Do Remittances Reduce Aid Dependency?

October 1, 2011

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Format: Chicago

Maelan Le Goff, and Kangni R Kpodar. Do Remittances Reduce Aid Dependency?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2011) accessed December 25, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Aid has been for decades an important source of financing for developing countries, but more recently remittance flows have increased rapidly and are beginning to dwarf aid flows. This paper investigates how remittances affect aid flows, and how this relationship varies depending on the channel of transmission from remittances to aid. Buoyant remittances could reduce aid needs when human capital improves and private investment takes off. Absent these, aid flows could still drop as remittances may dampen donors' incentive to scale up aid. Concurrently, remittances could be positively associated with aid if migrants can influence aid policy in donor countries. Using an instrumental variable approach with panel data for a sample of developing countries from 1975-2005, the baseline results show that remittances actually increase aid dependency. However, a refined model controlling for the channels of transmission from remittances to aid reveals that remittances lead to lower aid dependency when they are invested in human and physical capital rather than consumed.

Subject: Aid flows, Balance of payments, Bilateral aid, Foreign aid, Human capital, Labor, Remittances

Keywords: Aid flows, Aid policy, Bilateral aid, Country, Dependency, Development aid, Donor country, Global, Human capital, Lobby channel, Recipient country, Remittance, Remittance country, Remittance flow, Remittance inflow, Remittances, Sub-Saharan Africa, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

31
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2011/246
Stock No:

WPIEA2011246
ISBN:

9781463923259
ISSN:

1018-5941

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