Publication

This paper examines possible reasons why macroeconomic studies have had difficulty detecting the effect that recent rises in measured remittances by migrant workers have on economic growth. The authors review a number of existing reasons and then suggest some of their own, including the point that changes in measurement may not reflect changes in real financial flows and that rising remittances are driven by increases in migration, which has an economic cost in countries of origin. Overall, they argue that these factors suggest that measuring the effect of migrant remittances on growth in their countries of origin is likely to remain elusive.