IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v54y2018i3p481-500.html

The Impact of Natural Disasters on Remittances to Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Giulia Bettin
  • Alberto Zazzaro

Abstract

In this paper, we offer novel empirical evidence on the impact of natural disasters on remittance flows towards low- and middle-income countries. We consider a panel of 98 countries over the period 1990–2010. Our findings show that remittances increase after a disaster, thus contributing ex post to the reconstruction process. At the same time, we find that remittances play a key role in terms of ex ante risk preparedness for those countries that experienced more disruptive events in the past. Finally, when taking into account the interaction with the level of development of the local financial sector, remittances seem to substitute for less efficient financial systems both in terms of ex post response to disasters and in terms of ex ante risk management strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Giulia Bettin & Alberto Zazzaro, 2018. "The Impact of Natural Disasters on Remittances to Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 481-500, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:54:y:2018:i:3:p:481-500
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2017.1303672
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2017.1303672
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2017.1303672?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giulia Bettin & Amadou Jallow & Alberto Zazzaro, 2023. "How Do Monthly Remittances Respond to Natural Disasters in Migrants’ Home Countries?," CSEF Working Papers 673, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    2. Young Seok Song & Moo Jong Park, 2019. "Development of Damage Prediction Formula for Natural Disasters Considering Economic Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-22, February.
    3. Farid Makhlouf & Refk Selmi, 2023. ""From Aspirations for Climate Action to the Reality of Climate Disasters": Can Migrants Play Key Role in Disaster Response?," Working Papers hal-04137400, HAL.
    4. Kijin Kim & Zemma Ardaniel & Aiko Kikkawa & Benjamin Endriga, 2022. "Bilateral Remittance Inflows to Asia and the Pacific: Countercyclicality and Motivations to Remit," ADBI Working Papers 1315, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    5. Eric Hitimana & Gaurav Bajpai & Richard Musabe & Louis Sibomana & Jayavel Kayalvizhi, 2021. "Implementation of IoT Framework with Data Analysis Using Deep Learning Methods for Occupancy Prediction in a Building," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, March.
    6. Quy Ta & Yothin Jinjarak & Ilan Noy, 2022. "“How Do Shocks Affect International Reserves? A Quasi-Experiment of Earthquakes”," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 33(5), pages 945-971, November.
    7. Nabil Daher, 2024. "Is growth at risk from natural disasters? Evidence from quantile local projections," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2024 12, Stata Users Group.
    8. Immaculate Machasio & Peter Tillmann, 2023. "Remittance flows and US monetary policy," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(3), pages 545-561, August.
    9. Mack, Elizabeth A. & Sauls, Laura Aileen & Jokisch, Brad D. & Nolte, Kerstin & Schmook, Birgit & He, Yifan & Radel, Claudia & Allington, Ginger R.H. & Kelley, Lisa C. & Scott, Christian Kelly & Leisz,, 2023. "Remittances and land change: A systematic review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    10. Zubin Deyal, 2024. "Weathering the storm: investigating the role of remittances as immediate disaster relief in developing countries," CSAE Working Paper Series 2024-01, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    11. Laurent, Thibault & Margaretic, Paula & Thomas-Agnan, Christine, 2021. "Do neighboring countries matter when explaining bilateral remittances?," TSE Working Papers 21-1221, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    12. Fabrizio Ferriani & Andrea Gazzani & Filippo Natoli, 2023. "Flight to climatic safety: local natural disasters and global portfolio flows," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1420, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    13. Bettin, Giulia & Jallow, Amadou & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2025. "Responding to natural disasters: What do monthly remittance data tell us?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    14. Trung Xuan Hoang & Huong Thu Nguyen & Tuyen Quang Tran, 2024. "Heterogeneous effects of natural disasters on migration and household well-being in rural Vietnam: a panel data analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(10), pages 26731-26751, October.
    15. Rahaman, Akeem & Majid, Michelle, 2025. "Storms and sustainability: Assessing the impact of natural disasters on debt sustainability in the Caribbean," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 579-591.
    16. Emilio Fernández Corugedo & Andres Gonzalez & Mr. Alejandro D Guerson, 2023. "The Macroeconomic Returns of Investment in Resilience to Natural Disasters under Climate Change: A DSGE Approach," IMF Working Papers 2023/138, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Ryota Nakatani, 2019. "A Possible Approach to Fiscal Rules in Small Islands — Incorporating Natural Disasters and Climate Change," IMF Working Papers 2019/186, International Monetary Fund.
    18. Laurent Bossavie & Çağlar Özden, 2023. "Impacts of Temporary Migration on Development in Origin Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 38(2), pages 249-294.
    19. Eric Rougier & Nicolas Yol, 2018. "The volatility effect of diaspora’s location: A migration portfolio approach," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2018-09, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    20. Farid Makhlouf & Refk Selmi, 2024. "‘From aspirations for climate action to the reality of climate disasters’: Can remittances play key role in disaster response?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 3487-3510, August.
    21. Nabil Daher, 2024. "Is growth at risk from natural disasters? Evidence from quantile local projections," Working Papers 2024.8, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    22. Supriyo De & Ergys Islamaj & M. Ayhan Kose & S. Reza Yousefi, 2019. "Remittances over the business cycle: Theory and evidence," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 48(3), November.
    23. Osberghaus, Daniel, 2019. "The Effects of Natural Disasters and Weather Variations on International Trade and Financial Flows: a Review of the Empirical Literature," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 3, pages 305-325.
    24. Immaculate Machasio & Peter Tillmann, 2021. "Remittance Flows and U.S. Monetary Policy," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202140, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    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:taf:jdevst:v:54:y:2018:i:3:p:481-500. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    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.