alice mesnard‪City, University of London‬ - ‪‪Cited by 3,030‬‬ - ‪Development Economics‬ - ‪Migration‬ - ‪Social Policies‬

Research

Overview of current projects

My current research studies the drivers and impacts of migration, with a special focus on the integration of refugees and irregular migrants in host countries. This led me to collaborate in an interdisciplinary H2020 project with political scientists to study the impacts of border closure on refugees and irregular migrants to Europe.

I am a co-founder of the South Asia Network for Displacement and Development (SANDD), which aims to increase interdisciplinary collaboration and regional cooperation in conducting research that helps climate change-affected South Asian communities develop resilience strategies.

Research impacts

I have explored how legalisation policies can be implemented to weaken smuggling markets.

I have applied my research findings to design visas policies against smuggling and to cannabis legalisation, with specific reference to the French and US markets.

On this link you can find a summary of the impacts of this research, which has been submitted by my university for its last impact evaluation exercise (REF2021).

Below, you'll find my writing organised by publication type and year.

Policy Blogs

NEW : "Comment le gel de l'USAID menace la surveillance sanitaire mondiale" The Conversation, 2025/04/10

"L’externalisation des contrôles migratoires de l’UE : une politique dangereuse et inefficace" The Conversation, 20/11/2024.

"Migration irreguliere : et si nous assouplissions notre politique de visas?" The Conversation, 25/03/2024.

“Foreign work permits to outrun human smugglers”, with E. Auriol and T. Perrault, VoxEU, 25 May 2022. Available at: https://voxeu.org/article/foreign-work-permits-outrun-human-smugglers

“Easing lockdown- digital applications can help” with P.Seabright, VoxEU, 1 May 2020. Available at: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/easing-lockdown-digital-applications-can-help

“Economics of legalising cannabis: pricing and policing are crucial” The Conversation, 29/07/2019.

"Cannabis: how can we take back control?" with E.Auriol and T.Perrault. Focus of the CAE (Comité d’Analyse Economique) report on cannabis legalization, no. 33-2019.

In English Available at : https://www.cae-eco.fr/en/Cannabis-comment-reprendre-le-controle

In French “En finir avec les dealers: à quel prix?” Available at: http://www.cae-eco.fr/Focus-no-33-En-finir-avec-les-dealers-a-quel-prix-476

“To Control Migration Flows and Defeat Human Smuggling, Sell Visas” with E.Auriol, CGD Policy Paper 092, Center for Global Development 1rst October 2016. Available at: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/control-migration-flows-and-defeat-human-smuggling-sell-visas

“Sale of Visas: A Smuggler's Final Song ?” with E Auriol, VoxEU, 4th June 2015.

Available at : http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/8051

Articles published in peer-reviewed international reviews

Featured

“Temporary Foreign Work permits: honing the tools to defeat smuggling” with E. Auriol and T. Perrault. European Economic Review, Volume 160, November 2023 doi: https//doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104614

"Revolving Doors: How Externalization Policies Block Refugees and Divert Other Migrants across Migration Routes" with Filip Savatic, Jean-Noël Senne, Hélène Thiollet, Population and Development Review, 2024 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/padr.12650

Recent articles

“Gendered Barriers to Formal Health Care Utilization: modelling health care demand in a low-resource setting” with E. Cavatorta and W. Janssens. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2025 https://doi.org/10.1086/728096

Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper TI 2021-067/V

new version of “Controlling illegal migration: can a market for Temporary Foreign Work Permits help?” CEPR Discussion Paper DP16777, 2021.

“Borders Start with Numbers: How Migration Data Create ‘Fake Illegals’” with Filip Savatic, Jean-Noël Senne, Hélène Thiollet and Thibaut Jaulin, International Migration Review, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183231222169.

“Weeding out the dealers: The Economics of Cannabis Legalization” with E. Auriol and T. Perrault. Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, 216, pp. 62-101, 2023.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.09.027

CESifo Working Paper no. 8645, 2020; new version of “Defeating Crime? An economic Analysis of Cannabis Legalisation Policies” CEPR Discussion Paper DP13814, 2019.

“Corruption and Informal Sector Households’ Participation in Health Insurance in Sierra Leone” with J. Kamara and M. Jofre-Bonet. PlosOne, 2023. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0281724

2010-2022

“Asymmetry of Information within Family Networks” with Joachim DeWeerdt, and Garance Genicot. Journal of Human Resources, 54 225-254, January 1, 2019.

“A Discrete Choice Experiment to Elicit the Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance by the Informal Sector Workers in Sierra Leone” with J Kamara and M Jofre-Bonet International Journal of Health Economics and Policy, 3(1), 2018.

