Migrants' Remittances,Governance and Heterogeneity

This paper investigates the effect of governance on remittances with specific focus on accounting for heterogeneity in the relationship. Using nonparametric kernel methods that are robust to arbitrary forms of non-linearity, heterogeneity and model specification, and six governance measures from the World Governance Indicators (WGI), the relationship is analysed for 109 countries for the period 1996–2014. The findings show that all six measures: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption are significantly related with remittances. Moreover, the relationship is highly nonlinear and heterogeneous across countries or regions, and time. In addition, specific aspects of governance quality matter differently for remittances across each regional groupings. Hence, there is the need for country-specific rather than a one-size fits all governance reform agenda.