reception of remittances facilitates taking up loans from formal or informal sources among Mexican households and finds positive … and statistically significant effects of remittances on borrowing and on the existence of debts. We address methodological … distance to train lines and labor market conditions in the US as exogenous determinants of remittances. …

are associated with reductions in remittances. We conclude that risk-coping via remittances provides limited protection …During a global shock two forces act upon international remittances in opposite directions: income losses among … migrants may reduce their ability to send remittances and, at the same time, migrants' concern for their family's wellbeing may …

risk. This paper focuses on the transmission of sovereign risk to insurance companies as some of the largest institutional … investors in the sovereign bond market. We use a firm level panel dataset that covers large insurance companies, banks and non … effects from sovereign risk to domestic insurers. The impact on insurers is larger than for non-financial firms and slightly …

that is due to heterogeneous skill endowments. Meanwhile, taxes and transfers insure 45% of lifetime earnings risk. Taxes … would provide more insurance if based on lifetime instead of annual earnings. Requiring wealthy individuals to repay social … assistance received when younger would strengthen the insurance and redistributive functions of social assistance. …