Calderón, CesarAcosta, PabloFajnzylber, PabloLopez, Humberto2012-06-072012-06-072007-06https://hdl.handle.net/10986/7400Workers' remittances have become a major source of income for developing countries. However, little is still known about their impact on poverty and inequality. Using a large cross-country panel dataset, the authors find that remittances in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have increased growth and reduced inequality and poverty. These results are robust to the use of different instruments that attempt to correct for the potential endogeneity of remittances. Household survey-based estimates for 10 LAC countries confirm that remittances have negative albeit relatively small inequality and poverty-reducing effects, even after imputations for the potential home earnings of migrants.CC BY 3.0 IGOABSENCE OF REMITTANCESABSOLUTE TERMSANNUAL GROWTHANNUAL GROWTH RATEAVERAGE INCOMEAVERAGE INCOME GROWTHAVERAGE INCOME LEVELBALANCE OF PAYMENTBALANCE OF PAYMENT STATISTICSCAPITA INCOMECAPITA REMITTANCESCAPITAL FLOWSCOMPENSATION OF EMPLOYEESCONDITIONAL CONVERGENCECOUNTRYCOUNTRY CHARACTERISTICSCOUNTRY REGRESSIONSCOUNTRY REMITTANCESCOUNTRY SPECIFICCOUNTRY-SPECIFIC EFFECTSCROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSISCROSS-COUNTRY DATACROSS-COUNTRY PANELCROSS-COUNTRY STUDIESCUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTIONDATA AVAILABILITYDATA ON REMITTANCESDENSITY FUNCTIONDEPENDENT VARIABLEDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPING COUNTRYDEVELOPING WORLDDEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONERSDIFFERENCE ERRORDISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACTDYNAMIC PANELDYNAMIC PANEL FRAMEWORKECONOMETRIC ISSUESECONOMIC CONDITIONSECONOMICSECONOMICS LITERATUREEFFECT OF REMITTANCESEFFECTS OF REMITTANCESELASTICITYELASTICITY OF POVERTYEMPIRICAL ESTIMATESEMPIRICAL EVIDENCEEMPIRICAL RESULTSEMPIRICAL SECTIONEMPIRICAL WORKENDOGENOUS VARIABLESEQUALIZING EFFECTERROR TERMERROR TERMSESTIMATED COEFFICIENTSESTIMATED REDUCTIONEXOGENOUS VARIABLEEXPLANATORY VARIABLESEXTENDED FAMILYFAMILIES DUEFAMILY MEMBERSFERTILITYFERTILITY RATEFIXED EFFECTSFLOWS OF REMITTANCESFOREIGN REMITTANCESFUNCTIONAL FORMGDPGINI COEFFICIENTGINI INDEXGLOBAL LEVELGROWTHGROWTH CONTEXTGROWTH DATAGROWTH EQUATIONGROWTH LITERATUREGROWTH MODELSGROWTH OF REMITTANCESGROWTH RATESGROWTH REGRESSIONGROWTH REGRESSIONSHEADCOUNT POVERTYHEADCOUNT RATIOHIGH CORRELATIONHOME COUNTRIESHOUSEHOLD ASSETSHOUSEHOLD INCOMEHOUSEHOLD LEVELHOUSEHOLD MEMBERSHOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATAHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSIMPACT OF MIGRATIONIMPACT OF REMITTANCESINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME INEQUALITYINCOME LEVELSINCOME SOURCEINCOME SOURCESINCREASE GROWTHINCREASE IN REMITTANCESINCREASING INCOME INEQUALITYINEQUALITY AVERSIONINEQUALITY CHANGESINEQUALITY ELASTICITIESINEQUALITY LEVELSINEQUALITY REGRESSIONSINEQUALITY RESULTSINEQUALITY VARIABLESINTERNATIONAL REMITTANCESLAGGED LEVELSLAGGED VALUESLOG NORMALLOG-NORMAL APPROXIMATIONLOG-NORMAL DISTRIBUTIONMACROECONOMIC EFFECTSMEAN INCOMEMICRO DATAMIGRANTMIGRANT DESTINATION COUNTRIESMIGRANT FAMILIESMIGRANT FAMILYMIGRANT FAMILY MEMBERSMIGRANT NETWORKSMIGRANT TRANSFERSMIGRANT-SENDING COUNTRIESMIGRANTSMIGRATIONMIGRATION FLOWSMIGRATION PATTERNSMINORITYNATIONAL LEVELNEGATIVE COEFFICIENT0 HYPOTHESISOFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCEPER CAPITA INCOMEPER CAPITA INCOME LEVELPER CAPITA INCOME LEVELSPOINT ESTIMATESPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPOSITIVE EFFECTPOSITIVE IMPACTPOSITIVE VALUEPOVERTYPOVERTY GAPPOVERTY LEVELSPOVERTY LINEPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY REDUCINGPOVERTY REDUCTIONPRACTITIONERSPROGRESSRATES OF GROWTHRECIPIENT HOUSEHOLDSREDUCED INEQUALITYREDUCING INEQUALITYREMITTANCEREMITTANCE RECEIPTSREMITTANCE RECEIVINGREMITTANCE SENDERREMITTANCESREMITTANCES FLOWSRESPECTRICHER COUNTRIESSECONDARY EDUCATIONSERIAL CORRELATIONSIGNIFICANT EFFECTSIGNIFICANT IMPACTSIMULATIONSSQUARED POVERTY GAPWAGESWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4249