IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jecsur/v40y2026i1p469-491.html

Remittances and the Labor Supply Choices of Recipient Households: Insights From Meta‐Regression Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Amar Anwar
  • Colin F. Mang
  • Sonia Plaza

Abstract

This meta‐analysis investigates the impact of remittances on labor supply decisions in recipient households. Using 1811 estimates from 64 studies, we find that international remittances reduce labor force participation by 4.4 percentage points while domestic remittances reduce it by 2.2 percentage points. The decline in labor force participation is stronger in South Asia (−5.6 percentage points) than in other regions. In contrast, conditional on remaining in the labor force, the effect on hours worked is negligible. Although remittances lower participation across most employment types, they have no significant effect on the self‐employed. These findings highlight the complex economic implications of remittances, emphasizing the need for policies that foster labor market engagement and entrepreneurship. We also outline key directions for future research on this topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Amar Anwar & Colin F. Mang & Sonia Plaza, 2026. "Remittances and the Labor Supply Choices of Recipient Households: Insights From Meta‐Regression Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 469-491, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jecsur:v:40:y:2026:i:1:p:469-491
    DOI: 10.1111/joes.70011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.70011
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/joes.70011?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:bla:jecsur:v:40:y:2026:i:1:p:469-491. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0950-0804 .

    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.