But for families that receive remittances, as another economic study showed this time, the
benefits of these remittances. Yang (2004) looked at how migrant households in the Philippines
would respond to changes in economic conditions, particularly during the period 1997 to 1998
(or the height of the Asian financial crisis). Using data from the Labor Force Survey, the Survey
on Overseas Filipinos (SOF), Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES), and the Annual
Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS), Yang found that even if exchange rates rose (what he calls as
“favorable exchange rate shocks”), it led migrant households to make more investments,
especially “riskier” investments. Previously credit constraints (at a period when the exchange
rates were low prior to the Asian crisis) prevented migrant households from making
investments.