title: Impact of migration costs, microcredit, and remittances on cross-border labour migration decisions: Evidence from a Cambodian household survey

authors: Oum, Chan Mono

subjects: Migration costs

abstract: Over the past two decades, the migration of Cambodian workers has contributed to poverty reduction and economic development. However, it has also constituted a substantial challenge, in view of the significant increase in the exodus of Cambodian migrant workers, particularly the migration to Thailand. This challenge has highlighted the need for a better understanding of the process, as well as of the interconnectedness and complementarity of migration and policies. Given the prominence of the topic, this thesis provides an examination of the Cambodian labour migration process. 

There are four key research papers in this thesis. Using survey data from 422 households in three northern provinces of Cambodia, the thesis begins with an attempt to evaluate and quantify the monetary costs of migration and evaluate the impact of worker-paid migration costs on decision whether to migrate through legal and illegal channels. In the first core paper, migration cost is a critical factor in international labour mobility, but little is known about the pay of migrant workers in foreign jobs. Previous studies do not capture the effects of direct worker-paid migration costs on migration decisions. An alternative specific conditional logit model is used in this chapter to account for alternative migration costs, and the control function method is used to control for endogenous moving costs. Our results show that lowering the total cost of labour migration reduces irregular migration by 15.8 percentage points. Factors such as Thailand’s immigration policy, as measured by the deportation rate, migrant length of stay, and wages, also influence whether migration is regular or irregular. These findings should prompt policymakers to consider alternative approaches to reducing migration costs and maximising the net gain on migration.

The second paper, constituting Chapter 3 in this thesis, investigates the microcredit-migration linkage through the lens of South–South Migration (SSM). Evidence from the literature evaluating the linkage between microcredit and migration is ambiguous. This chapter analyses the effect of microcredit on labour migration decisions in the context of South-South Migration (SSM) through the Cambodia to Thailand migration corridor. The study uses the endogenous switching probit model (ESP) to control for endogenous selection bias in borrowing and for the structural differences between decisions to borrow or not to borrow that influence the resolve to migrate. The findings suggest that households with access to credit are more likely to have migrant family members than their non-borrowing counterparts. It is evident that households that have borrowed from financial institutions are 5.6 percentage points more likely to migrate, whereas households that borrow informally show a 3.2 percentage points likelihood of migrating. The findings of this study are important for policymakers to reassess policies on credit availability and redesign microfinance programmes to maximise gains from labour migration. 

An investigation of the impact of remittances on household debt performance and levels of indebtedness is carried out in the third empirical paper, presented in Chapter 4 of the thesis. The findings suggest that households view remittances as transitory income, which declines as a migrant’s length of stay away from home increases. Because remittance transfers are transitory, the results suggest that they have a positive impact on household debt performance, particularly in low-debt households. Thus, remittances can lower the debt of recipient households. Given the importance of remittances in households' debt reduction, policies promoting remittance transferring options and fee deduction should be endorsed in order to maximise remittances received by recipient households.

The final paper is elaborated in Chapter 5 of the thesis. This chapter examines two intertwined policy issues in the Cambodia-Thailand migration corridor during the COVID-19 period, focusing on labour recruitment practices and debt-related migration. This paper first identifies existing labour migration issues and policy gaps prior to the pandemic, then argues that these pre-existing challenges caused a delayed response, negatively affecting labour migration. Current labour migration during COVID-19 is heavily influenced by the motivations of private recruitment agencies (PRAs) engaged in this lucrative business, by high migration costs, and debt-induced and debt-financed migration. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the study recommends that key stakeholders discuss how to regulate labour mobility. With the evidence of Cambodia-Thailand labour mobility, policymakers can enhance policy designs and interventions to mitigate the effect of COVID-19 and manage future migration crises.

text: Impact of migration costs, microcredit, and remittances on cross-border labour migration decisions: Evidence from a Cambodian household survey Over the past two decades, the migration of Cambodian workers has contributed to poverty reduction and economic development. However, it has also constituted a substantial challenge, in view of the significant increase in the exodus of Cambodian migrant workers, particularly the migration to Thailand. This challenge has highlighted the need for a better understanding of the process, as well as of the interconnectedness and complementarity of migration and policies. Given the prominence of the topic, this thesis provides an examination of the Cambodian labour migration process. 

