Remittances and Poverty in Guatemala

Adams, Richard H. Jr.

The World Bank, Washington D.C.

关键词: CITIES;    COMMUNITIES;    COUNTERFACTUAL;    ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES;    ECONOMISTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3418
RP-ID  :  WPS3418

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The author uses a large, nationallyrepresentative household survey to analyze the impact ofinternal remittances (from Guatemala), and internationalremittances (from the United States) on poverty inGuatemala. With only one exception, he finds that bothinternal and international remittances reduce the level,depth, and severity of poverty in Guatemala. However, hefinds that remittances have a greater impact on reducing theseverity as opposed to the level of poverty in Guatemala.For example, the squared poverty gap-which measures theseverity of poverty-falls by 21.1 percent when internalremittances are included in household income, and by 19.8percent when international remittances are included in suchincome. This is true because households in the lowest decilegroup receive a very large share of their total householdincome (expenditure) from remittances. Households in thebottom decile group receive between 50 and 60 percent oftheir total income (expenditure) from remittances. Whenthese "poorest of the poor" households receiveremittances, their income status changes dramatically andthis in turn has a large effect on any poverty measure-likethe squared poverty gap-that considers the number, distance,and distribution of poor households beneath the poverty line.