The Effects of International Remittances on Child Schooling in Ecuador

An economic crisis hit Ecuador during the final years of the 20th century. This crisis initiated a massive migration of Ecuadoreans mostly to Europe and the United States. The remittances migrants started sending back rapidly increased and soon represented an important share of the GDP. This became a new source of income (or the only one) for many households. The present research project analyzes, through the use of an instrumented probit model, how the probability of children attending school changes when the household receives remittances and when other variables are accounted for. Data from the 2010 Ecuadorean Housing and Population Census was used to examine this relationship. The results suggest that, mainly, due to the inequality in the distribution of remittances and current consumption patterns, remittances are not having an important positive impact on human capital formation in Ecuador, when measured through the likelihood of school attendance.

Name thesis:degree_name

Economics

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Economics

Year

2012

Author dc:creator

• Bucheli, José

Contributors dc:contributor

• Fontenla, Matias
• Bohara, Alok
• Binder, Melissa

• Ecuador remittances development child education

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/econ_etds/30

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:econ_etds-1029