Are Remittances Insurance? Evidence from Rainfall Shocks in the Philippines

Do remittances sent by overseas migrants serve as insurance for recipient households? This paper examines how remittances sent by overseas migrants respond to income shocks experienced by Philippine households. Because household income and remittances are jointly determined, we exploit rainfall shocks as instrumental variables for income changes. In households with overseas migrants, we find that exogenous changes in income lead to changes in remittances of the opposite sign, consistent with an insurance motivation for remittances. In such households, we cannot reject the null hypothesis of full insurance: on average, essentially all of exogenous declines in income are replaced by remittance inflows from overseas. By contrast, changes in household income have no effect on remittance receipts in households without overseas migrants. Remittance receipts may also be partly shared with others: in migrant households, net gifts to other households move in the same direction as remittance receipts in response to income shocks.remittances, migration, insurance, risk, instrumental variables, rainfall, Philippines

Race/Ethnic Differences in Spatial Distance Between Adult Children and Their Mothers

ObjectiveThis brief study examines race/ethnic differences in geographic distance to mothers among adults in the United States.BackgroundRace/ethnic differences in rates of adult children living with their mothers in the United States are well documented, but spatial distances beyond shared housing are not.MethodSpatial distances between residential locations of adults aged 25 years and older and their biological mothers are estimated using the 2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics for Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites. Multinomial logistic regression models and nonlinear decomposition techniques are used to assess the role of demographic factors, socioeconomic status, and health of the child and mother in accounting for race/ethnic differences in adult child–mother proximity.ResultsBlacks are more likely than Whites to live with their mother and more likely to live within 30 miles but not coresident, whereas Whites are more likely to live more than 500 miles away. Geographic proximity to the mother is distinct for Hispanics with nearly one third having their mother outside the United States. Demographic, socioeconomic, and health factors account for the fact that Blacks are about twice as likely as Whites to live with their mother but do not fully account for large White–Black differences in proximity outside the household. The most important factor accounting for White–Black differences is marital status for coresidence, but education for proximity in the United States beyond coresidence.ConclusionNew national estimates illustrate the complexity of race/ethnic differences in proximity to mothers that are not reflected in studies of coresidence.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154396/1/jomf12614_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154396/2/jomf12614.pd

Liquidity Constraints, the Extended Family, and Consumption

This study examines whether the extended family influences consumption. Extending prior tests on food consumption to total consumption, little to no evidence is found in support of altruism among related households and or that fluctuations in dynastic income affects one’s own consumption. However, the effect of transitory fluctuations in own income on consumption are contingent on own wealth and the wealth of the extended family, with estimates of the marginal propensity to consume roughly three times higher for individuals whose own and extended family wealth is low versus individuals whose own and extended family wealth is high.Social Security Administrationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111883/1/wp320.pdfDescription of wp320.pdf : Working pape

Factors associated with positive attitudes toward organ donation in Arab Americans

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86866/1/j.1399-0012.2010.01382.x.pd

Response to Letter to the Editor

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89557/1/j.1399-0012.2011.01437.x.pd

Spatial Distance Between Parents and Adult Children in the United States

ObjectiveThis brief report presents contemporary national estimates of the spatial distance between residences of parents and adult children in the United States, including distance to one’s nearest parent or adult child and whether one lives near all of their parents and adult children.BackgroundThe most recent national estimates of parent–child spatial proximity come from data for the early 1990s. Moreover, research has rarely assessed the spatial clustering of all parents and adult children.MethodData are from the 2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics on residential locations of adults aged 25 years and older and each of their parents and adult children. The following two measures of spatial proximity were estimated: the share of adults who have their nearest parent or adult child at a given distance and the share of adults who have all parents and/or all adult children at a given distance. Sociodemographic and geographic differences were examined for both measures.ResultsAmong the adults with at least one living parent or adult child, a significant majority (74.8%) had their nearest parent or adult child within 30 miles, and about one third (35.5%) had all parents and adult children living that close. Spatial proximity differed substantially among sociodemographic groups, with those who were disadvantaged more likely to have their parents or adult children nearby. In most cases, sociodemographic disparities were much higher when spatial proximity was measured by proximity to all parents and all adult children instead of to the nearest parent or nearest adult child.ConclusionDisparities in having all parents and/or adult children nearby may be a result of family solidarity and also may affect family solidarity. This report sets the stage for new investigations of the spatial dimension of family cohesion.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154398/1/jomf12606_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154398/2/jomf12606.pd

Proximity to mother over the life course in the United States: Overall patterns and racial differences

