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ut case studies, including that of one of the authors, indicate that mostremittances are used to pay for daily living expenses, housing, compulsoryeducational fees, health care, and festivals. Despite indications that someportion of remittances is invested in agriculture, husbandry, fishing, andforestry, researchers and policymakers hoping that migrants would developbusinesses on the basis of new ideas, skills, and savings derived from urbanemployment have been disappointed. A major reason that remittancesgo largely to consumption, the authors contend, is that the costs of ruraleducation, health, and government administration have risen since thebeginning of rural reforms in 1978, when central government subsidiesfor these services were cut off. As a result, increases in rural incomes fromremittances have had to be spent on basic expenses, and the accumulationof surplus savings necessary for investment has not been feasible for lowincomerural families.The issue is complicated by the difficulty of distinguishing the nature andimpacts of consumption from investment. In analyzing the uses and impactsof international remittances sent home to forty villages in Fujian Provincenear the city of Fuzhou, Zai Liang and Hideki Morooka provide a differentview, suggesting that consumption and investment are not easily separableand that can both contribute to development, depending on linkagesbetween the local and regional economy. The authors found that over 80percent of migrants sent remittances to pay for the family’s daily livingexpenses, including the care of children and the elderly, the maintenance ofancestral graves, and the construction of new houses. Less than 3 percentof emigrants sent remittances for business purposes. However, they alsofound that just over 10 percent of migrants donated funds to supportpublic projects that enhanced educational institutions, trained the futureworkforce, and created physical infrastructure, all of which contributeto economic development. Perhaps as a reflection of strong communalsolidarity, migrants from remote agricultural villages seemed most likelyto increase their support for public projects once they had paid off largedebts incurred in being smuggled illegally into the United States. A smallminority of international migrants joined together to invest in businessesoutside of their local communities. These enterprises included office andresidential buildings, steel mills, brick factories, and real estate, whichcontributed to, and benefited from, the coastal industrialization that has beenleading much of China’s overall economic growth. Although remittancesentered the regional markets through different types and proportions ofconsumption and investment, the authors suggest that they all producedmultiplier effects and contributed to development as they spread throughlocal and regional markets. However, the integration of local and regionalmarkets in the Fuzhou area is related to the central government’s overall351