Low-Skilled Labor Migration in Tajikistan: Determinants and Effects on Expenditure Patterns

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract: It is often assumed that international labor migration from Tajikistan, while having no noticeable effects on investment (usually defined as medium and long-term consumption, such as education, or investment into housing or business), on average leads to an increase in short-term consumption, mostly food. In this paper, a simple household-level model determining the migration decision is developed and tested empirically. In a second step, the effect of low-skilled labor migration on household expenditure shares is analyzed using 2SLS. While only weak effects of migration measured by a simple dummy are visible, repeating the analysis using the length of the migration spell instead, as well as its squared term, reveals that labor migration apparently takes a while to "kick in" and become profitable to those remaining at home. The observed long-term effects on household consumption patterns, albeit being rather small, actually speak in favour of investment of remittances, with the respective shares increasing over time, while the budget share spent on food slowly decreases. Terms of use: Documents in

Emigration, Remittances and the Education of Children Staying Behind: Evidence from Tajikistan

“…This finding does not support the hypothesis that remittances in Tajikistan relax budget constraints allowing children to go to school. It is, however, consistent with the evidence that remittances in Tajikistan are used for the purchase of food and basic necessities, house construction and renovation, and organization of weddings, and not as investment into the education of children (Clement, 2011;Danzer et al, 2013b;Meier, 2014). It is likely that households which are the most likely to receive remittances in Tajikistan consider education as a high-risk investment, as it is not clear to them whether higher levels of education will lead to better employment outcomes at home.…”

“…Receiving remittances is not associated with better school attendance: the coefficient of remittances is not significant for the full sample or any sub-samples. This would refute hypothesis H2 that remittances relax educational budget constraints allowing children to attend school and be consistent with the evidence that remittances in Tajikistan contribute little to educational expenses (Clement, 2011;Danzer et al, 2013b;Meier, 2014). Next, looking at the full sample (Column 1), it is the non-parent and legal-employment migration that are the most detrimental for the children's school attendance.…”

Expenditure Pattern Among Indonesian Manufacturing Workers: Case Study in Pulau Pinang

“…In fact, many other positives also derived from this policy by helping the government strengthen the economy in a way that it makes more favorable exchange rate SITI 'AISYAH BAHARUDIN Expenditure Pattern Among Indonesian Manufacturing Workers: Case Study In Pulau Pinang from the remittance sent back home as well as to increase the welfare of the family left in home country and therefore overall economy indicators are boosted. (Meier, 2014) divided the expenditure pattern of migrant workers into two different stage, namely short term and long term effect. The short term effect tend to put priority on primary needs as the expenditure on food shares increasing, while the consumption on non-food items are neglected at this stage.…”