Do Migrant Remittances Reduce Poverty? Micro-Level Evidence from Punjab, Pakistan

Kashif Imran (), Evelyn Devadason () and Kee-Cheok Cheong ()
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Kashif Imran: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya
Kee-Cheok Cheong: Institute of China Studies, University of Malaya

Malaysian Journal of Economic Studies, 2018, vol. 55, issue 1, 19-47

Abstract: This paper provides a poverty profile of households and then investigates the effects of international remittances on poverty incidence and severity in Punjab, Pakistan. Using cross-section data from the latest Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for Punjab, the disaggregated analysis on the remittance-poverty nexus is examined by districts and urban-rural locales. From the poverty profile for migrant households with remittances and the counterfactual scenario of no remittances, the differences in the poverty reduction effect seem larger for poverty headcount than on the depth of poverty. The same trend holds for the urban-rural locales. This implies that remittances inflow were not really helpful for the poorest of the poor. The regression analysis further reveals that migrant remittances have significantly reduced the level and depth of poverty for households in all districts of Punjab, with the highest probability of being non-poor for rural households in the districts of South Punjab.

Keywords: Migrant households; Pakistan; poverty; Punjab; remittances (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F24 I32 I39 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mjr:journl:v:55:y:2018:i:1:p:19-47

DOI: 10.22452/MJES.vol55no1.2

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