IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/111029.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do remittances spur economic growth in Africa?

Author

Listed:
  • Taiwo, Kayode

Abstract

Remittance flows to developing countries are now triple official development assistance and larger than foreign direct investment. The surge in remittances now occupies important position in development equation as remittances are seen as cheap resources for development. African governments are no exception among developing nations chasing remittances. Policymakers are making efforts to attract remittances to provide needed resources for economic transformation. In this study, an attempt is made to explore the impact of remittance flows on economic growth in Africa, considering efforts at attracting remittances. The impact of remittances is estimated using static and dynamic panel methods with data spanning 1975 to 2015. The study finds that remittances do not have an impact on economic growth in Africa. This conclusion is hinged on measurement issues, internal conditions, labour market implications, and the effect of remittances on tradable sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Taiwo, Kayode, 2020. "Do remittances spur economic growth in Africa?," MPRA Paper 111029, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:111029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/111029/1/MPRA_paper_111029.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jude Eggoh & Chrysost Bangake & Gervasio Semedo, 2019. "Do remittances spur economic growth? Evidence from developing countries," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 391-418, May.
    2. Emmanuel K.K. Lartey, 2013. "Remittances, investment and growth in sub-Saharan Africa," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(7), pages 1038-1058, October.
    3. Graham Bird & Yongseok Choi, 2020. "The effects of remittances, foreign direct investment, and foreign aid on economic growth: An empirical analysis," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 1-30, February.
    4. Giuliano, Paola & Ruiz-Arranz, Marta, 2009. "Remittances, financial development, and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 144-152, September.
    5. Nyamongo, Esman Morekwa & Misati, Roseline N. & Kipyegon, Leonard & Ndirangu, Lydia, 2012. "Remittances, financial development and economic growth in Africa," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 240-260.
    6. Aberra Senbeta, 2013. "Remittances and the sources of growth," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 572-580, April.
    7. Giulia Bettin & Alberto Zazzaro, 2012. "Remittances And Financial Development: Substitutes Or Complements In Economic Growth?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 509-536, October.
    8. Ralph Chami & Connel Fullenkamp & Samir Jahjah, 2005. "Are Immigrant Remittance Flows a Source of Capital for Development?," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 52(1), pages 55-81, April.
    9. Catrinescu, Natalia & Leon-Ledesma, Miguel & Piracha, Matloob & Quillin, Bryce, 2009. "Remittances, Institutions, and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 81-92, January.
    10. Dean Yang, 2008. "International Migration, Remittances and Household Investment: Evidence from Philippine Migrants' Exchange Rate Shocks," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(528), pages 591-630, April.
    11. Rao, B. Bhaskara & Hassan, Gazi Mainul, 2011. "A panel data analysis of the growth effects of remittances," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 701-709.
    12. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    13. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    14. Hassan, Gazi & Shakur, Shamim & Bhuyan, Mohammed, 2012. "Nonlinear growth effect of remittances in recipient countries: an econometric analysis of remittances-growth nexus in Bangladesh," MPRA Paper 40086, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Uwaoma G. Nwaogu & Michael J. Ryan, 2015. "FDI, Foreign Aid, Remittance and Economic Growth in Developing Countries," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 100-115, February.
    16. Juthathip Jongwanich, 2007. "Workers’ Remittances, Economic Growth and Poverty in Developing Asia and the Pacific Countries," MPDD Working Paper Series WP/07/01, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
    17. Gyan Pradhan & Mukti Upadhyay & Kamal Upadhyaya, 2008. "Remittances and economic growth in developing countries," The European Journal of Development Research, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 497-506.
    18. Thanh Le, 2009. "Trade, Remittances, Institutions, and Economic Growth," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 391-408.
    19. Arusha Cooray, 2012. "The Impact of Migrant Remittances on Economic Growth: Evidence from South Asia," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 985-998, November.
    20. Kristina Matuzeviciute & Mindaugas Butkus, 2016. "Remittances, Development Level, and Long-Run Economic Growth," Economies, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-20, December.
    21. Caselli, Francesco & Esquivel, Gerardo & Lefort, Fernando, 1996. "Reopening the Convergence Debate: A New Look at Cross-Country Growth Empirics," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 363-389, September.
    22. B. Bhaskara Rao & Gazi Mainul Hassan, 2012. "Are the Direct and Indirect Growth Effects of Remittances Significant?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 351-372, March.
    23. Hausman, Jerry A & Taylor, William E, 1981. "Panel Data and Unobservable Individual Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1377-1398, November.
    24. Christian Nsiah & Bichaka Fayissa, 2013. "Remittances and economic growth in Africa, Asia, and Latin American-Caribbean countries: a panel unit root and panel cointegration analysis," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 37(3), pages 424-441, July.
