Effects of international migrants’ remittances on household consumption in Senegal

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the effects of international remittances on the twelve consumption functions identified according to the classification of individual consumption functions (COICOP). The high allocation of international remittances to consumption and the low allocation of these flows to investment (in Sénégal, 86% of these flows were allocated to current consumption and 14% to investment in 2011 according to Dramani (2013) lead us to question the effects of remittances on consumption. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method is used to determine the effects of the international remittances on the twelve consumption functions identified in the WAEMU after using PCA. Using the PCA method, the results show two groups of variables which behave in opposite ways. Four group 1 variables (« food and alcoholic beverages » ; « housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels » ; « health » and « education ») and one group 2 variable (« miscellaneous goods and services ») were selected on the basis of a review of the existing literature. Estimation using the OLS method shows that remittances improve housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (0.992) ; health (0.892) ; education (0.617) ; food and non-alcoholic beverages (0.324). On the other hand, international remittances have a negative impact on miscellaneous goods and services (-1.39). This study suggests that international remittances should be redirected from consumer spending on (« miscellaneous goods and services; clothing and footwear; leisure and culture; and communications) to (« housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels »; « health »; « education » ; « food and non-alcoholic beverages »; « alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics » ; « furniture, household goods and routine household maintenance » ; « hotels and restaurants »; and « transport »).

Keywords : International remittances, Consumption, Households, ACP, MCO, Senegal

JEL classification : D12, F22, F24, O15

Paper type: Empirical Research