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This study aims to analyse the consumption inequality between farm and non-farm households in rural Vietnam, using the data from the 2016 Vietnam household living standards survey.

The present paper applies the “recentered influence functions (RIF)” in “Oaxaca-Blinder (OB)” type decomposition as proposed by Firpo et al. (2018) to allow for the flexible distribution of the outcome variables and the non-randomness of non-farm employment that violates the classical linearity assumption.

Non-farm households have significantly higher per capita consumption expenditure than farm households for the entire distribution. The gap in expenditure is large at low percentiles and narrowing with higher percentiles. At 10th percentile, the gap is estimated at 27.1%, but it is decreasing to 11.1% at 90th percentile. Most of the gaps are explained by the differences in the observed characteristics between farm and non-farm households such as ethnicity, education, income, internal transmittances and household composition. Non-farm households are endowed with more productive factors that result in higher per capita consumption expenditure.

Gaps in ethnicity and education are found to be key predictors of the inequality in consumption expenditures between farm and non-farm households, then, government policies that are aimed at increasing access to non-farm employment and education for ethnic minorities and for rural poor households are pathways to improve rural household welfare and hence reduce inequality.

This paper analyzes the effect of institutional quality and economic freedom on investment and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Focusing on a panel of 27 countries, the study employed the panel fixed and random effect models to analyze data spanning from 2005 to 2018. The study also employed the Wu–Hausman test to determine if the endogeneity problem exists in the model.

The findings of the study show that individually, an improvement in economic freedom stimulates economic growth while the improvement in institutional quality is effective in spurring investment. However, the interaction effect of improvement in institutional quality and economic freedom is the stimulation of both investment and economic growth. The findings are robust to alternative model specifications.

The study implies that for SSA countries to effectively achieve higher investment and economic growth outcomes, there is the need to simultaneously strengthen institutional quality and improve economic freedom. Focusing on either of the factors without the other leads to less desirable growth and investment outcomes.

The study examined the combined influence of institutional quality and economic freedom on investment and growth in SSA. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has investigated this in the context of SSA.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of cost transparency introduced by the Remittance Prices Worldwide (RPW) online transaction cost comparison tool on remittance inflows of remittance recipient countries in emerging economies.

Panel fixed-effect model was employed to test the hypothesis focussing on the period five years before and five years after the adoption of the RPW tool. Macroeconomic determinants of international remittances were also included in the model, and the study focused on 115 emerging economies.

The econometric results reveal that financial development, gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation encourage remittance inflows, whereas interest rate and age dependency ratio discourage remittances. Political stability and migrant stock seem not to influence remittances flowing into emerging markets.

Empirical evidence corroborates the hypothesis that an increase in cost transparency boosts remittance flows. The findings suggest cost transparency is another lever for policymakers to target in boosting remittance flows.

The purpose of this study is to examine institutional quality’s absorptive capacity in African countries’ remittances-finance nexus.

A balanced panel data set of thirty African countries between 2000 and 2022 is used for the study. The study adopts an augmented mean group (AMG), method of moment quantile regression (MMQR) and two-step system generalized method of moment (2SGMM) as the estimation techniques due to the nature of the data set.

The findings of the direct effect reveal that remittances do not constitute the growth of financial development, while institutional quality promotes the growth of financial development in the long. The moderating effect of institutional quality in the linkages shows that the interactive term of institutional quality and remittances has a significant positive effect on financial development in the region. Hence, institutional quality moderates the impact of remittances. These results are robust to different proxies of financial development and estimates obtained from MMQR and 2SGMM.

This study, therefore, suggests that institutional quality is essential in the linkages between remittances and financial development. Hence, remittances should be seen as one of the instruments that can be used to develop the financial sector rather than survival mechanisms for households.

This study contributes to the literature by unearthing the absorptive capacity of institutional quality in the nexus between remittances and financial development in African countries, which extant studies have neglected.

Many African countries struggle to sustain steady economic growth. Specific macro-economic factors can influence a country’s economic growth. We investigated the trend and influence of diaspora remittances, foreign direct investment (FDI) and imports on Kenya’s economic growth.

We used panel data from the World Bank Indicators database from 1973 to 2021. By utilising the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for econometric analysis and performing computations using R software, we provide valuable insights into both short-term and long-term dynamics.

In the short term, we establish a non-significant negative impact of FDI and imports on economic growth, contrasting with the positive influence of diaspora remittances. However, in the long term, all three variables – FDI, imports and remittances – emerge as significant determinants of economic growth.

The availability and quality of data on diaspora remittances, FDI inflows, imports and economic indicators may vary, leading to potential data limitations, biases or gaps in the analysis. External factors such as global economic trends, political stability, COVID-19, regulatory changes and natural disasters may influence the study’s findings and should be considered when interpreting the results.

In the short term, the non-significant negative impact of FDI and imports on economic growth suggests that policies promoting FDI and imports may not yield immediate economic growth benefits. Policymakers might need to reassess the effectiveness of current strategies aimed at attracting FDI and managing imports in the short term. The positive influence of diaspora remittances on economic growth underscores the significance of these inflows in supporting economic development. Governments may need to focus on policies that encourage remittance inflows, such as facilitating remittance channels and providing incentives for diaspora investment in the home country. The shift in significance from non-significant in the short term to significant in the long term for FDI, imports and remittances highlights the importance of considering long-term effects in economic planning. Policymakers should adopt strategies that consider the cumulative impact of these factors over time.

