Linking Lives, Bridging Borders: Migrant Remittances and Technology Adoption in Pakistan

In this study, we draw on a model to demonstrate that migrant families adopt ICT more than non-migrant households, the diffusion is higher among the recipients of remittances resulting from the long-duration, long-distance international migration than the short-duration, short-distance migration, and that foreign remittance recipients adopt advanced technologies to a greater extent compared to domestic remittance-recipients. We empirically test these hypotheses by using data on 160,624 households from the 2019-20 round of the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey and employing an instrumental-variable strategy as well as generalized two-step Heckman and Augmented Inverse Probability Weighting estimators. We come up with evidence of the significant effects of remittances on ICT adoption. Households with at least one domestic or international migrant, on average have 0.27 per capita mobile ownership and 0.12 higher probability of having internet at home compared to non-recipient households. This effect is visible more among international-remittance than domestic-remittance-receiving households. ICT adoption also increases with the amount received. We find that remittances accelerate the adoption of smartphones and social media apps. Besides, while international remittances substantially increase the use of smartphones, internet and social media apps, domestic remittances mainly improve basic phone adoption. Remittances also help reduce the rural-urban and male-female digital divide.