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Genetic relatedness predicts South African migrant workers' remittances to their families

Author

Listed:
  • S. Bowles

    (Santa Fe Institute
    Università degli Studi di Siena)

  • D. Posel

    (University of KwaZulu-Natal)

Abstract

Relative values The South Africa Integrated Household Survey collected information from about 9,000 households in the nine months prior to the country's first democratic elections in April 1994. The main aim was to collect data on living standards as a resource for policy makers, but the survey also provides a unique database for sociologists and anthropologists to mine. Bowles and Dorit have done that in a test of the ability of ‘inclusive fitness models’ to predict human behaviour. Migrant miners from rural African households send money to their families: comparison of observed remittances with those predicted to give maximum fitness benefit reveals that genetic relatedness of the migrant to the recipients of the money is a partial predictor of the amounts of money sent. So kin-altruism is a factor here, but one of many.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Bowles & D. Posel, 2005. "Genetic relatedness predicts South African migrant workers' remittances to their families," Nature, Nature, vol. 434(7031), pages 380-383, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:434:y:2005:i:7031:d:10.1038_nature03420
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03420
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Alex Sienaert, 2007. "Migration, Remittances and Public Transfers: Evidence from South Africa," Economics Series Working Papers 351, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Mahsa Akbari & Duman Bahrami‐Rad & Erik O. Kimbrough & Pedro P. Romero & Sadegh Alhosseini, 2020. "An Experimental Study Of Kin And Ethnic Favoritism," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1795-1812, October.
    3. Victoria Hosegood & Anne Case & Cally Ardington, 2009. "Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 22-48, January.
    4. Dorrit Posel, 2021. "Intra-Household and Inter-Personal Comparisons of Subjective Well-Being: Dorrit Posel," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(6), pages 2527-2529, December.
    5. Dorrit Posel, 2016. "Inter-household transfers in South Africa: prevalence, patterns and poverty," SALDRU Working Papers 180, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    6. Agüero,Jorge M. & Fasola,Eniola, 2022. "Distributional Policies and Social Cohesion in a High-Unemployment Setting," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10103, The World Bank.
    7. Donald Cox, 2007. "Biological Basics and the Economics of the Family," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 91-108, Spring.
    8. Gehrig, Stefan & Mesoudi, Alex & Lamba, Shakti, 2020. "Banking on cooperation: An evolutionary analysis of microfinance loan repayment behaviour," OSF Preprints tmpqj, Center for Open Science.
    9. Jain, Prachi, 2020. "Imperfect monitoring and informal insurance: The role of social ties," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 241-256.
    10. Martin Wittenberg, 2009. "Lazy Rotten Sons? Relatedness, gender and the intra-household allocation of work and leisure in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 28, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    11. Balli, Faruk & Guven, Cahit & Balli, Hatice O. & Gounder, Rukmani, 2010. "The Role of Institutions, Culture, and Wellbeing in Explaining Bilateral Remittance Flows: Evidence Both Cross-Country and Individual-Level Analysis," MPRA Paper 29609, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Rusch, Hannes, 2018. "Ancestral kinship patterns substantially reduce the negative effect of increasing group size on incentives for public goods provision," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 105-115.

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