INSIGHTS INTO MIGRATION AND SPENDING PATTERNS BASED ON A SMALL-SCALE STUDY OF GARMENT WORKERS IN PHNOM PENH

The Cambodian garment industry in Phnom Penh; employing as many as a quarter of a million people could be seen as a success story. Workers are in domestic terms paid at decent rates and their employments have had an important impact on their but also their rural families’ standards of living. Against the background of the phasing out of the MFA, income linkages from the garment industry have recently received much attention. One of the most important of the studies undertaken is a major survey carried out under the auspices of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which considers the income and expenditure patterns of garment workers as well as the effect on rural livelihoods of remittances. This working paper has been carried out with a view to adding to the extensive study initiated by the ADB by the help of a much smaller survey intended to shed light on some of the underlying mechanisms only indirectly addressed by the larger survey. The most important insights from this study include that any research into migration and spending patterns must recognize the fact that migration requires some kind of financial resources. It has been shown that the migrant sending households have access to resources and credit markets and consequently are not among the poorest ones. The study has also shown that although the garment workers’ salaries at first glance may appear relatively high their living expenses and remittance obligations do not leave them with much more than a subsistence living. Additionally the study has pointed out that one must be cautious in trusting one-sided data as mirroring data showed that there are large discrepancies in between both quantitative and qualitative answers from garment workers and the remittance-receiving households. Finally the study has indicated that the motivation for migration and the use of remittance money is likely to be very different depending on work activities and natural conditions of the migrant-sending destination.Cambodia; Garments; Linkages; Migration

Insights into migration and spending patterns based on a small-scale study of garment workers in Phnom Penh

The Cambodian garment industry in Phnom Penh; employing as many as a quarter of a million people could be seen as a success story. Workers are in domestic terms paid at decent rates and their employments have had an important impact on their but also their rural families’ standards of living. Against the background of the phasing out of the MFA, income linkages from the garment industry have recently received much attention. One of the most important of the studies undertaken is a major survey carried out under the auspices of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which considers the income and expenditure patterns of garment workers as well as the effect on rural livelihoods of remittances. This working paper has been carried out with a view to adding to the extensive study initiated by the ADB by the help of a much smaller survey intended to shed light on some of the underlying mechanisms only indirectly addressed by the larger survey. The most important insights from this study include that any research into migration and spending patterns must recognize the fact that migration requires some kind of financial resources. It has been shown that the migrant sending households have access to resources and credit markets and consequently are not among the poorest ones. The study has also shown that although the garment workers’ salaries at first glance may appear relatively high their living expenses and remittance obligations do not leave them with much more than a subsistence living. Additionally the study has pointed out that one must be cautious in trusting one-sided data as mirroring data showed that there are large discrepancies in between both quantitative and qualitative answers from garment workers and the remittance-receiving households. Finally the study has indicated that the motivation for migration and the use of remittance money is likely to be very different depending on work activities and natural conditions of the migrant-sending destination.Cambodia; Garments; Linkages; Migration

Desirable Host Plant Qualities in Wild Rice \u3ci\u3e(Zizania Palustris)\u3c/i\u3e for Infestation by the Rice Worm \u3ci\u3eApamea Apamiformis\u3c/i\u3e (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

The rate at which an insect infests hosts by ovipositioning and/or subsequent growth of larvae often depends on specific desirable host plant qualities. In this study, we measured the infestation rate of wild rice, Zizania palustris, by the wild rice worm, Apamea apamiformis, D. F. Hardwick (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and compared it to sediment nitrogen availability, plant biomass, plant density, litter accumulation, and seed carbohydrate and nitrogen concentration. Plant density and litter accumulation had no effect on infestation rates. Infestation rate increased with plant biomass and sediment nitrogen availability. The correlation between infestation rate and sediment nitrogen availability seems to reflect the fact that high nitrogen availability produces larger plants rather than more nutritious seeds as the infestation rate was not correlated with seed glucose content and surprisingly decreased with concentration of nitrogen in seeds. Infestation rate was not related to any other measured quantities. Therefore, Apamea appear to infest larger, rapidly growing host plants which are made possible by high sediment nitrogen availability

Public employment and the double role of bureaucrats

Bureaucrats in the government sector have a double role since they are both suppliers and demanders of public employment; they are publicly employed (supply labor) and they have an important say in deciding the size of the municipal employment (demand labor). In this paper we present and estimate a theoretical model that focuses on this double role of bureaucrats. The predictions from the theoretical model are supported by our empirical results: The estimates based on data from Swedish municipalities 1990–2002, show that wages have smaller effects on the demand for bureaucrats than on the demand for other types of public employees. Actually wages have no significant effect on the number of bureaucrats the municipality employs.Public employment; bureaucrats