IMF Working Papers

Remittances, Financial Development, and Growth

By Marta Ruiz-Arranz, Paola Giuliano

December 1, 2005

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Marta Ruiz-Arranz, and Paola Giuliano. Remittances, Financial Development, and Growth, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2005) accessed December 22, 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

There has been little systematic empirical study on the relationship between remittances and growth. This paper attempts to examine this relationship. Using a newly constructed crosscountry of data series for remittances covering a large sample of developing countries, we relate the interaction between remittances and financial development and its impact on growth. We analyze how a country's capacity to use remittances and its effectiveness in doing so might be influenced by local financial sector conditions. Given the difficulty of borrowing in developing countries, we explore the hypothesis that remittances can substitute for a lack of financial development and hence promote growth. The empirical analysis shows that remittances can promote growth in less financially developed countries. This relationship controls for the endogeneity of remittances and financial development using a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach, does not depend on the particular measure of financial sector development used, and is robust to a number of sensitivity tests.

Subject: Balance of payments statistics, Commercial banks, Credit, Financial sector development, Remittances

Keywords: Balance of payments, Impact of remittance, Remittance, Remittance variable, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    39

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2005/234

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2005234

  • ISBN:

    9781451862539

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941