Download or read book Essays on Migration Remittances and Welfare written by Subash Khatry and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation is comprised of two essays. The first essay analyzes the aggregate income shocks absorbing and welfare improving roles of remittances in emerging economies. I develop a model to derive testable implications for aggregate remittance behavior. Using a panel data set of 102 developing countries from 1975 to 2013 and the generalized method of moments estimator, I find that remittances respond to fluctuations in GDP and exchange rates in a manner consistent with income smoothing implications of the model. Using a variance-decomposition framework, I find that remittances, on average, absorb about 3.5 percent of fluctuations in GDP in all 102 countries, but about 6.1 percent of such fluctuations in Africa countries. To assess the welfare gains from remittances, I use a utility-based framework that allows for level-, growth-, and volatility-effects of remittances on income. Using country-level data, I find that the average welfare gains to a representative agent are equivalent to a 1.9 percent increase in consumption. About 15 percent of these gains arise from less volatile income and the rest arises from higher income and growth. Using household data from five countries, I find that the gains for poor households are about eleven-fold larger than the gains for rich households. In the second essay, I examine the effects of immigration on the wages of U.S. native workers at the national level. Following a general equilibrium approach and exploiting the variation in labor supply shifts across industry, education, and experience specific skill-groups of workers, I find that immigrant workers are indeed imperfect substitutes for native workers. Using my estimates of the elasticity of substitution between workers of different skill groups, I find that immigration had much smaller negative effects on the wages of unskilled native workers than what is reported in Borjas (2003) and Ottaviano and Peri (2012). Immigration (1990-2014) reduced the wages of native workers with no high school degree by about 0.3 percent while it increased the wages of average native workers by about 0.6 percent. In the paper, I document the importance of consideration of industry (occupation) specific skill groups of workers in addition to conventionally used education and experience groups while estimating the substitutability between immigrant and native workers and, thus, evaluating the effects of immigration on wages of native workers.

Download or read book Migration Remittances Poverty and Human Capital written by David McKenzie and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reviews common challenges faced by researchers interested in measuring the impact of migration and remittances on income, poverty, inequality, and human capital (or, in general, "welfare") as well as difficulties confronting development practitioners in converting this research into policy advice. On the analytical side, the paper discusses the proper formulation of a research question, the choice of the analytical tools, as well as the interpretation of the results in the presence of pervasive endogeneity in all decisions surrounding migration. Particular attention is given to the use of instrumental variables in migration research. On the policy side, the paper argues that the private nature of migration and remittances implies a need to carefully spell out the rationale for interventions. It also notices the lack of good migration data and proper evaluations of migration-related government policies. The paper focuses mainly on microeconomic evidence about international migration, but much of the discussion extends to other settings as well.

Download or read book Three Essays in Development written by Heng Zhu and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first chapter of my dissertation studies migrant's motives for remittance transfers and recipient's subsequent use of remittance income, which are a widely researched topic in the economics of migration literature. However, choices over the format in which migrants send remittance are ill understood. Decisions over remittance transfers involve more than choosing the amount of funds to transfer. Migrants actively choose whether to insure the household, send regular/frequent transfers or larger sums infrequently, with decisions over remittance patterns having substantial influence on the welfare impact for recipient households. Empirically, observed remittances patterns are extremely diverse and often correspond to the specific purpose of a given transfer. This paper presents a theoretical framework for analyzing remittance patterns and provides supporting evidence for the notion that migrants strategically adopt various remittance patterns to tailor their transfers to the needs of their families. Migrants are able to utilize different patterns of remitting to improve upon welfare gains to the recipient. Additionally, should their preferences over spending diverge from those of their recipient household, migrants can leverage remittance patterns to exert a degree of control over how households use their transfers when direct control is either impossible or prohibitively costly. Predictions from the theoretical model are tested using a unique matched migrant-household data set. Empirical tests provide evidence that remittance transfers take on systematic patterns with respect to the purpose of the transfer and the constraints faced by both the migrant and recipient household. The second chapter of my dissertation analyzes and estimates the impact of demonetization on the welfare of poor households in the Sundarbans region of India. Using a unique high frequency (weekly) data set collected during the process of demonetization, I estimate that household welfare is reduced by INR 1,414 (US $ 20.8), equivalent to about 15.6% of income over the two months post demonetization. Short-term welfare reductions happen through increased unemployment, losses to income and savings, and the opportunity costs of exchange. Our analysis shows that immediately after demonetization, households adopted a range of strategies to rid themselves of unwanted currency notes, including increased consumption-related purchases, a reduction in borrowing and increased instances of loans. I find evidence that consumption levels and borrowing fall continuously, but consumption expenditures remain stubbornly high two months after the shock. Local income and remittances are affected heterogeneously by the shock, with households experiencing unemployment and female-headed households losing out more. The results shed light on how low income households use the limited tools at their disposal to deal with shocks, as well as the need to carefully consider how national monetary policy, however well intentioned, may adversely affect the welfare of vulnerable households. Our findings have important policy implications not only in the context of India but for governments in other developing countries thinking of adopting similar policies. In the third chapter, I study how membership heterogeneity in Chinese cooperatives impacts their decision making structure. The Cooperative Law, passed in 2007, aims to support and regulate farmer cooperatives in China. The adoption of its regulations is uneven, with most regulations followed except the one-person-one-vote rule. The third chapter of my dissertation models investment decisions of Chinese cooperatives and their effects on the efficiency of capital allocation under heterogeneous membership. I show that relative membership heterogeneity in equity and patronage holdings, as well as a cooperative's dividend policy, are crucial in determining the optimal level of governance centralization. Centralizing the governance to major equity holders and following other regulations reflects a tradeoff faced by cooperatives between obtaining financial support from the government and achieving efficient decision-making.

