The impact of migration and remittances on labor supply in Tajikistan

Remittances from labor migrants abroad have become the largest component of financial flows to developing countries. While they are an important source of foreign currency for low-income countries, the impact of outmigration and remittances on the economic development of the sending country is ambiguous. To narrow this knowledge gap, this paper examines their impact on the domestic labor market, using the case of Tajikistan – a labor migrant contributor and remittance dependent country in Central Asia. Specifically, we estimate the impact of international migration and receipt of remittances on the labor supply decisions and employment of the family members left behind. To ensure rigorous inferences, we apply a control function approach using unique high-frequency household panel data. Our method enables us to correctly address the simultaneity of migration/remittance and labor supply decisions of the left-behind members. Our main estimates are that sending migrants reduces the labor supply of the left-behind members by 5.4 percentage points, and that receiving remittances reduces it by 10.2 percentage points, respectively. These findings suggest that the reservation wage effect of having a migrant member and receiving remittances is large and surpasses other positive effects they might have.     

A Note on the Labor Market Effects of Remittances in Latin American and Caribbean Countries: Do Thresholds Exist?

The labor market effects of remittances have long been examined in the empirical literature. To date, the results have been mixed: some authors observe a negative association between remittances and unemployment while others report that remittances increase unemployment. This study empirically examines the impact of remittances on unemployment using macroeconomic data for a sample of 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Specifically, the study tests whether there is a nonlinear relationship between the variables. Results suggest that when the remittance‐to‐GDP ratio is low, remittances have a positive and significant impact on unemployment. However, as they increase, remittances are negatively associated with unemployment. This suggests the possibility that estimations based on the assumption of a linear relationship between remittances and labor may mask the true relationship between the variables.     

THE ROLE OF PRIVATE CAPITAL INFLOWS AND THE EXCHANGE MARKET PRESSURE ON REAL EXCHANGE RATE APPRECIATION: THE CASE OF TURKEY

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of different private capital inflows and the exchange market pressure (EMP) on the real effective exchange rate (REER) appreciation of the currency in Turkey. To that end, the paper first investigates the long‐run equilibrium relationship and then employs Granger causality analysis. Results of the bounds test for cointegration within the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modelling approach of Pesaran et al. (2001 ) reveal level relationship between the diverse private capital inflows, EMP and REER. Granger causality analysis suggests that there is a unidirectional causality running from all the concerned private capital inflows and EMP to REER. The ARDL model shows first that the impact of bank liabilities and portfolio investment liabilities are almost equal, high and positive. Second, foreign direct investment and workers' remittances have a negative but statistically insignificant effect. Third, EMP mitigates REER appreciation of the currency in Turkey. The empirical results suggest that speculative portfolio investment liabilities but particularly bank liabilities with short maturities should be better managed; more flexibility should be introduced to the floating exchange rate regime to avoid loss of competitiveness related with capital inflows; whereas foreign direct investments and remittances should be encouraged.     

Identifying the effects of migration on parental health: Evidence from left-behind elders in China

This study pioneers the application of the New Economics of Labor Migration theory to outline and estimate two opposite effects of labor loss driven by the migration and remittances of adult children on the health of left-behind elderly parents through the changing rural market constraints. We use China's rural household survey data and simultaneous equation econometric techniques to estimate the effects of migration on the physical and mental health of left-behind elders. Results indicate that the loss of labor due to migration has a significantly negative effect on the health of left-behind elders, but remittances from migrants can compensate for the adverse effect. This study provides a comprehensive understanding that remittances from migration relax the constraints on household resource allocations in undeveloped rural areas with imperfect market conditions. Overall, left-behind elderly parents benefit from migrant children both physically and mentally.     

