Migration as a Safety Net and Effects of Remittances on Household Consumption: The Case of Colombia

Lina Cardona-Sosa and Carlos Medina

Borradores de Economia from Banco de la Republica de Colombia

Abstract: We assess whether international remittances affect Colombian household’s expenditure composition and demand of education. We exploit the migratory wave that took place on late 90s due to one of the deepest crises in Colombian history, along with institutional barriers to migration, to identify the effect of remittances on expenditure composition. The empirical exercises find a positive effect over education, beneficiary households expending about 10% of total expenditure more in education than non beneficiaries. In addition although no effect was found on enrollment rates, we found an important effect on the probability of attending a private, rather that a public, educational institution. Such effect is on average 24% for individuals 5-30 years old, 50% for those attending secondary education, and 40% for those attending higher education. On the other hand, effects over consumption, investment and health expenditure, are nil. Finally, we find important effects of remittances on living standards of beneficiary households.

Keywords: International Remittances; International Migration; Safety Net; Consumption Composition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 I31 P36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-lam
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.32468/be.414 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Migration as a Safety Net and Effects of Remittances on Household Consumption: The Case of Colombia (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdr:borrec:414

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Borradores de Economia from Banco de la Republica de Colombia Cra 7 # 14-78. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Clorith Angélica Bahos Olivera ().