Worker remittances and government behaviour in the receiving countries.

We estimate the impact of worker remittances on savings, taxes, and public expenditures on education, all as a share of GDP, for about thirty years in two samples of countries with per capita income above and below $1200 using dynamic panel data methods. Governments of the poorer sample raise less taxes in the short run but more in the long run and spend more money on education when remittances come in; in the richer sample they raise less taxes and spend less on education in response to remittances but this is almost completely compensated by the positive response of expenditure on education to higher savings, which results from remittances as well.