Structural Change in MENA Remittance Flows

George Naufal and Ismail Genc

No 7485, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: After independence, the GCC countries relied heavily on foreign workers from fellow Arab countries. Thus, remittances flowed from GCC to other countries in MENA. In the 1980s-1990s labor source switched to South Asia; so did the flow of remittances. This paper examines the consequences of the shift in the source of labor by econometrically testing the existence of structural breaks in the flow of remittances in the MENA region. The change in the direction of remittance flows deprived several MENA labor exporters of large sums of foreign exchange, adding significant economic, social and political hardships on non-GCC MENA countries.

Keywords: Middle East and North Africa (MENA); remittances; unit roots; structural break; Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC); migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 F16 F22 F24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 12 pages
Date: 2013-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara
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Published - published in: Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, 2015, 51(6), 1175-1178

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Related works:
Journal Article: Structural Change in MENA Remittance Flows (2015)
Working Paper: Structural Change in MENA Remittance Flows
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