Labor Supply Response to International Migration and Remittances in the Republic

The Republic of Haiti is the prime international remittances recipient country in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region relative to its gross domestic product (GDP). The downside of this observation may be that this country is also the first exporter of skilled workers in the world by population size. The present research uses a zero-altered negative binomial (with logit inflation) to model households’ international migration decision process, and endogenous regressors’ Amemiya Generalized Least Squares method (instrumental variable Tobit, IV-Tobit) to account for selectivity and endogeneity issues in assessing the impact of remittances on labor market outcomes. Results are in line with what has been found so far in this literature in terms of a decline of labor supply in the presence of remittances. However, the impact of international remittances does not seem to be important in determining recipient households’ labor participation behavior, particularly for women.Republic of Haiti, international migration, remittances, labor supply

Vulnerability to Poverty: A Microeconometric Approach and Application to the Republic of Haiti

This paper investigates vulnerability to poverty in Haiti. Research in vulnerability in developing countries has been scarce due to the high data requirements of vulnerability studies (e.g. panel or long series of cross-sections). The methodology adopted here allows the assessment of vulnerability to poverty by exploiting the short panel structure of nested data at different levels. The decomposition method reveals that vulnerability in Haiti is largely a rural phenomenon and that schooling correlates negatively with vulnerability. Most importantly, among the different shocks affecting household’s income, it is found that meso-level shocks are in general far more important than covariate shocks. This finding points to some interesting policy implications in decentralizing policies to alleviate vulnerability to poverty.vulnerability, poverty, hierarchical model, Republic of Haiti.

International Migration, Remittances and Labour Supply: The Case of the Republic of Haiti

The Republic of Haiti is a prime international remittance recipient country in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, relative to its gross domestic product (GDP). The downside of this fact may be that Haiti, based on population size, is also the largest exporter of skilled workers in the world. The present research uses a zero-altered negative binomial (with logit inflation) to model the international migration decision process of households, and endogenous regressors. Amemiya generalized least squares method (instrumental variable Tobit, IV-Tobit) to account for selectivity and endogeneity issues to assess the impact of remittances on labour market outcomes. The results in terms of a decline of labour supply in the presence of remittances are in line with those observed thus far in the literature. However, the impact of international remittances does not seem to be important in determining the labour participation behaviour, particularly forRepublic of Haiti, international migration, remittances, labour supply

Income Distribution and Poverty in the Republic of Haiti

After decades of stagnation and economic decline coupled with political upheavals, the Republic of Haiti is today the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world. The present research reveals that this country is also where income is worst distributed in the most unequal region of the world, viz., Latin America and the Carribbean. We use the 2001 Haiti Living Conditions Survey for distributive analysis and poverty assessment to try to make manifest the potential links between household well-being and individual socio-economic characteristics. One particular finding is that access to land does not help the poor escape poverty. Complementary to the inequality and poverty profiles constructed herein, a relatively new methodology using weighted least squares for complex survey is adopted to additively decompose inequality by multiple factor components. Also, we estimate a polychotomous ordered logic to investigate the risk of being indigent or poor.Republic of Haiti, inequality, multiple factor components decomposition, poverty, stochastic dominance

Labor supply response to international migration and remittances in the Republic of Haiti

The Republic of Haiti is the prime international remittances recipient country in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region relative to its gross domestic product (GDP). The downside of this observation may be that this country is also the first exporter of skilled workers in the world by population size. The present research uses a zero-altered negative binomial (with logit inflation) to model households' international migration decision process, and endogenous regressors' Amemiya Generalized Least Squares method (instrumental variable Tobit, IV-Tobit) to account for selectivity and endogeneity issues in assessing the impact of remittances on labor market outcomes. Results are in line with what has been found so far in this literature in terms of a decline of labor supply in the presence of remittances. However, the impact of international remittances does not seem to be important in determining recipient households' labor participation behavior, particularly for women

Vulnerability to poverty : A microeconometric approach and application to the Republic of Haiti

This paper investigates vulnerability to poverty in Haiti. Research in vulnerability in developing countries has been scarce due to the high data requirements of vulnerability studies (e.g. panel or long series of cross-sections). The methodology adopted here allows the assessment of vulnerability to poverty by exploiting the short panel structure of nested data at different levels. The decomposition method reveals that vulnerability in Haiti is largely a rural phenomenon and that schooling correlates negatively with vulnerability. Most importantly, among the different shocks affecting household's income, it is found that meso-level shocks are in general far more important than covariate shocks. This finding points to some interesting policy implications in decentralizing policies to alleviate vulnerability to poverty

