Remittances, Consumption and Investment in Ghana
This paper uses a new, nationally-representative household survey from Ghana to analyze within a rigorous econometric framework how the receipt of internal remittances (from within Ghana) and international remittances (from African or other countri...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/02/9003267/remittances-consumption-investment-ghana http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6430 |
| Summary: | This paper uses a new,
nationally-representative household survey from Ghana to
analyze within a rigorous econometric framework how the
receipt of internal remittances (from within Ghana) and
international remittances (from African or other countries)
affects the marginal spending behavior of households on a
broad range of consumption and investment goods, including
food, education and housing. Contrary to other studies,
which find that remittances are spent disproportionately on
consumption (food and consumer goods/durables) or investment
goods (education and housing), the findings show that
households receiving remittances in Ghana do not spend more
at the margin on food, education and housing than households
with similar income levels and characteristics that do not
receive remittances. When the analysis controls for
endogeneity and selection bias, the findings show that any
differences in the marginal spending behavior between
remittance-receiving and non-receiving households are
explained completely by the observed and unobserved
characteristics of households. Households in Ghana treat
remittances just like any other source of income, and there
are no changes in marginal spending patterns for households
with the receipt of remittance income. |
|---|