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International Remittances and Income Inequality: An Empirical Investigation

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Gianmarco León
Valerie Koechlin

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide comprehensive empirical evidence on the relationship between international remittances and income inequality. In simple cross-country regressions we find a non-monotonic link between these two variables when using ordinary least squares, instrumental variables; we also test our hypothesis using dynamic panel data methods. We provide evidence in support of existing theoretical work that accounts for network effects that describe how, in the first stages of migration history, there is an inequality-increasing effect of remittances on income inequality. Then, as the opportunity cost of migrating is lowered due to these effects, remittances sent to those households have a negative impact on inequality. We also show how education and the development of the financial sector can help countries to reach the inequality-decreasing section of the curve more quickly. Our results are robust to several empirical specifications, as well as for a wide variety of inequality measures.

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Paper provided by Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department in its series RES Working Papers with number 4475.

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Date of creation: Oct 2006
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Handle: RePEc:idb:wpaper:4475

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Barham, Bradford & Boucher, Stephen, 1998. "Migration, remittances, and inequality: estimating the net effects of migration on income distribution," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 307-331, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Arellano, Manuel & Bond, Stephen, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(2), pages 277-97, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Papanek, Gustav F. & Kyn, Oldrich, 1986. "The effect on income distribution of development, the growth rate and economic strategy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 55-65, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Robert J. Barro & Jong-Wha Lee, 1993. "International Comparisons of Educational Attainment," NBER Working Papers 4349, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Taylor, J. Edward, 1992. "Remittances and inequality reconsidered: Direct, indirect, and intertemporal effects," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 187-208, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Gabriel Gonzalez-Konig & Quentin Wodon, . "Remittances and Inequality," School of Economics Working Papers EC200506, Universidad de Guanajuato. [Downloadable!]
  8. Alberto Chong, 2004. "Inequality, Democracy, and Persistence: Is There a Political Kuznets Curve?," Economics and Politics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 16(2), pages 189-212, 07. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Ma. Cecilia Calderón & Alberto Chong, 2006. "Does Foreign Aid Help Reduce Income Inequality?," RES Working Papers 4437, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  10. Freund, Caroline & Spatafora, Nikola, 2005. "Remittances : transaction costs, determinants, and informal flows," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3704, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  11. Carrington, William J & Detragiache, Enrica & Vishwanath, Tara, 1996. "Migration with Endogenous Moving Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 909-30, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Milanovic, Branko & DEC, 1994. "Determinants of cross-country income inequality : an augmented Kuznets hypothesis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1246, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  13. Chong, Alberto & Calderon, Cesar, 2000. "Institutional Quality and Income Distribution," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(4), pages 761-86, July.
  14. Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport & I-Ling Shen, 2006. "Remittances and inequality: A dynamic migration model," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0614, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Stark, Oded & Taylor, J Edward & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1986. "Remittances and Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(383), pages 722-40, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Ahluwalia, Montek S., 1976. "Inequality, poverty and development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 307-342, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Mckenzie, David & Rapoport, Hillel, 2007. "Network effects and the dynamics of migration and inequality: Theory and evidence from Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 1-24, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Alberto Chong & Gianmarco León, 2006. "Barriers to Exit," RES Working Papers 4476, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
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  19. McKenzie, David J., 2005. "Paper walls are easier to tear down : passport costs and legal barriers to emigration," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3783, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  20. Li, Hongyi & Squire, Lyn & Zou, Heng-fu, 1998. "Explaining International and Intertemporal Variations in Income Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 26-43, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Garcia-Fuentes, Pablo A. & Kennedy, P. Lynn, 2009. "Remittances and economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Impact of the human capital development," 2009 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2009, Atlanta, Georgia 46751, Southern Agricultural Economics Association. [Downloadable!]
  2. Simeon Karafolas & Nikolaos Sariannidis, 2009. "The Banking Network as a Transmission Channel of Migrant Remittances: The Case of Greek and Italian Banks in Albania," Transition Studies Review, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 674-684, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Smita Wagh & Sanjeev Gupta & Catherine A. Pattillo, 2007. "Impact of Remittances on Poverty and Financial Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," IMF Working Papers 07/38, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
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