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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Giles, John; de Brauw, Alan |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how reductions of barriers to migration affect the decision of middle school graduates to attend high school in rural China. Change in the cost of migration is identified using exogenous variation across counties in the timing of national identity card distribution, which made it easier for rural migrants to register as temporary residents in urban destinations. The analysis first shows that timing of identification card distribution is unrelated to local rainfall shocks affecting migration decisions, and that timing is not related to proxies reflecting time-varying changes in village policy or administrative capacity. The findings show a robust negative relationship between migrant opportunity and high school enrollment. The mechanisms behind the negative relationship are suggested by observed increases in subsequent local and migrant non-agricultural employment of high school age young adults as the size of the current village migr ant network increases. |
| Keywords: | Access to Finance,Population Policies,Education For All,Tertiary Education,Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2008–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4526&r=mig |
| By: | Yasser Abdih; Jihad Dagher; Ralph Chami; Peter Montiel |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the complex and overlooked relationship between the receipt of workers' remittances and institutional quality in the recipient country. Using a simple model, we show how an increase in remittance inflows can lead to deterioration of institutional quality - specifically, to an increase in the share of funds diverted by the government for its own purposes. Empirical testing of this proposition is complicated by the likelihood of reverse causality. In a cross section of 111 countries we document a negative impact of the ratio of remittance inflows to GDP on domestic institutional quality, even after controlling for potential reverse causality. We find that a higher ratio of remittances to GDP is associated with lower indices of control of corruption, government effectiveness, and rule of law. |
| Keywords: | Corruption , Workers remittances , Economic growth , |
| Date: | 2008–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:08/29&r=mig |
| By: | David A. Grigorian; Tigran A. Melkonyan |
| Abstract: | The paper explicitly models the dynamic strategic aspects of the interaction between the migrant and the remittance-receiving relative(s), with the migrant behaving as a Stackelberg leader. It is also different from other formalizations of remittance behavior in its treatment of the two parties' interaction to realize potential gains from exchange. We demonstrate that when the migrant and the relative(s) cooperate to maximize the joint utility of the household, this leads to higher level of remittances as well as investment and hours worked by the relative(s). We use data from Armenia to test our predictions regarding implications of remittances flows on behavior of receiving households. Consistent with our predictions, remittance-receiving households work fewer hours and spend less on the education of their children. While saving more, these households are not leveraging their savings to borrow from the banking system to expand their business activities. This evidence suggests that the benefits of remittances might be overstated and emphasizes the importance of measuring their impact in a general- rather than a partial-equilibrium context. |
| Keywords: | Workers remittances , Armenia , Labor supply , |
| Date: | 2008–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:08/19&r=mig |
| By: | Jonathan Yoder; Adam McCoy; Mudziviri Nziramasanga (School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University) |
| Abstract: | We develop a household model of migrant remittance that accounts for the effects of subsistence requirements and transaction costs on remittances. The model supports testable hypotheses about the effect on remittances of migrant income, family composition and distribution, transaction costs, income and residence security, and other household characteristics on remittance levels and frequency. We test these hypotheses using survey data on individual Mexican migrants in the United States. The results are broadly consistent with our hypotheses. For example, our subsistence requirement implies that below a threshold, the income effect on remittance is zero. This is borne out in our results. |
| Keywords: | remittances, migrant income, transaction costs |
| JEL: | J1 J61 C24 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsu:wpaper:yoder-7&r=mig |
| By: | Bichaka Fayissa; Christian Nsiah |
| Abstract: | For more than half a century, there have been heated debates on the sources of economic growth in developing economies. The perceived factors of economic growth have ranged from surplus labor to capital investment and technological change, foreign aid, foreign direct investment, investment in human capital, increasing returns from investment in new ideas and research and development. The positive or negative impacts of the above listed traditional sources of economic growth have been well documented in literature. Other researchers have also considered the importance of institutional factors such as the role of political freedom, political instability, voice and accountability on economic growth and development. Despite the increasing importance of remittances in total international capital flows, however, the direct or indirect relationship between remittances and economic growth has not been adequately studied. This study explores the aggregate impact of remittances on economic growth within the conventional neoclassical growth framework using an unbalanced panel data spanning from1980 to 2004 for 37 African countries. We find that remittances boost growth in countries where the financial systems are less developed by providing an alternative way to finance investment and helping overcome liquidity constraints. |
| Keywords: | Workers’ Remittances, Economic Growth, Panel Data, Fixed-Effects, Random-Effects,Arellano-Bond, Quantile Regression |
| JEL: | E21 F21 G22 J61 O16 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mts:wpaper:200802&r=mig |
| By: | Laurent Gheeraert (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.); Ritha Sukadi (Centre Emile Bernheim, Solvay Business School, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.) |
| Abstract: | Recorded remittances flows have experienced an important growth over the last decade (from 68 billion $ in 1995, to an estimated 297 billion $ in 2006). For developing countries globally, these flows are today – in annual volume – even the second source of external financing, after foreign direct investments and before official direct aid. This has raised interest among policy makers and researchers, who increasingly recognize the potential of remittances as a tool for development. Micro-studies have shed light on potential uses of remittance flows. However, at macro-level, some unanswered questions remain regarding the relative importance of these uses, and the mechanisms through which remittances impact the economics of recipient countries. In order to assess the implications of remittances on long-term growth, we first need to better understand how remittances interact with the key components of long-term growth, such as investment or international commerce. Therefore, we conduct a global empirial study, to show how the effect of received remittances split between investment, consumption and the trade balance in the home country and to examine which local conditions are relevant predictors of remittance uses. We use data covering over 140 countries over the 1970-2005 period, from international statistical agencies (e.g., Worldbank, IMF, UN), and apply panel-data methodologies, following Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2005) and Bosworth and Collins (1999). Early results indicate that, on the global sample, and after controlling for traditional macro-economic variables, more than 75% of remittances are used for consumption purposes, whereas investment uses only concern about 10% of received remittances (the rest of the impact being mainly on the trade balance). However, we also find important cross-country variations, according to a series of factors, such as the volume of received remittance flows, the level of development, or the level of financial sector development. |
| Keywords: | remittances, consumption, investment, growth |
| JEL: | F24 O16 G2 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:07-039&r=mig |
| By: | Cömertler, Necmiye; Kar, Muhsin |
| Abstract: | There is an important support to the view in public that crime rate has been increasing in the recent years in Turkey. In addition, it is argued that social and economic factors play an important role in increasing the crime in the country. The aim of this article is to determine to what extent the economic and social factors are important in this process for 81 provinces. According to the cross section analysis based on 2000 data in the province level, it is observed that income, unemployment, migration, education, demographic factors such as population density and birth rate and urbanization ratio are the main and important determinants of crime rate. |
| Keywords: | Crime rate; per capita income; unemployment; migration; urbanization; schooling rate; cross-section analysis; Turkey |
| JEL: | A13 H75 Z13 C21 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7288&r=mig |
| By: | Klaus F. Zimmermann (IZA, DIW Berlin, Bonn University); Martin Kahanec (IZA); Amelie Constant (IZA, DIW DC, Georgetown University); Don DeVoretz (IZA, Simon Fraser University); Liliya Gataullina (IZA, DIW Berlin); Anzelika Zaiceva (IZA, University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | Report for the High Level Advisory Group on Social and Labour Market Integration of Ethnic Minorities and the European Commission |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izarrs:16&r=mig |