ON THE PATH TO ECONOMIC GROWTH,DO REMITTANCES HELP? EVIDENCE FROM PANEL VARs

Despite the emergence of remittances studies, knowledge about their effect on economic development is still ambiguous. This paper investigates the impact of remittances at macroeconomic level in developing countries controlling for endogeneity problems with the use of panel vector autoregression (panel VAR). The findings suggest that remittances have a positive, albeit small, impact on economic growth even without considering the role of institutions. When institutions are included, the pattern of response remains unaltered. A distinction between low versus high remittances participation in economic activity evidences that, although the impact of remittances on growth is similar, appreciation of the exchange rate occurs in economies with high remittances participation. Finally, a distinction by geographical region reveals that Eastern European economies receive the greatest benefit from these flows, followed by the Americas and Asia; however, African economic growth does not appear to have a statistically significant impact.     

Impact of RMB Appreciation on Trade and Labor Markets of China and the USA： A Multi-country Comparative General Equilibrium Model

Since the recent economic crisis, the undervaluation of China's exchange rate has been a focus in the debate on the global policy mix. Using a non‐competitive input–output table, we establish a comparative‐static general equilibrium model to simulate the impact of real exchange rate changes on Sino–US trade and labor markets. The simulation shows that the impacts of a 10‐percent RMB revaluation on the trade surplus of China and the labor market of the USA are more modest than is generally perceived, and the negative impact on the output of the non‐processing industry in China is more significant than that on the processing industry. The Sino–US trade imbalance will continue to deteriorate, China's non‐processing trade surplus will decline and the processing trade will increase, with the combined effect being small. For the USA, labor‐intensive goods imported from China will shift to different Asian countries instead of transferring back to the US market. The simulation results indicate that the impacts of an RMB revaluation on both Chinese and US labor markets would be limited.     

外出农民工特征变量及行为抑制:从汇款动机生发

对外出农民工汇款动机及其关键影响因素实证分析表明:农民工汇款更多的表现为交换动机和利己主义,利他主义也得到部分证实。个人特征变量(性别、受教育程度、婚姻等)对农民工汇款意愿和汇款水平均没有显著影响;夫妻共同外出和子女在原籍读书对农民工的汇款行为有显著影响;工资是影响农民工汇款能力的核心指标;回流意愿对农民工汇款意愿和汇款水平均有显著影响,但汇款衰退假说没有得到证实。     

中国黄金市场与外汇市场间收益、波动溢出效应实证分析--基于VEC-DCC(BEKK)-BVEGARCH模型

用向量自回归动态二元EGARCH模型,对中国黄金市场与外汇市场间的收益与波动,在金融危机前后溢出效应进行分析。研究显示：美元兑人民币汇率和中国黄金不存在溢出效应,欧元兑人民币汇率对黄金存在负向溢出效应;较之金融危机以前,美元和欧元兑人民币汇率对黄金收益的波动溢出效应减弱,尤其是美元,危机前,黄金市场对来自美元和欧元外汇市场的信息冲击,存在显著＂杠杆效应＂;危机期间,市场间＂杠杆效应＂减弱。     

Long-term effects of labor market conditions on family formation for Japanese youth

This study aims to examine how each cohort’s family formation is affected by labor market conditions experienced in youth in Japan. Although the deterioration in youth employment opportunities has often been blamed for Japan’s declining fertility rate, the effect of slack labor market conditions on fertility is theoretically unclear. We estimate the effects of regional labor market conditions at entry to the labor market and contemporaneous conditions on fertility, controlling for nation-wide year effects and prefecture fixed effects, and find the following. First, high school-educated women who experienced a recession while entering the labor market are less likely to have children. In contrast, a recession rather increases fertility among college-educated women. When summed up, the aggregate impact of labor market conditions experienced in youth on fertility is weak. Second, the unemployment rate at entry to the labor market is positively correlated with the probability of having two or more children conditionally on having at least one child. Third, the contemporaneous unemployment rate is negatively correlated with marriage of women in the local labor market, although the correlation is weak and concentrated on the less educated group.     

