Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'FINANCIAL REMITTANCE'

Money Service Businesses provide people and institutions with a way to send money (remit) from one place to another. This service is most often associated with migrants, who typically wish to send money or value home. Remittances can be sent both on a domestic and on a cross-border basis. The methods used to remit money or value can be used for both legitimate and illegal purposes. The question posed by this research is whether the Money Service Businesses that operate in South Africa and provide crossborder remittance services are adequately regulated, to ensure that it is not used for the purposes of money laundering and/or terror financing. Copyright
Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Accounting
unrestricted

Over the last decade, a new trend of Global Remittances has emerged within the international development community, especially a growing interest in women’s migration and remittances, and their potential for poverty reduction and economic growth. Due to the staggering amount of transnational money transfers, migrant remittances have become a central component in multilateral discussions on alternative development financing, and has been included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The present study thus explores the multiple ways in which this gendered migration-remittance-development nexus has come to play out the recent years, seeking to understand how the “banking the unbanked” logic along with microfinance profit-making agendas serves neoliberal governmental and infrastructural discursive formations of transnational migration and its development impact. By using a decolonial approach, the study uses critical discourse analysis to scrutinize selected multilateral actors’ policy documents to explore in what ways migrant women’s “financial inclusion, independence and economic empowerment” have been included in the goals and targets within the 2030 Agenda. The main finding is that the rights-based approach towards migrants in the sustainability discourse rather tends to dismantle migrant agency into monetary practices which have come to be an important means for the financialization of migrant and non-migrant communities as well as for the transmittance of western knowledge doctrines, and in turn, are to prolong regimes of “modern slavery.”

Questo studio è sostanzialmente suddiviso in due documenti di ricerca completamente sviluppati. Il primo capitolo ha esaminato l'impatto delle rimesse sulla disuguaglianza nell'accesso ai servizi finanziari nei paesi in via di sviluppo. Il set di dati per lo studio è stato costruito da diverse fonti, tra cui Global Findex, World Development Indicators, World Bank, FMI, The Worldwide Governance Indicators e il dataset delle Nazioni Unite sulla migrazione bilaterale. Pertanto, lo studio ha combinato fonti di dati di livello micro con informazioni di livello macro nell'analisi. Sulla base della disponibilità dei dati, lo studio ha coperto 102 paesi in via di sviluppo per tre anni, vale a dire 2011, 2014 e 2017. Lo studio ha utilizzato tecniche a effetti fissi con e senza variabili strumentali e, a scopo di robustezza, sono state utilizzate nell'analisi diverse definizioni di rimesse. Uno dei risultati chiave è che, sebbene non vi siano prove che le rimesse riducano la variazione complessiva nell'inclusione finanziaria nei paesi in via di sviluppo, riducono significativamente il divario di genere nell'inclusione finanziaria. Sulla base di tali risultati, lo studio ha formulato raccomandazioni politiche appropriate. Il secondo capitolo è uno studio specifico per paese incentrato sul Ghana. Il capitolo ha esaminato l'impatto dell'inclusione finanziaria sul benessere delle famiglie in Ghana, concentrandosi in particolare su come l'inclusione finanziaria influenzi il comportamento di spesa delle famiglie. Lo studio ha utilizzato il set di dati più recente del Ghana Living Standard Survey (ovvero GLSS 7), che è stato raccolto nel 2016/2017. L'analisi è suddivisa in due parti: in primo luogo, è stato studiato l'impatto dell'inclusione finanziaria sul livello di spesa delle famiglie utilizzando la tecnica del propensity score matching (PSM). In secondo luogo, è stato esaminato anche l'impatto dell'inclusione finanziaria sulle quote di bilancio della spesa delle famiglie impiegando un approccio variabile strumentale e PSM per la robustezza. Ognuna di queste due analisi è stata ulteriormente condotta suddividendo il campione complessivo in sottocampioni, in cui è stato esaminato l'effetto dell'inclusione finanziaria sulle famiglie con capofamiglia femminile e sui loro omologhi maschili, e anche l'effetto sulle famiglie rurali e sulle loro controparti urbane. Alcuni dei principali risultati dello studio includono: (1) sia le quote di budget che le analisi del livello di spesa mostrano una relazione inversa tra l'inclusione finanziaria e il consumo alimentare delle famiglie (2) i due risultati mostrano anche che l'effetto dell'inclusione finanziaria è più forte effetti positivi sugli investimenti nell'istruzione per le famiglie con capofamiglia maschile rispetto alle controparti femminili, mentre anche le controparti femminili spendono di più per investimenti in abitazioni e beni di consumo durevoli; (3) È stato anche riscontrato che le famiglie rurali incluse finanziariamente deviano risorse dal consumo di cibo, beni di tentazione e altre categorie di beni agli investimenti in istruzione, alloggio e beni di consumo durevoli in base al risultato delle quote di bilancio. Sulla base dei risultati emersi sono state fornite adeguate raccomandazioni politiche.
This study is broadly divided into two fully developed research papers. The first chapter examined the impact of remittances on inequality in access to financial services in developing countries. The dataset for the study was built from several sources, including Global Findex, World Development Indicators, World Bank, IMF, The Worldwide Governance Indicators and United Nations dataset on bilateral migration. Thus, the study combined micro-level data sources with macro-level information in the analysis. Based on data availability, the study covered 102 developing countries for three years, namely 2011, 2014 and 2017. The study employed fixed effects techniques with and without instrumental variables, and for robustness purpose different definitions of remittances were used in the analysis. One of the key findings is that while there is no evidence that remittances reduce overall variation in financial inclusion in developing countries, they significantly reduce the gender gap in financial inclusion. Based on such findings, the study made appropriate policy recommendations. The second chapter is a country specific study focused on Ghana. The chapter examined the impact of financial inclusion on household welfare in Ghana, by specifically focusing on how financial inclusion affects household expenditure behavior. The study used the most recent Ghana Living Standard Survey dataset (i.e. GLSS 7), which was collected in 2016/2017. The analysis is divided into two parts: first, the impact of financial inclusion on the level of household expenditure was investigated using propensity score matching (PSM) technique. Second, the impact of financial inclusion on household expenditure budget shares was also examined by employing an instrumental variable approach and PSM for robustness. Each of these two analyses were further performed by dividing the overall sample into subsamples, where the effect of financial inclusion on female-headed households and their male-counterparts was examined, and the effect on rural households and their urban counterparts was also investigated. Some of the major findings from the study include: (1) both the budget shares and the level of expenditure analyses show an inverse relationship between financial inclusion and household food consumption (2) the two results also show that the effect of financial inclusion yields stronger positive effects on investment in education for male-headed households compared to their female counterparts, while their female counterparts also spend more on investment in housing and consumer durables; (3) financially included rural households were also found to divert resources away from food consumption, temptation goods and the other goods category to investment in education, housing and consumer durables according to the budget shares result. Appropriate policy recommendations were provided based on the findings that emerged.

There is a constant need to seek new catalysts for economic growth in various regions of the world, particularly within Sub-Saharan Africa. Financial development and remittances could be potential catalysts, but this has been strongly debated in empirical research. This study, therefore, analysed the financial development-remittance-growth nexus, but from the context of the Southern African Development Community from 2004 to 2014. The aim of this study was two-fold. Firstly, it analysed the short-run dynamics of interaction between various aspects of financial development and remittances on the economic growth rate (real gross domestic product). Secondly, it analysed the long-run dynamics. In this study four broad institutional channels of financial development were analysed, namely, access, depth, efficiency, and stability. The empirical model was estimated using the two-stage least-squares technique and the two-step system generalised method of moments technique. The empirical findings showed a significant relationship with the interaction between financial efficiency and remittances on the economic growth rate, but only in the short run (ceteris paribus). However, this study could not establish whether this interaction had a positive or negative effect on the economic growth rate. Nonetheless, financial access and financial stability had a significantly negative effect on the economic growth rate, both in the short and long run (ceteris paribus). Remittances and foreign direct investments generally had an insignificant effect on the economic growth rate (ceteris paribus). Further findings suggest that remittances were a-cyclical in nature. Overall, it is recommended that policy discussions analyse implications of increasing competition among financial institutions and remittance service providers to reduce intermediation costs.

Both labour migration and the associated remittances are increasing in scale and significance. As a result, they receive close attention from policy makers and international organizations. This thesis explores the issues related to the measurement of remittances, the determinants of remittances, and the impact of remittances on the financial system in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The encompassing theme of the thesis is the empirical interplay between remittances, various economic parameters, and financial systems. The paucity of research on the role of remittances in the economies of transition countries has prevented the development of a meaningful policy response to this massive inflow of funds into the economies of these countries. This thesis contributes towards filling this gap in the research and presents four studies, which provide insights into the methodology of estimating remittances, as well as the relationships between remittances, the transaction costs associated with sending remittances, the economy, and the financial system.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith Busines School
Griffith Business School
Full Text

The relationship between remittances, financial development, and real growth in recent years has increasingly become a topic of interest for scholars and practitioners alike. With the ever presence of globalization, the migratory patterns have fundamentally changed. The migration of people no longer means their total isolation from their home country; but rather a new dynamic environment has emerged with the increased importance of remittances on social, economic and political transformation back in their countries of origins. In addition, the continuing development of the financial systems whether it is in the banking sector or the stock exchange has accelerated in the last few decades. It is important to point out to the accelerating trend in financial development and its impact on real growth. Equally important to highlight the extent to which the financial system influenced the remittance patterns. By looking at Egypt as the country of interest from 1977 to 2014, the thesis investigates the role and impact of financial development and remittances on GDP. Egypt is chosen as the country of interest given its status as the biggest economy in North Africa and the third largest in the continent. Additionally, it is among one of the largest recipient of remittances from its expatriate population.

