Remittances and Household Expenditures on Education in Ghana's Northern Region: Why Gender Matters

Studies of the impact of migrant remittances on receiving households assume that these households act as a unit in receiving remittances and making decisions about their use. Thus, many of these studies use the gender of the household head as a key control variable. This study questions this assumption, using original qualitative and quantitative data on rural–urban migration of women in Ghana to show that gendered social norms of household provisioning influence the intrahousehold flow of remittances. Regression results indicate that migrant women are more likely to send remittances to other women, creating female-centered networks of remittance flows even within male-headed households. The implications of this for intrahousehold resource allocation are explored through an analysis of the impact of the gender of the remitter and recipient on education expenditure. The results show that regardless of the gender of the household head, households in which women are the primary recipient of remittances spend more than twice as much on education as households in which men are the primary recipient.     

The Impact of Migrant Remittances on Economic Growth: Evidence from South Asia

Incorporating migrant remittances among other variables into a growth model, and employing panel data over the 1970–2008 period, this study investigates the impact of migrant remittances on economic growth in South Asia. Migrant remittances are found to have a significant positive effect on economic growth. A significant positive interactive effect of remittances on economic growth is detected through education and financial sector development.     

Tests of Income Pooling in Household Decisions

Using the Progresa data from Mexico, we investigate intrahousehold decision making using a variety of outcomes. We exploit both the experimental nature and the (short) panel dimension of the data to measure the impact of exogenous changes in the intrahousehold distribution of resources on household decisions. We test for global pooling of resources within households, which would correspond to the unitary model of household decision making. We also exploit a set of questions about power and the decision making process in the household to investigate aspects of strategic interactions between household members. Our findings confirm previous rejections of income pooling. We also cannot reject that the wife's relative income share is a significant determinant of the wife's decision making power in the household, with a higher share of income associated with more decision making power. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: J12, D13, H31.     

Child Schooling and Work Decisions in India: The Role of Household and Regional Gender Equity

Abstract

This paper tests three hypotheses about how mothers' autonomy in India affects their children's participation in school and the labor market. To do so it extends the concept of mothers' autonomy beyond the household to include the constraints imposed by the extent of gender equity in the regions in which these women live. This study began with the expectation that increased autonomy for Indian mothers living in heterosexual households would increase child schooling and decrease child work. However, the results are mixed, indicating that mother's autonomy can be reinforced or constrained by the environment. The paper concludes that mothers and fathers in India make different decisions for girls vis-à-vis boys and that the variables reflecting mothers' autonomy vary in their impact, so that mothers' level of education relative to fathers' is not often statistically significant, while mothers' increased contributions to household expenditure decrease the probability of schooling and girls' work.     

Impact of Education on Household Welfare in Nigeria

Human capital development, especially higher educational attainment, attaches high premium to its expected economic benefits, in form of better welfare. This study investigates the effect of educational attainment of household head on two indicators of household welfare, namely labour market earnings and household per capita total expenditure on food and non-food items in Nigeria. The study uses the Double Hurdle (DH) model and Quantile Regression (QR) to address these objectives. The empirical results show that returns to schooling are substantially higher at the tertiary level of education compared with primary, secondary, and postgraduate levels of education in Nigeria. Furthermore, additional years of tertiary education attainment by household heads was found to increase household per capita total expenditure more than additional years of primary, secondary and postgraduate education. The implication of these findings is that the improvements in economic welfare of households in Nigerian is driven more by the attainment of tertiary education by household heads, relative to other levels of education.     

金融危机对贫困地区农户收入的影响

2008年下半年以来,国际金融危机对中国的影响日渐加深,危机之下贫困地区农户的收入和生活受到怎样的影响?通过对中西部贫困地区六省12县的入户调查,分析贫困地区农村劳动力流动、非农就业、农业生产、农户消费等方面的变化,调研发现:贫困地区劳动力流动受到明显影响,2009年农户的各项收入比上年有一定程度下降,不过日常生活消费未受明显影响.研究建议加强贫困地区劳动力技能培训、扶持本地创业的举措,积极探索农产品价格保护、推广农业保险等稳定农业收入的政策.     

