41 research outputs found
The Impact of Natural Disasters on Remittances to Low- and Middle-Income Countries
No full textIn this paper, we offer novel empirical evidence on the impact of natural disasters on remittance flows towards low- and middle-income countries. We consider a panel of 98 countries over the period 1990–2010. Our findings show that remittances increase after a disaster, thus contributing ex post to the reconstruction process. At the same time, we find that remittances play a key role in terms of ex ante risk preparedness for those countries that experienced more disruptive events in the past. Finally, when taking into account the interaction with the level of development of the local financial sector, remittances seem to substitute for less efficient financial systems both in terms of ex post response to disasters and in terms of ex ante risk management strategy
Remittances and financial development: substitutes or complements in economic growth?
No full textRecent studies indicate that the effect of migrants’ remittances on the economic growth of receiving
countries depends negatively on the level of development of the domestic financial sector. In this
paper, we introduce a new indicator of financial development to measure the efficiency of the
domestic banking system, and find the existence of complementarity between remittances and bank
efficiency in economic growth, such that remittances promote growth only in countries whose banks
function well. This result is robust to controls for other traditional measures of financial depth and
institutional quality indicators
Responding to natural disasters: What do monthly remittance data tell us?
No full textIdentifying the insurance role of remittances against natural disasters through aggregate annual data is
challenging due to the dynamics of remittances and disasters throughout the year and possible intertemporal substitution effects. In an event-study setting based on monthly remittance flows from Italy to 81 developing countries for 2005–2015, we investigate their dynamics in the aftermath of disasters. We find that monthly remittances positively respond to natural disasters in migrants’ home countries. The response is immediate and significant up to 3–4 months after the event. Later on remittances return to pre-disaster levels but there is no evidence of intertemporal substitution. We observe some anticipation effects, which could be related to the recurrent nature of some types of disasters. The intensity and timing of remittances’ responsiveness are heterogeneous according to the nature of disasters, to the receiving country’s characteristics, and to migrants’ socio-economic conditions in the host country
Lifting You up or Dragging You Down? The Role of Financial Inclusion in Poverty Transitions Among Italian Households
No full textWe estimate the effect of financial inclusion on transition probabilities into/out of poverty. By exploiting a longitudinal sample of Italian households between 2002 and 2016, we find that financial inclusion is effective in both reducing the likelihood of entering poverty and helping the poor to climb out of it. According to our estimates, access to deposit accounts reduces the risk of falling below the poverty line by 2.7 percentage points (pp) and increases the chance of exiting poverty by 4.4 pp. Significance and magnitude of such effects are confirmed when considering different poverty thresholds and definitions, alternative proxies for financial inclusion as well as alternative empirical strategies
Endogeneity and sample selection in a model for remittances
No full textWe estimate a remittance model in which we address endogeneity and reverse causality relationships between immigrants’ remittances, pre-transfer income and consumption. In order to take into account the fact that a large share of individuals do not remit, instrumental variable variants of the double-hurdle and Heckit selection models are proposed and estimated by Limited Information ML; semiparametric extensions are considered as robustness checks. Our results for a sample of recent immigrants to Australia show that endogeneity is substantial and that estimates obtained by the methods previously employed in the literature may be misleading if given a behavioral interpretation
Financial development and remittances: Micro-econometric evidence
No full textWe estimate a behavioural model of household’s remittances to investigate to what extent the level of
financial development in the home country affects decisions on whether and how much to remit
Income, consumption and remittances: Evidence from immigrants to Australia
No full textFor many countries, remittance behaviour by migrants is an important component of their overall international financial flows. To date, the empirical literature has analysed the propensity to remit as a function of migrants' socio-economic characteristics. However, no studies have fully addressed the empirical implications of remittance behaviour being determined in the broader context of migrants' labour, income and consumption allocation strategy. On the contrary, the migrant's income has almost always been treated as exogenous in this context. The aim of this study is to estimate a remittance equation that detects the main determinants of remittance behaviour while addressing endogeneity and reverse causality relationships between remittances, income, consumption and savings. Moreover, since a large share of individuals do not remit money at all, an instrumental variable variant of the double-hurdle selection model is proposed and estimated by LIML. A sending country perspective is adopted in the empirical analysis by considering the first cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia. We find that endogeneity is substantial and that estimates obtained by the methods previously employed in the literature may be very misleading if given a behavioural interpretation. Our results confirm some theoretical predictions and shed light on others; notably, we show that selfish motives in remitters are at least as important as altruistic motives
Financial development and remittances: Micro-econometric evidence
No full textWe estimate a behavioural model of household’s remittances to investigate to what extent the level of
financial development in the home country affects decisions on whether and how much to remit
Final report on the remains of four new vessels found in the ancient harbour of Naples (Italy, end of the 2nd c. BCE and end of the 2nd d. BCE and end of 3rd centuries CE).
No full textBetween 1999 and 2016, the preventive archaeological excavations undertaken before the construction of the station lines 1 and 6 of the metro of Naples in Piazza Municipio provided new evidence on the coastal landscape overlooking the ancient harbour basin. These investigations led to the discovery of the remains of seven wrecks dating back to the Hellenistic era and to the Roman Empire (Napoli A-H). This paper will present a preliminary study of the architectural characteristics of the four wrecks uncovered in 2013-2015 in the passageway (area 4) connecting the metro stations to the modern touristic harbour (Stazione Marittima) and will suggest hypotheses concerning the function of the original vessels
