Remittances and Risk: Evidence from Mexican Migrants

汇款与风险：来自墨西哥移民的证据

• 批准号: 6775323
• 负责人: CATALINA AMUEDO-DORANTES
• 金额: $ 7.55万
• 依托单位: SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-03-15 至 2006-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6775323
• 关键词: Mexican Americans; Mexico; United States; altruism; behavioral /social science research tag; clinical research; community; education; employment /unemployment; family; geographic difference; human data; human migration; immigrant; income; legal /correctional; migrant; model design /development; social behavior; social model; socioeconomics

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Remittances, the repatriated earnings of emigrant workers, have grown to be an important source of foreign exchange earnings in many countries as immigrant workers transfer income to relatives at home. We propose to use a rich cross-sectional dataset to study remittances to Mexico from the United States and to explore how risk and uncertainty affect the volume of remittances sent by individual workers to their families. The proposed project will provide insights regarding the determinants and use of remittances by migrants and their families. In particular, we will: (1) develop a theoretical model that incorporates the notion that immigrants' income risk in the host country affects the level of remittances sent to the home country. (2) We will use our theoretical model to derive several testable hypotheses. In particular, we will assess whether remittances increase with income risk--as captured by variables such as the migrant's legal status in the United States, employment history, education, and work benefits. (3) We will further use our model and data to further understand why, when and how remittances are sent to the home community. Are remittances sent in response to income risk? In exploring the relationship between risk and remittances, we propose to consider two alternative manners of covering for uncertainty: (a) acquiring family-sponsored insurance through the support of family consumption and (b) accumulating assets as a form of precautionary saving. We will also assess whether variations in risk can serve as an alternative explanation for the decay in the remittance receipt over time. Finally, we will examine what mechanisms are used by migrants to remit and if their choice of transmission method is related to variations in risk, migrant characteristics, and the intended use of remittances in the receiving community. And, (4) we will seek to increase public awareness of the existence of an unexplored and rich cross-sectional dataset on border migration to the United States by Mexican migrants from 1993 to 2000 (i.e., Encuesta sobre Migracion en la Frontera Norte de Mxico). The analysis will provide insights into the behavior of immigrants and the manner by which immigrants hedge in the face of economic uncertainty. Immigrants, and in particular undocumented immigrants, are less likely to be eligible for social insurance programs relative to the native-born. Hence, it is of interest to understand how these individuals respond to uncertainty in terms of financing consumption on the part of their family or saving, both of which have implications for who is better able to weather economic downturns, how those fluctuations are best handled, and, therefore, for return migration.

描述（由申请人提供）：汇款是移民工人遣返的收入，已成为许多国家的外汇收入的重要来源，因为移民工人将收入转移到家里的亲戚。我们建议使用丰富的横断面数据集研究从美国到墨西哥的汇款，并探讨风险和不确定性如何影响各个工人向家人发送的汇款量。拟议的项目将提供有关移民及其家人汇款的决定因素和使用的见解。特别是：（1）开发一个理论模型，该模型结合了这样一个观念，即移民在东道国的收入风险会影响发送给本国的汇款水平。 （2）我们将使用我们的理论模型来得出几种可检验的假设。特别是，我们将评估汇款是否随收入风险增加而增加 - 就像移民在美国的法律地位，就业历史，教育和工作福利等变量所捕获一样。 （3）我们将进一步使用我们的模型和数据，以进一步了解原因，何时以及如何发送到家庭社区。汇款是为了应对收入风险吗？在探索风险与汇款之间的关系时，我们建议考虑两种供不确定性覆盖的替代方式：（a）通过支持家庭消费以及（b）积累资产作为预防措施的一种预防措施的形式，从而获得家庭赞助的保险。我们还将评估风险的变化是否可以作为随着时间的汇款收据中衰减的替代解释。最后，我们将检查移民使用哪些机制来汇总，如果他们选择传输方法与风险，移民特征的变化以及接收社区中汇款的预期使用有关。 （4）我们将寻求提高公众对1993年至2000年墨西哥移民对边境迁移的未开发和丰富的横截面数据集的意识（即Encuesta Sobre Migracion en la la frontera en la la la frontera norte de m xicico）。该分析将提供有关移民行为以及面对经济不确定性的移民树篱方式的见解。相对于本地出生的移民，尤其是无证件移民，不太可能有资格参加社会保险计划。因此，感兴趣的是，了解这些人如何在家庭或储蓄方面对不确定性做出反应，这两者都对谁能更好地度过经济低迷，如何最好地处理这些波动，因此对返回移民有影响。