339 research outputs found
Migration and Development: Mixed evidence from western Mali
Flore Gubert examines the investment-oriented initiatives of Malian migrants in their home to illustrate that out migration has a strong impact on poverty reduction in the Kayes area. She proposes that migration-cum-remittances alone do not create the right conditions for genuine development even if the non-productive use of remittances may strongly impact on the mainstays of development such as health, education, culture or the environment. Development (2007) 50, 94–100. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100423
Do remittances affect poverty and inequality ? Evidence from Mali.
Using a 2006 household survey in Mali, we compare current poverty rates and inequality levels with counterfactual ones in the absence of migration and remittances. With proper hypotheses on migrants and a selection model, we are able to impute a counterfactual income for households currently receiving remittances. We show that remittances reduce poverty rates by 5% to 11% and the Gini coefficient by about 5%. Households in the bottom quintiles are more dependent on remittances, which are less substitutable by additional workforce.Indicateurs de pauvreté; Mali; Envois de fonds; Travailleurs migrants;
Do Migrants Insure Those who Stay Behind? Evidence from the Kayes Area (Western Mali)
This article uses recent household survey data from the Kayes area (western Mali) to analyse the determinants of remittances from both internal and international migration. The underlying assumption is that remittances are part of an insurance contract between the migrant and his family. Although this idea is not new, few tests have appeared in the recent literature. After a discussion of various measures of crop income shocks, we employ Powell's censored least absolute deviation (CLAD) estimators in addition to more standard parametric estimators to assess the influence of shocks on remittance behaviour. In contrast to Heckman's two-step or the Tobit estimator, Powell's estimator is consistent in the presence of heteroscedasticity and is robust to violations of the normality assumption for the residuals. Regression results bring some support for the view that insurance is an important motivation for remittances. This welfare function should be taken into account by policy-makers in the design of migration policies.
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