Behind the research: Marta Schoch

Over the course of the last 10 years, the Migrating out of Poverty consortium has drawn on the enthusiasm and expertise of many people across the globe. This blog series focuses on the people behind the research, who have kindly shared personal reflections and learning from their experience of working with the consortium.

Marta worked for the programme between December 2018 and August 2019, during the final year of her doctoral studies in Economics at the University of Sussex. She then submitted her PhD thesis in September 2019 and is currently waiting for her thesis defence to be held in November 2019.

Before joining the programme, I was very interested in studying inequality, but it was really this experience that trained me to study issues like poverty and inequality in low-income countries. This research interest motivated one of the chapters of my thesis and my collaboration with the programme’s Ethiopia team on several research projects. 

During my participation in the programme, I studied the relationship between migration and household welfare in rural Ethiopia. I was interested in the relationship between migration and household expenditure in food and non-food items, remittances and improvements in household’s own perception of economic conditions. 

Working with Julie Litchfield and the Ethiopia team trained me to work with rich data on household consumption and indicators of household economic welfare. Working on this project, however, also allowed me to learn about land regulations, migration policy and a variety of topics specific to the context of Ethiopia. Collaborating with Migrating out of Poverty was crucial for me to gain this expertise. 

The Migrating out of Poverty programme has been a true team effort, and we appreciate the role each individual has played in producing and disseminating the research.

Thank you for all your hard work with the Migrating out of Poverty programme, Marta!