Income, consumption and remittances: Evidence from immigrants to Australia

For many countries, remittance behaviour by migrants is an important component of their overall international financial flows. To date, the empirical literature has analysed the propensity to remit as a function of migrants' socio-economic characteristics. However, no studies have fully addressed the empirical implications of remittance behaviour being determined in the broader context of migrants' labour, income and consumption allocation strategy. On the contrary, the migrant's income has almost always been treated as exogenous in this context. The aim of this study is to estimate a remittance equation that detects the main determinants of remittance behaviour while addressing endogeneity and reverse causality relationships between remittances, income, consumption and savings. Moreover, since a large share of individuals do not remit money at all, an instrumental variable variant of the double-hurdle selection model is proposed and estimated by LIML. A sending country perspective is adopted in the empirical analysis by considering the first cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia. We find that endogeneity is substantial and that estimates obtained by the methods previously employed in the literature may be very misleading if given a behavioural interpretation. Our results confirm some theoretical predictions and shed light on others; notably, we show that selfish motives in remitters are at least as important as altruistic motives. --Double-hurdle model,migration,remittances

The aging male: Relationship between male age, sperm quality and sperm DNA damage in an unselected population of 3124 men attending the fertility centre for the first time

Objective: the aim of our study was to put forward insights to treat any possible correlation among sperm quality, sperm DNA damage and male age as they may have fertility implications for men who choose to delay fatherhood. Materials and methods: Our study is a non-interventional retrospective analysis of 3124 semen samples from patients that were investigated for the conventional semen parameters. Tunel test assay was set up for the evaluation of the sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI). We applied the Kappa index to compare both the 1999 and the 2010 World Health Organization (WHO) reference criteria to evaluate the competence of such semen parameters categorization during the standard routine of our laboratory. Results: With regards to our findings, it is possible to underline a significant relationship between aging and semen volume (p = 0.001), motility (p = 0.009), semen viscosity (p < 0.003) and sperm DNA damage (p < 0.009). We found a trend when focusing on the semen concentration (p = 0.05). The analysis of sperm morphology did not show any influence with advancing age (p = 0.606). When comparing both the 1999 and the 2010 WHO scales we found no accordance in the appraisal of sperm morphology but a very good one in the evaluation of the other parameters. Conclusions: Conventional semen analysis represents the opportunity to draw up a proxy insight on the male fertility status even if semen quality can only indirectly assess the probability of pregnancy. Several studies have verified a decay in the male reproductive system, sperm quality and fertility with advancing age although the reported results are not yet conclusive. Our results substantially agree with those findings outlined in the literature. Moreover we find that the discrepancy between the two WHO reference scales would eventually lead to an improper diagnosis of infertility

Income, Consumption and Remittances: Evidence from Immigrants to Australia

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The Impact of Natural Disasters on Remittances to Low- and Middle-Income Countries

In this paper, we offer novel empirical evidence on the impact of natural disasters on remittance flows towards low- and middle-income countries. We consider a panel of 98 countries over the period 1990–2010. Our findings show that remittances increase after a disaster, thus contributing ex post to the reconstruction process. At the same time, we find that remittances play a key role in terms of ex ante risk preparedness for those countries that experienced more disruptive events in the past. Finally, when taking into account the interaction with the level of development of the local financial sector, remittances seem to substitute for less efficient financial systems both in terms of ex post response to disasters and in terms of ex ante risk management strategy

Remittances and financial development: substitutes or complements in economic growth?

Recent studies indicate that the effect of migrants’ remittances on the economic growth of receiving countries depends negatively on the level of development of the domestic financial sector. In this paper, we introduce a new indicator of financial development to measure the efficiency of the domestic banking system, and find the existence of complementarity between remittances and bank efficiency in economic growth, such that remittances promote growth only in countries whose banks function well. This result is robust to controls for other traditional measures of financial depth and institutional quality indicators

Remittances and Financial Development:;Substitutes or Complements in Economic Growth?

In a recent study, Chami et al. (2003) suggested that remittances can have a negative impact on;economic growth of the receiving country by diminishing the work effort of the migrants' relatives.;Subsequently, Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2009) found that this moral hazard effect emerges only;when financial development is low. In this paper, we introduce a new indicator of financial;development measuring the efficiency domestic banking system and show that the impact of;remittances on economic growth is negative (positive) in countries where bank efficiency is low;(high). This complementarity result is robust to controls for other financial development and;institutional quality indicators.bank efficiency, economic growth, financial development, migrants' remittances

Lifting You up or Dragging You Down? The Role of Financial Inclusion in Poverty Transitions Among Italian Households

none3noneBettin, Giulia; Pigini, Claudia; Zazzaro, AlbertoBettin, Giulia; Pigini, Claudia; Zazzaro, Albert

Income, consumption and remittances: evidence from immigrants to Australia

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Final report on the remains of four new vessels found in the ancient harbour of Naples (Italy, end of the 2nd c. BCE and end of the 2nd d. BCE and end of 3rd centuries CE).

Between 1999 and 2016, the preventive archaeological excavations undertaken before the construction of the station lines 1 and 6 of the metro of Naples in Piazza Municipio provided new evidence on the coastal landscape overlooking the ancient harbour basin. These investigations led to the discovery of the remains of seven wrecks dating back to the Hellenistic era and to the Roman Empire (Napoli A-H). This paper will present a preliminary study of the architectural characteristics of the four wrecks uncovered in 2013-2015 in the passageway (area 4) connecting the metro stations to the modern touristic harbour (Stazione Marittima) and will suggest hypotheses concerning the function of the original vessels