Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes

Migration, Remittances, and Male and Female Employment Patterns

Little is known about the labor market impacts of workers’ remittances, despite their magnitude in countries with considerable outmigration. Reports that families receiving international remittances severely curtail their work efforts are fairly common in the popular press (e.g., Robert Frank, 2001). Yet, we lack rigorous analyses of how male and female labor supplies respond to increases in remittance income to either support or refute these anecdotal observations. According to the neoclassical model of labor-leisure choice (Mark R. Killingsworth, 1983), remittances—a source of nonlabor income—may lift budget constraints, raise reservation wages, and, through an income effect, reduce the employment likelihood and hours worked by remittance-receiving individuals. The receipt of remittances is usually preceded by the out-migration of working-aged household members, however, which may induce changes in the labor supply of nonmigrating household members in order to compensate for forgone income or to defray migration-related expenses. Distinguishing the disruptive effect from the income effect of remittance inflows is problematic, as most surveys do not contain detailed information on household outmigration and remittance receipt. To the extent that these two effects are expected to have opposite impacts on labor supply, however, we can assess which effect dominates. The impact of remittances on the decision to work has been previously examined by Edgard Rodriguez and Erwin R. Tiongson (2001) in Manila and by Edward Funkhouser (1992) in Managua. Without accounting for the endogeneity of remittances with respect to labor supply, they conclude that remittances reduce employment. Funkhouser also finds that remittances slightly increase self-employment. While informative, these studies focus on the decision to work and do not consider that, without altering employment rates, remittances may change the hours worked and/or the type of work performed in the receiving economy. Furthermore, the impact may be different on male and female labor supplies and responsiveness to remittance income may vary from rural to urban areas. Using data from Mexico—a country with a large and growing remittance inflow—we address the following questions: How does the employment status and hours worked by men and women vary owing to international remittances? Do male and female labor supplies differ across various types of employment in rural versus urban areas due to higher remittance inflows?

Labor Market Assimilation of Recent Immigrants in Spain

This article provides a preliminary analysis of the employment and occupational assimilation of recent immigrant waves to the Spanish labour market as their residencies lengthen. Using Spanish data from the 2001 Population Census and the 2002 Earnings Structure Survey, we find evidence of immigrant employment and occupational assimilation significantly varying by gender, origin and educational attainment.

Work Transitions Into And Out Of Involuntary Temporary Employment In A Segmented Market: Evidence From Spain

The dual character of the Spanish labor market, with permanent workers on the one hand and less favored peripheral workers on the other, became more pronounced following the deregulation of temporary employment. This paper uses the Spanish Labor Force Survey to assess whether, as predicted by labor market segmentation theories, temporary employment is non-transitional (permanent) and involuntary. An analysis of the rates and dynamics of transitions into and out of temporary employment across different groups of working-age respondents shows that much of Spanish temporary employment is involuntary, with temporary workers having limited opportunities for advancement. The evidence points to the need for public policy to address problems posed by the trap that temporary employment has apparently become for growing numbers of workers.

Remittance Receipt and Business Ownership in the Dominican Republic

Using household-level data from the Dominican communities in the Latin American Migration Project (LAMP-DR7), we examine the links between remittance receipt and business ownership. We find that while the existence of a family business attracts remittance inflows, these monetary funds are associated with a reduced likelihood of business entrepreneurship. These results are consistent with various hypotheses regarding remittances and business investments. First, remittances may be motivated by the availability of investment opportunities in the home community. Second, remittances may respond to a bequest motive on the part of the emigrant, who may wish to lay claim on family assets when returning home. Lastly, remittances may cause an income effect that reduces family labour force participation and, correspondingly, the likelihood of family-run business investments.

