Determinants of Bilateral Remittance Flows

Lueth Erik () and Ruiz-Arranz Marta ()
Additional contact information
Lueth Erik: International Monetary Fund
Ruiz-Arranz Marta: International Monetary Fund

The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 2008, vol. 8, issue 1, 23

Abstract: This paper explores the determinants of workers' remittances using a novel dataset of bilateral remittance flows. The paper finds that some of the variables commonly used in gravity equations are very powerful in explaining remittance flows. The evidence on the motives to remit is mixed, but altruism may be less of factor than commonly believed. Most strikingly, remittances do not seem to increase in the wake of a natural disaster and appear aligned with the business cycle in the home country, suggesting that remittances may not play a major role in limiting vulnerability to shocks. To encourage remittances and maximize their economic impact, policies should be directed at reducing transaction costs, promoting financial sector development, and improving the business climate.

Keywords: bilateral remittance flows; gravity model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (68)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1690.1568 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

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:bpj:bejmac:v:8:y:2008:i:1:n:26

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/bejm/html

DOI: 10.2202/1935-1690.1568

Access Statistics for this article

The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics is currently edited by Arpad Abraham and Tiago Cavalcanti

More articles in The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().