Download or read book Business Cycles and Workers Remittances written by Serdar Sayan and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Workers' remittances are often argued to have a tendency to move countercyclically with the GDP in recipient countries since migrant workers are expected to remit more during down cycles of economic activity back home. Yet, how much to remit is a complex decision involving other factors, and different variables driving remittance behavior are differently affected by the state of economic activity over the business cycle. This paper investigates the behavior of workers' remittances flows into 12 developing countries over their respective business cycles during 1976-2003 and finds that countercyclicality of receipts is not commonly observed across these countries.
Download or read book Business Cycles and Workers Remittances How Do Migrant Workers Respond to Cyclical Movements of GDP at Home written by Serdar Sayan and published by INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. This book was released on 2006-02-01 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Workers' remittances are often argued to have a tendency to move countercyclically with the GDP in recipient countries since migrant workers are expected to remit more during down cycles of economic activity back home. Yet, how much to remit is a complex decision involving other factors, and different variables driving remittance behavior are differently affected by the state of economic activity over the business cycle. This paper investigates the behavior of workers' remittances flows into 12 developing countries over their respective business cycles during 1976-2003 and finds that countercyclicality of receipts is not commonly observed across these countries.
Download or read book Workers Remittances written by Mr.Adolfo Barajas and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2012-10-19 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper shows that remittance flows significantly increase the business cycle synchronization between remittance-recipient countries and the rest of the world. Using both aggregate and bilateral remittances data in a panel data setting, the study demonstrates that this effect is robust and causal. Moreover, the econometric analysis reveals that remittance flows are more effective in channeling economic downturns than upswings from the sending countries to remittance-receiving economies. The analysis suggests that measures of openness and spillovers could be enhanced by accounting for the role of the remittances channel.
Download or read book A Gravity Model of Workers Remittances written by Erik Lueth and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2006-12 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper creates the first dataset of bilateral remittance flows for a limited set of developing countries and estimates a gravity model for workers' remittances. We find that most of the variation in bilateral remittance flows can be explained by a few gravity variables. The evidence on the motives to remit is mixed, but altruism may be less of a 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.
Download or read book Macroeconomic Consequences of Remittances written by Connel Fullenkamp and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2008-03-11 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given the large size of aggregate remittance flows (billions of dollars annually), they should be expected to have significant macroeconomic effects on the economies that receive them. This paper directly addresses the two main issues of interest to policymakers with regard to remittances--how to manage their macroeconomic effects, and how to harness their development potential--by reporting the results of the first global study of the comprehensive macroeconomic effects of remittances on recipient economies. In broad terms, the findings of this paper tend to confirm the main benefit cited in the microeconomic literature: remittances improve households' welfare by lifting families out of poverty and insuring them against income shocks. The findings also yield a number of important caveats and policy considerations, however, that have largely been overlooked. The main challenge for policymakers in countries that receive significant flows of remittances is to design policies that promote remittances and increase their benefits while mitigating adverse side effects. Getting these policy prescriptions correct early on is imperative. Globalization and the aging of developed economy populations will ensure that demand for migrant workers remains robust for years to come. Hence, the volume of remittances likely will continue to grow, and with it, the challenge of unlocking the maximum societal benefit from these transfers.
Download or read book Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond written by Ibrahim Sirkeci and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-05-31 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 2008 financial crisis, the possible changes in remittance-sending behavior and potential avenues to alleviate a probable decline in remittance flows became concerns. This book brings together a wide array of studies from around the world focusing on the recent trends in remittance flows. The authors have gathered a select group of researchers from academic, practitioner and policy making bodies. Thus the book can be seen as a conversation between the different stakeholders involved in or affected by remittance flows globally. The book is a first-of-its-kind attempt to analyze the effects of an ongoing crisis on remittance flows globally. Data analyzed by the book reveals three trends. First, The more diversified the destinations and the labour markets for migrants the more resilient are the remittances sent by migrants. Second, the lower the barriers to labor mobility, the stronger the link between remittances and economic cycles in that corridor. And third, as remittances proved to be relatively resilient in comparison to private capital flows, many remittance-dependent countries became even more dependent on remittance inflows for meeting external financing needs. There are several reasons for migration and remittances to be relatively resilient to the crisis. First, remittances are sent by the stock (cumulative flows) of migrants, not only by the recent arrivals (in fact, recent arrivals often do not remit as regularly as they must establish themselves in their new homes). Second, contrary to expectations, return migration did not take place as expected even as the financial crisis reduced employment opportunities in the US and Europe. Third, in addition to the persistence of migrant stocks that lent persistence to remittance flows, existing migrants often absorbed income shocks and continued to send money home. Fourth, if some migrants did return or had the intention to return, they tended to take their savings back to their country of origin. Finally, exchange rate movements during the crisis caused unexpected changes in remittance behavior: as local currencies of many remittance recipient countries depreciated sharply against the US dollar, they produced a sale effect on remittance behavior of migrants in the US and other destination countries.