Download or read book Essays on the Economics of Remittances and Migration written by Thomas Lebesmuehlbacher and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International migration is a growing phenomenon both in scope and complexity. Today, almost 3.5% of the world's population, or 250 million people, live outside their country of birth. Yet, the macroeconomic consequences of migration are not well understood. On the one hand, migration drains the home country of its human capital, thus reducing its productivity and tax base. In terms of host country effects, migration is often associated with negative labor market outcomes, including unfavorable effects on wages and employment. On the other hand, migrants tend to stay connected with their home country by sending back remittances, re-migrating after receiving an education abroad, or sharing information through networks. In host countries, migrants can both stimulate demand, and increase productivity. Abstract This dissertation contributes to the understanding of the macroeconomic consequences of migration for home and host economies. In particular, Chapter 2 establishes a link between migration and technology diffusion using a panel data set of 30 developed and 88 developing countries for the period 1980 - 2000. Then, Chapter 3 utilizes an open economy DSGE model with heterogeneous households to examine two important channels which influence the dynamic absorption of remittances: (i) the presence of borrowing constraints, and (ii) the distribution of remittances across recipient households. Finally, in Chapter 4, I study the design and impact of optimal government policies on growth and welfare when (i) refugees are sub-optimally distributed across countries and (ii) the presence of refugees causes congestion externalities for public services. The analysis contained in Chapters 2-4 gives new insights in several migration related spillovers, namely technology diffusion, remittances, and public goods congestion, yet emphasizes the complexity between migration and economic growth and development.

Download or read book Migration Remittances Poverty and Human Capital written by David J. McKenzie and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reviews common challenges faced by researchers interested in measuring the impact of migration and remittances on income, poverty, inequality, and human capital (or, in general,welfare) as well as difficulties confronting development practitioners in converting this research into policy advice. On the analytical side, the paper discusses the proper formulation of a research question, the choice of the analytical tools, as well as the interpretation of the results in the presence of pervasive endogeneity in all decisions surrounding migration. Particular attention is given to the use of instrumental variables in migration research. On the policy side, the paper argues that the private nature of migration and remittances implies a need to carefully spell out the rationale for interventions. It also notices the lack of good migration data and proper evaluations of migration-related government policies. The paper focuses mainly on microeconomic evidence about international migration, but much of the discussion extends to other settings as well.

Download or read book Migration Remittances Poverty and Human Capital written by David McKenzie and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reviews common challenges faced by researchers interested in measuring the impact of migration and remittances on income, poverty, inequality, and human capital (or, in general, "welfare") as well as difficulties confronting development practitioners in converting this research into policy advice. On the analytical side, the paper discusses the proper formulation of a research question, the choice of the analytical tools, as well as the interpretation of the results in the presence of pervasive endogeneity in all decisions surrounding migration. Particular attention is given to the use of instrumental variables in migration research. On the policy side, the paper argues that the private nature of migration and remittances implies a need to carefully spell out the rationale for interventions. It also notices the lack of good migration data and proper evaluations of migration-related government policies. The paper focuses mainly on microeconomic evidence about international migration, but much of the discussion extends to other settings as well.