Remittances (money sent home by migrants) to developing countries are estimated to have reached US$ 325 billion in 2010 (World Bank, 2011). These amounts reflect only officially recorded transfers, transferred through formal channels and calculated as the sum of three items of the Balance of Payments Statistics, namely: compensation of employees, workers’ remittances and migrants’ transfers (Salomone, 2006; Aggarwal et al. 2011). Unrecorded remittances could represent 50 to 100% of recorded flows (World Bank, 2006; Hagen-Zanker and Siegel, 2007).

Remittances are three times the size of official development assistance (ODA) and the second source of external funds after foreign direct investment (FDI) for developing countries. Given their weight in receiving countries’ economies and household livelihood in many developing countries (for instance, remittances flows represent more than 25% of Lesotho’ and Moldavia’s gross domestic product in 2008), there is increasing policy and research interest in remittances as development resource. Furthermore, unlike FDI and ODA, remittances have the particularity to be directly affected to families, even those in remote areas, where development funds don’t arrive (Shaw, 2006). The thesis addresses the relationship between microfinance and the impact remittances have on domestic investment in developing countries.

Like other sources of external finance, remittances allow the economy to invest in human and physical capital (health, education), which contribute to growth (Ziesemer, 2006; Acosta et al. 2008). However, as remittances may be either directly consumed (remittances allow households to smooth their consumption, see for instance Lucas and Stark, 1985 and Glytsos, 2005) or used to invest in physical and human capital, it appears that their impact on domestic investment is perceived to be low or limited, given the amount of money they represent each year. According to literature, this is due to the small share that is dedicated to the launch or the support of economic activities. Actually, the allocation between consumption and investment, which depends on various factors such as the level of dependence households have with remittances, the migrant gender, and the existence of a credit constraint, varies on average around 10-20% of remittances that are not directly consumed (Salomone, 2006; Sorensen, 2004; Orozco, 2004). In the thesis we focus on the share of remittances that is saved and wonder how to maximize its impact, whatever this share. We are interested in the role of microfinance institutions, as actors of the financial sector, on this issue. Actually, two recent contributions, Mundaca (2009), and Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2009), stress the role of the development of the financial sector. More precisely, the thesis focuses on a set of questions or issues that may be important for the microfinance industry to consider when interested in remittances flows and the deposits they may generate.

Financial development is generally defined as “increasing efficiency of allocating financial resources and monitoring capital projects, through encouraging competition and increasing the importance of the financial system. In other words, the development is about structure, size and efficiency of a financial system” (Huang, 2006). A large line of research work provides evidence that development of a financial system is a key driver of economic growth.

King and Levine (1993) argue that greater financial development increases economic growth. Levine and Zervos (1993) shows that growth is related to stock market activity, among other variables. Levine (1999) finds a significant effect of determinants of financial intermediation on economic growth. Beck et al. (2004) find strong evidence in favor of the financial-services view which stresses that financial systems provide key financial services, crucial for firm creation, industrial expansion, and economic growth. Levine (1997), Levine et al. (2000), and Beck et al. (2000) also stress the impact of financial development on growth. There is also an empirical literature that argues that the expansion and the deepening of the financial system lead to higher investment (see for instance Rajan and Zingales, 1998; Demirgüç-Kunt and Macksimovic, 1998).

By providing financial services to people whom traditionally do not have access to financial institutions, microfinance institutions (MFIs) may contribute to increasing the size of the financial system in many developing countries. Actually, according to the CFSI’s 2011 report, the one thousand-plus MFIs that report to the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX) have 88 million borrowers and 76 million savers. Total assets of these MFIs amount to US$ 60 billion (CFSI, 2011).

The quite recent literature on remittances, financial development and growth can be categorized under two main approaches (Brown et al. 2011). One approach explores the relationship between remittances and financial development, with a view to assessing their impact on the level of financial development in receiving countries. The underlying argument is that remittances potentially contribute to financial development through both demand- and supply- side effects: by increasing households’ demand for and use of banking services, and by increasing the availability of loanable funds to the financial sector. According to this approach which consider the direct relationship between remittances and financial development, remittances have an impact on both financial outreach and depth in receiving countries, respectively through the fostering of financial literacy among remittances receivers and through the increasing availability of funds (see for instance Gupta et al. 2009, Aggarwal et al. 2011, Brown et al. 2011).

The second approach examines the remittances – financial development relationship indirectly by investigating how the given level of financial development in a country affects the impact of remittances on growth. This growth-focused approach allows for interactions between remittances and financial development in estimating growth equations for remittances receiving countries. Within the set of studies related to this approach, two opposing positions have emerged. The first position hypothesizes that the greater availability of financial services helps channel remittances to better use, thus boosting their overall impact on growth. Remittances are seen as financial flows in search of good investment projects, and good financial institutions are needed to facilitate the channeling of remittances to such investments. In this sense, remittances and financial system are complements. This position is supported by Mundaca (2009) who find that financial intermediation increases the responsiveness of growth to remittances in Latin America and the Caribbean over the 1970-2002 period. Other few studies also argue that channeling remittances through the banking sector enhances their development impact (see for instance Hinojosa Ojeda, 2003 and Terry and Wilson, 2005).

The other position argues that remittances contribute to investment and growth by substituting for inefficiencies in credit and capital markets. Remittances provide an alternative source of funding for profitable investments by alleviating liquidity constraints. In this sense, remittances promote growth more in less financially developed countries by substituting for lack of credits from financial institutions. This hypothesis is supported by Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz (2009) who argue that poor households use remittances to finance informal investment in poorly developed financial markets with liquidity constraints. In their study, they interact remittances with a measure of financial development in standard growth equations, for a sample of 73 countries over the 1975-2002 period. Ramirez and Sharma (2009) obtain similar results using data from 23 Latin American countries over the 1990-2005 period.

The thesis contributes to existing knowledge on this indirect, growth-focused approach. Given the two existing opposite views on remittances impact on investment and the level of financial intermediation (a high level of financial development implies a high level of financial intermediation), in the thesis we first analyze the relationship that links these variables. We then analyses questions related to microfinance institutions (MFIs), as financial intermediaries.

Our focus on microfinance is made from two different perspectives, leading to different research questions. First, from the demand or microfinance clients’ perspective, we question about the interest for them to have MFIs entering the money transfers market (through the money transfer facilities and/or financial products that may be directly linked to remittances). The underlying argument is that MFIs enter the remittances market by providing money transfer services because there is a need for such services (and for other financial services) from their (potential) clients who are remittances receivers and migrants. According to this point of view, MFIs can contribute to recycle remittances flows into the financial system by contributing to the financial inclusion of remittances receivers and migrants thanks to the supply of adapted financial products. The occurrence of this assumption can therefore be measured by considering the involvement of MFIs on the remittances market as a determinant of financial inclusion indicators. Second, from the supply or MFIs’ perspective, we question about the rationale for MFIs to enter the remittances market. Here, the underlying argument is that MFIs are interested in operating on the remittances market because working with migrants can potentially contributes to the improvement of their financial and social performances. According to this perspective, remittances market opportunities as well as MFIs’ characteristics will determine the offer of money transfer services by MFIs. This supply approach therefore leads to the consideration of money transfers activities in MFIs as depending on remittances market opportunities and institutional variables.

Therefore, our papers related to microfinance will be articulated around these two questions (interest for clients and rationale for MFIs to have MFIs operating on the money transfers industry) by focusing, as argued earlier, on the deposits resulting from remittances flows.

As a matter of facts, by studying the relationship between microfinance and remittances respectively through the demand and the supply perspective, we raise causality issues related to MFIs’ money transfer activities and their impacts on MFIs performances. Actually, MFIs’ characteristics such as the right to collect public savings, as a potential source of efficiency gains, may significantly determine the supply of a money transfer service (MFIs’ perspective), while a money transfer service may itself be the determinant of some MFIs’ performance indicators related to financial inclusion, such as the volume of deposits made by clients (demand approach). However, given currently existing data on MFIs’ involvement on the remittances market we cannot consider simultaneously both perspectives in order to implement causality treatment techniques. Actually, the indicator of MFIs’ involvement we will use in our regressions is time invariant, therefore we are not able to build instrumental variables for instance (such as lagged values of our variable of interest) to eliminate econometric issues in our regressions. Nevertheless, through these two approaches taken separately, we contribute to some extend to the knowledge by putting in perspective different issues at stake for the microfinance industry.

Before we tackle our research questions we have an introductory chapter related to remittances flows: what are their trends, determinants and characteristics? The chapter also includes the definition of money transfer activities that we will use in the thesis, as well as an overview of MFIs’ involvement on the money transfers market.

Then, our research framework is divided into 4 sub-questions. The first one, treated in Chapter 2, is about the relationship between our variables of interest. What is the impact of the financial sector development (FSD) on the remittances’ impact on investment? This chapter aims at stressing the relationship existing between financial intermediation and remittances’ impacts on investment, which motivated our focus on MFIs (as financial intermediaries between remittances and the formal economy) in the following chapters. We focus on two transaction costs that decline with FSD. The first is the “Cost of Bank Depositing”, henceforth CDEP, which measures the difficulties of savers, particularly the less well-off, of depositing their savings in the formal banking system. The second transaction cost is the “Cost of External Finance”, henceforth CEXF, which measures the marginal cost for the banking system of borrowing in global financial markets. This cost is notably associated with the robustness of the country’s financial sector. In a stylized model of the lendable funds market, we analyze how both these variables affect the marginal effect of remittances on investment. We test model’s propositions using country-level data on remittances, investment, and proxies for both CDEP and CEXF, on a sample of 100 developing countries. We perform empirical tests using both cross-section and panel-data with country fixed effects, over the period 1975-2004. The results demonstrate, theoretically and empirically, that remittances and ease of access to the banking sector act as complements to stimulate domestic investment, while remittances and external borrowing are substitutes. We find that remittances flows stimulate local investment, as a part of remittances indeed become banks’ deposits, which increases the availability of lendable funds, reduces the interest rate and stimulates investment. In terms of policy implication, results suggest that enhancing financial sector development is crucial as it allows remittances to better fuel domestic investment. This is even truer when the access to international funds is difficult or costly. Improving the financial inclusion of remittances receivers by developing domestic banks’ ability to collect their savings is then a straightforward recommendation to policymakers who want to improve remittances impact on investment.

