Remittances form an important source of revenue for many farm households and rural communities. In spite of their significance, how remittances are expended is not well studied. Neoclassical economic theory indicates that the welfare of recipients unequivocally improves as the household budget line increases. Which new combination of goods, such as production and leisure, is selected on the budget line depends on household and community preferences. The literature suggests many factors influence preferences. The original resource endowment defines production possibilities. Regional economic conditions determine agricultural profitability and alternative investment opportunities. The volume and timing of remittances influence a farmer's willingness to accept risk. Socio-economic survey data from 54 households in the village of El Rosario Micaltepec, Puebla in the Mixteca Baja region illustrate the conditions under which certain households may choose to invest remittances in agricultural production. Data on the activities of the migrant village associations of two villages are used to evaluate the circumstances that favor community investment of migrant-donated funds over their conspicuous consumption.

Thesis. 1977. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / No leaf 54; 2 leaves numbered 56. / Bibliography : leaves 106-108. / by Ernesto E. Rodriguez. / M.C.P.

The formulation of land-use programs fostering the social development of a community is the basic aim of the present work. The San Tiburcio region, located in northern Mexico, provides the background for the design of specific programs as well as a vehicle to present and illustrate the proposed procedure. The advocated program design procedure is made up of four distinct stages; value structuring, project screening, program delineation, and program selection. At each stage a specific technique is proposed in order to achieve the particular output sought. The value structuring phase strives to achieve a characterization of the objective structure, as advocated by a group, and the identification of objective measures useful in the decision making stage. Q-analysis is used to study the structure of the objectives as implied by a given relation among these objectives. The objective structure for the San Tiburcio region is assessed and studied in the context of the proposed value structuring activities. Based upon previous research, a set of land-use projects is formulated by a multidisciplinary team and submitted as potential candidates to integrate a program for the San Tiburcio region. Related to this set of land-use projects is another set of infrastructural and industrial projects proposed by various governmental agencies. A mixed-integer linear multiobjective programming (MILMOP) model is used to handle the determination of specific program profiles. Due to computational and data limitations, a prior screening of alternatives is undertaken, using a knapsack-type model. By considering several types of objectives and levels of resources, a classification of projects is achieved. Two plausible screening criteria are developed to deal with the San Tiburcio problem. The set of screened projects is used as the starting basis of the program delineation stage. A series of program profiles is generated by obtaining various half-compromise solutions of the MILMOP model. Each half-compromise solution is obtained when a particular set of weights is used for the various objective functions. The selection of a given program is undertaken within the context of a multiattribute decision problem. To this end, a technique based on polyhedral dynamics is developed and used to produce a ranking of programs. A series of sensitivity runs are conducted to conclude that only two programs of the five considered are ranked consistently higher than the rest.

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