The development impacts of emigration are largely determined by the education of those who stay behind. Departure of workers leads to a direct loss of human capital but opportunities for emigration also raise expected returns to education. I examine these effects by considering the introduction of education as a selection criterion to recruit Nepalese men in the British Army. This change raised educational investments by 1.15 years and increased the average education of men living in Nepal even after allowing for emigration. Despite not being selected in the British Army or emigrating elsewhere, these non‐migrants benefited directly from additional schooling.

This paper identifies the role of roads in improving agricultural livelihoods, and examines the key market mechanisms through which improved connectivity translates into economic gains for agricultural households. I use a rigorous identification strategy based on the rugged terrain that significantly influences the design and costs of constructing roads in Nepal, together with a new geospatial data, to find a positive impact of road on farmland values. A 1 percent decrease in distance to a road raises the market price of an agricultural plot by 0.1 to 0.25 percent. This increase in land value is underpinned by increased participation by households in agricultural markets, and improved farm production and incomes. The results also suggest that a decrease in the distance to a road contributes to the commercialization of agriculture, and it increases the use of fertilizer in agricultural production and reduces the unit cost of fertilizers.

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