汇率对粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的影响研究

汇率是影响粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的一个重要因素.基于粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的数量、效率、效益及竞争力4个方面,通过选取粮食库存量、土地产出率、成本利润率及生产者价格指数4个变量指标及1994—2018年、1994—2013年两个样本区间的年度数据,分别建立汇率与4个变量指标的向量自回归(V A R)模型,分析汇率波动对粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的影响.结果显示:汇率波动对粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的4个变量指标具有一定的冲击作用,且冲击主要集中在短中期;从整体来看,随着粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的持续推进,汇率波动对粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的解释能力有所增强.为降低汇率波动对粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的不利影响、推动粮食产业供给侧结构性改革的发展,提出如下建议:深入推进改革开放,释放经济活力;通过政策引导稳定汇率;提高涉粮企业汇率风险抵御能力;增加粮食有效供给,提高中国粮食产业竞争力.     

Determinants of Remittances: Recent Evidence Using Data on Internal Migrants in Vietnam*

The present paper examines the determinants of remittance behavior for Vietnam using data from the 2004 Vietnam Migration Survey on internal migrants. It considers how, among other things, the vulnerability of a migrant's life at the destination, their link to relatives back home, and the time spent at the destination affect remittances. The paper finds that migrants act as risk‐averse economic agents and send remittances back to the household of origin as part of an insurance exercise in the face of economic uncertainty. Remittances are also found to be driven by a migrant's labor market earnings level. The paper highlights the important role of remittances in providing an effective means of risk‐coping and mutual support within the family.     

REMITTANCES AND AGGREGATE LABOR SUPPLY: EVIDENCE FROM SIXTY‐SIX DEVELOPING NATIONS

Do remittances reduce labor supply in recipient economies? This paper addresses this question with aggregate level data for a panel of sixty‐six developing countries from the Middle East and Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean over the period 1985 to 2005. The results exhibit a positive and significant relationship between remittances and aggregate labor supply. The effect is clearly driven by men in each of the three regions. Three potential explanations are put forward to explain these empirical findings: (1) non‐migrating household members are likely to increase their labor supply in order to defray migration‐related expenses; (2) neighboring households increase their labor supply to help family members migrate after they become more aware of the benefits of remittances; and (3) remittances overcome credit constraints, thus generating employment.     

Remittances from international labour migration: a summary of findings and issues for labour-exporting developing countries of the ESCAP region

International labor migration from the ESCAP region to the Middle East is analyzed, and patterns of remittances from migrants are examined. The focus is on "contract" migration, in which the workers involved have no intention of settling in the country of employment and which is characterized by a job contract that is concluded by the employer on behalf of the workers. Topics discussed include the labor market situation, controversies over the benefits of remittances, the flow of migration and the stock of workers in host countries, characteristics of migrating workers, management of the migration flow, the size and significance of remittance flows to ESCAP countries, and policy issues.     

The effect of oil price on China's exports

The increase in oil prices in recent years has occurred concurrently with a rapid expansion of Chinese exports in the world markets, despite China being an oil importing country. In this paper we develop a theoretical model that explains the positive correlation between Chinese exports and the oil price. The model shows that Chinese growth can lead to an increase in oil prices that has a stronger impact on its export competitors. This is due to the large labor force surplus of China. We then examine this hypothesis by estimating a reduced form equation for Chinese exports using Rodrik [Rodrik, Dani, 2006. What's so special about China's exports? China and World Economy 14, 1–19.]'s measure of export competitiveness, together with the oil price, productivity, real exchange rate, and foreign industrial production over the monthly 1992–2005 period. The results suggest a stable relationship and yields slightly positive values for the price of oil and elastic coefficients for export competitiveness, along with the expected negative elasticity for the real exchange rate.     

Labor allocation in transition: Evidence from Chinese rural households

Empirical models are developed in this paper to quantitatively analyze households' participation in decisions on hiring labor and supplying labor off the farm, hired labor demand and off-farm labor supply of rural Chinese households. Econometric estimates use micro-level data from Zhejiang province over the period 1995–2002. The main results suggest that the decisions to hire labor and participate off the farm are made jointly and are positively correlated. A household's labor demand decreases with increasing wages for hired labor, whereas the effect of the wages of off-farm workers on a household's labor supply differs significantly depending on the household's kind of labor market participation. The results also indicate that the accumulation of productive assets, the development of livestock production and agricultural prices have increasing effects on labor demand but reducing effects on a household's off-farm labor supply. Land market integration enhances participation significantly but has no significant impact on time allocation. Finally, the results suggest non-separability between hired labor demand and household characteristics, indicating the rural labor market in Zhejiang province is still functioning imperfectly.     

