Recognised Seasonal Employer Program Impact Evaluation 2007-2010 - Vanuatu

Abstract
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Seasonal migration programs are widely used around the world, yet there is little evidence as to their development impacts. A multi-year prospective evaluation of New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) worker program was designed to measure the impact of participating in this program on households in Tonga and Vanuatu. New Zealand launched the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) program in 2007. The program set up a new migration category to allow workers to be recruited for seasonal work in New Zealand's horticulture and viticulture industries.

Between 2007 and 2010 researchers from the World Bank and New Zealand's University of Waikato conducted four waves of surveys in Tonga and Vanuatu providing 70 percent of the Pacific Island workers in the RSE. In each country the team surveyed 450 households drawn from about 50 communities, including households supplying workers, households with RSE applicants who were not recruited and non-applicant households.

The baseline survey was conducted before workers left to work in New Zealand in the first season. The workers were re-interviewed 6, 12 and 24 months later. Using the baseline data and institutional knowledge of how recruitment for the program occurred, the impact evaluation team used propensity-score matching to identify an appropriate set of households to act as a comparison group for the households participating in the RSE, and then used panel difference-in-differences and fixed effects estimation to assess the impacts of the RSE on household income, consumption, durable assets and subjective well-being.

The baseline and three follow-up rounds datasets are documented here.

Geographic coverage
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Vanuatu's rugged geography and high transportation costs made it infeasible to survey in all islands, as a result the evaluation was limited to three islands from which it was believed that there was a high chance of workers coming. The three islands are: Efate (population 50,000), containing the capital city, Port Vila, Ambrym (population 10,000) and Tanna (population 20,000).

Analysis unit
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- Households
- Individuals

Kind of data
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Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure
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Researchers used a rolling sampling methodology, adding sample as they received updates of when, where, and who employers were recruiting, with the baseline survey conducted between October 2007 and April 2008.Vanuatu's rugged geography and high transportation costs made it infeasible to survey in all islands, as a result the evaluation was limited to three islands from which it was believed that there was a high chance of workers coming. The three islands are: Efate (population 50,000), containing the capital city, Port Vila, Ambrym (population 10,000) and Tanna (population 20,000). Not all villages in Vanuatu initially participated in the RSE, so as well as sampling non-applicant households in villages with participating RSE workers, households from nearby villages which had not participated in the RSE were also sampled. The baseline survey covered 456 households containing 2,173 individuals in 48 villages or communities.

Mode of data collection
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Face-to-face [f2f]

Response rate
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Of the 456 households in the baseline survey, 382, 388, and 348 households were re-interviewed in rounds 2, 3 and 4 respectively, whilst 33 households were only interviewed in round 1.

摘要
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全球范围内，季节性移民计划被广泛采用，然而关于其发展影响的研究证据却寥寥无几。一项针对新西兰认可季节性雇主（RSE）工人计划的多年度前瞻性评估旨在衡量参与该计划对汤加和瓦努阿图家庭的影响。新西兰于2007年启动了认可季节性雇主（RSE）计划，该计划设立了一个新的移民类别，允许招募工人在新西兰的园艺和葡萄栽培产业进行季节性工作。

在2007年至2010年期间，世界银行和新西兰怀卡托大学的学者在汤加和瓦努阿图进行了四轮调查，为RSE提供了70%的太平洋岛国工人。在每个国家，研究团队对约50个社区的450户家庭进行了调查，包括提供工人家庭、拥有RSE申请但未招募的家庭以及非申请家庭。

基线调查在工人首次前往新西兰工作的季节之前进行。工人在6个月、12个月和24个月后被重新访谈。利用基线数据和关于该计划招募过程所拥有的制度知识，影响评估团队采用倾向得分匹配法确定一组合适的家庭作为参与RSE的家庭的对照组，然后使用面板差异-差异和固定效应估计法评估RSE对家庭收入、消费、耐用资产和主观福祉的影响。

基线和三次后续轮次的数据集在此处进行说明。

地理覆盖范围
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瓦努阿图的崎岖地形和较高的运输成本使得对所有岛屿进行调查变得不可行，因此评估仅限于三个被认为工人到来概率较高的岛屿。这三个岛屿是：埃法特岛（人口50,000，包含首都维拉港）、安布里姆岛（人口10,000）和塔纳岛（人口20,000）。

分析单元
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- 家庭
- 个人

数据类型
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样本调查数据 [ssd]

抽样程序
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研究人员采用了滚动抽样方法，随着他们对雇主何时、何地、招募谁的信息更新，增加样本。基线调查于2007年10月至2008年4月进行。瓦努阿图的崎岖地形和较高的运输成本使得对所有岛屿进行调查变得不可行，因此评估仅限于三个被认为工人到来概率较高的岛屿。这三个岛屿是：埃法特岛（人口50,000，包含首都维拉港）、安布里姆岛（人口10,000）和塔纳岛（人口20,000）。并非所有村庄最初都参与了RSE，因此除了在参与RSE的村庄中抽样非申请家庭外，还抽样了附近未参与RSE的村庄的家庭。基线调查覆盖了48个村庄或社区中的456户家庭，包含2,173名个人。

数据收集方式
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面对面 [f2f]

应答率
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在基线调查的456户家庭中，第二、三、四轮分别有382户、388户和348户家庭接受了重新访谈，而33户家庭仅在第一轮接受了访谈。