Remittances are a sizeable source of external financing for developing countries. In the L’Aquila 2009 G8 Summit, leaders pledged to reduce the cost of remittances by half in 5 years (from 10 to 5 percent). Yet, empirically, little is known about what drives the cost of remittances. Using...

This paper uses World Bank survey data, including about 10,000 households in five countries-Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda-to investigate the link between international remittances and households' financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper finds that receiving...

Remittances are a sizeable source of external financing for developing countries. In the L Aquila 2009 G8 Summit, leaders pledged to reduce the cost of remittances by half in 5 years (from 10 to 5 percent). Yet, empirically, little is known about what drives the cost of remittances. Using newly...

Despite the rising volume of remittances flowing to developing countries, their impact on banking sector breadth and depth in recipient countries has been largely unexplored. The authors examine this topic using municipio-level data on the fraction of households that receive remittances and on...