Description

This paper uses a nationally-representative household survey from Nicaragua (2001) to examine the remittance behavior of migrants in two destination countries: the US and Costa Rica.  Since only about half of all migrants remit, the paper uses a censored tobit model to analyze the determinants of remittances. Results suggest that male migrants are less likely to remit and that migrants who are working and are living in the US are more likely to remit. Migrants are also more likely to remit if they are the spouse or parent of the head of household back home. The paper also examines how the propensity to remit varies for migrants from the same household. It finds that migrants within the same household compete, that is, if one migrant remits then the second migrant from that household remits and remits more.