There are four key research papers in this thesis. Using survey data from 422 households in three northern provinces of Cambodia, the thesis begins with an attempt to evaluate and quantify the monetary costs of migration and evaluate the impact of worker-paid migration costs on decision whether to migrate through legal and illegal channels. In the first core paper, migration cost is a critical factor in international labour mobility, but little is known about the pay of migrant workers in foreign jobs. Previous studies do not capture the effects of direct worker-paid migration costs on migration decisions. An alternative specific conditional logit model is used in this chapter to account for alternative migration costs, and the control function method is used to control for endogenous moving costs. Our results show that lowering the total cost of labour migration reduces irregular migration by 15.8 percentage points. Factors such as Thailand’s immigration policy, as measured by the deportation rate, migrant length of stay, and wages, also influence whether migration is regular or irregular. These findings should prompt policymakers to consider alternative approaches to reducing migration costs and maximising the net gain on migration.

The second paper, constituting Chapter 3 in this thesis, investigates the microcredit-migration linkage through the lens of South–South Migration (SSM). Evidence from the literature evaluating the linkage between microcredit and migration is ambiguous. This chapter analyses the effect of microcredit on labour migration decisions in the context of South-South Migration (SSM) through the Cambodia to Thailand migration corridor. The study uses the endogenous switching probit model (ESP) to control for endogenous selection bias in borrowing and for the structural differences between decisions to borrow or not to borrow that influence the resolve to migrate. The findings suggest that households with access to credit are more likely to have migrant family members than their non-borrowing counterparts. It is evident that households that have borrowed from financial institutions are 5.6 percentage points more likely to migrate, whereas households that borrow informally show a 3.2 percentage points likelihood of migrating. The findings of this study are important for policymakers to reassess policies on credit availability and redesign microfinance programmes to maximise gains from labour migration. 

An investigation of the impact of remittances on household debt performance and levels of indebtedness is carried out in the third empirical paper, presented in Chapter 4 of the thesis. The findings suggest that households view remittances as transitory income, which declines as a migrant’s length of stay away from home increases. Because remittance transfers are transitory, the results suggest that they have a positive impact on household debt performance, particularly in low-debt households. Thus, remittances can lower the debt of recipient households. Given the importance of remittances in households' debt reduction, policies promoting remittance transferring options and fee deduction should be endorsed in order to maximise remittances received by recipient households.

The final paper is elaborated in Chapter 5 of the thesis. This chapter examines two intertwined policy issues in the Cambodia-Thailand migration corridor during the COVID-19 period, focusing on labour recruitment practices and debt-related migration. This paper first identifies existing labour migration issues and policy gaps prior to the pandemic, then argues that these pre-existing challenges caused a delayed response, negatively affecting labour migration. Current labour migration during COVID-19 is heavily influenced by the motivations of private recruitment agencies (PRAs) engaged in this lucrative business, by high migration costs, and debt-induced and debt-financed migration. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the study recommends that key stakeholders discuss how to regulate labour mobility. With the evidence of Cambodia-Thailand labour mobility, policymakers can enhance policy designs and interventions to mitigate the effect of COVID-19 and manage future migration crises.

year: 2023

title: The Rock Concert Experience: The Self-Authentication Process and Wellbeing

authors: Hopper, Daniel James

subjects: Rock Concerts

abstract: The purpose of this research was to understand consumers’ experiences at rock concerts. Growth in the live concert industry over the past 20 years suggests that these experiences provide value that consumers cannot attain through other means. Music fans can stream rock music or watch concerts without cost, while concert tickets are often over $100 each. Marketers need to understand more about the value derived from the live rock concert experience.
The researcher gathered data over a period of six months in 2013, utilising three data collection methods: 1) in-depth interviews with eight participants; 2) observation of nine rock concerts; and 3) analysis of responses to concert reviews on news website Stuff.co.nz. Constructivist Grounded Theory guided the research process: theoretical sampling, grounded theory coding, constant comparison, and memo-ing.

