The new female migrants: do they send more money home? a case study for Mexican immigrants in the Houston area

This research studies the factors that influence Mexican migrants to remit. Specifically, we test for gender-specific patterns in both the propensity to remit and the amount remitted using original survey data collected in Houston, Texas from November 2006 through July 2007. Following previous studies, we estimate remittances via a Tobit procedure to allow for the left-truncation of remittances and an instrumental variables model to allow for endogeneity between income and remittances. Unique to this research, however, is the implementation of Heckman’s Selection Model where the decision to remit and the decision of amount to remit are simultaneously modeled. Final results indicate that 1) females are more likely to remit than males and 2) remittances from females are less sensitive to income changes. In addition to confirming Rodenburg’s (1993) theory that females have stronger emotional ties to their family left behind, these results reconcile the objections raised by Orozco at al. (2006).