Download or read book Outsourcing Welfare written by Roy Germano and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Remittances and the politics of austerity -- Outsourcing social welfare: how migrants replaced the state during Mexico's market transition -- How remittances prevent social unrest: evidence from the Mexican countryside -- Optimism in times of crisis: remittances and economic security in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East -- They came banging pots and pans: remittances and government approval in Sub-Saharan Africa during the food crisis -- No left turn: remittances and incumbent support in Mexico's closely-contested 2006 presidential election -- Conclusion

Download or read book Essays on Migration Remittances and Development in Origin Countries written by Adesola Olumayowa Sunmoni and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This note is part of Quality testing.

Download or read book Essays on the Effects of Migration Remittances on Households in Rural India written by Vidya Bharathi Rajkumar and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation focuses on the effects of migration and remittances on the welfare of families left-behind, in the context of farming households in rural India. Labor migration is heavily male dominant in India, and women and children are often left behind. Though internal migration has been substantive in the country for several decades, its true scale has come to prominence in light of the current pandemic. However, available evidence on the effects of migration on the left-behind households is sparse, owing to data limitations. My doctoral work seeks to fill this gap, and I examine the following questions in three separate chapters of this dissertation: (1) effects of male outmigration on changing the roles of women in agriculture, (2) effects of father's migration on children's education and labor outcomes, and (3) effects of remittance receipts on children's health and wellbeing.Male outmigration from India's rural areas has resulted in women being left-behind to tend to agriculture. These women in migrant households may increase their farm labor to compensate for the labor lost to migration, particularly in traditionally male-oriented farming tasks, but lack the adequate skill, stamina and time needed to undertake the extra work. They may also take over new roles as farm managers, but often face constraints in terms of limited exposure to handling and managing different tasks, and disparate access to inputs and markets. In Chapter 1, I examine how male migration in rural India affects women's roles in agriculture, in terms of their participation in farm labor and farm decision-making. Using household-level panel data, I use a Difference-in-Difference strategy (DID) to examine migration's effects on women's farming roles. To circumvent the self-selection bias associated with migration, I combine DID with Matching techniques. I adopt a kernel-based Propensity Score Matching approach after verifying that it results in the creation of a matched sample that is balanced on the selected observed variables. I find a modest 4 percentage point increase in the share of female family labor on the farm. However, I find a significant 13 percentage point increase in the likelihood of having a female farm manager. This is a novel result, indicating that male migration is a key driver behind women farmers taking up new responsibilities of farm management in addition to providing labor. I find that this change appears to be concentrated among women in geographical regions that have stricter social norms, and among women living in nuclear households and hence lacking support from extended families to perform productive activities as well as domestic chores. I observe that female farm managers have lower access to farm inputs and credit, compared to their male counterparts. Therefore, to examine if migration-induced female farm management affects farm profits, I employ a Causal Mediation analysis (CMA). I decompose the total effects of migration into indirect effects due to female farm management, and direct effects through other channels. I find that having a female farm manager mediates almost 30% of the reduction in profits. This study touches on the linkages underlying migration, women farmers, and gender differentials in farm productivity, and emphasizes the need to collect better data to enable further research on understanding these complex relationships. The results present useful insights for policies aimed at improving farm productivity, to be cognizant of women's entry into farm management, and to be sensitive to the challenges faced by women farmers and farm-managers. In chapters 2 and 3, I examine the effects of migration and remittances on changes in human capital - particularly on child education, labor and health. Migration affects child education & child labor through several channels. The migrant's departure could push the children into compensating for the loss of migrant's labor by engaging in home and/or external work; older children may be tasked with handling household chores and sibling/elder care. These engagements can reduce the time available for children to spend on schooling. On the other hand, remittances could alleviate the households' financial constraints and stimulate investments in child schooling and reduce child labor. In Chapter 2, I use cross-sectional data and matching techniques to study the effects of father's migration on the left-behind children's education and labor in rural India. I find that father's migration leads to an improvement in enrollment rates, educational expenditure and time spent on studying. The positive effects are stronger among girls and older children (11-16 years), who are at higher risk of dropping out of school and entering labor markets. Focusing on child labor, I find a positive and significant effect in household farm work suggesting labor substitution, and a modest negative effect on external wage/salary work. These results appear to be driven by the receipt of remittances, as well as a shift towards female headship. While paternal migration does increase the labor participation of children in own farm work, the positive income effects from remittances stimulate greater investments in education and increase time spent on studying. In Chapter 3, I examine the relationship between remittances and child health in rural India. Malnutrition is a pervasive problem and a leading cause of under-5 child mortality in India. Remittances can have positive effects on child health by helping ease budget constraints and increasing spending on health inputs, better diets, sanitation facilities, better housing, and so on. Using lagged district-level share of households receiving remittances as an Instrumental Variable to account for the endogeneity of receiving remittances, I find that young children in remittance receiving households are likely to weigh more relative to children in non-recipient households; remittances also have a positive bearing on reducing diarrhea prevalence, suggesting a reduction in child morbidity and improvement in home-disease environment. These findings emphasize the need for policies on migration to better understand the beneficial role that migration and remittances play in improving the welfare of children left-behind.