The Effect of Technological Impact upon Patent Renewal Decisions

This paper analyzes the relationship between the technological impact of US patents, as measured using patent citation analysis, and the renewal decisions made by their owners. A significant positive relationship was discovered between these variables across a number of time periods. For example, 60% of patents uncited in the first eight years after publication were renewed at that point, compared with over 90% of patents cited more than 50 times in the first eight years. The relationship between citations and renewals remained highly significant even after controlling for differences between internal and external citations, and differences in technologies and patent ownership. Further analysis was undertaken into the relative influence of technological impact and maintenance costs upon renewal decisions. This analysis revealed that after patent maintenance fees were doubled for patents applied for after August 1982, a larger proportion of patents was maintained at each renewal point despite the increase. These patents also had a greater technological impact than patents applied for prior to the increase in maintenance fees, reflected by the larger number of citations they received. It may thus be inferred that the technological impact of patents had a greater influence upon renewal decisions than economic concerns regarding the costs of their renewal.     

中国居民收入差距对消费倾向变动趋势的影响

本文以消费的边际效用递减规律为基础,探讨了居民收入差距和消费倾向间可能的关系,并对中国居民消费倾向变动趋势进行解释.本文分析表明,收入差距对消费倾向可能的影响和经济发展水平有关系,当经济发展到一定程度时,居民收入差距在一定的范围内变化不会影响消费倾向的变化,但超过一定范围后,随着收入差距变大,消费倾向变低.我们认为过大的居民收入差距是造成近年来消费倾向变低的重要原因.     

The Effect of Technological Impact upon Patent Renewal Decisions

This paper analyzes the relationship between the technological impact of US patents, as measured using patent citation analysis, and the renewal decisions made by their owners. A significant positive relationship was discovered between these variables across a number of time periods. For example, 60% of patents uncited in the first eight years after publication were renewed at that point, compared with over 90% of patents cited more than 50 times in the first eight years. The relationship between citations and renewals remained highly significant even after controlling for differences between internal and external citations, and differences in technologies and patent ownership. Further analysis was undertaken into the relative influence of technological impact and maintenance costs upon renewal decisions. This analysis revealed that after patent maintenance fees were doubled for patents applied for after August 1982, a larger proportion of patents was maintained at each renewal point despite the increase. These patents also had a greater technological impact than patents applied for prior to the increase in maintenance fees, reflected by the larger number of citations they received. It may thus be inferred that the technological impact of patents had a greater influence upon renewal decisions than economic concerns regarding the costs of their renewal.     

Consumption and Remittances in Migrant Households: Toward a Productive Use of Remittances

This article reviews the magnitude of remittance flows into Mexican households and examines the consumption patterns of remittance-receiving households. A thorough understanding of the dynamics of remittances and consumption in migrant households in Mexico should inform policy makers of the best ways to channel these resources into productive uses. The Mexican Income and Expenditure Survey for 1989 is used to compare and test patterns of consumption and uses of remittances in urban and rural Mexico. (JEL F2–F22 , O1–O15 )     

Remittances for economic development: The investment perspective

Based on the economic theory of the family, this paper constructs a model of remittances where the migrant, besides sending money to his family, also invests in his home country. The investment is looked after by a family member in return for some monetary compensation. The model focuses on two different cases: state-contingent transfers (transfers are tied to investment outcomes) and fixed transfers (transfers are mainly of altruistic motive). As the migrant derives utilities from consumption, his consumption-investment decision is driven by preferences and future investment prospects. The transfers are to increase with both business encouraging and income compensatory effects.     

The Impact of Perceived Familiarity and Perceived Importance on Economic Reasoning in Time-Allocation Decisions

Single-equation regression models are employed to estimate the student-teacher race and gender interaction effects in high school economics courses. No evidence of a gender role-model effect is found, but there is evidence of effects for African-American students.     

地理溢出效应对中国上市企业投资决策影响的实证研究

利用2003—2018年中国A股上市公司数据,考察了地理溢出效应是否以及如何对企业的投资决策质量和投资决策相似度产生影响。研究发现,地理溢出效应会提高投资决策质量,但这种影响仅在过度投资的企业中有效;地理溢出效应会增加投资决策相似度,并且这种影响对于过度投资和投资不足的企业均能表现出显著的作用。进一步研究表明,在对投资决策质量的影响方面,同地区不同行业溢出效应的作用更强,在对投资决策相似度的影响方面,同地区同行业与同地区不同行业两种溢出效应的作用相近。最后,不同地区特征下地理溢出效应对投资决策的影响存在显著差异,地理溢出效应对企业投资决策的影响主要存在于经济发达地区和制度环境较好地区。     

社会保障支出对个人储蓄的影响研究

本文以1980～2006年的年度数据为样本,利用协整分析和误差修正模型分析我国社会保障支出和居民储蓄之间的关系.理论分析和经验检验结果表明,我国社会保障支出和居民储蓄之间存在着正相关的关系.这有两个原因:首先,在现阶段,社会保障支出的"挤入效应"大于"挤出效应";其次,现阶段的基金制比以前的现收现付制导致更高的社会储蓄.     

