The relationship between remittances and inequality: A review to the case of Mexico
No. 89 (2021-12-01)Author(s)
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Ana Melisa Pardo Montaño
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Claudio Alberto Dávila Cervantes
Abstract
Although the association of remittances with inequality in Mexico has been previously studied, there is no consensus on the subject and it is seldom analyzed at municipal level. The objective of this study was to analyze the association between remittance reception in Mexico and inequality at municipal scale in 2015. We conducted a quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional study with data from the 2015 INEGI Intercensus Survey. We estimated a quantile regression to examine the relationship between household remittance reception and income inequality in all municipalities. Remittance reception was found to be associated with income inequality at municipal level after controlling for several characteristics of the municipalities. This is likely to occur because those that migrate do not necessarily come from the most disadvantaged sectors of the population, which produces social differences within communities between those who are able to migrate and those who are not.
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