IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp5568.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Remittances and Income Smoothing

Author

Listed:
  • Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina

    (University of California, Merced)

  • Pozo, Susan

    (Western Michigan University)

Abstract

Due to inadequate savings and binding borrowing constraints, income volatility can make households in developing countries particularly susceptible to economic hardship. We examine the role of remittances in either alleviating or increasing household income volatility using Mexican household level data over the 2000 through 2008 period. We correct for reverse causality and endogeneity and find that while income smoothing does not appear to be the main motive for sending remittances in a non-negligible share of households, remittances do indeed smooth household income on average. Other variables surrounding income volatility are also considered and evaluated.

Suggested Citation

  • Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Pozo, Susan, 2011. "Remittances and Income Smoothing," IZA Discussion Papers 5568, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5568
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp5568.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. HwaJung Choi, 2007. "Are Remittances Insurance? Evidence from Rainfall Shocks in the Philippines," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 21(2), pages 219-248, May.
    2. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Susan Pozo, 2006. "Remittances as insurance: evidence from Mexican immigrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 227-254, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5559 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Yoshito Takasaki, 2013. "Do natural disasters beget fraud victimization?: Unrealized coping through labor migration among the poor," Tsukuba Economics Working Papers 2013-002, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba.
    3. Balli, Faruk & Guven, Cahit & Balli, Hatice O. & Gounder, Rukmani, 2010. "The Role of Institutions, Culture, and Wellbeing in Explaining Bilateral Remittance Flows: Evidence Both Cross-Country and Individual-Level Analysis," MPRA Paper 29609, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Valerie Mueller & Abusaleh Shariff, 2011. "Preliminary Evidence On Internal Migration, Remittances, And Teen Schooling In India," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(2), pages 207-217, April.
    5. 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.
    6. Aiko Kikkawa & Keijiro Otsuka, 2020. "The changing landscape of international migration: evidence from rural households in Bangladesh, 2000–2014," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 222-239, July.
    7. Kpodar, Kangni & Amir Imam, Patrick, 2024. "How do transaction costs influence remittances?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    8. Mandelman, Federico S., 2013. "Monetary and exchange rate policy under remittance fluctuations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 128-147.
    9. Matthieu Delpierre & Bertrand Verheyden, 2014. "Remittances, savings and return migration under uncertainty," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-43, December.
    10. Ambrosius, Christian, 2012. "Are remittances a "catalyst" for financial access? Evidence from Mexican household data," Discussion Papers 2012/8, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    11. Aparicio Fenoll, Ainhoa & Kuehn, Zoë, 2018. "Immigrant networks and remittances: Cheaper together?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 225-245.
    12. Bharati Basu & James T. Bang, 2013. "Insurance and remittances: New evidence from Latin American immigrants to the US," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 10(3), pages 383-398, September.
    13. Carlos Vargas-Silva, 2009. "Crime and Remittance Transfers," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 232-247.
    14. Yaw Nyarko & Kwabena Gyimah-Brempon, 2011. "Social Safety Nets: The Role of Education, Remittances and Migration," RSCAS Working Papers 2011/26, European University Institute.
    15. Ms. Yan M Sun & Udo Kock, 2011. "Remittances in Pakistan: Why have they gone up, and why Aren't they coming down?," IMF Working Papers 2011/200, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Yashodhan Ghorpade, 2016. "Extending a Lifeline or Cutting Losses? Conflict and Household Receipts of Remittances in Pakistan," HiCN Working Papers 236, Households in Conflict Network.
    17. Catia Batista & Janis Umblijs, 2016. "Do migrants send remittances as a way of self-insurance?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(1), pages 108-130.
    18. Bettin, Giulia & Lucchetti, Riccardo & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2012. "Endogeneity and sample selection in a model for remittances," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 370-384.
    19. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti & Claudia Pigini, 2016. "State dependence and unobserved heterogeneity in a double hurdle model for remittances: evidence from immigrants to Germany," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 127, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    20. Valerie Mueller & Chiara Kovarik & Kathryn Sproule & Agnes Quisumbing, 2015. "Migration, Gender, and Farming Systems in Asia: Evidence, Data, and Knowledge Gaps," Working Papers id:7478, eSocialSciences.
    21. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti & Alberto Zazzaro, 2009. "Income, consumption and remittances: evidence from immigrants to Australia," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 34, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    income smoothing; remittances;

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp5568. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.