IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/inrvec/v59y2012i3p285-296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Migration decisions, expected remittances, and altruism

Author

Listed:
  • Akira Shimada

Abstract

We investigate the effects of altruism on migration decisions by the potential migrant as well as the effects of altruism on remittances by the migrant to clarify how altruism affects remittances that the household in the home country will receive, i.e., expected remittances. Previous studies did not pay adequate attention to the effects of altruism on migration decisions of the potential migrant when examining the effects of altruism on remittances that will be sent from aboard. We find that if migration does not incur any costs, the potential migrant always migrates, and altruism increases expected remittances monotonically. On the other hand, if migration incurs costs, the potential migrant does not necessarily migrate, and the potential migrant with a higher degree of altruism is less likely to migrate. As a result, with migration costs, altruism may decrease expected remittances. Therefore, altruism does not increase expected remittances monotonically. Our results falsify the usual assumption of monotonicity regarding the effects of altruism on remittances. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Akira Shimada, 2012. "Migration decisions, expected remittances, and altruism," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 59(3), pages 285-296, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:59:y:2012:i:3:p:285-296
    DOI: 10.1007/s12232-011-0137-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s12232-011-0137-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12232-011-0137-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Connel Fullenkamp & Mr. Thomas F. Cosimano & Michael T. Gapen & Mr. Ralph Chami & Mr. Peter J Montiel & Mr. Adolfo Barajas, 2008. "Macroeconomic Consequences of Remittances," IMF Occasional Papers 2008/001, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Rapoport, Hillel & Docquier, Frederic, 2006. "The Economics of Migrants' Remittances," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 17, pages 1135-1198, Elsevier.
    3. Marta Ruiz-Arranz & Mr. Erik Lueth, 2007. "Are Workers' Remittances a Hedge Against Macroeconomic Shocks? the Case of Sri Lanka," IMF Working Papers 2007/022, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Mincer, Jacob, 1978. "Family Migration Decisions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 749-773, October.
    5. de la Briere, Benedicte & de Janvry, Alain & Lambert, Sylvie & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 1997. "Why do migrants remit?," FCND discussion papers 37, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Lucas, Robert E B & Stark, Oded, 1985. "Motivations to Remit: Evidence from Botswana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(5), pages 901-918, October.
    7. Theodore P. Lianos & Anastasia Pseiridis, 2011. "Remittances of Immigrants in Greece," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 340-355, May.
    8. Sule Akkoyunlu & Konstantin A. Kholodilin, 2006. "What Affects the Remittances of Turkish Workers: Turkish or German Output?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 622, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Hoddinott, John, 1994. "A Model of Migration and Remittances Applied to Western Kenya," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 459-476, July.
    10. Siegfried, Nikolaus & Schiopu, Ioana, 2006. "Determinants of workers' remittances: evidence from the European Neighbouring Region," Working Paper Series 688, European Central Bank.
    11. Shimada, Akira, 2010. "The Transfer of the Remittance Fee from the Migrant to the Household," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 25, pages 613-625.
    12. Giorgio Secondi, 1997. "Private monetary transfers in rural china: Are families altruistic?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 487-511.
    13. Tcha, Moonjoong, 1996. "Altruism and Migration: Evidence from Korea and the United States," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(4), pages 859-878, July.
    14. Agarwal, Reena & Horowitz, Andrew W., 2002. "Are International Remittances Altruism or Insurance? Evidence from Guyana Using Multiple-Migrant Households," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2033-2044, November.
    15. Osili, Una Okonkwo, 2007. "Remittances and savings from international migration: Theory and evidence using a matched sample," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 446-465, July.
    16. Tcha, MoonJoong, 1995. "Altruism, household size and migration," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 441-445, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abdilahi Ali & Baris Alpaslan, 2017. "Is There an Investment Motive Behind Remittances? Evidence From Panel Cointegration," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 51(1), pages 63-82, January-M.
    2. Timo Baas & Silvia Maja Melzer, 2012. "The Macroeconomic Impact of Remittances: A sending country perspective," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2012021, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5559 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Luis Miotti & El Mouhoub Mouhoud & Joel Oudinet, 2009. "Migrations And Determinants Of Remittances To Southern Mediterranean Countries: When History Matters !," Post-Print hal-00483303, HAL.
    3. repec:dau:papers:123456789/2574 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Dustmann, Christian & Mestres, Josep, 2010. "Remittances and temporary migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 62-70, May.
    5. Kaczmarczyk, Pawel, 2013. "Money for Nothing? Ukrainian Immigrants in Poland and their Remitting Behaviors," IZA Discussion Papers 7666, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Hagen-Zanker, Jessica, 2010. "Modest expectations: Causes and effects of migration on migrant households in source countries," MPRA Paper 29507, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Alpaslan Akay & Corrado Giulietti & Juan Robalino & Klaus Zimmermann, 2014. "Remittances and well-being among rural-to-urban migrants in China," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 517-546, September.
    8. Okayo Alphonsine COULIBALY, 2016. "Les Motivations Microéconomiques Des Transferts De Fonds Au Burkina Faso : La Culture Est-Elle Déterminante ?," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 43, pages 187-208.
    9. Bettin, Giulia & Lucchetti, Riccardo & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2012. "Endogeneity and sample selection in a model for remittances," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 370-384.
    10. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti, 2016. "Steady streams and sudden bursts: persistence patterns in remittance decisions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 263-292, January.
    11. Giulia Bettin, 2012. "The remittance behaviour of African diaspora in Belgium," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 157-157.
    12. Giulia Bettin & Andrea F. Presbitero & Nikola L. Spatafora, 2017. "Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 1-23.
    13. Jamal Bouoiyour & Amal Miftah, 2014. "Why do migrants remit? An insightful analysis for Moroccan case," Working papers of CATT hal-01880332, HAL.
    14. Jamal Bouoiyour & Amal Miftah, 2014. "Why do migrants remit? An insightful analysis for Moroccan case," Working Papers hal-01880332, HAL.
    15. Ahmed, Junaid & Martinez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada, 2014. "What drives bilateral remittances to Pakistan? A gravity model approach," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 209, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    16. Diego Alberto Sandoval Herrera & María Fernanda Reyes Roa, 2012. "¿Por qué los migrantes envían remesas?: Repaso de las principales motivaciones microeconómicas," Borradores de Economia 10036, Banco de la Republica.
    17. Meyer, Wiebke, 2012. "Motives for remitting from Germany to Kosovo," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 69, number 69.
    18. Eralba CELA, 2014. "Motivations behind the size of remittances. Evidence from Albanians in Italy," Working Papers 406, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    19. Deodat E. Adenutsi & Meshach J. Aziakpono & Matthew K. Ocran, 2011. "The Changing Impact Of Macroeconomic Environment On Remittance Inflows In Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Academic Research in Economics, Spiru Haret University, Faculty of Accounting and Financial Management Constanta, vol. 3(2 (July)), pages 136-167.
    20. Christian Dustmann & Joseph-Simon Görlach, 2016. "The Economics of Temporary Migrations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 98-136, March.
    21. Galor, Oded & Ashraf, Quamrul, 2007. "Cultural Assimilation, Cultural Diffusion and the Origin of the Wealth of Nations," CEPR Discussion Papers 6444, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. Filiz Garip, 2012. "An Integrated Analysis of Migration and Remittances: Modeling Migration as a Mechanism for Selection," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 31(5), pages 637-663, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migration decisions; Expected remittances; Altruism; Migration costs; D64; F22; F24; J61;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:inrvec:v:59:y:2012:i:3:p:285-296. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.