Dean Yang found that remittance funds–money that working migrants send to relatives in their home countries–can yield bigger benefits when the migrants have greater control over how the money is spent. Yang says most migrants want the money they send home to be used for long- rather than short-term benefit, such as for schooling, healthcare, and small business ventures. Their families, however, tend to use the remittances for day-to-day expenses. Yang says if migrants could better control how funds are used, the money would yield larger family and economic development benefits, and the migrants would be inclined to send more.

More about Yang’s work on migrant remittances yields place on U-M innovative ideas list >