Impact of remittances on economic growth and poverty reduction amongst CIS countries

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to assess the effect of remittances on economic growth and poverty reduction amongst the post-Soviet states, compared with other external sources of capital, such as foreign aid and foreign direct investment. In this paper we use a panel data set on economic growth and poverty estimates (poverty headcount, poverty gap and poverty severity) in 10 selected former post-Soviet republics i.e. Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). We found that, on average, a 1% increase in remittance flows provokes around a 0.25% rise in per capita GDP and a 2% decline in poverty severity. Remittances seem to have produced a significant reduction on poverty through increasing income and smoothing consumption levels.