The second question, developed in Chapter 3 is related to the demand perspective of the relationship between microfinance and remittances. We want to assess whether there is a need from remittances receivers for financial products that may be linked to remittances. We aboard this question by assessing whether the supply of MTA leads to higher volume of deposits mobilized by MFIs, meaning that MFIs actually contribute or succeed in turning remittances into deposits. Using an original database of 114 MFIs –operating in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), South Asia (SA), East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), and Africa–, we perform empirical tests to study whether MFIs are able to capture migrants’ savings thanks to their money transfer activity. We test the impact of money transfer activity on deposits, using the natural logarithm of deposits as explained variable. Our main result suggests that money transfer activity has a significant positive impact on savings collection. MFIs involved in the remittances market thus attract more savings than MFIs that are not involved in it, probably coming from migrants and remittances receivers who are in need of adapted financial services. This confirms the opportunity MFIs may represent as a tool or a channel to improve remittances impact on investment. In that sense, MFIs should then be encouraged to operate on the remittances market, and to design financial products dedicated to migrants and remittances receivers.

The third question, developed in Chapter 4, is related to the supply approach of the relationship between remittances and microfinance. More precisely, we try to identify factors that seem to explain the availability of such service in the scope of services provided by MFIs. In this chapter, we focus first on potential sources of efficiency gains linked to the money transfer activity as a rationale for diversification (i.e. the expansion of the offer). And second, using an original database of 435 MFIs –operating in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), South Asia (SA), East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), and Africa–, we perform empirical tests using cross-section over the year 2006, to identify which environmental and institutional parameters have an impact on the willingness of a MFI to provide a money transfer service. We test the impact of various variables that are related to one of the rationale for MFIs to enter the money transfer market, namely economies of scale and scope as a source of efficiency gains, on the probability to have a money transfer service provided by a given MFI. Our main result suggests that the size, as well as the fact that an MFI collects savings have a positive and significant impact on this probability, while the level of financial development negatively impact it. This confirms among other things that the ability to realize economies of scale through a potential increase of collected deposits may be a determinant of managers’ choice to diversify. Policies that contribute to reduce entry barriers in low financially developed countries should then, among other things, be encouraged to have MFIs fully playing their role of intermediaries between remittances and the (formal) economy.

The chapter 5 questions about the institutional consequences for MFIs to collect migrants’ savings. The aim of this chapter is to give an insight on the opportunity migrants’ money (including remittances) could represent for the microfinance industry as a source of stable medium- and long-term funds. It is therefore related to the supply approach and the motivation for MFIs to enter the remittances market by analyzing the impact of migrants’ deposits (which include remittances) on another potential source of efficiency gains, namely the internal capital market. Through a case study approach, this chapter is devoted to the analysis of funding risk in microfinance, comparing migrants’ and locals’ time deposits. Migrants’ time deposits are expected to be of longer term and more stable (in terms of early withdrawals) than locals’ deposits. This assumption had never been tested yet. Based on an original database of 7,828 deposit contracts issued between 2002 and 2008 by 12 village banks belonging to a major Malian rural microfinance network (PASECA-Kayes), we used the Cox proportional hazard model to identify the variables that have an impact on the probability to have early withdrawals, and the technique of re-sampling to calculate withdrawal rates and deposits at risk. Results from the Cox methodology suggest that the migration status is not a direct determinant for the probability to have an early withdrawal. However, this probability increases with the amount deposited and the term of the contract which are both higher for migrants compared to non-migrants. The re-sampling method results suggest that withdrawal rates are not the same for the two categories of depositors observed. We find higher withdrawal rate distributions for migrants than for locals. The value at risk is also higher on migrants’ deposits than on locals’ deposits. However, as migrants tend to deposit for longer term than locals, through the calculation of durations we have measured to which extend migrants’ deposits still have a positive impact on MFIs’ liabilities. It appears that migrants’ money has a marginal but positive impact on time deposits durations, either when considering early withdrawals, which impacts are very limited, except in 2007 (the worst year in terms of amount withdrawn early). As our results show that MFIs that receive migrants’ deposits are not necessarily better-off than without migrants’ money in terms of funding risk - and durations - this paper has stressed the importance of assessing more carefully the role of migrants for the microfinance industry.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis in economics includes three self-contained papers united by a common theme: the importance of economic fluctuations within and between countries for capital flows and risk sharing inside and across national borders. The first two papers study the determinants of workers’ remittances, as well as the consequences for macroeconomic volatility for the countries that receive them, using econometric methods and a general equilibrium model. The third paper studies whether two challenges to international real business cycle models, the so called ”Quantity Puzzle” and the positive relationship between financial integration and output correlations, obtain for European countries and regions. As a second step, it also investigates multilateral channels for risk sharing.
Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2010. Sammanfattning jämte 3 uppsatser.

In recent years, remittances have been hailed as potential drivers of economic development in migrant-sending countries. Over four million Colombians (around 10% of Colombia‘s population) reside abroad and the UK is their second most favoured destination in Europe. Approximately 100,000 Colombians live and work in London and, in turn, the UK is the fourth biggest source of remittances to Colombia. In recent years, the Colombian Government has introduced policies to make their citizens abroad an integral part of a reconstituted definition of the Colombian nation. It has sought to render migrants as agents of economic development by channelling their remittances towards ‗productive investment‘. The main component of this investment is mortgage-financed housing. To this end, the government has promoted ‗Mi casa con remesas‘, a model of housing finance for people who receive remittances periodically from their family members abroad, and sponsored housing/property fairs for Colombian migrants in their main cities of destination in the global north: Madrid, London, New York and Miami. This thesis situates the Colombian government‘s narratives around the use of remittances to finance housing investment within broader discourses of development and neoliberalism and the strategies and experiences of accessing housing articulated by Colombian migrants in London and their households in the Coffee Region of Colombia. Based on empirical data collected at both ends of the migration network, it argues that the conception of migrants as agents of development – and hence as transnational financial subjects – is tightly linked to wider attempts at the institutionalisation of the transnational social field. These attempts are embedded in ideologically-driven discourses of citizenship that privilege financial markets as the medium for individuals‘ and households‘ socioeconomic reproduction. Furthermore, they displace the responsibility for economic development from the state to its citizens (at home and abroad) and bring to the fore investment as the preferred mechanism for the ‗proper‘ use of remittances and through which migrant households‘ connection to broader circuits of capital and finance can be exploited. Although housing is a growing component of remittances expenditure, for the most part, Colombians in London are not embracing their newly-assigned financial subjectivities but are instead using alternative channels for housing acquisition and financing.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Immigrant remittances have received increasing attention over the last couple of decades, due to the substantial financial inflows into developing countries, as their size and impact on the economies have experienced significant growth over a period of time. This study has investigated the relationship between financial development, specifically for the banking sector, and remittances for eight Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries by utilising panel estimation techniques from 1993-2011. In this particular study, the investigation was focused on the association between remittances and the aggregate level of bank deposits (M2) and domestic credit to the private sector that represented financial development. For M2, the results showed that remittances are negatively correlated with money supply and it was not statistically significant for this equation. However, in terms of domestic credit to the private sector, a positive and significant determinant was found for remittances and financial development in these eight Sub-Saharan countries. It is recommended that policymakers should develop and implement sustainable policies to facilitate uninterrupted flow of remittances, strengthen financial institutions and sound macro-economic policies in order to attract more remittances through the banking sector.

This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth, and remittances, financial development, and globalization after controlling for different levels of international financial distress. We study four of the major remittances recipient countries individually over the period of 1976 to 2012 using an autoregressive distributed lag method (ARDL). The results show that in Mexico, Bangladesh, and India remittances work as a stabilizing factor on their economies. Significant results of a positive long run correlation between remittances and GDP levels are also found in the results of Bangladesh and Mexico. High levels of financial distress have a negative impact on GDP in Mexico. We conclude that the level of financial integration between economies affect how financial distress in one economy spills over to another. This paper also finds that in the short run when globalization increases, uncompetitive businesses are outrivaled in Mexico and in Bangladesh, due to big neighbors like the United States or China and India. For Bangladesh, the financial development is destabilizing in the short run, and in the long run it correlates negatively with GDP. For India, this study finds that higher levels of both financial development and globalization promote long term economic growth. For China, few conclusions are drawn.

Remittances were calculated to be approximately $318 billion in 2007, which is an increase of three times the amount of $102 billion in 1995, having these funds to become the second largest type of flows after foreign direct investment. The South-Eastern and Eastern-European countries welcomed 12% of the world’s remittances inflows in 2007, totalling $37 billion.

The impact of remittances on financial development of the South-Eastern and Eastern-European countries for the period 1994 – 2007 is studied and it is examined whether these funds contribute to increasing the aggregate level of deposits and credits intermediated by the local banking sector. Financial development is measured in two ways, either as bank deposits or as bank credits to private investors.

