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Relationship Between Remittances and Macroeconomic Variables in Times of Political and Social Upheaval: Evidence from Tunisia's Arab Spring

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  • Jamal Bouoiyour

    (University of Pau, France)

  • Refk Selmi
  • Amal Miftah

Abstract

If Tunisia was hailed as a success story with its high rankings in economic, educational, and other indicators compared to other Arab countries, then the 2011 popular uprisings demonstrate the need not only for political reforms, but also for major economic reforms. The Arab Spring underscores the fragility of its main economic pillars, including tourism and Foreign Direct Investment. In such turbulent times, this paper examines the economic impact of migrant remittances expected to have a countercyclical behavior. Our results reveal that, prior to the Arab Spring, the impacts of remittances on growth and consumption seem negative and positive respectively, while their influence on local investment varies. These three relationships held in the short term. By considering the period surrounding the 2011 uprisings, the investment effect of remittances becomes negative and weak in the short and medium terms, but becomes positive and strong on growth and consumption in the long term.

Suggested Citation

  • Jamal Bouoiyour & Refk Selmi & Amal Miftah, 2017. "Relationship Between Remittances and Macroeconomic Variables in Times of Political and Social Upheaval: Evidence from Tunisia's Arab Spring," Working Papers 1140, Economic Research Forum, revised 09 2003.
  • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1140
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    Cited by:

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    2. Strike Mbulawa & Samuel Chingoiro & Robert Machera, 2022. "Dynamics of the remittances: Fnancial development nexus in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA)," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(4), pages 171-182, June.
    3. Ahmad, Waheed & Ozturk, Ilhan & Majeed, Muhammad Tariq, 2022. "How do remittances affect environmental sustainability in Pakistan? Evidence from NARDL approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    4. Segun Subair Awode & Emeka Okoro Akpa & Andy Titus Okwu, 2021. "The effect of remittance and volatility in remittances on macroeconomic performance in Africa: any lessons for COVID-19?," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(10), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Bashier Al-Abdulrazag & Musa Foudeh, 2022. "Does inflation reduce remittance outflows in Saudi Arabia?," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 2141424-214, December.

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