“Nutrition, information and household behavior: Experimental evidence from Malawi” with B. Malde, E. Fizsimons and M.Vera Hernandez. Journal of Development Economics. Volume 122, Pages 113–126, September 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.05.002

“Sale of Visas: A Smuggler's Final Song ?” with E.Auriol, Economica, Volume 83, Issue 332, Pages: 646–678, October 2016. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecca.12204/full

“The Financial Burden of Non-Communicable Chronic Diseases in Rural Nigeria: Wealth and Gender Heterogeneity in Health Care Utilization and Health Expenditures” with Janssens W., Goedecke J., de Bree G., Aderibigbe S.A., Akande T.M. and Mesnard A. PlosOne, November 10, 2016 .

“Migration and The Equilibrium Prevalence of Infectious Diseases” with P.Seabright Journal of Demographic Economics. Volume 82 , Issue 01, 1 – 26, 2016.

“Guest Workers in the Underground Economy” with S. Djajic, Labour Economics. vol. 35: 53-62 August, 2015.

“Can Conditional Cash Transfers compensate for a father’s absence?” with E. Fitzsimons, World Bank Economic Review E. Fitzsimons, A.Mesnard “Volume 28, Number 3, 467-491, 2014.

“Food and Cash Transfers: Evidence from Colombia” with O.Attanasio and E.Battistin, Economic Journal, Vol. 122, Issue 559, 92–124, 2012.

“Child Schooling and Work Choices in the Presence of a Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in Rural Colombia”, with Attanasio O, Fitzsimons E, Gomez A., Guterrez M.I, Meghir C, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 58:2, 181-210, 2010.

2000-2010

“Escaping infectious diseases through migration ? Quarantine measures under incomplete information about infection risk”, with P.Seabright, Journal of Public Economics, 93, 931-938, 2009.

“The wealth effect on new business sartups in a developing economy” with M. Ravallion, Economica Vol.73, Issue 291, 2006.

“ The impact of a conditional cash transfer programme on consumption in Colombia ”, with Orazio Attanasio, Fiscal Studies, December 2006.

“Ethnic differences in birth outcomes in England” with Lorraine Dearden and Jonathan Shaw, Fiscal Studies, March 2006.

“Temporary migration and capital market imperfections”, Oxford Economic Papers 56 (2004), 242-262.

“Temporary migration and Self-Employment: Evidence from Tunisia”, Brussels Economic Review, vol 47(1), March 2004.

“Civil war and the social contract”, with J.P.Azam, Public Choice, vol 115 (3) June 2003.

“Intergenerational mobility and temporary migration”, Louvain Economic Review, vol 67(1) 2001.

“Inheritance, land and capital mobility linked to labour migration”, with D.Gaumont, Journal of Population Economics, vol(14) 2001.

“Altruism and international labour migration”, with D.Gaumont, Journal of Population Economics, vol (13) 2000.

Book chapters

“Le renforcement des frontières permet-il de mieux contrôler l’immigration?” in Helene Thiollet (ed.) chapter of the book “Migrants, Migrations: 50 questions pour vous faire votre opinion” published by Armand Colin, “Idées claires”, 2016, Paris.

“Guerre Civile et Contrat Social” in Dynamiques de développement chapter of a book published by Montchrestien 2003, Paris

Policy reports

“Externalization Policies and their Impacts on Migrant and Refugee Flows to Europe during the ‘Crisis’” with T.Jaulin, F.Savatic, J.N. Senne, and H. Thiollet (October 2020): report of the Migration Governance and Asylum Crises (MAGYC) Project funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 Grant No.822806.

“Evaluación del impacto del programa Familias en Acción - subsidos condicionados de la red de apoyo social: Informe del primer seguimento” with O. Attanasio, E. Battistin, E. Fitzsimons, C. Meghir, M. Vera-Hernandez et al., March 2006. Department of National Planning of Colombia.

“ How effective are conditional cash transfers? Evidence from Colombia ” with O. Attanasio, E. Battistin, E. Fitzsimons and M. Vera-Hernandez, January 2005, IFS Briefing Notes BN54.

“Migration, violence and welfare: an empirical analysis from rural Colombia” IFS working Paper. W09/19 http://www.ifs.org.uk/wps/wp0919.pdf

“Displacement, conflict and welfare : an empirical analysis” with O.Attanasio and C.Castro, Department of National Planning of Colombia, 2005.

“ The impact of a conditional cash transfer programme on consumption in Colombia ”, with O. Attanasio, IFS report summary, April 2005.

“Estimating Ethnic Parity in Jobcentre Plus Programmes: A quantitative analysis using the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) ” with C.Crawford, L. Dearden, J.Shaw, B.Sianesi and P.Urwin, Department for Work and Pensions, june 2007.

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