The stock of external debt owed by low- and middle-income countries reached US $6.7 tril-lion in 2015 (World Bank, 2017). In 2015, ex-ternal debt accounted for 26 percent of the Gross National Income (GNI) of the low- and middle-income countries and 98 percent of their export receipts. In this study, we intend to examine the role that institutional quality plays in defining the debt-growth relationship. The objective is to under-stand whether the presence or absence of qual-ity institutions determines and influences the direction and magnitude of debt's effect on growth.
Diese Arbeit ist eine Sammlung von Studien, welche sowohl die makro-, als auch die mikroökonomischen Aspekte und Charakteristika von Rücküberweisungen pakistanischer Migranten in ihr Heimatland analysieren, sowie deren ökonomische Auswirkungen auf das Konsumverhalten und die Vermögensbildung der Empfängerhaushalte. Es zeigt sich, dass internationale Überweisungen im Vergleich zu anderen finanziellen Mittelflüssen eine stabile und stabilisierende Quelle für Devisen darstellen. Des Weiteren weisen sie mit Blick auf die heimische Wirtschaft ein antizyklisches Verhalten auf, während ihr Verhalt...
Diese Arbeit ist eine Sammlung von Studien, welche sowohl die makro-, als auch die mikroökonomischen Aspekte und Charakteristika von Rücküberweisungen pakistanischer Migranten in ihr Heimatland analysieren, sowie deren ökonomische Auswirkungen auf das Konsumverhalten und die Vermögensbildung der Empfängerhaushalte. Es zeigt sich, dass internationale Überweisungen im Vergleich zu anderen finanziellen Mittelflüssen eine stabile und stabilisierende Quelle für Devisen darstellen. Des Weiteren weisen sie mit Blick auf die heimische Wirtschaft ein antizyklisches Verhalten auf, während ihr Verhalt...
Flows of remittances to Pakistan are being increasingly viewed as a relatively attractive source of external finance, which can help to foster development and manage economic shocks. Remittances have become a major source of revenue, surpassing the volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA) that the country receives. This study focuses primarily on the stability, cyclicality and stabilization impacts of remittances to Pakistan. It is evident that foreign flows exhibit different types of volatility; remittances are found to be a less volatile source of external finance than FDI and ODA; they are also found to be counter-cyclical and stabilizing, thus serving to stabilize the recipient economy in times of economic downturns. ODA appears to be a-cyclical and stabilizing, whereas FDI emerges as pro-cyclical and destabilizing. Furthermore, remittances are insensitive to cyclical fluctuations in the sending countries. We also consider a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR)-based identification in order to examine the responses of financial flows to innovation in receiving and sending economies. We confirm the counter-cyclical mechanism of remittances with respect to Pakistani output. In particular, our results indicate that remittance flows to Pakistan are mainly explained by the economic conditions in the country.
Formal remittance flows to Pakistan have shown noticeable growth over the past decade. Using bilateral remittance data for 23 major source countries, this study examines the external and internal factors driving these remittance flows during the period 2001-2011. We estimate a gravity model for bilateral remittance flows using a variety of panel data techniques suitable to control for unobserved heterogeneity as well as simultaneous bias existing between remittances and migrant's stock. The main novelty with respect to the existing literature is the use of transaction costs of remittances as a superior alternative to geographical distance to proxy for remittance costs. We find that several factors have a significant effect on remittances, such as improved economic conditions in the receiving country, Pakistani migrant's stock in the source country, and financial development and political stability in the recipient country. Geographical distance, economic conditions and the unemployment rate in the source countries, however, do not appear to play a substantial role. We also find that geographical distance seems to be a poor proxy for the cost of remitting. This can be better understood in terms of migrant networks and improvements in receiving and source country financial services. While the effect of transaction costs of remittances' on remittance flows is found to be negative, its significance is not robust to changes in the specification of the estimated models.
