Foreign Remittances and Human Resource Development in Developing Countries

Abstract

Human resources are the vital instrument for the attainment of sustainable development. Health and education are amongst the main concerns of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the remittances have been understood as a recommended catalyst in obtaining human resource development in developing countries. The present study attempts to provide a deep understanding of the relationship between remittances and HRD by using a panel dataset spanning from 1990 to 2016 and covering 151 developing economies. The data was obtained from the World Bank's World Development Indicators. Infant mortality rate (for health) and secondary school enrollment (for education) are taken as proxies to measure HRD. The results of the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique show that role of remittances helps promote HRD. Disaggregate analyses based on the per capita GNI of economies show that remittances have more impact in reducing infant mortality in high-income countries and in increasing school enrollment in low-income countries. Disaggregate analyses based on the regional classification of economies show that remittances have an impact in reducing infant mortality in all regions but the highest influence was found in South Asia and the lowest impact in Latin America. Likewise, remittances were found to have an impact in increasing school enrollment, but comparatively more influence of remittances was found in Latin America and less in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study signifies the role of remittances in HRD for developing economies and suggests developing strategies persuading the labor migration and networks for remittances to be remitted for the home economies.

Harnessing The Flow: Leveraging Remittances to Attract FDI to Asia and Africa

“…Nizam et al (2024) shows remittances' ability to contribute to all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those focusing on poverty, health, education, and gender equality. Various other studies, such as (Ahmad et al 2019;Saho et al 2020), explore the link between remittances and social mobility, suggesting that remittances can promote upward mobility through increased access to education and healthcare, poverty reduction, and women's empowerment.…”

“…Various studies have shown that remittance positively impacts the receiving country's economic development by increasing household income, which they spend on consumption, education, and healthcare and use to open small businesses or engage in entrepreneurial activities (Kousar et al, 2019;Eton & Nkamusiima, 2023;Ahmad et al, 2019). Money received through remittance is used to buy essential goods and services, finance education, pay for primary healthcare expenses, and use as capital for opening small businesses.…”

Harnessing the Benefits of Remittances via a Health Account

“…Amakom and Iheoma (2014) confirmed that an increase in remittances results in an increase in life expectancy at birth in SSA. In developing countries, remittances were found to improve the health of children (Ahmad et al, 2019). Chauvet et al (2009) found that remittances improve child and infant mortality rates in developing countries.…”

A New Approach to Empirical Investigation under Persistence, Endogeneity, and Heterogeneity for South Asia: Understanding of the Deeper Dynamics of the Relationship Among Income Disparity and Education

“…Şenol and Orhan (2021) raise importance of conducting research on income inequality in the emerging economies and found that the improvement in education level and health leads to reduce income inequality in the OECD countries (Gillani, Ahmed, Khan, & Hussain, 2022). Ahmad, Shafiq, and Gillani (2019) shows that remittances have an impact on health and education but it improves health in high income countries more as compare to low-income countries while school enrollment increased in low-income countries more (Shafiq & Gillani, 2018). Moreover, Riaz, Nasir, and Nasir (2020) investigates the role of education in income inequality in case of Pakistan using time series data and signified the relationship for effective policy to achieve equality in the level of income.…”