Remittances (again)

. . . [I]nternational migration and remittances from migrants are not leading to a relative decline in the size of agricultural sector. Instead, remittances seem to be transforming productive practices within agriculture.

That is from a working paper by Carolina Gonzalez-Velosa (January 2011). HT: Walter Menchu. 

The author also concludes:

The results in this paper contradict views that remittances primarily sustain current consumption with no impact in productive investments and also provide empirical evidence supporting the risk-mitigating role of remittance flows.

That paper is based on evidence from the Philippines.

On a different but related aspect, in Vietnam Binci and Giannelli (February 2012) find that "a child belonging to a remittance recipient household has a lower probability of working and a greater probability of going to school." 


In Guatemala there is evidence that remittances are invested in education and housing rather than spent in consumption goods (Adams 2010). Carletto, Covarrubias, and Maluccio (2010) report other benefits of international migration for families in the Guatemalan highlands.