TY - JOUR
T1 - Asymmetric information and remittances
T2 - Evidence from matched administrative data
AU - Joseph, Thomas
AU - Nyarko, Yaw
AU - Wang, Shing Yi
N1 - Funding Information:
* Joseph: Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, Udaipur District, Balicha, Rajasthan 313002 (email: thomas.joseph@iimu.ac.in); Nyarko: New York University, 19 West 4th Street, Room 505, New York City, NY 10012 and New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE (email: yn1@nyu.edu); Wang: Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1456 Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall, 3620 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (email: was@wharton.upenn.edu). We are extremely grateful to the teams at UAE Exchange and the UAE Ministry of Labor for their assistance in accessing the datasets and for answering our questions. This paper has benefited from conversations with or comments from Santosh Anagol, Rachel Heath, Rob Jensen, Melanie Khamis, Adriana Kugler, Annemie Maertens, Laura Schechter, Mark Rosenzweig, Dean Yang, and various seminar participants. Afshan Aman, Victor Archavski, Patrick Dejearnette, and Minkwang Jang provided excellent research assistance. The authors acknowledge financial support from the New York University Abu Dhabi Research Institute, and the Center for Technology and Economic Development. All errors are our own.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Economic Association.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - Using new large-scale, administrative data matching remittances and monthly payroll disbursals, we demonstrate how migrants' earnings in the United Arab Emirates affect their remittances. We consider several types of income changes: Ramadan, weather shocks, a labor reform and returns to time in the UAE. We demonstrate that two key characteristics of the income changes that affect the income elasticity of remittances are the observability of the income and whether the income change is positive or negative. The results are consistent with a private information model where remittances are viewed as payments in an income-sharing contract.
AB - Using new large-scale, administrative data matching remittances and monthly payroll disbursals, we demonstrate how migrants' earnings in the United Arab Emirates affect their remittances. We consider several types of income changes: Ramadan, weather shocks, a labor reform and returns to time in the UAE. We demonstrate that two key characteristics of the income changes that affect the income elasticity of remittances are the observability of the income and whether the income change is positive or negative. The results are consistent with a private information model where remittances are viewed as payments in an income-sharing contract.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045049919&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85045049919&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1257/app.20160150
DO - 10.1257/app.20160150
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85045049919
SN - 1945-7782
VL - 10
SP - 58
EP - 100
JO - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
JF - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
IS - 2
ER -