    25. Bichaka Fayissa & Christian Nsiah, 2010. "The Impact of Remittances on Economic Growth and Development in Africa," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(2), pages 92-103, November.
    26. Lim, Sokchea & Simmons, Walter O., 2015. "Do remittances promote economic growth in the Caribbean Community and Common Market?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 42-59.
    27. Simon Feeny & Sasi Iamsiraroj & Mark McGillivray, 2014. "Remittances and Economic Growth: Larger Impacts in Smaller Countries?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(8), pages 1055-1066, August.
    28. B. Gabriela Mundaca, 2009. "Remittances, Financial Market Development, and Economic Growth: The Case of Latin America and the Caribbean," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 288-303, May.
    29. Michael T. Gapen & Mr. Ralph Chami & Mr. Peter J Montiel & Mr. Adolfo Barajas & Connel Fullenkamp, 2009. "Do Workers’ Remittances Promote Economic Growth?," IMF Working Papers 2009/153, International Monetary Fund.
    30. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    31. Michael A. Clemens & David McKenzie, 2018. "Why Don't Remittances Appear to Affect Growth?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(612), pages 179-209, July.
    32. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Pozo, Susan, 2004. "Workers' Remittances and the Real Exchange Rate: A Paradox of Gifts," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1407-1417, August.
    33. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    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. Jude Eggoh & Chrysost Bangake & Gervasio Semedo, 2019. "Do remittances spur economic growth? Evidence from developing countries," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 391-418, May.
    2. Sobiech, Izabela, 2019. "Remittances, finance and growth: Does financial development foster the impact of remittances on economic growth?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 44-59.
    3. Nahed Zghidi & Imen Mohamed Sghaier & Zouheir Abida, 2018. "Remittances, Institutions, and Economic Growth in North African Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(3), pages 804-821, September.
    4. Sena Kimm Gnangnon, 2019. "Remittances Inflows and Trade Policy," Remittances Review, Remittances Review, vol. 4(2), pages 117-142, October.
    5. Chrysost Bangake & Jude Eggoh, 2020. "Financial Development Thresholds and the Remittances-Growth Nexus," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 18(2), pages 425-445, June.
    6. Cazachevici, Alina & Havranek, Tomas & Horvath, Roman, 2020. "Remittances and economic growth: A meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Cazachevici, Alina & Havranek, Tomas & Horvath, Roman, 2019. "Remittances and Economic Growth: A Quantitative Survey," MPRA Paper 96823, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Abida Zouheir & Imen Mohamed Sghaier, 2014. "Remittances, Financial Development and Economic Growth: The Case of North African Countries," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 17(51), pages 137-170, March.
    9. Farroukh, Arafet & Mazioued, Manel & Pédussel Wu, Jennifer, 2024. "Revisiting the linkage between remittances inflow and economic growth: A semi-parametric estimation with panel data," IPE Working Papers 238/2024, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    10. Imad El Hamma, 2018. "Migrant Remittances and Economic Growth: The Role of Financial Development and Institutional Quality," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 503-504, pages 123-142.
    11. Schneider, Friedrich & Khan, Shabeer & Baharom Abdul Hamid & Khan, Abidullah, 2019. "Does the tax undermine the effect of remittances on shadow economy?," Economics Discussion Papers 2019-67, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    12. Balli, Faruk & Rana, Faisal, 2015. "Determinants of risk sharing through remittances," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 107-116.
    13. Imen Mohamed Sghaier, 2021. "Remittances and Economic Growth in MENA Countries: The Role of Financial Development," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 43-59, March.
    14. Louis Bernard Tchekoumi & Patrick Danel Nya, 2023. "Remittances and economic growth: What lessons for the CEMAC zone?," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 2191448-219, December.
    15. Moukpè Gniniguè & Essossinam Ali, 2022. "Migrant Remittances and Economic Growth in ECOWAS Countries: Does Digitalization Matter?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2517-2542, October.
    16. Imen Mohamed Sghaier, 2022. "Foreign Capital Inflows and Economic Growth in North African Countries: the Role of Human Capital," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(4), pages 2804-2821, December.
    17. Ziesemer, Thomas H.W., 2012. "Worker remittances, migration, accumulation and growth in poor developing countries: Survey and analysis of direct and indirect effects," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 103-118.
    18. 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.
    19. Adnan KHURSHID & Yin KEDONG & Adrian Cantemir CALIN & Cristina Georgiana ZELDEA & Sun QIANG & Duan WENQI, 2020. "Is the Relationship between Remittances and Economic Growth Influenced by the Governance and Development of the Financial Sector? New Evidence from the Developing Countries," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(1), pages 37-56, March.
    20. Wadad Saad & Hassan Ayoub, 2019. "Remittances, Governance and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from MENA Region," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(8), pages 1-1, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migration; Remittances; Economic growth; Panel data; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:111029. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.