Download or read book Immigration Remittances and Business Cycles written by Federico Mandelman and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2011-05 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses data on border enforcement and macroeconomic indicators from the U.S. and Mexico to estimate a two-country business cycle model of labor migration and remittances. It documents how remittances to Mexico serve an insurance role to smooth consumption across the border. During expansions in the destination economy, immigration increases with the expected stream of future wage gains, but it is dampened by a sunk migration cost. During recessions, established migrants are deterred from returning to their country of origin, which places a downward pressure on the wage of native unskilled workers. The authors quantify the welfare implications of immigration policies for the destination economy. Illustrations. A print on demand pub.
Download or read book Defying the Odds Remittances During the COVID 19 Pandemic written by Mr. Kangni R Kpodar and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-07-16 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides an early assessment of the dynamics and drivers of remittances during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a newly compiled monthly remittance dataset for a sample of 52 countries, of which 16 countries with bilateral remittance data. The paper documents a strong resilience in remittance flows, notwithstanding an unprecedent global recession triggered by the pandemic. Using the local projection approach to estimate the impulse response functions of remittance flows during Jan 2020-Dec 2020, the paper provides evidence that: (i) remittances responded positively to COVID-19 infection rates in migrant home countries, underscoring its role as an important automatic stabilizer; (ii) stricter containment measures have the unintended consequence of dampening remittances; and (iii) a shift from informal to formal remittance channels due to travel restrictions appears to have also played a role in the surge in formal remittances. Lastly, the size of the fiscal stimulus in host countries is positively associated with remittances as the fiscal response cushions the economic impact of the pandemic.
Download or read book Workers Remittances and the Equilibrium Real Exchange Rate written by Mr.Adolfo Barajas and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper investigates the impact of workers’ remittances on equilibrium real exchange rates (ERER) in recipient economies. Using a small open economy model, it shows that standard "Dutch Disease" results of appreciation are substantially weakened or even overturned depending on: degree of openness; factor mobility between domestic sectors; counter cyclicality of remittances; the share of consumption in tradables; and the sensitivity of a country’s risk premium to remittance flows. Panel cointegration techniques on a large set of countries provide support for these analytical results, and show that ERER appreciation in response to sustained remittance flows tends to be quantitatively small.
Download or read book Do Remittances to Latin America Depend on the U S Business Cycle written by Shaun K. Roache and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2007-12 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We use a range of methods and remittance data from 1990 to 2007 to assess the strength and significance of linkages between remittance flows to Latin America and the U.S. business cycle. All of the evidence suggests that remittance flows are relatively insensitive to fluctuations in the U.S. cycle, underlining their role as a stable source of external financing, in good times and bad. A number of factors, notwithstanding uncertainties related to official remittance data reliability, might explain this result, including remittance smoothing and flexible immigrant labor markets.
Download or read book Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries written by Giulia Bettin and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-01-27 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines how international remittances are affected by structural characteristics, macroeconomic conditions, and adverse shocks in both source and recipient economies. We exploit a novel, rich panel data set, covering bilateral remittances from 103 Italian provinces to 107 developing countries over the period 2005-2011. We find that remittances are negatively correlated with the business cycle in recipient countries, and increase in response to adverse exogenous shocks, such as natural disasters or large declines in the terms of trade. Remittances are positively correlated with economic conditions in the source province. Nevertheless, in the presence of similar negative shocks to both source and recipient economies, remittances remain counter-cyclical with respect to the recipient country.
Download or read book Immigration Remittances and Business Cycles written by Federico Mandelman and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using data on border enforcement and macroeconomic indicators from the United States and Mexico, we estimate a two-country business cycle model of labor migration and remittances. The model matches the cyclical dynamics of unskilled migration and documents the insurance role of remittances in consumption smoothing. Over the cycle, immigration increases with the expected stream of future wage gains, but it is dampened by a sunk emigration cost. Migration barriers slow the adjustment of the stock of immigrant labor, enhancing the volatility of unskilled wages and remittances. Changes in border enforcement have asymmetric welfare implications for the skilled and unskilled households.
