May 13, 2008

Foreign Aid and remittances

Man, not only are remittances from the US to developing contries worth way more than official development assistance, they're also worth more than private capital flows! Makes it an intresting memoire topic!

2 comments:

cosimo said...

Do remittances follow particular patterns? Maybe the remittance, as a share of earned income, decreases as the earnings of the immigrant increase. Like spending on basic food products (the poor spend a larger fraction of their income than the rich).

cosimo said...

I had another comment: the big pro of remittances is that the money is channeled where most needed, without bureacratic interventions. Therefore, the gap between remittances and ODA money is amplified by the gap in the effectiveness rate, which is 100% for remittances and much lower (I do not know the exact numbers, though) for ODA. The big con is that the immigrant is forced to leave the family, and sometimes live a deprived life in the country of destination.