Impact of International Trade,Remittances and Industrialization on the Economic Growth of Bangladesh

There are several important factors of growth and many endeavors have been made to apply these factors to explain the growth of different economies at different times. In this context, the objective of this paper is to examine the impact of international trade, remittances and industrialization on the economic growth of Bangladesh using annual data from the period of 1976 to 2010. This study uses the time series econometrics methodology, which covers tests for stationary, cointegration, and specification of the model. This study also focuses on finding causal relationship among export, import, remittances, and industrialization on the economic growth of Bangladesh by using Granger causality test. The result shows that the variables are cointegrated, implying a long-run causal relationship among export, import, remittances, and industrialization on the economic growth of Bangladesh.     

The Impact of Non-Labor Income Given Job Heterogeneity on Household Time Allocation: The Evidence from China

This paper proposes a theoretical framework based on new household economic theories. A dataset from the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) is used. Given heterogeneity in major family members’ jobs, the effect of non-labor income on household time allocation is discussed under two scenarios: jobs with flexible work hours and jobs with fixed work hours in the market. Based on the nature of the employer the major family member works for, employers can be categorized into four categories: government-owned, family contract, privately-owned, and foreign-funded. Each of the four categories is used for dissecting the data into different sets for analysis by category. The results imply that job heterogeneity is significantly correlated to household time allocation. An increase in non-labor income results in a decrease in the time allocated to housework for all households. However, leisure time is allocated differently among different households due to job heterogeneity. An increase in non-labor income leads to less leisure time for households working for government-owned or foreign-funded enterprises, and more leisure time for households working for family contract or privately-owned enterprises.     

The Impact of the German Child Benefit on Household Expenditures and Consumption

The German Child Benefit (‘Kindergeld’) is paid to legal guardians of children as a cash benefit. The benefit does not depend on household income or other household characteristics. I use exogenous variations in the amount of child benefit received by households in the German Socio‐Economic Panel to estimate the impact of a given change in the child benefit on food expenditures of households, the probability of owning a home, rent per square meter, measures of the size of the home, as well as parents’ smoking behavior and parents’ alcohol consumption. Households primarily increase per capita food expenditures in response to increases in child benefit, and they also improve housing conditions. The effect of child benefit on per capita food expenditures is larger for low‐income households compared to high‐income households. I do not find a significant effect of child benefit on parents’ smoking or drinking.     

Back to Basics: Remittances in the Keynesian Macroeconomic Framework

This paper examines a remittance multiplier based on the short-run Keynesian equilibrium approach and shows how income may be affected by remittance inflows. We explore this through the equilibrium in the goods and money markets, where remittances can affect both consumption and the demand for real money balances. We present this simple theoretical model utilizing a standard Keynesian framework. The short-run Keynesian equilibrium approach provides insight into how remittances affect output and income, and its potential multiplier effects. The model used is indicative of a positive relationship between the marginal propensity to consume out of remittances and the multiplier. The framework also shows that remittances will have a greater impact if its marginal propensity to consume is greater than that for standard disposable income.     

跨国公司在华垂直FDI的决策机制研究——基于金融发展与契约环境的视角

笔者将东道国的金融发展水平和契约环境质量因素引入Antràs模型,解释了跨国公司主要通过垂直型FDI而非外包的形式进入中国的原因:给定生产的可分割性和东道国的成本优势,金融发展落后将导致东道国供应商的融资成本上升,同时契约环境质量低下会增加跨国公司收到低品质中间品的风险。这两方面的因素都会导致跨国公司以垂直FDI而非外包的形式进入中国,从而形成我国以跨国公司加工贸易出口为主的贸易形态。提升我国FDI流入的质量、改善FDI流入结构必须以金融发展水平提高和契约环境改善为前提。