Social networks and their impact on the earnings of Mexican Migrants

We examine the impact of different types of social networks on the wages earned by unauthorized and legal Mexican migrants during their last U.S. trip. Familial ties raise unauthorized and legal migrants’ hourly wages by an average of 2.6% and 8%, respectively, and friendship ties increase their wages by 5.4% and 3.6%, correspondingly. Furthermore, family ties seem to comparatively favor legal migrants in terms of earnings, raising their wages by approximately 0.9% more than for similar unauthorized migrants. These results underscore the potentially important role of social networks in raising Mexican migrants’ earnings, particularly among unauthorized migrants. By increasing the returns to migration, social networks may provide a stimulus to continued emigration.

Migration, Remittances, and Children’s Schooling in Haiti

The authors examine the impact of remittances on the schooling of children in various Haitian communities with a high incidence of out-migration. After addressing the endogeneity of remittance receipt, they find that, in some communities, remittances raise school attendance for all children regardless of whether they have household members abroad. However, in other communities, this effect is observed only among children living in households that do not experience any family out-migration. Hence, while the receipt of remittances by the household lifts budget constraints and raises the children’s likelihood of being schooled, the disruptive effect of household out-migration imposes an economic burden on the remaining household members and reduces children’s school attendance. As such, remittances ameliorate the negative disruptive effect of household out-migration on children’s schooling in some migrating communities in Haiti and, therefore, contribute to the accumulation of human capital in the midst of extreme poverty.

Work Safety in the Context of Temporary Employment: The Spanish Experience

A rise in work injuries in Spain that has coincided with increased employment flexibility has fired debate among unions, employers, and policy-makers. This paper examines the relationships among temporary work, working conditions, and the likelihood of work accidents and illnesses. An analysis of employee-level and establishment-level data from a 1997 survey conducted by the Spanish Department of Labor suggests that, consistent with a claim made by unions, the single most important determinant of the likelihood of work-related injury and illness is working conditions, not education or tenure. As a result, although temporary workers exhibit higher work injury and illness rates than permanent workers, they exhibit a lower likelihood of work injury and illness than permanent workers once the analysis controls for a given set of working conditions.

Statistical distributions and the identification of currency crises

Abstract We use extreme value theory to identify periods of currency crisis for a broad cross-section of Asian, European, and Latin American countries. We argue that our methodology improves upon the more conventional methodology for defining currency crises because fewer parametric assumptions need to be satisfied. We compare the incidence of currency crises using the conventional method with the incidence obtained using our method. We conclude that identifying currency crises using extreme value theory is a good alternative to the conventional method.

How Do Tougher Immigration Measures Affect Unauthorized Immigrants

The recent impetus of tougher immigration-related measures passed at the state level raises concerns about the impact of such measures on the migration experience, trajectory, and future plans of unauthorized immigrants. In a recent and unique survey of Mexican unauthorized immigrants interviewed upon their voluntary return or deportation to Mexico, almost a third reported experiencing difficulties in obtaining social or government services, finding legal assistance, or obtaining health care services. Additionally, half of these unauthorized immigrants reported fearing deportation. When we assess how the enactment of punitive measures against unauthorized immigrants, such as E-Verify mandates, has affected their migration experience, we find no evidence of a statistically significant association between these measures and the difficulties reported by unauthorized immigrants in accessing a variety of services. However, the enactment of these mandates infuses deportation fear, reduces interstate mobility among voluntary returnees during their last migration spell, and helps curb deportees’ intent to return to the United States in the near future.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

The hypothesis that foreign direct investment into the United States responds to variations in exchange-rate levels and to exchange-rate uncertainty is tested for the period 1976-1998. We account for nonstationarity and cointegration in the data series and use conditional measures of exchange-rate uncertainty. While a long-run relationship exists among foreign direct investment in-flows as a share of GNP, the real exchange rate, and the GARCH measure of exchange-rate volatility, we find no discernible link between the real exchange rate and inward foreign direct investment in the short run. We also conclude that foreign direct investment decreases in response to increases in exchange-rate uncertainty in the short run when we use a conditional measure of exchange-rate uncertainty.