So is labor mobility receiving enough attention as a development tool? Should we be thinking about labor mobility differently as an asset for economic development and regional integration rather than simply a policy problem?

I think labor mobility is perhaps the most under-focused intervention when we talk about actually addressing poverty, creating jobs, developing skills, integrating with global economies.

There are just so many benefits to doing labor mobility effectively that it's shocking to me that, you know, in the whole world of various interventions of what people look at in terms of actually improving people's lives and ultimately driving structural transformation within lower middle-income countries that, you know, labor mobility is not more at the forefront of what's being discussed.

And so absolutely, I think labor mobility should not just be seen as some kind of political or, you know, perhaps, you know, security imbued area, but really this is a economic survival and catalytic intervention to look at.

And so, you know, if you look at countries that have created organized streamlined pathways, it's undoubtedly the case that they've seen these benefits across not just their economic outputs, but also their social and educational development as well.

There have been all sorts of different case studies that have looked at, for example, the mobility of nurses from the Philippines to various global markets as well as IT workers from India to various global markets.

And to just, you know, touch very, very quickly on the classic, you know, brain drain trope, is it the case that because Silicon Valley recruited lots of IT engineers from India back in the '90s and 2000s that India somehow lost or ran out of all of their software developers? No, the exact opposite happened.

Or is it a combination of all of this? What are some of the barriers that you see?

So do you wanna talk about this and sort of the type of entrepreneurs you're looking for?

Yeah.

So, so really when we think about labor mobility and the kinds of businesses that need to be built out in order to unlock the full pathways, I would say broadly they're in, they're in three different buckets.

Um, and I'll start with the first one 'cause I think this is perhaps the most underlooked but the most important component.

That's really about organizing the demand side.

So, so the most important, the binding constraint in actually moving workers, you know, from low-income countries to high-income countries is getting a high-income country employer to actually extend that specific job offer in order to bring, um, that worker over.

And so what you need to do is you need to have someone who is finding all of these companies, these businesses in high-income countries, uh, or in a specific country, um, and building trust with them and understanding what their needs are in terms of their hiring.

Um, so like first, what are the biggest frictions I as that economic migrant experience, you know, right now along that migrant journey? And then, um, I guess number two, are there, are there current, um, organizations or companies like focused on addressing at least like some of those frictions that the, you know, average or typical migrant from these places trying to get to Italy or Germany or elsewhere, uh, experience along that journey?

Can you just give me the top-line findings of your report?

Sure.

So we researched the entry of data centers into different counties around the US and wanted to know what effect they had on the local economies where they were built.

And we were primarily interested in economic outcomes.

And what we find is that when data centers enter, they spur economic development in a modest way.

So we were looking at outcomes like new business establishments, the creation of jobs and wages.

What we find is Over the first three years after the entry of data centers, we find about a 1% increase in jobs, corresponding increase in establishments.

How could having a data center in your community impact electricity prices?

But why do you believe export manufacturing remains one of the fastest and most reliable routes out of poverty?

I think there are a few key reasons why export manufacturing in particular is the way to go.

So and I would draw the distinction here between manufacturing generally, because I think a lot of times when you look at the manufacturing policies and incentives that are put in place in various African economies, they tend to be very focused on manufacturing generally or even on import substitution.

Which is a I think very attractive sounding idea.

But once again, the evidence really does not show that it leads to the positive transformative results that people hope for.

So this idea that, oh, we are importing an item, you know, let's say shoes and And, you know, we shouldn't be importing shoes.

We can make our own shoes.

Why is that? Once again, I'm a data-driven