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Financing Growth: Comparing The Effects Of Fdi, Oda, And International Remittances

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  • MAMOUN BENMAMOUN

    (Saint Louis University)

  • KEVIN LEHNERT

    (Grand Valley State University)

Abstract

The world-wide emergence of remittances, in conjunction with challenges surrounding public foreign aid and the theoretical division regarding the development of FDI, prompt important questions as to whether international remittances outperform foreign aid and FDI as a determinant of a country¡¯s economic growth. Using panel data from 1990-2006 and applying System-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach, we show that international remittances, FDI, and ODA are positively and significantly associated with the economic growth rate of low income countries. Specifically, we find that the impact is greater with international remittances. Moreover, international remittances prove to be a greater contributor of economic growth than ODA and FDI even when countries are highly dependent on FDI. We conclude by stressing the need for policy and business responses to stimulate the flow and create an appropriate distribution of international remittances to make full use of international remittances developmental potential.

Suggested Citation

  • Mamoun Benmamoun & Kevin Lehnert, 2013. "Financing Growth: Comparing The Effects Of Fdi, Oda, And International Remittances," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 38(2), pages 43-65, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:jed:journl:v:38:y:2013:i:2:p:43-65
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    Cited by:

    1. Adelowokan, Oluwaseyi & Adesoye, Adesola & Akpa, Emeka & Maku, Olukayode, 2020. "Remittances, Foreign Aid and Private Consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A System GMM Estimation," MPRA Paper 98362, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Jamal Bouoiyour, Amal Miftah, 2015. "Migration, remittances and educational levels of household members left behind: Evidence from rural Morocco," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 12(1), pages 21-40, July.
    3. Barajas, Adolfo & Chami, Ralph & Ebeke, Christian & Oeking, Anne, 2018. "What's different about monetary policy transmission in remittance-dependent countries?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 272-288.
    4. Lee, Kye Woo & Hong, Minji, 2018. "Relative Effectiveness of Various Development Finance Flows: A Comparative Study," KDI Journal of Economic Policy, Korea Development Institute (KDI), vol. 40(3), pages 91-115.
    5. Jamal Bouoiyour & Amal Miftah, 2017. "Do Migrants Transfer Political and Cultural Norms to Their Origin Country? Some Evidence From Some Arab Countries," Working Papers 1098, Economic Research Forum, revised 05 2017.
    6. Sondra Collins & Edward Nissan, 2016. "Comparing Africa, Asia and Latin America/Caribbean countries using per capita GDP, remittances, openness, capital/labor ratios and freedom," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 40(1), pages 188-198, January.
    7. Lidiia Karpenko & Oleksandr Ignatenko & Olena Taranenko & Iryna Oliinyk & Ripsime Khrenova-Shymkina, 2021. "Layer and structural components of modern investment security of the country," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 8(3), pages 367-383, March.
    8. Suleiman O. Mamman & Kazi Sohag & Attahir B. Abubakar, 2023. "Inclusive growth in Africa: Do fiscal measures matter?," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 2273604-227, October.
    9. Kyunghun Kim & Sunghun Lim, 2025. "Foreign aid, exchange rate regime, and agricultural trade," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(1), pages 304-326, March.
    10. Jamal Bouoiyour, Amal Miftah, 2015. "Migration, remittances and educational levels of household members left behind: Evidence from rural Morocco," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 12(1), pages 21-40, July.
    11. Harish, Nikki & Plouffe, Michael, 2018. "The Political Economy of Foreign Direct Investment to Developing Countries," OSF Preprints chzpq, Center for Open Science.
    12. Hanan Aboel Farag & Mohamed Sayed Abed, 2017. "The Impact of Foreign Capital Inflows on Economic Growth and Employment in Egypt: A Sectoral Empirical Analysis," Working Papers 1152, Economic Research Forum, revised 11 Sep 2003.
    13. Najeh Bouchoucha & Ismahen Yahyaoui, 2019. "Foreign direct Investment and economic growth: The role of the governance," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(4), pages 2711-2725.
    14. Narayan Sethi & Purna Chandra Padhan & Devi Prasad Dash, 2024. "When Is Aid Credible in the Emerging Asian economies? An Empirical Re-assessment from the Perspective of Economic Growth," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 7331-7357, June.
    15. repec:osf:osfxxx:chzpq_v1 is not listed on IDEAS

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    JEL classification:

    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances

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