There exists much controversy as to whether international migration in general, and migrant's remittances in particular, increase or decrease economic welfare at origin. Our research contributes to the international discussion on remittances by presenting novel insights on the basis of theoretical and empirical analysis. Analysis of remittances from macro-economic as well as micro-economic point of view reveals that remittances not only have growth enhancing effect but also have an equalizing impact on income distribution of the recipient economy. The first chapter shows how large flows of remittances not only help the receiver to accumulate necessary savings but also reduce the critical level of wealth needed to get access to the capital market to instigate entrepreneurship. The second chapter reveals that the measured impact of remittances on business investment have significant country heterogeneity; remittances facilitate entrepreneurship in those countries where the lenders of the capital market can predict smooth and increasing flow of remittances. The third chapter proposes that remittances work better than aid in enhancing growth of the recipient country and the reason is that remittances are more effective than aid in augmenting capital accumulation.

Obesity is a growing public health concern that is being confronted by both developed and developing countries. South Africa is no exception, facing the highest burden of obesity amongst African countries. Using two waves of data from the National Income Dynamics Study, this study aims to investigate the relationship between obesity and employment status for working age individuals in the context of the South African labour market. This study contributes to existing literature on this subject by explicitly accounting for potential simultaneity and endogeneity between obesity and employment. Given the hypothesised two-way causal relationship between obesity and unemployment, two different models are used to assess whether this issue exists for the dataset; a bivariate probit model to assess if there is a bivariate relationship between obesity and employment, and a recursive bivariate probit model to assess if obesity is an endogenous regressor of employment. A change in state univariate probit model is then implemented across the two waves to better understand if fluctuations in weight status are a result of labour market state transitions. The results of the study show that obesity and employment are independent in the bivariate probit models and obesity is an exogenous regressor of employment status in the recursive bivariate probit models. Changes in labour market state do not have a significant impact on the probability of transitioning to obese compared to no changes in labour market state, bar transitioning from not economically active to employed, which increases the probability of becoming obese. The findings suggest that, in the South African labour market context, obesity and employment are not related, indicating that there are other underlying factors, such as nutritional intake and genetic composition, that may contribute to fluctuations in weight status. The results suggest that obesity is prolific in South Africa, and impacts individuals across the entire distribution for labour market status and income.

本文探討大專生的學業成就，如何受到學生本身的外表吸引力以及工讀的型態所影響。本研究使用國立台灣師範大學台灣高等教育資料庫所建構的「九十二學年度大三學生問卷調查」以及「九十三學年度大專畢業生畢業後一年問卷調查」，以univariate probit model進行分析。研究結果發現：一、具外表吸引力的學生，在平均成績超過80分的機率，比外表較不具外表吸引力的學生高出5.6%；二、具外表吸引力的學生，在進入班級排名前10%的機率較不具外表吸引力的學生高出3.7%；三、雖然從事校外工讀對於學業成就有負面影響，不過從事校內工讀反而對於學業成就有正面影響。 接著以內生性分析的結果顯示，外表吸引力以及校外工讀與學業成就之間存在內生性問題。在recursive bivariate probit model估計下，外表吸引力與學業成就之間的關係仍舊為正向顯著，且男學生的外表吸引力對於學業成就之影響高於女學生；至於校外工讀與學業成就之間的關係在recursive bivariate probit model估計下反而轉變為正，表示在考慮內生性問題之後，校外工讀反而對於學業成就具有正向影響。 最後以trivariate probit model探討外表吸引力、校外工讀以及學業成就三者之間的關係，結果發現在控制外表吸引力下，校外工讀對於學業成就的影響差異並不大，工讀的負面效果並不會因為具有外表吸引力而有所減緩。