Download or read book Do Workers Remittances Bring Economic Growth to Receiving Countries written by Anna Miller and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Economics - Job market economics, grade: 64%, University of Nottingham (Economics), course: MSc in Applied Economics and Financial Economics, language: English, abstract: Besides foreign direct investment (FDI) and capital market flows, workers’ remittances are another external channel for capital flows. According to the OECD, remittances to developing countries amounted to US$ 149.4 billion in the year 2002. However, whereas FDI and capital market flows are subject to variation due to recessions in home countries, remittances are steadily rising every year (OECD, 2006), reaching an amount of about UD$ 300 billion in the year 2007 (Barajas et al., 2009). To give a brief definition, remittances are money transfers from migrants working abroad to their families in their home countries. Yet, the question is, do these remittances contribute to or boost economic growth in receiving countries or are they only a means to increase the migrants’ families’ welfare by directly reducing their poverty and raising the living standard (Rao and Hassan, 2011). In other words, are remittances mostly used for consumption or do they rather flow in education, and thereby contribute to the human capital, and in investments, thus increasing the capital stock in the economy (Giuliano and Ruiz-Arranz, 2009)? From the growth theory we know that consumption does not have any impact on growth, only investments, either in production or in human capital, can affect long-run growth. Evidence from Indonesia, Ecuador, and Argentina (Sayan, 2006) shows that remittances indirectly reduce volatility of growth of output in times of crises and increase the growth rate thereby (Rao and Hassan, 2011). In contrast, Sayan (2006) found that remittances are moving procyclically with out in recipient countries, boosting incomes during booms, but reducing them even more during recessions and thus magnifying the economic crisis. This paper examines the relationship between remittances and GDP growth using in a macro panel with 67 countries and a time period of 28 years, from 1975 through 2002, as well as a cross-section analysis for comparison. The goal of this analysis is to determine whether, and to what extent, remittances have an impact on long-term economic growth and, if so, whether this relation is significant or not.
Download or read book Are Workers Remittances a Hedge Against Macroeconomic Shocks the Case of Sri Lanka written by Erik Lueth and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2007-02 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We estimate a vector error correction (VEC) model for Sri Lanka to determine the response of remittance receipts to macroeconomic shocks. This is the first attempt of its kind in the literature. We find that remittance receipts are procyclical and decline when the island's currency weakens, undermining their usefulness as shock absorber. On the other hand, remittances increase in response to oil price shocks, reflecting the fact that most overseas. Sri Lankan are employed in the Gulf states. The procyclicality of remittances calls into question the notion that remittances are largely motivated by altruism.
Download or read book The Impact of Remittances on Economic Activity The Importance of Sectoral Linkages written by Hector Perez-Saiz and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-08-16 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We propose a simple macroeconomic model with input-output sectoral linkages based on Acemoglu et al. (2016) to quantify how changes in aggregate demand due to additional income from household’s remittances propagates through the network of input-output linkages in Sub-Saharan African countries. We first propose two network centrality measures to assess the role of some sectors as key input providers in the economy. Then, we use these measures to quantify the effect of sectoral linkages on sectoral and total output following an increase in remittances inflows. Our empirical results suggest that the effects of remittances on recipient economies increase with the degree of linkages across sectors, which is especially prominent in the case of the financial intermediation sector. Our paper contributes to the emerging macroeconomic literature on the propagation of shocks across sectors and the implications for the whole economy.
Download or read book Global Economic Prospects 2006 written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International migration, the movement of people across international boundaries to improve economic opportunity, has enormous implications for growth and welfare in both origin and destination countries. An important benefit to developing countries is the receipt of remittances or transfers from income earned by overseas emigrants. Official data show that development countries' remittance receipts totaled 160 billion in 2004, more than twice the size of official aid. This year's edition of Global Economic Prospects focuses on remittances and migration. The bulk of the book covers remittances.
Download or read book Remittances written by Samuel Munzele Maimbo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Migrants have long faced unwarranted constraints to sending money to family members and relatives in their home countries, among them costly fees and commissions, inconvenient formal banking hours, and inefficient domestic banking services that delay final payment to the beneficiaries. Yet such remittances are perhaps the largest source of external finance in developing countries. Officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries exceeded US$125 billion in 2004, making them the second largest source of development finance after foreign direct investment. This book demonstrates that governments in developing countries increasingly recognize the importance of remittance flows and are quickly addressing these constraints.
