Institutional quality and the effect of remittances on unemployment: evidence from Africa

Dennis Boahene Osei, Emmanuel Opoku, Kwasi Poku and Daniel Domeher

International Journal of Manpower, 2026, vol. 47, issue 10, 83-100

Abstract: PurposeThe study investigates whether the impact of remittances on unemployment in Africa is influenced by the quality of institutions, addressing the inconclusive findings in the existing literature and the limited evidence from the African context.Design/methodology/approachUsing panel data from 24 African countries spanning 2002 to 2018, the study applies a system generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator to examine the synergistic effect of remittances and institutional quality on unemployment.FindingsThe results reveal that higher remittances lowers unemployment. Further analysis reveals that as institutional quality improves, the unemployment-reducing effect of remittances deepens. This result is robust to an alternative measure of institutional quality.Practical implicationsThe study recommends that policymakers in Africa should strive to enhance the quality of institutions, as weak institutions hinder the economy by diminishing the positive benefits of remittances on unemployment.Originality/valueThis study provides a fresh perspective beyond household-level or single-country analyses, offering new insights into how institutional quality influences the effect of remittances on unemployment in Africa.

Keywords: Remittance; Institutional quality; Unemployment; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/ijm/article/47/10/83/13512 ... ty-and-the-effect-of (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/ijm/article-pdf/47/10/83/11355121/ijm-07-2025-0546en.pdf (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:eme:ijmpps:ijm-07-2025-0546

DOI: 10.1108/IJM-07-2025-0546

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Manpower is currently edited by Professor Adrian Ziderman

More articles in International Journal of Manpower from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().