Professor Gaia Narciso
Professor In, Economics

Projects

• Title
  • NOURISH
• Summary
  • Nutrition and Treatment Outcome: Development of a Ugandan-Irish HIV/Nutrition Research Cluster
• Funding Agency
  • Irish Aid
• Date From
  • October 2012
• Date To
  • September 2015

• Title
  • The historical roots of Politically-Motivated Rebellion: Evidence from the Irish Revolution
• Summary
  • The aim of the proposed project is to investigate whether radical historical events have a long-run impact in the decision to participate in a rebellion. In particular, I intend to test the impact of the Irish famine on the probability of joining the Irish Volunteers and the movement of independence in Ireland during the period 1913-1921. By combining different historical data sources I intend to identify the determinants of those who actively participated in the movement for Independence. I will test the hypothesis of the role of the Irish famine as an exceptional legacy of violence during the period of the Irish revolution.
• Funding Agency
  • IRC, Pathfinder (TCD), ASSBF (TCD)
• Date From
  • 2014

• Title
  • Migration networks and Information
• Summary
  • How do information flows matter for remittance behavior? We examine this question using a tailored survey of immigrants in Ireland, including very detailed data on their networks before and after migration (both in the host country and abroad) as well as on the information flows between these immigrants and their networks. We implement a randomized field experiment in which some of the surveyed immigrants are offered the possibility of contacting their networks outside the host country for free from their mobile phones over a varying number of months. We examine the impact that these incremental information flows had on different dimensions of remittance behavior and intentions to return.
• Funding Agency
  • NORFACE
• Date From
  • 2009
• Date To
  • 2014

• Title
  • Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey
• Summary
  • Policy research and impact assessment within agriculture and rural development in Vietnam.
• Funding Agency
  • University of Copenhagen
• Date From
  • 2008
• Date To
  • 2008

• Title
  • Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey
• Summary
  • Policy research and impact assessment within agriculture and rural development in Vietnam
• Funding Agency
  • University of Copenhagen
• Date From
  • 2010
• Date To
  • 2010

• Title
  • Vietnam Access to Resources Household Survey
• Summary
  • Policy research and impact assessment within agriculture and rural development in Vietnam
• Funding Agency
  • University of Copenhagen
• Date From
  • 2012
• Date To
  • 2012

• Title
  • The effect of mafia on public transfers
• Summary
  • Organized crime is a worldwide, widespread phenomenon, which affects developing as well as developed countries, and entails deep economic and social consequences. The purpose of this study is to enhance our understanding of organized crime activities. By using an innovative data set on Sicilian mafia activity available at municipality level, we test whether firms located in municipalities with mafia-related crimes obtain more public subsidies. In order to deal with the endogeneity of the relationship, we explore the origins of mafia. We instrument current mafia activity with exogenous historical and geographical shifters of land productivity, i.e. rainfall in the XIX century and geographical features at municipality level. We provide evidence that the presence of mafia affects the allocation of public transfers: municipalities with mafia activity receive larger public funding. The estimated impact of mafia is also economically relevant and equals one standard deviation of the dependent variable. According to our estimates the presence of mafia increases the total amounts of funds by about 35% on average. A series of robustness checks confirms the above findings.
• Date From
  • 2010

• Title
  • Refugees and Illegal Arms Trade
• Summary
  • The aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of illegal arms flows across countries. We proceed in two steps. First, we measure the extent of illegal arms flows on the basis of official trade statistics, by considering the difference between export data reported by the exporter country and import figures recorded by the importer country. Second, we show that illegal arms flows are related to the degree of strain experienced by customs and borders on the importer side. We provide evidence that refugee flows reduce the ability of the receiving country to patrol its borders and its customs.
• Funding Agency
  • Arts and Social Sciences Benefactions Fund
• Date From
  • 2008

• Title
  • WTO accession and tariff evasion
• Summary
  • This study argues that an important benefit of the WTO membership may lie in bringing about improvements to the functioning of the customs service which result in lower tariff evasion. The WTO Customs Valuation Agreement limits the discretion of customs officials and thus the scope for corrupt activity leading to a better collection rate of tariff revenue. Our analysis focuses on misrepresentation of the import price and its sensitivity to the tariff rate before and after the WTO accession. To evade paying tariffs, importers have an incentive to underreport the price of imported products. This incentive increases with the tariff rate. If the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement limits the discretion of customs officials in terms of assessing the price of imports, it should lower the sensitivity of price misrepresentation to the tariff rate after the WTO accession. Using data on 15 countries which joined the WTO between 1996 and 2008, we calculate the discrepancy in the unit values of imports as reported by the exporter and the importer. We find that (i) there is a positive relationship between the tariff rate and misrepresentation of import prices, and (ii) this relationship disappears after the country joins the WTO. Our results are consistent with the WTO serving as an external commitment device allowing countries to introduce politically difficult reforms.
• Funding Agency
  • Arts and Social Sciences Benefactions Fund
• Date From
  • 2008