She obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. Her first post was at the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford, followed by the Department of Economics at Trinity College Dublin. In the past she has also worked at the International Monetary Fund and at the Portuguese Catholic University. She is Scientific Director of NOVAFRICA (a research center focused on economic development in Africa), a Research Fellow at CReAM (the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration), and a Consultant for the IGC (the International Growth Center) and for the World Bank. Catia�s main research interests are on migration and remittance flows, economic development, education, and experimental impact evaluations. Her work has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and the World Bank Economic Review.