Ganesh Seshan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ganesh Seshan

Social Science Research Network, 2014

provided invaluable research assistance. We are grateful for comments and suggestions from presen... more provided invaluable research assistance. We are grateful for comments and suggestions from presentation participants at the Asian Development Bank,

This Migration and Development Brief provides an update on worldwide remittance flows and the glo... more This Migration and Development Brief provides an update on worldwide remittance flows and the global migration crisis. It focuses on two Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators: reducing remittance costs, and reducing recruitment costs for low-skilled migrants. In September 2016, the United Nations General Assembly Summit on “Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants” committed to develop two global compacts: a Global Compact on Refugees, and a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. Negotiations on both compacts are expected to continue through 2017, with final adoption expected at a United Nations international conference in 2018. The Brief reports on progress in the preparation of the global compacts, with an expanded discussion of the Global Compact on Migration.

Global Labour and the Migrant Premium, 2018

Oxford Economic Papers, 2017

We provide a direct test of the impact of altruism on remittances. From a sample of Indian migran... more We provide a direct test of the impact of altruism on remittances. From a sample of Indian migrant workers in Qatar, we elicit the propensity to share with others from their responses in the dictator game and use it as a proxy for altruism. For the entire sample, we find that only migrants' income robustly explains remittances. Altruism does not seem to matter. However, we document a strong positive relationship between altruism and remittances for a subset of migrants with a loan obligation, whereas indirect tests of altruism, typically used in the literature, would fail to establish this relationship. We explain the role of loan obligations with a standard remittance model extended with reference-dependent preferences.

Limited fiscal space limits Djibouti’s ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals and impro... more Limited fiscal space limits Djibouti’s ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals and improve the living conditions of its population. Djibouti’s fiscal structure is unique in that almost 70 percent of government revenue is denominated in foreign currency (import taxes, foreign aid grants and military revenue) while over 50 percent of government expenditure is denominated in local currency (wages, salaries and social transfers). Djibouti’s economic structure is also unusual in that merchandise exports of local origin are insignificant, and the country relies heavily on imported goods (food, medicines, consumer and capital goods). A currency devaluation, by reducing real wages, could potentially generate additional fiscal space that would help meet Djibouti’s fundamental development goals. Using macro and household level data, this paper quantifies the impact of a devaluation of the nominal exchange rate on fiscal savings, real public sector wages, real income and poverty, unde...

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2014 Issue 1

Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Proceedings, 2012

We randomly assigned invitations to a savings-focused financial literacy workshop for migrant Ind... more We randomly assigned invitations to a savings-focused financial literacy workshop for migrant Indian workers in Qatar. Via surveys of migrants as well as their wives remaining behind in India, we provide a unique window into financial decision-making in transnational households. We examine impacts on financial decision-making of the migrant workers, migrants' attempts to influence the financial decision-making of their wives in the home country, migrant beliefs about their wives' behaviors, and the wives' actual behaviors. The treatment led to substantial changes in migrant financial practices, and more joint financial decision-making with their wives. Migrants with below-median baseline savings are most responsive to the treatment, increasing their own savings and the remittances sent to their wives. Comparison of treatment effects on financial outcomes reported separately by migrants and wives provides evidence of substantial information asymmetries within transnational households.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

The B E Journal of Economic Analysis Policy, 2012

This paper investigates an intriguing relationship between the demand for telecommunication and r... more This paper investigates an intriguing relationship between the demand for telecommunication and remittance services by migrants in Qatar. The hypothesis is that there are important synergies between telecommunications and remittances. Migrants with greater telecom access may have higher demand for remittances, because more frequent communication with relatives raises altruistic motivations for remitting. Migrants who remit more may also demand greater telecommunication service if they seek to monitor remittance recipients’ expenditure patterns. Suggestive evidence of complementarities in telecommunication and remittance demand is found using a cross-sectional dataset of temporary migrants in Qatar from developing countries. This finding highlights an overlooked, yet potentially important role of telecommunication in stimulating greater remittances.

We randomly assigned invitations to a savings-focused financial literacy workshop for married mig... more We randomly assigned invitations to a savings-focused financial literacy workshop for married migrant Indian workers in Qatar on work contracts. Via surveys of migrants as well as their wives remaining behind in India, we provide a unique window into financial decision-making in transnational households. Migrants with low savings are most responsive, increasing their own savings and the remittances sent to their wives. They are also more likely to engage in joint decision making on money matters with spouses back home. From a practical standpoint, these results suggest that financial literacy interventions have a real potential to change migrant financial behaviours and are particularly relevant for temporary migrants in aiding them to maximise the accumulation of savings during their period of stay abroad.

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Journal of Arabian Studies, 2012

This first micro-level study of temporary migrants from developing countries in Qatar uses data c... more This first micro-level study of temporary migrants from developing countries in Qatar uses data collected during the summer of 2007. The median migrant has the following profile: male, thirty-one years of age, single and possessing a high school education. He works ten hours a day, six days per week, and earns US$3,945 per annum of which over half is remitted home to his parents. He incurred a job placement fee equivalent to 1.25 times his monthly salary. Using multivariate regression, we find that migrants&amp;#x27; capacity for work is positively correlated with age, having a university degree, and satisfaction with sleep and mental wellbeing. Estimates of a remittance function show that males send more money home, and that migrants are motivated to save, therefore a tendency to transfer higher amounts. We also find that older migrants remit more, suggesting that as the likelihood of returning home increases with age, remittance level rises.

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2012

Policy Research Working Papers, 2006

Limited fiscal space limits Djibouti's ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals and impro... more Limited fiscal space limits Djibouti's ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals and improve the living conditions of its population. Djibouti's fiscal structure is unique in that almost 70 percent of government revenue is denominated in foreign currency (import taxes, foreign aid grants and military revenue) while over 50 percent of government expenditure is denominated in local currency (wages, salaries and social transfers). Djibouti's economic structure is also unusual in that merchandise exports of local origin are insignificant, and the country relies heavily on imported goods (food, medicines, consumer and capital goods). A currency devaluation, by reducing real wages, could potentially generate additional fiscal space that would help meet Djibouti's fundamental development goals. Using macro and household level data, this paper quantifies the impact of a devaluation of the nominal exchange rate on fiscal savings, real public sector wages, real income and poverty, under various hypothetical scenarios of exchange-rate pass-through and magnitude of devaluation. We find that a currency devaluation could indeed generate fiscal savings in the short-term, but it would have an adverse effect on poverty and income distribution. A 30 percent nominal exchange rate devaluation could generate fiscal savings amounting between 3 and 7 percent of GDP. At the same time, a 30 percent nominal devaluation could cause nearly a fifth of the poorest households to fall below the extreme poverty line and pull the same fraction of upper middle-income households below the national poverty line. We also find that currency devaluation could generate net fiscal savings even after accounting for the additional social transfers needed to compensate the poor for their real income loss. However, the absence of formal social safety nets limits the government's readiness to provide well-targeted and timely social transfers to the poor.