In order to analyze this effect panel data analysis is performed. Fixed effect regressions are performed to test for the effect of remittances on bank deposits and bank credits to private investors. The findings indicate that remittances have a robust positive effect on promoting financial development in South-Eastern and Eastern-European countries. It is observed that the effect on bank deposits is less robust than the effect on bank credits to private investors.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study analyses the implications of financial liberalisation programme for international remittance inflows with regard to the macroeconomic determinants and also the implications of remittances for economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) between 1980 and 2009. The methodological approach to the analytical framework of this study is based on the hypothesis that financial liberalisation causes higher inflows of international migrant remittances through official channels to augment the scarce domestic financial resources, and to stimulate economic growth for sustainable development in capital-constrained SSA. Prior to the macroeconometric analyses, the study addressed definitional and measurement issues on international remittances and financial liberalisation, and provided an overview of the macroeconomic policy environment in post-independent SSA, as well as the magnitude and the trends in remittances received by SSA relative to other developing economies. First, the system Generalised Method of Moment (GMM) for dynamic panel-data estimation was used to determine the macroeconomic factors responsible for the changing trends in remittance inflows. Then an inquiry into the impact and causal effects of financial liberalisation on international remittance inflows in SSA following the static panel-data modelling and panel Granger non-causality estimation procedures was undertaken. Following this, the system GMM was further employed to examine the impact of remittances on long-run economic growth, and the effects of remittance inflows on economic development in SSA. Essentially, the economic development indicators considered in this study are poverty, income inequality, labour market outcomes, human capital development, and financial development. It is revealed in this study that the most appropriate measure of international migrant remittances is the sum of “workers‟ remittances” and “compensation of employees” excluding “migrant transfers”. Using remittances per capita, which the study found to be the best proxy for remittances per migrant rather than the commonly used remittances as a percentage of GDP, it is shown that SSA is the least recipient of official migrant remittances in the world, with no SSA country receiving remittances worth US$1 per day. This study further establishes that the macroeconomic factors that influence remittance inflows in SSA have varying rather than static impact in response to changing macroeconomic policy environment. Also, macroeconomic factors have different influences on attracting remittances from abroad in relation to migrant duration status – permanent or temporary. Although financial liberalisation Granger-causes international remittances, not sufficient evidence exists that a significant proportion of the official remittances received in SSA passes through the banking system. Besides, the extent to which financial liberalisation can Granger-cause and/or positively impact on international remittance inflows in SSA is directly and ultimately conditional to the macroeconomic fundamentals of the remittance-receiving SSA country. It was also found out that generally, international migrant remittances propel higher economic growth in SSA, with greater impact on SSA countries with relatively higher growth rates. International remittance inflows have significant positive developmental impact, with no sufficient evidence of moral hazard effects. Overall, international remittances contribute to reducing poverty and unemployment but not necessarily income inequality and, at worse, remittances have no significant impact on labour productivity and participation in SSA. Higher remittance inflows promote human welfare, educational attainment, life expectancy, and financial development in SSA. With the exception of educational attainment, the developmental effects of remittances vary across countries, depending upon the level of economic development.

Remittances received from migrants abroad have become one of the largest sources of external finance for developing countries. It has been argued that a particular impact of this influential flow is the stimulation of financial sector development. However, current research has been mainly based at a broad level across the developing world. This paper investigates whether this consensus holds true when examined at a sub-regional level within Sub-Saharan Africa. It is an important question given the extensive literature documenting the direct growth enhancing effect of financial development, and consequently, poverty reduction. In particular, annual data from 11 countries in the South African Development Community (SADC) are analysed from 1990 to 2011 using the panel data analysis techniques of fixed and random effects models, a Generalised Methods of Moments (GMM) dynamic framework (Arellano & Bover, 1995) and Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimations (Baum, Schaffer & Stillman, 2003). Three indicators of financial sector development are analysed, namely: the level of bank deposits, near money (M2) and credit intermediated by the local banking sector. Remittances are found to have a largely negative and insignificant impact on financial sector development in SADC over the period of study. This contradicts the findings of the current literature on this topic. The implications of this are noteworthy as it adds evidence that the model currently held in the literature (i.e. that remittances have a positive and significant relationship on financial sector development) is not robust at the less smoothed level of a subregional scale. But further, it provides evidence to motivate the further exploration of the impact of measurement errors of remittance flows. Recommendations for further research are provided on the basis of both these possible causes.

Depuis le vingtième siècle, les flux migratoires ont augmenté entrainant des flux financiers – nommés "remittances" - partant des zones d'immigration vers celles d'émigration. Ces transferts, que les migrants envoient à leurs familles dans leur pays d'origine peuvent générer des effets opposés selon des pays. Cette thèse a pour objectif d'analyser leurs conséquences sur le capital physique et humain dans les pays qui les reçoivent.Le premier chapitre souligne l'impact négatif de ces flux sur le stock de capital ainsi que sur l'offre de travail. Ce revenu supplémentaire durant leur dernière période de vie conduit les individus à moins travailler et moins épargner. Ces transferts peuvent rapprocher ou éloigner les économies de la règle d'or d'accumulation du capital en fonction de leurs caractéristiques. Une politique de taxation est proposée afin de maximiser le bien-être. Le second chapitre étend l'analyse à des économies ouvertes faisant face à des contraintes exogènes de crédit sur le marché international des capitaux. Il montre que les transferts réduisent les incitations des agents à épargner, mais peuvent accroitre l'investissement en capital physique dans certains pays, via les entrées de capitaux, en relâchant directement la contrainte de crédit. Le troisième chapitre développe un modèle de croissance avec accumulation de capital humain, dans lequel les agents empruntent pour s'éduquer. Les contraintes de crédit sont cette fois endogènes : les agents ne peuvent s'engager à rembourser et sont exclus du marché des capitaux en cas de défaut. Ce modèle explique que les "remittances" peuvent générer des effets positifs, dans certains pays, ou négatifs dans d'autres
Since the twentieth century, migratory flows have largely increased entailing financial flows - named remittances - from immigration areas to emigration areas. These transfers that migrants send to their families in their home countries may empirically lead to positive or negative effects on physical and human capital. This thesis aims at explaining this mixed evidence in developing countries.The first chapter underlines the negative impact of remittances on capital stock but also on labour supply. Due to this additional income in their last-period of life, agents have less incentive to work and save. Remittances may bring economies closer to their golden rule of capital accumulation or further from their golden rule according to their features. A taxation policy is provided in order to maximise the welfare in the home country of the migrants. The second chapter extends the analysis to open economies facing exogenous credit constraints on the international capital market. Even if remittances reduce incentive to save, these flows may increase investment in physical capital in some countries, through capital inflows, by directly relaxing the credit constraints. The third chapter considers a growth model with human capital accumulation in which agents borrow to finance their education. Borrowing constraints are, in this non-commitment framework considered as endogenous: agents may choose to default and are excluded from the financial market in case of default. In accordance with empirical literature, this model is able to explain a negative or a positive impact of remittances on economic growth

Cette thèse de doctorat étudie les effets des envois de fonds issus des migrations sur le développement des pays d’origine des migrants et compare ces effets avec ceux de l’aide publique au développement. Dans une première partie, nous étudions les effets des envois de fonds des migrants sur le développement des pays récipiendaires. Il apparaît que les envois de fonds réduisent les inégalités intra-Pays dans les pays relativement plus riches, dont les coûts d’émigration sont faibles et dont la part des émigrés qualifiés est peu importante (Chapitre 1). L’effet sur la croissance économique en Afrique sub-Saharienne est également non-Linéaire et dépend positivement du développement financier et institutionnel des pays récipiendaires (Chapitre 2). Enfin, les envois de fonds ont un effet d’appréciation sur le taux de change réel dans les pays CFA, mais cet effet est non significatif pour les pays à régime de change flexible (Chapitre 3). Dans une seconde partie nous nous intéressons au caractère stabilisateur des transferts des migrants. Le Chapitre 4 montre, au niveau microéconomique, que les envois de fonds ont joué un rôle d’assurance lors de la dernière crise financière et que ce rôle a été d’autant plus important que les migrants n’ont pas été sévèrement touchés par la crise et que les liens conservés avec le pays d’origine étaient forts. Le Chapitre 5 montre à partir d’une approche pays par pays que les transferts sont contra-Cycliques dans une minorité de cas, mais qu’en moyenne, ils répondent négativement au revenu des pays d’origine. Les résultats du Chapitre 6 indiquent que les transferts atténuent l’effet négatif des chocs commerciaux sur la pauvreté. Dans une troisième et dernière partie nous comparons les envois de fonds { l’aide publique au développement. Alors que l’aide permet d’atténuer l’effet négatif de l’instabilité des exportations sur la croissance, les transferts des migrants permettent d’amoindrir l’effet négatif de l’instabilité des exportations sur la pauvreté (Chapitre 7). Enfin, les envois de fonds diminuent la dépendance des pays { l’aide publique au développement lorsque ces flux de capitaux sont investis plutôt que consommés (Chapitre 8)
This dissertation examines the effects of migrant remittances on the development of origin countries and compares these effects with those of official development aid. In a first part we investigate the effects of remittances on the development of recipient countries. Results suggest that remittances reduce within inequality in countries more developed, where migration cost are lower and the share of skilled migrants less important (Chapter 1). Their impact on growth in sub-Saharan Africa is also non-Linear and depends positively on the financial and institutional development of recipient economies (Chapter 2). Finally, remittances have a real exchange appreciation effect in CFA countries, but not in countries with a flexible exchange rate regime (Chapter 3). In a second part we focus on the stabilizing impact of remittances. Chapter 4 shows, at the microeconomic level, that remittances have played an insurance role during the last financial crisis and that this role was all the more acute that migrants have not strongly suffered from the crisis and that family links were strong. Chapter 5 suggests in a country-By-Country approach that remittances are pro-Cyclical in a higher number of cases, while on average, they respond negatively to the home country income. Chapter 6 findings show that remittances dampen the harmful impact of trade instability on poverty. In a third part, we compare migrant remittances with public aid. While public aid mitigates the harmful impact of export instability on output growth, migrant remittances dampen the harmful effect of export instability on poverty (Chapter 7). Finally, migrant remittances reduce aid dependency in countries where remittances are invested rather than consumed (Chapter 8)

This thesis focused on the consequences of remittance inflows in developing countries. The first partexplored the causal impacts of remittances on some indicators of aggregate welfare while the secondpart examined the effects of remittances on public policy. Several results emerged. First, remittanceinflows help reduce the proportion of individuals selling low wages and this effect is stronger in acontext of low level of financial development, high macroeconomic instability and less unpredictableremittances (Chapter 1). Second, remittances have a robust stabilizing impact on the privateconsumption. However, this effect tends to decrease with the levels of remittance inflows and financialdevelopment. Moreover, remittance-dependent economies seem to be strongly sheltered against thedamaging effects of various types of shocks affecting consumption (Chapter 2). In Chapter 3, theresults highlighted that remittance inflows dampen the positive effect of natural disasters on the outputgrowth volatility. However, this impact was strongly reduced as the level of remittances increased.The second part of the thesis revealed interesting results regarding the effects of remittance inflows onpublic policy. First, remittance inflows reduce the insurance role played by the governmentconsumption in more open economies and this effect is more likely to hold when remittances exhibit acountercyclical behavior (Chapter 4). In Chapter 5, the results showed that the fiscal retrenchmentinduced by remittance inflows, is particularly marked for the public education and health spending incountries characterized by various types of governance problems. Finally, the thesis showed that theeffects of remittances do not only concern the expenditure side but also the revenue side. Remittancesare more likely to increase the fiscal space in receiving economies that rely on the value added taxsystem. In these countries, remittance inflows help increase both the level and the stability of thegovernment tax revenue ratio (Chapter 6).

