Business cycles and workers' remittances; how do migrant workers respond to cyclical movements of GDP at home?

Date
2006
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
Co-Advisor
Co-Supervisor
Instructor
Source Title
IMF Working Papers
Print ISSN
1018-5941
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
International Monetary Fund
Volume
WP - 06
Issue
52
Pages
Language
English
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Series
Abstract

Workers' remittances are often argued to have a tendency to move countercyclically with the GDP in recipient countries since migrant workers are expected to remit more during down cycles of economic activity back home. Yet, how much to remit is a complex decision involving other factors, and different variables driving remittance behavior are differently affected by the state of economic activity over the business cycle. This paper investigates the behavior of workers' remittances flows into 12 developing countries over their respective business cycles during 1976-2003 and finds that countercyclicality of receipts is not commonly observed across these countries.

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)