IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/pugtwp/331666.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do remittances have a flip side? A general equilibrium analysis of remittances, labor supply responses and policy options for Jamaica

Author

Listed:
  • Bussolo, Maurizio
  • Medvedev, Denis

Abstract

Econometric analysis has established a negative relationship between labor supply and remittances in Jamaica. We incorporate this ex­post evidence in a general equilibrium model to investigate economy­wide effects of increased remittance inflows. In this model, remittances reduce labor force participation by increasing the reservation wages of recipients. This exacerbates the real exchange rate appreciation, hurting Jamaica’s export base and small manufacturing import­competing sector. Within the narrow margins of maneuver of a highly indebted government, we show that a revenue­neutral policy response of a simultaneous reduction in payroll taxes and increase in sales taxes can effectively counteract these potentially negative effects of remittances.

Suggested Citation

  • Bussolo, Maurizio & Medvedev, Denis, 2007. "Do remittances have a flip side? A general equilibrium analysis of remittances, labor supply responses and policy options for Jamaica," Conference papers 331666, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:pugtwp:331666
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/331666/files/3461.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Juan C. Botero & Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2004. "The Regulation of Labor," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(4), pages 1339-1382.
    2. Funkhouser, Edward, 1992. "Migration from Nicaragua: some recent evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1209-1218, August.
    3. International Monetary Fund, 2004. "Tunisia: 2004 Article IV Consultation—Staff Report; Public Information Notice on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Tunisia," IMF Staff Country Reports 2004/359, International Monetary Fund.
    4. James J. Heckman & Carmen Pagés, 2004. "Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number heck04-1, July.
    5. International Monetary Fund, 2004. "United Arab Emirates: 2004 Article IV Consultation-Staff Report; Public Information Notice on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for the United Arab Emirates," IMF Staff Country Reports 2004/175, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Matshe, Innocent & Young, Trevor, 2004. "Off-farm labour allocation decisions in small-scale rural households in Zimbabwe," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 175-186, May.
    7. Collier, Paul & Dollar, David, 2002. "Aid allocation and poverty reduction," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1475-1500, September.
    8. Alvaro Forteza & Martín Rama, 2000. "Labor Market "Rigidity" and the Success of Economic Reforms Across more than One Hundred Countries," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0600, Department of Economics - dECON.
    9. Barzel, Yoram & McDonald, Richard J, 1973. "Assets, Subsistence, and The Supply Curve of Labor," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 621-633, September.
    10. International Monetary Fund, 2004. "Republic of Korea: 2003 Article IV Consultation—Staff Report; Staff Statement; Public Information Notice on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for the Republic of ," IMF Staff Country Reports 2004/044, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhai, Fan & Hertel, Thomas, 2008. "Economic and Poverty Impacts of Agricultural Price Distortions in China," Conference papers 331669, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    2. Matti Ylönen, 2017. "Policy diffusion within international organizations: A bottom-up analysis of International Monetary Fund tax work in Panama, Seychelles, and the Netherlands," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-157, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Matti Ylönen, 2017. "Policy diffusion within international organizations: A bottom-up analysis of International Monetary Fund tax work in Panama, Seychelles, and the Netherlands," WIDER Working Paper Series 157, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Lydia FRAILE, 2009. "Lessons from Latin America's neo-liberal experiment: An overview of labour and social policies since the 1980s," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 148(3), pages 215-233, September.
    5. Paul, Saumik, 2018. "The Effect of Emigration on Household Labor Supply: Evidence from Central Asia and South Caucasus," ADBI Working Papers 822, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    6. Beatriz Muriel & Carlos Gustavo Machicado, 2012. "Employment and Labor Regulation: Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in Bolivia, 1988-2007," Development Research Working Paper Series 07/2012, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    7. Kaplan, David S., 2009. "Job creation and labor reform in Latin America," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 91-105, March.
    8. Reyes Aterido & Mary Hallward-Driemeier & Carmen Pagés, 2011. "Big Constraints to Small Firms' Growth? Business Environment and Employment Growth across Firms," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 609-647.
    9. Viollaz, Mariana, 2016. "Enforcement of Labor Market Regulations: Heterogeneous Compliance and Adjustment across Gender," MPRA Paper 72000, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Carmen Pagés-Serra & Reyes Aterido & Mary Hallward-Driemeier, 2007. "Clima de negocios y creación de empleo: El efecto del acceso al crédito, la corrupción y el marco regulatorio en el crecimiento de las empresas," Research Department Publications 4560, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    11. Stefan Pahl & Marcel P. Timmer, 2020. "Do Global Value Chains Enhance Economic Upgrading? A Long View," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(9), pages 1683-1705, July.
    12. Caballero, Ricardo J. & Cowan, Kevin N. & Engel, Eduardo M.R.A. & Micco, Alejandro, 2013. "Effective labor regulation and microeconomic flexibility," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 92-104.
    13. Tidiane Kinda & Patrick Plane & Marie‐Ange Véganzonès‐Varoudakis, 2011. "Firm Productivity And Investment Climate In Developing Countries: How Does Middle East And North Africa Manufacturing Perform?," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 49(4), pages 429-462, December.
    14. Rita K. Almeida & Z. Bilgen Susanlı, 2012. "Firing Regulations and Firm Size in the Developing World: Evidence from Differential Enforcement," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(4), pages 540-558, November.
    15. Almeida, Rita & Carneiro, Pedro, 2006. "Enforcement of Regulation, Informal Labour, Firm Size and Firm Performance," CEPR Discussion Papers 5976, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Almeida, Rita K. & Carneiro, Pedro, 2005. "Enforcement of Regulation, Informal Labor and Firm Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 1759, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Bosch, Mariano & Maloney, William F., 2010. "Comparative analysis of labor market dynamics using Markov processes: An application to informality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 621-631, August.
    18. Ahsan, Ahmad & Pagés, Carmen, 2009. "Are all labor regulations equal? Evidence from Indian manufacturing," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 62-75, March.
    19. Galdo, José & Saavedra-Chanduví, Jaime & Chong, Alberto E., 2007. "Informality and Productivity in the Labor Market: Peru 1986 - 2001," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1958, Inter-American Development Bank.
    20. Lee Ohanian & Diana Van Patten & Mark Wright & Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria, 2019. "Bretton Woods and the Reconstruction of Europe," 2019 Meeting Papers 665, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor and Human Capital; International Development;

    JEL classification:

    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:pugtwp:331666. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/gtpurus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.