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Remittance Responses to Temporary Discounts: A Field Experiment among Central American Migrants

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Listed:
  • Kate Ambler
  • Diego Aycinena
  • Dean Yang

Abstract

We study the impacts on remittances of offering migrants temporary discounts on remittance transaction fees. We randomly assigned migrants from El Salvador and Guatemala 10-week remittance transaction fee discounts, and assess impacts using administrative transaction data and a post-experiment survey. Temporary discounts lead to substantial increases in the number of transactions and total amount remitted during the discount period. Surprisingly, these increases persist up to 20 weeks after expiration of the discount. We find no evidence that the discounts cause migrants to shift remittances from other remittance channels, or to send remittances on behalf of other migrants. These findings are consistent with naïveté on the part of migrants regarding remittance recipients' reference-dependent preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Kate Ambler & Diego Aycinena & Dean Yang, 2014. "Remittance Responses to Temporary Discounts: A Field Experiment among Central American Migrants," NBER Working Papers 20522, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20522
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti, 2016. "Steady streams and sudden bursts: persistence patterns in remittance decisions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 263-292, January.
    2. Melissa Siegel, 2017. "Commentaires sur « Des politiques migratoires pour promouvoir le développement »," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 25(1), pages 97-103.
    3. De Arcangelis, Giuseppe & Fertig, Alexander & Liang, Yuna & Srouji, Peter & Yang, Dean, 2023. "Measuring remittances," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    4. David McKenzie & Dean Yang, 2015. "Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 155-192.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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