Download or read book Economics of Remittances written by Azizun Nessa and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There exists much controversy as to whether international migration in general, and migrant's remittances in particular, increase or decrease economic welfare at origin. Our research contributes to the international discussion on remittances by presenting novel insights on the basis of theoretical and empirical analysis. Analysis of remittances from macro-economic as well as micro-economic point of view reveals that remittances not only have growth enhancing effect but also have an equalizing impact on income distribution of the recipient economy. The first chapter shows how large flows of remittances not only help the receiver to accumulate necessary savings but also reduce the critical level of wealth needed to get access to the capital market to instigate entrepreneurship. The second chapter reveals that the measured impact of remittances on business investment have significant country heterogeneity; remittances facilitate entrepreneurship in those countries where the lenders of the capital market can predict smooth and increasing flow of remittances. The third chapter proposes that remittances work better than aid in enhancing growth of the recipient country and the reason is that remittances are more effective than aid in augmenting capital accumulation.

Download or read book Three Essays on the Economies of International Migration written by Elie Murard and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This PhD dissertation presents three empirical studies on the economics of international migration. Chapter 1 examines how the migration of a household member to the United States affects the welfare of the other members left behind in rural areas of Mexico. Using a panel household survey, I show that non-migrants are better-off in terms of consumption and leisure time because (i) remittances sent by migrant exceed his/her initial contribution to the househok income and because (ii) the out- migration of a farmer raises the productivity of agricultural labor for those staying behind in the farm. Chapter 2 addresses the methodological issues empirical economists confront when they seek to identify the causal impact of migration on members left behind at origin. I propose a new method that takes into account the intra- household selection of migrants, i.e. the decision of which family members migrate and which stay behind, a problem that has remained largely ignored in the literature. Chapter 3 examines the effect of immigrant inflows in Europe on the evolution of natives' attitudes towards redistribution and immigration policy over the last decade. I find that attitudes are not only shaped by non-economic preferences, e.g. racial prejudice or differential altruism, but that they are also importantly determined by concerns on how immigration may affect the labor market, i.e. wages, and the Welfare State's finances, i.e. net social benefits.

Download or read book International Migration Remittances and Welfare in a Dependent Economy written by Slobodan Djajić and published by Kingston, Ont. : Institute for Economic Research, Queen's University. This book was released on 1984 with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Essays on welfare policy induced migration of mothers written by Projesh Prasad Ghosh and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Essays on a Small Open Economy with Cross border Labor Mobility written by Sokchea Lim and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dissertation examines the macroeconomic impact of fiscal policy, including a recently-debated remittance tax in a small open economy that exports migrant workers and, at the same time, receives remittances sent by those migrants to families in the home country. The research also investigates the responses of optimal fiscal policy to shocks in either the home or the host country. Then, the empirical exercises are performed to determine the motivations behind remittances. More specifically, we test whether remittances come from existing migrants or result from migration when families at home experience income contraction caused by weather or natural disaster shocks. Chapter 1 provides some interesting findings. First, the results show that an economy with international migration is more resilient to demand shocks resulting from fiscal contraction. Second, the short-run association between remittances and domestic output depends on the sources of the shocks. Third, our results indicate that the equilibrium impact of a tax on remittances can be expansionary and welfare-improving when an economy is initially close to full employment. The presence of utility-enhancing government expenditures and a potential negative externality from over-allocation of labor abroad (over migration) justify the presence of distortionary taxes. Chapter 2 shows that an increase in remittances due to shocks in the host country increases consumption, but reduces domestic output due to labor migration. In such a case, optimal fiscal policy responds by lowering taxes on factor incomes to encourage domestic labor participation and increasing the remittance tax to curb labor migration. However, optimal policy response to shocks in the domestic economy is to raise all income taxes including factor incomes and remittances. Chapter 3 shows that there is no evidence that supports pure altruism hypothesis. Specifically, home income contraction due to natural disasters or weather shocks does not appear to induce existing migrants residing abroad to send more remittances. However, the results indicate that remittances increase as people experiencing the income shocks migrate to earn higher income abroad. The findings support our theoretical specification in the previous chapters that links remittances to international migration.

