The Impact of Remittances in Developing Countries- Saving Investment and School Enrollment

Remittances (what migrants send back to their home countries) are importantnot only for the families who receive them but also for the poorest developingcountries. This book develops an Overlapping Generations model ofhouseholds with residences in two countries to explore how remittances maybe saved for retirement used to finance investment in housing schooling orfor consumption. The book uses the estimation framework of Gruben andMcLeod (1998) and Mody and Murshid (2002) to study the impact of remittanceson Gross National Savings Investment and on school enrollments.The results appear to be consistent with the model as for example it isshown that Remittances positively-although differently-affect the primaryand secondary school enrollment of boys and girls. The conclusion discussesthe new ways of measuring remittances and explores how social remittancescan have an impact in local community development. Students of developmentissues and policies will find the topic of remittances interesting andappealing; those interested in gender issues in developing countries will findthe results presented in this book both encouraging and challenging.