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)
Remittances inflows have gradually become one of the major sources of external financial inflows to developing countries. As a result, research abounds on the developmental effects of remittances in the home countries of migrants. At the micro level, recipients of remittances are more likely to have better access to quality health care, education as well as start-up fund for their own businesses. On the other hand at the macro level, remittances inflows can help increase the credit worthiness of countries by enabling them to use future remittances inflows as collateral for loans. Additionally, remittances inflows as a source of foreign exchange can be used by countries to fund import bills. Although there has been a surge of scholarship on remittances, this scholarship seems to be concentrated on the economic study of migration instead of the macroeconomic aspects of remittances. Furthermore, comparative studies on these macroeconomic aspects of remittances especially on African countries are underresearched and remains at the backwaters of academic study. Using quantitative time series data, this research seeks to do a comparative study on the countercyclical nature of remittances in four selected West African countries (Cameroon, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Senegal). The research used descriptive trend analysis, autocorrelation and an ARMAX model analyse the research problem. After critical analysis on whether remittances are countercyclical or not using the 2009 global financial crisis as a reference year in these four countries, it was found that, remittance inflows to Cameroon, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Senegal were pro-cyclical in nature. Moreover, in analysing the relationship between remittances inflows and gross domestic product (economic growth) the research revealed that there was a positive relationship between remittances inflows and economic growth for the four countries (Cameroon, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Senegal) observed. One recommendation given from this study is that, there is the need for remittances inflows to be invested in productive activities. This is because even if remittances continue to increase, without its investment in productive sectors, it cannot have any meaningful impact on economic growth in these countries.

This report examines the causal linkages between FDI, financial sector development, savings, remittances and economic growth in South Africa using annual time series data from 1970 to 2010. The results show that none of the financial sector variables directly lead to economic growth. However, economic growth is found to stimulate FDI and financial sector development. With regards to the causal linkages between the different financial factors, the results show that savings have highly significant causal linkages with FDI and financial sector development. In addition, the results suggest that savings have a moderately significant causal relationship with remittances. Furthermore, the results indicate that FDI has a weakly unidirectional causal relationship with financial sector development, and the direction of causality runs from FDI. The findings also suggest that remittances have a weakly significant relationship with FDI. Thus, these findings suggest that policy-makers in South Africa should aim principally at increasing domestic savings and economic growth rates since increasing domestic savings will significantly increase FDI, financial sector development and remittances, and increases in the economic growth rates will significantly increase financial sector development and FDI.

This thesis explores three important factors that have been central to the pursuit of economic development in developing countries, particularly those in Africa. These are capital flows, economic integration and financial crises. Chapter 1 examines the causes and consequences of capital flight in African countries. Building on standard portfolio choice model, the study links the phenomenon of capital flight to the domestic investment climate (broadly defined) and shows that African agents move their portfolios abroad as a result of a deteriorating domestic investment climate where the risk-adjusted rate of return is unfavourable. The results presented suggest that economic risk, policy distortions and the poor profitability of African investments explain the variation in capital flight. In addition, employing a PVAR and its corresponding impulse responses, the chapter shows that capital flight shocks worsen economic performance. Chapter 2 explores the (independent) effects of crises and openness on a large sample of African countries using dynamic panel techniques. Focusing on sudden stops, currency, twin and sovereign debt crises, the chapter shows that economic crises are associated with growth collapses in Africa. In contrast, economic openness is found to be beneficial to growth. More importantly, we find that, consistent with standard Mundell-Flemming type models and sticky-price open economy models, greater openness to trade and financial flows mitigates the adverse effects of crises. In the final chapter, we examine whether capital flows such as FDI, foreign aid and migrant remittances crowd-in or crowd-out domestic investment in developing countries. Applying recently developed panel cointegration techniques which can handle cross-sectional heterogeneity, serial correlation and endogeneity, we find that FDI and remittances have a positive and significant effect on domestic investment in the long-run while aid tends to act as a substitute for investment. We also conduct panel Granger causality analysis and find that the effect of FDI on investment is both transitory as well as permanent. That is, it tends to crowd-in domestic investment both in the short-run and in the long-run. We do not find any causal links between foreign aid and investment. The results show that, while remittances do not have causal effects on investment in the short-run, there is a bidirectional (causal) relationship between the two in the long-run.

Cette thèse examine différents aspects du financement de la santé et ses effets sur l'accumulation de variables stratégiques pour le développement. Le deuxième chapitre analyse les effets des risques de maladie sur l'éducation des enfants en utilisant un model théorique et empirique qui lie les risques (pour les parents) de tomber malade et le choix de l'éducation. Nous trouvons que, s'il est impossible pour les parents de demander plus d'argent en cas de maladie, une augmentation de la probabilité de tomber malade implique une réduction de l'éducation des enfants. Le chapitre trois étudie empiriquement l'effet de l'assurance maladie sur l’enfant en employons la méthode de scores de propension pour analyser l'effet moyen du traitement (chef de ménage ayant une assurance santé ou non) sur les traités. Nous trouvons que l'assurance maladie favorise l'éducation des enfants. Le chapitre quatre étudie, en utilisant le modèle de générations imbriquées, les effets du financement de la santé sur la croissance économique. Le gouvernement a deux possibilité: soit de co-financer la santé, soit la financer tout seul en utilisant une taxe sur la production. Nous trouvons que, s'il y a hétérogénéité des préférences des agents, le financement public domine le co-financement public-privé. Le dernier chapitre étudie les effets d’épidémies sur la pauvreté, dans un modèle de générations imbriquées continu. Nous trouvons que l'investissement dans les variables qui réduisent la transmission de la maladie est nécessaire pour pousser d'un état stationnaire avec faible consommation/niveau d'actifs vers un état stationnaire avec un mixe consommation-niveau d'actifs plus élevé
This thesis explores different aspects of the financing of health care and how it affects various facets of the economy. Chapter two we studies the relationships between health risks and education using both a theoretical and an empirical model. We find that considering a child's income as an insurance asset can reverse the usual negative relationship between disease prevalence and educational investment. Chapter three empirically looks at the impact of health insurance on the child using the propensity score matching technique. We find that while the health insurance status of the household has a positive effect on the enrolment of children, its effect on child work is negative. In chapter four we analyse the impact of health care financing on economic growth, focusing on the issue of joint public-private financing of health care using an overlapping-generations model with endogenous growth based on health human capital accumulation, where families pay for childhood preventive care and the government can either fully finance or co-finance adulthood curative care. From a growth maximising perspective, if agents are assumed have heterogeneous preferences, full public financing can become the best option. Finally in chapter five we study how health shocks in the form of epidemics affects the economy in a continuous OLG model by focusing on how the economy could be pushed to a higher consumption-assets combination. We find that it is necessary for the government to invest more in the reduction of transmission rates if its goal is to eradicate the disease from the economy, achieving a higher consumption-assets mix

The thesis analyzes macro-economic determinants and roles of financial sector development.

The literature argues that the size and efficiency of both banking systems and financial markets - the two major components of a financial system - matter for economic development. In the same vein, the quality of financial institutions and regulations are instrumental in the construction of a strong financial system.

We study several aspects of financial sector development in relation to three recent phenomena, namely, the rise of Islamic banking and finance, the increasing interest for emerging stock markets, and the growing remittance flows.

This thesis is made up of three essays.

The first essay extends the literature on the determinants of financial sector development, from the angle of culture. We show that, on average, Islamic finance favors the development of the banking sector in Muslim countries. We provide evidence that several countries have indeed been successful in launching a new, Shariah-compliant, banking system, while not harming the existing, conventional, banking sector. Our empirical analysis uses a newly-constructed original database on the size and performance of Islamic deposit banks globally over the period 2000 to 2005.

The second essay focuses on stock markets, in particular, the less-studied emerging equity markets. We confirm traditional literature findings on unconditional stock returns, over a panel of 53 Major and Frontier markets. Mainly, volatility is high, big surprises happen, and return correlations with the rest of the world are low but have been rising over the last decades. In spite of large differences in market size and liquidity, Frontier market returns are qualitatively similar to Major markets', except correlations, which are lower in Frontier markets. At current correlation levels, the latter continue to bring substantial diversification benefits to international investors.

The last essay examines the relationship between remittances and economic growth. It confirms that remittances are important for developing countries as they stimulate domestic investment. It then demonstrates, theoretically and empirically, that improving the access to bank deposit accounts is crucial to channel remittances to more productive uses. This is even more true when the access to international borrowing is costly.

The 2008-2009 financial crisis has propelled the improvement of financial systems to the top of policymakers' agendas. Our work contributes to a better understanding of the importance of finance in economic outcomes. It also brings a novel perspective on the determinants of financial systems./

Notre thèse a pour objet l'étude des déterminants et des rôles macro-économiques des secteurs financiers dans le monde.

Selon la littérature scientifique, la taille et l'efficacité des systèmes bancaires et des marchés financiers - les deux composantes principales d'un système financier - sont importantes pour le développement économique. Il apparaît également que la qualité des institutions et des régulations financières contribuent à la création d'un système financier fort.

