Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of remittances on human development in developing countries using panel data from 1980 to 2014 and to address the critical question of whether the increasing trend of remittances has any impact on human development in a broad range of developing countries. Design/methodology/approach Usual panel estimates, such as pooled OLS, fixed or random effects model, possess specification issues such as endogeneity, heterogeneity and measurement errors. In this paper, we, therefore, apply dynamic panel estimates – System generalised method of moment (Sys-GMM) developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995). This estimator is able to control for the endogeneity of all the explanatory variables, account for unobserved country-specific effects that cannot be done using country dummies due to the dynamic structure of the model (Azman-Saini et al., 2010). Findings The effect of remittances is statistically significant with positive coefficients in developing countries. The significant coefficient of remittances means that, holding other variables constant, a rise in remittance inflows is associated with improvements in human development. A 10 per cent increase in remittances will lead to an increase of approximately 0.016 per cent in human development. These findings are consistent with Üstubuci and Irdam (2012) and Adenutsi (2010), who found evidence that remittances are positively correlated with human development. Practical implications The paper considers implications for policymakers to justify the need for more effective approaches. Policymakers need to consider indicators of human development and to devise public policies that promote income, health and education, to enhance human development. Originality/value The question of whether remittances affect human development has rarely been subject to systematic empirical study. Extant research does not resolve the endogeneity problem, whereas the present study provides empirical evidence by utilising dynamic panel estimators such as Sys-GMM to tackle the specification issues of endogeneity, measurement errors and heterogeneity. The present study provides a benchmark for future research on the effect of remittances on human development.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between remittances and poverty through the human capital channel in developing countries, which has received less attention in the literature. Design/methodology/approach The paper applied the system GMM developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995) containing 54 developing countries. This estimator is appropriate compared to a cross-section technique because it controls for the endogeneity of all explanatory variables, includes unobserved country-specific effects and allows for the inclusion of lagged dependent variables. Findings The results suggest that, while remittances reduced poverty, the effect is moderated via education. A 1 percent increase in remittances reduces the poverty headcount by 0.47 percent, while the reduction is 0.33 percent via education. The marginal effect of remittances is negatively related to the level of education, indicating that education mitigates the effect of remittances on poverty. Practical implications This paper includes the implications for the policymakers to justify the need for more effective approaches. It is useful to identify whether and how remittances and human capital interact in their effect on poverty when deciding the most desirable allocation of available resources between these two priorities. Originality/value This paper takes a step forward filling the limited evidence on the role of human capital in remittances–poverty relationship in developing countries. Different from the existing studies which have used the traditional panel estimators, this study utilizes the dynamic panel estimators such as system GMM to tackle the specification issues of endogeneity, measurement errors and heterogeneity.

In recent years, studies on the impact of international trade on environment been extensively debated. Stiff international trade market becomes a push factor for the firms to engage in race to bottom activity and therefore, firms reallocate their production plant overseas in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI). The reallocation of the production plants of firms into developing countries has causing the environment of the host countries depleting. The environmentalist claimed this scenario as Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH). In this study, System Generalized Method of Moments (S-GMM) is employed to address the gap in the literature with the focus on the role of corruption in PHH. With the focus of developing countries during 2002 to 2018, our result finds that PHH valid in a more corrupted country. Countries with higher level of corruption are attracting polluted FDI than less corrupted countries. The present study is imperative as it provides an opportunity to advance knowledge on the significant theoretical insights into the relationships between corruption and PHH in developing countries.