Essays in Applied Economics: Emigration, Identity and Welfare.

Summary This dissertation uses quasi-natural, historical, and contemporary experiences to causally address broad questions at the frontier of the fields of development and political economy. In particular, it examines the long-term effects of out-migration, the formation of political identities and preferences, and the long-term impacts of school segregation. The first chapter examines the consequences of emigration on human capital accumulation, using the Galician diaspora formed in the early 20th century as a laboratory. Drawing on data spanning more than a hundred years, it provides the first evidence of a positive impact of emigration on communities of origin over several generations. The second chapter examines whether sports-related emotional shocks can influence identity and political preferences. Focusing on Catalonia and Football Club Barcelona (FCB) as a context, I empirically show that FCB's performance is directly related to feelings of Catalan identity and support for secession. Furthermore, I explore the mechanisms underlying this link and its possible implications for electoral outcomes. The third chapter takes advantage of a major reform during the Pinochet dictatorship, which introduced a school voucher system, to analyze the long-term effects of school segregation on subjective well-being. The results show that the reform had unintended consequences, harming children from poor families who now, more than 30 years later, show significantly lower levels of subjective well-being.