On altruism and remittances

Arbeitspapier

We provide a direct test of the impact of altruism on remittances. From a sample of 105 male migrant workers from Kerala, India working in Qatar, we elicit the propensity to share with others from their responses in a dictator game, and use it as a proxy for altruism. When the entire sample is considered, we find that only migrants' income robustly explains remittances. Altruism does not seem to matter. However, we document a strong positive relationship between altruism and remittances for those migrants that report a loan obligation back home, which is nearly half the sample. We explain the role of loan obligations with a standard remittance model, extended with reference-dependent preferences.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 131

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
• Subject: remittances ; altruism ; reference-dependent preferences ; dictator game ; Qatar

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Antoniades, Alexis ; Seshan, Ganesh ; Weber, Roberto ; Zubrickas, Robertas
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Zurich, Department of Economics
• (where): Zurich
• (when): 2013

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.5167/uzh-82048
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/92385