Vulnerability to poverty: A microeconometric approach and application to the Republic of Haiti

This paper investigates vulnerability to poverty in Haiti. Research in vulnerability in developing countries has been scarce due to the high data requirements of vulnerability studies (e.g. panel or long series of cross-sections). The methodology adopted here allows the assessment of vulnerability to poverty by exploiting the short panel structure of nested data at different levels. The decomposition method reveals that vulnerability in Haiti is largely a rural phenomenon and that schooling correlates negatively with vulnerability. Most importantly, among the different shocks affecting household's income, it is found that meso-level shocks are in general far more important than covariate shocks. This finding points to some interesting policy implications in decentralizing policies to alleviate vulnerability to poverty

Characterization of inequality and poverty in the Republic of Haiti

After nearly twenty years of stagnation and economic decline coupled with political upheavals, the Republic of Haiti, with a GDP per capita of approximately 1,470 USD (expressed in Purchasing Power Parity) in the year 2000, is at this date the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere and one of the poorest of the world. The present research reveals that this country is also where income is worst distributed in the most unequal region of the world, viz., Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Thus, besides the pervasive nature of poverty, income distribution also emerges as a potential stumbling block to growth prospects and should be of high concern for policy makers, let alone be part of a global policy to tackle the poverty scourge. The present research uses the 2001 Haiti Living Conditions Survey, the most recent multi-topic survey for the Republic of Haiti, for distributive analysis and absolute poverty assessment. Preliminary results show that poverty, as expected, is more widespread in the rural area while the Metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince is where the incidence of poverty is the lowest. Surprisingly, access to physical productive asset, such as land, does not help the peasant escape poverty. In addition to the derivation of inequality and poverty profiles, a weighted least square with proper design based for stratified, multistage, and probability cluster sampling is used to additively decompose inequality by multiple factor components. Also, a polychotomous ordered logit is estimated to investigate the risk of being indigent or poor.Después de aproximadamente veinte años de estancamiento económico acompañado de disturbios políticos, la república de Haití, exhibiendo un PIB per capita en paridad de poder de compra de 1,470 dólares estadounidenses, es actualmente el país más pobre del hemisferio occidental y uno de los más pobres del mundo. El presente trabajo de investigación también revela que es el país más desigual en la región más desigual del mundo, a saber, América Latina y el Caribe (ALC). Amén del carácter endémico de la pobreza en este país, el problema de la distribución de la renta puede representar un verdadero escollo a las perspectivas de crecimiento y, por ende, debería constituir una de las principales preocupaciones de los responsables políticos en sus programas de lucha contra este flagelo. Para trabajo se utiliza la Encuesta sobre las Condiciones de Vida en Haití para estimar el estado de la pobreza y la desigualdad para el periodo 2000/2001. Los primeros resultados destacan, sin sorpresa, que la pobreza es más generalizada en la zona rural mientras la zona metropolitana de Puerto Príncipe acusa las tasas más bajas. El acceso a ciertos factores de producción, tales como la tierra agrícola, no constituye una vía de escape a la pobreza. También se propone una descomposición de la desigualdad en varios ámbitos vía la estimación de mínimos cuadrados ponderados para encuestas complejas. Finalmente, se estima un logit policotómico ordenado para investigar la probabilidad de un hogar de ser pobre o indigente

Labor supply response to international migration and remittances in the Republic of Haiti

The Republic of Haiti is the prime international remittances recipient country in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region relative to its gross domestic product (GDP). The downside of this observation may be that this country is also the first exporter of skilled workers in the world by population size. The present research uses a zero-altered negative binomial (with logit inflation) to model households' international migration decision process, and endogenous regressors' Amemiya Generalized Least Squares method (instrumental variable Tobit, IV-Tobit) to account for selectivity and endogeneity issues in assessing the impact of remittances on labor market outcomes. Results are in line with what has been found so far in this literature in terms of a decline of labor supply in the presence of remittances. However, the impact of international remittances does not seem to be important in determining recipient households' labor participation behavior, particularly for women