IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/3603.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mental Accounting and Remittances: A Study of Malawian Households

Author

Listed:
  • Davies, Simon
  • Easaw, Joshy
  • Ghoshray, Atanu

Abstract

In this paper we use a behavioural approach to studying household consumption behaviour in Malawi. In particular we are interested to know whether households use mental accounting when consuming different categories of good. It is useful for assessing the impact of remittances on household consumption behaviour. We use 1998 cross-sectional data to find the following key results: (i) mental accounting systems are in operation. Remittance income exhibits a high marginal propensity to save, (ii) household income influences consumption habits, (iii) receipt of remittance income impacts on saving and spending habits. This is in line with the theory of remittances and corresponding mental accounting theory, and, finally, (iv) both remittances and loans are used for consumption smoothing and investment purposes.

Suggested Citation

  • Davies, Simon & Easaw, Joshy & Ghoshray, Atanu, 2006. "Mental Accounting and Remittances: A Study of Malawian Households," MPRA Paper 3603, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:3603
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/3603/1/MPRA_paper_3603.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/5206/1/MPRA_paper_5206.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zeldes, Stephen P, 1989. "Consumption and Liquidity Constraints: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(2), pages 305-346, April.
    2. Harold Alderman & Christina H. Paxson, 1994. "Do the Poor Insure? A Synthesis of the Literature on Risk and Consumption in Developing Countries," International Economic Association Series, in: Edmar L. Bacha (ed.), Economics in a Changing World, chapter 3, pages 48-78, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Mathias Dewatripont & Isabelle Brocas & Juan Carrillo, 2004. "Commitment devices under self-control problems: an overview," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/9665, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Alejandra Cox Edwards & Manuelita Ureta, 2003. "International Migration, Remittances, and Schooling: Evidence from El Salvador," NBER Working Papers 9766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. George-Marios Angeletos & David Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman & Stephen Weinberg, 2001. "The Hyberbolic Consumption Model: Calibration, Simulation, and Empirical Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 47-68, Summer.
    6. 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.
    7. Anderson, C. Leigh & Nevitte, Neil, 2006. "Teach your children well: Values of thrift and saving," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 247-261, April.
    8. Adams Jr., Richard H. & Cuecuecha, Alfredo, 2010. "Remittances, Household Expenditure and Investment in Guatemala," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1626-1641, November.
    9. Brambor, Thomas & Clark, William Roberts & Golder, Matt, 2006. "Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 63-82, January.
    10. Edwards, Alejandra Cox & Ureta, Manuelita, 2003. "International migration, remittances, and schooling: evidence from El Salvador," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 429-461, December.
    11. Udry, Christopher, 1990. "Credit Markets in Northern Nigeria: Credit as Insurance in a Rural Economy," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 4(3), pages 251-269, September.
    12. Winnett, Adrian & Lewis, Alan, 1995. "Household accounts, mental accounts, and savings behaviour: Some old economics rediscovered?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 431-448, September.
    13. Levin, Laurence, 1998. "Are assets fungible?: Testing the behavioral theory of life-cycle savings," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 59-83, July.
    14. Fumio Hayashi, 1985. "Tests for Liquidity Constraints: A Critical Survey," NBER Working Papers 1720, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Davies, Simon & Davey, James, 2007. "A regional multiplier approach to estimating the impact of cash transfers: The case of cash aid in rural Malawi," MPRA Paper 3724, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Davies, Simon & Easaw, Joshy & Ghoshray, Atanu, 2009. "Mental accounting and remittances: A study of rural Malawian households," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 321-334, June.
    2. Ma, Yechi & Chen, Zhiguo & Shinwari, Riazullah & Khan, Zeeshan, 2021. "Financialization, globalization, and Dutch disease: Is Dutch disease exist for resources rich countries?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Laetitia Duval & François-Charles Wolff, 2013. "The consumption-enhancing effect of remittances: Evidence from Kosovo," wiiw Balkan Observatory Working Papers 107, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    4. Jamal Bouoiyour & Amal Miftah, 2015. "The impact of remittances on household investments in children's human capital: Evidence from Morocco," Working papers of CATT hal-01880327, HAL.
    5. Naufal, George S & Vargas-Silva, Carlos, 2009. "Changing Fertility Preferences One Migrant at a Time: The Impact of Remittances on the Fertility Rate," IZA Discussion Papers 4066, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Liliana Simionescu & Dalina Dumitrescu, 2017. "Migrants Remittances Influence on Fiscal Sustainability in Dependent Economies," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(46), pages 640-640, August.
    7. Chowdhury, Mamta B., 2011. "Remittances flow and financial development in Bangladesh," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 2600-2608.
    8. Jad Chaaban & Wael Mansour, 2012. "The Impact of Remittances on Education in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon," Working Papers 684, Economic Research Forum, revised 2012.
    9. Evans Stephen Osabuohien & Uchenna Rapuluchukwu Efobi, 2013. "Africa's Money in Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(2), pages 292-306, June.
    10. Teresa Randazzo & Filippo Pavanello & Enrica De Cian, 2021. "Adaptation to climate change: air-conditioning and the role of remittances," Working Papers 2021:, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    11. Dean Yang, 2011. "Migrant Remittances," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 129-152, Summer.
    12. Richard H. Adams, 2006. "International Remittances and the Household: Analysis and Review of Global Evidence," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 15(2), pages 396-425, December.
    13. Ambrosius, Christian, 2011. "Are Remittances a 'Catalyst' for Financial Access? Evidence from Mexico," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2011 5, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    14. Justin Sunny & Jajati K. Parida & Mohammed Azurudeen, 2020. "Remittances, Investment and New Emigration Trends in Kerala," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 25(1), pages 5-29, June.
    15. Bharati Basu & Irudaya Rajan, 2018. "Investment Expenditure Behavior of Remittance Receiving Households: An Analysis Using Reserve Bank of India Data," Migration Letters, Migration Letters, vol. 15(3), pages 303-320, July.
    16. Randazzo, Teresa & Pavanello, Filippo & De Cian, Enrica, 2023. "Adaptation to climate change: Air-conditioning and the role of remittances," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    17. Chuhong Wang & Xingfei Liu & Zizhong Yan, 2021. "Temporary versus permanent migration: The impact on expenditure patterns of households left behind," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 873-911, September.
    18. Md Shahadath Hossain & Adesola Sunmoni, "undated". "Do Remittances Influence Household Investment Decisions? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2021-04, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    19. Mamun, Md. Al & Sohag, Kazi & Uddin, Gazi Salah & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2015. "Remittance and domestic labor productivity: Evidence from remittance recipient countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 207-218.
    20. Jamal Bouoiyour & Amal Miftah, 2015. "The impact of remittances on household investments in children's human capital: Evidence from Morocco," Working Papers hal-01880327, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Remittances; Household Behaviour; Consumer Economics; Economic Development; Africa; Malawi;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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:3603. 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.