博士論文、要旨、審査要結果

学位取得者氏名:	Christine Nanjala Simiyu
学位名:	博士（開発経済学）
授与年月日:	2012年2月22日
論文名:	ESSAYS ON THE ECONOMICS AND IMPACTS OF REMITTANCES IN KENYA
主査:	山野峰
論文審査委員:	鈴木綾 Roberto Leon-Gonzales 大山達雄 島村靖治（立命館大学）

Ⅰ.論文要旨

 

In her dissertation, Ms. Simiyu examines the response of remittances to the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya and the use of remittances on education expenditure. After discussing the role of remittance conceptually and reviewing literature in Chapters 1 and 2, in Chapter 3 Ms. Simiyu finds that remittance flows increased during and in the aftermath of post-election violence to households who were in hot conflict zones of Nakuru district in Kenya. The victimized households due to post-election violence received about 51.2 percent points more remittances relative to non-victims in the hot conflict zones, and remittances acted as insurance against overall loss of income during and in the aftermath of the violence mayhem. 
In addition, she also finds that mobile phone ownership at household level significantly increase remittance flows, but were more responsive to non-conflict affected households as opposed to conflict affected households. Remarkably, victimized household with mobile phones in hot conflict zones received significantly less remittances compared to victimized households without mobile-phones. Thus, these results suggest that, the mobile-money transfer systems were vulnerable to post-election violence. It is not clear, however, if the services were quickly restored after the political turmoil. 
In Chapter 4, she finds that the probability of enrolling into a secondary school reduces by 20.7 percent points for children in remittance receiving families. The absence of the migrant household member leave a gap in a family labor force or structure, and the remaining family members especially children have to fill the gap by joining labor market or provision of labor on farms or helping in family chores. The children therefore, drop out of school lowering education expenses in a household. Hence, low secondary school enrollment implies lower education expenses in a household and hence remittances are mainly expended on other household consumption needs especially payment of utility bills and transportation costs. 
The results from Chapter 3 suggest that remittances actually seem to act as insurance against disasters and crises including political unrest. To allow household obtain potential efficiency gains from remittances as a risk-pooling strategy, policies that encourage migrants living abroad unaccompanied by family members should be enacted. However, the results in Chapter 4 show that remittance receipts do not alleviate liquidity constraints faced by remittance receiving households. On the contrary, the missing family members disrupt family structures causing children to suffer and less likely to enroll in secondary school. Hence, from a policy perspective the results emphasizes the importance to support children especially those at the age of secondary school enrollment and in migrant households.

 

Ⅱ.審査報告

 

　平成23年11月4日(金)の博士論文最終報告に引き続き、主査である山野峰教授、副査である、Roberto Leon-Gonzalez准教授、鈴木綾助教授、島村靖治准教授(立命館大学)、および大山達雄教授による審査委員会が開かれた。この際、本論文について、次のような意見が出され た。

 

1. 途上国における仕送りの総額は開発援助額を大きく上回り、必要なときに必要な対象に仕送が行われることを考えると、世帯間の仕送りを研究する意義は大きい。しかし、仕送りに関するミクロレベルのデータはほとんど存在せず、これまで研究が進んでこなかった。そこで、仕送に関する貴重データを使ったこの研究の意義は大きい。 

2. 特に、2007年末のケニアにおいて発生した、大統領選挙後の大規模な暴動の前後のデータを使った研究は非常に貴重で、今後国際学会誌への論文の掲載など大きな成果が期待できる。

 

ただし以下のコメントがよせられた。 

 

1. 推計モデルの一部に問題があるので推計しなおし説明も詳しくした方がよい。 

2. 仕送と教育投資に関する結論に関して分析を追加すべき。 

3. 博士論文の二つの章の関係についてもっと明確にするべき。

4. モデルの選択について説明を追加するべき。 

5. 結論に関して具体的な数字を用いて議論すべき。

 

全体として、本学の博士にふさわしい内容であると全員の意見が一致し、審査員全員から上記で指摘された諸点について修正したことの承認を得、博士 (Ph.D. in Development Economics)の学位を授与すべきであるという判断が下された。その後、修正された最終版が提出され、指摘された問題点が修正されたことを審査員全員が確認した。