Determining the Motivations for Internal Remittances in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Remittances, financial transfers between family members across borders, have become a substantial form of private aid to developing countries in recent decades. In contrast with the remittance literature that has focused on international migration from wealthier regions, this paper analyzes two extremely impoverished areas within India that provide considerable levels of internal migrant labor. Using the Survey of Living Conditions conducted in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from 1997-1998, this paper explores the determinants of internal remittances and their effects on marginal consumption and savings among households in these regions. By quantifying remittance elasticities of consumption and savings, this paper finds evidence that altruism may be a stronger motive relative to interhousehold insurance considerations in the aggregate. A subsidiary finding is that remittance transfers to regional households increase the relative proportion of household expenditures on consumption categories and decrease the relative proportion dedicated to investments in human capital, calling into question the notion that remittances are primarily used for productive reinvestments in developing economies.

Type of resource	text
Date created	March 2007

Author	Erfe, Jeffrey
Primary advisor	Mahajan, Aprajit
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Department of Economics

Subject	Stanford Department of Economics
Subject	India
Subject	remittances
Subject	poverty
Subject	migrant workers
Subject	private transfers
Subject	economics
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/vn318sf4263

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Preferred Citation: Erfe, Jeffrey. (2007). Determining the Motivations for Internal Remittances in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/vn318sf4263

Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses

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