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Remittance behavior among new U.S. immigrants

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Author Info
Katherine Meckel
Abstract

I analyze remittance behavior among new legal immigrants in the US using a nationally representative survey of immigrants admitted to legal permanent residency in 2003. I find that the distribution of remittances is skewed to the right, with a small number of immigrants sending very large amounts. I find evidence against the pure altruism model and find that remittances may be used for investments in the home country. Using longitudinal data from the NIS, I construct a measure of permanent income and estimate remittance-income elasticities. I find that large country differentials in remittance behavior are only partially explained by observable characteristics of the donor, recipient and origin country. Future work will incorporate later waves of the 2003 NIS in order to observe return migration (and its relationship to remittance and home country investment decisions) and life cycle income-remittance movements.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in its series Working Paper Series with number WP-08-19.

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Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-08-19

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Keywords: Immigrants ; Remittances;

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