wood (ANU). Funded by DFAT via PRPI. Paper, blogs, and data forthcoming.
The Remittance Diaries, with Estelle Stambolie (ANU), Jonathan Morduch (NYU), Tim Ogden (NYU), and Hannah Postel (Stanford). Funded by DFAT via PRPI. Data collection complete. Report and papers forthcoming.
The Pacific Labour Mobility Survey, Wave One (completed project), with the World Bank (multiple co-PIs) [report] [two-pager] [blog] [launch slides] [launch video] [worker findings slides] [blogs on Devpolicy] [Canberra Times coverage] [VBTC coverage] [Radio New Zealand coverage] [podcast] Funded by DFAT via PRPI. Public data coming soon.
Theme 2: International trade and the environment
Research papers and reports
Global agricultural value chains and local forest loss dynamics: evidence on Indonesian palm oil factories (working paper), with Shuhao Yang (ANU graduate) [SocArXiv preprint] [Devpol DP]
Spillovers from agricultural processing (working paper), [SocArXiv preprint] [ACDE WP, July 2024] [short slides] [long slides]
Fight fire with finance: a randomized field experiment to curtail land-clearing fire in Indonesia (completed project and working paper), with Wally Falcon, Grace Hadiwidjaja, Matt Higgins, Roz Naylor, and Sudarno Sumarto (Stanford University, SMERU Research Institute, and TNP2K). [Trial Registration] [TTPI WP] [TNP2K WP] [short slides] [long slides] [webinar video] [policy talk] [policy brief] [Mongabay article] [podcast]. Revise and Resubmit at the Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics
Edwards, R.B. (forthcoming), “Export agriculture and rural poverty: evidence from Indonesian palm oil”, Journal of International Economics (accepted) [paper] [slides] [blog]
Halimatussadiah, A., Edwards, R.B., Maulia, R.F., and Moeis, F.R. (2022), “Agriculture, Development, and Sustainability in the COVID-19 Era”, Bulletin of Indonesia Economic Studies, April. [published version]
Hadiwidjaja, G., Falcon, W., Edwards, R.B., Higgins, M.M., and Naylor, R.L. (2022), “Using Conditional Cash Payments to Prevent Land-Clearing Fires: A Cautionary Tale from Indonesia”, with Grace Hadiwijaja, Wally Falcon, Matt Higgins, Roz Naylor, and Sudarno Sumarto, Agriculture, 12:7 [TNP2K working paper]
Edwards, R.B., Falcon, W.P., Higgins, M.M., and Naylor, R.L. (2020), “Causes of Indonesia’s Forest Fires”, World Development, 127, March. [published version]
Naylor, R.L., Higgins, M.M., Edwards, R.B., and Falcon, W.P. (2019) “Decentralization and the environment: assessing smallholder oil palm development in Indonesia ”, Ambio, Jan, pp. 1—14. [published version]
Edwards, R.B. (2017) “The Oil Palm Complex”, Journal of Southeast Asian Economies, 34: 2, pp. 430-431 [published version] [link to the e-book and publisher]
Opinion and blogs
Has resource extraction reduced poverty?, Inside Indonesia, 2017
How has our rising palm oil consumption affected the communities where it comes from?, World Bank Development Impact, 2016
Presentation slides and videos, podcasts, and interviews
Export agriculture, rural development, and the environment, ICOEBS Keynote Presentation, Indonesia, 2024 (slides)
Palm oil and economic development: a brief review of recent evidence, ASEAN Chairmanship Energy Sector Event, 2023, Jakarta
NOVAFRICA Sustainable Development Talks podcast, Season 2 Episode 13
Major field projects
Agricultural productivity, poverty, and the environment, with Alin Halimatussadiah (UI), Elan Satriawan (TNP2K and UGM), and Emilia Tjernstrom (Monash). Seed and pilot funding from J-PAL K-CAI and DFAT KONEKSI. Pilot study completed and final report submitted. Full-scale RCT design and launch under development.
An experiment to curtail land-clearing fire in Indonesia, with Stanford University (multiple co-PIs), Sampan Kalimantan, the Packard Foundation, and the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction, 2017—2019. Funded by the Packard Foundation, Norwegian Climate Fund, and others. Papers and other material above.
Theme 3: Natural resources and other topics in development economics
Research papers and reports
Mining projects and local economic development in Papua New Guinea (working paper), with Kelly Samof (University of Papua New Guinea) [SocArXiv preprint] [Devpol DP]
Suryadarma, D., and Edwards, R.B. (2022) “Social and Economic Impacts of Online Marketplaces on Women in Asia”, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, forthcoming (special issue editorial) [DOI]
COVID-19 and food systems in the Indo-Pacific: An assessment of vulnerabilities, impacts and opportunities for action, ACIAR, 2020
Edwards, R.B. (2016) “Mining away the Preston curve”, World Development, 78, February 2018, pp. 22—36. [published version] [Wikipedia article]
Opinion and blogs
Chinese (and Western) aid boosts short-run economic growth, Devpolicy 2022
Women in online marketplaces: new research, Devpolicy
ODE will not be returning. What’s the best alternative for a modern development program? Intel, Development Intelligence Lab
Australian aid cuts at odds with changing public opinion, DevPolicy, 2021 (with Terence Wood)
Altruism, China and attitudes to aid, Devpolicy, 2020 (with Chris Hoy and Terence Wood)
COVID-19 has not caused a fall in Australians’ support for aid, DevPolicy, 2020 (with Chris Hoy and Terence Wood)
Three insights from the Kiribati Social Development Indicator Survey, DevPolicy, 2020
Study in Australia or teach in the Pacific?, DevPolicy, 2020 (with Satish Chand)
Submission to the review of Australia’s new international development policy, 2020 (with Stephen Howes, Terence Wood, and Sherman Surandiran)
Has resource extraction reduced poverty?, Inside Indonesia, 2017
Resource wealth and direct dividend payments: what’s missing?, Devpolicy, 2015
Presentation slides and videos, podcasts, and interviews
Small Firm Diaries: A Brief Introduction (with Estelle Stambolie), Pacific Labour Mobility Technical Working Group 2024
Insights on Small Firms in Fiji, Pacific Update 2023 presentation (with Michelle Kempis)
Economic development in the Pacific (presentation slides for the course “Understanding the Pacific”)
Major field projects
Small Firm Diaries (completed project), with Jonathan Morduch (NYU), Tim Ogden (NYU), Neelesh Gounder (USP), and Estelle Stamobolie (ANU). [preliminary Fiji findings slides]. Funded by DFAT via PRPI. Report and papers forthcoming.