Welfare Implications of Migration, Remittance, and Governance
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Date
2020-07
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A.A.U
Abstract
Migration be it internal or international is intensifying. This is due to globalization and demographic changes in developed and new developing countries. Migration is no longer a male dominated activity. Moreover, studies show that women received a lion share of remittances sent back home. Yet, most migration studies ignore gender perspective in the process and consequences of it. Thus, little is known on the linkages between gender, migration, and source households’ well-being. In the context of Ethiopia this dissertation offers an insight into this aspect of migration. Moreover, from standpoint of governance quality, which is an important global development agenda, this dissertation sheds light on the effect of governance quality on food security in the contest of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
The first chapter analyzes impacts of migration on households’ farm and off-farm incomes. To this end a panel data set of the World Bank Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) is used.
It finds that migration has a positive effect on farm households’ livestock production but no impact on crop incomes. Considering the land size, migration has a negative effect on crop incomes for farmers who own land more than the median land size per capita. Moreover, we found that migration positively affected income generating activities of farm households. Overall, the findings show that households’ heterogeneity needs to be considered for a comprehensive understanding of migration’s impact.
Second and third chapters investigate implication of migration and remittances on left-behind households’ welfare from a gender standpoint. The question whether gender matters in the impact of migration motivates these studies. Findings of these studies show that a gender disaggregated framework should be used for comprehensively understanding migration’s impact on the well-being of source families as otherwise the findings are unlikely to be reliable for designing policies for enhancing the positive effects of migration and mitigating the negative ones.
Using panel data set the last chapter studies the effects of governance quality on food security in the context of sub-Saharan African countries (SSA). The study found that improving governance quality in SSA contributes positively and significantly to food security.
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Keywords
Governance, Migration, remittances, Welfare, food security, the NELM