On the 16th of October 2025, Professor Pedro Vicente of NOVA SBE delivered a talk at UC Berkeley’s Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, presenting his work titled “On the Political Economy of Urbanization: Experimental Evidence from Mozambique.” Speaking to attendees gathered for the event, Vicente introduced key themes from his research on rural–urban integration.
In his presentation, Professor Vicente highlighted how integrating rural migrants into the cities in developing countries has long-lasting effects in the cities in terms of migrants’ hours worked, their ability to find jobs, the remittances they send back to their rural families, and ultimately their participation in the political process both in the cities and back home in rural areas. His discussion drew attention to the interconnected economic and political dimensions of migration and integration.
The event offered attendees a concise look at the long-term effects associated with rural–urban movement in developing-country contexts, prompting consideration of how such patterns shape both city life and rural communities over time.
This talk came about as a result of a Portugal-Berkeley Visiting Professor Program grant which was awarded to Professor Villas-Boas, Distinguished Professor in Agricultural Economics and Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley, by the Center for Portuguese Studies to host Professor Vicente and sponsor this public lecture.