Estimating the net effects of migration and remittances on poverty and inequality: Comparison of Fiji and Tonga
نویسندگان
چکیده
We use original 2005 household survey data from Fiji and Tonga to estimate the impact of migration and remittances on income distribution and measures of poverty, after controlling for selectivity in migration and endogeneity in the relationship between remittances and income. Measures of inequality and poverty based on actual, with-migration income and remittances are then compared with those based on a no-migration scenario. Counterfactual household incomes are estimated, taking account of what the migrant members would have earned had they not migrated. The results are compared with alternative income estimates in which remittances are treated simplistically as exogenous transfers. The positive effects of migration and remittances on poverty alleviation and income distribution are found to be stronger when the more rigorous, counterfactual income estimates are used.
منابع مشابه
Impacts of International Migration and Remittances on Source Country Household Incomes in Small Island States: Fiji and Tonga
We use original 2005 survey data from Fiji and Tonga on remittances and household income to estimate the combined impact of migration and remittances on the composition of household income. A two-stage methodology is followed. A variable for the predicted number of migrants in each household is generated to control for selectivity in migration. This variable is then used in a 3SLS remittances a...
متن کاملMigration, remittances, and inequality: estimating the net effects of migration on income distribution.
"This paper examines the net effects of migration and remittances on income distribution. Potential home earnings of migrants are imputed, as are the earnings of non-migrants in migrant households, in order to construct no-migration counterfactuals to compare with the observed income distribution including remittances. The earnings functions used to impute migrant home earnings are estimated fr...
متن کاملMigration, Remittances, Poverty and Inequality in China: A Counterfactual Analysis
This article explores the impacts of migration and remittances on rural household income in China using cross-section data on rural household in the year 2007. The Heckman selection model is used to eliminate the selection bias and estimate the counterfactual income of migrant-sending household if there were no migration. The paper then goes on to compare the counterfactual income with the obse...
متن کاملDo Workers\' Remittances Matter for the Egyptian Economy?
Workers’ remittances constitute one of the most important sources of external finance for many developing countries. Although it shows a decreasing trend in recent years, Egypt after 1970s with her regular and massive labor migration to abroad has been still one of the gainer countries on remittances across the world. Empirical studies that implemented for various countries reveal workers’ ...
متن کاملThe Equalizing Role of Migration and Remittances in El Salvador
This paper reviews the pattern of poverty rates and income inequality in El Salvador since the 1990s. It discusses some of the likely factors that explain the reduction in income inequality that has taken place in the country in the last decade, which paradoxically has coincided with the long period of economic stagnation that has followed dollarization since 2001. After examination of the avai...
متن کامل