## Business Cycles and Workers' Remittances: How Do Migrant Workers Respond to Cyclical Movements of GDP At Home?

_IMF Working Papers, February 1, 2006_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Business Cycles and Workers' Remittances: How Do Migrant Workers Respond to Cyclical Movements of GDP At Home?](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2016/12/31/business-cycles-and-workers-remittances-how-do-migrant-workers-respond-to-cyclical-movements-18708)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Serdar Sayan
- Published: February 1, 2006
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451863123.001

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### Key findings and conclusions
- The paper investigates workers' remittances flows into 12 developing countries over their respective business cycles during 1976-2003.
- It finds that countercyclicality of remittance receipts is not commonly observed across these 12 countries.
- Remittance behavior is complex: how much to remit depends on multiple factors, and different variables driving remittance behavior are differently affected by the state of economic activity over the business cycle.
- The commonly argued tendency that migrant workers remit more during down cycles in the recipient country is not broadly supported by the empirical evidence in this sample.

### Analysis and empirical scope
- Sample: remittance flows into 12 developing countries.
- Time period covered: 1976-2003.
- The study examines remittance behavior over each country’s respective business cycle.
- The analysis emphasizes the heterogeneity of remittance responses and the multiple motives and channels (e.g., consumption vs. investment motives) that can produce differing cyclicality patterns.

### Themes and topics addressed
- Balance of payments
- Business cycles
- Economic growth
- Financial sector policy and analysis
- Income and labor issues, including migrant labor
- National accounts
- Procyclicality and remittances cycle
- Remittance behavior, remittance flow, and remittance receipt dynamics
- Regional and country references include Africa, Bangladesh, and the Middle East

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2016/12/31/business-cycles-and-workers-remittances-how-do-migrant-workers-respond-to-cyclical-movements-18708_