The assumption that remittances are a substitute for credit has been an implicit or explicit theoretical foundation of … many empirical studies on remittances. This paper directly tests this assumption by comparing the response to health … to health shocks. This finding is consistent with the view that remittances respond to households' demand for financing …

In policy discussions, it has frequently been claimed that migrants' remittances could function as a "catalyst" for … receiver of remittances worldwide. Using the Mexican Family Life Survey panel (MxFLS) for 2002 and 2005, the results from the … fixed effects logit model show that receiving remittances is strongly correlated with the ownership of savings accounts and …

reception of remittances facilitates taking up loans from formal or informal sources among Mexican households and finds positive … and statistically significant effects of remittances on borrowing and on the existence of debts. We address methodological … distance to train lines and labor market conditions in the US as exogenous determinants of remittances. …

During a global shock two forces act upon international remittances in opposite directions: income losses among … migrants may reduce their ability to send remittances and, at the same time, migrants' concern for their family's wellbeing may … prompt them to send more remittances back home. Which of these drivers prevail is an empirical matter. We assemble quarterly …