IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2007-022.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are Workers' Remittances a Hedge Against Macroeconomic Shocks? the Case of Sri Lanka

Author

Listed:
  • Marta Ruiz-Arranz
  • Mr. Erik Lueth

Abstract

We estimate a vector error correction (VEC) model for Sri Lanka to determine the response of remittance receipts to macroeconomic shocks. This is the first attempt of its kind in the literature. We find that remittance receipts are procyclical and decline when the island's currency weakens, undermining their usefulness as shock absorber. On the other hand, remittances increase in response to oil price shocks, reflecting the fact that most overseas. Sri Lankan are employed in the Gulf states. The procyclicality of remittances calls into question the notion that remittances are largely motivated by altruism.

Suggested Citation

  • Marta Ruiz-Arranz & Mr. Erik Lueth, 2007. "Are Workers' Remittances a Hedge Against Macroeconomic Shocks? the Case of Sri Lanka," IMF Working Papers 2007/022, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2007/022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=20241
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raghuram G. Rajan & Arvind Subramanian, 2005. "What Undermines Aid's Impact on Growth?," NBER Working Papers 11657, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Giuliano, Paola & Ruiz-Arranz, Marta, 2009. "Remittances, financial development, and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 144-152, September.
    3. El-Sakka, M. I. T. & McNabb, Robert, 1999. "The Macroeconomic Determinants of Emigrant Remittances," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1493-1502, August.
    4. Johansen, Soren, 1991. "Estimation and Hypothesis Testing of Cointegration Vectors in Gaussian Vector Autoregressive Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(6), pages 1551-1580, November.
    5. Rapoport, Hillel & Docquier, Frederic, 2006. "The Economics of Migrants' Remittances," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 17, pages 1135-1198, Elsevier.
    6. Mr. Jacques Bouhga-Hagbe, 2004. "A Theory of Workers' Remittances with An Application to Morocco," IMF Working Papers 2004/194, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Mr. Serdar Sayan, 2006. "Business Cycles and Workers' Remittances: How Do Migrant Workers Respond to Cyclical Movements of GDP At Home?," IMF Working Papers 2006/052, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Mrs. Poonam Gupta, 2005. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Remittances: Evidence from India," IMF Working Papers 2005/224, 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. Mr. Erik Lueth & Marta Ruiz-Arranz, 2006. "A Gravity Model of Workers’ Remittances," IMF Working Papers 2006/290, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Antonella, Barbarito, 2013. "Migration, Remittances and Development: A Literature Review," MPRA Paper 104715, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2013.
    3. Michael, Owiso, 2008. "Literature Review: Migration, Remittances and Development," MPRA Paper 104988, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
    4. David, Blight, 2017. "Literature Review on International Migration: Development Perspectives," MPRA Paper 106312, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2017.
    5. Neagu , Ileana C. & Schiff, Maurice, 2009. "Remittance stability, cyclicality and stabilizing impact in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5077, The World Bank.
    6. Christidis, Les, 2008. "Literature Review on Migration and Remittances Development," MPRA Paper 105237, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
    7. Flippo, Behnaz, 2009. "A Literature Review: Migration and Remittances," MPRA Paper 104877, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2009.
    8. Chrząstowska, Bożena, 2010. "Migration and Remittances: A Literature Review on Remittance Behaviour," MPRA Paper 104690, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2010.
    9. Vitalievna Lebedeva, Elena, 2012. "Migration and Development: A Comprehensive Literature Review," MPRA Paper 104373, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2012.
    10. Binhan Elif, Yilmaz, 2010. "Stability, Cyclicality and Sustainability of Migration: A Literature Review," MPRA Paper 104258, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2010.
    11. Okayo Alphonsine COULIBALY, 2016. "Les Motivations Microéconomiques Des Transferts De Fonds Au Burkina Faso : La Culture Est-Elle Déterminante ?," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 43, pages 187-208.
    12. Jounghyeon Kim, 2019. "The Impact of Remittances on Exchange Rate and Money Supply: Does “Openness” Matter in Developing Countries?," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(15), pages 3682-3707, December.
    13. Giulia Bettin & Andrea F. Presbitero & Nikola L. Spatafora, 2017. "Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 1-23.
    14. Giuliano, Paola & Ruiz-Arranz, Marta, 2009. "Remittances, financial development, and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 144-152, September.
    15. Zakiyyah, Varachia, 2018. "Literature Review of Migration and Development," MPRA Paper 106444, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.
    16. Bettin, Giulia & Paçacı Elitok, Seçil & Straubhaar, Thomas, 2012. "Causes and consequences of the downturn in financial remittances to Turkey: A descriptive approach," Edition HWWI: Chapters, in: Paçacı Elitok, Seçil & Straubhaar, Thomas (ed.), Turkey, migration and the EU, volume 5, pages 133-166, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    17. Naheem Mahtab, 2015. "The Effect of Macroeconomic Variables on the Inflow of Remittance in Bangladesh," Economy, Asian Online Journal Publishing Group, vol. 2(1), pages 21-31.
    18. MITSUI, Izumi, 2019. "A Literature Review of Economic Diaspora," MPRA Paper 109115, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.
    19. Veronica Bayangos & Karel Jansen, 2010. "The Macroeconomics of Remittances in The Philippines," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 28(61), pages 18-58, August.
    20. Kim, Jounghyeon, 2023. "Does population aging matter for remittances in developing countries?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1038-1056.

    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:imf:imfwpa:2007/022. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.