Remittances and Inequality: The Post-Communist Region

Azizbek Tokhirov, Jaromír Harmáček and Miroslav Syrovátka

Prague Economic Papers, 2021, vol. 2021, issue 4, 426-448

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the impact of international remittances on income inequality in the post-communist region. The association between the variables is examined via static and dynamic panel models. Using macroeconomic data from 27 countries over the period 1991-2014, we discover that income inequality progresses along a U-shaped course as a country becomes more dependent on remittances. For most of the countries, the relationship between remittances and inequality is inverse. When remittances account for more than 20% of GDP, they exacerbate economic inequality. This finding challenges the view that remittances should only be viewed as a pro-poor redistribution mechanism because in certain cases, additional migrant transfers may actually increase income inequality.

Keywords: Income inequality; migration; international remittances; post-communism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E25 F24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://pep.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.pep.776.html (text/html)
http://pep.vse.cz/doi/10.18267/j.pep.776.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

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:prg:jnlpep:v:2021:y:2021:i:4:id:776:p:426-448

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Editorial office Prague Economic Papers, University of Economics, nám. W. Churchilla 4, 130 67 Praha 3, Czech Republic
http://pep.vse.cz

DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.776

Access Statistics for this article

Prague Economic Papers is currently edited by Klára Pavlová

More articles in Prague Economic Papers from Prague University of Economics and Business Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Stanislav Vojir ().