Findings indicate that consumers derive enhanced wellbeing from attending rock concerts. Consumers want to repeat concert experiences to maintain or further enhance their wellbeing. This could explain why the live music industry is growing rapidly.

Findings also indicate authenticity is an important value-providing process to rock concert consumers. Value occurs through two main processes: the co-created experience and the self-authentication process. The band, fans, and the venue co-create the rock concert experience, enabling hedonia and short-term happiness. Fans experience a rock concert as something extraordinary. The extraordinary experience is composed of a utopian atmosphere and a state of transcendence. Fans live out their fantasies of seeing their favourite bands perform, escape from everyday life, and have cathartic experiences. Fans also experience the rock concert as community. Through playing (e.g., dancing, drinking, singing, being in the mosh pit) with like-minded others, fans feel like they belong to a community.
Secondly, via the self-authentication process, eudaimonia contributes to wellbeing through lasting meaning. By authenticating the band through its performance and the audience’s communal participation, fans authenticate the concert experience.

Through authenticating the experience, and through their own activities in it, fans are able to self-authenticate. Consequently, rock concert experiences are important for the long-term wellbeing of avid rock music fans because they can validate their own identities as rock music fans.
In summary, by responding to calls for research into rock concert consumption, this thesis ties together previously fragmented knowledge. The findings and resultant framework explain how hedonic happiness, eudaimonic meaning, extraordinary experiences, and a self-authentication process work together to create short-term and long-term wellbeing for avid rock music consumers. Moreover, the findings and framework suggest how authenticity appears to be a process towards the goal of enhanced wellbeing, rather than being a goal in itself as treated by most marketing scholars.

text: The Rock Concert Experience: The Self-Authentication Process and Wellbeing The purpose of this research was to understand consumers’ experiences at rock concerts. Growth in the live concert industry over the past 20 years suggests that these experiences provide value that consumers cannot attain through other means. Music fans can stream rock music or watch concerts without cost, while concert tickets are often over $100 each. Marketers need to understand more about the value derived from the live rock concert experience.
The researcher gathered data over a period of six months in 2013, utilising three data collection methods: 1) in-depth interviews with eight participants; 2) observation of nine rock concerts; and 3) analysis of responses to concert reviews on news website Stuff.co.nz. Constructivist Grounded Theory guided the research process: theoretical sampling, grounded theory coding, constant comparison, and memo-ing.

Findings indicate that consumers derive enhanced wellbeing from attending rock concerts. Consumers want to repeat concert experiences to maintain or further enhance their wellbeing. This could explain why the live music industry is growing rapidly.

Findings also indicate authenticity is an important value-providing process to rock concert consumers. Value occurs through two main processes: the co-created experience and the self-authentication process. The band, fans, and the venue co-create the rock concert experience, enabling hedonia and short-term happiness. Fans experience a rock concert as something extraordinary. The extraordinary experience is composed of a utopian atmosphere and a state of transcendence. Fans live out their fantasies of seeing their favourite bands perform, escape from everyday life, and have cathartic experiences. Fans also experience the rock concert as community. Through playing (e.g., dancing, drinking, singing, being in the mosh pit) with like-minded others, fans feel like they belong to a community.
Secondly, via the self-authentication process, eudaimonia contributes to wellbeing through lasting meaning. By authenticating the band through its performance and the audience’s communal participation, fans authenticate the concert experience.

Through authenticating the experience, and through their own activities in it, fans are able to self-authenticate. Consequently, rock concert experiences are important for the long-term wellbeing of avid rock music fans because they can validate their own identities as rock music fans.
In summary, by responding to calls for research into rock concert consumption, this thesis ties together previously fragmented knowledge. The findings and resultant framework explain how hedonic happiness, eudaimonic meaning, extraordinary experiences, and a self-authentication process work together to create short-term and long-term wellbeing for avid rock music consumers. Moreover, the findings and framework suggest how authenticity appears to be a process towards the goal of enhanced wellbeing, rather than being a goal in itself as treated by most marketing scholars.