Au travers de trois essais, nous examinons plusieurs aspects du développement du secteur financier, qui sont en relation avec trois phénomènes récents; à savoir: la croissance de la finance islamique, l'intérêt grandissant pour les marchés boursiers émergents, et l'augmentation des flux de transferts de fonds des migrants.

Dans le premier essai, nous nous intéressons aux facteurs culturels comme déterminants des secteurs financiers et, en particulier, au rôle de la religion musulmane. Nous montrons que, en moyenne, la finance islamique favorise le développement du secteur bancaire dans les pays musulmans. Plusieurs pays ont en effet réussi à développer un nouveau secteur bancaire compatible avec la Shariah, sans porter ombrage au secteur bancaire non islamique avec lequel il co-existe. Notre analyse empirique est fondée sur une base de données nouvelle et originale. Celle-ci a pour intérêt de fournir des indicateurs de taille et de performance des banques islamiques de dépôt dans le monde, pour la période 2000-2005.

Dans le deuxième essai, nous explorons les rendements inconditionnels obtenus sur les marchés boursiers, en particulier les marchés émergents d'actions. Notre analyse d'un large panel de 53 marchés émergents "Majeurs" et "Frontières" confirme les résultats traditionnellement observés dans la littérature. Ainsi, pour l'essentiel, les deux types de marchés sont volatils et émaillés d'événements extrêmes. De plus, les rendements des marchés émergents sont faiblements corrélés avec ceux du reste du monde, même si ces corrélations ont augmenté au cours des derniers décennies. Malgré d'importantes différences en terme de taille et de liquidité, les rendements sur marchés "Frontières" sont qualitativement similaires à ceux des marchés "Majeurs", à l'exception des corrélations. Ces dernières sont en effet actuellement plus faibles dans les marchés "Frontières", qui continuent dès lors à offrir d'importants bénéfices de diversification aux investisseurs internationaux.

Dans le dernier essai, nous examinons la relation entre les transferts d'argent des migrants et la croissance économique. Nous confirmons l'idée que les transferts de fonds des migrants sont importants pour les pays en voie de développement. Mais surtout, nous démontrons, de manière théorique et empirique, qu'il est crucial de faciliter dans ces pays l'accès aux comptes de dépôt bancaires, afin de transformer une plus grande part des transferts des migrants en investissements productifs. Ceci est d'autant plus vrai quand l'accès aux autres sources de capitaux internationaux est coûteux.

En conclusion, la crise financière de 2008-2009 a fait de l'amélioration des systèmes financiers la priorité de nombreuses politiques économiques. Dans cette perspective, notre travail apporte une contribution à une compréhension plus fine de l'importance de la finance pour l'économie, ainsi qu'une vision novatrice des déterminants des systèmes financiers.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Cette thèse s’intéresse aux effets macroéconomiques du développement financier sur la vulnérabilité dans l’emploi dans les pays émergeants et en développement. Dans le premier chapitre, nous montrons que l’accès au crédit et les inégalités de revenu augmentent le travail des enfants surtout dans les pays à forte inégalité ou à faible revenu. Ce résultat indique que les parents tendent à investir leur crédit dans des projets qui accroissent le coût d’opportunité de l’éducation et le bénéfice attendu du travail des enfants. Ainsi, nous démontrons qu’un meilleur contrôle de la corruption permet d’améliorer l’efficacité du développement financier ainsi que des dépenses d’éducation en vue de réduire le travail des enfants. Cela passe notamment par une amélioration de la qualité de l’éducation. Dans le second chapitre, nous démontrons qu’un meilleur accès aux services financiers ainsi qu’une réduction des contraintes en termes d’utilisation de ces produits réduit la proportion de travailleurs pauvres. Cet effet est plus important en cas d’instabilité macroéconomique. De plus, ce meilleur accès bénéficie également aux non pauvres qui étaient précédemment exclus, ces derniers étant plus à même d’investir et de réduire indirectement la proportion de travailleurs pauvres via une croissance plus forte. Les résultats du troisième chapitre suggèrent qu’aussi bien le développement financier et les transferts de fonds des migrants peuvent limiter la prolifération du secteur informel. Cependant, ils tendent à être substituts, avec notamment un faible niveau de développement financier initial qui est compensé par l’utilisation des transferts de fonds. Finalement dans le chapitre 4, nous passons en revue des produits financiers flexibles et innovants qui pourraient permettre aux plus vulnérables de mieux faire face aux chocs. Nos résultats suggèrent que ces produits doivent être conçus de manière à offrir dans un premier temps des produits d’épargne en supprimant notamment les frais d’ouverture de compte. Leur utilisation devrait permettre de produire de l’information sur les emprunteurs notamment sur la base de l’historique des versements et leur fréquence. Ainsi en cas de choc, l’épargne accumulée peut servir de garantie pour le prêt complété si nécessaire par des produits d’assurance. Le « mobile banking » peut également servir pour la diffusion des produits flexibles et dans une plus large mesure de support pour accroître le niveau de bancarisation, vu le nombre croissant de personnes utilisant le téléphone portable
This thesis explored the macroeconomic effects of financial development on the most vulnerable workers in developing and emerging countries. Chapter one focuses on child labor. Our results suggest that child labor is positively associated to financial development and inequality particularly in countries with high level of income inequalities and low level of income. In fact, with access to credit, households tend to invest in productive activities which increase the opportunity cost of education and the returns from child labor. Hence, we demonstrate that a better control of corruption makes financial development as well as education spending more effective in reducing child labor by improving education quality. In the second chapter, we show that more bank branches and limiting barriers to use financial services reduce the proportion of working poor. This result is more relevant in countries hit by macroeconomic shocks and a better access to financial services also benefits to the excluded non-poor who can in turn invest and reduce poverty. In the third chapter, we find that both financial development and remittances tend to reduce the spread of the shadow economy by channelling funds to the more productive activities. Moreover, they tend to be substitutes, indicating that households rely on remittances in countries with low level of financial development. Finally, chapter four reviews innovative flexible financial products which can be used to help the more vulnerable to manage shocks. Our results suggest that, first barriers to open saving and checking accounts (like opening fees) need to be suppressed in order to increase the use of these services, generating more information on potential borrowers on the basis of the history and frequency of payments. Then, accumulated savings can be used as collateral for loan supplemented by insurance services. Mobile banking could also serve as support for flexible financial services.Keywords: Financial development, financial services; child labor, decent work, vulnerability, informal sector shadow economy, underground economy, institutions, inequality, working poverty, developing countries, trickle-down effect, remittances, microfinance, flexibility, discipline, risk, shocks, index-based insurance, combined products

This thesis studies the identification and analysis of the impact of the latest economic crisis of 2008 on selected countries of the world with the purpose of identifying the relevance of channels through which the financial and economic crisis has spread to these countries. The thesis focuses on two regions of the world: Africa and Latin America. In both of these regions two countries are chosen to be analyzed more closely. These are Nigeria and Malawi for Africa, Brazil for South America and Belize for Central America. The possible channels of transmission of the crisis were identified to be private capital flows, international trade and commodity prices, remittances and international aid. In the analysis of the chosen countries, it was identified that the most important channels were international trade, commodity prices and capital flows. On the other hand the least impactful channels were remittances and international aid. These were rather stable during the crisis and in the case of aid even played a countercyclical role.

In present scenario, exclusion of people from formal banking system is a major challenge faced by the policy makers towards achieving the goal of inclusive growth. Financial inclusion in this regard is widely emphasized for poverty reduction and economic growth by many nations. To increase the access and usage of formal banking services among people in India the government introduced various schemes and initiatives. Despite this greater emphasis a larger section of people is financially excluded in India (Census of India, 2011). Though, financial services access is adequate in urban areas in comparison to rural parts, yet usage of these services is seen low. A thorough review of literature revealed that studies related to financial inclusion are scanty in urban context. Therefore, taking cognizance of past studies this study proposed four objectives, firstly to explore factors affecting financial exclusion, secondly to study the determinant of financial inclusion, thirdly to expound factors affecting formal and informal borrowing and lastly to study the relationship between financial inclusion and financial remittance. This study was conducted in slums of two major metro cities in India i.e., Delhi and Mumbai. A multistage cluster sampling technique was used to collect the data. While, primary data was collected through face to face interviews conducted with the help of a questionnaire. In total, 450 individuals each in Delhi and Mumbai were selected for the sample. There exist many commonalities and difference in utilization of various financial services in these two cities. The study reveals range of socio-economic factors affecting the financial inclusion. Though, formal credit usage is seen low and mostly affected by factors like age and household expenditure. Further, it was found that no saving, lengthy bank process and high bank charges are likely to impact exclusion from banking services in both cities. Though, this study found no significant relationship between financial inclusion and financial remittance. The study has various policy implications to banks and the government in strategizing better policies for financial inclusion in urban areas in India.

