Remittances and agricultural productivity in Burkina Faso

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, we examine the interplay between remittances and agricultural productivity in Burkina Faso. We estimate a Bayesian instrumental variables model using data from the 2014 Living Standards Measurement Study. We consider three measures of agricultural productivity: total production, total production per unit of land, and total production per unit of labor. Whatever the measure used, our results reveal a significant and negative association between remittances and agricultural productivity. We show that this effect is robust with respect to misspecification of the production function.