Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
汇款摩擦与季节性贫困
Remittance frictions and seasonal poverty
摘要
Seasonal migration is a common strategy to mitigate rural seasonal deprivation, but migrants need to remit money during the lean season to family members facing food shortages. We observe counterintuitively low remittances in rural Nepal during periods of seasonal hunger, and migrants return with remittances later during harvest when food is relatively abundant. To indirectly overcome this apparent constraint in remittance timing, we provide a $90 consumption loan to randomly selected rural households during the pre‐harvest lean season. Loan‐recipient households increase pre‐harvest investments in fertilizer and time spent working on their own farm, smooth consumption, and save more of their migration income to bring it back home. Food security, subjective well‐being, rice harvest, and revenues improve. Ninety‐eight percent of beneficiaries repay the loan with the increased harvest‐period remittance. In a two‐period model of household decision making, we show that remittance frictions—a market failure—are necessary to qualitatively match our experimental results.
中文摘要
季节性迁移是缓解农村季节性匮乏的常见策略，但迁移者需在食物短缺的淡季向家人汇款。我们在尼泊尔农村观察到，在季节性饥饿期间汇款额反常偏低，而迁移者往往在收获季节食物相对充裕时才携带汇款返乡。为间接克服这种汇款时间上的明显约束，我们向随机选取的农村家庭在收获前淡季提供90美元消费贷款。获得贷款的家庭增加了淡季的化肥投资和自有农场劳动时间，实现了消费平滑，并将更多迁移收入储蓄后带回。粮食安全、主观幸福感、稻谷收成及收入均得到改善。98%的受益者通过增加收获期汇款偿还贷款。在家庭决策的两期模型中，我们证明汇款摩擦（一种市场失灵）是定性匹配实验结果的关键条件。