year: 2014

title: An exploration of different outlooks on science: towards an understanding of the under-representation of girls, and of Maori and Pacific Island students, in science

authors: Stead, Keith Eric

abstract: The research reported here was undertaken as a supplementary study to the Learning in Science Project conducted at Waikato University (1979-1981) and sought to understand why girls, Maori and Pacific Island students, are under-represented in the sciences. Two distinctive, but complementary, perspectives were developed; one qualitative, the other quantitative, to provide data from which an understanding of the problem was sought.
The qualitative perspective was provided by using a Kelly Repertory Grid methodology and intensive individual interviews with 26 students (and many of their parents) carefully chosen to provide a reasonably heterogeneous sample of students from a variety of different schools, of both sexes, of the three major ethnic groups (European, Maori, and Pacific Island), and from each of the four middle-school form levels (Fl to F4, inclusively).
The quantitative perspective was provided by a series of empirical measures chosen, not only to identify the students for the qualitative sample but also, to investigate particular variables suggested by the literature search to have possible implications for the teaching and learning of science. 
The resultant analyses suggested the sex differences in the students’ outlooks on science could be accounted for by the existence of a broad based ‘gender-related inequality’ in the way science is presented to them by the communication media, home, and school.
Similarly, the ethnic differences in students’ outlooks on science could be accounted for by the ‘cultural inequality’ present in New Zealand society which was identified in the way many of the Polynesian students and their parents, perceived the products, processes, and practitioners of science. 
The simplification presented here masks the complexity of the issues involved but, series of educational within these two broad postulates, a series of educational recommendations was suggested for affecting current educational practices identified as maintaining (or even creating) the existing under-representation of girls, Maori and Pacific Island students in the sciences. 
These included:
(i) Student beliefs about science need to be explored, challenged, modified, and/or extended
(ii) Students’ perceptions of other people’s views need to be identified, explored, challenged and/or extended 
(iii) Teachers’ styles of teaching science need to be examined
(iv) Parents’ own outlooks on science need to be developed.
This research has emphasised the need to have all students, but particularly girls, Maori, and Pacific Island students, develop positive outlooks on science in order that the current imbalance of girls and Polynesians in the sciences be redressed.

text: An exploration of different outlooks on science: towards an understanding of the under-representation of girls, and of Maori and Pacific Island students, in science The research reported here was undertaken as a supplementary study to the Learning in Science Project conducted at Waikato University (1979-1981) and sought to understand why girls, Maori and Pacific Island students, are under-represented in the sciences. Two distinctive, but complementary, perspectives were developed; one qualitative, the other quantitative, to provide data from which an understanding of the problem was sought.
The qualitative perspective was provided by using a Kelly Repertory Grid methodology and intensive individual interviews with 26 students (and many of their parents) carefully chosen to provide a reasonably heterogeneous sample of students from a variety of different schools, of both sexes, of the three major ethnic groups (European, Maori, and Pacific Island), and from each of the four middle-school form levels (Fl to F4, inclusively).
The quantitative perspective was provided by a series of empirical measures chosen, not only to identify the students for the qualitative sample but also, to investigate particular variables suggested by the literature search to have possible implications for the teaching and learning of science. 
The resultant analyses suggested the sex differences in the students’ outlooks on science could be accounted for by the existence of a broad based ‘gender-related inequality’ in the way science is presented to them by the communication media, home, and school.
Similarly, the ethnic differences in students’ outlooks on science could be accounted for by the ‘cultural inequality’ present in New Zealand society which was identified in the way many of the Polynesian students and their parents, perceived the products, processes, and practitioners of science. 
The simplification presented here masks the complexity of the issues involved but, series of educational within these two broad postulates, a series of educational recommendations was suggested for affecting current educational practices identified as maintaining (or even creating) the existing under-representation of girls, Maori and Pacific Island students in the sciences. 
These included:
(i) Student beliefs about science need to be explored, challenged, modified, and/or extended
(ii) Students’ perceptions of other people’s views need to be identified, explored, challenged and/or extended 
(iii) Teachers’ styles of teaching science need to be examined
(iv) Parents’ own outlooks on science need to be developed.
This research has emphasised the need to have all students, but particularly girls, Maori, and Pacific Island students, develop positive outlooks on science in order that the current imbalance of girls and Polynesians in the sciences be redressed.

year: 1984