Foreign remittance is the main external source of finance for Sri Lanka. It contributes immensely towards the country’s economy and makes up around 8 per cent of the GDP. However, there is a lack of study on foreign remittance in the Sri Lankan context, which hinders the potential of creating a comprehensive policy on remittance. Hence, this thesis has analysed the motives for foreign remittance and its determinants, the impact of foreign remittance on financial development, alongside its influence on poverty and income inequality in Sri Lanka. The objective of this research was to provide relevant information to the policy makers to guide them in enhancing the benefits to Sri Lanka from foreign remittance. The study used the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and autoregressive (AR) models, Granger causality, impulse response analysis, variance decomposition and recursive estimation for analysing research data. At first, the motive for foreign remittance and its nature (static or dynamic) was examined to investigate the relevance of the prevalent notion that remittance motive is static in nature. Based on recursive estimation, the study found that remittance to Sri Lanka was dominated by altruistic motive until 1992 and by self-interest motive thereafter. Therefore, the findings disproved that the motive for remittance is static and confirmed its dynamic nature. This highlighted the need to assess the motive for foreign remittance at an individual country level and adjust migration and remittance policies accordingly since the motives keep changing over time and require continuous monitoring. The next stage in this study involved determining the key factors of foreign remittance to Sri Lanka by using factor analysis and ARDL model. Through the analysis, it was found that the per capita GDP and government stability are long-run determinants of remittance and have a positive impact on it. In addition, accountability and socio-economic status were identified as short-run determinants. The findings showed the importance and implications of push factors over pull factors to determine the inflow of remittance. It demonstrated that the Sri Lankan migrants, unlike altruistically driven migrants, are highly attentive to economic and political stability, and send more money when the economic and political conditions of the home country are favourable for investment. The undertaken research also examined the impact of foreign remittance on financial development in Sri Lanka using ARDL model. It used four proxies to represent financial development: money, deposits, credit and assets. The analysis revealed a significant impact of remittance on money and credit in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, it showed that the nexus between remittance and financial development supports a complementary hypothesis. This highlighted the likelihood of remittance to enhance the credit availability, promote investment and thereby enhance the economic growth of the country. Finally, the study examined the causal relationships between foreign remittance and poverty, and foreign remittance and income inequality in Sri Lanka with autoregressive model. The analysis showed that foreign remittance has a significant impact on moderate poverty reduction. Apart from the AR model, the Granger causality analysis verified the above-mentioned relationships between foreign remittance and poverty in Sri Lanka. However, the results of the study found no evidence to prove a significant impact or a causal relationship between foreign remittance and income inequality in Sri Lanka, unlike in some developing countries. All the findings from this research contribute to both the theoretical and the empirical literature. They provide relevant information that are invaluable for migration and remittance policy development, which can enable Sri Lanka to create an investment- friendly environment to attract more remittance by reducing the country’s financial risk and by enhancing its economic stability. In addition, since Sri Lankan employment migrants are motivated by self-interest the findings would help the financial institutions to customise their services to migrants, to further enhance their investment motive.

碩士
國立交通大學
企業管理碩士學程
98
This thesis examines the competitive advantage of the inward remittance market in Vietnam. I reviewed the Vietnamese inward market first and investigate the competitive advantage of a representative company as a case study subsequently. Inward remittance has slightly gone downward as the economic crisis. The case company is a major Vietnamese Money Transfer Company. For confidential reasons, the company is called ABC in this thesis. Adapting to changes in the general market, ABC Money Transfer Company is maintaining market share and customer service improvement through strengthening its organization. It started with some changes in the old system. This thesis focuses on ABC Money Transfer Company as a case to identify the competitive advantage of this leading remittance market in Vietnam. This thesis reviews the remittance market in general and in Vietnam first. Three frameworks are used subsequently to examine ABC’s competitive advantage in Vietnamese remittance market: SWOT analysis, five-force analysis and the BGC positioning framework. Suggestions are given according to the findings from the competitive advantage analysis.

This paper sheds light on the role of financial inclusion to leverage investments from remittances. Employing linear dynamic estimation techniques (system GMM) on a panel of 54 countries over the years 2004-2015, I find evidence for a complementary relationship between financial development and remittances in promoting investments. Measures of the sophistication as well as the accessibility of the financial system suggest that higher financial development across both dimensions encourages investments. Especially an increase in the number of deposit accounts has significant potential to leverage investments. The results control for endogeneity and are robust to different specifications as well as a variation of the sample. The findings encourage policy action towards higher financial inclusion in order to accelerate the developmental impact of remittances.

Diese Arbeit ist eine Sammlung von Studien, welche sowohl die makro-, als auch die mikroökonomischen Aspekte und Charakteristika von Rücküberweisungen pakistanischer Migranten in ihr Heimatland analysieren, sowie deren ökonomische Auswirkungen auf das Konsumverhalten und die Vermögensbildung der Empfängerhaushalte. Es zeigt sich, dass internationale Überweisungen im Vergleich zu anderen finanziellen Mittelflüssen eine stabile und stabilisierende Quelle für Devisen darstellen. Des Weiteren weisen sie mit Blick auf die heimische Wirtschaft ein antizyklisches Verhalten auf, während ihr Verhalten mit Blick auf die Wirtschaft des Gastlandes als azyklisch beschrieben werden kann.  Die Überweisungsströme werden maßgeblich von ihren Transaktionskosten beeinflusst, so dass Migranten in Zeiten hoher Transaktionskosten Rücküberweisungen ins Heimatland entweder einstellen oder informelle Kanäle zum Überweisen nutzen. Im Rahmen dieser Studie stellt sich außerdem heraus, dass Rücküberweisungen als hauptsächlich kurzfristige Einnahmequelle betrachtet werden. Aufgrund dessen werden die Zuflüsse oftmals in die Förderung von Humankapital investiert, wobei dieser Effekt stark abhängig vom Einkommensniveau des Empfängeraushalts ist.  Ferner führen internationale Überweisungen zu einem erheblichen Anstieg des Haushaltsvermögens, wohingegen Inlandsübweisungen keine signifikanten Vermögensänderungen mit sich bringen. Überdies ermöglichen internationale Rücküberweisungen den Empfängerhaushalten das Aufstocken vorsorglicher Ersparnisse.

Economic integration starts to be achieved faster through the international labor mobility than due to international trade or capital movements. Remittances, important international capital flows, became one of the most discussed topics in world. The migrant's transfers have become the primary source of existence in Moldova. This paper using data on transfer of funds for the period 1995-2010, attempts to examine the relationship between remittances and financial development, economic growth and investment level of Republic of Moldova. The main finding of this study is that remittances influence significantly the economic growth, the investment level. Moreover, these funds substitute for a shortage of development of the financial system and therefore promote growth. Keywords: Remittances, migrant, financial development, investment, economic growth, formal and informal channel. Author's e-mail: oti_marculescu@mail.ru Supervisor's e-mail: cahlik@fsv.cuni.cz

The study investigated the impact of remittances on financial development in Africa using the dynamic generalised methods of moments (GMM) and other panel data analysis methods with data from 2003 to 2015. Using the same econometric estimation methods, the study also explored the influence of the complementarity between remittances and economic growth on financial development in Africa. Literature on the relationship between remittances and financial development is mixed, inconclusive and indecisive. The desire to contribute towards literature on the influence of remittances on financial development in the African context prompted this study. In Africa, personal remittances had an insignificant positive impact on financial development across all the econometric estimation approaches in all the four models, in line with some empirical studies on the subject matter. African countries are urged therefore to avoid wasting their time developing and implementing remittances, foreign aid and human capital development enhancement policies as a way of spearheading financial development. Using both broad money (as % of GDP) and domestic private credit ratio as measures of financial development, the interaction between remittances and economic growth was found to have a non-significant negative effect on financial development in Africa. The policy implication is that Africa needs to avoid over relying on economic growth as a channel through which financial development can happen
Die studie het die impak van betalings op finansiële ontwikkeling in Afrika ondersoek – deur middel van die dinamiese veralgemeende momentemetode (GMM) en ander metodes van paneeldata-ontleding, met data van 2003 tot 2015. Dieselfde ekonometriese beramingsmetodes is ook ingespan om die invloed van die komplementariteite tussen betalings en ekonomiese groei op finansiële ontwikkeling in Afrika te ondersoek. Die literatuur oor die verwantskap tussen betalings en finansiële ontwikkeling is gemeng, onoortuigend en vaag. Die begeerte om tot die literatuur oor die invloed van betalings op finansiële ontwikkeling in die Afrika-konteks by te dra, het tot hierdie studie aanleiding gegee. In Afrika het persoonlike betalings ʼn onbeduidende positiewe impak op finansiële ontwikkeling in al die benaderings tot ekonometriese beraming in al vier modelle gehad, wat strook met sommige empiriese studies oor die onderwerp. Afrika-lande word dus gemaan om nie hul tyd te mors met die ontwikkeling en implementering van betalings en buitelandse hulp en beleide om mensekapitaalontwikkeling te verbeter as ʼn manier om finansiële ontwikkeling te lei nie. Daar is bevind dat sowel breë geldvoorraad (as ʼn persentasie van BBP) en die binnelandse private kredietverhouding as maatstawwe van finansiële ontwikkeling, die wisselwerking tussen betalings, en ekonomiese groei ʼn nie-beduidende negatiewe uitwerking op finansiële ontwikkeling in Afrika het. Die beleidsimplikasie is dat Afrika moet waak teen oorafhanklikheid van ekonomiese groei as ʼn kanaal waardeur finansiële ontwikkeling kan plaasvind.
Ucwaningo beluphenya umthelela wezimali ezibhadalwayo mayelana nokuthuthukiswa komkhakha wezezimali e-Afrika ngokusebenzisa izindlela ezifanayo zezikhathi (GMM) kanye nezinye izindlela zokuhlaziywa idatha yephaneli ngokusebenzisa idatha yonyaka ka 2003 ukufikela ku 2015. Ngokusebenzisa izindlela ezifanayo zohlelo lokulinganisa isimo somnotho (econometric estimation), ucwaningo futhi luye lwahlola umthelela wousebenzisana okuphakathi kwezimali ezibhadalwayo kanye nokuhluma komnotho mayelana nokuthuthukiswa ngezimali e-Afrika. Umbhalo wobuciko mayelana nobudlelwano phakathi kwezimali ezibhadalwayo kanye nokuthuthukiswa kwezinhlaka zezimali uxutshwe ndawonye, awunaso isiphetho futhi awukwazi ukuthatha izinqumo. Isidingo sokufaka igalelo embhalweni wobuciko mayelana nomthelela wezimali ezibhadalwayo kwihlelo lokuthuthukiswa kwezimali ngaphansi kwesizinda sase-Afrika, ykho okuphembelele ukuthi kube nalolu cwaningo. E-Afrika, izimali ezibhadalwa abantu ziye zaba nomthelela omuhle kwintuthuko yezimali kuzo zonke izindlela zokulinganisa izinga lentuthuko yezomnotho kuwo wonke amamodeli amane, ngokuhambisana nezinye izifundo zocwaningo oluphathekayo lwalesi sifundo. Ngalokho-ke amazwe ase-Afrika ayanxenxwa ukuthi agweme ukumosha isikhathi sawo athuthukisana futhi asebenzisa uhlelo lokuthumela izimali futhi agweme ukuqinisa imigomo yoncedo oluvela emazweni angaphandle kanye nokuthuthukisa abantu ngokwamakhono omsebenzi, njengento yokuhlahla indlela yohlelo lokuthuthukiswa kwezimali. Ukusethenziswa kokubili imali ebanzi (njengephesenti le-GDP) kanye njengesilinganiso sesikweletu, phecelezi-domestic private credit ratio sisebenza njengesilinganiso sezinga lokutthuthuka ngokwezimali, ukusebenzisana phakathi kwezimali ezibhadalwayo kanye nokuhluma komnotho kutholakele ukuthi kube nomthelela ongabalulekile omubi phezu kwezinga lentuthuko yezimali e-Afrika. Ngokomgomo lokhu kuchaza ukuthi i-Afrika idinga ukuthi igweme ukwencika kakhulu ukusebenzisa uhlelo lokuthuthukiswa komnotho njengomgudu lapho kungathuthukiswa komnotho.
Financial Accounting
M. Com. (Business Management)

