Impact of Remittances on Domestic Investment: A Panel Study of Six South Asian Countries

Abstract

Remittances inflow to South Asian countries increased significantly and is now one of the major sources of external finance overtaking traditional capital inflows such as foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and aid. However, the role of remittances in economic development has not been examined extensively, particularly for South Asian countries. This article examines the impact of remittances on domestic investment for South Asia over 1991–2017. Advanced panel estimation methods (unit root, cointegration and causality) are employed to account for potential country-specific heterogeneity and the endogeneity problem. Results of this study suggest that remittances increase domestic investment in the short term as well as in the long run for South Asia. This indicates that remittances are used not only for consumption purposes but also for investment activities such as human and physical capital development. The panel causality results suggest the presence of uni-directional causality running from remittances to domestic investment. Therefore, the result of this study supports the theoretical argument and previous empirical studies for other developing countries JEL: C3, 01, F3, F22