Search results

The purpose of this study is to explore the pattern of expansion of overseas market for wage earners, inflow of remittances, its disposal pattern and the extent of non-productive investments.

It analyzed behavioral differences between semi-urban and rural households using primary data collected from 78 remittance recipients in Comilla district. Most of the results were produced using arithmetic analytical tools. Besides, one regression model was fit to quantify the effect of a few identical factors on remittance receipts for semi-urban and rural households.

Members of semi-urban families were early expatriates, who remitted larger amount than rural ones. Years of schooling and overseas experiences had larger marginal effects on remittance amount in rural area compared to semi-urban one. However, aging and overseas labor freedom influenced negatively anywhere. Rural households were more cautious in spending who had lower remittance elasticity than that of semi-urban ones except of capital items. Household assets were concentrated to lands, home appliances and gold ornaments, the rate of return of which were one-tenth of market interest rate.

Non-productive investments were concentrated the most to land for rural households and to ornaments for semi-urban ones. However, education and healthcare appeared as necessary elements in livelihoods, for which households might move toward human resource-related investment schemes.

This study measured the sensitivity with household spending to remittance receipts and why the remittance was not moving into productive schemes in the process of urbanization.

This study aims to investigate whether Bangladesh would avoid the middle-income trap (MIT) in its transition to a high-income country (HIC) according to its “Vision 2041”.

Using both actual and forecasted secondary data, three MIT models of different approaches were used to evaluate the government’s vision-based projections. Moreover, crucial indicators of deindustrialization and institutional strength were linked to the investigation of potential transitions.

According to the absolute definition and international forecasts, the Bangladesh economy might not fall into an MIT at its lower-middle-income level within the intended period due to being shorter than the defined limit. However, its real GDP per capita relative to the USA would remain far below the defined threshold limit of an upper-middle-income country (UMC) in 2041. Meanwhile, Bangladesh has reached the third of the five gradual phases and is awaiting a new transition in 2029. However, its vision-based plan would face challenges such as skills gaps, institutional reforms and successive global crises.

Bangladesh might be trapped in MIT at the UMC level in the 2030s, with no path to renovate after the demographic dividend ends in 2047. In this regard, the government must demonstrate a strong political will to ensure the effectiveness of its policies and the viability of its institutions.

This study not only compared projections to forecasts using different MIT models but also connected transition phases to industrial policies and institutional strengths.