Abstract
We provide a direct test of the impact of altruism on remittances. From a sample of Indian migrant workers in Qatar, we elicit the propensity to share with others from their responses in a dictator game and use it as a proxy for altruism. For the entire sample, we find that altruism does not seem to matter. However, we document a strong positive relationship between altruism and remittances for a subset of migrants with a loan obligation, whereas indirect tests of altruism, typically used in the literature, would fail to establish this relationship. We explain the role of loan obligations with a standard remittance model extended with reference-dependent preferences.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 225-242 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Oxford Economic Papers |
Volume | 70 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 11 Aug 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2018 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics
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Robertas Zubrickas
- Department of Economics - Senior Lecturer
- Economic Theory
Person: Research & Teaching