The impact of remittance on poverty and inequality: A micro-simulation study for Nepal

A closer look at the correlation between remittances and the reduction of poverty and inequality

We estimate a household consumption function using two rounds of the nationally representative panel of living standard measurement survey (LSMS) of Nepal and simulate the impacts of remittances on poverty and inequality. We study how these impacts vary with the regional ‘incidence’ and maturity of the migration process in addition to the country-source of remittance.

We find that remittances have conditional impacts on both poverty and inequality, which largely depends on the ‘incidence’ and maturity of the migration process and, more importantly, on how lower quintiles of society participate in the process.

Although overall remittances increase inequality, this is less so in the second round of the survey. Furthermore, remittance payment from India, which is on average much lower than from other countries, decreases inequality and has the largest impact on poverty reduction. Finally, region-wide simulations show that remittances have a larger impact on poverty reduction in the regions that have higher levels of migration.

Call for papers on poverty reduction in Asia, Asian Development Bank

For all those conducting empirical research on poverty and related themes in the Asia-Pacific

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), in collaboration with the School of Economics, Sogang University in Korea and Emory University in the US, invites submissions of substantial abstracts, or preferably completed but unpublished papers that focus on poverty and related issues, in the developing Asia-Pacific. Theoretical, methodological and empirical research and policy oriented papers are welcome provided that findings, conclusions and policy recommendations are based on solid evidence and appropriate methods.

ADB will cover reasonable travel and accommodation costs of one author per accepted paper. Papers presented at the workshop will be considered for a special issue of a leading academic journal and a book volume. The workshop will be held in August 21-22, 2013 at School of Economics, Sogang University, South Korea.
Deadline to submit abstracts: Full Paper: July 15th, 2013
Submit papers to: almas.heshmati@hotmail.com