Migration and Remittances in Latin America and the Caribbean: Engines of Growth and Macroeconomic Stabilizers?

Kimberly Beaton, Svetlana Cerovic, Misael Galdamez, Metodij Hadzi-Vaskov, Franz Loyola, Zsoka Koczan, Bogdan Lissovolik, Jan Martijn, Yulia Ustyugova and Joyce Wong

No 2017/144, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Outward migration has been an important phenomenon for countries in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC), particularly those in Central America and the Caribbean. This paper examines recent trends in outward migration from and remittances to LAC, as well as their costs and benefits. For the home country, the negative impact from emigration on labor resources and productivity seems to outweigh growth gains from remittances, notably for the Caribbean. However, given emigration, remittance flows play key financing and stabilizing roles in Central America and the Caribbean. They facilitate private consumption smoothing, support financial sector stability and fiscal revenues, and help reduce poverty and inequality, without strong evidence for harmful competitiveness effects through shifts in the real exchange rate.

Keywords: WP; remittance inflow; economic migration; cost of remittance; remittance flow; remittances emigrant; International Migration; Remittances; Latin America; Caribbean; GDP ratio; remittances-recipient country; remittance sender; remittance transaction; remittance corridor; Gini coefficient; Migration; Income; Consumption; South America; Central America; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 81
Date: 2017-06-29
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=44956 (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:imf:imfwpa:2017/144

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().