Remittances developmental potential in Mexico
(2018) EKHS21 20181Department of Economic History
- Abstract
- The U.S-Mexico migration corridor has the largest flows of migrants in the world. Mexican migrants send home approximately USD 25 billion annually, making Mexico the fourth biggest remittance receiver in the world. Personal remittances are Mexico’s largest single source of foreign income, as it surpassed oil income in 2014. Some scholars argue that due to the large size of remittances, it holds a developmental promise. Moreover, theory suggests that in communities new to migration, the poor cannot afford to participate in migration, indicating that remittances would have an un-equalizing effect on society. Thus, this paper aims at answering whether remittances lead to economic development of Mexico, instead of merely being a means to... (More)
- The U.S-Mexico migration corridor has the largest flows of migrants in the world. Mexican migrants send home approximately USD 25 billion annually, making Mexico the fourth biggest remittance receiver in the world. Personal remittances are Mexico’s largest single source of foreign income, as it surpassed oil income in 2014. Some scholars argue that due to the large size of remittances, it holds a developmental promise. Moreover, theory suggests that in communities new to migration, the poor cannot afford to participate in migration, indicating that remittances would have an un-equalizing effect on society. Thus, this paper aims at answering whether remittances lead to economic development of Mexico, instead of merely being a means to increase consumption. To account for varying migration history the analysis will be regional. The hypothesis of remittances leading to increased development in Mexico will be tested in a two-step approach. The effect of marginal changes in remittances will be analyzed on measures of poverty and inequality, to establish whether or not the poorest is participating in migration to a large extent. Household, survey data from the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) will be used in the analysis. The results show that both the size and the distribution of international remittances are more favorable in the high migration region, the Central-West, explaining its bigger impact on poverty and inequality. These results indicate that the prevalence of strong migration networks increase the access of international migration of the poor, thus policies should strengthen migration networks. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8952211
- author
- Edlund, Karolina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- A regional study of the effects of remittances on poverty and income inequality
- course
- EKHS21 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Remittances, international migration, Mexico, poverty, inequality
- language
- English
- id
- 8952211
- date added to LUP
- 2018-08-20 14:48:56
- date last changed
- 2018-08-20 14:48:56
@misc{8952211, abstract = {{The U.S-Mexico migration corridor has the largest flows of migrants in the world. Mexican migrants send home approximately USD 25 billion annually, making Mexico the fourth biggest remittance receiver in the world. Personal remittances are Mexico’s largest single source of foreign income, as it surpassed oil income in 2014. Some scholars argue that due to the large size of remittances, it holds a developmental promise. Moreover, theory suggests that in communities new to migration, the poor cannot afford to participate in migration, indicating that remittances would have an un-equalizing effect on society. Thus, this paper aims at answering whether remittances lead to economic development of Mexico, instead of merely being a means to increase consumption. To account for varying migration history the analysis will be regional. The hypothesis of remittances leading to increased development in Mexico will be tested in a two-step approach. The effect of marginal changes in remittances will be analyzed on measures of poverty and inequality, to establish whether or not the poorest is participating in migration to a large extent. Household, survey data from the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) will be used in the analysis. The results show that both the size and the distribution of international remittances are more favorable in the high migration region, the Central-West, explaining its bigger impact on poverty and inequality. These results indicate that the prevalence of strong migration networks increase the access of international migration of the poor, thus policies should strengthen migration networks.}}, author = {{Edlund, Karolina}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Remittances developmental potential in Mexico}}, year = {{2018}}, }