Remittances and Labor Supply in the Northern Triangle

Through substitution and income effects, remittances can alter an individual's allocation of time between market activities and household production, decreasing labor supply. This paper uses propensity score matching and household surveys for...

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Main Authors: Sousa, Liliana D., Garcia-Suaza, Andres
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/972271537470563942/Remittances-and-Labor-Supply-in-the-Northern-Triangle
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30446
id okr-10986-30446
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-304462022-09-18T12:15:39Z Remittances and Labor Supply in the Northern Triangle Sousa, Liliana D. Garcia-Suaza, Andres REMITTANCES INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION MIGRANT LABOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MIGRATION LABOR MARKET Through substitution and income effects, remittances can alter an individual's allocation of time between market activities and household production, decreasing labor supply. This paper uses propensity score matching and household surveys for 2006 and 2014 to estimate the impact of remittances on labor supply in the three countries of the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras). The results show that remittances are associated with a reduction in labor force participation, particularly among women. This effect is largest for Salvadoran women (13 percentage points). A sensitivity analysis finds that the negative effect on labor force participation rates of men in El Salvador and Guatemala and women in El Salvador is robust to potential selection bias. Receiving remittances is also associated with a lower likelihood of young adults being in school or at work, with this effect being robust to selection bias for young men in Guatemala. At the same time, the evidence suggests that remittances may be supporting small enterprises and self-employment in El Salvador and Guatemala. The analysis does not find robust evidence of remittances affecting the labor supply in Honduras in 2014. 2018-09-25T20:35:55Z 2018-09-25T20:35:55Z 2018-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/972271537470563942/Remittances-and-Labor-Supply-in-the-Northern-Triangle http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30446 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8597 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Central America El Salvador Guatemala Honduras
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic REMITTANCES
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
MIGRANT LABOR
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
MIGRATION
LABOR MARKET
spellingShingle REMITTANCES
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
MIGRANT LABOR
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
MIGRATION
LABOR MARKET
Sousa, Liliana D.
Garcia-Suaza, Andres
Remittances and Labor Supply in the Northern Triangle
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Central America
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8597
description Through substitution and income effects, remittances can alter an individual's allocation of time between market activities and household production, decreasing labor supply. This paper uses propensity score matching and household surveys for 2006 and 2014 to estimate the impact of remittances on labor supply in the three countries of the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras). The results show that remittances are associated with a reduction in labor force participation, particularly among women. This effect is largest for Salvadoran women (13 percentage points). A sensitivity analysis finds that the negative effect on labor force participation rates of men in El Salvador and Guatemala and women in El Salvador is robust to potential selection bias. Receiving remittances is also associated with a lower likelihood of young adults being in school or at work, with this effect being robust to selection bias for young men in Guatemala. At the same time, the evidence suggests that remittances may be supporting small enterprises and self-employment in El Salvador and Guatemala. The analysis does not find robust evidence of remittances affecting the labor supply in Honduras in 2014.
format Working Paper
author Sousa, Liliana D.
Garcia-Suaza, Andres
author_facet Sousa, Liliana D.
Garcia-Suaza, Andres
author_sort Sousa, Liliana D.
title Remittances and Labor Supply in the Northern Triangle
title_short Remittances and Labor Supply in the Northern Triangle
title_full Remittances and Labor Supply in the Northern Triangle
title_fullStr Remittances and Labor Supply in the Northern Triangle
title_full_unstemmed Remittances and Labor Supply in the Northern Triangle
title_sort remittances and labor supply in the northern triangle
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/972271537470563942/Remittances-and-Labor-Supply-in-the-Northern-Triangle
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30446
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