Remittances in Russia and Caucasus and Central Asia: The gravity model

Remittances are an important source of external financing in low- and middle-income countries. This paper uses the gravity model to analyze remittance flows in Russia and Caucasus and Central Asia countries. Standard gravity determinants, such as gross domestic product in sending and receiving countries, bilateral distance, existence of common borders and common official language, and fit remittance, flow well. Remittances also react to inflation and exchange rate movements in recipient countries to sustain their purchasing power. In line with the altruism hypothesis, remittances flow to countries with higher age dependency ratio. Remittances are countercyclical and help stabilize outputs in recipient countries. However, global shocks resulting in sharp output losses of sending countries would lead to large volatility and decline in remittance inflows in recipient countries.     

Effects of remittances on food security in sub-Saharan Africa

The objective of this research was to analyze the effects of remittances on food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), while assessing the role of governance. The analyses covered a panel of 26 SSA countries over the period from 2002 to 2017. Based on the double least squares method, two main results were obtained. On the one hand, remittances have a positive effect on overall food security and on each of its dimensions in SSA. On the other hand, this positive effect of remittances on food security and its dimensions is increasingly important when the quality of governance improves.