Transfer behavior in migrant sending communities

Tanika Chakraborty (), Bakhrom Mirkasimov and Susan Steiner ()

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2015, vol. 43, issue 3, 690-705

Abstract: We study how international migration changes the private transfers made between households in the migrant sending communities of developing countries. A priori, it is indeterminate whether migration and remittances strengthen or weaken the degree of private transfers in these communities. From a policy perspective, public income redistribution programs would have an important role to play if migration reduced the extent of private transfers. Using household survey data from rural Kyrgyzstan, we find that households with migrant members (as well as households receiving remittances) are more likely than households without migrants (without remittances) to provide monetary transfers to others and to receive non-monetary (i.e. unpaid labor) transfers from others. This suggests that migrant households, through their access to remittance income, insure their social networks against shocks or redistribute income to poorer households in the community and receive labor transfers in return. This implies that migration is unlikely to lead to a weakening of private transfers.

Keywords: Private transfers; Cash and labor exchange; Migration; Kyrgyzstan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 I30 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Transfer Behaviour in Migrant Sending Communities (2016)
Working Paper: Transfer Behaviour in Migrant Sending Communities (2013)
Working Paper: Transfer Behaviour in Migrant Sending Communities (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:43:y:2015:i:3:p:690-705

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2014.09.004

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