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Remittances, Banking Status and the Usage of Insurance Schemes

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  • Dorothee Crayen
  • Christa Hainz

    ()

  • Christiane Ströh de Martinez

Abstract

Empirical evidence that migrants send home more remittances after disasters raises the question of whether remittances can be used to self-insure, substituting for both formal and informal insurance. We investigate this question using a unique data set on the usage patterns of financial services by households in South Africa. We show that the likelihood that a respondent has a formal funeral cover increases with income and banking status. However, it is lower for individuals receiving remittances, which supports the idea that remittances act as (self-) insurance. We also show that purchasing formal funeral cover is influenced by other risk management strategies and that determinants of informal insurance differ from those of formal insurance.

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File URL: http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/page/portal/DocBase_Content/WP/WP-CESifo_Working_Papers/wp-cesifo-2010/wp-cesifo-2010-07/cesifo1_wp3117.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 3117.

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Date of creation: 2010
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3117

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Keywords: remittances; insurance; risk management strategies;

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References

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  1. Pramila Crivelli & Jasmin Gröschl, 2012. "The Impact of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures on Market Entry and Trade Flows," Ifo Working Paper Series Ifo Working Paper No. 136, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
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  7. Jonathan Morduch, 1995. "Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1727, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
  8. Sanket Mohapatra & George Joseph & Dilip Ratha, 2012. "Remittances and natural disasters: ex-post response and contribution to ex-ante preparedness," Environment, Development and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 365-387, June.
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  14. Rapoport, Hillel & Docquier, Frederic, 2006. "The Economics of Migrants' Remittances," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, Elsevier.
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Cited by:
  1. Dorothee Crayen & Christa Hainz & Christiane Ströh de Martínez, 2011. "Zur Versicherungsfunktion von Rücküberweisungen von Migranten: Eine Untersuchung in Südafrika," Ifo Schnelldienst, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 64(10), pages 17-21, 05.
  2. Michael Funke & Yu-Fu Chen & Aaron Mehrota, 2011. "Global warming and extreme events: Rethinking the timing and intensity of environment policy," Quantitative Macroeconomics Working Papers 21105, Hamburg University, Department of Economics.

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