Home And Host Country Business Cycles And Remittances: The Case Of El Salvador And The Dominican Republic

• Karla Borja ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Tampa

     University of Tampa

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Applied econometrics and international development, ISSN 1578-4487, Vol. 13, Nº. 2, 2013, págs. 101-118
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Remittances have become an effective source of balanceofpayment sustainability in several small countries in Latin America, and thus a particular concern among developmental economists is the source driving remittances into this region. This paper studies the properties and cyclical nature of remittances in El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, two countries with large per-capita remittance value in Latin America. Impulse-response functions are estimated to assess the effects that domestic GDP and US GDP have on remittances. The results evidence a counter-cyclical relationship between remittances and domestic output, corroborating the altruistic motive to remit. In addition, the US economy plays a key role in determining remittances in these countries, indicating that besides international trade and foreign direct investment, remittances further bindthese nations to the US economy.