Diaspora remittances often play a crucial role in alleviating poverty and reducing inequality by providing direct financial support to families. Recognising the importance of remittances in improving living standards, policymakers should ensure that policies support the effective utilisation of remittance inflows to address poverty and inequality challenges.

We therefore contribute original insights by examining the interplay between diaspora remittances, FDI, imports and economic growth over the study period. The emphasis on both short-term and long-term effects adds nicety to understanding their roles in shaping Kenya’s economic growth trail.

The economic literature on labor migration has incorporated insights from various disciplines with regard to content and method, although the representation of migrants has not fully moved away from the neoliberal, market-dominated framework. This paper addresses the issue of women migrant workers using the particular example of Sri Lankan migrant women workers to the Middle East. It aims to highlight the need for more diversity in economic research without which conceptual representation, as well as empirical reach, is limited.

After a brief overview of the representation of migrants in economic literature, I develop the concept of vulnerability. I refer to qualitative and quantitative analyses on Sri Lankan migrant women workers to the Middle East from a variety of disciplines in order to differentiate the “vulnerable,” that is, the workers in need of protection, from the “vulnerabilities.” The latter concept refers to the debilitating effects on workers, produced by market forces, which are often perpetuated by underlying assumptions, as well as policies. A broader, inter-disciplinary perspective, which considers the agency of women, can go a long way toward removing some of the limitations and preconceptions ingrained in most economic representation. This in turn could help to improve the protection of the vulnerable and empower them to better face market forces.

The purpose of this research is to develop a predictive model that can estimate the volume of remittances channeled toward Yemen’s economic reconstruction efforts.

This study utilized a time-series dataset encompassing remittance inflows into Yemen’s economy from 1990 to 2022. The Box-Jenkins autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) methodology was employed to forecast remittance inflows for the period 2023 to 2030.

The study’s findings indicate a downward trajectory in remittance inflows over the next eight years, with projections suggesting a potential decline to 4.122% of Yemen’s gross domestic product by the end of 2030. This significant decrease in remittance inflows highlights the immediate need for concrete steps from economic policymakers to curb the potential decline in remittance inflows and its impact on Yemen’s economic recovery efforts.

The impact of global remittance inflows on various macroeconomic and microeconomic factors has long been of interest to researchers, policymakers, and academics. Yemen has been embroiled in violent clashes over a decade, leading to a fragmentation of central authority and the formation of distinct local alliances. In such prolonged turmoil, foreign aid often falls short, providing only temporary relief for basic needs. Consequently, the importance of migrant remittances in sustaining communities affected by conflict and disasters has increased. Remittances have played a crucial role in fostering economic progress and improving social services for families transitioning from conflict to peace. Therefore, this study aims to estimate and forecast the volume of remittances flowing into Yemen, to assist in the nation’s economic reconstruction.

This study aims to analyze factors that influence the utilization of remittances by Indonesia Migrant Workers (TKI) and to analyze the role of stakeholders in the implementation of financial inclusion. This research used a mixed method, regression analysis, and Matrix of Alliances and Conflicts: Tactics, Objectives, and Recommendations (MACTOR). This study found that the factors that influence savings are training variables, education, and a dummy variable for widow status. The results when remittance as dependent show that the regional origin, dummy variable for receiving remittances, for training, and for determining the use of remittances by TKI themselves had an effect. The implementation of financial inclusion is needed in the economic development of TKI, and the main actors are migrant workers, assistants, economists, and Bapermas. Actors who have the potential for ambivalence are workers who do not participate in mentoring and do not join BUMDes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse the dynamic relationship between remittances inflows of Egyptians working abroad and asymmetric oil price shocks.

This study uses a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to explain the impulse response functions (IRFs) and the forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD). The rationale behind using these tools is its ability to examine the dynamic effects of our variables of interest.

The impulse response functions confirmed that remittance inflows have various responses to asymmetric oil price shocks. For instance, inflowing remittances increase in response to positive oil price shocks, while it decreases in response to negative oil price shocks. Also, the results indicate that the responses are significant in the short and medium-run and insignificant in the long run. The magnitude of these responses reaches its peak or trough in the third year. Further, the variance decomposition reveals that oil price decreases are more influential than oil price increases.

This means that remittances inflows in Egypt are pro-cyclical with oil price shocks. That explained by the fact that more than one-half of those remittances sent from GCC countries where real economic growth is very pro-cyclical with the oil prices. This empirical assessment will help policymakers to determine the behaviour of remittances and highlights the impact of different kinds of oil prices shocks on remittances. Unlike the little existing literature, this study is the first study applied the VAR model using a novel dataset spanning 1960-2016.

This study investigates the impact of international remittances on the economic growth of remittance-receiving countries, using data from 113 developing countries between 1990 and 2015.

The authors used a novel approach to address the potential endogeneity of remittances. The authors estimated bilateral remittances and use them to create weighted indicators of remittance-sending countries, which the authors then use as instruments for remittance inflows to remittance-receiving countries.

The results indicate that while remittances have a positive impact on economic growth in developing countries with high human capital, they do not contribute to growth in developing countries with low human capital. The authors also examined the channels through which remittances affect growth. The findings suggested that remittances do not impact labor supply in developing countries with high human capital, but they reduce labor supply in countries with low human capital. Additionally, remittances increase investment in physical capital in developing countries with high human capital, but they do not have an effect on investment in developing countries with low human capital.

The authors investigated the impact of remittances on economic growth using a novel approach to address the endogeneity of remittances. Additionally, the authors examined the different indirect channels through which remittances can impact economic growth, such as their effect on labor supply and investment.