Background: The spatial distance between children and parents substantially influences their lives, yet empirical evidence on life course patterns of child-parent proximity is sparse. Objective: The goal of this study is to identify salient features of child-parent spatial distance across the life course and explain differences by race in these features in the United States. Methods: Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this study examines the spatial distance between residential locations of children and their mothers over 47 years (166,098 person-year observations). Point-in-time, dynamic, and multi-state life table analyses of spatial distance are conducted using location measured at the block level. Differences between Black and White people are assessed, examining various explanatory factors, including life course events. Results: Living very close is common across the life course, with 25Š of life-years during ages 18-54 spent within five miles of, but not with, one's mother. Children who are Black are much more likely than children who are White to live close to their mother if she is alive, but mothers of Black children are much less likely to be alive, especially when children are middle-aged. Observed sociodemographic characteristics of the child and mother account for a substantial share - and in some cases all - of the racial differences. Conclusions: Very close residential proximity to one's mother beyond coresidence is common across the life course even in the geographically large United States. Racial differences in mortality affect differences between Black and White people in family spatial availability. Contribution: This study provides the first national estimates of intergenerational proximity over the life course in the United States, and hence a basis for further research

Hospitalizations and Deaths Among Adults With Cardiovascular Disease Who Underuse Medications Because of Cost A Longitudinal Analysis

Context: It is well-documented that the financial burden of out-ofpocket expenditures for prescription drugs often leads people with medication-sensitive chronic illnesses to restrict their use of these medications. Less is known about the extent to which such costrelated medication underuse is associated with increases in subsequent hospitalizations and deaths. Objective: We compared the risk of hospitalizations among 5401 and of death among 6135 middle-aged and elderly adults with one or more cardiovascular diseases (diabetes, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and history of stroke) according to whether participants did or did not report restricting prescription medications because of cost. Design and Setting: A retrospective biannual cohort study across 4 cross-sectional waves of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative survey of adults older than age 50. Using multivariate logistic regression to adjust for baseline differences in sociodemographic and health characteristics, we assessed subsequent hospitalizations and deaths between 1998 and 2006 for respondents who reported that they had or had not taken less medicine than prescribed because of cost. Results: Respondents with cardiovascular disease who reported underusing medications due to cost were significantly more likely to be hospitalized in the next 2 years, even after adjusting for other patient characteristics (adjusted predicted probability of 47% compared with 38%, P Ͻ 0.001). The more survey waves respondents reported cost-related medication underuse during 1998 to 2004, the higher the probability of being hospitalized in 2006 (adjusted predicted probability of 54% among respondents reporting cost-related medication underuse in all 4 survey waves compared with 42% among respondents reporting no underuse, P Ͻ 0.001). There was no independent association of cost-related medication underuse with death. Conclusions: In this nationally representative cohort, middle-aged and elderly adults with cardiovascular disease who reported cutting back on medication use because of cost were more likely to report being hospitalized over a subsequent 2-year period after they had reported medication underuse. The more extensively respondents reported cost-related underuse over time, the higher their adjusted predicted probability of subsequent hospitalization

Three essays in labor and family economics.

This dissertation investigates behavioral responses to adverse economic events. Informal networks such as family play an important role in mitigating economic hardship, especially when public safety networks are limited. First chapter explores long-term consequences of parental illness in the labor market. Using the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Study, empirical results indicate that having an unhealthy father substantially reduces a daughter's future working probability in the labor market. Incorporating family economic linkage and time allocation theory, the economic model suggests that the budget-strained family reallocates roles or resources based on relative value between market-intensive and time-intensive commodity. Responding to an adverse economic situation caused by the poor health of a family member, women are more likely to allocate time to non-market labor than do men when relative return on market labor is significantly lower for women. Second chapter examines how remittances sent by migrants respond to income shocks experienced by Philippine households. Because household income and remittances are determined jointly, we exploit rainfall shocks as instrumental variables for income changes. In households with migrants abroad, we find that an exogenous decline in household income leads to increase in remittances, consistent with an insurance motivation for remittances. In such households, we cannot reject the null hypothesis of full insurance: on average, essentially all exogenous declines in income are replaced by remittance inflows from abroad. Third chapter investigates an individual's own/sibling's health implications in the labor market. Empirical results from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics suggest that an individual's health status as a young adult is a significant predictor of his or her future working status. Sibling health also plays an important role in determining women's labor force participation: a woman with an unhealthy sibling in her young adulthood is likelier to work in the market in her adulthood.Ph.D.Individual and family studiesLabor economicsSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127007/2/3304946.pd