Download or read book Essays on Land Expropriation and Migration in East and Southeast Asia written by Hannah L. Randolph and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urbanization and migration are widespread phenomena in developing countries. While urbanization creates gains for many, the process of urban expansion also adversely affects rural or peri-urban households that lose land or are displaced by land expropriation. Similarly, the absence of migrants creates deficits in left-behind children that are offset by remittances, but the process of decision-making about the use of remittances is not well-understood. This dissertation estimates the welfare effects of land expropriation on rural Chinese households, explores Chinese household responses to expropriation, and examines the dynamics of household decision-making over the use of remittances in Indonesia. The first essay addresses the welfare effects of land expropriation in China and household responses to being expropriated. Over the past twenty years, the Chinese government has pushed to expand cities and develop peri-urban areas. As part of this effort, the government has expropriated an average of 1,600 km2 annually. The impact of this urban development strategy on the welfare of expropriated households is not well-established. I estimate the causal relationship between expropriation and livelihood choice, earned income, and other welfare outcomes, relying on panel data to observe how outcomes change in response to an expropriation event. Controlling for baseline outcomes, I find that expropriation reduces agricultural activities but does not increase other employment or income generation, thus threatening household food security. In certain cases, government compensation offsets these effects. I also find suggestive evidence that temporarily sending a migrant worker may be an effective response to expropriation, while relocation is generally not. These findings suggest concrete policies the government can undertake to lessen the negative welfare impacts of urban development on expropriated households: higher compensation, development of non-agricultural labor markets, food assistance, and loans for temporary migration. The second essay explores the process of household decision-making about remittances in the context of Indonesian sending households. The new economics of labor migration literature emphasizes strategic motives for remitting money, but little is known about how migrants influence household decision-making, or how that influence affects younger household members. Migrants may use this influence to induce greater inputs into child quality through bargaining, or affect younger members' behavior through role model or psychological health effects; this influence is expected to affect school enrollment, performance, and labor force participation of younger household members. This paper estimates the extent to which communication between migrants and households affects the probability that household members 10-22 are in the labor force. Using instrumental variable analysis of cross-sectional household survey data from Indonesia, I find evidence that greater communication between migrants and households reduces the probability that members 10-22 work by 33-35 percentage points. I also find evidence to suggest that characteristics of the household member that makes decisions about remittances play an important role. My findings are inconsistent with a bargaining framework, but may be explained by role model or psychological health effects. These results support the idea that migrant exert influence over the use of remittances, and suggest some important avenues for further research into the dynamics of sending household decision-making.

Download or read book South south Migration and Remittances written by Dilip Ratha and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "South-South Migration and Remittances" reports on preliminary results from an ongoing effort to improve data on bilateral migration stocks. It sets out some working hypotheses on the determinants and socioeconomic implications of South-South migration. Contrary to popular perception that migration is mostly a South-North phenomenon, South-South migration is large. Available data from national censuses suggest that nearly half of the migrants from developing countries reside in other developing countries. Almost 80 percent of South-South migration takes place between countries with contiguous borders. Estimates of South-South remittances range from 9 to 30 percent of developing countries' remittance receipts in 2005. Although the impact of South-South migration on the income of migrants and natives is smaller than for South-North migration, small increases in income can have substantial welfare implications for the poor. The costs of South-South remittances are even higher than those of North-South remittances. These findings suggest that policymakers should pay attention to the complex challenges that developing countries face not only as countries of origin, but also as countries of destination.

Download or read book Remittances and Their Impact written by Dennis A. Ahlburg and published by Asia Pacific Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Number 7 in the TPacific Policy Papers' series, this is a summary of the effects of migration and labour export on the two Pacific island economies over the last 15-20 years. Includes tables, statistics and a bibliography.