This dissertation consists of three essays on the impact of non-market financial flows in developing countries. The first essay answers two questions. First, to what extent are remittances (as private transfers) differentiable from grants (as public transfers) in their effects on capital formation and growth? Second, how might the motivations to remit inform the nature of the relationship between remittances and growth? Using a sample of four developing countries, results suggest that remittances and grants, in fact, do behave differently. Remittances have no significant relationship with investment for all but one country (remittances are positively correlated with growth for Bangladesh). Grants’ impact on investment is negative in Egypt, positive in Pakistan and Syria and insignificant in Bangladesh. Migrants’ motivations to remit are found to be different across countries. Enlightened self-interest motivation to remit is the most likely cause of growth impacts in Egypt. A combination of self-interest and enlightened self-interest explains the growth impact in Bangladesh. Finally, a combination of migrants’ altruistic behavior and self-interest attitude explains the growth impact in Pakistan and Syria. The second essay demonstrates the allocation of foreign aid between consumption and investment with special emphasis on the importance of reverse flows in developing countries. Using a panel of 61 countries from 1980 to 2006, results indicate that, on average, 23 to 25% of any increase in foreign aid has been directed towards financing reverse flows. 78% was consumed and an insignificant amount was invested. Additional investigation suggests that almost 50% of aid is used for reverse flows in Sub-Saharan Africa, 19% in the Americas and 16 to 20% in North Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The third essay examines how remittances are allocated between consumption, investment and reverse flows in developing countries. Using a panel of 36 countries from 1980 to 2006, results suggest that almost 80% of any increase in remittances/GDP was consumed. With respect to investment, remittances had to statistically discernable effect on rate of investment. Additionally, 20% of any increase in remittances was diverted as reverse flows and contributed neither to increase consumption nor to investment.

This dissertation consists of three essays on different attributes of immigrants and remittances over time. Using the recently available three waves of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants in Canada (LSIC), our first essay investigates the relationships between socio-economic characteristics and remittance behaviour of Indian and Chinese immigrants in Canada. After conducting a logistic regression on the likelihood of remitting and an instrumental variable regression of the amount remitted, the study observes significant differences between the remittance behaviour of Chinese and Indian immigrants. While Chinese remittances are mostly affected by age, income, level of education and personal investment in home country, Indian remittances are influenced by marital status, having family members in the host country, and being involved with social/religious organization in the host country. Financial variables play significant roles for both types of immigrants. Using data from the LSIC, our second essay explores the link between health and education among recently arrived immigrants in Canada. The empirical evidence suggests that education has a positive impact on the health of newly arrived immigrants. This relationship remains valid for a few years after arrival. More educated immigrants seem to be better informed and appear to make use of health-related information. If differences in health can be explained using educational inequality then education might directly affect the quality of life. The likelihood of being in better health increases amongst those with higher levels of education. Our third essay examines whether the financial sector of a country plays a significant role in explaining a country’s capacity to take advantage of remittances to influence economic growth. Using data from 1979 to 2011 for the 33 top remittance recipient developing countries and employing the GMM approach, the study observes a positive association between remittances and growth. However, no conclusive evidence on the importance of financial development on remittance-growth nexus could be established. Moreover, remittances have the strongest effect on economic growth under repressed financial regimes. Ensuring that remittance recipients have access to financial intermediaries and promoting financial literacy may increase the positive influence of the financial sector on the relationship between remittances and economic growth.

This paper is an attempt to find out the determinants of the financial deepening in a panel of 15 Former Soviet Union countries and Mongolia. The explanatory variables are good institutions, human capital and remittances. The main results of the model are: (1) Remittances do influence positively financial deepening in this set of data when using random effects models; (2) Human Capital has a negative impact when using fixed effects; (3) Institutions do not have any impact; (3) Russia does not behave differently than other countries in this model; (4) Natural endowments of hydrocarbon do not influence the relationships between financial deepening and the three explanatory variables.

This master thesis examines migration issues, focuses on the potential of social remittances, and explores the links between social and financial remittances. The qualitative approach to the research uses the method of semi-structured and in-depth interviews to collect the data in the context of Czechs living in the United Kingdom. This research falls under the concept of transnationalism, uses transnational lenses for exploring processes, and is mainly based upon the concept of social remittances, thus is concerned with flows of norms, know-how, systems of practice, ideas, or social capital from one country to another. This thesis also builds on the expanded conceptualization of social remittances by other researchers. Linking social and financial remittances is done by using the concept of remittance scripts and related activities of migrants. Verbal data from the interviews were analyzed using primarily the inducted method and the method of content analysis. The analyzed results meet the aims of the research and bring a deeper understanding of the potential of social remittances. The factors influencing the potential of social remittances are mainly the work environment of migrants, the importance of unskilled positions, social skills, or intensive transnational links. The key role is also...

The thesis deals with the emergence of bank and non-bank entities that provide a range of unique transaction-based payment services broadly called Mobile Financial Services (MFS) to unbanked, underserved and underbanked persons via mobile phones. Models of MFS from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), banks, combinations of MNOs and banks, and independent Mobile Financial Services Providers are covered. Provision by non-banks of ‘bank-type’ services via mobile phones has been termed ‘transformational banking’ versus the ‘additive banking’ services from banks. All involve the concept of ‘branchless banking’ whereby ‘cash-in/cash out’ services are provided through ‘agents.’ Funds for MFS payments may available through a Stored Value Product (SVP), particularly through a Stored Value Account SVP variant offered by MNOs where value is stored as a redeemable fiat- or mobile ‘airtime’-based Store of Value. The competitive, legal, technical and regulatory nature of non-bank versus bank MFS models is discussed, in particular the impact of banking, payments, money laundering, telecommunications, e-commerce and consumer protection laws. Whether funding mechanisms for SVPs may amount to deposit-taking such that entities could be engaged in the ‘business of banking’ is discussed. The continued use of ‘deposit’ as the traditional trigger for the ‘business of banking’ is investigated, alongside whether transaction and paymentcentric MFS rises to the ‘business of banking.’ An extensive evaluation of ‘money’ based on the Orthodox and Claim School economic theories is undertaken in relation to SVPs used in MFS, their legal associations and import, and whether they may be deemed ‘money’ in law. Consumer protection for MFS and payments generally through current statute, contract, and payment law and common law condictiones are found to be wanting. Possible regulatory arbitrage in relation to MFS in South African law is discussed. The legal and regulatory regimes in the European Union, Kenya and the United States of America are compared with South Africa. The need for a coordinated payments-specific law that has consumer protections, enables proportional risk-based licensing of new non-bank providers of MFS, and allows for a regulator for retail payments is recommended. The use of trust companies and trust accounts is recommended for protection of user funds. | vi
Public, Constitutional and International Law
LLD

O envio de remessas para o país de origem é uma prática habitual dos imigrantes africanos residentes em Portugal, sendo uma forma de manterem a sua relação com o país e de apoiarem financeiramente as suas famílias. Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o impacto dos recentes períodos de instabilidade económica e financeira do país de acolhimento no envio de remessas dos imigrantes angolanos residentes em Portugal. Para tal, foi realizado um inquérito por questionário, constituindo-se uma amostra de 142 angolanos residentes na Área Metropolitana de Lisboa, cuja maioria tem habilitações superiores e emigrou para complementar os estudos. Os resultados mostraram que a maioria dos inquiridos não enviava divisas para Angola ou fazia-o ocasionalmente, sendo o apoio familiar a principal motivação para o envio. A capacidade de poupança também mostrou ser limitada, devido aos reduzidos rendimentos e às despesas com o agregado familiar, levando a que a maioria dos inquiridos reservasse menos de 30% do seu rendimento para esse fim. Relativamente ao envio de remessas em períodos de instabilidade económica, concluiu-se que, apesar do aumento do desemprego, a maioria consegue manter o seu emprego, mas quem perde rendimentos deixa de conseguir realizar poupanças. Também a taxa cambial e o nível de inflação em Angola condicionam o envio de remessas dos imigrantes para o país.
Sending remittances to their country is a common practice of African immigrants residing in Portugal, being a way of maintaining their relationship with the country and financially supporting their families. This work aims to analyze the impact of economic and financial instability in the host country on the sending of remittances by Angolan immigrants residing in Portugal. To this end, a survey was carried out by questionnaire, constituting a sample of 142 respondents residing in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, most of whom had higher education qualifications and had emigrated to complement their studies. The results showed that most respondents did not send currency or did so occasionally, with family support being the main motivation for sending it. Savings capacity was also shown to be limited, due to low incomes and household expenses, leading most respondents to set aside less than 30% of their income for this purpose. Regarding the sending of remittances in periods of economic instability, it was concluded that the majority are able to keep their jobs, but those who lose income are no longer able to send foreign exchange. However, the exchange rate and the level of inflation in Angola condition the sending of foreign exchange to the country.