International Business Cycles and Remittance Flows

Mallick, Debdulal and Cooray, Arusha (2010): International Business Cycles and Remittance Flows.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the macroeconomic determinants and the effect of host country business cycles on remittance inflows. Estimating a dynamic panel data model by the system GMM, we document that remittance inflows are pro-cyclical to home country volatility but counter-cyclical to the volatility in host countries. This result does not hold for high income counties for which remittance inflows are acyclical to home country volatility but pro-cyclical to the volatility in host countries. For a host country, remittance outflows are counter-cyclical to the volatility of home countries. Trade openness is the single most important factor that determines both remittance inflows and outflows for the home and host countries, respectively.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Remittance, volatility, international business cycle, dynamic panel data
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F2 - International Factor Movements and International Business > F22 - International Migration; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E3 - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles > E32 - Business Fluctuations ; Cycles; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Single Equation Models ; Single Variables > C23 - Panel Data Models ; Spatio-temporal Models; F - International Economics > F2 - International Factor Movements and International Business > F24 - Remittances

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