人民币汇率变动对中国FDI流入的影响

本文结合人民币汇率与外商直接投资,利用我国1985-2011年省级面板数据,实证分析了人民币汇率变动对中国FDI流入的影响。研究结果表明:1地理位置对我国FDI的流入产生显著的正向效应。沿海省份具有相对的地理位置优势,更容易吸引外商直接投资;2场规模与市场潜力对吸收外商直接投资具有显著的正向促进作用。市场规模和市场潜力越大,FDI流入越多;3劳动力成本与外商直接投资呈显著地负向关系。劳动力成本越低,越能吸引更多的外资直接投资;4实际有效汇率对FDI流入产生显著地正向效应。实际有效汇率升高,本币贬值,更容易吸引外商直接投资。     

市场化改革中的大学毕业生性别工资差异及歧视

以往文献认为,市场机制的不断完善会逐渐消除劳动力市场性别歧视,然而本文发现这一结论并不适用于目前大学毕业生劳动力市场。通过对不同市场化程度企业工作的河北省2007届大学毕业生抽样数据的实证分析发现,随着我国市场化进程的深入,不但大学毕业生性别工资差异明显扩大,而且歧视尤其是反向歧视所占比重也在加剧。本文认为,大学毕业生劳动力市场受传统文化影响程度还远远大于市场竞争作用的发挥。故只有进一步加大市场竞争,才能逐步消除劳动力市场的性别歧视因素。     

Exchange Rate Volatility, Nominal Rigidities, and Persistent Deviations from PPP

It is shown how nominal exchange rate volatility can cause persistent deviations in the real exchange rate. The key to nominal rigidities is a capital market imperfection implying that agents cannot hedge perfectly against consumption risks. As a consequence, nominal changes have real effects by both affecting the ex post real purchasing power of savings and by affecting the ex ante incentives in savings and labor supply. The consequences of exogenous changes in the nominal exchange rate are considered in an OLG version of a two sector small open economy with competitive product and labor markets.J. Japan. Int. Econ.,December 1997,11(4), pp. 584–609. Department of Economics, University of Aarhus, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.     

The Impact of Korea's Exchange Rate Volatility on Korean Trade

This study uses a GARCH-in-mean model to analyse the impact of Korea's nominal exchange rate volatility on exports and export prices over the current flexible-rate period. The volatility of Korea's won increases the exchange risk of exporters and leads to changes in export volume and price. This paper provides some evidence that nominal exchange rate volatility has had a statistically significant impact on real exports over the current floating-rate period. We show that persistence-in-variance of exchange rates affects the market for exports in Korea. An important result is that the effect of exchange rate volatility on trade variables is shown to be significant. We find that the GARCH conditional variance has a statistically significant impact on the reduced form equations. The magnitude of the effect is generally stronger for export quantities than prices. This result is contradicts that of Kroner and Lastrapes's analysis. This is explained by the fact that Korean exporters choose the strategy of pricing to maintain market share instead of adjusting export prices to reflect exchange rate changes, even when this cuts profit margins.     

The Impact of Korea's Exchange Rate Volatility on Korean Trade

This study uses a GARCH-in-mean model to analyse the impact of Korea's nominal exchange rate volatility on exports and export prices over the current flexible-rate period. The volatility of Korea's won increases the exchange risk of exporters and leads to changes in export volume and price. This paper provides some evidence that nominal exchange rate volatility has had a statistically significant impact on real exports over the current floating-rate period. We show that persistence-in-variance of exchange rates affects the market for exports in Korea. An important result is that the effect of exchange rate volatility on trade variables is shown to be significant. We find that the GARCH conditional variance has a statistically significant impact on the reduced form equations. The magnitude of the effect is generally stronger for export quantities than prices. This result is contradicts that of Kroner and Lastrapes's analysis. This is explained by the fact that Korean exporters choose the strategy of pricing to maintain market share instead of adjusting export prices to reflect exchange rate changes, even when this cuts profit margins.