17,454 research outputs found
Nonfarm income, inequality, and land in Rural Egypt
The author uses household-level data from a nationally representative survey to analyze the impact of nonfarm income on income inequality in rural Egypt. After pinpointing the importance of nonfarm income to the rural poor, the author decomposes total rural income among five sources, nonfarm, agricultural, livestock, rental, and transfer. He shows that while nonfarm income represents the most important inequality-reducing source of income, agricultural income represents the most important inequality-increasing source. A 1 percent marginal increase in nonfarm income will cause the Gini coefficient of overall income to fall by 12.8 percent. But a 1 percent marginal increase in agricultural income will cause the Gini coefficient to rise by 15.8 percent. The reason for this difference has to do with land, which is distributed very unevenly in this study. Regression analysis of the determinants of income shows that land ownership is positively and statistically related to the receipt of agricultural income but has no statistical relationship to the receipt of nonfarm income. This leads the author to three conclusions: 1) If policymakers are interested in reducing poverty and improving income distribution in rural Egypt, they should focus on nonfarm income - which not only accounts for almost 60 percent of total income for the rural poor but also favorably affects income distribution. 2) Nonfarm income is an inequality-reducing source of income in a land-scarce setting such as rural Egypt because inadequate land"pushes"poorer households out of agriculture and into the nonfarm sector. 3) Agricultural income contributes most to rural income inequality because it is highly correlated with land ownership and with total rural income.Services&Transfers to Poor,Environmental Economics&Policies,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research,Poverty Monitoring&Analysis,Inequality,Environmental Economics&Policies,Rural Poverty Reduction,Safety Nets and Transfers,Services&Transfers to Poor
The demographic, economic and financial determinants of international remittances in developing countries
What causes developing countries to receive different levels of international remittances? This paper addresses this question by using new data on such variables as the skill composition of migrants, poverty, and interest and exchange rates to examine the determinants of remittances. The paper finds that the skill composition of migrants does matter in remittance determination. Countries which export a larger share of high-skilled (educated) migrants receive less per capita remittances than countries which export a larger proportion of low-skilled migrants. It also finds that the level of poverty in a labor-sending country does not have a positive impact on the level of remittances received.Population Policies,Remittances,Debt Markets,Access to Finance,Rural Poverty Reduction
International migration, remittances, and the brain drain ; a study of 24 labor exporting countries
While the level of international migration and remittances continues to grow, data on international migration remains unreliable. At the international level, there is no consistent set of statistics on the number or skill characteristics of international migrants. At the national level, most labor-exporting countries do not collect data on their migrants. Adams tries to overcome these problems by constructing a new data set of 24 large, labor-exporting countries and using estimates of migration and educational attainment based on United States and OECD records. He uses these new data to address the key policy question: How pervasive is the brain drain from labor-exporting countries? Three basic findings emerge: With respect to legal migration, international migration involves the movement of the educated. The vast majority of migrants to both the United States and the OECD have a secondary (high school) education or higher. While migrants are well-educated, international migration does not tend to take a very high proportion of the best educated. For 22 of the 33 countries in which educational attainment data can be estimated, less than 10 percent of the best educated (tertiary-educated) population of labor-exporting countries has migrated. For a handful of labor-exporting countries, international migration does cause brain drain. For example, for the five Latin American countries (Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica and Mexico) located closest to the United States, migration takes a large share of the best educated. This finding suggests that more work needs to be done on the relationship between brain drain, geographical proximity to labor-receiving countries, and the size of the (educated) population of labor-exporting countries.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Human Migrations&Resettlements,Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement,Public Health Promotion,Anthropology,Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement,Anthropology,International Migration,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Human Migrations&Resettlements
Remittances and poverty in Ghana
The author uses a large, nationally representative household survey to analyze the impact of internal remittances (from Ghana) and international remittances (from African and other countries) on poverty in Ghana. With only one exception, he finds that both types of remittances reduce the level, depth, and severity of poverty in Ghana. But the size of the poverty reduction depends on how poverty is being measured. The author finds that poverty is reduced more when international, as opposed to internal, remittances are included in household income, and when poverty is measured by the more sensitive poverty measures-poverty gap and squared poverty gap. For example, the squared poverty gap measure shows that including international remittances in household expenditure (income) reduces the severity of poverty by 34.8 percent, while including internal remittances in such income reduces the severity of poverty by only 4.1 percent. International remittances reduce the severity of poverty more than internal remittances because of the differential impact of these two types of remittances on poor households. Households in the poorest decile group receive 22.7 percent of their total household expenditure (income) from international remittances, as opposed to only 13.8 percent of such income from internal remittances. When these"poorest of the poor"households receive international remittances, their income status changes dramatically and this in turn has a large effect on any poverty measure-like the squared poverty gap-that considers both the number and distance of poor households beneath the poverty line.Remittances,Economic Conditions and Volatility,Gender and Development,Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping,Poverty Lines
Future radiation measurements in low Earth orbit
The first Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) mission has demonstrated the value of the LDEF concept for deep surveys of the space radiation environment. The kinds of measurements that could be done on a second LDEF mission are discussed. Ideas are discussed for experiments which: (1) capitalize on the discoveries from LDEF 1; (2) take advantage of LDEF's unique capabilities; and (3) extend the investigations begun on LDEF 1. These ideas have been gleaned from investigators on LDEF 1 and others interested in the space radiation environment. They include new approaches to the investigation of Be-7 that was discovered on LDEF 1, concepts to obtain further information on the ionic charge state of cosmic rays and other energetic particles in space and other ideas to extend the investigations begun on LDEF 1
Remittances, household expenditure and investment in Guatemala
The author uses a large household data set from Guatemala to analyze how the receipt of internal remittances (from Guatemala) and international remittances (from the United States) affects the marginal spending behavior of households on various consumption and investment goods. Contrary to other studies, the author finds that households receiving remittances actually spend less at the margin on consumption-food and consumer goods and durables-than do households receiving no remittances. Instead of spending on consumption, households receiving remittances tend to spend more on investment goods, like education, health, and housing. The analysis shows that a large amount of remittance money goes into education. At the margin, households receiving internal and international remittances spend 45 and 58 percent more, respectively, on education, than do households with no remittances. These increased expenditures on education represent investment in human capital. Like other studies, the author finds that remittance-receiving households spend more at the margin on housing. These increased expenditures on housing represent a type of investment for the migrant, as well as a means for boosting local economic development by creating new income and employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers.Housing&Human Habitats,VN-Acb Mis -- IFC-00535908,Economic Conditions and Volatility,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Municipal Housing and Land
- âŠ